#afraid and finding it difficult to trust. most notable of all is his reaction to a character death in this episode; he's visibly shaken‚

[littleoddwriter]

Replaceable | Roman Sionis x Male!Reader

Another vent fic. Two in a day, wow.

summary; You’re spiralling because you feel as though Roman will leave (kill) you soon, since it seems inevitable to you.

notes; TW // Fear of abandonment; Spiralling; Suicidal and Homicidal thoughts (quite brief, tho). Emotional Hurt/Comfort; Soft Kisses; Roman being assuring and sweet in a rare moment of him being a decent person.

Being all alone in the loft, it felt huge to you. It always did. More often than not, you felt as though you didn’t belong here, like you were just an intruder, waiting to be spotted and put back on the streets, where you’d be lost and looking for another place to stay all over again.

It’s been about half a year since you and Roman have started dating. You had moved in a month ago. Roman had insisted on it, since you’ve spent most of your time here anyway. Part of you still had trouble believing that he really wanted you to live with him. That same part was just waiting for the other shoe to drop eventually.

All your life, people have very suddenly replaced you, so effortlessly, as if you have never mattered in the first place. In a way, you were used to it, expecting it even. It didn’t make it hurt any less, though. Nor did it calm your anxiety over it.

You knew how easily replaceable you were, and you really couldn’t fathom just why anyone kept you around in the first place, only to toss you aside the second they found someone better. It was always the same. You never learnt from it either, and instead you kept trusting blindly, loving passionately – platonically and not – and you always believed unconditionally. It made you sick to think just how naïve you still were after everything.

Even more so, you just couldn’t comprehend why Roman Sionis of all people would date you at all, and ask you to move in with him on top of it. It had made you spiral and you had no way of stopping it. Doubts kept eating away at you, the feelings of inadequacy dug their claws inside of you, and your anxiety slowly but surely tore you apart.

Sometime soon, he’d leave you, kick you out – no, he’d probably just have Zsasz kill you. Or would he do it himself and grant you that honour, too?

Sighing deeply, you squeezed the fuzzy orange pillow, which you’ve been holding and kneading, tightly against your chest. It just didn’t make sense to you at all and it terrified you.

You loved him so much, more than you’ve ever loved anyone, and you couldn’t bear to ever lose him. Fuck, you almost wished he really would kill you when he’s had enough, lest you’d do it yourself when he’s left you eventually. It was a frightening thought process, but not an unusual one.

Tears pricked your eyes and your chest felt so tight, it got difficult to breathe. Past relationships of any kind and how they’ve ended by replacing you, kept replaying in your mind. Roman would end up doing the same – finding someone better than you and getting rid of you. You knew he would, and frankly, you couldn’t blame him one bit. Not him or any of the others before him.

Perhaps that was your purpose in life – being a fill-in for people to find the person they were actually meant to be with, be that as friends or more. Although, it didn’t make sense in this context because you knew for a fact that Zsasz was this person for Roman already. Maybe you were there to make Roman realise his feelings for Victor? You didn’t know, couldn’t possibly. Your mind was nothing but a jumbled mess of questions, possibilities, and cries of agony. Spiralling like this had you in immense emotional pain, hence why your chest felt as tight as it did.

In the end, you didn’t know how long it’s been, but Roman was suddenly in front of you. You looked up at him from where you’ve been sitting on the chaise longue. His head was tilted to the side, a curious expression on his face.

“What’s going on, baby?” he asked.

“My brain’s being a dick,” you replied honestly. It was no use lying to him, ever, it’d only upset him and you didn’t want to be cause for that.

“Aw, how so?” Roman caressed your forehead with one of his gloved hands, brushing your hair back, oh, so gently.

It made the tears come back, burning your eyes, which had you lower your head, not wanting him to see it. Fuck, you were so weak, so stupid. You were nothing but a burden.

“Because I don’t want to lose you,” you whispered brokenly. You hadn’t planned on giving him that response, but now it was out and you couldn’t take it back. Your anxiety spiked, making your heart beat rapidly, your breaths becoming quicker.

“I can’t quite follow you, my little prince. Why would you lose me?” Roman sat down next to you, putting one arm around you and pulling you against him. Automatically, your head rested on his chest, listening to his rhythmic heartbeat. It was always so calming to you to feel his warmth against your skin, to hear the life thrum through his body so steadily.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, you explained to him what had been going through your mind in the past while. He just listened, brushing his hand through your hair, while his other hand stroked your arm soothingly, rubbing circles into it.

When you were done talking, you buried your face in his chest, smothering yourself for a moment. You were so afraid of his reaction. You couldn’t bear the beats of silence between what you’ve said and his eventual reply. It was a deafening kind of silence, one that rang in your ears and through your head, inflicting pain on you.

“Will you look at me, baby?” Roman asked to your surprise.

Cautiously, you lifted your head off of his chest and looked at him. Gently, he cupped your face in both of his hands, focusing his gaze on you, which had you feel exposed.

“I promise you, I won’t be able to find someone better than you. The only possibility would have ever been Zsasz and I’ve already got him. And then I found you. Baby, I- You know I’m not good at these things, but you are that better person already, ‘kay? I’m not leaving you, or killing you, I can assure you. Got it?”

Swallowing thickly, you nodded as best as you could with his hands holding your head up. “Okay, yeah. I’m sorry for- you know,” you spoke softly.

Roman leaned forward and captured your lips in a chaste, yet searing kiss, which you reciprocated as soon as you had caught yourself. For a few minutes, the two of you just shared soft kisses like that. Your heart soared with it, beating in your throat, it seemed, making you light-headed.

When you finally broke the kiss, you felt such intense feelings wash over you, choking you for a minute. They weren’t bad emotions either, but relief, happiness, excitement, and most notably hope.

You believed him and you could only hope he was right about what he’s said.

Only time could tell.

[isaacthedruid]

Please allow me to tell you about one of my favourite cartoons through this informal essay I did for school a couple of months back. 

Gravity Falls and How it Did The Unimaginable

**SPOILERS... KINDA**

The 2010s saw the creation of some of the most iconic animated tv shows ever made, the likes of Adventure Time (2010), Steven Universe (2013), Over the Garden Wall (2014) and The Legend of Korra (2012). To explain why this era’s shows are so admirable is honestly rather difficult. Yet, there are many factors that can be taken into consideration when looking for an answer.

The past decade was very successful in perfecting their craft and utilizing the animated format to their favour, creating some of the wackiest and fascinating cartoons ever made. With the advancements made in both 2D and 3D animation for film, this bled into the world of TV as well.

To mention that 2010s cartoons have stunning visuals would be an understatement. Everything about the animation was beautiful; the strong colour palettes, the clean and imaginative character designs, the colourful and immersive backgrounds and especially the mesmerizing worlds that can be found within episodes that are half an hour.

This era’s cartoons also led to a massive shift in storytelling, writing longer-running stories that spread out across seasons while also swapping out episodic adventures for serialization. This heavily aided in the popularization of these shows, due to the rise of internet fandoms and dropping the taboo that cartoons were only for kids. Many shows acknowledged their older viewers by leaving clues and even puzzles to be solved by the theorists who have a large appearance on social media platforms like Reddit, Twitter and Tumblr. As the shows progressed, their fandoms created many theories for what they believed might happen within their favourite series. The top three shows from this era all utilized these changes, being at the forefront of the shift and helping guide the creative vision of 2010s cartoons.

Often regarded as many people’s favourite cartoon, Gravity Falls presented one of the best mysteries of the decade with two seasons and only 40 episodes. Inspired by Twin Peaks and The X-Files, it’s considered as the kids’ version of these two iconic shows as this cartoon acts as many people’s first introduction to horror through bright colours and fun characters.

This series follows the adventures of Dipper and Mabel Pines, twins, who are sent to spend their summer with their great-uncle or Grunkle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon. This town is full of oddities like supernatural creatures, insane and eccentric inhabitants, and many puzzles. The Pines twins must adjust to the weirdness while uncovering the mysteries and protecting their new town.

While living in Gravity Falls, the twins are forced to work in the Mystery Shack, a tourist trap created by their Grunkle Stan that overcharges unlucky tourists, teaching about fake monsters despite there being real creatures all over town. On his first day in Oregon, Dipper accidentally came across a mysterious journal written by an unknown author that explains all the oddities to be found in this strange town. This book acts like an encyclopedic of the Weird for Dipper, an inquisitive 12-year-old kid who seeks answers.

Dipper is an extremely intelligent kid, his brain being far more developed than his body. He’s rather awkward and self-conscious as he often stumbles over his words or gets embarrassed trying to talk to girls. Despite this, the boy is an adventurer at heart who just wants to grow up and skip his upcoming teenage years.

While Mabel is quite the opposite in many ways, she is loud and has an in-your-face personality. Mabel is bouncy and fun, she is so excited to start high school. She is easily excitable and for the larger part of the series, she is in her boy-crazy phase. Mabel is a girly-girl as she likes all things; glitter, unicorns, rainbows, partying and crafting. Yet, she doesn’t often compare well with many of the other girls in town, they see her as weird and “too much”.

(In all fairness through, it is not too kind to either of the characters as their personalities are more complex than just awkward nerd and artsy girl-girly.)

Dipper and Mabel’s personalities are very different but somehow, they—along with their Gravity Falls family—manage to solve mysteries and save the town, multiple times.

Gravity Falls is an honestly genius series that completely changed the way cartoons were made. Originally when writing a series, you’d create a base of your story; characters, the universe and a basic plot. Yet, when creator, Alex Hirsch (who was in his early/mid-20)s and his small team first began constructing their show, they planned out everything they could possibly think of for the first season. Additionally, outlining some answers for their biggest mysteries that would be answered at the end of the series.

Despite being rated TV-Y7, this series really pushed the boundaries of kids’ television. From the teeth being ripped out of a deer’s mouth by a demon, rearranging the functions of every hole on a man’s face to an aggressive pop-rock sock puppet show that ended in a dramatic slow-motion scene of the puppets burning. Gravity Falls wasn’t afraid to get a little weird or creepy. Or create some genuine nightmare fuel. 

From the beginning, Gravity Falls had built a mystery into its series, hiding secrets and clues all throughout the show. Most notably were the backwards-recorded message and cryptograms, using roughly nine different kinds, even creating two of their own.

The inclusion of cyphers and mysteries for fans to solve is possibly the reason why this series was so successful. As one of the first shows to do something like this, Gravity Falls used social media and internet fandoms to its advantage.

As mentioned earlier, cartoon fans have quite a presence on social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr. They create theories and share fun ideas about their favourite shows. Viewers of Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe were all included in their share of theory fun.

Sometimes, fan theories end up being correct but when you’re Gravity Falls creator, Alex Hirsch, you don’t just watch from the sidelines as your viewers figure out the biggest mystery of your show. No, you create a hoax to get your viewers off your trail and that is what he did. Around 2013, only halfway through the first season of the show, viewers had started to follow the clues, theorizing who was the author is Dipper’s mysterious journal.

Unfortunately for the Gravity Falls production crew, the viewers were right— for the sake of readers who have never seen the show, I will not mention who the author was as it would be the biggest spoiler.

In 2013, a supposed leaked image of a tv showing a younger version of the show’s crazy old man character, Old Man McGucket, writing in the infamous journal was uploaded anonymously (by Alex Hirsch) to 4Chan.

Despite the image only being on up for a few hours, it spread like wildfire. Much to the team’s success, theorists stopped searching for the answer to “who is the author” and just accepted the image of McGucket as the truth.

To further push the fake-out, three words were posted to Alex’s Twitter, “fuming right now.”

The tweet was deleted a few minutes later and fans genuinely believed that someone from the Gravity Falls team had leaked the most important part of the story.

While doing research, I came across a Reddit post from April 10th, 2013, the day after ‘leak,’ Alex’s tweet was uploaded. In this post, user, TheoDW uploaded an image of Alex’s tweet with the caption, “It seems that Hirsch got mad at last night’s leak. He already deleted this tweet.”

Seeing the reactions of these Redditors in 2013 is kind of weird and crazy to look at. “He has every right to be upset. Someone internally released a plot revealing screen shot of series breaking spoiler information,” a deleted Reddit account commented.

“This is Alex Hirsch’s biggest success by far, he spent a huge amount of time carefully planning out the series, and then in a moment someone releases a major spoiler. It would make anyone upset,” the user, Time_Loop commented.

“Seriously, this is a nightmare for a storyteller, and shows a breach of trust. I feel so bad for him–honestly, I hope whoever did the leak gets caught and appropriate action is taken. You don’t f–k with someone’s story like this. It’s unprofessional.” the user, lonelybeloved angrily commented.

In 2014, this ‘leak’ was finally disproven when viewers were given an episode on McGucket’s backstory and an amazing tweet from Alex Hirsch. 

Alex had post an image of himself playfully pointing at a monitor with the supposed leaked picture with the caption, “1) Make hoax  2) Upload to 4Chan  3) Post angry tweet about "leak" 4) Delete tweet 5) Let internet do rest”

It is so interesting to look at these comments know that all of this was orchestrated by Alex.

I wish I had been old enough at the time to follow theories and fandom stuff like I do now with current cartoons but really looking at this from an outside perspective, this was insane!

The real author wasn’t revealed until 2015 and when viewers first got the answer to this biggest show on their screens, they must have freaked out!

Following the finale in 2016, a single frame of a stone version of Bill Cipher, the show’s villain, flashed in after the credits had finished.

Alex Hirsch and his team actually created a real-life statue of their villain for their viewers to find and on July 20th, 2016, the Cipher Hunt began.

By following clues, the Hunters found themselves all over the world; Russia, Japan and then travelling throughout the United States for the final 12 clues. When the hunt took them to Los Angeles, actor, Jason Ritter (voice of Dipper Pines, also a massive fan of the series) and Alex Hirsch’s twin sister, Ariel Hirsch (the inspiration for Mabel) joined in the fun helping the search.

