#also if you think some of these were low hanging fruit its because they are 👍 i was in the trenches here digging through songs | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thewertsearch · 7 months ago

Text

Second part of the giga-ask compilation!

@publicuniversalworstie asked: Why assume the Horrorterrors would know that changing events would create a doomed timeline? That assumes both A) that the horrorterrors know the future and B) that they don't think it can really be changed. Maybe they genuinely thought they could change things, such as by perhaps fulfilling all the requisite loops a different way? Imagine a scenario where a time traveler learns of their death, therefore being destined to die, and instead fake their death to create the conditions under which they learned of the death originally.

It's possible. But if the Horrorterrors do have a way to trick the Alpha Timeline like that, then they've really been holding out on us by not mentioning it to the Players. Such a revelation would completely change the game - we might even be able to fake the Earth's death.

Anonymous asked: i want to learn more about coding to analyze homestuck better - do you have a place i could start? resources? idk love the liveblog hope you're doin well :]

Absolutely! I've got two separate answers for you, depending on what your goal is here.

If your main goal is just to analyse Homestuck, then you’re probably best off picking a language whose syntax is easy to understand, such as Python. You'll pick up on the basic logic pretty quickly, and the ~ATH snippets will start to make a lot more sense.

If you’re actually interested in programming for its own sake, then I recommend you start with my own first language, C. It’s a lot harder for a newbie to get to grips with, but doing so will give you a much more solid theoretical foundation then ostensibly ‘easier’ languages.

W3schools is a decent starting resource for both languages - but if you need more specific guidance, let me know, and I'd be happy to help!

@skelekingfeddy asked: actually grubmom having the same color wires as in that pic of sahlee wasnt intentional! i based it on how sollux’s game grubs have red and blue wires attached to them

Serendipity!

Anonymous asked: Did you run any mysterious ~ath programs on that computer of yours?

Honestly, running ATH on that thing would probably have improved it.

Anonymous asked: One voice headcanon I have for Terezi is the English dub of Power from Chainsaw man

Honestly, she sounds pretty much exactly how I imagine Terezi does. She even has the horns!

@martinkhall asked: I'm surprised none of the suggested instruments for a time player were an ocarina.

Some fruit is just too low-hanging.

@delicate-ruins asked: what's an animal you like that you think doesn't show up very much in media, be it fiction or news or just generally? example: i like secretary birds. but except for videos about them, i have never heard them references.

They're not obscure, per se, but there will never be enough sloths in media. The only fictional sloth of note is Sid from Ice Age – and he does not do them justice.

Capybaras are also underrated as hell – so much so that LibreOffice, which I'm using to edit this compilation, doesn’t even recognize the word as real!

Anonymous asked: “I’m trying to figure out if it’s fully a Breath outfit, or if there’s some Heir stuff too.” the general rule for god tier outfits is that the colors and symbol represent the aspect, the clothes represent the class. so, for example, if two princes of different aspects ascended, their clothing style would be the same but they would a have different color scheme. @skaiandestiny asked: If you haven't already figured it out, class informs the godtier outfit and aspect informs the colors and icon!

In that case, there is something about John’s outfit that says ‘heir’ – but nothing really stands out to me.

@driventopoison asked: Hey, I don't know if it's just me but it seems like you've skipped ahead. I have been following your liveblog daily, but I haven't seen you come across the windy thing yet. Is this because you were using the app or something? Also just want to let you know that I love your liveblog. Keep up the good work!

Thank you! Anyway, John’s Windy Thing is indeed documented on the liveblog, and it’s visible to me. I was using the app for some of that segment, though – are app-made posts particularly buggy?

@classpecting-guide-official asked: story about a modded game of sburb where the characters notice that something isn't right and slowly realize that their world is a lie

Back in Act 1, this is pretty much what I thought was happening. It was a simpler time.

@ignis-cain asked: Note the colors the capslock flashes for WV.

When WV locks his capsule, the button’s light flashes red and green – but I’m not sure what the significance of these colors is, in this situation.

Anonymous asked: i know i'm SUPER late to answer this, but i think the instantiation thing is the same as any video game, newly made with a prebaked history. when you name your character, that has been their name for their whole life, even though you thought it up a few seconds ago. when you enter the medium, the planet has a history and the denizens have memories, even though they just showed up when you entered.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is indeed what’s going on. The implications are just a lot more wild when the game is physically real, rather than virtual!

@kintatsu asked: So, I know I'm a little late to the party, but I have to point out: Alternian sunlight doesn't need to be THAT much stronger than Earth's to blind Terezi as quickly as it did. Trolls are nocturnal, which means they almost definitely have a tapetum lucidum (eyeshine membrane), which means that however much light entered Terezi's eyeballs? Her retinas were blasted by every photon twice.

Damn, Vriska. For a second, I thought this ask was explaining why Terezi wasn't in as much pain as I'd thought - but this alternate explanation might actually be worse than what I was picturing!

@delicate-ruins asked: It's delightful to see somebody read Homestuck and be as charmed by it as I and a lot of my friends were way back when we first read it, and the calm, digesting pace at which you're enjoying it is honestly so nice. I rushed way too much to catch up since my friends recommended it in about 2016, which means I went from knowing nothing about the comic to being caught up on it in like a week. I never sat down with the ideas and thought "hey, does this mean XYZ?" because quite often I got the answer five seconds later as I rushed to catch up. But seeing you asking those questions is so so fun. Yeah, DOES it mean that?? Guess we'll find out! In the meantime, we get to guess, which means we basically get to have fun twice. It's reigniting my enjoyment of homestuck quite significantly, I think!

Thank you! It’s really nice to be able to engage in a dialogue about the comic through these asks, which is something that wouldn't be possible if I was speeding through it. As I always say, I'm here for a good time and a long time.

@manorinthewoods asked: Alright, here's another transtimeline fun fact. Each of the kids was supposed to have a Quest related to their associated material - John had a land covered in oil, Rose's ocean was polluted with chalk, the gears of LOHAC were gummed by amber, and LOFAF was in a nuclear winter. Ultimately, while the ocean of LOLAR is still chalky, nothing but John's oil made the cut. ~LOSS (16/5/23)

I think it was a good change, then. Not everything has to be a pattern, and Dave's two weird maybe-quests are a lot more unique and interesting than a generic 'materials quest'.

@captorations asked: oh hey, this walkaround! so funny story, i used to run a blog where i posted one of terezi’s canon appearances each day, in order. yes, i completed my task, and more besides. however! when i was wandering through this as terezi, a glitch rendered me trapped. i decided that this counted as a noteworthy appearance, and took a screenshot. then, by sheer coincidence, it ended up being posted on… halloween. it was pretty great (also don’t forget to check out ctrl + t)

You accessed the double-secret version of Past Karkat: Wake Up, which plays the Earthbound Halloween Hack version of Megalovania rather than the Homestuck one.

Anonymous asked: Personally, I think John gaining so many levels so quickly is tied to his role as the heir - he gains so many levels without really trying, not because he's better than the trolls or his friends, but because he just kind of falls into it. The game rewards him for taking the path of least resistance.

That certainly makes sense if we just look at John - but I have trouble reconciling this interpretation with our other Heir. Equius certainly has some advantages, but they aren't exactly unique to him, as you'd expect them to be if his Heir class was responsible for them.

Yes, he's a highblood, but he's outranked by three non-Heirs - and his strength doesn't seem to be unique either, as Feferi seems capable of similar feats. Perhaps Equius will trip and fall into more unique privilege, but it hasn't happened yet.

Anonymous asked: my personal headcanons for midnight crew claspects: Slick - Prince of Blood, Droog - Mage of Space, Boxcars - Knight of Heart, Deuce - Bard of Doom. knowing you youre probably gonna attempt to analyse these LOL

Slick has had ties to Blood since he first met Karkat, so that tracks - and Boxcars is a shipper, so Nepeta's aspect is probably the best fit for now. I'm not sure about the other two, but I'll revisit them later!

#asks #full liveblog #act 5.2

72 notes · View notes

cirilee · 8 months ago

Text

Oranges put Isidor on the spot.

The way they defied Hive regulations.

An obscene fruit, so unashamed about its non-synthetic heritage, so unabashed in its presentation, so decadent, as its blinding hues brightened up the dull gray of McHale’s cell.

Teeyama Averon McHale’s decorative bowls were filled to the brim with them, overflowing. Currently, her right hand is lurking in between, her dark skin contrasting against the bright colors. She lifts up one tiny tangerine and it stops right in front of a face, that is nothing but Hive regulation standard, in the midst of all this opulence, as she sits in a chair, that isn’t just a chair.

It's beautiful, ornately detailed and stitched by hand. It is also, obscene.

McHale is bred for leadership. All soft and sweet, despite her age, and in the middle, piercing eyes that look beyond the surface.

Aryu Isidor Tichy feels naked.

He inches backwards.

His voice is low, “I’m honored you sent for me to entertain you again”

McHale smiles that charming taskmaster smile, that is supposed to put lower units at ease. Isidor is soothed by it, he really is. But something hasn’t been quite right with his thinking for a while. He can’t let himself be lulled into feeling safe, when he wasn’t.

McHale’s eyes seem too large, too shiny. Her oranges too insulting.

“I’m here to help you”, she says and she sounds so friendly and cute, “You’ve applied for reeducation?”

“Yes”

“Why?”

What an inane question.

The minute Isidor thinks that his eyes widen, his stance loosens, and he starts to sweat. He’s not supposed to doubt a taskmaster. Not even in his thoughts. Not even a little bit. No-

“Are you okay, Isidear?”

The pet name feels doubly humiliating, doubly insulting. Precisely because Isidor feels like he’s the one keeping with the rules, while McHale, his Teeyama, was decidedly not, was hoarding oranges as if one could just do that, as if it held no significance.

“I think I might have caught a dissident thoughtvirus”, Isidor says quietly. His thick shoulders square up, cage in his plump cheeks. “I think I might become a liability to the Hive”

McHale doesn’t stop smiling.

Which confuses Isidor. “That’s not good, Teeyama McHale …” he clarifies.

“It's not good at all, no”

She starts peeling the tangerine. Her fingers are now sticky and wet.

Disgusting.

Isidor flinches at his own thought. He quickly opens his mouth again, “Why haven’t you fulfilled my request?”

“For reeducation?”

Isidor nods.

Instead of explaining herself, McHale bites into the tangerine, completely forgoes the bite-sized pieces it's already made of, completely ignores how a tangerine is supposed to be eaten.

Drops of fruit juice spill onto the table underneath her.

