#Honestly I just felt like being mean

[altocat]

Was there ever a time when Sephiroth came really close to something similar to the Nibelheim incident?

One incredibly insomniac evening, Sephiroth takes to wandering around the lower bowels of the science department. Since Hojo isn't awake at this time of night, Sephiroth supposes now would be an amazing time to go snooping for classified information, if only to satisfy a niggling bit of curiosity before it's time to sleep for real.

This innocent inquiry quickly spirals into full fledged agitation when he happens upon an old collection of experimental video logs, each tape depicting various trials, surgeries, and testing scenarios performed on a very special young boy. Unsettled, but hungry for potential answers, Sephiroth snatches the collection and retreats to his room to view the tapes, knowing full well that he might relive the trauma all over again but too invested in Hojo's private findings to stop himself.

It is worse than he remembered. Far, far worse. Seeing himself, so small, so frightened, is bad enough. Hearing Hojo's various anecdotes on just how unique and durable he is... it's a whole other level of disturbing. And yet Sephiroth watches everything, every violation, every brutal breaking of boundaries. There are even things he was not conscious for--intense dissections, methodical reconstruction, stitch by precious stitch. Watching his tiny fingers twitch on the gurney, watching the fragile rise and fall of his little chest. Sephiroth watches until his eyes burn, until the room around him begins to jerk and sway. He's sick. He cleans himself. He's sick again.

And he doesn't stop.

Angeal and Genesis come to collect him days later, nervous and uneasy at the sudden disappearance. Genesis would normally jump at the chance to rub it in Sephiroth's face that he's now on probation for so many absences...but this feels different, almost dangerous. The room is cold when they enter, finding Sephiroth pacing, the scattered line of tapes torn to plastic scraps at their feet. Sephiroth is wild-eyed, disheveled, muttering incoherent nonsense over and over again, scratching at his arms. He refuses to let them touch him, nearly ready to fight them if not for his evident exhaustion.

The sight of him like this is so incredibly abnormal that Angeal has to push Genesis out into the hall before he has a panic attack. Angeal manages to coax Sephiroth back to a feasible level of understanding, taking his arm and gently guiding him into the bathroom. Genesis anxiously hovers outside the door, listening to their muffled voices in the stillness. They remain there for a long time, the faucet occasionally running, Sephiroth's voice gradually easing back to its normal stoic calm. When they exit the bathroom, Angeal orders Genesis to help him guide Sephiroth along to the medical wing, the two friends neatly and efficiency prodding and coaxing Sephiroth step by step.

Sephiroth remains there for several weeks, his treatment classified behind closed doors. Angeal and Genesis hate the silence but continue to wait for him day after day. By the time Sephiroth is back on duty, he is more detached than ever, seemingly uninterested in his surroundings thanks to the steady supply of tranquilizers laid out for his private use for the next six months.

All remaining intact tapes are subsequently confiscated and destroyed.

[roots-symphony]

do you think the reason agatha’s trial felt weird is because she was the only one who did not actually buy into the mythos of the road since she knew the truth? like that was why no perspective change and all the other reasons why people thought it was a fake trial

[fitpacs]

<3

[liquidstar]

wanted to post the royals and co. as a set for reference, though the only new things here are the king+queen and koe's updated design :p also most of them didn't get little infoboxes so those will be a first under the cut here ^_^

Name: Andromeda (Andy)

Name origin: The Andromeda Galaxy, named for the mythical princess

Pronouns: She/her

Age: 20

Title: Heir apparent

Weapon: Flamberge (Same as her mom's)

Ethos (Power): None

Flaw power is based on: N/A

Notes: She wants to go on adventures someday, and make a lot of friends, and be normal. So please drop the "Your highness" and call her Andy!

Name: Cepheus

Name origin: The constellation Cepheus, the king

Pronouns: He/him

Age: 54

Title: King

Weapon: Scepter

Ethos (Power): Authority (The ability to control people’s actions through his words, but not their minds)

Flaw power is based on: His controlling and paranoid nature

Notes: He prefers not to use his ability unless it seems necessary, but ends will justify the means.

Name: Cassiopeia

Name origin: The constellation Cassiopeia, the queen

Pronouns: She/her

Age: -

Title: Queen

Weapon: Flamberge

Ethos (Power): Alis (The ability to generate wings)

Flaw power is based on: Her overconfidence in her own abilities, ironically like a completely different winged mythological figure...

