#also sorry bout the essay

[kaz-oooo]

People are making fun of Jon for shaking Jude’s hand????

This is the first time he’s met her, he completely out of his depth in this scene, he hardly knows anything about what the fears are and what their avatars can do, he’s speaking to Jude because he wants to learn that information (even if she laughs at him and mocks him for those questions) but despite all that he knows she’s a monster, knows she can and will burn him without hesitation so before this scene even starts he refuses to shake her hand.

And Jude offers him even more information, something he desperately needs at this point in time, information she’s dangling over his head. When she asks for the handshake he hesitates — like we see at the start of the episode he knows what will happen and wants to refuse, but right now he needs that lead more than he needs his hand and (exactly as stereo-sys pointed out) Jude is a threatening him, if he refuses again he’s risking far more than just a hand.

And when he does agree he’s not naively trusting her. It’s “fine”, he’s giving in to her terms, not naively falling for her trap.

I love being silly about these characters and calling Jon a dumbass as much as the next guy. But Jon isn’t stupid, he’s quite smart actually. I mean take the table thing as another example. Even Jon berates himself in the episode for misreading the statement he found and breaking the table but the odds against him aren’t fair

Jon is running off very limited information, he has been paranoid for the past few months, probably hasn’t been sleeping properly, Elias is very intentionally keeping him ignorant, not!Sasha is leaving hints and clues all around to manipulate him into breaking the table — of course he fucks up and makes the wrong choice. But, based on that information he made the connection to the table and the not!them entity, realised they were tied and assumed that if he destroyed one he’d destroy the other… that’s a fair conclusion to come to, a little sloppy and rushed but far from stupid.

I could rant forever about this, but I think I’ll cap it there.

JONATHAN ARCHIVIST IS NOT STUPID SQUAD I WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

this is mostly in jest but heads up i might not post official art besides small doodles for a while because my drafts ran out and these past two weeks have genuinely been destroying my mental health so I don't have the capacity to do anything seriously art-related right now

[todayisafridaynight]

WHAT DO YOU MEAAANNN "MID" THAT COMIC GOES SO HARD AND NOT FOR ANYTHING... THAT WAS MY FIRST THOUGHT VERBATIM... THIS GOES HARD. Incredibly effective composition and symbolism and use of values and shadow on the first page ESPECIALLY (I would love to hear what the third eye symbolizes as mentioned in your tags :) ) but. But. But like. Masato being Arakawa's comfort and not recognizing it and certainly not remembering it when he's older... despite how much it means to Arakawa in the moment... owwww owwie

I was gonna ramble about how much it hits home to depict Yoko as non-human because the nightmares that have stuck with the most about my mom were like that But Enough Of That We Get It... at any rate, as always, take care and I hope you get some good news soon!

thank you so much ♪(´▽｀) !! it generally felt like somethin i dont really post (but horror/blood is something i really love and love to draw), so its why i was especially excited to share it and see what people thought: im glad people like it from what i see (❁´◡`❁) ! and im glad the lack of color wasn't anything detrimental- it might have worked better in this instance. maybe.

i dont ever 'title' things per say since i feel weird doin it BUT i guess captions serve as the title sometimes. so the caption 'matrophobia' is really ironic with that whole aspect in relation to masato being arakawa's Everything: on the one hand, it can just be a general fear of your mother, but on the other hand it could also be the fear of becoming like your mother. if i ever intended to go through with a jo variant, 'patrophobia' would for sure be the title with that ambiguity in mind, but (and i suppose in both instances) with this its more ironic here since masato is the one who ends up the most like his parents' abusers- which ultimately just makes things more bittersweet in that moment dont it (´▽｀ ;;;) on top of masato being arakawa's comfort, it's not just masato himself being the only reason: tying back into the alt. meaning of matrophobia, it's also a relief for arakawa in that he didn't turn out like his mother- which, again, makes everything so bittersweet in the end. its like spiders in my brain when it comes to that whole aspect in regards to the arakawa family's history and dynamics...... it makes me insane to be blunt ☠️

ah but yeah ! i decided to make her an actual perceivable monster so people who. DON'T. have issues with either of their parents could get a better feeling of what it is like to have a troublesome parent/s (id rather see wolves in my dreams than my mom on that note- even if they were going to bite my face off ( ´◡` ;;; ) ). i ran out of tags before i could make any more notes i had while drawing （；´x｀） but i do have more and i'll be glad to explain the missing eye bit ! under the cut since it'll just be me rambling bout symbolism ig and its gonna get long (´▽｀;;; )

when it came to the third/center eye being missing specifically, i did it in relation to how the third eye can relate to enlightenment or higher knowledge. definitely just as a result of projection, but its cause all the time when i was growing up my mom would not only assert and act as if Her Way Was The Right Way and that she knew everything, but that i should only go to her if i needed help and no one else could help me- hence it being missing being a reflection of how that notion isn't true (or always true i should say). as en extension, it's also a dig at how enlightened persons are supposed to help others reach enlightenment- yk, guide them. yet, again, in this case, they're only doing harm.

that's all for the third eye bit, but also just some other things i didnt have room to ramble bout last post: i had her lips be torn away to constantly show her fangs since. well. i dont have to explain it i guess: its just meant to highlight the never ending feeling of danger when around her (and the promise of danger). her nose being gone is purposeful too: in animals, the smell of your family's significant and it helps you find out Which One Is Yours right. in her nose being gone- again, more projection and personal problems on my part- it's a way to emphasize the separation between mother and child: 'you're no longer my kid anymore, i can't even recognize your scent'. of course, that's only to the mother: she is the only one no longer able to say they're family because she can't smell that shared scent anymore. in reality, they could very much smell the same, it's just the mother's unwilling to accept that anymore.

i know i mentioned the flowers in my initial post, but her wearing a flower shirt really was convenient since it allowed me to add those thorns and vines. when you have a troublesome parent like that, the feeling of not just being trapped is there, but it's painful- it's not something you can deal with quietly. even if you're not interacting with the parent directly, the thought of their presence or the unfortunate thoughts that come about as a result of having been around them so long are a constant thorn in the side. if i may make a pun ( ´uゝ` )

alright NOW i think i've covered everything i wanted to. without all the symbolism aside, i hope she at least looks grotesque for people to enjoy without the added thought- and i hope i didn't overdue it. in any case im glad you enjoyed it !! i hope you'll enjoy the next comic i get out (❁´◡`❁) if i ever start it and i dont abandon it midway through ( ❁´◡`❁ ;;;)

[balrogballs]

Professor Sir Balls, this is to inform you I got back my grade after writing a literary analysis of your rat fic for class because we’re doing narratives on displacement ATM. Pleased to tell you I got 24/25 and my teacher agreed with me that “Elrond saw a rat scurrying around in the grain shed behind their house and it made him feel like a rat scurrying around in the grain shed behind their house” is a perfect description. Thought you’ll find it funny, have a nice week

Sorry I took 3 days to answer this, not bc I was busy but bc I have spent the last 72 hours staring at it in complete shock and experiencing random bouts of hysterical laughter, thus have only just managed to formulate a response:

1) What the fuck do you mean you wrote an essay about an Elrond fanfic for what I assume, considering the topic, is a university level course…

2) Whilst the story is certainly a displacement narrative, it also contains the phrase “pocket sized Celebrimbor” and features a half-elf having a nervous breakdown after identifying with a literal rodent, so I need to know WHAT you wrote in that damned essay to get you such a good grade 😭

3) YOU BETTER NOT BE TELLING ME THAT YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY CONTAINS THE WORD ‘BALROGBALLS’???

TLDR you are god’s chosen one, the strongest soldier to ever exist, the battering ram debacle is nothing in comparison to this conscious choice, and I am both in awe of and terrified by you.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

ik you mentioned interest in writing out how you'd prefer homestuck ended (though obviously time and money makes that impossible lol), and you touched on it in your big eridan essay at the end, but would you ever consider maybe a more detailed outline? i really enjoy your thoughts on the characters and the abandoned plotlines, i'd love to get a little more of an in depth look at how you wish it went down.

Yeah sure!

For those who aren't sure what the hell I'm talking 'bout, please check out my blog and the various essays I've been writing.

Some of it is contingent on stuff I kind of still need to reread so I'm really sorry to the alpha kid likers but I'm still not totally 100% sure where I want to take them. I'm also going to include quite a few personal preference ships; I'm not interested in arguing what other people should ship or about arguing about the course of action for my dumb fanfic in general. I also tend to discover the plot I want while I'm writing it, which I don't have the luxury of here, so... some of it is going to be kind of sloppy. I'm also a big troll stan so unfortunately the kids are a little bit neglected (sorry!!!!). That said.

So the changes would take place directly after GAME OVER, which is personally the point at which I think the truncation/turning on the fanbase really starts - ships start to get turbo-sped at that point. I'm not even saying I dislike JohnRoxy or JohnRezi, but they just feel oddly rushed the way they're handled in the comic itself. IMO, anyway.

There's not too much I would rearrange during this interstitial segment; I think it's important for Jade to have the experience of loneliness, for Terezi to kick off the retcons by only feeling comfortable fixing her own mistakes. Moreover, there's no reason why other characters can't use her mind beacon abilities to ask John to rearrange the timeline, though their attempts, because they aren't backed by Seer of Mind abilities, are a lot sloppier and come with a lot more unforseen consequences.

But something I would change is that Roxy's deal with Nyx is not to just kind of... sit back and chill in non-space while John does all the work; instead, like Rose in Davesprite's timeline, Nyx puts her to sleep, and when the timeline ceases to be, GameOver!Roxy's memories get transferred to Past!Roxy via her dreamself (which wakes up early), fulfilling a "stealing from void for others" aspect of her abilities, and leads to some important interactions later on down the line.

Also, this timeline's ARquiussprite and Gamzee's corpse (heretofore referred to as (ARquiussprite) and (Gamzee)) need to come along for the ride somehow. Maybe they fall through the sky after LOLAR crashes into LOFAF.

This kicks off a series of retcons, as each troll that gets brought back successively asks for another troll/set of trolls to be brought back. This absolutely RIDDLES Act 5 with password pages, can't go two steps without running into a password page, there are password pages within password pages (which IMO is very funny and very Homestuck).

Meanwhile, a couple other plots are running concurrently - the GameOver!crew (heretofore referred to as (Name)) are now in the dream bubbles, completing their character arcs and preparing to defeat LE. Because time and space are weird in the Furthest Ring, every successive meteor trip that occurs as a result of John's retcons is the first time from the point of view of the meteor, but is a repeating event from the point of view of the people in the bubbles - eg those dead god tier Eridan and Feferi wind up healing the Mayor like seven times from their perspective.

(Aradia) is fluttering her ASS off to make sure everyone is in the right "place" at the right "time" for this, lmfao.

Roxy gaining future memories also means that the Alpha kids get to complete their arcs in a way they weren't able to prior to Game Over. Because what John's retcons are doing are functionally whiting out and redrawing the past, the Alpha kids are also only seeing a single linear timeline.

One last arc, which is running concurrent to the retconned!trolls and their new meteor trips, is that bringing back each successive character allows them ALL to grow a little more. So it is NOT like they bring back Vriska, and now everyone's problem are fixed and everything is fine; Vriska's still kind of awful, but she gets better after Tavros gets brought back and they have to character develop alongside each other, and same when Aradia and Sollux get brought back, so on and so on. Because it's about BEING FRIENDS and BEING A TEAM. They're all still having interpersonal problems right up until ALL of them get brought back.

But as a side effect of this and the questing done by the GameOver!crew, the Dancestors get more fully utilized as foils, and get their problems addressed. As the retcon!team goes through their character development, they start to tear the Dancestors apart, because the Dancestors represent shitty parents who force their kids to clean up after their messes, and refuting them works both literally and symbolically as rejecting their irresponsible way of being in lieu of responsibility, accountability, empathy, and compassion.

So here's the series of retcons, and the absolute bullshit that accompanies each decision:

Terezi asks John to save Vriska, and prevent herself from getting too spades with Gamzee, as these are her two greatest regrets.

Pretty much just what her canon iteration asked for; I don't see any problems with the actions she asks John to do for her.

HOWEVER, we'd get more than just a montage of Vriska's time on the meteor, because in this version of events, we're taking our time and letting plot points breathe. Neither does she magically fix everything just by being around when she's very much herself still going thru it by the time the Meteor trip pops off. In any case, she brings with her some new complications:

Karkat still winds up having to play moirail and keep Gamzee calm. This still ends up breaking down by the halfway point of the comic, because they're kind of just not good for each other, but Karkat's personal shitty relationships are going to become A Theme, so it's important to make note of it here.

Vriska and Terezi don't fully make up on this iteration of the trip, since from Terezi's point of view, she was still actively about to kill Vriska before John intervened; however, we get more hints, now that they have to spend three years together, that not only does Vriska really miss Terezi (which is pretty well-established, given how she can't seem to leave Terezi alone), but Terezi actually misses Vriska, too - she's just really bad at separating her own feelings and desires from her instinctive grasp of karma and justice, a very Mind player-type problem to have.

At least with Vriska around, Terezi's able to nip her Gamzee habit in the bud, but this kind of leads to Gamzee feeling worse and more alone.

