#makes sense since he cut out the whole part abt like

[sc0rpain]

so i know we're all going crazy over "how will you sleep at night?" "next to my wife" (and rightfully so)

BUT are we just gonna sleep on "you cant kill me" "exactly" "wait..... WAIT-"

[monstermoviedean]

@angelsdean here: While I do agree with a lot of the bitter deangirl posting abt the Trap I also have always still liked the scene? and offer a slightly less bitter perspective.

I have always viewed the scene less as Dean thinking he NEEDS to apologize but more as Dean understanding Cas feels he needs Dean to forgive him. I read the whole scene (and episode) from the POV of Cas being very rooted in his own insecurities, and thus projecting out a bit and deflecting and being short with Dean. Because purgatory is magnifying Cas's own guilt and well, Cas isn't handling it well. And you Know i am the first to get angry on Dean's behalf and I DO think Cas is being a unfair, but, I think I also need to practice what I preach in the sense that, if it were Dean behaving like this I'd be talking abt his own grief and pain and motivating factors. and i think that applies to cas in this case. he's still in a lot of pain. Cas also bound by his empty deal, possibly purposely keeping Dean at arms length out of fear of triggering the deal if they reconcile too well. We see that "arms length" maneuver at play imo when Dean has more he wants to say and Cas cuts him off. I think, perhaps, part of Cas felt SAFE while they were "divorced" / fighting because at least then he KNEW he'd never be truly happy. Which just breaks my heart for both of them.

Anyways. Dean. We know he's a self aware king. And he's also incredibly emotionally intelligent when it comes to others. Empathy boy, etc. and Cas is his best friend. He knows Cas better than anyone else. And I think he knows Cas is beating himself up. Feeling guilty for everything AND displacing that guilt and anger. Because yea, Dean's been there. And dean's dealt with Sam and John doing similar things too. He understands. And yea it sucks that he's once again putting the feelings of others first, but at the same time, that's his MO. He's the one who cares abt everyone. He's the beating heart of the narrative. And he loves cas. He does. So of course he's going to make sure Cas knows he's forgiven (was always forgiven! implicitly!) and that Cas matters to him. He's his best friend. He never wanted him to leave! (the cut "of course I wanted you to stay" IS canon to me. He said that part quietly, internally, ok).

I view the whole prayer as Dean giving Cas what he needs. Telling Cas what he needs to hear in that moment (and it's not that I think dean doesn't means these things, he does! but I think dean didn't think it needed to be said-- that Dean forgives Cas. that Cas matters to him. but again, Cas is not at his best. In normal circumstances I think Cas wouldn't need to hear it. But just as DEAN is doubting what's real, what matters, I think so is Cas. Yes he told Dean they were what's real, but a lot has happened since then. He let bel's words in hell get to him a bit, for one. He's now feeling out of place in his family, not sure if he ever mattered at all. And so he needs a little reassurance imo. And that's what the prayer scene is to me. It's not about Dean begging to be forgiven. It's dean giving Cas what he needs for Cas to be able to forgive himself.)

As for the stuff abt Dean apologizing for his "anger" -- anger that was justified and part of his grief (he is allowed to be upset that his "son" killed his mom!)-- and "groveling": I don't like it. I don't like that Dean is seemingly positioned as "the bad guy" and the reason for their separation when Cas was the one who CHOSE to leave instead of stay and work things out. And when Cas, in his own pain, stopped giving Dean "the benefit of the doubt."

However. Despite hating it all from a deangirl perspective, I think from DEAN'S own perspective, this IS stuff he believes about himself. Dean has his own fears and insecurities and I think being "angry" and "becoming John" are genuine fears. And I think it's important to remember that what characters say about themselves isn't the Objective Truth. We KNOW Dean is most often "not mad, worried." We KNOW Dean cares so so much and loves so fiercely. We know he's more than his "off" moments. We give him that benefit of the doubt. But Dean? He'll beat himself up for everything. And Cas echos this in the confession when he tells Dean "you see yourself how our enemies see you....You think that hate and anger, that's what drives you. It's not." As much as I think yea Cas should've said all this sooner, I think this part is indeed a response to Dean's prayer. And it's basically Cas saying, "yea all that stuff you said earlier abt always being angry and your anger being the problem, no you're wrong<3 and I do know that you care so so much. About me and jack and sam and the whole world. And everything you do comes from a place of love and good intentions."

Would I have liked to have heard Cas say all this immediately after the prayer and would it have been more effective in relaying the message that Cas doesn't think Dean is ruled by anger or that Dean needs to grovel for his forgiveness over it? yea. yea I think the confession coming 9 episodes later kind of breaks up the flow of this arc. But in this reading, I am willing to give Cas some grace. Right after the prayer they were still under a lot of stress to get back to earth and stop Chuck. Cas is also feeling conflicted abt his deal. Not knowing what he CAN say to Dean. What is even safe to say. And the fact that (imo) a big part of Cas's moment of happiness IS getting to tell Dean how good he is and not Just the declaration of love, just shows that maybe it Wasn't safe for Cas to say all these things to Dean earlier.

Anyways. This has gotten very long but I just wanted to offer a different perspective, that doesn't absolve Cas of his wrong-doings or the part he played in their separation, but is more considerate of Cas's own POV. AND shows Dean being thee heart of the narrative and giving Cas what Cas needs to hear, being emotionally intelligent, but also being just as insecure as anyone else re: his own self-image.

publishing this now because i think you're making a lot of sense and i cannot tell you how much i appreciate your perspective and the time you took to lay it out! i want to respond more thoroughly later but i didn't want to let this languish when it's so dang important and helpful.

[magical-regical]

Ok so I've been playing 'Sword of Convallaria' for a few days now and honestly, I'm absolutely hooked.

More yapping below the cut, some spoilers abt the Spiral of Destinies. Although I haven't reached any endings yet so it's mostly speculation from my part.

It's interesting how this game seems to have two 'main stories'. Like,

The tutorial makes it feel like 'The Fool's Journey' is the main story since you're collecting Tarot cards for...something (the explanation kind of went in one ear, out the other). Some timey wimey space timey stuff. But I swear the actual main story happens in 'Spiral of Destinies' I mean look at this screen,

Does this not scream 'ANIME'

The fool's journey seems to give you some backstory for the characters you encounter in spiral of destinies but the actual story with your MC in it is in spiral of destinies. And can I say, I absolutely adore the story they're cooking in spiral of destinies.

It has different routes with different endings depending on which faction you side with which drives home the 'your choices affect the future' aspect of the game. You manage your mercenary group on a week by week basis which gives it a resource management aspect and there's an event at the start of each week before it lets you go to do your own thing and given the setting of the story it really gave the sense of 'oh god what now'.

They do such a good job crafting the atmosphere of 'everyone's trying their best but we all know war is about to break out' because the town itself looks so cheery with the bright colors but then you start reading your quest descriptions (because doing certain quests increases your affinities towards different factions) and the letters you get at the start of each week and you're like 'oh man things really aren't doing so well'.

On one hand we have The Union and Iria playing the blame game while The Papal States seem to be 'indifferent' or 'neutral' abt the whole thing (sus), possibly waiting for a good moment to strike. Then there's the whole thing with Darklight, what's up with them huh? Just your local cult doing cult things? It makes me more and more curious about who exactly caused the Waverun incident. Then there's the Vylders who seem to be caught in the cross fire.

And the fact that Convallaria, your city, is in the middle of it all. It's literally almost smack dab in the intersection of the three factions (which is why you can choose to side with either The Union, Iria, or the Papal States) and it's your job to make sure your little mercenary group can protect your little town in the middle of these three super powers who are frothing at the mouth, ready to rip each others throats out. Along the way you meet people from all three factions which kind of gives you insight on all three perspectives and it's really hard to pinpoint who exactly is 'in the right'. I love it. I haven't played a game that didn't have one obvious 'this way to good ending' sign in a hot minute.

As of writing this, I just finished 'Potential Threat' where the split happens and I ended up going down the Iria route because I pulled Dantalian early and he's been carrying me through the game so I thought it'd be a disservice to not side with him on my first run through.

Also I don't trust Lutfi. I don't know why. He sounds like a politician. Like his little speech at the tavern where he's like, 'all of this is Dantalion's fault so we should overthrow him so I can be a better leader!' and how he immediately calls the Swords of Convallaria his 'friends' feels just a little bit sus. Even more so if you've played chapter 2 in the fool's journey.

I'm excited to see where the story goes and I'm interested to see if there is (or is going to be) a 'save everyone' route because the way things are looking now, no matter who you side with, you will end up hurting people on the opposing side.

[r0zzk1ll]

Hello bendy fandom Really fucking long rant/analysis abt me defending wally franks batim in a nutshell (and kind of basically making an au??.?. idk probably). enjoy if u want or don't idc 🎷🐇

i know this is a really stupid thing to be mad about, but the fact that wally isnt buddy boris has stuck with me ever since dctl was released. i found out through a fucking superhorrorbro video of all things all the way back in like 2018 i'm pretty sure 😭😭 i was so disappointed when i found out bc like WHAT DO U MEAN THE JANITOR/HANDYMAN OF JOEY DREW STUDIOS, EHO WAS GENERALLY A TRICKSTER AND A CLUTZ AND LIKED TO PISS PEOPLE OFF, ISN'T THE PERFECT BORIS CLONE. BUDDY BORIS FITS/HAD POTENTIAL TO FIT MOST TO ALL OF THAT CRITERIA.

and don't grt me wrong, i (kind of) like buddy as a character, BUT i really just don't think he fits the role (from what i've seen/read). like he could've been a different boris clone as a little easter egg/nod to what happened to him and how he died but as like. an important role in the game?? even though the books aren't even fucking canon apparently now so his subplot doesn't even make sense anymore?????.????... ooh bitchh

ALSO the "he (wally) got outta there that's why/he has a wife and kids" IS A WEAK ASS FUCKING ARGUMENT. THIS IS NOT A SHITS AND GIGGLES PLOTLINE U CAN JUST THROW AWAY. how come thomas grts to be tom (which makes somewhat sense with him also being a handyman type of guy), but wally can't also partake in the Main Character-ified Borisification to help henry traverse the studio. why can't that just be so easy to do. there could've been so many cool extra plotpoints and nods to what could've happened to him but Noooo Noooooooooo they just HAD to make a whole new character JUST for wally to NOT BE BORIS. ESPECIALLY WHEN THE BOOKS ARE NON CANON NOW BECAUSE THAT MAKES TOTAL SENSE. (/sarc)

and don't FUCKING quote me on batds bc i know SOMEBODU will be like "b-b-b-bbut b-b-buddy's whole s-s-side plot with collecting the scraps in batds makes him c-c-c-canon!!! 🥺🥺🥺💖😭😭💔💔💔🎀🎀✨✨ ur just mad bc it's not what was assumed by the fandom!! ;-; úwù heh..." FIRST OF ALL, BUDDY ISNT EVEN MENTIONED IN ANY OF THE CANON GAMES (besides the secret message in the safehouse but i don't think that rlly counts imo), NOR DOES HE HAVE ANY RELEVANCE IN THE STORY WHATSOEVER, WHICH MEANS HE IS STRICTLY BOOK-CANON. SECOND OF ALL, BATDS WAS KNOWN AS A SIDE/EXTRA GAME AT THE TIME OF IT'S RELEASE AND WASN'T EVEN CONFIRMED TO BE APART OF BATIM OR ANY OTHER PART OF THE FRANCHISE (ASIDE FROM A SIDE GAME TO PLAY WHILE BATDR WAS IN PRODUCTION) UNTIL BATDR WAS RELEASED AND CONFIRMED BATDS IS HAPPENING DURING IT (WHICH DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE EITHER)!!!

