#(all the way to the Torment Nexus <3)< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[see-arcane]

❤️💀Just Harker Things 💀❤️

(Psst! If you want some little guys like these for yourself, I've got a commission dealie for that on my Ko-Fi :3 )

[openphrase123]

writing aus is fun because half the time i'm like "i ❤️ altering canon events" but the other half i'm going "if i don't show this event happening they will take me and shoot me firing squad style"

[garpond]

they should give me an award for only crying a little while trying to shop for clothes today

[creature-once-removed]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind really be like. Ignore the torment nexus this is a story about l o v e

[doerot]

It's just that killing her once best friend with her own hand is already the worst moment of her life. Now make her do it a hundred more times

Fantasizing about the time loop fics that will be created in response to the chapter of the book I am not writing

[vechter]

here are some fics from my beautiful mutuals that left me in shambles this month:

those million tons of light by mintchocochips absolutely devastating donna character study set right after countdown with a heavy focus on kyle. stunning prose & the most authentic consideration of donna's identity torment nexus + her relationships with all the people in her life. gorgeous allusions + superb examination of canonical moments

Moments After The End by vividities short ficlet for titans/yj graduation day #3 exploring dick's immediate reaction to donna's death. bonus appearance from roy; succinct & gutting with some heartbreaking imagery & dialogue

Passiontide by bigdamnher0 dick in his spyral era. consideration of the impact of nightwing #30 with the most gorgeous and chewy prose. heavy focus on bruce & the kind of devotion they have for each other + a wonderful insight into some of the grayson '14 elements

with golden string by FromStarstuff donna character study. the thesis. will leave you devastated but heart-fulfilled for the kind of love dick & roy have for donna. gorgeous consideration of donna's personhood + the impact of having all that history encased in her + what a terrible and beautiful thing it can be

all we are is an aching that can barely be filled by 2mad4plaid dickroy in outsiders era my absolute beloved. gorgeous depiction of the push and pull they have in this era + insightful consideration of how differently they grieve for donna. compelling character work with beautifully depicted chemistry

Parable of the Friend at Midnight by dustorange tim centric with a gorgeous juxtaposition of his relationships with jack & bruce. bonus features from alfred and dick. stellar internal voice for tim and as always, dustorange's prose is beautiful and layered; reads so authentic to how tim was in this era

memories {like water slipping through your fingers}. by SHINeeNAilee dickroy but make it canon divergent: roy meets ric grayson. there are layers to every moment and mack does such a wonderful exploration of how well roy knows dick & how terrified and untethered ric is till this moment. insane chemistry work

i'm in the business of losing your interest by mintchocochips babs character study set during NML. absolutely stunning insight into some of the behind the scenes moments of barbara's competence and grit. all her complexities are beautifully considered and her desperation + how tired and scared she is, are all tied together wonderfully

burning money by yutro canon divergence where willis todd lives and comes out of prison into a world where jason is dead. absolutely devastating character work and prose for his grief. every vignette packs a punch + a wonderful examination of the dubious ethics of child sidekicks in a way that feels like it could fit right into canon

[twstunes]

hello and welcome to the Rollo Torment Nexus, designed to impart the absolute worst academic experience to everyone's favorite deranged church boy.

rationale:

1. Rollo has to be surrounded. There is no easy way out short of vaulting over the desk, and we all know he's not gonna do that while class is in session.

2. Floyd "Malicious Noncompliance" Leech has to be sitting directly next to Rollo. This should be self-explanatory. Whether he's actively doing something annoying or just taking notes in sloppy handwriting while wrinkling tf out of his notebook pages, his presence will be enough to test Rollo's patience.

3. Someone Floyd loves to annoy and/or talk to needs to be sitting on Rollo's other side. I've chosen Ace for this example, but Jade, Kalim, Grim, and Lilia would also work. Jamil would also be a good choice, as he would likely find a way to redirect Floyd's attention onto Rollo.

Riddle and Azul also have potential, but there's a solid chance they would take their lessons too seriously & ignore Floyd to the point he stops trying to get their attention. This would result in him being less annoying to Rollo, which is antithetical to the point of the Rollo Torment Nexus.

