#meta-stasis

[controlcha0s]

shadow sleeps on the ground, half curled up most of the time, making sure to pick a spot where he will be out of the moonlight and cloaked. if there are others, he will make sure everyone else is asleep and safe first before turning in. he will also wake himself up early before anyone else just in case something happens throughout the night. he’s used to sleeping in many uncomfortable positions so isn’t picky, but he is naturally a light sleeper.

[survivedsarchived]

it takes halwyn 6 years, but he eventually bounces back. his body decomposes and the silver melts away and suddenly he's reborn on the nemeton and he doesn't remember much about the period between awakening in eichen house and his death - but he remembers the threat of the anuk-ite and that there had been another hellhound. the former is more pressing, though, and halwyn spends months searching for any sign of it, and although it troubles him that he can't figure out what happened to it, why he can't find any sign of it, he reluctantly accepts it and moves on to finding the other hound, believing that he can provide some clarity on what the hell happened to him.

[apericotjam]

The sound of shattering Stasis crystals pumps dopamine directly into my brain :)

[dandelionjack]

finally we know the reason why the doctor seems to be so obsessed with the 51st century. that’s when humans discover time travel! it’s such a simple explanation but i’ve often wondered why that era of future-history gets brought up more than any other. evidently the time agency gets established soon afterwards and all. i suppose jack was (un)lucky to be born during that period

d&d suggesting that ancient gallifreyans were more technologically advanced than modern time lords. i love this song.

[savanir]

A sister's love

The justice league hurriedly responds to a call for backup at a little in the middle of nowhere place by the name of Amity Park. 

The situation had seemed so simple. 

A Star Sapphire had suddenly shown up on Earth which isn’t immediately cause for concern but she was unidentified, so a lantern was definitely going to have to look into it if only just to make sure that nothing bad was going on. There are two planet side green lanterns, Simon and Jessica. So they responded to handle the potential situation. 

Things rapidly spun out of control when they realized it wasn't just a Star Sapphire. 

"I hate to say this but we're gonna need backup" Simon tells Cyborg, "the Star Sapphire has brought something with her. My first guess was a white martian but..." The other one can do some manner of density shifting, and he can go invisible, but they know ways around that. Whatever this one is doing isn’t that though.

"Why isn't this working!?!" Comes Jessica's slightly panicked voice in the distance, "he keeps just going through my creations! dammit, think think Jess" She tried to contain him with a flamethrower construct but he just ignored it, like he’s seemingly ignoring everything else she’s throwing at him.

"Our constructs have zero effect on the other one, the alien, meta? man I don’t know he’s human shaped" 

"What is the situation other than the two hostiles?"

"Uh we got some government agents who are retreating because of the Star Sapphire wrecking their stuff. And the civilian people here seem to be falling under her influence, so she must be human. She's from here, she needs emotional connection to pull that stuff off."

The people are furious, the violet glow around them clearly indicates that the girl is using her ring to amp them up but if Simon didn’t know any better he’d say this was red lantern stuff.

Well there are more ways to whip people up into a frenzy, by hurting their loved ones for example.

There is a brief moment where it can be heard that Simon and Jessica try to get into a more advantageous position. 

Simon grunts, "dammit, those agents seemed to have weapons that actually worked on the other guy but the Star Sapphire used her violet constructs to shield him and destroy their guns and we've been struggling since" this whole situation stinks, he has a weird feeling about all of it.

"Simon this is really really bad, i can't keep restraining all these civilians, we're running out of energy fast!"

Cyborg tries to get a visual on the situation from his position in the Watchtower while he’s notifying any league affiliated heroes who are nearby and available. 

But all of a sudden he realizes there is just nothing, just a big lap of void where the two lanterns are supposed to be, there is no cctv footage, no cell towers, no internet connection. Just what the hell is going on here.

Then the audio transmission starts to violently crackle.

A new voice laced with static can suddenly be heard, "There you two are"

"Shit"

"Is the justice league coming yet? Are they finally going to do something?" the staticy voice continues.

"Stay back you-"

"Or maybe they still need more of a reason to act" 

The audio cuts out. 

"Jessica! Simon! Come in!" ... "Shit!" 

Cyborg finally gets a clear picture with the satellite cameras and now sees the entirety of Amity Park has been covered with a crystalized violet dome. It’s then that he remembers the story Hal told quite some time ago now about a Star Sapphire who managed to put a whole planet into love stasis.

They are gonna need more help with this one he thinks.

Meanwhile Jazz is still shakily trying to figure out how her new pink powers work, now that all the fighting is over (for now), the GIW forcefully expelled from Amity, and the two Justice league people captured and restrained.

Everything happened so fast, one moment the GIW had knocked out her brother and were forcefully taking him away and while she saw them drive off (she was pretty sure she was screaming) a pink thing just froze her in place, She was pretty sure someone said something about “great love in her heart” and then she was… well she was flying and- and there wasn’t really any time to question things then so she may have kinda gone and ripped into the van that had Danny.

She’s pretty sure she healed him, and then things just completely spiraled out of control from that point on. and now she’s here.

She’s pretty sure this is crazy villain behavior, she’s going to get put on some sort of watchlist and then she’ll never get to be a psychologist but it’s fine.

Her little brother is safe, that’s all that matters. And she will keep it that way.

[beannoss]

Something I think about a lot and wonder if maybe gets overlooked in Twilight’s story and as vitally indicative of his character is actually in the very first chapter:

Anya isn’t needed for Strix. Twilight decides to adopt her anyway.

