#but she is a flawed person who isn't good either but by god does she love her daughter

[varpusvaras]

God I have so many thoughts about Jade but it's 2 am and I can't put any of them into words (watch me ramble in the tags)

[transhitman]

I’ve seen a lot of Mouthwashing lets players get confused when Curly laughs when Jimmy finds the gun. I wanna try my take, lemme know if I’m delusional or not.

There’s a short story by Juan Rolfe called “No Dogs Bark” about a father carrying his son’s corpse back to their village so he can receive a proper burial. The father talks to his son’s body as if the young man is still alive. Through context clues, the reader learns that because of the father’s emotional neglect, his son ran off to become a highwayman and that’s ultimately what got him killed. There’s a line in book where the Father seems to come to terms with his son’s death, his failure as a parent, and that the last futile gift he can give his son is to endure the suffering with carrying a decomposing body back to town without stopping to rest so the boy can be buried as soon as possible:

“I cannot think of a sentinel’s burden so Hellish and so fit for a man like me.”

The choice of the word “sentinel” always stayed with me. The duty of a protector, a duty that this Father clearly failed when his son was alive and can only fulfill with futility in death.

When the player finally sees Anya’s body and where’s she positioned in Curly’s line of sight/proximity; I think Curly would say those same words.

Rolfe goes into detail about how the Father’s human senses reflexively react to the smell and sight of decomposition: eyes watering, visceral nausea, and lightheadedness, but the Father does nothing about it and says that sentence with “anguished joy”. Curly has no eyelids to blink away his watering eyes, can’t pinch his nose from the smell, or tend to his nausea. Literally every protective measure his body would employ to withstand being in the vicinity of decaying flesh is removed from him.

The fandom can debate whether Curly karmadically deserved to be in a position where he cannot look away from Anya’s corpse/put into the pod, but I think, HE THINKS he deserves it. Once Jimmy has that gun -practically a monument of Curly’s failure to protect Anya- is when he finally accepts her death. This flawed-but-good man and captain who has failed to protect his crew, accepts this final sentinel’s duty of being the last survivor of the Tupalr dissent into chaos. And He accepts this duty with complete anguished joy.

Okaaay this is so interesting. I at first took Curly laughing as like. Kind of breaking as he realizes the gun was literally right here the whole time. It should have been obvious where Anya hid it. Literally right next to him all these months. God, the irony. But I really like the interpretation that it's the point where he realizes he's going to either die or be the last one alive, and that he has finally reached his personal hell. Cause like. Anya and Daisuke are dead. Jimmy has the gun now and either he'll kill Swansea and then himself (because let's be honest, Jimmy would not chose to live with himself after this and I think Curly knows it), or Swansea will overpower Jimmy and then put Curly out of his misery like he did Daisuke. And Swansea sure as hell isn't taking the pod for himself after everything. And Curly knows there's no other outcome. Everyone is going to die because of what he did and he deserves to bear witness. Cowboy Bebop endscreen You're Gonna Carry That Weight. Fuck that's such a good interpretation...

[theyapper0]

THE HEAVEN CAST!!!!! WHOOOOOOO!!!!!

So first off, we got a redesign for the Exorcist Angel armor. I wanted to keep the colors light so they stand out when in Hell. I was also hugely inspired by Crusades armor, since the Crusades fought for religious territory, I thought taking inspo from there made sense.

Then we have Lute, Emily, Sera and Adam's designs. I'll explain it all under the cut if you're interested!!!

LUTE!!!!!!!!!! Sorry guys but she's basically a different character with the same name at this point

So I think that Lute was like a mentor figure to Vaggie, she was the closest thing Vaggie had to a (sorta) mom but it's defiantly like a student-master relationship.

I think that Vaggie trusted and cared for Lute deeply, she devoted all her time and energy into training in order to make not only Heaven better, but to make Lute proud. Lute was a HUGE driving force Vaggie's martyr complex.

But they were close!!!! The care wasn't just once sided, I think Lute did love Vaggie. I think they both care for each other SO much, that's why it will hurt SO MUCH when it's LUTE as the one to de-wing and banish Vaggie. She LOVED her, she TRUSTED HER!!!!!

Trust that I will be delving deeper into this in the future ✊✊✊

So Emily and Sera's designs and roles in the story are pretty much the same, I liked them in canon! They were fun and offered an interesting addition to the show!!!!

The main thing I chose to change was basically their hair and skin color tbh. I understand what the show was TRYING to do, w the fact that they're supposed to be black (and apparently those are supposed to be dreads in Sera????) but.......... It wasn't good.

With their canon skin color, I know a lot of angels have gray skin but to me, it looked like the designers didn't know whether to make Sera and Emily (especially Sera) gray or flesh colored, which then resulted in them trying to meet it in the middle and left us with this,,,, really ashy looking black skin in some shots which I didn't like.

I decided to just make them a darker gray so they can both be seen as black and also keep consistent with angels having gray skin :)

ALSO THAT ONE DOODLE WITH EMILY LOOKING AT CHAGGIE, I PROMISEEEEEE THAT SHE DOESN'T LIKE EITHER OF THEM LIKE THAT, I JUST DID IT TO BE FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I think the ship is cute but personally, it's not for me ^^)

And finally..... ADAM!!!!!!!!!!!

So like Lute, Adam is basically a completely different character with that same name just slapped on.

I REALLY didn't like him in the show to be honest. I think we was an enjoyable character at times but he's totally like my second to last fav character (with my LEAST favorite being Lucifer LOL). I think it was an interesting take on Adam definitely!! To see him so cocky and full of himself bc of his title but....... It was just very...... Viziepop with the whole "original dick" thing......

Adam is the literal FATHER of humanity!!!? He is EVERYONE'S FATHER!!!!!! I don't understand the point of making him mean aside from the fact that he's supposed to be an opposing force in the show, but even then, just because he's the opposing force, doesn't mean he's gotta be a huge jerk!!!!!

I think it could be more interesting and add more nuisance to the story is Adam WAS this sweet, caring guy who, like the protagonists, is only doing what he thinks is right!

I'll delve more into Adam in my next post BUT everything he does is out of his trust in God and the Seraphims, he trusts them wholeheartedly and despite the fact that the Sinners of Hell were once his children too, he does what he must because his flaw isn't that he's egotistical or an asshole, it's that he cares and trusts with his entire being.

He's also best friends with Kris Kringle

[fruit-sy]

(MOUTHWASHING SPOILERS) Just finished Mouthwashing and I feel such deep-rooted grief for Anya and Curly

God, Anya ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT DESERVE ANY OF THE BULLSHIT JIMMY DID AND (INADVERTANTLY) CURLY LET HAPPEN TO HER. People analyzed that Anya normally isn't a meek or timid person. She can be anxious, but she can also be cheerful and competitive too with Daisuke from the dialogue about game night.

Hell, even in Curly's POV, even through the lay off news shaking her, she still seems at ease and talkative with him.

But from Jimmy's POV, she's either trying to placate him by pumping up his ego or is terrified of him.

And god, the situation she's stuck in is fucking terrifying. Doesn't help that the only other authoritative figure in the ship, Curly, doesn't do shit about her abuser, no matter how much she begs him to help.

I don't blame her for being terrified of trying to confide in Swansea or Daisuke. If Curly won't do shit, then what are the chances they would understand?

Being surrounded by so many people, but none of them can help you is a suffocating feeling. I can't imagine how much she was dying to scream out for help, only to feel like her pain is downplayed and even swept aside as she's forced to be compliant and passive in this situation. Not looking to rock the boat lest she suffers more under Jimmy's abuse.

The way Jimmy sees her (and how the majority of the game frames her character, as a result), is so fucking vile. I was made aware by people that Jimmy had guilt sequences for the rest of the men, while not for Anya. All she's represented as is a terrifying, deformed mass that his mind associates with the fucking cartoon horse mascot that he made sexual jokes about to her. He doesn't feel guilty about what he did to Anya.

He doesn't even think to acknowledge her as more of an object. He only sees the horror in the baby, the mass of meat and limbs. Not what he did to her.

Moving on to Curly, I feel such sadness and frustration towards him. I feel angry that he inadvertently silenced Anya's cries for help.

Curly is an unfortunately believable, flawed character that reflects how people and their preconceived biases can inadvertently silence victims of abuse. It's the mindset of "Oh, my best friend hasn't done anything terrible to me, so he can't be all that bad!"

Also, I think it's from the flawed way Curly thinks. He wants to do good by everyone yet he can't bring himself to be confrontational with Jimmy when he does something fucked up. The dead pixel analogy tells us so much, he's trying so hard to ignore the extremely problematic behavior of his friend (the dead pixel) in favor of keeping the status quo/"peace" of the entire ship (looking at the whole picture).

