#just kinda throwing thoughts into the void haha

[redysetdare]

I jump around on the idea of wanting a fursuit or not because it's like, on one hand hehehehohoho bright animal costume go brrrrrrr and on the other hand it's everything that comes with fursuiting - such as the heat that being in a suit like that produces. I'm sensitive to temprature as it can cause my migraines and asthma to flare up but also I'm susceptible to feinting if not careful.

So it's like.... ough it would be so fun to have costume of my little fursona but also I don't know how well I'd handle it.

[waterfallofspace]

random lil chaos thoughts- thinking about how sometimes people say "oh that sneeze doesn't match you at all!" or "wow you can really hear their voice in that"

Thinking about a group of friends playing a game (or some sort of game show-), where one person at a time is selected, and then a collection of sneezes is played, and people have to guess which sneeze belongs to that person.

Or, alternatively, each participant submits their sneeze, gets the whole collection, and must assign each one to a person~

[kalims]

⊹ㅤattractive things they do | heartslabyul

parts. heartslabyul, savanaclaw, octavinelle, scarabia, pomefiore, ignihyde, diasomnia

characters. riddle, trey, cater, ace, and deuce.

content. gender neutral reader as always

note. fun fact: was scrolling thru my really, really old drafts and saw this. so I decided to just finish it cause why not. (this been rotting there for like a year and a half lmao)

I have about, 14 in my to do list haha. im doing them at random but trying to squeeze in writing at the crack of the night

perhaps he isn't aware of what he's doing exactly but riddle nods every once in a while during a conversation with you. that alone wouldn't have striken something in you if he wasn't intent on looking in your eyes every, damn, time! when you started to notice whatever habit it was it honestly got you skipping words mid sentence. eye to eye contact was something he thought was basic etiquette, hence his lack of care about it. there's something nice about his undivided attention focused, and probably soaking up whatever you had to say. if that wasn't enough him remembering every single thing you mention to him definitely did the trick..

everything, coughs. if i had to narrow it down probably the fact that trey quite literally looms over your shoulder to take a look at whatever you're doing. it doesn't matter whether you're tall, if you're sitting down that's what he's doing. if you had a penny you'd bet that he knows exactly what he's doing from the small smirk he does right after you jolt. you could smell his cologne, his skin over yours and you don't know if you want to screech into the void or throw yourself out of the window. you're as still as a statue, refusing to look up at him or else you're gonna get more down bad than you already are.

some might have contrary opinions but we all love an affectionate guy who isn't afraid to show it. caters just the type to bound up to you and attach himself like a magnet or something. it's funny cause you could be talking to your friends or something and he just bounds up behind you and encases you in a hug. sometimes when he's the one in a conversation he's pulling you over like he needs an emotional support item. literally whenever you're in reach, he's putting his arms to good use. you will not escape I guess.

for someone who claims to be a major hater to certain things considered weird in his book, affection included. ace does it a lot. he somehow always gravitates towards you, it doesn't matter if deuce is walking beside you he's gonna literally bump the guy away with his shoulder (one time into a bush.) a thing he likes to do though, is an arm over your shoulders like you're buddy buddies, which you technically are. just kinda out of character for a guy like him to pull you close so suddenly—and he's semi-aware of it.

looks away really fast when he gets flustered. it's really obvious that you got him, with whatever you've done. a cute thing deuce has done is laying face down in his desk at record speed just because you managed to make him embarrassed, in a good way! if you peeked through the gap under him you'd see his red face. if he can't hide his face from you, as in you keep tryna peek at it when he looks away he's literally just gonna use his hands to cover it. (although his likely response is to just sputter some excuse and dip.)

[leiflitter]

hey i need ur felix and oliver and cattonquick headcanon s RIGHT NOW… ❤️

Well uh uh uh there's 200k+ words on ao3 which contains some of this but... under the cut because it's vaguely nsfw in places, keeping this as like... Oxford Ladz.

Felix is shit in bed unless you turn it into a challenge/game, and even then he's lazy as fuck so good luck. Most girls don't care because shagging Felix is like being chosen by a god. His routine is: snog for a bit, maybe shove his hand down your knickers, then it's the Catton Jackhammer asap until he rolls off you and falls asleep.

Going out with Felix is generally shit. He shags you maybe 4 times, then ghosts you and you find out he's moved on by seeing him fingering another girl outside of a club at 2am. He might buy you something, but the most expensive gift he'll get you is most likely some shots or a 3am kebab.

Oliver? Good in bed because he is An Observer and will see what works then Do That Until You Die. However, he only really sleeps with girls to help Felix out (he gets the friend, Felix gets the hot girl). He mostly thinks of Felix when he does this, but tells himself it's in a lie back and think of england way. He also tends to stick to hands/mouth stuff, because otherwise it's "why aren't you hard" and he panics.

Oliver is perpetually single, despite Felix's best efforts. Felix does not understand why girls have such bad taste. He insists Ollie is an absolute legend and anyone would be lucky to have him. He also gets oddly grumpy if any girls DO organically hit on Ollie, though.

Felix's short-lived "girlfriends" all think it's a little weird that Felix touches Oliver more than he touches them. Like he won't hold hands in public, but he's got his arm around Oliver all the time? Weird. If you're dancing with Felix and go to get a drink, most of the time he'll be dancing with Oliver once you're back and it is hard to get his attention back.

Felix gives me vague adhd vibes, maybe dyslexia, but he was born in the 80s and he's rich af, so it's never really mattered because he never has to try.

Big Oliver Autism vibes, the man is MASKING but again... circumstances mean he's just brute forcing things.

Felix has been made to play Team Sports but doesn't like them unless it's for silly reasons.

Oliver likes exercising, but mostly goes to the gym to be in a weird little physical activity enduced void.

Felix has honestly been bi as fuck forever, but never really considered why he was down to let lads in his dorm snog him back in boarding school because it was just kinda the done thing. Haha, just hormones, amiright?

Both of them feel vaguely destined to become their fathers and do not want to do that.

Felix had very weird feelings for Damon Albarn as a teen but again. Never thought about it too hard, he's just a pretty man, bloody hormones again!

Oliver cannot drive. He refuses to drive. He has his provisional licence for ID and that's IT.

Felix is often trying to annoy Oliver because any attention is good attention. Oliver just wants to revise, Felix, please stop drawing dicks on his notebook.

Felix absolutely is going full hair-twirly, eyelid-fluttery, dreamboy bimbo at Oliver constantly. Oliver does not pick up on this, but Farleigh does and is honestly a little disgusted.

Speaking of- Farleigh is primarily concerned that he pegged Oliver for an absolute capital-L Loser on day ONE and now his stupid cousin is basically throwing himself at Oliver. Farleigh has theories, including maybe hypnosis or Felix having some sort of brain injury from Team Sports.

Oliver was absolutely bullied in school, but not extremely, because he learned to make himself invisible. Head down, keep going, don't react.

Oliver didn't really GET music until Felix showed him stuff that wasn't just radio pop music. Unfortunately, this was after Oliver spent way too long trying to understand why Steps were so popular.

Oliver's initial haircut is based off of Zac Efron's in High School Musical. He has never seen HSM, but something about Zac Efron made him feel weird, and it just sort of... happened. He has a type, and it's Jawline and Eyebrows.

Felix's first thought upon getting close enough for Oliver to do the Big Blue Eyes Look Up At Him was "oh no," followed by just question marks and bike panic. And also, bi panic.

Farleigh complained to Felix a lot about Oliver but never used his name. It was just "the fucking nerd in my tutorial group".

Oliver honestly didn't connect Farleigh and Felix as cousins, because he was mostly too busy trying not to be painfully in love with Felix to join the dots from a throwaway comment in his first tutorial.

The money in Oliver's wallet at the pub was meant to last for the next two weeks. Boy gotta get lunch and buy bodywash and stuff, not shots for rich kids.

Felix immediately begins relying on Oliver to know his schedule. Oliver just accepts this and sends Felix reminder texts for his tutorials.

Felix keeps leaving hoodies in Oliver's dorm room. This is weird because they are rarely in there for longer than a minute or two. Oliver wears these hoodies because Felix keeps insisting that they'd suit him. Farleigh, yes, sees this and is fucking CONCERNED.

Felix assumes he'll have to get married and have kids as it is his duty to continue the Catton Line. He keeps making weird jokes about his and Oliver's kids getting married.

Oliver says he fancies Kiera Knightley. This is incorrect. Kiera Knightley is just the closest woman he could find to Felix.

Oliver lies to his parents mostly to avoid any visits or needing to go home because going back there is awful and stifling and guilt-inducing.

A few people in their group refer to Oliver as Felix's Pet, but only when neither of them are there. Farleigh started it.

Felix's initial emotional reaction to Ollie's Field Reveal was immense pride and the urge to punch Farleigh in the arm very hard if he didn't stop staring, the pervert. Felix was not staring, he was merely pointing his eyes in that direction, thanks.

Felix always has something in his mouth and it makes Oliver want to die. Most of Oliver's pens and pencils have Felix toothmarks on.

Felix does not understand how much things cost. Oliver does. Oliver wishes Felix would stop picking things up that "made me think of you, Ollie!" Because. Felix. That t-shirt was £50. What is WRONG WITH YOU.

Felix has occasionally considered seeing if Ollie'd be up for a devil's threeway if he found someone willing. He isn't brave enough to ask, because he knows Oliver would say no, but he thinks about the idea a lot. You know. Just a regular wild Uni party thing, right?

If Oliver hadn't gone to Felix, Felix would have turned up sloppy, SLOPPY drunk outside of Oliver's room one night and had a big baby tantrum and probably shoved his tongue down Oliver's throat. It would be the worst handjob of Oliver's life, but also the best.

[plushmayhem]

Progress talk thread

I like to take a lot of backups as I draw so we I can show off my widdle Lilly wips!! I'm drawing again that means I get to talk about drawing again yahoo

Lately when starting a drawing I've been trying to block out very rough thumbnails as seen above! I usually just start drawing like, the head, and trying to then figure out a body under neath and line by line it all ends up pretty similar to my past stuff because it's just not planned out! I don't know where the road is taking me!

So by starting out and trying to throw together the general pose with just a blown up light brush I'm coming up with much more interesting piece! I can figure out the general shape of the entire piece and then start working on top. No making a shoulder then drawing the hand over it and then erasing the shoulder and getting frustrated because it just doesn't look connected right because I didn't plan it out… where does this drawing end? where's the limits?? where am I going?? So my current workflow involves

Make the dimensions of the piece roughly (just throw a coloured rectangle down) -> very roughly block out the shape of the body within it

This also has the benefit of inspiring me to fill in the blanks with a pose I didn't initially expect! The body is reversed from my initial vague idea because seeing the blobs made me go OH IT'D BE COOL IF I DID IT WITH THE BODY FACING THIS DIRECTION ACTUALLY LET'S MAKE THAT WORK!! If you look at the initial you can kinda see it looks more like she's looking down at you with the raised arm being the one facing you.

Anyways after doing my personal Holiday pic the other day, I was like, it would be cool to do a small run of postcards to send to people yahoo!! I checked the sizes of postcards and none were even close! They all had like an extra inch on of extra space on the bottom whoops! I free style my rectangle sizes when planning an illustration and I guess they're closer to square than the ideal rectangle! Whoops!

So for this one after getting the initial sketch down I thought, hey how close is this to 5x7? AND LO AND BEHOLD IT WAS THE SAME ISSUE!!! So I took filling out the extra space as a challenge. I'm trying to be more dynamic with my art after all!

I spent time adjusting the piece in sai2 using the transform tool with it's perspective skewing on. I wiggled and rotated and pushed n pulled and you get what you see above. A much more dynamic piece filling out the canvas!

The thing that took the most time in this phase was getting the skirt to a shape I found acceptable.

Up next was moving towards making it a finished piece!

Thick lineart is something I've been deciding if I want to stick with or not but honestly it's my natural state! I love thick lineart!! I grew up on manga I wanna see some black lines!!! In the future I wanna go back to colouring lineart as well but for now I believe I need to lean into my natural tendencies for thick lines!

I threw down my lineart to a mostly acceptable state, and brainstormed ways to fill the empty space surrounding Lilly. I found there was just a lot of empty space in the bottom left and I didn't really solve that in the final, but that's ok. It's something I'm trying to be aware of as I actually attempt illustrations. I want to finish pieces right now, I'm not in a place where I can let perfectionism slow me down.

Currently my layers are (face) and (lineart) I throw down some flat colours, a light layer above and for once I tried a shade layer too! It might of been a multiply layer. It was probably was. Anyways this is what I was happy with before moving forward with refining it. I'm currently going with more focus on like, backlighting/rimlighting because it's easier to make it work with my no context existing in da void illustrations haha.

To refine it, right now, I'm playing around with mainly using one layer. So I slammed together my layers other than the face (I made that mistake with my previous piece and that's how we ended up with the eyebrow incident. I wasn't going to put myself in a place where I had to erase an eyebrow again) and started sculpting!

I think sculpting is the best way to describe it, really. It's a lot of slamming down chunky lines, and since the lineart is on the same layer, I'm constantly pushing colours out and finding the ideal shape of both it and the lineart. It helps me push my shapes even farther and let the colours take priority when they need to. Instead of them being separate things I worry about they're all just one big piece!

I was a bit worried about merging the plaid pattern down as well, but I did my best to get the skirt in a place I wasn't going to adjust much after the merge. That was the biggest priority of the previous step really.

It's a lot of fun! I recommend people try it! Try sculpting your lineart a bit!

I added the necklace accessory after since I knew trying to fit it in earlier would also be a pain in the ass haha. I'm not a one layer purist! I'm just having fun!

The background, I went in with no idea for a bg. So this is what we get. I think it works fine for this piece, it's a vtuber attacking you with big fluffy bear claws with no context other than that they are a bear and they're going to fucking get you. Red fits, Lilly has a very orange/red hued design and it's an aggressive attack so the mood works. I could of even gone harder and made it look a bit more splattery but I wasn't sure if I was going to fill up the bottom left space or not.

Looking back maybe I could fit in her name on a cool blood splatter there but I am not a graphic design major my brain is growing slowly in this department thank you

Also fluffy claw gloves usually have much less defined fingers but I couldn't make mitts look good with my initial plans so I stuck with my initial idea!!! Thank u.