I DON'T CARE WHAT KIND OF OPINION COULD CHANGE MY MIND. WE GOT A PERFECTLY GOOD AND WELL-DEVELOPED CHARACTER (AND A [PERSONAL] FAN FAVORITE) AT THAT POINT FOR WHO BORIS COULD'VE BEEN, AND IT GOT TAKEN FOR SOME STUPID SEEMINGLY HALF-ASSED SUBPLOT THAT'S ONLY HALF-CANON NOW BECAUSE MIKE FUCKING D IS A GOD DAMN MORON IDIOT BASTARD ASS BITCH OHHH MY GOD IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY I'M GONNA PULL OUT ALL MY HAUR

sorry. almost lost my cool there guys.. ☝️😎 (/J)

soo with all that said, PERSONALLY this is what i think they should've done with buddy instead (under the cut so this post isn't 600 pages long)

first of all; scrap buddy's origin story completely and just make dtcl about the fact that he was simply another victim of the machine instead of making him such a major character (ex. a boris clone that was almost perfect but didn't quite make it like i said earlier)

on top of that, dctl could've just been insight on a single worker's process through working at the studio to being one of many victims of the machine, instead of turning him into such a titular important gary stu ass character with an in-depth backstory and Joey Drew Favoritism™ apparently that CLEARLY didn't need it + shouldn't be an mc if he's only in the books + the books aren't canon and the games are. so then it doesn't make it make any sense if he has such an important role and he isn't even fucking canon anyway and etc.

if he would've just stayed a minor inconvenient mc in a non-canon book it wouldn't have been detrimental to the lore as Mr. D Likes To Exaggerate (to me) + the books just seem like a fun one-off exclusive to the game series anyway, so it starts to kind of make sense why they aren't canon and leaves a lot of mysteries up to interpretation which is something i DO appreciate (to a CERTAIN extent)

here's what i think could've been done if wally was actually buddy boris and faced The Horrors™ like a normal main character should. an au, if you will (AND bc im VERY bias abt wally since He was my first ever og blorbo the first time i heard his audio log i literally owe him my Life💜💜💜💜)

wally could've started dropping hints in his audio logs that something funny was happening in the studio (specifically to him)/he could've been the last major victim to be sacrificed to the machine and therefore being one of the reasons of having the role of "the perfect boris" as malice said

-he also seems like the type of person to give into manipulation fairly easily, not knowing how truly bad something is before he gets involved yk

-a bit of a stretch BUT could also be a nod to susie's initial likeness towards wally pre-canon and vice versa (sourced from the special audio log wally has on the jds yt channel)

-him being the perfect boris also could allude to his personality/attributes and the way he talked abt the studio

and you can't forget the audio log of him and thomas bickering like COME ONNNN THERE COULD'VE BEEN A WHOOOLE SUB-SUBPLOT WHERE TOM AND BUDDY BORIS RECOGNIZE EACH OTHER SOMEHOW AT SOME POINT BUT THEY DON'T KNOW HOW

-TOM COULD'VE RECOGNIZED HIM EVEN AS BRUTE BORIS AFTER HENRY KILLS HIM and allison too but TOMMMMMMM😭😭😭😭😭CAN ANYONE HEAR MEEEEE

extra hints in the game like certain phrases and mannerisms of his (ink/glowing ink writings like his "i'm outta here!" written in certain locations or like. boris being clumsier as he walks/carrying around keys/scavenging for food [kind of like in the start of chapter 3], etc.)

-i also think that the connection that buddy boris (and just boris in general) has with food can connect with wally as well bc of the audio log where he's like "Omg 💖 Cake 💖just for me! Don't Tell Anyone Though. Our little secret. 😝" or the bit in the handbook where he finds some "churros" i Guess

there's also a LOT of potential for there to be a whole OTHER subplot where sammy could have found him one day and hadn't recognized him bc All The Boris Clones Look The Same, but buddy boris recognized sammy and there could be a whole conversation with henry and sammy abt him and dropping hints at it and blahblahblah etc etc.

-sammy probably could've mentioned him* at some point too even if he hadn't seen buddy boris as like a "hey.. i knew that fuckass guy.. wtf" (*and i know he mentions wally in the hot topic takeover thing on twitter from a while ago but i mean like in the actual game)

i think that the fact of boris being a Non-Verbal King™ would also be a funny contrast to how many god damn audio logs wally has. like Shut yuor mouth fucker /REF

the bit in chapter 3 where boris knows every nook and cranny of the studio and how to navigate the vent system could also lead to wally's nature of having a lot of knowledge of the layout to the building (due to being a janitor/running errands for people, similar to buddy) + he mentions staying in late to freshen up some offices so he might've explored more using that time as well because his personality shows he's a bit of a nosy guy

ALSO a stretch, but wally's first audio log in chapter one being fairly close to the first boris corpse displayed could've been a good foreshadow to his revival as buddy boris (and where the theory originated i'm pretty sure once ch2 came out)

the saferoom at the start of chapter 3 could've also been a great place to reference him (they could've put his hat from bendy royale in the shelf next to/on the hammock Can anyone hear me)

i also think that wally is supposed to be painted as an older guy?? so he probably already would've moved on from the studio due to leaving and starting his own business and having a family I Guess?????? idk but to me i think he'd be more of the college drop-out that thinks he's hot shit type of guy when in reality he doesn't know what a 2 + 2 is (ex. the audio log in batds where he's like "i was the best Student! Brickmore High! [tiktok bold emoji] These college bozos don't be knowin' shit!!"

-younger people are easier to manipulate like i talked abt earlier (especially someone like him that doesn't think before he Does Anything . boy has no thoughts)

wally also most likely would've known who henry was/was friendly with him while working there too at some point while henry was still at the studio pre-canon, so he probably recognized him throughout the cycle

i could ramble forever abt this bc it's such a strangely frustrating topic for me BUT in conclusion; i personally tbink that it would've been perfectly logical for wally to have been buddy boris (probably called somethig else), and buddy should've been a completely seperate character that would've done just as well on his own in the book instead of having a whole ass overarching plot for no reason?? and the "canonicity" of it is weirdly up for debate??? idk Watever thank you for coming to my tedtalk 😇😇Bye

⭐ !! bonus wally doodle dump since u made it this far !! seriously why r u Here ⭐

[year2000electronics]

Ok so what’s shimmer relationship like with the main cast like in the brotherhood au?

RUBS HANDS TOGETHER EVILLY. I ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING I WROTE A WHILE BACK ABT SHIM AND THE BROTHERS. HEHEHEHEHEEEE

i havent gotten to the outcasts Yet but. one day. i'll put it below the cut!!

“You probably don’t remember me, but-”

That was the first thing Shimmer had decided to say to baby Branch- no, it was just Branch now, wasn’t it? No matter how hard she looked at him, she could still only see the hopeful, gleaming eyes and the sweet smile as that kid she had come to briefly know so many years ago. It was a tough habit to kick- and the other members of the village clearly had a leg up on her with that.

“No, I remember you!” He replied, swinging his hands back and forth as the two of them walked through the village together. “Johnny doesn’t talk about you anymore, not really, but I remember going over to your pod!”

Shimmer tried her best not to seem too desperate for knowledge. Johnny? Her Johnny? Well- formerly hers. Not anymore? She knew it, he hated her, dammit, why did she come here-

“Oh, yeah? That so?” She laughed quietly. “Gosh, you’d make a mess of the place… you were so cute.”

“Yeah…” Branch said, looking off to the side. He was clearly quite a bit surprised, hearing someone talk about him through their sole memories of him being a baby. “It’s… been a long time since then, though.”

“I know, I know,” Shimmer assured quickly. “You’re all grown up now. And it makes me feel… very old.” She gave a laugh to shrug it off, but… it was true. Staring her in the face was the very sobering realization that it had been nearly two decades… Two decades since she had seen any of these people. And yet, somehow, despite Branch going from a baby to an adult…

…It felt like he had changed the least.

“Well- you don’t look very old,” Branch chirped. “Not to me.”

Shimmer looked back at him with a sort of sad smile, combing her hair out of her face.

“...You’re sweet, kid,” She mumbled. 

“No, really! You look Johnny’s age, and he’s not old, so… you’re not old either, right?” Branch grinned. He thought his logic was flawless, clearly. 

Shimmer snorted. “Is that how you see it?”

“Yup.”

Shimmer laughed, and decided to leave it at that. Branch’s peculiar little sense of humor did amuse her, to be sure. 

“So-” Shimmer asks after a bit of silence. “Do you mind if I ask you something, ah… a bit personal, kid?”

“Depends,” Branch said with a shrug. “What is it?”

“What was it like? Growing up here, I mean,” Shimmer asked.

Branch paused for a moment, to think about it. He looked up at the sky, down at the ground, every which way, except at her.

“Normal, I guess?” He shrugged. “We’re safe here, and I had my brothers. I don’t know what else a guy could want.”

Shimmer supposed she should have expected an answer like that. Of course Branch would see everything as deceptively normal. From the time she spent at the village, she didn’t exactly discover any blood sacrifices or chaos magic rituals happening behind closed doors or anything, and even though John and his brothers had morphed into slightly mythic figures, they weren’t referred to as His Holiness or anything. 

“Guess so,” Shimmer replied. “I was just… gone for so long, I’ve been curious, I suppose. About all the changes.”

“There aren’t that many,” Branch mumbled.

“No?”

“No.”

That’s what Branch’s mouth said. But his eyes told a different story. 

—---------------------- 

Shimmer sat down in Bruce’s pod, staring him down. 

His hand automatically moved to grab some matchmaker’s tarot cards when Shimmer lowered it before he could.

He glanced up at her, confused.

“Don’t,” She grunted. “I’m not here for that. I don’t even want to know.”  The sooner she could stop Bruce from doing the matchmaking thing, the better. There was a whole nest of hornets there- and whatever he said about her “potential prospects” would just remind her that a part of her never moved on from John Dory. 

“Then-” Bruce furrowed his brow, leaning back. “What are you here for?”

Shimmer gave him a surprised glance. “For you. Is that so hard to believe?”  

Bruce scoffed, leaning on one of his hands as he pressed his elbow onto the table. “Usually people come to the matchmaker’s pod because they want their match made, miss Shimmer. And yet, here you are, asking for me and not even wanting a match while you’re here! I think that makes you the strange one.”

Shimmer groaned. “Neither of us are strange, Bruce, don’t play this game with me-” 

Bruce laughed. “Oh, man- I did miss this. How is it that I’m always able to get under your skin?”