The sound makes Isidor’s skin crawl and sweat even more. “I’m not used to tasks of this nature”

She says, “But you’ve excelled so far”

He cries, “Its highly unconventional”

She shrugs. “Its pretty simple”

It was. Objectively. Isidor’s tasks used to be comprised of low level engineering in the field of household robotics. Sometimes a whole automaton. A bit of programming on the side. And that’s it. Endless days of fixing cat food dispensers, and chatting up sexbots, and all in all feeling useful, feeling fulfilled, feeling … not stressed.

But then McHale took over his sector, and McHale, well.

Now he’s getting very specific, but simple tasks. Not all the time. But some of the time. Like now.

She gives one orange a little push. Makes it roll towards Isidor. Her hair sways up and down the tiniest amount, her non-regulation stiff curls like a halo around her head, as she continues to smile. She says, “I want you to eat this … ”

Isidor curls into himself, his wrinkles morphing his face into a near parody of disgust. It looked like he was playing it up. He wasn’t.

McHale continues, “ … and enjoy it”

By now, Isidor is whimpering. A man his age, early forties, big like a boulder, thinning curly hair, and even thinner beard hanging off of him, whimpering. It made an amusing image, and that fact was reflected in the way McHale started snickering.

“I will do what you ask of me Teeyama, but I cannot control my emotions. I have to protest against this heinous act being forced upon me!”

“Are you, a loyal and goodhearted unit of this Hive … defying a taskmaster?”, McHale whispers.

“NO!”, Isidor cries out, because of course, that would be even worse. “No, I- I’m sorry-” As he grumbles out more apologies he grabs the orange.

It tasted good.

It tasted great.

And then the joy makes way for dread.

“I’m not cleared for a toilet, McHale!” He hadn’t even addressed her by title, he was so shocked, “I can’t eat non-regulation food, I’ll- I- My body is designed to eat manna! You know how there’s talks of removing the workers’ digestive system, since- And- Well-”

“You can use my toilet, Isidor”

He doesn’t calm down. In fact, he gets even redder.

Bites into the orange again. Munches quietly. Fights down the little sounds of joy at the bursts of grotesque sweet and sour on his tongue.

–

So. The next steps were obvious.

Denunciating McHale. Make a report with her taskmaster. It was easy. It would be done in mere minutes. Isidor could be rid of this nuisance, could be rid of her in seconds.

But that orange had tasted nice.

And those occasional “Just enjoy yourself” tasks. What bad could they in effect do? Other than make him feel guilty. He wasn’t feeling guilty all the time of course. And during those “fun” tasks he usually ended up feeling rather good. Nice. Well.

But oh. Oh. The Hive couldn’t be sustained like this. What if McHale wasn’t just doing this to him, but to their entire sector!

For the first time Isidor wished he could have comm clearance, could actually speak with his fellow units. Until now it had never turned up as something desirable to him.

“Why me?”, Isidor asks, sitting in her massage chair and not having enough mindspace to actually care about what he’s asking.

“Because I like you”, McHale says.

“I’m Isidor Tichy, Aryu of C-2-4 and most days I clean gunk out of motherboards. I’m not special enough to be considered for procreation, not pretty enough to be a toy someone would keep, not smart enough to climb ranks-”

McHale had been smiling, but now her eyes wander. Her nose wrinkles. “You’re the perfect drone, yes. But with you its self inflicted. With you, there’s effort”

“Yes. I strive to be the best worker I can be-”

“Yes. You strive. You struggle”

“Why thank you”

Defiant sarcasm. Taskmasters were legally obligated to put a drone into the freezing pod for that.

McHale just continues talking, “With you, there’s effort to be the perfect drone. No one else has to try, Isidor. All the other units don’t even think about it. They just are. The perfect drone, I mean”

Isidor’s eyes are half lidded. He’s melting into the chair. He’s never gotten a massage in his life. This. This could be worth it.

“I want to fit in”, he says. Truthfully.

“But you don’t”, McHale concludes. “Just like me”

–

That conversation is what sets him off. Back in his cell (which was perfectly cut to his body, barely room enough to take one step; really, only enough space to fall on top of the regeneration mat), back in his cell, Isidor replays the last conversation.

Then all of their conversations.

And comes to a decision.

He never sees McHale again. She vanishes, along with her spacious cell, her massage chair, her toilet, her oranges.

Isidor regrets it immensely. Isidor also justifies it with every thought.

And in the end he realizes he’s alone.

Maybe more alone than before, where he hadn’t even known of a possibility to not be.

#artificial idiocy #caro tag #isidor tichy #averon mchale #writing #oc #original #scifi #dystopia #queue #heheheheh have my little orange short story

47 notes · View notes

trtyutr · 7 months ago

Text

Attention of the Court V

Ryan lies on his couch, clad on in his boxers. His hands lie on his five week baby bump. One lies on top of the baby filled mound while the other paces the side of the bump that looks more as if it six months along if it were normal. It was the last week he was staying in his apartment before he moves to a small condominium. Then the packages arrive.

It takes him a bit to get up to the door. He opens the door a crack before taking a peak outside to see if there's anyone who would see his nearly naked form. When he saw that the coast was clear, he looked down to see two boxes, one small and red, the other large and blue. He moves as quickly as he can with his over one hundred kids weighing him down. He manages to push them inside just in time for him to hear some another door down the hallway open up. He's safe. He grabs blue box. Its cardboard is that same dark shade of blue as the envelopes. He rips off that the blue tape to find a piece of paper on top of a bunch of neatly folded up clothes. The paper says that he was given ownership of a managed account with $112,500 in its portfolio. "It's increasing by 50% each time. I think I can get used to it. "The clothes are also pretty nice." He said as he picked through them. There was a variety in the selection, t-shirts, fishnet tank tops, to white button down dress shirts. These actually came at a great time, because he down to three boxers, two sweat pants, and a hoodie that barely covers half his belly. He tries on a t-shirt. It's a bit tight, but it fits. It even covers his baby bump. It doesn't leave a lot to the imagination, though. He turns to the red box. It flips open easily to reveal an amulet on a silver chain along with a note. "You only have to wear it for five minutes for our deals. I don't think it's my style, but I want the money." He sets an alarm for ten minutes, just to be safe. He puts it on. The metal is cool, and for some reason wearing it makes him feel off, like his thoughts can't form. It wears off after five minutes, and when the alarm goes off, he puts the amulet off and forgets it. Three days later, he's at the gay bar. He's sitting at a table alone. He's wearing a tank top, a jock, and jeans. He sips his water, when he hears "Can I buy you a drink?" He turns around to see a shorter man with bit chin scruff and a brown leather jacket. "I'm fine with water, but I would like your company." Ryan says patting the seat beside him. "I'm sorry if this is forward, but are you" "Pregnant? Yes. I'm about five weeks along." The strangers face knits together as a few gears start to turn, but soon he smiles again as the glamour pushes away all those bothersome questions. "I was going to ask single, but pregnant is good is good to know too. It's hot." He scoots his chair closer. The man puts his hand on Ryan's leg. "You're hot." Ryan's at the stranger's place. He's peeled off the tank top and lying on the bed. He's being showed a series of strap one. "Which one does Daddy like?" Ryan points to a ivory white eight incher. "This one, and don't worry, I'm loose enough." He says taking off his jeans. "No wonder a slut like you is pregnant. That's even hotter." A condom, some generous lube, and a transman rutting into him, Ryan's cumming into his jock hand's free. "Dear Peers, my game is covered, and our fertile Ryan is growing like a garden, but only with his womb, so I'm going to send him a fruit basket with everything that a growing father needs. Every vote of yours will add your voted fruit to the basket. I have some wonderful Milky Coconuts, great for building pectorals. I have Juicy Peaches, great for the glutes. Heavy Avocados that hang low and heavy on the tree, perfect for making man virile. Long Bananas, which will help his manhood. Maybe Fatty Olives to add some fat on his form. Or maybe Protein Packed Berries to help build his muscle. " (Instead of winner takes all, each vote in this poll will make Ryan grow in whatever you vote for.)

#mpreg #growth #voter's choice #Special Week

46 notes · View notes

fish-bowl-2 · 1 year ago

Note

what are 3 of your favorite quotes/lines from each of the eds?

This has been sitting in my inbox for a hot while. At first because I was busy and going to answer it later, and then because I forgot about it (so sorry).

Anyway, this is hard! There are so many good lines in the show, and that is just from the main three cast. I'm going to highlight some lines that I have been replaying in my head most frequently.

Ed: - "Awww. Kitty cat go meow?" - I think about this SO much. It is so funny. Not only is it a good example of the wordplay in Ed's dialogue, but I love how self-aware it is too. Love seeing him rightfully cocky. He's not wrong that Edd spends most of his time, as my dad would say, "bitchin' and moanin'". - " Hey! Slow down, partner!" - Idk I think it is a very cute reaction to Edd attempting physical violence. It is a very older sibling response lmao - "Shhhh! My yeast is rising." - Lots to like here. Classic line, comes out of nowhere, makes absolutely no sense with or without context. Can't get better than this.

Edd: - "Eddy PLEASSSE. I'm counting the sugar!" - It is so silly. The delivery and Edd's expression kills me. I'm a big fan of the kind of raspy whisper Sam Vincent applied to season 1 Edd. It is very cute imho - "IS THAT THE SUPPORT BEAM TO THE HOUSE?!?!?" - Classic. I also like it when Edd is hysterically screaming. - "...but...how could it be? My computations were precise, rigorous, and painstaking, um. This goes beyond science, Eddy. An unfathomable force sends us a clear message!" - I also like Edd's tendency to go on long-winded speeches. It doesn't have its full effect without visuals, since the character acting adds so much. Edd is such a horrendous liar (same).

Eddy: - "Did you see the sparkle in Johnny's eye? Stop me boys, I'm getting frilly!" - Yeah yeah this is low-hanging fruit, whatever. Does not take away from my reaction upon seeing that episode for the first time. I practically died. - "OH, IS THAT SO? AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT? MISTER I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT KEVIN KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT MY MAGAZINES?" - It is hard to take dialogue from Eddy and NOT think "wow much to unpack". What is his deal here? I mean, I have my own ideas, but I'm not going to make this list longer than it already is. - "Running out of ideas, Double Dee. Think of something that would make me look good." - He sounds so downtrodden : ( reading the dialogue alone doesn't give that impression, but, in the actual scene, Tony makes the delivery sound super genuine, which is a rare expression for Eddy. I appreciate that decision a lot.

#thanks for this ask! so sorry for the wait! college sux!#eene #asks

24 notes · View notes

iamthecomet · 9 months ago

Note

Comet!!!! can you ramble abiut your ideas for the earth ghoul circle?

