#i know most of the spoilers (including the big one) but I've never gotten to actually play it myself cause i was too little

[bobbile-blog]

Arknights Lore Recap - August 2024

Sorry I'm late on this one - it ended up being way longer than I expected, and rounded out at over six thousand words. PLEASE do skip around and just read what's important to you, I know I certainly couldn't stomach reading all this in one sitting. Also, this isn't gonna include a lot of IS4 stuff, not even because it isn't important but because I haven't actually gotten most of the endings yet :(

Anyway, regardless of all that, here's your biannual Arknights lore recap! The usual disclaimers apply - while this will technically be spoilers for everything up to the current state of the Global server (Post-Here a People Sows, Pre-Lucent Arrowhead and Babel), I've done my best to avoid individual spoilers whenever possible. The idea is to summarize the game's current plotlines in a way that can get new players up to speed and refresh the memory for folks who've just lost track of all the nonsense going on at the moment. All this and more, under the cut!

Side Plots:

Okay first of all, I'm changing the way I organize things. I've realized it's somewhat silly to have the big spoilers right at the top, so the main story is now at the bottom.

In addition, to just quickly define what I consider an "active plotline", I'm including plots that have had more than one continuous event and haven't had a major resolution to its story.

Sui Siblings

Ancient Forge(?) / Who is Real / Invitation to Wine / Where Vernal Winds will Never Blow / A Death in Chunfen(?) / Here a People Sows

Nian / Dusk / Ling / Chongyue / Shu / Ji / Wang / Lava / Zou Le / Lee / Lin Yusha / Waai Fu / Basically every major Yanese government figure

Long ago, in the pre-history of Yan, the land was ruled by ancient gods called Feranmuts. In the founding myth of of the country, a leader named Yan united the disparate tribes of humans and then waged war on them. Despite the god-like powers of these Feranmuts, Yan was able to subdue them with the aid of a traitor - a young and haughty Feranmut named Sui who sought to be the only one with the powers of a god. In the "Great Hunt", all of the old Yanese Feranmuts were killed or subjugated, and then Yan turned on Sui, binding and sealing It forever. With the Feranmuts gone, the nation of Yan lived in peace and prosperity, free from their shadow forevermore.

At least, that's what was supposed to happen, but Feranmuts aren't quite so easy to contain. Over time, Sui's consciousness began to slip out of its bonds piece by piece. These fragments each wandered the world without real form until they were able to answer the question "Who am I", at which point they gained personality and ego distinct from Sui. The Yanese government isn't exactly happy about these fragments wandering around, but there isn't really a whole lot they can do about it - the Sui fragments have godlike powers, after all. They've established a secret branch of the government called the "Sui Regulator" to keep an eye on them, and have mostly left them alone.

The events featuring the Sui Siblings actually take place a few years after where we are in the main story - Zwillingstürme im Herbst takes place around the fall of 1100, while Who is Real takes place in the fall of 1101 and Here a People Sows is in the early Summer of 1102. These events follow a series of plots surrounding the revival of Sui - that is, if all of the Sui siblings gather together in one place, they will re-combine into Sui again and It will be freed from its prison. This is promoted by some factions of the government, who presumably want to take advantage of the Feranmut's power once more, as well as some of the Sui siblings - to our current knowledge, these are Wang and Ji. Most of the Yanese government opposes this for obvious reasons, and has instead taken a stance hostile to the Sui siblings. We've even run into other Feranmuts who have gotten involved with the conflict - Ya, an ancient peer of Sui, is roaming Yan seeking retribution from Sui, and wants to reform It so It may finally answer for its betrayal. Finally, a growing portion of the Sui siblings are gathering to try to figure out a way to escape their fate. The exact details of this plan aren't totally clear yet, but it seems to involve using some sort of magical proxy of Sui to grant them independence.

A last note should be given to the subject of Jie, the Sui Sibling with the domain of writing. She's been alluded to in previous events, but we only really got details in Here a People Sows, and it's implied she'll be important going forwards. Jie was a kind and benevolent figure who wanted to spread literacy and writing among the people of Yan. She was successful - she appears to have birthed the modern Yanese education system - but in doing so, she gave up herself. Around 60 years ago, she either disappeared or was murdered. Whatever the case, she appears to have disappeared from the memories of everyone but her siblings (without spoiling Here a People Sows, that's an important clue). Her disappearance seems to have affected all the siblings, but Wang most of all, and he cites her as a major reason behind his actions to reform Sui.

Seaborn Struggles

Grani and the Knight's Treasure / Under Tides / Stultifera Navis / Mizuki and Caerula Arbor

Skadi / Specter / Gladiia / Kal'tsit / Irene / Lumen / Ulpanius / Mizuki / The Last Knight / I guess we can count Ishar'mla as a character here too.

Of the many dangers facing modern Terra, none are quite as terrifying as the Seaborn. Armies can be reasoned with, superweapons can be commanded, Originium can be cleaned, but the Seaborn alone present a constantly growing and evolving threat to all life on Terra. The Seaborn are probably best described as an organized group of convergently evolved sea creatures working together under a single will, with an animalistic drive to absorb and assimilate all life into itself. It spreads and consumes across the ocean floor, becoming more powerful with each new creature it eats.

The nations of Terra are no strangers to the seaborn. Iberia used to be one of the most prosperous nations on Terra. During the nation's golden age, they quite literally spanned the continent and established colonies across Terra. Their navies spread their power across the world and made them almost unarguably the most powerful nation on Terra - but all that fell apart when the seaborn finally set their sights on Iberia in a period known as the First Great Silence. Iberia's international empire collapsed, their grand ships fell into ruin, and the people became insular and distrustful of outsiders, guided by an inquisition tasked with burning out the alien with the little fire they had left.

Besides Iberia, the Seaborn are also an enemy of the isolated underwater nation of Aegir. Aegir is much more technologically advanced than the rest of Terra, but they've also been alone against the Seaborn for decades if not centuries. While we haven't been there yet, they're apparently not doing very well. They've struggled to match the Seaborn's strength, adaptability, or unending numbers - which led them to some desperate places. In a last bid for survival, they created a small group of super-soldiers by putting Seaborn blood into a select group of Aegir people who would be able to resist its call. This elite force of soldiers struck back against the Seaborn and, in a desperate final battle, slew the "god" of the Seaborn, Ishar'mla, a single entity that commanded the collective Seaborn will.

However, as is often the case in Arknights, gods don't die all in one go. The will of Ishar'mla was preserved in the mind of one of the Abyssal hunters that killed it, a young woman named Skadi. She and the scattered remnants of the Hunters were cast ashore and eventually gathered in Rhodes Island. Now, the Abyssal hunters fight a twofold battle against the Seaborn and themselves. They must use the strength in their blood to push back the Seaborn and protect the land, but they must also keep an understanding of who they are, or else Ishar'mla will awaken and all will be lost once more.

A special addendum should be added here to explain Integrated Strategies 3, which is (kind of) canon. Ending 1, in which Mizuki meets Highmore and brings her to Rhodes Island, did actually happen. On that mission, though, they find the Stele featured in the "Wander into Wonderland" node and the furniture rewards. Through a mixture of ancient technology and Seaborn-ness, this object allows Mizuki to read the memories of the Seaborn in alternate timelines, and play those potential futures out for the Doctor. We as the Doctor have seen pieces of these futures, but they do not exist as of yet.

Angels and Apostates

Guide Ahead / Hortus de Escapismo / Zwillingstürme im Herbst

Mostima / Fiametta / Executor / Enforcer / Cecelia / Andoain / Pope Yvangelista XI / Oren / Arturia / lots more people but I think those are the important ones

The city of Laterano is something that should not exist on the face of Terra - a paradise. The city of the angelic Sankta people is peaceful, calm, and harmonious - a rare oasis set apart from the suffering of the rest of Terra. The Sankta share an innate ability called "empathy" which allows them to share their emotions with each other, allowing for a uniquely peaceful society almost alien to Terra. Laterano is a city without conflict and without pain, and yet it is still wrong.

As much as I would love to get deep into the philosophy of the Laterano plotline, the first draft of this section ended up being like a thousand words on its own and I'm not going to put you through that. To be extremely brief, the plotline centers around the exceptions that are made to the supposedly absolute Law of Laterano. The first event follows a mixed-race Sankta and Sarkaz child, who shouldn't be able to exist according to the scriptures. Sankta and Sarkaz are ancient enemies and considered to be anathema to each other, and Sarkaz are not allowed into Laterano. Her very existence raises questions about the nature of the Sankta and the faith's rules, and not everyone is eager to have these questions answered.

This is followed up by Hortus de Escapismo, which is one of the most dense and critically complex events in the game. In short, Federico Giallo, known to Rhodes Island as Operator Executor, is canonized as a Saint of Laterano and given all the authority that comes along with it. He is then sent out on a mission to a lost monastery that was stranded for the last ten years, in order to return it to Laterano. Over this time the Sankta in the monastery have built a settlement with other people of Terra in order to survive, and that includes Sarkaz - who cannot be allowed in the city of Laterano. Bringing the monastery back and helping the people there will require breaking the community and leaving the Sarkaz behind. As a Saint, it is now thrust on Federico to navigate this conflict between the doctrines of the Lateran faith and the real, practical world before him.

Moving forward, though, it looks like this storyline will become part of the next big act of the main story, particularly in its role in fighting the coming calamity. Pulling back the curtain a bit, Laterano is secretly ruled by a god-like supercomputer called The Law. This computer gives the Sankta their abilities and writes the laws that they must follow. In observing all of the disasters occurring across Terra, notably the Collapsals and the Seaborn, It predicts an even greater calamity on the horizon that It is now acting to stop. Because of this, It is canonizing a group of new Saints of Laterano, something that hasn't happened since the founding of the holy city itself. Supposedly, it's calculated that this is best chance Terra has at success - but judging by the people it's choosing, things look desperate indeed.

Colonial Kjerag

Break the Ice / The Ride to Lake Silberneherze

Silverash / Pramanix / Kjera / Cliffheart / Gnosis / Degenbrecher / Ratatos / Sicurius / Monch / Arctosz / Harold

Nestled in a valley surrounding Mount Karlan is a rare sanctuary. Kjerag, though harsh and cold, is a land that has never known Catastrophes. For all of Kjerag's history it has been protected by the hand of the goddess Kjeragandr and has thus developed in relative safety compared to the rest of Terra. However, in part because of this, Kjerag is an insular nation which comes across as more of a pre-industrial nation than the rest of Terra. They're still very much an agrarian society, and despite recent modernization projects like railroads and mining operations the country remains small and isolated.

These modernization projects are the brainchild of Enciodes Silverash, CEO of Kjerag's largest international corporation and patriarch of the Silverash clan. Enciodes grew up in Kjerag but left to pursue higher education in Victoria, and had a front-row seat to not only their modern industrial world but also to their aggressive colonial ambitions. He came to the understanding that for Kjerag to survive, it would need to become a modern nation like its neighbors, and he resolved to see this happen by any means necessary.

Not everyone agrees with him, though. Kjerag's government has traditionally been formed of the leaders of the three largest clans - the Silverashes, the Browntails, and the Paleroches. Unfortunately for Enciodes, the leaders of both the Browntails and the Paleroches are just short of hostile. Ratatos Browntail is interested in the economic benefits but trusts Enciodes about as far as she could throw him, and Arctosz Paleroche is a staunch traditionalist and trusts Enciodes significantly less than he could throw him - both totally fair opinions considering his sizeable private army and the attempted coup he did a few years back. However, after said coup, all three of these figures ceded most of their authority to the Saintess Enya Silverash, Enciodes' estranged sister and the voice of the goddess Kjeragandr. While she acknowledges that Enciodes has a point, she seeks to modernize Kjerag in unity with its people rather than in opposition to them - rather than making a modern nation, she wants to make a modern Kjerag. It's a small distinction, but an important one, and her popular support and religious authority is one of the few things that can actually keep Enciodes in check.

At the moment, Kjerag is in the process of exiting their centuries of international isolation. It's a slow process but they've made significant steps forward - the country has entered scientific collaborations with Rhine Lab and signed important trade agreements with their neighbors that will ensure the country can keep developing. They've even fought off some intimidation from the Victorian army, stating firmly that they are an equal nation and not a subordinate. Despite this, though, there's a great deal of work still to be done if Kjerag wants to step onto the world stage with its identity intact.

Contemporary Columbia

Mansfield Break / Dorothy's Vision / Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures

Mountain / Robin / Domma / Astigenne / Dorothy / Jessica / Coldshot / Woodrow / Clip Cliff / Liskarm / Franka / Tila

This one isn't really a cohesive plotline per se, but we can be reasonably sure that the game is going to keep going down this road, so it's worth a mention. In the background of the Rhine Lab plotline, we've gotten lots of backstory on what life is like in Columbia. Now that that story is finished, Arknights seems interested in exploring more lower-class Columbian experiences and stories, and putting the people we've seen in the B-plots of the Rhine Lab events in the spotlight.

