#context shift

[overstimulated-autism-creature]

[kithpendragon]

Context shift: when you step into the boss battle and that driving bass line starts playing, the music isn't there to make you tense. It's a result of how tense you're making the boss just by being in their room.

An experienced player can take a boss apart neatly and efficiently, and the boss knows it.

Players can't die, they just respawn at the last save. Over. And. Over. They come at you again and again, stronger and smarter every time.

Bosses aren't scary, players are.

[inkskinned]

the thing is that they're so fascinated by sex, they love sex, they can't imagine a world without sex - they need sex to sell things, they need sex to be part of their personality, they need sex to prove their power - but they hate sex. they are disgusted by it.

sex is the only thing that holds their attention, and it is also the thing that can never be discussed directly.

you can't tell a child the normal names for parts of their body, that's sexual in nature, because the body isn't a body, it's a vessel of sex. it doesn't matter that it's been proven in studies (over and over) that kids need to know the names of their genitals; that they internalize sexual shame at a very young age and know it's 'dirty' to have a body; that it overwhelmingly protects children for them to have the correct words to communicate with. what matters is that they're sexual organs. what matters is that it freaks them out to think about kids having body parts - which only exist in the context of sex.

it's gross to talk about a period or how to check for cancer in a testicle or breast. that is nasty, illicit. there will be no pain meds for harsh medical procedures, just because they feature a cervix.

but they will put out an ad of you scantily-clad. you will sell their cars for them, because you have abs, a body. you will drip sex. you will ooze it, like a goo. like you were put on this planet to secrete wealth into their open palms.

they will hit you with that same palm. it will be disgusting that you like leather or leashes, but they will put their movie characters in leather and latex. it will be wrong of you to want sexual freedom, but they will mark their success in the number of people they bed.

they will crow that it's inappropriate for children so there will be no lessons on how to properly apply a condom, even to teens. it's teaching them the wrong things. no lessons on the diversity of sexual organ growth, none on how to obtain consent properly, none on how to recognize when you feel unsafe in your body. if you are a teenager, you have probably already been sexualized at some point in your life. you will have seen someone also-your-age who is splashed across a tv screen or a magazine or married to someone three times your age. you will watch people pull their hair into pigtails so they look like you. so that they can be sexy because of youth. one of the most common pornography searches involves newly-18 young women. girls. the words "barely legal," a hiss of glass sand over your skin.

barely legal. there are bills in place that will not allow people to feel safe in their own bodies. there are people working so hard to punish any person for having sex in a way that isn't god-fearing and submissive. heteronormative. the sex has to be at their feet, on your knees, your eyes wet. when was the first time you saw another person crying in pornography and thought - okay but for real. she looks super unhappy. later, when you are unhappy, you will close your eyes and ignore the feeling and act the role you have been taught to keep playing. they will punish the sex workers, remove the places they can practice their trade safely. they will then make casual jokes about how they sexually harass their nanny.

and they love sex but they hate that you're having sex. you need to have their ornamental, perfunctory, dispassionate sex. so you can't kiss your girlfriend in the bible belt because it is gross to have sex with someone of the same gender. so you can't get your tubes tied in new england because you might change your mind. so you can't admit you were sexually assaulted because real men don't get hurt, you should be grateful. you cannot handle your own body, you cannot handle the risks involved, let other people decide that for you. you aren't ready yet.

but they need you to have sex because you need to have kids. at 15, you are old enough to parent. you are not old enough to hear the word fuck too many times on television.

they are horrified by sex and they never stop talking about it, thinking about it, making everything unnecessarily preverted. the saying - a thief thinks everyone steals. they stand up at their podiums and they look out at the crowd and they sign a bill into place that makes sexwork even more unsafe and they stand up and smile and sign a bill that makes gender-affirming care illegal and they get up and they shrug their shoulders and write don't say gay and they get up, and they make the world about sex, but this horrible, plastic vision of it that they have. this wretched, emotionless thing that holds so much weight it's staggering. they put their whole spine behind it and they push and they say it's normal!

this horrible world they live in. disgusted and also obsessed.

[springbeans-art]

uff wish i had time to polish this more but I had to get it off my chest because it's inspired by @demonzoro 's absolutely stunning fic "and then the sun came out" and it literally rearranged my braincells!!!!!! The writing is impeccable and if you haven't read it yet do yourself the favor and go now!!!

