#but for that to happen he needs an inciting incident (everyone who has Changed has done so in response to Tragedy. that is actually canon)

[pizzazz-party]

“well what do YOU want out of UY’s future?”

i want KenMarSagi. but im willing to settle for usagi wandering forever, unable to see himself living in any one place for long.

[patentedsun]

Rapid fire Fairy Tail rewatch thoughts. May or May not expand upon each point later on.

THIS IS LONG AS HELL BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW WHEN TO SHUT UP.

for reference, I've reached tartaros so far. I am aware of the canon happenings after that tho.

The female cast is so good idc what anyone says obviously the fanservice is awful BUT I will say, in the earlier arcs, it actually felt decently balanced because of Gray's whole stripping shtick + Natsu's cunty vest wasn't particularly modest either LOL.

Erza is such a wonderful character. I've seen comments that she goes downhill like 100yq onwards but. Um. 100yq characterisation.... that's a whole post of its own.

I never expected to like Lucy so much. idc that it takes her like 200 episodes to win a fight solo because when she FINALLY DOES IT WAS THE BEST MOMENT OF THE SERIES BY FAR. characters who's defining traits r kindness and compassion <33

Interesting how Lucy is the traditional shounen protag (underdog, skills develop overtime) because the rest of team Natsu sans Wendy were all like ... already kinda OP established mages even at the beginning.

I know there are debates ab who really is the protag and imo the narrative skews towards Natsu more BUT. it's bizarre how unexplored he is for a main character. Like yes he is my favourite character other than Lucy but his inner psyche is barely explored it's so weird. He doesn't really have a character arc either??? I'll expand on this more once I finish post tartaros (lolll not looking forward to that) and once again it seems like he's completely regressed from what I've seen of 100yq.

I fucking love all the ships.

I don't agree with comments that Natsu can't be traditionally romantic. Like, I definitely don't think he would ever have the natural inclination to be that way as a part of his character on its own. BUT considering iconic rainbow sakura moment I fully believe he would do whatever it is that would make Lucy happy. And if that includes red roses and candlelit dinners he would absolutely try his best.

Nalu moments r seriously. so good.

I totally see why Juvia stans don't like gruvia. But unfortunately I like them. And I've slightly rewritten them in my head so that juvia doesn't get completely flanderized LOL.

the Natsu Erza Gray sibling relationship goes soooo hard.

Just in general there's something beautiful about the way Fairy Tail handles it's numerous platonic and romantic relationships. Nothing feels secondary yk. Everything is given its due time (except maybe NALU goddammit).

I LOVE THAT FEMALE CHARACTERS HAVE DEEP COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS IRRELEVANT TO THE MALE CAST. Lucy and Levy, Lucy and Yukino, whatever combination between Erza Lucy Wendy, Lucy Flare, Wendy Shelia, Wendy Carla etc

Even when the relationship involves a man in some kind of way like eg Lucy Cana or Erza Kagura it's still not like... in a bad way. The friendship itself is still there, it's just that the inciting incident tends to involve a dude.

Speaking of Lucy having so many deep female friendships is a big reason why I like Nalu so much lol. Like I literally do not care ab ships in media but fairy tail.... just has that something...

Love how often everyone changes outfits.

This show desperately needed a mini arc somewhere with just Natsu Lucy Happy going on a low stake job, where Natsu actually opens up ab his emotions and his relationship with Igneel.

Needed more Natsu and Igneel flashbacks in general.

Wendy triple combo abandonment issues are not talked ab enough holy shit. Grandeeny, Mystogan and then her entire guild???!

Lucy's relationship with her dad was objectively so well written. I skipped starry skies arc sorry the pacing was destroying me so I can't speak on that. But everything else was just BEAUTIFUL.

The fact that she returns to him just to tell at him. The fact that he comes to her with money problems and she STILL stands her ground. The fact that it's HIM who has to better himself and earn HER forgiveness.

Even after it seems like they're on ok terms, Lucy mentions in tenrou that they don't keep in contact, which is soo... realistic...

and then his death... Shout-out to Natsu who actually is emotionally quite mature (as the author himself seems to have forgotten) and dealt with it wonderfully. He gave Lucy her space, he let her vent, he stopped Happy from interfering too much. + Lucy being conflicted ab it and clearly grieving what could have been instead of what was. sighhh. .

idc ab no deaths but I do wish they didn't do fake out deaths as often. Because when actual loss sticks, it's done super well imo. Ultear, Aquarius, I haven't hit this part yet but Igneel... (yes I'm ignoring 100yq)

the episodic fillers r INCREDIBLE.

Rogue and Frosch are so special to me.

Wish they expanded on Jellal and Meredy's relationship a bit more it seems quite wholesome.

I love Virgo.

Really hate the muted colours Ft2014 onwards, but I do like that Lucy's hair became blonde and not yellow.

Pacing 2014 onwards was GOD AWFUL. I WAS SO SAD because I think the story beats in eclipse arc is actually super good but it was DRAGGED OUT SO MUCH nothing had the impact it should've.

Snow fairy, FT, Masayume chasing you will never be forgotten.

Lucy underutilizes Gemini so much it drives me mad. They were terrifying under Angel so like... cmon...

idc what anyone says GMG and edolas were top tier.

Edolas Natsu X Edolas Lucy... yes

objectively speaking gajeel is a top tier character too

Someone pointed out that Natsu didn't reallyyy hang out with anyone other than Happy pre canon and it changed my life. Every time I notice him and Lucy casually hanging out now I start screaming.

HAPPY IS SUCH A GOOD CHARACTER IDC. His edolas character arc was incredible, his relationship with Lucy is just as (if not more) fleshed out as his one with Natsu and that's part of what makes them such a great trio.

Whenever he goes LUUSSHIEEE . my heart ...

OST top tier no notes

the writing was actually so tight up until GMG part 2

I generally don't care ab the powerscaling issues but laxus v jura... no.

The anime kinda fucks up his face a lot but manga Natsu was genuinely soooo adorable in every single panel (once again IGNORING 100YQ).

Wendy also great character arc.

Sting's whole design is SO GOOD and ten years too early. the fur lined vest, the crop top, the one dangly earring, the scar, the loose fitting pants, good God now that's a Look.

Seriously I love Nalu so much...

That's all for now folks. If you want me to expand upon anything just lmk bec believe it or not all of this is a summary.

[kefalion]

Things I want in the Third Game about Cal Kestis

Set it in 4 BBY

Let another 5 years pass between the games. Felt appropriate last time. It makes it credible that things have properly changed between the games and ages everyone so that a new chapter can take place.

Force Sensitive Kata

While I’m all about the Force not following bloodlines (unless you’re a Skywalker) and instead appearing in anyone, the complicated relationship Kata would have with the Jedi because of her dad and because of Cal has the potential for such a good story

Cal as Kata’s Jedi Master

Following in the previous point. Kata would be learning from the man who killed her dad, and he would be teaching the daughter of the man who betrayed him. So much potential angst. 

Also wonderful gameplay potential. She could be a temporary companion who can help you, but she would also be someone you’d have to worry about. She’d be an itty bitty 12-14 year old. Perfect for a Padawan (I can’t tell how old she is in Survivor. Can’t be over ten because of the timeline. Feels older than 6 with how she talks)

Cal Struggling to be Kata’s Master

Again continuing. Cal would see Bode in Kata and no matter how he would try to not let it happen, I think it would make him unfair to her at times. He’d struggle with being a master regardless of who is the apprentice, remembering his worries from before he found the holocron with the list of Force Sensitive younglings, worrying about how teaching anyone about the Force puts a target on their back. He’d worry about knowing enough to teach. He never formally completed his own training. How can he be anyone’s master? 

Quinlan Vos

Need I say more? The Kenobi series put Quinlan with the Hidden Path in 9 BBY which is when Survivor takes place. Obviously he needs to meet Cal. And he should mentor Cal. They have so much in common! They share the rare ability of psychometry. They have an affinity for Dathomiri Night Sisters. They’ve both touched the dark side. It obviously needs to happen!

The Hidden Path on Tanalorr 

The Hidden Path should be established on Tanalorr. It should be bustling with people living their best lives. There should be plenty of untrained Force Sensitive people. There should be a handful of Jedi too. Precious survivors.

The Nihil Attacking

The Nihil attacked Tanalorr in the time of the High Republic. They should do it again and ruin everything. 

The Empire as the Main Antagonist 

While I want the Nihil to be a problem, I would prefer it as an inciting incident rather than as something that takes up a significant part of the game. The Empire is the true enemy and should be treated as such. It could be that Tanalorr is attacked early in the game and the rest of the objective is to keep everyone who now has to go on the run, safe from the Empire.

Consequences Because of Cal’s Relationship with Merrin

Cal deciding to get together with Merrin in Survivor is treated as a good thing (so romantic!) and she is obviously so good for him (sarcasm) because she pulled him back from the Dark Side, but that’s not the Jedi Way, and (I’d argue) not how the Force Works. A strong romantic relationship requires putting your partner first. A Jedi can’t do that. You can’t have both, and I want Cal to be a Jedi. So, he gets consequences. 

We’ve already seen him struggling with his attachments. He was attached to Cere. He was attached to Bode. He was attached to Tanalorr and the future he wanted to build there. Losing it all, made him angry.

If he builds a stronger relationship with Merrin, I’m saying it would lead to an attachment and then if something threatens her, he’d get afraid. If something happens to her, he’d get angry. And after, he could turn to hate.

If we need another Jedi romance, let Cal follow in Anakin and Bode’s footsteps. I wanna see the consequences!

Rematch with Darth Vader

Cal got to bat his saber once against Vader’s in Fallen Order and defiantly refuse him the Holocron.

Cere got a full duel with the Sith Lord in Survivor. 

It’s Cal’s turn now. He should be fighting to save someone or something. Perhaps stalling. Perhaps becoming overconfident and thinking he can end the Dark Lord.

I’m not sure if I think Cal should die by Vader’s hand or not. I’d love for him to stay alive, to make it past the end of the Empire and possibly make it to live-action. Realistically though he should be killed, and he deserves to go out against the worst of the worst.

[whump-captain]

ok now im curious, i wanna know about bianca!

Omg yes thank u for emabling me i love her so much

So my favourite thing about Bianca is that she dies an awful death pretty early on in the story and she's also the only character who gets what she had wanted throughout it.

Basically I made her when i decided that i wanted to make Kintsugi into a proper novel and realized that i needed a stronger character motivation for Ethan ("curiosity about weird island" was enough for whump shorts but for feature-length i wanted something more defined lol). Since a big inspiration for it were survival horror games (Silent Hill, Dead Space, RE7) and all the lads in these always seem to be looking for someone, I decided to go with that as well: when Ethan crashes on the Weird Island™, he's not alone but accompanied by Bianca. When he wakes up, she's gone, and so he has to find her. Who exactly she is to him has gone through a Bunch of rewrites but i feel like i've finally arrived at an iteration that i really like (and one that doesn't just make her an accessory to the male protag's plot).

Essentially, Bianca should be the protagonist of the story. The alien entity hiding on the island and fucking everything up around the narrative? She's encountered it before and she was forever changed by it, dedicating her whole life to finding it. She has a whole plan, a whole conspiracy plot going on before the novel even begins and all of it gets thrown out of whack when Ethan does something fairly shitty to her that puts all of her life's work in danger. So obviously she tries to murder him.

She only doesn't succeed because the boat crashes but like, that's where she wants to be. That's where the alien is, that's where she can find what she's looking for! And she dies as she finds it! And that's a Good thing, somehow! The happenings on the island upend and ruin the lives of everyone involved with them Except for Bianca whose life is put back on track. In a different story, it would have been an inciting incident for her journey but we're in survival horror and so we follow Ethan who has no business being there whatsoever and for whom everything gets worse.

And like!! His whole Thing, his entire driving force as he crawls through horror after horror, is to find Bianca and apologize to her. The Second he wakes up after the crash he realizes he has Fucked Up and that while she very much owes him an explanation for trying to kill him, he owes her an apology just as much. He has put her future in jeopardy and he won't rest until he makes that right! And he never gets to!

And Bianca doesn't care!! She gets exactly what she wants and her story is complete all the while everyone else's stories are going entirely to shit. She thanks Ethan at the end, all her dreams fulfilled. She's decomposing alive as she does that.

The reader barely even finds out what the hell her deal is!! She's actually present for like 3 scenes bc we're mostly with Ethan who sees her once at the beginning when she has a gun to her head and once towards the end when he begs her not to succumb to what to him is a fate worse than death. It would be a fate worse than death to literally Anyone except Bianca bc she has something fuckin Going On!! And maybe half of it is ever explained, all of it too late to save her!

Fuckin. epitome of Good For Her™. Girl had a goal and she Achieved it!! Should she have? Probably not! But she's literally the only character in the story who isn't left among the ruins of their life so like she's having a better time than all of them lot!