Also, I think there's something similar that can be extracted from his talk with Jimmy in the cockpit. Even though I think Jimmy did insert a little bit of his words into Curly's mouth, the main takeaway is that Curly is someone who is uncomfortable with the idea of "starting something new if he's bad at it.". Meaning, it feels easy staying in the status quo, even if he feels discontent with it.

He's trying to accomodate for everyone, in a way. He keeps saying he'll fix this, he'll fix the situation, but he still keeps the problem (Jimmy). He doesn't dare to tear down the status quo he has with him.

That's why, I feel so much conflicting sadness after the crash.

In a way, Curly gets to be in Anya's shoes. His authority, his reputation, his ability to look away, to turn away from Jimmy's abuse, is all gone.

Because Jimmy is a piece of shit and a COWARD, he refuses to fess up and takes Curly's authority as a captain.

The crew thinks Curly was the one who crashed the ship. With no lips to speak with, he can only stew in their discontentment and confusion towards him. His reputation, how people perceive him is also out of his control, being disfigured and injured so terribly made people dehumanize him.

Jimmy is so fucking vile again. He keeps acting like giving Curly his medication is the biggest chore in the world and he does it not very gently, even hitting Curly to vent out his own frustrations. It's like Jimmy forgets that Curly's his own fucking friend who shielded him for his disgusting behavior.

I feel like I want to weep when I look at Curly. My heart aches when I hear him writhing in the bed, when he's sobbing, heaving, screaming in pain, when even breathing feels so hard that it comes out in labored breaths. Even if what he did was terrible, he doesn't deserve any of that shit that happened to him.

To be kept just barely alive and stewing in his own blood and robbed of autonomy.

He can scream and make noises, but no one can understand him. Jimmy can spit out the most vile shit and one sided conversations, and Curly can't admonish him for how awful he is. In the days after the crash, Anya can beg him for answers. Asking "Why? Why did you do it?", but he is robbed of his tongue, unable to answer her desperate pleas. He can see Anya breaking down, clawing the gun case and begging him for the code, but he can't grant her that request even if he wanted to. He can watch helplessly as Anya passes away next to him, and Daisuke's screams as he drags his bloodied body out of the vent to unlock medical.

He can only laugh as Jimmy unlocks the gun. Perhaps wallowing in regret as he let the friend he so desperately tried to shield torture everyone. Perhaps at that moment he truly saw the monster that Anya begged him to save her from.

He is forced to watch, eyes unblinking, as he is at the mercy of a cruel and delusional monster.

[themildestofwriters]

"Not Sorry For Loving You," to me, is not an apology. It's not a not-apology, either. Nor is it a goodbye or a break up. It's a woman who has spent most of her life in total isolation who is having a breakdown because the first and only person she has met in the past century does not love her and is, by virtue of leaving, sentencing her to an eternity of isolation (and this isn't me saying that he should stay, either).

Like, sure. Calypso hurt Odysseus. There's no doubt about that, and, this song, if an attempt to apologise, fails miserably. However, I don't think it's a song is an attempt to apologise. What good would an apology be, anyway? There is nothing she can say between finding out that Odysseus is leaving and him actually leaving that will change anything. Odysseus will leave and they will never see each other again. More than that, I don't think Calypso is in a position to even begin apologising. I don't think she can. The social isolation she's experienced doesn't leave you with healthy social skills, and that's reflected in her relationship with Odysseus.

That's what I love about Calypso. She is a deeply flawed individual whose story is a tragedy. There was no way that her story would end well, not if she was better socialised, not if she tried to form a healthy connection with Odysseus, not if she tried just being a friend. Odysseus will leave to return to his wife and nothing will change that. The status quo will return and she will be alone, as she has been before, but now with a painful, Odysseus shaped hole in her heart.

Anyway, that's how I see "Not Sorry For Loving You." It's not a song about Odysseus. It's about herself. It's a deeply selfish song but I can't blame her for being selfish. Regardless of how much she hurt Odysseus, he gets to go home. He gets to return to his Paradise, to his wife and son. And Calypso? She will be forgotten in time, left alone for the rest of her immortal life. Her Paradise becomes Hell, and there's nothing she can do to change that. So, yeah. Of course she's focusing on herself, here. Of course she's upset. And I can't bring myself to hate her for it. No more than any other god, at the very least.

[toaarcan]

C3E107 Thoughts

Okay first point of order, obligatory screaming about Abubakar flying an ocean to do a surprise return as the Arch Heart, you love to see it.

The Arch Heart's plan is interesting but I think they've either not telling the whole story or they're making a mistake. They assume that, in a moment of panic of Predathos being released early, their siblings will all flee. Except we know Melora would stand and fight, and we know that two of the gods are not Tengarian and therefore they have no past track record to base that thought on. They've got no clue what RQ and Vecna will do when the chips are down.

Of course, it's possible that the Arch Heart is hiding the truth. They said themselves that they are sneaky and that they were there without the knowledge of the other gods. They also kept stressing that they were being honest. Which could well be a lie. DC30 on the Insight check to see through any bullshit. The gods may have a different purpose for putting Predathos into a person.

The reality they've claimed is that the gods are currently in argument over what they should do about the Predathos situation, and the Arch Heart believes that if they have time to come to a conclusion, they will choose to fight. Whether that means war with Predathos or war on the people trying to release it, who can say. Either way, if they all come back, inevitably the Betrayers will try to kill mortals again, and the Primes will fight them. Calamity 2 will happen if mortals take too long to stop Predathos.

Ultimately the idea of cramming Predathos into Imogen or Fearne does not seem like a good one. We just spent the better part of 103 episodes watching Laudna struggle to keep Delilah under control. Delilah is the soul of a mortal fucking wizard. And Downfall illustrated the vast gulf between mortal mages and gods. It also showed max-level mortal bodies being disintegrated by the raw power of an unbound deity forcing its way out from within them. And the plan here is to cram a more-powerful entity into a Lv.13 Sorcerer or Druid and expect Predathos to not immediately escape or hollow them out and wear them like a cheap suit?

Then again, given the way it was being talked about maybe they are aware of this and recognise that whoever becomes Predathos' vessel is functionally or literally dead and doomed to chase the gods across reality for eternity, and that's a sacrifice that some have decided they are okay with. Either way, not a great plan.

The two members of BH that are most happy with the Arch Heart's idea are Dorian and Ashton, who are reacting to it like the perfect answer has finally been given to them. But it's not Dorian and Ashton who are going to be tasked with becoming the vessel. Imogen really does not want Predathos released. Fearne is more curious but Zathuda is actively trying to groom her into the perfect vessel and Shardgate was born out of Ashton convincing her to go with her gut and give him the Shard instead of taking it for herself, and I worry that with them on one shoulder and Zathuda on the other, Fearne may end up going with the plan and dying for it.

As for who the deity that agrees with the Arch Heart is... I don't think it's the Matron. The Arch Heart's words around her appearance are "You've heard my side," as if to imply that she represents the other. She was also one of the more reluctant gods when it came to leaving and building the gate, and she was consistently the "Stop doing hubris" one during Downfall.

The Arch Heart definitely did not have an answer for whether Predathos will harm mortals accidentally in pursuit of its meal. Also there's a probably-god chilling in the heart of the planet who isn't going to be running anywhere so that's not a great sign.

Zathuda and the Unseelie's dissatisfaction with Ludinus speaks to one of the bigger flaws in the Ruby Vanguard's plan. We've seen the gulf between mortal wizards and gods in Downfall, but Ludinus assumes that if he kills the gods then mortals will sit atop the food chain. Except they won't. There are a lot of entities that live in the gulf between mortal and divine, like powerful Fey, and also the Fiends the heroes keep running into. Zathuda evidently looks down on Ludinus and intends to betray him. To chase the gods away will open up the throne they've abdicated again, and it will not be a mortal wizard that sits it (nor should it be), it will be a devil or a demon or an archfey.

[paperbackpanic]

Can you do proxies+creeps with and s/o who has taskmaster powers? (If you don't know his powers its basics copying everymove and wepon ability, basically a copycat ^^)

S/o with mirroring/copycat powers

Toby, Masky, Hoodie, Kate, EJ, Jeff, Slenderman

A/n:I really hope I did the characters you would like to see here, if not you can absolutely request again! Also I absolutely love mirroring powers is so so so great! I've always thought about making an oc with those but I have a problem I always make Mary Sues/first born demon child god princess fairy hero if I'm not very very careful so I keep postponing the idea

🪞 I feel like you guys meet when you're wandering in the forest, they tried to attack you and you mirrored their attack and all that shit.

🪞 After that Slender ""discovered"" you and recruited you as a proxy and you started becoming closer with them eventually ended up dating

★ Toby ★

🪞 This man. He's an absolute Simp.

