#i'm the kind of person that can see value in the idea itself so. that doesn't stop me from being excited for the next games and

[mortalityplays]

This is a dangerous sentiment for me to express, as an editor who spends most of my working life telling writers to knock it off with the 45-word sentences and the adverbs and tortured metaphors, but I do think we're living through a period of weird pragmatic puritanism in mainstream literary taste.

e.g. I keep seeing people talk about 'purple prose' when they actually mean 'the writer uses vivid and/or metaphorical descriptive language'. I've seen people who present themselves as educators offer some of the best genre writing in western canon as examples of 'purple prose' because it engages strategically in prose-poetry to evoke mood and I guess that's sheer decadence when you could instead say "it was dark and scary outside". But that's not what purple prose means. Purple means the construction of the prose itself gets in the way of conveying meaning. mid-00s horse RPers know what I'm talking about. Cerulean orbs flash'd fire as they turn'd 'pon rollforth land, yonder horizonways. <= if I had to read this when I was 12, you don't get to call Ray Bradbury's prose 'purple'.

I griped on here recently about the prepossession with fictional characters in fictional narratives behaving 'rationally' and 'realistically' as if the sole purpose of a made-up story is to convince you it could have happened. No wonder the epistolary form is having a tumblr renaissance. One million billion arguments and thought experiments about The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas that almost all evade the point of the story: that you can't wriggle out of it. The narrator is telling you how it was, is and will be, and you must confront the dissonances it evokes and digest your discomfort. 'Realistic' begins on the author's terms, that's what gives them the power to reach into your brain and fiddle about until sparks happen. You kind of have to trust the process a little bit.

This ultra-orthodox attitude to writing shares a lot of common ground with the tight, tight commodification of art in online spaces. And I mean commodification in the truest sense - the reconstruction of the thing to maximise its capacity to interface with markets. Form and function are overwhelmingly privileged over cloudy ideas like meaning, intent and possibility, because you can apply a sliding value scale to the material aspects of a work. But you can't charge extra for 'more challenging conceptual response to the milieu' in a commission drive. So that shit becomes vestigial. It isn't valued, it isn't taught, so eventually it isn't sought out. At best it's mystified as part of a given writer/artist's 'talent', but either way it grows incumbent on the individual to care enough about that kind of skill to cultivate it.

And it's risky, because unmeasurables come with the possibility of rejection or failure. Drop in too many allegorical descriptions of the rose garden and someone will decide your prose is 'purple' and unserious. A lot of online audiences seem to be terrified of being considered pretentious in their tastes. That creates a real unwillingness to step out into discursive spaces where you 🫵 are expected to develop and explore a personal relationship with each element of a work. No guard rails, no right answers. Word of god is shit to us out here. But fear of getting that kind of analysis wrong makes people hove to work that slavishly explains itself on every page. And I'm left wondering, what's the point of art that leads every single participant to the same conclusion? See Spot run. Run, Spot, run. Down the rollforth land, yonder horizonways. I just want to read more weird stuff.

[roxtron]

I was trying to think of why this made sense to me- the fact that the mimic is intended to be a larger threat but Ennard still had more impact/presence. I think the biggest issue is buildup, or lack of.

I mean, in sister location you spend the whole game avoiding the animatronics while also causing or witnessing the horrible things they go through, you're able to feel some level of sympathy for them. Though for some people that may just make them even more of a threat considering they obviously want revenge. Even though you were being lied to when led there, you get a sense that you still know these characters through the interactions you've had with them, genuine or not. Everything that happened up to this point still matters and gives you a reason to think back.

As much as I have tried to make theories or analysis on the mimic based on the lines we're given.. It doesn't really do the same. The majority of its voice lines as gregory (so basically all of its voice lines..) are just irrelevant "do this thing for me" that's completely skippable in the long run. Sure it's pretending to be a scared kid but we can't really gather any of its own emotions through that because not only are we unsure if there's any genuine thoughts there, but the dialogue focuses so closely on the goal we get no real characterization out of it like 90% of the time.

At least when Baby (or at least her voice?) was guiding you she still had moments where she gave small information, or sarcastic remarks, etc. Things that not only build the story but also show how the character reacts to these subjects. Her seemingly passive aggressive attitude towards Ballora, how passive aggressive she acts towards Mike on Night 4 in the spring lock suit, sure she tells you your goal and the game mechanics, but she also does so much more than that. I know people tend to complain about how Sister location is like 70% dialogue (or more depending how biased you are on the subject) but that dialogue at least serves a purpose! There's still plenty to be analyzed there and work off of, not only do we get pieces of lore from it.. (baby's thoughts on the scooper, the mention of the springlock suit and it "not being used the way it was meant to be used," her dialogue about the day Elizabeth died, characterization through her tone of voice or sarcastic remarks, etc!) But depending on how far you look into it you can get at least a baseline understanding of the characters and their goals.

But the mimic..? Look, you can check the post I've made about it before, I've tried analyzing his voice lines to see if they hold any purpose beyond just guiding you, and honestly? I'm grasping at straws on most of it. A lot of it is pretty irrelevant, I think I only found maybe 4-6 voice lines that matter? And I definitely had to do some reaching to find any potential ties to if anything the mimic said mattered to itself or to gregory, and while I stand by my analysis of it potentially giving us more information about what happened to Gregory down there.. not only does the dialogue barely give us any new information that the environmental clues didn't (backpack, handprint on the vent, etc.) But it doesn't develop the mimic. It develops Gregory. Which, hello, Gregory's one of my favorite characters lol, I'd be happy about that, but for the mimic itself? That's really bad. It makes it feel like everything you've done up until this point is meaningless development-wise. Once it's revealed you're not saving Gregory, it's kinda like, well, what was the point? I'm not talking generally- obviously the mimic being freed is supposed to be bad, but my point is that there's not a lot to look back on and feel like it served a purpose towards building up the ending. Sure you can look back and say "Oh yeah that makes sense, Gregory was kind of whining a lot more than Security Breach." but that's not really enough to justify it? Going into this a LOT of people were already theorizing it wasn't Gregory. Popular opinion at the time seemed to be that it was Vanny or Glitchtrap or Burntrap or whatever. That it tied into a previous villian using Gregory as a lure to get a new victim, someone else to trap into their plans. And that was cool honestly, I might've even preferred it! At least Glitchtrap has BEEN built up as a villain (I mean, I wish he had more screentime and all, but there was development even if it could've been expanded on.) and whether or not the Princess Quest ending is canon it still could've worked, using Cassie as a replacement for Vanessa. Though it may have been a bit repetitive plot-wise, it was a cool idea at least, besides it's not too different from what people are theorizing the current ending means.. Okay, i got sidetracked a bit. Point is, the theories people had at the time, they led somewhere! the twist of it not being the real Gregory isn't really enough to justify all this because 1. most people saw it coming and 2. even if you didn't see it coming, you can't really look back on the experience and feel like there's any new information to be given from it.. For there to be so much buildup for this, for most people to already be actively wondering what was using Gregory's voice and why, only for it to be.. a character the majority of the fanbase would be unaware of due to it only existing within the books up until this point. For anyone who didn't read the books (which is most people) this reveal was likely going to be unsatisfying, to say the least. Hoping for an answer and only getting more questions in return. That's not new for this series, sure, but it can be a bit disappointing at times. Depending on who you are and how that kind of ending makes you feel, I think most people can at least agree the way it was executed would've left people with mixed reactions.

