#maybe they left it vague on purpose just for me to speculate

[pong03]

Kaito character analysis

Let's start light before I get more into the conspiracy theorist ramblings. in nsfw stuff I have read I feel like he is commonly misunderstood. I have read a lot where he is hasty, unemotional and self-serving... although I can see where hasty and lazy may come from but, think about: Kaito towards MC focuses on making her happy and although not always successful it is his main goal, BUT to write him as UNEMOTIONAL.

Y'all he is the most emotional of any man in the whole series. especially, in a first time headcanon post he should not be written as unemotional... we all know he would be crying and being like "MC you're such an angel boo hoo" and "I'm so glad I had my first time with you." he might be quick to finish but I think he would very guilty and put effort towards making it up to MC as soon as he was physically able. ALSO one thing I read he just was written as giving no aftercare,,, sorry am I the crazy one to say Kaito (most of frostheim) would be the most into aftercare?? His grandma always told him blah blah blah.. to him sex wouldn't even parallel to the aftercare experience, and tbh dude would be the one to need it the most. Tell me he wouldn't do everything the MC told him too and if was even slightly degrading to her he would be SOBBING afterwards all like "I'm sorry I said all that mean stuff, I know you asked but I don't believe any of it. You're SOOO NICE." You can't disagree with me yk I'm right. Okay.. I'm like trying to keep this part short but kind of failed. Obviously your head canons are what you're entitled to... just I feel like a lot of people admit to struggling to write him so maybe they'd preesh a post like this. HML if you want Kaito advice ig okay, admittedly this second part is a bit in-depth... like could be a reach but I have A LOT of evidence so hear me out. We all know Kaito hates being a ghoul and is considerably weaker willed than the other ghouls, he is also raised by his grandma. We can assume this because she is the ONLY family member he talks about (on the home screen and in the story) and the process of becoming a ghoul is intense right? Something that would be surprising if he regrets becoming one and is the big ol baby that he is. I think that Kaito's parents are the ones who made the deal, and they didn't survive. He was born to a poor family we know this because he talks about it all the time. SO my personal thought is he was born to a single mother who didn't have any funds to raise him even with the grandmother's help, so she wishes for greatness for her baby, and makes a deal with a devil to protect her child. Because we know he doesn't have the academics to get in Frostheim and he probably was not open about being a ghoul, it's a hoe-scaring quality. So I think he's basically got assigned-plot-armor-at-birth. and basically the demon could be kind of like how luca's monster is possibly his brother, and his mom's soul in entwined with a demon's (like a ghoul's would be) and basically they co-parent him which would explain why his stigma is so weak comparatively to other ghouls. this is more exploratory, but what I truly BELIEVE bare bones is: Kaito's parents are the one's who made the deal. That's it that's all I truly believe in and everything else is speculative. I just think it would be cool especially because I think the process of becoming a ghoul is left especially vague for this purpose. Hehe let me know what you think about this and other things that you personally think about kaito! I'm really curious about other fan's thoughts.

[deltaruminations]

geez louise ok i just need to get these thoughts out of my head lol. stream-of-consciousness rambling about Secret Boss "Someone" to follow

gaster or not, i think the idea of Someone being an "insider" to the dark worlds makes a little more intuitive sense than them being a Lightner (or shapeless fourth-dimensional entity, i guess). the simplest answer to "how were they contacting Darkners before the Fountains were open?" is, well, Someone themself was a Darkner. they already lived on that layer of reality.

beyond that, i think there's a certain clarity of motivation to be found if we take the stance that they're a Darkner rather than something else. consider the Someone’s M.O. — give these underdogs knowledge of what lies beyond, help them transcend their limitations, then leave them to take fate for themselves; this reads to me like an effort (however misguided) of liberation. why would Someone want to do this? maybe because they empathize with them -- and/or, maybe, they stumbled into some kind of eldritch knowledge themself, and were desperate to share it, to have someone else understand what they did.

if we do want to bring in gaster as a possibility for Someone… fuck it. let's say his "object" really is the font Wingdings. why, from a watsonian perspective, Font Darkners would manifest as skeletons is… unclear… but let's go with it for now. Wingdings is a digital dingbats font that sparked confusion, misunderstanding, and even conspiracy theories among users. It's always been a misfit among common typefaces, and over time its usefulness as an ideographic system has been challenged by easier and more available alternatives, including, of course, the implementation of Unicode emoji. contrast this with comic sans and papyrus, which, despite the chagrin of design literati, have historically been widely-used and beloved due to their availability, versatility, and ease of use. by this logic, wingdings fits the profile of a secret boss, designed for a purpose that left him underutilized and discarded.

no real ideas as to how he would have acquired The Knowledge or whatever, aside from ENTRY NUMBER 17 seeming to allude vaguely to opening a Neo Dark Fountain, a process that i guess could expose the planar nature of reality, like he figured if he can go down then maybe he can go up too, or something. listen i have no fucking clue ok. in any case he certainly seems like the type to go digging for it in the first place, Mad Scientist, etc., and maybe it's in his nature as a Darkner designed for communication to feel a need to share it. an obtuse, near-unintelligible font struggling to be understood. or something. lol

as to how gaster (and the brothers) would have "ascended" to the Light World… who knows lol. Magic Science Doors? there are still a ton of issues with this line of speculation and i'm not sure how much it really holds water beyond Being Interesting and proposing a couple of answers to things. but. still. it needles me

....................though. i mean. at the time we meet him, gasty guy does seem to be in possession of a human SOUL, and kris doesn't seem to have one otherwise….................................... nah jk that's silly LOL. unless...... 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 no for real i'm kidding

[funnycreatortimetravel]

Waaaa! If a theory is what you want, I'm here to help!

So in the trailer, we see Homura making a phone call. Now it's not confirmed, but it's heavily implied that she's the one now making contracts with girls and then giving them their powers, asking them if they accept the responsibility (of what, we have no idea, but I'm assuming that she's going to be using the magical girls as a way to contain and control Madoka's power or maybe her power, similar as the Kyubey used the magical girls to control entropy.) I'm not sure if this is true yet, but that's what it seems like.

We then get a bunch of shots of the OG timeline, the Wraith Timeline, and then Rebellion where several voices are pretty much making fun of Homura and calling her a devil. When Homura says "Can you fight against the curse of this world?" I'm curious if she means HER curse specifically, considering that's what the entire labyrinth is. "Just bring hope," again, Madoka becomes the embodiment of hope when she makes her wish to destroy witches, the bringers of curses, but now she's gone due to Homura separating her from the entity known as Madokami, or Ultimate Madoka, I'm curious if Homura is now using other magical girls as bringers of hope so that Madoka won't have to become Madokami again, kind of like a substitute for the Law of Cycles somehow, and given the voices are saying, "Release that girl," it could be either Homura's subconscious or Madokami or some weird other omnipotent entity connected to the other magical girls. Again, all speculation.

A "new magical girl we've never seen before," I'm gonna be real, I have no idea what part they could play, but the girl we see looks like a combination of Homura and Madoka. Now this is a VERY big stretch, but I'm leaning toward the idea that this new magical girl is somehow the embodiment of both Homura and Madoka's power, like, they became a separate physical entity. I'm not sure how this would've occurred, but given that Madoka and Madokami are now separate entities, it wouldn't surprise me if Madokami somehow became a different magical girl, influenced by the labyrinth of Homura. If you remember in Rebellion, Madoka was stripped of her Godhood and turned back into a normal person because she needed to get into the barrier without Kyubey detecting her. I'm wondering if this is the same deal, only because Madokami was effectively stripped of Madoka, we get this other form instead that looks VAGUELY like Madoka but otherwise has a lot of Homura's influence in her design.

We then get a shot of Madoka(?) flying toward a witch-looking thing, or at least what appears to be, but there are flickers of rainbow. Now if you remember in Rebellion, when Madoka was transforming, there were flickers of rainbow meant to symbolize Madokami's influence.

I'm almost certain that Madoka is being engulfed by the OG power of Madokami, curses and all. The fact that her shoes are left behind on the building could either have one or two meanings, both equally important (keep in mind I'm using a TV Trope screenshot, so take it with a grain of salt, lol.)

In this case, Madoka (if it really is Madoka) is committing metaphorical suicide (again, lol, because that's literally what her wish was supposed to be about given that she become a concept) and also transitioning into an ethereal state of being as she's merging with Madokami. I'm sure this is fairly obvious, however, but eh, still fun to talk about. And a lot of people have speculated that that might not even be Madoka, so I have no idea.

It's pretty much confirmed that all the Homuras we see are different entities, similar to Kyubey, but each Homura has a different purpose and meaning. We of course have the Homura who makes contracts, the one we see at the end of the trailer who looks stressed out, and then this other Homura we see meeting Madoka who is surrounded by asphodels. A commentator on the Madoka Movie Trailer cleverly connected the meaning of asphodels to the meaning of underworld, death, and mourning, more specifically the phrase "remembered beyond the tomb' or 'my regrets follow you to the grave." It's known as the immortal flower in Greek Mythology as it grew in the underworld, specially in Purgatory, a place where spirits neither good or evil lived.

Also, the flowers surrounding Madoka are roses, which have many ties to Christianity and the blood of Christ, and the branching them reminds me of the rainbow arc she had at the end of her transformation in Rebellion when she posed, more references to her godly nature.

And then we have the OG girls. As everyone has been quick to point out, their magical girl outfits have changed, which I'm sure, again, is because of the influence of Homura. What I want to talk about specifically is Sayaka and her bandages. If you look closely at the GIF I inserted earlier, you can see that Sayaka has bandages around her neck as well. Now they could mean one of three things; either Homura is directly targeting her so that she won't talk to Madoka and the other girls, or she can no longer heal effectively due to Homura since that was the gist of her power, meaning she has to resort to bandages, or it's just a design change (which I heavily doubt.)

I'm leaning toward it being something about Homura needing her to essentially shut up because if you look at the concept movie trailer that came out a few years ago, Sayaka's mouth was fully covered (which is why I included it in the GIF). It's essentially a "speak no evil," type of deal is what I'm thinking.

And...

Like I said earlier, it's confirmed that there are multiple Homuras (think of Homura's familars) and that the Homura we see at the end is the ACTUAL Homura. Again, she needs to maintain control of the labyrinth, so it makes sense why there has to be more than one of her.

Finally, we have a full shot of Madoka in her new design, which has a gigantic lock on it. In Rebellion, there was a spool of pink thread that was descending into darkness, and here Madoka is doing the same thing. This makes sense, as she's essentially "locked" in the labyrinth and also locked into her fate of being a magical girl (not if Homura can help it.) The threads of fate have been referenced repeatedly in the series (remember in the OG timeline, where Homura and Madoka had images of them being tied up against a clock with string, in Magia Record, when Madoka was transforming, she had pink ribbons tied around her and finally, the ribbons in general, where Madoka give Homura her ribbons and then Homura gave them back at the end of Rebellion.) Threads, ribbons, and string, always are tied down by something essentially.

In terms of Walpurgis, I think that the series is leaning toward everything being how it was during the OG timeline, only this time, Homura is Kyubey (only in terms of position, Kyubey can go rot in hell and Homura cares what happens to the other magical girls, I hope at least.) If Walpurgis is rising again, it may be because the circumstances in which she was first born are happening again, or her death wasn't prevented because, in this world, Madoka wasn't there to make her wish. Walpurgis may be a culmination of all of Homura's power (though I don't think that it is Homura herself, maybe it's just a culmination of all the magical girls' despair or curses in combination with Homura's.) If Homura doesn't have a way to purify it all because, regardless of her familiars, she's still only one person, it makes sense why it would possibly bring forth Walpurgis once again.