[vladdyissues]

Day 1: Anchor

[alwaysbewoke]

[spirk-trek]

back to back frames btw:

[natbplease]

if the eclipse was happening last year i would have so many thoughts about postcanon players living their normal (“normal”) lives trying to carve out a place in the world after only playing blaseball for literal decades. after a while you finally found a sense of security but the game never actually leaves you and every once in a while there’s something that shoves you right back onto the field. so it’s a random afternoon in april and people are talking about a total solar eclipse like it’s a rare scientific phenomenon and not something that killed a dozen of your friends twenty years ago. and nobody else knows that because nobody else remembers so you’re trying very hard to be fine with it and pretend like it’s a cool novelty like all of your new friends and new coworkers are. but then you meet the eyes of someone who Remembers, who was around for as long as you were (one of the only ones still left), and you know that they’re feeling the same bone-deep terror that you are.

but since it’s 2024 i’m very normal about everything and i’m not even think about this at all. 👍

[lovebvni]

i need to post this

nile, who im shifting to stardew valley with, PUT THIS IN OUR SCRIPT AND I CANNOT STOP LAUGHING WHAT

[hopeswriting]

was thinking about takeshi and how he's my favorite brand of unconditional devotion btw. the utter and absolute and all-consuming kind that runs so deep to the very core and is so intrinsic and fundamental to it, it can only express itself in the most casual and natural and certain way. without second thoughts, without any room for doubts or for any moral dilemma to be had over it, because of course he ought to always be breathing and living for his chosen person first and foremost. of course he ought to hang on their every word and make them true no matter what, no matter what he has to do to make it happen, no matter what he has to do to other people to make it happen, and no matter what it might turn him into in the process. because it's obviously the way the world should be for his chosen person. at their feet, ready to bend over backwards and break and build itself again to better answer to all their needs even if they don't ask it for it. it's the only right way it should be for them, and of course takeshi's going to do his utmost at all times to make it a reality as much as possible.

and his devotion comes out as naturally as breathing, comes out lighthearted and nonchalant like he might as well be talking about the weather, but it's not unaware of itself. it's not that takeshi doesn't know it's unhealthy and wrong and that he's willing to go entirely too far in its name for anyone's good. it's not that he wouldn't hear you out if you were to sit him down and explain to him just why he needs to tone it down a little (a lot). logically, he'd agree with you and know you're right. and then he'd tell you he's still not going to do anything whatsoever about it. that he's not bothered by it and doesn't feel the need to change anything to his attitude. makes it a point to never let anyone or anything sway him even an inch in the stand he took when it comes to that, no matter how many thousand of times you might go over the subject with him.

because the morality of his devotion isn't the point at all. is entirely irrelevant to it and doesn't affect the way he expresses it all. it's not the metric with which he draws a line in the sand to hold it accountable to. because the thing is, takeshi's entire world revolves around tsuna--tsuna is his entire world altogether, and it's just a matter of fact, that simple. to him it's a truth as unchanging as the sky being blue, and so being the way he is according to that truth is the only way he can imagine being that'd feel right to him. and so the actual and only metric that matters here is "would tsuna be happier if i were to do this?" and/or "is this something tsuna needs me to do?"

and like. i don't think takeshi ever stops being a kind person capable of compassion and understanding and mercy and forgiveness even ten years later once they became mafia through and through. and i don't think either he grows up to be feared and called a monster per se despite the things they inevitably had to do during those ten years (and the things they'll inevitably keep having to do as long as they keep being mafia), at least not in the way, for example, they'll never stop fearing and calling mukuro one. but i do think that among the tenth gen, he ends up being the one with the most ruthless, merciless and horrific blood on his hands of that particular and distinct loving kind. you know the one i mean, right? he comes to be the one most expected and the one first expected to be willing and to take it upon himself to go through with it when the need arises. and to think little of it after, if anything at all. all in the name of making tsuna's reign as easy on him as possible.

and it's to the point where it's the kind of blood that makes even mukuro pause at times. or, when takeshi is the one coming up with solutions himself during meetings, makes even reborn blink. not because it's unjustified or wouldn't be safe or efficient or anything of the sort, but because it is unwarrantedly thorough in its retaliation. and sometimes, at times like this, he's the one tsuna needs to step in for the most, because he's the only one who can reason with him that "yes, this would work in getting rid of our problem" but "no, please, don't do that takeshi". because if tsuna is the only thing that infers on just how much and in what ways he'll let himself be devoted to him, then of course, he's also the only one takeshi's willing to reign himself in for without second thoughts. because he'd hate to ever do something tsuna would disapprove of or wouldn't want him to do. or do something that'd make tsuna see him differently or love him back less even in the slightest.

