#Time for mindfuckery

[becauseimanicequeen]

Yesterday, I wrote that I might expand on my "dream world" theory in 4 Minutes (which I've had since I reacted to the trailer and teaser) and here I am doing just that because I can't seem to get it out of my head (and I need to get this out of my head so I can focus on the Olympics, lol).

I also mentioned yesterday that I should've called it something better than "dream world" because it doesn't really encapsulate what I mean by it.

Does it include Great's dreams? Yes. His visions too. And perhaps everything else going on as well.

As I wrote in my post yesterday, the visions Great has at the end of the first episode (the visions of Tyme and himself together) are his future self's memories. The reason he has those visions (which are clearly more than 4 minutes into the future), is because he's been sent back in time. Not in a time-travel kind of way, but perhaps an out-of-body experience kind of way as he experiences a cardiac arrest in the present time (the patient at the beginning of the episode).

(That 4 above his bed is deliciously placed, btw. And the flashing red lights mean things, which I might expand on in a separate post. But, you know, the Olympics...)

This also ties in with my theory that Great has gained his precognitive ability to redeem himself from a past mistake/transgression (the past being the events we see play out throughout most of the first episode). The cardiac arrest is the root cause of it, but the things he sees and can change are the things he needs to change to have a different outcome in the future. Perhaps to save Tyme from being killed. Perhaps to save himself from dying. Perhaps both. Perhaps more.

If this is true, I think we'll see a mix of "the 4-minutes phenomenon" (which it said on Den's board) and Great's other visions from his future self.

I don't know about you, but I'm excited to get more of this mindfuckery from Sammon. Thank you, queen!

Is it Friday, yet?

[welcometogrouchland]

I just think Hunter was obsessed with Willow and didn't even know it during the period from any sport in a storm to labyrinth runners. They maybe don't talk as often as they could, they're both busy and have conflicting schedules, so when they do talk, Hunter absorbs everything she says.

After roughly 3 weeks of texting (hexting? I feel like the kids would call it hexting), He knows that her favorite colour is orange, she likes her tea with extra milk and a bit of honey during winter, she likes working out to the noisiest angriest music in her playlist, her dad Gilbert is a construction witch who specialises in pottery, she used to listen to breakup songs and think about her childhood best friend (Hunter doesn't know it's Amity) and she actually has a mild pollen allergy despite being a plant witch and has to take potions for it.

He casually drops all this info piece by piece during their stay in the human realm and willows like. Well I can't not marry him. It'll have to be a winter or fall wedding to account for her allergies </3

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What are some instances of retconning in animorphs that you have noticed? (aside from the first book)

Honestly, Animorphs is not bad. Compared to Sherlock Holmes or Percy Jackson, there's hardly any retconning at all. Compared to series like Dune or X-Men that built in-story retcon mechanisms because of the infinite overlapping retcons, Animorphs is practically airtight. Not Harry Potter or Mistborn airtight, sure, but better than any other multi-authored 20+ book series I know.

However, there are some. Ax's mention in #8 of occasional hork-bajir wars doesn't fit with Hork-Bajir Chronicles showing they have no concept of violence before andalites arrive. Cassie's line about "my niece" in #37 is not in line with her saying her parents are her only family in #49. Rachel suspects at times that Jordan's a controller (#12, #22) but in #49 Jordan's dismissed as even a potential threat.

And then there's the absolute clusterfuck of Tobias's parentage.

In #3, he says "my parents died." In #13, it's "both my folks left a long time ago." In Andalite Chronicles, when Elfangor asks about Loren: "She disappeared. When I was just little... I guess she died." In #23, he says "both my parents are dead." But also DeGroot says "Your father... who died? That may not have been your real father" implying a stepfather we never meet. After Elfangor's will it kinda falls into place, but even then...

Elfangor says he and Loren were ~14 mentally, ~18 physically, when they got to Earth, and that "when she was ready by human standards, I married her." He mentions getting multiple college degrees, but that it's only "three years later" that the Ellimist abducts him back to space. No one apparently notices he was gone — Ax has no idea Elfangor lived on Earth, and didn't notice him missing (#8), so... he time-traveled back and lived those three years twice? And no one noticed him being seven years older because... Ellimist fuckery? There's mention of Loren dating someone else after Al's "death", so at least the random step-dad is consistent. But Loren doesn't mention him in #49, so I guess she got remarried and rewidowed between Tobias's birth and his third birthday, and then she forgot him.

