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lurksunderthebed · 1 year ago

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Hi, I saw that you had a discussion about the queerness of our beloved characters. I really hope you’re not tired of that topic, because I wanted to add another point.

First of all I don’t really care. I really like the dynamic between most of the characters, especially Ghost and Soap, but I don’t care if it’s interpreted as besties or lovers. I think both is fun.

I just wanted to add that maybe all of the MW story feels so fucking gay, because we lack cool women? We have Farah and Laswell, but let’s be real Farah is basically married to Alex (I thought they were a couple at first) and Laswell is married to a woman. Now people go great lengths to ship the male characters with female villains, who only appear in a small fraction of the story and have no real chemistry. I mean they can do whatever floats their boat, but I don’t really see the point here.

Which leaves us with a bunch of man ‘flirting’ with each other vor comedic value. I think given this and the points you already said on your account, I think it’s even a bit intended that most of our characters might not be the straightest.

Sure, a bunch of straight men can exist without women and still be straight and the military still might not be the most women friendly institution, but I think having more girlpower would have been an easy way to make everyone appear more straight and the devs didn’t go that route sooooo… (I still would love to have more cool women, but that’s another topic)

Anyways, I hope you have a good day and I wanted to add that I really enjoyed your character analysis posts <3

Ahh thanks for enjoying my analysis posts. 💞🥹 Honestly, I'm still surprised people are reading them lol. (And asking me about it haha)

But yes, I don't think I'll ever be tired of the ol' queerness discussion. It's a fun topic to debate especially with these characters in this particular game.

Controversial take, but I actually don't think adding any extra female characters would've been helpful in making the 'gay' go away.

(gonna be a long discussion here, settle in if you want to read it haha 😅)

What we have to put in mind, is that this game wasn't made for the female audience. The vast majority of the people buying and playing it are going to be male. That's the facts. It's going to cater to men.

A game made for men is going to have a majority of those characters be male. Adding new female characters in a REBOOT series is a delicate task when a good chunk of the population playing have played the OG and want to see legacy characters back (which are all male—the OG was all men).

That means that when we look at why certain things are framed and why there aren't many female characters, and especially why there isn't much of any confirmed (het) canon romantic ships between any characters, it's because the game itself isn't focused on it.

That same vast majority of men don't actually care about ships in general and with people trying to be more progressive, any female characters introduced are painstakingly written to omit any overt possibility of romance. In one sense, it's a welcome change from the action movie style plot line where man + woman = relationship with the women being just side characters/window dressing to the MC.

Women here are shown to be tough, that they don't need a man at all. They have their own agency. It's pretty nice actually that they did that. None of the female characters are infantilised nor is there a sense of them being there to "check boxes" in the minority bag. They make sense in the framing the game has placed them in.

But we do have this interesting dynamic whereby removing the romance factor, but having female characters in a setting that most are conditioned to read as man + woman = relationship, it de-emphasizes heteronormality and actually emphasises the relationships between the core characters.

And with a game full of men, that means the relationships between men are going to be the focal point.

Adding extra female characters, wouldn't have changed any of this, because the writers have gone out of their way to not make romance a plot of any sort. (There's a whole other discussion on the flaws of trying to give women agency/proving strength of character, but by doing so, taking away their sexualities by removing any sort of romance, but that's beside the point)

I think there's also an argument to be had that meaningful relationships with others don't have to necessarily imply romance between characters. It's totally fair to be sick of always having romance injected in to these sorts of relationships. That's an extremely valid take.

But there most definitely is a double standard that everyone is operating on. And we see that when we compare Alex/Farah's relationship with Ghost/Soap's.

Alex's most meaningful relationship is with Farah. He sacrifices himself for her cause and loses a leg for it. He comes back and stays by her side. Most people assume to take it as Alex is in love with Farah. We never see any type of flirting between the two. In fact it's mostly Farah testing Alex and looking at their dialogue you can tell there's respect between the two, but anything more is undefined/up for interpretation.

Yet it's just assumed by virtue of Alex and Farah being man + woman, that they must be together because of how much Alex had sacrificed. Completely ignoring the possibility of Alex doing so because he believes in Farah's cause and was sick of being jerked around with no choice by higher ups who largely didn't care about the suffering of Farah's people. Suffering that the man had personally witnessed. But no, he must be in love with her. (If Farah was a man, their whole relationship would be read as platonic with Alex's beliefs as a focus, not him being potentially in love)

Ghost's most meaningful relationship is with Soap. Soap has changed Ghost's whole MO as a lone wolf, and has challenged his very notion of trust. Ghost tests Soap and is proven wrong when Soap survives despite the odds. We even see them have plausible deniability flirting/snark. They are framed as a unit and on the off times (off of missions in cutscenes), they are always physically together. There's definitely respect between the two, but anything more is undefined/up for interpretation.

By itself, their relationship seems innocuous, but looking at the context we see a very different picture. Context matters heavily in seeing how this relationship has changed Ghost/the importance of it to him. It's assumed that Soap is the first person in god knows how long, that Ghost is emotionally attached to. What constitutes a normal, albeit flirty and snarky, friendly relationship for most, is amplified for Ghost in the glaring fact that he really doesn't do this for anyone else ever. As far as we can tell for a man that appears to live his job, Soap is Ghost's most important person.

We can even arguably say that Ghost and Soap had a flirtier, friendlier, more emotional relationship than Alex and Farah ever had, yet it's assumed (by the male audience) to be completely platonic by virtue of them both being men.

For all those people who argue to stop shipping characters, those same people turn around and are completely implicit in the notion of Alex and Farah being a thing.

It's a really annoying take, because you and I know that it's not the romance they're bothered by. It's the idea of having a character that exemplifies the silent male loner badass archetype as anything but the pinnacle of masculinity. IE, totally and utterly straight.

I feel I could go on about all the ways Ghost surprisingly subverts his archetype, but I'll leave it there. This is prob already too long 😅

But yes, having new cool female characters is always good, but it still wouldn't settle any sexuality debate since they would most likely be written without any hint of romance between the core 141 group and that potential new character. Just like how Farah and Laswell, as you said, have been both removed completely from the romance/sexuality debate, any new female character would also be put under similar framework.

I suppose it would just make them appear more straight (and get rid of all the speculation) if they had a new female character added into 141, but I don't see the point of adding a new character for that sole purpose. And tbh, it would come across as insulting to women if they did for that one reason.

Given how little character development we had in the latest game, I heavily doubt they would introduce new characters at all when they barely showed anything of the current ones we have already. We need more development of the characters we have, adding someone new would arguably take away from building proper relationships/dynamics between the characters we do have currently.

But yeah, heh. I'll stop for real now. If you got this far in my latest Ted Talk™, kudos to you good sir 🫡, you have all my love ☺️

Hope you have a great day too nonny, and I hope this helps with the discussion. Feels like I went off on too many side tangents. 🤔🤔🤔

#ask #ghostsoap #soapghost #cod mwiii #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #ghost x soap #simon riley #call of duty #soap x ghost

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elzifelzi · 1 year ago

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Like Ik i posted my initial reaction and such to a glitch in time

But

I haven't actually sat down and given my full thoughts on it

So yeah

First off without going into Spoilers..

In my head I had alot of..not necessarily expectations but theories on what it would be like..and while I love Danny Phantom I've always been Iffy on the story continuing after Phantom Planet so I'll admit i was optimistic bur skeptical.

This wasn't at all how I expected it to come back and thats the thing i think i love the most about it.

If someone told me that Gabriella Epstein was in charge of working on the 1st 2 seasons of the original cartoon I would've completely believed them because her writing felt EXACTLY like how the show was back then. Even with modern slang added in at no point did the dialog feel cringe or anything like that it just flowed naturally.

Which i appreciate.

What I really love about it tho is the fact that it allowed ghosts to BE ghosts, not Monsters from another dimension or whatever they're actual manifestations of human emotion and spirits which makes Danny's decision at the end feel even more powerful because he really is connected to both worlds even more than he initially realized.

I love that they gave the ghost zone lore made it feel like an actual ethereal place.

NOW onto the spoiler parts

The character arcs specifically Danny,Dan,Vlad and Valerie.

It's very easy to have a character like Vlad in particular be like "The Disasteroid event made me realize how much of a fool I've been" and just end his arc there. But they didn't go that route throughout the comic we actually see that Vlad is still an asshole despite regretting some of his actions he's still NOT a good guy but we gradually see that through spending time with Danny and seeing how his anger and rage fueled Dan,that he really has been a fool he really isn't a bad guy he was just hurt, alone and damaged he lost control.Vlads whole thing is that because he feels he lost everything he tries to rule as a way to feel in control..not a very healthy method but what can u do.

Dan despite being a grown man physically is just a scared kid. Here we have a version of Danny who lost everything and corrupted by Vlad's ghost half decided that through Domination and control he wouldn't lose anything anymore now this Danny meets his younger self who is not only desperately trying to prevent himself from ever becominf like him but he succeeds! Now This younger Danny has pretty much the perfect life a family who accepts him,friends who love him and is accepted fully by the world while Dan lost his timeline and now doesn't belong anywhere. He lost everything and now taking from others is the only way he can feel in control sounds Very similar to another half/ghost we know.He and Vlad are truly Kindred Spirits and they are the only people who can truly help each other.

Danny going from hunting ghosts to accepting that ghosts are just as much people as humans are and that maybe he shouldn't only defend one side of the spectrum that humans are just as evil as ghosts and ghosts can be just a human as humans and him deciding to be the bridge between both in what i like to call (Avatar Wan Moment) perfectly ties his character together. And it's even reflected in his relationship with Dan and Vlad throughout the book, even after all that Danny still doesn't trust Vlad he doesn't even like Vlad BUT he acknowledges that not only could he not do it without Vlad but Vlad is actively trying to change possibly for the better and him acknowledging that Dan is just a scared kid at his very core just like he once was is *chefs kiss.

Valerie might come as a shock because alot of people felt that she wasn't that much utilized in this story but i feel like that's for a reason. Since Phantom Planet first happened I've always wondered what Valerie's feelings on Danny being phantom was and we kinda got a glimpse into that here ..we see that when she thought Dan was Danny she fulling believed that he had turned on them..like despite her previous relationship with Danny she still views him as a possible threat and that by itself looks like something she'll for sure have to deal with in the future.

Aside from that

The art was beautiful like i cannot keep talking about how pretty it looked. Like my only gripe with it is that the character designs/outfits weren't updated but i can live with that

The story was very well written and felt straight out of Season 2

And even excluding all of the other things i mentioned, it was just a fun read..like at no point did i feel bored or drained while reading it

11/10 for sure

#danny phantom #going ghost #go ghost again #dp a glitch in time #a glitch in time spoilers #a glitch in time

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fox-daddy · 1 year ago

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Random information about my OCs

Kyle;

Is trans and proud of it having no shame in his birth gender but also knowing it's not who he is.

Goes by he/him mainly but also accepts they/them pronouns.

Has a pair of scars on his shoulders that are from a very large bird so looks like they're from the talons of a large bird.

His dragon cape while a bit child-like actually seems effective at scaring away birds or putting them on high alert, the exceptions being familiars who recognize the defense mechanism and know it's just a normal person underneath. (also crows and ravens that have seen him with the hood down.)

He has a fear and fascination with fire. Enjoy watching it and setting things on fire inside the oven or on the campfire. However, also has a soft fear of fire finding himself flinching away if it gets too close while throwing something in it. Slightly closing his eyes when summoning it.

I have something called a core root, something they cling onto no matter what. For Kyle, this is the feeling of comfort, making him one of my softer OCs. He has a good sense of intuition with people's intentions. This helps him know when he can act adorable and when he needs to act more serious.

Kyle finds joy in being able to act soft and carefree. However don't get this mixed up for naivety, Kyle tends to be thinking more about a situation than you'd first think.

As for love langue his main love language he gives is physical touch and acts of service and his main love language he enjoys receiving being physical touch and gifts.

Hunter;

Nonbinary pronouns, will not accept anything else and is highly guarded about this. (rejects gender entirely but thinks this is the closest they can get to it)

Covered in scars that they got before they ran away and ended up in Vesuvia.

Their biggest insecurity isn't their countless scars, which they actually feel nothing towards. It is in fact the fact their albino, going as far as dying their hair black to try and hide it. (this is why they have such pale skin and bright red eyes.)

