#hyolf's musings

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Can I have a conspiracy theory? :D

If you visit tasks in To Do, this is the background. It's full of sheep with a demonic looking goat here and there.

Like this:

We could safely assume that the sheep symbolise MC. MC gets called a lamb quite a lot and is presented generally as generally helpless among those powerful immortals, so it's quite obvious.

Not to mention MC has sheep in profile picture in chats and this tiny sheep image confirms it too, we have tasks to do, and here, sheep. Doing paperwork.

But let's look at the background again.

It's full of sheep. And among those sheep there's one (1) scary goat, optionally a very scary black ram.

But MC is the only (non magical) human in the whole Devildom.

Who is the demonic goat/ram then, if all the sheep represent MC? There are crowds of demons around. The goat/ram is sitting there, among the sheep, looking menacing and evil. That one is up to no good, definitely.

So my troll theory is:

The sheep don't represent the MC.

The sheep represent the demons while MC is actually the black ram/goat.

This makes sense, and you know why? Because MC being represented by the malicious looking black sheep/ram is actually a pretty good metaphor of what happened in the first season.

MC entered a group of oblivious demons who never expected a mere human to stir so much chaos and wreck so much. And all MC was doing was just creating chaos, butting into other people's business for no apparent reason and manage to tie the demons to themself with pacts.

The poor sheep were grazing in peace, butting heads here, definitely not expecting and not equipped for a situation when someone manipulates them, become a significant person in their lives, use their emotions to control them, turns one against other... they were completely helpless against that! And suddenly their whole pasture got turned upside down by one outsider who completely disregarded everything and leashed them all and ???

MC is then the proverbial black sheep, the one who goes against everything.

There is a tiny detail though. Black sheep implies a bit of rebellion and rather unconventional lifestyle and that's what makes a societal black sheep... well, the black sheep. MC doesn't seem like actually rebelling against anything. If not given a reason by the player, they create chaos just for the sake of chaos itself.

If the black animal among them however is a goat, it's even more important because goats are known for demonic symbolism and for that they can desert every area. It's lampshades MCs influence and disastrous effects of their actions. I mean, things got so fucked up they needed time travel and creating an alternate timeline to fix it. That's quite an achievement for a mere human, and lampshades as well that MC might be even less tied by morality than those demons are.

With how menacing and scary the ram/goat looks we can safely assume it's pretty much an situation of a wolf in sheep's clothing among all those defenceless demons aka sheep.

Being MC... we are the true demon of the game.

Thank you for your attention, I'll see myself out.

I hope you enjoyed my insane troll logic and had fun reading the pseudo analysis.

[creations-of-a-certain-no-one]

Do you know that weird moment when your OC, yes, exactly the same OC that is basically a self-insert, goes uwu on characters you personally would rather strangle to death?

Or starts hating your faves?

[jennacat84]

Congrats! x3 x3 "Apparently all our friends have a bet going that we end up together" with Luka/Edgar/MC? Or just Edgar. Or Kyle. Kyle would be nice too.

@the-marvellous-hyolf You gave me an opportunity to write for one of my favorite trios, like I wasn’t going to take that. Kyle makes a special appearance as well. No spice, but suggestive language.

Ikerev

Luka/Edgar/MC

Words 1012

You gave me an opportunity to write for my OT3, like I’m not going to take that? I changed the prompt a little to make it fit the trio.

Alice sat waiting at the booth in the corner of the bustling pub. She had her second cocktail sitting in front of her. She kept glancing at the clock, then the door, then the clock again. Where were they? Luka hadn’t had that much left to when she left. And Edgar was always punctual, especially on the nights that the three of them met for drinks. She jumped a bit when the door opened, but her budding smile fell as she saw it was only Kyle. 

He swung by the bar and grabbed his first pint of the night and made a bee line for her table.

“Hello, Kyle.” Her smile was half hearted at best.

“Now there’s a dissapointing welcome if I’ve ever seen one.” Kyle grabbed a chair from a nearby table and swung it around so he sat backwards on it at the end of Alice’s table. “Guessing it wasn’t my smiling face you were hoping to see.”

