Komuginu (小麦犬) is a bakery shoppe/café run by Souji Watanabe and Theo Flynn. It currently has 10 employees, including Souji and Theo, of which at least 4 or 5 are always on shift. The establishment is open weekdays and Saturdays from 9 AM to 6 PM, and on Sundays from 11 AM to 4 PM. Souji and Theo make a point to be in at set times during the week so that their three dogs can make an appearance, though the other employees are also encouraged to bring their dogs in, too, if they have any.
The customer seating area has five tables, and has a maximum occupancy of 19 sitting customers, which is often more than enough for the amount of business they get. Seats are often reserved for people who order baked goods that aren’t made to-go, or those who just want to spend some time around the dogs that the café is popular for. There is also a small customer bathroom that has a baby changing station.
There is a strict no-feeding policy for the dogs. Being a place that sells confections, there is always a risk that the dogs might be exposed to a substance that is harmful to them, such as chocolate and coffee. Special measures are taken to make sure that most products containing chocolate are not put anywhere near the dogs, and the dogs themselves are trained as best as they can be not to go near chocolate.
There are little pamphlets available to take on the tables that detail the house rules, such as the no-feeding policy, and also talks a little about the dogs that are the stars of the show at Komuginu; Fujin, Mamesuke, and Bernard. When the dogs are present, they normally congregate on the large mat near the counter, where there are also bowls of kibble for them to feed from, and a large water bowl for them to drink from. Mamesuke and Bernard tend to stay in this area most of the time, but Fujin happily wanders around. Of course, the dogs have been trained as best they can not to leave the premises, and customers are advised to leave the doors shut so they cannot get out.
The counter consists of small displays of the baked treats for the day, and a single till to take money for the orders by either cash or card. In the corner between the two main displays, there is a donation box for the Silkstring Fund for Leukemia Research that has recently been installed.
The back area is locked by a small keypad, accessible by employees only. There are three ovens to bake the products that will be sold throughout the day, and a small prep bench on which raw materials can be prepared into baked treats, dough rolled, jam spread, stuff like that. There are fridges and cabinets on the immediate right of this setup to store ambient and pre-made products, and a large walk-in freezer unit to store raw ingredients for a long time.
At the very back of the shop is the staff room, which can also be accessed via a locked door from the back. Only Souji and Theo have the keys for this door (but there is one other person who has been trusted with a third key...). The back room consists of a small office area where employees can clock in, and Souji can manage the administrative side of the business and view the CCTV surveillance around the shop, as well as a small break room where the staff can take their paid breaks. There are also some things stored here for the dogs, and there is an employee restroom.
The modelling world, for all the progress we as people have made in the past few decades, still leaves so much to be desired. For as much posturing has been done by the occasional fashion label for the sake of inclusivity, there are still so many fringe groups that remain underrepresented and undervalued in the modelling world. People of colour, disabled models, transgender and nonbinary models, people with and without muscle, scars, stretch marks - the imperfections of the body that, despite their nature, make us who we are. Give us identity and make us utterly unique.
Kintsugi is a modelling agency that aims to right this wrong; our runway shows, catalogues, and endorsed fashion & beauty brands put a focus on the facets and imperfections that make us more beautiful than even we might see at first. Our models are carefully hand-picked to represent the entire spectrum of human experience, from physique to ableness to gender identity, and our endorsed fashion lines are those catered towards ease of access to help anyone and everyone feel as beautiful in their own bodies as they deserve to be. Some of the names you might recognise in our repertoire of wonderful people on the team include;
Midas (Endorsed cosmetics label)
Freshwater Fashion (Endorsed fashion label)
Krystyn Adrian (Model, Polish, Klinefelter’s syndrome, male)
From the catwalk to the storefront, our mission is to inspire and uplift as many people as we can to be the best version of themselves they can be. We host our own modelling expos in collaboration with our endorsed fashion and cosmetics labels to bring out our models in their best form. Our models are well-taken care of, with a competitive rate of pay and royalties, and a healthcare plan designed to be tailored to all our models’ and artists’ needs in daily life - whether it be dialysis, medication, hormones, or even major surgeries!
Even you can be like the names we’ve just listed, if you have what it takes! We’re always looking for new beautiful people to bring to the catwalk, and new eras of representation to usher in. We advocate people of all races, gender identities, and physical makeup. If you’re interested in a career with us, please take a slip below with our contact details on it and submit your inquiry to us!