[Spoiler warning: Mostly this post deals with early chapters already in the anime but there is reference to chapter 62, which has not yet been animated and will be in season 3]

Twilight decides it — “I’m going to rework the mission so it doesn’t involve a child because that’s too dangerous” and he’s 100% right! Donovan Desmond is canonically a far right warmonger with fascistic authoritarian aims. His government made liberal use of the SSS — a group to mirror the Stasi — who continue to operate in morally dubious ways (much more likely they’re actively morally reprehensible, though we’ve mostly only had rumours of that so far). From what we can tell, Desmond is at best an absent father and likely actually worse than that: if that's how he treats his own children, imagine how he might treat others. And the timeline seems to indicate that the experimentation performed on Anya was done under Desmond's government — even if Twilight isn't aware of experimentation on children, he is aware of both human and animal experimentation under Desmond's government. Taking all that and also the complexity of Strix's aims, undoubtedly there were other things that could be done, more straightforward if not necessarily easier.

So. Why? Why entertain the change at all? And then, having entertained it, why go back when the reasoning is indisputable?

On the Doylist level, I think Endo wanted to ensure that Anya had some agency within the set up — Endo also does this with Yor. It would be much harder to be on Twilight’s side fully, or to trust him on an ethical level/take him as any sort of moral authority, if he were just straightforwardly using these two people. To have them be active and consenting participants (arguably to actually be affirming the arrangement: Twilight sets it up, but Anya and Yor actually make it happen) even if the audience only knows the depth of their knowledge/motivations/etc currently, shifts the power dynamic in important ways.

But it also the set up tells us important things about Twilight. He is largely impatient, cold, detached in chapter one. His overarching feelings towards Anya are, I think, real annoyance, real confusion, and real impatience. He just doesn’t understand this damn kid and it turns out she’s a person which is frankly unacceptable — he’d needed and anticipated an automaton, ideally of himself in miniature form. (Though I think one could ponder whether Twilight was, in many ways, an automaton himself at this point, but that's maybe for another meta 🙃)

He’s not entirely unmoved of course — we're given to understand he’s affected when Franky tells him how many times Anya’s been adopted and returned, and isn't amused by Franky's joke about names. Franky's comment — "Just don't get attached" — reinforces this. The prospect of “the future” perturbs Twilight when he’s reading the parenting books. His initial reaction to Anya’s kidnap is horror. All these are true too.

Then there’s also this, from earlier in the chapter:

It’s exposition, yeah, and it’s also exposing. "Hopes" and "joys" are very specific words to describe those events. It could simply have been "A marriage? An ordinary life?" but describing them as such — hope for marriage; joy in ordinary life — expose something of what Twilight feels about those two experiences and, on the flipside, they expose what he deems he's lacking. No hopes of intimacy; no joy in (an ordinary) life. There's an argument as well, of course, that he's being ironic but I don't think that actually invalidates the above analysis. Drawing attention to 'hope' and 'joy' at all are revealing, regardless of Twilight's tone in thinking of them. I think it's also interesting this panel, taken in conjunction with a pair of panels in chapter 62, Twilight's backstory. The above is almost a pulled out version of this below panel of Twilight's recollection of his childhood, and of course the returning image of not just a rubbish bin but a rubbish bin on fire when it comes to disposing of his identity:

Back to Strix. Both his final interaction with Karen and the whole everything of the framing of Strix is making Twilight think (and feel, ahem) things that he hasn't for some time. Twilight decides, I’m reworking this. It can’t proceed this way. Not because Anya is a pain in his ass, not because she’s not as (apparently) intellectually advanced as he’d originally thought, not even because he thinks he can find another child who would better be exactly what mission parameters called for. No:

And what changes his mind is Anya asking to come home.

One of the important parts of this to me is this:

He seeks consent.

This moment is a keystone, I think, to understanding Twilight. It’s also more telling than he maybe realises. Twilight is decisive — we all laugh because he spirals at the drop of a hat when his daughter or wife look even mildly upset but outside those (also very telling) scenarios, he makes decisions and he pursues them. Often he makes decisions quickly. He’s a dab hand at it; it’s a large part of why he’s as good a spy as he is.

He’d decided to change Strix.

Anya asks him, in essence, not to.

So, he doesn't.

But it's wild that he entertains keeping her request at all — why? Why even entertain it? It’s dangerous; it’s impractical; there are too many moving parts outside his direct control; Anya isn’t the sort of child he’d wanted for the mission if he’d spent any time thinking about what a child might actually be like; Strix is in many ways an extremely long shot anyway, Desmond could just stop attending for reasons unknown and unrelated; etc.

So, yeah, why? Maybe because of this —

In conjunction, I often think of this moment in the cruise arc:

Twilight first naming the feeling as lonesome, and secondly tacitly conceding that he perceives Yor as a companion and that that relationship is important to him, something to be missed. What makes this for me though is that Anya calls this out "Papa's you're so sappy" and Twilight's reaction is that of someone caught-out. He doesn’t say “nuh-uh!” but he may as well have. Essentially, something landed a bit close to home, hm? Maybe some of that hope for marriage? A soupçon of joy of an ordinary life?

