#it can mean anything from “directly stated in the text” to “heavily implied in the text”

[nerdicorntheshipper]

Tbh I feel that phasing out the term "canon" in favor of the term "text" has done a lot for my personal media analysis skills

[davethot]

Aysha is homophobic but more so in the realm of being lesbophobic. Remember that she completely removed all Rosemary interactions from Pesterquest for more Davekat, decided to push for Yiffy the cuckhold child to be forced into the narrative during Lesbian Visibility Day and has made sure to demean any positive Rosemary interactions in lieu of Davekat which she is solely invested in. Her being transphobic more relates to her poor handling of Jade (dog dicked sex fiend isn't good transfem rep)

You do realize you sound fucking insane right???? This is literally what I’m fucking talking about when I mentioned people in my og post about hs2 pointing fingers and giving someone a really harsh label such as LESBOPHOBIC because they didnt quite handle a lesbian couple EXACTLY how you would have.

First of all i want to mention that Aysha is non-binary poc and is married to a woman. This doesnt exempt her from possibly writing some shitty things, but its good to have perspective here. Shes not some cishet white person writing these characters.

So are you going to ignore the literal thousands of pages of the original comic where we had a PLETHORA of Rosemary interactions??? And absolutely no davekat? And if you remember Kanaya was still having hang ups with Vriska, so it only made sense that that was explored a bit in Pesterquest rather than jumping straight to Rose and Kanaya cuddling on a couch and spewing gay poetics at each other. Like I genuinely dont know what you fucking want.

Also i would like to point out that romance wasnt even the fucking focus of Pesterquest. Dave and Karkat’s interactions were barely anything more than characters mentioning them and them being in the same place together for one single ending and mspar implying that they had a feeling they were supposed to be good friends. Tbh it sounds like you and the people who often have this complaint are way more fucking obsessed with what’s going on with Davekat than Aysha or the rest of the team will ever be. Maybe you should redirect your efforts into creating more wlw content for Homestuck since you think the new team is so lesbophobic for portraying two grown ass women having some marital problems (and acting like that cant happen in the real world with real people literally every day).

You and tons of other people fucking love to point to Kanaya and Rose’s issues in hs2 and preach that it’s suddenly lesbophobic that theyre not happy go lucky 24/7. Again, Davekat didnt even fucking happen in the og comic. We had one flash where Dave rests his head on Karkat’s lap and they’re playing hopscotch on a poorly drawn dick on the ground, meanwhile Rose and Kanaya had comfortably been together for Awhile at that point. I just don’t understand how Dave and Karkat finally having a semi-functional and happy relationship in hs2 is promoting lesbophobia. Also we didnt even get to see the comic FINISH!! We dont KNOW what exactly was going to happen with Rose and Kanaya, and we arent going to for a long fucking time because it’s people like you who are perpetuating this narrative of the team and that theyre horrible awful people because they did two fucking things you dont agree with. It’s honestly fucking exhausting. And you know I can throw this right back at you right? Like, pretty homophobic of you to only be focusing on wlw ships and invalidating Davekat, one of the only healthy relationships PERIOD in Homestuck, not just a healthy mlm relationship. Like, pretty shitty of you anon :/ kind of homophobic of you fr.

And this isnt even mentioning the genuinely nice interactions we have seen with Kanaya and Rose in Homestuck 2. Everyone’s really fucking eager to forget that in meat Kanaya was wistfully looking out at the stars missing her wife and told Dave she’d do anything to get her back, esp since it’s implied that Rose was being manipulated pretty heavily by Dirk. But no, according to yall that never happened and Aysha + the rest of the team are just spitting on all wlw folks.

Also again I feel like youre coming to insane conclusions. You think it was a purposeful move that Aysha and the team introduced Yiffy on lesbian visibility day??? Like???? Also pretty lesbophobic of you to invalidate a child born from two women. Like hm pretty shitty of you anon. Rose and Jade explained why they did what they did, and tbh, again, we could have had more information if people like you didnt indirectly harass the creators and cause it to go on indefinite hiatus.

As for the Jade dog dick thing, I have multiple friends who are trans women who have issues with people blowing it out of proportion. Its important to remember that every trans woman is going to have a different opinion on this, and we shouldnt invalidate any of them, but at the same time what one trans woman says about it isnt the end all be all of the situation. Some trans women think this portrayal is transphobic, while plenty others think it isnt, and that people are making way too big of a deal out of it. Therefore I’m going to leave it at that. Personally I dont know if how Aysha and the team wrote Jade is transphobic and its not for me to decide. However, my trans friend would like to be quoted saying this:

“People claiming that the writers intended for Jade’s dick to be the driving force in her emotional and sexul appetite shows someone’s willingness to ignore Jade’s actual reasons for doing these things that she STATES in the actual text. All in favor of projecting their own transmisogynist reading onto the writers.”

This probably ended up being longer than my og post lmfao but fr anon im sick of people like you. Even if you didnt directly contact the creators of hs2, you’re literally the problem here. I wish you and others would stop throwing around these terms like lesbophobic, homophobic, transphobic, etc, because it literally makes those words lose meaning. Someone writing a lesbian couple having marital problems, especially in the context of Homestuck, is not fucking lesbophobic. And i hope i helped you understand that by throwing the terms back at you because tbh, im sure youre a good person with good intentions, and I would never seriously call you homophobic for this. But i hope you can have some fucking perspective and stop targeting marginalized authors and creators moving forward. Its embarrassing fr.

[ganymedesclock]

So like, how would you succinctly describe how you interpret/write Ghost?

To elaborate on what I said here, I keep several qualities in mind when writing Ghost.

They are an experienced traveler. We don’t know how long they spent beyond the kingdom, but, they are recognized as a kindred spirit by people who are very experienced or traveled despite seemingly being fairly young, or at least in a kind of undead-child-limbo state where their years haven’t affected them much.

Their body language is very orderly and composed. They are not incapable of making mistakes, or struggling or failing- if anything they are likely used to this- but the implications of the Shade system suggests that they hold themselves to a high standard and that failure weighs heavily on their mind.

While this is more personal headcanon than anything, I feel like they would be sparing with any form of communication available to them. It isn’t merely that they’re silenced by lacking a voice- they also seem to be quite a taciturn and stoic soul by preference.

(I kinda like to think that if they were in a situation where they were talking using some workaround or another, the result would come off a bit like Garnet from Steven Universe- brusque, authoritative, not mincing words, and even potentially rude or cutting, but more warm and verbose around people they are closer to)

They are relatively young, or again, in a kind of limbo that means the passage of time hasn’t brought age. They doze off easily if left on the benches. There are things they haven’t experienced and a kind of innocence to their curiosity for the world. I can see them, subtly, having a streak of those kids who perceive themselves as extremely mature and wise but then... they can have some fun splashing around the hot spring. 

Understated but very present is that Ghost definitely has an angry streak and a hunger to prove themselves. They don’t care so much about petty reputation (they don’t seem inclined to do much to attack or punish Zote when he lies about them to Bretta) but are drawn to try and prove themselves in the eye of the Hunter, or in the Colosseum of Fools. Even very early on, when Elderbug cautions them about the numerous dangers of Hallownest, the overall trajectory of the game suggests they don’t pay him terribly much mind, or meet it with a kind of ‘challenge accepted’. And again, the Shade system suggests Ghost takes failure very harshly- believing they can’t afford to fail or should be above it or, likely, a complex tangle of sentiments. 

They can certainly have something of a haughty and cold streak that rears its head towards certain people- they don’t seem to hate Zote but they don’t think much of smacking him around in the Colosseum, either, to say nothing of their less than reverent treatment of PK’s body or Millibelle.

At the same time, though, it is hard not to see them as very motivated by loyalty to those they love, and interpersonal curiosity. Your only option in the game to leave Zote for dead happens before you talk to him- so, basically, as long as Ghost has listened to him even once, they don’t want him to die. They follow Hornet into Greenpath the moment they spot her. The cutscene in the City of Tears, with the slow pan up Hollow’s statue and the image of it “weeping”, as well as the way that almost the first thing we see in-game is Hollow screaming in pain, the boss title of the Lost Kin, and even the shift from judgmental (“False Knight”) to compassionate/tragic (“Failed Champion”) when Ghost realizes that he was trying to protect the other maggots.

To pull this all to a central thesis: Ghost is a complex bundle of emotions kept under a heavy lid. Young, brittle, lonely; haughty, proud, and vicious- curious, compassionate, and earnest. Reserved, superficially proper, they seem to have a strong self-identity as a knight (I’ve talked before about how the game’s noncanon prototype has Ghost address the player directly in a way that seems to illuminate their thinking for the main game).

They also seem genuinely curious about history. Quirrel and Lemm have a lot of dialogue, and while Lemm is an optional encounter, the text for the Void Idol is given by him, and not from a conversation Ghost and Lemm have ‘in canon’ which would imply Ghost visits and listens to him more than we are necessarily shown in-game. Many characters also make sidelong comments into Ghost’s inquisitive nature and their desire to ‘dig deeper’. (visit the Snail Shaman after obtaining Desolate Dive, for example)

In a more trivial sense, I operate on the read that the first half of the Hunter’s Journal entries reflect Ghost’s perspective, while the second half can be attributed to someone else, usually the Hunter- and the tone of those entries further seems to betray Ghost’s thought process. They have several habits that rear their head in those entries:

They are curious about weapons and consider them important. They note the relative uncommonness of great nails, consider Ogrim skilled (and his white defender form, gallant) and despite disrespecting Zote, note that he seems to have made his weapon himself and the name he calls it by.

They are very interested in knights and orders thereof, as can be noted in both Ogrim’s entries and the city guard. 

Highly motivated by their siblings- they seem to be the one who name the Sibling enemies (Hunter’s entry suggests he has never seen them himself), and the Broken Vessel / Lost Kin, not to mention acquiring the Abyssal Shriek by using Howling Wraiths to ‘give voice’ to stone faces in the abyss.

[lokidrabbles]

Bitter-sweetness (Loki x Reader)

Loki comes to visit the reader after they send out a drunk text

A/N: Another part of my Loki x Reader Winter Series! This is also an AU after Ragnarok where the Asgardians have settled on Earth. As always, Gender Neutral Reader! Warnings: Language, Alcohol Use, Angst, Implied smut

You considered yourself to be a responsible person to a certain degree. In fact, you prided in your ability to make rational decisions about your day to day adult musings. Yet here you were, alone in your home, a whole bottle of red wine downed, complete inhibited from making sure you didn’t make a terrible decision.

This was your first holiday away from home. Living in the big apple had its perk, especially since you managed to land a job working at Stark Industries but living alone, while your closest relative lived three states away was not as glamorous as the shows made it out to be. You swore you would be able to handle it, after all, this had been quite a successful year for you career wise. And yet, the horrible emptiness expanded the moment you finished speaking with your sibling over the phone.

Reality hit. You were here alone, and that was just scratching the surface of it all. You had gotten along well with your co-workers and the supers you would run into often but it wasn’t the same. There was no way you would budge and plea for them to spend this ‘merry’ time with you, humiliating. And so, while not the healthiest of coping skills, you drowned your depression away with a little lady known as Lambrusco.

Being a lightweight, the red wine quickly put you in an inebriated state, fixated on feeling sorry for yourself and the impeccable loneliness.  You cried, you laughed, and you sang depressing melodies in effort to bring your spirits up, but to no avail. You eventually ended up surfing on social media through your phone, twisting your mouth at the cloy pictures of families and friends celebrating together in their homes. What a bunch of bullshit. You resisted the temptation to instant message your old friends, knowing it would just be filled with a myriad of cuss words.

Your mind then wandered on texting your co-workers, clinging onto a childish hope of maybe one of them coming to your rescue and joining you in drinks and sobs. You flipped through your contact list and came across your most recently added. It was a 5 digit number, but that wasn’t weird for you. Tony would often have these weirdly set up numbers for some of the team members to maintain contact without having calls traced by ill intending foes, and you ended up with some of them through exchanges and other occasions. You weren’t really sure how it worked, but it was kind of like a trading card game you had with your co-workers. Obtain Thor’s number, Caps’ number, Dr. Banner’s number, Romanov’s number. It was stupid but it passed the time.

You squinted your eyes, attempting to decipher which Avenger’s number this was. However with the room spinning and your happy-go-lucky state, you didn’t bother to figure out who it was, and you began to text the unknown number with the best of your ability.

Helloo,,,,this is (y/n) and....comeover I have fun stuff to do...:) :) :)

Perfect. And with much gusto, you tapped on that send button, throwing your phone casually on the side of your couch. It wasn’t like you really expected anyone to answer or to come over, and it wasn’t like you really cared at the moment. Without any hesitation, you reached for the wine bottled and took a last swig, with only drops remaining of the sweet warm nectar. You felt the relief in your throat and closed your eyes, slowly drifting into a quick nap, completely disheveled on your couch.

Not ten minutes would pass before you heard a loud and obnoxious pounding on your door. The loud rapping sent you flying off your couch and in a frenzy. You cleared your throat and scurried over to your front door.

“I’m going, I’m going!” You yelled, not having a moment to sort  out what was actually happening. But the room continued to spin, and you figured you were still heavily drunk.

You undid your locks and open the door wide open, only to be greeted by the cold winter wind and the last person you had expected at the moment.

“What in the seven realms are you trying to prove here?” It was Loki, standing tall and menacing over you. He held a small cellular phone between his thumb and index finger, showing you the drunk text you had sent him.

It was Loki’s number. You had completely forgotten that your coworker had given you the number after laughing about Tony giving Loki a method of communication and how Loki was entirely clueless on how to use the device or what it’s purpose even was. Your coworker had a know in with the security manager who programmed Loki’s phone and got his contact number through suggestive means. Again, part of the stupid little game, and you had mindlessly added the number onto your contacts.

Fuck. You guessed he had figured out how to use it.

“Ah, shit.” You sputtered casually. “I didn’t think anyone would have come!”

He raised an eyebrow, looking at you incredulously. “You’re wobbling.”

Wobbling. Loki’s accent was distracting enough most of the time. But hearing him say a silly world like wobbling sent you in a laughing spree. It was uncontrollable laughter, where the more you stared at him the funnier it would become. It was apparent that Loki didn’t find this funny in the slightest.

“Wobbling, pfft. Woooosh.” You retorted, making fluttering movements with your fingers.

“Wait.” He began, his mind beginning to calculate and process. And finally it hit him. “You’re drunk. Are you foolish or just this stupid?”

“Both maybe.”

Loki groaned, shoving you inside your living room and closing the door behind him. Immediately he began to smell the heavy scent of alcohol coming from you, as well as quickly taking notice of the empty wine bottle and wine juices leaked on your coffee table. Also you wouldn’t stop laughing, continuing to giggle until you fell backwards onto you couch.

Loki narrowed his eyes at you. “Having a good time here? I see you’ve laid waste to that wine bottle.”

“Oh yeah.” You responded proudly, throwing your arms up in the air. “Nothing else to do here, but to see just how much I can drink till I stop making sense. Which is...now!”

“Really now?” He responded sardonically. “You look like an absolute mess.”

“Screw you.” You dejected at him knowing full well that wouldn’t offend him in the slightest. “Why are you even here if you’re just gonna be like this.”

“Would you rather I leave then?” His arms were crossed over his chest now, long legs and feet firmly planted on the ground. He looked very intimidating, but perhaps because of your state, he also looked extremely masculine and handsome. You never noticed how broad his shoulders actually were, or how defined his jawline was. You imagined being held in those strong arms and hummed pleasantly.

“No, I like you being here.” You said in a sing song manner, swinging your head back and forth.

“Are you sure that’s not the alcohol talking for you? I wouldn’t imagine you meant to send that message directly to me.”

Loki took a seat across from you on the couch, continuing to shoot you looks of improvement, but concern as well. You continued to fixate on his looks despite this, suddenly wanting to see how his skin would feel on your hands.

“It wasn’t really meant for anyone. But I actually feel a lot better knowing it was you.” Even through your mashed up words, this was actually true. If it was Tony or a coworker or, lord forbid, anyone of the Avengers receiving this and coming over to lecture you about your substance use, your humiliation would have no bounds. There was still a sense of a professional relationship to maintain with them and if those boundaries were broken, maybe that would mean your job as well.

However, the moment you saw Loki standing at your door, you worry had instantly vanished. It was funny, but Loki was the only person who you could be yourself with. There wasn’t any authoritative nature to him, and you felt you didn’t need to prove anything while he was in your vicinity. He was just as lost as you were during this year in dealing with Stark Industries and the team. Also you both had bonded a bit with having a natural disdain for large crowds and ‘stupid’ people in general. You weren’t proud to be shit talking about others, but it made some work days bearable for you.

“Perhaps this is the moment where I as why you’ve drunk an entire bottle of red wine on your own. Even I can tell your natural tolerance isn’t very good.” Loki said, motioning for you to begin describing whatever had tormented you for this evening.

You sputtered again. “It’s stupid. I didn’t even mean to drink the whole thing. It just happened. Stupid bottle.” You really didn’t want to talk about, fearing how much control you would lose. You couldn’t put Loki in an awkward position, with you bawling over the fact that you miss your family or that you feel completely alone in such a large city. You knew Loki’s situation, you knew how much conflict he had experienced during the past year, what with settling down on Earth after Asgard was destroyed. Your human woes paled in comparison to what both him and Thor had encountered, why minimize that?

“Are you not comfortable with discussing this with me?” He asked, his voice firm. There was no malice in it but some sense of ease.