“Sorry, Kyle. It’s not that I’m not happy to see you, just…”

“Just you’re waiting for Edgar.” Kyle took another deep swig of his ale. 

“Yeah, and Luka. They’re both late tonight.” Alice sighed. “Do you know what’s keeping Edgar?”

Kyle looked thoughtful for a moment, took another drink, and sighed. “Probably Jonah. He found out that Edgar’s been seeing Luka regularly and stopped him at the gates with the third degree and enough gifts to fill a moderately sized carriage.”

“Ah hahahahaha” Alice politely covered her mouth with one hand. “That does sound like Jonah.”

“Say, Alice. I gotta ask you. Are you going to make it official with either of them any time soon? Or just keep leading both Jacks on?”

“What? I’m not leading anyone on.”  Alice looked genuinely surprised at the question.

“Really?” Kyle finished his pint “Because in that case you’ve got most of the officers in both armies fooled about it. Everyone is convinced that you’re in love with one of them, and it’s clear that they’re both infatuated with you.” With those words Kyle stood, replaced the chair and made his way back to the bar for a refill. Alice watched his retreating back. 

The door opened again, this time allowing the entrance of the two men she had been waiting for, as well as Oliver and Blanc. Edgar and Luka looked around briefly before spotting her in the corner and making their way to her as quickly as the crowd would allow. Blanc and Oliver made their way to Kyle at the bar. But Alice had eyes only for the two men approaching her.

“I am so sorry I’m late.” Luka apologized as he sat down. “Fenrir and Seth started up with their arm wrestling again, and I know that sounds like an excuse, but you know how things snowball with the two of them.”

“I’m sorry too.” Edgar sat on her other side and took her hand. “The Queen of Hearts caught me as I was leaving.”

Alice laughed as Luka growled. “I know why you’re late, Edgar.” She pointed at the bar. “Kyle and I had a chat while we were waiting.”

Both Jacks looked at each other, then Alice.

“Why don’t I like the sound of that ‘chat’?” Luka sounded worried.

“I don’t like it either.” Edgar intoned.

“Oh, it’s not that bad.” Alice waved them off. “But if I read between the lines of what he said correctly, apparently all our friends have a bet going on which of you I’ll wind up with.” The two men wore matching looks of disbelief, while Alice laughed. “I wonder, who wins when they find out?”

Edgar and Luka joined in on the laughter then. “Oh, that is rich. I wonder how long we can keep them guessing?” Edgar wonder between chuckles.

“I imagine quite a while.” Luka thought out loud. “It’s not like we’re all that obvious when we’re out.”

“Pretty sure Kyle has money on you Luka. He was pushing me to make a choice and not ‘leading them both on’” Alice was really laughing now.

“That traitor, betting against me.” Edgar feigned affront. “Probably part of why someone delayed me tonight.”

“That means either Seth or Fenrir, or both of them  are betting on you Ed.” Luka pointed out.

“True, nice to know I have support somewhere.”

“Well, I for one am tempted to go over to Kyle and kiss the both of you just to put the whole thing to rest.” Alice was still laughing.

“Oh, don’t do that.” Edgar said deadpan. “Just think of all the fun we can have keeping them guessing.”

“It could be fun,” Luka mused.

“It could also make someone else think they have a chance.” It was Alice’s turn to point out. Neither Edgar nor Luka liked that idea, it was written all over their faces.

“Let’s at least keep it going a little longer” Edgar pleaded. “I’m having far too much fun messing with Jonah’s head.”

“If that’s the reason I’ll support it. Hope it drives him to early retirement.” Luka said as he stood up. “I’ll go get our drinks Ed. Same room as last time?”

“Of course, it’s the only one with a bed big enough for all of us.” Alice winked at Luka as he walked away, a light blush dusting his cheeks.

“You are such a tease, Alice.” Edgar squeezed her thigh under the table.

“You are far worse than I, Edgar. I like to make him blush, you like to make us both beg.”

“And you both love that I do.” This he whispered into her ear. “Let’s drink quickly and then get upstairs. It’s been far too long since we’ve all had time together.”

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Don't you think that the Devildom demons are pretty cute in their "omg we so evil, so twisted, humans cannot compare"?

Let's twist the reasoning a bit.

