#Keyword COULD

[moongothic]

You know I wasn't going to post about this, but the more I think about it the more it drives me up the walls

So when Luffy and co release Crocodile from jail, it's specifically under the threat that if Crocodile tries anything funny, well, Iva-chan has a trick up their sleeve to put Crocodile back in-line.

So what the fuck was that actually about? What is Crocodile's secret weakness? I'm specifically looking at the way this is phrased in the manga, because the anime's added dialogue kinda messes with what's implied here. But what Iva specifically says is that Ivankov in particular holds the key to one of Crocodile's weaknesses, but they'll stay quiet about it as long as Crocodile behaves himself ("Vataashi wa koitsu no yowami wo hitotsu nigitteru", a very clunky but literal translation could be "One of his weaknesses is within my grasp". The way Viz translated the line is a bit different so I'm not bothering with getting a cap of the panel, you wouldn't be able to tell how these lines were phrased in Japanese based on Viz's translations anyways) (The dialogue Toei added was Crocodile furiously shouting at Iva-chan, telling them to not say anything and Iva-chan reminding Croc to watch his tone or else they'll reveal Croc's past to everyone. A lot of people don't remember this was in-fact added by Toei, hence I wanted to clarify/remind what happened in this scene originally)

And now. Obviously. When Oda went out of his way to introduce a brand new character whose entire personality is being queer and their power is giving people magic HRT. And then like five chapters later re-introduces Crocodile. And tells us that these two have Secret Beef. And never proceeds to fucking tell us what the hell that was about. Yes, the natural conclusion one would come to would be that Crocodile is stealth trans. That is basic, good storytelling. You (re)introduce two characters, tell us they have beef, one has a very specific ability; you're supposed to connect these dots in your mind. So that now, if Oda revealed to us tomorrow that Crocodile was canonically trans, it would not surprise anyone because it's already been set-up in the story, by this very scene. It's a logical conclusion.

But. I'm becoming more and more convinced that Iva-chan's blackmail might actually not be about Crocodile being trans.

Like the general fandom assumption for the past 15 years has been that Crocodile's stealth trans, but we actually don't know he's stealth. He could be openly trans, and between that being a borderline requirement for Crocodad to be real (since he would've been a Shichibukai for years before Luffy was even born) and the possibility that his earring could specifically be a gay earring, like. Yeah. Crocodile could be openly trans. If Crocodile's perfectly happy to let the whole world know he's gay, then him being trans shouldn't have to be a secret either. We the readers could just be unaware of it because it wasn't relevant information to us, and his transition would be old ass news in-universe and not worth bringing up.

And thus, if Crocodile isn't stealth, then Iva-chan can't blackmail him by threatening to out him, becaus he can't be outted.

Now for a while I did considder that Iva-chan could've been actually threatening to detransition Crocodile if he tried anything funny. Surely he would hate that, so much so that he might not have wanted to even hear Ivankov suggest it. But thinking about it. Unless Iva-chan can use Armanent Haki or get Crocodile moisturized, they shouldn't be able to hit Crocodile actually. Like Croc's Logia makes him impossible to hit unless he specifically allowed himself to be touched. So even if Iva-chan tried to surprise attack Crocodile with Estrogen, Croc should just turn to sand automatically, the attack should not land.

Meaning Iva-chan shouldn't be able to detransition Crocodile against his will, at least not without Haki and we don't know if they can use it, so that can't be Crocodile's weakness either.

And so we have to ask the question. What the fuck is that weakness then that Ivankov mentioned?

All we really know is that Crocodile doesn't want this weakness to be brought up, it's a secret. And for all we know Iva-chan might be the only person in the world who knows about it.

And I just. Like.

There is one weakness, kind of a universal one that many people could have, one that has been brought up time-and-time again post-timeskip, one that has become more and more relevant in the story, especially now at the begining of the Final Saga.

A secret weakness.

If pregnancy is what cracked Crocodile's egg and he transitioned immidiately/soon after giving birth, then it's entirely plausible Iva-chan could know Crocodile had a secret child. And surely he'd want nothing more than for his child to be safe, not end up in trouble because of him. And Ivankov most certainly could put that child in danger, especially now that Crocodile was officially no longer on the World Government's side, there'd be no protection for the baby. All Ivankov had to do was leak the information out, that Sir Crocodile had a child, and anybody who had beef with him could get their revenge by attempting to find the child.

