#contemplations and speculations

[scorchieart]

I sometimes wonder how the princes internally reacted to learning Leon's secret that day in the roundtable room. Particularly, do you think Chevalier was heartbroken?

*spoilers under the cut for Leon & Chevalier's routes*

[Note: Tread carefully in the comments section of this post as there are slight mentions of spoilers for flashback events and Clavis & Gilbert's routes.]

Because to Chevalier, what separates royalty from the commonfolk is duty. He makes it perfectly clear to Belle that the consequences of her decision of king lie entirely on the king himself, and that it is the job of the other princes and the nobility to upkeep the country should he fail. Add that on to the fact that Chevalier doesn't even fully consort with the idea of the Belle Selection. I wouldn't say this means Chevalier looks down on the commonfolk (he assigns value based on how useful a person is to him no matter their upbringing), but he definitely considers them in a separate world from his own.

And Chevalier's world is the palace and the nobles and his faction. He knows the work he and the princes do is a contract to the kingdom they are obliged to fulfill because of their positions. And remember, for much of his life Rhodolite was ruled by a "fallen beast", so who knows how early on the princes had to pick up the slack? [that's a theory for another day...] To Chevalier, nobles and ambassadors come and go, their preferences and alliances shifting over the littlest things, but the princes are honor-bound to stay on the side of Rhodolite; they are the only ones he can trust to act in favor of the kingdom every time. And we know this because even though Chevalier is aware the princes each lead their own double-lives (except Leon, of course...), he only chooses to intervene when their side-hustles actually start to pose a threat to the kingdom.

So when Leon is revealed to not only be a commoner but also not even Rhodolitian [edit: Leon's ancestry is still debatable], Chevalier's trust must have been shattered. The man he deemed worthy enough to lead the internal affairs of his kingdom, to act as his counterweight in politics, to be his rival was as far removed from his world as could be. And he was none the wiser for decades. Was it a bigger insult to the royal family or Chevalier's pride? Whatever the answer, it was enough for Chevalier to draw his sword on Leon the moment the truth was revealed, despite the clearly far more pressing threat from Obsidian on the table.

Chevalier has stated he doesn't care much about blood ties, a prince is a prince at the end of the day, but considering he and Leon were the heads of their factions and Chevalier respected the reputation Leon built upon it, he'd understandably be upset and betrayed. That's his bro, yo. I wonder how he truly felt about Leon ascending the throne here vs. when it happens in other routes.

Chevalier may always act in favor of Rhodolite, but I think it's more than coincidence that what's best to preserve the kingdom almost always aligns with what's best to preserve his worldview.

[This mini theory is brought to you by me staring at a blank wall and thinking about this card for 30 minutes straight.]

[lordmushroomkat]

I find disability perplexing, sometimes. Because.. what counts as a physical disability? Which things are only mental disabilities? Which things don't count at all?

Physically disabled people often tell us mentally disabled folk to be careful not to talk over them because the things are not the same. But uh. At what point do I qualify? At what point can I contribute to the conversation? At what point are my symptoms inconvenient enough to be valid?

Because like. I need glasses to see. And sure I have access to the corresponding disability aid for the problem (glasses), but I can't see to full capacity. My eyes physically do not function as intended. Most of the time it doesn't inconvenience me, but even with the glasses I experience difficulties. For example if I want to see something beyond a certain distance (about half a room away) I have to consciously focus my eyes in on it so I can see details. Frequently this causes mental fatigue and headaches. I also get nauseous when I try to read (or just focus intently on specific parts of a stable object) in a moving vehicle. Sometimes taking off my glasses helps with that, but most of the time I have to just stop reading or I might actually throw up. This is a major inconvenience. Is that considered a physical disability?

I have exercise-induced asthma. When doing aerobic activity my respiratory system --from my mouth to my lungs-- starts to ache more and more until I have to stop to catch my breath. This affect can be reduced by using an inhaler first, but I frequently forget about it because I spent most of my early life not knowing what the problem was. This experience hurts, it is painful, it is debilitating. It didn't used to be so obvious to me because my muscles got tired at a similar-enough pace that I simply assumed I get tired fast, but now? The flesh is strong but the lungs, the lungs are so so weak. I want to run and hike and dance and I know that I could --that the strength I have would support me-- if only I could just breathe! I always feel like I'm just doing it wrong and that if I just learned the trick, just learned how to breathe right, then I could do anything! And maybe there is a trick to breathing while moving! But my lungs still don't work the way they should! My body can't function! I have to stop to take a rest repeatedly during any aerobic activity, including running for longer than very short distances or just walking long distance; any amount of exertion eventually requires me to stop completely and wait for my body to stop aching before I can continue. Is that a physical disability?

