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[1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:04 pm
by paarfi
Fred has posted the comic to his Patreon. He'll post it to the main site and elsewhere probably tomorrow.

Fred also included this message with the Patreon post:
I know that even the 'self censored' version of this comic walks the line a little, but honestly, when i cropped the 2nd panel it does not work right - you need to see Erika's hands. So... my apologize if all this is a bit much, but if you read it you will see why. Thank you for your patience and tolerance.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:10 pm
by Invisigoth
So Moeko wants....umm...

Erika needs to get back to work and finish Girl Phase.....

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:18 pm
by paarfi
Yup, looks that way. Not as a full-out anime, perhaps. Those take scheduling and money and such. Erika still has people in the industry like Sayuri who like her, but I imagine she ticked off a bunch of others with the way she quit before. But maybe a full-out anime isn't required to tell the rest of Moeko's story.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:38 pm
by Invisigoth
You almost make it sound easy...

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:41 pm
by hoolibas
<inserts soft whimpering sounds>

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 9:38 pm
by Liminaut
It's been what, 10 years at least since Moeko talked to anybody? No wonder she's acting a little nutso.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:13 am
by LogicalLube
And now I'm sad

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 12:32 pm
by cidjen
Yay for the dialogue :)

I am feeling a
SpoilerShow
Buta Koushaku ni Tensei Shitakara, Kondo wa Kimi ni Suki to Iitai
Total Shoutout huh. Moeko seems
SpoilerShow
Slow Piggy
crazy (powerful).

Thank You Fred for t3h pqge.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 1:44 pm
by Iceman
Maybe Erika won't return to her previous career, but I could see some sort of re-enactment involving the entire MT cast to placate her down the line when she starts wreaking havoc

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:09 pm
by darrin
paarfi wrote:
Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:04 pm
[Fred:] my apologize if all this is a bit much, but if you read it you will see why.
Of course, technically Erika isn't touching Moeko, she's touching what Moeko (as "a little girl") thinks Moeko (having "grown all up") would probably feel like by now.

Not that that would necessarily mollify any dedicated prudes out there, but whaddaya gonna do. :lol:

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:31 pm
by Invisigoth
Iceman wrote:
Mon Jul 29, 2019 1:44 pm
Maybe Erika won't return to her previous career, but I could see some sort of re-enactment involving the entire MT cast to placate her down the line when she starts wreaking havoc
I'm pretty sure that the request is being made for Erika to resume her role as Magical MoBo and as it so happens Dom is wanting to sign Erika on to do just that very thing.

So no, Erika isn't going to be able to cop out on this by wearing MoBo cosplay at MegaGamers. If she really wants to help Moeko put her story away then she needs to stop being a recluse and start being and Idol again.

That's my take on the subject anyway, this is not going to be easy

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:55 pm
by cidjen
Invisigoth wrote:
Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:31 pm
this is not going to be easy
especially that Erika knows WHAT the fans were really after ...
(not just from that but from her own experience), wonder if Moeko is aware of that...?

Is this the kind of monstrous existence the fans give, that Miho was the victim of...?

This smells more and more like a trap... but not on Erika, but on Moeko instead, maybe Stability has enough of her fooling around and wants her out of that currently suspended existence, even if it means creating another Analogue.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 4:08 pm
by BetaCygnus
Awwww… as usual, I hadn’t seen this coming… and together with LogicalLube, although I don’t know if for the same reasons, I feel sad.

Poor Moeko. =(

Fred, I know I am always just speaking for myself, but I just want you to know that I do not think this is too much at all — I totally agree with your reasons to render this scene this way. But maybe, having been a naturist since childhood, my filters are bit different from non-naturists. I don’t know. This doesn’t shock or disturb me at all, I actually think it rather natural for Moeko to wonder and want to know her own body.

I think this is very well done and — within its context — very realistically rendered and narrated.
Thanks for the care you put into this story and for the personal note paarfi copied.