🪞 Since he first saw you, he was already into you.

🪞 When he discovered that you're a super badass that can copy even the most powerful of beings, he was down HARD

🪞 Asks you to copy his Skills and fight with someone so he can see his flaws from an outsider perspective

🪞 He finds it hilarious when you copy the supernatural power of a creep that doesn't know that you're a copycat. "Their faces are priceless" in his words

🪞 I feel like you as a copycat would have a lot of existencial crises about who you really are and shit. Toby is not great with words but he'll do anything to prove to you that you're more than a copycat

★ Masky ★

🪞 When he's in front of you he acts like he don't give a flying fuck to your copycat powers, but when he knows you aren't seeing him/in his head he's simping for it

🪞 He's a bragger, this man would normally brag about you just because you're his s/o, but you're his s/o AND have super badass powers???? This man won't shut up about you.

🪞 You both love playing fight, you'll copycat Tim just because pisses him off and it'll end up on a tie

🪞 He gets kinda jealous when you copy other creeps skills, he isn't sure why though maybe is possessiveness. And he will show that he's jealous

🪞 As said before, lots of existencial crises. Tim sucks at comforting but we'll stay by your side for as long as the crises last. He won't do much more than that but I guess the thought that counts

🪞 he knows how to play the piano and would let you copy his skill if you don't just to watch you play.

★ Hoodie ★

🪞 He's your n°1 fan and hype man

🪞 Brian will film his s/o a lot but now that will double just because he wants to record ALL the times you're fighting. For him to simp later and for you to see were you could've been better.

🪞 He won't brag about you as much as masky does but he'll brag.

🪞 Existencial Crises, AGAIN. This man is the best person to come to when you need confort, he knows exactly what to say and do to make you feel unique and loved. He'll always be reminding you that you're your own person and much much more than just a copycat.

🪞 will get protective if anyone make fun of/threaten you. Not because he doesn't think you're able to defend yourself, but because he loves you and would prefer that he gets hurt instead of you.

🪞 Like Masky, Brian will be kinda jealous when you copy someone's power/skill. He won't show it though.

★ Kate ★

🪞 This woman won't show much but know that she's down HARD for you. An absolute Simp, but only you are allowed to know this.

🪞 She really likes your copycat powers, to her is a form of connection with other beings more than a "aha! I have the same shit as you do now we're equal in fight"

🪞 Praise. Lots of it, ESPECIALLY if you're insegure. She won't shut up about how amazing you're

🪞 She's not as bad as masky comforting your crises but she isn't particularly good at it either. I mean, she does her best but feelings are hard for her to grasp over.

🪞 Will watch you fight everytime she can, training? She's there helping you. You're going on a mission that may involve fighting? She's right behind you. You started to call her puppy because she keep following you around lmao

🪞 Pictures, lots of them. Pictures of you fighting, of you sleeping, of you both together, lots and lots of pictures.

★ Eyeless Jack ★

🪞 He's pretty chill about your powers. He finds it impressive of course, but he won't be all over you just because of it.

🪞 He can't see very well, but like feeling you fight (with the wind movement and stuff) weirdly it calms him down when he knows you're just training and not in actual danger

🪞 Will do an extensive study in your powers and how they work and came to be so you can buff it to the maximum

🪞He can hear your heart beat, and he finds it intriguing that it changes to match the person you're copycating, like that person's blood is now yours.

🪞 It's been a long time since Jack was human, so he already lost the grasp on things like "not feeling unique" and shit. So he won't really know how to help you with your crises, but he'll do a in depth study about how confort people and how you like to be comforted to be the best he can be.

🪞 Will always patch you up when you get injured, and kiss the patches after

★ Jeff ★

🪞 will call your powers cheating.

🪞 Always helps you train, everytime you need it. Jeff will stop everything he's doing to help you. Even if you don't ask. He'll be there, and will complain that you're making him do phisical exercise (he's in denial)

🪞 Bully you out of affection, since you got to the mansion he calls you Copy kitty, because copycat didn't really affect you in the begging, so he switched to kitty and calls you that ever since. You rolling your eyes to him is like a praise to this fucker

🪞 Finds you an overpowered motherfucker and that's why he loves you

🪞 You'll always copy his skills out of spite. He won't admit but he love it

🪞 He won't let you know, but he was down bad for you as soon as he saw you

★ Slenderman ★

🪞 Honestly, he was surprised when he first saw you use your powers. He's hundred of years old but is not every day you see a literal copycat

🪞 He find you very annoying at first, you were the kind to not take a "because I said so" for an answer so you would always bug him on the why he wanted you to do something.He loves your questioning nature now that he grew used to it. Although it doesn't stop him from finding it super annoying

🪞 Will always watch you from afar. Especially when he sends you in a mission that he considers risky. He trusts your skills obviously but he can't help but being worried

🪞 As an Eldritch horror, he doesn't quite grasp human emotions. He's a logic person. So as you guessed, he sucks at comforting you

🪞 Tentacles. You love them and you love copying them. He doesn't understand why.

🪞 Unlike the other pastas, you don't fight, training or play fight. Slenderman won't budge for the play fight and he says is a waste of your time if you both train together.

[space-blue]

BG3 Fic Feb Comic Edition, Day 20 :

Tav gets a proposal from their partner. In which Gale offers to pay the bill on a fancy new outfit to wear around camp, so long as Tav lets him pick the cut. He's fallen for his love's chubby body and thinks he deserves better than the rags they made it to Baldur's Gate with.

With a small rambling H/C below the cut on Gale's relationship with fat, and a chubby/fat LI.

In which I posit that Gale's abs are fake, and a relationship with a fat or chubby Tav can change his view on his own body.

I saw the debate going around early on, and it has stuck with me. Are Gale's abs real? Do they make sense on a man who has been on a self-imposed year of isolation in his tower? A gourmand who loves to cook?

I've seen art that shows him working out, and I've seen lots of art in which the abs are replaced with chubbiness he's either fine with or self conscious about. But see, I'd like to think that Gale, the good dancer of Blackstaff academy, Chosen of Mystra, prodigy fretted over since boyhood, would have a particular relationship with "appearances".

Let's imagine that his looks are exactly as they are at the start of the story. He has a six pack, depression, and a magical black hole stuffed in his chest that pushes a strange hunger on him. He eats magical artefacts to upkeep it, and delicious dishes to soothe the sadness and anxiety.

Except now he's on the road, making do as best he can, prepping meals out of what we can scrounge. So for a while the intense physical effort of the adventure, paired with bare bones meals, would maintain his physic. But eventually, nature would take its course, and arriving in the environs of Baldur's Gate, sweets are available again, as well as real, restaurant grade food. His waist thickens, his cheeks fill out, he's less gaunt. He's got the glow of a man in love, too.

But even deeply in love, Gale struggles to fathom that Tav could love him as he is. Well, no, of course Tav loves him, but Gale is only offering so much, and isn't that bad? Tav, who he now loves more than his own Goddess... Tav deserves more. Deserves better than puny, human Gale. I think God Gale would come with chiseled silver abs because it's the vision he has of perfection. An ambitious body should be flawless, right? And Mystra, his Goddess, is a skinny depiction of "perfection" herself, isn't she?

So in his mind, fat is still a flaw. Assuming we manage to show him the light and guide him away from godhood, that he is truly who we love, as we love him, I think that Gale, master of illusion, would still want to present the best way possible for Tav. Having regained his old abilities, he'd be tempted to trim himself again.

I think his abs, in that context, are a lazy wizard's artifice. Anyone at Blackstaff can do it, and does. Being chubby, to them, is an aesthetic choice. And if it's not in fashion, then why indulge it? But also why work out, when time can be best spent hunting and reading books, writing essays, and sourcing collections of rare artefacts? Or eating 5 stars meals at the best restaurants in Waterdeep? There's only so many hours in the day, and so much to do. Plus, we've seen his home, and he pointed out the magical piano that plays itself (wink wink), not the dumbbells and workout bench.

No, Gale would be tempted to go back to his easy snatched waist, and probably would if his LI was slim. He's got a tendency for self-consciousness. I like to imagine that he kept the six pack through his great depression era because he just couldn't stand the idea of slipping in appearance this much, and having to get a new wardrobe. We already know the beard is unusual, and that he keeps it because he likes it, to Tara's dismay.

I think a fat or chubby Tav would help Gale relax. He falls for this person, and they so happen to be fat. All right, so what? He leans more towards intercourse in the Weave anyway, so bodies aren't so high a concern. But after Gale declares his feelings (which are returned) and the intimacy with Tav becomes more physical (small caresses, sleeping and cuddling together, hugging...) I think he'd start seeing the light.

