#I may ramble in the future

[hidinginheresomewhere]

New special interest unlocked: ✨⚾️ Baseball ⚾️✨

[momentomori24]

[This has been sitting in my draft for a while lol]

When it comes to Curly's failings, I always see people bring up his obvious failure to protect Anya and him prioritising Jimmy, who was the rapist in that situation. Which is completely valid btw and we should rake him through the coals for that alone even more. But I also see too many people saying that Curly "didn't enable Jimmy" or playing softball for his actions. And I could maybe see where that comes from if that incident was the only thing we had to point to-- but that wasn't all he did, is it? Curly being indifferent or not taking Jimmy's mistreatment and belittlement of Anya seriously was hinted at so much earlier than that.

Namely, the very first time we play from Curly's point of view. Let's just skip the fact that Curly was putting everyone in danger by not taking his psych evals seriously and simply giving the same answers to pass them even tho he was shown literal minutes after this scene being clearly not-sane, and go straight to the point I actually wanna get into. Which is this:

These scenes in isolation wouldn't be that bad. From his pov, it's played off as comical and it is. Jimmy being a brony (not really lmao) and getting playfully dragged over it is funny. But unfortunately this is the first example out of many for Curly's complacency. Anya is complaining about Jimmy not taking his psych evals or her seriously, which is easy to believe considering how much he rags on her for "not being a good nurse" (she kept Curly alive on hopes and dreams how dare you). So he keeps making her do silly and inappropriate reports she clearly doesn't wanna do, which is kinda shitty (also borders on harassment). But rather than actually saying something about Jimmy's behaviour or even acknowledging how it sucks he says this:

Mate, that's not a good thing 💀 He's clearly aware that the problem is Jimmy's lack of respect for Anya specifically. He knows that if he, his friend and a man in power, were the one doing the evals Jimmy wouldn't try that disrespect. But it's Anya, a meek woman who ranks lower than him so he thinks he can get away with it (which he DOES), and Curly's shown as comfortable in knowing that. He doesn't chew Jimmy out for making Anya uncomfortable nor does he reassure her that he will do something about it. All he does is take it off her hands this once and helps Jimmy power through it to get a good diagnosis (even tho we know he's DEFINITELY not sane either). He doesn't even mention Anya's discomfort or confront him on his inappropriate behaviour, just teases Jimmy in good fun instead because he doesn't think of it as anything serious. It's subtle and pretty minor in comparison to everything else, but I think it's worth pointing out. Especially because this convo takes place after Jimmy had assaulted her, which makes this so much worse.

If you need any more evidence of Curly being an enabler you need not look further than Anya herself. And I'm not just talking about the way he failed her here-- I'm talking about Anya's own view of Curly and the way said view influences her actions.

Just look at her choice of wording. "What would you have done". This is in response to him saying that she could've come to him if she were feeling stressed, which she-- in his eyes-- didn't. The question itself implies that she had no faith in Curly to actually help despite his insistence that he would've, which I think is significant because it shows that she's very much aware of Curly's shortcomings when it comes to her situation AND it's one of the first (or the first time) she actually verbalised her lack of trust towards him or anyone directly. Prior to this scene she had told him about her rape and the rapist, presumably because she trusted him to handle it. And he dismissed her because the rapist was his best friend, and that evidently deeply scarred her. Enough so that she secretly took the gun and hid it someplace else and didn't even tell Curly were that was, because she knows that if Curly has access to it there's a so much greater chance Jimmy will have too, insinuated by the line "the least I can do is make sure he never gets it either". Speaking about the gun:

It sucks so bad that this perception of him isn't even inaccurate nor unjustified. That despite everything Jimmy had done to her and everything he could still do to her, he'd very likely still not allow her access to the gun for protection. Because that's exactly what he didn't do anyway. He didn't attempt to keep her safe from Jimmy, instead he just pretended that nothing was wrong and still let Jimmy's belittlement of her pass. He didn't give her the gun after the incident, because she wouldn't have hid the case if he had. Despite his desperate reassurance that he'd do anything, he did nothing but make it worse for her and she KNOWS that. It's so frustrating knowing he entrusted the axe to Swansea when he needed it but not the gun to Anya when she needed it too. Also this:

The fact that his knee-jerk reaction to her admitting that she's pregnant was "Who would you--" is so fucked, especially considering she's already told him what happened. "Who would you" what? Who would you fuck? Who would you have sex with? That choice of wording drives me up a wall-- SHE wouldn't and didn't do anything or anyone. That was JIMMY. The potential sentence implies that she had any choice or agency in her pregnancy. She didn't. And the fact that Curly had to ask "who" insinuates that he's been putting Jimmy's action out of sight and out of mind the whole time, choosing to not think about them or what happened to Anya at all. And considering he still made her do Jimmy's evaluations despite being able to do them himself and literally didn't even think of making sure she gets psych evals done too--especially AFTER getting sexually assaulted--that might actually be the case (I haven't seen anyone make a stink about that piece of info so I'm going to because what kinda colossal fuck up IS that??).

