#deep discussion

[aventurineswife]

one request <3 (im really bad at explaining)

how some hsr characters would react to a reader that are into otome games?

HSR characters with a Reader who's into Otome Games

Synopsis: How would some of these characters react to having a Reader who's into Otome Games?

Tags: Veritas Ratio x Reader, Aventurine x Reader, Jade x Reader, Kafka x Reader, Blade x Reader, Jing Yuan x Reader, Headcanons, Fluff, Established Relationship or could be read as Platonically, Psychological Themes, Banter, Supportive, Deep Discussions.

Warnings: Teasing, Occasional Dark Humor, Discussions On Morality And Psychology, References To Manipulation, Themes Of Ambition And Power Dynamics, Light Romance, Exploration Of Past Trauma(?).

A/N: I wish there was a HSR mod where we could romance the characters 😪😕

Dr. Veritas Ratio

Ratio would be intrigued by the narratives and character development in otome games, seeing them as an interesting exploration of human relationships and emotional intelligence.

He might initially scoff at what he considers shallow romantic tropes, but upon further discussion, he'd appreciate the complexities and motivations of the characters.

He’d encourage you to analyze the storylines critically, turning your hobby into a learning experience about psychology and social dynamics.

He’d love to engage in debates about your favorite characters and choices, often challenging your views to foster deeper discussions.

Aventurine

Aventurine would tease you about your obsession with fictional characters, using his charm to poke fun while secretly enjoying the playful banter.

He’d be fascinated by the strategic elements of the games, perhaps even comparing life to a game of chance, finding ways to apply his risk-taking mentality to the scenarios.

He might surprise you with gifts that reference your favorite games, like custom trinkets or stylish outfits inspired by characters, showing his support.

Jade

Jade might initially appear skeptical, viewing otome games as frivolous, but would soon become intrigued by the underlying themes of ambition and emotional manipulation.

She’d encourage you to see beyond the surface, urging you to analyze the dynamics of power and desire within the narratives.

Jade might even suggest treating your interest as a business endeavor, perhaps exploring ways to monetize your passion through game-related content.

If you have any game merchandise, she might admire your collection, possibly wanting to trade valuable items or share insights about the game's market value.

Kafka

Kafka would find the psychological elements of otome games fascinating, especially the manipulation of characters and narratives, seeing parallels with her own skills.

She’d casually drop remarks about the games, comparing the characters’ strategies to her own, which could lead to deeper discussions about morality and choices.

Kafka would be especially interested in the character designs and fashions, perhaps wanting to discuss or even replicate certain styles for herself.

If the games feature memorable outfits or coats, she might express a desire to acquire similar pieces, leading to playful banter about your mutual interests.

Blade

Blade might initially express a cynical view of otome games, seeing them as naive distractions from the harsh realities of life.

He would likely make darkly humorous comments about the characters’ romantic dilemmas, providing a contrasting perspective that could spark interesting conversations.

Despite his cynicism, he might secretly enjoy the escape they provide, finding a strange comfort in the fictional dramas.

Blade would likely appreciate the themes of love and loss, connecting them to his own tragic past and engaging in deeper discussions about the nature of relationships.

Jing Yuan

Jing Yuan would appreciate the storytelling aspect of otome games, often relating it to historical tales and strategic narratives he values.

He might offer calm, insightful perspectives on the choices you make in games, helping you to consider the ramifications of those decisions.

Jing Yuan would be supportive of your passion, perhaps asking about your favorite games and characters, fostering a sense of connection.

He’d likely inject gentle humor into the conversation, lightening the mood and making the topic of otome games feel more engaging and less frivolous.

