#but theyre there. they truly are there. and they make me feel a specific kind of calm and happiness and serenity

[tragicvampireromanceisland]

thinking so long and hard about joyness once more…like yesss they are very cute and sweet and all but i think them getting together even after their History is sooo interesting. like, does joy first start hanging out around sadness and talking with her more often out of guilt? is it performative? when does it stop being performative?? and at what point does joy realize it’s stopped being performative? how does joy feel when every single interaction she has with sadness after the events of the first movie are just like…constant reminders of how she screwed up with her prior? liking someone who makes her feel that bad when she normally never lingers on what she's done wrong just seems so counterintuitive (fun fact: joy has literally never genuinely apologized for anything she's done, across both movies. she's acknowledged and fixed her mistakes before, sure, but she has never expressed guilt so straightforwardly like that. is she simply incapable of it? or has she just...never given importance to feeling guilty before so long as she can just Fix her mistake? just something very interesting i've noticed...)!!

like, joy’s canonically admitted that she’s literally tried to kick sadness out of headquarters before. that’s truly how little joy thought of her before she got to know her better…she totally would have been fine with just. never seeing her again. imagine disliking your coworker THAT much since the very first day you met her and now you have feelings for her…?! not a possibility joy ever would have considered, and i think joy would struggle a Lot with coming to terms with that initially. she is the Queen of cognitive dissonance. of being Delusional. it’s HARD to shake off old habits just like that!! joy is someone who very much doesn’t fully acknowledge how she feels until it gets so intense it bubbles up to the surface and breaks through her usual demeanor (we’ve seen that both with how she’s gotten sad and angry before…who’s to say romance would not be the same. i think she’d just keep denying it until she just. has an Ah Shit moment with sadness one day. probably over something completely mundane).

and it certainly doesn’t help that sadness is, well. Sadness! she clearly admires joy from the very beginning even when joy treated her so poorly (knowing her she probably thought she deserved it…sigh). she’d literally just assume absolutely nothing would come out of her feelings. and you know she probably might even romanticize and Enjoy it in a weird way…i mean think about it. she canonically likes sad romance novels…this is her own "tragic romance" (apparently. SUPPOSEDLY) so i think she’d kind of insistently cling to that. define their entire relationship as unrequited and reallyyy lean into it and warp anything that happens otherwise to fit her little Doomed Yuri vision. she's observant as hell for pretty much everything, normally, but she just has goddamn Horse Blinders on for just this one thing specifically.

she’s just completely unaware of how fundamentally she’s changed joy and shattered her entire worldview (meanwhile joy is just busy having a whole crisis about exactly that). and NOW she has to deal with actually being treated like she matters, both by joy and the other emotions?? helloooo? she’s definitely got a lot to process by this point because Her entire way of living has changed too now in an entirely different direction.

AND then you add to that how it's pretty clear that sadness knows joy pretty well, but joy still has a Lot to learn about sadness because she never gave her a chance before...very much a recipe for guilt and confusion and miscommunication and other such weird occurrences to arise.

BASICALLY tldr theyre both kind of idiots and i think their dynamic is a little more complicated than people give it credit for. joyness is a veryyy. She fell first (sadness) she fell harder (joy) type of dynamic. To Me.

[twodoorsnotone]

Yes, I dislike doctor-companion romances. Yes, I'm Thasmin stan. We exist

[transgaysex]

you guys must understand that im not too vocal abt my main interest rn but i am going absolutely hogwild crazy abt outer wilds rn.

[novembermorgon]

How do you feel about all of King Jaehaerys' daughters? 👀

all of them... WHEW ! heres a saera to break up the text block

i'm admittedly not the biggest fan of many of the pre-dance targs . not in the sense that i dislike them it's just that i've never been all that invested in their characters the same way i am, say, the dunk and egg era ones ... but theyre fun! i think all of jaehaerys kids are definitely really interesting by default on account of being born to a guy who people in-universe tend to praise very highly only for him to turn out a shitty horrible dad that fucks you over for the sole crime of being born as his child. lets take them in order! (it's been a while since i read fire and blood now so bear with me . might have missed or forgotten stuff ...)

daenerys ... to me she's kind of a victim of grrm seeming to kill off a lot of female characters specifically because they don't have that much of a role in the story. sort of a nothing-girlie unfortunately . i do think it's interesting that alysanne went to jaehaerys with the hope of daenerys being heir as the then-eldest child- sort of a harrowing premonition of his treatment of his future daughters. i wish we got more on her.

alyssa is fun! i think she's one of the stronger (in terms of writing quality) of jaehaerys kids, at least early on. she does end up, again, kind of suffering from grrms writing in the sense that she starts having children and suddenly almost loses that .. spirit ..? of her character ..? if that makes sense. i feel that he fumbled a little bit with wrapping her story up and once again falls into the pit of 'women who die in childbirth just because'. not to say i inherently mind that conclusion to a female character's story.. i think it's necessary in a universe like asoiaf to portray the difficulties that come with pregnancy and how that changes a person, but it often feels like a bit of a crutch in asoiaf to write a female character out of the story . other people have had more eloquent critiques of her character than me. but overall she's up there in the ranking for me :-)

maegelle is one of my favourites if only because she hits on a lot of notes i like in asoiaf! being a septa she kind of escapes a bit of the family horror that her sisters has to endure - but that also means she has to watch it from afar. alyssa, daella and viserra all die in relatively quick succession and she's not in any real position to do anything about it. even having escaped the family terrors you are still a victim of them etc. i like that she's got a bit of an attitude lol even though she's clearly a very compassionate kind person ('This is foolish, Father. Rhaenys is to be married next year, and it should be a great occasion. She will want all of us there, including both you and Mother. The archmaesters call you the Conciliator, I have heard. It is time that you conciliated.') - and her ending i think is very tragic, but in an almost sweet way. caring for children that most others are repulsed by, selfless to the end ... i like her.