And hey, here's something interesting that not a lot of people know about! Autism often comes with some degree of hyper-extension of the joints! Which sounds like a good thing: until you realize that this means your knee joints lock further back and it messes up your posture. Until you realize that you have to routinely crack your joints to remove the stiffness and maintain dexterity. Until you realize that your legs and arms are constantly trying to escape your hip and shoulder joints; and you have to realign them and keep them in place. Until you realize that you are predisposed to straining leg muscles. Until you realize that your joints started aching in elementary school. Until you have to teach yourself not to lock your knees so you have actual reliable stability. Until you realize that you stand weirdly. Until you realize that none of your joints stay where they're supposed to. My body requires regular maintenance (cracking my joints back into place every hour or so) to have full mobility. Is that a physical disability? It's only an extremely common side-effect of a mental disability, so does it count?

I also have auditory processing issues from the autism. Too many layers of different sounds can get overwhelming such that I can barely hear what's in front of me. And sure, that's because of my brain not filtering out the extra noises, but it's still a hearing problem. I still can't always hear things. The meat computer in my skull refuses to do its job and as a result my ability to hear what I need to be hearing is inconsistent. Is that a mental disability because it's in my brain, or a physical disability because it's not the mind part of my brain failing here?

And I have some sort of heat regulation issue! I always ran hot and sometimes that's convenient (when it's chilly out) but whenever it gets hot it's extremely debilitating! When I overheat I can't move as well and I get fatigued and my brain starts to melt (by which I mean that I get so warm that my brain ceases to be able to process things at anything like usual speed). Overheating is a major problem for me and there's very little I can do about it! Ice only goes so far. And I can't very well live in a tub of water for the whole summer (trust me I've thought about it, extensively) because it's just not practical! Heat is overwhelming and renders me non-functional and it kinda hurts too. Having an overly-warm body is debilitating in an environment that experiences summertime. Anything over 75°F and I start to become uncomfortable, anything much more than that and my brain gives up on the concept of thoughts and I start seriously considering the underwater lifestyle. For most of summer and a good deal of late spring/early fall I have two modes; overheated or underwater. That's debilitating. That's dis-able-ing. Does that count as a physical disability?

What counts as a physical disability? At what point are my struggles valid? When am I inconvenienced enough to be part of the conversation? Are my aches and pains and hurts profound and frequent enough to qualify for the label "physically disabled"?

Should I just shut up because my problems aren't big enough? Should I just bear it without comment because my body mostly works? Are my problems too pedestrian and basic to be valid considerable struggles? I lived my whole life blaming myself for my achey lungs and my weird joints. I spent my whole life overwhelmed and frustrated because I couldn't quite see, couldn't quite hear, and couldn't function at all when overheated. Is that a part of the conversation? My body hurts sometimes, and it doesn't always work the way I want it to, and actually now that I think about it I think my body always has some kind of low-grade muscle ache going on that I just sorta stopped noticing.

I don't dare call myself physically disabled --because that's not up to me to claim-- but if you asked me if I considered my body to be functional I would say an emphatic no. Like sure, I can get through the day, it carries me where I need to go; but I set up my life on purpose to avoid physical (or mental) strain wherever possible. I rarely go places, I rarely go do activities, I rarely go see people, I rarely exercise, I rarely do any of the things that my body struggles to do because I can't trust that my body will continue to support me if I make it attempt anything that might pose any challenge at all. There are very very few exceptions to this. Only a few events per year do I actually push my body in any meaningful way and it always takes days for me to feel like I've recovered from the aches and mental strain.

Is that what a physical disability is? I don't know. I don't know if it's enough that I hurt or if I have to actually be broken for it to count. I don't know.

So yeah, conversations around disability confuse me sometimes. Because mental disabilities are rarely just mental.

And autism in particular comes with ow-my-senses-don't-work and ow-my-joints-don't-go-there. Which seem like very physical problems to me.

A lot of mental disabilities seem like they have more to do with the brain as a malfunctioning meat computer (the brain as an organ) than the mind as a consciousness (the brain as a person). But I don't know if we actually consider that difference at all. This confounds me greatly.

How do we even define how debilitating something must be to be considered a physical disability?

[jelly-of-many-ships]

remember when Crowley suggested that Aziraphale could just kill Adam and then he said “i’ve never actually killed anything before” and Crowley responded with “not even to save everything?”

