#shes AWARE that she is manipulating them

[tangledinink]

Sorry if you’ve already answered something like this and I haven’t seen it, but in the Gemini AU, does Big Mama, on some level, hold any actual affection for the twins? Or does she see them exclusively as tools to be exploited?

Yes, she does hold actual affection for the twins. She views them as her children. They view her as her mother. She loves them, and they love her. That doesn't mean that their relationship isn't super fucked up and abusive, because it clearly is, but it's not fair to just write it off as "they're tools to her and nothing else." There's a lot more nuance than that. If the twins were to die or leave her, Big Mama would be devastated. Likewise, if anything bad happened to their Mama, the twins would be heartbroken.

She loves them, or at least she thinks that she does. She also uses them like tools and exploits them. She always feels like she can justify her actions and motivations to herself, and that the things she does are for the greater good of their family. Right now, The Gemini Twins fully believe that, as a whole, the things that Big Mama says or does she does out of love and she does with their best intentions in mind. Even the things that hurt. Even the things that they don't understand. Even the things that make them angry and upset.

I mean, that's their mom, right? She loves them. Of course she loves them, even if she's not perfect... Besides that. Aside from one another, she's all they really have.

[cryptke]

This 🙏🏻🙏🏻 I do not necessarily agree in the advocating of keeping abuse a secret from a partner. But it's true that disclosure isn't always best. If you make someone aware that you've been treated bad in past relationships, and that you've accepted it and put up with it and stayed in the relationship, then you are setting the bar (and it is a low one) to your new partner of things that can be and have been done to you with no consequence. Your experience is your own power and you need to make sure that you are bringing to light the right things to the right people

[lovesickeros]

now that natlan is out it's tsaritsa yearning hours again because i am one nation closer to either being horribly disappointed or foaming at the mouth!

creator!reader w a little side of conflicted tsaritsa is such good food I can't not yap about it. a woman who has dedicated so much of her life to severing herself from "love" of all kinds and succeeding and. just being so confident that when she meets you she's bitter and angry and mean. because she can't stand you. she isn't supposed to love yet you worm your way into her heart anyway and you don't even know it.

especially in smth like an imposter au. she tells herself your just a tool for her to use but your treated like the Divine you really are, pampered and spoiled every step. tells herself it means nothing when she indulges you – let's you hold her hand in private, eventually let's you move aside the veil, just a little.

and she hates it. hates how easy it is to let you break down the ice she's built up for years.

all you do is smile and she feels like she can't breathe. because despite how violently she rejects love in all aspects, it always bleeds through eventually. she despises it but the way you brush your thumbs over her cheeks makes her bitter and warm and it infuriates her to no end.

she hates you and she loves you and she can't stand you and if you were ever taken from her she'd destroy every inch of teyvat if she had to go get you back.

and ironically enough I think she'd also be the one to initiate any first kiss. maybe she's still trying to convince herself it's just a fluke and itll make her realize it meant nothing, it means nothing. desperate to fix whatever you've done to her and instead it just makes it worse.

a horrible mess of a woman who gave up on love just to be confronted with it when she finally accepted it's absence.

[pyrrhiccomedy]

who loves the antichrist

Olivie - His Lover

I remember his heart in my heart.

I remember his weakness, his follies, his flaws.

I remember that he can be hurt, and put my hand over his wounds.

When you stand upon the burning hill;

When you huddle in the dark;

Do not forget that I alone remember your heart.

Volo - His Knight

My lord burns me, spends me, restores me.

My lord's hand is my hand: my lord's will is my will.

My lord aims his sword at heaven, and I am his sword.

I tremble; I shiver. I stand before a greater light.

Have mercy upon me, my lord.

My anguish is complete, and my soul is yours.

Bellefleur - His Queen

I will make him for my hand.

I will make him for my enemies.

I will make him what he wants to be made.

He is great, and I will make him greater.

Look neither to the left nor right. Trust my hand upon your back.

A sword exists for a purpose.

[nightingaletrash]

Teia will reform the entirety of the Antivan Crows through romance, the power of friendship, and all these knives she found.