daella is just tragic. other people have said more than i could ever about her but to me her marriage is truly one of the most horrific things that jaehaerys ever did in part because it's just so simple and not-so-dramatic. he tells alysanne that daella has to be married at the end of the year and she is. she's excited to be a mother to the children he already has. she's happy, despite the horrific situation she's put in - only to be doomed to die after a pregnancy where she has to beg her mother to come see her out fo fear. so terrible. makes my heart ache.

saera... there's a lot you could say about saera. inherently i'm a little bit opposed to stanning on the basis of the optics of prostitution in asoiaf and what it means for her to become a brothel proprietor in a city where there are five slaves to every free man - you can definitely critique her but she IS exceptionally interesting and i do like her. such a character. i feel like her defiance of her father gives such a good insight into how terrible jaehaerys was as a father- even in a book so almost distanced from its characters (in that it's a history book) you can really feel the frustration both of her parents and of saera herself and it really does make for good family drama. i feel bad for her just as i feel that she falls into the pitfall of the endless, vicious cycle that drives forward so many of the themes in asoiaf. delicious and horrifying . i wish we got to know more details about her children and what happened to her during the dance

viserra... ohhh. she might be my number one! right after the saera situation i feel like viserra, in the eyes of her parents, was almost like a reflection of her sister. there were many reasons for them marrying her off (none of which were good) but i think there really is that bite of saera leaving just a year earlier that stings in the back of their minds. just as with all these girls she's tragic and so very interesting and i wish we got to understand her better. trying to 'seduce' baelon is such a harrowing thought - like a cry for help, a need for somebody, anybody to save her from the same fate as almost all her sisters and grandmothers and great-grandmothers before her. it's horrifying to be a woman in westeros and no matter how loudly she cried for an out, nobody would give it to her. she was only fifteen when she died! how horrific is that! her last ride is such a terrible terrible visual to me. she deserved better and nobody around her was there for her in any regard. jaehaerys alysanne baelon i will haunt you for the rest of time.

gael.. :-( there's not much Here but for what it's worth she does intrigue me. the story of her and the mystery bard seducing her... i want to know more!! her mother dying just a year after losing her last daughter - so, so tragic. i think ive said this way too many times now. i don't know. what a horrible collection of fates. jaehaerys you will burn.

[chipchopclipclop]

i have finished death mark 2...... thoughts.....

general thoughts is the overall story was.... BAD. LOL.

I'll start with the good. The interactions between Yashiki and alot of the returning cast i really liked, the writing especially in the first few chapters. An example being alot of Yashiki and Daimon's chatter, especially the whole weight of saving lives things that comes back at the end, alot of it was quite sweet and heartwarming similarly between him and other mark bearer characters.

^^^ BEST CG EVARRRRR....

I liked the choice of Hiroo and Mashita being the two that come in when he's at his lowest, their curtness and refusal to take his attitude was really refreshing, felt really like what he needed at the time lol. In that same vein i enjoyed his characterization alot in the early-mid game, and how it develops. He's such a sensitive guy lollll and it comes through well with how much he cares but near the latter chapters it kind of.... sours.

Though there were a few new characters i liked his interactions with, Abe and Maruhashi specifically i found endearing of the new cast, Alot of them just Die. Or theyre Hime and Michiho AKA the bane of my fucking existence with this game.

They are the two pushed front and center and it is truly its worst aspect, as characters they're shallow personality wise and though you could say that about others in the cast, them being in love with Yashiki on top of it makes it so much worse.

They barely have any scenes where they actually properly interact and feel like they bond at all but for some reason im expected to believe they're suddenly in love with him?? -and in the end they were also dead the whole time, and not even themselves. So it wasn't even real, and somehow any of this is meant to hold any weight to the audience...?? explaining it as the ghosts being desperate for him instead doesnt really make it.. any more compelling (lol the scene at the end where hes like maybe they just wanted those beautiful normal school days they spent by me.... when did that happen yashiki)

I understand Yashiki is probably saddened by the deaths of two young girls but they're treated with so much more weight and gravitas than anyone else in the cast and its so unearned, especially when alot of the other ghosts are somehow way more compelling in that aspect.

He also becomes borderline ooc around them like in what world am i expected to believe he emotionally dumps his burdens on the two highschool girls he barely knows because of how sad he is when hes got like how many other people he knows FROM THE OTHER GAMES he could do that with...????? (AND BASICALLY DOES... ALREADY...?) and it lifts his heart like truly wtf was i reading. HE WOULD NOT FUCKING SAY THAT.JPG

Chapter six is really where it falls off the cliff with this, after hanging out with Hiroo, Mashita and Yasuoka and solving that case they just dissapear from the narrative for a day so he can......... hang out with michiho...?? i couldn't even enjoy murder yashiki in this game because of how ludicrous it felt that the rest of yashiki's companions just dissapeared to make it happen, and no one calls or anything lmfao. I cant imagine how much more compelled i would have felt if he was dealing with that situation with any of the other three around instead of HIME. LIKE I AM ACTUALLY SO INCENSED ABOUT THIS SCENARIO BEING RUINED SO HARD WHEN IT COULD BE SO GOOD BUT I DIGRESS (RIPPING MY HAIR OUT) (CRYING BC I LOVE BLOOD AND HORROR)

Even the first two games weren't as bad as writing women as this!? EVEN IF I HAD TO SEE MASSIVE TITS ON SCREEN THEY WEREN'T TRYING TO JUMP ON YASHIKI AS WELL AS A CENTRAL PLOT POINT (lol kakuya) congrats exp you have outdone yourself with the misogyny.

To continue on the topic of new characters, it feels like so many of them were given so little screen time to make you actually care about them. For how prominent Abe is he barely actually does anything, and Maruhashi instantly dissapears when shes no longer a red herring. On top of this game basically killing off any other character that appears, its hard to get invested in them as characters at all.