Like I'm just saying. This could line up nicely, actually

[petsemataries]

"nudity/genitalia isn't inherently sexual" until it's a nonhuman wearing a packer of their choice

[deimcs]

unofficial list of dragon age: origins mods as of june '24.

For anyone who asked! Please keep in mind that there are some cheat mods in here for when you just want to enjoy the story without worrying too much about gameplay but they can be unistalled any time for a more challenging playthrough.

! N.B. ALWAYS READ THE DESCRIPTIONS AND THE COMMUNITY POSTS VERY CAREFULLY, SOMETIMES YOU'LL NEED TO ADD, DELETE OR EDIT SOME FILES YOURSELF TO AVOID MOD CONFLICTS !

First of all, you need the proper tools and the way to use them:

da:o mod manager

chargen morph compiler

modding tutorial

console tutorial

visible console commands TEXTURES AND BUGFIXES

Dragon Age Origins Unofficial Remaster

Environment Overhaul

Fine Dwarven Craftsmanship

Elven Scenery

Dain's Fixes

Qwinn's Ultimate DAO Fixpack

Awakening Silverite Mines Bugfix

Awakening endgame cutscene fixes

Awakening Riot Scene Persuade Fix COSMETICS

Leliana (Inquisition Edition)

Morrigan (Inquisition Edition)

Cookies for Sten

Unique Face Textures for Companions

Crow Assassin's Armor for Zevran

Elf update

Qunari update

Tattoo Cosmetics

Mulderitsme's Brows

Mole and freckle textures

SJC's Skin Tones

Pretty Eyes

Big Brown Eyes

A New Freckled Skin Texture

HQ Eyebrow Stubble and Scalp Hair Replacers

Universal Voices

Bow Replacer

No Helmet Hack

Tranquil Tattoo

Grey Wardens of Ferelden

The Hairald of Andraste GAMEPLAY

The Rescue at Ishal

Redcliffe Village Siege Immortal NPCs

Camp Merchant Chest

Grey Warden Powers

Sleep Until Dawn

Complete Bi Overhaul

Talent Books

Change Your Hair and Face Anywhere

Lock Bash

Skip the Fade

Madd Gift Guide

Gift Guide - Awakening

Extra Dog Slot

Expanded Inventory

SarahCousland's Romance Mods

[collectivephilosopher]

ARCANE WASTED POTENTIAL (PART 6)

(An analysis of Arcane's missed opportunity and what could have been. The title might be a little confusing but since I've started by it, I've decided to stuck with it to avoid anyone feeling gaslighted :p)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

About Vi and the enforcer.

To be frank, I'm not against the idea at all. I knew she was a cop in the game so I figured she will be too in S2.

Didn't think they'll botch it but sure.

I made a post asking for anyone's opinion about Vi becoming a cop, specifically in act 1:

See the post here

And from there I can take some points as to most people's problem with this topic.

1. It could work but it was not handled well. I thought people would be against the idea altogether but I was wrong.

2. Vi's shift to my sister is gone was not shown/too fast.

3. Vi feeling sympathy for the councils makes no sense. And if the point was that she was feeling sympathy for Caitlyn instead, it still not believeable enough that she would wear the uniform of her oppressor.

As for me, mostly I agree with this reblog.

It would be believeable that she was guilt tripped into joinning the enforcer in act 1.

I do like the fact that Vi looked awkward and clearly doesn't really want to wear an enforcer outfit in episode 2. That character point was fine. The problem is whatever happened that leads to it.

1. The Jinx part

I agree that it's so jarring that Vi so quickly decided on her sister is gone. Even if this is a character trait (however you want to spin that), we need to see what lead Vi to this conclusion. Aka not having it happened off screen.

You can say Vi stopped seeing Jinx as her sister in the end of season 1 but like... why? Jinx never said they're not sisters anymore. Jinx just said they both have changed.

Even so again, I need to see the innerworking of Vi's mind. Show me her lamenting about Jinx, thinking about her sister for once because all the scene before that is Vi looking at Caitlyn and looking sad/guilty (which I will discuss more in the next part).