[drawnecromancy]

Happy STS!

Your characters and story but it's the middle ages. What roles do they have in the society? Are they royalty or something else? How does your story change?

(Also unrelated but I was curious does the place that Claire comes from have a name? I read until page 22 of the webcomic and I want spoilers because I am horrible at handling suspense)

Ahh, hm. About 90% of my stories are in some kind of medieval-fantasy setting, besides Break of Dawn. There is, also, a medieval fantasy past to that story - you can find that in the tag "before dawn : the age of the gods", that is mostly full of random thoughts and snippets. I have a lot of thoughts about pre-Dawn things because I am completely unable to do anything modern for more than half a second before turning to medieval fantasy again.

If we're just teleporting everyone to the normal middle ages, Claire doesn't get powers and her family doesn't die HAHA (<- so so evil.); the whole story cannot happen because its inciting incident is... genuinely, a half god from space arriving and going "I don't like how things are around here. Let's destroy everything that makes this place special, and turn it into what I think it should be !".

We could have a completely different story, turning Dawn into some queen that has invaded the country and having a ruthless rule, and killing Claire's family off for whatever reason to jumpstart the moment where we start following characters, but that's not really something I'd want to explore. The point of Break of Dawn is that it used to be medieval fantasy, but no one remembers, and magic is actively erased, history rewritten, people killed to hide it.

I'm having trouble just imagining Break of Dawn in the middle ages because it... really is not made for it to work there at all, haha. It would be an entirely different thing, I'd probably cut down the number of characters, as we wouldn't need the overpowered 3 of the Undercity; Dawn could just be assassinated. Etc, etc. Vincent would be interesting as an evil advisor, though... Claire would likely start out as the child of farmers, and if I'd figured out a way to murder her family, she'd become a traveler/adventurer with her Brand New Dads, I guess.

The problem here is really that it's not meant to work there at all, and that everything else I write is already medieval-flavored, haha.

Here's what we could do, i guess :

Claire's family gets murdered for ??? reasons. She gets picked up by two errant adventurers. (knights, maybe ?)

She meets Vincent, who's like 2 years older than she is, because he's the son of her new dads' friends.

After some growing up, Claire and her dads live with other people in the capital city of the country, she gets a baby brother.

They eventually have to rescue Vincent and his new baby sibling, while Vincent's parents get killed, because they were doing shady shit.

This whole time the adventurer dads are doing shady shit, but they aren't explaining to their daughter that they're straight up trying to murder the queen.

??? Vincents gets abducted by his uncle, becomes nobility and the queen's evil advisor.

The dads die.

Claire becomes an adult, raises her two little brothers Sacha & Kyle, falls in love, blah blah.

When her brothers are teenagers, Sacha gets abducted, Vincent is the one to save him and get him back to her.

Meanwhile a stray seer (at least that's what that 16 year old claims to be) is picked up by Kyle

Claire and her family go avenge the Witchmann dads and murder the queen. I don't know what happens to Vincent.

That's it. I'd just straight up get rid of the Sky City and everyone in it. Sorry Elysia, Val, Mark, Melyane, and Ava. They wouldn't work in a pure medieval setting, the core of their existence is because of magic. Val, Mark and Ava especially are reminders of the past before Dawn.

(Also : while the little town she grew up in doesn't have a name, mainly because we're never going back there in the story, i can tell you the story currently takes place in the region of Lonna. I don't have a finite map as of right now, so I can't like. point and go "this is Lonna". The capital of Lonna is called Kello, and it's a place that will eventually appear. Currently, Claire and the Witchmanns are quite far up north of Lonna, I think ? I'm not 100% sure; geography in Break of Dawn isn't really something I've thought about. Also, Hoo Boy :) while I wouldn't consider the name of the region to be a big spoiler, there's a couple of places that could technically be considered spoilers if you want them : the Sky City, the Academy, the Undercity, the labs. >:) we'll be exploring them eventually ! Though, thankfully, Claire won't be the one getting put through these things for once.)

(I also, like, don't even tag break of dawn spoilers as spoilers most of the time when i'm talking about characters or events that won't appear for a while, so if you ever see mention of... literally any character that isn't Claire, Sandy or Percy in a post of mine tagged Break of Dawn, it's currently technically spoilers. OR it's before Dawn. One or the other. Sometimes both if it's about the Emperor ! So if you want to learn more about anything, don't hesitate ! i love rambling, lol)

[azulaang-chakras]

Hiya, I have two questions. Both are inciting incidents that would cause AUs to develop. 1. What do you think would have happened if Ty-lee had chosen Azula's side at Boiling Rock and had disabled Mai instead? 2. What if Mai had chosen Azula over Zuko?

Good questions, Anon.

1, so if Ty Lee successfully strikes Mai before Azula lets off a lightning bolt and manages to talk her down from killing her, Mai is imprisoned as in canon and Ty Lee leaves with Azula. Azula is still rattled by this and by Zuko "abandoning" the Fire Nation, but Ty Lee's loyalty might not lead Azula to a full breakdown as in canon. That does, however, make Ty Lee the unlucky receiver of a lot of unhealthy attention. After losing a friend and a brother, Azula heaps all that baggage on Ty Lee, who has already had to suffer a lot of shit over the years. If Azula manages to keep it together enough, that means Zuko and Katara don't get an easy shot at subduing her during Sozin's Comet. I'll elaborate on this in a minute.

2, if Mai had chosen Azula, that leads to one of three scenarios:

A, the line of the gondola gets cut and everyone inside it drops into a lake of boiling water, dying horribly

B, Sokka, Zuko, Hakoda, Suki, and that one prisoner guy who fucked up rowing a makeshift canoe live but don't escape the Boiling Rock. Aang and co back at the Western Air Temple don't know where Sokka and Zuko went, so that cuts their minuscule band of 8 to 6. Without Zuko thinking of asking for June's help when Aang goes missing, that might cut out the regroup with the White Lotus. Without Zuko, Aang and co don't find out about the Phoenix King plot, which means that an untold amount of Earth Kingdom territory will be reduced to ash. Mai's canon choice at the Boiling Rock prevented a genocide.

C, Team Boiling Rock somehow manage to escape and make it back to the Western Air Temple. This leads to me wondering if Ozai's decision in regards to Azula changes. Ozai, in my eyes, sees Azula as a tool, an extension of himself and his toxic, avaricious ego. Making her fire lord and leaving her behind was, in my eyes, as much a "promotion" for her as it was a punishment for her. She failed to recapture her brother, she lied to him about Aang's death, and she can't even keep her own friends under control. Does the removal of that last failure from the AU mean he still leaves her behind or does he decide to take him with her? I'm going to lean towards the former.

(Answering these questions made me realize, hey, how did Zuko know his plan would work? For all he knew, Azula still had a full garrison of firebenders and Dai Li on hand. Agni Kais are serious business, but does Fire Nation law/cultural norms allow for a traitor to invoke it? I don't think the garrison would bat an eye if Azula shuts him down and orders Zuko and Katara's capture).

Mai sticking with Azula might force Zuko to wait in returning home, which means that the war doesn't end after Sozin's Comet. With Azula as their new leader, the Fire Nation can continue the fight for years if need be. When the fight finally comes back to Royal Caldera City, the plan is "take down Fire Lord Azula". Zuko has a fair shot at beating Azula, but not a guaranteed one as he's not fighting an unbalanced/unhinged sister this time. He does have to win for the world's sake, but the battle can easily become chaotic as combatants tear up the city. Mai would end up fighting with the others against the rest of Team Avatar and the White Lotus, and probably end up being defeated. The FN has an army, but the good guys have a fully realized Avatar.

This second invasion might end with Aang taking a defeated Azula's bending away. Ty Lee and Mai are imprisoned as defeated enemies of war. Zuko ascends to the throne with a much heavier heart, as he no longer has Mai at his side. This would, in time, kick off a "Fire Nation's Next Top Fire Lady" as noblewomen from around the FN try to marry him, which would only add to Zuko's misery.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

[memento-morri-writes]

new WIP dropped??????please tell me

e v e r y t h i n g

also narrated by a Raven???? I'm so :ooo

have a good day/ night!

(@ink-fireplace-coffee)

hehehe, it's the one I mentioned a little while ago, somewhere on my blog as "high fantasy wip". I described the vibes as "Six of Crows mixed with a DnD campaign."

The problem is that I have no plot, other than that first little inciting incident that I mentioned. And I don't really have the other characters solidified yet either. This WIP is really me just trying to come up with my ideal book based on my current interests, lmao. So maybe my interests will change before I ever finish it, but idk. I just think we need more found family fantasy stories, and as of right now, most of the found family stuff I've read has been YA centered. Which is fine, but adults deserve some too, right??

(a lot of this is going to be repeated from this ask I answered for @rose-bookblood, but I'm going to add a lot more too.)

Anyways, I'll try and tell you some more! I'll list the character ideas I have right now:

Avidra (Avi): they/them, elf of some sort, former assassin, like 127 years old. (but their species isn't considered "adult" until they're 100 years old.)

Asra: she/her, human, in her 20's, talented thief.

Brynn: she/her, trans, human, late 20's or early 30's, former pit fighter??

Orion: he/him. Not-quite-human sorcerer with a talent for fire. Going through his gifted kid burnout arc.

Healer/nature mage who thinks they have to save everyone, and haunted by the one time they couldn't. (pronouns tba)

A warlock who made a deal with an entity years ago and is now terrified of being possessed by said entity.

(by the way, you should know that there are absolutely zero cishet characters in this story. everyone is queer somehow.)

Those last two characters I'm not settled on, but they're character concepts I love a lot, so we'll see what happens.

As for the raven narrator, uh, yeah. He works for the Raven Queen, who is this world's goddess of death. He's meant to collect people's souls when they die. He starts following the group after the death that happens on the first fucking page (here) and gets invested. In a weird way, he does care about the group, but also, he's an immortal collector of souls. He has a very matter-of-fact approach to death and such, and his way of "caring" or being interested doesn't necessarily mean he hopes they don't die. He just wants to see what they do before they die.

His narration is going to have footnotes, which are like his little comments or interjections. (these are in first person) I have a deep love for the use of footnotes in storytelling.

So, um, picture him as like, Death from The Book Thief mixed a bit with the narrator from The Nevernight Chronicles. Though in my mind, the best use of footnotes will always be The Bartimaeus Trilogy, which I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't read it! But also, throw in the 3rd omniscient-ness of Lemony Snicket in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

And I got this idea from falling head first into a hyper fixation with Critical Role. So, ummm.... this is going to be a wild ride. But if I can pull it off (or at the very least come up with a plot and develop the characters), I will be very, very happy and proud of myself.

Anyways, that's really everything I know about this story. Thanks for asking about it, Carmen!!! <33

[riftwalker-limbro]

Don't you dare rabbit hole into this tonight. I am kicking you out of your own inbox. Shoo. This is for tomorrow to give you something to chew on should you feel tempted to dig into Duviri before the weekend

With that out of the way

How familiar are you with tarot, bc i feel like the question of what tarot card each OC should be assigned is Always a fun thing to inflict upon someone >:) So this is me doing that

HELLO THIS SENT ME ON A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY. you were so correct to tell me to fuck off when you sent this in at Bedtime Yesterday. this is SO LONG. partially because you may have said Card (Singular) but i just. had some Extra Fun with it and everyone ended up with 2-3 cards. i refuse to apologise

for reference to various words below the cut i used https://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-card-meanings/major-arcana/. i was not at all familiar with tarot beyond "cards that people ascribe a lot of meaning to and use in fortune telling" so i may not have used these entirely correctly but who the hell is keeping score of that anyway

well first off the death card works perfectly for pretty much all of my warframe OCs. for. incredibly obvious reasons. and then here are the individual ones

kelth

the lovers, upright: kelth is the inciting incident for so many things by design, but they also just. connect a lot of actors together in one point, so that would be harmony and relationships. on a more personal level, they were always a bit of a lone wolf when it came to Being Social so just the fact of growing a bit of a found family is a giant thing for them to wrap their head around.

the tower, both sides: sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening - that's just tenno in general, but especially kelth gets to go Through It. then the reverse side of this card comes in naturally - kelth gets tired of the constant change, the constant bullshit that's happening, but they cannot catch a break.

the star, upright: kelth learns to have trust & faith in their own abilities and those of the people around them. when the system isn't thrusting disasters at them to fix, they find their own purpose, and work towards it - guiding star-like. the reverse side of this one is also interesting, because you don't just Grow Faith without a few nice Crises of Faith - that's actually the next chapter of Connection, just Kelth having a not-good time getting used to their new circumstances, feeling lost, disconnected from who they were up until so recently, even though they are much more authentically themself now.

sufford

hierophant: upright before he gets 'framed, reversed after. he will be going through a Journey re: this during the Sacrifice as well. all his life he's been told what to do, and suddenly there's an annoying cephalon and a kid who all but registers as His Own Kid & he needs to grow an initiative & stand up for things himself, whereas before, he very much had a whole framework and loads of superiors and elders telling him what he should do and laying his life out for him.