I vaguely had a post like this in mind but seeing so many people be like "well Anya did some wrong stuff too like leaving Curly alone with Jimmy but you don't get mad at HER for that so why is Curly not doing anything about Jimmy being alone with Anya so different??" actually makes me want to blow some people up. Jimmy's an abuser, sure, but Anya has no real reason to believe that he'd actually harm Curly. From her perspective, they were close, close enough that Curly would not only let Jimmy continuously disrespect her but also get away with assaulting her too. That, and she knows that Jimmy was closer to Curly than anyone and more likely to be civil around him than he ever was to her. She has barely any reasons to suspect Jimmy would harm Curly when they're alone. Curly, on the other hand, has every fucking reason on the planet to think Jimmy would harm her when they're alone. He knows he raped her (likely in her room at night too). He knows that he sexually harasses her. He knows that he doesn't respect her at all. And that was BEFORE the crash. Anya tried insisting on giving Curly his medicine, only for Jimmy to keep aggressively insisting that he'll take care of it despite her protests. Curly didn't try to keep them separate at all even though he was the Captain and had the power to do so. And this should go without saying, but leaving your rapist alone with his best friend that he was close to and enabled/protected him and leaving your friend alone with the woman he raped (and might have repeatedly assaulted given his free access to her) is NOT THE SAME and I'm going to start chucking some people down a waterfall because what the fuck is that argument 💀 Actually leave it to the fandom of the game where the rape of a woman is the catalyst for the events that unfold to use her trauma to defend the guy that enabled it in the first place. Bloody hell.

The reason why this whole Curly discourse pisses me off is because it-- from what I can see-- ONLY brings up his failures 1-0 days before the crash and the Dead Pixel scene (or all the discussion around other points are drowned out by those two). Those scenes, while important to talk about, are not the only things he's done, and focussing on those as the only things is a mistake that comes short of understanding the issue. When it comes to Curly the main defences I see for him are "he was trying not to escalate the situation" and "he was trying to keep things under control the best he can" and "he was waiting for the right time to help Anya", but those don't work when you look at the bigger picture of everything he's done.

He half-assed through his psych eval despite clearly not being sane (and KNOWING he's barely sane, he literally admits it to Jimmy's face). He still continued to task her with Jimmy's psych evals. He brushed over Jimmy's sexual harassment of her as a joke. He didn't think about making sure she got psych evals done herself after being raped. He gave Swansea the axe but didn't give Anya the gun despite it being for "unrest amongst the crew" (whatever the hell THAT means). He let her assault slip his mind that she had to remind him. He's literally a blond man. He took no action to hold Jimmy responsible for anything, and prioritised how his violation of Anya would affect him rather than her. He ignored her demands for him to get rid of Jimmy. He still allowed Jimmy free reign of the ship as co-pilot even after he was openly fantasising about killing everyone and had a major motive and the means to do just that. He was potentially thinking of making her miscarry to cover up what happened. He was so accustomed to her sucking up being disrespected and disturbed that he didn't even notice a difference in her behaviour until she hid the fucking gun. There's so much other shit he's done and hasn't done, and not talking about them or glossing over them makes it so easy for people to argue that he isn't actually an enabler or just minimise the severity of his neglect.

And while I'm already dragging Curly through the mud, I might as well just drag Swansea too. I've seen too many people being like "Anya should've told Swansea instead" and "Swansea was the one that actually took responsibility". Like, y'all realise he's not that much better than Curly, right? He already knew about what happened to Anya-- he admits it to Jimmy's face-- but he didn't do shit. He knew, but he still got completely shitfaced for months despite her earlier protestation to that (for very understandable reasons). He knew, but he still let Jimmy have the axe AND be alone with Anya while having it. He knew, but when Anya locked herself in the Medical and Daisuke and Jimmy asked for his help he didn't budge nor really showed any care. He knew, but the reason he finally decided to do something about Jimmy wasn't Anya, it was Daisuke. Her suffering and her eventual death weren't enough for him to take action either.

This game, on top of everything else, is a great depiction of rape culture. It doesn't just include the rapists, but the people (mostly men) that stay silent, do nothing, make excuses for and protect the perpetrator for whatever reason, and Swansea and Curly (Curly way more so than Swansea) are both active contributors to the environment that allowed for evil to flourish and continue unhindered until it destroyed them all. And while that arguably doesn't make them evil themselves or as bad as Jimmy, they are so much more a part of the bigger problem than the fandom likes to admit.

[Ok since this is kinda gaining a bit of traction please consider helping these guys out here, here and here. Thanks!]

