#and negative splits my beloved | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

limbuscompanysituations · 4 months ago

Note

I want to ask the opposite of the distortion reader x sinners, the sinners react to the reader manifesting their EGO in a desperate moment, and the reader attributing the manifestation to the corresponding advice given by each sinner

Look, when I started writing this I thought "hey this is going to be fun!" and although it was incredibly fun, my wrist also hurts omg. So anyway I once again commit to my insanity and write a very long post. Enjoy!

Faust:

"It is possible to manifest EGO from one's own experiences, as well as when they are overcome with emotions. Whether they be positive or negative, the end result stays the same." It was the beginning of one of Faust's long, wordy explanations.

They were curious after witnessing her manifest her EGO in combat before. It was such an oddity to manifest power beyond imagination that they couldn't help but ask. Most of the explanation was lost to them once she finished it, but the initial part was simple enough to remember.

Faust leans on her weapon for support. The tips of her pale hair are stained red with her own blood. She pants, gasping for air while trying to keep her eyes open. They've been fighting together for hours now, trying to hold the line long enough for the other sinners to come to their aid. It seems to be fruitless, the enemy hasn't given them any space to breathe. They are almost as exhausted as Faust, but she's been taking the worst of the beating on purpose.

She may look cold and aloof but they know that deep down, she has done so for their own sake. They were angry at her, but mostly at themself for being this weak. If they could do more, they could protect her.

Her explanation on EGO echoed in their mind, and for a split second they had a flash of hope. If only they could draw that out of themself, then they could get out of this. They close their eyes and take a deep breath.

Memories and emotions, then. This is all of me, for all of you, Faust.

It's a promise they make to themself, and in that moment they change the flow of combat. One by one, those enemies that threatened to bring them down are swept away by a wave of power unlike any other.

Faust's eyes widen and she realizes what is happening in front of herself. This is her beloved's EGO, manifested when they need it the most. A faint blush spreads across her cheeks, realizing many things at once. Dying did not matter to her, as sinners always have Dante who can rewind, but perhaps it was the possibility of witnessing her death that made them do it. She's flattered, exhilarated and excited. There are endless instances of Faust all across the universe, yet this Faust ended up being the one who matters the most to them.

When the enemies are wiped out she falls to her knees with a light chuckle. Her vision is blurry and starting to fade out. She is grateful not only for them to have saved her life, but also because their existence makes hers feel more important.

No longer resigned to be one in a million, but one Faust who is loved and cherished.

_____

Yi Sang:

They fight back to back, gritting their teeth and keeping their opponents at bay just barely. Yi Sang can seem frail but he's a skilled combatant, and so are they. However, there's still a limit to how much two people can do against an endless number of foes. Yi Sang's resolve is beginning to fail, and so is his body.

They help him stay on his feet, supporting him with a hand around his waist while they brandish their weapon with their other hand. It seems to be impossible to turn this around. They are done for.

"The same shards of broken glass that bring you nothing but pain... Can be put back together, piece by piece, and build a window through which you can witness a better, colorful and more hopeful word."

His words come back to mind. They remember vaguely asking him how he could manifest his EGO during combat once. It was so impressive back then that the image was still burnt in their mind.

It's what I need now: the power to build a window to a better world.

They grit their teeth and hiss out a heavy breath. If there's nothing but hope left for them, then they will grab that opportunity. Willing their entire body and mind to cooperate, they push their own heart to its limit and climb that window.

Yi Sang is barely conscious but he can see it all happening. One minute his body and mind are so weary he knows he will faint soon, and then the next minute a figure so bright takes over his every thought. Their EGO wipes out their enemies one by one, and even though it is a terrifying power to witness, he feels elated. Their pain and their hopes are all bare before him, pieced together in a beautiful mosaic that bleeds hope through it. In the middle of this mosaic they stand, terrifyingly beautiful, their power uncontested.

It takes him a moment to realize they are no longer holding him and that he's fallen on his knees. It doesn't matter, however. His body has never felt any lighter. He calls out their name in a whisper and his consciousness gives in to the darkness.

____

Don Quixote:

Even the brave aspiring fixer will find a situation impossible to turn around. Her beloved squire did everything they could to support her, but she's heavily wounded and can barely take another step. In this moment of desperation they can still hear her energetic voice calling for her heroic steed. Except right now she can't muster up the strength to call upon it.

"Tis an unjust world, and I, Don Quixote, swear to battle evildoers to the end!" It wasn't really an explanation on how exactly she used her EGO, rather a proud exclamation of her own power.

Still it's better than nothing.

They focus on this sliver of hope and grab it with their hand. It is an unfair world, and Don Quixote should not fall here. She is the heroine of this tale, and she will fight until the end. In this moment her squire promises the same.

I will fight injustice by her side, so neither of us can fall here!

They hold this newfound power in their hands and charge forth, dashing past a wounded Don Quixote and crashing into their enemies with ruthless strength. They're crushed into bloody pulps before they can even blink.

By the back lines, Don Quixote stares at her lover, eyes wide and teary. She will lose consciousness soon, but witnessing the power of their resolve manifested in such a way makes her heart beat faster. She wants to kiss them; she wants to commend them; she wants to be the one who protects them to the end, while also being the one to fight all evils in this world by their side. Don Quixote is proud of her dearest squire beyond words, still she is capable of speech.

"Hark, squire!" She exclaims, "Thy power is most-!" and before she can utter the word "magnificent", she collapses.

____

Ryoshu:

When they asked Ryoshu what it meant to cast her EGO, the sinner stared off into the distance and muttered the words "It is my soul, bared to the world."

They nodded then, knowing that this was as precise of an explanation as possible, while remarking that that could mean pretty much anything.

Then they found themselves cut off from the rest and fighting for their lives against a foe so persistent it could take the smirk off of Ryoshu's face. The wounds that piled on her body grew to be almost unbearable. For Ryoshu, who was a competent assassin capable of ending most conflicts with a single move, it meant that they were both in trouble of the deadly kind.

Still they hoped to be able to do something, anything.

Ryoshu dashed forward once more, putting all of her strength into a single strike that could tear apart anything, but the monster not only deflected her hit, it also threw her back against a wall with force so immense that a sickening crunching sound echoed around them. Ryoshu fell limp to the ground, still breathing but with some of her limbs twisted in an unnatural manner.

They ran to her side, with tears in their eyes while they recognized the impossibility of the fight they found themselves in. Then they remembered her words and everything made sense suddenly.

"My soul, bared like my teeth." They whispered and held her body gently in their arms. Her dazed eyes rolled back and forth, then they found their face. Ryoshu smiled in pain, and if she could, she would have cupped their face in a hand.

"T.I." She whispered back.

They nodded and let go. Facing the monster with the fury of a legion, ready to bare their teeth. The power that came from their very core lashed out in a focused manner. The creature had no chance, the moment they left Ryoshu's side, it was already dead and sliced to a thousand pieces.

Ryoshu's eyes are wide and bloodshot, her bloody, crazed grin splitting her face ear to ear. If she wasn't choking on her own blood she would've laughed upon seeing that asshole being torn apart. Her eyes glimmer with barely contained admiration. She already knew they were capable of something like manifesting EGO, but seeing it first-hand is much more intense than anything she ever imagined.

She witnesses a soul that is vibrant, mesmerizing, deadly and indomitable all the same.

____

Meursault:

"To wield my EGO is to hold everything that weighs me down in my hands and then put that weight on that which hinders me." Meursault's explanations are usually more thorough and less abstract. The oddity of hearing him describe his EGO in such a way stuck with them.

When the tide of the fight turned against them and there seemed to be no hope to find, they remembered those words. He tanked all the hits he could, trusting that his large, trained body would be enough to shield them all the way through. But even if Meursault is a force to be reckoned with, the foes they face are much more than they can handle.

He's bloodied, battered and bruised, barely able of standing on his own feet. His knees tremble and he's breathing heavy, hands shaking while he tries to keep his eyes trained on the enemy. They circle them, and in spite of trying to keep them safe, the moment this wave strikes again, they both will be done.

"It's a bit foolish, isn't it?" They laugh nervously, "To carry all that weight all by yourself."

Meursault's eyes drift towards them briefly, and they can hear his response in their mind. Something along the lines of "it's what must be done."

You don't need to do it all by yourself, you idiot.

They clench their hands in fists and close their eyes, concentrating in how heavy their heart feels knowing that he is so hurt because they aren't stronger. Their jaw clenches and the tears that threaten to come out never do. Instead a power that they didn't know they had in themself surges and overflows. Suddenly they are the tide, and the battle doesn't matter anymore.

They become the force that they need to be for him; they become the one to bear the weight of the world. This weight is unbearable for those around, and they are knocked out uncoscious without even realizing it.

In the middle of the silent battlefield stand Meursault and his lover. While they look proud and surprised with themself, Meursault looks dumbfounded. He has always expected to be the one to carry them both forward, and he was always fine with it. He didn't want to burden them too much, what he wanted was to protect them all along. It is clear that being stuck on that has hindered himself from growing to trust them more.

"Ah..." He mutters, "You were correct all along."

They glare at him, as if to say "I told you so!" A slightly proud smile on their lips. They collapse a few seconds later and Meursault sighs.

____

Hong Lu:

He isn't built for prolonged fights. Although he was pushed to unimaginable limits by his family, there's only so far he can go in combat. They're both on their own, and the situation is dire.

