#and the horrible life he was a part of

[chiarrara]

so yeah, what happened to ash is super tragic and unfair, but what happened to Shorter, is like, the most horrifying thing that could happen to anyone and the only thing worse is the entire rest of the narrative where ash survives it

[yelenadelova]

TBOSAS has me thinking about how Finnick was likely one of the only people alive who knew even some of the story of what happened in the 10th Hunger Games and after. It’s apparent that Snow or the Capitol in general buried any record of the 10th games and Lucy Gray to save face.

However, who knew all of Snow’s darkest secrets and dirty laundry? Finnick. It’s reasonable to assume he probably learned at least part of the story. Not only that but Mags won the 11th games, directly after Lucy Gray’s Games. It is canon that there wasn’t much coverage of the games in the districts but I’m sure even if she didn’t watch them there were likely rumors about it during the next game. And when Snow reappeared as the president she likely remembered his role. And as Finnick’s mentor and mother figure she probably told him a lot.

There’s no real point to this information but I just think it’s very interesting that despite how hard Snow worked to bury his past it probably still lived on. And despite his efforts to control, oppress, and abuse the victors, it was one of these victors who knew his dark past. It was one of the people he tried to control that eventually gained an upper hand over him and helped play a big role in his downfall.

[dent-de-leon]

wait your tags is that really what happened to lucien????

yES and it's absolutely haunting. So, Lucien's childhood: he came from a little family of traveling players in Shadycreek Run. He had an older brother and younger sister, but the eldest brother Elric was always their parents' "favorite." (This did not stop his parents from abusing him either, and there's a flashback where Lucien tends to his wounds while he's still crying.)

His parents end up deep in debt to the Jagentoths--the...the same family in Shadycreek that the Iron Shepherds work for. And when his parents can't pay up, Elric is the one that gets killed for it. His parents, distraught with grief, put Elric's body in the snow until they "decided what to do with it," tried to keep the body fresh.

Maybe at some point they tried to look for a cleric. Maybe. But what they ended up doing was digging up their son's body and handing him over to a hag in the Savalirwood. A witch who has this habit of sucking souls out of people's bodies, skinning their corpses, and sewing them back together as life sized puppets and dolls to display in her little cottage. It's referred to as "Hollowing" someone, because you just carve out their very soul and just leave them "empty"--and it's Lucien's greatest fear.

There's something to be said I think, for Lucien's parents getting too deep into debt with the Jagentoths, and their oldest child being the one to pay the price for it. Then they make a deal with a hag, but it's Lucien who's forced to uphold their end of the bargain. His father gives him a list of people--with the implication that they are not good people--and whoever was chosen, that's who Lucien was tasked with luring back to the witch's cottage.

Lucien is still just a child, couldn't have been older than ten (because by the time he's twelve, he's already been living alone on the streets of the Run for a few years.) And what kinds of people was he trying to get to follow him out into the cursed Savalirwood? Thieves, murderers--and any number of them could have hurt Lucien before he ever made it back to the hag.

And then there's the hag herself, who confesses to Lucien that she always wanted to add him to her "collection." So much of Lucien's story is about loss of autonomy--being controlled against his will, or else coerced into following orders. He's continually manipulated by powerful mages, only ever knows magic as another source of pain.

Eventually, Lucien can't bear it anymore, can't take all the blood on his hands, can't be complicit in his parents' sins any longer. He sets the caravan on fire and escapes with his little sister. Spends the next several years doing whatever he can to build a better life for her, get her a way out of the Run. Eventually, things fall apart.

Lucien spends the rest of his childhood trapped in the Run. Doing odd jobs for other families like the Mardoons to try and survive. He spends most nights going cold or hungry. Waking from nightmares screaming, still feeling the heat of that fire.

He loses touch with his sister. Gets her a way to Rexxentrum, but is too ashamed at himself for not having anything to "offer" her--just barely scraping together enough coin to get by, but nowhere near enough to give her the life he promised. He feels like he failed her, and he stops responding to her letters.

Eventually, he joins the Claret Orders. Nineteen, impatient and impulsive; eager to finally have the power to kill the monsters that always haunted him as a child. Goes back to the Savalirwood, stabs the hag in the heart. But for all he'd dreamed of the revenge, it feels so hollow and empty. She doesn't even fight back, and it makes him feel sick.

Oh--Lucien is also fate touched, which is one of the few things he doesn't loathe about himself. It's something to hold onto, this faint hope that maybe he's destined for greater things, for more than just dying in the Run, that one day he'll escape all this.

There's more, but. That's a good bit of his childhood.