Anywhoo, it kind of lines up sorta if you squint, but I'm 99.9% sure that there was some degree of retcon somewhere in there.

[rubiesintherough]

.

[quietwingsinthesky]

(Fobwatch anon) you take AS MUCH liberty as you want !! No one else sees this vision. Can you believe that

i really can’t, it’s brilliant. it’s exactly the kind of fun mindfuckery that i love to play with <3 i have Ideas. i have angst brewing. sexy angst.

[rottenseaweed]

so I started watching Bocchi the rock

if anything happened to this tiny pink haired bean I would kill everyone in this room and then myself

[chemdisaster]

scar and badtimes in your hotguy mindfuckery au remind me so much of the Stanley and Stanford Pines and I love it so much

HI SOULMATE

yeah, now that you mention it, they totally are like stan and ford. scar as the one who was more loved and badtimes as the disappointment of the family. also scar moving on and making a life for himself, while badtimes stays miserable and resentful.

the only difference is that unlike ford, scar was loved only because he pretended to be something he wasn't. also badtimes' feelings towards scar are way more fucked up than stan's feelings towards ford. but then, the whole au is fucked up lmao

[muchanmocha]

My hot take is that Luka didn't actually impersonate Sua

And here's why.

Ok let's start by making this clear — Luka canonically knew about Sua and has analyzed Mizi and Sua's relationship to hell and back based on their My Clematis performance before Round 5.

"In the interview, Luka responded as if he had no interest in Mizi, but in reality he had thoroughly analyzed everything about her after watching her duet stage with Sua. In her confusion, Mizi becomes a mere plaything for Luka."

— Director's Commentary, ALNST Artbook

He precision-designed Round 5 to systematically push Mizi to her breaking point by using Sua and her death in Round 1 — everything from the performance, his expressions, his intonations, his timing, the choreography, down to the very song choice (he presumably didn't pull out ROMH for Round 4, and he didn't save it for the finals/Round 7 as he may have intended).

However, what wasn't on that list, was impersonating Sua.

Let's take a look at what happened on stage:

Luka opens up the sequence by catcalling her right off the bat, abruptly intruding her personal space in the first of many moments to come.

"You're the perfect subject, with the whole world in your sad eyes."

"My savior, beautiful soul..."

He proceeds to condescendingly give praise to how beautiful she is in her broken state, glorifying the trauma that made her perfect.

"I don't believe. You're a liar."

All the admiration of which, they both know is just a pretense.

Then comes the most important part.

Sua's hallucination appears.

You tell me, is that a Sua expression?

No! In fact! Sua resembles Luka here.

So what's actually happening in this scene?

Well if you look at the lyrics when she appears, you'll find this:

"When our darknesses overlap, let me take it all away."

Sua appears because Luka is directly addressing Mizi's "darkness" here, aka her trauma aka Sua, and offers to take it away. Therefore, Mizi is the one doing all the heavy lifting of hallucinating her.

Again, is this an expression that would remind you of Sua?

What he DOES do here, is continue to invade her space and touch her intimately like a lover would, which he had been doing since minute one.

Remember: the theme of Round 5 is contract marriage.

He touches her not as Sua would, but as a lover would, because that would be the easiest way to provoke Mizi, who had just lost the love of her life and is now "tied" to him.

If you check the timing of Sua's hallucination's appearances, you'd find them not when Luka "admires" Mizi for her beauty, or when they sing "ruler of my heart" as you'd expect if he was actually trying to echo Sua, but when the lyrics address the despair and trauma Mizi is facing.

Ironically, the only times in this performance that Luka plausibly resembles Sua, is when he adopts his blank doll face away from audience eyes.

Yet you can see that Sua never appears in any of these shots because that's not how Mizi would've remembered her. We can confirm that with which real memories appear in Round 5, specifically behind Luka in the theater scene and during Mizi's breakdown.

(Can you tell I've long reached my photo limit and had to make cuts)

Mizi remembers Sua at her happiest, because Sua was always her happiest when she was with Mizi.

And this is exactly the loss Luka effectively spits on.

Mizi: My world is collapsing

Luka: Lol yeah whatever

There is such a purposeful, derisive mockery embedded in how Luka treats the subject of her loss.

"Make me your god, I can give you everything."

Not, "I am your god," but "replace your god with me."

You'll notice that what he offers here isn't a new "replacement Sua," but the audience.

