#because his whole THING is to choose to be kind

[therobotmonster]

Once you believe in one kind of magic, it's real easy to think other kinds exist, even if they're blatantly fictional and would normally be outside the kayfabe of the whole thing because there's an actual name on the by-line.

But the 'theology' shakes out pretty predictably. Tricking kids into worshiping the devil because of a tabletop game makes no real sense in the larger scheme.

It's just an easy-to-defeat foe picked by the local would-be-Oz-the-Great-And-Powerful, something that freaks out the parents but has no real money or power behind it to oppose you. They always pick kid/teen interests because the parents don't care about the banned music/cartoon/toy/game, the only people that do are the kids who have no power. It's always "Pokemon is a world of the demonic" and not "your obsession with the local football team is a form of idolatry" because adults, who can choose, might choose to spend their tithes on extra Cowboys merch if forced to choose between Jesus and coach.

And the 'they're going for your kids' thing is just extra grease on the paranoia-to-payola slippery slide.

As the choice of target is entirely cynical and arbitrary, some kind of justification has to be summoned. The motivations of both the spirits and humans involved don't make sense because the problem is entirely imaginary, so they have to bend the world-building to make the villain's plans work in a sort of narrative special pleading.

So satanism can't be what it is (atheists fucking with you because its fun and sets advantageous case law), and artists can't use symbols specifically to provoke and mock, because that would make the whole thing deeply un-threatening.

And worship itself has to become some kind of energy-transfer because otherwise the evangelical canard of being 'tricked into worshiping a demon' makes no sense, and that's their answer for everything from the Hindu pantheon to the Catholic saints.

Lets say, hypothetically, I'm a demon, and I want to get a human to worship me to hork off o'l Nah-way and get him to throw them in the lake of fire. Well, I go to some guy and I say, "hey, I'm a god, my name is Hermes, worship me" and the chump falls for it. Then he builds a little statue (or a bunch of little statues of just a part of someone with some wings) and starts revering it as a god.

That guy isn't worshiping me, he's worshiping the mask I used to trick him. He has no actual loyalty or love for the creature that I am or my goals. I may cost him access to the 'real' theology by providing a fake one, but that's it. This is no different for him than if he hallucinated his own god, or was given a false one by his culture. You can worship something that's not there, but you can't worship something without knowing it.

Unless, of course, worship isn't "strong feelings of loyalty mixed with ritualized suspension of dignity" but instead a form of transference of quintessence from the worshiper to the worshiped. That also gives you a little extra buffer against the 'what if our god isn't the real one" if religions don't happen organically but are instead a form of metaphysical identity-theft.

The problem being that, as Evangelical Christians mostly steeped in the Bible, so most of their world building is only up to the shoddy standards of the thing that inspired it, a book that famously states you can make goats striped by having their parents stare at barber poles while they mate. A book written by a civilization of goatherds.

It's fascinating how a lot of Evangelical Christian anxiety about Satanism seems to be rooted in the unspoken idea that if the Devil gathers enough worship he'll depose God and become the new God, because that's not the party line in any major religion, but it is how it works in Dungeons & Dragons.

[xoxochb]

cw: from this request (I couldn’t respond), fingering, jealous/possesive! luke (n he’s mean ☹️), orgasm denial, this is lwk shortttt…

——— ౨ৎ ⊹ ࣪ ˖

only out of the goodness of your heart were you helping a fellow camper. the boy had been fairly new to camp, still learning the general hang of things. you had met him at breakfast one morning, you were both running late and ended up talking for a while. he had explained to you that he was unable to sword fight with other campers because of his inexperienced nature, and you so kindly had offered to help him with this. just a regular camper-helping other camper kind of ordeal— that’s all it was.

unfortunately, your through the eyes of your boyfriend you and the boy had been practically making out shamelessly in the middle of the field! the boy was just ‘all over you,’ and ‘giving you heart eyes’ the whole time, which are both direct quotes straight from the mouth of luke. you denied both and told him you had simply been helping the boy out since he was desperately in need of it. he didn’t believe a word of what you said, and though he knew you were loyal, that didn’t stop him from being any more angry. why would you let that boy openly flirt with you?

good question— he didn’t care. and that was shown solely when his fingers traveled teasingly over your thigh, just only lightly hitting your wet entrance, not daring to do anything further just yet, enjoying the way you’re entirely at his mercy.

“please…” you whine. in response, luke only peppers a kiss to your clavicle. “please.”

“why were you helping him?”

fucking gods.

“I told you,” you swallow thickly. “he- he needed it.”

“does he know you’re mine?”

you nod at a rapid pace, in only hopes he’ll give you what you desire.

“use your words, angel, c’mon.”

“he does- luke, please.”

just this once he allows you to get what you want— next time it isn’t this easy. he inserts one finger, your velvety walls nearly instantly clenching around him. you’re desperate aren’t you? it’s hopeless. the worst part is, he’s barely doing anything, teasing, and you know why, you know exactly why. you quietly murmur pleads for him to pick up the speed and it’s not that he can’t hear you— he can, he’s just choosing to pretend you’re not speaking at all. with one hand, you tug roughly at his curls, fisting then so tightly in your palms.

he gets your memo, he plugs in his middle finger alongside the other. you let a moan slip from your lips, pathetic. you feel your skin heating up, burning. then, he curls your fingers to such a sweet extent, nearly tipping you over an edge. an edge he’ll deny you until you understand that you’re his. your eyes prickle with angry tears.

