#ok but real talk im about to start reading the books and other than being gloomy about being a bastard and being a great swordsman—

[daemon-is-perfectly-unhinged]

Rhaegar: We're trying to make you feel peaceful. Blood, killing, war, those are all non-peaceful things. Isn't there anything else you like?

Jon: Weapons. I like weapons.

Rhaegar: I'm starting to think we have a problematic issue of personal philosophy here.

[spitdrunken]

relationships: robin x reader, sunday & robin, sunday & reader

notes: ambiguous relationships, implied mind control (not with robin/reader)

Robin is pretty particular about the people she wants to date, and has a certain modus operandi. Due to her cross-galaxy fame, it’s pretty much impossible for her to go on dating apps, at least via the usual channels. But she doesn’t want to limit her dating pool to just fellow celebrities, either. Masterful at disguises as she is, during first contact and first dates she has a tendency to hide her real identity, though she would never wait long before revealing herself. Even prior to how famous she is now, she has been burnt in the past by people being interested in who they think she is, rather than who she actually is as a person.

She has a special fondness for romance novels, and spends quite a bit of time discussing them on online forums. Online is one of the places she does not have to worry about how she presents herself, and she can gush in anonymity like anyone else. Thinking of a meet-cute is one of the few unrealistic dreams Robin allows herself, but perhaps she meets you through prolonged chatting online. Starting from your shared interests and underneath fake aliases, before spreading out to subject such as your actual lives and the people around you. Your friend is rather secretive, not giving out her exact name or showing pictures, but you assume it’s just in the name of privacy, until…

You: no waaaaaayyyyy You: where’s the /j?? birdie i swear lmao You: you’re kidding right You: or are you actually being serious?? wait wait ok You: ok if you’re serious. ily girl and no offense but like. send me a picture of you and a note with my username on it or smth? cuz im sure you can imagine it’s kinda hard to believe you’re THAT Robin

And she does! She sends you multiple pictures in fact, in multiple poses, to reassure you that the images aren’t A.I.-generated. When she apologises to you for hiding who she really is, she does it through a voice message, and you can hear one of the most envied voices in the galaxy speak just to you. It’s… Kind of overwhelming? But at the same time, it doesn’t change all that much.

She’s still your friend, who you’ve talked about to your struggles and gushed about your interests to, who always listens and always has a nice word to say. Who, if she has any faults, is always too hard to herself, never seeming to cut herself a break. Who always seems to be asleep at different times, and can disappear for days at a time. You thought she just had a horrifically wrecked sleep schedule, but this would explain that! Maybe it helps that, though you’re definitely familiar with Robin, you wouldn’t call yourself a fan or stan of hers.

When she confesses her feelings for you, it’s over the phone, a rare trembling enter his voice as she carefully considers her words.

“I’ve thought… A lot of times about how to put this. I still don’t really know how,” she says, laughing lightly. “I don’t want to lose what we have now. In my life, you’re one of the few people I can always turn to— Who I can show… Other sides of myself. I’ll just say it. It’s not really as romantic as the books we’ve read, but, I’ve fallen for you. Would you care to meet, sometime? And go on a date? I don’t want to pressure you, or feel like you have to do this. If you’re not interested, I still really, really would like to be your friend.”

There are a lot of conversations to be had when you begin to date Robin. It’s not going to be exactly easy. Not only do you need to be prepared to be put on blast on social media and feature in gossip articles, you’ll have to deal with the fact that she’ll be away on travel most of the time. Including to dangerous places, such as active warfronts.

This is something that, regardless of their love for you or anyone else, is integral to Robin’s life, and one thing she’ll never change. If that is something you cannot come to terms with and this reveals itself during your conversations, you’d be better off remaining friends. You can accompany Robin on certain travels, maybe even all of them, depending on the kind of person you are, but for a long while at least, Robin won’t settle anywhere permanently.

But if you manage to get through all of this, Robin is a wonderful girlfriend. She writes you letters and sends you gifts no matter where she goes, and makes time to call you at least once a day whenever she can. In interviews, she’ll bring you up as one of the people who give her strength, and her face lights up when she speaks of you. At events, she’d enjoy helping you dress up in whatever style you want, and constantly keeping your arms interlinked as you walk around.

While she isn’t all that touchy in public, she’d be clingy whenever it’s just the two of you. Making up for lost time together. Another thing she would enjoy is putting the both of you in increasingly elaborate disguises for public outings together! She has to make the fact she’s nearly always followed around by paparazzi fun somehow.

One of the largest ‘hurdles’ when dating Robin is, funnily enough, meeting her older brother Sunday. She speaks of him with nothing but affection and the occasional tinge of worry (though, when you tell her that she has the exact same kind of habits towards overworking herself, it’s suddenly not so bad after all).

Robin herself seems to have no fears that you won’t meet her brother’s standards, but you have your doubts, really. If your glances over the letters he’s written her are anything to go by, he loves Robin just as much as she loves him, if not even more so. While his approval is important to her, you’re certain that she would never break up with you over it, or anything of the sort. Still… You can’t help but feeling nervous.

Your worries aren’t unfounded. Over a dinner in Penacony’s Dreamscape, Sunday seems to scrutinise you, gaze boring into your forehead. All the time, there is nothing but a gentle smile on his face. Yet, you’ve never felt to be under such a strong spotlight, not even at events accompanied by Robin, walking across massive stages. Your head hurts, but you’re guessing it’s just from the general stress that you’re feeling.

As Robin laughs about the type of meal manifested on her brother’s plate (“An Alfalfa Salad for yourself? I really thought you would’ve gone for something sweeter, brother!”), you shift on your seat in discomfort and attempt to keep small talk conversations going.

Perhaps it’s your mind being tricks on you, perhaps you are ‘spiraling in on yourself’, as Robin sometimes calls it, but you really do believe that this man does not like you whatsoever. When you can’t take it anymore, you move your chair. Its loud scraping breaks up any conversation.

The smile on your face is wobbly. “I’m just going to go to the bathroom for a second. Excuse me.”

Robin puts her hand on your arm. “I can show you where it is? The mansion’s layout can be a bit confusing at times, even though I’ve been here plenty of times myself.”

Sunday, across the table, shakes his head and gets up. “Please stay seated, sister. As the host, it is my duty to guide your… Partner, to wherever they may need to go. Allow me to guide you.”

Somehow, your attempted escape has become a new trap in and of itself. It’s practically impossible to deny to go with him now, though, so you straighten your shoulders, nod, and follow Sunday further into his home. The clacking of his shoes on the marble floor is the only noise keeping you two company as you walk a step behind him. He stops. There is no bathroom, here. Only a giant paint of Robin situated on the wall. She’s smiling. Sunday turns half a circle around and stares at it, hands folded together behind his back.

“You…” he speaks slowly. “Do you think you can make her happy?”

Your head throbs. Your head hangs a little to the side, as you stare at the painting. “I think… When I met Robin, she was already happy. In a sense. She has a purpose. A goal she’ll always keep striving for— No matter what. Chasing that, I think it makes her feel more fulfilled than many people… Like me.”

You slowly shake your head. “So, no, I don’t think just myself could make her happy. But as things are now, she is. I do add something to her life, but… I don’t think the rest could be taken away.”

You stare at Sunday. If there is a thought that hits you now, in the painfully placid nature of his expression, in the manner he has watched you all evening, it is not merely protectiveness that fuels him. In part, it is jealousy, too.

You sway a little on your feet.

“You act as if Robin does not care for you,” you smile wistfully, turning to the painting in turn. “You don’t know how she talks about you, if you aren’t around. I think about it, sometimes. If you and I… Were hanging off of a precipice, and she could only save one of us— I can’t say for certain who she would pick. But if I’m honest with myself, as much as it would pain her, and how much it hurts me to think, I really do believe she would save you.”

You squeeze your eyes shut as the corners of your vision turn blurry. “I— I don’t know why I’m saying any of this.” You press your hand to the side of your head, and drag it down your cheek. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m feeling very well.”

“Is that really the truth?” Sunday asks.

“To me it is, I guess.” You mumble. “If you asked Robin, she would answer… That she would find a way to save both of us. No matter the cost. Because that is the kind of person she is. But I can’t seem to think that would be a reality.”

Sunday hums, then turns around you. When he nods, your nausea dissipates, you straighten your back, and whatever stupor you had found yourself in leaves your mind. All at once, shame crashes into you. What the hell have you been babbling on and on about for the past five minutes? When he looks at you now, his gaze is not quite as oppressive as before, though you are not entirely sure how to feel about him.

He lowers his head a tad, ears fluttering. “Thank you for allowing me to understand you better,” Sunday tells you. “You are a different type of person than I imagined you to be— Perhaps you and I are more similar than I believed. Due to my personal feelings, it seems I led my thoughts stray into disharmony. Will you forgive me?” Though the ice has left his tone, it is now as if he has shaved off every edge, covering it all in fabric. It is almost condescending.

But you, honestly, still kind of need to piss. And you’re over all of this, really. “I— Yeah. Yeah, sure. Spirit of harmony, and all that.”

Sunday smiles. “Well, then I believe a reintroduction is in order.” He extends his hand towards you, and you hesitate only a moment before taking it. “I suppose we are family now, too. Know that, whenever life’s troubles seem to be consuming you, Penacony will always opens its arms to you.”

