#I also can't help but wonder

[2-d-rogue]

At the end of the game, after James watches the tape, the monsters can no longer fight you. They become weak, fragile, and even terrified of James. They're likely dying off as James is realizing the truth, and thus, they are no longer necessary.

It's kinda sad to see, honestly.

[twilightichor]

Given the lore drop related to Dain, Lumine and Khaenri'ah (I'd dare to say that it's 「Bedtime story」 #2 as it's a continuation of what Dain revealed, as well as bits and pieces of what Chlothar said in 「Caribert」 in the Xbox wind glider, I'll write a breakdown of parts of interest under cut. Beware if you decide to proceed, as it contains the description of content to-be-released mixed a tiny bit with a leak I discussed a while ago:

◜The young knight was not of insignificant background, but that was worth little in the grand scheme of things. The royal golden-haired heir's fate was far nobler, but now having lost her world, she yearned for but a single realm.◞

This confirms that Dain either belonged to a relevant family within Khaenri'ah or it's through his own deeds as well as Vedrfolnir's (he was the Visionary, an oracle, after all) made them be important in the kingdom. Despite not including himself among the other five as being the best within their respective fields, he was among the six that carried the hopes of the people of Khaenri'ah (in Dain's case, most likely for a reason I'll mention briefly). If it's the family aspect that makes their background important besides what they did for the kingdom, I have to admit that it's a bit underwhelming that they lack a family/clan name like the Alberichs do.

◜Later, the young knight was promoted, and the title "Twilight Sword" bestowed upon him. As for the royal heir with the golden hair, she was led by the last Vinster King, down, down, down to the kingdom's deepest depths. The young knight, initially intending only to save his older brother, who had been imprisoned and blinded in both eyes for giving a prophecy, the young knight gathered the brilliant young ones of the age. Their righteous deed, that of saving the nation, was but a deed done in passing.◞

This part here was very sad to me, seeing the lengths Dain took for saving his brother (another important detail bound to come in a bit). It sounds like Vedrfolnir was forced to deliver a prophecy to king Irmin and either a) he didn't like it, so he blinded him as a result of it as if to wreck him for good for the thing he was known for: a Visionary or b) there was something in the content of that prophecy that made Vedrfolnir blind as a result of it, possibly related to the Abyss. A good example to take is the oracle Sybilla from Remuria, who was also an oracle and because of her exposure to the Abyss, eventually she got blind too. I think that this lines up fine as to how Vedrfolnir was able to tell Lumine's fate in 「Caribert」 too.

That aside, the premise that Dain likely saved Khaenri'ah from whatever "minor" incident (if compared to the Cataclysm) that threatened the kingdom as a secondary thing to him wanting to save Vedrfolnir? That genuinely impressed me and it may add some spark of sense as to why Lumine criticizes him for having failed to save Khaenri'ah if he already did once. The details on this are still very muddy and it's highly likely that the circumstances were different, but still, that's a grand thing to do and it reinforces the notion that he was an outstanding figure in combination with the other five.

◜But the golden-haired heir was used as a vessel by which unlimited Abyssal power could be absorbed, and she became the key to the world's near-annihilation. This was the moment that their paths intertwined— one a noble, tumbling from the light into the Abyss, the other a humble existence, climbing upward from the darkness. Regicide, righteousness, assassinations and betrayals, until all was rendered desolate.◞

Now, this here needs a special mention too. This may explain how Lumine has control over the abyssal power in the first place, if she was used as a vessel to absorb an unlimited amount of it most likely to be used as a weapon against the gods (as Chlothar did say that they believed that the Abyss could topple the gods), and also to plunge the world into darkness as per the statuettes that now, more than ever, are confirmed to be about king Irmin —the Vinster King—. It reminds me of that one leak that talked about Dain having considered to kill Lumine all the way back then because he saw her as a thread to Khaenri'ah/the world, but ultimately decided against it. Because if according to this, this act alone of absorbing the abyss turned her into the key to the world's near-annihilation (the Cataclysm?), then that makes her dangerous enough to consider that seriously.