In the AU I have with all my OCs Bluebell and Hunter are in a temporary relationship. Where they know they can't save each other but can help for the time. Which is why they still have their main LIs. Kyle is a part of this but his relationship with them is even weirder being they offer him emotional support and company and while they do kiss they're not technically dating Kyle. It's both a poly but also kind of just a semi-open thing. It's weird but it's perfect to them.

The more I've worked on Hunter as a character the more of a different side of the same coin they become to Muriel. Think of themselves as a monster so they growl and hiss at whoever tries to get close to prove their dangerous to others and themselves. Willing to throw themselves into the first fight they can because they've never been taught that it's okay to just not fight. So meeting Muriel they learn they don't have to rush into combat and that it's okay to just stop, slowly taking their own advice about their past and not deciding who they have to be. As each time they remind Muriel they also remind themselves.

Due to their phobia of blood, they find certain scenes harder than normal MCs do and having to fight their fight or flight. Having to hold themselves back from going into a full frenzy attacking whatever is in front of them or running away unable to look back.

Adores animals and isn't scared of Inanna for a second. In fact loves to playfight with her, trusting her not to be too rough with Them and also knowing how to playfight back.

Attitude can range from quiet but always thinking to melodramatic and loud depending on who their around.

Has a strong love hate relationship with physical touch. Both craving it and having C-PTSD around it. (By the end of whoever's route their a lot more comfortable with that person's touch. Especially if it's Portia and Julian who both enjoy touch. Since more exposure helps them gain positive associations with it. Will still struggle with it occasionally.)

That said their main love language is acts of service and quality time the ones they love most returned quality time and words of affirmation

Bluebell;

Is a Dr. Having trained under one and learned everything they could.

Uses this information to help animals instead of people.

Has a phobia of spiders and mild one to pain.

Mostly shipped with Lucio so I can watch his head explode when he finds out their favorite food is plain bread and their favorite drink is water. Not because it's the best tasting but because it reminds them of the fact their free.

Social anxiety and tried to meditate it by acting like the mum of the group. Making sure everyone's fed, had something to drink, isn't over working, etc

Also why I ship them with Lucio due to their more motherly side. When it comes to their Li and people they care about.

Most likely of my Mc to cry instead of yell back during an argument.

Main love language is acts of serve followed by gifts the love language they like the most words of affirmation and physical touch.

6'4 the same height as Julian and less lanky due to having muscles. (This b can hold a swan down)

The best with animals out of my Mc's followed by Kyle.

Has no scars except emotional ones.

#the arcana game #the arcana #the arcana mc #the arcana apprentice #the arcana fan apprentice

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evelyne-am · 2 years ago

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15th March 2023

15th March 2023 Day 2

That lack of sleep from the 4:30am cramps meant, I forgoed my want to be there when sir enters. I slept an extra 15 minutes and reached 8minutes before call time. Other than 2 of the boys everyone was already there warming up and I felt a bit shit. That extra 20 minutes early everyone comes, feels like a sign of community, setting up the room, warming up together, I told myself, unless I’m super sleep deprived, I won’t do it anymore.

By the way I haven’t mentioned yet. We are prepping a play to perform end May. we will be rehearsing morning till afternoon 6 days a week till the performance (with 5 days off for Eid,) which will be 25 performances over 10-12 days! It seems a lot but trust me 2 months is Nothing, especially since we have miles to go. The day was super cloudy and so was Sir’s mood. I can feel the urgency to get the group synced but we are not. Not yet. One of the boys didn’t come, the shadow one, but nothing was said. First half we could sense sir’s frustration today that we all barely know each other and aren’t syncing. Today’s break I actually got. Sat on the roof (you saw my insta story with the transgender lady doing what my sister says is probably a tiktok (egula buzi na.)) I love Shilpakala, at any given time there are people singing, dancing, acting, there’s a jute fair downstairs, multiple events, in the evenings it is soo happening. However in the morning, there is this lovely inner circle calm around the scare people in the building. Only those who are the core team, or building their deep dedications are there at times like 8am. I feel amazing to be part of that. I started my career with western music and later did bangla music, I never really did the Dhaka route, of Shishu Academy, Chayanaot, Shilpokala. I’m the English medium girl who opened for Nemesis in Russian Cultural Centre, and later it was only through my choir Ghaashphoring and when I joined Mita Huqs Suurteertho that I got to do more traditional venues and events. I love it. My perspective of life is different, always has been. It’s not that my family isn’t Bengali enough, if you know them, you know that’s the opposite of true. But it’s that I was always different, I’ve always lived in my own world. A friend of mine, when told that im doing a play about 1971, instantly said, oh isn’t 1971 done to death already? And I felt like, not for me! I’ve never worked with it! I’ve never had that exposure to films/songs/events. Not because they don’t happen, it’s because I”ve never had my own connection to it. And so no, it’s not done to death! There are people like me, of my generation and younger who just know the basics from our class 4 textbooks, we’ve slept through 16 December and 26th March holidays. The English medium schooling system has always had us not be as Bangali and aspire to be more Western, more “international” and sure that has helped me in some places, but be it Berklee or in my career, it is my connection to my roots that has gotten me places, and I am on a journey in Dhaka for the past 8 years to know all the things I missed. And I know for a fact there are many many like me, some who will never know, and some who are frustrated that they don’t. And yes there are aspects we get stuck on about 1971.. But the women’s side of the war, is the least talked about, least films, books, songs, museums, memorials. On top of that, it could be that this particular artist has not worked on a topic others have, just because others have I don’t feel like we should be limited exploring it. Anyway, Day 2 I still drooped during text reading, (diet coke didnt help, shall i try caffeine?), my left leg was slightly sprained from the fall; but we read M2, now we know all the 3 M stories. We were given some time to think about all 3 Ms and demonstrate some things about how we interpret all 3 M stories. I imagined one to be very forlorn and look out the window and as I did so to channel her, I saw something that I had been hunting for, just on the street of Segunbagicha (I’ll write later as certain peeps read the blog and I don’t want to give it away yet.) Despite the cloudiness of the morning vibes, overall day 2 in class went well, and we were assigned one each to work on for the actual “audition” and character development process.

If you are on my insta, you know I did a long walk through Ramna Park and DCL. Those are things I hope to have in my routine and write about as I explore more. I’m still struggling with time and sleep, this day too I could not get to my homework before it was 11pm, my remainder of the musical admin work is piling up too. I am trying to schedule my life, so I have less work hours outside this play, and still can afford my life. I will make it happen, some plans in the works. (Just need to wrap up some cocacola stuff :P ASAP)

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fadebolt · 4 months ago

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I'm very glad that you gave voters a week here, as these are two really powerful and really well executed rooms. And both rooms offer countless reasons to vote for them. The good news is that they're extremely similar, so comparing them is actually very easy. So let's address what each of these two have over the other.

Shoreline has the advantage of being the original. It marks the very first time most players got to see an iterator, and it's a core part of most campaigns where it can be found. Another neat thing is the pearl reading. In vanilla RW, this was the room where we've learned about the interesting lore and world building of this game. And even in DP, this room is more important for lore, than any other. Without the ability to bring colored pearls to LttM, we would know a lot less about the game, its world, and its characters. And lastly, there's the whole Neuron gimmick, which I really like. A lot of people (including myself) have talked about how its design makes the first encounter so effective, and I'm going to go on a long and elaborate explanation about that again. Just know that it's iconic for a reason.

But what can we say in favor of Silent Construct? Well, there's the fact that its condition is a lot worse than the Shoreline/Frigid Coast chamber's, and it has a design that communicates that fact very effectively. This is accentuated even further by Five Pebbles himself - the way he looks, speaks, and the state of his pearls. Speaking of pearls, the room utilizes them really well, both the regular ones that blow around in the wind, and the music pearl, which… we all know exactly how that one sounds by now. Their presence also makes it somewhat fascinating that LttM's room is completely empty, when it clearly wasn't in Spearmaster's campaign. (My personal theory is that she chose to hide/archive them in a safe space, so that they would be preserved for any purposed beings that other iterators might send to contact her. Or they were just taken away by all the Scavengers, that works too) The final thing to note is the left side of the room. Shoreline doesn't really do much with it (unless you enjoy comparing rooms with their past/future verions… which I do, but I digress xd), while Silent Construct not only connects it to The Rot, with its colors and layout, but it also puts in two room connection pipes, making this room an important part of many routes. Shoreline doesn't do this - it's a complete dead end, and as such, can be entirely ignored by essentially everyone, except Rivulet (and Saint, cus the rooms leads to an Echo, but they don't count here).

So despite the rooms being easily comparable, picking between them is still not easy - as I have a deeper appreciation towards the decisions with Silent Construct's AI design, but Shoreline's AI is a lot more important in the grand scheme of things (even if you don't actually need to visit it to complete most campaigns). It's very much an "A walked, so that B could run" type of situation, and whether you vote for the walking Shoreline, or the running Silent Construct, is completely up to you. And I think I'm going with Shoreline. I've simply visited it way too many times, and even to this day, I'm always glad when I get to see it. The fact that it still hits in such a special way after so long really says a lot (even if it's largely thanks to the game's writing and music, but the room design helps, too).

Pick Your Favorite Rain World Room, Day 311 R5

There is a hidden slugcat in one of the rooms (they can be in any color). If u can see it comment or reblog with where they are and if u are first, u get a cookie!

Credit for game screenshots goes to: Rain World Interactive Map, Rain World Wiki and me

Congratulations for day 310 winners!

#rain world room poll #rain world opinions #rw looks to the moon #rw five pebbles #rw iterator #iterator #looks to the moon #five pebbles

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shuttingupwards · 3 years ago

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Mae’s issues. (NITW SPOILERS)

I should preface that I am a huge Mae fan, she is my favorite character. So there may be inherent bias however there are concrete things in the story that don’t have bias that I’d like to point out in the complexion of her own character. To start let’s say that Mae has many issues that kind of go under worked on. It’s obvious that she’s reckless, adventurous, and a little oblivious. However core issues seen in her is her lack of mindfulness, apathy, and general privilege.

Her black and white vision is troubling as she doesn’t think clearly on what is correct or true about other people. She lacks filter, she doesn’t have consequences and this is a huge part of her character. Her lack of consequences is due to her childish like nature and her privilege she has unlike characters like Bea, Angus, and Gregg. She is of course aware of some things, similar to how she is aware about the fact that her friends just deal with her because she is all they can get.

She’s learned not to ask for help, and this is mostly through some form of miscommunication through childhood. We see her parents to be extremely supportive. They talk to her and ask her caring questions, but It could be the possibility that she through her extreme tunnel vision was never clearly taught what to do. This is common in every parent to make, even small mistakes, but specifically with Mae was she grew up surrounded by reckless people and wanted to stay in that childhood. Where she could smash things and have fun, and not deal with the consequences from her parents. This is especially normal throughout people you see growing up.

However one of her largest flaws is her ineptness to ask for help. We see her rot away often despite the support she has, however this recklessness could quite be the same answer to explain this conundrum in her character. When characters grow so used to something, it becomes that coping mechanism. It could be very well that she genuinely believes help just isn’t something she needs. Just because it’s an option doesn’t mean a character is comfortable to take it. Mae likes short, easy things. She doesn’t like the long route, and because people around her have enabled her to have it she doesn’t see the point in reaching out. That even means helping others, which is why she’s so apathetic.

Mae is another thing, incredibly blunt. Not only does her black and white thinking interrupt any form of interaction with other people, she has odd dialect and views everything as something not as serious as it is til it effects her personally. She thinks Bea is “badass” for her moms death, or dealing with the shitty situation she’s in. This is a harmful mindset that she applies to herself. She’s extremely self destructive and stuck in her own head about her own fantasies.

This is most likely a cause of her dissociative disorder she seems to have. Dissociation is a feeling more then just feeling outside your body, it’s like being stuck in it as well. Even when your thousand of miles away you’re still stuck in your own bias. Mae realizes things often, but chooses to stay ignorant to them til it hurts. Like her knowing half the time her friends only stick with her because they are all they can get. They know her for her childish and dangerous attitude and know that it’s something that she needs to move on from.

Mae holds extreme privilege from everyone else in her life. Bea is poor and has to work emotionally and physically constantly for her father and the business, Gregg works a bad job with constant fear that he’ll lose Angus, while Angus is still dealing with his own emotional turmoil of his trauma but also his want for something more then where he is. All of them have that theme, wanting more then what they have but having to cling onto what they have no matter what happens. Which funny enough happens to be each other. They rely on what they are given, and they are given Mae who is to ignorant to be a genuine person around them. Half the time she’s a clueless asshole, but apart of her is charming in that it helps reflect a newer perspective to others. Which is half the reason the three stick around her.