4. Malleus, naturally, has to be present. Though having him sit directly next to Rollo would be funny enough on its own, having him sit behind Rollo is the advanced play here. After all, if Malleus is within view, Rollo can keep an eye on him, thus keeping his own paranoia at bay. If Malleus is looming ominously behind (& above) him, Rollo has no way of staying watchful without blatantly ignoring the lesson/letting Malleus know he's wary. This would vex Rollo to no end, AND Malleus would find it funny.

5. Now, I know what you're thinking. Why Ruggie? Why not Idia or Azul, since Rollo would be more cautious of them?

Like Jamil & everyone else present for the Glorious Masquerade misadventure, Ruggie doesn't like Rollo. He's also one of the wilier students at NRC, meaning he wouldn't think twice about getting a little revenge at no cost to him.

Ruggie and Floyd are chill, but not overly involved with each other; further, Ruggie's physical presence in the classroom isn't particularly unusual, unlike how Idia's would be. Both of these points minimize the chance of Floyd abandoning his "talk across Rollo" endeavors to chat with Ruggie instead, meaning Floyd will spend longer maximally annoying Rollo.

Ruggie and Malleus get along pretty well! Even with Malleus' lack of Normal Person Social Skills™, it wouldn't be hard for the two of them to strike up a conversation – which would result in Rollo having to hear and be acutely aware of Malleus' presence behind him the whole time.

Ruggie would 100% start talking quietly to Malleus, just loud enough for Rollo to kinda-sorta hear, JUST to get on Rollo's nerves. Like–

Ruggie: "Hey, Malleus, how're you doing today?" Malleus: "I'm doing well. Why do you ask?" Ruggie: "No reason, really. Just, y'know...it'd be funny if Rollo thought we were plotting something right behind him." Malleus: "Oh that's brilliant. Let us continue, then."

[gizmocreates]

assorted canto 8 p 2 thoughts

part 2 dungeon jumpscared me!!! While it definitely was super fitting and a wonderful way to show the full scope of the hierarch war, it also is terrifying to see a dungeon… and know what lies within isn’t the end of the journey.

seven hour dungeon torment nexus. jia qiu fight whittled down all my sinners until it ended in a solo duel between fanghunt lu and jia qiu. i escaped that fight by the skin of my teeth

Honestly. I’m gonna say this one’s more difficult than the Canto 6 boss rush. Considering that your sanity gets reset right before every major fight the only real things you have an advantage with are ego resources and maybe ego gifts. And with how intense so many of the fights are… yeck, they don’t really provide much relief. (to be fair the teams i use aren’t The Meta but still. Jia Qiu’s Zilu skill can go to hell.)

i know it’s early to say any current survivors are actually, yknow, surviving, but we had a shockingly low death toll for the City’s Version Of The Hunger Games. fully expect Lin Daiyu’s health to deteriorate since she was shot with an EGO bullet, but she’s still alive, somehow.

they didn’t make xue baochai Secretly Evil (tm) thank fucking god. I was fully expecting it but i would’ve been a bit disappointed if it’d happened

jia qiu really just walked up, aura farmed, beat the shit out of hong lu until he formed an honest opinion and then fucked off. goodness i need this man carnally

speaking of which, between the frequent trauma dumps and him trying so goddamn hard in the end to say *anything* Jia Qiu would want to hear to avoid actually having to say something as simple, and yet profound, as wanting kindness… god, I felt hard for Hong Lu in this chapter. It may seem silly that it took him so long to get to such a seemingly vapid conclusion, but like… when you’ve been the vessel of suffering your entire life, so consumed by an inability to let your choices matter, why would you ever see the pursuit of kindness as something attainable? Not just some lofty, selfish goal, sinful to even utter a word of? Not something you feel you deserve, no, and not something you have a right to give others.

seeing garion made me ill bro i need her too (to kill me)

Gubo toxic yaoi is funny as hell. Bro really just tried to guilt trip Yi Sang for leaving his bum ass and Yi Sang said “you are NOT turning this around on me mister”

the duality of jia huans is really interesting. a young and innocent boy who simply was jealous because he didn’t understand Hong Lu’s actual position in life… had his life taken from him, and his name was taken by a embittered, violent man who still does not— and now likely refuses to— understand Hong Lu. Not that Hong Lu did him any favors.

