#reblogging this because it’s fucking relevant again

[original-cat-showdown]

ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS EVERYBODY

Tabby (@cure-icy-writes) vs Elle Chihiro (@cure-icy-writes)

Ni'iri (@sillysorcerer) vs Spirit (@spirits-of-kin)

Gull (@featherfrond) vs Paxel (@cat-skull)

Kitty Heels (@esmaelj) vs Ginger (@esmaelj)

Jade (@dragontoonss) vs Caitrionia (@kjmellow)

Vivi (@rainewintersnow) vs Apotheosis (@horizontalnobelcat)

Nico (@crownne-prince) vs Narciso (@crownne-prince)

Briarfang (@plaguedbutch) vs Leafcloud (@plaguedbutch)

Bobsyfella (@thunderwhenhepurrs) vs Jinna (@teknoctarkamacska)

Tumbledown (@sugarsprinkles) vs Caro (@sugarsprinkles)

Frozen Teeth (@element-kitten-klaws) vs Pawtree Purrety (@kdm13)

Mason Spectrespeaker (@2bu) vs Kat (@laceghost / @laceghost-art)

Mina (@spacedragonstar) vs Lara and Rio Coddsworth (@acromafireair)

Cherry Lipstick (@hyephyep) vs Lane (@hyephyep)

Round 1 brackets

Round 1 results

Polls will run for a week, and I should manage to set them up in a few days!

[utilitycaster]

The thing that gets me abt the framework of downfall and the way Ludinus(and some ppl in the tags who seemingly are trying really hard to roleplay Ludinus) read it is that they're like "look at how the gods meddled and laid low to destroy this bastion of human achievement, they had no right and should have let themselves be systematically exterminated/have the world burn instead" when. Setting aside the revelation that the gods who struck down Aeor made themselves mortal to do it-- as in, they were on the exact playing fields of humans when they made their move and it wasn't some huge peacocking of power against upstart humans to strike them out of the sky-- the Divergence is going to happen. We KNOW the Divergence is going to happen. The gods are going to create the divine gate and remove any chance that they can ever do something like this again. "Blaugh, look at them meddle and plot-" and? Whatever they do, we know that the sun will shine once more. Melora, as brutal as she is as the starved Asha, will plant a tree of hope in the most destroyed wastes of Wildemount. And they will ensure that the suffering they wrought in the calamity, in Aeor, can never ever repeat the same way they had done it. Which is a HELL of a lot more than can be said for Ludinus who is actively reviving every cycle he can

first off "some ppl in the tags who seemingly are trying really hard to roleplay Ludinus" took me OUT so thank you for that.

I just reblogged a post with a quote from Cooldown that I think is really relevant in understanding the whole story of the gods and how we got to this point but like, just to summarize (and debunk a few things, hopefully) from the beginning of the episode to the end re: the life of the gods:

Gods (possibly aspects of the Luxon?) crash-landed on Exandria BECAUSE of what is all but outright said to be Predathos.

As far as I can tell, no deals were made between the gods and the Titans. The only person who has said this from what I can tell is Asmodeus, who I would not consider a reliable source of truth. Or rather: one might have been made but there's no corroboration that I know of.

They created the people of Exandria and sealed away Predathos both prior to the Schism

The Schism occurred when the Titans decided to attack the people (which to be clear - the people had been there for long enough to build that weird ruin on Ruidus with a portal, like, I would love to know what prompted the fight of the Schism since it had pretty clearly been millennia of coexistence).

The Betrayers decided the move was to leave and start over, and the Primes felt that was a dereliction of duty to the people. That's what the quote is about - it's about the fact that Erathis's motivation for being a Prime Deity isn't "mortals are my blorbos!" it's "we have an obligation to our creations" and more generally that the Prime Deities are invested in their domains for the overall good of Exandria but not necessarily the specific good of Aeor. (Taliesin follows it up with (as Melora) "You'd have to tear me from this fucking planet" w/r/t the idea that you cannot, in fact, destroy your bad first draft simply because it would be more convenient to you.)

Betrayers get sealed, unsealed, events of EXU Calamity occur (notably: the titans are all dead. you can fight about whether this was just or right later but they're gone and killing other people won't bring them back; the titans are largely used as a pearl-clutching prop by people with no arguments that are perhaps actually relevant to the current situation), and perhaps 50 or 60 years into the conflict the gods call a truce re: Aeor's Obtenebrator and commit to decades of living as mortals (and therefore limiting themselves considerably)

And so here we are

And I think this really gets to the point. Because ultimately, the argument in favor of leaving Aeor be is "when someone points a gun at you, lay down and die" and the argument in favor of the Betrayers is "when someone tells you to abandon your (living) obligations for them, do so." The former is despairing and nihilistic and the latter selfish and, well, a betrayal.

There is something profoundly nihilistic about Ludinus, for all he talks about freeing people and a better world. He's destroyed a city of innocents. He's indoctrinated hundreds if not thousands of people and many of them have died in his service; he's the architect of an empire and many wars in its name and is actively working with a second one. He's been killing fey and he's even physically given himself over to the cause. There is no crime or sin people attribute to the gods that he has not done himself in measures beyond nearly every other mortal. Like, I really think he's at a point where he just is unwilling to "lose" even though he has a friendless life and a legacy of violence and has destabilized the entire world and the weave of magic itself. I think he has to believe there's something on this Occultus Thalamus for him because if there isn't, he, like the Prime Deities, probably can't just pick up and start over. All he has left is to give in to just letting the world burn in the hopes that at least he gets the satisfaction of what he hates burning with him.

Basically, sounds like a rough time to try to roleplay him in the tags.

Something else you (and others) bring up is that amid all the "history is written by the victors" the story of Aeor and of the gods has actually painted them as far harsher. The story doesn't say that they were first chased to Exandria unwillingly and did not come in conquest; the story, as this post notes, evokes vast divine might striking down a city from the heavens and not like, living in fragile mortal forms during one of the most dangerous times in history and arguing amongst each other over how they can save both themselves and Aeor and if that's even possible. Like, even if you see the gods as the victors of this story rather than simply the survivors, the "unedited" version of the story makes them far more sympathetic.

You also mention the Divine Gate and that's a really interesting thing to me because the existing status quo of Exandria is actually remarkably nascent if you think about it. The Founding had gods, titans, and mortals. Post Schism had the Prime deities and mortals (and it is worth noting this is when the people of Exandria became the most technologically advanced; you want to talk about the Titans and Betrayers, you need to cover that the price of the wonders of the Age of Arcanum was that they were not present). Calamity had all the gods and mortals again, and the current era is the first where the gods are behind the gate. It's kind of a compromise between all the things that have tried to destroy one another - Betrayers and Primes are separated but all are free within their realms and can indirectly contact mortals; technically, so can Predathos. None can directly be on Exandria. Is it ideal? No. It's a compromise, and the sealed can become unsealed (which, consistently, goes very badly) but it's the option that doesn't involve the total annihilation of anyone. Ludinus seeks, by setting off this horrible cycle again, to undo that fragile imperfect compromise with a goal of wholesale slaughter. He provides no option for the gods other than "die by my hand" when even some of the gods were desperately trying to find other options for Aeor as of a day prior to its destruction. He's simply wallowed in his trauma for centuries, becoming colder and more unfeeling and less empathetic and more arrogant than the gods he accuses of the same flaws.

[heuldoch7b]

while i was gone, i was deeply contemplative about part of what made me take a hiatus in the first place, which is shame. long post forewarning

growing up on the internet (i was 10 when i started using the internet, back in 2010-11) and something i was (and frankly, still am) constantly exposed to was shaming others. ranging from "light hearted" shaming; this ranged from poking fun at an amateur artists work for it looking funny or it being super "tumblry" to shaming with the guise of social justice, you know "hey this artist draws X and thats BAD and if you support them youre JUST AS BAD".

when i was younger i poked fun at other artists and engaged in cancel culture, on a very small scale (just my friends and i) and i regret it. it was entirely due to my own low self esteem and peojecting fear of being made fun of myself. but ive retained that fear, even as i've matured and grown to understand how unkind it is to shame and mock others, ESPECIALLY as myself a weird, autistic artist who draws "cringe but free" stuff

and even with regards to problematic content, stuff that, reasonably more often than not, ellicits a "yuck" reaction out of most viewers, has turned more into a genuine social risk of getting a callout over being immoral or gross and losing your social circles and delving into isolation. this happened to me. i think it genuinely messed me up, and im dealing with it even now.

it has lead me to be avoidant of being honest about what i like, and being afraid of befriending others due to fear of being dropped again. this is of course not fair to you, potential reader, but unfair to myself as well. i want to develop a healthier respect for my friends as well as myself about what i do and dont like, and not feeling guilty for saying no or not liking something.

i think, as i remake my old pinned post, i am going to be more explicit on stuff, i like shipping the primarchs! i love it very much even. and if you do not thats absolutely A-OK. i like drawing the dismal warcriminals as genderweird. i like maybe skirting away from how chronically cynical and dour the universe (which i do still enjoy, im into warhammer FOR warhammer) and making silly, comfy stuff. fuck i LOVE drawing weird heroic nudity mythological scenes where some characters are like, centaurs, cause its sick as fuck.

and with all that i myself need to be okay with maybe people who i enjoy their work of dont really jive with all that, and that isnt the end of the world, its just being honest with oneself, and thats really important to do. i will be trying to maybe tag sensitive stuff like primarchcest better, so people can filter it out, but i am not gonna be hypervigilant about tagging everything because that would make me neurotic and id rather just be unfollowed or blocked at that point.

anywho, i really just wanted to put my thoughts down into words and share them, i honestly wrote this out and deleted it like 3 times already due to, hilariously, shame. but this is a really important topic to me and extremely relevant to my social presence on this website. i care for you all immensely, even if we are all strangers online.

i will be sad if i lose potential friendships over the things i like, but theres literally thousands of people if not more on this website, and it so fine and healthy to go like "eh no i dont want that in my life" to something like someones specific fuckin fandom art LOL

if any of you want to talk to me about your experiences with shame, id welcome it, may it be through a reblog or messaging me personally. i think its really important for all of us to be unashamed, mindful of course, but not stifling ourselves. be free have fun type stuff. i hope i can drop my own shackles too. thanks for reading

[sleepy-grav3]

Glitching issue

So I was getting distracted again. I heard Masochism Tango and Stalker's Tango, wanted a yandere playlist with intense ballroom songs, that types of thing.

