#Given how often it happens

[phoenixcatch7]

We should totally have more jl fics where someone is acting ooc and immediately everyone is trying to determine whether they're an imposter or brainwashed or possessed without making it obvious.

Like, a running joke on the tower. Batman makes a sarcastic joke and flash immediately asks him to blink twice if he's under mind control.

Someone starting a sentence with 'Not to be possessed but -'

People calling off sick by saying 'if I come in today that's not me and you should arrest them' and then dragging themselves in to pick up something they accidentally left and everyone takes the mick by saying stuff like 'this isn't you! I believe in you, you can fight this!' when they're grabbing a hoodie from a chair like har har.

Superhero community slang just in general slipping into their civilian lives. Clark says 'before I start I assure you I have not had my will superseded by mister mind' as an ice breaker at a presentation and gets weird and worried looks all night.

It actually ends up helping on several occasions because it's so very very hard to infiltrate an extremely high risk team and then respond in kind without missing a beat when people casually accuse you of being an imposter because you didn't hold your pen the way you normally do. It'd wreck any controlling consciousness' self esteem XD. They've made several shapeshifters cry.

Also the exasperated sighs when you make a suggestion you normally wouldn't and everyone starts squinting at you looking for anything out of the ordinary.

[skrunksthatwunk]

extremely normal girl simulator

[meagancandraw]

You ever think about how neither of them got to say goodbye?

[wackywatchdotcom]

I've found it interesting that both Jax and Ragatha are essentially two sides of the same coin. How they mask their true feelings and interact with others is always some kind of front.

However, they both seem to have tried to reach out to Pomni in a way they hadn't with the others (Jax after Pomni spent an adventure with Kinger, his attempt at reaching out at Spudsy's) (Ragatha pretty much all of episode two etc)

I am wondering that, since she is new, they are trying, in their own way, to get validation from the new person without realizing it yet.

i agree so so much!!!! jax and ragatha feel like theyre very specifically associated with one another writing wise VERY deliberately. the theme song alone separates the characters into chunks (gangle zooble and kinger. ragatha jax and kaufmo) that pair the two up, theyre constantly interacting, that they share two spotlight eps, and so on. almost all of the characters, imo, have some sort of narratively significant dynamic, but jax and ragatha is absolutely one that is given extra detail, which definitely highlights the idea that theyre VERY different but also VERY similar in an important way

jax is decidedly the most Mean of the cast, and ragathas the most Nice, put simply (bc that is subjective, but i think the opposite degrees of friendliness the two exhibit are pretty clear), but that in itself IS some sort of mask, with their masks getting partially dropped in ep 4- i dont think theyre fully dropped and i dont think it has to do with 'jax is secretly nice' or 'ragatha is secretly mean' so much as the episode highlights the idea that theres more context to why they act how they do, and that the two of them are both putting on some kind of performance, though the extent of that isnt so cut and dry i think

i think ive seen it described better by others than i could but i think its very much that they are what the other lacks, in the least healthy ways possible. id consider them foils, because a person could argue theyre far more similar than meets the eye (with the severity of their masks and that both display an at least partially disingenuous happiness) but i think that they still mirror each other strongly enough that its them being foils that actually highlights these similarities at all- everything they do is opposite from one another, even down to how they treat the npcs (jax enjoying the idea of causing them harm because theyre not real, it doesnt matter, he can do what he wants, vs ragatha whos as kind as possible to the npcs, the reason for which being unclear since she doesnt seem to view them as alive, but likely a need for approval, so she does what she wants, too), but it has a similar root cause for WHY they do these things, and how it impacts their personhood by slowly stripping them of themselves

the two absolutely seek approval so so hard. ragathas more blatant in it, stating directly that she wants jax to like her even if she hates him- that she doesnt think pomni likes her (the idea of which causing her distress). she needs people to like her so bad. theres a lot of possible reasons for this but frankly it really seems to stem from her placing her own self worth on the care of others. it distresses her deeply when she thinks someone doesnt like her. on the topic of the npc thing it DOES seem like its some attempt at being cared about, even in an absurd situation. ive discussed it before, but it reads like fawning, HARD, particularly when shes around kaufmo- it makes no sense for her to try to appeal to his emotions, to apologize to him and try to convince him of something that would make him less upset, even if its not true, when she KNOWS you cannot really reason with abstracted players