Finally, the hunt ended on August 2nd when someone tweeted out an image of the found statue in Oregon, the same state in which the fictional town of Gravity Falls exists. The Cipher Hunt had ended but finding the statue wasn’t Alex’s goal for the scavenger hunt, it was about the journey and bringing together the viewers, more than having them actually find the statue.

Creating its own hoax, an international scavenger hunt and quite a bit of nightmare fuel, Gravity Falls was a show truly unlike any other.

The 2010s saw some of the strongest cartoons ever made, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe acting as the leaders for multiple different changes in the medium; storytelling, worldbuilding, interaction with viewers, utilizing social media, representation and further pushing music into the cartoon world. From what was created this past decade and what has already been released in 2020, I’m so excited to see what comes next.

I have another one of these which is on Steven Universe’s representation and music if you would like to see that too!! 

[clarkonly]

How Zack Snyder's Justice League continues Superman's Immigrant Story

I’ve already written this on a subreddit but I wanted to also share it here.

While Zack Snyder's Justice League may be the first entry to a series of ensemble superhero films, it is also the third entry to Zack Snyder's Superman trilogy. In his Superman trilogy, Zack Snyder parallels Superman's journey and arc to that of the immigrant's and refugee's experience. And while Superman is no longer the main protagonist in Justice League, the film does give the character the proper conclusion to this specific arc.

Man of Steel was about the Immigrant and his relationship to his New World. Ever since he was a child, Clark Kent has always known just how different he was from everybody else, and so he's never really comfortably fit in and blend in anywhere. He is lost, living like a nomad, travelling all over the world, in search of a place where he would truly belong. Eventually, he finds out the truth of his origin, where he comes from and who he is. His birth name is Kal-El, and he is Kryptonian.

But it's too late. Krypton is destroyed and so are his people and culture. What's more, the few surviving Kryptonians want to take Clark's adopted world and destroy it and rebuild it to suit their needs. This forces Clark into two seemingly equally difficult choices: Either he chooses his New World and be forever different or help rebuild Krypton and become fully Kryptonian. But Clark Kent has reconciled with his identity. He has accepted that he is neither fully Kryptonian nor fully Human. And so he chooses his New World. Because here, not a reconstructed Krypton, is the only true place where he would be allowed to be both Kal-El the Kryptonian and Clark Kent the Human. He is, as Jor-El told him, as much a part of Earth as he is of Krypton. He is the bridge between the two peoples.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was about the New World and how it reacts to the Immigrant. Following the events of the previous film, the New World is now aware of the existence of Superman the Alien. And billions of different people all have different reactions to this. But the most notable reactions are Caution (represented by Senator Finch), Fear (represented by Bruce Wayne), and Hate (represented by Lex Luthor). By all accounts, Superman is just a man trying to do the right thing. The Immigrant just wants to live their lives normally and contribute to their New World and help make it a better place.

Caution sees the good in Superman but doesn't fully give their trust to him. Fear can't stop thinking about how Superman might one day turn his back on the world. And Hate sees Superman as a threat to his power and influence and wants to eradicate Superman. In order to do this, he must convince Caution and Fear to push them into hate as well. When Caution won't give in to Hate, she is destroyed, further fueling Fear. Fear confronts the Immigrant, with the intent to destroy him. But the Immigrant is able to convince Fear that he is not the enemy and that he was manipulated into being afraid of him. Once Fear realizes this, he sees the error of his ways and changes from Fear to Brotherhood. The Immigrant sacrifices himself, further proving that he loved his New World which then eradicates and defeats Hate.

Now on to Zack Snyder's Justice League, which is about the New World and how it deals with the loss of the Immigrant. It finds how empty it can feel without Immigrants because Immigrants contributed so much to their adopted home. The New World, learning from its horrible mistake, does everything in its power to bring the Immigrant back. Because Immigrants are not just people from another place, they are needed, they are quintessential, and their absence is a loss that is deeply felt and that's why they belong.

Thank you for reading. I'm glad Zack Snyder was able to tell the story he wanted to tell all along and I hope he gets to really finish it.

[ll-underestimated-ll]

Answering All Questions from a Prompt Cos I Do What I Want

1. What’s one experience your character had that made them very afraid?

The first time he woke up to find that what he’d dismissed as being entirely the formation of one of his nightmares - was very much real. Prompted the realisation of just how much harm he was capable of doing.

2. Does your character have a deep and/or dark secret? If so, what is it?

Leo doesn’t let people know that his sire & grandsire never entirely aligned themselves with the Camarilla. Considering it took him some time to work that out himself he holds hope that at his current age people simply won’t go digging. There is also generally a lot of things he’s done in the name of fulfilling some role or another that he feels deep shame for. That’s less kept secret and more... he just doesn’t speak about it.

3. Have they ever lost a loved one? What happened to them, and are they the same as they were before they lost them?

Many. Regularly. Loss is simply part of un-life for him. The fact he hasn’t lost anyone near and dear to him over the last half a century hangs over him like a bad omen. He’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. But a short list of the most notable losses that had an summary of their impact on him:  - Eldest brother : sickness/starvation ~1510 - resulted in Leo taking on a survivalist ‘me before others’ attitude. - Best friend : first feed post-embrace 1516 - made him terrified of himself for several years - First wife : Mother order him to burn her to death late-1520s - made him highly aware of the fact that he can be turned on people he’s cared about  - Ell (one of his ‘siblings’) : sent on a suicide mission Mother had him sign off on ~1630?1620? - was the last straw in hammering home what he’d already seen over the course of being blood bonded. They were all disposable to her, and it was only a matter of time before he’d meet the same fate. - Nossie he’d fallen for : execution 1940s - after he had committed several masquerade breaches Vindr ordered Leo to use trust he had with him to follow through with the execution. It’d been a long time since he’d killed someone that dear to him and the ease at which he did it unsettled even himself. 

4. Has your character ever been hurt or betrayed by someone they thought they could depend on? What happened?

Yes. He’d had ‘siblings’ try to double-cross him on plenty of occasions. Usually was via trying to pin the blame for something on him.

5. Would they ever turn on someone they just met in order to save themselves?

Yes.

6. Have they ever committed a crime, or something they felt was wrong? What was it?

The entire Crimes Act. At least, as far as he has the capacity for doing so.

7. If your character was allowed to murder one person without any consequences, who would it be and why?

Vindr. The time spent blood bonded to each other between 1860 - 1989.

8. Does your character have any enemies? If so, who and why?

There are several hunters based in the country he’s trying to figure out how to get rid off without causing a scene or draw any attention to. They’re a threat to his community. 

9. Is the character a victim of abuse?

Yes.

10. What were the character’s parents like? What was the affect the parents had on the character?

His father was a minor merchant managing the coming and goings of goods from his home village. His work placed them above standard serfdom allowing him the chance to learn basic reading and writing before his sire (Mother) adopted him. Any influence they had on him has long since been overshadowed by other things.

11. What are your character’s coping mechanisms?

Burying himself in work and activities. Finding relatable aspects in fictional characters. Joking around and making the most of opportunities where he doesn’t have to take things too seriously.

12. Do they like to suffer? Like to see other people suffering?

After lifetimes of suffering he’d prefer to avoid it. However he does have a cruel streak and enjoy seeing other people suffer. Has that ‘it’ll build character’ and ‘it’s not that bad so suck it up’ sort of attitude towards other peoples shit. Sometimes he just wants someone to suffer as a way to exercise control over them.

13. What does it take to make your character cry?

Simultaneously a lot, and also real minor stuff. Ya know, the standard shit to come from suppressing/bottling up your reactions to incredibly straining situations. He’ll be cold and apathetic in some incredibly horrible situation he ought to cry about. Then some time later break down post screaming fit at some inanimate object because it wasn’t cooperating with him.

14. What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before?

Other than his prioritisation of maintaining his own power and survival over anything else? The fact he’s stuck at 16 years old. That’s an incredibly difficult thing to work around - even when in a relationship based purely on romantic feelings. These modern nights he feels that both physical and overall age lock him out of legitimate relationships entirely. To the point where he doesn’t even play at stringing people along on one sided things ~for the drama~ like he used to. 

This particular reason is what’s had him friendzoned by the twins, despite them being the best probably candidate and him pulling kind of a Edward on them.

15. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared?

Biggest fear is hard to pinpoint, but in general the concept of being completely helpless and not in control of his own actions. When scared he gets paranoid and hyper-vigilant of his surroundings. Very on guard towards any threats and looking for away to run away.

16. What are your character’s vices and bad habits?

Impulsiveness. Knowingly causing harm. Smoking.

17. Is your character afraid of death? Why/why not?

Absolutely. He doesn’t even like to think about what final death will have in store for him.

18. Would society call your character a good guy or a bad guy? what would they say they are?

From societies perspective from everything he’s been involved with - 120% a bad guy. He’d say the same and mark himself down as being an Anti-hero at best. 

19. What is your character insecure about?

His own paranoia causing him to flip from being impulse to being incredibly indecisive at times.

20.  What was something they struggled with greatly and how did they overcome it?

Being blood bonded. Overcome through a mix of share force of will and personal introspection.

21. Does your character have anyone that they really care about, to the point that they would give their life for them? If so, who are they and what is your character’s relation to them? If not, do they wish they did? Is there anyone they wish they could build such a relationship with?

While he doesn’t think he’d give his lives for them because that sort of behaviour is incredibly foolish in his eyes - his current found family from the past century. His central coterie of the twins and Alexandra in particular. He will throw just about everyone in his city under the bus in the name of protecting them. And, they’d do the same. In post-prince verse when his city falls Alex ends up the one sacrificing her life for him and god the guilt is sickening.

He’s quite happy with his current little familial circle but he’s hoping to get closer with Danny. Get him to be part of that found family circle properly.

22. If they could change just one thing about themselves, what would it be?

He’d like to have the capacity to care for people without feeling like he’s going to inevitably be their downfall.

23. Is your character more physically or emotionally strong? Why is this?

If we’re talking strong in terms of taking blows that can be taken I wanna say physically cos despite it being his lowest stat his Fortitude is high so he soaks damage fairly easily.

24. What is your character’s most important possession? Why?

He still has his signet ring from when he fled his Mother. Not even he knows just how much that it means to him. It’s intensely sentimental to him as the only physical possession he has left of that era of his life. Someone stole it from him while he was living in London and he made quite the mess of them to get it back.

25. Do they find that they care what others think of them? Or do they not really mind how others view them?

He flip flops wildly between caring intensely about what others think of him and not giving a singular shit. It depends on the crowd and his motivations. In general his preference is to have people to like him and see him as above them in some way.

26. What, in your character’s life, puts the most pressure on them?

The community he’s Prince of. He sees his role as being to protect them at the end of the day and sometimes that means doing things they don’t like. But doing things they dislike gets push back and push back de-legitimises his power as Prince.

27.  What would be the worst way to die, in your character’s opinion?

How he almost died when I used him briefly as a PC. Disgraced. Looked down upon with no dignity by everyone around him in a city he’s unfamiliar with. Nobody. Nothing. The last of his city. A waste of the self sacrifice from those he loved. Crying, screaming desperately trying to claw his way out of capture at the hands of those that don’t know tossing him in a holding cell where light can get to him will kill him.

28. What is your character’s greatest strength?

In mun’s opinion, the fact that despite everything he’s been through and seen...the fact that he just keeps going.

29. What is their weapon of choice, and what weapon do they dislike using the most?

Social manipulation so that combat is avoided in the first place. But, he’s always had a liking for firearms and actually quite likes using them. He dislikes fighting with his bare hands.

30. What makes them feel safe or secure? What makes them feel insecure or unsafe?

He feels most safe when either alone or the only people around him are those he has blood bonded. He feels deeply uncomfortable around kindred that are of a lower generation than him. With dominate as a main discipline he finds that not being able to resort to it suddenly makes all interactions with the person he’s interacting with very threatening.

[guccironpa]

GUCCIRONPA SUMMARY

Prologue: It is the year 2076, long after the events of the original games. 16 students of Hope’s Peak Academy wake up in what seems to be an abandoned school building of sorts, missing the memories of how they got there. Further inspection revealed that they were also trapped inside, as all exits and windows had been sealed. Among these students is Jenny Matsumoto, the Ultimate ??? and the protagonist of the Alpha Killing Game, which is the name given to it by Monokuma, an incredibly advanced computer program who observes and manages the killing game via the screens, cameras and speakers placed all over the school. Learning their new situation, the students are terrified by the prospect of participating in “one of those horrible games” that happened decades ago, though they’re able to keep calm… for now.

Chapter One:  Initially, Jenny is extremely distrustful of the other students and spent most of her time alone, but eventually she bonds with Shen over their dry sense of humor and similar worldviews. A while later, Shen asks Jenny to meet her in her room around noon, because she wants to discuss some information she’s discovered about the killing game, and she’s the only one she’s willing to trust. She follows her instructions, only to find that Shen Meifeng, the Ultimate Psychologist, had been murdered in her own room after being hit in the head with a blunt object. Further investigation revealed that the door lock was forced open and the murder weapon was a brick from the garden in the Ultimate Mycologist’s student lab. During the trial, Suzanne insisted that Jenny was the culprit because of her knowledge of Shen’s location, but ultimately the culprit was found to be Amanita Virosa, the Ultimate Mycologist. She forced the lock on Shen’s door and came inside, then she ambushed her when she came in. She refused to give any information regarding her motivation, getting really anxious when she was pressured to say something. She was thus executed, marking the end of the first chapter.

Chapter Two: After the first murder and trial, the students are distraught and afraid. Amidst the chaos, Dolores rises as the group leader with Marcel as her right-hand man. Jenny becomes quick friends with them after Dolores approaches her, but there’s a certain tension between Jenny and Suzanne after their argument in the first trial. Other notable relationships forming are the friendship between Ai, Simone, Suimin and Ramses (Pink squad!), a blossoming friendship between Ramses and Marcel and the strengthening bond between Abdul and Salvatore. Soon enough, monokuma announces the first motive, and the motive this time around is that the water in the building had been contaminated with a deadly poison. The students are upset by the drastic motive, but their concerns don’t last long as Sousuke Kiyonori, the Ultimate DJ, is found dead in the cafeteria kitchen the very next morning. Further investigation tells the students that the body was poisoned by the water and dragged through the halls and into the kitchen. While solving a murder that happened overnight proves to be difficult for the group, eventually, they conclude that Suimin Yumemoto, the Ultimate Anaesthesiologist, is the culprit of this case. Sousuke didn’t learn about the motive due to his constant use of soundproof headphones, and he drank a glass of water at night. Suimin found him and tried to administer treatment to him in her study lab, but Sousuke had a lethal allergic reaction to it. Then she dragged him across the halls and left him in the kitchen. She is executed by monokuma, marking the end of the second chapter.