strength, upright: he's just an emotionally solid guy that others can depend on for various things. as the arsenal-keeper of the pack, he's a pretty central pillar in the lives of everyone aboard who chooses to go into combat regularly. it's not a role he's filled before, so the journey to self-confidence is a little rocky sometimes, but he literally is the most qualified aboard for it, so he takes to it with a vengeance.

justice, upright: he has a strong sense of justice, what's right and what isn't. he doesn't tolerate things that aren't the full truth very well (he doesn't Care for vince's hiding-things that he can Tell is happening but can't tell What) but he does learn to deal with it, as it isn't His Business. he will Not learn to deal with other Worldly Injustices in any way other than with a sword and pistol, though.

bruiser

the sun, both sides kinda: he's a bit of a jock-type, but in a genuine way - none of his stupid (practical) jokes sting very much, and you can usually always talk to him and even if he doesn't understand entirely what you're going through he'll always let you in for a hug or whatever you need. for the reverse, mostly "overly optimistic" hits - he can absolutely get overconfident and get himself into situations he actually can't exit again quite as smoothly as he'd hoped

the world, upright: he will at some point travel to where he's originally from, after he remembers his past, and he'll have a Great Time talking to people, catching up on history, telling stories of a long time ago, etc. It does take him a hot minute to decide on doing this, as the thought at first makes him feel nervous - but he's welcomed with open arms, so it all ends up alright.

verica

the magician: verica is Intense in several ways. she's impulsive & can do random shit but then also have the resources and skills to back up what she wants to do. on a very literal level, power from the upright card and manipulation from the reversed card are what she has and can do from her career as a musician - she's good at sweet-talking someone to get what she wants because she's aware that her field doesn't necessarily do things fairly. and in case you missed it this is entirely why efurat got double-booked in the first place, and how she's able to get another reservation in a week's time. she's a little scared sometimes that she'll do it unconsciously to people around her, so checks in a lot to make sure this isn't the case. she still has the normal amount of influence over her friends, which sometimes gets her a little bit uneasy when she thinks about it.

the chariot, upright: yeah, see above. she's stubborn and impulsive and knows what she wants and in many cases, how to get it. she's used to always having some degree of control over situations, so moments where she doesn't have that unsettle her.

vince

the hermit, reversed: even before anything happens he tends towards being alone and withdrawing from reality a bit when shit gets interesting, but after he gets warframe'd, confettis himself, and gets put back together again a thousand years later, he does this x100. he doesn't tell anyone shit, would keep to himself almost exclusively if it were up to him, and withdraws from just about everything he can half-assedly justify withdrawing from.

the hanged man, upright: mostly about "surrender" and "new perspectives" - he is at first very unhappy with his existence as a warframe, a thousand years after he last remembers being awake, and has to come to terms with that. he learns to appreciate it, as it allows him to do a bunch of cool shit and also maybe live forever, though he was not a willing participant in this part of his life, and does miss certain parts he never wanted to give up. then, right when he just about thinks "i could live with this, actually," he finds the first of a verica's clues, and his world is completely on its head once more, his journey starting anew. shit just keeps happening to him

pule

the moon, reversed: after vince and verica both disappear off the face of the planet, he doesn't know if he should feel guilty or not - so his inner compass settles on Yes A Lot. he throws himself into his work to try and suppress the pain and doubt, but just ends up in spirals.

wheel of fortune, upright: 'good luck' is… debatable, but the other ones are definitely a hit - he gets done dirty as hell by the universe (the infestation) so he somehow lands himself back in touch with his old friends after so much bullshit happens to each of them.

the sun, upright: i've archetyped him as a clown in writing already. he's always been good at making people laugh, and leans into that as one of his core strengths to put people at ease. he's also an optimist despite the giant roundhouse kick the universe delivered to his mental state - he sees the good in things, situations and people, and helps others see it too.

kali

the fool, reversed: being a little stupid about being reckless and taking unnecessary risks. kali doesn't necessarily think too much about what it wants to do and how possible that might be. kali wants to go fuck up hunhow, so it goes to uranus at the slightest mention of grineer activity digging him back up.

the high priestess, reversed: kali's keeping secrets! kali's good at keeping secrets. it's been carrying one with them for a long time. this secret tunes in with the other words on this side of the card - disconnected from intuition, because it has a hard time listening to its inner voice on stuff like Risk Taking and such; withdrawal, because it's easier to ignore the secret weighing heavy on it than it is to acknowledge it, so it withdraws from reality a little bit when it can afford to; silence, because a silenced voice doesn't have to be listened to.

[chronicallylatetotheparty]

Literally everyone in the main cast (except maybe Charlie) has killed someone. Idk how the sex worker is more murder-y than everyone else.

Good because if a former Overlord who owned souls thought he could say anything about it I'd call him out as a hypocrite.

It's almost like Angel Dust's behavior stems from self-destructive tendencies/unhealthy coping mechanisms. And telling someone who believes they're a piece of shit that they're right will just cause them to double down instead of magically deciding to stop doing that.

Then why were you complaining about him.

... This show is about the CHRISTIAN afterlife.

The premise is a critique of Christian morality. Of how the Church has historically been arbitrary in deciding who goes to Heaven or Hell. Their "explicit purpose" is being a vehicle to criticize the black and white morality of Xtian fundamentalists. It doesn't matter that you don't care about it because the show has to.

Did you pay any attention at all to the Heavenly court scene? No, scratch that, did you pay any attention at all to any time Adam the First Misogynist was onscreen? Adam, literally the worst person in the show. (great character, I love to hate him)

"If angels can do whatever and remain in the sky." Isn't just a catchy line. It's literally calling out Heaven's hypocrisy. "The rules are shades of grey when you don't do what you say." The exterminations are considered so morally reprehensible they've been hidden in a conspiracy by the government.

What exactly about that screams "good person"!?

(and that's not even going into how the idea of "good people" and "bad people" has been used to justify queerphobia, racism and the exploitation of other marginalized people)

You are making a lot of assumptions about Vaggie's age.

Also: Wow, it's almost like it IS the first time she's seen a demon child. That sounds like an Inciting Incident in Vaggie's story. It's almost like asking why the story didn't happen thousands of years ago, is nitpicking, and therefore not particularly relevant.

It's like people respond to propaganda differently and being told they're the "good guys" as part of their conditioning results in cognitive dissonance.

Again. Vaggie just had her limbs chopped off. I feel like you're glossing over Vaggie getting her limbs chopped off.

Ah yes, why would seeing a character change their worldview in real time be written any differently to a character who had at least a one year time skip. It's not like one of them is ashamed of their role in the genocidal endeavor while the other one is gleefully supportive of it. Surely these two characters with completely different personalities would react in the exact same way.

Yes? That's exactly my point? That's why he's a minor antagonist? That's why I said they argued about it? You're not supposed to agree with him.

Do you? Were you saying you liked the idea of Alastor getting a redemption arc or were you implying that it's bad writing that he didn't start on one in the first season?

Oh Zuko! The character famous for starting his redemption arc after two seasons of twenty-five episodes each! The character who rejected his uncle in the season two finale so he could gain the approval of his abusive, genocidal father!

Why would Alastor question anything? The only thing being on Charlie's side has gotten him is almost killed by an angel with cheat codes. The only reason he's there is to get back his soul contract. The only character who knows him on more than a superficial level is Husk and Alastor literally owns him.

Alastor is literally a serial killer who traps souls inside his radio. Why does Angel need to be called out on his off screen murders but Alastor doesn't?

The consequences of their actions are that they died and ended up in Hell.

The consequences of their actions are that Angel Dust is constantly SA'd, physically abused and verbally degraded by Valentino. The consequences are that Husk is Alastor's pet who can be summoned on a whim so he can't even run away from him. Are Alastor being forced into the hotel against his will. Vaggie losing an eye and her wings.

I feel like you're not grasping this whole afterlife thing.

Also there is no active murder because those sharks were about to roofie Angel Dust. That's just self defense.

I don't care about Bojack Horseman.

But there is a character in this universe who goes around to the people he killed and "apologizes" to them. It's Blitzo and the apologies are meaningless because he doesn't care about any of them and they don't care about him. Plus the apologies don't do anything. His victims are still dead.

(or heartbroken, they're admittedly mostly exes)

But since you brought up Zuko.

The Gaang don't forgive him. They immediately attack him and tell him to get lost. If Zuko didn't have a plot mandated reason to be there him asking for their trust would be INCREDIBLY selfish.

Redemption is not about being forgiven. Victims should not have to bear the weight/guilt of whether or not the people who wronged them receive damnation or salvation. You shouldn't need to expect forgiveness before trying to become a better person.

Are you actually paying attention to the story or are you looking for excuses to be mad because the creator compares herself sometimes to a show you like better?

Hazbin has such black and white writing for a show about redemption. Like can you name a single instance in which the story ever wanted you to take Angels behavior seriously, and care about something he’s done?

Or a moment where a character tried to make amends for past actions, or improve as people. Sir pentius didn’t learn anything he just stopped being a cartoon baddie, there was no need to confront past behavior or mature or anything.

And Vaggie, she does not learn anything, she just sees a child and becomes good. Why does this child belong in hell? Why has Vaggie never seen one before? Why does Vaggie suddenly respect adult demons after seeing this child when she was fine killing adult demons before this?

Why is Lucifer portrayed as basically a good person who never has to commit to redemption when he was literally okay with the exterminations? Because he has depression?

Why doesn’t Alastor make anything resembling a step towards redemption after all of season one as a main character in a show about redemption?

[cuttoothed]

Fic for day 3 of @jonmartinweek for the prompt "Healing & Recovery". We've all been saying jmart need a lot of therapy after the finale, so...yeah.

Disclaimer: I have never been to couple's therapy. I have done some reading on it, but this is not intended in any way to accurately reflect real world therapy practices. Please just assume that anything "off" is due to the way couple's therapy is practiced in AU-land (though of course feel free to let me know if you spot anything egregious).

*

“Why don’t you start,” Judith suggests, “By telling me about the incident?”

The two men on the sofa give her identical startled looks, as if she’s uncovered something incriminating. Martin seems to regain his composure first; he clears his throat, and his hand moves to cover Jon’s, unconsciously protective.

“Sorry, wh-what do you mean by “incident”?”

“For most couples who come to see me, there’s an...inciting incident,” Judith explains. “Something that makes them realize they could use some professional support to work through things. Of course any couple can benefit from seeing a therapist together on occasion, to deal with small issues before they become big ones. But, well, it’s the same way that everyone knows they should go for regular check ups with their GP rather than waiting until they actually get sick—it’s just not something most people get around to until they need it.”

She pauses to give them time to consider that, and after a moment Jon nods, looking mildly embarrassed.

“Right,” he says. “That’s, ah, I think that’s fair.”

“There are pretty strong extenuating circumstances, though,” Martin huffs defensively. “We didn’t exactly have the option for therapy in the a—wh-where we lived before.”

“It’s not intended as a criticism,” Judith tells him. “You’ve chosen to talk to a therapist, and that’s a big step—one that many people never take. You’re ahead of the curve, Martin.”

Martin looks mollified at that; he’s clearly a bit touchy about perceived criticisms of their relationship, and Judith doesn’t want to get him on the defensive. She gives them both an encouraging smile.

“So,” she says. “Is there an incident you’d like to talk about?”

The two of them look at each other expectantly, as if each is waiting for the other to start. After several long moments of silence, Jon raises his eyebrows meaningfully, and Martin sighs.

“Fine,” he says. “So, we, uh, we recently realized that our...garden was a-a bit of a mess. So we—Jon and I—we get together with our...housemates, to figure out what kind of flowers we should plant. Fuschias or—or hydrangeas. ”

He pauses to glance nervously at Jon, who gives him a reassuring nod, squeezing his hand.

Right, Judith thinks, This is probably not about flowers.

“We agree we all want fuschias,” Martin continues, “Except Jon—he wanted hydrangeas. But we took a vote, and it was fuschias.”

“Except of course most of our—our housemates weren’t there for that meeting,” Jon interjects, folding his arms across his chest.

“Yes, but we agreed we couldn’t wait to ask every single person,” Martin says sharply, back on the defensive. Jon’s brow furrows and his mouth opens as if to say something, but he changes his mind and shuts it again. Conflict aversion is one of the most common dysfunctions Judith sees in the couples she treats; very few people want to disagree with the person they love, and even fewer know how to have a constructive conflict. She makes a mental note of it for later.

“Go ahead, Martin,’ she suggests gently. Martin looks unhappy, but continues.

“So we agree to plant the fuschias the next day, but Jon—Jon sneaks out in the middle of the night and starts, uh, planting hydrangeas. Without telling anyone.”