“I don’t know, you little devil-” Shimmer snorted. She cleared her throat, combing some hair out of her face. “But- that’s the only part that feels like it hasn’t changed, after all this time. What’s someone like you doing with a job like… this?”

Bruce frowned. “Are you trying to imply this isn’t a real job? The village won’t like that.”

Shimmer furrowed her brow, putting a hand up. “That’s not what I said. I mean- this job feels so prestigious. And everyone I asked about you immediately followed ‘Bruce’ up with ‘The matchmaker’. Doesn’t that… bother you at all?”

“Would it really matter if it did?” Bruce said with a shrug. 

“I mean-!” Shimmer gave an exasperated sigh. “I… I just want to understand. Everyone here is used to this, used to you all being leaders, I was just…” She shrugged. “I guess I was just hoping an old friend might be able to help me stop sticking out like a sore thumb.”

Bruce frowned, studying Shimmer’s face and body language. She seemed to be sincere, though her pride clearly held her back from just straight-up begging. And he did feel quite a bit bad for her… it was true that Bruce and Shimmer had been pretty close back when he was Spruce, and back when Shimmer was “JD’s girl”. They got on each others’ nerves endlessly, but that was almost part of the charm.

…He could use something like that again, perhaps. Nowadays, the only teasing he could get away with was either to Baby Branch or doing something so subtle to JD and Floyd that most other people shouldn’t be able to notice. 

“...Being a matchmaker is fine,” Bruce began to speak. “I’m rarely ever wrong, I’ll have you know. People trust me, and I like that. It feels… good to be trusted, I guess.”

He took out a tarot card from his deck, studying it. “I mean- I’m trusted for manners of romance, friendship, intimacy… But nobody is puttin’ pressure onto me to be a leader. In a way, I guess… I’ve got the best job in town.” 

“Still,” Shimmer said quietly. “I wouldn’t mind hanging out with Bruce-the-man instead of Bruce-the-matchmaker. If you can bear taking some time off your busy schedule.”

Bruce tilted his head noncommittally. “I’ll think about it. Gotta keep up appearances, y’know. That’s a big part of everything.” 

“I guess,” Shimmer half heartedly agreed. “Not that I’d know.”

“It’s good that you don’t,” Bruce replied, an oddly soft tone in his voice. So soft that Shimmer dare not toe the line and ask him to elaborate on that. Her absence of a question, though, left the two of them sitting in the candlelit room in silence.

“...So what’s the story behind the new name?” Shimmer asked to break it.

“Eh,” Bruce waved a hand casually. “I wanted a reinvention.”

Shimmer paused, mulling that over. “It suits you,” She said, finally. 

“Thanks,” Bruce smirked. He held up a hand, tilting it towards her. Between his fingers was a tarot card.

“Hey! I thought I told you not to do the matchmaking thing!” Shimmer protested with a frown.

“Relax, miss Shimmer,” Bruce replied coyly. “This one’s just about your social standing.” 

She took the card from him, studying it- oh. It was The Star.

“It means renewal,” Bruce said simply.

—--------------------------

“Morning, Floyd. I’d apologize for interrupting but I feel like that ship’s sailed already,” Shimmer grunted, going to sit on a mat near where Floyd was meditating.

He cracked an eye open, glancing over at her. “...Shimmer,” He said with a simple nod.  

She began stretching her legs, grunting every so often- this type of stuff didn’t come as easy to her as she wanted it to. 

“...Why did you come back?” Floyd asked bluntly. That made Shimmer stop in her tracks, glancing over at the younger troll with a befuddled look on her face.

Floyd put his hands up in a gesture of false surrender. “I don’t mean it like that! Don’t misunderstand! It’s just… one doesn’t just wander back into a place like this without reason.”

“Well- it’s home,” Shimmer admitted, bending down to touch her toes. “I was feeling… disoriented. Like I had lost myself. I didn’t know where else to go, so… I came back home.”

“Yeah, sure, but… you said it yourself. This place has changed. So, I guess, a better question would be… what made you stay?” Floyd asked as he bent himself into a different position. His tone was casual and calm, but there was a certain hunger in his eyes that let Shimmer know that he was very invested in this line of conversation. 

Shimmer’s mouth went dry. That… that was a good question. Especially since Floyd was playing a bit of a dangerous game, where she would make a major social faux pas if she wasn’t careful- Floyd was implying that someone coming to the village and staying there was strange. Of course, it was a perfectly safe place, but Shimmer knew she and Floyd both could feel the gated-community vibe of the village where nobody ever comes in and nobody ever comes out. She counted herself damn lucky that they even let her in at all. 

“...I suppose I’d say- it’s because some part of this place didn’t change,” Shimmer mumbled. 

“Really?” Floyd asked, stretching one of his legs to the sky.

“Really. That’s what keeps me here… I think. It’s all very confusing, this new village stuff, but when I look at all my old friends here… I guess I can’t help but see the boys I used to know,” Shimmer bashfully said as if she was admitting a crime. 

“So you really believe that…” Floyd said quietly. “And- is it the same with me?”

“Sure it is,” Shimmer said, rolling over to be on her stomach as she grabbed one of her legs. “You were always the one who sat in the back, weren’t you? Just… watching. Soaking it all in. I still see a lot of that in you today. With Branch and Bruce, too, the more I talk to them, the more I realize there’s still parts of you I’ve met before.”

She sighed. “Stupid, I know.” 

“No, I don’t think it’s stupid at all…” Floyd replied. “I… I think it’s kinda nice, actually.” 

He smiled, looking up at the roof of the large cave they called home. He let the moment sit for a bit.

“Sometimes… I don’t really feel like that boy anymore. I don’t feel like I was ever him at all. It’s… confusing, I guess,” Floyd said at last.

“Ugh, tell me about it-” Shimmer grunted, stretching out another one of her joints. “I was looking at an old poster of myself yesterday, and it was like- who WAS she?” 

Floyd gave a gentle little laugh. “I guess we’re more alike than we thought, then. It’s… nice.”

“I don’t get to talk to people much about this stuff,” Floyd continued. “Me, Johnny and the others try to be strong… for the village. So- it just… doesn’t come up.”

Shimmer gave him a nervous glance. “I’m not stepping over a line, am I? You’d tell me if I broke some sort of village rule. You would. Right?”

“Calm down,” Floyd squeaked desperately. “You’re fine.” 

Shimmer sighed. “Sorry… sorry. It’s just-”

“A lot, yeah,” Floyd finished. “That’s the village for you.”

—-------------------------

Shimmer was never sure if it was her place to mourn Clay or not. She had known him once, but at the same time, that was a long time ago. Was it illogical that she felt like she didn’t deserve to mourn him like his brothers did? Maybe. But she couldn’t change how she felt.

Still, that wouldn’t stop her from leaving some lily-of-the-valleys near his memorial spot every now and again. 

“Sorry I missed you, Clay,” She murmured. “I would have liked to have gotten to know who you grew into.”

—---------------

Shimmer wasn’t looking forward to this. She wasn’t looking forward to any of this. In fact, she had taken extreme, deliberate steps to avoid this from happening.

But what she hadn’t accounted for was bumping into John Dory on his stupid shitty morning walk, DAMMIT- 

He dusted himself off, clearly taking on a facial expression that was preparing for an apology, only for him to realize exactly who it was he had bumped into. Right- the troll he hadn’t talked to since he initially told the village to let her in.

Oh, yeah.

Also, his ex. 

“...Shimmer,” He was the first one to cut through the silence as he looked up at her, adjusting his scarf. “You look… well.”

Shimmer scoffed, looking away. “You and I both know that’s a gross exaggeration.”

John frowned as she looked away. That caught her eye. She coughed, immediately trying to steer the ship of a conversation back on topic. Much as this was her old flame… this guy was also someone she clearly didn’t want to get on the bad side of. Best not to get… too testy.

“But- other than looking like I rolled out of bed basically every day, I’ve been-” She sighed. “Fine. How about… you? How- uh- how have you been?” 

John Dory blinked once or twice, not expecting her to turn the question back on him. “Me? Oh, yes, I’ve been great, as usual. Never a bad day here in the village. Heh. You haven’t… been having any trouble, have you? I know the villagers can get a bit testy with… ‘new’ people.”

Shimmer shook her head no, folding her arms. “No, it’s been fine. Just… just fine.”

“Good… and you’ve been behaving too… right?” He said- although his tone was light as a feather, he knew the underlying meaning in what he said- here was a girl he had been close with before she disappeared- She could drag him back down to feeling mortality, be so casual with him in a way he hadn’t felt from anyone besides his brothers in years- and if she wanted to disprove his lie, he’d have to put whatever feelings he still had for her aside. For the sake of the village.

“You think so low of me, John,” Shimmer scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Yes, I’ve been behaving. I’m a guest here- guests follow the host’s policies, and they’re thankful. That’s how I was raised.”

“Good!” JD chirped. “I wasn’t too worried about that,” He lied. It slipped naturally off his tongue as smooth as butter. 

Shimmer paused, looking him up and down some more. He looked at her looking at him, waiting to see her reaction and cautiously preparing for it.

“...It’s a bit of a different look for you, I’ll admit, but… I don’t hate it,” Shimmer spoke with a shrug. “The red looks nice.”

John laughed, flicking an earring. “Ahhh- thank you. It does, doesn’t it? I’ll admit, your look was a bit surprising, too. You’ve really changed, I almost didn’t-”

He paused, not wanting to finish the sentence… but Shimmer knew what he was going to say.

I almost didn’t recognize you. 

She knew that’s what he wanted to say, because she thought it when she first saw him.

Jeez, what were they? They used to be a teen hot couple, the poster boy and poster girl for puppy-love… But here she was, a disgraced pop troll who couldn’t sing… and there he was. The hero and saviour of an entire village. 

It was more obvious to her now than it was to her than that him even noticing her at all was… nothing but a stroke of luck. A fluke. There he was, brilliant, important, in control… And then there was her. A total mess. A flop. She felt like an intruder in the village, and now, being face-to-face with JD only made things worse. In every other brother, she saw that past part of them she once knew, but with John, she felt like she was only reminded of her own insecurities, her own failings. 

She swerved past him, eyes firmly trained onto the ground.

“I’ll get out of your way, John,” She mumbled half-heartedly, trying to just put a miserable end to the conversation and stop her mind from attacking herself so loudly. But as soon as she started walking, she found herself unable to keep going. Locked around her arm was none other than JD’s hand. She glanced back, looking at him in confusion.

“Wait,” He started. “...Come over to my pod sometime. You, ah, need to update me more on how you’re settling in. Yes. As the village leader… it’s part of my responsibilities, y’know? So- don’t leave me hanging.”

Shimmer’s breath caught in her throat. She hated the idea of seeing him more, and yet, the fact that he had requested her presence specifically… It made her heart skip a beat. 

“...Sure, yes,” She replied quietly.

She expected John to let her go at this point, but he kinda just kept staring at her in silence for a while. Somehow, she found herself staring back.

“...I’ve missed you,” He confessed with a breathy whisper. 