Chapter Three: About two days of peace pass by until Monokuma gives out the next motive: The students receive a note at the step of their door, each note containing a secret about them. Every 8 hours, one of those secrets would be made public via the school’s social media. The students are upset by the motive, but this doesn’t last too long. Jenny is a little unsettled when she reads “Jenny Matsumoto is not a registered student at Hope’s Peak Academy” in her note, but she decides to share it with everyone at lunchtime. This caused some confusion with the other students, but it inspired some of them to come forward about theirs, and in the end, there were no secrets left at all. After the secret-sharing circle, everyone spent the day together to get to know each other better. The next day, Salvatore and Abdul put up a makeshift magic show, but when they were done they found Leonardo DiAngelo, the Ultimate Candlemaker, dead backstage, with a clean stab to the heart given with unsettling precision. Abdul was really affected by the murder after everything seemed to be okay and people were getting along, and he broke down and ran off in a panic. Salvatore and Jenny ran after him and split up to cover more ground. Jenny found Abdul in one of the halls, and after he calmed down they looked for Salvatore but Salvatore Giordano, the Ultimate Circus Artist, was already dead near the school exit, again with a clean stab to the heart. The murderer proved to be someone with previous experience, but in the end, Hunter O’Connor, the Ultimate Taxidermist, is found guilty by his own admission. There were two reasons behind his two murders: he wanted to protect his secret, which he lied about earlier. Hunter is a professional assassin working for a terrorist group, and he didn’t want to risk that getting out in the open. His second motivation came down to sheer disgust at the display of solidarity and friendship after the secret sharing because of his group’s philosophy, and he meant to “give everyone a lesson”. He is rightfully executed, marking the end of the third chapter.

Chapter Four: Abdul is extremely distraught by the events of Chapter 3, so he’s locked himself in his room, occasionally being checked up on by Dolores and Marcel. Between some students having their spirits broken and others beginning to rebel against her leadership, things are getting a little out of hand for Dolores. As if the situation wasn’t harsh enough, monokuma doesn’t waste any time to give out the next motive: each student has been assigned one of their peers as a target for murder: if they kill their target, they get to go free of charge and to prevent the events of chapter 3 from repeating, sharing the targets is also against the rules until a murder occurs. The students spend the next two days mostly locked in their dorms, but one day there’s a blackout across the entire facility and in the short time without any lights someone manages to kill Simone Dupain, the Ultimate Baker and badly injure Marcel, though he’s mostly fine after receiving first aid. There are a broken flashlight and a bloody knife at the crime scene, Marcel claims to have been knocked out before he even realized he and Simone were in danger, and when everyone shares their target someone skips over Simone. This last detail helps the group conclude the killer is Suzanne Bishop, the Ultimate Chess Player, who took advantage of the mysterious blackout and the motive to carry out a murder she’d been meditating for a while. As she followed the instructions established by the motive, instead of being executed she is freed from the game and released into the outside world, marking the end of the fourth chapter.

Chapter Five: The students are furious about the events of chapter four, but their main worry at the time is, why did the blackout happen? After breakfast, monokuma calls for a meeting at the gym where he gives them information on that: The 16th student, who was originally replaced by Jenny before the game started, has sneaked their way back into the game. They were responsible for the blackout after somehow hijacking the control panel in the Mastermind’s private chamber. Their motivations for this are unknown, but the fact is that someone is hiding in the facility and messing with the game, which poses danger for all students involved.

[theharellan]

misconception: that solas doesn't form meaningful bonds during his time in the inquisition other than with a romanced inquisitor

send me meta this is actually a different meme but shush | accepting

i’ll be talking about this until the day i die, but solas makes plenty of meaningful relationships beyond not only the romanced inquisitor, but the inquisitor, period.

game mechanics overly emphasise the relationship between any canon companion and the play character, so i sort of understand where this misconception comes from. their arcs are decided, in part, by their relationship to the player and so it would be really invalidating if, say, you has negative solas approval but he still made it clear that he had accepted the reality of the world around him b/c of his friendship with the iron bull, for example. it’s one of the ways the developers make sure their choices matter.

luckily, this is an rp blog, so i can say that an inquisitor can treat solas like absolute shit and he’ll still make ties in the world and realise how fuckin wrong he was, as he well should.

i’m on a tangent and i haven’t even rly started answering this yet, so here we go:

a befriended inquisitor is just as important to solas as a romanced inquisitor. just as important to his development, to his epiphanies, etc. much of the dialogue goes unchanged regardless of if a relationship is platonic or romantic. even if he doesn’t have romantic feelings for the inquisitor, he still feels the whole world change upon meeting them. he still compares them to the ancient wisdoms he’s known in a pre-veil world. i’ve seen jokes that say the lines have romantic overtones, but really i think solas is just the sort of person to form highly emotional friendships. falon’din and dirthamen are implied not to be brothers, but “twin souls,” something that myself and other a-spec ppl have likened to queer platonic partners. while those two have undoubtedly sullied the term for anyone who opposes them, what i’m trying to demonstrate is that solas comes from a society that doesn’t find close platonic friendships odd.

but like i said, this goes beyond the inquisitor.

the fandom vastly understates his relationship with cole most of all. often he’s depicted as one of his fathers, which i can appreciate as a joke, but i feel like it undercuts how important that relationship is– for both of them.

cole goes to solas first when he’s experiencing trouble after adamant, not the inquisitor. not even if they’re a mage. b/c he knows he can trust solas to not use him. solas involves himself in cole’s well-being potentially even if he loathes the inquisitor and everything they are, something he didn’t do for wisdom’s sake, but is willing to for cole. and regardless of the option chosen, solas continues to support him and ask after him:

Solas: How do you feel, Cole? Are you…Cole: I am me. I cannot be bound, broken. I will help the hurt and kill the killers.Solas: I see. I… let me know if I can help.

solas offers affirmation and support for cole, talking him down from what seems to be a panic attack at one point:

Cole: It’s brighter here. Glittering. Glaring. Glinting. I can’t…Solas: It’s a mild tremor in the Veil. Nothing to worry about. Focus on what is here, in this world.Cole: But… what is here?Solas: Feel the ground, the breath in your lungs, fabric rustling against your skin.Cole: (Breathes.) Thank you.Solas: It’s nothing. It can be overwhelming for anyone.

and when cole tries to fix what’s fundamentally broken in solas, solas doesn’t spurn him. this isn’t to say characters who do react with venom when cole oversteps bounds are wrong, cole being able to see in heads doesn’t mean he has the right to speak their pain aloud, but i think it demonstrates the patience solas has for cole being who he is. it has the potential to go down a path that solas doesn’t quite… get. assuming the trespasser line “he didn’t want a body, but she asked him to come” is referring to solas, solas is someone who desperately doesn’t want to have a physical body and is probably afraid of cole having the same regrets as he does.

their relationship also goes both ways. cole offers him support throughout the game, understanding solas in ways that others can’t. not necessarily through any fault of theirs, but being able to key into solas’s emotions goes a long way. and then you get to trespasser, where cole is the one person to speak fondly of solas and the only one to approve if you say you have to save him from the vidasala. imo if we go by game canon solas is closest to cole, even closer than a befriended or romanced inquisitor. since this is an rp blog, that obviously varies, but as it stands no one understands solas like cole and no one understands cole like solas. a cole who becomes more human is likely to become alien to him in some respects, but from canon banter it’s clear that solas is willing to try. this was a very long winded way of saying solas loves cole.

beyond cole, it’s hard to argue solas forms emotionally intimate relationships with others in the inquisition. that being said i also don’t think they have to be emotionally intimate to be meaningful.

it’s, like, 100% canon that he hangs out with people outside of when we drag him places. blackwall has banter that implies they talk regularly, at least enough for blackwall to conclude that solas “knows all there is to know about everything” and even ignoring that they canonically play diamondback together. in banter they swap their experiences at war, although given they’re both hiding something they’re both being vague about it. still, solas clearly comes to regard him highly enough that he’s mad about the revelations of blackwall’s personal quest. a combination of solas having more in common with him than he hoped, and that for all solas has done wrong “killing civilians for fun and profit” wasn’t one of them. and solas seems to have come to respect him enough to apologise, backing out of his initial reaction to accept that thom had taken a step to becoming someone better.

josephine also references speaking to him, despite them never speaking on-screen which was a crime. she says “he has the most fascinating stories” and in ambient dialogue with her agents references occurrences where they seem to speak to nobility together. again, i wouldn’t say they had a deep bond, but i think they developed a rapport.

as for people i do think solas was genuinely friends with, there’s cassandra, varric, and iron bull. unlike the former two there isn’t really a reference to them hanging out outside of banter, but given their relationship i at least like to imagine they spend some time together.

varric and solas clearly spend time together before you meet them in-game, for one. long enough that varric thought of a nickname, though whether “chuckles” was decided on right there or earlier it’s hard to say. the two have actually a pretty funny rapport going, varric being one of the people to bring out solas’s sense of humour without much difficulty. and when they’re not joking around, they have interesting conversations. i’ve actually been wanting to rewrite the balcony scene with thora, my dwarf inquisitor, and solas to incorporate the fact that varric– who makes his living writing– doesn’t match his narrow view of what dwarves should be. it’s just one way the game steers solas in such a way that he isn’t allowed to grow unless the inquisitor gives him permission to, similar to how his view of the qun will flip-flop depending on if he’s talking to iron bull or a friendly qunari inquisitor, but i digress.

with varric, cassandra, and bull alike he demonstrates that he’s more capable of changing his mind than people give him credit for, i think. he admits he might have been mistaken in his interpretation of the dream of a man living his days alone on an island.

cassandra and solas’ relationship started out very hostile from the sound of it, but the hostility is worked out before the inquisitor wakes up, so much attention isn’t drawn to it. solas says he gave up his staff, and while i don’t think he was ever technically a prisoner, i also don’t think he would’ve been allowed to up and leave after that point. he references that she threatened his life if he didn’t get results, and yet in banter he’s complimentary towards her, most notably her ability to surrender the chance for power when she feels she is unfit for the role and that she’s capable of changing her mind. idk, i think their relationship demonstrates the best of both characters– cassandra’s ability to be less hard-line than she is around the likes of varric’s, solas’s ability to respect people with differences of opinions to him, both of their abilities to change their minds about the other.

heck, there’s even the option for some emotional intimacy. cassandra offers her condolences about wisdom, solas comforts her when her faith is shaken, providing hope when she realises her power did not come from the maker as she was taught. he’s also at his misotheist finest in this conversation:

Solas: You seem troubled, Seeker. Still plagued by thoughts of your order?Cassandra: I… am reminded of what I was told following my vigil. They said my abilities were a gift from the Maker, a reward for my faith and dedication. But it was a trick, wasn’t it? A ritual no different that the Harrowing, simply magic…Solas: Do you know how rare spirits of faith are? How difficult it is to draw them to this world? You should be proud, having accomplished something so remarkable, not ashamed it was not what you thought.Cassandra: Thank you, Solas. That… does make me feel better.Solas: Your faith does you credit, Cassandra. I hope your Maker is worthy.

he’s well-aware that cassandra is resolute and uncorrupt, capable of fixing what went wrong with the seekers (even if he is cynical about the inevitable degradation of any organisation). i really don’t know how you read their dialogue and think solas didn’t deeply connect with her in ways that shaped him regardless of his relationship with the inquisitor.

now iron bull is someone whose relationship with solas varies wildly depending on the inquisitor’s choices, and another character whose choice is undercut by the realities of a choice-based narrative. if the chargers are sacrificed they’re under no circumstances friendly, ableit solas seems to pity him in that case. otherwise, solas engages with bull in a way other characters don’t. but to be fair to them, i think solas understands better than any other party member what it’s like to lose your culture and home to help the people you love. through their conversations before his pq– which often got very heated, possibly the angriest solas gets in banter– solas listened and learned and kind of sussed out what bull’s fears were, what was keeping him in the qun. and like, i also think solas has a lot of experience knowing what ppl who are trying to pry themselves out of a toxic religion are also dealing with? what i’m getting at is iron bull imo reminds solas of the elves who fought the evanuris, people who had doubts about the societies they were raised in and broke from it, but still carried the damage it did to them. and he takes steps to reassure bull that “madness” isn’t something he ought to fear, b/c he isn’t a mindless beast but an incredibly intelligent person, capable of playing chess without a board. something that takes considerable practise and was for centuries considered a miracle in our world. there are issues with how solas approaches it, his understanding of the qun is flawed and imperfect, but he literally offers himself as a means of support when bull expresses fear that he’ll “go savage”:

Solas: You have the Inquisition, you have the Inquisitor… and you have me.

and after that i have a hard time imagining that they would never hang out more casually. solas would never be as close to bull as the chargers by any means, and you may not even consider them friends, but again their banter really reflects a significant relationship that would effect him without the inquisitor’s input. assuming they save the chargers, anyway. personally, i consider them friends

i just hit 2000 words and i’m starting to see why i let this sit in my drafts for like a year, so i’ll try to wrap it up. there are other characters i think have an effect on solas despite their relationship having its ups and downs. sera, namely, someone he seems to respect and resent simultaneously, grudgingly admitting he envies her at one point. their relationship is one of the most frustrating in the game but also my favourite due to how similar they are when you get down to it, sera i think on some level reminds him of when he was young, hence why he tries to give her advice. in another world, given time, i think they could’ve been friends, albeit friends who sometimes drive one another up the wall. much of what they say in-game reflects itself– solas talking about organisations degrading, in time, sera saying if you chop off the head of a government another will show up and muck up all the work you did to overthrow the first. they’re both artists, elves who feel disconnected from others of their kind. we don’t get enough of their positive interactions for me to claim they’re friends in-game w/ a straight face. rp wise, however, it’s been one of my favourite things to write, as they navigate a strange not-hostile relationship. also i just adore sera as a character, i wish there wasn’t such a divide between solas and sera fans b/c they both parallel and contrast w/ one another really well.

for one final note i do want to talk about specifically my solas interpretation, the relationships i either hc he’s built or he’s built through roleplay. my solas had a part to play in the rebuilding of skyhold alongside freed circle mages, teaching them practical magic they were denied learning in the circle and becoming something of a role model (god help them) for the more radical mages. solas served with the inquisition for a year in canon, three years in my canon. once he works past the haze of how wrong the veiled world feels i can’t believe solas, who constantly tells the histories of people– real people– whose stories he felt were important enough to remember and retell, even seemingly insignificant ones about baking bread or seeing sunlight for the first time, would connect with precisely none of the people around him on a personal level. not when we see his ability to do just that in-game, even with people without a mark on their hand.

tl;dr give solas friends. remember your inquisitor is not the be-all and end-all of his life and that he’s had 1000s of years to forge relationships with people who have just as much as an impact on him, and his time with the inquisition is no different. i don’t doubt all of us have hcs about how the companions have changed our inquisitor’s life, for better or worse, so i can’t see why it’d be any different for the companions. solas included

[khantipode]

Fragmented Truths: Final Mix Changelog

Like with The Year Between, I had gone through Fragmented Truths to make edits to adjust for various problems throughout the fic. The original version had many issues, from Riku's choice at the Door to Darkness being underplayed to Riku Replica's arc being repetitive and not showing much progress. The climax was also lacking in many areas, and Riku's arc with him accepting his darkness was not handled with as much finesse as I would have liked. Thus, I went through the fic and did many edits to address these faults and bring the story up to my current standard.

