#cant control and he feels horrible but he still feels it

[bonestrouslingbones]

human designs are genuinely so much fun because i get to actually REALLY stretch my character design muscles and play around with different facial features and body types and such, as i have discussed a million times and probably will discuss a million more

however. it is also often devastating. because i am constantly being forced to confront the fact that the characters who suck the most and deserve it the absolute least WILL without fail be the most fitted to the exact designs that are so extremely obviously My Type that there are a couple that i can’t show to my friends without them giving me a look

[fixated-cookies]

im kinda thinkin about.... hypnosis and smilk.... smth abt the process specifically of taking over and invading your mind.. slowly giving into it even if youre resisting the effects its having on your mind, its inevitable that he'll win and you'll succumb to his control and influence over you... your mind may be foggy, but it's so perfectly empty and moldable now... what were you doing again? do you even care?

smth about being unable to look away from his eyes once he starts it; even if you look away, something will draw you back, and it gets stronger as it goes on... at first, you can physically turn away (though you'll get dragged back by some invisible force), but eventually you cant even rip your heard away from his gaze. smth about it being unable to be stopped by anyone other than himself once he starts it... no matter how far from you he is (as long as he's well... in sightline)

honestly you can like. think abt this in any context you want . i just.... really like the concept of hypnosis with him..... its captivating to me (hah) .... sorry for the essay in your inbox damn

Anon the reason why this was rotting in my askbox for so long was because I needed to give it justice hahaha, hypnosis is totally in character for someone like shadow milk cookie, and I love it.

WARNING- slight yandere, hypnosis

Hmm, I'm wondering how it would start, he would obviously make it a game, maybe a game of truth or dare, hm? Just a little bit of lollygagging to get rid of his boredom.

So, when he asked— “Truth or Dare?”—

You made the horrible mistake of choosing dare.

His grin widened, all teeth.“Ohhh, you’re feeling bold tonight! How delightful! Now, let’s see…” He tapped a finger against his chin, pretending to think. You should have been nervous. You should have backed out. But you didn’t.

I dare you… to look into my eyes and not look away.”

Simple, right?

You almost laughed. Thats its? Thats all?

"Ah-ah, don’t look so relieved~! There’s a catch, of course. You must hold my gaze until I say you can look away. Break eye contact, and you lose."

You scoffed. What was he playing at? You weren’t afraid of a staring contest. Getting into position you held yourself steady as he looked overly excited.

For a while, it felt like a normal challenge. You stared, he stared, and time stretched between you both. But then… something changed. The air felt thicker. Your body heavier. You blinked once. It felt like it took longer than it should have to open your eyes again. You swallowed. Something felt off.

Your limbs felt distant like you weren’t quite inside your body anymore. You tried to look away—But your head wouldn’t move. "I...I-" "Tsk, tsk… You’re not trying to look away, are you? Ohh, but I can see that dazed look in your eyes already… how precious!" He started to scoot closer. Not fast. Not abrupt. No, he took his time, savoring the way your body twitched ever so slightly. How your breath caught, your fingers tightening into trembling fists against the floor. Your head refused to move. Your body felt so distant, like a marionette with cut strings, a doll that could only watch as its puppeteer inched nearer.

Your vision wavered, the edges blurring as if reality itself was losing focus. His eyes were all you could see. How could this happen? you were so sure he didn't have...any malicious...intent—huh...? What was going on...?—No, you hadn’t! You had to resist, you had to—"Mmm, that’s a good look on you… so unfocused, so lost…" He suddenly interrupted your thoughts.

You blinked, but the action felt slow, heavy, like your body was moving through water. You knew—somewhere, deep down—that this was wrong. That you should snap out of it. But… that was so difficult. Thinking was… so hard. Your lips parted, but no words came out. Only a quiet, dazed sigh.

Shadow Milk Cookie smiled, only for it to falter as your eyesight ripped away from him violently, a frustrated groan escaping you as you squeezed your eyes shut out of defiance. "Oh? You still have some fight left in you?" His voice slithered through the air, a mocking lilt woven into his amusement. How predictable. How pathetic. Impossibly close now, his presence, looming, suffocating—but when his hands cupped your cheeks, you knew there was no escape. His palms were cool, but his grip was unyielding.

"Really now, I thought you were smarter than this." His thumbs trailed lower, brushing over your lips with featherlight strokes. "Oh, my dear, sweet fool…" His voice dipped into a breathy murmur, mismatched eyes drinking in every flicker of your resolve. "...I wonder... how long will that last?"

His grip on your cheeks tightened—just enough for his thumbs to press against your skin, coaxing you, urging you—until your lashes fluttered. A sliver of light slipped through.

And the moment your gaze met his—

The air in your lungs vanished. And oh, how he grinned.

"Mmm… there it is."

His voice was nothing but a purr, smooth and saccharine as he drank in your struggle. His grip softened, shifting to cradle your face so delicately—as if he hadn’t just crushed your resistance in the palm of his hand.

"Much easier when you don’t fight, isn’t it?"

His thumbs stroked your cheeks, his tone mocking, indulgent—but there was something darker beneath it. "Go on, little puppet…" His breath ghosted over your lips as his mismatched eyes pulled you deeper, deeper, deeper. "Be good for me, yeah?" He murmurs lowly Before you could even process it, his lips were on yours—slow, deliberate, consuming. A kiss meant to unravel, to claim. His fingers pressed gently into your skin, holding you there, grounding you— or perhaps, chaining you.

And when he finally pulled away, he didn’t need to command you to look at him this time.

Because you already were.

A single finger tapped lightly against your forehead as if to mock the emptiness settling in. His victory.

"See? Much better when you don’t think."

--

you guys, rate my hypnosis writing I need it!! These ideas are just sooo juicy.

[jimmyscanongf]

what are your headcanons for jimmy having an obsessive crush on the (preferably fem) reader (but not necessarily being a yandere about it)? do you think he would tell curly about it? i kinda wonder how jimmy would behave if he had the feelings of envy and admiration he does for curly but for a woman

hmmm jimmy obsessive crush, envy and admiration? horribly long rambling thoughts below 👇

i think you’d fall victim to the other end of dehumanization: youre Not Like Other Girls. total manic pixie dream girl. youre on a pedestal so high that if you deviate from his image of you even a little, only pain awaits you below.

it’s less about your eyecatching style and more about your attitude. (though having a unique look about you certainly helps to catch his attention). i think that if you were like curly; high achieving, successful and attractive with little (to jimmy’s eyes anyways) effort, his envy would probably just mix with hatred. what the fuck does he need another goody two shoes picture perfect reflection of his own deep and terrible inadequacy in his life for anyways? and this one’s a fucking girl, to add insult to injury!

but say you were a little more like him, shitty childhood, rough start to life, downtrodden, broke, not overly successful, life comes harder to you than most others, maybe not the most attractive (i mean i think hes shallow enough that you would still have to be somewhat good looking), or even attractive but with an otherwise offputting aspect to you (maybe like, the Autism Look, or some alternative style that doesn’t try overly hard to remain conventionally attractive), cant really find love. and all that with like, a genuine intelligence, a genuine potential, still working towards a good life for yourself against all the odds, he might find himself attracted to you.