Shimmer tried to muster back a reply, but words failed her. She tried again, and again-

“I didn’t even think that was possible,” She finally said back. 

[traumxrei-archive]

【 book 6 thoughts ! 】

i said i'd share my thoughts, so here they are so far >:DD

part: one, two, three, four / ??

[ warning: spoilers for book 6 up until 6-16 under the cut !! ]

[ about : overblot lore drop ]

it took yuu long enough to actually TELL CROWLEY that grim was eating those rocks :')))) makes 110% sense that grim would lash out if he's been ingesting 5-overblot's-worth of purified blot

but also, i...can't believe it took twst this long to actually explain what was going on when we were fighting the overblots jsfksdfk like this whole time i've been assuming that people just. get knocked out or tired, but what they explained made so much more sense.

crowley has said that overblotting is rare. but then how come at nrc ?? there's been 5 consecutive overblots in less than a school year ?? (the twst timeline so far is from sept till around feb, bc book 5 was set during a "spring festival" iirc) the reason they don't know enough about overblots is bc they don't have enough subjects who have overblotted to research, so... i do wonder if there's something else at play here, maybe something has changed in NRC since yuu came ?

[ about : ortho lowkey scares me ]

ortho honey....wdym do we need bring back the target alive.....ofc we need grim alive sobs (the juxtaposition between his youthful n polite way of talking + the way he literally knows everything bc his brain is the internet kinda scares me a lot.)

[ about : vil's apology ]

i made a separate post to talk about this bc i started writing n it really got too long, so yes. but also. vil whipping out 50k madol like it's nothing. his acting career has really done him well.

and kalim donating it to ramshackle, my beloved. he's so nice. even while he's saying "it was sO RUN DOWN !!" as kalim was listing out the bad stuff abt ramshackle, i wonder how yuu was able to LIVE in this dump for 6 months.

[ about : ROBOTS ???? ]

HELLO ?? INTRUDERS ????? ROBOTS ?? WHAT ????? they're ignihyde blue....also the boat ? logo ? on their arms ??? what the heck does that mean ??? ok wait i can vaguely read out letters on their arm,,,styx ?? like the river styx in the greek underworld ? having a headache, are we gonna see the underworld somehow in this book ? wait, if the facility or whatever is called styx, are these robots the "charons" ? they're carrying oar-like staffs + they're trying to capture targets D and E and bring them in,,,,kinda like how charon brought souls in a boat to cross the styx river in myth. (also i was right, leona called them ferrymen >:DD)

(n they have grim. interesting that they'd ignore yuu tho, considering it was them who is the string that connects all the overblots.)

(also don't you just hate it when you win the battle, but then in canon the chars actually lost the battle. so you're just sitting there like -_-)

[ about: ob gang's capture ]

it was. very in character how each of them got captured.

vil and jamil were protecting other people (aka the freshmen, and in jamil's case, kalim) vil is really big on his responsibilities, so even though he authorized the use of magic, he still told the freshmen to stand back bc he knew they were unskilled in combat magic n that they'd get hurt bc they don't know hot to properly defend. meanwhile, jamil was probably covering any of kalim's blindspots + making sure he doesn't get hurt while looking for places where he could attack.

riddle went out with a bang, they hit him with a paralyzing beam, and he still had enough magic power to set everything on fire before they could hit him again. he also authorized everyone to fight, bc he probably believed that a group effort could take them down. as always, his sheer firepower is very impressive, the amount of magic he has and his attacking prowess is...wow.

leona....protected ruggie from harm first, saving him from glass and telling him to back off. and then he immediately scanned them to identify who they are. and of course, leona of all people, would know who they are. i think people forget, but a large reason why leona's so smart and why he skips class is bc he quite literally learned all that material when he was younger. the fact that he was the only one to recognize anti-magic plates meaning that resistance was futile and the logo from his time at the palace. (and that moment between ruggie and leona,,,,leona knows that he can trust ruggie w/ the wellbeing of savanaclaw until he returns T^T)

meanwhile azul was with idia, even though he didn't know what was happening, he got extra info from idia n ortho,,, the way azul was about to fight and idia went don't bother (bc he actually likes azul as a friend bro), and ortho went "the chances of you sustaining an injury drops by 87% if you don't struggle ^^" also. idia being concerned ? kind of ? by the ferrymen's forcefulness while coming in and taking the students is nice to see (and i KNEW it. i bet that idia's parents, or the shroud family in general, runs this Styx facility)

and they took crowley ?? crowley seems to know exactly what's going on, so i wonder why they didn't coordinate their...pick up with him beforehand (they legit destroyed so much public property + trespassed for no reason)

[ about : the plane ride ]

it's scary how they're all in a cramped dark space flying to who knows where. like how inhumane ?? they're about to take these people to do research w/ them, but clearly they don't care that they're humans, and they treat them more like convenient test subjects that have converged coincidentally in one school.

RIDDLE SLEEPING ON LEONA'S LAP IS SO FUNNY SJFDKSJFKS I CANTTTTT the way his leg was probably cramping,,,,three hours w/o moving and someone sleeping on you, he has so much patience onggg

[ about : styx ]

so...styx is an organization that does research on blot. it makes perfect sense why crowley would know they'd come knocking, since they have had 5 overblots that one school year. and the shroud family are "the watchman of the isle of woe". leona explains that they take overblotted mages there. what i don't understand is why countries can't interfere with them ?? or is it that they won't interfere with their research bc...styx' research benefits them too perhaps...?

from what leona said, they handled extreme overblot cases that regular magic marshals couldn't handle aka ones that can't un-blot anymore, so why are they coming after the ob gang ? not only were some of their overblots months ago, they've also all safely un-blotted, and transitioned back to normal life... ig my question is why them, and why now.

(it's a cool detail that the ob gang actually got help after their overblots. like it wasn't like everyone just picked up where they left off, vil mentioned medical mages and proper counseling, and that means that they were able to talk to someone about the things that troubled them.)

[ about : idia's family ]

not only do they run the jupiter conglomerate, aka the google of twisted wonderland, they might also run styx ? idia did ask the charon dudes if his mom and dad were away, ig this is what the shroud family ACTUALLY does behind the scenes of their big tech and energy business.

it also explains why idia deleted all those prospective work emails in the end of book 5,,,,bc he just knows that he won't be able to work or pursue any of his other dreams. his fate has been sealed since day 1 bc he was born a shroud, so he's probably going to end up having to take over Styx and its research in the future.

(and azul. being as on-brand as ever and saying he should've made idia in debt to him....sir, his family legit just kidnapped you, chill)

[ about : iDIA SHROUD ?? ]

HELLO. IDIA SHROUD ACTING DIRECTOR OF STYX ???? that means that his parents DO own styx, and that they're letting him run it for now while they're doing other things.... also i really hope that the ob gang don't get hurt hhhh

aaaannd i'm stopping here bc it's late, i did not realize that so much time had passed...i'm tempted to keep playing but i must sleep. n e ways yea this was just me rambling about what was happening as it happened, so i hope you...enjoyed ?? (if you did read this far)

[angevinyaoiz]

saw Dune 2 (2une?), and since I don't have my dune blog anymore I'll post here, since blah blah this is my place for posting about Dynastic Weirdos. This is long but NO MAJOR SPOILERS, except about like, small detail things that aren't plot things but whatever

Tbh it was disappointing. It had all the correct elements to be liked but one thing grated on me the whole time...the Bad Dialogue and lack of Elevated Speech! Why the hell were all these characters saying stuff like "these guys" "we're ok" and "literally" it took me out of the fantastical world sOOO bad. Super bummer because what I loved about Dune 1 (D-uno?) As someone who went into it before reading or knowing anything was how much it didn't explain, how it let the visuals and the world unfold before you, and how serious and somber it was in a way that gave it a sense of scale and time.

I can only wonder if WB saw all the complaints and tweets about people being like "we didn't understand the first movie!!! It wasn't funny and quippy!!!" And decided to simplify it down so characters just SAY things really obviously and inelegantly. The writing has some competence in moving the story forward but there's no poetry or rhythm to the way characters say things, it's serving "Rings of Power" scriptwriting to me lmao. And it's not like any of the actors are bad? I've seen them do well in the previous movie and in other things, so wtf was going on with the direction. I know people complained Abt Villeneuve saying that whole thing about being more into visuals than dialogue but maybe he was right...there needed to be LESS WORDS. bc much of the words we had were NOT GOOD.

Positivity: the middle and latter part was where the movie picked up for me. The Harkonnen Freak Villain behavior was everything I could have wanted! Finally instead of EXPLAINING everything obviously we got to see a LOT of character building, for Feyd specifically in a very short amount of time. I know a lot of us complained about Bald Feyd-Rautha but Mr Elvis did a very good job. And we got Madame Fenring and weird scifi femdomming finally, which is Essential for the Duniverse! Wonderful fantastic no notes.

Of course, getting back to our heroes, I anticipated this 2 years ago sadly and it was true...the Fremen were badass but SWAGLESS. More Learned ppl have already written about the frustration with the erasure of the Arabic/North African cultural presence so I won't reiterate that here since I'm not super knowledgeable about the specifics of that but even as a casual watcher there was a weird emptiness to the way I feel the society was portrayed. There were individual good character moments, such as fun bantering among the Fedaykin etc, but for Pacing or Whatever they cut out the community aspects that served to make them feel more like well, a People rather than just either Grizzled Soldiers/ Religious Fundamentalists aka Marks/Panicked refugees. I have to guess this was ppl were like "we can't show a culture too cool and colorful and the part with Harrah (Jamis' widow) would feel too ORIENTALIST!!! But the result is something sadly very dry. At least in more older orientalist works, the interest comes from when the ~exotic~ stereotypes figures are able to have charming personalities and personalities and be known as people despite the cliches sometimes but this sadly wasn't even like that....

Jamis' funeral is a good example of this; in the Book, it's a moment where you first get a good look of what rituals are like in this world, and how people relate to each other and to the dead. In the movie, the funeral is looks more foreign and even a little creepy as the water is extracted from the body. There's not really a Personal or community connection aspect to it at all.

The ending was pretty good as it satisfied all the Cool Dune Moments I think we all wanted to see, and also did literally the end of The Godfather Part 1 Framing which was hee hee heh. Anyways, Messiah is MY favorite book of the series personally so curious how they get to that.

Maybe I've been too spoiled by Cool Historical Fiction lately? I've been watching too much of The Devil's Crown where action happens mostly off screen but the dynastic drama is written and acted so compellingly, the historical mindset and setting so alien and yet so human and relatable, it's frustrating to see when works try to do the opposite? Idk??? Dune books themselves is fun in how action is mostly an "offscreen, offstage"' thing.

*if ANYONE in the Universe is a quippy Bastard, it should be Leto II esp in God Emperor where he literally has nothing to do all day but quip all day to terrified acolytes

[rainyarcades]

YOU ASKED FOR THE ASK AND I AM HERE TO PROVIDE THE ASKING 👋

I am assuming that you meant like actual questions when you said specifics but if I saw it wrong I'm sorry😭

But I was thinking like, how did the dialogue between Greg and Ellis go when Greg said he wanted to change the story? Was there any reluctance from Ellis at all or was he totally chill with it? It's hard to really tell because it's stated that theyve been friends since they were younger, but then again Ellis seems a bit careless in some ways, so maybe he was just going along with everything because he wasn't interested in the story in the first place?