For those who wanna see the re-edits blind, the vast majority of the edits are in chapters involving Riku Replica. The Agrabah arc and Sword in the Stone arc got a new climax, Great Mouse Detective saw several revisions across its chapters and a refined climax, and everything from Chapter 30 onward has seen some form of re-editing on the whole. These edits were done in 2015 - 2017, but are still worth noting here. I will be categorizing these changes by arcs, barring interlude chapters which will be placed in their own little category. The summaries of changes will cover the broad strokes of what has been altered. If you wish to see the earlier versions of Antipode chapters, you can find my drafts over here! So without further ado...

Chapter 3: The Hollow Bastion crew only learn of Riku's choice at the Door to Darkness now, rather than having heard about it before. As a result, there is some justified anger directed Riku's way. Leon and Beast are particularly angered, with the former urging them to go back to the door ASAP with reinforcements. The importance of Kairi continuing to train is also emphasized. Chapter 7: The original climax to this world has been completely rewritten so that even after Madam Mim gets sick, she stubbornly continues to fight, even summoning droves of Heartless. There is a big, over the top battle with the wild witch and Arthur plays a more active role by taking Excalibur and participating in the fight. Kairi also encourages him, as she too is new to combat. Sora's reasons for avoiding his friends have also changed. He briefly considers going to Merlin to help- at least so he can talk, if he can't change back outright, but the light from Excalibur leaves him uncomfortable, and is left contemplating his Heartless status while his friends walk the path of heroes. Agrabah Arc (Chapter 8, Chapter 11): Riku Replica and Sora showed more caution while dealing with Jafar. Rep is also far less hostile/spiteful toward Aladdin, with much of his vitriol directed at Riku. The climax for this world has been completely rewritten, with a greater emphasis on action and stakes, culminating in an over the top battle against Genie Jafar. Genie himself is also far more involved in this climax, and there are way more environmental hazards. This was more or less a complete rewrite to give the world a more satisfying finale. Chapter 12: The heroes are no longer aggressors to Seifer. Riku even emphasizes that they're just there to relax. The need to cool down after a rough journey is very heavily emphasized, with Seifer's fragile ego spurring the fight along. Riku's attack against Seifer is also given far more dramatic weight, and Kairi uses her light to try and soothe Riku. Riku's decision at the Door also comes back to haunt him, and he contemplates if he's truly a worthy hero.

Jungle Book Arc (Chapter 13, Chapter 14): Fairly simple changes here. There is a new scene at the start of the chapter where DiZ provides information to the heroes on particularly noteworthy worlds worth investigating in order to justify their presence there. He also gives some information on the inhabitants to justify the animal transformations. Additionally, the heroes are much more exhausted as they adjust to their new bodies and the animals have at least tried to put up a good fight against the Heartless beforehand. They also are more responsible in their reactions to Mowgli's stubborn and reckless behaviors.

Monstro Arc (Chapters 19 - 20): Riku Replica is all the more invested in helping Pinocchio and Geppeto and also shows much more regard for Pinocchio's safety. The only reason he doesn't send Geppetto and Pinoke to Traverse Town right away is due to the looming reminder from Saix that he is to focus on his mission before his personal interests. Riku and co. are also less hostile about the Replica upon learning that Geppetto and Pinoke truly believe him to be Riku and play along while contemplating if perhaps the Replica is more than just a vengeful pawn. Additionally, the Gummi Ship was lost in the crash, so the heroes have to find it before they can make their repairs and leave. Pinocchio runs off on his own, the heroes carefully contemplate how to proceed, and Kairi uses her light to help calm Riku and stop him from accidentally shooting dark fire again. The Parasite Cage now possesses a neutralizing gas that weakens Riku Replica, making it harder for him to escape. The characterization has been smoothed out so that Rep's brattiness is less apparent as well.

Chapter 21: Riku's use of darkness against DiZ remains a bigger talking point, both with DiZ and especially Donald. Riku's friends offer to support him, but he ultimately steps back to reflect and cool down. Riku Replica swears to close the Door to Darkness once Sora regains his heart, and then his friends can return home.

Great Mouse Detective Arc (Chapters 22 - 27): The heroes not only have more information about this world beforehand, but they opt to do more reconnaissance before they transform. The heroes are much more civil with Basil, Olivia provides more information about Fidget, and overall everyone exercises much more caution, even having Mrs. Juddson and Olivia go back to the Gummi Ship... until Olivia sneaks out and follows the heroes. Basil also prioritizes his personal Heartless research and the world over Olivia's sob story until he learns of Fidget's involvement. Riku's darkness once again is given more weight in this arc, as is his choice at the Door to Darkness. His friends take the matter far more seriously, leading to some awkward tension among the group. Luxord provides a better cover story for why he doesn't kill Donald and uses his temporal magic to repeatedly subdue him. Ratigan's initial fight has received a drastic overhaul to up the stakes and provide a more thrilling clash, and the chase scene and subsequent clock tower battles have received fine tuning as well. Most notably, Kairi now joins Riku and Basil in the battle, with Kairi offering additional support to Riku as he decides to accept his dark side. Chapter 29: Once again, Riku's darkness issues are treated far more seriously than before. His friends are scared of what may happen to him in light of past villains, but also wish to offer their support. Riku Replica is also less fixated on Riku having "stolen" his friends and instead offers support to Sora in hopes that he can rekindle his friendship with Jack and the others.

Halloween Town Arc (Chapters 30 - 31): Riku Replica and Roxas arrive first, and instead of hiding, join Jack, Sally, and Finkelstein and provide their side of the story. As a result, when Riku's group does arrive, Jack and co. have a skewed perspective, and the heroes handle it far more respectfully. Riku Replica's hostility is also toned down as. He's less angry at Riku's kindness and more confused and afraid. Riku challenges the Replica to prove he's a fake, the Replica questions Riku's use of the darkness as well as abandoning the Door. The Roxas and Kairi scene differs as well, with Roxas using his magic to try and ward off Donald and Kairi getting caught in between. Like previous edits, Riku's choice at the Door to Darkness also comes up here.

These edits ultimately serve to create a smoother sense of progress in Riku Replica's development as a character. He accepts that "the Fake" has changed, but is left with conflicted feelings. However, at this point, he's starting to realize he cares about Riku and wants to be his friend, even if he won't outright admit it.

Chapter 32: Riku owns up to his mistakes more readily here, and the interaction between him and DiZ is far more civil. Additionally, DiZ does acknowledge that an alliance with the Replica could be useful but urges the heroes to exercise caution. Ultimately, everyone communicates more and uses their heads far more efficiently than in the old version.

Castle Oblivion (Chapters 33 - 34): The flashbacks have been tweaked to include new scenes, heightened stakes, and updated introspection for Riku Replica to better respect his current views of Riku. He is much more conflicted by his memories of the "Fake" after everything he's seen, and additionally, Kairi in his memories is far more sympathetic than wicked, fitting with her remaining a Princess of Heart. Ultimately, the true complications of Rep's feelings toward Riku continue to progress.

Endgame (Chapters 35 - 46): The changes in these chapters range from small characterization and logic fixes to more noteworthy changes. For example, Sora tries to take Zexion hostage, but he manages to open a corridor as the Sleep spell sets in. Xemnas threatens Riku Replica outright by telling him that if he does not kill Riku, he and Vexen will flip a kill switch of sorts that will end his friends. This pushes the Replica into a difficult spot because he genuinely cares for Riku and has accepted that he trusts him over the Organization. Roxas, Kairi, and Riku's meeting is handled with far more civility and maturity from all sides. Roxas is no longer as angry about Riku and Kairi's memories and experiences. Instead, he engages in battle because Riku and Kairi have worked with Sora and he seeks to detain Riku in hopes that doing so will "fix this whole mess." Kairi gets more involved in the fight, trying to stop the boys from hurting one another, and though Riku still hits her with Dark Aura, it's only a light grazing, but the damage still remains. This gives his darkness surge more weight than before. Roxas considers working with the heroes but needs time to think. Meanwhile, Riku Replica is faced with the crushing dilemma of fighting and killing Riku to save his friends or defying Xemnas. This serves as the catalyst for the conflict, and when he and Riku meet in Traverse Town, he is far more forlorn and even admits why he has to fight them, all while showing a little fear. Sora and Xemnas' confrontation has refined dialogue, and when Sora is sent through a corridor, rather than Xemnas sending him to Twilight Town, it's Sora who tries to redirect the portal before he faints.

The climax on the whole has revised characterization and action. As Riku and the Replica fight in Castle Oblivion, their magic sends them crashing through floors, while the memories within the castle alter the terrain of the battle. Riku Replica is far more troubled by his conflicting feelings as well, while Riku offers to help find another way. Meanwhile, Kairi's side of the climax has seen changes as well, with Donald and Goofy sharing their weapons as well as her fighting to the brink of exhaustion even when that fails. Roxas tries to urge her to stop, and she refuses. It's this raw will power and deep desire to save Riku that helps her manifest her Keyblade. Sora's side of the fight has also been reworked with characterization and combat fixes. He even steals one of Roxas' swords to shake up the battle. He keeps Roxas busy outside the castle while the others rush inside. Meanwhile, Riku's darkness goes out of control in this version due to exhaustion coupled with seeing Rep's worst memories coupled with an illusion of Ansem appearing to taunt Riku until, at last, he cracks under the pressure. Axel also intervenes when Riku goes berserk in this version before Namine smashes his heart. And since Rep did not discard his cloak in this re-edit, it's easier for her to tell them apart- the heart smash is a more conscious choice to save the Replica as a result. In the aftermath of the fight, the Replica has already accepted he's the copy- he even admits that he'd known for a while, but simply didn't want to admit it. He's much more remorseful and heartbroken as a result, and this reflects the overall tone of the scene. Additionally, Sora lets Roxas enter the castle once he senses something has gone amiss. Axel offers to distract Zexion while Roxas, Rep, and Namine take out Vexen to disable the alleged kill-switches and thwart any further Replication projects. They learn that the kill switches were never real. It was all just a ploy by Xemnas. Roxas leaves Rep this time out of a desire to keep the Org of his friends' trail and to try and find Sora and reach a better understanding about himself. The final significant changes include Riku's reason for being contained to the simulation being the out of control burst of darkness at the end of the final battle as well as his amnesia, a new set of scenes where Axel and Zexion investigate Vexen's death followed by an interrogation, and tweaks to the subsequent Organization meeting to show that they are already aware of Marluxia's traitorous intentions and are merely playing along while sending Axel off on his mission. Other characterization changes exist, but these are the primary ones.

[oumakokichi]

Can I ask why you ship Saiouma? I like the pairing conceptually, but in game, Saihara seems completely cold and indifferent to Ouma. Even before chapter 4 and the real start of Ouma's mastermind ploy, he doesn't seem to care at all about him or interested in figuring him out beyond his lies. He doesn't even care that he got bashed in the head by a floorboard. He does show interest in him after his death, but while he's alive, there's not much there. Did I miss something? What do you see in them?

I’ve had this ask in my inbox for quite a while—partlybecause life has been really, really busy these last few months and I didn’thave any time to write, and partly because I wanted to write a much longerresponse for this question. You aren’t the only person who’s asked me this sortof question, anon! But it’s been such a long time since I really wrote in-depthabout what appeals to me in their dynamic, why I started shipping it, etc.

Ships are always a matter of personal preference, of course,so I can completely understand if saiouma isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I don’tintend for this post to be a way to “convince” anyone or anything like that.This will just be a post detailing my thoughts on Saihara and Ouma’s individualcharacters, their interactions with each other, their potential fordevelopment, and why I personally really, really like what they have to offeras a ship.

I’ll be covering full-game spoilers, of course, so anyonewho wants to avoid them shouldn’t read!

To begin, I wouldn’t say that Saihara seems “cold” or“indifferent” towards Ouma prior to Chapter 4. Instead, I think he’s very muchwary of him—unsure of how much of what he says he can trust, but still definitelyintrigued by his lies. As a detective, Saihara’s role is to seek out and detectthe truth, no matter how difficult or painful it might be. By calling himself aliar at every given opportunity and simultaneously making huge, grandioseclaims (that he’s the leader of a secret evil organization, that saidorganization has 10,000 members, that he controls mafia organizations and theworld itself from the shadows), Ouma invites him to “solve” him, in a way.