[helinedmightbehere]

"we need more complex female characters" you guys couldn't even handle earth confiding in sun because he was the only constant in her life

[mikayuumouse]

Ngl Atsushi loving Akutagawa (whether platonically or romantically) makes his character's morals questionable.

Because it's not the same as him saving or liking Kyouka, who's a kid. Or even Lucy, who wasnt portrayed to be that morally corrupt as Akutagawa.

And it's not the same as Chuuya and Dazai loving each other; both are portrayed to be morally questionable or corrupt characters from the start.

Whereas Atsushi is more of a 'hero' kind of character, and him liking/loving someone like Akutagawa changes his character's morals and moral ground standing.

Atsushi may be a character who's "on the side of good/the light" (such as Kyouka, Dazai, Kunikida, etc), but he's very different from all of them

Atsushi's hallucinations of Dazai (which I always call Dazaillucination lmao) were revealed to be the Headmaster, and not only does that speak about how Atsushi needed to subconsciously disguise the Headmaster as Dazai to trust his information (even though the information came from neither of them and actually just from inside Atsushi himself), but it also shows the parallel between the Headmaster and Dazai, and Atsushi and Akutagawa

Atsushi most likely does not trust Dazai fully now after chapter 122. Atsushi has always trusted Dazai and looked up to him, because he was always a good mentor to Atsushi (this is really shown in 55 Minutes). Atsushi thinks very highly of Dazai, because he's never known Dazai's dark side

But now he's seen it, per chapter 122, and he's also seen Akutagawa's past, and his wounds. Atsushi 100% understands Akutagawa now, in a different way

Before 122, Atsushi and Akutagawa understood each other wordlessly, in their fight against Ivan they didn't even need to communicate their plans verbally. They've always been intertwined, and Atsushi truly cares about Akutagawa and vice versa, because as people, despite their pasts, they are similar (yet opposites) and feel connected

And now Atsushi understands Akutagawa more deeply, seeing his past, and knowing what fully led Akutagawa to where he is now. They're more similar than Atsushi even realized until now

Atsushi cares about Akutagawa. There is really no doubting that Atsushi wants Akutagawa to live and wants his presence by his side, imo he loves Akutagawa. But Dazai hurt Akutagawa in many more ways than one, and Akutagawa (to Atsushi's knowledge) is still greatly effected by every bit of damage Dazai has done. Atsushi knew Dazai was Akutagawa's old mentor, but he never knew of the extremes and the major abuse that was inflicted on Akutagawa until now

Atsushi's character towards Dazai will probably become less trusting, and he may even start to hate Dazai, because of his feelings for Akutagawa

Atsushi loving a character like Akutagawa does truly spark moral conflict, more so than any other characters he's cared about (as the anon ask has said). It's obvious Atsushi will go to far lengths to save and protect Akutagawa, although Akutagawa is rooted so deeply in the dark

One thing is, I think Atsushi's love for Akutagawa will 100% grow when he learns that Akutagawa loves him back. Atsushi will love and feel loved back, and that will strengthen their bond to the point where they're inseparable, and thinking about how Atsushi's character will develop due to that is so interesting

There's lots of speculation on how the further Akutagawa goes into the light, the further Atsushi goes into the darkness. Someone said that Atsushi might fall so far that Akutagawa will have to teach him the lessons Atsushi had taught him in the beginning, and that theory could very well become true

I don't know how many of his morals would change just from loving Akutagawa, but I think he will definitely become more lax with the line between good and evil. I love how Asagiri makes the characters clash and how he builds Sskk's relationship together, and seeing how Atsushi's character grows from his new relationship standing with Akutagawa will be very interesting

They're definitely devoted to each other, and Akutagawa will most likely only grow more strongly attached to Atsushi (and vice versa). They've both died for each other, and both have had to live in a world without each other, which made both of them have to suffer through that large loss, and I think that was a very big development for both of them

Atsushi may have a point in this arc (or another) where he does things that completely go against his current morals just to save or protect Akutagawa, which would really change things. Because while Akutagawa is devoted to Atsushi, he is already covered in sin. Atsushi is technically still living on the side of the light, and I wonder if he'll ever be pushed to do something he never normally would

The thing is, I do not think Akutagawa himself at all will or would make Atsushi a worse person. I think Atsushi's love for Akutagawa would just have the power to make him cross the line, and take desperate measures, because their relationship is much, much different from anything either of them have experienced

Also, regarding the Port Mafia taking an Agency member for themselves in the truce deal, I think if they do pick Atsushi, I wonder if he might not even try to refuse because Akutagawa lies on the Mafia's side. That would really show how strong their relationship has developed if it does happen like that

(Also this post [which ended up so long 😭💀] is a really just my opinions and perspective on how Atsushi's morals/actions may change due to loving Akutagawa, so yeah lol)

