#keep breathing spoilers

[whumpypepsigal]

Keep Breathing s01e01: “I Can’t Swim.”

[babacontainsmultitudes]

🤔 Admittedly I was a little disappointed by the reveal (but certainly not surprised the foreshadowing was heavy in this episode lol), but not actually against how Beth (and Will) seem to be playing with it thus far- which is to say that I do think it has a lot of potential, and I suspect there's more to what we're seeing).

;) Big ol' ramble below

Mostly the theory has turned me off until now (at least insofar as I've witnessed it transpire in the fandom at large) because it struck me as so painfully ironic to see Trudy, a 1950s housewife, struggle to exist under the system that she's in, fail to fit the mold assigned to her, and be denied her personhood very literally for it (this being ironic insofar as how it mimics how she would have been treated back then). This and because frankly I just think she's a lot less interesting if she's fully a robot LOL, but I'll hopefully get to that in a bit.

Not that the hints at her mechanical nature and the relevance of Tucker's background were lost on me; I can appreciate why those would contribute to a plausible, fun and I think still mostly harmless theory (now fact). However, minus one or two specific posts I've seen on the matter (namely a recent one suggesting that if Trudy is a robot Beth is probably taking inspiration from The Stepford Wives, :( sorry person who made that post I couldn't find it I wanted to credit yoouuu), I've seen the theory just about exclusively presented in a manner that, rather than explore the metaphorical and political significance of Trudy being partially or fully mechanical, at best disregards the parts of her narrative that are at their core about sexism (among other related things), and at worst negates them entirely (i.e. Trudy only thinking and acting how she does because she's a robot malfunctioning and not because the world itself is causing harm and she rightfully wants something more than the role she was forced into, Trudy not even having any real thoughts and feelings of her own, etc.). I just think it kind of sucks to shove all those important things about her aside and say "actually, there's no person suffering here, she's just a robot" and perhaps worse yet to imply that she does have thoughts and feelings but because they result in Weird™ behavior it must be a problem with her code and not at all relate to what women were subjugated to during this point in American history.

CONVERSELY I don't think Trudy being a robot (or at least partially one) at least from what Beth and Will have presented us thus far, inherently suffers from any of these issues? First and foremost because Trudy definitely appears to possess sentience, thoughts, and emotions of her own, matters which immediately complicate her degree of personhood and don't inherently box her behavior in as a bug in her programming rather than an issue with the world she's been put in, quite the opposite in fact! I think they have a very solid groundwork laid out here to make a strong statement with Trudy's narrative (and perhaps ask the question of what is really malfunctioning here), all the more so since [I pull out a Rebecca Swallows-style conspiracy board] I don't think she's entirely robotic in nature? Actually you should just read Mack's tags in this post cause he has great thoughts on the matter (of which those are just some of them), but if I can direct your attention to one thing in particular, it would be Beth's fact (I *believe* from episode 2) about Trudy never graduating high school because of her essay where she suggested that "perhaps women could one day domesticate themselves", a statement that could of course be interpreted a number of ways but ultimately threatened the patriarchal status quo enough (in suggesting women's independence) to cost Trudy her diploma. Taken on its own this fact appears to contradict the theory that Trudy has always been robotic in nature, because it doesn't really make sense that Trudy would have been set up to go through high school (or school at all really) when Tucker's intention was/is for her to be the perfect housewife. You may then suggest that Trudy's memories of this are fabricated and not actually her lived experiences, in which case firstly perhaps you should reread my earlier point on the robot theory being used to actively negate and otherwise disregard the portions of Trudy's narrative that pertain to sexism and feminism, and secondly it really doesn't make any sense to me that Tucker would implant those kind of memories into Trudy's brain? To be completely honest if she's been a robot from the very beginning (rather than someone who became a cyborg, which is what I'm trying to suggest here), then I don't see why Tucker would program her with actual sentience in the first place (suspending my disbelief here with regards to the possibility of programming sentience to begin with). It seems much more likely to me then that Trudy was not always a robot, and instead altered by Tucker to force her into a role of subordination and remedy her """imperfections""". This option is significantly more interesting to me one, because it implies that Trudy has actually lived a life up until the present, full of its own complexities and strife (and dreams, and real actual memories worth exploring, etc.), and hence is not by any means "just a robot", and second because it amplifies the hypothetical statement being made on the lives of the real living women of the era and how they were treated and seen as being "in need of fixing" for not conforming to gender roles or otherwise acting "out of line" with what was expected of them.

