#but the depth of the analysis going around is so funny and so incomprehensible to me lmao

[panncakes]

only friends sounds interesting and fun but whenever i see stuff about it i feel like everyone else already has so much lore and knowledge about these characters and the actors and all the behind the scenes stuff that it feels like showing up to a test i didn't study for lmao

[callioclops]

Woah, a pinned post

Figured I may as well start using Tumblr as an actual blog rather than a promotional tool for streaming that I no longer do and letting it just sit here and occasionally reblog something funny from my friends, so I'm making a introduction post.

Hi, I'm Calliope or Callie for short. I'm an autistic trans woman and I use she/her. My primary interests include structural analysis of TV and anime, and getting way too deep into the mechanics of various video games inevitably resulting in an attempt to flawlessly optimise whatever it is I'm meant to be doing. As you can imagine this draws me to roguelikes a lot, but also fighting games, RPGs, etc.

If you fall under any of these groups kindly fuck off: Homophobes, TERFs and other transphobes, and honestly just as a general catch-all if you harbour a hatred for any group of people for no reason besides their appearance or the way they refer to themselves.

Quick pre-emptive Q&A:

Why do you have anon asks turned off? - Simple answer is that I don't want anon hate. I think if you want to be mean to someone online you can at least have the courage to stand by what you said without hiding behind a circle with sunglasses. If you want to send an ask but don't want it to be public that it's you, put "[/p]" somewhere in the ask. If you aren't being hateful I'll respect your want to be anonymous. Obviously I'll still know but that's the best I can give.

What TV shows/anime do you usually talk about? - That's very dependant on what I'm watching at any given time. I'll try to keep this up to date (no promises) with what I'm currently interested in. At the time of writing (23/12/23) the two main ones are Rick & Morty and My Hero Academia. These two specifically I have heard are a turn off for a lot of people due to the fandoms, personally I don't really interact in that space.

What posts can I expect? - Probably not that many in all honesty. I'm writing this at 11pm and it's entirely possible that I'll just forget about this for weeks on end. But if I am to post it will likely be short rants about any of the above mentioned media. Either talks about specific episodes of a show or mechanical intricacies of video games. I like to imagine that it will be educational in a way that is completely incomprehensible in an academic capacity.

Why a cyclops? - Initially, I was attempting to 'transition' my online persona at the same time as I was transitioning in real life and wanted a pun or portmanteau based on my new name. Callioclops was the only one I could think of and I stuck with it. Over time though it really grew on me, I had design ideas for an icon (Thanks to @caeruluspirit for the profile image), I really just became engrossed in cyclopes and monocular creatures in general. I think part of this fascination also stems from an irl friend who has depth perception issues and once tried to explain it to me by saying "The sky is in front of the trees." I've been thining about that every so often ever since.

So yeah, I'm going to try and be a bit more active on here. Share a piece of my autism with a wider audience. If that interests you stick around, if not then by all means keep on moving.

[thebeastofblackmoor]

Anja Mittelmeier

okay, so i woke up at 1 AM last night, wrote this which will be either incomprehensible or somewhat comprehensible, then went back to sleep. My analysis is as follows:

So, I think Anja shares the same complex that I described in Linda’s analysis. For the sake of exemplifying, I’ll call it a Gone Girl complex (I love you Gillian Flynn), but it could arguably be shortened to just Girl complex. I mean, what girl hasn’t felt pressure to act with immediate forgiveness or grace, or just take it even especially when our anger is justified, when we’ve clearly been mistreated, when we’re justified, when it’s them that’s in the wrong.

Anja lived her life like this. She studied so freaking hard (she’s speaks like five languages if memory serves), and she made her best self and at the same time, she builds everyone else up! She said that she pushed Markus to make something of himself, and the woman at Castle Cast still remembers this mail woman who was so special and lovely.

At this point, she wouldn’t ever lie to get ahead. That’s not who she is! She has so much to be thankful for, and any success that’s to come in her career will come when it comes. She’s happy for now with her boyfriend and her coworkers and the promise of the future!!!!!

And then the future does something funny. It actually pans out. After supporting him for so long, emotionally and maybe financially, Markus starts to break through. He makes good investments and he’s showing promise as a business man (okay, I know nothing about business or what Markus does specifically, and I’m just making myself sound like Vincent Adultman, but you get my point. Things are falling into place for him.)

