#and to be clear they aren't referring to the clouds in the window!!

[pocketgalaxies]

C3E40: reacting to the cloud projections bonus travis first noticing them:

[geeky-politics-46]

Just Hold Me

Pairing: Sinister Stephen Strange x Reader

Summary: Something is wrong. You are acting odd & all Stephen wants to do is help you feel better

Warnings: Not much, light angst & references to potential depression. Fluffy ending. Sinister being the most loving devoted boy ever even if he doubts himself.

Totally a self-comfort piece. I've been feeling sad & this is what I want right now.

He wasn't used to seeing you this way. In fact, in all the time you had been in his universe, he had never seen you like this before. The light was missing from your eyes. You weren't crying, but your normal sunny disposition was nowhere to be found.

Your face was a blank slate. You didn't seem angry or outright upset, but your smile was nowhere to be seen. Even when he put on your favorite show, you weren't smiling and giggling like you normally would. It was breaking his heart.

You had always been the sunshine to his dark storm cloud self. You brightened his day and cleared away the gloom and cobwebs that had invaded his mind for years. He hoped that he hadn't somehow accidentally extinguished that fire and light that made you so enchanting. That was something he knew he would never forgive himself for. 

Even the weather outside had shifted with your personality. The cracks of sunlight that had started illuminating the barren land below, lulling it back to life, had dimmed. Storm clouds and low rumbles of thunder followed in the next few days. By the third day, it had begun steadily drizzling on and off all day.

Perhaps you wanted to leave but didn't know how to tell him. He was sure he would die if you did leave, but he wouldn't keep you there if you were no longer happy in his world. Or with him. Maybe you decided you couldn't love a monster like him anymore. He wouldn't blame you.

He found you sitting in your shared bed, bundled up in blankets, and just staring out the window. Watching the raindrops pitter patter against the window. Your hair hadn't been brushed in a day or two, and you were still in the shirt you slept in. 

"I know you have said nothing is wrong, but I know you are lying, my love. You can tell me if you want to leave. If you aren't happy with me anymore. If you have changed your mind about us. Or if I have done something to hurt you. I will make it right in any way that I can. Even if it means losing you. Your happiness is the most important thing in the multiverse to me." 

Your heart ached that you made him question your love for him. That had never even been a thought in your mind. You loved Stephen unconditionally. In fact, even you couldn't pinpoint what you were feeling or why you were feeling so withdrawn. You couldn't stand to see his eyes looking like a scolded puppy, and you immediately wanted him to be near you.

"Oh, Stephen. Come here. 

You unwrapped yourself from the blankets and patted the spot next to you on the bed. Wanting him to join you in your blanket cocoon.

"You haven't done anything to hurt me, and I definitely haven't changed my mind about us. I love you more than anything, Stephen. I'm just feeling really down, and I don't know why. It's stupid, and there's no real reason why that I can think of. I didn't want to bring your mood down with me, but I guess that didn't really work, huh?"

He had brought himself to sit in the bed next to you. Not wanting to touch you until you gave him permission, but he grabbed one of your hands in his as you wiped away a couple of stray tears with the other. 

"Trust me, darling. I have been to the depths of despair, and nothing you could say could bring me down. Not as long as you are here and you let me help you. Now, what do you need? Do you want anything to drink or eat? I can get you some more blankets to snuggle in. I can put on one of your favorite movies. I can leave you alone if you want me to, but I'd rather be here if you'll let me. Even if we just sit here in silence."

Your heart warmed at the honesty in his eyes and in his voice. You had never met a man quite like him. One who had seen and felt so much in his life. Had his world ripped apart in front of him, and yet all he wanted was to make you feel better. Even just having him next to you now made you feel a little less sad. A hint of a smile pulled at your lips for the first time in days. 

"Can you just hold me, please, Stephen? I just want to lay here and listen to the storm and have you hold me tight. I don't really know what's wrong with me right now, but you feel right to me."

He smiled at your request. He was so hoping that you would let him hold you. He knew that having you in his arms was always what made him feel better when the dark thoughts and lingering voices from the Darkhild threatened to overtake his mind. 

"Of course darling. All you ever have to do is ask." 

With that, he snuggled down under the covers and held you tight. Spooning you from behind and making sure his body touched yours as much as he possibly could before using his magic to pull the soft fluffy blankets up around both of you. Restoring your little cocoon you had made with both of you inside it now. Your hand quickly found its place over his, and your body wiggled to get even closer. 