Even if you did read the books, it still didn't really answer anything, did it? Sure, okay, the mimic is here. Now what? Is it the same mimic with the same backstory as the books? Are we gonna be twisting the backstory from the book universe to the games universe? What does any of this have to do with the story that was built up so far? From my perspective, it seems just as out of nowhere as if Eleanor was dropped into the next game. Most people would only know her as the villain of one specific story in the books, and for a one-off villain to suddenly be inserted into the plot instead of the villain we've actually been fighting this whole time.. it just comes out of nowhere, it really does. And all that gets twisted up even more with the question of how the mimic connects to glitchtrap. It's either replacing a pre-established villain and saying "it was this guy we know next to nothing about the whole time!" which is just really unsatisfying because it once again feels like everything up until this point has meant nothing, because there is no solid connection to tie the mimic to glitchtrap in a way that makes it feel, y'know, connected? They feel like two separate entities, whether they are or not, it's still unsatisfying. And even if they are two separate entities, then it's killing off Glitchtrap, a pre-established villain that posed a solid threat with semi-understandable motives.. for this wild card that hasn't been established whatsoever within the games. It feels like killing off glitchtrap in the middle of his arc because people got tired of him before he even got to do much. It felt like glitchtrap was still building up in my opinion, only for them to suddenly get rid of him. Once again, it makes everything feel pointless. I think the TLDR here is that Ennard served a purpose, even if the things they did were to trick you, it wasn't for nothing. You could still get pieces of lore, characterization, and motives from your previous interactions. But the mimic doesn't have any of that. It has basically no established motive besides "use Gregory's voice to let me out" and then what? Get out to the larger world? just kill people for fun or get revenge on specific people? What does it want from there? We don't know, which makes it difficult to care. On top of all that its previous interactions do feel like they were for nothing, there's very little to be analyzed from them and it just feels like a waste. It was all a trick, so, why does any of it matter? There's very little to be taken away from it beyond the fact that it's fake.

✨🤖An endoskeleton that dresses like a clown and tricks someone by mimicking a child's voice into freeing them from an underground basement.🤡✨

[bonefall]

do you have any tips for writing a low empathy character who isn't evil? Or how to make an interesting apathetic character who's a thoughtless sort of evil? These are two different chatacters btw-

I tried looking up examples and stuff but uh. It's been a bit fruitless.

Honestly it's not too hard! Having low empathy just means we're bad at automatically "connecting" to the feelings of other people. You can come to understand it's not even a character flaw once you uncouple the idea that Empathy = Kindness. And apathy, well, that one's a bit more complicated imo.

Low Empathy

In English, it's just unfortunately super common to conflate Empathy and Compassion. To have compassion is to be aware of the suffering of another person, and ergo, want to help stop it. To be empathetic is to identify with and understand the feelings of another person. These are different things.

For an example in action; imagine a medic with a patient whose shoulder is dislocated, and xey'll need to pop that arm back in place in order for the patient to feel better.

A medic feeling EMPATHY for that patient is having an emotional response to what xey're seeing. Xey might have a tingly "ghost pain" thinking about the injury, and xey might feel guilty xey're going to put them in more agony, but also joy because this patient is going to feel much better in just a moment.

A medic feeling COMPASSION for that patient is thinking about how the shoulder must be causing a lot of pain, and knows xey have the skill to fix it. Xey know from xeir own experience that pain sucks and so it is a bad thing that needs to go away. It will hurt a little more for a moment, but then there will be immediate relief.

This is imo, why a lot of low empathy people are "bad at" comforting people without going to Autism College where they give you the scripts of Shit Neurotypicals Say. We're not trying to be selfish when we end up making "comfort sessions" about ourselves-- that's what we think empathy is, because we don't have a lot of it to really know what you want.

Like, doesn't it make sense to you? "I don't know what you're feeling. Here's a similar situation I've been though. I must know what you're feeling-- does that make you feel better? That you aren't alone? I think that's what empathy is, am I right?"

A LOT of low empathy people go into medical fields, the funeral industry, and disaster relief. We often really do want to help people so seek these fields out, or when we get there, just end up not getting burnt out like our high-empathy peers!

Apathy

As for the apathetic character, honestly, I'd suggest thinking about your story's themes. Villains are very special to me and I always try to handle them with care. What are you trying to say is bad to not care about in your work? How does their apathy play into the story you're trying to tell?

A Captain Planet villain is completely selfish, and exists only to benefit itself by exploiting nature in some way. Then the Planeteers show up and punch it in the face. Boiled down to its barest, most simple essentials; "We have conflicting goals and so I will stop you."

Personally I find total apathy to be something not especially compelling in villains, for that reason. Like, if you really don't care about anything, why bother with the trouble of going against the protag? Motivation is meant to be MOTIVATING.

(also ngl I'm on the Shadow As A Hero sort of bandwagon where I find it much funnier for the simple apathetic cool edgy guy to be the funniest person on your tennis team)

Dungeon Meshi has TWO characters who struggle with apathy, and are both antagonists at some points in the story, but never villains. Shuro and Mithrun. The theme of Dungeon Meshi is the beauty and complexity of life, the value of living, and how our connections to others changes the people we are. Food is a metaphor for bonding, self-care, and understanding.

For Shuro, he begins the story as someone who's both been encouraged to bottle up his emotions for the sake of other people, as well as to not actually consider the emotions of those lower-born than him. He's from a very different place than the other members of his party, and this causes friction as class, culture, and sophisticated, refined, weapons-grade autism clashes.

When the woman he loves is eaten by a dragon, he doesn't stop to tell her brother and """childhood friend""" what he's planning, as if they both wouldn't run in and get hurt. He owns demi-humans. He doesn't consider his own needs or the needs of his rescue team of loyal vassals. As a result, he's too weak to continue, losing a fistfight with one of the main characters, Laios.

After this, he connects with him for the very first time, and reaches out to him by giving him an important magic item. There's even a MASSIVE moment where he outright tells Laios that his ability to be so open (read: not have to mask his autism) is something he envies, breaking through that veil of apathy he wears.

The story Dungeon Meshi is telling here is that it is important to value the needs of yourself and of others. Shuro's apathy towards his own needs in a bid to prove his love weakened him. In acting like he was above his old teammates, he never spoke to them like people to smooth out his issues. He's never even noticed how much his vassals love and care for him.

(and the incredible irony is not lost on me, that Shuro's name is because Laios mispronounced it and was never corrected... while Shuro never noticed that Izutsumi had the unwanted name "Asebi" forced onto her when she was "taken in" and made his slave.)

See how that comes back to the theme? Shuro doesn't exist to just "be some asshole" or act like a villain. He has a full character arc that contributes to the narrative.

For Mithrun? I won't even spoil it. Go read Dungeon Meshi. Watch elf depression. We love a king with strabismus.

Anyway,

If you ever need good personal resources on any stigmatized mental condition, I've found it's usually productive to go into the #Actually (Thing) tag here on Tumblr. You can find people posting about basically anything. I found a lot of really good resources on NPD that way.

[lu-is-not-ok]

This is just a dumb theory, but given what Xichun has said about the elders of their family seeking immortality of the mind and the ruthless competition they've got going between their grandkids, this might be the simplest and easiest explanation we have, so I'm probably wrong, but it's still a thought:

What if the elders are attempting some sort of Get Out style body hijacking scheme? Whoever the strongest, fittest, most ruthless of the kids is deemed worthy to have an elder live inside of them?

