#and if we're doing that then we might as well also say

[crazyvik97rpg]

Ronald's little comment took Sebastian by surprise too. He honestly just assumed Ronald knew already - well, very clearly that assumption was wrong. William sighed then and explained.

"Oh-...gosh, love, no, it's okay. I thought you might have told him, is all", Sebastian spoke right away - it hadn't been William's responsibility after all. Safe to say - Ronald didn't take the news too well once William revealed to him that they were together.

Everyone else, Othello, Eric and Alan, all looked at Ronald, still not really sure how to react . Othello kind of shrugged and smiled, unsure. Alan and Eric kind of looked at each other for a moment and then shrugged as well: "We know..."

"What do you mean, YOU KNOW?! How can this even be, Will is a PRIE-?!"

"Oh shush, shut it! Do you wanna scream it a few more times?", Alan shushed him and put a hand over Ronald's mouth to keep him from shouting it out loud any further - after all, they weren't exactly alone in the room, even if Sebastian's neighbour was occupied with his own visitors.

Ronald just made a face at Alan before he took a step back - oh, now he was pouting, looking at them all hurt - he crossed his arms over his chest.

He looked at Sebastian and William again, seeing their hands tangled together, so casually and lovingly held. That was absolutely crazy - for Ronald it felt like as if his third eye opened just now. William and Sebastian together?? He always thought William was this cool celibate straight guy who got all the girls! Turns out he was dating Sebastian, a gay guy, after all?? WHAT was going on?!

"Hey, and also, why am I the only one that didn't know?!"

"We're sorry Ron, we really didn't mean to not tell you", Sebastian spoke up then, seeing their friend pretty upset about it, "There simply was-...never really a good time".

For I have sinned...

The principal cleared his throat, eyes scanning the notes that he had wrote down before this meeting. It already lasted an hour, and the teachers gathered in the faculty room were becoming restless and bored. But indeed there were some things to discuss, with the concert that the senior class was supposed to perform at the end of the semester, and with recent staff changes. 

William glanced down at his watch, sighing softly. His class was starting in 15 minutes, so at least, whether the meeting will be done soon or not, he will get to excuse himself. He looked out of the window, his mind wandering. Principal’s voice turned into white noise in the background. It was a pleasant day, late summer. But William was looking forward to a slightly cooler weather. Wearing all black could really be bothersome at times. 

“And lastly, I am pleased to announce that we have finally found replacement for the violin teacher. Dear Mr Tanaka, may he rest in peace, was with us for so many years that I’ve been concerned we won’t be able to find someone as good as to fill this position.” the principal spoke. “But Mr… Michaelis, was highly recommended to me, and he indeed has impressive references. He will be starting this week, so please welcome him warmly once he will arrive. Ah yes… about that. He will arrive today at noon, I need someone to pick him up from the train station and bring over for the tour around the school. Any volunteers?” 

William was barely listening, and definitely not paying much attention. He glanced at his watch again, and saw that it was time to leave, as his class was about to start. He raised his hand to excuse himself, and little did he know, he just volunteered.

“Father William! Excellent!” the principal exclaimed. “Just don’t be late, the train arrives at noon.”

“Train…?” William questioned, raising his brow. He had a feeling he was missing something…

***

Right after the meeting, William had to run for the class, so he had little time to clarify what exactly he had volunteered for. He was a piano teacher in this Music Academy, but also he served as a priest in local church. Well respected, and rather liked. So when he later found out it was about the new violin teacher, he didn’t refuse. Who, other than himself, would be a better choice to introduce a newcome to their community?

So even though he raised his hand by accident, he accepted this fate.

After classes, at noon, William took a taxi and drove to the train station, to pick up their new teacher. Wearing black trousers, and a black shirt with a thin tie, was absolutely dreadful in this weather, so William quickly found shelter under the roof of the station platform, that provided some shade.

The train had just arrived. William had no idea how Mr Michaelis looked like, but he figured he will just look for someone carrying a violin case with them. 

He was in for a bit surprise.

@crazyvik97

[lu-is-not-ok]

A Narcissistic reading of Hong Lu

Yup, I'm actually doing this.

To lay down some facts first: I have NPD, alongside a bunch of other things that coalesce into a nuclear concoction strong enough to kill every dark empath in a five mile radius. If I find you ableisting it up, I give myself the permission to smite you. This is a threat and a warning.

Now, let's talk about Hong Lu. Because as it turns out, he might just be the most difficult literacy check in Limbus Company according to what I've seen.

I could just say "I'm a narcissist and Hong Lu is just like me fr fr so he's a narcissist too" and end the post, but honestly, where's the fun in that? There are, legitimately, things I want to yap about, so I'm going to yap about them, and no chucklefucks can stop me.

So, to start this off, let's make one thing clear.

Hong Lu is not only a good actor, but also a skilled liar. The way he navigates conversations and the methods he uses are just as important to analyze as the actual words he says, if not more so. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that trying to understand him based Only on what he says and not how he uses the things he says would result in an understanding that's not only incomplete, but potentially outright wrong.

Now, this isn't really tied to why I think Hong Lu could be very reasonably read as having NPD, at least not directly. Narcissists aren't inherently evil liar manipulators, and if that's what you take away from this post, that's more of a you problem (and you can go ahead and block me considering I'm one of the evil liar manipulator narcissists according to you).

However, there is a reason why I have to bring it up. And it's because almost all of Hong Lu's narcissistic traits become a lot more obvious once you look at the exact ways he takes control of conversations.

