#astral parasites

[daimonpriestess]

Parasitic attachments & Imposters

Ways to know they are around:

They are almost always toxic & negative.

Manipulating

Narcissistic

They are weaker and try to make it seem like it is the deity that is weak (fyi parasites cannot attach themselves to Deities/or affect them (Gods,Angels,Demons) for any amount of time,they will be easily removed or burn up on contact.)

They ask for healing (A true deity will never ask this of you or need it unless it is emotional bonding in a non codependent way)

They are always around and never leave. (Deities have their own lives as well)

They make promises they can't keep (Fame,riches,stability,love)

They hurt you or those around you, parasites can jump! (mentally,physically or emotionally)

You can actually see the parasite behind the mask or face they wear (If you have the sight)

They make you eat more because they need the sustenance (real deities to not need to eat physical food)

They talk about an astral war that is attacking earth (squids,worms ect) as reason to why they are weak and need healing.

They contradict what they say and talk over you.

Don't respect boundaries ( especially sexually)

Signs to look for:

Your aura becomes darker

You have more nightmares

You feel drained energetically

Your family and friends start leaving (because all you need is the spirits right?)

Depression

Anxiety

Other mental health issues (Not all means it's parasitic, please check with your doctor)

Suicidal thoughts, especially when it doesn't feel like your own.

Delusions, Hallucinations

Low self esteem

Random bruises or cuts while asleep

Physical Pain or sickness not explained by doctors

They actually attack you! (via poltergeists or other shadow entities. Again not all shadow "beings" are bad unless they harm you)

Uninvited possession

Your life seems to go downhill suddenly & never gets better.

Influence of Sudden craving of drugs or alcohol (if it's excessive & you feel pressured)

They claim to be something they're not (which is easy to suss out.)

They are clingy & become upset when you don't agree with or do what they want.

Spiritual Psychosis, God Complex (False prophecies or visions)

Phantom Pregnancies (Not talking about actual spirit children)

Those easily effected:

Open Channelers

Shamans

Astral Travelers

Psychic Mediums

Those with mental health issues

Drug Addicts

How to rid yourself:

Raise your vibration (Don't have to be love & light just happy and confident)

Dance, Art, Music. Anything that makes you happy.

Banishing (If they do not go away they are likely thought forms or egregores)

Shadow Work

Cleansing (Sage,Palo santo,Dragon's Blood, certain crystals, ritual bath)

Warding (Sigils around your house and on you)

Freezer Spells

Hex reversals

Ask your Guides, Ancestors or deities for protection

Build your mental wards

Grounding

Meditation

Your own willpower

Use discernment and trust your instincts!

Visualization Technique- If they are attached visualize burning or freezing them off or them dissipating on contact.

This also goes for reality shifters! As you can bring back parasites from other realities! (Example Stranger Things)

[fantomette22]

- I think i don’t see well anymore…

- CARYLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!! Noooooooooo!!!!!

———————————————————————

And that’s how Caryll became blind… and even more enlighten��� Be the host of a great one parasite... what a great idea… No they’re not gonna turn into a fish i swear it!

* yeah so hm i imagined that at some point Maria did stole the remains of the orphan to burry him back to the hamlet 💀 that’s why… (that's a story for later but that's when she abandoned her Rakuyo too! And officially quit being a hunter. She got into trouble too...)

[bhaalbust]

bg3 pngs — items found on their respective wikis

[gcldfanged]

Re-playing Parasite Eve and how did this game not get awards for the music, literally every track is a banger.

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

Watching 4sided Dive and seeing Liam talk about having synthetic memories of Orym's past is getting to me because like me!! I do that!! I have extremely specific, down-to-the-minute memories of Val's life with her folks before they passed and they're SO IMPORTANT to who she is as a person and to how she feels about so many things and I think it's just so wild that they exist for me alone. How fascinating, how lovely that is. How lonely.

[hazard-c-horror]

Why are the astrals afraid of Hazard? XD

(I know that they are a "parasite", but they are so scrunkly at times!)

:D

Don’t know, maybe they just don’t like silly boi :)

[truly-sincerely]

IS GORTASH ENTHRALLED?

(tl;dr: yes)

In this essay I will…

Okay, but seriously I did write an essay.

I got here after chasing a very different rabbit down its hole. I'd noticed that Gortash seems to have been throwing out a lot of his stuff (read: mostly employees).

Waldemar Prinski, a loyal banite, sold to a devil for a corn chip

Dark Breaker Antiope, sahuagin wrangler, A Negotiation

The Steel Watch Foundry, Orders to Black Gauntlet Rives

Scribe Yanthus, my beloved, sent on a wild bhaal chase

Vance Farnol, journalist, tho you could argue he had it coming

Goblin Worg handler at Flymm Cargo, plus the Worgs when they run out of Goblin to eat

And, of course, everyone at his Coronation

Was killing all of the patriars and their staff a grim necessity, Enver? Was it?

(Also, he's installed a giant portrait of Bane and a bust of Bane in the penthouse, but he doesn't have a single picture of himself, or any mirrors, for that matter. Food for thought.)

My initial diagnosis was macabre, but obviously I’ve moved away from that line of thinking. He's just way too happy to brag about how much danger he's put himself, us, and the entire world in. It freaked me out the first time I met him (as a Tav). Like I see him glancing at the ground and smiling coyly while saying, "If we're lucky, we'll become slaves," on the back of my eyelids when I go to bed at night.

For the love of all that is holy, could you please turn it down a notch?

I've been obsessed with The Ultimate State since I first read it. It's absolutely absurd nonsense. The item description says it's, "the philosophical ramblings of Enver Gortash." and I feel like it's worth noting that he doesn't write his own propaganda; he has the banites do it for him. But I mean, it really does read like he's twisting himself in knots to connect "unity" and "progress" together, but babe, those jigsaw pieces do not go together like that. Anyway, while thinking about this subject it dawned on me:

They're the same picture.

You know what other line of thinking these two have in common?

They both look so sad when they say this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I abandoned you.

I know we all love to joke about Durge or Gortash feeding the Brain the "Handsome, Younger Man" line, but what if that was just a smokescreen and it's been the other way around this whole time?

Netherbrain: You think you know why you are here. You think you can atone for giving me my power, child of Bhaal, by destroying me with the Netherstones. You are wrong. The Emperor: It’s messing with your mind. Don’t listen to it. Use the stones. Netherbrain: By eliminating Ketheric and Orin, you have simply unbound me. Exactly as I intended. The Crown is now mine to command - mine alone. The Emperor: Don’t listen to it! Focus on the Crown! Netherbrain: You placed the Crown upon me in the depths of Moonrise Towers, and there I was born. The Crown is not my weakness - it is what made me what I am. Gortash: You are delusional - the Crown is how we controlled you! Netherbrain: I respected Bhaal’s child once, but not you, Gortash. I allowed you to control me as long as it suited my purposes. You have played your part. The next order to be given is mine and it is this - die. Gortash: (crumples like a piece of parchment) Netherbrain: When the parasite entered your ruined mind - you became a pawn in my design. Who do you think told the Chosen about the Astral Prism? Who do you think planted the knowledge of Orpheus’ power, and the fear of what it could do? When the Chosen sent my thralls to retrieve the Prism - who do you think let the ‘Emperor’ slip its leash, knowing it would be the one to bring you to me? The Emperor: We were part of its plan… Netherbrain: I only needed one Netherstone loosened from the Chosen’s grasp to guarantee my freedom. You brought all three back to me. In doing so, you have liberated me. This was your role - and it is complete. Now you will witness the Grand Design.

The face of a man who has 20 INT and 16 WIS and is definitely not the brainwashed pawn of a giant brain that's been manipulating him in his sleep.

You think his puny +7 WIS save is gonna beat the Netherbrain when it's been working on his ass every time he goes to sleep for the last nine months? I say thee nay.

Also, and this is probably oversharing, but my dad, who I used to think of as a really smart guy is now a huge Trump supporter. He's an atheist but he'll parrot conservative christian talking points that I've seen clipped from Nazi talking heads. The words that come out of his mouth and the way he smiles when he says completely insane things is haunting.

What all of this means at the end of the day isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it's kind of sad, and it definitely says something about his characterization. This man is floundering in a soup of his own making. A tragic puppet. A poor little meow meow.

There's an interesting line of demarcation between the various writings that he dictated to Scribe Yanthus, the things he wrote himself, and the things he says to us in the game.

Elder Brain Domination (from Ketheric, but about Gortash)

Suspended Ceremorphosis

The Grand Design

Studies of the Elder Brains

Accelerated Grand Design

Memoir Notes With Recent Addenda

Journal of Enver Gortash

He's so much more motivated and insightful early on, epitomized in Ketheric's entry, "Gortash fears that, energised by the dark energies of the Crown, the brain we now call the Absolute will eventually metamorphose into something new and more difficult to control." And he was right! But that guy's nowhere to be found by the time we meet him.

