#implied ig? if you know the context

[callmehere-iwillappear]

yknow that. that one meme. yeah

(tc/st dni i Will block you)

[twstedfreak]

Not Even the Gods Can Keep Me from You — g. satoru

Ꮺ ⋮ pairing — odysseus!gojo satoru x fem!reader [greek au]

Ꮺ ⋮ synopsis — ❝ you were never supposed to fall for the prince of ithaca—especially not when war was on the horizon and the gods had already written tragedy in the stars. but you did. and any now, years have passed, the sea has swallowed his name, and you're left raising his son in a kingdom that’s slowly forgetting him. across cursed islands and shattered battlegrounds, gojo satoru is fighting his way back to you—but after all this time, will love be enough to bring him home? ❞

Ꮺ ⋮ c&w — 18+ suggestive content—minors do not interact!—kinda ooc, kinda slowburn too, war, violence, death, grief, emotional manipulation, long chapters(?), separation, implied infidelity in the context of war and distance, strong language, betrayal, intense emotional conflict, Satoru’s inner turmoil and struggles with guilt, longing, and regret. tags might be added along the making of this Ꮺ ⋮ notes — it’s finally here… slowly but surely, i’m going to start uploading this series I’ve been working on for what feels like forever. seriously, the on-and-off relationship i’ve had with this story and the thought process behind it? Yeah, it’s been a ride. you wouldn’t believe half the stuff that went into it (just kidding, maybe you would). anyway, i’ll be posting the first chapter soon! just tweaking a few things here and there. upload times might be a bit inconsistent, as well as expect (ig)slow updates, idk it really does depend on my mood, so please bear with me while I get everything in order. thanks for sticking with me, y'all!! if you want to be added to the taglist, make sure to comment before i close it! i’m currently sorting out my tumblr theme (you know, the usual chaos of customization), but i’ll be back to posting soon. thanks so much for your patience and support, can’t wait to get this rolling! teaser post here! Ꮺ ⋮ status — new & ongoing

masterlist | drabble | headcanon ˚ 　 ⤹ 　 ❝ ©twstedfreak

TABLE OF CONTENT . . . . !!

PROLOGUE — BEFORE THE STORM The moment the thread was spun

01 | The Prince & the Spartan  ⤷ A diplomatic visit. A shared glance. Their world begins to shift. 02 | The Lasting Days  ⤷ He falls fast. She builds walls. But the heart doesn't always obey. 03 | The Archer in the Crowd  ⤷ A masked suitor. A silent promise. A choice she never saw coming. 04 | Athena’s Watchful Eyes  ⤷ Athena watches a child become a man—driven by love, tested by fate. 05 | The Ninth Dawn  ⤷ Nine days. One child. One goodbye. Neither ready to let go.

MORE TO BE ADDED..... !!

Ꮺ ⋮ reminder — inspired by epic the musical by jorge rivera herrans. The banner and divider design is created by me. Please do not use, alter, or modify the template/design without permission. Do not steal, modify, tweak, translate, or plagiarize anything from my blog. Do not use / copy my template or theme. Respect my work, love u guys. 🚨

Ꮺ ⋮ TAGLIST OPEN comment to be added to the official list —

@sims-4lifers. @spiritkittten. @crystal-freak24. @not-aya. @n1vi. @kinkyvitch. @twistedbitcc. @abeitriz. @sims-4lifers. @artist1936. @ratedrrrr. @barbare2. @sheep-infog. @tojideckmuncher. @midnightlunasworld. @lovely-maryj. @the-queen-yn. @dairyfaerie. @qnqwr @poopooindamouf. @theanaoevre. @blueemochii. @tinykryptonitefairy. @thesimppotato11. @kyungjunnies. @tamishadawn. @corvid007. @linaaeatsfamilies. @borntoexplore11-blog. @dainslumi. @rjreins. @perffff0. @sillysushi. @bluepanda08. @joyfulweaselbananapanda. @crsdf4everr. @lem-hhn. @leave-rae-alone.

— ©twstedfreak

[honeyhotteoks]

yunho's fromm messages this morning.......... (and some extended thoughts on this man and his very obvious dom vibes, we've got a brand here at honeyhotteoks and i need to talk about it again before i die)

the messages in question:

🐶: yes, yes, you're such a greedy one (a little selfish one) 🐶: be mine, you're mine. 🐶: yes, yes, i'm yours.

transl credit to @/jyhcomfort on twt, i know there's a few alternate translations floating around that say "i'm greedy" or "i'm a greedy one" / one of my friends said via context it makes more sense to be "i'm greedy" but for delulu purposes..... either way..... my feelings are the same under the cut

cw: nsfw discussions about dom/sub dynamics and various connected kinks. as always, i am not being so delulu about this that i actually think i know him. this is all fun and speculation and at this point he's just my muse for the romance novel version of him. okay.....

i tweeted the below the other day (video link here) but like seriously he just keeps proving me right and i have thoughts i gotta get off my chest before i combust.

so i've just been thinking about this whole thing since someone on twitter made a little joke about him being a bitchless kpop idol, which like... i know people got upset, but i'm sure that was just a joke, and that's not really what this is about i've been seriously cooking on the duality of this man for the past few days and have things to say.

first of all...... i've talked about this a million times, but when i say this man is a dom what i mean is that he has the potential for all this stuff, i have no idea what he's actually doing in his private life. he could literally be waiting for marriage for all i know, but i do think you can tell in someone's personality who would kind of be good at something 'naturally' if they got into it / went that direction.

something yunho's been doing a lot recently is showing more of himself physically / showing more skin / being a little more suggestive overtly in his content which is something pretty new for him. he's always been hot and has been sexy on stage, but as far as his personal content, this is pretty new for him. this to me is classic like.... he's gained confidence in the past few years, gotten into his mid twenties where you start to get a little more self assured with your own body or expressions of sexuality, etc. BUT the way that he's sharing this content i think is interesting and indicates to me that he knows what kind of reaction this is going to get from his fans, and he enjoys it.

he's been burying sexier pictures within his ig albums as not the first picture, with the first one being a little cute or just regular idol style pics. prime examples below --

in both of these cases, these are the "sexy shot" but he puts them in the middle of the albums. then when fans freak out or ask him about it on live/fromm his responses are usually something along the lines of "ohhh it wasn't too much was it? ah, no ofc i'll keep it just to that" etc. it would not surprise me in the least if he enjoyed the thought that we're all losing our shit when we swipe to these pics / our reactions online after not only give him a bunch of compliments but shows how riled up we are. that is CLASSIC dom behavior.

in a sexual context, this might look something like..... a dom casually touching or implying sex to their submissive over the course of a day but not really acknowledging it / playing off their submissive's reactions as cute/funny or in a meaner context, ignoring it all together. at the end of all that teasing though is the dom in control and verbally messing with their sub while finally, finally delivering the pleasure they were hinting at. this is something i am so positive yunho would excel at with the right partner.

that combined with the way he talks to hotteoks in fromm really gives the impression that he knows they enjoy being teased, and i truly don't think he would act like that if he didn't like it. he's been in the idol game long enough, if he wanted to set different boundaries or speak to his fans differently, he absolutely could. meanwhile he's out here playing straight into the delulu trends with birthday lockets and wedding flowers and boyfriend-y pics all the time on ig. not to mention the zayn song.... like he knows what he's doing.

he often teases hotteoks about being so flustered over him, plays into how 'jealous' he can be, and overall just leans in hard to d/s dynamics in a way that tells me it's quite natural for him. even just how often he says things like 'you're mine' / 'i'm yours' / 'you know you're mine right?' / 'yes you belong to me' etc. in his fromms just reads completely as a dominant establishing and reinforcing those ownership dynamics.

when it comes to other parts of his personality, i've talked about that at length in other posts (eye contact, natural leadership, body language, active listening, etc.) but i've really noticed a shift in him recently and can't get it off my mind.

on top of that, there have been a few moments on stage or with other members lately that really ring dominance. i'm very specifically thinking of the way he interacts with mingi and wooyoung, which i've written about before, but...... he's consistently holding eye contact with them lately, teasing them in ways that are platonic yes, but also just part of that natural part of him that wants to mess with someone who will break. like.... did yunho have to hold wooyoung's jaw while they were kneeling during halazia? probably not, but he did it. and the smile afterwards when wooyoung got a little flustered was clear satisfaction with the reaction he got.

generally i think there's an impression that some people have that because yunho's so "nice" or so goofy/dorky/sweet/thoughtful/bashful etc., that means he doesn't have as much rizz or like wouldn't be into dynamics like this or harder kinks. i have to say..... that to me always reads like inexperience, with men potentially, maybe sex, and/or these dynamics in particular. in my experience, it's often the sweet guys who can switch it up in bed, and i would even say they often make better/safer doms because they are caring/considerate/attentive to their partner's comfort and pleasure, not just their own or if they're being perceived as sexy. it's not a hard rule of course, everyone's different, but i'm just saying, yunho being a nice guy doesn't mean he couldn't or wouldn't enjoy teasing the fuck out of his partner.

all of this is to say........................ if hasn't figured out his dom potential yet, i sincerely hope he does because i think it's such an obvious fit for him.

[roxanne193018]

A part 3 of Lucifer’s implied (?) yandere stuffs ( i guess it’s not so implied anymore)

⚠️

Warning: spoilers Christmas event story and Lucifer (blow)

Here he is, yapping about his brothers again (not that I complain tho)

This dude. Everyone says he talks very little that Paradise Lost gang even blushed at his words every time he speaks bc apparently he rarely speaks. But bro is a YAPPER. A huge YAPPER when it comes to MC. (Like how most of us just yap all things to our love) from background conversations, to chats, to stories, if one sentence was enough to make the PL gang blush, then with the amount he says to MC, PL gang would orgasm till they faint.

Also, when MC said “oh, you are busy, why bother texting me?” He was like

“??Bc I’m a doctor, and I often check up on my patients,

But also bc I like you.

Gamigin almost form lifelong friendship with his patients! We doctors are dedicated…I am not that dedicated tho,

But I also have to check on you bc you are important to me.

I can ask everyone instead to know if you’re ill or not,

But I want to ask you directly tho.

Everyone is interested in you, ao I can ask everyone about you

But I’m also interested in you”

… very roundabout way of saying I am literally loving you, and you are important to me, and why are you pretending not to see it? Conflicting ahh birb

… notice him guys.

.

In the story, he actually keeps his “doctor profession”, by not touching his patient, (believe it or not). He wants to lick MC’s tears so bad, wants to be nice to her, wants to cherish it as lovers’ s*xy time and not a type of treatment, but he couldn’t bc everything he did then was to cure MC. So, he refrained himself from licking MC’s tears and kissing MC’s face. Meh, weird way for a doctors’ safe distance from patient, but that’ll do ig…

Again, he losts it at every card when MC said she likes doing this with him. Their relationship, feels kinda like situasionship smh haha. Both kept their cools, but loses their shjt when the other do lovers’ things to them.

He caters to MC’s liking to cure her, but in the end, he himself can’t keep his words of “not touching the patient”, and still kisses MC. As MC no longer has Christmas cold, she still clings to Lucifer for sexy time lol, bc it’s rare to spend time with him, and he knows, he thinks the same and doesn’t do allat doctor patient game anymo, just lovers’ stuffs from then on lmao.