With that out of the way, what exactly are we even looking for?

NPD, in my experience, primarily affects one's sense of self-worth and self-esteem. I personally found that the analogy of a pendulum makes the most sense to me - a narcissist's sense of self-worth can swing between massive highs and massive lows, almost never staying in a middle "balanced" position, with even the tiniest things being able to throw it to one side or another.

The ways this can present outwardly are. Quite frankly, way too fucking many to count. But there are some common threads we can keep in mind:

High sensitivity to criticism

Need for an external source of validation

Tendency to seek out ways to make oneself feel more special, important, or powerful

So, does Hong Lu fit those criteria?

Well. Yeah. This post wouldn't exist if he didn't.

Let's talk about the first point, high sensitivity to criticism. And, immediately, I would like everyone to remember Hell's Chicken, specifically the scene where Meursault begins to verbally roast his team's dish, and in the process laying down a verbal smackdown on everyone involved. That scene ended like this.

Curious, isn't it? The moment Meursault was about to start criticising Hong Lu, he just jumps in and distracts Meursault with a change of topic - something even Dante's narration points out.

Mind you, this isn't an isolated event. This is just the most obvious example of Hong Lu exhibiting this kind of behavior.

Don't believe me? Just look at these.

These are all examples of Hong Lu either backpedaling, changing the subject, or otherwise trying to avoid the acknowledgement of something that criticizes his status, thought process, or (in the last example) which would reveal an emotional vulnerability.

This is a fairly consistent pattern for him, and that's not even getting into the fact that the line he says when hovering over him before a skill check he has a Very Low chance at succeeding in has him suddenly try to excuse himself and leave.

Hong Lu is absolutely highly sensitive to criticism, it's just that his primary emotional reactions aren't ones we're privy to. Instead, what we get to see is how he acts to try and minimize the impact of those criticisms, if not outright find ways to never let them leave someone's mouth in the first place.

Next up - need for external validation.

This one doesn't have as many examples as the previous point, as Hong Lu is a generally closed off person who keeps a certain level of distance from most other Sinners. However, that doesn't mean I don't have any.

One such example comes from Canto 4, where soon after acting out his part in the play, Hong Lu seeks validation from Yi Sang.

Then there's this moment in Canto 6, where Hong Lu, once again, seeks validation for something he's done.

And then there's also these lines from Hong Lu's various Identities.

Aaaand then there's these base Identity voice lines, which, if you ask me, feel a bit like fishing for compliments.

This point is a lot harder to say is a definitive one, mainly due to Hong Lu's more closed off projected personality. That being said, the fact that one can find examples of it despite that is pretty notable.

And for the final one - trying to make oneself feel more special, important, or powerful.

This is one that's a bit harder to provide exact examples for, as again, Hong Lu isn't someone who talks about how he feels often, and when he does it's not always exactly trustworthy. He's not like Rodya, who while still putting on a facade, is pretty open and easy to read about how she actually feels.

But, there's still some non-mutually exclusive interpretations I want to posit here. Two, in fact.

One - I believe that for Hong Lu, the thing he sees as power is control.

See, avoiding criticism isn't the only time Hong Lu steers conversations. In fact, it's something he does All The Time. He's often the one asking questions to get the group moving, trying to gather information that might be relevant to him, and generally taking over the direction a conversation is going in. Chances are, if Hong Lu speaks up, it's likely to alter the conversation he joins in noticeable ways.

This, I think, is one of the ways Hong Lu makes himself feel more powerful. After all, it's not that hard to guess from what little bits of his background we have that Hong Lu lacked agency for most of his life. So, wouldn't it make sense for him that having that agency, that being able to be socially in control, would be the exact kind of thing that would boost his self-esteem?

In fact, the only times we see him rendered completely speechless, seemingly stripped of that confidence in conversations he usually exhibits, are in Canto 7 - specifically in scenes where he's Not In Control of what the others are talking about. Those scenes being when the other Sinners start shit-talking Xichun in front of him, and when Xichun actively tries to bother Hong Lu by alluding to the way he's been treated back at home.

Extremely confident until something external happens that utterly strips him of that confidence... sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Then, there's the second interpretation.

See, with NPD, there are two ways a narcissist can try to make themself feel more deserving of attention. One is the one most probably think of when they think about narcissists - setting out to fulfill extremely high goals to feel amazing when one reached them and then feeling utterly crushed in the case one doesn't. This would be someone like Rodya.

However, there is also another way, one which I personally have much more experience with - to undersell. To set extremely low expectations, so that it's as hard as possible to fail reaching them, and to feel way better upon surpassing them than one would with higher, more "regular" expectations.

This, to me, is exactly the kind of narcissist Hong Lu is. Think about it. He's constantly putting out this image of an extremely sheltered person that barely understands the outside world, with notable moments where it's made clear he's Just Making Shit Up at points. Wouldn't making one seem unable to do anything, only to then proceed to do things you've led people to not expect of you, make it feel like you're much more exceptional than you really are?

The underselling goes the other way too. When the other Sinners point out something odd about Hong Lu in a more positive way, he's often quick to point out how it's Nothing compared to what his Family expected of him. Wouldn't that make one feel exceptional, to make it seem like whatever effort you're putting in to do well is but a fraction of what else you can do? That you don't even have to try to be able to be special?

...So, there. That's all the analysis and interpretation I find important to do to get my point across.