And then I thought of another story idea for my current hyperfixation: DCxDP

One of my favorite ships in that fandom is Dead Tired/Brain Dead, cause I love them... so much...

Anyway-

With the context of the yandere ballroom playlist, you should know where I'm going. And I read a few fics/prompts/whatever else you'd call them where it portrays a normally pretty toxic relationship but they're actually in a really healthy relationship.

There was one about mutual stalking, another with kidnapping shenanigans, one that mentioned attempted deprogramming- you get it. (don't ask me for them, I don't know what they're called and there's too much to sift through to find them, very sorry, do feel free to reblog/comment the authors of them or ones that hold some relevance)

But yeah, now I'm making a fic with a playlist as storyline inspiration. Idk the layout yet.

1 Long Chapter : 1 Song

or

Story Arc (probably short) : 1 Song

Always a 1:1 ratio, maybe a special 2 songs here and there? Not sure.

But so far!!! I have the usual: Masochism Tango and Stalker's Tango.

Got the Cell Block Tango ready. El Tango de Roxanne will be there too. I got some waltzes and looking into other types of rhythms like them. Tango, Waltz, thinking about Salsa and Swing, got a few others too

Looking into some less yandere themed songs since I can't solely do it on yandere themes. I want it to be drama filled but with some healthy doses of attraction, y'know?

Yeah, that whole thing is going on a headcannon and an idea.

Ghosts feel things more strongly, so some unhealthy things to humans are meh or minimum level things to ghosts. Because of this, Danny's a bit unhealthy in what he considers love (his vigilante life didn't help with that, especially with Vlad), but his human side keeps it more on the downlow

There's a different species of beings that are immortal in a way: The Undying. Life loves them or they're obsessed with Life. Tim is one of the only true Undying. They're as rare as true Halfas.

So... yeah. Love this little idea. Been working on it for a few hours now. And I need help. Song recommendations mostly, storyline ideas are welcome.

I'll be posting a playlist once I get it all sorted out, chronologically, and the outline of the story put up. The summary will be a genuine summary and not just some background info or a quick sentence like I usually do.

But I want a happy ending. No bittersweet, no hurt/barely any or no comfort, no fully angst-

I need some kind of betrayal for someone to go to jail TvT

Will it be Tim or Danny? Who fits best as a viewer for Cell Block Tango, just casually listening to people talk about killing (and that one framed murder).

Who's the one that lives off the thrill of getting hurt (I'm thinking more of the bdsm way, but also the "I'll only let you hurt me" type of way too? Doesn't have to be physical or verbal or even intentional... I'm making this sound worse-)

I got this one part for the Roxanne one

The yandere is "cheating", no idea if it's fake or a previous relationship, or whatever. still under planning for that.

And the "victim" is the one who's begging the yandere to not deceive them. Maybe they've been lied to a bunch of times, maybe they really don't want false hope, maybe they're fine with an open relationship as long as the yandere doesn't leave- idk, but the "victim" is the one who's pulling the strings during then.

I'm trying to think of who's the other person, the yandere, and the "victim". Who's who? Not sure. And how does it fit with the rest of the songs too... Ugh, I really should just do oneshots T^T But I can't at the moment, not with the ideas-

So yeah

Ideas? Song recommendations? Character ideas? Scene prompts????

Please?

Oh, and this post is named glitching because it broke my fucking computer. I don't have a mouse anymore. Luckily, it's touchscreen and the keyboard still works. Still annoying though

[carriesthewind]

Yeah so anyway, I'm making my response to this fucking garbage its own separate post in case people want to reblog it without having to reblog a scare-mongering lie.

This video pisses me the fuck off whenever I see it, and today I'm not in the mood to just scroll past.

Wow! Am I being lead to panic by scaremongering algorithm fodder completely unsupported by real evidence?! test:

The reason you think something exists is just what you're being told by a nefarious *them*, there is actually a conspiracy behind it!

I, an ordinary person with no expertise who critically examines the world around me, have uncovered this conspiracy.

"That's what they're telling you." (put the emphasis wherever appropriate for the conspiracy of your choice - in this case, it's on *telling*)

This new tech thing is actually a bad idea and the old school method was better - which clearly proves there must be a secret conspiracy, because why allow the possibility of incompetence and investor tech-hype when you can instead assume a highly-competent evil conspiracy?

I will now tell you my conspiracy theory while scrolling rapidly through a document without pausing or allowing you to actually read any of it. This allows me to look like I have proven my claims while doing nothing of the sort. Because do you really think someone could do that? Quickly flash a document on screen and just lie about what it says?

But Owl! This is real! A user upthread found the patent and it *does* prove it!

Yeah. I read the linked patent. Did you?

Let's quote the "real purpose" hidden in the patent, as claimed out in the video:

"The real purpose of these screens is to use the little camera at the top right here to scan your face and use AI facial expression analysis to judge whether or not you like the packaging designs of the product you're looking for."

This is complete made up horseshit.

First, let's look where the reblogger directs us, to column #4 on page 17:

"Preferably, each retail product container further comprises customer-detecting hardware, such as one or more proximity sensors (such as heat maps) , cameras, facial sensors or scanners, and eye-sensors (i.e., iris-tracking sensors). Assuming cameras are employed, preferably cameras are mounted on doors of the retail product containers. Preferably, the cameras have a depth of field of view of twenty feet or more, and have a range of field of view of 170 degrees with preferably 150 degree of facial recognition ability. Preferably, software is employed in association with the cameras to monitor shopper interactions, serve up relevant advertisement content on the displays, and track advertisement engagement in - store." (emphasis added and references to figures removed for readability)

That is the extent of the "nonconsensual data collection."

Now, to be fair, there is some stuff on page 18 and 19 which kinda-sorta-maybe has at least some relation to the claim in the video:

"Preferably, the controller/data collector is configured such that as a shopper stands or lingers in front of a given retail product container, the display associated with the retail product container changes yet again. At this point, preferably the controller/data collector has been able to use the customer-detecting hardware to effectively learn more about that particular customer, such as gender, age, mood, etc. The controller / data collector is configured to take what has been detected about the customer to determine which advertisement and other information to present to that particular customer on the display associated with the retail product container in front of which the customer is standing. By tracking shopper data in parallel with which advertising content is being served on all displays within the viewing range of the shopper, the retailer and the brands are better served, providing new analytics. As such, the system provides advertising, influence opportunities at the moment of purchasing decision, optimizing marketing spend and generating new revenue streams....

"Additionally, preferably all inputs collected by the IOT devices will be analyzed locally as well as remotely (via cloud) to provide the feedback inputs for the system to push more relevant/targeted content, tailored for the consumer. The analytics are preferably conducted anonymously, images captured by cameras are preferably processed to collect statistics on consumer demographic characteristics: (such as age and gender). This data is preferably subsequently analyzed for additional statistics for the retailers that are valuable for in-store merchandise layout design and smart merchandizing, including the ability to track the shoppers “traffic” areas, known as “heat maps”, areas were [sic] customers would concentrate more and spend more time exploring, etc." (emphasis added and references to figures removed for readability) (And note the repeated emphasis on preferably - they don't have a patent to do any of this.)

Which, like, not great! I fucking hate the idea of shit like this! But there is literally nothing here about monitoring your expressions to sell the data about how you react to packaging!

This isn't a nefarious plan hidden in the patent. It's tech bros adding on totally sick ideas about how they can sell this shit to walgreens. (Because to be clear, I'm sure walgreens's corporate office would love to collect and sell this kind of information. But just because they would, doesn't mean they can or are. And this patent sure as hell doesn't prove it.)

Because let me be clear: the image capture of consumers is so irrelevant to the product that it literally isn't even included in the claims section of the patent.

Because the patent is quite explicit and detailed about the idea they are selling big retails stores on - this is a better, new, innovative, tech-driven way to "provide an innovative advertising solution"! (The words "AI," "intelligent," and "machine learning" are deployed liberally, but in the same way that "blockchain" was a few years ago. It's advertising tech hype.)

I want to make it clear - the OP in the video is straight up lying to you. Whether for fun or profit or just attention, I don't know and I don't care. If you shared this, you probably should have know better, but everyone makes mistakes. OP, on the other hand, is just a fucking liar.

But Owl! What about "the senators looking into this"?

I don't know how to tell you this, but thing linked about is a press release by a politician's office. That doesn't mean it's not true, but it's not evidence on it's own. Like, the letter linked in the link included links to sources, but is not itself evidence (ooh, layers of links to actually get to a source, my favorite)(actually my computer wouldn't even goddam open the links to the source, I had to independently search for it).

Anyway, the letter to Kroger linked in the press release by the senators contains a single sentence and a single link relevant to the claim here (linked for your convenience because it sure as hell wasn't for mine). Unfortunately, this article is itself based on a goddam press release (That isn't linked! Again, you're welcome.)

And when we finally get to the underlying fucking source. "In addition to transforming the customer experience and enhancing productivity for associates, the EDGE Shelf will enable Kroger to generate new revenue by selling digital advertising space to consumer packaged goods (CPGs) brands. Using video analytics, personalized offers and advertisements can be presented based on customer demographics." So it's purporting to something *kind of* like the claim in the video, but an entirely different format completely unrelated to the thing the video is scaremongering about.

Now Kroger did actually start using the advertising screens in 2023. And you can believe what you want about the data privacy claims and the claims about not using video, just sensors (which remember is entirely consistent with the patent). But remember: being skeptical of a company's claims is fine and good! It does not mean you have proven they are lying, and it especially does not prove you have claimed they are doing something extremely specific! And most of the articles, and the letter from the senators, are (much more reasonably) concerned about so-called "dynamic" or surge pricing. (Which is not related to the screens.)

