#and he didn't even do anything wrong

[diamondsunbursts-and-marblehalls]

When Yassan killed Max while he was unarmed, Alex felt responsible. He didn't pull the trigger but he might as well have, he got them in and past the security, and he was complicit in the man's murder. He was horrified and disgusted, at the murder and at himself. He was terrified of what his friends would think of his involvement and he couldn't bear to see their faces when they found out.

He somehow started seeing himself as culpable for something he was actually a victim of, Alex began to think that because he witnessed and unknowingly aided something he wasn't okay with, that meant it was his fault and because he wasn't able to stop it, that made him responsible.

Scorpia efficiently isolated him from everyone he loved and when they discovered they couldn't break down his morals and convince him to become a killer they were in the perfect position to convince him he had no family outside of Scorpia, and no worth to anyone now that he was tainted with someone's murder. He was trapped.

Julia takes advantage of his vulnerable emotional state and influences him to make the choice to kill Mrs Jones, but his moral compass and compassion end up being strong enough to keep him from going through with it.

He underwent some severe manipulation at the hands of Scorpia and almost didn't make it back. He deserves so much respect for being able to be true to himself even when he was so angry and couldn't see a way back.

In addition, Jack and Tom would have taken him back with no qualms regardless of whether he actually killed anyone or not, they're the kind of people who make that type of manipulation tactic completely ineffective. There is nothing he could do to make them abandon him. There are no lengths he could go that they wouldn't follow. He may not have understood the depth of their love for him, but I think he started to when they welcomed him back with zero questions about whether he killed Max or took revenge on the person who killed his dad. They didn't care, they were just happy to have him home.

In the same vein, I appreciated Kyra's hand in all this just as much as I did theirs. By holding him accountable and making him explain exactly what happened to make him feel like he couldn't come back or let them in she broke the hold of that manipulation. By explaining that "breaking into a house isn't the same as murder" she helped him see that even though he felt guilty and responsible and stayed away from them because of it, he wasn't. When she refused to let him off the hook it showed she cared, she cared that he was scared but made the right choice despite that. She cared that he was manipulated and didn't want that to happen again.

In essence, love pushed Jack and Tom to welcome him home no questions asked no matter what, and love pushed Kyra to hold him true to who he is. And again I circle back around to the fact that love is the most powerful thing in the universe.

[meagancandraw]

You ever think about how neither of them got to say goodbye?

[silverwhittlingknife]

So you're a go to source for all things Dick&Tim bros and you tend to write primarily from Dick's POV. So, odd question, but if you were to summarize their relationship from his POV in FIVE panels which panels would you pick? Keeping in mind that one specific aspect of their relationship that you love needs to be clearly represented by each panel (loyalty, trust etc). I hope this is a fun challenge and not an annoying question so if you don't want to answer that's cool! Have a wonderful day!

No more talk. The same thoughts run through two minds... (SotB 29) / You're my equal. My closest ally. (RR 1) / I can't stop thinking how much I rely on him. (GoG 3)

25 Feelings Dick Has About Tim

This was such a kind ask & a cool challenge which I totally failed; here are TWENTY-five panels of Dick's POV on Tim sdfdsfds Look, I got carried away! Marcia and Cindy! The boys!!

OKAY SO BEFORE I GET TO THE PANELS A FEW NOTES:

WARNING THAT THERE ARE SOME NEGATIVE EMOTIONS IN HERE because I love conflict but but but you gotta remember those are not the final word!! They are complicated people and sometimes they get mad at each other BUT ultimately their relationship is so hugely important in both their lives & they love each other and rely on each other so much -!!! <3

Also I have CONCLUDING THOUGHTS at the end about what Dick's POV leaves out (mostly: a lot of Dick defending & protecting & supporting Tim, which Dick does instinctively but isn't very self-aware about most of the time)

I have loosely organized my list into 5^5 format (5 categories with 5 examples each!), so if you want to skip to a relevant one, here are the categories!!