Twilight’s loneliness underpins many of his decisions with his family — probably without him being fully conscious of it. I think he is at least somewhat conscious of it, but also if he looks too closely... Well, best not to. I could fill this post, I think, with images that demonstrate his loneliness throughout the series; that sorrowful/pensive close-up of his eye(s) is one of the abiding motifs for Twilight throughout. I'd probably start with this one from Twilight's backstory arc:

Anya's request plays directly off his loneliness. Still though, he doesn’t immediately capitulate — he emphasises Anya’s choice. Is she sure? The last day has been scary for a child (and for him, but he's ignoring that part) and Twilight, in his increasing recognition that Anya is a person, is probably aware in the back of his mind that he hasn’t exactly been warm or welcoming or at all patient with her. Things that people respond to — he's otherwise excellent at manipulating people, so of course he understands this. So. Given she'd just had this scary experience, given he hasn't exactly been great with her: Is she sure? She wants to come home — with him?

I think the moment may get a little lost because Anya says something riffing off his own earlier thoughts and self-revelation (featuring that shadowed, lonely eye motif again!)

Were this a post about Anya, I’d talk about how it’s an important character moment for her as well by way both of demonstrating her agency/choice and also that she isn’t nearly as dumb as Twilight thinks (and the audience, maybe, also thinks).

But in my view, she didn’t actually need to say anything about it making her cry. I think she could simply have said yes in that moment and Twilight would have agreed.

Twilight’s an unreliable narrator; he’s disconnected from his heart and that shrouds his own motivations from himself — something he actually also concedes in this chapter!

And it shrouds from us just how much he actually understands himself. He’s also a master of deflection. Easy to assume or say that bringing Anya home is just to align with Strix. Nothing more to see here; nothing else going on. But also that ripping off of the mask in the panel above — and the literal 'riiip' sound effects — also indicate to us that this is an unveiling to himself.

In my view, Twilight agreeing to Anya's request, deciding to go back to original mission parameters, actually shifts his motivations, subtly. Now he’s committed not only to the original mission goals, but also to Anya. He needs Anya to succeed at Strix, not only for Strix's sake, but also because otherwise the mission will end and she’ll have to go back to the orphanage, and he’s just agreed with her not to do that (not right away, in any case). I don’t think at this point he’s thinking it’s forever — his thoughts throughout the manga indicate he still expects the Forgers to be temporary. I don't think the shift in motivation is necessarily even conscious, but given the set up, I think something inside Twilight recognises that agreeing to bring Anya home is a compact, jointly engaged. Mostly all this has become subsumed into Strix: he makes decisions. He pursues them. He deflects, even from himself. Of course it's just for the mission; this saved him the trouble of reworking it, of figuring out something else. Nothing more to see; no need to think any more on it. And to be fair to him, Strix is very high stakes, resting pretty solely on his shoulders, so of course that is, objectively, motivation enough. Why even consider beyond that?

But I personally think that to the extent he's aware of it at all, there is something else going on, that he wants to have Anya for as long as it takes him to work something else out for her. If that's the case, then of course, we have Occam’s razor: the simplest solution may be the best one.

Maybe Twilight should just keep Anya himself, eh?

[Image description: gif from Spy x Family season 1, episode 1. Twilight and Anya have just found out Anya passed her entrance exam and are overjoyed. Celebratory, Twilight picks Anya up and swoops her into the air as they smile at one another. End image description]

[cydanite-again]

The Shifting Mound is the god of change. This is exemplified by her changing into a new person, a new being every time either of you dies.

The Long Quiet is the god of stasis. This is exemplified by you staying the same after either of you die. In fact you stay so the same that any new perspective bounces off of you and becomes a separate consciousness inside of your head. Nothing sticks.

(This works from a meta perspective too. You, the real human person playing the game, are more far-removed from the story than any of the characters can be. The dying, killing, betrayal, and trust you do don't affect you because they're happening behind a screen. You become a "god" above the reality of the story, least changed of anyone, and through that playing the character of The Long Quiet.)

[getvalentined]

hi! i'm actually really interested in the "is cait sith reeve" debate and was fascinated by your post since you firmly believe cait sith is his own person.

i'm playing through dirge right now so i can't comment fully on what transpires there, but based on rebirth alone i'm having trouble believing cait sith isn't controlled by him. i know your post said rebirth excluded a scene that made it clear cait sith is his own person, but I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly. The only thing I can think of is the original game, where Cait Sith sacrifices himself and says not to forget him even if another Cait Sith comes along...which is a good point, though one could potentially argue that Reeve is just sentimental.

Anyway, what I want to know is: if Cait Sith has a personality separate from Reeve and can move independently while Reeve is busy, then why does Cait Sith repeatedly go offline in Rebirth while Reeve is busy? This is the main argument I see and one of my favorites, so I think answering that could help your own. The only arguments I can think up are either that the devs wanted to give players clear hints that Reeve controls Cait Sith, or that he wants to make sure he's monitoring Cait Sith when the cat interacts with the party. But besides that, Cait Sith really doesn't act like a different person. Sure, he has an accent and is silly, but he doesn't make any comment whatsoever (as far as I know) that indicates he isn't Reeve himself. In fact, the party treats Cait Sith and the Shinra employee controlling him as the same person, and Cait Sith doesn't attempt to rebuke it. (Outside of maybe lying that he's a mere amusement park attraction?)

i do admit, if dirge seriously contradicts this interpretation, it's weird for the devs to go against it...but as someone who once believed cait sith and reeve were separate and changed their mind after rebirth, I just don't think there's enough evidence based on rebirth alone to claim that cait sith is his own person.

on that note, you mentioned cait sith has his own likes and dislikes separate from reeve and i'm actually really curious about that! do you have an example of that? :D It sounds like fun trivia lol (i really like reeve and cait sith...)

anyway thank you for reading till the end! sorry if this is unwelcome

There's a scene in Dirge where Reeve and Cait walk out of the same room together, reacting to one another independently:

Further, Cait Sith only goes into stasis twice in the entirety of Rebirth as far as I can recall? Once at the end of a board meeting that Reeve was active in, but seemingly not for the entirety of the board meeting, as Cait Sith appeared to be mid-conversation and trailed off when Reeve got bad news—this makes sense if he's connected to Cait Sith and has the capacity to control him directly as needed, but not if he had to do so actively 100% of the time. The other time is in Cosmo Canyon, because he's clearly not interested in their woo-woo metaphysical nonsense, and he cites it as taking time to recharge his batteries.