Like goddamn. Aren't there enough real problems with surveillance and price-gorging to be concerned about without having to make up fake ones? Hell, why can't we at least be concerned with the real problems with those dumb screens, which is that the a) make shopping harder and b) catch fire?

[pluckyredhead]

Can you please say more about the Lanterns' politics?

I am so glad you asked me about this because I've been thinking about it since I reblogged that post but also I'm definitely about to get yelled at lol. ANYWAY THIS IS GOING TO BE LONG.

Tl;dr: John is the only one with a coherent political position or an up-to-date voter registration.

Hal:

So something interesting about Hal is that his stories are often very political but his character is not. With one extremely obvious exception, he rarely talks about politics; rather, he serves as a means through which to tell political stories, usually unintentionally.

What do I mean by that? Well, for example, in the Silver Age, his love interest would occasionally be possessed by a misandrist space jewel that would force her to attack him, but always lose because women are inherently inferior to men and prefer to be subjugated by them anyway. That's the original Star Sapphire concept. It's wildly misogynistic, but it doesn't mean Hal the character is misogynistic. But it's also a very political story, even if I don't think the writer was deliberately trying to make a point so much as...being an average, thoughtlessly sexist guy living in the 60s. (Carol continues to be the subject of mindbogglingly sexist writing and art well into the 2000s. Fucking comics.)

And so you have Hal Jordan, whose love life was ruined by his girlfriend getting promoted above him and who called his best friend by a racist nickname for decades; Hal Jordan, poster boy for chest-thumping post-9/11 kneejerk patriotism; Hal Jordan, lightning rod for a certain kind of regressive bigoted fanboyism. Choosing Hal as the Lantern for a particular story over John or Kyle has come to signify something very specific, but none of that is necessarily reflective of what Hal himself believes.

So what about Hal himself? Well, when we first meet him, he's the epitome of privilege: a white, straight, cis, Christian (I know he's canonically half-Jewish now but that's only as of the past decade or so), ablebodied, upper middle class (Geoff Johns retconned him to have a working class background, but in the Silver Age, he had one uncle who was a millionaire, another who was a judge, and a successful politician brother) man with a flashy job. Privilege tends to lean Republican; even if he is from California, I suspect Hal voted for Eisenhower in 1956.

In GL/GA, the word "Republican" isn't used to my recollection, but Hal is definitely presented as...I'm going to say conservative by I mean lower-case C. He doesn't have deeply held political beliefs, but he's traditional. He doesn't question the system, because he's never had to. He resists things that challenge the way he's always understood the world works, and that's very relatable - most people do! And he will absolutely argue with Ollie, who certainly isn't always right about everything. But he's also willing to listen, and have his mind changed, and certainly reachable via appeals to compassion and fairness.

Once the "relevance" trend of the late 60s-early 70s was over, Hal's stories default back to ostensibly politically neutral, although obviously nothing is actually politically neutral. In the late 80s and early 90s he's the most unpleasant version of himself, and that has political manifestations, like when he allows John to be imprisoned in apartheid South Africa for a ridiculous and unnecessary crime Hal himself committed. It's extremely fucked up, but again, it's less because of Hal's actual opinions and more because Christopher Priest wanted to write about apartheid, even if it does make Hal look incredibly, horrifically racist.

Then jump to the mid-2000s and Green Lantern: Rebirth, and you might imagine that losing his hometown, getting possessed by a giant space bug, becoming a supervillain, dying, and becoming the embodiment of God's vengeance might have some effect on Hal's politics, but that is not what Geoff Johns is here to write. Johns is writing a Hal who teleported in from, like, 1967 - no nuance allowed. He's a summer blockbuster that walks like a man. He's a Baja Blast. He's never had a coherent political thought in his life. In his defense, he has had more and goofier concussions than any superhero I can think of and his brain is smooth like an egg. Still.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I think Hal tends to default to center right positions but can be easily coaxed over to center left. That said, he has never not once in his life had his shit together enough to vote in a single election, not even for his own brother.

Guy:

So Guy's deal is a little bit complicated because his most vocally political era was also in part due to severe and personality-altering brain damage.

When Guy was originally introduced in the 1960s, he had the pleasantly bland personality of all superheroes. Many years later, he suffered a series of major injuries, torture, and a lengthy coma, and he emerged from the coma in 1985 with the aggressive, abrasive personality he's best known for today. Justice League International took that even further, using him to parody the jingoistic, red-blooded American action hero of the 80s.

This version of Guy is a vocal fan of Ronald Reagan and despises the USSR. He's pro-war, proudly xenophobic, and treats women badly enough that it crosses the line into repeated sexual harassment, both physical and verbal. (To be fair...ish, this last also applies to Wally West and arguably a number of other men, and was always played for laughs. It was gross all around.)

Again, this is partially a manifestation of his brain damage. There's also a running gag in JLI where if he gets hit on the head, his personality changes to this cloying, timid, gentle one, sort of halfway between a child and a flamboyant gay stereotype. Hit him again and he goes back to Asshole Guy. I'm not going to pretend I don't find some of the gags funny, but it's obviously all highly problematic, and not just from a medical standpoint.

That said, I don't think we can dismiss Guy's politics or his usual personality as simply a manifestation of brain damage. We see in later flashbacks that he developed the abrasiveness as a defense mechanism from growing up in an abusive home, and as he matures through the 90s, he doesn't actually become a significantly different person, even after his Vuldarian healing factor kicks in and heals his brain. (It's a thing.) I think it's more accurate to say that the brain damage probably affected his impulse control, his filter, and arguably even his paranoia levels.

All of which is to say that as much as I would love to go "Guy's better now, so he's not a Republican!"...that dog won't hunt. I think a really good canon writer could make the case that Guy is pro-union-style working class and also a former teacher so he's at least center left, but as of now canon evidence is pretty firmly on the red side. It doesn't help that the GLC has been written as fetishistically pro-cop and pro-military since Johns got his grubby hands all over it. I will happily ignore the New 52 retcon that Guy was a cop, and you could even try to argue that he dislikes cops because his brother was a corrupt cop who became a supervillain, but I think it's much more likely that he identifies with cops as a Corps member. Although I don't think he would have any patience for killer cops. ("You were afraid for your life even though you were the only one with a weapon? Then fucking quit, coward.")

All of that said, I think Guy is similar to Hal: defaults to center right, can be talked into center left on certain issues but he's more stubborn about it. (They would also both be enraged by Jan 6 and disgusted by the current Republican party - I can't quite argue that Guy Gardner is a Democrat but Green Lanterns don't have any patience for traitors or cowards.) It's also kind of a moot point because he never knows what is happening on Earth and hasn't voted since his pre-coma days.

John:

Oh John Stewart, thank god for you.

John was introduced as an explicitly political character in an explicitly political story. The first time we see him, he's stepping in to defend Black men from a white cop, citing his own knowledge of the law to do so. He shows a much more perceptive and informed perspective on the issue's main plot (a racist senator running for president) than Hal does. Even in the little moment above, we see that he's sensitive to exactly what it means for him, a Black man, to be taking on this role.

None of this is a surprise, since we'll later learn that John's parents were civil rights activists. Not only would he not have had the privilege Hal and Guy did to assume his existence was politically neutral, he was explicitly educated about political realities and progressive advocacy from childhood. He's well-informed, he's passionate, and he's going to tell you when you are being fucking stupid.

John isn't immune from the GL cop/military...thing, although I can't blame Johns for that - it was the cartoon that made him a Marine, and the comics followed suit. But that's never outweighed his origin or his upbringing. Like, he's friends with the DCU's fictional version of Nelson Mandela.

This one is straightforward: John is a staunch progressive. He is, however, in outer space 90% of the time, so he's always at least a little bit out of date. I imagine every time he comes back to Earth he spends the first 24 hours watching the news in abject horror.

Kyle:

Kyle doesn't talk about politics a lot, but when he does, he lands pretty much where you'd expect a young California-born artist living in New York City to land: to the left. My read on Kyle is that he hasn't really thought any of his politics through, which makes sense - he's a character who is led by emotion over reason every time. He doesn't have John's carefully thought-through arguments or knowledge of the law behind him. I feel like when something political upsets him, he's more likely to splutter angrily than make a coherent argument (which: same). When he's given the time to think things through and speak from the heart, though, he can be very eloquent, like in his speech to Terry after Terry accidentally comes out to him.

It's also worth pointing out that his solo appearances were mostly in the 90s, which were prone to avoiding politics or only addressing them in a halfhearted both sides-y way like the story above.

That said, I don't think he ever actually does anything about his political opinions. He never votes in midterm or primary elections, and probably only voted in a presidential one because Alex dragged him along one time. I feel like Donna tried to do the same when they were dating and that was when Kyle realized he'd forgotten to change his voter registration from California to New York. Jennie wasn't responsible enough to Mom him into doing his civic duty, and he's been in space pretty much nonstop ever since, so...

Simon:

In that other post, I said Simon's experiences should have radicalized him, but instead he was created by Geoff Johns. Simon is a Muslim, Lebanese-American man who came of age in the post-9/11 era, and was wrongfully convicted of terrorism and waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay. His reaction to this was...to put on a ski mask and wave a gun around. Like, it's been a while since I've read these issues, but aside from the "ripped from the headlines!!!" of it all, I feel like Simon's experiences largely don't inform his actions or perspective except that he's super angry (fair enough).

The thing about Simon (and Jessica) is that he hasn't been around very long, and most comics don't have characters directly expressing political opinions. It's not a coincidence that these characters are in chronological order and each write-up is shorter than the last. I can think of about three times where Kyle has ever said anything I can interpret as political, and he's been around for 30 years. Simon only has a third of that history. So while one could certainly extrapolate what Simon's opinions are likely to be, I can't think of any canon where he actually says them.