Life in Columbia might seem glamorous and high-tech from the top, but for most people in the country it isn't nearly as pleasant. Arknights is heavily inspired by the world of the early 20th century, and if you know anything about American history in that period, you'll know that it was kind of a terrible time. Columbia takes a lot of the worst of it, everything from loan sharks to company stores to price gouging on vital goods like medicine. Life in Columbia tends to mean being trapped in a cycle of debts, keeping you just afloat enough to keep working while maximizing the boss' bottom line. But despite all that, Columbia doggedly looks forward instead of inward, spurred onward by a myth of the frontier that promises a brighter future ahead, no matter how you get there.

This plotline has been in the shadow of the Rhine Lab storyline for a while, but has since developed into its own storyline. The roots of this story were laid in Mansfield Break, our first event in Columbia proper. The background world-building told us a fair bit about life in Columbia and especially the outsize impact corporations have on Columbian society. We wouldn't see the full picture, though, until Dorothy's Vision. The DV B-plot showed us the vicious downward spiral of infection in Columbia - Oripathy medication is both prohibitively expensive and practically ineffective, and the debt they take on usually puts them out of house and home. Without the money to keep themselves from going under or the means to change the system beating them down, most infected are forced into brutal frontier work as pioneers, treated little better than beasts of burden. Finally, Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures showed a similar process happening to the people of Davistown even without any infection - the exploitative cycle works no matter who it's working on. Anything is permissible as long as it serves a larger bottom line, no matter how many people it crushes underfoot. In the future, we're likely to follow the mercenary organization Blacksteel as Columbia contracts them to support its growth, but it's hard to say more than that. We really don't know much about where this story is going, just inferences from the rest of the game's stories.

In addition to these plots, we have a few honorable mentions which don't really have enough plot to be included in the main list but I want to throw in anyway:

Slumbering Sami

The Black Forest Wills a Dream / Expeditioner's Joklumarkar / I would argue Fire within the Sand and Zwillingstürme im Herbst belong here too.

Typhon / Magellan / Santalla / Muelsyse?

Life on Terra doesn't suck enough, so you know what we need? Eldritch horrors! The Collapsals are extraterrestrial entities that we're barely able to understand, let alone fight. They appear to exert some sort of corrupting power on reality around them, and are heavily implied to come from outside our reality somehow. We don't know what they are, what they want, or what to do about them. We barely even know where they come from or how to fight them.

The good news is that for the moment the Collapsals are mostly contained. They've only shown up in very remote regions of Terra - namely in the Sami Icefields in the far north and the Foehn Hotlands in the far south - I think? I know the portal was supposedly closed during the Khaganquest but I remember seeing somewhere that they've started to show up again and I can't put a source to it. Someone back me up in the notes if you remember where that's from. Anyway, a lot of very hard work is put in by the Sami people and the Empire of Ursus to make sure that the average person on Terra doesn't even know what a Collapsal is. If you've gotten far enough to know what the Emperor's Blades are, know that we've only seen two or three throughout the main story because all the rest are up North fighting off the Collapsals. Let's kindly thank them for their service, and the fact that we're not going to have to worry about them at all. Definitely. Don't watch PV-4 just trust me.

Fangs of the Feraerus

Main Story excerpts / Il Siracusano

Texas / Lapland / Don Bernardo / Vigil / Crownslayer / Projekt Red / Lunacub I guess

The Feraerus, also known as the Beast Lords, have been hinted at with a couple of characters for a while now. They are powerful creatures similar to but distinct from the Feranmuts who look like animals from our world, instead of the new creatures Terra has in their stead. Some examples are Emperor, the High Priest from Acahualla, or Siege's lions. They are powerful creatures with inherent magic and some apparent responsibility to protect their associated creatures, though the relationship between the beast lords and the races of Terra, human or otherwise, is still unclear.

Regardless, a particular group of Beast Lords is notable for their threat - the Signori Dei Lupi. These are a pack of wolves that live in what is now Siracusa. Because they're wolves in a fictional work, they go by debunked wolf science rules, and are in a power struggle to determine the pack's alpha. Unfortunately, fighting amongst themselves isn't very effective when every member of the pack is an immortal being, so they've instead chosen to settle things by a competition. Every wolf in the pack has picked a human to serve as their champion, teaching them to hunt the others and letting them loose in a sort of battle-royale-style death game. As far as we're aware, Don Bernardo was a fang but has been replaced by Lappland, Projekt Red and Lunacub are both fangs of different wolves, and Crownslayer's mentor, killed by Red in between Chapter 6 and Il Siracusano, was not just a fang but "the first true wolf". We don't know much else about this competition, but we're definitely going back to Siracusa in the future, so this competition is only just getting started.

I don't have an alliteration for Team Rainbow :(

Originium Dust

Ash / Blitz / Frost / Tachanka

Team Rainbow isn't remotely plot-relevant, but with a sequel event coming up I thought I'd quickly recap the original event for those who couldn't read it. Team Rainbow is a special forces from our Earth, or if not something very close to it. A segment of Team Rainbow is sent on an operation to capture the rogue Russian scientist Levi Klitschko. Klitschko has, unbeknownst to everyone, been experimenting with Originium, and right before he's captured he activates a device that sends the entire bunker to Terra.

The team arrives in Sargon and is quickly drawn into a local power struggle. The local lord made a deal with Klitschko, giving him protection and resources in exchange for the scientist creating him an army of Originium-infused mutants. Team Rainbow, on the other hand, ends up helping the local infected when the lord's men come to push them around. Things go south pretty quickly, but Team Rainbow runs into a Rhodes Island squad and they're able to mount a unified assault on the Lord. They break through his mercenaries and reach Klitschko just in time to watch him sacrifice himself to unleash a massive mutant creature, which they eventually bury in the rubble of the bunker.

In the aftermath, Team Rainbow is rescued by Rhodes Island reinforcements and brought to the landship. They don't have a way to return home, but Terra can always find room for another squad of mercenaries, so they decide to make the most of things and set off to explore this new world.

Finished Plotlines:

These are mostly copy/pasted from my last post, because they haven't really changed much. Same deal as before - these plots have basically wrapped up, so I'll give as spoiler-free a review as possible. They're good plots, go back and read them, but until you can this is just a quick summary of where the world stands now that they're completed.

Fear Neither Hardship Nor Darkness

Maria Nearl / Pinus Sylvesteis / Near Light / An Obscure Wanderer

Maria Nearl / Zofia Nearl / Margret Nearl / Młynar Nearl / Dikaiopolis / All of Pinus Sylvestris / Platinum / Roy and Monica / The Doctor / Gravel / basically all the major political figures of Kazimierz

Kazimierz, and the infected living within it, lived without hope. They lived in a dark world, where an oppressive hyper-capitalist system suffocated them, leaving them not just without the means to survive but without any chance of changing the system or fighting the world around them. Pinus Sylvestris knew how to fight the Chamber of Commerce, Dikaiopolis knew how to open up paths for the infected, and Rhodes Island knew how to get medicine to people in need - but none of that could save Kazimierz, because Kazimierz lived in a world without the hope that the system could be changed. Kazimierz needed a Knight - a Knight of honor and virtue, a Knight taken directly from the pages of the storybooks, a Knight that could be the noble light that illuminates the land. They needed brilliant, blinding hope, hope that could not be hidden and could not be denied, to descend from the heavens in their hour of need. The only person who could have saved Kazimierz was Margaret Nearl.

Margaret Nearl won the 24th Major and became the Grand Knight, and has since stayed in Kazimierz to improve living conditions for the infected and push back against the General Chamber of Commerce. The Armorless Union has mostly been decapitated - the Platinum defected, the Lazurites have disappeared and taken on new identities, and the Darksteel has promised to stay away from Margaret and Rhodes Island. Finally, Pinus Sylvestris and most of the rest of the Nearls are now on the landship, working for Rhodes Island.

A New Age is Upon Us

Rhine Lab Manhua / Mansfield Break / Dorothy's Vision / Lonetrail

Silence / Saria / Ifrit / Muelsyse / Ptilopsis / Ahrens Parvis / Kristen Wright / Dorothy / Ferdinand Clooney / Ho'olheyak / Tin Man / Trevor Friston / Mark Max

6,152 meters above sea level, there exists a mysterious barrier called the Starpod. It disrupts arts, tears apart solid matter, and even warps the light that travels through it, rendering space travel or even any sort of medium-altitude flight impossible. It has not always existed, but has covered Terra for almost all recorded memory, and was a simple fact of the world - until Kristen Wright tore it open and flung a spacecraft through.

On November 21, 1099, the world of Terra fundamentally changed. It didn't change in a particularly perceptible way - everyone still got up and went about their day the same day afterwards, and you'll be hard-pressed to actually link anything that will follow to the actions of Kristen Wright. But despite that seeming insignificance, Kristen Wright has left her mark on every living being in Terra, from the magistrates of Yan to the farmers of Sargon to the seaborn crawling amidst the oceans. There is a little something that never existed before - a little fragment of possibility that comes from seeing the world behind the curtain, even if for just a moment. It's impossible to tell where that spark will go. But one thing is for sure - "if, in a century or a millennium, our descendants walk among the stars, the masses will sing her praises."

In more concrete effects, Saria is now the Control of Rhine Lab. She heads the company, and Silence now serves as a senior ethical consultant and head of a burgeoning movement for scientific ethics in Columbia - using the sudden momentum generated by the Trimounts project to push for greater oversight and consideration in the scientific world. Both her and Saria now split their time between Trimounts and Rhodes Island, and Ifrit once again has two moms to spend her time with :)

Finally, Ho'olheyak has joined Rhodes Island with the piece(?) of Trevor Friston that she captured with her arts. The Tin Man and the Maylander Society now have their eyes on Rhodes Island, but more importantly, The Doctor is coming to understand more and more about their past. They're starting to understand their identity, and like Kal'tsit has said, they may not be able to stop.

A Tune, Lingering in my Head

Lingering Echoes / Zwillingstürme im Herbst

Ebonholz / Kreide / The Witch-King / Czerny / Hibiscus / Lessing / Fremont / Hildegarde and Grimmacht

The Witch-King of Leithanien was one of the most powerful casters in Terran History, and even after his death, ripples of his presence still echo through Leithanien and beyond. The events of the Stimmverlust had two main consequences - the Güldensgesatz being weakened, and the Sarkaz Liches departing from Leithanien, as well as the longer-term effect of making Leithanien aware of the presence of the oncoming collapsal crisis.

All of these are significant in their own way - these events were extraordinary important for world-building and writing magic lore and setting up later plots, but none of that really lends itself particularly well to a brief summary, about the closest I can get is "powerful magic leaves ripples, and fundamentally changes the world around it in a way that can be difficult or impossible to undo". It's the sort of plot which can either be explained in bare bones or in extreme detail, but it's too tightly wound around other plots and world-building that there's nothing in between the two. This storyline is likely going to get wound into the Laterano plotlines in the future, so where necessary I'll include explanations with them.

The Main Story:

Main story chapters / Vigilo / What the Firelight Casts

Not a whole lot has changed since our last plot recap, which feels a little weird because of how big chapter 13 was. It's hard to list everything that happened, so I think I'll keep to a shorthand list of all the factions at play in Victoria and what each of them wants, as of the end of Chapter 13.

Rhodes Island

Amiya / Kal'tsit / Doctor / Logos / Ascalon / Closure / Dazmati / etc.

Rhodes Island's goals aren't really set in stone, but they are generally interested in pushing the Sarkaz out of Victoria and ending the suffering caused by the occupation. Amiya has embraced her role as the lord of fiends - she understands that to bring peace to the Sarkaz, she must first shoulder all of the pain they feel, and she pushes on regardless. Towards that goal, Kal'tsit has started to reveal more of the history of the Sarkaz, and Logos and Ascalon are becoming more important. As Amiya becomes more powerful and more sure of herself, the Sarkaz courts are finding her harder and harder to deny.

Darknights+

W / Innes / Hoderer / Paprika / Ulšulah / Ermengarde? I guess?

The Darknights trio has finally made friends! I'm so proud of them. You could make the argument that these folks belong in the Rhodes Island section, but their aims are different enough that I think they ought to get their own brief. This group, but mostly Hoderer and W, are exploring the idea of a new Kazdel - that is, what does Kazdel without the constant cycle of hatred even look like? This has mostly taken the form of rebellion from inside Kazdel's military forces, and actually communicating with people on the other side to ask questions like "Hey do we have a plan beyond constant occupation" and "This kinda sucks, are we sure this is how we want to live". They're the other half of Rhodes Island's philosophical strategy - Amiya can free the Sarkaz of the cycle of hatred, and W and Hoderer can find a way for them to live afterwards.