Not only does Mae lack social cues with other people, but mindfulness of her own actions. She’s constantly self destructive and hating herself that little does she realize the pain she causes herself. It’s a painful process of self harm that affects other people in ways she’s not aware.

Now there’s the elephant in the room, which is her dissociative break in high school where she attacks a student almost to death. She doesn’t have consequences for this, rather is shifted into shitty solutions that heightens and again, enforces her mental anguish. She does not have the resources to help herself and doesn’t even know how to obtain them because of lack of understanding of how being a person works. This is definitely an important thing to remember about her is that she’s only broken the shield of ignorance when everything gets the worst that it gets.

Finally, when her consequences catch up to her and she meets the weird cat god and the cultists, does she have her realization. While in a realistic situation, having the realization after all of this isn’t recommended. Having to make sacrifices to realize something about yourself is an extremely destructive thing to do, but it fits Mae’s narrative and that’s why it works. It shows the theme of her own self destruction build up and finally bite her back down. As a story plot, it works that she only comes to the epiphany here. Then, does she apologize and work towards a better self. She feels bad for her actions and the way she’s been affecting Bea and Gregg especially. Bea seems the most affected as she has her always tagging along, and Bea has her own situation that with Mae’s blunt force doesn’t help.

I think what people forget about Mae is that she’s not a comedy joke and nor is she a good person. She’s done awful or just mean things to people because of her own mental issues, but that’s what is so important about her character. Is that she’s such a complicated and working person, that from there one does she realize her need for help and how she could help her friends.

#mae borowski #nitw #analysis #analyzation #nitw analysis #night in the woods

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renegadewangs · 3 years ago

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What sold you on the homumiko/shomumiko dynamic?

Oh man where do I BEGIN?

Firstly, all cards on the table, I'm one of those people who ships Holmes/Watson. And I don't mean in BBC Sherlock or anything like that. I mean good old-fashioned original ACD canon and some of the adaptations. It all depends on how the adaptation handles the characters. In its core, Holmes/Watson is a dynamic of one eccentric, blunt, unpredictable man who means well but gets wrapped up in his own world and one grounded, kind-hearted, sober man who still manages to step perfectly in tune with the other and keep him out of trouble. And we see this again in Homumiko. Not only that, but there's the additional 'obstacle' of Mikotoba being an exchange student from a far land. The sad reality is that especially in the year 1900, most people would consider a foreigner to be less than them, but not Holmes. Holmes would never. He took Mikotoba in as a housemate (probably without a shred of doubt about his integrity) and dubbed him his partner; someone on equal level as him. Can you imagine the difficulties those two might've faced during their adventures in terms of racist prejudice? But Holmes would've defended his partner time and time again, I'm sure. Now let's address the fact that Mikotoba is a widower. This is something that also happens to Watson in the original canon, where it's implied Mary Morstan died shortly after marrying him, but the novels never really reflect on this. We don't know what happened to Mary or how it impacted Watson (as far as I can recall, anyway), we only know she's gone. But then in comes DGS/TGAA, making the loss of Ayame a very significant part of Mikotoba's character. He was hurt so very badly by this event that despite loving his newborn daughter, he couldn't really be around her because it made him too sad. (He was implied to be suicidal, even.) So he went to England where he met a wonderful man who taught him once more what it means to live. Not even necessarily to love; just to find joy in the little things. I'm certain solving cases with Holmes also helped to boost Mikotoba's confidence again. Spending time with Holmes healed his sorrow over six long years, so when he returned to Japan, he could do it with his head held high and whole new appreciation for what it meant to be a father. Iris helped with that too, of course. Speaking of which... THEY'RE DADS. They're such DADS. They just took a baby in without question and loved her unconditionally. Mikotoba trusted Holmes to take care of her after he left. Even then, once he was gone, Holmes still referred to Mikotoba as Iris's papa. And when Mikotoba returns to 221B in the game, he still refers to it as "our home". It's their home with their daughter and aaaa... My heart! Gosh there's so much trust between these two. And their thoughts are in sync- that's why the Dance of Deduction works so well between them, without the need to 'go back and correct Holmes's deductions'. You never need to rectify Holmes's false routes because instead of taking those routes, Holmes halts in his deductive path whenever he reaches a split and asks Mikotoba which direction they should go next. They complement each other perfectly. And they're dorks together! Their dialogue during the Legendary Pair chapter in the game is some of the funniest you'll find in DGS/TGAA. Or at least, in my opinion.

#dgs #dgs spoilers #tgaa #tgaa spoilers #homumiko #shomumiko #THE THEM #legendary aibous

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astriiformes · 3 years ago

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uhhh your uhh last post kinda hit bc I’m someone who used to ID as aro (I only ID as ace now), but I have a crush on my best friend who I spend multiple hours with every day. sometimes even 12 hours with them in a row. and next year we’re going to live together with two other friends. they’re aro and I would indeed appreciate a qpp… but I’m so scared telling them about my romantic feelings might make them uncomfortable, because for me romantic feelings are the same level of obsession I feel for tv shows and such. I like the idea of being partners in whatever way that could mean for them and I’d never ever wanna do something to make them uncomfortable… would you happen to have any advice for this… if not that’s quite alright

So I can only offer so much advice because everyone is different, but I would definitely recommend talking to them about your feelings! If you genuinely would be interested in a queerplatonic relationship with them instead of a romantic one, even with how you feel about them, that's completely fair and appropriate to share with someone.

The two things I would recommend emphasizing are:

1) That you really do mean that what's important to you is the idea of being partners in whatever way that means to them. I think that's a very nice way of putting it and centers their feelings as an important part of your query

and 2) That even if they don't want a queerplatonic relationship, you sharing this is mostly to be honest and find out their thoughts, and you still want to remain friends with them no matter the answer. It's entirely possible that, even if you do everything "right" and they see you as a very dear friend, they just might not be interested in a qp relationship (same as any kind of relationship). Or they might want to approach it differently. I know that I personally am in a committed friendship/relationship I tend not to always refer to as queerplatonic because I am also extremely romance-repulsed and find I often don't like being called a "partner" in any sense -- but even then, practically, it still looks like living with a friend in a committed situation we intend to continue for the rest of our lives

I can't predict how your friend will feel about all this, but conceptually at least, queerplatonic relationships are absolutely not just for aromantic people, and in fact are a great route to explore when two people with some kind of "mismatch" in orientation are still interested in committing to each other in important ways. Even if your friend wants something different, so long as you assure them this doesn't have to change things between you if they don't want it to and that you are genuinely interested in sharing whatever kind of relationship they would be comfortable for them (a friendship, a queerplatonic relationship, or something more complicated), asking to find out how they feel about the idea is still okay.

And it might make them a little uncomfortable! It might be kind of awkward! These things can be messy without anyone doing anything wrong. But it sounds like they are very important to you, and you care about them and your friendship in ways that can be preserved with careful and committed communication about what your friend is comfortable with. So long as you center that, that's the core of any good relationship.

I hope that helps some? Again, obviously I cannot speak for all aromantic people -- or for your friend specifically -- but these are at least my own thoughts as an aro person and ones that I find ring true in relationships of all kinds. People are complicated! Relationships are complicated! There are so many weird ins and outs and inbetweens to them, and the platonic/romantic binary that society tries so hard to enforce is impractical and inauthentic to many people's experiences. If you keep in mind that, and the fact that you love your friend no matter what, I bet you can navigate this.

#aroblogging

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maddyshome · 1 year ago

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I'm not choosing violence with this claim.

There is simply nothing complex here. It is just a story about two mentally ill people who are siblings, have no other meaningful connection, and control each other to remain clinging to the only true human connection they have.

P.S: My main point was the nonexistent worldbuilding in this game, not about the relationship between Ashley and Andrew that is still not complicated, mind you.

What society? What worldbuilding? What culture?

There is none. We have some half assed themes with the cult/demons and the megacorp who seemingly controls the world (why? lol dont question it.)

Your own analyses are just about Andrew and Ashley. Personally I think you are yapping too much about a relationship that is just not that hard to understand. If I am wrong please attach screenshots if you reblog this post. I just read the first post you linked.

Let me make something very clear to you since I have read your posts:

There is no such thing as "being normal" or "healing" in this game. You have the impression there is since you called the Burial route as healing and normal for Andrew. There is no such thing in this game. This game is about twisted siblings who cling to each other. In one route he wants to kill his sister. In the other route he admits he wants to have sex with her. Both are horrible outcomes. Both confirm they are mentally unwell. What they need to heal is specialized help. Not to succumb to two different depravities.

There is NOTHING NORMAL OR HEALTHY ABOUT BEING ATTRACTED TO YOUR SISTER.

So just by this fact alone your analyses are iffy. Can you understand that? It's because your perspective of their relationship is delusional. You see their relationship through your tiny point of view (which of course tends to gravitate towards romanticism) so you fail to understand the very important fact: both outcomes will just continue to exaggerate the fact they are mentally unwell. You see these two being a couple as a good outcome. It's not. They are the definition of toxicity for each other. No matter the outcome. Both chapters PROVE that.

I could not read the second post because it feels like you are repeating yourself but with different words. I'm not surprised you do so because I have experiences with the fanbase of this game and everyone who I interacted with did the same. I had to repeat myself and my points multiple times. Nevertheless..

Ashley and Andrew are just not that complicated to analyse. Why? Because it's just very easy to understand the way these two characters function as characters. Their reasons of being. I have explained to you in this post why they are easy characters to understand.

Do you want me to bold it? Ok hold up. I will bold it.

I am actually the reader who likes to think why the curtain is blue.

I will ask you something and I hope you reply with an answer. What is the message that Nemlei wants to convey? What is the core message that the player should understand from this story?

That the experiences of your childhood shape the way you turn out to be? That some people are born twisted and become even worse after bad experiences and neglect? That incest is not the worst thing in the world? What is the message here?

If that is the message then it is a damned abstract way of conveying it by "satisfying" that group of fans of your game's fanbase.

This game is just not that deep. Play who's lila if you want to play a game who focuses on the relationship between two characters and is done well.

Please play fear & hunger to see how a well written world/story looks like in video games.

Even better, play mamiya - a shared illusion of the world's end - if you like stories that focus on meaningful human connections. See how a well written story is like. Mamiya presents themes similar to The Coffin of Andy and Leyley IF (and only IF) the message The Coffin of Andy and Leyley wants to convey (and failed for reasons I explain in this post) is about the impact of family and personal experiences on someone.

You do not have to trust me. You can play all three and see if I'm wrong.

Ok so a lot of yall are pissed off by my critique of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. Some of you who have read my posts (mostly the incest proshippers) think I am sensible to mature subjects so my critique is just based on the fact I'm against the ship between Andrew and Ashley.

I am really not sensible to mature subjects. Fear & Hunger is one of my recent fav games.

The themes present in Fear & Hunger are muchhhh worse than twisted incest. Trust me. Or I guess you can check out the game if you can't trust me. There is cannibalism, csa, sa etc. A lot of bad things are happening there.

I dislike The Coffin of Andy and Leyley because its meaningless and boring. There is nothing complex or complicated in this game. The story is simple. The world is underdeveloped and everything in this game is about Andrew and Ashley. That gets boring very fast.

I am against shipping Andrew and Ashley and I do think (with proof mind you) that it is UNNECESSARILY fetishizing the incest aspect of the game. But the fact that their society is literally nonexistent because we barely have any details is still true.

Miro doesn't really "hide" the gruesome themes in his games. In fact there is a scene in the first Fear & Hunger game where your character gets SA.

The difference is that one game has a developed culture, religion, characters. And the other game is just repeating itself.

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robininthelabyrinth · 4 years ago

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I love your Nie brothers content, all of it, but there is so little written about the friendship between Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian! We know they were friends in Cloud Recesses, but it's never explored how these genius guys, even if one is focused on magical inovations and the other on strategy and politics, got on. Something which shows how well they got each other would be great

Wei Wuxian’s fist trembled. How dare he – worthless peacock – my shijie..!

But before he could throw a punch, he saw a swirl of white – Lan Wangji, sweeping forward with a face like a graveyard, and Nie Huaisang cringing in his shadow – and suddenly he realized that he didn’t need to punch Jin Zixuan.

Speaking of others behind their backs is forbidden.

Sneering without reason is forbidden.

Arrogance is forbidden.

Do not be haughty and complacent.

Do not praise yourself and slander others.

Do not make assumptions about others.

Do not insult people.

Do not take your words lightly.