Something Really Messy happens between Vriska, Rose, and Kanaya when Rose starts her drinking habit, and it's pretty toxic for all involved, and Karkat is kind of stuck playing auspice. Vriska already expresses not liking Rose much and develops some flushed feelings for Kanaya after being watching her murder Eridan, so "It's Really Messy" is kind of all I can say on the matter. The girls are fightiiinnnnggggg

Dave and Terezi get close again, but given the weirdo vibes he notices between her and Vriska, and the fact that he's really not down with quadrants (YET.), means they still end up not getting together.

Sorry DaveKat likers but I am not one. They do not ever get together, so if you are hoping for that, I am sorry and you don't have to keep reading if you don't want to, it's OK.

On a note about Vriska and Terezi - personally, I do think their moirallegiance is endgame; Vriska clearly misses her terribly, constantly trying to bug her into making the Scourge Sisters a Thing again, and she even expresses feeling really bad about the Team Charge Debacle to Terezi explicitly, before directly foreshadowing how awful Terezi will feel after killing Vriska:

AG: Cause even though you got all these highfalutin morals and fancy reserv8tions, you know as well as me that a killer is a killer is a killer! AG: There 8n't no ch8nging your ways for good, and one d8y you're going to flail that silly l8ttle cane of yours and not find n8thin to 8ump into, and fall f8ce first into the shit ag8in. AG: And you're going to do something t8rri8le to some8ody and wish you could t8ke it 8ack 8ut you c8n't!!!!!!!! AG: And then you'll work hard to win 8ack their trust, and you'll try and try and tr8, and you'll see how hard it is! AG: You'll seeeeeeee!

We know that she starts using 8's where they don't make sense phonetically when she gets really agitated, so it's pretty safe to say that she's displaying genuine emotional distress here. When combined with the way she tells John about feeling absolutely horri8le about killing Tavros, it's pretty clear she's genuine about feeling really bad about the Team Charge debacle, and sincere about wanting to somehow make amends and get back into Terezi's good graces, at times trying rivalry, at times trying to prove that she's trying to fix her mistakes.

Terezi also vehemently denies them having a kismesistude and directly mirrors Vriska's hesitance about all the murder:

GC: W3 4R3 SUPPOS3D TO R3V3L 1N BLOODSH3D 4S W3 GROW UP GC: 4ND SH3 S33MS TO B3 3MBR4C1NG H3R R1T3 OF P4SS4G3 W1TH R3CKL3SS 4B4NDON, 4S 1 WOULD 3XP3CT GC: GR4BB1NG TH3 BULL BY TH3 HORNS, SO TO SP34K GC: 1TS 4 L1TTL3 1NT1M1D4T1NG GC: B3C4US3 1M NOT SUR3 1F 1M R34DY FOR TH4T

AG: On my world, I would 8e completely vindic8ed for killing him! He is far lower on the hemospectrum than me. He managed to disrespect me time and time again, 8ut I kept letting him live! In fact, the amount of slack I cut him would 8e considered scandalous 8y those in my class. AG: I had every reason to kill him. And yet... AG: I feel 8ad a8out it like a lame weak fudge8lood, just like he was. AG: And the fact that I feel 8ad is why I'm sort of freaking out right now!

They're basically two toxic girls who CANNOT be honest with their real feelings, and wind up hurting each other. They need therapy badly, but given the fact that they also mirror each other positively - Terezi feels grateful to Vriska for blinding her, and Vriska mentions she ought to thank Terezi for killing her, which set her up on a date with the dead John Terezi also killed - I think they have a lot of potential to be genuinely kind to each other once they work through their individual issues.

Anyway. We're keeping the Roxy stuff under wraps for now - last we saw of her, she went to go see her denizen, and her planet exploded, and John was really bummed about it. HOWEVER, we are going to check in with our GameOver!crew, although only lightly for now:

Meenah and (Vriska) have fully disappeared, and (Tavros), (Nepeta), and (Feferi) are looking for them because they've got the FUCKING TREASURE???

Everyone else from the Game Over timeline has landed in the afterlife, to varying degrees.

Shortly after entering the afterlife, (Eridan) fucked off somewhere to be alone. Last anyone heard from him was (ghost!Sollux) and him being Erisolsprite, but neither (ghost!Sollux) nor (alive!Sollux) have seen him since Erisolsprite died in Game Over.

(Karkat) is also brooding off on his own, feeling really shitty and sorry for himself. He's always felt personally responsible for everything going wrong for his team, and now that his team is basically entirely dead, he feels extra shitty.

Mostly just setting up that these guys are still relevant to the story, despite now being (irrelevant).

That brings us to the second retcon. Vriska obviously had great regrets about killing Tavros, both pre- and post-retcon, so she asks for his death to be prevented.

Tavros is back.

Vriska's requested fix is a very simple one - after all, Karkat makes mention about how Vriska's always had a competitive streak with Terezi, admiring/being jealous of her ability to manipul8 people; I think an ultimate culmination of that is her insisting that insisting to John that he do a retcon to stop her from killing Tavros - which, as covered above, she regrets greatly - but to do a much sloppier job of it, simply having John pop into [S] Wake and knock Tavros the fuck out.

Vriska herself doesn't believe this will have any unintended side effects, because her opinion of Tavros is still really low despite her genuine desire to make amends, and she's wrong.

Tavros's stay on the meteor has a major effect on Gamzee. I'm not entirely sure how it would pan out exactly, but I think Gamzee would step in between Dave and Tavros, into a situation none of them are happy with. This starts Tavros on a path of realizing that his inability to stand up for himself not only hurts him, but people he cares about (Gamzee, whom he ghosted).

Vriska is mostly uninterested in Tavros now, as the moment has kind of passed, and Terezi keeps getting on her ass about going after him (which brings the two of them closer).

Previous Messy romantic situations are still active. Karkat is going thru it.

Dave feels bad about tormenting Tavros but he kind of can't help himself, especially because Tavros keeps going up to him for some reason. The fact that he gets trapped in an auspice with Tavros and Gamzee kind of reinforces that he does NOT vibe with troll quadrants. Dave becomes MORE xenophobic.

On a note regarding Gamzee and Tavros: while I generally try to avoid relying on Hussie's commentary too much, as he likes to play his cards close to his chest, his note about Gamzee in the Act 5 book is actually significant enough to me to include:

The best explanation for why Gamzee says he's scared of Vriska, in my opinion, is this: he's flat-out lying. It's a good way for him to maintain his cover as 'Soft Gamzee.' It also provides some ammunition for those who, against all sense of good taste and judgment, want to continue to believe and assert that Gamzee is a decent guy with sensitive emotions and vulnerabilities before he undergoes his Muderstuck awakening. He was none of those things, ever.

Hussie likes to play coy, and you can't really trust anything he says after Act 6 because he's fed up with the fandom, but I think this comment comes early enough, and is made assertively enough, that it can be taken at face value. I know that "Soft Gamzee" is actually extremely popular in the fandom, so this may be controversial, but I do think there's more evidence for him being kind of nasty and manipulative than not, and having that always be a part of him brings more cohesiveness to his character. For example, he seems to have a pale crush on Karkat, trying to assert that Karkat is his best friend and changing the topic when Sollux gets brought up and he recognizes Karkat is closer to Sollux than him, and if you read his first log with Terezi as if he's hiding being nasty under a soft veneer, then his comments do read as pretty passive-aggressive.

TC: yOu KnOw HoW iT iS wItH fAmIlY. GC: NO, NOT R34LLY! GC: 4DURRRR DURR DURP TC: Oh YeAh... ... TC: I sPaCeD oUt, DiD yOu KnOw HoW bEaTuFuL tHe SoUnD oF tHe OcEaN iS? TC: hAvE yOu EvEr EvEn SeEn ThE oCeAn? TC: oR i MeAn SmElLeD iT... TC: SoRrY. GC: >:[

Maybe most damningly, his narration calls dealing with Eridan's genuine emotional distress "indulge emotional theatrics," an implication of his true feelings. Karkat and Eridan are heavily foreshadowed to be moirails, and Gamzee seems to have a pale crush on Karkat. What does Gamzee do in this conversation? He chases Eridan away from comforting Karkat - using the same excuse as he uses to avoid dealing with Vriska.

CA: put kar on TC: UuUuH, i cAn't rEaLlY ThInK AbOuT InTeRvEnInG, tHe bLaCk fRoWnInG MoThErFuCkEr kInDa sCaReS Me

Moreover, he does NOT seem to like Jack comforting Karkat instead, either.

THIS IS NOT TO SAY I DON'T THINK GAMZEE ALSO DESERVES A SHOT AT KINDNESS AND REDEMPTION. Gamzee is clearly a very troubled youth, between his absentee lusus, his indoctrination into a fundie doomsday cult, and his sopor usage. The fact that having his faith shattered by Dave makes him snap implies that, one, he was already unstable and teetering on the edge, and having his faith fucked with was the last straw, and two, that until he lost that last shred of hope, he was still pretending to be nicer than he was for a reason, and given that his LE worship doesn't start up until after the snappage, I think it can be extrapolated that that reason is that he genuinely wants to get along with his friends.

Given that Gamzee's issues largely stem from his neglectful lusus, it's not a stretch to say that Gamzee does not take well to abandonment and isolation. So here's kind of where Tavros comes in:

Gamzee mentions that he feels "So aT ChIlL WiTh yOu" while talking to Tavros, and Tavros reciprocates the friendship and also - interestingly - acknowledges Gamzee's religion, calling it beautiful even if he doesn't necessarily believe in it. I call it interesting because Karkat's inability to do so is explicitly one of the reasons their moirallegiance broke down. Moreover, in their first conversation together, Gamzee explicitly praises Tavros for his "gumption" for stealing his clown nose, when Tavros's avoidance of his problems is one of his biggest personal issues. So yeah, personally, I'm all for moirallegiance.

But Tavros started ghosting him after Gamzee offered to make out a little, another symptom of his avoidance issues. I'm sure that, even in this meteor trip, the fact that Gamzee killed Equius and Nepeta really scares him. In his conversation with Terezi, Terezi outright says "NO WOND3R V4NT4S C4NT ST4ND YOU"; Equius is constantly yelling at him; lots of people on their team seem to genuinely just sort of dislike him.

CG: MIRACLES ARE LIKE POOP STAINS ON GOD'S UNDERWEAR. TA: eheheh makiing fun of people2 reliigiion2 i2 the be2t thiing two do.

So having one of the few people he does really like also ghost him probably did... bad things to his mental health. Especially so when said person wound up dead. But now that he isn't dead, I think they have a shot - they just need to address their personal problems. Tavros with his avoidance, and Gamzee with his resentment toward the world, and reliance on substances and religion to take the edge off. In this meteor iteration, that doesn't quite happen - their toxic auspicetism succeeds in letting them air out their dirty laundry to the audience, but doesn't bring full reconciliation.

In any case, this meteor trip is fairly short, and uneventful from the dream bubbles side, although I do think Tavros should get a talking-to from (Tavros) about real self-esteem and self-worth.

Still, being back in contact with Tavros again, even if in kind of a messed-up way, does make Gamzee start to reconsider some of his past actions. This brings us to:

Gamzee Asks for Equius and Nepeta back.

Gamzee's not as nice as he lets on, but he does genuinely care about his teammates, and for the people he really cares about, like Karkat or Tavros, I think he's willing to stick his neck out. Bringing back Nepeta and Equius is more for Tavros than himself, really, because Tavros is scared of him for doing that, and he motherfuckin' misses Tavros, okay? John mostly agrees because he's kind of scared of Gamzee.

Some really fun stuff starts happening this go around.

The Gamzee-Tavros situation becomes resolved because this time, Equius steps in as an auspice between Tavros and Dave, and this auspicetism is COMPLETELY HEALTHY (with the bonus of being extremely funny, and what is the point of a Homestuck ship if it is not deeply funny).

Gamzee and Tavros are able to enter into a totally healthy moirallegiance once the auspicetism builds up Tavros's self-confidence, much to Karkat's relief.

Being stuck in the auspicetism makes Dave go crawling back to Terezi on his hands and knees. I'm sorry, Terezi. I'll do anything if you take me back. Just don't let me die as the guy stuck in a threesome with the two worst trolls. Dave has overcome his xenophobia.

Dave and Terezi becoming official does make Karkat sad, however, so when Nepeta finally works up the courage to confess to him, he accepts the offer to date her, thus fulfilling Jaspersprite's musing that she might only be able to date him after she dies.

They also break up. We're keeping up this trend of Karkat and his disastrous relationships. He's still involved in the Rose/Kanaya/Vriska drama, too.

With GamTav and Dave/Tavros/Equius cinched, Tavros and Vriska reach a sort of truce with each other. Not really friends, since they kind of still dislike each other, but Vriska would genuinely be glad to see Tavros getting more actually confident, and muster up the energy to genuinely apologize for almost killing him, so there's a sort of mutual respect there now. Vriska and Terezi are even closer because of this, but still not fully over their problems.

On the topic of the Dave/Tavros/Equius auspicetism: Dave still can't stop bothering Tavros, but the lewdness of it sets Equius off, so he feels like he has to intervene. Dave also can't stop himself from bothering Equius, which ALWAYS BACKFIRES, and since Tavros has a weird fondness/rivalry with Dave, he'd find it within himself to ask Equius to back off (which would work, because of Equius's... Equius). And every time Equius gets too overbearing toward Tavros, Dave feels COMPELLED to intervene, because he's like, my fucking god, you are the two worst trolls, why must weirdos fight. Dave desperately wants out, but he can't stop staring at these two.