And these are all of my thoughts and theories! They're a bit basic, but I'm always in support of simple theories. If I'm missing anything or messed up anything, let me know so I can either fix it or explain my reasoning.

I was so out of the loop in last quarter of 2023 (family emergency) so i only just found out there was a way longer translated Walpurgisnacht Rising trailer rn !!!!!!

If anyone knows any good trailer analysis or theories or whatnot pls send my way

I avoid the "haha suffering" shitposts cause thats not how i see the show. I dont have enough pmmm friends to chat with about this stuff orz

[babyjeep]

[lemonhemlock]

could you please explain to me the theory that aegon the conqueror children aren’t his own? where did this theory come from? what r the proofs behind it?

of course, friend! it's mostly speculation based on the little information we have on the OT3

basically, aegon the conqueror had not one, but two wives of child-bearing age with whom he slept on a regular basis (as the histories insist on letting us know). he was also married for quite a long time, so that begs the question: why so few children and why so late? you could make the case that they were preoccupied with the conquest or just did not want to rush having children.

that being said, after the conquest, they couldn't really afford to have a glamorous child-free existence for much longer, since they had to provide their newly-conquered continent with viable heirs and they also seem to be the only targaryens left? (no other cousins mentioned). so, keeping this necessity in mind, aenys is born only around 7 AC. that's quite a lot of time to try to impregnate his TWO wives with only one kid to show for it.

aenys also remains their only child for quite some time. he is quite sickly and people worry he might die. rhaenys does die in 10 AC and it seems like they might have panicked now a little bit. if aegon had such a low rate of success with two wives, how is he going to fare with just the one?

this is why maegor's birth in 12 AC to a 41-year-old visenya comes like a semi-miracle. people are questioning how the hell did she pull that bunny out of her hat. this is where the speculation that she might have performed some blood magic ritual to get pregnant stems from.

now does that mean maegor is just her clone and not really aegon's son at all? did he just claim him because he needed heirs? aenys also grew up to have a lovely singing voice and rhaenys was known to be fond of singers, so there are theories even aenys might not have been aegon's. both aenys and maegor have the classic targaryen features though.

it is also possible that aegon did indeed sire these children, even though he had fertility issues. fertility isn't a black-or-white thing, maybe he just had a low sperm count (lmao). maybe all three of them had fertility problems somehow, not just aegon. or maybe aegon was just absolutely sterile and, after years of trying, his sisters had to get creative in order to have children & aegon claimed them as his own bc he had no other way of acquiring an heir.

that does indeed open so many possible dynamics between the siblings. did aegon know or acknowledge he is the infertile one or did he "blame" his sisters? was he just completely oblivious of the whole issue and hoped an heir would fall out of the sky for him? did he approve of his sisters' alternative methods of conception? or was he forced to accept them as a fait accompli?

the mythos of all the targaryens claiming descent from THE conqueror is definitely a compelling one and has its merits even as traditionalist as it is. but so is the subversion of it being all a lie meant to cover up the OG aegon's failure in one crucial aspect of masculinity, ie potency. i think the text is intentionally vague for this very purpose.

[animal-moon-harvest-crossing]

new sos marriage candidates

I know, I know, the trailer and the website has only been live for a couple of hours, I KNOW. But I was already looking, and did some rough translations of the new candidate’s names and what kind of personalties they will have. This also will come from chrome’s very basic translator, and this could all change relatively soon! So with that in mind, let’s get started!

We’ll start on the left side with the girls!

On top, we first have Bridget. She works at the animal shop, and of course, loooves being around animals! Her brother is Damon (the young man to the right of her). Her whole design reminds me A LOT of Ellen from both her SNES and Magical Melody incarnations:

(Ellen included for reference). I think it’s also interesting that Damon is her brother, who kinda also resembles Blue from Magical Melody. Blue was a Grey expy that also worked on the animal ranch and was Ellen’s brother. Very curious indeed!

Next we’ll move on to the center left, Reina. She works at the local museum, and has a vast wealth of knowledge of all the exhibits and artifacts there. She may seem carefree and easy going, but she’s really a hard worker! Can’t wait to learn more about her!

Finally for the girls, we have Rin. She’s a shy, quiet young lady who works at the flower shop with her grandfather. Despite her shyness, once you get to know her better, she becomes a loving and cherished friend. I’m eager to see her blossom into a loving friend this coming March! 

Now moving on to the lads on the right. As mentioned before, we have Damon, Bridget’s brother. He’s essentially the bad boy of the group. He rides around on a motorcycle, and likes his coffee black (according to the translation on the bokumono website). He “behaves bluntly”, but has a romantic side that involves stargazing. Personally, he’s my favorite kind of character, so I’m pretty excited to get to know him. Have I already picked out my husband? M-Maybe I dunno...

Next we have Emirio! Emiro? I’m not totally sure what his name is supposed to be. The bokumono site describes him as the easy going, big brother type, who loves the sea, and likes to fish. We’ve seen plenty of characters similar to him in past bokumono games. Honestly I can’t wait to learn what his name actually is more than anything LOL. Priorities, yes, i have them.

EDIT:: I just saw a fan translation on twitter that is guessing his name is actually “Emilio” which makes like, WAY MORE SENSE!! I forget a lot of the time that in katakana, Rs stand in for Ls. So twitter user @wy_horizons is probably correct on that!

Finally, rounding us off, is Iori. The katakana says “Iroiri”, but if you pay attention to the English trailer, you see a man calling him “young master Iori”. Anyway, this clues me in that Iori is another Amir type character. A young man from a wealthy family that is traveling the world. The bokumono site describes him as “reliable and gentle”, and loves the nature surrounding Olive Town. I feel like we’re being given vague details about him on purpose, to keep up that mysterious, princely air to him. That’s all the candidates for now! These are the only character profiles available right now (or that I could find) on the bokumono website. Will we see more marriage candidates before the game’s release? What do you think of them so far? Is there something that I missed from the current information (which is more than likely)? It’s so exciting to have a new game for all of us to speculate on, I can’t wait to learn more!!

[thevivification]

@self-scammer-inc idk if you're awake as I post this (and idk if you’ve done sumeru yet) BUT I've been doing a lot of sumeru exploration and I kept thinking about him when I got near the desert so I filled almost an entire page of my sketchbook with doodles cause. yeah

Notes and note transcript under the cut

I wanted to add onto his design a bit more and I believe we talked about him having quite the amount of jewelry so I tried adding onto that. The hat was mainly cause I think he’d do good with a hat (shields eyes from sun + if you add something like a veil it works as a shield for the eyes) but the hat is definitely more of an optional thing

Upgraded the poncho to look more like something akin to Collei’s scarf but that design idea is still a “hmm” for me (hence why the actual scarf bits are not that visible)

You mentioned something about him being a physical DPS/burst support combo (well the burst support is a me idea, gives him more versatility) and while I’m not exactly sure what element he would have (Vex magic and Abyss magic are definitely more like plot devices for now) so I made The Vial more ambiguously elemental

While I’m not sure about the weapon ability and design I think I like the general concept of what I have here. Also I went with polearm design cause I felt like drawing them so maybe sooner or later I’ll draw a sword for him

OH ALSO I forgot to add that Concocted Infuser can be stacked up to 4 times max. I’m thinking a lot about game design as of recent idk why

note transcript (+ more additional notes cause yay):

I have severely misjudged the variety of sumeru lotus flowers.

Generic pink lotus/water lily = wears most often Nilotpala Lotus = alternate1 Kalpata Lotus = alt2 Padisarah = something special (I forgot about Viboyas aha I’ll explain sometime in future. also yes I know lotus and water lilies are different things and that Cub probably had a water lily and not a lotus in the initial design but shhh)

*a sketch of the start of an attack pattern*

kind of throw upwards? beginning of atk pattern idea?

*a picture of a vial of something*

The Vial Made from various chemicals/elements Plays part to his atk patterns (I believe I was referring to skill and burst)

*sketch of gi!Cub’s right hand*

right hand as ref rings usually wears rings w/o gloves lol bracelets (I added a 4-pointed star/primogem symbol to the glove to mess with identity speculations. in-universe I think he adds primo symbols for that exact reason, to mess with people)

*sketch of an updated gi!Cub design. I’ve given him a hat*

hat still has flower on ear specially-made material *pointing to shirt*

*sketch of a polearm called “✦ The Oasis ✦” (love it when Cub adds the little symbols to his tools and stuff). It’s design is similar to that of the dragonspine spear except the spearhead is more traditional and instead of calcium-like wrapping it is wrapped in the vines of a kalpata lotus. a single kalpata lotus blooms near the head*

Kalpata lotus Kalpata vines might modify design a bit. It’s kinda generic but I have no ideas atm so it’ll just stay like this *pointing to weapon ability* what I have as an idea for a minute (might add EM buff??)

atk % or physical DMG bonus Abyssal Merger (name in progress) Every time the active character activates a skill or a burst, all party members will gain the “Concocted Infuser” effect. This effect increases movement speed by 10%, reduces stamina cost of charged attacks by 20% and increases atk by 20-45% for 10 seconds. (Might reduce the effect duration and might remove the movement speed buff. Also I forgot to add that the ability can be stacked to 4 at maximum and there’s a 3-5 second cooldown for after the effect’s duration. The things in bold are stats that can be affected by refinement)

*A sketch of a possible elemental burst frame. He’s holding the vial while side-eyeing or looking at the camera. I left it vague on purpose*

Possible burst? (I think him throwing the potion to the ground and the affected area looks like light blue glazed terracotta (aka Vex Magic) would be cool. idk what it does but it would look cool)

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

open the door and let the flood back in (Loki & Sylvie, 1k words, just a little speculation for the end of episode 4) Rating: General Warnings: no archive warnings apply; references to mind control; very vague reference to torture Summary: Loki's awkwardness would be at least a little endearing under almost any other circumstances, Sylvie thinks, but there’s not much room for anything else alongside the numb hollowness of defeat. (A little speculation, at the last minute when it's no doubt about to be proven wrong, on what Loki might have said at the end of episode 4, other than the obvious, if he hadn't been interrupted. Spoilers through episode 4, obviously. Can be read as shippy or not.)

The nerve endings in my arms are working just fine, yeah, Sylvie almost says, but the snark doesn’t come so easily with the fake Time-Keeper’s head on the floor nearby, and that makes her pause long enough to realize that yes, there’s…something else, something deep inside the core of her magic that she’s never felt before. Something like—the recognition of a touch, or an echo, or both at once even if that really doesn’t make sense. Like she’s reaching out in the dark by instinct, and she knows someone else is reaching back.

She frowns. “Are you doing something?”

“I think we’re doing something,” he says, and now she can feel it, a flicker of suppressed excitement that isn’t just hers.

Sylvie’s eyes widen. “You are not in my head.”

