#especially being in a different state

[659pm]

eating disorder treatment is hard. that’s all

[aquamarinebling]

isat’s “what should we do with dead bodies” conversation is so so catastrophic to me- and a little horrifying. there’s a range of knowing how you want to die, with Mirabelle knowing the exact religious way she would prefer to be honored, Odile giving her options & preferences that mainly align with Ka Bue’s ideals, and Isabeau not having much thought beyond the general way Vaugaurde does it. They all have thought about it, and know their options well enough that they have some sort of favor or acceptance of the way their body is handled.

And then there is Siffrin, who doesn’t have this luxury at all in multiple senses. They don’t get to know their options beyond the ones from cultures that aren’t their own, the closest we get to see being “throw my ashes into the sky” which, while definitely symbolic & feels fitting for the country’s connection to the sky above, isn’t solid enough to be coined as what the Country actually does (and still, siffrin wouldn’t personally know that death is handled that way back home). He doesn’t get to die, either, and ever be mourned for. They never see how the party responds to their death in the loops, and seeing as they assumed they would just go back to traveling alone like before at the end of the journey, possibly thought they would die alone or silently, completely unaware they would be missed.

post game as well, we never learn how people from the island honor their dead? the king never says anything about it, and it’s likely siffrin will never learn. the only difference is that, now, siffrin knows they will be missed, however they’re disposed of.

[puppyeared]

i feel like im not making any sense but does anyone else feel like there are stories that let u run with them and ones that spell everything out for you

[stuckinapril]

I’m happy for the little life I built for myself

[geospiral]

The stage was always Luka’s world, and everyone else was just living in it.

Luka’s first round in the 50th Alien Stage competition was the fourth round, but really it should have been the second given the predetermined matchups. The Segyein were saving his round for later in order to excite the in-universe audience to the previous winner’s grand return.

(There is no dimmed profile in the second bracket.)

Luka being set up to go against either Mizi or Sua was absolutely intentional; the Segyein knew whoever came out of Round One would be an easy target for Luka’s manipulation, which, in their eyes, would make for a good show. When organizing the rounds, it seems like the Segyein try to go for which setups will elicit the biggest emotional responses out of the contestants. They clearly already knew about Mizi and Sua’s intimate relationship with the fact that the contestants’ profiles are most likely created by the Segyein with little to no input from the humans themselves (probably made with the help of the ever-present camera flowers in Anakt).

(translation)

This would also explain why Sua and Ivan were so certain about Mizi going up against Sua in the competition despite them not being told about the round matches yet.

(Take this with a grain of salt because it is possible they were already told who was against whom before this comic, but given how young they look, I'm thinking that it's probably too early for them to know.)

(translation)

If Luka weren’t in this year’s tournament, they would have probably set Till up against Mizi in Round 5 instead since the Segyein are aware of how much she means to Till. They technically could have still done that with Luka in the competition and had Round 6 be him vs. Ivan, but they most likely didn’t want to save Luka’s signature act until the final round, which the Segyein would have believed themselves to be doing given how they don’t seem to know how important Till is to Ivan (probably intentionally on Ivan's part).

(Text: "Intimacy: 70% It feels like I'm being chased all the time, but I can't find any evidence, so the teachers only suspect me!!! I'm so pissed!! He's always done things I don't like, and I don't understand... Anyway, he's a bother.)

Note: While I think the character profiles were probably made by the Segyein, I don't think the intimacy levels from the artbook are. I'm showing Till's intimacy level for Ivan to highlight his comment about the teachers not believing him when he says that Ivan is constantly following him around.

The Segyein knew the two were friends at least, but that seems about it. Maybe that was enough for them to be a possible sixth round setup if they came out of 2 and 3 victorious, but given the vast potential there was for Luka vs. Ivan after a Mizi vs. Till round, I don't think the Segyein knew the depths of Ivan and Till's relationship and therefore didn't care until it became blatantly obvious after the canon Round 6 and could be capitalized upon for the finale.

From a meta perspective, an Ivantill round was obvious, but my personal opinion is that in-universe I think that matchup was more akin to a happy little accident on the Segyein's part.

This is also all ignoring the huge elephant in the room, which is the Rebellion throwing a wrench into the competition.

I think the biggest change in the direction of the competition (not the results of the rounds but in how the rounds themselves were organized) due to the rebellion was how the Segyein decided to have the finale be mere hours after Round 6. If the fifth round hadn’t been interrupted, I think that the sixth would have been performed right after, like how the first four rounds were. Also, I don’t think they would have tried to aid Luka in his manipulation by throwing up pictures of Ivan on the screens and would have just left him to his own devices like in Round 5. But the Segyein wanted to lure the rebels out to save Till, so basically flashing a big sign that says, "THIS GUY IS MESSED UP FROM THE LAST ROUND AND WILL DIE IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING" was probably the best way to do it.