Aziraphale is totally gonna kill someone in s3 for Crowley heheheh

[scorchieart]

This is simply too precious 🥹🥹

Imagine Sariel walking through the halls over the years and knowing there are a pair of curious eyes watching him from behind the columns with every tinkle tankle 😊

Or Licht and Nokto stalking the gardens all morning waiting for the tinkle tankle signaling the start of Evie's tea parties 😊

Or Leon and Jin in the middle of a heated political discussion, when tinkle tankle— Clear the tables, boys! It's snack time! 😊

Or Chevalier heading to the library at the end of a long day, when he hears a tinkle tankle and changes course so he doesn't spoil Yves's mood 🥲

....that's enough of that, I want to keep this thought happy and wholesome

Everyone keeps talking about Silvio jangling but can we talk about how Yves tinkles as well??? Like, I know it's probably real quiet but he does have a bell attached to his belt.

It's so cute how it's designed similarly to collars that cats have around their necks. Clavis probably hears Yves quietly tinkling when he's setting up traps and laughs to himself knowing that his younger bro is going to fall victim again.

[bylerposting]

i feel like there’s a message here but i can’t quite decipher it. Maybe I’m just going insane

[mysteryevolution]

5, for the hatchling ask game? (could also be taken as a free space to share hearthian specbio headcanons if you'd like :D )

Oh. Oh boy! Thank you for the ask because this is gonna be fun! Long rant incoming, so I'll go ahead and put this all below a read more.

Prepare to learn about nictating membranes, gills, brachial hearts, scale coloration/patterns, why I think Hearthians have four eyes, and how those eyes function. Not quite in that exact order.

Eyes, Color Vision, and Nictating Membranes -

So, the reason some aquatic organisms on earth developed four eyes or mechanisms adjacent to four eyes (such as split pupils) was to see above and below water at the same time. This is likely the same reason Hearthians evolutionarily have four eyes. (If you don’t already know about them, check out some photos of anableps, also called the “four-eyed fish.” A lot of my science for this post was inspired by anableps .)

Proto-Hearthians are mentioned to have resided in pools of water within caves, and it’s likely that those pools contained debris that could be stirred up by movement, such as a loose sediment, and they would need a way to protect their eyes while retaining visual acuity. Hence, Hearthians have a nictitating membrane: not quite a third eyelid! But kind of. It's close. It's there to help with underwater navigation via not letting silt directly hit the eyeball.

Additionally, a Hearthian’s top eyes and bottom eyes have different color receptors. One of the best colors for penetrating murky/lower visibility water is yellow light. As such, their lower eyes, which are meant to spend more time below water, contain red and green color receptors to create the illusion of yellow by mixing the two light wavelengths! The top eyes contain blue and green color receptors, and their brains essentially piecemeal the information from both sets of eyes to create “true color” vision. 

(This means not only is Gossan’s depth perception messed up, so is their color vision. Or it’s at least somewhat skewed, unfortunately for them. Oops?)

Gills, Three Hearts, and a Little Bit of Metamorphosis -

Hearthians have gills along their sides/ribs. And you may be thinking, hey? Doesn’t Hatchling drown in the game if they jump into water? Why would you give them gills? That's weird.

Yes. But by all appearances, Hearthians are amphibious, and it would make sense that Hatchling would know how to swim. Hatchling clearly does not, but that's a whole different can of worms. Of course, amphibians on Earth don’t retain gills unless they remain in their larval form, such as axolotls, but I have to have a little fun deviating from Earth norms when it comes to aliens. We (I) slap neoteny on things here (in my headcanons). 

Graphite “the worst amphibian on the entire planet” is an outlier and should not be included in data. The fact they drown so quickly, however, inclines me to believe that to remain game accurate, I must account for why the gills…are so very bad at their job. (It's either that or Graphite/Hatchling specifically just forgets how breathing works. Let me be real here, they would.)

How the gills are orientated: they run horizontally from a hand’s length below the shoulder blade to the front of the body. Pretend to draw a line vertically from where the hip bone meets the femur. That's approximately where the gill slits stop. There are two sets on either side of the body. 

These gills are not useless to the point of vestigial, per se, but they’re not the most functional organ either. There are two brachial hearts that branch off the main heart, one on the left gills and one on the right gills, (a mechanism observed in many real fish! Examples include cuttlefish - my main inspiration here - as well as hagfish (except they have four hearts), and octopi). Most real reptiles and amphibians have three chambered hearts as opposed to the mammalian four chambered heart, so the brachial heart structure used here is essentially just a more extreme version of spacing out those bits. The brachial hearts help move oxygen more efficiently into the bloodstream when it is taken in by the gills.