Lucien ends up alone. And when the philosophers start sinking their claws in him, the dream they promise him is a world where Lucien's family actually loves him. It's just....all so very tragic and really drives home that, in comparison to Ludinus, Lucien just....feels like a kid who got in way over his head and just couldn't find a way out--

[muffingnf]

forever thinking about how nothing will be the same as before this situation and george won't be the same ever again. i just hope he will take of his mental health after this, no matter what it takes, even if it means he will be far more distanced

anon this is seriously making me suicidal

on a real note i mostly worry about how this will impact his ability to form connections and make relationships with other people. like imagine feeling too cautious to go near non-ccs because oh god what if theyre a secret fan or what if they put something online and ‘expose’ me. but then u can’t go near fellow cc’s either because you cannot tell who has genuine intentions and who just wants to fuck you over later down the line. and none of this is even shit fans like me should even be thinking about i cannot stress enough how none of this should’ve been public and i feel so fucking bad for him that he’s had to be so publicly vulnerable after being so private his whole career.

on another note i suppose dnf will be trauma bonded for life now

[vvitchering]

This excerpt from the letter Elminster sends to God!Gale post game has had me in a sadness chokehold for DAYS. I knew Gale was young when he was scouted as a new potential Chosen but he was EIGHT??? Eight years old. A child. A baby. And he was accidentally destroying property with fireballs that young? That boy was a sorcerer. The way that one moment changed the trajectory of his entire life.

Elminster watched a little boy cry over ruined flowers and so many years later finally feels regret.

[wistoreal]

[20001541]

it's so disappointing that we didn't get more of tomura and afo interacting after that huge revelation about afo being involved in his life from the very beginning. he had his dad giggling and kicking his feet. he even encouraged him to have another child. tomura thought afo finding him that day on the street was a coincidence, but it wasn't. none of it was, he was even given the quirk that killed his family then told he wanted every single one of his family members to die and that was born twisted for years after. he even thanked afo for making him for who he is today in previous chapters!

I wanted there to be an actual encounter between them where he is distraught that the man who he thought was his savior has been planning his downfall since before he was even born. I wanted more of afo telling him to his face how he has meant nothing to him and his usefulness begins and ends at him being a possible vessel for himself, and how he's never had any control over his life. then have tenko argue back against his words. to finally stand up to everything afo has tried to ingrain in him. to cast aside the name of tomura shigaraki which was the name he gave him and tell afo how he doesn't need him anymore. that he finally sees him for the pathetic man he truly is. I want to see afo's reaction to losing control over him permanently. izuku would also be helping him through this encounter as well, might write a fic about it tbh.

oh well best I can hope for now is tenko discussing his feelings about what was revealed in 419, that is if he survives. I have a feeling something will happen that will bring him back in some way based on how only the name tomura shigaraki was said but not tenko which is an important distinction to make. a tomura dies, tenko lives situation if you will.

[dandeydraws]

after drakon

[touchlikethesun]

okay so. don’t crucify me. but su she and jin guangyao do actually make some pretty compelling points.

[arolesbianism]

I caved and made them real. Obverse me losing more and more motivation to draw as I made each of these back to back lol

[vulturevanity]

I feel like SV girlies haven't seriously considered "codependent mutually obsessive JuliNemo" yet and that's a shame, really. I've seen a lot of wholesome ChampionRank (really cute but a rehash of every wholesome yuri I've ever seen, not much original content here and that's okay) and one-sided obsessive yandere!Nemona ChampionRank (REALLY do not like the villainization of Nemona's neurodivergence but eh, you can do whatever you want forever) but not as much "these two get on like a house on fire. and boy, it's dry season" ChampionRank.

Where is "battle-hungry socially starved trainwrecks who have no one but each other" JuliNemo. Where is "oh god these two exacerbate each others issues into the stratosphere and this can only end in disaster but I can't look away" JuliNemo. Where is "bringing out the worst in each other and scaring the hoes" JuliNemo. Where is "you two are perfect for each other. Never change, just never involve anyone else in any of this" JuliNemo. There's so much potential here. Toxic codependent yuri save me

[july-19th-club]

we talk a lot about how the shtriga case was bad parenting and horrible just being-a-person-ing from john back when the boys were KIDS but this time im talking about how . it's also horrible parenting when the kids are adults. like you held the guilt of that night over your son's head in his childhood, you looked at him different, you know? and that was worse. and THEN he's a grown twenty-something and he hasn't seen you in half a year because you're back on your old obsessive quest and you keep him busy by sending him cases to work. you send him this one because you know your son, and you know that when he realizes what he's hunting here, the same child-devouring creature he once left his little brother vulnerable to (although you never told him what he needed to look out for, and never gave him a reason behind the orders, and never explained), and that he will hound himself over it and insist upon finishing it and you allow him to do the job and you allow him to continue to take responsibility for your decisions seventeen years ago, when you left an anxious eight-year-old alone with a preschooler for three solid days to be bait for a thing that would kill them. he finishes this case thinking he's finally righted the wrong from back then, finally made up for his failure (as a CHILD) to protect his brother, to follow the orders, to obey and behave, and he'll never be corrected about this. he will insist to the boy in this episode that it's not that kid's fault, he will insist that it is not really his father's fault, no, dad gave me an order and i didn't listen. don't. don't. but nobody will ever tell him this one wasn't his fault

