#and there's levels to this stuff which means i could ramble so much but i'll stop bc i need to message people!!

[quietlyblooms]

in the past, i've talked about how chiyo tends to make a lot of choices for the sake of others, willing to inconvenience herself if it means making someone else happy. there are exceptions, of course -- she's not a pushover, but it can't be denied that chiyo is self-sacrificing. in her main verse, it's one of her main conflicts in her young adulthood because while pursuing art would make her happiest, she pursues teaching first to make her parents happy.

this is often the situation in her other verses, too. in her spiderverse, dorverold au, jjk au, and kinda even in her mha au, chiyo's decision to help others is a forced one. it's a decision made out of obligation because if she can help, and she knows she's one of few who can help, then she has to do it. that's not to say she doesn't eventually find happiness while helping others, but the point is that in every universe, chiyo will ultimately choose another's happiness over her own.

she can endure, you see. she's done it since she was a child. she knows how to ignore and bury thoughts of wanting; she knows how to be content with what she has, convince herself she's fine as she is. so she'll choose that rather than make someone else choose it :' )

[daxite]

yeah i think i've fully come to terms with the fact that i'm 100% somewhere on the ace spectrum lol

[toskarin]

some mostly flippant rambles on including elves in the Saltreave (that fantasy setting I write when I'm not working on my more serious projects) along with some setting notes in the margins

well. the setting notes are like 90% of the body of the text.

but we do get to elves. and we stay at elves for a while.

-

THERE IS NO ZERO IN THE ROMAN NUMERAL SYSTEM: Prologue to the Preramble

so I've written about my thoughts on elves as sort of "narrative level lifeforms" before, and that's still very much where my thoughts lie on them, but there are also just kind of elves around as fairly normal people in the Saltreave

this is a bit of a blurry line, because they're obviously not the nature-loving type of elf you see post-Tolkien -- which I'll go ahead and say feels like a deliberately obtuse misread of what Tolkien was implying by them living in harmony with a world that is literally described as the manifestation of a song -- but the bottom line is that Saltreave's elves aren't Tolkien elves, and they're not attempting to be subversions of them, but they are written by someone who quite likes those guys

all of that raises another question: what the hell are elves in the Saltreave?

-

I: Preramble

I put a bit of an information abyss at the beginning of the setting by design, outright saying that the "pre-apocalypse" might as well not exist at all.

to some extent you can say that it must have existed, and there is a bit of scattered writing that implies things about the state of affairs the world was in (mostly in terms of the politics between mortal civilisations and how that manifests in the modern politics of the remaining citystates), but the Advent is where the story starts

the most common explanations of what things were like before the current era are, at the end of the day, just attempts to explain what the people living in it are presently perceiving

the Advent, used as shorthand for a million things that each mean something different to everyone, is either the end of the world or the end of the old order of things. it is both the death of the symbolic plane and its violent merging with the material plane, severing every connection to the symbolic along the way

a bit further down that line of thought, even the present magic system gestures towards being derived from an older practice that was forced to adapt to sudden shift of the central symbolic source to a source diffused unevenly in the material plane, although from what exactly this magic system was forced to adapt remains a bit of a mystery

-

II: Into the Ramble

the Saltwind (the thing that gives the setting its name and effectively wiped out the previous world) is actually harmless

or more accurately, it's a visible symptom of an invisible problem, and that invisible problem is extremely harmful in a way nothing else could possibly hope to be

the "salt" in the wind is actually just salt. it's a lot of salt, but it's still just recognisably some sort of organic salt if you were to hold it in your hands

the salt is both the result of the Advent and a vessel for carrying "warped grain," an invisible ripple of magical static that functions more or less like (non-mutagenic, because I'm actually not a fan of using that as an apocalypse fiction concept) magical radiation

warped grain takes on a bunch of roles, so let's go over a few of those in relative brief

the one most commonly acknowledged fact is that warped grain is a soul-destroying pollution. it's bad stuff. it's poison that seeps into everything. it's in the water, it's in the air, it gets into the food as it grows, and you need to affiliate yourself with a citystate that has access to unpolluted (or otherwise purified) supplies to survive in the world as it exists

a bit less commonly (mostly when scholars and other big-hats talk about it) it's acknowledged as a sort of ambient magical noise that makes spells more unpredictable and dangerous. it can also periodically "complete" a spell if you take too long casting it, making it do something unintended (often killing the caster)

in a pinch, warped grain can be absorbed into the body as some kind of environmental magic energy, allowing someone to replenish their depleted magical energy and forgo resting to generate their own*

*: absorbing environmental energy in a world where it's literally poisoned will also eventually fuck up your soul beyond repair, so it's a really stupid idea and not something any serious magic-user would recommend

but most importantly for why elves are around, warped grain can be seen as the frayed threads of a decapitated cosmological order, death-rattling itself apart

-

III: Rambling About Elves, Mostly

because of their intimate connection to the disrupted symbolic plane of the world, the elves who were alive at the time of the Advent were grievously injured, experiencing the soul equivalent of radiation-induced chromosome aberration, and died a few years later. the generations following this one represent the entirety of the remaining elven population

this means that all modern elves can theoretically be divided into two categories

Selvedge Elves - while ostensibly referring to one of "pureblooded" elven stock, meaning someone whose parentage has never included a mortal. the elephant in the room is that Selvedge Elves aren't real and haven't been for quite some time. an actual Selvedge Elf had a lifespan of about 20-25 years and was not capable of having children, on account of being a wholly symbolic being born into a world where the symbolic plane exploded like an asbestos ceiling. "Selvedge" exists as a highly ideologically-charged concept, and not exactly one that lends itself to any non-reactionary interpretations

Scion Elves - everyone else. all elves currently alive are demimortal, which means that they have at least a bit of mortal parentage. even beyond elves, there are no immortals left in the Saltreave, but their descendants are absolutely still around. the term "Scion" refers to those descendants, but given that there isn't really a group to draw them in contrast to, most people prefer not to use it at all.

now it's worth mentioning, while they're all partially mortal, not all currently existing elves are specifically partially human. the stereotypical elf is human or similar, but there's nothing stopping an elf from being, say, a sylvan (the broad category of mortals who have animal ears and such)

Luuga, a character I've posted a few times, would be considered an elf if her status as a sylvan didn't make people identify that first. that's why she has longer, narrower ears than other feline-type sylvans (contrast the only other example I've drawn, Imiellith, and how her ears are much stouter)

more on sylvans and other types of mortal at some later time, but with everything out of the way, let's get down to some elf facts

-

IV: Indulgently Rambling About Elf Facts at Great Length

elves theoretically have different lifespans from mortal beings, which is something they have in common with other demimortals. elves specifically live about ten years longer on average than mortals, provided they don't die of unnatural causes, which they usually do.

additionally, they have a few notable traits that are more specific to elves

(an egregious number of) examples of these include...

elves only breathe as a learned social behaviour and theoretically don't actually need to do it. the same goes for yawning, coughing, sweating, sneezing, and similar functions. somewhat unfortunately for them, because most living things know they need to breathe, elves are still perfectly capable of knowing they need to breathe, which means they're capable of suffocating. in theory, an elf raised by people deliberately trying not to teach them about breathing wouldn't have to breathe, but that's not really a good way to raise a child

elves tire more based on time rather than effort. this is a subtle distinction, but means that an elf can exert more effort in a burst than a mortal companion, yet drops from exhaustion as soon as they've reached the limit of how long they can work. most people never notice this, since "the limits of exerted effort" and "the limits of time spent exerting effort" overlap heavily

elves are about five times more likely to die of old age on their birthday than any other day, but only if they're aware of their birthday. this is something most people are aware of, and different cultures grapple with this in different ways

in cultures with different calendars, the previous point also holds true. in cultures without the concept of something equivalent to a "year," elves just die of old age in more or less the same way mortals do

an elf's hair has a length it wants to be, with the specific length varying between individuals. if cut, it will grow faster back to this length. it cannot be grown longer than this by any means

elves tend to be quick to grasp spoken language, but a bit slower when it comes to grasping written language. this isn't always true, and when it is, doesn't tend to manifest past initial language acquisition

in exception to the previous point, elves are prone to grasping pasigraphies at the same (often accelerated) rate with which they grasp spoken languages. if the conditions were ever to arise for a wholly elven-developed language, it would likely have no direct written component, with all writing consisting of a highly contextual pasigraphy

elves stereotypically have exceptional memories when it comes to things that catch their interest. it's not uncommon for elven big-hats to keep a small stash of special expensive candies entirely for the purpose of forcing themselves to have eidetic memory for something they're disinterested in by associating it with extremely positive stimulus

because of the previous point, there is a notable market for making luxury treats aimed specifically at elven academics in cities they frequent

because of the two previous points, elven academics often develop pleasure-deprivation complexes, feeling guilty whenever they experience positive emotions that don't lend themselves to furthering their work

the previous three points are only true if they are generally understood to be true in the location where the individual is raised

if tested, most elves would appear to be colourblind. a deeper examination would reveal that elves only struggle with telling green and blue, and that this difficulty persists into the very concept of green and blue, which they struggle with disentangling in abstract. this is also true of elves with most other colexifications because I got annoyed with constantly reading people on tumblr doing pseudolinguistics and thought it'd be a little funny to have the Symbolic People run on the faulty assumptions I kept seeing

elves can get so sad they just physically die

elves can theoretically recover from any acquired disease provided that they receive adequate and comprehensive treatment for the symptoms

nothing can reduce an elf's pain to the point where they don't notice it. sedatives work, but analgesics simply do not

elves can theoretically die of any disease (no matter how minor it is) if it lasts long enough

in the same vein as the previous point every chronic illness is effectively a terminal one to an elf. the exception to this rule is that an elf will not die of a chronic illness they are born with, even if the same chronic illness would eventually prove to be terminal in a mortal