It also makes me wonder if this is the disaster he said that could be prevented that is related to the Vinster King and that none of the Sinners did nothing about it, what's more— maybe Lumine didn't get to absorb as much abyssal power as it was intended, but the Sinners did when they shared among themselves that very same power. The leak I mentioned before also talks about how something the Sinners did caused the destruction of Khaenri'ah, or at least they initiated it and later on did nothing to defend it when things got a turn for the worse with the descent of the gods.

Anyhow, this makes me think about the regicide. At first it was a joke when I starting talking about it, as it seemed that Dain did something about the Vinster King while the other five didn't, and this might be just it— killing him with his own hands. I'm not sure if the incident of saving his brother and subsequently saving Khaenri'ah and the regicide are part of the same episode, or maybe one led to another, but this is something crazy to think about. What's clear is that following king Irmin's "indisposition", the Marshal General Anfortas took the reins as a temporary regent (I'm unsure if he's an Alberich or an Alberich took after him later), so there must've been some time in between this incident that brought the need to save Khaenri'ah once and the actual Cataclysm later.

[kujo1597]

I really love the design of Nina's room here. It looks very realistic for one a high schooler would have. But of course Nina needs some special accommodations and they make sense. Her room is cute and believable. I adore the stickers on her bed. What a fun little detail. There's a bunch of posters showing that she has a wide variety of interests, and even an amp.

The pom-pom topped pencil is just *chef's kiss*

Nina's just a regular girl who happens to have aquatic traits and I love that.

[benevolenterrancy]

Hi I have caught up to you on having feelings about Zhuzhi-Lang. He's a good boy! 🥺 Good snake boy! 🥺 I had the thought, after Zhuzhi let SQQ leave after SQQ yelled at him... what if they Stole Him. What if.

(Also have you read/been recommended anything by corduroyserpent yet? Big writer of Zhuzhi-Lang fics, including a very cute de-aged Zhuzhi-Lang and some zhushen)

Justifications of bride-stealing!

(AND HE'S THE BEST BOY 😭 I LOVE HIM SO MUCH, SO MUCH!! have some further au thoughts because this has contaminated my brain...)

What I think would actually happen if they stole SQQ? Absolutely nothing good for anyone, LBH would Lose His Fucking Mind xD as a more interesting answer though, I like the idea that Shen "Pedantic Nitpicky Asshole" Qingqiu's primary point of argument is that he is not a bride so he cannot be "bridenapped" regardless of demonic tradition or intention!

This eventually leads to them all completely avoiding the Maigu Ridge incident because TLJ realizes that, somehow, SQQ doesn't realize the depths of his son's feelings for him and decides to put all his efforts into being a wingman for his nephew instead because he finds the entire thing absolutely hilarious and rather satisfying after his own sad romance. Obviously someone like SQQ would do much better with his good, loyal nephew than the disappointing offspring of that disastrous relationship!

As for ZZL he just has to assume that LBH must not be treating SQQ anywhere near the way he should be (and like... he isn't wrong at this point, there is a non-zero amount of torture and terror going on here) if SQQ doesn't see himself as being tied to LBH in any way. And if he's not attached to LBH then there's absolutely no reason he shouldn't make his own efforts to seduce SQQ! After all, if LBH isn't valuing SQQ properly then obviously ZZL has to step up because someone as kind as SQQ deserves the best!!!

