#I mean you could debate which one of them has stronger powers or more specific powers

[musclesandhammering]

The mcu fandom’s fav pastime now is arguing about whether Wanda or Loki would win in a 1v1 fight, but we’re not ready to admit that they essentially have the exact same powers.

Mind control, reality manipulation, telekinesis. They’re even both ‘destined’ to sit on a multiversal throne, I mean come on guys.

[tohwitchesduels]

SEMI-FINALS OF WITCHES DUELS - Battle 49: Viney vs Hunter

Disclaimer: This is not a popularity contest or which character you prefer, in this tournament, you decide who is stronger/better/smarter/etc. opponent.

information for both opponents under the cut to those who don't know what they can do in their battle:

Viney:

Viney specializes in both Beast-Keeping magic and Healing Magic. She doesn't show spells of other kinds. For the purposes of this tournament, I allow Viney to have a powerset established by MoringMark's comics due to him fleshing out her capabilities in the "A Hint of Blue" comic storyline and his comics being beloved by the fan base.

Viney and Hunter are friends in general but due to Viney's temper and Hunter's past actions, Viney rather treats him more like an enemy than her friend for the moment being. She specifically waited to have her revenge for the time Hunter threw her to prison even if she holds no bad blood regarding it according to her. At least to say, Hunter's going down while being confused. After all, defeating him will advance her in the rankings and she could potentially have second place in the tournament as clearly because of Willow she won't be getting the first one.

Viney is a fierce and intimidating competitor who will stop at nothing to win. She can get even more ruthless and petty when facing her friends claiming them to be traitors. Her magic is also quite impressive if not prodigious. The girl is absolutely skilled and at times quite chaotic. Viney's in it to win. She can be however a bit hasty in her approach. Viney has plenty of physical strength to back up her punch.

Viney does possess a Palisman and is quite a proficient flyer. With her fighting spirit, she can rush at her opponents furiously and knock them out with her physical strength. However, at the same time, she gets tunnel vision, and her attack can still be blocked, knocking her out in the process.

Quick Heal - Viney is capable of very quickly healing wounds of hers or others (only available during Battle Royale when it comes to other people, no way she's healing her opponents unless it's after the battle but that's debatable due to her personality). According to Viney, the only scars she has are emotional making her quite a proficient healer who can leave the battle without a single scratch on her.

Healing Shield - Viney is capable of creating a shield-shaped hand to block any attacks coming her way from simple bullets to even raging streams.

Medical Knowledge - Viney has enough experience to come up with remedies on the fly while also understanding both the strong and weak spots of the body of any witch/demon, meaning Viney knows where it hurts the most and you bet she will use that knowledge to her advantage.

Griffin Companion - Viney can summon Puddles to aid her in battles. Puddles can at times be wilder even than Viney herself, but Viney is still his master and he listens to her commands. Puddles is both strong and smart, a large griffin that can give Viney's opponent just as much of a hard time and is even more fierce than Viney, dealing huge damage. Also much like other griffins he probably possesses spider breath, which Viney can use to attack her opponents with an army of crawling spiders. Viney can ride him naturally. It's worth noting that Puddles doesn't like Hunter.

Muscle Growth - power-up which came from MoringMark's comic. Viney can enhance her muscle to enhance her own strength to a superhuman level when attacking her opponents. (I will not post screenshots of Mark's comics but I will leave parts of the comics where he demonstrated this ability so you can support HIS art).

Equipment attack - power-up which came from MoringMark's comic. Thanks to her medical knowledge, Viney can throw medical equipment at her opponents using this or get her hands on a weapon of said equipment.

The comics of Moringmark in question

Link to more of Viney's capabilities here

Hunter The Golden Guard:

I will only mention moves by names rather than delve into specifics as they're too large for that. In the name (with a few exceptions for the sake of clarification for some), there's a link to more of Hunter's capabilities.

Hunter "Insert your preferred surname/s for him", also known as a former and the youngest Golden Guard in history, head of the Emperor's Coven, Emperor Belos's right-hand man. One must know that unlike other contestants (aside from Luz) he's not constricted to specific covens and tracks since as a former leader of the coven that allows all kinds of magic, Hunter will have expertise in all types of coven magic as well, and he's also very dedicated to studying wild magic.

Hunter and Viney are teammates and friends. Currently, the only thing that doesn't intimidate Hunter more than competitive Viney is Puddles still holding a grudge. Not that it phases him as he already faced him before.

Hunter himself was also known as a genius teen prodigy and is undeniably a child soldier who was raised by both hell and the library to get to the very top. While he was born magicless, it did not stop him from earning his title as the right-hand man of the most powerful witch of the Boiling Isles. Hunter spends days and nights both training and learning everything about magic both as a duty and as fun. He's incredibly knowledgeable regarding all kinds of magic, meaning it's hard to actually surprise him with anything. And since he's a child soldier raised in a magical military with no magic by himself, Hunter had to survive hell even worse than some of the adults that also were part of this coven went through, and he survived it all. Hunter has already been to countless witches' duels beforehand, he made it several times through a maze full of traps, and judging by how he calls getting from the top to the bottom of the mountain alive "a classic", this might as well suggest that this Hunter's version of "summer camp", as he did that numerous times and he considers it "fond memories". Hunter without a doubt has the most experience among all participants when it comes to battling, because you know Belos never gave him a break or easy time and for Hunter to be where he is today is all thanks to his own strength, intelligence, and resilience.

Hunter certainly has one of the strongest wills among all characters in TOH, as despite going through a ridiculous amount of pain, he is capable of brushing it off and pushing forward, with his only weakness being Belos. Hunter's willpower was even able to withstand Gus's trauma bubble which specifically puts you through your worst memories and even renders you useless, but Hunter resisted its effect and calmed Gus down instead, despite his pain being very fresh and severe and Hunter in fact not being ok with it, but Hunter keeps on going anyway. One must know it's very hard to break him, trust Belos, he tried but didn't succeed. Hunter even managed to resist Belos's possession for some time, which is a lot considering Belos was his abuser and had power over him metaphorically and physically in that moment.

Hunter displayed throughout the series to have some great athletic skills and agility, being able to keep up pace with running Luz without breaking a sweat while proving he has experience in parkour and acrobatics as seen in him flying on staff. Certainly, he can use his skills to evade incoming attacks with his reflexes while keeping up with his opponents and close distance between him and his enemies. He also has plenty of brute strength at his disposal as well, considering he managed to shatter falling debris by just swinging his staff in one hand.

Hand-To-Hand Combat - Hunter has proven to be efficient in hand-to-hand combat throughout the series. While Hunter overall plays more on defense as a protector rather than offense, he is not afraid to throw a punch. This post goes more in-depth about Hunter's proficiency in staff-wielding, but I will explain some of it here too. Hunter as a trained soldier and experienced martial artist has his body be his weapon. He knows how the body works and has great control over it. He defeated both Luz and Eda in his debut with a quick kick while evading their attack, straight-up toyed with Kikimora, and had to be put to sleep to be restrained by coven scouts as he was still fighting and kicking. This also gives him a huge advantage against other competitors who are used to fighting across distance, whereas Hunter fights at a close range.

Back in EC Hunter learned how to be smart, resourceful, and strong, and as I've mentioned before multiple times, he's a child soldier. His opponents usually underestimate him, but he's not the one to be crossed. His victories compromise of defeating Eda and Luz on 2v1 in his debut; immediately defeating Luz in HP once he's recovered; defeating Kikimora in HP; and Tying with Amity in EL after being physically and mentally exhausted, in 2v1 with King (who was rather defeated by Hunter in this duel), while wielding a completely new staff and restraining himself to not kill her but just getting the key; winning flyer derby game on his first try; catching Darius off-guard (which is a feat with Darius's great reflexes); making a strong glyph combo on his very first try; resisting Gus's trauma bubble; kicking ass during Hexside against EC battle; he was defeated twice by coven scouts, which while fair, was also due to his poor condition and the second time he had to be put to sleep to be restrained; handling abomatons and scouts with rest of the Hexsquad during S2 finale; standing his ground and protecting Hexsquad from Belos while being severely weakened in KT; breaking through Willow's vines in FtF with his freshly awakened powers.

Hunter now is sub-merged with Flapjack meaning he does not require staff anymore to cast spells as magic now comes from within. What's more, I allow Hunter to also levitate/fly without the help of any staff. This is more of a fanon ability, but it's supposed to connect him to having the powers of a palisman (but no, he can't turn into a staff, nor is wooden) and abilities of a palisman are usually just enhanced abilities of the holder, meaning flight is in capacity of any witch, but all of them utilise staff since flight on its own is probably hard spell to pull off, but Hunter should do just fine for the sake of this tournament.

And now finally, let's talk about his staff. For the purposes of this tournament, I will give Hunter Waffles. You know Hunter is the best staff wielder in the entire tournament only rivaled by Luz. I already mentioned how Hunter is absolutely proficient with his staff, utilizing it for both offensive and very effective strikes and flawless defense. Hunter is also a real aerial ace capable of flying at high speeds with agility to dodge attacks and is capable of even surfing on his staff as demonstrated when he showed off in ASIAS. His flying skills were also decisive in both forming EE and winning their very first game together.

Flash Step

Comet Charge

Resistance Spell

Block Spell

Underground Escape

Tool Creation

Tying Spell

Battle Armor

Laser Bolt

Lightning Strike

Barrier Spell - not demonstrated in the show itself but in storyboards of Yasmin Khudari, in which Hunter could create a force field to shield Willow from falling debris. In the final product, he just used his own brute strength and staff to protect Willow rather than magic, but I will allow this spell meaning HUnter can create barriers that can withstand heavy hits and create them anywhere he desires.

Flesh-Eating Plant - - this is more of a speculation rather than a confirmed fact, but I rewatched ST, and Luz and Eda weren't originally standing in the flesh-eating plant until GG showed up, so I decided to be funny and say he actually made this plant himself to taunt them, especially since he also knew what it does (which also shows his expertise in plants among many things). Hunter in battles can utilise flesh-eating plants to set traps across the battlefield to both harm and distract his opponents.

Telekinesis

Sand Blast

Sand Construct

Rock Fist

Earth Magic

Water Magic

Aqua Jet

Water Hand

Wall Of Vine And Ice

Return to Masterpost

[sandandlightning]

The St Peters Cross

So honestly I want to share knowledge as much as start a discussion with this one.

For those who don't know, the ‘inverted’ cross commonly associated with Satanic imagery is actually the St Peters Cross. It's not traditionally a Satanic symbol.

I say ‘traditionally’ because the question I want to pose is: at what point does common societal reassociation outweigh the original meaning, if at all?

This question occurred to me when I was watching a tacky ghost hunter show for fun and the guy was like ‘omg!!! An inverted cross on this rock!!!! The ghost was a witch!!!!’ which like, obviously there are twenty things wrong with this, and I found myself snapping ‘thats the st peters cross you ignorant fuck’ on instinct, but it did get me thinking. Because you know, if the ghost was ‘modern’ enough and was being fed the same misinformation as Cheesy Host Guy? Maybe the ghost did identify as some kind of Satanist and that symbol was there with that intent, I don't know their life. (You know assuming like, something just didn't fall on the rock in a coincidental way. I believe in ghosts, but ghost shows are, you know, like that, haha.)

In linguistics, the meanings of words change over time as social associations with them change. This is brought up a lot when people try to point out slurs are words that ‘just mean x’ or ‘its just a color in another language'. But in this case, the cultural association from centuries of built up implications change the meaning of the word to something very specific in English. Less unfortunate examples would include the etymology of how American and British English have different meanings for some words (think cookies, crisps, chips, and biscuits).

Ergo, one might argue that, despite the initial association of the inverted cross with satanic themes originating from Some Guy that just went ‘upside down cross edgy’ in the 1800s, it is so divorced from its original meaning that the new, socially common meaning would be more accurate.

Of course, the difference here is that a religious symbol is very different than a word or normal colloquialism. One could also argue that by its nature there should be far more weight put on the original intent of its original users than something that is purely used for human to human communication. After all- am upside down cross might communicate to some guy in line behind me at Walmart ‘satanic’ but using it for the purpose of communicating with divinity or some kind of force- the point of a lot of religious symbols- it might cause a lot of mixed signals.

Like, obviously, I don't think Lucifer or whatever entity is so unaware of modern going ons that they wouldlook at someone trying to pray with a misapropriate symbol and just ignore them or go ‘what the fuck’. There would probably be a big helping of ‘hes a little confused, but he's got the spirit' I would think.

But at the same time I would feel that in ritual, using the traditional symbols might be stronger or more effective. But that also, in and of itself, is a question of debate. Because a new sigil made with the intent of communicating to an Entity that has a lot of personal meaning to the user I think is very powerful. But that is something new and it's original association is how it is being used. In kemetic practice I would write out things in poorly phoneticized hieroglyphics. This is definitely in the same category as ‘confused but got the spirit'- it's a far cry from the original Egyptian. But the difference here is it's the closest to ‘original’ symbolism as I could arguably get within some reason, whereas the inverted cross doesn't even have etymological roots in left hand practice. It's a Christian symbol being borrowed and used out of context. It's closer in spirit to say, using mjolnir imagery for Set ‘because storm god’, but also still a bit far from that because at least those are two similar things and not something that once meant the opposite, though arguably the left hand view of these entities does not put them so directly opposite to certain ideals than a Christian view. I suppose in that regard it might be closer to when Anpu is painted as Scary Death God Who's Angry And Mean Like Devil, which would explain the compulsive urge to correct or reject the St Peters Cross in left hand practice.

But at the same time, does all of that invalidate the very real fact that, in human to human communication it currently very clearly communicates ‘hello I am left hand friend'? Perhaps part of the problem is because there isn't a doubled effort to reclaim (or… just claim, technically) it as far as I have seen in actual left hand circles, so it doesn't work as coding. It's sort of the opposite of coding. Like a queer person might have hair dyed A Color and you just know ‘oh that's a friend'. With the inverted cross you are more likely to get negative attention from aggressive conservatives, you don't know if the person wearing it is doing so religiously or secularly. I mean, even if they're ‘just’ a metal fan they are far less likely to judge my beliefs and are advertising that in a way, but it is still not quite the same. It has not been reclaimed, so it can feel more like a brand of shame than a mark of pride.