(And on a side note, I can not see their relationship as platonic atp lmaoo. The undertones of their actions and words for each other are too romantic, and honestly they're such soulmates and would work together perfectly as a romantic couple. I know it's not officially canon, but I just personally ship it and think they do deserve to be canon)

[takemetodragonstone]

in succession 2x08 dundee when logan says “the past is all made up” i really do think that’s the thesis of the entire show btw.

like, the roy kids’ conflicting memories of their childhoods that are never clarified through any kind of flashbacks or confirmation, the entire fucking cruises scandal and the coverups of major crimes, kendall’s accident and how he even tries to rewrite the past in the finale (“that didn’t happen. I made it up”) as logan so often did in both big and small ways (from denying his knowledge of the cruises crimes before congress to small moments of “I told you this already” and “did I even make contact?”)

the fucking poem Dreamsong 29 by John Berryman that all the season finales are named after. this is just the last stanza:

“But never did Henry, as he thought he did, / end anyone and hacks her body up / and hide the pieces, where they may be found. / He knows: he went over everyone, & nobody’s missing. / Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up. / Nobody is ever missing.”

And we never have real confirmation that logan did know about cruises because the characters (minus kendall) deny it to the last. but we know. we keep our plausible deniability because we don’t know, but we know. the show essentially makes us complicit in the same way that the characters are. most of them don’t know that he knew, because they never had any explicit proof, but as kendall says in season 3 “C’mon. We knew.”

the narrative continually shows us that logan “keeps a watchful eye over his whole empire” with perhaps the best example being how he buries the evidence of kendall’s accident and manslaughter at the end of season 1. that’s a very clear parallel to the cruises situation and that’s so skillfully and subtly woven throughout season 2 when the cruises scandals are coming to light and kendall is still reeling from the accident and his guilt.

and all that’s not even touching on the whole matter of ATN and the debate over how involved logan really is in what news stories and political views his network pushes (which could be a whole separate post of its own). very similar to how the cruises thing is handled, the line is always that logan isn’t involved, while the narrative shows us otherwise.

there are a million other examples both big and small that i could pull but this post is already such a disorganized mess. someday i’ll write an essay about it i swear, or maybe somebody else out there already has, but i just needed to point out how brilliant and subtle the show is about this as i’m rewatching season 2

[wannabemasterofwindintraining]

The headaches aren't leaving me alone so I'm manifesting them onto the blorbo instead

[realtapiocafan]

thinking about this and how we all agree that joe IS a bit of a masochist. doesn't consider it to be 'real football' if he's not being hit... doesn't complain when he gets hit (LIKES it when he gets hit)... likes watching ufl fights... so. really. for all our worries about the o-line, have we considered that joe likes it this way?

have we considered that joe likes living on the edge, likes having all the d-linemen breathe off his neck. that he kinda sorta wants to be pressured bc he works best under that kinda environment -a moment from being hit, but also moment from making a huge play?

like, let's not forget that joe being blitzed ALSO means more chance that the receivers will be able to make great plays. bc if the linebackers are busy blitzing joe, they're not tackling his receivers or cutting off routes. y'all think joe isn't aware that him being blitzed, makes ja'marr and tee's jobs easier? makes it easier for them to get open and score?

something something joe sacrificing his own body for his guys. that he adores His Guys so damn much that he really honestly does not consider this to be a big deal (but they do. god this would piss ja'marr off soooo much)

[rune-rambles-art]

Okay I have to yell about Koleda Belobog Zenless Zone Zero because I feel like I love her in a very specific way that I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about. More under the cut because I have,,, so many thoughts.

Koleda is such a good portrayal of someone who struggles with their perception as an adult. A pretty easy conclusion to make with the first thing she usually says on the character select screen being “Hey, don’t look down on me!”, but it definitely goes a lot deeper the more you spend time with her. Specifically, she seems to struggle in her perception of herself as someone much more mature than her younger peers, but still not on the same level as the adults in similar positions of power as her. I kinda. Hate zenless for not explicitly stating how old she is, but given she rose to her position at Belobog “when she came of age” (which honestly, I still can’t give a concrete answer to what hoyo means by this? Some searches I found claimed the working age to be 16 in China, I’ve seen others online claim 18 but that’s not reliable. Hoyo I'm begging you put official ages on your characters it's a cool and based practice), she waited for a significant amount of time before taking up her role as president. She is an adult from what the game implies, and a core part of her character is fighting against the constant infantilization she faces due to how she looks.

Let’s start with her love of desserts (and a honestly this is the reason I started writing this). It’s her most highlighted character trait (it is also the first known attribute in her trust rank profile when you unlock her), and most of her trust events on 6th street revolves around them. Initially, she hesitates in proclaiming her love for them, likely to avoid being perceived as childish.