He'd press himself into Tav and be completely overcome with the pleasure of having all this softness be for him. That Tav being chubby means more of Tav to have.

Slowly realising that Tav's fat isn't making them any less gracious or fetching in their clothes, and that a lot of the things Gale was worried about in himself were image concerns brought by the gazes of others. Expectations put on him. What a wizard of his standing should look like, that being a gourmand should not get in the way of being Mystra's arm-candy Chosen.

If Tav's chubby belly is such a delight however, then why should his be an issue? I think Gale would remain nervous and try to open the conversation, rather than not mention it or deciding to make the change on his own. Because ultimately, even being more relaxed around the idea that he's gaining weight again, he'd be nervous that this might not suit Tav's tastes.

That's the problem with being a wizard this powerful. You can influence your self and your image so much. Heck, there are spells that can resculpt your very face, so why would someone like Gale, who has carte blanche on himself, dare disappoint his love?

Tav would have to work to reassure him, but imo would have less struggle is they are a man, or masc, because Gale couldn't use the "beauty standards for thee" logic loop. A handsome man who makes tight shirts look inviting? Fat softened pecs becoming the greatest pillow he's ever rested his chest on? Seeing a form of desirable beauty in his lover that he's slowly growing to mirror? He'd wax poetic about it, get in his feels.

Tav could whisper a soft, 'Please, be yourself.' and Gale would never concern himself with six packs again, nor be afraid to develop his well-settled-professor's body.

Gale's taste remains a tad refined, and I think his concern with appearances would not go away completely. It's just that, settled in Waterdeep, he'd drag Tav to his favourite tailor, and commissions well fited clothes for him. I can see Gale being quite on top of fashion, and anxious for everyone to see Tav under his best light, especially early on as they meet the family, his circle of friends, the faculty... Stressful days, during which being able to sink into Tav's soft embrace would be the best of cures.

[presiding]

a doctor turned serial killer turned doctor again, an actor who paints, a gang leader, a mining baron, and a vice overseer walk into the room.

oh yeah and they lead karnaca now.

dishonored 2 is my fav game but i think it's mid, story-wise. here's why dh1 works and why dh2's overarching story sorta misses

tl;dr: story integration is critical for gameplay that offers audience payoff, but emily's personal arc from dishonor to honor is inconsistently demonstrated in the story, and is not an interactive part of the gameplay.

essay/long version under cut >

recap: what's dishonored's deal

[skip if you want] dh1 is an underdog story: corvo is an honorable man swept up in the machinations of a callous city, so his canonical ending being 'this child will rule over an empire' isn't about the child's rule but rather about corvo's reputation being restored in a more hopeful city, due to his & the player's rejection of the violent connotations of the tagline 'revenge solves everything.'

similarly, in dh1 DLCs, daud's story arc is that of an anti-hero: a dishonorable man who realises too late he has done irreparable harm. he sees the error of his ways after a single monumental death, and eventually a single life redeems him when he/the player stepped in to circumvent a terrible fate for a child, enabling her to rule unfettered.

daud & corvo come to a satisfying conclusion within the extent of their narrative arcs. it doesn't matter that a child on a throne isn't really a fix for a decaying empire - the player's actions throughout the city of dunwall was what mattered - and these stories could be framed as parables. in that sense, young emily as a ruler is a metaphor for a hopeful future for the city & empire.

dishonored 1 & its DLCs are also great examples of storytelling with perfectly integrated gameplay - you, the player, worked towards the outcome that redeemed the protagonists.

in your efforts to save young emily, you either achieved a good outcome (corvo) or prevented a worse outcome (daud).

bringing us to dh2 -

what's emily's arc

emily's arc is a coming of age: we're introduced to a reigning empress who questions her role & skillset ("am i the empress my mother wanted me to be?"), then her titular fall from grace occurs. from there, she learns to reject the violent, selfish connotations in 'take back whats yours' tagline (a la daud & corvo!) while rediscovering why her rule is critical to the empire.

emily's rule is no longer metaphorical, but:

a literal thing for audience assessment (is emily a good ruler?) AND

the crux of her storyline.

at the beginning of dh2, emily is introduced as a disengaged leader ("i wish i could just run away from all this;" "i dont know if whether i should sail to the opposite side of the world, or have everyone around me executed"). the antihero has a precedent for the dishonored series in daud, so it's not at first glance an issue*, however, the fact that emily has ruled poorly reframes corvo & daud's endings as being less than ideal (a moralistic retcon) *we could talk here about how ready an audience was in 2016 for a flawed women as a protagonist, hell, even in 2023,,,

throwback to the beginning of this essay when i said:

'this child will rule over an empire' isn't about the child's rule but rather about corvo's reputation

emily's story arc, unlike for daud & corvo, is literally about the quality of her rule. we're no longer in metaphor territory (ironic phrase): a parable-style ending doesn't work.

does emily become a good ruler

we know she becomes a good ruler because the game says so. it is narrated to the audience via a (literal) word of god in the space of 30 seconds, after the final boss. the outsider tells us that emily becomes known as Just & Clever.

drawing a distinction here - this narration is not the same as the player actively being involved.

the player does not throughout the game become aware that emily has made political allies. during the game, she doesn't talk to these characters about saving karnaca or being a better ruler to the empire (there's a few lines might imply it, but you need to be actively looking and being careful to wait for every voice line. it's a far cry from daud & corvo's fight to save emily being unmissable - even though daud doesn't know at the beginning that's the goal).

how does the game show it

you can coincidentally not kill most of your subjects and never be aware that emily is looking to restore karnaca by means of instating a council - it's never brought up. it *couldn't* be brought up, because that council serves under the fake duke (armando), who is the last person she speaks to before she leaves for dunwall. its her suggestion that he rules karnaca, but armando's condition is that he will rule as he sees fit.

to back up a bit, emily's canonical method of restoring karnaca is by banding together key allies - hypatia, stilton, [byrne &or paolo], pastor, under a council beneath the duke's body double. they are passionate people who would each individually make worthwhile advisors, but if you think about those characters sitting at a table trying to reach an agreement, it feels like an assortment of people that emily didn't kill along the way and doesn't feel organic (up to interpretation). it's not stated if emily herself banded this council together, but logically she must have (worth a mention these are mostly characters that you as the player had reasonable rationale to kill during a high chaos run, except pastor). the underlying concept may be that karnaca's power is returned to its people - which is interesting given that the monarchy remains and armando's decision is final.

this overarching solution could also be taken as a critique to dh1's 'put your kid on the throne,' which is another reason its worthwhile looking at how emily was shown to be a better leader. obviously my point isn't that her solution was bad given the circumstance, but i mean she has very little agency here in all. if emily was shown to be more controlling as a leader, this could be interpreted as character growth, but that's not the case.

coming of age

how do you learn & grow when you can't specify your failings? emily doesn't really touch on her shortcomings as an empress. she non-specifically worries delilah makes a better empress than her. it's hard to argue her worries are meaningful when someone good at their job will still worry when lives are in the balance.

emily's best 'aha' moments (eg. crack in the slab comment about gaining perspective) are consistently undercut by a conversation with sokolov or meagan afterwards in which she demonstrates she hasn't learned anything (before the grand palace, emily condemns 'toadies sucking up to me' and is reminded by meagan that she's part of the problem). the story is confused about what it's trying to say about emily's progress, and when she's meant to show progress, if she was meant to show any progress at all. it could be argued that emily was never even a bad ruler, she had just been fed misinformation about the problems in karnaca and been the victim of slander by her political enemies. the game doesn't make this clear - it's easier to argue that the opposite is true given that her allies only have criticism.

worth a mention here that the heart quotes about armando - a fake ruler - interestingly mirror emily's character concerns. "see how he sighs? his life is a gilded cage." but this essay is already long.

while corvo & daud spend their games (and through the gameplay) 'earning' their redemption, emily is being led by the NPCs around her to a conclusion and a fix for the political mess in karnaca: meagan & sokolov guide emily to her missions, and there's no recurring quest for emily to investigate possible allies. she is able to gather the people she hasn't killed to herself by manner of... post-game narration. during the game, she's primarily concerned with getting her throne back.

an easy fix: if there had been less dialogue & narrative focus on emily's failings perhaps the ending would have felt more satisfying. it has the feel of cut content, but i don't know what was cut to be able to comment on it.

so what went wrong?

i can't help but wonder if arkane were worried they would lose a certain demographic if corvo wasn't playable (may have been deemed too much of a risk - 2013 was a different time), and so they had to take out story elements that were unique to emily's growth as a character/empress, because the usual storyline/gameplay integration had to work for both characters - in other words, gameplay that made sense for both corvo & emily was prioritised before emily's story & character development. which is a silly problem to have in a game that added character voices for the sake of improving characterisation - maybe emily's tale would have felt more akin to a parable if she had less lines that betrayed her ignorance (to the disdain of those around her).