And weirdly enough, it's beneficial for all of them. With two people to yell at him for being weird, Equius becomes less weird. With a rival in Dave and more contact with Equius, Tavros becomes more confident. And Dave has two people to rap against and feel good about his art with, something he more or less had to deal with alone during previous trips.

On the topic of Karkat and Nepeta, there are quite a few implications that they wouldn't necessarily work out. For citations, let me just link my Nepeta essay, where I go over what the comic says about their relationship from a storytelling perspective; here, I'll talk about their relationship from a more interpersonal perspective.

Karkat's signals are mixed as fuuuuuuck. While I don't necessarily think this will be an issue for Nepeta, as - as a Heart player - she's preternatually gifted at understanding motivations, the thing is... I think Nepeta can do better, and deserves better, a sentiment echoed by Jasprosesprite^2. She certainly deserves better than being second to Terezi, at the very least, even if she states she likes his outbursts.

And the thing is, Karkat is pretty explicit about saying that he doesn't return her feelings; in a world where they date, there's always going to be a sense that she's his second choice. And, just... my girl deserves better, okay? Moreover, while he respects her personhood, he's also pretty nasty to her when he DOES talk to her, implying he doesn't necessarily respect her choices. And also, she's actually really bad at shipping, so there will be this extremely weird tension of like... a hobbyist vs. a professional. I don't think Karkat would be able to stop himself from mocking some of her shipping choices if she ever opened up to him about that.

But I think them getting together is important for Nepeta, developmentally - I talk about this in my essay for her, but shipping is something I think she does need to outgrow, since it's kind of a replacement she's using for her loneliness. Moreover, I say in that essay that the issues she has in her moirallegiance with Equius warrant relationship counselling - and that's what Karkat is uniquely qualified to dispense, as the team's Blood player. Although they end up not working out, Nepeta would take several valuable lessons from this relationship - that she's kind of bad at shipping, that Equius is being kind of a shithead to her, and that she needs to start making friends with other people.

Now then. We're finally getting into some drama in the bubbles.

Please imagine for me Equius and Horuss talking, and Equius being aghast at the way Horuss is so derisive towards his matesprit and moirail. Now imagine him pulling a mic out of nowhere and rapping at him about how his problem is that he does not respect his partners. Now imagine Tavros and Dave joining in, also out of nowhere, with Tavros adding bars about how the hemospectrum is, not a good thing, he thinks. And Dave adding bars about how he does not have a fucking dog in this race. He's not even a troll. He doesn't understand their hemospectrum. Let him out of here. The fine fucking art of Alternian slam poetry. I think Horuss would start crying. So would I if three people including my grandkid started rapping at me.

Nepeta's uncanny emotional acumen leads to her wanting to befriend Damara, but being unable to speak her language.

GameOver!crew is up to something, IDK, probably showing (Tavros) inspiring people and rebuilding the ghost army, to tell a parallel story to Tavros becoming more genuinely self-confident.

We check in with the Alpha kids, too, who have some group therapy sessions led by Roxy.

Vriska and Tavros confront Rufioh together, a final culmination of their no-longer-enemiesship, and together, they steal Rufioh's ones. Like, Tavros starts speak1ng w1th ones, something he always had in him, and they also roast Rufioh so badly that he stops speaking in ones. But the way it's presented to the audience, Vriska outright just says that Tavros should steal his ones. And Tavros does. This carries over to successive retcons, as it's implied that Tavros just kind of starts naturally being more confident as healthy relationships are established sooner and sooner.

Anyway, a final note about Equius - his problems are mostly due to being sheltered. Although he is probably the most casteist highblood, he's not really that casteist, as what's really going on is just that he's got a BDSM kink. But because he's sheltered, he does not realize that it's a kink. And a fetishist who does not realize that they're a fetishist has more power than God.

His protectiveness of Nepeta does come from a good place; preventing her from playing FLARP was actually in her best interest, given what happens to people who play FLARP. But he's very much going overboard with it, likely an extension of his own lack of understanding of how much sheltering is good and how much becomes detrimental. What he really needs is for someone to point it out to him, which I think he gets via Nepeta or via Karkat, and then have a reaaaaally long think about it. He's genuinely a polite and helpful soul, who doesn't WANT to make people uncomfortable. The auspicetism is very good for him in this regard, as is his moirallegiance once Karkat talks him and Nepeta through their issues.

The point is, once he's forced to reckon with the fact that the degeneracy is coming from inside the house, I think he'd have a LOT of regrets about the way he treated Aradia. Which leads us to:

Whoops That Robot Thing Was Really Inappropriate Huh

Equius approaches John to ask him to make Past!Equius reconsider the Aradiabot Thing. John's getting kind of impatient with all these trolls who keep asking him to go back through time, but given that everyone seems a little happier each time, he can't help but agree.

So he goes back to the past, before Equius can give Aradia her robot body with the love chip in it, and something really fun gets to happen here: first of all, Equius's Void status makes him really hard to place, so John winds up missing by a bit, time-wise, so Aradia's already in the body. This is the first time that retconning!John and Aradia have been in the same place together, and when she meets him and finds out that he can time travel without causing paradoxes, she demands (with her Aradiabot deathmurderkill intensity) to be taken back in time to before she died.

John's retcon powers explicitly ignore the usual rules of paradox space - he describes it as a "fresh start". Given that Breath is associated with choices and freedom, his retcon powers are kind of the ultimate culmination of his abilities as a breath player. Although doomed timelines can and will still result from paradoxes caused by players when John isn't there, anything he directly interferes with is totally a-okay.

So all Aradiabot asks him for is passage back in time, in order to sanction her interference in the past. After she dismisses him, she still more or less has to adhere to events in the original timeline, for two reasons - the first being that she doesn't want to risk a new doomed timeline, and the second so she can keep the timeline predictable.

So even though she's basically asked for passage to the time period before SGRUB, it's basically outright stated that the progression of events has to be more or less the same, up until the point where John's other retcons take place. So here are the cascading effects of Aradiabot preventing her own death:

Aradiabot takes Aradia's place in the Team Charge debacle, being blown up/"killed" (as a sprite) by Sollux's eye beams, so that she can take Aradia's place as Doc Scratch/the Handmaiden's servant and "carry out" their orders.

Meanwhile, Aradia seeks refuge with Equius, whose void powers keep her hidden from Doc Scratch's omnipotence.

Because Sollux never actually killed Aradia, and Aradia communicates with him via Equius's account, Sollux is less depressed and self-loathing. He no longer predicts a future where all of them die and he has to be blinded. It's left deliberately vague whether this future comes to pass because he's less pessimistic, so his Mage powers are calling a happier future into being, or if his future changed, so his Mage powers are prophesying something new.

Nepeta starts regaining memories of alternate timelines and past retcons, as an extension of her Rogue of Heart powers. This includes the relationship counselling she received from Karkat.

Between Nepeta and Aradia yelling at him, Equius's character development starts sooner, so he's squared away for future events, and ends up not making the creepy Aradiabot, making a non-creepy one instead.

Aradia and Equius do not strike up a relationship, and become uneasy enemies/friends.

Aradia secretly god tiers well in advance of Jack's arrival, and meets him at Derse rather than awakening on her crypt there.

Aradia and Sollux continue a loving matespritship, leading to Sollux settling into a moirallegiance with Feferi. He's devastated when she dies, which still happens along with the rest of Eridan's freakout; Aradiabot doesn't intervene because she's needed for:

Aradiabot winds up being the one to sacrifice herself piloting the meteor, allowing Sollux to stay with the rest of the team when he meets up with Aradia, (Aradia), and (Sollux) at the Green Sun. Aradiabot winds up with the GameOver!crew.

With the 1337 hackers back in commission, Sollux and Roxy are able to establish a server connection with each other, allowing them to communicate during the 3-year meteor trip.

Aradia involves herself in the Rose/Kanaya/Vriska Mess, and I kind of can't decide what I like better - a vascillatory pitch/flush threeway between Rose, Kanaya, and Vriska, now that Vriska's near the end of her character development, with Aradia serving as a stabilizing force as Kanaya's on-again off-again moirail, or Aradia stepping in as an auspice. Either way, it's out of Karkat's hands.

This has a knock-on effect of finally giving Vriska the chance to fully make amends with Aradia, which winds up cinching the Vriska/Terezi moirallegiance. The scourge sisters are back baybee. And between a healthy moirallegiance for Terezi and a healthy moirallegiance for Gamzee, I think pitch Terezi/Gamzee could work as a healthy ship this time around. I'm not married to it, but they did always seem to hate each other well before SGRUB.

Nepeta has LEARNED HER LESSON regarding dating Karkat, so that does not happen.

Karkat now has no quadrants. He winds up desperately throwing himself at Sadstuck Sollux to try and help him get over his breakup. It's not a good look. Sadkat. He also takes up talking to the alpha kids for emotional support, which puts them off, too. Still gives really good relationship advice. He's clearly one of the more unstable members of the retcon!crew at this point.

We're light on the dream bubble drama this time around because of how MUCH is happening for the retcon!crew, but there's going to be a reference in there of Nepeta learning East Beforan.

SO. NOTES TIME.

Aradia expresses outright that she hated the feeling that she was set up and that she wishes someone would have stopped her from being so reckless. And although she seems to find some satisfaction in being the stewardess of the afterlife, there's clearly some resentment there that she's been forced into that role, as she expresses that what she's really looking forward to is watching it all break apart. There's also kind of an orphaned plot thread where Aradia is spending a lot of time in the afterlife putting knowledge together, which never really directly pays off except to the audience, and I think a really good way to bring that back in would be for her to be communing with (Aradia) in the dream bubbles in order to make sure the timeline flows as smoothly as possible.

As for Aradia/Kanaya - they're actually really good friends, and Aradia expresses that she's flattered that Kanaya wants to talk to her so much. There is a tone here that matches the way Vriska thinks about Kanaya when Kanaya is still ostensibly Vriska's moirail, and Kanaya herself admits to being attracted to people who are reckless. In fact...

AA: i just wish AA: back when i was behaving recklessly AA: i had s0me0ne t0 tell me t0 st0p listening AA: even if i ended up ign0ring their advice AA: it w0uld have been nice

GA: It Must Be A Certain Madness Im Afflicted By GA: To Orbit Those More Reckless And Dangerous Than I And More Daring For It GA: I Guess I Want To Help Them But They Never Can Be Helped It Seems

So I'm just kind of saying... Aradia and Kanaya moirallegiance... is not entirely unfounded. And a moirail stabilizes a troll's other relationships; if we have a moirail for Kanaya and a moirail for Vriska, then the Mess that is whatever's going on with Kanaya, Vriska, and Rose would probably resolve itself, I think. Either way, Rose is surrounded by SUCH a girl's night of emotional support to help her with sobriety now.

As for whatever's going on between her and Equius, I tend to believe the comic when it tells me relationships don't work out, and Aradia expresses regret for kissing him during the Ministrife. I think they could be good vitriolic frenemies, though.

Okay, onto Sollux.

In the same panel where Eridan and Karkat are implied to be "hatched for each other" pale-wise, Feferi and Sollux are foreshadowed in the same way:

They also spend a LOT OF TIME curled up in a pile together talking about their feelings, which we don't see with matesprits, but we DO see with moirails. Nepeta and Equius do the same thing, and they are kind of THE moirails. So I think Sollux and Feferi were always meant to be pale, but because Aradia died, Sollux wound up taking Feferi on as a matesprit instead. Between EriFef, SolFef, and GamTav, people getting flushed and pale feelings entangled is like, a Running Thing, so it's not really surprising to me.

Now, here's the thing. We already know that Sollux likes to cope with a rebound, since he went flushed with Feferi after Aradiabot exploded and was presumed dead. And Karkat cares very fucking much about Sollux, to the point where Gamzee speculates that he's actually Karkat's best friend, and Karkat even calls him that (although Karkat also kind of just calls anyone his best friend, lol).

CG: GAMZEE WAS MY VERY GOOD FRIEND, WHO WAS THIS GOOFY LOVEABLE BULLSHIT CLOWN UNTIL HE WENT PSYCHO AND KILLED SOME PEOPLE. I LIKED HIM A LOT. CG: I DON'T KNOW, I GUESS MY BEST FRIEND IS REALLY JUST THE GUY WHO I HAPPEN TO BE FEELING MOST SENTIMENTAL TO AT THE MOMENT, IS THAT A FUCKING CRIME.

This crab's got so much love in him. In any case, I mostly just want to keep sticking Karkat in these extremely unhealthy relationships for a while. It makes it sweeter when he finally winds up with Eridan LIKE HE WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO... but yeah.

Cross-session communication is also entirely possible, as Sollux set up chat clients between the trolls and the kids in the first place, and even without that, Kanaya found Rose's old GameFAQs on a server in the Furthest Ring. With both Sollux and Roxy on the case, there's no way they can't somehow establish communications way sooner.

Regarding Nepeta regaining her memories, let me once more point you towards the Nepeta essay. She's on track to become the one who attains Ultimate Selfhood, and comforts people like Jade and John about not really knowing their friends or being lonely.