Jessica:

Jessica has even less to go on in terms of explicitly political comics. You'd think she wouldn't like guns because of what happened to her friends, but she has one of her own and doesn't seem bothered by Simon's. I'd imagine she has opinions on immigration as someone whose family is from Mexico and Honduras, but it never comes up. If I were writing for DC, I'd make both Simon and Jess leftists, but as for actual canon proof? I got nothing.

I will say that she probably avoids political discussions because anxiety, and I bet she got really good at voting by mail during her years not leaving the house. She probably votes by mail from space. Maybe John's not the only one with an up-to-date voter registration.

Kilowog:

[burning-sol]

The results so far have been really interesting. The percent of people who are voting for during the campaign isn't that far off from before the campaign, but I think I've heard far more explanations abt the latter. So this is me basically encouraging other people to share why they think watching during the campaign is the better choice. AND IF YOU VOTED FOR NOT WATCHING IT, UR LEGALLY OBLIGATED TO SHARE UR OPINION <- that's a joke, but if you have genuine thoughts on this I'd love to hear it from you yourself!!

To be clear, I probably should have phrased the question better. You don't have to feel obligated to explain why you think your opinion is OBJECTIVELY better, this is basically me just inviting others to share their experiences watching Riptide and/or what they think is artistically better for the series based on their tastes.

You can ramble on as long as you want in the notes abt why you prefer one option to another btw, I REALLY wanna hear what ppl have to say.

OH OH I HAVE A REALLY INTERESTING QUESTION!! I was just thinking about Riptide and what it would be like to adapt it into a hypothical cartoon or something, then I remembered the existence of the prequel. I've heard from quite a few people that they watched the BRP after already being a fair way into the series (this would include me), while others had obvious already watched it beforehand.

This produces very different effects on how you experience the narrative, for example I can already imagine how differently you would percieve characters like Chip or Niklaus based on when you watched the prequel. So I want to know which you prefer or, alternatively, if you think the prequel should be EXCLUDED, which I can picture as another viable option.

[1800naveen]

No because why did I see a post talking about it's racist to hate Rhysand/Cassian and like Tamlin or Eris?

You know how dumb that sounds, right?

Race doesn't change the fact that I find them annoying.

Like, there are a bunch of posts talking about the things that these two have done and none of them have their race listed. Amren is a Asian woman and I would punt that hobbit sized bitch to kingdom come.

If there is a character that people hate, it's because of their actions and not their identity.

I hate Mor, does that make me homophobic? Does it make me misogynistic?

Are you forgetting that Rhysand, Cassian, and Azriel are racist towards Illyrians? Rhys quite literally insulted Nesta by calling her an Illyrian at heart? Do you ever stop and wonder what the actual fuck does that mean?

I'm not white either, I'm a black person. But if someone hates me, dislikes me, or finds me annoying, it's because I did something for them to think that way. You think I'm going to read about characters, see a character I don't like (who happens to be poc), and call them every slur in my head?

Half of the fandom doesn't even know what race they're based on, these guys are racially ambiguous as hell.

Bringing in race when it's not even fucking relevant? Both Tamlin and Rhysand treated Feyre badly but she still married Rhysand. The same guy who drugged her, broke her arm and twisted it, paraded her around like a whore, and almost got her killed when she was pregnant.

Do you think someone is going to write slurs towards them in every anti post they make? If people actually did hate them because they aren't white, you think they would call them the n word or something? Tell them to go back to Illyria?

Build a wall and make the Illyrians pay for it all? Make Velaris great again? Make the night court great again?

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR RACE, ETHNICITY, OR NATIONALITY IS, YOU CAN STILL BE AN AWFUL PERSON. Both in fiction and real life.

I swear, the Rhys and Cassian dick gobblers share one brain cell when it comes to shit like this. Your high lord sexually assaulted Feyre, don't forget that. And Cassian gave Nesta tough love when she needed someone to be there for her. Made her hike on a mountain when she was suicidal and he didn't look back at her once? Laughed when she was on the stairs in the house of wind?

You can find the post from @stellariium since they reblogged it with an argument and how dumb it was, always need a person to call out the dumb shit when they see it.

[accirax]

Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 15 Dissection

FINALLY, I have a Friday night with few enough plans that I can watch and give my initial thoughts on the episode on the day that it aired >:D

... why am I celebrating being all alone on a Friday night? (/j)

Dissection time! This will be a Part 1 because I finally actually ran out of images. Please check the reblogs to see my further thoughts on the episode!

SPOILERS for Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 14. Brief mentions of eating disorders and suicide.

Of course, it's also the first week where I probably won't have as much to say, not because there isn't stuff to comment on about the episode, but because the main thing that ate up my time/word count was assessing all of the evidence to talk about who the killer might be. Now that the killer has seemingly been revealed, there isn't really any "Chapter 2 murder" left to theorize about... that's insane.

Starting the episode off with Teruko saying that accusing Ace was her "judgment" was wild. She made it very clear that it wasn't just that she was humoring Eden or haphazardly starting with Ace first, but that she thought it over and decided that Ace was the more-likely-to-be-guilty party because of seeing Eden break down like that. She paid attention to Eden's emotions and let Eden into her heart! That's awesome!!!

(Not to say that you couldn't pay attention to Eden's emotions and still think that she was the culprit-- I'd be a pretty big hypocrite if I tried to argue that. And I just don't think that it's true.)

This is a really random point to bring up, but I remember from drawing my J-to-Xander secret santa exchange that one of J's main complaints about Xander was also that he was loud. I guess J just really hates loud people.

... David, put down the megaphone--

Now this surprised me. It really made sense to me that Arturo would be the one stalking Eden, given that we first heard about the stalking on the day that Arturo and Eden had their chat!

Although, it also makes sense that it wasn't, given that the Arturo/Eden conversation probably happened after the event where J pulled Teruko into that closet (just based on Arturo's vibes). That event was the last thing that Teruko did before the nighttime announcement rang. Thus, Eden talking to Arturo probably happened pretty late in the afternoon, not giving Arturo much time to have been following Eden. To be fair, I deemed that it could still very well be Arturo anyways, because it's not like Eden said anything such as "you've been following me all day" that truly indicated a time period. But it does make sense.

Seems like everyone who thought that the culprit could have been tailing Eden was correct! A round of applause for everyone who put those pieces together 👏 (/gen)

Now, this one, I don't believe I saw ANYONE speculate. Therefore, as an idea I'd never even heard tossed around, this really took me out. It makes sense, though: Eden is small and semi-canonically the weakest character in the killing game. Therefore, if you're looking for someone who you can near-guaranteed overpower, it makes sense if you were to target her.

On one hand, thinking down this line of logic makes me worried for Eden's survival prospects beyond Chapter 2. On the other, now that this has been directly addressed in canon, I find it less likely that someone will use that again down the line. The best place to do so would be at the next Class Trial, so that the logic can be "well, looks like someone tried to execute on Ace's original plan" when it's at its most relevant because Ace's crime would be at its most recent. However, I don't really think that Eden will be a victim at the next Class Trial, so I'm leaning towards saying that she wouldn't become a victim for that reason.

(It feels so unnatural to write out "Ace's crime" and be, like 95% certain that it's canon. This case is just one of the unsolved mysteries of history, the fuck??? (/j))

This was ALSO insane to me. I know that thebadjoe cited Ace claiming to have been in the Gym the day after he nearly died in there as a reason why Ace might have been lying about what day he overheard Arei and David on (the logic is probably somewhere in here), but I think I and many others just figured that he didn't want everyone to think he was a coward, or that his eating disorder would compel him to go back to the Gym anyways.

However, going back to the Gym to sus out how exactly Nico's contraption works makes perfect sense! J was right, if Ace was suffering through being killed when he awoke, he shouldn't have had the presence of mind to figure out the crime then and there. However, if he could combine the flashes he got of what happened while he was swinging from the fan, whatever he was able to make out when he ran out of the room to chase Nico, and being able to inspect the Gym after the fact, I think it's totally reasonable that he could have figured out what happened with enough clarity that he could replicate its essential elements elsewhere.

As it turns out, despite my crack at trying to figure out what happened, the Gym murder method wasn't actually all that complex.

Teruko: One. Given that you were stalking Eden before the Nico incident, you were already planning a murder beforehand. You entered the Gym with the pre-existing intent to take the tape for some different, unspecified murder plan, and changed your mind on the details later. Two. You were pretending to be unconscious for longer than we thought. And three. You took the tape for first aid.

Dammit, fellow "but it wouldn't have made sense for Ace to take the tape right after the attempt" truthers... I think she may have cooked us. (/j)

But hey, we love to see Teruko representing the "let me explain out various theoretical options by listing and discussing them numerically" crowd! It's always great to see yourself represented in media ;P Even if I never came up with any of these theoretical options.

My guess is probably that, of the options, the first is the most likely. I also think that Teruko probably agrees with that, given that it was what she went to first and it had the longest explanation. It's not really important, though, and I don't think there's any way to truly know, so I don't have much else to say about it.

Teruko noooooooooo :(

Whit FINALLY gets a new sprite and THIS is the expression and context?????? I love him.

Speaking of, I think that, thus far, the characters to have received new sprites in Chapter 2 Part 2 are Teruko, Ace, Arei, Hu, David, Veronika, Whit, and Nico? I'm not certain about whether Eden, Levi, or Rose had any, but I don't think they did. If true, I can't believe that Eden got through such a major role in the story without picking up any new sprites. It's probably because she already had a bunch to begin with, but, still.

Oh hey, he got one too. Protag/antag/support/chapter killer, boom.

Teruko: That's why Arei's wrists were bound-- because you didn't want her to wake up mid-murder to claw at her neck.

Definitely not what I was expecting from this piece of evidence, but I guess it tracks? My only question is why it would have been a problem if Arei had scratched at her neck. Like, it's not like both of them having neck scratches would have implicated Ace as the killer, right?

I guess maybe he was afraid that Arei would be able to escape his murder contraption much like he broke Nico's, even though the rope is probably much more sturdy than the wire. Or, maybe he was worried that it would work against the idea to stage it as a suicide? Either way, it's also convenient for just restraining Arei in general, so it's not like the evidence doesn't make any sense at all.