This is the part where they ride into the sunset!! This is when everything turns around and things start to go right, promises are fulfilled!

Of course; that’s not how it goes.

Markus, actually, is kind of scum. He realizes that he can have more, or what he thinks is more, and he goes for it without warning or hesitation or considering anyone else’s feelings. He dumps Anja for that hot blonde. Maybe he even cheats on her, who knows, he’s got money, and he’s starting to realize that he can do whatever the hell he wants, he’s rising up the ranks. He’s just above certain people, his ex-girlfriend included.

Anyway. Markus says that Anja is the reason he makes sure his shoes are tied before a break up. I don’t know what this means. I assume it means she became physically violent, but I don’t know to what degree, especially since Markus walks his comment back right afterward. So she forgot about the expectation, the personality she trapped herself in back when the future had so much promise. She probably steps back and apologizes, and Markus actually thinks they might be on okay terms when they leave each other until they meet again.

(And let me make something clear: my analysis of Linda and Anja might suggest that I don’t think nice people actually exist, that they’re all just covering something up, but I promise I don’t think this is the case. I do think that being a good person is a conscious effort that requires unlearning a lot of destructive behaviors and thought patterns, but I don’t think that being nice pushes everyone over the edge. I analyze Anja and Linda this way because they, well, are canonically pushed over the edge and they seem just a little bit too forgiving to people who wronged them. I mean, Markus probably cheated on her after they had a presumably long and loving relationship. Who isn’t gonna go feral at that?)

We know the rest. She starts to play dirty, lies on her resume so that she can start on a revenge plan. She gets to thinking after she’s weaseled her way into Castle Finster, what with all the monster legends floating around. Her brother (who I guess started working there after she did?) said that the castle had such a dark history because it was built by greedy and terrible men. The real monsters didn’t live in the woods, they were the men on the thrones, men like Markus. Men were were always hungry for more, insatiable. The Friars probably turned their heads when terrible things happened in the castle, or maybe they were responsible. Greedy men, men in power always seemed to think they were above everyone else.

Maybe the Friar deserves to have his daughter taken from him.

That’s where the plan starts. She keeps the facade going of the person she once was. I mean, the first time nancy talks to her, she gives boyfriend advice and describes very eloquently and ominously why the monster is something to be feared. (Like animals before a storm… The signs are all the same, but the people are reacting differently.) Its damn convincing, and probably more than a little real.

I think a part of her was still genuinely caring and nice, but a bigger part of her just lost it. She thinks Markus would probably kill someone if it meant more money, more status. (And he might, just based on how much of an ass he is.) She thinks this is justice, despite the fact that she’s okay with casting herself as a monster.

Honestly, if she didn’t have to kill an innocent person to exact her revenge on Markus, I’d 10/10 join her. Take him down a peg, wear an awesome monster costume in the process.

Anyway. What I’m saying is that Anja should make good on her promise and come back. and also her wildly distracting clevage

drop a Nancy Drew character into my ask and ill write an in-depth analysis on them and my thoughts on them even if I have no outstanding feelings for them

[black-th1rt3en]

End the new year with a POP and a BANG!

⠀

ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ ɴᴇᴡ ʏᴇᴀʀ!

ᴶᴼᴷᴱᴿ'ˢ ᴿᴱˢᴼᴸᵁᵀᴵᴼᴺ: ᶠᵁᴺ ᴼᵛᴱᴿ ᴹᴼᴺᴱᵞ!

WARNING!: mature content y’all!!

⠀

Also there’s a video that goes with this! I just posted it separately

⠀

⠀

⠀

COLORS FLOATED WITH A RUBBER SHEEN, anchored by a taut plastic string tied around wads of colorful monopoly cash. None of it was real, even in the ridiculous amount - all fifty million of it.

⠀

The balloons would waver in the slight breeze, sometimes dragging the cash-kedge around until they’d hit against each other and bounce back like a speed-bag. It made an uncomfortable squeak each time it happened, and it was the first thing he woke up to.