But yeah, obviously Sollux asks for Feferi to be brought back.

F-EF-ERI!!!! 38D

Mostly Sollux just asks to be prevented from provoking Eridan so harshly. Eridan still winds up blowing up the matriorb, and thus, still getting killed by Kanaya in retribution, but this means that Eridan is now the only member of the team left dead.

PITCH FEFNEP. PITCH FEFNEP. PITCH FEFNEP

Pitch FefNep leads to Feferi letting slip something casteist where Sollux can hear; he doesn't personally care because he's heard much worse, but puts them on a break while she sorts herself out. They get back together after that.

Karkat alone :'( he's mostly just talking to the alpha kids at this point, trying to hide from all the happy fucking relationships happening all around him.

If the last retcon was really heavy on the retcon!crew, then this one is much more about what's happening in the bubbles. We get most of our dancestor development this go around. Do not read if you like the dancestors! I go very in-depth about how most of them are horrible people on purpose here, so their arcs are mostly about them being pulled up on their abject awfulness.

Nepeta, who has learned East Beforan, is able to talk to Damara and have an earnest heart-to-heart with her about how awfully she was treated. They hug and cry. Damara, finally validated, gives everyone a big middle finger.

Feferi heals Mituna's brain injury, because literally why the FUCK has nobody else done that. Now once more in control of his faculties, he breaks up with Latula, pissed off that she took advantage of him all those eons to boost her own ego. He also gives everyone a big middle finger. Damara steals her skateboard and high fives Mituna.

Porrim's basically the only dancestor who grew as a person so I think she mostly escapes unscathed.

Latula gets chased around by Sollux and Aradia, who basically just bully her for being bad at games. This is a date to them.

Gamzee completely refutes Kurloz, with his newfound clarity about the real miracle being friendship and the real dark carnival being the world he and his friends will build, not that LE noise.

In a double team between Terezi and Rose, Meulin gets eviscerated for the way her own Issues have made her ships deliberately awful, that she could have simply Not, and she has a bit of a breakdown.

As Feferi is grappling with her privilege and internalized casteism, Cronus wanders up to try and hit on her, and she goes "oh my god... when people look at me, are you what they see? A friendless loser that nobody likes? A total waste of seawater who's only pretending to be cool with the lower castes? A totally fake poser? 38(" Cronus just goes "..." and starts crying and Feferi ends the convo oblivious to that, just going "wow... thanks for talking with me! really gave me a lot to think about" imagine how funny it would be -

Karkat finds and talks to (Eridan), where he fully admits to missing the guy. His mopiness is so extreme that (Eridan) takes issue with it and punches him, before basically yelling at him to get his shit together. Karkat then yells at HIM for him to get HIS shit together, and they both leave, intent on getting their shit together.

We also get an update on Vriska and Meenah at this point, where Meenah is starting to seem more into how they totally ditched their responsibilities than Vriska is.

So the thing with this update is that most of the trolls have sorted their shit out; even Karkat has had a lot of introspection about how he really just fucking loves his friends and should have been more honest about it, not worried so much about appearing weak or lame. With the double Aradias in play to kind of handwave that the timeline will be stable because they're ensuring all loops get completed and all necessary conversations happen, and with everyone's successful relationships on display, we can kind of truncate the next leg of the journey:

Karkat Fixes Everything

Karkat is the Friendship Troll. Karkat is the Romance Troll. Karkat is the Bonds troll. He is their team's Blood player, and as the Blood player, he's been shown to deeply love all of his fucking friends - yes, even the assholes. Maybe even especially them.

As such, it's vitally important for the last push - last leg of the journey - to belong to Karkat. Where would our Blood player be without his bonds? Well, we actually have the answer to that. It's knocked out and prevented from joining in any of the important boss battles. LAME!

So in the last retcon, Karkat hears from Nepeta about the retcons that have been happening, and he really starts digging through his own past. If every retcon so far has been each troll only feeling comfortable undoing their own personal mistakes, then what of the guy who feels personally responsible for everything, all the time, forever?

Look, I'm not saying that a shipping chart saves Homestuck, but... by the time this last retcon is through, every Alternian troll is alive and god tiered. And he is dating Eridan.

If you have any questions about him dating Eridan, please refer to the link above. That essay is nearly as long as this one. There's SO MUCH FUCKING FORESHADOWING.

I don't think the god tiering needs to be explained, because if we hear that Karkat basically made his past self a shipping chart, and we've seen everybody's character development as they've gone through this journey, and we have Aradias on timeline duty and Nepeta with memories of past retcons and her alternate selves, I think we can more or less gloss over exactly how they go about earning their wings while maintaining timeline integrity. The important thing is that Karkat is dating Eridan now.

Because that leads to the last few bits of dream bubble stuff, but before we get into that...

Miscellaneous Plot Things That Need To Happen But I Don't Know Where To Put Them

Yeah there's just some ideas that I have floating around that need to be placed somewhere but IDK exactly where, or exactly how they shake out.

Hal becomes a real boy. And by that I mean as part of their character development, Jake makes Hal "real" a la brain ghost Dirk, and then the rest of them have to scramble against the clock (Jake's ability to maintain Hal's realness) to god tier him and make his existence permanent. He's a Sylph of Mind, which allows him to negate Condy's mind control. And maybe a GCATboy?

(Tavros) becomes the new leader of the ghost army.

Davesprite winds up dead at some point in the bubbles and doesn't explain how he died, but he and (Dave) get to fight each other and hash out their Realness and Relevance issues, before facing their final boss fight as bros once more.

Jade and Nepeta get to talk, and Nepeta gives Jade the reassuring speech about Ultimate Selfhood and how she won't be lonely forever. Maybe it's flushed. Might leave it ambiguous.

Somebody needs to auspicetize Dirk and Jake holy shit. Dunno who. Maybe Karkat, but I kind of like him pitch with Dirk, so IDK really.

Dad needs to die. Sorry Dad. If I can find a way to kill off all of the sprites besides ARquiusprite, I will. It's explicitly stated that sprites are drawn to the battlefield during the Reckoning, presumably to die, as part of the coming-of-age themes - losing one's guardians. It's sad but it's gotta happen.

All the Godtier!Calliope stuff basically happens as-is.

Can you tell I need to do more research on the alpha kids...

Ok Back To Karkat And Eridan

I think I'm going to leave their moirallegiance fairly ambiguous, but when Eridan is brought back, he and Karkat are basically together all the time. Karkat's signals are mixed even on the best of days, so I don't know how easy it'll be to tell that these two assholes slinging death threats at each other are pale, but *I* will know, and that's what matters.

This leads to the last two dancestor takedowns:

Karkat and Eridan (mostly Eridan) round on Kankri. Eridan calls him SO MANY SLURS. The fact that Karkat not only condones this, but is DATING ERIDAN, kind of makes Kankri lose it a bit.

(Karkat) and (Eridan), who have reconciled in the bubbles, finally find (Vriska) and Meenah. (Karkat) gives the two of them the speech that retcon!Vriska gave (Vriska) in the comic's original ending, but this time around, (Vriska) actually agrees with him. This serves as a conclusion to (Karkat) and Meenah's arc, and causes Meenah to feel so bad that she walks back to the other dancestors in shame, as (Vriska) leaves with him with the treasure to finally fight LE.

When Meenah returns to the dancestors, the first one she finds is Aranea, who's really sad about her own little escapade, blaming herself for the way Game Over went. This prompts Meenah to go, no, it was probably my fault, shouldn't have let you run off like that. And this would, from all the sobbing dancestors, prompt a string of "no, I'm the reason we failed"s, eventually culminating in Meenah rallying them together to do one last good thing before everyone gets sucked into the black hole and go join the fight against LE. Everyone agrees.

(Gamzee) is revived by the life players and cursed with immortality, so he can go on to become LE and complete that time loop. He is immediately locked in the fridge. This is also why he can't fucking die no matter what you do to him.

This also leads us into the final boss fights.

VS. CONDY

The twelve trolls. The Condesce represents tyranny, the worst aspects of the trolls' old society, and as such, is most thematically taken down by them. While she did fuck up the alpha kids' lives, too, I just personally think it's so much more thematic and satisfying to watch her be beaten down by the trolls.

VS. THE THREE JACKS

The eight kids plus Hal plus Davesprite. With Bec Noir specifically, it's fucking PERSONAL, as this guy killed their parents. This is where Dave fulfils his destiny of killing an iteration of English with his sword, when he decapitates Jack English; the person in the middle of that sandwich is Davesprite, which is how he dies and winds up in the bubbles. The iteration of Jack that survives to date Ms. Paint is Spades Slick, as he's the most sympathetic out of all of them and didn't kill anybody's parents.

At some point during this fight, I like the idea that they get zapped away by Jack English, John zaps them to the Godtier!Caliborn fight where he gets sealed in the juju, and then we cut back to the fight with Jack English, where, inexplicably, they all zap right back in.

VS. THE FELT

The spares - ARquiussprite, (Gamzee) in the fridge (who has since been revived by the life players and blessed/cursed with eternal life so he can go on to fulfill his role in the timelines and become part of LE), Dad, and the other sprites (if any of them are left alive).

VS. LORD ENGLISH

The GameOver!crew, the ghost army, the dancestors (they have a Big Damn Heroes moment right near the end, buying Jake time to deploy the Weapon), Aradiabot, and Davesprite.

Jake fulfills his destiny to defeat the Lord of all Angels by being the one to deploy the weapon, which deposits the beta kids, who knock LE in to the black hole. They then zap out of there, collecting the alpha kids from after the Caliborn fight, and zap back to the fight with the Jacks.

This specific configuration of boss battles winds up leaving Lord English entirely up to dead characters, who are then implied to all eventually get sucked into the black hole - their memories to live on through the living characters via Ultimate Selfhood, which only Nepeta achieves on screen, but implies that they will all achieve eventually.

It's important to me that the GameOver!crew is the one leading the fight against Lord English, as they're the ones who were the most screwed over by LE and his machinations - manipulated into killing each other, used as servants of his will, dying ignobly in a doomed timeline filled with special stardust. Meanwhile, the retcon!kids and trolls prove what they've learned - about compassion, kindness, equality, and forgiveness - by beating the shit out of the Condesce, who represents the horrors of Alternia, and the Jacks, especially Bec Noir and Jack English - the latter of which is a shadow of what Lord English represents - immaturity, cruelty, hatred - and the former of which is a culmination of all the failures they committed to get to this point, a symptom of their universal cancer.

I wrote a little snippet of Aradia once, and I think I'll use that to end this essay:

(ARADIA): ok now that we are all done being stupid (ARADIA): im sure enough people here remember the plan that i dont need to explain it again (ARADIA): so instead i just wanted to say (ARADIA): leave your backs to us and face forward without fear (ARADIA): the dead and irrelevant will slay the demon of double death while you unmake the threats of the living (ARADIA): and personally i think it's very fitting that he will perish here as nothing more than a bad dream (ARADIA): this will be the last time we see each other (ARADIA): so on behalf of everyone that you are going to be leaving behind (ARADIA): live (ARADIA): and be happy!

[centrally-unplanned]

Time for a pet peeve take response - let me capture our target below:

[Unpopular Fantasy Opinion Take:] The fantasy genre by-and-large took the wrong takeaway from Tolkien, and has been generally spiraling since as a result. They took his surface-level aesthetics and fantastical elements, and left his engagement with real, historical texts, his philology & his moral seriosity. In a different timeline, subsequent authors would have adopted Tolkien's erudite love of language and mythology and applied it to other cultures & mythologies - not just superficially, but by engaging with the great Chinese novels or the Shahnameh like he did with Beowulf. Even when you *do* see more recent novels "inspired by" other cultures, they are very blatantly just taking the (degraded distillate of the) Western, Tolkien-esque tradition and coating it in a thin veneer of Chinese or Mesoamerican lore.

This is not the first time I have seen this specific take, and it is part of a "fallen literature" genre that is always confusing supply & demand, with a hefty bout of selection bias for good measure.

To get the obvious out of the way, the "lessons" people took from Tolkien are entirely what audiences want to read, and were never going to be any other way. Most people don't wanna read hard, heavy books! Even if they want that sometimes, for every one Gravity's Rainbow they are gonna read a dozen Gone Girl's as a palette-cleansing snack, which means by-the-numbers the latter will dominate. Fantasy did not invent the genre of adventure stories and swashbuckling heroes and hot maidens to woo and mystical mumbo-jumbo; people stapling tried-and-true genre tropes onto elves and orcs once they took off was a given. The "shallow" part was the only part that could have changed; a world where the median fantasy novel is dealing with theological issues could never have been.

And to top this all off, no disrespect to Tolkien at all, but like...he isn't that deep? The "moral seriousness" of the Lord of the Rings is very simple - characters are often cartoonishly evil or blatantly good, the conflicts they face are often black and white, and in particular the moral dilemmas faced by characters boil down to tests of courage more than half the time. What Tolkien does have is his own unique interests? Like in Middle Earth the "act of creation", from art to life, is itself a moral undertaking with metaphysical implications. This is super cool - but it is also again very simple, it is barely even discussed in the novels and his ideas can be summarized in a paragraph. This is all good btw! The novels would not benefit from more complicated morality. But modern books are just as complex, and often more so.