Anyways follow Lilly [Twitch]

[sharkiethedork]

Hi so I finished reading A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green the other day and I really enjoyed it! I do have a couple rambley nitpicks on how I thought the story was gonna go but I don't know anyone else who's read these books yet so I'm gonna throw it out here into the void. so spoilers below! (I do highly recommend these two books though so if you do read them we can talk about them hehe)

Okay I was SURE that the text that Miranda got from Maya about the the dresses was actually from Carl's Brother/One dgsdfgs like! I was reading that part and right when Miranda starts speculating on what Maya meant by that, I had a really incredible moment of dread when I remembered that, oh shit, April chucked Maya's phone out of the car earlier! I thought One got ahold of the phone or signal or whatever and sent that text to make Miranda feel bad and start doubting her friends so she would get mixed up in Altus easier! I believe Carl gives Maya her phone back in the next chapter and I was kind of waiting for that reveal to be made for a good chunk of the book, but then Maya said that she did send that text when she rescues Miranda from the Altus space. (And for a moment, that also made me wonder if that was actually a fake out too! But that wouldn't make much sense for One to do since Miranda didn't know they'd be coming to get her then anyway)

Which, isn't a problem and I know the whole book wasn't always strictly chronological so that's fine. Maybe I'm just a sucker for when the villain completely plays the protagonists (which, to be fair, was the case when it came to the Thread so I did get what I wanted in that way lol) but I was very slightly disappointed that my foreshadowing senses were slightly off there haha

And secondly. I was positive Robin was gonna die at some point lol. He's the only member of the gang who didn't have any chapters in the book, and Andy said something to the affect of "I never learned more about why Robin has issues with dating" after their heart-to-heat scene (Which was a scene I really adored btw). It just turns out that Robin just kinda...stopped showing up about 3/4th the way though.

While I definitely get that it probably wasn't feasible to have a SIXTH narrator in the book, and as an aspirational writer with a few minor projects under my belt I'm very aware that sometimes you just end up having a character that just kinda doesn't have anything to do later on and falls to the wayside, Robin's absence did kind of feel like a missed opportunity. Robin's reveal that he knew April's agent whos name escapes me soz was also working for Petrawiki was the partial catalyst that led to April "dying" in the first book, and he makes it clear to Andy that he's wracked with guilt about it. If I recall, the only interaction we get between him and April is that she hugs him when he shows up at the penthouse, and I'm pretty sure that scene ends up being his last appearance or at least his last major one. I think it would have been great if some time was spent in an April chapter where they make up. It's fine if April has forgiven him since then, but having some closure between them on the page would have been really great. Oh well.

At the very least when it comes to him not being a narrator, I can easily imagine them asking Robin to help write the book but he's just like "Hey it was your guys' job to do all the work on the ground, my job is to be your agent and get it out there, let me do that well."

Other than those two frankly minor nitpicks I thought ABFE was really good! I wish I had read them sooner but they came out while I was in the middle of my like five years where I didn't read shit, and also I hadn't been paying much attention to Nerdfighteria so I was only vaguely aware of the books for a while. I think I slightly prefer An Absolutely Remarkable Thing although I'm not super sure why I do, but you can't just stop at the first one!

[muppidupp]

Tbh I didn’t expect there to be an acótalo answer but now I’m intrigued

Tumblr un-ate my Hollow Knight post! I found it in my drafts! :D THE HISTORY OF HALLOWNEST, AKA WHY THE HOLLOW KNIGHT IS HOLLOW, UNDER THE READMORE spoiler warning obviously

OKAY SO. Basically theres a bug world where everyone is some kinda bug (or mushroom creature, or leaf creature, or jellyfish... there's a few different types)! And theyre all just crawling around and being bugs (mostly). But then, this huge worm guy (who is ancient and magic and powerful) decides that he wants to be the ruler of a bug kingdom. So he gets rid of his BigWorm body and becomes a little bug king guy. He is named the Pale King and he looks like this:

He has this deal where he bestows a higher level of thought to his subjects as long as they stay in his kingdom (which he names Hallownest), so they become capable of more Knowledge and stuff instead of being more... instinct-driven. And he begins to expand Hallownest, recruiting more followers from different areas. Some of them accept, and some of them don’t. And theres this tribe of moths that worship a moth dream god called the radiance, (shes a light, haha moths am i right) but they stop worshipping her and start worshipping the Pale King instead. Because he's the Cool New Thing. And they forget their old moth god! Who looks like this btw:

This makes the moth god really pissed off! After a long time passes, someone ends up remembering her. And using this memory as a gateway, she begins to sneak back into the bug-populations minds by infiltrating their dreams. She takes over their brains, and turns them into weird aggressive zombies who attack anything that moves. The Radiance’s infection turns into a pandemic, the whole kingdom is suffering, and the Pale King is in shambles trying to fix it.

Deep down below the kingdom there's an ancient dark pit called the Abyss. It's full of a black, living substance called void. Basically it's some sort of sentient-darkness-goop. And the Pale King has an idea! If a creature was born filled with this dark goop, maybe they could contain the radiance inside their mind! Since a hollow being means no dreams, no thoughts, and no mind for her to corrupt!

So he makes like a million babies with his Pale Queen (who is a white sentient tree for some reason) and they throw all the babies into the Abyss, hoping that one of them will become a perfect hollow vessel to contain the Radiance. The babies all become half bug-god, half void creatures. The vast majority of them die in the process and become little void-ghosts. But some of them survive! The king then selects one of the surviving babies as the Most Hollow of Them All, (he might have been under the impression that it was the Only surviving baby, I'm not sure) and takes it to their palace for training. The king also seals the abyss closed, leaving all the other baby bodies in there. The Hollow Knight (not to be confused with the player character, they start out very similar-looking) looks like this:

Then after [an unknown amount of time] of living in the palace and training, they end up looking like this!

I have no idea how they got that big, or why. It's never explained. None of the other vessels ever get that big. Anyways! The Hollow Knight seals the radiance inside its empty mind, and is then chained up inside a big chamber, inside of a black egg. A temple is build around the egg, and the door is sealed by three Special Powerful Bugs, who, by sleeping forever, will magically keep the door locked. The dreamers bodies must be destroyed for the door to open. Here's what they look like:

Herra the beast, Lurien the watcher and Monomon the teacher, respectively. The latter two agree to help without much protest, but the king has to convince Herra to help out by having Bug Sex with her, so that she can have a half-god child. Which is Hornet! You may have seen her around, shes a big fandom favorite:

She is also the only one of the Pale Kings children who actually has a gender, since all the other ones are supposedly too hollow to have a sense of self like that.

A bunch of time passes, enough time for the Hollow Knight to become almost entirely forgotten, with only a fountain statue left to commemorate them. But unfortunately, the Hollow Knight was never a perfect vessel like everyone thought, and they could only keep the Radiance at bay for so long. The Radiance's infects the Knight, and the infection begins seeping out of the big egg where the Hollow Knight is kept, and spreading throughout the kingdom. The game never outright explains why the Hollow Knight wasn't a perfectly pure vessel, but it's hinted that it's because they had a some sort of familial bond with their dad, the pale king. And this one little bond was enough for them to become corrupted.

Hallownest slowly becomes a kingdom full of radiance-corrupted zombie bugs, and the Pale King pretty much ditches everybody and hides himself and his palace in a dream realm, to keep the Radiance from finding him. He eventually dies in this dream realm.

But Hallownest remains, the Hollow Knight and the Dreamers magic keeping it in a stasis. There’s still a few bugs here and there who aren’t infected, but no one remembers the Hollow Knight and the Dreamers sacrifice anymore, so there isn't anyone who knows how to undo the seals on the egg where the Hollow Knight is kept. The only way to stop the infection would be to kill the Hollow Knight and either re-sealing the Radiance in a new vessel, or to go into her realm and defeat her altogether.

But then, after another shitlong amount of time, our player character shows up! They look like this:

This is where the game actually begins. None of the lore I just talked about is explained at the beginning. You play as one of the Pale Kings children who survived the abyss and got out of it, somehow. (There are a few other vessels who got out as well, but it seems you’re the only one thats still alive)

What will you do? Well, you'd have to play the game and choose for yourself.

[everoutoftouch]

As I’ve gotten older I don’t really like the massive digital footprint I’ve left everywhere. So it’s been confusing to navigate trying to silently remove things or at least not add to it while also needing to scream into the void because everything is garbage. It’s a garbage world right now and I’m just throwing my trash around everywhere here lol

But uhhh also may have had a tinyyyy. Just the teensiest psychotic break from reality. lol and that increased my paranoia. And then I thought about how many people follow this blog. And I like imagined (ex: oh my god a YouTuber I liked that followed me could witness my entire mental breakdown on here) and that’s just. Something that does not need to happen lol

But also I got one mortal life so I can’t worry too much. I missed my little home here and all my mutuals so I’m trying to balance and be normal™️

So not immune to psychosis apparently so let’s just add that to the fucking list lol incredibly humbling. Some things it’s like okay haha that’s kinda wacky 🤪 whoops! And then other things where I thought everyone was gonna die. And just everything in between. Wow so fun.

[delightfuldevin]

Can I bother you for any lore on your Mario S/I? Does he have any In-Universe backstory or does it all stem from White Void?

SCREAMING AND THROWING MORE HEART EMOJIS AT YOU

Ahem sorry anyway

My S/I entered the Mario universe at around age 8, so his backstory there starts at that time!! My first game in the series was Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, but at the time, I didn’t follow the game too well cause my cousin owned it and I only got to play it when I saw her so I lost a lot of the information. Then she lost the game before I could beat it ;^; By the time I got the game for myself 4 or so years later, all I remembered was a vague memory of the part of the game that takes place in the forest. So, this translates as my S/I having entered the world through the forest and meeting Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser while they were in the middle of a “Bowser kidnapped the princess” moment.

I’ll put the rest of this under a cut cause it did get a lil long jdbdvkjgvhgvg

So I, being the goody two shoes I was, did not like villains at all as a kid and Bowser was no exception. As a matter of fact, for the first year or so, I didn’t even remember his name most of the time hcbxjcbsj. Whenever I did remember it, I thought it was “Browser”. I stuck to the bros and Peach like glue and just sorta ignored him entirely.

However, as I started to play more games in the series, he started sticking out to me more. I thought his final boss fights were really cool in the New series. I thought his lines were fun and goofy in the games with dialogue, and I enjoyed his almost tsundere personality in the rpgs. Learning about the existence of the Koopalings made me like him more too cause him being a dad just made him so endearing to me. The Koopalings were actually my first comfort characters before I knew what that was.

(Fun fact: My very first S/I was actually the Koopalings’ sibling! I liked the idea of them being my siblings and hanging out together. However, despite me seeing them as Bowser’s kids, I never saw Bowser as my dad and it actually made me uncomfortable for some reason. What led me to realize I liked Bowser romantically was that as I got older, I started seeing the Koopalings as my kids and I thought “well what does that make Bowser to me?” I thought about it long and hard and realized I had a crush on him djbcsjbcs)

So in terms of my S/I, I imagine that Bowser had a crush on me from the start and all the times I was ignoring him in the past, he was doing these things to try to get my attention. He would take any opportunity to show off his power, he would say whatever came to mind just to make me laugh. When my S/I met the Koopalings and befriended them, they played matchmaker to get us together (King Boo was a big player in that too).

In terms of his abilities, he obtained manipulation over lightning from the Lord of Lightning, the dragon from Super Mario Odyssey! It was an accident that almost killed him, but he was revived by a 1-up mushroom and when he woke up, he realized he had control over lightning. He was in his late teens (17-18 ish) when the accident happened. There’s a whole one shot for this I haven’t posted yet,, That’s also where the demi-dragon form comes in! Because his powers came from a dragon, he sorta becomes one himself by proxy when he uses them!

He’s always had the ability to conjure fireballs and his whole glowing/catching on fire thing since he first arrived to this world. It’s kinda a jokey/silly reason for why, but it’s because irl I used to be compared to the sun when I smiled as a kid so I thought “haha what if my S/I is part Shine Sprite” and then cause I have depression I compared that to the Angry Sun from Super Mario Bros 3 so yeah jdbcjsbcsjhcb. I’m not sure if he actually is part Shine Sprite or not. It’s just fun to think about sometimes.

So anyway, that’s it for the main stuff! I didn’t include how I met Rosalina and King Boo cause I wasn’t sure where that would fit in this lil ramble? Also, I know you mainly asked about my S/I’s story, but I don’t know how to talk about it without talking about my ships too fhbfjxhfgch

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ENABLING ME I AM STILL THROWING HEART EMOJIS AT YOU

[i-got-a-bad-feeling-about-this]

Hello! So i have this idea for iswm and i would love to request it!

Ok like its canon that the captain is attractive, right? Then how about a fic where one of the crew members have a camera, and so like they have this secret competition for pictures with the captain? And the picture where the captain does something most attractive wins. Maybe there is a picture where the captain folds their arms in a cool way or maybe a picture where the captain puts an arm around a crew's shoulder which made them freak out the rest of the week and that picture wins. The captain is not aware of the competition, but the captain is aware that they are seen as attractive, so they didn't mind when people wanted to take pictures with them. In the end, the captain finds out about the competition, they're like "oh.. so that's what this is about?" And they just laugh it off, playing along and saying flirty stuff like "you're really swooning over me doing that, huh? I could've done more, but i don't think you're all ready for that"

Oof im sorry if this is too long or too detailed. I had this idea for a while and think it would be pretty cute haha

Capture the moment ( ISWM Mark X Captain)

+Main 3 crew simping for the captain

Summary- Mark, Gunther, CC, and Burt have a competition to see who can get the best photo of the captain looking good. The captain knows they are taking pictures of them, but not why. When the captain finds out Mark gets more than winning the competition.

TW's- LONG ( about 3,000 words), pictures being taken of captain but they don't mind, being caught kissing, very slight sexual innuendo if you squint, flirty captain, the crew simping for the captain, just fluff.