2. The councilors part

This is yes, I agree too. Why the hell is Vi feeling bad about dead council? Just in S1 she watched Jayce (accidentally) killed a child and her reaction was showing Jayce her knowledge about the reality of the shit happened in Zaun. She's aware of the councilors' doing. Like, it doesn't have to be her, just look at other Zaunites. No one gives a shit about the councilors dying (they give too much no shit in fact that it became another problem which i will not discuss here) and from episode 4 we know that Zaunites will jump at the chance if they have the strength like Jinx.

Mind you, Vi ending up in stillwater is because the councilors wanted a pound of flesh for Piltover (whether Marcus' doing or whatever lead to that).

"Oh she's feeling bad for Caitlyn not the councilors."

Okay but still not enough. Not enough for her to suddenly think her sister is gone, not enough for her to accept the badge. And it was true. Vi rejected the badge.

Until like, the memorial attack. I don't really get Vi's line of thinking here.

First, she really should be stoned that pilties have funerals and a fucking memorial. Second, I guess she feels bad for that one crying child...? Third, she accepted the badge because caitlyn said,

"Everywhere I slice it, if I go after your sister alone, one of us comes back in a box. It's all coming apart."

So what Caitlyn is saying is basically if she goes after Jinx alone, either Jinx or she will die. And she won't know which one will happen. And Vi's response was... I'll help you... to... what...? To make sure it's my sister who died instead...? I guess at this point she doesn't see Jinx as sister anymore... so... okay man.

3. The Zaun part

I need to see more of the grey too. First we're not gonna discuss Caitlyn's usage of the grey because I'm honestly tired of it. But I need to see how Caitlyn convinced Vi to do it to Zaun. Vi should know about the air quality down there. She grew up with it. But I guess the arguments is that they only use it against "criminals" and they "deserve" it. Y'know, if we ignore how gas works.

My quick fix to this is honestly? Just make Jinx go through with her promise of war. Make Jinx terrorize Piltover more. Make her bombed more enforcers daily. If the attack has not stopped, it would convince Vi more to stop Jinx. It would also help shaping Zaun's image of Jinx.

I don't usually bring League's lore but In Lol Jinx is the mad bomber that Zaunites have mixed feelings on. On one side she put Piltover on their place but on the other side, she also have hurt Zaunites too.

I'm not gonna talk too much about Jinx here since I'm gonna discuss about her in my next post.

And honestly about the entire Vi being an enforcer thing would've make so much better sense if the show showed us Piltover on interpersonal level. As in, showing us what it is like to be normal piltie, not just the high standing houses. The most we get is Jayce who was a toolmaker and Viktor who was a Zaunite living in Piltover. What about other piltovians? We were not shown them as individual but rather a system. And as a system, yes, they are in the wrong.

Enforcers too were only shown as monsters (in S1) and incompetent (in S2) except for caitlyn. We were never shown other type of people who joined the enforcer because let's be real here, they can't just be a collective group of monster.

And you know what? Thinking about that I can't think of any worst wasted potential than these guys:

First, why are they in the show if the show isn't going to expand more on them? I talked about how Isha's potential was wasted as narrative tool for Jinx's character arc but these guys are way worse because they don't provide any function for Vi's character arc.

The most they do is Maddie being Caitlyn's rebound and Noxus' spy. (But let's be for real, that happened just because the writter wants a "third person in a relationship" character to be hated on.

My poor sweet summer child was made to be hated and cheered when killed.

Oh hey it rhymed

Seriously we don't know their back story, their motivation as enforcer, their feelings, something that made them human. Scratch that, fish guy Steb doesn't even have a line.

Why were they even chosen to be in this super elite team? Hell Maddie was just a junior officer.

My quick fix to this is to just make them all Caitlyn's trusted friends or something. That'll give Caitlyn a motivation to choose them.

Imagine if these guys actually have a character. Imagine that they're actually super excited to hunt down Jinx because Jinx is this hot topic myth amongst the enforcer at the moment. Imagine if Loris joined the enforcer because he was from the undercity or knows someone from the undercity, or just someone close to him really, who were hurt by the mobs down there so he thought joinning the enforcer will make the undercity a "safer place". Imagine if Steb is actually Caitlyn's senior had it not been for Caitlyn's "DeCorATeD OfFiCer" thing and he had a brother who was falsely accused and was thrown in stillwater (SOMEONE would certainly relate to it) so now he joined the enforcer to reform the system but he's struggling. Maddie could openly have a crush on Caitlyn and her and Vi could bond together in that topic, idk. LITERALLY ANYTHING.