OKAY THIS GOT OUT OF HAND SO I'M CUTTING MYSELF OFF HERE but I wanted to my share my current thoughts what with this ending and where I'm at so hopefully that was at least interesting to whoever has chosen to read through this one okay thank you byyyyyyyyye~

[poughkeepsies]

I'm sorry I know this is probably gonna rip my heart out but the idea of buck possibly dunking so hard on christopher it causes a third premarital buddie divorce is absolutely murdering me

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

im so Normal. totally not shaking and crying rn

[alilbitlesbian]

Goddamn Monsterfuckers

Reader x Sonia x Rauru

Zelda and Link weren't the only ones under the castle, Zelda's personal guard, a knight who was trained and hired to relieve Link of some of his duties, had been with them.

They stood next to their friends when the floor collapsed, falling into an inky abyss, time froze as they fell, the dot of light that was the dungeons disappearing above them. They'd accepted their fate already when light, yellow sparkles buzzed over their skin like static electricity, and then they were gone, disappearing in a mist of power.

---

Reader is nonbinary and also not even attracted to Rauru at first because they're convinced he's either a small lynel or an overgrown bokoblin.

Sonia and Rauru are IMMEDIATELY hooked though, also they think Zelda is dating R which is,,,, not true but it's funny so I let it happen, im so exhausted from writing this and the sidon x reader project, sfjkdlg.

send asks if you have any fun ideas for fics!! This one will have several chapters so please for the love of god just oneshots, just oneshots cause i cant sjfkdg

----

Their breaths were wheezing, confusing them momentarily as they lay, looking at the clouds as the soft twinkling sparks of magic finally extinguished like the sparks of a fire

-

They awoke in a field, tired and cold, a hand shook their shoulder, and their eyes snapped open, she was alone, in a field, and someone- a stranger- shook them?

Their wordless shout had the stranger withdrawing, muttering to someone they could not yet see, the Knight crawled away from the stranger, looking around and seeing the princess not far away.

In a flash, they were up to their feet, they stumbled, uneasy, and their eyes flicked from the hylian woman in front of them to the strange beast that bent over Miss Zelda's form, sharp teeth exposed and clawed hands reaching for the princess.

It took not a second to drag their sword from its scabbard and draw their shield, both royal guards’ issues that proudly displayed the symbol of Hyrule, the woman looked at them in confusion, but she followed their eye line to the beast and her eyes widened, mouth opening to shout.

The woman called out, and the beast barely managed to see the approaching guard before he sprung back from them, they stood over Miss Zelda, making sure not to hurt her as they kept both assailants away. If the woman knew a monster, she surely wasn't as safe as she appeared.

The beast approached, hands out in a placating matter, the knight snarled, snarled like Link had taught them to scare monsters and people alike, and held their sword at the ready.

The two figures glanced to one another, and in a wide arc, they stepped to eachother. The monster drew the woman behind it, a protective move. The guard grimaced, lowering their stance, the beast was much larger than them, it could easily defeat them, especially with how unsteady they still felt after the strange rush of magic and the fall under the castle.

No matter, they would not allow any harm to befall the princess.

"Your companion-" the woman said, they frowned, before hearing a soft groan, they glanced, panicked, between the princess and the threats, but as the young girl stirred and attempted to sit up, the choice was made.