Without telling me, Judith hears in his hurt tone. Jon’s arms are still folded, and he’s almost squirming in his seat with the effort to not interject; Judith decides it’s a good time to invite him into the story.

“Jon, why did you feel so strongly about the hydrangeas?”

“It’s—it wasn’t that I wanted hydrangeas, I just couldn’t a-accept the idea of—of fuchsias.”

“Couldn’t allow it, you mean,” Martin grumbles. Judith lets it pass and continues to focus on Jon.

“Why is that?”

“They, uh, they spread…” Jon waves his hands vaguely. “Their—their...roots? They would get into the, uh, the neighbors’ gardens, completely take over, destroy everything.”

“Potentially,” Martin insists. “There was no guarantee—”

“There was no reason they wouldn’t,” Jon snaps.

By now Judith is not only sure that this has nothing to do with gardening, but suspects that neither of these men has ever seen a fuchsia in their lives. It’s fine, though. This is far from the first time a client has invented a story out of whole cloth so they can work through something uncomfortable without actually describing it. And this is their first session; Judith hopes in the future they’ll trust her enough to give her the real story.

“Remember,” she tells them. “We’re not here to decide that someone was objectively right or wrong, we’re here to help you understand each other and improve your communication skills.”

“Right,” Martin mutters, unconvinced. Jon’s expression is distressed, but he continues.

“There was no other choice,” he says wearily. “The only other option was—was azaleas, and I know you didn’t want that, Martin.”

“Absolutely not.” Martin sounds horrified. “But hydrangeas, Jon? Do you really think that was a better option?”

“You have to see the difference.” Jon’s tone goes stiff and incredulous, as if he’s winding up for a lecture, and Judith decides to cut that off before it starts.

“So what I’m hearing,” she says, “Is that you both had very strong, conflicting opinions on this topic. And that’s okay—it’s okay for you to disagree, even on something important. You’re not always going to agree on what the right thing to do is. Often there is no single “right thing,” so it comes down to how the different choices make us feel.”

“That doesn’t seem like a good way to make a decision that affects the wh—a lot of people.” Jon clearly considers that his opinion on not-flowers was the objectively correct one. Judith smiles.

“People aren’t computers, Jon. Even the most logical minded person in the world is influenced by their feelings—about important issues, about other people. You’d be surprised at how much of our decision making is rooted in emotion; either how we anticipate the outcome of our decision will make us feel, or how we are feeling in the immediate moment of the choice.”

A spasm of something that might be grief or pain flashes across Jon’s face, and he leans unconsciously in Martin’s direction. Martin’s arm instantly goes around him, offering comfort without thought. It’s clear that these two love each other deeply, unquestioningly—and that’s also part of the problem. When someone you love thinks that you’re wrong about something that’s important to you, it can feel like a rejection of your entire self.

“I’d like to pause this discussion for now, and try a little exercise,” she says. Jon nods, sitting back up and disengaging from Martin’s embrace; Martin looks attentively at her, though his expression is unsure.

“One of the biggest challenges we face with people we love is recognizing that they are separate from us. I know—” she says, raising her hands to stop the objections she can already see forming on their lips. “Of course you know that you’re separate people. We all know that, rationally. But emotionally, it’s natural to see the people you’re close to as extensions of yourself—it’s an evolutionary impulse to aid group bonding. It happens with friends and family, and it’s an even stronger impulse between partners.

“We have to do a lot of work to truly internalize the idea that the people we love have their own inner emotional lives that drive their opinions and decisions. But once you are able to fully grasp that truth, it makes disagreeing with the person you love feel less emotionally fraught; it’s a powerful tool for navigating conflict constructively.”

Jon is frowning, but it’s in consideration rather than disapproval. Martin still looks skeptical, his body language defensive, though he doesn’t say anything. That’s probably the best she’s going to get for now, Judith thinks.

“So,” she says. “The exercise is this: I’d like each of you to take a few moments to think, and then tell the other person something about yourself. Not a fact, but something that you feel. And I would like you to listen without interrupting when your partner tells you their feeling. Can you each do that?”

“I, ah—” Jon’s frown deepens. “That’s...rather difficult to do on demand.”

“I know,” says Judith with sympathy. “That’s why I’m here, to support you both in doing the difficult things. If it was easy, you wouldn’t need a therapist to facilitate.”

“Right,” says Jon. “Okay.”

“Martin?”

“Fine,” he says, but his tone is reluctant. Judith gets it; vulnerability is hard enough in front of someone you love, never mind with a stranger in the room. It’s easier to pretend that it’s pointless, that you’re not really putting yourself out there to be hurt. She has the feeling that Martin is someone who would rather avoid being hurt, even if it means closing himself off.

“All right,” she says. “When you’re ready, Jon, would you mind going first? No rush, take all the time you need.” Hopefully, seeing Jon take the first step might help Martin get over some of his defensiveness.

“Oh,” he says, and for a few moments his expression devolves into one of intense concentration. Then he nods, turning towards Martin.

“Start with “I feel”,” Judith suggests.

“All right,” he says, breathless with nerves. “I, uh, I feel...responsible. For—well, for everything, basically. And for everyone. Bad things have happened to people, and it’s my fault, because I should have done something. Everything that happened, back there, it was all because of me.”

“It wasn’t you, Jon!” Martin protests. “Annabelle told us—”

Judith is about to remind him that he’s supposed to just be listening, but he cuts himself off first. Jon laughs, an ugly sound that’s more like a sob.

“And how is that supposed to help? Knowing that the—that they were using me my whole life, how does that absolve me of any responsibility for what I did? For the fact that I failed to do anything to stop them? I couldn’t even go through with the one thing that could have actually meant something, because—”

He clamps his mouth shut, his jaw locked tight; Martin looks down at his hands, his expression distraught.

“Because of me.”

“Martin—” Jon’s tone is wounded, and he reaches for Martin’s hand. Judith sees reflections of a shared pain in both their faces, though she doesn’t understand why; this would be a lot easier if they’d just tell her the truth.

But you didn’t get into this profession because it was easy, did you?

“Thank you for sharing that, Jon. I think there’s a lot more for us to explore there, but let’s give you a break and give Martin a chance to share, okay?”

Jon nods, clutching Martin’s hand in his. Martin gives a long, slow exhale.

“Righto,” he says with false, brittle cheer. “”I feel,” wasn’t it? Right. Jon, when you do something stupidly self-sacrificing for other people, I feel like everyone else is more important than me.”

Jon flinches.

“Martin,” Judith says, keeping her tone level. “Let’s keep the focus on what you feel, not on what causes you to feel that way, okay?”

“Right,” Martin mutters, and glances at Jon. “Okay. In that case, I feel...like I’m not important. Like the only thing I can really do is—is take care of you. And if I can’t even do that, then what bloody use am I? That’s it, I suppose.”

“Martin…” Jon says again, softly. His eyes are wet, and he’s clinging to Martin’s hand like a drowning man to a plank. Martin swallows hard and shakes his head, but he makes no move to extract his hand from Jon’s grip.

“Thank you, Martin,” Judith tells him. “I know that wasn’t easy to share, for either of you. But this is the kind of honesty that we need, in order to build strong communication. Let’s all take five minutes—if either of you want to take a bathroom break, or get some water—and then we can talk about where to go from here. All right?”

Martin disappears to the loo, while Jon wanders around the office, looking with polite interest at the shelves of books and ornaments. Judith writes a few notes for herself, to follow up in future sessions. She hopes there’ll be future sessions. Both of these men seem deeply hurt, traumatized by events that they’re just barely alluding to, and have clearly been struggling through as best they can with less than ideal coping mechanisms, trying—and likely failing—not to hurt each other in the process. They both need individual counselling as much as couples’ therapy—maybe more. She’s certainly going to recommend it..

They clearly love each other, though. And they want to make it work. If they’re willing to put the effort in, they have better than even odds in their favor.

Martin’s eyes are red-rimmed when he returns; he sits on the sofa as near as he can to Jon, who presses their shoulders together. Judith can’t help smiling at the sight.

“How long have the two of you been together?” she asks. She always asks new clients at the end of the first session, rather than at the beginning; that way she can get a feel for the relationship without preconceptions based on longevity. The two of them look at each other properly, for the first time since Martin came back in, and matching, sheepish smiles break out on both their faces after a moment.

“So it was three weeks in Scotland,” Martin begins, ticking it off on his fingers. “And then—how long?”

“Uhh, it’s...let’s say half a year, give or take?” Jon makes a face that says he’s really not all that sure.

“Right, and then we’ve been here nearly six months. So...about a year, all in all?”

“But we knew each other for over three years before that,” Jon insists earnestly.

“It sounds as if the two of you have been through a lot,” says Judith. “And not all of it gardening related?”

“No,” Jon says with a self-deprecating chuckle. “Mostly not.”

“We barely scratched the surface today—and that’s normal. Relationships are complicated, and it takes a lot of time and hard work to build understanding and communication. But I promise you, it is worth all the effort. You both made a really strong start today—it takes courage to be that honest, even with your partner.”

The two of them give each other a long look, and the smile they trade is tentative, but genuine. They haven’t solved anything today, have only just begun to reveal their hurt and their insecurities; they have a long journey ahead to get to a truly honest, healthy place both for themselves and their relationship. Judith has a feeling they’ll persevere, though—that losing each other simply isn’t an option.

“So,” she says, “Should we make this a recurring appointment?”

Jon glances questioningly at Martin, who bites his lip and then nods firmly, taking Jon’s hand in his.

“Yeah,” Martin says. “We’ve done much harder things. We can do this.”

“Together?” says Jon, and Martin smiles.

“No matter what.”

[lyquynhnhu]

Thinking positive: the happy ending makes sense

Premise: the title is not sarcastic. It’s true that I have mixed feeling about the ending, but that’s not for the ending itself, rather for the execution. The latest chapters felt “approssimative” more than “rushed”. I mean, it’s like watching a recap episode of an anime.

Like always, I’m trying to logically find explanation about some unsaid things.

Introduction

So, many people are upset because the dead came back to life, making their death less impactful.

But the point is that nobody was supposed to be death.

In the original timeline, Mikey was the only one who died. The others characters lived their own life, probably never meeting each other. We really need a spin-off about everyone life in the original timeline, but I guess that most of them went the wrong path.

Just watch at Baji, in the original timeline he didn’t go to school and didn’t care for anything. Mikey was the center of their friends group, so his incident had a huge impact on him.

Another example is Draken. Before meeting Mikey, Draken hang out with bad people. If he had continued like that, he would have become like them without realizing it.

People influence each other, if we spent a lot of time with a certain type of people, we get used to that lifestyle. The same happened to Inupi when he join the Black Dragons under Izana.

Conclusion: there is a 90% of chance that in the original timeline, all the characters had a bad life.

The curse

Then, Shinichiro changed the timeline into “Takemichi first timeline”. This timeline was bad because it was cursed.

The first part of the manga can be sum up in “everything bad that happened is Kisaki’s fault”.

In every timeline Takemichi has experience before Bonten, the fact that Kisaki was the mastermind behind all tragic events was clear.

Kisaki was behind Draken murder

Kisaki orchestrate Valhalla, during which Baji died

Kisaki took advantage on Yuzuha to kill Taiju to absorb Black Dragons

Kisaki incite Izana to create Tenjiku, a gang meant to develop in a criminal organization

Kisaki order Hina’s murder

Also, Kisaki committed a lot of crime in the future

Because of all of that, when Kisaki died it was very satisfying. That’s why I was shocked when Kisaki returned and became a good guy.

But could it be possible that Kisaki wanted to be saved? The hint is when he call Takemichi “hero”. What Kisaki tried to tell Takemichi before being hit by the truck could be about the dark impulse.

Kisaki was not a time leaper and didn’t know others time leapers, but with Takemichi he pretend to be one. Kisaki is smart and probably open to supernatural things, so he wasn’t surprised when Takemichi said to be a time leaper. He probably realize the nature of Mikey’s dark impulse and used that for his plans. But at the same time, the dark impulse corrupt and consume him as well. Kisaki could somehow control the impulse and not losing his reason (in contrast to Mikey), but at the same time the impulse amplify his obsession turning him into a psychopath.

Kisaki wanted to be like Takemichi, his obsession with Hina is not because of love. Kisaki saw Hina as a trophy, if she fell for him it means that he has surpassed Takemichi.

About Takemichi and Kisaki becoming friends in the reset timeline, it would be interesting to know if they were originally friends in the original timeline. Just to give more sense to their relationship.

Conclusion: Kisaki kind of took over half of Mikey’s curse. Mikey said that him and Kisaki are similar, I think he refers to their weakness. Mikey is strong at fighting, but has a weak mind. Kisaki is good at scheming, but weak in taking action. In opposition, Takemichi is weak overall but has a strong determination.

The meaning of “revenge”

So, we have two main timelines:

Original timeline, in which all characters are alive (not sure if they are happy, I doubt it) except for Mikey

Takemichi’s first timeline, where all the characters met a bad ending because of Kisaki

With his time leaping, Takemichi tried to avoid the death of Hina but soon he switched in saving everyone.