Below the cut:

I hate him and find him infuriating (#1-5)

On second thought, he's endearing & fun (#6-10)

Grief is complicated & he's all tangled up in mine (#11-15)

I love him & think highly of him (#16-20)

I rely on him & though it's hard for me, I trust him (#21-25)

I hate him and find him infuriating (#1 - 5)

1) He thinks he’s so smart and can psychoanalyze me and Bruce, but he doesn’t know me at all, he should get lost (New Titans 61)

2) He thinks he’s so smart and can psychoanalyze Bruce but he doesn’t know Bruce at all, he should get lost (Gotham Knights 26)

3) He is so nosy about stuff that is MY business (Robin 0)

4) He sounds like an insincere suck-up half the time... but okay, fine, if you push him he's got a sense of humor about it (New Titans 65)

5) I'm sure he's a better vigilante than me. It's my fault for being a failure, but I resent him anyway. (Nightwing 9 - Dick's having a nightmare)

On second thought, he's kinda endearing (#6-10)

6) He worries too much and gets anxious so easily, but it makes him fun to tease (Robin 67)

7) I'm not that competitive - okay, so maybe I'm a little competitive, I gotta make sure he doesn't get a swelled head (Prodigal)

8) I'm supposed to be his favorite! It is not cool for him to be fanboying over my not-girlfriend's not-boyfriend!! (Birds of Prey 19)

9) We have fun together. I can kick back and relax when it's just the two of us. Plus I get to boss him around a bit. (Prodigal)

10) He’s always trying to reassure me, and I guess it's a little comforting, but also he doesn’t really get it. Or me. He makes excuses that he shouldn't, because he doesn't understand that I suck. (Nightwing 64)

Grief is complicated and he's all tangled up in mine (#11 - 15)

11) He reminds me of everything I try not to think about. Sometimes the memories are so strong it hurts to look at him. (Batman 441)

12) WHY IS HE BEING IMPOSSIBLE ALL OF A SUDDEN??? THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING (Nightwing 139)

13) We're the same. He says all the things I don't let myself think about. It's like arguing with myself. (Nightwing 139)

14) He thinks he gets to tell me what to do but he doesn’t, fuck him (Battle for the Cowl)

15) Life sucks, so what. I sucked it up so he should too (RR 1)

I love him and think highly of him (#16 - 20)

16) He’s the closest thing to a brother I’ll ever have.  If someone hurts him I will hurt them harder. (Nightwing 6)

17) I can't handle the idea of losing him. (Nightwing 97)

17) He’s so good and I’m not. I'm afraid I’m bad for him. (Nightwing 110)

18) He’s better than me, and it’s kind of a relief because I know no matter what he’ll be okay. (Gates of Gotham 3)

19) In my head he’s the responsible one.  (Gotham Knights 10)

I rely on him, and though it's hard for me, I trust him (#20-25)

20) I know I have to trust him but I'm afraid he'll make the wrong choices and get hurt (Nightwing 139)

21) I'm sure I know what he should do because I see myself in him - not that I can take my own advice, but he should (Blackest Night 3)

22) I trust him.  When I’m losing my grip on things, he pulls me back. (Gotham Knights 10)

23) I want him to trust me (Red Robin 12)

24) He can tell when I'm lying. Sometimes he sees my weaknesses better than I wish he did. (Detective Comics 874)

25) He’s always there when I need him. (Teen Titans / Outsiders Secret Files)

Final rambling thoughts:

TIM: Uhh, okay, so I'm just skimming this list - do you really trust me? you're not just saying that? - but anyway, I'm confused because you left some stuff out? Like some stuff that's kinda important? DICK: No? I think I got everything? TIM (starts counting on his fingers): The time I was having a bad day but then I called you. The time I got captured by Two-Face but then you saved me. The time I fell off a train but then you saved me. The time I fell off a building but then you saved me. The time I fell off a different building - DICK: I feel like you're trying to make some kind of point but I'm not sure what it could be.