[ There’s only one slip left - with an email address and phone number on it. ]
Drakeshadow, Nihiran - an Annexed Territory of the Graneyean Empire,
Records perused and up-dated for accuracy as of Desnus, 5237 P.C.
Lord Petros Graham Kaison Beckett Megalos, Sixth of His Name, is the current keeper of the Imperial treasury of Drakeshadow, known as Virtue's Reservoir, and the current head of House Megalos, a vassal house of House Grimgard.
Tracing their origins back to the isles of Thavma, with first mentions of the house cropping up around 3487 P.C., House Megalos is among the few noble houses held in high regard to be founded and continued by members of a lesser race, in this case humans and half-elves. Though their lifespans are ephemeral compared to houses held in equal esteem, this has made them exceptionally adept at indexing knowledge related to the myriad magical items requisitioned by House Elrose's inquisitions into other nations.
Lord Petros, a half-elven lord with somewhat nonapparent features, stands at the 21st appointed keeper of Virtue's Reservoir, succeeding his father, Lord Kaion Megalos, as his only son. At his current of-record age of 48 years, he has kept record and custody of all magical artefacts in the Empire's possession for the past 15 years.
Lord Petros has sired but one child with Lady Karya, consort of House Megalos - a son named Yorgos. As his son is twelve years of age, he is being prepared to take over the role of his father, when such a time comes as Lord Petros is no longer able to perform his duties.
As of Gozran, 5237 P.C., associates of House Megalos are currently pending investigation, regarding several articles disappearing from Virtue's Reservoir. Lady Karya is suspected to have fled the city after an adjacent investigation of her involvement with a group of undesirables convening in Drakeshadow.
Lord Petros and Master Yorgos both deny any involvement with such a group, and Lord Megalos has proclaimed an active effort in locating and reclaiming the lost artefacts. He claims many of them have found their way into the hands of high-ranking soldiers in the forces of the Albarea Duchy, yet claims to face difficulty in tracking down the other artefacts in the wake of Lady Elrose's suspected abduction/assassination.
The world of Esterah is defined by two distinct periods; the Ancient Era, and the Post-Cataclysm era. Long ago, a civilisation known only as the Ancients thrived in Esterah, the mark of their greatness persisting in ruins even now. Their fledgling world, barely brought back from the brink of nonexistence, thrived for their accord of harmony with gods and spirits alike. However, this would not be a lasting peace; the chaotic nature of the Tempest, formed from the rampant magics still swimming in the world's aether, would soon find its own way to interfere with the balance.
It was because of this tumultuous soul that Esterah was wracked by the Cataclysm; darkness and horror the likes of which the world had never seen ruled the land, leaving the gods desperate to fend for themselves and quell the darkness that plagued them. Magic ran more wild than ever, and forces beyond all comprehension would roost and nest in the newly-formed lands. When the darkness eventually faded and the stars lit the sky to provide the people of Esterah with a new glimmer of hope, the lands were left bereft, and in need of direction.
Among the lands struggling to gain their footing was a continent to the East - in the time of the ancients, this land was known as Yanxia.
While other lands, other people, toiled with the lessons inherited from the old world to rebuild and redefine their civilisations, Yanxia had the fortunate gift of a guiding hand. From far away had a majestic dragon drifted, landing on the continent in the form of a human woman of almost etheral stature to help guide and nurture the lost and panicked remnants of a once-great republic. Through her might and magic, she would breathe new life into the land once devastated by torrents and wildfires, allowing life to flourish, crops to grow - and the people she would come to care for to at last thrive again.
Their leader, seemingly endless in her compassion, wisdom, and awe-inspiring strength, would take for herself the name of Dragon Empress, with the very Spirits she guided her people to revere as her witness. In equal parts exchange for her service and goodwill, and out of purest respect and love for the one they had long accepted as leader, her people would gift unto her a name befitting their culture and their ideals; Izumi Igarashi, the Fountain of Fifty Storms.
The chaos left in the wake of the Tempest's magnum opus, however, would not quell simply at her word; mere compassion was no true antidote to the wounds the world yet suffered. Thus, her rule would not remain unchallenged.
The dragons that roamed the world proved themselves to be naturally proud and domineering creatures, as eager to collect a flock of awestruck followers as they are to hoard wealth, knowledge, and other such commodities, be they material or immaterial. Though Yanxia was fortunate to receive, by draconic standards, a paragon of virtue and order in her view of pride and leadership, the land would soon be set upon by one who had no such gentleness in his heart.