I honestly can't think of any other way of Vi's character to progress as enforcer (alright to be fair they did drop enforcer vi plot in the middle) without going with the Attack on Titan route.

Eren came to his enemy's land expecting to see devils. But he then he ate the same food as his enemies, sleep in the same bed and live in the same roof and he realized they're not devils but humans. Children who has been taught doctrines about their enemies. He understand that and still he chose to be a monster and kill all of them.

This could've been Vi's route. That she thinks oh not all of them is bad. There are normal people too like me. People who were working, struggling to make ends. People who are trying to fight, to make the system better.

Now with this information, Vi can then CHOOSE for herself (despite the maybe her rocky guilt tripped start as an enforcer). Whether she'll think these people don't deserve the grief and terror Jinx brings upon them OR she could even think of how these people, struggling as they were, still have ten times better lifestyle than Zaunite. And she can chose to go back to Zaun. But by then it'll be Vi's decision.

[dunmeshistash]

Laios Revealed in Five Keywords

5 keywords section from the Adventurer's Bible, this is transcribed from the EHScans translation for more info you can check this post. My own notes will be at the end of the post.

1. Family

Laios' family consists of his father (the village chieftain), mother, and little sister Falin. A talented mage, from a young age Falin possessed a mysterious power that allowed her to hear the voices of the dead. Others found this ability creepy, and she found herself the target of persecution because of it. Since Laios' father chose to expel Falin from the village instead of protecting her, Laios' animosity toward him has led to them not meeting for over 10 years. His mother is mentally frail and prone to being bedridden; it seems that Laios is not on good terms with her either. Incidentally, the reason why Laios looks so tidy is because at one point he grew out his hair and beard, but Falin mentioned that he was starting to "look a lot like Dad"

2. Monster research

Due to his love of monsters, others recommended that Laios become a monster scholar. However, academia presented an insurmountable barrier to Laios, and he soon gave up on that path. From most to least interesting, the types of monsters he likes are: Dragons = Animals > Magical Beings > Plants > Insects > Undead > Spirits. There is a monster scholar Laios respects, but the person in question likes to spout ridiculous, groundless theories about monster, other scholars steer clear of them at academic conferences. However, Laios is rather fond of those crazy theories

3. Unexpected Talent

As he's copied the drawings of monsters in his Monster Field Guide countless times, Laios is very good at drawing monsters. However, he's terrible at drawing anything else. The (overstuffed) "Ultimate Monster" that Laios came up with is a hybrid of: rhinoceros, bull, bird (2 species), bat, snake, horse, boar, and tiger.

4. Military Deserter

Laios enlisted in the military after graduating from school; it was there that he learned his fundamental swordsmanship skills. However, the army's regulations didn't sit well with Laios, so he ran away. He joined a caravan that passed through town, as they let him ride along with no fare so long as he helped with odd jobs. Even after he arrived at the island, Laios earned his living expenses doing things such as helping to load and unload cargo at the harbor.

5. Ban on Romance

After seeing his dungeon party nearly fall apart after two members fell in love*, Chilchuck warned Laios that workplace romances should be forbidden. Though Laios met his fiancee once and thought she was cute, the engagement was broken off after he ran away from home. Apparently, the woman in question is now a mother of three. Incidentally, since Laios' current savings are only enough to purchase a single horse and several goats, trying to find a bride would likely be a difficult task for him.

------

*I believe this was translated this way before the extra that explains the situation came out, the official translation translates it as "In the past, developing intimacy within the party led to a crisis that nearly broke it up." which I don't know if describes it better? Here's the original text "過去に仲間といい仲になりかけて 、パーティーが解散の危機に見舞わ れたため" as far as I can tell (considering context) it's something like "due to him getting too close to a companion the party nearly fell apart" but I can't really tell.

Stats

Timelines

Official version bellow the cut

[essektheylyss]

Okay I'm not normally one to comment publicly on ship portmanteaus but we seem nowhere near a consensus and I've been reading basically nothing but taxonomic theory with a side of organizational management for like seven weeks straight so: why is verleth not the default option. It cannot be because it's too close to vexleth when everyone's been using it next to vaxleth for years. Obviously we could go to keyrin, but a) every other Keyleth ship name is [other person]leth, and b) it's going to be annoying as hell with autocorrect for being one letter off of a real word.