Notes: Before being the Queen, she was the Hero.

Name: Koeia/Koe

Name origin: The star Koeia, whose name literally means "Star"

Pronouns: She/her

Age: 20

Title: Maid/Andromeda's lady in waiting

Weapon: Twin Sickles

Ethos (Power): Blessing (She can make others more powerful through cheering them on)

Flaw power is based on: Her Obsequiousness

Notes: She assures you her devotion to the princess is strictly for non-homosexual reasons

Name: Perseus/Percy

Name origin: The constellation Perseus, the hero

Pronouns: He/him

Age: 21

Title: 1st Knight/Andromeda's personal guard

Weapon: Harp�� sword

Ethos (Power): Divine swordstrike (An all-powerful swing of the sword with no limit)

Flaw power is based on: His incredible arrogance and show-offishness

Notes: He assures you that his showy devotion to the princess is as heterosexual as it seems. Also he's the cousin Io from Nova Stella

Name: Ursa

Name origin: Ursa major, the big dipper.

Pronouns: She/her

Age: 38

Title: Major

Weapon: None

Ethos (Power): Bear-handed (Her claws are unbreakable and can slice through any material)

Flaw power is based on: Her hyper-diligence. Her ruthless devotion and adherence. Literally nothing could ever stand in her way.

Notes: She’s the mama bear of Kochab (Ursa minor) from the timber scouts

[soukeyed]

got so caught up in the euphoria of replaying sa2 and shadow05 that for a minute i lived in a world where his current character of just being a prick for no reason didnt exist

[boycottmakeup]

...

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Loudest Silence

YA contemporary

a newly Deaf-Hard of hearing girl moves across the country and starts a new school, struggling with navigating her disability and love for singing and lost friendships - determined to not make any new friends for the year she’s in Florida

and a boy struggling with family expectations and anxiety, after being made the fútbal captain even though he secretly ways to be on broadway, who quickly befriends her

bi & aroace-coded MCs

[screambirdscreaming]

Not a coherent thesis here yet but I've been thinking lately about the dynamic of.... people who loved you unconditionally as a kid (or on the condition of being family, which is another weird dynamic) - but as you got older that became strained because you grew into someone they didn't expect and they realized that they did have conditions, actually.

I mean. There are people who had conditions all along, but just didn't mention them until you didn't meet them. And there's people who spent the whole time actively trying to mold you into someone who would meet their conditions.

But there's also people who truly didn't realize that you could grow up into someone that surprised them, that pushed their concepts of normal reasonable people. I think often because they themselves were constrained in their childhoods and mentally closed off whole worlds of options of ways people could be, without realizing it. So they thought kids just sort of naturally grew out of those sorts of quirks and eccentricities. Without realizing how much that dynamic was driven by active suppression, and how weird people could get if you just let them.

There's one such person in my life who has truly tried to grow and learn as this has come up, over and over again. And I really love and respect her for it, even if sometimes its a little exhausting to have to keep pushing at it. Keep explaining, and expanding, and not being hurt by her baseline of confusion that I'm still just.... not someone she knows how to expect. Even after all this time. But she does love me unconditionally. And for her that's the baseline, and she's willing to put in the work to expand her understanding of the world to know what it means to love me for who I am, even if it doesn't always come easily to her.

And then there's other people who run into this same tension and don't know what to do with it. They don't realize that loving you for who you are means putting in work to expand their concept of ways people can be. They don't try to overtly push you into not being like that but they keep holding out the expectation that you will, because how are they supposed to love you being like that? And of course as a kid, a teen, a young adult, you don't really have words for it either. You can feel the tension, the dissonance between the way they openly offer love to you that doesn't seem to fit, and the way they react to with confusion or distaste to parts of you that you can't change, or don't want to. Sometimes to things in yourself you can't even identify. So sometimes you make an effort to hide those things and act like they want. And sometimes you buckle down on being yourself. But neither approach really seems to fill the gap. You can't recieve affection and have it fit at the same time.

And eventually it just feels like you've sort of failed each other. By the time you have the words and self awareness to know what went wrong and where, it's too late to draw the chasm closed.

It's not too late to bridge it. But if we make this effort as adults, with the conditionality of adult relationships, you'll have to see me as I am and accept that - or be a stranger.