⠀

The second was a horrible cold, which short analysis served to reveal his stark nakedness in an uninsulated room. Wide open with all but the windows and doors closed - revealing a grayscale warehouse between the rows of rising color. Down there was a pool of black, the scent ripping at his senses as it glared back at him in the dull reflection of some dull lights hanging above, shading the world in a soft rainbow.

⠀

“Wha…” His lips were numb. Everything was numb and heavy, and his arms… was that rope? He couldn’t move them. He struggled, the friction rubbing at his skin and drawing lines of blood until they hit on the ledge below him. Dripping like a soft faucet. His tongue felt heavy as drool began to fall from his lips, also numb.

⠀

A door slammed open out of his line of sight, and then a voice; one from nightmares, stuff twisted from rotten candy and bloodied lips vibrated through the air like a bolt of lightning. “Wakey wakey, eggs n’ shakey!” There was a string of giggles that followed, mirth seeping into the echoing words, “Did sleeping beauty get all rested up? I sure hope so! It’d be hilarious if you looked bad at your own going away party.”

⠀

There was a short hiss, metal on metal, and a flicker of white came into vision: the sight of metal reflecting light. “Thing is, I don’t know if the rest of the invitations got lost, or no one wanted to see your sorry carcass burst into flames, but no one is here but you and me! Here I was thinking that roasting marshmallows is still a hip thing ta do at partiessss. Suppose I must’ve been wrong.”

⠀

He came into view - the Joker - appearing menacing as ever, green hair long and lanky and pushed back from his face, purple suit tailored and the knife coming full circle as he swung his arms in wide gestures. Every movement was followed with wide, god fearing eyes.

⠀

“You know - wait, wait waiiiiiit - how rude of me, are you cold?” He gestured to the stark nakedness of the man, who was shivering in nothing but his slick skin and a leaf to cover the more…uh, private of areas. “Anyways, y’know so I’ve got a story to tell you, right? It’s actually kinda funny, ha, becoz you’re in it! So, sooooo, I’m sitting in my nice ol’ abode makin’ preparations for the New Years party and I get a nice hospitality call from Niko and you know what he says? Apparently some complete idiot decided to steal all the funds for my little project. So P O O F! A magic transition from this year to the next is gone, because I’m left with next to nothing.”

⠀

The Joker doesn’t laugh this time.

⠀

“I’ll make it work though, I always do. But I couldn’t help but find something funny in it. You know what’s funny about it? Hmmmm? Maybe even, very p o s s i b l y the funniest thing I’ve ever heard?” He leers, teeth bared in a horrible play of a smile. “The thought, the smallest inkling even, that you thought you could burn me and get away clean.”

⠀

Balloons around him, that horrible deadly simper playing on his lips; eyes blacker than death, like two gaping holes that were accentuated by the harsh lines shadowed in his face - he made the devil look pleasant.

⠀

“Bo...B...Boss I sswearya’ve got the wrong idea here - !”

⠀

He laughed, coldly this time, and the absolute chill in his faux amusement pinched harder than the atmosphere of the room.

⠀

“Wrong idea? Wrong idea?!?” He lunged forward, knife reappearing in his grasp and pressing tightly to the man’s quivering bottom lip in a clear message. “Nossiree! You’ve got the wrong i d e a to think that I wouldn’t do this,” He gestured vaguely around him, “when you decided to stab ol’ Uncle Joker in the back. Did ya think I’d let it go to waste?”

⠀

He was seething, foaming at the corners of his mouth and looking like some rabid dog. He turned away, breathing quickly from his nose before his head tucked back to look ahead, gaining some semblance of calmness.

⠀

“Either way I suppose I should thank you,” he laughed shortly, breathlessly here. “just because I realized that full-scale isn’t always the route to really kick things off. I know I seem the flashy type and all, and I really truly am, but maybe jussss’ maybe my New Years resolution will entail me enjoying more of the smaller things in life, like balloons, and miscellaneous flammable stuff, then of course lighters… can’t be complete without a nice one from 7-11 amirite?” He pulled one seemingly from thin air, “Look it’s even got some smiley faces on that and… blood? Ha, I remember, poor register guy didn’t even see it comin for him. He heee.”

⠀

A pause, and he grimaced.

⠀

“Ahh, I’ve gotten off track, where was I, again?”

⠀

He looked thoughtful for a moment and glanced at his wrist as if to check his time but there was no watch, and the man murmured past the knife a barely distinguishable answer.