Reeve is still working as Director of Urban Planning during all of this, so I find it super hard to believe that he's spending 99.9999% his time at a computer or mentally controlling and speaking through a doll while also running the department that is trying to put Midgar back together after the plate drop—particularly not since we have official meta stating that he's an Inspire, which I cited in a reblog.

Beyond that, there's this bit in the OG, which Cait Sith says to himself, in an empty room:

There is no explanation for this if Cait Sith is entirely remote controlled. There's no one else here to hear it, no reason for him to express these feelings—or even have feelings in the first place!

In Rebirth it's even more clear, because he expresses physical strain as he's literally holding the Temple up by keeping himself wedged under the platform. He's uncomfortable, he's physically taxed, he's in pain. Again, most of this occurs in an empty room, and would not happen if he was just a toy that Reeve had to control directly like a complex RC car or something.

The concept of likes and dislikes that are independent is less solidly shown in-canon, but they have distinctly different personalities, and Reeve is very clearly not interested in things like prophecies and the Promised Land and all that—he is a scientist at the end of the day, a civil and mechanical engineer—and yet Cait Sith's whole shtick is to tell fortunes! This is also something that he seems to enjoy doing quite a bit, even if he's not very good at it. (He gets better. Kinda.)

Cait Sith is obviously connected to Reeve, but it's equally obvious that he's not analogous. Presumably Cait Sith doesn't care when he's equated to Reeve because he is Reeve's eyes and ears in the field, even when he's not in direct control. The fact that he only really talks about himself as an individual when he's alone kind of implies that he'd rather the others not know, because he doesn't want them to be upset about what's going to happen to him; if he were nothing more than a glorified RC toy, this wouldn't be a concern, because he wouldn't have concerns at all.

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Hello, have you seen the latest ch of MHA 423? Is it true that bkdk really killed kurogiri? How do you feel about shigaraki dying in the end and deku reaction towards it? Sorry for asking too many questions but I really can't stand those bkdk killed kurogiri allegations and your metas of bkdk are really good.

Anon, I'm gonna be honest with you. My feelings can be summed up as follows:

Stuff like this is the reason you don't see me posting reactions every chapter. Jokes and conspiracy theories and "omg what if" posts are all in good fun, but every week, some people talk like this is The Absolute Last Word on every plot line even vaguely referenced in the chapter.

And I don't get it at all. When I'm reading the new chapters, the most I can tell you is that I have fun and I find it interesting. I'm engaged. I'm curious to see what comes next and how it's gonna pan out. I definitely have my own thoughts, feelings, and hopes! But I put them in a little stasis box of anticipation, ready for when I can find out more.

So when people lose their shit over something, it just feels so unnecessary to me. Especially something that happens right at the very end of the chapter, because more often than not that's the jumping off point for the next installment, as opposed to a cut-away to a different scene.

How many times have we gotten a cliff-hanger or shocking ending to a chapter, only for the very next chapter to reverse the event or reveal we were misled about its meaning? How many times has that happened in this very scene?

The reason I can write thousands of words analyzing Deku vs. Kacchan 2 is because it's over. The entire event is complete. Maybe there will be future chapters that reference it or inform our view of it, but it's done. This final arc isn't done--hell, this scene isn't even remotely done!

Furthermore, I am of the opinion that people saying bkdk killed Kurogiri probably don't like Izuku or Katsuki to begin with, so I really don't think anything out of my mouth is going to persuade them one way or the other. And I'm certainly not going to waste my breath trying to argue about something we'll have an answer for in like, two weeks.

Ongoing series thrive on making you want to know what happens next. Me personally, I'm having a good time wanting to know what happens next.

I guess the only thing I want to ask the people making these claims is: Why do you read mha like you're waiting for it to upset you? Why are you expecting this series to disappoint you?

The answer isn't for my benefit, just so you know.

[marbled-magician]

Greetings, fellow cast members!

@dabis-blueflame so kindly encouraged me to hop on this tumblr platform.. let’s see how this turns out.

Current members!:

Shigaraki- @dusty-handyman ( @dusty-handyman-reborn )

Dabi- @dabis-blueflame, @endeavorsbiggesthater

Spinner-

Toga- @little-sis-toga

Magne-

Twice- @duality-in-spandex

Kurogiri- @mistdad

Giran- @giran-rp-bnha

Muscular- @bl00dymerder

Mustard- @must4rdmha

Dr. Ujiko - @drujiko

Moonfish -

It seems like MLA (Meta Liberation Army) heads are joining in on the fun too..