His dominant hand is incapacitated and he's doing what he can with his other free hand, but it's not enough. Soon the spear is flung from his grasp and he has nothing but his own body to fight with. Still he keeps his flawless combat stance, taunting the enemy with a serene smile. He's not ready to surrender, not yet.

More than keeping appearances, Hong Lu can't let go because he's not alone. He hates the pain, but they are with him and he cannot let them be hurt in his presence. This is something they know, because they've asked him before.

Instead of recalling that answer, the words that come to their mind are different.

"There is a place where nightmares and dreamscapes meet, in my mind. If I close my eyes for a brief moment, I can almost touch it. If I reach my hand out, I can feel the taste of my own salty tears on my tongue... And then I open my eyes, and find that I cannot distinguish that from this."

When they asked him about his EGO, the answer they got was quite worrying. They tried to comfort him then, but he smiled and said he was fine.

Even now he's trying to keep that appearance. It's not fair.

Their hands close into fists, and they see the enemy lunge forward again. Hong Lu stands on their way, his still serene smile building a wall between that pain and themself.

He will let himself be hurt and maimed if it means they will stay safe, but if he dies, then who will protect them?

No, rather, the thought that occupies their mind is different. What they think in that split second before the enemy's weapon connects with Hong Lu's flesh is that for them, this is that place. The world that connects dreams and nightmares unfolds before them, and their own grief floods it.

They flutter across the battlefield gracefully and deflect the strike that would've killed Hong Lu, now being the one standing between him and danger. They unleash their madness on their enemy over and over again, taking out those who still have a will to fight and frightening those who don't into falling unconscious.

Hong Lu, who stood there serenely guarding them, seems to finally crumble down. He falls to his knees, smile vanishing from his features and replaced by a look of complete shock. His lips are parted, and tears fill his eyes. He wanted to protect them to the end, but he finally realized how weak he still is. In this power vaccuum, they grew to be the one to outshine him. Turbulent emotions swirl inside him: anger, helplessness, pride, hopefulness, grief, joy. He can't pick one.

Still, even if he feels embarrassed he couldn't do what he promised, he is taken by relief. The smile that comes to his face is not one he forces, but one he welcomes.

____

Heathcliff:

He's the stubborn kind, even when he shouldn't be. They know this, and they accept it, but when it comes to fighting together he's always trying to outdo himself. As if they will think he's cooler if he tries to look all manly and imposing. They could give less of a fuck about that.

Maybe it's not because he's proud and stubborn, maybe he's been shoving himself in front of every attack aimed at them this whole time because he's genuinely concerned. They know he's got a good heart, even if his words are harsh and crude. Heathcliff can paint himself as a thug, but he's a genuinely good man.

"Bloody hell..." He groans, barely capable of holding his bat in his two hands. Their enemies scowl at him, grinning with glee at his pain, and that pisses them off.

"Ah, the EGO thing? I dunno, I just think about something that makes me really pissed and go from there." That was Heathcliff's explanation when he was inquired about his EGO once. It was short, clear and it made sense. When he cast his EGO, he really did look angry.

It's the same anger they feel now. How dare these cunts think they can take him down in front of them?

They hold their weapon in both hands so tight their knuckles have gone white. Between their gritted teeth, they growl curses at their enemies. The anger that takes their heart pours out and every blow and strike they deliver becomes deadly. They maim and break and pound their enemies into a bloody pulp, still cursing at them the whole time.

This righteous anger makes Heathcliff pause and look at the scene with wide eyes. A second ago they were cornered and hopeless of making a comeback. He had already accepted the fact he was going to get a good rewind from Dante in no time. What bothered him the most was allowing them to get hurt in the process. Turns out he worried for nothing.

But then, he stopped to think for one second and realized something.

They have an EGO?!

Whether they had already used EGO before or they just manifested it, he didn't know. The only thought that crossed his mind was that he wouldn't want to be on their bad side after witnessing this storm.

____

Ishmael:

"I spent so much time sharpening this harpoon that I just... Wanted to feel like it was taking me somewhere." She paused, then she corrected herself, "No, I wanted to feel like it was bringing me something. Whether it be the guts of a whale or the one I hate the most."

She gritted her teeth when she finished explaining exactly what she thought about her EGO. They nodded and quietly listened to her.

They could never ask the exact details of Ishmael's time at the sea. Whenever she told them about it, it was all out of her own volition. It didn't seem fair to pry on her life like that, even if they were already dating.

It's strange how random memories always come up when you're at your worst.

Ishmael is still trying to push back a monster so hideous it is beyond imagination. One of her eyes is shut and bleeding, while her other is wide open. She grits her teeth, sinking her feet into the ground and trying to hold the position as best as she can. Her mace has fallen somewhere and is out of sight. She has no hopes of fighting back, so she puts all her focus into defending.

Even if she cannot see it, her shield is starting to crack.

They can see it, and they can understand it. It's because they got wounded first, and now she has to fight all alone. There isn't much else to do, though, the battle is already over. In a matter of seconds her shield will be shattered into pieces and right after it's her turn.

Kneeling on the floor and observing the scene unfold before them, they are taken by an intense, undescribable feeling.

Where am I going...? What am I doing...?

They can't even protect themself, much less her, but still they want to do something.

I want to do what it takes to get us out of here.

It's nothing but a simple thought. They have no harpoon to sharpen or shield to wield, they only have themself and this feeling to show. They rise to their feet in spite of their pain and blindly walk towards the monster.

Ishmael notices it from the corner of her vision and yells at them to stop and stand back but they are incapable of doing so. They walk until they are shoulder to shoulder with her, then they slide their arm into her shield's handle and bury their feet into the ground.

"I don't care what happens to me but..." They push the shield forward and the monster stumbles one step back, "I want its guts."

They grit their teeth and breathe out. The power that flows into Ishmael's shield is enough to throw the monster off balance. When it falls back, they let go of the shield and pounce on the creature. They rip it apart with their bare hands, eyes dull through the whole process.

Ishmael falls to her knees, exhausted and in pain, and watches the spectable before herself. This sensation is the same when the other sinners use their EGO, so could it be...? Yes, yes it probably is. She watches with morbid admiration as her lover tears apart the creature that almost killed them both, suddenly realizing what their words meant. She doesn't mean to, but yet she smiles at the scene.

____

Rodion:

She laughs and jokes, but their situation is dire. They find thelselves in a inhospitable area, but the worst part is that one of the factions of the place decided they didn't like the Limbus crew. While most of the sinners managed to take Dante to a safer spot, Rodion and themself ended up stranded from the rest of the bunch.

The situation wouldn't be so bad if their enemies could just stop coming up with backups. It's like fighting against an endless swarm of foes. Both of them are exhausted and paying for their carelessness. Rodion has one limp arm, and she tries to wield her axe with the other but a blow to her shoulder makes it impossible to swing the weapon without turning her whole body around. They know she's past her breaking point, but still she makes time to look at them and smile. Only to receive a blow right after and spit out blood.

"Isn't it ironic? Sometimes you think you see the situation ahead better than everyone else." Rodion once said, "You think you know what you have to do. You think you know how you can do it... But then it turns out that it's all wrong, and you accomplished nothing. And you're left out in the cold, alone, with only a bloody axe to show for it."

They only asked her about her EGO. When she gave this explanation of sorts, she had an unexpected regretful expression on her face. They remember having raised a hand, about to pat her shoulder and thinking of a way to comfort her, when she smiled and laughed her own words off, playfully winking at them and excusing herself.

Even now, her smile is but a facade, hiding how much she regrets being there.

Isn't it okay to make mistakes sometimes, though? To err is not a sin, but rather what makes us human.

Is what they wanted to say to her back then, but now that they missed their chance, there's only one thing they can do.

They leap forward and shatter the flow of combat. The temperature drops and the enemies are scrambling to understand what happened. When they walk past Rodion, their eyes lock briefly. They disappear within the mass of enemies and an unnatural silence takes over the battlefield.

Blood splatters on the floor and on the wall, Rodion cannot see what is happening but she instinctively feels a shiver run down her spine. The feeling is familiar, something like what she feels when either Ryoshu or Yi Sang cast their EGO. For some unknown reason, she doesn't worry about her partner. She tries to see past the confused foes in front of her, and only has a split second to step aside before a body flies her way. She dodges it in time and what once was a person becomes a blood splatter on the wall behind her.

Within the corridor that this body's path opened, she once again locks eyes with her partner. Panting and with a bloodied face, they stare at her with dull eyes. They don't seem to be wounded, which is a relief, but at the same time...

Suddenly the silence breaks and the formation of their enemies is in disarray. A couple more bodies are flung into the air and splatter against the floor and walls. Rodion didn't expect them to have an EGO so interesting. Actually she has no idea what kind of EGO it is. She can only classify it as terrifyingly hot. Yeah, she will kiss and pamper them a lot when the fight is over, but first they have to survive it.

She grins and swings her axe towards a distracted enemy, slicing his skull in half.

____

Sinclair:

"How do you manifest EGO?" Was a simple enough question. They were expecting a textbook answer, something that would take a while to understand, but still understandable.

"EGO..." Sinclair repeated, eyes growing distant as he silently pondered.

"It's okay if it's supposed to be a secret..."

He smiled at them and shook his head, "It's not, as far as I know, it's just..." He pressed his lips into a thin line, "I think about everything I could never do in my life, and then I... If only I can will myself into doing it..."