And I've been wondering since Greg and Ellis seemed to be around each other alot, if the topic of GGY ever actually came up in their conversations, or if the topic of Greg being GGY came up either. It would add a whole new layer of things if Ellis did know, and it could be why he didn't try to stop Greg from changing the story. (Being forced into submission under the threat of him or his family being harmed in some way, it would make more sense than him just being entirely thoughtless and choosing to let Greg change it all despite how hard Tony worked on it.)

I apologize if this is alot, I just really like talking abt this kind of stuff and the whole GGY thing in general, there is so much missed plot potential 😭😭

I AM HERE TO PROVIDE THE ANSWERING LIKE 2 DAYS LATER

Okay so.

This is gonna turn into a shitty essay so more below the cut

Tony doesn't talk to his friends. Communication is key in any relationship, and he doesn't seem to understand or utilise that. He doesn't tell Ellis or Greg how he feels about things, about his plans, and so on; and it leads to him always doing things on his own now.

I think the GGY trio has a flawed friendship.

Tony and Ellis are the root of it since were friends first-- since childhood. They should be close and know the most about each other; Greg joined the trio last and remains mysterious. It's probably canon that Tony and Ellis never even met the real Gregory, the one in SB and parts of RUIN. Therefore it's not really Gregory to blame for anything Greg does, but the Mimic/glitchtrap/Afton, whoever you perceive it to be

And so, I won't count Gregory entirely because he was being mind controlled and all that. 'Greg' is causing many of the issues between them, it seems, but there's also this oneeee big problem.

Communication.

It's like he expects them to read his mind, to just know what's going on in his head.

I think Ellis and Greg really did want to help, but Tony just... Went off on his own, doing his own thing out of impatience. He did the entire thing without them.

It is more likely it's the former, though, and Greg would've given Ellis the idea. He needed a coverup, and Tony's little story was too close to the truth; what if others got suspicious?

The thing is with this... Are they really assuming? Ellis just knows Tony always starts without them. He never talks to them about ideas, he just goes off and does it alone. If Ellis (and ig Greg) feel like they can't have input, why would they interfere? And maybe that's why Tony feels like they assume he'll do it all, on purpose.

I wonder though if that's actually what's going on...

I think changing the story was maybe Ellis and Greg's way of getting him back (and I've heard some mutuals share this thought), either upon realising Tony has written it all himself, or they'd planned it when they noticed Tony already going off on his own for the millionth time.

So Greg would've spoken to Ellis, maybe brought up his insecurities. I don't know if Ellis is worried about Tony moving on, given how much closer he is with Greg now than him-- that's just a headcanon I have. But if it were canon, 'Greg' would 100% use that to manipulate Ellis into helping him write a new story as payback. I think he'd hesitate, but in the end be convinced.

And it is hard to manipulate him like that. "Change the story your friend worked so hard on because if you don't, he'll hate you." I think it'd be hard to convince him at all. How does that make sense? But Greg is persistent and Ellis is scared of losing his best friend

Ellis, of course, doesn't communicate either. None of them do. And I think it's definitely 'Greg' making the friendship between the two worse, stirring the pot instead of helping like the real Gregory would.

But honestly... I don't think they got to know the real Gregory before one of them died and the other saw missing posters of his only two friends all over town a few days later.

They're such a tragic friendship but it's interesting to think about... I love talking about relationships between characters especially tragic ones auughhh. This is why whatever happened exists specifically

I hopeeeeee. Everything here makes sense. I'm not always good at writing my thoughts unless I have someone else to bounce off of in a conversation, because that makes me think more about specific things and gives me ideas etc

But I tried!! So enjoy that abjshdhebjd

[summercreolefanfictioner]

ayo it's my favorite girl's bday (tw: trauma, nsfw)

maya sakamaki: birthday headcanons

maya doesn't usually celebrate her birthday tho

she might've celebrated her own bday as a child, happily chanting the happy bday song before making a wish and blowing the candles

but the thing is on her 7th bday, her parents sold her to a brothel. that's why all her bday could remind her of is that "you exist to be sold"

so ever since then, maya has never thought of holding a party or telling people her bday

ofc her former master, gilbert feinze, knew when her bday is but since she doesn't want to celebrate, gilbert just makes her take a week off from her duties as a vampire doll

but now that she's married to kanato and has become a full-fledged vampire, she thinks there's no reason to remember her bday anymore like why would she? vampires live longer than humans and age slower than them so there's no reason for her to remember her age or something

that's what maya thought until yui encouraged her to celebrate her bday even once to commemorate her being alive or something like "it's the day you were born so you should be glad about it" (ofc yui how easy to say those words huhu)

so maya bought like two magazines from the nearby convenience store to check for bday celebration tips until she heard these two girls talking abt what kind of present they wanted from their boyfriend

"Hmm... I want my boyfriend to be my present, though?"

"Eh? Like him in a birthday suit?"

"Yeah. It's hot, for me at least."

and so maya went home, turned on her laptop, and searched for this thing they called birthday suit and voila the next thing she's browsing on the infamous yellow and black website (p*rn I don't wanna spell out for you)

ya know what this girl did? fvcking watched the whole scene and got intrigued by the story 😭😭😭 she even made popcorn

but yeah she also immediately turned it off once the sex part started bcos she thinks it's disgusting

and so maya decided not to celebrate her bday after all

yeah that was the decision until kanato (along with ayato and laito) went home from demon world and surprise surprise! HE KNOWS WHEN HER BIRTHDAY IS

so she was still asleep on their bed when kanato kissed her head and woke her up, presenting a huge box along with a 2-tier birthday cake that looked like it came from a vintage movie bcos of its white icing with pink swirls and skewed handwriting

and to her surprise, he was wearing a black suit

"Happy birthday, Maya-san," he whispered in her ear with a smile so genuine you wouldn't believe it's kanato. "I made this gift for you. I hope you'll wear it to our mini tea party that I had prepared."

and so the familiars started dressing her up in this white poofy dress with her hair tied up in a bun and matching fancy hat leather mary janes, and white lace gloved; yes she basically is dressed as a white victorian lady

truth be told, there was an elegant tea party set by kanato and maya felt that something strange will happen (even though there are times when kanato is just 'behaved') bcos there was an eerie sense in the way the middle triplet smiles at her, observing her every move like a predator watching his prey

he presented her with a bday cake, simple with the words "happy bday, maya-san" on top and asked her to blow the candles, to which she did

and when they were eating cake, kanato decided to stand, take every piece away of food and tea from the table, and walk towards maya, kneeling in front of her as he held her chin

"I've been bothered by how pure and beautiful the dress I made you. I think it needs something."

in one swift move, maya was sprawled on the table with kanato hovering on top of her, and then he cut open the flesh from her exposed shoulders, spreading the blood all over her dress as he caught a whiff of her addicting scent

maya understood the reason behind his act, smiling mischievously as she untied the ribbon around his dress shirt's collar, exposing his neck to her

"I heard from Teddy you wanted to wear a birthday suit for your big day."

"Did I live up to your expectations, then?"

"No, Maya-san. You've become my reality."

after that, he bit her neck, sucking the blood out of her as she held his hand and bit on his finger, savoring each other's taste for pleasure bcos they knew no amount of food can satisfy their hunger

once done, kanato grinned, sitting on the chair as he pulled maya, making her sit on top of him. the bday cake was still intact as he presented it to her. she was a bloody mess of an art, looking down at him with unsatisfied eyes.

"Happy birthday, Maya-san. Bon appetit!"

[windupaidoneus]

hi thistle ! idr if youve talked abt it before but what were ur ideas for hildemet post endwalker ? i remember u posted abt meteion and them after endwalker but i wanted to learn more abt ur thoughts or how the ship develops ! idk if this makes sense i hope it does LOL (@dmclr)

hiii clara :3 ohhh post endwalker. (lies down face first) this one's a real doozy bc i have yet to properly work out the timeline of events... there are two ways it could go & i dont know which i prefer. oh under the cut as per usual. this is actually probably my longest ramble yet LMAO

either hildegarde really did go through with bringing emet back with his own two hands (& aether. & magic. but like it's intentional is what i mean) or emet chose to have another pass at life bc the time spent during post shb/edw up until elpis gave him that want again, & his soul would've held on until a suitable vessel was nearby (so like, very likely one of the solus clones bc he'd rather not go for possession if he can help it lmao). fuck i also thought of the possibility of like... just it happening without either of their direct involvement, maybe something that kinda just happened because of emet's longing but not in the way that he would've actively orchestrated his return so to speak - his soul just doing that i suppose.? because of the power of love sparkle sparkle or something. they all have something good... um.. i started typing before opening the game i think but then i opened the game & now it's like 12 hours later & my head hurts BADDD but i want to answer this.

in the case of hildegarde intentionally bringing him back is. it being intentional is very yummies & good to me. in the sense of defying fate itself & whatnot to bring a loved one back. i am a lameeeee romantic so that shit always gets me..... but at the same time there is a part of me that like, thinks maybe at that point in time it wouldn't be narratively satisfying? since he has messed around with necromancy before then gave up on it it coulddd be interesting to ahve him go back to it bc like he's still a flawed character who does questionable things & all that but this one idk if i want it to be the case all that much. i like when he gets a little fucked up but i dont know about this specific flavour of fucked up... but i DO want emet alive for dt. so much to consider.

for emet willingly coming back... i mean. points at "i am a lameeeee romantic". additionally i think it brings something interesting into play - because the way i see it his death was intentional to start with, the only possible end for someone who had done so much to reach his goal & thus backing down would mean it was all for nothing yet at the same time the awareness all those things he's done were awful, unconscionable, & no amount of work he could've done in the hypothetical rest of his existence would make up for it, in which case death becomes the only suitable consequence for his actions. (there's also a layer of "emet is putting on a performance as a tragic antagonist & is aware of his role within the story to a degree, as he is playing a role of his own volition, making himself more detestable yet likable at the same time in very intentional ways". not all of his endearing traits in shb are intentional but some are, & them being intentional doesn't make them less... genuine? he pulls at the wol's heartstrings or attempts to, but that doesn't make his own longing for the unsundered world any less real, basically. but this isn't relevant right now)

with that in mind if emet were to bring himself back to life fully... well. it would say quite a lot about.. him. as a whole. just. choosing to live once more to be by hildegarde's side, going against his own previous implicit wish for death (which, beyond the whole guilt thing, he probably would've wanted anyway! he'd been alive so fucking long & all of it had been miserable! death was both something he deserved & deliverance.), tearing himself from something that was punishment & relief to trade it for a different kind of punishment & a different kind of relief. living with the things he's done as opposed to being able to just dissolve into the aetherial sea & no longer worry about it all i suppose, but being reunited on more proper, less high stakes & "we have to kill each other" terms with.. pretty much his soulmate. i'm not big on soulmate stuff necessarily but um (gestures at the entirety of the whole thing with emet & azem/the wol in canon) they make it so easy.