Heathcliff, Yi Sang and Sinclair have been trying so fucking hard to reach out this canto, bless them. Too damn bad that they’re talking to a brick wall. Hopefully in part 3 their slow but methodical cracking of his facade will bear fruit, especially now that Jia Qiu has shaken him.

anyone else think about how sinners usually only resonate and show their memories at the peak of their emotions?? and how that entire time, while his face was still a near-perfect mask, hong lu was practically strobing us with a million memories a minute?? Yeah this man’s mental state is in shambles and he will Not let anyone see it. The allusion to prey animals near the beginning of the chapter is notable to me because… a lot of prey animals hide their injuries, too. Any sickness or hurt they might have, they’ll hide it until it kills them, because otherwise they might be seen, and to be seen is to be hurt further. he very much knows that the elders are watching. That jia mu will Know if he actually speaks his mind. And so. He’s given up. All he can do… is smile.

also xichun becoming the hierarch instead of Dying is rad as hell but also what a way to do it lmao. We knew it was coming but god the fact that even in character everyone’s just like “what the fuck just happened. What” is so funny

please let us fight jia mu/the elders next part please please please

[i3utterflyeffect]

VERY true..........

IT WAS THE SAME VIC EVERY TIME???? I DIDN'T KNOW THAT, THAT'S SO MESSED UP (untitled time travel au btw)

I CAN JUST IMAGINE VIC BEING ANGRIER AND ANGRIER EVERY TIME THE LOOP HAPPENS AND JUST- USHSJSGSUABJAJA

AND THEN UNTITLED REALIZES AND IT'S JUST WOWOW, SUFFERING ENHANCED. ALSO EVERY TIME THE LOOP REPEATS, VIC WOULD COME UP MORE AND MORE EXPERIENCED AND LIKE I FEEL LIKE I'D BE MORE AND MORE SURREALISTIC FROM AN OUTSIDERS POV

(LIKE THIS STICK JUST APPEARING OUT OF NOWHERE AND JUST SPROUTS A WHOLE COMPANY AND HE JUST KNOWS WHAT TO DO??? SOMEHOW???)

(I love time loops <3)

AH i think you misunderstood </3 Alan recently confirmed that c!alan created multiple Victims and i basically went 'what if those Victims all had the same consciousness since they probably had the same name???'

i've thought about victim getting stuck in the loop before though. it's fucked up and evil <3

[all-encompassing-hero]

One thing I love about the Horizon franchise is how both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West make it explicitly clear that while the current threat might be the machines and rouge AI threatening Aloy and her people, the true evil behind everything is and always has been capitalism and, to an extent, the One Percent.

[Spoiler warning for both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West]

Obviously, there's Ted Faro, a man who, through a combination of overinflated ego and massive incompetence, doomed the world twice over. First, accidentally, by designing war machines capable of consuming organic matter as fuel and programmed with code so complex, it took several hundred years to crack. And then, on purpose, by deleting thousands of years of human knowledge and history in some misguided attempt to help the future generations. A man who not only built the Torment Nexus from the book "Don't build the Torment Nexus" but then deleted all records of both his construction and the story from which it came so that future generations would not be able to learn from the mistakes of those who came before them.

Now, while the Zeniths are not as heavyhanded about the themes of the evils of capitalism compared to Ted Faro, they do still uphold that narrative. Remember that the Zenith crew was composed almost entirely of the rich and famous. Rich and famous who would rather save their own skins rather than try to help humanity in its final hours. When they managed to do the impossible and achieve immortality, what did they do with it? Squandered it by becoming lazy, only using it to essentially prolong their own pleasure. Some even became greedy enough to go beyond physical immortality, and when that greed caused the destruction of their home and threatened the new life that had begun on Earth, what did the remaining Zeniths do? Turned tail and ran. Because the only thing that matters to them is self preservation.

