#i invite you to disagreee

[gammija]

Does 170 confirm Martin’s domain?

I know, i know, it’s been 5 weeks since MAG170, and meta/discourse online currently moves at the breakneck speed of one week/episode... But! recently while discussing tma theories with people the idea came up that 170 definitively confirmed Martin’s domain as the Lonely.

I don’t think that that’s the case however, so I wanted to write this post to explain why I think that.

(Not primarily to convince anyone that I’m right, though that’d be a nice bonus ;). More just so I have all my thoughts down in one spot that I can link to in the future, hah. Also, this post is not necessarily arguing that Martin’s domain is definitely not the Lonely - though that, to be fair, is my bias - only that 170 didn’t confirm it one way or the other.)

[Spoilers up to 175] Okay so

there are a few other assumptions/theories about domains and avatars I’m using for the final conclusion above! So I’ll first try to prove those, and then show how 170 does or doesn’t fit them.

1) Martin actually has a domain, because the question was raised and left unanswered in 167:

Martin: “What about me?” Jon: “Would you… like me to -” Martin: “No, no. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

If we aren’t meant to wonder which it is, I’m sure there would’ve been some sort of answer or guess from either Jon or Martin. It would’ve been easy to have either of them suggest the Lonely (or even another Fear), or to simply say that Jon only meant full avatars, and Martin doesn’t have one. So from a meta standpoint, the lack of an answer makes it more likely that there is one, and it’s important.

2) Saying that a domain is “[Someone’s] domain” requires that someone to be (on their way to becoming) an avatar of that fear. This is the only way that the word has been used in relation to people in s5, otherwise it’s used as [Fear’s] domain. Never is the domain the property of the victims.

167: Jon tells us explicitly that domain means “the place that feeds us”, and that Gertrude would “have resigned herself to - ruling her domain.” 168: “This is Oliver Banks’ domain.”  

3) An avatar, while they might be conflicted about their actions, does genuinely like some essential aesthetic of their Fear and indulging in it. That’s shown in basically all the known avatars’ statements, and in 111: 

Gerard: “Do you like [compelling people]? Jon : “[...] Yes, I… I suppose I do.”

The only avatars that don’t follow this are Michael and Gertrude. But then again, the Distortion is a unique case - it existed long before it became Michael and was forced to become him, and was forcibly taken over by Helen, who does seem to follow the trend. Gertrude, I admit I have less of a good defence for, though she’s also just canonically hard to read in general - and it is implied that she’s not (as good) an avatar to the Eye as Jon because she doesn’t really have an affinity for it.

The difficult thing about this one for Martin is that our only model for a full, confirmed Lonely avatar is Peter. We definitely know that he enjoys being lonely - but it’s hard to say for certain whether that’s a prerequisite of going full avatar, or just. peter.

4) Avatars enjoy a position of privilege in their domains. That’s evidenced in basically every domain for which we’ve seen the avatar; Jude wasn’t stuck burning, Jared wasn’t stuck in the ground, Simon wasn’t fleeing ‘Junior’ or stuck in it.

(I realize I’m talking a lot about specific word choices and such here, so, sorry for being pedantic :’D But I’m not going to stop, since in my experience, with tma it pays off to be pedantic. (‘why hasnt any ritual ever succeeded’, ‘why are people being weird about Elias being head of the institute’, ‘hey if you count jons scars he's almost got one from every fear lol’, etc are all questions based on small details that turned out to have legitimate answers. specificity matters.)(... Excluding timeline stuff))

Regarding 170

So, combining those three, if the Lonely really is Martin’s domain and he's partaking in it, I'd expect him to have a position higher than those of the other victims, and to be somewhat enjoying himself (even though he’d definitely hate it if he were) or at least not dislike the core idea of the Lonely.

There certainly are a few parts in the episode in which Martin admits to not finding this domain so bad: 

“Sometimes I wonder if I forget things on purpose. Easier not to think about them, I guess. Easier to just let them… slip away. They can’t hurt you if you don’t think about them; they can’t shout at you or call you names.”

“I’m losing myself, and I - and I don’t know if I mind? Maybe I deserve it. So much of what’s behind the fog hurts. So much of it just makes me wanna curl up with pain and embarrassment and - Maybe the fog’s here because I want it here.”

“Honestly, I - I wanted to believe it.”

“It’s comforting here, leaving all those - painful memories behind.”

“It’s the Lonely, John. It’s me.”

… Except that almost all of those are followed up immediately with refutals: 

This one peters (hah) off into Martin panicking over forgetting his Mom’s face, and saying he shouldn’t be there.

“Maybe I asked the fog to come. No. No, no - no, no, no, that’s not true!”

“I wanted to believe it. But I didn’t.”