Shows how MC makes him always loses his shjt, and he admits it fr 🤣

And finally, I still save the best for last.

So for context: he is texting MC to ask like “what type of magical possay you got, that this toy still have your love liquid on it after DAYS?”

… well look at that, you hypocrite lil shjt. I remember SOMEONE told Belphegor that him keeping the blanket that him and MC rolled on is unhygienic. And now you kept that toy UNWASHED on your office table for days, in the room that bans everyone from entering. If he washed it, he wouldn’t ask MC why it was still wet bc it would be cleanly dried long ago.

“At first, it vibrated with your smell” okay.. you kept that thing to occasionally sniff MC out? On God… like I said. He might be crazy like Asmo.

Next, he was FURIOUS, when he noticed that the candy cane reeks of other devils’ smells. (Apparently the Paradise Lost gang has used that to m*st*rb*t* lol) bc 1, he places it privately in his own office, a place no one dares to enter, and now they are doing IT in his no no office zone, and 2, it no longer entirely smells like MC, so he just decides to lock the entire PL gang up to punish 🤣🤣 and won’t let MC meet them for a good while. (Jealous boi)

Another thing I am wondering is that, it is canon that he gets hard every time he bumps into/ remembers/ sees MC (MC-sexual lol). The inclusion of the MC smelled candy cane in his office? Yeah… it will DEFINITELY make that man go absolute FERAL.

.

.

I realized how I over analyzing everything when it comes to Luci lmao. Probably mostly bc he has IMPLIED shjjj compared to Leviathan, who just literally smacks the heck outta MC if she makes him jealous, much easier to see.

[cvntroach5000]

Underneath it all, we're just savages

author's note: i dont know what the fuck is happening in the trailer, but thats okay. i have ideas and those ideas dont need this context, they just need to entertain me and i hope they can entertain you as well. nexos is not the actual name of the place and i dont like the codenames used for the lis in the event, so ill just be making shit up. do not take anything i say at face value, this is a self-indulgent space. also this is more of a preview than a whole fic, so please send feedback if you'd be interested to read more!

based on the new tommorows catch-22 trailer, written with the event outfit in mind, no use of y/n, reader has the command evol, if you feel like im referencing something no you do not

i think command evol reader is going to become a recurring thing on this blog, so stay tuned for more of that ig

pairing: sylus x reader (implied LaDS men x reader)

content warning: imprisonment, power imbalance, mind control, depiction of fictional mental ailments, descriptions of bodily discomfort

Becoming head warden of the Nexos Prison was not something you did out of ambition. It wasn't some kind of dream-come-true, a job and position you yearned to seize. It didn't make you feel fulfilled, it didn't bring you happiness nor satisfaction. It did ensure you had a roof over your head and food to fill your stomach, basic needs you suppose you were grateful to have taken care of.

But the reason you were here, overseeing the most dangerous wards and the most rabid prisoners was because they were yours. Madness tried to take them from you, so you followed them to the place where insanity rules to reclaim them. Once you'd succeeded, you'd leave this wretched place and take your prizes with you.

Six wards, six sectors in each. The sixth sector of every ward was your territory. Unless explicitly asked, other wardens steered clear of those places. Not that they were forbidden entry, but rather it was wise of them to stay away if they valued their lives. In each sixth sector was a lion's den, containing a single ferocious beast. People infected with insanity, distorted into abominations in body and mind.

You don't work on Sundays. This is a prison, not Hell, even if the lines seem to blur sometimes. The remaining six days, you make rounds through the wards, interrogating the predators residing in your sectors. As the number goes up, so does the level of contamination. The first one is quite sound of mind, even if his body acts out. The sixth one is wholly feral, lashing out physically and verbally, itching to tear everything near him to shreds. But it's okay, it's not like you play favorites with your charges. They are all precious in their own ways and working with them gives you purpose. The only gratification from this cursed fucking job.

Today, you're going to the Sixth Ward.

...Perhaps you do play favorites, after all.

The prison is a labyrinth, massive and intricate. Everything is made with enforced steel from Deepspace. It's cold and harsh, giving the place as little comforting energy as possible. You swear, if those who are sent here were not mad already, they'd be driven mad by the dreadful atmosphere. Nobody gives a shit to put up some pastel colored wallpaper or even a little photo of a sloth that says 'Hang in there'. Though natural light is scarce in the desolate wasteland beyond the prison gates, Nexos goes above and beyond to snuff it out and enshroud the whole facility in complete darkness. Some hallways are lit so poorly, the staff carry around lanterns to be able to navigate through them.

It only takes two hours of elavator rides, weaving through the dark halls and passing through security to arrive at your destination of the day. You climbed the chain of command so fervently when you first arrived here. You used to be nervous and unsure, worried you might mess up at your tasks. Anxious and insecure, struggling to communicate with the other staff. Now you barely notice the guards cowering and scattering as you pass by. You don't even feel a rush of adrenaline as you finally make your way to the gate to the Sixth Sector.

As the doors slide open, a long corridor comes into view. Even from the entrance you can feel the stiffling energy crackling from the cell at the end of the hallway. It's disorganised and weak, as if the air itself is calling out for help. You let slow, long steps guide you down this path you've walked hundreds of times before.

There he is.

You catch a glimpse of the shock of white hair in the darkness, an imposing figure leaning against the jailbars. Even sitting down and slouching, his hulking body looks massive. He doesn't react to the sound of your footsteps. You've made no effort to conceal your presence, yet he doesn't seem to notice you up until you are directly behind him.

His hand slams into the bars, snapping back in a sudden burst of instinct. He almost seems surprised to see you—he really didn't register your presence until now. Still, he lets out a low, breathy laugh. You can see his fangs gleaming in the faint light as he grins mischievously. His gaze seems shrouded by a dark cloud, pupils practically gleaming as they erractically scan over you.

"Well, hello there, dear supervisor. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" There's bite to his tone, yet he doesn't sound entirely sarcastic either.

You adjust your gloves and review the toolbox you have prepared outside his containment cell.

"Hello. I'm here for your routine interrogation." You announce robotically, as per protocol, "Do you know who I am?"

The prisoner exhales through his nose as though offended by your question. But he takes a moment to observe your face before slowly admitting,

"No. Should I?"

The furrow of his brow softens and he seems to genuinely rack his brain for an answer. He means to tease you, imply you're a nobody that he'd have no way of knowing. And yet he studies you carefully, searching your uniform for some kind of identifier; a name tag, ideally. Though there seems to be a thin metal plate over your right breast, he doesn't spy any words engraved in it.

"Noted." You finish preparing your tool box, setting it just outside the door of the cell.

"I will now be entering your cell. Stand in the middle of the room and raise your arms, please." You instruct him.

He snaps his teeth at you in defiance, but complies, positioning himself as you asked. A special set of chains snakes down from the ceiling, coiling around his wrists and pulling him upwards. He hisses as the links in the chain bite into his skin and he is hoisted high enough that even with his height, he's forced to stand up on his tip-toes.

You lift your hand up to the scanner on the door, activating the security lock. After authorising your identity through the biometric scanner, the bars of the door slide to the side. You leave your toolbox outside for now, slowly entering the beast's cage.

It is dreadfully barren, a single chair stationed in the corner and a pathetic, thin little mattress lying directly on the cold floor. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else that could be provided to predators of his level. They were so stripped of their senses, they barely registered the discomfort they lived in. Always pacing around like starving lions, they were restless. They didn't sleep, they simply collapsed from exhausion once the contamination couldn't force them to stay alert anymore. And they recovered fast, prowling in their cells again as soon as an hour later.

You hum in acknowledgement, stepping forward to inspect your charge. There's a few fresh bruises on him, some a ghoulish shade of purple. A couple of small scratches and one open cut. You suspect he'll heal up soon and create more wounds to replace the old ones. None of them ever had the same injuries two visits in a row. Still, this was a pretty tame entry on his record.

After circling around him, you are quite satisfied with your findings. You look at his face to find him staring back at you, analysing you with intensity to match yours. His eyes trail over the items lined at your belt; a whip, a pistol and a baton. You take the whip from its strap, caressing the leather as you do.

"Heh, I see you came here to play. Plan on beating the disobedience out of me?" He taunts you, but the crazed look in his eye tells you he's almost excited by the prospect.

You huff increduously, "My weapons are tools of self-defense."

He lets out a humorless laugh, "There is no such thing as a weapon for self-defense, sweetie. Weapons are always made with the intent to hurt, to maim. You cannot enforce peace."

You swiftly crack the whip, using it to seize the chair in the corner by one of its legs. You pull it towards yourself, halting its acceleration with your foot. You turn it to face the prisoner and sit down, crossing your legs. You like putting on little shows like this for him. They are wholly eccentric and unnecessary, but often, they help loosening a stuck cog in his brain. Something to work with later on, as you continue your routine interrogation.

"You know, you used to tell me that your body is a weapon. What about your body then? Does it, too, only know to hurt and to maim?"

He seems a little taken aback, but shakes it off quickly. He snarls, gnashing his teeth at you like a wild beast.

You sigh. You snap your fingers and the chains holding him up to the ceiling clatter to the ground. He grunts in surprise as his heels touch the ground. He rubs his sore wrists, red eyes raking over you in intrigue.

"Aren't you arrogant, letting your prey loose like that." He scoffs.

He's trying to figure out if you're stupid or if you've got an ace up your sleeve.

"Sylus."

His ears perk up at the sound of his name, so foreign yet so familiar. Nowadays, it means nothing to him. He can't even recall it himself. And yet, your voice and that name resonate with a primal part of his soul, buried under the layers of madness and contamination.

"Who—"

"Sit."

His brain barely registers the command before his body acts on it. His knees give out and he falls to the ground. It's like his nerves are on fire. More than a prisoner of this cell, he now feels imprisoned in his own body. Like a spirit, tethered to a hollow, useless shell. He can barely form thoughts as his entire being responds only to you and your instruction.

"What... Did you..."

"It's my Evol. Everyone obeys me, whether they want to or not. You are no exception."

Sylus's mind is racing a million miles per minute, yet it feels completely standstill at the same time. He's trying to comprehend this power, gauge its limits, figure out its weaknesses. Pinpoint the loophole he can exploit to escape your grasp. Through the haze over his mind, he registers how your eyes have a knowing glint in them. Like you know exactly what he's thinking, like he's an open book to you.

Can you—

"I cannot read minds, no." You clarify before he can even attempt to voice the question.

He notices the whip is gone from your hands. Instead, you play with the baton, inspecting it as you ponder your prey.

"You must be thinking 'There has to be a weakness I can use to break free'. You always loved testing the limits of my ability."

You're answering his questions, yet your words leave him more confused than before. Always? When did he ever see you use your Evol? When has he strategised with it in mind?

A sensation like an electric current runs violently through his body, making his brain tingle as though it's going to pop. It hurts to think, yet he can almost taste all the answers he seeks. They are like blood on his tongue, reeking of iron.

He strains his neck to look you in the eyes.

Your gaze is so empty, as though you are looking through him. Miles into the distance at versions of him he can't recall.

"What if I told you..."

There's a buzzing in his ears, growing louder by the second.

"That we've had this exact conversation hundreds of times before?"

The buzzing halts to a complete silence. And the prisoner slumps to the floor, unconscious.