This is all to say that I think it's a lot more interesting if Luka was being set up to be the winner the entire time. Obviously he still had to work for it, but I like the idea that almost everything was set up in his favor; he just had to take advantage of it. The Segyein wanted a good show, and Luka knows how to perform. He did not disappoint them.

[canisalbus]

Vasco and Machete are absolutely adorable, your style is so lovely and you draw the softest beds I’ve ever seen in any art ever

.

[juniperleafdelivery]

[shadowinthetreesbutcooler]

red team are FULLY going feral im so here for it, cellbit vouching for cannibalism and getting excited, baghera wanting to build a dirt shack and everyone wanting to crawl into a cave and chase people through the woods

[dazadoop]

Reblog to scare a rwby fan

[notbroadwaybound]

well, this has been a depressing night so far

[hechose]

'lestat crossed an ocean to save claudia and louis from the paris coven!!!'

..... im gonna hold your hand while i bash you over the head when i tell you this,,, that mans went to paris to be healed by armand,,, that mans went to paris to punish the people he abused for daring to fight back,,,

[sisterdivinium]

Lilith might just have made the worst choice she could in going to Jillian, no? Not just because of basically becoming her lab rat and throwing herself into the unknown by walking into the ark, but because of the sharp, undeniable contrast that is painfully drawn between Jillian's love for Michael, which sees her stop at nothing to retrieve him, and Lilith's mother's indifference towards her own daughter.

Of course she had met Jillian before, but season one had another context to it. Now, however...

Here's a woman who will set the whole world on fire in order to help her son if she must; meanwhile, Lilith's mother could care less if she knew about her daughter's little season frolicking in the flame pits of hell after being dragged there by a tarask.

Lilith goes to Jillian expecting the brilliant scientist -- she finds her, but perhaps more than that she finds the devoted mother she does not have. There's a cruelty to Jillian's treatment of her, of course, but in this moment of recognition she realises that a) not only is her worth still seen as tied to her "usefulness" to others, but b) that nobody will do for her what Jillian is doing for her son... And that might just be the deepest wound.

[theultimatekamehamehavoc]

Random Togami Headcanon 13

TL;DR - Byakuya's bettered himself but he still has a long road of healing. Also, heads up. This one's not happy like most of the others. Gets a bit hopeful at the end but there's still a lot of sad topics here. Viewer discretion is advised. Now that he feels more empathy for others and possesses some capability for putting himself in another's shoes, thoughts he used to have about the lower class make him feel... off. Perhaps guilt or discomfort with himself. It doesn't help though looking at his classmates every school day and being reminded of the mindset he was raised with. It especially doesn't help when he looks at Makoto who helped him. Makoto being the commoner of all commoner's also hurts. He appreciates what Makoto's done to help him but it unintentionally stabs him hard within his chest that he needed someone's help to get to this point and the someone being a commoner he once wrote off. Next, with this empathy, the heir feels better with his life and happiness but fundamentally worse. It's as if he deteriorated though, logically, he knows it's not the case. He knows that the illogical side of his brain covers itself in the hides of reason and rationale. Essentially, Byakuya ends up having a grueling struggle with dealing with these emotions that, for the majority of his life, he buried and repressed. Emotions that both make him feel more fulfilled in life but that tear him apart inside. Bouts where he feels either extremely content with how he's turned out or that dread and despair that he's slipping back into his old ways. In fact, at times, it becomes overwhelming for him to handle which he especially hates. Being overwhelmed is yet another thing he once viewed as a weakness and, to some extent, he still does. Sometimes, to cope, jokes to himself on whether existing itself is something he feels is a weakness. However, though he has a lot of emotions and thoughts that upset him now as a bettered person, one big thing that pains him is that he has the capability and the intelligence to notice all of this. It's the acknowledgment that stings. The heir notices that he has a problem, that he probably needs help, maybe even therapy, but then he spirals more because of that realization. Why should HE need HELP for these problems of his?! He's an independent person! He should logically be able to handle this himself. He's always handled his problems on his own! Why should he now need someone or just a support system of people to aid in his path of healing? He feels gross for that support system being the classmates who he once adamantly despised with such vitriol. With the added empathy, he also feels shame as he doesn't want to hurt any more people in his life now. He has the hindsight to know this now. He questions himself. Is the situation he's in even that big of a deal and should he keep searching for answers on the "why" and "how"? Is it worth it? Comparisons to the peasants he used to once adamantly demonize also do not escape him. He feels worse because, while he's breaking at the seams, countless of other commoners have similar thoughts too. He's not unique and a bit of that stings his lingering superiority. Then, there is the fact that Byakuya feels even worse about this BECAUSE commoners can handle stuff like this and yet, he keeps saying that he can't due to his mental spirals. Either that or the older thoughts of hating commoners bites back by making him feel like he's "acting like one". He knows by this point that he's actively tearing himself down and that he needs to escape this cycle of mental abuse. He feels shame in himself though. He feels humiliated. Pathetic. Overly emotional in ways he's never felt before. He still has that hope though. The hope that he can get through his. The heir's already delt with so much whether canon, non-despair, or an au of some kind. He's continued on despite it all. And, though long ago, he would have pushed some of this hope off for it being too optimistic, he's grown to care less about that sort of thought anymore. Byakuya can do this.