[lovrbooy]

i feel like i have very unpopular opinions on dennis within this fandom. i am scared of fandom spaces so. to the tags i go

[rustedleopard]

So you guys remember how after Hinawa was announced as dead, Flint was immediately tossed into jail after he (very understandably) lashes out in his grief. And then by the time he breaks out of jail (not released by a fellow Tazmillian, breaks out with a nail file), the service is already over and she's buried six feet under the dirt with no proper goodbye from her husband or even a glimpse at her or anything???

That was fucked up

[transmasc-rose]

Still thinking about the Girl Who Waited also. The Doctor lying to Older!Amy that she could live and escape the facility, because he needed her to act, needed her to bring "his" Amy back...

Because he has an idea of what and who Amy is. And he'll keep to it. Keep her there.

Like his perception of Amy as Amelia. Like every time she shows up, she's 7. Like his displeasure with who and what Amy has become, expanded and intensified and beamed at this Amy, the older Amy, to the point that he's willing to all but kill her.

[smalltimidbean]

ok so. Follow up questions. cw for death mention + parasite talk :D

You’re saying that the clones are capable of reproducing if/when they die via becoming a parasite and hijacking another living being. So, if they live they can reproduce and if they die they can still reproduce. Ok. Waow. Clonepocalypse possible ???anyways In the event someone ends up consuming clone matter in its inactive or dormant state, my assumption is that they need to get their stomach pumped immediately, or else the clone matter will enter the rest of the body via the bloodstream and then wreak havoc. Is this correct, or is there something I’m missing?

Also, you mentioned in the tags that chickpea is full of clone parasites, and that is why he is cared for by others, while also saying that it’s rare for him to be affected like this. So, while it’s not rare for clones to eat each other, it is rare for them to get sick from it in the way that any non-clone is all but guaranteed to get if they were to eat a piece of Clone. What I want to know is, does something similar happen to the dormant clone matter within a clone’s body, as it would in the bodies of non-clones? If not, what does happen?

ps. Where is shy theorist anon we need them to return >_<

Follow up to this post - again cw of discussion of parasites and death, and now cannibalism and gross things like teratomas!!! Yay!!!

Yep! Clones will keep cloning, even if they die!

Man, what kinda freak made these guys this way???

But yes, non-clone beings should get their stomach pumped if they know for sure they have eaten clone matter! If they're unaware they have consumed it or know what it is, thennn uh oh!!!

And yeah, one would get like immediate symptoms if the matter gets into the bloodstream - bc then that's a one way ticket to the brain and an easy takeover - buttt the clone matter can survive undetected in one's stomach and eat the food the host has eaten, instead of leeching directly off the host, so they only symptom would be the host being always-kinda-hungry-and-never-satisfied until the clone matter got too big to go unnoticed

There are quite a few ways that the clone matter parasite can work - much like different types of real parasites, but maybe I will make a masterpost for that later - with pictures!!! Yay!!!

And yes, Chickpea is technically full of parasites! But I didn't intend to say it's rare for him specifically, I mean more so it's rare for clones in general

To clones, dormant clone matter is simply more clone matter and is consumed with no issue - any DNA traces in the dormant matter is assimilated into the clone, and depending on how much they ate, that clone can gain traits from that specific DNA (so if a clone with no additional DNA ate a significant amount of clone matter with like say rat DNA, they might grow a rat tail or claws for example) (also 'significant' being like the majority of the body, just taking a bite wouldn't change much)

I mention Chickpea specifically bc he's the only one that the parasite thing has happened to - since he's eaten a ton of clone matter from all the 'failed' experiments (dead or otherwise), all the different types of matter and DNA are basically fighting within him and trying to form new clones

But he's also on basically clone birth control to stop him reproducing, so instead of new clones, the parasitic matter turn into teratomas - giant clumps of underdeveloped clone parts that are all fighting for dominance over his body

(And once again, this is pretty much unseen in most clones, it's due to the sheer amount of clone matter he's eaten in a small timeframe that this occurs in Chickpea)

Luckily for him, one of those hasn't formed in a while since Lavender and Chamomile developed specific medicines to combat them, and they are usually easily removed and disposed of if they do ever form - but that's the main reason he is so closely monitored, with daily checkups and such - him tummy full of wurms </3

(Also, I don't know where Shy Theorist Anon is, but I hope they are doing well!)