You stare at his limp body for a moment. Then, you get out of your chair and pull up your notepad.

Another failure.

Tommorow, you're circling back to the first ward. Let's see if there's going to be any progress there.

As you fill out your report, you hear the faint sound of wind rushing through the corridor. Of course, there is no wind in Nexos Prison. Cawing echoes through the cramped space and a single mechanical crow flies into the open jail cell.

Mephisto perches on your shoulder, peering at the tablet in your hands. Then, his eyes shift over to the unconscious, white-haired man on the floor. He lets out a soft caw, flicking his metal wings. Absentmindedly, you reach up to scritch his head, even if the robotic bird can't really feel anything, only simulate the joy of being pet.

"Don't worry, Mephie. He'll return to us."

[potato-lord-but-not]

Followed you a long time ago for just how cool your art looks, finally decided to look into the podcast characters you like to draw! I just saw one ask asking if the character Oscar is POC, and I wonder are characters in those podcasts usually unclear in ethnicity, and the fandom can freely headcanon? Like I know if info is clearly very mentioned in the original work or there is official concept art then it would be easy, but I'm really scared if I headcanoned something that is completely different from implied canon info I didn't pick up/ info that showed up in an obscure interview. Do you have any advice in navigating information in podcast fandoms?

Usually with podcasts, you can go off of official art and or descriptions from the podcast. In the case of malevolent, hardly any characters, aside from the eldritch monsters that John likes to describe in detail, have a solid description of their looks. that’s why you get so many different variations of Noel and Oscar. Ofc there are context clues that can help you inform your design choices (or just context. like Oscar’s Scottish accent and the Butcher’s Irish accent. he may even have been described as being Irish but idk that’s besides the point, you can tell).

But even then you can play with it, like how I made Oscar mixed Scottish and Jamaican. And honestly! sometimes you can ignore it! like with Gordon from red valley, who I already had a design I liked before he was described as being pale and even implied to look white. but like I said ! you can have fun with it !

I also sometimes check voice actors, because in some instances you can’t tell someone’s ethnicity from their voice alone, and I’d hate to misinterpret their character because I couldn’t pick up on that. that’s more so a concern when the voice actor is POC tho. With malevolent tho it’s all done by Harlan, who is white, so I think headcanoning characters as different ethnicities is more important, and also way more fun.

Oh also! fandom wikis are a good place to double check. cus they’d definitely have something like that you may have missed- like something from an interview or the character’s full name, which can sometimes indicate their ethnicity ( like Parker Yang from malevolent, only shows up as a corpse in the show but important enough to Arthur that he’s still a fan favorite to make content about)

ghugh I’m rambling- I’d say the majority of the time you’re free to do whatever, just be open to change your design if descriptions come up later on (I’d say more importantly if they’re described to be POC, cus like with Gordon I think my design for him with more Afro centric features looks way cooler and feels more like him than anything I could come up with that would be more canon compliant). Also you can go off common fanon designs, but those are just mutually agreed upon and it’s not wrong to go against that. Like with the Magnus Archives there are no official designs and they let the people make whatever designs they please.

OKAY IG TLDR- do what you want, keep your ears open for character descriptions when listening, double check with character wikis or their voice actors, don’t be afraid to make more POC characters even of the cast is played by mostly white people because the more diverse cast the more fun and interesting your art will be.

[hostilemuppet]

DELTARUNE SPOILER !!! pls don’t come after me I saw that u drew it !

(This is about about the thorn ring scene w Kris and Noel, but it can be applied to the rest of the game ig)

It’s interesting that ppl don’t understand how interpreting then making a hypothesis to slowly make up a theory forged from multiple perspectives and opinions works... Maybe the weird route is called the weird route for a reason and is still missing a bunch of context and lore about what and why it is happening…. Maybe…. ppl are going to be a little extreme when decoding (it is really not that extreme btw) what the scene is trying to say lore wise about Kris or Noel or whatever

Sometimes it’s necessary to pull out that inner English teacher to understand stuff

(dw ive beaten the game and ive seen everything i care about)

i dont even think this is "inner english teacher" i think this is just like. basic english (so i understand people who arent native english speakers not getting it) and - ik this has become a meaningless buzzword lately - media literacy

[deltarune weird route chapter 4 spoilers + discussion of sa]

heres what happens in The Scene: a teenage girl talks to her friend who she trusts, alone in her bedroom with "no one" else around. she talks about them comforting her. once you take control over kris, you deny her the privacy of her own thoughts - she has nowhere she can escape, even her own head - and you force kris to grab her while she tries to get away. she says she thought they wanted to protect her, and she wants to run away but cant, as kris tries to fight what youre making them do but cant because youre inside them. you make kris force something into their friend. the screen goes black, and a flower blooms between where the two sat, before losing its petals. kris shambles to the bathroom in a haze, and kicks the shit out of you for making them do that, for doing that to them. when susie asks what kris and susie talked about, both you and kris have nothing to say

i think its obvious where the SA comparisons come from. even without the flower, grabbing someone and forcing something inside them ALONE would raise alarm bells, but the rest of the scene already was vomit inducing and i knew exactly what was going on. the flower was just the icing on the cake. or. the cherry on top, might be more appropriate

the idea that someone could only see parallels to SA if they were "a weirdo" who "cant be normal" and is just "desperate to see a kid get raped" because they "get off on it" is. such a fucking evil sentiment i cant even begin to get into it. for one, SA survivors just might be reminded of their own experiences (i know! SA survivors are people who are often able to use the internet and might even like video games! its shocking), for another, most people SHOULD recognise signs of SA. the alternative is that it could happen right in front of them, even in real life, and theyd be oblivious to stop it. didnt we just have this SAME EXACT conversation with mouthwashing? where anyone who missed jimmy raping and impregnating anya was considered a moron?

but people keep saying "toby fox wouldnt do that!" as if they know him personally. you have no idea what toby wants to put in his games. you dont know what his vision is. just because he hasnt dealt with these topics before doesnt mean he never can; hed be a pretty boring writer if he only dealt with one topic over and over again with zero variation. im no expert, but im pretty sure hes never made a game with a punk dinosaur girl who eats chalk before either. does that mean he never can?

related: people saying "he wouldnt do that with two minors" is something i find particularly evil, because it either implies they think minors cant assault other minors (ignoring how its actually the player assaulting two minors, but these people also dont seem to understand the weird route conceptually. ive already seen "why do you want kris to sa noelle so badly 🤨" KRIS WAS ALSO BEING ASSAULTED!) OR. theyd be totally okay if it was an adult assaulting another adult. which implies they think of it as just "sex, that happens to be not be consensual" instead of the act of violence it is. someone doesnt rape someone because they were horny and they didnt realise the other person didnt want it, they rape someone because they are making the conscious choice to discard their victims bodily autonomy, to take control of them, to hurt and humiliate

and THAT is why it fits right in with the weird route. the weird route takes the whole games themes of lack of choices and the way you take control of kris, and ramps it up 10x, with you forcing kris to force noelle to do horrible things, because you as the player want bad things to happen, you want to hurt them. and ch2 was very much in line with an abusive romantic relationship: there was a WEDDING RING. if you think this is "out of nowhere" you havent been paying attention. we didnt expect it, but that doesnt mean it doesnt make a lot of sense

which is why i genuinely refuse to believe it was unintentional. theres no way toby fox is that stupid to include an abusive relationship allegory between two teenagers and then a deflowering motif. with so much symbolism and hidden meaning in his game, and how much thought goes into every little thing, theres no way he had no idea what "deflowering" meant for FOUR YEARS, and even if he didnt know, do you know how low the chances are that NO ONE who worked on or playtested that segment knew, or at least knew but chose not to say anything? they have not invented a number small enough yet

it just boggles the mind how anyone could say "see, he removed it so he clearly didnt intend it you gooner freaks", as if the only reason anyone would ever think about SA is bc theyre getting off on it. which really says more about the person saying that, that they think of it as like. a porn category. they hear "sexual assault between teenagers" and they think "barely legal CNC video they saw on pornhub" instead of "cocsa". the idea that fiction could involve anything that isnt either for memes or for porn is inconceivable to them. if youre reminded of SA it must either because you think its funny or because youre getting off on it, even if the general response ive seen from people who saw it as SA was "it made me sick to my stomach"

this is the sinister middle part of the venn diagram between "fandomification declaws all serious topics in favour of silly memes and coffee shop aus" and "victims can never talk about what happened to them in case it makes normal people uncomfortable"

and its not lost on me that a SA reading makes you a weirdo freak, but forcing carol to be homophobic - bigotry is serious, especially from a parental figure who is implied to be not great at the very least, but thats okay to joke about? - seems to be the popular stance, when in the context of the game she just didnt want someone she doesnt know using her presumably dead daughters guitar

after all. toby fox has never tackled the concept of homophobia before. which as we all know means he never can

edit: i think these are appropriate here

[asmogorna]

Okay so there’s this ww artist on ig called like tooth lilys or something and he’s always causing drama in the ww fandom and he mouthed off about your art and now heaps of insta ww fans are like talking about you :| free publicity?

ahhhh so thats whats happening .. lmao thats crazy

i checked out their story, and i sure doooo love how they leave some things out when talking about both situations that they mentioned to make me look worse ..

ok so

warning, yap session incoming

the "will wood in a (miku) binder" thing happened back in fall 2023 when i was still semi new to the fandom and didnt know a lot of things. so tho i to this day i dont think it was that big of a deal, i wouldnt do it today

it was an artwork made for shits and giggles, the context of which i have explained here before. i never meant to imply that will wood is trans and i certainly dont "headcanon" him as that. my curse is that even when joking around i tend to try and make my art look good, so i get why people thought it was unironic. and i know that it sounds like a lame ass excuse, but it legit didnt cross my mind that people would think i drew will wood as a trans guy or smth. legit my only thought process was "funny haha internet thing" + "my favorite thing" = "good idea"

now the usage of his real name is something i am genuinely sorry for, but it was an accident and a genuine mistake on my part. i remember seeing someone mention it casually in some comment section, and assuming that it was ok, since i didnt know he was in any way against it. (i also thought that it was the same name that he used in "the real will wood" in that one section cus it sounded a bit similar).

when i was informed about the fact that he doesnt want it spread around i deleted the post right away and apologized, so bringing it up like something i did on purpose and out of malicious intent is a tad bit .. misfitting, if you can use that word

now the hot topic of the day: my waywood art

i have said this before and i will say this again, how i feel about rpf is solely based off how the people involved feel about it

to clarify: i never drew anything inappropriate or even suggestive with them, the "worst" thing is 2 simple sketches of them smoochin. or. this.