Saihara takes on that challenge, too. Up until Chapter 4, inno way does he ever completely cut himself off from Ouma or distance himselffrom him completely. Rather, Ouma is the one keeping him at bay, nevercompletely letting him in or giving him a chance to know “the real him.” Nomatter how much Saihara wants to know the truth about Ouma’s lies, no matterhow skeptical he is of him, there’s only so far he’s allowed to come in gettingto know him.

He’s paranoid, unsure of who might be the ringleader or apotential killer, and as a result, he refuses to trust anyone but himself. Butthis means that he himself is the biggest obstacle to forming potentialalliances or friendships with others. Rather than opening up or letting peoplein, he keeps them at bay—and even when he does make a very guarded offer inChapter 4, he goes about it completely the wrong way, opting to antagonize,rather than to let his walls down or be entirely honest. It’s just not hisstyle. As Saihara says in Ouma’s final FTE, even if he reaches out his hand toOuma, Ouma won’t take it.

And therein lies the biggest problem with their relationshipin-game. Saihara does want to knowmore about Ouma—he wonders pretty frequently what Ouma’s true intentions are,what he’s up to, and what he’s thinking. But he’s also extremely nervous aroundhim, because of how flippant Ouma acts all the time. As someone with anextremely good eye for detail, he can tell when he’s being pushed away. Healso, as it so happens, doesn’t like feeling like his time is being wasted orhis feelings are being dismissed.

Saihara puts up with a lotfrom his classmates. That much is apparent. He’s pretty much a doormat, rarelysticking up for himself or putting his foot down. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’tget tired or snippy every once in a while. Often, his snippiest and most sarcasticthoughts are directed at others whenever he feels like they’re belittling himor looking down on him. It’s why he seems so bored and uninterested when Momotatries telling him the grandiose tales of his life in his FTEs—because he’sconvinced Momota is lying to him, and therefore wasting his time.

This is pretty much his dilemma with Ouma all the time. Throughoutthe entirety of ndrv3, Ouma almost never admits when he’s being serious orhonest. Despite his fascination with mysteries and clues, Saihara stillultimately prefers when people are honest and sincere with him. The idea of investingtime and effort into reaching out to someone who’s going to continually pushhis hand away is exhausting to him—and rightfully so.

Take, for example, the scene you mentioned in Chapter 3,where Ouma does actually get his head bashed in while searching for clues.Saihara and Maki come across him, and while both of them are surprised to seehim there, there’s not really a lot of concern shown. But this ties back to thewariness and uncertainty that I mentioned. Ouma seems to be hurt pretty badly (and, in fact, he really is)—but Saiharais never sure of how serious Ouma is being. Because it’s Ouma, there’s always apossibility that he could brush everything off in the next minute as a joke ora lie.

As a matter of fact, that’s exactly the reason most of thefandom had such a negative reaction to Ouma’s “death” scene in Chapter 3. Priorto the game’s localization, many people had only seen gifs or still images ofOuma playing dead, and I think many fans assumed he was doing it simply to fuckwith the player and the other characters alike. I saw many people assuming hefaked being injured entirely, much like Yamada and Celes faked being injured indr1 Chapter 3, despite the fact that there was no infirmary to steal bloodpacks from in ndrv3, and that Ouma himself even admits that the injury is real.But as most people didn’t know this, many people had very negative assumptions about his fake death in Chapter 3.

This is the main problem Saihara has with Ouma’s behavior.He’s constantly afraid of reaching out to Ouma, only to be made fun of or takenadvantage of. Saihara is someone with an inherent need to find the truth, as adetective—but he’s also terrified of the truth, having been traumatized badlyby it before. All of the constant layers of uncertainty and mystery around Oumaleave him intrigued, but definitely afraid of having his good intentionstrampled all over. He’s wary and skeptical of Ouma, but without necessarilybeing cold or indifferent to him.

This is notably different from Hinata’s relationship withKomaeda in sdr2—as most people know, it’s completely impossible to finishKomaeda’s FTEs if Hinata failed to spend time with him in Chapter 1. AfterKomaeda’s actions in Chapter 1, Hinata feels far too betrayed and furious withhim to ever risk letting his guard down again. Even if you attempt to spendmore time with him, it all amounts to pretty much nothing, as Hinata isconstantly suspicious and resentful of Komaeda, and Komaeda, as a result, neverhas a proper opportunity to talk or open up about himself.

The urge to get to know Komaeda is never there unless Hinataalready began the process of befriending him early on—in which case, eventhough he’s still undeniably skeptical, he’s willing to at least hear him outwithout constantly expecting the worst. But Hinata’s feelings of personalbetrayal are too strong for him to ever let go of them completely, hence why hesuspects Komaeda is up to no good nearly every time he comes across him in themain story.

I think this sort of dynamic is what many people perceiveSaihara and Ouma having, but the fact is that’s not entirely true. Saihara isnever personally betrayed by Ouma throughout the entire game. Even at hisworst, in Chapter 5, Ouma’s claims of being the ringleader are meant as adeliberate blow against the entire group, in order to catch them all off guardand take away their willingness to try and escape to the outside world, rather than a personal attack on Saihara.

There is no point at which Ouma ever personally wins Saihara’strust and then betrays him, because Ouma invites doubt and skepticism from theothers from the start. Literally starting with his introduction, he callshimself a liar constantly, always casting unnecessary doubt on his own claims—becausehe wants Saihara and the others todoubt him. By putting everything about his own words and behavior into asuspicious light, he not only succeeds at pushing everyone else away, but alsoslowly but surely manages to craft himself up into a devious, larger-than-lifecharacter.

I think this explains most of the distance between the twoof them in-game. It’s an exhausting, never-ending challenge, trying to figureout how much of what Ouma said was a lie or not. Even in his final moments, hetried his best to remain a mystery, going to his death in a literal catbox. Hewas fine with being hated and resented, as long as it meant a shot at trying tostop the killing game and striking back at the ringleader.

The horrible, morally grey lengths Ouma was willing to go toin order to attempt this is largely the reason Saihara becomes considerablycolder to him from Chapter 4 and on. Both because of his role in plotting Gontaand Miu’s deaths, and because of his claims that he was the ringleader and theone behind the religious cult that led the SHSL Hunt, Saihara runs into thesame pitfalls as everyone else, fully buying into Tsumugi’s flashback light andbelieving that Ouma must have been the leader of the Remnants of Despair as aresult.

But, as you mentioned in your ask, Chapter 6 is what largelyprevents Ouma from staying in the catbox forever. Despite Saihara’s lingeringdoubts that Ouma might still have been lying in his final moments, Chapter 6presents one piece of evidence after another proving that he was really andtruly not the villain he pretended to be. Everything, from the childish natureof his research lab, which Saihara notes feels like “someone just pretending tobe a supervillain,” to the constant trail of clues which Ouma himself left forthem all following his death, all help to chip away at those doubts.

The most notable piece of evidence, however, is Ouma’smotive video. Sadly, the impact of this motive video is somewhat diminished inthe NISA localization. As I’ve mentioned before, the translation for it wasbutchered, with the most important reveals actually left out entirely, to the pointwhere it seems like Saihara is literally making stuff up on the spot in thetrial later on. But in the original version of the game, it’s madepainstakingly clear that DICE, with Ouma as its leader, was an organizationfundamentally against murder, with its most important and fundamental rulebeing “don’t kill people.”

These clues and evidence all tie together to paint a verydifferent picture of Ouma, one that I think left Saihara honestly conflictedafter his death. After the stunts Ouma pulled in Chapter 4, it makes completeand perfect sense that he didn’t seek him out or want much of anything to dowith him. Ouma claimed to be the worst sort of person, someone who enjoyed thepain and suffering of others, and Saihara and most of the rest of the groupbelieved him. But seeing so much direct evidence to the contrary, as well asrealizing how hard Ouma was trying to stop the killing game left him thinkingback on the way Ouma had acted and the things he had said.

Many of those things were themselves clues in the grandscheme of things. Seemingly offhanded comments or remarks he makes to Saiharain his FTEs look very different in hindsight—particularly the line in his finalFTE about how “some games can be won without playing them.” This is ultimatelyexactly what Saihara does in the final trial: in order to bring Danganronpa toan end, he and the other survivors refuse to participate in the game anylonger.

And it’s Ouma’s outlook on lies, rather than any other,which is the closest to Saihara’s own by the end of the game. Rather thanthinking of lies or truth in black-or-white terms of “bad” and “good,” Saihararealizes that lies can themselves be elevated to the status of “truth” ifpeople recognize them as such, and fully believes in their potential to changethe world and bring comfort to others.

This is why I find their dynamic so fascinating: theircharacters are directly meant to parallel each other. In a game about truth andlies, both of them represent an opposite side of the spectrum. And yet, both ofthem constantly delve into the other side. Saihara, in his efforts to seek outthe truth and help save everyone as a detective, has to lie. At least once per trial, he has a mandatory perjurywhich cannot be avoided. And Ouma, in order to better mask his true intentions,constantly mixes in bits and pieces of the truth with his lies, in order tomake it all the more difficult to tell how much of what he says can be taken atface value.

Under other circumstances, their relationship could haveturned out drastically different. The bonus mode is a pretty good look intothat. Like all bonus modes, it allows us a glimpse of a scenario in which thereis no killing game, and therefore no need for excessive doubt or paranoia. As aresult, in Ouma’s prison mode ending, he’sactually the one to reach out his hand to Saihara—a direct throwback to hisFTEs.

What I find the most interesting about Ouma’s prison modeending, though, is the fact that it lampshades a very important fact: thatSaihara still doesn’t really know anything about Ouma, but that he wants toknow more. Ouma himself says as much, and in his own internal narration, Saiharaacknowledges that he’s completely right (while blushing, no less). The lies andmystery surrounding Ouma left him wanting to know more, but unsure of how todetermine the truth. And at the very end, Ouma offers to let down his walls andgive Saihara a glimpse of “the real him.”

This potential for two characters constantly growing andgetting to know one another is perhaps one of my favorite tropes in fiction. It’swhat I love in any kind of ship, and definitely the reason I started shippingsaiouma in the first place. It’s very, very true that it’s impossible to ever really know another person (especiallynot in a matter of about 10 days, like in the bonus mode). We can, at most,know different “versions” of someone, the facades that they present to us andto others in their daily life. But getting to know someone is a constant,ongoing process; it literally never stops. I can vouch that I’m still gettingto know things about my significant other even to this day, and we’ve beentogether for years now.

With Saihara and Ouma, there’s this constant feeling ofback-and-forth, the dilemma between trusting and doubting. Saihara wants to know more about Ouma, but istoo afraid of putting his trust in someone so obviously dubious, only to bemade fun of or belittled in the end. Ouma wantsto trust Saihara—it’s why he took the risk of offering an alliance with him inChapter 4 in the first place, even if he went about it the complete wrong way.

He was fascinated by Saihara’s ability to grow and developoutside of the expectations he held for him; he thought he had him completelypegged, but Saihara’s ability to keep pushing forward even in the face of traumaand depression caught him off guard. This is why he becomes so much moreobviously interested in Saihara starting around Chapter 2. As soon as Saiharaputs his hat aside and takes the first, conscious step towards overcoming hisanxiety and feelings of inadequacy, Ouma begins to pay him considerably moreattention, culminating with describing him as “the person I fell in love with”(suki ni natta hito) in Chapter 4 (which is, coincidentally, the exact samewording Maki uses for Momota in Chapter 5).

There’s a constant sense that things could very well havebeen different between them, if only Saihara had continued reaching out hishand, or if Ouma had put aside his arrogance and his paranoia and finally acceptedit. The “what-if”s are countless, and I enjoy considering them.

I also find it extremely interesting how inextricable theircharacter arcs are from one another. Saihara’s arc of growth and development isjust as connected to Ouma as it is to Momota and Kaede; for better or worse,Ouma constantly challenges him to solve the mysteries around them, danglingclues before him, always looking pleased and enthusiastic when Saihara managesto find the right answer. Despite trying to play the role of an antagonist, orat the very least, a conflict-bringer, it’s very telling in my opinion thatOuma always responds with praise and excitement to Saihara in particular—praisewhich Saihara himself is afraid to take at face value, because he’s stillconflicted over whether Ouma might be lying to him or not.

And again, for better or worse, Saihara is the closest thingto someone Ouma “trusts” within a game full of potential enemies andbackstabbers. Saihara’s ability to surprise him and catch him off guard issomething Ouma reveled in, even as it frustrated him to no end. This is why hewrote the phrase “can’t figure him out?” (yudan naranai?) on the whiteboardnext to Saihara’s picture (I believe the localization phrase was “potentialally?” or something of the sort).

Despite knowing he couldn’t afford to let his guard down,and feeling that he couldn’t risk any alliances for fear of being betrayed, hestill very much wanted to get to knowSaihara better. Just as Saihara couldn’t figure Ouma out, Ouma could neverfully figure him out either, and it really shows when you read between thelines. And I think he really did want Saihara to understand him, too—typically,you don’t leave clues for someone if you don’t want them trying to solve themystery. Despite how contradictory he was as a person, and despite howdifficult he made it, I think he really hoped that Saihara might be the onebest-suited to understanding him as a person.

I really love the potential for growth on both sides in their relationship. There’sa real sense that in order to truly get to know one another, they would have tostand on completely even footing—which is what a relationship should always belike, in my experiences. All relationships start first and foremost with thedecision to get to know someone and be friends with them, and that’s exactlythe kind of dynamic I love to see in fiction too.

As far as other reasons I ship them… well, I touched ontheir parallels as the characters that best represent “lies” and “truth,” butit’s also notable that they play the very obvious role of “detective” and “phantomthief” as well. This is lampshaded in Ouma’s love hotel scene, where his “idealromantic partner” is quite literally Saihara himself, and he plays the role of acaptured phantom thief. The phantom thief traits also coincide with what weknow about Ouma in the main story as well: heists and calling cards seem wellwithin the possibilities of the stunts DICE probably pulled, and it’s a notablefact that most phantom thieves adhere to a moral code against killing orharming others.