Trumpet- @inciting-trumpet

Skeptic- @skeptic-inc

Curious- @yourcur1ousrep0rt3r

Geten- @geten-iceman

Re-Destro- @theliberat0r

Many other villains!:

Stain- @stainherokiller-rp

Overhaul- @kaichisaki-rp

Chronostasis- @kurono-stasis

Nemoto- @shinnemoto-rp

Nine- @nine-bnha-rp

Lady Nagant- @the-lovely-lady-nagant

Getaway (OC)- @just-getaway

Kageno (OC)- @kagenoakirp

Yumiko (OC)- @yumikoshigarakirp

Static (OC)- @static-volt

Morrigan Taggart (OC)- @nightshcderp

Carmine & Rockstar (OCs)- @teamdesertflower

- Mr. コンプレス

[overdicebro]

I'll keep going back to that one scene going through the Moment of Clarity. Yk where Nightmare takes off her mask and not only reveals the horrors of Quiet, but also the Narrator's.

I think Narrator is honestly overshadowed much even though he's quite a key player to the story. He can be an annoyance even in a meta sense where players have to skim through his repetitive dialogue to continue to the game. But that's what solidifies his character, his predictable lines of “If the princess lives here, slaying her would probably do her a favor” or even the very first line of the game represents a fragment of stasis. His ultimate goal; a world devoid of change, more specifically death.

So when confronted to both when Nightmare takes off her mask AND H.A.E cycle. It breaks him; In the Nightmare scene, he describes the painful cycle of life and how intense change is suffering. But at H.A.E, it's quite the opposite, instead of fearing of what comes next; he grows tired of the same thing over and over again. Even if that same thing is a good thing: Delicious foods, and unlimited game night. Realizing that, favoring one side of a coin won't do him any good. Uncertainty is no better than Predictability. A life full of change with no break is as worthless as a life you fully know the outcome of.

(It's sad that only ‘one’ Narrator will come to realize this, and its at the most ‘surface’ level chapter too /Damsel/ where he finally embraces change, even calling the interior of the cabin nice and even disregarding his “Slaying her would probably do her a favor” speech; a meme that can hurt so bad ouch, still it's an eye-opener for him)

Thank you for listening to my ted talk ����

[paddysol]

unstable universe is unstabling my universe p1

Everyone say thank you Pluto for encouraging my insanity! Please note I'm solely discussing Wemmbu’s character (and PrinceZam somewhat) in Unstable Universe from a lore standpoint. (This will be a mix of my own hc and how Ive perceived the events on the server- also i've literally only watched Wemmbu and am doing this from memory so bear with me)

God I have so many thoughts on UU!Wemmbu (and Mutiny Duo) dear lord. Like, the necessity of constantly being forced to put up a front due to the hunger games-esque environment of the server, the paranoia that has you looking over your shoulder, presenting yourself as a threat, making sure that you can back that statement as much as you can because if you’re seen as weak then you’re might as well dead. 

We see this in Wemmbu who, let's all be honest with ourselves, cares about the people around him (obviously to a degree, bc of the nature of the server) and the struggle between showing that care and taking care of himself. Like, the amount of times Wemmbu has threatened to ban someone and yet never followed through is Crazy. This man literally has never carried through with a death threat, and the reason why no one realizes that is because of the “infallible” persona he plays up, and his team-up with Zam’s crusade where they chunk-banned several players. Chunk-bans!! A temporary removal!! Someone needs to call him out for his empty threats. This man literally jumped into an arena to save Roshambo from FlameFrags because it was a losing battle and Roshambo was in danger of getting death-banned. He didn't need to. He already confirmed ManePear’s information and solidified their allyship. He didn't need to stick around. He didn't need to put himself in danger. Wemmbu knows he can't fight Flame and win, he actively compensates for those situations and avoids them without extensive planning Because he knows that. 

(Note: I am aware that he killed Tyrad, but consider that was a 3? 4? vs 1 fight on a server where players expect you to fight tooth and nail to live whether it be through totems, stasis chambers, escape, etc. When Wemmbu drops Tyrad there was genuine shock, muted or not. He didn't expect someone to Actually die. Reflecting on it is obviously not an option, he’s in the middle of breaking into a prison with several guards on his tail. Guards, who mind you, are stocked with the necessary effects for a fight. Additionally, when engaging in pvp Wemmbu tends to fight with the intention of escape, not actually killing his opponent.)

Of course, despite the violent nature of UU, developing a genuine relationship with other players is inevitable. Wemmbu makes several comments about ‘if he wanted to play alone, he'd load a single-player world.’ (Obviously a bit meta, but you know what I’m getting at.) And we see him do that. I’m mostly going to be focusing on PrinceZam and Eggchan as those (at least to me) are the most developed relationships, but there are hints of thought and care aimed at players we don't see too often. 

As I mentioned before, there's a struggle to show genuine care for a person on a server that will see that as a weakness and immediately exploit it. And we see that struggle between Zam and Wemmbu, who, despite consistently being at odds with each other, find satisfaction in that relationship. Sure, both of them are walking red flags, but there is genuine care in how they feel about each other, even if they're constantly holding back in order to maintain whatever image they've created for themselves. They're rivals. They constantly snarking, they're at each other's throats, they call out for each other in a fight, they make sure they have a full inventory (potions, gaps, enchant bottles, etc). They dress their worry with a lackadaisical attitude and are steadfast in believing that it's just that, even when their actions become entirely unnecessary. Wemmbu had a monopoly on the elytra, makes a point about it, yet easily gives one to Zam at the most logical opportunity (and then proceeds to give literally all of them to him sir wtf?? Crazy behavior I would never). Zam allows Wemmbu to treat him as someone other than a king, he lets him use the mace even if he was the one who got the heavy core; he trusts Wemmbu to have his back. Wemmbu traded the mace for Zam’s life not even knowing if it would work. They show love in the only way the server allows. And sometimes that care becomes too genuine, and they force themselves to pull back. 