Of course I can! I'm of two minds about earth ghouls. I mean how cool would it be if they were just from...earth. They're the strange things in the forest, the cryptids, the monsters. They're ancient, emerge when they're needed, take care of, and protect, the wild places Human's haven't yet sunk their teeth into. But also, an earth circle would be really fucking cool. SO! Circle ramblings under the cut, just to save space.

I think the earth ghoul circle is, well, a lot like Earth. Solid ground to stand on. Dirt. Trees. Plants. Water. Life (ish). I think, it's one of the only circles that has real seasons. I think most of them keep the same basic climate year round but this circle doesn't. It has a full four seasons (and all the mini ones in between). Earth ghouls have the easiest time adjusting to the climate topside

because they already live in something simliar. I do, however, think the plants are...well...different. Sentient, in some cases, just a little...strange in others (like the difference between Ents, and the trees in Fangorn that just...sort of....move). Earth ghouls are deeply connected to these plants. They understand them--even the ones that can't speak audibly. Earth ghouls are tenders of life. Gardner's of this strange mirror of earth that they call home. It's a pretty, sprawling, circle. With every sort of terrain you can think of. Mountains, and deserts, and lakes, and plains. Earth ghouls are solitary most of the time, and terrotorial. Staking claim to vast reigions of land and defending them with tooth and claw. They mostly steer clear of each other though. There aren't that many of them really, and there's plenty of space. This solitary nature means there isn't much of a hierarchy on the earth level. There is no goverment, no law, no meetings. This is nature, wild and raw and unbidden and so, when someone needs something from an earth ghoul. Someone else (a multi-ghoul or a low-level demon) has to brave the untamable wilds of the earth circle. Dodging vines that reach for their ankles. Avoiding perfect looking peaches hanging ripe in trees--temptation in its highest form, and seek out the ghoul who's needed. There are myths, spread among ghouls and demons who can cross the circles, that you can't eat anything out of the earth circle or you'll never be allowed to leave. That you will become one with the circle, a servant to it and whatever earth ghoul cultivates the fruit you bit into. But mostly, that's just lies to keep outsiders away. Despite the inherent dangers, and the occasional rock shattering battles over territory. The earth circle is probably the most hospitable, which is saying something about the other circles.

#comet canons #pit lore #maybe it's both #It's probably both #LOTR references because I cannot help myself

9 notes · View notes

sunieepo · 9 months ago

Text

one of my biggest pet peeves with the bloodborne fanbase (from reading fics, mostly) is that everyone assumes that gender roles in yharnam were the same as gender roles in irl victorian england

...but this is textually not true. yes bloodborne is heavily inspired by victorian england but it's definitely not exactly the same. for starters, obviously, yharnamites worship eldritch gods which isn't at all in line with the cultural values informed by following christianity (i dont think i need to elaborate on what i mean by this)

the most obvious low hanging fruit example is vicar amelia, who is laurence's successor and current head of the healing church... and a woman, something that would never be allowed in victorian england era christianity (and honestly isnt even allowed today in many denominations)

the other which is slightly more obscure but even more valuable is that yharnamites are, in-canon, heavily inspired by the culture of the pthumerians. whether yharnam was literally built in the name of pthumerian queen yharnam or if it was simply named after her later is unclear, but the yharnamites evidently hold pthumerian society in high regard. and the pthumerians were almost certainly a matriarchy (female rulers, and only women were embalmed in coffins). i think of pthumerian to yharnam the way one might think of what rome was to the european countries later influenced by it.

other little things are:

the existence of gratia: an old hunter who was a woman renowned for her physical prowess. not very "womanly", yet clearly exalted by the church; item description refers to her as heroic

clothing details: most clothing items have very little differences between male and female hunters. most notable that does off the top of my head is that the church set for women has stiletto heels, which i think falls in line with my belief that most women of the church were blood saints. nevertheless, you do fight a pair of female church hunters in the dlc who seem to have no issue kicking your ass in said heels. this could be said to be due to game dev laziness, but importantly there are sets that Do have gender differences (like the cainhurst set...)

cainhurst: cainhurst is commonly pointed out by fans as the "odd one out" for its matriarchal vibes, so people assume yharnam must not have been. i agree, but that still doesnt mean yharnam had the same gender roles as the ones we have irl. in fact if anything, theres a distinct lack of emphasis placed on gender in cainhurst item descriptions or even alfred's hateful ramblings; although we assign misogynist intent to him, pointedly what he (and item descriptions) take most issue with isnt the #feminism, but rather cainhurst's obsession with nostalgia and bombast.

this isnt to say that yharnam had No gender roles. it did. just Different ones. (and im not saying it was a matriarchy either btw.) the existence of blood saints indicates that women likely were relegated to religious roles in yharnam. women who could not become blood saints probably became hunters of the church. characters like yurie also show that amelia wasnt an isolated case; women also comprised some amount of choir members as well, indicating that they likely regularly held high positions within the church hierarchy. additionally, lady maria being one of the byrgenwerth scholars indicates that women were allowed as students alongside their male peers, even if they may have been less common. all of these things are markedly different from how victorian gender dynamics were.

its just a bummer because i actually think the gender dynamics of bloodborne are super unique and interesting and are way more nuanced than a simple "women and men swap roles" type thing. but then all these fans who claim to be bloodborne loreheads just supplant irl victorian england gender roles into yharnam and call it a day when that is like... at best lazy/uninspired and at worst directly contrary to canon.

i rly mean no hate ofc (ive even enjoyed reading fics that include such things, even if i disagree with them heavily) and im happy to discuss these thoughts further, i just want to draw attention to smth about the bloodborne lore that i think is sadly overlooked because, when it comes to bloodborne and its feminine themes, ppl get much more caught up on the more overt pregnancy symbolism (which is understandable, but doesnt exist in isolation of the above). i have a lot more to say on this topic but this post is already getting long enough so ill just stop there lol

#i could write an entire essay about what i hc gender roles in yharnam to be like #but thats besides the point #my point is simply that i think assuming it was irl victorian england gender roles is lazy #its disregarding the canonical content of the game in favor of only seeing those that reinforce your preconceived notions #yharnam is truly so different from our world for all that it is the same #again. no hate and sorry if this is rudely worded im just very passionate about bloodborne lore lmao #misogyny mention #sexism mention #sunie posts

8 notes · View notes

end-orfino · 2 months ago

Text

Honestly i usually dont care about movie adaptations that much but minecraft makes me mad because minecraft. Of all things. Had a lot of potential. It sounds silly to say about a sandbox block game but you know what I mean, others have said as much, with the way the world works in minecraft we could have a great movie centered on Steve and Alex. And its not like minecraft only stumbled upon this kind of plot accidentally - it has the End Poem in it on purpose, and its soundtrack is often soft and gentle and calming...ehh. this movie is made from the perspective of someone who knows it through youtube letsplays.

Also, I think they not only missed on potential, but also some INCREDIBLY low-hanging fruit - if you want to make an isekai movie THAT BADLY, then use some of the new skins that were just added to the game as the people who are transported into minecraft? Thats SO EASY to come up with! These skins are a fresh addition that not much has been done with, but afaik they were welcomed by the community. That's a perfect way to get people more used to them. There is a lot of them, true, so maybe just-- use a few of them instead of all idk. And maybe make it so that its implied the rest will join eventually too or smth. Either way DONT GIVE US SOME RANDOM PEOPLE we dont give a shit about

#minecraft

4 notes · View notes

totmatsu · 5 months ago

Text

Because I just finished watching the full dub (Before, I'd only ever seen clips) here are my thoughts:

It's pretty good for a dub, all things considered. I do have some little qualms, but its highs are high and its really funny from time to time.

-Maybe its the lack of titles (Niisan, -chan applied to self for some sextuplets or to Ichimatsu by Osomatsu) or just the fact that I've been mentally ill about the show since 2016 and that is heavily influenced (obviously) by the original voices, but the sextuplets feel less close in the dub. This isn't something I can point out that many specific examples of, it's just an overall feeling.

-This is a problem that I think a lot of dubs probably have, but the dub doesn't like to let serious moments be. They often toss a joke in during moments that were previously solemn, either pre-punchline solemn moments or just normal ones where there's some amount of build up to it. Because I like the original, this feels bad from an artistic intent standpoint.

-Characters say things they did not or would not say in the original audio, which is something that also would naturally happen in a dub and I understand this, but at times it felt like low-hanging fruit (easiest example I can think of is when Ichimatsu says he's going to go jerk off to cat porn or something. I don't remember the specific dialogue, it was in the Ichimatsu and Choromatsu skit)

-While at times slang is used well, at other times it just seems strange and is like. No one talks like this. Like the amount of times they say "for reals" out loud is insane.

-Jyushimatsu is played as sillier and stupider than he originally was. This was kind of the biggest bummer for me since as a Venture Bros fan when they had announced the dub casting I was SO hype at Jyushimatsu's voice being the voice of Dean Venture, and he does a really good job, but I don't like the way the character's been written all that much...

Basically each voice actor/actress did a fantastic job but some of the localization decisions (that often feel typical of dubs) were just not the right call for me personally.

Some of the dub's best moments are these really simple things where a character just goes "Okay" or "Alright" instead of tsukkomi'ing, I actually liked that a lot (easy examples: In the car in the second episode, Choromatsu just goes "Okay" instead of "Who are you?" and the delivery is fantastic; When walking Jyushimatsu (in "Tell Us, Hatabou"), Ichimatsu is like "...and you're alright with this?" and Jyushimatsu is immediately like "OH YEAH" so quickly its really funny, and then theres a pause and Ichimatsu just goes "...alright.")

Anyway Totty fan moment, they changed his middle school essay to be more queer and I like it lol

"I want to be a cheerleader, by Todomatsu" Todomatsu: NO, WAIT! THIS IS WAY TOO HELLISH! STOP IT! "Cheerleaders are pretty. Cheerleaders are popular. Cheerleaders get to wear skirts and carry pom-poms around." Todomatsu: I WAS JUST A KID! EVERY KID SAYS THAT! HEHEH RIGHT? HEH? "I want to talk about boys with the other girls" Todomatsu: IT WAS JUST A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION!!! "And then in the evenings, we could sing campfire songs together" Todomatsu: OH COME ON THATS ENOUGH! "And, best of all, I'd look forward to shaving my legs-" Todomatsu: Oh this can't be happening "and feeling the breeze going up my skirt." Todomatsu: So I got a little curious! So what! All kids do! Nothing weird about THAT!