The detective-phantom thief dynamic is a popular one inshipping, not only for saiouma but for many other pairs from many differentfandoms as well. It’s a tried and true trope of fiction, even a basis for AUsin many cases. The idea of a game of wits, or “catch me if you can” scenariobetween two characters is one that I think appeals to a lot of people. Ipersonally enjoy it quite a lot, especially when the “chase” is framed as twopeople trying to study each other and figure one another out.

All of these parallels and contrasts with one another amountto so many interesting possibilities for what could have been between them. AndI love seeing those possibilities explored in fanart and fanfic alike. Fandomas a whole is generally a place to explore dynamics and potential which weren’tnecessarily used to their fullest in canon, so I think saiouma is a greatexample of just one such dynamic.

I’m sure that not everyone will find saiouma as a ship to beto their personal liking. Which is perfectly fine! Shipping is different foreveryone, and personal preference plays a big role in what we all like or don’tlike. Sometimes something that appeals to one person just won’t appeal at allto someone else, and that’s only to be expected. As long as people are havingfun and not harming anyone else in the process, I think it’s fine to just liveand let live when it comes to shipping.

This got very long, like I knew it would, so I’ll go aheadand stop for now. But I hope I was able to get most of my thoughts across, as asort of big reference post for why I ship saiouma. Thank you for stopping by,anon, I had a lot of fun writing this!

[mbtizone]

Harry Potter (Harry Potter): ISFP

Dominant Introverted Feeling [Fi]: Harry doesn’t typically like to discuss his feelings, and instead keeps them to himself. He believes in doing the right thing, even if he has to put his life on the line to do it. It doesn’t matter much who the person is or how dangerous the situation might be. Even though he doesn’t particularly like Hermione in the beginning, he still puts himself at risk to find her and warn her about the troll. He even saves Draco Malfoy, who has done nothing but torment Harry for years. What other people say or think doesn’t influence Harry’s beliefs. He knows that Voldemort’s back and if his classmates don’t accept that, then that’s their problem. How Harry feels about something is much more vital to predicting his reaction than logic. Harry values freedom and is able to relate to the boa constrictor because they’re both trapped in confined spaces they wish to escape from, and so he inadvertently uses magic to set the snake free. Harry is extremely moralistic – he refuses to befriend Draco Malfoy because he treats Ron poorly and disrespects the Weasley family. He doesn’t care about his status, he just cares about what kind of person he is. Harry is quickly able to tell that Draco is no good and he knows he doesn’t need friends like that. Harry wants to help those around him, but he typically does so by doing something (Fi-Se), rather than offering emotional support (tricking Lucius Malfoy into handing Dobby a sock in order to set the house elf free or buying a bunch of treats on the train to share with Ron). Harry is often shown to be uncomfortable with physical displays of affection and prefers when people don’t make a big deal out of it when he does something nice for them. Harry often struggles with his fame and doesn’t usually enjoy all of the attention he constantly receives. He’s okay with it when he wins a Quidditch match or defeats a dragon, sure. But he doesn’t want recognition for his claim to fame because he was just a baby. He didn’t do anything, and so he feels the way people treat him is undeserved. He wants to earn respect, not have it given to him for something that was out of his own control. Harry’s values come from within – he doesn’t prevent Sirius and Lupin from killing Wormtail because killing is wrong. He stops it because he doesn’t think his father would’ve wanted two of his best friends to become murderers. Harry strongly believes in fairness. When he finds out that the champions will have to face dragons during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, he passes the intel along to Cedric, believing that Madame Maxime has told Fleur and Karkaroff has informed Krum. He’s very honorable, and even though he ends up having to face the most vicious of the four dragons, he refuses to accept any advice from Ludo Bagman. During the second task, Harry’s task is to rescue Ron, but he can’t just leave Hermione, Gabrielle, and Cho, and so, he waits for the others to arrive to make sure they get back safely. When Fleur doesn’t show up, Harry takes Gabrielle and Ron, even though doing so puts him at a disadvantage in the competition. He couldn’t just leave her down there, regardless of whether or not she was his responsibility. Sometimes Harry’s morality in his undoing. In the third task, he saves Cedric (his competition) and he suggests taking the cup with Cedric, allowing them both to win, a gesture that would ultimately result in Cedric’s death. When Rita Skeeter writes an inaccurate article about Harry, he’s angry because it isn’t true. It’s not a real representation of him. It’s not so much that he’s afraid of how other people will treat him after they read it, but that they will get the wrong idea about who he is. Harry’s sense of self is important to him. He frequently questions his identity and worries that his connection to Voldemort makes him bad. Harry readily stands up for himself and others and doesn’t keep his mouth shut to avoid trouble if he truly believes something is unjust. He lands himself in detention with Umbridge because he refuses to allow her to deny the return of Voldemort. Harry doesn’t like to make a big show of it when he does something kind for someone else. He’d rather they didn’t mention it because he doesn’t do things for the recognition or for gratitude. If he helps someone, it’s because he felt it was the right thing to do – he doesn’t need his good deeds to be broadcast to the world. Harry can deal with the majority of people thinking he’s a liar (or believing him to be untrustworthy) but it only truly gets to him when his friends turn against him (like Ron did after Harry’s name came out of the Goblet of Fire). He’s also deeply hurt when he assumes that Dumbledore isn’t sharing any information with him due to a lack of trust. Even though Harry usually saves those who don’t really deserve his mercy, he allows the centaurs to drag Umbridge with them into the forest after the way she treated him and his classmates throughout the course of the school year because she crossed a line and deserved whatever punishment was in store for her.

Auxiliary Extroverted Sensing [Se]: It’s initially difficult for Harry to accept that he’s a wizard because wizards don’t exist. Even though bizarre things always seem to happen when he’s around, it’s just not possible. Even after witnessing Hagrid perform magic, he wakes up the next day, expecting that it had all just been a dream. The people around Harry often become frustrated with him because of the way he can recklessly throw himself into perilous situations. Harry is athletic and picks up on things quickly. He has a natural talent for flying and makes the Quidditch team in his first year after his very first flying lesson ever, when he’s caught on a broom (which he only did to catch Neville Longbottom’s remembrall). Harry tends to live in the moment and can sometimes fails to think about the possible ramifications of his actions beforehand. He enjoys experiencing new things, and is so excited upon seeing Diagon Alley for the first time that he wishes he had more eyes to be able to see everything at once. Harry’s failure to think of consequences often leads him to dive into things without thinking them through (such as spying on Draco Malfoy, going after the remembrall, sneaking into Hogsmeade when there was an alleged murderer on the loose who supposedly wanted to kill him). Although she was wrong, Hermione was right to be concerned about where the Firebolt came from, but the thought of it being jinxed didn’t cross Harry’s mind. Harry is quick to notice things in his physical environment – when he tries to prevent the Philosopher’s Stone from being stolen with Ron and Hermione, he is able to quickly spot the key that’s different from all of the others, allowing them to enter the next room. Harry is also the one who notices that a piece of paper is balled up in Hermione’s clenched, petrified hand. Harry is good at acting in the moment and has proven himself to be extremely resourceful. After the Basilisk’s fang poisons him, Harry uses it to destroy Riddle’s diary, effectively defeating him. Harry often does things with no real plan – for instance, impulsively leaving the Dursley’s after accidentally inflating Aunt Marge. He didn’t know where he was going to go or what he was going to do… he just gathered his belongings and left. Harry has a tendency to see things as they are and take them at face value. He truly believed that if Fleur didn’t come for Gabrielle, she would just be left there at the bottom of the lake. It never occurs to him that the hostages would be unharmed if a champion were to fail their rescue mission. Although Hermione suspects that the vision Harry has of Sirius is a trap, Harry insists on going to rescue him anyway. When it turns out that she was correct, Harry is forced to deal with the guilt he feels for the part he unwittingly played in Sirius’s demise.

Tertiary Introverted Intuition [Ni]: Sometimes, Harry gets hunches, which he can become quite obsessive over. When his intuition tells him something, he typically sees it through, following it wherever it takes him. Harry knew that Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater. However, sometimes Harry gets very strong gut feelings that turn out to be incorrect – such as believing that Snape was the person trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone. Even though he’s wrong about Snape’s intentions, he is right in the sense that Snape was once involved with the Death Eaters. When he saw the stag patronus, he believed that it was somehow his father saving him. Harry doesn’t spend very much time thinking about the future or what he wants, and when he does, he often thinks of it pessimistically (believing he wouldn’t survive beyond the first task of the Triwizard Tournament). Although Harry sometimes resents his destiny, he commits himself to stopping Voldemort and dedicates himself to destroying Horcruxes so he can kill Voldemort once and for all. It can sometimes be difficult for Harry to predict chains of events. It doesn’t occur to him that if he spares Peter Pettigrew, he might find a way to return to Voldemort, which would result in Professor Trelawney’s prophecy coming true. Harry often struggles to read between the lines. He doesn’t pick up on Cho’s (fairly obvious) jealousy about Harry’s friendship with Hermione, and misses the cue that he was supposed to use that moment to reassure her.

Inferior Extroverted Thinking [Te]: When Harry finally loses his temper, his Te becomes apparent. Nobody is safe when Harry finally loses his temper. Between Dumbledore practically ignoring him all year long and the events at the Ministry of Magic (notably, Sirius’s death), Harry reaches a breaking point and he finally tells Dumbledore off for not being there for him. His violent outburst even causes him to angrily break items in Dumbledore’s office. Harry has no problem standing up for himself and others, and can become quite vicious. When Harry seeks out information on his own, it’s usually for a reason. He wants to use it for something. He tries to prepare for his first Quidditch match by borrowing Quidditch Through the Ages from Hermione. He only spends time in the library when he needs to acquire specific knowledge that will aid him with real problems (researching how to get past his dragon, looking in the restricted section for information on Nicolas Flamel). Harry doesn’t typically develop his own plans – he typically leaves all that to Hermione (Te-dom). It’s difficult for Harry to prepare for things ahead of time, as indicated by his procrastination during the Triwizard Tournament. He didn’t give himself enough time to try to figure out the clue for the second task, much to Hermione’s disappointment. He also tends to put off his school assignments and leave them for the last minute. Even though people tend to look to Harry for leadership, Harry often feels uncomfortable in this role. He can be assertive when he needs to be, but it’s not natural for him. It’s difficult for him to give orders and he has a hard time when people look to him for answers.

Enneagram: 9w8 6w7 2w1 Sp/Sx

Quotes:

Harry: Look, let’s not talk about Cedric right now… let’s talk about something else. Cho: I thought, I thought you’d u-u-understand! I need to talk about it! Surely you n-need to talk about it too! I mean, you saw it happen, d-didn’t you? Harry: Well – I have talked about it, to Ron and Hermione, but- Cho: Oh, you’ll talk to Hermione Granger! But you won’t talk to me! P-perhaps it would be best if we just… just p-paid and you went and met up with Hermione G-Granger, like you obviously want to!

Harry: I’m going to keep going until I succeed — or die. Don’t think I don’t know how this might end. I’ve known it for years.

Harry: You’re the one who is weak. You will never know love or friendship. And I feel sorry for you.

“And Harry saw very clearly as he sat there under the hot sun how people who cared about him had stood in front of him one by one, his mother, his father, his godfather, and finally Dumbledore, all determined to protect him; but now that was over. He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandon forever the illusion he ought to have lost at the age of one, that the shelter of a parent’s arms meant that nothing could hurt him. There was no waking from this nightmare, no comforting whisper in the dark that he was safe really, that it was all in his imagination; the last and greatest of his protectors had died, and he was more alone than he had ever been.”

Harry: Ginny, listen…I can’t be involved with you anymore. We’ve got to stop seeing each other. We can’t be together. Ginny: It’s for some stupid noble reason isn’t it? Harry: It’s been like…like something out of someone else’s life these last few weeks with you. But I can’t…we can’t…I’ve got to do things alone now. Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He’s already used you as bait once, and that was just because you were my best friend’s sister. Think how much danger you’ll be in if we keep this up. He’ll know, he’ll find out. He’ll try and get me through you. Harry: What if I don’t care? Ginny: I care. How do you think I’d feel if this was your funeral…and it was my fault…

“It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew – and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents – that there was all the difference in the world.”

Harry: Do you—do you think I want to—do you think I give a—I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY! Dumbledore: You will. Because you are not nearly as mad at me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it.

Harry: Let me out. Dumbledore: No. Harry: If you don’t – if you keep me in here – if you don’t let me- Dumbledore: By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many.

Dumbledore: There is no shame in what you are feeling, Harry. On the contrary… the fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength.

Harry: I DON’T CARE! I’VE HAD ENOUGH, I’VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON’T CARE ANYMORE! Dumbledore: You do care. You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.

Harry: I didn’t want anyone to talk to me. Ginny: Well, that was a bit stupid of you, seeing as how you don’t know anyone but me who’s been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels.

Dolores Umbridge: Your previous teachers in this subject may have allowed you more licence, but as none of them–with the possible exception of Professor Quirrell, who did at least appear to have restricted himself to age-appropriate subjects–would have passed a Ministry inspection– Harry: Yeah, Quirrell was a great teacher, there was just that minor drawback of him having Lord Voldemort sticking out of the back of his head.

“I just wondered where you —” Ron broke off, shrugging. “Nothing. I’m going back to bed.” “Just thought you’d come nosing around, did you?” Harry shouted. He knew that Ron had no idea what he’d walked in on, knew he hadn’t done it on purpose, but he didn’t care — at this moment he hated everything about Ron, right down to the several inches of bare ankle showing beneath his pajama trousers.”

“As Hagrid had said, what would come would come and he would have to meet it when it did.”

“No, I’m fine,’ said Harry, wondering why he kept telling people this, and wondering whether he had ever been less fine.”