The Devildom seems to be following the survival of the fittest and somehow it still exists. And shows no signs of heading straight into destruction.

Demons - as wicked and twisted as they can be - simply don't have to outlaw most of the things humans consider evil. Because the things never threatened to spiral out of control into a complete destruction of the demon race.

So... demons seen from this perspective are more "evil" than humans because they don't have the same laws prohibiting "bad things" because they... just don't need those laws to survive.

So... demons are considered evil by misinterpretation. They can allow themselves to be evil.

On the other hand, there are good reasons humans have such laws. Humans didn't start out with a moral code written in their DNA after all, it is all socially coded.

Humans, those innocent and pure lil creatures, had to Pavlov themselves into their moral code because of the consequences of not implementing strict laws prohibiting a wide range of evil things from as severe as genocide to as light as minor fraud. Because on their own... humanity would tear itself apart and self-destruct.

Now... who's the real demons.

I'm waiting for MC to say:

"Aww that's so cute you can survive without all those laws prohibiting bad things. We humans were too violent and vicious so we had to start prohibiting things to prevent us from wiping ourselves out of existence 😔"

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Lucifer's birthday event

unnecessary opinion.

got confused by the point requirements because wtf Solmare!!! 12 points per battle?! 33k for finishing the page? No cheat cards?! And then realised 33k is for full skill-up for the UR and the card pieces are complete at 7k. Derped.

if you missed the first day however, forget the card. Just a tiny bit less grinding and the event would be perfect.

skulls, handkerchiefs and witchpots as battle rewards! Yay!

no ranking, yay!

...unfortunately replaced boot camp so 3 heavy events one after another because immediately a new event started. Gimme a break...

the story was adorable. My teeth have completely rotten from how sweet it was.

also, blushy tsun Satan wishing Lucy happy birthday and giving him a gift

Lucifer seemed like he was very concerned if MC still has their braincell because they behaved like they lost it on the way

also pfft you could reject him and state nope it's not a date. Yes, I did that. Very rewarding.

Lucifer doesn't implode because of hand holding. I suspect however that because it wasn't unprotected hand holding. But still. Shock.

Actually a very nice event. From more technical perspective, UR achievable for dedicated grinders, some feat for whales (rewards page completion gave you max skill of the card) without bringing down f2p.

Story wise, fluffy comedy that was super cute and fun to read, and also a lot of soft Lucy and he finally got some time off and appreciation, and was super happy and it was absolutely heartwarming.

A very nice event. Me likes.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Hot take

Undateables should not get their own cards anytime soon. Releasing the full bundle of features with undateables would be just stupid. SSR/UR memory cards with them are already huge news.

You need to manage the hunger (or thirst) of your customers by giving small treats they'd vaccuum at every new release and throw money at all scraps of content they'd get instead of a full course meal that'd sate their needs. Keep them moderately hungry.

I'm very proud of the devs. For once Solmare is doing something reasonable instead if going chaotic self-destructive yolo (eg. rushing releases every 2 weeks to leave the app then run only events for months).

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

With all that picking on Mitsunari for being a disaster adult, the thing it that Ieyasu doesn't resent him for that. His reason isn't pretty, and it doesn't mean he's not being mean. But the reason isn't Mitsunari deviating from the norm as a neurodivergent person. His reason is frustration that Mitsunari doesn't use his potential. And the frustration - and envy - is understandable considering he’s worked hard to achieve what they achieved while someone naturally talented just wastes their gift.

Yes, it might be petty, it might be that envy and frustration, definitely one of the ugliest feelings presented in the game, and it definitely hurts Mitsunari an awful lot, but the main point is that it’s not because Mitsunari is neurodivergent. And in the time of need Ieyasu can see past his own issues.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

HA! I figured out why we never got a route for Josh and Mr. C in Love Tangle.

Cuz they're gay and dating.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Hey what if Wicked Wolves

but with "unawakened" hyena MC. But she awakens as hyena because reasons.

And you know, what is so interesting in female hyenas, right. They have more testosterone than male hyenas.

Now implement the effects into Wicked Wolves.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Okay, that's probably the first time something really resonated with me in Destined to Love.