Sinclair didn't say anything much after that, and they didn't press him. Sometimes curiosity was about to take over and they felt like asking again, but they always held back. If it was something he couldn't say, then no need to be pushy.

Sinclair was gentle and easy to get along with, but when it came to battling he seemed to change completely. That bright boy who's prone to being anxious is no longer, instead there stands a bloodthirsty man, desperate to claim the lives of his enemies.

There's only a couple of them left, but there's also one wounded Sinclair, barely able to hold his weapon, left. They sit on the floor, back leaning against the wall and holding their bloody stomach. It's really embarrassing, especially after they told him they could handle a fight. Because they are incapable of keeping their promise, Sinclair has to push himself past his limit to keep them safe.

They sigh and look at the heavens above. The wound is not severe, they can probably survive it. The main problem here is that Sinclair will die, and other than that, the wounds on their pride are deeper than the one on their stomach.

Isn't it pathetic that I sit here and pity myself, instead of doing something?

They can't shake that feeling. They stare at Sinclair once again, with his trembling hands and knees, fighting off two enemies at once. He barely blocks a hit and fails to parry the other. The slice goes through his hand and he has three fingers severed at once.

Anger bubbles up their throat and they clench their jaw. Whether they are angry at their enemies or at the world for putting them in such a situation, they don't know, but when they rise to their feet that anger makes them feel lighter than ever. They dash back into the fight and swear to whatever is hearing that they won't live in regret like this anymore.

Sinclair is astounded when the weapon he clung to with all his might is snatched from his hand and then used to slice one of the two enemies in half. The person didn't have a second to realize it, their armor and flesh are sliced clean as if made of clay. The other enemy gives a step back and yells a threat. It's no use.

His partner follows up and slashes at the armored enemy, which barely blocks the blow in time. Sinclair watches as his spear's shape changes and his beloved growls unintelligible words at their common foe. Even the pitch of their voice seems off.

Then it finally hits him what's happening is that they manifested their EGO for the first time. He falls on his knees, heart racing while he watches the enemy lose ground and have all the damage they've inflicted being inflicted back at them. His partner moves with grace and malice, and even though they're clearly hurt they don't seem to show any sign of pain.

He blushes and licks his lips. He never thought his usually peaceful lover would be capable of such carnage, much less of reveling in it. It's an unexpected, but not unwelcome development.

____

Outis:

She's strict with herself more than she is with others, and few can recognize this; her lover being one of them. They wanted to find better ways of helping her so once they asked her how did she manifest her EGO.

"Sometimes you say 'the Odyssey had a purpose'," They explained, "I was wondering if you do it by saying that."

"Just the words aren't enough." Outis looked down at the floor, "It's much more than that." She sighed.

"I want to understand it." They pressed.

"If you really want to know, I think about the path that's ahead of me, and how much I still have to accomplish. I think of all the missed opportunities in the past, how many more I'll miss in the future and..." Her voice drifted away, "It doesn't matter what I have to do. I see an opportunity I cannot miss, and I seize it."

They were expecting more of a textbook explanation of it, but this one was clear enough and made sense. Outis seemed just as happy to let go of the subject, instead talking about something lighter.

Maybe she thought they'd forget about it, but she wasn't aware that they commit everything she says to mind. It's because Outis is devoted to them that they can give everything they have in return.

Even now, when the fight is pretty much lost, with one of her arms on the floor and barely able of wielding her weapon in the other hand, she's giving everything she has to keep them out of harm's way. They bitterly watch her throw her life away for somebody as incompetent as them.

The mindless creature that charges at Outis is uncaring of the outcome of this battle either way. They just happen to be on its way. They knew that this job was going to be dangerous, but they never thought they would end up being so unfitting for it. In exchange, Outis has to fight for two to compensate.

They bitterly stare at the beast who wobbles its way towards their lover and bites into the air. When its maw opens, its limbs flail strangely. They squint and watch an organ pulse underneath something that's either a wing or a tentacle. It looks soft, vulnerable.

It looks like an opportunity.

In that moment, everything clicks into place.

It doesn't matter that they can barely lift their own body or walk, this is something they cannot miss. They push themself off the ground, wincing and wobbling like the creature they fight. They push their feet forward, one after the other, counting the seconds it takes for the creature to show its weakness again. Five, four, three, two, one...

There.

They dash across the battlefield weightlessly and claim the monster's life, like a bullet that has found its target. Outis, who was bracing herself for the curtain call, freezes in place. The creature let out a shriek, its form starting to explode- no, it's like it's imploding. It folds in on itself, body twisting in an unnatural manner until it is nothing but a bundle of twisted flesh and bones.

Standing over the creature's remains is Outis' lover. A sinister smile graces their features and Outis can't help but to smile back. It seems they remembered what she had once told them. Of course, she knew her lessons would one day get through and help them but... She wasn't expecting to see them manifest such a destructive EGO of their own.

She feels overwhelmed with pride and wants to embrace them. She wants to tell them how incredible they look and how amazing of an accomplishment this is but she's already falling to the ground. She doesn't have more than a minute left to live, but it's enough.

"Well... done..." She whispers with her last breath.

____

Gregor:

They'd seen many of the sinners manifest their EGOs before in battle, and Gregor's always seemed to be the most unique out of them. Half of that fascination came from his prosthetic, and the other half from being in love with him. One day when they couldn't hold the curiosity anymore, they asked him about it.

He looked upset at first, and they almost took back their question but then he shrugged.

"It can hurt." He explained, "But if I will it to, it can also protect. If I want it to protect, I need to be stronger. I need to get over how much I hate it and make it useful."

He waved his insect arm a little, as if to illustrate his point.

"I don't know how it works, bud." He smiled awkwardly at them, "I just... I just want it to."

Such a simple explanation fit him. They knew how much grief having the arm gave him, yet he was trying to make something good out of a bad situation.

They hope they can say the same of themself, but...

Gregor is on the floor, a massive armored person has a foot on his neck while pulling his insect arm back at a painful angle. Gregor's struggle to free himself is meaningless. They fought hard, they fought well, but they've ultimately lost. The person who threatens to crush his throat with their ironclad foot instead seems more interested in pulling that arm off his shoulder. He's screamed so much his voice is hoarse. He's writhing on the floor, kicking and screaming to the top of his lungs but he can do nothing.

They're alone, and theyre weak. He tried to protect them, and in turn this is the outcome. They lay on the floor, unhindered by any armored soldier, but incapable of doing a thing. Their broken leg hurts like hell, but not as much as their heart does upon seeing him like that.

In this absolute hopeless moment, they go back to his words and his bittersweet smile.

I want to protect, so I will myself to.

They push their upper body off the ground, only to fall on their face again. They grit their teeth and clench their jaw. Gregor let out another bloodcurdling scream and they shut their eyes tight, fighting back the tears that threaten to spill.

I want to protect. This is not fair.

They can hear the sound of fabric ripping. Something inside them breaks and a switch is flipped. It doesn't matter how much it hurts, they stand on their feet and grab their weapon in their hands. The armored giant turns around, glances briefly at them and goes back to what they were doing. Oh, what a bad decision.

They lift their weapon, eyes locked on the pained image of Gregor on the ground, tortured even after defeat, and then lower it in a swift motion. A shockwave closes the gap between them and their enemy, the armored giant sways and lifts their foot off of Gregor's throat. They take another step closer and wince in pain, but swing their weapon again. The force of the shockwave this time is strong enough to make the giant let go of Gregor. The veteran is kicked to the side while the knight is forced to focus on them.

Gregor watches his lover approach the giant knight menacingly while he curls in on himself. He knows they are more hurt than himself, but somehow he feels more terrified for the canned giant. When his partner raises their weapon again, he knows it's over. He's not very educated on the science of it, but he's fought in enough battles to pick up on its flow. When this combat started, he knew the knight was way out of their league. He knew they would get severely wounded, and knew that winning was an impossible scenario here.

He couldn't tell them, because he barely had any time to, but his plan was to take most of the beating until the others could arrive and save them. Now it's clear that somehow his plan worked, but in an unexpected way. When he was hurt the most, when it felt like his tendons and muscles would get ripped apart by the knight's sadistic pulling on his arm, they reached a breaking point and manifested their own EGO.

Their weapon lowers and the tip connects with the metal on the giant's armor, and in that split second where the world stays still, Gregor blinks. The knight's armor is smashed in and blood and flesh gush out of its gaps. It's a gruesome scene, and the sound it makes is nauseating. His lover pants and gasps for air, then falls to the ground unconscious.

In spite of his pain he is not only proud, but also glad. He crawls all the way to their side, smearing some stray blood and guts over his clothes on the way. Everything hurts, but he manages to reach them. He embraces them with his still good arm, shedding tears of relief.

He's so sorry he's put them through all of this, but he's so unashamedly proud and in love with them.

"You did good, bud." He whispers into their hair, "You did so good...

#limbus company #lcb #limbus scenarios #faust lcb #yi sang lcb #ryoshu lcb #don quixote lcb #meursault lcb #hong lu lcb #heathcliff lcb #ishmael lcb #rodion lcb #sinclair lcb #outis lcb #gregor lcb #//I'm ngl I spent at least 6h writing this #//flops on the ground #//weak thumbs up #//whoever clicks the read more will be surprised by the wall of text!

