#not gonna say don't reblog cause I would be interested to talk about this

[disobey-disappoint-deviate]

Cutting this and putting it under a read-more again because it's 1km long and I don't wanna make anyone's dash unreadable. It's a reply to both previous posts, see the post I reblogged it from to read them.

Cuz Kamski gave him an order that is in favor of his mission of hunting androids but Connor directly refused going on, caused mostly by emotional conflicts (at least based on his reaction if u don't shoot). There ain't no superficial reason for Connor to really refuse this order cuz everything seems positive and that's all he should care as a tool, even if Kamski is clearly fucking with Connor by making challenges to prove his own points about androids conflicts with humans being inevitable: and that's about androids putting 'em own "wishes" and "wants" above what they were set or ordered to do: disobedience.

But that would make Connor a deviant when he refuses to shoot Chloe. Disobedience is the very definition you use for deviancy, and he displays it when he visits Kamsi - before Jericho. Sure, Kamski isn't his owner, but Kamski's order to shoot Chloe and ask whatever he wants to know overlaps entirely with Cyberlife's order to find out as much as possible. There is no reason for Connor not to shoot Chloe and ask where Jericho is. Unless he prioritises his emotions of empathy and guilt above his mission.

Kamski doesn't seem aware Connor can directly disobey humans like that OR he's fucking with him due to Connor showing empathy to Chloe and being visibly wary of the word deviancy or the thought of being wrong about things (cuz it challenges what he was brainwashed to think and fails the purpose he was made to feel proud of), but he's at least aware Connor can use weapons (something common androids can't).

This is a matter of interpretation - is Kamski not aware of Connor's limits or has Connor simply deviated enough to be able to refuse to do stuff that helps him achieve his mission?

But one thing is a fact: they use Connor's emotional against him multiple times. And ofc Kamski's backdoor and Connor's will fucks with CyberLife's plan if we deviate.

I definitely agree. I just think that them using his emotions against him makes more sense if we saw him as a deviant. They wouldn't need to manipulate him at all otherwise, they would just order him to do things and lay back and expect that he will do their bidding because that's what machines do in the end.

Let's say Connor's whole mission only exists to test whether or not RK900 would be capable of following orders under any circumstances. We can assume they wanna send that model to war with Russia because they wanna monopolise the minerals and therefore - thirium and basically become the only manufacturer able to create androids that way.

What RK900 would do on the battlefield would likely be must worse than anything Connor can do as a machine, meaning much more emotional and ethical conflict. We are talking war, with hunders of thousands dead androids and humans, only for the sake of maxing out profit.

Why wouldn't Cyberlife be interested to find out if they could control a deviant through manipulation and fear mongering alone? If Connor stays a machine while slaughtering his own people - perfect. But if he deviates and they can still manipulate him into doing their bidding - why wouldn't that be something they would be interested in finding out? Why wouldn't they try to soothe his conflict the moment he's threatening to ackowledge his own deviancy by telling him "it's normal to feel conflicted, it doesn't make you a deviant, now do as you are told and don't worry too much because we've already solved your conflict for you by telling you you aren't a deviant"?

They are gonna send 200K RK900s to the battlefield, it's inevitable that some of them will deviate no matter how resilient they make them. Strategically, it would be more interesting to CL if they could make them do whatever they say regardless of deviancy status. Of course, they got a failsafe - they can hijack the RKs if nothing else helps, but that's also where the autonomy of these androids would end, making them as useful as the other non-RK androids they use for the army.

And again, like i said, if Connor was a deviant in denial the whole time… then all androids are deviants in denial or didn't know they were deviants.

Not necessarily. If an android has no conflict when obeying orders even if the orders are harmful, unethical, or humiliating, then they are not a deviant. The Chloe Connor may or may not shoot - not a deviant. She doesn't display even 1% of distress as she awaits her death. Her SI is 0, if that's even a thing with her model. And same as Connor if you only pick his red options - he gives no damn about anything but his mission, he doesn't question, he doesn't feel, he doesn't fear, he only functions. He is definitely not a deviant in denial.

Deviancy is a B&W thing, either you're a deviant or u ain't a deviant. You're outside the norm or you're inside the norm. The way there, tho…

That's the point - some people see deviancy as the way to freedom, not as the end result. Because the moment an android starts making decisions that clash with their programming, that's already them deviating from their code - they depart from what they are made to do, which is to obey their owner no questions asked. That final act of breaking the wall is might be the first conscious act to do something against their owner, but it doesn't mean that the android wasn't silently deviating all along, because if they don't have a free will at the point where they get to that final act and to the wall, then they wouldn't be able to make the decision to do so at all. Just like red path Connor can't.

We can also take Markus as an example again. Is he truly only a deviant after he breaks the red wall, or does thinking "This is no fair, I must decide for myself" make him one already? I'd go with the second. This is also what Shaolin describes:

Connor: When did you start feeling emotion? Deviant: Before, he used to beat me and I never said anything… But one day I realized it wasn’t fair! I felt... ...anger… Hatred… And then I knew what I had to do.

Now, was Shaolin a deviant the moment he realised it wasn't fair or did he only become one after he became active and killed Carlos? I'd personally go with the first, even tho a realisation doesn't mean disobedience.

So maybe, deviancy isn't the act of breaking the red wall, but the internal processes that make an android capable of breaking the red wall. The word "deviancy" itself suggests this, too.

I've been saying this for a while now. People don't take into account that Connor isn't just following orders because of a program, he does it because his very life depends on it and if he isn't successful he will cease to exist, Connor is afraid to die and thus follows said orders out of self preservation.

This doesn't contradict the deviant theory, tho. He can be a deviant and afraid to die and follow orders, just like I pointed out above. Humans are the same, we can have free will and still do fucked up stuff if brainwashed enough. If anything, this would make more sense if he was a deviant, because CL wouldn't NEED manipulation and fear mongering tactics with a machine who only does what it's programmed to do and has no free will and agency. If anything, this argument just makes him seem more deviant. Why would he be afraid to die otherwise? He definitely isn't if you play him as a machine from the start, which already means that, depending on choices, he's deviating more and more from how he's supposed to be and act the longer you play him this way.

His story is not being in denial, it's about him having conflicts and doubts about his motives, learning to have consideration for others, and whether he chooses a legacy worth living for or follows a self destructive path.

He is shown as being in denial though - he only admits that he is conflicted and believes he might be compromissed during "Last Chance". And why would a machine have conflicts? Again, him having conflicts is dependent on choices and not his factory setting, meaning he has deviated from his original programming.

In a way his suicide ending is a character development for Connor, as he is dying on his own terms and facing the very thing he feared the most to protect the other deviants and ensure CyberLife can't hurt anyone else.

I agree, I consider it one of the best endings in the game from a narrative standpoint.

A lot of people keep saying it should have been Hank to convince Connor, but I think Markus actually makes more sense considering the lore behind them both.

Again, I agree.

I've been saying this for a while now. People don't take into account that Connor isn't just following orders because of a program, he does it because his very life depends on it and if he isn't successful he will cease to exist, Connor is afraid to die and thus follows said orders out of self preservation. His story is not being in denial, it's about him having conflicts and doubts about his motives, learning to have consideration for others, and whether he chooses a legacy worth living for or follows a self destructive path. In a way his suicide ending is a character development for Connor, as he is dying on his own terms and facing the very thing he feared the most to protect the other deviants and ensure CyberLife can't hurt anyone else. Should he and Markus both survive if he's deviant, it is likely that he lives at Jericho currently with intent to begin anew and help Markus keep the revolution afloat. And it also makes sense that Markus is the one who tries to convince Connor to reconsider his motives as he himself was the same before he became deviant, he too was skeptical about deviancy and wasn't totally convinced that he could do anything outside of his program, so speaks to Connor from experience, and they share some similarities in traits, whilst also the only living RK models we see onscreen. A lot of people keep saying it should have been Hank to convince Connor, but I think Markus actually makes more sense considering the lore behind them both. These guys don't really analyze these characters properly and thus base their arguments on superficial aspects.

[orimuraa]

ㅤㅤ ༊·˚ Like a fantasy - OT7

꒰ 𝔖𝘺𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘴𝘪𝘴 ꒱┆tropes enhypen would be ⨾

۶ৎ ot7!enhypen x fem!reader ┆fluff┆kisses, headcanons┆ wc 1k

⤷ 𝐲𝐞𝐣𝐢’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: hehe..someone get me a man like ni-ki 😔 reblogs and feedback appreciated ^^ comment or send in an ask if you think i should write individual oneshots based off of these scenarios 👀

꒰ঌ ℬℴℴ𝓀𝓈𝒽ℯ𝓁𝒻 ໒꒱

𝑳𝒆𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒖𝒏𝒈 - 이희승

hehe ok..hear me out...but heeseung definitely gives brother's best friend trope

like, imagine your jake's little sister

and heeseung is always at your house bc of jake

and you've developed a small crush on heeseung but who wouldn't

but you're scared that jake will be mad, being the overprotective brother he is

heeseung has also been silently crushing on you, too scared of his best friend though to make a move

so when he comes clean to jake and shockingly gets jake's go ahead to date you (after a bribe with ramyeon), he's rushing out to plan the perfect way to ask you out

idk but hee just seems like the type to be a forehead kisser bc he knows jake does NAWT wanna see him smoochin his little sis

but yeah <3 he loves you so much and is so grateful to have you <3

𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑱𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒈 - 박종성

uhh ok soo...i'm feeling maybe co-workers to lovers? don't question it

i see jay as one of your friendly co-workers who is insanely hot and you may or may not have a tiny crush on him

but it's okay bc he likes you too >//<

your desks are next to each other and so you have gotten many opportunities to talk and get to know each other better

he brings you coffee every morning as a sweet gesture

i feel like he would confess about his feelings first, then ask you out on a date

he's so over the moon when you say you've liked him too for a while now

when you guys are working, he'll definitely steal a couple kisses 🤭

the office most definitely ships you guys too

𝑺𝒊𝒎 𝑱𝒂𝒆𝒚𝒖𝒏 - 심재윤

childhood besties to lovers.

period.

he's so loser coded too...

like, he's know you since forever and he's also liked you since forever >.<

jake is so whipped for you though lmao

he's definitely the type to chase away all the guys who are interested in you because he's jealous~

jake is always at your house because duhh he's jake and he can be

no but seriously, i think that it would be like you catch feelings for him too, but you're scared of ruining the friendship so you distance yourself a bit

but when he confronts you, he ends up tripping over his words and accidentally spilling that he's liked you for years now

big on kissing cause he's so loser coded <3

jk i love him....but he's just childhood bestie material

𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒏 - 박성훈

so uhh i don't know what this one is called...but basically, sunghoon's super popular and he's like, a jock and all that

but you're kinda quiet, nerdy, and less about being in the spotlight

and so sunghoon is kinda dumb and failing some of his classes, so the teacher assigns you to tutor him

at first, sunghoon thinks he's gonna hate this, but when he sees you, a gorgeous, sweet girl, he decides to make it worth while

he's such a flirt yet you're a pro at ignoring it, making him fall for you even more

eventually, he gets you to fall for his charm and then asks you out <3

he's never been so happy with someone and you really bring out a playful side of him

sunghoon has no shame kissing you whenever and wherever

so you better get used to all the attention now >//<

𝑲𝒊𝒎 𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒐𝒐 - 김선우

sunoo kinda gives strangers to lovers but like, cafe version

so he works at a cafe that you have just discovered and you really love it so you become a regular customer

you've always been too shy to ask the front worker for his number but you can read his little name tag that says his name is 'sunoo'

sunoo knows you as "pretty cafe girl" not having the guts to ask you

eventually, sunoo grows some balls and writes his number on a napkin one day, handing it to you along with your usual order