elves cannot leave permanent footprints, regardless of what they're wearing and where they try to leave them. if an elf were to step in cement, the bootprint would eventually disappear in the same way that it would if they'd stepped in sand

contrary to the previous point, if an elf writes in ink, the ink cannot be smudged or otherwise distorted on accident. the writing can still be lost by destroying the object it's on or deliberately attempting to smudge it, but this requires intention

while elves are exceptionally capable of performing magic without any formal education, this is actually the result of them being able to open the immortal component of their souls to grain, including warped grain, and therefore should never be done. this is true of most demimortals, with the mortal component of their soul being the safeguard that prevents their souls from being torn apart in the same way their ancestors' were

elves grow to be about as tall as is normal for them to be where they are raised. this is a bit counter-intuitive at first blush, but more or less means that an elf (regardless of specific heritage and origin) will grow to the height that is generally understood to be "normal for an elf" in the location where they are growing

in a similar vein to the previous point, an elf raised by mortals with no knowledge of elves (especially without knowledge that the child is an elf) will not show any physical traits of being an elf. this is an unlikely event that requires like three sets of perfect circumstances to happen, but it's not off the table

in a similar vein to the two previous points, dominant cultural understandings have a causal influence on certain other things considered "elven features," but the only evidenced ones besides height are ear length, ear angle, degree of facial hair, number of ribs, and the exact position in the chest where the heart resides

as a final note, elves always have both palmaris longus tendons, unless they are explicitly understood to lack one or both, as with previous points

-

V: Drawing Some Kind of Conclusion From Rambling About Elves. But Not Really.

this is all a very long way of saying that elves (and other demimortals) represent "those who have lost their plot armour" in a setting where the symbolic plane was seemingly once something running parallel to the material world and now exists most prominently as a severed limb bleeding all over it

because no written history of the immortals was preserved in the Advent, knowledge of the old world is heavily slanted towards a mortal perspective, containing only outside views into the symbolic plane's nature

there is nobody left alive who remembers the world before, several generations having passed since then, but to those who were told that they fell from a world of elevated importance and meaning, it can be especially tempting to view the old world as a halcyon paradise that was ruined

what remains is largely conflicting and disputed. most have long since moved on from litigating these things, faced with a world where it would make no difference

[weltato]

The Ramble About Klavier (AA4 spoilers)

Going off this post I made a while ago, here's a ramble about everyone's favourite rockstar prosecutor :)

This is gonna be a long post, so I'mma put it under a cut, but the TL;DR is that Klavier's damage sprite hurts me physically and I absolutely think that Kristoph is the cause of it :)) Also, using Franziska as a bit of a comparison at points because I could go on about her as well honestly, but that's for a different post.

(obligatory headcanon disclaimer here)

*Warning for mentions of verbal abuse, if that's uncomfortable then please scroll on and stay safe!*

You still here? Grand.

This sprite hurts man.

(I couldn't find a gif file for young Klav, had to use the icky webp file from the wiki- I fucking hate webp it's such a stupid file type)

You see how it's the same? You see how both sprites are the same? They move exactly the same! Now, you could say that it's something related to the chord that plays every time we see the sprite crop up, but he's gonna be smart enough to know about ear protection when doing rockstar stuff. Could be a sensitive ears thing, or a cringe thing at the sound of the chord (bc it does sound bad, I'll grant that), but it's never said if Klavier has sensitive hearing or smth (afaik, bc I haven't seen SoJ yet). We know Athena does, but nothing about Klav.

So! Remember Kristoph? Remember how shitty of a person he is? Welp, in the same vein as Franziska's damage sprite making everyone go "ooh, MvK did bad things" I put forward that Kristoph also did bad things.

But not physically. Kristoph is a man who uses his words as his weapons until he just casually has to poison people and then stalk everyone for seven years bc a fangirl screwed up his plan.

The sprite when Klav's 17 is labelled as "Disbelief (Unused).

Sure, it's unused in-game, but they still made it and they made it exactly the same as present Klav!

But when he's older, it's simply listed as "Damage".

Damage is a word used for quite a few sprites tbh, since it's when they...well, take damage, from their opponent, either through scripted event or from player decision.

However! Going back to a point I made in the original post: Franziska has a different distinction. Her older sprite is listed as "Shocked" but her younger sprite is given the "Damage" title.

Look! Her sprites are different! It doesn't give any good vibes tbh, she's sort of holding herself higher up and more with both arms than with the one arm her younger self uses, but that's for a different ramble about Franzy. This is about Klavier.

Franzy goes from "Damage" to "Shocked", potentially meaning that whatever is being thrown at her doesn't hurt anymore, merely catches her off guard and this is a reflexive response.

Klav goes from "Disbelief" to "Damage", which tells me that his younger self refused to hear and his older self is now realising that things are SO much worse than he feared and that HURTS.

With Franziska, it's pretty obvious that MvK was a pretty distant parent in parenting terms. I mean, he was always there, sure, but he didn't really show much love and affection. Franzy realises this and carries on because that's how she was brought up. She can handle that. (Don't get me started on the cry sprite omg-)

Kristoph was the same.

All my homies hate MvK and those same homies should also hate Kristoph. His nickname was literally "The Coolest Defense in the West" - this man was known for being level-headed! He was known for being a cool, calm and collected person! You never know what's going on under that.

Klavier was absolutely verbally and emotionally abused. I don't think it was physical abuse in any way, and if anything happened then at most it might've been a slap in the face, but Kristoph doesn't strike me as someone who gets off on holding power over his brother by beating him. After all, Klav is in the public eye 90% of the time as a rockstar, he doesn't want to risk make-up being applied wrong and the paparazzi picking things up. Kristoph strives for perfection in everything (again, the wiki literally says this, although I'm aware that the wiki can be edited by anyone) and he sees it in his brother too: he wants Klavier to be perfect.

But then he went to be a prosecutor and a rockstar and that's...well that's not good, it might ruin the name he's made for himself if his little brother goes off gallivanting with people like that (poor Daryan). Kristoph sets impossibly high standards that Klavier just can't match because he's not the same as his brother, he's not like that, he cares about people and his decision to go study in Europe is met with more disapproval from Kristoph, but Klavier takes it all as brotherly encouragement because the boy is SEVENTEEN and there's an eight year age gap, surely Kristoph knows best...

Then we get to the final section of Turnabout Succession.

When presenting the nail polish, Klavier recognises it immediately because that's the brand his brother uses. When Apollo asks about his hesitation, he says it's nothing.

They never checked Vera's nails either and Klavier is unable to say anything because Apollo is on a roll and Klavier really hopes he's wrong, so he asks if the bottle belongs to Vera and Apollo asks back if he knows someone else with one of those...

"No." he says, "Just checking."

YES. HE. DOES! He knows immediately as soon as that nail polish is brought up, everything clicks and he's so distressed by it that he refuses to believe Kristoph could've done this. He's in prison right now, how could he poison someone??

And when the Judge isn't convinced by this, Apollo deals him the final blow.

"Prosecutor Gavin doesn't seem to think this is inconceivable."

No response. His face is unreadable, or maybe it's anguished, and when it's suggested to bring Kristoph up as a special witness, Klav says this: "I've known for some time that an impenetrable darkness lurked at the bottom of this. ...A darkness that has swallowed even myself."

He knows and it's time to face The Devil that orchestrated all of this.

Maybe he's known for a long time and only just removed the rose-tinted glasses he was seeing Kristoph through - and he's crushed by it.

When Kristoph is in the room, Klavier's words are especially defeated here. Kristoph even asks Klavier to explain what's going on.

"You're being accused again. By him. Again."

And when Kristoph asks if Klav agrees with this, he says nothing. What can he say? That yes, his brother is a dark man? That yes, he's manipulative enough to do this kind of thing? That, if given the chance, he do it again to get rid of everyone who's in his way?

Trucy even says in one of the pressed statements that Klavier "must be nervous with big brother watching!"

Kristoph even takes over from Klavier's Objection when Kristoph's pressed by Apollo about the likelihood of Vera wanting to poison herself. That bitch! He's so obsessed with control that he takes control over his own trial from his own brother who's trying to 'defend' him. When Trucy says the two together is a force to be reckoned with, Apollo notes that they could do with more teamwork.

In that pivotal last statement, Klavier acts more like his brother than he ever has in the whole game and Apollo picks up on that. Kristoph is the reason Klavier is acting different, the reason he's trying so hard to get Apollo to notice the difference - Kristoph is clearly the threat in the room.

Kristoph is cruel in public too, but only now that Apollo is cornering him. See, the abuse towards Klavier was only ever subtle in public and far more pronounced in the home, but in this trial there's nowhere for him to go and Apollo would pick up every detail. So, when Apollo brings up the stamp and Klav's taken aback by this, Kristoph takes that moment to pounce: "You've upset my poor brother to the point of uselessness. Allow me to clarify this matter[...]"

We all hate him, right? He's such a dick.

Klavier is quiet, just watching everything unfold since he has no way to confront Apollo when he himself believes that Kristoph is guilty, and when Kristoph worms his way out of things he belittles Klav: "Really, Klavier. You should be seeing through these weak-spined bluffs by now."

What can he say? It's the same kind of thing he was always told - that he should be better, always pushed further than he could go.

But then he doubles down. He's sick of this, sick of Kristoph always being the perfect brother. So he fights back and calls Kristoph the bluffer. Kristoph is shocked; never once has Klavier outright pushed back on him. So when Klavier starts to side with Apollo, Kristoph plays the game.

Now, I'm not going through the whole case beat for beat, but there's another point later on when Apollo goes "oh btw Phoenix didn't do this and lol here's evidence" and Kristoph tries to deny this by saying "oh but defense attorneys are only assigned the day before anyway" but Klavier objects and turns to Apollo, pleading with him because he needs to know the whole truth on this.