But most critical, we cannot use "thelyss" as Verin's part of the portmanteau, on account of the fact that Verin has been on screen for like three minutes, and his older brother, with whom he does still share a second name, has been on screen for like fifteen hours. I know Essek's ship names usually use his title but Verin ALSO is not the most obvious Task Hand (rip Adeen Tasithar, you probably would've loved being a shady bitch in Vasselheim but honestly, I don't actually know well enough to say).

Think of new fans trying to figure out who the fuck is in this ship. Think of the tag wranglers. Think of me, local taxonomy nerd who will one day just lose it and start yelling on the dash about authority controls and the absolute inadequacy of disambiguation by committee.*

[youwillfindilluminating]

I need a scene where karen has to get close with a random guy for a story or something and frank is insisting he's not jealous like it's fine but internally he's screaming, crying, throwing up

[itwoodbeprefect]

the great thing about falling really deep into a new media niche is developing opinions on many new things. the terrible thing about falling really deep into a new media niche is developing opinions on many new things

[lucabyte]

gee i wonder why im asking this question (its because im making stickers since i want to try out selling things online/at cons).

for extra context: until I get a handle on like, price margins etc, these would be hand-cut matte stickers rather than nice vinyl die cuts. Around 2.5-3inches. (think: could fit in a pokemon card's footprint) Since more 'professional' stickers inevtiably have higher margins and I'm not gonna jump in on expensive vograce orders until I y'know, know if there's any interest.

Also. for those of you in places where shipping and exchange rates completely suck. would you buy a set of jpgs for an equiv price so you can print your own?

[angeart]

Howwwww did you angst the world tour?? 🎀

this question made me giggle so much oh i'm glad you asked :3c there was so much yummy grian angst in the hc world tour!

it's all about grian and his penchant for destruction. he doesn't even mean to! he's not trying to be pesky; quite the opposite. he's curious but restrained, trying to be good, trying to follow instructions. he's not malicious at all! he's just there to see what people were up to, open and friendly and curious, eager to look and learn and praise. not a bad intention in sight... and yet things seem to break wherever he goes. everything he touches goes wrong.

the guilt churns, acidic and overwhelming, and grian's miserable. why is he like this? he's trying so hard, why is this the only way he can ever be? why can't it stop?

spoilers for grian's world tour video below <3

plantie pointed out to me how, during the tour of scar's train, when grian got rid of scar's arrows—the glitched ones that doc put there—he was so desperate to point it out after scar just glossed over it. as if he wanted to show that he can do something good. he can be helpful, he can fix things instead of just breaking everything.

but then we have all the other things, right? grian can't escape it.

when he was with etho and the mushroom farm exploded, he sums it up in a wretched if confused apology: "i'm so sorry. the two times i tried to use it, i broke it :( and created a water source floating— which i don't know how it happened— and flung the TNT, which i really don't understand—"

they move on, but it's so clear it lingers.

etho isn't blaming him. he's amused and brushes it off and moves along, unbothered, but grian himself can't wrap his head around it. about that propensity to breaking things, even unintentionally. the way nothing is safe around him.

he tells etho: "i can't stop thinking about your mushroom farm. why does everything i touch break, in new and unexpected ways?"

(not to mention when etho's showing him frogger and grian plays, almost instantly etho goes: "uh-oh, the game's broken", with a little huff of laugh. it wasn't exactly tied to anything grian did, but still something i wanted to point out, since grian was there for it <3)

and then grian goes to zedaph, right?

the very first game zedaph shows him. the very first. grian plays the way he was told to, the way he was meant to, and— he breaks it.

zedaph just laughs and moves them on.

(just sprinkling in a side note that zedaph's furnace minigame also didn't seem to work the way it should've—)

by the time grian gets to pearl's, it's starting to be a pattern that's so clearly eating away at him, making him anxious. he doesn't want it to happen again!

and yet.

pearl invites him to play her wordle game, and grian mindlessly goes and pushes the wrong button trying to start it... instantly stepping away with a quiet groan of a dread-filled "...oh-" followed by: "i just— ruined it already."

there's something about the mood switch. the way he seems more restrained and tame, silently upset with himself, trying so hard not to mess things up further. questioning why this is happening again. why he can't stop making it happen.

he walks over to the reset game button and asks, carefully: "can i press reset? is it gonna hurt? 🥺👉👈"

pearl reassures him he can, with a sigh noting that it'll just take a while.

there's an almost hysteric laugh from grian, followed by an exasperated, upset scream. "everything i touch breaks! when i went to e— i broke etho's thing when i went to— not frogger, his— his mushroom farm i— it blew up."