This one makes me particularly sad, "No weakness but the unexpected. It seems I shall need unexpected allies," because, again, he's right, and we could've saved him if the game had given us the opportunity to say, "No, there is another way. Let's not walk into this obvious trap." He wrote us a roadmap; left a trail of breadcrumbs; and we weren't given the option to follow them.

But I guess that's what fixfics are for.

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TAVtalk!

[cerastes]

If Arknights ever managed to land the fabled FromSoft collab somehow, we could get some pretty good alt skins for characters, I think! Such as:

Mudrock -> Havel the Rock skin, complete with Dragon Tooth for extra heavy bonking.

Hellagur -> The Owl skin, they are both Old Men With Massive Odachi, it writes itself.

Kirin R Yato -> Lady Butterfly skin, and also it'd be hilarious to grab what's basically an outfit crossover character and give it another outfit altogether.

Specter/Laurentina -> Valtr, Master of the League skin, to bring things back full circle since Specter is literally a reference to Valtr in the first place.

Gladiia -> Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower skin, same as Specter.

Gravel -> Dancer of the Boreal Valley skin, because you know she'd rock that outfit and the dual blades.

Kirin R Yato -> Skeleton Wheel skin, for that S3.

Reed the Flame Shadow -> Firekeeper skin. But this Firekeeper keeps the fire in people's burning corpses.

Ch'en -> Gaping Dragon skin. Self-explanatory.

Ifrit -> Ceaseless Discharge skin, but it's hilariously shoddily made and it looks cute, clearly made by Ifrit with her own hands and some duct tape.

Kazemaru -> Flexile Sentry skin, the puppet is literally her just turning around and letting her "other body" face to the front.

Typhon -> Starscourge Radahn skin, what with the greatbow mastery and techniques such as shooting multiple greatarrows at once and shooting a rain of pinpoint orbital greatarrows on enemies.

Rosa -> Greatbow Silver Knight skin. You know exactly which one. That one. Yeah.

Gummy -> Aldritch, Devourer of Gods skin. Self-explanatory.

FrostNova -> Ashen One skin. Self-explanatory.

Amiya -> Solaire of Astora skin. Because she's our friend and gives us hope! But watch out. On S3 activation, she gets the Sunlight Parasite.

W -> Unbreakable Patches skin. Because you know she'd rock that leather armor and have fun kicking people right into loot.

Ling -> Rom the Vacuous Spider skin, but also adorably shitty. Ifrit made it with spare materials, including little spiderling fits for Ling's dragons. She finds it funny and cute so she wears it.

[thicctails]

curious about Bill's relationships with the twins in gbc

Bill is the twins' very reluctant, pissy, shithead older brother. At first, his ass is NOT conversing with them, because he's butthurt and jealous that he has to share his parents now that he knows they're alive, and he certainly doesn't consider them family (more like bothersome strays his parents picked up), but he's also smart enough to not hurt/torment them.

Eventually, though, Dipper and Mabel start to claw back his walls and nestle their way into his heart-equivalent organ, like the preteen parasites they are.

Individual twin stuff below!

Dipper: 🌲❔⭐

He likes picking on Dipper more, because the kid is easy to rile up, what with his anxiety and embarassing crush on Wendy. Bill looks at Dipper and sees a smaller, sweatier Sixer, complete with his own (and in Bill's opinion, better) abnormality.

However, where Ford was selfish and willing to give Bill everything and anything for answers, soaking up praise like a sponge, Dipper is far less susceptible to Bill's bullshit, and will actually give him sass. Bill gave Stan a nightmare once early on, and Dipper got so mad that he pulled out Bill's full, legal name and cursed him out in Euclydiean. He's seen Scalene's drawings of Bill as a baby in his comically large shoes, and thus is not at all afraid of him.

Bill, a creature that lives in the NIGHTMARE REALM, is wholly unused to this. It's weird and different, but it's not... Bad. As they get closer, Bill finds that Dipper is more than just the awkward potential puppet that he initially thought he was. He's got a good moral compass, yes, but it wavers now and then, and Pinetree is more than willing to do mean, vindictive things with Bill if someone crosses his family.

While Mabel got her Unicorn adventure with Bill as her first big bonding moment, Dipper's comes when he gets knocked unconscious during his encounter with Gideon's robot. Bill appears to Dipper and offers to wake him up and help him save Mabel, if Dipper is willing to let him possess his body. Now, Bill knows he's desperate, and could have easily added the condition that he gets to keep Dipper's body, or simply just not held up his end of the deal, but he doesn't. When Dipper awakes, he's bruised and sore, and his knuckles are covered in drying blood, but he is himself, and Mabel is safe, grinning at him as she grapples them down to the ground.

After that, Bill starts to casually hang around a lot more, usually by possessing Gompers or one of Mabel's stuffed animals. When Dipper starts to dress up again, Bill makes him a set of star earrings. Now, they are made out of teeth, but it's dragon teeth this time!

Mabel: 🌠💓💥

Bill bonds with Mabel much faster, because it's easier for him to relate to her! Mabel is flashy, chaotic, and unapologetic, and Bill loves that! Usually, humans are very predictable and have boring Dreamscapes, but not Mabel. She changes gears faster than a Mantis shrimp punches, and her antics are way more amusing than anything Ford did.

He 100% enables her crazy plans. She wants to set off fireworks for Waddle and Gompers' wedding? Stan keeps the good stuff under his bed. She's making Dipper a special jug of Mabel Juice? Here kid, have some Smile Dip Ultra! (See you in the astral plane, Pinetree!) Cops are trying to send you to Washington for uncovering a government secret? RUN THEM OVER WITH A CAR!

...okay she doesn't listen on that last one, but you get the idea.

His absolute favorite moment with her was watching her punch Celestabellebethabelle's snout until it looked like a gnome threw up on it. He, at that time, was busy suffocating a Satyr with his plushie Unicorn form, but he was sure to give her plenty of praise.

He was surprised at the warm, fuzzy feeling that bloomed when she grinned at him, rainbow blood splattered on her cheek. Hmm. Had he eaten something recently and not chewed it enough? Maybe he was getting sick or something equally stupid. Surely he was not experiencing... Emotions. Ew.

Mabel bedazzles his bowtie for him. She is the only being aside from his parents who have touched his accessories and lived.

[linkspooky]

DUEL VS. DUEL: Yubel and Judai vs Ai and Playmaker

If you haven't noticed YGO! often recycles different characters and plot ideas throughout its various spinoffs. There's usually a rival whose ace monster is a dragon, a best friend character to support the main character, there's almost always a guy like Bakura who has several things wrong with him. This isn't a criticism, I actually love the way that each spinoff builds off of all the other series while also remaining its own thing. There's a lot of meaning you can decipher from analyzing the intentional callbacks the authors put in to previous series so that's what we're going to do today.

Both GX and Vrains feature a third season where the protagonist's partner character becomes the main antagonist for the entire season, and manages to pick off the protagonist's friends one by one until they're all alone with the protag for the final duel. Both of these characters, Yubel and Ai aren't motivated by hate but rather a twisted form of love and the parallels between these two duels don't stop there.

Yubel and Yusaku: Love vs. Ai

The partner character appears in almost every YGO! series with the exception of 5DS and Sevens. It began with Yami Yugi, a second personality created inside Yugi who played took over and played games in Yugi's place and cursed everyone who offended him only to eventually build a partnership with Yugi that lasted for most of the series until Atem reclaimed his name and memories and became his own person again.

These partner characters usually assist in duels, and are either another personality existing inside the protagonist, or if they're external like Astral or Ai they still share a special link with the protagonist.

Yubel and Ai are unique because they are both partner characters who turn into major antagonists. They don't just share the role of antagonists there's also several similarities between the two of them, from motivation, their connection to the protagonist, and both characters being built around the concept of love. This is probably intentional because the scenario writer for all of Vrains also worked on large parts of GX and was the main scenario writer for Season 4.

To introduce both characters, Yubel is a Duel Spirit. They were originally a human child named Yubel who was the closest friend of the boy who would eventually grow up to be the Supreme King and reincarnate in the modern day as Judai Yuki. Yubel gave up their humanity and in a painful surgery became a hideous dragon with an impenetrable body in order to protect Judai.

Afterwards the boy who would eventually become the Supreme King swore eternal love to Yubel. Yubel's devotion followed Judai into the next life, where because Yubel gave up their humanity they reincarnated as a card spirit instead that only Judai could see. They used their considerable power to protect Judai from anyone they considered a threat, including other neighborhood kids who beat him in card games. Judai as a result became completely isolated. Which Yubel didn't mind because Judai was their entire world and they believed they should have been enough for Judai.