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digitaldreams0801 · 3 months ago

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How the Production Problems of Digimon Adventure Tri Directly Parallel the Issues of Ace Attorney Dual Destinies

i lied. put your clothes back on. we're talking about why digimon adventure tri is the worst thing to happen to the digimon franchise (and how its problems directly parallel ace attorney dual destinies and spirit of justice)

this is a very long rant i typed in a discord server first but it’s something i’ve been thinking for years and i finally put it into words. everybody clap and cheer. (contains very negative opinions toward tri and lukewarm takes on adventure 2020 and ghost game, proceed at your own peril)

let’s talk about digimon tri and ace attorney dual destinies

so first and foremost, what exactly *is* digimon adventure tri?? digimon tri is the seventh-ish season of the digimon anime that released from 2015-2018. despite running for over three years, this show has twenty-six episodes that were split up into six movies and then divided into twenty-six episodes again. that alone should tell you how much of a struggle the production was, but when i tell you this anime might have had the most troubled development of any anime i have ever seen, i fucking MEAN IT. digimon tri is a disaster.

so to start, it's time for a history lesson. digimon adventure aired for around a year in 1999-2000. it was going to be a standalone anime, but it was extended into a second season known as digimon adventure zero two (the zero two standing for 2002, the year the series takes place in). the second season follows the youngest of the first season cast forming a new team of six for adventures in the digital world. the original digimon adventure was universally beloved as one of the best anime of the 90's and early 2000's, but zero two was received a bit less well. it was a bit of a divisive season with some people really loving it and others not so much. personally i adore zero two and think people's adventure nostalgia keeps them from acknowledging how good zero two is. but that's beside the point. after zero two, the team behind digimon decided to start from scratch and make an entirely new cast of characters going forward, so the series began to follow that pattern going forward, and no season after this save for adventure follow-ups have characters shared with another season

digimon tamers was the next season and it started airing in 2001. the first thing people noticed about tamers is that it is a MASSIVE departure in tone from adventure and zero two. the first two seasons were already surprisingly dark for kids' shows, but tamers in my eyes just. flat out is not for children. this is a horror anime they put under the digimon name. it's very beloved by the fan base now and is known as one of the best seasons of digimon but at the time it was known for scaring kids and generally being terrifying. so the series is starting its decline going into 2002

so to fix this, the next season is the black sheep of the franchise: digimon frontier. i could write an entire paper about the problems in digimon frontier but to put it simply this is the digimon season i have rewritten in excruciating detail. digimon frontier tried something radically different at the time and tried to capture the child audience once again by being a lot more episodic than the last three seasons. in the end frontier struggled a lot with maintaining a consistent quality and fluctuates massively from being amazing to being really bad. frontier being so radically different by taking away partner digimon and instead having the main cast turn into digimon was a massive turn off for a lot of people, and after frontier ended, the digimon anime ended, and the so-called "golden era" of digimon came to a close with the last episode of frontier airing in 2003

after a few years' hiatus, the next digimon season, savers, aired in 2006, and it was very clearly targeting a teen audience. it was also radically different from most other seasons and was most in line with tamers, though even that isn't really a perfect comparison. it has a radically different art style, departs from series tradition by making the characters mid to late teens instead of in the 10-13 range, and is very intense in very strange ways. like the main character just punches digimon. savers was a very strange anime and definitely a second wind but not quite the one the franchise needed to keep going, so the anime went back on hiatus after savers ended in 2007

after another few years, we got digimon xros wars, the longest season of digimon. i say season?? it's one season of 79 episodes split up into three parts. xros wars was a return to form with tween main characters and an overarching story that was nowhere near as intense as tamers or savers. xros wars was radically different because it involved fusing digimon instead of straight evolution, and out of all the digimon seasons, it feels the most like the one made to sell toys. this season was picked up by nickelodeon internationally if that's any indication of how much of a success they thought it was going to be. in practice though?? the third and final part of xros wars went out on a whimper and was so bad it didn't even air internationally. digimon was just falling out of favor with people, and an anime that had once been so good that it was competing with and even *beating* pokemon in ratings and views was now having a hard time getting a season off the ground in japan, much less internationally

and that is where digimon tri comes in. digimon tri was an attempt to recapture the golden era of digimon with its most popular and universally beloved season: the original digimon adventure from 1999. tri was announced as a fifteenth anniversary project, and it would bring back the adventure cast for the first time in fifteen years. this was the first red flag though: it was bringing back the *adventure* cast, not the zero two cast. there are four new characters who join the party in zero two, and they are all very significant. there are two characters who carry over from adventure to zero two, and to be quite honest with you, they are closer with the zero two cast than the adventure cast. like takeru has a much stronger connection with the zero two cast than he did with the adventure cast. but all four characters from zero two were suspiciously absent from all promotional material, and even as fans asked where they were, their questions were never answered. they were just *gone,* and nobody knew why. this is especially bizarre since zero two is very much an extension of adventure. like you can watch adventure alone but it is much stronger with zero two and zero two is the definitive ending of the story. so why the fuck were they ignoring the ending they had set to to their own story??

sighs loudly. the director. i hate this man. i have beef with him. his name is keitaro motonaga, and in cloud's words, he should sleep with one eye open because i am coming for him. so motonaga did this super cool thing called "directing tri without ever watching the source material." ...what? yes, you read that right: the director of tri had *never seen* the original adventure nor zero two. he was going off what i can only describe as a spark notes description of everything that happened. the original adventure was very heavily focused on the subversion of common anime tropes. the ditzy popular girl is the most emotionally genuine. the oldest is the most irresponsible, and the youngest is the most put together. even the two "rivals" aren't *really* rivals when it comes down to it. digimon adventure takes a lot of anime tropes and stereotypes and flips them on their head to make very deep and compelling characters. so when you're operating on a spark notes understanding of the story, you're going to fall back on those tropes, and that is *exactly* what the director did. rather than watch the source material and become acquainted with these characters and their relationships, he operated off stereotypes the characters were made to subvert and completely butchered them in the process. taichi and yamato were always at each other's throats when they were genuinely friends in adventure. mimi became overly mean and insensitive. jyou stepped *back* from a character beat in adventure in a major way that ruined him. in trying to play to nostalgia, digimon tri completely forgot what made all of these characters so great in the first place and then spat on it

i know you're wondering: why the *fuck* did the director not watch the source material? he thought it would "dampen" and "ruin" his creative vision. he shouldn't have even been adapting a media he knew nothing about, but there he was, and it was bad. since he only got the spark notes for adventure, he ignored zero two entirely and cut the characters out of the plot. in fact, various things meant to invoke zero two nostalgia were done solely for the sake of "rule of cool" and nostalgia instead of actually meaning anything. none of it made any fucking sense. there were others on the project who had other ideas of what the story could have been--ideas that actually made sense in line with the spirit of adventure and zero two--but they were shot down in the name of the creative vision of a man who had never seen nor engaged with the source material. keitaro motonaga went on to get a massive reputation in the anime scene after tri ended for doing this with multiple adaptation projects of his: ignoring the source material for the sake of a creative vision that made no sense. it was overall fucking atrocious

and you can tell it was bad because in japan, they generally don't let the audience know when production is going bad on the back end of something. however with tri, it was bad enough to be addressed multiple times in many ways, and i'm sure that what we know is only the tip of the iceberg. it was a disaster from start to finish. i know a lot of people joke about production disasters but sincerely this was fucking atrocious and i hate it from the bottom of my heart

while tri was airing, it was being released internationally. it actually got international support unlike the traditional season airing at the same time: appmon. out of the two, appmon is *much* better, and it's a return to form for the franchise. i would argue that appmon is much more deserving of the golden era than frontier. appmon is amazing, but because it always had to compete with tri for attention, it never truly got off the ground in japan, much less internationally where it didn't even get official subs until YEARS after the fact. appmon was much more deserving of the spotlight and was actually written well but didn't get jack shit because tri was the adventure thing and therefore drew in people for nostalgia. hindsight is 20/20 though because if they had marketed appmon, maybe toei wouldn't have to bitch all the time about digimon not going well. this is your own damn fault you dipshits

tri has been panned by both japanese and western fans for a lot of reasons. it's heartless slop meant to prey on a person's nostalgia for adventure, and it has none of the heart of its predecessors. it's clumsily written and overall a poor exploration of what an older cast for adventure would get up to. the plot doesn't make sense, and it's a train wreck from beginning to end. the director wanted it to be "mature," so the season is unnecessarily dark and edgy much to its detriment. the creative vision of "maturity" and darkness completely ignored the fact that the original adventure and zero two *were* mature anime with very deep character development. they're classics for a damn reason, but they were pushed aside for the sake of being more "mature." fans panned tri for feeling insulting to their intelligence, like toei thought they would eat up anything as long as it had the digimon name attached to it

and it backfired like all hell. because nobody wanted *anything* to do with tri after it ended. when it ended, it was without any ceremony to speak of. it was 26 episodes split into six movies and then back into 26 episodes again, and it took over three years to release. it had more than double the release time window of appmon, and it had *half* the episodes of appmon. it's not like the tri was an animated spectacle or anything either. in movie four, the budget goes off a fucking cliff and never recovers. appmon may have had shaky animation at times, but it hit it out of the park where it count. tri has a color grading problem in its last two movies, and it's impossible to make out anything that happens in the finale because of it. things happen without reason, the characters have been obliterated completely, and the story makes no fucking sense. everyone was RELIEVED when tri ended, but it was such a massive failure that the digimon anime went on hiatus for ages after it ended, and for a while, everyone thought it would never come back