[rumunstelle]

Awkward Affections

Warning : None

Summary : An awkward experience you and Ike have experience back when you first started dating

Late at night, you and Ike were laying on your shared bed staring at the ceiling

You couldn't sleep, while your boyfriend, Ike is fast asleep next to you. You looked at Ike, thinking about how much you love him and that you both were in a relationship for almost 4 years now, and... You couldn't see yourself being with someone else other than him. And because of this, you thought about the first time you confessed to him. And you cringed at yourself, remembering that memory that you had with Ike

(Flashback to their Highschool Days) :

You entered the library, with only a few people in it. But, they weren't the people you were looking for. Looking around, you quickly noticed a certain brown haired boy with faded blue tips in his hair. It was none other than Ike Eveland your crush bestfriend!

"Ikeee" Ike stopped reading his book, looking behind him he saw you said waving and walking towards him "Hello, goodmorning (Y/n)" He said "Goodmorninggg" you said back, sitting down on the sit beside him

"Hmm..? What book are you reading?" You asked looking at the opened book infront of him, "Its called 'Our Interactions' (Not real book!), its about two highschoolers. And in my opinion the confession scene was really well-written. Yet, it was really tragic. The girl basically met the guy in the library and confessed her feelings about him, yet sadly the guy rejected her because his heart yearned for another, she understood and kissed him on the cheek and saying that she understands yet she... Really can't help but love him..."

"Ah- Im sorry... I must be ranting, aren't I?" Ike said, looking at you "I don't mind, I'm fine with you telling me about the books your interested in... Y'know, the way you explain stories your interested in... There's sparkle in your eyes..." You said chuckling a bit

After this, you both sat there in awkward silence just... Looking at eachother

"Ike, I wanna tell you tha-"

RING RING RING

The school bell rang loudly throughout the school, you sighed "(Y/n)? Were you gonna tell me something?" Ike asked, "Huh?? Oh- Maybe... Tomorrow, if that's ok?" You said, "Oh, ok... See you later, (Y/n)" Ike said "See you, Ikeyyy!"

...

You sitting on your couch, thinking of a proper way to confess to Ike tomorrow... 'I mean... He mentioned the story where the girl confessed to the guy by- AH! THATS IT!! YOU COULD CONFESS THE WAY THE GIRL CONFESSED IN THE STORY..! But wait- doesn't the girl get rejected, WAIT WHAT IF IKE REJECTS ME?! DOES IKE EVEN LIKE ME?? DOES HE...' Due to your overthinking, same you didn't know if you should confess or not

What if this ruined your friendship? What if he'd be disgusted with you? What if you guys grow apart of you confess?

...

It's the next day. You decided not to confess to him, the friendship you guys have is to important to you. You don't want to ruin your guy's friendship! And without you noticing... You distanced yourself from Ike

...

Its been almost a week, and you entered the library apparently Ike wanted to talk to you. Closing the door to the library, your eyes scanned the library to find Ike. Not being able to find him you started walking around the library to see if you could find the dear novelist

Suddenly, from behind, a pair of hands gently grabbed you, spinning you around before you could react. Before you knew it, your back was against the hard surface of the bookshelf. Ike's face was inches from yours, his eyes twinkling with mischief and excitement

"There you are" he whispered, his breath tickling your face, turning your surprise into laughter, "Ike! You scared me!" you said, your hands resting against his chest feeling the steady beat of his heart. "I couldn’t resist, I'm sorry" he replied with a grin, his hands steadying you

"So, what did you want to talk abou-" "Why have you been avoiding me?" Ike asked in a serious tone, "Heh??" You stood there confuse, maybe because he was SO DAMN CLOSE TO YOU, maybe because you didn't have a proper answer to that question...

"I..." You closed your mouth, silently looking down at the floor

"(Y/n), look at me"

You obeyed him immediately looking at him, and yet you knew you guys were close BUT NOW THIS CLOSE! LIKE YOUR FACES WERE INCHES AWAY FROM EACHOTHER! YOU COULD LITERALLY FEEL HIS HOT BREATH ON YOUR FACE..!

"Answer my question. Now"

"I... I've been avoiding you because I wanted to confess to you, but... I didn't want to ruin our friendship, and without realizing it. I've been avoiding you..." You said avoiding his gaze

But then Ike smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that” He admitted, his voice softening “I’ve liked you too, for quite some time. I just never thought you’d feel the same way" Relief washed over you like a wave, cooling the fiery anxiety that had been boiling inside you “Really?” You breathed out, a laugh bubbling from your lips "Really” Ike confirmed, reaching across to gently take her hand

The world outside continued its chaos, but inside the library, in that small, sacred corner, a new chapter had just begun for the both of you

You leaned closer, your heart skipping. Ike met you halfway, you both being a little uncertain. Your guy's kiss was awkward, a brief, gentle press of lips that spoke more of new beginnings than practiced passion. You pulled back, both sharing a sheepish smile. Your guy's first kiss was perfectly imperfect

(Flashbacks Ends) :

'OH MY GODDDDD!! WHY DIDN'T I JUST CONFESS BEFORE I HAD TO OVERTHINK ABOUT IT, ALSO WHY DID I KISSED HIM SO FAST-' As you were overthinking about what you did in the past, you suddenly felt arms around you. You look at Ike's sleepy face, his eyes slightly opened

"Äskling, why are you still awake at this hour?" He asked in a sleepy voice, looking at you with his tired eyes "Ah, Im sorry Ike. Did I wake you?" You asked hugging his back "Hmm... Just, go to sleep..." He said, closing his eyes as you chuckled and closed your eyes, feeling all the embarrassment fade away

And you both drifted of to sleep in eachother's embrace

[pumpkinsy0]

i eat up any time and pony interaction PLEASS I BEG give me some hcs of them interacting

ur so real,,,im tired of darry and curly interactions,,,,wheres my tim and pony interaction lovers at,,,hmu,,,

•pony doesnt know it, but tim has a nickname for pony in kreyòl

•nickname a lil too generous, hes lowkey making fun of pony but its not bc hes trynna b a dick, tims just,,,like that,,,,

•tim actually reads a bit and sometimes pony talks to him about books theyve read, curly teases that they have a lil book club

•tim has a tendency to ask curly “hows the curtis kid doin”, just to secretly catch up w him, he also asks this to darry when they catch up at bucks bar

•i think ignoring whatever the fuck darry and tim have, he finds pony to be the most interesting curtis brother, at the very most one of the most interesting person hes met in general cause ponys different from everyone else

•ok so technically tim is still enrolled in school and actually does show up VERY rarely and he has some elective classes w pony (those classes where ppl from different grades r in the same class) and tim always sits w pony

•partially bc ponys the only mf he knows there but also to serve as a bodyguard bc ponys pretty small compared to everyone else

•at some point they started doing fistbumps to great each other and pony felt like he unlocked a character w that😭😭

•tim would see some doodles of curly in ponys sketchbook and he KNEW curly and pony were gettin together at some point, tim was like one of the first ppl to realize, he just gave pony a look of “hmmm” and pony nearly shit himself

•tims saved pony from being jumped and hes just,,,carried pony to the car to get him home, and pony was honestly more astonished at that for a bit than being jumped for a sec

•second time pony ever drank was bc tim told him to bc pony got hurt and tim said it would make it hurt a bit less while he was patching him up which, wasnt TOO off but its not bc the alcohol rlly helped pony was just focused on the taste more than anything

•ik i say pony stares at tim and it freaks tim out at times but tim b starin too and pony feels like tims accessing him, he jokes w curly that tims a walking lie detector

•yknow what i think tim wouldve visited pony at the hospital if he was hurt that badly, maybe even got him a lil gift like a switchblade “to replace the other one” or whatever, hes a fucked up guy what can i say

•nobody rlly knows it, but after everything that happened, tims got some guys watching over pony to make sure no soc’s try to get their “revenge” or whatever

[spectrum-core]

STEPHCLAIR IS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD

Alternative title: a very angry (and tired) Full Stop fan's thesis.

ok, so me being the stephan/sinclair comparison's strongest hater is a bit i really like to lean into, but for the sake of keeping things semi-serious i will try to keep the actual essay content as free of me ranting my frustrations as humanly possible (which i mean commitement to the bit aside this will be hard bc it is frustrating to see people calling them both the same character, at best it shows a very surface level understanding of either character and at worst it shows just reducing them to cookie cutter meme fandom archetypes neither character actually fits into, so bear with me if i slip up and make unserious comments from time to time)

so before i start the actual essay let me say this: this essay doesnt even scratch the surface of how much i hate this comparison you guys cant even possibly fucking imagine ive been obssessed and i mean OBSSESSED with the full stop office since 2021 and im glad i wasnt in the limbus prerelease fanbase because if i had to see people comparing my beautiful boy and beloved best friend to a guy we had no info about other than "hes based of the guy from demian" i would have turned into the joker this is not even about saving my own mental health this is about sparing the entire pjm fandom of the monster i would have turned into

spoilers for ruina and limbus, universe terminology heavy and surface level references and interpretations of demian by herman hesse because imma keep it real with you guys the first and only time i read that book i was still in high school and i barely remember shit.

Table of contents:

Stephan - a summary

Sinclair - a summary 2.1. Emil Sinclair in Demian (1919) 2.2. Emil Sinclair in Limbus Company (2023)

Addressing common arguments

1.- Stephan - a summary

And of course I will start with Stephan, because I love him very much, just like Liwei he's one of my favorite pjm characters (yeah i like him more than your favorite popular character don't ask) so it's not surprising that i have A Lot to say about him, right?

And of course, I do.