Up to that point the love interests weren't particularly appealing, MC was rather boring. But Okita seems really interesting.

He's quite a light-hearted, smiling guy, it seems that his positive attitude is genuine. But at the same time he has no resolve to live. He's going on because well, he's not dead, but it doesn't really mean anything for him.

Maybe that's exactly the reason why he can be so light-hearted. But I'll see further in the route.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

This might be the reason why Onyx is so one-tracked.

It's not just her being stubborn and not accepting anyone's opinion, it's something that runs much deeper.

Her sister betrayed her the worst possible way. She took everything from Onyx and Onyx didn't see it coming. She was backstabbed by someone she believed to share absolute bonds with.

Onyx still believes the power of family love, no matter how Vinca proves her otherwise. She clings to the thought she still knows Vinca, because it not only doesn't make any sense for her, it wrecks her world completely.

This is not something you can cope with or learnt to live with, something like that stays as an open wound, and she has nothing to build a new world on.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

The Little Prince was one if my favourite books and one of those stories that left a deep impression on me during my youth days.

Now I'm just. wow. at the fridge horror I experienced after thinking about the book while being 29.

It still impresses me a lot, but in a very very different way.

Like how fucked up the whole book is. Seriously. Think wtf is happening there, on the interpersonal level.

[creations-of-a-certain-no-one]

I'm exchanging coronavirus conspiracy theories and "reasons to panicc" with local pals and I kind of come to the conclusion that conspiracy theories are just darkfic but on collective level.

[creations-of-a-certain-no-one]

Hey

considering how humanity applied human-like deities and human-like symbols to the soil and vegetation to the point we're talking about Mother Earth

...

do you think burials count as vore

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Lovestruck plots

I remembered recently why I drop Lovestruck games every once in a while.

As fun as it might be, the stories follow mostly the same patter, and this bores me after a few stories. There is little diversity in plots, the same things happen even around the same season in every route.

Jealousy plots that make no sense, for instance. All the rocks the relationships get onto, are just not believable, sometimes they slide into out of character beaviours, they bring literally nothing to the stories and do not even seem realistic. There are so many differences that could need both characters to adjust, especially saince even by slowburn routes the characters jump into relationships early and without knowing each other well. It definitely makes room for plots that’d explore it much more in-depth.

I mentioned it already, but the characters start early. In many routes the whole relationship is based purely on lust and it’s still portrayed as love and as a valid reason to just... drop everything for the love interest and burn all bridges. It is not. Which is not. There is nothing qrong to pursue a person you are very attracted to, but hots and sex are not a bond that can be the sole foundation to any long romantic involvement. It needs more work. As an ace I’m not a fan and definitely see there’s something very wrong with the logic, the logic that is overtaking the whole society and making people believe human relationships are to be physical and putting sex over an human bond that can be created. It’s already shitty we were made believe romantic love is something that needs o be prioritised over much more stable and reliable human bonds, now even this is being degraded to sex and nothing more.

I know readers do not want very realistic plots as the romance games are mostly fantasy, but there could be more of this in the plots. More balanced, too. 

Maybe it’s just me being ace, but I really considered a relationship good when it’s being worked on and made work out despite all of these differences. Which brings me back to the Shades of A, not Lovestruck, to get such story that’d bring me some faith in humanity again.

Another thing is that even before they really work the things up, without any adjustment the characters are forced into lifelong commitment. They just get married and have children without really making the relationship really work in the long run. The hormone rush calms down after a few years - it is highly unlikely to stay infatuated for so long, and yet, the games make it seem like if the relationhips do not progress in long years.

Why does every relationship find an obvious crowning moment in marriage and family? Some of these characters have a good reason not to marry and not to have children and yet, they are pushed into something that does not suit their characterisation to the slightest. If the game developers want to force marriage even if it does not suit the love interest, there are other reasons to marry too. Like taxes. Like convenience. The character might come to conclusion that after all it’s not bad, but making them go through the conventional enthusiastic proposal subplot makes me cringe. Various reasons to legalise the relationship would add more diversity to plots and would not seem as forced as it is now.