it reads more like instinct, then, that others need to like her and shell do anything even if its putting on a face in order to maintain that. its not healthy and reads as insincere to others at worst, and makes it hard for others to know whats real with her- but she seems to genuinely care. its just that once you base your entire identity socially on others liking you, or being liked by as many people as possible, the line between you and the fake, palatable version of yourself becomes blurred to the point of hardly being visible. it makes it hard to maintain that approval longterm, because it damages trust and damages her own sense of identity, which runs the risk of making an awful gradually deteriorating loop of her trying HARDER to appeal to people and putting people off MORE in the process

jax doesnt seem to care so much, sort of. hes a little confusing to break down bc he is deeply contradictory (not in a poorly written way, hes just quite fucked up). he likes to do what he likes to do. he likes to do things he finds funny. but ive mentioned it before, that i dont think he hates them. theyre entertaining and the fact that he keeps his face up around them implies that he does care what they think of him. during the evaluation, he says 'no one can see this, right?' hes the most emotionally repressed person alive as said by gooseworx herself, but this is a performance for himself and highlights that he assumes others have the same expectations of him, too. he cant be uncool, but WHY does he care if the others thinks he is? if he truly didnt care about the others opinion of him, hed just... never pretend. how can someone so obsessed with doing anything that HE finds fun regardless of others opinions of him STILL give a shit what anyone thinks? (is it because he wants the appearance of having it together? but then, thats dictated by others view of him, not the other way around)

i see it interpretted that his shittiness is him lashing out at people, which i think is true somewhat but not quite in the typical way. i dont think hes unhappy and snapping at people because of it. i dont think the circus made him an asshole, so much that i feel like he was already a bit unpleasant to others, but with no true consequences, and being deeply unhappy made him start leaning on being MORE of a dick. hes unhappy, so hes going to BE happy, and if that means throwing someone of a truck for laughs or pushing people around or dropping them in deep fryers so be it. its not real anyway. its a desperate desire for joy at the expense of others. but this is destroying any semblance of companionship he could have, and given that i think hes the MOST social of the cast, constantly talking to people and joining things, i think this has worn at him in its own way

(both jax and ragatha seem to had deeply adapted to the circus but in cartoonish ways- ragatha treats it all like its real for comfort. jax treats it all like its fake but engages in the cartoon bullshit it all has to offer)

thinking on it, what with how pomni assures gummigoo and what kinger tells pomni, theres probably something to be said about the fact that, of anything, the only real thing IN the circus is how people feel about one another. when everything around you is fake, the only real things are other people and your interactions with them. ragatha and jax both seem keen on participating in distractions (jax avoids participating actively in the pilot but he DOES suggest the adventure, and seems to have a lot of fun participating in ep 2- though its in his own 'everything should go my way and if it doesnt ill mope about it' way. ragatha outright speaks positively about them as a way to keep the players minds 'healthy and stimulated' and seems to see them as a genuine attempt on caines part to keep everyone sane. theres something to be said about the stupid sauce too probably) and in putting on their faces to cope

but a new player doesnt have all these fake concepts ingrained in them yet, and pomni as she is is a deeply blunt person on top of that. she acts often on instinct but she also speaks her mind openly (really, shes who jax WANTS to be... sort of. if that makes sense). of anyone in the circus, she IS the most 'real' and how she treats people is genuine, and it makes me wonder if jax and ragathas interest in her isnt JUST a desire for companionship bc of the inherent loneliness and isolation of the circus and how that wears on a human, but further, a desire for something truly real in their lives; a genuine connection with a person who is utterly sincere. something real, despite it all

[fallloverfic]

I love singNsong again reminding people in Side Story that Dokja wanted other people to read TWSA (he wrote reviews and comments! It was his first wish), and he only stopped bothering because people harassed him for it. He didn't gate-keep the story. When he's avoiding talking to Sangah about it at the beginning of ORV, it's because he knows what happens when he tells people about the story, not because he's gate-keeping it from her. He notes he's not proud of his hobby (likely because he's been bullied all through his life, including for reading the thing he loves): he finds it embarrassing to talk about, and better respects her studying Spanish in her free time (learning another language is a generally accepted thing in society). He assumes she won't care or will look at him funny (or worse) for when she learns about the novel he's into.

Basically anyone writing "let's gatekeep ORV" posts because of the anime announcement or because they dislike the manhwa or some other weirdness, y'all are the villains in the scenario.

The literal climax of the story is about sharing ORV with as many people as possible. What story were y'all reading?