All this said, while I think it'd be cool to see the movie(s) or season 3 dubbed, I'm not sure what they'd do about Osomatsu's voice (Rest in peace, Billy Kametz). I'm cynical and I think if they thought enough money was in it, they'd probably recast, but I don't know.

#mostly the dub just made me want to rewatch the original a lot of the time.#posts

3 notes · View notes

postmodernmulticoloredcloak · 1 year ago

Text

Good Omens 2 episode 4: just collide, you two dumb coconuts

After watching both the Edinburgh corpse episode and the Nazi zombie episode, I can confidently conclude that Neil Gaiman did not wash his water bottle and the mold flourished during those few weeks in which those episodes were written, but I cannot even say it’s a bad thing.

Michael Sheen and David Tennant could read the phonebook and it’s the most amazing piece of media you’ve ever seen.

Speaking of those two, *takes a deep breath* *join hands in front of my mouth* *takes another deep breath* I’m fine. They just play their characters so stupidly in love with each other. I think that’s my meta for the episode. You’re welcome.

I mean, insert something deep and insightful here about trust. But also about how this season is going hard with emphasizing how deeply in tune with each other they are, how they are effectively a couple, minus those little rough details they have to polish still. Season 1 did set it up, but now it’s the whole entire fucking plot. Love that for us.

There’s not much to say about the Nazi zombie plot, which summed with the previous Scotland episode is so very British. I was just thinking about how very much not American the previous episode felt, not just because of all the Scottish accent, but for the very unsubtle thing about poverty and morality. And now the other side of the Unescapable Stuff In British Media, i.e. making fun of Nazis in the setting of London during the WW2 bombings.

Under different circumstances I’d say that it’s kinda a low hanging fruit, and that honestly British depictions of 1940s Nazism have gotten stale, but this show has earned its seasonal WW2 moment due to situation of, you know, pale-coconut-collision setting-up.

(I’m taking for granted that the coconuts are going to collide. Don’t say anything.)

My favorite part of the episode is how Crowley has never fired a gun while Aziraphale has an actual license.

I think I can’t quite concentrate in this post because my family are watching an Italian comedy at a high volume in the adjacent room. I think there might be something to analyze in the scenes in the magician’s shop and in the theater, possibly related to the imagery of the “ladies of Camelot”, but I’m not British enough for that (or, well, at all).

Anyway, remember what I wrote about this episode being about the very blurred line between Crowley’s circumstances and Aziraphale’s - what causes one to be a demon and the other to stay an angel - and, well, this episode just explicits the theme, by having the two of them literally calling their respective colors as shades of dark gray and of light gray. There’s no black and white, so where do you draw the line? What is the discriminating factor?

But Marghe, you’ll say, it is literally said that Crowley participated in a battle, the demon guy says it so, he says he was fighting alongside Crowley, which means that at some point Crowley made a deliberate choice to antagonize-- yeah yeah I heard that. Mmm.

To conclude, I can’t wait to see Lord Beelzebub on earth. Or seeing more of them, in general.

Also, the transition from Shax and Beelzebub in hell talking about legions of demons attacking the bookstore, and the gentleness of the scene of Aziraphale and Nina getting to their respective business, was perfect.

Also, someone give Nina a hug.

#good omens #good omens spoilers #good omens meta #my good omens thoughts #good omens 2x04

11 notes · View notes

randomnameless · 2 years ago

Note

Yeah Sothis was so cruel and selfish that when she won the war against the humans/agarthans she.. restored the land back to its original self before it was ravaged and then screwed off to Zanado. And when she saves Billy's live from getting axed by Kostas or that time when they were stuck in Zaharas and she sacrificed her existence to fuse with Billy so that she could save their class and the people, or when she woke Billy up after the timeskip. I swear Nopes ruined discourse lmao.

Small correction, Sothis didn't "screwed off" to Zanado, she fell asleep.

Just like her granddaughter, Sothis expanded all of her forces and then fell in a restorative sleep, but Nemesis popped up and the rest is history. And let it be from FEH or FE16, we know Sothis enjoys, uh, having a body, being able to move around, party in festivals, etc etc. But she choose to forego this to fall in "sleep mode" to restore the land (and its people? It's still unclear what "humans" like Raphael are, for Agarthans they're not humans, but to Nabateans, they are, so...)

Sothis also shows care, albeit in a tsun tsun mode, for Billy and Billy's students. In Nopes's voiced lines - especially in the jp script - she feels delighted to see Cethleann, calling her a "wonder", seems proud of her children having grown up, worries about Cichol underperforming and shows grief and anger at relics.

IIRC @fantasyinvader already explained it in an earlier post, when FE16 is supposed to follow the Nabatean/Sothis narrative, Nopes is supposed to be the inverse, following an Agarthan narrative/agenda - the endings are reversed, in FE16 only one route ends with the Nabateans having disappeared from the surface of Fodlan, in Nopes, it's the 2/3rds. There's also the sky during the endgames - when Tru Piss was the only route that ended at night, when the others were at dawn or showed some light (Dimitri moving towards the light at the end of AM, Rhea's falling during the sunset in SS, Claude being likened to a new dawn in VW) in Nopes only AG, iirc, ends during the night - most likely because AG is the "bad ending" route for your faction (Agartha), aka Nabateans are still alive, and they return home.

This more or less explains why Sothis is seen in bad light, or supposed to be seen in a bad light, in Nopes - after all we side with Larva.

There's also the tidbit from the developers who wanted to show a more "terrifying" side of Sothis, which would only make sense in that optic, we're Larva'n'pals, Sothis won't save out butts this time, but scorch them since we're trying to erase her and anything related to her... (excepted for AG, again, but the plot follows the same beats because the Fodlan games are nothing but half-assed projects).

I won't say Nopes ruined discourse, but rather the same group of people who ring at your door to sell you flyers for their newest party, and refuse to go until you go to their party and tell them it was the best thing ever.

All jokes aside, I think the Fodlan games have a very interesting subtext, but the devs didn't believe in it, or rather, in its potential and prefered to go with low hanging fruit - make a new waifu, "uwu alone b4u", raise steaks, build parasocial relationships up to 11, jpop music and dialogue that sounds intelligent - to make their game(s?) sell.

And it's unfuriating because deciphering all this subtext and making weird fan theories is still bajillion times funnier than playing those damn games, but even at one point, I guess I'll stop honeypotting because the source material, the one I'm supposed to care about, is just so dry.

#anon #replies #idk if i replied to your ask lol #I like the Fodlan verse #but not the games if that makes any sense lol #discourse became toxic because twitter people and a lot of other circumstances #I guess it'll eventually die down #but I hope it won't resurrect over new games like what I'm afraid of #like Jugdral Echoes trying to be retrofitted in an uwu social system bad uwu #that'd be the worst lol #FE16 #3 Nopes

13 notes · View notes

jazzy-a · 1 year ago

Text

I'd like to get to know you!

Hey @windsweptinred! Thanks for the invite!

1: Three ships I like right now...

Hmm, let's assume this means "ship-ships" and not family or friendships, right? Because, WOOF, would we be here for awhile.

Kaz Brekker/Jesper Fahey from Shadow and Bone. It breaks my heart, it ain't ever ever gonna happen, the book apparently spits on me and rips my heart out of my chest, and it's now difficult to find the kind of fanfiction I want for it... Oh sweet suffering. (I will also always accept Kaz/Inej/Jesper in this equation).

Tsukitachi/Hirato from Karneval. Look, it's NOT going away for me, guys. Yes, I know the fandom is dead, there is 0 content for it, and no one knows/cares what I'm talking about with them. Which is SO sad honestly because I know that if it were just more popular, people would be having a blast with the characters, plots, pairings etc. Sigh... Alas, though, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are DEAD AF... Still, I love my BFF Captains, even if no one knows they exist but me lol.

Lastly, probably Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson? They have... pretty great fics, guys. As in some true 'chef's kiss' grade smut lol.

2: First Ever Ship... Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba/Joey Wheeler) from Yu-gi-oh 100%. Closely followed by Dragonshipping... who.. um, guys, is practically canon if you rewatch it, which I think is hilarious. Like, WATCH THE DARK SIDE OF DIMENSIONS MOVIE. OMG. Joey gets saved by this man and is legit trying not to sob to Yugi over the fact he was in love with his alter ego bahhahahahah. Anyway though, just something about puppyshipping.... the low hanging fruit of it, I never stood a chance. Like OMG, it was my GATEWAY DRUG! Do I see how unrealistic and problematic it is as a grow woman? You bet I do... do I look back on it fondly? It is my first love <3

3: Last song.... Hm. About Love by MARINA. So pretty and nice to hear her newer stuff. And, NO, I didn't find it from the movie everyone keeps talking about. I never saw it, I found this the old fashion way... hearing it on the radio at my place of employment lol.

4: Last Movie.... Lephrechaun 4: IN SPACE! HAHAKJBKJBASJKBD I am watching ALL of them for the first time, and they are so so beautiful. Like...SO BAD. SO GOOD!!!!!

5: Currently reading... Um, like, ALL the family feels fanfiction of the TMNT 2012 brothers I can get my hands on. Can't stress enough that I am NOT shipping this. FA-MI-LY fics, okay?? Family is my weakness! Why do you think I love talking about Dream's messed up family and making my own crack content??

6: Currently watching... Actually, I'm finally going back and watching ALL of Steven Universe because I never did when it aired. I remember it getting really heavy and, at the time, I just didn't have the emotional bandwidth for it. Now, however, I am literally chugging its traumatic plot lines like I'm rushing at a frat house. Sobbing the entire time alone in my room. Loving EVERY second of it hahah!

7: Currently eating... Nothing :c

8: Currently Craving... Not gonna lie. I'd murder for a muffin rn. Oh, and more fanfiction of like... everything I have on my docket. Like...please? I need it like oxygen? On a desert island, I would request food, water, and more fanfiction.

And now for the embarrassing moment where I display how little I actually have on this app. Tagging some people that have been on my wall lately :) (no pressure!): @purplexiasphinx, @crxssingtherubic0n, @turrondeluxe, @synnesai

#OOhhh! I love this #Ask game

2 notes · View notes

stanleysbuttonblog · 1 year ago

Text

The morning after he’d properly woken up– from the coma. He’d spent a lot of the night scrolling through Tumblr and then falling asleep next to his boyfriend. So it wasn’t the most proper awakening.

Regardless, he was full of energy now, and he decided to text {SCEPTER}. He did genuinely want to hang out with her, especially if she was… upset.

So he did.

_hey {SCEPTER} its stanley :) i am texting you if you want to hang out we can do that now

_narry is still sleeping lol i think hell be passed out for the whole day. did he sleep at all??