"you blew up his mushroom farm?? how? what did you do?!"

"yeah, i— i broke zed's game, instantly, pretty much, it's—"

"oh my gosh :("

"sorry 🥺"

pearl is quick to reassure him, though. "well, luckily for you, this is— you doing that (pushing the wrong button) does not break the game. it's just, you now have to wait for it to reset."

she makes sure grian knows that he didn't mess up anything terribly here. he didn't break pearl's game. it's okay! it's fine!

and then grian right clicks to open the book, and instead makes bonemeal pop out of a composter.

i think at this point pearl is a little bit taken aback by how wrong everything really seems to be going around grian. she makes sure to say, "it's fine," again, just so grian won't start worrying about it all again. "you're clicking on everything that people do not usually click on today. but it's okay. it's still not broken! it's not broken, it's alright, it's okay— i've got failsaves for people like you."

it's so sweet how she really tries to soothe him— and yet she can't help but let out that last remark.

people like you.

those few words surely lodge in more than all the reassurances. they're like splinter, proving grian right.

eventually, he gets to skizz.

during the tour of skizz's base, skizz shows him a horse statue and starts talking about how he lost his first horse at an event that grian was also a part of. and grian's stomach instantly sinks.

he asks hushedly, a bit confused, trying to remember: "was i there?"

skizz laughs. "you were absolutely there, dude."

which leads grian to ask, uneasily: "did i do it?"

skizz waves his hands, quick to easily reassure that no! that's not it, grian didn't do it!

grian lets out an oh with such palpable relief, and goes on to explain about how, "i remember witnessing it, but sometimes it's hard to disentangle whether i did it or not. coz i tell you what, on this tour i've broken everyone's stuff."

nobody was upset with grian when things broke, but here he is, several hermits down, still unable to leave it to rest. because it's him. it's him who did all of that, somehow, and he didn't mean to, but it doesn't matter. it happened anyway.

and now he can't even tell what is and what isn't his fault anymore.

the guilt is deep rooted, leaving anxious assumptions and dark, jagged precipices. how much did he destroy? what else should he be feeling guilty about? how far does this go?

he keeps breaking things, and it's such a blur that he can no longer tell what is and what isn't his fault.

the tour continues, and he delves into skizz's pyramid. and it's just— it's just a tunnel to swim through. nothing to mess up, besides potentially dying to suffocation, right?

and yet you can hear skizz shrilly exclaim: "oh he's going to end up breaking something!!"

and, (plantie's words: ) grian hearing that and just wondering, is that all i'm good for? is that all i'm known for? is that all i am?

there's no room for doubt; not really. that is what grian does, all the time, whether he wants to or not. he breaks stuff. he just— he doesn't mean to. and this tour is one big show of how powerless he is against it. (how everyone expects it from him anyway.)

despite it all, grian perseveres, trying out skizz's game, stubbornly dedicated and trying to win. (to pass; to have something to be proud of, at least—) and he gets to the powdered snow section.

there, he jumps across to a pathway that he was meant to circle to through the snow instead.

it's not breaking anything, not really. not even the rules. it's not cheating! he's just— he just did something skizz did not expect, but that was entirely possible within the game's design, even if not intended. he exploited it to his advantage; a risky, tricky shortcut.

and yet skizz remarks with a laugh: "this is what grian does! he breaks games!"

no matter what grian does... is that all he'll ever be?

is that all they'll see?

he fails getting through skizz's game, is thanked for play-testing, praises it all, they talk it all away, and...

and then grian goes to tour mumbo's base.

and fails to even die properly to his llama—

and then mumbo shows him his archive machine, and instantly panicks when grian gets curious about it, begging him not to touch anything. and grian says: "your stomach just fell through didn't it?" and after mumbo's immediate agreement, he adds: "and rightfully so. coz, almost everything i've touched on this tour has broken."

there's not a sliver of surprise to mumbo's anxious rushed: "yeah, yeah yeah! please stop now." because, of course things have broken. of course what grian touches is bound to go wrong. of course—

and then mumbo very carefully tells grian what to do with the machine.

grian does as he's told.

mumbo looks up and pauses, a frown crossing his face as he takes it in. he notes that grian probably did it too fast—

(something went wrong)

(something broke)

mumbo says: "i can't believe you come along and every single thing in my base starts [going wrong/breaking/malfunctioning]"

and then grian mysteriously ends up with an extra book from mumbo's machine, much to mumbo's dismay. grian's confused, cogs spinning as he tries to figure out what did he mess up this time to result in this.

it's clear mumbo wants grian away from his machine. it's not safe. (grian isn't safe.)