You shook your head. “I am sooo comfortable with you. I’m just not really comfortable with myself.”

“I’m not sure what you mean by that.” He continued, but you remained quiet mostly because you began to feel sick. “But I do know, even in Asgard, we drank for both our victories and for our losses.”

You pondered on this for a bit and then sniggered. “I suppose a loss for myself. Because lord knows no one wants to be around me.” Here we go. You were beginning to be dramatic once more, drowning in your melancholy. “But noooo I have a lot of friends and people who like me right? Because that’s what everyone expects right? For me to be content with everything?”

Loki remained quiet but not for a loss at words, but simply because he knew listening would be the best way to tackle this situation. His body language changed and he turned his body to face you, full attention and focus. But of course, you were far too deep in your downward spiral to have noticed.

“I’m supposed to be this independent, responsible adult who knows what they want or want to do.” You continued, your voice beginning to break. “But I still feel lost. And stupid. And wobbly.” You sniggered again, not being able to hold back to stupidity of the word.

Loki rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why humans always enjoy over complicating their own personal matters when the solution is staring them right at the face.”

You stopped giggling and furrowed your brows. “How am I over complicating things? I feel like shit because it’s been a whole year of me living in this city and I haven’t made one single valuable connection with anyone. Don’t be telling me that is an easy thing to solve.”

It was as if you had completely forgotten you were still tipsy.

“You do realize you could have just contacted me.” His words seemed to have echoed across your living room, sending a strong pang of guilt into your chest.

“What are you talking about?” You words meshed with one another, unable to articulate your frustration.

Loki pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “I really do have to hold your hand for everything don’t I? As long as I am here in this forsaken city working for that piece of human garbage that is Stark, you don’t have to spend your evenings alone.”

You blink in total bewilderment, not really buying into his intentions or his words. “Don’t do that. Don’t just do that because you feel sorry for my pathetic ass.”

“Are you daft?” Loki responded with an elevated voice.  “What indication of pity have I presented for you? What you need to realize is you have absolutely no reason to have this display of misery if companionship is what you seek.”

Your eyes widened as your focused in on the details of his face. Even though he had become quite angered by your stubbornness, he continued to be beautiful and ridiculously attractive to you. A strand of his dark locks fell over his face, making him even more desirable than you could have imagined. His piercing blue-green eyes were just as captivating as the last time you saw them. What would you have sacrificed for the opportunity to absolutely melt into him? To take in his scent or his heat. Maybe to even dig your face into the crook of his neck, providing you with much security.

Evidently your body began to move on its own as you leaned forwards to him, plopping yourself ungainly between his arms and his chest. Loki instinctively pulled backwards only causing you to fall further onto him until you were completely laid down upon his chest. He kept his arms slightly above you, unsure whether you’d be fine with him placing them on your back or on your waist. You sighed contently, nuzzling your face and fists into his chest. He was very warm, and you could hear the thumping of a heart deep within him.

“This...is not the best position to be in.” He said, a minute after laying there awkwardly with you.

“Heeey Loki.” You began, some mischief in your tone. “Let’s do it.”

You swore you heard him gulp heavily. “No. Especially with your inebriated state.”

You chuckled, your best attempt at being sly. “I’m sorry I didn’t think about you at first. I guess it didn’t cross my mind that you’d want to do anything with me.”

You finally felt his hands gently rest on your back, fully trusting of your total comfort with him.

“I’m going to reveal something to you but I don’t want you to tell anyone else. This is solely for your ears.” He began, piquing at you interest.

You plopped your head upwards to have a better look at him. “Oh?”

“I don’t come to New York solely for Stark. In fact, he’s become quite disdainful of me as you know. I go out of my way to come here because of you.”

An uncontrollable smile formed over your face. But again, that could have been the alcohol.

“You’re a foolish human. But...you are my foolish human. And you don’t need to be alone as long as I am here. I know how much this time of the year means for you, and I wouldn’t want to see you like this again.”

Before he could continue, you lifted your upper body to plant a much desired kiss on Loki’s lips. You didn’t care if you still reeked of cheap wine or if it was an impulse of your needs, but you deeply desired to still feel him skin on yours. You became even more eager once you felt him return your kiss, aggressively and longingly. His lips were so soft and tasteful and you pleaded mentally for him to explore your tongue with his. You pulled back briefly, your eyes watery and full of drunken bliss.

“I love you so much.” You said without much thought or meaning. You knew you didn’t fully convey those emotions yet, but the timing felt right.

He stared at you with his mouth slightly agape, his eyes also full of bliss and desire. “Don’t say that just yet. But I do too.”

The remainder of the evening was spent quietly as Loki adjusted himself to a much more comfortable position where he could fully encircle his arms around your frame. You melted into him, greedily closing your eyes and drifting away into a peaceful slumber inside his hold. You continued to be lulled by the thumping on his chest, your own matching his in full connection.

[plasticnightmaredoll]

So, this is a drabble I’ve been sitting on for a little while, mostly because I wrote it while in a “mood” and thus it’s kind of personal. However, I do still like it and want to share it.

It does involve Erron Black and Cassie Cage from “Mortal Kombat,” so if you’re familiar with them then kudos, I suppose. If not, then it’s no a big deal. You don’t need to know all about them to understand what’s going on in this drabble. 

I didn’t tag this writing with anything Mortal Kombat related because it’s kind of...bashing BlackCage (Erron Black x Cassie Cage) and doesn’t paint Cassie Cage in the best light. I don’t want the drama and bullshit that could result so I am keeping the MK tags far away from this drabble.

Now, this fic DOES involve Arkham Knight Riddler, so it’s a crossover, and I am 100% ok with tagging him and Scarecrow (Yes, he’s in it, too, sort of). Neither of them are portrayed in a way that would piss people off. 

Now, the fic is very personal to me and technically it’s a self-insert, but I refrained from using my real name or my alias, and has just referred to myself with pronouns. Why? Because I’m kind of shy and weird like that. Plus, it’s super personal and emotional to me, this drabble, and I just don’t feel comfortable directly attaching my name -- or even my alias -- to it right now.

This isn’t on AO3 for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, and I am honestly ok with any feedback on this, be it positive or negative. Seriously, if you have thoughts, then share. If you happen to be a BlackCage fan and/or Cassie Cage then feel free to send me hate -- no anon hate, though, as I have turned off anonymous asks.

I will warn you now, the drabble deals with self-esteem issues, and the ending, if you are familiar with Scarecrow (and if you’re reading this, I sure hope you are), the ending is kind of.....dark. Nothing actually happens but it is heavily implied someone is in for a traumatizing time.

Volunteer

“I don’t know what I did wrong,” she said, sounding as defeated and drained as she looked. “I tried my best yet I still only managed to be in the friend zone. He said it’s not that I’m not good enough, but that he had liked her for a while and she finally said ‘yes’ to going out with him so…”

“What does this girl look like?” Edward asked, displeased with the situation.

“Hang on.”

Edward had to admit he wasn’t shocked by this news. From the start, he knew Erron Black was that type of guy, one of those dim-witted pretty boys who had no sense or reason. However, Edward didn’t say anything to her as she was an adult and could make decisions on her own -- even if they were the wrong ones. Besides, she was so smitten by Erron that Edward suspected she wouldn’t have listened to or believed his warnings anyway.

She searched on her phone and found the (infamous) girl’s Instagram profile and then handed it to Edward. Looking through Cassie Cage’s photos, frowning, shaking his head, he found himself unimpressed. This was the woman that got Erron’s attention? Honestly? She was a spoiled, bratty, self-centered blonde with the IQ of a donut! 

Clearly.

Although, seeing as how Erron’s IQ was clearly no higher than that of Cassie Cage, Edward figured birds of a feather flocked together...one dodo for another.

“Ugh, I’ve seen enough,” Edward said, handing her back her phone. “She’s a social media brat who has fluff for brains and probably uses her looks to get what she wants. There’s no way she’s actually an intelligent, fascinating person. Anyone who takes that many ridiculous selfies is, without a doubt, an idiot.”

Edward noticed she didn’t appear to be relieved by his words, so he quickly thought of something else to add, hoping it would provide some sort of window to clarity that she desperately needed for this situation.

“So, this Cassie fits society’s shallow and pointless standards of beauty,” Edward said. “She’s an absolute bore, I tell you! She’s got a pretty face and an attitude, probably only is successful because she’s relied on her parents for everything.”

She still looked upset, and maybe even more so.

Ok, Edward, think! thought the criminal genius, chewing on his lower lip as his anxiousness grew. There’s got to be a way to get this through to her. This is a waste of her time!

“I mean...I wouldn’t want to spend time with her,” Edward said, placing a hand on his chest. “I’d probably lose my mind after listening to whatever pointless drivel would inevitably spill forth from her mouth. As for her looks, well, let’s be realistic here: they won’t last, and then what? She’ll be stranded with her own deflated ego and nowhere to go.”

Edward could tell that she was nearly crying now much to his dismay, and she kept her head down to hide the tears gathering under her lashes. This was absurd, he thought. Why did she feel so hurt by a guy who was a complete moron and a girl who looked like every other blonde girl out there? It was a waste of time, energy, thought, and emotion to dwell on such people. Why couldn’t she see that?

“I understand what you said,” she said, sniffling. “I agree with a lot of it but...it still hurts, maybe more so now that I realize how much of a bimbo Cassie is. And Erron chose her? I’m not blonde...is that what he wants?” She gripped her phone tightly. “Do I need to start acting like an obnoxious brat, taking selfies and posting them online for attention?” The grip was now threatening to crack the protective outer case of the phone. “I did all I could to be a good friend to him, was there for him, listened to him, treated him well….and yet, I’m still not good enough to earn his...his love? He waited a long time for Cassie...well, I’ve waited even longer to stop being rejected because I’m not good enough!”

Not wanting her to injure herself, he reached out and placed a hand over hers, watching her fingers loosen around her phone.

“I don’t feel good enough,” she said softly, finally crying. “I’ve never been good enough. I don’t know why...I don’t know...I try and I try but it’s never enough...”

Edward watched her sob quietly to herself, unsure of what to do but his internal panic was growing worse. This wasn’t exactly his area of expertise, and he still thought she was wasting energy on two idiots. However, there was nothing he could do about that, not right now, not when she was still overwhelmed by emotion.

So, he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling a little awkward doing it but it was all he could think of at the time.

“It’s going to be alright,” Edward told her. “I promise.”

A few weeks later….

Edward was typing away at his computer as she sat at a table nearby working on one of her custom dolls. With her headphones on, she drowned out the world around her, entirely focused on painting the face of the doll. Because of this, she didn’t notice him get up from his chair to “greet” the ignorant Neanderthal standing outside under the security camera mounted on top of the main door.

Edward opened the door to see a worried Erron Black standing outside.

“What do you want?” Edward asked in an exasperated tone. 

“Have you heard from her?” Erron asked. “She hasn’t responded to my texts or calls, and it’s really botherin’ me. I wanna know if she’s a’right.”

Edward crossed his arms, sighing in annoyance.

“Yes, I have seen her and spoken to her,” Edward said. “And it’s her right to ignore you if she chooses to.”

“I...I know that but…” Erron rubbed the back of his neck. “I...I want to speak to her...there’s somethin’ I got to say. I...I just...I need to see her and talk to her, face to face.”

“Haven’t you done enough?” Edward demanded. “No, you can’t speak to her. You’ve done enough damage to her psychological state with your puny, insignificant brain.”

Erron looked taken aback but said nothing as guilt consumed him further. As much as he hated Edward’s callous words, the cowboy wasn’t in the mood to pick a fight.

“Now, run along, Little Cowboy,” Edward said. “Go back to your vapid Selfie Queen where you belong.”

With that, Edward closed the door in Erron’s face, smirking triumphantly. Why that idiot thought he could just walk on back with his tail between his legs and beg for forgiveness, Edward had no idea. Then again the other man was too selfish to realize the error of his ways, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise he tried that.

As Edward made his way back to his computer, he suddenly got an idea; a beautiful, incredible, ingenious, devious idea. Taking his phone out of his pants pocket, he searched for and dialed the number he had in mind for this situation.

“Hello, Crane,” Edward said, smiling wickedly to himself.

“Ah, Edward,” said Jonathan, who was fully expecting to be hit with Edward’s ego. “I am surprised to hear from you. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“I’ve got something, or rather someone for you.”

“Oh?”

“You said you were working on a new variation of that fear toxin of yours, am I correct?”

“Yes, and it’s nearly ready. Perhaps just another day more and it will be finished.”

“Great! Then I have a candidate you can test it on.”

“Oh, yes, do tell. I am always looking for ‘volunteers,’ as you know.”

Edward gave Erron’s name and description to Jonathan, his smile turning into a malicious grin as he did so. As much as Edward wanted to teach the dumb cowboy a lesson himself, he also thought it wasn’t worth the effort and Scarecrow loved having ‘volunteers’ for his silly little gas...

“I will have my men apprehend him right away,” said Jonathan.

“Just don’t leave any permanent damage,” Edward said. “Otherwise...have at it.”

“I would never do such a terrible thing,” Jonathan said, chuckling darkly. “I take good care of all of my ‘volunteers.’”

“Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

“Before I go, may I ask why you are recommending this man to me? Is he one of your henchmen? Did he steal from you? Fail to complete a job?”

Now this caught Edward off guard. How was he going to explain this? He couldn’t even fully explain his feelings about this -- about her -- to himself. Yet, he didn’t want to deny Jonathan an answer, either. It was a perfectly valid, logical, albeit nosey question.

“This man, he…” Edward began, his words catching in his throat for a moment. “He, um...he...damaged something...something very valuable to me. And...and as much as I want to discipline him myself, he is too far beneath me for me to waste any of my precious time dealing with him further.”

“Ah, I see,” said Jonathan. “I must be going now, but thank you, Edward. You are too generous.”

With that, Edward hung up and made his way over to her, lightly tapping her shoulder. Turning around, she smiled up at him and removed her headphones.

“Hi, Eddie,” she said. “Did you need something?”

“No, no,” he said with a charming smile. “I just wanted to get a closer look at what you’re working on. It looks impressive so far.”

“Really?” she looked delighted, her cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink. “It’s not done yet but...thank you! You have given me a little confidence boost.”

“And you deserve it,” Edward said, patting her shoulder. “I look forward to the final result.”

Back at his desk, Edward continued working on code for upgrades to the Riddlerbots, humming to himself contentedly. Maybe what he did was a bit much, but the cowboy needed to be put in his place. Men like Erron -- people like Erron -- always did. Besides, she would forget about the fool in time. Edward was certain of this because that was the nature of things: you forget about what no longer has any meaning or purpose in your life, and seeing as how she wasn’t at all interested in conversing with Erron anymore...well, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the conclusion.

“Just dance,” she sang softly to herself. “Gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmm...”

Edward nodded to himself upon hearing her, smiling.

Yes, it’s going to be ok, My Dear, he thought. It’s all going to be ok…

-----------------

And that’s the drabble....Now, think of this: Riddler could fuck Erron Black up. I mean, he has a goddamn robot army. And Riddler is a criminal genius -- well, even without the “criminal” part, he’s still a genius. Erron is....he’s not. No offense but he’s not. 

In this drabble, Eddie is aware of all of this, but -- and this is where the self-insert part comes in so forgive me -- he does have strong feels for myself (which sounds weird but, like I said, this is a self-insert type of thing and I self-ship with this Riddler so......), as I’m the only friend he’s got (only friend he’s probably ever had, really). So, he’s very protective. 

I can see Arkham Knight Riddler being this way if he actually cared for someone. They’d be special to him for a lot of reasons and he wouldn’t want them to be hurt. He’d be devastated because he cares for them, they care for him...it’s the last the he’d want, for them to be hurt in any way.

And we know Riddler isn’t above getting revenge, and this is personal. 

Yes, I know Batman pissing him off and humiliating him over and over is personal, but I think this sort of situation would be even heavier for AK Riddler for the reasons I already mentioned. 

Some idiot dared to make his one and only friend, the only person who has been both kind and respectful towards him despite his flaws, feel awful about themselves and for no good fucking reason? 

A guy who reminds Eddie of the bullies he had to deal with growing up (I do think AK Riddler was bullied growing up -- it seems to be implied, and with how poor his social skills are, I think he would have sadly been a target for bullies in school)? 

A guy who is so beneath both Eddie and his dear friend, that said guy doesn’t deserve to walk away from this without paying a price?

But Edward isn’t a master of mental torture like Scarecrow is, and we know Scarecrow’s fear toxin makes people hallucinate terrible, terrifying things, including their worst fears and possibly any traumas they have endured in life. Erron Black didn’t have the best childhood based on his intros with other MK characters. It seems like he grew up in an abusive household, has trouble being open with anyone, has trouble forming serious relationships, chases cheap thrills over and over like he’s filling some sort of void....

Something tells me Erron wouldn’t have a good time under the influencer of Scarecrow’s toxin, and while Eddie doesn’t know about Erron’s unpleasant childhood, he...also doesn’t and wouldn’t care because, AGAIN, of the reasons I have already mentioned. In Eddie’s mind, he’s getting revenge for his only friend, the only person he actually cares for, and he’s getting it in a very fucked up kind of way. 

Phew...that was a real fucking ramble. I apologize but I have a lot of feelings about this drabble and its subject matter.....

And let’s be fucking REAL, Bitches: Erron should be glad we’re dealing with Arkhamverse Riddler and not Telltale Riddler. If it were Telltale Riddler.....omfg Erron would probably beg for the fear toxin.