idk if this is what they were referring to when talking about me drawing will wood and gerard way "making out" (specifically. because i think "making out" implies to be more sexual stuff than small kisses). and if so, then it once again feels like blowing things out of proportion

and now the point i want you to get: will wood wouldnt give a flying fuck

like i said earlier, i never drew anything inappropriate, because that would actually cross will's existent and real boundaries. you know, the ones that he stated

im not making some conspiracy theories about him being gay, like some people seem to imply in their inbox messages to me

im not sending a whole ass smut fanfiction to litwtc gmail or something, i dont bother him in instagram dms asking if he wants to fuck gerard way, im not shipping him with people who he actually knows personally and has to look in the eyes of from time to time

im not doing anything that he would actually care about

him and chris have joked about him being attracted to gerard before, and though im not saying that you can joke about everything theyve ever joked about, i feel like in our case its clear that will clearly doesnt care about the implications ? (i generally believe that ww fans would get their panties twisted about less things if more of them listened to what these 2 talk about so calmly on litwtc but i digress)

if he saw that some random teenager on tumblr is drawing him and gerard way (gasp of horror) holding hands, he'd laugh at it max and then move on with his day

people are treating the whole situation like i posted pictures of him from when he was a kid or leaked patreon content or drew him fully naked or anything else that, you know, would actually affect him in one way or another

what im doing is innocent fun which isnt even likely to reach either of them. will wood very rarely checks tumblr and, once again, i genuinely dont believe he would care. and gerard way aint got no internet + he doesnt care x 2

it is weird but rn this is what brings me the most joy, even if its silly to say. both will wood and gerard way mean a lot to me and putting them in situations together makes me happy. i am but a child full of fun whimsy

i wont be posting any more explicitly romantic art to avoid more drama, and i also wont be responding to all the anon messages i received because there are like .. too many of them. an overwhelming amount i'd say. sorry about that

i really didnt mean to cause such a fuss, and i understand why some people might be uncomfortable with what i do

i fully understand why you would dislike my waywood hyperfixation shenanigans, and i dont have a problem w you over that, but treating me like pure evil because of a thing so insignificant is just.. overdoing it

once again, i will be toning it down, but it really isnt the end of the world if i dare to draw will wood and gerard way being a tad bit gay (which is, i apparently need to mention, not me actually saying that will wood the alternative musician is a homosexual gay who is in a genuine for real actual real gay homosexual relationship with gerard fucking way the lead singer of my chemical romance. i think speculating on other people's sexuality and gender identity is boooo tomato tomato tomato)

sorry for the rant and sorry to all who were disappointed by my lack of remorse. come back in a couple years when i turn 18 and stop having fun and artistic freedom

thank you for your attention and i hope i at least cleared some things up to those who werent w me throughout every event where i get involved in fandom drama

bye bye

[hbghq]

i'm so normal about these two so have a concept before i go to bed // injuries, bad eating habits, self-starving, kind of implied self harm ig, disordered eating

context: seawatt's been brought back to parkour civilization and evbo's been keeping an eye on him and making sure he's not doing evil stuff again

evbo goes to visit seawatt at one point and seawatt's very closed off and cold, wrapping himself in his robe tighter than usual, his cape a bit lower around his shoulders.

they talk for a bit, evbo bright and cheery as usual until he notices seawatt seemingly running out of energy mid-conversation, his responses shortening and becoming less energetic (not that they were to begin with but it's possible he'd just been having an off day).

seawatt excuses himself for a moment and evbo waits patiently as he walks out of the room, only to hear a soft thud against the wall on the other side of the room.

he's worried, and when seawatt doesn't come back for a few minutes he goes over to check on him, only to find him slumped against the wall, spasming slightly. he's taking damage.

evbo panics, asking him what's going on, seawatt's too delirious to answer but all evbo can get out of him is that he's hungry and when he looks, seawatt's health is frighteningly low. he hasn't been eating.

evbo gently pulls them both into a sitting position, cradling seawatt in his arms, laying his head in his lap. he's gentle, worried, panicking a bit, as seawatt winces at another half-heart gone.

he regrets it, it's clear. evbo can see it in his eyes. there's a silent plea for him to help and he doesn't know what to do. his enemy, his ally, his... friend? is wasting away in his arms.

evbo thinks for a moment, then softly lays his hands on seawatt's cheeks. he'd get an earful for messing up his makeup, but he could deal with that later. he closes his eyes, concentrating.

seawatt hisses in pain, not from another spasm but from the heat coming off evbo's palms. it's just warm enough to be uncomfortable and feels like pins and needles, spreading from his face into his nerves and down his entire body, slowly, like waking up a limb after you slept on it funny.

evbo doesn't move. thirty seconds, then two minutes, then five, he stays like this, seawatt barely unable to keep from squirming out of discomfort at the strange hot tingling throughout his entire body when suddenly it's gone.

he's exhausted. evbo's panting quietly above him, eyes closed, a light sheen of sweat visible on his skin. suddenly seawatt is the one worried. he sits up out of evbo's lap, careful not to headbutt him, and turns around to try and ask what's wrong, only to see evbo smiling weakly at him.

"i had a hunch i could heal people... i didn't know it would take that much energy." he laughs softly. seawatt's expression is blank, astonished.

"i'll be okay in a little bit. how's your health?"

seawatt checks. full health, full saturation. he's not dying anymore.

"what the hell?" he mutters.

"that's an interesting way to pronounce thank you" Evbo grins, already returning to his normal self. seawatt rolls his eyes. stands. offers a hand to the God who had just saved his life in his own home.

evbo takes it. stands along with him, smiling up at seawatt. (he's shorter. it's kind of cute, actually. not that he'd ever admit that to anyone.)

"you're gonna be okay, right?" seawatt snaps out of his daze, he'd been staring at evbo a bit too long. he nods. of course he would. he already owes God his life... he's not going to owe him twice over.

evbo seems to sense his thoughts and giggles. seawatt realizes they're still holding hands. he doesn't let go, silently hoping evbo won't notice.

"thank you." seawatt mumbles under his breath.

"hey, if you need extra food, just ask, okay? you know where to find me." his smile is blinding. stupid Gods and their stupid perfection.

"yeah, whatever."

[blujayeyes]

Oh my god, thank you so much @hoping-for-novelty for giving me the idea for the following theory.

Massive spoilers for all of protocol up till now btw

So.

In MagP 26 “catching up”, when asked by the case protagonist who they are, [ERROR] responds with “an archivist”.

An archivist. As in one of many.

Two of the big questions of protocol are

A) “what is error?” And B) “what happened to Jon?(and Martin and maybe Jonah ig but shhhhh this ain’t about them)”. Most people theorize that Jon is in the computer, or Jon is error, or that error is the Magnus institute Manchester’s failed attempt at an archivist, and I think that while alone those theories are interesting but not necessarily probable, together they begin to paint a picture.

For a while I thought that Jon was split in half, with Jon in FR3-D1 and the archivist becoming error, and while now looking back it’s a good starting point, I also don’t think that’s the case, as we see later on instances of FR3-D1 being straight up malevolent and monstrous and error showing, though small, more human tendencies, such as confusion(MagP 37), so it’s unlikely to be such a clean split of monster from human, and because FR3-D1 as a system is pretty much a literal digital archive.

But then the above post got me thinking. What if FR3-D1 isn’t just Jon as the archivist, but the HEAD archivist? What if error, who called themself AN archivist, and has a different voice actor is an extension of the archivist, like how FR3-D1 can tap into devices to see or listen through them, what if that’s what error is? What if that’s why it let Sam live? So that he could become another one of it’s archival assistants which is why we see him able to either compel TMA!alice or at least direct error on where to focus to get a statement.

This next part is a bit of a leap but what if that’s what teddy’s new job is doing? In episode 28 Teddy says that his new job is not normal(presumably supernatural) and is trying to talk to Alice about it but gets cut off. And in the bonus episode “what if #1- what if everyone listened to Colin” almost everyone is fired, and when they are, Teddy approaches them representing his new job to offer them jobs, showing that whatever teddy’s new job is, it’s headhunting ex-OIAR employees. And in episode 35, after bumping into Alice, teddy fearfully directly addresses FR3-D1 through the camera it’s watching him through saying that “he’s on his way”, implying that he is in some way working for FR3-D1. So my theory is that because OIAR workers have some sort of exposure to FR3-D1 and pre existing experience with the paranormal that drove them to work there, Teddy’s new job is in some way doing something to them that is turning them into something that can then become an extension or an archivist, not necessarily to the degree of error, but still an extension. Or maybe they are just turning their employees or subjects into avatars, and they turn just ex OIAR employees into extensions, though I think this theory is a little out there.

Also I think it’s quite possible that Teddy in some way works for the Elric rehabilitation initiative but that’s a theory for another time.

But then that leaves the question of why would Jon do this? Well, it seems that when the powers got dragged over, they got mixed up, no longer so distinguishable, so maybe if the archivist got dragged over with them, it got muddled up to; stuck in a computer with familiar voices along side it that it can’t quite place, a monster that knows it’s purpose but is lost and confused, with impressions of memories it can’t quite place from when it was a human with a name that it can no longer remember among it’s limitless knowledge, but somewhere, deep down it remembers something from its past, though it is not privy to the context surrounding it.

People. Assistants, helpers in it’s archive, that collected information for it. It remembers them fondly, though it does not know why. So in a new world, confined to it’s little cage of machinery, reaching out for something familiar, it creates assistants to aid it once again.

And now that it is simply an archive, well, an archive needs archivists, doesn’t it? And if the workers of the OIAR were the people looking after the archive, what could they be other than archivists?

Also maybe that’s what’s gonna happen to Colin. By this logic wouldn’t he be considered an archivist? And FR3-D1 ate him and discarded his physicality, but not his soul, so maybe he’ll be turned into an archivist like error, a hive mind of archival assistants reporting back to the head archivist. Maybe that’s the endgame for all of them.

But then again I could also be completely wrong. Idk. Sorry for how rambley this got but tell me what you think. Ok I’m gonna go study for my exams now byeeeeeeeeeee

[oneslimybastard]

mouthwashing spoilers ig bewaaare it's so fascinating just How Much people hate Jimmy Mouthwashing, despite that when it comes to Evil Deeds he actually lags behind a lot of other horror characters.

He's not a serial killer. He's not even really a killer (the only person he hands-on murders is Swansea in implied self defense). He's bitter, entitled, emotionally immature, impulsive, misogynistic, a rapist and enabled by Terminal Nice Guy Curly. Aka, a guy you've worked with, or a pissy uncle that keeps getting invited to christmas out of enforced politeness, your boyfriend's friend who keeps making you uncomfortable and you keep being told that he's a "good guy" deep down. A scumbag of which there are a dime a dozen of.

Any readings that he was a machivallian evil mastermind to me feels like huffing cope. Because the entire game is just Jimmy fuckign, floudering, as his actions suddenly have a lot of consequences that he wasn't emotionally equipped for. He thinks he can fix things, and that it's not really his fault, sure he assaulted Anya but she wasn't supposed to get pregnant from it, sure he crashed the ship in a temper tantrum but he didn't think Curly would get meatified from it. He sends Daisuke into the hutch because he's too much of a coward to do it himself, but he wasn't supposed to get injured from it. Yeah he's treated Anya like shit but she wasn't supposed to kill herself. Swansea comes after him with an axe — that wasn't supposed to happen either. And at the very end, Jimmy martyrs himself to "save" Curly (how saved he gets from being turned into a cryofrozen treat is debatable but I like to think it does ensure his survival, for the themes), so he can have some fucking solace that he managed to set things right before he kills himself — when in actuality all he did was ensure that he will run from taking responsibility for the rest of time.

After all, no one can hold you accountable if you're dead.

Jimmy isn't evil, you the player would be much more comfortable with his character if he WAS evil. He's just pathetic, making excuses, and emotionally lashing out, lashing out over the trauma he inflicted on someone else having consequences for him he sees no obvious escape from for once. Curly can't nepo him outa this one, lads. And all it takes is a few button presses to doom the entire ship.