i wish more care had been taken with emily's story. most players will never really notice the large variety of different endings - they're not particularly satisfying in and of themselves.

it's ironic that one of Emily's complaints is about her father/protector being overbearing, when his (parallel universe) presence in the gameplay may be one of the reasons her own narrative arc falls flat.

what are the upsides here

changing tune from what didn't work - don't you think the concept is fantastic? it's a great idea overall - can you imagine if the coming of age storyline was better integrated into the game?

it's valuable to talk about the integration of story and gameplay and characterisation from a craft perspective. dh2 genuinely is my favourite game - it's beautiful, the imm-sim design philosophy makes the world a delight to explore, the combat gives endless creative options for tackling any fight, there is a far greater diversity of cast in an in-text canonical way. there's loads to love!

i love emily as a dodgy leader, to me it adds interesting dimensionality to the outsider's narrations - of course in dunwall there's never a neat happily ever after! emily, like the outsider, both work well as characters who hold ultimate power but aren't necessarily worthy of it - and this makes perfect sense for the dishonored universe's morality & critiques of power. however, within this grey area there's still plenty of room for a satisfying ending, which isn't what we ended up with, whatever the true reason for that was. and also, damn, emily's a marked assassin empress, if she can't lead well then who can?

while dh1 was criticised for its narrative simplicity, dh2 in contrast and in hindsight shows us that simplicity isn't so bad - there's satisfaction in gameplay achieves a clear, simple narrative goal.

[bookofmirth]

On every character sarah writes having the same personality: why does every main girl have to be this big planner who has multiple plans on backup and never tells people, only to surprise everyone when everything goes right at the end with no prior explanation... idk if I'm putting this right, but it just made me very... annoyed

Like yeah, that worked great with Aelin, sure, but for me it just doesn't fit with Bryce? Especially on how she was just thrown at this and suddenly figured out she was The Chosen One(tm). It really bugged me, idk

Fair warning, this post rips Bryce a new asshole - not as a person, but as a character that sjm created. So I'm putting it under the cut.

Just to start, in context I said that all the hofas characters ended up having the same personality - though you can make a case for her reusing a lot of the same descriptions and such for all of them. ANYWAY...

To me, the issue is not just that Bryce keeps doing things behind the scenes that we never get any hint of, it's a bigger issue that we never get a hint that she even gives a shit.

With Aelin, at least we already knew what she was working towards and why. We already knew what she cared about and how far she was willing to go to get it. Aelin caring about Terrasen and her court and saving the people she loved was never in question. Her trauma from finding her parents dead, her fear at losing the rest of the people she loved, the weight of responsibility that she felt, we knew all of those things pretty much from the get-go. Her tendency to shut people out could be considered a flaw because she didn't trust other people to help her. We don't know about Terrasen right away, and tbh I don't remember what history we get instead and so I need to reread, but I can point to very specific values, goals, and motivations that make Aelin act the way that she does.

But Bryce - the central problem with her as a character is that Bryce doesn't care about anything, and sjm never figured out what she cares about, either.

Characters need to have central things that they care about, that drive them, motivations, things that they fear and things they would go to great lengths to protect. They need flaws, and clear relationships to the world around them. I could make a list of those things for a lot of her characters. Not all, but most.

With Bryce, I have NO IDEA what those things are. That makes it so that when she randomly find Emile, it just seems like she did it to come across like a nice person. She doesn't care about what humans are experiencing, she shits on Vanir/fae all the time, she treats Hunt pretty poorly, she isn't close to Juniper or Fury (see: their near disappearance from hofas), Danika kept so many secrets from her that I seriously doubt the depth of their relationship. Bryce was working in that library museum thing for Jesiba (I'm already erasing the series from my memory oh my god) and going out and partying and that was all well and good, but... was she going to do those things when she's 200, too? I'm not even saying that she needs to like, go get married or whatever, but she literally has no goals in life!

SJM saying that Bryce is the fun, cute party girl who also has a deep, intellectual side, a pretty woman who can also kick ass, okay, but she needs a reason to kick ass. SJM completely forgot to include the second half of that equation, which is ironic since that was a big point of her character - to prove that women can be feminine and strong, wear high heels and be smart. She failed miserably in my opinion, if that really was the goal of Bryce's character.

When Aelin is snarky to people, I know why. When Bryce is a bitch, it comes out of nowhere and is often turned on people who actually deserve her time and attention and empathy (e.g. Sathia). Aelin is an asshole to that one dude whose name starts with a D because he's a man who is underestimating her and wants to refuse to let her lead because he assumes she will be bad at it. When Bryce is an asshole to Sathia, WHY. I mean really, I wanted to throw my book across the fucking page!!!! Because that's a perfect example of how, if Bryce was guided by a set of values (feminism, I guess?) then she would have responded very differently to Sathia, who has experienced literally the exact same thing Bryce has (being betrothed to someone against her will). Instead, Bryce throws that line back in her face about "well I never let that stop me" as if what Sathia has experienced is her own fault for... not trying enough??? PLEASE. ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW.

The whole "girlboss" thing needs.... something driving it. You can't just bulldoze people and call it being empowered. And I think that sjm has really, really simplified gender and sexuality in CC to the point that that's really the only distinction that matters. That's maybe another issue. I just have a lot of thoughts about these things lol.

Anyway. This is what happens when you write a character built on aesthetic and #girlpower, rather than making them a complete person with fears and values and joys and goals and motivations and flaws.

Okay one more point, this is NOT beyond sjm's capabilities. She obviously is much better at writing characters than this. I just think that sometimes, something suffers when you try new things. In CC, sjm was giving actual world building and magic systems a go. And the characters, really, REALLY fucking suffered for it.

[celtrist]

Well, the thought process went like this:

Man, Vaggie would have had greater success getting Alastor into feminine clothes if she used stuff that fit his style/era -> She can't do that though cause obsession is fuelling her distrust with Alastor, she is fixated on him but she doesn't see him as his own person, only as target of her dislike and desires -> Other characters too would have had greater success in getting close to Alastor if they get to actually know him and his preferences and boundaries and worked together with those boundaries -> Do other characters even see him as him and not some simulacrum of their preconceived ideas of him? -> Isn't that one of the main traits of tragedy that characters are doomed to their fate because their fatal flaws make them blind of the roads that do not lead to that one particular cliff? -> obsession au is a tragedy

In a way I did kinda meant Alastor being somewhat fine with feminine clothes (though mostly with the more androgynous type of feminine clothes, which would likely be form flattering pants and fancy shirts), though for main reason that I have a headcanon that Alastor is somewhat gender non-conforming. It stems from his haircut being a bob (which in 1920s was seen as masculine type of a feminine haircut, so Alastor wearing it would have had layers of confusing connotations). It's one detail that might have just been unintentional, but it fuelled this headcanon for literal years

- tragedy anon (might as well start to sign those asks cause I sent a lot of them and now am very invested in the au)

HOLY CRAP you had such a deep thought process with it, I love it! Again, I never really labeled the AU as a tragedy, but seeing your thought process to get to that conclusion cements it more into that's what it is. Many of the characters honestly don't see Alastor for who he is for the most part but as a "simulacrum" as you put it. There are traits of his that get through of course, but everyone does view Alastor as their ideal partner pretty much, even if it means erasing his actual identity to an extent!

It is funny you bring up the bobcut like that though, because I actually posted my own little idea about it a while back. Just to quickly phrase it here, I surmised that Alastor's bobcut was something he did when he got to Hell to A) show his respect towards women B) Potentially keep a link or reminder to his mother if she had a bobcut

And while you could argue not a canon source, we have seen Alastor's human form and there, he lacked a bobcut! (and also had a pair of glasses. I guess one eye got better vision when he got to Hell???). The design was made during a live stream but has been used ever since when depicting a human Alastor! Granted, so did Husk, and let's just say Husk's human form does NOT match his canon voice. So Alastor's human form may have had a bobcut, I just kinda doubt it. Especially with how taken the fandom is with Alastor's human design, and Viv doesn't seem like the type to go against it because of that.

I don't think anything deep was in mind though when Alastor was designed. If that was the case, I feel like Viv would've actually put his hair into a 20s/30s creole hairstyle rather than the bobcut. It was more than likely she just happened to like how the bobcut looked and it also covered the side of Alastor's head without the lack of anything on the sides looking too noticeable/distracting. Again, I like Alastor's design (clearly, I keep drawing it), but I don't think as much thought really went into it as it should have.