As I said in the serrated duo post, a core part of my perception of the Full Stop office depends on the fact that they are poor. Mentions of money are common all across many factions in the game, yes, but the Full Stops are extremely constant about money, how taking a wrong turn means losing more than they can afford, how they can't afford to drop their weapons because they were too expensive, how even getting the permissions to be able to buy and wield these weapons was ridiculously expensive and so on. Of course, Stephan is the one talking about this the most (something I will elaborate on later), but Liwei and Tamaki also make a few ocassional mentions to it in their dialogue and keypages and considering this is a shared business it just makes sense that this is something that affects all of them.

These are just some few of the callbacks to money that Stephan alone does in his dialogue, without focusing in keypage text or what Liwei and Tamaki have to say about it.

And idk man, at least to me the difference between social classes is an important aspect for their characterization, specially because of how constant the concern with money is for Stephan. From this point alone comparing them feels like erasing a core aspect of Stephan's characterization, a lot about Stephan (and the Full Stop office as a whole, let's be real here) starts making more sense once you read the office as lower-middle class (and I'm saying lower middle class because they can afford some place to live and their weapons, but to me these guys are the types who precisely because of their need to keep bullets at all times can't pay for water or electricity all the time and sometimes they simply can't afford food or if they do they can spend a week straight eating nothing but unsalted pasta).

Now, going back to Stephan being the most outward about his complaints with money, he is in general the most outward about all problems the office is facing, to the point in which he doesn't mind inconveniencing everyone else with his rants, being one of the few guests who interrupt Angela's introductory speech and getting into Tamaki's nerves (something he's well aware he's doing, as these two know each other) at least two times through the course of their pre-battle cutscene, even Roland comments after the reception on how he wishes he would always have been as open about his problems as Stephan was.

However, it's worth nothing that he doesn't spend the entire cutscene crying about his miseries, and he only starts losing hope at three key moments: when they can't kill Eileen inmediately (making them waste more bullets than needed), when Argalia shows up (forcing them to retreat and making them fail their mission, meaning they won't get paid for this after they already lost a ton of money, as well as turning the situation into something much more dangerous than what they had signed up for) and once they enter the Library (an Urban Plague grade threat they have little to no information about, when him and Tamaki are almost out of bullets so Liwei is essentially the only fixer with some chance of putting up a fight and, you know, making it out alive).

Now, while it's true that Stephan is someone who dislikes danger, he isn't someone who isn't used to seeing gruesome events, his instinctive reaction to seeing a guy getting his head put into a meat grinder was cracking jokes and calling the concept of thought gears "a load of horseshit", which is something that falls in line with him being a somewhat experienced Fixer (sure, grade 5 isn't amazing but we can assume it's still either in the higher side of average or barely above average, and for someone specialized in firearms, which are far from the best weapon in the city, getting that high means he must have some experience and skill, right? more so considering he's been at this for 5 years at most) who has seen a fair share of horrid shit and can be unfazed by (most of) it as long as his own safety isn't on the line.

Another point is... he dislikes danger and is always wary about money and expenses, to the point in which he enjoys checking his bank account (or at least he believes so, if we go for the theory of the artbook profiles being more a mix of what the characters perceive themseves as/would describe themselves as to others, which is a theory i go by, I see him as someone who's convinced he does that for fun instead as out of desperation), but this seems to be more a generalized feeling of impending doom at everything rather than something that can be traced back to a particular traumatic event (anything can be dangerous, anything can cost him money), dude's from the backstreets after all, he's seen shit and he's used to assuming the worst. How I see Stephan, he's a guy who already expects bad things to happen but once things go wrong he starts freaking out about how this time They're Screwed For Real, but he never really tricks himself into believing "maybe things will turn out just fine this time?" or who thinks "well, we've done this before, surely we can handle it again."

This is not very related to Stephan as a character in terms of personality but I think it's still an important point to make as it is particularly related to body mods, his physical condition and his body shape.

So we can easily say that Stephan is a strong dude, at least if compared to real world standards without the fancy and insane body mods we see people in the city have access to. He carries that huge rifle around with his bare hands, something that Tamaki doesn't do and that not even Stephan himself in earlier iterations of his dessign did, and his main talent (which based of my theories is something that can be assumed as "something he's proud enough of to consider it the thing he does best") is physical labor.

Pictured, Tamaki's talksprite, carrying a rifle almost as long as she is tall with a strap supporting the weight on her shoulders, like a normal person.

Also pictured, an earlier iteration of Stephan's dessign, carrying the same rifle his current version does, but also holding it with the help of a similar strap supporting the weight on his shoulders.

And finally, Stephan's current dessign, holding that shit with his bare fucking hands in an exhibition of his brute animal strength, what the fuck is wrong with this man (affectionate)

And Stephan's artbook profile, the important part here is his speciality being physical labor, not only he's strong but he aknowledges this.

However, I made a point about the Full Stop office being poor, right? Even Roland says that "giving a whole office augmentation procedures is cheaper than keeping a decent supply of bullets in stock" (not the exact phrasing).

At least personally, I see this as Roland essentially saying "it would be cheaper (and more efficient) to get body mods for everyone in the office and buy another (cheaper) type of weaponry instead", but as things stand, the Full Stops can afford to either buy more ammunition and maintain their weapons, OR to get body mods, and since their whole deal is firearms... well, they can't really Stop investing in them, meaning they have no body mods At All and they got their grades purely out of their own physical strength.

Similarly, Stephan makes a similar point about how body augmentations are required for people to be able to run while carrying their weapons around (specifically talking about the rifles he and Tamaki use).

And... you know, the whole point is that they couldn't run carrying their weapons because they were too heavy, Argalia mocked them for that, Liwei urged them to drop their weapons, something they refused to do because of the prices.

Lastly on this point, while it's true that Ruina talksprites have a very bad case of Long Anime Legs (to the point in which how Roland's legs take about 2/3 of his height is a common joke), if we focus only on his head and torso, Stephan looks pretty Wide, and not only because he's wearing thick, fluffy and multilayered clothing, as other characters wearing similar clothing styles still look thinner than him.

This is all to say: I don't think this guy is a twink, or thin at all. He's a prime example of the strongman build to me and this is yet another hill I'm willing to die on watch project moon turn him into a beanpole once he inevitably shows up in limbus and me turning into the first real world distortion as a consequence.

Finally, Stephan is very notoriously the most informal member of the office, not only being the only one who doesn't wear any sort of formal clothing fully prioritizing comfort and practicality over looks but also completely disregarding formalities with his attitude at work (again, he interrupts Angela's introductory monologue, and again, his first two lines when being introduced are him cracking jokes), being the only member of the office to swear on screen and using several informal expressions and metaphors through both the reception dialogue and his keypage story.

And for good measure, he's a compilation of Stephan being the creature he is.

The literal introduction of the characters, also known as the moment in which Stephan became one of my favorite characters because he's Just Like Me Fr

Very normal behavior for someone who hates blood and violence and isn't used to seeing it. This man is more than capable (and willing, assuming money is involved) to murder kill.

Which, I mean, this attitude is very different from what we see from Sinclair.

2.- Sinclair, a summary

In retrospect I probably should have made this one first because I'm gonna be honest with you, Sinclair is one of the sinners I care about the least (I still like him and think he's pretty cool mind you I just don't vibe too much with most of the tropes making up the character) so what I have to say about him is less me grasping for straws and subtext because I don't care enough about him to be bothered with a super serious and in depth analysis like I did with Stephan and more things we can explicitly see about him in game and things that happen in the novel Demian.

And if I can have a small parenthesis here, people saying that one of my favorite pjm guys Ever is in any way similar to a guy who despite being pretty cool is just Not the type of character I fully vibe with... really, it gets annoying fast. Anyway back to the serious analysis now.

2.1- Emil Sinclair in Demian (1919)

To be able to understand Sinclair as he is depicted in Limbus Company, it is important to first be familiar with the source material of the original iteration of the character, that's it we're doing your high school homework by compiling several literary analysis of a symbolic psychological early 20th century autobiographical novel i hope you guys signed up for this (and if you didn't, though luck! i will do this anyway, I love literary analysis).

In the novel, young Emil finds himself torn between the worlds of light (which can be equated to the Garden of Eden, but it's more tangible meaning for our protagonist is his childhood home and family, a serene and well structure/organized space where he can be innocent, untainted by the evils of the outside world) and darkness (basically all the scary shit that goes on outside, where people do evil things for the sake of it), he finds himself tempted by the violence of the outside world, particularly through the actions of his classmate Franz Kromer, which eventually leads him to consider that due to being exposed to this tainted world of evil he no longer can return to the world of good and innocence.

Here, the character of Demian acts as a guide, someone who helps Sinclair to trascend this binary perception of good vs evil and to see himself as someone worthy of happiness because him witnessing the world of evil didn't taint him as a person but rather merely showed him another face of the world, Demian here mentions the Mark of Cain as a symbol of mental strenght and freedom, considering that bearers of this mark are capable of making their own choices and should be able to go beyond their assigned roles, being able to embody aspects of both worlds. This is to say that Demian's view is less focused on good vs evil, instead taking a more order vs chaos approach (without giving an explicit moral character to either).