I've been mulling over how to respond to this because there's both a lot to say and not that much at the same time.

Because, on the one hand, yeah you are absolutely correct. The search for the Immortality of the mind is absolutely very likely going to lead to the exposure of new and inventive ways for the elders to exploit the younger members of the Jia Family.

This would be further corroberated by my Two in One/Daiyu-Baoyu theory, as it implies that the reason why Baoyu was so valuable to the Family and why the elders are now invested in getting him back is because the fact he was able to keep on living via a version of body hijacking could be exactly what they were looking for. And, well, if they can't achieve Immortality themselves, they still want to have their One Immortal back to force him into doing what they want.

However, I do feel like this isn't all there is to it.

My main point of contention is that I don't believe that the seeking of Immortality and the competition between siblings are inherently this closely connected. I think that, at the very least, they weren't at first.

The competition for the spot as the head of the Family feels like a kind of tradition that would go back for many generations, way before whatever kind of Immortality scheme the current elders are cooking.

After all, note the difference in how Xichun and Hong Lu talk about those two concepts. Neither of them ever really question the competition between siblings, they're fully expecting murder attempts as if they were normal facts of life. There is no judgement of it, it's as natural to them as gravity causing things to fall or plants needing water.

On the other hand, this kind of idea of normalcy is not afforded to the search for Immortality by them. In fact, they both seem to see it as kind of a bother. Xichun calls it an "old, tiresome thing", while Hong Lu is clearly not even really taking part in it, with his writing in the Rose Hunter log implying he believes it to be the beliefs of a select few specific people in his Family.

While it's implied that both concepts have been around for a long while, the normalization of the sibling competition and the lack thereof for the search for Immortality suggests that the former is an established tradition of the Family, while the latter is only a development as recent as the current elders being the ones in power.

But... there is a deeper, thematic way that the two ideas connect together, despite their in-universe connection not being as close as you posit.

Both the sibling competition and the search for Immortality, and even Baoyu being kept within the Jias' grasp - they all serve a single purpose.

To allow for the endless and cyclical perpetuation of the Jia Family and its legacy of abuse and violence.

The competition between siblings isn't just to find the strongest and most ruthless child to become the next head, it's specifically to find an heir whose personal values are the most like the values the Jia Family itself holds, and which thus can continue to perpetuate it.

The search for Immortality then is just another incarnation of this attempt to continue perpetuating the Jia Family, but in this case in a more "efficient" manner. Instead of relying on the random chance of hoping that the one heir who comes out on top will share the values of the elders, the elders can just ensure the Jia Family remains as it is by always being the ones in power. Its legacy can't die if its head never dies after all.

And then, of course, is the one Immortal in question - Baoyu. The Family likely "treasures" him so much because he's their one sure way to never let the Jia Family die. As long as they can keep him locked, as long as they can shape him into the kind of person who would blindly follow what they say, they can ensure he can keep the legacy alive forevermore.

It's... an interesting and kind of poignant smaller scale parallel to how Project Moon portrays the City itself.

Both the City and the Jia Family are, in a way, their own "living" beings independent of any of the people that are a part of it, and yet which can only continue to live on in perpetuity because those same people are the ones who perpetuate their systems of abuse.

It's not a single person's fault that they both continue to live on and cause harm. ...But there's also very few who aren't at least in part to blame for keeping them alive. Even those who are being actively exploited by those in power and have no choice but to perpetuate those cycles... well, they're still perpetuating them all the same.

[quasarwake]

Inspired by @radioactiverats' latest Cadet chapter (it's not wholly connected but it's definitely what lit the spark)

Man sometimes thinking about jealousy as a concept- it's greed, it's genuine want, and GODS can you just imagine how territorial Seekers are? I love the idea of Seekers being a bit like territorial birds (or dragons, if I allow myself to be particularly indulgent). Birds and even certain reptiles like to show off for their mates- and if you've ever watched parrots for long enough, you KNOW they have best friends and gossip and beef between each other. They form lasting social bonds out of genuine friendship and necessity.

And it's made me think about Cybertronian cultures and different cultural nuances between frames. Emotions aren't negative inherently- jealousy comes from being territorial, which has a biological precedent (or cybernetic, as it were). The issue with jealousy comes with finding healthy outlets for that emotion. I imagine the reason Seekers would value this emotion would be due to how Trining or Flocking works.

I've seen a lot about how the fandom regards Trines and honestly wow love that, but it's already hard to get one partner let alone two, so I imagine there's a lot of showing off involved. Peacocking. 'I'm very much better than what you're looking at, so look at me. And if you DON'T look at me, then why am I wasting my time?' Pretty insufferable guys at the bar ngl, depending on personality. Like on the light end you get Thundercracker doing a 'check in' because wow maybe you could be having a better time with him- and on the extreme end you literally get Skywarp going 'I will kill this guy for your attention if I have to'. Some iterations of TC I see wholly being as that guy that's actually off-putting because he's genuinely trying every time to get attention from somebody that's Not Feeling It. Maybe being in a Trine with two hardcore Decepticons dulls his emotional maturity, idk war.

But that also comes with the potential of fending off others that may want that flier to themselves, or finding a coupled pair that needs to be convinced of your worth in different ways, speed and flight maneuverability obviously being the major factors in traditional Trine 'courtship'- there's probably more to it than JUST those things, since it's not just animal courtship (or even mating displays, depending on the desired relationship OF the Trine). Jealousy could even arise in the Trine itself until a pecking order from speed contests (or combat) sorts things out- or, again, it could be down to personality. And there's something in the thrill of that, of proving yourself and others finding you worthy- if you're Trined or even just paired, you have found some way to 'prove' yourselves to one another, and there's no extra baggage after the fact outside of whatever each personality brings to the table.

The feeling that perhaps, your partner or Trinemate is feeling jealousy over you- how that could be regarded as reaffirmation of emotional connection, an opportunity to strengthen that bond. 'Even if I did have them it would be to share'/'their wings could never match your style and grace'/'I don't need them when I have you'.

And sometimes, there is another mech trying to steal your partner or Trinemate. Sometimes, that's what you do to get a new Trinemate- rejection can occur but loyalties depend on the actual bond, and if the bond isn't strong, one Seeker might just allow themselves to be swayed more easily- 'nothing personal, but they do fly better with me than we ever have' kind of energy. And hey if somebody steals your partner or Trinemate, they probably weren't a good Trinemate for you anyways, so frag them time to move on and find somebody that can either catch you or is fun to pin.

But especially, imagine being a Seeker cut off from that culture of finding this all acceptable. That these emotions are ugly, mean, negative, even, instead of the natural territoriality that comes with being connected to your core self. It's not a crime to want, or want something that others have- perhaps even, this is why so many Seekers joined the Decepticons, because at least Decepticons understand that kind of want and need, healthily sourced or not.

Especially when you're alone. Facing trying times. There's a reason why Trines work- three fliers stabilizing each other not only in flight but emotionally, either fluffing each other up or grounding themselves in reality (or at the very least, reasonable expectations). Even unhealthy or impractical Trinemates seem better off- because at least there's still that connection, that socialising aspect. You may be in the Pits with assholes, but at least they're your assholes, and every attempt at them being taken from you (or you being taken from them) gets met with defense and reaffirmation of desire/affection/want/need. A recurring thing in the fandom I've seen is the idea that the Elite Trine of Starscream/Thundercracker/Skywarp is a Trine made out of necessity- how much bad blood flows between restructured Trines in the Decepticon fliers? War makes brutes of any of us. How many Seekers still go out of their way to Trine properly? Are there issues with generational gaps- pre-war bots trying to get war-born bots to understand the difference between warring and peaceful times, socialising activities gone long neglected- it feels like an echo of Seeker culture, to take and take and own and to have, but do they taste how bastardised it has become?