[heavenbarnes]

Just thought abt olderbf!simon fucking you in his rugby/football jersey and growling right in your ear something about giving you a pretty ring on your finger and his last name

there is nothing older bf!simon wants more than to see “RILEY” across your back as he’s hitting it from behind.

it’s only sunday morning local-rec-over-21’s rugby. it’s nothing special.

but there is you on the side lines, so cold he can see your breath and wrapped up in one of his thicker jackets.

he likes the way you smile and do a little jump when it’s a penalty for his team.

and he likes that little frown you get when someone tries to take him off at the knees.

and he really likes the way you get a little dazed when he’s tackling sorry bastards across the grass.

that same dazed look you get when he comes off the pitch covered in mud and smelling like sweat. when you pass him a towel and tell him to shower at home.

which is actually code for “get me home now and i’ll do that thing you like”

and it leads him to this, bending you over on the bed so he can see his last name stretched across your shoulders and imagine what it’ll be like when it’s finally yours.

he can feel the caveman-primal-madness coursing through him when he sees you with his name on his back. inexplicably hard at the thought-

the thought of you as his.

and whilst he hasn’t got it all planned out yet, he can pretend like he does. when he presses his chest to your back so you can hear his voice loud and clear.

“y’all mine? hmm? get t’keep y’forever? till death n’all that?”

[afterthelambs]

i adore Maruki as a character because he's simultaneously the most relatable depressing character that will make you cry with empathy, and the goofiest wettest cat loser in the game like what do you mean youre a licensed therapist and your first response to trauma is to brainwash a girl, project ur relationship issues onto a 17 yr old boy, and then rule the world in a golden leotard? bro went from 0 to 100 so fast??? anyway he's like 30% of the reason why p5r works as well as it does

[sweetlullabyebye]

Charles' thing is that he wants to feel alive and that's part of the reason why he decided to never move on to the afterlife right? Meanwhile Edwin thinks Charles will move on and that he'll be alone again because 'he isn't good with people'.

But then when the Night Nurse shows up a second time Charles is ready to go wherever -including Hell- as long as Edwin shouldn't have to go back there, meanwhile Edwin refuses that they be split up, and both are okay with being sent together to the Lost and Found Department to be sorted out later as long as they're together-

[nellasbookplanet]

people have been fawning over how humanlike the gods are for a month now, but now its wrong to compare them to mortal powers because they're otherworldy beings that can't possibly be thought of in human terms? or is the suggestion that they're like mortals, but they're just an innately superior group of people that deserves to have power over everyone else?

Hello anon! Are you the same person who got all up in my askbox yesterday? You certainly seem to have an equally poor grasp on what I actually said and a willingness to make it somebody else's problem. However, I no longer have a headache and am feeling less cranky, so lets treat this as a genuine question.

I never said it's wrong or even inaccurate to compare the gods to humans/mortals. What I said is that some seem over-eager to equate them with groups or systems where they don't actually fit, or to project our own world onto them. This tends to lead to poor textual analysis. For example, equating the gods with mortal rulers (specifically tyrannical rulers, even), the one percent, a higher social class, rich people, or colonizers of mortals all read as comparisons made from the assumption 'gods are the most powerful sentient beings of Exandria; therefore I will compare them to the most powerful people of our world'. Do these comparisons make actual sense as parallels? No! Kings and rich people and colonizers aren't innately more powerful than others because we don't live in a fantasy world where magic is real. You can take said power from them and redistribute it fairly. You cannot do this with the gods.

Ultimately, the last few words in your ask neatly sum up the problem with this mindset: do the gods deserve to hold this power over everyone else? Lets look at this through a comparison: do sorcerers like Imogen deserve to hold power over everyone else? She, like most sorcerers, was born with powers others do not have and has no way to get rid of them. They cannot be taken from her and redistributed to the masses to make things more equal, because they are a part of her innate self. In using them, Imogen can do good, but she also sometimes ends up hurting people by reading their thoughts without consent or, at times, even meaning to. So, does Imogen deserve this power? By now, you might see the problem. It doesn't matter whether she deserves her power because you can't take it from her without killing her, no matter how unfair you think it is that she has it. 'Do they deserve their power' is an irrelevant question that people keep coming back to. What you're actually asking is, 'do the gods deserve to live', or even 'do we have the right to kill them' which is a lot more loaded.

The gods already evened the playing field as much as was possible by locking themselves behind the divine gate, severely diminishing their influence on Exandria. They can no longer cause any more harm than any mortal, because now they must act through mortals such as clerics and paladins, through which they do a lot of good (or have we already forgotten about c1 and c2, or even the resurrection of Laudna by a divine cleric and the actions of FCG in c3?). If this still isn't enough for you, you might want to ask yourself whether what you actually want is fairness and the good of the people of Exandria, or if you're just looking for pointless revenge for the sake of it.