The Exemplars

Siege / Glasgow Gang / Delphine / Self-Salvation Corps / Horn / Misery

The Exemplars were, originally, an elite unit within the Victorian Military. They were considered heroes, renowned for legendary deeds in service of Victoria. But, in one of their many wars with Gaul, the Exemplars were sacrificed in a political move by the Dukes - the unit was wiped out, the name wasn't revived, and what was left of the unit eventually became the Tempest Platoon we met in chapter 9.

It wasn't Siege's intention to fight a war. Her intent was always to protect its people - the real people, like her gang and the people of Norport. As they've travelled through a war-torn Victoria, though, she's realized that she will not be able to bring peace to her people without the power to end the war. And so, she brings together the people she has saved under the banner of the Exemplars, revived once more - an army free from the Dukes and the Sarkaz, who can bring peace to the people, if Siege can live up to the symbol she represents.

Reunion

Nine / Talulah / Guard / Redblade / Percival / Norwell

I nearly forgot Reunion was here too. Reunion has been going through an identity crisis ever since capturing Talulah. Not only have they lost faith in their strong figurehead, but that figurehead has lost a lot of her own spark, leaving the identity and direction of the movement in question.

That's not quite a bad thing, though - Nine is a much more thoughtful leader than Kashchey/Talulah ever was, Red has always been more of a good guy than a villain, and Guard brought a lot of the philosophy of Rhodes Island with him when he joined up. They now have a chance to not just rebuild Reunion, but to remake it into something better. The trick will be getting it right, because in war-torn Victoria, they'll find plenty of lost infected with nothing to lose.

The Dukes

Caster / Windmere / Wellington / Gododdin / Probably more that I'm forgetting / Eblana and Dublinn

The Dukes of Victoria have been the ruling power in the country for the last few decades or so, and they aren't interested in leaving the country to the Sarkaz. While they've been too busy with their power plays and politicking to oust the Sarkaz before now, they've finally come together enough to begin a united offensive against the Sarkaz, putting the whole of Victoria's might on the field against the invaders.

However, it hasn't been going great for them. The Sarkaz fight differently from the formal armies that Victoria is used to fighting. They field massive revenant constructs, use strange witchcraft, and wield oripathy as a weapon like any other against the Victorian army, and the Dukes have been slow to adapt. The exact state of the war is unknown, but it doesn't seem likely the Dukes will be able to win the war on their own, especially while the Sarkaz control Londinum's catastrophe-causing superweapon.

Even if the Dukes don't win the war, though, they'll still be a threat to everyone else in Victoria. No matter how the Sarkaz are removed, the moment they're gone the Dukes will hold a near-monopoly on military force in the country and will probably try to seize power again, to say nothing of potential retaliation against Kazdel or the Sarkaz diaspora. The Dukes aren't an immediate problem, but they also aren't going away any time soon.

The Confessarius

Shining / Nightingale / Amiya arguably / Qui'sartuštaj / Salus

To be totally honest, I barely understand the Confessarius plotline. As far as I understand it, they want the power of the Lord of Fiends. This is possible because the first Confessarius, thousands of years ago, was a Lord of Fiends and they've kept his soul alive through magic eugenics? I think? Qui'sartuštaj currently holds that soul, but when he dies, it'll go to Shining and she'll be taken over by it. Nightingale was also artificially designed as a vessel for that soul, and because of that, Qui'sartuštaj wants to recover her and use her to reincarnate(?) the original Confessarius Lord of Fiends. I think. If someone else knows this plot better than I do, please correct me and I'll update this because I haven't been paying enough attention and I'm kinda lost.

The Sarkaz Court/ Kazdel Military Commission

Theresis / Theresa / Sanguinarch / Qui'sartuštaj / Dazmati / Manfred / Lettou

The Kazdel Military Comission, acting under the supervision of King Theresis, is the current ruling power of the Sarkaz and the acting government in control of Londinum. A few years ago, a group of nobles called for the help of the KMC in restoring order in Londinum, and once they occupied it they chose not to leave and instead took over both the city and the catastrophe-causing superweapon, The Shard, located within it. Ever since, they've been carefully trying to preserve their control over both Kazdel and Victoria.

With the introduction of Rhodes Island and the Dukes closing in, this has gotten a lot harder. Theresis now needs to pacify and manage every individual subgroup of Sarkaz, keeping them satisfied enough to stay under the banner. While doing this, he needs to fight both a war outside the walls, against the Dukes, and inside, against Rhodes Island and various rebellious Sarkaz elements like the Darknights trio and whatever is going on with the Dazmati.

The one reason he's been able to hold on this long is the authority of his sister, Theresa. I'm not gonna go over the entire Theresis/Theresa plotline, because it's difficult to summarize and tied into nearly every other plot in the game, but the really short version is that Theresis represents the traditional Sarkaz rule by fear and Theresa represents a new future, a hope for a future without conflict. When taking Londinum, Theresis ceded to the strong suggestions of the Confessarius and used some unknown ritual to return the late Theresa to life, and presumably render her somehow compliant to him. She now serves as a figurehead of the KMC, and the hope she sparks in the Sarkaz is a big reason why Theresis' ambitions haven't collapsed around him.

And, I think that's most everything! Sweet sassy molassey, that took a while. I may skip the next anniversary's recap, since it'll only be main story stuff anyway. Anyway, as usual, if there's something relevant I've missed, let me know, and if not, I hope this helped! Enjoy your life and practice your art, Doctors!

[coffeeandkhun]

Traumerei's possible Peter Pan syndrome

Lo Po Bia Traumerei is such an interesting villain. It's been foreshadowed since the season 1 that he'll play a big role in the story of TOG. In this post, I'm talking about his name and the possible impact on the story. There will be spoiler from the whole webtoon, just to be warned.

Traumerei has got his name from Kinderszenen, a set of piano movements written by a German composer Robert Scumann in 1830's.

Kinderszenen includes 13 pieces of music - just like there were 13 irregulars climbing the tower before the Arlene & V -incident happened. Kinderszenen means "Scenes from Childhood" and movement no. 7, Träumerei, is one of the most famous pieces by this famous romantic era composer.

Träumerei means either dreams or reverie, but Traumerei WE know is not a day dreamer or an innocent, playful man like his name would suggest. He's a resentful and distrusting tyrant. More than that, he is overly obsessed about being able to control others and is constantly testing their obedience, complaining bitterly about how he's "used to being betrayed", like his own behavior had nothing to do about why this happens.

There is another word Träumerei reminds us, that is trauma, although the etymology is different. Word trauma has it's origin in Ancient Greek, and means a physical wound or damage. Today, when talking about trauma, we usually don't mean a psycical wound however, but a mental one.

To this point, we have learned that Traumerei has nightmares he can't remember - memories that are probably somehow linked to Baam or his parents, because he started to have those nigtmares only after hearing about his existence. He also had a habit of feeding his memories to the monster Leviathan, the very reason why he can't remember.

Leviathan is a biblical sea serpent, a dragon or a devil, and is sometimes associated with the cardinal sin of envy - as is the color green.

“O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” - William Shakespeare

It could be the memories and/or emotions he fed to Leviathan are related to something he committed in his jealousy, maybe something parellel to what happened between Wang Wang, Nen Neya, Yasratcha and him. In s3 c111, after sending Wang Wang away, he says: "I felt something I haven't felt in a long time... from a mere creature... but I've gotten rid of it, so it's fine now." We don't hear what exactly he felt, so we can only guess, if it was envy or something else.

It's possible that Traumerei used to be different, but there really was a traumatic betrayal that changed him, like he keeps suggesting. Or then he's more like those people in the real world who find it difficult to accept that people around them mature. They feel betrayed and jealous when their friends, who are now married, have children and/or a career, are not ready to have online gaming all-nighthers with them just about any time they want.

In Jungian Psychology, there is an term for an individual, who, just like Peter Pan, refuses to mentally grow up and meet the responsibilites of the adult life - puer aeternus.

“…remains too long in adolescent psychology; that is, all those characteristics that are normal in a youth of seventeen or eighteen are continued into later life, coupled in most cases with too great a dependence on the mother.” - Marie-Louis von Franz

From his own point of view, Traumerei could be just a child bullied by everyone. Just like a cliché teenager, he's also easily bored and prone to mood-swings. We don't know about his mother (he never answers when Nen Neya asks, unfortunately), but we know that he has a somewhat dependant relationship with Jahad, "the Father".

Whatever Traumerei gave away to Leviathan, we can be quite sure that these were not the best and most beautiful memories of his life, but the worst and most traumatic ones. Getting those memories back might change him or destroy him - we don't know yet, but I would guess it's the latter. I personally find it difficult to see his cruelty could somehow be atoned - because unlike Yasratcha, who was dominated by him, he "made" himself and keeps only accusing others. I might be wrong, and we'll see when the story evolves. But even in TOG world of morally gray characters, Traumerei is on his own level of darkness.

[piracytheorist]

I've recently migrated to Tumblr from the blue bird hellsite and I'm really enjoying it, a big part of it is due to all the extra fandom content and that includes your blog, so thank you!

You've probably answered this somewhere (apologies if so) but how come you don't read the manga? I really enjoy the anime and the second season and movie can't come quick enough!

Hi and welcome, hope you have fun in this silly little hellsite XD I'm glad I'm one of the people that make your stay enjoyable <3

I did mention in a post some time ago about why I don't read the sxf manga but I think you're the first one to ask me about it so don't worry ;) my quick answer is that reading manga from the small screen of my laptop ruins my immersion (especially in comparison to reading in printed form), and that in general I don't like spoilers and I prefer experiencing a story without knowing anything about it.

While watching the anime I feel fully immersed and I can properly enjoy it because anime is meant to be watched from a screen. I love the story, but as I said I prefer going in on a story almost completely blind, I like not knowing what's going to happen, and I have actually tried reading a few manga chapters before they were animated, and while it was a fun experience, it ended up lessening my enjoyment of the episodes slightly. I was comparing stuff a lot. It's like reading a book and then watching a film that was based on it, you usually spot what is missing and make way too many comparisons. On the other hand, I did not make such comparisons when I read the manga after watching the anime, I could instead enjoy it just as much. That was like reading the book after watching the film, in which case, for me, the film isn't ruined and the book provides cool little details that the film omitted.

So, after I compared my experiences and saw what was more enjoyable to me, I decided to not read further into the manga and only read the chapters after I watch their respective anime episodes. I have full respect for Endo's work and the effort and dedication he's put into it, I've been slowly buying the manga volumes and will continue to do so unless a scandal arises or the story goes full downhill both of which I hope never happen and I neither suggest everyone should do it my way nor do I take pride in it. It makes being in the fandom very hard (since I cannot engage in pretty much any discussion nor interact with most other fans) but I really really really love this story and its characters, and I want to give myself the chance to enjoy it in the way I know will be most enjoyable to me.

I am so jealous of people who like or don't mind spoilers, or who can get fully immersed by the manga alone. I know there's so much of the story and development I'm missing and since my main reason for being on tumblr is a) meta analysis and b) talking about it with other fans, being anime-only is almost contradictory to that. But it's a story promising enough to make me believe the wait will be worth it :)

I've already put a countdown widget on my phone for the movie, and I can't wait for the season 2 premiere date to be officially announced so I can add a countdown for that too! I'm so excited to get more of the story, as well as new stuff with the film! From some spoilers I've gotten for the following chapters, it seems to be an arc with great story and development so I can't wait to experience it for myself :D

[spoocys-glade-of-dreams]

dearest spoocy how do i master the art of roleplay

- Healthy communication with your fellow roleplay partners is the most important thing about Roleplaying.

- Make sure to read the rules and muses pages of those you wish to seek out for roleplay. I've had one or two folks coming in that I had to politely decline roleplaying with because I fell under something that was in their "Do not interact" criteria (Not all DNI's relate to something that could be harmful. Some people just put DNI for things like enjoying specific fandoms or media.) Respect the rule list.

Most rule pages include no godmoding during interactions. Godmoding can fall under two different categories:

Being overpowered/untouchable

Deciding things about the other person's character.

Even the deities I portray in roleplay are not untouchable. They all have a weakness somewhere. Jano's is light sources. Polokus can be corrupted by Nightmare Influence or even fall into insanity, ect. Even the Knaarens have a way to kill em and not all of them share the same methods.

I always ask my rp partner if it's okay to do something with their character before I write it. I also make it clear to them when it's okay to kill a character for the story plot.