Gills are a remnant from the completely aquatic tadpole stage of the Hearthian lifecycle. Tadpoles have cute little webbed fingers and toes, a tail, very prominent gills, and lack of external ears. They still have internal ear canals, but sound travels much farther through water, and external ear shells aren't necessary for picking up vibrations. If anything, they'd create more drag when swimming, and that's counterproductive to survival. This stage lasts for about a year until the tadpole is ready to fully transition onto the land. They'll undergo a metamorphosis as they get closer to the one-year mark, losing most of their tails and webbing, growing proper air-breathing lungs, and developing external ears. Once they can breathe air, they're considered a hatchling.

Culturally, there's two stages to hatchlinghood: "you've still got some of your tail left" stage, and the "you no longer have a tail" stage, or, in human terms, pre-teen and teen.

Even though the gills and brachial hearts remain throughout all life stages, they don’t increase proportionally to body size once the tadpole stage is over. This means they don't have the capability to keep up with the energy demands of an adult body. The main heart is doing most of the cardiovascular work now.

Additionally, a lot of the water they might find themself swimming in isn’t oxygen rich. Breathing through gills will only provide a very meager amount of supplemental oxygen. They can, however, breathe better in cold water because of the higher concentration of dissolved oxygen available. You would think this is counterintuitive because, well, warm water is a better solute, right? And you'd be correct. But that also means warmer water contains a higher amount of CO2 than cold water, the same reason warm sodas go flat. The CO2 that couldn't dissolve before at lower temperatures suddenly can dissolve. This is not good for breathing.

When a hatchling or adult does breathe through their gills, picture it like this: you’re running, and you get a stitch in your side. You continue running while trying to breathe, and your breaths become fast and shallow. The balance of CO2 and oxygen is thrown off by breathing in this way, even though it’s a mechanism meant to try and disperse the buildup of lactic acid from your muscles. As such, you’re breathing, but you are not breathing efficiently. It can't be sustained for long. That, and in this analogy, you're breathing in a liquid, and you'd have to exhale underwater before you try breathing air again. Otherwise, you will start choking. Drowning. One of the two. It’s not the world’s best pulmonary system.

Scale Patterns and Coloration -

So, there’s this very fun form of camouflage present in many real animals called countershading. Countershading is exactly what it sounds like: two different colors working to provide protection in different environmental contexts simultaneously. Thinking mainly of birds and fish here, these organisms often have lighter bellies (ventral coloration) and darker backs (dorsal coloration). This is because when viewed from below, they are backdropped against the sky, or the top of the water column, lit by the sun, which is brighter than the rest of their surroundings. When viewed from above, they are seen backdropped against the darker colors of the ground or the depths of the waters. I think Hearthians should get lighter colored scales (off white/yellow-ish) on their tummies as a treat. 

As for scale patterns, why have patterns at all? What’s the point? There are two answers here, and I will only go into detail with the latter: attraction of mates and more camouflage!

Essentially, like many real animals, it’s likely that their spots/scale patches are a form of camouflage. And in my mind since the Hearthians all have mineral names (or names related to geological features, looking at Esker and Moraine there, lol), the naming convention stems from the idea that tadpoles are initially covered in spots to blend in with the rocky bottom of the pools they hatch in! These spots develop into more complex patterns as they age. …I also imagine their eggs look like rocks in all likelihood. Prevent predation by pretending to be rocks, y’all. No one wants to eat those. 

In short: Proto-Hearthian had spots because rocky bottom of habitat + outside pressures necessitating them = pebble-like spots on tadpoles = oooh, pretty scale patterns in modern Hearthians.

If you made it through this post, kudos to you! No seriously. Thank you for reading. If you want to hear my thoughts about Hearthian egg development, courtship rituals, child rearing structures, or pretty much anything else, my asks are open. I have speculative evolution-based rants for all of that stuff. Also, plants. I have so many thoughts about space plants.

[a-heart-of-kyber]

Currently mentally playing with the idea of what if whilst dying Sol pulls a like "tell them, tell them everything" to Mae to kind of give her this blessing to tell her truth to the Jedi Council and grant him absolution. Accepting he'll be to blame for everything. And she'll fully take Osha's name/place and be able to walk free.

Because like to heal Sol needs to choose Mae and Mae needs the truth to come out and to be independent. I realize that the independence would be as Osha, but like...she needs the get out of jail free card while Osha takes her place as the Acolyte.

[orcelito]

Had a moment of listening to music I liked back when I was a teenager (& still like) and having a whole. Realization . That I like myself as I am now sooooo much better than I like teenage me. And I started thinking about Why.