In the book, the symbol of a bird breaking out of the egg is frequently used to represent Emil's personal growth, the egg represents safety and innocence, but a bird must eventually leave the egg or it will die, and getting out of the egg is a process than can be seen as violent, as a bird must fight to get out of the egg, and getting out of the egg represents birth but also an irreversible change, it can be seen as breaking out of the world of light and getting permanently in the world of darkness since a broken shell can't be fixed, but it can also mean achieving the enlightment and personal balance to not feel permanently bound to a condition, place or state of being and therefore growing as a person by learning to see himself as a whole human instead of supressing his "evil side" by only forcing the "good side" to surface.

Max Demian is here to show this second meaning of growth/self improvement (while also explaining that Sinclair is permamently growing and must always keep this balance between all the parts conforming the whole being that is himself rather that trying to make parts of himself antagonize each other). This idea of personal growth being one of the core themes of the book.

2.2- Emil Sinclair in Limbus Company (2023)

With Sinclair's source media analyzed (at a very surface level, mind you), we now can start talking about the depiction of Sinclair in Limbus Company, how it parallels the book, why the book symbolism is important for this instance of Sinclair and so on.

When we are first introduced to Sinclair in the game he's clearly nervous, he doesn't know what he's supposed to do as he hasn't worked for a similar company before and he isn't used to the gruesome sight of the bus eating people, this does fit inmediately in the motif of a naive person with limited experience about the world (well, to be fair to him most people won't be seeing man-eating buses at a regular basis, but the average backstreets dweller would be familiar with equally violent situations).

With this said, despite Sinclair's obviously nervous behavior... he isn't really a pessimist like Stephan was, in fact, almost every chapter (counting cantos, intervallos and the short mini chapters such as the Dante's notes update episode) have at least one key moment with him trying to rationalize horrible stuff as something much less violent, or simply going "but I thought this thing didn't work like this..." when confronted with the more horrible realities in the city. He thought the G corp veterans were really going to let them pass without a fight, he thought the people being controlled by headhens were just actors wearing mascot costumes, he thought mermaids were the beautiful half-woman half-fish creatures he heard about in fairy tales, and there's more examples but I don't really feel like looking for The Entire Fucking Plot Because This Guy Is An Actual Protagonist Instead Of A Background Guy Like Stephan Was to make my point clearer than it already is. And it's only when he realizes that the real world doesn't fit his expectations that he panics.

Well, there is one exception to this pattern: his own canto. Here, he panics inmediately as soon as K corp's nest is mentioned and spends the first half of the chapter pleading to turn back while saying that they are going to get killed. So what is different here with the rest of the plot?

Obviously, the fact that is related to his very own very personal very specific trauma. That is to say, unlike Stephan who is wary of anything that can put him on danger or cost him more money than it should, Sinclair has a very specific traumatic event that makes him act Like That (sure, he gets scared and nervous outside that, but these are more normal "I'm unfamiliar with this and I don't fully know how to react, this is normal behavior in a human being" reactions than outright "I am Actually Terrified due to being reminded of an actual traumatic event, this reaction is a textbook definition of post-traumatic stress disorder").

HOWEVER, Sinclair being someone who's deeply traumatized and kind of a scaredy cat when it comes to violence and unfamiliar situations... it doesn't mean that he's incompetent or a bad fighter. Almost all of his identities are terrifyingly good fighters (at least in their lore), Los Mariachis fear jefe Sinclair, Cinq director Sinclair is someone most association members are terrified to duel even during training, Blade Lineage Sinclair is considered a talented killer (it's also worth noting that save maybe for the mariachi one, in none of these mirror worlds Sinclair is precisely happy of being recognized as "the guy who's very scary when he fights people", unlike Stephan who I don't think he particularly likes killing but has a more "as long as I get paid..." mentality about it), the only "not very good at this" Sinclair id I can think of is the molar boatworks id where he's more a mechanic than a fighter so he fears he's lagging behind in that aspect. Hell, even the Canon Timeline so to speak (which is to say: his base identity) has him carrying that huge halberd, going on a frenzy attacking some already mutilated inquisitor's corpse, piercing through Guido's armor and dealing a fatal blow that finally killed him for real. To compare, Stephan is good at physical work, but we don't know about his close combat capacities other than the fact that he dislikes it, for Sinclair however we know he's terrifyingly good at physical combat.

Now, I've seen a lot of people call Sinclair a twink and while it's one of these words that nobody agrees on what it means, let's give it the benefit of doubt and say "alright, for the duration of this analysis let's settle on a twink being a young looking (regardless of actual age), thin man with almost no facial/body hair".

Since Sinclair is a rich guy (not just Any Rich Guy though, we're talking of someone whose family had ties to a Wing, probably not some elite guy like Daniel or Hong Lu, but not a self perceived "mediocre" nest dweller like Samjo either), and pressumably not very experienced in combat in most mirror worlds (we know he has no prior experience in the base one where he joined Limbus, at least), let's say that he has enough body mods for him to be much stronger than he looks like despite being thin, he does look thin and young and much to my dissapointment he also has no facial hair, so yeah, under this very broad definition of the term he is a twink.

However if you start adding personality archetypes to the definition he stops being one almost inmediately, as we've been shown time after time that his "submissive" attitude is mostly a result of him not knowing too well how to impose himself and just going along with what the rest say or do, but he's starting to grow tired of that ever since Hell's Chicken (even if he clearly still isn't great at that), as it should be more than obvious for anyone who even just googled "demian herman hesse literary analysis", Sinclair is undergoing a lot of changes even now, and the game is doing a good job at portraying that.

Honestly I also think he'd be hotter with a sleeper build but really, I don't care enough about him to argue about that.

And for the last point, precisely due to his upbringing as a rich guy AND his traumatic experience with Kromer, Sinclair is not only a very polite and mild mannered guy (again, unlike resident creature Stephan), but also he tries to take as little space as possible, both literally and metaphorically, as Dante notices near the end of canto 3 when they finally comment on how Sinclair never talks about his own problems until it's too late because he doesn't want to bother the others as they probably have it worse (again, unlike Stephan "i don't mind loweing team morale and making everyone in the room uncomfortable as long as i get to vent" Full Stop office).

3.- Adressing common arguments

Alright, now that I talked about each character, let's see some of the most common arguments I've seen people use to compare them.

"They look the same!" No, they don't. The only thing they have in common is being blonde but even their hairstyles are different with Sinclair having a simple bowl-ish cut with slightly wavy hair and Stephan having curlier hair (not to mention the whole point I made about body types because I'm the sort of lunatic who cares about that stuff). I won't even bother with this argument.

"They have the same personalities!" Again, they don't. Stephan is very cynical with a lot of his attitude being clearly derivated from him coming from a poor background and having stayed there his whole life, he also doesn't care about his cynism getting in the way and bothering everyone else. On the other hand, Sinclair is someone who could almost be described as naive due to having lived a sheltered childhood and only having his experiences with Kromer and his time at Limbus as moments of realizing that the rest of the world is Not Like His Childhood House, still believing that the world is a binary of good vs evil and expecting things to turn out fine or be much better than they actually are, just to be hit with the reality of the city Not being a nice place where people are nice and polite and not trying to kill him, this is not to say he doesn't have his own issues but even Dante notices during his Canto that Sinclair makes a point to avoid bothering everyone else with his personal problems, keeping them to himself even if that makes things worse on the long run.

"Both are opposed and harmed by a lunatic!" This is an argument I've seen a lot and is incredibly filmsy at best, half of the city's population are lunatics and the other half are people who got opposed by them some way or another. Will you say that Ishmael and the rest of the Pequod crew can be compared to the Full Stop office (or really, even mention the other Full Stop fixers instead of just focusing on Stephan because he happens to be blonde and can be compared to Sinclair) because of their situations with Ahab? Or the W Corp crew who got their train targetted by Jae-heon and Elena (or, you know, the train passengers who were turned into Love townspeople or puppets)? What about the Vermillion Cross who got killed by the Reverb Ensemble? Or the Cane office fixers? or the Zwei association section 6 who got beaten to death by Gyeong-mi just because he felt like doing so? Or the Liu association section 1 who had to deal with Argalia taking Philip away? Or the Kurokumo clan members when they were attacked by Tanya? You aren't comparing them to either Stephan or Sinclair, right? Not to mention that in her weird and fucked up perception of things, Kromer was less opposed to Sinclair as she was trying to lead him to join her and her cause, even the last things she says before getting killed are her calling him to follow her.

"Both are compared to birds!" Oh, right, because I forgot that a very directed symbolic comparison to a baby bird breaking out of it's shell as a symbol of rebirth, learning about the nuances of the world and self improvement/liberation that is consistently used in the source material Sinclair comes from is exactly the same as one (1) throwaway line the big bad guy uses to mock not only Stephan but the whole Full Stop gang, right. And if you want to say "but Tamaki compares him to a bird once too", yeah she calls him a parrot because he keeps repeating the same complaints over and over, it's still not the same as a consistent metaphor.

"Both are sad blonde twinks! They're essentially the same guy." Sad? Yeah, everyone in the city is sad but their ways to be sad are polar opposites, and neither of them is the pure cinnamon roll uwu crybaby archetype people tend to lump both into, Stephan was merely having a bad day and people decided to make that his whole personality (when honestly we get more insight on his actual personality before Argalia shows up, when he's making sarcastic remarks and getting impatient because they weren't starting killing people fast enough) but he's still perfectly capable (and willing) to murder people, and Sinclair is just... someone who lacks experience about the real world and how it works and has a tendency to get nervous because of this, but he can adapt quickly to situations once he understands them. Blonde? Yeah, but I guess if that's a point to draw a comparison then we should also compare them to Don Quixote, the Tiphereths, Lenny, Yun, Lulu, Olga, every single npc, librarian, and agent who comes with blonde hair from the generator... Twinks? Stephan absolutely isn't one, Sinclair depends on how you define twink as nobody seems to get to an agreement with that, if you define it as merely "young looking thin man with almost no visible body hair" then yeah he is one, but if you go for any more specific definition than that he stops fitting into the definition almost instantly.