Never force ships on them either. I have the shipping status of my muses written on my roster. It indicates if a muse is open for shipping or not. Otherwise, ask first before jumping into ship interactions like that.

Big one too is DON'T METAGAME!

-copy and pasted from another source: OOC being "out of character" and IC being "in character"

Metagaming is simply taking knowledge that you gained OOCly and bringing it ICly. For instance, a friend tells you a plot that went on between a friend and someone else where you were not involved. Any knowledge not gained through RP is not knowledge you know ICly.

I talk about all kinds of story plots and spoilers with my rp partners over dm's all the time. I even leave them little cookie crumbs or just flat out tell them "This is what will happen" if they ask about something. I give them the option of choice. Not everyone is willing to spoil things for you and would like to surprise you.

- Don't insert yourself into starters or roleplays that do not involve you or is not marked as an open starter. Most Roleplayers don't like when uninvolved blogs or parties try to insert themselves into a roleplay or reblog them to comment on it. If you must comment on them, use the reply feature over reblogging it. Not all starters that are posted on Tumblr are open ones.

An open starter usually implies everyone's free to join it. Private ones are kept between specific persons. Better safe then sorry: if you see a starter that has a specific blog tagged, don't reblog and don't try to insert yourself into it. It's a good way to get yourself blocked by both parties.

- Do not pressure your partner to get responses out on a schedule. You never know what's going on in their lives. They could have gotten a new job or are simply unable to find the drive to write. Be patient. Be considerate. Be understanding.

- A muse's intent or actions does not always equal the mun's. Some of us portray really nasty villain characters. Some of those villains or characters may do things that are offensive or violent in nature. This does not mean the mun delights in doing these actions themselves. I have at least two muses that are despicable with their actions and I'm often raging in dm's with my friends about how much it hurts to write some of that stuff sometimes.

- Research or ask what roleplay formats are acceptable with your partner. My format is a mix of semi line and para. It means i tend to write responses in whole paragraphs or shortened paragraphs. Some blogs frown upon using other formats. One-line format means you tend to respond in one sentence. Semi-line is pretty much a small and short paragraph.

- Don't Machine Gun Roleplay. Machine Gun in roleplay means there is constant talking and talking without a chance for the other party to respond. This is something I suffer with! I have a bad habit of having a character go in long talks and I will often ask my RP partners if I need to shorten it so they can respond. We work around this by allowing the character to respond between "transitions" to the next thing written in the previous response. Never hurts to ask your RP partner if you need to fix something if you aren't sure.

- If a blog has an age restriction and you are younger than what is required DO NOT INTERACT WITH THEM. Do not interact with any of that material. It can get us adults in trouble if you try to engage in that kind of roleplay or content in general. This is not just for roleplay! Adults online should not interact with minors that try to engage with their age restricted content. It's encouraged to block them! That could be anything from suggestive content, Full NSFW, or gore content.

some blogs may even be marked as 16+ outside of the USA, but you should never be engaging with or posting NSFW content until you are 18. End of story.

[vivvy-of-the-lake]

I'm gonna go on a dumb rant but this means a lot to me because it just hurts so much thinking about it. I feel stupid and silly and immature getting this worked up over it but also entirely justified and valid in my feelings and I need help (more under the readmore)

so I've been reading the manga for Bocchi the Rock after having finished the anime (no spoilers in this rant, don't worry) and even before having started reading it, I had come across all the major 'gay Bocchi' meme panels and i was definitely keeping an eye out for them as i was reading

(also i was reading it at https://bocchitherockmanga.com/ which for reasons i will get into I do NOT recommend AT ALL. all the issues i'm about to talk about aren't there in the mangadex version)

i've gotten through most of the series with no issues whatsoever, until I got to chapter 58. These latest chapters were being scanned by someone new to scanlations as a whole, and in particular bocchi stuff (I won't name names because that's not what this post is about, you can find who to blame just by reading it yourself from anywhere that isn't mangadex)

I was very keenly on the look-out for this panel, because for very obvious reasons it's become a very popular bocchi meme:

...but reading the version i was reading, not only were there very blatant grammar and spelling issues, but when i finally got to the panel-

what the fuck. what the fuck is this bullshit

"I've it's been popular nowadays..." doesn't make any fucking sense and had i not read the other version first i might not have understood what it was trying to say, and all of the text is so horrendously scaled and placed so awfully

but the real issue is in that "fine print":

"I already know the scope of the test, and it seems I'm going to be that one big-breasted popular girl on the exam!"

what.

the.

fuck.

this makes ZERO FUCKING SENSE given the actual illustration, i know bocchi has big boobs in the manga but WHO'S THAT GIRL WITH THE BIG BOOBS, HUH??? WHAT'S HER SIGNIFICANCE???

it doesn't take an expert to realise that what bocchi's saying here doesn't even make any sense if she's not even the one with big boobs in her fantasy of what will happen if she repeats a year

now i always lean on the side of never attributing to malice what can be attributed to stupidity, and i was ready to just assume this was a piss-poor translation

but i found the scanlator making a post on the MangaDex forums about the situation, and in it they said this (reminder that the panel in question comes from chapter 58):

so it was intentional. it was a person actually trying to censor the original intent of the author because they didn't like that there was gay representation.

...

i'm done. i'm so fucking done with this.

"i have given up on the lame goal of censoring bocchi the rock" yeah that's a little too late pal. the damage this guy has done is still apparent because in almost all of the places online, including the TOP RESULT for searching "bocchi the rock manga", they still use this guy's awful, rushed, and - let's be honest - homophobic scans instead of the new ones that are actually good.

oh and of course only one guy in the thread actually calls out OP for censoring it in the first place, and then another guy backs up OP and that's the end of that.

these things are small, but it feels like being queer is just kinda not possible nowadays. everyone tries to take it away from us and it's inescapable, even in the places we go to in order to get away from all the bullshit and awful stuff happening in the real world.

stuff like this seems minor but it sends a very real message to queer fans of stuff like this:

we can't have anything.

[chronurgy]

So - I'm at the final boss of shadow of the erdtree. Spoilers below for everything up to that point, though nothing past it (as of yet! I'll get there!)

Starting with frame rate stuff - definitely still having some issues. Nothing so bad as the divine beast dancing lion fight but you really can watch things load in ahead of you. Never had this issue in the game, I think something must be fucked up somewhere in the code. I'm hoping they'll unfuck that soon

Overall impression - the dlc is beautiful. It really is! And it's huge, way bigger than you'd think just looking at the map.

But (yeah, here it comes)

It's empty. It's big and beautiful and empty. I love the cerulian coast, it's probably the most beautiful area in the entire game. It should've been half the size. There's just not all that much there. Same, if not more so, for charo's hidden grave. The abyssal woods is far, far too large for what it contains (esp since you don't get torrent!). The loot is super disappointing. Whoah great, another low tier smiting stone I won't use! Cool! I think they ought to have put a lot more thought into both the loot placement/density and makeup. There're a lot of cookbooks and maybe some people are enjoying that but I'm just deeply over crafting systems in games at this point.

As for the bosses - they're all beatable (well I'll see about the last one) but man are they aggressive. It just feels like the level of aggression has been massively dialed up and a lot of them are fucking flippy too which the camera fucking hates. Actually the biggest camera issue I had was with dryleaf Dane, I think because he was normal sized? It really really struggled to handle his fight to the point I genuinely think they can't keep using it any longer. It's just not capable. Some of the bosses cross the line from fun-difficult to obnoxious-difficult I think. But that's obviously a personal opinion. It just got to the point (for me!) where the combos were so long and chained and fast and the boss was flipping all over the damn arena that I wasn't enjoying the boss fight as a fun test of skill any longer, it was just something I had to endure so I could move on to something I would actually enjoy

The standout npcs are definitely ainsbach and ymir. Fun and interesting characters! I only wish we'd gotten to see more of them, if anything

Lore time! I don't know! I got no fucking idea! Um, miquella used mogh's dead body and summoned radahn's soul into it because he wanted radahn to be his elden lord? Why? I don't know. I think maybe radahn didn't want to? And that's why malenia came down to caelid to attack him specifically? He maybe turned miquella down and so miquella sent his sister to kill him so miquella could get his hands on radahn's soul to force him into it? Or malenia didn't like radahn making any sort of weird pact with her brother and went to kill him to stop it from happening? I'm. Uh. A little lost. I've heard there's a post final boss cutscene that explains some stuff (well "explains" some stuff) and I might give in and look on YouTube for it because I have zero idea about what the hell is going on

Oh one last thing - the flooded keep with something moving in the water and knocking over trees is a fucking fantastic set piece. They knocked that out of the park

Overall - good dlc. The map is really intricate and cool. I liked that they worked to shake up the catacombs. Loot is pretty disappointing, which does impact exploration a bit. Bosses feel a little over tuned. I wish they'd included more scadutree fragments than we needed to reach max level.

[gwydionae]

Ok, serious question for One Piece fans.

Here's the TL;DR:

I'm at Fishman Island in the anime. I know lots of future spoilers for WCI and Wano. I love pre-time skip Sanji and WCI Sanji. I hate Fishman Island Sanji. The question is, as a Sanji fan, how much disappointment should I prepare for in Punk Hazard/Dressrosa/etc until WCI? Is he going to stay this obnoxious until then?

And here's the rather long explanation rant because sometimes you just gotta vent:

I started reading the manga, like, 20 years ago, but I dropped it during the Fishman Island arc. There were many reasons for this (some unrelated to OP entirely), but a big one was Sanji. He had always been my favorite character, and while there had been moments pre-time skip that I didn't love (see: Clear Clear Fruit and it's improper uses), I found he became downright insufferable after it. I don't have to love everything about a character for them to be my favorite, but FI pushed me past my limit.

I have since skimmed through Whole Cake Island and bits of Wano due to seeing spoilers that made me believe that may have changed over time, and I did really like the parts that I read. Well, most of them, anyway (see: invisibility and it's improper uses, Sanji). So between that and hype over the live action version, I went back and started watching the anime for the first time.

I am once again in the early goings of Fishman Island, and I am STRUGGLING. Every time Sanji is on screen my brain is warring between remembering what I like about his character and what I'm seeing play out currently. He used to be overly fond and protective of woman, to the point that his inability to fight them hindered the crew. Now he's an active pervert drooling in the face of every pretty woman who is hindering the crew simply by bleeding to death at the sight of any woman including his own crewmates. Had this happened, like, once, MAYBE twice, ok, it's a dumb gag, but whatever. But it's not a one off gag. It just keeps going, to the point where it doesn't feel like a gag anymore so much as an actual character trait. It's like his flaws (which can make for interesting character drama, like his inability to physically harm Kalifa) are now his core personality, and everything I liked about him isn't even there anymore. Heck, part of his training was to learn to cook foods to help his crew, and he hasn't even cooked anything yet, and he was separated from his crew for two years!

(Ugh, don't mind me, just unearthing feelings buried real deep a decade ago. ANYWAY)

I know he gets better. He'll never feel quite like his pre-time skip (especially pre-Thriller Bark) self again, but I know that WCI adds in some really interesting layers to his character, and while Wano still has his perviness turned up a bit higher than I'd prefer, there's real depth to his character to keep him from sinking back into the one note gag that is Fishman Island. He will get growth. He will go back to being an enjoyable and rounded character one day.

I just really need to know exactly how long I have to wait for that to happen.

Sanji is (obviously) not the only thing I like about One Piece. I like nearly all of the Straw Hats, I've gotten attached to more than a few side characters over time, and the fact that it's so long and hasn't (to my knowledge) felt like a mad scramble of retcons is highly impressive.

But here on good old tumblr, I expect people to understand about the blorbos. They're different. They're special. And feeling like I wish one of them would finally succumb to death by nosebleed is, to put it mildly, not ideal.

And thus the question at hand. Because if I have to put up with this Sanji all the way until WCI, I might just scream. But at least if I have the warning ahead of time, I'll know to expect it rather than fruitlessly hoping he gets better before then.

Just give it to me straight, doc. How bad is it?

(The one thing I know of him between now and WCI is that his mind/soul/?? gets stuck in Nami's body - not sure for how long or what all he... does... in there, though. So please spoil that for me. I do not want that kind of surprise.)

[idleglowingpixels]

HEY HELLO HI, I HATH RETURNETETH \(OoO)/ AND WITH AN UPDATE! (probably not one you all expect tho)

Unfortunately I have a teensy bit of bad news, but for good reason, let me explain:

TL;DR, the job I had gotten in February around XYY Chapter 1's release didn't really work out. And I only just started a new one this week, so it's been pretty hectic in my personal life lol, not gonna go into detail but sometimes it just be like that! XD

But because of that, I haven't had the chance to really give Chapter 5 a proper overview & edit, which every other currently released chapter has gotten and deserves imo, so Chapter 5's gonna be a bit delayed. :'(

At LATEST it'll be held until June 14th, but I have this Saturday off of work, so I'm gonna make sure I dedicate time to going over it and making sure it's how I want it to be. If you want to know why this particular chapter is gonna take a second, read the next few paragraphs at your own discretion.