You see other groups and connections, perhaps vehicons dealing with this emotional distance much better than a Seeker, social bonds and needs far different than your own.

It is a gift to fly. It is a curse to fly alone.

[auguryofjellyfish]

This is the main blog of @misha-v and I just wanted to say that I really love the long commentary tags you leave on art reblogs complimenting all the little details, it means so much to me when ppl notice and appreciate those and take the time to point those out and explain why they like them, you especially. It makes me feel rlly good inside and it kind of keeps me going because I know for a fact that you love it to the point where you're willing to dedicate your time to leaving those long tags ^^

So thank you, thank you so much ^-^

hi!! thank you for taking the time to write such a long and kind message! i'm always blown away when people tell me they appreciate my tags, like fr, wow?? i'm so so happy to hear how they make you feel <3 the tetro community artists create a lot of things that i find pleasant, thought-provoking, impactful, or things that evoke feelings in general, which makes the words come to me more easily. i always like it when i find i have a lot of things to say about a piece of art! i'm glad that my words can brighten people's day too.

speaking of yapping, i hope you don't mind cuz i wanna do that right now :3c I LOVE YOUR ART!!! you have mastery over using shapes, the general "blockiness" of your style reminds me of those early 2000s cartoon network shows, which is nice to see because these artstyles aren't that popular nowadays. so that, + the smoothness and thickness of your line art makes your character artwork look really defined and sharp.

and your colour choices... i have no idea how you do it, but they're just sublime. like in your DRDT designs, for example, the cream + gentle red of okazaki's suit, the greenish black of hiroaki's, the vibrant orange of isono's hair contrasted with the bluish green, the beautiful purples, pink and white of tamba's outfit... bruh. this stuff almost brings me to tears. it's breathtaking how beautiful these colours are, and how well they go with each other. they make my brain go brrrr.... not to mention the designs themselves are fire too RAAHHH!!! lies down... i just think it's neat.

also i need, neeed to talk about your chap 3 au. it's so meaningful to me. i've seen people kill off wada as a victim in their AUs A LOT, it's like a staple at this point. usually, it's him taking someone else's place or just to have him die in general ig, and i don't find that very compelling. like, oh wow, victim wada?? definitely haven't seen that before lol. but in your au, he dies, but it was because he decided to strike back against his abuser, and i find that so beautiful.

disclaimer, ik okazaki is also a teenager and i'm not celebrating her death etc. but the fact still stands that wada is a victim, hers and in general, and you had him take back some of his power for the first time in his life. not only that, he also inadvertently saved a person he loved from being executed (whether it was a good thing for her is another matter). the killing game itself makes the participants inherently powerless, but he acted with as much agency as you can while being inside it.

i LOVE this wada. this is such a wonderful take on his character, a version of him that's a bit to the left, that values himself and his own dignity a bit more than in canon. and maybe one that holds onto bitterness/anger more, as well. but it STILL MAKES SENSE!! it doesn't feel OOC! this au just took the him that stabbed okazaki as self defense and turned that into more active and retaliatory force.

also, strangling a mf to death with HDMI cables is just iconic. pure king shit. anyway... i'm very glad that canon wada's survived this long, and i love him for who he is, but if he had to die, it wouldn't be so bad if it had gone something like this. thank you for creating such an awesome AU.

[tobiasdrake]

hearing you call live-action sonic surprisingly conservative in your post about media moving forward felt like being shot in the heart

i mean, sonic as a character is pretty leftist. his whole deal is being free and setting people free,

beating up enemies in the game is literally breaking the shell that the animals are stuck in

Eggman was an analogy for pollution, with him destroying the environment for personal gain, and later being more of a fascist dictator

and his thing is always turning people into products, into literal machines he can control to do his labor and fight his wars, which would be every capitalist’s dream.

and so i never put the pieces together when it comes to the movie being conservative.

damn.

ouch.

could you elaborate more on it? idk, the conversation hurts but i’d like to know what your thoughts are on live-action sonic specifically

Oh, sure. We can talk about the surprisingly conservative themes and ideas of the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog films. With the caveat that this is old-school traditional conservatism, not modern nakedly fascistic conservatism. The Sonic movies are conservative in a Home Improvement sort of way, not a Lady Ballers sort of way.

What it amounts to is that Paramount approached the films not with intent to make a Sonic the Hedgehog movie but with intent to make a "relatable" story for an audience that also has Sonic the Hedgehog in it.

Have you ever seen 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters? A film which centers a broken family trying to connect with each other, while also there's a disaster movie happening around them? Like. Godzilla and Mothra and Ghidorah is all stuff that's happening, but what really matters here is whether this daughter can forgive her mother.

It's the of writing a low-stakes personal drama and then stapling the film premise to it. The kind of move that makes sense with something like The Day After Tomorrow where the premise is just "It got fucking cold" so the movie kinda needs something with some actual characters that it can be about.

But when it's an adaptation, it shows low confidence in the IP itself to carry a film. It says, "I don't think a Sonic movie would work, so instead I'm going to just make a movie and have Sonic in it."

And the a movie that they made centers some conservative values. But, like, old-school conservative values, not the hyper-fascistic transphobia and white supremacy and stuff you see around today. Things that were considered commonly recognized conservative values in the 80's and 90's, when white people were still supposed to believe that racism was over and all that jazz.

For one, Tom is a cop. Which is a wild choice for a film coming out at the height of BLM and ACAB. The film, as well as its subsequent sequels and spinoffs, play Tom's policing very sympathetically. A major theme of the first film is that Officer Wachowski is a vital and valuable part of his community.

There is no ambiguity; The cops are the good guys here. They're kind of wacky but we're meant to love both of them, Tom and Wade. They are, however, contrasted by the wickedness of the Feds.

Eggman, in the film, is reimagined from an industrialist to a federal agent. He represents the long arm of Big Government overreach coming for the sleepy town of Green Hill. Which is then further represented by G.U.N., who oppose Eggman once he goes rogue but are still the enemy nonetheless.

Even the Knux series still manages to be about fighting the Feds. The federal government has been the antagonist for 3 out of 3 entries thus far, when Eggman himself has only been the antagonist for 2.

The films leave the environmentalism of the original behind, instead centering family values. Rather than setting out to rescue woodland creatures from industry, Sonic has heart-to-heart chats with Tom about growing up and finding his calling. Knux isn't the guardian of Angel Island, but Sonic's adopted brother. Maddie can ground him for inappropriate behavior.

The first film also features the popular old-school conservative theme of Rural America vs. Urban America. Tom is a small-town cop who yearns for the glamour of the big city. He thinks his calling is there. But, over the course of the film, he learns to appreciate the value of small-town living and his importance to his community, and sets aside his foolish dreams of urbanity.

"I wanted to run away to the city but then learned that my Real 'Murica small hometown is where I truly belong" is probably the single most popular conservative story in decades of film and television.

It's worth noting that the film does feature an interracial marriage, which is something I hear brought up a lot as a way of saying "Actually it's not conservative because...."