Catcalling, smirking, manhandling her like a ragdoll, condescendingly looking down at her, overt mockery, revelling in the cheers of an audience that's crazy for him. There is nothing he does in Round 5 that even remotely resembles Sua or is meant to resemble Sua.

Where would the resemblance be? His pretty face and white clothes? White was, and has always been his signature outfit color. Round 5 wasn't a special occasion for that.

So.

Tl;dr Luka did not actively impersonate Sua. But he did commit mindfuckery on several levels.

-

Bonus:

Luka -> Mizi [Intimacy 0%, -]

It's stupid and foolish to not be able to control even one of your emotions.

[villain-in-love]

Ha... haha...

Hahahahaha!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[abusivelittlebunny]

Baby Pierce being his stepdaddy's pretty little substitute wife and the rural middle of nowhere Texan town's favorite whore is at this point Canon in my mind. He was a fragile little doll that wanted to kill his past so bad he thought taking Transigen's offer was his chance to erase the weak little toy he used to be but his facade keeps cracking painfully and no matter how much he tries to hide it the people around him can practically smell what he is. And there's nothing that mortifies him more than the fact that deep down secretly his treacherous body and subconscious likes it.

The way I get so feral when I remember that this guy

is the same guy as this guy

[kirstythejetblackgoldfish]

🐟 Pollock, AKA coley, AKA saithe 🐟

[rofefetasprite]

fantroll art dump because i love her and i get to post about her a little

[candiid-caniine]

my favorite thing about denial is the opportunities for mindfuckery. gaslighting and emotional manipulation, in particular.

"if you want to cum so bad, why do you get so wet when you're denied?"

"you came just now. yes you did. are you such an edged-out slut that you don't remember what it feels like? i know you came, and i didn't give you permission, so now you're in big trouble."

"but your hole feels so much better when it's denied. don't you want to make me feel good?"

"if you could just stop touching yourself so much, maybe you'd be able to prove you deserve to cum."

"every time i tell you 'no,' you get wetter. i don't care if you don't believe me, i can feel it."

"your orgasms are so special for me, and i don't want them to lose their specialness. don't you want to save them for special occasions? if you just cum all the time, i'll get so bored of it..."

"if you won't give them up for me, you don't really respect me."

"only sluts cum every day. do you want to be a slut? because i have no problems treating you like one."

"when you stop being so pathetic, maybe i'll let you cum."

fuck. when they say shit like this to me,,

[luna-the-cretar]

Kremy notices that Torbek is practically glued to Frost’s hip, but really only bc it’s hindering both Torbek’s and Frost’s work (since I imagine Frost helps Kremy with the financial part of running the carnival, and Torbek obviously helps with climbing things or running some of the attractions). Gideon notices that Torbek is a lot more snappy at the patrons, but as long as there’s no blood shed, he doesn’t really care.

Gricko, however, is obviously DEVASTATED about the situation, and that he’s finding out about it so late. He blames himself for Frost not feeling safe enough to talk to him about something being very clearly wrong with Torbek. Gricko is also beating himself up for not noticing earlier, or voicing his worries more (since I imagine Gricko might’ve actually noticed Frost’s pensiveness about a month in, and notice Torbek’s eyes being very clearly a different color about 2 months in).

Also, this whole situation (and a relating situation that causes the unfortunate death of a patron by Torbek) causes Frost and Torbek to leave the carnival for a while. And yes, Gricko is beating himself up about this too.

Anyone remember the Frostbek series I was working on? Before it kinda stopped? Yeah, I’m still writing it, just very slowly lol. (Actually, at this rate, the next fic might not get posted until ouaw itself picks back up)

Anyway, out of all the fics I have planned for this series (and there’s a lot of ‘em), there’s only one I’m really excited for and know exactly how I’m gonna have it play out. Actually it’s technically 3 separate fics, but they’re connected with this plotline.

CW: Abusive relationship (it’s regarding The Other, so…yeah)

So Frost wakes up in the middle of the night, and all he can see is the glow from Torbek’s canisters, and his eyes. This is not abnormal—I imagine Torbek is more of a night owl like Frost is, but has to be up during the day bc responsibilities and traveling—what IS abnormal, however, is the bright pink hue to his boyfriend’s eyes. “Torbek” sees that Frosty is awake, and immediately crawls closer, smiling.