⠀

“Sh, yeah, I remember! Okay, so you went all houdini with my bucks, leaving just enough for me to throw this little hooplah together last minute to satiate the need for a colorful New Years. I mean if you’re not afraid to burn me, and presumably my money too, then why should I not return the favor? Gracious of me, right? I thought so too.” He giggled some, twisting the blade so it knicked his skin enough to spur feeling but turning the sharp part inwards to allow some restrained movement for a response. “What do you think?”

⠀

“Pleas...please boss. I swear, I’ve got a family..! I swear to you - “

⠀

“You s-suh-suh-swear to me? That’s cute. Cos I could’ve sworn the man on that tape with fifty million of my bucks in tow was you. It’s all here again now, but in monopoly form...” he tapped the knife against the inside of the man’s cheek a few times. “But if we’re making promises, I guess I should re-iterate-uhhh that this is going to hurt, a lotttttttt. And I can say that with about 99% confidence, the one percent being that I’ve never personaly experienced it before, I’ve just got a very good guess. Just make sure to give it a Yelp review if you survive, yeah? I mean I don’t know if you’re fingers will work if that does miraculously happen, but I’m all into miracles.“

⠀

He drew the knife back, and in a single cat-like movement he concealed himself behind the man who was staring forward with blood dripping from his lip and tears streaming from his eyes. He shook his head, moaning incomprehensible pleas. The Joker pushed the chair forward, the scraping of the chair sounding like individual screams as it scraped on the floor and neared him towards the cesspool of black.

⠀

He’d almost forgotten, what between the pain in his hands and the bitter cold and the ramblings of a madman - now his eyes, blurred by their own sorrow, could hardly look away from the fate below, accentuated by the little happy balloons floating around like it really was some sort of pathetic pity party.

⠀

“Money’s miniscule in the grand scheme of things my boy, just gotta enjoy what you’ve got right in front of you.” He snickered, “I mean I surely will, but that’s because I’m not the one covered in flammable gel and about to go skinny-dipping in a fire-hot tub. Literally!”

⠀

The Joker kicked the legs of the chair, watching as the foundation toppled to favor its weight forward and let the man capsize forward into the pool. It was deep enough for him to sit upright, but he’d certainly broken a shin or knee or two on the way down if those pop-pop-pops meant anything.

⠀

The Joker looked on, a cruel smile lilting at his lips and reaching into the depths of his eyes until the small flame from the lighter betwixt his fingers was reflected in them. He extended his arm into the open space then watched it drop down… falling down into the pool as a fire erupted and climbed over the expanse of the surface.

⠀

A balloon popped in the air, a short blaze glittering from the inside and tinted pink from the color of the plastic before it wilted and fell, sending off a concatenation of similar sounds and blazing colors. The Joker hooted, hands clapping together at the shows as he quickly went to the door to avoid unnecessary collateral damage. The fire had yet to draw to the little oil-fish swimming in his little death pool.

⠀

“Liquified-petroleum is light, light enough to fill balloons and very very flammable, and obviously oh so very cheap.” More pops, some so loud they sounded like a line of firecrackers. “I would stay to enjoy the show, but I think I’ll peak this one from the outside.”

⠀

The building shook as the pops became more frequent, until his voice wouldn’t have been heard if he was shouting. But he’d gone through the door, and by now the flames were everywhere and even the water couldn’t save the greedy-fish-man. Everything was burning - from the Monopoly money to the stone floors - and he was burning with it.

⠀

The cacophony of explosions followed the Joker into the night, and a small distance down the street he stopped to turn on his heel and reach into his pocket for some confetti. He’d intended to throw it at the traitor but must’ve forgotten in his excitement, so he gathered it in his palm and threw it into the air, watching as the little shreds of paper floated and danced in the breeze. Some drifted away, some fell down.

⠀

He watched quietly, humming a short tune as his eyes traced the inflamed outline of the building, little embers rising to fill the night with color. There would be fireworks later, it wasn’t quite midnight yet.

⠀

“We buy balloons, we let them go…”

⠀

And surely enough as the flames engulfed the roof of the building, some balloons escaped in the patches unharmed and floated freely into the night, full of vibrancy until the black sky swallowed them whole.