_he doesnt exactly need to but if hes using his powers he gets fucky if he doesnt :/

And then he waited for a response as he got dressed. Hmm, a blue flannel sounded nice today.

His phone pinged.

-Hey, Stanley. I’m in my garden, s’outside, in the left hand side of the woods assuming you’re facing away from the arena. Just, like, follow the direction the random trees are pointing. Like, the dirt gouges. :) it will lead you there. Maybe you can also see the stone tower?

_yeah okay!! im on my way now :D

He headed down out of the apartments, and headed into the forest. Which was… considerably more floral than he last remembered. Lots of black and white flowers. And blue ones. Oh, and a few sunflowers. He liked those.

He made his way into the clearing in quick time, and waved to {SCEPTER} immediately.

“Hey, Stanley!” She said. She was sitting, hood down, next to a pond shaped a bit like a crater. The flowers went up to the very edge of it. Around the edge of the clearing were fruit trees that were probably ready to be picked. On the right side was a massive stone pillar covered in ivy. It looked like it’d been grown from the ground.

{SCEPTER} had a pile of a few different kinds of fruits next to her in the flowers.

[Hi!] Stanley signed, walking over and sitting down across from her. [This is a nice spot!]

She tilted her head, “Thank you. I made it with my keyblade.” She smiled, turning a fruit of some kind over and over in her hands. It was about the size of her palm and a light blue color. It looked to be partially made of petals.

[Oh, that’s a cool fruit. Which one is that again?]

“Oh, this is- I haven’t named it yet. It’s kind of like a blueberry, I guess, but it’s something new. I dreamt it one time.” She offered it to him.

Stanley took it and held it gingerly, turning it over in his hand. He set it down in his lap to sign.

[You made this? Like, created it from nothing and from your imagination?]

“Well, yes, I suppose,” she said, and pointed to a low lying tree, almost a bush, along the edge of the clearing. It was pretty, he thought, but it had massive thorns almost everywhere. Come to think of it, all of the fruit trees did. “I grew it. Came from that one there.” She looked down at the pile, “I’m pretty sure most of these are either mixes or entirely something I made, actually. Not quite sure, though. Can’t really remember creating them.”

[Huh.] Stanley signed approvingly, looking at the rest of the fruits. [That’s… pretty fucking cool.]

“I’m glad you think so. Xigbar and Sora rushed out like ‘No! Stop!’” She picked up another fruit to hold- this one like an apple with pink spirals swirling all over it. “I’m afraid I can’t taste any of them,” She said sort of sadly, “If i’m right, that one-” She nodded towards the one she’d given him, “Should taste like vanilla, maybe. Half-remembered vanilla, perhaps.”

Stanley looked at it, and then carefully took a bite out of the fruit.

Hm.

[Vanilla, but not really all that sweet, which feels a bit weird, because most of the time you have vanilla in sweets, right? But it’s not like vanilla extract. Which I drunk one time because, y’know, it’s edible. But eugh, it’s bitter. Anyhow. That, and also a hint of just… kind of apple? Like, the apple wetness. But not the flavor. And the texture is like a grape.]

She smiled at him, “That’s how it tasted in my dream. I- it’s probably a bit odd because I haven’t tasted anything except swamp sauce and capsaicin in the last 2000 or so years, but you know.”

[I like it pretty well.] Stanley signed. [Can I try another one?]

“Of course!” She said, gesturing to the pile. “There’s a few of every kind here, I think. Though maybe I missed a few,” She looked around at the clearing.

Stanley picked up a fruit with a bright pink peel on the outside, which he took off, to reveal a green fruit segmented into little crescents which tessellated in a beautiful, spiraling manner.

He peeled out a segment and tried it.

[This one is sour, but also pretty sweet. It feels like how I want glowsticks to taste. Oh! Do you think it glows in the dark?]

She tilted her head, “Maybe.” She lifted the fruit she was holding to her mouth and took a bite- it sounded like a cartoonishly crisp apple. “I can taste this one,” she said, then pointed to a duplicate in the pile, “So be careful with it. It’s a sugar bomb.”

Stanley nodded, and chose to select instead a fruit that was remarkably yellow. It was shaped almost like a donut, with a strange webbed stem in the center that could easily be pushed out. He took a bite, and immediately felt an incredible sensation of deja vu. As a flavor.

Another bite. Huh, the seeds in here were twisting in a kind of weird way. This time, it was like a potato. Crossed with a raspberry. Crossed with a pineapple. Yeah, that was definitely deja vu.

[Tastes like deja vu. Which is potatoes, pineapples, and raspberries.]

“Oh, fascinating,” she said. He sensed an air of sadness around her.

[I mean, you might be able to taste the deja vu, even if you can’t taste all its parts? It’s a pretty overwhelming sensation.]

“Oh-” She smiled kind of sadly, “I think deja vu might be the last thing I need right now. It’s alright.”

Stanley looked at her, and reached out to pat her on the shoulder.

[Do you want to talk about… that now?]

After a moment, she nodded.

[Okay. So, uh. Your ex?]

“Yes. Worse than we thought.” She stared at the fruit in her hand. “I- have I told you I’m a mother? Or, I used to be?”

[Yeah, you mentioned it.] Stanley signed tensely.

“Well. Yeah. I had two daughters. Paphus was my eldest, I had her when I was one or so, and then Metharme, my youngest, when I was three. Paphus, when she was 14, we went on a walk in the woods and met the goddess Artemis. I… I let Paphus join her immortal maiden huntresses- they stay young forever. In retrospect, it was the best choice I’ve ever made, I think.”

Stanley stares at her for a bit, and then signs, with a sort of angry precision he doesn’t typically have.

[You were… one.]

She blinked, “Yes?”

[And you had a child. You– you got pregnant and had a child.]

She nodded, “Yes.” Like she didn’t see the problem with that.

Stanley stared at her, and then immediately went in for a tight hug.

He heard her gasp slightly, and then hug him back. After a moment she rested her head on his shoulder.

He rubbed a gentle circle into her back with his hand, and didn’t let go. Nope. Not fucking letting go, they can just hang out here, together, and be comfy. Because this is somehow just the fucking start of what she wants to say.

Stanley doesn’t need to sign anything right now. He needs to hold onto his fucking friend.

“I-” he heard her say, “Stanley, that’s just background. That’s- I thought that was obvious. Of course I-”

He shook his head, and moved back to sign, but still remained close.

[No, that’s– that’s fucked up. You were one. Mentally one. You– that is what you meant, right? Because I count my age in a weird way too, but– you were a kid, right?]

She stared at the fruit in her hand, “I- I sort of came preloaded with some things. Knowledge of the gods, how to keep house-”

[That’s not… maturity. That isn’t what makes an adult.]

“I- I know, Stanley. I was- i still saw everything for the very first time. I was scared of the dark until well after Paphus was gone,” She said, “I- I still can’t read ancient greek, so. But that’s background. I- I knew all of that. That was my surface level understanding of ‘he sucks’.”

Stanley stared at her, took a moment to look up to the sky and stare deeply into it as he composed himself, and then looked back at {SCEPTER}.

[Okay. Go on.]

“Okay. So. I knew he was bad. I- I mean, admittedly-” she looked at him with uncertainty, “I-” she looked down, “I can’t talk to Xigbar about this part. I tried and he wouldn’t listen. Wouldn’t give an inch. I-” She looked up at him, sort of hopefully.

[What is it? I can at least listen.]

“Well, it’s-” She looked back down at her fruit, “My feelings towards him- [Name Redacted], they’re… complicated.”

[Okay. What sort of complicated?]

“I- I hate him, obviously. I’m scared of him. I want to- what did you say?” She looked up at him, “I want to put him in the ‘torment nexus’?”

[Yeah. Tormentatastic]

She smiled slightly, “Yeah. Well. He also. I- using a parallel, I sort of asked Xigbar if he thought, maybe, [Name Redacted] might have cared about me? Don’t answer yet!” she looked up at him, then back down, “I- I was there for sixty years. S-surely, he. I mean, he must’ve, right? I- I have these, these memories, of early on, he’d help me brush my hair, and- and show me how to do things. I- Xigbar wouldn’t give an inch. He was insistent. But.” she looked up at him with nothing but uncertainty, “He-? He can be the worst person ever and deserve to die and… still have cared? A little? Maybe?”

Stanley thought for a good bit, and then nodded slowly.

[I think he probably cared. I just– I don’t know if he saw you as human. I don’t know if he saw me as human. And– whatever that care was, I don’t think it’s the same as… loving an equal. You know, the kind that… actual relationships are built upon. But sixty years? He has to have at least gotten… attached.]

She relaxed, looking up at him thankfully, “So I’m not crazy? I- it’s not some lingering will-issue-driven thought?”

[What? No. Did you think you were crazy? Like, genuinely?]

“I- I thought something was going on!” She waved her fruit around in her lap a little, “I don’t know about crazy, but. Irrational. Disconnected from reality. Deluded.”

[Oh. That’s… bad. Still bad. You’re– no, you’re not delusional, {SCEPTER}. You’re right. This is a complicated situation, and– at the very least, his stupid Tumblr shows that he’s possessive. And that means– well, possessiveness stems from a desire, right? And obsessive– obsession stems from an interest. I think. I haven’t ever taken psychology.]

She looked at him appreciatively. “I- I’m- yeah. Yeah.” she nodded. “Thank you. I- it’s hard to think of him like- like a monster, you know? I- every time I do, I remember when he’d bring home a new flower, or braid Paphus’s hair, or-.”

[You kicked him in the knee for me. Long as you can do that, you know, when it really counts? It’s okay if your thoughts are… weird. Confusing. Whatever. It’s your mind.]

She gave him half a smile, “If you liked the knee kick, wait until you hear what I did when he snuck up on me in the hallway with two teenagers and a blind Xigbar.”

[Xigbar was blind? Is he still blind? And please tell me how you hurt him. Dick.]

“He snuck up on Xigbar in the kitchen and punched him in his good eye. It swelled shut. It’s better now, I healed him. Anyway, Xigbar shot him in the leg, then. But later in the day, after Sora and Riku showed up to bring Xigbar and I back here, he snuck up on me, yelled out ‘[OMITTED LAYER 2]’, and i- i don’t really know what came over me, but I snatched one of Xigbar’s arrowguns and then pushed him and Sora and Riku into the apartment and locked them in. Then i ran him down like a bull. Hit him with the butt of the arrowgun, though. Life force connection and all that. Then I told him to crawl. Like a worm.”

[Oh, hell yeah. That’s sick.]