the thing that would make him envy you would be your attitude, your outlook on your situation. because say all the above about you were true, sure, he can relate to that, but if you had an easygoing attitude about it? not stressed about your status, not pressured to be more than what you are, not scrambling and striving to prove you’re worth something, just rolling with shit as it comes, stand up and dust yourself off when you fall, enjoy the good things in security when they come. not grasping desperately for every little bit of control that comes your way. yeah hes envious. here he is, beat down by life, mired in his own self loathing and feelings of powerlessness so deep he can barely see it himself, so deep that he hurts and steps on every single person around him trying to claw his way out, and you breeze through every awful thing life throws at you, a little scratched and bruised, but you continue merrily on, trying again and again. he wants what you have. he wants your fucking secret. how, HOW do you do it?! (and remember how unreliable he is as a narrator, so whether you’re actually so unaffected underneath his perception is another thing 🤔)

what would make him obsess over you is your understanding nature. if you were kind to him. say he says something scathing and hurtful on impulse due to his own insecurity, you don’t necessarily have to be a pushover about it, but if he sees the words roll off of you… and the next day you come back again. here he is, a complete dickhead, weird and unpleasant to be around, and you reaching out anyways cause, hey, you know everyone has a reason for the way they are, nobody is born an asshole, everyone has triggers and limits, everyone wants connection deep down, and everyone has the capacity for kindness. this outlook will kind of, stun and confuse him. cause girls usually tell him to go fuck himself when he acts like a piece of shit. i really think he might soften up a bit, we only see him in his absolute worst moments but he can’t be that awful to be around 100% of the time, there has to be something, like a sense of humour, maybe he’ll help you out with something (if he thinks he’ll get the same in return at some point) maybe he knows your likes and interests cause it makes it easier to get what he wants from people.

what would really seal the deal is if you were able to see and strike deep into the heart of his insecurity, and try to soothe him. opening up, with vulnerability, about your struggles. laying out some genuine commonality between the two of you and then telling him, with the utmost sincerity, that he doesn’t have to be defined by his past. that he’s valuable for the simple fact that he exists. that he doesn’t have to fight to prove himself, that he is already worthy.

and oooh jimmy is a man who is incapable of believing that any of those things can come from inside, that they are inherent to him. (he literally actually consumes a part of curly to try and subsume curly’s good traits into him.) you made him feel worthy and now he needs you, needs to have you, needs to consume you and make you a part of his life, a part of him! because he cannot possibly be valuable and worthy without you there to believe it. its just not possible. for all he tries to be otherwise, he’s a deep dark void inside and he knows it, so he needs you to fill him up with your goodness.

and you guys are like, just friends at this point right? but now he thinks about you all the fucking time and his eyes are always on you and he’s daydreaming about stupid sappy shit like you holding his hand, pushing you up against the wall and kissing you, he’s seen you smile at him but now he thinks about you smiling at him and it makes his heart palpitate. he barely even thinks about you sexually because you’re so pure to him, you’re his madonna, not a whore. but yeah. he’s watching you constantly, taking notes, plotting, scheming to make you his. cause he knows he can’t just swoop in and demand it, or even force it, he knows that’s a burnt bridge waiting to happen. he wants to make you want him. he wants to really seal the deal, and he feels like he really, genuinely has a chance. he just has to manipulate you juuuuust right.

i’m not sure if he would tell curly. because on one hand, curly is way more charismatic and better at romance and picking girls up than he is, so i can see him coming to curly for advice. hey man, help me out here, how do i win this chick over? on the other hand, he feels really weak for you, he doesn’t just want a fling to fuck or eye candy to hang off his arm, he wants you to fill him up because hes so fucking empty, and the last thing he wants is for curly to think he’s weak like that. and on the other other hand, he wants to keep you and curly far far apart because like, you’re just like Jimmy except better in every conceivable way and he’s paranoid curly might realize how hopeless he is, then steal you and drop him.

once he starts wanting you the change is noticeable to you and to curly, and everyone else around him. he’s suddenly nicer and more pleasant? he just seems to be in a better mood all around. he smiles more, its kinda nice. he jokes around. he’s more thoughtful about your wants, kind of pathetically fumbles his way through trying to meet your needs but hey, he never even tried before so that’s a win right? he cleans up a little bit. goes less time between hair washes, shaves more, picks up some drugstore cologne. fresh fit. he splurges money he doesn’t really have trying to attract your attention. he still can be a dickhead but now you can see him trying to proactively make it right (he looks absolutely pained and strained doing so) (also he does this for you and you exclusively). hes trying so goddamn fucking hard to act like the kind of person he thinks you’ll want to love. he’s giving you compliments that have you taken aback, giving you encouragement, giving you little gifts. hey i thought you’d like this. he looks away while giving them to you. is he blushing???

eventually he might even ask you out. but what happens next is up to you. you don’t know this, but if you reject him, you’re in for a hellish ride. because he’s not giving up on getting you, and NOW hes gonna be a yandere about it.

[twistedwonderlandimaginesblog]

Hiii can i request jamil, idia, riddle and leona have to fight with their s/o that been brainwashed (like a gas that brainswash ppl in a gas mask yk srry i cant explain things ;-;) by unknown enemy so they have to fight each other

Idia Shroud:

Horrible situation. Idia hated this trope. That’s not entirely true, watching the MC feel conflicted about fighting their love interest actually added a bit of interest into a story, but reality wasn’t the same. Idia didn’t feel anything ‘fun’ about this situation. Ortho was ready to take you down in an instant but Idia had stopped him, worried about him going overboard and potentially hurting you more than he needed to. He had already started to formulate a plan to overcome the brainwashing to at least subdue you, the only issue is mustering the courage to potentially hurt you himself during the process.

Idia has to tell you about how annoying that situation was after. He started ranting about games that just fell back on popular tropes for the sake of torturing their characters but eventually sighed, saying he had enough for an evening. He didn’t want to leave your side as much as he did want to disappear back into his room, wondering if there was a way to have you just stay in his room with him while you recovered.

Jamil Viper:

Jamil is tired of his bad luck, tired of the only things that brought him joy being taken away from him and then thrown back in his face like it was no big deal. His surprise is clear and for a moment he does think he’s pushed you away too much, that you truly were sick of dealing with someone who would never be able to go after what he wanted. It’s your choice of using magic against him rather than your words (which would cut deeper than any physical wound to him) that showed him there was something more going on, with you being a puppet on strings for some other being. He wondered if his unique magic might steal you away from them but it would be a shot in the dark, since you were aware of his ability (while the ‘you’ in this brainwashed state might not be).

Jamil is frazzled but relieved the situation is over. Looking out for both you AND Kalim was an exhausting feat, and he didn’t know why he added to his never-ending workload. He’s glad you’re back to your normal self, which still seemed to regard him in a positive light, allowing him to push down his worries for the future of your relationship a little bit longer.

Leona Kingscholar:

There’s no one who knew your weaknesses better than Leona but he couldn’t assume this would be a walk in the park. He didn’t intend to hurt you but he’d do what he had to for the sake of this situation ending sooner rather than later. Apologies could always be given after but there’s only so much he could take, seeing you like this, invisible strings attached to your limbs as you’re forced to turn against him. If he had been quicker he would’ve saved you from the invasive feeling of having your body controlled while your consciousness is present, and he forced himself to focus on the task at hand rather than the hell you might be living in as it would only make him angrier.  

Leona didn’t want to talk about it when you were back tomorrow. He hit you with an ‘it is what it is’ and moved on to your wounds, minor as they were there was still some scrapes you couldn’t get away from. You didn’t blame him and he didn’t blame himself, but he’s still not happy about having you turned against him. You were his, after all, and losing your loyalty even temporarily dealt a blow to his ego that he was desperate to keep hidden.

Riddle Rosehearts:

Riddle is alarmed at how quickly the situation escalated, flinching when his words don’t seem to be reaching you. He’s not used to being on the other side of you in a fight, even if you were to practice magic with him it was never with ill intent. He finds himself fighting against being distracted, trying to think of you as a simple misbehaving student who needed to be collared. His unique magic did make it a little easier to wrangle you in but he’s wracked with guilt cutting you off from your magic when it’s not really your own actions that caused you to be punished.

Riddle is wary about talking with you after, until he knows the brainwashing is gone and you’re back to normal. He shuffled around the actual topic he wanted to bring up which was incredibly unlike him, a fact you pointed out before telling him in the kindest words possible to spit it out. He admitted seeing you brainwashed was disconcerted, and that he’d rather never see you as an enemy again. He knew it wasn’t your choice but he’d prefer you stick close to him in the future, just so he could stop the problem before it even began.