Just like Naoto suggested, Takemichi could have accomplished his mission by killing Mikey or Kisaki. But seeing what happen to Shinichiro, there is a karma. It’s controversial to save someone over someone else life.

Basically, to save Mikey, Shinichiro created a timeline where many unrelated people to him died as a consequence of his curse.

Bonten timeline, the “best future”, was achieved with the deaths of Baji (wasn’t supposed to die in original timeline), Emma (innocent person, wasn’t involved in gang fighting), Izana (wasn’t supposed to be dead in all the timelines - we can say he is a victim of circumstances).

In my opinion, Takemichi himself is kind of cursed. He got the power directly from Shinichiro, after all. Takemichi’s trauma began because of Toman, which didn’t exist in original timeline. Maybe Takemichi never became a delinquent at all if he never met Shinichiro and he would be happy with Hina.

(It would have been interesting to have a imply about Takemichi’s life in original timeline. Maybe Shinichiro’s time leaping really ruin his life, that would have given more meaning to his revenge)

Toman business was not his business, to begin with. But Takemichi genuinely wants to save everyone. It’s not his responsibility, but he accepted that mission.

With every time leap, the people Takemichi have to save increase. That’s why, an happy ending where everyone is alive is the best. It’s a good compromise between the original timeline (we don’t know much about it, but it’s suppose to be bad) and next timelines (tragic ones (Bonten is good, but incomplete)).

Conclusion: “Revengers” in the title is plural because it refers to

Takemichi revenge on his past regrets (the fact that he gave up and became a coward)

Revenge on the original timeline

Revenge on Shinichiro’s karma/dark impulses

Revenge for all the victims of the curse

Also, many said that “revenge = power of friendship” is lame. But personally, I don’t think “power of friendship” is correct. Mikey’s dream was to create an era for delinquents. Toman is meant to be like a second family. So everyone joining Toman after resolving their issue makes sense.

So, Revenge = New Era = no deaths and happy ending.

[izzythehutt]

I do feel like the writers care more about Robbys character then they do about Miguel’s tho

Do you? That's interesting. I have more often heard the opposite argument being made. I think the characters have equal significance to the overall story, though the writing priorities for them are very different. It's a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Johnny is the main character of the show (sorry, I love Daniel, but this ain't his story.) So, I view every character through that lens.

In this universe Johnny Lawrence is the sun and everyone revolves around him—which means there's an assumption the audience will be invested in Robby just by virtue of him being Johnny's son. With Miguel, we're seeing their entire relationship journey, so there's a heavier lift required to make the audience love that character, particularly in relation to Johnny.

So with Miguel you needed a lot more development up-front, whereas with Robby you play the long, series-wide game.

Miguel and Johnny meeting, Johnny rescuing him from bullies and then agreeing to teach him karate is the inciting incident of the show (Johnny getting arrested for doing the same exact thing that Miyagi did in KK is a hilarious reframe.) They are the "Bad Santa" surprising reboot of Miyagi and Daniel. So much of the premise of Cobra Kai and Johnny's identity as a teacher, which the show presents as his true talent and vocation in life, hinge on that relationship being compelling, genuine, touching and heartfelt. Which is why so much time in S1 and 2 in particular were spent developing it.

Robby, by contrast, is Johnny's biological son, entered the action of the story and all the other characters' lives because of that blood relationship (he started working for Daniel to provoke Johnny and he would have never met any of the characters if not for that connection.) So there's a lower burden placed on getting one "invested" in this relationship. If you care about Johnny—and if you're watching this show, you have to—then you want him to reconcile with his son.

We have comparatively few scenes between them, however. That's because their relationship has 16 years of history that happened before the events of the narrative, and the audience is expected to infer a lot about it, based on what we know about Johnny as a person and how Robby turned out/the obvious characteristics they share. You can get away with making Robby a juvenile delinquent who steals computers, rips people off, dabbles in drugs and skips school for the same reason you can make Johnny an alcoholic burn-out loser—the son takes after the father, and these "versions" of them are their worst selves they both desperately want to change. There's far less set-up required because a father and son relationship comes with a set of expectations and assumptions the writers are relying on the audience making and caring about.

(One of my biggest criticisms of the show is that they've made the degree to which Johnny has been involved in Robby's life way too vague, to the point where I see people argue that the hug in 4x10 is the first time they've ever embraced in their lives. I would have liked more of Shannon and Johnny's relationship history spelled out overtly —were they ever "together" in Robby's childhood, eg.?—because so much fandom discourse seems to derive from wildly different assumptions about this dynamic and how Robby's relationship with his parents and their relationship with each other has affected him.)

Robby's story is working as a parallel to his father, and there are constant, subtle and overt connections made between them, even though they have spent most of the first four seasons on "opposite sides" of the conflict from one another. I don't need a huge amount of interaction between them to know Johnny cares—the fact that he's got exactly two photographs in his apartment, one of his dead mother and his son's second grade soccer photo on his fridge, says it all.

TL;DR: Miguel is connected to Johnny's teaching, which is his redemption, whereas Robby is the symbol of his biggest failure in life. The Miguel dynamic is where a lot of the comedy of the show has landed, and Robby has largely been the heaviest drama. I see going forward a merging of these two storylines and a reversal of the dynamic (more Robby/Johnny comedy and more Johnny/Miggy drama!!)

[arkadijxpancakes]

I agree, the conflict between Harry and Ron really isn't resolved. They barely scratch the surface of their conflict, when they "resolve" it. They fix the issue that has bubbled to the surface (Ron's feelings about Hermione), but they don't fix the iceberg underneath. They never do.

There are multiple opportunities for Ron to learn from and overcome his insecurities, but the narrative never really allows him to have lasting character development. Every time one of those conflicts comes up, he starts to have some growth - just to revert to his factory settings (I like how you mentioned this for Percy and I do think, this applies to other characters as well, including Ron), once the inciting incident is dealt with.

It's the same for the conflict between Arthur and Percy. Because, yes, their differing opinions on how to deal with the news about Voldemort did spark their argument, but it isn't really the reason they argued and it's also not the reason Percy went no-contact with his whole family for three fucking years.

So Percy apologizing for being wrong might solve the inciting incident, but it also doesn't solve the conflict underneath. Him fighting Thicknesse also doesn't do that. Because, in the end, the conflict wasn't really about Voldemort being back or about Dumbledore.

It was about their dysfunctional family dynamics (not just between Percy and Arthur, but also between Percy and everyone else). It was about Percy's status as golden child of the family (and how fragile that status really is) and about them not really knowing each another. And it was also about Percy growing into his adult self, while separating who he wants to be from what his parents want him to be. One could also make a point about how this conflict was about their socioeconomic status and the discrimination that came with it. But all of this was completely dropped, after the conflict was introduced in Order of the Phoenix. From that point onwards it's just about Voldemort being back and about Percy being wrong about it.

And the "resolution" in Deathly Hallows treats the conflict as such. Percy stumbles into the situation, apologizes (he's basically groveling), mom and dad hug him, Fred and George make some jokes, the conflict is solved, all is well.(1) And afterward, Percy really does go back to his factory settings.

And it's not just Ron and Percy this is happening to. Rowling seems to have an aversion to writing character development. Harry does grow as a character, but he's basically the only one. She attempts to give Snape some development, but it's mostly of the "and he was good all along!" kind of development, where he doesn't really change at all. Draco starts to become a better person, but she never really commits to a redemption arc (probably, because she hates Drarry shippers...)

(1) Side tangent: I just - once again - realized how fucking Christian the series (especially Deathly Hallows) really is. I wonder if Percy's arc was supposed to be read that way. Him denouncing JesusHarry and leaving his congregationfamily, just to realize the error in his ways to return just in time for the final battle and his congregationfamily welcoming him back with open arms ... There would be no character development needed, after that.

Guys who Cry in the Harry Potter Books (and Why)

Men do 30% of the crying in the Harry Potter books, even though they represent 66% of the characters (and that's pretty much as expected).* I’m interested in why the crying happens though, and what it says about the characters. For the ladies, crying is neutral - they all cry, and for all sorts of reasons (tired, frustrated, stressed, emotionally overwrought...) Bellatrix, Augusta Longbottom, Ginny, Tonks… all cry. *Hermione* cries thirty separate times over the course of the books. 

Male crying though, that's something that gets mocked (usually by Slytherins.) Pansy calls Neville a “fat little cry baby,” and after Rita’s article (falsely) describes Harry crying, Draco comes in with “Want a hanky, Potter, in case you start crying in Transfiguration?” Of course there’s also “D’you think [Hagrid]’ll cry when they cut off his hippogriff’s - ” right before Hermione slaps him. So making fun of guys for crying is bad right? 

Let’s get into it. 

1 : Crying because of a death

The most “acceptable” reason for male crying. This happens a lot, we are definitely not supposed to think any less of the guys who do it. Mostly it happens *right* at the moment of death, or maybe at the funeral. The exception is Harry, who cries in Book 3 after talking about hearing his parents dying (although the narrative voice DOES let us know that he’s kind of embarrassed about this...)

“Harry suddenly realized that there were tears on his face mingling with the sweat. He bent his face as low as possible, wiping them off on his robes, pretending to do up his shoelace, so that Lupin wouldn’t see.” 

Then he cries again in Book 7, while visiting his parents' graves. But it’s definitely still crying over a death. Just one that Harry takes a little bit longer to process. 

Crying over a Death: Full Breakdown: 

Amos Diggory: 1 (Cedric’s death) 

Arthur Weasley: 1 (Fred’s death)

Harry Potter: 3 (Hedwig, Lily, James)

Rubeus Hagrid: 4 (Dumbledore, Buckbeak, Aragog, Harry) 

Argus Filtch: 1 (thinks Mrs. Norris is dead) 

Xenophillius Lovegood: 1 (thinks Luna is dead) 

Fillius Flitwick: (thinks Ginny is dead) 

Ron Weasley: 1 (Dumbledore’s funeral) 

Elphias Doge: 1 (Dumbledore’s funeral

2: Crying because of Pain

You’d think this one would also be acceptable. But… it really isn’t? Dudley cries when Vernon hits him (but Harry doesn’t.) Peter Pettigrew cries when he cuts off his own hand, Saw style, but it gets framed as blubbering weakness. Pettigrew framed SO pathetically for the entire resurrection scene - and honestly, for the entire rest of the series.

(Which is strange when you think about it. Like objectively, Pettigrew did GOOD. Sure he only likes Voldemort because he’s powerful, but so do most of the Death Eaters, that’s nothing special. Peter found Voldemort, resurrected him single-handedly (ha.) Found Bertha Jorkins,  i.e. the reason Voldemort was able to plan his comeback. Obviously he has god-tier bluffing and lying abilities, as well as enough willpower to cut off a limb. Being able to turn into a rat would make him a really useful spy. Also his spell, the one that killed thirteen muggles and destroyed a street? Most magic we see does not have a blast radius like that. Either he’s extremely powerful, or he somehow rigged the whole street up to blow beforehand? Maybe he planted magical bombs everywhere, and triggered them after luring Sirius to the right place. Either way, Peter’s formidable. But somehow his job is to hang out and be Snape’s servant? (Is it because he’s not cute?  Is this JKR’s fatphobia rearing its ugly head? Unclear.)

Our last guy crying in pain is Book 1 Neville, after he breaks his wrist during flying lessons. He also “sniffs,” while walking into the Forbidden Forest for detention, which *might* count as crying? But really, Neville cries surprisingly little. We get a lot of “looked as though he might cry” and “on the verge of tears”... but that's not actually crying. And I think that’s because… early-books Neville, yes we’re supposed to see him as a little pathetic. But definitely not as pathetic as Dudley or Pettigrew. 

3: “Childlike” Crying

Sometimes the people who cry are literally little boys. This is also okay. No one is going to judge infant Harry for crying when Voldemort is in the house, or little Severus for crying when his parents are fighting. Interestingly, when Myrtle is talking about Draco crying in her bathroom, Harry assumes she’s talking about someone much younger: 

“There’s been a boy in here crying?” said Harry curiously. “A young boy?” 

But of course, when an adult is crying in a childlike way, it immediately becomes… pathetic. Again we have Pettigrew, who “burst into tears. It was horrible to watch: He looked like an oversized, balding baby, cowering on the floor.” In the Horcrux cave, crying Dumbledore is described “like a child dying of thirst.” Which is also meant to be pathetic, but in more of a ‘Harry has to be the adult now’ sort of way. Also, the potion seems to have made Dumbledore mentally regress back to his youth, so it’s *closer* to a literal “child crying” moment. 

(I considered putting Dumbledore drinking the potion in the ‘pain’ section, but at least in the book I think it’s clear he’s mostly in emotional rather than physical pain.)