She smiled at him, then it faded and was replaced with a sort of ‘Welp!’ expression, “And this was before I knew about the thing Xigbar was hiding from me. I mentioned that yesterday?”

[Yeah, you did. I. Fuck, what was it?]

“Well.” She said, her voice taking that gossipy tone she had yesterday, “So- and I’m saying this lightly or else I’ll turn into a tree- I told you about Paphus just now, how she went to the hunters? Well. Metharme did Not Do That. Metharme stayed at home and grew up and got married, and-” She froze, “Shit, I just realized I kind of left this entire detail out. [Name Redacted] was the king of Cyprus. I was a queen during all of this, by the way-”

[You were a fucking queen? Like. A queen. And you still had to do housework for him.]

She sort of tilted her head and gave a sardonic grin, “Yeah. What a dick, right?”

[Major dick. Okay, so… Metharme.]

“Okay, yeah. Uh. Trigger warning for, like, fucking everything, okay?”

[It’s [name redacted], that… kinda seems to be a given for him. You can go on.]

“I’m gonna tell it like I remember it, and then I’ll tell you how I found out what actually happened, alright? So- here I am, age, like, whatever. 23 plus 3, so 26 I guess. Metharme had gotten married, everything is great! Well one day, she goes missing. And we never find her, ooOOoooOooh~” She wiggled her fingers at him, clearly trying to add levity.

[Yeah, alright.] Stanley said, smiling a little, even though he was not feeling that smiley. He, in fact, wanted to sort of just. Combination hug {SCEPTER} and also torment nexus [name redacted] and also get married to Narry and also see Cesare and play hangman. Just. Only good things. That would make him smiley.

He still smiles, because the attempt was good. Just. Hard to be funny when there’s… y’know. Everything else.

“So,” She said, “I’m a husk of a person back then, so I don’t really question it. I mean, I question it, but what can I do? So I don’t. I just wait until Artemis- the goddess- eventually gives me a brief blessing of will and then I took off in the night. And for a long time, I didn’t really think about it any deeper than ‘she went missing’. But then, I’m like, ‘I wonder if I have any descendants’, so I go to wikipedia and it turns out I have a fuck ton?? I’m talking like, Heracles and shit. He’s my great great fuck off great grandson. On his mother’s side, obviously. Like, I have descendants that are gods, Stanley, because Heracles became a god and then had kids. Like- woah? But- do you see the issue yet? With this picture?”

[Yeah. Cause. Paphus’s an immortal 14 year old. So no kids from her. And, you only had two kids.]

“Yes, exactly. And I’m thinking, ‘these have gotta be descendants of Metharme’. Only I don’t remember her having any kids before she went missing. And when I try to go to her wikipedia page, it just jumps to Beroe’s- that the earliest descendant I could trace, and that’s my great granddaughter. So I’m missing Metharme and her mysterious child. And I’m like, ‘Okay, so it’s not working for me. Maybe it will work for Xigbar’- and I’m like ‘Hey, Xigbar, can you look up Metharme?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, sure doll’, and I'm like ‘cool’. And then I don’t hear anything back for like two days on the subject.”

[Ohhh no.]

“Yeeeaaahhhhhh-” she said, “So I’m like, ‘hey bestie, did it work for you?’ and looks at me and is like ‘no’ and I IMMEDIATELY know he’s bullshitting me, he gets this look. And I’m all trying to give him opportunities to backtrack and he doesn’t. So i’m like, ‘Okay, he knows what happened, and it’s bad bad.’ Yeah?”

[Yeah, that’s reasonable. I mean, I don’t think he’d fuck around with you.]

She nodded, “And like- I drop it. I’m like, ‘he’s not gonna tell me’, so I drop it. But now it’s driving me nuts. So I- later that night- I grab two things of Swamp Sauce and down one and I go wander in the woods to yell at the gods. As you do. But I don’t find the gods in the woods, I find Xigbar’s dad.”

[Oh. Is he… bad?]

“He-” She sort of waved her hand, “He’s culty and weird and, you know, a biblically accurate angel, and he forced Xigbar to do his dirty work for 2000 years while he completely ignored him- but he’s not all bad. I’ve learned to tolerate him. For Xigbar.”

[Okay. So does this… yelling at Xigbar’s dad, how’s that go?]

“Well first I was yelling at a thingy in a tree, and then I realized it was Xigbar’s dad. But anyway I yell some shit that I don’t remember because I was trashed on two full flasks of swamp sauce. And then he unblocks me on tumblr as a sign of goodwill and then we have a conversation, and I’m all like ‘Xigbar is lying to meee’” She mimicked a cry, almost mocking herself, “and he’s all like, ‘yeah, he does that’, and then I’m like ‘My daughter probably got chased by a god and turned into a treeeee’ and he’s all like ‘I’m so sorry’-”

[Wait. Wait. Hold up. Tree? Why-- why would you think she was a tree?]

“I’m from ancient Greece, Stanley,” She tossed the apple-like fruit from hand to hand, “That’s just how it was back then. Sometimes you just turned into a tree. But anyway, so I’m talking to the Xigdad, and I’m all ready to tell him my name because I’m drunk and sad and lonely, but he already knows it, and I’m like, ‘well if you know who I am, do you know what happened to Metharme?’ and bitch goes ‘yes i do’ and I’m like ‘say more right now.’ Ready?” She leaned in a bit.

[Yeah.] Stanley signed, straightening up a bit as if to brace for the news.

“He tells me, that she was- trigger warning for [nickname redacted] shit- Cursed by a goddess to lust after my goddamn ex husband. You know, her father?”

[Oh no.] he signed. He took a moment to rapidly tap his fingers together, processing this information, and then he signed, very empathetically, [Fuck!]

“Fuck indeed, Stanley!” She said, nodding, her air still that of someone sharing gossip, “Fuck indeed. She goes into his room. And then. Yeah.” She said, “And then! And then! She snaps out of it, runs into the woods, and turns into a tree. So I was right about one thing, at least.”

[I still don’t get how… the tree thing is normal. But alright.]

“Sometimes you just feel so bad about yourself that some god takes pity and trees you.” She said.

[Okay. So, uh-- so how do we get. I mean, I. She has to have a kid, yeah?]

She nodded as he signed, “The baby simply exits the tree.”

[What about her original husband? What happened with that guy?]

“I was there for that,” She said, waving her hand, “He ended up challenging Apollo to a thingy and then Mars killed him, like it was his business. Mars,” She said emphatically, “A roman god. Hello?”

[Yeah, I still don’t… get that. I just-- man, this tree thing must have been really normal. Like, who found her kid? Did he know about how she got cursed? To, uh, lust. Not the tree. I take it the tree was more of a blessing.]

“Y- Okay. Hold on. Back to the story, okay? So Xigdad tells me then and I start wailing, just losing it, and I’m about to cry out for, like, the tree thing to happen to me, yeah? Because I can’t take it. But Xigdad, he comes down and he’s like, ‘Hey, take my coat, you look cold’ so I do, and then he sort of half-carries me back to Xigbar and I konk out on him instantly. Xigbar, not his dad. And I wake up in the morning, blah blah blah, Xigbar and I watch Tangled, blah blah, I ask him, ‘What god cursed Metharme to do that’- and this motherfucker-” She held up her hands in a sort of ‘you’re not gonna believe this’ way- “Stanley, have I told you who my fucking mother is?”

[I don’t… think so. No. I know [nickname redacted] was your dad, kinda, in a weird way, but not your mom.]

“My mother-” She said, “Who brought me to life, was Aphrodite, okay? Guess who fucking cursed my daughter, Stanley.”

[Uh. Her.]

“Mmhmm!” She said in a sort of high pitched voice, sounding angry now, “My mother cursed my daughter to fuck my husband! And then turn into a tree! Now, Stanley, it gets worse yet! Are you ready?”

[I. I guess so? How can it get worse?] he signed, cringing a bit.

“The baby, yeah? Name’s Adonis. He is found, by, you guessed it, Aphrodite! And then he grows up, and has a motherfucking kid with- You guessed it! Aphro-motherfucking-dite!”

[Oh… oh, that’s just… erghhhhhh. She. What, she has to have raised him, right?]

“Ha! As if-” She paused, “Sorry. He’s rubbing off on me. But no! She didn’t raise him, she took him to the fucking underworld to be raised! By Persephone! And then she came back once he was grown, and- augh!” She waved her hands around, disgusted.

[Very gross.] Stanley signed in agreement.

“An-y-way-” she said, “That’s all I know so far. About that. There’s only one question left, and I was like ‘Hey Xigbar, do you know this?’ and he went ‘yeah’ and I’m like ‘Should I ask?’ and he went ‘Please no’, so I haven’t yet. It’s just- Where was I during all of this? And it’s like, sure, I don’t want to know, but I need to know!”

[I-- huh. Yeah. I-- I mean, if you need to, then… ask him. Or me! I can also check, right?]

She sighed, “I’m sure you can, Stanley, I do think it would work for you. But-” She sort of waffled, “I want to hear it from Xigbar, if I decide I want to hear it. Finish what he started, you know?”

[Okay. Yeah, I mean. You asked for him to tell you originally. And he lied. You have a right to know about your own fucking daughter.]

“Literally!” She said, “Thank you! Xigdad said the name thing! I- his names not Xigdad, it’s ‘ThE mAsTeR oF MaStErS’ but I’m not fucking calling him that. So Xigdad it is.”

[Oh yeah that’s really stupid. That’s not a name. That’s like. Two titles pretending to be a name. That are trying too hard.]

“Yeah, no, literally-” she said, “I have an excuse to be going by Showrunner- I mean, 1, it was originally to hide from [name redacted], and 2, I’m not fucking going by [OMMITED LAYER 2]. Oh, and 3, [OMMITED LAYER 2]’s not my name anymore. My keyblade took it-” She summoned her keyblade- it was a giant ornate key that was pink. It had a stripe along the stem that looked like Xigbar’s hair.

[Yeah. I-- I’m not. {SCEPTER} I literally date a guy who is the Narrator. Showrunner is cool. ‘Master of Masters’ is silly.]

“Thank you!” She said, “And he only calls himself that because he taught keyblade-ism or whatever to a bunch of people who eventually became masters of keyblade-ism themselves, but that’s like- that's just how it works? Oh, yeah, by the way, I got my keyblade from Xigbar, he said a poem thingy, he’s a keyblade master, he can do that.”

[Can I have one?]

She paused for a moment, looking at hers, “I think so. He’s probably not gonna want to, but like, I can be like, ‘Xigbar, you’re being mean and that hurts my feelings’ and he’ll cave.”

[Cause it just. I don’t necessarily feel like I really have to, but I think it’d be cool, y’know?]