“But - It’s not a good comfort, it’s - i,it’s the kind that makes you fade, makes you dim and - distant.

“Not anymore.” “- No. No, not anymore.”

On top of that, there are all the times that Martin reiterates that he doesn’t like this place, or being alone in general:

This, This isn’t my house! [..] I don’t like it here.

I don’t like it. Why does my house smell like that, I - It can’t be my house. No, no, no; my, my - My house doesn’t smell like this! My house smells… s-smells different.

I shouldn’t be alone; there should be people!

I don’t know why I’d decorate my house like this; I don’t like it! I like - (breaking off) Wh- I, It’s not my home; it can’t be. [...] I don’t like it here.

Where am I? This isn’t right; I shouldn’t be here.

I don’t like this place.

It certainly doesn’t seem like the kind of place that somebody called Martin would live. Martin. It feels like a small name. One that wants to be warm and happy. Not like here.

[The entirety of his last paragraph before Jon finds him]

I should add that a lot of Lonely victims (13, 48, 108) like their solitude, so Martin occasionally liking being alone doesn’t preclude him from being a victim.

Furthermore, Martin doesn’t seem at all to be in any better position than any of the other Lonely victims: 

“They’re all trying to remember. T-To recall, to picture someone, anyone who loves them, and their hearts are all full of fear. Afraid that those people are gone forever. That maybe - maybe they never existed at all.”

That describes Martin’s experience this episode almost exactly, except that he hasn’t been there as long, and has both an Eye avatar and some tape recorders looking out for him.

He doesn’t sound to me like an equivalent to other avatars in their domains: he sounds like the victim.

Other counter arguments: 

I’ve seen the argument that the privilege Martin gets here, is the knowledge of all those other victims.That him knowing that they exist, and what they’re struggling with, proves that it’s his domain. Honestly though, I think that’s not a very strong argument, seeing as he explicitly says he’s seen them, which makes sense as he’s been able to see victims in other domains as well. And describing their experience isn’t that hard either, seeing as he’s just had a similar one (and has prior experience with the Lonely to boot). So there’s an easy explanation for how he knew this, without the Lonely having to be his domain.

There’s also the idea that in 170, “house” is a metaphor for domain, and since Martin occasionally thinks that it’s his house, that means that it’s his domain. Two problems there:

he spends just as much time saying that it’s not his house.

the (other) victim he runs into also thinks it’s their house at first.

So while I think the idea has merit as an analysis, it still doesn’t definitively prove Martin’s domain one way or the other.

*DEEP INHALE*

SO! In the end, 170 to me is anything but conclusive about what Martin’s domain is, and hopefully at least was able to show why I think that way. TL;DR: 

If the Lonely were Martin’s domain, he should be like the other avatars in theirs, not stuck in it as a victim;

Martin in 170 seems to be a victim;

Therefore 170 doesn’t confirm that the Lonely is his domain.

[chickenkooks]

Okay so in light of the most recent chapter I’m wondering what your own real life philosophy/practices are when it comes to the girl code (i.e. you can’t date your friends ex’s and if ur friend calls dibs for a future fling b4 u, you can’t move in on that person even if things don’t work out with ur Friend or they liked u and not ur friend)

well usually i dont have to deal with this because i like to keep my relationships far away from my friends. as in i dont like to date people in my friend group. i meet people OUTSIDE of them and usually keep them to myself for a while before introducing them when i feel comfortable enough to do so!!!!! i have liked my friends or even my friends boyfriends in the past (whoops) but i never said anything just because of how messy it is and i dont usually pursue my flimsy feelings like that bc i get scared when they return my feelings LOL

[hikarinokusari]

Found this question on a rp blog and was curious about both Spectral and Ukiyo. If you want : 🍴 - What is the absolute worst meal your character has ever eaten? Were they verbal about it or did they just not say anything?

It took me a while to think about the worst meal these two could have eaten, but knowing Spec’s disastrous culinarian background ... ( you know what I mean ! )

• Spectral :  This miqo’te does not know how to cook. He tried. He failed. And Odin knows he never ever really improved. He sucked at cooking so much he never gets 1 xp point in this field. All he knows is when he’s hungry. 