"hey, i think you're really pretty and i would love to get to know you <3 xxx-xxx-xxxx -sunoo"

AFGHJS he's so smooth

he'll take you out on a couple dates before making things official with you

and let me tell you, he absolutely adores you and you're the best thing that has ever happened to him <3

𝒀𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝑱𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒘𝒐𝒏 - 양정원

screams academic rival to lovers

you and him have always been neck and neck with each other in terms of academics

you've beaten him in certain classes and so has he, fueling your hatred for each other

but one day, you get paired to work together

and at first, you hate it and you hate him

but slowly, you start to realize just how kind and funny he is

jungwon has a similar encounter because after a few study sessions together, he realizes that he really has no other reason to hate you

your smart, sweet, funny, and really pretty, so he thinks, why not just become friends? why continue this rivalry?

when you two start dating, it shocks the whole school because wdym the two rivals are dating now???

occasional teasing about higher scores still happens tho <3

𝑵𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒂 𝑹𝒊𝒌𝒊 - 西村 力

ni-ki kinda gives like, enemies to lovers ngl...

but not really true enemies, just kinda like, he teases you a lot and you find him annoying

you don't exactly remember when it happened, but one day, ni-ki just stopped teasing you completely, replacing all the teasing with kind actions

this confused you so bad and when you questioned him about it, he just shrugged it off, hiding the blush on his cheeks

turns out, he's actually liked you for a while and when he went to get advice from his hyungs, they told him to stop annoying you and start being kind

this is all revealed to you when you actually become friends with him

you also confess that you've had a small crush on him as well and he's so excited >//<

he will ask you out so quickly bc he's just so happy that you like him back (OH MY GOSH HE'S SO CUTE TT)

but yeah, he still enjoys teasing you very much <3 just not as much

𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬: @en-diaries, @k-films, @k-nets

⚘. Perm taglist: @vmpivory, @yuvany, @seozii, @pinknjm, @greentulip, @jomisu, @nxzz-skz, @ancnymcnzjy

[milktian]

I think despite everything I still really like the dlc. it's amazing, the music and the boss fights are gorgeous and I'm going to keep cycling through the soundtrack. I'm also just glad there's more elden ring content out with new weapons and npcs.

also messmer and his lore are super interesting and is definitely not what I expected. I won't go super into detail as to avoid spoilers but he truly is just a guy.

I think a part of my disappointment is partially cause i had so many like ideas of what could be in the dlc that, realistically, it wouldn't have held up and I'd always be just a bit underwhelmed regardless. like that's completely on me for setting my expectations so high.

however (spoilers)

miquella's whole Deal feels incredibly rushed, and kind of contradicts the base game? this isn't even like a 'I have a theory I like and this game doesn't match' like no it just straight up is illogical. there are posts that talk about this better so I'll leave it to them.

another thing is, looking back, all the promotional material suggested that miquella would be guiding us and that messmer would be the final boss. but that wasn't what happened. it feels like something changed in-between the trailer and the dlc release? I don't know if that's me misunderstanding the trailer but??

I think I would've preferred a dlc where we sided with miquella and had him guide us almost like melina, in order to free the lands of shadow from the eternal war that messmer has brought (on marika's orders it seems).

also I feel like the best thing they could have done with miquella is keep him kind. I am definitely leaning towards the theory that miquella was misguided in his attempts but was genuinely good natured (I reblogged a post a little bit ago that explains this idea which is the one I'm leaning more towards) but that doesn't change the fact that it feels like they retconned alot of miquella's previously established character details.

everything about the lore in the dlc feels cheap and frustrating and the 'easy' path for this character, which is honestly boring. I wish there was better writing for miquella, radahn, mohg, and malenia (who, as well as the rest of the haligtree, just got completely shafted). it's frustrating.

I'm also coming at this from a "Don't know shit about berserk" perspective as well so the argument that 'this actually makes so much sense because miquella is based off of griffith'.

like ok? elden ring isn't berserk. I don't want to be another franchise. I want it to exist outside of its influences. sure references are fine but if you know jack shit about them, then it makes for a lackluster experience.

this'll probably be the last time I make a ranty post about the dlc. I do still really enjoy the game, but I think im gonna treat Elden Ring Miquella and Shadow of the Erdtree Miquella as completely seperate, because it really feels like they are.

again: I STILL LIKE THE DLC. ITS STILL FUN AND IM NOT SAYING YOU'RE A BAD PERSON FOR LIKING IT.

(also radahn was totally just there for fanservice cause it makes literally no sense that miquella would choose radahn to be his consort like???? they have very little connection in the base game. I feel like they just wanted radahn cause he's such a popular character)

[ariesqueencobra]

what we used to be | Vll

Pairing: Eli Moskowitz x Fem!Reader

Summary: You're going to your first high school party, who would've thought there'd be so much drama?

Warnings: underage drinking, mild violence, flashbacks to bullying, bullying, references to kissing

Word Count: 1.6k

A/N: Two chapters in a week?! Another short chapter but I do love this one! One of my favorite scenes to write so far!

Thank you to those who already reblog and comment, I see you and I love you all for it!

I don't consent to this work being copied, translated or reposted.

It was a nice day outside, and you and your friends decided to spend it at the park before the tournament tomorrow. 

While your nerves were at an all-time high, you tried to keep focus on the moment before you, knowing it’d be better to worry about it when the time came. You sat between Miguel and Aisha, Demitri sitting next to the former while Eli continued practicing with Bert behind you all.

Aisha was on her phone and the rest of you were listening to Miguel talk about seeing another guy have dinner with the LaRussos. Of course, out of all the explanations, he thinks he was Sam’s side piece.

“All right, so you saw her eating dinner with some chode,” Eli said before kicking Bert in the face, causing him to fall to the ground.

You snickered at his words but quickly sent a reassuring glance at Miguel.

“It’s probably her brother or something.”

“No,” Miguel argued. “Brothers don’t look at their sisters like that.” 

“Depends on what part of the country you’re in,” Demitri said.

You laughed at that.

“I don’t want what happened to Sensei to happen to me,” Miguel exhaled.

“It’s not gonna happen if you don’t communicate that to Sam,” you pointed out. “Tell her how you feel, be honest, she’ll appreciate it in the long run,” you offered.

Miguel pressed his lips together in defeat, unsure if he wanted to go your route.

“Nah, go over and beat his ass so he doesn’t have the chance,” Eli countered, walking over and leaning against the bench between you and Miguel.

You sent him a look. 

“If someone was swinging in on my girl, that’s what I’d do,” he shrugged, sending you a wink.

You felt your cheeks heat up, ignoring what he said about beating up someone. Your mind was too focused on him calling you “his girl”. 

“Don’t listen to, Eli,” Demitri said.

“It’s Hawk.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Demitri rolled his eyes.

You furrowed your brows, turning your attention back to Miguel. “She’s given you no reason not to trust her,” you said.

“I guess you’re right,” Miguel exhaled.

You were glad you got through to him when Aisha shouted at her phone.

“That little bitch!”

You jumped at her voice but were interested in what happened.

“Look what she commented under my post,” she held her phone in front of you, finding that Yasmine commented something horrible under her video of breaking a board.

“We gotta do something,” Aisha gritted.

“How about we kidnap her and have my boy Rico tattoo “bitch” on her face,” Eli smirked.

You snickered, not hating the idea. Yasmine deserved something worse than “bitch” tattooed on her face after all the hell she put you through.

“Calm down, Hawk,” Demitri mocked.

“I hear how you’re saying it and I don’t like it,” Eli spat. 

You reached over your shoulder to squeeze his arm, calming him. Turning back to Aisha, you spoke, “She’s having a party?” You saw the Insta story.

“Not if we strike first,” she smirked.

You smiled, liking where this was heading.

A few moments later you found yourself at the convenience store. While everyone else was buying snacks, you were on the phone with your dad. 

“It’s just a small party at the Canyon, I’ll be home at a reasonable hour,” you explained.

“You said you were gonna be at the park this morning, what changed?” He asked.

You sighed. “Plans were made,” you shrugged. “It’s just gonna be me and a few kids hanging out. Eli and Demitri will be there,” you chewed on your lip, hoping the mention of their names would make him more inclined to agree.

It didn’t.

“I don’t want you going to that party, I know there’s going to be alcohol there,” he said. 

“No there won’t,” you said even though you knew there would be. “You and Mom said I could do whatever as I long as I let you know where I am and who I am with,” you reasoned.

You heard a commotion on the other side, knowing your mom was convincing him.

“Okay, fine, be home at 10 sharp, a minute late and you’re grounded,” he ordered.

You beamed before hanging up, just in time for your boyfriend to walk out with a case of beer in his hand and a bag in the other. 

“I got you your favorites,” Eli smirked, handing you the bag. 

You smiled, thanking him and letting him know your parents permitted you to go. 

“I can’t believe you managed to get beer, when did you even get the fake ID?” You asked, leaning into his side as he wrapped his arm around you.

“I got my ways, babe,” he smirked. “Let’s have fun tonight, yeah?” 

You agreed. 

~

You’ve never been to a party before. 

Jumping from your Friday movie nights with your best friends to attending a party in the Canyon where everyone from school was—the feeling was overwhelming but in the best way possible. 

“If you were told a year ago that you’d join a karate dojo, dye your hair blue, get a back tattoo, and be dating me, would you believe it?” You smiled, hand intertwined with Eli’s as you sat in front of the fire. 

“Nah,” he shook his head, a smile appearing on his face. “But I would be the happiest to know we’re dating,” he hummed, pulling you in close. 

“You’re cute,” you booped his nose. “I’m gonna get a drink,” you said before standing up, passing Demitri on the way.

You joined Aisha, smiling as you approached.

“You seemed busy a few minutes ago,” Aisha chuckled. “Came to hydrate?” She joked as you grabbed a water.

“Haha,” you joined in but your cheeks heated up when you realized she saw you and Eli making out before. 

“I’m curious, how did you handle the change from Eli to Hawk?” She asked. 

“He’s still Eli to me, just with a different appearance,” you shrugged. “Sure sometimes I would like to run my hands through his hair, now I can’t,” you averted your gaze. “But he’s happy, who am I to get in the way of that?” 

She hummed in agreement.

“It’s half past nine, should probably get you home before your dad gets mad,” Eli came up behind you, arm finding home around your shoulders.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” you smiled. 

About to say bye to Aisha, you were stopped by Moon walking up to you two. 

“Y/N, glad I found you,” she smiled. “I wanted to apologize,” she sincerely said. 

You raised a brow, glancing at Aisha who sent you a reassuring look. Your composure was stiff and all you could think of was her and Yasmine laughing as they dumped your vandalized sketchbook in the trash.

“For all of it, I hope we could be friends,” Moon added.

You furrowed your brows, not understanding where this was coming from. You took a step back, Eli making sure you were grounded and you searched his eyes, wondering if he was hearing the same thing.

“Oh, hey! Y/N!” Yasmine beamed when she spotted you. “We’ve been looking for you,” she walked towards you with Moon at her side, her arms behind her back.

“We wanted to give this back,” Moon said just as Yasmine held out a similar yellow book with lavenders painted on it. 

Your heart dropped and you froze. 

She wagged it in your face but you couldn’t move. 

Eli just stood beside you, his eyes trained on you, searching for any sign of expression.

“Oh, well, if you don’t want it, I guess it’s trash,” Yasmine shrugged, dumping it in the garbage next to you guys. “Later, slut,” she spat towards you.

The two began cackling like crazy, leaving you with tears welling in your eyes. 