“…he was going to die upright like his father, and he was going to die trying to defend himself, even if no defence was possible…”

Harry: [to Cedric] Yeah…we’ve helped each other out, haven’t we? We both got here. Let’s just take it together.

Ludo Bagman: Most of the judges, feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However… Mr Potter’s score is forty-five points.

“Harry was finding it difficult to think about the future at all, he felt as if his whole life had been leading up to, and would finish with, the first task…”

“Harry, listen,” said Hermione, exchanging a look with Ron, “you must be really upset about what we heard yesterday. But the thing is, you mustn’t go doing anything stupid.” “Like what?” said Harry. “Like trying to go after Black,” said Ron sharply. Harry could tell they had rehearsed this conversation while he had been asleep. He didn’t say anything.”

“Get off me,” Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew’s hands off him in disgust. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it because — I don’t reckon my dad would’ve wanted them to become killers — just for you.”

Harry: So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord did he?

“Hmm,” said a small voice in his ear. “Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that’s interesting. . . . So where shall I put you?” Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin. “Not Slytherin, eh?” said the small voice. “Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it’s all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that — no? Well, if you’re sure — better be GRYFFINDOR!”

Dobby: Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew…

Madam Pomfrey: [to Harry] Oh, it’s you, is it? I suppose you’ve been doing something dangerous again?

Dumbledore: I will say it again. You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight, Harry. You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a grown wizard’s burden and found yourself equal to it.

McGonagall: For heaven’s sake, Potter! Do you really think this is about truth or lies? It’s about keeping your head down and your temper under control!

Harry: So that’s it, is it? “Stay there?” That’s all anyone could tell me after I got attacked by those dementors too! Just stay put while the grown-ups sort it out, Harry! We won’t bother telling you anything, though, because your tiny little brain might not be able to cope with it!

Snape: I told you to empty yourself of emotion! Harry: Yeah? Well, I’m finding that hard at the moment. Snape:Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord! Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily — weak people, in other words — they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!

Hermione: This isn’t a criticism, Harry! But you do … sort of … I mean — don’t you think you’ve got a bit of a — a — saving people thing?

Harry: I don’t want to talk about how I feel, all right? Dumbledore: Harry, suffering like this proves you are still a man! This pain is part of being human – Harry: THEN — I — DON’T — WANT — TO — BE — HUMAN!

“Harry – you’re a great wizard, you know.” “I’m not as good as you,” said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him. “Me!” said Hermione. “Books! And cleverness! There are more important things – friendship and bravery and – oh Harry – be careful!”

“You’ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.” He held out his hand to shake Harry’s, but Harry didn’t take it. “I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks,” he said coolly.”

Lupin: [to Harry] “What you fear most of all is —fear. Very wise…”

“Every second he breathed, the smell of the grass, the cool air on his face, was so precious: To think that people had years and years, time to waste, so much time it dragged, and he was clinging to each second.”

“A fierce battle was raging inside Harry's brain: She's Ron's sister. But she's ditched Dean! She's still Ron's sister. I'm his best mate! That'll make it worse. If I talked to him first- He'd hit you. What if I don't care? He's your best mate!”

Harry Potter (Harry Potter): ISFP was originally published on MBTI Zone

[glopratchet]

emotion

14 emotional: ecstasy, love, amazement, vigilance pride, courage You are a happy man You feel the urge to scream out in joy and cry tears of happiness at this moment grief, loathing, rage, terror despair You feel the urge to scream out in horror and cry tears of horror at this moment You are a sad man terror, Ecstasy : eee, 14 emotional, joy with peace love and concern 100% You feel compelled to reach total ecstasy as focus on the bliss of following your emotional limit, you also feel that taking this path it's the best way to achieve inner peace through balance Something perhaps other psykers find difficult to achieve, though you cannot see this ever becoming a problem for you You feel closer to the big guiding lights of joy and wills of emotions that move all men than ever Emotions : si, joy joy with peace, Vigilance : vigal, anticipation with interest and emphasis on conflict Pride : ego, 13 emotional, arrogance with happiness and excitement Courage : corag, courage with a side order of hope Wisdom : intell, 18 mental, logic and hope guiding intelligence and planning (Secondary: 16 intuition, experiencing emotions and feelings as the wheels of your mind turn Lust : luxx, 16 Emotional, raw fulfillment of needs and wants without disregard for others anticipation with interest and emphasis on conflict Terror : terr , fear with apprehension and focus on conflict 12 grief, loathing and sorrow) Anger : iraa, rage with excitement 14 sorrow, 21 Emotional, arrogance and happiness with an emphasis on love towards self and others Devotion : devi, 19 emotional, peace through faith in something beyond oneself with a desire to focus on this connection fear with apprehension and focus on conflict and aggression Rage : rge, anger with annoyance No weight attached to the decision, you see no reason to change anything as it feels right anger with annoyance and aggression Loathing : loath, disgust with boredom and agitation 15 sorrow, terr, 15 emotional, Finally you have a moment of introspection to feel your own emotions, and you feel them all within you disgust with boredom and agitation Grief : grif, sadness with pensiveniss and sorrow 10 fear, panic and dread) Self-loathing : self, embarrassment, shame and misery Panic : pan, 4 emotional, fear with terror and desperation Dread : dred, Elation : ylem, 60 mental, purging logic with extreme focus sadness with pensiveniss and sorrow Amazement : amaze, surprise with distraction and awe Out of interest you move your local mind's eye to a spiraling group of thoughts, feeling an odd emotion that feels like dispair, terror and loathing, yet at the same time hope, happiness and excitement surprise with distraction and awe Love : luv, trust with acceptance and kindness 22 desire, lust and curiosity with focus on other) The thoughts then turn into a nearly incomprehensible mass of swirling emotions before they're suddenly silenced and feel something press against your mind that feels like anger, fear and disgust, yet at the same time anticipation, apprehension and trust Calm : calm, 30 mental, concentration with inner peace Awkwardness : awkwa, 5 emotional, fear with embarrassment and uncertainty trust with acceptance and kindness //sublime: and confusion Suddenly you feel the presence pressing against your mind get pulled away before it can respond to your "hello" and before you realize anything else, you find yourself temporarily paralyzed and unable to think Nuts, the minds voice suddenly whispers in your head, You um, you had the advantage of me there for a second and I I'm sorry Sayumi interrupts herself, sounding truly embarrassed I've been kinda on edge since our whole shouting match thing earlier terror and confusion //ecstasy admiration = love 8 desire, lust and curiosity) Feeling a little awkward, Sayumi lets you go on your own, and after a few moments, you start to feel as if nothing had happened at all //ecstasy terror = sublime 34 desire, "I didn't really want to fight, " You say aloud, "It was supposed to be a conversation but hten you decided to attack me instead There's a pause before she replies gently, I'm sorry Did I hurt you? "You paralyzed me for a bit, " You admit //ecstasy amazement = ? 65 desire, The chainging of emotions seem confusing to you as you expect rage or something similar from being attacked, but instead feel Amazement? In any case Sayumi sounded genuinely abashed at what she'd done so you forgive her "Don't worry about it, it ended up not being a big deal //ecstasy rage = ? 46 fear and loathing) The rage is fleeting, but it feels to you like she could very honestly lash out at you in some way and only barely manages the control to stop herself It surprises you that despite her state of mind her skills have gone up notably, being able to harbor two evenly strong emotions at once must have helped tune her reactions Surely, Sayumi I'm sorry too though //ecstasy vigilance = optimism habit 3 curiosity and hope) You know that tone, Sayumi's trying to make ammends with you but can't help thinking that this apology is just another tool for you to use in manipulating her Even though you didn't ask for it and are helping her out of kindness she still believes that you're tricking her like so many others have //ecstasy vigilance = optimism habit //admiration terror = submission 21 desire lust and submissiveness) You once again hear the submission in her voice and know that despite how afraid she is, despite how upset she is, there's nothing you could ever do that would lead her to harming you There's no way for you to prove you're trustworthy when all she knows are lies, there's no way for you to explain yourself without sounding like a hypocrite or a liar //admiration amazement = respect 30 caution and fear) Congratulations, you figured it out Well sort of The way you did it makes it seem significantly less amazing or even clever to you though Still the method ; (And if you play it right the message behind it) could help Sayumi a lot with her psychological issues This amazement seems more positive than anything you've sensed from other emotions, does that mean you're improving her mood? //admiration grief = ? 55 anger and hate) SHIT! MOTHERFUCKING Oh you meant the amazement part, right Jeez, this girl When she feels one thing she hardly hides it at all, that was one of the first things you picked up in this mind link Anger again though, or more specific hate //admiration loathing = ? 53 fear and loathing) "I'm sorry for lashing out, " Sayumi mutters, staring at the wall in front of her You hug her, as she briefly tries to struggle and then hugs back as tightly as she can, trying not to cry "It'll be alright, I promise" "We're getting out of this, I promise, " you whisper back //admiration rage = domination 66 sadness and fear) The poor girl's overwhelmed with fear that she's failing at everything yet again You kiss her gently on the lips, surprising her as you do every so often, except when you dive into this emotional link you can sense it actually makes her happier or calms her, for lack of a better word Now you just have to pull off the mind reading stuff you said you'd do //admiration vigilance = ? 22 obsession and love) So that's what the word is Love You dismiss the thought immediately, there a lot of talk about finding your soul mate and all that other rubbish that goes along with the concept, everyone seems to want to find their one true love when in reality you can have multiple loves as long as they aren't the same person You show Sayumi some complicated mathematical calculations which, besides enjoying math, seems to calm her down the most out of anything you do //terror amazement = awe 3 contempt and fear) Your reading her emotions and thoughts, it's time to seal the emotional link Two weeks pass, and although the food is running dangerously low, someone has finally seen Sayumi waiting for you and you've been rescued //terror grief = ? 46 faith) A week passes, with much questioning but very little progress You've gained the bed in the cell for your "heroic rescue", but while message have gotten through to Sayumi's parents nothing has been heard from them And now with each passing day the questions change from general concern to accusatory "We risked our lives getting you out of there, and this is how you'd repay us? //terror loathing = depression (Secondial: 63 rejection) "She been taken away for re-indoctrination, she'll be fine " And with that, Sayumi was whisked away Your interrogator got replaced with a woman who brought you dinner and a cot in some sort of security facility where there are cameras watching every wall You expected as much 5 more days pass, and it is official, you are now a prisoner of the jingoists //terror rage = panic 77 fear) You wait You keep having the same nightmare every time you close your eyes, and it all begins with the young looking man grabbing your arms as strongly as he can and staring into your eyes And then, nothing A void Nothing but blackness One week passes, and the woman visits you again "She's forgiven you, //terror vigilance = ? 54 adoration and obsession) Much like you're obsessed with watching Sayumi change, but really because you knew her before it was all an excuse to watch her surprise every time You need the chance to defend her again or finish what you started "If she has, then why am I here? "He wanted to make sure you were good for her "What do you think? //amazement grief = disapproval 3 fear and amazement) His low slung humorless chuckle makes you uncomfortable, given what you know about him, but the woman seems genuinely confused, perhaps she doesn't know either He looks at you for a moments before finally deciding on an answer "Sure You are released into the custody of the woman under one stipulation, should Sayumi be found to be experiencing renewed feelings for you, they will give the order to kill you both //amazement loathing = ? 46 distrust) "We're taking you to her now, " She says in a dull tone, "I don't think they will be needing me to watch you anymore This catches your attention Is it really that simple? Perhaps not, but you're about to find out //amazement rage = ? 80 doubt) "Thank you The trip is a quiet one as she doesn't speak and you are left to ponder your own feelings on how you should approach this for everything, " You start off with what you feel is an appropriate thing to say and follow her out the door You've fallen back on what you knew before, but many things have changed Will she recognize you? What if they've done something to change her soul? //amazement vigilence = ? 100 thought) You find yourself standing outside a door with your chaperone who doesn't move an inch to open it, but instead just turns to look at you The face she is making is unreadable but you doubt if any language could properly convey the emotions in her eyes Pity, disgust, fear, and love? She places a gloved hand on your shoulder before leaning into your ear to whisper to you //grief loathing = remorse 75 fear) "Remember, he can see you, but you can't see him Good luck and may the creator bring us all to a better tomorrow The woman turns away from you as the door open just enough for you to slip through quietly You take a deep breath and try to compose yourself This won't be easy when did it ever is it? //grief rage = ? 75 hopefulness) Silently you push the door open further before taking a glance inside Nothing has changed in the house economically, but there are paintings everywhere, and no supply crates or other objects to hide behind Someone is clearly home You step inside and notice that the paintings on the wall are actually one massive painting that spans the entire wall //grief vigilance = ? 75 hope) Your eyes scan the painting and realize that it is a set of frames that make up a sliding puzzle Someone must have figured out the combination because the paintings are all sliding to the left until they come together to reveal a empty marble plinth in the center of the room You watch with bated breath as a smaller version of the blade is place on it And then Look closer at the hilt, where you face is staring back at you //grief anticipation = ? "Shit! What the hell Leblanc, " You begin to shout angrily before realizing that Sayumi is not in front of you The apartment is completely empty and devoid of any furnishing, with the exception of another plinth on the right side of the room On top of it lays a note folded in half You walk over, noticing as you do that there is an intricate maze drawn inside the plinth //loathing rage = contempt 98 contempt, 3 sorrow) "Just great, a maze no less " You mutter as you move towards the note With everything taken into consideration, you genuinely weren't expecting a simple note You grab it on the end and flip it over to read its contents ---- You shouldn't have come here //loathing rage = contempt ; //loathing vigilance = loneliness 95 loneliness, 10 disgust) These past few years without you have been hard, why did you have to leave me? I'm sorry OK? I was just so scared of the future and I thought you didn't feel the same way I let the presence get to me, but you knew better than anyone that it wasn't my choice! Knew it from the moment you saved me and showed me another way You're the only person who really understood me //loathing vigilance = loneliness ; Please don't leave me here alone You go to the plinth begging the voices inside your head to stop screaming at you just long enough to visualize that maze After a few attempts, you manage to make it through with the correct path The plinth slides to the left, opening up a passageway leading somewhere at least As you wander further within, the voices grow louder and louder until they feel like they are going to burst inside your mind Gentle kisses along your cheeks You grab your head as if struggling to keep it in place, gritting your teeth and silently yelling out in pain, but you force yourself to near the source of the noise If it's insanity you're after then by god you're going to reach it! Soft, mesmerizing, beautiful You spot a light at the end of a never-ending hallway She's calling the presence is calling to her The closer you get, the louder the voices are and now you can make out what they're saying It almost feels like they're not even voices at this point, but some strange kind of instruments being played that isn't quite right either They are like harps, but monstrously deformed harps with jagged edges that are bound to draw blood the pain, it is a reminder of our tragic romance You reach the end of the hallway only to find a rusted steel door blocking your way It is here where you see Sayumi standing directly in front of you She has a completely expression on her face There is no fear, no anger and not even sadness There is just nothing at all oh kyoko, you beautiful broken piece of clay "Sayumi " You give her a slight nod of the head as she returns it NOD ABSENT SMILE She cannot reply That isn't to say she can't physically talk, but rather she has nothing to say to you Your relationship is as broken as she is right now WE WILL BE ETERNAL A young, pretty Japanese girl appears out of thin air Looking to be around the same age as yourself, her long blonde her hangs down to her shoulders with both front pieces tied with pink ribbons Her eyes are a bright crimson and her oversized red dress flaps in a nonexistent wind NOBODY CAN STOP US NOW, WE WILL BE ETERNAL! This can't be real Is this some kind of joke? Is this some sick way of getting back at you for all the times you left her behind, alone and afraid? Have the standards of the game really fallen so low that they would resort to something like this? What's next? A miniboss fight against the image of your dead mother, asking why you always hated her for trying to do what was best for you in her own way? This isn't a joke It isn't for you It's for her And even then, it isn't real Just visions created from her broken psyche, born from the combination of agony and fear experienced during this quest This person is not your mother This is not Sayumi It doesn't matter who it looks like They're not even human anymore They're a monster, just like you well, I guess that isn't entirely true anymore Not since you found out the old hag bit the dust anyway, making you officially one of them Heh You're a vampire You survived being turned into one, and most Vampires don't have that privilege Who knows? Maybe one day YOU will be the hag that everyone fears Yeah, As if that would ever happen You walk towards the monitory Sayumi Thinking back on everything that happened tonight, you realize it's probably going to be a bumpy ride for her and you This is going to take a lot of work on your part, but as long as you're there for her, as a true partner, not just some summoner calling her forth whenever he sees fit, then it shouldn't be impossible