Since he left his tribe to live by himself, he ate a lot of funny things that were typically not good. Quality meat left on the fire for too long. Cakes stayed in the oven too little. Random unknown local food destined to pets not to humankind. Worms intended to be used for fishing because the fishing went absolutely wrong. But nothing was worse than the seafood pizza he once tried to cook by himself. An awful lot of salt ( litteraly ) he managed to taste, as tiny pieces of seashells were cracking under his teeth Who would have though than badly washed seafood, put on the pizza would leave their salt juices on the passed-to-date cream ( the will to go buy a fresher one was too weak ). Iit smelled funny but it was not that bad ? But it got worse. Whou could have thought that the said cream would turn into a weird cottage cheese like thing ? And how did the pizza paste would turn into such a both dry hard and ... squashy thing is still a mystery. Nevertheless he tasted it and felt like he was about to vomit. He can clearly remember the cream-taste in his mouth and all the salt. Maybe it was because this was the first chew.  It could not have been that bad. His stomach strongly disagreeed and the moment he tried to chew for a second time, all he could say was but muffled sound as he tried not to vomit. He does not talk about it,  he’ll just say he does not have the time to cook anymore. The painof both failure and horrible taste is still strong.

• Ukiyo : That boy was raised with a silver spoon and his picky side only grows stronger thanks to his education. It’s simple : if Uki does not like, does not feel like eating / tasting, Uki does not accept the meal. And it’d be better for  you to have another one to suit his tastes ready in the moment he refused the first one.  He can cook, but god, why would he ? It’s the commoner job to cook for him. And the commoner to guess his tastes or they will hear about it for centuries. In a very mean and constant way.

So, the “worse” food may be too much of a word for he always have eaten very tasty meals and does not try what does not inspire him trust or feel like being eaten by his capricious mouth. 

Though, the worse he ate so far could be dry cold beans - but his opinion on the matter is biased. He ate them in a town, north to Bukyo as he was invited to a Lord’s place. They both hate each other but diplomacy implied them to stay polite. So he’s been politely served dry cold beans and cold water. A very humble meal for such an important character. And it was good, well, eatable.  The purest water of the country ! And the beans are good to meditate and they’ve been said to enhance the spiritual essence in one’s mind !  Still, as he was sore as fuck to be served such a meal with good arguments he could not fight without being seen as an irrespectuous little brat ( though he is ) in another Lord’s house, he ate it with a smile and thanked them. Protocol. Diplomacy. He will never admit they were good enough, but he would tell anyone that is the worse food he ever tasted ! Though, the truly worse he has ever tasted was nattô when being a child and he went fucking feral about it. He shouted his parent were trying to poison him and refused to eat anything but for two days.  But now that he managed to set sail to Eorzea, there are a lot of food experiences to have ... 

Ty for asking, @xyanmajor ! c:

[youraplaya]

SO yesterday niggas was playing around chillin and what not. And my fren(A) - i say this loosely -  was going to her niggas house but was tryna be lowkey about and failed. They put her ass on blast. So i jumped in w/o hesitation and was like she going to study dont worry about her etc etc. yada  yada just fuckin around. And then the guys were like “omg yall are such a liars lmaooo yada yada” she was like “Meee???? liar???? im not a liar” And then after a while they were like “fine ur not liar.....but YOU still are” And i was like ”woah woah huh” and ole girl literally LEFT me to dry...just sat there quietly not sayin SHIT same w/ ole girl my other friend (B) who was there. And they were like ur a liar bc of this time we went to party or whatever and BOTH them bitches were quiet as FUCK. 

SOUND OFF

First of allllllll, BITCH.....I had your back straight off the jump without question and you dipped out on me with the swiftness. Second of all she made a lil slick comment about not being at the damn party we she DEADASS DITCHED US. and then gon talk about yall didnt invite me BITCH u dont like apartment parties &&&&&&& you went the parking lot to get stuff and ended up in the parking lot talkin to your boo for like an hour and then when we SAW U in the parking lot and started chalking it up w you YOU LEFT W UR BOO THING and so then we left...SO HOW U GONNA IMPLY THAT WE DITCHED BITCH....so thats that

3RD OF ALL how TF yall gonna leave me to dry??? HOW ik it was all jokes but the PRINCIPLE allows me to be pissd tf off. TUH

And lastly.... on some real deep shit that not noone was talkin about...I can see how someone could see me as liar but i think there are two implications to lies. One is deception and the second is to relay another meaning. For an example, if your day was horrible someone ask you how your day was and you lie and you say it was fine or good. Its a lie that relays another message to protect your privacy . But if someone ask do you have a gf/bf and you lie and say no youre trying to decieve someone. So, I could agree that yes im a “liar”. I lie about who i truly am. But not by deception, but protection. When it comes to people judging or knowing me personally I keep things real shallow. REALLL shallow and brief. Well i guess im not a liar but i withhold the truth unless you directly ask me. Like i the other day someone ask if you’d every have a threesome and the whole group was like ew no way gross blah blah but in my head i was halle mf yeah but i didnt vocalize it to avoid judgment and protect my privacy. side note: You can normally telll lmao when i disagreee with something bc ill say things like “I understand where you are coming from” or “I get why you’d feel that way”

anyway i was shooketh yesterday after the hangout bc all this shit was runnin through my head lmao