Judai decided to send Yubel's card away into space in the hopes that the space rays would calm Yubel's troubled soul, but instead Yubel became corrupted by a cosmic force known as THE LIGHT OF DESTRUCTION. Yubel endured ten years of torture and agony all along. At first they called out to Judai in his dreams, but his parents eventually forced Judai to go through a procedure that made him forget all memories of Yubel.

Alone and forgotten Yubel crashes down to earth and is torn to pieces. As an arm they parasitize several people until they gain enough power to reconstitute their body, and then dragon Judai and all his friends into another dimmension all as a part of their grand scheme to finally reunite with Judai and awaken his memories of the Supreme King.

Even though they were hurt by Judai, Yubel isn't motivated by revenge, but by love and a desire to be together with Judai and secure all of Judai's love for themselves. Yubel's twisted definition of love was formed when after crying for help one final time, they snapped and told themselves a lie in order to keep going. That ignoring Yubel, making them suffer, leaving them all alone it was just the way that Judai expressed his love. Yubel then becomes dedicated to showing that love in return and effectively dragging Judai down to their level.

Yubel: I was suffering as you came to forget about me… Yubel: It burns… It hurts…It’s killing me. But why? I love him so much. Why is Judai treating me like this? Yubel: And then it hit me. This is just a form of Judai’s love. Judai is hurting me and making me suffer because of his love for me. But you see, I couldn’t possibly forget about you in the time i’ve suffered. Yubel: So when I solved the riddle that you posed to me, I was delighted. And that fueled my decision. I would try to fill the entire twelve dimmensions with my love for you. Yubel: And once I did you would have to recognize my love for you, wouldn’t you?

Ai is also a character that's connected to Yusaku's childhood. Ai is an ignis, and artificial intelligence that was created by basically torturing six children by forcing them to duel over and over again and then scanning their brains and modeling six different AI off of the data.

The shadow ignis or AI quite literally came from Yusaku's brain, even though they don't meet until much later on in life. From the onset there's a lot of differences between Ai and Yubel's role as partners. Ai is Yusaku's partner for most of the series, and is effectively introduced as a stranger and has to build a bond fo trust with Yusaku over the first two seasons.

Whereas Yubel was Judai's best friend and favorite monster in childhood, but Judai has forgotten about Yubel in the first two seasons and when Yubel finally does appear again it's as an enemy. The bond between Yusaku and Ai forms and then falls apart, whereas both Yubel and Judai start out with their bond completely broken and over the course of season three they reunite and come back together.

Ai is motivated by first his own survival, and second the survival of all the other ignis who are currently being hunted by several human corporations, a group of hackers known as the knights of Hanoi, and one Ignis themselves known as Lightning who turned traitor to the other Ignis. Yusaki and Ai's shared goal is to find a way for the Ignis and Humans to co-exist without one of them trying to pre-emptively wipe out the other because of the danger both of them pose to each other.

Over the course of the story though, as one by one Ai loses his friends in the fellow Ignis who either die or are absorbed, he comes to obsess over Yusaku as his one remaining friend. Yubel and Judai's feelings for one another are a holdover from a previous lifetime they become estranged and reunite again, whereas Ai comes to love and obsess over Yusaku similiarly to Yubel does and it's precisely because of those obsessive and overprotective feelings he decides to terminate their relationship permanently.

Ai enacts a plan similiar to Yubel's to destroy Yusaku's friends one by one all while threatening the entire world. Yubel sought to fuse the dimmensions together, while AI wants to start the inevitable fight between the Ignis and Humanity on his terms.

While their role in the story and characters are similar, they're also contrasting opposites in many ways. Yubel started out as a human and gave up their humanity to become a duel spirit. Ai started out as an artificial intelligence, he thinks as an artificial intelligence who has trouble understanding humans, and while he becomes more humanlike all the time he's eventually hampered by his inability to think like a human. Yubel is also much older than Ai having lived two lifetimes with memories of both, whereas Ai is essentially a child, a fledgling sentient being who still doesn't understand many things about the world.

Their different levels of maturity really show in their understanding of the world around them, or rather Ai's naivete and lack of understanding. Both characters are built around the concept of love, with love for the protagonist as their main motivation but Yubel while twisted demonstrates a deep understanding of love.

Yubel is able to see inside the hearts of people and uses their intimate knowledge of their inner darkness in order to twist people according to their own desires. Yubel's actually a deeply empathic character able to understand people's feelings sometimes better than they understand themselves, they just use that empathic understanding for evil.

While their understanding of love sounds insane at times they're also able to make deep observations about not only people's relationships to each other but the darker nature of love. As much as we shy away from the idea of hurting the ones we love on purpose, there's a seed of truth in the fact that whether intentionally or unintentionally being close to someone means you will hurt them. That pain is a natural part of love. She's also able to suss out the unhealthy love and devotion shared between Amon and Echo quickly.

Yubel: I get it now… You weren’t in love with Echo. Yubel: No. You may have loved her just enough to clear the conditions in place for you to control Exodia. Yubel: But then, you didn’t truly love each other. Yubel: You were only unfairly hurting her, while you would stay unharmed. Yubel: You wouldn’t suffer. You wouldn’t be in pain.

Yubel also ultimately seeks a love between equals. As much as they frame themselves as Judai's protector, what they want is for Judai to be dragged down to their level so Judai will finally understand them.

Their entire plan revolved around isolating Judai until Judai understood the pain of suffering ten years alone in space that Yubel went through. When Judai snaps and becomes the Supreme King taking a similiar dark turn to Yubel, Yubel turns out to be right in the end. By the time they've reunited both Judai and Yubel have done terrible things and hurt the people they loved.

Yubel: So when I solved the riddle that you posed to me, I was delighted. And that fueled my decision. I would try to fill the entire twelve dimmensions with my love for you. Yubel: And once I did you would have to recognize my love for you, wouldn’t you? Yubel: That is why I sought to fill all those linked to you - your world - with both sadness and anguish. Yubel: ANd my line of thinking wasn’t wrong. Yubel: I mean you are right before my eyes, Judai.

Yubel operates on a principle of empathy and understanding through shared suffering. Whereas, I would argue while Ai cares about Yusaku they are not particularly empathic nor do they understand Yusaku. This is because Ai is practically a newborn existence naive to the world, and also as a computer with a computer brain fundamentally thinks differently.

However, I'd also argue that Ai also doesn't really want to try to change their thinking to bridge the gap between humans an AI. In despair they've completely given up on trying to understand humans. They also on some level don't want to change, because they arrogantly assume they know what's best for both them and Yusaku.

Ai has given into despair from losing their loved ones and suffering isolation just like Yubel, but I think a key difference is that everything Yubel does no matter how twisted is a desperate attempt to reunite with Judai, to understand Judai and be understood by them. Whereas, Ai doesn't want to try anymore.

Ai: Back then I would have done anything to save my friends. Yusaku: There's nothing you could have done there was no other way. AI: I know that. [...] Yusaku: Ai, you have the power to change this. Yusaku: As a special ignis you have the power to live with humans. Find a way to backtrack from this. AI: You trying to pull me back? AI: Thank you Playmaker, but you don't understand. I learned when everyone was gone that when you lose friends your heart breaks. AI: My heart was broken back then and I lost all self control. Yusaku: If losing a friend makes your heart break then are you trying to break my heart?

Not only does Ai not want to understand, but they also deliberately ignore Yusaku's feelings and personal autonomy. Yusaku is a kidnapped child who had a lot of their life robbed from them and manipulated they hate anyone who disrespects their free will but Ai walks all over it and disregards all of Yusaku's opinions. They do the one thing Yusaku asks them not to do, because Ai incorrectly assumes they know best.

They also don't really understand Yusaku on a fundamental level and as I said, they don't want to make the effort to bridge the gap either.

It seems kind of silly saying which one is worse, because both Yubel and Ai violate Judai and Yusaku's personal autonomy multiple times. They both act selfish and entitled towards the person they love. They both also intentionally hurt that person and then turn back around and claim it's protecting them. They both act incredibly possessive and try to manipulate their partner into doing what they want.

They both have the gall afterwards to claim they're doing so out of selfless devotion, downplaying any feelings of selfishness on their end. Both consider Yusaku and Judai's other friends to be targets in order to get at their partners. Both will inflict pain on the person they love and are so devoted to in service of getting what they want.