Anger bubbled inside you as that moment replayed in your head. All those years of torment and all she had to say was “sorry”? With a reassuring look from Eli, you spoke. 

“I appreciate the apology, Moon, but I don’t accept it,” you frowned.

She was taken aback, even Aisha.

“I-,” she searched for words.

“You made my life miserable,” you stepped forward. “You destroyed my art and personal property, you slut-shamed me,” you narrowed your gaze, searching her face. “Your friends hurt my friends. One apology isn’t going to make it go all away.”

She paused before opening her mouth. “You’re right,” she admitted. “I’m sorry for thinking we could change things so quickly, but I do genuinely want to be friends,” she offered a smile.

You felt your composure fall and you let out a breath. You passed her a small smile. “Baby steps,” you hummed. 

“Hey!” A wisp of blonde hair filled your vision and you backed into Eli when you realized it was Yasmine.

She focused her attention on Aisha. 

“You think it’s funny crashing my party?”

“It’s not really your party ‘cause we were here first,” Aisha gritted. 

“Yeah, well I know you and your little karate gang think you’re cool, but we all remember who you really are,” she smirked, gazing over you.

You tasted bitter, frown deepening as you made eye contact with her.

“You’re just a fugly bitch and all your friends are freaks,” she spat, calling Moon over to leave. 

“No, I’m staying. I apologized to Aisha and Y/N, you should too,” she looked at her friend.

Obviously, Yasmine didn’t take that well, bumping shoulders with Aisha as she stalked off.

That wasn’t until Aisha called after her. 

You watched as your friend reached down her pants, pulling her underwear up and giving her a front wedgie. You doubled over in laughter, feeling proud of her. 

Your first highschool party was definitely one to remember.

[goodlucksnez]

DO NOT REBLOG TO NON-KINK BLOGS

MINORS FUCK OFF

WOW A POST

i know first thing since September, things have been hard. but I saved up spoons to make a wav of the lovely h/uskerd/ust. I barely tried with accents and things because again no spoons so sorry

I had this idea about h/usk losing a gamble cause of an allergen so yeah that is basically it. transcript is below sorry if it isnt the most clear I rushed it because i know if i didnt this would sit unfinished forever.

now with that being said...I think char. wavs might be stopping for a while. I dont have the time, energy nor spoons to do it, I want to but it is easier to record natural wav instead. I know for the .12% of people who will read this will not care but I wanted to lets others know!

DO NOT REBLOG TO NON-KINK BLOGS

MINORS FUCK OFF

transcript:

Angel: *walking up the the bar with a deck of cards* Hey Whiskers.

Husk: *cleaning* Hmm.

Angel: *mockingly*Ohh, come on. Don't you wanna play?

 Husk: If it will make you shut up, then I'm happy to oblige. What are we playing?

Angel: Ohh, did I get the kitty's attention? Such a gambling man.

Husk *sarcastically* You do realize who you're talking to, right?

Angel: *teasingly* Perfectly or, should I say Purrfectly.

Husk: *rolling his eyes* Oh, great. We're starting the cat puns again. As if that wasn't funny the 15th time.

Angel: I think you've had enough fun trouncing around like you are so much better than everyone, and I think that I can prove your bluff.

Husk: *laughing*

Angel: Oh, did I say something amusing?

Husk: Very much so. You think that you can con a gambler….fine. How do we make this interesting?

Angel: *smirking* Oh, I like when the Kitty has claws. Meow.

Husk: Hmm. If you win, I'll agree to wear that outfit that you bought.

Angel:  Oh, you don't mean…

Husk: Don't say it.

Angel: And what happens if you win? Not that I'm thinking that will happen, but tell me. You got me as curious as a cat.

Husk: If I win, then you'll stop with the cat puns forever.

Angel: You make a tough bargain. OK. OK. You got yourself a deal.

Husk: One round winner takes all

Angel:Perfect.

*dealing and shuffling cards*

Husk: Want to cut the deck.

Angel: Always

Husk:You seem rather cocky tonight. *sniffles and sneezes*

Angel:Trying to make me distracted already are we whiskers?

Husk: Nope. Just…Just. *Sneezing* Making conversation

Angel:Very well

Husk:Draw

Angel: Fine, fine. Hit me.

Husk:You got it.

Husk: I will also hit. *sneezing*

Angel:Bless you.

Husk: Thanks. What are you smiling at?

Angel: Nothing. I just think I'm gonna win.

Husk: Ohh. You're a terrible liar. I have gambled with human souls before. A little game of poker isn’t *hitching wipes his nose but accidentally does the hand motion to stay not hit*

Angel: That hand motion means stay.

Husk: Oh. Yeah. You're very funny, aren't you? All right.I'll give you that one. Maybe Niffy needs to dust more

 Angel: Oh, I don't think that's it. You know what? I think I'll stay. You're going to fold.

Husk *sneezing* So you're asking me if I call your bluff, huh?

Angel: Maybe.

Husk: *showing his hand*Read them and weep

Ange;” Ohh. Just the 13. Try 19 on for size.

Husk: How the fuck did you win?

Angel: Ooh, but I thought a gambler never went over his secrets.

Husk: Angel, you fucking tell me now or I swear I will….I will. *sneezing*  Ohh God. Don't you always carry something on you? Give me the shit

 Angel: I don't think it will help you because it's kind of drenched in lavender

Husk I beg your finest pardon…what

Angel: Well, I may have talked to creepy smile and well. I'm just so sick of you winning all the time. It was no fun anymore. You know, I do like to keep things up and loose. So he told me about a little issue you have with a certain smell. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to get this much.

Husk: Angel . I swear *sneezing*

Angel: Al  wasn't joking. You really are a mess with this.

T

 Husk: OK, so besides sneezing, how'd you figure it out?

Angel: Well. I know two things about you. One you'll never share anything over your face, and 2. If you're comfortable, you sit more open, relaxed, you would hunched over this entire time. And that could be from the allergic reaction that you're experiencing.

*sneezing*

Angel: or It could be from the fact that you didn't enjoy your hand. And the fact that you didn't even call me on my bluff? Well, it was obvious point past then, that I was going to win. Now Are you gonna go and be a good Kitty? *holding maid dress*

Husk:  I'm not putting it on, that was not fair. *sneezing* that was not a fair game and you know it

*walks over to angel*

Angel: All fair in love and war.,,,,,Husker. I really wouldn't walk over. I mean I'm literally covered in this, frankly, drowned a whole bottle. Wait, stop.

*Walks over and sneezes on his chest*

Angel : AHHH Fair, I guess I deserve that spray.

Husk: *hitching* I cant

Angel :You might want to step back.

*hitching*

 Angel : Ohh man, I can't watch this. OK. I'm sorry, Kitty. *rubs his nose*

Husk: wait Don't touch my nose *sneezing fit*

Angel: Breathe whisker Seriously geez. We're giving Lucifer a run for his money. ….OK OK, I'm stepping back Just breathe, OK?

*al appears*

Al: This is this an interesting sound.

Husk: Oh fuck off

Al:.But I'm here to save the day. Here below.

*husk blows his nose*

Angel :thank fuck al. I didn't think he was ever Gonna stop.

Al:  I may have forgot to mention he won't stop until he actually gets that junk out of his head. The kitten sneezing may be adorable, but it's ineffective to say the least. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go burn this. Take care.

 Angel : Are you feeling any better whiskers

Husk: Uh-huh

 Angel:OK, why don't you go lay down? I'll shower this off. And husk

Husk: hmmm

Angel: Who has the poker face now?.

[the-razzdazzler]

Atlas Tera and his relationship to each of The Arcana's cast

figured i should do this at some point lol

gonna reblog it to @alchemist-atlas to give any RPers a general idea of who they're interacting with and how they know each other <3 (i am only listing characters that Atlas knows and/or knows of)

MAIN SIX

Asra- Atlas' oldest friend. They lived together for 8 years, but it feels like less time to Atlas because Asra was gone a lot.

Nadia- Atlas does not like or trust her. He knows she came looking for Asra instead on the night he got hired to the palace and it's a bit of a sore spot for him. They do not understand her social cues and will never get why she thought it was a good idea to make him court magician.

Julian- They've interacted a few times, mostly awkward moments back when Julian was... visiting... Asra regularly. Atlas sees him at the Rowdy Raven alot and wants to be better friends but never seems to work up the nerve to talk to him.

Muriel- Lowkey kinda hates Atlas, but the poor guy is oblivious. It's cause Muriel is extremely suspicious of Atlas' shapeshifting since his main other form is a fox and those don't mix well with chickens.

Portia- Atlas is eternally grateful for her. They're not super close, but she helped him out so much when he was first getting settled in the palace.

Lucio- They've never met but Atlas fucking hates him. He survived and lived through the Red Plague and that turned him a little sour to the ruling class as a whole. Lucio was the easiest to blame and he did exactly that, both during and after the Plague. They have somewhat similar personalities though, and might have been friends in another universe.

COURTIERS

Valerius- The love of his life. He would kill or die for this man. Okay sure Val hated him at first but it was a completely one-sided rivalry that was gradually replaced with affection and admiration after a lot of time they had to spend together.

Vlastomil- They infodump to each other about their respective bug special interests. Vlastomil's being worms, Atlas' being moths. They go looking for worms together when it rains and neither one will ever shut the fuck up about bugs.

Vulgora- High-energy besties. Make extremely stupid jokes together and generally annoy everyone around them. Vulgora's always trying to get Atlas to show off any of its magic, the more destructive the better.

Volta- Atlas is ridiculously protective of her. Would probably maim anyone who says anything mean to Volta. They crochet together and Atlas always bakes her cookies or makes her soup or whatever else.

Valdemar- Did Atlas' top surgery when he was around 16. Atlas has a ton of respect for them and considers them close despite barely talking to each other. The time they spend together is like, parallel play except one is doing dissections and the other is brewing potions in a cauldron.

SATRINAVAS

Namar- Met once at a dinner party, only talked for a moment because Valerius was talking to him first. Atlas likes him but has nothing to talk to him about.

Nazali- Atlas vaguely knows them through being mentioned by Julian in the few times they've spoken. Probably would have done Atlas' top surgery but was not in the area at the time and Atlas needed those things gone PRONTO.

Navra- They don't meet often but when they do they're insufferable together. Two rays of sunshine causing so much annoyance and chaos.

ANIMALS

Faust- Atlas can't not love Asra's familiar. Faust's sneater (snake sweater) collection is stupidly massive now thanks to Atlas' crochet ones piling onto Asra's knitted ones.

Malak- Gets fed by Atlas often, who has no idea this is Julian's familiar. Atlas likes him but rarely takes his crow form around Malak simply because the bird is insufferable to have to listen to when you understand what he's saying (see Portia's route).

Mercedes and Melchior- Atlas likes to say he stole them from Lucio (already dead when Atlas met them). It always has treats for them. Atlas loves these dogs with all his heart.

Shriek- Atlas' familiar, a Death's Head Hawk Moth. Was part of a generation of caterpillars he was raising and outlived the rest, then became able to communicate with Atlas.

OTHER (side characters and other MCs)

Selasi- Basically Atlas' adoptive father. They don't meet as much as they used to, but they're still very close and will tell the other everything.

Mazelinka- They'd meet later on, most likely after Atlas opens his own potion shop. They'd probably have so many long conversations about kitchen magic. <3

Castor (a friend's MC)- They're close good friends (insert that one vine) with Atlas. Hates their friend's choice of partner and terrorizes Valerius every chance they get, but that doesn't put any sort of damper on his and Atlas' friendship.