There's a lot to it I'm pretty sure, & most of it centers around the fact that I just... didn't really know who I was as a person. I didn't really have hobbies outside of what I did in school (aka orchestra) and like. Video games + anime. I did creative writing in middle school, but dropped off in high school for... some reason? I still made original characters and played around with them a lot, but it was mostly just in drawing and thinking about them. I never actually *wrote*, and I in fact didn't get back into creative writing at all until I was 23 years old. I was someone who had spent so long hiding behind others and just doing what I was told that I just... didn't have any real direction. I didn't know what I even *wanted*. I thought I knew, but in hindsight, I can confidently say that I didn't. I was just an insecure teen drifting through life and not thinking about things beyond what was immediately in front of me. Which is pretty standard for teenagers I guess, but not all of them. Not at all.

Compared to now, where I have Many hobbies, most notably being writing. As I am now, I am just Intrinsically a writer. And it's weird to remember that I wasn't even really *writing* before 5 years ago (besides text rps, which did a lot for developing my writing skill! But still aren't a replacement for writing individually). As a teen, I wasnt into dnd, I was incredibly out of shape, & I was a lot less aggressive and focused. I was the type to avoid sports!!! I hated them!!!! But as I am now, I Love biking and can easily bike for an hour+ no problem (I remember being a teen and trying to go on just 10 minute bike rides in the summer and just *dying* from it), & I love working out. I wanna be strong!!! I LOVE being strong!!! And I was an absolute mess with things like public speaking & working in groups, vs now where I can do an impromptu presentation no problem & I'm often the unofficial leader in group projects bc im typically the one who does the organizing and allotments of work. A side effect of working as a supervisor and then assistant manager for so long. I have a lot more confidence in my perceptions and judgements, & I have the self-assurance to assert these things. And this is only really the tip of the iceberg with all the differences.

I just feel like an entirely different person, almost. The cores are the same, or at least damn near similar, with the things I want out of life & the sorts of things I enjoy, but it's like. The difference between finding a random rock off the side of the road & then that rock when it's been sanded and carved and decorated to be something individual and unique. You look at them side by side and it's something dull vs something shiny and intricate. The origins can't be ignored and dismissed, & I certainly would never resent younger me for just doing the best with what I knew at the time. But it's just astounding how much difference time and experience will have for growing and developing as a person. Things I consider integral to my personhood weren't even thoughts in my mind back then. We are almost entirely different people.

[scorchieart]

Has this always been a thing? Was it ever brought up or utilized before? I can think of a few instances in Clavis's route where it would have been useful, but I don't recall this particular detail ever being mentioned 🤔

Unless as part of the Phantom Thief AU aesthetic Cyran gets superpowers, in which case he totally got snubbed by Clavis 😤

Regardless... *spray bottle* Bad Clavis. *spray bottle spray bottle* Stop negatively comparing yourself to others. We've been through this.

This is from Clavis's Premium End of the Wildest Dreams event.

[ariadnesweb]

-Notes: -Gaster speaks like he can't breathe - single word pauses. (WELL, SO) -Often backtalks himself - happy new year - old year? -Unsure of time? Holidays? But it's presence is constant. -Aware of the nature of the game, talking to us more or less directly. -Importance of the all-consuming nature of love - regardless of the details of what love is. Seems to doubt his belief is shared - waits for the reader to understand. Unclear answer. -But regards valentine's as a poor celebration of love - itself trivial. -Awkward: struggles to make small talk, or transition to important topics. -'I WANT TO HELP! YES, THERE WAS SOMEONE I WANTED TO HELP.' -Redundant, confusing statements. General statement of alliance leads to more specific desire to help someone he personally knows. -Memory issues? Gaster pauses after this, as if he didn't expect to blank out. Clarifies that he did forget who. -Sardonic about it - it seems to be a regular problem. 'WAS IT MYSELF? NO... WELL, PERHAPS' seems to be a joke at his expense. -Pretty upbeat about the whole thing, regardless. -Mystery, ambiguous them. -Mystery knowledge 'I NEVER FORGET SOMEONE I DON'T REMEMBER'. A trait of being across space & time, or personal determination? -'WILL YOU HELP ME?' Backtalk. Opposite of 'I WANT TO HELP!' -Contemplative, doesn't seem to expect/know much of us. Or, our desire to help him surprises him. Extremely sans energy. -Thanks us eagerly, however. -Excited about our help, to the point that malapropiates an idiom. -Stumbles afterward, piling on malapropianism after malapropianism on it. -Sudden 'GOOD BY!' (Also mispelled)

-Conclusion: This is not the public-facing piece of Gaster, this is the awkward 'I need help' piece of Gaster.