"Princess!" They cried, shield dropping with a clatter and sword returning to its sheath with a soft *shiiing*, they slid on their knees in their haste to be by the princess’ side, they missed the way that the Hylian woman repeated the word they’d spoken to her beast, confused.

"Please, don't strain yourself." Their hands settled on the princess’s back and shoulder, protectively glancing at the stranger and monster as they helped her sit up, the second they heard feet approach, they scrambled to their feet, pulling out their sword and pointing it at the approaching figures, who paused immediately.

Their blood rushed, making them light-headed, their heart pounded in their chest, gritting their teeth

"Y/n, please." The Princess placed her hand on her knight’s shoulder, they lowered their sword ever so slightly. But still scowled at the two.

"Who are you?" The princess asked, uneasy, the knight placed the sword back in their scabbard, but their hand hovered near the handle, an action that did not go unnoticed.

“Princess..” They murmured, urgent, inclining their head in an obvious suggestion to leave, or at least reconvene, the princess nodded, noting her knight’s apprehension, but kept her eyes on the strange creature and the woman, the princess tilted her head at the strange couple, giving them an opening to speak.

“I am Sonia, this is my husband, Rauru.” Sonia approached the princess, and the guard bristled. An insult almost slipped off the guard’s tongue, one they’d heard not often in the towns they’d pass, a few times thrown at Kilton or his brother, or even, at times, at Hylians who courted other species.

‘Monsterfucker.’ 

The thought stained their feelings toward the woman, and they glared at her beast, visibly startling when it- he? Spoke.

“I am sorry we startled you and your companion, we were only trying to help.” They hissed under their breath, Zelda and Sonia did not seem to hear it, but Rauru’s ears twitched and he glanced to them, curiously.

“I apologize for my knight’s behavior, it is just.. We have never seen anyone like you before, most that look similar to you, are not sentient or kind, but rather monsters who wish only to destroy.” Zelda spoke, her soft voice settled the knight a bit, and Rauru nodded in understanding, his eyes now kinder as he took them in.

“Sorry for my manners, I am Zelda, daughter of King Rhoam and the Princess of Hyrule, and this is one of my personal guards, y/n.” You bowed reluctantly, your metal pauldron clanging softly with the motion as you waited for the conversation to continue before you stood again.

“What a strange and unexpected thing to say, as we are the founders of Hyrule, as far as I know.” The humor in his voice was apparent, but stale, you huffed at the joke, and he smiled, mirth in his eye.

“Wait..” Zelda paused, and so did you, narrowing your eyes as you looked between the two.

“Queen Sonia and King Rauru…” She murmured, you remembered her telling you about them, it was a small part of history, as sadly, details of the oldest history were always the hardest to find, just their names now echoed through your lands, in a long, almost endless line of kings and queens, they barely stood out.

“Where are we?” Your voice was hoarse, and scratchy. The two strangers looked slightly surprised at the quality of it, Zelda did too, but looked mostly worried, she glanced out over the lands.

“I- I don’t know.” She managed, you gazed at the two, they didn’t seem dangerous, but you had to remain on guard.

“Hyrule.” They replied instantly, but your eyes traced upward to the island floating above, you startled, and an involuntary whine slipped from your lips, Zelda followed your eyeline and startled in much the same way.

“What is that?” She managed, confused.

“Oh, that is the great sky island,” Sonia answered sweetly, you glanced at Zelda, then signed a quick question.

‘I patrol perimeter?’

‘Yes, quick.’ she signed back, and you took your shield from the grass, sword out as you started to search the forest for anything, landmarks, a monster hideout, a village, or the castle from afar.

You came upon a cliff, it wasn’t awfully high, but enough so for you to see down into a valley you strangely recognized.

You spotted Hylians, wearing revealing clothes and holding rough, handmade weapons, seemingly made from sticks and stones rather than the fine metalwork you carried, even Lizalfos had nicer weapons than that. You watched the hylians for a bit longer, they seemed to scavenge in the forest for fruits and vegetables.