Wei Wuxian grinned with teeth. “Hey, Lan Zhan!” he sang out, and Jin Zixuan blanched. “Perfect timing!”

Later, after he’d laughed himself sick at Jin Zixuan’s punishment – humiliatingly perfect – and making his appreciation very clear to Lan Wangji, he went to go find Nie Huaisang.

“When did you go get Lan Zhan?” he asked, honestly curious. He hadn’t known he was going to get into a fight until he was there and it was happening, but Nie Huaisang, of all people, had apparently figured out what was going to happen before it happened and took steps to fix it.

“The second they started talking about girls,” Nie Huaisang said promptly. “It’s fairly obvious that Jin Zixuan is resentful of his parents managing his life and he’s lashing out at everything, including specifically your shijie, so a nasty comment was inevitable.”

Wei Wuxian blinked, derailed from his original line of questioning. “He – what? Wait, that’s why he’s so rude about my shijie?”

“Of course,” Nie Huaisang said, blinking back at him. “What did you think? That he just didn’t like her? He’s barely even met her.”

Wei Wuxian hadn’t thought about that way, but it made a certain amount of sense. “When did you get so good at reading people?” he asked, bemused. “I didn’t…uh…”

“Think I have any skills?”

Wei Wuxian coughed.

“I don’t!” Nie Huaisang beamed, clearly very proud of it. “But I do have a lot of expensive hobbies, and that means I need pocket money.”

Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure he understood the connection, and said as much.

Nie Huaisang laughed at him. “The Nie sect believes in self-sufficiency,” he explained. “My brother gives me a certain amount of money to spend, sure, but we’re not the Jin sect; I can’t just buy everything that I lay my eyes on and send the bill back home – my brother would break my legs! I’m expected to find a way to increase the money I get until it’s enough to cover both my needs and wants, necessities and luxuries both, and if I can’t, then I have to do without luxuries.”

Nie Huaisang has never, not once, in the entire few months Wei Wuxian spent in his company, done without luxuries.

“So,” Wei Wuxian said, feeling oddly unnerved and unsure why, “you learned how to read people because you want to act like…a merchant?”

Nie Huaisang lightly tapped his head with his fan, rolling his eyes at him. “Stop being such a landed gentry young master, Wei-xiong. There’s nothing wrong with trade! How much of your sect’s money comes from merchants interested in keeping their trade routes free of resentful energy?”

Wei Wuxian wrinkled his nose a little. “That’s cheapening it a bit, don’t you think? As cultivators, it’s our duty to stand up as heroes, to defend the innocent and defeat evil, to purify –”

“Right, right. Remind me again how the Jiang sect pays for all that pretty purple?”

“Well…I mean…”

Technically, yes, there were all the dye sellers and the fabric merchants, but…

Nie Huaisang was laughing at him.

“Don’t worry about it, Wei-xiong,” he said, wiping his eyes. “You stick to doing your own thing. If you ever need to sell anything, come to me.”

“Of course,” Wei Wuxian said, privately thinking to himself that he’d rather farm for crops than become a seller hawking his goods in the marketplace. “Hey, wait, what is it that you sell, anyway?”

Nie Huaisang sniggered and refused to tell him.

It was porn.

Also barbeque and liquor, although in that case Nie Huaisang mostly played the middleman between the vendors of Caiyi Town and the students stuck eating Lan vegetables.

Sometimes he could even be convinced to tug on his contacts for other things, too.

“You’re a true friend,” Wei Wuxian said, clutching the bottle of chili sauce to his chest. “A true and wonderful friend.”

“You still have to pay,” Nie Huaisang said, his eyes curving up behind his fan. “No discounts.”

“A ruthless, vicious, cut-throat friend…”

“I lend you the porn for free, don’t I?

“Wonderful! Wonderful friend!”

No matter what Jiang Cheng said, Wei Wuxian was trying to keep his head down during their time at the indoctrination camp. He was taking this whole thing very seriously: he wasn’t making a fuss (too much), he wasn’t being insulting (too much), he wasn’t even socializing (too much).

Lan Wangji didn’t count, anyway; after what had happened to him, he needed someone bothering him.

But Wei Wuxian was being good and keeping back from the rest!

Well, he was, except then he saw Nie Huaisang and just had to go over to say hello. It was only polite, and had nothing to do with the fact that during the months he spent at the Cloud Recesses, he’d learned that Nie Huaisang could sell anyone on anything.

“I don’t suppose you have contacts that will sell you barbeque here,” Wei Wuxian said as a greeting, because the food they’d received was frankly disgusting in a way that made him wistful for the Lan sect like it had been a gourmet restaurant.

“Well,” Nie Huaisang hedged, and Wei Wuxian’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t get too excited, it’s not barbeque…”

It was meat, though, chunks of that had probably been roasted as skewers at one point, and Wei Wuxian didn’t even care that it was cold as he scarfed it down, immediately feeling ten times better than he’d been before.

“Where?” he asked. “How?”

“There’ll be a surprise inspection tomorrow morning,” Nie Huaisang said instead. “Keep your head down, they’re looking to make an example out of somebody.”

“How do you know that?”

Nie Huaisang shrugged. “I brought art.”

“To the indoctrination camp?”

“Wen soldiers get lonely and bored too, Wei-xiong.”

“You’re trading for information using porn?”

“Don’t be silly. I’m trading porn for meat, and getting the information while we’re chatting. A large number of the Wen sect cultivators used to be their own sects, you know, before they were absorbed, and not all of them are happy about what’s going on here. You just have to figure out who the loyalists are, avoid them, and focus on the rest, and it’s easy.”

“I still can’t believe you brought porn to the Wen sect,” Wei Wuxian said, shaking his head. “What’ll you do if your brother finds out?”

“You’re joking, right? He helped me pack it.”

Wei Wuxian will never understand the Nie sect.

Wei Wuxian stared wordlessly at his bowl.

There was a single slice of radish in it.

“Is this a joke?” he asked Wen Qing, because it might be, and she glared at him, meaning that no, it was not. “Don’t we have anything else?”

“With what money, Wen-gongzi? Do you think it comes from thin air?”

“I had a friend once who could make it come out of thin air,” he grumbled, looking down at his bowl. He’d practiced inedia, he didn’t need it, except for the fact that he really, really did. Not having a golden core made things hard. “He could’ve sold fish to fishermen, except he mostly just sold porn.”

Wen Qing rolled her eyes at him. “Wonderful story, Wei-gongzi. Positively heartwarming. But unless your old erotic art dealer is going to come to Yiling to help us sell some radishes, I don’t care.”

Naturally, that was impossible. Wei Wuxian was a villain now, his name blackened, the whole cultivation world against him –

Actually, as far as he could tell, the Nie sect didn’t seem to give a damn about him one way or another. From all the stories Nie Huaisang had told about his brother and from everything he’d seen in the war, Nie Mingjue wasn’t the sort of person to let evil sit around on a mountain while he was busy with other things – if he objected, he’d be there the next day with his saber, ready to put him in his place.

He hadn’t, obviously.

His hatred of the Wen sect was pretty well-known, but he’d taken no action at all to invade Yiling and demand that Wei Wuxian hand them over, and Wei Wuxian was mostly sure that it wasn’t because he was scared of what Wei Wuxian could do with the Stygian Tiger Seal.

…it was probably just the hunger getting to him and making him think crazy things. Not caring enough to go against him was pretty far from supporting him, after all.

But, hey, he wouldn’t be risking anything if he just wrote a tiny little letter asking Nie Huaisang for some advice on selling things, right?

I never thought I’d see the day my Wei-xiong finally became a merchant, the return letter said. I’ll be there in three days. I expect to see liquor.

Wei Wuxian took Wen Ning down the mountain and stood on his shoulders in order to emancipate a jar from the local tavern, but by the time Nie Huaisang arrived, there was, in fact, liquor.

Even Wen Qing – who had opposed the entire outing once she had heard about it upon their return – suddenly thought it was a perfectly reasonable sort of theft when Nie Huaisang offered to trade a giant crate full of meat for it.

“We had some leftovers from a boar hunt,” Nie Huaisang said mournfully, accepting the liquor and a bowl of radishes. “I need variety, Wei-gongzi, it’s terrible. You have to help me get rid of it; I can’t stand to look at it any longer.”

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Wei Wuxian reminded him in between glorious bites of pork. He was going to be a very good friend and do his best to ensure that Nie Huaisang’s request was fulfilled, even if it meant taking seconds and possibly thirds. “I asked for advice, not a visit.”

“You can’t expect me to put my good name on what could be inferior goods,” Nie Huaisang sniffed.

“Your good name? The one known for porn, you mean?”

Nie Huaisang rolled his eyes at him. “So show me what you have to sell.”

“It’s mostly just the radishes,” Wei Wuxian said. “I tried to tell Wen Qing that we should plant potatoes, but –”

“Forget the radishes,” Nie Huaisang said. “What’s this I hear about you designing a compass that pinpoints resentful energy?”

“Oh, that?” Wei Wuxian said, blinking. “Yeah, I made one of those – the Burial Mounds is the biggest source of resentful energy around, and it’s easier to have a compass that points home instead of north, you know? But what does that have to do with selling radishes?”

“Wei-xiong, you’re hopeless. Leave it all to me, and you’ll have your sect up and running in no time.”

“Yeah, that would be – wait, sect? What sect?”

“Actually,” Nie Huaisang said, tapping his fan against his cheek. He was just plain old ignoring Wei Wuxian now, which, hey! “I take it back – before you leave everything to me, show me what other ideas you’ve been cooking up. What about those talismans you used during the war? The spirit-drawing ones?”

“Spirit summoning,” Wei Wuxian corrected.

“Yes, those. Have you improved on those at all?”

“Uh, I mean, I guess…”

“Good. Show me everything.”

“So I have a sect now,” Wei Wuxian told Lan Wangji, who had come to visit. “We sell things to support it. Apparently.”

Lan Wangji nodded, apparently already aware of this. “The clan elders have agreed that using your flags to draw fierce corpses and other creatures away from areas with innocent human lives is an acceptable use.”

“Even the Lan sect?” Wei Wuxian marveled. “No wonder we’re making so much money.”

Then he sighed.

Lan Wangji looked questioningly at him.

“Well, I have a sect now,” Wei Wuxian said. “Everyone’s expecting me to – you know. Form the core of the sect.”

“Marry,” Lan Wangji concluded. Possibly advised? No, that didn’t sound like he was urging him to go ahead, which made a total of one person. “You do not have to if you do not wish. You already have an heir.”

“A-Yuan’s too young to be a proper heir,” Wei Wuxian objected, though he was secretly gleeful that people were generally accepting him as one. “And obviously I can’t just pick anyone; how will I know if they’re a spy? Or if they’ll secretly dislike A-Yuan?” He sighed again. “The worst part is, I think Nie Huaisang is plotting against me, too.”

“Plotting?”

“Yeah! He’s encouraging people to ask me about marriage, when clearly it’s better for me to stay off the market…what about you, Lan Zhan? Are you planning on marrying?”

“No,” Lan Wangji said.

“We’ll be a bunch of old bachelors, then,” Wei Wuxian said. “You should come more often, A-Yuan loves you…hey! I have a great idea! Why don’t we get married? Then no one will bother us ever again!”

“Mm,” Lan Wangji said.

“Mm? What does that mean?”

“It means I will need to send Nie Huaisang his payment in the morning,” Lan Wangji said, and moved to sit next to Wei Wuxian.

“Payment? You bought something from him? What did you want to –”

Lan Wangji silenced him pretty effectively, no spell necessary, and by the time Wei Wuxian retained enough ability to think through what exactly the purchase must have been, he’d already been converted to thinking that it was a very intelligent purchase to make.

Nie Huaisang really could sell anything.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #nie huaisang #wangxian #my fic #my fics #sales pitch #violetablood

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mianavs · 4 years ago

Text

the mission

Falling in Stockholm part 3

a/n: more revelations of the past and the mission that started it all

tw: smut, dubcon, yandere, mind break, imprisonment

wc: 3k

Falling in Stockholm

The moment Dabi locked the door, your miserable wait began. Time was meaningless in your brightly lit cell with no clock, calendar, or window to reassure you that it existed. The pain from his attacks subsided into a dull ache that let you relax and doze off from exhaustion. You eventually stopped trying to activate your quirk. It hadn’t worked ever since he’d injected you with that serum and the possibility that he’d managed to render you quirk-less plagued your thoughts.