“I’m not,” Loki says. “We’re just—listen, I’ve read about this. It was only ever a theory, nobody’s ever been able to do it properly, but there were scholars who suggested that two people could link their magic together, if—if their souls were similar enough, I think that was how it was discussed at the time, and create something like a feedback loop, continuously amplifying each other’s power. But strangers could never do it because they didn’t know and trust one another, let alone deeply and openly enough to allow that kind of connection, and even for people who did, mages who were lovers or lifelong friends, even if they both genuinely wanted to make the link, their magic wasn’t quite compatible. Not enough for that. A couple pairs of twins came the closest, I think, but all they could really do was boost each other’s power a little, so it was never worth the energy expenditure.”

“Because they weren’t the same,” Sylvie says. She’s pretty sure she can guess where he’s going with this.

“Two variants of the same being—we’re different people, we learned magic differently, we use it in different ways, but it’s still—the root is the same. The energy signature.” He grins. “They did say our temporal aura was the same. They just didn’t realize why it mattered. Or maybe they did, and that’s one reason they made sure only one of us could exist at a time.”

Sylvie is used to drawing power from her core and reaching out with it to take control of other minds. It’s easy enough, most of the time, because she has the process down, but it was exhausting when she was still experimenting—is exhausting, if she spends enough time fighting a strong mind or trying to control too many people at once. She pulls on a tendril of magic and feeds it into the little knot of Loki’s power, and—

It doesn’t disappear. It comes back stronger. In her mind’s eye, their magic glows brighter together, like a fire growing as it finds more to burn. “Okay, yeah, that’s new.”

“The theory was—an exponential increase for both mages. Doubling their power at minimum, like…like two wavelengths amplifying each other, or maybe a lot more than that.” He pushes power into the connection, more than she’d tried, and she can feel it: magnifying her power, which feeds back into his and strengthens it again, which expands hers in return, and they’ve barely even started.

“A lot more,” Sylvie says, staring at him, her mouth suddenly very dry. “Like nuclear fusion levels of a lot.”

His eyes gleam in the dim light. “Exactly. And I think that’s what caused the nexus event. I think our magic would have done it at the last second to save us, and I think we would’ve saved what was left of Lamentis-1 in the process.”

A burst of involuntary magic from both of them at once, at the moment that would otherwise be their deaths, doubling again and again as it passed back and forth between their joined hands—yeah, actually, she can see it. It doesn’t sound so absurd when she can still feel their linked power multiplying right now and they’ve hardly tried. “That’s insane.”

“Goes without saying.”

“We could—” She swallows. “We could do anything.”

“We could do anything,” Loki agrees.

“And do we? Trust each other that much?” she asks, but to be honest she already knows the answer. She reaches back for him, finally, settling her hands on his forearms, and his skin twitches under her fingers—like when she first put her hand on his arm on Lamentis, and he flinched like the last thing he expected was a gentle touch.

Loki’s mouth twists in a faintly sardonic half-smile. “I’m not…good with trust. Gave too much of it for a long time, maybe. And then—” He hesitates. “We might…share some memories, and I haven’t—the TVA knows what happened, I suppose. But there’s a good reason I’ve made sure nobody can get into my head again. You might see why, and it’s…not pretty.”

Okay, yeah, she can imagine a few different reasons for that and none of them are very pleasant. That flinch could hint at an ugly story too. She pulls his hands down, just far enough to interlace her fingers with his, and meets his gaze squarely. “My memories aren’t a laugh riot either. Do you trust me with yours?”

Loki squeezes her hands, just a little. “Yes, actually. You?”

She cocks one eyebrow at him. “Be a little inappropriate to say I’ll show you mine if you show me yours, right?”

He coughs out a laugh. “Maybe a little. So—do you want to try? See what kind of universe-disrupting chaos we can make?”

She tightens her grip. “Yeah. Hell yeah.”

***

[I didn't exactly come up with this idea--I developed more detail about the whole idea of magical amplification, but I know I came across at least one Tumblr post theorizing that Loki and Sylvie were about to do something that would save Lamentis, which was actually caused the nexus event and the TVA's intervention rather than them falling in love or whatever. Unfortunately I'm not actually sure who posted that, and my drafts and likes are already a nightmare, but I will make every effort to find the original post and link to it. I just really wanted to get this posted while, you know, we still can theorize.

Do I think this was actually the intent of the scene? Not really, no, although it sure would've been cool. Is it a little silly to write this when I could potentially find out in just over two hours how wrong I am? Maybe a little bit but on the other hand I finished a short fic and the whole entire point of what I’ve been writing lately is to try to finish some short no-pressure fics without letting them turn into a whole complicated thing in my head, and you know what it fulfills that purpose so I'm cool with it. AO3 link in the notes, just wanted to post it here because it’s short, it’s speculative, and Tumblr hates links.]

[genshinposting]

the free characters’ stories and the plot

first genshin theorypost on this blog yeehaw

anyway. all three of the free characters have some kind of unresolved mystery in their character stories, which leads me to believe that those mysteries will eventually become important. since they were introduced in the prologue, which pointedly isn’t chapter one, and are given directly to us without needing to roll, it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch to have the loose threads in their backgrounds tie into the main story itself, right?

so we have:

amber’s grandpa and his mysterious disappearance

kaeya’s past and the circumstances beyond what we know

what lisa saw to make her so fearful of power

thoughts under the cut

amber’s grandpa: we know only that he left behind his sword and his coat of arms and left one day, but we have no idea what could have happened to make him leave so suddenly, especially considering his love of mondstadt, the outriders, and his granddaughter. there are a few possibilities here, most of which i see as having the fatui involved.

he was brainwashed, manipulated, or controlled somehow: very likely due to how out of character the disappearance was. perhaps seeing his ability, the fatui harbingers wanted him on their side and turned him into a puppet to their will. additionally, in this image of the different harbingers’ symbols, one of the low ranking members

he willingly left to join the fatui: the fatui blatantly have goals beyond just being evil, and in childe’s voicelines, he says that the tsaritsa dreams of peace. amber’s grandpa’s desire to protect people may have led him to leave his past behind and join them if he had learned of what their true goals were.

regardless of which possibility it is, i believe that we will eventually meet amber’s grandpa in the story and we will likely have to fight him as a harbinger.

kaeya’s past: people have spoken on this before, but his homeland being khaenri’ah, the mysterious eighth nation that seems to have been ravaged by a disaster and vanished long before modern day, along with how it’s foreshadowed to be the final land the traveler has to venture to, makes him a prime candidate for plot importance.

kaeya as a spy: this is explicit in his backstory, though it seems he’s turned his back on actively spying. what i want to know, though, is why they thought a fairly young child would make a good spy, especially when the plan seemed not to involve anyone from khaenri’ah ever returning to gather intel from him.

expanding on this, i believe kaeya might actually have dainsleif’s eye. they both cover the same one, and i feel like dainsleif is more than human. perhaps with an eye of his placed in the normal world of teyvat and not the separated world of khaenri’ah, dainsleif gains an omniscience of what is happening there, and that’s why he serves as the narrator and knows a little too much despite seemingly being busy as the bough-keeper within khaenri’ah

kaeya himself probably doesn’t understand it fully, since he was probably too young at the time to be told about it, but it would explain how he’s a spy

kaeya as nobility: some people have speculated that’s he’s of royal or noble blood in khaenri’ah due to the names on his skills. i’m not super sure about that; i think i need a little more support for this before i go all in on it.

what lisa saw: this requires a bit more explaining than the other two. though her stories say explicitly “Having witnessed raving-mad scholars in the forests of Sumeru and powerful sages sitting underutilized advisory councils, Lisa realized what uninhibited erudition can really do to a person. It seemed such a high price to pay... How much did one have to sacrifice to attain the profoundest knowledge at all? Put off by this realization, Lisa decided to leave Sumeru.” this seems a tad vague and general for her deep-seated avoidance of power

she’s actively cultivating laziness and not using her full power out of a reason i believe to be fear. she’s extremely wary of the visions, and she is also explicitly fearful of the truth behind them and the secrets they carry. the “price” one has to pay for a miracle is mentioned multiple times in her stories and voicelines.

plus, she says this: “ A Vision may seem like a great tool, but one day, the power one accumulates always finds a way to turn back on you. Should such a day come for me, so long as you're around... Ah, never mind.”

i do not actually have that many theories for this one. it’s still far too vague, but i cannot shake off the nagging feeling that her stories are purposely leaving something out, especially considering how little she likes to talk about why she left sumeru

no evidence for this, but perhaps the abyss itself is involved? maybe she or someone else delved too deep into its mysteries and was left in some worrying condition

i’ll leave you with mona’s voiceline about her: “A Tempus Fugit... The constellation derives its name from the hourglass, and stands for knowledge and time — or rather, the trade-off between them. As each grain of sand falls down, a moment of time — of life, even, dies for good. To stop the unrelenting flow of sand, one would have to turn the hourglass on its side. But once the sand comes to rest, it remains motionless forever... Hmm, maybe 'becomes lazy' is more accurate than 'comes to rest,' in this case.”

tl;dr rarity break system where we can upgrade to five star amber, kaeya, and lisa at a certain point in the story when

[stray-tori]

Making peace with TPN S02E04 (anime-only)

Post summary: my problems with the episode, possible explanations for why and how to minimize the problems. also some speculation.

The thoughts are mostly based on the anime in a bubble, aside from the segments where I mention otherwise.

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#0 - My mixed feelings about staying anime-only

This is strange, because... I’m not really hype for next week? I want more, but not in the same excited way I did before. Because I simply don’t know what to expect anymore.

I want to stick as an anime-only so I can deliver stand-alone thoughts as this... clunky and stumbling adaptation makes its way towards the finish line (obviously it won’t be done this season but, yeah ---- i mean, hopefully not, who knows what they’ll do at this point).

But another part of me is just... more excited to read the manga to see what it is like and what the differences are, after the anime is done (which was always my plan, but I was never really actively excited about it pff-). And I feel like your anime approach has failed when I’m moreso looking forward to reading the source material eventually. I do hope that with ep5 they’ll get back on track and this feeling will fade. That they have a meaningful plan and reason for why ep4 felt so messy and disjointed - a reason why it had to go this way, because I feel like they just wanted them out of the bunker, but this is not the way imo (more on that in the next segment)

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#1 - Leaving the bunker - mix of feeling “rushed” and “waste of time”

I feel like where the anime is going, they kind of wrote themselves into a corner in Episode 4. The story setup was leading them to this place (i.e. the bunker), but they obviously didn’t want them to stay there long.

What is the problem? / The way it was setup, we got about an episode of them being there (too few to have emotional attachment to the place) and then being chased out when things went well. In a way it is both too soon, but since nothing really worth the ~1 episode “fluff” happened there in the end, it feels pointless or as if we just wasted time, just for them to leave in the end.

Imo, the bunker is needed for two things, 1) being the first goal for them to go to, so the story isn’t aimless right away and 2) info dumps. Most of the children’s content can be repurposed during their forest time or doesn’t seem relevant right now.

For the record, I personally think that they got found out makes sense in-universe,

WM said he was found out, it’s not unlikely the farm knows that bunkers exist and might even have a vague idea of where they are

that there are multiple could be assumed by the army guy saying, “That’s how shelters usually are” -- If the world has been like this for 1000 years, what other purpose than human survival in a demon would could shelter even have? 

I don’t think the pursuers communicated it back (got lucky, Ray) because if they did, they wouldn’t show up a whole month later.

they could have just observed them, they’ve been on the surface quite a bit.