Also, if this is your first exposure to my fic from the great beyond that is Tumblr, you can check out the first 4 chapters of XXY here!

(SPOILER ALERT) This chapter introduces some new characters, including two of the updated 2016 reboot villains, who I want to make sure I introduce properly. I have the tag "Updated 2016 reboot villains" or something like that on the fic and I PRAY that wasn't a turn-away for people! Most of them are minor characters, who are one-offs for an arc of chapters, but there's one or two that recur as antagonists.

A lot of older fans reading the fic might not recognize them, think they're OCs, or do know them but not fondly (XD), and I hope the changes I make to them will have readers a bit more hyped about them. In earlier drafts of the story, I wasn't going to use any of the 2016 characters, but it's a teen AU for the Puffs/Ruffs, I try not to make OCs if I don't have to, and all of the other baddies are older in age --I'd imagine some of them got other stuff going on 11 years after the events of the original show HAHAH!

I scrolled through the fan wiki as well as recalled a couple from my attempts at watching the reboot, found some newer baddies I liked conceptually and took a peek at some of their episodes, and found ✨ POTENTIAL ✨ XDDD (Also shout-out to Shadow Streak's videos covering every episode of the reboot, I still have yet to watch every single one, bless him :'D XD)

The newer characters all have general-to-major changes from the reboot, but their main character gimmicks remain intact. They're also completely separate from the way they're written in the reboot, practically different characters haha (Given I'd never write characters the way the reboot did lol, it had its moments but they were few & far between). (END SPOILER ALERT)

It's a pretty long chapter tho, and considering it's in Boom's POV I'm happy I could give him a big chapter length since he's one of the more difficult POVs for me to write (aka not one of the Reds LMAO they're so easy for me to write for dgvvdfvdcsc).

Big apologies for not dropping it tonight or updating sooner! I didn't think the new job would tire me out so much, and I've been doing a ton of unrelated things in the background that have kept me busy as a bee. :')

Like I said, the latest this chapter will release is next Wednesday on the 14th, but may release sooner depending on my time schedule. This will not affect updates for Chapters 6 & 7, which will still be released on the 7ths of July and August respectively.

Thanks for all of your support 🙏 See you soon, stay hydrated, and have a wonderful day or night!

[laws-yellow-submarine]

I know I've been MIA (again - hello burnout!) but I'm literally so upset right now I need to vent it everywhere:

Recently remembered I actually do like Star Wars (thanks Obi-Wan Kenobi, clearly you were my only hope) and decided to finally make an attempt at playing Knights of the Old Republic (a game I've literally ALWAYS wanted to play ever since I was little but just. Couldn't cause we had it for the OG Xbox, and now that's...somewhere lol), so I got it installed on my PC, turned all the graphics settings to low or off (hooray for vaguely colored polygons), and mastered pressing the quick save button literally every 30 seconds for when the game inevitably crashed. I got over 12 hours into it, and I was having so much fun playing it.

And then tonight I hit a cutscene I can't skip, that makes the game crash at the same point, with no way to bypass it. Which means I can't progress any further. (Which also means my character is stuck in a cave on Tatooine for the rest of her life RIP)

So anyway if you need me I'll be hiding in a less sandy, blanket cave crying out my frustration at the clear injustice of the universe ✌️

[kitkatopinions]

Thoughts on Arcane?

NOTE: I know nothing about League of Legends, I came into Arcane with no knowledge of anything to do with League, so everyone, please try to refrain from possible future spoilers by discussing major plot in the OG product. My brother-in-law already dropped some very big info and similar to going into the Final Fantasy remakes, I'm trying to avoid any other spoilers for something that's been around for ages. Thanks!

First thought, the animation is very good and very iconic.

Sometimes the faces seem a little off, but the whole effect looks almost like paint, and overall, it is very good. This is such a well made and just beautiful show in terms of the art, animation, and aesthetic.

The combat is a step above most things I've seen, but not as good as the early RWBY seasons by a long shot. On top of that, some of the weapons looks... Over the top, particularly the gauntlets the Vi eventually wears.

They're just a bit too big imo, it makes scenes go from cool to goofy really quickly. Still, the fights are worth watching and by no means are they bad!

Most of this show was directed very well, but they would do these strange jerky cuts that often didn't work for me. There also was this weird scene where two characters were about to fight, and then it suddenly changed into those characters doing the fight in slo-mo while the show switched to like, a completely different design, and then they just... Did the battle like normal all over again at normal speed. I can't blame them for experimenting with styles and stuff, but it just really took me out of the moment.

Some of it felt a little rushed and hurried in act two especially, where it's like they were trying hard to establish character dynamics early on to get to the juicy stuff later. I don't mind it so much especially since it's just the first season, and as a general rule, I try to give grace during a first season. But I'm really hoping we get to see more from many of these character interactions that feels a bit more fleshed out next season.

On that note, there were some writing choices I thought were strange. Characters that I kept waiting to have at least something of a good storyline that haven't gotten one, story elements that had suddenly come out of nowhere and didn't add much at all so far, moments that I feel didn't make much sense or things they had characters do that I thought either should've been gone into more detail around or should've been different. During the last three of four episodes especially, my sister and I were watching it and going "if they just tweaked this, this scene would be so much better," and "if this had been set up like this, this would've been such a compelling moment!" I feel like the show could be better than it is. The writing isn't life changing, it could be stronger and fuller, but it's still for the most part good, especially when you compare it to a certain color themed webcartoon.

But as for some praise, most of the characters are nuanced and interesting, the concepts are amazing and could lead somewhere great, the design is off the charts, the voice acting is pretty dang good, the dialogue is nice and even if the pacing is a little rushed, the way everything was delivered including stellar VA performances and animation makes everything feel more genuine and believable. Also I don't know how to describe 'this piece of media feels like it would be great for transformative works, even more so than most pieces of media,' but Arcane has those vibes. The more simple looks the characters sported in the first couple episodes were okay, but the character design in the post-time skip looks were really good. In fact, the show generally did a very good job at the time-skip. I was seriously thrown off and worried when I realized one was coming so early, but they did it well and the results were cool. Also, the battles are never easily won, our mains always seem to take hits, both emotionally and physically, and that's good. Also, they know how to get tension into a scene in this show, they're really good at using their music, too. The show is exciting, it throws curveballs at you in a way that (most of the time so far,) doesn't feel cheap or badly set up. Best of all, they're really good at making you care about the characters and what happens to them. I've mentioned before that I tend to consume media primarily for character arcs and character interactions, and I think this show has the potential to serve up some amazing ones. One of my favorite characters in the series - who I won't name atm because of possible spoilers - is so cool, and I just want the best for them because they deserve it.

I think the show maybe could've benefitted from taking a bit more time, but hey. they wanted to set the groundwork early, and I can't blame them.

There are some red flags. There were some things that made me feel uncomfortable at the very least. SPOILERS INCOMING: SKIP THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS.

For example, the main villain in the first season is someone who revolutionaried too hard and was actually super detrimental to the people he was supposedly advocating for to the point where the lead yells at the people oppressing her and her people to go wage war on her people in order to take him out - which I feel like something like this could've been done, but the way they did it was clunky and sent some weird messages imo. And for another example, in the last three episodes, they kill off two different dark skinned women (or at least, I think, the second death hasn't been exactly confirmed, but I'm pretty sure it happened.) And one of those women hadn't been given much outside of a flimsy connection to one of the main male characters, who was Very Sad about her death. In another scene, our main protagonist tore a prosthetic off of someone's body in a fight, etc... On top of that, I'm always annoyed when there's some piece of media that establishes a clear system of oppression - in this case the privileged Piltover versus the poor Undercity / Zaun, including a thick layer of obvious classism - and then instead of the main villains being say the people who helped build that system or the people who have worked to maintain that system in clearly corrupt and selfish ways, they say "Hmm, who will our villains be? The people who grew bitter after being oppressed for so long? The children who were traumatized and also suffered from this oppression?" Idk, it's all red flags. I'm really hoping that the show gets better after season one, but I can't pretend that some elements of the show so far didn't make me at least a little uncomfortable. There were ways that the writers could've gotten the desired effect without doing anything problematic. There are ways Vi could've won her fight with Sevika without ripping off her prosthetic, there are ways they could've portrayed Viktor's experiment going wrong without murdering Sky. Also, I'm already side eyeing some of the fandom for hating on one of the women of color essentially for getting in the way of a ship they - and I - like. I love Mel Medera and nobody has to put her down in order to stan Jayce and/or Viktor.

Aaaand on the subject of Jayce and Viktor, for my final thought, I wanna say that Jayce and Viktor is an amazing ship that I adore, and I love them so much. They had such a well done, natural dynamic. There's tension, but they obviously care about each other so much, and this ship has all the makings of a great 'mutual pining / they both think it's unrequited' dynamic and would make for an amazing slow burn. I'm going to ignore that the writers made Jayce say that Viktor is like his brother. Omg the looks, the energy, the way that Viktor smiles at him, the way that Jayce seems touchy feely with him, the deep connection and friendship, the great back and forth... I love this ship.

[inkedroplets]

A 🌟 star 🌟 for the directors cut (if you want)

This is super late but for a good reason since there was a parallel I wanted to talk about a bit and didn't want to spoil until I had updated.

I could do a Director’s Cut on probably all of my multi-chapter fics but I chose to talk about ‘A Rich Girl with Issues’ this time around because we're getting close to the end and thought it would be fun to share a few easter eggs.

The songs at the beginning of most of the chapters are pulled from the playlist I listen to when I write and usually set the mood or give a glimpse into Kara or Lena's mindset.

I've gotten a lot of asks about it and no, I had no idea that the story would end up being so long. By the end I'm going to hit somewhere north of 200k words and I don't know how to feel about that. I am sorry that the story is such a massively slow burn but I hope it will all be worth it in the end. There's a rough draft where Kara never moved to Metropolis and the two only meet as Supergirl and the Vigilante. A lot of fun but the story ended up moving in a much different direction.

But probably my favorite easter egg is the Clois line I included in the 17th chapter. Storywise it was a really big moment. Up until that point, Kara had been the one reaching out to Lena and to have Lena finally get the courage to do that when she knew Kara was hurting was a really big moment.

"I've got you," Lena murmured, her hand still around Kara's waist, helping her into a standing position and perhaps noticing the wobble in Kara's legs as she stood, keeping a hold on her.

"You've got me," Kara said in a whisper. Who's got you, Lena? Because if it can't be me you deserve someone truly special.

Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't read Chapter 24

There's another version of the scene where Kara finds out much in the same way but after Lena leaves the coffee shop, someone would have begun to verbally berate her for being a Luthor, about how Metropolis was a better place without her in it. Kara would have been ready to go back to defend Lena when the little girl that Lena helped in the park would have come to her defense. It was a really cute scene and I went back and forth on what was better but I ended up choosing the quieter moment for both Lena and Kara's sake

[andiinaraethtash]

3, 5, 6, 11, 15, 18, 20 and 21

Eeeeee! Yes, of course.

3) I actually can't think of any scene like that. Most of the time, if I have a scene I really want to write, I want to write it so much to either set up what's coming next (so I know I'm going to keep writing, and therefore need to write the context of) or it pays off what's come before. Either way, I want to write the context.

5) ...hm. That's actually a good one. I'm gonna say probably GeminiTay, although I love all the characters I'm currently writing. She's just the one I relate to most, and the one I see the most of myself in.

6) Oh, boy. I have lots of fun writing... nearly everyone. There have been a few scenes that were painful to write because of the POV, but the only one I can think of off the top of my head is a scene where the audience doesn't know who the POV character is. But to be honest, the most fun I've had from a perspective in recent months is probably fWhip. He's just so much fun to get into the headspace of!

11) Man, I envy anyone who can write action scenes. I know I've gotten compliments on my fight scenes, but I'm almost never satisfied with them. Also, heartfelt dramatic moments. I always feel remarkably cheesy writing those, but others can pull them off so well and it's not bloody fair.

15) Oh. My. Gosh. Summaries are the worst. Like, how do I summarize a story without giving away too many important plot points? How? Tags are okay, titles are a hit or miss, but man. Summaries.