SO THE THING IS, I put 25 panels in here and not a single one has Dick catching Tim when he’s falling!!! But I think that's a central motif of their relationship from Tim’s POV, not Dick’s. I love Dick, but in some ways I think he is spectacularly un-self-aware.

And I think he especially has a lot of blind spots about Tim. He kinda intermittently gets that Tim admires him, and he enjoys it in a playful I-get-to-boss-you-around way. But Dick tends to consistently underestimate all of his own good qualities & skills, and he meets Tim at a point in his life when he's especially down on himself & his abilities. And so he's unable to see his own influence on Tim, & therefore unable to fully understand a lot of Tim's priorities and loyalties and motivations, because you can't actually understand Tim without understanding Dick's impact on him. There's a fascinating moment in Bruce Wayne: Murderer when Dick's completely blindsided & upset to discover that Tim doesn't entirely trust Bruce, even though this has been a definitive fact of Tim's whole thing ever since he showed up with his Batman needs Robin theory, and Barbara has to actively remind Dick of the obvious-to-everyone-except-Dick fact that a lot of Tim's loyalty is to Dick, and Tim loves Bruce but feels free to be more wary of him. (And to give Bruce credit: this is not something he ever begrudges.) But anyway Babs points this out, and Dick manages to sorta process it for about five seconds, but he cannot actually accept it into his worldview so instead he discards it at the speed of light and goes off and has an argument with Tim instead sdfsfdsf

All of Dick's virtues - Dick's kindness at the circus and Dick's determination to fight through grief and Dick's rigid sense of morals and Dick's vigilante skills and every time Dick has ever backed Tim up or listened to him or protected him or saved him from something or just been casually kind to a stranger in Tim's presence etc etc etc - all these things loom really large in Tim's mental story of Who Dick Is, and What Dick And Tim's Relationship Is. Tim meets Dick before he meets Bruce, trusts Dick more than Bruce, aspires to be Robin instead of Batman. And so in Tim's default version of the story, Dick is the super-special and admirable hero and Tim is... nobody in particular, a tagalong outsider who's barely managing to be a hero, not part of Dick and Bruce's family and not part of their story, who, if he's VERY LUCKY and tries REALLY HARD, might be able to fight his way to proving himself and offering something to Dick that Dick will value, if Dick doesn't get fed up with him first.

But that's not Dick's version of the story!!!

Dick's version of the story is almost the exact opposite, a story where Dick's an outcast failure black sheep who's screwing up everything he tries, and meanwhile Tim is The Sudden New Perfect Robin Who's Better Than Me And Probably Bruce Loves Him More And Probably They Gossip About What A Loser I Am, mixed with a complicated edge of Tim Thinks He's So Smart But He Doesn't Know Me/Us At All. Dick gets much more attached to Tim over time, and Tim gets unnervingly better at the know-it-all psychoanalysis so then Dick gets to have complicated feelings about him being right instead of just annoyance at him for being wrong, plus Dick's relationship with Bruce improves a lot, so Tim stops feeling so threatening. But Dick never fundamentally changes his basic theory of their relationship in which Tim is highly impressive and capable, and Dick is not so much.

And so asking Dick about Tim is kinda like if you asked George Bailey to tell you about Harry Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life; like, you'll be there for five hours while he tells you how great Harry is, and how accomplished Harry is, and how he doesn't really get how or why Harry does the things he does, and maybe George does feel a little resentful or jealous sometimes, but that pales in comparison to all his admiration and trust for Harry who he loves so much, who's better than him in so many ways, and he's not gonna openly gripe but secretly he can't help but feel sometimes like he's such a failure in comparison to Harry, a perfect person who emerged fully formed from Zeus's head with all the virtues and also all the accomplishments, etc. etc. etc. --

-- and he will not actually remember the part where he changed and saved Harry's whole entire life unless you literally send him to an alternate timeline in order to force him to remember it. <3

[nelkcats]

The Spiteful Ghost

Danny loved space, and loved exploring it almost as much as he loved the Realms (yes, apparently he had made a home there, and learned to love its quirkiness, who could knew right?). The problem was that over the years the halfa acquired another characteristic: He hated heroes.