(though I also agree it should be confirmed how the farm found out)

I’m just questioning the impact it had on me as a viewer (which is little) - the world is rigged against them, they can’t catch a break in a system this powerful chasing them and I think part of the confusion and “wait we’re back at square 1??” (literally) is intentional, to evoke the feeling of something being lost. If possible, I would keep the spirit of this idea (see “it’s a trap” in the next segment)

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So what can we do to fix it?

Skipping the bunker / I don’t think we can remove the bunker outright. I suppose they could have had them just go straight for the new location by having the last keyword be another puzzle instead of the phone recording giving it away directly. But that might have too few things happening. That way they also would have gotten more time on their own to be wandering OR Mujika and Sonju might have been with them longer (which would honestly make sense from a meta point, too. I feel like they were a little short-lived.)

Less time in the bunker / if it feels pointless anyway, get it over with quickly

More time in the bunker / stay longer and have them do something else. Maybe they prepped to already go back to GF, time has passed and then they get raided. Problem: why did it take the farm force so long?

To be honest, I’m not sure that would have been much better so I’m personally more inclined to fix it with a very tightly connected problem, which will be the next segment:

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#3 - the HELP wall scare was pointless

What’s the problem? / the scare was used in between two segments of “the happy life in the bunker”(TM). The segments are the exact same feeling to me personally, just fluff. The scare changed NOTHING. Nothing that was revealed justifies it existing.

Pre wall scare: WM is an ally, the bunker is for escapees

Post wall scare: WM is an ally, he got discovered, the bunker is for escapees, there were escapees there before (?)

The wall doesn’t even have anything to do with WM. And we didn’t get enough details on the HELP wall, even on its own. Was the book and the “HELP”s from the same person? Why were they going crazy there? What did their siblings die from? It can’t be food, so it must have happened outside. Where they picked up by the Task Force(TM)?

The “don’t give up” is nice, but our crew didn’t need that pep talk I think - i guess with Minerva gone, they lost a hope for allies, but at the same time he gave them coordinates where to get support. If they didn’t get that and now were on their own, I’d get the whole uplifting book more, personally. I guess the tragedy here is that WM is dead? Maybe I’m not emphasizing with the characters enough on this.

. So what can we do to fix it?

Give more details to the wall / i.e. answering the questions posed above. Maybe show more of the diary. Maybe two were left and one killed themselves (they scribbled HELPs and were crazier) and left the other alone, and they decided they’re leaving for the human world. It doesn’t change that the scare doesn’t mean much, but it would at least be a little more personal.

Change the wall / remove the helps, leave the names and the counting. It would be a tragic reveal (instead of a over-dramatic scare) to see that people had died (around) here, making them scared for their own lives (I guess that’s kind of implied to be happening but since it doesn’t linger, I didn’t really notice.)

It’s a trap/they definitely know of the bunker / it’s not “help” but “run” which was a warning someone put there because they figured out the farms knew of the bunker (or they got attacked and one couldn’t leave). It being a trap would make sense because even as it’s now, I’m just assuming they vaguely know of the bunkers’ existence anyway. Then it wouldn’t be “yay bunker life! - scare - yay bunker life! - BOOM” but instead “yay bunker life! - it’s a trap... what do we do?” - you can still have the info dumps & the phone call and then they either realize it’s a trap and just leave (removing the problem of the....... interesting raid scenes), and BOOM (haha) you’re where the anime is now, since the troup got nom’ed anyway and aren’t a threat anymore. The mission would still fail since they’re gone, so Isabella’s plot is in tact too. I think this would also partly solve the bunker problem, because now something actually changed about the setup we know. It’s NOT the safe bunker anymore. It changes a lot about the world too - the farm knows of them so how much more of the WM support net is affected? It makes you think more about the larger scale implications (and ligns up nicely with the “I was discovered” talk from James, therefore making the wall shown at the same time relevant), + the bunker has another reason to be there, to reveal that. Personally, it would change our perception and understanding of the situation, which imo would make up for the lacking investment in the bunker itself. It would also prompt them to leave faster (likely), thus eliminating the “we spent so much time here for nothing” thing. If you really want to you can even have them stay anyway, since it’s the only thing they have and they opt to just leave on the first sign of someone actually being on their back. This requires a better night watch than Don though :D

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#4 - The little things

Missed drama - the episode was pretty casual about a lot of things; testing potentially dangerous food (fair because it was a nice segment), their new home being gone (fair because no attachment) and them seeing humans being eaten right in front of them (WHY WASN’T THIS MILKED). It makes it all seem like it’s not a big deal - which I guess in a survival story, it kind of isn’t. But I still feel like there wasn’t really any impactful moment this episode it just kinda went “brrr” and now we’re back to episode 1.

for real, please milk the wild demon eating people / he just kinda goes "nom" and the children are there and run. It feels like the anime itself barely takes it seriously - it's the first time (I think), they see a human get eaten by a demon and I feel like that could have used like a close up shot, and some more disgusted reactions by the children. I get that it's a world where that just happens but I feel like the anime just didn't take or see the change to do something more personal with it. I like it as an element at its core because it makes sense; they shot around, attracting the demon and I also like the irony of being saved by a wild creature. Even if that now chases you.

incompetent soldiers - why do they have guns? they can’t HARM / KILL the quality food, so WHY GUNS? -- People with guns are usually incompetent in anything because they just can’t hit anything, but that at least makes sense here. Still, what was the plan? Sheer intimidation? They’re the farms’ force right? Why don’t they know how to deal with wild demons? Possible answer: to prevent humans with guns knowing how to eliminate their higher ups :D doesn’t change that it makes them look stupid. Bro really got defeated by getting a cup thrown in his face. To be fair this specific one didn’t seem to be the brightest bulb, why the “huh?” when he found Don??? Is this relevant I’M SO CONFUSED.

where’s the character moments? - when they got to the bunker, everyone else kind of got the focus, and the main cast just didn't have any of those character moments anymore that made the previous episodes, especially episode 2, so touching and emotional for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the kind of fluff content with the children a lot but I kind of missed some.... it feels like it's more event driven (#BOOM) than character driven now, and idk how to really attach to that? Especially since with ep4 we didn't even really learn anything new (aside from a name and that he was indeed good and is now dead I guess).

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#5 - Why?

Warning: this goes a bit into comparisons (nothing concrete though), and I obviously don’t know more than I picked up from fandom reactions.

My guess is that

“So... I cannot at this point say that we are going to animate the entire story to the very end. We are not at a point where we can say that. Sorry. (Laughs)”

from the MAL interview might be a factor. It seems they wanted to tell their own spin regardless (which I personally respect) but maybe they thought that unless they had a two-cour, it would be hard to keep up the investment the first season set up with what was originally in the manga (I had heard that it would be a weird pacing to do 11 episodes and maybe they wanted to make sure viewer engagement was high).

> “We know that there are viewers who, after they watch the anime, want to continue on and read the manga, and there are viewers who have read the manga first and are now watching the anime.”

(I’m not sure if “after the anime” means after a season or after the the whole adaptation)

Their goal is definitely an “unique” experience. And they seem to at least be aware that some people watch the anime first, so it has to make sense in a bubble.

I can’t say if I would have preferred a slower start into whatever the manga has that caps off at 11 episodes (idk how much rewarding stuff could have fit in there), since they probably fear of not being able to do a complete adaptation too. And I feel like as I’m getting it, they are trying to quickly reintroduce what people cared about in s1 --- in Isabella’s case, maybe a bit too early. there was barely any time to really miss her imo.

But I’m also not sure if whatever they’re aiming for will be rewarding. I hope so, because I don’t want their efforts to go to waste. And I don’t want to come to dislike it.

I can admit faults, ep4 is definitely a lowpoint even without knowing the alternatives. Just that for me, it is annoying little things and not the shocking deviations from the manga.

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#6 - Hope

I have hope though because Isabella’s stuff was good, and now that they’re over the no-return divergence point, they might be able to... (meta spoiler) not repurpose manga scenes without any buildup (is what I’m getting) anymore :”D, because they really only set themselves up for disappointed with that. It might seem like a homage but it’s moreso out of place, the people who read it aren’t happy because you didn’t earn it (and of course they’ll compare) and the anime suffers from it because it can create unnecessary confusion forced in just to make a reference.

Ironically I think they’re too stuck in the manga too and could have benefited from a blind perspective.

I don’t really mind anything overall I think (world is against them, that’s fair, being out on the run again is fine, the demon “rescue” is fine), the execution / some details of episode 4 were just... strange. idk where they are going with it and maybe that really was the best way to transition but until I know where it goes, I can’t really judge that. Highly doubt it though.

I really hope they completely just do their own things now with some base elements from the manga.

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A lot of what I talked about in this post ended up making me appreciate the crumbs of intention. The realization that previous escapees didn’t make it (not all of them, anyway) and WM being dead, and then having that uplifting message. The message of “you don’t get to rest, you’re on your own again”. The irony of the wild demon being their (temporary) rescue. The past escapees.

Ironically, I wanted to dunk on the anime but really, all I feel is more content now. Would I have preferred some fixes? Yes, but I see some semblance of meaning in it even with the errors.

Thanks for reading this goddamn essay.

[skellfamily]

this is SUPER rambly and basically just speculating upon wild speculation upon more speculation, but I had to type out my thoughts on this

Sans and Papyrus are implied to be from another universe. Their home is apparently a place they can’t easily return to, with people who arent found in the Underground, and Sans eventually gives up on seeing the people he knew there ever again. It’s probably not just the surface, either, as Sans seems to view going to the surface as a separate thing from “going back” to his home (also Papyrus doesnt recognize the sun, so unless he was a baby when they came or he has serious amnesia, it wouldnt make much sense for them to be from the surface)

Sans and Papyrus are also implied to be connected to Gaster. so if they’re from another world, then the Gaster they knew logically wouldnt be UT Gaster.

But. this bothers me. the game gives us precious little info about Gaster...why would it then turn out there are actually TWO Gasters, one of whom we havent been told anything about?? The stuff we learn about Gaster is about UT Gaster - he lived underground, he built the CORE, he was Asgore’s royal scientist, his experiments went wrong and led to his demise. 

Gaster’s relation to the skelebros is obviously supposed to be important. They’re some of the only characters in the game he’s implied to have a connection to. so where does UT!Gaster fit into things then, if he’s NOT the one who knew them - and yet is the Gaster we have been told all about? what would be the point of having UT!Gaster? what would be the point of having the skelebros be connected to Gaster? it doesn’t make much sense to me.

(i suppose it’s possible they met Gaster after arriving in the Undertale timeline but it seems unlikely to me. The machine in their basement was likely a creation of Gaster’s, given the blueprints. that machine is also implied to be related to how the skelebros ended up in Undertale in the first place, which is why Sans wanted to fix it so badly. I also assume the reason Sans met Alphys is cause he sought out the Royal Scientist’s help in fixing the machine, which if correct would mean Gaster was long gone by the time he came around. on that note, there used to be a tweet from Toby where he says: “Neither of them could fix the machine, no matter how hard they tried”)

There are some things that just make sense when looking at in terms of building a story - why are these things there, what purpose do they serve? how are they supposed to connect together? For example, the biggest reason I think Gaster is closely related to the skelebros isn’t because there’s some smoking gun that proves anything - there isn’t, in fact we only have a few subtle hints showing a connection (like the fact they both can use Gaster Blasters). it’s because: why would Toby make a mysterious skeleton character, and give us hints that he is connected to two other mysterious skeleton characters who have a super vague backstory...and then not have them be related somehow?