Her rank 4 trust special event is, admittedly, my favorite, but it’s one of the best breakdowns of this.

In order to maintain her image as a mature adult, she uses her position as company president to get around having to request a special dessert drink by name (in her defense, "Sweet Girl Fluffy Marshmallow Lambkin Milk" is an insane mouthful of a product name). At the end of the event she admits that saying its name “wasn’t as bad as she thought”, but her initial kneejerk reaction was a complete rejection of even entertaining the idea of doing something that could put the image she worked so hard to create and maintain at risk. Despite this, she still refuses desserts that aren't tooth-rottingly sweet, even if they are seen as the more mature or "refined" option. It's only around people that she really trusts does she allow this part of herself to be known, because she knows they wouldn't misconstrue this behavior as childish.

I also think her perception on the differences between kids and adults is interesting ("thank you agent story quest" we all say in unison). She doesn't ever feel like she fits in with other kids, probably due to all the responsibility she had to take on as the eventual heir to her father's company. But she also holds a vocal distain for many of her adult peers. Her declaration of "When I was younger, I thought the whole world was rotten, trying to make people just as rotten when they grow up." is a reflection of how she struggled to find her place in the world as she was forced to suddenly transition into adulthood, while still trying to understand the actions of the adults around her.

Her relationship with her father becoming strained contributed significantly to her world outlook as well, and may have caused such a specific distinction of what she deems "the world of adults". I don't want to dive too specifically into that because spoilers and the game is only a few weeks old so. Pin that for another time maybe? It definitely matters in the sense that the loss of her father is the catalyst for the loss of her childhood, but a lot of the specifics in how that affected her are speculative (and I don't wanna get too headcanon-y in this particular post) and she explicitly chooses not to discuss it too in-depth with the proxy (which, girl. Valid). But she's slowly learning to cope with that loss, at least it seems that way by the end of chapter 3. Honestly I could probably find more to add about the agent story in particular, but I would have to replay it to get a better idea.

To me, Koleda Belobog is very solid representation for women who had to grow up too fast, struggle with the perception of being seen as an adult, and hold guilt about indulging in acts that can be perceived as childish by their peers because they never fully got the chance to just be a kid. It truly did resonate with me, and it feels like such a specific "if you know, you know" kind of experience that I don't feel is talked about as much in media, especially with people who identify as female during their youth.

Also, also! I hope they dive in a bit more on how she got/has so much hollow corruption at a young age. Because they imply that she is so short as a result of this hollow corruption. Like that's so damn interesting conceptually and I know they delved on it more in Rina's agent story but. It was more of a mental affliction than a physical one.

Anyway I've been working on this for like 2 days now but that's all I have in terms of like. A canon-compliant character analysis.

TLDR; Koleda is such a perfect example of "God forbid short women exist" and I love her for that. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[lilythelitten]

I figured that, given how many headcanons I scatter throughout my fics, I should try to put at least some of them in their own post so people don’t have to read my entire library to find them. So! Here are some HCs for Logico and Irratino! Some you may recognize from my fics, some I’ve never mentioned before.

(And yes, you’re free to use these.)

Logico

Is a MASSIVE fan of old mystery movies, and has been since he was young, to the point where his parents bought him an old Midnight VHS for his sixth birthday. He dresses like a noir detective to emulate those old movies, in fact. (But he’ll frantically deny it if you ask.)

Has a surprising fondness for sweet foods. Alas, he does not get to indulge in that often, because he doesn’t have the money and also he’s…kind of embarrassed of it? Having a sweet tooth ruins the whole “noir detective” feel, in his opinion. (Logico is very concerned what other people think of him. Believe me, he was a lot worse about this in college.)

Good with money! Though for not the happiest reasons; growing up poor and incredibly conscious of his family’s money woes (the downside of being a genius kid) led Logico to keep track his own finances down to the penny, making damn well sure he doesn’t make any wasteful purchases and has enough to pay the bills. Sometimes, he has to skip a meal or two to keep the lights on that month. It’s fine. He’s used to it.

HATES the taste of instant ramen. This seems random, but back in college, he couldn’t afford any of the school’s meal plans and had to live off instant ramen in his room. As one can imagine, eating nothing but ramen for a year got old real fast, and Logico eventually taught himself how to cook just so he could eat something—anything—else. To this day, he still gets queasy at the memory of instant ramen.

Fluent in Spanish! His mom was Hispanic, and he grew up around Spanish-speaking relatives, so it’s only natural he’d know it. Admittedly, years spent not speaking it made him a bit rusty (blame the gap between graduating college and Volume 1 + never going back to his hometown once in all that time), but he’s gotten back into the habit of using it.