[toast-on-dandelioms]

I have an ask about Spider reader, what if they bonded with a symbiote like Venom ? Exept they bonded to the point its impossible to separate them without killing them both? Venom is still partially separate from reader mostly working and talking with them or taking control when reader cant. Venom knows everthing about them since there i readers head.

Ok that's a great question!

I think at first Spider would be tired of Venom and try everything to get rid of him before getting used to a companion that doesn't have to be kept in the dark about their vigilante job and also their family problems.

They wouldn't tell anyone, but Alfred would obviously find out and just make sure they're ok before making his plan faster of getting the family to notice them.

If we take in consideration the original timeline that I am following at the moment, Superman would probably be the first person you would tell after months of knowing him and trusting him enough.

But when the Batfam will find out? Well I'm gonna make an example for how they would find out. (And also a small spoiler for the next part)

Ok so Spider is 'working' with Superman sometimes since Gotham's streets are relatively safe and they decide to follow Superman to a mission where they thought they were gonna work alone with Superman again and instead find Batman and Damian waiting for you two.

The mission consists of defeating a rising villain that is making weapons for big villains around the world, and while in the evil lair after defeating the villain, Batman almosts get stabbed by a machine set off by Superman.

But Spider decides to help him and saves him, getting stabbed in the process and making Venom heal them slowly and not immediately since they didn't want Batman to ask questions.

But Spider is still bleeding with a grave wound, which sends everyone in a panic.

So Batman sends Superman with you to the Batcave to get healed while Batman and Damian will make sure the villain will get what he deserves for hurting Spider. (Since Batfam is already a bit yandere for Spider but do not know their real identity)

At the Batcave Spider gets treated a bit after managing to give them some sedatives to make them calm down, which makes Venom come out to defend Spider.

And Alfred decides to make the drastic decision to reveal who Spider is, tired of seeing the Batfam treating them horribly while almost idolising and loving Spider which is the same person.

And Venom insults them with telling everything Spider thinks of them, all the pain, injuries and thoughts they had to make the Batfam feel even worse and Superman more of a yandere than he already was.

So the Batfam becomes even more, not sure the right terminology, yandere for Spider and wants to make it right, promising Venom to make it right and wanting to give Spider all the love they couldn't receive the first years in the Manor.

Venom, sadly, gets manipulated by everyone and promises to not say anything to Spider and helping them a bit since Venom also wants the best for Spider.

The story would continue with Spider getting imprisoned in the Manor, with their powers weak thanks to Venom, making them desperate and also weirded out by the sudden attention of everyone.

And after a while, with everyone manipulating them and suffocating them with their love will eventually lead to Stockholm Syndrome.

And that's the end of it! I will probably reblog it if I find anything wrong that I didn't notice! Thanks for the ask!

For the divider you can go to @saradika-graphics, she does this and takes requests!

[queenrizzardnthelizardscissored]

now that the veilguard dust has settled im kinda just left feeling a bit... sad. like idk how to explain it. its like all the love i had for this series and the world was kinda shattered by it. like. i can either view it as a mid fantasy game on its own, or some kinda dragon-age-themed themepark ride, or i can make it canon and this is really what everything was building up to.

it just feels like everything i loved abt the series was sanitized and removed, and i cant even really get angry abt it bc it feels so sterile. like the thing about mages and how apparently they just are normal people now. as someone who struggles w/ mental health, including issues that make me hyperfocus and make a lot of stuff, or make me compulsive about weird random things, and then make me lethargic or annoying to everyone else, the way that mages worked in these games was so. idk. brutal but also relatable. it didnt feel like they sugarcoated the mental health issues, but it also didnt feel like they dehumanized these characters. they're all so human and we can see that they dont deserve agony or suffering or to have their minds destroyed and live w/o emotion (this in particular was affecting to me given my journey w/ psychiatric medication) but also that they need support networks, they need people to help them and hold them up and also say no sometimes and keep them from being their worst selves. but the core horror of that, of these people marginalized everywhere which just worsens their mental health issues, of these people tormented all the time by dreams they cannot control who have just accepted it, that there's nothing they can do to get better, of these people whose greatest strength is also their weakness, the core horror is just gone from DAV. it doesnt even care about it.

it also doesnt care about the injustice of the world. the thing that is so poignant about these games is that the world is not simple and that there is never a big bad. the 'big bads' that exist are there not as conventional villains you're meant to hate (nobody thought the darkspawn was a compelling villain, nor, really, demons? DA2 doesn't have a villain, really, just a bunch of sad people pushed to their limits who do horrible, horrible things bc they believe it's right), but as things that disrupt society, confront existing systems and exploit their weaknesses and demand change, or everyone will be annihilated. but in DAV, these societal weaknesses either aren't there or are distilled down to one or two bad guys from whom the whole 'evil' descends. it has villains that are gods that were worshipped for so long, and now turn out to be kinda insane and evil. this is, in my opinion, NOT the direction dragon age should go (i wish that DAI hadn't done the Solas thing, the veil should've remained intact and we should focus more on politics, on how the world rebuilds after the mage-templar war, what the qunari are doing, on small scale people's lives), but. it is what was done, and there's still a lot of potential there. Solas is a great character in DAI even if I think they should've gone in another direction. he challenges the worldviews of literally every character. so does the existence of these gods.

but the thing is that they end up not challenging anyone. the venatori, who, reminder, are human supremacist nationalists that hate the elvhen people and are extremely revanchist, side instantly with the gods the elvhen worshipped, for seemingly no reason, other than that they're Both Evil. The elvhen instantly recognize the gods are Evil and side against them. Solas is now One Guy rather than a thing that tests the boundaries of society. I'm not sure if this was because the game is rushed, or, and this is more what i suspect, the devs didnt want the players to have to confront the obvious and extremely difficult choice of potentially siding with the slavers and racists for what is, in universe, the 'greater good', even though that would be a fucking fascinating place for the game to go, especially if your Rook was elvhen. rather than examining these hate groups, or the structure of a society that builds itself on hatred and systemic injustice, the game just goes the easy route by turning their evil from something real and thus frightning due to the fact it exists in real life, can be seen in flags and posters on the roadside if you're in some parts of America, to some absolute unimpeachable evil that cannot be analyzed nor reasoned with. Imagine if they, for instance, explored Tevinter politics. a super crude version of this, which sucks and i have put little thought into, is to examine the way in which fascism and slavery upholds the social order. by positioning the elvhen below even human slaves and non mages, there's always someone lower for them to target and jeer at, and so they ignore the fact that they themselves are being fucked over by both the overarching structures at play and the people perpetrating them. instead, the game did none of these things, and did not even make the canon slavers in the canon slave country, (whose buisness of slave-trading and capture is tacitly accepted by rulers of Southern countries because even there, the elvhen are seen as second class), OWN SLAVES. We see none of this, none of the broad-scale social evils of inequality or the horrors of slavery and systemic racism, and so beyond avoiding the difficulty of having the player maybe have to temporarily side with and/or attempt to end slavery and the systems in it, *even when it affects their own people*, we just remove it all together. the relatable, realistic, *banal* evils are replaced with cackling villain laughter and dramatic designs.