So while it would be perfectly sensible for there to simply be an alternate dimension Gaster from whatever universe Sans and Papyrus came from (I’ve made a post wondering about this before actually), I dont feel it makes much sense from a narrative standpoint. what’s the purpose of having multiple Gasters? what’s the purpose of Undertale Gaster, and why do we learn just about him, when the Gaster who is tied to Sans&Papyrus should be more important to the story? 

but maybe i’m looking at it the wrong way. maybe UT!Gaster and the skelebros’ Gaster can be one and the same. what if Gaster left the Undertale universe, and was able to have kids elsewhere? either his ultimate fate - being shattered across time & space - actually happened later, after he arrived in the other dimension

or perhaps that did happen while he was in Undertale, but a piece of him was able to make a life in another world? after all, Gaster doesn’t seem dead-dead despite the incident or the fact that the Gaster Followers talk about him like he perished. he’s alive enough to reach out on Twitter, talk to us during the vessel creator scene, and to make the “SURVEY_PROGRAM” that is Deltarune. 

if I’m right about this, I think Entry Number Seventeen might take place shortly before the event which brought the skelebros into Undertale, and the “YOU TWO” are in fact Sans and Papyrus. Gaster’s text in the entry is shaking heavily, which is indicative of pain or a strong emotional state. considering that and the dangerous sounding nature of the experiment he’s describing, it seems likely that whatever followed probably wasnt good - for him or the ones present.

idk, i definitely could be thinking about this way too hard. alternate universes do complicate matters, and i have a tendency to turn thoughts over in my head a million times. but this has been on my mind for awhile and i just had to talk about it!!

[realm-sweet-realm]

Sammy x Joey for 31

31: “I own you”

This prompt also uses the line, “your heart is racing,” which was requested by @threadedsafetypin for Norman and Sammy. (Sorry, I don’t know how to do the “put image of the ask in another ask” thing.)

---

Norman was a professed lover of drama and mysteries, and Joey Drew Studios was full of them. He’d learned all kinds of things from their loose-lipped janitor, and just by knowing the right places to stand out of sight but within earshot. A few months ago, Norman would have laughed any time he heard his fellow worker speculate as to what all the new machinery was for. Norman knew. He knew and he knew it would never come to fruition, because how could such a thing happen outside a cheesy horror flick?

And then it did. Everyone had heard the ink machine roar to life, but Norman believed he was among the only ones to have seen the beast trapped in the infirmary. The machine worked, it was dangerous, and that worried Norman, because he’d gotten invested in the people he’d watched every day, the same way one might get invested in the characters in a book. He wanted their safety- especially the one he’d found out was meant to be their first target- Susie Campbell.  

Of course, nothing would stop Joey Drew short of murder. But maybe if he could get through to Sammy Lawrence, Sammy could get through to her. In order to do that, though, he’d have to become the biggest devil in Sammy’s life- and lord knew that would be a challenge.

His plan started by pick-pocketing Joey’s keys from him and leaving them on Sammy’s desk.  Not while Sammy was around, of course. Norman had overheard a conversation of theirs in which Sammy had expressed a desire for his own keys to the very basement floor (a place so secret and mysterious that not even Norman could guess at its purpose). Sammy had framed it as being about trust and respect, but with the way Joey always kept the magic stuff vague to Sammy, Norman had the sense that Sammy wanted to make sure he wasn’t being lied to.

Of course, the plan would fall apart if Sammy chose not to take the opportunity Norman provided him. And, hidden in a room near the elevator just a while after everyone else had gone home, it started to feel ridiculous. Sure, he’d feel awful about letting Susie die, but...

Sammy passed by the door, and Norman yanked him in by the arm. The office door slammed shut behind him, and big, brown hands wrapped tight around his arms. Sammy’s heart stopped until he realized that Norman was the one who’d pulled him in and not Joey.

“Okay, what the hell?” Sammy yelled at him.

“Sorry about this. But we need to have a little talk. I’m going to let you go, let you take a seat, alright?”

“Fine,” Sammy grumbled. Norman slowly let go of his wrists. Unfortunately, Norman was blocking the door, so Sammy couldn’t just make a run for it. He sat down on the chair, resigned to whatever Norman had planned for him. And tomorrow, he’d report him to Joey for inappropriate behaviour.

“Alright. Now, I want you to stop doing what you’re doing with Joey Drew. I don’t know all the details of what you’re doing, but I know enough. I know it involves Susie Campbell, and I’m gonna tell you right now that if you hurt her, you’re going to regret it. And then I’ll find out and make you regret it more. You hear? And I’m sorry that I have to do this through threats, but you see, I know that Joey Drew is a devil in your life, and the only way to get you to listen to me instead of him is to be a bigger devil.”

Sammy stayed quiet a moment. “Are you done?”

“Can you tell me that she’ll be safe?”

“No. This might surprise you, but Joey is going to have plans for her regardless of if I participate or not. And while we’re here, I might not be with Susie anymore, but you need to stop watching her. It’s creepy enough when you eavesdrop on men, but when it’s women...” Sammy shuddered. “And aside from that, Joey isn’t a devil in my life! At least, after last night he won’t be.”

“What happened last night?”

“Why would I tell you?”

“Because you desperately want to tell someone.”

Sammy grumbled about Norman using his powers on him, then he told Norman everything.

---

Joey and Sammy were in the basement, learning to preserve and hide corpses from a book on the occult that Joey had bought (from where Sammy had no idea). Sammy wondered idly how what started out as a relatively innocuous hobby had led him to this. And yet, it did still fascinate him, and this was a necessary part of the process.

“It says that the formaldehyde will have to cool for ten minutes before it’s ready,” Joey said. “I guess this is a good time to bring up the other thing I wanted to. Sammy, I’m sorry for being so... uptight lately. I don’t want to be laying down all these rules for you to make sure you don’t stray, and I’m sure you don’t like them, either. So, I came up with a way to put my suspiciousness to rest forever! After this, all the rules will be gone! I’ll let you talk to whoever you want- gay men, single women, whoever! Heck, break up with me and go smooch someone else! And I’ll tell you about anything Satanism-related that you want! You see, I might like your body, but I care infinitely more that you’re loyal to me and what we’re creating together. You just have to accept a little favour from me first.”

"And what would that be?” Sammy asked, heavily suspicious.

“Well, you see- a while ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I used a Satanic ritual to make me healthy again- it worked within a couple days. But it didn’t just make me healthy- it made me glow. Made me look and feel as young and energetic as I’ve ever been. I barely had to sleep. Whenever I tried to come off of them, though, I couldn’t. Even going a week without it made me so weak that I had to buy a cane to get around, and a week after that I was so sick that I could barely complete the ritual again- but I felt great again immediately afterwards and I haven’t tried to quit since. Now, the treatment is expensive, but I’ll pay for it. If you’re truly dedicated to this, I’ve just offered you a guarantee of health and youthfulness for the rest of your days. And it’s painless, I promise- we could do it together in my office every morning. The quitting part shouldn’t matter to you. So just do it, and I’ll never doubt your dedication again for as long we live.”

---

“...And you went through with it.”

“Of course I did! He offered me a blessing! I would have wanted to stay with him anyhow! There was no price for me!”

“Sorry, but no. Sammy, you yell like that when you’re wound up. You are terrified. Your heart is racing. You’re shaking like a leaf, and your eyes are the size of plates. That’s not me using my so-called powers- that’s me using my eyes.”

Sammy looked aside. “Fine. I guess a part of me knew that it was just him saying ‘I own you’ in a different way. But... it’s a better way. More convenient.”

Norman wished he could comfort him. “I’m gonna leave you with one more thing to think on. It sounds like Joey had been taking that spell for weeks when he tried coming off of it. You’ve had it what- once? Maybe if you stop now, there’s still hope.” Norman stepped away from the door. “Go. Sorry I can’t help you.”

Sammy got up and left without a word.

---

It was Thursday night and Norman had come home after work. He was just helping his wife out in the kitchen when he heard a knock at the door. It was Sammy holding a handgun in one hand and a piece of paper in the other.

“HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS!” Norman yelled as he knocked the gun out of Sammy’s hand and then kicked it aside.

“Believe it or not, I’m not here to murder you,” Sammy growled, handing him the piece of paper. It read:

I’ve decided that I don’t want to live under Joey’s control anymore. He’s expecting me to meet up with him tonight to help with Susie’s ritual. Thanks to him, I know how to hide a body, but I could really use your help in making sure she’s not the one who dies tonight.

"I’m proud of you, Sammy. Let me get my coat.”

[travllingbunny]

The 100 speculation: Anomaly Stone, Eligius 3, Second Dawn

based on info up to episode 7x02 “The Garden” (I don’t know any of the spoilers from screeners for the next two episodes) and what info can be found in the season 7 opening titles

When Gabriel said (again) that the Anomaly Stones were created thousands of years ago by an unknown humanoid species, a lot of people, me included, thought that he’s wrong and that the Anomaly Stones were actually created by humans, not that long ago. The fact that some of the symbols on them look suspiciously similar to real life Earth alphabets and symbols used in math or physics, support that.

However, it seems that the popular theory is that the Stones were created by our protagonists through some kind of time travel storyline. I don’t agree with that because I don’t believe there will be actual time travel in the show. There haven’t been any indications of it, it would be a too big of a curve ball to introduce in the middle of the last season of a show, and it would also mean that Jason Rothenberg has been openly lying in his recent interviews about there being no time travel on the show. (He certainly says a lot of weird stuff that doesn’t match with what’s on screen, but he tends to be vague rather than outright lie about things that aren’t up to interpretation and that he can be called out on.) Gabriel has been studying the Anomaly for a long time - how long has it been? Decades? A hundred years? - so, long, long before Ourkru came to Sanctum, so there’s no way for them to have anything to do with the creation of the Anomaly Stones unless they actually go back in time.

Sure, it’s not 100% sure, but let’s forget about time travel for a while and just work with the info we have so far from the show and things we know to be true. And this is that there is time dilation - at the very least, between Skyring/Beta and Sanctum/Earth/probably Bardo, too. Which was explained by Becca Franco as the effect of Beta (Skyring) being too far from the black hole, compared to the other planets. As someone with a little more knowledge in astrophysics (mine is barely existent) was explaining to me on another website, the vicinity of a black hole, the time feels “frozen”, slows down.  (So, technically, time is not accelerated on Skyring, but slowed down on other planets.) Which should  mean - unless the writers screwed up - that Earth is also close to the black hole in the show’s universe, since there is no time dilation between Sanctum and Earth. If that’s the same black hole, it seems to me that would mean the distance between Sanctum and Skyring is much bigger than that between Earth and Sanctum.

Why was Skyring named planet Beta - if it really was? It would make more sense for Eligius 3 to arrive on Skyring much later than on Bardo, Nakara and whatever other planet is there? I guess the names would, in that case, be about the possibilities for life on the planet, rather than when they were discovered, and Sanctum and Skyring have conditions much closer to Earth and better for humans than Bardo or Nakara seem to, based on the opening credits.But we still don’t know how time runs on other planets and where exactly they are. 