From personal experience I know that writing and drawing physically intimate scenes that are necessary for your story can take a lot of processing energy, simply because you want to do it the right way while conveying your intentions without causing any misunderstanding about what you intend the scene to broadcast.

I am in the process of wrinting an online story about a girl that has — as a major side track of the main plot — been abused by a school teacher… and ironically, some of my readers turned out to come from exactly such painful, awkward backgrounds. That can be very daunting at times because I want to be open and honest about intimate things that are, emotionally, easily too much for some of them while I write about positive relationships that give my female protagonist some good examples of what love is intended to be like. At least, that is what I intend to write. It’s a very thin line, though, having real life experienced readers.

So I know how to appreciate this. Thanks for the update!!! =)

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 7:25 pm
by shadowrider
Invisigoth wrote:
Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:31 pm
Iceman wrote:
Mon Jul 29, 2019 1:44 pm
Maybe Erika won't return to her previous career, but I could see some sort of re-enactment involving the entire MT cast to placate her down the line when she starts wreaking havoc
I'm pretty sure that the request is being made for Erika to resume her role as Magical MoBo and as it so happens Dom is wanting to sign Erika on to do just that very thing.

So no, Erika isn't going to be able to cop out on this by wearing MoBo cosplay at MegaGamers. If she really wants to help Moeko put her story away then she needs to stop being a recluse and start being and Idol again.

That's my take on the subject anyway, this is not going to be easy
My take in this is that, yes, What Moeko wants/needs Erika to do is that her "Story', needs to be finished.
Seeing as that on a technical basis, Moeko is in a comatose, and/or vegetative state. So needing to complete Moeko's story is left in limbo. Meaning that it requires outside help in order to let go. So be it that it leaves it to Erika to the task.

~shadowrider

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:15 pm
by Selvius
Hmm. Is “out here” all of MegaTokyo? What happens when Moeko puts it away for good? Does the world lose another sad, dying girl? Or does it stop like a finished game, sitting on a shelf?

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:48 pm
by paarfi
Selvius wrote:
Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:15 pm
Hmm. Is “out here” all of MegaTokyo? What happens when Moeko puts it away for good? Does the world lose another sad, dying girl? Or does it stop like a finished game, sitting on a shelf?
Well, for Moeko herself, the second. For everyone else, the first.

In some ways, Moeko is a mirror image of Miho. The real Miho was an adventurous, lively girl, who lived and loved -- as was the anime Moeko. Miho's Story though is of a sad tragic dying girl who never got the chance to live and love, much like the real Moeko.

I can't see the details of how it might happen yet, but I can't help wondering if that connection may be taken further here. Erika is likely to do what Moeko asks, and tell the rest of her story. But what will that story be? I wonder if the connection between Miho and Moeko will allow it to also do what Piro suggested to Miho back in [1330]:
you can't go on living like this. It's twisting you. We're just gonna have to show these fans of yours that the story where you live is a better story. If that doesn't work we'll just have to find you better fans.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:47 pm
by NinjaDefenestrator
So, to clarify, Moeko wants Erika to resume being an idol in order to finish Girl Phase so that Moeko herself can die peacefully, right?

I’m curious about how Moeko describes interacting with the real world- by “I can move a tiny bit,” is that how she keeps getting her wand back and staying nude? How is she not able to physically feel anything if she can do that?

Invisigoth, could you please clarify? How is Moeko able to destroy reality with just the power of her mind if she can only watch, not feel? For that matter, how can Yuki do the same thing?

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:52 pm
by Invisigoth
I think that her comment about being able to move "really, really fast" is key. Her powers are like Yuki's only ramped up several orders of magnitude. In both cases the MG's are messing with reality on a very basic level because they're breaking all the rules of movement. It's like a hack that can crash a server to the point that it requires a reset.

Imagine MegaTokyo crashing and we are back on the plane and l33t dude needs his pillz....