[anonymouspuzzler]

realized i should put my shipwrecked 64 art Literally Anywhere But Frankenbugs Server (btw watch bugs n frankie's shipwrecked playthrough it's good)

[tevanbuckley]

rewatching the lone star cross over with the knowledge/confirmation that buck's bi is sooooo funny, because look at him

if you saw these still out of context in what world would you assume they're from a scene where buck is consoling tk about his dad being presumed dead? like no wonder tk clocked his ass.

it's even more hilarious that this interaction apparently set off zero alarm bells in buck's head and so it took him a whole three more years to come out. he really just thought he allied too close to the sun.

all i'm saying is buck's lucky tommy was single because otherwise he would've carried on accidentally flirting with hot queer firemen and never putting the pieces together.

[fireladybuckley]

I can’t believe a boyfriend made a silly sex joke to lighten the mood after both partners had a moment of vulnerability. The audacity. The horror. The normalcy! Unbelievable. How dare a conversation about feelings turn to levity. How dare a couple have a light chat about trauma-related things over dinner that doesn’t turn into an incredibly deep heart to heart instead of a joke and moving on. Unbelievable. I’m never watching this show again! 👎🏻

[sleepsucks]

[crudelobotomiser]

I feel like people don’t talk about the aspects of Hannibal’s cannibalistic desires towards Will because I’m 70% sure that Hannibal would consider the absorption of a loved one in a sensory aspect as well.

Like he can hear, see, smell and touch Will, so of course he would want to taste him as well. Taste is a human sense constructed for delight and he would want to delight in being able to experience his loved ones on that level, like it’s the sensory experience of eating another and perceiving them with that taboo sense.

I’d also like to entertain the scene where Hannibal pricked his finger on the fishing gear and tasted the blood. Like is that not a taste for the sensory experience? Of course it could be a reference to kissing but he wanted to perceive what an object of Will’s would taste like when mended with himself, metal on metal.

I really need to rewatch Hannibal while entertaining this lens more I think it would be really interesting.

[wistfulwatcher]

I can't stop thinking about the fact that, even if they don't physically eat her, jackie taylor is the first person the girls cannibalize.

we see it most intensely and most obviously with shauna, who consumes more and more of jackie's life. before the plane even crashes, shauna takes jeff's virginity, which was supposed to be jackie's. she takes jeff, jackie's boyfriend. after the crash, she takes the team's loyalty; more and more of their teammates start confiding in and working with shauna, ostracizing jackie, until the team firmly chooses shauna over jackie, their captain. shauna goes on to marry jackie's boyfriend and have the suburban little life that jackie was supposed to have. hell, shauna even takes rabbits from jackie—jackie "loved them", but we only see rabbits when it's about shauna. they're symbolic of the wilderness and who shauna has become.

but it's not just shauna. the longer they're in the woods, the more the rest of the girls start taking from jackie, consuming bits and pieces of her identity until there's nothing left.

jackie is the leader. she's the team captain, and her role is to lead and keep her team together. we're explicitly introduced to jackie this way. coach martinez points out how the other players on the team are better than her, but what she has is influence. she's specifically chosen to be the one to lead her teammates through difficulty. and at the party, we see her in action. we see her take a fractured team and put them back together! she fixes them, she leads them, she heals them.

but after the crash, jackie isn't a leader. misty is the one calm under pressure, who gets them through the first few hours. taissa steps forward and pushes the team to move from the crash site, the one with the initiative to go look for help on foot. laura lee is the one brave enough to try and fly the plane. akilah stops them from eating poison. nat hunts for them, provides for them. lottie protects and guides them.

she almost finds a foothold with the seance, almost finds the old part of herself that gives pep talks and lightens the mood with distractions. but van can weave stories by the campfire, and mari can lead late night line dances and make booze.

so what's left for jackie? each of the girls cuts and picks at the facets of leadership until there's nothing left of it for her. until she's a worthless captain to a group of girls who have figured out how to break her up and share her between themselves.