But for as much credit as Maddie might warrant... There is the issue of Rachel. A character who exists primarily in the film to be a Sassy Black Woman who reacts with furious histrionics towards Tom for no apparent reason. She just. Hates him. From the bottom of her soul, despises "Relatable Cop Boy".

Like. So far as the film's concerned, it needs no explanation. Her relationship with Tom is just an eyeroll, sly glance at the camera, and "In-laws, amirite?" The second film at least gives her more to do, but the first concludes her subplot by having them tie her up and steal her car.

Like. That's it. That is what she amounts to. Maddie's sister yells sassily until she passes out and then the payoff is that they steal her car and leave her tied to a chair as... I guess her karmic retribution for being so sassy and mean to Tom? It's hard to really say whether this is mean-spirited because we do not know what her beef is. The film doesn't think we need to know. "In-laws are crazy, amirite!?"

When you set aside the cool action scenes of Sonic punching robots and look at what the films center as their emotional heart? You get a story about a small-town cop learning to appreciate his rural roots and build a family with his wife despite her unreasonably psychotic relatives, while the wicked federal government attempts to destroy their home, town, family, and way of life.

[dootznbootz]

dootz. dootz i read an into on the odyssey and it said that penelope enjoyed attention from the suitors. the 108 men who kept harassing her and eating her son’s whole inheritance. bc she had the sudden urge to walk past them and was upset by the bird dream. what—

Okay, so a lil confused on whether you mean "an Odyssey article or post" or read the Odyssey itself and are worried about the fact that "she enjoyed the attention of the suitors".

In general, anyone who ships Penelope with the suitors has a screw loose.

The whole "sudden urge to walk past them" was caused by Athena.

Then goddess Athena with the glittering eyes put an idea in the mind of wise Penelope, Icarius’s daughter—to approach the suitors, so she might truly stir the feeling in their hearts     and acquire more honour from her son and husband than she had before. With an unnatural laugh she spoke out and said:  “Eurynome, though my heart has never once desired to show myself                               before these suitors, it does now, shameless though they may be. And I’ve got words to say to my own son—he would be better off not mingling with those arrogant suitors. They may say nice things, but they’re making plans for nasty schemes in future.”

(Book 18, Johnston)

Personally, I've always kind of seen this as Athena wanting Odysseus to SEE how the Suitors are when they see Penelope in order to make him angrier. He's seen how they treat Telemachus to a degree. Now he can see how they are about his beloved wife. It's also a way for him to see how she's still his lil schemer wife :3

The suitors in their hearts felt immediately overwhelmed, consumed by sexual desire. Their legs grew weak. Each of them prayed that he could go to bed with her. 

Long-suffering Odysseus was pleased that she was getting them to give her gifts, with charming, soothing words, her mind on other things.

(Book 18, Johnston)

(one thing I love about Homer, is that like, despite something being sexually violent in nature to any degree, he's never explicit but still makes the point across of what's happening. It's like, a breath of fresh air because it's not really used as "shock value")

Like, it's for Odysseus to get angry about how they're looking at Penelope most likely, AND to show how these men don't really respect Penelope. A lil bit of contrast I believe as well to show how the suitors see her verses how HE sees her: Suitors see a hot woman and behave disrespectfully while Odysseus sees a intelligent woman playing these idiots like a fiddle to get her way.

And the Bird Dream? Someday I'll write up that essay about how Penelope knew damn well that was her husband under that disguise (still cautious ofc. but she knows that's Odysseus. I'll fight everyone on that. I'm so tired of people downplaying Penelope's intelligence.) But the sum of it, whether it was a real dream or not, or some scenario she came up with on the fly in order to test this beggar some more.

In general, the geese that were killed in her dream were the actual PETS she has. She has like, 20 geese as pets. THAT'S why she's "sad". Like, I'm a pet owner, if I got an omen of something that involved something I wanted but also included my pets dying?? I'd be a lil torn too.

I find it reallyyyy fascinating with how Penelope's name basically means Duck/Goose (usually duck, but they're both water fowl sooooo), and while I don't think it was any symbolism for her there. I think it's something interesting :3

Either way, don't get too worked up about it, Dear Anon. <3 I think Penelope wanting the suitors is honestly not too common of a belief, that it's like, something you gotta worry about. It's all good :3

[fanganfessions]

I personally don't like Project Eden's Garden, and I feel like it's trying far too hard to not be Dangan Ronpa to the point that it seems frankly embarassed about having any association with it from its writing and its consistent attempts to try and subvert DR writing, from the characters to even the execution we've seen (that IMO, lacks the kind of "style" canon executions have in an attempt to be far more brutal and drawn out without anything actually interesting to it in an aesthetic sense. It feels gory for the sake of being gory, even moreso than another execution I'd criticize like V3-2) and like it's trying too hard to subvert the series it's inspired by to the point it genuinely doesn't feel all that fun to engage with.

Things like the idea of a character presenting themselves as an "Ultimate Liar" just feel, for lack of a better word, fanfiction-y. A lot of the actual meat of the project feels amateurish to me, likely a result of the project changing hands due to the fallout between the old director and the original writers parting ways due to abuse 3 years ago or so, like old plot points were left behind and people tried to make them work rather than scraping things that I personally think go against his attempts to make its characters more grounded or realistic.

I don't enjoy any of the characters as they are and feel no attachment towards them or their designs, and I think the decision to replace the mascot with a guy in a mask was a poor one in a somewhat misguided attempt to make the game feel more, I dunno, mature? But to me it just comes off as another attempt to distance itself from DR, which the game fails at anyway because the twist of "characters who seem important both die chapter one" is very much a DR-esque move, for example.

There's a lot I could get into, and these are just mismanaged thoughts, but I feel like the project lacks style and any affection for the original series, and also comes off as exceedingly pretentious at times. (I personally hate the orchestral soundtrack, and I feel like something like "here's a real life orchestral composition of our theme" feels a lot like showing off at that point) I also just don't see the project being sustainable, especially with the prediction of it taking another two years for the second chapter.

All in all, though, I just can't enjoy it personally because it comes off as a very generic Fangan dressed up with high production value that people aren't willing to criticize both for fear of being attacked by an honestly rabid fanbase, and because it's definitely the big kid on the block and it can be hard to criticize a fan project being done for free. I just find it to be, well, not that good, and unworthy of the massive amounts of praise it's been receiving, but I'm biased to finding it kind of irritating due to my own personal tastes and the large amounts of praise its been receiving I personally disagree with.

But beyond that, it just feels like it doesn't want to be Dangan Ronpa, and maybe it shouldn't be, and its attempts to distance itself from it while still being clearly derivative of it (SHSL talents, the artstyle, the format) come off as more irritating to me than anything. I just don't think it's that good or the second coming of Dangan Christ or whatever, and it falls into the same trappings I'd criticize pretty much every other Fangan, and even the official series for, but it sticks out even more due to how desperate it is to be not Dangan Ronpa, or more than just Dangan Ronpa. This one just has more budget.

⠀

[adobe-outdesign]

the way you get specific NC items on Neopets is absolutely deranged and frankly I'm amazed it works at all

So basically you have the NC Mall, where is where you go to spend NC (NC being a separate currency from the standard game currency that you buy with real money). Sounds fine, right?

Well the problem is that the mall tends to only have an item in stock for about a month, give or take. Once an item has left it almost never comes back, save for rare exceptions that usually involve some form of chance (such as randomly getting them from mystery capsules).