Even Kristoph is caught off guard because he thought he'd kept Klavier on his side but NO! NO HE DIDN'T! HAVE YOU SEEN HIS DAMAGE SPRITE HE'S HURTINNGGGG T^T

ahem-

Anyway, Kristoph tried to dismiss this and Klavier objects in his face and keeps his focus solely on Apollo - he even calls him by his actual name instead of Herr Forehead (which I think is kinda sweet actually but anyway-) and fuck man, this hurts me.

And as it closes in towards the end, when Phoenix's recording is mentioned and Kristoph says that his "brother is incapable of making rational judgments at the moment" (angy Wel grumbling) we soon get this:

I LOVE KLAV HAVE I SAID THIS YET!?

AND HERE'S THE KICKER:

KRISTOPH IS WORRIEDDDDD

AND KLAV DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT ANYMORE YES!

CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW GOOD THAT FEELS? HOW CATHARTIC THAT IS? THIS MAN WHO'S DONE NOTHING BUT CONTROL HIM AND USE HIM FOR HIS OWN BENEFIT AND BELITTLE HIM WHENEVER HE DOES ANYTHING EVEN OUT OF LINE IS FINALLY GETTING HIS COMEUPPANCE AT KLAVIER'S HANDS!!

OH it's great to watch, we love to see it.

Better still is the very end, after the breakdown, after Kristoph loses his cool:

The sass is strong in this line. To me, it's a final 'fuck you and everything you ever did to me' from Klavier.

We end on this line after the Judge says that nurturing is the task for all human beings: "Except for you, Kristoph. You aren't changing. You've stopped. You're not needed anymore."

And it's true. Klavier doesn't need Kristoph anymore. He's 24, he can live his own life and he doesn't need a cynical and condescending brother like Kristoph breathing down his neck every two seconds. He's broken free from Kristoph's control completely and he's relishing that.

So this is why his damage sprite hurts me to see. It's a point of pain and discontent, it's Kristoph lingering in Klav's head, it's the want to have a normal brother that loves him as he is and sees him as an equal. He got his first trial against him taken away, and we never know if there was another opportunity for the two Gavins to go up against each other again, but by the sounds of it there probably wasn't - and that's a good thing! If Kristoph had faced off against Klavier, it would have probably broken Klav's spirit to be a good prosecutor like we see in AA4 and to some extent in AA5 when he crops up in the Themis case.

On the whole, the damage sprite is a look into how Klavier hid from his brother's verbal abuse - by covering his ears and not listening to it. He didn't want it to be true, but it came at him anyway and he hated that. But it's also a parallel to how he feels about Kristoph: that is his brother and he can't bear the thought of Kristoph being not just a murderer, but also a scheming manipulator that's been skirting around the law he so desperately hides behind for seven years. Once again, he didn't want it to be true but it came at him anyway and he hated that he couldn't get away from it.

It's a good sprite, I won't lie. Great storytelling at the conflict between the two and that Klavier loves Kristoph probably more than Kristoph love him, but it still hurts me to see it because all I can think about is what kind of manipulation has Kristoph done to keep his power over Klavier. Kristoph is manipulative even to his own brother and there is nothing Klavier could have done about it. Throughout their interactions in the case there's this underlying current of "if I get out of this you're so dead" and that feels like it's been a thing forever between them.

I hope this makes sense because I should be writing my assignment rn and I just couldn't bc this has been taking up all the space in my head lol. I'm tirrrrrred, uni wears me out man >.>

[tezuze]

A hero Hiro and his party

My cringe rambles below the cut- because I can never be short winded!

Hi welcome to the cringe rambles

Okay okay, stupid things I headcannoned:

Hiro

Class: Paladin

Weapon: Gamma sword

Stats: Balanced

Magic: Fire, wind, electric, light, dark (mid level spells)

I want some cool way to incorporate the whole Gammamon thing. Was thinking his sword at least would be cursed and be something only he can control. Maybe the sword can have different modes like the Monado to represent the other evolutions? There's some clever way to incorporate the Gamma gimmick, I just can't fully think of it....

Ruli

Class: Theif/Assassin if that's not too dark

Weapon: Dual daggers

Stats: High attack and speed, low sp. attack and HP

Magic: Wind (low level spells)

The mysterious masked Lirurun!

I know typically the theif class has terrible defense but while I was making these designs I kept going between if she should be a berserker tank like Lamortmon or be a speed type attacker like SymbareAngoramon and Diarbbitmon. Ultimately, I think it'd be cool if she was kind of a blend between the two classes

Kiyoshiro

Class: Cleric

Weapon: Staff (not pictured)

Stats: High sp. attack and HP, low attack and defense

Magic: Healing, electric (high level spells)

Church of Thetis' youngest priest!

Yes this is a fantasy setting, but his wrapped hand still has to hold no significance

His silly little integer overflow/limit break is perfect for an rpg gimmick, but I wouldn't want him to have a special gauge or anything if the others don't. Maybe he can have high healing/low spells initially and then flip to low healing/high spells if his HP is half or less to represent that? Oh that'd be so annoying.... (Also Ruli needs a gimmick)

Digimon-wise, I initially liked the idea of the partners also joining the party for a full team of 6 but I think they'd be too similar to the humans, plus I borrowed too much of the digimon's design for the overall aesthetic of the party not to look boring with digimon included.

My friend came up with the idea that the Digimon could be like spirits, that only certain humans have the ability to perceive, kinda like....

Ghosts.

Ha.

Anyway, if I go with that idea, the digimon could either bless their human with power or they could just be silly little guys that accompany the party.

Wouldn't it be funny if the digimon were the ones that sit back while the humans fight? Okay moving on...

I think Airdramon would be the first form of travel, then Ginryumon to get to other locations. (Then, maybe possibly HoverEspimon for the final form of travel, if I must incorporate them)

Also, clearly Blacktailmon Uver. Acts as a traveling merchant for items and such

And there's gotta be sidequests to add more members of the digimon gang (which means Labramon sidequest!!)

OKAY I'LL ACTUALLY SHUT UP NOW

I'm sorry to put you through that ^^" would love to hear if others have any neat ideas of incorporating stuff from the show into an rpg setting, I am  s u c h a sucker for that kinda thing

[miss-midnightt]

I just watched an absolutely incredible video about Rufus Shinra and why he can see the whispers (Link) and wanted to add on to it. It's quite long, so I'll provide a summary(ish):

Essentially, the creator of the video had three theories as to why Rufus could see them: I want to dive into the last two, which hypothesize he is Cetra or had Jenova cells injected into him (more so about the Cetra).

About the Cetra theory:

Essentially, it states that he is part Cetra because he a) can see the whispers and b) seems to possess some level of precognition, much like Aerith.

Firstly, I'd like to discuss how his mother is only mentioned to have died when he was young; this doesn't necessarily mean that Ifalna is his mother, as she can't be the only pureblooded Cetra alive after two thousand years (unless she's the product of a lot of inbreeding).

He seems to show up at pivotal moments by almost pure coincidence (or so it seems) without having any explanations offered. This sense for important moments and appearance of precognition becomes more interesting when you take a look at the Diamond Weapon's attack on Shinra Tower.

Rufus ended up having his life saved during the Diamond Weapon's attack from the very escape route he had suggested as a child, which just so happened to have the entrance exactly where he was taking shelter. keep in mind that Rufus was only five years old when he made the suggestion; President Shinra had no reason (unless you consider the humiliation aspect) to include this in the plans. However, if the President somehow knew that Rufus was special/Cetra, then the inclusion (his office is 70 floors up, mind you; installing that seems a little silly if only based off of the ramblings of a kindergartener) makes a hell of a lot more sense.

The President has also maintained that he doesn't believe in sentiment or attachment; if he had known Rufus was Cetra, it would have been a legitimate reason to include the escape route. Shinra scientists thought the scribblings of young Aerith were important, so why not the seemingly logical ramblings of a five year old who was also Cetra be just as crucial? Also, Rufus did not only say an escape route should be built, he said why; if an enemy attacked from the top their would be no way to escape...which is exactly where the Diamond Weapon attacked from.

Rufus also seems to have these...gut feelings, let's say. Sounds similar to Aerith, right? How she feels pulls to places, to things, suchlike Rufus. This also ties into the Jenova Cells theory, so let's dive into that...

Jenova Cells:

I'd like to start right off of the bat by saying this is purely speculation. I find this interesting nonetheless. This also will probably jump around and seems a bit more headcanon-y and random than the stuff about the Cetra, considering I am wayyy more interested in the Cetra theory. Anyway, let's dive in!

The theory that Rufus was the first (before even Genesis) to receive Jenova cells is plausible for several reasons. First, I'd like to discuss the year in which he was born. In the OG, his age was stated to be 25, which was changed to 30 in the remake--pretty random and unnecessary, at a glance. But it gets a lot more interesting once you realize that that would mean that Rufus was born in 1977...the year Jenova was discovered at the North Crater.

President Sinra has done some awful stuff, and I honestly don't think he'd be totally above injecting unknown substances into his unborn child (especially if Rufus was actually a bastard child that he decided to use in experiments then keep.) Anyway...

While some may argue that his eyes are blue, not glowy green, the glow and green come from mako, not Jenova. Even if there is a correlation between eye/hair color and Jenova cells, he does have light, bright blue eyes (like Genesis) and silvery blond hair. It could be a design choice, it could mean something more.

Then there are the physical strength aspects. He was able to go toe to toe with Cloud, not even showing visible signs of fatigue. Heck, he even parried a blow from the Buster Sword! While Cloud is not a true SOLDIER, he is strong enough that people think so anyway when he tells him that, and also beat Reno, Rude, and other powerful enemies. Meanwhile, Rufus soloed Cloud (with the help of Darkstar/Dark Nation) and didn't seem to be seriously injured.