Zelda called your name, and it didn’t take much more for you to return to her side, taking a dead sprint, still holding your sword as you settled next to her.

“Did you see anything?” You ignored how Sonia and Rauru appraised your weapon, or how you wheezed softly with each breath, you nodded.

“Hylians, not like you and me, like her.” You nodded toward Sonia, and Zelda nodded. “They wear primitive clothes, weapons like a monster’s not like ours, not even like a lizalfos or Lynel.” Again, Zelda nodded, hand to her chin.

“Then it’s certain, we must have somehow traveled back in time, Sonia and Rauru explained to me it could be the stone we found.” She held out the yellow stone, and you hummed, nodding.

“Keep it close, hide it.” You murmured, glancing at the islands above you nervously.

“We should return to the castle, I am sure my sister would be glad to speak to you, Miss Zelda.” You frowned, you’d roughly calculated where you were, near the Temple of Time, by the location of the valley and a mountain that you supposed would become the dueling peaks, but was for now just one mountain.

“How.” You managed, the raspy quality of your hurt throat had Zelda be even more concerned.

“Normally.. We’d teleport, but I don’t think that’ll be possible, if we walk a day, we should reach a town not too far off the route, and there we could get some horses.”

You nodded thoughtfully, chewing the inside of your cheek as you glanced from Zelda to the king and queen, they smiled, but the King's sharp teeth only managed to unsettle you.

"I suppose.. We should start walking then!" Zelda clapped her hands, you nodded, stretching your arms above your head while Rauru began walking, Sonia chattering softly to you and Zelda.

You remained quiet, eyes pinned on the unfamiliar landscape, searching for enemies or threats.

If you really had gone back in time..

Shaking your head, you sighed, surely, it wouldn't be that difficult, if it went up, it went down, if it went back in time.. Surely it could go forward, that's the way time is supposed to go!

Yeah, it'd be fine.

[highfiveheroes]

okay for those curious: the “now i breathe flames each time i talk” verse has SEVERAL more installments coming

1. as some people noticed—the main fic is now going to be three chapters, and the hint for chapter 3 is in the last paragraph of chapter 2 :)

2. on that note! there is a prequelish in the works that ties directly into chapter 3, and i’ve mentioned it here before a little—still a work in progress, but i may prioritize it over chapter 3

3. buddy and ruben are getting another aside :) two more, in fact

4. there’s a chance for another jace/starbreaker aside—i love writing them, but holy hell have i feel like i tapped out most of them. that being said, if it runs concurrent to the next one…

5. oisin and ivy are getting an aside as well!! it’ll hopefully err on the side of more fun than drama, but i’ll have to see how melodramatic ivy is feeling at the time

and finally!! i have Several other half finished documents that i’m unfortunately also working on, but just rest assured if you want more rat grinder content (and the universe i’m writing is something you’re interested in) i promise to deliver* :)

*does not account for any writing hiatuses taken because of never stop blowing up, the psych au, the metawarlock ruben fic, etc

(if you’ve read up to this point, enjoy some snips!! i’ll let you guess where they’re from :) )

[wildlife4life]

Today is not really a day to be a buddie shipper isn’t it 😂😭😭

Lets first take deep breath anon okay?

Okay.

First off, JLH was joking with her comment (and people really need to stop asking those who aren't Oliver or Ryan about buddie. Its just rude at this point)

Second, those stills... well we already knew we're going to have to suffer through the creepy smiling ex-nun for a bit longer. But anon, we survived a whole season of TK, including a freaking back story episode and those were some very dark times.

Third, its been stated by a screener/journalist that we'll get a cute buddie scene, so that should cleanse the palate of whatever we're about to sit through with the ex-nun and the diaz boys. (Try to keep focus on them not her!)

Hope that helps!