In conclusion: if I see anyone else comparing them I'll start blocking people liberally bc I'm sick of seeing that shit (I do that already tbh but just so you know), now scram

[crushedsweets]

do you have any ej headcanons? his character tends to vary alot, sometimes he used to be human and other times hes just a monster in the woods

ive always liked the idea of him being like a big brother to some of the pastas mainly like sally, ben, and jeff

AAAAGREED . As per usual ramble under the cut about jacks relationship with everyone + I’ll post colored version of this in a sec

ok. ive already talked a good bit about jack being a normal med student before the sacrifice, spending a year in some rando possessed demon state, regaining clarity, finding refuge in slenders forest, etc etc. he sort of resembles like, a vampire mixed w ghoul from tokyo ghoul

and as per usual fandom antics, he's one of the typical medical resources for a lot of people in that circle . he absolutely was the eldest son of his family, maybe like 3 younger siblings, so going to university and getting away from a big family was really nice for him. until he lost everything and can never face them again</3

SOOOOO him being the resident 'doctor' and already having a brotherly instinct .. its real and true. especially with sally, but she doesn't come around much since sally stays w jane and jane doesnt need jack. sally def reminds him of one of his little sisters. its super super bittersweet for him. jane doesnt realize jeff gets help from jack so thats the only reason she even lets sally come around

in terms w his friendship w jeff and ben.. those two are close, and jeff def has to go to jack for medical attention. ben doesnt need it but he'll come w jeff just bc he can. for a while jack REFUSED to talk to jeff while treating his wounds bc he knows what jeff does. ((jeff isnt even protected under slenderman he just lies and jack has no idea LMFAO))BUT EVENTUALLY jeff starts bringing jack uhh. :| remains. as an extra thank you, which means jack doesnt have to do the killing. it felt like a huge burden lifted off his shoulders. so that kinda helped shift their friendship. ben also doesnt really kill he just haunts so jack didnt have severe issues w him anyway(plus ben actually IS protected under slender sooo)

ben and jeff are just kinda assholes but in the boyish brotherly way(for the most part). neither of them have past 8-9th grade education and will literally look at jack like hes stupid for making a catcher in the rye reference.

jacks just kind of a pathetic little asshat who misses being in school. sometimes he'll try to convince ben and jeff to actually pick up a book for once in their life, and they probably did it once. PROB WOULD ENJOY CATCHER IN THE RYE NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT. LMFAOO

he's not all too brotherly with like, masky and hoody since those two are older than him and are creeped out by him. but theyve gotten their fair share of medical attention from him, and he even taught hoody some more extensive first aid so now hoody kinda deals with the basic stuff toby totally still goes out of his way to see jack regardless of whether hoody could treat it or not. toby had nobody willing to talk to him growing up, so the fact that now he sort of has a circle of freaks thatll talk to him, laugh(marginally) at his jokes, and can take some crude remarks.... BROS TAKING ADVANTAGE.

clocky also isnt protected under slenderman, but if she comes to jack with a gash in her head or a stab wound in her leg, jacks gonna help regardless. clocky is also kind of a smartass so she'll actually read some of the books jack has and talk to him about it which is pleasant for them both, but they really have like... nothing else in common.

liu doesnt need 2 go to jack and wouldnt bc he has no reason to

im still lost on how i want ninas case to go, whether she actually kills or just committed an act of self mutilation that caught jane and lius attention, so idk if she would need jack . .

[unholyverse]

i want to know i want to know about it so bad tell me about it. please

ok a lot of people sent me the asks for it but i will answer yours because :3

sorry in advance for formatting i’m on my phone and tumblr never shows me the right image thumbnails

ok so sometimes i’ll subscribe to the slumber podcast patreon bc. honestly i think they’re more enjoyable together when they’re being boring and talking about mundane shit. but one of the times i wasn’t, i see this on the podcast twitter

and me <- fic writer with morbid interest wanted to see what the fuss was all about because:

travis is writing a fic about his very real and personal friends

travis is writing a fic about his very real and personal friends’ to the theming of the album (that’s supposed to be) about religious guilt and sexuality that as far as i know, said writer of said album has not discussed with him because of the nature of it

this was set in travis’ knockoff pokemon au he sells books of on amazon (i don’t think awsten has read any of his books including this one)

on top of that when i open the first chapter, he says he wants to post this to ao3 when it’s done. i want to punt him to a wall until he goes splat like a cartoon before he’s able to do that.

ok so this is where the terror starts for real. there’s only 5 chapters up so far but each chapter is supposed to correspond with a track on intellectual property (which is 11 tracks….)

so we start on chapter 1: ST*RFUCKER

in this chapter, awsten goes back home from his pop star life in whatever in universe equivalent to la travis has and back to the in universe equivalent to houston while he muses on a recent falling out with some oc travis also made up named ash.

oh did i mention im pretty sure travis made everyone gay in this. bc he did. travis made everyone gay in this.

and here’s when i start to see some of the notes other friends have made about travis’ writing from reading his other books. it’s almost like…too travis than anyone he’s trying to write lol. it feels like i’m just reading travis self projecting more than writing the thoughts of another character (who is. his irl friend)

so awsten gets reacquainted with his parents who are loving but just don’t Understand him and his big city habits and clothes now but it’s fine.

oh and travis made jawn and awsten have a past hookup in this. did i mention that bc he made that a thing.

the chapter ends with awsten not getting a text back from ash and getting pissed at it in his childhood bedroom.

and that brings us to chapter 2: real super dark

travis starts this with awsten having a post coital convo with ash and flashes forward to the present where ash won’t text him back.

as awsten is mourning this, he starts thinking about how at least he never wrote a song about him and travis makes awsten muse on the ciara situation but replaces her with a guy literally called NAMELESS.

normal things to write about your irl friend hahahahaha <- i’m starting to lose my mind but know this isn’t the worst of it.

after this is the part where travis texts awsten to come to a party at his place and it becomes very apparent how much travis has fucked with his own self characterization LOL.

here, travis characterizes himself as an avid drinker and party boy that awsten begged to go to the in universe equivalent of la with him, but travis stood his ground and stayed back home. in real life, i think travis is like a sentient piece of white bread and the general coolness of a high school anime club. also i feel like awsten ignores travis sometimes for his other friends. sorry travis.

when it hits me again that this is something i paid $5 for and this is a guy writing incredibly self indulgent and personal fic that is too self indulgent and personal to be a joke, i stop to ask a discord server of friends if this is insane (they agree it is) and continue on.

in the end, awsten flashes back to another post coital moment with ash before he’s supposed to leave and i have to read the implications of awsten banging the oc travis made up again.

that was kind of a nightmare just from the bare bones of it right? it gets worse. it gets so much worse.

here comes chapter 3: funeral gray (he spelled it like that bc fuck british spelling we’re in the us of a 🦅🦅🦅🦅)

so awsten is at travis’ place which is kind of a shithole and i assume travis starts projecting about his own neighborhood through fic!travis for like a paragraph.

the party sucks and awsten isn’t really around any of his friends so he goes to leave but notices some guy in a gray sweater outside doing the in universe equivalent of filling up his pokédex with one of the creatures under someone’s car.

then after that we have to have this bit of dialogue that reaffirms to be that this song’s lyrics taken literally is probably the most annoying conversation ever.

awsten introduces himself to the guy, who immediately clocks him as a pop star he’s heard on the radio.

then travis ruins the moment by showing up drunk and telling awsten to come back in, where jawn is there and it’s not that awkward for them to hang out despite their weird hookup.

they try catching awsten up with local gossip while making themselves out to a fire pit and awstens still trying to find out who the guy he met with the sweater was. by pure coincidence, the sweater guy is outside having a smoke and awsten is crushing hard like an idiot and then we get the reveal that sweater guy is geoff.

yep. we just got gawstened.

now here you might ask, “oh the friend groups all there where’s otto?”. he is literally not in this. at all. i assume there’s a lot of reasons he’s not in this (he’s not close enough to otto, he doesn’t know enough about him in general, possible jealousy on travis’ part on. things?) but either way. he’s not in this shit at all which i find to be a mercy to otto but also. rather interesting. hm.

ok this got too long that tumblr won’t let me post the rest of the screenshots so i have to do a part two which i’ll prommy i’ll link here later i just refuse to type this shit out myself and i need to show you how this is something he is actually posting.

edit from the future: here’s part 2

[yc3iko]

Snowy Fonts Ranpo Edogawa x writer fem! reader

(BTW you still work in the ADA, it's just you decide to write stories based off the real crime, depending on what's going through a detectives head during a crime investigation)

As the winter fall was just beginning, many people were rushing to get the latest candies or books. One was getting lost and the other lost in words on a page.