Furthermore, when Rufus is infected with Geostigma in On the way to a Smile, he says something along the lines of "it felt like it [the Geostigma] was calling to me..." Now, this sounds suspiciously like the pull receivers of J cells feel to Jenova (which could help explain Rufus' presence at the Northern Crater).

I'd really recommend watching at least some of the video, as it explains things way better than I did (it's very long though, so be warned).

Lastly, I'd like to discuss something not touched upon in the video: his coins, more specifically the side of the coin with Darkstar/Dark Nation on it. This coin depicts Darkstar/Dark Nation and flowers, specifically mandragora/mandrake flowers. Why is this important? There are several reasons.

These flowers have been involved in stories and superstitions about magical powers and other tales of the like. It was said in some tales that they could only be harvested in moonlight by a black dog attached to a cord (Darkstar/Dark Nation, anyone? She does appear on that side of the coin, hmm....) after proper rituals had been conducted. Some tales said that they were tied to dark powers, that, get this, drove men mad if they heard their roots shriek. The roots are also highly poisonous.

Now, I'd like to look at color theory and the symbolism of colors in FFVII. In this game, the color yellow seems to symbolize life, hope, and rebirth, whereas purple seems to symbolize desolation, corruption, and death. Yellow is associated with Aerith through her flowers, and purple with Sephiroth for his shadowy magic. They are also contrasting colors; two sides of the same coin (pun absolutely intended). How does this connect to the coins and flowers, you ask? Well, the mandragora/mandrake flowers have a color range of...purple to yellow. Interesting, because Rufus is easily one of the most morally grey characters in the game.

Again, all of this is wild ramblings and pure speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.

[ozzy-boy]

You kind of implied Cole, Volks and Scale either dont get drunk or are not allowed to get drunk anymore in your last hedcannon. Buuutt what if they did? Drunk or high?

hehehehehehe i was born for posts like this. this one is already getting kind of long so i'll do a part two with them high ;P

-

Scale:

-The Order has an alcohol ban on Scale for their work parties because he gets MESSY when he's drunk.

-He doesn't drink often so he has a crazy low tolerance for alcohol. Which means it takes a lot less for him to get fucked up.

-He has fun when he's drunk, but he doesn't like to drink too often because he doesn't like feeling like he can't operate. What if he's too inebriated to pull off his sick ninja maneuvers and someone attacks you?????

-He'll usually save it for special occasions, but with a little prodding he'll agree to drink with you.

-He doesn't really like the taste of alcohol so he prefers drinks where you can't really taste it. (This does nothing to help how drunk he gets) But he'll kind of tolerate anything.

-I could see him being a whiteclaw guy somewhere down the line.

-He also likes fruity, sweet drinks but he's a little embarrassed to get them because they're not 'manly' drinks.

-Laughs a lot while drunk. EVERYTHING is funny to him. Also be prepared to pull him down from doing stupid shit because the alcohol makes him waaay too confident.

-There will be at least one time where he's trying to get up onto a table, insisting that he's perfectly sober enough to do a backflip (he isn't)

-He's also very honest when he's drunk. Be prepared for some messy kisses and some slurring about how much he loves you that he's gonna be really embarrassed to remember later.

-Please take care of him. He'll be a complete baby the whole next day if he ends up with a hangover. If you want to have a good time though, Scale is a good choice to drink with if you can convince him.

Volks:

-I think Volks just doesn't particularly enjoy drinking. Not enough that he seeks out opportunities to do it, at least.

-Although, if you insist then he'll drink with you. He likes dark liquors like bourbon and whiskey, but he paces himself and doesn't really let himself get fucked up.

-Volks hates loud places, so sorry but bars, clubs, and parties are off the table. If you want to drink quietly at home or at a nice restaurant then that's fine. Good LUCK trying to get his ass in the clubbbb

-PLUS, Volks' face turns red when he drinks a lot and he thinks it's embarrassing. He doesn't like people other than you seeing him like that.

-If you do get him to indulge with you, you'll get to watch his face slowly get pinker. He also gets really smiley and soft.

-Volks will inevitably reach a point where he gets caught on some deep tangent about life. It's super cute watching him ramble though, especially since he's normally on the quiet side.

-He doesn't get much hangover in the first place- he's lucky like that- and he's especially fine considering he's responsible and does stuff like 'pace himself' and 'drink water' 🙄

-He'll chastise you for overdoing it and getting a hangover but he'll still take care of you.

Cole:

-Again, Cole appreciates nice alcohol like wine, but he prefers not to get fully drunk. A little tipsy is fine but he doesn't often let himself get truly hammered.

-He is the type of guy to drink a bloody mary or mimosa at like 9 am though lol.

-Cole likes to maintain a certain level of... control. Especially around you. A level of control that is difficult to keep up when he's drunk.

-I want you to envision Cole on a normal day, and how clingy he is already. Now multiply that clinginess by 2. That's Cole when he drinks.

-If you convince him to drink with you, he will be glued to your side the whole time.

-Hugging, squeezing, pressing his face into your neck and shoulder.

-His lips get a little loose when he's drunk, too... He tries not to outright say how obsessed with you he is, but it becomes hard when he's inebriated.

-He's halfway into a rambling about how pretty you'd look tied up or inside a little cage before he remembers that- oh yeah, that's kinda weird to tell someone out of nowhere.

-(Although if you're dating him at all, chances are you're into his freakiness anyway.)

-He'll reach a point where he's just hanging onto you and slurring to himself about something you can't quite make out.

-Somehow doesn't get hungover. At all. It's super annoying. He's so smug about it.

[dead-lights]

deadcanons: the vatores (earlyish stuff)

I've been slowly typing up headcanons lately while I'm waiting on renders - I'll put them up as I finish them! These are my ramblings about what I think the vatores' early vampire years were like, starting a bit before Lilith turned and ending around when Caleb was a prime vampire. This is pretty long.

Caleb, Lily, and Lilith were born in Veronaville in the late 1930s/early 1940s, meaning they came of age as occults in the 1960s.

Lilith met Vlad shortly after her parents, along with Lily’s, died in a horrific car accident back in the good ol’ days before cars were required to have seat belts (which btw, in the US wasn't until 1968). He preyed on her grief and her fear of death and human weakness. At the time, Lily was lost in her own grief and Caleb was jealous of the attention Lilith was getting from Vlad.

While Vlad was absolutely manipulating Lilith, she did ask to be turned.

Caleb was super naive when Lilith first turned. He thought he’d be able to spend time with his sister as usual and didn’t recognize the danger in being the lone mortal barhopping with a bunch of unruly vampires. Lilith used to hang out with the Rebellious Vampires amongst others, soooooo...

Lilith told her new vampire friends that Caleb was off-limits. No feeding, no turning.

Caleb had fairly recently finished culinary school, and was working as a sous chef in an Italian restaurant. He was so stoked.

Though Lilith respected the fact that becoming a vampire would destroy Caleb’s life - you can be a vampire, you can be an Italian chef, but you definitely cannot be both - she quickly realized that she didn’t want to do the occult thing or live the immortal life without the people she loved. Shortly before Caleb was turned, he and Lilith talked it out and decided that he should become a spellcaster, with the hope that he could cure Lily with magic and make her a spellcaster too, and then they could all be immortal together. Miss Hell got to him before he could figure out where the portal was, and their relationship with Lily only got worse from there.

Miss Hell was turned a few years before Lilith was, but they became minor vampires at around the same time. They were rivals for Vlad’s approval, and he had fun playing them off each other. Very much a "Daddy loves ME best!!!" kinda dynamic.

Miss Hell is kind of a shitty vampire - like I get big Team Rocket vibes off of her. Caleb surpassed her within a few decades.

After some petty disagreement between Lilith and Miss Hell, Vlad suggested that turning Caleb would be a hilarious prank and a great way to get back at Lilith. Vlad wanted Caleb turned because it would give him an extra level of control over Lilith, but he didn’t want to do it himself because he thought (correctly) that Lilith would never forgive him, and might even leave the coven.

Caleb felt comfortable around his sister’s new vampire friends because he didn’t think any of them would go against Lilith’s order not to harm him. He didn’t realize that Miss Hell was more of a frenemy than a friend, so one night when she asked him if he’d like to find somewhere a little more private, he really didn’t think it’d be his blood getting sucked.

Lilith was not amused by Miss Hell’s “hilarious prank.” After she found Caleb and got him safely home, she stormed over to Vlad’s mansion and tried to beat Miss Hell to death with her bare hands in front of the entire coven. At this point, Lilith had started to develop supernatural strength, and she would’ve ripped Miss Hell’s shriveled heart right out of her chest if Vlad hadn’t called her off. Vlad was very impressed by Lilith’s ferocity. She gained his favor, but he lost her loyalty. Miss Hell wound up sidelined.

Caleb has always served as Lilith’s moral compass. She is aware that she is selfish and lacks empathy - she has trouble truly caring about anyone except Caleb and Lily - and she doesn’t like that about herself. She deeply loved and respected her parents and feels bad that she struggles to live by the values they taught her. Caleb, on the other hand, has their father’s compassion and patience (as well as his ambitious and materialistic traits), and she generally looks to him as the authority on what their parents would’ve wanted. After Caleb turned, he got fully caught up in the chaos and debauchery, turning his back on the person he was. Without Caleb to moderate her worst impulses, she fully embraced her darker side.

Caleb’s journey back to the light started when he developed his guilty drinker weakness as a minor vampire. I don’t see this as just switching on like it does in-game, but rather developing over time. He had trouble figuring out what was happening to him for a long time, and it’s not like Vlad had any advice for him beyond “stop being a goddamn baby.”