He pressed a couple of soft, comforting kisses to your shoulder once you had found your comfortable spot. His heart fluttered a little when he heard you sigh and felt you relax into his arms. Letting your body melt into his. 

You stayed like this for what had to be hours. It didn't matter to him how long he stayed there. He wasn't going to let you go until you told him to. He would hold you until the universe collapsed around you both if you asked him to. His reason for living was to be the mooring that held you steady in both calm and stormy seas.

He knew you were on the verge of sleep by the way your breath pattern changed. It was only then that he let his own guard down and let himself begin to drift with you. Then, in the smallest and sweetest tone, he heard you whisper. It was barely audible.

"Thank you, Stephen. I love you."

He smiled softly to himself. Nudging his nose into your hair to get closer to you still. Whispering back into your ear, the truest words he had ever spoken in his life.

"I love you too, darling. Always and with all of my being. Though good and bad."

--------------------------------

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[hamliet]

I have a question you said in a review the eyes in the characters of oshi no ko when I read about it design wise I am intersted in the eyes of Akane, Kana and Mem-cho mean something about there role and character in the story I was wondering if you can elabortate on it.

Okay, so! To start with this topic, though, we actually have to talk about Ai first and foremost.

Hoshino Ai breaks down into several meanings. For one thing, it breaks into “hoshi no eye,” which literally means “starry eye” in Japanese. Ai’s eyes notably have stars in them, and Aqua and Ruby have one starry eye each.

Of course, this breaks into several meanings itself. "Starry eyed" is an English idiom for an idealistic, childlike view of the world. If we break the "star eye" idea down further, "star" references Ai being a "star," an idiom for a famous person.

"Hoshino" also contains a homonym for the Japanese verb "hoshi" (欲しい), which means "to want." This also indicates a huge part of Ai's character. The kanji used to write Hoshino means "star" and "indigo"--indigo is the color that you get when you combine aqua and ruby, by the way.

Plus, Ai is written in katakana (アイ), not kanji as would be typical for a name. Katakana is the Japanese script for loan words, which reinforces the literal translation of “eye.” But, it's also a homonym for the Japanese word for love (愛), which is pronounced like "eye." In turn, the story explores love as a major theme--for example, Ai’s final thoughts are about her finally understanding love.

So, from Ai, we see that eyes and particularly starry eyes matter.

In the OP, we see a progression of five eyes--Aqua, Ruby, Kana, Akane, and Mem-Cho.

Hikaru, Aqua, and Ruby

Aqua and Ruby share one starry eye that goes black when they are in a bad mental state (Hikaru's eyes are also starry eyes that have turned black, again reinforcing that he never had a childhood).

The implication of both Ruby and Aqua having one starry eye each and switching between looking more like their mother's eyes and their father's eyes is to emphasize their internal conflict. They both bear the legacy of their parents, and have their own legacies in their past lives and a blank slate, a chance for a new start (the unstarred eye). What they do with this life and which legacy they want to focus on (Ai's love and life, or Hikaru's focus on trauma and repeating a cycle of violence) is their choice.

If we take the saying "the eyes are the window to the sopul," then we also see that as much as Ruby and Aqua are Sarina and Gorou, they are also Ruby and Aqua, children of Ai and Hikaru. That's why I actually am not so sure about the common fan presumption that Crow Girl saying the children had no souls meant they were supposed to be stillborn. They aren't Sarina and Gorou any more so than they are Ruby and Aqua.

Now let's finally move onto your characters.

Kana

Kana’s eyes resemble galaxies.

What this means isn't entirely clear, but instead of a single star, she has hundreds in her eyes. This presumably indicates her potential as a human being, and her way of reminding both Aqua and Ruby (in her better moments, anyways) that they are part of a huge world and a huge cosmos, and don't have to focus on just one aspect of life--namely, revenge on Hikaru for Aqua and revenge for the doctor for Ruby. Other people around them also contain their own light.

Akane and Mem-Cho

Akane’s look like an evening sky.

Mem-Cho’s resemble daytime, complete with light reflections forming clouds as shown below:

Again, I'm not entirely sure what this means per se, but I would guess it emphasizes, thematically, the reality of life. People live, and they die. Day comes, and then night.