18) Yes, I have three different endings to the story I'm working on right now, and while I know which one I'm going to do, I'd rather not spoil it, so I'm not going to say which one it is. thus, I can't tell you about the ones I'm not doing, because by process of elimination (you guys are smart cookies, seriously) you'd figure it out. I've not even told my unofficial beta which one I'm doing.

Otherwise, I have lots of alternate scenes. One that comes to mind is an alternate version of the scene where Sausage wakes up in chapter 22 (the chapter that comes out tomorrow). I had to delete it (i. e., remove it and hope I could use snippets of it at a later date) because it didn't fit the emotions I was going for. I'll post it to Tumblr after I post tomorrow's chapter.

I've also had lots of ideas that I've had to table. One of them involves Gem becoming a conduit for a god, but I decided that didn't work for reasons, another was Sausage using his inter-dimensional traveling abilities to get another dragon egg for reasons that didn't work because of different reasons... I could go on for hours about that.

20) Uuuugh I want to tell you so bad, but I can't because spoilers. But there's a really nice parallel between two characters that wasn't immediately obvious to me when I wrote it, but then I noticed it and I loved it so I leaned into it. I'll tell you more when we get to that part of the story.

I foreshadow a lot, and I love to sneak in references to other things. For example, Scott at one point wonders if he and Pearl were allies in their Last Life (I don't think I need to explain that one) and at another point, I describe Jimmy as "standing in silent Solidarity" which just had me giggling.

But back to the foreshadowing. In the summary of Before Something Breaks, I tell you someone else doesn't come back when Sausage does. Well, in the very first chapter I tell you who it was before Sausage even leaves Pixandria--the black candles are all burnt out. fWhip is gone.

That's just one small instance, but there are lots of others, and I can't wait to share the others with you... once it no longer spoils things.

(I have a thing about spoilers, in case you couldn't tell.)

And lastly, 21) Oh, man, I would love to see pretty much anything I write in a television show format. I'm not big into webcomics and most of the things I write fanfiction of are animated as it is, and I don't think you could cram as many details as I try to include in a movie, so I think I TV show would work best.

Alright, I think that's it! Thank you so much for the ask! I'll add to this after I finish posting Before Something Breaks when I don't have to worry about spoilers as much.

[herrwagner]

[Hi there! So, I've really been enjoying your long-term corruption arc on Krakoa with Dis/goreverine. Any spoilers or thoughts you're willing to share about that? No pressure! I'm really on board with Krakoa taking a dive into the horror genre because it's seriously just begging to be written.]

Hi! I would answer this privately but I know for a fact there are more people that wanna know, so I hope you don’t mind x: But that said let’s do a lil deep dive!

And a small disclaimer like this all very much a work in progress, it is all very dynamic and can be changed when things more fitting are figured out and so on. It’s a thing. 

Also this can you know... contain triggers so it will be under a cut for safety’s sake! Also it’s gonna be looong.

So first things first: I am so happy you like it and sent this! Truly over the moon so like thank you so so much for letting me go off an ramble. I will probably be enjoy this more than anyone else so let’s go!

It’s not so much corruption as it is just letting base instincts be a more prominent part of things. The whole embrace your nature aspect is very big on Krakoa, and I don’t see that lessening over the years. For Kurt, being of Neyaphem decent. that very much comes down to embracing a more demonic side that he has been pushing hard to keep away from himself up until now. 

Before Krakoa Kurt has made a very big point of not associating with Azazel more than he has to, and that includes denying a lot of himself, a lot of his heritage. simply to easier handle who he himself is as a person. Getting to Krakoa is like getting force feed with having to dive deep and embrace it whether he likes it or not. 

It looks a lot like Kurt may well be spiraling because of getting there, but it started slowly already when he gave up his immortal soul. Krakoa is just a fair ground where he can explore it and adapt without judgment, which honestly is what’s been holding him back the most the whole time. Wanting to fit in is so important to Kurt, and being as different as he is makes fitting in pretty damn hard. So while getting to Krakoa is a culture shock in a sense it is also very reliving and helpful.

Then we have the whole rebirth aspect. Since you basically get reborn as soon as you’ve been confirmed as dead on Krakoa, it is a pretty big part of how they live. Death doesn’t have the consequence it did before and all that. The interesting part to remember is how canon stated that each rebirth furthers a mutation slightly ( about 4 % on Krakoa, and a lot more on Arakko ). 

Because Kurt’s mutation is a very visual kind it shows very clearly on him how that affects him. Most obviously it shows in his appearance. How it over time change his features, fur getting a slightly different texture, the nails becoming more like claws, the teeth getting a lot bigger, his eyes going from reflecting like ( like that on a feline ) to actually glowing with hellfire, starting to grow horns, etc. The list is very long and it’s just small subtle shift for each rebirth, but over the years there are a lot of rebirths which means a lot of change.

I specifically hc that Kurt has two deaths and ultimately two rebirths happening from Arakko which means he has two instances of very very big changes. Those are the times you basically trade a kitten for a panther in changes. 20 years into it, some Krakoa rebirth and the two from Arakko. and Kurt looks very different. He’s gotten taller with about two inches. He has a lot sharper angles to his face and whole body structure. The claws are full out claws, like you can’t mistake those for nails anymore. There is an ever present scent of sulfur about him, like it seems to come from inside him. Looking him in the eye and his eyes look like they are burning on the inside. He grows large ram like horns, they’re not perfectly symmetrical but it really lends itself well to the whole aesthetic Kurt is going for by then.

So that is all that looks go. Now the mutation as far as abilities goes this is interesting and something I haven’t thought too much about. But either way Kurt will never get his immortal soul back, meaning he is very HARD to kill. He’s pretty much close to immortal, meaning the times he has died and been reborn it’s been pretty extreme circumstances. The teleportation isn’t as limited anymore, and cross dimension teleportation isn’t even hard to manage by then. just to give you an idea of what I’ve been thinking for it.

Now Kurt himself as a person hasn’t change all that much, funnily enough. He is still very kind, he will listen to anyone and be there for them. None of this is different. The difference is that the social structure of how Krakoa works is something Kurt has evolved with. He has a lot of patience, yes. but in the right company he has no patience because that is how certain groups have structured their social standards. In some groups violence speaks louder, and Kurt will take part in it. He is embracing all parts of Krakoa, because it is very much part of his job as spiritual leader and High Priest.

What he didn’t plan on is this part that enjoy the most; Kurt certainly sat out on the mission of figuring out how religion could still fit in to society of Krakoa. He isn’t the only one to leave his religion behind in the human world, and needed something else to help find a steadier footing in this new world. He was however not planning on accidentally becoming a central figure of this new “religion” and some kind of semi mortal manifestation of divinity to mutant kind.

Yes I’m talking about Kurt basically becoming mutant kinds Jesus, and it only happened because people listened to him. I imagine that at first Kurt is just one of many people talking about religion and the spiritual differences the Krakoan way of living is compared to that outside of it. But it slowly evolves from him being one of them, to them putting him on a pedestal he has no idea of how to get down from, and it is spiraling quickly. So instead fighting it Kurt is embracing it and doing as best he can by those that look to him for answers and guidance.

Looking to religions they left behind he has a lot of similarities to both Jesus and Lucifer, which is easily transferred to the new belief to have him as a “missing link” between the divine and the mortal. Kurt is well aware he is by no means a deity or any kind of Devine figure. But if people need him to be a saint, a messiah, a leader... he damn well will be the best one he can for their sake. He won’t abandon them, and it also gives him something to care for, something to belong in and feel like he is meant to do. He is in short happy to do it.

Because of how elevated he becomes because of this, aka with how people view him and ultimately treat him he is basically becoming a cult leader in a sense, for lack of better term. He will touch those that feel like it will help them in whatever way. He will hear them, see them, speak to them. He is devoted to be what they need him to be.

Now as far as that looks is interesting, and I am glad you asked. Once Kurt starts growing horns they don’t stop growing, however they have to start from zero each time he is reborn. Which means for weeks he is walking around with a bleeding head as the horns have to come out. The blood from this is generally viewed as a blessing to somehow get, much like all of Kurt’s blood but this is more like a ceremony to be worthy of getting in on if you will. He can bleed pretty heavily and has at times been blinded by his own blood getting in his eyes. 

Once the bleeding stop it’s another whole ceremony of carving the horns with their new holy symbols. Generally Daken ( @goreverine ) helps with this as the knife used for it is made from one of Daken’s claws. The horns does bleed during this but it doesn’t hurt Kurt. Most commonly he also has two or three trinkets hanging from one of the horns when they’re done.

On accident Daken also managed to impale Kurt’s hands on his claws ( yes they had sex, yes Kurt asked for it, and no neither one considered the consequences ). And yes this escalated even more the view people had of Kurt as a holy figure as now it was like seeing him being Christ with the wounds in his palms. There are a lot of similar things going, that can very logically be explained. But you try to be logical to a group of people that want a Devine explanation and want to run with it. Kurt as simply stopped trying to explain and just let them do their own assumptions of what he is and looks like. Wounds included.

So uhm... this got long but hi ask away c: I love to talk about this

[yoolee]

Omg could you elaborate more on your thoughts about Yasu & Nobu's dynamic? Ever since finishing Yasu's Noble Ending I've just been really intrigued by their relationship, the way they've known each other for a long time and how they interact.. yeah, it's definitely layered..

*CRACKS KNUCKLES*

okay I had this all written out like a week ago and thenrefreshed the page accidentally (I am…kind of a loser about my writingy’all) so here we will try again. IN WORD THIS TIME.

OKAY.

SO.

FIRST.

I haven’t read Nobu’s sequel,and I don’t know what happens, so, for all I know Ieyasu could betray him and I’mjust WRONG so keep that in mind.

HERE IS THE SUPER SHORTVERSION:

To ME, Nobunaga and Ieyasuhave an indulgent, mischievous big brother to petulant, bratty and mistrustinglittle brother dynamic and I love it. I think Nobu sees wholly through Ieyasuand Ieyasu is both in denial of that and needs it and because he is Ieyasu probablysemi-actively tries to destroy any sense of kinship because of his trustissues, even if temporarily surrendering control, and being accepted on the merit of his actions and not his name, is a relief, even if he thinks he’s lying. Especiallybecause he tells himself that Nobu’s too much of a fool to do any real damagewith the control he has. THAT’S IT. THAT’S THE WHOLE OF IT. YOU CAN STOP READING IFYOU WANT.

But if you want to go downlee’s thinking-out-loud INTP rabbit hole abyss with her, HERE WE GO:

Things I headcanon about Nobuin regards to Ieyasu:

Family is desperatelyimportant to Nobu. Especially his brothers. There is a particular moment in hisMS involving cups of sake that just breaks my heart. This extends and includeseven to the point of them betraying him – that’s basically, in some sort ofways, a non-issue (it is, but, not in the stops-him-from-loving them sense)

Nobu also has a soft spot for bratty kids - we see that in his ToL ES, but in other stories as well (watch him with Sasuke!!)  And as often as not, his method for dealing with them is poking the sore spot while teaching them how to defend from it until they poke back. He openly tells us this is in part due to being a big brother, reinforcing the sibling-sense overlap.

Nobu 100% sees through Ieyasu’ss— (we see some hints of this at various points, especially because we’regiven Nobu’s little side-smirky sprite)

The BIGGEST ISSUE with Yasu’snastiness is the power imbalances, right? He’s pouring all this toxic, vicious venom into peoplewith no defense for it. BUT, with Nobu, the power structure is inverted. Yasuhas to play nice with Nobu (which makes his venom ALL THE WORSE because hehates it, right? Not right, actually, but I’ll get to that – he thinks hedoes). and Nobu can 100% handle that venom. Like. Are you kidding me? do you know what this man’s been through? One snotty little grump is entertainment more than it is hurtful. Like honestly Nobu probably thinks it’s REALLY FUNNY.

Biggest difference betweenthese two is that Nobu already sees everyone as family. We see this from himALL THE TIME – like regardless of what you may think about Inuchiyo’s route, Nobuis amazing imo. Like, he’s payingsuch close attention to the mental and emotional wellbeing of all of hisretainers that even a random cook he’s had like two interactions with rates hisOWN COAT for comfort. He sends away someone important for the same reason. InMitsuhide’s route, he semi-manipulates MC into making his favorite food just tohelp him take care of himself. Nobu may be a fool in some regards, but he gets his people, and gets what they need.

We can sort of extrapolate thatthis extends to Ieyasu as well. Nobu trusts Ieyasu, even knowing he’s amanipulative, angry little snot, and  probably knows what Ieyasu needs. So,what does Ieyasu need? (covered in a sec)

So he looks at Ieyasu and he sees the whole person. He has the luxury of doing so, because he’s one of the few people who gets to look at him straight in the eye instead of in deference, and he’s Nobu, he can do whatever he wants (including seeing a snotty, terrified, angry KID instead of a vicious, scheming, toxic lord–he sees that too, but I honestly think he sees that as fixable or he wouldn’t bother. I think he also sees it as less of a problem than it is for the same vantage point reason - like, I think he sort of figures if he drags Ieyasu around enough, time will fix it rather than active interference)

I also think Nobu just pokes at him sometimes because it’s funny to do so and we know he likes his entertainment. 