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Thank you so much for requesting, I had so much fun with this (maybe too much it is kinda long). I've been obsessed with ISWM rn and I've been itching to write for him. I was so excited to get this request! I mostly followed it, just kept it to the main crew ( Mostly) and it's mostly pictures of just the captain but you can imagine there were a few with the crew! I'm super happy with this and hope you enjoy it. Also, Mark Isn't written as Actor in this, but you can read it however you want!

Thanks for requesting anon <3

Everyone on the Invincible II knew your name. You are the kind and strong captain, who knows what they're doing, everyone respects you. Though their respect for you was not why they would (on occasion literally) throw themselves at you. You were very aware that the crew found you very attractive, it was no secret. So when the crew started to take photos of you, you didn’t give it too much thought. If it made them happy, you didn’t mind at all.

What you didn’t know was that there was a competition going on. 

About a week ago Burt, Gunther, CC and Mark were working on the computer, while you went around the ship to check in with the rest of the crew. For some reason the computer started to glitch and it affected all of the areas of the ship, so Mark had them come in and help reset part of the system. 

While Mark and Gunther were reprogramming the computer, CC and Burt talked. Burt was certainly a well spoken man ( At times ) and it seemed today he was going on about the beauty of space. CC didn’t mind listening at all, and quite enjoyed it. She (too often) had to deal with Mark and Gunthers yelling and Burts tangents were a nice change of pace. 

Burt moved from his place by CC to in front of the window, outlooking the stars. CC followed and as she took her place next to him he said 

“ Space is home to my lonely heart. When times are rough and I wonder if it was worth it to come to space I think of a poem my Grandmother would tell me,” He paused, a soft smile on his face, “On foot,I had to cross the solar system. before I found the first thread of my red dress. I sense myself already. Somewhere in space hangs my heart, shaking in the void, from it stream sparks,into other intemperate hearts.” CC placed a hand over her heart after hearing the beautiful poem. 

“ A beautiful poem by Edith Sodergan.” he continued, “ Space is truly a beautiful wonder.” As he finished he pulled out a small camera from his pocket and snapped a photo. 

 This initially got the attention of Mark and Gunther to CC’s disappointment. Mark snapped his head up and to no one's surprise hit his head on the underside of the monitor. 

Gunther after laughing at Mark, turned to Burt asking, 

“ Burt, How long have ya had that camera?”  He slid a cigar into his mouth and lit it. Burt shrugged his shoulder, “ The whole time, I don’t know how you havent noticed I wasn’t exactly hiding it. “ 

CC shook her head and answered, “ It's because these two knuckle heads were too focused on trying to blow things up.” Mark of course was offended, but before he could make a comeback Gunther put a hand over his mouth. 

“ Ya think we could see the photos that you have on there, eh Burt.” He asked, seeing it was a digital camera. Burt nodded and put the picture up on a small tablet that was in the room. 

Most of them were of the crew or parts of the reactor, but one stood out to all of them.

It was a picture of you, their captain, with a soft smile on your face on the bridge looking out onto space. The light of a nearby moon illuminated your features with a soft glow. Almost immediately they were asking Burt if he had any more pictures of the captain. He did not, but he said he could take more. 

“ Well what If we want to take a picture of Captain, I’m sure I could get an amazing candid being their second hand and always being around them.” Mark stated, hands on his hips. CC shook her head, 

“ Yeah we’d let you take pictures if we wanted blurry unfocused shots. You know nothing about cameras, Mark.” She argued, “ I, on the other hand, have experience with cameras, considering I set up the security cameras in each of the cryo pods.”  Gunther let out a hefty laugh at this. 

“ Like you’d be able to hold the camera steady. Obviously I'd be the best for the job, I’m great at targeting and holding things steady. “ Gunther said waving a gun, “ I also have quite the experience in “shooting””. Everyone let out a groan at the bad pun. CC offered a solution,

“ Well, How about this? Everyday someone gets to have the camera and we can all try to get good photos of the captain. “ Burt shrugged and pointed out, “ Not like that would be hard, They are quite stunning.”  The others shook their heads in agreement.

Mark’s face then lit up, and he said “ What if we made it a competition? Whoever gets the best picture of the captain they win. “ Gunther shook his head, 

“Burt would obviously win, it's his camera, he knows it best.” Gunther agured, and Burt shook his head and offered, 

“ What if it’s whoever captures the captain's beauty/ and or handsomeness best?” Burt offered.

Everyone one else murmured agreements. 

Mark clapped his hands together, “ Then It’s settled whoever has the best picture of the captain wins.” 

On the first day CC had the camera. The majority of her pictures were of you working. Her favorite picture was of you looking over the colonist being illuminated by the cool lighting of the room as you placed a gloved hand on the window fog around your body. She had been pretty confident she was going to win this.  

The next day was Gunther. He spent the whole day making you laugh and smile, mostly illuminated by the light of the ADS system. He was scheduled to show you how well the ADS was working and this meant you and him watching a bunch of asteroids get blown up by big ass lazers. 

The smile on your face when he handed you the control and let you shoot a few asteroids down was amazing and a close second to his favorite. You had put down the control and smirked as you looked at the destroyed steroids with your arms crossed. You looked like you came straight out of an action movie that for some reason would always cast the most attractive people to be the main character. Gunther had to take a picture.

You knew they were taking pictures of you, it was obvious. You didn't mind though, you would love to have pictures to remember the time in space. (Not like you would forget but still).You didn’t try to pose though, You had important work as captain and couldn't be posing all day as much fun as that would be. 

As the next day came it was finally Mark’s turn, to say he was excited was an understatement. He was practically bouncing off of the walls and this put you in a good mood. Mark was always positive but seeing him excited made you happy. It reminded you of how amazing it was that you were both here in space. 

As the day went on Mark took pictures everywhere and of everything you did. He had a picture of you sleepy and drinking your coffee, but he also had a picture of you giving out orders with a kind but determined look on your face. He wasn’t lying when he said he would take candids of you. He had one of you sipping your coffee and looking at him from the mug, one of you giving finger guns to Gunther. He was so proud of them all, but then the best picture came. 

You were walking to Life support, a small hobby of yours was tending to the plants in there when you had free time. Though as you opened the door you saw Burt’s second hand Tyler. Much like Burt he was calmer and more kept to himself, so you were surprised to see him there. It was after what was considered the “Work” day for them, which is why you were wearing a simple black shirt and your normal black pants. Mark usually hung around you after the work day had ended, not that you minded at all. 

“ Oh Hello Tyler, what brings you here?” you asked picking up a watering can, Tyler rubbed the back of his neck standing in front of an area that held plants. 

“ Well Captain, while Burt and I were collecting samples from passing planets we found something that I thought you might enjoy.” Tyler blushed a bit , “ This is just a gift from Burt and I thank you for being a good captain. “ 

Tyler stepped to the side and it was revealed he had planted a glowing white flower, shaped similarly to your favorite flower. You placed a hand over your heart, as you walked over to the plant. 

“ We did scans and we are a hundred precent sure it is safe to have aboard.” he said as you gently ran your fingers over a petal, the petal turning your favorite color. ( Mark did take a picture of this of course). 

You stood up with a soft smile, you wrapped an arm around his shoulder in kind of a side hug and said, “Thank you, this means alot to me Tyler.” Your kind eyes sparkled, colors from different plants lit your face, but the most noticeable was the glow of the new flower. Mark quickly took a picture, and then for the first time that day put the camera away and watched with a smile. He thought you deserve so much more than you're willing to accept, so it’s nice seeing this. A soft smile covered his face as he looked at your beaming smile, no picture could ever do you justice. There was no way to capture the feeling of the moment with a camera. 

You released Tyler to get a closer look at the flower and Mark had to stifle a laugh. Tyler stood there face red, mouth slightly agape, and his body as stiff as a board. Mark put a hand on his shoulder. Tyler turned to him and quietly but quickly said, 

“ I’ve gotta go.” Tyler rushed out of the room, Mark shrugged and turned back to you. 

The rest of the night was you two talking about plants in the life support room. 

The next day it was Burt's turn. He mostly took pictures of you interacting with the crew. Though he did get a nice photo of you looking at the reactor, which he personally loved. He wasn’t able to take many pictures as it was a busy day, though it was worth it to have the next day “off”. 

As the next day rolled around it was finally time to look at the pictures of you and it was fair to say everyone was excited. You had no idea what was going on as of the moment. They had all decided to meet in the cafeteria and go through the photos. 

The whole time they were commenting about how amazing you looked, and how it was crazy how you looked this good all of the time. Light blushes on each of their cheeks as they went through the photos. That was until they landed on Mark’s photo of you on life support. 

Everyone's jaws dropped as they looked at the photo. Everything was amazing, your smile, slight blush, your casual clothes, and the lights dancing in your eyes. 

As if on cue you walked into the cafeteria and saw the group of people. You walked over and placed a hand on Mark’s shoulder, 

“ Hey, what’s going on….” Your voice drifted off as you saw what they were all looking at. You blushed a bit and motioned for Mark to move so you could sit next to him, which he did. 

“ Wow, I didn't think I could look that good.” you commented. You then asked Burt, 

“ Do you think I could look at them?” You were aware Burt had a camera and would occasionally take pictures, but considering the amount of time you saw that camera the last week you were curious. 

They handed you the camera and you started to go through the photos, they were all of you? A surprised look appeared on your face,

“ Not that I mind much, but is there a reason why there are so many pictures of me?” you asked light heartedly, before continuing “ If you wanted to get a close look you all could’ve just asked.” you let a small smirk fall on your face, as the rest of them blushed. 

“ Uh, well, Captain, we all had a competition to see who could get the best picture of you.” CC said, and Gunther interrupted with, 

“ We all thought we could get the hottest picture of you and so we had a competition is what she really means cap’n” 

You let out a little laugh, “ Oh, so that's what this is about huh?” They nodded their heads yes, and your smirk turned into a smile.

“ Well I must say, I am flattered you all.” you then looked down at the picture of you that Gunther took with your arms crossed, 

“ So you find me doing my job hot , huh? ” you teased Gunther and for the first time he went speechless.You let out a small laugh,

 Though you found yourself looking at a picture Mark took of just you looking at the plants.. 

“ I was just looking at plants.” You turned to mark with a smirk, “ you're really swooning over me looking at plants, huh? I could've done more than look at plants with you Mark, but I don't think you're ready for that yet, head engineer" You winked and slung an arm around his shoulders. Mark turned red, the other laughed a bit. Though the conversation quickly changed to possibly taking some pictures of other crew members and printing out the picture they took.As the conversation went on you eventually removed your arm from Mark’s shoulders. Though Mark couldn’t hear any of the conversation.

His senses were overwhelmed by you, your stunning smile, eyes shining brighter than any star, and your calming voice that sounded like heaven to him. He could smell the body mist you wore everyday, the one he got you as a gift. As if he wasn’t yearning for you enough, you turned to him and gave him a soft smile. He took a deep breath as you placed your hand over his, moving to sit closer to him. All he could feel was your leg pressed against his and your hand on his. Your ungloved hand holding his. He honestly thought he was going to explode, the one coherent thought he was able to form was, 

“ I think I love them.” 

Eventually the others left to enjoy their day off. Not that Mark noticed, all he noticed was you turning to him. 

“ You okay Mark? You were unusually silent.” you asked, he gulped and spoke

“ Yeah, um, yeah I’m doing great captain.” you blushed a bit before saying, 

“ Uh, I wanted to say this sooner but I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable earlier with my flirting. “ A sheep smile on your face. Mark’s eyes wided before he shook his head and exclaimed, 

“ No, No, No I was absolutely comfortable with it, captain. It was amazing, You're amazing.” his face turned red as he registered what he said. Before he could say anything you looked at him in surprise, before quickly taking his hand and leading him to the life support room. You needed to be alone with him for this. 

“ I’m sorry I didn-” marked started before you cut him off, 

“ Did you mean it?” you asked, 

“ Mean what?” he questioned 

“ Do you …think I'm amazing?” you clarified and gently took his hand standing in front of him. Mark took a deep breathe before answering, 

“ I do, you're the most amazing person I know. You're kind, strong, funny, smart and loyal. You're the best captain, but you're also the best person I know.” He gently raised the hand that was holding his and pressed a kiss to your knuckles. 

“ You are so stunning in so many ways. You have no idea what you mean to me (y/n).” he stated, using your real name for the first time in a long time. 

Your voice went soft as you said, “ Mark, I- “ you paused stepping closer. 

“ Tell me if this is crossing a line, but I think I love-” before you could finish your sentence Mark pulled you into him and kissed you. He placed a hand on your lower back and one on your face cradling your cheek. Your arms wrapped around his body as you both shared a gentle but passionate kiss. You leaned into him, trying to be impossibly close to him. He did the same as he moved his hand to the back of your neck and tilted your head gently making the kiss more passionate than gentle. He started to back you up when-

“CLICK” 

You and Mark pulled back to see Burt and the others standing there. Mark let an annoyed look cross his face , as a  blush covered your face. Gunther chuckled then said, 

“ Oh don't mind us Cap’n, we're just capturing the moment. “ You then provided to hide your face in Mark’s chest. Mark shook his head before grabbing your hand and leading you out of the room and to your private office. ( Which you didn’t use very much).

You let out a groan and say, 

“ Oh stars Mark, that was so embarrassing, what are they going to think of me?” you then shook your head, “ I mean I’m not ashamed to be with you or anything it’s just we got walked in on.” 

You let out another groan of embarrassment as Mark laughed lightly and pressed a kiss to your head. 

“ It’s a little embarrassing, but at least now we can’t be interrupted.” He said as he leaned in for another kiss, you happily met him in the middle.

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[jnixz]

(Aquato-Family-Circus here) your tags abt Gristol's mental space potentially having a different layer inside the mailbox is so fun... imagining a place that feels a little under developed and has construction signs but it's there. to Gristol's disbelief and stubborn refusal to accept it he has Opinions and Thoughts and Feelings abt HQ and the employees that extend past "obstacles in my grand maligula scheme". They're not even all good opinions (there's a lot of petty negative shit actually, lol) but they're still there

Hehe yeah, I think it's very much implied that people's mindscapes are flexible and got different spaces. It's a fun exploration on the parts of the person. (I should really write down thoughts on each pn2 level but ah busy)

Aforementioned Tag-rambling post because reading it in my current theme sucks:

I have a feeling the Mailbox is actually a bit more constructed despite what Gristol thinks. Most of what is solid is related to letters and packages he delivers though. 