[redrobin-detective]

My fic writing process

Me: Here is an interesting idea, extrapolating the story's inherent, underutilized worldbuilding and not only acting upon it, but expanding it and making it my own to explore themes and characters I enjoy. Also Me: Ok but also this would be Hilarious

[barawrah]

been extra miserable about them this past week

[aleksanderscult]

The Darkling is too relatable.

Yes, my boy, I know what it is like to be done with life, to feel like you're the only one with common sense, to be surrounded by idiots, to warn them of danger, to try putting in them some reason and logic only to fail because Jesus themselves can't enlighten such dumb heads.

He's me. I'm the Darkling.

[klaasje]

de devblog - character models

Kim's design was a slam dunk from the get-go. Unlike Kim, Harry went through a number of re-designs. Sure, the basics remained in place, but as we were rethinking our approach to the character creation pipeline, Harry started changing along with it. (x)

[redjademilktea]

I've talked about this before, but with the final episode of Downfall and the Cooldown that followed it I feel the need to write about it again.

The morality of saving the gods of Exandria was never going to be clear cut. Stopping Ludinus, stopping the Ruby Vanguard maybe. But there's an important conversation to be had about the nature of divinity that needs to be had. And Downfall makes this discourse more salient and pressing than it's ever been.

I really liked what Brennan brought up in the Cooldown, about "achieving enlightenment on their terms," or suffer the fate of "not being able to understand." The gods as they exist have protected and will continue to protect the way of being that allows for their continued existence. They dismiss anything that challenges that existence - anything that makes them confront the nature of mortality, as Brennan elegantly phrased it - as something not worth considering. As something that simply doesn't grasp what one needs to grasp to do what must be done.

And if doing what must be done means calling a truce in their great war. If that means collaborating with the very siblings on the opposing side of that conflict, which has led to so much loss of mortal life and desecration of the face of Exandria, then so be it. It has to be done. We are mere children, we wouldn't understand.

I'm reminded of Ann Stoler in her book "Along the Archival Grain," along with Avery Gordon's "Ghostly Matters." Both authors talk about the lengths and extents colonial states go to legitimate and justify their existence through the policing and curation of knowledge. It is in the best interest of the colonial state to produce and maintain knowledge that justifies its being. They are doing what they do because they define it to be right, to be just.

And those contradictions? The holes in colonial logic born out of the anxieties and fears of losing that legitimacy? Those inconsistencies that necessitate their reproduction and continued existence? Poor child, you do not understand. It is the right thing to do. There are things at play that are beyond fathoming for you. It simply must be this way. It is right for it to be this way. Fallicies and contradictions in colonial logic become justified and legitimated via the production of knowledge produced from the colonial archive to reproduce itself.

The knowledge of the divine killing weapon. The people, the complex, ephemeral, fleeting, textured, beautiful, pained, vibrant lives of those that held that knowledge. That knowledge that was spread to touch every soul on that floating city. All of it could not persist. For them to persist would mean the possibility of the way things are, the way things are ought to be from those who know better, could come to an end.

So it must be this way. The city must fall, despite its infinite arcane beauty. Lives must be lost, and so too must their chance for redemption, for a new beginning. All things must come to an end, if that means preserving the infinite. Family must persist. *They* must persist. And so it must be this way.

I say all this to highlight the fact that the morality underlying the theme of this campaign is not clear cut. The nature of it prevents that. The members of Bells Hells are not good or bad because some of them remain ambivalent to the existence of the gods. No single one of them is inherently right or wrong.

But you cannot argue there is a "right" answer when it comes to the gods. They simply are. Much like anything simply is. And what their existence means, especially for what it means to the lives of mortals on Exandria who must suffer the consequences of that divine existence, must be reckoned with.

I really am impressed with the bold scope of thematic ideas that Campaign 3 introduces and continues to grapple with. It is phenomenal story telling, and is strikingly resonant with the enmeshed struggles that permeate the very real world that informs the lives and experiences of its creators. All of them continue to blow me away every Thursday night!