It might seem ironic, considering his teenager years but he just couldn't stand the concept of heroism (he never chosed to be one), not after all he had been through. Not after losing his family and ending up with more than deep wounds, not after humanity called him a villain for protecting the ghosts, not after the world chosed to sacrifice him after all he did for them (Amity was his world, and the city handed him over on a silver platter to save itself, they forced him to take drastic measures, actions he should never have taken, but when you're alone it turns out that no one can stop you)

They say that rancor can change you, the halfa can confirm. The point is, Danny hated heroes (he hated what they had to go through, hated that adult heroes weren't there for him, hated what it took to be a hero, leaving everything for the world was absurd, why would you accept something like that?). When the ghosts told him about the DC dimension he didn't take it exactly well. Although at least those heroes had a base in space.

Clockwork forbade him to go for a few months (he understood his grudge, quite personal, but he didn't want it to destroy him, he didn't want him to destroy himself), but when he saw him lost and depressed he allowed it, probably because he knew it would cheer him up for a while. Maybe he saw some future where he reconciled with the "profession", or maybe he thought he needed it (the halfa wasn't evil, Clockwork knew he wouldn't hurt anyone).

So, Danny arrived in the hero dimension and set out to be the world's biggest nuisance: moved chairs, ate their snacks, disappeared their stuff. He wasn't doing anything exceptionally big until he overheard an argument between the Red Hood and Batman.

After that, Batman ran out of gadgets in no time and Red Hood found little desserts everywhere. By the time they called JLD, it was pretty obvious they had an invader (the invader strangely loved Young Justice, and anti-heroes, seemed to hate Batman thought).

John Constantine entered feeling that he was walking to his funeral, why the hell had the Ghost King installed himself in a hero base, if it was rumored that he hated them to death?

[nightwolf14292]

As much as I love TimKon, I prefer TimBern and it's mainly because of this:

“Bernard says I sacrifice myself like it's a bad thing.”

“But it's all I've ever known.”

“All that my family has ever been taught.”

Tim, out of all of the BatFamily members is the one that never really had a choice.

Bruce had a choice to become Batman. He almost retired, until things went badly again and he realized how much more awful Gotham would be if he did.

Dick had a choice to become Robin. When Bruce fired him he could've finished college and lived a normal life, but he chose to continue on as Nightwing.

Jason had a choice to become Robin. And while his mind had been messed with after being dunked in the Lazarus Pit, he had a choice to become Red Hood, too.

Damian had a choice to become Robin. He fought hard for the role, and seems to genuinely enjoy doing it.

Tim didn't have a choice to become Robin. Yes, no one actually forced him into the role, but he saw what had happened to Bruce after Jason's death (such as how he became more violent), and knew that Bruce needed a Robin to keep himself sane. He tried going to Dick, but Dick said the best he could do was help as Nightwing as he wasn't willing to be Robin again. So Tim felt like he had to take up the role, because Batman, his greatest hero, would lose it if he didn't.

Tim also didn't have a choice to give up being a vigilante, unlike the others. When he got replaced as Robin, Bruce was trapped in time and everyone but him thought he was dead. He didn't have Dick's experience of going out soul searching and deciding that being a hero was what he wanted in life, he had to almost immediately take up a new secret identity and start going on missions so he could find out what happened to Bruce.

I love TimBern so much, because Bernard is Tim's connection to civilian life. If you're a hero dating a hero, even when you're being civilians and doing civilian things, there's always going to be the knowledge of who you both are really, and the missions you've been on together (Such as Tim looking at Kon and remembering things like when he tried to clone him because he was ‘dead’). I feel like with Bernard, Tim can be a full on civilian and forget about the hero life for a while, and that makes it special.