Anyway, when I started this I was in a more neutral headspace, but I feel like I've accidentally reasoned out a bit too much in favor of not (re)adopting. Really I do feel like if people really wanted to they could, but again it is something that requires a community on at least something of a similar page. And there are still questions about periods of time where people might have tried their hardest with what they had, but what they had was just the wrong information to start with, and how that's shaped things.

What are people's thoughts on the inverted/St Peters Cross? If you see someone wearing it do you think friend? If you see it in media do you just feel the rage of a disgruntled anthropologist? I didn't even get into the phenomena of it being used with intent as ‘not actually something Satanic bc that being Too Real makes Producers and Publishers uncomfortable but it gets the point across for my story' phenomena.

Let me know what you think!

[deivorous]

Hollow Society

Something's been tickling at my brain recently. The below is by no means a comprehensive review, and I don't particularly have any coherent thoughts, so anyone, please feel free to add your own.

Hueco Mundo isn't culture-less like the vast expanse of fandom portrays.

There are, in fact, at least three key pieces of evidence that support this.

Forms of government precede Aizen's involvement in Hueco Mundo.

There are multiple instances where hollows have been shown to exist in community structures, and at least one that involves an actual neighborhood.

Hueco Mundo contains ruins.

Government in Hueco Mundo

The first point is one that I believe we're all cognizant of. Specifically, Barragan was regarded as a 'King'. Whether he is actually perceived as one by the population of Hueco Mundo is debatable. However, he's exceptionally old, and has likely held his position for many many millennial. He also is describing the rather small gathering of hollows (they are all presumed to be adjuchas) as an 'army'. I wonder for what purpose he formed an army to begin with, and have determined that the most likely reason as consistent with his character is to create a sense of authority for himself.

Just a few quick observations to point out to you:

He's in possession of a OLD metal bell - it is in poor repair, but I warrant it is an item of great value because despite it's disrepair it's still afforded a prize location above the God-King's throne.

He's one of only a handful of hollows depicted wearing clothing (prior to Aizen). It's a tattered fur-collared cloak. The other item if clothing belonging to his servant woman and is just a plain tunic.

On the clothing note, the crown may or may not be part of his mask but an individual item as seen in the fact that its different after he becomes an arrancar.

She is in possession of a carafe. It could be water or something else - again the implication is that this is an item of luxury.

The scene we meet him in is 'Las Noches', and Tousen mocks him for the sorry state of it.

My main point with this is less the existence of Barragan's kangaroo court, and more the evidence of relics indicating a period before the existence of his reign (the bell, the crown. the carafe).

Secondly, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong (as I haven't actually read the novels myself) but I believe the espada pre-date Aizen as well. Many of the arrancar who have the titles of Privaron are naturally occurring arrancar, which afford them power beyond Barragan and his army of adjuchas. Their attempt to create an element of stability in Hueco Mundo (though ultimately a failure) is telling.

Hollow Communities

Barrangan's army, while small, indicates something other than his feeble attempt at control which is: Hollows naturally do come together in social settings. We see this as well with Grimmjow and his pack (and he's certainly not the only hollow in a pack). And a third time, glossed completely over, in Nnoitra's flashback - which is the most interesting of the three.

Neliel specifically refers to the location as a 'colony'.

The image depicts what looks like dwellings of some sort carved into the rock formations behind them. Hundreds of non-nomadic hollows were all living together in a community in some relative form of harmony, and their postal code (so to speak) is recognized by Nel, Nnoitra, and Aizen who charged them with exploring the colony and recruiting any Vasto Lordes present.

Nnoitra points out that there isn't one present, which indicates that all of these hollows came together despite their cannibalistic requirements, without the oversight of a stronger power forcing them to conform to a set of pro-social behaviors.

very interesting.

Finally,

The Negal Ruins

I've already touched on the bell.

Now I'd like to touch on the elephant in the room, which actually inspired this post to begin with. I don't know if anyone else has explicitly written on the topic - but this has to be one of the most fascinating things Kubo never touched.

Hueco Mundo is included in the Soul Societies genesis story - it was created, allegedly, by the Shiba family to house the hollows and prevent consumption of normal human souls. The sand is supposedly made of all the dusted bones of what must be billions of hollows when the Soul King, in a fit of rage and disgust, destroyed them all upon their banishment. While this did not prevent the creation of new hollows, it does contribute to the god-like lore of the Soul King. THe key take away is that Hueco Mundo is an artificial land - and hollows are not native to it, but rather were herded into it as a way to separate them from the humans and spirits (and forced them towards their cannibalistic diet, rather than preying on plus souls).

Despite this, the story never discusses the Negal Ruins.

My two quick-fire evidence points that this is a brand new, distinctly different location is 1) the architecture is drawn completely differently to that of any version of Las Noches and 2) it has a roof.

Barragan's Las Noches did not have a roof.

A roof implies a certain level of sophisticated engineering that it seems Barragans Hollows were not capable of. It implies a certain amount of education and cooperation.

Presumably the name of the ruins were related to Team Ichigo by Grimmjow or Nelliel (Orihime is the one who officially says the name) however Kisuke is the one that directed everyones (independant??) transit to the ruins. One can assume there would have been a reason for this (Kisuke seems to be doing some sort of research), Kubo never returns to this particular plot-hook.

What's specifically interesting to me, however, is how a ruin like this came to exist in the first place. While Kisuke has knowledge or Shinigami records of the location I doubt it's from Shinigami construction given HMs genesis story and the Shinigami's hands off approach to HM for the most part.

A hollow community of some sort must have constructed it at some point, and since then the place has fallen into disrepair. Whatever community, government, or sect may have built and maintained it is long gone - an entire era lost with nothing more than the bones of it's buildings left behind.

I don't have a neat, tidy point to finish with, so I leave you with this:

Even after Aizen's meddling, arrancar still reside within Las Noches. The community remained even without shinigami enforcement (I doubt Hallibel or Grimmjow were forcing them to stay). Hueco Mundo has an entire history no one knows about. It's population has a society.

In the wake of the Winter War and Thousand Year Blood War, it's a population that was completely decimated.

[nitw]

Can you explain what you mean with misinterpreting Chara? I've always been confused about that character and you seem to have a pretty solid read you alluded to in that post about Snowgrave.

of course!!! as your local chara defender since the ripe age of 13 i hope you don't mind me doing a small essay on this. please bear with me tho because i sometimes can't articulate my thoughts well on stories that deal with philosophical themes ;;

UHHH SPOILERS FOR UNDERTALE AND DELTARUNE CHAPTER 2 BELOW

first let me make a few things clear so i don't have to repeat myself a bunch:

only tobias radiation fox himself has The Word of God privilege when it comes to things that haven't been explicitly confirmed in the games yet, EVEN if they're strongly hinted at. don't take anything i say about the plot as more than firm personal interpretation based on the info we have right now!

i cannot stress this one enough: undertale is a game that was never meant to be experienced from a singular perspective/mindset. the genocide route doesn't JUST exist for the sake of "enjoy your personalized edgy fuck-you run for being a serial killer in a video game", every one of the total 93 endings (look it up) in this game exists to reflect the player who achieved it in one way or another. the genocide route is really no different from any of the others, because in the end, no matter what, the player who decided to go through with the things they did will ALWAYS be rewarded for it. the question the player will have to ask THEMSELF afterwards is "is this what i wanted?"

OK MOVING ON-

let's think back to the little but vital amount of info we have on who chara actually was, like, as a person. we know pretty much all of this due to 1) the tapes in the royal lab 2) asriel's additional dialogue at the end of true pacifist.

while we'll never really know why frisk fell into the underground, asriel tells us explicitly about chara's hatred for humanity, and how they jumped from mt. ebott for "not a very happy reason"; supposedly a suicide attempt. chara "never talked about why", it's left intentionally vague because their reasoning isn't really what matters. what DOES matter is how this is relevant to the genocide run, ESPECIALLY with the new obvious parallels in deltarune's snowgrave route. i'll get to that.

when you finish the genocide route, chara will talk directly to the player in person. they talk about your (you AND chara's) success, despite "their plan (having) failed". this "plan" is one they secretly made with asriel when they were both still alive, as revealed from the tapes. chara got terminally poisoned from eating buttercups (whether this was fully intentional or not is still kiiinda up for debate), and while on their deathbed, asriel says that he doesn't like the plan anymore. yet despite his fear, he still fused his soul to chara's when they died.

the actual plan here was to become a monster powerful enough to slaughter humanity, specifically chara's home village by their own dying request - this all ties into their mysterious spite and hatred mentioned before. but due to asriel's resistance against chara, their fused body was killed by the humans - which eventually led to the creation of flowey, and asriel's inner demons after death.

but back to the genocide route. during chara's monologue to the player, they give us a LOT of important exposition. basically:

at the very start of the game, frisk's own determination is literally what brought chara's soul 'back to life'. we know how human and monster souls are different and how "determination" in this universe is something only humans possess, so it makes sense why it awakened them. i won't get into the whole narrator theory because i feel like it's not that relevant to my point (it's fun tho), but chara is always present from the moment frisk falls down, and stays regardless of the player's actions.

if you managed to finish undertale at all you'll already kinda know this (thanks sans), but the EXP and LV you (can) gain throughout your journey aren't just numbers on your screen - they're genuine in-universe manifestations of power that increase when you kill someone. and in genocide, chara explains how they were directly affected every time your stats rose. they could FEEL their spirit growing stronger for every life you decided to take (REMINDER THAT THE GENOCIDE ROUTE CAN BE PERMANENTLY STOPPED AT ANY POINT BEFORE SANS. YOU DID THIS.), so is it really that strange that they felt the desire to grow even stronger?

and once you do reach this point, there's no return. all that excessive time and effort you put into killing off a civilization OBVIOUSLY has some consequences. the consequences HERE being - if you paid attention to chara's life story - you took advantage of a traumatized child who was already at the breaking point and making irrational choices on their own, and you led them to believe that this was what they needed!

this is VERY MUCH SUPPORTED by the snowgrave/weird/pipis/whatever route of deltarune chapter 2 that was discovered about 2 days ago as i'm writing this. i'm gonna go ahead and assume you know what happens in it and i don't care to go into details if you don't, since this post is about chara, but surprise: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO NOELLE, TOO! even in a completely normal run, noelle makes it clear multiple times that she wouldn't mind staying in the dark world; that in spite of how scary and dangerous it seems at times (something something horror movies), she started to feel at home. POSSIBLY even more so than her ACTUAL HOME, with her dying dad and negligent mom. like chara, noelle is a young person with low self esteem and her fair share of trauma, even if it's not as apparent. and like in the genocide run, the player's desire to ruthlessly kill in order to grow stronger affected her already-poor mental state.

someone else already pointed this out specifically, so don't credit me for it, but the main difference between chara and noelle is that noelle managed to break free in the end.

if you're like Most People Who Played The Genocide Route Back In Like 2016 and you played the genocide route with no further knowledge about it than "i have to follow these specific steps to get a harder fucked up version of the game", i don't blame you. you didn't actually know what you were doing in the end, did you? but did the outcome disappoint you, make sense to you, or did it just leave you with an empty/confused feeling? i love undertale because it WILL force you to think about things like that. i mean, if the result wasn't gonna affect you in SOME way, why would you go through all of that trouble in the first place? you had your reasons, as the player of any video game where you know your choices matter. would you have carried out the entire thing if you knew what was coming? the answer to that is only relevant to yourself.

[cblgblog]

Sorry I’m advance but one of my other favorite accounts just reblogged a Tony scene and people are talking about Civil War and how it made them Stan Tony, and how when they watch that movie they hate team cap👀 Then someone was all about how he was sleep deprived and how much pressure he was under and couldn’t understand how people didn’t like Tony because. Someone literally said that when someone says they don’t like Tony in Civil War they say “did you watch the same movie as me.” I’m baffled. Oddly enough someone else said, “he just wants to help everyone.” Sorry for the rant but I think people forget about what the accords are and what it would mean for people. Side note, I hope you’re having a great day/night 😀

No sorry needed!

I feel you man, I do. Honestly, I’ve unfollowed people based on similar posts when I was in especially Done moods, so.

Look on the one hand, the movie would’ve been a narrative failure if everyone was in favor of one side or the other, right? The whole point of the damn thing—besides giving the Mouse overlords more money—was to spark discussion, debate. Which, yeah, we’ll call that the tame description for what actually happened. But just, the thing was meant to split the fanbase so in that regard…winning? Thanks, I guess?

Film is also very obviously subjective, different strokes for different folks, so yeah, ten people can watch a movie and none of them are gonna see the exact same film. Let’s try to remember that this is, in theory anyway, a good thing. I just read a professional film review yesterday where I had the same reaction. What film were you watching, dude? Incidentally his reviewing partner said the same thing.

So honestly, no, they weren’t watching the same film as you or I or anyone else, because everyone brings their own biases and experiences and knowledge and interests into a thing, and that’s always going to flavor how it’s viewed. Again, let’s try to remember that this is good. In theory. Heavy on the theory.

That out of the way? Let’s get into Tony specifically so his uber stans can find this and scream at me on anon as though I just shot RDJ with a nuke.

Oh yeah, he was stressed. Oh, he was sleep deprived. Yeah, I’ve heard that. And that it’s Pepper’s fault, if she hadn’t left the poor baby, if she was there to rein him in, he’d be fine dammit, leave the baby alone!

Here’s the thing. You know who gets a pass on their shit behavior when they’re upset or tired? Actual babies. Actual babies and toddlers, and children, up to a point. Because they actually cannot always help themselves. Their bodies and brains are different, they have not learned better.

When you’re a 50-year-old man who’s supposedly the world’s bestest superhero, who wants, wants to be in charge of protecting the whole world? You need a little more self-control than that. The sleep deprived excuse works if you snap at someone before you’ve had your coffee, not for this. Roseanne Barr didn’t get to blame Ambien for her racism, Tony doesn’t get to handwave CW away because oops, I was tired.