From the Western reaches did streams of acid, frost, lightning and flame emerge; an eight-headed serpent, claiming for himself the name of Yamata no Orochi, would demand worship from the people of Yanxia, seeking to build a mighty and unstoppable empire whose breadth would reach across all the world. He would challenge Izumi to single combat, confident that his own rage and power would easily strike down the one who so arrogantly proclaimed herself Empress.
But Izumi's heart, in the tender years following the world's devastation, was not broken and consumed by fury, as Orochi's was. Her desire for leadership came not from a desire for conquest, for riches, but from the simple fact that mortals needed guidance in order to create a new world. Armed with the understanding that she would be better loved than feared, Izumi would refuse the serpent's challenge, that she may instead focus her will on helping the people - her people - build a nation mightier and more prosperous than anything the Ancients could have conceived of.
Infuriated by her refusal to meet him in combat, Orochi refused to be ignored. As the flurry of death and destruction from his many heads threatened to set the land ablaze again, he promised that any fields she helped to till would be razed, any village she brought together would be reduced to cinder, until at last she submitted and recognised his authority and power.
Izumi, however, had the love of her people and the privilege of her creation as her arms. She would instead request that the gods send a champion to repel the serpent; a call that would be answered by none other than the Twin Winds, Tatsuta-Hiko and Tatsuta-Hime.
From a mighty cyclone in the sea, an ancient Titan would be revived, and even granted godhood, to challenge the dragon. The Twin Winds granted him blessed arms and armor where once there lay cockel shells and seafoam, and relinquished unto him their ability to tame and control the very storms and lightning that once disturbed his rest. This champion, this stalwart and determined defender of the land, would be remembered by the annals of history as Susanoo, the Lord of the Revel.
Susanoo would be the one to challenge Orochi, and meet him on the battlefield; as the two fought, the longest and most violent storm to have wracked the world since the Cataclysm itself broke out over Yanxia. The Dragon and the Titan remained equally matched; Susanoo's lightning and swordsmanship would continue to strike Orochi down and sever his heads, but the relentless beast would simply grow them back stronger, and wrack the titan's body with fire, frost, and scalding death.
As the two continued their eternal battle, inching away from the land that he swore to protect, the very same reason for Izumi's people to hide became their most hopeful and awe-inspiring spectacle. Even as the two of them descended into the deepest oceans, the tempests that ravaged the distant seas filled the hearts of the people with hope at knowing that Susanoo would forever struggle and fight to keep them safe from tyranny.
It was in this very spectacle, the strikes of lightning upon the horizon and the storms that stirred the sea, that Izumi would at last find the muse to name her fledgling country. Bearing witness to the distant typhoon, her brow laid in gold, and her purpose renewed to usher in an era of peace, prosperity, and greatness, her voice would utter a name that would echo across all time; Arashi-Tensei no Kitai - The Storm-Born Hope.
To this day, the storms that ravage the land and sea alike are but reminders of Susanoo's unending battle against the bloodthirsty Orochi, laying far beneath the surface of those who could bear witness. And, every year starting from the first Fireday of Erastus, and lasting until and including the following Fireday, many parts of Kitai hold a festival known as Susanoo-Matsuri. This festival, featuring contests of strength and endurance, among the usual amenities befitting a Kitaian festival, allows the people of Kitai to thank Susanoo for protecting them, and encourage him to keep fighting, and perhaps one day, even claim victory over Orochi.
"A life without sorrow begets a world without meaning. For as we may weep for the lost ones, what we truly mourn, is what they could have been."
Ilmera, the Mother of Mourning, is the goddess of tears, sorrow, and grief. She is the patron saint of victims of plagues, massacres, murder - and any other person whose death was untimely, and needless. For those souls who passed from the world in neither dishonour nor honour, she provides a safe haven in her domain, the Distant Shore - a vast, endlessly-stretching sea populated by a handful of small beaches and islands populated by the souls of the undeserving.
The Distant Shore is said to be located on an offshoot path upon the River of Souls accessible to those of souls whose deaths are deemed needless by Ilmera, that they might be spared from the unempathetic judgement of Pharasma. The waters that make up the majority of her realm is formed of her own tears, as she perpetually weeps for the tragedy of those souls whose deaths held no purpose.
It is said that in the crystalline reflections of these tears, the souls who peer into them are taunted by visions of futures made impossible by their deaths; a glimpse into what their lives could have been, if death had only stayed its hand. The restless, confused souls are subjected to nothing more or less than the deepest, most unrealised outcomes for their life.