Because Telltale Riddler doesn’t fuck around. 

[chikkou]

I'd ask this on your Lisa sideblog but you don't have anon on and I'm shy lol, but do you have any headcanons relating to Lisa the First? Like Lisa's views on religion, her relationship with her mother, if any of the various worlds we see mean anything?

hoh man i didnt even know anon wasnt on LMAO... ill turn it on after i post this!

also fuck YEAH i do holy shit i fucking LOVE lisa the first!! i know its sort of the black sheep of the lisa series, since it is a completely different type of game and was clearly austins first game, but i fucking ADORE it dude. the music - which he made ENTIRELY IN THE FREE TRIAL OF FL STUDIO BY THE WAY - is FANTASTIC, the art direction is actually pretty fucking incredible for an rpgmaker game that uses a good deal of basic assets, and the gameplay.... ok yeah that part is a bit lacking but its a yume nikki-style game be nice it was his first time LMAO

ANYWAY back to ur question. first and foremost, i think this is not even a headcanon so much as straight up canon, but lisa DESPISES christianity. marty is christian, probably catholic given the golden crosses everywhere, and he is a fucking scumbag hypocrite. lisa likely associates all of christianity with this line of thinking, as there is one room in the bile area where the melted martys (although i suppose we can just call them joy mutants now LMAO) simply stand in a circle surrounding one big cross. the role of the melted martys is up for interpretation of course, as is everything, but after playing the painful and seeing them described as “mindless sheep,” i think this is how lisa viewed them. so they likely represent other people that, to lisa, are probably just as sick and disgusting as marty

lisas relationship with her mother... i go back and forth on this one a lot. i can never decide if i prefer the headcanon that lisas mom died in childbirth, and so lisa never met her, or if i prefer that lisas mom was around for a very short time and then either left or died. the fact that she says “i didnt want to leave” at the end of the first leads me to believe that she most likely died. in either case, the memory of her mother was clearly important to lisa, as she wears her pendant through the entire game and its explicitly noted as being a gift from her. in either case, i think that the death/absence of the mother is heavily implied to be the primary cause behind martys descent into alcoholism and lisas abuse, since the white room strongly implies that marty did at one time sincerely love and care for her as a father properly should 

as for the meaning of each of the rooms, i think most of them are fairly self explanatory, but some of them are a bit more vague, so ill break it down in terms of how i see it (and ill put them under the cut because its long as hell):

martys house - this is the most literal one. pretty self-explanatory. the dark, yet vibrant colors and the ear-bleedingly loud tv are pure sensory overload, something lisa probably deals with on a regular basis. when lisa goes outside and it turns into a sky of marty faces, i think this is the transition into the psychological part of the game

the lobby - this is honestly just pure yume nikki ripoff LMAO... but if i had to ascribe a symbolic meaning to it, i think its probably a quiet and safe area for lisa to retreat to in her mind when she needs it, but even that eventually gets sullied as tricky rick makes his way there, too (and tells her hes “just waiting” when she talks to him). the majority of gameplay is lisa searching for items with which to kill tricky rick, who always abuses and disparages her whenever she talks to him, telling her she’ll never forget. as for the reason why... well, take one look at him and its pretty clear whats going on there. (the name is also a reference to richard nixon, whose nickname was... well, you can figure it out!)

the town - the bar area is 100% my favorite from this world; lisa clearly hates alcohol and anyone who drinks it, associating them all with marty, and that music... all i can say is YUCK. the entire section also consists of lisa having to give up something in exchange for what she needs to move on, and usually getting the raw end of the deal out of it (she gives one marty a banana, he gives her a banana peel in return). she does all that while avoiding a marty following her outside who repeatedly tells her “you cant escape,” and upon reaching tricky rick (who is atop a narrow, columnar, PINK mountain), it becomes pretty clear whats happening to her. 

the sea room - fucking marty spiders man. im assuming they represent the sickly feeling of crawling skin she gets when she looks at him or is anywhere near him, but holy GOD they are annoying to deal with. she kills tricky rick with pills here - we dont know what kind of pills these are, but i interpret them as sleeping pills, and given the rumbling music and the rapid cycling marty background, i wonder if he forced her to take these. marty is everywhere here, but the only one she can speak to is seen chilling on a raft of some kind. marty likely spent much of his time recreationally, i.e. drinking, so it makes sense why this would be here

the rope room - theres no symbolism here this is just pure comedy (LMAO). if i HAD to assign some meaning to this area, it would be that lisa likely is so despondent at this point that putting in effort to do anything feels utterly pointless, much like climbing this long-ass rope was

the white room - as i mentioned earlier, i personally believe that this area depicts the previous relationship between marty and lisa (and also has one of my favorite songs in the game). he is shown doing traditional fatherly things - he is no longer wearing sunglasses and is wearing a suit, meaning he was likely employed, and is actually smiling. he also spends time with her in a completely platonic, familial way. when she interacts with him, there is a little heart over his head. after lisa walks through the golden statues (which will reappear later), the entire world becomes filled with bile, and martys appearance returns to that of the other martys, but with an extremely warped, grotesque face. the item she needs in this area to kill tricky rick is found between two golden crosses.

notice that all of the items she kills tricky rick with - a razor, pills, and now a plastic bag - are things that a child could plausibly get their hands on; none of them are explicitly weapons. i think this shows both her age and how often she must have considered using those things against him. 

the bile room - probably my favorite area in the game, and also features what i consider the quintessential lisa song. this area really drives home lisas disgust with marty and with christianity as a whole - it almost certainly has the highest concentration of crosses, and it is also quite literally covered in wall-to-wall bile, dirty water, and disgusting houses. a lot of the most graphic sights, like the melting martys and the pond martys (no idea what to call them LMAO) are here, so i think this is pretty much the lowest circle of hell for lisa. marty gives lisa a freshly cut finger in exchange for a napkin here; im not necessarily sure what that represents, but i think the napkin was used by marty to masturbate (as he says “i needed that” after he takes it), so perhaps the finger is martys?

lisa kills tricky rick here in a cave that is not-so-subtly shaped like a penis, and gets a vhs tape in which he pretty explicitly states what is going on in the game; he even pretends like he doesnt know who lisa is at first, which somehow makes it even more disgusting. the fact that vhs tapes play a role here sort of makes me wonder if marty really WAS filming some of what he was doing, and given that lisa the joyful confirms that brad was forced to somehow participate in lisas abuse, that is.... horrific to think about, honestly

the marty tape - this tape just has the player (as marty) walk up to lisa and suited marty, who are having a tea party with a plastic tea set. they both get hearts over their heads if you talk to them. i think this drives home that he and lisa did once have a normal relationship, and perhaps theres some part of marty who misses that? theres a LOT of ways you can interpret this; having the player become marty really calls a lot into question.

the mansion - the room leading here has a marty staring directly at the player who informs lisa that she needs a sword to progress. unsubtly, the sword must be placed into the crotch of a womans statue. the mansion inside is beautiful and ornate, and easily the most gorgeous area in the game - and it all leads to what appears to be a proto-joy mutant marty, sort of looking like jabba the hutt. i dont doubt that this is intentional, given that jabba the hutt is associated with slave leia, and its not at all a far leap to call lisa martys slave. the golden statues of women, as well as many golden crosses, are everywhere in this area. its actually quite a large space with a lot of thought put into it, so im really upset that i cant figure out more of what it represents LMAO

the final area - lisa seems to go back to her actual house, but upon leaving her room and entering whether the living room would be, the whole area changes. she encounters herself in a blood red room, but when she talks to the other lisa, she turns into marty. i think this represents a clear question - who is lisa without him? IS she anyone? or is she just a vessel for him to do with what he pleases? she encounters a naked marty telling her to give up shortly after, and flees from him, but is followed by voices repeatedly telling her that she must accept her fate. i think this clearly show the mental state of lisas last days. she was tormented, eternally. she truly felt there was no escape from marty. even the background becomes nothing but martys face, over and over again, as the end screen flashes.

at the end text, she finds a video tape, and in the tape sees someone who is ostensibly her mother from behind. she apologizes for not being there for her, but when that figure turns out, its martys face that she sees. the sky turns into marty. the music becomes corrupted and overrun with pretty fucked up laughter. she tries to run, but marty is already everywhere. theres nowhere for her to run. and then the game is over.

note that the video tape comes AFTER the games end screen, which stops not long after the appearance of the naked marty. so i personally believe that the “game over” represents her deciding to take her own life, rather than just give up and accept her fate. by running from him into the blackness, she got away from marty the only way she could have. it is sad and horrible, but that is honestly the best ending that she could have gotten in this game.

the first is definitely not as good as the painful in terms of gameplay, that much i can agree on, but i really think people miss out on a lot by not playing it. i think its really crucial to see lisas life from her own perspective before you can see it from brads - after all, brad may have known more than anyone else about what was going on, but he did not experience it like lisa did. for brad, lisa is a symbol of his own regrets and failures, but lisa was a PERSON (well, in-universe anyway LMAO). she suffered on her own, with pretty much no one to help her, and then she suffered so much that she couldnt take another second of it. 

[of-bug-and-beast]

Okay, before we go anywhere with this, I do not wish MatPat any actual harm. He may have annihilated the last of my brain cells with his most recent theory (as of 2:27 PM, 07/07/19, when I started writing), but I will not advocate actually hurting him for all that. His channel is run for fun, and dare I say, attention. And I can understand that to an extent.

But with that said, he pissed me off this close to my birthday and I am having none of that shit.

Second, I will be calling the player character (the Knight) Ghost, as this is how Hornet has named them, and it has more or less become their name at this point.

So, are we good? Then let’s get started with this.

There is no way Ghost is the Pale King’s reincarnation.

I will concede that, as @take-a-bug​ has brought up here, this would make an excellent AU. But as a theory, even by MatPat’s standards, it literally has more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese.

First and foremost, Ghost is literally seen about five feet away from the Pale King himself in the flashback cutscene, as most of the comment section of the video has brought up.

If Ghost really was simply the reincarnation of the Pale King, there would have been no reason for them (who is clearly moving and doing things without him) to be in the same room as the clearly-living Pale King. Quite in fact, it solidifies that we were indeed a rejected vessel.

But let’s pretend this never happened, as MatPat clearly had. Surely the “theory” holds water now?

No. It sure doesn’t.

Let’s progress as he had.

Point #1: The Lore Tablets.

The tablets indeed refer to “Higher beings.” Now, the answer to what are the “higher beings” is a subject that, as far as I’m aware, has not actually been closed, especially with the Wanderer’s Journal that was published. But the one most seem to follow- including myself- is that the Higher Beings are the god-like beings of Hallownest, as this is supported by Team Cherry’s dev notes and AMAs[1] as well.

The Pale King is among the ranks of the Higher Beings, then. But how would Ghost be able to read these tablets, if they weren’t officially called such? Godseeker sure doesn’t recognize them as a god, at least not until they become the Shade Lord. This fact also makes the “theory” very suspicious; if they really were the Pale King’s reincarnation, where’s the godly aura? She should have recognized them as such.

Admittedly, her behavior as a whole kinda throws everything for a loop. But in the end, there’s still this.

Ghost, along with every other vessel to exist, is child of the White Lady and the Pale King. Or perhaps the term might be was, as they were kind of dumped into the Abyss, and the Void kinda seems to hate the Pale King’s guts and likely his kids too. But may they be a reanimated corpse filled with void or simply a product of not one, not two, but three incredibly powerful entities, the White Lady claims Ghost as her own spawn. This is directly stated with her stating that “Your companion's eyes burn with a familiar flame... Success then for the scarlet heart, and irony, to use my spawn to grow its own.”[2]

Likewise, Hornet- daughter of Herrah and the Pale King (the White Lady confirms this by bringing up how she was born of a dalliance between the two aforementioned parties)-  refers to the Hollow Knight as “Our birth-cursed sibling.”[3]

Not “my.” “Our.”

She is the vessels’ half sibling, sure, but this shows she recognizes them as the children of the Wyrm as well.

And being born of such powerful beings, it would be strange if they couldn’t read the text at all.

Now, the alternative possible meaning of “higher being” is those given mind by the Pale King, or similarly originated from Hallownest. Ellina from the Wanderer’s Journal book had shown no signs of being able to read the tablets in the Basin[1], which begins with the same phrase as those in the cliffs.

That in itself means nothing; after all, she is no god. But there is a lore tablet in the Howling Cliffs that rather supports this.

Higher beings, these words are for you alone.

These blasted plains stretch never-ending. There is no world beyond.

Those foolish enough to traverse this void must pay the toll and relinquish the precious mind this kingdom grants.[4]

It seems odd that the gods would so heavily rely on the narrow range of Hallownest, and since none (save for maybe Grimm, who has definitely not been here the entire time, judging from the looks of things but also has a very good knowledge of what has transpired) actually seem to have left, it seems near pointless to have the tablets.

However, we do know a bug that has left Hallownest, and came back with impaired memories besides Ghost themself: Quirrel. Now, perhaps it has to do with Monomon’s mask as well, but most likely being of Hallownest himself, he could have easily have been affected by the beyond. Those who were implied to have come from elsewhere (such as Tiso[5], Cornifer[6] and Iselda[7], Cloth[8], Ze’mer[9], and Zote[10]) have also shown no signs of memory loss despite having to have made the trek through the wastelands.

Now, Ghost has been out there, and apparently has memory loss, which does support that the wastelands do indeed strip the minds of some. Being born in Hallownest (or the Abyss, to be a little more specific), they would have been among those that would have a mind originating in the kingdom.

“But no mind to think!” you may cry, if you are one of the few people who actually think Ghost is a pure vessel. “They don’t have a mind!”

Au contraire. All the other vessels have shown to be imperfect, so they must have had at least one of the traits they were supposed to lack: will, voice, and mind. The Pure Vessel- later Hollow Knight- was tarnished by “an idea instilled”[11], which is likely tied to the cutscene at the end of the Path of Pain. But even then, the moment they had paused to glance back at Ghost, they were clearly impure; a creature without mind would have not hesitated to follow its master, yet they did. And they were judged the purer one between Ghost and themself.

In addition, if we take into consideration what we do in-game, they have made strategies to defeat enemies (or just rammed headfirst into fights until it finally worked out, which requires will and mind as well) and can choose to listen to what others say and retrain the information for their own use. They have a mind. They have a will. And what memory and knowledge they had was locked away, only able to be unlocked by some more forceful means.

So, conclusion to Point 1? Ghost can read the tablets not because they’re the Pale King, but because they are inherently tied to him and the kingdom. This can still be wrong, but it seems likelier than the suggested alternative.

Point #2: SOUL

While the Pale King has been suggested[12] to have a great ability of SOUL manipulation, it’s not far off to suggest that his kids might be able to do something similar. Hornet’s silk, as shown by the Silksong demo, seems to have a parallel to the SOUL meter back in Hollow Knight, mainly in part that it takes blows against enemies to fill it up.

But let’s ignore that for now, because there’s a more pressing thing at hand.

Guess where Ghost learned most of their spells from!

The snail shamans.

Hell, Ghost didn’t even know anything related to SOUL besides Focusing (healing), and it was only after meeting Mr. Snailman in the Ancestral Mound did they have any combative use for it. But even after getting all the spells (and out of these, Howling Wraiths, Shade Soul, and Descending Dark are likewise given by Snail Shamans, albeit dead ones), it doesn’t compare to what the Pure Vessel has.

Why do I bring them up? They were the one to be raised under the Pale King. SOUL manipulation seems a likely part of training. And between the “Focus” attack and the two “light lances” attacks, they do seem to have a firm grasp on SOUL. In fact, Ghost’s spells like quite untidy in comparison. But they weren’t the Pale King, either, and likely his abilities outshone their own. So, as the Pale King was likely a master with SOUL, why would he fall so low to be worse than his void child? Losing memory might at least leave him with something more than a rather sloppy heal.

So, as shaky as my arguments are here, it seems a little more plausible that Ghost just has the ability to manipulate SOUL because they are the Pale King’s child, and Hornet seems to support this as well, as mentioned before.

Point #3: Elegy for Hallownest and Ghost’s First Appearance

I’m not going to deny that the poem is directed to the Pale King. I mean, it clearly is.[13] But that being said, while MatPat’s logic seems at first glance slightly plausible, I remembered something that reftes this entirely. The first thing we see directly after the poem is actually the Hollow Knight in their prison, not Ghost.[14] Does this mean the Hollow Knight is the Pale King? No, it doesn’t, and don’t you dare suggest otherwise because the Pale King sure as hell locked up the kid with the Radiance in their head. It’d be kinda dumb to also be in the Hollow Knight beside his enemy, and as messed up as he was, the Pale King never struck me as that stupid.

As for the cutscene, I know this for a fact, because besides seeing the many videos of the game on YouTube, I’ve spent a lot of them playing this game, and I have seen a lot. The intro is no exception to this. So screw you and your misleading words.

Point #4: Usage of the Word “Dream” and “Ghost”

Surprisingly the most solid of his work, it’s a little harder to refute.

But this said, Elderbug may very well be meaning “dream” of grandeur, not the Radiance’s, or even the Pale King’s. His usage of the word “ghost” for the vessel is not unique either, as Ghost is given this moniker by Hornet as well[15]. Since her first pieces of dialogue in Greenpath, she refers them as “ghost” or “little ghost,” before eventually even calling them “Ghost of Hallownest.” While she gives no real explanation for the name, Ghost’s silence could easily be a main part in this.