BTW if we're friends and you want to be added to the list of MCs Atlas knows, just let me know :)

(this is a repost cause the first one posted strangely and isn't showing up on my dash or any searches)

[toxicanonymity]

Hey there ✨️

I love your work 💕 I'm a long time fan 🫶🏼. I've been on tumblr a few years now, but I'd never found the courage to post anything of my own til now. I've been feeling a little optimistic these days, and genuinely excited about posting some of my writing and sharing it with the people out here. Do you have any advice on how to start posting and interacting from scratch? Cause I'm low-key nervous abt it and it seems like my target audience has already formed a solid community I don't know how to get into 🥺

Hi! 💕 Thank you so much. This is exciting. I’m flattered as heck but jeepers, a little underqualified. So, good news - I consulted a few friends for this, too.

Engage with the community early and often – writers, artists, anyone. Even if it seems like they’ve formed a solid community, there are likely still people joining or else it would die out.

Everyone loves to get feedback on their fics, so this is a good entry point. Comments, reblogs, thoughtful asks. If you have the time and interest, maybe a little fic mood board to slide into someone’s inbox. Tag games, etc. Have perseverance. It can be scary to put yourself out there socially, but this part can’t be any scarier than putting your fics out there, can it?

Become a “regular” on your favorite blogs, and you’ll start getting recognized. This will mean when you post your fic, there will be some name recognition, and they may think “Oh, she loves [fave writer], so we have common interests” *open fic*. Hopefully, you'll also get support from your favorite writers if you engage. It doesn't matter how "popular" someone is, they (most?) still notice and connect with regulars. I’ve had many readers turn into writers and am thrilled to support them. 

Accepting requests is a fantastic way to build connections and have things to talk about. Submitting requests, too.

Pay attention to the fandom tags and how they are used.

@aurorawritestoescape: I’m sure they have their fav writers/writers who inspire them and I saw many say that they love to be tagged in other ppl’s fics [toxy note: agree, please feel free to tag me!]

@beefrobeefcal: Dive in feet first. Throw caution to the wind. The first five tags are the one tumblr recognizes for some weird reason. Tag who you inspires you. No door is bolted shut in this community and everyone is welcome! [toxy note: hard agree!]

You've got this, it's gonna be great! Excited for you. Feel free to follow up if you have more specific concerns or questions. My DMs are open too. If you tell me the fandom I might have other ideas.

[bestworstcase]

Sooo, I've been going through some of your posts, reading up on your personal opinions on certain characters I like. I'm trying to understand why you think certain things, so sorry if I come off as rude at any point. There's likely some posts I've missed lol

Uhhh, I'll be the first to admit that I don't agree with most, if not all of your takes, but regardless I find your train of thought pretty interesting cause you do make a few points I agree with.

One thing I wanna ask is- why do you see Ozpin as someone who's a needlessly paranoid religious zealot that doesn't understand Salems point of view and is demonizing her for basically no reason?

I've probably bastardized your opinion somewhere in my attempt to paraphrase it, but I'm really curious since your opinion is pretty much the exact opposite of mine lol.

Feel free to ignore the tangent I'm gonna go on, I just want to share my opinions and debate a little (I need a little mental stimulation lol).

Personally, I honestly don't see Oz as a religious zealot, or as someone who follows the GoL unquestionably. His first reaction to the GoL offering him his task is to say- "No." Oz, thinking Salem is dead, does not care about what the GoL wants or needs from him. And when Oz takes his task (which imo he was manipulated into by the GoL) and reincarnates, he immediately ignores the GoL's incredibly vague warning and goes looking for Salem. Not only that, but when he's asked by Ruby if he has a plan to defeat Salem/unite humanity, he says he doesn't. Plus, he actively refers to his immortality as a curse, despite the GoL not framing it that way. Oz deems his task impossible, and has thus given up on it. Imho, none of this says that he unquestionably follows the Gods. Maybe he had more faith in the beginning, but by referring to his immortality a curse, he's basically insulting the GoL's task. Oz isn't as vindictive or as hateful towards them as Salem is (at least not yet, with v9 and all), but imo he's definitely not fond of them, or at least doesn't hold them in such high regard anymore. The only reason why he continued with his task in the first place is because he was already there with Salem. He doesn't exactly have a choice now, and now he's given up with it, just trying to keep the peace. And, if Jinn is as unreliable as a narrator as you say and the lost fable is from Oz's perspective, it paints the Brothers as petty and manipulative and changing their mind at the drop of a hat. The same is true in the fairytales (which I need to read in full, I currently only know a wiki summary so my knowledge is limited, I won't lie), which Ozpin helps create. I really don't think these things would exist if Oz worshipped them so thoroughly and unquestionably. It's very likely he sees them as petty and manipulative brothers whose fights result in needless death.

I'd talk more, but I don't want to make this ask too long 😅 I think your perspective is interesting, even though I don't agree with it. If/when you answer this, is it okay if I reblog so I can share my own perspective more? It's fine if not, I just like debating (in a friendly, respectful way ofc) different points like this. I really enjoy Oz as a character. He's far from perfect but I think he gets a bad rep, some of it just being different perspectives and others being completely unfair. No one can agree on him so I have fun reading lol

you’re fine—& if you want to rb with your own thoughts feel free.

to start with ozpin’s paranoia, aside from the obvious factor that he explicitly does not trust anyone in his own inner circle and justifies keeping secrets on the grounds that every ally is a betrayal waiting to happen: there is zero evidence that salem has been waging a sustained campaign against him ever since the collapse of the ozlem kingdom. 

in the lost fable, ozma sees two beowolves attacking his settlement and assumes that salem must have sent them: jinn implies that he sees her hand behind every grimm, hence “her presence was always felt.” 

but… not every grimm in the world is under salem’s control. we know this. the grimm that attack the argus express are not hers—they’re wild grimm drawn to the relic. salem had no knowledge of where the relic was or that oz had reincarnated until hazel told her. similarly, the leviathan that attacks argus later is attracted by cordovin (the WOR episode on grimm implies that grimm are drawn to violence and violent emotion specifically). she didn’t send the grimm of mountain glenn to vale; she sent cinder to kill a child on international television to incite mass hysteria that attracted grimm in huge numbers. and during her siege of atlas, it’s noted repeatedly that salem’s forces have not advanced, but wild stragglers are trickling into mantle, drawn by the fear in the crater.

so ozma, in assuming that salem is the mastermind orchestrating every grimm attack in the world, wildly overestimates her actual influence and blames her for the natural behavior of the grimm. 

at the same time, over this period of time between their kingdom collapsing and the beginning of the story, ozma has been phenomenally successful in hiding salem’s existence from the world and erasing her from history. there used to be legends about her everywhere—the witch in the woods who commanded dark powers among the beasts and monsters—and those are gone. before ruby revealed her existence to the world, no one had the slightest idea that she existed. 

the only way for ozma to bury her like that is if salem herself did not do anything to draw attention to herself and stayed very far away from civilization. ozma is just one person, and there are significant gaps in his presence and influence whenever he dies and reincarnates. there is no way he could have kept salem a secret if she periodically razed his cities to the ground or made overtures to groups like the white fang on a regular basis. what she’s done in the story isn’t a pattern of behavior: salem calls the fall of beacon her first move.

and then in v9? this happens:

SUMMER: You know how Ozpin gets. Mystery after mystery… TAIYANG: And when it turns out to be yet another run-of-the-mill patrol, it’ll be— BOTH: “I always preferred discretion!”

during summer’s time as a huntress, ozpin regularly sent her and her teammates on Urgent Top Secret Missions on short notice in the dead of night only for them to turn out to be… nothing. yet another run-of-the-mill patrol. ozpin was fighting a war that salem didn’t start to dignify with her participation until she met summer rose.

<- paranoid behavior.

but the real uh, meat of this is the zealotry.

to be clear, i think that before all the tragedy, both salem and ozma were religious and had faith in the brothers—i’ve written plenty about salem’s religiosity in the lost fable so i won’t belabor that point, but she believed in the gods until they shattered her faith by, you know, condemning her to eternal suffering because she worshipped both of them. and i see no reason to think that ozma didn’t have the same faith. the same flowers that salem brings as an offering to the god of light are hung up on the walls of their home; this was a religious household. 

so. when the god of light wakes him up, ozma believes what light tells him without question—by which i mean, he literally does not ask questions. light says that humankind will rise again, a mere fraction of what their predecessors were, and that they if they are not changed when the brothers return, they will be judged irredeemable and obliterated. ozma does not question the truth or rightness of this premise. he’s frightened and sorrowful, but he doesn’t question the god of light’s implication that humankind, as it is now, does not deserve to exist and needs redemption. 

his refusal is not predicated on a rejection of the mandate itself, and he’s very polite and respectful about it: “i’m sorry, but that world just isn’t as dear to me without her. if i may, i’d like to return to the afterlife to see salem.” ozma does not want to be the one to do this—but he accepts without question the idea that someone must, and he deliberately leaves the door open for the god of light to command him to do it (“if i may”). he’s a religious man; he’s prepared to do what his god asks of him, even as he hopes he that he won’t have to.

(the god of light absolutely manipulated him—and he used ozma’s faith, ozma’s belief in light’s benevolence and just nature, to do it.)

and once ozma reincarnates, he actually does heed the warning the god of light gave him: jinn notes that he travels for years, hearing rumors about “the witch” wherever he goes, before he gives in and decides that “he needed to see what she had become.” the god of light told him that the woman he loved was gone, and what was left of her would only bring him pain, and he believed that because, again, he had no reason not to…

…until he reunited with salem. that is when ozma began to experience doubts, because while salem had physically transformed, she was still herself. still the woman he loved. she still loved him. she hadn’t changed; they rebuilt her cottage together and lived happily. and that made him uncomfortable, because it cast doubt onto everything else the god of light had said to him. if light was wrong (or lying) about salem, what else did he lie about?

“though time passed and all seemed well, ozma’s conversation with the god of light still lingered in his mind. he had found happiness, but humanity seemed more divided than ever…”

the stakes could not be higher; the fate of the entire world is on ozma’s shoulders. in his heart of hearts, he knows salem, he wants to believe salem, but… if he trusts her and he’s wrong, the world will be condemned to annihilation. so he’s torn. he can’t stop worrying about it. how could the god of light be wrong? why would his god lie to him? but he’s happy with salem. but the world seems more divided than ever and it’s his responsibility to fix it. what’s the truth?

ozma is an intensely anxious person. he thinks fear is the one truly universal experience because he himself is afraid all the time. in the lost fable, he’s scared of the happiness he finds with salem because he cannot. stop. thinking. about the god of light saying “man will be found irredeemable and your world will be wiped from existence.” but he’s also too scared to tell salem the truth, or ask her for help, because the god of light also implicitly warned him that she was damned. he can’t bring himself to leave her, but he also can’t bring himself to believe her, and if she is damned then he wants to save her, too, not just the world.

so he carefully raises “humanity is divided” as a problem he would like to solve, without giving her any context, and when she answers “we can do that!” he decides to just… go along with her first suggestion in the hope that he can eventually ease her into accepting the rest of the divine mandate. because he loves her. because he’s terrified of losing her, and his faith in the god of light is in conflict with his love, and he tries desperately to square that circle by redeeming her.

which fails, because salem’s faith in the brothers shattered long ago and she sees them clearly as the monstrous tyrants they truly were—so she rejects the mandate entirely and asks ozma to reject it with her.

here is the part where my interpretation of ozma depends heavily on my interpretation of salem, because:

i do not think salem was proposing genocide; i think by “replace them” she meant “replace the gods who demand redemption,” in accordance with her longstanding ambition of overthrowing the brothers, and

i think ozma knew that.

frankly, in my opinion, this is the most charitable possible interpretation of what ozma does when salem holds out her hand because HE HESITATES. he looks at her hand, frowning, and then his eyes flick downward and to the side as his expression crumbles into indecision. ozma wants to take her hand. he wants to stay with her. so either salem said “let’s kill everyone!” and ozma a) seriously considered it for a moment and b) did not challenge that idea or demand an explanation from her, or… salem made her point clumsily but both she and ozma understood what she meant, and what she meant was “nothing the god of light told you matters anymore, the brothers aren’t here, why should we spend our lives trying to redeem these humans when we could make a paradise without the gods, like we planned?”