These two asks (one of which has a special guest star Edna Mode) has me going into a lot of bits about how Alastor's design doesn't work in the sense of who his character is: 1 2 And I mean, there IS good in the design (again, I draw it a lot. It isn't as god-awful as some people make it out to be), but I acknowledge that it could be improved A LOT.

But I do see your point with the bobcut either way. Because while I do think it genuinely was JUST a design decision with no real reason as to why he has it in canon, we do have it and it's something for us to try and work with. And it is, for his time period, a feminine hairstyle that would go against my logic for him! With that said, it should be noted that hair was always a bit more muddy in terms of what was for ladies and what was for men. Of course, during Alastor's time, men had to have some length of hair to get the hairstyles that were popular at the time, but it wasn't popular to put it in a bob. But the bobcut was worn by men as far back as the Renaissance, I have to admit that's definitely stretching it though. I will say, that I wouldn't be like... surprised if Alastor was okay in canon wearing feminine clothes that are to his style. I don't think in any interaction he'll ever want to wear anything sultry like Jessica Rabbit, but I'm not gonna say it's impossible that Alastor wouldn't at least be fine with clothes to his style or similar to that in cannibal town. I think no matter what he'd just have a clear preference for masculine attire, but I definitely get what you mean concerning the bobcut possibly indicating that he would be open to more feminine clothes. His personality just REALLY doesn't read that way to me, but I could be wrong about that. At the least for this AU, there's still that issue of Vaggie ignoring the fact Alastor is a man. Even if he'd like wearing feminine clothes on his own, he's gonna feel uncomfortable and miserable in them because Vaggie is deliberately trying to force him to be a woman and see him as that. And while he has high respect for them, I don't think Alastor would actually like to be one (but I have read some fun trans stories with that idea).

In terms of canon, maybe it's less about the outfits themselves and more that Alastor has to choose what he wears and then he'd be fine with it. I'm not sure. I'm not really opposed to him enjoying some feminine clothes, it's just not really something I think he'd like to do.

I will say that I don't think Vaggie is really putting androgynous clothes on Alastor, and I think THAT'S where he'd be more okay with it. Like okay, I think he's not really going to be cool with anything showing an inch of skin (his normal attire only really has his head exposed, everything else is covered! His hands are debatable because while they were stated to be gloves, his summer merch clearly had them not being gloves. By the same token, merch of Charlie had her having normal human feet rather than her cloven hooves we know and love!) The issue with androgynous clothing, especially in the 20s/30s, is that Alastor would still look pretty close to being a man as usual. So while I think Alastor would be perfectly fine wearing something like this, Vaggie would probably NEED to add makeup to give the impression he's more female than male. But she's probably experimented with outfits for him! Adversely, if you go by more modern androgynous clothes like this, Alastor's already not gonna like it because it's modern. But in addition, they do lean more feminine. But once again, that can depend on how you headcanon his character. It just so happened in this au, he doesn't like wearing feminine or feminine-esque clothing. This like everything else is open to change, especially if we see him interested in that sort of fashion in the canon of the show.

[maespri]

like a dog

hi i'm just joesara posting. that's all this is. like. man i love joesara. i can see them both romantically and platonically and either way their relationship is just. so beautifully devastating.

like here is sara, who is always doubting herself. and then joe, who's always countering her self-loathing. sara, who thinks she's too intense and hurts people too much. joe, who tells her that it isn't always a bad thing. sara who can't forgive herself for his death, who blames herself for pointing out that he wasn't the sage, who begged miley to let her switch places with him. and joe, who just tells her she's his best friend and he loves her when he's about to die. who tells everyone they're his friends, that he doesn't blame them.

joe, who carried around a dog keychain sara got him in his pocket for ages, who has accessories with bones on them, who tells sara he will stay loyal to her, "like a dog." who walked back to school after going on a date with her best friend, a date during which he just talked about her, because he knew she was scared of her stalker, who went to the fair with her in her minisode because of the same reason. this guy who sees her "flaws" as her strengths and supports her in whatever she decides to do.

i think the fact that she doesn't realize just how important he was to her until after he's gone is what gets me. he was always telling her she's his best friend, but it's not until she's talking to a robot version of him that she finally gets to reciprocate that, and i just know she'll always be carrying around so many "i wish i told him"s in her heart. but what i think is also so beautiful about her overcoming some of that grief and moving toward acceptance (at least in the emotion route) is that she realizes joe wouldn't blame her.

and i don't think it's entirely because of his AI. it's because she knew him.

sure, it's his AI that tells her that- but sara is well aware that isn't him. what she does finally realize in that moment, however, is that the real joe would forgive her. that he wouldn't be mad at her. that he doesn't blame her because that's not the kind of person he is. she forgives herself because of her own internal strength and memories. she forgives herself because he loved her no matter what.

and she keeps going. she lets go of the blame, but she doesn't lose those good memories she had with him. she lets what she learned from him strengthen her rather than hold her back. she internalizes the same things he always said to her and uses it to become better herself, to uplift the people around her who are still alive. she decides she's going to do everything she can to keep everyone alive because she doesn't want anyone to go through the same thing she did after losing joe. he's carrying her, he's carrying the narrative, long after he dies. spreading goodness.

they're eternally devoted to each other, even beyond the grave.

i Just played her minisode for myself (after watching it some time ago) and i was struck with all these thoughts about them once again. i think what especially gets me is the fact that i think sara did have a crush on him and just. didn't have enough time to sort through her own thoughts, or tell him. there are so many moments, both in her minisode and in the game, where i think it shines through. and that's just another "what-if?" she may not realize for a while, but will always be in the back of her head.

i don't think grief is nearly as... "simple," for lack of a better word, as it's kind of shown in your turn to die. i do love the portrayal of it for what the situation dictates, but if/when sara ends up getting out of the game, and all the survival instinct wanes and she has time to fully process it... i feel so bad for her. there's nothing that won't remind her of him. there's nothing she won't miss. there's nothing she won't wonder about. all of that, it just. god it all makes me so sad.

i don't like when people say "move on" when referring to grief. i think that implies leaving it behind, and if you ever really love something, i don't think it's possible to just put it down and leave it there. but i do hope it gets easier for her to carry it around with her the same way it briefly began to in the death game.

anyway. in the end, it really just comes down to a very simple tragedy; two best friends who would do anything for each other only having the option of doing nothing.

yeah i'll be thinking about them for a while

[nikki-is-a-nerd]

Karma is my Boyfriend

Synopsis:

You may not have any plans on exacting revenge to those who've wronged you, but when karma hits them it's no mystical thing, It's just your boyfriend who remembers everything.

Note: NO CURSE AU, Gojo x AFAB!reader, Freelancer!Gojo x College student! Reader

___________________________________

College isn't as easy going as your parents told you, neither was it your most memorable time. It was school, and like all things it had its ups and downs. For a person studying Clinical Psychology, you found that learning to read people and constantly being surrounded by them, wasn't a good mix. Yes, you have bullies, though you are annoyed by their actions your rational mind knows that the only reason they pick on you is because they either feel powerless towards the adult figures in their life or they point out your flaws that they too see in themselves in hopes of transferring their insecurities. Pitiful actions really. Satoru believed you were a saint because of it. How could you, an angel (in his very humble and true opinion, as he once so kindly exclaimed) be so understanding to the slimy, filth of the earth kind of people. Good question.

"Look at her, how can her boyfriend stand to look at her face all day? She looks like a corpse reanimated." A voice cackled.

"I'm surprised you even know what that word means. Let me guess, it was the word for the day?" You said off handedly.

Her friends or posse, glared at you. Like you cared. They snickered to themselves as you suddenly felt a warm liquid cascade down your body.

"Oops, now you look exactly like you should." Their leader laughs, a shrill sound really.

You didn't really care but this was a very expensive sweater that Satoru bought you with his first paycheck for one of his gigs. You sighed, sure he would say something along the lines of 'its alright, I can buy you fifteen more of those' or 'that sweater was so last season, now I can buy you something new' but this was your favorite. You wordlessly took off your now ruined sweater and walked away. A ruined sweater wasn't worth getting called to the dean's office.

Now Satoru was a lot of things, model, gamer, streamer, dance choreographer, substitute teacher for a high school (you don't really get how he keeps getting that), and in his words your loving rich boyfriend. But what you didn't know is that he's petty and vengeful to a fault. He believes that if you wouldn't do it, might as well he does because you are too empathetic for your own good (thank God you were studying to be a therapist). Now you may not tell Satoru about the bullies but Suguru does. You didn't know that Suguru was in the same university taking his Master's degree in business, and coincidentally just taking a video of the entire exchange to send to your lovely boyfriend. Yes, weird but in Satoru's defense his friends like you more than they like him (he's not entirely wrong).