“please, let me- luke, please-”

“please what?”

you rock your hips into his fingers, in hope for any sort of friction or pleasure you can receive for now.

“y’know… I don’t like when you’re seeing other boys…”

“I don’t-” you can’t breathe, that’s your problem. “don’t like him.”

“you’re mine, got that?”

“yes I- I’m yours!”

“I don’t think you get it, though…” luke’s fingers slow their pace, you let out an involuntarily whimper at this.

“please!” you repeat the word more than you could count, endlessly murmuring it in hopes he’ll simply let you have it (which he doesn’t). “please, luke, I won’t- hm- won’t help other boys, please.”

he doesn’t even respond to this. just progressively and torturously slows the pace of his fingers with every beg escaping your mouth. until, this is, they part from you.

he’s got to be fucking kidding you.

(spoiler warning: he’s not).

[lndsismaeverything]

Asking lnds men help to pick a nail design

A/n : was going to get my nails done next week so...(ㅅ˙³˙)♡ though of what would the lnds men choose?

Xavier :

Both of you where on the couch you where looking for some nails insp but couldn't find any . So you turned to your boyfriend and ask him for some help

" you want me to pick a nail design for you?"

He gladly wants to help but is afraid if it doesn't match your style or you don't like it

Since he doesn't know these kind of stuff , but it can't be hard right? It's just going to be looking at pictures and finding the best one out of all of them for you

He spends about a whole hour looking for a design on Pinterest until he found the perfect one

Something that's really suits you and is cute too

" I choose this one " he showed you , you end up loving it and got them done the next day

You snowed them to him

" these look better on you in person "

Zayne :

Even though zayne is really busy, when you are about to ask him but stop mid way because you don't want to bother him with something this so stupid . He has way more important things to then picking out your nails

You decided you'll just pick something it's not that big of the deal right?

" give it to me " zayne said asking for the tablet your holding. He noticed you been scrolling on that app for the past hour. And noticed how your about to asking him but stop mid way

" I don't mind I can take a small break for these files and documents "

After a few minutes he gives you the tablet back , you looked at the picture he choose for you

" it's simple but still elegant... It would look every good on you "

Rafayel :

Rafayel would love helping you pick out some nails design for you

But he would like enjoying designing one for you better

" you want me to pick a nail design for you?"

" yes"

" I have a way better idea. How about I despite one for you? One that stands out from the rest of them. "

He quickly grabs his sketch book and some colored pencils and design your nails

He ended up finishing within a day... Yea a day because he was going all out

After he showed you the sketch, he insisted on you bring him with you to the nail salon. Because he wants to make sure they get the colors correctly

It took the nail artist a full 5 hours on doing your nails because of your boyfriend nagging about how it's the wrong color and how the shape isn't right

" no that's the wrong shade"

" hold on , it isn't straight "

You apologize sincerely to the nail artist and swear you wouldn't bring him again. Or you let him do your nails at home

But you ended up loving them since they have personal touches that reminds you of him

Sylus :

When you first ask sylus to help you out , he didn't really get them, but decided to help you pick a design

" sure sweetie, I don't get why you get them thought. I guess kitten like to get her claws well maintained "

Sylus took in the task every seriously, asking you question if you like pastels, charms, gems etc

You said anything is fine " as long as you pick them "

It doesn't take long for him to pick a design for you

" here kitten, this one would look nice "

After you get them done and showed your nails to sylus. He ended up getting why you get your nails done.

It's because it's pretty and it really suit you . Or he just liked it because he picked it out for you .

Now he's going to pick every nails design for you when you want to get your nails done

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 3 part 2

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2])

alice panics and checks if she still has her mom's amulets, lilia says, you still got them! in a sweet reassuring way. agatha also panics and checks if she has her brooch, but she does it quietly. when she finds the brooch she gives a sigh that no one notices.

I just love the parallels between agatha and alice, a daughter who lost her mother and a mother who lost her son, both grieving, both connected to the Road. but while alice, despite her shyness, is able to express her feelings and find strength and reassurance within her coven, agatha keeps her pain quiet and close to the chest.

checking her exit strategies while the others are still looking around in awe, because she's a) always a step ahead everybody else and b) a huge fucking coward. agatha is never as confident as she seems. was she hoping to bolt the moment billy wasn't looking and leave the others to deal with his mess?

ooh alice is the second to check. that's so interesting, they parallel each other but agatha does things secretly, alice does them openly.

NOT FUNNY, writers

yeah this is not a confident woman. she is terrified

not because babies make her cry or anything. in fact she eats babies, haven't you heard?

agatha is always real mature, but there's something about jen in particular that makes her regress into toddlerdom - and yeah it's funny, but we know agatha does this kind of stuff to mask and deflect, and I think she's especially defensive around jen because she actually respects her and values her opinion! so she has to rebel to that feeling like the true kindergartener she is

sharon dives for the wine, agatha rises a hand to warn her but hesitates. a moment later alice rises a hand and stops her. I'm only seeing this because I'm looking so closely but I'm not dreaming it, am I? this has to be on purpose? and oh my god alice was a cop. what did agatha choose to be under the spell, when she didn't bottle her emotions and guard herself so closely?????

okay okay okay now I'm thinking about moon phases and elements. alice is Fire, agatha is Spirit, would there be a connection? or maybe agatha as Spirit is like the Avatar and has to learn something from each element. from Alice she would learn to listen to her protective instincts - or rather to use them to protect others and not only herself, and that's what would ultimately make her choose to save Billy. I'll keep an eye out for this, maybe I'm on to something? this is Water and Jen's trial tho, so what does she learn from jen?