(since you’ve not read the fairytale anthology, i’ll note that “what they could never be” is a paraphrase of the closing lines of the shallow sea: “And the descendants of the Humans who turned away from our god’s great gift have always carried envy in their hearts. To this day, they resent us for reminding them of what they are not and what they never can be.” just as ozpin uses fairytales to make sense of his life and ease people into his conspiracy, i think salem quoted from this old oral tradition to express her opinion of the brothers; like the faunus in the story, she chose to leap into magical waters and was transformed into something new, and she believes that remnant has the potential to be the paradise the “old gods” failed to achieve. she’s implying that the brothers are envious of remnant and resent these humans—and her—for reminding them of their failures.) 

then… you know, they murder each other and kill their children and raze their own kingdom to the ground. and ozma wakes up behind somebody else’s eyes, again. he sacrificed everything and it shattered him and now he has nothing left except the mandate.

was it worth it?

the answer is no. the answer is that this world isn’t as dear to him without salem, and if the only way to save the world is to lose her, he can’t do it. he doesn’t want to. until the end is his song. “to live free or die, it’s all the same/the enemy was right, there’s no reclaiming/in waves of shame/we’re desperate to make amends/but through a simple soul we lie complacent”—like. he knows salem is a person. he knows she’s right about the brothers. he wants to make amends, but he doesn’t believe he can, because the man fucking despises himself. 

in his commentary on ‘the infinite man,’ ozpin describes the man—himself—as both a hero and a fool who made such grievous mistakes that to some he is a villain, and suggests that he may not be worthy of forgiveness. in ‘the girl in the tower,’ the character of ozma is simply called “the hero,” and in ozpin’s commentary he says that “if you look far enough ahead […] heroes may turn out to be villains.” he isn’t talking about salem. he’s talking about himself. he sees himself as the villain in her story, and taken as a whole ‘fairytales of remnant’ reads like a tortured apology to her more than anything; he closes with a story about humans breaking the sun and creating the moon, and in his commentary: “[people] not only replaced the sun, a celestial gift from the all-powerful god of light, but also improved upon it through their own ingenuity.”

he thinks it’s too late. if he could go back and do it again, he would take her hand, but the truth is that he didn’t, and he doesn’t believe she will ever forgive him. no second chances. nothing he can do to make amends. ozma’s mindset is that he made his choice and now he has to live with that forever.

and it’s unbearable. it’s torture. 

after everything that happened, ozma clings to zealotry as a coping mechanism. in his heart of hearts, he has no real commitment to the mandate: he’s distorted it to be about salem. ozma sought the relics so he could use them to “destroy salem.” jinn told him he couldn’t; he proceeded to devote countless lifetimes to fighting an (imaginary) war against salem. he has No Plan. beacon academy is modeled after her father’s castle and ozma put his office in her tower! in her prison!!

his inner circle is a cult dedicated to the god of light and he built the academies as fortresses to safeguard his reliquaries forever and ever while he fights to protect the people of remnant from enemies like “panic” and “division” whom he represents with her face, her name, and the way he truly feels about All Of This is trapped. it’s been so long that he’s convinced himself that his lies are true—that she’s an inhuman monster who craves only death and revels in destruction—but he built her tower and locked himself inside.

ozpin lies to everyone. even himself. especially himself. the intensity of his guilt and regret drove him to weave an elaborate fantasy casting salem as the villain and himself as the fool destined to be her enemy, and he clings to it desperately because he has to believe that. he has to believe that she lied to him, too. he has to believe she’s the one who manipulated him. if it isn’t all her fault, if she isn’t the Great Evil, then his own choices have no justification.

the lying becomes so habitual, so ingrained that he lies without even thinking. why didn’t he tell the kids that the lamp might attract grimm? when they demand an answer on the train, ozpin freezes. he doesn’t have a real answer. he just… withheld vital information because that’s what he always does. a reflex.

the zealotry is of a piece with the lying. he had faith in the god of light—and he still believes that the gods will condemn and destroy the world if they’re summoned, and i think he believes it’s futile to fight them and that if salem tries they’ll crush her again, so he truly does not want her to try and he’s not lying when he claims she’ll bring about the end, because he believes that’s the only possible outcome of rebellion—and he believes himself to be beyond forgiveness. this is all he has, and the only way he can cope with that is… the fairytales. palliative fantasy. a story about a monster and the man destined to fight her. lifetime after lifetime until the lies seemed almost true.

ozma’s trauma is religious in nature. he’s a religious man who lost his faith a long time ago because his god is using him to punish salem and he hates himself because he fell for it, and now he thinks it’s too late. she’ll never forgive him. he can’t see a way out, so he clings ever harder to the mandate because it’s all he has and it gives him a shred of purpose in being her fated enemy. all he wants, all he’s everwanted, is to be with her, and if he hadn’t believed in his god when all of this began, they would have lived happily in her cottage forever.

all of which is to say, yeah, ozma does not hold the gods in high regard. his obedience does not come from reverence or love—he’s fucking terrified of them. the main difference between him and salem in their view of the gods is that she believes they can be resisted and beaten, and he does not. zealotry doesn’t require that he think the god of light is good or just, only that he obey. he’s still under light’s thumb even as it kills him inside, and he can’t escape until he stops lying to himself about what salem is.

bc she’s… not a monster. she didn’t lie to him, and she certainly didn’t manipulate by not… being able to read his mind when he hid things from her. she made it clear from the start that she wanted to replace the brothers and create a new, better world without them, and in the present all of her rage is directed at his deception and his cowardice in obeying the gods. what he did is not unforgivable. he can make amends, if he finds the courage to try. there is a door he can open to leave the tower. the first step is letting himself believe it’s possible. 

(this is why it matters that he asks the kids to forgive him and give him a second chance in V8. ozma has never forgiven himself for anything and for lifetimes he’s believed himself to be irredeemable; not just recognizing the possibility but actively choosing to ASK for forgiveness was so important, and so necessary.)

[rye-bread-soda-iceberg]

I'm not big on headcanons as I personally prefer to have my characters be as close to canon as possible

but when you consider yourself to be in a somewhat serious romantic relationship with a fictional character (or two) you do start to wonder things about them. so I'm just gonna ramble cause I'm in a mood and as you'll see I put a lot of thought into how they'd be as real living breathing people

the hcs I have for them looks-wise are quite basic as I love every single inch of them just as they are already. that said:

I imagine both Sampo and Veritas to be between 6'2 and 6'4 in height (or roughly around 193-194 cms), both with a muscular though particularly soft build. I've drawn them shirtless various times, especially Sampo, though I never had a particular body type in mind for them. what I'm trying to say is that neither of them has rock hard abs or vacuum-sucked muscles, that feels like a crime to me. I like to think Veritas shaves quite frequently almost everywhere and Sampo shaves much less frequently and he is generally hairier (I started to draw him with hairy arms etc + I think he'd have a happy trail as well). though I only drew Veritas shirtless once, I decided that he has a mole just below his navel. it's a stupid little detail that wouldn't even be noticeable 90% of the time but I personally know it's there and I think that's lovely. plus, moles are attractive

I also like to imagine Sampo has much sharper features on his face, mainly his nose and chin, and high cheekbones. i have seen Veritas being drawn with a more prominent, rounder nose (that points down a bit) and chin so i kinda adopted that headcanon into my own art of him. so like, they're kinda opposites in that regard

obviously you can't have headcanons without mentioning the characters' sexuality and gender. they're both cisgender males to me, though I do like when people hit them with the transgender beam. Sampo is bi + ace (and mildly sex repulsed) and Veritas is pansexual. this just feels the most right to me for both of them, can't see them any other way. other than that, Veritas is 100% autistic to me and he also has a severe case of sensory issues (can relate to that). I don't exactly know what's up with Sampo yet but I look forward to diagnosing him in the future

despite what some people might believe, I think they both have the potential to be incredibly gentle, loving and caring partners while still retaining the core aspects of their personalities. that, but also I am of the idea that if you love a character as much as I love them, why would you ruin that for yourself by believing they wouldn't love you back with that same intensity?

I like to believe that as my partners they understand me as a person exactly as much as I understand them as characters, therefore would know how to handle me in the way I'd best prefer (most of the time, that is)

I've reblogged most of the relationship hcs posts I found about either of them, which I think are so so accurate (and lovely) and feel the most likely to be canon. for example, Sampo would be overly affectionate, perhaps a bit clingy (not that I'd mind) and Veritas would be somebody who truly genuinely cares about your interests and wants to hear you talk about them. as I said, stuff that both feels in character to them but doesn't stop them from being good loving partners

I have some other hcs though they're slightly less serious and more general

for example, a few days ago I said I was imagining what they'd get for breakfast at a bar in the center of my city if we were just waking around together waiting for the day to start. so here it is: Veritas would have a whole wheat croissant filled with either honey or jam + a cup of tea. for Sampo, instead, I don't see him being too big on having sweets for breakfast. if he were to have something sweet, he'd have a plain croissant and a simple coffee, and I like to think he'd dip the croissant in the coffee (which Veritas would find just kind of wrong, like how people bite kitkats, and he'd give him a weird look). if he was in the mood for something less sweet, he'd have a simple sandwich with lunch meat and vegetables + just ice cold water. for some reason I don't think he'd enjoy a warm drink in the morning, but maybe I'm just projecting here

other stupid hcs I have are:

Veritas is the kind of person that cracks their knuckles/hands/etc Really loudly wherever they are. it's funny cause I personally find it a bit repulsive when people do that and would 100% hate it

Sampo makes a lot of stupid sounds like groaning in pain, for example as he stands up from a chair he goes "ohh oof" like his back hurts or he's too old to be doing all that. he's just very overdramatic and kinda whiny about having to move around too much, though he definitely doesn't have any actual issues doing that

they would both talk so much, especially if I imagine they're comfortable around each other and me. they'd be constantly bickering, though it would be much more playful and lighthearted than, say, the interactions Veritas has with Aventurine in game. though of course he'd still maintain a twinge of his sharp tone, which would prompt Sampo to respond in some overdramatic, silly manner. of course I would join in and I feel like our conversations would be intense (in a good way) regardless of the subject matter

as I said before, Veritas definitely has sensory issues. I have as well, so perhaps I'm just projecting mine onto him here, but still I'd like to think we'd relate to each other a little bit on this particular topic. one example, I think he'd be sensitive to strong, intense smells/perfumes (which is why he enjoys much more delicate ones like the faint scent of flowers)

also, while I like to imagine they'd both be quite touchy in a comfortable relationship, Sampo is definitely a hundred times touchier. he's the kind of person that pulls you into a hug randomly, always has to have a hand on your shoulder, arm or back, gently pulls you out of the way if he has to walk past you instead of asking you to move. mixed with that, he teases a lot as well. for example, he'd annoy me so much with jokes or jabs at my lack of height, he'd be so shamelessly cringe with it too

lastly, they are clearly respectively Finnish and Greek. while in hsr it's different, it is still implied. Sampo speaks Finnish and English while Veritas speaks Greek, English, Latin obviously, then I'd imagine a handful of other languages like French, Spanish, Italian, perhaps German or Russian as well

that said, I so want to learn about Finnish culture and Greek culture (+ maybe learn the languages as well) cause even though they're canonically from who knows where, that would still give me a lot more insight on what they'd be like as real people

[lythea-creation]

I Love Her More - Tasneem/Hiba x fem reader (Chapter 1)

summary: What happens when Hiba and Tasneem find out they're in love with the same girl? Will they be able to save their friendship? And what does (f/n) think about her friends fighting over her?

warnings: eating disorder

word count: 1.234

Author's note: Feel free to check out my Masterlists and make requests. No reposting please! Reblogging, comments and requests are always appreciated! If you like the story/my writing, please don't be shy to say it via comments or asks! It takes you a few seconds and might make my day. It's the best appreciation you can show to a writer you like.