They have a conversation, that essentially boils down to The Other telling Frost that He’ll be taking over for a while, but to not be alarmed because He has grown rather fond of Frost, partially because of how much Torbek cares for the Tabaxi. The Other does threaten Frost, however, and tells him that if he’d like to keep his head on his shoulders, he wouldn’t tell the others about what’s going on. And that he knows if/when Frost is communicating with someone mentally (idk if The Other actually has mind powers, but shhh). So, Frost keeps quiet about this. For 2 months.

The Other isn’t physically harming Frost, other than a small cut on his cheek from the initial conversation. But the others (Gricko especially) notice how odd both Frost and “Torbek” are acting. Frost seems uncomfortable, if not outright scared, of “Torbek”, and is significantly quieter than he normally is. He won’t even talk to them mentally. And “Torbek” won’t leave Frost’s side. At all. Whereas beforehand, while Torbek was much more comfortable with Frost around, they both also had their own responsibilities on the reformed Carnival, and would spend much of the day apart.

Now, though? Wherever Frost is, “Torbek” is. The bugbear won’t even leave the poor man alone to use the bathroom. And he’s also INCREDIBLY jealous, glaring daggers at whoever decides to talk to Frost for any reason (if looks could kill, Gricko would be dead 10 times over)

Eventually, Gricko realizes that this isn’t Torbek, and must be The Other, and manages to pry Frost away from Him for a short while. He tells Frost there must be some way to bring Torbek back, and that he should try and use his psychic abilities, and see if that works. Frost agrees, and that night, he does so.

This leads to Frost learning just how deep Torbek’s affections go, and Torbek makes a deal with his Other, who agrees and lets Torbek take control again. Happily ever after. For the time being, anyway. ;)

[linkcharacter]

What is your interpretation of the blood and ladder thing? Like, did Curly really see that at the time? Is it a way to convey his anxiety? Is it how he remembers the moment?

As I see it, I'm treating it the same as Jimmy's, as their subconscious and state of mind depicted and visualized for players in a cool asf way. It's a creative and visually impactful way to tell the story, the characters' thoughts and what's going on in their mind. Therefore I'm willing to accept that it is actually something Curly 'felt' in the moment. Up to you to interpret how vivid or conscious he was of it happening, it is simply where his mind was at.

Same question can be asked about all of Jimmy's mindfuckery too, with no clear indication on whether or not, (for example) he actually thought he was being hunted by a long ass horse while searching for mouthwash for Daisuke. If we accept, that Jimmy's walk in the Polle corridor after crashing the ship was what he 'felt' while sitting on the floor head in hands, If we don't doubt, that the judgement and other encounters are something that's representing Jimmy's mind state, then I don't think there's reasons to doubt Curly's too (and vice versa). It does blur a line between in-game reality and metaphorical symbolism shenanigans tomfoolery to the player and I think that's the point. It's for the story.

The vision itself comes out as extremely foreshadowy but it's something that's been on his mind. It is Curly having an existential crisis about the career ladders that reach above the Ocean Of Blood, with him "reaching the top" and safe from drowning in it. It is Curly's subconscious screaming at him about the danger in the cockpit, how he keeps on walking "ignoring all warning signs". This sequence implies so much, especially if we assume or consider that Curly has been aware of what Anya told him for a gooood while. Anticipating the doom Jimmy will bring with him by walking into the giant star (that, by the way, locks your camera on it, unable to turn away) that is leading into the cockpit where Jimmy is seated. Because that's literally what happens, Curly walks into the cockpit and gets incinerated later, because of Jimmy and Curly's own negligence and compliance. Feeling helpless in the wake of an inescapable gravitational pull is how Curly felt (whether he actually was helpless is up to debate, but it is how he saw it). He may have know OF the dead pixel but ignored it, as the warning signs were there but kept on acting like it wasn't a big deal. Until the deadly star that grew out of it consumed him.

[kazz-brekker]

truly think the worst thing about sauron's mindfuckery with celebrimbor is that he keeps making him choose, over and over again, to work with him. he manipulates celebrimbor into keeping the forge open, into making the nine rings despite his concerns, into continuing the work even when it's taking such a toll on him, and the whole time makes celebrimbor agree rather than intimidating or forcing him. he makes celebrimbor feel like this is the right and only thing to be doing. celebrimbor's being manipulated, of course, but when the moment finally comes when he realizes annatar's true nature and feels like he willingly agreed to everything that he was coerced into doing, the guilt is going to be HORRENDOUS