so jen despite her sarcastic exterior has been very vocal about both billy and sharon not belonging here. now she takes billy to the side and openly warns him. she's very pragmatic and not particularly emotional, she had to grow a lot of armor too, which makes her breaking down and crying in the finale all the more meaningful. the obvious lesson aside (agatha being responsible for jen's trauma), another thing that agatha has to learn from her is moral values. if jen were in agatha's shoes and saw the truth behind the Road you know she would have stopped this whole thing immediately. agatha needs to learn to be the bigger person for once and take things seriously, instead of running away.

we know agatha tolerates and even encourages the rumors about nicky, because the truth is too awful. is that why she's always yapping about hating children and eating babies? dear lord, it's so funny that she's so immature, and at the same time it's not funny at all

no one's judging you honey. you get drunk all you want, you earned it. and fuck these bitches and agatha especially for letting her drink poison - billy gets a pass because he's underage, why doesn't sharon get a pass for being magicless? I'll tell you why, because deep down no one takes her seriously. she's a joke to them.

lol billy's empty hand

agatha you will be ready to tackle him the moment he tries to drink for real. the clowning! all for show. and sharon is already pouring herself a third glass, nothing funnier than self medicating with alcohol, am I right gang?

I adore adore adore adore alice bonding with billy. she tries to do the agatha "i'm too damaged to open up" thing but one sad puppy look and she melts away. because he's just a kid (and a emo hot topic kid at that) and she WILL make him feel accepted no matter how sad inside she is. she's such a good person leave me alone

"so you guys evil, am I right?"

"no no no we have reclaimed that term, that's no longer a slur"

what's your favorite donatella versace impression? mine's alice's

can you guys please stop deadnaming this poor woman?? (spellnaming? magicnaming? wandanaming?)

agatha you are a humongous asshole for only pretending to drink and kathryn hahn you are so funny and so hot and talented

dying future!lilia jumps back in time to tell her coven she loves them and that's the moment she lands on lmaooooo with her face all swollen and everyone panicking and agatha pounding on the door. you don't deserve her love anyway agatha. she will give it to you because she's the better person, but you don't deserve shit

so yeah agatha we've been poisoned and Death's gonna come any minut....

BWAHAHAAHAHAHAAHHAH

that's taking 'deadbeat wife' to a whole other level

bit creepy there, billy. it's like Jigsaw being upset at people not participating in his games

billy: fine I'LL DRINK

agatha running in slowmo: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

you miiight be projecting your issues on that kid a lil bit there, buddy

she might drink the wine to save billy but she'll be an ABSOLUTE TEENY-WEENY BABY about it

such a fun episode

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that would be her last words, folks! aren't we HAVING SO MUCH FUN????

alice always being the first one to run and help and trying to save everyone. just... alice

shoutout to @idkbroletssee and their billy's commentary!

go to episode 3 part 3

[mage-ical-character-person]

Time for more because. Because!

first off: wanna point this out: Meme games

The fact that the minigame format like Meme is used for WOTFI instead of the using the usual non-minigame challenges, or the choose your own adventure of WOTFI 2023 despite the whole “We should really do this again sometime”

And Just... That's Puzzles' whole thing. Don't know what to make of that!

and... this

hehehe… sillies… Second, some stuff from other posts I’ve made and discussions I’ve had I wanna stick here so it’s all in one place. Colored text is new stuff if you've read the other posts already and don't want to read repeat info and musings. Alternatively if you haven’t read the post and you want to. I got links.

First from here: Puzzles and Four both struggle with empathy to some extent. Four has more practice with the aspects of empathy that can be learned (cognitive empathy) but it’s still something he usually needs to actively think about, which is something he forgets to do sometimes. Puzzles sucks at just about every form of empathy. But they both still care very deeply for the people they consider friends (see reblog above about protectiveness)

Also Four and Puzzles both put people through torment for content. Puzzles with just about everything he does, Four with stuff like “I put Mario in Danger for Views” “Mario Does Literally Anything for Views” and this

Next, this.

Mario only is friends with SMG4 as a result of not being the Mario he was before Four showed up. When Mario is briefly turned back during the Lawsuit arc, Four and Meggy make him back into the Mario they're friends with without any input from him. This sorta parallels the whole Leggy situation in a weird way. In addition, Puzzles brainwashes people to make them more entertaining and cooperative for his shows. The USB SMG4 arrived in did the same thing for Four automatically as soon as he arrived.

And!

We're talking about It's Gotta Be Perfect again. Puzzles gets a fatal error that tells him to contact the manufacturers, then we get eye imagery. Then we get the IGBP Goop.

Notably, this happens when Leggy is turned back into Meggy. In other words, when Puzzles loses his only friend and source of support. I've gone on and on about how what snapped Four out of it in IGBP is his friends and being reassured they'll always be by his side, and what that means for Puzzles. and this is just... another instance of that.

But with the Goop, there's something else. It seems to be tied to strong emotions, but the fact that it shows up when Four is worried about being left behind for not being good enough--and being reassured otherwise is what allows him to break free-- AND the fact that with Puzzles it shows up when he loses his only friend and wants her back...

And, well... This...

(Seriously what was up with the stuff that happened to Three in IGBP I feel like we don’t talk about it enough) It's... well, it's something. Puzzles would do ANYTHING anything to not lose his friend, regardless of if said friend is okay with it. I don't know if Four's quite to that point, but he's... adjacent to that, at the very least.