Dreams and ghosts are also not always tied to the Radiance or the Pale King, either, as the Pale King’s palace is in the Dream realm (yet still away from the Radiance), and there are a lot of ghosts in Hallownest, if you know where to look.

So, do these words really have a deeper meaning? Not necessarily.

Point #5: Being Compared to the Pale King

Also a little hard to refute, but I’ll do my best.

The lines used to support this idea were “I almost feel like I'm once again in the presence of my beloved Wyrm,” from the White Lady and “Your noble bearing reminds me of our dear King,” from Ogrim, the Dung Defender (or White Defender, if you’re picky).

Let’s start with the first. Now in full, it actually goes “Ahh! So it bears our once-fractured soul, now complete. Such strength, such resolve, such dedication! Is it more than simply a Vessel? I almost feel like I'm once again in the presence of my beloved Wyrm.”[16]

She refers to the Kingsoul, the charm symbolizing the holy union of two higher beings[17], in this text first, before saying she almost feels like she’s in the presence of her husband. The Kingsoul would, by some degree of logic, have something that reminds the Queen of the Pale King, as half of the union was him. Besides that, Ghost has the Wyrm’s heritage, which could hypothetically amplify the effect.

But most important is still the Kingsoul. Half of it is based on the King, and that’s enough reason to remind the blind White Lady of the Pale King.

Quite in fact, she recognizes both Grimmchild and Carefree Melody to be linked to the Grimm Troupe (she tells them that “[… Ghost has] been consumed in the ritual of that scarlet clan.”[2]), so the actual presence of the primary higher being linked to the charm is unnecessary.

As for Ogrim, he says, “How funny that I see you in my dreams too, little one. Your noble bearing reminds me of our dear King. When he returns, I'll ask him if you can become a Knight! What jolly adventures we will have...”[18]

Noble bearing. Ghost literally could literally be holding themself up as if they were noble. In addition, Ogrim also recognizes Ghost as a vessel like the Hollow Knight, as he realizes that “...So there were others...” and even apologizes for the “cruel means” the Pale King used, despite his otherwise near-blind loyalty to the King.[19]

As for the Royal Retainers bowing to Ghost, there’s not much to say. While, yes, they do bow to you regardless of having the brand or not, it’s not far off to think they would have still bowed to the Hollow Knight back when it was a child, as it was the product of their beloved King. Ghost resembles the Hollow Knight, so it could easily be that. That said, since most would actually have the Brand by the time they go to the White Palace, it could also be a coding oversight. With the King’s Brand, Ghost is the King. This does not mean the Pale King, of course, but the King as in the ruler, as the brand has marked them as such.

And what does their Hunter’s Journal say about them, as MatPat so clearly points out? “The most loyal and devout servants of the King.”[20] Not even the Pale King, but simply the King. Doesn’t argue against the aforementioned points much, does it?

So, does it have to be that deep? No. Absolutely not.

Ghost’s heritage and the fact they hold the Kingsoul could essentially cover all the bases here.

Point #6: The Pale King Can Transform

This is a true fact. However, the most damning evidence here is that the King’s Brand in the Wyrm’s corpse seems to be on an egg, as Ellina states in the Journal.[21] This is likely the place the Pale King “hatched” from. Since we find no such egg near his corpse in the White Palace, it appears he’s pretty damn dead and isn’t coming back.

Bardoon may say that the death of a Wyrm may lead to “More transformation methinks,”[22] but that’s not quite solid enough to say that the Pale King had molted again. Bardoon also shows no signs of thinking of Ghost as a Wyrm, despite recognizing the Pale King and his brand being linked to such.

Point #7: Void

Let’s make this simple. The Void hates all forms of light, as seen by the lighthouse. The Pale King was using Void as well, and the Void hates his guts for that. To be reborn as a being primarily made of Void? He would probably self-destruct.

The Pale King also left the Kingdom in stasis, as Hornet states,[23] which could easily explain the “But yours is potential, eternity potential, force that could deny Time,“[4] quote.

MatPat also said he believed the egg near the throne room is where the Pale King hatched, and I think this has already been mentioned to likely be otherwise.[21]It’s more likely a failed attempt to hatching vessels in his little lab, as this resembles the egg Ghost had presumably hatched from.

Point #8: The Nursery Musicbox

This one’s also hard for me to explain, but it could also be MatPat made it illegal that leitmotifs are apparently not allowed to just be a callback.

I’m one to hate refuting a theory with another theory, but it has been suggested (and mentioned above) that the vessels may be the reanimated corpses of children of the Pale King and the White Lady. In this case, it would mean the children they had once been may have heard the song long ago, and the Shade remembers this past life.

Alternatively, the way Ghost and the Hollow Knight’s tales are entwined may also explain this, as it could have been the Hollow Knight’s room, once. But it’s shakier than the theory above.

Point #9: No Cost Too Great

This is the man who sacrificed millions, if not more, children just to contain a problem he caused. The cost was never directly tied to himself. Also, sure, maybe he’s redeemable somewhere, but I really cannot see him reincarnating into an even shorter entity.

And again, Ghost had hatched while the Pale King was still alive.[24] So. No.

Point #10: Ghost Can Wake Up Bugs from the Infection

I know we rouse Sly and Bretta from the infection’s clutches. But if we could really do this to any bug, why didn’t we do this with Myla? Or anyone else infected?

The first two seemed in a very early stage, maybe like sleepwalking at most. They could likely have been awaken by anyone else, had not the world been filled with infected individuals already.

Point #11: Monarch Wings

This is more my headcanon territory, but I would like to think that the Pale King could summon his own wings, and that set of wings? Might have been the Broken Vessel’s. Besides, we’re never given the opportunity to see if someone else can use the item.

Point #12: ...Father…?

Cut dialogue should always be taken with a grain of salt. That said, this could be a plea to their father, who Ghost does apparently remind some others of. Their mind has long since fell to the Radiance, so it’d be no surprise if they can’t distinguish the two. But this doesn’t mean Ghost is their father. The Hollow Knight was given a purpose by the Pale King, and they seemed to have loved him, and wanted to please him by being perfect, so to call out to their father in their weakest moment, wondering if he’s even out there…

Well, they were given the World Sense.[4] If they couldn’t find him that way, their resolve might have been shaken, but they’re still trying.

The rest of the cut Dream Nail dialogue[25] reads as if from the Radiance instead of the Hollow Knight, which leads to some interesting things. While “usurper” and “ancient enemy”[26] could hypothetically be linked to the Pale King, the Void is as much her enemy. Through Myla, she calls Ghost “the Empty One”[27] instead of “Wyrm” or some other term. She also states that “...THE LIGHT CANNOT BE CONSUMED...” The Pale King never consumed the Radiance and he is also of his own pale light.[28] But (while it can be held back by light) the Void wishes to snuff such radiance. In both the Dream No More and Embrace the Void endings, the Radiance is literally consumed by the Void. This makes it seem that in the end, she’s not talking to the threat of a Wyrm, but of simply a being of Void, no longer affiliated with Wyrm or Root.

Conclusion:

MatPat is a little shit that really should research more.

This is not to say I’m correct. Hell, I’d be glad if I’m even half correct. But when I can piece together an argument against that without too much issue, there’s something wrong here.

I need a source on this, but I remember seeing a post on Tumblr on how Hollow Knight is a game of acceptance, of who you were, of your past, and ultimately, your fate. It’s not about redemption.

It’s just achieving peace with your regrets and moving on, stronger.

Or at least, that’s how I’ve seen it.

I don’t see myself as right, but at least, I think I wrote something vaguely more solid, and found evidence to back it up. If nothing else, it was an excellent writing exercise. And for that I am thankful for the video.

I hope this was an enjoyable read for you, and I thank you for persisting this long.

SOURCES

1: https://youtu.be/dofQaoqecDk?t=920 – Mossbag brings this up. I do not own the book, nor have dived that far into either code or reddit.

2: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/White_Lady#The%20Grimm%20Troupe – source of quote.

3: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Hornet#Black%20Egg%20Temple – source of quote.

4: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Lore_Tablets_of_Hallownest – source of quote.

5: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Tiso#Dirtmouth – while I have seen all his dialogue, the fact remains he never outright says that he is from beyond. However, his line of “Hallownest... What challengers await in its ruin?” does seem to imply such.

6: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Cornifer#General – the fact he has only recently moved to Dirtmouth and expresses such wonder about Hallownest gives the impression he is from beyond the kingdom.

7: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Iselda#Additional%20dialogue – Iselda likewise supports this with her statement of “Of all the places to end up, we've picked this dreary town. I'd thought it a temporary stop, then my husband became obsessed with that old ruin.”

8: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Cloth#Ancient%20Basin – though vaguest of the list, her use of “this kingdom’s beasts” does imply she’s seen some others.

9: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/White_Lady#Delicate%20Flower – while she herself never said such, the White Lady says, “Not of me that flower, nor of this kingdom. Far it travelled to reach this place, brought by one beloved, fair knight of lands serene.” The Grey Mourner, presumed to be Ze’mer, was the one to give you the flower, and refers the blossoms as hers, with her words of “Che's sacred, precious, one of its kind flower,” at the quest’s fail.

10: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Zote#Colosseum – while the article likewise states he’s from beyond, he does outright say he came to this kingdom. Hard to come into a place you’re already in.

11: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/White_Lady#General – source of quote.

12: I have no memory of a source, but the entire fandom seems to have taken it as at least a headcanon, and it’s bound to have reasoning somewhere.

13: To those who may not remember the poem, it goes as follows:

In wilds beyond they speak your name with reverence and regret,

For none could tame our savage souls yet you the challenge met,

Under palest watch, you taught, we changed, base instincts were redeemed,

A world you gave to bug and beast as they had never dreamed.

- From 'Elegy for Hallownest' by Monomon the Teacher

14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y6DKBqXlmU – intro footage; self-explanatory.

15: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Hornet#Greenpath – the page also has all her other dialogue pieces, but this is the first of her many uses of the name.

16: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/White_Lady#Reacting%20to%20Charms – source of quote

17: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Kingsoul – has charm description.

18: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/White_Defender#Defeats – source of quote.

19: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Dung_Defender#After%20the%20fight – source of quote.

20: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Royal_Retainer – source of quote.

21: https://youtu.be/dofQaoqecDk?t=735 – Mossbag brings it up; again, I do not own the book.

22: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Bardoon#General – source of quote.

23: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Hornet#The%20Abyss – Hornet says, “A difficult journey you would face, but a choice it can create. Prolong our world's stasis or face the heart of its infection,” as seen here.

24: https://youtu.be/kOHdVy1BFNE?t=295 – Birthplace cutscene.

25: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hollow_Knight – the cut dialogue is in trivia.

26: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/The_Radiance – the Radiance’s own dream nail dialogue is found here.

27: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Myla – Myla’s dream nail dialogue is found here.

28: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/The_Last_Stag#Additional%20dialogue – while I do not actually remember who said “pale light” (I do remember hearing it), the Old Stag also called the Pale King “bright and radiant in visage.” So it works.

[callboxkat]

(Un)Broken - part 6

Author’s note: Sorry for the wait! I hope you guys like this one.

Warnings: food mention, headache mention, kinda implied racism?, Remy being an angsty boy

Word count: 1106

Look for the masterpost in the notes!

...

That afternoon, Virgil had a shift at the record shop he worked at; so, it was rather late by the time he made it back to the crummy apartment complex he called home.

He entered his apartment and shut the door behind him as silently as the hinges allowed. All the lights in the apartment were off, including those in Remy’s room—the door was half-open—but Virgil could see a bluish glow within, roughly where Remy’s bed was. Probably from either his laptop or his phone.

Remy didn’t call out a greeting, and Virgil just crept past, not wanting to get yelled at like he had the day before. One of the floorboards creaked under his foot, but Remy still didn’t acknowledge him.

Virgil wondered what was going on with him. They’d gotten the insomnia thing sorted out months before, hadn’t they? And it was spring, so the odds were that it wasn’t related to his seasonal depression. Something must have happened on Monday.

Should he try to ask? Or would he just get yelled at again? Virgil honestly had no idea.

He ended up settling for spending the rest of the evening hanging out in the main room, rather than in his bedroom, in case Remy decided that he wanted to talk.

Even so, Virgil was surprised when, a few hours later, he heard shuffling footsteps coming up behind the couch. He turned his head to look, and there was his roommate: he had a blanket tugged around his shoulders, his sunglasses on crooked, and his hair hanging down in loose tangles. Virgil silently moved his feet so there’d be room for him to sit down.

Remy did so, sighing heavily. For several long minutes, neither of them said anything, just watching the television, which was playing a rerun of an old game show.

“Sorry,” Remy said, breaking the silence. His voice cracked in a way that sounded almost painful. Had… had he been crying?

“Hm?”

“Sorry,” Remy repeated. He cleared his throat. “For yelling at ya earlier.”

“You mean yesterday?”

Remy was silent for a second. “Right,” he commented absently.

“I mean…” Virgil sighed. “It’s fine, I guess.” Part of him wanted to be more upset about having been told to ‘f--- off’, but Remy looked pretty rough. “Are you okay?”

“Hmm.” Remy leaned the back of his head against the couch. “Nah, girl,” he admitted, shutting his eyes.

“’Nah’?” Virgil echoed. “What’s going on?”

There was another long silence. Virgil was starting to wonder if his roommate had fallen asleep, when Remy suddenly moved, pushing himself up from the couch in one quick movement.

“Good night,” he muttered, shuffling off back towards his room. Virgil stared after him.

…

“So,” Virgil asked conversationally at lunch the next day, glancing at Roman. “Can I ask you something?”

The three friends—Virgil, Roman, and Patton—were all sitting together in the cafeteria. Logan still wasn’t there. None of them had seen him that day, and he hadn’t responded to a text that Patton had sent asking if he was coming.

Patton seemed agitated, pushing around his food with his fork without making any move to take a bite. Virgil himself was growing increasingly uneasy, too, tapping his fingers on the tabletop. He needed to create some sort of distraction, anything to keep him and the others from their worry. He’d have preferred to talk with Patton directly, but he wasn’t sure that Patton would actually answer him.

“Certainly,” Roman said, setting down his own fork.

“Why’d you only start learning Spanish when you were four? Your mom’s a native speaker, isn’t she? Or did you just say that so I’d feel better about you helping me with my paper?”

Roman grinned. “Well, first of all, that was three questions,” he joked, holding up his pointer finger. “But, that was true. And both of my parents were native speakers, actually.”

Virgil gave him a baffled look.

“I think they wanted not to speak Spanish,” Roman shrugged. “They changed their mind when Emilio was born, though.”

“Why wouldn’t they want you to speak Spanish?” Patton asked, finally looking up from his stir fry. He blinked in confusion.

Roman looked thoughtful. “You know, I don’t know. Maybe they though English was more American.”

Virgil snorted.

“I think it’s cool you speak Spanish,” Patton mumbled, going back to poking at his food.

“Thanks, Padre,” Roman said, smiling.

Virgil was trying to figure out what to say next when he saw someone walking up to the table out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look.

“Logan!” Roman cried in delighted surprise. Patton’s head shot up. His mouth fell slightly open.

Logan, who looked perfectly normal, set down a textbook on the table and pulled out the chair next to Virgil. “Greetings,” he said, as if he hadn’t just been gone for two days.

“You! You’re back!” Patton said, stating the obvious. He was sitting up straight, staring at Logan like he couldn’t quite believe he was there.

“I am,” Logan confirmed. “I apologize for my tardiness. One of my professors wanted to discuss my recent absences.”

“I’ll fight them,” Patton promised.

“It was nothing bad,” Logan said. “She just wanted to find a time to schedule a test that I missed.”

Virgil, who had been about to take a bite of his sandwich, paused.

“Wait,” Roman suddenly said, appearing to surprise even himself with the volume of the word. “You missed a test?”

Logan adjusted his glasses. “Yes, well….”

“Are your headaches getting worse?” Patton asked in a small voice.

Logan sighed. “No,” he said. “No, I promise, they’re not. But they’re also….”

“Not getting better?” Virgil finished uncertainly.

Logan nodded once.

“Oh, Logan,” Patton said softly.

“Couldn’t they still get better?” Roman asked. “It hasn’t been that long.”

“They could,” Logan said. “My doctor, however, does not seem overly optimistic. In any case, I have to deal with them now, so the uncertainty of the future is not pertinent to my current situation.”

“Hm,” was Roman’s only reply.

Still, that sucks, Virgil thought. He glanced over at the clock. They were running a little short on time.

“Want half my sandwich?” Virgil offered, waving it temptingly. Logan didn’t have any lunch yet, and the line was rather long. Patton would probably pout if Logan left them again before their free period was over.

“That’s quite alright, Virgil,” Logan said. “I can simply—.” He broke off, apparently catching sight of Patton’s expression. He sighed. “Very well. I shall compensate you tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Virgil said. Logan accepted the sandwich.

“So,” he said, inspecting the sandwich like he was looking for the best place to bite. “Have I missed anything while I was gone?”

Roman perked up. “Well, there is this play that I’ve been meaning to tell you guys about….”

...