“Oh, yeah, no, definitely. Mine was mostly just for shits and giggles with a side of therapy.”

[Oh, speaking of therapy-- is there anything else you need to like, get out of your system? Any more shit with your ex?]

“Ummmm,” She said, tilting her head and thinking. She dismissed her keyblade in a flash of light, “Hm. I’m not sure! That’s mostly what’s been eating me lately. I mean, there’s the whole issue of, like, being reminded of his expectations of me or whatever, but like, the combo of having a keyblade- a manifestation of my heart, and it doesn’t look like a wedding ring?- and Xigbar being, like, a normal fucking person, comparatively, that’s fading a bit. I was actually able to cook without feeling strangled. Made jackets, too.”

[Oh! That’s nice! If you do have stuff you want to talk about, y’know, I’m here.]

She nodded, then was quiet for a little while.

Stanley reached over to hug her again.

She squeezed him back, and then let go. “The Narrator and I vaguely talked things out, by the way.”

He looked at her with some amount of surprise. [You talked?]

“Of course we talked.” she tilted her head, “I had to let him out of the snowglobe, and then I-”

[I didn’t think you’d do it personally. And I-- even if you did, I didn’t think you’d want to be around him. You don’t like him.]

“It’s not that I didn’t like him, Stanley, it’s that I feared him. But after the first time I came to visit you, check in on his progress fixing you, that mostly went away.”

[I mean. Yeah. Like, you can fear him, and he definitely has the capability to do… a lot of shit. But that doesn’t mean he’s just… going to.]

She nodded, “Yeah, well, I didn’t fear him for any eldritch reasons. If that’s the case, I’d be shaking in my boots from Xigdad. No-” She shook her head.

[Oh. The-- creating.]

“Yeah,” she said, “But then, during the talk, he found [name redacted] not only ridiculous, but also Yucky, and then indulged me in a bit of a talk. Oh, and he agreed to some additional nerfs- which I didn’t end up going through with! Aside from Necrogenesis, get that shit outta here- and said he’d listen to my authority, which had a large part in calming me down.”

Stanley nodded approvingly. [That’s good.]

“Yeah.” she said, “he-” she rolled her eyes, “during my little meltdown that made this clearing, he did kind of show up and tell me I was inconveniencing him?? Which was rude. And he tried to give Xigbar a concussion or a broken neck or worse, which was SO fucking ruder, like excuse me that’s my goon and boyfriend-” she looked at him “I know. I know. Train Tracks, whatever. It was still rude, he did it right in front of me after he’d agreed not to do that. Tried to drop a big ass computer on his head, must’ve weighed, what, 15 pounds? more?”

Stanley winced slightly and then covered his mouth. To hide the small giggle. He really hoped it worked. Fuck. That would definitely have hurt, but also, kind of funny.

[Yeah.] he signed after a bit. [I, uh. He’s like that.]

She raised an eyebrow at him in a friendly sort of way, “I saw that laugh, Stanley.”

[Look it would be funny. Like a cartoon anvil. Right?]

“Except Xigbar’s not a cartoon.”

[He’s from a video game.]

She held back a giggle, and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about Stanley. The name Tetsuya Nomura means nothing to me, and Kingdom Hearts is a place and a concept.”

[{SCEPTER} I had to genuinely believe that for a good bit so. Please stop. Actually.]

She said, “Yeah, okay, Sorry. You should talk to Sora, he’s delightful, and he’s not in denial like Xigbar is. He actually asked for the games so he could play them.”

[Xigbar’s… still in denial.]

“I honestly think it stems from a fear of losing what little control over his life he has. I get that.”

Stanley smirked at that. [Yeah. He definitely was upset when I suggested-- the horror-- that there was nothing he could do. Which, you know. Was genuinely horrifying for him. But honestly. It’s-- that happens. That’s life.]

“Yeah,” she said, “But- uh, nothing he could do about what?”

[About you being gone. For the time being, you know, while we were waiting for me to get summoned.]

She tilted her head, smiling fondly, “Aww, he likes me. Cringe.”

Stanley groaned. [You’re literally dating.]

“I know! I’m half making fun of him because he cannot take a compliment without turning it around. I think he’s scared. It’s kind of exhausting, honestly?”

[{SCEPTER}, he’s not here. Do you. Oh, do you want to bitch about him some more? I’m still really fucking pissed I think I need to like. Do a few things to annoy him.]

She smiled, “Annoy him, huh?”

[Clip a radio out of bounds and make it consistently play a song he hates to annoy him.]

“Hey, careful there. He and I share an apartment,” She said, smiling.

[Okay, well. What’s a song you like, that he doesn’t?]

“Honestly I’m not sure,” she said, “We haven’t really listened to music much. I’ll get back to you on that.”

[Fair enough. I’ll shelf that idea for now. Definitely doing it at some point, though.]

“Um-” She said, “About the compliment thing- lowkey, next time he does it, I kinda wanna just start being like, ‘Oh, me liking you in cringe? I’ll go talk to, uh, Axel then, he seems cool’- and just replace the coworker name. Mess with him. I think it’d be funny. Some of them are dead, but,” She smiled, “You know me.”

Stanley nodded awkwardly. [Yeah, I don’t have the best… relationship advice? I don’t have advice on relationships, period.]

“Not advice, really. Just messing with him. Make him squirm.”

[Oh, well. I definitely encourage fucking with him.]

She nodded, then said, “You really should talk to Sora. We can talk about Xigbar behind his back together.”

[Oooh. Sleepover night?]

“If Sora wanted to, that’d be so fun. We could-” She grinned, “We could play Kingdom Hearts?”

[Wait holy shit. Wait you can summon stuff. What if. Yes to kingdom hearts but also you could summon my game? Gods I wonder what that would even do.]

“Right, because you got pulled in normally,” she said, “What if we load it up and it’s empty?”

[I don’t think that’d… I don’t know? I mean, there’s like-- as I understand it, from my friend-- well, semi-friend-- 432-- there’s an theoretically infinite number of parables. And those are the copies of the video game. So. They’re probably still working. Hm. The Narrator might know?]

“That’d be crazy, though, wouldn’t it?” She smiled. “Uh, we could ask him, I guess.”

[I would like it if my friend and my boyfriend could also be friends.] Stanley signed with a smile.

“Sentences I also say about everyone else I know.” She said jokingly.

[Okay. How about that, then? I try being friends with Xigbar, and you do the same for Narry.]

“I have been trying that,” She said, “I’ve been practicing my utmost diplomacy.”

[Yeah, but I wasn’t there. And-- oh, you tried to be diplomatic?]

She said, “I mean, yeah. That’s generally my first step before being friendly.”

[If you-- yeah. Yeah, but, you see, he’s… him. So he’ll treat diplomacy with diplomacy. And, even beyond that, to get into his emotional core? You have to piss him off a bit. Specific sort of way. Over something he knows is kind of stupid or meaningless in the grand scheme.]

“I could kick his ass at Mario kart?”

[Yeah! Yes, exactly! But don’t insult his skill, he’s… he’s really insecure, honestly. Just do it, and like, still keep playing Mario Kart. Brag about your own skill, but don’t hit down at him.]

“Oh, I know, believe me. I’ve dealt with artist types before,” She said, waving her hand, then froze, “I- I don’t mean that in a-”

[It’s okay.] Stanley signed tensely. [They’re-- yeah. Artist types. In general.]

She nodded, “Yeah. Anyway, I kind of picked up on that during our talks. After the whole computer incident I left him alone for a little while then came back and apologized- for Xigbar. I didn’t do anything wrong there. But next step after that was ‘Oh, I see you’re working so hard, and that takes skill’- you get it.”

Stanley nodded, still a bit apprehensive, but agreeing nonetheless.

She paused- “Is something wrong?”

[Yes. But I don’t really want to-- it’s not-- it’s not something we can fix.]

She tilted her head at him, “Something I said?”

[Yes. But I don’t-- I don’t want to go into it any more.]

She was quiet for a few seconds, then said, “Very well. I- I don’t quite understand what, but very well.” she picked up a fruit that ranged in color from white to blue to orange to red, and nibbled it. Her eyes widened, “Oh! Spice bomb. That, I can taste.”

Stanley nodded, picked up one of the swirled apples, and took an overwhelmingly sugary bite.

#ooc #lore update

6 notes · View notes

infinitelystrangemachinex · 2 years ago

Note

book asks: 3, 13 16, 20

3. What were your top five books of the year?

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin

13. What were your least favorite books of the year?

5. Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko 4. Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse 3. Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson 2. The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons 1. The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

I finished the last three Wheel of TIme books and I've found that series to be overhyped as a whole, but I feel like that's low-hanging fruit for me. And I read a few new releases that were pretty disappointing, but I feel like the publishers gave up on marketing them before even their covers or titles were released, so they weren't hyped?

I'll go with The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan. I actually really enjoyed this book, but the fantasy community hyped up this debut as the next ASOIAF but make it The Witcher. I think I've gotten better lately at tempering my expectations with mega-hype like that, but I ended up getting my hopes up way high anyway. If it hadn't been hyped and if it hadn't been compared to ASOIAF or The Witcher, this probably would've been one of my favorite reads of the year. In that sense, the trilogy almost feels set up to fail. It's a fine story - not an amazing one, but it's definitely fine, and Vonvalt is easily the most interesting character with his loyal, reliable, straitlaced side that serves the kingdom and solves the murder mystery (the Ned Stark side), and his passionate, disaffected, violent, unpredictable side that just wants to protect his found family (the Geralt of Rivia side, though I don't mean to call Geralt violent or unpredictable in the same way Vonvalt is).

However, you can tell this is Swan's first book in pretty much every aspect of the writing, I don't think the female lead POV is the best choice especially because Swan worked in some rapey and Freudian weirdness with her that didn't need to be there, and I was extremely underwhelmed by Vonvalt's motivations during the ending. It's just not as clever or as lush or deep of a book as I'd been hoping for.

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

My MOST anticipated release was def Nona the Ninth (TLT #3) by Tamsyn Muir. I actually lowered my expectations hugely for this book after reading book 2, and after Muir announced there was going to be 4 books instead of 3. So I expected 3 to feel transitory and incomplete. Also, The Locked Tomb series has been getting its own hate club over the last couple years, as is typical of media that lots of women and girls like, but I think it's gotten some fair criticism for being badly marketed ("Space lesbians!" slogans instead of talking about the magic or the world or the twists or the EXTREMELY dark places the story goes to) and for its fandom.

After rereading the first two books as physical copies instead of audiobooks this time, and then going into book 3, Nona turned out to be amazing and it completely took me by surprise. Easily one of the strangest books I've ever read, but one of my favorites too.