[arrowheadedbitch]

Spoiler for Ithaca saga

"Used to say I'd make the storm clouds cry for you

Used to say I'd capture wind and sky for you

Have you in my arms prepared to die for you

Oh how time has flown"

Has me SCREAMING because he said that when he saw baby Telemachus and then HE ACTUALLY DID IT

Poseidon, the wind bag, the war and the whole journey, HE REALLY DID ALL THE THINGS HE SWORE HED BE WILLING TO DO FOR HIS SON RAAAA

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Daughter of delta Yu, show them that you're no fool!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[cake-emu]

Coronation Street | Carla Connor

Carla Connor: consistently gobby

Bonus:

[kirby-the-gorb]

[blissfulrain12]

Cockpit Conversation Analysis

So I just wanted to go over my thoughts on this conversation cause I think people miss out on a few things. It's the first conversation we see between Curly and Jimmy when it's just the two of them. Before it happens we're told that Jimmy has been difficult with Anya, making her job harder and saying things that are sexual harassment (if the cartoon horse question isn't actually on the eval). We go into the conversation with the framing that Jimmy and Curly are friends. They've known each other for a long time and Curly is confident Jimmy won't bullshit him. Except on the way to the cockpit we get Curly's one and only bizarro moment and it's an expression of fear and anxiety. With this context in mind let's look at the actual conversation.

Transcript from @familiarartistname they're awesome for providing these.

I've already talked about these lines a bit but to sum up Jimmy asks Curly to fake it and Curly refuses to forcing him to go through the eval.

What I want to point out for this post is that Jimmy's not wrong in his assessment of how useless the psych evals are. I think his general irritation with the eval helps mask his disdain for Anya. Especially if being attracted to cartoon horses is an actual question in universe and not just an easter egg on the in game eval sheet. If it is I think this is part of why Curly and Anya don't take Jimmy as seriously as they should here.

I also think it's important to note how and when Curly bends the rules. He'll do Jimmy's eval for Anya but he won't make up answers for Jimmy. I think this is an example of the balancing act that Curly is engaged in as captain.

These next lines are interesting to me. One is that Curly seems to take separation of what PE needs to know and not know. He makes it clear that whatever Jimmy says here is not going to be repeated to the company. He does something similar for Anya when he thinks she took the gun during a breakdown over the layoffs. Notably he doesn't open up to Anya during his own eval. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason he doesn't is because of a lack of this distinction. This is also another example of Curly doing that balancing act of being a captain. Managing what the company should know while protecting his coworkers' mental health.

The other interesting part is Jimmy's answer to the question. He likes it cause they're in control here. I think Jimmy is the most positive about working for PE and it's all because he feels in control. I think people miss it but Jimny is happy for the most part pre layoff. He's in control what more could he want?

I think it's interesting that he says this because on paper Jimmy's not in control. I've seen people call Jimmy Curly's co-captain but he's not. He's just the co-pilot and by the looks of things isn't actually of higher rank than the rest of the crew. Post crash it takes 2 months for him to take the captain title and he gets push back from the others. If he did outrank them or was co-captain leadership would have instantly passed to him but it doesn't. Yet Jimmy says "We're in control" because Curly's control is his control because he controls/leeches off of Curly. I think this line is our first warning sign that something's not quite right with their relationship.

This part of the conversation has a lot going on even though it's so few lines. First it tells us that Jimmy liking the job is unexpected because he's struggled in the past and people praise Curly as a captain and Jimmy doesn't like that.

Focusing on Jimmy's line I think this is the first line that people pick up on that their friendship is strange because who tells their friend people praising them is annoying? If you look at the flow of the conversation there's no reason for Jimmy to bring this up as well. It goes "How are you?" "Great" "That's unexpected because of your past" "Yeah well people praising you is annoying". They're not talking about Curly or how people see him as a captain. Jimmy brings it up and calls it annoying simply to hurt Curly.

Jimmy takes Curly bringing up his struggles as an attack so he attacks back by making him feel bad about something good. Remember that when Jimmy brings this up during the birthday scene he misquotes Curly as saying "struggle of a life" when that's not what Curly said at all. That's how Jimmy felt about it though. This also isn't the last time Jimmy uses Curly's success as a captain as a weapon against him either. The way Jimmy does this is also very emotionally abusive. Jimmy isn't just framing praise for Curly as bad but bad because it upsets Jimmy. It might not seem like much but comments like these are links in a chain, they add up together.