-(Y/N)'s POV-

I decided to grab the latest book of mine to add to the collection of my very own books. I enjoyed writing the murder books of detectives thought process but reading my own work when published is very different than working on the story itself. I found my works unreadable once I had them in my hands, flipping through the pages finding every error of less detail. I got wonderful comments on my books but the very few hate comments made me shatter. I never had really good self-esteem and my writing was my escape. When someone comments hateful words to me or behind my back, I remember the nights I cried trying to figure out why my writing was not the best. My ability didn't make it any better. I may have a strong ability that lets me write about the future for only five weeks but the mental side effect wasn't the best. 'That's not going to help anyone!' 'Write a better future.' Even with the smallest mistake my brain will pinpoint it. Being in the agency helped me realise why I thought this way. My parents were the key factor. 'You're not doing your best!' 'Your gift is trash just like yourself!' The words they used are the words I use on myself.

"(Y/N) Are you lost in thought again?"

"Oh sorry Ranpo, I guess I was," I said. "Well you choose to come help me find the new winter candies but here we are having somebody's book" Ranpo said. "Oh, well I guess we can go get those candies!" I said, putting on a front to hide my hateful thoughts getting to me. "Yay! To the candy store!" Ranpo said, skipping along.

- Timeskip -

"How was the trip to the candy store Ranpo?" Kenji asked. "I enjoyed it but (Y/N) stopped at some book sale to buy their newest book," Ranpo said. "Oh that's right her newest book came out," Yosano said. This conversation was going on right in front of me. My desk was right beside Kenji's. "Good work on your writing, it was better than last time," Kunikida stated. "It truly was," Atsushi said. Atsushi was my greatest stan here. We both enjoyed books and he ended up finding out first I was a book author. "I didn't know you wrote books," Dazai said, coming over to me. "Yeah I do, but its mostly about detectives' voices inside their head and how they solve the crime," I said. "So that's why most of the time you and Ranpo have cases together," Kenji stated. "Y-yeah I guess that's right," I said. "Ms. (L/N) come here," the president called. "Coming on over," I said. "I guess I gotta go." I waved them all goodbye.

"Yes Mr. President?" I questioned. "I just wanted to say I was proud of your writing skills and how far you have come," He said. "T-thank you," I stuttered. He always would say nice things about my work, but I still never get used to it. 'He's only trying to please you.' 'They only want your ability.' My face changed from a smile to a frown. The thoughts were starting again. I guess it was noticed because the president asked "Are you alright (L/N)?" "Oh I'm fine!" I said. "I really should get back to work, anything else you needed me for?" "Yes, can you make sure Ranpo writes his report? I noticed you have only been doing the reports since you and Ranpo started working together," Fukuzawa said. "Ok," I said and left. As I was on my way, I bumped into Kyoka. "Where are you off to Kyoka," I asked. "Im off the buy your books so I can talk more with you," She said. "Aw you don't have to," I said. "No it's fine," She retorted back. "Ok have fun!" I said. Fronts were so much easier. They never really break character. They were like criminals. Also lying when really you should be telling the truth. True characters hurt people, so my front will always be there.

Once I got back to the office, I noticed that Ranpo was reading and not eating. "What is he doing?" I whispered to Atsushi. "I lended him the first book of your series, him claiming he wanted to know more about your writing," Atsushi whispered back. "Hey (Y/N) come here," Ranpo yelled at me. "Ok," I said, as I walked over. "What would you like?" I asked. "I wanted to know why this book is written about me," He said. "Excuse me?" I questioned. He knew. He was never supposed to know. "Well this first book is about the first case I solved, and the date this was published was months after I told you," Ranpo said. His eyes were opened. The prettiest emerald eyes ever. "I'm sorry, I never got your permission to create a book off it," I said. My head looking down. 'Now he hates you, how do you feel?' 'Aw, are you going to cry, crybaby?' "it's fine, I never had a book based off me before, as the greatest detective of all times I feel honoured," He said, going back to eating his food. "R-really?" I questioned. "Yes but your next book needs to be about me and yours relationship after I ask you out," Ranpo said, bluntly. "What?" Me and everyone else questioned. "You heard me, check the letter on your desk," Ranpo said, pointing to the desk. I walked up to my desk and picked up the letter. It stated:

'I hope this goes right. Will you write me like you write your books after this date I take you on?' Yes no

-Ranpo Edogawa

I checked one off and handed it back to Ranpo. He opened it and said.

'I hope this goes right. Will you write me like you write your books after this date I take you on? Yes no

'P.S Never ask someone out over a letter'

"And that is how I met your greatest father of all times," I whispered to the kids in their beds. "They truly love the story about me being the greatest detective of all times!" Ranpo laughed. "They sure do," I said back.

[alittle-annihilation]

throam vol 1 act 1 reread —

i have not recovered in the last 14 years with what anna did with the prologue and i cant wait to be slapped in the face with it again in a few weeks

the way she does first person is SO incredible too like even if we are stuck up inside of ryan’s head, the descriptions are somewhat external feeling enough that it’s not just i, i, i, i, i, the whole time. that and the descriptions

characterization is another thing i’ve always really liked about these books. like ryan is SUCH a fucking unlikeable asshole and i HATE throam pete so fucking much i want to punch his face.

ok well they are all assholes lets be real here

the chance to read as if it were the first time would be thrilling but also already knowing whats going to happen does make me enjoy the subtle foreshadowings - spencer asking for cinnicinati on page TWO, brent/jac, its wild

who’s jackie?!

ryan’s obsession starts earlier than i remember - its like day two and he’s gone out about the jutting hips and pouty lips a million times

he’s also the WORST at trying to figure out whats going on my guy my dude could you be any more obvious with your line of questioning w everyone?

its kinda wild just how much of bandom is in this series, and i’m only on book 1. like looking back its insane everyones like gf’s from when they were 19 were featured so prominently in the book. like can u fucking imagine being memorized in a fic like that? and then i remember keltie colleen read (and posted about) throam

“kitching, sounds like ka-ching, and rhymes with bitchin” is the best and also most ridiculous line. so is yummy strawberry milkshake is yummy

oh i forogt keltie showed up in vol 1. why she dates ryan when she sees him at one of his worst yrs before is beyond me

“what are you doing?” “pitying you” i’m dead

ryan gives me such BAD second hand embarrassment. man puts his foot in his mouth every five seconds. and i know worse ones are coming

who’s jackie?!?!

back to talking about characterization and how much of ryan’s projecting onto others is used to paint him vs the version of him he’s owning up to (which is still shitty but not as shitty as he truly is

we know spencer and ryan are falling apart throughout the tour for their own secrets. part of me would love to know the secret anguish brent and joe were going to but i have no desire to read their pov. im sure the cheating w jac was very stressful for brent

“pete will probably return to where he came from: hell”

gawd this relationship is so toxic from the JUMP and yet i am invested

[thegeminisage]

ok, its time for a QUICK tng update before xm*s proceedings. saturday we did "best of both worlds part ii" and "family" and last night we did "brothers" and "suddenly human."

best of both worlds part ii: I LOOOOOVED THIS EPISODE. mwah. EVERYTHING i wanted. creepy little cyborg implants. brainwashed picard. his beautiful perfect cgi tear (which may or may not have been cgi, this is a point of debate, experts please weigh in). data bravely doing a robot mind meld. 1000000/10 more borg episodes please please PLEASE

can you imagine if the borg has ben in tos btw. what a thought experiment, except for how i quite literally can't think about it or i'll get so excited i'll pass out

did guinan imply she and picard were lovers in this ep...girl you can do better

my one nitpick with william riker was him promoting that lady he hated instead of someone who deserved it, like worf or data. it probably would have given worf ptsd but can you imagine that enterprise having a captain and first officer being gay on the bridge again...wonderful. except this time there would also be deanna <3

"how much do you remember" "everything" AHAHAHAHA GREAT. GOOD. WONDERFUL. anyway

family: extremely unusual episode but i loved it nonetheless. i was really shocked worf's parents were so sweet!!! i fucking loved them. they're like the cutest people on earth i can't believe they raised such a taciturn and stoic guy like worf...

picard's family i wasn't sure about at first until the wrestling match in the mud. sometimes you need to punch a guy and his brother stepped up to the job admirably. i kept thinking he looked like michael caine, which would have been an incredible choice.

WESLEY.....................................................we don't need to talk about it

everyone's accents in this ep were wack. why does picard have a totally different accent from his brother. why is worf's accent different from his parents. ik its not that deep but its making me crrrazzzyyy

brothers: i didnt even get a look at the title of this episode before we started bc vumoo (the shady site im using to watch) doesn't display them but it was SUCH an unexpected pleasure to get a data episode

absolutely scuh-reaming at the ease with which he hijacked an ENTIRE goddamn starship. he's so competent i love that. a real "glad he's on OUR side" moment, not unlike spock commandeering the enterprise in "the menagerie" (rip i wish that had been a better episode).

lore grew on me really fast. i was neutral on him during his last appearance, the meme aside, but in this episode he was really fun and unsettling. brent spiner can do horrible, horrible things with his face

this ep felt a little cut off? i expected another confrontation with lore, a getting back of the chip, or at least some kind of burial or funeral for dr soong, but we just quit like 3/4 through the episode. maybe less time spent on the opening section of the hijack could have fixed this

anyway i love the foil between data and lore...one has support and the other does not...but it doesn't make sense for lore to get the emotions chip because it seems like he already HAS them??

oh yeah and data repeating "i am not less perfect than lore" got funnier EVERY time he did it. little man was really going thru it i was cracking up genuinely <3

suddenly human: this episode was wack

ok, did you guys read face on the milk carton when you were in school? i did when i was way too young to be reading it and it fucked me up real bad and i completely forgot about it until i watched this episode and then i got to unlock that memory in real time

anyway, while it is obviously the correct choice to return a child to their family when they are kidnapped as babies, it is also hugely traumatic for an older child to be ripped away from a loving home* and transplanted with strangers, which those books explore in horrific detail. so the whole episode i found myself going "i KNOW it's bad politics but could they not just CONSIDER leaving him with the only family he's ever known as a possible choice" and then they DID THAT and i wanted to be ill because it was obviously the worst choice in the world

* this is a different scenario than the first tng episode involving kidnapped children, which strongly resembled the residential schools from real life. THIS particular situation, minus the method of kidnapping (during warfare), more closely resembled the crazy cult shit happening in those books, where the kidnapped girl was being raised by people who thought they really were her biological grandparents and weren't bad people and her biological family also weren't bad people. a "no fault" situation EXCEPT FOR HE KIDNAPPENED THAT BABY DURING WARFARE.

anyway this is the second time tng has dropped the ball on this subject so i think from now on they should not do episodes like this anymore. really really really really bad.