[howwnowbrowncoww]

i am on the FLOOR

[theangelyouknew]

Argh I just saw a tiktok explaining the ending of the latest doctor who episode because people apparently needed it explained to them. One person even said the episodes this season aren’t good because they shouldn’t need to have the endings explained to them.

No. They shouldn’t. I get that not everyone’s on the same page. Not everyone’s had the same experiences.

But. It’s obvious. Even if it’s not obvious during the episode itself - and I’ll chalk that up to the personal experience thing - the ending hits you like a fucking brick.

The people of Finetime were racist.

If you don’t get that by the end. If you watched the whole ass thing and still needed that explained to you; then you’re just being deliberately obtuse.

[13curses]

gege akutami.

[todayisafridaynight]

no ones ever gonna understand how much i love daigo doin this stupid shit after dissolving the tojo

[errorwarblesrr]

do you like totk or botw better?

In short: Yes, I like botw better.

Here are my reasons, though!

I know a lot of people view it as the better experience, which is completely subjective and valid if you do and like it better, but I just view botw as being better in almost every way.

I will give it to totk. The dungeons have a lot better atmosphere. The game has some extremely high highs with the build-up to the wind temple, the whole great sky island segment, and the final boss is a much better fight (though dark beast ganon has a better theme song imo).

Other than that, I prefer botw. Totk has a much grander story, but it's completely mishandled. You can argue that totk has a great story but has poor execution, and to me, execution plays a big role in what makes a story good. You can have good ideas bit it all falls apart if they aren't executed well which ends up making the story bad. It's not that totk has a good story with poor execution, it has good ideas but the bad execution leads to a poorly told story. (I hope that makes sense). Botw has less of a story and is more like a set of events. Botw has history and backstory that is told more organically. Link has amnesia so he slowly regains some of his memories of the past with some people trying to help fill him in. It feels more real...in a weird fantasy way. I guess totk is similar with how we see Zelda's memories, but not really? It's weird to explain. Everything 100 years ago is felt in present day botw while in totk most of those things don't really matter as it happened so long ago. Things only start to resurge because Zelda wanted to investigate under the castle. Totk also has twists like a story. Idk if this is making sense but that's how I feel on their stories. There was just not much botw could mess up on story wise as the way it was presented.

Gameplay wise I can not lie totk is technical marvel with the zonai tech. That's the most impressive thing about it. Tbh building contraptions isn't my thing though, it takes too long to make and experiment with a machine when I can just do whatever that machine was gonna do much faster. I see why people have a lot of fun with it though, it just isn't my thing. One thing I HATE in totk though is the amount of menuing I have to do. Elemental arrows had a serious downgrade. Yeah it's cool to fuse stuff to arrows, but not when I have to do it to ever single individual arrow and if I want to try something new I have to scroll past 50 other items in a single line. It's just tedious. If I want to use a good weapon I have to go to the menu, drop an item, and menu again to fuse it to a weapon that will still break. Item breaking is still an issue but it's more annoying and the weapons no longer look cool. Totk has some cool abilities, but idk I'd trade them all for remote bombs lmao. I hate going through caves, especially early game, and having to deal with the rock walls where they want me to fuse a rock to a stick 10 times to get through one cave. There's just a lot of little things gameplay wise that bug me. They doubled down on botws gameplay issues and added some more annoying ones. I don't even have to mention the sages abilities, that's a whole mess.

On the topic of gameplay, botw just has the better world. Idc, exploring that world for the first time is an unforgettable experience. Totks main world is too similar so the magic is gone. The sky and depths are also unimpressive and repetitive. Botw also has the benefit on how the word felt so lonely yet alive. Everything had a purpose or a story. The world has a history. And totk just doesn't have that. Outside of the upheaval, totk doesn't really build on botws world that much. I was hoping to see if they would've added new towns or see how they'd rebuild hyrule, but they really didn't do that. We only got lookout landing, which doesn't really count as a town, and a bunch of building stuff lying around which is cool I guess. Hateno has a school and Terry Town expanded a little, but with the estimate of about 5 years since botw it makes you wonder...what have these people been doing? We can theoretically build Terry Town in one day. There could be new towns.