You have no opportunities to actually effect their fate as you do in the other two games, so there's even less attempt to immerse you there. Horikoshi comes the closest behind the other two but its because her case with Hanako was easily the strongest and most resonant of the game (lgbt win). Its not even like this is the first time Yashiki saves the lives of kids and bonds with them after, especially with the caveat of being a teacher, like how did you fuck this premise up so bad.

They either needed to commit to more scenes and writing in general to attach you to the new characters or just not have any returning ones show up so prominently if they're not also going to further interact with them.

The overall mystery suffers for it, and while i like the twist of the doll being helpful in this game actually, it is so easy to guess michiho and hime are the departed, and i already didn't even like them so it doesn't hit at all emotionally. Like, i was not feeling very betrayed or anything lol.

Further critiques -> though running around is very fun, the horror in this game really didn't at all compare to the others with the loss of that first person perspective for alot of the exploration, sad.

I also feel like we got more horny shit than we did in NG which is also like lol one step forwards two steps back. Even the gore wasn't as good............... kind of mid in every regard there. I did like the mushroom and scissor stuff, but the bugs and mold ended up just kind of ..... eh...

Mary continues to be the best antag in these games, she slayed and she continues to keep slaying. The sisters were really kind of a letdown in the end, especially since i think i could have enjoyed it if they pulled them off better.

As for my yaoi cocaine score though thats a 10/10 they made yashiki and mashita meow and hiss like cats in this game for some reason, i genuinely think that shattered my mind a little.

I also can't believe they gave us these two panting in unison asmr as well so you could make your own [REDACTED] if you wanted. The departed getting jealous mashita was standing next to him in that one confrontation too like she's calling him a homewrecker..... lol...... also the part where mashita jokes abt him keeping the gun and if you make yashiki go 'then i will 😇' and him immediately backpedaling like okay i was kidding. give it back. very moe very powerful.

I feel like the entire time mashita was on screen he was basically acting as yashiki's brain to keep him from getting too lost in his emotional attachments, truly everyone needs a bitch wife to keep them sane.

TL:DR this game could be so good (average) if it wasn't so fucking badDDDDDDDDDDDD easily the worst entry in this series...... dont buy it unless its on sale for 4 bucks (this applies to every game) or just watch in on youtube lol.

anyway. beautiful yashiki collection. I CANT BELIEVE MASHITA DIDNT GET A BAD END CG ACTUALLY < / 3 BUT YASHIKI'S IS REALLY GOOD < / 3 SMALL WINS < / 3

[mbat]

i literally read the book of bill days ago but its only now kinda hitting me how fucked ford and bills whole thing was though cause ford literally talks about being so unable to sleep (to try to keep bill away), and when sleep inevitably caught up to him, he would wake up to his body abused and things messed with and he just couldnt seem to find an escape (and he literally didnt get to truly escape until 30 years later)

(also keeping people awake for unhealthily long periods of time is another tactic used to mess with and control people because of how it impairs brain function)

listing off the things we see in those few pages in the book of bill:

i mean, punching and scratching at a steel door for hours would be so damaging to your hands and probably hurt like hell for at least 2 days after. then bill says he was hitting fords head against a wall, though its said in a post-it as if its a joke, but he also isnt exactly above doing that, and honestly he says most things like its a joke.

i also dont need to say 'bill really doesnt know how to take no for an answer' because he makes that very clear in literally any interaction we see with him.

bill literally puts a venomous snake near ford while fords asleep, which could have killed him if he wasnt lucky+skilled enough to deal with it.

he nearly gives ford hypothermia, and in the same action actively threatens ford with the idea of making him jump off of a high spot, and like ford says, doesnt do it just so he can send a message to ford about how hes the one in control.

he gets ford in trouble with not only the law, but also with other people that are probably not very happy with him after. he mutilates fords body in several ways, and i dont think i need to go into detail on them because theyre... so ew. and he even exposes part of fords body to the world. like, its just taking his shirt off, but thats still showing off his body in a way that he didnt agree to or want

and then he attempts to (or purposefully fails to) call stan, using fords voice to threaten suicide and tell stan that ford never loved him.

and he punctuates it with a final power move, in a hallucination that he creates, hes messing with stans memories and making him feel like his body was basically about to implode

and like. okay, we all joke about toxic old man yaoi, and its a good joke and toxic old man yaoi is great and its an interesting ship, but holy fuck.

like. to say the absolute least, that had to be so, so deeply violating. its no wonder that when we see ford in the past, when he finally contacts stan, he looks like hes on the verge of shattering into a million pieces. he just went through, and still wasnt yet out of, some deeply abusive shit.

like... everything coming out lately both in this book and what ive heard is on the website, mixed with what we already knew from the show itself... the stans are both so, so fucking tragic dude. their whole lives were thrown away over things that really didnt even need to be the way they were, and then they both get into situations that are pretty damn screwed, and those situations follow them for the rest of their lives. its basically a miracle that things worked out in the end for them.

i dont really have a point, i just had to talk about all that. i read almost all of the book of bill in one sitting, and while i was really enjoying it, i was also getting kind of tired of sitting in one spot only doing this one thing for several hours straight. i still felt a lot of the emotional bits of it of course, but man this part specifically just really didnt hit me until now.

i mean, to say the absolute least, i know what its like to feel violated in a similar way, though not anywhere near to the extent of what he went through at all. someone get that man some therapy got damn

[kiwibongos]

warning for ab/se & toxic relationships. and sdr2 spoilers duh

im thinking abt the remnants of despair. cause i hate how it just seemed to be like, "theyre suddenly brainwashed and then they turn evilll and they kill because they dont feel anything" like, i hate that. it feels so underdeveloped. it cant just be despair, it has to be deeper than that, i think it'd take personal angles and link with a lot of their own trauma, leaving them really vulnerable and deranged. so heres my own interpretation and headcanons for some of them

contains mikan, nagito, fuyuhiko, peko, akane, kazuichi, and brief analysis of the rest. keep in mind i havent seen the animes yet lol so this is a basic layer of it, but i just rly wanted to let this out cus i dont see it talked about. storing my brainrot here for later moments.