These issues I have with Lovestruck games make me take my time off the games. The cliches are just boring, and the forced jealousy and marriage plots are just too off-putting in the long run. Well, the insane release schedule that didn’t let me catch up wasn’t helpful either, but it seems that they lately limited the releases to a more reasonable pace.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Mitsunari appreciation post

IkeSen Mitsunari is such a great character. He’s kind of special to me, because it is so rare to see an autistic character written so well. He has some typical autistic traits. Just look at him.

Socially awkward? He forgets people if they don’t interest him. He can’t read the mood or between the lines - but that’s not all. He doesn’t even get idioms or sayings because their meaning is based on metaphor. Check? That’s stereotypically* very much like ASD. Check! He’s very very polite though, he speaks politely to everyone, to the point it seems somehow weird to talk to your friends this way [mostly lost in translation though]. Check? Check.

What about a special interest? He basically rejects completely everything that does not interest him. He doesn’t bother, but not because he disregards it, but because he’s so focused on one thing. He can be so focused on reading the whole world disappears for him. The interest is not useless - we've seen him using it as his strongest point. He’s a great analyst, probably partially thanks to his reading passion. But not only - (over)analysing** things seems to be an autistic thing. Again, autism just makes him stronger.

Poor insight in his own emotions and feelings? He seems to be completely oblivious what happens in his own heart and wonders about it. Aloud. This takes us back to social awkwardness, because he doesn’t seem to get which things he should address aloud and which not. But the fact he expresses it gives us a hint he’s bad with reading his own emotions. Not only that - he’s got some autistic issues with reading his own body, so he neglects his physical needs. Probably because he has problems identifying them. This is a guy who forgets to sleep and eat***.

What he doesn’t show, it’s that stereotypically autistic need to schedule everything right. But maybe he just doesn’t need it - after all he seems to stay in his comfort zone and not be bothered by sensory issues. Maybe because the greatest devil’s invention, those terrible flickering fluorescent lamps are absent in Sengoku period. Maybe because of his poor proprioception. In the recent event story he wasn’t able to show he’s nervous and only his hands were shaking. If you’re missing the meaning of your body reactions, you’re not very likely to realise something is sensorily problematic, and even if you do, there are another difficulties expressing it****. But maybe sensory issues are not such a big problem for him. It is something we’d probably never know until Cybird speaks up about it (and since the actor Cumberbatch expressed really ridiculous opinions about his character's implied autism, I’m not sure if I want to know).

But the greatest thing is, that it is not presented as a problem. At least not everything. Instead of a broken unhappy autistic who struggles with their “illness”, we get the human sunshine. This is what makes him so adorable, so sweet and so loved. He’s accepted and liked the way he is and no one stresses the difficulties that could emerge*****. Even social issues don’t hold him back but rather make him Mitsuhide-proof and being Mitsuhide-proof should be considered a superpower. He backs up his lack of social skills with analysis though - but this makes his thoughtfullness easy to miss. Probably because you’d expect him to be clueless all the time. He’s not, and that’s another great thing about him. Boy, he can even see through Ieyasu’s tsundere actions sometimes, probably because of his analysing skills and social blindness.

I don’t know if it was planned. Probably not, I don’t really imagine it could have such effects, the way neurotypical people think about us doesn’t really help creating neurodivergent characters. But it doesn’t matter. Autistic characters are so rare in fiction, and good autistic characters are even rarer. And a character who’s accepted the way they are who and can do things well and isn’t a burden... I’m not sure if there is another so empowering autistic character. At least I haven’t seen one.

So, thank you, Cybird.

*many of us love metaphors though - maybe because they don’t make sense

** and analysing those metaphors in idioms and sayings, their meaning, playing with them is just the best

*** I forgot to eat too. For 3 days and wondered what’s wrong. Or just yoghurts, nothing more, every two days for months and wondered why did my body get weaker.

**** I haven’t show for years I injured my wrists, just continued to do things and not really knowing what I’m supposed to do with the pain... and worsening the injury every time it managed to heal. It took the whole kindergarten and grammar school to heal. No one ever knew.

***** Yes, Ieyasu seems to hate him and doesn’t hide it, but an event story gave us some insight into his feelings and hinted he’s not biased againt Mitsunari because of Mitsunari’s traits, but cannot stand Mitsunari wasting his talents.