and when it did?? toei was trying to recoup the losses from tri the best it could. tri was purged from almost all digimon media, relegated to background cameos in future digimon media at most. nobody wanted to talk about tri to the point that when a sequel movie set after tri (last evolution kizuna) was released in 2020, tri was completely ignored. kizuna focuses on the zero two cast to overcompensate for the fact that they were completely absent from tri. the zero two cast even got a new movie last year (the beginning) all their own to try and make it up to fans that they were gone. the adventure timeline has continued, but tri has been entirely excluded from it aside from a few brief snapshots in the background of kizuna and the beginning. nobody wants to remember this anime existed despite it being a part of the main anime's timeline between zero two and kizuna. it hasn't been outright retconned but it might as well have been

after tri, toei decided to play it safe again. they went for an adventure reboot as the next season, and thus, digimon adventure psi (or adventure: or adventure 2020, it has a million names) was born. adventure 2020 is just,,, mediocre. it's a lot more focused on the spectacle of big fight scenes now that the digimon anime has a budget to speak of, and the character growth took a backseat. adventure 2020 took a long time to get dubbed though. like over two years. and it's still very inaccessible to this day because it's not available on any streaming service but instead (reads smudged writing on hand) available on the play station store where you can buy every individual episode out of 67. adventure 2020 is the second longest season of the anime after xros wars but it's still kind of a nothing burger because it fails to capture the emotional heart of adventure 1999. it's a fine enough season but a lot of people lost interest when it turned into just a fight compilation instead of developing any of its characters in a meaningful way

adventure 2020 also saw the continuation of a big problem with tri which was favoritism. since both adventrue 2020 and tri were meant to be franchise revivals in their own ways, they play it very safe and focus on taichi and yamato almost exclusively to the point of ignoring many of the other characters. the problem is at its worst in adventure 2020 in my eyes even though it is present in every season to some extent or another save for tamers and appmon. since adventure 2020 focused on two characters and their fighting capabilities while kind of shelving the other six, it fell into the pitfalls of past seasons (especially frontier and xros wars) and kind of ended without anyone really caring about it

after adventure 2020, the final season of the digimon anime was ghost game. this one is the most episodic digimon season of the bunch to try and appeal to a casual audience, and i think it does that very well! unfortunately it doesn't really develop its overarching plot at a good pace and crams everything together into the last five episodes after having a run time of over fifty episodes before that. ghost game is fine, but it's not a character driven season because of its heavy reliance on the monster of the week structure. the characters were always the draw of digimon, and each season has its own method of going about developing its characters. ghost game,,, doesn't do that! so it's just kind of there, and it once again ended without a grand finale and no one really cared much that it was over

so in conclusion, digimon tri was meant to be the revival of the digimon anime. in practice though, it had a very troubled production and didn't give a damn at all about the suorce material it was meant to follow, and it fell flatter than any other digimon season in the process. tri soured a lot of people's opinions on digimon, which is ironic since tri was supposed to bring back the audience that was lost all the way back when zero two aired in 2000. the digimon anime has not recovered since then, and i think outright ignoring tri in favor of new projects is the best way to go

now for how this ties in with ace attorney dual destinies and spirit of justice! i feel like you can figure out where the parallels are just by reading through everything i've already said, but i'm going into it anyway. ace attorney's popularity started to fall off after the original trilogy ended, and after a few experimental entries (aa4 and the aai games), it was decided that they needed something to bring the old audience back. that wound up being bringing phoenix back into the courtroom for dual destinies. however, dual destinies tries to act as an entry point, so while it's not the same as deliberately ignoring everything that came before it, it has the same effect. dual destinies does not let itself reference anything that happened before it released, and that means it's relying on nostalgia without actually digging into what implications the story will have on the greater narrative. the no-spoiler rule ends up very similar to the tri director's refusal to watch the original digimon adventure and zero two. on top of that, dual destinies tries to tackle darker, more mature themes, completely forgetting the maturity of the storytelling that came before it. frustratingly enough, both dual destinies and tri have nuggets of gold in them, but they're squandered by bad plot points and also reusal of old plots. tri's entire premise is actually just the basis of the first movie for zero two. it's just hurricane landing again but stretched out for closer to ten hours instead of just one. similarly, dual destinies' finale follows a very similar premise to the end of the first game, but it reenacts it without understanding what made the original great. it *could* have been great though, and that is ultimately what frustrates me so much about both of them. they're so close to being amazing, but they just fall short

the difference between ace attorney and digimon though is that digimon did not double down. after tri didn't work, they yanked the wheel in the opposite direction and made kizuna, a movie that *is* narratively cohesive with adventure and zero two. i'm not a huge fan of kizuna but i do acknowledge that it is very well written. ace attorney, on the other hand, doubled the fuck down and made spirit of justice in the same vein as dual destinies. in doing so, they wrote themselves into a corner they now can't get out of. pandering to nostalgia fell short in the end, and it wasn't enough to truly bring ace attorney to a wider audience as they had hoped. apollo is out of the plot, and he was character assassinated before he was pushed out. athena has been sidelined because of nostalgia around phoenix specifically. spirit of justice is the epitome of the bad decisions made in dual destinies, and they're blowing up in capcom's faces now. there's no easy way to write a seventh ace attorney game now without retconning something, but since they doubled down in spirit of justice--a game that is much worse than dual destinies both in terms of bloat (which is also a tri problem lol) and writing--they can't just quietly escape it the way digimon did with kizuna and the beginning. ace attorney hasn't come out with a new mainline game in eight years. if you ask me, it needs to cut its losses and either a) go the appmon route of making something entirely different since dgs did that and was an amazing game just like appmon was an amazing anime or b) figure out what to retcon and what to keep because going down the same path of spirit of justice very clearly is not working. they realized it too late though, and now, they're in trouble for it

#digimon adventure #digimon #digimon adventure zero two #digimon zero two #digimon tri #digimon adventure tri #ace attorney #ace attorney dual destinies #ace attorney spirit of justice #dual destinies #spirit of justice #when i find the director of tri i will have to fight him in a denny's parking lot #same for the people who wrote dual destinies #screaming into my pillow as we speak

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umeboshi--bones · 2 years ago

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dont imagine shattered dream>:)

CW: yandere

Don't imagine that you're sitting, by yourself, brain mired in negative thoughts, the stress and pain of your life drowning you.

Don't imagine the overwhelming wave of negativity suddenly rising around you only to be succinctly silenced.

Dont imagine that everything goes silent around you, unnaturally so, you can't even hear your own heartbeat; tendrils crawl into your vision, you feel something press against your back.

Don't imagine a smooth, velvet voice, cooing to you almost lovingly?

"Oh, darling, sweet girl, what darkens your heart so? I could taste it, so far from me. Tell me, whisper it if you find it easier."

Don't imagine breaking under the thoughts in your head, and tearfully you whisper to the darkness.

Don't imagine the darkness clicking its tongue and the tentacles hovering around you begins to make a cocoon around you.

Don't imagine the edge in his voice when he discovers that the source of your soul splitting sadness happens to be downstairs.

Don't imagine the darkness condensing before you, a skeleton made of darkness and sludge emerging. He smiles at you, it is sad and doesn't match his voice.

Don't imagine he turns and takes your headphones from your desk, placing them snugly to your ears, a tentacle scrolling through your music list on your phone, to choose one with the most plays.

"You do not want to listen to anything but what is in these headphones, my dear."

Dont imagine the smile on his face sharpens, he turns back to undulating shadow and slips out of the cracks of the bedroom door.

Especially don't imagine he returns to you moments later, to bring you up to him as he floats supported by two thick tentacles, pressing a kiss to your forehead, murmuring that you will be so much happier with him, this universe doesn't deserve a soul like yours.

And what ever you do, don't imagine that the surge of happiness that floods you feels a little tinged with dread as you look into that burning amber eye studying your face.

Or the smirk that stretches a crescent of brilliant white across his dark face, as your vision blurs and a nothingness takes you, as you are taken from the universe by his arms, by his kiss.

Oh and don't imagine the absolute wipe of your AU, ending in terror and blood, all for you beloved, all for you darling.

All. For. You.

#shattered dream #shattered!dream #dream sans #nightmare sans #undertale #answered asks #hoo boy this one got away from me #and fast #dont worry pet #he will take care of you #and those who dare cause any harm #double dog dare he will fuck you up dont try it #cw yandere #yandere #shattered dream x reader #dream x reader

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cyle · 1 year ago

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It is really quite maddening how there are all these interesting and useful features being worked on in @labs to be released at some indeterminate future time and all the updates we are getting now are things that make great swathes of the userbase angry

I think it would make people a lot more willing to trust staff if you could release the highly asked for features alongside the annoying changes, rather than giving the annoying now and promising the asked for later

But I emphasize with how hard it is to convince management to listen to reasonable criticism. Could you do me a favor and shake your fist at them for me?

if i could wave a magic wand and make Breaking Even as a Business not a reality, then yeah, i would argue to split tumblr's efforts into a classic "tick-tock" schedule: for everything we build to attract new users and innovate, we build something to make existing users' lives better.

but i've made that argument and lost many times, and for good reason. tumblr is not a business that's breaking even! we aren't making enough money to survive! and our current audience (me and you) aren't helping us enough with that, i'm sorry to say. we've tried catering to our existing audience, and unfortunately it won't sustain the platform. even discord is having to abandon their beloved early adopters! every social media company seems to go through this, and it's a miracle it's taken this long for us to do the same.

and while some of the things we're working on in @labs are things we hope will be cool with existing users, probably a lot of them won't be. one of them was already "leaked" and generated a ton of negative reaction on tumblr. but that's why we're doing a lot of user research with people who don't use tumblr, and people who do. because we need to make some money to pay the bills around here.

if we can find a solution that appeals to both audiences, then we'll chase it as hard as we can, but the odds of that are very slim. it's much more likely that "the tumblr that can survive as a business" doesn't look entirely like the tumblr we're using today. we're trying to keep the core part of tumblr alive, though. that's the gauntlet.

as for "convincing management" -- @zingring is right over there. she's the COO of tumblr. i've already convinced her! i don't have to shake my fist at her! she's great!!