Also I just think Bernard is neat :3

[starry-bi-sky]

"Why didn't they just fish?" in Epic: The Musical

I'm more active with the Epic fandom on tiktok than I am on tumblr (in the sense that interact with it more often), but one common joke/criticism I see there is that Odysseus and his crew could've avoided Polyphemus entirely if they just fished. At first I thought it was a funny joke, but then I saw people like, actually criticizing Odysseus and his crew for it. And it slowly stopped being funny, and now I'm just sick of it.

So, why couldn't they just fish?

Right off the bat, I can think of several reasons why.

Lack of proper equipment

Quantity

Time (Preparation, Longevity of the fish, the time it takes to fish, etc)

Proper Fishing Areas

To start with: Odysseus and his crew just off the bat don't have the equipment to fish. Yes, I'm aware they have harpoons as mentioned in "Storm". I don't know why they have harpoons, but they do. Harpoons in fishing are used against large, deep sea fish. Fish you are most likely going to see in deeper parts of the water that require speciality equipment that ancient grecian soldiers straight up don't have. And if you use a harpoon against a smaller fish, you're more than likely going to mostly destroy or otherwise damage the fish and leave less meat behind to eat. You're going to break bones, and fish bones are thin, fragile, and easily choke-able on. It's a waste of time and effort.

Then, what about nets? Those also don't work, because if they have nets on their ships, then those nets are not going to be fishing nets. They're going to be nets made as tools or equipment for the ship, which means the holes in between are likely too big to catch anything. Those nets also are likely not weighted so that they can sink to the bottom and catch fish; those nets are gonna float. And, those nets probably aren't going to be big enough to catch a mass haul either, and they have six hundred men to feed.

"Why not use their ropes to make fishing nets." Well, they could! They live on an island, and six hundred men there's bound to be someone who knows how to make a fisher's net. But they need that rope. That rope serves a purpose. Rope is an essential equipment on ships, even in modern day, ships will have hundreds to thousands of pounds of rope because they need it.

All rope has its breaking point. Rope frays, it snaps, it weakens over time. They need rope for the sails, for anchoring, if that rope breaks, they need to have the tools ready to replace it, and they can't do that if that rope has been turned into a fishing net. Plus, ship rope and fishing rope are entirely different things and have different thickness and material.

"They can just undo the net" no they could not! Making a fishing net by hand takes approximately eight hours. Those knots have to be tight enough to not loosen up when something pushes against it, unknotting a fishing net would take hours to do, and to do that every time they need to fish? It's just not worth the energy and time, especially if they have a low quantity of soldiers who know (and remember!) how to make a fisher net. Plus, undoing the net would just fray the rope and make it unusable.

Also, fish don't swim up at the top of the ocean. They're going to be found deeper down in the cooler parts, or in the shallows and reefs by the islands. And fish startle really easily. They're going to zip away and hide at the first sign of movement or sound. When I was little and my dad would take us fishing, he would remind us to be quiet so we didn't scare the fish away.

The fish in the reef are finite too. There are also going to be different amounts of fish in each area. Even on the river, there were some parts that were teeming with fish, and then spots that were completely dead. Odysseus and his crew would have to find where these spots are, and then try, with their ill-equipped nets and harpoons, to catch those fish.

Which brings me to my next issue: quantity. One medium-sized mammal like a sheep could feed, what, at least fifteen men. Fifteen fish could feed about three. In a family of four we needed to catch at least twenty palm-sized blue-gills in order for us to all eat and not be hungry after, and that's with other food with us too.

The amount of fish that would need to get caught in order to adequately feed six hundred men enough that they have the energy to row their 50-men ships -- which are about 50 tons -- would have to be industrial amount, they'd need to be catching fish every day. There wouldn't be enough fish on a single island to feed six hundred men. They'd need to hop from island to island in order to get enough fish to feed everyone, and then they wouldn't get anywhere.

And why do that when there's twenty, perfectly good sheep, right over there? Which is another thing. They're hunting animals on an island, a finite space. Fishing in a reef or shallows, the fish has access to the massive ocean right next to it. Those fish can get spooked away at a moment's notice and poof, gone. Meanwhile, there's only so much space that a sheep on an island can go, and only so many places they can hide. If it runs, we're persistence predators! We can just follow them, and corner them. We can't follow fish into the ocean, that's when we're on the fishes terms.