Rarely, a soul is so crestfallen by these visions that they immerse themselves in the waters in the hopes that they will live out this life - but, though they do emerge in the Material Plane again, they do so not as themselves, but as a shadow of their former selves, overcome by a hunger for their lost purpose, known only as a Lost One.
Ilmera is said to be one of the oldest deities in all of Esterah, her presence as a goddess dating back to the time of the Sundering, though the details of whether she was born with godhood or attained it are lost to time. Her appearance, however, is immortalised in the oldest of shrines dotted around Tahrea - the only country who, to date, acknowledges her existence.
Her holy symbol is a single teardrop, and her sacred animal is the crow.
Gallery of the Brushtaceans is a 2005 American independent sci-fi drama film, which was written, directed, and produced by Austrian filmmaker Jimmy Wähien, who stars in the film alongside Dolores Hardat and Barry Hitch. The film centers on the invasion of Earth by crab-like aliens known as the Brushtaceans, and the fight against the invasion by John Crust (Wähien), Elise Macreary (Hardat), and Gustavo Amon (Hitch). Although the central plot brings the cast together, much of the film’s 2-hour 17-minute running time is occupied by unresolved subplots, including a romantic subplot between John and Elise, but were dropped as a result of the film’s inconsistent narrative structure.
A number of critics, including popular review-comedy webseries creator JoseRose, have labeled Gallery of the Brushtaceans as a cult-classic ‘so bad it’s good’ film. This reputation is backed up by its history; originally premiering and showing only in a limited number of Conneticut theaters, Gallery of the Brushtaceans quickly achieved cult status due to its bizarre jarringly poorly-produced special effects, technical and narrative flaws, and Wähien’s off-kilter performance as the main character.
Plot
John Crust is a struggling artist who has just finished his degree in marine biology, and is looking for a new source of inspiration for his art career after struggling to find a job in the field. With the help of his friend from the university he graduated from, an astronomy student named Elise Macreary, he decides to go with her to observe the natural world for inspiration. Just before he is about to paint a scene with Elise under a starry sky, a large spaceship in the shape of a crab descends upon the Earth. Embarking from the ship are a race of aliens known as the Brushtaceans, who possess technologically-advanced paintbrushes that can induce hypnotic patterns in observers and eventually metamorphose them into other Brushtaceans. [Citation needed]
John and Elise meet a doomsday prepper named Gustavo Amon, who claims to have been studying the Brushtacean phenomenon for years, and has conceived a way to defeat them. The three set out in order to steal parts from the Brushtacean’s ship to build a machine that can superheat the ocean, boiling the crab aliens alive; becoming food, according to Gustavo, is the Brushtaceans’ main weakness. The original plan is cut short when the group is confronted by the leader of the Brushtacean crusade, the Palette Paladin. The Palette Paladin splashes Gustavo in alien bleach, erasing him from existence. Believing that they will soon die, John and Elise finally and abruptly confess their romantic feelings for each other, which causes the Palette Paladin to drop his paintbrush. John then picks up the giant paintbrush and uses it to slash the Palette Paladin in paint, which causes him to sink into the canvas floor of the Brushtacean mothership. He then uses the brush to paint the final part for the ocean-heating machine into existence and activate it, boiling all of the remaining Brushtaceans alive.
The ending scene shows John and Elise wearing engagement rings, eating a delicious crab rangoon while watching the sunset as a letter addressed to John rests in the sand; a letter from a Conneticut art museum congratulating him on the sale and display of his latest piece, The Palette Paladin. The final shot shows the trapped Palette Paladin in a display window, trapped helplessly inside a painting with a starry background.
Cast
Jimmy Wähien as John Crust, Palette Paladin, and Brushtaceans 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9.
Dolores Hardat as Elise Macreary, and Brushtaceans 4 and 6.
Barry Hitch as Gustavo Amon, Brushtaceans 5, 7, and 8, and News Anchor.
Dean Raynes as Soldier 1
Bill Crewer as Soldier 2
Production
Jimmy Wähien stated that the idea for Gallery of the Brushtaceans occurred to him during a fever dream in a 2006 interview about the film, though a conflicting account from Barry Hitch states that Wähien conceived the film after coining the ‘Brushtacean’ term as a throwaway joke after an indicent where a crab was seen walking with a discarded paintbrush on a Conneticut beach. Wähien went on to write the script for Gallery of the Brushtaceans in just under a week, with no revisions or proofreading until filming had begun and budget restrictions had begun to set in.