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utilitycaster · 1 year ago

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In the course of a couple of conversations I think I have hit on some of the fandom weirdness this campaign, and it's notable because I realized it when it was my answer to both a question about why the fandom response to "Party of NPCs" was pretty negative at the time but I don't think it would be now; and someone pointing out to me how there was a sudden massive spike of enthusiasm for Ashton and Fearne as a ship without a particularly large corresponding boost in any sort of fan works.

I suspect that many of the people who came to C3 as their first CR campaign came through the avenue of shipping; either because Shadowgast and Beauyasha both broke containment to some extent; because of TLOVM (which as a scripted TV show where they know the relationships and how they shake out, there can be foreshadowing), or because of the influxes of people shipping Imogen and Laudna circa May and September 2022. This is in contrast to Campaigns 1 and 2, where a lot of the fanbase came via D&D fandom, fantasy fandom, voice acting fandom, and more general word of mouth. This time, people showed up to ship; of that segment of the fandom, shipping is a major if not the primary way in which they interact with fiction.

Here's the truth: this is a terrible campaign for shipping, and indeed, one of the worst shows for shipping I've seen in a while. This, to be clear, is not a critique of quality. It's merely an observation that this is a terrible campaign for shipping specifically, but a great one for many of the myriad other reasons why one might watch long-form actual play. It's plot-heavy, with a pretty intricate network of laid groundwork over eight years of storytelling, two past campaigns, and two miniseries finally paying off. It's been heavy on showing the unexplored corners of the world in Marquet, rural Issylra and the Shattered Teeth. It's taken risks with the typical D&D campaign structure and with party composition and splits, to varying degrees of success. It's allowed a revisiting of beloved NPCs and locations from the past. It's the lore campaign! It's extremely not the shipping campaign.

I think most people have picked up on that by now, even if it's only subconsciously, and so those who watch with the express intent of shipping, are grasping at the most tenuous of straws because that's pretty much what they have. Two canon ships and one noncanon but hinted-towards ship are with guest characters who are not present and so are necessarily very quiet. Chetney and Fearne is a lot of fun but it does not fit the usual shipping-above-all preferences of monogamous love to marriage/partnership to babies, plus Chetney is weird and old. (This has always been an issue with this mentality, incidentally; for all I think the popularity of Shadowgast is why some of these people are here, the fact of the matter is that many of the people who like Shadowgast like a completely foreign to canon concept operating under that name that erases the frequent long-distant nature and the almost certain lack of children and the deliberate choice to end the relationship amicably due to different needs.) However you may feel about Imogen and Laudna it is incontrovertible that there's been little to no movement in what is now a calendar quarter. And so: two people doing something that is not explicitly romantic while two other characters say "emperor and empress" is a paltry, miniscule - and I hate to use the word but no other will do - crumb; but it is a crumb to a starving populace.

In case my feelings aren't abundantly clear...I say let them eat cake. I enjoy ships and shipping! I enjoy seeing characters recognize themselves through the other and develop over time as they fall in love with another character; I enjoy seeing a deep romance unfold slowly so that I can savor it. But this campaign just doesn't really have that, and that's never been the most significant reason I watch, let alone the main one. I'd rather have no romantic relationships in a work than rushed ones that strain credibility or lack chemistry, and those who do want romance can either find other shows, or focus on transformative work. For those who came to Campaign 3 on the basis of rumors of the great romances in Campaigns 1 or 2, those are still there for you! And while I think we're too far in for a campaign-length romance, there are plenty of ways for the existing ships to become something more interesting. But I think this explains a lot of the weirder patterns in the fandom conversation as of late.

#cr tag

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bakedcrossaintt · 1 month ago

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random splitting from interests

do you guys also sometimes experience a random minor event regarding your current hyperfix that makes you just completely split from it for a while? I've had this multiple times now, for example when i was very very into Devilman Crybaby i heard somewhere that it played in the same universe as Neon Genesis Evangelion, which i then told a friend who was very into NGE, to which he replied "what? no it doesn't, also Devilman Crybaby is lowkey ass" or something like that. For some reason that small interaction flipped a switch in my brain that made me immediately unable to interact with my previously so beloved hyperfixation without feeling an extreme sense of guilt, disgust and embarassment. I seriously could not ever engage with it again after that.

This has happened to me SO many times, mostly bc somebody else said something slightly negative abt it or because some small thing about it changed, like an update in a game. Does anyone else have any experience with this? might just be some weird adhd or autism side effect, honestly i have no idea

#maybe i'll bring it up in therapy someday #mental health #neurodiversity #hyperfixations #fandom #fandom struggles #devilman crybaby #psychology #mental health help #adhd problems #autism problems #adhd struggles

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deadn30n · 1 year ago

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happy early 2024 !

posted a bit early as i'll be going to bed relatively soon, but i wanted to say something to usher in the new year!

as some of you know, i've been in the RPC for a very long time, but took a well needed hiatus a year or so back. i only recently returned mid-November && have not regretted that decision for a second. ♥ it's only been a month and a half, but it's been the best month and a half i've ever spent on this site. i admit i was nervous to return for a variety of reason ( mostly avoiding some rather negative people i originally split from this site to escape from ) but i've come to find that this space space i've built has fostered so much positivity for me, and i'm very grateful for that. i'm grateful for all the new friends i've made, all the connections i've forged, the writing i've done, and the plots i've gotten to explore! && as the new year approaches, i'm walking it into with quite a few new aspirations and hopes. i'm really, really thankful to everyone who's given me the time and chance to reach out and make a connection. to the people who've talked to me and told me they're excited for the release of my book, for my return to the vtubing community, for the times we play games together and just goof off.

i hope you know how much you all mean to me. i wish i could tag EVERYONE in this post but tumblr would kick my ass, but just know that i'm truly and honestly grateful and honored to have met the people that i have and look forward to talking more with all of you and getting to know you better. there are a few people i want to single out to shower with love who've supported me or have even known me from the LAST TIME i was on the site lmao

@goldenfists : you should already know you'd be the first on my list Joo Joo Bean. my beloved. we've known each other for what... 3 years now? roughly that, give or take, but you have no idea how much you really mean to me. from the moment we met i knew you were someone i wanted to keep in my circle. i adored you and still do; you've seen the changes i've gone through, the growth i've made, and supported every positive decision i've made. even when i finally built my first oc, and your first incentive was to foster a relationship between sett and eden and letting me know that you LOVED my creatives when i was so scared to take that first dive into making an oc. i love you so much dude. ;_; i'll never forget how you teased me on stream about my pronunciation of your name but then insisted i kept pronouncing it like that because you thought it was cute. i wish you knew just how much you mean to me, because words aren't enough to justify my feelings toward you. i love you Joo Joo Bean, i love you to the moon and back, and i can't wait to see what 2024 has in store for you and i, and our little blorbos @empyreous : ELLE!!!11 ELLE!!!!1 MY BELOVED PARTNER IN CRIME ON LEAGUE!!!! we haven't known each other for very long but god have i LOVED writing with you and goofing off in my favourite games. you've given me a brand new love for league and you're so fucking talented with your ocs and your writing that i'm just chomping at the bit for us to keep going. i literally can't wait to see what we end up developing for these silly little dudes and it makes me so very happy to have you in my corner. i wish you only the best in the world and i'm certain 2024 will give us so many more funny memories to cherish. save me eboi.... eboi save me....