Where this gets messy is with the house-elves. House-elves are not children, but they are presented as childlike. They are small and in-your-face, direct even though their problem-solving tends to be very convoluted/not especially logical. I like the present-tense, no pronouns way they speak, but I can’t deny it is kind of baby-talk adjacent. And… house elves are *really* emotional. Dobby, Kreacher (and Winky) cry a LOT. If I had to guess, I would say JKR likes treating house-elves as childlike so it’s more of a surprise when it turns out that one of them was behind everything. But considering that they are slaves, it is gross considering that one of the main real-world justifications for slavery was ‘slaves are childlike, and unable to take care of themselves.'

There’s also Hagrid. With seventeen separate instances of crying, Hagrid easily cries more than any other guy in the Harry Potter books. And… well… he’s also presented as oddly childlike. He seems much more like Harry and Ron’s contemporary than a peer of the other professors - which is weird, since  if he went to school with Voldemort fifty years ago, he’s in his sixties now. But still, he’s helpless in the face of criticism, he’s comically out of his depth whenever he deals with the Ministry, he’s constantly letting things slip or drastically misjudging danger levels. The first three books use “Hagrid gets in trouble, the gang has to bail him out” as a plot point, and in Book 4 his sideplot with Madame Maxime gets treated like a schoolboy’s first crush, with all these jokes about him wearing suits that don’t quite fit, and trying and failing to style his hair. Not to mention, we know she’s flattering him because she wants insider info on the Tournament. But he doesn’t know that. 

4. Crying because of Sports

Oliver Wood cries when Gryffindor wins the Quidditch cup. That's all.

And that brings us to our stragglers. The only non-childlike guys who cry for reasons other than death, pain, or sports are as follows: 

Harry Potter: 1 instance of crying

Draco Malfoy: 2 instances of crying

Severus Snape: 2 instances of crying

Albus Dumbledore: 4 instances of crying

Horace Slughorn: 1 instance of crying

Let’s see what’s going on here. 

Harry Potter

Dumbledore had weakened himself by drinking that terrible potion for nothing. Harry crumpled the parchment in his hand, and his eyes burned with tears as behind him. Fang began to howl. He clutched the cold locket in his hand so tightly that it hurt, but he could not prevent hot tears spilling from his eyes

There’s a lot going on in this moment: Harry is tired, frustrated, disappointed, overwhelmed. But even though it is a complex moment, probably the main emotion is still Harry’s attempt to process Dumbledore’s death, now that he finally has a second to do so. So this honestly could have gone in the “Crying because of a death” category. It’s just different enough that I want to specially call it out. 

Draco Malfoy

We hear about Draco crying once from Myrtle, and then see it first hand: 

Malfoy was crying — actually crying — tears streaming down his pale face into the grimy basin.

The narrative takes a second to let us know that he was ACTUALLY CRYING, just to hammer in that this is something unexpected and not-normal. I think I want to attribute Draco’s tendency to cry - and cry because he’s overwhelmed, scared, lonely - to the character’s slight femme coding. What can I say, he cries for ""girly"" reasons. And so does Snape!

Severus Snape 

“Snivellus” is clearly a nickname meant to evoke the idea of “crybaby,” since “sniveling” is a synonym for crying. We also get this: 

Snape was kneeling in Sirius’s old bedroom. Tears were dripping from the end of his hooked nose as he read the old letter from Lily. 

Crying over Lily’s letter could count as crying over a death… but since he’s crying over a letter, not over a grave or her body (like in the movie), I’m going to say that he’s probably crying because of guilt, emotional overload, or love (especially because he rips the ‘love Lily’ off the end of that letter.) Like Draco, Snape might be getting little bit of femme-coding here. He’s the mean-girl type of bully (versus the mean boy) He cries, he threatens to poison people, which is something we only see women (and Draco) actually doing in these books. Idk, he’s an odd one who JKR clearly has very complicated feelings about. 

Albus Dumbledore 

I was actually really surprised that Dumbledore cries as much as he does, and at such unusual times! He cries when he sees Snape’s doe patronus - because of love or just because he’s emotionally overwhelmed. He cries all through the Horcrux cave, primarily because of guilt. He cries twice during the King’s Cross Station vision-quest, once because of his complicated feelings about Harry while he asks for forgiveness, and once over … Grindlewald.

“They say he showed remorse in later years, alone in his cell at Nurmengard. I hope that it is true. I would like to think he did feel the horror and shame of what he had done. Perhaps that lie to Voldemort was his attempt to make amends . . . to prevent Voldemort from taking the Hallow . . .”  “. . . or maybe from breaking into your tomb?” suggested Harry, and Dumbledore dabbed his eyes.

And okay. JKR announced that Dumbledore was gay just a few months after book seven was published, and I think she was folding in deliberate queer-coding as early Book 6. My proof of that is Dumbledore's increased emotionality - as we can see, it’s pretty unusual for men to cry in the Harry Potter books because they’re feeling “softer” emotions like love, regret, stress etc. It’s something she associates with femininity, and I’m sure she associates gay guys with femininity as well (I mean, that’s a very common thing to do.)

There’s also this interesting passage from Book 6: 

This younger Albus Dumbledore’s long hair and beard were auburn. Having reached their side of the street, he strode off along the pavement, drawing many curious glances due to the flamboyantly cut suit of plum velvet that he was wearing. “Nice suit, sir,” said Harry, before he could stop himself, but Dumbledore merely chuckled.

Now, this is subtle. Wizards out and about in the muggle world often wear unusual colors like purple and emerald green. However. That adjective flamboyantly is only used one other time in the entire series, to describe Fudge’s hand gestures. But here, it is used to describe an outfit, a purple velvet suit which is honestly a little bit Oscar Wilde. And “flamboyantly gay” … those are two words often heard together. 

Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I am pretty sure this is the only opinion about clothing Harry ever expresses aloud. And, I think @niche-pastiche hit the nail right on the head when were talking about this and they said, "'Nice suit, sir,' said Harry, before he could stop himself," is SO the response of a young adhd boy in the early 2000s trying not to say "thats gay." 

Horace Slughorn

Horace Slughorn cries at Aragog’s funeral, not really out of grief for Aragog, but mostly out of a maudlin sense of togetherness, nostalgia, and camaraderie. And… I do think we have one more slightly morally ambiguous femme-coded guy on our hands? Like Dumbledore, Slughorn is very much a flashy dresser, with shiny hair and gold buttons on his waistcoat. He loves treats and candies (hey… so does Dumbledore. They’re the only adults with a sweet tooth like that.) He loves fancy dinner parties, and is well-connected without being ambitious the way Lucius is. He also (like Draco) is aligned with pureblood-supremacy, but hyper avoidant of violence and confrontation. Except for the Harry example, I think I’d be comfortable with calling all of these last few instances “Femme-Coded Crying.” 

* Methodology - My list of 208 Harry Potter characters comes from TV Tropes, which had the most complete list. I am excluding characters from Cursed Child and the Fantastic Beasts Films. 

In order to find instances of crying, I searched for the words “cried/cry/crying” “tears” “sob” and “sniff.” I counted each crying episode as one, even if crying was brought up multiple times throughout the scene. I made the fairest call I could whenever I hit a “the crying intensified” or the “the tears restarted,” but I mostly judge pretty conservatively when I’m ringing up data.

[ryouverua]

Saimota is a fantastic ship that only improves with age and their respective maturity. Right from the get-go we see this in canon, too! They have a tumultuous first clash at the end of chapter 1 which is immediately turned on its head, and the subsequent growth and development of their in-game relationship really stands out that much more because of it.

This is a long one, so strap in!

Kaito realizes his mistake in his approach after punching him the night before and rectifies it immediately the next morning when he notices Shuichi hasn’t come to breakfast, rightly guessing that he’s stewing in his own grief and misery. And then, being the emotionally intelligent guy he is, he follows up that night and drags him out to exercise (which, y’know, releases endorphins and is scientifically proven to help with mood boosts and even depression) - a move which Shuichi says in chapter 5 saved his life.

A couple days pass and a body drops. Kaito supports him through the investigation knowing that Kaede had been with him last time and that there’s a danger of him relapsing. In the trial, too, Kaito makes every effort to let Shuichi know that he isn’t alone and someone does have his back if he fumbles. This is the real moment that Shuichi chooses to depend on Kaito and is rewarded for it, and while Kaito does get plenty of ego-feed out of it, he believes in Shuichi and his talent wholeheartedly (enough so that it’ll come back to bite him later). But despite it being framed as a ‘hero and sidekick’ relationship, it’s not just for Kaito’s self-worth - it’s to take some of the mental load off of Shuichi, who really, really doesn’t want the pressure of everyone’s lives solely on his shoulders, and is now dealing with the guilt of two cases where uncovering the guilty party hurt him.

(quick chapter 2 interlude! while this is where a lot of the big hero-worship begins for Shuichi and happens to be where I also did his first FTE and got to witness this:

this is also the chapter when these moments happen, post-breakfast and post-casino scene respectively:

and this happens in the very next FTE:

mmm yes, the duality of man. Suffice it to say, while Shuichi has definite rose-coloured glasses on for a lot of the game, Kaito is definitely not an invincible, untouchable hero in his eyes)

Interestingly enough, despite Shuichi still very much leaning into their friendship (and vice versa), they don’t spend a lot of time together in Chapter 3 after he brings Maki out to training that first night! While Chapter 4 is their real ‘break’, Kaito spends a lot of time in his room in the second half while Shuichi gets to know Maki better. And while Maki is a much, uh, meaner investigation partner (love you girl, but that tongue is sharp), they make a great team. Shuichi also starts poking at Kaito’s reason for holing up in his room, incorrectly guess that it’s just related to the occult being brought up. Most importantly, Shuichi is able to do an investigation on his own independent of Kaito just a week after the end of Chapter 1.

Chapter 4 and its immediate aftermath in 5 is great because it showcases Kaito’s flaws and insecurity, and what conflict between the two of them look like. It’s because Kaito respects Shuichi so much that cracks in his own confidence start appearing - and while Shuichi can be obtuse and awkward at times, he shows signs of wanting to broach some more sensitive topics with Kaito; if you do FTEs with Kaito in Ch 4, he even has an inner narrative in which he notes that Kaito had said his stomach hurt before.

He’s not so self-absorbed as to not worry about his friend (but narratively we gotta save that juicy plot point and subsequent reveal for the end of the trial) but hey, Kaito wants to chill and just shoot the shit - so why not have some downtime with his friend in the murder school. Btw, their FTE availability ends here - so if Shuichi has completed them with Kaito, he’s already had his canon-saimota thoughts at this point. While I have given Shuichi the side-eye for his ‘I can rely on Kaito for anything’ spiel, he is fully able and willing to stand up to Kaito in the Chapter 4 trial despite his canon feelings for him at that point. By the way, it’s been a week and a half since the end of Chapter 1 at this point. Shuichi and Kaito have had an arc together where they become fast friends in a pressure-cooker situation and bonding over shared grief for Kaede (even if Kaito’s is less obvious), Shuichi starts as dependent on Kaito’s emotional support but learns to stand on his own two feet, and Kaito is forced to confront his own weakness and hero persona, all while classmates are dropping (including Kaito’s own ex-hero figure, a stark reminder that ‘heroes’ do have flaws).

So the beginning of Chapter 5 is wild to me because of how it’s so often misinterpreted as Kaito immaturely giving Shuichi the silent treatment despite the entirety of the game preceding it explicitly showing that Kaito will tell you, loudly, when he’s angry at you, and that’s purely because we’re in Shuichi’s perspective and he thinks that’s what’s going on - but that’s a bit of a tangent. What I like about it is how we get to see what happens when Kaito (as sick as he is at that point) feels badly and embarrassed with someone he is close to; he withdraws as opposed to lashing out. And while Shuichi is really, really bad at reaching out too without an inciting incident (tunnel escape), he does try and broach the topic when push comes to shove. He’s not lost in hero worship, not even close - he is rightfully upset that the person he’s closest to at the school is upset while still maintaining to himself and the others that his actions were correct. He doesn’t waver on this, despite his attempt to offer an olive branch at the window of the hangar’s bathroom. He truly stands by his own choices in the last class trial and know he won't back down on that if push comes to shove, and that's important - he won't yield the point just to appease Kaito. Shuichi then manages the investigation on his own, leads the trial on his own, faces off with Maki (and who he thinks is Kokichi) on his own, because he has *reached* a point where he can be independent. And to bring it back to how we get a look at ‘saimota in conflict’, Shuichi and Kaito both make amends with each other by the end of the chapter. Even if it’s spurred by it being their final goodbye, Shuichi gets to say his piece, Kaito lays out one of his own vulnerabilities so he can make peace with Shuichi - and even if I’d love to have had them delve into all of Kaito's various issues, there is a very murderous robobear overseeing this which makes time a factor - and I firmly believe that if they had more time, they could’ve resolved even more of the issues that would come up for Saimota. The groundwork wasn’t just there; there was already half the structure in place. And that’s what makes saimota even more appealing to me, tbh. We get to see them build a relationship, run into a big issue, struggle through it and resolve it by the end of the game - and it means that there’s precedent for them to do it again as more interpersonal challenges come up! It’s a goldmine of ship exploration, and they care about each other enough to work through it.