Just to make it clear, I don't think that the only thing wrong with Hong Lu is the narcissism. There's definitely a lot more shit going on in that head of his. But, I'll be honest, the NPD reading felt so obvious to me that it genuinely took me by surprise that other people don't see it.

Though... maybe I shouldn't be shocked. Some fuckers out there still think Faust is a narcissist when she's literally just autistic.

[vind3miat0r]

project meridian loop theory

oohhh boy, we're back with me putting on a tinfoil hat and yapping about theories again

this is, of course, about the newest Project Meridian audio, so spoilers for that!!

(putting everything under the cut because theres a LOT)

JESUS CHRIST. okay. thats a lot. lots to unpack here mhm yep.

okay guys hear me out: Asset is stuck in a time or a simulation loop

bear with me im about to get REALLY nerdy with this BUT

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5 Episode 18 — "Cause and Effect" is a time loop episode. the entire crew gets caught in a time loop for about 27 days (but they obviously dont realize this until theyre out of the loop) the loop always begins with Captain Picard's personal log, and always ends with the accidental destruction of the Enterprise brought on by their warp core exploding due to being damaged while attempting to get away from an incoming ship that lost control of its direction

throughout the episode, each time the loop resets, the crew experiences intense deja vu, brought on by the fact that theyre reliving the same day over and over. theyre able to predict small events that happen (what cards come next in a poker game, Beverly predicting Geordi coming into Sick Bay, etc)

AND in one iteration of the loop, the crew figures out that theyre IN a time loop, and devise a method to avoid getting hit by the previously mentioned ship, which would set off the chain reaction of the warp core exploding

they do this method by using big brain science time knowledge that im too tired to understand, but basically the motif of the number 3 starts showing up in the next loop reset, and when the Enterprise is once again faced with only two choices to get away from the incoming ship, Data realizes that the reoccurring 3s are connected to Commander Riker (who has three pips to signify his rank)

(for context, in every loop where the Enterprise gets destroyed, the Captain followed Data's plan of using the tractor beam to steer the incoming ship away from the Enterprise. Riker's plan was to depressurize the cargo bays) Data follows through with Riker's plan, and this time the Enterprise doesnt explode (yippee!!)

you might be thinking, "Vinn, you just explained the entire episode to us. what does that have to do with project meridian??"

well, using instances from "Cause and Effect," we can compare them to some instances that just happened in "Something's Wrong"

— the second phone call could be an outside attempt to break Asset from the time/simulation loop

— Asset knowing who the Solitaires are despite not having access to information on them could be from another loop where James told them who the Solitaires are, and Asset remembering

— the phone at the end could signify the end/restart of the loop

— Asset's uneasiness about the Meridian in the beginning of the audio and their want to "seek approval" before entering it ( could be brought on by them somewhat remembering whats happened in previous loops)

— the first phone call (the one James picks up), theres some spooky ooky ambience in the background (could be that the phone is a conduit to the "real" timeline/world and only Asset is able to pick up on that??)

— when Asset and James leave the first room and enter a new area, someone on the PA makes an announcement for the Deltas. this announcement glitches, but James doesnt seem to notice, as he continues talking (i cant quite make it out, but it almost sounds like someone else is saying something?) (again, it could be interference from outside of the loop attempting to reach Asset)

— when stepping out of the elevator, someone brings James "the latest simulation report." again, outside interference/echoes from a previous loop perhaps trying to signal to Asset that theyre stuck in a simulation

— phone at the end also as someone saying "pick up" or "wake up," didnt realize until someone pointed it out. its very faint, but its there (again, could be someone attempting to break Asset out of the loop)

one thing that i find interesting (thats not related to the loop theory) is that James says the force in the Meridian "diverts demons away" and "breaks human minds" when usually demons are allowed through the Meridian and humans just. die. then again, we have no idea when PM takes place, so it could be normal if this is like,,, a good number of years in the future

uhh hashtag yeah. im perfectly sane guys :3

[thatonecrookedsmile]

I decided to finally color and post this thing I made a few months ago since we're getting close to BATDR's anniversary.

Consider this a fun concept based on a few things at the very least,or a Headcanon Based On Nothing At All at most. The "basis" for this comes from the fact that the Keepers' body and head are some kind of suit, with the zipper and "lens" being the most notable details of this. Which I found interesting.

Now,could the fact that they look like suits just be a side effect of them being offshots of the Machine? Yeah,yes it could. At the end of the day,the fact that they look like that can only be summed up as "they were created that way". Wilson just accidentally created cool-looking OCs. I doubt we'll get any kind of lore drop for the Keepers in the future beyond what we already know about them (but I could always be wrong).

The moment of inspiration that led me to do these sketches was when I was reading FTB and I was thinking about Gent and their experiments for a bit. The Keepers ended up getting into those thoughts at some point,which resulted in me doing… this!

So,yeah,what if the Keepers, before the Dark Revival,were old GENT containment suits?

Essentially,in my head,when JDS closed its doors,Gent continued the ink experiments in its own workshop,and the suits above were worn by the company's scientists while conducting some of these experiments. While we don't know what else the guys at Gent were doing beyond what we saw in BATDR and FTB,I don't think it's far-fetched to say that not even their scientists would want to touch the damned ink,which,as we know,is best kept away from. So,the suits are used.

In 1952,the workshop was condemned and closed. Eventually,the location and by extension - the technologies,the experiments and things like the suits - ended up in the Ink Realm. Fast forward to 72/73,the whole thing about Wilson finding out and taking control of the Cycle happens. When it came to creating his own "guards" to help with his plans in the Cycle,I guess he just. Took stuff from the Gent workshop like the suits and other stuff like gears and pipes,threw it all through the Ink Machine and uhhhhhhh,boom,the Keepers are created.