Tag list: @patton-loves-coloring @starryfirefliesbloggo @purplesoul-at-hogwarts  @gaylotusthatexists @quoth-the-sparrow @awesomelissawho @amuthefunperson @faithfreedom @heck-im-lost @gayfandomsaremything @jemthebookworm @opaque-puppet @bunny222 @syndianites @astraastro @momolinia @captainswan618 @hamilin-manuel-miranda @goldenkiddos @afilhadehades-blog @virgeofselfdestruction @theresneverenoughfandoms @iris-sanders-athena @super-magical-wizard @rainbow-sides @thefallendog @fanficptsd @zodiac-awesome @lookitsthatquietgirl @nerd-in-space @pearls-of-patton @ab-artist @angered-turtle @im-so-infinitesimal @raygelkitty @dr-gloom @whats-going-on-kiddos @the-dumbster @oh-star-how-the-mighty-fall @fillyourteacup @kittiebrick @youtuberswithalex

[ryouverua]

Trial 4 - The Confession  (3)

THIS IS.... NOT HOW I THOUGHT THINGS WOULD GO DOWN... AT ALL...

Investigation 1 / 2

Trial: 1 / 2

WHAT THEY HAVE A TEXT BOX AND EVERYTHING THIS IS LEGIT THEN?!?!

Wait, so she really did meet up with him before the virtual world then? I imagine it was before she gathered everyone, but after that flashback light that caused her to panic the way she did - so in the last few days? And it would have to be before he met Monokuma too... so not yesterday (as I’m imagining this taking place midmorning after they went to the VR world) but the day before that?

I can only imagine what threw him off as she was speaking. He has an excellent poker face though, so I’m not surprised she didn’t realize he was onto her.

It says a lot about Kokichi that he could stay calm in the fact of that, but also it’s... a bit sad that he didn’t think he could approach anyone for help...

... Then again, countering a murder plan with a murder plan is, uh, very Supreme Leader-ish! And one that doesn’t get your own hands dirty...

I guess you are really confessing everything, because I don’t know why you would feel the need to add that damning evidence on top of all the other stuff???

By making it more interesting, did he just mean getting everyone into the simulator full well knowing Miu’s plans, or literally telling Monokuma, ‘I am going to counter Miu’s murder plan with my own’?!?!

It sounds like Kokichi’s idea wasn’t to put the motive in the simulator, after all! Monokuma is straight-up saying it was his!

But does it matter at this point if we didn’t find it??? I swear, between the Necronomicon, the First Blood Perk and this, we seriously not using any of the motives!

So they argue a bit with Monokuma about him working together with a student but he handwaves it away with the whole, well, ~I wasn’t involved with the actual murder myself~ which, okay, fine though technically isn’t he working with the mastermind. It’s kinda distracting from the confession at hand anyway.

  It’s a bit scary how badly you want to confess though.

“Anything that lets me actually put you in the ground.”

That’s a lukewarm revenge -

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

W H A T

j us t

happen....ed...........

shuichi also reacted with probably one of the cutest ‘eh’ sounds I have every heard out of his mouth but unfortunately this is all visual based, not sound based, so I cannot include it here, and also that is entirely beside the point

Holy shit, Kokichi. Holy - shit - DID YOU... STRAIGHT UP... JUST..... DROP GONTA’S NAME...

AN ENTIRELY APPROPRIATE REACTION TO FINDING OUT YOU MURDERED SOMEONE VIA ALTER EGO AND DON’T REMEMBER IT once again, a masterstroke by Kokichi, Mr. ‘I reference YGO Duel Monsters without even trying’

Yeah, I’m not surprised to see Tsumugi chiming in here. She has been Gonta’s biggest defender from trial to trial, even if her voice isn’t as loud as Kaito’s. 8(

And my god, if Kaito’s voice ain’t loud right now!

HIMIKO DON’T YOU FUCKING SAY IT

A;SLDKFJ KOKICHI DON’T THINK YOU INTERRUPTING HERE SAVES YOU FROM ME SERIOUSLY JUDGING YOUR LIFE CHOICES

“YOU CAN’T JUST SPLIT THE SCREEN LIKE THAT WITHOUT A SWORD DUEL THAT’S NOT HOW THE MECHANIC WORKS!”

“- ANYWAY I was totally confessing guys, and on behalf of Gonta as well as myself! I can’t believe you would just interrupt me when I’m being so charitable! Waaaah, you’re all so meeeean ~ !” insert crocodile tears sprite here

I am here to interrupt this incredibly serious and terrifying confession with accompanying illustration to ask - why ‘Busters’?! What kind of dumb name is that, honestly.

Between this and your ‘if everyone dies, the game will end!’ comment, you’re really scaring me right now, Kokichi - !

Gonta is not about this at all.

Man, I’ve been making the D: face over and over again during this trial - meanwhile, Gonta right now is the living embodiment of that text emoji right now.

Oh.... oh, of course. Kokichi doesn’t know about the avatar error either, does he? He’s been operating under the assumption that Gonta has been... lying to us this whole time............ That he’s been a perfect liar, without a single crack in his veneer, even to a keen liar-spotting master like Kokichi, and that he’s been just as good at tricking us as him - even better, possibly. 

Oh, no. Oh, no.

Gonta’s strongest, most stalwart supporter of the whole game is back in the game!

TRAUMATIC BUZZING NOISE FLASHBACKS

Between all the back and forth, including a bit of gloating at Shuichi on Kokichi’s part, he drops this:

And here, to counter all of the ‘Gonta is too ~dumb~ to do something like this’ comments, he already has a ready-made argument. He really has been set from the beginning, huh? Either that or his improv ability is topnot - oh wait this is Kokichi Ouma we’re talking about, of course it is. Anyway, while I think Kokichi set Gonta up to do this, I feel like I’m at least affording Gonta a bit more agency than his classmates. 8′/

d-don’t.... neglect the heart...... nngh

erika furudo is being channelled by kokichi ouma to wreak havoc on this killing game, this truly is the worst timeline

FUCK PLEASE DON’T BRING UP GENTLEMEN THIS IS SO AWFUL I’M GOING TO D I E

and everyone else seems to be in the same state I am, minus the whole ‘I’m 99% sure it was Gonta’ mindset I had going in, so Kokichi asks them the obvious question:

Aaaah, I thought so. Kaito has been pushed far enough that he won’t accept anything other than Kokichi being the culprit. :(

Kokichi’s about to drop a massive truth bomb in the trial and Kaito is not going to like it.

OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE KOKICHI NOW YOUR TROLL FACES ARE WARPING THE FABRIC OF REALITY ITSELF AROUND YOU PLEASE CONTROL YOUR TERRIFYING ULTIMATE POWER

I just really wanted to isolate this one shot from the debate especially because damn, just - the way they set it up for him and his sprite to dominate the whole screen by just - towering over everyone despite everyone being against him, despite everyone accusing him, is just some great work by the layout team!

Also the fact that they can contrast that with this image with all the flowers and sunshine around him, with that cute little smile on his face... man, I keep praising what they did with the trial debates for a reason!

And once again, it’s Kaito argument that Shuichi is forced to cut down...

All the pieces except for two - Gonta’s motive/reason he would work with Kokichi (because I thought it was maybe spur of the moment move on his part to protect Kokichi, but Kokichi is heavily implying it isn’t, and the fact that it was done via prepared item is.... a problem) and Gonta’s memory problems - are officially out in the open. Oooh geez - I had been wondering how they would do this case since to me, it didn’t seem technically difficult to figure out, but I guess the writers’ solution to that issue is to just gut-punch the players all the way to the end. 8′D

And now Kaito’s being countered by his other sidekick. Can we stop kicking this poor puppy while he’s down??? As in, the poor puppy who is probably dying a slow death from a mysterious illness right now??? Is this the game’s idea of karmic rebalancing for not outright deathflagging him again this chapter, or???

Because you’ve been baiting him this entire time.

So... was he going to let them fall for the lie of ‘Kokichi Ouma is the culprit who killed Miu’? That’s what I’m wondering right now. He’s very happily driving in the point that the one, singular truth can be incredibly painful, but this still seems very much to be a reaction to all the events of the trial leading up to this point!

Having Gonta beside Kaede’s stand, the other person who we thought, ‘No, it couldn’t be, it couldn’t possibly be....’ was probably planned from the very beginning for this trial, I imagine.

I-I MEAN IS THAT FAIR SINCE BUGS ARE DIRECTLY TIED TO HIS TALENT...

But of course, while the classmates are rallying around Gonta and Kaito...

Showing growth at the most unfortunate times, Shuichi Saihara uses his budding confidence to grow up up up and away from Kaito. 8′\

Look at him, inserting himself in between the two like this -

“SHUT UP KOKICHI YOU’RE RUINING OUR BROSHIP - W-WE CAN STILL BE BROS AFTER THIS, RIGHT KAITO???

Kaito directly after the trial but actually no please let the saimota stay strong you must overcome....

On the one hand I feel like Kokichi is being heavy-handed - on the other, I’m starting to think that he feels the need to over-explain everything to his classmates because they just won’t get it otherwise. 8′D

I don’t feel like this is 100% fair though - he did a really great job with finding the door in Chapter 1! He, uh, did completely lose his mojo though, so...

Well, the point is, Kaito did need to teach him how to trust in other people because Kaede broke it by lying to him! Shuichi has been a naturally suspicious worrywart this whole time!

HIS VOICE IS BREAKING I CAN’T FUCKING DO THIS

SHUICHI CAN’T EITHER

FUCK I THOUGHT DOING HIS FTES WOULD HELP ME THROUGH THIS BUT IT MADE EVERYTHING SO MUCH WORSE

Oh shit, this was a surprise bit of support that I wasn’t expecting! How shocked do you think Kokichi is right now that K1-b0 of all people is not completely disbelieving him, on a scale of 1-10??

If I make a comment about how computer-like this is would I get slammed for being robophobic or -

I mean Kaito’s technically not wrong? But he’s not completely right either... I, I really think Kokichi is trying to kill two birds with one stone here. 8′/ But to what end, is the real question... Disillusionment? Is that the ultimate goal?

MONOKUMA YOU’RE BRO-BLOCKING ME!!!

unholy screeching -

Kaito sounds so betrayed -

“Hold on Monokuma, I thought this was only supposed to happen in the event of an even split -”

“Shut the fuck up Shuichi Is2g I’ll crazy glue your hat back on!”

THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY UNLIKELY TEAM and also a popular OT3, I imagine with an incredibly complicated name. like. how do you combine saiouma and, uh... kiibouma I’m guessing - saikiibouma maybe???

also K1-b0 please don’t wave your Objection! finger in Gonta’s face like that, it is neither the time nor place and also incredibly rude and not helping -

I absolutely love (and by love I mean my heart is being wrenched In Twain) the way they have Shuichi facing in one direction, and Kaito fully, completely turned the other way.

Once again Shuichi is learning how to defend himself, and is finally willing to do it. I... just wish it would be under better circumstances...

Actually, out of pure luck, it lines up really well with Kaito’s last FTE and the option I chose where Shuichi bites back about his detective work. It’s funny how in the end, his natural reaction is still to search for the truth at all costs, and I like reading him as someone who is naturally curious as well as singularly focused that way, sometimes to the detriment of everything else - and come hell, high water or, regrettably, casualties. And he’ll certainly have those regrets, and fret on them endlessly as he loses himself in a spiralling circle of self-doubt, but would he be able to stop himself from following that path down to the bitter end? No... no, I don’t think so.

Should I include every cap of Gonta pleading with everyone that he isn’t the culprit? No, it’s redundant. Will I anyway because he’s tearing my heart to pieces? Yes. Yes I will.

asldkf;asdf the worst thing is he isn’t. He isn’t lying. He paradoxically is the killer and not lying about it, because not being the killer is his current truth AS HE KNOWS IT...

Y-You sound like you’re talking from personal experience, and outside of the last few trials, too! Which side of this ‘cornering’ were you on exactly...????

Oh!!! We haven’t seen this sprite in a long time!

Is it just me or is Kokichi acting extremely viciously right now? Like, his vitriol levels are off the charts. Honestly I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt this part with commentary because the way Kokichi is going off, just absolutely screaming at him, is a huge departure from the cool and collected Ouma we’ve had up to this point!

Did they... prepare arguments beforehand, maybe? And he’s losing it because Gonta isn’t playing along with the plan he said up? With that said, when Gonta turned on Kokichi in the Meet-n-Greet, Kokichi wasn’t anything like this. So what’s his deal???

Kokichi Ouma will not rest until he has flipped every single aspect of this trial and the trial format as it’s been up to this point on its head, and subsequently, used it to attack everyone around him. 

Holy shit, Kokichi has well and truly lost it. This - this has to be real. It’s far too raw for it not to be real.

Ugh, the way Kaito’s voice cracks when he jumps in here...

KAITO......................

I... feel like, despite flickerings of his ‘playful’ persona, this may be the longest he’s ever gone showing his genuine feelings - and man, they aren’t pretty. I mean, that’s assuming this anger is genuine... but I really, really feel like it is.

Just like another character I love who also uses lies and fantasy as weapons, I feel like going over this section again with new eyes will be extremely telling.

Still, that means he really, really wants to live. And the ‘we’ there is interesting. Who is the ‘we’? Is he speaking for a select few, including Shuichi? For the whole class? Someone not here, in a similar vein to Kirumi?

you know Kokichi for someone who wants to live, maybe screaming at someone whose good friend is an assassin is a bad idea

You know everyone fighting over him is eating Gonta from the inside out.

Ah, fuck, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop and I think this is when it’s going to happen.

I’m like 99% sure Kokichi’s on Tsumugi’s hit list for next chapter. 8′D 

Oooh, speaking of growth - !

You know, I keep saying this and I don’t know if I’m alone in thinking this or not but Shuichi has been consistently weak in all things social and emotional, detection-wise and otherwise. But now, here, we finally have Shuichi picking up on the true source of Gonta’s confusion on his own, his language, and how it could be relevant to the case on his own without anyone else giving him any clues or hints!

The one who has consistently stood up for Gonta in every trial, Kaito, the one who wants to believe in everyone, and Gonta himself... aaaaah, no, no no..... 8′/

KAITO WHAT IS THAT NEW SPRITE

OH GOD NO THAT’S SUCH A SAD SPRITE SDLKFJ

OMFG HIMIKO ARE YOU SERIOUSLY WHY ALL OF THIS HAPPENED

ALSO... oh, that’s right. Gonta lifted up the manhole cover at the beginning of the game with his lefthand, didn’t he? SHIT....

His sprites and tones of voice are oscillating so wildly now and it’s really hard for me to keep up??? I’m getting whiplash asdlfkj

THAT. THAT IS THE ONE PART THAT I AM WAITING FOR. I thought it was in defense of Kokichi because that is the only way I can feasibly see him killing someone and still be, well, the Gonta Gokuhara who wants to protect everyone, but there is too much of this murder that seems premeditated!!!

So we’ve established this in previous games via Celes’ and Peko’s trials, but it’s worth going over again - especially since these guys have no knowledge of either of those games -

Yeah... we’re really going to need a motive from Kokichi. Could it be as simple as countering Miu’s plan? I suppose taking her out as an obvious threat makes sense, and he’s already established that he wants to live ... There’s also the question of if it can really be something like, ‘he also wanted to use this as a way to create a fun mystery.’ I really hope not. 8′\ I suppose something like, ‘I’m taking opportunity of the fact that I’m getting rid of a threat on my life to also drive home certain points to the rest of my classmates, and also as revenge for the events of the last few days’ would be more of an acceptable answer to me, given what I’ve seen of him so far. With that said, that... is not a great way to survive, considering the target being painted in broader strokes on your back each passing minute...

DON’T LOOK AT ME, SWEETCHEEKS!!

don’t neGLECT THE HEART, DAMN IT

Jeez, maybe he really does see the rest of them as chess pieces... and Shuichi as a knight that can move in abstract, highly unpredictable ways. 8/ Either that or he’s thinking he can keep tightlipped on the motive since Gonta no longer knows it?

Looks directly at Shuichi - winks - blows kiss - “Hey you know what would be a great first date idea? Setting up a tragic murder via patsy that will rock your worldview, potentially break you apart from one of your only friends in this wretched place and ultimately send everyone spiralling into despair.”

“W-Where did you learn how to pick up people?”

“Oh, some book I found in the library called ‘Enoshima’s Guide to Love for the Hopelessly Loveless’, why?”

“KAEDE.AGAIN, WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME IN THIS SPOT. I DIDN’T WANT TO BE THE PROTAGONIST. SOMEONE, PLEASE SEND HELP.”

Sadly, Kaito is all bluster at this point... oTL

I have a feeling this is going to end up looking a lot like my reasoning...

He goes down the list so clinically. It’s one thing for me, an outsider, to be able to do that (and just barely, because I was SAD about the conclusion I came to, damn it), but for someone in the game to be able to do it... yikes....

“There is no amount of incest roleplay fantasy dreams that’ll make up for the shitshow that is today.”

“He’s making me be the one to say it, isn’t he. Sonuvabitch.”

well fuck you too

no no no no no no no he’s CRYING HE’S AUDIBLY CRYING THIS IS 50 SHADES OF NOT OKAY

He’s straight-up challenging Shuichi to be the one to pull the trigger (absolutely pun intended).

IF.... IF ONLY IT WERE SO EASY, KAITO....

“If I just choose myself THIS HELL WILL BE OVER.”

“Bro I will fucking deck you.”

What if I just

turned

the game off

right now

just let this game board sit open, here, for all of eternity

that would be okay right

[moreracquetball]

What happens to Marvin after the musical??? This question has plaques my mind for ages and I was wondering your take on it

Okay, well, here’s my personal interpretation. Obviously, since Marvin’s future is not explicitly disclosed in the musical, it all depends on you personally and what you choose to believe. But for me:

I believe Marvin contracted AIDS from Whizzer and died soon after the events portrayed in the musical.