Caleb met Inna at a gala the Bloodvein coven was hosting when he was a minor vampire. Bloodvein, her owner at the time, had her mesmerized and was more or less showing her off like a trophy or pet (like this promotional render). Something about that made Caleb deeply uncomfortable, though he wasn’t entirely sure why.

At that point, Caleb was struggling to maintain his place in the coven - Vlad was increasingly disappointed in him and Caleb badly wanted to win back his approval, so he had the idea to pull a hilarious prank against Bloodvein for some perceived slight. He thought it would make him look cool in front of Vlad. At first he thought about drinking from Inna - feeding on another vampire’s thrall is an enormous mark of disrespect - but something about that made him feel deeply uncomfortable, so he decided to turn her instead, essentially doing to her what Miss Hell did to him. He still feels deeply conflicted about the whole thing - he legitimately was not trying to help her and he didn’t ask permission, and yet it ended up being the best thing that could’ve happened to her. They've remained friends, though he feels incredibly guilty when he's around her.

Lilith started coming back to herself when she realized just how miserable Caleb was. If feeding on humans made Caleb feel that bad, they must be doing something horrific, even if it didn’t feel that way to her. She started making plans to get her and Caleb out of the coven.

[dogtoling]

What are some ways Inkling / Octolings lives and society in general be different compared to humans? It can be canon, implied, or made up, I don't mind. Thanks!

jeez, this is actually a really hard question because in Splatoon, what we're given in game is extremely similar if not identical to what we have in real life. Realistically, a lot of things would be different, but it makes it REEEEAAALLY easy to default to "it's literally the exact same in almost every aspect" because that's often what we see in the game and it's also the implication.

If you compare Splatoon to a lot of other games that are set in fictional worlds, Splatoon is EXTREMELY tame in trying to set itself apart from human society. Probably intentionally, but it's very rare that something pops up in the game that makes you go "huh, that's a splatoon thing that isn't JUST there for a gameplay mechanic". Most things really are left up for fan interpretation, which is cool, but that makes it hard in its own way to come up with headcanons because it can be easy to feel like you're going TOO out there with ideas when the world is mostly down to earth (unless it's not, and the tone dissonance is insane). Now I'm just rambling, but I'll get to the point and try to come up with something.

So, focusing on the surface because I think it's safe to assume that most Mollusc Era creatures are surface dwellers, the most obvious difference factor in society is that there's probably thousands of different sapient species that coexist. That means there's really no limit to how insane the Splatoon world and its cities and structures could be to accommodate different species. Of course the games focus on Inklings and Octolings and they are fairly similar to humans, so we have a very human-aligning society that we're looking at. But somewhere else where inkfish might not be the majority species, I would imagine things might look and be very different. (I really would like to see it....) But because you specifically said Inklings and Octolings, I'll focus on their stuff.

I'd like to open this post (on paragraph 4... sigh) with the note that we really don't have a lot of information on significant differences in inkling society compared to ours. If anyone remembers something that is either canon or heavily implied and it isn't mentioned in this post, feel free to drop it in replies. From what we see in the games, the Splatoon society doesn't significantly differ from ours much at all. So yeah, most of this is going to be speculation or headcanons that aren't really rooted in the actual game.

ACTUAL START OF THE POST HERE.....

First off, they obviously have better technology than we do - at least Octarian technology is much better and seems to have spread to the surface recently. Flying cars are probably just a normal thing for inkfish... although I'd assume that's moreso in the Octarian domes, where I'd like to think the flying saucers (or "UFO"s) are a replacement for cars, given there's not a whole lot of space and things tend to be built on different levels. It wouldn't make too much sense to have a car-centric society when cities are like a mile across and there's not really even much space for driveways.

A small tidbit on cars in Inkopolis: did you know there's no consistency on which side of the road Inklings drive on? Depending on the stage, markings might be present, but cars STILL drive in random directions all the time and drive on opposing sides of the road depending on what corner of Inkopolis you go to. This makes me believe that traffic rules are kind of a wildcard in Splatoon and... perhaps it's just normal for different roads to suddenly change lane orientation, or some roads might not have rules for that at all. Doesn't seem that safe to me, but what do I know...

On the topic of cars and transportation, Inklings seem to love different ways to get around. Inkopolis alone has a train, a monorail, and a subway - that's THREE different trains mostly for traversing the city. They also have airplanes, hot-air balloons, and notably... zeppelins. Zeppelins are something that humans HAVE had in the past (and while doing research on this for literally no reason the other day, i actually found out they're NOT completely extinct?) but that we no longer use or manufacture due to various reasons and events in history. Inklings, of course, did not have those events, so they discovered zeppelins and apparently they love them SO so much that we routinely see them over Arowana Mall, and not ONLY over Arowana Mall, but Octarians have a whole military weapon type that's just a zeppelin with a face.

STILL continuing on the topic of transport, Inklings love having 23749237423 different transportation devices but they don't really need them? We know Inklings can super jump freely even outside of turf wars, we know they jump from the lobby to Turf War stages (this WAS the case in Splatoon 1). Realistically Inklings could easily super jump to cover short distances across the city or even longer distances over several jumps. Super jumping like that would all but nullify the need for public transit or a 15 minute walk to work, at least for Inklings that have the ability to super jump and don't have much to carry.

We do know from Salmon Run that most Inklings hesitate to super jump without a strong signal that they can navigate to, presumably because such a thing provides real-time coordinates that you can accurately calculate a jump to without needing to continuously SEE your estimated landing point. This is why Spawn Points have strong signals, the Grizzco boat has a massive antenna on it, Squid Beakons exist at all - list goes on.

Of course, we don't know if there's any kind of regulations or laws about super jumping outside of turf war, because obviously if everyone just super jumped everywhere all the time there could be collisions, and without signals to navigate by a lot of people would also miss their jumps and potentially get injured, or land somewhere they really didn't want to land. Such as the ocean, or a highway, or on top of somebody. It seems likely that there WOULD be rules against super jumping randomly outside of sports based on all this... but we don't really know!

Actually talking about society now. Our society tends to be extremely day-focused because humans are mostly a day-active species. Inkling society... seems to be mostly the same considering the tidbits we have on the Great Turf War. But I don't think the society itself is day-focused at all. We know there's tons of different species and even within Cephalopods there's differences between which species are day-active and which ones are nocturnal, so I believe that the streets see an almost identical amount of activity regardless of time of day. The businesses and the people you see on the street probably change, but there's a lot of people who aren't up during the day at all and live their lives in the nighttime. So in the Splatoon world, there wouldn't be a concept of "it's too late to go to the store" or "damn it, i missed the last bus". And the night-activity IS partially confirmed by Splatfests - they do take place at night (even though for day-active species, it's not unheard of to stay up late or even all-night to attend important or fun events. We do that all the time!)

Let's talk about food for a second (this might go into the "lives" section). I know inklings are heavily implied to be omnivorous in the game. I find this lame, so I choose to believe they are still MAINLY carnivorous predators and mostly eat fish and crustaceans - most of their food includes some kind of fish, maybe fish eggs, and shrimp. In spite of being mainly carnivorous, though, Inklings do eat carbohydrates such as rice and ramen noodles, as we've seen in the game. They can probably absorb some nutrients from said foods, but surviving on just plant-based things would be out of the question.

Inklings DO love fruit, which might be strange if they're not really getting much nutritional gain out of it. They seem to have an affinity for sweet things... which is typical for fruit eaters. I like to believe that Inklings evolved to like fruit not only because they're usually colorful, but mainly for their very high liquid content. As touched upon in a previous post, Inklings would realistically need to have a LOT of liquid in order to consistently produce as much ink as they do, which means anything that can help with that would be VERY welcome. I don't think early Inklings would've gone after fruit as a snack, but rather something that's akin to a funny-tasting water balloon that you can drain the liquid out of and get rid of the rest. Though modern Inklings do seem to like the whole thing.

Did you know it was implied in Splatoon 1 that vegetables didn't exist until recently? This was in Kelp Dome stage dialogue as far as I remember. I'd like to think what it actually means is that vegetables didn't really exist in SQUID cuisine until very recently - being brought in most likely in the span of the past 100 years, probably. Inklings as carnivores do not NEED vegetables naturally as they're good as long as they can eat some fish or shrimp, mostly, but nowadays vegetables are something that's included in some foods anyway - again they have high liquid content, and have a crunch that might be fun for the beak. As for where the vegetables suddenly came from? I'd bet on cross-species cultural integration that might have exploded after the Great Turf War concluded. Some species, like a lot of crustaceans, eat vegetables and the like - so integration of herbivorous species into Inkopolis and other mainly squid societies likely brought vegetables into the public eye. (There's also some "veggies" that didn't make the cut into Inkling cuisine, such as.... literal grass.)

yes we're still talking about food. I think Inkling food culture is pretty different to ours, even looking past the different nutritional needs. While humans tend to follow the pattern of a few big meals per day, I don't think Inklings have a consistent pattern at all. Cephalopods are extremely fast-paced animals that hunt their prey and swiftly move on, and their radula (rasping tongue) makes it so that they can't really take big bites of anything in the first place (yes they do in the game but i'm ignoring it in favor of biology). A HUGE volume of the Inkling body and torso is taken up by the ink sac, which also leaves kind of limited space for other organs, including the stomach. What I'm getting at is that Inklings probably can't eat very much at once, so they might not have a food culture that heavily relies on big and complex meals. They're more into eating snacks and eating those more often; something like the Crust Bucket's shwaffles and other quick things that you can grab and move on (and Inklings LOVE the deep-fried stuff because of the crunch). Inklings' preference to get little bits of food any time of the day and often without that much time between makes street food stalls really popular, too.