For Curly's part of the conversation I've seen interesting interpretations of what those "struggles" were but I think we do lose some context sometimes. It's important to remember that Curly thinks Jimmy's struggles would've led him to dislike being a freighter pilot. Meaning his struggles are most likely more personal in nature.

So Jimmy switches topics again by asking Curly what's bothering him. Jimmy also does this during the birthday party scene. He seems very intune with Curly's emotions able to see past any attempts to hide it and see that he's upset. Which does indicate their closeness and friendship.

As for the last line looking at this transcript made me realize how much the fandom associates this suicidal imagery with Curly even though it's Jimmy who says it. In fact I don't think Curly ever describes his feelings like this it's always Jimmy who says it about Curly. This is a very odd way to ask your friend why he seems upset and iirc the next time Jimmy brings this imagery up to Curly is right before he attempts a murder-suicide.

(The line "And that's bad?" should be green as that's Jimmy.)

Curly's answer to Jimmy's question is very interesting because it's not uncommon for people his age to feel this way. We spend the first part of our lives growing into, discovering, and establishing the people we're going to be. When we hit our 30s/40s it's natural to look over who you've become and what you've made for yourself and ask "Am I satisfied with this?" I think for Curly he's leaning towards "no".

It's not that Curly thinks he's above his job, he's just not satisfied in it. It's like how Swansea isn't satisfied with the life of a family man even though society says that's the "right" way to live. Curly is weighing the risks and benefits of staying in a steady job he's successful at vs starting over with something that will satisfy him even if he's not conventionally successful at it. It's a heavy decision to make and we know from the dlc for How Fish Are Made that Curly regrets not changing sooner.

As for Jimmy's response, he in fact doesn't get it. It's fascinating how Jimmy took Curly's words about life satisfaction and turned it into being about career success and hierarchy. Curly's feelings have nothing to do with reaching the top of his career but Jimmy can't see this. Jimmy sees the world through Capitalist/Patriarchal hierarchies and has a habit of projecting his feelings/pov onto others. This is the closest he can get to understanding where Curly is in his life right now. Which makes sense because Jimmy comes from poverty and has struggled in the past he's not at the same life stage as Curly.

It's also fascinating that again we see imagery that the fandom associates with Curly being something Jimmy says about Curly and that Curly never expresses. The only time this imagery comes up for Curly iirc is his bizzaro sequence leading up to this conversation with Jimmy. The ladder is a metaphor Jimmy imposes on Curly. He also kind of imposes this sense of ambition onto Curly. Like it's only natural that after reaching the top of one ladder a man would look for a new ladder to climb.

There's something about the last thing Jimmy says here that is necessary to point out because I think people miss it. Jimmy turns the conversation back to himself. He's made Curly's feelings about himself and once again made Curly's feelings in opposition to his own. Curly's dissatisfaction while being at the top vs Jimmy still climbing.

Lastly Curly knows Jimmy doesn't get it. "Something like that" indicates Jimmy's interpretation isn't right and later in the birthday party scene Curly reinforces this by saying things like "what I was trying to tell you". So yeah Curly knows that Jimmy doesn't understand him but doesn't try to explain further.

Curly's last bit of dialog in this scene is him comforting Jimmy. Remember how I said Jimmy recenters himself despite the conversation at this point being about Curly? This is what I mean. Jimmy asked Curly to be vulnerable with him and Curly ends up comforting Jimmy. Jimmy gives Curly no words of reassurance here, in fact Curly doesn't even get understanding.

In comparison see my Dead Pixel analysis where even though Curly doesn't see the pixel he still believes Anya and aligns with her opinion of the screen being nice. There's no alignment here between Curly and Jimmy, they are talking about 2 different things and it's one sided in Jimmy's favor. In the Dead Pixel convo notice how Anya continues to open up to him, she goes from the pixel to the time left to the locks. Curly in comparison stops trying.