NEXT TIME: "remember me" and "legacy"

[slaygentford]

Professor Emily I just found out I’ve been accepted to a phd program in literature studies!! I’m excited but also terrified & would love any insights you have into like. Grad school in general & teaching young adults as a young adult (I’d start teaching right away if I declare this program) & the parts that make the work worth it & the parts that aren’t worth extra effort & basically just anything you have. Love the work ur doing in general also. I hope to make a career out of being normal about media & history & ur an inspiration ok thank you

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not worth the extra effort: do not answer emails past 5pm do not grade on weekends (im breaking that rule this weekend but whatever). do not tell them how old you are lmfao. it's none of their business and also you need to maintain authority and they'll assume whatever they assume. be normal. truly just be normal and talk how you normally talk you don't have to be anything but you fr. I'll tell you what else doesnt matter. grades: who cares. I grade really nice bc I for real do not care. do not spend more than 20 minutes grading anything ever. you will kill yourself. I'm not saying don't leave the best feedback you can, I'm saying be efficient and chill.

what is worth the effort TO ME is office hours and class discussion. I think it's soooo much more productive to do in person office hours and focus class around discussion when you can. then there's less pressure on you and them (remember that it's important to SHARE THE LABOR with your students it's literally not just you doing everything. let them carry the class when they want to!!! this is a relationship of exchange!) and I genuinely feel like learning is easier for them that way when everything is chill like you get way deeper into the material.

for grad school in general esp while juggling teaching and if you have other jobs ( I work two winky face emoji tongue out peace sign) prioritize your own writing first. it is SO easy not to. but seriously and for real you are here to do YOUR work and work on YOUR diss and that's IT at the end of the day. do not lose sight of that and put it first, do it first thing in the morning if you can and arrange everything else around it when you can, if the choice is between doing meh on your own homework or on grading and putting in a few hours on the diss, DO THAT INSTEAD. seriously

slack off as much as possible you'll understand once youre a year into it <3

make friends :/ at happy hours and whatever

find 2-3 spots where you can be quiet and have some tea or coffee

read for fun even if it takes you a year to finish a single book (and it will)

[gecko-with-a-greatsword]

saw someone else to this so im plaguing my mutuals with this

free pass to ramble about literally any topic!!! i wanna hear about the things you like

ok I know you said things I like but I'm actually going to take this opportunity to rant about The Lorax (2012) because I have a lot of thoughts about why I hate this movie. Thank you for the ask :)

idk how coherent this will be and this might get long sorry

By the way no judgement to anyone who likes this movie or to the onceler fuckers, these are just my opinions. So to start off, I feel like the lorax story did not lend itself well to the animated kids movie formula. It probably would've been better as some sort of short film or something. And I know Dr Seuss was, like, racist and stuff but the lorax had a pretty good message. And in making the movie I feel like they muddled that message a lot.

So like I said, the story didn't fit the vibe, so to make it work as a kids movie they added an entire other plotline outside of the actual story. They expand upon both the world and the child hearing the story, and I have a problem with both of these. It seems like they were trying to make the town have that whimsical feel that other movies based on Seuss stories have, but personally, I don't think it works for the Lorax. Reading the story you get a sense that the world is desolate and barren. It feels pretty dystopian. In the movie that's only the area where the onceler lives and outside of that is a pretty nice looking town. Sure they have no trees, and are being scammed by some shitty CEO but it's a society with lots of people, who don't seem to feel like anything's wrong. And considering that it's a movie for children, I think the things that make it feel dystopian are too subtle. And you could argue that it was intentionally made to feel like real life, as some sort of commentary or something, but again I think kids won't pick up on that.

Moving on to the kid voiced by zac Efron, (I don't remember his name and I don't really care) I think in the story the kid is meant to be a stand in for anyone, like it doesn't matter who he is because it's meant to be you, reading the story. So making this kid a more fleshed out character was not something I would've done in the first place. Furthermore this kid doesn't even think anything's wrong. He's just motivated by the girl he likes saying she wishes she could see a tree! and that's kind of all he cares about which makes me feel like at that point why isn't she just the main character? (also side it was a weird choice to make her be so much older than him.) Basically I didn't care about any of this, they should have left out the entirety of this outside plot.

Anyway, moving on to the actual important part of the story, we have to talk about the onceler. And I think the main issue with the onceler is that they humanized him too much. Obviously in the picture book you don't really see his face, and reads like much more of a creature. I also believe that there was early concept art of the onceler where he was a lot more creature-y but obviously in the movie he ended up as just a guy. And you could argue that this makes sense because in real life it is humans who are at the root of all the things destroying the environment, but the onceler isn't meant to represent one person, he's meant to represent the companies and corporations. And I don't think the whole tumblr sexyman thing was necessarily their fault because I don't think that was intentional or that they could've forseen that, but it's kind of a testament to the fact that he is too sympathetic a character. And I guess that might be sort of the root of my problems with the movie, that everything feels too personal to be as allegorical as the original story feels. Oh yeah also the deleted song "Biggering" is actually really good and in my opinion would have worked much much better than how bad can i be or whatever. I feel like there's a lot more I could say and i'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff but I'm kind of losing steam and I've already written a ton so I'll leave it at that I guess. I'm not rereading this lol I hope it's at all comprehensible and if anyone reads this whole thing sorry :P oh and DISCLAIMER I haven't watched this movie in a while or read the story so this was just me talking out my ass if I got something wrong or said anything stupid, whoops 🤷🏽

[lesbianyosano]

DROP THE BSD POLITICAL HCS PLS PLS PLS

ok so i dont have them for all the characters but uhhh here's what i got (this got unnecessarily long so im putting this under the cut):

kunikida is a commie for sure, probably an anarchist and the theory reading kind too. he's probably involved with local initiatives and tried to radicalize his coworkers at least once. he got unreasonably exited when kenji joined bc the kid is definitely a commie as well. kenji is still a little young (plus he barely knows how money works) so he's been actively explaining what capitalism is to him

kenji basically lived in a commune all his life and wants everyone to be happy, learning what capitalism is and how it works made him incredibly sad, but he's also really determined and so he's been talking about communism to everyone he meets when running around the city

ranpo is a centrist, thinks people who are legitimately invested in politics are stupid and foolish and always brings up the horseshoe theory, doesn't help that poe is crazy rich and works for capitalism incarnate

dazai, when asked, will claim whatever political ideology he thinks is the funniest in given situation, which in practice means he talks abt being an anarcho capitalist just to piss kunikida off (he's been very succesfull so far, almost convinced atsushi that the whole thing made sense). for real though, he think politics is stupid and doesn't really have that much impact, but he also only thinks of politics as the direct actions of the government, rather than ideas, and he's met enough politicians in his mafia days to consider the whole thing corrupt and not worth his time (also mori used to canonically make his read theory which i think is so so funny)

atsushi was generally cut off from the world for the majority of his life, so he only started getting interested after joining the ada. he likes to talk about it and tries to watch the news and read theory trying to develop an informed outlook. he's very left leaning and partial to communism too (except for that one time dazai almost convinced him anarcho capitalism makes sense. he doesnt like to think about it)

yosano is a marxist feminist, vehemently anti-war, she used to come to feminist reading group at a local uni. her and kunikida talk abt politics a lot in their free time and recommend books and articles to each other. she's been trying to push kyouka and naomi to look into feminism too (succesfully)

chuuya is a libertarian and i refuse to believe otherwise. he really hated rich people when he was still with the sheep but after joining the mafia and spending too much time with mori and kouyou he decided that being rich was fine, actually. also he commits tax evasion bc why not, it's hardly the worst thing he does tbh, free market enthusiast

mori is a classical liberal, also canonically seems to be pretty well versed in economic theory (he mentions henry kissinger, thomas shelling and john forbes nash during the guild arc, funnily enough). his utalitarianism really comes through when he talks about politics, they're very kill or get killed (literally or economically), believes in free market

fukuzawa is kind of weird, he doesn't really subscribe to any ideology specifically. overall he's left leaning socially (all his kids are gay, so is he) but he's never actively questioned how the world works, or looked for an alternative. worth mentioning, he used to be an assasin for the government, and the only reason he stopped was due to personal disguist with how he was starting to enjoy it, he never seemed to wonder who and why is he killing, he just did his job completely uncritically, actively benefiting the state

as ive said before, fukuchi could be a commie if he wanted to, but instead of taking initiative in publicly speaking on the horrors of war and his hatred for national states he decided to become a cop, literally the worst he could have done

ok these are the ones i have like. active thought about, sorry this got so fucking long and i hope it's not unintelligible

[tea-with-evan-and-me]

The thing is, it really isn't about whether Evan is ok with it or not, it's about a person's morals. People pleaser or not, where do you draw the line? If I knew my friend was abusing little puppies I would certainly stop being friends with them (If i am not coerced into tolerating it). Emma might not have abused little puppies, she *only* abused her signifact other for 5-7 years and If that's something you can look past at because it was a long time ago or it isn't worth breaking a friendship over because it's inconvenient for you, then you have highly questionable morals. Especially when that signifacnt other is one of your friends. Same goes for Sarah. Be a people pleaser all you want. But publically supporting a notorious abuser is still a choice. And If I were Evan I would ditch every single one of those hypocrites and read books on self love and trauma so I stop being a magnet to these weirdos

let's be honest, she's a nepobaby, she's influential in the business because of her family. just like you said, it's not convenient to them to not be in good terms with her. that's how hollywood works, its competitive and you have to anything to keep up with it

(gonna change the subject a little bit): that might even be one of the reason why evan didn't press charges (completely speculating rn) He was probably instructed not to do it. if we take a look at the news around that time he was always referred as "emma roberts' boyfriend". he was a nobody compared to her, if he ever did something his career would be over, not hers. we can see that even now in angelica's situation: she only opened up about it because she was gonna leave the business and emma is still being worshiped and has her image almost intact.