“I’d never betray you- unless it's convenient.”

To reiterate, both Wemmbu and Zam have a plethora of issues, both are incredibly unreliable narrators who barely trusted each other but got very close. “I’d never betray you,” Wemmbu was too honest, that’s dangerous. “Unless it's convenient,” while definitely holding a modicum of truth, the statement feels so tacked on. Letting players know that you're attached to someone or something? Hell no. But even if he didnt mean it entirely and was mostly trying to save face (dare I say warn Zam from getting close?) he still said it. And of course Zam, who came from nothing and has built an empire, who has successfully worked to become someone who cannot be taken advantage of, who knows exactly how soft his underbelly and how to ensure no one else finds out, fixates on that. How can’t he? This is a man who, with every step, is looking back and allowing his history to haunt him. This is something that clashes so loudly with Wemmbu, who can't afford to think about the past, who can only change the present, who must persevere forward. Until Zam blows up the kingdom he asked Wemmbu to build. 

(Note: This analysis? Idk what im doing anymore im just yapping- Is more focused on Wemmbu than Zam, but I am aware that he likely has own complicated perspective that plays into his actions.)

At first the change in their relationship is subtle, small shows of power from Zam, a reminder that he is a king. Then it becomes sickly familiar tactics, tactics that Wemmbu has always accompanied, never faced. Their rivalry turned sour, every interaction they have haunted with what used to be. Wemmbu, who cares so much, watches the physical manifestation of his loyalty to Zam be blown up and thrown in his face, ‘my sweet, sweet Wemmbu’. He was used, manipulated, underestimated by someone who he, against all odds, cared for. Hate begins to fester, Wemmbu calls it a betrayal. You can't betray someone who didn't mean anything to you first. 

And then we’re able to witness unfiltered care between Wemmbu and Eggchan. We watch the pretense of the “infallible” player fall as he dresses himself in diamond, giving the netherite to his friend instead. As he ensures Egg’s safety in his schemes, as he trusts Egg to have his back, takes fights he knows he cant take so that Egg has more time to get out. And that loyalty is reciprocated tenfold. Egg is allowed numerous opportunities to leave, yet he chooses to stay despite the hardships. It's everything that was just out of reach for Zam and Wemmbu. (There's definitely a lot more to talk about but this is already gonna be so long). Egg won't stand by as his friend begins to come undone at the seams. He wont play into the cutthroat game this server has spun itself into. Which of course has consequences. While off on their chunk-banning crusade Zam and Wemmbu inevitably learned what made the other person tick. Kidnapping Egg was just another move on the chessboard bc god forbid that even if they hate each other, they take their eyes off each other for a second. 

This functions as the last straw, one last ditch attempt from Wemmbu in his war with Zam, he can't promise success but he sure as hell makes sure that he hits where it hurts. He blows his kingdom sky-high. And eye for an eye and a debt settled.

And then Zam apologizes. It's not necessarily out of the blue, for all the hurt he’s enacted on Wemmbu he's kept him alive for one reason or another (they are emotionally constipated dumbasses who care about each other and refuse to admit it). This changes everything and nothing. Despite the genuine admittance of grief and regret, the two don't pull their punches. They can only guess how many totems they've popped and how many are left. They switch foils. For a brief moment Zam does not allow his past to haunt him, ‘I don't want to accidentally kill you.’ Wemmbu, for all his persevering, for all his ability to focus on what he can do now, cannot let go of their past. For the first time, Wemmbu does want to kill a player. 

We’ll never find out if he wouldve carried through.

(ending this now bc this is too long and i have even more to say about the prison eps tbh, havent written in out yet tho T-T)

[be-appy-71]

Ero lì, in quell'abbraccio senza fine, con il cuore in panne e gli occhi persi nel suo desiderio.

Le mie labbra si poggiarono lentamente sulle sue, socchiuse, in attesa di me. Fu lava bollente la sua saliva nella mia bocca, fu dominio la sua lingua che incessante mi perlustrava a fondo, come a non colmarsi mai. E lo stesso fu per me. Assaggiare il suo calore, il suo aroma di maschio accesero scintille nei miei sensi. E non ci fu più inizio, né fine, né confine, né limite per la nostra pelle, per le nostre mani, che freneticamente cercavano il piacere assoluto, senza remore, in una nudità dell'anima che spalancò l'abisso, per poi risalire senza tregua, avvinghiati di pensieri e di braccia, uniti, in un crescendo senza fine alla meta, fino all'agognato traguardo, insieme fino all'estasi profonda, intensa, unica, fino alla sublimazione totale. E poi lentamente ritornare, trasformando gli ansimi interrotti in respiri autonomi, in un tempo di stasi, di meraviglia reciproca. Tua, Mio... ♠️🔥

- Luana Valeri -

[12pt-times-new-roman]

Another thing I find really interesting about Ludinus' plans here is that showing the Bells Hells this really isn't likely to change their mindset at all in regards to himself, and he knows it.