Then he doesn't even have the guts to own it. He doesn't have the guts to own what a shitty person he is, called out directly in-text by Swansea who like we stan Swansea but I would not be surprised if his list of crimes (minus ship-crashing) looked exactly like Jimmy's, sexual assault included.

And that's the whole point of Mouthwashing innit. The worst guys you know will be some dick who refuses to own up to his own scumbaggery because he can't stand to look himself in the mirror if he does, and the people who cover for him. Evil doesn't exist (the contexts for where I think it does is a different and politically loaded conversation), usually it's just Some Fucking Guy who thought he was too good for therapy and magikarp splashed his path of carnage through other people's lives because of it.

Jimmy could have set things right, but that meant grappling with what a shitbag he is and the damage he caused Anya, and for certain people embittered by their own mediocrity, Armageddon is just the much more glamorous option.

And when he's forced to pick up the pieces and take responsibility, he breaks. Despite how much we hate it, it's very easy in this world to become a Jimmy, to fuck up and hurt people and then just go nuh-uh-nuh-uh until we've convinced ourselves we really did nothing wrong; to brainwash ourselves into thinking running away from accountability is the noble action. Even easier to become a Curly, with a pet Jimmy scrambling around that you can't be fucked to hold accountable because that's like, so messy, and a bother, it's fine, he's just a little grouchy you guys. Yes yes Anya I hear your concerns but like... I dunno, this puts me in a really complicated situation, you understand?

People know this instinctively, and that's why they feel like they have to parade Jimmy around like the Worst Guy Ever, to wash their hands of him, since that's more soothing than thinking about how much of a Boring Regular Guy he actually is. A Boring Regular Guy you've got in your life right now who kind of puts you off but nobody is actively dealing with. You included.

That's probably a large part of why this game haunts people, and why Jimmy just gets under their skin so bad to call him like the most irredeemable guy ever. In a genre he shares with like the Mad Father himself and Sachiko the torture ghost from Corpse Party, or the lady from the Amnesia DLC, etc. etc. (Astarion BG3 is also Objectively a shittier guy than Jimmy Mouthwashing, which isn't a fair comparison because different genres with different stakes, but it is a funny one.)

also he's in yaoi with curly soooooorry it's in the text as he cradles that meated up bod and stares straight into curly's bulging eyeball and forcefeeds him pills. and then his own leg. his love language is just complicated ok dont judge.

[astro-nomaly]

The Graveyard Shift: Thus Saith the Lord

Me? Posting two TGS snippets in as many days about the same fucking topic? More likely than you think. Here is part 1. Or 2 it doesn't really matter what order you read it in. This is actually canon to TGS, as in it’s a legitimate scene in chapter 40 so. Spoilers ig? Lots of missing context but I did my best to fill in the blanks

@highbookwormofthecentury @mother-spore-missa @flirty-anon @dumb-about-legos @pinkyprom3is come get yo food y'all :D

CW: murder, forced murder, child abuse, child murder and death, blood and gore, emetophobia, cult setting, cult brainwashing, fear mongering, religious trauma, religious abuse, mentioned stalking, emotional manipulation, gaslighting, victim blaming, cannibalism, implied torture, psychological horror, surrealism

Content under the cut (this is over 6k so sorry if it crashes your browser)

Thus Saith the Lord

Lloyd screamed as the world blended into blackness. He and Harumi, locked together, tumbled through blackness. He didn't let up the fight, tearing at her hair as she ripped at his skin and clothes. They snarled at each other, uncaring of the ground quickly catching up to them.

Just as Harumi raked her hand across his nose, they hit the floor. The force of the impact shoved them apart, sending Lloyd rolling in the opposite direction. He gasped, the breath ripped from his lungs.

Before he could blink away the spots in his eyes, Harumi was back on top of him. Her manic grin shone in the black as she came in swinging. It was only instinct that had Lloyd catching her hand, bending and kicking her off. The girl stumbled back a few feet, and her hand went to her hip. Lloyd waited on one knee, ready to sprint to the side when she drew her knife.

But she didn't. Harumi blinked in a rare show of confusion, giving a double take at her empty hip. Her hand grasped at empty air.

She glared at him. They both breathed heavily, breath ragged from the ongoing fight. Lloyd half expected Akita to burst in snarling, ready to take advantage of their state, but she didn't.

It was quiet. Way too quiet.

Last Lloyd remembered, Harumi had been straddling him and strangling him, trying to knock him out. She'd been in his body, which meant she was way too big to kick off, and his ghosts had been preoccupied with Akita and the cultists, so he couldn't call for their help. So he'd gripped the sides of Brad's Harumi's face, practically shoving his fingers into her eye sockets, and screamed her name. He'd been woozy, and unsure what he was planning to do.

But something had worked, because they were here. Wherever here was.

Lloyd chanced a look around. Confusion began to replace the adrenaline as the environment came into focus around them. They were in a dark corridor lit by dim artificial light that bled through decorative stained glass windows. There was darkness on one end, and slightly lighter darkness on the other. The air smelt faintly of mildew.

Lloyd slowly stood, keeping Harumi in his peripheral. But she seemed as confused as he did. "Where are we?" He muttered, brushing his fingertips against the stone wall.

Harumi shot him an ugly glare. "How should I know? You did this, Conduit."

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Wasn't talking to you, Quiet One."

"I'm the only person here, genius! God, how are you in AP classes-"

"I'm not the insane cultist, crazy!"

"That wasn't even a topic-"

Their argument was interrupted by a faint sound down the corridor. They both froze, Lloyd instinctively holding out his hand for his weapon. But it doesn't form from the energy of the Veil. He blinked, stunned. His power hadn't failed him since he had Veil Sickness.

Lloyd turned to look at Harumi. Now that he really looked, she didn't seem confused as to where they were, so much as why. Right. Harumi Hutchins was the most compulsive, pathological, insane liar he'd ever met in his entire fucking life. Of course she knew where they were.

"Harumi," he said. She didn't look at him, just kept staring down the hall. He balled his fist up at his side. "Where are we?"

"I don't know."

"You do."

Harumi rolled her eyes. "Alright, sure. I recognize the damn place."

"I knew it!"

"Hurrah," Harumi mocked, clapping her hands mockingly. "You're a little genius. Now take us back, so I can murder that stupid fucking mutt and finish kidnapping you."

Lloyd recoiled. "I didn't do this," he protested, "I have no idea how to go back."

Harumi gave him that condescending look he hated, like she thought she was so much better than him. The look she wore when she started talking about how she 'knew him better than he knew himself' as if she didn't only know that because she was a manic stalker.

"Of course you did. You grabbed my face like a little maniac-"

"You were strangling me!"

"-And yelled, and now we're here! Of course it was you, Conduit. Now take us back."

Lloyd stepped back. "And let you get your hands on the Realm Crystal? Absolutely not. And I'm not letting you kill Akita either."

She smirked, placing a hand on her hip. "Oh, riiiiight. I forgot! She's for you to kill, my bad. That is what you two have been doing, right? You know, between all the screaming and betrayal and, oh yeah, knives, I was under the impression you didn't give a fuck if the mutt died."

Lloyd glanced away, flushing. He hated it when she did this, talked in circles around him like he was an idiot. He hated how familiar it was. Every single thing he'd ever found endearing or sweet or funny about Harumi had become some horrific reminder of what a terrible person his best friend was.

Oh, but of course, she never was his best friend. She was his stalker, manipulator, would-be kidnapper and abuser. Not his friend. Not even fucking close.

"Doesn't matter," he spat. "Even if I wanted to, I have no idea how."

Harumi made an angry sound. "Your power is wasted on you," she snarled. Before he could back up, she stalked over and snatched his wrist. He tugged at it, trying to twist out of her hold, but it was iron-tight.

Harumi didn't say another word, turning on her heel as she stalked down the hall. Lloyd dragged his feet, tugging against her grip. "Let me go!" He grunted, beating his fist against her wrist. Her eye twitched, but she didn't spare him a glance. Her bright pink nails dug into his skin.

"Shut up, Conduit," she snapped, "I'm getting the hell out of here, and then you're coming with me. I have not been chasing you all over the goddamn country just for some paltry little trick to stop me from getting what I want."

Lloyd glowered, but stopped fighting. He was sore all over, and pretty confident he had a concussion. He resented it, but Harumi never took no for an answer. He followed her down the hall.

The noise they heard earlier gradually grew louder, more repetitive. It was weird. Lloyd swallowed, glancing at the dark shadows of the hall from the corner of his peripherals.

"Where are we, Harumi?"

She sighed. "I don't know."

"Yes you do."

"Fine!" She snapped, whipping around. Pink eyes, bordered by the black sclera they shared, glared at him. "Yes, I know where we are, but it makes no fucking sense! This isn't the real world, and I have no idea how we are where we are, or where we actually are!"

Lloyd took the chance to snatch his hand back. "Then where are we?!"

"Fuck, don't you ever listen?!" Harumi crowded up into his face. This time, he refused to duck back. He was so tired of letting her push and push. So this time, they end up inches from each other's noses. "I. Don't. Know." She hissed. In the light, her red face paint looks like real blood. "You grabbed me, and said my name, and now we're here. So, Conduit, why don't you. Tell. Me."

Lloyd glared right back, hatred seething under his skin. It could be nothing but hatred. The other options are too painful.

He really does want to believe that the rest of the team can handle everything, but he doesn't. Not that he has no faith in them, but Harumi, as irritating as she is, is usually right when she's not lying out of her ass. They're not in the real world. How could they be? They were just fighting each other in the middle of the woods, in the temple. And now they're, what, underground? It made no sense.

So… he had done something. This was the result of his powers. Again.

He backed up, dropping the glare. He thought for a moment. He usually only yelled names like that for his ghosts when he needed their power boosts. But with Harumi… he'd been woozy from the strangulation. He couldn't remember what he'd been thinking, or if he'd only yelled out of desperation.

"Wait," he said, lifting his head. Harumi gave him an irritated 'go on' gesture. "I… when I yell the names of ghosts, I sometimes get their memories. Or, well, emotions. From when they died."

Harumi pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fucking moron. I'm not a ghost, and this isn't a fucking-" the noise from down the hall returned. Harumi paused. She stared at the floor, gaze far aware.

Lloyd craned his neck, trying to catch her gaze. "Harumi?"

"…memory," she whispered. Suddenly she straightened, neck snapping as she stared down the corridor. Her wide eyes were locked on the dim lighting emitting from the end of the hall. The same noise echoed down the stone. Harumi's lips parted slightly. "No," she hissed, "not this one."

Without another word, she bolted down the hall. Lloyd balked, confused as hell. Harumi was obsessively one-track-minded. She'd done nothing but try and kidnap him for months, why would she run away from him?

Not away from him. Toward something.

Harumi was dead, once. She'd confessed as much in his grandfather's tomb, in his abandoned apartment. She had died, and was resurrected. Was the only person to ever be.

So how did those memories work?

Lloyd ran down the hall, chasing Harumi's back. The sounds grew louder, the dim light brighter, until he emerged in a large circular room with a tall dome ceiling. He slowed to a halt, looking around. It was at least two stories large and lined in bleachers, like the ones in the pictures of the acropolis his mom showed him. They were packed with people, each one with a dark hood over their head, shadowing their faces against dark figures.