Nico, in audio: (Sorry.)

SO creative to contrast the voice lines and the spoken dialogue to really imply that Nico is saying it under their breath, or so quietly that nobody can hear.

However, let's not forget about the actual content of what Nico says whilst focusing on the cool media-specific presentation. Nico actually apologized to Ace after traumatizing him! Nico is very much characterized as a straight-shooter (or at least, when they're not trying to avoid conflict by saying whatever they think will help accomplish that), so I believe that when they said that they wouldn't say sorry to Ace because they didn't feel sorry for Ace, they meant it. However, that means that at some point between when Nico said that and now, something changed that made Nico feel genuine remorse towards Ace.

I think it's probably just seeing how much of an effect attempting to kill Ace truly had on his psyche and decisions. I don't know at what point Nico started fully believing that Ace was the one to kill Arei, but it's possible that it was around here. Obviously, at least at one point, Nico had no qualms with the idea of Ace dying, so it's not like seeing that their actions will actually manage to kill Ace would probably be that missing piece.

However, making Ace into a blackened is different than Ace just straight up dying as a victim, a difference which Ace acknowledges later in the episode. If Ace had died as the victim, Veronika wouldn't be toying around with him right now and making him humiliate himself. Nico might see that Ace is being bullied, and therefore, have more of a reason to feel sorry for him. Furthermore, Nico was forced to truly grapple with the reality of how hard it must be for the blackened to survive the Class Trial earlier in the chapter. Knowing now that they essentially passed the mantle on to Ace might make them feel bad.

Basically, I think that, for the first time, Nico might actually see a bit of themself in Ace, and that made it easier for Nico to sympathize with his plight.

Speaking of seeing yourself in Ace, Miss Near-Victim-to-Accused-of-Killing Pipeline...

KING

Okay, I do kinda take issue with this line of reasoning, not because Ace isn't strong-- or at least stronger than Eden-- because he absolutely is, but because Arei is also one of the nation's top performing athletes in her sport of choice? I mean, jockeying feels like more of a full-body sport than bowling, so it probably requires more strength training, but looping her in with Eden and Nico feels unfair. Justice for Arei... 's muscles. Anyways, carry on.

I THOUGHT SOMETHING LIKE THIS MIGHT BE POSSIBLE!!! I just never said it because, given that Arturo said that it seemed like there wasn't any other damage to the body, it didn't feel like it was supported by the facts. (Although, obviously, this Trial has proven that Arturo's autopsies are not infallible.)

I've researched before that punching someone in the jaw seems to be the most trustworthy way to knock someone out and have a low chance of killing them then and there. However, that would likely leave a bruise, so I didn't think it would happen. Strangling someone to the point of unconsciousness, however, is possible (it just might be harder/more likely to be lethal), so this totally makes sense!

Yup, unless Eden was trying to frame Ace by "framing" Nico, it really makes much more sense that Ace would have the incentive to copy Nico's crime down so closely.

I mean... this certainly makes it sound like Nico wouldn't attempt to be a blackened ever again...

It's always good to have a frame plan set for your frame plan. Nico wouldn't just do it without thinking about anyone else to blame, so you can't just blame Nico without establishing who Nico would have blamed!

Then again, this plan does require people to think that Nico didn't think about the rules enough to realize that they could easily rule out suicide as a bait. Then again x2, they already said that they didn't think too much about the reality of going to a Class Trial when they initially tried to kill Ace, so it's not so much of a reach as it would have been for other people.

I can't tell if this is somehow suspicious or just an indication that Eden is nice and thinks about others over herself. Ugh, now I have to decide whether I'm being suspicious of Eden as a mastermind candidate or not, and people are going to get mad at me for continuing to suspect her of foul play...! (/lh)

Shoutout to SomniaVA here for doing an excellent job of voicing Veronika. The line read on "too weak, too stupid, and too incompetent" especially was phenomenal. We stan Veronika in this household.

Man, I feel so bad for Ace in this part. Also shoutout to Seth Raffield for voicing Ace this entire time; if you ever read this, you 100% made Ace who he is and overall have some of my favorite voice acting in DRDT. Not being to hear any more voice lines from Ace will honestly be one of the parts of his upcoming death that'll make me the saddest. We haven't heard the very end of it yet, but thanks for all your hard work :)

(Dude I am NOT going to cry before the execution even happens--)

Charles, internally: (FUCK i made Whit sad BACKTRACK BACKTRACK BACKTRACK--)

I love them :,)

Levi: Charles is right. It really is no simple task to control a horse going over 40 miles per hour on a regular basis. It requires physical strength and endurance. Intense training 6 days a week is standard. And the physical tests that jockeys have to go through are grueling, to say the least.

How the fuck do you two know this

Charles: Not what it's called.

Thanks to Charles' comment, I was easily able to determine that this was a reference to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which Wikipedia describes as "a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities." Or, in simpler terms, believing that something is easier than it is either because you don't know enough about the field to know about its intricacies, or because you don't know enough about being talented to realize that there's an entire world of skill above your personal ceiling (ouch).

Sorry if others already explained it or if people just knew this already, but I didn't, so I thought I'd share!

Also, Whit definitely has an interest in science/psychology or something. Or he just gets really, really bored.

Notably, we now know that this is something that DRDTdev will take into account when planning a murder going forward. Therefore, unless the culprit is one of our more athletic folks (of which there are a dwindling number-- mostly just Levi at this point), crimes in the future likely won't require any impressive feats of strength to accomplish. Much to think about.

See, the tragic thing here is that I don't actually think that Levi was trying to say anything ill of Ace by pointing out that he was the more likely of him and Eden to commit murder. After all, he doesn't give a damn about any of the murders he's committed. The worst Ace is probably getting is now being considered as a "bad person" on Levi's list (because "good people" don't kill people), but I don't think that this is the declaration of malice that Ace is taking it as.

Acevi doomed yaoi :,(

DRDTdev never fails to get silly with it and I appreciate that so much.

Just in case anyone is confused about what Teruko's talking about, I actually learned more about clothing starch since I started theorizing about the Chapter 2 murder case, because I worked at a dry cleaner for, like, a week. Suffice it to say, that now makes me an expert B) (/j)

Starch can be added to laundry when it's being washed to make it stiffer and less likely to wrinkle when it comes out to dry. It also makes them easier to iron, and easier to remove stains from. It's often used on dress clothes, just because those are the ones that people more often care about whether they're wrinkled or not. Seemingly, it can come in solid, pre-made liquid, or spray forms. All that is to say, this is absolutely something that could reasonably have been stored in the Dress-Up Room.

And this "evidence" was alluded to ahead of time-- not super far ahead of time, but when Teruko first touches the ball, she says something like, "is that starch?" I think DRDTdev probably included that line so that we wouldn't have to theorize about what could have possibly kept the ball together, but since apparently none of us theorizing last summer (or at least no one I remember talking to) dressed fancily enough to know what clothing starch was, it didn't help out much. As Arturo would say, "how disgusting." (/j)

... DAMMIT!!!

I thought about including the fitness band as a piece of evidence on my A Piece of Evidence That Lines Up With Them Only section, I really did. I just thought that including a minor detail from early in the Daily Life that would clearly only apply if the killer was Ace would be unfair territory, much like if I said, "well, we know that Eden is good at sneaking around because of how she snuck up on Teruko; that could be a killing blow so point to Eden." However, given that the killer is only Ace, it was totally within fair grounds for it to be used as the final piece. Mannnnnn :,(

Fun that he's literally riding a dark horse though. I know he was certainly a dark horse candidate for many of us.

Oh no. 30 images. I'll be back to finish my thoughts in a reblog either later tonight (in my timezone) or tomorrow. Hopefully later tonight. Until then!

[zeravmeta]

It's kind of intersting where you are saying this is a wake up call to recgonizing fgo's subpar gameplay because on my side it's very much just "we don't like servant coins" for the most part. Heck the fact that nobody has gotten to point of realizing you can do all this with three stars which lasengle active making five stars worse is another werid development. I've only seen only a few comments talking about if you're f2p these things aren't really relevant. Not that I don't agree fgo biggest weakness is that once you get burn out on the gameplay outside of few boss battles you aren't getting any enthuism back imo. And currently the only thing lasenagle does it just repeatedly buffing units through different ways rather than introduce unique gameplay meachnics that go against the normal grind set like Eli quest and Grailfront(In my personal opinion I think the greatest issuse is the fact that doing these things would equlivant of having a consistent ongoing event that need to be updated and I think you need a whole team for that for speicifcally that.) But the fact people angry more express that they care enough about the gameplay to get angry about the lack of acess to it because of basically a pay wall or well I haven't seen many people connect the dots to the gameplay itself being at fault. Also i couldn't tell from reblog what did they backpeddle again? It seems like they were already planing to revise the servant coin distrabustion and the fact they are expressing they openly said going to give the coins back and with eases adds more to the idea than takes away imo.

I kind of wanna address these points a bit just to make a larger point abt why this anniversary and the servant coins thing rings hollow and sour for a bunch:

I wouldn't say 'wake up call' is the right words, but rather 'this was the straw that broke the camels back'. As broken as FGOs gameplay is, something i will begrudgingly credit it for is that all content IS clearable even by low rarity units. Even the hardest challenge quests from things like fest events or certain story fights can be cleared from a full 3* and lower + 5* friend support comp. So of course, then begs the question: If gameplay isn't the main reason to summon (unless you're a tierlist slave for efficient farm comps for Some Reason), why summon at all?

Well, for your faves, of course. FGO gives you a ton of resources and shiny buttons and knobs to make numbers on your blorbo higher, meaning that the whole point of these extra resources is just to sink into a favorite character and get to experience the story with this talking png on hand to be your friend/lover/hater/slash/etc.