What I currently believe is that the Anomaly Stones may have been created by members of other Eligius 3 missions, in order to find a quicker way to travel across the universe, including back to Earth - maybe even the only way, since they had just one interstellar ship, Eligius 3, which went from planet to planet, dropping off the mission members. Now, Eligius 3 was a very fast ship and seems to have taken just a couple of years to travel from Earth to Sanctum (unlike Eligius 4 - because the latter’s engines were busted in Diyoza’s rebellion), it would have still taken years to get to all the planets, and if Skyring was that far, it may have taken decades. On top of that, we still don’t know where Eligius 3 is, who has it, or even if it is still functional.

And if the Anomaly Stones were created, say, decades ago, or a 100 or 200 years sao, the one on Skyring would look ancient - in fact, millions years old, because that’s how old it is by Skyring time. But why does the one on Sanctum also look thousands of years old? Maybe because it was created together with the other one(s), but the Disciples from Bardo left it on Skyring for a while until they came back and found a way to bring it to Sanctum, With the time dilation, a stone that was left for a day on Skyring would be thousands of years old when brought to Sanctum. The other team missions were cut off from Mission Team Alpha and may have only connected Sanctum to the Anomaly/bridge later than the other ones. 

ETA:  I just realized that there must be time dilation on Bardo, too, and the time there must be slowed down compared to Sanctum, too - just probably not that much, since Octavia returned in less than a minute in 6x08. During that time, she spent 10 years on Skyring and some time on Bardo. It may have been days, weeks or months. That would mean Bardo is also further away from the black hole compared to Sanctum, but not as far as Skyring is. Becca just said Planet Beta (Skyring) was far away from the black hole compared to the other planets so the time dilation was “sexy”, not that there was no time dilation between the other planets, too. That means it could be simpler and the Anomaly Stones may have all been created on Bardo, so if the Sanctum one was created decades or a century ago, it would technically be thousands of years old.

My other speculation is about the “Disciples”. It would be way too much coincidence if they didn’t have anything to do with the Second Dawn cult. In fact, I think the “Disciples” are an off-shoot of Second Dawn. Anders is the Head of the Disciples - not the Teacher. I think the Teacher is Bill Cadogan. Some of the mission members may have been Second Dawn to begin with. Second Dawn was influential and had connections to Becca, too (who somehow knew exactly where Cadogan’s real bunker was). What if one of the purposes of the Anomaly was to find a way to bring people - specifically, Second Dawn members - from Earth? Maybe even Cadogan himself - we don’t know what happened to him? It would explain all the weird similarities between some of the Anomaly imagery and planet symbols with some of the imagery of the Grounders.  Bardo even means something between death and rebirth, and one of the planets (probably Bardo) has a phoenix as its symbol - the symbol of rebirth, the bird that burns and then literally rises “from the ashes”. 

That would also explain how the backdoor pilot ties into the current story. 

What is the Disciples’ ultimate goal? Is it return to Earth one day - which would be a reason why they don’t bring everyone to a beautiful planet like Skyring, but prefer living in dome-like bunkers on Bardo where atmosphere is not breathable? Or is some other, more out there/religious fanatic-like reason?

[milkttea]

𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙐𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙆𝙣𝙤𝙬

𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘶𝘨𝘰𝘶 𝘹 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

Warnings: angst, slight Dabi x reader, hero turned villain, blood, guns, bullets, uuhhh if you don’t like it don’t read, read some fluff but if you want angst and a sad Bakugou >:)

Notes: this wasn’t requested I got the idea from a tik tok by kyaasan it really brought on the angst hehe have fun y’all

What the readers costume looks like.

Nausea.

Nausea was what you first felt.

Nausea and then anger.

Anger at him or at yourself you didn’t know, but seeing him— seeing Bakugou there with that girl and talking without an ounce of hostility only light banter had just filled you with rage that hit you in your heart and soon filled your mind.

It was overpowering and made your mind fill with an inky black that slowly took over and only filled you with more and more sadness.

It was all you could focus on— it was too much you needed to leave before you did something awful. Something un-hero like, that wouldn’t exactly make you a very good hero now would it?

Attacking an innocent girl for interacting with Bakugou, with him looking at her with such adoration, such kindness. You only wished he could look at you that way.

Your quirk soon became making its way out of you and filling the surrounding area with a blood lust and making the metal workings around you creak and bend. A blood lust that was not unnoticed by a villain from a certain group that has caused nothing but pain for your class.

Fragments of buildings were breaking and groaning, causing citizens to panic as they wondered if this was the workings of a villain. This panic didn’t go unnoticed as the watching eyes of a villain were settled on your form as you stared at Bakugou and the other girl.

If only you knew that the only reason Bakugou was looking at the girl with such love in his eyes was because he imagined it to be you. Maybe it was the workings of her quirk that made him believe it was you, you’d never know.

He truly did love you and it was this love that blinded him from seeing your form crumple to the ground like leaves from a tree. The reason he was speaking to this girl— if you looked close enough there were some parts of her that resembled you— to work up the nerve in holding a meaningful conversation with you. In doing so however, he found that he enjoyed her company and completely forgot about his purpose of bringing her to this spot to chat.

Sometimes love could break you.

It sent you running.

Running far away from him, far away from the girl, and far far away from UA.

For the longest time you wondered if UA was truly the right place for you, the more you worked with the Heroes and fought your peers you truly wondered if Heroes were in the right. They left destruction and pain behind while taking in people and ruining their lives.

Yes there were people who did truly awful things but there were also those who had to do those things because these Heroes failed them when they needed them most.

The word left a bad taste in your mouth, making you gag as you ran away.

Heroes made you sick to your stomach sometimes. The things they did and the way they affected lives, everyone depended on them and would only accept their help— no one else’s.

You found yourself at an alley hiding in the corner from other peoples eyes. People were always so nosy, getting into business they don’t belong in.

“Well, well if it isn’t a UA student. What’s a small hero doing out here by themselves it could be dangerous you know, with all these villains running around.”

Looking up, the tears in your eyes fell against your will once you locked eyes with one of the most dangerous villains you’ve ever encountered. Dabi. A villain with a fire quirk and flames that burn hotter than Endeavor and Todoroki. The presence of him was enough to make you freeze in your spot— ironically.

“You trying to pick a fight or something cause I’m really not feeling it,” you say in between sniffles as you wipe your eyes.

He walks closer to you, towering over your crumpled form and tilts his head as he looks at you. His eyes narrow as he looks deep in your eyes as they avert from his gaze, and sees the hatred you have, not directed at him, but at someone else.

A look he knows all too well.

“So you hate someone? That’s it?”

Shocked you look up and properly look him in the eyes.

“How did you—?”

With a wave of his hand, blue flames escape and fly slightly towards your face in the shape of All Might then Endeavor.

“I’ve seen my fair share of hatred, but the hatred I see in you reminds me all too well of myself. How about we make a deal?”

He smirks at you as you furrow your brows and think about what this could mean for you.

“Look I’m not the most patient person, but I’m willing to help you get revenge on those heroes.”

You waited for a few more seconds and finally nodded your head, an evil grin appearing on Dabi’s face as he took your hand and led you further down the dark ally where you both disappeared from the public.

-

Weeks had passed since then, and during those weeks life had been hectic for the staff at UA and your friends.

You had been named missing and your teachers had been left to wonder if you were kidnapped or worse. Your parents were worried and asked for your safe return wherever you were, you saw the news at the League of Villains hideout where the news had been playing.

The heroes had been searching for you at every possible location they could imagine and your fellow classmates had been questioned on if you’d been feeling weird the past few days before your disappearance.

“I don’t know where the extra could have gone, do I look like I know them?!”

Despite his brashness Bakugou was worried, he hated to admit it but he was concerned for your well-being.

Where could you have gone?

-

“Huh... so they care now. How disappointing.”

Dabi put an arm around you as you sat on a couch playing with a piece of metal and forming it into different shapes.

“Well today will be your debut day. How do you feel?”

You stopped with the metal in your hand formed into the shape of an explosion before you crushed it with your hand and let it crumble to the floor.

With a smile on your face and your eyes glowing you responded, “like I could take on the world.”

-

While the students were on their training with their respective heroes, a few had gathered together to discuss the recent events and what may have happened to their classmate.

“Deku, do you ever wonder what could have happened to Y/n?”

Midoriya looked at Uraraka who was fiddling with her fingers and he thought for a few seconds before looking at her.

“I wonder everyday what made her disappear and what could have been done differently had we known that she would disappear.”

Bakugou couldn’t help but overhear the conversation as more students began to converse and speculate what could happen. It made him frustrated that he didn’t have any idea what could have happened.

Before they could think more about what could have happened, screams rang out from the crowd as a fire broke out with Dabi in the center, his hand around the neck of a hero as he burned them alive and threw them aside.

The hero course students, having their hero licenses took to action as they worked to get the civilians out of range of Dabi who merely stood there watching as they did what Heroes do. The trio of boys who threw themselves face first into danger were the first to act as they attacked Dabi, only for more villains to emerge and stop them as they began to fight.

More heroes joined the fight as Nomu began to emerge from out of no where. Wreaking havac while the heroes were doing their best to keep damage to a minimum.

Dabi only smirks at the destruction in his wake, satisfaction written on his face. He puts a finger to his ear and presses on the ear piece hidden by his black hair and speaks into it, words unheard by the students, but the actions noticed by Midoriya and Bakugou.

“Hey! Bastard who you talking to?! You have a fight right in front of you!”

Bakugou lunges forward palm extended as he makes an explosion in Dabis face. He prepares for another when a stinging pain emerges in his arm.

He grabs his arm as he winced in pain, noticing a hole and a very faint red light set on his person. He looks up to where the source is coming from only vaguely seeing a person upside down, legs wrapped around a wire with a gun aimed at him.

He quickly runs from your view as you take more shots at him. Noticing Bakugou running from the area and going behind a car, Midoriya and Todoroki follow suit.

“What happened?”

Bakugou clenches his teeth and rips a piece of his costume and ties it around the wound.

“There’s a shooter on the building, damn extra got me in my arm. I’m gonna get ‘em don’t follow me half-and-half bastard! You too damn nerd!”

“Kacchan wait—!”

Bakugou already left exploding his way to your location.

You already left tho, the wire suspending you reeling you up and on top of the building as you run, gun in hand planting metal canisters with metallic vapors around the area.

Bakugou soon found himself in front of you as you smirked and aimed your gun at him, he let out an explosion in front of your face thinking it would blind you as he ran around to attack you. What he didn’t know was that the special headset you had target locators in them and infrared lighting, meaning you could see him.

Still he was able to get a hit on you and blast you away and towards the edge of the building. He lands another punch on you as you block it with your metal brackets on your arm.

“Who the hell are you?!”

You ignore him as you throw a canister in his face momentarily surprising him as you shoot it, letting out a miniature explosion and commanding the metal shrapnel inside to form together as needles and enter Bakugous body.

He cursed at the pain and you make your escape.

Smirking you jump off the building to a smaller one and continue shooting at the heroes with your bullets. Not killing them but injuring them enough as you manipulated the bullets to let out paralytic toxins.

Bakugou eventually comes to his senses, grunting in pain but continuing after you. You hear this and turn around briefly only to come face to face with Bakugou who tackles you to the ground.

“Shit—”

He kicks your gun away after you drop it from him colliding with you and he grips your hands as you struggle.

You let out a grappling hook to pull you away from him, but his reflexes kick in as he grabs the hook and pulls it to wrap around your hands.