And here’s why I think this: 

1. Charlotte sings “Something Bad is Happening (Reprise)” directly to Marvin (as we see in the proshot, she does this off to the side, in private -  as if what she is telling him is a private matter concerning only him), and it is pointed in the fact that the only real lyrical addition to the reprise is how the disease “spreads from one man to another.“ This is clearly heavily hinting at the fact that, at the very least, she is warning Marvin that he is at high-risk of already being (again, at the very least) HIV positive.

Bonus: In “Unlikely Lovers,” Cordelia says that “We don’t know what time will bring,” to which Whizzer replies “I’ve a clue” and Marvin reaffirms, “I have too/two.” Though the official lyrics state that it is “too” (meaning that Marvin is agreeing that Whizzer’s death is in near future), William Finn also does a lot of double-meanings in his text, so depending on what you interpret, it can also be “two” (as in, Marvin has two clues for the future: Whizzer will die, and Marvin himself will die). It really depends on how you want to interpret that part, so it’s not official “proof” or anything but the first time I heard it, I thought it was “two” and my heart broke. Obviously this is mere speculation on my part and isn’t “proof” and actually contradicts the real lyrics so that’s why I’m crossing it out, but I still feel this information is important to at least be aware of because it had helped form my early opinion of what happened to Marvin post-musical.

2. In “What Would I Do?” Marvin says, "Once i was told that good men get better with age. WE’RE just gonna skip that stage.” This, again, is heavily implying that Whizzer and Marvin are going to not make it to old age. 

3. This is not really “proof” but i feel like - if Marvin did contract the disease - it would add even more importance and emphasis to the lines “I’d do it again. I’d like to believe that I’d do it again and again” because it demonstrates that Marvin is essentially losing his life for loving and being with Whizzer but he still doesn’t regret it. And it just makes that line so much more profound and heart-breaking??

4. (and this is less proof and more me being all editorial and expressing my own views) But I feel like it just - makes more sense, story-wise?? Given that William Finn was emphasizing how the AIDS crisis didn’t “pick and choose” its victims and how utterly unfair and devastating it was to loved ones (it left many friends jaded and many families torn apart). Idk,,, it just makes more sense to me because of the themes established in Falsettos.

So like,,, as you can see, there’s not a lot of “proof” but this is why I believe that Marvin contracted AIDS and subsequently lost his life. It’s very tragic and devastating, and I should emphasize that this isn’t a “proven,” 100% factual account of Marvin’s future because we honestly have no idea since the musical ended right after Whizzer’s death. It’s really all up to your personal interpretation and what you believe better fits the story in your mind. If you believe that he lived a long, happy life, then your interpretation is no less “right” than mine.

[taylermsmith]

reema eqab <3

Reema Eqab is a 20-year-old artist studying in Pensacola, Florida. She focuses on expressing human emotion through vibrant visuals.  This interview was recorded in October of 2017.

How long you have you called yourself an artist and felt secure with that title? What does an artist look like to you? Who do you admire artistically?

Ever since I could remember, I’ve had a big interest in art making, but I actually started to believe in my abilities when I started high school. This is also when I became more serious about it and felt comfortable and confident in calling myself an artist. To me, an artist is one who feels as though they absolutely need to create. A true artist buries themselves into their work, and feels the need to make art like it is dependent on their health and well being. If I’m not making art, then I’m thinking about it, or familiarizing myself with other artists and their work. Some of the artists that I admire include Rita Gomes, Shanna Van Maurik, Joy Miessi, Julia Rothman, and Kindah Khalidy.

Did your ethnic background and you being an artist conflict? Explain an instance. Are there any other artists in your family?

The two didn’t conflict until I graduated high school and decided to try to make a career out of art. I received endless feedback and advice from my family; Mainly from the men. My uncles commend my strong will, because not many women have it, but advise me to pursue a career that would benefit my “future family.” Having kids has never been my interest, so hearing them say that over and over again made me even more headstrong. There is definitely a creative gene in my family, but there are no other artists. In my opinion, most of my family limit themselves by doing exactly what everyone else does/tells them to do.

Have you felt stifled by your family’s traditional ideas of what it means to be a woman? Or their idea of femininity?

This has always been a predominant struggle with my family. To them, a woman is delicate and pure, and her main purpose is to marry, reproduce, and serve the family. I’ve always felt the need to fight this portrayal, and did so by being as unconventional as possible to the people that think this way. For example, I never dress like I’m “put together” or prim, and growing up I would work at my dad’s convenience store, unlike the other girl cousins my age. I hate for anyone to think that I’m weak or there for show; This is not how I see women.

Do you feel like you will have true peace with yourself and your art when you have been ingrained with their ideas for so long? Is there hope for other artists who feel this? What piece of advice would you offer them?

I don’t think that I will ever be fully at peace with their beliefs and ideals constantly clawing at the back of my head, but I use this discordance to my advantage by feeding it directly into my art. I think that the only way for similar artists to succeed through this is for them to hang on to their passions and have a strong, undying will. Without this, there is little hope.

How do you perceive yourself? Is this perception altered when you create?

As well as being strong, passionate, and kind, I am sad and anxious. When I make art, I try to show these emotions, but sometimes I feel like the passion may come off too strong and be perceived as mean or aggressive. I feel that especially when I include feelings of heartbreak or anything political, but I think that in the end everything balances out. I let other eyes see my work, and the response normally matches what I originally intended.

When starting a new piece, do you find yourself repeating any themes? If so, what are they?

Some of the underlying themes in my works include repression, depression, feminism, and heartbreak. I definitely find myself incorporating these themes into most of my art, along with how I deal with them. Art is like my therapy, so everything I feel is let loose in my work.

What do you wish to explore/expose with your art?

In my current state of mind, I wish to make aware certain issues regarding feminism and human decency. I like to show how I believe humans should treat each other, as well as make art that people can relate to. I love helping people, so I hope to help by sharing experiences/thoughts and how I handle problems. In the future, I plan on trying to show more political themes, because most people seem to be under a blind spell and I believe that being aware is extremely important. Maybe my lively and colorful art will soften the informational blow?

What is your struggle with art and society? Art and family? Art and yourself?

I don’t like to rely on people, but art seems to be heavily dependent on acceptance. In order to make money, people have to like your work, and that makes me feel constrained and controlled. A struggle I have with my family and my art is that I feel like I have to hide most of it from them, because certain thoughts or images are ones that differ from their beliefs. Some of my work includes images of the nude female figure, and in order to not receive judgment, I don’t display these pieces, or I’ll turn them around if either of my parents try to enter my room. When I had first started college, my mom was heavily involved in my course schedule and school, and didn’t allow me to take the nude figure portion of my drawing 2 class. My relationship with art is much more comfortable than it used to be, despite the problems that I receive from my family and society’s interpretation of my art. I am able to be this way because I allow myself to be completely vulnerable in my work.

Your work has very pigmented pinks, and are overall very colorful. Yet your text indicates an instance of the male gaze/expectations others project on you. Is this a conscious juxtaposition of subject matter with color or do you just enjoy pink?

It makes me happy to see that someone else notices this! It is definitely intentional, and I’ve always thought that this pairing mirrors the way that I see myself. A glance or a quick overlook of my work implies that it’s very positive and happy, but when looked at more closely, one could see that it’s most likely different from what they thought it was. I also have a true admiration for color, especially very vibrant color, and recently started using pink because I never had before, and I discovered that I really enjoy it. Pink is typically perceived as a “girly” color, so I incorporate it to kind of support femininity in a way.

Do you think art can ever encapsulate the feeling of heartache or the depths of any human emotion? Should it?

There are so many different kinds of heartaches and types of people and ways to handle heartache, so I don’t think that there could ever be a way for art to fully grasp these feelings. Heartache is the main topic in my sketchbooks and more private work, and I follow a lot of pages on Instagram that also include this theme. These people are always able to conjure up a grouping of words in a way that fully describes a feeling I might have in a way that I would have never thought. If art were able to fully encompass this feeling or any other feeling, I wouldn’t be able to see much of a point in making it.

In an age of social media, do you find yourself validating one piece over another due to how many “likes” it received?

Social media is an integral part in the success of an artist. Although I do pay attention to likes, I no longer use this as a factor for judging my work because I am confident enough in myself to know whether or not a work of mine is successful or not. If I was able to learn something from a work that I created, then it is successful.

You also do some work with fabric and embroidery, is this medium more challenging? What do you enjoy about it?

For me this is definitely more challenging. It’s tedious and detail-oriented, whereas, with my other work, I can let loose and produce quicker results. I like making this type of art because anything wearable is typically more likely to be purchased, and it gives me a way to express myself with my appearance. I’ve also learned that it’s a great way to advertise myself. Dressing artistically/wacky makes people compliment or make a verbal note of it, which allows me to claim that I created it, and then most people will ask for my Instagram so that they can purchase or see more.

What song do you think mimics your art/ what song makes you feel an emotion you want to translate as intensely into your art?

There isn’t really just one song that I can refer to, but artists such as Lianne La Havas, Beach House, Lykke Li, and Tame Impala create music that generates relatable feelings that I like to show in my art. I made a triptych print at the beginning of the year called “Sadness, Depression, Anxiety” that contained three quotes from three songs, and I remember admiring the way that those artists were able to creatively construct their words into phrases that perfectly portrayed how I was feeling at the time. This ultimately led to me putting more words and phrases into my own work. I am not so great with words, but I try to be by analyzing music, and following artists on Instagram that make their artwork around their words, such as the artist Joy Miessi. Arabic was my first language, so there are some words that I feel only really and perfectly have their effect when said in Arabic, and this can be a pain because I don’t know how to successfully apply English words as meaningfully. My private Instagram account dedicated to my sketchbook pages helps me acknowledge quotes that I find, and also helps me try to make art out of my own words because this is a big interest of mine.

Thanks for reading and you can find Reema’s artwork on her Instagram: @reemae

[aspec-stories-blog]

Our tags (post)

This page was last updated: September 8, 2019

Contents:

About our tagging system

Content warning tags

Weekly prompt tags

Media recommendation tags

Other tags we add to submissions

Other tags we use on the blog

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About our tagging system

This is a comprehensive list of all the tags we’re currently using to label and organize the content posted on Aspec Stories. Each tag is listed exactly as it appears on our blog, followed by a comma and then any relevant info about the tag. Since this blog is new, many of the listed tags have not been used on any of our posts yet, but we’ve still included them in the list for your information.

This page will be updated as we continue to add to and fine-tune our tagging system. Feel free to message us directly if you think we should make any changes or additions to this list!

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Content warning tags

Before anything else, we want all of our readers and followers to feel welcome and safe on Aspec Stories. This means that our content warning tags are a VERY important part of our blog’s system. We want to allow our submitters to write about a wide range of topics, and we also want our readers to feel comfortable while scrolling through our blog. While our content warning tags will most commonly be used on the user-submitted works we post to the blog, we will use these tags on ALL relevant posts. Positivity posts, things we reblog, messages from us mods—anything that includes any of the topics from the following list.

Some tags will include the words “explicit,” “implied,” or “mention”. If a topic of warning is marked as “explicit,” it means that the topic is shown (e.g. “kissing (explicit)” means that kissing is directly shown in the image or described in detail in the text). If the topic is “implied,” then it is not directly shown, but it still seems as though it happens within the story (e.g. “romance (implied)” may mean that two characters are not explicitly shown in romantic scenes, but are implied to have been romantically involved in the past or off-screen). If a topic is marked as a “mention,” then either the topic itself or closely-related words are present in the story, but nothing more than that (e.g. “sexual activity (mention)” means that no one in the story was implied to have sex, but the words “sex” or “sleep with” etc. were included in a sexual context).

We as mods will always do our very best to tag each of our posts with the relevant content warning tags. If you see a post on our blog that is missing or misusing one of our content warning tags, please message us directly and we’ll fix it as soon as we can.

We will always be open to requests from users for new content warning tags to add to our system. Please message us or send us asks with these requests!

**Please note that some topics are not listed as content warning tags because they’re not allowed on the blog at all. Visit the “Community guidelines” section of our “About the blog” page to read all of the topics we do not allow on Aspec Stories.

Feel free to message us or send us an ask if you would like us to clarify why we included a certain content warning on a post, or if you have questions about our content warning tags in general.

All of our current content warning tags (listed alphabetically by topic of warning):

no warnings, Note: this is the tag we will use when no other content warnings are applicable, just to make it clear that we didn’t forget to add content warning tags to the post

ableist language

abuse (mention), Note: this is our general tag for mentions of abuse—see “verbal abuse” and “physical abuse” for implied inclusion of abuse

alcohol consumption

alcohol (mention)

animal death

anxiety (explicit), Note: this tag will only be included if it’s explicitly written or shown that a character experiences anxiety

anxiety (implied), Note: this tag will be used when it's heavily implied (but not explicitly stated) that a character experiences anxiety

anxiety (mention), Note: this tag will be used for general mentions of anxiety and related terms

aphobia (explicit)

aphobia (implied)

aphobia (mention)

blood, Note: to be safe, we’ll tag for any amount of blood—contact us if you would like to know more about a particular post

body hatred

body horror, Note: we define body horror as “altering a character’s body in grotesque or seemingly painful ways”—this does NOT include disabled bodies, burn victims, amputees, or people with scars. It is meant for situations that are out of the ordinary.  People are not allowed to submit extreme body horror, and we will not post anything that makes us mods uncomfortable

character death

chronic illness (explicit), Note: for when a chronic illness is clearly described or shown in a post

chronic illness (implied), Note: when someone is heavily implied to have a chronic illness in a post

chronic illness (mention), Note: for passing mentions of chronic illnesses

conversion therapy (implied)

conversion therapy (mention)

death (mention), Note: this is our general tag for mentions of death—see “character death” and “animal death” for explicit inclusion of death

depression (explicit), Note: this tag will only be included if it’s explicitly written or shown that a character experiences depression

depression (implied), Note: this tag will be used when it's heavily implied (but not explicitly stated) that a character experiences depression

depression (mention), Note: this tag will be used for general mentions of depression and related terms

discourse, Note: our blog has a “no discourse” policy, but if something comes up that us mods feel we absolutely need to address, it will include this tag. Again, we will not post about discourse unless we feel it is absolutely necessary.

discrimination (implied), Note: this is a general tag we’ll use if it’s heavily implied that some form of unspecified discrimination (or a type of discrimination that we haven’t already added to this tag list) is included in a post. As they become relevant, we will add more specific tags, such as “ableism,” “racism,” or “transphobia”—all with the “(explicit)”, “(implied)”, and “(mention)” tiers of inclusion. Feel free to blacklist any now if you wish.

discrimination (mention), Note: for mentions of unspecified discrimination, or types of discrimination that do not yet have their own tags

eating disorder (implied)

eating disorder (mention)

flirting (explicit)

flirting (implied)

flirting (mention)

food (mention)

gore

gun (mention)

gun violence (implied)

homophobia (mention)

illicit drug use (implied)

illicit drug use (mention)

intimate physical contact (nonsexual)

kissing (explicit)

kissing (implied)

kissing (mention)

mental illness (implied), Note: this is our general tag for implications of mental illness—we won’t pin a specific mental illness on a character unless it is specified by the author, but we will use this tag if it is strongly implied that a character has an unspecified mental illness. It’s important to note that we most likely won’t include this tag if we have already included one of our tags for a specific mental illness (e.g. one of our depression tags).

mental illness (mention), Note: we will use this for mentions of mental illnesses that do not yet have their own tags (and then most likely make those tags right afterwards)

misgendering

murder

nonconsensual physical contact (nonsexual/not intimate), Note: for more than just brief or passing contact, e.g. we’ll use this if the contact is focused on, lasts for a long amount of time, or if it’s implied that the character receiving the contact is uncomfortable.  **Edit: took the extra comma out of the tag (why did I even include it lol).

nonconsensual physical intimacy (nonsexual)

nudity

physical abuse (implied)

physical harm (explicit), Note: this "explicit" tag is for when harm is shown or described being inflicted.  Also note that these "physical harm" tags are meant for inclusion of harm that is not self-inflicted (see our "self-harm" tags for that).

physical harm (implied), Note: this "implied" tag is for when it is shown that someone has been or may be harmed, but the actual infliction of the harm is not shown

physical harm (mention)

physical violence (explicit)

police

pregnancy

ptsd (explicit), Note: this tag will only be included if it’s explicitly written or shown that a character experiences ptsd

ptsd (implied), Note: this tag will be used when it's heavily implied (but not explicitly stated) that a character experiences ptsd

ptsd (mention), Note: this tag will be used for general mentions of ptsd and related terms

q word, Note: some of us mods identify openly with the q word, but will tag it because we understand that we may have followers who have had traumatic experiences related to that word

racism (explicit)

racism (implied)

racism (mention)

rape (implied)

rape (mention)

romance (explicit)

romance (implied)

romance (mention)

romantic attraction (explicit)

romantic attraction (implied)

romantic attraction (mention)

self-harm (implied)

self-harm (mention)

self-questioning

sexism (explicit)

sexism (implied)

sexism (mention)

sexual activity (implied)

sexual activity (mention)

sexual assault (implied)

sexual assault (mention)

sexual attraction (explicit)

sexual attraction (implied)

sexual attraction (mention)

stalking

substance addiction

suicide (implied)

suicide (mention)

swearing

transphobia (mention)

verbal abuse (implied)

verbal violence (explicit)

violence (implied), Note: this is our general tag for implications of violence—see “verbal violence” and “physical violence” for explicit inclusion of violence

violence (mention), Note: this is our general tag for mentions of violence—see “verbal violence” and “physical violence” for explicit inclusion of violence

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Weekly prompt tags

Each week (on Aspec Saturday), we’ll post a new prompt that’s meant to help people come up with ideas for submissions. To help keep things organized, we’ll be tagging all submissions that we think are in response to the weekly prompts with an extra tag: “weekly prompt # (Month Year)” (for example: “weekly prompt 1 (August 2019)”). All of these weekly prompt tags will be listed here along with the prompts themselves, and each tag will be linked to a full-blog search for said tag.

