#This is probably only for a target audience of me and only me but I think I'm funny

[geospiral]

The stage was always Luka’s world, and everyone else was just living in it.

Luka’s first round in the 50th Alien Stage competition was the fourth round, but really it should have been the second given the predetermined matchups. The Segyein were saving his round for later in order to excite the in-universe audience to the previous winner’s grand return.

(There is no dimmed profile in the second bracket.)

Luka being set up to go against either Mizi or Sua was absolutely intentional; the Segyein knew whoever came out of Round One would be an easy target for Luka’s manipulation, which, in their eyes, would make for a good show. When organizing the rounds, it seems like the Segyein try to go for which setups will elicit the biggest emotional responses out of the contestants. They clearly already knew about Mizi and Sua’s intimate relationship with the fact that the contestants’ profiles are most likely created by the Segyein with little to no input from the humans themselves (probably made with the help of the ever-present camera flowers in Anakt).

(translation)

This would also explain why Sua and Ivan were so certain about Mizi going up against Sua in the competition despite them not being told about the round matches yet.

(Take this with a grain of salt because it is possible they were already told who was against whom before this comic, but given how young they look, I'm thinking that it's probably too early for them to know.)

(translation)

If Luka weren’t in this year’s tournament, they would have probably set Till up against Mizi in Round 5 instead since the Segyein are aware of how much she means to Till. They technically could have still done that with Luka in the competition and had Round 6 be him vs. Ivan, but they most likely didn’t want to save Luka’s signature act until the final round, which the Segyein would have believed themselves to be doing given how they don’t seem to know how important Till is to Ivan (probably intentionally on Ivan's part).

(Text: "Intimacy: 70% It feels like I'm being chased all the time, but I can't find any evidence, so the teachers only suspect me!!! I'm so pissed!! He's always done things I don't like, and I don't understand... Anyway, he's a bother.)

Note: While I think the character profiles were probably made by the Segyein, I don't think the intimacy levels from the artbook are. I'm showing Till's intimacy level for Ivan to highlight his comment about the teachers not believing him when he says that Ivan is constantly following him around.

The Segyein knew the two were friends at least, but that seems about it. Maybe that was enough for them to be a possible sixth round setup if they came out of 2 and 3 victorious, but given the vast potential there was for Luka vs. Ivan after a Mizi vs. Till round, I don't think the Segyein knew the depths of Ivan and Till's relationship and therefore didn't care until it became blatantly obvious after the canon Round 6 and could be capitalized upon for the finale.

From a meta perspective, an Ivantill round was obvious, but my personal opinion is that in-universe I think that matchup was more akin to a happy little accident on the Segyein's part.

This is also all ignoring the huge elephant in the room, which is the Rebellion throwing a wrench into the competition.

I think the biggest change in the direction of the competition (not the results of the rounds but in how the rounds themselves were organized) due to the rebellion was how the Segyein decided to have the finale be mere hours after Round 6. If the fifth round hadn’t been interrupted, I think that the sixth would have been performed right after, like how the first four rounds were. Also, I don’t think they would have tried to aid Luka in his manipulation by throwing up pictures of Ivan on the screens and would have just left him to his own devices like in Round 5. But the Segyein wanted to lure the rebels out to save Till, so basically flashing a big sign that says, "THIS GUY IS MESSED UP FROM THE LAST ROUND AND WILL DIE IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING" was probably the best way to do it.

This is all to say that I think it's a lot more interesting if Luka was being set up to be the winner the entire time. Obviously he still had to work for it, but I like the idea that almost everything was set up in his favor; he just had to take advantage of it. The Segyein wanted a good show, and Luka knows how to perform. He did not disappoint them.

[miserable-something]

the court physician and the second born

[c1nto]

=> zenkaiger x BL <=

[chronic-cynic]

I know everyone wants a Solitaire movie (and so do I) but I honestly think they'd fuck it up beyond anyone's imagination.