Tilda might actually be the worst of them. Because while the others may not care that they're in the wrong, Tilda is the only one who believes she is in the right. Tilda, the woman who was arguably the closest to Elizabet, who watched her choose to stay to help develop the Zero Dawn project rather than abandon Earth, who has been grieving that loss for over a thousand years, believed that, given a second chance, Elizabet would choose to abandon Earth. Tilda, who believed that she was doing the right thing even as she was attempting to force Aloy to abandon her people the same way she wanted Elizabet to abandon Earth. Tilda, who died believing that the woman she loved died a pointless death even after seeing the new world created by Zero Dawn.

The Horizon franchise is and always has been a story about technology. How technology can do so much good in the hands of the right people, but also so much evil in the hands of the wrong people. And it keeps telling us that the "wrong people" are the rich and greedy, the ones who only look out for themselves, the ones who would leave humanity to die if it meant saving themselves.

My biggest hope for Horizon 3 is that it continues this message. That it continues to show that technology can be used for good, but only when in the hands of people who have the best interest of others at heart rather than their own.

[ryuki-draws]

Pilots of Peil Torment Nexus

[verdemoth]

And the last of my Flondon PCs, making her tumblr debut, my guy Dr. Narramore! Lucy to his friends. He's a freak and he sucks <3 she exists because I did want to experience the Seeking storyline but I'd never put Mel or Knoll through all that. So, Ulysses is designed to be locked in the torment nexus and experience the horrors and she can only get worse from here! But actually I'm yet to get to any of the Seeking stuff since I haven't been super focused on building up his account yet.

He's also an excuse to explore the Great Game content, and that gives me some direction to take his character. Speaking of characters, Darling Lark (mentioned on this sheet) belongs to my friend @skies-seas ! Also a character belonging to Sky is the one and only person in the world who Ulysses considers indispensable: childhood friend and mad scientist Rajendra Narod, also a Seeking PC who Sky made so we can do our favourite activity of making Fucked Up Guys together <3 <3 <3

Also yeah Horticulture Hell! I was brainstorming what my Seeking character should be like for months in advance, and I had the idea that instead of going through New-Newgate he'd start off in a different Menace location (fucking dying lol). Then Horticulture Hell happened and the idea of being new to the Neath while all that was going on was so funny to me, so that's when I made the account :]

i have some more notes on his character than I can share, but I'll do so in a reblog probably so this isn't TOO long. Transcripts to follow under the readmore

Text Transcripts:

In the top left are some quick details. Lucy's full name and title is Doctor Ulysses B. Narramore. In the style of other Fallen London characters, Lucy's epithet is 'the Mercurial Pawn'. Lucy uses both she/her and he/him pronouns interchangeably, he's 31 years old and 5 feet 8 inches tall. She resides in a handsome townhouse around Ladybones Road. Her profession is as a physician but she's also a spy in the making, and the faction she's closest to is The Great Game.

Next to these are some notable player attributes. Of the main attributes, Lucy has high Persuasive and Dangerous, but low Watchful. Of the quirks, she has high Ruthless, Heartless, Forceful, and Subtle, but low Magnanimous and Steadfast. He also has another notable quality: that he's Seeking the Name.

In the top right is this note: "Ulysses wasn't (knowingly) a Player in the Great Game before arriving in the Neath. He was inducted by a woman named Darling Lark, operator of a local speakeasy and go-between for spy and criminal activities."

Paired with the art of Lucy covered in blood are these notes: "Though lacking in training, discipline, and real practical experience, Lucy is a formidably aggressive foe. He doesn't fight gracefully and he doesn't fight fair. She won't shy away from blood, and isn't above kicking someone who's already down. ...He might be a bit too into bloodshed. The cane is also for stability, Ulysses has been having weak spells with a bit of a fall risk. But mostly it's a convenient, socially acceptable way to have a good bludgeoning weapon on hand."

With the last illustration of Lucy climbing from a well are these notes: "It is the case that many new residents of London come by way of New-Newgate, but Lucy's arrival was rather more dramatic. Amidst what is occasionally, by some individuals, still referred to as the London Horticultural Show, he found himself tumbling into the Neath through a weak bit of roof. She died, of course, and was in for quite the shock when she'd recovered."

End of text transcripts.