All of our current weekly prompt tags (listed chronologically):

Aspec Stories prompts, Note: this is the tag we’ll include on each weekly writing prompt we post, so you can search for all of the prompts later

weekly prompt 1 (August 2019), “What do you love about being aspec?”

weekly prompt 2 (August 2019), “Write or draw a soft aspec relationship, whatever that means to you!”

weekly prompt 3 (August 2019), “Reimagine a fairy tale, folk story, or piece of mythology with aspec characters”

weekly prompt 4 (September 2019), Reblog game: The Aspec Assassin

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Media recommendation tags

These are tags we’ll include on submissions that recommend media to our followers that's aspec-friendly or features aspec characters. Here is the current list, in alphabetical order:

aspec blog rec

aspec book rec

aspec comic rec

aspec discord rec

aspec graphic novel rec

aspec movie rec

aspec music rec

aspec podcast rec

aspec tv show rec

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Other tags we add to submissions

There are a few other tags we currently add to the submissions we post. Here is the current list, in alphabetical order:

author: anon, Note: when a submitter requests that their work be posted anonymously, we’ll add this tag to the post. Visit the “How can I have my submission posted anonymously?” section of the “Submission guidelines” page for more info about this.

author: [name or pseudonym], Note: if a submitter requests we post their work under a name that’s different from their URL, we’ll add this tag to the post with the specified name. For example: “author: Rumpke Dumpster”. Visit the “How can I have my submission posted anonymously?” section of the “Submission guidelines” page for more info about this.

author: [URL], Note: we’ll include this tag on each submission we post to help make it easier to go back and search for specific users’ works on the blog. For example: “author: aspec-stories”. This is the default form of the “author” tag—we’ll use this tag unless the submitter specifies that they want their work posted anonymously or under a different name.

general submission, Note: this tag will be included on all submissions posted to the blog that aren’t related to the weekly prompt

posting mod: [name], Note: each submission that we post will be signed by the posting mod using this tag

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Other tags we use on the blog

These are some other tags we use on the blog, in no particular order:

community intro!, Note: this is the tag we include whenever we post someone’s community intro.  Visit the “A couple more notes on submissions” section of the “Submission guidelines” page to learn about community intros!

Aspec Stories positivity tag, Note: an extra tag for all positivity posts that we post or reblog

Aspec Stories writing tips, Note: for any helpful writing advice that comes our way

Aspec Stories answers, Note: we’ll use this tag when we answer questions from people about the blog and such

Aspec Stories ask game, Note: for when we play some form of ask game!

the team speaks, Note: for when the team makes some form of announcement to the blog

mod [name] speaks, Note: for when a single mod makes an announcement

posting mod: [name], Note: each reblog, positivity post, and other general posts to the blog will be signed by the posting mod with this tag

q&aspec, Note: this is a tag we’ll start using soon! More info to come.

new tag, Note: this one will show up when we add a new tag to our system, helping us mods remember that we need to add it to this page

[ganymedesclock]

What do you think is the relation between Light and Void? They are opposites in many ways, like how Ghost can gain Essence only from ghosts, and Soul energy only from living enemies. But both energies still seem tied to what I'd call 'spirit', because essence affects dreams, while soul is self-explanatory. They seem like complementary powers that have similar effects when overflowing, like you see with Godmaster DLC endings compared to the Infection.

So this might seem like a rabbit trail, but, roughly, here’s my thinking.

What Hollow Knight tells us that Silksong’s basic premise confirms is that there are two mutually true statements:

Hallownest is surrounded by wastelands

Contrary to the Pale King’s words in the Howling Cliffs, there are other kingdoms beyond these wastelands

This intrigues me because it’s fair to presume Pharloom has other gods to its name, or at least had at one point, which IMO, would seem to suggest they still have gods. We have yet to see a dead god that truly leaves behind no lingering seed of their presence. Unn is absent according to the tablet her children leave behind but she still has a physical body; she is a weak god, not a dead one. Radiance, when killed in the Dream No More and Embrace the Void endings, dissolves into Essence. And Grimm and Radiance can be refought after their boss fights that ostensibly kill them, even if it’s in a dream. The Pale King is dead- his corpse can be found- but the Seer, who isn’t proven inaccurate about anything else she says- cheerfully wonders if he’s watching Ghost.

Even, seemingly, the “Blackwyrm” Ogrim alludes to- there is some manner of enormous, jet black creature with blue eyes that can be seen in both Godhome and the lifeblood abyss dream. 

Let’s assume for a moment that Pharloom is also going to be surrounded by the wastes. Let’s assume- since we have no reason not to- that Hallownest is standard; a kingdom containing all manner of flora and fauna, surrounded by an empty, nearly-lifeless no man’s land. After all, assuming the Pale King is the author of the whispering lore tablets, since they speak in his voice and the author states indirectly they are a Higher Being (”your great strength marks you among us”), we know he traversed the void himself before arriving at the edge of the kingdom to leave behind his Wyrm body. And he claims “there is no world beyond”. It would suggest even if he’s wrong (many other bugs, from Quirrel to Cloth to Zote to Cornifer, suggest or outright state the existence of other kingdoms that they’ve traveled to) he views the world as empty.

This would seem to suggest that life exists by clinging to specific habitable zones created by gods. Possibly, Grimm’s adherents, being oddballs, occupy a travelling bubble of life and safety created by his power- it would explain why, when dream nailed, the two giraffe weevils resting outside his tent are thinking about how the roads are dark and cold, but their master is always guiding them.

That said, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Light and Life are synonymous. While many beings allude to the Void as death, that’s not the full picture. Lifeblood- the substance most directly conflated with “life”, appears to be abyssal in origin. There are artificial void beings- the Kingmoulds and Wingmoulds, among them- and natural ones as well. The snail shamans appear to have been long ago born from the void itself- the shamans you free from the Crystallized Mound and the Soul Sanctum both dissolve into shadow just like the Collector. And what’s more interesting is that Lemm’s remark on the description of the Void Idol tells us that there were bugs that worshiped the void.

Void does not appear by its nature antithetical to light. In fact, the truth seems to be more interesting- void appears primed to devour light when the two come into contact. It seems to take a lot of light and a weakened void for the former to triumph- see the Broken and Pure vessels. And at their pinnacle, Pure wields the power of holy light, effectively and without hurting themselves.

Roughly, what I think is going on is that Light is roughly the energy of a god; they are beings made of Light, who radiate it, like living suns. This is worth noting, because at least Hallownest as we saw it does not appear to have any natural sunlight- outdoor regions are perpetually overcast and dim, and the majority of the kingdom is underground. All light comes from either artificial lighting or a natural glow that seems to pervade certain areas.

The gods radiate light, and, in that light, life flourishes. In the sense of Essence, that’s described as “fragments of light that dreams are made of” but several sources, most noticeably the cut full text of the Elegy for Hallownest, suggest that dreams are not exclusively a gift of the gods. Seemingly, all living beings have dreams.

And most interestingly? That’s not just the light-aligned beings. Kin, when purified of the Radiance, with their spirit freed after the Lost Kin fight, still has essence to give Ghost. The Collector can be dream nailed and read. Ghost’s ascension to the Shade Lord basically predicates on their ability to enter dreams, and on having the awakened pure nail.

This is really interesting if you consider Ghost becoming the Shade Lord seems to involve aggregating a lot of essence to them. And many of the Warrior Dreams, after their defeat, talk about entrusting themselves to Ghost, watching them or coming with them or being taken somewhere by them. The Seer also remarks that “the dreams of this kingdom are starting to stick to you.”

The Elegy for Hallownest also implies both the Pale King and the Pure Vessel took the Kingdom’s dreams onto themselves.

So, perhaps, if Higher Beings can be thought of like stars, then, the heat and pressure that forges that star is by hitting a critical mass of essence. It would explain what gods get out of this symbiosis with “Lower” forms of life- to retain their power, to not fade away and gradually diminish, they need to retain believers, who will continue dreaming the dreams that sustain them. Radiance parasitically forces herself into others’ dreams by creeping through the minds of those who already knew of her, and then as her strength regained she was able to attack the minds of others- helped that she was the  god matriarch of the moths, who specialized in manipulation of dreams.

So where does this leave Void? I think that Void is simply another god’s light- albeit a particularly eldritch light, coming from the oldest god we know of.

The relics from before Hallownest’s history are all void-aligned. The Pale King and White Lady usurped the Radiance to become Hallownest’s new gods, and seemingly pushed aside Unn to do so... but it’s likely that Radiance overthrew another god- because she greets Ghost as “ANCIENT ENEMY”.

I think the Blackwyrm was the first god of Hallownest, and its stamp yet remains on the kingdom- most directly, in the form of the void totems, arcane eggs, the snails and Collector, the lifeblood cocoons, and of course, the black sea at the bottom of the kingdom, but I would expect, before Radiance’s rule drained the water away, it’s likely that sea was much higher than the Abyss.

What makes me say that? Well, Hallownest loves shells, doesn’t it? And the most common kind of shell that appears, all over the place, as high as the Forgotten Crossroads, in-game?

Ammonite shells.

Ancient sea creatures.

Flowing water would likely have bored out the expansive network of natural caverns the kingdom takes place in. And, again, the Snails would appear to be the descendants of natural void creatures. There’s certainly no ‘fetter’ on them like the Pale King imposed on the Moulds and Vessels. There are land snails. There are also sea snails.

The Abyss is heavily conflated with the distant past and this notion of primal life. The Hunter’s Journal entry for the Void Tendrils has the Hunter outright talking about how the bugs of Hallownest wondered what predated them- that the Hunter is wondering about this here would heavily suggest that the primal life of the void is that ancestor.

The Radiance went to war with the Blackwyrm, but, it’s likely the Pale King never did. The White Defender’s journal entry has Ogrim reference only a single “battle of the Blackwyrm”. That’s not a war. And the Pale King is way more willing to stick his face and hands (and children) in the void looking for a leg up on the Radiance.

This could well be a kind of generational ignorance acting here. The King came after Radiance had ruled for long enough to establish the moth tribe, and for the moths to get quite entrenched- if the Resting Grounds are only what was left of the tribe after a long decline, that’s still a rather fancy area with a lot of personalized tombs and markers. So he’d have arrived long after the Blackwyrm’s first defeat. And even the Snail Shaman doesn’t allude to the Blackwyrm- people who mention the idea of life in the Abyss mention it in words of idle curiosity and speculation. If we presume Lifeblood is tied to the Abyss, and tied to the Blackwyrm, as the creature in the background of the Lifeblood Dream and that door in the abyss would certainly seem to imply, then the closest thing the Blackwyrm has to an extant worshiper is Joni the heretic, and implicitly some others given Salubra cheerfully mentions drinking lifeblood is kind of a taboo, which, you don’t establish taboos for something that nobody is even considering doing.

Blackwyrm is a forgotten god- so faded and distant that they’re only peeking around the corners through dreams. It might well be that by the time the Pale King encountered the void, he viewed it as something without sapience entirely. After all, he perceives the Vessels as “mindless” when you could make a two-hundred point bulleted list over things that Ghost canonically does, either actively in cutscenes or implicitly in the thrust and limiters of the game, that make no sense if they’re a mindless puppet operating only on the instructions they’re given. Like, for example, sitting with Quirrel or Marissa, or walking slower in some sections than others.

The implication is the Pale King viewed void as something mindless and godless, but it was neither.

And the interesting takeaway from that? Is the idea that the Pale King may have given the Radiance’s ancient enemy an open door without even meaning to. After all, Bardoon outright says- death to a Wyrm usually means transformation. So perhaps in creating the Vessels, the Pale King was actually just imposing fetters on fragments of the Blackwyrm- and with the Godmaster endings, Ghost was the one to shatter that fetter and ascend to the emptied throne of the God of the Void- the new incarnation of the Blackwyrm.

[wirewitchviolet]

A Random Roundup of Surprisingly Positive Trans Portrayals

Over the last half a year or so, I’ve run across a number of bits of media I’ve come across which blindsided me with trans characters that rang pretty true. Every time, I was tempted to sit down and write a proper review, but other things were going on, so I’m just going to sit down and bite the bullet with a collection of relatively quick takes.

So let’s start off with Swiss Army Man. It’s an indie film, but it caught on a bit with wider audiences thanks to, well, the titular character being the magical farting corpse of Daniel Radcliffe. Odds are you’ve at least heard of it, but at least no one I’ve talked to about it had any idea there was anything trans-related in there, so you might be thinking I’m reading into it. Quite the opposite. The main character is, with absolutely no ambiguity about it, a closeted trans woman, and the entire plot of the movie is directly about her coming to terms with that, learning to accept herself, and stop worrying about everyone judging her so she can transition already (which she’s heavily implied to do just after the credits roll. A lot of this is subtext, but plenty of it is just plain text. I mean, halfway through the movie she starts dressing as a particular woman she sees as a rolemodel and getting lost in very girly fantasies, and these are specifically presented as her only really happy memories in a later life-flashing-before-her-eyes sort of scene. I’d really recommend watching the whole thing yourself, since hey, it’s a funny uplifting heartfelt movie (if requiring a trigger warning on suicidal imagery) but here’s someone else’s spoiler filled, inconsistently gendering explanation of a good chunk of the trans imagery.

Somehow though, all this gets lost on a huge chunk of the audience. Including most professional reviewers, even ones for LGBTQIA-focused media outlets. I read one shortly after watching it which stubbornly insisted it was trying to convey that the main character was a gay man through a bizarre metaphor that didn’t work. I’m tempted to call that one willful ignorance, but it IS to be fair one of those movies that plays around with an unreliable narrator and an odd mix of grounded reality, obvious fantasy, and supernatural elements that are hard to fit in either of those boxes. As someone who takes in a lot of that sort of thing, my personal takeaway is that while the main character is just imagining the corpse talking as an imaginary friend to cope with her suicidal loneliness, it does seem to be, within the observable reality of the movie, a legitimately magical corpse full of hyper-compressed Gyo gas. And a metaphor about shame. The main character being trans though is completely unambiguous and clear through every possible prism.

I do find it interesting though that on the commentary track, the pair of writer-directors responsible for it fail to directly refer to the main character’s womanhood, mostly just talking about her loneliness, and how relatable it is. So, blatant as the nature of the movie is, this may be a case of closeted trans women creating a story about a closeted trans woman without even realizing it.

Next we have a Korean film I stumbled across on Netflix with the unfortunate title of Man on High Heels, which I have to assume is trying to riff on Man on Fire or something similar. It’s about a tough martial arts action figure sort of cop who ignores procedure and beats confessions out of crime lords, who’s even more respected in the underworld for being such a stone cold badass than by the police force who has a pretty easy job accordingly. Who is, again, a closeted trans woman. This one I went into expecting to cringe a bit at a weird exploitation action comedy, but it plays the premise completely straight. When the movie starts, she’s been walking that knife edge for a while of starting HRT, buying a new wardrobe, and practicing with makeup, while still very much in the closet, and the main thrust of the drama is her trying to scrape up enough cash for The Surgery while trying to preserve her tough macho action legacy, and generally fumbling, with fellow cops thinking she has a drug problem and mobster fans thinking she’s gone crooked. Lot of emotional gut-punches too with flashbacks, falling out, and not exactly a happy ending. It doesn’t have the same inner monologue as Swiss Army Man, but it still feels fairly authentic in terms of the emotional turmoil she’s going through. And of course it gets some basic facts about medical transition wrong. Still, not what I expected.

Turning to TV, somehow I ended up marathoning through the entirety of Sons of Anarchy on a whim. Now, I cannot actually recommend that anyone ever watch Sons of Anarchy. Frankly it’s a poorly written show which spends more time than not completely rudderless, constantly forces people to act completely out of character to spur on new plot arcs, and stumbles hard every time it tries to say anything about women, race, politics, or morality.

Some time in the 5th season, a random filler episode has the core cast hiring a trans prostitute to stage explicit photos with someone they’ve knocked out in order to blackmail him, resulting in a very forced exploitative scene. It certainly doesn’t help that the trans woman in question is named Venus, and played by Walter Goggins (not that I approve of cis men playing any of the characters I’m listing here, but Goggins is the most overtly masculine actor in the mix, and playing the only character on this list who is out as trans and well past first transitioning). That episode left a particularly bad taste in my mouth, and I’m curious if there was some backlash to it at the time, because in the next season, Venus returns, as a minor recurring character who gets fleshed out and made significantly more sympathetic. She gets a tragic and cliched backstory full of sexual abuse of course, but she’s at least in the running for the single most morally centered character in the series, gets a lot of sympathetic dialog, and sticking up for her in various ways becomes a way to signify someone is, for the time being at least, on the path of righteousness.