Servant Coins were a broken whale mechanic on inception due to being strictly gacha dependent, not only in how you acquire servant coins but in how little return there is for getting said servants. Summoning for a 5* is already infamously terrible, but not only do you need them for grailing above Level 100, but also for append skills? Realistically, the only reason to go for these resource sinks *is* for faves, and in fairness some dedicated players/whales save a whole bunch of sq just for their one/two favorite guys (regardless of if they actually get them lol, you can save over 1K+ and still not even get a single rate up servant). It's very likely that some of these people Did save all their sq to then have all the necessary servant coins to ultimate max their favorite guy.

but to then ask even more from them, to sink even more into the most infamous gacha in all gachas just to maybe have a chance to marginally improve them? That was just a slap in the face. Mind you, a lot of people talk about how these latest appends are actually the most gameplay defining in how they can lower skill cool downs, which is def a huge buff compared to other appends/stat buffs and even skill buffs, but that type of discussion misses the point that this was one of the greediest changes ever done, especially for a game whose base gameplay hasn't really been improved, optimized, or significantly changed in any way.

You can tell even the devs knew that Servant coins were a broken greed mechanic from inception, since they had retroactive refunds for 4-5* servants (but not 3*s. grr) and from the outcry of this anni they walked back some of the changes and even gave out a second overall refund of servant coins, but ultimately this is another bandaid solution to the core issue: FGOs gameplay just isnt fun.

People put up with FGOs gameplay to get to read FGOs story, and we're just at the point where it's not getting to be worth it anymore. The visual novel masquerading as a gacha is being killed by its own status as a gacha.

The truly frustrating thing is that there *are* legitimate ways of playing FGO which CAN be fun, specifically challenge quests and Grail Fronts. Those are the two types of play that actually make FGO's gameplay work to an extent, and yet these types of changes are just never made in any permanent way. Past boss fights are locked forever, previously cleared challenge quests are lost forever, they just do not repeat these gameplay opportunities, and this goes hand in hand with another issue, one which I would say is the true root of all FGO's problems:

They fucking lock past story content

When me and other mutuals are heeing and haawing about having event reruns/a compendium, it's not just to talk about FGOs story being good, because it is! It's to make it so that newbies aren't fucking locked out of the MAIN GODDAMN REASON TO EVEN PLAY THIS GAME. IMPORTANT STORY CRITICAL EVENTS LIKE THE KNK COLLAB, GUDAGUDA EVENTS AND MORE ARE JUST LOST FOREVER TO YOUTUBE STORY COMPILATIONS BECAUSE THE BASE GAME DOES NOT HAVE ANY SORT OF COMPENDIUM FOR THESE PAST EVENTS.

Event Archives just WORK. You can look at so many modern gachas these days and see that they all have event compendiums for events they will not rerun, and the reason is simple: FGO popularized the idea of using a gacha to tell a story, so gachas put more stonks into their writing and dont limit that Very Critical Component Of Why People Would Play Their Game To Begin With.

But for some fucking reason, FGO just does not. Really think about this for a moment: People have put up with a near decade of terrible gameplay and corporate gacha greed just to read FGO's story. It's fucking good! But that's just not gonna be enough anymore when Type Moon is now using their fucking Das Rheingold of gacha money to make new/remake vns. For all that people talk about FGO story burnout, I flat out disagree: People do want more FGO story, Samurai Remnant is a huge fucking testament to that and a major component of why I want an FGO console release, to be FREE from its gacha ball and chain.

People just don't want to have to put up with a terrible gacha system anymore to experience that good story.

[literallylovelynosolaire]

Ok buckle up sweetheart because I need you to hear me when I say this. I'll be as gentle as I can be and I'll try to keep it simple as to not burden your shrivelled intellect. I'm sure you know who the fuck you are so by all means.

You're not special for making POC ocs. It doesn't make you cool it doesn't make you more likable, it doesn't make you an ally to POC. It just means you have POC ocs.

And I said that the way I did because you consistently paint yourself as a victim of racial-influenced opression. As if you're some white savior down in the trenches with us. News fucking flash you're not. And you never will be because you have the privilege of being the color of babymaking bile. A milky mosquito even. A cum cockroach! I digress though. Your behaviour is a perfect example of white-savior internalised racism, speaking with weird ass undertones that feel like you're fetishising and objectifying people of color. "Why wouldn't I wanna make my ocs look like that" it's not about the appearance. People of color aren't just shells of their bodies. They aren't just their hair. We're not only what you perceive. And your lack of respect, dignity and understanding of that is disgusting. At your big old age too?

Oh don't even get me started on this bullshit with you and your former mutual, I fear it truly isn't that deep dawg. I get the initial sting of unawareness that something was wrong but yall did not speak beyond public discord servers and tumblr reblogs bro. I fear you're acting as if the love of your life left you at the altar for your grandma or some insane shit. Also. Are we deadass. "Texting them like a normal person would make me look crazy :(" hey so, social media exists for this. SPEAKING OF THIS ACTUALLY!! YK WHAT THIS REMINDS ME OF? That whole shitshow with your ex! But I wanna highlight this specific detail, because it's relevant.

Your ex made a new account to find/talk to you again after initially being blocked. By doing the exact same thing to your mutual you've successfully let the cycle go full circle, harming someone who is literally just trying to exist peacefully. You're now part of the problem. This does classify as stalking behaviour and it is fucking weird. You say you've been working on it but you show no actual signs of improvement or genuine willingness to improve, so fuck you plain and simple lmao.

To wrap this all up because some points mentioned here can be applied VASTLY throughout this fandom and it's insane; people of color are more than just some "design perks" for OCs or any characterized media. People of color are real and valid and deserve to be talked about in a dignified manner because we are just as fucking real as you. And please don't be a fucking creep, mental illness, manic episode, doesn't matter, accountability still needs to be taken so quit brushing it the fuck off and twisting words and victimising yourself because you think you're in the right. Take your head out of your ass.

Good fucking night

[chaoticbardlady99]

Mummy-Napped (Astarion x GN! Ghost Reader)

Synopsis: You have haunted Cazador Szarr's estate for an extensive amount of time and during your haunting, you became Astarion's first ever friend. With your help, he was able to defeat Cazador and free the other spawn. You and Astarion are still adjusting to your new form as a cat as the gang continues to claw their way through Baldur's Gate. Unfortunately, they forgot to destroy the heart of the Mummy and well- you are a throwable sized.

CW: Dead Dove (mentions from Astarion's past), violence, gross descriptive imagery (?), shenanigans, descriptions of torture of a cat (yes, I'm sorry, but it's plot relevant for the reader character)

Author note: This is a mini-story based on "Darling Never Stop Haunting Me" and can be read independently- in the story the character is female, but for the purposes of this piece, gender is not important to enjoy the story because I wrote the reader as gender neutral. Anyway, likes, comments, and reblogs are always greatly appreciated and to everyone who has always been so kind and supportive- I love you, thank you, and it means the world to me.

You were definitely not about to sleep after they told you the story with Orin, Yenna, and her cat. 

 No. Fucking. Way. 

 And you suppose that really works out in your new companions’ favor because they forgot to destroy the disgusting jar heart from the other day. 

 You are hopping up and done on Astarion’s chest and also slapping his face with your paw. You do feel bad, he was actually having a nightmareless trance for once, but he would probably prefer to be woken up than die.

 “Gods- ,” he grumbles and grabs you- sending you flying directly towards the Mummy at the end of the bed.

 You scramble up on your feet and try to scurry away, but the mummy picks you up and begins to study you. A light of interest sparks in his eyes.

“How exceptionally spectacular- a marvelous creature, really.”

 You hiss wildly and lash out- trying to make as much noise as you possibly can. Scratch and the Owlbear begin to join in- too scared to attack the mummy themselves. 

 “Shit!”

 Oh so now Astarion wakes up!?

 The mummy merely flicks his wrist and you are suddenly in a completely different place. He sets you down on his desk and you begin to tremble.

 It smells really really bad and there are a lot of hungry looking ghouls. Mummies are also notorious for killing cats- yes it may be for religious purposes, but that doesn’t mean they asked beforehand! 

 You have grown rather attached to this form and you missed Astarion- you don’t want to find out what happens if you die!

  The wallpaper is old and molding- the smell of rotting corpses is damning, to say the least. You feel like you could die from nausea alone. 

  A sinewy, moist hand begins to pet you and you stiffen like a board. It just keeps scratching and your purring is merely from trying to soothe yourself at this point. You had thought the thought of Astarion being kidnapped and sacrificed by Cazador was terrifying, this is somehow worse. You really haven’t been in danger in a very long time- not true danger anyway. 

 He walks away for a bit, leaving you alone in the room with a bunch of hungry eyes and your heart beating out of your chest. The poor cat you are haunting is equally as terrified by what is happening and you are trying to contain both of your panic to the best of your ability.

 The mummy jump scaring you did not help.

 He pops out of nowhere and begins petting you again with his disgusting fingers while laying out a surgery kit. Your stomach drops all the way to your ass. 

 You don’t want to die! You want to live! With ASTARION! Not SOME MUMMY!

 He begins to shave off pieces of your fur and it’s painful- mostly because it’s actually just him ripping out your fur while the ghouls hold you down by your arms and legs. 

 You then feel a large needle go into your belly and another in your neck- you feel hot, like your body is on fire and you get the sense you do not have much time before you become some undead cat creature. 

 You could abandon ship, but you aren’t about to leave the poor kitty alone.

“Welcome to your new home!” The mummy spreads his arms, “I am Mystic Carrion- your new Lord.”

 He has far too much cheer. It’s the whole being a cat thing you are sure.

“I-huhahaha, funny story,” you try to get out from under his hand, fighting the horrid feeling in your body, but he won’t let you, “I actually have have- a -a hhhome- his name is -Starion an really like to go back to -“

“Shhhhhhhhhhh,” the petting gets more aggressive and painful, “go to sleep little one- your anguish will be gone when you awaken.”

 Uh oh. Your eyelids begin to flutter shut and you collapse. The mummy walks away and you hear the snarling of ghouls walking towards you.

Astarion! Help!!!!!