Sleep came and went for you during your wait. The pain from your binds would bring you back from your slumber. The continued friction from the rough rope wore down your raw skin until warm blood pushed through the surface and lightly coated your wrists; you wondered if Dabi would arrive before the wounds festered. The blisters on your forearms, though painful, hadn’t burst yet to your relief. In your immobile situation, treating your burns was impossible and the blisters provided protection from infections. You looked down at the burnt handprint on your suit which revealed red marred flesh that was beginning to swell painfully against your clothing.

When it wasn’t your cuts or burns that woke you, it was your gut-wrenching hunger which had gone beyond mild growling and was painfully contorting against itself seeking food it didn’t have. It was the intensity of your hunger that drove you to act on the unfeasible act of getting to the fridge.

Using your abdominal muscles, you swung your bound legs back and forth until you began shifting slightly from your original spot. You alternated shifting your weight between your legs and your upper arms until you began to make even more progress on route to the fridge on the other side of the room. Your wounds screamed in pain as you pathetically shuffled on the ground but your hunger took over all your senses and the only thing on your mind was the need to satisfy it.

By the time you reached the fridge, blood and sweat covered your aching body but the elation from reaching the fridge made it all worth it. You nudged your shaky bound hands between the door and the fridge and pulled with all the strength you could muster. Expecting the door to swing open and possibly hit your mid-section, you were dumbfounded when the door remained closed no matter how hard you pulled on it. You were confused until you glanced up and saw a metal hatch attached to the fridge that held the door in place.

You screamed until your voice gave out. Hot tears streamed down your face as you slammed your face against the door repeatedly until your vision went hazy and the pain from your bloodied nose overcame the frustration and anger you felt when you realized your efforts had been for naught. You wouldn’t get to eat unless he let you.

The longer you lay on the floor in agony, the easier it was to succumb to your dark memories. Your first ‘training’ session with the Mayor resurfaced. He had been so eager to test your quirk to it’s limits that he had paid no mind to your young age and inexperience and inflicted pain you’d never felt before. After hours of excruciating pain, he left you with broken bones and in a puddle of blood, sweat, and tears for an entire day.

The almost identical situation you were in sent you into hysterics once again. You were forced to come to terms with the fact that you hadn’t gotten stronger. Just like that eight-year-old girl, you were abducted easily and forced into another jail cell to be tortured by another captor. All of your training and education to strengthen your quirk and body meant nothing and you felt as helpless as you did the day your parents were murdered in front of you by the Mayor.

Plagued by the repressed memories of your time with the Mayor, you didn’t even react when Dabi eventually came through the door. Your hazy vision didn’t see the momentary surprise on his face before he set down the bags he’d been carrying and took you into his arms to examine the damage.

Your face was covered in dried blood that matched the stain on the door of the fridge. Your suit was further torn from shuffling across the concrete floor. The worst, however, had to be your wounds that had begun to fester.

You didn’t protest when he ripped off the rest of your suit and removed your soiled underwear until you were bare before him. With care you didn’t know Dabi possessed, he gently set you down in a tub of warm water. You couldn’t help the tears that escaped when the water soothed your sore muscles and kissed your wounds. Wanting nothing more than to close your eyes and sleep, you were brought to reality by the sloshing of water and Dabi’s rough hands lifting you up slightly then setting you back down between his legs.

Another person’s warmth was something you never craved as a result of your childhood and growing up an orphan. In your current state, however, even you fell victim to the base human need to find comfort in others during difficult situations. Sweet inviting heat radiated off of Dabi’s chest and you easily rested your body on his, letting your eyes close in the process. You were only mildly aware of your surroundings as you let yourself relax. You felt his hands lather soap all over your body but that was all you felt as sleep won over and you drifted off.

You woke up to the sting of ointment on your wounds. Sitting on Dabi’s lap wrapped in only a towel, you watched as he meticulously cleaned and wrapped your thigh and wrists. He then shifted and carefully lifted you up only to realize you were awake.

“Sit here while I wrap your ankles.” His touch was light and careful as he cleaned the red skin of your ankles and then wrapped each one in a white bandage that he fastened with a clip. You couldn’t help but watch him as he worked at a steady pace until he gently set down your foot. You thought of running away but the lock on the door prevented you from acting on your impulse.

Dabi left but quickly returned with a change of clothes that you recognized as yours and you lifted your head in confusion.

“I stopped by your flat,” he replied and when you didn’t move, he spoke again. “Do you need help?”

You shook your head and wondered if he would stay as you fished for your underwear only to see Dabi closing the door behind him. You put on the sweatpants and shirt Dabi gave you and opened the door to a familiar scent that made your mouth water. On the table was a spread of your favorite foods: okonomiyaki, tonkatsu, and dorayaki.

You approached the table cautiously but noticed the two sets of chopsticks and the nod Dabi gave you as he set two bottles of water by your plate. You sat down and swallowed the saliva that filled your mouth as Dabi filled your plate with the delicious-smelling food. After he served himself and sat down, you picked up your chopsticks with trembling hands and picked up a piece of the breaded pork.

One taste and you were scarfing down the food eager to satisfy your hunger only to be stopped by Dabi slamming his chopsticks down and glowering at you.

“Slow down or I’ll take it away.”

You finished your meal slowly which you realized would prevent you from throwing it all up after not eating for a long time. Wondering exactly how much time had passed, you addressed your captor for the first time since his return.

“How long have I been here?” Dabi regarded you for a moment before taking a swig of beer. “About five days…gonna be six tomorrow.”

“Where did you go?” You pushed your luck unsure if it would end badly for you.

“Work.” He went back to finishing his share of the dorayaki and you couldn’t help glancing at the exit.

Were there other people around or was the building isolated from everyone?

Even if you did get out what would be on the other side?

“It’s locked,” He interrupted your thoughts and you looked away knowing it was useless without the key.

“So drugs and human trafficking?” He sent a confused but agitated look your way and you continued. “Your work. That’s what your gang specializes in, right?”

Dabi mulled over your words until he broke into a smirk. “Oh, is that what they told you about those idiots? I thought they’d be more creative—”

“What are you talking about?” You got agitated quickly when people kept you in the dark about something and Dabi was obviously doing just that. “Whose they?”

“The Hero Public Safety Commission,” he replied nonchalantly. “Didn’t they tell you to gather evidence on a band of no-name villains?”

His use of the exact phrase Takeru had told you shook you to your core and your mind raced to conjure an explanation. “H-How do you know that?!”

“Do you still not get it?” He grinned taking in your rigid form. “They set you up. We came to a deal. I offered them intel on some villains in exchange for you.”

A choked sob erupted from your throat and you starred at Dabi in horror as his words registered in your mind. You had hoped the HPSC would eventually find your location and rescue you but Dabi’s revelation killed any hope of being saved. You stood up and Dabi mimicked you waiting for you to make your move and pounce on you like a predator.

“They were pretty eager to get rid of you. You were too much of a danger to them and the rest of hero society.”

Your head throbbed and a ringing noise assaulted your ears the more Dabi explained the mission to you. Air became scarce and you began hyperventilating. With your heart drumming against your chest and your vison blurring, you took a step but your legs gave out beneath you. On the ground, you drew your legs to your chest and grasped your head.

“W-WHY?!” Your whole world crumbled in that moment and you fell into the dark pits of despair.

Dabi came down next to you and took you into his arms. He pressed your head against his chest and rocked you back in forth letting you ride out your panic attack. You gripped his cotton shirt and soaked it with your angry tears repeating the question you’d asked.

“They didn’t want a hero raised by villains to rise the ranks and gain influence. They couldn’t let you ruin their twisted system of heroes.”

“B-but I’m not a v-villain! I just want to save people and live a decent life! Why can’t t-they see that?!”

Dabi lifted you up in his arms and took you to the bed. “They don’t deserve you, Y/N. They sabotaged your career but it’s okay now. You’re here with me where you belong.”

Before you could get away, Dabi had you pinned down on the bed careful not to press on your bandaged wrists. You struggled against him but his grip only tightened and memories of the last time you’d angered him reminded you off his quirk. He began to press open-mouthed kisses against your exposed neck eliciting a gasp from your lips.

“We’ll get them back for everything they did to you. We’ll destroy them the same way they destroyed you. I’d do that and so much more for you, Y/N.”

His words should have repulsed you. You should have pushed him off and told him you didn’t want anything he had to offer. You should have tried to run away even if it got you punished. You should have done anything except what you were doing—what you were letting him do—but Dabi’s revelation changed everything. You didn’t know where you belonged. Hero society didn’t want you so why were you so desperate to get back?

Dabi interrupted your musings by pressing his hard-on against your clothed sex and nipping the skin on your collarbone. You bit your lip to muffle your moans as he moved his mouth to your ear and licked the skin around it. You were a quaking mess when his mouth claimed yours. The cold hard metal on his face made you gasp and his tongue was inside in no time. Your weakened mental state worked against you and the pleasure from kisses and thrusts against your sex wore you down. You gripped his hair and wrapped your legs around his waist to bring him closer.

He broke away first, the string of saliva breaking and dribbling down your flushed face. His shit faced smirk almost made you regret your decision—until he took off your pants and underwear and buried himself between your legs. His warm tongue that alternated between lapping and sucking on your clit combined with the cool metal staples had you gripping the sheets as waves of pleasure coursed through your body and your moans and cries echoed off the walls.

After coming undone on his mouth for the third time, he raised his head and took off his shirt to reveal the pattern of scarred skin, staples, and pale skin that matched his face. Whether your reaction to his flesh angered him, his face showed no indication and he went back to taking off the rest of your clothes. Fully conscious as opposed to how you were hours ago in the bath, you flushed as he greedily took in your splayed naked form before settling in between your thighs and languidly running his tongue up until he reached your left breast and licked the already hardened nipple while he flicked and pinched the right one.

He alternated between the two making your mind go blank from the intense pleasure he was giving you. Your sex was gushing once again just from him playing with your chest and you tugged on his hair to get his attention.

“Please…I need—I need it.” You couldn’t bring yourself to say it and Dabi smirked knowingly.

“Say it and I’ll give it to you,” he replied before returning to your left nipple and biting down on it making you tear up in pain and pleasure.

“Fuck! Fuck me, please.”

He released your nipple with a pop and took his weight off you. You observed him as he unbuckled his jeans and took them off to reveal his tented boxers. He released his cock as he climbed back on the bed but your eyes remained on the pre that coated his head and dribbled down his shaft. As he settled between your legs and guided his cockhead towards your entrance, regret and apprehension dampened your desire.

“Wait, I don’t— HNNGH!”

Dabi sank in and bottomed out in one swift motion. His thick girth stretched you out painfully despite not being a virgin and you were sure you’d bleed. You tried shifting to get him off you but Dabi began mercilessly thrusting into your aching cunt despite your protests.

“Hurts—AH! It hurts!”

“Too hard—s’ too fast! Agh!”

“Shhh…I’ll make it feel good.” Dabi shifted slightly until he sat on the bed while gripping your hips and pulling you towards him. He then resumed thrusting at a much slower pace but his balls still slapped your skin and the head of his cock reached your cervix each time. The slapping noises of his skin on yours sounded wetter and you could feel the pleasure begin to bubble once again. His fingers suddenly began rubbing circles around your clit while the other traveled up and played with your nipples. With your pleasure at the brim, you lifted your hips to allow Dabi to hit that spot and you were soon rewarded with your release.

“Cum—I’m gonna cu—!” Your cum gushed out while you collapsed back on the bed, a spent and twitching mess.

Dabi wasted no time in letting you rest before he pulled you up on his lap and guided your hips with his hands. Placing wet kisses all over your neck and chest, he built up your pleasure once again until you were the one raising and slamming your hips down on his thick length.

“Fuck! Your cunt’s so good.” His warm breath tickled your neck before he bit down.

His praises made your cunt twitch even more and your hands traveled to his back where you scratched his back trying to hold on to your mind as the friction from your bodies and his deep thrusts fogged your senses until all you could feel was ecstasy as you bounced on his cock.

“Gonna cum! Argh—Milk my fucking cock! Take my cum—F-Fuck!”

Overstimulated, your walls convulsed around him and you soaked his lower stomach with your release. Seeing you squirt sent Dabi over the edge and his hot semen filled your cunt and dribbled out of you when he pulled out.

Panting and covered in sweat, you collapsed on his chest wanting nothing more than to sleep. Dabi held you in his arms until both your breathing evened out and heart rates returned to normal. He then lifted you up and carried you to the bathroom where he set you on the toilet seat and gently cleaned the cum and blood off your legs and sex. After cleaning himself off, he took you back to the bed, helped you dress, laid you down on the bed, and covered you with a warm blanket.