[gatzbright]

find me in the future

[a dnf howl’s moving castle au]

Dream: George ... I'm going to blow up. Come with me.

Dream: That's my boy!

dreaming up dream and george in nunki @demonstars Howl's Moving Castle au. happy birthday nunki !!!!! ur howl dream au means Everything to me &lt;3

[stylosha]

please amc do you know you have 30 minutes

[kardulis]

my fave thing about the wad polaroids tumblr account is the way so many of the twitter people have kpop-related usernames... when im on twt and see a new pola i don't register whether the op is a kpop stan too bc my tl is full of it (and dnp) regardless but on tumblr the username is the first thing i notice

being a kpoppie really convinced us to not even blink before buying a merch item just because it comes with a silly little photocard 💀

[spatio-rift]

pov you just talked during saiko-samas info dumping time

[rainbyte]

All of Identity V as TF2 classes 💥

[kangyeosaang]

eunkwang · weverse live · 230707

[prick-up-ur-ears]

finally convinced my teenage cousin to watch twilight and had the horribly cursed idea of an imodna twilight au

[professional-termite]

Show us a bit of a WIP!

alr heres an unedited excerpt from the prologue/first chapter of my ness the waiter x lore crackfic. dont question whats happening here itll all make sense eventually (maybe)

Ness didn’t usually pay all that much attention on his commute home. Perhaps if he had, none of it would’ve happened.

As he flicked on his turn indicator and cruised down main, his mind was more on vague thoughts of what he was going to eat when he got home. He’d driven the route so many times it felt like second nature. It was easier than feeling his way around his room in the dark (something he did every morning, because he despised the colour of the lights in his small apartment).

The windows of the stores along the street were decorated with spiders and witches and pumpkins in preparation for Halloween. Ness admired them for a moment before his attention shifted. One of the bakeries, an old-style one that’d been there since before Ness was born, had a large red sign in the window reading Closing Forever Soon! Sale! in bold font. It was kind of endearing, and a little sad, in a hideous, hand-made way.

The traffic light switched from red to yellow to green a few moments before Ness reached the intersection. Ness smiled and didn’t even slow down as he rolled through. Perhaps if he’d taken the time to slow down slightly and look, he could’ve avoided the accident.

Ness saw the truck through the corner of his eye, but it didn’t really register what was happening at first. At the very last second, he snapped out of his daze and tried to swerve.

Perhaps if he hadn’t, he would’ve lived.

[politemagic]

reading my placeholder text in my wips for when i have better words never fails to crack me up like

"She forced herself to tear her eyes away from the way the tight shirt accentuated them titties"

(inspiration for this shirt below the cut bc you just gotta see it)

SINGLE DAD IVY GOING OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A WHILE AND HIS SHIRT FITS TIGHTER THAN IT USED TO

[eddiezpaghetti]

Okay so I was listening to the "Mike's Basement Beats" playlist--don't fucking look at me like that--and this fucking song came on.

And my old-ass-stupid-ass-nerd ass immediately went "Why does this sound like they made it with the goddamn Zelda II soundfont?"

And I'm far too fucking smug about the fact that I made Mike play Zelda II whilst hungover in From Vecna to Van Nuys.

Somehow, this makes me feel like I've got this boy pegged. This pigeonhole is absolutely stuffed full of pigeon. No one can tell me otherwise.

[m00ngbin]

I feel like barf and I spent a bunch of time stress studying for a bunch of exams that are two months to a year away so I can't say that my commentary is going to be spectacular and everything that these next two chapters deserve but by god I'm going to try and that's all that I really need to do anyways

[essektheylyss]

I have, against all good judgment, started playing Control. I did make it through the first challenge without dying (after I got past the first proper jump) which bodes better than expected, given my video game track record, but we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, I need to make a version of the Socrates meme but with Jesse getting hired as director immediately upon the culmination of some decades-long revenge quest.