Really? You’re a superhero, dude. Most of your teammates are tired too, that’s part of the gig. If you crash and burn this badly without your afternoon nap, fucking hang up the armor and go back to your billionaire playboy lifestyle.

Speaking of that, sure, right. It’s Pepper’s fault because she left him. Put aside the argument on whether that was justified or not (cough, it was and she should’ve stayed away even though they are adorable together). It’s not Pepper’s job to keep Tony sane. It’s not any partner’s job to do that for anyone. If she wants out, she has a right to that, without Tony going off the rails and blaming it on her. Seriously, he says part of the reason he backed the Accords was to “split the difference” with Pepper.

Dude. You were an asshole and you lost your girl. You destroyed all your suits, turned an emotional and mental corner in IM 3…and then relapsed 4 minutes later I guess because Whedon. Either way, Tony admits himself that he does not want to stop. So instead of doing that, or finding another partner who can accept that, you back an unjust international law that pits you against your team, your supposed friends? Go to therapy, have a pint of ice cream, cry into your pillow, send her more of those strawberries you sent her in IM 2 that she’s allergic to. You don’t go trying to change international law in ways that could ultimately affect millions of people because your girl left you.

Honestly—and thank God they didn’t do this but—the only way the Pepper excuse works in excusing his behavior in any way is if she’d died. Or been severely injured like Happy in IM 3. Still wouldn’t be okay, but, like Quill messing up their chance to stop Thanos because Gamora died, it would’ve been more understandable. Understandable, not excusable, and the way the MCU treats their women as manpain fodder, we’re probably legit lucky we didn’t get this.

As for him wanting to help everyone. He does in fact want that, I think. The problem is that his need to feel like he’s doing that is stronger than his rational mind, or his want to actually help in a constructive way.

Tony is too smart. He’s dumb as hell in many instances, mostly involving people and relationships, but he’s also too smart, and he’s been told for too long that he’s smart, and he’s bought into it. Ultron. Suit of armor around the world, protects the world, no more alien threats. It’s a simple concept on paper that fails in execution. So there are people with dangerous powers. Okay, we’ll make a set of laws to keep them from being dangerous, problem solved. But again, it isn’t.

Tony is not used to problems he cannot solve. He’s a genius, right? He can fix anything. He should be able to fix anything. That’s how he feels. But not everything is zeros and ones and circuits, things that can be fixed mechanically like his armors can. The people he wants to protect are not built that way. But he needs to feel like he’s doing something, because he’s terrified of what happens to the world if he doesn’t. So he creates these simple solutions to complex problems. The suit of armor, the Accords. They sound good in theory, but the problems they’re trying to solve are bigger than they are. And Tony, way back in IM 1, he sat back for years, clueless that his weapons were being used for bad things. He says it to Cap in CW. When he found out what his weapons were being used for, he went in and stopped it. Whether or not he should’ve known that already is a separate issue here. The point here is that when he found out, too late or not, he went in and did something about it.

Tony needs to do something about it. Again, go back to Cap in AoU, Tony’s nightmare sequence. Steve asks Tony why he didn’t save them. Tony’s ultimate nightmare is that he sits back and does nothing, and his inaction causes everyone to die. Which is where you get Ultron. Something he came up with because of what he saw in space in Avengers 1, then doubled down on in AoU. It’s where you get the Accords. Oops, he caused someone to die, he killed Charles Spencer. Must do something about that right now so it doesn’t happen again, and he won’t have to feel this guilt. He should be collaborating with others to come up with solutions (no Bruce in AoU doesn’t count because Bruce was dumb there), or at the very least, taking more time to think through the repercussions of the things he puts out there. But he doesn’t, because he’s got his savior complex that tells him that he alone can and must fix this, and because he’s too dumb to realize how not-smart he is in certain areas.

“We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I’m game.”

Isn’t that what he says in CW, or something very close to it? Whatever form that takes. That’s the issue, right there, whatever form that takes. Realistically, yes, there should be laws regarding people with powers, the same way there are special laws pertaining to people who carry guns, or people who are licensed to fly planes. You have a thing/can do a thing that not everyone else does, so there are regulations pertaining to that thing. Laws change with the times, they always have. Some new technology comes up, eventually there will be laws that regulate it. As there should be, honestly. The issue with the Accords, Steve’s issue with the Accords, was not the basic idea. He says as much. He says that it could work, but there would have to be safeguards. Safeguards that are not in the Accords that Tony wants him to sign.

It's not a matter of oh, fuck the law, there should be no law governing these people, they’re above it. The problem is that the law as it’s presented here is unjust. There’s what, a month between Lagos and Ross coming by to tell them about the Accords? A month is not enough time to properly analyze such a big issue, Especially when you’re reacting out of fear, which is what happened with Lagos. People died because of an Enhanced person, an Avenger, in this case. Lawmakers don’t want that to happen again, they especially don’t want the political shit storm that comes with it. Damn, we look like we were asleep at the switch here, not having anything to throw at this problem earlier. Quick, let’s throw together this thing so no one can say we’re not addressing the problem.

Patriot Act of 2001, anyone? 9/11 happened, the public were rightfully terrified, the US said oh man, these are unprecedented circumstances, we’ve never had this before. Don’t worry though, we’re on this, we’re protecting you. The reality being that that bill simply gave the government too much power, most of it being used against people who were not actually threats, and it’s debatable, to say the very least, whether or not that law helped more than it hurt.

No law is perfect. No law ever will be. It’s not possible. We still have to strive for perfection though, have to aim there so that the laws we get are as close to fair as possible. Tony’s a big deal. If not for his “whatever form that takes” attitude, he might’ve been able to use his influence to pressure lawmakers into coming up with a fairer bill. Hey, I’m me, the public loves me, I will endorse this bill publicly and work on getting the rest of the team to sign, but you need to change this and this and this first, or no deal. Instead, he took the easy way out, the quickest, easiest way for him to feel like he’s atoned for his sins without actually doing anything. Whatever form that takes.

Tony’s not wrong because he backs the creation of a law that addresses these things. He’s wrong because he says himself that he does not care what that law does, specifically, so long as it exists. He’s wrong because he violates said law upteen times during the movie, while preaching to team Cap about what assholes they are for not backing it. He’s wrong because he cares more about feeling as though he’s tackled a problem than he does about taking the time to make sure that the thing he’s proposing is actually a good idea. He’s wrong because of what he does with Bucky, though that’s honestly a separate issue, for the purposes of this discussion.

Anyway, that was longer than I ever wanted it to be. Damn. Next time you see a comment about CW being the reason people stan Tony, just remember there are other people out there who stopped stanning Tony because of that movie. Everyone’s entitled to see a piece of media however they see it, and although the Tony stans are often the loudest, there are plenty of like-minded people out there who share your take on events. Block who you need to, unfollow who you need to, blacklist what you need to, and don’t let them get you down.

Hang in there, and have an awesome day :)

[arctasy]

dsmp analysis: the future of c!dream

because i decided to write an essay about a controversial character at 8 am on a sunday morning. i am completely normal i swear

(everything is /dsmp /rp unless specifically stated otherwise)

ever since cc!dream tweeted that there would be lore soon, i couldn't help but think of where he would lead his character. i am by no means a dream apologist, quite the opposite actually, but he is one of my favorite characters in the respect that he is very intriguing and interesting to analyze.

dream's story arc up until now revolves around control and attachments. he wants to feel in control (whether it's for safety or fueling a superiority complex or something else completely is a debate for another day, though i personally lean towards the second option), and he views attachments as a weakness that hinders him from that goal. he became aware of how he could use tommy's, and eventually everyone's, attachments against them (aka controlling them), and this eventually led to him cutting off his own attachments so he couldn't be controlled (george, sapnap, spirit, etc).

what he doesn't realize, or maybe he does subconsciously, is that he has a negative unhealthy attachment to tommy as a result of viewing tommy as a key to control everyone else. and for a while, he was in control, that is until he was locked up in prison, where most, of not all, of his power was stripped away from him, and he was left to the mercy of people like sam and quackity.

even when in prison, dream tried to exercise any semblance of control he can over others, which can be seen in ranboo's and tommy's visits to the prison. his thirst for power and control, as well as his rejection of attachments has caused a downward spiral that left him a completely changed and pathetic man, committing atrocities and causing harm to those he once cared about, and this is the main tragedy of his character that i believe cc!dream aimed to create. the question is, where do we go from here?

my initial thought, and one many still have to this day, is to let him rot in prison. not only will this let him see what it feels like to be at someone else' mercy (getting a taste of his own medicine), but it would also allow characters to navigate the playing field without the "big bad guy" connecting them to a common goal (which we have gotten a bit of in the rare lore of the last few months). thematically, it is a punishment for his behavior, and a promise of peace for everyone that suffered at his hand. characters like tommy must learn to live without their previous sense of purpose, which makes for an okay-but-interesting story arc. however, i think a more interesting option is available, for the development of dream, other characters, and the themes of the dsmp as a whole.

while the prison has stripped dream's power away from him, this closed off environment has prevented us from seeing the full effect of this on him. and more importantly, dream still has not learned that main lesson that his story revolves around: attachments are not a weakness, they're a strength and what makes you human (someone else made a really good post that explores this theme in more detail relating to tommy but i can't find it rn, i'll link it when i do). the only way to advance dream's character is to give him direct exposure to the benefits of positive attachments. right now, he only views people as a way to get what he wants and he needs that mindset to be challenged. manipulating and pushing away others is not just hurting them, it's hurting him. this has already been hinted at with techno telling him about how he made friends and is happier and stronger because of it, but that isn't enough.

if dream were to escape prison and live with techno (which seems to be the cc's plan right now), he would be directly exposed to techno's close friendships and the good it gives him, which will spur a much-needed identity crisis. dream's character arc will come full circle: he no longer has the power he used to, and he is faced with proof that he was wrong about attachments. more specifically, the way he went about getting his power is what caused him to lose it. i'm not going to debate on whether he deserves a redemption arc, but for the sake of a satisfying end to his character and present themes in the narrative, i want him to at least become aware of the flaws in his mindset.

now, while he will be escaping prison, i don't want him interacting with characters like tommy, at least not yet. he needs time to become exposed to healthy positive attachments, and going back to tommy right off the bat would result in another cycle of abuse, which would be stagnant and repetitive for both of their character arcs. when he first leaves prison, he will be resentful and itching for a sense of control, and putting him anywhere near tommy is just a recipe for disaster. in general, him staying away from most of the server when first escaping will allow for his own development while retaining the whole "navigating the playing field without the bad guy" thing for other characters that i mentioned earlier.

aside from the whole attachments thing, leaving prison will finally give us a full understanding of the impact the prison has had on dream, which will be very interesting. you don't really get that from the couple visits he gets right now, as he is still not interacting with the outside world in a way that doesn't immediately put him in a victim role.

when he finally does interact with the rest of the server as a changed man, whatever that change may be, this will also help tie loose ends for other characters whose current arcs still revolve around him (sam, quackity, wilbur, ranboo, etc).

the cc's have already started this, but i really want them to move even further away from the traditional hero-villian-antihero-etc roles and just play with the conflicting fears and motives of their characters. in my opinion, it creates more interesting characters which leads to a more complex narrative (which is why las nevadas' set up for lore appeals to me so much).

tldr; dream escaping prison will allow for the exploration of the themes of attachment relating to his character, which is a much more satisfying story arc than letting him remain in prison forever.

feel free to discuss and debate me about this (i encourage it actually), but only from a thematic and character development perspective. if you can't tell, this post isn't apologist and morality discourse, im just a lit nerd that wants to analyze themes and characters in peace.

[thosewickedlovelies]

An Ode To Marcus Moreno’s Arms

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x GN!Reader

Rating: Mature

Summary: You’re a training specialist in swordsmanship at Heroics Headquarters, so you see a lot of Marcus Moreno.

Tags: Reader has a vivid (sexual) imagination, but there’s only a few brief sections.

Word Count: 2,272

A/N: This started out as an ode to his arms, but his arms are connected to the rest of him, so. Alternative title: In Appreciation of Marcus Moreno

My assumption/headcanon of his powers are telekinesis, plus general exceptional physical prowess and weapons skills? Idk, we weren’t given much, but those feel like solid abilities for someone implied to be the super among super heroes. Idk what this is but I regret nothing.

More content/worldbuilding set in this universe 💗

--

Marcus Moreno’s arms were capable of many things.

You knew this because you saw them on an almost-daily basis. You were one of the training specialists at Heroics Headquarters, one of a large, ever-expanding staff of instructors who were experts in their respective fields of combat or weapons. Your job, essentially, was to be a superhero minus the powers- and use your abilities to keep the Heroics in top form.

Your expertise was swordsmanship, which meant you spent more time with Marcus than any of the other heroes. All of the physical trainers and specialists sparred with the Heroics in mock villain showdowns, but you also helped them hone specific skills. You were here because your skillset and abilities matched Marcus’s.

So you’ve had plenty of opportunity to behold his arms at work.

One would think that they’d be most enticing mid-action, but it was a cosmically ironic fact that there was never really a wrong moment to ogle. How that man could make merely unsheathing his swords so erotic was beyond you.

But by now you’d seen it from every angle. You were as familiar with Marcus’s technique as you were with your own, and knew well the cycle of muscle contractions which rippled up his whole body. It started with his legs: setting his stance, primed and poised on the balls of his feet. Then every muscle in his torso, his clinging t-shirts sliding over taut flesh as they rode up with the lifting of his arms- his arms. Biceps suddenly incredibly present and visibly straining past barely-existent sleeves, tendons flexing rigid and obvious, a tangle of pathways you wanted to map with your tongue.

This show was best when he had started his day with tactical theory sessions, because then his expressive face got involved. Oh yes, it wasn’t enough for him just to be built the way he was, his face had to go and be attractive as well.

Tedious strategy debates with Miracle Guy during these sessions never failed to get under his skin- you could always tell how much steam Marcus had to let off based on the clench of his jaw. Or the way he’d drag his bottom lip over his teeth, nostrils flaring in an almost-snarl. When that happened you knew he gripped the hilts of his swords a little tighter, because you’d see the ridges in his wrist dip and pull like piano strings perpendicular to the line of his gloves. The blades would sing little sharper on those days, his arms freeing them in a jerk rather than their usual smooth, deliberate slide.