Fishing also takes hours. Which yes, hunting also does too. But the payout for hunting a sheep (can feed at least fifteen men) is far greater than the payout of fishing (could feed three, maybe four). Plus again, island; there's only so far they can go, and they have bows and arrows. The time it'd take to hunt the sheep and get enough to feed everyone would be significantly less than the time it'd take to catch fish for everyone.

In two hours you could not have caught a single fish, even in modern day (and I know this from personal experience). In two hours, on an island, you could have probably already caught a deer, or a sheep.

Preparation too. Longevity. Essential nutrients that fish do not have. There are certain fish you can't eat because they're poisonous, or they lack certain nutrients, or they just don't get big enough to feed even a single man. As I mentioned before, fish have these iitty bitty bones that are thin, sharp, and easily choke-able. Descaling and deboning a fish takes time that these soldiers don't really have; they're trying to row this great big ship back home. They can't waste effort on picking apart the bones of a fish so they don't choke or otherwise hurt themselves. Mammals have a ton of meat, and big bones! No worries there about choking or deboning.

Fish spoils faster than meat does. Yes there are all these preparations for food that go against spoiling, but still, those preparations would be for meat, veggies, fruits. Fish would need to be preserved differently, and if they don't they'd need to be constantly fishing in order to make up for the loss of stock. Then they'd never get anywhere because you can't fish on the open ocean without the proper equipment, that they would not have as ancient greeks AND soldiers. Like this is a warship, not a fisher ship.

Think of it this way: you're trying to feed six hundred men, and not only that, you're trying to get enough food to keep them fed for at least the rest of the journey or long enough to find another island that has food on it.

Would you rather: risk your hand trying to fish with shoddily, ill-equipped nets or harpoons that are not made for fishing, and catch maybe twenty fish within ten hours? And maybe six are big enough to feed one or two men?

Or

See if there are any large animals on the island that you can hunt, as well as any edible fruits or plants that you can bring back with you and do this in four.

Which one are you choosing?

Overall, there are just too many negatives in fishing that makes it, as a whole, completely pointless to do. Lack of proper equipment, quantity, time, and fishing spots are all things that come into play. I can appreciate it as a funny joke, and I did at first, but when it's taken as an actual criticism is where I go "hold on, have you ever actually gone fishing before?"

[dariusaurs]

i think dinostar is such an interesting ship right now even if i've kind of turned away from it after this season. the problem is that it's complicated, and fandoms historically don't like nuanced situations or takes. i don't think it's fair to say darius is putting brooklynn on a pedestal, since from his perspective, she hasn't done anything wrong, and kenji has been framed as this unfair partner to her. it does feel like his feelings are very immature and more of an infatuation right now ("if he loved you half as much.."/"unless?"), especially when you compare them to kenji's own feelings for brooklynn - his girlfriend who he's loved for 6 years - but that isn't a horrible thing, it's just different. i do completely understand if people dislike the ship right now, and even criticize darius' way of handling the accidental confession, but i just think people have been way too harsh on all three of them without being willing to see that all of their perspectives are different

[mysticalcats]

finally finished starlight express so here is my silly train oc?! more about him under the cut :)

connie is extremely fast and prides himself on always being on time to his next stop. he gets impatient REALLY easily and you'll probably see him tapping his foot with a look of absolute fury on his face if he's being held up by something.

he often gets very frantic and panicked as he makes his way to his next stop, because he cares so much about being there on time. this guy does Not know how to relax

he loves his job tho and is like a jolly train conductor :) (ignoring all the other stuff he has going on)