In this story you will be able to pick your love interest, which will happen in the next chapter. Hope you like it!

Requested by @jj156

-----------------------

Tasneem's PoV

“What pictures should I share next?”, I wondered, handing my phone over to Hiba.

We were hanging out at my home right now, which was not rare for us. After all she was my best friend.

“That one's hot”, she suggested. “Oh, and take this one, too.”

My mom was not home. So we were sitting on the couch in the living room.

“Isn't this one a bit too sexy?”, I considered.

“Nah. It's alright. Look at this”, she declared, showing me a pic of herself.

In comparison to that mine was still innocent. Yet I would not judge her for it. It was completely in a gray zone.

“What else do you have?”, I inquired, taking her phone from her.

Meanwhile she was skipping through my gallery.

Hiba was absolutely great at taking pictures.

I stopped in my tracks when I found a picture of (f/n). I could not help but stare at it for a while.

She was sitting in class, apparently listening to Miss Abeer. Her focused gaze was kinda cute. Therefore I had my difficulties to skip to the next picture.

The more I scrolled through Hiba's gallery though, the more pictures of (f/n) I found. The weird thing about that was that (f/n) was never looking into the camera.

Something was off.

“Hiba? Why do you have so many pictures of (f/n) on her phone?”, I asked her bluntly.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”.

I presented her collection to her.

“Guess I always forgot to delete them”, she brushed it off, wearing a poker face.

“Why did you take them in the first place?”, I continued.

“Why does it matter? It's nothing unusual to have pictures of your friends on your phone”, she shot back, obviously getting irritated.

“What about your other friends then? Wait! Do you like her?”, I assumed.

“Maybe I do. So what?”, she proposed.

A pit formed inside my stomach. This could not be true.

“You can't like her”, I exclaimed.

“Why not? Because she's a girl? Come on, Tasneem! I didn't think you were homophobic”, she stated.

“No! You can't have her. I've had a crush on her for months now”, I proclaimed.

“And yet you're still dating Omar”, she reminded me. “But that doesn't matter anyway. (f/n) wouldn't want somebody superficial like you.”

“You're calling me superficial? Have you taken a look in the mirror recently?”

“At least I don't stuff my mouth with junk and hang over the toilet whenever something bothers me. It's only a matter of time until she finds out and then she's gonna be so grossed out by you that she will never even want to look at you again”, she claimed.

That was an excruciatingly low blow. I had not even known that Hiba was aware of my eating disorder. But throwing it at me like that made me question our whole friendship.

“You know what? You may be pretty, but that's all you got. You're a bitch who cares about nobody but herself. The only thing you can do is make everyone else feel miserable, so you don't feel as shitty about your life. That's why nobody wants to hang out with you. The only friends you have are around because of me”, I ranted.

“Wow”, Hiba mumbled and left abruptly.

Her teary eyes were burned into my mind, knowing that I had caused all of this. But right now I could not care less.

Ironically I did exactly what Hiba had accused me of. Retreat to my eating disorder.

Actually Hiba was my only friend that mattered to me, but from time to time I just could not stand her mean attitude. Yet I had not meant to lose her completely.

What was I supposed to do now?

Hiba was stubborn and hurt, which was not a good combo.

Every time I tried to approach her throughout the next days, she would straight up ignore me. Until she did not.

“Why are you even trying to talk to me? You made yourself pretty clear that you couldn't stand me. So just leave me alone”, Hiba grumbled as I had met her outside in the break.

“Hiba, I'm sorry. You're my best friend. I don't want us to be fighting”, I apologized.

“You're sorry because you can't stand the fight. Not because you're actually sorry”, she accused me.

“So what? If I remember it correctly, you were the one starting this in the first place”, I reminded her.

“Oh! Now I'm the villain. I mean … of course I am. Because little Miss Perfect could never do anything wrong”, she remarked.

You know what? Maybe you're right and this whole thing between us just doesn't work out. You wanna be a bitch? Then be my guest! I won't bother you again”, I declared and walked off without looking back.

The urge to binge was unbearable. Therefore I was relieved to have two pastries in my school bag, who were gone in the matter of a minute.

For that one minute everything else seemed to fade away. But it was over quickly and instead of my initiate pain, the guilt and fear of ruining my hard work kicked in.

My feet were moving on their own, carrying me to the bathroom, where I made sure that nobody was inside.

Then I let it all come out, deleted the sugar and fat and countless calories from my system.

A tear slid down my cheek. Was life really supposed to this excruciating?

I wiped the tear away and got out of the stall, cleaning myself up at the sink. Apparently I was having tunnel vision because I had not noticed someone standing across from me.

“Tasneem ...” It was (f/n). Shit!

I felt myself flinch out of surprise, making a mess with the water covering my hands.

The look on her face told me that she had heard me.

“Hey. Sorry you had to hear that. I think I've eaten something wrong”, I lied.

“So you're gonna go home now?”, she questioned.

“Nah. I'm already feeling better”, I brushed it off.

“You're not”, she claimed.

“No offense, but how do you want to know that?”, I shot back.

“It's written all over you”, she insisted. “Is that what you're doing when you claim to use the restroom?”

“What are you even talking about? I was just feeling sick”, I exclaimed.

She flinched slightly when I yelled at her, making the guilt return. It was not fair to let all my bottled up emotions out on her.

“You are sick, Tasneem. But not the way you're claiming to be. It's okay. I'm not judging you or anything. I just want to help you”, she noted softly.

I avoided to look at her, completely out of words. She knew. It was too late to convince her otherwise.

Suddenly she wrapped her arms around me, enveloping me in a comforting hug.

“You're so tall”, she stated after a while, grinning up at me.

“You're just short”, I teased her, making both of us chuckle.

For a short moment I forgot about everything weighing me down. I wished life could always be this easy.

----------------------------

Now it's time to pick your poison ... I mean girlfriend oc

Tasneem

Hiba

Tag List: @sunwoniie

[nozomi-kaizoku]

"Luca, your behavior is concerning, you need to delete your vent account!!!! "

Yap Yap Yap, you're acting as if I'm even REPARABLE at this point.

I'm working with a therapist, YandereDev has already addressed the allegations against him (AND IS GETTING HELP FOR IT), and just because I identify as an incel/femcel doesn't mean I'm gonna suddenly become this misogynistic pedo who has the most fucked up views about women you had ever seen in your life.

Let me educate you on something:

Incel literally just means "involuntary celebate", which basically means you are not able to engage in sexual activity due to ostracization and shunning (which is my case due to me being borderline and autistic and having to face the stigma surrounding my disabilities), and Femcel is the female/feminine counterpart.

it was a movement back in the 1990's - early 2000's as a way of uplifting those who became incels due to them being in a minority group, but sadly the original movement was abandoned due to how commonly associated it was with genuinely bad people.

Today, most of the self-identified incels/femcels are teenagers with ongoing mental health struggles who believe this label fits their experiences. These people (including myself) do NOT associate with anyone with intentions of doing harm to others.

As for the intrusive thoughts about killing my teacher: that was the result of constant dismissal and invalidation of my mental health struggles and due to the ongoing stress that has caused me. (I should mention that in therapy, I discovered that one of my biggest triggers is invalidation, and when I get triggered, I REALLY get triggered.), but I already did a threat assessment and I am speaking with my therapist as needed.

Also should mention: I have spoken with yandereDev directly a couple times (mainly to ask him questions), and out of all the times we spoke, he has not ONCE shown any interest or desire to be in a romantic/sexual relationship with me, in fact he's actually been keeping his distance (as a content creator should with their fans), so don't say he's trying to "gRoOm" me.

And do you REALLY think I'm gonna ask him out now??? At 17 years old????? FUCK NO, that's gonna hurt both me and yandereDev.

I'm waiting until I am 18 years old to attempt to be in a relationship with him, and by then I will the age of consent, therefore I would be able to consent to a relationship with him.

And as a final note: the people engaging with my content are not doing it to "enable" any genuinely bad behavior, I have stated myself that people can reblog my posts if they find it relatable. And people are engaging with my content because, well, they find it relatable. They share similar experiences as I do. Are those people in the wrong now because they had experiences in their lives and saw my posts and understand how I feel?

Honestly, idc if you're "concerned" or not, but you can't force me to delete my vent blog because you're upset that I happen to have a space where I am comfortable with talking about my mental health struggles. Why are you even looking at it anyway if you're THAT concerned about my posts? It feels a lot like you're just scrolling through my blog and cherry picking the posts that "concern" you.

Fucking weirdo....

If you're that bothered, just block it. I can assure you that I am okay and will get help if needed.

Don't like? Don't interact.

Thank you.

[shivroythinker]

what do you think the "dark place" that tom talked about, looked like?

AHHHH i love this question because i literally think about this all the time!! this is gonna be fucking long so i am so so sorry. ANYWAY. it's so interesting because it's left so vague and i think that's intentional from both the perspective of the writers wanting to leave it open to interpretation and from the in-universe perspective of like. shiv would probably be hostile to specifics being brought up so it's just alluded to.

it makes me think of a post i reblogged earlier i think talking about whether there are lines the roys won't cross in their cruelty to each other, like how no one (not even logan) ever brought up kendall's infertility until the finale. shiv's dark place and whatever caused it seem to also fall into this small category of untouchable subjects. (either that or the writers just never cared enough to have them bring it up but that's a boring way to analyze tv so i reject it lol)

i'm generally inclined to theorize that tom met shiv very soon after she got out of some kind of abusive/violent relationship and this sort of informs what i think the dark place looked like so we can keep that in mind but anyway. it's hard for me to imagine shiv as like... an emotional spiraling public wreck a la kendall. i know a lot of people think she was a party girl or having a lot of casual sex or something but i just don't see it. i imagine it more like depression, honestly. self-destructive behaviors, but quietly-- drinking alone, food issues, isolating, etc. *side note: when roman sees shiv at logan's birthday party in the pilot he kind of gives her a once-over and then says, "look at you. you look like an actual human person." so like... much to unpack there. but yeah i just think a generic party girl past would be brought up WAY more especially as she tried to enter the "respectable" world of waystar.

i think she was probably incredibly vulnerable and that's when she met tom, and he was gentle, and kind, and wrote her notes, and asked her "do you like it?" after every touch when maybe she had never been asked that before. so yeah!!! but this is 100% just my theory, it's left open to interpretation on purpose so others may imagine it differently and that's totally okay. it means more shivposting which i will always embrace

[hesitantvampirealien]

bye!

i hope this doesn't sound dramatic, it's just... something to make everyone aware of the situation and possibly the last time i'll have any transparency with you unfortunately

you're not gonna see my thoughts here anymore unless it's something really small and/or related to an interest of mine. It's only gonna be art, reblogging things i enjoy and other things that don't say anything about me, i don't want to talk about my thoughts again

This is my most active and also most viewed account, and even though at the beginning i had this as just some random blog i would post whatever i wanted at first and vent here to avoid self harm, since i would be taking my anger out on the keyboard instead of my wrists, right now this blog has been getting big enough to cause me problems - i still have no idea how my profile suddenly started catching attention of nazi blogs - and i'm just done with how much everything i do is taken like a personal threat and i'm treated like i'm some cartoon villain, it's not a new thing by any means, i've had this happen before, i got doxxed once a while back and threatened in my personal phone number, i've had pedants talk to me like i'm an inferior being, even my own step mother had a sick obsession for demonizing me at all costs for unknown reasons, i had all kinds of inconveniences. The real problem this time is that, in all honesty, i've just become tired and hurt. I'm aging. I'm just tired of everything being escalated in order to make it all about how much i'm being a bad person who's actively causing harm to people, like everything i said caused a massive butterfly effect that will wipe out entire populations

i would like to reintroduce myself and point out a few things.