It was amazing you ever made it beyond unsheathing your weapons.

But oh, were you glad you did, because watching Marcus Moreno fight was truly a treat. The control he had over his body was remarkable; even when his limbs flung and stretched, they were to ready to contract again at a second’s notice. “Fight” was really too limited of a term for it- Marcus manipulated his body in an incredible harmony of mind and muscle, using his weapons- including his telekinesis- as extensions of himself.

You wondered sometimes how fine his control over his telekinesis was- if he could use it on himself. If he did use it somehow to give his blows that devastating extra speed and strength.

It was easy to understand, after witnessing him, why battle is often described as a dance.

On particularly ruthless training days, his tan skin would gleam with sweat. It would bead and trickle along the pulsing veins in his arms, drawing your attention even more, and salacious scenes would flash behind your eyelids: those same glistening forearms visible in your peripherals as they box you against a wall, that same intent glitter in his dark eyes as they come closer and closer, breathless, his chest heaving into yours-

You never let on to any of this though. You were a master of the blade, and had trained too thoroughly to let the appearance of an opponent get to you. Besides that fact, you would never do anything to risk your place with the Heroics. Although you were an authority figure, they were still superheroes, and thus unlike anyone else you’d worked with- it made for a challenging, stimulating dynamic in which you were constantly both instructor and student.

Even outside of the training arena, Marcus’s arms were a sight.

Holding data pads or writing utensils as he led the Heroics in discussions of group tactics, deftly manipulating characters onscreen or scribbling things on a whiteboard. Sometimes he would go to these sessions straight from physical training, and the cooling sweat on his skin would raise goosebumps all along the smooth flesh.

You observed how gently his arms could move in yet other circumstances.

Training specialists often joined in when the Heroics were given new gadgets to play with. And although these days tended to be slower, they still made you sweat. Watching the caution with which Marcus handled the gear at first, the slow care he reserved for things with which he was still becoming familiar. The precision and that control he always kept- even when his frustration slipped out in the form of snarky remarks, he was always conscious of his movements. As he gained confidence, the surety would return to his motions, his shoulders squaring in quiet triumph- his broad, broad shoulders, which you had imagined far too many times propping up your thighs while his hands and mouth were otherwise engaged between them.

You wondered if Marcus would treat your body like something new he had to master. If his hands would probe and caress with the same thoroughness. If the same wicked delight would steal over his features as he learned how best to coax you toward his desired goals; if his fascinated smirk would change after the thousandth time he had taken you apart.

It didn’t help that these sessions highlighted that he was a kind, competent teacher. His teammates exasperated him sometimes, but Marcus was the first to step in when one of them was struggling. A light touch to rearrange their stance, an encouraging word or smile. If you hadn’t personally felt the power thrumming under his skin, you would have never guessed that such a soft man was capable of his immense abilities.

Occasionally you had to remind yourself not to get all dopey-eyed when he was instructing the kids. If you thought he was patient with the adult Heroics, it was nothing compared to how he interacted with their younger counterparts. Equally firm and joking in turn, he taught them every trick he knew while desperately hoping they would never have to use the knowledge.

Some days were easier for him than others- the times they practiced with weapons could have unexpectedly diverting consequences. Marcus let Guppy hold his katanas, once- she was fully capable with her shark strength, but the vision of the diminutive girl brandishing swords that were taller than she was, her face aglow with a ferocious grin, had all the others in fits.

You swore he was suppressing laughter himself as he carefully took them away from her. His hands, already distracting enough, looked comically vast compared to hers as he delicately maneuvered them to pluck the swords from her grasp. Something about the sight of his thick fingers, resettling themselves around the hilts with reflexive ease, made your mouth dry.

His fingers squeezed other things, too, and it made flames leap low in your belly every time.

Lime wedges, on the rare occasions he indulged in drinks stronger than wine at the Headquarters bar. His friends’s shoulders, in affection and farewell, after relaxing with them at said bar following hard days. You longed to be one of those who Marcus slung an arm around in jest, a laugh shaking his shoulders and sparkling in his eyes. Would his skin be as warm as it was while swinging a weapon? What would his body feel like softened in mirth, instead of vibrating with focus?

You didn’t blame him for his more formal attitude during work hours. His days were busy, and you rarely saw him off the training mats. You had shared a few evenings with him on nights when the bar was quieter, though. He was perfectly friendly, treating you just like anyone else he was getting to know.

Tonight was one of those quieter nights, but you didn’t do more than cast a quick glance at the small group sitting in the corner before slumping to the bar. You were worn out today, and just wanted something strong and solitary before going home.

You sighed into the numbing wash of your drink, your eyes drifting shut. Nobody would bother you this evening; it wasn’t that kind of atmosphere.

Except- the barstool next to yours scraped against the floor.

You inhaled deeply, preparing to politely rip into whatever idiot was assuming you needed company- only to have the words struck off your lips by the apprehensive brown eyes of Marcus Moreno.

“Hey,” he said, clearing his throat. “I’m sorry to bother you. You can tell me to march right back to my table if you like, but uh, I just wanted to see if you were all right. After today.”

You could see that he genuinely meant it- he was perched only partially on the barstool, ready to take off again if you said the word. But his gaze was curious, concerned.

You brow furrowed. “After today?” you echoed, too caught off-guard to think of anything else. What could he mean? Nothing special had happened today. He’d disarmed you, sure, but it wasn’t the first time that had occurred in the eight months you’d been working with him.

Marcus shifted uncertainly. “You just seemed...tired. Reflexes slower than usual,” he noted wryly. “And, well. We have matching bags.” He pointed to his face, where dark shadows were visible beneath his eyes. He offered a self-deprecating, tentative smile, conscious that he was treading in new territory.

It takes you a minute to process. In all the time you’ve spent observing his fighting techniques to perfection, you’d never considered that he could have been using those same opportunities to observe you. It provokes a funny feeling in your chest, twisting your breath up in your lungs like tangled ribbon.

“Oh,” you murmur, surprised but unoffended by his mention of the bags under your eyes. “Well...I am tired today, I guess.” You took a sip of your drink, gauging his interest, hesitating before continuing. “My sister broke her hip, so she just moved in with me for while she heals. It’s been...a stressful transition,” you admitted.

He angles himself toward you, attention fully committed and eyes widening in sympathy. “Oh gosh, that’s terrible. Do you need some time off? I can clear it with the boss for you, work with Santino for however long you need.” He seemed to straighten up, as if ready to spring away and take care of it the moment you answered.

“No, please,” you chuckled in appreciation of his earnestness. “I might need a few shorter days, but neither of us need me fussing over her 24/7.” Both you and your sister were strongly independent. It meant that you had often been at odds when you were younger, but you were all each other had now, and had made efforts to improve your relationship.

Marcus nodded in understanding, settling again. He seemed at a loss for if he should leave or say something else, so you made the choice for him.

“Tired of getting your ass kicked in my lessons, Moreno? You know Santino doesn’t work you as hard.” Your fellow swordsmanship instructor was slightly younger, a newer hire who was still a little bit in awe of the Heroics.

You didn’t usually speak so flippantly to him, but his eyebrows arced high at the challenge, a smile tugging on his lips. “Sounds like somebody needs a reminder of who kicked whose ass today, ma’am.” Rolling right along with your apparent newfound playfulness.

You pinpointed, suddenly, what was different about him tonight, why this interaction felt different compared to your others. There’d always been an air of deference about him before, as if even outside of the arena he considered you a superior. But tonight he was just treating you like a peer, a regular person. Maybe it had taken your excessively dragging day for him to come to terms with the fact that you were a regular person, but the ice finally felt like it had broken between you and you just...talked, after that. For longer than both of you probably intended.

“Shoot, I have to go get Missy,” Marcus realized, catching sight of his watch. “But you- you’ll be here again? I mean, I see you here a lot.” He stumbled over his words.

Did he? It was true that you were often at the bar at the same time, but for him to acknowledge that meant that he actually noticed you. Remembered your presence.

“Yeah, I’m here pretty regularly,” you confirmed, cautiously hopeful.

“Good. I mean, I’ll see you, then- next time.” His voice rasped low, but there was a nervousness in his expression. He twisted his jacket between his large hands.

He wanted to see you again. “Yes.” You smiled at him, surprise and pleasure shining through. “I’ll see you next time,” you said with conviction.

His eyes crinkled in answer, and your breath caught. Your ordered yourself not to watch him leave the room.

You drove home with a quiet grin on your face.

[demonicheadcanons]

Pact Headcanons

Okay bear with me because I’m starting this post on mobile at 4am but I’m thinking about pacts.

I’ve had a headcanon for a while that, after the MC makes a pact with Beel, they start to get hungry more often, and tend to build up muscle easier. So I thought I’d go ahead and just, write random pact headcanons for each of the boys?

I have tried not to include any clear spoilers, but if you haven’t yet made a pact with a specific brother, you may want to skip over them.

Some of the information may be considered dark, as a warning.

General Headcanons

The stronger the demon, the more potent / powerful the pact.

However, pacts will also get stronger the closer you are (relationship-wise, but this can also be proximity based) to a demon. For example, if you’re very close to Mammon and not close to Lucifer, your pact with Mammon will overpower the pact with Lucifer and amplify the effects brought about by Mammon’s pact. For a demon further on down the chain you would really have to hate Lucifer and be incredibly close to the demon to overpower the pact. For Mammon you only have to be friends, and close friends with Levi, etc. You can measure how close one of the brothers considers you by examining the effects you feel from your pact with them.

If two pacts interact (e.g. Levi’s envy and Lucifer’s pride), the stronger one will win out, or it will reduce the effects of both pacts. Ergo, you could balance out the negatives of one with the positives of the other by carefully adjusting your relationships with the parties involved.

All pacts have good and bad effects. They’ll vary from person to person, depending on their personality, but with the brothers their sins are the main influence of the pacts.

Having more pacts will reduce the rate at which you age, meaning Solomon is essentially immortal. Again, having pacts with stronger demons will amplify this, so having a pact with 7 of the most powerful demons in the Devildom would heavily slow down the rate at which the MC ages. If you make a pact with Diavolo, you’ll stop aging. Who knows what would happen if you somehow made a pact with his father? ((Note: if any pact involves selling your soul, the aging process will begin again, as you presumably need to die eventually for the exchange to be made))

Pacts create a weak empathy bridge between the demon and human. It’s not perfect, and it’s easy to ignore, but if you’re feeling down then the demons you have a pact with will be aware of it. The reverse is also true.

Even without a pact, the brothers can ‘feed’ from their sins. If you feel proud, Lucifer can gain energy from that, etc. For the MC, its weak initially as the brothers’ powers don’t work on them. However, once a pact is formed, it becomes a source of energy and power for them - this can be dangerous with demons who don’t know how to control themselves, as they may amplify the negatives of their pact as it means they can feast on their sin (or, for other demons, on whatever their influence is). More responsible demons, like the brothers, know how to balance it so that they’re able to feed without harming the MC, as this means they have a more stable food source for longer, and because they won’t want to cause harm to the MC.

Let’s get to the specifics for each brother:

Lucifer

Advantages: When you make a pact with Lucifer, you immediately become more confident. His pact is the strongest of the brothers, him being the eldest and most powerful, so there’s no waiting time for the pact to take effect. Essentially you’ll find it easier to be proud of both yourself, and others. His pact interferes with Levi’s - it counteracts the jealousy that you’d feel, and replaces it with pride, as a pact with Lucifer holds more power usually. His pact also grants an easier understanding of your surroundings and the people around you - whether it’s due to the confidence boost, allowing your anxieties to relax and to let you properly take in a situation, or just part of the pact is debatable.

Disadvantages: Pride easily leads to arrogance. Strangely enough, if you were already a confident person, you’ll find it easier to control yourself and not become too arrogant. But if you were struggling before, you’re going to swing wildly between completely adoring and despising yourself. Because the pact is so potent this can be dangerous, and you might need to distance yourself from a Lucifer and slowly build up a relationship again to be able to adapt to it.

Pact marks: Lucifer is a bit 50/50 on this. He’d like the pact mark to be in clear sight, because his pact was made to demonstrate a control and ownership over the human. However, because of how pacts usually work, he might fear that it would be perceived as being the other way about. Pact marks in clear sight are fair game, but perhaps somewhere where you could easily cover it up if needed would be preferred, so that he can see it when he wants to without it being on show constantly. He wouldn’t want it on show when you’re at RAD, honestly. He’d prefer for it to be on your back, hand if you’re willing to wear gloves, or neck if you cover it up with a high collar or scarf. Like most things, it all depends on his mood. He’ll adapt and make it clear that he’s no one’s pet no matter what you decide to do.

Mammon

Advantages: We’re already told that if Mammon likes someone, money comes easily to them. His pact partially influences this; if you want something, you’ll find that you’re able to get it much easier than before. This works best for material things, but if you’re very close to Mammon you’ll find that you’ll be able to win over people easier. It isn’t the same kind of charm that a pact with Asmo would grant, but still works fairly well. A pact with both brothers would boost the effects heavily, and you’ll find that you have most people wrapped around your finger after a simple greeting.

Disadvantages: Like Mammon, you might end up stealing to satisfy your greed. Getting everything you want is all well and good but it starts to lose its charm, whereas stealing still has some kind of buzz to it. At the same time, you may not even consider it to be stealing; it will start to feel as though everything already belongs to you. You’ll also become greedy for attention and feel lonely quite quickly. If you weren’t greedy before the effects won’t be as bad.

Pact marks: Mammon is possessive. He wants his pact mark on show - his number one spot would likely be on the back of your hands, so that when you’re holding hands he can rub his thumb over it, and so that its visible when you’re writing in classes or if you raise your hand to your face.

Leviathan

Advantages: Levi’s pact doesn’t necessarily offer many benefits to some people. If you’re willing to step back when you feel jealous and look inside yourself, its perfect for self-introspection and personal growth. It would be best combined with other pacts (especially Lucifer’s), and mostly works as a way of dampening the disadvantages that stronger pacts may offer by preventing you from becoming overly arrogant. It also helps to balance out Mammon’s pact, but does so by lowering your confidence in yourself so that you don’t seek attention or material possessions as much.