The employees look like cardboard cutouts like the Grulovian peasants. The real people he considers obstacles (like the grandhead maybe) would be like the Ford statues, probably blocking a path. Till he gets someone to move it anyway. I like imagining the particularly negative stuff are like scribbling on like a marker on a poster haha extremely childish and shallow.

The level layout would be similar to Motherlobe HQ, but instead it all looks like the mailroom. Do you ever think about how the vents are so big and the package system can fit a box with a person in it? Now plaster that everywhere you go in this Mailbox section.

Anyway I ended up really thinking a bit about the ideas on what the inside of the Mailbox space could look like. I could probably sketch it out but a bit preoccupied this week.

I DID however, end up writing a kind of a fic because I kept thinking of all the other Gristol/Nick posts, specially the Identity Crisis one, as an answer to this ask buut yeah it evolved hehe (0v0) whoops. 

Kinda wrote this like a dream-like narrative and stuff, mostly to sorta kinda just start on the ideas of that Mailbox corner of the mentalscape. [Ao3 Link]

C/o Nick Johnsmith

It was like the opposite of the the Fatherland Follies. Quite unlike the backstage of it where its broken up and twisted by the important bits. Instead of the black void surrounding a one way path, The Mail Room would start as an enclosed labyrinth-like space like the size of the vents a certain child went through, stumbling out to a certain senior agent’s lab. 

There's a lot of corridors going in different directions. A bunch of cans and letters litter the halls. The walls look unfinished, like someone might put another corridor but aren't quite sure yet. There's doors marked under construction with no door handle. There's colored mail slots on some of the dead ends. 

It's easy to get lost.

You aren't sure where you are going, your stomach growls. You feel like you’ve been walking walking and just walking around in circles. 

The Mail Runs On Trust

You pick up a letter along the way to see if putting it in one of the mailslots would get you somewhere-- then suddenly you end up in a hallway with a mirror in the end. Who is this guy in another outfit on the other side?

Oh wait! he has a nametag, it's -- "Welcome, Nick Johnsmith - Mailroom Staff" The scanner loudly announces.

...

The vents and the conveyor belts are above you, and its all twisted up layered in every directions. There is dust everywhere. Nobody has been sorting the mail (they tried but they aren’t good enough, somehow even the broken was better than them).

It was easy enough to get the job. Nick-- yes that is me alright-- new staff here

The packages need to be sorted up the chutes -- up there. (Why?? Would you need to throw these?) You climb up with the help of ladders leading up to a hole and -- oop it’s a portal.

You recognize the familiar walls of the vents, but now there’s markings in the walls that are the same to the packages you hold.

You walk and walk, finally with direction.

You deliver the mail into the right slots, and it opens back to the mailroom, where the conveyor belt straightens and you can send off packages safely.

You do it several times, and now the doors under construction open up for you.  There are other employees around here, some floating and chatting. You hear gossip about another person’s life, or about the paper they have been using.

You call to one of them, giving them your most charming smile, flowery compliment, and of course their mail, the correct package. 

They ask you to stay but you refuse. You go back to the mailroom.

...

Sometimes, you pass by this door that kind of looks like the levitation elevator psychics go through in HQ, except this one had thought of non-psychics and is upright sideways. 

When you go through it, the vent corridors open up to form a road, you can finally see the sky but you aren't sure what color it is. There's stars in the sky. The road leads to a boat and an all too open ocean. You go back inside, not quite trusting where you would end up if you went out there.

...

You continue work, till every vent and conveyor belt is sorted out. You are actually getting hungry, and you didn’t notice till now. Where do you eat again?

There is a knob near the mirror and you reach to open it like a door. You are back in the corridors. No matter, you are Nick Johnsmith - Senior Mailroom Staff, and you know your way around here by now.

...

Walking in the corridors, you were about to head to the Noodle Bowl when a kid on a pony shows up grumbling about the lack of his favourite food. 

You ask if he wants something else instead. The kid shakes his head and insists, as if he hasn’t eaten anything else but the best eggs, all for a little prince like me. He seems eager to share that as a fact.

Come on -- he starts going down toward this vent that looks like the top tin can. It's easy enough to open, when you go in the metal corridors unfolds into a red carpet. You don't see the kid anywhere. 

It twists and turns but stays in one path, the walls open up to the void.  Golden ornaments start to decorate the railings and its starting to look famili- ah, there's the royal family picture. 

You are back at the start. 

You know where this goes

You should get back on the ride. You’ve been walking for a long while.

There’s caviar at the casino, a plot in the Motherlobe and a throne waiting in Grulovia. Everyone should know better than stop Gristol Malik from getting what he deserves.

[ask-dcf]

At the chara duo. To data!chara. You sure you are ok? We know how you are around OTHER charas. Maybe try not to think to hard about it? And yes we know it’s been a day for you but try not to hold any grudges with someone you don’t know.

Kfc Chara: Uuuhhh what the heck are they talking about?

*Crosses arms* It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it…

Kfc Chara: *Floats closer to her* It’s kinda hard when you are barely even looking at me. I thought you said we were cool.

*Floats a bit away From Kfc Chara* We are… I just don’t want to talk about it.

Kfc Chara: *Floats close again, Data!Chara started tremble in anger as they spoke and kept invading her space* Well I do. I can’t exactly move on till I know what your deal is If you’re gonna put up an attitude with me. Seriously what is your deal with me?

*SNAP*

*She turns to their counter part and yells in their face* YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT MY DEAL IS!? FINE! ITS BECAUSE YOU’RE A CHARA!

Kfc Chara: *Shocked and jumped back a bit from how she blew up in their face. After a second of silence they frowned at what she said* Excuse me?! What do you mean “A” Chara? What even is that supposed to mean?

*She looks them dead in the eyes* You seriously don’t know do you?… *Floats up a bit above them* FINE! I’ll educate you on people like us. *points out into the endless void* Out there! In the multiverse. Us charas. WE ARE USUALLY THE BAD PEOPLE! There are charas out there that are hypocrites, thinking that even tho after a genocide, the barrier is broken for our family to be HAPPY, THEY THINK THEY SHOULD RESET TO WHEN THEIR FRISKS FIRST FALL TO THE UNDERGROUND. There are charas who take other lives for FUN. There are charas that kill our frisks and asriel in an eternal hell FOR FUN! And then there are charas who think they are above other people by putting people in some punishable hell for mistakes that were made, never letting any of them free! *waves her arms at Kfc Chara in anger* And that’s just the tip of screwed up multiversal iceberg! Every ONE of them will have the same thing in common and NEVER listen to reason, they will use counter points, deflect questions, avoid the point, and have an ENDLESS AMOUNT OF EXCUSES, all to justify their self righteous baloney! And when they get cornered about it, THEY RESORT TO THREATS AND HARMFUL VIOLENCE! *throws head back in anger with an ironic laughter* HAHA AND THATS NOT EVEN THE MESSED UP PART! *Looks down holding her head* Each and everyone of them have the same damn face. THE SAME DAMN SMILE! YOUR FACE AND SMILE! *Was clearly also referring to herself as an example aswell* It’s not only a sick twisted cosmic joke but it’s MADDENING! And you are not sure if the next Chara you will meet will be a good or bad one. LET ALONE CONSTANTLY WORRY IF YOU WILL END UP BECOMING LIKE THE SAID BAD ONES! *Flies up the KFC Chara’s face with her eyes in static for a split moment* SO FORGIVE ME IF IM NOT EXACTLY WILLING TO TRUST ANOTHER “ME” AT THE DROP OF A HAT!

Kfc Chara: *was completely gob smacked by the amount of information about them in the “multiverse”, they didn’t know it was THAT bad. A tear formed in their left eye for a sec…. They gave a frown and look of determination. They put their hand on their own chest and spoke with confidence* I would, NEVER, in my lifetime or my non-lifetime, EVER, hurt my family or Frisk. I get that all that stuff must make you pretty suspicious of beings like us. But I SWEAR, I am NOT those other Charas. I would rather DIE AGAIN then ever lay a malicious harmful finger on my family. Let alone even ATTEMPT it or even THINK about it. I am not… *points out into the void* I AM NOT THEM!

*Chara stood face to face with her counterpart silently for a sec. She then leaned back sighing slowly. She was tired, She was anxious, She was stressed, since yesterday things have not been going in anyones favor. And she just wanted everyone to go home and be safe… This entire trip since the first teleportation has been a disastrous and she been poorly doing any damage control… she rubs her face and bites on her knuckle for a sec to think…. She then stops and looks at Kfc Chara square in the eye* Swear to me… Swear to me on Asriel…

Kfc Chara: *eyes widen as they heard her say that. But they knew what she meant and they gave a determined look* I swear on both our Asriels, Frisks, our whole Dreemur family that I am not “them”… I want everyone to be happy to…

*She looked at them shocked, she wasn’t expecting that. They practically took 2 steps ahead of what she wanted to hear. She breathes in and let’s out all of her stress worry and suspicion in a long sigh* …… Ok…. I believe you.

Kfc Chara: *Smiles* So… truce? *holds out hand*

*She looks at the hand and smiles slowly back* Yeah… Truce. *Shakes their hand*

Kfc Chara: *raises eyebrow* For real this time?

*Chuckles* Yeeess for real this time.

Kfc Chara: *They both equally let go* Good!

And also. Sorry for being overly suspicious *scratches the back of her head* Its just been a long day and we have been having a downward spiral of luck lately.

Kfc Chara: *shrugs* Hey don’t worry about it. Honestly I get it. I probably would have a lot of suspicion and a bit of an identity crisis if I had to come face to face with all that package of information.

*Gives a nervous laugh* Yeah it sucks. But hey at least we the good kinds and care about our Frisks.

Kfc Chara: Hee hee. Eyup!

*The two chara’s laugh together Doing a lot better now. Kfc Frisk gave a small smile while still doing Data!Frisk’s hair, hearing they had hashed things out. They were nervous at first but they were glad things got better without them needing to step in*

@somedancingpineapple

[incirrata]

so I’m obviously very late to the “being mad at the end of the magicians season 4” party, but I have thoughts to rant into the void. since I was thoroughly spoiled for everything with quentin, the part that make me say “fuck this” to my computer screen and get up to pace around was actually julia. what the hell were they thinking to conclude a season of her being caught between goddesshood and humanity with her having that decision made for her. by her new kinda boyfriend. who admits that it was done partially selfishly. but even though she’s a bit angry, it’s all ok because she still wants to be with him. it would be terrible writing even if the origin of her goddess plotline didn’t, you know, have to do with her consent being violated and having to struggle to finally see her power as her own instead of reynard’s.

(also that said boyfriend is canonically able to astral project into unconscious peoples’ minds and talk to them? laziness with worldbuilding/magic particulars in order to make things happen the way writers want is not unusual for the magicians, and julia being unable to conclude her own season-long plot would still be bad with additional in-universe excuses, but this adds insult to injury. much like when quentin and alice hesitate to throw the bottles into the seam for no particular reason other than to allow everett time to get there and stop them.)

and now, speaking of quentin’s death, I also can’t stop thinking about the scene with julia and quentin a few episodes before, where he thinks it’s all hopeless and she reassures him and then tells him specifically that, if she becomes a goddess, she needs him to remind her how to care about people. which definitely reads to me like something you say to your suicidal friend to make sure they know they’re important to you, as well as a possibly interesting way for the plot to go moving forward. and so on top of it all, julia being forced back into humanity allows the show to argue that quentin is actually no longer important, haha, just ignore all that, it’s fine if he dies.

[angelicmichael]

Willow

Michael Langdon x reader

Summary: Reader, who is a witch (not tied to the og coven) is best friends with Michael. They decide to spend Valentines day together in outpost three. Based on this post, and the 'willow' music video by Taylor Swift.

Words: 3.0k+

Warnings: mentions of rituals/covens (its vague tho), slow burn, light angst, mutual pining, gross fluff, plot heavy and VERY descriptive I'm sorry dhdhd, valentines day fic, mentions of food, friends to lovers

A/N: yall rlly liked my last Michael blurb so I made this kinda similar!! Also the idea of witch! Reader not being tied to the og coven is NOT my idea, others have done it before - I just did it cause it made sense w the music video this fic is based off of ✌🏻. This is mostly me self indulging ngl so if the fic doesnt make sense that's why haha. The v beginning is like Sojourn! Era and then the rest of the fic is somewhere between fire & reign and outpost era. this fic is rlly just me trying to say happy early mf valentines day !! 💖💖 okay bye

February 14th was always a day you dreaded; The idea and concept of a whole fucking holiday being dedicated to just love.. really put a bitter taste in your mouth. In your opinion, it was just a reason for couples to show a disgusting amount of PDA and get away with it.

However; due to a incredibly corny and cliché situation you found yourself in; you now were seeing the incoming holiday in a different light. When you thought of the holiday.. You first thought of Michael. Michael Langdon.

Meeting Michael at all was a complete accident - You met months ago in fall; on a dark cloudy night. Every detail from that evening was etched and woven into your mind as if it had just happened yesterday; and you could only hope that it would remain that way forever. After all; that was the night when you had met your favorite person. You even remembered the weather.. The bitterness of the cold wind making it seem as if it was seconds from storming.

You were part of a small coven which was meeting due to a full moon, it was a rather mundane and basic ritual you were preforming. One of which you had preformed more times you could even count on your fingers.. However; what made that ritual special is that your coven happened to be recruiting.

Full black outfits, including thin, long cloaks is what everyone wore to the occasion.. After everything was over and done with; you went to leave - the bitter coldness of the night urging you to leave rather quickly.

However; something.. almost a invisible force made you stop walking away from the crowd and made you physically stop. You slowly stopped walking; and turned around. You sharply gasped when you saw a figure directly in front of you - wearing a dark ensemble that matched yours nearly identically.

Immediately you grew weary. A sharp, nauseated feeling started to manifest inside of you.

"Were you following me"? You spoke with your voice raised, your hands which previously fell loosely at your side were starting to curl into fists.