Satoru received a message from Suguru, minutes after you walked away from your bullies. This day was his Streaming day, so mid stream his fans would say that it was the first time they've seen him frown. He kindly apologized to his fans and ended the stream early that day. He knew you weren't one to complain, or to tell him what happened. So he wordlessly shops online to get you a better and cheap (in his opinion cheap means something your bullies can't afford even if they used their daddies black card) sweater that you were sure to love.

"Toru I'm home." he hears your voice call out.

He smooths out his features, and smiles when he sees you enter your shared room. He also takes note that you probably used the university shower since you're wearing a different blouse and cardigan (both bought by him on your twenty-first birthday).

"Sweetie! Your home!" He lunges at you, long limbs and all.

"Toru, you're heavy and tall!" You whined.

"You left me all alone here in our home and when I show you how much I miss you, you complain." He sulks in a corner, making you laugh lightly.

"Not what I meant and I had to go to school." You reasoned.

"Take me with you." He whined even more, somehow reminding you of a kicked puppy.

"Tried that and do you remember what happened?" You asked.

"Not really, I just knew that I was ripped away from my darling baby!" He exclaimed as he walked towards the bed and flopped on it.

You shook your head as you opted to cuddle close to your boyfriend. You were exhausted, mentally, emotionally and physically. Satoru was more than happy to provide you comfort. As you slept, he checked out the people in the video that Suguru sent him. He remembers their faces, their leader, he remembers is also a model for the same brand he models with. She would brag about getting the job because of her father. He was close friends with the brand owner, after all she was his senior.

"Mei-mei, remember that one really annoying model of yours?" He messaged.

"Yeah, what about her?" She replied.

"Can you just terminate her contract and fire her?" He asked.

"Sure. I'd let Utahime deal with the rest. Plus she barely does shit. I didn't even hire her, I specifically said no, and her god father who works in the stupid casting still got her. Fired him too. But why do you want her gone?" She texted back.

"Bullied my girlfriend." Was all he replied. Mei-mei only sent him a thumbs up. Next were her friends, which was way easier. They were rich kids, just staying in the school because their parents were paying for them to be there, even with all the violations they had. Did it help that he was from a distinguished family and that Suguru was willing to play a part as well? Yes. Suguru's family and his family all petitioned for all four of your bullies to be expelled from the University and any of its sister schools, they complained that scandals like these were not worth protecting.

When you went to uni next week, you were surprised to see all four of your bullies having their things and themselves removed from the premises. You eyed them curiously and went about your day. You thought that maybe they were found doing something they shouldn't but they were rich, don't rich people buy their way out of their problems? Nonetheless you were kind of glad.

When you returned home, you found Satoru cooking in the kitchen. He's been proud of his skill as well after he took some classes since he felt bad having to make you cook dinner after your uni and your part time job.

"Welcome back? How was your day?" Satoru asked.

"Work was fine, the cafe was packed today. School was also fine. Saw some people get escorted out of uni." You said.

"Ooh, tell me all about it." He said as if he wasn't the reason.

"Well, the ones who were escorted out were notorious bullies. I mean who remains a bully well into college? Like what fucked up psyche must you have to do that? But they were also my bullies so a part of me was glad." You said the last part softly.

"Did you say they were bullying you? Baby you should've told me. I would've given them a piece of my mind." He cooed. He should really get an award for how well he's acting right now.

"Yeah but it's nothing." You said as you clung to him.

"Well at least they won't bother you anymore." He said truthfully.

"Yeah. Karma really got them in the end." You said as you looked up at him with a small grin.

"Yeah, I told you so, Miss Taylor Swift is correct." He said playfully.

"Now let's eat dinner and watch the really cute anime we found." He added as he sat you down.

Yes, karma really got them in the end but just like what Taylor Swift also sang about. Karma is your Boyfriend, and he truly will do anything to keep you happy. Even if he seems petty.

[tobiasdrake]

YES! Digimon Adventure 02, my favorite *starts rubbing hand together* i'm going to be so obnoxious.

Anyway since you're done with Adventure could you rank the Chosen Children up to now? I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts.

Let's see. Chosen Children from Most Favorite to Least Favorite, since I don't actually have any I dislike.

1 - Tachikawa Mimi. I'm sure there are no surprises about that one. Mimi's job is to be the relatable everykid. The one who acts the most like what an actual real-life ten-year-old thrown into this situation would act like. She cries, she screams, she wants to go home.

But she still pulls it together and has a lot to contribute all the same.

All of the kids do a great job of being relatable, honestly. But Mimi has the most interesting journey to me,

2 - Kido "Joe" Jou. You know, as a kid, I adored Yamato so much. He would have been my #2. But as an adult, I can't help but appreciate how hard Jou-senpai worked at the mostly thankless job of trying to be responsible for these kids.

He's just as scared and confused and lost as they are, and in the beginning the burden of responsibility weighs so heavily on him that it nearly breaks him. But he rises to the challenge. Even after they decide Taichi is officially team leader, Jou is always looking out for them, always trying to guide them as their senpai nonetheless.

Jou giving his life to save Takeru is my favorite Crest activation of the lot.

3 - Ishida "Matt" Yamato. He's still up there, just not as high as Jou. Yamato is the most damaged of the Chosen Children at the start, though it may not be immediately obvious. He comes into the series with more baggage than anyone. He's already carrying his parents' divorce on his back and emotionally spiraling down a defensive rabbit-hole before we even know his name.

Yamato isn't capable of being a selfish person, and that much is on display left and right. His kneejerk reactions are almost always for the betterment of the group. He can't help himself but to care about everyone else. But he's so messed up that he thinks that's a character flaw. Who he is and who he wants to be are miles apart, and who he wants to be kinda sucks so that's a good thing.

4 - Takenouchi Sora. Sora's carrying some damage on her heart as well. She's similar to Yamato, in that there's a stark disconnect in her character. Not who she is vs. who she wants to be, but rather who she is vs. who she thinks she has to be.

I love how much attention her dynamic with her mom gets in the Vamdemon arc. Sora has the most interesting and dramatic home situation out of any of the kids.

But it does feel like the show starts to de-emphasize her over time, particularly in the Dark Masters arc where Sora routinely has to be protected or saved and rarely gets to be the one who looks cool. Whether she's propping up Takeru, Hikari, or Yamato, Sora often ends up taking a backseat as the series draws closer to its conclusion.

5 - Takaishi "T.K." Takeru. I didn't actually like T.K. as a kid. He just seemed like an annoying little kid. But that's because of the dub downplaying his growth and his strength. Ironically, Takeru is probably the one of the original seven who already has his shit together the most from the start.

He's innocent, naive, and abhors violence, but he's not a helpless baby either. Takeru is resourceful, strong-willed, and contributes as much as anyone to the children's survival. Which is, itself, a key factor in Yamato's arc as much as his own.

6 - Yagami "Kari" Hikari. Hikari suffers tremendously from entering the series so late. She has very limited opportunities to shine, something that 02 will help her with.

She makes good use of what she gets and has a lot of great moments nonetheless. Granted, she's a little bit deus ex machina-ey, but she's literally the Light of the Eight Gods so we can forgive her for that.

7 - Izumi "Izzy" Koushiro. He made my kid cry.

No, I jest. Koushiro's in a rough spot where, as the computer nerd of the group in the Digital World, he has to try and walk a tightrope between "Koushiro OP plz nerf" and "It feels like Koushiro should be doing more."

It's not a tightrope he walks easily. He gets off to an interesting start as he's building out his understanding of the Digital World. But that kinda reaches a head at Etemon's pyramid and after that he just starts leaning on stuff Gennai gives him.

Once the setting is well-established, we don't get to see him do cool things like writing a program that will display a holographic map of Etemon's pyramid in physical space anymore. Gennai gives him all of his tools going forward and he just... sorta becomes the Pokedex.

8 - Yagami Taichi. He yelled at my kid for grieving dead friends.

That's less of a jest. More generally, Taichi has a lot of good points. He's the one who keeps his eye on the ball during the Dark Masters arc and keeps pushing forward while Mimi, Jou, and Yamato are having their respective crises. He's usually the guy you want to lean on in a crisis.

But wow, can Taichi be insufferable at times pre-development. He's reckless, self-centered, occasionally sexist, and utterly insensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others.

Taichi is a wild card. You never really know if you're gonna get "gets everyone caught by Etemon because he thought it'd be funny to cause trouble" Taichi or "pulls this team back together after they split up" Taichi.

Though meeting Homeostasis near the end and hearing the background of their adventure seems to do wonders for Taichi putting all of this to rest and becoming an emotionally stronger leader.

[theboogierat]

Meriam is not a well-written mother, sorry.

It's not a surprise, either. Meriam isn't the saint of a mother constantly portrayed in Leasebound, and I argue that the narrative does her injustice several times by not letting her be a person.