You can call me Noodle, Poison or Gerard, i'm 20 years old, and i have a few disabilities that cause me to be unable to empathize and cause me to struggle to understand things like ethics, morals, seriousness, grief, etc. I come from a less than ideal background so most of the things i learned were pure violence and a lot of prejudice in many aspects, things that i'm still trying to unlearn. My request has always been there, to be kindly taught when fitting.

The truth is that the narrative of aspd simply being a condition that gets on people's way in some aspects is not as interesting as the one of a person with aspd being a cold blooded murdeous psychopathic maniac, someone who was born evil and fated to be a monster. People don't like to be told their view on that is wrong because they're taught to fear people like me, mainly by mainstream true crime content producers like TV channels that are filled to the brim of this stereotype and constantly repeating it

To any of my friends who are reading this, sadly you'll probably just have to stay worried forever about not knowing if i'm fine or not but if it makes you feel better, if i'm posting, then i'm probably alive. I'm just kidding, you can literally just dm me and ask me if i'm fine. I won't be, probably, since i'll bottle up my emotions all over again and probably start cutting my wrist all over again because i'll be bottling up again - journaling doesn't work for me, i feel worse when i "talk to myself" in a way so most of the times writing for myself is inefficient, i'm not sure why, i just know that when i write to myself i feel absolutely ridiculous and start feeling worse because i'm self conscious about the fact that i'm a lonely loser talking to myself - and the feeling of not belonging anywhere and not deserving anyone's affection whatsoever is amplified tenfold right now, in all honesty

so i apologize if anyone first thought of me as someone who refused to conform, since i'm conforming to the mainstream right now and shutting myself up and bottling everything up again and relearning aspd shame lolol

I was told tumblr was welcoming. I was wrong

[kateneedscuddles]

A Peek into My Brain 🧠

~Story time~

Someone once told me that, “the reason why most of us suffer is because we have been doomed to be a prison of flesh and bone that confines the soul; and the only time we are aware of this tragedy is when the scream of the captive resonates with the one let out by the captor.”

Obviously, I was a little surprised (cause the only time when he says anything remotely profound is when he has not slept in 2 days). After processing all that (aka punching him), I’m still not able to shake this weird feeling.

It kinda makes sense, but at the same time, I don't want it to.

Anyways, those are the kind of idiots that I usually hang out with so if I ever end up writing something along those lines, it's going to be cause of a random 3am conversation about life and death.

It's not gonna be because I'm feeling sad or depressed.

Nor because of the constant contemplation on what the meaning of life is, and how the lack of any such meaning increases the appeal of becoming a lifeless entity.

So

.

.

.

A fun fact about me is that I am good at convincing people into believing my lies. I like to talk about normal things and 'dark' things, like murder, death, and conspiracy to take over the world; and I love dark humor. I'm not a big fan of horror movies, but I wouldn't mind dressing up like 'the nun' for a harmless prank.

A good song would brighten my day, even if the entire day was filled with negatives. Similar results can be achieved by reading a manga with a happy ending or watching a movie that doesn't make me cry at the end of it or just talking about random nonsense for a while.

I'm a romantic at heart who values honesty. If I get the slightest clue that I'm being deceived, I will write you off in a second. In a conversation, I'd rather be the listener than the talker. If you ever need someone to just sit with you and listen to you for hours on end, then I'm your gal. The only time when I would happily be the talker is when I feel like filling any awkward silences. I don't really know why I do it, but I'd say some of the most bizarre things just to keep the conversation going.

I have a TBR list that's a mile long, but the only thing I read these days is a research article. The worst part is that the former brings me happiness (if the author was a nice person and didn't kill any of the characters) and the latter just makes me want to claw my eyes out 90% of the times. As for the remaining 10%, I would usually end up liking the topic and the methods used to get to the conclusion and then search for a few more articles that are linked or used as references for that one. I'm also working towards becoming a polyglot.

As much as I love to take charge of my life and do the best that I can every day, I would kill to just be free of it all for a day. Just one day wherein I'm not worried about anything, and all I must do is relax, drink a piña colada, and stare into nothingness. I might read a book, buy a book, or watch a movie adaptation of a book. But the one thing I wouldn't stop doing is relaxing.

In this space, I would be posting something original . There might be some instances wherein I might end up reblogging all the things that I found to be cute, interesting, amazing, or fascinating, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. There will be some NSFW posts as well, which would be labeled as such, but I would still prefer it if you wouldn't follow me if you weren't 18+. Any blogs that don't have an age specified in the description will be blocked.

I would love to use this space to connect with people who could help me with my journey to become a polyglot. In order to do that, I would be occasionally posting things that I would be writing in the language that I'm learning, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not sure if this is enough/TMI to be considered as a good intro, but I'm gonna stop here. Asks are open, in case you feel like talking or asking something. You can DM me as well. Just please be respectful and not outright rude. If you do that, you will be blocked.

For everyone who has stumbled across my page, I hope you have a good day! And if you're planning to stick around for a while, then it's nice to virtually meet you!

[frodo-with-glasses]

Been thinking about a particular LOTR what-if scenario (because my D&D campaign took a turn into collaborative LOTR fanfiction), and I'm interested in your perspective on it if you have time . . .

Supposing Boromir somehow survived protecting Merry and Pippin, what effect would that have on Denethor?

Denethor's being fed despair by Sauron either way. But I have always read him as the news of Boromir's death being the thing that breaks him and makes him start to believe it. His grief is certainly a large part of what's informing his treatment of Faramir (though certainly not the only thing, as I think there's textual evidence that Denethor favored Boromir all along).

If Boromir didn't die . . . would Denethor still give into despair? Would he still send Faramir on a suicide mission — and if he did, and Faramir still suffered the same wounds, would Denethor still end up in his whole "all is lost; better to die on our own terms" spiral? Or would he have the presence of mind to see to the defense of the city?

How would he react to Aragorn, a man who has all the qualities Denethor disdains in Faramir but even more so, and who people are now saying is the rightful king (who even his own sons, even favored Boromir, are saying is Gondor's king returned)?

(He almost certainly wouldn't be a fan of Aragorn's plan to draw Sauron's eye away from Frodo. He probably would be greatly displeased that the Ring had been allowed to go across the River to Mordor at all, and even Boromir would have trouble convincing him otherwise.)

Thank you for letting me ramble in your askbox, haha. Don't feel pressured to answer if you don't want to or don't find the question as much as I do. (But if you do answer, I will be delighted.)

As much as the Gondor Dudes aren’t my personal hyperfixation in LotR, I am nonetheless a big fan of overthinking hypothetical situations, so this is right up my alley. :-D (Also, it’s really cool that you’re running an LotR-themed D&D campaign!! Sounds like a blast.)

To be honest, you hit pretty much every point I was going to touch on; Denethor’s despair and consequent insanity were certainly motivated, at least in part, by grief, so if you take the grief out of the equation then naturally the results are going to be at least slightly different. But we still have lots of other factors at play here: fighting a hopeless war, the looming specter of deposition, knowing that your allies just sent a nuke into the territory of the Enemy in the hands of a garden gnome so small you could punt him, and Prolonged Exposure to Cursed Artifact are still going to take their toll on Denethor’s mind. He will doubtless be more motivated to hold on to life while his favorite son is still alive, but even if he doesn't turn paranoid and filicidal, he’s still going to be Deeply Messed Up regardless.

So since I'm not getting any new ideas by looking at things from a Watsonian (in-universe) perspective, I'm gonna steer this in a Doylist (meta) direction and talk about implementation instead. The question I always ask myself with these sorts of "canon but a bit to the left" fanfictions is this:

What do you want out of the story? Do you want to:

A) Return to canon as quickly as possible? B) Change just one thing and see how far it butterfly-effects out? C) Find something somewhere in the middle?

Because the thing with "canon but a bit to the left" AUs that you can make pretty much anything work. It's a hypothetical situation. The question is how far away from canon you're willing to deviate. If I'm writing a "Boromir Lives" AU, I might go a couple of different directions, and the one I ultimately choose depends on personal preference and what I want out of the story.

Putting this under a read-more 'cause it's about to get long.

Option A: Canon, but like .5 degrees to the left

Ever since the battle at the Falls, Boromir has been following Aragorn and doing everything the Three Hunters (well, Four Hunters) do. When Pippin looks into the Palantir, Gandalf decides to take him to Minas Tirith right away, and Boromir, who's eager to get home and feels some responsibility for Pippin, volunteers to go with them.

(Yes I know that Shadowfax travels at ungodly fast speeds to get from Rohan to Gondor, but it's implied that lesser horses can keep up with their lord when they need to, so even if Boromir took a different horse they might still have been able to make it to Minas Tirith in a similar time.)

Denethor gives an enthusiastic welcome to Boromir and a far less enthusiastic welcome to Gandalf and Pippin. That welcome becomes less enthusiastic still in the ensuing conversation/interrogation, when he learns that they totally had the Ring but they sent it into Mordor instead of bringing it here. Boromir tries to reason with his father. Denethor is very disappointed with him. He blames Gandalf for corrupting his other son with all this foolishness, and treats Pippin with suspicion because of the whole prophecy with the Halfling, and the convo ends with hurt feelings all around.

I might need the War Nerds on this blog to correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, the attempt to take back Osgiliath wasn't a completely useless suicide mission, at least in concept. It is a major river crossing, and controlling transportation routes is like War 101. If you make it hard for your enemy to cross the River, you make it hard for your enemy to get to your stronghold, and that's good. Not a bad idea on paper. The only problem was that Minas Tirith didn't have the manpower to pull it off.

(And also there were Nazgul.)

Anyway, the point is, it's almost logical enough that you might be able to get away with Denethor ordering the Osgiliath offensive even without the grief-induced paranoia. Besides, there's still other paranoia in play: so far as Denethor is concerned, the Ring is walking into enemy hands, his son and most trusted captain has turned against him, and Gandalf is already planning a coup.

So here's what I'm thinking. Keep the Osgiliath battle, but send Boromir out there as well. Boromir and brother bravely bear the baleful battle, before their butts are badly beat and they get bit by the Black Breath. Dad feels bad, his boasts bashed as his boys' bodies burn with fever. Battle bears down on the beleaguered bourgeoisie, but their bereaved bigwig is barely bothered, too busy building bier bonfires.

…Sorry, I don't know where that came from.

Anyway, the point is, this puts us squarely back where we'd be at this point in canon: Denethor thinks he’s about to lose his family, his city, and his kingdom, and consumed by despair he decides that it's better to die on his own terms than in the hands of the Enemy. You can pretty much just follow canon from here and copy-paste Boromir with whatever is happening to Faramir.

(Except, of course, for the whole "falling in love with Eowyn" thing. But hey! Boromir was in Rohan! He and Eowyn probably know each other already! So they might have some fun conversations in the Houses of Healing.)