Actually just a little aside here - a lot of people do this thing with Tolkien where they mention his letters and drafts like that is canonical story text? Yeah he wrote like an essay about the theological implications of the various orc origin stories, but he didn't publish that, it is nowhere in the Lord of the Rings and is barely in the Silmarillion. Other authors have notes like those; you just don't read them.

And the "other cultures" stuff is particularly egregious - I'm sorry, are we just not reading many modern stories? You think Spinning Silver isn't pulling great threads from Slavic folklore? You think the Chinese Gays in Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed aren't dropping refs to Daoism and the four classics in between their will-they-won't-they necromancy shenanigans? In response this author would, of course, pivot from their bailey of "no one references other traditions" to the motte of "and if they do it is shallow" with no definition of what qualifies as such, nor again any admittance that audiences care way more about getting the gays than the deep cut cultural refs. The fact that the median person in the west prefers their Dungeons & Dragons campaigns in a default Tolkien-esque setting because the point is to have a comfortable backdrop for ease of play of a combat dice game will just not factor into their analysis.

The elephant in the room for all of this is that foundational texts differ, structurally, from modern texts, because they were made in different environments. The Lord of the Rings probably wouldn't sell well today! The prose is wooden, the characters are flat, it throws random lore it never explains at you, Tom Bombadil is just there as a walking momentum-destroying plot hole, etc. People read it because it was a first in a world that didn't have books committing to this level of world-building & detail in a fantasy environment. And as a new genre, things like his crazy level of language building are appealing, it's all so new and different, something cool to dig into.

But imagine picking up your 185th elves-and-orcs sword & sorcery book in 1998 and reading "ah yes Quenya is just one of two alphabets for the Elven tongue and it is inspired by Finnish-Germanic and I write entire poems in it even though I never finished a cohesive dictionary or grammar system but I do have 15 pages of pronunciation notes"?? You would throw at it at a fucking wall, absolutely insufferable. It was cool the first time, and that is why you learn Elvish, just like you learn Klingon. That was never gonna keep as a zeitgeist - instead just popping up here or there as this or that series takes off.

You have to accept that audiences are in the driver's seat on this one - they have infinite stories to choose from, they are absolutely not being dragged along by willful writers. Which means genres will evolve and change over time - and that is fine.

[tallsc]

XDD No worries but also sgjbrsibgripa I still cannot get over that short so hey being a bit late just means you reminded me it existed so now I can re-obsess

Cause this absolutely has to be on purpose, I realized a bit after posting that the two sticks Orange had most disrupted in Parkour (If I'm remembering right, I'm not in a good place to check atm) were Green and Yellow, the same two that Orange showed most notable concern to here. There are multiple parallels showing Orange's character growth over time and I am so happy about it.

Oh and before I forget, another visual parallel is you know the last picture in the original analysis post? Orange and Red hugging? That scene visually appears very similar to the scene in Lush Caves right when the fight ended. Also not in a good spot to look up an image or double-check but those two seemed pretty visually similar from what I remember and it just helped even more to show Orange's character development over the span of those few episodes.

AvA Orange and Red: Character Dynamic Analysis

I would like to preface this analysis with recognizing that all of the Color Gang have a very close bond. Orange, Green, Blue, Yellow, Red, each and every one of them care so much about each other and absolutely would sacrifice themselves to save the others, and this analysis doesn't make that any less true.

However, in that universal deep care and trust for each other, there are still some notable differences in the relationships between specific sticks. In this analysis, I would like to focus specifically on Orange's and Red's interactions throughout the show.

Also, some of these points I have also talked about in my Red Character Analysis, but I'm going to be explaining them through a different lens here.

Another disclaimer is that I'm not going to be addressing the possibility of a romantic relationship in this analysis since I don't think I'm very qualified to talk about that one, everyone can headcanon whatever ships or lack of ships you want XD

But now that that's out of the way, let's start the real analysis!

Red and Orange are, in a lot of ways, opposites. Orange appears to be the oldest, while Red is generally seen as the youngest. Orange is cautious and prefers calm, repetitive safety, while Red rushes into things and enjoys excitement despite the risks. When confronted with a choice between going somewhere new but dangerous and staying safe at home, Red will always choose the former and Orange will always choose the latter.

This has led to a sometimes strained relationship between them - particularly from Orange to Red. And, while this was most visible during the Lush Caves conflict, there are some details in their interactions before then that still indicate something being off in their relationship.

Prior to Lush Caves, especially seen in the non-Minecraft non-AvA episodes, there has been a strong tendency for Red to be the one always going out of their way to help out Orange with whatever they needed. Red's always the one pressing start, fullscreen, helping Orange out with little things, anything Orange asks of them, without question. And while yes, this indicates Red's speed of understanding what's needed from them, it also is definitely worth noting that all these cases is doing what Orange specifically needs. Red wants Orange's approval.

If this was reciprocated, this could easily be a sweet friendship/relationship/however you decide to interpret that dynamic. But, past the type of friendship Orange has with everyone in the CG, the helpfulness and the trust toward Red specifically doesn't seem to be there. Not for a while, at least.

Orange easily gets carried away in the moment, and can sometimes take their friends for granted. They still care about their friends, a lot, but they also often get frustrated with the others and can be lost in the moment - even to the degree of abandoning their friends in favor of going home or accidentally killing one of their friends in a fight. And even in less high-stakes scenarios, they often don't join the others and may do minor things to sabotage them - or at least not be very helpful. Kicking the boat away from Green in Parkour, or turning down the volume when their friends were playing music. It's not terrible by any means, but it's not very kind or healthy either if done too often.

But it's also noticeable that Red often gets the brunt of this apathy or hostility. Because again, they and Orange are opposites. Despite Red wanting to make Orange happy, Red's also impulsive, adventurous, a little chaotic - all traits that Orange rarely wants to deal with. All traits that pull Orange into dangerous and scary situations. And Red, being the stick that they are, never really seemed to catch on how much their behavior was upsetting Orange. Another flaw of their quickly made decisions.

But while it may not have been recognized, the actions that resulted still were clear. In PvP, Orange nearly stabbed Red with an actual sword when Red wasn't using real weapons. Orange would later use Red as a weapon to fight the witch - and I didn't see anyone else jumping on or kicking each other around as blocks. Or in Vs Arcade Games when they all fell out of the maze, Orange ran past Red to go catch Yellow. While yes, Yellow fell from higher, Orange could have at least gone and helped Red up afterward. And in building contests, which Orange is usually the judge of, the only prize Red ever got was from Yellow.

In all these cases, yes, a problem or imbalance existed already for the whole group. But it's always seemed to be consistently a little worse for Orange and Red. And that's why I'm not as surprised at what happened in Lush Caves. But also, why I am so happy with what happened afterward.

The episode itself was just a culmination of all the anger and resentment of everything going on finally coming to a head. Orange was sick of being dragged into danger by Red. Red was sick of being overlooked and their feelings ignored by Orange. That battle itself may not be all that surprising anymore given the prior animosity between the two.

This fight could have broken their friendship permanently. If either one refused to stop, if either one took the others' actions personally and refused to forgive, this could have marked the point where every little action got to be too much, and they could have broken that bond for good.

But this is the Color Gang. None of them can hold a permanent grudge against each other to save their lives. Especially not Orange, who would kill to save them even after only having known them a few minutes. And especially not Red, who doesn't have a hostile pixel in their body.

So they did stop. They did forgive. And more than that, they realized something was wrong. They realized that how they were acting, especially toward each other, was wrong. While this was more clearly shown for Orange, I think it was true for Red too.

Because when you look at their actions afterward, they change. For the rest of the series, Orange has put more focus into consistently helping, trusting, and supporting their friends - including Red. They stopped ignoring or arguing with their friends and stopped trying to solve everything themselves. Hey, Orange's primary role after their solo episode even became a support to the Warden. This doesn't seem like a role they would usually be as comfortable with beforehand.

And on Red's part, Red started being more careful to get others' agreement on their course of action. They let others take the lead when needed, and when they had a plan themselves they tried to make sure the others understood. They, too, recognized that they need support, they need to do things alongside their friends, not in spite of them.

Neither of them were perfect in this. Orange still has a tendency to want to do all the most important things themselves, and Red still struggles with acting too quickly before understanding others' feelings. But there's progress. They both recognize their mistakes, and they're both trying.

And most importantly...

They're finally doing it side by side.

Well, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed, you thought of this topic in a new light, or at least found it interesting! This one's a subject I've been thinking about for a while but it took a while to put it into clearer words ^-^

I've done a few analyses like this before, and will likely do more, so keep an eye out for that! I linked the Red analysis up at the top, but here it is again and here is the Yellow Leadership analysis.

[dwindlinghaze]

Hello! Soo I was wondering if I could request a RemusxReader oneshot/blurb with this scenario. Hear me out:

Reader openly talking to the girls about her crush on Remus she as had for years and just being so casual talking about how much she likes him and thinks he's amazing and hot, and how much she loves him (practically me simping for Rem) and she isn't embarrassed cuz she's known Lily and Marlene for years and they're used to talk like that and tease each other kindly (they usually do it to Lily). But they don't know that Remus and the boys are "accidentally" listening to their conversation.

Lmk what you think! Thankyou ly, byebye <3

moon river

(remus lupin x reader)

contents : fluff, the marauders being nosy af and eavesdropping, bad writing and not proofread :(

a/n : hello anon!!! ty so so much for the request and im so so sorry for taking so long in writing it. but hey i am here and im at your service ;) i rly hope u like this and it fulfilled what you asked for ☁️☁️

　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

"[y/n] are you free tonight? or does loverboy has to take you away before midnight?" marlene said, linking your arms together as you two walked inside the common room.

"yes... why?"

"charms."

"charms?"

"assignment."

"oh-"

"yes."

"charms assignment that you need me to help you with?"

"obviously,"

"ah fine," you eyes slowly averted to the smile of none other that remus lupin. your mind goes fuzzy all of a sudden. he was joking and laughing with james in front of the fireplace. "he looks so happy today," you whispered to yourself, smiling.

"aww, you care about his happiness! just make out already," marlene said, wiggling her thick brows.

"that's one step beyond. not ethical," you shook your head in a mocking manner. "where's lily by the way? is she up here already?"

marlene shrugged as she opened the door to the dormitory, letting the warm air hit both of their faces.

later that night, you were helping marlene out on the charms essay and let's just say... it wasn't going as planned.

"marl, it's not how it is. you have to read the whole thing first then make your own summary about it so professor flitwick won't accuse you of plagiarism."

"but there's too many! why isn't there a charms to shorten paragraphs," she whined like a child on the sidewalk when their moms didn't get ice cream.

"liliana, help me over here. marl doesn't want to read,"

"i doing my eye mask, can't stand up," she reasoned stupidly.

"eye masks stick to your under eyes. yes you can stand up without them falling off. i wish remus was here, he can probably summarise four pages in just two minutes, he's incredibly smart," you closed your little tired eyes.

"if remus was here, he wont be teaching me anything, he would be too busy with you," marlene scoffed, although she is teasing.

"that's right," lily agreed. "remember this morning when [y/n] dropped mashed potatoes on his head? he didn't even blame her! he was blushing."

"also in dada, didn't you see remus was basically mumbling a mantra to be partnered up with [y/n], that's so sweet," marlene continued in a teasing voice, her charms assignment completely tossed of to the side.

you think to yourself, a conversation about remus late at night is way more interesting than charms. so you didn't budge. "aw yea he did, i saw," you cheeks turned crimson as you smile.

"isn't he just so... beautiful? i never look at anyone- except for my barbie dolls when i was five- this way. he is just right in every way."

"mhmmm keep going my love," marlene replied, after noticing a slight crack in the door with the marauders behind it. they were appalled when marlene saw them but marlene stays quiet, sending a wink their way.

at first, they were up here because james wanted to return lily's hair clip in which the boy slyly stole during class for this moment. but the others insisted to go up to see her reaction for some reason.

remus wouldn't complain though. he got to hear what the girl he loves for so much has to say bout him when he's not around.

your back was facing the door with your legs crossed over your chest and you hugging them. "his face may be pretty, but i think his heart is way prettier. for god's sake he holds my hand when i was anxious for that history presentation! he knows my needs so well."

"yes, that's so kind of him," lily urged for you to continue so she can tease you about it the next morning in front of remus lupin.

"and the best part is, remus respects women! he treats me like how i treat the girls and women around me. that's the hottest thing a guy could ever do," you dazed out, burying your face in between your kneecaps.

"ugh we love a respectful king, don't we girls!" marlene said purposely loud so remus can hear the conversation wide and clear from the door. his eyes were basically making heart eyes at the back of your head, his smile is like he had just won a contest and to hide that would be so dishonest.

"i told you to get her on a date sooner, she is the one!" sirius nudged remus rather harshly, but he was too focused on you.

"but what i don't like about him is the fact that he thinks he's not worthy of anything. he is. he deserves the biggest apology and happiness there ever was. he is like a moon river. i would roll my ship at night just to see the sparkles that he got. my huckleberry friend."