You could cry from how warm and soft the bed was compared to the cold hard floor you’d lain on over the past few days. In your exhausted state, the pain and suffering Dabi had put you through resurfaced and tears of frustration framed your eyes.

Dabi settled next to you, brought you to his chest, and wrapped his arms around you tightly. You hated yourself in that moment as you cried in your kidnapper’s chest while he rubbed comforting circles on your back. You shook and sobbed in anger but Dabi only hugged you closer and kissed the top of your head.

“I-I hate y-you! Y-you ruined m-my life!” You wailed but gripped his tear-soaked shirt. “What a-am I supposed t-to do now?!”

“Shhh…you’ll get used to this. Once you’re obedient we’ll be happy together, you’ll see.”

You weren’t used to sleeping next to someone else; having their warmth envelop your body and listening to the gentle beating of their heart. It was a foreign sensation but you quickly found out that sleeping in Dabi’s arms brought you more comfort than you’d felt in a long time. It reminded you of warm Sunday mornings and walking hand-in-hand with your parents to the park. That night you didn’t dream of pain and suffering with the Mayor or past missions the HPSC sent you on. You dreamt of your parents and how happy you’d been once upon a time.

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dialovers-translations · 4 years ago

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DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE, BLOOD OFFICIAL VISUAL FANBOOK ー Interview Vol. 2 feat. Nao Nakamura

Source: DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE, BLOOD Official Visual Fanbook

Release date: 2013

Huge thank you to @keithvalentinex for providing the raw scans!

SECTION 1: Q&A

Q1. When was the series’ sequel decided on?

A: Around the time the first game ‘DIABOLIK LOVERS’ was released in stores. We were fortunate enough to have already received news of an anime adaption at the time, so at some point we played with the idea of creating a fan disc to go along with it. However, if possible we wanted to hype up the series even more in anticipation of the anime’s release, which is how the production of a ‘DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE, BLOOD’ series came to realisation.

Q2. Did you plan on introducing a set of 4 new characters during the early phases of development?

A: The initial draft we received from Rejet-sama mentioned four characters. We figured that with that amount, we could pack it into one game and create an equal amount of content as we did for the Sakamaki’s, so we proceeded with said idea. At one of the first brainstorm sessions, we casually dropped the idea of creating a game with 6 Do-M characters... (lol) However, that would stray too far away from the core concept behind ‘DIABOLIK LOVERS’, so it obviously got rejected. (lol)

Q3. How did you go about writing the characters’ dialogue and actions?

A: I believe that the previous installment can be regarded rather groundbreaking within the genre of otome games. However, the boys coming across as too strong to the point where it would prevent someone from delving deeper into their character is something we reflected upon. We wanted to make up for that this time and created this game with the intend of exploring them even further.

Q4. What did you struggle the most with while writing the script?

A: This doesn’t apply solely to the script, but the fact there are so many romanceable characters in this game is what made it so difficult. However, we did not want there to be a difference in quality between the different characters’ routes. Despite our strong wish to please the playerbase, it made the distribution of time very difficult. The writers would first pen down the script, then Rejet-san would do the proofreading and make adjustments and then pass it on to us. However, reading a script while playing a game or simply reading it on paper is still different, so we were making minute changes down to the very last minute of development. We ran through the same process for the last game, but this time around, the total amount of content was just very large. We once again felt the struggle of putting in so many characters to choose from. However, we did this to create an even better game, so it was worth the struggle.

Q5. Which character caused you the most problems while writing the script?

A: All of the Sakamaki’s. The four Mukami brothers who make their appearance in this installment may be Vampires, but they were once human just like the heroine, so in terms of emotions, they tend to sympathize with her more. As a result, it only makes the Sakamaki’s seem even more like they are the villains of the story. While this may seem obvious given their original setting of being both ‘Vampires’ and ‘extreme sadists’, it makes it very easy for the otome game element as well as the feelings they end up developing for the heroine to be lost, in which case they would no longer be the six brothers we wanted to deliver. Therefore, it was very difficult to convey to the player that the love they harbor for the heroine eventually makes them change, while still preserving the sadistic tendencies which stem from their nature as Vampires at the same time. The player base has spent quite a bit of time interacting with these brothers, and I am sure it was not always easy, but I hope said message was delivered to those who played our game.

Q6. Is there a character who underwent drastic changes compared to the last game?

A: All of them are still the same at the core, so my impression of them did not change depending on the scenario. I believe minor changes were done to the way some of the characters are drawn, but personally I perceive each character as a mix of both their previous and current representation.

Q7. In this game, each section is divided into a ‘Situation Part’ and ‘Story Part’. Could you explain your intentions behind this?

A: When collecting feedback on the previous game, we received many complaints about the different chapters feeling inconsistent and all over the place. However, we always intended ‘DIABOLIK LOVERS’ to be a game in which the player gets to enjoy these different kind of ‘situations’, so without losing this part of the enjoyment, we figured we had to make the plot progression easier to grasp, which is how the current structure was implementend. To make it even more clear to the player, we divided it into two sections and gave each of them a title, changing the names as well.

Q8. What are parts which have greatly improved or parts you want us to focus on in comparison to the first game?

A: To ensure the player gets to enjoy the development in the heroine and characters’ thoughts and feelings, we applied small adjustments till the very last second. We hope that the people playing the game will take notice of this as well.

Q9. Why do you think the series has received such a great amount of support?

A: I believe the impact of the ‘Do-S Vampire’ concept, Satoi-san’s eye-catching illustrations and the charm of the cast who voices the characters all play a big part in this. Furthermore, I also believe that the simultaenous announcement of both drama CDs and a game which took place during the early stages of development had a large influence as well. We were able to make a smooth transition from the release of the CDs to the release of the games, which made it easier for the fans to follow along with the franchise. We truly are grateful for that!

Q10. Were there any ideas you wanted to incorporate in this game, but were unable to do in the end?

A: This game features the same selection segment as the previous one in which scenario’s 1 ~ 6 raise your love meter, while scenarios 7 ~ 10 raise the SM meter. However, we implemented the distinction between the ‘situation part’ and ‘story part’ this time, so it might have actually been even more enjoyable if the situation part raises the SM meter instead...I think. Those kind of features may vary depending on the vision of the director and staff members, so I would like to use this experience to think of various possible routes for future installments, as well as to settle on an end product which is fitting for the franchise. Furthermore, this may seem like a task without an end but I believe that the voicing plays a big factor in delivering the story. It is a vital element of conveying the message you want to tell, in a way that whether or not the player understands the plot is often highly dependent on the voice work. Every time I find myself wanting to perfect this, but it is difficult to supervise all of it just by myself...However, there’s always next time, so I’d love to squeeze in the time to thoroughly check this!

Q11. Do you have any more games planned for the series at present? Would you personally like to create more sequels?

A: We do not as of now, but if there is a strong demand for it, we might just be able to develop another game. Personally I would like to make a stereotypical ‘fandisc’ but the very first thing that comes to mind with those is a 'sweet, romantic story’ so I do struggle a little envisioning how that would play out with a cast made out of nothing but intense characters.

Q12. Please leave a message for the fans.

A: Thanks to the support we have received from all of you, we were able to create so much content for this franchise. I put my heart and soul into this game, so I sincerely hope that many people will enjoy it. Your impressions and encouraging messages are a great motivator as well, so I am eagerly awaiting those! The series may deliver new installments in the future, and to ensure that you all can continue to enjoy ‘DIABOLIK LOVERS’, we will continue to try our hardest together with Rejet-san, so we’d be happy if you could send us your heartfelt support.

SECTION 2: THEIR FAVORITE EPISODES

Sakamaki brothers: The final few chapters of Ayato’s route left a strong impression on me. I couldn’t help but wonder if somebody could truly be that stubborn and in denial about their own feelings, insistent on calling the girl they love ‘a prey’ till the very end. I felt so frustrated when the heroine’s feelings just wouldn’t get through to him, tears welled up in my eyes.

Mukami brothers: The part which gave me the most goosebumps during the development stages has to be Ruki’s Manservant Ending. Takagi Sakurai-san did a magnificant job portraying his silent madness, it was truly wonderful. Second place would be Azusa’s brute ending, even though I knew how the story would go, I still ended up feeling a little depressed by it, so please be careful when you play this scenario...

SECTION 3: NAO NAKAMURA CHOOSES ー SITUATION-DEPENDENT CHARACTER SELECT

Who would you choose in these situations? What’s the developer’s opinion?

S1. To sleep together with?

Best: Subaru, I feel like he has a good sleeping posture.

Worst: Subaru, he might not move around much in his sleep, but it’d still be uncomfortable and narrow in that coffin, huh?

S2. To go on a trip together with?

Best: Shuu, I’m sure he’d just loaf around the lodge all day, so I get to enjoy the trip in whichever way I want!

Worst: Laito, I’d rather keep my distance from him.

S3. To eat together with?

Best: Kou because I’m sure he’d happily gobble it up.

Worst: Kanato, I feel like the food would be lacking in nutrients.

S4. To study with?

Best: Ruki, I think he’d do a good job explaining everything accurately.

Worst: ???, honestly all of them...

S5. To go on a date with?

Best: Yuma, I actually think he would make for a great boyfriend.

Worst: Shuu, because everything would be a chore to him...

S6. To play a video game with?

Best: Ayato, he just seems like the type of guy you can always have fun and make some ruckus with.

Worst: Reiji, he seems super fussy.

S7. To play sports with?

Best: Shuu, I don’t really like exercising so...I’ll go with the person who seems unlikely to exercise in the first place.

Worst: Ayato, I don’t like exercise after all...

S8. To go on a drive with?

Best: Ruki, I’m positive he would look handsome behind the wheel.

Worst: Azusa, it’d be bad if his bandages were to get stuck around the steering wheel or the gear stick...

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #diabolik lovers more blood official visual fanbook #diabolik lovers translation #diabolik lovers fanbook #diabolik lovers interview #nao nakamura

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chibivesicle · 3 years ago

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Golden Kamuy - Kikuta really deserved better [part 2] 277-279.

Can you tell by my title that I’m a fan of Kikuta and I have some choice words for Noda? Chapter 277 starts out with an introduction to the regional politics of Meiji era Japan. The entire political shift occurred with the marriage of convenience between Choushuu and Satsuma (the Sat-Chou alliance) and how that is playing out in government and the military. With Hanazawa on the Satsuma side a commanding officer is having Tsurumi deal with the damage control. That being Lt. General Okuda (and Kikuta’s boss)

He discloses how he’s the person who helped to cover up the scandal for Hanazawa and more of the regional politics comes into play as he pulls Tsurumi into this.

Recall that Tsurumi is from Niigata and we know he is from a family that lost power and wealth due to political changes. He assumes that of course Tsurumi would hold a grudge towards those from the Sat-Chou alliance. Usami is also from a fallen samurai family in Niigata and we know that Ogata is from Ibaraki and also from a samurai family on the losing side. Tsukishima is from the island of Sado where unwanted people were dumped in Niigata so he is also an outsider. We learn of his ‘true’ feelings as the tells his core group his opinion on things.

I love how we get unhinged Tsurumi calling it all a farce and he’s over Central. But most importantly Okuda confirmed his own intel about the gold he learned while in Russia at some point in time. His gold plan can slowly move along. So Tsurumi becomes in the Hanazawa scandal cover up looking for the young 2nd Lt. and Kikuta, working under Okuda’s direct orders.

Despite his best efforts, Kikuta’s plan is revealed by a secretary at the Military Academy, while we know that Sugimoto and Kikuta are en route to the engagement dinner.

Hanazawa panics and sprints out to determine what is happening. Right on his tail is Tsurumi and his key team of Ogata, Tsukishima and Usami. Clearly this is going to become a huge mess. The next few pages are amusing, but really don’t add value to the plot. I am impressed that Kaeko has an excellent plot to get Sugimoto naked and I commend her efforts! GK is never short of strong female characters. Who enjoy sex.

This sets up a hilarious moment where he’s naked and trapped in a bedroom while she leverages the potential scandal to her advantage. By that point Tsurumi has caught up to them. What is most interesting is when Usami addresses Ogata as Hyakunnosuke and asks him what he thinks about meeting his brother. It is clear this isn’t out of concern from Usami’s part, we know he hates Ogata to his very core.

But as usual, Ogata doesn’t respond and we just see only a part of his eyes, not even a glance of his lips to give us an idea of what he’s thinking.