[aropride]

ok story before bed time. everyone gather around

you are me at age 13. you are an 8th grader who just realized he likes girls and recently had a gender crisis in the home depot lighting aisle. it is november of 2016, and trump has run for president for the first time. you are watching the map change over your dad's shoulder. you aren't really sure how it works yet but you are seeing a lot of red on there and you are very frightened. you just found out you have free will, like, last year, and you are only beginning to grasp the gravity of the situation- the situation being the united states of america in general- and it already is looking very bad.

when you wake up in the morning your dad tells you trump has won. he's too happy about it. you're skipping breakfast to make the bus in time. the sun's barely risen, btw, but you are 13 so you have little to no autonomy or rights, so you are in the fluorescent-light torment-nexus they call a "middle school" by 7:45am on the dot.

you see your friend as you're walking to your homeroom. he's a fellow gay emo middle schooler, he sucks, and he really likes to guilt-trip you into skipping class to hang out with him by telling you he's going to kill himself if you don't. you have other qualms with him, but this illustrates enough. he says hi, you say hi, there is a sort of thick dread in the air despite barely anyone in the building being old enough to vote and most everyone completely baffled by the concept of the "electoral college."

he asks how you're feeling. you say bad, and he agrees.

he looks you in the eyes and puts both his hands on your shoulders. he says, "don't worry about gay marriage. they can't get rid of it."

you don't say anything; he doesn't give you a chance to.

"i ran into the senate at subway yesterday and i asked them. and they said trump can't repeal gay marriage."

you do not know much about the government. you are not quite sure what a senator is. however, you know there are one hundred of them. you also know that the only subway in your little corner of maine is very small- there's, like, three booths to sit in. only a few people can even get in line to order at a time. you were born recently but you are able to draw some conclusions here:

1) there is absolutely no way that subway could fit 100 people inside of it at all,

2) there is no reason that the entire senate would be in a little town in maine the night after the election,

and 3) this guy is making shit up again, more than anyone's ever made shit up in their life.

you say, "okay. that's good." you are aware that gay marriage is not the only thing to be worried about, here. you are aware that this guy lies recreationally and it is not worth arguing the matter.

"isn't that great?" he asks. it is not great.

you go to homeroom and you do not stand for the pledge of allegiance (you never stand for it again). you go to pre-algebra. you listen to my chemical romance instead of paying attention. you go to english class, you go to study hall, you go to lunch. you go to social studies and your teacher lets you and your other gay friend (who doesn't suck and in fact you have crush-adjacent feelings for them) sit out in the hall to talk about the election, because you asked nicely. they do not try to tell you that they ran into the entire senate at subway.

you think about this interaction several times a month through the next two election seasons. you are a 21 year old man and you are still thinking about this. you are still imagining ways the entire senate could cram themselves into this tiny subway. you regularly share this story with new friends because you just cannot stop fucking thinking about it. he ran into the entire senate at a tiny little subway in maine at 7 in the morning. and they said gay rights were safe forever.

[insanelyadd]

#LetSansRest Day!

Hello everyone and welcome to year two of Let Sans Rest Day! Same as last year it's August 9th.

Before we get into some prompts, a little bit of a mission statement. Last year I said this day was for everyone who's a fan of Sans Undertale or anyone who's tired of every image they see of him being him Suffering. This is still true, but I do want to additionally address something I saw a few different people mention.

I have actually received criticism for daring to suggest that Sans not be tormented to the point of insanity, and that this day where I implore people to make realities where Sans doesn't become a creepypasta insane murderer man from the agony he is subjected to, isn't a stand against ableism like Let Papyrus Say Fuck Day is. *stares in bipolar psychosis and PTSD directly into your eyes* Obviously that's a load of shit, and even though Sans is more popular than Papyrus (I say, as a Papyrus Enjoyer) a lot of the content around Sans is very specifically about him suffering. So simply out of spite for these comments (including someone who saw last year's announcement and directly commented "No <3" on the post) I will be continuing this holiday indefinitely, just like LetPapyrusSayFuck Day. Die mad about it.

Just like how I have ADHD and relate to Papyrus and see the way the fandom treats him as the infantilization of neurodivergency like autism and ADHD, I can look at works in this fandom of Sans that demonize traits of mental illness like trauma, hallucinations, delusions, and mania. And I can say these are both bad actually. Not going to call anyone a bad person for engaging in these things, of course, that would be a bit goofy of me, I'm just saying the imagery used for these things is Very Loaded and a lot of people are mishandling them.