You could feel yourself getting defensive. You quickly flicked your eyes over at the other coven members - making sure you weren't causing a scene; not wanting to draw attention to the situation until it grew necessary.

"Yes, but.. look. I just wanted to talk to you.. away from the others". The boy stated.

You bit your lip to suppress a groan. You rolled your eyes, not really caring that he could see how bothered you were.

"Fine. But c'mon, make it quick". You said, not trying to hide the irritation in your voice.

You turned around and walked a few feet away from the crowd, not looking back but merely expecting him to follow you. You were expecting he was just another newbie with dumb questions, or needed clarification on something.

You turned to talk to him, and that's when you noticed something you about him you seemed to overlook earlier - his beauty. You were completely taken aback and breath taken. Light blue eyes met your gaze as you stared blankly at him; momentarily stunned. He looked beyond ethereal; his pale cheeks flushed a light pink from the cold and his blonde hair looked as if it could be spun from gold. It was almost like he could sense how you were suddenly taken aback.. A smug smirk played on his lips; if you didn't know any better you would say he almost seemed cocky.

"There's something about you that's different from the others. I could sense it". He stated.

"How"? You stuttered.

You watched as he took a couple steps toward you and in one quick swoop, pushed the hood of his cloak fully back. He got even closer but you didn't dare move. You watched him curiously as he turned to the side, pushing his blonde locks of hair out of the way to show you something behind his ear.. Your blood instantly went cold once you saw three sixes; however you weren't scared. In fact you were really the first person that Michael met that didn't practically faint when they saw his mark. Looking back; you supposed that's why you and Michael bonded so quickly and became so close.

It didn't take long for him after that to confine in you that people either avoided him or became obsessed once they knew; both reactions ultimately stemming from fear. You were the first person to look past that and to just see him as a actual human being - not just a vessel for some fucked up prophecy to play out.

Even though Michael's beauty was undeniable to you; the relationship you two had was strictly platonic.. and in the past that was never something that bothered you. You supposed that he was tired of people throwing themselves at his feet and what he really needed more than anything was a friend - so you chose to be that for him, not daring to try and test the boundaries your relationship had.

However; the boundaries were seemingly starting to come down naturally - because your relationship wasnt entirely platonic anymore. Things between you two weren't exactly black and white as they used to be; a great example of this, was how you two were planning on spending Valentines Day together.

You and Michael agreed to spend it as friends. Neither of you had a date and spending Valentines alone when you had Michael seemed redundant.. and honestly just boring. Instead of making Valentines day an all day event; it started for you two as a 'date' at 6 pm.

In order to avoid having to confront putting a label on your.. situationship, the venue for your lavish Valentines date was at a more.. private venue. He only gave you a address and instructions, you didn't really know what exactly to expect but you knew you weren't going to his house. It was somewhere new.

It was nearly six pm, the sun had just set - leaving the sky a shade somewhere between navy blue and pure black. The air was cold on your skin as you stepped out of the car, wondering where the hell you even were.

The area you found yourself in was completely bare and void of any trees, the only object or building you saw was a giant, black, metal structure. The instructions Michael gave you had told you about this but.. seeing it in person was merely jarring, oddly unsettling. You approached it, trying to ignore the nerves and anxiety you could feel creeping in.

You couldn't help but wonder what the hell this place was and why out of all the places you two could have a 'date', it would have to be here?

As you stood in front of an elevator - stepping in, you felt very reluctant to do so. It definitely felt a bit weird that Michael wanted to meet you in such a secluded place but.. he was your best friend. He would never hurt you.. especially on valentines day.. Right?

The doors opened and you slowly stepped out, immediately taken back. You were now in a oval room, with a long hallway stretching out. You first quickly scanned your surroundings for Michael but, he wasnt here. Not in your line of vision anyway. You nearly forgot you were here for Michael at all for a second. The interior was breathtaking; resembling a old, Victorian style mansion. Even though you were still utterly confused; Michaels reasoning for choosing this venue was starting to become more clear to you.

It was the cozy, romantic vibe the 'house' seemed to radiate. The dim lighting also amplified this affect; seemingly giving everything in sight a subtle golden glow, otherwise everything remained relatively dark. You walked through the building; down hallways, looking for any sounds of life at all. Your witchy senses didn't always work on Michael, so you didn't even bother to try to use those. He was right about how you were powerful but, his powers still outshone yours unfortunately.

You finally heard something, something faint; soft music playing distantly in the background. You followed it swiftly, the music getting louder and louder until you found him - in what appeared to be the library.

The room was immense; books were lined on shelves that bordered the room. Couches, along with a decent sized fireplace and chandelier - and of course a record player, also resided in the library. Playing a tune that sounded similar but you couldn't quite remember what it was.. whatever it was, it sounded old and romantic - maybe from the 50s.

"Your not very good at hiding, you know. The music was a dead giveaway". You commented playfully.

Michael greeted you with a smirk, obviously holding back laughter. He stood up from one of the couches; approaching you. He looked incredibly handsome in the normal black ensemble he was wore but tonight he sported a long black coat. Making you fondly nostalgic of the night you two met.

He got dangerously close to you, almost in your face but you weren't intimidated. Plus, you knew he wasnt trying to actually intimidate you. Michael being the way he was; you knew he wouldn't have asked you to spend Valentines with him if he didn't tolerate you in some way.

"Its a good thing I wasnt trying to hide then, is it"? He spoke; his eyes pierced into yours.

The direct eye contact was starting to get unnerving and so was the.. apparent tension. You took a step back, looking away and laughing awkwardly - trying to remind yourself you two were strictly friends. Best friends, in fact. Nothing more.. and nothing less.

"So.. what even is this place? You don't own this or something.. do you"? You asked, slyly changing the topic.

"Actually I do. It's being saved for something I have in the works; but nothing's official yet. I wanted to get your opinion though.. what do you think"? Michael asked.

Even though you absolutely loved, whatever the hell this place even was, something.. felt off. Perhaps it was the fact it was completely secluded and private. Too private. You knew Michael was into some weird shit with the Satanists but; you figured he would atleast tell you by now if he was planning on something big with them.. Something that would require a huge fucking mansion underground.

"This place is beautiful, Michael. But what is it for"?

"Your too eager for your own good, (y/n). You will know in due time, I promise; but for now.. come sit with me".

He gently grabbed your wrist and guided you over to one of the bare, black couches; you followed - sitting next to him.

The hours continuing were filled with incredibly cheesy gestures that you only rolled your eyes at, and teased him for. The first being a few small, pink flowers he had conjured up and then tucked into your hair. At first you really thought nothing of it, they were just pretty flowers. However; you knew due to Michael's nature that he didn't just so happen to come across those flowers, he summoned them purposefully - specifically for you.. You didn't bother to try and hide how flustered this made you.

"Those are beautiful; what are they"? You asked, gesturing to the flowers.

"Thought you'd never ask. Wild roses. They hold many meanings; most agree they represent both love, suffering, beauty.. life. They're even said to protect the living from the dead".

You couldn't help but to laugh at his explanation.

"Will they protect me from you? You know your not exactly human yourself". You teased.

The corner of Michael's lips slid into a slow smile, one that you couldn't quite decipher whether it was an ironic or genuine gesture.

You nearly jumped at how quickly one of Michael's hands suddenly slid up into your hair; seemingly picking out one of the petals that had fallen from one of the flowers - he retracted his hand, holding onto the petal.

"No. Your going to need something stronger than that to keep me away". He said playfully, before crushing the already wilted petal in his hand - letting it fall carelessly to ground.

You could only roll your eyes.

Next came the food and well.. you were beyond impressed. Your not certain exactly how he managed to get your favorite food down who knows how many feet underground, but.. he did. And it was perfect.

You were both pretty quiet during that time; Michael didn't really have a reason to be but you couldn't help but to get lost within your thoughts. Sure; you two were best friends but.. that didn't necessarily warrant him to do all of this for you. Was it possible that he felt.. something else, like you did?

You couldn't help but to shut that thought down as quick as it came; that had to just be you projecting. There was no way in hell he could love you back..

Wait.. love?

It was like a involuntary reflex the way you suddenly jolted up and backed away from the table. Even though it was just a thought, the fact you just admitted to yourself that you loved him.. What the fuck did that even mean?

Michael looked startled at well, you could tell by the color of his knuckles that he now had a death grip on his silverware. His icy, blue eyes matched yours with a startled gaze.. As if he was trying to contemplate your next move or to get a good read on you. You were more than well acquainted with Michael's powers by now; you knew how he had the ability to read minds and that's partially why you found yourself, slowly at first, starting to take steps away from him. Wanting desperately to get the fuck away from him. You knew that if Michael even suspected what you were thinking or how you felt, that your friendship could possibly be over. That would be it, he would want absolutely nothing to do with you. You would be no better than the dozens of women and even men that threw themselves at Michael; Maybe even worse.

You made it down a random hallway until you found yourself physically colliding into him - fucking transmutation.

You felt a sudden urge to just turn around to try and escape again but you knew he wouldn't let you. Instead you let yourself be captive, you let him hold you. Gently encasing you into a hug. It was painful how hard you were trying to hold back your tears - blindly running away was already embarrassing enough, letting him see you cry would be too much.. Too much for one night, anyways. You felt him let go of you - stepping back a little bit in order to make eye contact with you.

"What has gotten into you-" He started.

"Michael- I'm so sorry but I just need to go. We can talk about this tomorrow but for now I just really need to be alone-"

You tried to turn around in order to make another (more calm) attempt at leaving but you felt something grab at your wrist, yet again. His grasp, along with his hand were achingly soft. You hated how much you enjoyed him making physical contact with you - even if it was something just as docile as this. You also couldn't help but to hate the spark of electricity you felt when his skin touched yours - and you couldn't help but to wonder whether he felt it too.

"No. I need to know what I did wrong. I'm not letting us end today like this". Michael said, his voice was strained with emotion.

His words were spoken urgently, his voice unsteady and even threatening to break.. That's when you knew you completely fucked up. He totally misinterpreted your actions.. the sudden realization hit you, piercing your heart like a knife.

"No, your right. Can we sit"? You asked.

He let go of your wrist coldly, sauntering out of the hallway you two were in. You would be lying if you were to admit that his sudden cold actions didn't hurt you; it definitely stung but you couldn't help to feel in this moment that you kind of deserved it.

The walk over was quiet and even a bit awkward. When you two sat; he looked at you expectedly.. waiting for you to talk first and explain your sudden, impulsive actions.

"It wasnt you.. that's not why I tried to leave at all, Michael. You did everything right. I mean that's really the 'problem', even though calling it a problem still isn't the right word but.." You paused before carrying on.

"What you did tonight for me was perfect, and I'm so thankful for that, truly. But I just feel like I'm starting to interpret your actions in a different way than in which you mean them and that's not fair to you. I know you just want a friend-" Your words continuously came out faster the longer you spoke, you were completely rambling at this point but Michael stopped you.

"Hey, stop". He said softly.

You felt as if you were dreaming when you saw him start to move closer to you.. it happened so quickly it almost felt fake. Michael gently pushed you back onto the couch, so that you were basically laying down flat on your back. You pulled him back with you so that he was on top, your hands automatically going to his shoulders.. feeling the sudden urge to yank his black top off and to feel his skin under your palms. The feeling was tempting; you could feel how hot his skin was even with his shirt on. You assumed your hands were cold by the way Michael shivered and even groaned when you touched him, that had to be the only logical explanation for him acting like that..

The manner in which he bent down, his lips getting closer and closer to yours was nothing but diabolic. He stopped until the point where his lips were just ghosting above yours - maybe only really a mere centimeter away from touching. It felt entirely far too tempting to just - barely tilt your head forward and stop whatever game your friend Langdon was trying to play, but.. you didnt. In reality; the teasing was far too delicious for you to want it to end so soon.

"Who said I just wanted to be friends"? He whispered.

You could taste his breath as he spoke, you felt trapped.. But if you were to be honest with yourself, you wouldn't rather spend Valentines Day any other way than in this manner.. Trapped with your absolute favorite person, with nothing else in the world to do but to get lost in each other.

His lips roughly collided with yours with such passion that you really haven't ever felt before. It threw you off guard for a moment, but you figured there was no sense in shying from it. You had been craving to be loved by him for so long; craving for him to touch you like this and now that it was finally happening.. you only relaxed and embraced the feeling.

Time slipped away from you far too quickly but after all; time didn't really feel real at all when you were underground in a bunker. No windows or clocks to help ground you back into reality..

You knew it was atleast passed midnight now; hours had passed and you two were now residing in one of the random rooms that you had come to learn was of 'Outpost Three'. It was apparent how careful he was with his words when he told you about the place; almost like he didn't want to tell you too much. He told you most of everything, like the cooperative and how this building was for some type of event that would be taking place in the summer but you didn't probe farther. You knew he would tell you in all due time.

You two were lying on a random, spare bed. It was luxurious and dangerously soft, but if you were honest - the sheets almost seemed scratchy in comparison to Michaels bare skin. Your head wasnt on a pillow but instead on Michael's bare chest, his rhythmic heart beat nearly lulling you to sleep. Almost putting you in some type of odd trance.

You both watched the movie that was playing on his laptop; propped up on a few sparse pillows at the end of the bed. Although you really weren't trying to keep up with what was happening or what the actors were even saying. Instead, you chose to be fully present with Michael, almost entranced in his presence. You two weren't talking but, just being surrounded by him - feeling his fingers lazily playing with your hair was heaven to you.

You still felt as if you were in a dream. After all in what timeline would you ever be so lucky to call someone like Michael, yours?? Even though you two weren't exactly official, you really didn't mind at this moment. Labels only seemed to really complicate things and in your opinion; you felt more than privileged to just sit here entangled with Michael, and to escape the rest of reality for a while.

Taglist: @mina672 @michaellangdonstanaccount @langdonsexual @jimmason @blakewaterxx @dark-mei-rose @9layerdevilfoodcake @prophecy-is-inevitable @matildaofoz @beautyiswithinchaos @frenchlangdon

[commentaryvorg]

Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 5 - Break into the Digital World! Drimogemon’s Trap!

In this episode, both Tohma and Masaru separately enter the Digital World to resolve unfinished business with the Digimon they failed to stop last episode. While there, they meet up in a perilous situation and end up bonding, learning to respect each other and work together at last.