Extremely self-sufficient. As mentioned before, his family was poor and his parents worked long hours and late nights to keep the lights on. So from a young age, Logico learned to take care of himself. (Despite this, he is also phenomenally bad at self-care.)

Has something of a creative streak! The icons in the books? He drew those. Yes, they’re fairly simplistic, but they’re there. He is, admittedly, a lot better at creating when he has a reference to work with, as opposed to having to create something whole-cloth (where his brain just blanks).

Oh god this man had no romantic game. At ALL. First because he spent several years deep in denial that he was into guys, then because he was deathly afraid of opening up to anyone. He just sort of drowned himself in work to avoid having to confront that fear, and pushed people away so they wouldn’t try to get too close. Logico might’ve repressed most of his college memories, but he recalled enough to know he got the rug pulled out from him far, far too many times. Never again. (Yeah that didn’t last :P)

Has anxiety something FIERCE. When he was a kid, he was horrendously shy and often panicked when called on, not helped at all by being extremely unpopular and often a target for bullies. When he was in college, he was quiet, kept to himself, and had a marked tendency to fall flat on his face whenever he stepped out of his comfort zone (see: The Case of 100% Normal Feelings, where luckily for him, his crush found that endearing rather than worthy of ridicule). As an adult, he seems to have it all together…but honestly, he’s still as bad as he was when he was younger, he’s just better at hiding it.

On the upside (and here’s an oxymorons HC for you lovely people), being with Irratino has led to one esoteric interest Logico will happily abase himself before: meditation. Less for “opening the third eye”, more because it’s a good way to calm down his often extraordinarily frayed nerves. Whenever Logico’s really stressed, Irratino declares it a spontaneous meditation hour and lights some lavender candles. Logico found it ridiculous at first, but it’s actually pretty relaxing.

Irratino

Okay, so I’ve already made it clear he wears glasses in my HCs (pure projection on my part, though he got his a lot earlier than I did—seven years old), but for something that isn’t projection and is just vibes, he wore braces back in middle school. He got the braces out shortly before the end of eighth grade, and started wearing contacts the summer after (no real reason other than personal preference), but between the glasses, the braces, and his very curly hair, he looked every inch the stereotypical nerd (unlike Logico, who acted like the stereotypical nerd).

Ssssspeaking of kid Irratino—when he was younger, he was absolutely tiny, even for his age. Then shortly before high school, he hit a late growth spurt and was as surprised as everyone else. (This one is solely for the bit :P)

Lived in the UK the years between SoM and Volume 1 (it’s heavily implied the Investigation Institute is headquartered there in canon, and Irratino decided it was just easier to stay there full-time for his work). Because of this, he can do a very good imitation of a British accent, and occasionally falls into the habit of using British words for things.

Unlike Logico—who had never so much as held hands with another guy before he and Irratino crossed paths again—Irratino did, in fact, have a romantic life prior to the books! …unfortunately, said romantic life was hindered by the fact that he’d never really gotten over his college crush due to having never gotten closure, and thus couldn’t really make it work with any other guy. Irratino’s cursed love life became something of an in-joke in the Institute :P

A bit sarcasm-blind. He was a lot worse about this before meeting Logico, who practically uses sarcasm as a third language :P He’s better with it now, and can actually make use of sarcasm himself, but he still tends to assume people are being sincere when they aren’t.

Not…the best with finances? He tries to avoid outright wasting money, but he has a bad tendency towards impulse-buying and often assumes other people have a lot more money than they actually do. In Irratino’s defense, money is literally not an issue for him, but there’s a reason Night handles the Institute’s accounting :P

Not the best with math in general! (Projection intensifies /j …mostly /j) He had to get a tutor during high school and still barely scraped a C. College math courses were absolute hell and he only got through them with Night’s help. Irratino has no idea how he didn’t flunk out—he’s not stupid, but the stuff Deduction College teaches was NOT his strong suit.

Why did he go to a logic school in the first place? Most of his family had gone there, including one of his mothers, and he both a) thought going there would’ve made his parents proud, and b) didn’t really have any other plans for where else to go. Astronomy was about the only class he enjoyed, and he still wound up expelled. In hindsight, though, that might’ve been for the better, because turns out logic degrees aren’t worth much on the job market. (Most of the students didn’t mind because they were already trust fund babies, the Institute members were not but fortunately Irratino was willing to hire them regardless, but poor Logico kinda got screwed :P)

Speaking of his moms…Irratino has moved on from that. Mostly. It’s been years, he has friends and a life he enjoys, he’s happy. But on nights when sleep is hard to find, he can’t help but think about them, and all of the things in his life they missed out on and will miss out on, and if he’ll ever see them again in some afterlife or otherworld (he’s never tried to contact them, because he doesn’t think he could take being proven wrong), and why they had to die. Irratino’s accepted, at this point, he’ll probably never know the motive of his mothers’ murders. It still hurts.