So anyways August 9th is the day we let Sans Undertale out of his Torment Nexus so he can:

Have lemonade at the beach or pool

Go stargazing while camping out in the woods with friends and family

Get smothered in cute baby kittens and puppies

Go to therapy and play with one of those magnetic sculptures all therapists seem to own

Take a nap on an inner-tube on a lazy river

Get to see the leaves change color for the first time

Play basketball with Papyrus

Fall asleep in a basket of freshly dried clothes

Go to a public greenhouse to look at all the different flowers on the surface

Perform stand-up for humans who all love his terrible puns

Please tag the post with #LetSansRest, #Sans, and #undertale as well as any other applicable tags for characters, relationships, etc. This day is primarily for classic Sans but it's not like I can stop you from drawing Fell Sans not being subjected to his own, personal, goth-themed Torment Nexus.

This is meant to be a day for everyone who wants Sans Undertale to go to therapy and feel better. People who want to put him in a hamster cage with plenty of things to prank for enrichment. People who want to win him one of those massive stuffed animals at the county fair.

If you want to participate please be mindful of some things:

I will be monitoring the tag to reblog things! I have ptsd and would appreciate if ships involving Papyrus or Frisk (and similar) with Sans are avoided. This is simply for my mental health and I greatly appreciate it. <3

Do Not post angst to the #LetSansRest tag. It is meant to be an angst free tag for him.

Don't worry if you can't participate on the exact day! Just like with #LetPapyrusSayFuck Day you can use the tag and post to it any day! :>

Hope you're able to participate and have fun! <3

[danielwaldorf]

em what would YOU vote for on ur buck horrors poll - chefbuck

HI ANGEL @chefbuck THANK YOU FOR ASKING!!

ok so personally i voted anthrax i just think it would be fun to stick him in a plastic decontamination tent and hose him down until he's sopping wet and pathetic while eddie gazes at him with big sad eyes. and i voted it bc i feared nobody else would vote anthrax and i Needed anthrax to have Some votes. but i Actually want captured by a serial killer à la criminal minds So bad.

take my hand come along with me share my vision.

"but em," you cry, "they already did that with hen and chimney!" first of all they have already done almost everything okay we can have a few repeats. bobby's home burnt down literally twice. second of all i don't want something connected to the 118 alright i don't even want athena on the case. this is not an angel of death this is some classic good old-fashioned california rando serial killing.

episode one: buzzkill. i want everything to be normal like no hints to a serial killer at all besides MAYBE a tv news report in the background. there's some other shit happening like they're dealing with the beemergencies and we the audience think ok That is the big plot happening rn. and then toward the end of the episode buck goes for a jog. and like the beautiful young woman in any given criminal minds episode he happens to jog past a man with an injured dog or a flat tire and buck stops to help because he's buck. of Course he stops to help. and the guy blitzes him and the screen goes black and BAM end of the episode.

and then in the next episode we open on some other character doing totally unrelated shit maybe the henren/mara/madney plot? and we get like five-ten minutes in to the episode before anybody references buck. maybe he's late to work or maybe he's not answering his phone. that's weird but OOPS the alarm is going off no time to check in on him right now! gerrard is unfortunately captain so they can't even like convince him to let them swing by buck's loft even when they drive right down his street on their way back from a call. so the 118 is running all over los angeles dealing with nonstop calls while they Also try to call buck and don't get any response. so eventually they ask somebody (bobby, maddie, whoever's not Busy) to go by the loft and see if he's alright.

and i want the 118 to respond to a fire in an abandoned building as their buck correspondent is on their way to the apartment. when they put out the fire athena is there and reveals that they think this fire was set by a killer to try and destroy evidence because they found a body inside and this fits a pattern that's been developing lately. BAM they get the call that buck's apartment is empty.