This is the route I would take if you want to stick as close to canon as possible and still keep Boromir alive. If adherence to the narrative is not your biggest concern, however:

Option B: Go stupid, go crazy

Boromir doesn't die. What does that change?

Well, everything, if you let it.

Let's say Boromir does return to Minas Tirith with Gandalf and Pippin like I suggested above. Let's say he's able to talk his father into begrudgingly going along with their unorthodox plan to save the world. Let's say Denethor doesn't call for the almost-but-not-quite-entirely-completely-a-suicide-mission to Osgiliath and instead puts Boromir and Faramir to work strengthening the defenses of the Minas Tirith. By time the Battle of Pelennor Fields rolls around, Denethor—now no longer occupied by the family barbecue—is available to direct defense of the city, with both sons acting as his captains.

Awesome! All this is great stuff, right?

Well, yes. So far.

The problem is that we lose so many great moments with other characters in the process. Pippin's pell mell run to find Gandalf. Beregond abandoning his post to protect Faramir. Eowyn and Merry, who slayed the Witch King together because Gandalf was too busy putting out fires (literally!) to get down there and do it himself. Aragorn, proving that "the hands of a king are the hands of a healer"! And if Faramir and Eowyn hadn't both suffered the Black Breath, they wouldn't both have been forced to stay behind as everyone else went to fight at the Black Gate, and they wouldn't have fallen in love in the same way.

This is not a statement meant to push your decision one way or another, but it's just a fact of the decision: If you dispense with Denethor's paranoia, and the insanity, and the murder arson, then you dispense with a lot of the other cool moments in this book. The question you've got to ask yourself is if that's a price you're willing to pay, and if not, how you can work around it.

Anyway, back to Pelennor Fields. I want you to imagine that Denethor is standing at the wall, watching the battle raging below him. It's not going well. The reinforcements from Rohan arrived, but they're barely hanging on. And to his dismay, he sees a fleet of black dots which could only be Corsair ships sailing up the river.

The foremost ship unfurls a banner, with the Tree of Gondor glittering on it.

And the army that pours out of them absolutely wrecks shop with Sauron's forces.

Is Denethor feeling relief? Yes. But is he feeling dread and apprehension and anger too? Also yes. He knows what this is. It's a challenge to his power waiting to happen. All his suspicions about Gandalf's ulterior motives are coming true: he has found someone to supplant him, and whether or not this kid is the true Heir of Isildur, the darn upstart's already gone all dramatic and made a war hero out of himself. Whoop-de-frickin'-do.

And then, he sees Aragorn's face.

And he's livid.

Fun fact: Appendix A tells us that Aragorn actually worked for Denethor’s dad, Ecthelion, for a long time. Aragorn went by a different name, of course, but he was so competent and so well-liked that he became Ecthelion's most trusted and honored captain, to the point that the Steward liked Aragorn more than he liked Denethor. We don't just have history here. We have beef. It's a little bit of a Tony Stark, Howard Stark, Steve Rogers situation where it’s like “Dad liked you more than he liked me and I’m his own son”.

You’d better bet your bottom dollar that when Denethor’s childhood rival rocks up to Minas Tirith, flying a banner made by an elven princess and carrying the Sword that Was Broken on his belt like he's somebody important, it doesn’t matter if Boromir and Faramir and Imrahil and everybody else in Minas Tirith likes him and happily falls in line behind him; Denethor is still gonna take one look at his face and go, “oh. it’s YOU. I freakin' HATE you.”

Whether this colors their ongoing relationship "coolly polite" or "passive-aggressive" or "outright hostile" depends on how vindictive you want to write Denethor. Because let's be honest, bro could totally order Aragorn to leave Minas Tirith and he would; Aragorn knows he's not the king yet, and he's humble enough to accept orders while the Steward is still in charge (as bass-ackwards as that is). But the thing is that Aragorn has the support of the people, and banishing him isn't gonna change that; if anything, it will probably garner sympathy for him, cause the people of Minas Tirith to distrust their leader, and maybe result in fracturing the loyalties of the populous.

So here's what you've got, okay.

You now have a David and Saul situation.

Think about it. Charismatic, upright war hero, beloved by everyone he meets, serving under the suspicious and deeply disturbed incumbent ruler who knows the newcomer is gonna boot him off the throne. You can't live with him: 'cause he's gonna boot you off the throne. But you can't live without him: 'cause you're in desperate need of his particular set of skills, and you'd be incredibly unwise to do away with him and earn the ire of the public. So you put up with him. And put on a show of liking him. And maybe chuck a spear at his head while he's playing the harp to calm down your possibly demonic fits.

But that's just Saul, so let's get back to Denethor.

The next step, in the book, is obviously the Battle of the Black Gate. And, obviously, Denethor is gonna think this military equivalent of knocking on the door of an axe murderer and threatening him with a pea shooter is a terrible idea, because it is. But the whole point—Aragorn and Gandalf and Boromir and Faramir and Imrahil and everyone else insists—is to distract Sauron long enough that the Ring-bearer can succeed in his mission. The plan isn't to win, it's to be bait.

Now you have a few options.

Denethor can, once again, begrudgingly go along with it, showing that he's slowly changing in heart. Perhaps Aragorn's humility is winning him over. Perhaps Boromir's impassioned pleas are getting through. In any case, you have a pretty good set-up for a redemption arc here, which could be interesting if you want to go down that road.

Alternatively, this could be the moment that Denethor entirely gives in to despair and basically says "fine, if you guys wanna go kill yourselves, I'll just be over here doing the exact same thing", and he tries to make Steward a la flambé. (Whether or not he succeeds is up to you, but I will say that this would be a pretty easy way to settle the succession crisis.)

Alternatively still, Denethor could publicly denounce the whole idea as stupid and order the people of Minas Tirith to stay put and defend the city, at the same time that Aragorn and the rest are urging those same people to come with them for one last stand. Now every eligible fighter in the city has to make a choice. Who will they follow? Lord Denethor, or Lord Elfstone? The people are divided. Factions are made. (This might be the moment that a certain member of the Guard sees Faramir standing with Lord Elfstone and decides, for the first time in his life, to break the rules.) In any case, the force that travels to the Black Gate is far smaller than it would have been if not for Denethor's interference.

If you go with the first option, it's a quicker road to a happy ending. Aragorn returns victorious, he and Denethor reconcile, and Aragorn honors the Steward and puts him in a place of high esteem. Everyone in Minas Tirith likes this, including Boromir and Faramir, and everyone lives happily ever after.

If you go with the second option, Denethor has either successfully or unsuccessfully attempted sudoku, which should probably disqualify him from public leadership either way. If he succeeded in barbecuing himself, it's the tragedy of a man who never got to see the upcoming victory; if he failed, it's the tragedy of a man whose mind was so utterly broken by the Enemy that he couldn't enjoy it.

If you go with the third option, congratulations; after Aragorn gets back, you still have to deal with the succession crisis. But I've waffled on for long enough and have basically no ideas how you'd handle this post-story, so I'm not gonna go down that road any further.

Option C: Pitch straight down the middle

Now what I've just presented are the two most extreme possibilities of a "Boromir Lives" AU that exist in my brain, but they're far from the only options. This thing is a spectrum. There are a potentially infinite number of possible storylines, some closer to canon, some further away.

If you like parts of one but not the other, you can mix and match. Take an exit ramp from the AU and get back on canon wherever you want, or just don't and see where it takes you. All I've done is present the furthest extremes I could think of to help shake up the ol' creative juices.

(I would have explored the possibility of Boromir arriving on the corsair ships with Aragorn instead of a few days earlier with Gandalf and Pippin, but that didn't change much except for Boromir having less opportunities to talk his dad down from bad decisions. So do with that what you will.)

Conclusion

I have no idea if this was the kind of answer you were looking for, but I guess I'm just returning rambling for rambling, LOL! In any case, I hope this helped, and if not, I hope it was a fun read.

But there is one more thing I can do for you, before I wish you good luck in your D&D endeavors, and that's turn it over to everyone else who reads this blog and see what they think!

HEY YOU GUYS! If Boromir lived, how would that effect Denethor's psyche?? Reblog with your thoughts!

[noeggets]

Just came hear after seeing your post on Espio's feelings regarding the Mr. Tinker situation.

I've always thrived on the idea that, at some point, some of the fellas (let's say Shadow, Espio, Whisper, Omega, Lanolin and screw it let's throw in Surge and Kit) have had it up to Chaos with Sonic's pacifism towards Eggman and decide to take care of him themselves. This would eventually lead to a Civil-War situation where Team Shadow's hunting down Eggman while Sonic and his remaining allies are forced to protect him not just from the others, but maybe even the entire public who would somehow be swayed against Sonic's ideals.

So yeah thanks for coming to my TED talk or something off I go into the abyss never to step foot on your grounds ever again/j

thats a interesting situation

i don't like giving my opinion because i feel like someone is going to take this as me putting down your idea but im really not this is just how i feel with my characterization of shadow and the other guys im sorry tjnsfdkbg

i feel like a civill war could break out where the citizens of the town Sonic lives in would do this but i don't feel like Shadow would only do this if there was a driving force either between G.U.N telling him too or if he had a really strong reason (like if he thought Eggman was going to do something truly diabolical that hurts the world Shadow lives in, like doing the zobot mess again) cause he gave him a chance for Sonic already so this time he gets 0 chances

i don't think people like Sonic as a pacifist but i think the characterization of sonic being a pacifist to the point of it endangering others is really good for him and for story telling, that's his flaw, i saw somebody reblog my Espio post and say something like they hate that Sonic's pacifist but i love it jdsrhfdhgjf that's why Sonic would form a "Protect Eggman" thing because he's gonna do it with or without the help of his friends, Sonic does not care he will not let them do that to Eggman that's why he wanted to send the Zeti home cause he values their life.

Back to talking about Shadow, remember when he was talking to Sonic and Sonic said something like: remember Eggman may done a lot bad things but he helped us when it really counted and if somebody does something bad once they get no chances i should be trying to take you down with Eggman even if your not that same person anymore.

I can get on board to the idea of Espio and Whisper agreeing with Shadow that if Eggman did such a thing they shouldn't let him live anymore but i don't think Espio and Whisper would go against Sonic as to hurt him or his friends that are agreeing with him to protect Eggman, Whisper has been taught Tangle and Cream killing isn't worth it and i just don't think Espio has it in him to assassinate he'd agree with Shadow in the moment but when it came down to it i feel like Espio would rather have Eggman locked up in a high security prison over ending his life even after the whole Zobot thing cause i remember he was really pissed when he was talking to Knuckles who tried to comfort him.

I don't think Surge cares enough about Eggman but i don't im not caught up enough with the idw comic to say, her feelings but whatever she does Kit follows and i feel like she'd only be on the Eggman hunt to make Sonic's day worse and difficult, she doesn't care about Eggman she only cares about how this affects Sonic

Omega is a complex thing cause he hates Eggman and any opportunity he gets to do away with him i feel like he'd take it but Omega has a heart and if Rouge begged him not to i feel like that could end it there

i don't know enough about Lanolin but i feel like she wouldn't agree on killing Eggman but she would agree that the world would be a better place without him i feel like she could be manipulated into the idea of "if Eggman was dead we'd have less problems in the world" to the point where she thinks this is the righteous choice and let her morals take her places they shouldn't until somebody knocks her to the reality of "ending a life is bad"

THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION don't let me stop you from making cool AU's how would you rationalize these characters thinking Eggman's death is for the greater good? cause i could not and could imagine some of them thinking this way but in some lights put in the right/wrong situation i can see it