                 ************************************

   Astarion is getting on his armor and weapons while Karlach wakes everyone up. Scratch and the Owlbear cub are shaking and worried about you. Halsin is really struggling to calm them down. 

 Even fucking Withers is concerned! How you were able to get Jergal to like you is a mystery to him, but at least it means he may resurrect you for free. 

 Astarion is first out the door; Karlach, Tav, Shadowheart, Minsc, and Wyll in tow. The others stay behind in case the Mummy comes looking for his heart (which Astarion conveniently has). He didn’t really care who went- he just needs to find you fast!

 He honestly kind of forgot he has a ghost living inside a cat as a companion now. He thought he was pushing Boo off of him and he certainly did not mean to fling you! 

  Gods, he finally gets to formally meet his first friend and first very loyal companion, only to fling you right at a mummy!?

 There is no way you are going to want to travel with him after this! Why would you!? He just flung you to your second death!

  Most people and felines don’t like that! (Astarion tries not to judge other people’s kinks- he’s better than that (sometimes)).

 And he has a feeling that you are not a part of the population that enjoys that kind of thing. If he had to take a wild guess anyway.

 Your scent is very fresh- which means that it hasn’t been all that long since you first arrived so there is still plenty of hope.

 Astarion creeps up to the open door- signaling for everyone to wait unless they hear a ruckus. Ideally, this will be a quick in and out, then they will come back and take care of the rest of the monstrosities. 

 “I am Mystic Carrion, your new lord!”

 Astarion hears you laugh nervously, but the next words out of your mouth make him emotional and it’s kind of embarrassing. 

“I-huhahaha, funny story,” you sound like you just drank a massive mug of ale, “I actually have have- a -a hhhome- his name is Starion an really like to go back to -“

“Shhhhhhh,” Astarion hears a small thud, “go to sleep little one, your anguish will be gone when you awaken.”

 He waits only two seconds more- the Ghouls are licking their lips and the Mummy is picking up a Bonesaw. Astarion misty steps into the room, his companions are beginning to pile into the main parlor.

“Hey- you disgusting, filthy poor excuse for a necromancer,” Astarion taunts, holding the Mummy’s heart in his hands, “they said they wanted to go home and I don’t particularly care for individuals who don’t listen to my friend. 

“Nor do I think you should be allowed to live,” He smirks, stabbing the heart and the mummy collapses to the ground, “Toodles- tell Cazador I hope he chokes on Orcus’ cock when you see him.”

 The mummy evaporates and the other creatures hit the floor- stone dead. Astarion immediately runs over to where you are laying out on the desk- some of your belly fur is missing and your neck has a few cut up spots, needles with various types of fluids are sitting next to you and two have been used to far. You look up at him, your mouth foaming as you choke on whatever is trying to take you. Your eyes are wild with fear, but they soften ever so slightly when he comes into your view.

“St-sta-,” your head begins to lolll to the left a bit and your eyes are becoming glassy.

“SHADOWHEART!” Astarion screams, “SHADOWHEART- GET THE HELLS OVER HERE NOW!” 

  The Cleric comes racing into the room and immediately begins casting lesser restoration and throwing every healing spell she has at you- even going as far as using the rest of her Channeled Divinity from the day before to ensure you are well and truly healed.

 Astarion is ecstatic that you are okay, but when he picks you up- you burst into tears.

“I-I thought I- he wouldn’t stop petting me and he-“ you nuzzle closer to him and whimper, he pets your back and doesn’t say anything. 

 He is honestly afraid if he tries that he may begin crying too. He has only truly been able to talk to you for three days and it already hurts him when you're feeling miserable. At this rate, he is just going to have to buy a new cat every time the one you are inhabiting passes away. 

 Halsin is at the front of their room at Elfsong when they arrive and immediately begins to check on you- finding no further significant injuries or concerns. Astarion had left you with him and came back with a bucket, a bar of soap, and a big fluffy towel. 

 The water is just the right temperature- he made sure to ask Tara the other day because the fountain water at Szarr Palace had been freezing cold and he felt bad for having to use it to clean off the dirt. You had been shivering for quite some time afterwards- you thought you had kept it from him, but he could hear your teeth chattering. 

 Astarion picks you up and gently puts you in the bucket- you sigh in relief when the warm water soaks your fur- between Halsin and Shadowheart you were able to get most of it to grow back. However, that doesn’t change the fact that there is a disgusting film beginning to coat the surface of the water.

 “He wouldn’t stop petting me.” 

 The words echo in Astarion’s mind and it makes him want to sob while simultaneously punching a hole through the wall. It rips up so many of his own old wounds- especially the ones that are beginning to come back now that Cazador is dead and his brain is no longer just focusing on surviving another day. 

  It reminds him of the beginning- before he was numb to all of it and it devastated him to be touched against his will. That was when you were protecting him and you were basically invincible.

 He never really had to worry about you beforehand, except if Cazador went on a Ghost Hunt. You knew stopping Cazador all the time would get Astarion in more trouble, but the few times you had been able to intervene… not even just a few times. You have helped him thousands of times and he couldn’t even keep you away from a mummy. 

  You were supposed to be safe with Astarion, not in danger of being pet by a mummy when you didn’t want to be and moments away from dying. You had looked so terrified as your eyes were fighting not to roll back- you had been shaking the entire walk back to Elfsong. 

 Astarion failed you and he doesn’t know if he will ever be able to forgive himself for this.

 “Do I really smell that bad?”

“I- what?” 

“Your eyes,” you say with a concerned look on your little kitty face, “they are watering- why?”

“O-oh nothing, you don’t need to fret about me, my Dear,” he waves his hand dismissively, “however, I will need to get a new bucket of water because his hands were positively filthy. Stay right there.”

 Astarion leaves the room before you can ask more questions and he goes back down to the bar, asking them for another bucket of warm water and he even buys you a cooked fish. He doesn’t have the energy to steal anything right now and he has no idea how to make any of this better.

 You are going to tell him you don’t want to travel with him anymore. You will move along in your life and he will never see you again- stuck in the shadows and still the useless monster he has always been. His Ghosty will be all gone and it’s all his fault. 

 You are there waiting for him, an even more concerned look on your face. He picks you up and moves you to the new bucket, the water staying clean as he grabs the soap.

“You still want to have me around, right?” You ask abruptly.

 Astarion sputters, “how is that even a question!? I should be the one asking you that!” 

“But why?”

“Because I practically handed you over to a mummy!” He says in exasperation, “and… I didn’t get there in time.”

“What?” You cock your head to the side in confusion, “I am alive, aren’t I? I am very very grateful you showed up when you did and I really appreciate you helping me clean up- I definitely didn’t want to have to go the ole natural route, ya know?

“I just thought that… maybe it was more effort than it was worth- to save me, I mean.”

 Astarion shakes his head, scrubbing the soap into your fur, “no, nothing is more effort than it’s worth when it comes to you.

“You are my first friend, the only person who has ever been truly loyal to me, and… you are my home.”

 “You are my home too,” you don’t even skip a beat, you head butt his hand and purr when he scratches behind your ears, “and nothing could scare me enough to keep me from you!” 

 He knows- you have always been there, even when he is being a shit. You are so tolerant of him and he will never be able to repay you for all the little joys you have brought into his life.

 So for now, he dries you off with the extremely fluffy towel- you are very excited about it- and then grabs a book he knows you really like before curling up in bed.

 You lay next to his head on the pillow with your head on his shoulder and he reads to you until you both fall asleep.

*****************************************************************

Thank you for reading!!!

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

i am once again exhausted seeing people reblog/repost from the covidsafehotties project like it's an actual legitimate community resource like g-dddd it's an indiscriminate dump of every study that contains the word "covid" in it framed as if every single one of them has equal relevant truth value and should be taken equally seriously in terms of material action

like half the studies on there have extremely poor methodology and can't be taken to mean anything other than "these researchers got these results this time" (and i am fine with presenting these to the public but it needs to be with proper framing, and if relevant, with an accurate assessment of whether or not you should be running these trials on yourself at home and how)

and the entire resource keeps pushing the "mask up, masks are the most important" party line that keeps me trapped in my fucking house because no one will accept that air filtration is 10x more important than masking will ever be and masking does very little to make any given space accessible to me or anyone else at high risk of covid or any other highly transmissible infection

it's honestly infuriating to me at this point like there needs to be community projects run with rigor and responsibility for the kind of material effects they're having on real life communities and doing education with the intention of actually improving life for real disabled people

but nope instead everyone pays attention to projects like this shit and pats themselves on the back bc they "care about covid" when in reality they just reblog a shitty research study about how covid TOTALLY causes mouth cancer (or do the equivalent from the equivalent shitty instagram projects, which i see locally a lot) and mask at the fucking crowded bar they frequent every week and don't question why they haven't seen a high risk disabled person in public in 4 years

an affinity group i'm adjacent to has been talking about doing an online education project on proper air filtration for a few months now and i really feel like i need to poke them and see if i can get in on that because it's so fucking bleak out here

[nitpick7]

okay uh. spoke/mapicc uu yuri. this is technically part of Soulmates Au™ but that's completely not relevant to this part. also it's like... neither of them know they like each other yet... idk, pre-yuri. whatever. may reblog later with more once i. write that.

uhh i dont have a fancy divider

oooOOoOOoOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOOOoOOOOooOoOooOOOOOOOoO (scary ghost noises)

Mapicc is woken up at too-early in the morning by the sound of a body making impact with her walls. This is followed by a string of curses, the sound of armor being equipped, and an obnoxious knock on her walls in lieu of a door. She'd been wondering when Spoke would show up.

Reluctantly, she maneuvers herself to a sitting position on her bed and glares at Spoke. As well as she can, with the sun rising over the hill making Spoke literally glow. She covers the sun with her hand and squints. "Spoke, it is dawn. What are you doing in my house."

"I'm surprised there aren't more people in your house, dude, you don't even have a front wall." Spoke lets herself in. As in, takes two steps forward and is now standing on Mapicc's floor.

"I don't get a lot of visitors," she responds. "The server doesn't exactly love me since we destroyed every item stash we could find."