the fact that we've torn apart and destroyed actual evil for the sake of replacing it with a caricature necessarily means the characters are less complex, which is fucking sad because there's so much genius on display with these character concepts. Harding's journey in particular could've been great, with her anger at the way her people have been fucked over present and past, and her either controlling it or embracing it. If you wanted to tie it back to the main story (which companion quests always sort of should thematically), you could have her realizing that the elvhen were just as fucked over by the evanuris as she and her people. Taash's quest about discovering their gender and the way that things are lost in cultural translation could've been great, if it leveraged the way the qunari work. the qunari have a very different system of gender than humans or elvhen or dwarves, though, importantly, just as restrictive. their journey could've dealt with actually integrating and synthesizing these cultures, and with breaking down both models of gender and how they fail to account for and capture the actual lived experienced of people, instead imposing a false dichotomy on them. In human countries, gender shapes work, in the qunari, work shapes one's gender. How could these equally repressive things be integrated or dealt with? Think about how cool this would've been to do ! there's so much cultural worldbuilding potential as well as the actual journey of these characters. but instead, we import a phrase from the real world that is characteristic of our present moment. historical cultures have had all sorts of different understandings of gender than our current system, not necessarily more or less restrictive (well, more restrictive if we consider the recent past in the West) but different. the identity of nonbinary is meaningfully different from that of "similar" positions in other cultures. in fact, dragon age already kind of already began to deal with this, albeit in a very-2014 way. It's just so dissapointing from both a queer perspective and a worldbuilding perspective. every quest is like this, a genius little kernel of an idea that instead of being expanded on and reshaped through the lens of the world we're in, is destroyed and made into the simplest, worst version of itself.

while we're at it, let's talk about souls. it's one thing that the enavuris exist. fine. i don't think that they needed to do that, but there were a lot of cool things that could be done with it, and i get why they made that decision, even if they didn't expand on it. but the whole thing about the enavuris is that they ARENT GODS! there are no confirmed gods in Dragon Age, and no confirmed afterlife. Remember Justinia in Inquisition and how it was a spirit that copied the imprint of her mind and personality on the fade? remember the same thing with Cole? Remember how Leilana can die and come back as a spirit that really, genuinely believes it is Leilana, but is, by the most physical of definition, 'not'? (insert metaphysics and debates about consciousness here).

The reason the fade and spirits are so damn good is because they are not as simple as an afterlife. what they are, as is clearly communicated, are impressions of reality and information. to put it another way, the fade reflects the perceptions and shapes and information about reality. the spirits that exist are not 100% truthful, and not because they're lying, but because their very existence is shaped by others beliefs. information gleaned from the fade is not 100% reliable, because how the fade looks and what happens in it can be manipulated not just by demons but by belief. There's a great bit with Solas from early in Inquisition where he talks about a battlefield that changes shape, changes events, based on whether the spirit he's talking to is closer to the losing or winning side. How damn great is that? the spirits aren't literal ghosts, but OUR CULTURAL MEMORY. the way they exist is so damn good, the way they carry on cultural traumas and beliefs. While we're at it, think about how this ties in to mages, who are tormented by spirits. They are literally tormented by cultural trauma and pain that persists even after the original victims and original perpetrators are long gone. God that's so great. What dying does is unclear, just like real life. What persists after death is your 'legacy,' warped by what other people thing of you. this ambiguity is great because whether or not an afterlife exists is unclear, but also, the 'soul' supposedly passes through the fade before dying. This system of magic, where spirits are not malevolent nor kind nor truthful, but formed by density of information and strong belief and cultural memory, is very unique. The closest thing to it is the spheres in the Witcher, and even that's different. In veilguard, souls exist and they are literally echoes of people and are 100% accurate.

The themes of Dragon Age, up to DAV, have been about cultural memory, about how beliefs impact actions impact beliefs, about (to borrow a really good comment on an early post) the truth of what religion makes us do rather than the 'truth' of what religion is. Think of how this magic system of spirits that are influenced by belief and cultural memory and raw strength of emotion that persists and impacts others even when the original person to feel those emotions is dead ties in to these themes. It's so beautiful, genuinely, even if the game does not explicitly explore it. Now think about how this all is lost when we make it so that souls explicitly exist and can be reserructed and spoken to.

Even aside from the broader themes, think about the potential that was there for the Mortalitasi. Rather than just being straightforward necromancers, if we applied old Dragon Age rules, the spirits they would summon from the corpses of people were not actually those people, but what their living relatives think of those people. How brutal and awesome and sad is that? That there is no true way to speak to the dead, only to speak to your conception of the dead. It's so beautiful, and sad, and honestly hurts my chest a bit to think about. Not only is that gone, but the concept it made way for - the existence of liches - falls way short and is in fact made actively worse by this change. So, liches are souls of mages possessing/controlling their own corpses, if I understand it right. Imagine if the 'souls' were not truly the original person, but a spriit imitating them. Not only does this make the whole thing bittersweet - it means that a person is sacrificing their life to cement a sort of constant legacy, because they are too afraid of dying without an impact of the world - but it means that a person who becomes a lich is taking this risk. Imagine if everyone hates that person, and so the new spirit that is now 'them' is an asshole. They have become, literally, the person everyone thinks they are. That's such a poignant and genius idea that is stripped away for, what? Literally just generic fantasy DND liches? It's. just. the loss is so sad. Especially since the theme of the character who has the option to turn into a lich is that of fear of death. What better way to show that fear of death ruins the way they LIVE than by making the new person not literally be them? By exchanging their life and happiness therein for a legacy? It's so beautiful and yet. gone.

the game, despite being on its own a really pretty but ultimately mediocre action RPG, feels like such an overwhelming loss because it not only destroys the world in which it is meant to be set but also because it seems to ignore the potential inherent in its own story. I am not a dragon age writer, and thank god for that, because I suck at writing, but if I was, i would've made the game more small-scale and poltiical and focus on ideology and fear and radicalism and acceptance rather than gods. TO be clear - I'm not mad that they didn't do that alternate game. I'm sad that they did this different idea, about the gods coming back, and then didn't do it well or even commit to their own idea.

and beyond that is the fact that it wants so badly to simultaneously distance itself from the previous games while also calling back all the time. the issue is that that could never be done, because the game is, inextricably, a sequel to a 2014 game that ended with a clear setup for a sequel this game expands upon. The game brings back this character from the previous game as a main villain, but because it also wants so badly to distance itself from the previous games, it makes him flatter, unreactive to the decisions and contexts of the previous games. The Solas of DAV is like the Solas of DAI immediately after waking up. The game brings back Varric despite him being in two previous games, and then proceeds to make him NOT Varric for most of the game. It brings back a companion from DA2 only to have her dress up in the worst outfit ever and not reference anything or be changed by her experiences, and then she fucks off. It has a plot inextricably tied to religion, but barely mentions Andraste or the Maker once, even in conversation among a group of casual believers, even as an exclamation. At the same time, the game is set in a nation completely different to the one of previous games, but it doesn't actually exploit that for any purpose. Rather, it destroys everything from the previous games. It makes it so the South is torn asunder, and yet our characters don't seem to care. Everyone from the previous games is implied to be dead, Hawke, maybe Cassandra, the HoF, Sera, Fenris (which is not in this game because they realized that having him here would expose the fact this game has ignored slavery entirely), Merrill, Josephine, Blackwall, Vivienne, everyone. At the same time they bring back a character from DAI who should've known these people for years, and she somehow goes on camping trips while the 6th and 7th blight destroys her home and everyone she's ever known. The game does not want to actually interact with the previous media, or the worldbuidling therein, but at the same time it must somehow remind you it is, in fact, a dragon age game, and so it must bring back and puppet around these characters and ideas just to show you they exist.