[crownrots]

[cakemoney]

i don't want to put my uninformed foot in my mouth or get involved with the Discourse but i've been seeing the two extremes of reactions to the korean low birth rates issue (on tumblr and twitter both) and i'm just kind of like. look. i feel like "low birth rates (in many countries but especially japan and korea as part of this conversation) are more broadly the result of capitalism/a culture of overwhelming overwork that makes social relationships and having families incredibly inaccessible to young people" and "low birth rates are very much a part of the current conversation about misogyny and social expectations for women in korea especially in the context of reproduction as 'unpaid labor' for women" are statements that can both be true

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Sonine Prime ... Part 3

Hi, everyone and welcome back to Sonine Prime! The part of the show when I come out and talk about Sonine (and a bit of Sontails) in Sonic Prime!

Last time we finished up the set of scenes starting with their meeting and ended with Sonic and Nine's capture by the Chaos Council. This time, we're hoping to get to move on to the next episode before moving on to the next part😂

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<< Part 2 | Part 4 >>

(Essay/thoughts/analysis under the cut)

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Starting out with an honerable mention of a moment!

"Nine! Is that you?"

Nine: You're just wasting your breath.

Sonic: Omg Nine👀😊

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And then, just before Sonic is put through a series of grueling diagnostic tests, Nine is used as collateral to get him to comply.

"Do not fight them. It will only end badly. For him."

"Nine!"

"Okay, let's start the test. The sooner we do this, the sooner Nine and I can get out of here."

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Another small thing:

The way Nine tenses up furing the first test, as Sonic risks being shot by both laser guns (another tick in the "Nine cares a surprising amount about someone he just met" box)

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Hmmm, and the little things just keep coming, don't they?

Sonic loses his footing in the giant hamster ball filled with spike balls.

"Sonic!"

Which of course, makes Sonic palpably annoyed

Hmmm almost reminds you of when Eggman insulted Tails, doesn't it?

"You wanna test me, Eggheads? Question. How do you tick off a hedgehog? ANSWER. Mess with his friends!"

Hehe. Interesting.

"No one messes with my best friend!"

vs

"How do you tick off a hedgehog? ANSWER. Mess with his friends!"

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Sonic begins to "hallucinate" as he says, and we're treated to another flashback

Amy: I guess he didn't hear the stick together part.🙄

Knuckles: Does he ever?

Tails: No. But he also hasn't let us down when it really counts! You know Sonic. He'll catch up at some point.😊

No comment about how everyone else is at least mildly annoyed at Sonic and Tails stands up for him in a way that redirects their attention from what Sonic did/is doing to the fact that he'll be there when they need him.

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Good bye Season 1 Episode 1 of Sonic Prime, hello Episode 2!

"It's not about the zigs or the zags... It's about the friends we made along the way."

Sonic looks at Nine, has a flashback/vision of seeing Tails and Shadow before the shattering. Then, he looks at Nine both after being confused and still a bit out of it

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Okay, so aside from that funny little moment (Sonic's face), there are some little things to piece together from Nine's end after the council brings out the energy extractor.

First, unlike Sonic's repeated winking afterwards, Nine winks at him smoothly. He doesn't change expression as he does so, and it happens in a singular smooth motion. This makes sense as to why the message Sonic received from the wink was a sort of "I have a plan". While we can't know exactly what he meant, what is clear was that the wink at Sonic was deliberate.