What really caught his attention was the kid.

A girl, no older than thirteen, was shackled to the ground in the very center of the chamber. Her hands were bound by thick vengestone cuffs, giving her barely five inches of lead. She wore a plain white nightgown that did nothing to protect her from the damp cold. She was gagged. The noise came from her, scared little whimpers as she stared through the strands of her stringy brown hair at the crowd gathered.

Harumi stood, frozen, at a pillar. She was staring at the girl, eyes wide. Not panicked or surprised, just wide and almost… in shock. The kind of shock people experienced after natural disasters where they got that dead-eyed look in their face.

"Harumi?" He said quietly. "What is this?"

She didn't respond to him. She just stared at the girl. "Not this one," she whispered to herself. "Not this one."

He looked back to the girl. "Is this you?" He asked, stepping closer. Harumi was unpredictable, these days, like a bomb that was constantly active. There was no way to defuse her, but there were ways to make her even more explosive. "Is this your memory?"

He's interrupted by a loud, yet somehow soft voice. "My family," it says, carrying over the entire chamber. Lloyd flinches, trying to place it. Harumi stiffens, her hand digging into the pillar.

"I have gathered you for a very disappointing announcement," the voice, male, continues. "It has been brought to my attention that Dove Elizabeth Hollister," the girl bound to the floor flinched violently, "Has committed a truly heinous appropriation of our rules."

The voice makes itself seen. A man, tall and thin with an angular face and deep purple eyes and black sclera. Liminal, then. He was dressed in a strange black and purple robe set, like an old-timey priest, save for the hat. His hair was slick and oily, smoothed down over his skull.

Harumi's hand shook at the sight of him. Despite himself, Lloyd found himself shifting to place his body between the man and Harumi.

The girl on the ground shook too, whining as he drew closer. Lloyd wanted to do something, but he knew he couldn't. This was a memory. There was nothing to be done.

"Who is that?" He hissed.

"The Overlord," Harumi said quietly.

"Pretentious name, isn't it?"

"He's a pretentious guy."

The man paced, projecting his voice for the whole chamber to hear. "This girl has brought outside knowledge to our protected home! She has brought taint and rot to our place of worship, and in doing so, defied our God and Her ordinances." Murmuring flowed through the crowd, whispering dissent. The Overlord nodded sagely. "Yes, yes! She has dissented, defied, denied our God's teachings. She has brought what would have tainted us all, had this not been brought to light."

The murmuring grew louder, and Dove shook in place. Tears pooled in big brown eyes. She had white sclera. She wasn't Liminal. Why was she here?

The Overlord raised his hands, quieting the talking. "Yes, yes, I understand! But, please, my friends and family, listen to my words. Is there not regret?" Dove looked up, hope shining in teary eyes. The Overlord nodding, circling the young girl. "There is! Regret, sorrow, repentance, even!' The man stood in front of the girl, looking down into her pale, tear-streaked face. He bent down, his face only inches from hers. His hand shot up, snatching her by the cheeks. She shrieked behind the gag. "Regret at being caught!" He yelled, and the chamber erupted in enraged yelling.

Voices overlapped, echoing in the dark room. Yells, jeers, insults thrown at the girl chained to the ground. Anxiety slowly curdled in Lloyd's stomach.

This was Harumi's memory, but that girl wasn't Harumi. So where was Harumi?

He glanced at her. She hadn't even twitched, still enraptured in the scene before them.

Why 'not this one'?

Lloyd swallowed, and turned back to the memory.

The Overlord had stood back up again, his face passive as he looked down at the girl from the tip of his nose. "That's right," he said. "Dove here is not the one who brought such dissent and disobedience to my attention! She had no intention of bringing it to attention! This girl has misbehaved for all the time she's been here, a dissenter since the beginning. This, this horrible and incorrigible act, only proves the existence of the rot that has taken place in her soul! A rot she would have spread to the rest of you!" He spun, spreading his arms to the crowd gathered. They murmured amongst one another, anxious and quiet.

The Overlord smiled, nodding along. "Yes, I thought the same. How could she do such a thing? Are we not a family, formed by the love and truth brought by our God? But that is what made me reconsider." Dove blinked, newfound hope finding a place in her eyes. Harumi's nails dug into the pillar.

"For we are a merciful family, for what is death but merciful? So, I considered mercy. Do we not all misstep, in our youth? Stumble, along the path to the truth, tempted by taint created by a world shrouded in lies? Can we blame the girl? After all, is it not difficult to discern the truth from lies, when you have never been told a lie?"

"This is insane," Lloyd muttered, shaking his head as he backed up. He glanced at Harumi. "W-we need to leave," he whispered. They're still enemies, and he's still planning on killing her when they get out of here, but he doesn't want to be here any more than she apparently does.

Harumi doesn't acknowledge him at all. She just keeps staring. Lloyd has no idea how he would leave anyways, so he sighs and crosses his arm, gripping the rough fabric of his jacket.

"The world pastes over the truth with lies and sugarcoated candies," the Overlord preaches, pacing around Dove's crouched body. "But our God, our Eminent Preeminent, has never told us a lie! Every word, beautiful or sad, is the truth. Can we blame the child, for asking the same of the world?"

The crowd murmurs, nodding in agreeance. The Overlord, who Lloyd is really starting to hate just based off of vibes, smiles and presses a sincere hand to his chest. "It was these questions and considerations that led me to choose mercy. For what is death, but mercy?"

Lloyd's brows furrowed at those words. Why had he said it like that?

The Overlord turned to face them. Lloyd flinched, but he wasn't looking at them. He was looking past them, into the dark hall.

Wait a minute. This was Harumi's memory. They'd both appeared in that hall.

Had he missed something?

"It was not Dove who brought this transgression to my attention, no," the Overlord said, "but a child gifted to us through tragedy. A child who knows the repercussions of lies. Quiet One, step forward."

Lloyd's breath caught in his throat as he whipped his head around. His eyes went wide at the sight. A young girl, younger than Dove, stepped out of the shadows. She was barefoot, and wearing a simple white dress and overcoat. Her hair was a similar white, bangs hanging over pink eyes bordered by black sclera.

That was Harumi. That's where she came in.

A traitor, just like she'd always been.

Dove's eyes went wide at the sight of Harumi, flooded by betrayal first. Then came the rage. The girl shrieked behind her gag, lunging forward despite her unforgiving chains.

The small version of Harumi stood uncertainly in the archway. The real Harumi, sixteen, choked on her own breath. She stared at the smaller version of herself, twitching.

"Not this one," she whispered in a strangled voice. "Goddammit, not this one."

"Harumi?" Lloyd said. His chest felt tight. Everything here felt all wrong. Something very, very bad was about to happen. And despite everything, the stalking and manipulating and gaslighting and kidnapping and murder and Brad Tudabone, he still didn't want anything bad to happen to Harumi. He still loved her too much.

Not enough to stop trying to kill her. But enough to really, really not want to.

The Overlord extended his hand, ignoring the furious shrieks of the girl beneath him. "Yes. The Quiet One knows the tragedy lies bring. But from that tragedy, we have been given a gift." The Overlord stepped forward, taking the young Harumi under his hand. He placed it on her back, spreading the other arm to the crowd gathered as if presenting her. "Not the one we have been looking for-" Lloyd's blood curdled. The Conduit. "-But a gift nonetheless. A gift, to make us pure again when we misstep. To put tainted souls to good use, so that even in dissent, we may serve Her Eminence. A path… to absolution."

The Overlord reached into his robes, drawing out a long, sharp vengestone dagger. The memory of Harumi looked confused, scared, as he pressed the handle into her thin fingers. She looked up, questioning silently.

The Overlord shook his head sadly, pressing that faux sincere to his breast. "It pains me, truly, to admit. But alive… Dove cannot be saved. She has no intention of genuine repentance, and no love for the home we have here. There are many punishments for dissent, but I have chosen the path of mercy for our misguided child. The path on which she will serve the Preeminent… by serving our Mistress' young chosen."

Harumi and Dove stared at one another, frozen as their eyes met across the room. The white-haired girl clutched the knife close to her chest. Dove's hands clawed at the chains binding her to the ground.

A sacrificial lamb.

No.

Lloyd stared at Harumi's memory. She was young. Innocent. Doe eyes wide in fear. Dove wasn't the lamb — Harumi was.

The real Harumi spun, bracing her hand against the pillar she stood beside, her other hand coming up to block her face from view. She trembled, staring wide-eyed at the ground with the same far-away look. "No, no no no…" she mumbled to herself.

The Overlord pushed the young memory of Harumi forward. The girl stumbled, legs trembling. She looked back, questioning.

The Overlord nodded. "Take it, Quiet One," he commanded, "And put her body and soul to good use."

Harumi looked back at Dove. The other girl trembled, slowly shaking her head in fear. The Overlord held up a hand, then, stopping them both. "Of course, we are merciful. So, in the interest of such…" He moved behind Dove, and waved a flippant hand. The gag around Dove's mouth melted away. "I will allow her her last words."

Dove wasted no time. "You SNITCH!"

The Overlord tsked, shaking his head. "How unfortunate." He leveled Harumi with a cruel look. "Quiet One. Now."

Harumi slowly advanced on Dove, holding the knife between her two hands. Dove screamed, struggling against her binds. They offered her no room to back away, but she didn't let up. The cuffs chafed against her raw wrists, smearing blood over pale skin. "You snitch, you snitch, you told on me you- no, no!" Dove's bare feet scrabbled against the stone as she flailed to get away. The memory of Harumi kept walking.

"It was a comic!"Dove screamed. "It was just a comic, I wasn't doing anything wrong, it was a fucking- I just wanted to read Spider-Man! I just wanted to read a comic, stop! Stop, stop!"

Harumi's memory spoke for the first time. "Stop talking," she whispered. Lloyd's arm wrapped around his stomach, the other covering his mouth. He felt sick.

Dove didn't stop talking. She shrieked, "SNITCH! You little fucking snitch, you brat, you tattled on me! How could you- you fucking snitch!"

The knife in Harumi's grip shook at her side. "Stop talking."

The real Harumi dry heaved, a broken wheeze cracking out from her blood-red lips. Lloyd backed away.

Dove kicked out when Harumi got too close, shrieking. She was sobbing now, fresh tears and snot pouring down her face. A ghostly hand snaked up from the floor and snatched both of Dove's ankles, holding her down. Lloyd's breath became strangled.

"NO!" Dove screamed, "you snitch, you snitch, you little fucking snitch snitch snitch snitch-!"

Harumi heaved again at his side. Her hand came up to her throat as she breathed heavily, panting. Dove kept screaming and crying. The white-haired child kept shaking.

"Stop. Talking."

"SNITCH SNITCH SNITCH YOU SNITCH-!"

Something in Harumi cracked. Her face contorted in rage, and the knife in her hand raised high above her head. Dove screamed bloody murder. Harumi screamed right back.

"BE QUIET!"

The knife came down and buried itself in Dove's collarbone. Harumi, at Lloyd's side, whined.

Lloyd's eyes slammed shut as he stumbled back again. The sound, though, did not disappear behind closed eyes. He could hear it all in perfect clarity. The knife plunged in, and the distinct sound of blood sprayed up. Dove screamed, gurgling in the back of her throat. Harumi's memory kept screaming.