@seeksmoon / @seekslight : softie you loveable little shit. you boyfriend stealing monster ( affectionate ). actually, if i was gonna share my boyfriend with anyone, it'd gladly be you. BUT JOKES ASIDE i'm really delighted we met and hit it off as well as we did. the way you write both alune and lux have me going GRRRRR BARK BARK BARK and i adore the dynamics we've started to built between yonealune and ezlux. we haven't had nearly enough time to hang out yet and that's a fucking CRIME if you ask me. i'm sure come 2024 though we'll have plenty of time to be a couple of goobers and mess around in league here on tumblr. you're such a sweetheart and even my bf talks so positively of you, and anyone that can make him happy makes ME happy. i hope you know you won't get rid of him and i so easily ♥ we enjoy hanging out with you, and we hope you do too :>

@ayahimes : astrid u ain't getting away from me i'm rapidly approaching ur location at mach 10. LFKDJASLKJDF i'm teasing i'm teasing but MAN i've had so much fun playing weague of wegends with you ( and looking forward to when we start playing ffxiv too ) but you're such a sweetheart man. a good energy, positive presence that i love being around ;v; i hope we'll get to play more in the future and chat more and get to know each other!! ♥♥♥

@mellodiies : misha all i'm gonna say is this year... you will be boiled.... ( this ask forever lives rent free in my head and i'm never going to stop laughing at this i hope you know ) ok but in all seriousness i'm so glad i worked up the courage to follow your blog because it's been a bucket of laughs and also seeing one of my childhood faves being doted over so lovingly just makes me so!!!!!!!!!!! i hope this year we'll be able to write ( and even if we don't i'm also content just observing your shenanigans bc they always brighten my day ). thank you for filling my dash with the little pep in my day that i need, you're a fucking goober and i adore you for it

@vulpesse : hi bunnie!! we never really got much of a chance to chat before ( we did get to write a bit in the past though, which i enjoyed! ) but i want you to know that you are one of my biggest inspirations on this site and i was so goddamn happy when i found you again that i hit the follow button so fast i think i broke my finger LMAO but seriously.... you're great. you have such a wonderful energy about you and you're so unbelievably talented with an indomitable spirit. i love seeing your posts every day, and i'm glad to share this same space as you! ♥ please never change, you truly are such a bright light in an otherwise murky world

@heartate : plum u know i couldn't forget about my favourite edgy thot. i fuckin love u dude. it's crazy to think we've known each other for like what? 10 years? like christ. and even though those first few years weren't filled with the happiest of memories, it's been my honor to be able to make amends with you. i always appreciated you for approaching me with that heartfelt apology. i never resented you, and even less so now that i knew the kind of awful situation you were put through back then. you didn't deserve the pain and abuse you went through, and i'm glad you're finally able to break free and grow. flourish and fill the world with your light, because you're a good person and i firmly stick by that notion. no matter what happened between us in the past, you've grown and i've adored watching it. i only hope you'll be able to continue to grow and enjoy the newfound freedom you have, and i am glad to be able to be by your side through it ♥ i'll always have your back miss rina, you can count on that :>

&& to some other lovelies who've made my time pleasant here; @lightshielded / @yoakkemae / @chiheru / @fairesky / @darkflyers / @attroxx / @mythcaels / @knifvd / @killerhubby / @erabundus / @mundmutter / @goddessrisen / @inhumann / @penddraig / @hiisfire / @raytm / @elicertis / @liightbringr / @un1awful / @vonerde / @gunrising / @cyneris / @trattcria / @cmdrace / @lovehungered / @trattcria / @pearlcure / @dnangelic / @starsenna / @nulltune / @toxichem / @longerhuman / @volonata / @misreputed / @ferinehuntress / @florspinae / @inufangs / @bishonenprince

&& to all of my lovely followers too! ♥ may your new year be filled with all the joy and love you deserve. may the new year treat you kindly and give you solace when you need it most. may the new year bless you with every bit of happiness you deserve c:

#« ooc tag. »#I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LONG POST LMAO #i decided to put it under a cut to spare you all #but ilu guys AAAAA

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agent-8449 · 1 year ago

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Agent Logos CJverse chatroom summary.... REAL!!!!

Clears throat. This may be a long post, be warned. Actually, yeah. Bwoink.

The OG AU: Voice of Reason

Whole: Dead as fuck. Sort of. Way before the events of the comic, their Whole 'died'. We refer to not-dead Whole OOCly as 'Hope', but he also sort of exists afterwards as a figment of himself-- the 'shadow' called Cast. Cast can only speak in song lyrics, and currently resides in... the TMAverse, as a cursed item. Woaw.

Heart: Would kill you if you called him Heart. Ozzy/Oz/Ozymandias is a real piece of work. Sourceless guilt incarnate, magically influenced by a cursed mirror to eat it, in a symbolic attempt to erase himself. He's so chill. So fine. So cool. Definitely not so close to collapsing at all times. Got glasses though.

Mind: Tinker/Ulysses. So violently soggy, but hides it under his inexplicable British accent and polite demeanour. Made the transmitters that allow Thirds to traverse between their Surrealities. He half-regrets this. The only one of the three fully aware that Cast is an actual sentient guy. Hid his Soul's trident in his hand after the comic, and so that hole is very much still there <he's 'fixing' it atm...>

Soul: Coda. Coba. Coba Cola. What a disaster. After the comic, it <he/it> was kept in his room as much as possible. Then Oz left, and he completely lost it. It was a big storyline, so feel free to ask about it. Coda is really fun because he's not sane

Me-only AU 2: The Negatives

Whole: Eris... also known as Chase. The Negatives are a sort of "reversal of personality". Eris is a shitty content farm-making YouTuber, and generally hates this too. He also has to deal with the Cold War he sort of constructed with his own Thirds. He remembers what his Thirds do, which is good because he split <past tense> often... like. Every day. They called it 'shifts'. Yeah.

Heart: Phobos, ahhhhh my horrible boy Phobos. Personification of egoism, self-aggrandization, imagination, and intrusive thoughts. Green. Mean. A bitch and a half. Generally sadistic. The de-facto leader of the Negative Thirds. Wears crocs. Idolises Whole.

Mind: Deimos. That is all. Personification of logic, reasoning, and thinking ahead. He is also an absolute goon and pushover. All too happy to be Phobos' lackey.

Soul: Nemesis, though he hates that nickname. Personification of 'cringe culture', self-doubt, second-hand embarassment, and critical thinking. Basically ignored by the other two. Does all the work in the Vessel. Clinically annoyed by everything all the time. Very spiteful.

ASSORTED GUYS <from co-op AUs>:

Allen: Soul from Voib, Andy, Shade and I's AI AU, also known as Reification Initiative: Apotheosis. Yeah I came up with that. My bad. Allen is shitty. So very shitty. Ran away. That's all I can say for now.

Valentine: Heart from WAAAILSSSSSS IT'S ONLY ME BUT HIS COUNTERPARTS ARE ALL DEAAAAD. The Bachelor AU, a 'Lonely' AU. He is trying to live his life now that he fucked up and he's alone. He committed arson. He has to go to government-mandated therapy. He is beloved.

Nyx: Whole from Xanadu AU. Haven't done much with him, but he's in space, and he's an idiot.

Vlinder: :>

Thyme: Mind from the Aonaran/Apocalypse AU. The world ended. It be like that sometimes. And the stress got to their Whole. Thyme killed multiple people.

Pursuit: Heart (2) from Voib's Labyrinths AU. He is big kitty cat lad. Does eat people. Tries to maintain the status quo. Genuinely satisfied with the state of things.

Magna: Mind from Demersal AU. Basically, he got pitted instead of Heart for being a delusional little shit. He did not get any less delusional. Conspiracy nut, drowning 1/4th of the time, and generally horrible person.

Brevity: Soul from Voib and I's Syncopation AU. Olde Mann. No legs, they froze off. He is not mentally well at all, but he's got to keep it together if he wants to continue being 'him'.

Crawl: Heart from the Asides AU. Fourth-wall breaking eldritch horror. Collector of things. Collector of extinct things. Full name 'Crawl of the Horizon'.

"Quinn": Soul from Good Day. Very new AU with me, Voib, Q-ott, and Ledge <@/nitroish>. Meant to be close to album guys. He's denying his halves exist and matter atm.

There you go! Not including the alternate timelines because jesus christ

#GASPS FOR BREATH #cjverse chatroom #voice of reason

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disabledstraydogs · 8 months ago

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has anyone mentioned Chuuya having sysmembers of the flags

I also think he has one that’s a dog tbh

Lotsss of littles and middles, a little that’s a younger version of him too

a middle that’s 16!chuuya that split after the torture shit in sb

system Chuuya my beloved

YEAH YEAH YEAH

Chuuya has a lot of introjects in his sytsem, some from anime and media he's seen but most of them are based off people he knows. He has an alter who closely resembles Kouyou and acts as a caregiver for the system, he also probably has a few Dazai's (he deies they exist) and he 100% has a few (if not all) of the Flags in his system which can negatively impact host Chuuya (guilt reasons).

I think is has an 'alter' of Arahabaki (is it an alter or the actual God, no one knows).

I personally believe that he probably has alters that are scientists or at least look like them, although I'm unsure what their roles are they scare Chuuya a lot.

Also one dog alter? Why not ten /lh

#text #chuuya system #system headcanon

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ellasadventuresinfandoms · 3 months ago

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putting this in a read more because I don't like being negative about a show so if you want to read my thoughts about twilight mirage you can but you don't have to

I never realised that people didn't like tm at the time and I would Love to hear Why because tm is my least favourite season for 2 reasons

It felt like a betrayal of "play to find out what happens" and the air of collaboration that fatt focuses on - there were so many moments where Austin just pulled a DM card and things happened with no input from the other players (like Quire splitting just seemed so fucking out the blue and not influenced by anyone else)

They were building a utopia and their utopia sucked - tm was isolationist, had horrible inequalities and had like a secret police. Like if that was truly all they could dream about then it like recontextualises how I feel about all their politics

To me tm was such a betrayal of the rest of fatt and it's so interesting to me that it's so beloved by everyone else

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askblog-with-the-vampire · 1 year ago

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We have a community now. And a lot of it has popped up in New Orleans. I suspect that is my fault, after all it is my city and it was my interview that inadvertently began the journey that ended in a vampire society of sorts. But as it is there are now gathering places for our kind in the French Quarter! We can drink and revel with the rest of Bourbon Street now! They serve.....well...our cuisine.

We were splitting a local Oneg and they brought us a flight of negatives, on the house. Lestat and I cannot pass in these places unrecognized anymore. He's infinitely popular. Our beloved prince.