Again,I wouldn't take this as a serious theory/speculation,and as said,more as ideas and concepts based on so little that I decided to put on paper. (Might as well consider all of this potential AU stuff)

Additional stuff:

- I didn't make the outlines and the helmet's lens glow in the first 2 sketches because I realized that it wouldn't make much sense in the suits? The Keepers,sure,make sense,but for the suits themselves? Not so much. So I left them "switched off",with the exception of the third sketch,done at the time when I hadn't thought about this detail any further.

- The idea for the fourth sketch,the gas mask,came to me while looking at reference images of real-life hazmat suits. I thought it might be intriguing to have Gent scientists wear these masks under their suits,so I sketched it out to get a better idea. The mask itself was based on one of the scrapped Keeper designs, the ones that had the more "alien" feel to them. I don't know if it would fit inside the Keeper suit,but it's still something I wanted to consider.

I also like this whole concept of the suits for two other reasons. First, it gives the Keepers an origin that predates Wilson and the Dark Revival. Second, reusing old Gent suits to create his own guards isn't that far-fetched for a man whose entire rise to power within the studio and plan to overthrow the Ink Demon has depended on the work (and existence) of others to come to fruition. So that wouldn't be so absurd.

Also,here's 2 bonus sketches. The second one has nothing to do with what I've said so far, it's just something I was playing around with at the time.

[teencopandthesourwolf]

op re your tag: #do you think they played 20 questions

yes! yes, i absolutely do! because—as you said—two hours is a very long time to spend treading water while maybe possibly probably about to die, but especially with somebody you don't know all that well.

and this is stiles we're talking about! adhd motormouth stiles stilinski, who cannot bear uncomfortable (or even comfortable lol) silences at the best of times. so put him in an incredibly tense situation? with somebody he doesn't know very well? somebody he is nervous around (because contrary to popular belief stiles does actually have some self preservation instincts, plus, y'know, there's the whole derek is objectively hot as all sin thing) and of course he would start babbling away incessantly! ofc he would!

so yeah yes uh-uh you can absolutely bet your bottom dollar that stiles is gonna rope the local creeper wolf into playing 20 questions!

that boy will also absolutely be getting derek to play the “i go to the shops and buy...” recall game that his mom used to play with him when he was a little kid! he will absolutely be forcing der to sing the national anthem with him (derek does not sing, he doesn't, but he's maybe about to possibly die and is losing his mind a little so sue him if he grumbles through the verses an octave deeper than stiles's ridiculous soprano)! stiles absolutely asks derek what his favourite thai order is (it's pad thai, which stiles mocks him for because it's such an unbelievably basic choice, and derek resolutely tells him to fuck off) and stiles in turn shares with derek that his favourite is tom yum goong which obviously means he is more adventurous than derek (which is when derek tells stiles that hot and sour shrimp soup is not really that adventurous, and then reminds stiles that stiles can resolutely fuck off)! and then, what with the whole probable death thing, stiles absolutely starts to wonder if derek might be thinking about his family, and wonders when the last time was that derek got to talk about them, so he asks derek to tell stiles stuff about them, and at first derek is too stubborn (upset) to talk about them, but stiles keeps asking him more and more questions about his mom and dad and brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents, and derek realises that he really does want to talk about them all so he starts answering stiles's questions in only short sentences at first but then finds himself regaling funny stories about them and thinks about all sorts other fond memories because of this, ending up telling stiles things he hasn't thought about in years and it's really nice, so then he's then asking stiles about stiles's family, and stiles says he's never had that much of it really but talks about how losing his mom when he was little was and is the fucking worst thing that ever happened to him because she was his best friend in the whole wide world (he loves his dad too, but saw even less of him back when he was a deputy) and he tells derek how he misses her like a lung and that he talks to her sometimes (which derek does with laura, too, but isn't about to admit to that) and that derek's deadpan humour often reminds him of her, and then he hears derek huff a little bit and it's the kind of huff that sounds almost like a laugh, a kind one, and stiles knew that talking and talking and not shutting up to try and break the ice during this week's perilous situation would pay off and hey! look at that! he absolutely got the trauma edgelord lycanthrope to not only open up about his life but to cheer up a bit and not be such a sourwolf and even laugh a little, too! which hey, if they're about to die, that's objectively actually the best thing a human and werewolf could do together, right?

so yeah, maybe op is spot on and we don't talk about this scene enough. which is a shame because there is SO much scope here, and we absolutely should delve into it more, again and again and again—because i think it is absolutely what stiles (and derek) would do xp

We really need to talk about the fact the stiles was prepared to drown to keep Derek alive.

He was treading water for two hours with Derek weight on him and only when his muscles started to give up did he try and hang onto the diving board. If Scott didn’t get there in time both stiles and Derek would have drown.

Also they couldn’t have been completely silent the entire time. Do you think as they both felt stiles weaken that they’d have to come to grips with the idea of dying. Do you think how Derek was paralyzed in the arms of a human (he doesn’t trust humans) and spent the entire time thinking “well this is the moment he’s going to let me go and I drown”; and how shocked he must of been when stiles refused to let him go. I know that stiles was definitely thinking about his dad. I wonder when the moment was that they realized they might die in that pool. The final moments before they both went under when stiles is trying so hard to keep them both alive. The way that stiles talks about drowning after this incident.