oh fuck i got distracted from finishing my custom deliveries before reset oops. well anyway i'm TALKING!

yeah that. he would get to be with one of his biggest motivations for doing all of this in the first place, & while the source is not a perfect world i do genuinely believe he is lying hard as fuck when he pretends he finds no beauty in it. the harsher he says it the more convincing the performance, for everyone & for himself. end of edw cutscene to me says that he does have an actual appreciation for the sundered etheirys, & i also think without zodiark's influence he would be more amenable to properly acknowledging the flaws of the unsundered world as well. now. would he think he deserves to have a happier "second chance"? probably not. but that's where hildegarde's feelings would sway him... how could he not be influenced knowing the one he loves is grieving him so desperately? hilde has lost many, many loved ones & never really learnt to properly deal with his grief because it's just too overwhelming for him to feel. he continuously drowns in it & that'ssss something he has in common with emet for sure. & emet, knowing how horrible it feels (though in his case it was probably worse. still, he's sentimental & also a tank so i know he's got that protectiveness in him ☝️), would likely want to spare hilde that trouble if even a little. he can't bring himself to bring other souls back to life (too similar to what he did with amaurot, probably something he'd like to take some distances from & not recreate too closely...) but he could at least bring himself back. make hilde smile. that would be nice.

now enter the "neither of them did anything about it it just Happened" path. this one is really just reliant on it feeling like an actual miracle. something that would probably bring emet some distress bc oh no he has to deal with all these things now & it's not on his own terms, buuuuuut... miracle of love 🫶 even if to be fair things would definitely be awkward at first. because they wouldn't really know how to approach each other after everything. they would work it out though, it's not unique to this potential timeline of events & they Will work it out no matter what. they have to! it'd be a miracle of love 🫶 all the same. ohh, maybe something kinda like sleeping beauty or something (loose comparison.) in which during the bit in garlemald in post edw hilde would look for the remaining solus clones in the imperial palace (not for any nefarious purposes if we're not looking at the "he does it himself" timeline it's probably just morbid curiosity at that point. also masochism a little honestly) & when chancing upon them emet's like... his soul would always be "near" hilde in some sort of sense, so maybe it could be made to inhabit one of the clones - kind of pulled into it? & yeah. bam. wakes up upon being observed. i don't know! it's an option. they're all options & they're GOOD & i haven't picked one & i don't know what to pick rahhhg. kicks a rock. Whatever... onto the actual answer to the ask now... (wipes forehead) this took a lot of .. preamble? not sure what i'd call that but the yapping before the ACTUALLY relevant yapping

the way they develop (chews on rocks) YAYYYY!! we got there!!! ohhh my god it's so AWKWARD in this room everyone is happy but wants to cry & feels guilty it's kind of beautiful.

emet keeps some reasonable distance & is actually decent at doing it this time since he's not tempered & not trying to get something out of hildegarde. came back for him but does not want to overstep by getting too comfortable too soon. hildegarde on the other hand really badly wants to have conversations & to be more open & vulnerable but he does not know how to even do that voluntarily. with anyone! he's really bad at being vulnerable! he's been able to do it "properly" with nero & cid (nero has big brother privileges so he's the one hilde & various other alters will run to if they are experiencing Too Much of life, & well. cid is cid. kind of cemented himself as an older sibling figure as well, even without taking into account the doozy that is cidnero) & perhaps surprisingly estinien (very detached & to the point, clear cut way of going about things, not judgemental the way others might be because he's not really giving a fuck abt that ascian business. his meatheadedness wins ☝️) but even then it was mostly him reaching a breaking point & having no one else to pretty much drop it all on.

the scions are great but busy all the time & while urianger probably would be best placed to hear of his troubles hilde rarely wants to tell him much of them because urianger's own problems always seem to far outweigh his own, & he doesn't want to put more on his plate. he's close to thancred but thancred would be the least understanding of his woes... & i think he really struggles with approaching y'shtola bc she hasn't exactly been vulnerable with him either. sucks bc he can tell she would probably be a fine person to be straightforward with but just... hasn't come up. he can be vulnerable with aymeric but aymeric is constantly busy & i do strongly believe if he hadn't been so occupied w his desk job they could've had something. he could be vulnerable with haurchefant but WELL. & the scions not mentioned are all younger than him so no way in hell he's relying on them emotionally when for someone as #unwell as him "relying emotionally" comes with SO SO MUCH shit.

i did ignore hancock & that's because i don't like him. (lying) no he can be vulnerable with hancock too on occasion. hancock is detached from this whole world so to be honest i don't think he gives that much of a fuck that hilde is mourning the loss of an evil immortal guy who was also the garlean empire's founder. on a moral level this has got nothing to do with him on an emotional level he's not sure when they ended up getting close enough for hilde to sob in his office about how he can't do anything right & so many people he could've saved he just didn't manage to & it's all his fault blablablah... but sure he'll do the comforting

but but, back to hildemet. it does happen eventually. hilde's not good at being vulnerable on purpose but he's also pretty earnest despite that... so without necessarily overwhelming emet with his emotions & thoughts he is at least capable of going, "hey. i want to talk. have conversations, about anything and everything. about the weather, about everything that happened. i am happy to come home and see you, and to know that i will come home and see you, but there is a gaping pit between us & i want to bridge it. i want to stand on that bridge with you & talk about the pit, how scary it is, & how we're going to overcome it anyway. can we do that? can i step closer to you, & will you return the embrace if i hold you?" which, he will, & he does. & maybe they even have a shared cry about it. emotions really catching up to them in the moment, not realising the extent to which they'd missed & love each other up until they get to really embrace each other fully. i know songs do this to me a lot i'll think i'm fine then suddenly BOOM i'm crying hard as fuck because holy shittt why didn't i tell myself this made me feel THINGS... horrible!

note that no matter the choice made earlier it's more than likely hilde did hold emet when they first reunited, in which case emet would've at most placed one hand on hilde's back without it being an actual hug. he's not really the "outburst of physical affection" type but especially not under such circumstances while he's Just returned & is parsing where he stands on what joys he deserves to experience in his newfound existence. because of course there's that too. he'll indulge if hilde reaches out for it but for a while it is only half-hearted & the guilt eats at him more everytime he leans into it, which fortunately isn't often by that point since hilde is working out how to go about everything. yay!! not very yay okay you got me

BUT THEY WORK ON IT they have to. the weird distance is unbearable & neither of them want it. they understand they now have a chance at this for real, & they have limited time to do it! emet does not have much of a limited lifespan still but he knows he's turning in the moment hilde dies. maybe he'll stay long enough to ensure hilde is remembered & honoured as he feels it should be but like that's It. hilde's gone he's GONE. & until then they get to learn to love each other all over again

which goes pretty great all things considered once the early stages of weird awkwardness are behind them. it would be easier & go faster if they were allowed to settle down properly but you know how it is when you're The WoL. hilde's wol duties can actually be a bit of a cause for concern for emet, which he himself was caught offguard by. probably chastised himself about it a bit too. being worried for the wol?? ridiculous. he's not capable of dying from unnatural consequences it's like he's got plot armor or something (looks into the camera). gets a bit embarrassed about his worries but they don't really go away, & it does lead into him attempting to keep hilde home more often & longer. hilde doesn't really catch onto it until it becomes a little too egregious to ignore but well. when emet expresses reluctantly that ooooo he cares & is worried about him & also a little bit lonely too it actually makes hilde laugh. because that man is CUTE 🫵 & he will in fact tell him just that. to which emet gets "offended" (did not expect a compliment of all things out of that, & compliments when he's not "in control" of a situation are the number 1 way to destabilise him in a harmless way. lest we forget he is the unsundered world's original tsundere) & denies & protests. & it's probably the point where they start acting genuinely more relaxed around each other, & subsequently emet gets less roundabout about keeping hilde around as long as possible.

he also gets the offer to tag along! which he doesn't want necessarily, it's a lot of effort & it would mean being around the scions (he doesn't hate them or anything but well if i was emet i would not want to be around thancred either. just like if i was thancred i would not want to be around emet either) who at this point in time are not aware of emet's presence in hilde's life & also more generally the world lmao. the twins, tataru & krile most certainly have bets on why hilde seems less available & perhaps even a bit flaky & while alphinaud is genuinely worried hilde might finally be crushed by the weight of responsibilities :( (buddy that was an expansion ago catch up) alisaie is like. scary close to the truth. she suspects hilde is trying to settle down but duty keeps getting in the way of it. this gets everyone involved very curious to potentially find out who he's settling down with of course because for some reason they're all willing to entertain that theory. tataru simply wishes hilde isn't trying to settle down with hancock of all people (close! It's Worse)

he takes it up from time to time. bearing a different appearance (keeping his face but he probably wears a face cover around the scions & doesn't speak much) & going by a different name to avoid being recognised, y'shtola absolutely works it out the moment she sees him buttttt that's why emet avoids hanging around if he knows she'll be there lmao her aethersight would clock him instantly

um. yeahg! my fingers hurt from typing this much & also that's like many paragraphs already oops. uhh. yep.! post edw hildemet. they have rough conversations about their respective places in the world & what they deserve & don't deserve to have. sometimes hildegarde gets very upsetting memories from lachesis' life & emet has to be there to ground him. sometimes emet is overwhelmed by the thought of his actions & hilde has to be there to distract him since ruminating won't really change anything.

they're also gossipy queens who go out to big fancy events to comment on the people they don't like there (in hilde's case it'd probably usually be lolorito & gegeruju honestly but it's fine emet can be irritated at minimum by most people for the both of them). they have to take care of each other delicately & they don't always get it right but they gotta keep trying so they do.

emet is a complainer by nature but he also complains in bad faith a lot & is quite unpleasant specifically when he's lying or dancing around the truth, which all remain true to his personality still, however when he allows himself to be entirely truthful & more open he is painfully romantic & loving. not without teasing here & there of course. it's very good for hilde though. getting to be flustered & giggly & just happy after the everything is such a breath of fresh air, very good distraction from the wol shit. he even gets to tease emet back & have it work! love can be so beautiful & augh! they make me sick

emet did not expect the many people hilde's adopted in a found family sense however. he does think he was a little foolish for not expecting it bc. lachesis. wanderer. the guy who makes friends everywhere all the time. but also how was he supposed to expect so many kids were out there calling hilde their big brother or sometimes even "like a dad"..... he's just pickin everybody up off the street at this point & emet's getting a little concerned about the amount of kids he's going to become a bad influence to just by following hilde around. lmao. & ofc the kids love him bc kids fucking love it when there's a guy who's kind of an ass

i keep saying "okay i stop typing there" & then i keep typing SORRY AHHH. i'm not even out of thoughts i just need to end the post somewhere sobs. i really need to sleep 😭 thank yoy so much for the askkkk wah

[sodafrog13]

random swans hcs under the cut ✌🏼

- alex and ash are identical twins and were both amab; alex found out she was trans and transitioned while they were still in high school (i think she actually just kept the name bc she liked it but even if she didn't, i'm thinking her deadname would probably also have started with an A)

- speaking of, both of them played football while they were in high school. alex was more of the star player of the two of them; ash was almost exclusively a bench warmer. their uniforms in current day consist of parts of their old football uniforms

- even though tony is their unofficial ""leader"", the whole idea for the vigilante copycat stuff was the davis'. not rlly much basis for this one admittedly but i think it makes sense, considering they're the most politically active (relatively speaking) of the fans

- and the reason why that is is that they had family who were living in san francisco when it got bombed. again, not much basis but it does make sense to me considering they're motivated enough to be picketing outside the courthouse during jacket's trial. i specifically also have a kind-of oc that's their little cousin who lives in SF; i shifted around some things to feature her in UDC, my beardjacket au fic, but she's existed in my mind even before writing that chapter and i'd like to flesh her out more one day

- i think they're both bi (w pref for the opposite gender) and that ash is ace. that's just on me :-)

- they make fun of each other for being gay All The Time. wlw/mlm hostility.