The only real difference is motivation because as I said, as controlling as Yubel is it's out of a desire to reunite and be equals. They're both in too much pain to express their love in any kind of healthy way, but Yubel at least wants things to be better whereas Ai has just given up. The fact that Yubel's themed around sharing pain too also makes them and Judai equals, whereas Ai is trying to have power over Yusaku and take Yusaku's decisions away in order to force Yusaku to do what he assumes is best.

That might be the most important difference between them. Whereas Yubel wanted to live together with Judai, Ai wanted to force Yusaku to kill him in order to avert a potential future where Yusaku dies trying to protect Ai. It's a motivation that turns one story into a love story, and the other into a tragedy.

Judai and Yusaku: Hero vs Anti-Hero

Judai and Yusaku are two characters who could not look to be any more different at first glance. Though they're both themed around heroism Judai starts as the fun loving kid who admires heroes and is always dueling to save others when his friends are in a fix. Yusaku is the loner anti-hero who is on a revenge quest all alone against the Knights of Hanoi.

Yusaku starts out unwilling to make friends and refusing help from others. Judai on the other hand is constantly surrounded by people. Though both of them are forced into the role of always dueling to protect others and carrying the responsibilies of other people on their shoulder. Often times it's forced upon them unwillingly and they have to take on too much responsibility.

Judai forms unhealthy relationships with people that are based on him always needing to clean up their messes and those same friendships eventually unravel. Whereas Yusaku spends three seasons learning to form healthier relationships with people, and the climax of the first season is even Yusaku developing from dueling for revenge to dueling to save his very first friend in Kogami.

Judai loves dueling and even duels exclusively for the fun of it, often in the first two seasons protecting others and facing the villains as an afterthought. Yusaku on the other hand hates dueling because of the trauma he was forced to undergo as a child and despite being the strongest duelist simply views dueling as a means to an end.

Perhaps the most interesting way to compare them is their opposite journeys. They're both commentaries on heroism. They both eventually gain alter egos that are really just emphasizing different traits of their personalities. The Supreme King is the embodiment of Judai's selfishness and his fixation on always winning and dueling for power. Yusaku is a socially withdrawn kid, and Playmaker his internet identity is the way he fights back against his abusers. He's also a strong willed, determined and active where Yusaku is almost entierly passive. They're both ultimately the same guy though, Supreme King is a part of Judai, Playmaker is Yusaku with more freedom to be himself online.

However, Judai starts out as a straightforward hero and goes on to be a dark deconstruction of the pure hearted hero. All of Judai's flaws that go unaddressed because people constantly put him on a pedestal eventually lead to his ruin. The pressure Judai is always under to win turns into an obsession with power.

Judai: Why? What did I do that was so wrong? I… I did the right thing! And yet… everyone keeps leaving me! What… What is wrong with me? Supreme King: Yuki Judai. To be willing to be evil to defeat evil. This world exemplfiies survival of the fittest. It must be ruled with power. Judai: Power? I don’t have that much power… Supreme King: You hold the Super Polymerization card in your hand. Defeat the spirits that stand against you. Breathe their lives into it and complete that card.

Judai also exists in a narrative that won't allow him to be a hero. GX deconstructs all kinds of heroism and self-sacrifice. Edo Phoenix's quest for revenge is called out as him being childish, and unwilling to grow up from the trauma he suffered as a child. Johan is the most straightforward hero, but his decision to sacrifice himself to protect Judai and everyone else is what starts Judai's breakdown. When Jim duels against the supreme king he declares he's not sacrificing him to save the world but rather trying to help a friend.

Judai's eventual character growth in choosing to fuse with Yubel isn't a sacrifice, but rather Judai finally growing up and taking responsibility for the way he hurt Yubel.

Yusaku on the other hand is on the journey from going from an anti-hero who fights for himself and his own personal revenge to becoming a more straightforward hero. I wouldn't say Yusaku's arc is more shallow in comparison just because it's not a dark deconstruction, rather it's exploring a different topic the responsibilities of being a hero.

His greatest moment of character growth in the first season is going from caring only about revenge, to dueling the pesron who saved him as a child because he wants to save his very first friend.

You could say Yusaku because he's not allowed to crumble is actually under more pressure than Judai is. He's almost forced into the role of a hero and not allowed to be selfish, while Judai from start to finish is a selfish character even if he grows up quite a bit over the course of the story.

Yusaku is also someone who from start to finish follows his own sense of unbending justice. Where, Judai doesn't have any consistent moral code. He's defined in the first two seasons of only dueling for the fun of it, and by Season 3 he's deeply troubled that he doesn't have a reason to duel like Johan does.

Following his own justice is actually deeply important to Yusaku, probably what he values the most actually. Since his life was thrown off by the Lost Incident he starts out deeply untrusting of others and even when he grows past that he hates people who try to influence him and insist they know what's best for him. It's what led him to not only be deeply offended by Zaizen telling Yusaku to back down and let him handle it, but also him refusing Zaizen's help.

This quality of Yusaku's also dovetails into my next point where we finally get to comparing the two duels.

A LOVE STORY vs. A TRAGEDY

The setup for the duel is identical in both cases. Yubel and Ai have eliminated almost all of Judai and Yusaku's friends and now they are on the endgame of their plans. Yusaku and Judai are both dueling against their former partners to stop them, and both partners refuse any attempts to work things out any other way and force a fight.

However, the motivations of each member going into these duels are so opposite that it makes a neat little foiling square.

Starting with Yubel their motivation for getting into the duel is simultaneously a desire to reunite and express their love for Judai, and a thinly veiled cry for help.

Judai: If you hated how I treated you, then you should have gotten revenge on me. Yubel: Hate? Revenge? What are you talking about? Didn't I tell you? I went to this trouble hoping it would make you happy, Judai. Judai: Make me happy? After my friends suffered by getting hurt and killed. Yubel: But that's love isn't it? Yubel: I wanted to torment you to share the depths of my love.

Yubel's plan is to both awaken Judai's memories of the supreme king by engineering his downfall, and also after taking his friends away one by one to fuse the dimmensions together so Judai and Yubel can be together forever with Yubel by his side protecting him. As Yubel defines their entire existence and worth by being Judai's protector and doesn't understand why Judai would ever reject their protection or need friends other than them.

Yubel: My every waking moment was for you. Yubel: I even got rid of everyone around you who tried to make you cry. Judai: Yubel. By doing that you hurt the friends I had around me. Judai: None of my close firends even wanted to duel with me. Yubel: You had me as a close friend, didn't you? All you had to do was focus only on me.

Yubel frames their actions as selfless while also acting out an entitlement that they're owed Judai's love for all of their devotion to him. They're also willing to hurt his closest friends, isolate him, and basically throw tantrums in order to get it.

When they come to the slow realization that Judai won't return their feelings, it leads to them breaking down slowly over the course of the duel. All of the lies they told themselves about the love between them and Judai slowly starts to unravel along with their mind.

The duel beings with Yubel actively enjoying all the pain Judai is inflicting upon them. When Judai activates the supreme king though, and starts dueling seriously to eliminate Yubel, it chips through Yubel's delusions and Yubel is no longer able to keep pretending that pain is love.

I couldn’t have lived with the heartache unless I felt that I was being loved…

Moving on to Ai, the primary difference between Yubel and Ai's motivation is that Yubel's plans are a thinly veiled cry for help while Ai refuses to accept any help.

Yusaku: Find a way to backtrack, Ai! Ai: I can't. Ai: Sorry, but there's no backtracking. Ai: Let's go, Playmaker!

Their desires are opposite too. Yubel's plan is to continue living with Judai, and Ai's plan amounts to forcing Yusaku to kill them.

Ai: If this attack gets through I lose. AI: Well, make up your mind already. AI: You came to get them back, right? AI: You're everyone's hope so you have to do it, even if I'm the opponent.

Yubel and Ai are both incredibly manipulative characters, and Ai in particular is holding all of Yusaku's friends hostage in order to make him do something he does not want to do and will hurt him beyond repair. He's also inflicting the same trauma the loss of all of his friends and the loss of an important friend the same way that Yubel wishes to make Judai suffer the same way they did by isolating them from all of their friends and pushing them off the edge to bring out their darkest emotions.

However, once again Yubel's manipulations are done with the intent of getting Judai to understand them whereas Ai no longer wants to try understanding Yusaku and presumes he knows best.

Ai: Back then I had to do whatever it takes to save my friends. Yusaku: There's nothing you could have done to save them. Ai: I know there wasn't. Yusaku: Ai, that simulation was lightning's trap. He knew if you saw it while in despair your heart would fall into darkness. So don't worry about it. Ai: I considered that possibility. Because he left it after he fought us. AI: So I redid my own simulation and ran it over and over. But the result wouldn't change.