"QUIET! BE QUIET!"

The Quiet One.

Lloyd had built up a tolerance for the grotesque. He'd seen desecrated corpses, reanimated rotting carcasses, the horrific remains of ghosts and their final moments. He looked at Kai's burned form, bubbling with pockets of pus, every day. He looked at Nya's bloated, drowned face, pouring water from her mouth, every day. He saw Zane's gruesome frostbite scars, and Jay's singed corpse, and Cole's caved-in head, brain splattered across his face. He'd grown desensitized to the dead to the point where he barely noticed his friends were dead. Hell, crazy shit had happened to him. He'd had his radius ripped out, had been possessed by his own cousin, had broken bones and ripped organs fighting the Quiet One and Red. And still he wanted to gag.

The dagger went down, again and again as Harumi pulled it out of Dove's corpse and shoved it back in. Lloyd's breath came in strangled and tight.

Finally, the sound stopped. Both Liminal teens stood still, breathing heavily. Harumi, at Lloyd's side, wiped her mouth with the back of her trembling hand. Tears burned her pink irises.

Lloyd opened his eyes, chancing a look. The corpse of the girl had been brutalized. Her guts spilled from her chest, bloody entrails dying her dress red. Her eyes were still open, staring up at the ceiling. Harumi, the memory, was bent over. Her hands were locked around the handle of the dagger, still buried in Dove's collar. The girl shook, sucking in ragged breaths through an open mouth.

The crowd had dispersed. It was Harumi's memory — had she forgotten the presence of the cultists, or had they left? Had that much time really passed?

The Overlord remained. The man rested a large hand on Harumi's shoulder. Then that hand moved to cradle her head, stroking snow-white hair. The young girl slowly wound down, her shoulders untensing.

Then that hand tightened, and pressed down. Harumi's memory tensed again, tightening her arms to hold herself up in a surprising show of strength. She gasped, looking back as much as she could with the hand holding her head in place. "Wh-what-?"

"Eat, Quiet One."

Harumi puked. Lloyd gagged, pressing a fist to his mouth. The entire day has been too much, and this is the icing on the cake. God, no. No.

Eat her? Eat her?

"I like mine rare."

The way the Quiet One was bone-thin. The way Harumi never ate unless they were at his house, the place she confessed she loved. The dinner table where Uncle Wu sat them all down and made pho.

Eat her?!

Lloyd looked up. Harumi's memory was staring wide-eyed at her murder victim. The real Harumi had turned around. They both watched on. Lloyd, on the ground, Harumi standing to his left. And between their figures several feet apart, kneeling in the middle of a sacrificial altar, Harumi Hutchins bores down on her victim.

"Wait," Harumi whispered. "Wait, please. I- I can't. I can't eat Dove."

The Overlord tsked. "I expect better from you. You killed her, child. Now finish the job."

"N-no, wait," Harumi strained against the hand holding her down. "Please, I can't. Please don't make me." Lloyd's vision swam. In all the time he'd known her, he'd never, not once, heard Harumi beg. In fact, the closest she'd ever gotten was his grandfather's tomb, screaming and demanding that he return to the cult with her. Pouring her entire soul out, baring herself just for him to panic and run. And even then, she hadn't begged.

Harumi Hutchins did not beg. She demanded, and took, and pushed you out of her way until she had what she wanted. But she did not beg.

The memory of the girl whimpered. "Please. D-Dove was my friend, I love her, I- please don't make me eat her."

The Overlord tutted. "How disappointing. After three years, I thought you'd have learned. Have you not learned from your parents, Quiet One? If you don't eat her, her soul will remain broken. You will be dooming her to agony. When the Preeminent comes and gives us Heaven, it is Dove alone who will be left behind, because you are too selfish to finish what you started."

Harumi whined, shaking her head. "I didn't mean it! I- I just wanted to protect her-"

The Overlord sighed. "I see. I have been too lenient, I understand now." He pet her hair, fingers snagging the tangles in her hair, a clear threat. Harumi shook under him, but leaned into the touch. The real Harumi's fists clenched. "I have coddled you. I thought you had learned, after that little mongrel you brought in. A mongrel I was kind enough to allow you to keep, in a much purer form. I thought we were past this. But you are still acting like a child. It's my fault — I've coddled you too much, lent you too much leniency. I intend to rectify this now."

He shoved Harumi's head down further. The girl held herself up, arms shaking. She was forced to take a hand from the dagger, bracing it against the bloody shoulder blade of her dead friend. She gasped, face hovering over the strewn entrails.

"No, no no no-"

"Now, Quiet One," the Overlord growled. "Or you will be punished."

Harumi's eyes flicked frantically. Her breath came in short, strangled bursts as she stared at the guts under her.

"No!"

The memory shoved herself away, rolling out from under the overbearing hand. She stood, shaking. "I won't," she said. Her voice came out quiet and warbling. "I won't eat her."

Lloyd looked between her and the Overlord. Back and forth. One pale face, scared and tiny, streaked with tears. One sallow face, hard and angular with cruelty.

The Overlord sighed through his nose. He stood straight, drawing himself up to tower over her. He placed on hand behind his back and raised the other. His thin, narrowed eyes glared down at the girl. "I hope you know," he whispered, "that you made me do this. You could have ended this night with a warm bath. I would have let you play that music you like, given you the tea you like, and you would have gone to sleep in your bed. Now, you have forced me to punish you." He shook his head sadly. "So unfortunate, that some lessons must be learned the hand way."

He snapped his fingers. Ghastly, dripping black hands rose from the floor. Shades. Lloyd gaped as they snagged around the young girl's arms and legs. She shrieked, tugging away, but they didn't let up. The sharp claws of ghosts tore at her clothes and skin, ripping away at the minimal fabric covering her.

Lloyd turned his face away before he could see the rest. The young girl bled from numerous scratches, shivering in the cold room, stripped naked. Harumi didn't avert her eyes from the sight. She just stared at her younger self, eye twitching.

The memory hugged herself, shrinking away as the Overlord stepped forward. Her bottom lip trembled.

The Overlord showed no emotion. "You made me do this. Remember that, Quiet One. You're wasting her."

His hand shot out, snagging the girl by her hair. He dragged her, kicking and screaming bloody murder, out of the chamber. The corpse, tugged along by the Veil energy the Overlord commanded, followed.

The door banged shut, and the echoes of Harumi's screams faded away. The room melted around them, leaving them in a void of blackness.

Lloyd panted. Shakily, he turned to Harumi. She hadn't moved, still staring after a sight that had dissipated. Lloyd slowly approached her, bridging the gap.

"Harumi," he whispered. She didn't acknowledge him. "R-Rumi, god, I- I'm so sorry. I get it now. This— fuck, this wasn't your fault. What they did to you, fuck, it's so messed up. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I should've tried to understand—"

He babbled, words falling from chapped lips. All this time- fuck, all this time. He's so tired. He wants to go home.

"Please, Rumi, we can leave. Let's leave, okay? I'll explain everything to Akita, and she'll understand, I swear. We can leave! We can forget everything and go home. I'll take you away from them, I can take you away from this place. I'm the Conduit, I can protect you, I can keep you safe."

He took her hand, standing in front of her. He tried to catch her dead gaze, but even as he placed himself right in front of himself, she didn't look at him. She stared right through him, like he wasn't even there. He cupped her cheek. He grew desperate, too tired and sick and sore to keep this up. "Rumi, we can go now. I'll tell 'Kita, and we can go home. Please, let's go now. Let's go home-"

A sound, behind him. He froze. Slowly, he turned.

He hadn't even realized that the scene had changed, leaving them in a pitch black cell. The small form of Harumi's past self was crouched over a rotted carcass, fiercely tearing away at the flesh. She shoved tendons and sinew down her throat, slurping down slimy entrails. She heaved through it, barely pausing to chew as she chewed through organs.

Lloyd puked.

He bent over, falling to his hands and knees as he retched. The memory kept tearing at the skin and flesh, burying her face in the shoulder blades. Lloyd gasped, dry-heaving.

Harumi stepped over him, looking down at herself. Lloyd gagged, shutting his eyes against the sound and smell. Harumi remained quiet. Then, she glanced over her shoulder. Bright pink eyes shone in the darkness.

"Do you?" Harumi whispered. It's the first words she's spoken since, well, everything. "Do you get it?"

Lloyd says nothing. How could he?

"You don't," she says lowly. Fists ball at her sides. "Because if you did, you would come with me. You would understand. You would help me. You would help fix it. It was never- never Dove who needed fixing, don't you get it?"

Lloyd swallowed back the taste of bile. "Rumi…"

She turned all the way around, bearing down on him. "It was me," Harumi snapped, like he hadn't said anything at all. "It was me. D-Dove didn't need fixing, I did! Because I was forgetting, and slipping. It wasn't a punishment, it was motivation! Because my parents weren't enough, and the fucking cat wasn't enough, and I had to be reminded!"

"Harumi, please. W-what they did to you, I- I'm so sorry, but I can- I can get you out. I'll help you, and we'll tell Akita, and we'll go home." Lloyd reached for Harumi's hand. He wants to be done, now. He wants to take his friends and go home.

But she snatches her hand back. He thinks that's the moment he loses her.

"I had to be reminded," she said coolly. "Don't you get it? My- my parents, the cat, Dove, your boss and fucking- fucking Brad Tudabone, they aren't normal! They aren't like ghosts or poltergeists or shades or Hauntings or any inane fucking word you want to use for a dead person. They are husks. They are empty, soulless husks, and they are broken. They, because I killed them, every person I killed and ate, are doomed to eternal purgatory! They are doomed to agony in hell! Everybody I have ever killed, every body I took, every face I took and wore and spoke with is doomed to hell in my body!" Her voice cracked as it rose, louder and louder until she's practically screaming in raw, halted desperation. "Everybody and every body is in hell in my body, my body is HELL to everybody and every BODY! I am HELL!"

She has him cornered. He falls back in his scramble to get away from the ticking time bomb, and she stands over him, ragged and insane. Harumi Hutchins is insane. Her white hair is wild, strewn over a bloody face.

"I need to," she said, chest heaving, "to fix it. To fix them. To make them whole under the Veil, and make me real again, and get all these bodies out of my fucking body. I need to. I- I have doomed everybody I ever killed to hell in my body while I steal their bodies." Her trembling hand clutched the collar of her shirt. "To make them whole again. The- the Preeminent will fix them. She will. It's the only way to make myself good again."

Lloyd shook his head, dumbfounded. "Harumi, you can't believe that," he whispered. "After what we just saw? You can't believe a word of that."

"That my body is hell? I believe it."

"Rumi, you're not hell-"

"I AM!" She screamed. A boot came up and slammed down on his chest. Lloyd grunted, falling back. She slowly pressed more and more weight onto the foot holding him down as she spoke. "I am hell to every single body and soul that I have ever murdered and cannibalized, but I will make it right and good, because I am going to unite everybody under the Veil of Death. You are going to activate the Realm Crystal, and you will bring forth the Preeminent, and She is going to make me real and whole again." She laughed, then, a broken cracked thing. "She is going to be God, and you will be God, and I. Will be God."