It's just so sad, but also kind of inevitable, and any solution would be terrible, because this game comes out 10 years after the previous entry. If they made it a direct sequel, where you play as Inky again, which would be the most logical thing to do, new players wouldn't get it, because why the fuck would they? They'd have to play a whole other 10 y/o game just to start this one. If they had you play as a small-scale character doing a side-ish story that ties into the main plot, a la DA2, with an inquisitor that chooses what to do w/o your input based on DAI choices, which would've been my preferred option, since it meant your character could be new and interesting without feeling out of place, everyone would've rightfully been mad that all the big world ending stuff is happening to someone else (which I think would actually be really cool for a narrative, to feel so helpless, tossed about by the world while you struggle to survive, but I can also see why they didnt want to do that.) If they did a time-skip, say, to the next Age, and had Solas defeated offscreen, which I think would actually be the best as far as creating a new series with divergence while also maintaining the lore and theming w/o having to account for player choices, well, this I think would've been the best game of the lot, but everyone, including the writers, would've been fucking pissed to not see an end to their story, to just have them live their lives and defeat Solas off-screen. So in the end, they're left with a sort of weird hybrid, where we play as a new character but also it's a direct sequel but also we're the one doing world-changing events but also there's a time skip during which nothing happened somehow, but everyone is still around just older. Even if this was well-done, and had artistic integrity and no interference due to market decisions, this would be a very hard balance to strike. But that's not what was done. Instead, the game started as a single player campaign, then was redone to make an MMO, then a raid game, then co-op action, then live service, then back to single-player again, and then rushed to recoup costs. With that in mind, it's really not *awful*. And then, of course, there was the bullshit "wokeism!!111!" assholes, as if the first game didn't have both gay and lesbian relationships, the second didn't have the same, the third didn't have both of those and also a canon trans character. It's just sad that it ended like this, with everything, including, somehow, my retroactive enjoyment of the series, being destroyed. I know it's stupid to not like old things because of the new thing, but. idk. it's this weird involuntary reflex. Ah well. I loved this world and its characters so much and now it just kinda feels hollow. :(

[gayhenrycreel]

How To Train Your Dragon, and the trap of a bad faithful adaptation

spoilers for httyd, films and books

i hated httyd 3.

Toothless got reduced to a silly pet, Lightfury has a horrible design (i dare say misogynistic design, but other people have already discussed this), and Grimmel was so uninteresting that i legitimately forgot he was even in the movie a few weeks after watching.

the worst thing? its attempt at being a faithful adaptation.

unfortunately a lot of people don't know about the book series the films are based on. this is quite sad really because unlike the movies, the books increase in quality over time.

the end of the book series follows a sea dragons war on humanity, who have been enslaving dragons for centuries.

yeah so the books are about eugenics, slavery, and genocide.

the sea dragon, known as Furious, was the adoptive brother of Hiccup the Second 100 years ago. Hiccup II was murdered by his father when he found his birth family. its not too relevant to my point, but this father was the king of vikings.

now Furious is the king of dragons and is still angry about what Hiccup II's dad did.

my absolute favourite scene is Hiccup the Third, now a king, trying to stop the war by talking to Furious, hoping that he will understand that it was a singular person who killed Furious's brother, and humanity as a whole is able to improve. Furious cant bring himself to kill Hiccup, and sees his lost brother in him.

Furious has a bit of a freak out, saying its too late for the world to change, or possibly too soon. he concludes that its definitely not the right time.

this one line is why the ending is so good.

the dragons and humans cant coexist, because its the wrong time. just like Furious said, its not the time for coexistance.

the dragons go into hiding.

httyd 3, the film, tried to do this same ending, but absolutely butchered it because it didn't have a reason. it tries to justify it like "oh the vikings dont deserve dragons, so they all live in a cave now".

this completely misses the point.

in the books the dragons left because there was a mutual genocide happening.

in the films its because humans suddenly arent good enough now.

the whole point of the ending in the books is that its set in the past, and what was too soon back then is now the present.

so the whole book series has a message like this: "mistakes change the world. if you are a 'mistake' it means you stand out. this gives you the opportunity to help other 'mistakes'. it may feel like the world is not ready to accept mistakes (i.e, people who survived eugenics and saved the dragons no matter how much equality is viewed as a bad mistake), but now it is. those who are different can help the world accept difference. the time for equality is now".

the films ending is more like: "we are failures at creating equality and look what youve done the dragons (who are supposedly an allegory for various marginalized groups) have all left and the right thing to do was to outcast them all over again because you both have girlfriends now and Toothless cant possibly be a friend to humans while also apparently being in heat or something".

so... httyd 3 is a film about romantic relationships not only being incompatible with unrelated platonic relationships, but also so important that a marginalized demographic is unable to exist with another society because the king (who is literally just a regular guy with unexplained superpowers that ruin tension compared to literal mind controlling scaly mountains) has met a woman 5 minutes ago that he has barely any screen time with.

imagine how unhinged it would be if a real demographic cut off its ties to other cultures because a famous person got married.

this is extremely bizarre especially considering how the books had near zero romance (Hiccup has no love interest throughout the whole series and the focus is on love in general, particularly platonic and familial).

the weird addition of romance to the seperation plotline has no connection to the source material. the writers were just pulling this out their asses like 2017 tumblr arophobes.

the books do such a good job of showing that romantic love is a type of love, just like any other form of love. its there and its important, but its specifically important because it involves people caring about each other, which is also achieved through other forms of love.

its ironic because httyd 1 and 2 do this too. Astrid and Hiccup are important, yes, but Toothless and Hiccup are equally important.

why does the third film even exist? the answer is in Toothless or whatever they did to his character. hes silly but not respectful of Hiccup (he goddamn nearly electrocuted him to death and keeps trying to eat his prosthetic leg), hes clearly in heat or something and suddenly doesnt even give a fuck about the guy he has risked his life for multiple times (i guess hes in an alpha rut. you know how alphas get), and even visually there are signs.... of capitalism.

in the first film Toothless can be adorable. hes a panther, which of course is a cat. httyd 1 doesn't forget that a cat is still a predator, and Toothless can be terrifying.

by httyd 3 his eyes are bigger and closer to the front of his face. its kinda uncanny and is clearly to make him exclusively cute.

what happened to the big cuddly dragon that i was once told looks like hed eat other dragons?

hes no longer a character.

hes a marketing tool.

httyd 3 is a cashgrab. we can see it in Toothless becoming a sidekick. we can see it in the hideous weird beluga thing that is the result of normies trying to imagine a sexy dragon (come on guys, Cloudjumper is right there). we can certainly see it in, and i hate bringing this up, Dragons: The Nine Realms. that show need not exist, its literally just because its a popular franchise, which is actually quite funny because i only know about nine realms because of angry critics in my youtube feed screaming about it in videos that last over 2 hours.

if your spinoff is only known to critics who will gladly insult your show to death and superfans who by the looks of it are the same critics, there is a serious problem.

i knew something was wrong the instant i saw the characters dressed like ugly action figures. it only makes sense for Snotlout, he thinks he has perfect taste. this could have actually been funny if Snotlout was the only person dressed like a low budget furry and everyone was like "why the fuck are you dressed like that", but no, the people (children who will grow up to realise this film sucks ass and will despise it) want rpg video game movies that dont have rpg video games.

question for httyd 3. how did you get the idea to make the main cast furries? could you not hire an actual furry to design their fursuits? because fursuits are not typically that painful to look at and they certainly arent usually made of what appears to be plastic in a film set centuries ago which definitely has the resources to have textures other than plastic. ever heard of scalemail? it looks great in DnD art.

its almost like a dreamworks employee caught wind of the furry fandom but didn't actually look into it and in the process picked up something about horny dragons.

i have legit seen dragon scale inspired armour designs better than that as real life furry cosplay.

no one wants to see Fishlegs looking like some sort of very large beetle. its weird and doesnt match anything else in the movie.

httyd 2 had Hiccup with his own gear, textured leather and a wing suit that looked plausible and immersive. httyd 3 has everyone as weird beetles that could not possibly stay aloft because they are seemly wearing plastic dragon suits.

its like.... almost funny. it could literally be an avengers parody.

i want stories that have consistent themes. i want stories that follow their own rules (remember how httyd 1 and 2 involved actual research on flight mechanics).

and i want some respect for the furry artists that clearly were not involved in the fursuit designs.

[ender-cloud]

SCREAMING OH MY GOD HYDE!!!

(Spoilers ahead)

This page is the transition to the depression stage of grief, I knew it was going to be Depression and then bargaining.

Depression:

The start of an eventual break down, Hyde is on the ground, blood on his hands, as the reality of what he just did hits him, the reality of Jekyll not coming back, its all hitting him, and he can’t handle it

He broke what he thinks is his only possible way to communicate with Jekyll and he’s officially lost. He needs Jekyll badly, Jekyll is the one who keeps him sane, weather he likes to admit it or not he cant handle this body on his own.