Much of the sound design of the film consisted of stock sound effects and stock music. The main theme, Gallery of the Brushtaceans, was commissioned from John Barry, which depleted most of the film’s sound budget. After that, only a handful of stock gun, sword, and splat sound effects were purchased for use in the film, and many of the other sound effects, most notably the sounds and ambience of the Brushtacean mothership, were produced orally by Wähien, and mastered in an audio recording program. This is also how he was able to voice the Palette Paladin.
The design of the Brushtaceans also posed some difficulties during production. Many ideas were considered, such as stop-motion animation and CGI, but both of these methods proved either too much of a deviation from the film’s visual style or too time-consuming to effectively produce. Eventually, a handful of felt puppets for the Brushtaceans were created, and miniature versions of each set were made for the scenes in which Brushtaceans appeared, with the human characters being implemented into these scenes via chroma-keying.
The film took just under two years to produce, as much of filming was done on weekends and was financed by Wähien’s day job. Many more complex sets were done as miniatures, and human characters were transplaced into these setpieces with chroma-keying in order to save money.
Reception & Cultural Impact
Gallery of the Brushtaceans has been noted for its poor production quality and subpar acting, particularly by Wähien, unanimously panned by critics after its release for its low-quality visual effects, jarring sound design, and poor acting, screenplay, writing, direction, and cinematography.
The film currently holds a 31% approval rating on Rot.ten Toma.toes based on 22 reviews, with an average score of 4.4 / 10. Despite disdain from critics, the film has achieved cult status among viewers out of ironic acclaim for its shortfalls.
In 2010, popular review comedy series producer José Manuel Pelayo Mirieva, better known as JoseRose, mocked the film and highlighted its bad acting, visual and sound design, and writing, but encouraged his viewers to watch the film. In response to this video, Wähien made a digital version of the movie free to download from his personal website in 2014 to increase viewership. Although there was no charge for the film itself, Wähien accepted donations in order to support his career, which turned out to be moderately successful from fans of the film.
Wähien has gone on to become a niche cultural icon in light of his role in Gallery of the Brushtaceans, and has done several interviews where he answered questions about the film in much the same incoherent manner as he delivered lines in the film. However, in a 2019 interview, he revealed that this was a persona born of his struggles as a newly immigrated Austrian creator looking to make his vision come true, and thanked the supporters of his film for their respect in spite of the film’s poor quality.
The film has also been the subject of brief controversy; following the leak of the Haemolife Files, a rumour began to circulate that the Brushtacean art was used as brainwashing material by the cult, but this rumour was quickly dissipated and disproven when the actual images were released. In a more recent conspiracy theory in 2021, some people claimed that Wähien used the film as a medium to convey a prediction about the nature of /N/F.T art. However, Wähien has been vocal about his distaste for digital consumables such as this, and disregards this theory as nothing more than hearsay.
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『🍬』 “... this is the worst fuckin’ film ever made. But it’s the best worst film ever made. That’s why it’s my favourite ever, yo, and that’s why I got a Wähien poster in my room.”
It is indisputable in the current canon that Haemolife is no longer in operation. The two main ringleaders are dead, as are many of the people affiliated with the cult to begin with - even after the exposure of Haemolife as a cult, only precious few other survivors of the cult were found from Haemolife compounds outside of Malmo. The Haemolife Files exist in public archives, documentaries and internet videos have been made about the incidents in question - but this is not the only way in which Haemolife still persists in the world.
One facet is through memory, of course - and I’m not just talking about hearsay, dramatised television programs, archives of the news reports... I’m talking about those who lived the experience. Garis is the most prime example, of whom not one of the people who attempted to document the Haemolife incidents knows the current location of. Xe cannot be traced by the psychological profile made by Dr. Kerata Paterson, as it is in her own archive and subject to patient confidentiality. And, of course, there’s Alex, who knows of the Haemolife files, heard Garis speaking indirectly to her - but to this day, isn’t even quite sure if what she heard was real.
Another facet is simply through remnants of Haemolife’s impact on the world; records of television commercials from the cult’s inception to the brink of its collapse, endorsements from certain celebrities, promotional posters and pamphlets left behind in darkened street alleys or in the black corners of someone’s wardrobe, left to rot in the elements, yet persisting just enough to signify their own existence.
And, of course, those who did survive the cult are branded with its symbol, forever unable to escape their affiliation - and in some cases, unable to even understand its significance. Most aren’t so lucky as to have a buffer for the mental torment that the cult experience put them through, and to this day still struggle to adapting to an appropriate modern worldview, to move past what happened to them in those pristine white halls and get on with their lives.