[lordmushroomkat]

Hey is anyone else haunted by the lmk s5 line --

"I mean, he put us in a cell, and a pain cap on Monkey King's head. You know, it's not- it's not best friend behavior!"

-- or are the rest of you doing fine?

Because I think about it a lot and the wider implications it might have.

[threewaysdivided]

The Shaper of Minds and its possible consequences for a certain character

I have finally joined the rest of the internet in losing my mind over a D&D Podcast - in my case, the wonderful Dan Jones & Dragons.  With Episode 26 due to stream on Dan’s Twitch this week, I really want to talk about some of the stuff that came up across the just-finished Gala sessions because the fallout from that has the potential to be incredibly fraught.

THE SHAPER OF MINDS

The relic the Flower Crowns were going after this mission – The Shaper of Minds – is a potentially fascinating narrative device that might as well have been lab-engineered to be my exact brand of personal nightmare fuel.   It’s a small, ornate brass key that can alter any part of the target’s mental faculties/thoughts/memories at will should the wielder touch it to any part of their victim’s skin.

Now, on one hand, there are a heap of interesting (and even benevolent) applications for a tool like that.  It could instantly grant access to skills, languages and knowledge that would otherwise take a person years of study to learn.  It could be used to sort through and resolve memories that had been faded by time, muddied by trauma or forcibly supressed by magical/medical means.  But on the other…

As described and used in campaign so far, the primary function of the Mindshaper is to alter memories (and the attendant personality) with the target having no awareness that their mind has been changed.  It’s basically gaslighting on steroids, except that where a gaslighting victim still retains their original recollection – and has to be manipulated by their abuser into doubting their own perceptions and instead accepting the alternate telling of events (a cognitive dissonance that can eventually lead the person to recognise the manipulation) – the Shaper of Minds entirely replaces the original recollection of events with the version the wielder wants their victim to perceive.  There is no internal conflict between accounts, no inconsistencies that could alert the victim that someone has broken into their head and rewritten their perceived reality.  The person they reshape you to be is the person you believe you always were.  And all it takes is a single touch.

That is a brand of existential horror that had me on edge all throughout Session 24 (basically from the moment it was implied the key was in play).   Reality may be objective, but each individual person’s internal reality is governed by their perception – their memories – of the events in their life, no matter how incomplete, biased or otherwise skewed that personal perspective may have been.  You have value just by being you because you are not replaceable, but the thing that makes you unique is, in large part, the sum total of those inimitably specific personal memories.  No-one else will perceive the world in exactly the same way you do, and even a few minor changes to just a few of those perceptions can flow on to massive differences in ideals, values, priorities and future choices.  In that regard, the use of the Mindshaper Key isn’t so much an alteration as an obliteration of the victim’s former self and replacement with someone new; even if that new stranger is largely indistinguishable from the original.  And, again, all it takes is a single touch.

[Sidenote:  This made Mister Wick an especially effective antagonist to wield the key, since his Galas functionally trap even targets who are aware of the threat within the rules of high-society behavioural expectations.  Otherwise-innocuous actions like a handshake or private conversation suddenly become incredibly dangerous, while being nigh-impossible for the Flower Crowns to extract themselves from without committing an atrocious faux pas and potentially tipping Wick off.  Perfectly designed stage for a psychological horror-thriller encounter.]

Which of course, brings us to a certain character who fell victim to the key in Episode 24…  [put under the cut for spoiler reasons]

MORENTHAL

This poor Drow, he can never catch a break…

Morenthal may not have been the most mechanically dangerous party member to fall victim to Mister Wick’s manipulations although, given that the key was revealed to let its wielder read existing memories during the alteration, and that all of the Flower Crowns were fully briefed on the locations and nature of the Eversteel artefacts, him getting a hand on any of them could have been very bad plot-wise but from a character point of view I think he’s the one who the key’s effects had the potential to be most personally devastating for.

The way things ended up playing out across Session 25 was precisely the nightmare scenario Gamb was fretting about out of game: Mister Wick forcibly implanted Morenthal’s mind with false memories of being his lifelong trusted confidant and supporter, then – before the Flower Crowns could reverse the key’s effect – Morenthal discovered that Mister Wick had been killed in combat with Coil and Preston, leading to the Party having to physically restrain him so they could use the key to undo the damage, thus confronting Morenthal with the realisation that not only was everything he thought he knew about Jonathan a lie, but in actuality Jonathan had committed possibly the most invasive violation he’d ever been subjected to in order to forcibly make Morenthal into one of his loyal tools.  That level of emotional and mental whiplash would be rough on any character, but for Morenthal it’s particularly brutal because…

Based on what’s been revealed in-game so far, the core of his character is that Morenthal is an abused child.  This most-clearly came up in his conversation with Gelnek in Session 14; he was a child who grew up with nothing, raised by the Bloodletter Mercenaries as a tool instead of a person, and taught to see faces only as targets – with him also mentioning to Hobson in that their “combat training” involved being relentlessly beaten down until he learned to fight back.  During his Session 21 visit with the Nightmother, he openly admits that “nowhere feels safe”.  From that it’s pretty clear to read that Morenthal has never felt unconditionally loved, safe or respected around other mortals.