"You didn't get put in prison!" Spoke argues.

Mapicc stares at her.

"Okay, fine, whatever. Doesn't matter! I'm out now! Do you wanna go annoy Ro's civilization with me again?" She grins at Mapicc, bouncing on her toes. It's still too fucking early for this, but... annoying Ro with Spoke again does sound fun. Mapicc sighs.

"What do you have in mind?"

Spoke claps in excitement. "Okay! So! In the like, month I was banned, Ro's civilization seems to have gotten pretty much all of its stuff back." Mapicc nods and starts getting out of bed. If she's gonna be awake, she might as well. "Now, I haven't seen their stashes, but I have to make sure they haven't found a new exploit to dupe items while I was gone."

Mapicc hums in agreement. "Yeah, I was pretty bored while you were gone so I spied on Ro a lot to kill time." As she speaks, she sticks a travel mug under her coffee maker and starts pressing buttons till it turns on. "They've definitely got new stashes, I think I have the coords to one if you want to go there."

Spoke actually takes a second to respond this time, so Mapicc looks over at her. "You have a coffee maker and not a front wall?"

Mapicc nods. "To put up with your bullshit." She sends a quick thank-you to the universe that her coffee machine worked today, because that joke was perfect.

"Mapiiiiiicc..." She draws out that second syllable of Mapicc's name and pouts, earning a tired glare from Mapicc herself. Spoke plops herself down in the middle of Mapicc's floor, crossing her arms like a petulant child. "I'm not that annoying," she protests.

"No, but it's five in the fucking morning and you woke me up. So for today at least, this is specifically to deal with your bullshit." Mapicc finishes preparing her coffee and takes a sip, ignoring the way it burns her mouth as she does. At least it wakes her up more. "Now are you going to let me get changed before we attack Ro again, or am I doing that in my pajamas?"

[bewareofchris]

I've been on the writer's tag again.

Listen guys.

Nobody owes your fanfic anything. I know that you want validation and adoration and those are both completely normal things to want. But this obsessive demand for comments over kudos and reblogs over likes is A Problem.

I won't bore you with tales of yore where we literally punted our fiction into the world with no idea of how it was being perceived by others because the only way to know if anyone even glanced at it was by the incredibly inaccurate page counter on our shitty geocities page.

(But that was a thing and it's semi-relevant to my point.)

A lot of you are growing up in a era of social media and viral marketing. You are babies of the influencer age, raised on the myth that if you can just get enough attention you'll get famous for something. I don't mean 10 million followers on insta famous but famous in your specific sphere.

That will not happen for you.

Not because people aren't reblogging your shit or writing out loving comments but because it's a myth. The idea that if you shame, beg and cajole enough people into interacting with your creation you'll access some serotonin high and ascend to a greater state of being is also a myth.

Here's the truth:

Most writers do not know how the majority of their audience feels about their fics. Those very few novels that you see on booktok, X (former twitter) or wherever else you get your writing news represent an infinitesimal portion of stories written and books published.

Most writers do have writing buddies or trusted members of an inner circle that they share their writing with.

For most fandoms, fanfics are so plentiful it's like going into a mall sized grocery store that sells only apples and then demanding the customer review every apple they touch.

For those few fanfics that you see that have an outrageous number of comments there are three possible explanations: 1. that person is what we used to call a "Big Name Ficcer" and they have amassed a following through consistent production of whatever that fandom is into, 2. that is a fic so long you have to sign a waiver to start reading it and despite the fact it was started seven years ago its still getting updated, or 3. that person is writing a viral fic in a fandom that is presently on fire.

Your self worth and self esteem cannot be tied to writing and posting fanfiction. It might be a fun outlet or you might be looking for your viral moment, but either way the moment you start weighing your worth as an author or creator based on what a bunch of strangers on the internet think of you is the moment you give up on yourself.

Social media has brainwashed you into thinking that you must be recognized and rewarded for the things that you put onto the internet. Or maybe it hasn't brainwashed you, maybe you just want to get a comment because you worked super hard on something and you feel like if you can't even get one decent response then its all been wasted. (I.e. you've been brainwashed into the feeling that you need the validation of strangers for happiness purposes.)

So what are you going to do about this?

Get off the internet. I don't mean permanently. I don't even mean literally. I mean take yourself out of the spaces that reinforce the idea that you need validation from strangers to be happy. Stop going on the social media sites for a few days (or a few weeks). If you've got a friend in fandom that you share fics, headcanons, ideas or anything with start chatting with them about something you want to write. Invest in them, in what they're doing and their opinions and how they react to your creations.

Put your shit on the internet like you literally don't give a fuck about anyone's opinion. Explain nothing about your writing choices. Put warnings, no more than 5 tags and drop that shit into the world like a newborn giraffe. Then ignore it.

Teach yourself to seek validation from your accomplishments: write a slightly longer fic, write a fic in a different genre, write a fic in a different rating, write a fic in a different fandom.

Find an actual friend that you actually interact with whose opinion you know matters because you agree on the important stuff.

Stop begging strangers for compliments like a cartoon hobo shaking a cup for coins. You're better than that.

[xjulixred45x]

♡I saw your Akaza reader headcannons and i loved it!!!:D what about a Gyutaro reader? You can choose if daki should be involved or not, that's all up to you!(I love your blog☆)

THERE'S NO GYUTARO WITHOUT DAKI! I'LL TAKE IT!! but it's a little short😅 more like a Drabble.

Imagine having had the same kind of life as Gyutaro. being the son of a prostitute, constantly being rejected for your appearance, living in poverty and having to eat insects, even your own mother wanting to get rid of you. that was the life life of Gyutaro!reader.

Gyutaro! The reader got used to living on his own, to having to resort to dirty tactics to stay alive, well, how else was he going to do it?

That's what he thought until his sister, Ume, came into his life. and everything took on a different color.

Ume was his pride and joy, since finally there was someone in his family who loved him sincerely and did not want to hurt him, however Gyutaro reader was very protective of Ume. teaching her his ways to survive. that together with his sister's beautiful appearance, made them prosper.

until no longer...

Ume one day stabbed a Samurai in the eye, they tied her up and burned her alive...when Reader was not there...when he arrived he was ambushed by the same samurai. killing him.

This is how the sibilings got to Hell.

The brothers became prominent Overlords, Gyutaro Reader with his brute strength and Ume/Daki with his charms and beauty, having many souls in his repertoire.

I highly doubt that they want to help the hotel, honestly. but I can see them having a kind of rivalry with other demons relevant to the plot, such as the Vees, since they are precisely considered their "replacement".

Alastor has known the brothers for quite some time, they have been in Hell before him and he definitely knows not to underestimate them. Of course, he doesn't consider that they are at his level (egocentric HDP) but he definitely doesn't have time to mess with them.

Finds Gyutaro reader's greedy attitude very interesting and funny, he believes he will go far, although first he should bathe more often and stop hurting himself so much! He sees his constant envy to others as good "fuel" for his success!

Alastor can definitely handle Ume/Daki's attitude well, although, with all due respect, he thinks she's the most insufferable lady he's ever interacted with in his afterlife. although again, she is charming in her own way.

Charlie really wants to believe in them, seriously! but... they don't really give you a good reason to do so. Gyutaro! reader is not like Angel on the level of "fucked up but he's good underneath it all" NO! is "FUCKED and only good with Daki/ume, the rest? Screw them!" and Gyutaro reader's jealous tendencies along with his aggressive attitude would make OBVIOUS that Charlie would not consider him a good candidate for the hotel.

with Daki/Ume, on the other hand, she could have a good relationship if she hits the right places (her ego) and thus have them as allies, play with her to dress up and buy luxurious things together (Charlie could even know a little more about how they ended up in hell like that). In general, much more manageable for Charlie than his brother.

Vaggie DOESN'T LIKE either of them, period. believe that Gyutaro! reader is an idiot and his sister is a spoiled brat. but when she gets into a fight with Gyutaro! reader after he learns that she "made his sister cry," Vaggie understands the depth of their bond a little better.

Lowkey, she thinks they are good siblings, but terrible people. She won't think twice before taking out the angelic spear and pointing it at them to defend the hotel from them. nothing too personal. really.

Angel Dust meets Daki/Ume from the entertainment district area in hell, both are well known and considered Sex Icons, so for quite a while Angel had to compete with her for ratings, which generated a long-lasting feud.

although Angel eventually gave up because he realized that Daki/Ume's mental maturity is that of a YOUNG GIRL, a teenager at most, so he is not hostile towards her, in fact he is somewhat jealous of her for having a brother like Gyutaro! reader who supports her and protects her from people like Val. For him, may they continue like this, may they be happy.

Husk is surprisingly the one who could have a better relationship with them, simply because he doesn't get involved in their affairs and therefore they don't get involved with him. You may even function as a father figure to them that they didn't know they needed.

Husk can handle Gyutaro!reader's aggressiveness (with food) and Ume/Daki's whims (with sweets) better than anyone else. In general, Husk is almost untouchable in the areas that have sibilings thanks to the fact that he is on his good side. (he probably also knows how young they died, so he unconsciously spoils them)

Sir Pentious is afraid of them, clearly, he doesn't want to be near them. yes Gyutaro! reader is close HE STRAIGHTENS UP immediately and doesn't make a sound. If Daki/Ume is around, he does everything he is told WITHOUT EXCEPTION.

Ironically, thanks to this, they find him funny and do nothing to him, even (along with Husk) he is one of the few characters in the Hotel that really amuses them. so KEEP LIKE THIS PENTIOUS!

Niffty....Gyutaro! The reader stays away from her, he only tolerates her for being Alastor's maid, but she gives him the creeps (remember that Gyutaro, apart from being a ✨BadBoy✨, looks like a Mantis).

ironically Daki/Ume enjoys spending time with Niffty to play and dress pretty. two mentally unstable women living together! What could go wrong :)

In general, most respect their Overlord status, and don't really want to mess with the indestructible duo. they know! They mess with one and they're screwed✨

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!