[dykedvonte]

wanted to say I appreciate your nuanced takes on MW and especially Curly. i don't get the claim that the fandom is full of Curly apologists when majority (esp yt and tiktok) say he's worse than Jimmy. Yes there's commentary about bro culture defending people, he def messed up in trying to placate Jimmy (tbh "we'll fix this" sounded more like trying to keep someone prone to outbursts like Jim calm and not hurt Anya/himself) but I don't think he did nothing to help Anya, since she continued to confide in him and he had less than a week to resolve it before the crash (I also don't get everyone saying he knew for ages when it seems like Anya told him that same week). I get Jimmy's a pos but saying stuff like Curly should've known he'd crash the ship or that Jim had a criminal record he ignored, reducing them to obviously horrible villain and willfully ignorant sidekick feels like a disservice to the game. If your best friend turned out to be horrible, what would you do in a confined space in the span of a few days to respond? I'd say some of the horror comes from trying to do good but ultimately failing, Curly's state after the crash is meant to be tragic horror not revenge/punishment

Thank you and this is what I want to get across.

A lot of information we have to supplement when it comes to how long things have been happening on this current ship. I think people try to add on to the horror and negligence by making things more obvious so it can feel like it was easier to avoid when, true to life, its not. Jimmy clearly didn't deserve or appreciate what Curly did for him in getting him the job, but do you think if Jimmy was that big of a menace on Earth he would've given him a position where he could have that level of power over people's lives? There's something in the fact he specifically chose to pick a position so close to himself where he could watch Jimmy.

I hate the bro code argument because that is a whole can of worms people really don't get. That sort of mentality is born from the general respect and preference of male matter over female ones. Curly is clearly not that guy, he is absent minded about the issue and inadvertently dismissive but he clearly believes Anya, he just can't understand what she's going through. It's an onslaught of information that no one really reacts right to. Additonally, the entire discussion of her assualt plays to heavy into the idea that there is fault outside of the perpertratior when it comes to SA. It's too close if she only did this or if Curly had protected her better but the fact of the matter is Jimmy did what he did. He did it before any of the conversations with Anya about it and it's why her behavior seemed to change so drastically in those last two days.

He has other conflicting thought and while his role as a Captain should've taken over, people act like it's not a very human thing to have such a toxic presence cloud your judgement. It is never easy to separate friend from coworker once that connection is formed, you want to help them, especially if they were friend first and for a long while like in this case. It's not right, but people act like it would be easy when the game clearly points out that no choice is easy to make, especially when you have to make it for more than one person. You have the weigh the consequences, look at all the options and make a plan. People can headcanon and decide how long things where happening, but if we look at what we were presented through the characters eyes, the only person given time to do that was Jimmy.

He waited two months after the crash to appoint himself Captain. Every time a problem was brought up he immediately took action and refused to sit on it and find a better solution. I think it's important to look at the warped way Jimmy takes initiative where Curly didn't as it works as a good contrast of why you don't just run in to "fix" things. The quickest and easiest option may not be the safest or most beneficial. I think some thoughts on the game suffer from the black and white thinking the game doesn't operate on along with us being voyeurs. We see what exactly led to what but the characters don't. They don't have the hindsight and foresight we do and even ours is scrambled by the non-linear story telling.

Like it's hard to talk abuou those grey zones without sounding like an apologist because you're explaining why taking responsibility isn't easy. It's not and it's weird to act like it would be in a scenerio that led up to the events of the game knowing what we know. We see all these characters in such isolated moments with various things before, in between, after and even during we aren't privy too. The idea that Jimmy is worse than Curly heavily banks on the words Jimmy was saying to Jimmy before he crashed the ship. That whatever happened on the ship was his responsibility to bare, which is true due to his position. But, are they not still not responsible for taking the actions Curly then must bare?

Like i feel like people think that these are situation that become easier with age or when you are in a postion of authority and they aren't. You don't lose your biases or gain some sudden knowledge that makes it easier. It just becomes more tiring as you keep dealing with it. I would be first in line to say Curly fucked up and should've done more but the idea he knew how bad it could get or he really saw the worst in the people around him and ignored it pretty much ignores a huge aspect of his character and the game.