Ai also chooses to trust simulations and the words of his enemy Lightning over the words of his own partner and the urging of Yusaku that they can try to take a third way out together. His basic inability to trust is what damns him, relying on controlling manipulation instead to coerce and eventually force Yusaku to do what he wants and what he has decided is best.

It shows in his plan to, Ai's conditions for the duel is that he'll either copy himself and spread the copies into all of the mass manufactured robots or Yusaku will have to stop him with his own hands at which point Ai's programming is terminated. Either way Ai dies. The only real way for Yusaku to save Ai is to convince him to stop the duel which Ai won't do.

Ai: Oh I didn't tell you. When my copies are created, as the final trigger my free will will be divided and given to them. Yusaku: What will happen to you? AI: My free will will be broken apart. AI: I'll be no more. If you win you'll retrieve everything I took and I'll be no more. Either way, I'll be no more. Yusaku: Ai, you're making me choose how you die?

He's stripped away all of Yusaku's choices. Yubel is stripping away Judai's choices to but once again it's out of a desire to be together with Judai while Ai is doing the opposite forcing Yusaku to be an enemy and end him with his own two hands.

Moving onto the process of the duel itself, the duel begins with both Yusaku and Judai trying to talk their partners down from dueling and finding some other way to settle this.

They fail but for opposite reasons. Judai because his pleas with Yubel are half hearted and done more in the spirit of lip-service. Judai fails because Yubel sees through his half hearted attempts. In their previous duel Yubel calls out the fact that Judai went to the ends of the earth to save Johan, but after subjecting Yubel to years of torture barely lifted a finger to reach out to them.

While Yusaku genuinely shows a desire to solve things with Ai with anything other than dueling, but Ai is the reason they have to fight. Ai is the one who forces Yusaku's hand. While Judai does not understand Yubel and does not empathize, Ai is the one who fails to understand Yusaku and how much pain forcing this conflict on him causes Yusaku. He also doesn't want to understand, while Yubel is at least self-aware of the fact that they are intentionally hurting Judai.

Yusaku's sincerity can be seen in how much he refuses to victim blame Ai, starting right away and continuing through the duel. Repeatedly over and over again Yusaku tries to reassure Ai that the guilt he's experiencing isn't his fault. Whereas, Judai victim blames Yubel continually. Yusaku is a character who values responsibility above all else, while Judai is avoiding personal responsibiltiy even though they're the ones who put Yubel in a situation where they were tortured.

Ai: As you know I got rid of my friends and ended up alone. There were only six of us but we foolishly hated each other. Yusaku: AI that's not your fault. AI: I know but it doesn't matter who's fault it is. I'm earth's last surviving human. And that fact won't change. Playmaker I sort of understand how you felt. Being alone is very painful. Yusaku: [...] I understand your sadness but don't let this fate sweep you away.

Whereas, Judai quickly resorts to victim blaming Yubel pretty quickly.

I made a lot of friends… And they all taught me something… real love is wide enough, large enough and deep enough to fill the universe. Your so-called love is only a conceited delusion.

There's also a distinct difference in both Yusaku and Judai's behavior throughout the duel. Most of the time it's Yubel iniating conversation with Judai because as I said by the time their second duel has started Judai has given up on understanding Yubel and dismisses them as crazy and beyond comprehension. Whereas Yusaku is the one who initiates most of the conversation with Ai.

Moving onto the duel part of duel it's interesting to note how different Yubel and Ai's dueling styles are. Yubel dominates almost any duel they're in. They toy with the likes of Ryo and Amon. Even when Judai duels them to a draw, the duel went exactly as Yubel planned because their true objective was to snatch away super polymerization from Judai's graveyard.

Yubel's boss monster is also unbeatable. It never takes damage, in fact most of the cards in Yubel's various decks don't take damage. Their ace monster for the sacred beast deck is a card that inflicts 10,000 damage once a turn. Advanced Darkness crystal beasts allows them to negate all damage done by sending a card to the graveyard. Even when judai manages to get Yubel off the field it simply upgrades into a stronger form.

Ai on the other hand duels on the ropes and duels very defensively, Yusaku at several points is about to go for game and end the duel in one hit and Ai only manages to barely avoid ending the duel early with a trap card or the like.

Yubel's main strategy is to prolong the duel until Judai is forced to pick Super Polymerization with spell chronicle. They want Judai to choose them and choose staying together with them by spell chronicle. Whereas at multiple points Ai continues to encourage Yusaku to crush them with everything they have.

Once again, one wants empathy, the other disregards Yusaku's will.

Yubel: My suffering becomes your suffering. Yubel: Such empathy... Yubel: Nightmare pain. It has us wrapped in the same anguish, and the same love.

Ai is forcing Yusaku's hand because once again, no matter the result Yusaku kills Ai. On the other hand, Yubel grows increasingly disturbed by Judai's lack of mercy.

Yubel: Oh my, you shouldn't be so heartless my dear judai. Judai: We can't protect what matters to us just by being kind. I'm prepared to fight for the friends I love to the end even if it becomes becoming a demon or the devil.

Judai also quickly abandons heroism for the power of the supreme king, whereas Ai practically forces Yusaku to choose being a hero and saving his friends. Judai prioritizes Johan and then the rest of his friends over Yubel, Yusaku doesn't want to choose and a horrible choice is forced upon him.

Yubel for their part is aware of Judai's hypocrisy, once again they demonstrate a deep understanding of Judai. Whereas, Ai doesn't understand Yusaku one bit, while at the same time claiming to know better.

AI: When it comes to memory and calculations we're far superior to humans. We can figure out humans' faults and contradictions. AI: That's why it's easy to become arrogant. With Ai's with free will it's in their nature. AI: Something awakened within me. They're not evil thoughts. But I wonder, in order for me to live why do I have to adapt to humans. AI: I feel differently from humans.

Ai continually urges Yusaku to choose his friends over him. He forces the choice where there should be done. On the other hand Yubel wants to be chosen over Judai's friends. Out of a sense of entitlement but also a fear of being abandoned again.

Yubel: The camraderie of yours with the neo-spacians will be of no use to you. And my love alone is much stronger. Yet even so you're saying that you'll choose friendships with the neo-spacians over my love. [...] Yubel: Judai so you want to drive me away at any cost. Do you and the neo-spacians find my love to be such a hindrance.

Once again, Ai remarks frequently that the loss of their friends made them give up all hope on continuing. Yubel on the other hand is capable of enduring almost anything. They're defined by their endurance and determination to hold on. When they burn up on re-entry they slowly piece themselves back together. When they're disintegrated after Johan's sacrifice, they take Johan's body and then slowly restore themselves once more. Judai duels them to a draw, that's yubel's plan all along and they take super poly. Judai destroys their boss monster, they just summon another one.

Ai on the other hand fundamentally believes free will in Ai's will lead to conflict and that future is inescapable, so they force Yusaku's hand in ending their existence.

AI: You said humans don't want sudden changes. AI: But I can't help my own changes. I may become someone like Bohman or Lightning so I want to vanish before that happens.

Ai has already reached their breaking point, whereas Yubel is slowly driven to their breaking point by Judai's lack of empathy throughout the duel. Yubel similiarly becomes suicidal like AI, but only after Judai continually insists that they're only dueling to destroy Yubel. Once again, while Ai's plan is to self-terminate for Yusaku's "sake" choosing to die while Judai lives on without them is something Yubel would never do.

At least, they might take a bullet for Judai, but they don't want to be alone and abandoned while Judai goes back to live on happily with all his other friends. Yubel wants to be chosen, Ai wants Yusaku to choose his friends. In fact, it's the idea that Yusaku wouldn't abandon him even if the war against Ai and Humans did happen that drives Ai's decision to die rather than let that happen.

AI: When I lived in the simulation I saw it. What my existence will lead to. You get dragged into it and perish. I can't choose that future.

Once again though, it's a decision Ai makes out of an inability to trust Yusaku. Also, if Yusaku wants to stay by Ai's side in spite of the danger it poses to him, that's Yusaku's choice. Ai may perceive himself as protecting Yusaku, but he's also disrespecting his autonomy.

It's also driven by a lack of understanding of what love and trust are. That's not entirely Ai's fault, he is in fact a newborn who recently lost every single one of his friends due to the conflict between humans and AI. It makes sense he'd have trouble trusting humans even the one that's been by his side all this time.

Whereas, Yubel wants Judai's understanding and breaks down when Judai continually denies it to them.