- ash moved out at some point and lives with his (boy)friend, jack. he still frequents the house somewhat often to hang out with alex, since they're so close, but he very rarely sleeps there anymore

- alex is a little touchy about the whole thing, but she gets it. she just wasn't ever thinking about the possibility of either of them moving out since they've basically been together they're whole lives so she's just been moody about it ever since ash brought it up to her. she's a lot better abt it now, though

- ash is a lot more organized than alex is. he was the only reason the house was ever clean; since he's left, alex really only cleans up if things are getting Direly trashy

- alex LOVES horror movies. ash thinks they're ok. they watch a bunch of them together and alex spends a lot of pocket money on VHS tapes of her favorites

- ash is more of a video game guy. they had a console in the house but he took it when he moved out; alex really only ever used it if ash was playing something multiplayer anyways so she didn't consider it a huge loss

- that said, they both love listening to music. they had a bit of an argument over who was taking what when ash moved out (since their collection was joint owned) and alex ended up keeping the records while ash took the cassettes since ash is the one who actually has a car

- both of them can drive but alex honestly doesn't need a car; she'd take the bus to work most days anyways since ash started his day earlier than she did and would be out the door before she even woke up

- the both have insomnia but alex's is decidedly worse. for some reason, the meds that ash uses don't rlly work on her so she ends up staying up and waking up late. she falls asleep at her job often

- alex works a boring office job. she tolerates it; it's relatively easy and pays fine and she learned some basic computer knowledge from ash so she's basically set on being there for however long she can.

- she also does music on the side, specifically electronic stuff. not ever a thing she'd consider for a job but one of her favorite past times is smoking and jamming out on her synth. ash partakes in these jam sessions sometimes; part of me wants to say he plays a little electric guitar (and that he'd probably love guitar hero)

- ash works in IT. his computer knowledge is almost entirely self taught (esp considering he and alex's would be college years were spent serving in hawai'i) but he's damn good at what he does so it was pretty easy for him to get hired

- their relationship with their folks is... fraught. the whole reason they joined the army was to get away from them, particularly because their mom had always been rather nasty to alex because she favored ash and ash was always really annoyed by that. they thought is was the best years of their lives thus far. ever since coming back home to pick up their stuff when they got back from deployment, they cut contact with them (but not the rest of their family. that said, they refuse to go to any family functions if they kno their parents are gonna be there)

- alex is pretty butch and dislikes wearing fem clothing. ash is honestly kind of more wishy washy about the whole thing; he'd be open to wearing slightly more fem stuff like skirts if he wasn't so put off by the idea of being judged for doing so. most ""fem"" he'll get is painting his nails black every so often

- idk something in my heart just tells me they'd like karaoke. they'd both belt that shit out, no holds barred (but also fans karaoke night just sounds like such a fun idea. just all of them getting wasted and singing silly shit)

- they're just each other's #besties y'k? swans stick together their whole lives and all

[gaypio]

my thoughts of what each jojolands character is VAGUELY based on.

Disclaimer to the ppl who get angry at these kinds of posts: I KNOW theyre all their own characters & i think of them as their own characters too. I dont see them as like “giorno, doppio, and hermes” and all. I hate dio, but i LOVE diego. The fact that hes slightly based on dio doesnt make me hate him 🤷 its more like he would be his better cousin LOL. thats how i (and most of us) feel about jodio and usagi too. theyre like giorno and diavolo’s cousins. its very fun to associate them to previously existing characters!

Anyways!:

Jodio = inspired by jolyne and giorno (obvious)

Dragona = partly inspired by hermes and mista

Paco = very slightly inspired by risotto, santana and abbacchio

Usagi = partly inspired by fugo, narancia and diavolo/doppio

my reasonings are:

(Dude i dont wanna explain jodio its so obvious…. There are many posts out there already explaining this.)

Dragona: mista: mother-like figure to their stand. ☠️ jobro to giorno (hermes also is a jobro to jolyne). Also that scene of jodio and dragona being silly together reminded me of trish and mista🥺

hermes: no not only bc of her locs 😭 bc of the “big bro” title as well. Ik its silly to base on hair style too, but jodio had a star braid at first (still has a bit of a braid) so i think its kinda intentional on araki’s part.

Paco: santana: bad dad, can manipulate skin, theres a better explanation abt this somewhere 😭

risotto: his design exposing his chest with an X & his foot (nearly) gets cut off lol. also similarish vibes? but hes more similar to abbacchio, trying to act tough, physically strongest of the group but lowkey a softie. Risotto isnt rlly a softie, at least not like abbacchio is.

abbacchio: hates on teens but then is secretly like 🥺🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 when theyre safe (usagi). And he was aggressive towards usagi in the beginning like was with giorno.

Usagi: narancia: sillay. Paco and Usagi’s dynamic is similar to abbacchio’s and narancia’s. Usagi is 17 and Jodio is 15, Dragona is 18. Just like nara, gio, and mista. ☝️🤓

fugo: similar hair to fugo, anddd BIGGEST NERD OF THE GROUP. thats it. i think usagi is more like narancia if he went to school tbh🥺

doppio/diavolo: stand based on king crimson, also super cute like doppio. also his pony tail reminds me of doppio’s braid (plus the fact that i loved him the moment i saw him (yes, even when he was known as just hotdog man i was like OMG HE LOOKS FUNNY AND CUTEEE I LOVE HIM HAHAH I HOPE HES A MAIN CHARACTER :D while everyone was hating on him. Im his fan since day 0!!!) & the rest of the whole part ive been adoring him. /platonically (if it wasnt obvious im a big fan of doppio)

Also, a lot of ppl who love those characters love the characters theyre based on too.

Of course, some ppl who dont like those past characters like the newer ones despite that, just like me with diego☠️

IK FOR SOME IM STRETCHING for SOME A LIL BUT IT MAKES SENSE OKAAAAYYYY

If u have any questions ask me lol.

[3lectra-he4rt]

since there’s only a few weeks left until the day of reckoning,,

What scenes do you *need* in the ballad movie?

This one’s gonna be a long one, i’m pasting it from my notes app. (Some have emojis cause i was going through the rings of hell while reading) Buckle up. Also, some are just very vague in the sense that i just want *something* like what i’ve described.

- Coriolanus reading the letter from Tigris

- When Lucy was crying in the classroom with Coryo

- When Coriolanus gave Lucy the compact

- When Lucy is running from Reaper

- Arachne’s death

- Sejanus putting the breadcrumbs over Arachne and her tribute after they died, either Coriolanus noticing him doing so or it in the background for us to find

- Reaper making the graveyard

- Reaper cutting the flag

- Sejanus going into the arena and everything that followed (and him putting the breadcrumbs over Marcus!!)

- Sejanus showing up to be a peacekeeper with Coriolanus

- When Coriolanus calls Clemensia “Clemmie” </333

- When Clemensia comes into Coriolanus’ hospital room in the middle of the night

- The pus coming out of Clemensia when she is bitten (it NEEDS to be blue, pink, and yellow)

- Coriolanus and Lysistrata. Them while watching the games and strategizing bc Lysistrata has Jessup, but also just them being silly together ☹️☹️☹️

- Tigris with her fathers coat

- “Lucy Gray, having languished in Dr.Gaul’s lab, would be long dead, and his heart dead with her.” (Coriolanus thinking of his future)

- Sejanus’ house + “Ma’s corner” 😭😭😭

- C: “I don’t know what ever possessed me to ask for twelve.” S: “Completely random, obviously,”

- Lucy saving Coriolanus from the bombing, a shot of when her arm is around his shoulder and he’s clutching the ruffles of her skirt (the clutching is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.)

- Him parading her around the monkey house when he get stuck in there w her and the other tributes

- The picnic at the zoo </33

- Coriolanus holding Clemensia from behind when the snakes show up in the arena

- When Smiley says there’s going to be someone named “Lucy something” singing at the hob the book says “His girl. His love. His Lucy Gray.”

- Ma’s explanation of the bread crumbs

- “We pour money into our industries, not into the districts themselves,” said Sejanus. “The people are on their own.”

- Literally just the daughter of Mayor Lipp’s name. It’s Mayfair.

- The execution of Arlo Chance + ‘Lil’ coming through the crowd for him

- “What’s bothering you? And don’t say nothing.”

- Everyone slapping each other’s backs after drinking some of the stuff smiley got in the Hob

- “It reminds me of the capitol” “you don’t say home.” “No. For me, that will always be district 2.”

- The hob fight

- “And yes, I’d be happy to go with you.”

- C: “Do I look okay?” S: “Gorgeous. Trust me, that lips working for you, soldier.”

- Lucy and Coriolanus’s argument with Billy Taupe

- C: “I thought you were letting this whole rebel thing go!” S: “I can’t, all right? It’s part of who I am..”

- Sejanus having drugs in his locker box

- ‘High-as-a-Kite-Bottom’

- L: “that’s what my daddy thought, too. And he ended up with more bullet holes than I could count on my fingers,”

- “ "Well, that's it, then. I saved you from the fire, and you saved me from the snakes. We're responsible for each other's lives now." "Are we?" he asked. "Sure," she said. "You're mine and I'm yours. It's written in the stars." "No escaping that." “

- “ "You know, Sejanus, I'm your friend. More than a friend. You're the closest thing I'll ever have to a brother. And there are special rules for family. If you need help . . . I mean, if you get into something you can't handle ... I'm here." Tears welled up in Sejanus's eyes. "Thank you, Coryo. That means a lot. You may be the only person in the world who I actually trust." Ah, trust again. The air was full of it. "Come here." He pulled Sejanus into an embrace.”

- Barb Azure is a LESBIAN?? “She just started seeing a gal down the road,” (Lucy talking abt Barb Azure

- L: “People have been around for a long time without the capitol. I expect they’ll be here a long time after.”

- Cc finding Katniss for Lucy

- The lake being the same lake as THG trilogy, Coriolanus noticing the house that would end up being so important for Katniss in THG

- The explanation of the covey’s names (song + color)

- The “we all have a ballad, and this is Lucy’s!” Scene with the song

- Sejanus looking like an eight year old boy to Coriolanus as he’s being pulled up to be hanged

- Sejanus saying “Coryo” while being pulled up to be executed

- Sejanus’s last word being “Ma!”