… By the way, at this point they are 2 weeks past the end of Chapter 1.

Imagine if they had more time. Imagine if Shuichi, who is absolutely dogged in pursuing an issue once he catches wind of it (despite how he can get wrapped up in his own head), who cares a lot for other people, who doesn’t just find runaways as part of his detective talent, but follows up with them after because he cares about more than just finishing the job, had the chance to spend years with Kaito and realize he uses his hero persona to protect a much more fragile sense of self. Imagine Shuichi forming that initial friendship with Kaito without the albatross of Kaede’s death hanging around his neck; about how he’ll still look up to Kaito and his fantastic positivity, passion and excellence in his chosen field, and that would only be matched by Kaito’s own admiration of Shuichi’s skills as a detective. Imagine if Kaito, who repeatedly shows the ability to reflect and change his mind when presented with evidence against his viewpoint and was able to express his own insecurity and jealousy to Shuichi in the end, was given the breathing room and space to get more comfortable with doing so. Imagine how difficult and emotionally mature they were to navigate as well as they did in a life-or-death situation that took place over a couple of weeks tops, and how much more they could grow if given the time and space for it.

... And this was nearly going to be where I ended the post, until Ira reminded me of TDP and sent me this wonderful Saimota event (which takes place before the final graduation/training trio event):

Oh hey, Shuichi picked up his catchphrase! It's quite cute how he's finishing Kaito's sentence here - he's spent a couple of years being friends with Kaito at this point, and has even taken up exercising on his own for stress relief. I wonder whose influence that was?

Anyway -

Shuichi has figured out at this point that he does need to firmly extend that helping hand to Kaito rather than worry and keep it to himself. On the other side, Kaito has learned that it is okay to accept that outstretched hand, even if he doesn't need it right now - that he can admit that some day, he might. He's being blase, sure, but it is a far cry from his in-game 'I don't/won't need help'. Good for you, Kaito - you've grown a lot! And that's the most important thing their TDPs show - their capacity for growth not just as individuals, but in a relationship. Of course there will be bumps along the way - it’s very rare that any relationship won’t have them! - but they've proven that they can work these problems in the worst of circumstances. This is by far one of the strongest ships with canon foundation in the entire series, and my goodness do I still love it years later.

[otonymous]

Glutton For Your Flavour (Obey Me: Beelzebub - NSFW)

Description: You’re about to become Beel’s next meal Warnings: NSFW/18+: Explicit/graphic language — reader discretion is advised.  Spoilers for Lesson 5 of MS (hard).  Please note potential trigger warnings: dub-con (as an inadvertent result of somnambulism), cunnilingus in two flavours (soft and rough), squirting and overstimulation, slight size kink, very faint hints of tetraphilia, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it blasphemy, slight fear (monstrous descriptions) Word Count: ~2900 words (~14 mins of smut & shenanigans) Author’s Notes:  My very first fic for the Obey Me fandom!  I know I’m late to the party, but I’ve recently started playing this game and the story and its characters are so amusing I had to write about it.  This piece may not be to everyone’s taste, so please, please, please note the potential trigger warnings listed above and skip if it’s not your cup of tea.  That being said, hope you all enjoy the read! 💕😆

🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔

“Bad luck to be sharing a room with Beel, but what can ya do after he destroyed yours while destroying the kitchen, and all for a dumb custard!  Be careful — he might mistake you for a snack and eat ya in the middle of the night, hahaha!”

Mmm.

The scene fragments, Mammon’s face wavering as his voice grows faint, consciousness seeping into dark corners like sunlight cutting through fog.  And when you open your eyes, you can’t quite place where you are for a moment, straddling the line between dreamscape and reality.

Ahh…

You sigh.  There it was again, the sensation so pleasant it had roused you from the deepest slumber.

Further blinking off the haze of sleep, you take in your surroundings: a large bed lying empty across from yours in a room almost cavernous in size and just as dark save for a candle burning low on a desk, the glow of its flame orange like the hair that was currently brushing soft against your inner thighs—

“BEEL?!  WHAT THE HELL?!”  

“So tasty…not…enough…need more…want to…eat…zzz….”

Eyes still closed, the demon’s face is shiny even in the dark, slick from cheek to chin with what must’ve been a copious amount of his saliva and your arousal, you blush to realize.  And when he doesn’t budge even after a swift kick to the face, you are ashamed to find the Lord of Flies’ show of strength sending yet another throb to your already pulsing clit.

He does wake though, Beelzebub’s amethyst eyes opening wide before he falls backwards onto the cold stone floor to realize what he had inadvertently done in his sleep.  And as the always-famished sixth born looks from the shredded remnants of your panties to the pool of wetness on the sheets where his chin had rested, he becomes even more tongue-tied than usual.

“I…uh…I’m sorry!  I didn’t mean to…I dreamt I smelled something delicious and I was so hungry…and somehow I’m here, on the floor…I don’t even know…I-I’m so sorry!”

His cheeks grow so flushed they remind you of the red spider sandwiches he packed away during dinner, stuffing them two by two into his mouth until Satan smacked his hand away for trying to take more from his plate.  The expression on his face is so full of remorse that even if you were angry, you’d be inclined to forgive the demon who was currently grovelling at the foot of your bed, swearing he would hand himself over to Lucifer and Diavolo first thing in the morning to be strung up and hung upside down for a fortnight, even (gulp) forgoing food for a day or two.

“Beelzebub…Beel…BEEL!”  You shout, interrupting his self-inflicted tirade.  “It’s okay, you didn’t mean it.  You were sleepwalking.  You don’t have to go to Lucifer and Diavolo about this.”

“No, I have to.  My behaviour was inexcusable—”

“BEEL!  Let’s…just…try to go back to sleep, okay?  We have our midterm in Devildom law tomorrow morning and I really don’t feel like failing just because I didn’t get enough shut eye.  So please, can we just pretend like this didn’t happen?”

Those orange brows are still furrowed when Beel finally lifts his head and nods.  But then his gaze is falling again on the wet sheets and the shiver than runs through that larger-than-life body seems to send another wave of anxiety through the demon.  He makes a mad dash for the door, murmuring something about getting a snack from the kitchen and “you can have the room tonight” before it slams shut behind him.

He doesn’t return for the rest of the night.

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

The exam was so disastrous even Mammon didn’t bother sneaking another peek at your paper after the first two questions.  And even if you had somehow managed to get back to sleep after last night’s ordeal, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that you were still distracted by the memory of Beel’s mouth on your pussy:

His long tongue, serpentine as it delved deep between swollen folds to taste you with gusto.  

The way he rolled your clit between those plush, soft lips before sucking it into his hot mouth, over and over again.  

The throbbing between your legs that refused to cease long after the Avatar of Gluttony had left the room you were temporarily sharing, sleep only forthcoming once you had succumbed and reached beneath the sheets to finish the job he had started, your moans licentious even to your ears as you pretended your fingers were his.

It was a pale imitation, of course.  That much you could see for yourself, stealing a glance at Beel seated two rows down — quill twirling between long, dexterous digits when he wasn’t putting ink to parchment.

But those gigantic hands were just a small part of what made Beel demonically attractive, as if the word “small” could be applied to him at all: tall and built, there were times when even you envied the ease with which he maintained that perfect physique despite his penchant for shovelling enough food to feed all three realms into his mouth on the regular.

The same mouth which brought you so much pleasure the night before.

Ahem.

Clearing your throat, you pretend not to see the smirk that spreads across Asmo’s delicate face, hoping the lusty demon sitting just to your left wouldn’t pick up on the very secret thoughts you were having about his brother.

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

[Private Chatroom]: Satan, Levi, Mammon, Asmo

Satan: This is going to sound crazy, but doesn’t it seem like Beel’s…hungrier than usual?  Is that even possible?

Levi: OMFG!  You should’ve seen the state of the kitchen this morning after Beel decided to camp out there overnight!  It was a total war zone, like that epic battle scene in Vol. 5 of TSL lololol.  Soooo good XDDDDD

Mammon:  Hey!  He’s gonna eat us outta house and home at this rate!  Shouldn’t we stop him?

Satan: You do it, Mammon.  Aren’t you always saying that there’s nothing The Great Mammon can’t do?

Mammon: …..

Asmo: Please, as if anyone — angel or demon — could come between Beel and a meal.  

Satan: Why was he camping out there in the first place?  Was there something wrong with his room?  I don’t remember him complaining about anything since he got shacked up with the exchange student.

Levi: Not like he could, seeing as it was his fault to begin with and a direct order from Lucifer.

Asmo: Maybe we should ask her.  I’m sure she knows something about what’s inciting his hunger judging by the way she kept staring at him in class today fufufu 😏  She almost failed her midterm because of it, isn’t that right, Mammon?

Mammon: ‼️‼️

[Mammon has left the chat]

Levi: He is sooooo transparent LMFAOOOO

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

Gasp!

Pressing a hand to your mouth, you try to contain your shock at the sight that greets you when you peek around the corner into the kitchen:

Curved, ebony horns sitting majestically atop a head of disheveled orange hair.  Thick, corded muscles that ripple across a broad back — readily apparently because the creature bent over a mountain of food on the ground was wearing nothing but a pair of pyjama bottoms, loose and slung so low over narrow hips that the sharp V defining his groin is visible even from the distance at which you stood.  

Because this wasn’t quite what you were expecting to find when you made your way to the kitchen in the middle of the night to search for Beel, thinking to approach him about the peculiarity of his recent behaviour: the way he now ate constantly and was less satiated than before, the fact that he seemed to be going out of his way to avoid you even though you shared a room.

In fact, he hadn’t said so much as another word to you after he gave you two dozen of his prized custards the morning after the incident, apologizing again until you had to be the one to make him swear he wouldn’t breathe a word of it to Lucifer.  The demon even made a beeline for the door as soon as he saw you emerge from the bathroom tonight, fresh from a shower.

It wasn’t hard to guess where he was headed.

Even still, you tried to focus on your textbook, reading the same line over and over again as you waited for Beel to return so you could have a proper conversation with the demon you made a pact with.  And when you could wait no longer, you made your way towards his favourite room in the House of Lamentation — silently, so as not to draw the attention of the eldest sibling.

But the growls coming from the direction of the open fridge this time sounded like Cerberus himself, enough so that you find yourself rooted to the ground, unable to take another step forwards or back.  

You had never seen Beel like this before, tearing into whatever he could get his hands on with a savagery that made your heart stop.  Teeth, lips and tongue devoured without second thought in a way that was simultaneously terrifying and…

Throb.

…arousing.

Suddenly, he stills, throwing his head back to sniff the air once…twice…and in a flash, he is upon you, towering over your head as he rises to full height — bigger and taller and much more intimidating than you’ve ever seen him before.

You should have been scared.  Any person in their right mind would have if they found themselves cornered by a demon of Beelzebub’s calibre.  But the hands that balled into trembling fists at his sides made you feel oddly secure, your deepest instincts telling you that not all was as it seemed.

“You need to leave.  Now…please.”

“What’s going on with you, Beel?  I just want to help—”  You reach for his arm.  He jumps back as if burned.

“I SAID YOU NEED TO LEAVE!  I-I…can’t hold back…for…much longer!”

Handsome face screwed up as if in pain, Beel turns to put as much distance as possible between the two of you, squatting on his haunches with his head in his hands when he murmurs:

“I…I don’t know what’s going on with me.  This has never happened before.  I’m hungrier than I’ve ever been.  I eat and eat and eat and it still isn't enough.  The last time I felt satisfied was when…when…”

His voice dies down to a whisper.

“…when I tasted you.”

Throb.

Putting out a hand, you steady yourself against the wall, knees suddenly weak at Beelzebub’s admission.  Or perhaps it was due to relief, the tension that had been steadily building in your strained relationship with the demon released to know that you weren’t the only one who desired to revisit that night’s events.

So you gather your courage, stepping softly towards the demon who crouched on the ground next to the lit fireplace, the heat radiating from the hearth warming the flesh you had deliberately left bare when you lift the hem of your night gown to expose yourself to Beel.

“What are you doing?!  I told you, I can barely hold back—”

“Then don’t.  I don’t mind, Beel.  I…I like it too.”

Amethyst eyes darken as they look up into yours, orange flames reflecting off pupils blown wide.  And when he speaks next, the deepness of his voice echoes in your body, as if its source were to be found within your own soul.

“Ask and ye shall receive.  I won’t touch you until you do.”

Nipples hardening beneath your gown, the rush of heat that floods your core makes you shudder when you say,

“Please, Beelzebub…I want you to eat my pussy.”