IEYASU

OKAY SO BACK TO ‘what does Ieyasu need?’ (Ieyasu needs a dang mother imo - unconditional familial love with affirmation of his inherent value as a human being and not as a Tokugawa but, back to that later)

Ieyasu has TRUST issues andIeyasu has CONTROL issues. And combined, those two things invariably cause himto poison any healthy relationship he may have. I really, really believe this.

OKAY here we go into Leerabbit holes, your mileage may vary.

I also think he’s like, inthe 19-ish age range it would explain a lot >>

I also feel like Ieyasu had WAYTOO much of other people controlling his life in a genuinely awful fashion thatwhen he has control again he a) doesn’t know how to be in control because godknows he’s never had it nor a healthy example of it b) doesn’t necessarily WANTto be in control but EVEN MORE c) doesn’t want anyone ELSE in control of himeither because he’s been down that road and we can see how horribly it affectedhim, he can’t come through that again.

To me, that’s a driving forceof why he is so gosh darn nasty. He’s completely hemmed in by a dichotomy notentirely of his own making, where he has to desperately cling onto something he doesn’t wantwith a white-knuckled death grip and that would make anyone temperamental (thathe doesn’t handle it well, to the point of being destructive and damaging, is aseparate discussion I don’t want to go down – thisis the best analysis of it I’ve seen of it and explains why my heart hurts for him as acharacter even if his behavior often isn’t immediately acceptable as a love interest)

But that choice of being incharge is taken from him when Nobu’s ordering him around. One of the interferingcomponents is removed from the equation.

Think about when we seeIeyasu’s façade cracking and when he’s at his absolute smoothest – when he’s atNobu’s beck and call. It’s effortless. He tells himself he hates it (and doesn’thide it as well as he thinks he does lolololol) BUT ALSO. He (consciously)believes Nobu is a fool. He believes he can outsmart him. There’s no risk to letting him be in charge, because Ieyasu can keep control and he can keep it in the way he’smost comfortable with – where no one else has to know. (Because if nobodyknows, nobody can take it away) so, there’s some relief to that, and he’s athis easiest to handle.

I also think deep deep deepdown Ieyasu knows Nobu knows and he trusts him anyway or why would he beserving Nobu without actively sabotaging him? But he can’t acknowledge thatbecause it would require VULNERABILITY and Ieyasu doesn’t do that.

BECAUSE REMEMBER Nobu’s place is a meritocracy. So, Ieyasu also gets to know that he’s there on the merit if his accomplishments and his actions, not his name. It’s not quite the same as being loved for who he is as a person (I think for Nobu it’s the same thing, and he may not fully understand that Ieyasu won’t/can’t understand that because for him it isn’t) but it’s as close as he’s ever gotten (Sakai obvs loves him but Ieyasu can’t separate that from the ‘Tokugawa’ component) and he craves that with a genuine desperation. Like, the poor child inside of him that never got it still needs it. So he sticks around, because, subconsciously, that’s better than nothing. Like not that he is EVER going to admit to anyone that he needs to be loved, but, everyone needs to be loved and accepted.

Yasu has to keep him at armslength and snarl his petulant, bratty little teeth because, issues, BUT he’sall bark. Whatever he’s done to Nobu (at least to my memory and routes I’veread) is minor, especially comparedto how Ieyasu behaves to and around ACTUAL ENEMIES (*side-eyes a certain Kairoute*)

ON BROTHERLYNESS

A huge part of what colorsthis for me is that Ieyasu is who eventually ends up uniting Japan, right?(*cough* uh, spoilers I guess?)  Okay well, sort of, it’s complicated BUT I do (as someone very new to this history) think it’s fair to say it’s Yasu there when the dust settles on unified Japan, and the dust stays settled, mostly, under him esp when compared to previously? History is messy.

Who taught him that? Whostarted him down that path?

To me, Ieyasu is SO MUCH likea bratty, grumpy little brother being dragged along to play cops and robbersbecause his big brother needed one more person to play the damsel in distressand it’s humiliating and he’s TICKED OFF but at the same time, he gets to beincluded in something, and he’s learning, and he’s itching for his turn becausehe’s watched everyone and they maythink he’s the dumb kid but just you wait, give him the chance to be the robberand he’ll rob you all blind.

And the twist is – Nobu knowsthat. That’s the real reason he dragged him along.

(the other is, Nobu doesn’tleave people behind)

[theradioghost]

Okay so MAYBE I've been reading too much Xmen but I'm really into the idea of characters meeting their time displaced future kids and I'd die to see a Penumbra version? Bonus points if they're from ~the darkest timeline~ where their parents are dead 🖤🖤 (I love u and your headcanons so much ur a gift to us all)

ohhhh, Anon, I have spent the last two weeks binging arsPARADOXICA, and trust me when I say right now my head is full of future selves and dark timelines and people making terrible, terrible decisions with time travel. consequently this may have gotten away from me and I may have written this instead of taking notes in my last class, but please accept this totally unbeta’d 2.5k.

The person following Nureyev down the alleyway was good; very good. No one else would have heardher footsteps, mirroring his exactly, without echo. She could have crept up onanyone else.

But not on him, which seemed almost a shame as he spun, caughther, had her pinned to the ground in a heartbeat. He’d never been one forprolonging a fight, and he’d never had the brute strength for the kind ofhand-to-hand that Juno went in for; but his spouse had insisted that Nureyevbroaden his technique to include a number of useful throws and holds after afew too many close shaves and a few too many dead bodies. And besides, he had afew questions.

“Now,” he said politely, pressing the swearing girl’s faceinto the pavement. She really was a girl, barely out of her teens at theoutside, and he was glad he hadn’t gone for the knife. “We meet at last.”

“Get off!”

“After all,” he continued, unperturbed, “aren’t you the onewho’s been trying to interfere with my work for the past week and a half?Trying very admirably, I’ll admit. This was uncharacteristically clumsy of you.So, who hired you?”

“I’m not working for anyone.” Her voice was impressivelypetulant, considering it was muffled by most of his weight and the grittyconcrete beneath her.

“I don’t appreciate lying,” Nureyev said. “You’re certainlyvery talented for your age, but not talented enough, I think, to have had thekind of information on me which you clearly do. Those pitfalls were very personalized. You know how I work,which means you’re with someone I’ve workedwith before. Or worked against. It makes no difference. If you were foolishenough to try mugging me in an alleyway, they can’t have told you enough aboutme.”

“You’re making a mistake,” she said.

“Wrong again. I’m making a profit off yours,” Nureyev said,placing his knee in the center of her back and hearing the air leave her withan oof. He loosened his hold justenough to reach down and begin rifling through her pockets, the work of onlyseconds; she wasn’t carrying much, although he noticed some kind of sleek,complex personal device which wrapped all the way around her arm. It was alittle petty, perhaps, but the prospect of rethinking his technique enough toevade this mysterious new adversary was irritating, even as it excited him.Juno would be furious.

As soon as he touched the device, the girl started tostruggle far more desperately. “Do nottake that,” she said. “That is a bad, bad idea – ”

He tightened his grip, and something on thedevice beeped. There was a second ofrapidly gaining white noise, a sensation of heat, a bright flash –

Nureyev sprawled backwards on the concrete of the alley, thegirl next to him. There was someone coming around the corner, he realizedblurrily, disoriented; he could hear the footsteps.

He could have half sworn that the girl ran with him behind the storage container,but at any rate, they ended up pressed against the metal, Nureyev twisting herarms up behind her back with one hand and covering her mouth with the other,but not really paying attention because he was staring through a chink in themetal at himself, walking down thealleyway.

It was unmistakable, a living mirror. Nureyev knew ahologram when he saw one, and this wasn’t it. And when the girl’s doppelgangerappeared around the corner, following behind him, and his own double turned andpinned her to the ground, a surreal, impossible thought occurred to him.

The other Nureyev reached for the girl’s wrist; she tried topull away, and both of them vanished.

There was a long silence, broken only by the muffled soundsof the city at the end of the alleyway and the dripping of water from a nearbypipe. Then Nureyev lifted his hand off the girl’s mouth and said, “You have tenseconds to explain what just happened.”

“You’re not stupid, it’s obviously a time machine,” the girlsaid hurriedly. “I’m from the future and I’m trying to help you.”

Nureyev frowned. “So you’re not the person who’s been sabotaging me?”

A pause. “Uh, no. I am,” she said. “That’s how I’m helpingyou.”

“Excellent logic,”he said. “What just happened?”

“There’s an emergency switch on the device,” she said. “Movesyou in time one minute. You activated it.”

He considered it. And to his surprise, he believed it. Afterall, he’d seen stranger. Or things as strange,at least.

“You could let me go now,” the girl suggested hopefully.

“Alright,” Nureyev said, not letting go. “Let’s presume thatyou are, in fact, from the future. I think what you need to tell me now is whyI should believe that you’re sabotaging me for my own good.”

A pause, and then she said, “I know your name is PeterNureyev.”

Nureyev considered this for a second. Then he twisted one ofher arms ever so slightly further. “Certainly a dramatic choice,” he said. “Butjust as much of a threat as an assurance. Who are you, then, that you wouldknow my name? What’s yours?”

“Mona,” the girl yelped. “Harmonia, Harmonia Steel, go easy!”

Every one of Nureyev’s trains of thought stopped and rerouted to the same destination. “Steel,” he said. “What do you mean, Steel?”

“It means that you and Juno weren’t stupid enough to give meyour last name, Dad,” the girl snapped. “Now would you let me go?”

All of the strength he was not using to hold her down was suddenly going to making sure his hands did not start to shake. “Prove it,” he said.“Give me one piece of evidence that actuallyproves – ”

“He didn’t call you Peter until your wedding vows and whenyou asked he said he was scared of being the first person to say it to you intwenty years but it seemed stupid to leave it out,” Mona said, all in onebreath. “You two bicker constantly about whether sawdust coffee is even worthdrinking, he has a birthmark on his lower left back and you like to poke himthere to make him jump, you’re allergic to shellfish but he still doesn’t know because you think itmakes you look silly – ”

His hands seemed to let go, his legs to move him up and awayfrom her a step or two of their own accord. Nureyev stared at her, observingwith new eyes, awed eyes. “You’re…”

“I’m your daughter,” Mona said, rolling upright with awince. “And wow, you are heavier thanyou look.”

Nureyev looked at her – a young woman, sharp-eyed,tentatively smiling at him after her attempt at joking. A young woman smilingat her father, a young woman that hehad raised – that he would raise, andwho had, improbably, arrived in his now. Itall made sense, of course – he wouldn’t have admitted it for a heartbeat, butthe uncanny accuracy with which his previously unknown adversary had beenanticipating his every move had frustrated and spooked him. But that wasperfectly reasonable if she’d learned them straight from him. If he’d raisedher to the job.

He felt sick.

“You’re a thief,” he said flatly. “I don’t know what I’ll belike in the future, but let me tell you, in the present I do not approve.”

“Oh, hell, no,” Mona said. “No, you and Juno, both of youtaught me a few things, but believe me, there were always two big rules in ourhome, no growing up to be a thief or a detective. Both of you are gonna be really emphatic about that.”

“Then what do youdo?”

“I’m working on it,” she said. “I was thinking anthropology?Oh, come on, don’t look at me like that, it was a joke. Anyway, I’m not here togive you spoilers for the next twenty years.”

Nureyev caught the thought that he had at least twenty goodyears with Juno coming up, and filed it away to spend some time with when there was not business toattend to. “Alright then, Mona. Tell me, why did you travel twenty years intothe past to mug your father in an alleyway?”

“Someone hired you to steal a data chip from the Duchess ofNew Ithaca,” she said. “I’ve been trying to stop you without having to tell you all of this, and maybe screw upour entire timeline.”

“Unfortunately I think it’s too late for that on a number ofcounts, dear,” Nureyev said, reaching into his pocket. On its chain, the datachip caught the dim light of the alleyway, and its crystal circuits sparkled. “You’vetold me everything, and I’ve already stolen the chip.”

“I know,” she said miserably. “This was my last resort – I thoughtmaybe if I could steal it back off you I could return it quick enough.”

Nureyev stared at her. “And you decided to do that bysneaking up behind me in an alleyway,” he said, half in disbelief.

“…I’m Juno’s daughter too?”