Hyde can’t sleep, he can’t eat, if he doesn’t have Jekyll he will literally die because he isn’t able to function as a human being and won’t be able to take care of their body. I feel like subconsciously Hyde must know this.

Even if it’s not his main concern right now it’s probably still lurking in the back of his mind that without Jekyll; he will not be able to survive

“You ruined HIM”

Not it, not yourself, HIM

This could be referring too two different things; the mirror Jekyll, or Jekyll as a person.

If its the mirror; He broke the mirror, therefore ruining it, not really that deep so that’s why I think he’s talking about ruining Jekyll

He pushed Jekyll to the edge, he ruined Jekyll’s sanity and patience to a point where Jekyll will do anything to ruin Hyde. Hyde knows that he caused this and he feels horrible about it.

Not only is the “Broken, Shattered, Smashed” talking about the mirror but It’s also talking about how everything is broken now, the system that once was no longer exists, Jekyll broke Hydes control, everything in Hydes life is Shattered to bits now

He’s kicking himself over it again and again like his mind is against him, but he agrees even if it’s not said outright it’s obvious with Hyde apologizing to the broken mirror that at least a bit of him thinks it’s true.

Seeing Hydes reflection, broken in Two, is like Jekyll and Hyde being broken apart now, his two sides even more separated more than before; even though its just 1 person again its different. Jekyll had both sides before the separation but now Hyde only has his side, he has no part of Jekyll except for the Parts Jekyll didn’t want. He Is Alone, he is a half of a whole

Hyde’s eyes look so bright and big, he looks so young here, so confused, and so desperate

“I’ll put you back together. Just don’t-“ theres a few things Hyde could’ve been saying here, but my first thought was that he’s saying “Just don’t leave” but stopping himself because Jekyll already has left him, and asking someone who isn’t there not go leave might just make him realize it more.

“I’ll fix it i swear” He’s so desperate, so desperate to show Jekyll he’s sorry and so desperate to get him back.

“Don’t leave me alone”

Hyde’s always had company, Unlike Jekyll theres never been a moment where he was alone because Jekyll was always there, even if he wasn’t talking while Hyde had taken over he was still there and Hyde knew that

But now that Jekyll is being silent, now that Jekyll has left him, he feels like he can’t do anything now. He’s officially lost, desperate for guidance, wanting to hold on to anything but all he can do is beg Jekyll to stay with him.

Hyde has no control, Jekyll has left him with nothing

Hyde has lost

[fedyameow-w]

a twitter submission page never posted this analysis rant thing of mine so maybe you guys will gaf. i love romeo so much hes like the goro akechi of mcsm (red themed narcissistic antagonist who lowkey just wants real friends) i know a kids minecraft game isn’t something people put much psychological thought into but i cant help it hes such a textbook definition of NPD and they pull it off so well. and i’m not talking abt how he’s a self centered villain, that’s ableist and generalizing, i’m talking about how he so clearly hates himself more than he “hates” the protagonists and more than anything, how the admin powers are the only thing that gives him self worth and he would rather die than feel inferior because in his mental hierarchy they put him at the top, and there is a big big gaping gap between that and any civilian. they aren’t worthless, deep down he knows that, it’s that HE would feel worthless in that state, and he would rather be killed than ever let himself be that vulnerable.

“everyone likes you — and you’re nothing”

this line isnt about jesse at all. it’s about how HE feels about HIMSELF. if he was a normal human, he wouldn’t deserve friends or praise, so how can jesse have all that and not him? (also very parallel to akechi’s “how can someone like you have things i dont”) . It’s well known the extreme he went to with xara and fred in a desperate attempt to take control over his situation. why would you go to such lengths to your best friends, and so desperately? betrayal. there was a conflict between them, and he was so terrified of them betraying him that he had to act first. obviously what he did was downright horrible and inexcusable but this is about his emotions not his actions. ever since, he has sought a “friend” who will submit to his every command because he believes if they don’t, they would betray him too. and i especially love how despite all this, there was good in him at the hidden depths of his core. fred believed he was redeemable because he knew he’d lost himself, he knew he only wanted to be able to trust them. he kept their cabin untouched, he planted a tree in his memory, but these things are kept so far far away and hidden from everyone in the world, because he would never let himself admit to something as vulnerable as guilt. he would never let anyone see it. but that’s still who he is underneath everything. an emotional, complex and terrified man given too much power. to end this i want to also say i love how petra realised she feels the same way as him, how she’s also been controlling their friend group out of fear, and how she’s commonly labeled by the fandom with another disorder from the same cluster (BPD) which while she doesn’t meet the full extent of the criteria she definitely displays symptoms of, namely her fear of abandonment (leaving people first because she expects them to leave) and identity disturbance (everyone has something that completes them and she doesn’t know who she is), both of which she admits to in the admin’s cabin. her and romeo deal with their fear in incomparably different ways but they both stem from the same feelings and that was a nice touch

[akutasoda]

Hii! I absolutely love your writing!

Could i request dazai (and any other characters if youd like) with an softhearted s/o whos mother is very manipulative and just falls into it like she deep down kinda hates her mother cause her mother has all control of her life whenever shes around her and she has to put on an act of being perfect 24/7 for her mother and she cant even tell her mother that she feels horrible and tired becouse of this cause of the manipulation and she would feel bad for her mother

Im sorry if its confusing or written wrong english isnt my first language!

mother knows best

synopsis - when their s/o has a manipulative mother

includes - dazai, chuuya, nikolai

warnings - gn!reader, reader has a controlling mother, fluff, angst with comfort, hints towards murder, manipulation, wc - 717

a/n: hii! thank you! :) just wanna say if anyone has a similar situation to this please speak up, i know it may seem difficult to do but it helps so much

osamu dazai ★↷

↪he absolutely loved how genuinely kind and sweet you were. he found it hard to believe somebody like you really would date someone like him.

↪he thought it was rather nice that you're mother always reached out to you and checked ok you often. but from around the second time he saw your mother around you he knew something was up.

↪he would catch the very quick tenses and looks of gatred before you put on your best smile and continued being kind. he never said anything because he felt like it wasn't his place to get involved in your family affairs.

↪but he really couldn't help but ask after your mother always seemed to decide what you were doing and when - especially because you became so tired looking.

↪and when he asked you really couldn't help but finally let it all out. all the years of your mother controlling your life, making you feel horrible and how you felt so helpless. all dazai could do was hold you and let you get all your feelings out.

↪he knew a thing about manipulation and so had no issue in stepping in himself and started to remove your mother's control. little by little ridding you of the manipulation from your mother until she could finally leave you alone.

chuuya nakahara ★↷

↪he really felt someone as sweet and kind as you shouldn't end up with someone in his line of work but he'd allow himself as he really loved you.

↪seeing how close you and your mother were made him feel happy for you. he did think it was really sweet and he could only wish for that sort of relationship with family - that was until he started seeing some signs.

↪he started getting an off feeling whenever your mother spoke for you, deciding what you were doing. he started really disliking your mother after seeing how tired you were becoming.

↪he wouldn't hesitate to voice his concerns to you and your mother and hated the fact that she still answered for you. so instead he asked you directly and wanted an answer, he wouldn't want you to be hurt by your own mother.

↪and when you finally let all your feelings go he only offered you his undivided attention and support. he absolutely hated how someone that was your family could do this too you and so would happily intervene.

↪if you allowed him, he would be brutally honest. sparing no sympathy in his words and telling your mother outright to leave you alone and to let you be your own person and wouldn't let up until she got the message.