Octarian food culture... going underground for a moment, I'd like to talk about it for a while, because it's probably very different! A lot of the Octarian food culture likely developed within the past 100 years, as that's when the majority of their society was driven underground. That would be kind of disastrous for any culture, I think.

Octarians are (albeit stereotypically) a to-the-point kind of people in a lot of ways. Especially in the domes where distribution and availability of things is and has been poor in the past, they're not exactly eating fancy down there. If there's one thing that defines Octarian cuisine, though, it's got to be wasabi. If a dish is described as "spicy" or "flavorful"... it's probably got its fair share of wasabi in it, with wasabi being a somewhat largely cultivated thing in the domes.

In general, though, a lot of Octarian food is made to be A. simple, and B. easy to store and preserve for a long time. Especially in the early days of the Octarian Underground, there was NEVER a guarantee that you could find fresh food, or food at ALL, so preserving something to eat was of utmost importance. As such and even to this day, most Octarian common foods are dried, salted or fermented meats - salted and dried fish, canned fillets or fish eggs - or soups, which is famously a food type where you can replace 90% of the "food" with hot, flavored water. A lot of foods have a very strong taste (or a lack thereof) that would make most Inklings turn up their nose... but Octarians tend to like what they're used to.

Octopus meat is also on the menu from the Really Bad Years, but DON'T WORRY, it's typically made out of tentacles - originating from families running without food sometimes having to resort to cutting off their tentacles to fry up and feed the kids. It's essentially just meat and it grows back over time... though with the biotechnology Octarians have these days, octopus meat is manufactured in MUCH easier ways in a lab environment. Long tentacles for Octolings are still in fashion in the modern day - cut tentacles used to mean that you're probably poor, so not having to resort to doing so just so you can Live And Survive and Not Starve is pretty cool and hip.

Octarians do tend to have a somewhat different attitude towards food in general, though. For most Octolings in the domes, food isn't something you can play with - it's not even a GUARANTEE. Most Octarian food is to the point, made to last, and made to be keep you alive and kicking and not much else, to be honest. To many people, it's not much else than nutrition - it's rarer to find passionate chefs in a society where ingredients have historically been really hard to come by and have been strictly rationed so that everyone can have at least SOMETHING. Some Octolings growing up in poor families will have that singular salted fish for breakfast, or go to the store on lunch break to eat a can of fish eggs with their bare hands and absolutely nothing else. Even on the surface, because that's kind of what they're used to.

(end food section.)

Back to the Inklings. Turf Wars shape a lot of squid culture, especially that of teenagers. Prior to being something that was really widely recognized and being commercialized by corporations, it really WAS mostly just a youth sport - Inklings tend to be territorial, and marking their own group's area with ink is quite literally in their blood. Turf Wars began as a materialization of this urge without it being SUPER violent... or at least to give the fighting a set of rules and some kind of borders, to keep it off the main street. Of course, upon becoming extremely mainstream, Turf Wars have proven to not only be profitable, but also very beneficial - the overall amount of crime and miscellaneous violence has DRASTICALLY plummeted as squids have an actual outlet to put their instincts into.

Speaking of Inkling youths: I think Inklings become independent at a pretty young age compared to humans. We have some in-universe information (mostly pictures) that confirm that Inklings DO go to school, and based on Splatoon's society as a whole, I'll assume that it would mirror the japanese school system to some extent. But unrelated from school, cephalopods in real life are independent literally from the second they leave their EGGS. Inklings don't have this luxury, as we see they're not even fully developed with hands until they're around 14 years old. In pre-society wild ages, Inklings would typically leave their parents' school (pack) in their teens, once they're able to freely shapeshift and use their own ink - and seek out a new school to either integrate into, or form a new one out of a bunch of other stray squid. I'd like to think that this instinct has carried over to modern day Inklings - a majority of squid leave their families around 15 years old, or roughly after getting out of school. They then set out to find their place in the world - and their own other stray squids to form a new found family with. In the age of cellphones, most people probably choose to keep in touch with their parents and family members, but even when it was expected that you'd probably never see your kid again once they set out, it likely wasn't something that melancholic rather than just being The Thing That Happens.

That's pretty much everything I can think of right now before my brain turns into powder... again, there's not much the game tells us. There's some things I didn't really go into, like the implications of the food chain being confirmed to exist among sapient species, that's... a whole other topic. But anyway, I hope this was satisfactory, and I'd like to hear people's thoughts in the replies about your headcanons on Inkling society and how it's different!

[dreammeiser]

Hi! I love your work and I absolutely adore your DAWM designs!!! I hope this isn’t a rude question, but I saw you mention you previously were involved with the Jim Henson Company and was curious about your experience and what working there looked like for you? I hope this is not overly invasive of an ask, and I completely understand if you’re not willing to answer for whatever reason! :3 Thank you for your time ☆

Aw gosh! Thank you so much for the kind words! Not invasive or rude at all, I appreciate you asking-- I just usually keep most things to myself unless asked, haha!

Oh man, where do I start... Working there felt surreal! I got to see people I admired nearly my whole life around the office and TALK to them every day-- I don't want to drop names but a lot that are famous in the puppet community. And they were the nicest people at the office too, I still talk with them sometimes! They had a room that had some clay maquettes from previous projects that were gorgeous! We had a resident puppet chilling around the office from old pizza commercials named Bad Andy and sometimes we'd goof around with him! He was a little monkey guy! I was too shy to play with him a lot, which I shouldn't have been, because the others would just make him say bad words anyway, HA!

The guy, dying ^

One of the female Skeksis from the Dark Crystal movie was encased in glass near the kitchen so you had to pass by it every time you wanted coffee or a snackaroo... :'o) I was still very scared of Skeksis so I would walk very fast past her, hahaha! The Pinocchio puppet from The Adventures of Pinocchio movie was also chilling in the same room! There's puppets all over! When I was there, I was working on Sid the Science Kid! As an intern, I did not get a whoooole lot of responsibilities (as one can imagine, I was a very baby-level artist and I was 18/19), but I did get to contribute some art to a couple episodes, although... In the choices I would give them, they would always pick the paintings I was least proud of HAHAHA. When I have the time, I will try to revive my back-then work computer that still has some of my artwork so I can show you guys, I think it should be fine by now. :'o) But I do have a shirt from back then that I still wear all the time. If you remember Gerald from the show, he had this little dino shirt:

My shirt... and then the guy... Zooming at us, menacingly... My bird Kraken kinda chewed up the shirt around the shoulders, augh!

Also, they used some motion-capture animation for Sid! I remember the actors putting on these giant silly suits that had huge feet, huge heads, and huge hands that fit the proportions of the characters, with little ping pong ball-looking attachments to them. Those actors worked really hard to run around in those suits, it was impressive!

There was also!! A screen connected to a console and a controller that we would goof around on because you could control Sid's expressions with it, so we'd all have a turn on it sometimes to make the silliest faces with it and make each other laugh :oD

I remember back then my brain had a creative itch that Sid wasn't scratching enough (sorry if that sounds weird, I hope you know what I mean?), but talking with my dad about it, he recommended I make a story that I had wanted to work on at Henson's, so I took an existing character I had from high school (that's Earl!!) and started making a story with him about puppets, toys, and dolls that were all adventuring through a dream world and trying to overcome living nightmares. It has been dropped and picked back up and redesigned several times, but it eventually became Dream Along With Me. A lot of things I learned from Sid/Henson's actually helped inform how I redesigned the project too!

There's a lot more cool stuff I could talk about but I worry about being boring/rambling/accidentally writing a novel. I'll save it for later if asked again :'o) Thank you for asking!! It felt good to reminisce!

[noblechaton]

gonna ramble a bit about the ml art style change bc ig I have more thoughts about it than I knew. tagging this as leaks but no like story stuff is gonna be mentioned bc I don't really know any lol

so going off what little we've seen of it (and in arguably the lowest possible quality at that) I think it's gonna make the show very visually pretty which isn't to say it couldn't be or wasn't in the older style(s) but that was def more inconsistent between studios and such so if this new style is the standard then like. yeah it's gonna look great

buuuuuuuut I also think it looks kinda. generic? like what's happened to a lotta brand logos that used to have personality but now all look super flat and simplified. like the Pepsi logo or whatever. it's a similar situation to the movie (I'll get into this in a bit) where like yes it looks pretty but it doesn't really look like Miraculous to me? like ik the style kinda varied somewhat between the studios but it was largely consistent enough and felt much more unique. like I could see a screencap from any timestamp of any episode and place it as Miraculous just bc of the visual style

now tho it looks less unique to me and more....like a mobile game ad? some kinda un-marketed direct to streaming movie? not trying to sound mean or anything but it just doesn't strike that same feeling the old style did for me as of yet. it feels more like an attempt to ape off a generic Pixar/Disney sorta style which the movie's style did too - and that ig is a good excuse for me to kinda dive into my thoughts there bc like. it looks way more like that movie now right? the y'know completely non-canon movie that to my knowledge wasn't received too terribly well lmao. I feel like this is on some level purposeful tho

I made a post the other day about how someone (especially the youngins) might go into season 6 thinking it's actually more of a season 1 only to presumably find that very much isn't the case pretty quick lmao - but that's still a new viewer, which makes number go up, which is a Good Thing. that s6 looks to be something of a fresh start given the whole Gabe in da Ground situation makes me believe this more since I'm pretty sure he got got in the movie too (<- does not remember the movie she saw twice) albeit in a different way. very real chance they view s6 as something of a soft launch pad with the hope of ppl who only saw the movie just jumping in without looking first. I also have an even more insane conspiracy theory that they're using movie assets at lower res for the sake of cost management but again. nutso hunch

regardless I'm kinda surprised they're changing it so drastically this deep into the series and I have no idea how the quality of animation is gonna hold up from episode to episode, season to season. presumably this is part'a why we haven't had s6 drop yet, that they've been working on it thoroughly, but it's been a good minute since s5 ended and I feel like the drought in content isn't really worth it?

