#accidental metaphor

[cardboardboxy]

Trials of Apollo is an accidental disability allegory

Heres why :)

So apollo himself describes the transition from god to human as crippling, this is shown through the limitations of mortal memory, skill deterioration etc etc which are aspects of different disabilities, this is the more obvious stuff

But some other things are the inability to take on his desired form and the restriction of how many places he can be at one time, both of these can be very easily compared to reliance on mobilty aids, initially they are restricting to self expression and access to the world around you

BUT this isn't permanent (in most cases) apollo learns overtime to love his mortal from and while his feelings of restriction still stay (something that is also the case for a lot of disabled people!) he also comes to recognise the advantages of it and finds freedom in it, which is something mobility aid users also do

Apollo is cut of from the godly world in almost every way, and the few times he isnt (aside from artemis but we'll get to her) leads to him feeling inadequate and powerless against it. So he has to find community elsewhere among mortals a.k.a finding the disabled community

Throughout the course of the books apollo becomes deeply rooted in a mortal way of living, the way he takes care of himself and his friends changes as he comes to recognise mortals as equals, and that in many ways they're better then the gods

This is similar to the way that after finding the disabled community a lot of people learn to manage their disability better and unlearn a lot of internal biases they hold against disabled people

The emperors embody unchanging society, the people unwilling to alter anything in any way that helps people to their own detriment, if they weren't so hellbent on trying to 'get back to the good days' they couldve survived, the fact that they get stripped of their immortality is also relevant to the way most people eventually become disabled

Jason symbolises the victims of people not willing to change, a lot of disabled deaths are avoidable yet people still die, like jason still died because others (the gods) were unwilling to change. Apollos promise to remember what life was like as a mortal so he can change things is paralleled to people who are able to recover from their disabilities becoming advocates for accessibility and education

His relationship with artemis is reminiscent of the fact that disabled people often become more distant from able bodied people due to the lack of relatability, and while artemis cannot understand what he went through, she's not completely distanced from him and even helps him afterwards when he cannot bear to use his powers (its very common that disabled peoples family members will become their carers)

Apollo mourns his mortal life despite all the trauma it caused him, the same way recovering from disability isn't always a positive experience, to relean how to live a second time isn't easy. While he does interact with the gods, he goes right back to his mortal friends because they have more in common now after all he went through

This concludes my yap session 👍

[potentialcabinet]

love those metaphors that write themselves. i use a squishmallow as a second pillow when i need more support, and it's crushed flat by my dependency on it. why bother trying to write something original when my squishmallow is right here underneath me

[3amsoda]

gallica

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

As per usual, it’s DP crossover with (probably) DC, although you could probably adjust it for other fandoms

ANYWAYS

A little kid and his mother are trick or treating in another city, perhaps at some kind of event rather than knocking on doors, and the kid is dressed as Phantom. It’s very adorable, with his little ghost-shaped bucket and clearly homemade and already stained costume—listen, white only works if you can just fly over street grime or phase it out of your clothes—and his slightly I’ll fitting wig. The kid is SO happy to be out and about dressed as his favorite, and maybe even showed it off to Phantom back in Amity Park before his family left.

The hero, insert whoever you wish here, is probably in civvies and just enjoying the event. The kid, meanwhile, is so glad when people ask who he is so he can explain, and so- the hero gets to hear ALL ABOUT the local town hero who is probably pretty small time despite the kid’s clearly exaggerated stories. The hero certainly never heard of him, but the kid’s mom confirms that Phantom really was the town hero, despite some mixed reviews of the poor guy.

“Did you manage to show him your costume?” the hero asks.

“Yeah! We went down to the cemetery to leave flowers and I got to show him my costume.”

Wait. Cemetery? Maybe it was part of theme, because Phantom had to be named that for a reason, but… it sounded like…

The kid ignores the suddenly VERY still hero and instead turns to his mom. “Momma, do you think we should bring him candy? He doesn’t get to trick or treat like we do, and I can work super hard to get him a bunch!”