Oh, and like any dive bar on Bourbon Street they post warnings in the restrooms:

#the vampire chronicles #louis de pointe du lac #the vampire lestat #lestat de lioncourt #interveiw with the vampire #louis pointe du lac #loustat #anne rice vampires

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krytus · 2 years ago

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quinn what happened to the hot king

short answer: he died

long answer:

it is august of 2018 — no actually. our story begins in september of 2017. voltron: legendary defender is released by netflix to widespread acclaim. a community forms on tumblr, and then immediately shoots itself in the foot face and ass as horny people move to make suggestive content of this preteen space lion show. the community not only splits, but implodes and descends into rabid frenzy. in the year that follows, and as the quality of the source content declines, death threats and callouts and blacklists become not only ordinary, but daily. but, as einstein or some other guy said, matter and energy cannot be destroyed and this rabid energy of hundreds of annoying gay teenagers must be redirected — somewhere close, and quick.

enter me. one of them. not doing great in college. yes, academically i was excelling but socially isolated. lonely. i needed some distraction. netflix releases a teaser for an upcoming animated show. the look of it — dramatic set pieces, colorful magic use, armored knights — piques my interest. i haven't had any good medieval content since kalots's release in 2017. the teaser is short, provides only a taste of whats to come in the approaching season. some words, some characters.

one character specifically grabs my interest: the king. i look online, searching for a name to the beautiful face. i find none. not quite discouraged, but rather engaged, i decide he will be my favorite. the other characters are children, and this man is beautiful. i cannot resist the allure. i find like minded individuals. we are all love the unnamed dragon prince king. and this is where i must remind you of the reformed voltron gays. we'd been slighted. we'd been hurt. netflix cartoon had already broken our minds spirits and sanity once, but this was a different netflix cartoon, different animation studio, different creative team. in fact, it was the child show of the men who created avatar: the last airbender, which i had not watched, but which i know was beloved. i had faith. i had trust! surely, this unnamed king would be given grace and dimension! surely, they would not waste such a great design with shallow writing and a cold hard future in the fridge! <- this is what we in show business call foreshadowing.

days pass without a name for the king. not unexpected, netflix puts out only minimal effort in promoting a series. its usually up to whoever created it to hype it up. in this case, the offender is wonderstorm, who quickly realizes there is a large, jilted audience in their target demographic (teens and teens adjacent) itching for a new series to latch onto, like eels being given a pizza. they get to work, setting up both a twitter and tumblr account. here is their best work, and arguably the peak of the entirety of the dragon prince experience: the hype harvested by the dragonprinceofficial account before the release of the show.

see, they'd done their homework, learned from the blunder misstep and nuclear detonation of voltron's more than lacking, downright insulting pr team. dpo baited. dpo waited. they released bits and pieces. hints and riddles. they were tuned into the biggest memes of the moment. they capitalized. and i was not immune. at the time, it was fun. thats the first tragedy, i think. the pre-show era was actually fun, while the show itself became such a slog, a heavy weight on the experience when it should have been the reward it was promised to be. but, im getting ahead of myself. show release is still a few paragraphs out. we finally get a name for the face: king harrow. a frantic google search for the etymology of the word harrow leaves us worrying for this guy. the king, the father, associated with such a negative connotation.

nonetheless, we stan. edits and art and even some fics — mind you, we still only have the name and a brief teaser, nothing in the way of actual characterization — sprout. hype builds. the first episode is screened at a convention and i turned into fucking sherlock holmes finding posts and tidbits about it. about my beloved harrow. i am able to sleuth. the man has promise — a king who made a mistake so grave it'll send him to his. in this day and age we'd call him doomed by the narrative. its wonderful. im latched and hooked and pack bonded. and in this looking around, i find something else that's interesting: a character by the name of viren. someone we haven't seen, but who has an important dynamic with the king. im 👁👁 because the only thing better than a good character is a pair of them.

anticipation continues to build. the delirium only deepens. news about the show is promising, engagement with dpo is rewarding. golden age. the good old days. the official trailer comes out, and, to put it biblically, i go batshit. here, finally, more harrow. some viren! drama! call me a tick, call me a feral cat shown kindness because babey i form some unhealthy unbreakable unshakable bonds. i turn into wonderstorm's bitch. "the king is in danger" some promo material warns, but do i miss the red flags? baby, i miss the entire red dawn. my faith is will be rewarded. there is no doubt in my mind: harrow will be fine. he's a good father, great man. the power of love or friendship or some other adolescent bullshit will save him.

i have hope.

and then, right on time at 12:00am PST, Friday, September 9th, 2018, the series is released.

google, look up synonyms for disappointment. no, that's not fair. disappointment is too mild a term, too mild a feeling for the experience. it was brutal, gutting, a crucible of fire and blood that only made me worse. i stayed up until 4am, swallowing as much of the show as i could stomach. i didn't even finish that night. i could have, but i was feeling the effects of sleep deprivation and, much worse, the pain and embarrassment of being so completely and utterly wrong.

in the nine episodes of wonderstorm's the dragon prince season one, harrow is in three of them. technically, his lifeless corpse is in the fourth, but exists only to be desecrated and disrespected by his white friend.

harrow is a frustrating character — given the illusion of depth, but given little to do with it. he's more plot device than person, here to die to kick off the story, to launch character arcs, to be the big sad tragedy that everyone brings up every other episode. he becomes an abstraction, his death used as motive and purpose. he dies to showcase that this isnt your dad's animated series! suck our dick nickolodeon! see we have depth!

but, despite this, his death feels temporary. there is ambiguity, shadows, a fade to black that leaves us with a wink and promise. he dies, but we're told he dies, never shown final moments, never confirming it for ourselves. like yesterday's leftovers, he's shoved in the fridge.

to give a name to the tactic, i'd call it shrodinger's representation. its the writers putting a foot in two doors. we didnt kill the kind black father, they say, because he isn't dead! but at the same time, frustratingly, we're told there isnt a way to bring the dead back to life. viren rushes to cremate the body, and you think ah there is more afoot but there is nothing afoot. there is no mystery to solve. in the same breath that they ask us to look more into harrow's death, they also say, without question, that he is dead. he has to be dead for the story to work sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ nevermind that several, MOST other characters cheat death. the writers ask, beg, and whine for you to pay no mind to these future instances. harrow is dead.

harrow dies less than sixty minutes into the saga, and my interest in the show hould have been taken out into a patch of quiet woods and killed as well, but it isnt. having nothing else do to, i engage in behavior that can only be described as Bitchless. which nets me two thousand followers and a callout post but hey. i have my fun in the month after the show is released. making gifs making theories getting into scraps in the tag. its a different kind of experience than before. i may have lost the rosy film, the romantic lens with which i viewed the show before it was released, but nothings so broken it cant be fixed. tdp would get another season, there was a plan, there was the chirpening theory, there was angst to write. viren was a weak, confusing character, but i could fix him. i could take out the interesting bits, polish them until they shined.

i was promised everything, and given nothing, but that didnt stop me. because im a dumbass.

months pass. s2 looms as a threat. i try to move onto other things but its only a few, short months before the new season is released. i go in knowing harrow is dead, but, unfortunately i also go in knowing there will be flashbacks with him.

even worse: flashbacks with him and his wife.

queen sarai. i must at this point remind you i am a lesbian so you see the kind of strain i was under. trapped between a beautiful man and his epic wife. i never stood a chance. and she was [unintelligible gibberish]. another of tdp's weak characters with some interesting attributes. her relationship with her husband was at points stupid, but they loved each other and Did I Mention I Was Lonely. throw viren into the mix and baby. unhealthy coping mechanisms thy name is quinn daggerons. it was at this point i divorced canon for the most part. i took these three characters, all the characterization that tickled my brain, and just went hog wild with aus. second golden age. sure, sarai was dead, harrow was dead, and viren was [unintelligible gibberish, sounds of violence] but that didnt matter. here on tumblr dot hell they were alive and well and i wrote a 20,000 word, four part au where they were the main characters of the series. next level brainrot. multidimensional brainrot, even. embarrassing.

anyways.

by the time season two's ending credits rolled, i had given up on the show. another season or four was something that was going to happen, but not happen to me. and mix in some Controversy: a fun little case of bury your gays, some elements that felt racially insensitive, white men showrunners behaving like white men and i was ✌️ checked out. i would keep these characters, thank you very much, but i would not say anything nice to the people who made them.

s3 unfortunately, eventually came out. more of the same. viren was.... doing Something. what? i didnt care. harrow was still dead. someone told me there were some flashbacks with him, again, and i was like good on luc roderique getting that netflix money. genuinely hope he has good luck with other projects, he was too good for this show.

but i sat my ass down and watched said flashbacks. they were alright. thanks for giving us harrow depressed about the death of his wife. im gonna hit you with my car aaron ehasz. viren's fun time war crimes happen. it sucks knowing the thing that will eventually get harrow killed wasn't even something he wanted to do. it was something he agreed to only after having his grief for his dead wife exploited by his white friend. i giffed my beloved man one last time. and blurred out viren because it was funny.

so, to answer your question, dear friend. what happened to the hot king? he lived, he served cunt, he died, and then his corpse was dragged around for the rest of the show.

#s.ask #scalproie #sorry for the wall of text. i have problems.#the dragon prince #<- yes im putting it in the main tag. i have no respect for peoples blogging experience ☺️#long post #anyways. this is four pages long and two thousand words. oopsie.

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