I really feel like we don’t talk about this enough.

[luxiomahariel]

good fucking god we are NOT saying that non-passing trans women/fems have privilege over us just because we say that trans men/mascs, passing or non-passing do NOT have male privilege. open ur fucking ears and listen to trans men/mascs when we are speaking about our experiences and stop bringing up these "well that implies-" bullshit. no we ARE NOT IMPLYING ANYTHING ABOUT TRANS WOMENS/FEMS EXPERIENCES WHEN WE ARE DISCUSSING OUR OWN EXPERIENCES. we are not saying we are more or less oppressed than anyone else. WE ARE TRYING TO JUST DISCUSS THE OPPRESSION WE ARE GOING THROUGH WITHOUT EVERYONE TRYING TO TALK OVER US ABOUT IT.

WE'RE NOT "PLAYING VICTIM". WE ARE VICTIMS BECAUSE WE ARE OPPRESSED FOR BEING TRANS. AND WE ARE ALSO OPPRESSED ON THE BASIS OF OUR BIRTH SEX. ONE MIGHT CALL THAT INTERSECTION: TRANSANDROPHOBIA.

[kiefbowl]

this post is kinda inspired by the recent developments of 4b usa, but also just me musing in real time over what I've seen on tumblr over the past decade or so. I think the internet is a cool tool bc it's possible to get a message out to large numbers of people quickly...if you have the platform. and I think sometimes that can convince people, like say young feminists, that successful organizing is going viral and getting a lot of ppl to quickly and publicly voice their agreement to insert whatever the thing is. I can see why small, community organizing with, like, the six people you already know sounds so hard and time consuming when you can see posts sometimes blow up into the hundreds of thousands in a very short amount of time.

but engagement in an internet post is not great data into how many people are actually engaging with it at a level you might hope, and if you really want to control the message of your insert whatever the thing is, you do kinda have to start at home with the six people you already know meeting once a month or whatever trying to get another person or two or whatever to join etc etc. and like take what I'll just call 4b usa - it's busted into the mainstream and people are trashing it, right? well instead of despairing, why not, in your immediate circle you already have (even if that's just one other person) just decide on a new name for yourself to call this movement. It's like, I saw a post about how the wiki page is being trashed and someone called it colonization - but usa women lifting the name 4b kinda is that mentality, too, no? I mean we're talking about a korean feminist movement for korean women named 4b because of korean words built off of decades of work by korean women. okay...so you just want to grab it and call it your own? and a shared language, names that mean something, can be very useful, so I get the appeal of just wanting to use the term 4b, and it might seem like "well why should we have to change our language for these men who refuse to understand?" uhm...for the long game. for the survival of the movement and the goals you've set. is the name more important that what the name represents? and low key as part of your private convos you can still use 4b as part of that shared language, right? "me and my friends are going full stop with men, just like 4b. no marriage, no sex, no babies. wanna go full stop with us?" now you're talking like an american who's talking to an american, or like whatever you're trying to do or whoever you are.

don't get so hung up on language that you can't see the end game of your goals anymore. peace&love & good luck :)

[meanbossart]

re: Vellioth as the stepfather its interesting bc stepfathers n media (and irl but limiting myself to tropes here) hav the practical role and obligations we tend to ascribe to fathers ie providing money and protection and being the head of the household, but do not share a blood tie to the child in question. and it is seen as magnanimous for a man to "take on the duty" of providing ofr the children of the woman he's with, rather than duty. This shifts also means that implicitly the stepchild should be grateful for this new patriarch in their life, which is complicated because most often this stepfather occupies a place of control. In cazador's caze i feel like bc there was no father to speak of, his resentment of vellioth as The Stepfather had more to do with intruding and vying for attention from the woman they both love, rather than usurping the OG father. Come to think of it, having no experience with a father figure before vellioth probably made the shift to a patriarch that more jarring. And considering that he positions himself s the Father of his spawns, he probably modelled a lot on Vellioth (or in antithesis of).

ultimately velloith did what stepchildren often fear secretly most: intruding, appropriating, and evnetually the destruction of the family unit as it was

I might not have expressed myself super well in that reply- I was comparing Vellioth to a step father in the same way people loosely compare Cazador to a patriarch/abusive partner. I certainly didn't mean it to be literal - neither in the comic I referenced or in my personal headcanon (which are functionally identical) does Vellioth ever actually inhabit the role of a surrogate dad in Cazador's life. Rather, that is the perception that he's vaguely trying to sell to others to maintain the ruse.

I clear this up because I am (personally) not of the belief that Vellioth and Cazador ever had a relationship outside of the dynamics of master and slave, which might be a little more simple than you were hoping for, based on this ask (unless I'm misreading, in that case ignore me LOL)

But if we're speaking strictly in allegory - yes. Vellioth makes for a specially juicy satire of a step-father who intrudes, disrupts, and yet overvalues themselves for doing the least on the basis of being there by choice rather than obligation (keeping Cazador alive as a spawn when he could have just killed him off) but I don't think any part of him is doing that under the false pretense of charity - he only wants to keep Cazador around to hurt him, because that would hurt his mother.

(Something I also neglected to say is that in De Rerum Natura ((not spelled out in the comic explicitly, but stated so as a headcanon of the very smart and handsome author)) Cazador was never meant to become a vampire. That was a fate his mother very much did not want for him.)

And, perhaps, every vampire lord harbors a little self-destructive desire. If you don't invest a non-negligible amount of time and energy into making ONE particular guy super mad at you, who is ever going to finally put you out of your misery after all!