(This also helps contextualise why he’s so devoted to the Nightmother.  From what little we have seen of his visits to her, Iris is a fond “adult” figure, who does not threaten, does not judge, asks nothing of him aside from his company, and cares equally for all the souls that pass through her domain.  For a child “growing up with nothing” but violence, that would have been everything.)

But then, enter Jonathan fucking Wick.  And now, just for a short while, Morenthal has all these “memories” of Jonathan being there to confide in, encourage him and support his escape from the Bloodletters.  Suddenly he believes someone was there for him and, while the memories might be fake, the feelings of unconditional safety they would have brought were very real.  Little wonder that he started acting like a Trilby-level naive goober around Mister Wick to the point of accidentally snitching on the rest of the group.  Only, then it turns out to be a lie and those memories are gone.

For me, I think one of the worst things Morenthal might end up dealing with in the aftermath of having his memory fixed isn’t the specific feeling of personal betrayal or the potential shame at having been caught: it’s the realisation that he was always alone.   That there was no mortal on the outside who cared or came for him when he needed them – just him and the distant fondness of a Divine.  That would be awful beyond words, and yet the Flower Crowns were forced to inadvertently inflict it upon him in order to restore his mind.  No wonder he wouldn’t look any of them in the eye before the session closed.

Worse still, the nature of the key makes it incredibly hard not only to trust others, but to trust your own mind.  The players and audience above-table know that Morenthal is back to experiencing and remembering reality as it happened, but the question could very well linger for him, bringing with it a hefty dose of paranoia.  Sure, Morenthal correctly remembers that Coil is a straightforward, loyal person who wouldn’t be tempted to tamper with his mind beyond undoing Jonathan’s manipulations… but he “remembered” that about Mister Wick too, and wouldn’t that be a beneficial thing for the Party to have him think?   To Morenthal, people were already Not Safe™, but now the one person he ever believed might be had actually violated him worse than anyone else in order to force and abuse that trust.  How is he supposed to trust anyone if he can’t trust the authenticity of his own recollections.  (I get the feeling that Morenthal probably isn't going to be capable of relaxing until the Shaper of Minds is confirmed to either be locked back safely in the Vaults of Eversteel or fully removed from the Mortal Plane by Six).

It makes it really tragic that all of this came directly on the back of Episode 23, where Gamb revealed during the above-table break chat that - even if Morenthal didn’t recognise why – he unconsciously trusted Trilby and Gelnek enough to jump off the airship without checking that his rope was secure, because deep-down he knew they would catch him.  To go from that high-point to the whiplash of him first thinking the Flower Crowns had killed the only person he was ever “safe” with, then them inadvertently subjecting him to the most painful realisation he could ever experience and potentially leaving him wondering whether he can even trust his feelings about them is absolutely gutting.

I think the thing that scares me most about how the aftermath could potentially play out is another trait that Gamb and Dan have established for Morenthal: he's a flight-risk.   He shies away from letting people get close and, if he feels unsafe enough, he runs.  It’s already been mentioned/implied that he’s considered fleeing the group at multiple different points across the sessions.  And with him likely not feeling safe even in inside his own mind right now, that risk is probably at an all-time high.  The poor lad is staring down the barrel of a potentially-impending multi-level emotional crisis, where a lifetime of instincts will probably be urging him to run hard and fast because People Are Not Safe™.

And the thing is, that instinct isn’t a good one for him either.  Morenthal might have gotten by on his own “just living to be” up until Filgrove, but that feels a lot more like surviving out of necessity than having an actual life.  It’s pretty obvious that he pushes people away as a defence mechanism:  if you don’t care about anyone then you can’t be hurt by them or have those people used against you.  But if you don’t let yourself care and feel things, you’re not really living.  The truly tragic part of his running being a potential foreseeable outcome is that the Flower Crowns are good for Morenthal.  (I doubt Morenthal realises it and can’t speak to Gamb’s above-table thought process but it’s interesting that one potential interpretation of Morenthal’s cynical, faux-apathetic, “stinky” behaviour is that of a former abused child quietly testing the boundaries of whether he’s allowed to exist in a way that’s inconvenient for others, to which the answer from the Party has largely been yes provided he isn’t actively encouraging Trilby to get himself killed, or killing people without explaining himself).  He survived alone before because that was all he knew, but I get the feeling he wouldn’t do so well if he tried to go it solo again after being with people (he’s already confessed that the idea of Feyli being gone makes him miss her).   That’s not a road to walk on his best day, let alone with his current headspace and tendency towards self-destructive choices. 