The kid’s mom just smiles. “We could, but maybe we should bring him something homemade. I bet he’d like something more filling, teen boys like him have a hollow leg.”

The kid wrinkles his nose. “Like Vernie with the pizza bagels?”

“Like your cousin, yes. We can make some cinnamon rolls and take them to his memorial, maybe bring some of the apples from your grandpa’s garden…”

The hero is pretty much forgotten as the two-part family wanders off, not quite intentionally forgetting the hero is there so much as the hero somewhat accidentally ended the conversation when they just froze and didn’t ask anything further.

Not that the hero didn’t want to. But they’d learn something very serious.

One—there was a small town hero they’d never heard of. Two—that hero was apparently a teen. Third—most pressingly, the teen hero was both beloved enough to have kids dressing up as him and dead enough to have a grave.

This… might require some phone calls.

[cobaltfluff]

started the metaphor refantazio demo and I cannot believe this is my experience (I love it)

[saamaton]

formula 1 ft. guess

the sequel: formula 1 ft. talk talk

made by me, obviously inspired by the callengers guess edit by gal1tzine that i can't find anymore but was great!

[thatscrooge]

Now, can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is? Foreshadowing is a dramatic device in which an important plot point is mentioned earlier in the story to return later in a more significant way.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Wardrobe Woes

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[tls12lessthan3]

everything in orv is about being transgender, except for being transgender, which is about establishing your autonomy and personhood in the eyes of your creator and the oppressive system around you

[townslore]

the brothers ever! i finished basilio's doodle page and i added star hair highlights on fidelio since i forgot them earlier in a rush. yes thats just an excuse to post them together.

(pro/ship dni)

[sillylittlecharacters]

Isabeau, Siffrin and Mirabelle are very fun to consider in relation to each other because they're all characters who have - for different reasons and to different extents - crafted their identity for the benefit of others.

Warning: Spoilers and gratuitous theatrical metaphors below! They're light (the spoilers, not the theater imagery), but this analysis is really only for those who've finished the game.

Siffrin and Isabeau play the roles of the Funny-Jokes-Person and Team Himbo respectively - the comic relief duo, needed to keep the journey's tone light and moral high. This 'Act' is genuinely part of their personalities, but - and this is made clear in the Loops for Siffrin - they both rely on it to avoid expressing their genuine thoughts or feelings. I mean, there's a reason why it took until the DAY BEFORE THEY FOUGHT THE KING for Siffrin and Isabeau to have an 'important conversation' - these two are professionals, after all, and nothing less than a country ending catastrophe would make them break character. The difference between their performances is why they made those characters for themselves in the first place. Isabeau crafted his personality actively, to make himself as different as possible from the person he used to be. On the other hand, Siffrin, like Mirabelle, accidentally, or passively stepped into his role. (more on that in a moment)

Ah, how could we forget Mirabelle? Now, the nature of Mira's 'Act' is slightly different from our dynamic duo, as it's less to do with her personality and more to do with her status as a Saviour. Or more specifically, as the Change God's Chosen One. It's a lie she maintains, a part she plays, to give hope to the people of Vauguarde, but it wasn't one she chose. It was an accident that she was blessed, an accident that people assumed it was the Change God who did it. She's similar to Siffrin in this way: His performance is also based on how other people perceive him, only the 'other people' in his case is the party. Before Siffrin met them, he was effectively a blank slate, and he used the parties' expectations and reactions to his actions to build an identity. Take this dialogue from Act 4, fittingly found in Isa's friendship quest:

(That you didn't know how to describe yourself, you didn't know who you even were, until you said a bad pun once and he laughed so hard you thought he was going to pass out.)

Neither of them were looking for the role, but they both got type cast.

And in terms of the beauty alliance? Their biggest similarity is that they're both unsatisfied with their roles. Mirabelle hates being treated like the hero: hates the attention; the free gifts she feels like she doesn't deserve; the weight of the entire country's hopes and dreams she feels unable to carry. And Isabeau says that he hates being treated like he's stupid, hates that people assume he's brainless just because of his friendly demeanor. But they feel unable to step out of their roles, because that's what everyone needs from them, right?