The desperation to be seen... and the eye imagery associated with the Goop... it’s something

...Not wanting to be left behind, wanting to hold on to the people you have... wanting to be perfect...

Well... I mean, it parallels other characters, too.

(With Niles Specifically, I can't help but think that the Goop is some kind of virus similar to Niles/Eldritch Zero. I mean, it was invoked by an adware)

On the subject of characters other than SMG3 and SMG4 that parallel Puzzles, let's talk about Clench and Tari.

Both Puzzles' TV head Clench are prosthetics in a way, and Puzzles can transport people into TV shows, while Tari can, with Clench, do the same with video games. And for what it's worth, with Western Spaghetti, they're sort of on the same... frequency? Tari being able to interface with the simulation and hijack Puzzles' signal to bring forth dancing Mario.

AND

Oh and also Puzzle has parallels with Axol as well.

I mean just...

friendless childhood to becoming obsessed with media to creating that media (still obsessive).

And.. resourcefulness?

Yeah we'll call it resourcefulness.

Puzzles Parallels Post

feel like I keep repeating things over various reblog chains and stuff and my thoughts are never all in one place so. This where I keep linking said reblog chains. One of which has an endpoint that does not involve me but sshhh.

Mr. Puzzles and SMG4 have SO much in common. Four comes pretty close to Puzzles-level bad on some occasions and they share a lot of the same insecurities

I believe part of the reason Puzzles targeted Four in the first place (because I doubt “You’re the stupidest show I’ve ever seen!” Is the only reason) is because it’s easy to exploit the insecurities of someone who has the same insecurities as you, because you know that feeling in and out. Even if for Puzzles he probably didn’t have a lot of self awareness about it. Probably something more along the lines of “Oh, this guy clearly cares the correct amount about pleasing an audience and the quality of his content! But he’s not even good at it! I can use this!”

The difference is that Four has friends. He has a support system to pull him out of it when these insecurities start to make him spiral. Puzzles does not have that and frankly seems to have given up on ever attaining it. Twice.

AND THEN THERE’S ALSO THE PARALLELS WITH SMG3

Because part of it is because SMG3 and SMG4 already parallel each other so you can’t have Puzzles parallel one without the other.

But ALSO! Very similar motivations of wanting to be seen and appreciated. With a side of pettiness and jealousy. Also this

And this was also an incredibly SMG3 adjacent moment

But also the show keeps calling attention to SMG3’s difficulty making friends. Which is also Puzzles’ whole thing.

I need them to actually go somewhere with this so bad. Because 3 and 4 might be the only people who can actually understand Puzzles. Or at least let them understand themselves better as a result of Puzzles.

I NEED the “You and I aren’t so different” moment SO BAD!!

[monodramatic-cannibal]

Yet another new utau oc ^^ Yusuke (+ a ref of his other form too)

More info under the cut. Will be adding to it when I think of more

More info on his design:

His height is 6’5 (not counting his ears). In his ‘snow leopard’ form there’s a doodle near the bottom right of it’s size compared to a 6ft person (to it’s shoulders it’s around 7’11)

Late 20s in terms of age (will edit if I choose an age), a little bit younger than most Sanses.

Pansexual, He/Him/They/Them

Is basically nearly always seen with the pillow. If he isn’t seen with it he is either holding onto someone he trusts or his tail

His tail can be any size, but he often has it long. 

Ability to turn into his ‘snow leopard’ form at will, for him this doesn’t take up much magic.

Can be drawn in other clothes, his clothing tends to be baggy techwear clothing, or just baggy stuff. Will often have star themed clothes, will also have a triangle accessory (In reference to Nix-Ceto, his best friend.)

Isn’t technically a Sans, but in his au he and his brother were referred to as ‘Sans’/’Papyrus’ respectively. 

In his skele form he has a ‘halo’ has it to match with Nix’s halo. He normally doesn’t have it in his ‘snow leopard’ form.

In his skele form he has paw feet, but wears specially designed shoes for his paws, mainly because he doesn’t want to get them dirty/wet.

-----------

His magic:

Has a high magic reserves but never tends to use his magic, this means he has magic build up and times his magic may go out of control. When he does remember to he will often try to waste his magic doing dumb stuff with it. 

With his magic he can flip back and forth between his two forms, His main form (skele) and his ‘snow leopard’ form. Both forms have different ways of using the magic. And despite being a ‘snow leopard’ he mainly has ‘fire’ based magic.

Skele form: Is mainly support focused, can create barriers/shields in this form he can use his fire magic to create a barrier that harms anyone that touches it. He can boost the stats of allies, e.g. speed, hp, def, etc. Can do this to multiple stats of one person. Can summon a pen that he can draw in the air with, he can create objects that can appear/get created through what he draws. Can’t create living things or food/water. If he wants to make specific things he can read up a little bit of information about how something works, and he’s then able to create it and have it work e.g. a motorbike. Depending on how big the object is, is depending on how much it takes out of him (e.g. draining him in terms of magic) Has mastery over basic ‘skeleton’ magic. E.g. bones/blasters. But due to his high magic reserve he can output this magic a lot better/quicker than the average skeleton.

‘Snow leopard’ form: Uses a lot more fire, and his fire has a poison/burn effect in this form. Basically anyone who is hit by this fire feels a burning pain that may never go. Can surround his whole body in this flame to protect himself from attacks. Uses the flame to push things away e.g. like a wind attack but with added fire. His tail can extend/shrink in length, can use it like a whip to strike people from a distance, or can use it almost like how a snake would use its body. Can turn himself into a ball of flame to go in one direction very quickly. His flames can get so hot that any water near it evaporates instantly. When in this form his stats change to boss monster stats. 