Yubel: Do you hate me that much? Yubel: I thought of this twelve-dimmension universe as a space for us together... so I tried to fill the universe with my love. But if you're calling on your friends and going to such lengths to get rid of me I no longer need to fill this universe with love. No, I no longer need this world. Let me put an end to this universe, to the void as well, and to our time together. Yubel: It was fun Judai, even those who helped lure you to me had dark, dark hearts. I feasted upon their hearts and waited for the reunion with you, my beloved. Yubel: I even invited you to that first dimmension. Well, I enjoyed that duel as well. Until he interfered. But I suppose you just weren't ready to accept my love back then. Yubel: I mean, the darkness in your heart, the supreme king was lying dormant. Yubel: Though I did have your friends help me. Which pulled out the darkness in your heart and ushered you this far. Yubel: I didn't think you were so hardheaded. You're the one at fault. If you can't grasp my love I don't need you. Or this universe. You can all just vanish into dust.

Judai needs to accept responsibility for both what he did to Yubel, and his own actions for the supreme king and how both him and Yubel can be pushed to do terrible things when they're alone and in pain. Part of the motivation for Judai's demonization of Yubel is he wants to keep playing the hero because the guilt of everything he did as the supreme king is crushing him and making him borderline suicidal.

On the other hand Ai is the one who's given up on trying to understand others. Yusaku is doing the best he can to both balance his feelings for Ai and desire to save him against his responsibility to save his other friends but he can't really be held personally responsible for Ai's actions. Whereas Judai on some level is responsible for Yubel's actions since he created the situation in the first place and continually chooses to abandon Yubel instead of trying to reach out to them.

Yubel is right to an extent that this situation is his fault and he never made any attempts to save them. Whereas, Ai is being manipulative when he forces Yusaku to make the choice to kill him putting all the responsibility on Yusaku's shoulders.

Which is why when the duels end in completely opposite fashions. Judai's way of taking responsibility is to fuse together with Yubel, whereas Yusaku refuses to fuse with Ai.

In Yusaku's case the refusal to fuse isn't turning down Ai's proposed third option, or a peaceful solution to the duel. After all, if Ai called off the duel right there Yusaku would accept it and work to forgive Ai for what he did to his friends. Even if they continue on as individuals it's not like Yusaku would leave Ai's side. In fact his reason for refusing Ai's offer to fuse is that he wants them to remain together as two individuals.

Fusion means two entirely different things in this context. Judai acknowledges there's a risk he may no longer exist after fusing with Yubel but like, they keep going on as two seperate individuals and consciousnesses even when they share the same body. Whereas in Ai's case, fusing with Yusaku would destroy both of them and give birth to a completely new being. Ai is using fusion as yet another method of self destruction, because he doesn't want to change himself and doesn't believe in the capacity to change himself.

Yusaku: Even if we become one, that's not the solution you're seeking. We only have one life. One consciousness. Yusaku: If I fuse, I won't be me and you won't be you.

Ai makes his choice out of his inability to face the future. He wants to self terminate, either by distributing his free will among copies or fusing with Yusaku to become someone else because he doesn't trust in his ability to grow and change. In fact he's avoiding having to change and grow up.

Yusaku: So living is a series of bonds! That's what life is. AI: So I have to do that forever? Yusaku: Yes. AI: That's a lot of work. And you can't do that unless you're strong. Yusaku: That's why people become stronger. And that occasionally leads to conflicts. But even if that happens we have to keep fighting. Keep searching for bonds even if there's no solution. AI: I was thinking too logically like an AI. Yusaku: You can't rush living. AI: But I don't want to keep fighting if there's no solution. Since I've lost the desire to fight I'll just vanish.

You could say that Yusaku's unbending nature and his responsibity as a hero made it so he couldn't fuse with Ai or throw the duel but like, there's only so much Yusaku could have done. He didn't give up trying to convince Ai at any point and it's not fair to put Ai's refusal to give up on their suicide plan on Yusaku.

It's also Ai's decision to activate TA.I. that made them lose the duel, so in the end Ai did self terminate. Even in the Yuma vs. Shark duel where Yuma is a character who will never sacrifice anyone even if the whole world is at stake, and kept throwing the duel and prolonging it to try to convince Shark, Yuma was unable to reach him in time. In both cases it's also Shark's decision to go all out for a final attack, and Yuma's decision to negate his own attack and not attack in the hopes fo reaching Shark that loses Shark the duel.

On the other hand, Judai's decision to fuse is him finally taking responsibility. Ai gave up on trying to change the future and himself whereas Judai's decision to fuse is him growing up from a child to an adult.

I also want to state I don't want to victim blame Ai for being suicidal, and not having the strength to go on. Not everyone does in that kind of situation, it's perfectly human (even though he's a robot).

Ai's story is also meant to be a tragedy. In tragedies characters succumb to their flaws instead of overcoming them. GX and VRAINS' third season are two entirely different genres of story, one is a love story where two traumatized people finally reunite and heal and Vrains is a tragedy where Yusaku can't save Ai.

Even then Vrains doesn't state that Ai doesn't deserve salvation, even if he chose to refuse help and didn't want to be saved. Yusaku's very last actions in the series are diving into the net to search for some remnant of Ai and it's implied after months of searching he's not stopping anytime soon. Even if Ai gave up on himself, Yusaku hasn't given up on Ai.

That's another thing even if Yusaku refused fusion with Ai, he still would have stayed by Ai's side. Ai literally simulated a thousand futures and Yusaku in every one of them stayed by Ai's side even if it led to his death. Yusaku still wishes to be with Ai and searches the net for Ai in the end of Vrains. He calls Ai the best partner even when Ai's in the process of breaking his heart.

So while both of these duels have very different endings, I'd say they both still advocate for forgiveness and love. Both duels are true to the message of YGO! that bonds are the most important thing and what give our life meaning - which I think is beautiful. People cannot live on their own and make bad choices when they're alone, but in the end it's bonds that save us.

"If there's no absolutes then what's left?"

"Bonds. Bonds between individuals. Bonds between one another. That's all there is. That also changes with time. A huge trigger can cause a huge change. Bonds may be severed but new bonds can also be formed. So living is a series of bonds. That's what life is."

Also as a final note on this post I'd like to thank @talaofthevalley their takes on Yusaku are all great and talking about Vrains meta with them really helped writing a lot of this post.

[cobaltbluesu]

DLC OC moment babyyyyy

Nuni is my dlc oc, they were the pilot of one of the smaller ships in the Stranger, and was sent to inspect a small object drifting amidst deep space, on the route to the Eye. Turns out, that object was a parasitic lifeform, that destroyed their ship just as they landed there. Althought they couldn't find a way to escape, Nuni started to interact with the biosphere of what was once previously another astral body, that merged with the bramble. There, they kept hope of their friends reaching the eye, still worshiping it.

I originally created them because I wanted to concept how a Stranger Eva suit would look like, so I decided to give it a personality afterwards :))

first concept

whole dlc page

a pre-render of the prisioner I never got to finish, I rlly wanted to tho,,, one day tho!!!

[petalsprompts]

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐘 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒; 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆.

change pronouns, tenses and other details as deemed necessary. & please specify muse when sending to a mumu.

I  came  today  because  last  night  I  had  a  dream  about  this  place.

Have  you  ever  heard  of  astral  projection?

If  they  hear  me,  they'll  hurt  me.

You  see,  these  are  people  with  the  ability  to  leave  their  physical  body  and  to  travel  to  different  places  in  astral  form.

The  Further  is  a  world  far  beyond  our  own,  yet  it's  all  around  us.  A  place  without  time  as  we  know  it.

Now  you're  outside.  Let  my  voice  be  your  guide.  Keep  a  steady  stride.  Into  the  Further  you  go.

You  have  wasted  your  life  being  afraid  of  the  dead  because  pretty  soon  you're  going  to  be  one  of  them.

I  could  feel  that  someone  was  awake  in  the  house.

I  know  someone  who  can  help,  if  you're  willing  to  ask.

I'm  scared  of  this  house.  There's  something  wrong  with  this  place.  I'm  not  imagining  it.  I  can  feel  it.

It's  no  accident  that  your  /  [family  member]  son  is  a  gifted  traveller.  The  ability  was  handed  down  to  him.

I  know  what  happened.  I  went  in  that  place  and  something  evil  followed  me.

Ever  since  my  accident  I've  been  afraid  of  the  dark.

You're  the  only  one  I  trust  to  go  down  there  with  me.

No  matter  what  happens.  No  matter  what  you  see.  Stay  strong.

This  is  how  you  die.

Dead  people  don't  miss  anything.

Give  her  back!

You  know,  you've  been  blessed  with  a  gift.  You're  special.  Some  people  are  afraid  of  special  people.

I'm  going  to  get  the  attention  of  all  the  spirits  in  this  house.  I  need  things  that  were  important  to  [you/name].

If  you  call  out  to  one  of  the  dead,  all  of  them  can  hear  you.

I've  never  been  hypnotized.