Disadvantages: You’re going to feel jealous constantly. If you have low self-esteem, it will present like Levi’s - you’ll believe that the world is unfair, that others are better than you. If you have a higher self-esteem, this will mix in an unhealthy fashion with the arrogance granted by Lucifer’s pact to make you simultaneously believe that you’re too good for everyone, and that you deserve better but can’t reach it because people are in your way. Overall, his pact is the most likely to isolate you from others.

Neutral: Depending on how you view it, this could be a good or bad thing, but Levi’s pact makes people jealous of you. This means that they tend to view you as being someone better than them, and might offer you some opportunities, but it can also make it difficult to form meaningful relationships and will likely isolate you in the end up. This will also have an impact on Mammon and Asmo’s pacts - if Levi’s pact is stronger, it will make people more likely to bend to your will, whilst also disliking you more as they feel unreasonably jealous of you whilst also being drawn to you. If the other’s pacts are stronger, it will lessen obsessions that have no base and will make it easier to form decent relationships that aren’t so superficial.

Pact marks: Anywhere. He doesn’t mind where it is, but if its smaller or less obvious than his brothers’ pact marks, he’s going to feel upset and not know how to deal with it. It all depends on your reasoning, but if you appear to see him as equal to or better than his brothers, he really won’t mind at all. When he’s feeling less awkward, he’ll want to trace his fingers over it, so preferably somewhere he can easily access. Number one spots would be on your shoulder, neck, or wrist.

Satan

Advantages: His pact, oddly, is a good confidence boost. More specifically, it makes you a lot less likely to put up with unfair and unjust behaviour. You’re more confident in speaking out against the things you don’t agree with. You’ll likely end up reading a lot more and educating yourself on everything so that you have the most concrete knowledge on any topic of discussion.

Disadvantages: If you’re not careful, discussions can become arguments and can lead to bad blood easily. You’ll be less forgiving than before, less willing to let things go. And you’re constantly, constantly angry. You’ll have to find a healthy outlet for this quickly, or it’ll consume you. Some relationships may end up tainted by the feelings his pact creates.

Your relationship: Your relationship with Satan is going to be strange. You both act as a comfort for each other, and when you’re around him both of you will be less angry. However, if Satan is in a bad mood and in need of a quick energy boost, he might decide to make you angry so that he can feed off of it. He sees it as being a short term risk; he can soothe you after, if he decides to, and if he believes you’re close enough that you won’t hold onto it. The problem is when he doesn’t. He likes seeing you angry, although preferably not at him, but in the end it really won’t matter so long as you’re mad at someone. Relationships can quickly become unhealthy, but your relationship with him will swing wildly if the two of you don’t sit and talk things over and work out a good balance; the best results would be if you were to go to Satan when angry about something else and let him soothe you by drawing out your anger. That way he gets a boost and the two of you remain relatively calm, keeping your anger in a safe and controlled space.

Pact marks: Back of the hand. He wants to see it when you’re reading. He already builds up a tendency to kiss you on the back of the hand, and he’d like to be reminded of your pact when he does so. Its a softer gesture that he doesn’t offer to many, and he gets to offer it to someone who accepts him no matter what, with a visible reminder of that.

Asmodeus

Advantages: People are going to like you. You’ll be able to charm almost anyone (exceptions being people who are immune to the demons’ powers, and anyone with more power than you). Even if you can’t charm someone, you’ll likely to be able to mildly influence their opinion of you. You’ll also become better at reading people, and will be able to guess at their desires. With enough popularity, you may end up influencing the worlds’ beauty standards to more closely match how you look (if you decide to do influential work in the public eye).

Disadvantages: Whether you try to or not, you’re going to attract all kinds of people. This can put you in dangerous situations and can easily build obsessions. You’ll find the human world to be a much more dangerous place, and will have to be wary of the people around you. Eventually you’ll be able to better influence how much people like you, so that it won’t become an obsession, but you’ll need some form of protection at all times in the human world for quite some time after the pact is made.

Pact marks: Asmo doesn’t mind so long as he gets to see it when he wants to. He wants you to be happy and confident in yourself. That said, he does want to feel like your first priority. Like Levi, he wouldn’t want his pact mark to be smaller or less obvious than his brothers’ marks. His favourite places would be on your chest or the top centre of your back.

Beelzebub

Advantages: Beel’s pact gives you an iron stomach. You can eat anything and as much as you want without it having much of an impact on your weight, although you will end up building muscle a lot easier. Your health will improve, and become as ideal as it can be. You’ll find that you don’t get sick very often and have a stronger immune system. Any dietary needs will become less prominent, from allergies to intolerances. Overall, his pact offers a lot of physical benefits.

Disadvantages: You’re going to feel hungry almost all of the time. Beel’s hunger influences your own, so when he’s hungry, you’ll be hungry too. Not only will eating take up more of your time and focus, but you’ll also have to spend a lot more on food. You won’t be anywhere near his level, but you’ll probably be hitting somewhere around triple the normal recommended daily intake.

Pact marks: Beel wants you to be happy, like Asmo, so you can put the pact mark wherever you want. He won’t pay much notice to it unless he’s feeling particularly low or possessive, but even then just having you around calms him down. He doesn’t need the pact mark to be a reminder of your relationship - he’s got you, and that’s more than enough for him. He’d probably like for you to have the mark over your stomach, if you’d be content with that - it’s an amusing idea to him, and it just feels right. Also, if he wraps his arms around you from behind, he can rest his hand over it.

Belphegor

Advantages: After resting, you’ll function better. You’ll be able to focus better, you’ll be more perceptive, you feel healthier, etc. On good days, you feel well rested after quick naps. His pact is a huge boost to your brain and body, and your mood will benefit from it too, leaving you feeling happier and more capable.

Disadvantages: More often than not, you need to sleep more than before, and on bad days, no amount of rest will be enough. You’ll also easily slip into bad habits in which you end up sleeping instead of actually taking care of yourself. Like Levi’s, his pact can be isolating as sleeping can often seem more appealing than spending meaningful time with people. A controlled sleep schedule is necessary to keep things under control.

Pact marks: Where you put the pact mark is your own decision, and he’s not going to make it for you. That said, he’d prefer for it to be somewhere you can easily see, so that you remember him and think of him often, and he’d rather you didn’t cover it up. He views the pact mark as a lasting reminder of him, and feels betrayed if you don’t view it the same way. The most ideal place would probably be on your hands or wrists, but he’s more likely to have places he hates (e.g. your back, where you couldn’t easily see it) than places he likes.

AN: Sorry for rambling and if this is disorganised ;u;. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!! Feel free to ask any questions you have ^^

[thepageofhopes]

Undertale Multiverse Classpects Part 1/??

It’s inevitable once I get super into something that I do this.

I will most likely do more characters but for now I started with just some of the biggest characters of the multiverse/underverse specifically. 

Explanations will be under the cut. Long, long, explanations. (Almost 3k words!)

Error: Bard of Time Ink: Rogue of Space Nightmare: Knight of Doom Dream: Page of Life Cross: Witch of Blood XChara: Prince of Heart XGaster: Thief of Light

Most of this was done using the theories of 0pacfica, whose amazing classpect theory posts can be found on Ao3 here:

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960270

Though this was also cross referenced with bladekindeyewear’s older theories (particularly on the roles of the classes and active/passive pairs) and a sprinkling of the extended zodiac. 

So this is another classpect where it’s actually easier to do in pairs for a lot of the characters due to how intertwined they are. 

Error: Bard of Time

Ink: Rogue of Space

When starting with these two, it really was a giant debate between me and my friends about whether Ink and Error were time and space or hope and rage. It was very hard to move away from Hope/Rage when it represents unchecked creation and destruction which...is pretty much the entire backbone of underverse, but after lots of back and forth we found Time and Space fit better overall. 

It’s useful to think of Space as Beginnings and Time as Endings. Ultimately what Ink does is facilitate a bunch of new beginnings. Ink is also all about the growth of the multiverse, which is the closest analogue we really have to Skaia. Hope may be creation, but it is creation as counter to the greater narrative, and often counter to Skaia and the reproduction of the universe. On the flip side, Rage, while being destruction, is generally destruction of anything non-fundamental. Error, by contrast, does not care what is being destroyed. His goal is ultimately the end to the multiverse itself; the end of the narrative. Time and Space are also the main building blocks of the universe and without them sessions become void. Ink and Error ultimately represent the core of the multiverse and are also key in most of the big multiverse spanning stories. As well, there’s really no escaping how similar Error and Caliborn act in both personality and actions. 

Finally, looking at the extended zodiac, even their personalities fit decently well, though mostly Ink and Space. While classpect is actually much more about narrative arcs and roles than personalities, it’s still useful to look at the most personality based descriptions of the extended zodiac. Space has the description ‘They are patient, masters of the art of 'wait-and-see', and are inclined to take things as they come. That isn't to say that they're pushovers or willing to let injustice lie-they just choose their battles wisely, understanding that sometimes you have to let something burn to the ground in order to build it back better and stronger than before. To this effect, they tend to be innovators, concerned with creation and redemption.‘ and if that doesn’t describe Ink in underverse at least, then nothing else does. Time is a little less fitting personality wise for Error, but these few bits are pertinent: ‘Their lives are often marked by struggle, not so much because fate has it in for them, but because they are fundamentally incapable of just accepting things as they come.’ ‘At their worst they are ruthless, defensive, and impulsive.‘ 

So now that Aspect is out of the way, I can explain classes. Let’s start with the easy one first. There’s no way we could have Error as anything other than a destroyer class, so Bard or Prince had to be one of the titles. Then from there it comes down to whether Error is active or passive. While it may be easy to say ‘well he actively destroys things’ it’s useful to remember someone's powers can look very similar even if active or passive. My go to for this is Roxy who despite being a passive void class, ultimately can still actively steal nothingness from concepts.

And I have to ask- does Error really actively use his aspect? Because I don’t think so. There’s a popular fan concept of Error as a ‘Forced god of Destruction’ that I think really cements this. Time as an aspect tends to also represent Fate, and if there’s a character who has been actively fucked over by Fate, it’s Error. Even from his time as Genos, Error has been the butt monkey of terrible circumstances. 0pacifica talks about ‘Student’ classes (Thieves, Seers, and Bards) as one where the aspect changes the player, and if that doesn’t describe Error just. 

Also it gives Error a codpiece and isn’t that just fucking perfect.

So onto the harder class to explain- Ink being a Rogue. Unlike the Destroyer class, there’s no ‘Creator’ class to nicely fit Ink into (although some suspect that the Heal class of Sylph and most likely Maid class can double as both Heal and Create) but even then, Ink doesn’t really actively create. Rather he tends to try and inspire creators to create. For Ink it made more sense to use 0pacifica’s chart to lower down the class, and then make sure the powers still fit from there. 

To start with, there’s no way Ink is anything but a mutualist class. Both Ink and the multiverse benefit from Ink’s role in the multiverse. But even more telling that Ink is a mutualist class is the line in the flowchart ‘The story is not complete until I have accomplished what I have set out to do or found another way to satisfy my initial impulse.’ From the start of Underverse at least to now (though I also suspect to the end of Underverse) the story has been driven by Ink’s actions and motivations. There wouldn’t be a story without him, for good or ill. 

From there using the chart, it was easy to lower it down to Rogue or Knight. Ink really isn’t changed or used by their aspect, unlike Error. So it really comes down to does Ink use his aspect or change his aspect. From here I really like 0pacifica’s one sentence descriptions. Rogue is ‘I change my aspect to a more useful form’ while Knight is ‘I use my aspect like a tool’. Eventually we decided on Rogue because Ink doesn’t really actively use his aspect- he’s much more about inspiration- allowing others to steal his ideas, if you will ;P. He ultimately changes other beginnings in service both to the multiverse and himself- squeezing them for paint so he can keep feeling. 

Also Rogue just kind of fits Ink’s aesthetic with that cute little bandit mask

What’s really cool is these two classes are also on opposite ends of the ‘Reinvent/Change’ segment of the class chart. 

Hopefully this is the longest segment..

Nightmare: Knight of Doom

Dream: Page of Life

Here’s another pair we really had to decide between Hope/Rage for and Doom/Life. But honestly there wasn’t actually a lot of debate. If Doom is Stasis and Inertia, then that fits Nightmare’s ultimate goal to a T. If Nightmare gets his way, the entire multiverse will be plunged into negativity, and with no contrast, everything would just be mired in the same. In contrast to both Nightmare and in particular, Ink, Dream is all about growth and making things better. Joku has specifically stated that Dream and Ink had a falling out due to this- Dream doesn’t care about creator intentions or their story. If there is someone suffering, Dream wants to fix it. 

Another way these two fit is in something 0pacifica observes regarding Doom and Life players- Life players come from ‘the top of the pile’ with every advantage behind them, while Doom players come from the ‘bottom of the heap’ with everything working against them. From their beginnings Dream has always been put upon a pedestal, with the love and adoration of the villagers surrounding them, while Nightmare was always hated, always considered as a problem before he has any type of sway over negativity. In actuality, they were born equal, but the circumstances of which side they happened to represent tilted them in their respective directions. 

For the extended zodiac, since Nightmare is such a terrible person, even more so than Error in a lot of ways, means that it’s not as useful. The descriptions ar emeant for people to identify with after all, and no one is gonna self-identify with being told they are a monster. There is a bit of the extended zodiac we can use though, and that’s Nightmare as a commiserator. In underverse he gains Cross’s trust by empathizing (in a way) with his negativity, and he surrounds himself with crew that have been in as bad circumstances as he has been. Life however, has a great section that fits Dream perfectly: ‘ Those bound to the aspect of Life are the universe's healers. They are concerned with the betterment of themselves and those around them, as well as the onward march of positive progress. Deeply empathetic, they have an intuitive understanding of other's suffering and the best way of righting those wrongs.’