and it's also like. his devotion isn't an undisciplined one. it's not one he doesn't have control over, the very opposite. it's a very purposeful and conscious choice he chooses to keep making over and over again every step of the way, and he taught himself to have control over it, to know when it's needed and/or wanted, and how much and in which ways it is when it happens, and to keep it down otherwise. and, yes, to also reign it back in at tsuna's request at times when it still slips past his control. because it's all about making tsuna's happiness easier and secure and long-lasting, and never about burdening him with just how committed he is to do that.

so it comes down to this: takeshi willing to go above and beyond and more for tsuna unless tsuna explicitly asks him not to. and to tsuna needing to ask him not to every now and then. and to other people pointing out to him how too many times tsuna's already needed to stop him, and that maybe there's a hint for him to take there. and to takeshi seeing the hint, looking it straight in the eye and recognizing it for what it is and just. deciding it doesn't apply to him because it's all perfectly normal behavior to him. because it's the only kind of behavior that makes sense to him and feels right.

and so—to circle back to my first point—he can only express his devotion as naturally as breathing, so casually, almost like it's something inconsequential and not worth talking about despite how unmistakably it couldn't be further away from being the truth. it's the only way he could have always known how to express it, because, after all, who has ever taken time to ponder about the details and the hows of the way they breathe?

and i, for one, absolutely eat that shit up every time, thanks for coming to my ted talk <3

[corpusprion]

The most soul-wrenching version of Crocomom/Crocodad that my brain has cooked up is the

“Crocodile wanted to keep his child but was essentially told that the child he just gave birth to died and he’s not given the chance to see said son even once.” (aka we are lying to you for some reason and your son has been whisked away by the baby daddy)

So now he’s been emotionally shattered and has become so deeply bitter and guarded. Better to focus on a grand plan, burn the past away and devote himself to the future. Then when it hits, the the realization that his son is right there and still talking to him after he previously tried to kill him is going to completely break him again

also severe denial at any initial gut feeling that something is up with this rubber kid.tm

Its rooted itself into my skull and it aches

[readthephible]

can we talk about this. please

[marsbotz]

whats ur fucking deal

[daily-mafuemu-vitamins]

Today's MafuEmu Vitamin is...🥁

Mafuyu's The Taste of Authentic Takoyaki 3-star and Emu's Sweet, Sweet Memories 3-star!

snacktime :3 ❄️🍬

[cookieshower]

template

[vickysaurus]

So I have many thoughts and feelings about the Princess’s heart, and I’m gonna put them down in no particular order.

So first of all, the heart is symbolically the source of emotion, and love in particular. And, as the loading screen reminds us, this is a love story. And in this love story, the only way you can ever slay the Princess is to stab her in the heart.

One route I think has particularly powerful heart-related symbolism is the Wounded Wild. You have just extracted yourself from the co-dependent and rather unhealthy relationship Networked Wild represents, and you are immediately greeted with the wounded Princess, looking absolutely devastated, with her heart literally bared to you. You, her former lover, can still very easily reach it to hurt her. In fact, that’s what she expects you to do at this point, though even now you get the option not to use her vulnerability and instead cut her free and help her move on too.

And then there’s Razor, who in her pursuit of the cruel joy stabbing you brings her makes herself into more and more of a living weapon, but even at the end, what remains of her original self is her heart. And in the Empty Cup ending, when you strip away all her weapons and sharpness, that’s all she is left with, much smaller and more vulnerable than she was before the whole process started. I do wish we would get the option to slay her or cradle her heart before Shifty takes it away.

The heart symbology plays a huge role with so many princesses. Wraith has become a fucked up skeleperson, but the one fleshy part of her is her chest, where her heart sits. And, in fact, she bears the X-shaped scar of how you previously hurt her there, belying her apparently cruel and monstrous form. When Beast literally consumes you, she also brings you right up close to her heart, to her own downfall. To slay Spectre, you have to let her possess you so her heart becomes your heart and you can slay her by stabbing yourself. Even mighty Apotheosis is brought down with a single strike to the heart. A strike from her counterpart in this love story, who still has this power despite her spending this entire route treating you as less than her.

Finally, the ‘bossfight’ against Shifty is all about finding your way to her heart in the cabin, in order to get through all that divine confidence. Whether you do so to slay her or to get through to her and work out a better solution than the two you’re presented with is up to you, but either way seeking her heart is once again the solution.

There’s not really a specific point to these thoughts, but I really love that this is a game about finding your way to the Princess’s heart, one way or another, literally and/or metaphorically.