Kaeko and Sugimoto continue to talk as she reveals what she knows from Hanazawa Hiro. She had been a nurse during the first Sino-Japanese war so it has allowed her to reflect on the impact of war on individual soliders.

This tells us a few things; Hiro’s patriotism is more nuanced. If she were being selfish and just saying she doesn’t want her son to go off to war without experience it, that would be one thing. Instead, she knows being a military spouse first hand what happens - no one could say she didn’t do her own duty and go likely above and beyond. Ultimately, she wants to protect her son from her own experiences and observations and be a mother.

Sugimoto then realizes he needs to bail and leaves poor Kikuta confused. And then bam! The 27th is there.

Of course this leads to the most Sugimoto situation of all time! Tsurumi threatens Kaeko with his handgun and Ogata asks where Yuusaku is. Of course Sugimoto flies out of the bathroom naked sans Kikuta’s hat and Ogata is just amused beyond belief.

This would be complete if he were relaxed eating a box of popcorn or something like that. 278 continues this absolute chaos and lots of fan service for Miss Kaeko! I really don’t think the fight scene needs much meta. Ogata just finds it amusing (and btw sucks at hand to hand combat) while Usami rumbles with Sugimoto. Tsurumi realizes he’s not Yuusaku and Kikuta rushes in and gets shot in the shoulder by Tsukishima.

Somehow, Kikuta is able to get the rest of them to flee but not without running into the actual Hanazawa Yuusaku. Awkward. Tsurumi only then realizes that Kikuta was doing his job and they run out into the street.

Kaeko tries her best to convince Sugimoto to marry her. Granted he is a very heroic figure and he fought to protect her. However, reality wouldn’t allow that to happen and Sugimoto decides to join the army - thinking he won’t starve that way.

Kikuta looks so sad and disappointed when he hears this.

He’s definitely thinking of his younger brother who died b/c he told him to join the army with him. I loved the fact that we learn that Kaeko got to be a successful woman who was also compassionate to others.

There is a quick exchange that shows the first encounter between Ogata and Yuusaku. Yuusaku notices Ogata and salutes him as a cadet.

Ogata doesn’t even return the salute and he look he gives him out of the corner of his eyes. What is he thinking? I’d say Yuusaku doesn’t know who Ogata even is. But something has him very suspicious to be this leery of him. This also makes me think of this previous encounter between Koito and Ogata in chapter 200.

This time Ogata is bolder when he walks by Koito who is also currently still in the Army Academy. Except unlike Yuusaku who doesn’t seem to pick up on Ogata’s vibes, Koito does! And the two of them stare each other down. I think that this in part shows that Koito has more innate awareness of things and could be considered more of a ‘natural’ in the military. Which Yuusaku isn’t. We have no evidence Yuusaku has any sort of military talent or skills.

The chapter ends with Kikuta asking Sugimoto if he’s serious about joining the military and how he’s already fated to go to hell based on what he’s done in his life. 279 continues the conversation between Kikuta and Sugimoto and he flat out tells Sugimoto about how his brother died of illness in the army during the Sino-Japanese war.

Sugimoto then becomes Kikuta’s younger brother telling him that it is time to move on. This continues the trend in GK where a character that is speaking becomes someone else to the listener.

This is most evident with Asirpa when she becomes Yuusaku on more than one occasion to Ogata.

But this facial expression from Kikuta [sobs].

No wonder Kikuta worked so hard to save Ariko’s life! He can’t just always be responsible for the deaths of others.

Sugimoto convinces Kikuta that he’ll be alright in the army and he relents and lets him keep the cap. This shows that Kikuta has moved on from the death of his brother - a big deal! In an unusual way, Sugimoto has helped Kikuta move on and take the next step in the healing process. Kikuta reports to his commander in the 1st. Okuda wants him to keep an eye on Tsurumi. Obviously, he knows now that Tsurumi interfered with Kikuta’s plans for Hanazawa rather heavy-handedly so he would need someone else to balance it out.

It then reveals that Ogata is also working for Okuda in the 1st. This explains why when the two of them crossed paths in the brewery they did not engage but nor did they appear to exchange any information.

I can’t help but feel like something is still off with this. Ogata does have skills from working in intelligence with Tsurumi. He’s observant, makes himself invisible and can get others to talk easily. But Ogata being a 100% willing spy - it seems like he wants something else out of this. Kikuta’s character screams secret agent - but Ogata, he’s something else. I’m not sure if Ogata’s choice to be a spy on Tsurumi was a real choice.

When Ogata and Tsukishima had their shoot out in Yubari at Edogai’s, Tsukishima told him he was a pet cat for Central. Ogata replied that they were part of a rebel element. We know that Ogata was working with Tamai at the beginning of the manga. I struggle to see how Ogata has loyalty to anyone honestly. He seems to be moving throughout this game with again his own mysterious objective. Ogata is cynical and has no belief in the nation state nor does he harbor any sort of deep patriotism towards Imperial Japan.

Since Okuda is friends with Hanazawa and is based in Tokyo, he may have known Ogata since his birth and has kept tabs on him after the Ogata grandparents took him back to Ibaraki with his mom. Ogata’s existence might be a sort of trump card that Okuda is keeping . . . but others found out as well like Tsurumi. Did Okuda have Ogata tell or leak information that Ogata is Hanazawa’s first son? The chapter jumps to the 203 meter hill in the war and we see Yuusaku fallen on the battlefield. Ogata watches from distance, his face cut off while other members of the 27th run out to help Yuusaku.

This finally reveals Yuusaku’s eyes! Not the anticipated reveal - I kept thinking this was something that Ogata was going to see but it shows us clear eyes. Which look sort of similar to Asirpa’s eyes.

So many thoughts are jumping around in my brain about this reveal.

1.) These eyes are not the ‘trademark’ Hanazawa eyes. Dark black orbs with those eyebrows! This indicates his eyes aren’t from his father.

Seeing this, I can’t help but think that Yuusaku is not Hanazawa’s son. Instead, Hiro had an affair with someone else. A major theme in GK is that the children inherit the skills of their parents. Asirpa is able to do many things as she inherited the intelligence of Wilk. And that Ogata is the true inheritor of Hanazawa’s military skills.

Recall this from chapter 58. Ogata leads the crappy local gang against Hijikata and acts like a commander.

We know that Tsurumi’s lie about Ogata wanting to avenge Hanazawa is to keep Nikaido in the dark.

This would also explain why everything we learn about Yuusaku is terrible at military things. If he also isn’t Hanazawa’s son it would make it even more reason for Hiro to try to prevent him from entering the military since he’s not even genetically related to this great line of Hanazawas. I wish we knew more about the Ogata side of things - I think we’ll also learn that the Ogata side had competent military men on it as well. 2.) Yuusaku’s eyes are the same as Asirpa’s and indicate their sort of innocence. In this case, it would perfectly explain why Ogata sees Yuusaku instead of Asirpa when he has the fever and then the melt down on the ice floe. Yuusaku kept himself naive and innocent to meet his father’s expectations. A man who I don’t think is even his father at this moment. Therefore, Ogata’s guilt on killing Yuusaku is tied to his sort of innocence in these situations and why he can’t seem to shake his mental confusion when it comes to Asirpa. However, unlike Yuusaku, Asirpa has never forced herself on him to do things or guilt tripped him so it leaves things open for him to not link her to Yuusaku.

3.) Yuusaku was going to blow Ogata’s cover working for Okuda. Now that we know that Ogata was working for Okuda while in the 27th it means he’d have to keep his role quiet. If Yuusaku found out that Ogata was working for Okuda, I could see him going to Tsurumi and telling him this information. Therefore, to protect his status, Ogata used this as his rationale to kill Yuusaku on the battle field. I have never figured out if Ogata was nudged to kill Tsurumi by his ‘don’t kill him right now.’ comment as one of Tsurumi’s backwards motivations that lead Ogata to directly killing him. So many possibilities! I want more Ogata backstory dammit!

Anyhoo, to not make this meta super long let’s get back to the action. Asirpa begins working out how to try to break the code. Hijikata notes that Wilk could have used something other than kanji, since he’d know the Latin alphabet for Polish and Cyrillic for Russian. Shiraishi makes a clear point that this could be a message from Wilk towards her, though it feels like he’s channeling Kiro. Out of many of the Japanese characters Shiraishi time and time again comes out much more sympathetic to the minorities than others.

Asirpa begins to wonder how the coin is linked to the skins. She’s thinking things through and is on her way to solving the puzzle.

After saving Ariko, Kikuta is returning to Tsurumi’s group in the church. Oh Roger, this is why I love you so much.

Look at that smirk with a slightly watery eye. At the same time Tsurumi is also looking at the coin and realizes he’s figured it out.

Kikuta approaches the rest of the group and comments on if he’s found the location. Tsurumi states that things are just getting started. He casually pulls out his gun and fires two shots into Kikuta at point blank range.

And with this I am deeply saddened and shocked. How dare you do that to Kikuta!!! He was my Kiro replacement and now he’s also going to die.

First Boutarou died and now Kikuta. [cries]. We know that Tsurumi is a shinigami but this is just brutal. The bear death trio died early on in the manga. Ogata escaped. Kikuta now is the next link to Central that goes down.

#golden kamuy #Golden Kamuy manga #golden kamuy meta #warrant officer kikuta #sugimoto saichi #asirpa #tsurumi tokushirou #Usami Tokishige #Hanazawa Yuusaku #Hanazawa Hiro #hanazawakoujiro #koito otonoshin #okuda #ogata hyakunosuke #tsukishima hajime #wilk #hijikata toshizo #Kaneko Kaeko #okuda hidenobu

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mortimer-writes-sometimes · 4 years ago

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Alrighty, so this is an idea I've been having about the bartender for a while: if you remember sans' workshop, I actually thought about the idea of sans being gone, and grillby finding the key and beginning to explore the skeletons' past.

Just a random idea, and I also love how you write your stories, I can literally imagine the scenario happening❤.

Oh, I really like this one! I hope you don’t mind that I went in the angst direction with this. It turned out to be a little long and might not have been exactly what you were looking for, but I hope you like it anyway! Also thank you so much for the compliment, I’m thrilled that you can enjoy it.

I Never Knew You. I Never Will.

Word count: 2951 Warnings: Genocide route and all that entails Summary: Grillby can’t find Sans after the evacuation. When he finds himself in Sans’s lab, his world comes crashing down around him.

Preface: This takes place near the end of a genocide run. The remaining monsters have been evacuated to the True Lab by Dr. Alphys. Determined to avenge his brother, Sans left the safety of the lab to judge Frisk.

Grillby felt like he was floating as he made his way through the crowd of monsters around him. This had to be a nightmare. It couldn’t be real. He watched from outside himself as he searched the crowd for familiar faces, stumbling as he was pushed aside by a monster rushing to greet their spouse. People were calling out for each other, sobbing as they found their family members or wailing as they realized their children hadn’t made it. It couldn’t be real.

It couldn’t be.

He couldn’t see any of the Snowdin guards. Where were they?

No, he couldn’t understand, this wasn’t real.

He couldn’t find his niece. He heard someone screaming her name above the crowd and realized it was him. Where was she? Where were Grillby’s brothers, his parents? He hadn’t seen them in so long. They had to be okay.

It wasn’t real.

It couldn’t be real.

It was.

Reality came crashing down. Grillby snapped back into awareness and choked, sickened by the lingering smell of dust as sheer panic gripped him. His friends were dead. His family was dead. They’d been fine just yesterday, how could they be dead? What kind of monster- no, what thing could do this? He struggled to breathe as he felt his whole body seizing up. It was all he could do not to puke, head spinning as he leaned against the nearest wall. He couldn’t breathe, his vision was spotty, was he dying? Was this what it felt like, for your soul to break apart?

Grillby sank to his knees, trails of steam pouring from the corners of his eyes as he sobbed. Everyone he loved was dead.

No. Wait. He was forgetting someone.

Where was Sans?

The fire elemental jerked his head up, frantically scanning the crowd. Sans had been the one to come for him and tell him to evacuate to Hotland. He’d taken Grillby’s hand and told him there was no time to explain. They’d taken a shortcut to Alphys’s lab, skipping Waterfall to be sure Grillby wouldn’t get hurt by the rivers and rain. Sans told him a human was attacking every monster in sight. He told him to stay put, then left to help with the rest of the evacuation. It had only been after the fact that Grillby realized Sans had been wearing Papyrus’s scarf, and it was covered in dust.