EITHER WAY this image you sent me is still very good and thank you for sending it LOL (art by @barbatusart)

[universalzones]

"Then stop saving people and you'll get that wish real fucking quick. Though we both know you aren't going to do that, so you're stuck with it." Surge was sure Sonic could easily focus on only bashing Eggman's bots, though he always went out of his way to save people. "They don't got to like you to admit you're considered a hero on Mobius. At this point if they lock you up then entire planet will be up in arms." The tenrec was sure that's the last thing GUN needs to deal with.

"No, though I'm sure a lot of people would see it has a start. Besides, I'm sure it's better than when I was staying in run down Eggman base's." Surge then rolled her eyes with Sonic bringing up they'd want to use her. "Of course they'd want to use me, though telling them to bite me is easy enough. Whenever they ask for my help it'll be on my terms, not there's." The tenrec wasn't going to be used by GUN or anyone else ever again.

"And you can cut the crap on trying to guilt trip me with Drippy. Use you're head a little bit. Do you really think I'd ask you to take him home if I wasn't sure someone would be there for him. I ain't going into detail, though you'll see what I mean." Surge was clearly trying to keep hush hush about it. The tenrec's attention went to the Mother Wisp now over the base and then to hearing Lanolin's orders from her comm.

"Well, guess everyone is coming back to the base so GUN is about to have more fucking problems. Let's just go to the checkpoint already. I'm sure between us and the giant fucking Wisp whoever is in charge might actually come down and talk to us." Surge was guessing on that, though two people moving at the speed of sound and a Wisp that big should hopefully motivate them to talk.

===========================================================

"Then we can stop talking about it, and you can hopefully accept the fact I don't want to be your friend." Kitsunami couldn't say they were enemies anymore, and was sure they'd be more times down the road when they'd form an alliance once again. "If this is about the time I called you and Sonic a liar I'm sure he was convinced that Surge was actually gone. I was also too shocked to see Surge still alive to even consider the device was hurting her." The fennec was willing to admit his mistakes.

"We would if Lanolin would've approved my plans for secret bunkers that didn't show up on the blueprints. The only place would be the sewers, though Belle Bot would then be too far underground." Kitsunami's main reason for wanting the bunkers was pure paranoia, though it looked like they would've come in handy. "It's a mute point, though maybe here is the best. A few people are battle ready, and we're also here. Not ideal, though it's the best plan I got."

"With all that said, it might be wise to start barricading the door. Assuming the head doctor wouldn't have a problem with it. I recall them mentioning the nurse's ability, though that can only go so far." Kitsunami was clearly assuming the worse which would be a fire fight breaking out.

A Hero? Why did they all go to that so quickly? He never wanted to be a Hero, even now it was the furthest thing from what he wanted. He fought because he had to, he fought because he lost someone precious to him. It was never about justice, or doing the right thing. It was and has always been a very personal conflict for him. One he still battled with internally. There were things Starline didn't know and might never know. Which by proxy left Surge in the dark, as well. No he wasn't a hero, he was just a guy who decided to fight back when everyone else was running away. He was full of anger and rage, and just wanted to make Eggman pay for that. If not for Tails, and Amy he might have become a very different person.

" I'm not a hero... i wish everyone would stop giving me that label, and if you think GUN thinks of me as a Hero, you are out of your damn mind... "

He said rather bluntly to Surge as he was probably at the top of there shit list.

" GUN absolutely despises me... Because they can't control me. The first chance they got they tried to lock my ass up. Let's not pretend they hold me in high regard here. They tolerate me because folks would flip the fuck out if they made a move... Nah GUN only cares about how they can use me... and i ain't about to let them do that again..."

He crossed his arms setting the record straight, but Surge was right about one thing. Him rushing at GUN and losing his cool would only make everything worse. But deep down he knew this was going to end badly, GUN was cutting off there reinforcement and backing them into a corner. He knew tactic as he'd seen it before, and it was gun strat 101. The only thing that had not counted on was both Surge and Sonic on base and that may have been why there were stalling.

" And you think a GUN Cell is gonna make up for all the bad you did? That the idea? Cause i dun think that'll be how it works. Those cells suck by the way... the beds are the worst. "

He seemed to have calmed down at least and was focused on Surge, as he crossed his arms giving her a glance with those baby green eyes.

" They'll just want to use you... it's what they do, its there playbook... but if it's what you want whatever i guess i can't convince you otherwise... I just think this will hurt the kid alot more then it will help him..."

He sighed as he looked back toward the airship and fidgeted as he watched it getting closer. The massive shadow falling over the base as it and two other air ships came to a stop over top of HQ, as an almost imposing figure. Sonic felt the hair on his neck stand on end, as his bad feeling only intensified.

==============================================

There was alot that Kit and Surge didn't know about Sonic, and that statement proved it to Tails. But it was very hard for him to begin to explain it to Kit. Even then he doubted Kit or Surge would agree with it or even see it as a justified reason. But Death has a way of changing people, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst. He remembered what Sonic was like when they first met, and how he just never spoke to anyone. He honestly thought he was mute for a long time but of course that wasn't the case at all was it?

But at least Kit was honest with him and he could respect that honesty. He wanted him and it was probably the first big step forward. He also didn't disagree with him either, Sonic could end Eggman in a heart beat should he want to. He could have ended him so many times but he couldn't do that not without souring her memory.

" It does help... If only a little ... "

He didn't think trying to explain things to Kit would help and if anything it might agitate him. Though he wished he could make him see things the way he did.