Death (something repeatedly associated with Akane--no I don't think she's going to die) is a part of life. I would guess Akane will help Aqua and Ruby accept this part of themselves somehow, as written by @aspoonofsugar here.

Mem-Cho, on the other hand, shines brightly, illuminating their need to grow in some ways and offering wise advice. She's not as complex a character at the moment, but her role so far seems congruent with this idea.

[happyk44]

Was writing up a different thing but my thoughts kept stalling so I'm twisting it. I've seen posts before about how Demeter's children logically should've been part of the prophecy and child ban in PJO because she is also one of the eldest gods. And yeah, that's still true, Rick should've altered the wording or maybe made it more clear that "gods" in that context was specifically refering to god as a male term, but whatever.

Anyway, it got me thinking about her children. I never read TOA and don't intend to and I think? One of her kids is a major player in that one, but whatever. This is ignoring TOA because I don't have context (and I don't want to).

We know the Big Three are overtly powerful. We don't see much of Thalia's raw power (or Jason's really, but I already have my own separate thoughts on that), but ultimately we know that they are closer to the gods than other demigods. And I was thinking about Demeter's kids would factor into that and I realized.

Ah. They can't.

See: Zeus is god of the the sky, right? And the sky is often equated with air. Air is everywhere: the ocean, the earth, the sky, underground, everywhere. The only place there is no air is in a vacuum, and that's irrelevant because a vacuum has nothing in it, so no one would have power there and it's pointless to bring it up.

Anyway, Jason and Thalia might be slightly diminished in certain places, but ultimately their power can't die. Even underwater, there will be some kind of air they could manipulate if they just try. And, as I've mentioned elsewhere, lightning is just electricity. Electricity exists in the body in the form of our nervous system. If you look it up, you'll find that technically all biological cells are electrical. So plants, people, animals. Fucking computers too, probably, at this point, why the fuck not. Just sap all forms of electrical energy as a power-up.

Basically even the most basic form of their powers exists everywhere in nature: sky/air and lightning. And they can manipulate that however they choose.

Similarly, Hades, who is often equated with death (even though that's Thantos's business), exists everywhere as well. Death touches everything. It lingers. Darkness too. No matter what, the sun will always set and the dark will prevail. I mean darkness prevails regardless. If you walk into a room with no windows, there isn't light. You have to make that, you have to add it.

And when you factor in my theory that as god of the Underworld, Hades has a touch of specialty regarding the gods/spirits/etc who live in his domain, well you've added in even more for him to reach out to: sleep, dreams, rest and relaxation, and more probably my brain is stalling again.

But anyway, those things exist everywhere. They touch everything. So power is absolute - except maybe the sky. I don't think ghosts can linger in the sky. If you die, you fall to the ground. Even on planes, a corpse will eventually land. But it still graces the sky. A shot bird still dies in the clouds before it is touches the ground. So there's range there, and that's Nico and Hazel.

Poseidon in the ocean, yes, but people still equate him to all forms of water - and maybe that's more a modern thing these days, but I don't doubt that people way back when probably did too, maybe at a lesser degree because they were aware of other water-type gods for specific things and unless you've immersed yourself in Greek mythology/Hellenistic polytheism, you probably aren't and even then you might just default to the big guy anyway BUT I DIGRESS.

Water is everywhere. It is vapour in the air we breathe. Sits in our veins, our bodies. It soaks into the ground, nourishes the plants, drips from cave walls and sloshes in underground rivers. Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. Even a desert, as dry as it might be, has to have water somewhere. Even if you have to claw your way into the sky and clouds and drag it down into a torrential pour of rain, there is water somewhere.

So there we go with Percy.

Then Demeter.

Earth is not part of the sky. Earth is not part of the ocean. It is part of the underground. But limited in spaces. It is a powerful thing to be reckoned with and I don't doubt that her demigod kids are more powerful than your standard demigod, but there is a difference. The earth cannot follow Jason into the sky, it will fall. The earth cannot follow Percy into the ocean, it will muddy and dissolve. The earth can follow Nico underground but he can combat it head on if he wanted to.

The earth is powerful and stubborn. But it is limited.

Not to mention, Demeter, while regarded as an earth goddess, is not technically the earth goddess - that's Gaea. Demeter is the harvest and agriculture, grain and crops. And as we know, some places, even surrounded by dirt and grass and trees, cannot create a functional harvest. You have to actively put in work to create a functional farm, to grow.