i will stop giving the play-by-play now but i just think it would be so fucking sick if they Refused to show us buck for almost the entire episode... perhaps athena tells us that this killer has a Type that sounds familiar... and i want the 118 + maddie absolutely spiraling telling themselves ok there's gotta be Some other explanation this would be insane it would be Insane. maybe this causes some tension in the group (eddie is Going Fucking Insane). and then they can get a lead near the end of the episode and we see buck very briefly like tied up or in a saw trap or whatever the hell i'm not picky we just need to see him suffering perhaps with a brief villain monologue from his captor. and THEN in episode three: no place like home they can rescue him and then he's dealing with that trauma throughout 8a. i think that could be fun and also serve as both motivation for canon buddie And like some sort of obstacle for them to deal with together that doesn't involve eddie in the same old torment nexus.

so yeah <3 thank u for asking <3

[yurisorcerer]

Every week I walk in to the torment nexus and walk out with my heart broken in three places. What a fucking show.

Some interesting play with structure and framing this episode. At last week's conclusion Soyo was shown discovering Mortis, and the whole scene was framed in slasher movie tones. Here, now that she has a better idea of Mortis' whole, you know, thing, Mortis is instead framed as the angry, lost girl that she really is. I really enjoyed (and did not at all expect) Soyo actually playing along with Mortis' whole 'calling the doctor' bit, it shows a pretty deep empathy that I don't really know if we've seen the character express before? (It's been a while since I watched MyGO, so I may be forgetting something.) Also, she apparently spends 3 whole days sleeping over there trying to patch things up, which, while there's definitely a selfish aspect to her motive (she misses CRYCHiC too, after all), I think deserves serious real one points. I don't think I have the emotional stamina to spend 3 whole days consoling anyone about anything.

Full credit to Rana also, who can just intuit what's going on with Mortis and Mutsumi without even actually being told. (She doesn't actually go out of her way to help, though, and spends a decent amount of time this episode playing with cats. Rana remains this subseries' most mysterious character.) Mortis actually seems to develop a bit of a crush on her, and is that a twinge of jealousy I detect from Soyo about that fact? My god, what a relationship chart this series has.

I like Umiri's brief scene in this episode. Forever the eternal mercenary, she describes the breakup of Ave Mujica as though it happened around her and not to her. And yet when Ricky Taki calls her on this, she gets annoyed. Truly the "fake ass IDGF'er" meme in human form.

The first half of this episode, I must stress, is actually pretty light by this show's standards. So of course, there needs to be a breaking point somewhere. Here, that breaking point is between Mortis and Mutsumi, who stirs for the first time in a solid month only to find how awry things have gone in her absence. This isn't what she wanted, and Mortis is appalled to learn so. The two have an argument in headspace, which of course to anyone outside of the Mutsumi-Mortis system's own head just looks like an argument with herself, and she actually carries on so bad that she ends up tripping and falling in front of Live House Ring and making a huge scene, which of course a throng of anonymous busybodies are nearby to witness. It's SO much that it would come off as contrived if the show weren't so set on showing us how badly this is fucking over Mutsumi and Mortis. It's hard to watch.

There is something admirable about the show's complete lack of handholding with this kind of thing. This episode alone depicts multiple conflicts within a fully-realized mental space, a tug-of-war between Mortis and Mutsumi for their collective fate that is just profoundly sad to witness. I do wonder how legible this is to audiences who aren't plural. Part of me---literally part of me---is worried this series might be too ahead of its time for most audiences to properly appreciate.

(I've barely talked about Sakiko here and she is absolutely going through it up and down this episode. From the horrible, obviously untrue claims she makes about not caring about either band or even about Mutsumi, to the fucking folder of notes she's gotten from Tomori over the years, to the fact that she sadly looks for another one despite telling Tomori off for them last week. To. This fucking expression, just, god.)

There's a mostly-lighthearted interlude with Nyamu (it remains really funny that her dark secret, compared to everyone else's, seems to just be that she's from the sticks), but even that is twinged with her finding out about Mortis and Mutsumi's public breakdown. The episode then ends with MyGO finding out about Sakiko's whole extremely fucking complicated family situation. Episode 7 is entitled "Post nubila Phoebus," "after the clouds, the Sun." In most other contexts that would be a shining beam of hope, and maybe it is here too, but I'm fairly sure things will get worse before they get better. (Recall, we still have no idea what's going on with Uika, just as one example, and she's the only character from either band who doesn't put in even a cursory appearance in this episode. Where is she!)