This line also establishes Curly's belief in Jimmy. A belief that even this conversation demonstrates that he shouldn't have. But it's subtle and I can't blame Curly for missing all the things wrong here when so many of the fandom misses it too. We give the conversation the benefit of the doubt because they're friends and we don't know the full scope of Jimmy yet. It's also interesting cause this is the only time Curly says he believes in Jimmy outright and yet the way he believes Anya about Jimmy brings up questions for another time.

Alright last bit and it's from Jimmy himself. So two things from those first lines. One we have Jimmy back to feeling good from Curly's belief in him. A reminder that back when he was asked how he was doing he was fine. Jimmy's feelings are the priority here. Two we see Jimmy's insecurities in here. He's insecure about how his eval comes across. He's very insecure about how he's precieved which comes up again and again through his obsession with reputation, being a hero, and being a patriarch. I also think this points to where his struggles might be in. The evals are labeled as psychological but the actual questions are about employee productivity. Which part of that Jimmy is worried about I'm not sure.

Then we get the message from corporate and Jimmy is instantly out of there. Which brings me back to the beginning. Jimmy likes it there cause "we're in control" and yet when the responsibility of that control shows up he excuses himself. Granted there may be a rule that no one else can be in the room when messages come in but that reinforces the fact that Jimmy doesn't have any power on paper. He's not a co-captain. Jimmy's sense of control comes from his power over Curly.

So yeah my final thoughts? This conversation is unhealthy and it's the nicest conversation we see Jimmy have with the actual Curly. We get a little joking around here and there but one on one longer convos? This is as nice as it gets. In context Curly experiences feelings of fear, anxiety, and isolation on his way to this conversation. It's full of unhealthy moments and the one sided prioritizing of Jimmy's feelings. The status quo for them has not changed yet. If this is an example of what their average conversations are like their relationship is emotionally abusive.

Imagine having a friendship where you have to always prioritize your friend's emotions over your own. Where if you say something that bothers them they take verbal potshots at you. Where they make you feel guilty for being more successful. Where they make your vulnerabilities about them. It's like I said it's links in a chain. By themselves it's not a problem but together over time these behaviors will do damage to a person.

And putting this conversation back into context this is one of three verbally abusive moments we witness in the span of a week. And there are indicators that in each that these abusive behaviors aren't new. Curly in this conversation doesn't question Jimmy claiming control or the "praise for you is annoying" comment. None of this is weird to him and that's a bad sign. Abusive behavior was already normalized on the Tulpar, it was a powder keg waiting to happen.

[helenofblackthorns]

reading tftsa is always an emotional experience especially when you get the short stories focused around the Blackthorns because the absence of Mark just bleeds out. like when you read about Julian being Helen's suggenes and Simon being the witness to Julian's parabatai ceremony you are just burdened with the knowledge that that's not who they would have picked if the circumstances were different. in a different life it was Mark.

[cherrywhite]

I know Faulkner's ever increasing body count is a running joke as if it's something he's purposefully racking up but Rane's murder is such a stark contrast compared to every other one that's come before. And that difference marks such a monumental shift in Faulkner's character.

Like, he runs from the hotelier immediately after sainting him (I know his whole I'm going to make you a saint mirrors what he tells Rane this episode, but he still ultimately runs), he can't bring himself to use the Withermark at Marcel's Crossing, and Mason and Thurrocks' deaths were done in a fit of rage, the horror evident by the time he comes to his senses. Even Daggler's was caused by the Angel Faulkner summoned, not something Faulkner committed to up close. And I imagine however Charlie drowned, well. There's a lot of ambiguity in how it could have gone down, something we'll never really know the scope of, purely because Faulkner is such an unreliable narrator.

Then there's this.

I would argue that Rane's death is much more violent than the ones that came before purely for the fact that Faulkner seems to revel in their suffering as he does it. He needlessly pulls them back up to get a breath of air before plunging them back in the water. He strikes them with his staff so hard that it breaks. And he does this all while laughing and mocking at them. He's needlessly cruel to the point of terrifying. This part was so well done and it really shows just how far Faulkner has gone.