"isn't that enough to confirm that [y/n] loves you back, remus?" marlene shouted, her vision straight to the door.

your eyes widened in panic as your blood rushed into your cheeks. was remus hearing all of this? oh no freaking way- he can't be!

the door swung open, revealing the marauders who were standing with their jaws on the floor.

"i'm going out," lily spoke up, slipping out the door with james running after her like a lost puppy.

"you better do something," marlene winked at remus as she pushed him inside the room. remus nodded numbly, processing on what just happened. marlene was already dragging sirius down to give their friends privacy.

"hey, can i come in?"

"gosh i'm so sorry you heard all of that! you don't understand how embarrassing it is for me right now. i wish to disappear!" you scrunched your face, mortified by what his reactions may be.

"listen, uh, what you said were- it really makes me happy that you think of me that way because... so do i! i've been scared to say anything because i just- wasn't sure if you like me that way or not..."

"well, you heard it... what am i going to do now," you whispered the last part under your breath.

lucky for remus, he's got super hearing powers due to his lycanthropy so he heard that as clear as the sky is blue. "we can do what girlfriend and boyfriend do," remus answered shyly, playing with the end of your blanket that dropped from your bed.

"excuse me ma'am, you haven't asked me for dinner yet and now we're girlfriend and boyfriend?" you said in a joking manner to ease the tension out.

"okay let's do baby steps. come here, m'love, want to hold my girl," he opened his arms with his eyes closed. does he even know how cute he is right now?

[long-live-astronerd-ghost-king]

Dannymay 2023. Day 7. Weapon. DPXDC.

The Justice League is trying to figure out Danny’s identity, and he’s not happy about it.

~Words hurt more than weapons~

~~~

Wonder Woman: You’re bound by the Lasso of Truth. No more chance of hiding secrets, ghost.

Danny: Are you kidding me?

Batman: Who are you, Phantom?

Danny: "I am a 400-foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings."

Captain Marvel: Wow, you don’t see many Fire Nation princesses these days.

Danny: Hm, at least someone with good taste here.

Danny: Have you even read the Fenton articles? Batman? Anyone? No? Remember. Ghosts will always find a way to lie. Your ribbon has no power over me.

~~~

Danny: ..I have a few words for you too, Batsy. Martha says hi. And she wants you to know that " ..if I see a damn clown in the immediate vicinity of one of my grandchildren or if I find out that you or any of the family are on patrol with broken bones, I’ll spank you as soon as I meet you on the other side. Obey Alfred. With love, Mother."

Flash:..Batman, why are you so pale?

Batman: Someone sprayed the fear toxin. Check the ventilation.

Flash:..

~~~

Superman: Stop it! Listen..

Phantom: I liked you when I was a kid, you know? They say it’s better to never meet your idols. Now I see it's truth.

Superman: You shouldn't be doing this alone. We can help you.

Danny: What makes you think I need your help? Don’t be a hypocrite. Why don’t you take off your glasses at the Daily Planet office? And why do you think that you can tell me what to do with my secret identity?

Danny: Don’t worry, I’m dead but my family is fine. I’m not like you, Big Blue. I will not sacrifice the people I love for my murderous secret.

Superman: What are you talking about?

Phantom: Don’t play dumb. In the land of the dead, people like to talk about the past, you know. You told Jonathan he wasn’t your father, and then you didn’t even try to save him. It’s cruel. But you can be happy, Jonathan doesn’t blame you for his death. I do.

The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees.

Superman: I.. I listened to what he said. He was trying to protect me.

Danny: So, how does it feel? Letting him die in front of you, knowing you could have saved him? Do you blame youself?

Superman: How dare you.

Danny: Of course, you do. Because no matter how many lives Superman saves, the most important one to you..You’ll never got it back. Afraid of being a lab rat? Superman is not special. I am not special too. 

Danny: Don’t look down at me just because you have more experience behind you. Revealing my identity should be my choice, not yours.

~~~~

Danny: Stay out of my grave. *turns to Batman* You should stay away from your son’s grave too. Leave the past behind.

~Hairstyle. Sharp tongue. Physique. This Insolence.~

Batman: Jason?

Danny: Wrong ghost, old man.

Batman: ...You’re the one who said a ghost would always find a way to lie.

Danny: Pride and prejudice! *shit, I’m starting to swear like Mr.Lancer, It’s time to finish my english essay.*  I’m not your Robin. Sorry bout that.

~Jane Austen? No hint more obvious. Jay doesn’t want to deal with the League? Well, Bruce doesn’t mind playing along.~

Batman: I understand.

Danny: Thank Ancients! Anyway, I’m leaving. Don’t look for me.

~~~

Tucker: Wow, Danny, when we told you to take care about the League, we thought you’d do it, like, without turning all of them against you.

Danny: Not all of them. And I didn’t do anything wrong. We talked.

Jazz: Danny, believe me, sometimes a conversation with you can cause more damage to your enemies than your ectoblasts.

Sam: Not just to them. Sometimes I also feel like his ideas are melting my brain.

Danny: Hey! Actually, you should be on my side.

Sam: We should?

Danny: Never mind. But if JL set foot in Amity Park I will sic on Wonder Woman her grandfather.

Tucker: But her Grandfather is Kronos. He’s a creep, trying to eat all his kids. Where do you even know such a monster from?

Clockwork *puts a cup of tea on the table and coughs to attract attention*.

Tucker: Wait a minute...

Tucker: Oh mY GOd, Mr. CLocKWoRk I’m sO SorRy, please don’t kill me.

Sam: Now you’ve changed your mind about importance of a healthy vegan diet, Tucker?

Tucker: ..No, I’m not that desperate.

~~~

~At the same time,somewhere in Ghost Zone~

 Martha *teaches Jason to do a choke hold*.

~~~

~At the same time, in one of Amity Park’s alleys.~

Maddie and Jack *discuss ways to capture the Phantom*

Batman *appears behind them*:DoN’t toUcH my the сHiLd.

~~~

Jazz: Don't you think that mentioning Superman's father was too much?

Danny: Maybe.But..when I think about you, mom or dad in dander I can't imagine what would make me freeze and.. It just doesn't make sense, okey?

Jazz: You're still thinking about Dan, right?

Danny: Every.damn.time.

[ahyesanerd]

Ah yes the crack and angst energy of putting 4 teenagers with mystic powers and enough sass to kill a man into the apocalypse. What could possibly go wrong XD (I'm honestly more terrified for the others then for the Don's)

Also note on if they have enough power. Considering how Dee started this whole adventure I'd say pretty high probability. I guess should depend on idk tectonic plates but make it multiverse/dimension travel style.

Plus the fact that (this is some HC and small lore dump ideas ignore if wished) at that point when Mike (Future Mikey) created the portal I think most mystic energy was kinda drained from the planet (Cause the Krangg can obviously take mystic energy shown in the movie. Why wouldn't they take as much as possible for a power source or to stop Yokai from fighting against them.) Plus the fact that considering what it did to Angelo (Movie-Mikey) which was to the almost same effect as Mike who as you stated was a fully realized mystic master dude.

Main reason Mike poofed was probably lack of excess mystic energy, not having the support of others to help with the portal, and (knowing Mike) probably overworking themself to the point they would have basically a form of mystic exhaustion (even being fully realized).

^^^^ That went much longer than intended -^-'

But with the amount of energy between the lovely 4 Don Trons I could definitely see them getting there without to much harm. Especially if there is more technical errors of time fluctuations or dimensional technic plates I have apparently decided exists.

(ALSO YES Dee gets all the awkward hugs. Our other bois watching this is the corner can feel it from 5 ft away)

Okay my brain had a horrible idea for TMNT angst

First if you don't know @tblsomedoodles go checkout her stuff because I am using their lovely Aus for this. Specifically pulling from the lovely Donnieverse and Adopted Donnie Apocalypse

(Also really needed to type out this idea but since it's kinda au of au I'm not gonna put it in an ask)

spoilers for above aus listed

NOW THE IDEA >:D

So basically through events of chaos and our lovely Donnie's attempting to get to 03 (Adopted Donnie's) Dimension. Now since this portal process thing has already been having issue locking on dimensions why not at some slight time travel issues.

So our Donnie gang gets thrown into Adopted Donnie Apocalypse AU. (Or basically an alt timeline that wasn't destroyed??? Idk) (We will just call all from this timeline there names sans Apocalypse Dee cause ya)

Now cause I want the world to burn this is maybe a couple months or so post-Dee Adopted Apocalypse death and maybe a month (or less?) after the 03 turtles have arrived.

I want to watch Raphie have a freakout cause his baby who he was told died is here and younger and they'res other Dees to.

I want Leo breakdown and hug Dee. The twin he lost once and once again.

I want CJ to see his young Dad and either be so confused and start asking who that is. I want to watch the other 'futures' hearts break. Or I want CJ to be so happy to see his Dad and Dee so confused.

Okay that's my angst added for the night :)

[missstratford]

Queen of my heart

A/n: this fic came to my head in the middle of the night lol. And I'm aware that i have a draco fic going on as well 😅😅but I'm unhinged so whatever. 🥲🥲. Also I'm gonna pretend the lil bitch Peter doesn't exists and my babies are away from toxic ppl. 😌😌

Summary: when James begins playing a game of dares with his friends, his task is to make someone fall for him. What happens when this person turns out to be you, who loathes his very existence. This time the line between game and love begin to blur.

Warnings: none, (but spicy times might be up in the next chaps😋)

Chapter 2

chapter 1:

Your quill scratched desperately against the parchment, filling it with the transfiguration essay due the next day. Your flow was interrupted by obnoxious laughter, for the tenth time. Gritting your teeth, your head snapped in the direction of noise. "They'll probably leave in a couple of minutes.” Andromeda's calm voice did little to settle you. " They've been at it for the last hour An, it's a library for Merlin's sake, how stupi-" Your ranting was cut short by another bout of raucous. That's it. You stood, chair creaking loudly as you did, earning looks from students around you. Before Andromeda could stop you, you strut around the shelves making your way to the gang of boys. Ah Griffyndors, you thought as you spotted the trio. "So Moony said -" You tapped the lad on his shoulders making them turn to you. "Yes?" This one wore glasses, looking confused at your presence. "Can i sit too?" You asked, a sarcastic smile playing on your lips. "What?” the black haired boy pushes his glasses up his nose, forehead scrunching in deeper confusion. " I mean you all seem to be having a lovely picnic so i thought I'd join." You explained, motioning to his two friends. "This is not a picnic. We are in the library. I thought slytherins were dumb but i never thought they were this dumb." His friend spoke. This one, you noticed, had longer hair and an unruly demeanor. Sirius Black, andromeda's relative, you quickly recognized. "Well now that we've established that we are indeed in a library, how about you loathsome pests act like it then?" Your smile dropped, lips thinning into a line. "I'm sorry wha-" Interrupting the boy with glasses you spoke, "Me along with 15 other students have been trying and failing to study thanks to your stupid laughing charade here. So you three better shut it before I call on Madam Pince Or better, I hex you myself." You ended menacingly. "Do you even know who we are?" The same boy from before said, coming to stand in front for you. It took your everything to not whip out your wand. "I honestly don't care even if you happened to be Merlin himself. So take my suggestion and leave." You clenched your jaw, swiftly turning back to your table. "Well she's terrible" She's a Slytherin!” "let's just leave please" You heard them whisper shout as you got back to your seat. "Did you kill them? Do i need to help you hide them?" Andromeda grinned as you picked up your quill. "I let them survive this time." You laughed.

Back in the gryffindor dorm, the marauders along with their friends sat in a circle. "Prongs turn on the damn lights mate" Sirius shouted, his arms going around remus trying to swat James' head. "Padfoot no-ouch- I'm creating the atmosphere mate, please just go with it" James rubbed his head. "Why are we even sitting like this?” Remus asked, eyeing the rest of the boys. "Well," Frank Longbottom smiled, rubbing his palms together, "we've decided to play a little game, just to spice up our fifth year." "My life is spiced up plenty already so, night lads." Sirius began standing up but was pulled down by Avery, "me, frank and adrian have already began playing and it's quite fun to be honest." "Can someone just explain what it is?” Remus interjected, to which Frank flourished a parchment filled with a list. " This is a list of dares which each one of us needs to complete in turns. Points get added to every name based on the success rate of the task. " Frank says, point at the corner of the parchment with names in columns. "And what's the prize? You know, for the one with the highest points in the end." James asks, looking intently at the list. "Generous compensation" Avery grins, "the winner gets to demand anything from the remaining boys for 3 months" He finishes. "How is that of any help?" Remus quizzes. "If you win, you could make sirius do your laundry for 3 months" Frank earns a hit from sirius. "Yeah or make avery do your homework" Adrian adds, laughing. "As much enticing as this sounds, count me out of it" Remus says, as he hears all of them groan in annoyance. "But we are in" James says eagerly as sirius nods. "Alright then boys, first up James." A sinister smile plays on avery's lips.

[thecoolerliauditore]

Your post abt gender presentation as part of character growth is soooo. To me, Joel embracing his femininity is so much. He puts up a giant facade of bravado and strength, he is tall and muscular and strong. Yet if there is an occasion for him to wear a dress he embraces it. Would he need to be this aggressive in life if he was born a girl? A girl doesn't need to be tall and strong, he'd been taught.

Joel likes being a man. But there is an unspoken serenity in femininity in his eyes. Maybe he can indulge, if just for a few hours hidden behind the facade of a joke.