(back to the topic): we don't know how their relationship is with emma nor evan. in the past, evan and sarah talked a lot about each other but we haven't seen that. also, we know what THEY want us to know, maybe they weren't even really that close. we don't know what happens backstage. i do feel weird about jeff being friends with both because he looks very close to evan but im trying to keep in mind that i know nothing about his relationship with any of these people.

there's even the hypothesis that evan and emma are in good terms (which o highly doubt). what i'm trying to say is that we have no idea what happens in their lives

well..

that's not the reason why evan didn't press charges, this man who has never given a rat's ass about celebrity was not infatuated with being mr. emma roberts - let's make that clear. he didn't press charges because he loved emma and ultimately wanted to marry her, but he was a victim of abuse. also, evan wasn't a nobody when he was dating emma.. i'm not sure how old you are, but if you were of age to be aware in 2012 when they started dating, you'd be well aware that this was peak AHS fame and when fans stopped them on the street together, 9/10 times they did not care about emma; all the girlies wanted evan and he was a heartthrob by all standards. and let's just be real: what image would emma roberts be keeping intact? there is no one, and i mean no one, who is a fan of hers who is ACTUALLY oblivious to her nature. she is not a big, successful actress whose name conjures up images of a respected professional who has lead major productions. she is a nepo baby meme who stars in romcoms no one watches.. even her stans.

"we don't know how their relationship is with emma nor evan." do you mean sarah and jeff? because if so, just last year sarah was going to be doing one of those netflix career retrospect things with evan, interviewing him. and jeff was just seen with evan a few months back. i know at least for a time, jeff was an actual friend evan hung out with pretty regularly.. sarah not so much. i think she is more ''respected colleague'' than personal friend. for me personally, the bottomline is that my feelings and opinions are not based on whether or not i think deep inside evan is hurt his friends are also still friends with emma.. because i don't believe he is bothered. i don't think he ever was. nothing about his personality nor the way he talks about himself is indicative of someone who would force his friends to side with him, even when he should NEVER have to be in the situation to do so.. this wasn't a regular situation where exes were left bitter. evan was abused, emma is a domestic abuser. i don't need to know how anyone in this situation feels about each other to know that there is no scenario in which i think it's acceptable to try and sit on the fence and be friends with both a domestic abuser AND their victim. what kind of friend are you if you see no major problem with someone assaulting them?

[bluewaterhigh2005]

hii i know this is random but bear with me. ive never read the vampire academy books but i have seen the movie for the first time last week and ive been like COMPLETELY insane about it ever since. the absolute craziness of psychosexual obsessive girlbestfriendism has captivated me and now i live breathe eat roselissa. spent a lot. of time on vampire academy wiki...thinking abt reading the books even but that seems a little excessive plus i dont wanna read about rose dimitri relationship i dont condone it. BUT i am getting desperate ive seen bad fanart on pinterest ive even venturend into some bad fanfic territory theres nothing in the roselissa tumblr tag and your blog is the only light in the darkness. im so obsessed with them its really bad. NOBODY does it like them theyre so insane. okay so-> i was thinking you could use this ask to dump some roselissa opinions/headcannons/notes app essays etc or like literally anything🙏. also sorreee for how long it is & thank you & also should i watch the show? ok ok have a nice day byeeeee❤️

i am so fucking glad that it's 2023 and people are still watching this stupid perfect lesbian camp masterpiece of a film. okay first of all you are soooo real not wanting to read the books because of fuck ass dimitri like what a pathetic flop. *i* love the books like i would love my own children but keep in mind i did read them for the first time as a 12yr old and even now when i reread it's mostly to warmup before rereading bloodlines which i think is the most perfect magical romantic series ever written. heterosexuals won that round.

anyway i think everyone in the world should watch the show it's so much fun and the roselissa necromancy reveal goes soooooooo crazy like it's gay excellence. also a) australian rose hathaway is INSPIRED, b) the rose/dimitri of it all pisses me off significantly less in the show purely because he's like. not even a teacher he's just lurking and hanging around and i find that very funny. no friends no job he's just like me fr, and c) lissa wears funky little hats and that's so special to me she is my baby girl princess sweetie pie forever and ever and ever

okay moving onto actually talking about roselissa it is first of all very important to me that you know the 3rd book opens with rose inside lissa's head during a lissa/christian sex scene and she's very much like "i don't want to have sex with lissa..... BUT-" and it sends me every time especially because that was actually the first book i read so my literal introduction to this series was rose being weird and psychosexual about lissa which kind of coloured my view of them forever. roselissa above everything of course but i AM a roselissachristian throuple truther i think they're very fun and rose and christian best friendisms are very dear to me.

i do keep a running list in my notes app of songs that i would put on a roselissa playlist (like an insane person.) and the #1 entry is mitski's i don't smoke because well literally if you need to be mean be mean to me i can take it and put it inside of me..... that's literally their whole entire thing for a while there like rose spending an entire book like. siphoning off lissa's mental illness and making it her own SOUNDS like a joke but no it's #real and #devastating. bonus i also have a list of lissa songs which is topped by BRUTAL by olivia rodrigo because nobody has ever suffered the pains of being a teenage girl more than my perfect bisexual vampire princess.

my post-series thoughts /headcanons are often pretty depressing on the roselissa front but i don't want to get into depressing shit so i will instead talk about my current favourite idea which is that after they break their bond at the end of the series. you'd think they'd start being normal about each other. but NO they get even more freaky and codependent. i like to picture people coming to court and just sighing when they see them sitting in each other's laps on lissa's throne like not AGAIN. and dimitri idk dies in a fire or something. idk if you've ever seen grey's anatomy but there's this bit where a guy is like "my wife and her friend have sleepovers together in our bed with me in it" and TO ME that is soooo roselissachristian core. he's THEIR third wheel and he knows it.

also sidebar it pisses me off SOOOOOO bad seeing how people on the internet so fundamentally misunderstand lissa and her relationship to rose like for literal years now like they're always out here calling my girl self-centred and saying she doesn't love rose as much as rose loves her which is crazy because hello she brought rose back from the DEAD with her mind powers. her whole flop family was dead in that car and she brought back her girl best friend like what more can you even say about that. she's gay and she's insane and she's so completely Not Normal about rose

[vertin-is-the-frog-guys]

sorry this is a book post not a game post lol. but i have many. thoughts on shadow & bone

objectively speaking, yeah this is one of my favorite pieces of work, if we're talking about the books. i loved the books, specifically the 2nd one. it's what got me back into reading

but the tv show? ergh..

so for starters, no my problem was not that they made the mc asian or changed some stuff with it, it was that it was literally just a six of crows thing

like

that was legit the real reason they made it. and i honestly, hate six of crows. COMING FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS READ IT BTW. so don't think my hate is unwarranted

it just, didn't envoke any feeling to me. it felt so bland compared to her other works. every fucking character was an edgy badass with a sad backstory, which is fine, so many characters in s&b r that too! but it felt like that was all they were

all of the romance felt sooo forced too. i honestly, don't take this the wrong way, have always thought the author wasn't the best at writing romance

i mean. take mal. (side note i fucking hate himmmm smmmm ughhhh but that's a different post)

but in six of crows especially. it was. not good lol

every romance was so forced, especially the main two. cause he was just

a dick to her (excuse me i forgot their names)

and the author has a habit of just kinda throwing in a lgbt romance when the story gets kinda stale, so that's what the other one is

the only ok one is the one w the guy from the place who's based on russia and even then it's so just not well written

anyways, onto why i think it's just a six of crows story than a s&b one is this

six of crows is much more popular

i think they may have started it to be a joint thing but it ended up being more soc than s&b

i think another reason i dislike soc is cause i don't connect with anyone in it. like in s&b i can empathize w/ alina, or genya, or even mal, bc they feel more real and fleshed out. i can feel bad for them even i dislike them or they do bad things ( ok but i gotta say i hate how the darkling just got like,, redeemed at the end im a darkling hater for ever )

the six of crows books feel sm like the last book of shadow and bone which is also my least favorite lmao so maybe that has something to do with

and also, disclaimer! watch/read whatever u like

i'm just a guy on the internet hating don't take me seriously here