- Coriolanus’s absolute breakdown after Sejanus died

- The epilogue.

- "Because we credit them with innocence. And if even the most innocent among us turn to killers in the Hunger Games, what does that say? That our essential nature is violent," Snow explained.

Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[worldismyne]

Kay Soul Eater fans, finally finished Fire Force

Between the shift in tone and the way they developed the characters, I'm still of the opinion Soul Eater > Fire Force.

But below the cut are my pros and cons for it as a lore prequel

Pros...

The concept of The Evangelist being driven mad by humanity's negative desires and that being the precurser to Asura. I liked the idea of Asura being a Fury driven made by conflicting ideals of justice, driven to fear his own father due to how humanity persieved him for my own fics. The Evangelist was just that, with elements of Asura's design in it, so I'm going to go ahead and say headcanon confirmed.

Arthur's hope and dellusions making Excalibur. Having a creature born from humanity's desire to do good and watch over the new world beginning to end was sweet. And also he was a crazy lil shit the whole time? Perfect.

The cyclical nature of the world. (I.E. the birth and deaths of new worlds being more symbolic of great change, rather than the actual end of the world). This lines up with a lot of anchient myths referenced in both series. Ragnarok's literally named after that concept (specifically the war of the gods). So to have that concept canonized and for SE to start at the beginning of another apocalyptic war where the very nature of the moon and stars changed with new gods awakening is good. Neat, love to see it.

Black Star seemingly being named after the Great Cataclysm. In SE he mentions his name meaning "returning to darkness" and kinda hating it. I found that odd since, clearly that's not what that phrase means in English. (Also, according to SEN, he chose to keep it). But seeing the black sun at the end of FF made it all click.

Witches and Shinigami-sama being two side of the same power. (Liking the concept here, not the execution).

Maka's parents reading to her abt this. You know that lil perfectionist enternalized the shit out of this story. (I'm also a sucker for lil kid designs)

Mid/Neutral

The heavy influence of the Bible on the world building and seeing how that's translated through a Japanese cultural/folklore lens. Interesting to see all that interact with Greek mythology. I was getting in my head abt doing that in my own fics on accident (s2g I'm not trying to make Black Star anime Moses, but now I'm wondering >_>) Always fun seeing how people on the outside interpret something you grew up with.

Kinda like the idea of 8 pillars. I would have rather there been more balance with what the pillars represented instead of an edgy version of Inside Out. It seemed more like a way to countdown toward the apocalypse as opposed to something sustainable in the world building, but I get the idea they were going for. Minus points for them not aligning with any of the Old Ones from SE.

Whimsy being the core part of SE. Like, yeah cartoon logic is abundant. Kind of a clever twist, but also a bummer it insinuates heroes would only exist in a cartoon world.

Animals having magic being different from witches with their own patron diety. Makes sense in the grand scheme of things, doesn't line up with LD thinking Blair was a witch then. LD, did you want Maka to fail the first time on purpose >_> I'd buy that tbh.

Cons

I've said this before, I'll say it again, no god of death??? The more research I do on shinigami, the more this seems like an oversight (they just kinda watch, they don't decide who lives or dies). So you have a god of creation, you have an other world/ afterlife, but no god charged with taking good souls to the other side. Humanity clearly wanted that, they had nuns to pray for it to happen, but that somehow hasn't manifested in the two iterations of the world we've seen? Also would have preferred seeing more than two Old Ones ngl.

Shinigami-sama being able to take godhood from someone. I get that you gotta reset the status quo, but... If he could do that, Asura shouldn't have been an issue. Especially since he's the one who gave him the power in the first place. Why didn't he pull and Aang?

The first witch being Kim with less agency and less control over her power, didn't love it. There's so many different ways they could have set up the catalyst of witches v shinigami. Like nature vs nuture or any other number of things would be more interesting than "catch me if you can". They have a whole realm and religion by the time of SE, there's no seed for that introduced at all.

Where are the werewolves? They supposedly had a whole clan of immortals. Everythings better with werewolves.

Honestly don't buy Rekka being granddaddy Star Clan. There's very little that ties him to the way of the assassin, or the aesthetic other than the eyes. Another missed opportunity.

Are dopplegangers still a thing? Kinda unclear on that one, considering how many were left walking around. This could just be me forgetting something that was said though.

More of a nitpick than a con, the translation I read Shinra said he "changed the value of a life" in order to bring his friends back. Implying death isn't as serious now? That just doesn't feel true given the wieght of character deaths in SE, Sid being the one exception. Just left me feeling a lil icky, didn't like it.

Claiming Kid was in anyway modeled after Shinra. I would have taken LD commenting on Soul looking like Shinra or Black Star acting like him, but Kid is the farthest from that character in every way. Once again, if he was going to do that, Asura was right there. (Also is it just me or did LD seem surprised Kid appeared??? Like humanity manifested him?)

[morrigan-sims]

Please talk about your oc 🥺🙏 I'd love to hear all abt him

Panic!!! Hi!!!!!

Rook is my Swashbuckler Rogue for the DnD campaign I'm currently playing. He's a half-elf, and the bastard son of a nobleman, and the love of my life.

putting this under the cut because it's going to get SO LONG

His father and step-mother thought he was a huge embarrassment, so they weren't exactly his biggest fans. (If you see me tag his posts as "Adrian Lockwood", that's his birthname.) He ended up running away at age 17 and joining the crew of a pirate ship named the Tide Breaker under Captain Zara. He looked up to her immensely, and she taught him everything he knows about sailing and swordsmanship. She also gifted him his magic rapier.

He was promoted to first mate a few years later, which some people didn't take kindly to, since he was the youngest on the ship. He said anyone who had an issue could challenge him to a duel, and thought that would solve the problem. It didn't quite, and a few months later some of his crew mates bought him a drugged drink and sold him to a rival pirate captain, a cruel woman by the name of Captain Kora Wolf.

He was on board her ship, the Sea Snake, for two years before he managed to escape, setting the ship on fire in the process. Captain Wolf swore to hunt him down and kill him if he ever escaped, and he can only imagine how much more angry she is now that her ship was damaged.

He ran away to the Feywild, where he met up with the adventuring party and has been with them ever since.

He's generally a pretty easy-going guy. Kind, good sense of humor, always down to chat, he makes friends easily. He's a little bit superstitious, and believes every ship should have a ship's cat, or else it's Bad Luck.

He's very impulsive, often to the degree of recklessness. Sometimes it seems like he has no fear of death. He does, it's just that everything he's ever done, from leaving home to joining a pirate ship to joining an adventuring crew he'd only known for a few hours, has been because of his fear of being stagnant and bored. He wants to do interesting things and see the world, and if that leads to an untimely death, then hopefully it was worth it.

He's also claustrophobic because of the time spent in a tiny room on the Sea Snake.

Just last session he got possessed and almost killed three of his part members, including poisoning one of them with fey scorpion venom he's been carrying around for 11 sessions that I had kind of forgotten about. He feels absolutely awful about it, and is lowkey mad that his party members didn't knock him out if that was what it took to stop him from hurting people.

Oh, and Captain Wolf who kidnapped him is known as "Aunt Kory" to two of the party members (including the one who got poisoned), so that's going to be interesting when we meet her.

Me and another player also decided that Rook's closest friend in the party is the party's 40-something year old werewolf gunslinger, who Rook looks up to for having his life put together. Rook kind of sees him as a dad, in a way.

Oh, and our next dungeon is circus-themed, and I gave the DM the idea for a mirror-maze fight where you have to roll a d4 to see if you even hit the real image. (Kind of like a Mirror Image spell, but applied to the whole fight.) And the DM said I might get Boots of Haste after this dungeon!! And another party member is planning to buy me nice armor, because I'm the party's only melee fighter and my AC is a measly 15.

Here, have some images:

Image Collage that fits him well.

Art I commissioned from the lovely and amazing @/saplingdraws here on tumblr.

[lovinglin]

I NEED to talk abt this specific song that I've associated with Quirra (Quirrel/Kira) or else I'm gonna GO INSANE. /lh

Ramble under the cut bc it might get a little lengthy (also since I'll be touching on some of the lyrics and explaining it)

OKAY FIRST OFF. The original meaning of the song is a LOT different. So if you know what it means, scrap that real quick bc I'm putting my own spin to it to match Quirra's narrative.

Kira takes place as the singer, "Bruno" is Quirrel of course.

Now, something I just really love abt this song is the fact that- since I imagine Kira as the one singing it, it's super fitting in a way that:

At the start of the song, the singer sounds a little more younger. Voice is a bit high-pitched and pretty youthful, which kinda indicates towards Kira's younger days (not really young-young, but more so young-adult time).

I like thinking it's also the time when she and Quirrel get together yk! They were both young and in-love :) happy couple.

The first half of the lyrics basically show that exactly. Don't think too hard on the meaning and just imagine them both all happy and carefree and lovey dovey.

The next set of the lyrics aren't that too deep either. I just like imagining it with a scenario where Kira just shows Quirrel around the City of Tears and helps him relax/ease his worries.

Kira's a pretty lively gal, and the way the singer sings these lyrics probably shows it!!

Though, I will say that the more the song progresses, the more the singer starts to sound a little older/her voice starts to get a little deeper. I like thinking this hints at Kira growing a little older as well.

This whole section just makes me think abt when the Infection starts happening. Everyone's panicking, everyone's yelling (probably), and the whole Great Plan™️ starts to come into place.

"My mother says that I will surely go to hell." Quirrel @ Monomon, in a way.

"Please be a good man, please say you won't tell." Monomon @ Quirrel.

Kira regarding Quirrel... Quirrel with his nail and able to strike down any foe that he comes across. Quirrel being the only man that was able to love Kira for who she is 🥺😭

Now THIS. This part of the song has me in a DEATH GRIP because the singer suddenly sounds so much more distraught and older and it's just. AUGH. I like thinking it's a sudden time-skip to the actual events of the game.

The time when so much time has passed and they're older and Kira meets Quirrel again, only to be known that he doesn't remember her anymore. ("What happened to your good sense?")

AND THIS. THIS. THIS!!!!!!

"Did you hear about that mother?" Mother in question is Monomon.

"Broke her daughter's legs in two." The daughter in this case is actually her son (in a way), which is Quirrel. And the "breaking her legs in two" part makes me think of how she gave Quirrel her mask and his nail instead.

And said, "It's too dangerous out there to walk, so I had to save you." WHAT IF I FUCKING CRIED (/pos). WHAT IF THIS LINE IS MONOMON @ QUIRREL AND WHAT SHE SAID TO HIM ON WHY SHE GAVE HIM HER MASK AND THE NAIL TO PROTECT HIMSELF RAAAAGHHGHGHGGG

THERE'S MORE I COULD SAY FOR THE LAST FEW LYRICS BUT THIS BECAME LENGTHY AS IT IS. Just know the last few lyrics (that I mentioned here) has me in a DEATH GRIP.