↪if you didn't allow him, he'd begrudgingly step back. but he'd still oppose your mother very happily and would always make sure that she let up her control of your life slowly and subtly.

nikolai gogol ★↷

↪he thought you were the absolute sweetest. your genuine kindness would be something bew to him and he quickly learnt to happily indulge himself in it. he practically clings to you for affection

↪he also liked how close you were to your mother. he admired that connection to your family and always thought it was sweet. but he very quickly started thinking the opposite.

↪he would note how she always spoke for you and decided what you did. how you always seemed more fake when she was around, which was often, and how sometimes you'd even become tense.

↪he would have no issue in asking about the whole situation but he gathered it was probably sensitive so he would wait to ask you in private. he would listen diligently to your worries and how tired you were.

↪hearing about how your mother controlled you made him quite upset. it really went against his whole desire for freedom and so he'd be willingy to do absolutely anything to help you regain that freedom.

↪if you were fine with it, he'd happily be brutal with it. now i wouldn't go into details but he hasn't exactly got a moral compass and would happily dispose of your mother.

↪but if you disagreed with his methods he'd become more subtle. removing your mother's influence bit by bit until you could completely remove her influence over your entire life.

[elainsgirl]

the way gwynriels speak about elriels sexual desire is bizarre. Sorry, Azriels sexual desire because they ignore elains. They speak of azriels sexual desire as something disgusting and dirty. Azriel just wants to "eat her privates" or azriel is "just lusting" and is a perv and a creep. I'm sorry but it's bizarre. He's so gentlemanly he wouldn't even escalate anything sexually with elain until she literally said "yes", even when he could smell her arousal. And that's after years of knowing her and being sweet with her. That setup is so dreamy, everyone wants it.

But not only is their interpretation of azriel as a perv bizarre. it's even more bizarre when they then ship him with their favourite.

Azriel cannot both be a sexpest and a desirable mmc for your fave. Something about all those conflicting ideas is not adding up. And at the bottom of it is pure hatred not over him feeling sexual desire (and being a gentleman about it) but over who he feels sexual desire for. Which is Elain.

They always erase Elain, but at the bottom of everything they do, there's always Elain. And they hate it.

it’s hypocritical bcs every sjm male had that same desire plus its literally a very common trope in romantasy. If he felt that way towards Gwyn, there would literally be no issue at all.

she literally gave him offer and permission. And he just wanted to please HER yet they still managed to make an issue out of it…like they do with everything that doesn’t fit their narrative.

Azriels an incest, creep, possesive, controlling, manipulative ONLY with Elain. He becomes the perfect gentleman for Gwyn though…and it doesn’t add up. He cant just switch. If you genuinely think he’s so horrible there is no way you can justify shipping him with Gwyn.

They’re bitter that Az fell for the soft, quiet introverted character and not the badass, sassy warrior they dreamt up for him. They’re mad he wnats to beg on his knees for Elain. Fight a BR for Elain. And they can remain bitter bcs Az still only wants Elain archeron.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Hm...this might be a first but may I, oh may I request headcannons for TADC? specifically the reader asks any of the cast [minus Cain/Bubble] if they wanna get married in the digital world? Because they don't know if they'll have the chance in the real world since escape seems impossible while there's also the fact they don't know if the other might snap one day.

Asking Ragatha, Jax, and Zooble if they want to get married in the circus

i kind of miss when tadc x reader stuff was at its peak maybe i just havent checked in a while but it feels like that died quick </3 notes: gn reader, there is rejection in this for two reasons (no desire to be married, and if they do they dont want to do it in the circus), bittersweet, written on computer cws: none technically but the fear of abstraction is there... but to be fair its like a heightened "this person i care about may be gone one day" thing

RAGATHA

shes similar to Zooble in regards to: she'd prefer for it to be both in your control, where you guys can pick the spot and not have to feel pressured to do it now rather than when its better

but she will marry you- she does have the same fears as you. what if you abstract? dont try to make this about her, shes fiiiiiiiiine you dont need to worry about whether or not shes nearing the edge- no really shes fine... shes... not really good at being the talking piece during heavy topics

its not ideal but at least the two of you can say youve tied the knot now instead of never having the chance to call one another spouse

JAX

he doesnt strike me as the type to want to get married, so thats... really the main reason he turns down your proposal. its not that youre... not enough or he doesnt... love you.. but marriage is such a huge commitment- sure he'd never cheat or anything like that but i think its the societal weight thats been placed on it that makes him... uninterested

he does at least somewhat understand where youre coming from with wanting to propose and get married before one of you abstracts- but the odds of him actually being open and showing that is low

hes more likely to outwardly not take it as seriously as youd like... and that has the chance of causing issues in of itself. rejection is one thing. being rejected while seemingly not being taken seriously is so much worse

ZOOBLE

they dont want to be married in the circus- theyre also not too keen on marraige in general but theyre more open to compromising on that... if the situation were different

they cant blame you for wanting to go on and get it done now when you know theyre still here, but they feel they can be understood for not wanting something so... important.... to be done during such a horrible situation and place- when youre not ready and not where either of you have dreamed of. its like a forfeit of control to them in a way

but... its not a hard no- if it really. really. REALLY. is an important thing for you they will push aside their problems with it just for you

[firesnap]

i have a genuine question. i promise i am not at all trying to defend him. ive dropped him entirely, literally deleted everything i had of him and unliked his songs.

ive just been wondering like considering that he has been in therapy, and also considering how if he does take a year off and then comes back, why cant it be redeemable? like cant people change? cant we give them second chances? he is 27. is he just doomed to be an abuser forever?

its just scary and im asking as like a younger person who is in my very early 20s. i know ive made mistakes. i know ive not been a good partner or friend sometimes. (and yes i was also abusive to a past partner...im not proud of it and ive learned from it. i have never ever touched anyone in that way after that. it took awhile but my current relationship isnt toxic and i would never hurt anyone or hit them again yknow?) and it scares me that people keep insinuating that he is irredeemable. like cant abusers change and become better? dont they get second chances? if shelby has grown and healed in 10 months wouldn't it be fair to say the same for wilbur?

im just genuinely asking because based on everything i believe you are older than me and im looking for guidance and just...idk im scared. growing up on the internet has made me so scared of making mistakes and doing anything wrong because when it happens to others i look up to, its always treated as something they'll never be able to change or improve. makes me feel like imma just be a horrible person forever because i made mistakes in the past.

This is a really complicated question that multiple answers can validly fit.

I don't think, personally, that anyone is irredeemable. I think everyone is on a journey of forgiveness and some of us may need more grace than others.

This is tw// abuse even more than the current topic, but my mom was incredibly abusive. We lived in a very rural area and she had a lot of undiagnosed problems and trauma of her own that created a pressure pot of issues. After I was born, she suffered through full on post-partum psychosis that nearly ended about as well as that sentence implies it could have. She was incredibly violent, controlling, and cruel for years. My sister went no-contact with her the second she turned 18. A significant event occurred that eventually spurned her into seeking real treatment that lasted for years. It's still ongoing.

My sister is also still no contact and I support her decision 100%. Those are her wounds and what she needed to do to get peace should be respected. I decided I wanted a relationship with the person who came out of all that work and, even then, it's been hard. I don't know if she's redeemed herself, and my god do we still have bumps in the road, but I support her for trying.

With Wilbur, how he responds to this is going to really impact a lot of things. I mean, I know no matter how he responds I won't be going on whatever journey of redemption and healing he has to go through. I'm tired and I feel hurt enough. I would think, if he wanted to show he was sincere, admitting what happened would be a great sense of closure for a lot of people who put time and energy and faith into this guy for years.

Not every person that causes harm is inherently evil, but there has to be some kind of knowledge that you're aware of the harm you've caused. No one is stuck as anything forever, life is constantly moving, and most people aren't saying his life is just over. You can work on yourself. You can change. And I'm saying that specifically to you, anonymous.

(Saying this, actually, there ARE people who would argue once you've done x you're beyond redemption based entirely on their life experiences as a victim, personal histories and many other factors. Kinda like my sister, that's their choice. And you have to accept that sometimes you fuck up so badly that you will permanently lose some people from your life. But your life isn't over.)