A man wearing a dress is funny, right?

... right?

Sometimes a joke is just so... funny... you can't help but cry.

Anon there are some asks that like evoke a emotional reaction from me that I could swear are the result of momentary possession because I usually do not get the butterflies from posts like this but smth about the timing of this being sent mid joel/scott essay + me having no internet and rewatching my downloaded joel 3L episodes over and over did. something to me.

This post got really away from me sorry. the disease got me. (no really I am still sick and brainfogged please forgive me)

But yes this is so true so true anon. He's so verbal about it all too. handsome, strong, muscular, tall, etc etc. Guy who totally isn't trying to convince himself of his own lies.

I've always liked looking at empires as a sorta vague symbolic representation of the characters' backstories and I have had. So many thoughts about Joel being a prince (specifically one that gets wordlessly hitched to a queen) and a big, tall, manly God. Both are very classic symbols of (forgive me but I really do not know what other term would work) peak masculinity. Of course he would portray himself that way.

And Joel is powerful, he's scary and he revels that people see him that way. But Joel is only human and he can't keep up the facade forever. He spends so much of the death games feeling small and scared. And he hates it so much, he hates feeling emasculated so much that he ends up letting it kill him in LimL in his panic.

His relationship with his own sense of masculinity has inspired like. pretty much all of my Joel art now that I think about it alongside the homophobic gay thing. Most relevantly that wedding dress one. I've always headcanoned him as growing his hair out in HC10 where he feels safe enough to start exploring that side of himself (although he still won't admit it -- if you ask him he'll just make up some excuse about how he can't be bothered).

A big part of that i/me/myself animatic was me thinking about how both him and Scott are the types to think that their lives could be so much simpler if they were born girls, but in more of that misguided homophobic/softcore misogynistic way than a transfem way (that being said I'm like. lowkey shocked I haven't ran into any transfem joel or transfem scott in the wild. I've had bouts of imagining both as well as transmasc joel but I don't think I have anything interesting enough in my head to post).

Very dubious sourcing of headcanons occurring here but I really do think about that one Guess the Build episode where he makes a generic wedding scene and randomly remarks that it looks like him and Jimmy getting married, with himself wearing the dress. Sighs. Whatever, man.

I do really. really like the idea of him starting small with the femininity. I think he's at a stage where he's willing to at least give it a try. I haven't quite gotten ill enough about the WL dynamics to come up with making shit up headcanons but idk maybe his hair is long enough at this point that it gets in his face alot and Gem gets annoyed with his constant complaining and teaches him to braid it. Wait fuck new headcanon unlocked drawing him with a little baby braid from now on.

Also this might be more the gay thing than the gender thing but I'd like to think he becomes more comfortable with how small he is compared to other guys, and his thing for taller men like Etho and Jimmy. Getting more accustomed to physical affection and having the association with his size slowly turn from fear of being overpowered or humiliated to something much softer and warmer.

I love how you use the word "mock" anon because it really is. like that. It's all a joke. A man being gay or effeminate, that's worthy of mockery, of humiliation to Joel. He's internalized these beliefs and as a consequence he believes he will be subjected to that if he lets himself slip into being those things. So he has to keep mocking men like himself, keep insisting it's all stupid and gross, but at the same time doing that is the only time he gets to even pretend to experience expressing those parts of himself.

Maybe a bit of a side note but I've had this idea in my head for ages of like. This but Joel ends up just deciding fuck it one day and trying to feminize himself super hard to attract the men he likes (which is not quite right tm either he's maybe pushing his own boundaries a little too hard and it's uncomfortable but he feels like he has to do this). I usually imagine Jimmy but this could very much be Etho too.

They go on a little date and Jimmy literally could not give less of a fuckk. He's like oh Joel's experimenting, cool. and Joel gets all huffy about the lack of reaction and demands to know if Jimmy thinks this new version of him is pretty, to which Jimmy just says some shit like "yeah but you were always pretty" and Joel explodes on the spot and dies.

[put-them-thangs-away]

how is this only about one single episode,,,, i have GOT to stop doing this,,,,,

starting this off by saying i am making the extremely questionable choice yet again to start this rant in my notes app so there is a Very Large chance that this episode ramble analysis is going to become another monologue,,,,, sorry bout that. if it’s more than like three paragraphs i’ll stick it under the cut. anyways,,, Y’ALL READY FOR ME TO TAKE AN EPISODE’S WONDERFUL HAPPY ATMOSPHERE AND OVERTHINK IT INTO PAIN???

spoiler alert: i had to come back and add this. it was not less than 3 paragraphs. it’s a significantly longer essay this time. 🫠

i was gonna start with the hierophant card now that i’m rewatching since it’s early in the episode (and i love milfs nang) but i think imma go make that as a separate add on to my previous post about the tarot cards instead. i also still need to go back and watch the bit with boss’s card from that earlier episode so i can add that on as well.

i know the episode technically starts with jack & joker goofing off and once again making ad placement gayer which is very cute but i don’t actually have much to say about that (yet) except that it’s really funny that joke’s reflexes and ability to fight are lowkey garbage unless it’s to mess with jack. also there is that little foreshadowing nugget in there from jack reminding joke again about his promise not to do anything stupid but my take on that will make more sense with my rant about the final scenes. lmfao don’t worry,,,,,, i have plenty to say about them later.

so INSTEAD bc i love to suffer imma start with arun and tattoo’s scene. yippee! so we’ve got these two bonding over creative ventures,,,, and by bonding i mean arun being supportive and pouring his heart out and tattoo being deeply uncomfortable with any display of human emotions lol. i saw that tiny little smile to yourself when your back was turned to arun tho tattoo,,,, im onto u buddy. 🏳️‍🌈❔🫵🤨

and then we’ve got arun’s line about missing his shithead garbage father at the beginning of his breakdown, which at the time, did not mean much to me bc in the moment i got immediately distracted by the comedic factor of tattoo having the emotional range of a thimble. (which i now am like,,, 75% sure was an intentional diversion on the writer’s part.) and also that little crumb of tattoo smushing himself in between hoy and arun by physically pushing them apart when they were half cuddling so that he could impart some Tough Love™️ lmaoooo,,; once again sir,,,, im onto u,,,

anyways the reason that little comment from arun came back to haunt me is related to the tarot cards. i went more in depth about the card meanings in my previous post, but short version for this exact moment: arun gets The Moon as his card which is often considered to be symbolic of deception or things not being what they appear…. and also truths that you have not (or cannot) accept about yourself. haha! neat! i’m sure that’s definitely not the reading they went for and definitely absolutely will not have anything to do with arun not having accepted what kind of person his father truly is, and possibly making some poor choices relating to that in the future! and i’m sure if that is the reading, there is not a more in depth reading for tattoo’s The World card as well since they are in many ways narrative foils of each other! lol! anyways! 🤪

mostly unrelated sidenote: when did nang draw the star on the back of the cards? bc it wasn’t there when she was originally laying the cards out for hoy. continuity issue or Important Tiny Detail?

skipping the rosé jack scene here because imo it didn’t have much purpose other than to kind of make you pissed at her manipulation tactic. (and probably to mislead us into thinking that she was gonna handle the rejection scene really poorly. she didn’t thoooo come thru bb girl! so proud of u) also skipping the teeth rottingly adorable found family meal for similar reasons. (joke adopting ama’s little “aiyah!” tho had me In My Feelings)

surprisingly i don’t actually have that much to say about the flashback to boss and joker’s interaction. i might be missing some subtext, but generally it just kind of gave me the vibe of being there solely to show boss being menacing and remind you that joke’s lovesick self-sacrificing ass is, in fact, about to Do Something Stupid. imminently. (can’t tell if i am also supposed to have like? an ounce of sympathy for boss because he’s “never been free” or whatever the fuck that’s about. don’t know don’t care i wish him a very nice die painfully at the hands of his son. adopted or otherwise, i’m not picky.)

brief shout out to the security goon who is literally a brick wall what the fuck like i know they’re our resident idiots but FOUR ON ONE AND THERE’S BLUNT WEAPONS INVOLVED HELLO????? king shit tbh rip in peace my guy

also lmfao joke saying “how did you find me?!” and arun just being like “what like it’s hard? we already know you’re gay AND stupid.” 😂😭💀 read for FILTH,,,,

[insert Four Men, None Braincells heist montage]

the absolute unmatched level of shenanigans. whatever was going on with the choice of fish. the botched directions. the inability to open a bottle of champagne.

(i love them)

also WAIT HOLD UPI JUST NOTICED AND IDK IF I’M READING INTO THIS TOO MUCH BUT WHAT’S WITH THE LITTLE LOOK BETWEEN NANG AND ROSÉ WHEN SHE GOES OFF TO CHANGE AND ROSÉ IMMEDIATELY MOVES TO LIGHTEN THE MOOD AND CHANGE THE SUBJECT?? like we know that nang had a hand in this plan but does rosé know something? and if she does, does that have any significance to her bringing jack to the ring room or is that just about the romance? also getting a better look at jack’s face through all of this (during the dinner especially) makes me wonder how much HE knows about the heist bc he clearly has clocked some weird shit happening (and also i feel like there’s no way at this point he has not managed to recognize disguised joke) which like,,,, god it is sending me on a whole other level of spiral bc like on the one hand that makes one of my takes on the final scene less painful but also makes the other part of it even more ouch??? many thoughts,,,, head full,,,, which works out bc we’re closing on the end of the episode which is where my overthinking ass brain went into overdrive the first during the first watch.

first of all i was obviously in my feelings about jack’s whole speech about how lying doesn’t help relationships. shout out to ama’s Great Value Family Therapy Sesh, as always, she is the real mvp.

also ok now i am Thinking bc if jack does know something about the heist that would def have an even deeper meaning to this speech? bc like if they actually communicated beforehand for once then it’s not lying and breaking a promise? and if he doesn’t know anything about it then i feel like he could be more upset about joke doing this exact same thing again? (hELP MY BRAIN HURTS) and joke’s reaction from his cozy little spot deep in the closet isn’t helping at all like,,, maybe it’s the guilt of lying and breaking a promise again?? is it just the crippling lack of self-worth???? and then the surprise specifically when rosé actually took the rejection well? HOW AM I EVEN MORE STRESSED THE SECOND TIME AROUND WHAT THE FUCK 😭

i am also having more thoughts on hoy’s assignment of The Star card, not necessarily about the card’s actual meaning (positivity, optimism, all around good boy golden retriever energy etc) but more how it relates to his whole [handwaves] Thing with nang,,,, and also her plan. hm. idk how to really like. put those thoughts into words tho. i can’t put my finger on what it is that is making me flag that, but it is there.

also like idk if i’m misremembering but were we ever told specifically what nang’s relationship to rosé is? like she’s not her mom for sure so??? older sister??? or????

god i have so many questions after this episode especially because i feel like there were a lot of little foreshadowing hints that were immediately followed by HEY LOOK OVER THERE! shiny distraction moments and u kno what,,, fair,,,, i was and wld continue to be distracted by naked nang if i wasn’t picking this apart scene by scene rn like her calling hoy to pick things up from her when joke clearly didn’t know that Most of this was part of her plan??? i need to know RIGHT NOW WHO IS IN ON WHICH PARTS AAGHHHH

also once again unrelated aside bc at this point i’m already neck deep in not shutting the fuck up but tattoo fulfilling The Pyrotechnics Guy™️ heist trope with the spy music overlay brings me so much joy acshually,,,, it’s giving oceans eleven and i love that for them

JACK’S FACE AT THE FIREWORKS THO JACK WHAT AND HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOWWWWWWWWWW like now there’s this whole phone conversation that will ALSO TAKE ON A WHOLE OTHER MEANING IF HE’S IN ON ANY PART OF THIS??? originally i was just like “damn this will really suck if he thinks he did this and got out of this situation all by himself and then gets mad at joker all over again and they fight and (temporarily obvs) break up” but now im like OH MY GOD????? WHAT IF IT’S NOT THEM COMMUNICATING AHEAD OF TIME???? WHAT IF HE’S BEATING JOKE AT HIS OWN GAME???? WHAT IF THERE ARE TWO FUCKING HEIST PLOTS/TEAMS??? HAPPENING??? SIMULTANEOUSLY?? these writers have proven to be absolutely insane (affectionate) so far, so the only thing i’m actually sure of is that i can’t trust NONE of my first gut reactions ajdkdkd

and now we have reached The Scene™️ ,,, the culmination of everything,,, the yearning the pining the tension the misunderstandings,,,,, it’s just so [clenches fist] why are they so good

and i am once again spiraling bc if there were two different plots going on in this heist, this whole “did you work hard” conversation has even more double meanings aaaagghhh AM I READING TOO MUCH INTO THIS?????? if i am this 5000 word essay is about to be real embarrassing. anyways.

like originally i was just lasered in on the double meanings behind every fucking moment (and word and expression and body language augh) from joke’s side of the conversation and the pain it was bringing me even tho on the surface this is a super happy moment and they’re finally getting together etc,,, bc like from joke’s perspective this could very well be the end of them? he knows he’s done exactly what he did last time to snap their budding relationship in half, but this time there’s a million more promises in between for him to have broken.