So in order to get basically any item that you missed during that very short period, you have to trade with other users. You can't trade NC itself or NP; you can ONLY trade NC items for NC items.

Now, in order to trade those items, you have to have something called gift boxes. You get a few boxes from redeeming NC and a few from dailies, but they mostly come from something called Gift Box Mystery Capsules (abbreviated: GBCs/caps). Because of this, "caps" are their own currency of sorts used to give a baseline idea of item value. One item may be worth 1 cap, 10 caps, etc. Some can get as high as 100 depending on item rarity.

Now you know what item you're looking for, and you know what the cap value of that item is, so now you have to make a list of what you have to trade with and what you're looking for. Nowadays you do this through Jellyneo's wishlists, but back in ye olden days you had to hand-code an HTML/CSS list to host on your pet pages.

Now, with everything set up, you just need to find a trading partner. There's no centralized place to trade NC, so you have to do this by either:

Making a post on the Neoboards and praying someone with the item you want happens to see it and will be interested in a trade

Try to find a person to trade with using JN's wishlists, which you then shoot a Neomail off to (and keep in mind this is a recent development, as you couldn't previously mention fansites like JN on Neopets itself)

Then you just have to hope that you get some kind of a response instead of just being ghosted or rejected, which can be extremely difficult depending on how desirable the item is. This can take weeks if not months. Once you have a partner, you both send each other your trade items on a trust basis because, once again, there's no official system in place to do any of this.

And then you just do that very simple process for every single customization you ever do

[f-imaginings]

I have a genuine question being Aroace but I'm afraid to ask and my headcanon will go to waste.

But KMKY's Ford always seemed to be at least in some way the aroace look (being demi or gray that is), did you do it out of want, in the idea of looking, or is it just part of the character and you never thought of yourself in a sexuality for him?

I can definitely see Ford being ace!

I myself am demisexual so I definitely think some of that perspective leeched into how I write Ford. Because my own experience informed how I wrote him, little things like being kind of oblivious/frustrated when strangers flirt with him (the hand witch or the girl from college who worked in the aquarium with the legwarmers lmao) because they don't know him!!! So how dare they!!! Lmao, falling for Bill's mind first since it didn't really matter that he was a shape or a muse or whatever, the rest would work itself out, feeling seen and only crushing initially because it seemed like his mind was being appreciated first and foremost, and treating their sex life like an experiment/engaging with the kinks/power plays inherent rather than just going through the motions (because kink makes more sense sometimes than just some undefined biological urge that you're supposed to have but no one can explain it to you, yet it's perfectly understandable to go 'oh they like feeling powerless as a powerful being I understand that perfectly, now how can I get creative with it'.)

I definitely think he wanted romantic attention from Bill, and wanted to be valued romantically (hence going on a date with Susan and Cathy Crenshaw) but the idea of getting romantic attention from a stranger is unappealing (hence why he was so reluctant to go on the date with Susan) and wanted the sort of holistic acceptance that comes with ideas of romance (because then his polydactylism will be accepted along with his unique mind) but the traditional trappings of romantic relationships aren't that appealing (was worried that he would have to engage in gay culture/grow a moustache and have a makeover to be in this relationship ECT). Bill was great for him BC he accepted and actively sought out all of Ford's weirdness and the dark bits you're ashamed to show, and then got freaky with them lmao. And there's no way to cement a bond quicker than to show someone your most vulnerable parts and have them accept those things unconditionally. Turning shame into dependence right there. That truly is the no one knows you like I do trap, and that shit feels inescapable.

Because of my own experience I know that you can be demisexual and still have a preference for gender or looks, hence why he built the "flattering vessel" for Bill to not only be flattering by beauty standards in general but also subconsciously to be exactly what Ford found attractive. The kicker is that personality means more than good looks, so when Bill inhabited the body in a different way than Stanford expected but he still found his personality all the more fascinating because of it, that was probably what cinched his feelings BC he got to know more about Bill's weirdness and see how it matched his own.

I am giving you a big virtual hug anon BC no head canon is ever wasted, how you engage with a story you like is important and you deserve to feel seen and heard when you engage in content you like. If I can go some way towards making the fandom of this fic a safe welcoming place it's my privilege to do so as a writer!

[yellowocaballero]

dude psyched ur reading orv, insanely curious about ur takes

My friend @charterandbarter put it best.

ORV is pretty fascinating to me. It's really just a self-insert isekai OP webnovel, and it is nothing else. Its medium is trashy and lowbrow, and its genre is almost devoid of high art. OP isekais are 'id' stories, meant to be satisfying and fun and contain very little of substance. ORV is a very well executed OP isekai - it contains the elements of the genre that make it satisfying, it understands why people read the genre and enjoy it, it reproduces those elements very well, and it is very concerned with telling an enjoyable story. ORV really, really loves webnovels and isekais and shitty wishfuillment stories. There's a lot more to ORV than the 'fist pump' moments of kdj doing something cool or pulling a fast one on a shmuck, but those moments are the undoubtedly the point of ORV, as they are the point of all SIOC isekai OP webnovels. And that's the point of ORV.

Metanarrative stories are cheap. Neil Gaiman's written 30 and millenials love waxing philosophical about the power of narratives. These metanarratives tend to describe stories as a theoretical framework through which we understand the world and our lives. Therefore, stories are tremendously important and valuable because they contain the totality of religion, history, culture, relationships, and lives. ORV says this too. But this theory tends to land at mystifying and exalting stories on virtue of them being stories, which I think misses the point. Stories aren't special because they're stories. They're not more sacred for containing our lives. What ORV says is that stories are important, because our lives are important. I like that a lot more.

ORV says that stories are our way of ordering a disordered world. A history, culture, nation, and religion are stories. None of those stories are true or real, because histories/cultures/nations/religions are constructs - they're how we interface with reality. They're created with a purpose, told for a point, pulled together into a narrative, and are satisfying or dissatisfying based on certain factors. ORV's perspective on fiction is deeply seeped in its own nature as 'low art'. There's something very cynical and commercialized about narratives in ORV, and every narrative in ORV is being told for a quick buck or to try and spread an idea for an individual's gains. It's a very unromantic, unimpressed view of narratives and fiction. It's pretty much the only way a SIOC OP isekai webnovel like ORV can talk about it without being disingenuous. And it's remarkably raw and visceral as a result, because ORV loves SIOC OP isekai webnovels like kdj loves yjh. Fiercely, insanely, like breathing, exactly for what it is. No pretensions.

It's bizarre, because ORV is about love. It's not about love for anything that deserves it. Not for a story with a lot of literary merit, a main character who is a remotely kind or lovable person, or art itself outside of its commercial or philosophical value. kdj really, really, really fucked loved TWS - because it was there, and because it lasted 15 years, and because it was fake, and because it was what he had. He loves yjh because yjh was his only companion in a dark world. That's fiction. Fiction helped him survive, because love is a way of ordering a disordered world.

I'm still reading myself, but ORV seems to be about how we manage to live in a hard world, and how to find it within ourselves to love each other and find meaning in that hard world. I see why kdj's the protagonist: he can find merit in something for existing, and loving it for being there, and he holds onto something because he has it. He sees the value in that. He read it in a book.

TL;DR: ORV is well-executed trashy commercialized art that is so obsessed with trashy commercialized art that it's looped straight back around into being somehow the most raw and visceral depiction of love I've seen in a long time.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Reading the fleetway Sonic comic now and

I'm convinced that Tails is his special little guy??