Caught off guard, he laughed, and she did too, for half amoment. “Wow,” she said, “this is… so weird.You just look so young.”

“I take it I’ve gone gray in the future, then,” Nureyevsighed. “Hm? No? Oh, no, I haven’t gone bald, have I?”

The smile had faded from Mona’s face, and she stared at him,as though she didn’t know how to find the words. “In the future,” she saidslowly, “where I came from – when Icame from, you’re – you’re dead.”

He stopped laughing, and looked back at her, the anguish inher eyes.

“That’s why I’m trying to stop you,” she said. “It’s – we don’treally understand yet, you know, how this thing works, what effects it willhave – it’s half cannibalized Martian teleporter and half Dark Matters tech andwe’re half sure that if you create a paradox with it it’ll tear apart realityitself – but I had to, because yousteal that chip, and twenty-four hours later they realize it’s missing, andunless that doesn’t happen, unless it’s notgone by that time, then there’s nothing I can do, nothing that will stopthe chain of events that ends in twenty years with the Duchess killing you, andnow it’s too late.”

Twenty good years.

Nureyev had been roped into watching a few of Rita’s showson occasion, and time travel was a surprisingly frequent plot point. Hesincerely doubted the programs were what you might call scientifically accurate, but he’d paid enough attention to be awareof the theoretical problems of changing your own past. And he’d paid attentionwhen Mona said tear apart reality itself.

“There’s no other course?” he asked, very quietly.

“I had one shot,” she said. She wasn’t crying despite herchoked voice, which didn’t surprise him; he had no doubt that he and Juno wouldbe more than anxious to do their best as parents, but both of them were awfully good at bottling things up. “Itried everything I could think of, and I can’t just go back and do it over. IfI meet myself, that could be the end of everything.Literally everything, the entire universe. And knowing it’ll happen isn’t – isn’tgoing to help you.”

That settled that, then. This had been the tightest, mostfinely planned heist of his career, and the obstacles Mona had given him hadcut it yet closer. There were no further gaps, no place left to jam themachinery, much less without paradoxically contacting himself.

“Mona,” he said, as gently as he could manage. He didn’tknow this girl, didn’t love her yet, but the knowledge that he would, the wayshe was looking at him, the fact of a kid of not more than eighteen or nineteenwith the life or death of their father in their hands, weighed against uncountable lives  –

The world, or your life. Everyone else, or the one whomattered. He knew the choice he’d make.

“Mona, I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry that fate has led ushere. And I want you to know that I don’t blame you.” He put one hand overhers. “So I want you to go back. Go home.”

“You – ”

“I’ve always known the risks, my darling,” he said, managinga sad smile. He even meant it, in that moment, he really, truly did. “This isnot a job that tends to lead to a long life, after all – but you’ve just given me that, Mona. Twenty years is –is more than I ever could have expected. Twenty years with you and Juno is morethan I could have ever dreamed of. I nevercould have predicted such a piece of happiness coming into my life as Juno –I never could have predicted you,Mona. And knowing will make every second of it that much more precious. So go back and take care of him for me.”

Mona stared at him in disbelief for a second, and then hereyes hardened. “Dad,” she said, “she killed Juno, too.”

Nureyev’s world stopped.

“What?”

“I can’t stop that either,” she said. “This was my onlychance. All or nothing. I took a gamble and I lost.”

Juno was dead.

No, he thought, forcing his mind to organize, forcinghimself to think – no, Juno was fine, safe on Mars, safe for another twentyyears. But then, yes, dead.

Peter Nureyev reconsidered his decision.

The near-certain risk of ending reality itself. Or living twentycontented years knowing he’d done nothing to save the life of Juno Steel.

Absolutely everything ending. Or a universe that kepthappily, blindly turning, but without Juno Steel in it. Either way, no Juno.And then the slimmest chance of saving him.

He weighed the options. It wasn’t a hard choice. Not evenclose.

“Well, then, Mona,” he said, brushing alley grime off hiscoat. “You’ve been acting here for about two weeks, yes? Back three weeks, thistime, I think that should be enough – ”

“I told you,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything elseI can do. You’re unstoppable on thisjob. You bragged about it my whole life. I’ve had fifteen years to figure itout and I still couldn’t do it.”

“You very nearly did,” Nureyev said. “But you’re you, Mona, and not quite me, for which I’mvery thankful. And you’d need a thief exactly as experienced as I am to come upwith a way to stop me from stealing that chip.”

“Which I’m not,” Mona said. “I know.”

“No,” he replied brightly. “But I am. And really, isn’t beating yourself at your own best con infinitely more worthbragging about?”

[taesthetes]

(1/?) Travel-anon-hi! Sorry for the late reply, I've been feeling a bit under the weather D: But wow! That's so sweet of you for what you did for your mom! My family's not big on celebrating parent days, but we do go out for dinners - my mom's bday is a couple days before, so we merge the two ;u;~ Thank you! I'll probably come back with a pile of photos, and be super picky which to instagram, haha. Oh! Good idea with the perfume! I normally don't carry any, but this sounds like a good reason to.

(2/?) Aw, you had to give up your internship? I’m sorry D: but on the bright side, vacation? Would you be able to do the internship another time? In terms of expensiveness, I think HK topped it for me. The livelihood there is super high end and overpriced to me :/ And ikr! I wish it were like that here too, but North America’s just too big and spread out for that unless you lived downtown, but that’s expensive D: In December, one Japan night was 24 degrees celsius ouo;; that’s pretty much summer

(3/?) But it does depend where you’re at in Japan! That night I was in Tokyo! It’ll be colder if you’re farther north~ I don’t know if the magikarp promo is still going D: but if it is, you definitely have to try it! I actually like the “crispy sandwich caramel” haagen dazs! I can’t get it where I’m from ;u; so depriveeeed. Your convenience stores sound so much better than mine! All mine have are dollar store things and candy OTL? Usually super grungy looking too. Aw, that’s cute! Do you visit?

(4/?) For the cat, not your sister (well, I guess her too), haha. I don’t remember, did you say you’d try to get a pet in the future for yourself, maybe? Yep! Certain holidays or popular events cause tickets to be more expensive to those countries during those times~ It’s still modern art?! Why isn’t there any traditional ones D:?! I actually prefer modern art, haha; mostly the interactive type ones! I don’t particularly have a favourite artist; I appreciate based on how interesting their-

(5/?) concepts are and how well they executed it. I mean, we did drop a lot of cash on the machines (and won nothing a lot of times), so I’m pretty sure that’s why they took pity on us, haha! I hope you’re lucky enough to either win it yourself, or find someone to help you! I also wish for you to be good at those games ;D! Have you had any more ramen since I last spoke to you? You’re still making me crave for it, and I can’t have any right now ;u; Oo, barely any jet lag can be a good thing!

(6/?) I don’t jet lag much when I travel, but the bits that I do, I accounted for, and used it for long-term traveling within the country! Oo, I hope I get to try a vietnamese hot pot some time then :D! If we ever manage to meet up in another country, let’s hit up vietnamese hot pot, haha. Omg, both of those movies were so good!! Infinity war, I really hope you do get to see it soon D: There’s so many spoilers out already, and it would suck if you got completely ruined to it beforehand!

(7/?) I preordered all 4 albums when they first opened it :D;; If I was only getting 1 of them though, I’d have gotten O! What about you? Did you preorder, or are you going to hit up a store when it’s released where you are? Which is your favourite concept? And, omg, yes. Jimin’s pretty hardcore when it comes to going 0 to 100, so I tend to die fairly often, haha. How do you manage to keep up with Tae?! He’s just as bad, if not worse, than Jimin’s 0-100?! He’s too pretty and amazing as a person!

(8/8) I was going to end this at 7, but well, here’s 8, haha. I follow on yt, and when a notice pops up, I listen and fav the song if it matches my tastes :D NCT is going haaard right now, like wow, almost every other week or two OTL I’ve been into kpop for so long that I like a lot of groups, so it’s hard to recount all of them, haha. What about you? Who else do you listen to? How long have you been into kpop? How was the Tswift concert?! Did you have an amazing time?? How early did you lineup?

hello, m’love!! oh noo, i’m so sorry to hear that ): are you feeling better now? make sure to drink lots of fluids and rest up! and thank you :’) i hope you had a good dinner with your family!! and happy belated birthday to your mom 💕 oh gosh, my instagram is a mess, i just post sporadically and nothing matches. but i think i’ll start trying to make a nicer instagram page though haha. yeah, it’s pretty helpful with the perfume because you can’t bring pepper spray onto planes or anything for travel, so i just pack a small perfume bottle instead!

yeah, i’m excited for the vacation!! i won’t be able to do an internship until next summer then unfortunately. oooh, i heard kong kong is really nice! but i’ll make sure not to go there until i have money lmao. yeah, the only way walking is fine in north america is if i live in one of the big cities, like nyc. oh my god, in december??? it’s going to be even worse since i’m going in the summer D: i think overall it’s going to be very hot in japan because it’s summer when i’ll be there. 

ahhh, even if there’s no magikarp, i’m still excited to eat taiyaki!! omg ok, i’ll make sure to get that ice cream flavor when i’m there :o and that really sucks ): hopefully, you’ll get to come back to japan soon and then you can get the ice cream :D ah yeah, there’s a lot of dollar store items and travel items too and candy. i think most convenience stores are pretty grungy tbh. i visited her last year! but that was before she got a cat sadly ):

and yes!! i want to get a dog and a cat in the future! i suppose there are a few traditional art pieces on display? but i think most people here enjoy modernized art more, like even the buildings and such in the usa are much more modern compared to europe. i guess it’s because the usa hasn’t been a country for as long as european countries, so everything is newer looking. oooh nice!! interactive art is always fun! :D modern art is really beautiful too, but sometimes, i see something like the entire canvas is painted one color with only one stripe down it and i’m like ??? how is this worth 91283472319 dollars???

asdfjkads that’s going to be me. i’m going to spend all my money on the crane machines and win nothing, so let’s hope someone will help me ahah and thank you!! fingers crossed! :’)  and i haven’t had any ramen since ): ramen isn’t the healthiest, so i try not to eat it often. ajsdhfalks but you can’t have any right now? D: did you run out? oooh, and that’s smart! i really hope the jet lag won’t hit so hard because i want to explore everything, but there’s never enough time. and yes!! we’ll definitely get vietnamese hot pot, and then you’ll have to show me all your favorite food places too :D ahhh, i want to see both of them soon! i took my last midterm yesterday, but i still have papers and several projects to do ): and my weekends are packed since i have some things to go to for my friends’ birthdays and i think we might do a road trip for the upcoming memorial weekend since we get monday off.

and omg so lucky!! all four wow :o well, i didn’t preorder it, but i don’t know which album i want either. maybe R or O? because they all look good in denim, but tae had that lip ring.. and unfortunately, they don’t sell kpop merch in stores anywhere near me /: so i’ll have to order it from amazon if i do buy it! honestly all the concepts are pretty though. jimin’s stage presence vs real life is mind blowing with how he can switch so fast. askdlhfjaj i barely keep up with tae, he’s too perfect and he’s such a sweetheart pluS HIS DOGS AND CAT ARE SO CUTE I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

asdf,nasd oh my god i love nct so so so much, like nct dream is my ult boy group favorite, and i’m so sad mark is graduating from the dreamies after this year ): did you see their chain mv? who’s your bias? oh my gosh i’m so excited to hear you like nct alskdjfhalew i really, really, really love taeyeon, like she’s my ult bias, but i also love shinee and blackpink (when will they release a new song)!!! i follow up with those three and nct the most. but i also listen to red velvet, gfriend, twice, kard, day6, wanna one, monsta x, infinite, vixx, astro, and f(x) like when are they coming back ): oh and (g)i-dle!!! i pretty much listen to whatever group that currently makes a comeback, so i know the title songs of most of the kpop groups, but i don’t know each of the members’ names. and i’ve been into kpop since early 2014 :’)

ooooh my god, the taylor swift concert marks the best night of my life, likE I LOVE HER SO MUCH I’VE BEEN A FAN SINCE 2006 AND I CAN’T BELIEVE I FINALLY GOT TO GO TO HER CONCERT!!!! but i got there two hours early for the lineup, and when it started, i sang along for every single song, and when she sang a mashup with long live included, i was over the moon, plus before the concert, i was like oh hey what if she sings the best day because it’s mother’s day tomorrow anD SHE ACTUALLY DID AND I CRIED OMG I GOT SO EMO i was shaking like i tried to get good videos on my phone, but my phone also died and the video will show you how shaky i actually was and wow i just– best experience, i will definitely go to her concerts over and over again and i just loved it so much. so yeah i was pretty excited and super happy overall :’) and how is your week going? 💗