Second, the way he plays off the earlier wink. I think it's pertinent to mention that he's at the end of two Eggforcer's weapons, and Sonic hasn't exactly been subtle this whole time with the winking. His fairly loud whisper to Nine about a plan isn't exactly subtle either (and Nine isn’t exactly the confessing to caring about someone type), so it makes sense if he plays the earlier wink off as having dust in his eye. There is a real contrast begin the smooth wink before and the way he rubs his eye when he says he just has dust in it. That also being said, they did just meet still, so even if Nine cares about Sonic a surprising amount, I think it can be true that his earlier wink was him trying to tell Sonic that he's thinking of a way out of this just as much as it's true that Nine might prioritize making sure he'll live at least if Sonic's not going to survive the extractor. And since this is all about talking about ways certain bits in this series can be interpreted, anyone want to talk about how "I just had dust in my eye" is commonly used by characters who are pretending they're not tearing up due to the display in front of them? Nine has been watching this display of a hedgehog's last words with...an interesting expression on his face, I'll say. Is he...confused? Just thrown off by how Sonic’s acting here? Dumbfounded? Who knows. All we know is that the camera cuts to Nine quite a bit to show us his changes of expression as Sonic speaks, and that after Sonic looks at him for a prolongued amount of time (after asking if he has a plan), his expression instantly changes. This is to say, even though he clearly wasn't tearing up/betraying sadness in that moment, what if Sonic looking at him then, asking if he had a plan, sort of made him feel laid bare? What if he was afraid for a moment that his expressions betrayed his thoughts and feelings on the inside? I mean, imagine meeting someone for the first time and caring about another person for the first time in years. Imagine you've been lonely and isolating yourself for years of your life, and this hedgehog you've barely met uses his last words to call you one of his friends. Imagine he's begging on what could be his death bed for a plan, and you haven't worked anything out yet (even though earlier you'd winked to make him feel better, feel like there will be a plan). He could die, you don't know what to do, you're still not sure why you care, why this makes you sad. You just met him didn't you? He looks at you for a while, asking for a plan, and for a moment, as you're afraid something will happen to you as he mentions plans to free him, you're also coming to terms with the thought that this hedgehog *could* die. Playing it off as just dust in the eye doesn't just save you from another nasty shock, but it protects you from feeling like the hedgehog is staring right into your soul, seeing your conflicting feelings.

Third, after Sonic says "looks like this is game over" and seems to accept there's no way out, the extractor closing in, the camera cuts away to Nine again, zooming in on his face. There's a subtle shift in Nine's face right then and he looks...almost sad, or like he finds it hard to believe that this is real. Then, when it cuts away from Sonic again, after he says goodbye, Nine's eyes are wide.

Actually, on Nine's expressions during what he and Sonic both believe to be Sonic's last moments, I may have hit the picture limit, but I can at least embed a clip here so you all can watch Nine's expressions.

All I'm saying is that if Nine wasn't having feelings about all this in some form, the creators would not have chosen to keep cutting away to Nine's expression, bidding the audience to see and wonder how he feels about all of this. And I think the fact that Nine is reacting at least a little, not looking bored or uncaring or as if he's trying to get this over with, tells us a lot about Nine and what the creators wanted the audience to focus on.

More evidence to the "Nine cares a surprising amount for a hedgehog he just met and doesn't only care about him out of curiosity/what sonic can do for him" box

Not to mention that just after this, when Nine gets his chance to slip away, he frees Sonic right after freeing himself. This is one of these scenes that *is* arguable, as there's really no point in him leaving Sonic there to die. But, we know that Nine has the capability to go on the offensive (not just because of the entire fight scene from episode 1, but also from the fact that he destroys/dismantles an eggforcer at the computer without even needing to turn around) and Rebel and Renegade are there. So it personally tells me a lot that Nine didn't leave Sonic there to fend for himself (especially since he'll later weigh his options and choose to leave Rebel, Renegade, and Rusty to the council over the chance of saving them and losing the red shard).

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Wooo! Season 1 Episode 3, everybody, let's go!

Now, this episode starts with a pre shattering flashback. Just like in episode 2, Sonic's friends talk about how annoyed/frustrated they are that Sonic isn't yet fighting with them. After everyone says their piece, Tails again stands up for Sonic, telling them that Sonic will arrive at some point and that he knows he will.

(We'll come back to these flashback bits with Tails standing up for Sonic while others don't trust/believe in him or are annoyed at him later)

And back to the present, Nine just manages to take control of Rusty Rose in time to save Sonic.

Now, as there are a couple things I'd like to bring to everyone's attention with the aid of screenshots, until part 4, everyone!

Next time we'll hopefully get to tackle the rest of episode 3, and there should be smooth sailing til the last few episodes of the season after that.