I mean, he's an asshole, no doubt, but he passes up a party (mind you, he loves being celebrated as a hero so much) to go looking for Tails

He goes looking at his "favorite place" and literally dons shades and a worse attitude at learning Tails was taken

He genuinely cares about him as his buddy? Sure he complains about him or insults hin fairly often, but he clearly likes having Tails around enough to want him back??

Are we gonna talk about how Tails breaks free from Robotnik's control because he can't bear to keep hurting Sonic, because he cares?

This scene too reminds me so much of that scene from Fang the Hunter issue 1 where Tails called for Sonic and Sonic bid himself to be patient and not lash out because Tails is his friend. Like again, Fleetway!Sonic is an asshole, but he's holding back when it comes to Tails even a little bit

There's just constant proof whenever Tails is put in danger or captured that Sonic cares about his well-being. In fact he cares so much he just kind of is just indifferent about those he puts in danger by zeroing in on saving Tails (and those he saves he doesn't necessarily save with intent to). In this issue specifically, Sonic, the animal companions with him, and an unconscious Tails get washed away in a current of water, and rather than worry about his own well-being or those of his companions, he yells at them to keep ahold of Tails in the water so he can take care of the badnik.

Personally I feel like this sequence speaks for itself? Although Sonic is fairly confident, he risks his life on the chance that he can steer the Death Egg off course (and we're not even factoring in whether he can escape in time), and sends Tails away in the only escape pod. He literally gambles his life on this act of saving Emerald Hill and worries first about securing Tails', even if only Tails may end up escaping.

There's also the setting? Tails crying for Sonic and calling him the bravest hedgehog he ever met, Sonic reacting like he didn't just narrowly avoid death and that Tails is just stating the obvious, the two of them floating down in the escape pod during the sunset

I don't have the picture space to show it, but there's also another part of this issue where Sonic continuously nags Tails to stay out of danger and to let him handle everything alone, and then (after falling into a trap), starts talking to himself about how glad he is that Tails wasn't around to see him make such a rookie mistake. It's easy to read as Sonic always leaving Tails behind because he doesn't think much of him or thinks he'll be in the way, but I don't think that's completely true! I get the idea that Fleetway Sonic likes having his buddy around just as much as he wants his buddy to be safe. So he brings him around everywhere he can, but he forces him to hang back during the dangerous bits. And that's not to mention how this issue showed just how much Sonic values Tails' opinion of him.

And BOY does this scene get me

It's like

This is the first time Super Sonic ever appears in StC. Are we going to ignore that Fleetway!Super Sonic stops attacking and reverts back into regular Sonic because of Tails?

This is like Mecha Sonic in Archie's Mecha Madness special all over again, except Fleetway!Super Sonic is under no one's control. He stopped attacking because Tails bids him to remember them.

There's just so many little things about them in my reading so far that I almost can't believe it (and would hit the tumblr photo limit a number of times if I were to show it off)

If I had to label their relationship in StC, I'd say that, to Tails, Sonic is someone he admires greatly. He doesn't seem to be fond of Sonic's attitude (largely when it's aimed at those other than himself), and he expresses criticism as to how vain Sonic is and his eating choices, but ultimately he cares about Sonic enough to stick around with him and go on adventures from time to time. For Sonic, I think Tails is someone he secretly likes having around. He often criticizes him, and depending on his mood he'll do it whenever he gets an opening, but he's also just...bad at feelings. When Tails is in danger, he'll zero in on saving him, almost above all else, and then when he saves Tails he's going off about how he can't trust Tails to be alone, angry and annoyed. He's a jerk, but a jerk who cares more than he lets on about Tails. Tails isn't just some admirer, he's important to him, and at the same time, Tails' is someone whose opinion of him he values. Ahsjsjs and....he's also the kind of guy who would say something like "Hey, that's enough! Only I get to bully Tails!"

Is their relationship healthy? No😂 But also in StC it also comes off like...they're both choosing this. Despite everything they choose to be buddies

Idk I'm fascinated so far😂

The Sonic the asshole and his special little fox

[rosammmystica]

Hi, I'm a Marian Witch and fairly fresh to it, after a long break away for a few years for personal reasons.

Can I ask for a basic explanation of Filianism? I'm scrolling through the tag and struggling to get a solid idea of the community, the beliefs, etc.

Thanks so much! <3

Of course!

Now, I will put it quite generally on purpose, to try and encompass the field of beliefs in the community. For more information on what a more... orthodox practice may look like, A Chapel of Our Mother God is a classic.

Filianism grew out of a Mother God movement - the idea that God, the chief Creator, Dea, is feminine in nature, or, anyway, that approaching the divine as solely a Mother or a woman is just as true as seeing masculinity in it. Within the movement, the metaphysics may vary, but one of the basic tenets is that godhood, spirit, and the soul is understood and approached as solely feminine.

You will see many Filianists, and generally Deanists, use "God" rather than "Goddess", while maintaining the feminine implication.

That, of course, quite significantly impacts the values that tend to be centered within these varied faith branches, as traits and feelings traditionally deemed feminine - beauty, gracefulness, empathy, fluidity, interconnectedness as opposed to competition, - are expressions of the highest divinity. The theaology (the commonly preferred spelling) tends to lack the punitive and prescriptive aspect, focusing on harmony and love.

Filianism expands on that idea, and is trinitarian. Filianists believe in the Dark Mother, who is the primordial source of all, the more personified solar Heavenly Mother, the Creatrix, and a lunar Daughter, Princess and Priestess of the world, gently reflecting, maintaining, and growing the light of divinity here on earth. This is the source of the name, from the Latin filia, meaning daughter.

There are varied names and faces applied to these figures. There is definitely a spectrum, from rather orthopraxic in the sense of approaching them in a fairly pure way as described above, to seeing varied holy figures, predominantly female but male as well, as avatars of Dea, as her facets, and so on. Some also combine this basic belief with another cultural or religious tradition, which is largely considered valid as long as the core beliefs are preserved.

It is common to also hold belief in the Janyati, angelic or godly beings understood to be reflections of God, broadly correlated to the seven classical planets. Whether all these are approached as separate individuals or effectively persons of the same godhood is really rather personal.

There is some common imagery you will find - for one, of Mother Mary. This in the vast majority of cases does not mean that She is literally seen as God, but rather that Her imagery is found to be a suitable representation.

The community highly values harmony and courtesy, so I am sure you will find many kind and genuine souls here. I know I have met many I grew to adore dearly.

I will note the faith has been frequently misused to support certain discriminatory and reactionary ideologies, which I personally find counter to the very nature of Dea's wish for us as living beings. Use your discretion.

Personally, I would call myself a Marian Filianist, which really is a somewhat complex and still developing story in itself, but here I will only say that the Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene mythos and presence are central to my praxis, and my experience with Christianity is extensive, but I am not a Christian.

I hope it clears some things up🥀

[happyk44]

Hi! What are your thoughts on the possibility that Rin won't age like a human, that he'll live, likely, for centuries. What do you think Rin's thoughts would be like on this? What about Yukio? Feel free to take this as a Prompt or just an Ask :) Thanks, ~Shay

So I have thought about Rin's longevity before! One thing I've noticed is that no other directly descended Nephilim, such as the clones or Iblis's son, have demon hearts. When Amaimon took over one of Mephisto's clones, they knew it because his demon heart sprouted from the clone's chest.