-----------

Used to have an au. For as long as he could remember it was always him and Papyrus. When he was a little kid having to look after a toddler/baby. He’d try to take any jobs he could (e.g. helping the villagers snow shovel, tidy, etc) as the villagers in snowdin looked after them, he had so much anxiety about being useful to the adults helping him, to repay their kindness. As he got older and could take part time jobs he jumped at the chance to take multiple and earn money to support both him and his brother, as a minor and it being a part time job he never earned that much so took multiple jobs to try to earn enough. He always tried to make time for his brother, always finding time to come home to read Papyrus a story and tuck him into bed. When he became an adult and Papyrus a teen he could quit a few of the jobs, since he was now full time and earning more money due to being an adult. But he still worked 2 jobs, he wanted enough money to provide for his brother, for his brother to have a good life. 

One day when tucking his brother into bed, his brother asked him to pick up a pillow that was across the room. Which when he went over to the pillow and picked it up, he was suddenly hit with the worst ‘gut’ feeling he has ever had in his life. He could tell his brother felt it too by his brother calling out his name. But when he stood up and turned around it’s like half the house had disappeared (like this, but only half), including the bed his brother had been laid in. He stood there in shock, before frantically looking for where his brother went. Looking out he could see the rubble of the house had been knocked halfway across Snowdin, and more buildings were getting ‘pushed’/destroyed, he ran as fast as he could to the other half of his house frantically digging through the rubble, shouting and screaming for his brother.

He could hear destruction around him, screaming and crying, but he didn’t care he needed to find his brother. He still had a hold of the pillow he had picked up, it now discarded at his side. He found dust, and his brothers scarf, leading to him having a breakdown, clutching both the scarf and the pillow. He could hear someone shouting in a commanding voice, but due to his state he couldn’t hear what was being said. 

He was snapped out of it when his shoulder was roughly grabbed by someone, when he turned to see, it was someone who looked quite similar too him. He basically got dragged over to a gateway, a portal. He yelled the whole time not wanting to leave the rubble where his brother had died. But the other him smacked him upside the head, telling him he can ‘grieve later, right now he needs to live, or to help him go gather more people to evacuate’. Realizing the people of Snowdin needed help as well he quickly began to help guide people to the portal, them going to other areas of the underground to do the same thing, till everyone who was left was now through the portal.

When they both got through the portal, he sat down still clutching the scarf and pillow, just staring at the floor, not really knowing what to think. He could hear others trying to comfort people that had come from his au, other versions of people that he knew talking to everyone. Hearing someone settle down next to him, he looked over to see the same guy that he had helped. The guy never said anything just watched on as people grieved. Leading to him doing the same. After a while tears started to silently fall, muttering things like ‘I could have saved him, I should have grabbed him when I got that feeling’. The guy next to him quietly listened to his muttering for a while before finally speaking. “You didn’t know that was going to happen. You want him to live, but think about it the other way, he’d want you to live if he was in your position right now… I can’t exactly tell you how you should live your life now, especially after something like that. But keep going, for his sake.”  

-----------

It took him a while to adjust to his new life, and ended up going by the new name Yusuke. He already had anxiety and such from when he lived in his au, but after the incident of his au, his worried and such doubled. He had found out the name of the other him that helped him that day was Nix-Ceto, though he just called him Nix. Nix would often stop by to check on him, which Yusuke appreciated since he was finding it really hard to make friends. He still kept a hold of the pillow and scarf, though he put the scarf in the pillow acting as extra stuffing for the pillow.

After a bit of struggling with life in the Omega Timeline, Nix offered to have Yusuke travel across aus with him, to help aus and such. Which he accepted, wanting to be close to Nix, seeing Nix as his only good friend. Due to their original time traveling together him and Nix became very close, he was able to see a side of Nix that basically no one would see. Which in turn he would try to show Nix more of himself and what he is really like.

After around 2 years of traveling together Yusuke finally decided he wanted to settle down back in the Omega Timeline. He desperately begged Nix to join him, not wanting to be alone really. But Nix decided to keep traveling, but promised that he’d try to stop by whenever he had time. 

Yusuke spent a lot of time learning a lot of creative skills such as 3d modeling and such, working remotely from his home in the Omega Timeline, this meant he rarely went out, so he found it really hard to make friends, he wanted to meet more people that were into the same things as him, so would often try to frequent places like café’s/etc with his laptop as he works. But could never meet anyone, because the people who were like him, were inside their houses refusing to leave, unlike him who was trying to make an effort to meet people in his own way. When Nix would stop by he loved it, Nix would often try to introduce him to other people, trying to help Yusuke make friends, and a few people he did manage to keep a friendship with, but for the most part his life is very quiet in the Omega Timeline. 

After a few more years passed, he got sick of feeling so lonely, especially with Nix going for longer periods of time. So Next time he saw Nix he asked to begin traveling with him again. Which leads him to current day when he is traveling with what group Nix is currently taking around.

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Yusuke is a relatively chilled out guy who acts sleepy most of the time. He loves to joke around and just chill out and talk with people he gets along with. Despite being rather chill he’s also a crybaby, and can be easily upset, e.g. upset at any form of confrontation. He does try not to cry as much, often trying to hold it in. He feels bad when he makes people worry about him, and will often try to reassure people when he gets upset. He is still a very anxious individual, and can be easily spooked.