like it's been so long that to me sometimes it's felt like the show straight up ended and while I don't mind a wait like this, the show then coming back looking entirely different to how it used to is gonna be jarring. I'm giving it a chance bc we haven't really seen it yet and that footage is very likely a wip of some sort but all the same I'm not terribly impressed? the emotions seem more stilted and flat, there's a few sorta redesigns that look....off (namely Adrichat, imo), and it feels too much like an attempt at cashing in on whatever success the movie might have had by bringing the look of the show more in line with it

think what gets me the most is that the style and animation of the show was one of the biggest things that drew me in beyond the bugcat of it all. it was the first CG animated show I'd seen where I felt as if the animation really worked; the world felt alive and vibrant, the city lived in and populated, but it didn't feel uncanny or like realistic in any sense, and there were plenty of gaffs and flaws throughout but I feel that only endeared the look of the show to me more - it had its own style that stood out for better or worse and I think that played more a role in the show's success than most have given credit for, and now that it's being entirely dropped in favor of a style that feels much more like some generic CG animation style I can't help but feel a bit disheartened and even nervous about the future of the series tbh

want to say that I'm not looking to hate it - I'm gonna give it a chance, and again I think it does visually look pretty, but I feel like it loses a lot of what made the show stand out to me and changes things I don't think really needed changed. time will tell but as of now I'm really not sold on it

also think having a special (or two? maybe?) in the old style just to drop us into the newer one presumably shortly after is kinda weird. wonder what happened there. bad timing? tbh using a special to introduce it mighta helped a bit but idk for sure

[eksentrismi]

Wait whose Mr. Tophat and Bill? I haven't seen em before?

What do they look like? :O

Mr. Tophat and Bill are some of the characters in my OC/crossover-universe thing which I've pretty much just nicknamed "Rénee's universe" (even though it takes place in a big city, but oh well, lol). I could ramble about that world and its characters for ages because there are TONS of stuff in that world and it's very dear to me, but I'll try keeping this kind of short, lol

Mr. Tophat: An intimidating massive dude, who works as sort of a henchman for a mobster boss (my own AU-version of Sykes actually, lmao, the Disney villain I mean). He's 7'1'' (217 cm), like... he's seriously tall and massive, also extremely strong. Strong to the point that he could literally break somebody's hand when giving a handshake, so he has to be careful in that. People are usually intimidated or terrified of him, due to his appearance and also his intimidation/extortion skills. However, he's a gentle guy to those whom he cares about and to whoever his boss trusts. Mr. Tophat gets his nickname from the fact that he's always wearing an old top hat. No matter what, he always has the hat on (except when all alone, of course); it's also a mood indicator pretty much, because if he takes it off in the middle of a fight/argument or such... yeah, you should definitely run, because that means that he really is gonna like break bones and such. Mr. Tophat isn't his real name, of course, but it's become a silly joke for me at this point that he never ever reveals his real name..... I know what it is, but I won't tell >:) He usually is just seen either trying to extort debt money from guys like Nerome, Bill etc; either that or he's just standing menacingly in his boss's office during any interviews, meetings etc.

Bill: Much like Mr. Tophat, he used to work for Sykes as well... but he got fired for literally being way too angry and argumentative, even towards his colleagues, lmao. Bill is basically defined simply by just one word: anger. This man is angry, oh boy, this man IS anger itself. The most grumpy foul-tempered man you’ll ever meet! Eternally pessimistic and just an annoying person to be around most of the times. Bill’s a rude loudmouth, who always wants to make his opinions heard loud and clear. In fact, he always wants to be loud and clear. Not afraid of anyone or anything, or whatever anyone’s gotta say. He is really argumentative and angry, he gets into fights super easily and usually for no good logical reasons either. It doesn’t even matter if he loses, he just won’t give up and he’s way too angry to even give up. He's quite a nuisance, though not to the same levels of destruction that Nerome then has. And despite being fired, he's a petty guy and keeps still showing up to his old workplace often, only to annoy everybody there or steal food from the workplace's canteen. He's also a massive strong dude, though definitely shorter than Mr. Tophat at around like 6 ft tall (182-183 cm) or so. That and he's also more scruffy and he stinks <3 He does have a softer side towards his very few rare friends though, of course; he just shows it rarely and in his own chaotic ways, lol

Old art here, but yeah lmao, them <333 The nasty dudes <3

[ashtray-girl]

Sorry if i'm bothering you but i really wanted to rant abt Johnny and Moz and hear some of your thoughts about these two certain topics that i can't get out of my head:  

I find it incredibly weird that Johnny and Morrissey (as far as we know) never became friends again or never tried to reconcile their relationship after the breakup - like how do you go from being best friends and hanging out with each other 24/7 to "We haven’t known each other for 35 years - which is many lifetimes ago." as Morrissey said on that letter. The strangest part to me is that, since the break up and to this day both Johnny and Moz never hesitate to mention again and again how much their relationship meant to them in the band and how much they loved each other during that period of their lives - i mean the way they describe each other and the words that they use come straight up from a romance novel. Also the fact that Morrissey continued to write songs abt how much Johnny meant to him and like Johnny getting that swallow tattoo on his neck and other weird stuff like why care to mention each other so much and make everything so dramatic when you - as you claim - haven't known each other for a lifetime? And idk on a personal level if it would be me in their situation i would at some point try to fix whatever we had if we obv meant that much to each other after all these years.

In all honestly when i read abt Marrissey Johnny sometimes just comes off as someone who suffered (and maybe still does) from internalised homophobia, when you read the way Moz talks abt him in his lyrics it definitely gives off that vibe "Though she needs you More than she loves you " , "Love is natural and real But not for such as you and I" or "I am born to hang but not to have kids and to never be wed - no, to someone whom I don't even love" and that interview when Moz said that "That perhaps Johnny Marr was in fact madly in love with me, but didn't feel he could act on that - or that he didn't have the courage to ever take it any further?'" And i don't want to seem like i'm trying to bash Angie or anything but i find they way the got married pretty weird and almost rushed in way like would they even get married if Joe Moss hadn't insisted that they do? Even Andy thought it was weird "They got married in some evangelical church. It was pretty bizarre. There were only about 10 of us there, including the crew. The ceremony only lasted about 15 minutes. I was a witness. Afterwards they hired a function room in the hotel and we had champagne and a buffet. It was a nice day, but it was just weird. It didn't seem real. You know what it's like in America - everything's plastic and phoney. It just didn't seem like a proper wedding. No relatives were there."

Anyway sorry for the long rant!! I just wanted to say that i absolutely love your Marrissey ramblings, Have a nice day :)

Hi anon! don't worry you're not bothering me at all, i'm always down to talk abt marrissey haha i'll just have to reply w/2 separate parts bc there's so much i want to say lmao 1. i've been chatting to @loathsome-tonight abt this (comparing notes, so to speak) and both of us agree that the "no-contact" situation after The Smiths' breakup is essentially bullshit, and for quite a few reasons: - first of all, there's proof they were exchanging notes around the time Morrissey was recording Viva Hate - when Johnny Rogan first published his book Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance Morrissey predictably wanted no part in it, and Johnny only got involved bc he felt pressured by the author getting a bit too close to his friends and family. however, once the book came out Johnny apparently felt compelled to call Morrissey and reassure him abt the extent and the reasons of his involvement - when Morrissey released The Last of the Famous International Playboys, Johnny apparently sent him a note to congratulate him on its success - if you've read Morrissey's Autobio, you'll know he sent Johnny a letter in 1992, to which Johnny replied telling him he was sorry for everything that happened and taking "full responsibility". they then met each other and went for a drive on the moors - after that meeting, their relationship seemed to improve. in a 1993 interview for Select, Johnny said: "the relationship between me and Morrissey is the best in the group, of the four of us. i still see him now. i called him last night. last time i saw him was a couple of days before he went to do his recent album. we let a bored media get the better of us, but there's always been a certain telepathy between us even when we didn't see each other. we played a game with the press and they played with us, but it's not true life. no, we're friends." - then, the trial happened. and that's when things went south again between them. being interviewed with Bernard Sumner for The Face in july 1996, and being asked if he and Morrissey were still friends, Johnny said: "not... (pregnant pause) not particularly... [...] if i'm too glib then people think i'm being disrespectful and if i'm too serious they think there's a reconciliation on the cards. i just don't have any feelings about it." except a month earlier, once again being interviewed with Bernard Sumner (for the NME this time) he was playing quite a different tune. asked if he was still in contact with Morrissey, he said: "occasionally. last time we met it was a really nice experience. it was really good to see him, especially since a... a feud that didn't really exist had become public property. and because of the relationship we had it was time to resolve it in private and do something ourselves because it was really quite a serious situation. i was tired of being involved in other people's games and i wanted to do something for us. [...] i know it's interesting for other people, but it's kinda private. i certainly don't wish him - or anyone i've worked with - ill. life's too short." whatever happened between them at that time, it seems like 1996 was quite a turbulent year for their relationship... - years after (seemingly) going their separate ways, in 2008, they met once again. this time in person, in a pub in Manchester. apparently they even talked abt a potential Smiths' reunion, but Johnny already had other engagements with The Cribs, so nothing was done abt it - in recent years, Johnny also mentioned exchanging emails with Morrissey so even tho i highly doubt they're still in contact now, there was definitely a time when they were on speaking terms, even after The Smiths broke up. however, it seems like their relationship was quite volatile and hot and cold, with them being fine one moment and being snarky the next. personally, i've found it surprising how none of the biographers/journos that wrote abt them directly challenged them on this, bc ultimately it's very easily disprovable.