I'm so hesitant to say there's no way back from this simply because of how TSV writes its characters but my knee-jerk reaction as I was listening to this the first time is that there isn't. This was him, fully aware, crossing over the threshold.

[befuddled-calico-whump]

universal hand signal for help: tuck thumb in, trap it with your fingers, and repeat.

(graphic by the Women's Funding Network)

because I didn't know this was a thing until randomly seeing a poster in a bathroom, I'm sharing this graphic here so more people can know what to look out for (and what to use if you're ever in danger and can't draw attention to yourself)

[fisheito]

hey. I have a question. do y'all *ALSO* get startled by eiden titty every time you open up the intimacy screen???

because homecoming yaku shows up first whenever i enter

Guessin that the game default sorts by order of clan member joining, and yaku was 1st so... anyone who has homecoming yaku is greeted by eitit when entering the intimacy rooms??

[thebad-lydrawn-sanses]

*randomly spawned a sassy cat in their castle.*

Cross's shirt: bone hurting juice (image depicting text)

Cross: i can make it to the kitchen i can make it to the kitchen i can make it to the kitchen i can make it to the kitchen i can-

sassy cat: (poof)

Cross: .

Cross: pspspspspspsps

[carrinth]

Asha and Starboy. 💜⭐

People. I am simple trash gremlin. I see star-crossed love between human girl and literal star and I'm sold. Even if it never happened ^_^;;

[cometblaster2070]

oh boy im having thoughts about miquella and malenia again!!!

i don't know if it was intentional or not but like yk seeing malenia's entire character and seeing how the most important thing to her (save for her brother) is her dignity and her pride and her sense of self. after a lifetime of fighting the scarlet rot malenia is someone who still resists it every day no matter how strong it gets because she is someone who will fight to the bitter end to make sure it doesn't overtake her, to make sure that she's still just her and not the vessel for the rot.

(of course, the exception to this is when she bloomed in aeonia and in her fight with us, but I'll call those last-ditch attempts arising out of desperation so)

you get it malenia suffers every day of her life and the rot threatens to consume her but she refuses to let it win and instead completely rejects it and scorns it; she won't let it take away what makes her her.

and contrast it with the dlc where we see her brother miquella do exactly the opposite of what she does. because of his crosses, we see how much of himself miquella has lost how he constantly sheds pieces of himself in his effort to become a god to the point where he even discards his love, his other half st. trina.

he did all this to fulfill his goals, to succeed in what he thought was right; what he thought was a necessary sacrifice that would only bring him closer to his goals of a kind and compassionate world. only the problem is it ended up making him into something he was not; miquella the kind was certainly not like miquella the unalloyed.

i am aware that miquella even in the base game was not the wow sunshine jesusesque figure that did no wrong and was purehearted through and through. even then there were hints to a more complex character, but I think the difference between miquella the kind and miquella the unalloyed is that the miquella of before was someone who cared so so deeply on such a personal level; he was someone who put his heart and soul into helping each and everyone whether it be by crafting prosthetics or needles for his sister to ward away the rot and the meddling of outer gods or whether it was to try to give his brother godwyn a proper death; he was someone who cared very very deeply and in a very personal manner. but afterwards, I think in his quest for godhood miquella became someone very distant, very impersonal in the way a benevolent god who is looking out for everyone and who is "doing the right thing no matter what because ik better and I have the power to fix things" is. he is very removed from that which he once was; he abandoned himself and subsequently abandoned the very ideals he was fighting for.

miquella the kind still wants a world filled with peace and compassion but now, he is a god, now he is someone willing to take the most drastic of measures because now he is no longer the boy that was miquella the unalloyed that believed in an age of compassion with love present. you cannot have compassion without having love which, of course, miquella the kind has abandoned.

i don't know there's just something interesting about these siblings where one has continuously resisted the urge of an outer god who is trying to force her into being something she does not want to be and then there is the one who willingly rips away that which makes him him because he thinks that this will help him become someone he should be; it will help him become the god that will fix this broken world.