When looking at classes, we considered the Commensalist sections for both Dream and Nightmare for a while. But we ultimately decided against that specifically with the line that ‘my accomplishments and failings are purviews of the fringes of the narrative’ which just can’t be true for two beings so fundamental to the multiverse. Indeed, you’ll actually see none of the characters in this post fall under this side specifically because I started with the most ‘important’ characters. We ultimately decided on mutualist for Nightmare- despite his ‘bottom of the heap’ status, he ultimately tends to take control of the narrative, and much of underverse and even a lot of fan works are centered around his actions, much like Ink. Dream, by contrast, is constantly fighting an uphill battle and for most of underverse is more a pawn than any true figure of movement in the story. Parasitic fits quite well for poor Dream who no matter what ending of Joku’s story you go by, always dies.  

There really is no other character who quite wields their aspect and powers to their advantage like Nightmare. I really can’t find a lot to add here, it was a pretty unambiguous choice and had very little debate in our classpect talk. All his manipulations are steeped in death and decay and well, negativity, all which fall under Doom. Knight is theorized to be the active Exploit class which fits nicely into 0pacifica’s class descriptions. So, for Dream, looking under parasitism, Dream doesn’t really change his aspect, he’s pretty much defined by Life. This lowered it down to Prince and Page. Dream, unlike Nightmare, isn’t really an active manipulator of his aspect and of his positivity. It’s more a part of him, and thus Page, who in the flowchart literally uses the line ‘I am defined by my aspect’ seemed to be the perfect fit.

Like Ink and Error, these two are also opposites on the ‘manifest’ side of classes, and even better, Knight is the active Exploit class while Page is the passive exploit class. 

Thank god this section was actually shorter

Cross: Witch of Blood

XChara: Prince of Heart

While these two characters aren’t opposites in aspect or class, it’s useful to talk about both of these two at once both because of how closely they are tied together, but also because how similar their goals and narrative journeys are in general. 

Basically with aspect it came down to Blood and Heart for both of them. The more material aspects really have nothing to do with either of them, both of them are much more focused on narrative meaning. Light/Void is out of the question as when it comes down to it, through all their posturing, they ultimately are much more focused on themselves than any kind of big picture or big over-arching questions on the nature of reality. This also phases out Mind for both of them. And finally, this sentence on Breath is about as anti Cross/XChara as it comes: ‘what’s meaningful and important is discovering something new, expanding that perspective, broadening the meaning-horizon and rising above the mere material of the world until ‘tradition’ is a speck of dust on a marble’.

Ultimately we went with Blood for Cross over Heart. Cross is primarily motivated by the past in a way XChara really isn’t. Hell, one of the main reasons Cross decided to fight against Frisk and XChara in Timeline X was because the timeline they were currently in was a happy place for him and the rest of the monsters. Cross is also shown to utilize bonds- it’s a vision of Cross that stops XChara in his fight against Swap/Blue. XChara, on the other hand, is much more focused on the idea of control and being in control, because they know what’s best better than anyone else. Heart is appropriately labeled as ‘egoism’ in 0pacifica’s chart and if there’s one thing XChara has, it’s an ego. There’s also the line ‘Heart is the reading into and reading out of, the situating of what’s been read in the personal and the familiar, the reshaping and reinterpreting of the text outside of the author’s hands.’ If we see XGaster as an author, then what better describe’s XChara’s role?

Honestly the extended zodiac isn’t really great for these two, once again due to the fact they are largely negative and corrupted characters. Most of what’s there isn’t truly yet in the text but implied in the opening to Underverse Season 2 (Cross being a leader through inspiration) or something that I’ve basically already covered (Heart being self-obsessed). This is long enough already so lets just move on. 

There’s no way either of them are anything other than a parasitic class. ‘I could beat myself bloody against the bars of the narrative and still get no closer to the form of success I personally desire’ describes both of their experiences in XTale and Season 1 perfectly. (’All my efforts were for nothing..’) As well, for how much these characters were corrupted and damaged throughout the course of Underverse, what changed them was much more outside forces than anything having to do with their aspect- they both tend to own their aspect. 

XChara is pretty definitively a Prince- He is incredibly talented at utilizing his own personal potential and even his own ego to advance his own agenda, even as it actively fucks him over. And how do his overwrite powers manifest? A complete domination of others personalities and identity. He destroys others identities and personal narratives. Cross is a tough one because most of what we’ve seen of his powers and actions have been actively manipulated by XChara whose very aspect dominates identity. But one thing that we very much see in Underverse is how Cross actively forces other people to team up and form bonds to stop him. This forwards the narrative while being actively detrimental to Cross himself. And finally, one of the last moments we see with the new Cross at the end of season 1 is him actively changing his bond/deal with Nightmare to save Dream, which gives Dream the determination and ability to escape to the Omega Timeline with the other survivors. Unfortunately most of what is in the actual text isn’t super concrete but there is enough foreshadowing and implications of where Cross’s character is going to go that Witch just ‘feels’ like the right fit. 

Whew I was afraid this was somehow going to be as long/longer than the first segment

XGaster: Thief of Light

This one should hopefully be fairly short as if there was a classpect title there was the least amount of debate and back and forth on, XGaster was it. 

There’s no way XGaster isn’t Light. The literal second I saw the sentence of Light that says ‘There is one answer’ there was no way he could be anything else. XGaster’s entire storyline is about finding/creating the one true perfect universe. Essentially, in classpect and narrative terms, his entire narrative is about the Search for truth and meaning. Which is literally the sentence used to describe Light in 0pacifica’s writeup. 

In the interest of wrapping. this. shit. up. I’m just gonna post this section from the Light part of the extended zodiac. It feels fairly self explanatory. ‘The Light-bound will go after knowledge with a fierce intensity that others may find distasteful. They aren't overly concerned with laws or norms, either. They often take rules as simple suggestions, instead searching for loopholes or work-arounds.’

Class is where I will probably actually have to explain a little more. I don’t think mutualist is anything I really need to extensively justify- the narrative of Underverse bends to accommodate the goals of Ink and XGaster, basically everything I said about Ink also works with XGaster with how closely they are tied. 

The fundamental shift of XGaster’s narrative arc and even personality is all based around knowledge. He learns from Ink that other multiverses exist and in that instant it sets him on a new path. Thieves are all about acquiring more of their aspect to change and benefit themselves, and XGaster literally gathers ideas and knowledge from other universes to create and enrich his own. I know it’s cheeky to not have just one but two canon titles, but they undeniably fit. 

Also he sure does have all the irons in the fire *shot*

Aaaaaaaaaaand we’re done! Look how fast that last segment went. 

[musclesandhammering]

Loki (2021) Positivity from an Anti

Ok so all of my mutuals know I’m extremely anti-Loki (2021), anti-sylki, and anti-sylvie. But at a certain point, even we antis get tired of all the negativity. So! Here’s some Loki series commentary in the opposite direction! This is a list of all the things about the show that I loved :)

Also adding a disclaimer that all of this is just my opinion and some of my fellow antis (or even people who liked the show) might disagree, and that’s fine! I’ve been planning this post for awhile. I always say in my other posts that I don’t entirely hate the show and I wanted to be a little more specific about what I think are its good aspects. Feel free to leave your thoughts!

• Mobius is a gem (Owen Wilson owns my whole heart) and his relationship with Loki is so so great. He’s not one-dimensional at all, he has conflicted loyalty and is morally complex, and he has the tragic backstory- which makes him a perfect choice for eventually becoming Loki’s first genuine friend.

• The casting was really really great. Lots of women and people of color. Most of the female actresses (as well as the males) are over 30, which isn’t very common and is fantastic!

• Superb acting all around. I can’t think of a single scene where the actors under or oversold it.

�� Beautiful set design, incredible cgi, and gorgeous cinematography overall. It looked more like a movie than a tv show, which is really good.

• Kang being the big bad was a huge plus for me. Johnathan Majors was perfect in the role, his vibes were immaculate, and I was honestly pretty worried that the man behind the curtain would end up being another Loki variant, which imo would’ve been boring and predictable and counter-productive, so it was a big relief when that didn’t happen.

• I like that it sets up a bunch of future marvel movies, rather than being contained to its own little world. It gives it more importance and (hopefully) will encourage writers to not just toss Loki’s character aside in future projects.

• All the Loki variants were delightful. All of them except Sylvie. Kid Loki has my heart. Boastful Loki is a fashion icon. Alligator Loki is a savage. President Loki is the superior variant. Classic Loki became my fav character in less than half an episode.

• It showed some more variety in Loki’s magic. A lot of his powers we’ve seen before, but it feels like they were portrayed a bit more blatantly in the show. The energy blasts, the telekinesis, the teleportation… Outstanding.

• It also implied that Loki has the potential to be waaaay more powerful than he knows he is right now, which? Yes.

• Some of the quotes- and the themes behind them- are just profound as hell. Such as:

“I think we’re stronger than we realise.”

“It’s never too late to change.”

“You can be whoever you wanna be, even someone good.”

“We’re Lokis. We survive. It’s what we do.”

“Loki, God of Outcasts.”

“The universe wants to break free, that’s why it manifests chaos.”

• Technically Loki was Marvel’s first canon lgbt (bi) character, which is a win. His genderfluidity is also technically canon, even if it wasn’t really acknowledged on-screen.

• There were a lot of throwback references to Thor 1, Avengers, and Thor The Dark World. Which I loved.

• Sylvie’s so pretty. Her hair and makeup and costume were all perfect.

• Big fan of Loki finally getting Laevateinn.

• Sufficiently slutty imagery, courtesy of a female director (Loki in a collar, kneeling to Sif, President Loki looking down into the bunker, the hair flips)

• The music was Excellent Wonderful and Superb.

• I love that Loki being a good singer is now canon.

• I love that Asgardians having their own language is now canon (even if it’s basically just Icelandic).

• I also love that they disproved all of those “Loki was a shy nerdy wallflower pre-canon” theories in Episode 3. The drinking/eating/singing scene was fun, if a bit wacky.

• There’s a million different reasons why Loki does what he does, especially in regards to the New York attack (I’m literally writing a huge meta on them), but somehow I never considered that Loki being desperate for control was one of them. It makes a lot of sense, and I always love getting new insights into his motivations.

• I love that Loki finally outright acknowledged that he doesn’t enjoy hurting people. We Been Knew™️ but it’s still nice to hear it out loud from his own mouth.

• The TVA outfit wasn’t as hideous as some people make it out to be. It could’ve been A Look, even. You know, if he’d just accessorised a little better. And kept the jacket on. And not gotten sweaty. And not gotten dirty. And maybe had at least one other costume change… But it had potential, though!!

• Even though I despise the Obvious One, I did actually like some of the other romance crumbs they tossed us (sifki, Loki x the flight attendant).

• The whole DB Cooper thing was iconic idc idc.

• Loki’s hyper sort of overly excited puppy attitude in episode 2 was actually pretty refreshing and funny (for awhile). And now I can headcanon him as adhd, yeehaw.

• “We’re all villains here.” That quote was iconic, my favourite one in the show. And the entire theme that it summarised was really great as well. When you think about it, every single main character in this series has been the villain at one point or another. I mean, I know all marvel characters do bad things etc, but none of the Heroes are ever narratively categorised as Bad. This show did just that with all of them, though. . Loki was framed as the psychopath that attacked New York. Sylvie was framed as the murderous fugitive. The TVA/Ravonna/Mobius were framed as the murderous fascists. Kang was framed as the crazy totalitarian. It’s made clear that all the Loki variants were the villains of their stories.

However, every single main character in the series is also framed as the Hero at a certain point. Loki is framed as the main protagonist who throws a wrench in the TVA’s dastardly plans. Sylvie is framed as the persevering freedom fighter who wants to take down the fascists. The TVA/Mobius/Ravonna are framed as the ones who maintain order for the greater good. Kang is framed as the weird but ultimately benevolent wise man who’s just trying to prevent something worse from happening. The Loki variants are framed as generous allies who befriend the main character and help him on his journey.

Everyone in this equation is openly acknowledged by the narrative to be morally corrupt, but not entirely morally bankrupt. There are no Straightforward Hero Figures (like the Avengers) in this entire scenario at all, and that makes for a super interesting dynamic that marvel has never done before. So yes: “We’re all villains here.” But also: “No one bad is ever truly bad, and no one good is ever truly good.” I loved that.

• Even if it wasn’t really enough imo, I still treasure the crumbs we got of Loki being competent and capable (him putting the collar on B-15, him figuring out Sylvie’s hiding place, him teaching himself to enchant on the fly while fighting a giant cloud beast of eldritch proportions).

• I love that B-15 was the one who stepped in and saved the day in Episode 4, when we all thought it was gonna be Mobius. What a queen.

• Marvel usually has a bit of a problem with creating compelling and memorable side characters. But aside from Sylvie, I genuinely got attached to every single character in this show. Like Casey, C-20? I was seriously emotionally invested in them and they were only in like 2 episodes. Wtf.

• Introducing the TVA storyline in the Loki series specifically was a really good move. I’m not saying they executed it well, just that it had a ton of potential. A lot of people have wondered why marvel even thought to put those two (the TVA and Loki) together, when they had literally nothing to do with each other, nothing in common, and essentially no connection at all. But when you think about it, it’s a really interesting twist on both of those stories. Forcing the embodiment of destructive chaos and the pillar of rigid order to interact could make for some seriously entertaining and compelling television. And as far as meshing these two completely unrelated entities together goes, I thought they did it pretty well- at least just the bare bones of the story (loki being arrested by the TVA and being one of their most common variants).

So that’s it! If you guys (fellow antis) wanna add stuff you liked, feel free. If anyone wants to discuss (or debate) my list, feel free to do that too!

[perseusjackson-jasongrace]

There are many things that bug me about HoO, and one of them is how RR failed in the whole 'Percy and Jason Are Opposites/Equals' thing. Especially the equals part. As much as I love Percy I can't but feel the scales are in his favour between the two. Jason doesn't even have a fraction of what Percy has - not anymore in ToA. The only things they've had in common is: their gender, are a son of a King, and are/were leaders of their camps.

ooo anon this is a hot take and boi oh boi the kettle is boiling over!

so the way I see it:

If you only consider the books as your material for this argument then you are absolutely and unfathomably right.

Percy is the stronger of the two. Percy has more depth. Percy had a bigger reach. Percy is better at handling his power and knowing what to do with it. Percy is better at adapting to situations.

