#moving on to the more boring tags

[mylittleredgirl]

depression is genuinely so fucking stupid. at least being insane is interesting.

[1loer]

i just really like how i drew chiaki here and felt the need to share it c:

i <3 diverse face profiles.

[elliebell77]

sorry i havent been posting i think im burnt out rn

[2hoothoots]

i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:

Restore Ford Cruller's memory

Find Maligula

???

Profit

but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.

[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]

like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.

...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:

[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]

and that's kind of interesting, right?

to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:

"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"

my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.

so what is going on here?

in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:

"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."

other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.

the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.

[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]

i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!

we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.

like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.

i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.

[tortoisebore]

listen. ik i said no more big snippets. BUT. u haven’t even seen any of chapter 3 of the sequel yet & i’m having sm fun writing it & there’s no actual spoilers involved here, just them being sweet for the thousandth time 🧚

so here’s little bit of the beginning of my chapter 3 draft !!! they’re spending an entire weekend at home during a snowstorm !!! i love it here !!!

“Good morning,” Remus whispered into his hair. “Again.”

Sirius groaned and stretched long, narrowly avoiding whacking the side of Remus’ head with his elbow before falling limp on top of him again.

“Time is it?”

He felt Remus crane his neck and reach to the bedside table for his phone.

“Almost ten,” he answered. “Sleep good?”

Sirius gave a vaguely affirmative little grunt, shifted himself around and propped his chin on the center of Remus’ chest. He peeked one eye open and found Remus already looking, watching him with dark, sleepy eyes and a fond little smile.

“You’re cute,” Sirius mumbled, lifting to an elbow and tucking his hand beneath his chin, then resting his other arm on Remus’ good shoulder to run lazy fingers through his hair. It was still a bit too early to do the whole opening his eyes thing, so he opted to keep them shut for now. “How long’ve you been up?”

“An hour or so,” Remus said quietly. He settled in beneath him with a contended sigh, slipped his hands beneath all their layers of blankets and throws to loop around Sirius’ lower back, curling his thumbs in slow, warm circles against skin. “Can’t really sleep past nine anymore.”

Sirius hummed. “You’re missing out. My best sleep happens after nine.”

“Oh, I know,” Remus laughed softly. “You were practically dead to the world when I woke up again. Had to check you were still breathing.”

Sirius snorted, squinted on eye open and let himself smile. “You’re one to talk. Half the time I come to bed nowadays you’re already sacked out.”

“Well, I have this little thing called a normal sleep schedule,” Remus retaliated with a gentle pinch to his side. “You should try it.”

[corellianhounds]

I know we (rightfully) give Attack of the Clones a lot of grief for Obi-Wan just being able to show up unannounced and for him to just be given the literal biggest state secrets possibly of the entire war, in addition to how this cloning operation has been going on for like a decade without anyone knowing anything or any documentation crossing Mace Windu’s desk, but considering Sifo Dyas or Dooku or whoever was able to somehow erase an entire planet from (allegedly) every known bit of data collection or documentation, it could be argued that maybe Dyas and Dooku were just master forgers and had fake correspondence and reports going between them and the Kaminoans for over a decade now.

It’s not that far of a leap to say they got their hands on some heavily encrypted software on some very expensive computers and were able to imitate different speech patterns and documents and handwriting and official stamps or even holograms and holocalls. As far as the Kaminoans know, all of their contacts are fully aware and in the know about this clone army (because as far as they know, Sifo Dyas is alive and had to have been in communication recently)— When Obi-Wan shows up, it just happened to be at the exact time Dooku was the one supposed to be there in person himself that day. The Kaminoans did greet him as Master Jedi and said he was expected.

Obviously that could have only worked in the movie if Dooku had shown up and we saw him having to keep his cool/sneak around when some other Kaminoans tell him his “assistant” has already arrived, would you like us to escort you to him?

Internally Dooku’s thinking “WHOMST??” but externally he’s keeping his chill while searching the Force for whoever else might be— is that OBI-WAN KENOBI??

It’s soooooo tasty for Qui-Gon’s master and Qui-Gon’s apprentice to meet under these circumstances. Both of them know the other shouldn’t be there right now. They’re both having to play it cool in front of the Kaminoans, and this is even besides the fact Kenobi was there to find the bounty hunter assassin in the first place.