“Who the fuck are you,” he seethes as he rips off the headset on you and freezing as he sees your eyes glaring at him.

“(Y/n)— but you, why are you—”

With perfect timing a portal opens behind you and Dabi emerges, ready to burn Bakugou but you grab his hand to stop him.

Bakugou in shock just falls to his knees mouth open in shock as Dabi stares down at him with a sickening smirk. You look Bakugou in the eyes and say these parting words before you leave with Dabi’s hand in yours.

“I’m just someone you used to know. I will always resent you Bakugou Katsuki.”

Bakugou let’s tears fall from his eyes as his heart clenches in pain, feeling the pain of heartbreak settle in he screams in anguish as he sobs.

[beevean]

Spinel and the Diamonds

because no it’s been almost a week and I’m still not over the SU movie help me

The ending of the movie, with Spinel getting happily adopted by the Diamonds, feels a little too neat of a conclusion, and it comes with sad implications - are they using each other as replacement goldfish? Would they have a healthy relationship? Why hasn’t Spinel stayed on Earth?

I can agree that the end felt slightly too “fast” and convenient, but I, as I like to do, over-thought about it, and tried to understand why the movie felt the need to conclude Spinel’s and the Diamonds’ subplot like that.

Has it ever happened to you, that you looked back to how you were two, three, five years ago, realized you are a much different person now, a better one, and that the people who knew “you” knew a different version of you and that distorts the perception of the new you? So you think it’s a better idea to cut the bridges and start anew with people who have no idea of who you are and were? People who ended school on a slightly sour note and went to college in another place might understand what I mean.

This is what happened with Spinel. It’s made very clear that she doesn’t like herself - she talks with scorn and resentment about her “younger” self, the one who was so eager to please Pink that she wasted 6000 years of her life*, but she’s also ashamed of her “new” self, asking multiple times “who would want me like this?” and even crying that if before she wasn’t good enough for Pink, now she’s no good at all. Understandable, as her first actions after leaving the Garden were to find a giant injector filled with poison, go on Earth and viciously attack Steven and the CGs out of jealousy. This was their first impression of Spinel: a madwoman singing how swell it was to beat Pink’s friends and with plans to destroy the Earth. Of course she feels like she’d forever be the odd one if she stuck around, maybe she even feels like they would never truly forgive her.

Now, we know Steven is no stranger to include former enemies in his friends circle - the movie itself jokes about Bismuth’s, Lapis’ and Peridot’s “turnarounds”. But Spinel’s has such a little sense of self-worth, she probably couldn’t handle to form her own small circle of acquaintances in a corner of Little Homeworld. We see her looking with teary eyes at Steven going to greet the CGs after everything is over: she’ll always be the fifth wheel in her mind, and being the fifth wheel is still a deep trigger for her.

This is why Spinel is overjoyed at the idea of going to live with the Diamonds. They knew that she existed, sure, but only vaguely (you can bet your ass that otherwise Blue would have busted in the Garden to rescue Spinel and put her along with the bubbled Rose Quartzes) - they don’t really remember how she was thousands of years ago, and they don’t know what she had tried to do to the Earth. They were instantly smitten with her, and ready to shower her with love for who she was. ... and who she represented, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

So what about the Diamonds themselves? Now, I’d never dare to say that Steven dismantling Homeworld was a bad idea - HW was an awful system and it deserved to be destroyed. But it left the Diamonds lost and without purpose, and we know there’s nothing worse for a Gem than to feel purposeless, even more so for the Diamonds. It’s no wonder they cling to Steven: not only he’s what’s little is left of Pink, as much as he reminds them many times that he’s not her, but he’s also their new guide, the only one who could make sense of their new existence.

There’s also an important fact: Steven is trying to teach the Diamonds how to be better people. They still have... a long way to go, but they’re putting the effort at the very least. This likely means that by this point, all three of them are aware that they had treated Pink like shit, maybe know what exactly they did wrong, and regret that it’s too late for them to apologize to her.

Enter Spinel. She’s just like the Pink they remembered: small, pink, cute, playful, funny, and in need of love. Like her, Spinel was abandoned and made feel like she was unloved - and ironically, it was Pink herself who did that to her, and we can speculate the other Diamonds are indirectly responsible for Pink’s callous behavior.

The Diamond can’t apologize to Pink anymore. Steven isn’t willing to indulge their needs, because, unlike what some crits think, Steven isn’t buddy-buddy with them - he’s cordial, and willing to help them, but the show and the movie have made quite clear that he doesn’t like them that much. But Spinel is a small Gem who was wronged by all the Diamonds and is in a desperate need of a new place to live, so the Diamonds can start anew with her, and give her all the love they didn’t know how to give to Pink. They can learn how to be even better people with her, with a person who’s willing to love them.

Now, with all this said, I am a bit afraid that the four of them would fall into a co-dependent relationship. Their needs click together like a puzzle, but this is the problem. Would they push each other to improve themselves? Can the Diamonds teach Spinel to be less afraid of being left on her own? Can Spinel teach the Diamonds to be less attached to Pink’s memory? I don’t know. Maybe this is where Steven can help, because no matter who you are, Steven is more than willing to teach you the amazing power of change, as long as you accept it.

I hope we see them in the future, even just an episode. The Diamonds have all the potential to break free of their toxic mindset, and most importantly Spinel deserves to be happy.

*related to this, I’ve seen people talk as if Pink placed a Geas on Spinel in the same way she did on Pearl. This is also something that was brought up when Now We’re Only Falling Apart aired, with people “realizing” that Pink forbid Garnet from ever asking questions with her great Diamond powers. It’s been confirmed that Pink could only place such a compelling “spell” on her Pearl, as she was her personal servant and as Pearls are more “robotic” than other Gems. This means that Spinel could have left any time, which just adds yet another layer of humiliation and frustration on her ordeal. Just to clarify

[talesfrombeyondthebelly]

“Come into my parlor,” Said the spider to the fish.

I know I’m not great at titles but oh well. This is an Eri.Vr.is oral vore fic! Mainly because I’ve been doing some rps and been caught up in the great dynamic they have imo. This is a sfw fic, but again it is a vore fic so if you turn away I won’t be offended. That said, I hope you enjoy and I’m always open to criticism!

There would be an unceremonious sigh that would come from a certain violet blooded sea dweller as he fiddled with the pieces for his latest scheme to exterminate all the land dwellers. Or at least, that would be what he had claimed he was doing, he never truly planned to execute it both due to lack of ambition and the resources. Really, the boasting and bragging about what he planned to do wasn’t as much of a threat as he liked to claim it was, and truly it was more along the lines of a need for attention than any true plans of committal. 

It had been a slow night for one Eridan Ampora, and having wasted most of it attempting to message any troll to either gossip with three of them or spew some rhetoric he didn’t fully believe. But even then, all that was accomplished was that he was being ignored while he vied for attention. All that was left was to stay cooped inside and rewatch old documentaries as he idly fiddled with historical figure memorabilia.

That was, it was all he had to do until someone had decided to free him from his self-isolation.

AG: Heeeeeeeey, Eridan. ::::) 

The sea dweller would squint, he didn’t think his rival would message him after deciding not to message her first. They had broken up when they were six sweeps due to him boring and overbearing; but some time after they turned seven sweeps, Eridan’s attempts to renew their rivalry would pay off after much work and effort. And now they had been going strong even after they hit nine sweeps old.

However, he would roll his eyes at the sight, he knew her innocent seeming spider smile was anything but.

CA: wwhat do you wwant you cerulean blowwhard dont you knoww im busy AG: I’m hurt! After all I went through to check on my dear rival! I would have thought he liked someone giving him attention. AG: Oh well! Guess I’ll just leave you to your devices seeing how you’re *so* busy, CA: god damn it wwait CA: okay maybe i got a bit of an openin in my schedule to wwaste time wwith you AG: Please! The only one who’s going to be wasting their time is me, we 8oth know you’re pro8a8ly doing something 8oring like watching one of your lame documentaries. CA: theyre not LAME theyre goin to be your miserable dirt munchin dowwnfall soon enough AG: Oh???????? 8old claim from you Ampora. Seeing how I know you’re dead wrong. AG: Anyway! You’re coming over to my hive today right? AG: Why am I even asking? You o8viously forgot. CA: i didnt forget i totally fuckin remembered our meeting at your stupid and completely ridiculous hivve AG: It’s not stupid! What’s stupid is the fishbreath who 8uilt his hive surrounded 8y the ocean when he 8arely spends any time in the water. AG: Whatever, just come over. I’m not waiting all day for your dum8ass. CA: ugh fuckin fine CA: you still havvent told me wwhat specifically you wwanted to do ovver there anywway AG : :::;)

And with that, the conversation was brought to an end. Eridan would rub his temples, her purposely vague answer meant any number of things, usually which ended in his embarrassment in one way or the other. Of course, it was better to just go over as soon as possible rather than him wasting time by speculating, even if he did plan to make her wait to purposely be fashionably late. Something to put his pompous attitude on display. Soon enough, Eridan would don his scarf and cape before leaving his hive and embarking on the trip to Vriska’s.

The trip wasn’t terribly long, mainly because traversing through the ocean was far from an issue and her home conveniently overlooked the sea. Even so, Eridan would hold make sure to wait for an extra amount of time for no reason than to uphold the gesture that he was royalty. Feeling accomplished with his amazingly petty task, he would approach the door and knock a few times before waiting for her to answer as he dried himself off as he uncaptchalogued a few towels.

Vriska would answer the door surprisingly quickly, having not had the patience to return his petty actions before pulling him inside and closing the door behind them both. The expression on her face was blatant annoyance, but that was far from the norm regardless if it was actual exasperation or not. Eridan would up look at the other troll with a frown, even since they had gotten older he would find that she had sky rocketed past him in height. He had been a respectable  height of nearly six feet, while she had him beat by additional four feet, much to his unending irritation and to her endless amusement.

“You’re late. Even after I went and so kindly reminded you of our little arrangement. Well, I guess everything’s little to me when you’re short, but the point stands.” “yeah yeah keep braggin vvris i wwas towwerin ovver you before-” “Sure, you had a few inches on me when we were six! But now we’re nine and you’re still short, how do you explain that, hm?” That would cause him to shut up rather quickly, though he would dart his eyes around and attempt to come up with a retort, only to fold his arms and huff soon after. It wasn’t uncommon for trolls to grow as much as she did, but the fact that he wasn’t one of them meant that  discussions of height were biased in her favor. Her ten feet tall favor. His violet eyes would eventually return to her cerulean ones, there had been smile on her face, one that reeked of mischievous intent. Before he could open his mouth to question her intentions, she would cover his mouth with her hand, and some of his face as a natural consequence of the difference in size between them.

“Alright Ampora, shut up for a minute and listen. I had you come over because I had a proposition that’s going to 8enefit 8oth of us. Here’s the deal: You got two minutes to hide somewhere, and I’m going to seek you out. If I can’t find you in 8 minutes, you win! And if you pick somewhere dum8 and I find you, I win! And the loser has to do whateeeeeeeever the winner wants! Sound good? ::::)”

Eridan would try to speak his response, only for Vriska to keep her hand pressed against his face, only pulling back once he felt something wet trail along it. Irritation making itself apparent with a scoff, she would return the favor by grabbing one of his hands, sticking out her tongue and  slowly pressing the wet muscle against the other troll’s hand in a rather long lick before finally letting him go. His hand utterly drenched in saliva, Eridan’s face would scrunch up as he shook his hand dry while a small tinge of violet came across his face. It made her brief taste of him all the more delicious. 