All these things absolutely what make him the stronger of the two of them.

However and this is a rather large billboard sized however:

The problem is not that Rick made Jason try to be Percy's equal. It's not even that he pitted them against each other as if they'd care who's better.

The problem is that Rick decided to give these two characters an arc that if truly done well would require at the very least two full books of just them. The problem is that Rick went from a five book series focused entirely around one character and their development and their trials and triumphs to a five book series with seven characters of which we did not know 5 of them.

Rick tried to fit too much and too many tropes into the hoo series and fucked up all of them in the process.

So now if we consider using the broader spectrum of information and theory than just the books we can start to explore Jason's character a little more:

The biggest and most glaring point (one I'll harp on about constantly) is that he ALSO fought in the Titan War. If we think about it he technically also got a five book series worth of character behind him. We just never actually got to read it.

So we don't know where Jason started besides the whole wolf thing. And even that: he went to Lupa, as all Roman demigods do, however he went for a longer period of time than most. But that didn't mean he was with lupa for like years and years? I think he left when he was pretty much still a toddler.

We also don't know what Jason did in his time at camp? We don't know if it was a Luke situation with one quest and too much training. We don't know if it was an Annabeth situation with no quests and far too much training.

Additionally we don't know if he spent all that time at SPQR? Or did he grow up more in New Rome? I'm posing this question because it boggles my mind that: if he grew up on camp surrounded by all these people why on earth were the so weary of him and unwilling to trust him when he returned?

Barring all our "don't knows" what we do know is he toppled the titans throne, just as Percy toppled Kronos. He lead an entire legion from the very bottom ranks to the top solely because he was inspiring and powerful enough to do so.

This brings me onto a side point: I know Rick tried to paint this accomplishment on Jason being kind hearted and always looking out for the underdogs but I just can't imagine that an entire legion of literal child soldiers followed Jason just because he was kind to them. He must have shown exemplary power in some form of the other. I can't imagine Roman soldiers followed faith over power. They didn't seem very emotional to me in the snippets we got of Roman life tbh.

But back to the previous point: he is also a son of Jupiter. And while we can all laugh ourselves sick over how annoyingly childish Zeus and posiedon (specifically) are we can dispute the fact that they are p o w e r f u l. And their children by extension are powerful. It cannot be that Jason doesn't at least match Percy's power if not exceed it. Zeus is a dick but he's the king of the gods for a reason. (it should be Hades but that's not the point here and also don't get me started on this I could write a dissertation on this)

Which segways me into my next point: if jason had all his memories (because we really don't know if he gets them all back?) would he be able to do more with his power? Would he be able to recall more if his training from all those years at camp and with lupa?

Memory is our be all and end all. It quite literally shapes who we are. Now imagine all of that being ripped away with no clear sign it may all come back?

There's just so many unknown factors with jason that it makes it so hard to immediately say he can or he can't take on Percy

Gods I'm so sorry this became a whole dissertation in itself. I have so much to say about this and only so few brain cells with which to say it.

All in all anon I agree with you, to an extent. And I think if we got a better arc for them we would be able to truly debate the Victor in a match.

TL:DR If you consider only the books then Jason probably isn't a match for Percy. But if you consider his story and theories he could probably match up fairly well and it would actually be very interesting to see who would win.

[normal-thoughts-official]

Do you think Alec and Magnus use condoms? How do you think warlocks deal with STD?

REALLY interesting question, i must say that i love it. thank you anon. i hope you know that i will take it way too seriously

okay, so the first question is, ARE magnus and alec susceptible to STDs? unexpected p-words are not a problem because warlocks are sterile anyway (and, if you subscribe to both magnus and alec being of the same AGAB, also because it's not possible to get both gametes or whatever), so let's focus on the STD aspect (really important!). i think human STDs would not affect them, or at least not magnus. maybe alec because shadowhunters are notably more susceptible to weaknesses humans have, like disease and mortality and whatnot. but would human STDs affect warlocks?

i tend to go with no, because warlocks are immortal. immortality, especially as it is built in the sh verse (immortals can be killed but their body won't die on its own) kind of implies that they have, like, supercells or superorgans or something, that don't deteriorate - or, alternatively, that can rebuild way faster than they could be deterioriated. im saying that because stuff like aging and eventually dying is essentially the process in which your body can no longer replace dying cells at the same speed at which they die, which leads to your body weakening as a lot of its functions are impaired. therefore, immortality as in not aging and not dying on your own but still being able to be killed if you are, say, stabbed, implies that that process simply doesn't happen. so we have one of the two: either the cells don't die, or the speed at which they are replaced never changes

in my understanding, this implies that diseases don't affect immortals. maybe they can even contract them, but their body is too strong for it to have an effect. like having a disease without symptoms. but i tend to believe that rather than living with 8945134081 deadly viruses and bacteria inside them just sleeping around, the viruses and bacteria simply can't live inside them - both because superbody means super-immunological system and because superbody means that the bacteria and viruses essentially have no place to grow in, as they can't break their cells or whatever it is that that particular strain does

like - and that is true particularly for viruses as far as i remember, not so much bacteria - the way these mfs work is that they attack the cells of a body and use them to reproduce. but if you are talking about a body that has cells that are essentially unbreakable or so highly regenerative any attack on them is dealt with so quickly it doesn't even have an effect, i don't think any virus should be able to break into their cells in the first place. they would die without reproducing and bam, done. if you are going with the second theory (warlock cells do die, they just can keep replacing them as much as they want without a problem) then you probably have a situation where the virus can reproduce, but its reproduction doesn't lead to any problems because the dead cells are replaced as fast as they are killed. in that case, the warlock would be, technically, carrying the disease indefinitely. but i tend to think that considering how strong that body is and the fact that they have an immunological system (as they are half human and have no reason not to inherit that from their human parents) that is ALSO mega strong would mean these viruses would probably be eliminated quickly

bacterial diseases are different since mostly what bacterias do (again as far as i remember) is that they live inside the body, not necessarily inside the cells, but using the body's space to reproduce, and eventually their presence - usually due to the fact that they produce toxic elements that affect the host - leads to nearby cells dying/the space they are in deteriorating, etc. but again warlock's cells are either essentially unbreakable or highly regenerative, so that wouldn't be a problem, and they could overpower invasive bacteria easily before a colony could form. so, no human bacterial diseases would be able to flourish, either

and that's not even considering the fact that as they are half human they probably have an immunological system that is ALSO superstrong and therefore able to fuck up any disease causers. or the role magic might take in protecting the body, like, who's to say the magic itself doesn't kill any invasive bacteria or viruses that come into the body before it can do anything? why not?

so all of that, allied with the fact that many viruses and bacteria are evolved to develop within the systems of a particular species (for example, that particular virus has evolved to grow in a cow's digestive system, and therefore can't survive for long in a monkey's or a human's), is interpreted by me as "warlocks can't contract human diseases", since warlocks are a different species from humans, as are shadowhunters. sure, they're hybrids, which makes this part of the argument a little more complicated but obviously their demon side is stronger than their human side, since they are immortal. and demons definitely aren't getting rabies or whatever because that is just too fucking lame

so okay! no human STDs. we have established that now. bUT, i think it's possible that warlocks are able to contract their OWN diseases - strains that attack warlocks specifically, particularly a warlock's magic, since again they kind of have a superbody but i feel like the magic is a more fragile thing, especially as they aren't fully magical (because they're half human)

don't ask me how these work <3 obviously magic can interact with non-magical beings and elements so maybe there are bacteria are viruses that developed specifically to settle in magical components, but that sounds like a huge evolutive leap since magic is so different from like, cells. or maybe there are also magical beings that work as disease transmitters in a similar but essentially different way. and they probably can also be transmitted via sex because i mean, why not? sounds as good a mean as any

but, could magnus and alec transmit those to each other? i don't think so, because shadowhunters have wildly different magic from the one warlocks do - their magic is angel magic, warlock's is demon magic, AND, furthermore, they work in completely different ways. for starters, shadowhunters magic is so pathetic diluted that some of them don't even consider it magic at all. i mean, that is also because of good ole racism (hardly the first time racism led people to call the exact same thing by different names so they can convince themselves their way of being is superior even when it is the same) but there is a huge difference because warlocks are able to conjure and interact with magic and have it as a part of their beings and experience of the world through it, whereas shadowhunters can "borrow" particular powers for a small period of time at best. it is possible that the magic doesn't even exist within them, they are just capable of handling it inside their bodies for some time, which is why they need runes to use it and it has a limited effect

so i think diseases that affect warlocks could not be passed between magnus and alec, and WOW is it weird to realize that magnus and alec are of different species. like i knew that but when that knowledge comes to practice it's just so weird. anyway

and idk if diseases that affect warlocks would be able to live dormant inside shadowhunters and then be transmitted because, like i said, shadowhunters have completely different magic if they even have it at all, and i don't think the disease beings that live in warlock magic would be able to be inside their body. so, to answer your first question - i don't think magnus and alec would NEED condoms, because i don't think they are capable of passing STDs to each other, and in at the very least magnus' case (debatable for alec, i tend to think that because shadowhunters are essentially human they can catch any disease humans can, altho maybe they have a rune to begone them) i don't think they can even catch human STDs. and magnus has a cum kink so that probably means no condoms

as for how warlocks deal with STDs! like i said i think they are only affected by STDs (and diseases in general) that affect their magic, not their body. so, they probably have treatments for those. we gotta remember that warlocks have a very developed society full of academics, so they probably have worked to find cures for magical diseases, if they exist at all. so, there are probably particular treatments for those. i don't think magical diseases abound or anything, particularly because the amount of magical beings is pretty limited and magic is so different from non-magical elements so non-magical beings such as viruses and bacteria would have to change a lot to be able to evolve into magic-affecting beings. again, if they even exist. but yeah i think they as a (group of) society(ies) have worked on cures for those. which is funny to think about because like, do they blast the magical diseases with begone rays or something? please say yes. id love that

with all of that being said, i hope u know that i was planning on answering asks the next weekend (not this one, the other one) cuz ive been busy as hell lately and it'll be the first time i'll have time lmao, and i was literally just in a bathroom break between readings when i saw this ask and i just couldn't resist answering it. this is it. what broke my studying resolve. magical STDs. you should be proud

mandatory disclaimer that please for the love of god use condoms, you are not immune to STDs. also, this post is about show canon, not book canon, so i don't care if this is in accordance to what the books say. also, i'm no expert in healthcare, this post is just for fun, so don't take anything i used to build my arguments as scientific truth or anything like that

[starlightshore]

How does Monster Food Work? a quick ut theory/analysis

Actually screw it here’s a quick analysis, no pictures because i wrote this quick.

*EDIT went back, there's pics and spelling errors are fixed. Note this was written at 3am or something originally lol.

I believe that monster food is magic that’s mixed with plants grown from the ground. The plant material is then shaped into different foods. A simple example: there is no meat productions underground except for the snail farm. We do, however, have examples of food that aren’t meat/dairy when you expect it to be otherwise.

Granted, this isn’t accessible by normal means, so how canonical it is debatable. (Like, entry #17 is commonly seen as canon so...?) There are barely any bugs underground.

I'm catching bugs. But the underground doesn't have many... -room 123.

That’s so odd to think about actually! Without bugs you can’t really have working ecosystem! Considering the wording concerning the barrier is:

“* Anything can enter through the seal, but only beings with a  powerful SOUL can leave.“

If anything can come in, we can expect fallen animals, seeds, wind ect. But how open is the barrier to life on the surface really?

“ALPHYS updated status. * WAIT THERE'S NO WEATHER DOWN  HERE WHY DID SHE CALL ME”

Now this could just be about Hotland specifically, however one can get the sense that weather wouldn’t be a factor to the rest of the underground either as their name sake and areas seem so little changes to them. It rains in waterfall, it snows in Snowdin. This lack of seasons would greatly impact ecosystems.

Here is a quick reminder on how monster food works, as spoken by Big Mouth at Grillby’s:

“* Isn't human food different  from monster food?* It does things like "spoil."* And when you eat it, it  passes all the way through  your whole body.”

“* To a human, monster food  would be very interesting.* As soon as you eat it, it  converts perfectly into  energy. “

it seems to me that Monster food is similar to Monster magic. Both are magical in nature -monster food doesn’t spoil, and attacks are magic itself. We shouldn’t expect monster food to be the same as human food from the start, we can’t make assumptions.

Let’s connect their food to their bodies: What are monsters and what are their magic?

We know Boss Monsters shed: ”* There is some white fur stuck in the drain. “ and we do see both Papyrus’ and Undyne’s attacks are left over as physical objects.  “* (It's a box of bones.) “

Though not exclusively so!

So magic itself CAN be created as a physical material but it can also dissipate. I’d imagine this fluidity functions similarly to the monster’s themselves! Monsters are beings that are more in-tuned to their souls purely because they don’t have water/carbon based physical bodies like humans. They are made of dust, magic and their souls.

Having their attacks/magic literally being the same material just makes sense! Why would they need meat? Those are bodies of actual animals, which monsters are not. We do see plants being made into monster food on two occasions and only once with meat.

Looking at the artbook we were originally going to get a glimpse at their farm production. (I have a digital copy, and searching in it takes Forever so i couldn’t find the text that talks about it??? i’ll edit this point later when I can find it)

It seems the “meat” we do see in game (aside from the Snails) are shown to surprisingly be plants. Golden flowers are made into tea, but that’s hardly unusual.The first notable example for this sort of monster food is that Sans’ hotcats are actually water-sausages! It’s implied through the phone call that Sans just yoinks them right out of waterfall to use for his hotdog/hotcats.

* "Hot Dog...?" Heals 20 HP * The "meat" is made of something  called a "water sausage."

The second example is one that we don’t get to eat, but we do see it’s production!

This is Alphys’ icecream machine. She lied to Undyne that the tall grass we see in Waterfall was an endangered species so that Undyne would ensure people didn’t tamper with the grass. This was simply because Alphys wanted the grass to produce icecream with.

I told you that seaweed was like... scientifically important...

Really, I just... I just use it to make ice cream!