Since this episode follows on directly from the events of the last one, we start with a recap of last episode. This is a rare thing for now as most of these early episodes are self-contained events, but it’ll soon become very regular once we get into the series’ overarching plot.

There’s nothing particularly interesting about the recaps; the narration is done by a non-character narrator, and they sometimes tend to show far more clips than necessary to remind people of the relevant things that happened. I often just skip them, though since for the purposes of this commentary I’ll be obligated to watch every single part of an episode to comment on the full experience, I will probably end up moaning about how unnecessarily long they eventually shift into being.

Narrator:  “To fulfil his duty, Tohma went to the Digital World to chase down Drimogemon.”

It’s interesting that the narration frames it this way, since disobeying very strict orders isn’t exactly what one would usually consider fulfilling a duty to the organisation that gave him those orders. And yet, this also is to do with Tohma’s very strong sense of duty and need to complete every job perfectly.

Anyway, as we get back into events happening in the present, please appreciate this Very Done Yoshino Face as she realises that Tohma’s gone and endangered himself by going to the Digital World alone and she’s going to get in trouble for it.

As it happens, Masaru and Agumon have got the exact same idea into their heads of disobeying orders and sneaking into the Digital World to finish things with Drimogemon. While Tohma was legitimately very good at the stealth aspect of this plan, Masaru and Agumon’s idea of stealth is, uh… not so great.

Masaru:  “Successful infiltration!”

Agumon:  “We’re so smooth, Aniki!”

Yep. The smoothest.

Yoshino:  “What are you doing.”

Naturally, Yoshino has very much noticed them. The subs put a question mark here, but I’m using my judgement to not include it, because her voice is so deadpan and I love her.

Masaru:  “Tohma did a Digital Dive? Damn it, he got away before us!”

Yoshino:  “Before?”

Agumon:  “Nothing, he’s just talking to himself.”

Yoshino does seem to be genuinely rather wrapped up in trying to deal with the Tohma situation and bring him back, because she doesn’t appear to pick up on the obvious implication of Masaru’s slip-up here (and the obvious only reason they’d be sneaking in in the middle of the night like this in the first place).

Yoshino:  “Doing a Dive when the equipment hasn’t even been tested on humans…”

Huh, interesting. I guess this particular version of the Digital Gate equipment that DATS has is newer, then, which tracks.

Yoshino manages to detect the signal from Tohma’s Digivice, but before she can use that to bring him back, the signal is lost.

Masaru:  “Really. Well isn’t that a pity.”

Masaru sounds so incredibly (not) concerned here. Though I’m sure this isn’t him genuinely not even caring if Tohma dies; he just assumes Tohma can handle himself and doesn’t see this as his problem at all.

Yoshino:  “Listen to me! It’s dangerous!”

Masaru:  “That doesn’t matter! I’m just going there to settle my fight!”

Yoshino:  “Who cares about your fight? You’re just going to make things worse!”

I mean, it seems like Tohma cares about this fight just as much as Masaru does, actually, if in a somewhat different way. We have two stubborn idiots refusing to let this go here, not just one.

Masaru wanders into the Dive chamber, and, naturally, doesn’t have a clue how to start it up. Yoshino seems quite willing to leave and not help him with this, until he and Agumon start the appropriately Masaru approach of hitting the machine to try and get it to work. (We saw how successful that approach was last episode.)

Masaru:  “You think I’ll just sit back while that guy gets all the action?”

Obviously, Masaru is not exactly thinking this through here; he just wants to somehow get to finish his fight before Tohma can do it for him, damn it!

Since Masaru and Agumon are clearly not about to be sensible and stop trying to break the equipment, Yoshino has no choice but to give in.

Lalamon:  “Yoshino, are you sure about this?”

Yoshino:  “Letting him have his way is better than a broken machine and Tohma stuck over there…”

It really is only because Tohma went first that Masaru is able to get his way here. A broken machine that can be fixed later would be better than Masaru throwing himself into the unknown, but a broken machine while Tohma is stuck over there is not okay at all.

Yoshino:  “Listen! I’m sending you the co-ordinates where we lost Tohma. Make sure to bring him back, okay?”

Masaru:  “Whatever, just do it!”

Yoshino is making the best of this she can and at least using Masaru as a way to try and ensure Tohma is safe. Masaru acts like he doesn’t care – but note he also isn’t explicitly saying he definitely won’t try to help Tohma and will leave him to fend for himself no matter what.

Yoshino:  “I can’t help you when you get to the other side.”

Masaru:  “Like I even need it.”

Yoshino:  “Oh, really.”

Obviously. Masaru is a tough independent fighter who can definitely throw himself into a completely different world without a clue what he’s doing and manage just fine. Being a liiittle cocky there, Masaru. (Exactly as much as Tohma was when he sent himself over knowing he’d have no backup.) And I love how Yoshino isn’t buying it for a second.

Yoshino:  “Return to where you first entered by 0500. That’s where I’ll bring you both back.”

Apparently they need to be in a specific location in order for the Dive equipment to work in reverse (since there isn’t a big handy machine with a chamber in it on the Digital World side). Yoshino was briefly attempting to pull Tohma back earlier before she lost his signal, so I guess that was when he was still within the range of the reverse-transport?

Masaru:  “Bah, it’s like having a curfew.”

Haha. Something Masaru is probably quite used to, since he is only fourteen and his mother must worry about what he gets up to a lot. He did mention having to sneak out of the house to come to DATS last episode, which I surmised was not because DATS was a secret to Sayuri but rather just because it was late.

Masaru looks at his Digivice, which has a clock feature telling us it’s 0:33 right now. Yoshino apparently expects him to navigate a completely unfamiliar world, find Tohma (and also defeat the Drimogemon because she knows he’s going to want to do that even if she’d rather he didn’t bother), and get back to where he arrived, within four and a half hours. That seems a little bit tight – why couldn’t she just let him have as long as he needs and just wait to pull him and Tohma back whenever they appear back in range?

The reason, I imagine, is that she’s really hoping she can get this all wrapped up before the morning shift at DATS starts and Satsuma finds out what’s been going on here. I don’t blame her.

Agumon:  “Aniki, I’m kinda nervous…”

Masaru:  “Don’t get scared now, idiot.”

I like how Masaru is admonishing Agumon for getting scared not as if he’s being a coward or anything like that, but just as if he’s being an idiot. Obviously if they let themselves get scared and hesitate, that might get in the way of them winning their fight! It’s like Masaru is thinking of “getting scared” less in terms of the initial emotion that you can’t help feeling, but in terms of whether you choose to let it control you, or you just push it aside and press on anyway. Anyone who wouldn’t want to do the latter is an idiot, right?

Agumon:  “You sure this is okay?”

Masaru:  “You think I know?”

As the countdown to transfer gets close to zero and the energy starts swirling around them, I love the tiny little hint that Masaru is actually just as nervous about this as Agumon is – he has no idea if this is gonna be okay or not either! – and is just very stubbornly refusing to show it.

As we briefly see here, moving from one world to another involves travelling through a trippy computery in-between void. Future trips to and from the Digital World in the series will (usually, with one notable exception) skip over this part, but we can assume that it’s a thing that happens every time.

The opening also contains a shot of the characters going through this void between worlds. Yoshino doesn’t head to the Digital World herself in this episode, of course, but she will in time.

Masaru:  “This is the Digital World? Cool… The sky and the ground are upside-down!”

I like how Masaru is totally willing to buy that the Digital World really is this weird.

Agumon:  “Aniki… You’re the one who’s upside-down.”

Masaru:  “I knew that.”

…Rather than the much more likely option that he’s just a huge ridiculous dork.

(The subs say “I knew that” like Masaru’s trying to save face, but the word he says in Japanese could also translate as “Oh, I see,” as if he isn’t even trying to hide how he genuinely thought the Digital World was upside-down for a second. That doofus.)

Agumon:  “It’s my first time seeing it, too.”

Masaru:  “But you’re a Digimon, aren’t you?”

Agumon:  “Yeah, but I’ve been in DATS all my life.”

Yep, just like he said in the first episode about not remembering anything but being in DATS. Seems like, unlike the rampaging Digimon they deal with, Agumon came to the human world while he was not exactly “alive”, as such.

They wander through the Digital World for a while, marvelling at some of its weirdness. Circuit board patterns in the sky! Pixelated rivers! All sorts of Digimon walking and bouncing and flying around!

Masaru:  “We’re looking for that mole thing. If we keep walking, we should come across a clue or something.”

Man, Masaru, you sure thought this through and planned things out real good.

Agumon:  “What about Tohma?”

[cut to the DATS control room]

Yoshino:  “‘Leave him, he’ll figure something out on his own.’ …If he said that, what’ll we do?”

Lalamon:  “You’re overthinking it.”

[cut back to the Digital World]

Masaru:  “Leave him, he’ll figure something out on his own.”

Oh dear. Yoshino has already got Masaru pretty figured out and knew full well he wasn’t likely to take looking for Tohma that seriously. Though, to be fair, it is pretty reasonable to assume that Tohma can figure something out on his own. Masaru wouldn’t admit this just yet, but this is him having faith in Tohma’s capabilities! If Masaru had reason to believe that Tohma was definitely in life-threatening danger he couldn’t get out of by himself, I’m sure he wouldn’t be so nonchalant about this.

As Masaru and Agumon explore more Digital World weirdness – more stuff in the sky! Digital plants! A crystalline colosseum-looking thing that’s actually a Chekhov’s Gun for this episode! – a particular piece of BGM is playing that evokes a sense of grand exploration and discovery, as you’d expect for this moment. This piece happens to be called Savers’ “Main Theme”, which was a little surprising to me when I saw its name on the soundtrack. You’d expect this series’ main theme to be something more actiony, in fitting with all the focus on fighting and the way Masaru is. But maybe a more discovery-like piece is actually quite appropriate for what the overall themes of this story are.

Agumon:  “But it feels kinda nostalgic.”

An interesting comment from Agumon here. Though he doesn’t consciously remember anything about the Digital World because he was born in DATS, it seems like he has a subconscious sense of familiarity with it. As we’ve seen every time DATS defeats a Digimon, they don’t die and are simply turned into eggs and “reborn” – so maybe this is a sign of Agumon’s previous life, in which he did live in the Digital World, still vaguely there with him even though the conscious memories of it are lost.

As fun as showing off Digital World weirdness is, we soon get to the point as Drimogemon happens to pop out of a cliff face nearby. Which, yes, is kind of arbitrarily convenient. But I will take this any day over them wandering aimlessly having unnecessary filler adventures for episodes on end before getting to the actual point that the story is here for.

It also may make some reasonable amount of sense, actually. Masaru was sent to where Tohma was last seen, and it’s likely that Tohma deliberately sent himself somewhere near where he could detect Drimogemon. Tohma sending himself over here with absolutely no idea where to find a single Digimon among an entire world would have been incredibly stupid, after all, and I don’t think he could have justified that to himself even with his determination to fix his mistake. Given that, it’s not so unreasonable that Masaru would have run into Drimogemon at some point, since it was going to be somewhere near to where he arrived.

Also, while the other Digimon they’ve seen were just kind of wandering around naturally, the Drimogemon straight up crashed out of a cliffside. It’s still rampaging, exactly as they were worried about last episode, and therefore it’s even more likely that Masaru would have noticed it sooner or later with all the commotion it’s making.

Drimogemon tunnels into the ground, so naturally Masaru heads straight after it – and back at DATS, Yoshino loses his Digivice signal just like she lost Tohma’s. So apparently these signals can be picked up through the boundary between worlds, but not if someone is in another world and also underground. Uhhh, okay then.

This also means that presumably the reason she lost Tohma’s signal is because he went underground while trying to track Drimogemon, not because he was necessarily in any severe danger.

Lalamon:  “This may be the worst…”

I’m amused by Lalamon borrowing Yoshino’s catchphrase, but hedging her bets on it a little bit. Maybe it’s not actually the worst! Maybe.

Satsuma:  “What are you doing?”

Yoshino:  “Searching for an idiot! Geez, why me?”

Yoshino is so focused on frustratedly searching for Masaru’s signal that she doesn’t even register that Satsuma and Kudamon have shown up at first, which is probably the exact thing she was really hoping wasn’t going to happen until Masaru and Tohma were back. Nope, turns out this definitely is the worst.

Back in the Digital World, Masaru’s tried-and-true strategy of tracking Drimogemon down by simply following it through its own tunnel has led them into a huge underground cavern.

Masaru:  “Doesn’t matter where this is! Let’s go, Agumon!”

As before, Masaru doesn’t care about the location so long as he gets to fight! Or, perhaps, he’s trying to tell himself the location doesn’t matter, because on some level he’s realising that Drimogemon is very much in its element and has the advantage here. Which it does, as Masaru and Agumon quickly learn they’re not very good at Whack-a-giant-Digimole.

Bear in mind that Drimogemon is not saying a word, just like it hasn’t since it grew bigger last episode. It’s still in that mindless rampaging state, and so it seems to have no issue with straight-up collapsing the ground underneath Masaru and Agumon. That would be going a bit far if this were a Digimon that was still properly in control of itself.

Agumon:  “Aniki!”

Masaru:  “Idiot, don’t get scared over something like this!”

Masaru is still trying to set an example for his follower and insist that there’s no point in getting scared, even though being in an underground cave-in is in fact a pretty legitimate reason to be scared right now.

They both fall into a pretty deep-looking chasm but manage to somehow land reasonably unhurt, because shounen anime. Agumon’s awkward legs-in-the-air pose he landed in is pretty cute.

It turns out that Tohma and Gaomon are down here too. Seems like Drimogemon took the same approach when it was faced with them.

Masaru:  “What’s this? Does that mean the same thing happened to you?” [he and Agumon burst out laughing] “I see, you’re just like us!”

I really like Masaru’s reaction here. He’s not trying to be mean-spirited; if you listen to the tone of his laughter, there’s nothing malicious or mocking about it. It’s just such a huge relief for him to finally be seeing proof that Tohma’s human. He can fail sometimes and mess up in ways as equally ridiculous and undignified as Masaru. He’s not actually some kind of infuriatingly perfect walking supercomputer who can never do wrong like Masaru’s kind of been resentfully seeing him as. He’s just a person.