Aaaaaand like Logico’s section we end this on a happy HC: Irratino being so poor with finances does have one bright side! Namely, he has a tendency to absolutely spoil the people he loves, whether that be friends, family members, or yes, his boyfriend. He’ll see something in a store window, think “ooh, X would like that!” and immediately buys it. He thinks they deserve to have nice things, and he will get them nice things, and take them to nice places. Most of the people in his life are pretty used to it, but Logico (who, again, grew up without many nice things) is always surprised by how much Irratino is willing to spend on him. Not ungrateful, though.

[catzgam3rz]

MORE! QSMP! DESIGNS!

Finally met Tallulah my BELOVED so I whipped up a design for her :D Also updated/tweaked my Wilbur design while I was at it!

[itsblubun]

I was thinking about Dandy's 'IMBI' fanfic suddenly, when a thought hit me: Why are the brother's given the senses that they are? Why is Mikey sight, Raph hearing, and Donnie touch?

I think it's subjective, and you can interpret it in any way you deem right, I just wanna put my two cents in. Of course, there's no way of me knowing if this is accurate to Dandy's vision or not, but let me know your own thoughts!

Let's go in order, shall we?

MIKEY

I think Mikey may have been the most difficult to crack, simply because I had no idea what it could represent for his and Leo's relationship. But then I realized, it's not about him and Leo, it's about him and everyone else.

Mikey's the youngest, he's the "baby", the little one, the happy go lucky 'everything's gonna be okay!' guy. His personality paired with his age makes his family baby him or chalk up his reactions to certain situations as him being naive.

But not Leo. Leo treated him like an equal, he's the annoying older brother Mikey looks up to and admires and wants to be like. To Mikey, Leo is his badass, awesome big brother, the only one who he feels doesn't baby him.

So with Leo out of the picture, who's gonna believe him when he says he's seeing the ghost of his presumably dead brother? No one. Because he's "naive".

And they don't believe him, so he and Leo have to PROVE that Leo's alive. And only THEN do they believe it. And, as happy as he is that they can now work on fixing Leo, it still hurts. Because they don't trust him, even though he's so strong as so capable and always razzes his tazz in the coolest ways, they don't trust him, because he's young and "in denial".

Also, Mikey and Leo are probably the most chaotic duo, so them being together so much due to everything previously stated is SO fun. Their interactions are immaculate.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Raph and Donnie are fully at fault here. Considering Leo's circumstances, Mikey was very reckless during the car chase scene, and it made Leo's situation get worse a bit. However, they need Mikey. And Mikey and Leo have an undeniable advantage with Leo being able to walk through walls and warn them for any danger through Mikey. They want a second chance, to make things right, but Donnie and Raph still said no.

I don't blame anyone though, because it's more that their circumstance is difficult and no one knows what to do, what is right or wrong.

Mikey was given that second chance, though. His brother's recognized they needed him. They wanted to bench only Leo, but that blue boy wasn't staying behind no matter what lmao. Which leads us to...

RAPH

Raph's was a bit tricky but also incredibly obvious (I don't know how that works, just roll with it).

Raph and Leo aren't the best at communicating. They end up yelling at each other most of the time. Even with the curse, they still argued through Mikey.

And Leo breaking his promise to Raph on staying behind made Raph even MORE upset. Leo could have dissapeared, he could've been GONE forever, all because he was reckless and followed them despite promising he wouldn't.

But, Raph has to admit, without Leo, they would've been SO lost in that cave, and it was ultimately a good thing that he joined them, but it was still so scary. Who knows what could have gone wrong. He isn't mad at Leo, per se, he's just mad at the circumstances. He wants to keep Leo safe, because Leo is his brother. He's almost lost Leo TWICE, he wasn't going to risk actually losing him again. He didn't WANT to risk it. It's hard to keep Leo, hell, all his brother's safe when what's safe and what's right don't align.

As the eldest, he has to make that call, and it scares him. Leo keeps putting his own well-being down, he keeps putting himself in danger for them, and it scares Raph. It scares all of them.

Raph is frustrated, he lashes out, he hurts his brother's feelings when he only wants to keep him safe. He cares so much for Leo, and he wants what's best for him more than anything, but when Leo doesn't cooperate, it frustrates him.

They have a well needed talk about it, though, and it's very beautiful. Because Leo had just had a talk with Mikey about the exact same thing, about putting oneself in danger without thinking of the consequences, and he understands how Raph feels about it now. Regardless, Raph says he's proud of him, for doing the right thing, and he is.

Raph wants Leo to understand his perspective, how he feels, and once Leo does, it makes things so much easier.

DONNIE

Donnie's is pretty straight forward and DEFINITELY the easiest to understand (at least for me) but, basically...yeah it's because Donnie doesn't like touch, but I have more!