Death  floods  the  mind  with  memories,  but  there  are  new  ones  to  make.

I  mean,  you  and  I  have  firsthand  knowledge  that  there's  something  out  there  beyond  death.  But  it's  not  helping.

The  universe  is  deathless.  It  is  deathless  because  having  no  finite  self,  it  stays  infinite.

In  my  line  of  work  things  tend  to  happen  when  it  gets  dark.

I  don't  think  the  house  is  haunted.  I  know  it.  Things  move  around  in  here  by  themselves.  I  walk  into  the  kitchen  at  night  to  get  a  drink,  I  can  feel  eyes  on  me.

It's  a  dark  realm  filled  with  the  tortured  souls  of  the  dead.  It's  a  place  not  meant  for  the  living.

She's  a  parasite.  A  demon  who  seeks  [your/their]  body  for  one  reason  -  to  cause  pain  to  others.

Nobody,  not  me  or  anybody,  knows  what  you're  going  through  right  now.  And  you  don't  have  to  apologize  for  anything.

[knowledge-from-the-abyss]

What is banishing?

Banishing and cleansing can sometimes go hand-in-hand. Banishing can help to get rid of negative energies caused by baneful magic, as well as getting rid of negative entities. In this post I will also go through some common types of negative entities. These will be my personal definitions, some people may use other terms, but these are the terms that I use and what they personally mean to me.

Types of Negative Entities

Negative Spirits- negative spirits are generally things i classify as passed away people who have left behind negative energy. This can result in negative energies or even negative manifestations. This term is a term I use to classify some shadow people; not all shadow people are negative spirits, but some can be. A lot of shadow people are more neutral, leftover energies.

Trickster Spirits- this term is different then trickster deities, like Loki. Trickster spirits are entities that exist on the astral plane, they may or may not benefit humans. From my personal experience with them, they do tend to be quite harmless, usually. My deities have told me that there are times where they will send a trickster spirit into someone's space to test their protections and wards, and sometimes to test how well that person can banish as well. They have personally done this to me as well. From my experience, trickster spirits can be passed away people, or other entities that reside on the astral plane. Not all of them are harmless, some of them can definitely be quite harmful and cause very negative chaos and havoc. These spirits are often known to impersonate deities.

Parasites- these negative entities are rarely passed away people from my experience. They feed off of people's energies and can make someone feel drained or even physically sick. Parasites can also be referred to as negative attachments. I make the distinction of ‘negative’ because everyone has attachments. By this I mean that everyone has spirit guides, who follow them around wherever they go. This is what an attachment is, an entity that follows you around everywhere. However, spirit guides are in no way negative, they are there to guide us and help us with our lives. These entities, on the other hand, feed off our energy and cause us to feel run down or even become ill.

Why should I banish?

Banishing is not only useful for getting rid of negative entities, but (similar to cleansing) it can help to get rid of negative energy as well. Banishing is useful because it can allow you to focus on negativity that you have around you and get rid of it. Banishing can be very helpful when doing something like shadow work as well, being able to banish the negative thoughts and negative energies surrounding those thoughts.

How do I know when I should use banishing?

This question can be a bit complicated, but I will try to break it down. I will start by explaining when to discern if banishing a spirit may be necessary. When you are working with spirits, deities, and other entities, banishing is something you may find yourself needing to do sometimes. If the entity isn’t acting like they normally do, you may want to consider trying to vet them; asking them questions you know the answers to either from their mythology or with past interactions with them to make sure they are who they say they are. I will be writing another post on vetting later. If the entity fails this vetting process, and it turns out they are not who they say they are, banishing may be necessary (there are some deities who will pretend to be other deities, so it's important to take this into account, and ensure that this is not the case).

Banishing can also be helpful in cases where you are trying to release negative, old, or stuck energy. You can banish these energies from your life, making it easier to move forward on your path. If you are feeling particularly stuck with certain emotions or with general negativity (this can also include things like intrusive thoughts) you can use banishing as an aid to help remove these energies from your life!

How do I banish?

As with some of my previous posts, I will outline some different ways to banish here; this will not be an exhaustive list. Since banishing and cleansing are very similar, some of these methods/tools may overlap with cleansing methods and tools.

Smoke cleansing

Banishment candles

Sigils

Crystals

Herbs

Cleansing/banishing bath/shower

Bells (sound cleansing)

Some of these methods have been covered before in my post on cleansing, so I will be skipping over these and focusing on the methods that have not been mentioned before.

How to use sigils in banishing?

There are many different ways to use and create sigils. Many of the sigils I use, I make all on my own. There are websites that can also assist in the creation of sigils. I recommend exploring and finding what works with you if you are feeling drawn to using sigils for banishment or in your practice in general.

Crystals used for banishing

Black tourmaline

Citrine

Aventurine

Amethyst

Turquoise

Herbs used in banishing

Sage (once again, please do not use white sage unless you are part of that culture or have been given white sage as a gift)

Dill

Cloves

Cayenne pepper

Salt

Pepper

Chili powder

Can banishing backfire/fail? How do I prevent it from backfiring?

As with all other spellwork, confidence and intentions are what is most important here. If a banishing fails, it will most likely not affect you in any negative ways unless you are also trying to do baneful magic. Otherwise, it failing will most likely just result in the negative energy/entity you are trying to banish staying in your space, and you having to try again. In order to ensure that a spell doesn’t fail, having confidence that it will work, having confidence in yourself, and ensuring that it is definitely something you WANT are all very important.

What if my banishment didn’t work? What if whatever I’m facing is too strong?

There can be a few different things you can do here, depending on the situation. You can, of course, ask your spirit team to help you with the banishment (as well as any other spellwork). If you are trying to banish negative thoughts/feelings, and it doesn’t work, it may be because you are still going through healing that needs to happen. This can involve both shadow work and therapy to work through most of the time. When it comes to magic in general, there are many times where you will need to do mundane work alongside magical workings in order to make it work. If there is a negative entity in your space that will not leave even with banishment, it may be time to call on your spirit team to help you get rid of it. You might also try to change the banishment method you are using as well.

[sorceresssundries]

Young Lae'zel WIP

Thank you for voting in my WIP poll!!!

There were two winners, a lot of you wanted to read some of my Young Lae'zel story - so here are some lines i've been working on over the last few days!

I started this ages ago, and will hopefully publish it by the end of the week. There's also some exciting art to go with it!

Later that night, she sat alone in the Great Library of K’liir. Her ten short years were but a single, unpolished stone against the tower of ancient knowledge surrounding her. She was small, a solitary figure in the vastness, the low orange candlelight throwing shadows that loomed large behind her. In her small hands, still caked with the blood of her kin, she gripped a Githyanki Disc - her gold eyes danced over it, reading the story of her people as though it were a fairytale. To a frail and fanciful human, it might have seemed just that: knights riding dragons, the slaying of monstrous horrors. But, this was her history, and her future. She would be a hero to sail the astral sea and bring glory to her kin. She would drag a mind flayer’s severed head through the halls of her people and mount a dragon whose fiery breath would set the stars alight.

She would not just be a part of history; she would make it.

She read the final passage for the third time. 

There is no other race as proud, as fierce, or as deserving of the stars as the Githyanki. We are the survivors of enslavement, the conquerors of our oppressors, and the raiders of countless worlds. We, who have risen from the chains of the Illithids, stand as the eternal guardians of the Astral Plane.

Without our vigilant guardianship, the Illithid parasites would spread like a blight across the cosmos, an uncontrollable plague that devours life and enslaves our people. These soulless creatures would have turned the stars themselves into a wasteland. It is by our hand, our unwavering resolve, that such a fate has been averted. While other races allow their emotions to cloud their judgement, we possess the strength to cast aside such weaknesses and do what must be done. A Githyanki does not falter.

Our brutality is not born of cruelty for its own sake, but of necessity. We do not shy away from the hard choices, the difficult actions that must be taken to preserve the balance of power. It is our destiny to bring order to the chaos that lesser beings have allowed to fester. 

We are the blade that cuts through decay, the fire that purges weakness, the storm that reshapes worlds.

Vlaakith gha'g shkath zai.

[hazard-c-horror]

Septicemia Moon Au

Infected Lunar Concept

just a random idea, and doodle. Dont know if this will be canon to the au yet. this also only happens in the far futre of the au

part2 Rez (or how ever its spelled) said he was a parasite. Haz is a parasite. And a powerful being who could fight the astrals. So i was thinking. What if Lunar asked Hazard to infect him first. With their hivemind like dieases. So it would counter Rez’s infection, and he doesnt have to worry about hurting his family.

again dont know if this will be canon to the au or not. just an idea

[sunnirayss]

The Dangers of Predators and (Actual) Cults in the Shifting Community

tw: cults, sexual abuse, predatory behavior, grooming, psychological abuse, spiritual abuse (if I missed any triggers, let me know)

This is going to be a more serious post because I want to bring attention to a disgusting situation that happened in the shifting community: a Discord server that became a shifting cult.