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 11:28 pm
by Teddy-Werebear
More like driven here crazy already... years ago. This is terrible for Erika and probably the entirety of Megatokyo.
I still hate Miho way more, though.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 2:24 am
by Tsukai
There's something very disturbing about this comic.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 2:48 am
by Liminaut
If Erika follows through with this, and puts the anime team back together to finish the story -- well, she won't be Erika any more. I think she could do it -- the power of Moeko's story still has critical resonance now, and the story of the voice actress who left and came back is going to be too good and too lucrative a story to turn down.

But she won't be Erika any more. She'll be the Idol Erika, beloved by all. She may even find herself turning into an avatar of a story herself, the Once and Future Voice.

That's going to be a pretty hefty price.

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:46 am
by cidjen
But Erika is an actress, she could be assigned another role later...

Fans know and (mostly) accept that. Ofc we like certain actors in some roles better than in others, but it's, hmm, their job to tell us stories, that we can fantasize about. We know, Erika won't be Moe-Bo forever. For one thing, she might age and not fit the image any more. (sorry for the myso-sexism here, just putting on an imaginary fan's 'stop doing damage to my love of the genre' hat.)

Instead, the fans' love will create a character out of Moeko, that she actually never was (the words about Moeko being mirror-image of Miho are sheer wisdom and key here). That's what the trap is, and Moeko is being pulled into it by her scenario, or by someone with even greater power than her own.

Moeko, with all her power, is still mentally a small girl inside. She needs to be told, what comes from the fan's love.

On another story plane, it's where Moeko's character asks the player, who played with her before, and now plays with Erika, to swap characters again, because she wants to experience this world... If we assume that the characters do have some mind of their own that is. If we don't, then it's like, the player playing Erika is in the 'character change' room browsing her characters, considering if she has enough of playing nice with Largo yet... :)

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:54 am
by Orriens
cidjen wrote:
Mon Jul 29, 2019 12:32 pm
SpoilerShow
Buta Koushaku ni Tensei Shitakara, Kondo wa Kimi ni Suki to Iitai
SpoilerShow
Since I was in charge of the pig, I would like to say that I like it now
Google translated.
You sure this is correct?

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 6:01 am
by cidjen
Orriens wrote:
Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:54 am
cidjen wrote:
Mon Jul 29, 2019 12:32 pm
SpoilerShow
Buta Koushaku ni Tensei Shitakara, Kondo wa Kimi ni Suki to Iitai
SpoilerShow
Since I was in charge of the pig, I would like to say that I like it now
Google translated.
You sure this is correct?
SpoilerShow
i saw it translated into english as 'because I reincarnated as a piggy duke, i want to say 'i like you' this time (who the hell thinks these titles up lol.)

Re: [1560] A story that needs to be put away

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 6:04 am
by cidjen
cidjen wrote:
Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:46 am
But Erika is an actress, she could be assigned another role later...

Fans know and (mostly) accept that. Ofc we like certain actors in some roles better than in others, but it's, hmm, their job to tell us stories, that we can fantasize about. We know, Erika won't be Moe-Bo forever. For one thing, she might age and not fit the image any more. (sorry for the myso-sexism here, just putting on an imaginary fan's 'stop doing damage to my love of the genre' hat.)

Instead, the fans' love will create a character out of Moeko, that she actually never was (the words about Moeko being mirror-image of Miho are sheer wisdom and key here). That's what the trap is, and Moeko is being pulled into it by her scenario, or by someone with even greater power than her own.

Moeko, with all her power, is still mentally a small girl inside. She needs to be told, what comes from the fan's love.

On another story plane, it's where Moeko's character asks the player, who played with her before, and now plays with Erika, to swap characters again, because she wants to experience this world... If we assume that the characters do have some mind of their own that is. If we don't, then it's like, the player playing Erika is in the 'character change' room browsing her characters, considering if she has enough of playing nice with Largo yet... :)
to mask up my oot's...

The Endgames game engine seems to be more sophisticated than Megatokyo, like, a dev/new release/feature build? you know, instabilities, data loss, but the characters in EG can do so much more than in MT (in EG they live, though mundane, their lives when not being played with; in MT they get suspended/go into coma, when their player is not playing with them....?