" There, Relay is set up Restoration Coms fully restored... Lanolin should be able to contact our forces outside of Restoration now. We should get Belle Bot someplace safe till this is over, if anything happens to her, we'd lose coms and more--- Know anyplace secure? "

The horrible awful truth was, Sonic lost someone so precious to him that it nearly destroyed him. He was so full of anger and rage when he first met him. But it was her memory that kept him sane, that made him unwilling to to take a life. Her memory that made him believe that people can change. He knew neither of them knew the truth, how could they? He doubted even Eggman knew about her... or how she'd died.

But losing Sonic's mother had been the hardest thing in his life, and he still wrestled with it. If anyone had a reason to kill Eggman it was Sonic, and yet his promise to her kept him from going through with it. But he didn't think Surge or Kit would understand that kind of promise, or what it meant to Sonic. How breaking that promise would tarnish her memory in his eyes.

It was something he could never understand... his own parents abandoned him after all.

[astro-hunny]

What if I just wrote Persona 6? Like. I could do it. I totally could. And I have ideas for it. Idk, maybe I'll do it maybe I won't. Vote time idk.

Ideas under the cut.

Did I hear a demand for FemC? Did I? Well even if I'm hallucinating, we have FemC in this P6! "Official" name for now is Minori Koto. Might change it later.

I'm sad to say... I can't set it in University/College without screwing with the timeline. I also have to set it in 2018 I'M SORRY IT'S FOR SOCIAL LINKS I PROMISE.

FemC moves to Tokyo from another-but-not-as-big city in Japan for her parent's work. As for where she's from, does it really matter? nahhhhh (i'm lazy/clueless rn)

Persona MC with present parents??? What??? That's a thing??? (might kill one tbh I'm bored)

We're going with a mix of P4 and P5 for how the other world works. Early on, our main character finds an odd book while looking for study material on classics. When she opens it, there's a portal instead of pages, and she gets sucked in along with her partner on the project/best friend character.

All of the other worlds are different books and follow the plot of said book, repeating over and over. The owner's shadow plays the main character, cognitions play all other named characters, and regular shadows play unnamed roles. The way to save the shadow is to either give them a happier ending or break them out of the monotony of the story. Burning the book would kill the owner.

Persona's are also book based. I haven't decided on if I want to name the Persona's after the characters or the authors, but it's one of those two. As for summoning, characters will get a massive tome that they rip pages out of, symbolic of tearing pages out to write their own story as well as a visual representation for SP/HP. (recovery items are things that would help repair the books, like adhesives of actual book binding materials.)

Social links. The bane of my existence. The two I actually have planned somewhat out are connected to 4 and 5 respectively. The next couple points are about them.

The first Social link you'd meet would be a first-year girl who recently moved to Tokyo from a very small town out in the country, also for her father's work. You also find out through her social link that she has a "big bro" in Tokyo who she goes to visit a lot, as well as his roommate and a lot of their friends. Her social link would generally be the two of you bonding over moving to Tokyo and our MC helping her study. If you've yet to realize, this social link would be Nanako Dojima from Persona 4. No, we can not see P4 MC. I'm sorry, that's for spin-off games. She would not join your party.

The second would be the owner of a small cafe you can find nearby the MC's house, who speaks of his kids and how much trouble they used to get into when they were the MC's age. He mentions his daughter getting into places she shouldn't and his son getting into too much trouble, but it's all said in a fond tone that tells you that he knows they were just kids. Eventually, he mentions a boy who used to come in and sit in the same spot you always do: the counter seat closest to the door. At your rank 10 with him, he'll ask you after the rank-up to look into it for him. He wants to know how to help his kids, but he doesn't have the means to figure it out anymore. You cannot tell him before the end of the game, but you can find a missing-persons case for one Goro Akechi that was never really resolved. This social link would be Sojiro Sakura from Persona 5, P5 MC being his 'son' and Futaba being his daughter.

As for velvet room, I desperately want to make it a library, but instead I shall make it an observatory. Personas are created through selecting two stars and crashing them into each other. Your attendant would be a gentle woman, maybe early twenties by the looks of it, named Agatha. She wouldn't be unwise to the world, but she would clearly be one of the less experienced attendants. Igor is Igor, he isn't possessed. for now. Also you could hypothetically walk around the velvet room if this was playable but idk how to make mods.

The team's outfits change in every storybook to match the theme. If you couldn't tell, I've been playing too much Love Nikki recently.

Yes, there would be a god as the final boss.

No, I am not making P6 Fes-Portable-Golden-Royal-Reload or whatever the fuck it would be named. It's in the original release like it should be.

I know we're tumblr, so I'll keep this last one brief. The best perk of all:

FemC gets to be gay. We are free.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, now please go vote.

[hurglewurm]

me: we are Not going to worsen our life while in a minor depressive episode

the brain: :/

[greatwyrmgold]

@minamishimada835

That might be the intent, but it's not the text.

First off, Aqua concluded his revenge in chapter 155, literally saying "My revenge...is over now." Then a few chapters later, he discovered a motive to kill Kamiki that have very little to do with Ai. Aqua killed Kamiki because Kamiki was gonna kill Ruby, and he was going to do that because of reasons that eventually tie back to Ai, but those reasons don't matter to Aqua. He's just murder-suiciding to save his sister.