first of all i feel like the brainwashing would be a very slow process bc junko would definitely just manipulate everyone in her way to get what she wants. and by the time the world was plagued basically, all the remnants clearly had really unhealthy feelings related to junko specifically. they all love her, hate her, or praise her, but its all in very different ways that would be bc of their own personal backstories

we all know how mikan and nagito feel. mikan was constantly hurt by other people before junko herself, itd make sense for her to develop a very unhealthy attachment to her. mikan was extremely vulnerable and controllable, she would do anything for anyone and especially junko, just so no one is mad at her, hence why it got so twisted to the point where she wanted to keep a part of her inside forever. she wanted to be loved so badly, she would take whatever form of it she could. thats why it was so easy for junko to get her under her boot. now nagito has an odd love-hate relationship with junko imo (his mind is so messed up man) even if he praises hope in such a grossly obsessed way, the mf still TOOK her arm. i know he did it because he hated her so much and i guess to take power back, but i feel like because nagito had never really been loved, he wanted to try and feel what it could've been like out of some kind of confused desperation and fondness for her in a way, because his mind has no idea what those feelings truly are or what they mean, as hatred and love often get mixed up in his head and form this horrible amalgamation with whoever he meets, which is clear towards the survivors in the nwp anyway

fuyuhiko put junko's own eye into his own socket, and i feel like his relationship with her while in despair would be familial and extremely unhealthy. he is definitely one of the most fucked up to me. id say by my own headcanons though its heavily implied in his fte dialogues, is his parents are very ab/usive right from the start. fuyuhiko is messed up to all hell, he was constantly struck and under pressure but he had to be strong and perfect because he was the head of his clan, hence like his insane tolerance for pain. he had to make his clan, or more importantly his parents proud, or else he was a failure forever. so he clung onto that and did his best trying to be good enough for basically anyone. and even before despair he was in a really bad stubborn, mean, depressive state, leaving him far more vulnerable and more open to violent, impulsive actions as long as junko was smart enough to get him under her finger. fuyuhiko never knew what true love felt like (platonic or not), and when junko took advantage of all of that and he slowly fell into despair, shit hit the fan. he lost morality and he had come so attached to her to the point where junko was like a mother figure to him. he wanted her to notice him and be proud basically, it was moreso the idea of someone-- anyone-- being proud of him, but junko was his main focus of that by now, given his state. to him she was like the mother he never had, who seemed to be on the same terms with everything he had believed, someone who approved of him, so he wanted to make her proud, even if it was hurting him. fuyuhiko would keep digging himself a hole of desperation and self destruction, seeking more and more pain to test his endurance because it's what she wanted, and that became what he wanted, too, because pain is all he's used to. and because of that, makotos guess was right; he wanted to see her despair. it'd make sense he'd want to take a part of her, to see horrors she had witnessed so he could understand it, so she could be proud of him and part of him forever. he felt like if he did that, he would finally succeed, he'd achieve perfection, and he did. he'd done everything junko wanted him to do, while quenching his own thirst for violence itself, all via his own delusions. that was love to him and it felt real

as for peko she was definitely also treated the same in the kuzuryu family but more dehumanized obviously, so i think she'd feel a similar way; always needing to be good enough, but more specifically protecting the ones she cares about at all costs even if it results in bloodshed. i think she'd be a lot colder, forcing to suppress her feelings since she just has to follow fuyuhiko wherever he goes, and she was pretty much as insane as him as well so anything slid. i know peko doesnt want to be a tool, but she'd definitely succumb to the fact that she has to be one when they're under despair at the same time, and if she was going to be his tool, she has to be like a robot and just do what follows, because she didn't see herself as a person, her chance of being her own human was ripped away

as for akane, she grew up very poor, and didn't live a good life at all either (w/ definitely bad parents) but she always tried her very best taking care of her siblings in the past, despite everything. i think there was a lot of twisted familial love with junko whom she started to see as a sister despite being unrelated, just because of being a caretaker all her life, its just kind of instinct to protect anyone, but that just got mixed up as she fell into despair, and she would only protect junko, while chaotically killing anyone else in her way. she'd fight for her endlessly, she was one of the strongest, at least for a while, im thinkin she found her body and wanted to preserve it as much as possible by the end of everything, she still wanted to take care of her and do everything for her even if she had been too late. and with that, and barely any food in an apocalyptic world, the inevitable happens. akane would fall into a very hurtful spiral of self hate, that her starving was a sacrifice to junko so she could prioritize her first instead of herself, while also it being like a punishment to herself for her own failures and how she was failing to preserve junko

kazuichi always hated himself. he was bullied often, didn’t have a lot of friends going into high school, and he was very desperate for attention, especially from women. he’d be very notably attached to junko which would eventually evolve into romantic feelings, similar to mikan. he craved attention and validation so much, it left him very vulnerable, and kazuichi often grows attached to people who show him a sliver of kindness anyway, so junko would likely personally manipulate him and praise him, and they’d grow close, and he’d develop a very strong attachment towards her that derails into love and lust. and once he was influenced by her under despair, he would do anything for her. so, he’d get his hands on a lot of weapons, and go on mindless killing sprees, causing havoc 24/7 just to please her and keep her memory alive through despair. and deep in his mind, he probably truly thought that junko was his soulmate, that they were destined to be together, and he was fulfilling missions just for her, and in the end, they could be together

