a long hug. being pulled close and not let go again for minutes. hours even.

cuddles. I mean cuddles. all warm and soft and cozy in a huge bed with pillows and blankets and nowhere to be.

and kisses. I miss kisses. gentle ones. hello kisses and goodbye kisses and I appreciate you kisses. pecks as well as kisses that last for long long minutes.

I crave all that and still, at the same time, I - or rather - my brain doesn't feel comfortable with just the tiniest amount of physical touch.

So in case anyone that follows me here doesn't follow me on bluesky (here's a link to find me if you have an account there: https://bsky.app/profile/midnightfire1222.bsky.social ), I'm just gonna repeat here what I already posted there:

Okay, So…I have something of a confession to make. It's nothing bad, but it is life-changing and will significantly impact my ability to draw for…several months, if not years. Anyone that knows me knows I don’t like to share much about what is going on in my personal life outside the internet. was raised in a time where you should never share your personal info with anyone, and I like to keep it that way for me and my family and I don't like seeing people airing everything about their lives and then they get all pissed when they get called out for things they post that others don't agree with. Anyway, getting to the point: I am actually just shy of being 38 weeks pregnant. It's a little girl and that's all I'm going to say. I will not share her name on here, ever. Anyway, she's due anytime between now and early March. Obviously my husband and I will be busy caring for her, being sleep deprived and all that stuff. We wanted this baby and planned for her from the outset, in case anybody asks. We know what comes with having a kid, so my drawings and posts/reposts will be little to not at all for the foreseeable future.

Well this is a bit of an old question buuuuut:

Hm.... honestly, I'm not sure! There's a case that could be made for literally any of them abstracting, especially with the episodes all slowly revealing more and more canon things about each character's mental state. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly?) I think the least likely ones to abstract would be Pomni, Zooble, and Kinger mostly. Kinger because he's just so crazy most of the time that- well- he can't exactly give into the abstraction, while Pomni and Zooble just seem to be doing the 'best' mentally, even if they do have their own mental hang ups. It does make some sense, if you consider the fact that those two have been there the least amount of time compared to everyone else.

But back to the previous question- that leavesss Ragatha, Jax, and Gangle to possibly abstract. If we're going by just the players, I would guess that Ragatha would be the first of those three to fully give into the abstraction. Gangle is obviously not doing the best, but she has more of a support system to fall back on than either Jax or Ragatha do. Jax, meanwhile, has somewhat fallen into a mindset that he doesn't necessarily care what the others think of him, and that he can do whatever he wants in the digital world without consequence. As long as nothing breaks this attitude of his- which I could see happening, but thus far has only sort of happened in this latest Spudsy's episode- I think he'd be fine. Ragatha, meanwhile, is liked in the circus. She, however, hates upsetting people, and does not have much of a real support system to fall back onto. She masks most of her opinions on things, and would probably mask when she's feeling genuinely upset about bigger things. Her rambling in the very first episode also makes me wonder how close to her 'breaking point' she really is.

Here's a bit of a plot twist, though- I actually think Caine is more likely to crash out or get close to it BEFORE any of the main cast abstract. The third episode had him slowly start bugging out as Zooble told him off about his adventures, and then right after Gangle left him in his office in the most recent episode he began to bug out as well. Goose has also hinted that there will be some 'Caine angst' during the show as well, which leads me to believe that his glitching and the breaking down of the system will only get worse with the episodes to come. Whether this is a good thing for the players- where he breaks down and their minds are maaagically taken back to their bodies at the cost of his life- or a bad thing for them- where he breaks down, the system breaks down, and then they either end up dead or forever trapped in this endless Void with nothing to distract them from the nothingness of this world- I am unsure. I could see it going either way.

TLDR: So far I could see Ragatha abstracting first of the main cast, but Caine might get close to or ACTUALLY break down before that.

Pros: 

Interesting deconstruction of Lupin’s charisma & its affects on others

Lupin getting wounded which led to Goemon being concerned as heck 

Having Fujiko save the day with her strength & wits

Better Zenigata characterization that some of the other Blue Jacket stuff has had

Cons: 

Doing Fujiko dirty by having Lupin be pretty much unappreciative of her

Pretty much failing to get the group dynamic of the gang done right

Idk might just be me but Jigen is really shunted off to the side a lot?

Lots of other grievances concerning some of the other characters (insert here)

Overall:

Stop doing Fujiko dirty. Do her justice and stop having the narrative dump crap on her. 

Please if nothing else make the Lupin gang feel like the awesome Team they are again. There’s like hints of it here or there but very little in payoff or actual usage of their unique dynamics, which is troubling considering that’s one of the main reason people have loved the characters so long. 

I think that I'm going to make Songs of the Melody Blade a book *AND* a soundtrack, because I've always imagined Midnight and Staticlight having their own themes, as well as almost every other character that may become important in SotMB <3