It's weird, to be like strangers with people who've known you your whole life.

[skitskatdacat63]

I really hate how twt makes it impossible to rly look back at your acct past a certain date. Like when I wanna re-live the glory days of some past fandom on tumblr, I can go back on my archive. On twitter? You're fucked imo.

Man, I just wanna look back at my acct to see the fanart I reblogged when some specific genshin pv came out, but it's basically impossible. It makes me wish I downloaded a lot more art/fanart in general, bcs its so hopeless atp :/

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

Dorothy being assaulted at 17 and then trapped in a marriage for the next 38 years really makes the queer subtext heartbreaking rather than funny. It also adds a whole lot to how barbed she gets when they discuss her sex life and how vanilla it is or how little sex she had, no wonder it would be a sore subject (and no wonder its consistent that she had very little sex with Stan in her marriage and said she didn't enjoy it when they did).

Yep, that's part of the reason why I think that queer subtext is so insightful!

A queer reading of Dorothy is not necessary to understand the gravity of what happened to her, to be fair. Stan is very clearly depicted as a bad lover in general and an especially inattentive lover to her -- take eg what she says of him in S1E22 Job Hunting:

"It took three seconds. I wasn't sure that we had done anything, actually… until nine months later, when the baby came. Then I figured out that we had."

Which... doesn't seem like a great experience. Add onto it the fact that a) this is a recollection of her first time, b) she was coerced into performing the act either via emotional manipulation or alcohol/substances (as well detailed in this post by @eeblouissant), and c) her situation didn't improve at all during her marriage; if anything it got worse, since Stan was always out cheating on her -- no wonder she has a bad relationship with sex! Actually, I've said before that I think she has a remarkably open and healthy attitude towards sex, all things considered.

Thinking of Dorothy as queer (especially as a repressed lesbian) makes it all even more tragic, though. I think it's very likely, considering that she's a Catholic of Italian origin, that she hadn't even realized she liked women by the time she got involved with Stan -- I myself reached that conclusion in my early 20s! However, by that time Dorothy was already married and a mother; can you imagine how painful the mere idea would have been, for her? Of course she'd never even consider it while still married to Stan, and she'd have a hard time coming to terms with it after her divorce. It adds a thick layer of suppression and self-sacrifice to her whole story that I think is very thematically appropriate for her character (and that personally destroys me lmao. I cannot think about it for too long or I'll cry my heart out).

I think her whole experience with Stan also justifies her enthusiasm for some of her lovers in the show, even in a queer reading. I mean -- after all that, her standards must be on the floor! The bar is so low, she's dancing the lambada with the devil! Even a modicum of attention to her needs would blow her mind, I think -- even if it didn't come from her preferred gender, and especially if she wasn't ready to confront the truth about her sexuality yet. A lifetime of suppression isn't easy to get over -- she'd probably blame her bad experience with sex during her marriage on Stan alone (instead of considering that maybe she'd rather not be with a man at all).

Sorry, anon -- you probably weren't expecting a ramble in response, haha! But yeah, you make a great point; reading Dorothy as queer adds even more depth to her character and greatly enhances the tragedy of her story.

(Just for the record -- I've never thought the queer reading of Dorothy was funny! Maybe I'm reading this wrong, I just wanted to clarify.)

[natjennie]

ousaugoahgh I love lou wilson so MUCH i want to be his friend so BAD.

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

ultimately something i think i'll just never get over re: the loki series is the fact that the time travel theme afforded so many opportunities to delve into the most core facets of loki's history and character (aka the things that formed the basis of literally every loki plotline and all his ~villainous deeds~) and allow him to finally reckon with that history - loki's jotun heritage, odin's manipulation/emotional abuse of both loki and thor, loki's suicide attempt, everything with thanos - and the creators were just. fundamentally and inexplicably not interested in any of that

[seekingthestars]

little floof has the best possible time at con, proceeds to spend the next month crying about it

[merlinmerlot]

i finally finished bg3

and it only took me [looks at steam]

SIX HUNDRED HOURS

[xproskeith]

I swear to God if RFK comes in and feeds the anti Vax movement and actively tries to undo vaccination requirements and recommendations I will become openly insufferable to EVERYONE I know who is even remotely anti Vax.

I highly expect it from people I work with. I highly suspect it from my own family. This is absolutely the hill I will die on and I will gladly tell those people to fuck off.