extra stuff i guess? as anyone would expect, sonia just became a corrupted leader and took advantage of her power under despair. her kingdom would try to keep her above it, but she’d fall into it somehow anyway, and probably had already been plagued by corrupt/unjust views by junko before, so she’d lead her people to worship junko the same way she does, and anyone who stood against it would be punished severely. mahiru falls into morbid curiosity because of junko and gets worse, given what she does with her camera, also both mikan and gundham would try to stitch junko up a little, and try to keep her from falling apart as long as possible. mikan is more likely to do that for her own twisted romantic purposes, but if gundham gets a hold of her before or after mikan, he would take her blood for himself, and most likely start a cult to worship her, all for like weird satanic purposes involving rituals and stuff. he’d also encourage his members or the other remnants to indulge in certain activities for the sake of praising her. gundham would probably even believe she was some demon from the underworld who granted him powers and chose him to carry on her legacy

also teruteru was just a little hungry. boys gotta eat

[thirdmagic]

truly what is it that makes us fujos as we are. like. what is it about specifically displays of intimacy between men that makes our brains go haywire. displays of affection, intimacy, of bonding, in ways that are honest and unfiltered and unashamed, or just getting handsy with each other, even implications or displays of deep affections shown through like worry or concern or other things that you can read into. like what IS it about it that affects us as it does. i know its completely independent from what you feel about men in general, in real life, whether attraction or not, this happens to people of all walks of life, fujos are a varied demographic. no this isnt about something as basic as 'one guy hot, two guys hotter' esp because somtimes the guys arent even hot to you, no there somethin else at play here. and im not even talking about the prevalence of m/m in fandom in comparison to other kind of content thats a separate thing im asking like the question at the heart of it that's much more basic which is why does it appeal so much in the first place. like what IS it there that makes me insane when im watching a freaking tarantino movie and harvey keitel is gently cradling tim roth in his arms and somehow my brain reacts to that like some kind of spiritual experience and like independetly theyre just two dudes to me, two dudes who are good actors and just characters in this movie, but when they do that its like something in my brain is opening to the secrets of the universe. i swear yaoi really does deserve some proper scientific study.

[dwn012]

Wow, personally I interpret his time stopper ability as something that mostly works on bots. Think of it as sending transmissions jamming the hardware of other bots, making them essentially shut down for a brief period of time. Here's a follow up my girlfriend did on the idea: "God, this explains why Flash naturally took the "Older brother" role among the robots. Fear commands respect, and most of the robots out there fear him. They know how powerful he is, and some have experienced it first hand. I assume at times it can trigger real panic in them, because when the disruptor shuts off their signals they can feel themselves "slowly" (it's a matter of microseconds, but for a robot it's an eternity) shutting off. They can really sense their mortality at those times, the same mortality robots in the civilized world are subject to. To them, Flash's time stopper is the personification of the boogeyman. Something wicked and horrible that can truly make them grasp the concept of death, despite them not truly dying at all. And the fact that Flash can use it to his heart's content, it's terrifying. Some envy the power he has, but most fear him. And so, he takes on the role of the older one, because nobody wants to upset him, and if Wily has given him such an important role, then he must be important too"

Damn, that's a really interesting take on Time Stopper. I like the set-up of him being more of a boogeyman towards other robots, seeing as Time Stopper poses as that deathless death. That really is a cool take!!

I think though, why I like the idea of him actually stopping time with Time Stopper is just. The whimsy of it I suppose? Like, as much as I like to focus on the mechanical aspects of the RMs I do try to give them wiggle-room in their abilities, since if the series can have a teleporting horse robot and aliens I think a time-stopping robot would fit snugly in the canon anyways without having to modify exactly what he does. That, and I've kinda got it figured out (to me) as why it actually damages Quick Man specifically and not the other robots- He operates on time, mainly. Not that he manipulates it, but the speed of his processor allows him to calculate by less than a second allowing him to process things at an incredible rate. So what happens when there is no time to process? Sensors hitting a negative causing a feedback loop thus blowing his processors in the, well, process.

Now I don't know if that makes any mechanical sense, but that's not really my goal tbh. Sure, Flash can freeze the other robots in time but they don't have the same machinery Quick does, theyre both special.

Not to go on a tangent about how they compliment each other in design and function, but to go back on the original point: I just like the idea of a time-breaking robot in-universe. Time Man exists but he's not Flash Man levels of design and function.

I do love the mechanical take you and your girlfriend have though! I think it's really complex and it adds depth to Flash that I like. I know others in the community that would be all over that kind of take!! But for me, sometimes it's a moment of "yeah sure he can stop time. whatever."

[i-sveikata]

For the next chapter. For the sentence that you put of Vegas saying to Pete ‘I can’t lose you’. Is that after Pete goes to the stranger or before? Because it will make Vegas even more paranoid about Pete leaving him for someone else. What will be the worst thing Vegas will do in order not to lose Pete. Kill his competition? I know Vegas is afraid of losing him, he is terrified, will he ever let Pete know about it?

I know it’s a lot of questions but I am really intrigued about Vegas and his toxic behavior. Because it is obviously a very toxic relationship but they nevertheless can live without each other.

hey anon, it's before!!!!!! it's on the drive after they leave nong kwai- vegas is assuming that pete is asleep already otherwise im not sure he would have been so honest about this specific insecurity (pete doesnt know/hasnt figured out that one of Vegas' biggest fears is hes going to ruin things and push pete away for good/ lose him eventually)

since its an insecurity, its actually a lot more unfounded than vegas thinks. like pete is very much matching his freak4freak and they've drawn pretty clear lines around what they want from each other. which is why theyre at this stage where they seem extremely committed without actually admitting they're committed to one another (at least on petes end). pete hooking up with a stranger and- not sure that ive actually spoiled this yet, but not actually enjoying the encounter- is the final push pete needs to actually admit that what he feels for vegas is not going away and isnt transferable. its also the last bit of evidence/ proof? idk how to phrase it but like a final indication to vegas that pete is in this with him- when hes topping pete it finally gives him the confidence to push in the way he's largely been afraid of pushing before-challenging pete on his attraction to vegas and what that means for their relationship in terms of exclusivity. particularly when they both seem to firmly decide on choosing each other and keeping any third parties out.