(I guess this last point technically applies to Siffrin too, but that's after the Loops. Before they start, it seems like he's more than comfortable and even enjoys his role. It makes sense that he'd enjoy the feeling of having a concrete identity when he's so used to vague emptiness that comes with no memory.)

It's so fun ~!

[ryssbelle]

Does the flower from your first n2 post have any significance? Why isn't it blooming?

Yes the flower here does have significance!

It’s a memorial flower, the exact species of flower is one I made up, it’s one that has a strange growth period, there’s no real way to tell when it’s going to bloom but it does only bloom at night.

John Dory got the seeds while on one of his searches and gave it to Floyd since at the time Floyd was severely depressed and was spending all day everyday in his room in the bunker. JD had given Floyd a bunch of seeds for a garden but Floyd ended up only planting one which he’s been taking care of since he planted it.

He planted it on Clays birthday so they refer to it as Clay’s flower, but it’s a memorial for all their lost family members, so their parents, grandma, Clay, and Spruce/Bruce

Other than just maintaining it, Floyd also talks to it like the ones they lost can hear him through the flower, he visits it at least once everyday while the other brothers only visit on anniversaries and birthdays. (They also only bring the lights and photos out then as well, to keep the photos safe from damage)

It’s Floyd’s way of grieving :)

[darklight-owl]

You will never understand the irreparable damage Yomiel Ghost Trick inflicted on my psyche you can never understand the irreparable damage Yomiel Ghost Trick inflicted on my psyche. Play Ghost Trick.

[hellinhawkins]

thinking again about the byler slides and what flo said to nancy.

“only love makes you that crazy, sweetheart, and that damn stupid.”

and how “and that damn stupid” and el is repeatedly said not to be stupid (“not stupid” said by herself and “el’s not stupid” said by mike) as opposed to will calling himself stupid numerous times when he wrecked down castle byers

[vaguely-concerned]

I've been picking mostly only the essential flirt options with lucanis in the romance so far (I've personally found the dynamic much more natural and mutual when you do that, more like forming a solid friendship slowly and inevitably becoming something else and less like you keep pushing on him and getting little back b/c he seemingly just gets overwhelmed and goes into freeze instead), and I think rye is a pretty hard person to read at the best of times even though he's been Down Real Bad from pretty early on and their chemistry as people is naturally really good. so the way the almost-kiss plays out in this playthrough feels a lot like it has the added layer of lucanis realizing that no but for sure rook is flirting and not just being kind or a good friend* it IS actually happening it's not just wishful/fearful thinking!!! and then uh. maybe going a bit too hard a bit too fast in all the excitement at that revelation haha

*in lucanis' defense he has seemingly literally never had a friend who wasn't his cousin-brother before, under those circumstances I suppose some confusion is extremely natural if not outright expected lmao

[secretwhumplair]

Gladiator whump but the gladiators aren't owned, they're compelled by their circumstances to particpate in dangerous arena fights for a pittance, or even just for a chance at prize money. Gladiators who, out of despair, will climb over each other to be chosen by the ringmasters for more fights where they might be injured or killed.

Loose, uneasy alliances are formed in the underbelly of the arena to watch each other's back while waiting for their fight, because no one's above sabotaging their rivals.

Deaths in the arena are rare--a simple honour systems means a killer can't expect to survive themself when bested--but always a looming possibility, whether by accident or malice. Sometimes the ringmaster will hire a mercenary without the same qualms to spice things up.

For some of them this violent world is all they have, with no one but themself to piece themself back together after a fight. Others struggle to balance it with caring for a family member, or their other two jobs.

Some gladiators become popular enough with the audience they get to fight multiple times in a day. The downside, of course, being that they get to fight multiple times in a day.

Evenly matched fights are the worst--drawn out and brutal, when neither opponent can easily end it. They're also the most fun and exciting to watch, so they're as common as the ringmasters can make them.

The ringmasters are wholly indifferent to the fate of any given gladiator. After all, there's more where this one came from.