Lloyd heaved, his hands locked around her ankle. "You-" he wheezed, eyes wide as he stared at her. All this time… he'd really believed there was something in there to save. He'd really thought that there was some sliver of humanity in the Quiet One, that she wasn't as evil as she acted. It really proved just how good a liar she was. "You're insane."

Harumi's insane look slowly narrowed. He'd forgotten. As completely insane as she was, she was calculating and cold. And driven. That one-track mind… it really would kill them all.

She let out a breathless laugh, wheezing as it tapered off. "Oh, Conduit. I thought you trusted my judgment."

Before he can even blink, Harumi snatches him by the collar of his shirt and jerks him up. Her own head comes down, and she slams their foreheads together with a sickening CRACK! For the second time that night, everything goes dark.

[r4spberry-vinaigrette]

what do you think is the history behind spamton calling tenna "trash heap"? do you think that was new to them in the canon interaction or a preexisting name, and how did it come about? it feels so specifically targeted at tenna's insecurities about being old and worthless that i feel like there HAS to be a story there to justify it, given that spamton uses it in a context of being happy to see him...

VERY FASCINATING QUESTION. i have little canon backing for this really so it's solely headcanon but my idea is like. tenna's always had that creeping insecurity that he's obsolete. even when it's insinuated he was actually doing very well for himself, he expresses that he really wanted to know how spamton made it big, which implies to me that tenna never thought he was doing good enough. which was probably at least somewhat clear to spamton, regardless of if one believes tenna confided in him super deeply or not. so i like to think that at some point when tenna was clearly worried about this kind of thing, the idea tenna was ultimately just kind of useless without impressing others, spamton ribbed tenna and came up with the nickname as sort of a mildly teasing thing. a sort of "you know you're not so bad, right?" thing. spamton only really used it when tenna was feeling rough as a way of knocking tenna out of his own head somewhat, making the whole thing feel a little more lighthearted, so to speak. so when spamton encountered tenna in chapter 3, spamton ended up calling back to that nickname after seeing tenna in such a bad and lonely state -- it wasn't exactly the same way spamton wouldve used it normally, but it was kinda just... what he thought of in the moment, ig. it probably didn't help tenna feel less caught off guard though LOL

[theespeakerboxxx]

Pibble just would not shut up about Sai and racism, started liking and following posts of someone who made that callout of Sai for spreading “misinformation” of taffer sending her those racist messages (the one from taffypone or whatever the name was) and then using the out-of-context slur argument to imply Sai is the racist one.

Pibble then gladly followed and dmed a predator right that the same person that made the Sai callout was defending.

Pibble says they didn’t know he was a predator but Pibble assumably saw the entire argument between Brittany and Tepes vs the Sai callout person and the predator. Pibble assumably would have seen the *multiple callouts against said predator* since that’s the crux of the whole argument but then chose to support the predator anyway.

They only left after Tepes pointed all this out and how easily they lambast Courtney or Sai but will root for a known predator just because he was against the people they hated.

ohhh oh my god! this is amazing news, i can finally drop a conversation i had with them! fair game, right?

the flowery language dude was sending me anon asks, debunking that taffer was not the one behind those racist anons, which you can find here, here and here

eventually i got fed up with these excessively long messages, and just opted for them to message me instead... ill have these speak for themselves ig

at first i did buy this. taffer did not have a history of racism despite me combing through her blogs. but after taffer's drawing of sai's caricature, i've since then changed my mind, and also the reveal of taffer being super close with lily.

throughout the messages, i was maintaining a level-headed demeanor so i wouldn't have this person devolve into their "this is internet drama" rant, so i may come off as laid back, but in reality i was truly clawing at my eyes reading these lol

heres taffers response i got from this person after asking about stockholm, and her defending it

and my response

so that was a shit show lmao. i tried to push further but was unsuccessful, and with taffer out of the public eye, i said i wouldn't talk about taffer anymore since apparently the troll account wasn't them, and they were taking a break from the internet

...until the farms showed screenshots of taffer making a caricature of sai for lily's new video, and all of this happening with fennec, pibble and taffer's friend

heres what i have to add i guess! these conversations took place on nov 2nd-3rd (iirc)

[moonydulac]

came across a very lame and obviously unoriginal anti-wolfstar post that was written to uplift prongsfoot claiming canon plausibility as the reason. (honestly, prongsfoot is compelling by itself idk this new surge of remus/wolfstar hate but wtv- they are fictional so you do you ig)

this is a rant post so feel free to skip but know that none of this is ever directed to my lovely mutuals. i am usually the type to block and move if you genuinely annoy me (which you all dont <3)

so, a hot take: Sirius is really not as obsessed with James as you all make it out to be, in canon.

is that his best friend? absolutely

did he love him very much? duh

was he devoted or wanted to dedicate his life to James? that's where you lose me icl

if anything James was more interested in entertaining sirius, in the one prominent memory we see of them. there is enough context clues and testimonies to conclude that they were very close. and this is what interested me to ship and explore their dynamic (not a post to say you can only ship with canon hints. im just talking within the topic of my rant lol). there is only one person sirius shows utmost devotion to and that's Harry. that's his godSON, his heir and honestly his everything post Halloween.

it is entirely surprising to me how definitive sirius // james shippers sound when they claim it would be more or most canon. both r/s and j/s operate on the same level of delusion and are informed by canon. yes, I think there is a great possibility in canon that sirius was into james- i love the appeal of pining and even heartbreak if not reciprocated. (I also accept this pining and heartbreak in remus//james if anyone is into that wink wink) similarly, I think that remus and sirius could be romantic starting anywhere in the timeline. a boyish sweet love or secret longing and heartbreak or coming together in their tragedy as adults. endless possibilities, it seems, for all of them.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. its insane to me when wolfstar, in particular, gets pushback with emphasis on canon like there isn't chemistry and history between them right on the pages. its not a magnified reading. its there. in their dialogue, their physicality and its Harry clocking all of this. these are two alive and kicking characters in the books that shippers read. idek how many times this has to be said. people genuinely believed this relationship would lead to queer representation in the book, explicit or implied. people did not have hindsight, believed jkr to be a better person lmao. you don't have to accept this reading but you also cannot be so narrow that you refuse to see this reading as a valid experience for other people.

once again, you don't have to ship wolfstar. at all. maybe the popularity and general hype is the annoying part. there are many reasons to not engage with new age wolfstar shippers btw. but god this "stanning fictional characters" or hating one immensely for the benefit of another, unironically, is so corny. giving stan twt like what imaginary competition is happening?

another thing that ticks me off is the notion that wolfstar are not close at all. yeah, i do complex magic to help out people i don't really like for the hell of it as well. ik there will be some justification to those who want to prove their point by any means. "sirius is smart so he wanted to do advanced magic" "he actually did it for james" or wtv else comes up. idk how to tell you that marauders are friends first of all. yes, james and sirius are closer but there is no hierarchy with remus. he is not as close obviously, but he is also on the edges by all of their character designs. sirius, in his recounts, never talks of remus as someone below him or largely excluded, just as someone who was conforming, compliant and the "good boy". it is also quite clear in their communication that they were good friends. james first befriended the quiet kid cause he liked him, supported him financially because that is his good friend. he did not act out of pity. that is a great disservice to his character as well.

this is my personal take/opinion. sirius would obviously mention his relationship with james to harry and not remus' and his friendship. i don't think remus and sirius were secretly closer btw, but it is a bit odd that wolfstar shippers are expected to write james as the #1 priority for sirius when they are not the focus?(this is a very small group of people btw, miniscule in fact. i'm just ranting to rant, not a larger problem) ig my first hot take comes down to this too. you can interpret the text as you want, and that is okay. you can read sirius as obsessed with james, but it is not canon. so to dunk on other shippers when they don't share the sentiment is?? mind you, i am well aware of wolfstar shippers sidelining or flanderizing james in their interpretations and have ranted about that too many times, not that that's relevant here. just pointed out in case anyone misinterprets lol

ship anything man idc but saying wolfstar has no canon support or to insinuate that wolfstar shippers are shipper pilled (this made me laugh, what are you doing at the coven meeting friend?) is a bit ?? my point, if there is any, hypocrites piss me off or maybe its the lack of self-awareness? how to interpret the dynamics, character reactions in au, canon divergence, fiction is really all up to you. you can honestly remove remus and replace him with gilderoy lockhart in the marauders for all i care, its fictional. but you can't bring up canon and say something blatantly false to rag on shippers of a ship you don't like. that's just silly now. extremely condescending as well.

[muninnhuginn]

Some disparate thoughts after yingdu ep 1 (not rewatched or read anyone else's thoughts yet but had seen the pre-release pvs etc)

some time travel mechanics questions answered and some more raised. It's now confirmed what happens if you stay beyond the 12 hours (you're stuck forever). This had been speculated before but this is definitely the first confirmation. Now, in terms of questions? Was lu guang just using his powers normally during the scene at the con and didn't want the others to see? If so, is what we saw as the audience what *he* sees? That would imply he gets rather more context than we'd previously thought. Could just be letting the audience know the backstory though and has no impact on how his powers work. Net zero info ig.

speaking of that backstory, you can tell this arc has brought in more fans behind the scenes. The animator backstory was pretty on the nose and some of the early aspects were very... well, a specific flavour of fanservice, shall we say

also, wow, everyone was thinking lg's fashion sense was awful when we got the first previews but it was cxs to blame all along

so, romance scammer parallels, huh? Taking this on two levels. one) the shiguang level of "don't dig yourself deeper" when lg is... busy digging himself deeper (plus the whole thing about "if you'd just been honest from the start") two) the aspects of "taking advantage of someone when they're at rock bottom" mean I'm now lowkey expecting a similar dynamic to appear once we reach yingdu (perhaps xia fei in the role of the 'victim' as his relative is missing? pure speculation but hey)

confirmed lg can supposedly see into the future with his power. Not taking this at 100% face value considering how dodgy lu guang is around their powers and the fact he's keeping track of timings so thoroughly but at least at this point, he's claiming it's the case, so.

makes me wonder if his notes on timings are from previous loops or if he's just spamming photos when he's worried about something and noting down the timings (hospital-boat arc???)

so many xia fei cameos. I wasn't counting but there were at least three and curiously he appears plenty *before* anyone is even in yingdu (and we know he's got plenty of billboards over there). He's got some global reach for someone who appears zero times in s1 and s2 (which could just be down to them not having written him yet but does make his absence previously more obvious by comparison)

somehow there's *more* prominence on clocks/watches than even normal link click (makes sense as lu guang himself has such a focus on them and we're way more in his pov now). Interestingly though, I don't *think* we saw the time at the beginning when cxs was in the dark room

oh also! when lu guang expects cheng xiaoshi to ask how he "divined" the answer and cxs essentially says he'll wait for lg to tell him + him mentioning he'd sensed lg was hiding something from the very start. sth sth works on a broader scale than just the initial power reveal

also gdi no homura fan lu guang reveal. he gets his time travel stories from other anime, smh

belated realisation edit: lu guang clapped his hands when he checked the photo at the con. This *could* indicate cxs-style diving but I somewhat doubt this both because lg is implied to now be stuck in this time and also because time passes parallel between the inside and outside of a photo so he couldn't speedrun a full dive in the few seconds he took? in which case, is he just clapping because he himself doesn't realise yet he can activate his own powers without clapping? would fit with this reading as an earlier lg. hard to decide what happened there for sure without more info though tbh