[left-for-carrion]

blog tags:

roach's mutt - stuff about me being a mutt/petplay

roach's angel - stuff about me being an angel

roach's god - stuff about me being a god/my worshippers

roach's scars - my own cutting stuff, please block this tag if you don't wish to see that sort of thing

roach's rambles - just random stuff not particularly kink related

roach's doctor - med kink stuff

roach's stalker - stalking fantasy stuff

roach's robot - robotic kink stuff

roach's killer - gore/snuff stuff. block if you don't want to see that

DNI:

Minors, please don't get me arrested dudes

Pro-contact zoophiles [petplay/people who identify as animals are welcome]

Pro-contact pedophiles [ageplay, fauxcest welcome]

People who sexualize disorders they don't have

RadFem

Homophobes/LGBTQ+ophobes

Transphobes

Anti-therian/anti-kin

Zionists

People who support Israel/Are against Palestine

!Warning!

This blog is fucking heavy, sh, gore, stalker stuff, ect. exists here.

Don't like, don't look. Don't say I didn't warn you. Buzz off if you don't wanna be friends or exist peacefully with me.

There is self-harm thrown throughout this, though nothing from minors. If I reblog something made by a minor and you notice, please tell me. I have no wish to interact with minors. And I do self harm myself, so there will be pictures of that. If you don't want to see that and still wanna interact, block the tag: roach's scars

I will continuously edit this, so always check if there's something you wanna know or feel free to ask, I don't bite [without permission]

I'm Roach on this blog, usually Opium on anon. If you came looking and see this, hi, you found me <3

I'm the god of mutilation of the self and others, your angel [if you want] and a mutt that needs to be put down.

I'll put the rules and tags for that below once I've made a post for how to handle those. Ask things if you've encountered me before I've made it, I promise I won't get grumbly-

I'm really off-putting and aware of it, just not sure how to fix it, I apologize :']

Figured I should make an about me post, so here goes:

I use it/its only, agender, pansexual, poly

Not dating anyone and open to anyone even if I am. [Although, if you want me all to yourself, you better tell me quick <3]

I'm mainly T4T, but not exclusively

Sometimes a mutt [Kin/Complex]

Sometimes a God [Kin/Complex]

Sometimes an angel [Kin/Complex]

Always open to roleplay

Fantasy/Scene stalker [CNC]

An absolute slut for fighting kinks <3

Feel free to bring up a kink and ask, I'm into so much that it's really hard to list all of them :']

I do do pictures/nudes, only in PMs and with people I genuinely trust. Earn them <3

I have ADHD, BPD, severe anxiety, and several undiagnosed things. I am nonverbal irl.

I'm a service dom, which means anything I do is tailored for you, and idk what kind of sub I am, I don't get to sub much because I get too anxious to ask lol. I power bottom most of the time, but I also like topping. I don't bottom when I sub unless we've worked up to that level.

Kinks list: [Faves in bold] [Not complete, anything not in dni is open]

Fighting/Arena/Ring

Worship

Cannibalism

Petplay

Robot/Objectum*

Medical

Intoxication

Fauxcest

Public

Role reversal

Overstimulation

Edging

Piss, anything related to piss

Stalker/Stalking

Woundfucking

Snuff

Body modification

CNC [The word rape is allowed, I don't personally use it much however]

Object Insertion

Knife Play

I'm open to anything not in my dni's, so feel free to send me whatever, this is just what I could think of. I'll probably add to it over time.

I do participate in fandom, I know I know, so disappointing, so occasionally I reblog/talk about things from:

Hannibal NBC

Ultrakill

i'll add more later my mind is blank

*With Objectum, I'm into almost anything mechanical, and any range of Robot, but I'm also into Plushies. So, Plushophilia.

[anexperimentallife]

You miserable little tankie purity-pony CUNT. Biden is anything but a 'shitstain'; he has done more for this country than any president in decades. If you could get your head out of Nina Turner's and Jill Stein's reeking gashes long enough to read any actual facts....but when you're not eating out PUTA's little whores you're exploring Bernout's cloaca with your tongue. Know what? I don't believe your post either. You'll vote for some bitch like Cornel West out of spite. Schooled and blocked :D

Welp, SOMEBODY apparently loves genocide against brown people, loves big banks, and loves the guy they used to call "Senator Mastercard."

And NOT loving genocide, banks, and Biden I guess makes one a... "tankie?" (I don't think that word means what he thinks it does.)

I mean, obviously supporting genocide is the worst of Biden's crimes, but even if not for that, I'm also not a fan of smearing and harassing women who've been sexually harassed and pushing to get their abusers on the Supreme Court (look up Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas), or spearheading the legislation that made student loans un-dismissable by bankruptcy (funny that people are praising him for putting a bandaid on a tiny fraction of the student loan crisis he helped create), and generally supporting banls against the US citizenry at every opportunity, thus helping to create the highest level of income inequality and poverty in the developed world, with all the suffering that has caused. I guess supporting the Iraq war was ALSO a case of Biden doing SO MUCH for America and the world?

(He still says he stands by every vote he has ever cast, by the way, which would include his votes to bomb brown kids, to put Thomas on the SCOTUS, and to give banks more power at our expense.)

Wonder if these are the kinds of facts this guy wants to make sure I'm aware of?

I mean, like I said, if it comes down to either Biden, or a Trump military dictatorship (which the orange shitgibbon and his aupporters are already talking about,,and which Tuberville is doing his best to facilitate by blocking military appointees until a GOP victory the way they blocked judicial appointments so the Orange One could fill the court with far right zealors who would overtirn Roe v Wade), and which will ALSO support genocide), I'll hold my nose and pull the lever for the lesser of two shitstains, because--again, BOTH parties support genocide, but the GOP literally tried to stage a domestic coup, openly considers nuclear warfare a viable option, and... well, you've heard them. And I want my daughter to grow up with things like freedom of speech, and access to abortion and birth control and stuff, you know?

But oh, my... I have apparently been "schooled and blocked" LMAO. How will I ever survive?

(Rambled a bit here, I know, but its 3am where I am, and I'm up coughing my lungs up, so this was a distraction for me.)

[ucannotkillmeinawaythatmatters]

im rewatching Moon Knight while I embroider, so I figured why not post about it!! I still haven't unlocked the gif ability everyone on here seems to have, so I'm just gonna have to describe everything without proof. this is gonna be an in depth, long, and rambly post, so you can read the rest after the cut if you'd like!!

episode 1: the goldfish problem

so a lot of this episode is establishing Steven and the situation that he's in. it's kinda sad cuz on the surface level, he has a nice life. he's got a job, a big flat, he calls his mom pretty often. but when you look deeper it gets sadder. the main thing that sticks out is how lonely Steven is

JB doesn't know his name, the only person he can talk to is a statue person that doesn't respond back, his boss is mean. he's so lonely in fact that he accepts a date with a person he doesn't really know to a STEAK HOUSE.

(I have my own theory about how that was Jake who was trying to be nice and get a date for Steven?? maybe?? bc it's highly unlikely that marc, who has a wife, would do that. and even if you tried to argue that marc did it for Steven, why would he then go and make him miss it?? plus, I'm certain he knows that Steven is a vegan. which also makes you wonder why Jake didn't notice that detail, but I digress)

(side note number two, Steven is good with kids and I'll die on that hill. the scene where he's explaining things about mummification to that little girl?? answering her questions patiently and excitedly?? yeah, he's a hit with them, I promise you. and not just when he's talking about his Special Interest. also the foreshadowing of that girl asking him if it sucked to get rejected from the field of reeds?? I'm sickkkk)

and ofc, there's the main issue of steven falling asleep in his bed and waking up in the middle of nowhere without a clue as to how he got there. I'd like to take a second to commend Stevens intelligence here!! anke restraints, sand around the bed, tape on the door?? I would never even think of these things.

either way, none of it works and he wakes up in the middle of goddamn nowhere, injured and hurting at that!! (even if khonshu fixed it, he still sounded like he was in pain for a while there). people are shooting at him, he's so so desperately trying to give this strange man (who he just witnessed kill a woman mind you) the beetle but he can't, and all the while a strange voice is berating him every two seconds. again kudos to Steven bc I could never. I would have been crying the moment I heard the gunshots.

(Jake theory again. I'm so certain that a lot, if not all of the car stuff was Jake. I love marc, but I refuse to believe he could manage those car skills, while shooting at ppl, while on the a narrow road of a fucking mountain. nahhhh that was all my boy Jake)

(also note that when Steven first woke up in the grass after Marc?? jumped and fell fourish stories?? khonshu called him a worm. and then further specified and called him "the idiot." I firmly believe that khonshu calls Steven AND Jake worms/parasites, it's just that Stevens the idiot and Jakes the competent one ig)

and waking up after all of that like nothing happened must have been so frustrating. I know Marc was just trying to protect him, but instead Stevens just being gaslighted and facing psychological warfare. so everywhere he goes he's faced with signs that he might be crazy or he might not be. ex: gus suddenly having one fin, the time being wrong, Marc appearing in the mirror and talking to him completely unhelpfully, khonshu FUCKING TORMENTING HIM FOR NO REASON, but also the burner phone he found, harrow being real, and the dog creature I can't remember the name of!!

so much of this episode was Steven being scared and unhappy and overwhelmed and it makes me sad!! he's so precious and sweet, he doesn't deserve to be going thru any of that.

(also I'm never ever gonna get over the cinematography and thematics of the mirrors in the museum bathroom. first of all mirrors cool. second, the hints at his multiplicity thru the infinite images of the bathroom, but with Marc in only one of the reflections. I'm gonna be fucking sick)

so yeah!! those are most of my thoughts. I know that pictures and gifs are a huge part of making a post Not Boring and I'm gonna use them as soon as I learn how istg