Not a shifting cult in terms of antis calling us a cult because they dislike/disagree with our beliefs...I mean an actual cult. A group that was built on exploiting, controlling, manipulating, and abusing shifters for the benefits of its leader.

The leader was someone who goes by the names Dia, Julie, and Angel (for simplicity, I will stick to calling her Angel). Here are her known TikTok accounts which have all been privated:

Shay (shayplanett) is a shifttoker was a member of this horrible group and was in a relationship with angel. This week she come forward about the abuse she and the dozens of other members of this server experienced for over a year.

She's made 3 videos talking about it and I'd highly recommend watching all of them, both for your own awareness and to help boost the algorithm so more people will see it. Tumblr keeps breaking the video links when I try to copy them, so just search up Shay's account on TikTok and look at the "EXPOSING CULT" playlist she's made.

Each video contains several screenshots of evidence (Discord screenshots, texts, accounts from other victims) that showcase the abuse and its effects, in addition to validating the claims that the videos are making. This isn't just someting that was made up for drama, this is unfortunately a very real case of a predator taking advantage of the community and its many vulnerabilities.

Among other things, Angel:

Focused the group solely around her, getting to her DRs, her talents, and her desires for the group and its members (instead of it being a normal 18+ shifting group)

Claimed to have 5000+ years of shifting experience and used this to elevate herself as a godlike figure in the server

Isolated and shamed people who spoke up about the abuse and against her with smear campaigns and by having the other members gang up on them

Publicly shamed people into feeling stupid for questioning her and her behaviors

Used false DR s/o channelings to abuse members and scam them financially (including one person who was spent $2000 on channelings from Angel). She'd also use channelings and readings to gain information on people's DRs, traumas, and personal lives for manipulation purposes.

Had members report to the server voicechat every morning for public readings (no private readings were allowed). If a member did not report, they would be forced to give a detailed explanation for their absence and Angel would guilt trip them. (Shay described this routine as something that drained everyone's energy)

Created a made up, gibberish language that she said was exclusive to her DR and make people feel bad for not knowing it since they hadn't shifted yet. Meanwhile when tested on this language herself, she would make multiple errors and inconsistencies.

Forced members to stop trusting in themselves, their own intuition, and guides

Gaslit people into thinking everything they knew about shifting was wrong, fostering a "parasitic bond" where members would have to check everything with Angel first since she elevated herself as the ultimate authority on all things shifting.

Would leave members on read for hours or even days when they would ask her for confirmation on shifting things, just so she could watch them beg for her attention

Claimed that members were her children in another life and she was their mother

Claimed that she was the "physical embodiment" of their guides since she worked with them personally on the astral plane and made contracts with them for people to respawn in her DR when they died here. They'd be her slaves and work for her forever

Held worship sessions called "transmissions" where she would build herself up as the kindest and most loving person in the multiverse who'd go around saving lost children and helping people shift without wanting anything in return. She'd also "channel" the children as well

Claimed that her DR was the source of the entire multiverse and if she didn't shift there, reality itself would fall apart

Claimed that if anyone shifted to a DR that included her, then she'd be the main character and savior of that reality no matter what

Would flaunt the idea that people who went against would never shift since she'd cast spells against them. Meanwhile most of the people in her server struggled with shifting due to her awful teachings

Treated Shay herself as a "doll" (an object, not a person) and would get angry whenever Shay tried to distance herself. This also included bad mouthing her in the server and weaponizing her BPD

Painted the server as an "elite group" of shifters that was better than the rest of the community since they were lucky enough to be "under her watchful eye". She'd also further solidify this "us vs. them" mentality by forcing members to go into TikTok lives to fight with people for her own entertainment

Punished people by excluding them activities, putting them in a channel literally titled "the torture chamber", putting them in a channel called "the whipping post" where everyone would come on to spam them with whipping gifs, and otherwise humilate them until she was satisfied

Used her own trauma as a shield against any kind of criticism or accountability

Eventually transitioned the server focus to a more sexual oriented one where she'd (as a 24yo) would sexually harass the younger (18-19yo) members of the server, and justify by saying she was just channeling their DR s/o's

Paired server members up romantically with people from her DR family, her favorites would be paired with multiple people who she said she often shifted as (showing how special they were since she built herself up as the ultimate prize)

As more people recognized her predatory behavior and left the group, she'd cling on to the people left over and would repeatedly love bomb them to prevent them from leaving

Forced the remaining members to stay on voicechat with her for over 72 hours during the holiday break, and would guilt trip them if they tried to leave

Cheated on Shay with Kat (the other predatory person), which lead to their breakup early last month

...And that's just what Shay covered in the first part. Angel also did not want her followers to shift since they wouldn't need her as much, they'd stop paying her for channelings, and the power dynamic she built up (her the master shifter, them the people desperate to shift who would worship her and listen to her every instruction) would completely fall apart.

Since her behavior has been exposed, Angel has shut down the server while also blocking members to avoid any accountability from them. My heart truly breaks for Shay and the other victims for everyone they had to go through and I wish them the best as they heal and recover from Angel's despicable actions.

A Similar Experience I've Had

This is also not the first time I've seen a situation like this, although not to this extreme. In late May 2023, a user who went by Toni posted on the shifting subreddit claiming to be a master shifter who'd been successfully shifting to multiple DRs for over 5 years. Afterwards, she invited several people from Reddit and TikTok (myself included) to her private Discord server where we could all learn how to shift from her. She also really emphasized that this would be a really good group with none of the drama and toxicity you see in other communities.

Like Angel, she really emphasized herself and her own DRs and had dedicated channels where she would talk to us about them. She even had a Google form where people (including minors, even though she was 25) could send her their information and she'd "script us" into her DRs. When she decided on a mod team, there was no actual application process to determine who would be best for the job (despite there being one for her DRs). Instead she picked out whoever she thought liked her most, myself included.

Only a few weeks into this server, I logged on one morning to find that I had been promoted to the server's owner and Toni was no longer a part of the server. No explanation given, she was gone and when we looked to contact her on other socials, we found that all her shifting socials had been deleted or deactivated. When one of the mods finally managed to track her down on Snapchat, she gave us some vague explanation on how she was suffering with her mental health and needed time away. We had no reason to question that so we wished her well, and promised to take care of the server until she came back.

We wouldn't find out why she'd actually left until a month later when a mod came across an expose TikTok on Toni...which contained multiple screenshots of her grooming minors and being abusive to them. The real reason she left was to avoid the consequences of that video coming out, and presumably, to wait out the "drama" and quietly come back after it died down.

I was pretty shocked when this came out because I had really looked up to Toni, she was the exact kind of person I had wanted to be. A confident master shifter with tons of experience and stories to share, and followers who adored her. Instead she was just an abuser who terrorized vulnerable kids in private, and lovebombed everyone else to maintain her image and keep her victims from being believed. Even with the mod team, she picked a group of people who she assumed would be least likely to hold her accountable. She picked me to be the owner because she figured I was some adoring pawn who'd listen to her every command and hand the server right back once she was ready to come out of hiding.

And even more infuriating, all the red flags were incredibly obvious in hindsight. Why she prioritized her DRs over everything else, why she took so long to implement proper rules and protections for the younger members, why she was always so vague about her own shifting journey...etc.. She was just a liar and a disgusting predator who inserted herself in a community full of vulnerable, desperate people who she could easily convince to idolize her with the right story that catered to our desires.

The Takeaway

I wanted to share this not only to bring awareness to this specific individual, but to also remind everyone in the community that not every person you meet is going to have your best interests at heart. The shifting community is not immune for monsters like Angel or Toni, and I'd argue, is even more vulnerable to it to the demographics of most shifters (young, isolated with a limited support system, terrible circumstances that they're desperate to get away from, etc.).

Not everyone in this community is your friend and many see you as someone who can be exploited for your money, attention, adoration, or even more. That's also why it's important for center yourself in your shifting journey, and not to idolize other people (especially those who have shifted before) as somehow better than you. If you paint yourself as inferior and them as superior, abusive people will play into that attitude and use it to get their way. And they can use it to get you put up with abuse, to convince you that it'd be more than worth it to give up your money and autonomy because they (only they) can help you get your desires.

Educate yourself on the warnings signs of cults, abusers, scammers, and predators. It won't make you completely immune to them, but it can help you to get out of some situations before you get sucked in too deep.

And if your intuition is telling you that someone or something is "off" somehow, listen to it!