Alphys’s underground lab had quickly filled with frightened monsters. The remaining members of the royal guard had spread the word and were getting people out as fast as they could. Sans could only take one person at a time using his shortcuts, but he still managed to get dozens of people out. Despite it all, they weren’t fast enough. The human was destroying everything in its path. They got to Waterfall, Hotland, and the Core faster than everyone could get out. Survivors started showing up covered in lingering dust.

Grillby forced himself to his feet. Sans had to be nearby. All the survivors had been moved to safety, hidden underground. There was no reason for Sans to still be searching. There was no reason for him to be anywhere but by Grillby’s side, safe and sound. Where was he?

The bartender spotted Alphys handing out blankets and walked over, desperation gripping his soul as he stepped in front of her. “Dr. Alphys, have you seen Sans anywhere? He was helping with the evacuation. He should be back by now.”

Alphys stopped in her tracks. “H-he isn’t here?” She looked around, nearly as worried by the news as Grillby. “He s-said he was taking a- a shortcut home. He was o-o-only going to grab some- some more blankets and food.”

Dread enveloped Grillby’s soul, threatening to break it. No. No, this couldn’t be happening. “Why would you let him go back out there?!”

“The h-human is, um, in New Home,” Alphys stuttered out in her defense. “Sans c-c-can teleport. He doesn’t h-have to get, um, anywhere n-near the human. It should b-b-be safe by now. I’m sure, um, h-he’s probably safe. He’ll be back any moment now! I’m s-sure of it!”

She didn’t sound sure enough for Grillby’s taste. He pushed past her, continuing his search as he went from room to room. Sans should have been back. What if he’d exhausted himself and couldn’t teleport again? What if the human doubled back, searching for survivors, and found Sans?

A flash of red caught Grillby’s eye. A long piece of red fabric was left draped on one of the medical beds. Papyrus’s scarf.

Grillby pulled out his phone, shakily picking the dusty scarf up. Surely Sans had his phone on him, right? The phone rang… and rang… and rang…

“Congrats, you’ve reached the voicemail of Sans the skeleton. Picking up the phone is too much work right now, so I probably won’t answer if you call me back. You can leave a message, but I probably won’t check my voicemail either. Just text me. Or call Papyrus. See ya.”

The fire monster wanted to cry. He called again and again and again. It went to voicemail every time. He tried texting him, begging Sans to answer…

But nobody came.

Grillby was moving towards the elevator of the lab before he truly comprehended what he was doing. Alphys saw him and rushed after him, grabbing his sleeve. “W-wait! Where are you going?”

“You said Sans was at home, didn’t you?” Grillby answered quietly. “I’m going to find him.”

“You c-can’t! It’s not safe-!”

Grillby turned around, his flames burning hotter as he snapped at her. “But it was safe for Sans to leave, was it?! Don’t be so hypocritical! If you’re truly concerned about the safety of monsters, let me go!”

Alphys fell quiet, trembling a bit. She let go of Grillby’s sleeve and hunched over. She hated being yelled at. Grillby immediately felt guilty, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, “I shouldn’t have raised my voice. I just-”

“N-no.” Alphys wiped at her eyes and adjusted her glasses. “You’re right. I sh-shouldn’t have let Sans go. Let, um, let me find a r-rain jacket for you. It will be dangerous for y-you to get through- through Waterfall on your own.”

Grillby was quiet for a moment, then just nodded, letting her leave. She came back moments later with a rain jacket, rubber boots, and an umbrella. The fire monster took them and thanked the scientist, heading towards the elevator. He didn’t say goodbye. In the situation they’d found themselves in, a farewell felt like a curse.

Grillby managed to make it through Waterfall mostly unscathed, folding his umbrella as he walked into Snowdin. The place felt like a ghost town, every window dark and every home abandoned. He tried not to think about it as he approached the skeleton brothers’ house. The door was standing open, filling Grillby with dread. He choked down another wave of panic as he stepped inside the dark living room. “Sans?” Grillby called out, voice feeling muffled by the oppressive, eerie silence. “Sans, are you here? ...god, please be here.” He pulled out his phone again as he walked up the stairs, dialing Sans’s number and waiting.

A default ringtone went off in Sans’s room.

The bartender should’ve felt relieved, but if anything, the sound scared him more than the silence. If Sans was here, why didn’t he answer the phone? Respond to the texts? Grillby tried the door and found it locked, struggling with the knob despite knowing it was useless. “Sans! Are you there?! Please, answer me!”

But nobody came.

The panic Grillby had been holding back consumed him. The fire that made up his body grew as he stepped back, leaning against the railing before moving forward and kicking down the door.

The room was empty. Sans’s phone was ringing on the bed, abandoned.

For the second time that day, Grillby found himself sobbing, kneeling on the floor as he desperately tried to force himself to breathe. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t have lost Sans, too. He didn’t even say goodbye. He didn’t even get to tell him…

Dizzy with exhaustion, Grillby looked up at the phone again. On the bed next to it was a piece of paper, folded around something. Dragging himself to his feet, the bartender stumbled over, sinking to the ground again as he picked it up. A key fell into his lap. It was small and silver, and it looked old. The note it had been wrapped in had a drawing of the house, with an arrow pointing to something in the back. As Grillby’s gaze drifted down to the base of the drawing, he choked on another sob.

Hey Grillbz,

If you’re reading this, you probably did something stupid like go to my house by yourself with a homicidal psychopath on the loose. Don’t worry, I get it. You did this last time, too. Anyway, this go around, I’m not gonna be here when you show up.

That key you’ve got goes to a basement behind the house. Go in there. You’ll figure out for yourself where I’ve gone.

When you do, please don’t follow me.

I love you, Grillby. I’m sorry.

~Sans

Grillby read the note over and over, crying as the implications sank in. Whatever Sans was doing, it didn’t sound like he planned to come back. Well, if he thought that Grillby wasn’t going to go after him, he was dead wrong. But first… the bartender had to figure out where Sans was going.

It had taken a minute to get the door behind the house to open. The lock was old, and it stuck for a moment while Grillby jiggled the key to get it in. It finally swung open with an echoing creak, light from outside barely able to illuminate the inside of what looked to be a small home lab of some kind.

Grillby stepped inside, drawn to the large machine in the back. The damage to the odd machine and the char marks on the floor did nothing for Grillby’s anxiety, but the lack of dust around it at least assured him that it probably wasn’t the dangerous thing Sans had been alluding to. The fire monster stepped away from it, moving towards the desk and the piles of paper there. The first thing that caught his eye was a drawer slightly ajar, something inside reflecting the light that Grillby gave off. He opened it the rest of the way, immediately recognizing the badge inside as he picked it up. “This… This is the insignia of the royal scientist. Why would he have this?” Grillby mumbled out loud. Now that he was thinking about it, why would Sans have any of this? It didn’t make any sense. Sans was a sentry, and he had been the entire time Grillby knew him. The skeleton had never mentioned living in Hotland or having a scientific career. The bartender was starting to question how well he knew his best friend, setting the badge back in the drawer and turning to the papers.

The first page was written in some sort of font that Grillby couldn’t understand. Looking at it made his hurt, so he moved it to the side, skipping over it. The next page was thankfully readable. It described something called ‘DT’, and the effects it could have on a monster’s magic if infused properly. The records of the experiments had been partially burned, but most of what Grillby could read was too complicated for him to understand. He never thought Sans was dumb, but the complicated equations were far beyond anything Grillby had seen before. He hadn’t guessed Sans had that level of intelligence, or put that level of work into any one project.

The last few pages had the most burns out of all of them. Some sections were written in that headache-inducing language, with a lot of the notes Grillby could read seemingly added later. It looked like a comparison between the effectiveness of multiple attacks before and after the use of DT. The last few notes made Grillby burn lower, nearly going cold.

In conclusion, DT can be used to temporarily increase stamina and allow a monster to use their magic more effectively, summoning attacks and creating patterns like nothing seen before. However, drawing that level of magic from a monster’s soul can cause their soul to become unstable, tearing it apart. A monster could not withstand the effects of DT long-term without turning to dust.

I could handle it, just for a little while. If it came down to it, I could use the machine on myself and keep the kid from hurting anyone else.

Papyrus… Alphys… Grillby… 🕈︎✋︎☠︎☝︎👎︎✋︎☠︎☝︎💧︎… I’m so sorry.

“No,” Grillby whispered, his eyes widening in panic. “No, no no no no please tell me you didn’t- Sans-”

Sans was going to fight the human.

No matter the outcome, Sans was going to turn to dust.

Grillby ignored the sting of the rain as he sprinted through Waterfall. He didn’t have time to worry about his HP. Sans used that machine on himself. He’d managed to build it, surely he could reverse it if Grillby just reached him in time. His mind was reeling, trying to catch up with everything he learned. Sans had once been involved with the royal scientist. Was that how he knew Alphys? And what was with that strange handwriting? Why would Sans hide it from him? The rain didn’t bother Grillby this time, but he felt a sting in his soul as he realized just how little he knew about Sans. Everything he learned about him throughout their friendship… was it all a lie? Just a cover-up for whatever Sans had done in the past? It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense anymore.

Grillby’s footsteps echoed in the corridors of New Home as he sprinted down the main path. Alphys had said that the human was in New Home somewhere, undoubtedly heading towards the castle. If Sans were to face them, it would be there. He only hoped he could reach him in time.

Sans fell backward as he felt the human’s blade slice through his ribcage. Looking down, he watched in distant shock as blood started to seep from the wound. He knew the whole battle had been pointless… Frisk would just load their save file each time they died, coming back over and over until they killed him… but it still felt so surreal. The fight was over. Sans lost.

“Heh… heh heh…” The skeleton laughed breathlessly to himself as he looked up. The human was expressionless, uncaring. How? How could they have so much apathy, after everyone they hurt?

It didn’t matter. Sans forced himself to his feet, coughing as blood dripped from his mouth. It would be fine. Frisk would reset, everyone would come back, and then they’d die again. The warm golds and oranges of the hall began to blur together as the bloodloss made Sans woozy and he stumbled, leaning against one of the pillars. If he closed his eyes…

He could almost pretend he was sitting at a familiar bar, the bartender smiling at him as he cracked jokes and drank from a ketchup bottle.

“Welp. I’m going to Grillby’s,” Sans said weakly, tears filling his eyes.

“Papyrus… do you want anything?”

Footsteps echoed in the final hallway as Grillby ran, desperation gripping his soul. He almost ran right past it. He skidded to a stop as his mind processed what he’d seen. His mind went empty and numb, and he turned around, walking a few paces back the way he’d come.

At the base of one of the pillars was a blue jacket, sitting in a pile of dust.

Grillby screamed.

No. No, it couldn’t end like this. The fire elemental fell to his knees and picked up Sans’s jacket, wailing as he held it to his chest. When he did- God, he was covered in dust. Sans’s dust. The thought made him drop the jacket and turn away, gagging and throwing up until there was nothing left.

Grillby wrapped his arms around himself, the humidity in the room increasing as he sobbed. He thought of Sans’s smile, his jokes and laughter, the way he always winked at the end of a bad pun. Was any of that even real? Did Sans enjoy being around Grillby, or was it all a façade? Grief and betrayal settled heavily over the bartender, threatening to drown him. He dry-heaved again, choking as he desperately fought for air.

I love you, Grillby.

Grillby... I’m so sorry.

The words washed over him, pushing those feelings away. It didn’t matter. Whoever Sans had been before, it didn’t change what the two of them had. Grillby wouldn’t let it.

Grillby picked up Sans’s jacket as he stood, shaking the dust off and putting it on. The heat in the room became sweltering as the fire monster was filled with rage. That human... that human had taken so much from him. His friends, his family... the skeleton he loved. They couldn’t get away with it. He wouldn’t let them.

The fire monster walked towards the end of the hall, eyes burning with murderous rage. That human was going to pay for what they-

The world stuttered.

Grillby hummed to himself as he wiped down his bar, getting ready to open for the day. Hm, that was strange. Lifting the cloth, he noticed that it had quickly gotten fairly dirty. There was dust all over Grillby’s hands, coming off on the towel. He shrugged to himself as he wiped them off and got another towel.

It was probably nothing.

Thanks for reading! This one accidentally turned out kind of long. It’s pretty stream-of-consciousness, but I’m too busy to edit it today and I’m too eager to post it to wait.

Reblog or leave me a comment telling me what you think! Asks are open if you would like to leave a prompt for me, and let me know if you want to be on my Undertale fic taglist!

#dustyfic #undertale #grillby #sans #undertale grillby #undertale sans #sansby #grillby x sans #ask answered

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