Showing them the destruction of Aeor by the gods might well change their opinions on the gods. Whether they like it or not, as Ludinus has pointed out, the gods did commit a genocide here. They wiped out an entire civilization along with nearly all of its people, its technology, its culture, and its sole geographical territory. As far as we, the audience, know right now, that's history; that's fact. And regardless of what Aeor did, it could be argued that that was an objectively wrong thing to do. There are could be circumstances that complicate that, but arguing that the indiscriminate destruction of Aeor was wrong is a defensible (and, imo, correct) position.

But that's not really the point. Ludinus, I think, understands the fact that even if the Bells Hells change their tune on the gods themselves, even if they agree that destroying Aeor was wrong or evil or unjustified, they would still oppose Ludinus and the Vanguard. They've agreed on that over and over again by now -- whatever their disparate opinions on the gods, they all have deeply personal and interconnected reasons to want Ludinus dead and the Vanguard stopped. They know by now that the gods are complicated, messy, contradictory, and morally gray; they know that the gods have done bad things, and that they have done good things. But they have also, extensively, seen the consequences of what happens when the gods' connection to Exandria is disrupted.

So because of that, I think what Ludinus is hoping for here is for the Bells Hells to recognize him as a parallel to the gods and his efforts as a parallel to the destruction of Aeor, which is fascinating. In essence, he wants the Bells Hells to believe both that the gods are bad people (for destroying Aeor), and that the gods had necessary ends (to end the Calamity or preserve their own life); because if they believe that of the gods, then surely they can believe that of him. Surely they can see that he is a bad person (for the death and trauma he caused them and so, so many others) with what he sees as necessary ends (to free the world from under the thumb of the gods) too, and side with him in those ends.

He's not trying to convince them of the goodness or justification of his means; at this point, that's not possible. He is never going to convince them that he was in the right, and he knows that. So instead, he's trying a different tactic: he wants to convince them that even though he has done terrible, indefensible things in the name of his cause, in that aspect he is no different than the gods they align themselves with. And if they can align themselves with the gods, then because of that parallel, they should be able to align with him, too.

Of course, all of that hinges on two things: that the Bells Hells can be convinced of the same goodness, righteousness, or necessity of his ends that he believes, and that they can be convinced that Ludinus should be the one to shepherd those ends. And I think the latter is already a foregone conclusion, to be honest; it should be clarified, I don't think that this plan would ever work. With other powerful people, maybe; but not with the Bells Hells, or at least not with all of them. But him going for this instead of other things explains a lot, I think -- namely why we're getting a divine perspective in Downfall (so that Ludinus can better compare himself to the gods), why he's not interested whatsoever in the stasis bubbles (excellent meta about that here; tl:dr Aeor is more useful to him as a fossil he can use as propaganda than as a culture to revive), and why Liliana is still trying to convince them not of the justification of Ludinus' actions, but the righteousness of his ends.

[corellianhounds]

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Ugh okay yes I have like a bunch of these, but I did settle on one that I just don’t know when I’d be able to figure it out. There’s too much setup involved to make it what I want. The context is that it’s a Prospect/Mandalorian crossover, the events of Prospect happening differently where Damon lives, but Cee still ends up escaping with Ezra.

Damon hires Mando to find Cee and their harvest after she disappears with Ezra, and once Mando finally tracks them down he’s shocked to see someone with his face walking around in the open. The whole time the plot’s happening he’s suspicious and unnerved by this stranger sharing his voice and face, and though his research into the backlog of Guild cases doesn’t reveal any details of this guy’s origin or personal life, it does give him plenty of information regarding Ezra’s colorful criminal history

However, Damon’s history isn’t much better, and Mando suspects he’s just better at hiding some of the more unsavory things he’s done. He also finds that Cee, according to his research, has been logged as Damon’s harvesting partner for almost ten years despite the fact this girl is clearly only about fifteen years old, and the kind of harvesting Damon’s done in the outer reach is a two-man job; you can’t afford dead weight, even if it’s to keep your kid with you. Does Damon want his daughter back, or does he want his assistant back?

Mando’s having to deliberate over who between Damon and Ezra is a bigger threat to this girl’s safety. Did Cee really choose Ezra because she trusts him and Ezra is trustworthy, or because she's being forced to choose the lesser of two evils?

—

Mando kept his pistol on Damon, but then he unhooked his rifle from his back, cocked it one handed and aimed it at Ezra—

— Only for Cee to step in front of him.

There was a scuffle of protests— Ezra tried to wrest her behind him but she shoved him back. Mando primed the charge on the rifle and Ezra raised both arms, hissing at Cee— Damon made as if to move for the girl, Mando grunted and stepped closer to Damon. Damon halted his approach, and Ezra and Cee argued while Cee blocked Mando's aim.

"Don't," Cee growled. "We trusted you."

"Listen, kid," Mando said levelly. "I don't know which between the two of them is worse, and I don't like the idea of you having to choose the better of two bad options."

"He's— He didn't coerce me," Cee protested.

"Didn't he?" Damon snarled.

"Shut up." Mando continued to watch the girl. "I don't know that, Cee. And I don't know if you're only saying that because you feel like it’s the only way to get away from your father."

Damon seethed. Ezra's wide eyes were stricken, watching the Mandalorian as Cee's shoulders tensed further. Either he was as good of an actor as Mando thought, or he truly did care for the girl. If it weren't for Cee's stubbornness shoving him back, Mando might have believed he'd step in front of her.

"Cee, I'm telling you to make the decision you want and know that if the answer is neither, you can walk away and get on that freighter of your own accord and go wherever you want. There's a bag of credits on my belt. I have a vested interest in bringing both of them into the Guild, and I won't move until you're safe. I can stand here a long time."