But yes, Donnie is touch repulsed. The best indicator of such is in the movie when Raph has to make it clear that he wasn't giving a hug, it was a rescue. There's more examples but you get the gist. However, there are plenty of times in the show when Donnie is shown being physically affectionate, which leads me to believe it's something that depends on his feelings during any given moment. If he feels like it, he'll be affectionate. And, you know, having his brother almost die and now be a ghost of sorts...yeah, he's not feeling great. Which is why I LOVE him being given touch. Throughout this whole fic, Leo is HEAVILY touch-starved. Bro's a GHOST, of course he is. And now Donnie is placed in a position in which he is quite literally his touch-starved brother's ONLY source of physical affection.

He and Leo had been very distant up until that point due to being unable to, you know, interact at all, and adding the fact that Donnie, in an emotionally bad state, doesn’t like physical affection when it's sudden or in general, it's incredibly interesting to give Donnie the one sense that he's uncomfortable with. He feels bad, because Leo wants to FEEL him and hug him, but he's not in a mental state to reciprocate. He shuts down when he's stressed. That scene where he shakes off Leo's hand after threatening the fire element. Augh, chills, literal chills.

Also. I dunno, but if my ghost brother who I've only known is a ghost for a little while, was suddenly able to touch me without me being able to see it coming...yeah I would be pretty freaked out too.

Also, I think the scene where Raph hugs Donnie is very interesting, because to Leo, it means that Donnie is okay with physical touch, as long as it's not HIM. Now, both feel bad. Donnie for not being able to reciprocate Leo's...(I don't want to say 'adances' because it sound weird but I've got nothing else), and Leo for, in his mind, being 'selfish' for wanting Donnie's affection.

This whole time, Leo was gone for Donnie. Mikey could see him, Raph could hear him, but him and Leo had no way of communicating by themselves.

Which makes that scene where they finally communicate and hug SO much more impactful. When Leo hugs him first, it showed Donnie that Leo wasn't gone, he was here, with him, and he wasn't mad at him. And then Leo got a hug back, he finally, FINALLY got one after two weeks of not being able to touch anything or anyone.

And now, Donnie isn't uncomfortable with Leo's touch. Because now he not only understands that Leo desperately needs affection and he's his only way of getting it, but also Leo isn't gone. He's here, and Donnie will hold him if it means he won't dissapear again. Gosh, I love me some Disaster Twins.

I think IMBI does an incredible job at really laying out all the brother's feelings and relationships with each other in such a beautiful way. Oh my god I love fanfiction.

[mayashesfly]

Thinking about this post and how Alastor pulled apart the screen first while Vox did the surrounding thing first.

I think it could reflect to how their relationship went.

At first, Alastor started to pull away, but it wasn't anything final yet since it feels more... artificial in a way?

But then Vox started to become more obnoxious, making Alastor feel like he was being surrounded before Vox fully tore their relationship apart.

(It honestly worries me how in Vox's parallel it shows him dividing Valentino and Velvette apart and I hope to god that's not foreshadowing that Vox will push the Vees away the same thing he did with Alastor but the leaked audition sheet for Vox is making me chuckle in danger)

Alastor surrounding Vox shows how after their relationship broke off, Alastor started to intentionally make Vox to continue to remember his existence, not letting him to forget who he is since we see him going in front of his cameras.

At least that's my interpretation.

[rainyramblesscramble]

…

spicy art

is fun

[quirkyfries]

Holding Ruin close to my chest (metaphorically) rn. I shall protect you from the mischaracterization

[kaiserouo]

warframe ramble because yeah i do that.

Anyway, when i was doing arbitration survival, i saw someone with... this gun

looks like it doesn't need ammo, is an AoE weapon, and apparently is doing waaaaaay more damage and kills than me constantly shooting shedu.

i have done a bit mastery farming but still i've never seen any gun that looks and shoots like that. They changed the name of the gun so I can't really tell what is it. Communication failed because they only speak mandarin and in english version warframe anything non-ascii is just a bunch of astrisks (seriously DE? in 2024?)

Looking through their profile for their most used weapon and saw tombfinger. And... yeah, whatever that thing is the wiki says it shoots AoE. Looking through the wiki and

"Oooooooooh. Kitguns are a thing. Yeah. Fuck that sounds troublesome"

After building tombfinger (and sporelacer) and yeah it's just a SP viable shedu. I guess if I know this gun exists I wouldn't even buy shedu.

The other person is constantly shooting shedu btw. I also tried to do netracell with this and yup, it can definitely kill stuff.

Got a riven for it because there's just not much kitgun types out there and i got tombfinger after opening like 2 rivens.

Also why is there 2 kinds of values for my riven wtf DE

[nymphrasis]

To those living on their own or roommate: How much do you recommend to save to be able to live out there?