like obvs its going to be a HUGE step forward for them but its pete hes not going to roll over and give everything up at once. hes still going to be holding onto actually admitting he's in love- because he still hasnt yet admitted that to himself. which is what he needs to do first.

its actually a lot harder for vegas to push pete away at this point- like were at the stage in the fic where pete is aware enough of his feelings but still afraid to admit that hes in love. and vegas is trying to get them over that threshold but hes kind of at a loss of how to do it without outright forcing pete in a way that hes not ready for. the circumstances in the bathroom, make it a little too much of a satisfying conclusion for vegas to actually spare a thought for killing the stranger- its very obvious to vegas that the man isnt doing anything for pete when he interrupts them so hes actually not viewing him as competition in that moment. idk how he would react but if im being honest when weve seen vegas' jealous side i dont think even he particularly believes in them being a real tangible threat? like hes being petulant and immature about it sure but pete isnt giving him an actual reason to feel truly threatened if that makes sense? vegas is just letting his own insecurity run wild/combined with the fear of losing pete. i dont think hes actually viewing anyone else as a true threat to his connection to pete in the end. maybe later down the track when he feels more secure in the relationship (and petes feelings) vegas might actually admit to the fear of losing pete but as of right now hes too afraid to talk about it- less he make it a reality.

no nothing wrong with questions honestly!!! lol tbh im kind of at the stage now where 'toxic relationship' has become such a catch all term for a lot of things and has been so overused to the point where its kind of lost all meaning to me. ppl are so quick to jump to that conclusion for any kind of negative behaviour or mistake and its been misapplied so often that its not generally a phrase i take seriously anymore. but yes 100% they are a messed up relationship (but also not real so who cares lol) and they seem to be muddling their way through that as best they can!

[mugentakeda]

mujin headcanons ?? or just samurai champloo headcanons in general,,

you have seriously no idea the kind of beast you have trifled with asking me this. most of these are specific and kinda complicated because im insane and put deep thought into everything abt samcham but some are just simple and silly. Lets begin

OK SO. i have deep reasoning for almost any of my headcanons because im a stickler for abiding by canon as much as i possibly can no matter how ridiculous the headcanon is. headcanons for ME personally esp with aus and stuff are like "how would this character act in this fucked up situation" rather than coming up with fanon bullshit based on absolutely nothing which just strips characters of their bare essentials which is stupid so yeah. im gonna get the big ones out of the way then get smaller as i go

-i use they/she/he for jin. my hc for their gender and sexuality is kinda hard to describe and idek if theres a label for it but i just phrase it as any gender and no gender at the same time. i think jin doesnt personally view their gender as anything specific and presents mostly neutrally and people just perceive them for what they choose to see. women like seeing jin as a handsome androgynous woman (like a bifauxnen). men like seeing jin as a beautiful man. vice versa. jin has no attachment to such things they just go with the flow and presentation doesnt mean anything profound for them personally other than like. an accessory or something???? idk. i like to see shino and jin as nblw because their story reminds me of something tragic lesbians would do. but tdlr no matter what gender you are being into jin is gay inherently -jin is a virgo, fuu is a libra, and mugen is a scorpio. common traits for virgos include loyalty, practicality, overly critical of self and others, dislikes rudeness and asking for help. they can be closed off and can be misunderstood by others due to this, but they have deep senses of humanity. traits for libras include social, gracious, desire for companionship, in a constant chase for justice and equality, a dislike for comformity and loudmouths. traits for scorpios include resourcefulness, passion, assertiveness, fearless, a dislike for dishonesty, small talk, superficiality. i originally based the specific dates (sept 4th for jin, oct 9th for fuu, and nov 3rd for mugen) based on the number of diamonds in jins mon, the number of letters in 'sunflower' for fuu (sunflower season ends in october!), and the 3 corners of the triangle on the back of mugens happi. EVERYTHING IS INTENTIONAL!!!!! -jin is actually left handed, but such a thing is forbidden for samurai, so jin had to force themself to use their right. you wouldnt know it at first glance but if you saw jins fancy kanji caligraphy using their left hand compared to their uniformed and almost robotically perfect handwriting with their right youd be able to tell what theyre truly most comfortable with -mugen and jin have to bicker about literally everything. like jin will say something and mugen sometimes will actually agree but he’ll say something purposefully contrarian and stupid just to get on jins nerves. it takes hard work to get an actual rise out of them but sometimes just the blank stare or the raised eyebrow is enough to make mugen cackle

-making clean kills is practiced for jin because the feeling of sticky blood and the stench makes them antsy. the night that they stumbled out into the dark after accidentally killing enshirou, itd been everywhere. soaking their clothes, under their nails, on their lips, in their eyelashes and hair. theyd thrown up and wailed hysterically like a wounded animal and then collapsed into an ice cold river to claw it off in panic and nearly drowned from the force of the river waves and the shock of the whole situation and then they just passed out on the bank from exhaustion and didnt wake up for 15 hours

-after the finale, mugen recovers (somehow) from his injuries after 2 weeks. however, this did not account for the chronic pain that sticks with him and worsens in the cold and rain. hed find later that jin, his perfect bird of a feather, gets debilitating migraines and back pain in the cold and rain. they can be in bed and in pain together

-jin doesnt force their meticulous and traditional routines onto mugen so theyll slink out of bed at the ass crack of dawn to do their weird praying and katas and meditation and mugen will sleep until past noon and he'll always complain about them letting him sleep the day away and theyll always just hum in response

-jin can NOT cook for shit but id like to think they work to improve as a way of remembering shino fondly. before meeting her they could brew a mean ass cup of tea and steamed rice. but that was literally it. but now they can make some simple things like clear mushroom soup and dumplings and they intend on expanding