“for fucks sake fine ill WWIN your stupid land suckin game and then wwe can do somethin wway less ridiculous and more dignified afterwwards” His statement was spoken with his usual amount of sea dweller pompous pride, even if the chips were stacked against him. Even so, he held his head up high and puffed his chest out, not about to turn down a challenge that was surely easy enough to win. She had a castle, there must have been plenty of places to hide.

“Good! Now get going Eridan, unless you want to 8e 8oring and lame and make this too easy.” She’d give him a wink, teasing him over her self-assured victory and a lick of her lips. She had no problem hinting at what she wanted to do once she won, it made it fun to see him squirm.

He’d pause for a moment and confidence turned into brief uncertainty in less than a minute, “wwait you mean right noww i havvent fuckin evven gotten to-” He cuts himself off as he sees her turn away and start to count, realizing that she wasn’t even going to wait for him to prepare himself. He’d scramble off, the sea dweller handling himself incredibly well on land even when he’s running around wearing a rather long cape. 

He wasn’t used to hiding as he was often hunting for the sake of Feferi’s lusus, but he would certainly try his hand at it to the best of his ability. Of course, his first two attempts were less than idea, having run to the very bottom of her hive to try and disguise himself by burying himself under her pile of miscellaneous belongings, only to realize he was shifting too much. He’d then decide to try his hand at hiding on one of the upper floors, deciding that hiding behind her pile of treasure would have been an unlikely spot seeing how he resented her various wins against him during their FLARP sessions. Unfortunately, this would prevent him from hiding there for long, as he does grow irritated looking at her spoils and decided to leave before it caused those pitch feelings to flair too much. Ultimately, he would decide to hide somewhere so obvious, Vriska would never think to check. He was confident in this idea, so much so that he decided to take it easy and relax in his new found spot, all he had to do now was wait 8 minutes and win. He means eight.

Vriska, predictably, did not count the entirety of two minutes before she began her hunt. Rather, she stopped once she got to eighty eight and decided that was enough for her. When she turned around, she half expected Eridan to standing right there out of spite and stubbornness about the whole thing but to her delight the violet blood was playing along. The question was where to find him, if she had to guess, it was probably somewhere dumb, like him. And so her very first guess was her trophy room, because of course he would think she’d skip over her own hoard of treasure to look for him. But upon making her way up the many stairs to check, she would find not a hair of him to found. She was a bit annoyed her first guess wasn’t right, but she had extra time to spare and her next guess would most certainly be right.

Except it wouldn’t The next room would be devoid of Eridan, and the next and the next. It would seem that no matter where she searched, he was nowhere to be found, it raise her irritation with him, and with it her hunger. The stomach of the ten foot cerulean would grumble as she briefly put a hand on it and huffed, she had to give her rival credit, he was doing a good job at making her work for this. And here she thought she’d grab an easy snack. But the warranty of it was  wearing off as time passed on, even with her head start, it would seem that Eridan was safe wherever he had chosen to hide. She couldn’t allow this to happen, she had planned for this all to go a certain way, and the fact that it wasn’t was unacceptable. Annoyed, she’d retire to her block for a moment, purely for the sake of trying not to get too caught up and at least try to remain rational about this. Only a minute to go, there wasn’t much time left, and Vriska was certain she had searched about every place there was to offer. Unless...

Without a word, Vriska would approach her wardrobe dresser, there was no way he’d hide in there right? It’d be dumb and stupid and completely ridiculous! Well, she didn’t have time, so she would ultimately waste not a moment more as she ripped open the doors to her wardrobe and... found her prize. Eridan for one was shocked with the sudden burst of light and appearance of Vriska, who apparently been frustrated looking for him. He wishes he could have seen the whole experience, but from the noises she made he got his fair share of entertainment. “8h my g8d, r8ally!!!!!!!! Y8u hid in my wardr88e????????” There was an unending amount of vitriol pouring from Vriska now, irritation at herself and him were flowing freely, and despite Eridan’s surprise, he would waste no time in displaying adjusting himself and nodding, “of course i hid here because i thought youd fuckin ovverlook it seein howw all your attire is plain as SHIT and it wworked just god damn fine seein howw a certain obnoxious glory lovvin troll took forEVVER to find me-” He would step out with a large amount of pride, quite certain he had won, only for his eyes  to dart over to the clock in her room and his face would immediately fall. She had found him with ten seconds to spare. “wwell fuck”

Vriska would try to take a moment to herself to not have too radical an outburst, she was upset, but she also wanted to savor her prize. The expression on Eridan’s face certainly helped “Wwell fuck is right! I win! And that meeeeeeeeans you have to do what I want, and I think we both know what that is.” A chill would go down his spine, while Eridan could be clueless at times, she had given him more than enough hints as to what she wanted. It certainly hadn’t been the first time they had done such a thing, but it was more than a bit embarrassing for him, which made give her some push back on the idea. “are you fuckin kiddin vvris you didnt say anythin about this bein your prize-” “Don’t 8e coy!” She’d interrupt him immediately, taking a step closer to him as he took a step back. “ I made it plenty clear! 8esides! I win, and you agreed to the terms right? It’s only fair I get what I’m promised.” 

Another step forward and he’d take another few steps back and bump into the wall behind him, Vriska smirking as she’d get closer to him, their bodies practically touching as she leaned down towards him and her lips would slowly part, strands of saliva breaking apart as he start down that cerulean abyss, taking a few teasing swallows as she inched closer before letting her warm breath washing over him and fogging up his glasses.  A few drops of drool would fall into his face before she’d close her mouth pull away, letting the situation sink in for the sea dweller as well as calm herself down, she may have had a bit of cerulean tint her cheeks in the same manner violet tinted his. Eating someone in this manner was embarrassing after all, which was why she’d only do it in private, not that she’d ever admit it out loud. Eridan had similarly shared the sentiment on the other side of the spectrum.

While embarrassment would go around on both ends, the sea dweller still contemplated making a run for it; the thought of being consumed always did trigger a fight or flight instinct, regardless of the fact that she probably wouldn’t digest him. Before he can even make an attempt however, his body is kept in place by hands on his shoulders, she had decided that she wasn’t going to give him the chance to scramble off and hide again, “I hope you’re ready, because you’re going to be in there for a while~” She would lean in again, salivating as she brought herself closer yet as her jaws widened to accept her meal. Slow warm breaths would beat against his skin as she drew tantalizingly close, all the while the fish troll would gulp nervously.

Instinctively, he would press his hands against her face as she started to lean in, he wasn’t about to let his hatemate have her meal without at least giving some fight back. One hand on her top lip and the other on her bottom, there’d be some push back as she slowly closed the distance between them yet again, it was a losing fight on his end as the predator drew closer and closer, letting him stare once again into her mouth before her tongue would slide out to press against his face and trail upwards, taking his glasses with it and causing him to loosen his hold. It was all he needed give the spider troll all the leeway she needed. Before he can even think about his mistake, she would jolt forward and wrap her lips around his neck, sealing him inside the jaws of the ever hungry troll. A hum of approval would resonate around the noble of troll royalty, reveling in the taste of victory and her meal, saliva being thoroughly slathered across his face during his various attempts to voice insults and protests. Though that wouldn’t stop him from trying. 

While it was certainly dark in the other’s mouth, being a nocturnal species meant that Eridan could see each and every detail as she made sure to truly make him squirm. It wouldn’t be long before she’d take the first swallow, letting his glasses slide along her tongue before they were unceremoniously pulled down her gullet Of course. with that swallow, he would be brought only a short distance away from the opening in her throat, as his shoulders would be brought in next. Her teeth would be pressed against his clothes to  keep him in place as his struggles and attempts to free himself grew stronger despite the situation going in the opposite direction for him. Her tongue would waste no time in running over the formerly dry parts of the troll, drenching the top of his shirt as drool as she decided to move on with her meal and take the gulp that would trap him inside her throat and bulge it out with his struggling form.

His head now captured in a pulsating throat, Vriska can continue her meal in confidence he won’t wiggle out. Her hands would move to keep his arms pinned to his sides as she moved further down his body, a hum flowing freely as she continued this consumption of him. Drool would pool in her mouth and dripping down as his chest was next to slide between her jaws as Eridan was tugged further down her throat, slightly bulging it out as he defiantly tried to move it around. Her tongue was relentless in running along the fabric she brought into her mouth, it was a bit tasteless and bland, and she regrets not shredding the shirt when she had the chance, but she ultimately makes do. Mainly by lapping at the shirt to lubricate it before taking another swallow, sending him further down the slimy gullet.

Her lips and fangs now reach his hips, and his stomach is safely contained within her mouth. Now she could have a bit more fun with him. Her tongue would curl under the bottom of his shirt to gain access to his skin yet again, an unadulterated groan escaping her to make it well known how much she just enjoyed this feeling, the noises ringing through his ears amidst his own grunts and swears. She’d stop her swallowing for a moment, reveling in the taste and wanting him to squirm a bit longer for her and attempt to fight back against the intrusive tongue as it rubbed against him,  only to end up rubbing his body more against the wet muscle, her taste buds gets all the flavor she could ever want. What probably gets the biggest reaction from her is when she gives attention to his grub scars, which are oddly enough, pretty delicious for a reason she couldn’t quite explain. But they do elicit some sounds from Eridan was well, mainly increasingly flustered insults as he keeps kicking wildly. It was quite enjoyable a feeling if she were to be honest.

While she could have kept slathering, lapping and sucking on him for a considerable amount of time, a sudden loud growl would emerge from her stomach, reminding her that she was quite hungry still. And so, she’d wrap her hands around his legs to keep them still as the next series of gulps condemned the violetblood to his fate. There would be only the briefest moment where she would remove his shoes before finally sealing the deal, tracing the last of the troll’s form down with one hand as she pushed him down to her stomach. A long sigh would come out of her as she laid on back and massage her now bloated stomach. It was a lot of work to get him down and she was blue in the face, but she had done it. She could feel him fighting and hear his complaints both of which were more than annoying when she was trying to relax, but damn, it was always satisfying to do this. 

 Eridan, for his part, always had conflicting feelings about this. His face flushed violet and his entire body was absolutely drenched in ever warm saliva, it and he was now surrounded by a brilliant shade of blue that made up her stomach walls. He attempt to push and stretch it to its limits and cause her indigestion as a form of revenge, but all he would be met with was a few gurgles as the stomach churned around him. Luckily, it didn’t seem like he was going to be digested, otherwise he would have been splashing stomach acids all over him from his struggles, instead of other contents in her stomach. It included a few eight balls and dice, unsurprisingly. Despite his best efforts, he would only slightly stretch out her grey skin as Vriska could see her bloated stomach wiggling and bulging with his form, she was content to keep him in there.

It would be a few minutes before Eridan’s protests would die down and he’d resign himself for now as he attempt to get comfortable against the soft stomach lining that surrounded him. As embarrassing as this had been, he had expending his stamina and his frustration dying down to contempt. It would allow her to relax a bit more and close her eyes. She thinks she’s going to take a nap before they do anything else. She might let him out later but for now, this was just another mark of victory for her. It was fun, they’ll have to do this again sooner rather than later.