The relief of that realisation comes out as laughter not because Masaru’s really trying to mock Tohma for failing, but just because of the elation of finally being able to see Tohma as an equal. “You’re just like us”, indeed.

Tohma’s response is also great. He’s not getting frustrated and snapping back at Masaru like he often would in the previous episode, because he must be able to tell that Masaru isn’t actually trying to insult him here. He’s just embarrassed to be unable to deny the fact that he really is more of a fallible human person than he would have ideally liked Masaru to see him as.

Gaomon, meanwhile, the good dog that he is, has been carefully excavating rocks and found a potential way out. As Tohma heads towards it, he stumbles, because his leg was injured from the fall.

Masaru:  “Hey, you’re hurt!”

Tohma:  [grimacing] “This barely counts as an injury.”

Tohma clearly doesn’t want to give Masaru even more reason to think he’s human and fallible and might need help or something. But Masaru doesn’t care about Tohma’s stubbornness and immediately moves to put himself under Tohma’s arm to support him.

Masaru:  “Here.”

Tohma:  “Stop that. I don’t need you to help—”

Masaru:  “When you’re a man… When you’re a man, there are some things you just have to *do* despite yourself.”

I love Masaru so much. This is the first time we’re getting to see that his manliness thing is about a whole lot more than just fighting. It’s about honour, and integrity, and simply being a good person. The “despite yourself” is because he still doesn’t really like Tohma just yet and there’s a part of him that stubbornly wants to continue to be irritable and contrary towards him for the hell of it – but since Tohma’s injured and needs help, Masaru’s principles about doing the right thing in this kind of situation are more important to him than anything, so he can put that petty stubbornness aside. And these principles of Masaru’s come from exactly the same place as the reason he always gives it his all in fights!

(All those parts earlier in the episode where I confidently asserted that there’s no way Masaru actually wouldn’t have cared if Tohma had got himself killed, and that if he’d believed Tohma was in genuine danger then he wouldn’t have just left him to his own devices? Yeah, this is why. Masaru is Good.)

Masaru’s manly speech was mostly about himself, but it also works as advice to Tohma in this situation. He could continue to try and be stubborn and prideful and insist he doesn’t need help from anyone, but when there’s someone right here offering to help him – someone who was until recently at his throat, no less – what kind of a dick move would it be to reject that offer? Accepting Masaru’s help is the right thing for Tohma to do as well, despite his own pride. And he does.

Agumon:  “You’re making me cry, Aniki!”

Agumon also approves of his aniki’s manly principles, like a good follower should. Aniki is teaching him so much.

Masaru:  “Let’s get outta here first. Then we can think about other things.”

Implicit in Masaru’s statement here is “then we can get back to arguing with each other if we want” – but I like how he isn’t even mentioning that here, because right now it isn’t about that. Their lives are in danger, they need to help each other and work together to get out, and so nothing else matters for the time being.

This turns into a brief cute montage of the four of them helping each other make their way through the tunnels, which turn out to be quite the underground labyrinth. A lot of time implicitly passes here, and while I doubt Masaru and Tohma are saying very much to each other, this is no doubt making them bond a bit. They’re finally spending some time seeing each other as a person and an equal, rather than as some kind of infuriating representation of everything opposite to their own approach that brings out all their insecurities.

Meanwhile at DATS, Yoshino is indeed getting fiercely chewed out by Satsuma.

Yoshino:  “But that was all I could do…”

It really was, or Masaru would have broken the equipment and left Tohma stranded there! She did the absolute best thing she could under the circumstances! Alas, Yoshino doesn’t seem to quite have it in her to stand up for herself and more clearly express this.

Kudamon:  “Instead of berating them, we should find out where they are quickly!”

At least Kudamon has the right idea. And I imagine Satsuma understands this, too – he’s probably only so furious at Yoshino because he’s worried about Tohma and Masaru. He likely would have chewed them out if he could, since this is absolutely far more their fault than Yoshino’s. But they aren’t available for him to yell at, so poor Yoshino got the brunt of it instead.

Masaru:  “Hey, why didn’t you evolve Gaomon and break out?”

Back in the Digital World, Masaru asking this suggests he’s been thinking himself about, naturally, the most straightforward way to get out of here – he’d just evolve Agumon to GeoGreymon and smash their way out, if only he could!

But it says a lot that Masaru is then also applying his mindset to Tohma and assuming that he’s probably thought of the same thing, hence asking why he hasn’t done so, since Tohma can evolve his partner more easily. Masaru’s starting to empathise with Tohma and see him as a person!

(I guess technically Masaru might be able to get his Digisoul by turning around and punching Gaomon in the face? But it’s entirely possible that it wouldn’t work against a Digimon that’s not actively trying to fight him. Or, even if it did, that’d be a dick move to suddenly punch someone who’s not ready to fight and defend themselves, so I doubt Masaru would want to do that.)

Tohma demonstrates why he didn’t just evolve Gaomon by asking Gaomon to punch the wall, showing how dangerously unstable these tunnels are. Which is, uh, something he really could have just explained with words rather than taking a risk like that. But then again, Masaru is definitely someone who learns things better through actions rather than words, so maybe this is Tohma beginning to appreciate that!

They reach another fork in the tunnel and disagree on which path they should take. Tohma explains that the path he’s choosing isn’t random; he’s been dropping coins on the ground as they’ve been moving, and the path Masaru picked has a coin in it, indicating that they’ve been that way before.

(This is a 100 yen coin, by the way, which is roughly equal to one US dollar, and Tohma’s apparently been dropping loads of them. Could he not have used, I dunno, just 1 yen coins? Someone has more money than he knows what to do with.)

Masaru:  “Hey, you’re pretty smart!”

I like how Masaru remarks on this like it’s the first time he’s noticing this, as if he wasn’t already infuriatingly aware that Tohma’s a straight-up genius. This is Tohma displaying his smarts in a low-key, down-to-earth way that a regular person like Masaru can understand and appreciate is a useful way to go about things, rather than a way that makes him just come across as incomprehensibly, unreachably perfect.

Tohma:  “As I said, I’m not like you.”

Tohma’s still taking a little longer to warm up to Masaru and acknowledge that they might actually be similar to each other in a lot of ways, since he insists on stressing this point. Come on, Tohma! Masaru’s already started to admit that maybe you’re more like him than he would have liked you to be a day ago; you should start closing that gap, too!

Masaru makes a face in response to this comment. Apparently he’s agreeing with my sentiment about Tohma being a little too unnecessarily uptight here.

Agumon:  “Aniki… When are we gonna get outta here?!”

Masaru:  “Don’t worry! Keep up your spirits and we’ll use it to work this out somehow!”

Tohma:  “Spirit has nothing to do with it, but we *are* heading up.”

I love the contrast between Masaru’s baseless emotion-driven optimism, and Tohma preferring to base his optimism in actual facts. Both are good ways to be optimistic!

Masaru:  “You’re really unbearable.”

Tohma:  “You too.”

They say this, but they both sound a lot less vitriolic about it than they did in the previous episodes. They still have huge differences in their approach to things that inherently frustrate each other, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be beginning to respect each other anyway!

Masaru and Tohma reach an opening into a wider cavern, but they’re too high up for it to be safe to drop down into it. They’re about to turn back when Drimogemon shows up in the lower cavern.

Masaru:  “He’s out of luck to meet us here! Let’s go, Agumon!”

Yes, out of luck, this is definitely the least advantageous possible position that Drimogemon could be meeting them in. Masaru is still being Masaru and paying no heed to the environment; he sees Drimogemon as being out of luck to meet him at all, because hey, this means they don’t have to go searching for it later!

Tohma points out the incredible disadvantage they’re at, including reminding Masaru that it’s not safe for their partners to evolve in here, and insists they should keep heading for the surface and leave it be for now. But Masaru is having none of it.

Masaru:  “Not gonna!”

I absolutely adore his ridiculous grumpy walk towards Tohma. It’s so perfect for getting across his stubborn attitude here. No. Masaru is gonna fight the thing and no amount of logic or safety is gonna stop him.

Masaru:  “I’m not gonna run or hide! A man takes his fights head-on!”

Also, running away at a time like this isn’t what a man does, according to him, and it’s already become pretty clear just how important sticking to that principle is to Masaru.

So he pulls Tohma with him to the edge of the tunnel and straight-up leaps down onto Drimogemon’s back, with Agumon and Gaomon frantically jumping after them.

(Tohma grimaces in pain as he lands on its back. Yeah, considering his leg injury, ouch.)

Masaru:  “Yo.”

Masaru climbs forward onto Drimogemon’s head and has this delightfully audacious moment.

Then, realising they’re there, Drimogemon goes mad trying to shake them off. When they keep clinging on, it rushes towards the nearest wall trying to tunnel away. Masaru tugs on its fur like reins to redirect it to tunnel where he wants it to – in a more upwards direction, since they soon emerge out on the surface.

(It’s a little questionable how Masaru and co. aren’t just utterly crushed between Drimogemon’s back and the earth as it digs its tunnel, but then again it’s questionable how Drimogemon’s drill even manages to drill out a tunnel big enough for its entire body through what seems like not earth but solid rock in the first place. Shush, it’s anime physics; it’s fine.)

Tohma:  (He… Did he plan all of this from the start? But wait…)

And here’s Tohma applying his mindset to Masaru, imagining that Masaru might have planned this! He’s, uh… not precisely correct on that one, but it says a lot that he’s even considering it at all.

Rather than jump off its back and fight it here, Masaru keeps pulling on Drimogemon’s fur to direct its panicked running.

Masaru:  “Yahoo! This is just like a rodeo!”

(And he’s having a whale of a time while doing it, too, the huge dork.)

Tohma:  “Where are you taking us?”

Masaru:  “You’re the one who said to think of a good battleground!”

Look at Masaru actually thinking about this and applying a decent amount of strategy! He’s really not that bad at doing so when someone prompts him to actually consider it; he’s just usually so raring to jump straight in that it doesn’t occur to him to do so.

The “good battleground” in question is the crystalline colosseum Masaru noticed earlier – just the kind of place where Drimogemon won’t be able to dig. Inside the crystal arena, Masaru gives it a nice big punch before leaping off its back, and its evolution time.

…Except, it turns out, it’s also about to be evolution time for Drimogemon. For some reason. It starts twitching and shaking like it’s having some kind of adverse reaction to something, but I cannot come up with any possible reason why it would be doing so. The robbers who may or may not have been (read: they definitely were) responsible for it growing bigger and rampaging in the first place back in the human world are long gone and out of the picture. This does not make any sense to me. Maybe this is just something that happens if a Digimon that’s grown bigger but not evolved is left to rampage unchecked for long enough? I don’t think we see any other instances in the series that would contradict this, but this is definitely me reaching here.

Meanwhile at DATS, Miki and Megumi have also been called in to help search for the two reckless idiots, and they finally manage to relocate their signals – probably because they’re above ground again now. But they also detect Drimogemon evolving, which, for some reason, activates DATS’s alarm. You know, the one that’s supposed to be for Digimon appearing in the human world, because it’s hardly like a Digimon evolving back in the Digital World is usually anything they need to worry about.

Drimogemon finishes evolving, and it’s now… a Digmon. (Dig, without the second “I”; yes, this is very easy to awkwardly misread as just Digimon, I know.) And, uh, Digimon evolution level facts: this shouldn’t be a stronger Digimon.

If Drimogemon, an Adult-level like Gaogamon and GeoGreymon, had evolved upwards like you’d expect into the next proper evolution level, it’d have reached Perfect level. And, as I’ve mentioned with regards to evolution levels, they are each ridiculously exponentially stronger than the last, to the point that even GeoGreymon and Gaogamon working together would not have stood a chance against even a single Perfect-level.

So, well, obviously that couldn’t actually happen here, because Masaru and Tohma need to win this fight. Instead, Drimogemon just evolved sideways into a bonus gimmicky evolution level called Armour level, which, from its appearances in other series, seems to be roughly just as strong as Adult. This is not actually any significantly more of a threat at all.

Tohma:  “It’s Digmon. He’s far more powerful and has a higher mobility than Drimogemon.”

I guess we’re meant to assume that Armour levels work somewhat differently in this Digimon universe and are in fact just a little bit stronger than Adult, while not nearly as much so as Perfect? Sure, I guess; the general mechanics of Digimon don’t always work exactly the same in different universes.

(Still, Tohma conspicuously does not mention Digmon’s evolution level and explain the fact that it just evolved more sideways than upwards, because the writers don’t want you to notice how awkward this is.)

This whole thing, nonsensical DATS alarm and all, is a hilariously transparent attempt by the writers to inject more artificial tension into this situation, and, I dunno, to maybe showcase a different Monster of the Week since we’ve been dealing with Drimogemon for two episodes now. It’s very silly. Drimogemon should have just stayed as a Drimogemon and everything would have been fine.

At least this does mean, thanks to Digmon’s apparent higher defences and mobility, we get GeoGreymon not winning the fight in a single attack. (Though my brain looks at Digmon and sees something that’s clearly a Bug/Steel-type and is very bothered by how an obviously Fire-type attack like Mega Flame doesn’t harm it at all. Shush, I was raised on Pokémon; I can’t help but see things this way.) It puts up a decent fight for a while, dodging or withstanding their attacks and hitting back, which at least is a refreshing change from the one-attack victories we’ve seen before – because there’s a narrative point to be made in this fight that wouldn’t work if they won straight away.

…I still think this could have been made to work just fine with Drimogemon turning out to be tougher and have more mobility above ground than they’d been expecting, though. It shouldn’t have needed to evolve sideways for this fight to be a challenge.

So anyway, after a little bit of them not getting anywhere in defeating it, Tohma reminds Masaru of the part last episode where GeoGreymon and Gaogamon’s attacks collided from opposing directions and cancelled each other out.

Tohma:  “But what if the opposite happened?”

Masaru:  “What’d happen?”

Tohma:  “Let’s find out!”

Look at Tohma getting into the Masaru spirit of things! He has an idea, but unlike his usual carefully-calculated strategies, he doesn’t know exactly how this one’s going to play out. And yet he’s going for it anyway!