Shez's backstory is far from a shounen hero arc. It's sad, and it's a prime example of Rusty not capitalising on potentially great story arcs for her characters.

To begin, Meriam's story starts when her first husband abandons her in Austalia. She gets a job as a cleaner (and takes off her hijab), as well as takes care of Shez until Chris comes along and acts super creepy until he convinces her to marry him. And then chapter 12 happens.

Chris-era Meriam I will not call a bad mother. She was a young woman stuck in a horrible situation, and had to do what she could to help her daughters and her to survive the conflict.

My biggest gripe with chapter twelve is that Rusty calls it a "shounen" arc. Her portrayal of Meriam and her situation accurately does not look like a shounen arc; it's a serious abusive relationship that they need to escape. Meriam, I'd argue, was treated as 'motivation' for Shez and her backstory at best and a figurehead for why women shouldn't partner with men at worst. Rather than treating Meriam as a character, she's often portrayed as a sobbing mess at the mercy of her husband and then later a poor victim who finally got the life she deserved after escaping.

Since the story is a recollection from Shez, you could argue that's why Meriam is portrayed this way. Shez sees her mother as someone in constant need of saving- it's why she thinks that Meriam never had a life outside her kids and her abuse.

But I doubt rusty would write that. The narrative shows Shez as a great hero who inspired her mother to take action because her mother can't defend herself without her daughter - HER FOURTEEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER- having to step in for her.

(This moment is particularly apalling; how could anyone see this as a power fantasy?!)

There are almost no healthy mother-daughter relationships in Lease Bound, which is really weird for a so-called feminist comic. Josephine and Jaden. Alexis and HER mother. And yes, Shez and Meriam.

Meriam is a deeply flawed mother. Meriam was married at a young age, had to take care of Shez alone in a foreign country, and then got abused. She will make mistakes, and she's made many, because she had no support from the outside and ultimately all she had were her daughters. That could make a strong, protective, fierce Mama bear....

...but she isn't. She's a **victim**. She's hurt, and she needs Shez to save her. She begs her ten year old daughter to help her after her daughter fights a battle for her. She needs her daughter to train to fight Chris for her. That's not something admiring, that's not a power fantasy. That is fucked up.

And that doesn't mean she needs to be rewritten! This can be good! This can be amazing, even! Meriam could be an actually interesting character, going in-depth on how her abuse didn't MAKE HER A STRONG PERSON! HER ABUSE WAS ABUSE! ABUSE DOESNT MAKE YOU STRONGER! IT TRAUMATIZES YOU! IT MAKES YOU NEED SUPPORT, AND THERAPY, AND YOU ARE HUMAN AND- GOOD GOD!

Why is she portrayed as the mother who can do no wrong because she got abused?! Why isn't she treated with a sliver of more nuance than "the victim"?! Why isn't Meriam seriously challenged, deconstructed, analysed, as anything other than "Shez's mom who got abused and made her hate men?"

That is bad writing! Framing abuse as a continuation of your political agenda instead of seriously exploring abuse and a person's psyche and how it affects someone!

And...well...that's how Meriam is written. That's how Rusty wants us to see her. And it's frustrating because sometimes- sometimes- Rusty gets it right.

This moment is poignant. It's my favourite Meriam moment because she's self- aware, and challenged by Shez. Rusty can do it- she just abandons it in favour of five hundred more pages of "trans bad men bad".

So...we explored all that. We tackled the surface of my feelings towards Meriam. What now?

I can't say more, because I feel like a broken record. In fact, go read up several other posts by incredibly talented Leasebound content creators who have made several dissertations on the story, and they will tell you that Lease Bound is, in fact, badly written, and that Rusty Hearts needs to do more with her story.

Thanks for reading! More about Meriam and Shez is coming soon, and I'll update this post when I finish writing it!

[theghostbunnie]

How do you feel about Candy as a Character vs. The character you made? I’m honestly just interested in the character you have for Candy and her relationship with Nikki

HI THANK YOU FOR THE ASK, V GOOD ASK I'M HAPPY TO AWNSER

My version of Candy isn't actually supposed to contradict what we know of her already, more so really really build-off-from and completely take and run with what little we were given about her.

I'm fine with anyone's HCs I believe everyone should have fun and it doesn't have to match cannon! but in the same note if we're talkin' character analysis and not HCs they often don't even target what she did wrong and just go "whore." And. Uh. Yeah never been a fan of that.. Not a fan of how she was supposed to be a "golddigger joke" or something in the show either but ehh.

She's not a bad mother because she was on her phone or because she wears tank tops or because she has sex or anything else I've heard while being in this fandom dear GOD SKSKNDJN but this post will literally be 3x longer if I get into my takes on that so it's a different post if y'all want it one day.

Candy didn't remember something important, something traumatizing for Nikki and that's where her flaws lay. Their communication is lackluster. I think it makes her a flawed parent and a flawed person but it doesn't mean "she's scum of the earth condemn this woman to hell immediately," she still loves Nikki and shows she does in the same episode she tells her not to karate chop strangers and get them sued so she doesn't just let her do whatever. She refers to her as "my angel" and Nikki looks up at her when everyone is eating with this smile and they LOVE each other and raaahhh I love the sillies so much.... Cryinhng..

I've mentioned in my post about Neil's mother how I believe that the egg episode they're mirroring their own parents and Nikki being so worried about fucking up her egg and not knowing what to do and being unprepared and scared. I HC Candy had Nikki when she was like 20-21 and recently kicked out by her own mother and she had no support or knowledge of what to do or how to care for a baby and it was SO much trial and error but it bleeds into my HC about Nikki where she has all these big thoughts and emotions but gets regarded as simple minded by her peers because she can't find a way to express them verbally and comes off simple minded or stupid. This doesn't stop her from feeling complicated things it just stops her from being understood.

((literally the whole Christmas episode is her going "I love this thing so dang much!!! I can't tell you why though. I'll know it when I see it.?))

So when you have a unprepared parent who's working by trial and error and you can't verbalize to them the errors or make sense of your feelings that's where issues come in!!

Minor New episode spoilers: Nikki can't write eligibly when she writes letters to her mother. I think is some great potential to be visual storytelling about this if I ever could make a fic. Her handwriting is bad. She gets excited and doodles and scribbles. You can't make out what she's saying. Maybe her mother never even got to know about what happened in the flower scouts because she said it over letter.

Candy still sent her there and lied about it being adventure camp and I hc it was done not because she wants to force feminity on Nikki or anything (if that's the case Nikki would be dead like literally 💀 she needs dirt to live) but because she wanted her to make friends and since she had such a good time as some version of a scout herself she thought Nikki would too. She loves Nikki and supports her wolf-kinning and playing in the mud but of course is concerned she's estranging herself from other people by barking and biting them and sending her out into the woods she would've just continued to ignore people in favor of animals. Candy had a "it'll be good for her!" Type rationalization about lying.

Then next summer she wanted to make her happy and followed through with going to adventure camp for realsies and was scatterbrained about it and misremembered the previous year's sign up for that one.

A misunderstanding didn't hurt Nikki any less. You can have all the good intentions in the world and still screw up and accidentally hurt somebody you care about.

Personally I love depicting Candy as being really really affectionate with Nikki and she calls her not only "my angel" but variations of "baby/sweetie/hunny" and the biggest nickname she has for her is probably "sunshine"

Candy also can't cook lol she tries but it's the only thing in the world Nikki won't eat is her mom's cooking so Candy buys them TV dinners and premade stuff alot. They have "barbeque nights" where Candy brings home ribs and they watch TV together and live in this lil trailer home near a forest. (In the first trailer for camp camp we see Nikki using a slingshot on cans with flowers painted on them and I'm like yeah her back yard just goes directly into the woods I know it does)

I actually HC Candy's off and off boyfriend/husband Andrew is the one who'd force gender roles on Nikki if at all. Guy who jokes about "hookers and blow" ((Infront of his 9-10yo daughter)) with his friends yk that guy.

Please take these walls of text I've sent to a friend about Candy 🙏 also that's meant to say spots not sports 😔

Also I wanna mention Candy isn't even her actual name she got it during her time in the adult film industry (🌽) and it's actually Caroline. She doesn't really introduce herself as that anymore. Sex work in general is often an abusive industry and highly exploitive so she's got some baggage from her time there and falls in and out of being a stripper aswell and struggles to hold down a job that can support her and her daughter and it's part of multiple reasons why she keeps going back to her ex husband bc he's well-off. ((Cannonicaly bought her a car and lawyers))

She didn't even know for sure if Andrew was the father, some AUs I have he turned out to be the father in some he didn't, but she chose to tell him because he could give her daughter the best chance in life and support her education and allthat.