[musashi]

i JUST realized this might be related to one of my other friends in the mvk fandom suddenly hardblocking me so uh

hey y'all! if you frequent the mvk tag, there is a regular blogger there who i will not name, but who has some sort of pathological attachment/obsession with me. they and i were tumblr mutuals but we were not close. we DM'd twice and had scattered interactions here and there.

they are accusing me of:

being abusive toward them

being otherwise cruel to them

being ableist against disabled folks who are high-support???

sending suibait/having my friends send suibait

probably other things.

EDIT: someone's informed me they're accusing me of posting private stuff from their vent account? the only account i know of theirs is the one we were mutuals on

i can't stress enough that none of this is true. there is no proof of it and if you press this person they will have none. all that happened was some time about a year ago when we were mutuals, i feared they might be vagueblogging about me when i was having depressive episodes and i sent them this message about it:

i was being honest here, but they then turned around and said i was spot on--they were vagueblogging about how badly they wanted me to shut the fuck up, stop whining, etc (paraphrasing, but that was the vibe exactly) every time i needed social support. they have since deleted their message admitting to this. i am so sorry i cannot prove it.

since then multiple mutual friends of ours have unfollowed them because they squat on ym blog and, again, pathologically blog about me. they revel and make posts about "justice" and "karma" whenever i am upset on here. they scream and yell and cry whenever i am happy. they have admitted to wanting to convince their mutuals to abandon me:

again, i can't prove this is about me but i have a lot of testimonials from people who noticed this being in both our circles and can vouch for it. initially i was just going to roll my eyes and move on but i think they might be telling other people i'm some horrible fucking abuser who mistreated them when i wasn't even close enough to them to do so.

anyways, sorry to everyone who tracks the tag! i don't know how to prove that i didn't hurt this person. but... like... if they approach you, please do your best to use best judgement and consider the facts in front of you.

again, i will not be naming them. this is not a callout post. this is a preventative measure, because i am a traumatized wreck and i really cannot deal with things of this nature.

[salemoleander]

Btw, without offering any spoilers - when or if you decide to play it (whether in Early Access or once it releases or whenever), Hades II is a lot more interesting if you don't go in assuming the protagonist's side is right.

(Absolutely not saying the antagonist is right either! It's just that there's a lot more moral grey area than the first game, and it's easy to accidentally gloss over because the tone of the game is still relatively light.)

[epicdogymoment]

[daily-lea-crosscode]

was genuinely in a haze drawing this

[spacesheeeeeep]

I think you might find the mother-daughter sexual abuse angle in Black Swan of interest if you haven't already delved into that

yesss

I was really taken aback by their relationship when I first watched the film because the incestuous subtext was pretty blatant and I hadn't seen any discussion around it beforehand. The idea of the abusive mother is still pretty hard to register for certain people, so when you add sexual abuse into the mix, plus inflicted on another woman, it mostly disappears from analysis.

[skrunksthatwunk]

miraculous world: new york asks the bold question: what if batman and superman were lesbian married with children

[werewolfdog]

Wild that one day you can just look at a coworker who you're well connected with and realize you can really see them as your parental figure

[potatobugz]

huuoogh eridan ampora is arospec and ace you agree. reblog

[edge-oftheworld]

one thing I love about following celebrities/artists who are honest and proactive about their mental health struggles etc is I can’t count the number of times someone I know is going through something and I’m like ‘I’ve got a song for u’ and how much of my life involves telling myself ‘if [redacted] can do something/get better/etc then so can i’ (and having actual real evidence of it in front of me) and I can’t understate how much I appreciate these things.

but at the same time it involves a whole lot of watching people I care about suffer and you learn to read the signs and infer between the lines in songs and interviews, and yes we can never fully know what they don’t share with us, but when they do share things it’s not a big stretch to be like ‘this seems like it’s what life is like for you and I have taken encouragement from it but you deserve so much better’. and it’s easy to find ways to get angry at a predatory industry and realise things that could be hurtful if you’re already fragile.

and we can advocate for some things and help ourselves and the people around us feel better but it’s hard to meaningfully reach your faves as an individual. and there are things we can’t say on the internet in too much detail, speculation becomes the harmful kind of gossip, and so sometimes it’s a whole lot of internally saying ‘you’re doing incredibly well to have gotten to where you are but I wish for your sake things would get better faster’

[tjerra14]

got fed up and pulled the 'I'm a vet"-card on an impolite and obnoxious guy calling me "nurse" in a belittling way every other word today and the immediate change in attitude was frankly disheartening

why am I suddenly more deserving of respect than my coworkers just because I have a different job title

[evilblot]

I just had a very Laios DunMeshi moment this morning, in which I've had to bite my own dog in order for her to finally let go of the dog she was biting.