-mugen is a closeted fine arts snob. he thought the shit was flowery and boring before but jin reads their favorite poems and epics to him and theyve furthered his education where sensei bundai left off so they do a lot of poetry writing as exercises. mugen likes haikus a lot. and he likes those weird noh theaters that jin loves. especially the vile ones with the drama and violence and cheating and death and betrayal. jin forces him to go to the romance ones too its just against his will those times

-jin will not let him hit until he has bathed. the first time he propositioned them they threw him in a huge hot bath like an animal and combed through every matted knot in his hair, scrubbed his back and behind his ears, carved the dirt out from under his yellow fingernails with a small knife, forced a wad of mint leaves in his mouth. jin plucks their eyebrows so maybe theyre kind of over the top about it but then mugen considers rinsing himself off in river water bathing so maybe theyre being perfectly reasonable

-they tell each other scar stories and random events that happened before they met each other. theres a lot of observing without words that they both do to get to know each other but they also do a lot of talking. it always happens at night when theyre both kind of tipsy on sake or wine because thats the only time jin feels loosened up enough to not clam up over memories

[humanmorph]

during the last millenium break “time passes” sequence sylvi mentioned millie bringing snacks for leap from her trips and i thought that was. so sweet

(still sitting & waiting for something terrible to happen to leap. not in a “man fuck this guy” way, just a “i know keith plays a different character later this season and its making me antsy” way.)

leap thoughts from work today. i made the og sketch for this at work. i really didnt get a lot done today...

its like. i know that jack and maybe also art(?) also play different characters but i KNOW clem (possibly s.i.?) is out there. ive accidentally glanced at fanart thats told me as much and im so excited for whatever the fuck is going to happen there BUT he point is theyre around. i dont have any reason to believe the same about leap.

also jack specifically is such a “leaning into decisions/consequences that are terrible for their character” and keith i feel just is not? (the deal with lyke in ep 47 would be an outlier to me. it ruled though. love that for him.) so basically i dont know what would have to happen to get to a point of leap dying. things would have to be REALLY bad, right?

the other option i guess is leap filling the drive clock and retiring and ill feel kind of silly for thinking about this so much if that was the case, BUT i truly dont think that that will happen. like partizan as a season is so. the vibes are DIRE the stakes are HIGH

HE WAS FINE

[nopefer-art-tu]

im reading a book rn abt rural USAmerican men who ID as straight but have sex w other men, and like. in retrospect we criticize heath and jake for saying in a few different interviews that they believed ennis and jack were "straight guys who happened to fall in love w a man", but this book is kind of making me think that they had a point in a weird, twisted, unintentionally accurate(?) way 🤔

basically, the book sheds light on the idea that sexuality labels like "heterosexual" "homosexual" "bisexual" etc. are all social creations that have little basis in biology, and because of that, the US has a large percentage of men who identify as straight yet have had sex with other men.

there are many reasons why they identify as straight even tho many of them form homoromantic social relationships w the men theyre sexually involved w, but some specific ones the book identifies are the fact that for many of these men, embracing an lgbtq identity is incongruent with their concept of masculinity for themselves and others. so even tho some of these men who have sex with other men report feeling little attraction towards women, they still feel more inclined to identify as "straight" or "heterosexual" bc theyre masculine guys who like sports and other manly things, and their perception of the masculinity of gay or bi or queer men inherently goes against how manly they view themselves. basically, "im cant be gay because im into fishing and hiking and football, not fashion and musicals" type shit

after reading this in conjunction w the book that heath and jake were given to read before filming began, their comments that ennis and jack were "straight guys" kinda makes sense if you take into consideration the fact that jack and ennis just. did NOT have the language to describe their experiences, as many rural gay men described not knowing what being gay was outside of the whole "queer men are pansy predators" thing

furthermore, even if they did have the vocabulary to say that they were basically exclusively attracted to men, the fact that the social contexts they were raised in were so violently homophobic means they never would have felt easy embracing a homosexual identity label

and yeah yeah the whole argument for what their sexualities are at all is up in the air yadda yadda, but bc annie proulx got the idea for the short story by questioning what life would be like SPECIFICALLY for a gay man growing up in the rural northwestern US, I personally think that ennis and jack are both basically only attracted to men. they just deny this fact to themselves, both to varying degrees, because they can't feel like the normal, masculine cowboys they wanna be if they admit that they A. aren't really attracted to women and B. want to be with another man.

in conclusion, the social psychology of sexuality and gender identities are wild, and jack and ennis are gay straight men. its all truly fascinating stuff

[meruz]

some weirdly specific artist game questions im answering while eating dinner. im gonna use my truly abysmal surface pen so theyre gonna be jittery af.

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in I feel like I don’t lose interest in projects so much as I run out of time to do them nowadays. I had a bunch of ideas for a shortbox comics fair project and then got too busy to execute and meet the deadlines. same with some zines... I still want to do them!! Idk when though. I guess when I was a kid I used to be interested in more ambitious original writing, long form fantasy type stuff. I think if you really dig through my archives you can probably find ocs from ideas like that but I don’t have a lot of interest in pursuing stories like that anymore because... idk even writing short things is tough for me.

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

I think this is mostly because ive been “finishing” art less lately? or like... making less small things and more singular big/complex illustrations? idk. it’s tough, I want to post more because I like posting art on the internet. I grew up watching other people post art on the internet and wanting to do the same. there’s a lot of artists who don’t like it but its fun to me. unfortunately this whole year has kind of been like a non-posting year tho.

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

25.  Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by Uhhhh this is tough idk. I think I’ve gotten like...ava’s demon before?

Which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me looking at the style alone but does like...make sense in the way that I think I share similar cultural inspirations with that comic like...being online in the mid 2000s...deviantart digital art type stuff. So even if there isn’t any direct inspiration there’s some shared dna probably.   I think I’ve hard art compared to transistor (the supergiant game) too and I think its like. a similar story there. Heck, If i drew more sexy characters my inking tendencies would probably get my art compared to hades just with how big that art style is culturally rn.too bad i only draw dumb looking kids.