What really amazes me though is the last season. The entire final season of Sons of Anarchy is frankly a train wreck. Season 6 ends with the incredibly pointless and poorly motivated murders of its most sympathetic major characters (including the main audience surrogate) to stir up conflict, and as a result season 7 is just a ridiculous exercise in body stacking. Almost every character ends up either dead or at a complete loss of what to do with themselves, and there are really only two characters who can be said to really get a happy ending. Tig, one of the more consistent characters, who can largely be described as the Designated Weirdo in the core cast, ends up spending the last season dating Venus, and their last scene implies that him falling in love with her breaks him of his weird self-destructive performative freakiness, and they get to live happily ever after. Everything else about the final season, and really the show at large, I rolled my eyes at, but hey, pleasant surprise there!

Meanwhile, turning to Japanese children’s television from a few years back, there’s Kamen Rider W. Like every Kamen Rider series, it’s a self-contained superhero show with lots of quirkiness and rubber-suit action sequences. The main gimmick the W alludes to is that the hero of this particular show is really two people. When it’s time to throw on the suit and jump into action, one of the two protagonists passes out, the other getting a split consciousness (and then of course late in the series when they get their ultimate powerup, they full on merge into a single body instead). One of these characters is Shotaro, a dorky wannabe hard boiled detective. The other is something of a mysterious MacGuffin character named Phillip, who has quite a lot going on, but most significantly for this article’s purposes, this is Phillip:

Broadcasting standards in Japan are a bit further behind the times than they are in America, so you can’t ever full on come out and state that a character is gay or trans. The best you can manage is to just barely provide plausible deniability while implying the ever loving hell out of it. And so we have Phillip, who is about as blatantly not-a-man as you can really get away with, visually. Whether the idea is to subtley portray a trans woman, or to portray the only non-binary human character I can recall ever seeing in anything is a tough call, but the hair clips and some variation on this non-quite-a-dress are present on Phillip in every single episode other than the one where a contrived sting has Phillip throwing on a dress and a wig to really pull of a Lovely Magician’s Assistant look... and trying to find a screenshot of that by searching for “Kamen Rider Phillip Dress” just gave me a variation on the standard Phillip Outfit on a female manikin at a cosplay shop.

Anyway, Phillip is great. Aside from being Very Clearly Trans, Phillip Very Clearly Has Autism (sensitively and realistically portrayed), but neither of these is ever commented on by anyone in the show. Instead, everyone is constantly talking about how Phillip is so unambiguously the more powerful, intelligent, and competent of the two, and constantly suggesting Shotaro is dead weight. It’s fantastic. Oh and the two are also as unambiguously in a romantic relationship with each other as broadcasting standards will allow. There is blatant queer-baiting between male leads in every Kamen Rider show, but I mean, they have a love theme, their ultimate weapon/armor is rainbow themed, and the lyrics to the show’s opening are all about the ultimate union of body and soul between two partners.

Incidentally, Kamen Rider Wizard from 2 years later does make a more overt effort of trans representation with a minor character, but fairs far worse with it, and the following year’s Kamen Rider Gaim has... this character, but I’m trying to focus on surprisingly good representation, and neither of them exactly qualify.

Finally, the tragically obscure 7th Dragon III Code VFD for the 3DS, along with making literally the entire cast of NPCs and PCs explicitly bisexual features as a prominent NPC a game designer/time machine designer who shortly before the game begins switched over to being called Julietta and dressing like this:

I haven’t found the time to finish it, but misgendering localization aside, yeah this is totally in keeping with my general composite image of my fellow trans game devs, and she’s great so far.

[militant-holy-knight]

The Sick Old Man of Europe

Its about time that Recep Tayyip Erdogan must be put into his proper place 

I’ve posted before how the Christchurch tragedy would have huge consequences due people using it to advance their personal agenda, but I must admit: I was rather shocked at what selfish lows Erdogan would go. During an election rally in Izmir, the Turkish dictator showed video footage of the massacre to an open crowd, something which the Western media has been trying to censor desperately for good reason. His reasoning is that the NZ terrorist wanted Turks removed from Europe, thereby presenting the voters with an “us vs them” mentality and essentially telling them “I am the only one who can protect you from this, so if you know what is good for you, then vote for me”. Not content with this, he has pressured New Zealand to execute the terrorist in custody and has basically threatened any New Zealander tourists with we will send you back home in coffins like we done to your ancestors in Gallipoli.

He probably took it more personally this time since the terrorist called for his death in his manifesto and he is in full-blown panic mode knowing that someone who wanted him dead slipped inside his country - oh the horror, nevermind the possibility of an white supremacist actually killing him is less likely than a radicalized Kurdish militant. He really wants that nutter dead despite him being in no position to harm anyone else or ever getting out and that is not if someone actually kills him inside and promised that he will take necessary action if New Zealand doesn’t cave to his demands. Many outsiders will say that he is just spewing a lot of hot air, but I think many outsiders - even those who are also critical of him - really underestimate the real danger he represents.

Coming from an Islamist background, Erdogan’s greatest dream was to relive the glories of the Ottoman Empire’s past which is reflected on his policy referred to as “Neo-Ottomanism”. After the Turkish sultan Selim the Grim defeated the Mamluks in 1517, the Ottoman Empire was elevated from an realm at the margins of the Islamic world from being in charge of it, ruling their most important seats of power such as Cairo, Aleppo, Mecca and Medina. As such they were recognized as a caliphate and their leader was regarded as the successor of the Prophet Muhammad and the spiritual leader of Muslims worldwide.

Despite their prestigious position, it was just a nice new title the Ottomans held in their long list and even then their authority was questioned for a number of reasons: for one, the caliph is supposed to be elected among the most capable and pious leaders while the Ottomans were infamous for relying on fratricide, having the prospective sultans killing their brothers to get to the throne (they later changed it to imprisonment or exile). Otherwise, they functioned like a typical Islamic absolute monarchy and they really wouldn’t adopt a policy of pan-Islamism until much later after their decline really began and they were referred to as the “sick old man of Europe”. Despite being in charge of the Empire, Turks only compromised a minority of its Muslim population while Arabs were the majority and they promoted Islam as the one thing tying them together in an attempt to counter nationalism in Europe. 

Rather than trying to restore the House of Osmanoglu (the descendants of Osman who founded the dynasty that ruled over an uninterrupted line over the empire since its foundation until Ataturk abolished the caliphate) back to power, Erdogan wants to do right what his predecessors have failed and recreate an Neo-Ottoman Empire based on what should have been and declare himself caliph by the correct application of Islam. He has worked all of his life with Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood and some pleasant people like Afghan warlord Gulbuldin Hekmatyar (an well-known genocide perpetrator against the Hazara people and responsible for spraying acid on women for being unveiled) to plant the seeds necessary so that he could be recognized as the new caliph of all Muslims. He had spent a good time also antagonizing the Gulf States specially Saudi Arabia whose kings serve as Custodians of the Two Holy Places. But make no mistake, just because the Saudis are promoters of a fundamentalist brand of Islam it doesn’t make Erdogan less of an fundamentalist himself - he just sees Wahhabism/Salafism as a rivals to his conservative Islam. 

That opportunity finally came when the Arab Spring erupted. Erdogan was part of the international powers that formed an alliance to strike Libya. When Libya fell, followed by Tunisia and Egypt falling into the hands of Islamists, he rushed to pay these countries a visit and portraying himself as defender of all Muslims to get into their good graces. He spread his influence even further offering to build mosques in Albania, something which local Muslims found outrageous because they despise the memories of being under Ottoman occupation. 

However, he left all pretense and reason behind when it became obvious that Syria was not easily succumbing to the Muslim Brotherhood. He turned Turkey’s borders with Syria into an assembly of hardened terrorists brought in from all over the world, equipped with weapons and funds and aiming to bring Bashar Al-Assad down. Finally, the collapse of the Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt seemed to have pushed him over the edge. 

Most realists will coincide that he is a necessary evil since as a NATO member the West can’t afford to have him as an enemy - case in point, the main reason why Israel hasn’t recognized the Armenian Genocide is because Turkey is one of the few Muslim nations they consider as allies in the region. I really must question Erdogan’s reliability as an ally: 

Consider that Turkey has avoided confronting ISIS directly in order to let them fight the Kurds and the Assad government. 

Consider that Turkey has allowed Western volunteers to cross the border to join ISIS.

Consider Turkey has also supported jihadist groups that are no different than ISIS.

Consider that several people (such as Iraq’s Prime Minister, the King of Jordan and the Hezbollah leader) have accused Turkey of outright backing ISIS.

Consider that Hamas implied that Turkey backs ISIS when they refused to denounce them when they burned the Jordanian pilot alive saying that Jordan had no business fighting them and they should have taken Turkey’s position instead. 

Of course, I will admit this is circumstantial evidence and conjectural “he said, she said”. Some will point out that Turkey held the biggest number of Syrian refugees since the civil war more so than Europe itself which has struggled with the migrant crisis, but its clear that Erdogan doesn’t hesitate to weaponize them when it suits him such as when he threatened to evict all refugees into Europe in case they don’t play ball with him. And this is the reason why I made this blog. He must be disciplined for his arrogance and short temper.

Its pretty self-evident to outsiders that he is a dictator. His apologists will quickly come to his defense and say that he was democratically elected with 80% of the public support, which is a really tepid response. Nevermind how the electoral race was heavily skewed in one’s favor, I find almost comical that Erdogan supporters would hold democracy as an valid argument for him considering that he once served time in jail for declaring:

"Democracy is merely a train that we ride until we reach our goal. Mosques are our military barracks, minarets are our spears, and domes are our helmets.”

Looking at today’s Turkey, it’s very hard to believe that he regrets saying these words when he was mayor of Constantinople. Furthermore, the mark of an dictatorial regime is authoritarianism. Political dissidents, critics and journalists are jailed with staggering frequency, subjected to torture, rape and abuse that honestly makes the abuse in Abu Ghurab look tame and his outrage at it hypocritical in hindsight. Just imagine: Turkey arrests more journos than Saudi Arabia itself.

Erdogan is incapable of taking criticism, which is why he gives a platform for the Muslim Brotherhood members to criticize the current Egyptian government for overthrowing Mohammed Morsi because they pay lip service to him, all while jailing any journalist that publishes anything he dislikes on the excuse of “promoting terrorism” and it must strike him something fierce knowing not being able to do as he wills wherever he wants.

For all the shit that people pins on Donald Trump, Erdogan manages to be even less tactless and diplomatic than him. Remember how much scrutiny Trump got for describing third world countries as “shitholes” in a closed meeting? Can you imagine the cataclysm that would ensue if he made the same kind of comment as Erdogan? Or if he even showed footage of the Islamic terrorist attacks on Europe to prove a point? Now don’t get me wrong: you are in no way obligated to like Trump, you can certainly criticize both him and Erdogan for different reasons. But its really sad how American journalists live on easy mode when Turkish journalists constantly have to look over their shoulder to not post anything that the regime finds objectionable. 

I realize that not all Turks support Erdogan, but a significant number of them (including a former friend of mine) voted to place him into power and are fine with living under his autocratic rule. This speaks something truly depressing about the Turkish people that for all the pretense they were once the secular model that all Muslim peoples should aspire to be, if the statistic of support for Erdogan are correct, it means things must be worse than imagined.

To conclude this text with an anecdote, it seems that that not only Erdogan’s long-life dream appears to have been for naught with Assad still standing in Syria, Morsi gone, the Kurds are on the rise and Turkey’s economy being on the toilet and only being bailed out by Qatar, it seems Erdogan doesn’t have much time left on his planet and not only because of his advanced age. Wikileaks has reported that he has been diagnosed with cancer, and while he has officially denied it, his oncologist has been arrested too which is a very interesting development. As of the time of writing, the man doesn’t appear to be any worse than before so we should see how this pans out. But it should be interesting what kind of succession will be in place or if Erdogan actually planned that long enough. Its a luxury that dictators very rarely afford it for themselves.

I find it very fitting: that the actual sick old man of Europe would want to restore the previous sick old man of Europe that was the Ottoman Empire that he identified the most, the pan-Islamist one trying desperately to survive in a changing world only to live long enough to see political Islam fall flat on its face and become discredited as a viable ideology. 

[weavingmemories]

okay, why not, i want an open discussion on what’s going on with the portal fandom? because i’ve been hearing a lot of stuff that i just haven’t been seeing publicly in the tags, and i’d like some insight from people that have been experiencing these things because i don’t know if i’m at the end of my rope portal-fandomwise for no reason or not?

feel free to respond, no matter what angle you’re from. though i would appreciate not instigating a fight, i want to hear what other people are feeling from other perspectives! i also want to apologize in advance if any of this upsets people. i’m just genuinely really confused and i would like to open this up- maybe we can all come to a better understanding of each other’s perspectives this way.

everything below the cut to avoid making this too long a post!

a) ‘chelley shippers are being let off scot-free but chelldos shippers aren’t’

i didn’t participate in the portal fandom at large back in 2011-2012, but from what i recall, ships tended to coexist enough for me to not know much about any potential drama. sure, the chelley collective was and IS still a huge one, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in of itself. yes, the silly rumor that glados is caroline is chell’s mom was floating around a lot more back then, but no one was really using that to call out people for shipping chelldos disgusting, at least not to my knowledge (just that believers of this headcanon rumor would personally not ship it, which is also fine). and my current take on this specific point is that lately, lots of blogs have been publicly talking about ‘how canon’ and ‘how gay’ glados and chell as a relationship is. which, yes, for all intents and purposes, a ship can be canon and they could both be wlw, but generally when people in fandoms crop up and say those things, people who ship other ships tend to feel slighted. it’s a natural reaction to the ‘mine is better and true and shiny!’ because it sort of lends itself to people implying the second part, ‘which therefore means yours is terrible’. it might be a personal thing for me, but when people tend to ramble on about how good their ‘canon’ and ‘true’ ship is, i tend to get a wave of insecurity about my own ship and it’s just. not a good feeling. as opposed to me seeing content for an opposing ship, which doesn’t inspire that same feeling. i like seeing chelldos art and fic, though those text posts set me off for some reason? i can’t say i know why. but i think that might be why people are more apt to ‘vague’ or be miffed about the situation, which people might be misreading as a loathing for chelldos as a ship in general? which i think personally is not the case. i don’t know about other shippers, but i would be just as annoyed if i saw the same context with chelley to cootp to factventure to caveline to even gladley (or literally any other ship). i sort of wish people would instead channel their energy into creating either fanart, fanfic, edits, or literally anything, even headcanons!

as an aside, i made a rant post about how i felt being bi in fandom here, and it sort of sums up how i feel about text posts that heavily imply glados only loving chell and only possibly being a lesbian.

b) the concept that in general, there is an overwhelming amount of bad stuff to fight in the portal fandom in the first place?

the only recurring theme i’d generally spotted myself was the whitewashing of chell in art, and the moniker of ‘insane’ from back in 2011-2012, and maybe like... that one post i saw a month ago about glados being a ‘crazy bitch’ by someone who clearly wasn’t even involved in the fandom (yet? they were playing for the first time, i think). i can see that there are issues, but every fandom is similar. there are always problems that people seek to solve, but it’s hard to solve them without directly going to the person in question. of course, that brings its own share of issues and likely lengthy arguments, especially when people are set in their ways. although aside from an overwhelming amount of people who like chelley, which may be problematic (i personally see all three ‘core’ ships of portal- chelldos, chelley and gladley- as problematic in their own right, but that’s for another topic entirely), but like... other than that?

c) salt over popular fanworks

what i HAVE seen is a trend lately that has been cropping out of the blue hating on fanworks both old and new. blue sky is one of them. the portal unauthorized musical is another. i personally feel the hate is kind of... overboard, and i can’t help but put myself in creators’ shoes, as an artist. i get a bit hypersensitive over people possibly being vocal about disliking my art, and i feel like a lot of people who create, who turn their emotions into a piece, can relate to the vulnerability of putting it out there for comment and critique. however, in a lot of cases, these text posts and actions towards blue sky and the portal unauthorized musical aren’t even really critique, but just plain out insult. of course, these also get overwhelming love from the fandom as well, and it’s easy to feel as though these overshadow your own achievements, but they really don’t! people will latch onto some things, and sometimes they won’t. maybe there is a common theme of chelley, but that is only because a LOT of portal fandom enjoys chelley as well. i could ramble about the pieces themselves, but that’s also going off topic. the point is, the creators behind these two productions are human as well, as vulnerable as putting their work out there as any artist, and don’t deserve blatant hate or spite. create the content you want to see, or encourage it, but please don’t tear fellow artists down!

d) war over wheatley and glados???

as a gladley shipper, it’s kind of silly for me to have to state, but: i love both wheatley and glados. i don’t really get why people think this has to be some sort of war between them or think that hating wheatley is Cool compared to liking glados or vice versa (even if personally, i haven’t seen anyone hate glados, but again, that’s just my experience). i don’t really get why this has to be a thing, even for people who ship chelley as opposed to chelldos or vice versa. they’re both great characters in their own rights, and you don’t have to like glados or wheatley, but... publicly bringing them down doesn’t really do much imo other than make fans of the character or people who relate to them sad or upset.

anyway, that’s about it, but all of these things are really things i want people’s opinions on! again, sorry if i stepped on any toes. i’ve just been witnessing this and posting about it occasionally but i really wanted some more fresh takes on it to broaden my own view and maybe see why people are posting/thinking the way that they do. thanks!