Second (and more importantly for this post), Ruby et al living the best they can in the wake of Aqua's death is very nearly not depicted. We see Akane and Kana and Miyako and Ruby sad, and then we get a fast-forward montage of them being sad some more, and at some point they stop being sad. If the point of this last arc was Aqua's loved ones moving on from his death, it needed to show the part where they actually moved on, not just a "before" and "after". (And boy howdy did Akasaka linger on the "before" to milk maximum feels out of sad teenagers!)

Ruby gets the worst of this. On one hand, we barely see her initial grief. We see her wordlessly crying in a room alone, and alone wordlessly crying in a room, and wordlessly crying alone in a room some more. As a beat to convey sadness, it works, but it doesn't do much except convey the idea of Sad without support.

Contrast that with Kana's slappy meltdown. That's not just dramatic, it's extremely specific. It conveys exactly what cocktail of grief-ey emotions Kana is feeling; she's angry, she feels betrayed, she almost certainly bottled her grief up until she did something stupid. And while Akasaka should have shown Kana recovering from that grief, we see that it's sustained by white-hot anger; we understand that those emotions can die down on their own, so not showing the recovery is less of a crippling omission.

What does Ruby crying tells us? Well, it's default shorthand for misery, especially with the dark color palette. And that's about it. We needed at least one scene of another character talking to her, trying to help her feel better, to try and wring some actual blood out of the stone. Also...maybe this is just me having more experience with the "crying alone in dark room" kind of sadness than the "yell at a corpse" kind, but I have trouble imagining that kind of grief going away on its own.

Contrast that with (I swear this is relevant) Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, episode 22. Miorine is sad, but Suletta talking through the door at her not only developed her character but let Miorine clarify her feelings in a way that no blanket burrito could dream of. Also, it shows how Miorine recovered! I think we're supposed to assume MEM-Cho and Kana did the same for Ruby (minus the fiancee thing), but we don't see that happen.

I'm gonna paraphrase a bit from Claire Aihoshiino: Ruby could’ve had a chance to confront her own depression and her unhealthy codependency that hurt her brother so badly. Instead, we get an endpoint in lieu of any real work necessary to get there without any indication that she has learned anything meaningful from this arc or that her relationship with her family has changed at all.

I paraphrased that bit because this has been a recurring problem with Ruby (one I'm pretty sure Claire described better elsewhere but Tumblr's search function sucks). Ruby has the skeleton of a character arc, but we never see any meat. The obstacles and struggles which make a story better than an outline are all handled offscreen if they're mentioned at all. Ruby just kinda glides through the narrative and entertainment industry alike, unfettered by things that might bother Akane or Kana or Ai.

What's the point of putting Ruby through all that if we hardly see any of it? Why make Ruby fight if we don't get to see her win?

The more I think about it, the more baffling Ruby's treatment in the last chapter of Oshi no Ko is.

The last few chapters didn't do much to establish Ruby's reaction to Aqua's stupid plan death beyond general details like "she cried a lot," so I assumed the last chapter was going to focus on that. And I guess it kinda did?

But it fast-forwarded through all the details so we could get to her Dome Concert halfway through the chapter and focus on that. Don't focus on Aqua's death, focus on Ruby's life and what she accomplishes.

As advice for Ruby, that's fine. But as a way to write Ruby, it means we don't feel the weight of Ruby losing Aqua/Goro-sensei. We're told that she cried a lot and stayed in her room a while, but only for a moment. We get a panel in chapter 165, two pages in 166, and then the entire rest of the chapter is Ruby standing up and Getting Over It.

What was the point?

I could ask that about many things in the last arc or two of OnK, but right now I'm asking it about Ruby in chapter 166. What's the point of showing us that Ruby overcame her grief if her grief was never presented as a real obstacle? Why should I care that she got to live the life Ai and Aqua wanted her to if there's no real struggle?

(Why should I care that Ruby's lighting up her fans' world the way Ai did? In the end, what did that do for her? Aren't we back to square 1?)

There's a lot that OnK had yet to properly resolve, and it spent its last chapter telling us about Ruby's awesome idol career. And that's it. And that's disappointing.

[nostalgia-tblr]

what strikes me about some anti-sylki takes is that someone comes up with a Problematic Interpretation that makes no fucking sense and then they go around the internet recruiting people who don't really agree with them but will go along with it because just not liking a pairing isn't good enough anymore (idk what that's about), and then within a few months you run into someone in another fandom saying "but i heard that pairing promotes the very common and not just made up from fuck-all idea that bisexuals only want to fuck themselves and also that it supports footbinding because the woman one has smaller feet than the man version of the character, how can you defend something like that?"

and i just can't get any further with a response to that than "what the fuck," because really what the fuck?

[sunsetzer]

On one hand, I want a final fantasy 6 remake, because the game is criminally underrated and the amount of fan content (which is all absolutely fantastic btw) is Not Enough for my neurodivergent, hyperfixating brain.

On the other hand, that would inevitably encourage more people to join the fandom, which would be great, except it seems these days the bigger a fandom gets the more toxic it becomes, and I really like what we have going on over here in our little corner. We all just love the game and its characters and nobody fights about who should and shouldn't date who or who you shouldn't like because they're ~problematique~. Nobody's trying to make one ship morally better than another, nobody's calling anyone names or threatening to doxx people who don't agree with their opinions. It's so peaceful and I love that for us. We're just vibing. Moisturized. Unbothered. In our lane. Flourishing.

[causenessus]

just so u guys know i haven't been this attached to someone (suna) since oikawa tooru which started like 4 years ago i kid u not

[megumi-fm]

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