When he finds someone he can trust he will often be able to joke around with them, tries to find out people's boundaries when it comes to jokes, doesn’t want to accidentally cross a line. When he befriends someone he will adore them, and will often try to do things for them when he can. If he feels particularly close with someone he’d often hold onto them, only when he feels super okay with them/asks them if they’re okay with it. It takes him a long while to consider someone a close friend. He can be good friends with someone but not see them as a close friend. Depending on the person he’s friends with is depending on how quick he may also see them as a close friend. 

His pillow from his au that belonged to his brother is his comfort item, and panics when it's out of his sight. Gets nervous whenever anyone mentions the pillow, or whenever anyone touches it. When he doesn’t have his pillow in his hands he will often hold onto a close friend or his own tail. 

Is a fairly observant person, tends to notice things about people, places ,etc. Normally a quiet observer of things going on. Tends to step in and say something if he feels it’s something that needs to be mentioned. Will shake like a leaf if he has to confront someone about something. 

Hates being his fur being pet/brushed by someone he doesn’t know/isn’t close with. Will let very few people touch his fur, even less people can brush/take care of his fur. Will slap stuff (like a cat), normally stuff that's in front of him, can tell he's going to slap something when his ears suddenly go back. If someone he doesn’t know/isn’t close to touches him he will also slap right away with no warning, it will be out of panic. Has the agility of a cat/snow leopard, though he never really shows it off really. Will knead on fluffy things, or people he likes/is close too (if they’re okay with it, he will still ask them even if he knows they’re okay with it). Purrs really loudly, almost sounding like an engine he’s that loud.

When he’s in his other form, his ‘snow leopard’ form his personality changes slightly, to be more animalistic. Not fully animal, still with intelligence, but he won’t fully be himself. He’s more likely to run off of animal instinct in this form. Unlike him being passive in his main form, this form tends to be more violent, e.g. instead of getting upset about something he may get mad instead. 

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Relationships/ (Friendships/etc) with other characters/thoughts on other characters: (will only write about my own ocs here, or fandom characters. Won’t write about others ocs due to not wanting to mischaracterize them)

Nix-Ceto: Is very close with Nix. Nix is his best friend. He appreciates everything that Nix has done for him, and actively works to at least try to repay Nix’s kindness despite Nix always telling him he doesn’t have to do anything for him. Bases some of his looks off of Nix, e.g. the flame halo to match Nix’s shark halo, and triangles across his design to match with Nix’s triangle theming as well. One of the few people that Yusuke lets touch him/his fur. In term he’s one of the very few people Nix lets touch him as well. Will often joke around with Nix, but knows Nix doesn’t tend to joke around as much with other people there. Will also jokingly flirt with Nix, just because he finds it funny and Nix is fine with it. Will often just yap to Nix, he knows Nix is listening even if it doesn’t look like it. How he knows Nix listens to his yapping is because one time he talked a lot about anime to Nix and then next time he saw Nix, Nix gave him a hoodie based off of an anime he was talking about. 

Tanue: Is kinda scared of Tanue, knows Tanue mostly means well, and does sort of get along with Tanue when Tanue is more chilled out. But for the most part he only tires to interact with Tanue when Nix is there. Tanue’s fight-y/loud nature spooks him. But when they do get along Yusuke enjoys the conversations that they have, and Yusuke also enjoys the food that Tanue may make for the group every so often.

[whentherewerebicycles]

ok and now some thoughts about my early experience of parenting.

it kinda rocks... i really like it. i will definitely have a second kid if finances and biology work out. my life is so much better with this little guy in it. the sacrifices so far are mostly minor and are much more logistical than personal. i have to work more hours than i'd ideally want to because there's only one paycheck. i have to try to cobble together more sleep than i used to because i am pretty tired at the end of the day. i can't go to the gym or run an errand or go write at a coffeeshop for a few hours without hiring a sitter or asking my friends to help out. but the tradeoff is i get to be this little kid's mom. he thinks i'm pretty funny and he's interested in everything i do and he calls to me to get me to come over to his mat and talk to him and he likes to grab my face and hold it still so he can study it real intently and when he's upset he wants me to snuggle him until he feels better. i would pick that over getting to run into a store without the stroller a million times over.

i remember reading this book years ago where someone (paulo freire? someone influenced by freire's pedagogy?) recommended that all teachers, no matter how long they'd been teaching, carve out time every six months to reflect on their teaching practices and consider whether those practices were aligned with their core/guiding values as educators. i obviously love this idea because i was born to engage in sustained reflective journaling about my values lol. but also: i do think there's value in setting aside time at regular intervals to check in with yourself about the way you are living, or about whatever you are practicing, whether it's teaching or your work with others or, in this case, parenting. so idk i might try using his birthday and half birthday as time to journal both about my kid and about my own practice of parenting.

do i have a practice of parenting?? that sounds too fancy for someone who is only six months in lol. but i do enjoy thinking about what i'm doing and i like trying to connect the day-to-day choices i'm making to larger principles. i have written about this before but idk i think i am somebody who derives a strong sense of security and groundedness from having a loose framework of guiding values i can refer to when making decisions. and i guess in this first round of reflective journaling i will try to articulate what some of those emerging values/principles are. here we go:

I am making a conscious effort to not sweat the small stuff. there are one million things you can be worried or stressed about in parenting. and there are one million ways you can fall into the trap of thinking that if you just control every single variable nothing bad will happen to your kid. i am trying, inasmuch as i can, to avoid at least a few ways of falling into that trap. i have worked really hard to choose flexibility instead of rigidity when it comes to, for instance, letting other people care for my kid. it's okay if people do things differently than i would - as long as he's safe, he can only benefit from being exposed to different caretaking styles and adapting to different people's ways of engaging with him. i also made a decision early on to not engage with any parenting content on social media (this means ignoring the dozens of insta reels my mom sends me every week lol) and that has been really healthy/good for me. there is TOO MUCH information out there. it is way too overwhelming. you could spend your whole life worrying and i want to spend my life doing other things, like funny accents and comedy bits for the baby.

i am working hard to not interpret other people's parenting choices as a judgment of my own. i really believe that there are lots of different ways to raise healthy, well-adjusted kids. we can make different choices (small and big choices!) and still arrive at the same outcomes. i just really don't want to be the kind of person who takes it personally when people do something differently than i would've! i want to be secure enough in my choices to be able to accept and appreciate a whole range of other parenting styles. i also want to be humble enough to realize that i don't have it all figured out and might learn something from reflecting on someone else's parenting choices. anyway this has been a challenging one as i sometimes DO feel quite judged or shamed by other people's choices. but i also think it's ok to feel that reaction as long as i can keep making space for myself to take a deep breath and think through why i feel like that. idk! work in progress but i've only had six months of practice lol.

i am also trying not to interpret other people's anxieties as anything other than them working through their own stuff. to give one example: i love my mom so much but she is just, like, vibrating out of her skin with anxiety at all times about literally everything. and she has really found an outlet for that anxiety in grandparenting. i get dozens of texts a week about what exercises i should be doing with him and what experiences i should be making sure he has and where i should be taking him and what i should be saying to him and what i should be asking the doctor about and so on and so forth. this obviously could be pretty stressful, and i know that my brother and SIL find it so stressful that it is kind of negatively impacting their relationship with her. but idk i feel like with my mom i spent a lot of my life taking her anxieties personally, thinking that she thought i was incompetent/incapable/irresponsible/whatever. and then at some point in the last few years i was just like oh... this isn't about me at all, is it? this has absolutely nothing to do with me. this is just her fear and her terror of doing things wrong and her overwhelming need to avoid shame, and all of that emotional stuff just happens to be playing out in this relationship because we are close enough that she can lets her emotional walls down and let me see the churning river of anxiety that runs through the heart of her life. i wish that she didn't feel like that. but it's also not something i can fix or change. the only thing that is within my control is the choice not to take it personally, which in turn helps me put some guardrails around it so that it doesn't impact our relationship. idk i think this will probably be an ongoing thing i have to sort through for myself. but also she is who she is and i love her and it is important to me that she be a big part of owen's life. so we will figure it out.

I refuse to optimize my parenting because i refuse to see my child as a thing that needs to be optimized. this is in some ways hard for me because in many respects i am all-in on the very american philosophy that everything can be improved endlessly, including yourself and your family, if you just work harder and care more and give endlessly of yourself to the work. but nope! nope. not for parenting. not for my kid. i want him to have experiences and be exposed to new things, but not so he can "get ahead" or excel in things. i want him to be curious, engaged, interested, flexible, alive to the world, open to new things. i do not care if he is bilingual by age four or has a STEM curriculum at his daycare or goes to a top college or whatever. and i want the choices i make about what we do together and how we spend our time to reflect that. idk he's still so little that this is not super relevant yet but i can feel some of it creeping in.

lastly: i am trying to approach all aspects of parenting with the fundamental belief that i am and will be a good parent. i feel like our culture wants women in particular to spend all their time feeling guilty and inadequate as mothers. we also don't get a lot of external feedback on whether or not we're doing a good job as parents, which i think can make us frantic for validation and riddled with self-doubt over whether we are doing Enough. but i want to just like, try to cut some of that out and just answer it for myself. i'm doing a great job. i'm a great mom. i love my kid and my kid loves me. as i learn more about my child and myself as a parent i will undoubtedly adjust my approach to parenting many times, but making adjustments doesn't mean i was doing something "wrong" or "bad" before. it just means i want to try something new or shift gears a little bit. idk maybe this sounds dumb but i actually think it is proving kind of powerful so far as a strategy for managing parenting anxiety. i just assume that my parenting instincts are reasonably good and will guide me to make reasonably good choices, and if something turns out not to work, i assume i am a good enough parent to figure it out and adapt accordingly.

ok!! good journaling session and now it's time for bed!!

[glisten-inthedark]

Get ready for some rambling nonsense that is all over the fucking place

Mike is so fucking clever man like when it comes to plans and whatnot no wonder he's the dungeon master

I forgot that he's the one who comes up with the idea of interrogating Will and hiding their location from him, he's even the one who takes Hopper to the shed which means that he was also the one who thought of using the shed

and he’s the first one to bring up that closing the gate will kill Will.

Also, underrated moment of Mike right when Will’s eyes are coming into focus after waking up in the shed, Mike looks so anxious and he’s either biting his thumb or he’s got his fist pressed to his mouth, and his eyebrows are doing that 🥺 thing and he looks so vulnerable, and then he crosses his arms and right before the camera leaves him he goes :] and it’s so hard to explain but it’s so pitifully adorable in a sad sweet way😭

And then of course Mike’s face when Will starts screaming about being tied up, again it’s so open and vulnerable and I swear I need to see this from Finn Wolfhard again in season 5 (not saying that he didn’t excel in 3 or 4 but Mike wasn’t given the same opportunities for this particular kind of vulnerability in those season—he should have had a similar look during his ily speech if, yknow, it was sincere, but that’s a whole other anon).