The silence between them hung like a ship in stasis as Cee glared. There was only a moment when Cee's gaze flicked to Damon, some silent conversation happening between them, and then she hooked one hand into the shoulder belt of Ezra's flight suit, pulling him just to the side, still behind her. "He's coming with me.”

Damon swore in a litany of languages as Mando nodded. "Okay."

"And we're going with you."

Meta Ask Game

[pastelhikaru]

totcf x dcu plot bunny

[𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗢𝗥 𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗢𝗧𝗖𝗙 𝗜 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞???]

(𝗪𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗔 𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗥????)

Cale deals with Burrow by stabbing himself with a piece of the world tree and everything goes to shit. The issue is dealt with but now Cale is in stasis, unmoving. And which seems to be another coma. But, this time he’s not waking up and it’s taking way longer than last time. (The previous being six months, I think(?)). He has so many people waiting for him. (And they can’t handle losing him again).

Nobody is taking this well, especially his kids. That’s where the god of death takes a gamble and decides to bring him somewhere he has a chance to interfere.

And where Cale gets transported to is not where the god of death was expecting. He fucked up big time. And he feels the weight of it.

Of course it doesn’t take long for Cale’s fam to realize he and Raon are missing. Raon? Yeah, he refused to leave Cale even to eat. His older siblings took this hard too. But they wanted to stay hopeful for Cale.

(I would imagine all three of them would sleep next to Cale at night and two eldest would only leave for food or something or the sort).

Obliviously they question (threaten) god and he cracks, telling them he bought Cale (and Raon by accident) to a place he can help him. However, he keeps out the fact that he lost both of them. He’d rather not be killed today.

So you’re probably wondering where Cale and Raon have landed exactly and that’s good old Gotham. :)!! 

(A place within the God of Death’s range but he struggles to identify which timeline and where exactly they landed.)

So Raon and the still unconscious Cale are stuck in Gotham. Roan is undeniably angry, sad, and confused. But he does his best to keep his human safe no matter the cost.

However, people keep trying to either take Cale for whatever purposes be it good or bad. It doesn’t matter. It probably doesn’t help that they landed in the worst place imaginable. Crime Alley….

So it’s not a surprise when there’s a rumor of a pretty red-head being protected by some type of meta(It’s Raon we all know it’s Raon.)

Raon has to continuously move, feed, and protect Cale all the same. 

But damn, a meta in Gotham??? It reaches people’s ears even outside of Crime Alley's territory. Said meta is strong and it’s clear with the abundant amount of property damage. 

We all know this “meta” reaches Red Hood's ears first. I mean come on this is his territory. So when he eventually finds the dubbed “Sleeping beauty” it’s in an abandoned warehouse hidden away in a corner on a mattress next to them some necessities and a bunch of toys. (There are a butt load of plushies :( ). He doesn’t miss the sound of a child sobbing and childish yet grand decor. 

This “meta” was a child…. Fuck.

He’s flung with some magic and piercing screech, earth rumbling at its wake. And damn was he not prepared for this shit.

So here he is staggering to keep up with whoever this kid was, as infuriating as it is. He tries his best to calm the kid down. Which doesn’t really work. The kid’s full on growling, but he’s determined to help the kid. Because an abandoned warehouse is never a safe place to hang out in these parts. 

Despite Red Hood’s offer to bring them to a safe house. Raon refuses, he can’t trust him just yet. And they both understand that this is a game of trust. So Jason takes his chance and occasionally delivers necessities to them both. While Raon doesn’t let him get close to Cale he does slowly but surely warms up to him. One day he does eventually tell him more about Cale. He affectionately calls him his dad but the tone is somber. He whispers his worries about finding him dead one day. And that’s probably the moment Jason emotionally adopts him. 

Now Raon is obviously curious in nature, and much as he wants to explore he can’t past finding things to sustain them both and or keep Cale comfortable. And it’s on one of these outings that he loses Cale in the unfamiliarity. He immediately starts looking and runs into Red Hood at some point in his search. And he trusts him enough to help him look. The two eventually find out Cale’s been kidnapped by either some goons, cultist, some villain? (Whatever adds more tension idk.) Raon is livid because how fucking dare they??? And both Raon and Hood haul ass. The bad guys are dealt with and this leaves the two in silence. 

This is the part of the story where Raon shows himself in a moment of trust and weakness. Cale almost got hurt and all Raon could do now is clutch on to Cale’s night gown, nuzzling into him while sobbing. Now Jason realizes this kid was a fucking baby dragon all along. What. the. Fuck????

So he comforts him the best he can. Jason decides to take care of them both, taking them to either his apartment or safe house. And Raon begrudgingly stays. They both do end up bonding together and Raon gets really comfortable. Idk if Jason would talk about himself much but they do learn about each other at some point. Raon would definitely drop some info about himself at some point and go on about how he’s stuck here because of the god of death. And Jason is both so done and not surprised at this point. 

Cale’s health does end up looking worse for ware at some point. And the problems start up again. I didn’t mention it before but Cale’s mind is stuck in a perpetual loop of old memories, good and bad. SOooo, now this is the part of the story where both Raon and Jason try and wake up Cale using various methods. 

At some point Jason decides to ask Bruce for help. And oh boy. Would this be an awkward family dinner…

basically jason's acquires his now child (raon) and sleeping prince (cale) :D i don't see much of a romance subplot but I do see some gay panics, and mistaken boyfriend scenarios(?) feel free to add on to this mess.