“I didn’t think you… were still as active in the Order,” Obi-Wan says slowly and diplomatically, knowing for a FACT that Dooku left the Order a long time ago.

“I… retired from active service,” Dooku says, equally diplomatically. “I act as a… consultant from time to time.”

“It’s soooo funny how I’ve never heard anything about that or this clone army the Jedi ordered,” Obi-Wan says, making direct eye contact with Dooku and probably trying to read his mind (to no avail). “The one they ordered ten years ago before there was ever any thought of the Jedi being actively involved on the frontlines of what isn’t a declared war. What would the Jedi want with a military in the first place?”

“How old are you, young one?” Dooku deflects in that fake kindly condescending grandfatherly voice. “How long have you been on the Council— Oh you’re just a Kniiiiight, that’s right, okay I see. How interesting. How much information are you actually privilege to, Obi-Wan?”

And this is all happening even before Obi-Wan Nancy Drew’d his way to Jango Fett’s private quarters!

Obi-Wan KNOWS he can’t go rogue right now when he’s that far from his ship on a city surrounded by an ocean and a literal army of clones soldiers (of that one super efficient bounty hunter, whenever it is he finds that out) all apparently under the command (?) of someone who definitely definitely super should not be speaking or doing or ordering anything under the name of the Jedi Order.

Count Dooku (who he doesn’t even know is a Sith yet) could very easily accuse him of being an impostor and have him detained or attacked or killed on sight. Zam Wessel was already established to be a shapeshifter in this movie, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility for Obi-Wan to not be who he says he is (which is kinda true?? since he WASN’T the Jedi ambassador for the Temple there to pick up his to-go order of a quarter-million identical men, with a million more on the way??). The Kaminoans might not even know much else about Jedi and Sith aesthetics besides “Wears robes” so if Dooku pulled a red lightsaber it might not even faze them, since he’d be able to provide more information and correspondence proving he’s the ‘actual’ Jedi anyway

Like can you imagine a fight breaking out not just between Kenobi and Jango, but a team-up of Jango and Dooku against Kenobi? That would have jumpstarted some of this clone army business a lot earlier in the movie and actually addressed what should have been the biggest conspiracy, coverup, and militaristic move of the MILLENNIUM

[darabeatha]

MY KING

(source)

[garlicbrede]

drops this shitty drawing and runs

was this also an excuse to use a new brush I found on ibis? maybe

[sp-kvt]

Thank you for 100 followers! Sorry I haven't drawn much recently, I'm getting a grind on crk for the stupid new beast cookie😓😓💔

Love and appreciate you all ^^💗💗

[batw1nggg]

nothingggg more annoying than the chapter in a kmhn slowburn where chiaki and hajime are platonically doing something together as buddies and theres a misunderstanding and komaeda thinks theyre on a date and that hajime doesnt reciprocate his feelings . Get A New Jealousy Sub Plot. Please

[unintentional-sad-wizard]

I don’t usually comsume caffeine (my body just doesn’t handle it well) but given that I am starting work again and extremely fatigued as a result I fear I must begin experimenting with it again. Anyway. Time to see what 100mg of caffeine does to my (extremely exhausted, zero caffeine tolerance) body today.

[siriuslylantsov]

i wanna be a vlogger so bad, like a Proper and Consistent vlogger. the only reason i post on youtube is so i can get that 100k plaque, thats my goal in life.

[suppenzeit]

guy who collects public transit schedules and thinks that b- blood is the yummiest. like a normal person.

[simple-sheep]

Its really funny in a sad way when an antisemitic post floats across your feed, so you go into notes to block every antisemite that commented or reblogged it before blocking op

And the hundreds of comments and thousand of reblogs are empty because you just clean house every day.

[swingstab]

Swing's "self-sacrificing" flaw is either "I'll sacrifice my happiness to make sure you're happy" or "I'll sacrifice MY LIFE for you if it means you get to live"

[sophfandoms53]

The reactions to this flip and shot taken to dismantle the power structure that’s been controlling the house since week one draws the line between who watches the feeds, reads updates, & watches the episodes and who reads updates & watches the episodes bc these are very different groups of people and it’s interesting asf how split everyone is