But I do think, regardless of what he says or does about this, his time of controlling a large platform is at an end. He can still do a lot of things in his life after he works on himself -- editing, song producing, directing, writing or whatever -- but being in charge of a large impressionable audience that could enable more destructive behaviors is just not it.

[imtotallynotthere]

ok so. with your self aware Caz + time loop AU.

i went though the game three times, achievement hunting. and while thats for sure a weird way to start of this ask, it makes me think:

the first time, everything happens as usual. everything goes to hell, then Caz blows the rig. then he wakes up in his cabin at the start of the day again. was it just a horrible nightmare? no, because things still take place as they had. but now he feels compelled to do weird things.

stands around to talk when he should be getting to Rennick's office. throws a wrench off the rig when he should be hiding from Muir. peaks around a corner to glance at Aldair when he should be hiding. throws a cup at Trots.

he knows he can't die-die when he seemingly drowns on purpose, unable to move his limbs after jumping into the oily water of the pontoons. he just can't stop himself from grabbing every live wire he comes across.

then the rig blows up again. and he's in his cabin again.

he must tell someone, surely. but it's like he cant control himself at all. he goes snooping through every cabin, throws himself at every monster that was once a coworker or friend. walks damn near everywhere when he knows he can run.

and then the rig blows up again. and hes back in the cabin. again.

Thank you for the ask and YES!

He'll probably try to dismiss the second time as a sort of "dreams telling the future" thing. However, the impulses don't have an explanation. He wouldn't be able to make sense of it. The drowning death would be, what I think, the straw that ticks him into thinking, "no, this is not normal," and him reliving Roy's death would only drive him further down the path of breaking down since that was the second time he witnessed his friend die in the same manner.

The third time would drive the thing home that no, something is horrible wrong.

Perhaps the fourth time he would be able to hear a voice that's near a whisper and muffled, one that he hadn't heard the other times. He can't make it out but he may dismiss it as the creature doing so.

Caz is a smart man, however. I'm sure it wouldn't take him long to realize the creature only uses the voices of those he's heard before. Not only that, he would be hearing it before it was drilled into.

I think during the fourth run Caz would try to resist more, which would slowly break down the system holding him in place (though he wouldn't know it is a system just yet.)

You would try walking everywhere, only to suddenly run random intervals. When throwing something, it won't throw at first and if you look closely, Caz's hand would seem to be clenching the thing.

His voice lines sound more aggressive and when Roy passes, they sound even more broken. When the helicopter leaves, his voice sounds less panicked than before, like he knows something, though that may be just imagination due to playing it four times.

[todayisdeadinside]

If babygate is fake doesn't that kind of make Louis a horrible awful person for going along with it even if he's being closeted by management?

At a certain point acting as if you're an innocent child's father publically for going on 9 years this year counts for so much more the the fact he's being forcibly closeted. Like he's playing with the public's feelings by making us believe he's a father when he isn't.

no.

i still dont even know fully what i believe or dont believe regarding babygate, because its complex and a lot to delve into that i havent had time for yet, but for the sake of argument, lets say hes not the father.

hes not a bad person for going along with it. he doesnt have the choice to NOT go along with it. thats what you seem to not understand.

louis didnt choose to be closeted. his closeting has more to do with contracts and coercive control within the music industry than his personal choice. anything that his managers do to enforce his closet is completely out of his control and against his will. that much is clear.

he doesnt have a choice. not just in a "disobeying this will out me" way- the music industry has strong histories with threatening and blackmailing people. if i had to take a guess, id reckon theres a lot of threats and blackmail involved in keeping HL closeted THIS long when theyve both spent so long dropping hints at wanting to be open, and even being open in the super early days.

beyond the fact that his closet is not in his control AT ALL, why is your focus on the fans being lied to? these are celebrities. famous people lie to the public CONSTANTLY, its part of the industry, part of maintaining an image. fuck how YOU feel about being lied to, imagine how it feels for louis every single day being closeted and stuck under contracts that force him to play a role he doesnt want to play.

fuck how it feels for you, a fan, to be lied to by a celebrity. imagine how louis feels being forced to lie about his identity and relationships and life every single day for years. who is suffering more? its not the fan, ill tell you that.

shaming a closeted person for being closeted, when we know theres contracts and most likely blackmail or threats involved, is not helping anyone. its certainly not helping louis, and its not creating a safe space for other queer people.

the goal is to support louis and harry and try to create a world where the music industry doesnt feel the need to keep celebrities closeted against their will. the goal is to expose shady business practices SUCH AS closeting and beards and fake kids, so the industry cant get away with pulling shit like this. shaming louis for being a victim of the homophobic industry and a victim of forced closeting is not achieving any of the goals we, as a community, should be working towards.

instead of trying to blame louis for not fighting his situation more, blame the managers and companies who are KEEPING HIM IN THAT SITUATION. bigger picture, people.

[fascinationstreetmp3]

Sometimes I fear they won't do devil's minion at all. Armand won't call Daniel beloved and like the turning- the turning was said to be done in spite where in the books there was at least some love, something that made Armand say they will be in hell together after all. I feel like there is a possibility that in the show hell together means like a thorn lodged in the throat. You can't ignore it and you can't get rid of it. That will hurt a lot if they do that.

im sure dm will definitely be romantic in the show at some point, it's just a case of how they get there because things are obviously different from the books.

i myself am keeping an open mind about the whole "spite" thing tbh. that descriptor does not come from armand or daniel, it comes from louis, who was not there— and in my opinion, daniel sorta dodges addressing it any further when louis brings it up, and there could be multiple reasons for that (he doesn't want to talk about it? or maybe there's more to it he isn't letting on right now?)

just throwing things out there but if it WAS entirely spiteful, but past dm happened, it's possible they could also utilise daniel's book turning scene for the "memory wipe", framing that as armand's act of love in order to save daniel's life, which would balance things out a little more. either way i think we WILL see the turning no matter what anyone says

where they are now with each other, the writers might take inspiration from the sort of push/pull they have towards 1985 in qotd, along with the long period of separation they have after qotd and the regret armand feels for turning daniel. daniel feeling resentful towards armand (for turning him? for messing with his and louis' memories? for leaving him all alone?), but unable to stay away for long; armand believing he has made a horrible mistake and trying to stay away while also dealing with the fact that daniel destroyed armand's relationship with louis, but he and daniel are bound together now and the maker/fledgling connection sometimes seems to be a lot stronger in the show, even between "strangers" as displayed by madeleine & louis being able to "feel" one another

i think show daniel seeing armand at his lowest, knowing what he can do to people and what he has done to him, will play into the way daniel sees armand in the books: a terrible creature capable of great evil who daniel is drawn to and loves for who he is, and armand gets to be perceived outside of the roles he's always playing by someone he doesnt have to control or lie to (and cant, really). for how they get to the love part... im curious to see how it will go because there's a lot of ways it could happen. i'm just certain they will get there. they might feel stuck in "hell together" at first, but eventually hatred won't be the only thing that binds them together (if it ever was the 'only' thing between them in the first place)

maybe tangentially related but ive seen people suggest rolin jones has some sort of dislike for dm or that he just straight up doesn't care/wasn't planning on including it, and of course i have no clue what's going through his head but i have to disagree. a deeper relationship between armand and daniel has only been hinted at right now; pieces of a puzzle slowly make themselves known, and the audience has to notice them and put the puzzle together with what they've got so far. just because something's in the books doesn't mean theyll just talk about it openly, its still a show spoiler. which means outside of the show (in interviews etc) it's only going to be acknowledged as a "thing that happens in the books", yknow? just like book characters that havent appeared yet, the way theyll be portrayed in the show isnt discussed. kinda why i think they got king of spoilers eric bogosian to drop the "budding romance" line in those sdcc videos from a while back because to me... that technically is a show spoiler lmao