It could be that Satan, as the concept of Gehenna itself, can only create Demons. It could be that Rin absorbed Yukio's demon half in the womb. It could be that some Nephilim are born with demon hearts and we just haven't seen those yet. After all, the Paladin before Shiro was one of Mephisto's clones, yet he didn't demonstrate any power over time during the whole battle with baby Rin. So maybe having a demon heart is where their access to those kinds of powers come from. Maybe the first Shemihaza had a demon heart, who knows?

So there's a very real possibility that Rin might be immortal, instead of just having a longer lifespan. After all, the Nephilim we have seen outside of Rin - Iblis's son, Shiro, Abel - are all capable of being killed and dying. Rin has been shot in the head, funnily in the same spot as Mephisto, and it did nothing. He was still talking (like Mephisto, lol) after it happened.

As for Yukio and Rin's reactions - I think Yukio already knows that Rin has an extended lifespan, if not that he's likely immortal. Some people, especially those that don't like Yukio, focus a lot on Yukio shooting Rin in the head and treating it as if Yukio's goal was to kill Rin. It wasn't. Much like their battle on the airship, Yukio's actions had a greater goal than defeating Rin. And Yukio isn't even surprised when Rin attacks him right after.

I don't know if Yukio has really processed it. By the time it's more obvious a lot has started to happen both in plot and Yukio's own mental health decline. Of course, once he gets a chance to think about it, I'm not sure how he'll feel. He'll know that Rin will be upset, and likely his focus will be on managing that rather than assessing his own feelings on his brother's extended lifespan.

For Rin, I don't think he knows yet and I don't think he'll figure it out until his friends start to die and he doesn't. Even if it becomes obvious as everyone gets older and older around him. There's a lot Rin just seems to take in stride and doesn't think deeper on. It wouldn't surprise me if he wrote off his lack of visible aging as just a side effect of being Satan's son.

Once he figures it out, or when it's explained to him, I think his reaction will depend on which one it is: longevity or immortality. Longevity? He'll be depressed. He doesn't want to outlive his friends, and certainly not Yukio. But in the end, one day he'll die, and they'll all be together again.

Immortality? Nah. The cool thing about dying is that you're supposed to be reunited with the people you've loved and lost. Rin doesn't strike me as someone who has ever contemplated immortality and thought, "Yeah."

But, of course, this is where the fun comes in. Because I think for Rin the idea of outliving Yukio has always been a negative one and knowing for sure that he'll outlive Yukio for more than just a handful of years would be something that utterly devastates him. It wouldn't surprise me if he's always thought of them dying hand in hand at the same time. He's sappy like that and very attached to Yukio.

Yukio, however, severely underestimates his importance in Rin's life. He knows Rin loves him. But I think he doesn't understands why because he doesn't really see himself as a person with any inherent value, which is why he's so eager to take on responsibility and prove himself, even to his own detriment.

So if Rin realizes that he'll live longer than everyone else, I think coming to grips with losing Yukio will probably be the hardest part for him and Yukio, who has always tasked himself to manage Rin, will struggle to understand why Rin is so upset by that. He'll point out all the things Rin can do with a longer lifespan (travel the world, help raise his grandkids and great-grandkids, etc) and Rin will become more and more distresed because what's the point of doing any of that if Yukio isn't there with him.

Also, fun fact: I am an older sibling and when I was younger, I used to tell my little sister that I had to die first because I was older. It would be super fun if Rin discovers his longevity because he cracks a similar joke to Yukio, who simply points out the obvious.

[starlitskyaboveme]

OK, this will be kinda hard for me... But I'd really like to talk about Hal. Some time ago I found myself realising that there are a lot of similar things in me and that character.

It was terrible thought. I was scared because I don't really like this guy's personality (duh). Ironically I found out then that my mbti IS ALSO SIMILAR to his (ESFP) 🤡

On this basis I had struggled a lot with the body dysphoria because my inner voice told me every time I was looking at the mirror, that I do look like Hal.

You see, I have some extra weight, living the most time of my life with fatphobic parents. And moreover, some time ago I dyed my hair in ginger color.

And it is some kind of evil miracle that we have so many similarities in the appearance.

And, apparently, all this turned over time into such a huge lump of complexes and pain that my psyche simply could not stand it anymore.

I'm afraid to imagine what would have happened to me now, if not for the help of my psychologist, with whom I was finally able to talk honestly, without fear of being perceived as a strange overgrown child in an adult's body (actually, that's how I perceived Hal). And after some time of these sessions, I suddenly found out that... Yes, it's true. I really am like Hal, who became Titan in "Megamind". And I hated this character primarily because he reminded me of myself. He reflects all my negative traits: impudent, lazy, sometimes slow-witted, who can't see beyond his own nose. And also someone who believes that in life you will always be guided, and that there is a certain scheme according to which it can only be this way, and no other. We also went through the same thing at one time.

By the way, it was this realization that helped me look at the world from a different perspective, without the idea of ​​purpose and some kind of fate. And basically without meaning. This is, in essence, the beauty of the world: there is no meaning in anything, so a person himself gives meaning to what he loves or hates. All cultures, plots, gods, languages, cities and countries, architecture, painting, writing - all this, in essence, is absolutely random bullshit that was invented by people, the same as us, who are here now. We are all, like every creation, one big accident with consequences in the form of a butterfly effect. Beautiful or terrible - everyone decides for themselves.

But I got distracted.

Actually, yes. I really do look partly like Hal... Or, at least, I feel myself to be somewhat alike him. But I realized that this doesn't mean that I am bad. Or wrong. Or not worthy of basic respect and love from myself.

The fact that I am like someone does not mean that I am obliged to repeat their mistakes or fate (the second, as I have already mentioned, I have a hard time believing). It only means that through the prism of this or that person I give myself the opportunity to get to know myself a little better. To become a little closer to myself. To take another step towards accepting myself as I am. Not perfect. But nothing in the world is perfect. Otherwise, it would simply freeze in place, like life itself.

No one is perfect. None of us. But that's what makes us beautiful. Our flaws are what make us us. They are as beautiful as our virtues. It's just that many of us find it very difficult to accept them in ourselves.

Now I understand that Hal is not such a "bad guy" at all. He is just led and doesn't value or love himself at all. And it's... Really sad, to be honest.

In fact, he even reminds me of Soos from Gravity Falls. Another thing is that Soos is much more responsible and compassionate, that's how his personality has developed (by the way, he is one of my favorite characters. I even once took part in the creation of a fan novel, where I got to draw his model 💘).

In another version of the turn of events, Hal could have remained the same cozy and funny geek. Maybe at one point he would have decided to find his place. Or move somewhere. In any case, each option is good in its own way. Perhaps, again, under different circumstances, he could even have become a more or less good hero, but these are just guesses. Or desires. In general, it doesn't really matter.

Now I understand that it is quite possible that I could have become friends with him and spent hours discussing various computer games, cartoons and all sorts of events like festivals and starcons.

We are, first of all, not those whose stereotype we fall under. We are those who we ourselves choose to be. And there is always a choice.

This text is very personal and important to me. And I am posting it here to tell myself: here is the group. Here is my audience. Those who do not like this and my content can safely leave. I will continue to post what I like, what is comfortable for me. What makes me happy. Be it comics about me and Megamind, which help to process certain internal traumas, or something else.

Thank everyone of you for reading this to the end. Those who didn't read to the end - thank you too, you just probably will not see this x)