Back hitting solid wood, you barely have time to gasp before you are pulled to the edge of a long table in the centre of the kitchen, a long tongue running up the insides of each thigh in turn before they’re propped up onto broad shoulders, Beel’s breath blowing hot on the space in between.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can hold back.  I’m just…so famished, so desperate to taste you again—”

His words cut off in a low growl as he presses his lips to your folds, saliva dripping from his mouth mixing with the juices that already painted a glistening sheen on pink flesh.  You fight to bite back a moan at the vehemence of his hunger, the sheer greed of his tongue — flicking at your clit until your back arched off the table, heralding the arrival of the cream that leaked only to be swept up by Beel licking from end to end of that swollen seam.  And when that still wasn’t enough, you nearly swooned to feel that serpentine tongue penetrate, reaching depths that surely only a demon would be able to achieve as Beel sought out more of your flavour.

He buries his face deeper into your pussy, nose nudging your clit as arousal smeared over the entirely of his visage.  The vibrations of his voice further stimulates your locus of pleasure, punctuating the lewd, wet sounds when he says:

“You smell so delicious.  All the time.  And tonight, when you stepped out of the shower…I couldn’t take it, not with the way your scent flooded my senses.  I had to leave or else…this would happen.”

“Oh Beel…you should’ve told me sooner.”  

Mind lost in a haze of lust and body boneless from riding out wave after climatic wave, you reach down a trembling hand without thinking, fingers innocently tracing along the smooth ridges of the onyx horns that lay against your abdomen.

Suddenly, his breath hitches at your touch and the Sixth Prince of Hell is throwing his head back, eyes squeezed shut and mouth open in a moan loud and deep enough to reverberate off stone walls, clattering stacks of dishes in cupboards and making you come once more — legs convulsing upon his shoulders as you feel a preponderance of fluid gush forth from your body right into Beel’s waiting mouth.

The pleasure was such that you’ve never known before, so good that surely, it must be bad in some way, shape or form.  But you hadn’t the energy to ponder further.  

No, the only thing you’re aware of when your vision goes black is that Beel’s mouth is still on you, feasting upon a pussy that continued to respond to the teasing movements of his lips and tongue even as you ceased to think.

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

Cheddar.  Pickles.  Ketchup and mustard.

The smell is what rouses you, but nothing could’ve prepared you for what you saw when you awoke in your own bed: mountains of cheeseburgers arranged on platters filling up every available surface in the room you shared with Beel.

“You can sleep for longer if you want.  I told Lucifer you’d be skipping class today because you’re not feeling well.  Are you…feeling well?”

Beelzebub lifts his head from where it’d been resting at the side of your bed, the rest of his body laid out on the floor as if he were guarding you like an oversized dog.  Those puppy dog eyes, full of concern, didn’t help his case either.

“I’m fine, Beel.  Better than fine, actually.  I feel fantastic!”  You smile, moving to sit up in bed.  The demon springs from the ground, putting an arm around your shoulders to help prop you up, and your heart can’t help but warm at how protective he was being.

He breathes, relief flooding those handsome features.  “I’m glad.  I was afraid I lost control last night and had to carry you back.  You were just…so tasty and…satisfying…”  

Those amethyst eyes glint as they travel to the apex of your thighs, and all of a sudden, he is grabbing at those human world cheeseburgers, shoving them into his mouth two at a time.

“Have some,” he says between bites.  “They’re my favourite and I thought you might like them too.  Besides, you need to eat if you’re gonna keep up your energy.”

You reach towards the nearest platter, taking one for yourself.  “Energy for what?”

Beel looks at you, expression completely serious when he says, “For the next round tonight.”

Throb.

🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔

Thank you so much for reading!  Check out more of my work here! 📚

[venti-death-watch]

so, general au comments:

aventurine & ratio have different roles/positions in the narrative. they’re not going to respond to situations the same way. you can’t just swap them without also changing their inciting incidents. for example: aven would not be a professor trying to advance humanity. he has a very cynical view of humanity & tends to think of the world in a transactional ‘you scratch my back i scratch yours’ way. ratio wouldn’t be a stoneheart unless you can think of some way for him to be trapped in an ipc contract, or find some other reason as to what he gets out of it. he’s a lot softer than aven, and seeing everyone in a student/teacher way means he actually wants to see people grow and learn and improve themselves.

so did the ipc use ratio’s work against him to bind him in an unbeatable contract by claiming his work was too dangerous without some oversight? did aventurine get close with a professor or teacher after he killed his last owner, leading to his interest in teaching? they’re not going to do that without outside influence in some way.

while we're at it there's no way in hell aven would ever try to get rid of his luck. he may say that's what he's studying, but his luck is inherently tied to his family, culture, religion. there's no way in hell he's trying to get rid of it, no matter how complicated his feelings around them are.

(caveat: i could only see it happen if he found out gaiathra triclops was actually ena, or something, and as such was no longer his families' goddess. you need to remove her connection to his family & culture before he'd even consider trying to get rid of it)

due to ratio forsaking his name/taking a pseudonym (haven’t decided which one) and joining the elation/hunt as a pseudo-vigilante/thief and dr. perenna having no reason to be interested in being close to people, it’d probably take longer than in canon for these two to become close. dr. perenna refuses to be vulnerable in front of others. they’d be bitchier as well, up until dr. perenna learns how to be vulnerable with ratio.

noted on aventurine/ananke:

aventurine is known as dr. ananke perenna here. he’s also been known as kakavasha, no. 35, subject 27, my fortune, and finally dr. ananke perenna no. 72 of the genius society.

(he is a genius society member; he doesn’t have ratio’s love for humanity, and his whole shtick is that he always ends up on top. why would he not be a part of what’s considered to be the best-of-the-best of the erudition?)

dr. perenna is still socially savvy like canon aven. he used to be quite the actor, as his last owner, dr. empedocles perenna, had cameras up anywhere his test subjects had access to. (dr. perenna is hyperaware of every camera to this day.)

dr. perenna currently has no reason to use his acting to gain connections for his advantage like canon aven. he’s not beholden to one sole company and can choose who he works with, and often the terms of the contract as well. companies want him on their payroll, and each company has a vested interest in keeping any other one from picking him up. (diamond also desperately wants to bind dr. perenna to a contract!)

his apathy around acting stems from being a nihility pathstrider. he’s rather stagnant, in a way; he’s got enough money and contacts that he never wants for anything, but he’s incredibly hostile to being vulnerable and has no real close connections. he’s fully aware of how many people want to use him, and at this point, he wants them to leave him alone.

the revelation:

dr. perenna’s name just appears in the genius society one day. no one knows what he did or realized. he’s not telling, either— or is it more accurate to say he’s not sure if he can?

the situation is:

dr. empedocles perenna studies fate. he wants to know why the tides turn, why certain people are luckier than the others. he wants to know what constitutes necessity. he creates the ananke project, using human test subjects against each other.

subject 27 is acquired. empedocles quickly views him as an outlier. as the number of slaves/test subjects dwindle, the ananke project increasingly revolves around subject 27’s luck instead.

empedocles would take subject 27 to outings and parties. they’d talk philosophy. after the last non-27 test subject dies, empedocles moves subject 27 into a room on the second floor (still with cameras though— this is still his test subject). empedocles teaches subject 27 a variety of topics to gain a better conservation partner, and subject 27’s brain was sharp as a knife even without his influence.

university professors, members of the genius society, and other higher ups in the government were fully aware of empedocles’ study, and did nothing to stop it. later, when dr. ananke perenna takes that as his name, he decides that if they’re uncomfortable with his chosen name, it’s on them for their lack of interference.

anyway: during a game, a couple years in, empedocles chased subject 27 into the torture/experiment room. subject 27 looks for the surgery tools to defend himself. empedocles points a gun at subject 27’s head.

it jams. empedocles turns the gun to see what happened, pulls the trigger, and shoots himself in the head.

the revelation, cont.:

it is not clear what quite happened, in the split second after empedocles shot himself. years later, while reviewing the footage, all ratio can tell is that dr. perenna realized something within that moment that broke him.

ananke starts shaking, crying, and screaming. he pukes on the floor. he overturns the surgical tools onto the floor and tries to wreck the place. he’s screaming, “what was the point? what was the point of all this?”

he eventually makes his way into one of the corners, curled into himself, still shaking and crying. an hour and a half later, he falls silent and still. the room falls dark once movement stops. he does not move for the next three days.

he gets up, three days after, leaves the room. an hour later, authorities come to pick up empedocles’ body, followed by cleaners. ananke never returns to the room.

ratio can’t tell if he was seeing things, but as dr. perenna left, he could’ve sworn that his shadow looked larger, darker.

the revelation, cont.:

dr. perenna’s realization was around belief, aeons, folklore, his goddess and the aeons and the natural cycles of the universe. once he realized, he couldn’t un-think it, but he can’t explain it.

there is a triple goddess aspect thing going on here, with ena as the crone, mama fenge as the mother, and xipe as the maiden. you could technically say he was blessed by any one of them, or you could say he’s blessed by all three.

the aftermath:

dr. perenna still lives in empedocles’ house. years down the line, when he finally trusts ratio, ratio comments on the camera system, and dr. perenna tells him to have at ‘em but leave him out of them because dr. perenna prefers when he can pretend they don’t exist.

(dr. perenna moves to a small room on the main/first floor, after empedocles’ death. he doesn’t change much. he also doesn’t go into quite a few of the rooms.)

ratio reviews all the footage, saving clips of the people who have been through the house, of specific crimes, and of deaths. he wants anyone down the line to be able to see what kind of person empedocles was, and potentially get closure for a dead loved one or perhaps prosecute someone for the crime. he also saves the moment of dr. perenna’s revelation, to keep anyone from even thinking about blaming him for empedocles’ death.

ratio suggests he move, or maybe renovate the house. dr. perenna doesn’t want to for the longest time; he keeps the bad rooms so that, when he’s feeling nostalgic about a certain lesson empedocles taught him or potentially romanticizing the past, he can go stand in one of the rooms with the cameras in them and remind himself what the situation was. no matter how nicely empedocles may have treated him, it was solely because he was his favorite test subject.

eventually he does renovate the place, though. he starts with his rooms, so that by changing his rooms first he can overcome the barrier to change the bad rooms as well.

further comments:

people who want something from ananke tend to call him ana to simulate connection and closeness. at the start of ‘canon’ in this au, he doesn’t have friends, but any he gains down the line will call him ananke. ratio pretty much solely calls him dr. perenna for years as a respect thing. eventually, after dr. perenna tells him his real name, ratio starts calling him asha in public because it’s close enough to ana to get away with it.

(considering nous = intellect to ananke = necessity, some erudition pathstriders see dr. perenna’s name as akin to sacrilege)

i’d imagine dr. perenna ends up with a medical degree as well because of the medical trauma. essentially, he’s not willing to let anyone else operate even slightly on him for years, so he has to know how to do it himself.

dr. perenna may be blessed by the triple goddesses and noticed by nous, but he considers himself a nihility pathstrider first and foremost, with him potentially also being or in danger of becoming a self-annihilator. his revelation really pushed the ‘life has no meaning’ narrative.

comments on ratio:

dr ratio repudiated his phds & etc when he first started working against the ipc to get his work back. it’s one of those situations where he’d have to prove intellectual ownership to get it back because it wasn’t published prior to the ipc taking it, and he was actively trying to remove copies of it to keep it quiet at the time of robbery. he really sees himself as a mundanite here, and even after he gets his work back, he’s still going to continue to fight against the ipc, but now it’s because he sees it as a viable mission. after all, what’s more human than continuing to fight against corruption even if it seems nigh impossible to beat?

i’d imagine ratio also takes a pseudonym while working against the ipc, but i don’t have any specific ideas for one

they do end up doing a pseudo-penacony mission, but this time it’s ratio on the mission with dr. perenna as backup

there is an au of this where ratio is a masked fool after repudiating all his achievements, and dr. perenna would personally consider himself to be a nihility pathstrider regardless of any other aeon connections. i haven’t quite decided whether or not it’s still an actual au or if i’m including it in canon. maybe ratio is a hunt pathstrider with elation connections?

i love how human ratio can be even as people put him on a pedestal and see him as ‘above being human’. i’d connect him to the elation through that. essentially, he turns to chaos and uncontrollability and laughter after his heel-turn. he needs it even if it doesn’t come naturally to him. what’s more human than that?

actively exploring an 'opposite' au of sorts which started out as a 'switching role' au--

aventurine is a doctor (statistical analysis) and a member of the genius society. he's so good at predicting what'll happen that some people think he's psychic, and every company out there wants him on their official payroll instead of a contract.

dr ratio's work was stolen by the ipc, and he dropped everything to try to get it back and erase all copies of it, as a world-destroyer is horrifically dangerous in the ipc's hands. at this point, he's just trying to take down the ipc.

sunday & robin were picked up by the ipc after their planet's destruction, and are currently stonehearts (anglesite & moonstone).