#ask me #I also read Jade Legacy this year but I didn't love it as much as most people did - Fonda Lee's writing just got way too stale #but it's not in the top 5 or the bottom 5 it's just floating in the middle #I am not over how bad Fevered Star was though.... but I'll never be over how bad The Ruin of Kings was #that book didn't see a single edit - not from the author herself and not from an actual editor either #But I'm still reeling from the gut punch of The Wisdom of Crowds #that was my first read this year and I therefore basically started this year unconscious it was OOF

7 notes · View notes

camellia-thea · 1 year ago

Note

For the ask game to fuel your writings about Dove

5, 6, 7, 17, 23, 28, 34

You said go ham go ham I have gone

:eyes::eyes::eyes:

thank you, oh gracious storyteller. i'm not even going to check how long this will be before i put in a cut

i went for some low hanging fruit here, i won't lie, but i also think they fit so.

tw: references to vampire typical stuff; blood, murder, death. religious themes (a verse that has been turned into something for vampires)

5. what is a specific, defining physical feature that they have?

dove looks ill, after her embrace. it's something that she doesn't find out immediately. it's a mortal, a kine who tells her first.

"i don't mean to be rude but... you look really unwell, can i get you anything?"

dove wrinkles her nose. "i'm fine, thank you." her voice is cold.

"really, it's no problem if you need a seat or anything--"

"i am fine." the words are almost spat, and she realises how hungry she is. using blush of life took enough out of her that the beast is resting closeby.

she turns to the man, "actually..."

he looks so eager to help.

he only remembers her asking for a drink. a full glass of water is left on the shop's counter after she leaves.

she still doesn't know what she looks like.

6. what quality do they like the most about themselves?

dove is a survivor, she knows. it sings in her vitae, look how far we've come.

she'd been bright, as a mortal, ready and willing to take the world and make it yield. exactly what she needed to deal with the hell of law school.

then it meant she caught attention, her domitor offering the internship in person. it meant that she clawed her way through each task, handled tasks day and night, and fought to the top.

it's what drew her sire to her, she thinks. that she made it, she had the drive, the instinct to fight tooth and nail until the world submitted under her.

it's what got her away from him, the knowledge of herself, her limitations, she's a planner, a thinker, a fighter

a survivor.

7. what quality do they like the least about themselves?

there is a part of her, one that she shoves deep down, that still cares. still cares how others see her, still cares about those she left behind, so long ago.

he lives up the road. she looks just like lynette. so clearly her grandchild. and he is so clearly her son.

dove's nephew is her only connection to who she was, someone she hates and loves in equal measure. there's a part of her... a part that wants to let them die, and another that desperately wants to reveal itself to them both.

she never will; she's smarter than that. but the pair remind her of the morals she once had. the parts that have been torn away by years of servitude and callousness.

she hates that they make her feel human.

17. when were they the most angry that they’ve ever been?

it takes just over nine months for the bond to break, and then, dove is furious.

how dare he?

how dare he come into her life, make things fall to pieces around her, murder her, and then leave?

he left her, let her run, and God had she wanted to run, wanted to flee to the hills because she knew she wasn't safe-- yet

but now she's free, for the first time in sixteen years, she knows her thoughts are all her own, no misguided love or devotion to beings who do not care whether she lives or dies.

she's furious, furious at everything around her, and it feels so good to be angry at them both. so good to be take the table in her living room and break it. the speaker on the side smashes too, and so she breaks its pair.

a whirlwind of angry destruction, promise of retribution; hell hath no fury and all;

she's powerful

and yet--

she's dead.

23. when do they feel the most beautiful?

exquisite

28. what is something that helps to comfort them?

dove prays. a habit drilled into her by her mother, now twisted into something that fits her new self. it sings in her blood, calls through oblivion to her, she wakes with it on her tongue.

we are children of the night, not children of the day. we are of the night, and of the darkness. therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch. for those that sleep, sleep in the night, and we that feast, feast in the night.

34. pick a character that they know. what is something that they do that your character finds charming/endearing?

dove admires amara's dedication to its art. beauty is a mindset she was told once, long ago. seeing amara reminds her of the words, said teasingly, as another woman caught dove's chin to paint her lips red.

amara knows that eyes are on them, as they move through elysium. the way it moves can only be described as swanning between people. the looks he gets are equally spread between horror and awe, and dove realises that amara probably revels in both equally.

dove finds herself firmly planted in the latter, the way the tzimisce moves is almost predatory, but graceful in a way that owned the room better than any rose or ventrue could dream.

that's not to mention the dress, the way she speaks about her art, the comments about the sea. amara is fascinating, in a way that draws dove in like the light of the anglerfish they are admiring.

#feather speaks #feather answers #''dove'' [redacted]#vtm #vtm lasombra #i swore i was gonna shunt that verse in somehow because it slaps and i was right #amara my beloved

2 notes · View notes

wontbyers · 2 years ago

Note

12, 18, 19, 27 👀

Salty Ask List

Thank you for sending, Rae!! My answers ended up way too long/detailed so I’m putting them under a read more to save space <333

12: Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I’m trying to think of an arc that’s unpopular…Maybe Eddie? Just Eddie in general, because I feel like most people either hate that he died (or the way he died) because they love him and think it was a shitty plot for him, or they’re indifferent to him as a character so they’re upset that the show even introduced him in the first place just to die (instead of focusing on other original main characters.)

But I have a unique relationship to his story-line, in which I didn’t really care for him when he was introduced (the way he acted towards the party made it seem like he’s just the equal opposite of the conservative jocks where you still have to conform to his specific “anti-conformist” ideals to be accepted—Lucas playing basketball is demeaned and he’s excluded from the Hellfire session bc of it), and I could tell he was gonna die obviously so I didn’t want to bother to get attached either (even when he had an admittedly sweet scene with Chrissy in the woods.) But he slowly grew on me towards the end of the season until he finally died and that was the very exact point where I actually cared enough about him to cry over his death.

So it was an interesting sort of situation TO ME where the peak of a character’s arc was just finally making you like them once they have no time left for this world. Especially when you knew they were gonna die the whole time and it was just unavoidable, but you still managed to grieve for it.

Could they have figured out a way to drive the Hawkins plot of s4 without creating Eddie? Probably. Do I think the show suffered for spending time introducing a character who was written to die? Not really. It was an interesting/unique experience for me the way his arc played out. Besides, his death is going to affect characters (especially Dustin) in season 5. Bob was also written as a one-season-and-he’s-dead character and I still appreciate his role and that grief was still felt by Joyce through s4, like Nancy’s grief for Barb, etc.

18. Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased?

On a general basis, no, not at all. Everyone doesn’t have the same taste in ships whether something is canon or popular or not. Simply not shipping something isn’t really within a person’s control just like not enjoying a certain food or music style, it’s just down to personal taste. There doesn’t need to be mental gymnastics involved (like being in denial) to not liking a certain thing.

That said, if someone is hardcore against a certain popular ship that is...literally not harming anybody, like for example a super innocent childhood-best-friends-to-lovers trope with two boys in the 80s, and they absolutely refuse to believe there’s even a chance that ship could be canon and are really mad that it became the biggest ship in the fanbase after the 4th season of the show when one of the characters involved was confirmed to be in love with the other…idk they might have some biases to uncover and deal with?

(Anti-Bylers get some help challenge. You don’t have to ship it, but don’t be homophobic. If you just don’t ship it, but accept that its canonization would be a win for gay representation, you’re cool.)

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

People who deny that Billy was a racist abuser just because he was abused himself and was still young when he died. I mean. That one’s low-hanging fruit. But tbh I don’t really consider his fans part of the same fanbase as me even though we technically like the same show…I feel like they’re in their own group that’s cordoned off from the rational world? They don’t usually cross my path, I just know they exist...

So what I hate most about the side of the fanbase that I actually interact with—which is not the racists/homophobes/abuse apologists/etc. More the fans of the party, like Byler side of tumblr? I feel like people vague-blog here a lot. (Tbf nobody’s innocent because even I’ve seen a post with a headcanon/opinion I disagreed with and then made my own post with my contrary opinion, not out of spite but in a light-hearted/humorous way.)

Which I’m sure is probably better than directly arguing with people on their own posts if they weren’t specifically seeking a discussion/debate, that’s just tumblr culture (“don’t agree? make your own post”) but the way some people act like their interpretation of the show is the only correct one, and anyone who sees it differently is obviously missing something. Until the show is complete, a lot of what we talk about and theorize could be proven otherwise, so idk. It would be nice if people were more respectful of others’ ideas. We’re all on the same team here.

Least shippable character?

Ooh I’m not gonna say something easy & obvious like any of the antagonists (because if anybody is shipping Brenner or Henry or Billy with anyone I’m side-eying hard, and I think that’s a pretty popular opinion except for amongst B*lly stans 💀)

Out of the main characters, I’m gonna be so honest and controversial and brave rn and say fan-favorite Steve is actually not super shippable. Despite Steve’s whole appeal as the apparently most-shippable figure in the fanbase (I mean, you’ve got the Steddies and Stancys and H*rringroves and Stonathans—and even romantic Stobins if they exist which I don’t like to believe is possible🤮) And I kinda do like Stonathan/Stoncy in a crack-shippy way, not super seriously, but otherwise?? He’s a good dude and he deserves to live his dream life with a wife and 6 nuggets in the future, but I don’t think that’s any of the characters we’ve met in the show (certainly not Nancy.) I don’t seriously ship him with anyone.

Honorable mention is Dustin, but just because I feel like the rest of the party members I have a really strong ship for with another main character (Byler, Lumax, Elmax) whereas Dustin has his own solid long-distance relationship with Suzie instead of a potentially romantic bond with any of the other party members. So like Duzie is cute enough that I don’t need to pair Dustin off with anyone else, but bc Suzie isn’t super relevant on her own and they don’t have much screen-time together (the s3 duet being amazing but that’s all they have) I also don’t really think about them enough to have a strong OTP status for them?? They’re there, they’re cute, it’s whatever.

I also feel like with Steve and Dustin often being paired together as a platonic, brotherly duo of sorts—they don’t strike me as very shippable in canon because if they’re not in group settings they’re just paired together (whereas Byler, Jopper, Jancy, Lumax and even Elmax in s3 are often getting solo scenes/plots together.) Unless you actually really enjoy Stancy for some reason, bc they’ve had solo “romantic” time, but to me they’ve been specifically designed/presented to not be good together so? Idk idk

#ask games #i am so sorry i went off like this #if u read it all u are entitled to compensation

5 notes · View notes