"maybe just give that to me and maybe just step away from the contraption. and then— maybe just leave me to—"

grian's upset and bewildered voice cuts in: "i didn't do anything wrong this time :(("

he's trying so hard.

he's trying so hard to be good and do things right and not mess anything up.

(it isn't working.)

(it's never bound to work, is it?)

mumbo ushers him away, and ends up showing him another cool invention—an elevator. except the second mumbo hits the button, a creeper shows up and explodes it. (it's midday.) (it wasn't even meant to be there.)

this one isn't grian's fault at all, but with everything that's happened— well, it's easy enough to link it to grian's presence. like a bad luck omen.

apprehensively, grian asks if the elevator broke, and mumbo—a bit bewildered by the reality of it—says that no, it seems to still work. "amazingly," he tacks on, disbelieving.

grian's relieved. "ohh, i thought we were in big trouble there!"

besides himself, mumbo anxiously agrees: "augh. i was like, if every single creation that i show breaks in some fashion, i'm just gonna quit."

because this isn't normal. none of this is, least of all everything at once. it simply doesn't happen.

(not when grian isn't there, anyway.)

mumbo notes that he needs to work on his lighting, and grian nods wisely saying it's a perpetual issue, but the anxiety is digging its talons in now, unrelenting. (what else is going to go bad in grian's presence? what else will he mess up? what else will he break? why is he like this?)

another remark that comes after this is mumbo's nervous: "i've actually just built up the automatic sorter which does this—which you're not gonna touch. we're banned from touching any redstone contraptions!"

and what can grian do but oblige? (but he can at least look, right?)

but does it ever change anything?

does it matter?

-

at the end of the day, the others don't think too much about it.

they all say their part, pass their judgment, wave their hands, dismiss, move on. it doesn't keep them up at night.

... i think it might keep grian up at night.

a cacophonous collection of word snippets, aimed at him or woven around him, digging under his skin until it bleeds. a noose of inescapable fate, a tightening band around his chest that promises he can only ever be one thing:

a vessel for destruction.

it doesn't matter if he wants to be.

shackles and chains and a cosmic inevitability written into his skin, etched into his bones, tangled into his bloodstream. and an ever-rising guilt like stormy sea, far above his head now, drowning him.

(maybe he's not meant to be near other people and their things.)

(maybe he's not meant to touch games that were constructed with so much effort and love and passion poured into them.)

(maybe he shouldn't—)

==========

bonus screenshots from discord DMs (with extra sprinkles of hmtb mentions):

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bonus hmtb quotes because i kept thinking about it:

He always destroys the things he loves most, after all.

and:

He destroyed everything he touched, and when there was nothing left, he destroyed the only remaining thing: himself.

-

[influx-of-brainrot]

I’M LAUGHING AT THE CLIPS I GOT THEYRE SO UNSERIOUS

[lucishell]

art trade with a friend !! :D

[secretly-a-trekkie]

changing my ringtone and text notifs to the comm link sound effect just to drive myself insane

[nonbinary-vents]

I keep seeing a piece of Jewish art everywhere and it’s killing me because the creator is a Hamasnik Jew who has spent months spreading disinformation and libel (obviously nothing said on the Simchat Torah pogrom, a day later already spreading lies). And I see this a lot. Non-Israeli Jewish blogs sharing Jewish stuff from people who, yes, are Jews, but also think it’s justified for me and my family to be murdered. And it sucks, even though it’s small and I should just move on from it. It feels like shit going into a blog that I know is safe for me and still somehow finding hatred.