It reminds me a lot of this article:

“Still, it’s easier for us to keep blaming ourselves because it’s preferable to facing the unthinkable: the fact that our parents don’t love us. …  Most people would rather do anything than accept this as the truth. Not only is it painful; it’s humiliating.”

So yeah, suffice to say I am incredibly concerned about how Morenthal’s arc is going to play out over the next session(s).  Here’s hoping that Gelnek and/or Coil have enough emotional savvy to keep an eye out, and enough patience to stick to him even if he lashes out in attempt to drive them off.  Even if it all works out okay, I get the feeling that this one’s going to be ugly.

Can’t wait to see how everyone chooses to play it ❤️‍🩹

[designernishiki]

i rarely see people talking about the trans girl substory in y3 and like. yakuza may have its issues with iffy representation here and there but I’ll give them credit for that one, it was simple but it was sweet and kiryu was very in character. my only question is: where the hell did kiryu learn the word transgender

[wolfsbaneandthistle]

Image ID: two speculative aliens. They have a long appendage at the front of their body, and the bodies themselves are made up of two segments- wings and a tail. They are a little slug-like, with their wings and tail having and exaggerated version of a slug’s skirt. The one on the left, labeled as “Diaf” is more upright, mimicking a biped. She is a diluted purple. The one on the right is labeled “Ankiusk” and is shorter and more stretched out. She is a combination of bright blues and pinks, with a few purples where the colors mix. There is also a diagram of the mouths, which when open reveal two cuttlefish-like limbs with tentacles and whiskers. End ID.

If you saw the post about Diaf before no you didn’t. Here’s the real design the last one never happened.

[tanadrin]

The supposed efficiency and effectiveness of fascism was always propaganda: in reality, fascist regimes were deeply inefficient, hobbled by interpersonal rivalry, had institutions weakened or totally subverted by the personalist nature of leadership, and were deeply corrupt and lawless.

So it really, really bugs me how so much speculative fiction and even casual discourse since has taken WW2 era propaganda about fascism at face value, and depicted authoritarianism generally and fascism in particular as an intrinsic tradeoff between the chaos and disorder of liberty and the order of repression. Fascism is not orderly! That was always a lie. There is a reason right-wing authoritarian regimes have mid performance at best and at worst collapse due to infighting and military defeat—they suck at running states!

Democracy is the ideology of order and stability. Democracy provides for stable succession and can sustain rule of law in ways personalist rule cannot. Democracy can create avenues of accountability to reduce corruption that authoritarian (or even one-party rule) could never contemplate. “Democracy is chaos” is a lie invented by fascists to try to discredit liberal principles, and the apparent “chaos” of interwar democracies was often caused by the fascists themselves because they did not believe in liberalism.

I think of this most often in the context of video games about politics where it is assumed that authoritarian governance gives you efficiency bonuses at some cost to happiness or freedom—but I think these mechanics are backward. Fascism and authoritarianism are good for the narrow ruling clique at the top, the people they personally enrich, but they make for brittle and weak states, and they often fuck over even the narrow ethnic group or core citizenry whose will they are supposed to be channeling. Starting World War II was very bad for almost all Germans and Italians!

By contrast political scientists debate if a consolidated liberal democracy has ever deconsolidated, and the biggest challenges to democratic systems of government have tended to come when those systems are illiberal (as before the American Civil War), or being sabotaged by most participants (as Weimar Germany, where neither the left nor the right were really interested in democracy).

[orcelito]

ooooookay so i havent seen anyone on tumblr talk about this directly yet so i figured i'd make a post linking to ppl talking about it. im not personally involved, but since this is an artist i recognize & see around, i figure ppl have the right to know

so uh. long story short. @/valdrickvile on here is kinda uhhhhhh not someone you'd wanna interact with, maybe.

^ this thread goes into it

& in case anything happens to the tweets, here's the big document that goes into it. ive read thru a good amount of it and uh........... yeah.

im not sharing this as a call to harass the people involved (Please Dont) but just. people have a right to know. so pls just block and move on.