I swear Mike has “Will eyes” in these scenes that I literally only ever see him use once with another person and that’s when he sees El again for the first time after thinking she was dead. But damn those eyes are just so VULNERABLE and so filled with emotion and I NEED to see that again in season 5

I also just realized that they put Mike in the foreground and in focus during Will’s screaming in the shed and, in the same shots, put Jonathan in the background, partially behind a light and out of focus. They never put Jonathan in focus in those shots despite him being Will’s brother; they essentially prioritize Mike and his reaction and tell the audience that he’s more important than even Will’s own brother’s during this part (and Charlie is acting his ass off in those shots too)

I also forgot that it was raining when Jonathan and Will finished Castle Byers. And it rained when Will destroyed Castle Byers. Wow I hope Mike rebuilt Castle Byers and we get a scene of Mike and Will hiding in there during a storm because full circle. Anyways,

Also underrated, the fact that Mike doesn’t start crying when talking to Will. He starts crying before he even opens his fucking mouth, that tear on his cheek has been falling for a while

Noah Schnapp’s acting during this scene!!! you can see Will fighting so hard to overcome the Mind Flayer but he’s not strong enough to retake his voice and you can see the moment the Mind Flayer overpowers him and his face smooths out and his eyes go dull. Wow, A+

Man I may not ship Milkvan but the reunion scene makes me cry EVERY FUCKING TIME, once again, Finn’s acting is incredible in this scene

Interesting that they chose to put Will in Jonathan’s bedroom and then have Mike and Hop’s fight be in Will’s bedroom. Why, from a writing perspective, not just put Will in his own bedroom? That’s the logical thing to do. Why did they choose to have that fight happen in Will’s bedroom?

Hello!!

Oh yeah, Mike is incredibly smart. People talk about Dustin but Mike is super intelligent as well, but I feel that Mike's intelligence is more practical whereas Dustin is more theorical, if that makes sense.

Mike definitely has "Will's eye", he looks at him so softly most of the time, there's so much care and love when he looks at Will.

If you think about the room thing, two of Mike's monumental monumental moments happen there. This one and when kisses him and he panicks.

Is like a symbolism of the fact that he's overwhelmed by Will's presence during those moments, like he's being surrounded by him somehow.

[redeemed-wren]

I'm hoping episode 3 let's Ruby see the dark side of the Doctor. I feel that adds a very important dynamic to a Doctor-companion relationship, when they see how dark he can be and still choose to travel with him early on.

Rose watching Nine drag Cassandra back to die. Eleven yelling at Amy "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" Donna begging Ten to stop drowning the spider babies, and then again to go back and save someone in Pompeii.

Fifteen has been FUN and I know he can do emotional range, I've seen his fear and his tears already. But I want to see him dark, and I want to see Ruby respond to that. I think it would add a LOT of depth to their relationship and is something missing.

Plus showcasing the Doctor's flaws (selfishness) will make him a much more interesting character. I want to see some conflict between the Doctor and Ruby.

[quietwingsinthesky]

i do love canon amy & rory but god, does some part of me wish they really had gone with the idea of the doctor picking up a child as a companion (and then later, that child’s best friend with a huge crush on her.) with the rest of the season really not changing at all, except now it’s amelia pond with an angel in her head killing her and lost alone in the woods. it’s little rory who dies and is forgotten and becomes a toy soldier. if this is going to be a fairy tale, then let it be one. children have never been safe in fairy tales.

[doctahchang]

i love seven but it is also very annoying how media overall is more willing to sympathise with characters who committed countless atrocities and talk at length about their redemption arks particularly in comparison to oppressed characters whose fight against status quo is always being framed as terrorism :-)

[mo-ok]

Guilt: feelings of deserving blame especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy

[deepseawave]

obsessed w the tags on ur last reblog

Omgg, thank you haha, it was a quality post so I just had to appreciate it in full force 😂❤️

Can‘t believe someone would actually enjoy my yapping :,D

[mstrchu]

can someone else please please look at this set of images before i go insane

[phoenixcatch7]

If there's one thing I like more than time travel it's crossover reincarnation, so.

Botk link reincarnated as Damian Wayne.

An incredible weapon master of all types, but especially prodigious with a sword - he was beating knights at the age of 4 and with his memories as intact as they get for him I can see that goalpost moving even further (probably with traps and tricks, a 3yo doesn't exactly have great bodily control).

He's an excellent survivalist, agile, strong, durable, cunning and creative. He can move like a feather in the breeze, strike from behind with ease. His first kill, an animal, did not stir him as it did the other children. With his poise, grace, skills, obedience, he ought to be ra'as' finest assassin in the making, a jewel in the crown of the league.

Except he never speaks a word. Half his targets escape unscathed. He skates by true punishment on the merit of his skills and achievements in other missions. Testing has shown it is not a physical deformity that prevents his speech, but not even talia has been able to coaxe a word from him past his second birthday.

It is a defect ra'as is growing more and more frustrated by, as each attempt to fix these two final flaws ends in resounding failure. Less extreme solutions are running dry.

Talia fears those solutions. Her child does too, she knows. For them, there is a possible solution, more extreme than anything ra'as would tolerate.

She sends him out of the league. To his father.

To Gotham.

[mobblespsycho100]

ngl sunday has some good points. "It's just an escape!! You can't get over your inner demons" OKAY???? AND?????????????

RIGHTT LMAOOOO HES KINDA COOKING