I’ve never played a supergiant game. they look very nice and I rly respect them as a company but they’ve yet to make smth that’s really up my alley.

(unrelated but tumblr user wellnoe I’m a huge fan of ur art you have one of the biggest brains in xmen fanart imo...!! thanks for sending in an ask LOL ;-;;;)

[tojisun]

Hiiii! I was the flower anon! I ADORE YOUR WORKKKKK and it inspired me so much to start writing and it helped me fall in love with narrative writing again. I hope your semester ends well and I want you to know your writing is top tier. Like I praise even the small crumbs you give when you’re busy or stressed like it is just ugh. 👩🏻‍🍳💋. Your COD (Soap and Simon especially) have me literally KNAWING and shaking the bars of my enclosure. I love how you can transition such modern characters into a completely different setting and their personality still feels authentic like WOW. I hope you have a great week and happy holidays!! 💐💐

omg hi my beloved!! im so sorry for the late rep :((

im so so touched to hear (see? read?) that!! i understand the feeling of falling in love w creative writing again so im super happy to see that youre back in it <33

thank you so much for your well wishes teehee!! this sem was smthn else for sure (declaring a minor so late in this game might be a mistake…) so im truly happy for this bc manifesting that i do well 😭

and awww thank u so so much for these sweet words 🥹 writing for cod (and even avatar tbh) was so frightening bc theyre soooo like rounded? n complex? like, im used to writing for anime characters – it’s a whole lot easier making up scenarios for them because, specifically in my case, toji isnt featured much!! we were living off of crumbs and i was licking up the whole plate or smthn!! so when i entered these new fandom spaces, i was daunted but oh my luv, the community was so welcoming and warm and kind. anyways im spiralling but basically thank you so much. u guys genuinely make writing so much fun and worth it bc as much as i luv writing for myself, i luv making u guys happy too <33

i hope that my other works will also be good!!! (and forgive me for the messy control i have w my series like.. dadbad simon just spurred outta nowhere n now i have drafts for him its insane) teehee i luv u sm and happy holidays too!!!

warm hugs and smooches to u my starlight

[exmeowstic]

hii bastion !! can i pls ask to learn more abt ur ship with graha ? :o is ur insert the wol, or some other role in ffxiv, what were ur first impressions of each other and how/when did they shift into smth more? (u dont have to answer all of these, im just shooting questions out !) id love to learn more!! (@dmclr)

HIHII I HOPE YOUVE BEEN WELL <33 ive been dead from work but i finally managed to type out words from my brain. readmore bc its more than i expected and im embawassed a bit 👉👈 (also obligatory warning for spoilers thru endwalker)

SO. MY WOL AND GRAHA. truthfully,, there is still a lot of thinking to be done in terms of my s/i bastion and how things play out for him/how he fits into the story/how he acts and thinks and feels about things! esp as i approach the end of endwalker, it seems like dawntrail mighttt give me a bit more breathing room to actually think abt stuff

i do have him as the wol, i just feel like theres a lot i kinda missed out on/would like to review bc i Tunnel Vision Focused on msq to the exclusion of almost all else lol (and it doesnt help that my progression thru msq had been Very on and off until now bc i would put the game down for months due to social anxiety. frankly anytjing before like. mid stormblood is a biiiit of a blur)

though its extremely funny because i think during the crystal tower questline first meeting graha he did not make. a Particularly Big Impression on me. i was just like "oh cool another friend!" and then moved on once that was wrapped up and he kind of stayed in that default area of "nice new friend" that 99% of people fall into for bastion for a while..

AND THEN SHADOWBRINGERS HAPPENED. (admittedly i did go in pre-spoiled on the exarchs identity long before i even properly got into the game period, but just Knowing the thing and playing through it all myself are two Completely Different Feelings imo and everything about the reveal and the expansion just wrecked me it was so goodddd!!!) this is where i became crazy in the head about graha and started truly thinking abt him and bastions relationship specifically...

mm like i said i am still very much thinking about/putting pieces in place regarding bastions feelings and relationships with various characters and things, but as of endwalker things are in a weird spot with him and graha :3 specifially in the way of like... bastion is having a hard enough time just trying to come to terms with the fact that he has any sort of feelings for graha (or anyone, really) in the first place.

with the amount of things that happen to/around/because of him, he kind of blames anything happening to anyone around him on the fact That he is around, and is. overly worried with the idea that the people he cares about may get hurt because they get caught up in the mess that is His Entire Life. as much as he wants to spend more time with graha and just go on adventures with him and Not Worry, it all sits very heavily in the back of his mind.

that being said, while theyre definitely still dancing around the finer points of their feelings through endwalker, bastion and graha are undeniably close. there is no way bastion could see that an old friend waited and hoped and worked for an entire century for the sake of him and his future and Not try to match that dedication. bastion wouldnt say hes in love if you asked him, but he would say hes determined to do everything in his power to fulfill his promise to graha, to stay by his side through adventure after adventure and see the world as soon as theyre able.

on grahas side it probably seems like hes had. a Lot more time to think about things, but in truth i think hes still very much putting together the pieces. between all but abandoning who he was for a hundred years to take on the role of exarch, and then getting his soul and everything merged into his old body in the source and having to process all that, especially when he was so sure he was gonna sacrifice himself during shb and wasnt really planning on surviving up until now its. it makes me ill to think abt everything hes been through. so for sure he is also still working through his feelings. even if theyre both in a weird uncertain position about it as of right now, they both know for certain that they would like to stay by each others side.. we will have to see where dawntrail takes them ^_^

tldr lotta stuff is happening right now for the both of them so my wol and graha are not 100% a thing yet. though i can certainly think about them kising catboy yaoi style <3

bonus Image Of Them if you read this far i thank you for your time <333