The other three will always exist no matter what. There is no active work into creating their domain. The ocean and water will always flow. Air will always be breathed. People and animals and plants will always die.

I think this would also fall for the other two, if they were to ever have demigod children. Hestia is the hearth and warmth. That has to be created. Hera is marriage and family. That has to be created.

So Demeter's children are probably pretty powerful. But not as powerful as their cousins. Because her domain is crafted out of creation, but the boys' domains exist regardless.

[silver-wield]

Cloud's Resolution.

Now, we've heard how a certain resolution is Cloud's, even though the ultimania literally proves otherwise. However, imma tell yall that Cloud does have a resolution and his is resolving the LTD.

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be short cause I'm on my phone and only got 10 shots to make a point.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Please check my master post to see if I've already covered your question, thanx

Let's mosey!

No cut, this is your extra spoiler warning.

Cloud’s resolution is found across all three of the others. It begins in Barret's and ends in Aerith's. After which, there's still that very clear dividing line that's put an end to the LTD, just like all the other evidence I've mentioned.

The house, which features prominently, has two triangle shaped windows, representing the two girls within the triangle. Tifa is on the right and Aerith is left, as per their places in the double arm grab. That Aerith's ghost comes out of the same room as Tifa is a hint that people assume she's the correct choice, but she's an illusion. The only real person to exit that room is Tifa. The only real person in the room during Aerith’s resolution is Tifa. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Onto Barret.

He mentions both girls several times. At the beginning of the scene, we can see the house in the background. Cloud isn't facing it.

He's turned towards the path leading to the exit.

Barret talks about Avalanche members and things that he needs to resolve for himself, because this is his resolution and Cloud's role in it is as a witness. His section of the resolution for himself is small in this instance.

Barret references Aerith first. Cloud doesn't react. At all.

Then Barret references Tifa and it's here that Cloud's part of the resolution begins. He turns.

His attention has gone from the exit and moves onto Barret and we get that moment where Cloud hears about Tifa being given flowers and smugly rolls his eyes because ofc Tifa would reject some other guy.

Cloud is now facing the house for the remainder of Barret's resolution. He's looking at the window where Tifa is.

Aerith's mentioned again and Cloud has no reaction, again. Then, as he and Barret are leaving the area, Cloud glances at some bright red flowers and Barret makes a comment we can't hear.

In Tifa's resolution, the focus isn't on the house for the bulk of it, but we do see the right hand window more times than the pair together. This is to hint that Tifa is represented by it in the LTD.

There's a second LTD reference on her belt with the pearls, which are her, Cloud and Aerith within the overhead view of the garden. The darker pearl and medium one on the right are touching, while the smaller one on the left is more isolated.

Real Cloud hugged Tifa. It's canon and I don't have anything else to add to it.

When we pull back and get a view of Tifa at the end of the resolution, we see she's mostly blocking that right hand window. Because she's the girl in the window. It's mostly obscured as a hint at her relationship with Cloud being obscured and him not having fully resolved his feelings for her. Also OG callback, but we knew that.

For most of Aerith's resolution, Cloud is looking at the house where Tifa is. Because by this point he hugged her and his two psyches are unifying their feelings towards her.

This is his resolution.

He began in Barret's by having both girls mentioned, which tested his feelings for them. He reacted to Tifa.

In Tifa's resolution real Cloud hugged her, but in Aerith's we learn that soldier Cloud believes he hugged Tifa because he references the embrace and Cloud is always soldier Cloud around Aerith, which is why she says his feelings for her aren't real. Because she knows he's soldier Cloud.

And this is the conclusion of Cloud's resolution. He looks between the two windows then asks if he gets a say in the LTD, while he is still looking at Tifa's window.

Cloud witnessed the other resolutions, but his is found in all of them because his is resolving the LTD within himself. His choice is found in the fact he constantly looks at Tifa's window throughout Aerith's resolution. His words and thoughts are for Tifa. He references moments with Tifa. Soldier Cloud chose her. Real Cloud always chose her.

Cloud’s resolution is the LTD and he chose Tifa.

But yall already knew that from the four other LTD posts I made that show Cloud's choice 😉😘

Adding this since someone tried saying it's just a house and always had those windows. Yes, it did. It's called applied symbolism where something already existing is given new context and meaning relevant to the story.

And the lights were off when Cloud left.