[ehealthy-diet-plan]

The Lingering Question Around A Bulked-up Bryson: Is He At Enhanced Risk Of Damage?

It’s doubtful even if Bryson DeChambeau became a polarizing determine from delivery—we’d ask his fogeys, and they would no longer respect the query—however, he’s certainly divided fanatics considering rising into the public eye as a relentlessly resourceful golfer. From gadget to a method to his own body, DeChambeau has certainly not been afraid to tinker in ways that go in opposition t the activity’s inherited knowledge. His latest undertaking, gaining strength and mass by a comprehensive weight regimen and food plan, has touched a nerve like nothing else. To witness the influence in person is each bizarre and awe-inspiring, and the reactions, to place it mildly, are blended.

Some are excited by the unconventional, vigor-based approach, but others fall somewhere on the spectrum between “aggravated” and “threatened.” For the naysayers, the most offensive part is that it’s in reality working. When the PGA Tour back after the COVID-19 shutdown, DeChambeau, 26, put collectively four straight precise-10 finishes that culminated in a victory at the Rocket personal loan classic. With the added vigor—his 350.6-yard usual two weekends ago set a PGA Tour checklist for an experienced winner—he’s taking the distance revolution to dizzying heights. His success so far has annihilated certainly one of golf’s presumed truisms: a player who adds that a lot of weight and muscle could be restrained in his movement and sacrifice contact.

And so a further truism emerges. A refrain of analysts and fans alike accept as true with that DeChambeau can’t maintain this mode of play—hell, this way of life—without getting damage. More muscle equals more susceptibility to harm, the pondering goes, and his new body makes him a ticking time bomb. Despite everything, seem what happened to Tiger.

It’s a comforting notion for those that consider distinctly uncomfortable gazing Bryson radically change their favorite game. However is it genuine?

To reply to that question, we first need to bear in mind precisely what he’s attempting. Greg Roskopf would likely hate being called a “guru.” The notice implies mystical powers, and his system is very lots based on empirical information and real-world results. But when DeChambeau is a health revolutionary, Roskopf is his nonsecular e-book. We spoke on the telephone last week after the two had simply finished a “tune-up” in Denver (DeChambeau skipped the Workday Charity Open forward of playing at this week’s Memorial, which he received in 2018).

Roskopf has been at it for 30 years, working with seasoned sports groups and corridor of fame athletes Peyton Manning, John Elway, and John Stockton, among others, establishing the equipment he now calls “Muscle Activation recommendations.” Describing his work with athletes all the time runs the chance of over-simplification, but ordinarily, the MAT is about steadiness, and the guiding principle is that no muscle on the body is less vital than another. You’ll often hear DeChambeau echoing the theory that every athlete is only as strong as his weakest hyperlink, and Roskopf likes to use a motor vehicle metaphor: He’s performing a kind of alignment for the human physique.

Roskopf all started as an electricity and conditioning instruct at Fresno State, and labored in California and later in Colorado with Mike Schy’s sister. Schy is DeChambeau’s longtime swing coach, and as early as Bryson’s school golf days at SMU, the longer-term iconoclast becomes working in MAT concepts with one in every of Roskopf’s proteges. DeChambeau sought out Roskopf upon turning professional in 2016, because why not work with the guy who pioneered the entire equipment? Shortly after they made a connection, even though, Roskopf changed into a foul site visitors accident and suffered annoying mind harm. Months later, neatly into his healing, DeChambeau reached out once again, but Roskopf wasn’t sure if he might do the job.

“Then we can simply talk shop,” DeChambeau mentioned. He flew out to Colorado, and the two had been working collectively ever because. after they began, DeChambeau weighed 190 pounds—he weighs around 240 now—and Roskopf’s first assignment becomes not to add muscle or bulk but easily increases the “verbal exchange” between DeChambeau’s muscle groups and worried equipment. This step geared toward assisting free DeChambeau from the ache and tightness he changed into experiencing—in other phrases, to redress specific weaknesses and work toward the full-physique concord he calls “complete body balance.” Trauma to at least one a part of the body tends to inflame and weaken muscle groups so that they don’t contract, or set off, quite so readily. Roskopf likens it to unfastened battery cables, and in the event, you trust that muscle groups are vital to stabilizing joints and combating harm, these loose cables put the whole body at risk. It’s like strolling on ice, he noted, basically unstable.

via quite a lot of hands-on thoughts, Roskopf helped DeChambeau reduce muscle tightness and ache, and as soon as the activation becomes physique-broad, there was a superior biomechanical basis in place. That intended DeChambeau could begin adding muscle in earnest. “He’s superior now via superior ranges of movement,” spoke of Roskopf, “and he’s gained clubhead speed and ball velocity. His flexibility has in reality improved seeing that he first came to me in 2016.” For Roskopf, that’s the key component. DeChambeau can add strength and mass all he needs now—he’s outlined getting as excessive as 270 pounds—so long as flexibility isn’t sacrificed. There’s not a agonize about any underlying actual problems. They’ve already “melted the ice.”

This, despite the fact, appears to run contrary to what many observers have stated: DeChambeau appears stiffer. He doesn’t appear notably bendy, and youngsters this notion is belied with the aid of his outcomes, he appears limited using his measurement.

“It’s truly a false impression,” Roskopf pointed out. “He feels like a weightlifter, but he’s obtained the pliability of a golfer. If in case you have a greater range of movement and stronger electricity through these degrees of movement, you’re seeing what it does to his game.” After his Rocket personal loan win, DeChambeau went back to Colorado for a tune-up. That intended being run via a gamut of workout routines and checks, and inspecting his body move via circulation, muscle via muscle. DeChambeau may say he feels extraordinary, but via this minute examination—to proceed with the automobile metaphor, Roskopf thinks of it as upkeep carried out on a stock car within the mechanic’s store after a race—they could establish areas of weakness. Here's necessary as a result of left unattended, Roskopf says, weak point lead to injury. DeChambeau’s concerns when he first came to Colorado, which included boundaries in hip motion and spinal rotation, are ones they each need to maintain safety during the past.

so far as weight loss program, Roskopf lets DeChambeau run free—by way of his reckoning, Bryson drinks as much as seven protein shakes day after day—with the identical essential caveat that any introduced mass doesn’t lessen strength or flexibility. That’s the comprehensive gadget they’re employing, and each is rather aware of the hazards of damage. For DeChambeau, here's not a mad dash to musclehead reputation; it’s a carefully considered system that’s been unfolding for years.

half 2: Does greater muscle imply greater injuries?

Let’s deal with this query commonly to delivery. We consulted a handful of consultants, and their conclusions have been identical. Greg Wells, Ph.D. in activity Physiology, Director of activities Science at the Canadian Sports Institute, former Director of recreation Science for Golf Canada:

“I don’t think that including muscular tissues is associated with an accelerated chance of injury. I suppose that I’d be difficult-pressed to find any analysis proof to imply that … if anything else, I suppose that there’s constant research that shows that if you’re effective, and you’ve received decent muscle feature, and you’ve got first-rate mobility, that your risk of damage would decrease.”

Nick Potter, Director of excessive efficiency and activities Science, Duke Basketball:

“A general precept in a game that has won heightened consciousness in contemporary years, and is supported with an abundance of analysis, is that energy is good for reducing the risk of harm. If his strengthening program is carried out safely, he should still be at less possibility of harm when he’s greater.”

Greg Gatz, Director of power & Conditioning for Olympic sports, school of North Carolina:

“If it’s finished appropriately, it’s likely going to keep him in shape.”

half 3: however it’s a bit of more complicated than that

The fact is that anyone making a blanket observation that extra electricity equals extra injuries is flat-out wrong. Despite the fact, that doesn’t suggest DeChambeau’s experiment comes without hazards.

Potter echoed Roskopf in certain aspects, principally concerning the importance of a full-physique approach. “You want a finished software that enhances strength, mobility, agility, and proprioception whereas integrating the skill aspect of the video game,” he observed. “if you lose one factor whereas building energy and vigor, that’s when you can break down fairly quick.”

Potter in comparison golf to baseball within the sense that you don’t necessarily get harm if you happen to develop drive, but for those who’re attempting to dissipate it. The rotator cuff, for instance, is accountable for decelerating the arm, and that’s one of the crucial normal damage spots for a pitcher. Similarly, a golf swing designed to generate rotational drive and vigor is most inclined when that drive must be stopped.

“It’s like in a vehicle,” Potter mentioned, again sounding eerily like Roskopf. “The faster you're, the greater effective your brakes have to be.” but when a player like DeChambeau has better power and more suitable latitude to decelerate after producing brilliant force, everything may still steadiness. That deceleration is achieved via a combination of mobility and eccentric energy—the electricity of a muscle because it lengthens, in preference to contracts. Any deficit in both will result in forces being transmitted to bone and ligament right through the physique, and the resulting stresses and accidents depend upon how the specific athlete compensates.

half 4: but what about Tiger?

In golf, here's the remarkable energy grasp-up. Tiger received larger, and Tiger received harm. It’s all too tempting to make a causation error right here. It became Roskopf who got here closest to linking the two. “sure,” he said when requested if Tiger’s case may have been an illustration of uneven practicing. “As individuals coach, they develop into dominant, they bench press or they squat or they work their quads and hamstrings, however, they don’t work their deep hip rotators or abductors or adductors, and that they create imbalances within their body.”

You comprehend the leisure: The motor vehicle is out of alignment, and the harder you power that unaligned automobile, the more seemingly you’ll smash it. The different experts didn’t wish to touch upon Tiger’s case especially, given that they didn’t recognize his exact regimen, but they warned of the dangers of reading too an awful lot into one case. “If anything,” Wells referred to, “his power and conditioning make it possible for him to play golf on the stage he performs it at for so long as he has, principally generating that type of force and energy. His health likely kept him secure from harm rather than inflicting injury.”

injuries also can be complete flukes, like Potter, the Duke basketball activities science director, was reminded when Zion Williamson’s sneaker came aside at the seams right through the Duke-UNC game in 2019 and resulted in knee harm that nobody might have prevented. When anything like that occurs, everyone from the media to fans to the clinical group of workers wishes to be aware of the “trigger,” but now and again there’s no rationale past unhealthy luck. And injuries are likely to lead to other accidents, which Potter believes is always due not to some “magical drive that motives injuries,” however bad biomechanics and compensation patterns after the initial harm.

in short, we don’t be aware of exactly why Tiger acquired hurt, or why he saved getting damage, but blaming his strength practicing is reductive, and comparing him to DeChambeau is to examine apples and oranges.

part 5: The insanity weight-reduction plan

DeChambeau currently gave us an image of his existing weight-reduction plan, and the headline is that it facets a glut of protein shakes. He listed his meals through a regular day, after which estimated that it ran to about “three,000 to 3,500 energy.” any individual who has attempted a weight loss plan for greater than a day likely had a pretty good chuckle at that, and Roskopf laughed, too, when the quantity becomes mentioned—he and DeChambeau noted it that day, and Roskopf told him it sounded a lot more like 6,000 calories than three,000.

As Gatz explained to me, an increase in protein intake helps power and keep muscular tissues, which would be vital for DeChambeau’s structure, particularly when he’s burning so much energy running on a golf path in hot circumstances. However, is that in shape? Is it sustainable? Rachel Manor, the Director of Olympic activities food at UNC, courteously praised DeChambeau for the consistent events, given that ingesting on a schedule is a staple of an outstanding competitive weight-reduction plan, but took a more “nuanced” view of the relaxation.