[hall-of-moodboards]

TimSasha stimboard themed around forget-me-nots and the stranger >:3 {Self indulgent}

X X X X X X X X X

[hostilemuppet]

I know it's been a while since you've talked abt mouthwashing but it really is driving me crazy seeing people reblog their little cutesy aus of the game. like I mean whatever in the end I can just block and ignore but it's funny bc it's like. you guys are basing this stuff on nothinggg wdym "reverse personality au" what personalities do they all have. you just assumed personality traits for them. and there's a racism problem (as always) with everyone infantilizing daisuke bc he's an asian man like yeah he's the youngest but. even if he's 18 years old exactly (I assumed 20/21 personally), he's not the little baby child everyone seems to want to act like he is. going back to the personality traits thing lol some people seriously seem to think that sexual assaulter is like. jimmy's personality and not something horrible he chose to do bc they need a villain and they need that villain to be born villainous and not someone who did the wrong things. bc the average fandom simply cannot comprehend that people aren't just born evil. if they can't dehumanize one character to the point that people won't even say his name then what's the point. like it's crazy to me. you can say you want jimmy to suffer and die without acting like he isn't human and was just some evil force who forced his way into the crew with the rest of them. do people just not see how theyre minimizing what he did to anya when they act like he's some creature from hell and not a person like the rest of them

i agree with literally everything you said its so crazy 😭 it really does make me feel like the "no fun allowed" guy when i say this but mouthwashing did NOT need the typical fandom. it was an incredible work of fiction that used its medium to its full advantage to tell the story it wanted to tell, but people will DIE if they cant make silly "and then nothing bad happened!" aus bc they see ALL fiction as a sandbox game, or like playing dolls where they just smush their blorbos together and thats all they wanted to take from it

AND DAISUKES TREATMENT SPECIFICALLY MAKES ME SOOOOOO MAD between the way they treat him like some kind of toddler, and the way no one even cares enough to pronounce his name correctly... i KNOW youve probably watched naruto you KNOW the "u" is basically silent youre just being deliberately obtuse and racist. there was this one tweet that was like "the way you all infantilise the asian (and only non white) character is kinda weird" and people chewed them OUT saying "um its just bc hes canonically the youngest 🤨 it has nothing to do with race. that one friend whos too woke" like... okay yeah even if he was white hed probably still be infantilised (especially to make him out to be The Good Guy who wouldnt have let that happen! more later) but youre fucking braindead if you dont think its substantially worse bc hes ASIAN and people infantilise (and simultaneously sexualise) east asians to a disgusting degree 😭 people were acting like an artist made child porn for drawing him with a little hint of a thong poking out of his jeans... in general ive noticed people arent taking anti asian racism seriously lately, especially on twitter. there was this on tweet going around defending the use of HIGHLIGHTER YELLOW SKIN on asian characters with a LOT of interactions and i was going through the qrts hoping SOMEONE would say "hey this is fucked up" but there was NOTHING i felt like i was going INSANE 😭

in general i think a lot of the fandom struggles with "every character is either 100% fully good or 100% fully bad" which is. EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING! bc theyll say that curly is just as bad as jimmy for not immediately killing him, while also saying that swansea is a perfect angel and if he knew he would have killed jimmy. even though SWANSEA LITERALLY DID KNOW. ANYA TOLD HIM. SWANSEA KNEW AND HE DIDNT DO ANYTHING AGAINST JIMMY BEYOND GIVING HIM THE EVIL EYE (and he already didnt like him anyway! not only did he not treat him any different, he wasnt being manipulated in a codependent friendshp 😭 just turning a blind eye to rape for the love of the game (hating women)). he only did anything once jimmys actions hurt daisuke, a man. i always call mouthwashing "bystander effect: the game" bc it really fits with how no one on that ship actually bothered to help anya so by the fandoms logic, swansea is also just as evil as jimmy is. really the only character who didnt fail anya is daisuke, but thats only bc he wasnt given the opportunity (that we know of)! and since anya thought "curly will help me" and then he didnt, and then "swansea will help me" and then he didnt, chances are, if were thinking "daisuke would have helped her"? he would not have done that. im sorry. i like daisuke as much as the next guy but that useless ray of goddamn sunshine looked up to jimmy and would be just as easily persuaded as curly was. sorry to burst your bubble that daisuke and swansea probably arent the rapist hunters youve decided they are bc the only way you can interact with the game all about rape getting swept under the rug is by insisting that the two dudes you like would not have done that, actually. they are still men. even if daisuke is "nice" and swansea is a "jerk with a heart of gold" they are not immune to upholding rape culture just bc swansea had a soft spot for daisuke (again. a man) and daisuke didnt want anya to kill herself. curly didnt want anya to kill herself either is all im saying