like listen i know the yearning and the infamous microexpressions could just be because he’s been being crushed by the weight of his feelings for over five years, but idk man,,,, i was getting major bottling up The Sad™️ vibes from joke in this scene, even in it’s most tender moments (that soft little “together?” which was absolutely just in relation to candles and nothing else will haunt my dreams) and i don’t think it was Just his guilty conscience about lying even tho that is also obviously eating him alive right now. (him knocking back that drink when jack’s telling him about rosé and he’s gotta keep up the act and pretend he doesn’t already know what was said? all of it? and like it didn’t have him connecting the dots finally about the feelings being mutual? big fucking oof.) which brings us back to joke’s ever present ✨crippling lack of self-worth✨,,,,, i think he genuinely thinks this is the last time he’s going to have jack. because now on top of the guilt of What He’s Done, he thinks he’s upped the betrayal factor now that he has confirmation that jack likes him back. like based on jack’s reaction to the situation when they were barely just becoming friends, it’s understandable to assume that this broken promise would cut deeper.

and y’know in case that didn’t already deal me enough psychic damage, i think at the beginning of this conversation he just thinks it’s the last time he’s going to have jack from an emotional standpoint. and then jack is being brave and playful and straightforward (just like that first confession, which he also DIDN’T BELIEVE WAS POSSIBLE IN THE MOMENT goddddd im so emo) and he’s just like welp might as well have this last moment where he loves me for real to keep close to my chest for the rest of forever. and he’s ecstatic to have it like this boy is straight up glowing. the slow smiles, like he can’t believe he gets to have this. (which like. again. i think that he thinks he doesn’t which obviously i am feeling Very Normal about hahahaha)

then to round this all out we have That Kiss,,,,, like. whew. the absolute explosion of pent up feelings is seriously unmatched by any other bl (and possibly just like,,,, every drama) i have ever watched. but of course even with that i’m not done overthinking things because these mfs make me truly unhinged. like there is that fucking feral face joke makes when they pause for their forehead touch and instead of enjoying this beautiful and satisfying moment for more than five seconds, my brain would not let me live and was like “oh,,,, is this the moment where it hits him like a sack of bricks that this is maybe also the last time he gets to have jack from a physical as well as the originally presumed emotional standpoint? and maybe he should just choose to be selfish and let himself have this for once, if it’s going to be the last time?” bc hnnnn idk something about him in that tender moment just projected underlying grief to me and perhaps i am overthinking that! perhaps it’s just grief for time lost with a little dash of guilty conscience!

anyways then there’s,,,, the possibility of jack’s perspective on this also gaining a lot more nuance which i only even thought of as a concept in the middle of writing this insane manifesto for licherally over 3hrs so frankly! i am not even remotely emotionally or mentally equipped to handle The Implications of that! that is officially too many layers and changes my entire viewpoint of the microexpressions on jack’s face also and i simply cannot deal with it! i am already eating glass about them!! i am Looking Away!!!!

in conclusion, i am so so so so so so normal about them thank you for coming to my ted talk.

(if you sat through this, i’m so fucking sorry.)

[ep2nd]

@anxious-anon-time sorry for being late, was really busy this weekend

I'm very sorry this is 2 weeks late, had to board a plane, then was relaxing on Vacay, then had to catch up in school the next week

"What do you think of the Ink Scroll arc"

I absolutely stinking loved it.

Now here's the essay you ask for (or didn't, I just want to write an essay)

1. Love the foreshadowing/self awareness. Ex. When MK says "Maybe this the part of our journey where things get DARKEE" the poor boy- also love how the word Journey was used, foreshadowing how it was about the Journey to the West

2. Everyone had good arcs, except Pigsy? Like, MK beautiful, Meis opposite nature to Ao Lie, lovely, Sandy fighting the monster allegations, been his trauma since the beginning (when he references he's changed since meeting Pigsy last), showcasing the difference between Tang and Tripitaka qns for Tang to get more development?! Woo!!! But Pigsy?? Having the same plot/character development of Sandy, where being a monster doesn't matter Yada Yada Yada, it just didn't make sense.

There was no part beforehand where Pigsy EVER questioned that part of him, unlike Sandy who's been afraid of hurting someone, yes I enjoyed the episode, the Cook references from previous (and also Freenoodle crumbs) were amazing. What I wish they had done was something like Pigsy questioning his family, or chosen family in this case. THEY EVEN WENTOF THEIR WAY TO MAKE THE "MONKEY KINGS NOT MY DAD PIGSY IS" MOMENT. Like- I just Pigys arc was more family/friend centered, definitely would compliment whatever jumbo shrimp mess MK had going on

3. Talking bout MK- the trauma and angst were GORGEOUS we love it. My boy been through so much. And we learned more of his past?! The theorists were going CRAZY. Love the Sunburst and Soysauce moment, MMMMMMMM, this boy needs to stop trusting people so quickly oh my gosh AZURE WHEN I CATCH YOU-

4. Really good villain. Love how they went with a villain who thought HE was the hero, and main character I guess lol. Was he a turned villain? Yes but he was a good one! Kinda wish the foreshadowing was better, instead of that one episode where Tang just watched and realized it. He's a complex character, who just wanted to help people, and yeah his ambition wasn't even bad, the Jade Emperor isn't great even, but he took it too far

5. Great job yall, you guys made a character everyone hates, Peng, Revalis brother from another mother

6. Yellow Tusk was ehhh, wish we saw more of his character, seemed interesting, loved his loyalty

7. Now LMK is very special from other shows I've watched he'd because well, I'm willing to rewatch many episodes, even if I know what will happen, I tend to not rematch ANYTHING because of this problem, but LMK is just different. For some reason the Scroll arc is the exception, I like it, but for some reason I don't see myself rewarching it, don't know why

8. Ink MK was a beloved, his voice?! Design?!? DIALOG AND SPEECH PATTERN!?!? BRILLIANT. really love all Ink people moments, mostly just Ink MK, and Wukong.

9. Glad Wukong got development, man is facing the consequences of his actions and its really getting him, I'm glad he's getting really good development.

10. Master Subodhi. Do I need to say more?! Loved him dearly. Wish he and Wukong remet. :( liked his character very much, I like how he wasn't even real in the Scroll and still had omniscient abilities. My only question was what else did he know?! On that note, is anyone going to talk about how the girl is just, like immortal?! The Acolyte as yall call her. Now I don't think Subodhi just GIVES out immortality, I feel like he saves it for special people, like Wukong, no I have theories and headcannons for her but that's another day.

Also I'm a suckered for any JTTW character appearance. LMK GIVE ME ERLANG SHEN, GOLD STAR OF VENUS, GUANYIN, ANY OF NEZHAS BROTHERS, AND MY LUFE IS YOURSSSSS

11. The only thing I can think of left is how in the world did the Scroll worked?!? Like, it didn't teleport them to the past, I've been making a simulator almost? But then why does the characters inside feel so real, and how did Wukong trap Peng and Yellow Tusk, and where and hwt have they been doing?! AND HOW DOES THE OMNISCIENT POWER OF SUBHODI WORK. MAN CANT HAVE THAT MUCH PLOT REASONS POWER. AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE HOW DID THEY GET THE OLD PILGRIMS WEAPONS LAST TIME I CHECKED TRIPITAKAAS STAFF WSS IN WUKONGS CAVE

[bestbonnist]

Chapters 176 and 177

176.1 | 176.2 | 176.3 | 177.1 | 177.2 | 177.3

Abel’s motives are a bit difficult to discuss while I’m avoiding bringing up anything from the chapters after 177. This is going to be more like a collection of short, unrelated analyses. Not an essay. Sorry 'bout that!

Chapter 176 "His Motives"

I can’t remember Fushi ever using one of their forms’ full names as an alias like this. It's usually just "Joaan." They didn’t come up with it as an attempt to hide their identity either, because they ask Bon if they should have just said “Fushi” a few seconds later. Fushi is taking following in Yuuki’s footsteps literally, to the degree where they’re trying to be him. Put in another way... Fushi doesn't believe in their own ability to come to a peaceful resolution. They're imitating Yuuki because they've got more faith in him than they do in themselves.

Chapter 176 "His Motives"

If Fushi’s version of the doll is too light, then that means the machinery is too tiny and complicated for them to recreate. That machinery is what lets the doll move around. Putting those two thoughts together: if that machinery gets broken, Fushi won’t be able to fix it. If the doll's body gets destroyed, that's it. She doesn't get to come back like Fushi's other friends.

Chapter 176 "His Motives"

Tonari's complicated relationship with the adults in her life when she was a kid actually gives her interactions with Andy a lot of potential. On Jananda, she had to put on a mature act while manipulating others (capturing Pioran, forcing Fushi to fight in the tournament...). Her biggest worry after growing up is that she's just like the "dirty adults" she used to hate. And meanwhile we have Andy, who wants to be seen as an adult really badly. Tonari acknowledges him as a grown-up—or more like, she acknowledges that he wants to be a grown-up—so he starts liking her immediately. I wonder how this is gonna play out.

Chapter 177 "His Motives - Part 2"

It's that winged motorcycle helmet from Chapter 166! Looks like a fallen angel... or like Icarus. Completely antithetical to the ad that they starred in—they're supposed to represent freedom and limitless possibilities, but instead Kaibara confines them to the ground. Nice symbolism.

Chapter 177 "His Motives - Part 2"

Chapter 119 "New Encounter"

Chapter 30 "The Family on the Hill"

When I was rereading this chapter I noticed that Fushi turns into Shin whenever they need to carry someone, like how he wanted to carry his younger brother one last time.

Chapter 177 "His Motives - Part 2"

When Fushi loses a form, they automatically turn into the closest thing. When they lost Yuuki they turned into his family/the occult club members. When they lost Shin they turned into Rean. They turned into Nand’s brother after losing Nand, and then Sander because he was also on Jananda. And then they rotate through the rest of Tonari’s friends. I've never noticed that pattern before, but it just goes to show how much of their power is based on memory. They can tell that something's missing, and they can remember what that thing is associated with, but they don't know who it is.

Chapter 177 "His Motives - Part 2"

What "Hanna" says about the doll being important leads into Fushi's memory of the first time they saw her. The final thing they remember is how happy the clones look when they're with the doll. Fushi feels like they broke their promise with Mizuha by failing to save her lookalikes, but the doll was there to fulfill that promise in their place.

[little-mouse-adventures]

Character asks: Maia - 12; Felix Harrowgate - 31; Butler - 17 and 35 please :D

12. Crack headcanon (Maia)

Boy's tall. Idk if that's canon or not, or how much of a crack headcanon it is, but like. His grandfather apparently towered over everyone, and I think it would be funny if Maia also becomes incredibly tall and no one really notices. He's still very quiet and polite and shy, so he just kind of looks like an awkward and adorable beanpole and no one thinks much of it. And then one day he goes full Edrahasivar VII and just dominates the entire room. Suddenly everyone is very aware that their Emperor is at Hozier-levels of tallness, and can very easily look down on damn near anyone he pleases. (After Maia is done putting the fear of the gods into whomever irritated him, he looks around and everyone is staring at him wide-eyed, suddenly remembering that this is the Emperor and not just some stand-in, and Maia has no idea how to react except to very politely ask Csevet to fetch everyone some calming tea)

31. If the had a tumblr what would it look like? (Felix Harrowgate)

Oh god. At first, before the events of the series, it's a collection of holier-than-thou vagueposts and long essays about obscure magical texts, and some length arguments about how wrong some of those texts are. Occasional vanity selfies, the kind where he pretends it wasn't a selfie and was just a casual picture someone happened to take of his best angle, while he was wearing his best jacket and had his hair just so.

Then shit goes down for him, and while he doesn't use tumblr much during his bout of madness, the few times he does it's to post borderline incomprehensible ramblings about the animal heads around him and what that means and the fantome in the tower and other such things, that those who followed him are all like. "Uh. you good, bro?" (he doesn't answer and disappears for another three months before his next post about the ghosts in the maze).

After the Troia adventure, there's a lot of the same kind of long-winded magical essays and arguments, but now they've shifted from being obscure topics to being slightly taboo topics. Lots of aesthetic pictures where he wonders if anyone else can see the ghosts or the noirance, and people start to think he's trolling.

In exile, again, long bout of ghosting. When he starts posting again, it consists of a lot of aesthetic pics of foxes and the Corambis countryside. There's yet more magical essays (he cannot shut up for the life of him) but they're not nearly as aggressive now, and seem more like someone wanting to share cool information rather than prove how much better and smarter he is than everyone else.

He's blocked anything to do with rubies.

17. Quotes, songs, poems, etc. that I associate with them (Butler)

Honestly it really depends on what AU/ fic I'm fixating on. There's not really a hard-and-fast "oh yes this is The Blorbo through-and-through!" thing for him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

35. Their idea of a perfect day (Butler)

April 25, not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket

Sorry. Anyways. Early morning, bit of time to himself to enjoy his coffee while he makes plans for the day. Bit of work to keep the mind occupied, interspersed with some cooking or gardening (or both, getting veggies from the garden to cook with). Someone decides to fuck around with his Principal in the afternoon, so he has a chance to be threatening and punch someone and generally engage in his dramatic side, but nothing that involves actual physical harm to his charge or himself. Then some meditation to calm down, and a chance to read his book before bed.