Tohma:  “Isn’t that your style?”

Masaru:  “Now you’re getting it!”

Not only that, but Tohma knows this is him pulling something Masaru would pull, and he’s okay with it! And of course Masaru enthusiastically approves.

Believer kicks in here, by the way, not earlier when they were evolving. We’re still hearing it every episode for now, but even then, the music directors know better than to just blindly throw it in the moment an evolution animation happens, regardless of context. They’re deliberately saving it for the actually triumphant moments, like all “evolution” songs should be.

Masaru:  “The timing has to be perfect.”

Meanwhile, Masaru is taking a leaf out of Tohma’s book and caring about little strategic details like timing! Look at them both go.

On their command, GeoGreymon and Gaogamon fire their Mega Flame and Spiral Blow attacks together in the same direction at the same time, which turns them into a huge flaming tornado that engulfs Digmon and overwhelms it.

Tohma:  “The opposing attacks didn’t clash… they fused! Their combined powers enhanced each other and became amplified to more than before!”

Which, though I don’t know if Tohma himself quite realises this or not, is also a very fitting metaphor for his and Masaru’s methods, just like what happened last episode. If they oppose each other, all they do is get in each other’s way and achieve nothing at all, but if they work together, they can each complement the other’s skills to become something greater than either of them could be on his own!

Masaru:  “Who cares about that? All that matters now is… he dies!”

Meanwhile, of course Masaru doesn’t care about figuring out the sciencey logistics of how this is working (and he certainly cares even less about possibly making some kind of metaphor). He just knows that it’s awesome and it means they win.

(The “he dies!” is, uh, rather dark, especially considering it’s only being turned into an egg, but I’m pretty sure that’s a subs thing and that Masaru doesn’t actually directly reference death here. The subbers were probably just going for something that sounds a bit snappier than “he’s defeated”, which I imagine is closer to what Masaru actually literally said.)

As Masaru starts celebrating their win like the adorable excited dork he is, GeoGreymon and Gaogamon give a small smile to each other, and it’s cute.

Tohma, meanwhile, isn’t quite the type to join in with Masaru’s loud celebrations, but he has a smile to himself and is obviously happy about this outcome as well, in his much more subdued way.

We cut to sun…set? Huh, now that I think about it, I guess this part of the Digital World runs on a different timezone to Japan in the human world, because it was daytime the whole time over here while it was night in Japan. Maybe this world even has an entirely different day length.

Masaru, Tohma and their devolved partners are heading back to the recall point – with Masaru still supporting Tohma’s walking, because he is still good and Tohma probably still needs it.

Tohma:  “When you jumped down towards Drimogemon… Did you plan right from the start to use him so we could get to the surface?”

Tohma only asks this now even though they’ve been implicitly walking back from the fight for a while. It seems he tried to tell himself that it probably was all planned, but the thought kept nagging at him – was it really, though? This is Masaru, after all – that he eventually just had to ask and confirm it.

Masaru:  “Nah, that was just spirit! But the result was great, wasn’t it?!”

Aaaand of course it wasn’t all planned from the start. Of course not. But, hey, there was still deliberate intent and strategy involved as it was happening. It seems Masaru can be pretty good at the whole seat-of-your-pants, make-it-up-as-you-go type of strategising when he needs to be!

Tohma:  (I hate to admit it, but I can’t analyse his ability with my intellect.)

And that’s okay, Tohma! This is Tohma acknowledging that Masaru’s approach is nothing like his, but that it still works just as well and is just as valid a way of going about things. He’s opening his mind to more than just his very rigid way of thinking!

Tohma stops in their walking and… offers Masaru a fist-bump. I really like how he’s the one to offer here, after Masaru was the first to offer support to Tohma earlier and Tohma was still being kind of hesitant about fully accepting Masaru as being similar to him. He’s making up for that now and closing the rest of the gap himself, just like he began to do in the battle when he suggested a Masaru-like risky strategy!

Masaru accepts it without question, of course. He probably already felt like they’d grown enough of an unspoken bond from their experiences that it didn’t need to be said, otherwise I imagine he’d have already made this gesture himself sooner. But I like that it didn’t occur to him, so that we could see Tohma be the one to choose to initiate this.

They are friends now and it is good!

Agumon:  “Aniki’s got himself another follower!”

That’s, uh, not quite what this is, Agumon. But it’s adorable that Agumon jumps to seeing things that way, because to him his aniki is just The Coolest and he can’t imagine anyone else ever being his equal. So if Aniki’s gained the respect of someone new, that must mean he’s also become an aniki to them, right?

Gaomon:  “Master is no follower!”

Meanwhile, maybe Gaomon feels pretty similarly about his master, too. He is, after all, a very good dog.

Safely back at DATS, Masaru and Tohma and their partners have the grace to look appropriately sheepish about this whole thing as Satsuma yells at them. Yoshino is also there and also looks like she’s getting yelled at along with them, which seems unfair to me – she already bore her share of the blame earlier, and it was far less her fault than theirs!

Kudamon:  “You were able to make it back this time, but did you think about what would’ve happen if you’d failed? You still know nothing of the Digital World!”

It’s pretty interesting that Kudamon says this to them, considering that he knows far more about the Digital World than anyone else in this room and yet hasn’t ever thought to inform his agents about it in case something like this ever happened.

Satsuma drops his anger and turns his back to them before finally complimenting them on managing to return. Despite his sternness, he does care about his subordinates! I really do think he was only so angry because he was worried about them never making it back. Going there in the first place was monumentally reckless on both their parts, but Masaru and Tohma did at least handle things quite impressively while they were there, and that deserves to be acknowledged.

(Speaking of worried, I imagine Masaru is very much not planning on telling his mother about how he nearly went and got himself stranded in another world, which is definitely for the best. Poor Sayuri would be terrified just thinking about how close that came to happening.)

Overall thoughts

When I first watched Savers, I think there was a part of me that expected the Masaru-Tohma rivalry to drag on unnecessarily long, like for ten episodes or more, and probably become kind of stale and tiresome before it finally got resolved. But no! Savers doesn’t waste any time with this mini-arc. We’ve seen Masaru’s insecurities brought out by Tohma; we’ve seen Tohma’s insecurities brought out by Masaru; now it’s time to shove them into a situation where they can learn to get along, so that the story can move on with them actually working together.

And, really, it was never going to take Masaru and Tohma that long to reach this point. They always had so much in common along with their differences, and they’re both fundamentally decent people despite their tendency to be very stubbornly insistent about their own way of doing things. All it took was putting them in a situation where they can come to see the other as a person and not have their own issues brought out by the other’s very presence, and each one was always going to see that there’s plenty about the other that he can respect.

So I like this episode a lot, because I think it pulls this off really well. There’s a lot more to it than just the basic premise of “put them in danger so they’re forced to work together” – there’s all sorts of little moments I’ve talked about here that show each of them is slowly beginning to see the other as human and come to understand and respect his different way of thinking. The writers really thought about this, and about these characters. Savers’ character writing is great.

And yeah, the Drimogemon evolving into Digmon is pretty silly, but that’s only a small thing. The conclusion of the metaphor started last episode with GeoGreymon and Gaogamon’s attacks is a narratively appropriate way to end the fight, at least.

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[Dub comparison]

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 78 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch finally confronts Charles in the Human Instrumentality Elevator but before his laser Geass bullshit can kill him, he steals C.C.’s Code and becomes immortal. Now that Charles is at the highest Geass level, C.C. like “Oh yes Imperialist Daddy kill me cause Lelouch is too chicken to” because she wanted an out for her immortality all along. But she’s been saving Lelouch this whole time and didn’t force the Code on him like was done to her so she clearly has a soft spot for him. Also Viletta and Sayoko are having a ninja fight over Ohgi and Nia’s developing nukes or some shit. Ironically now that we finally know who C.C. is, she’s lost her own memories so her character is always incomplete. But Lelouch has busted up the Thought Elevator and Charles is stuck there so showdown postponed I guess.

Inuyasha: Naraku continues his plan to cover Sesshomaru in his goo and take him inside himself… not gonna bother rephrasing that. But he gets jumped by Inuyasha’s barrier breaking powers and absolutely wrecked by both of them once Inuyasha inadvertently saves Sesshomaru. Ironically Inuyasha’s able to stop himself being absorbed while Sesshomaru isn’t, implying he’s stronger at this point but who knows. Anyway Naraku just kinda rockets away on a poison cloud and Sesshomaru’s about to turn full doggo and chase him but the writers remember we’re never allowed to see full demon Sesshomaru again until he regains his arm and Naraku tells him “Hey yo Rin’s about to get murdered, better go take care of that instead of finishing the series now” and Sesshomaru’s out of bluffs pretending he doesn’t care. Everyone realizes if Sesshomaru catches Kohaku killing Rin or about to kill Rin he’ll straight up murder Kohaku which is exactly the level of head-fuckery Naraku wants. They stop Kohaku from killing Rin but he keeps attacking Sesshomaru and Sesshomaru’s like “Oh, you WANT to die, well tough shit buddy, I’m not in an accommodating mood today so you live mother fucker” because even he realizes Naraku wants him to murder Kohaku for some reason. It’s interesting to see him spare a human out of spite but also kind of take pity on Kohaku, his tolerance for humans is slowly but surely growing.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Well we’re on the boat to the Dark Tournament, aka the first episode of Hunter x Hunter, and the totally not Genkai Masked Man uses the move Genkai taught Yusuke to wipe out all the competition, wonder who they could be. Like even Kuwabara’s guessing it’s Genkai at this point, we have no excuse. Anyway the other demons get pissed at the loss and everyone has to murder them all to be let through, including one dude Yusuke kills while still sleeping off his training hangover. We meet two of the first team they’ll be facing and it’s standard “Grr rawr, we’ll crush you” shit from a little boy and an Buttrock Band singer. Also Keiko and Shizuru are on the way to the tournament courtesy of Botan and Yusuke’s mom is left at home for no reason despite being in the arc in the manga, we just couldn’t handle more Milf Urameshi action.

Fate Zero: This is basically a summary episode, we have Kirei/Gilgamesh and Kiritsugu summing up where we’re at right now with the war and who’s involved. Kirei doesn’t have any more ninjas so he’s out but the Grail’s like “Nuh-uh, get back in here loser” and gives him Command Seals back even though he doesn’t have a Servant to use them on. Gilgamesh is all “What if we teamed up? Haha, just kidding… unless?” And weirdly enough Kirei is kinda into the soap opera bullshit going on with Kariya trying to save Sakura and being turned into a mummy for it. He’s like “what kind of fucked up person would like seeing a man being eaten from the inside out to save a child in vain?” Gilgamesh is all “Joke’s on you, we’re into that shit”. Also Iris is dying or something so they move into Shirou’s home and Saber ironically makes the transmutation circle in the shed that Shirou will bleed on later and summon her in UBW, guess it makes more sense why Shirou lives in a bullshit dojo house now that we know it was a originally a mage base fortress to harbor his girlfriend and Stepmom’s forbidden lesbian affair.

Konosuba: We kick of Season 2 with everyone throwing Kazuma under the bus for him to go to jail and then Aqua showing her whole damn ass during her pathetic breakout attempts. Then we shift Ace Attorney/Chrono Trigger mode and get a recap of all the shit Kazuma’s done over the past season. It’s kinda funny people don’t really know how to feel about him because he is a scumbag but he’s a net positive for the community. He eventually uses his lie detector skills to clear himself but because this is a kangaroo court he get found guilty anyway. But SINCE it’s a kangaroo court Darkness is able to use her own even higher levels of royal bullshittery to void the verdict and delay the case until Kazuma can prove he’s a harmless scumbag instead of a traitor. And they lose Darkness and get all their shit taken. Like I get that’s the nature of the show and the main joke but I kinda wish we’d get more story stuff or have them thrown a bone every once in a while, not a huge fan of shows like Marrier with Children or Everybody Hates Chris where you know shit’s just gonna fall apart in the end somehow, it makes it hard to care. Like this isn’t THAT bad about it but I just wish we’d get a few more serious/wholesome moments thrown in because everything else is just a fakeout.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So we’re getting close to the end of the season here and Beryl’s here and Mamoru just kinda… watches as she fights the Sailor Guardians in an alternate dimension because apparently Ami can just do that, like aside from their signature attacks I feel like the limits on what the Sailor Guardians can and can’t do are very vague, seems to be a problem with a lot of shojo action at the time since powers are more focused on emotion and it just ends up being “I can do whatever I feel like”. Anyway they summon the Meteor Sword from Avatar and cut off Beryl’s power necklace and she just kind of… dies for some reason? Like she was a reincarnated human just like everyone else but she just kinda melts after her necklace is chopped off like she’s been alive a thousand years. But yeah, possessed Tuxedo mask has the crystal and the sword and apparently the sword is the key even though we only started hearing about it like three episodes ago. Usagi follows him to Antarctica or whatever and the Sailor Guardians just… fly there, see this is what I mean apparently they could fly the whole time and just never did? They fight the Four Kings and reawaken their memories but Metalia blasts them away in seconds which if she could do that to the people that were kicking the Sailor Guardians’ asses five seconds ago couldn’t she just do it to them too? Anyway the girls’ former boyfriends are dead and that’s sad I guess even though I don’t think we ever really established which one was dating who so idk if it matters unless they’re all one big polycule. Usagi tries her bullshit fixer beam power and it doesn’t work so her next solution is just stab everyone and sort it out later, not a bad plan honestly, she cuts down Mamoru and then herself and is like ah fuck it, the end.

Durarara!!: The Saika arc concludes and we get Anri fucking up Haruna while Shizuo pounds the whole town in the park with his new demon gloves. But basically because Anri is a little ball of dissociation and trauma more than a person she’s a perfect host for a sword that’s yandere for the whole human race, the void contains the explosion and all that shit. However now that there’s been a Saika riot but Mikado and Masaomi are scared and mobilizing the Dollars and Yellow Scarves (also oh yeah Masaomi is the leader of the Yellow Scarves but you should know that already) to fight Saika to protect Anri except Saika IS Anri and Izaya’s just having fun stirring the pot and Anri’s the only one who knows he’s behind it because turns out when you have a hundred peoples’ memories swimming in your head it kinda helps you piece shit together.