[theshiningcrusader]

every two to three months i am reminded of hellpark pocket and it makes me go crazy. expect a redesign or ramblings

[qiu-yan]

based on this

boss idk how politics work

[foxgirlmoth]

So F1nnster just came out as genderfluid but still I super fucking hate him. Making trap content and constantly making money off of a performance of being a fake girl, getting a name change and gender marker change and posting about going through that all while basically shoving it in the faces of trans women who have struggled over years and years. You've been a performance and you've gained wealth essentially making fun of us and enforcing horrible stereotypes, and saying "Yeah I just don't care about gender" Does Not Make Me Fucking Forgive Any Of That. What fucking hatred you've tossed onto your channel towards trans women will not go away easily, and Fuck You.

[fisheito]

my princess nonsense is being encouraged watch ouyt imabout to be eneaabled

OK WHATF ATHAT'S SO CUTE I HAD TO MAKE IT i know realistically there's little to no chance that rei DOESN'T know how to work heels 🤣 BUT IMAGINE.....ING.... YAKUMO GENTLY GUIDING REI IN HEELS, WEEKS BEFORE THE BIG GALA AND HAVING NONE OF HIS NORMAL FEAR OF PHYSICAL TOUCH BC HIS [TEACHER MODE] IS OVERRIDING HIS INSECURITY

[phoenixcatch7]

Okay but why haven't we had a time travel/fix it fic where after some shenanigans everyone decides to take down shinra, they split up to take out the important figures, sephiroth obviously takes hojo for any and all of a dozen good reasons.

And then hojo pulls a winter soldier sleeper code on him.

And then everyone is suddenly dealing with a brainwashed sephiroth.

-

Hojo has to have some way to control sephiroth as he grew into his monstrous strength and power, yes? And learned helplessness isn't enough of a reassurance your prized military leader powerhouse isn't going to wake up one day and realise just how easily he could paint the labs walls red with chunks of you. And because hojo is obsessed with total power and control, dealing with a murder machine with huge mental issues, it'd only be fitting he create his own emergency shutdown.

In the most needlessly traumatic and mentally violating way, of course. Would sephiroth even know, if he couldn't remember? Would he have long stretches of emptiness in his memories that never get explained to him, or would he wake up where he'd blacked out, just another day in the labs?

Imagine, his allies watching on the cameras, as sephiroth stalks into the labs, a predator sighting its prey, exchanging a few cold words with hojo, raising masamune... And then hojos mouth opening, sephiroth going stiff like an animatronic, rearranging himself on the floor where he stood, face hidden behind his hair. Hojo leaves the room and he doesn't move, doesn't respond to any comms or passing scientists accidentally rolling a cart over his coat and hair.

Hojo ordering sephiroth to reveal their plans, their allies, their resources. Sephiroth doing it. Hojo deciding to punish sephiroth for the rebellion with lab procedures, or hojo ordering him to hunt down his co conspirators and end the takeover. Sephiroth doing so, heavy in his steps, crashing through walls and doors, heedless now of morals or civilians, silent, unresponsive. So completely unlike the jenova malice they'd been prepared to fight, that sephiroth had been bracing against. No arrogance, no mocking, no dramatic battlefield or hungry glowing eyes.

The puppeteer becomes the puppet, and with it, every trace of holding back. The perfect soldier.

I imagine the first trigger word would be lucrecia.

[ronancecore]

So someone definitely beat up Dustin in cemetery/infront of Eddie's grave

Those who beat up Dustin probably vandalised Eddie's grave(a jocks wearing varsity jacket of hsh) Dustin confront them and that's the start of their fight.

[silverwhittlingknife]

can we have a hint about what the spring break tim patrol chapter of red letter day contains? (you kept having dick say "if the joker shows up" and tim's "he won't." for me to be convinced that goes off without any trouble)

i'm sure it'll be fine. :D

i am delighted you're enjoying the story <333 i haven't updated it in soooo long but i got some very sweet comments lately so i have been looking at my scribbles again <3