Totk is a sequel that doesn't really acknowledge it's predecessor which is so odd. Botw stands on its own and is an overall more cohesive experience. Everything in the world feels purposefully crafted for that world while totk just slaps things on top of it with not much thought. Botw has some amazing world building while for totk it's either "the Zonai did it" or has some contradictory world building. For example, the old sages lifted up the sky islands so that Link would be protected from Ganondorf shenanigans, but then other sky islands suggest how they've been around long before Rauru since young Zonai used to train in them or something. There is also how Zelda says Link never leaves her side, but people she interacts with on an almost daily basis do not recognize him and how even treat as if he doesn't know some facts about her. So either she is overexaggerating by a lot and/or lying in her own diary or that people in hyrule have the collective memory of a rock. There's also Zelda supposedly never giving Link the champions leathers yet as a gift, but we see him wearing it in the beginning. Idk there's more contradictories, but I haven't experienced this for botw??? Totk is so disconnected and disjointed in comparison.

I'm trying to be vague but there's a lot to say, I'm sorry. I really was enjoying this game at the beginning but the more I played the more I noticed or saw things that bugged me and just kept adding up and up on each other. Botw was never like this for me. It's just more cohesive and I like that. There are so many other things I haven't brought up like the repetitive cutscenes, or missing characters/characters that SHOULD know Link but don't (namely Bolson and Hestu). But this post is long. I can't keep complaining about this game. Botw really is that one of a kind experience, and totk tries to replicate it but worse. Botw had a vine that totk lacks. You feel so alone, but you meet knew people and make friends. You build connections as you learn about the past and help those around you. There is no story, you're just a person going through the motions and exploring the vast world around you. Totk can't replace that for me. I'm the main character playing a side role in a disjointed world where not much makes sense. Everything is similar in all the wrong ways.

And most important of all, they took away Link's fun dialogue and personality now he really is bland asf and used to defend that he wasn't.

[nerosdayinanime]

wait. random idea. Pathetic(blame candy) muzan & kokushibo are exes from Centuries ago and he has Complaints hed like to talk about w him but all hes getting to now is Nakime. hes so sick of his bullshit and just enduring it and goes to kagaya like 'i have to kill kibutsuji. ill help you kill him & the other upper moons just PLEASE im so sick of this shit. i need to kill him' 'well you arent killing me so ill give you the benefit of doubt-'

since they broke up he's hacked at the curse to the point he can snap it Whenever without muzan noticing, he finally did so & went to kagaya bc he can Feel shit's gonna pick up soon. he has his memories but he Ignores Them bc hes ashamed and kinda projecting it onto muzan. he has to kill muzan to kill his shame kinda fucked up coping mechanism yk?

the hashira try to kill him On Sight together but he calmly deflects everything while explaining hes working with them to kill kibutsuji. reluctant acceptance with the note from kagaya giving him a pass. most of them fully believe its a trap tho.

koku seeing tanjiro & his earrings and starting to approach, giyuu already has his blade lodged in his neck as a warning/threat & tanjiro staring at him in shock like 'HUH?? THE MAN FROM MY DREAMS?? HES A DEMON NOW? WAIT WHATS HE DOING HERE-'

[kayevelyn]

I can’t decide if I should kinkshame Kim or consider her one of the greatest therapists of all time….

[crouching-mouse]

I did it....I made it all the way to the end...😭

+ some celebratory Anzu & G'raha because this is my blog, dammit

I really enjoyed this last bit of MSQ. Even if G'raha is staying behind (for now) I'm so excited to go see Tural!!

[lavenderjewels]

this was the most evil thing that’s ever happened in jjk