This is the only time we really see monster food being made- it takes a green slush and converts it into pink ice cream.

Now, let’s get back to the snails. I bet you’re dying to talk about the snails.

Snails are an oddity because they seem to have a monster-like consciousness and are taken by Asriel’s light when absorbing the monster souls.

* there was a flash of light  outside my window* i saw the snails on the farm  disappear 

It’s not like Asriel was just taking everything -no, he was taking monster souls. And they race and have emotions, there’s snails that look visually unlike natural snails.

* but the snail looks  discouraged...* her best wasn't good  enough... 

Napstablook also refers to your racing snail as a “Her,” which also implies more sentience/person-hood. (Though, I’d argue “it” is such a common pronoun underground that if it wouldn’t be evidence for it non-person-hood per-say, but this is specifically “she/her” for a snail.)

Some even speak!

* I've been long overdue for  a second house...

So the snails........ are monsters. That’s... unsettling.

Let’s give Toriel and Asgore the benefit of the doubt that some of these snails are actually real surface snails. I don’t want to imagine some monsters are deemed as food compared to others. In fact, the snails Toriel describes in her “snail facts” directly contradicts the above snail’s autonomy.

* Talk. Really. Slowly? * Just kidding, snails  don't talk. 

So yes, Toriel doesn’t eat monster-snails. Is this confusing? Yes! Thank you toby.

Snails are the only confirmed-to-be-meat we see in the game. And alongside that, Toriel and Asgore are the only customers to the Blooky Snail Farm. (It’s safe to assume Toriel grows her own or gets them from somewhere else.)

* this place used to get a lot of business...* but our main customer  disappeared one day...* now it's just some hairy guy that shows up once  a month...

I think it’s an important detail that the only consumer of animal-meat we know of are boss monsters, who are notorious for being an exception to monsterkind. I’d argue that boss monsters might be more human like than normal monsters, as in they also have some physical matter to them. As stated before, monsters are made of dust and magic.Their souls don’t persist after death, while Boss monsters do for a brief moment.

Obviously they’re not the same level as humans, but it is worthy to note they’re extraordinary! Toriel also oddly enough, takes longer to die and bleeds black.

Which. is very odd. sans could have ketchup or blood also, but it’s hard to know without more info. (I mean hey, looking at you darkner-sans theoriests lol) Deltarune further confirms that monsters don’t bleed (at least in Hometown) which makes sense when monsters are just dust.

Is this because Toriel has more physical matter to her? Is that why her soul is stronger -being more physically separated from her magical/partly physical body. Humans are strong because their souls are disconnected from their bodies, so what makes boss monsters different?

I propose that it’s either from being a boss monster or from having snails in her diet that gives her this distance and therefore power in comparison to other monsters. (Or rather, the reason she likes snails in her diet is because of her boss monster nature, as she’d need the meat for it’s heavier matter content and proteins)

I don’t think it’s a coincidence the only real meat we see is famously eaten by boss monsters and the three monster foods we know how are made are through plants, and we can see the icecream looks vastly different from the sea-weed its made of.

Here’s an additional thought. maybe the use of using magical bullets releases some of the physical material consumed by eating monster food. Having a good balance of monster food (and it’s material within) and using one’s magic attacks keeps a mounter strong and healthy. So I imagine monsters need both healthy emotions and a consistent diet of magic to live!

so. tldr; monster food is plant based. this makes up the physical “dust” that makes up their fragile physical forms. Toriel and Asgore eat snails which are the only known-for-sure animal product in the game, and it’s because of that they’re more physical.

[creativitycache]

It still seems like the Eye is if not THE most powerful, then at least sharing that position with the Web in different manifestation of power. And Jon has been able to easily overpower the other Avatars and, except Daisy and Annabelle, they haven't been able to exert any power over him (i.e. Not-Sasha and Jude). Do you think that has more to do with the fact that Jon brought the Entities through rather than the Eye being top dog?

Buckle up, this is going to be a long one. TL;DR: I suspect that both Jon and Elias gained an upgrade from the effects of a Ritual, rather than being inherent to Eye Avatars.

Ritual effects we’ve seen:

1. Jonah: failed ritual for the Eye. Result: Power Boost for Jonah, death for everyone surrounding him, destruction of the Millbank Prison. No interference from outsiders.

2. Agnes: failed 2 part ritual for the Desolation. Part 1 Result: Power Boost for Agnes, death for her mother, destruction of the forest, cultists survive. Part 2 Result: inconclusive, as we don’t know what blocked her ascension for round 1, nor why she suddenly knew she had to kill herself years later. Interference from a Web-bound Eye.

3. Unnamed: failed ritual for the Vast. Result: all hands lost to the depths. Interference from the Hunt.

4. Unnamed: failed ritual for the Slaughter. Result: all hands lost due to a missile, except non-slaughter aligned survivor. Interference unclear, but presumed Web.

5. Peter: failed ritual for the Lonely. Result: The ritual was abandoned before it even was truly launched. Peter seems to think this counts and that he’d have to try again decades later. No power transfer, no death. Interference from a Web-bound Eye.

6. Unnamed: failed ritual for the Buried. Result: Death to all who attempted, and the surrounding innocent people. Interference from a Web-bound Eye.

7. John: failed ritual for the Corruption. Result: Death to John via concrete- unknown fate of Adelard Dekker but presumed death. Death to the surrounding victims. Interference from a presumed unaffiliated.

8. Jane: failed ritual for the Corruption: Result: It is unclear if Jane’s attack on the Institute was part of her ritual. Certainly all the worms forming the living tunnel of writhing insects to usher in the Corruption into our world all died. Interference from a Web-bound Eye.

9. Cult: failed ritual for the Corruption: Result: all those bound together were still alive when the police came, but were unable to absorb all the cult members.  No word on surviving cultists. It is unclear if this was a ritual attempt, but considering the religious themes surrounding it + their Herald, I’m counting it. Interference from a presumed unaffiliated.

10. Nikola: failed ritual for the Stranger: Result: death of all circus members. Death of all witnesses. Interference from the Web-bound Eye.

11. The Mechanical Turk: failed ritual for the Stranger: Result: Unknown if the Slaughter Avatars killed all performers, witnesses survived. Interference from the Slaughter.

12. ExplorerDad: failed ritual for the Hunt. Result: continued unending life for all Avatars who join, but they will periodically turn on previous crewmates and view them as others. Man who pretended to be of the Hunt until he could get away survived. Interference from a presumed unaffiliated.

13. Unnamed: failed ritual for the Flesh. Result: death of all participants except unaffiliated statement-giver. Interference from the Web-bound Eye.

14. Gabriel: failed ritual for the Spiral. Result: many servants of the Spiral dead, Gabriel presumed dead, the Distortion fused with Michael Shelly. Michael Distortion has no noticeable significant power boost different from the Distortion, but he was specifically chosen because of his unsuitability towards fusing with the Spiral. Helen calls Michael “rubbish” and seemed to level up/lose her humanity at a faster rate than Jon after being absorbed by the Distortion. It is unclear if this power acquisition has anything to do with the Distortion’s history of being the nexus of a failed ritual. Interference from the Web-bound Eye.

15. Manuela & Haley: failed ritual for the Dark: Result: nictophobe sacrifices dead, the Beast dead, all other cult members died. Manuela survives with no noticeable powers aside from being able to behold the Dark Star. Haley survives with no mentioned power differences, and is later killed trying to transfer over to a new body. No interference from outsiders.

Phew, that’s all done off the top of my head so I may have missed something. That’s 12 out of 14 Entities, with the Web and the End both missing due to no noted ritual attempts. (See my earlier post for my theory that the Eyepocalypse was a Web ritual, which Anon is referencing).

But! Laying it all out like this proves my ultimate theory.

1. The Rituals most often result in death, and the most likely potential survivors are those who were unaffiliated.

2. Twice the Rituals have been noted to give power upgrades- the Eye and the Desolation. Potentially three times with the Spiral and Micheal, but that is subtextual and VERY tenuous. Agnes’s mother was the one who chose to be the nexus of the ritual and she burned. Agnes was the outcome of the ritual, and debatably the focal point.

3. The Spiral and the Dark both had no textually noted upgrades. The Dark had no human focal point. The Spiral had no human focal point until Michael was unwittingly merged.

4. The most likely sources that prevent a ritual are: the Web manipulating an Eye avatar (7), a presumed unaffiliated (3), collapsing naturally (2), the Slaughter (1), the Hunt (1). Gertrude and Jon definitely skewed the numbers heavily, but there’s evidence to suggest that the avatars are all easily manipulated into prevent the “other side from winning”.

5. When a Ritual is left on it’s own to collapse AND has a person as a focal point, that person gains a power upgrade. In ALL OTHER scenarios, there is no power exchange and death is the most likely result.

Therefore:

Jonah Magnus and Jon Sims are the only people left on Earth who have been successfully granted a power boost due to a ritual.

Jon was the nexus of the ONLY successful Ritual in history, but Jonah already had the boost from one Ritual and may have gained some power due to his hand in the second ritual. The two combined may put him on the same level as Jon, but Jon may be stronger.

Therefore:

It is ENTIRELY plausible that the reason Jon is so strong and that Jonah’s tower can exert its presence over all the other realms is because they were the nexuses of Rituals- NOT because the Eye won.

Therefore:

Jon’s power boost does not mean the Web did not win.

[haikyuuanypercent]

karasuno first years playing D&D 5e

I’ve been watching fantasy high recently (okay, rewatching... for the third time), so that got me thinking about what the haikyuu characters, specifically karasuno’s first years, would be like playing Dungeons and Dragons! I know they’ve already been in a traditional tabletop fantasy setting with Haikyuu Quest, but I take that as more of an AU than as how they would actually play so here are my own headcanons:

- yamaguchi has actually wanted to play for a long time, but never had the confidence to ask since it was “nerdy” and he didn’t want to seem lame. but one day hinata is at his house and asks him about the D&D manuals on his bookshelves, and yams starts explaining the game to him, getting a lil enthusiastic in spite of himself

- and to his surprise hinata is enthusiastic too! he insists they get a game together, and they each drag kags and tsukki into it

- kageyama agrees to play because he remembers that oikawa played D&D (ofc oikawa plays D&D, he’s a huge nerd, debate me) and thinks maybe he’ll gain some insight into oikawa’s ability to strategize and work with a team

- tsukki agrees after yams bothers him a bit because he’s actually read through the manuals in yams’ room before and thought they were interesting, but didn’t want to play back then because he was too worried about seeming cool

- yams is happy to DM, and walks everybody through character creation, which is very difficult with hinata and kags

- “no hinata, you can’t play as a dragon, you can play as a dragonborn though?”

- and that’s how hinata ends up playing as a spritely little dragonborn fighter who’s on a quest to get strong enough to fight real dragons. yams quickly changes the BBEG to a dragon and even makes a note to find or make a homebrew dragon race for hinata to play as next time

- tsukki snarkily asks if hinata is sure he shouldn’t be playing as a halfling, so hinata angrily makes his character 6′3″

- kags remembers that oikawa played a bard and insists on playing a bard, which makes yams nervous because a) spellcasting can be hard for new players and b) kageyama? a bard? but he goes with it because kags seems really determined

- so kags ends up playing as a travelling half-elf bard who wants to become the most powerful bard in the world, the only problem is he put all his points into strength and intelligence instead of charisma

- “what’s a spellcasting modifier? if you have more strength, that means you’re stronger, obviously”

- yams gives up on trying to explain it to him and just hopes he’ll understand once they’re ingame

- tsukki decides to play a 6′4″ high elf wizard who’s only adventuring out of an obligation to return some arcane texts that were stolen from his family, which immediately sets off yams’ DM Instinct and those texts instantly become a centerpiece to the plot that hold a deep dark secret about tsukki’s character’s family

- they have quite a few bumps starting out as everyone learns the mechanics, but kags’ character is immediately hilarious - he’s the grumpiest bard anyone’s ever seen, and often chooses to simply smash people over the head with his lute instead of casting magic

- tsukki’s character on the other hand probably should’ve been a bard. yams considers bending the rules to give him vicious mockery because he DEFINITELY inherited tsukki’s scathing sarcasm.

- after their wizard is done demoralizing the enemy, hinata’s bubbly dragonborn is more than happy to pummel them into the ground. his tagline becomes “let’s fight, bastard!”

- there’s tons of bickering around the table ofc, but after awhile that bickering starts to become more and more in-character. and they’re all shocked by how sassy and nasty yams can be when he’s playing rude/evil NPCs

- but overall yams is a nice DM, think Brian Murphy from NADDPOD. he holds them to their dumb decisions, but gets super nervous and softens his narration a little when things go really bad

- he also puts a ton of effort and care into the campaign plot, making sure to weave in everyone’s backstory, and the players all gradually get more and more invested

- hinata’s character starts having more serious moments, and when something dramatic happens or an NPC they care about dies, he can be shockingly intense.

- kags listens attentively to any bard mentors he encounters along their journey, and eventually forgets all about his original motivations for playing the game. yams ends one session on a cliffhanger, and kags actually seriously freaks out, leaning forward and demanding to know what happens next. yams is super touched cause he’s only ever seen kags this invested in volleyball

- and when the plot twist with tsukki’s character happens, yams picks up on all the little cues his best friend gives that he’s actually really emotionally affected by it. he tries to hide it, but when yams asks him after the session if he liked the plot twist, his response is a muttered “...shut up, yamaguchi.” yams coyly responds with “sorry, [tsukki’s character’s name].”

- I could definitely see them continuing this campaign all the way up until their third year for a super emotional climactic ending, but I think they’d also probably do smaller campaigns with different DMs so yams gets to play.

- tsukki is generally a good DM, except he sets traps for hinata’s characters specifically. the enticingly glowing volleyball that explodes when you touch it was a mean trick.

- yachi also DMs a short campaign for them. she’s super nervous at first, but once she gets into it she actually loves the roleplaying element. watching her play terrifying pit fiends and diabolical liches is hilarious

if you’ve read all these, I hope you enjoyed! these are by no means all my thoughts and I’ll probably make a post about the other karasuno boys sometime down the line, because if you think ennoshita and suga don’t DM you’re dead wrong-