[thewingedwolf]

luther: the golden child

diego: the mastermind

allison: the peace keeper

klaus: the clown / mascot

five: the rebel / truth teller

ben: the lost child

viktor: the scapegoat

is this something i think this is something

[chocottang]

disorganized ramble about cami

eak and ttrap's care for cami is what dooms her to stay with owyyn. both of them want to save cami but they don't actually take the time to listen to her, spend time with her and understand why she stays by owynn's side because they're too focused on saving her, as if she were a damsel in distress, to see her. they don't try reasoning with her because they know she's committed to owynn but they don't take the time to ask themselves why. and that's exactly why owynn has the upper hand, i believe. he listens to cami, he takes the time to understand her needs, frustrations and things that bring her joy and he weaponizes that. a push and pull, if u will. he berates her to keep her from questioning him, and then does something nice so she doesn't hate him. he sees her as a full-fledged person and plays into her ideologies, desires and pains to convince her that she should do what he says. ttrap and eak are too focused on the idea of saving her that they don't see her as a person anymore, they don't take the time to deprogram her. that dooms her. because she feels like they don't understand her, because they don't, so she turns more and more to owynn. who seems to understand her even better than herself, who doesn't underestimate her or take her as stupid, who takes her seriously and explains things she doesn't understand instead of laughing it off or thinking she's cute for being confused. who sees her as a person. as a person that is worth trusting on instead of just a girl that needs to be protected. maybe she thinks eak and ttrap have been blinded by the bullying she suffered and see her as an eternal victim as a result. so she thinks owynn is not as bad as they say, because they are too focused on seeing her as someone who is weak and can't handle anything on her own. in a way, she may want to prove herself, that she is not that weak little girl anymore. she is strong, has powers, can defend herself and judge if her relations are good or bad for her. being a threat may be cathartic: she is not the weak victim anymore, she has the control and the power now. she decided owynn is good for her, because he sees her as capable, strong, reliable. something eak and ttrap, no matter how many times she gets mad at them and threatens them, will never do. she is not capable to them, she is a victim that needs saving. and cami hates that.

kind of like that one post format. "i would kill for you" "i would die for you" okay but would you listen to me. would you remember the things that upset me and make me happy. would you explain things i don't understand. would you spend time with me even if i'm silent and don't even want to be with myself. that kind of ordeal

[moonfurthetemmie]

Your rambles about Lucidity (your au's spin on DS!Dream) has had me HOOKED, especially seeing his descent into madness. Also that post about Sweammare??? Love that, i humbly ask thee for more (on my knees begging, actually).

It would also actually be funny to know what Nightmare thinks of Shale and Nightshade... If Nightmare were to (somehow) end up in a relationship with Lucidity, i bet Shale and Nightshade would have many thoughts on that

I also have a feeling they (Shale and Nightshade) would bully Nightmare really hard when Lucidity isn't looking (because Lucidity would NOT want anything happening to Nightmare, but that doesn't mea they can't bully/tease Nightmare a bit when Lucidity isn't looking...)

Anyways, thank you for your thoughts and your story, love it, love everything please keeping making more am so invested rn...

awww thank you :] lucidity’s so fucked up <33

I might be able to give more sweammare but it’ll have to be after work

Nightmare doesn’t trust Shale and Nightshade at all. He’s pretty sure Lucidity’s the reason Shale’s been better about some things, but given what he’s learned about the bastard he’s real sure Shale hasn’t just suddenly decided to draw the line there. And tbh Shale just has the most rancid vibes in general

And Nightshade just…on the outside, he’s the kind of smooth, confident pretty boy that Nightmare might get a huge crush on, but damn near everything he says sets off alarm bells in Nightmare’s head. The fact that he’s close with Shale isn’t help with that. And he, across, and Error have found very little about Nightshade (especially compared to Shale), which makes Nightmare even more suspicious. Just how much is he hiding…?

Shale and Nightshade, on the other hand, probably think Nightmare is cute, in the sense that He Looks Cute and that they think he’s a naïve fool who’d easily manipulated. And once Lucidity gets Nightmare to join his evil polycule, Shale and Nightshade will try to make him stay in the manor, even if they don’t have personal emotional attachments. Aside from other reasons to keep someone around who you think is cute, it would make it a little easier on them and Lucidity if they all knew where he was. Despite Lucidity telling them he’s much more clever than they think, they still severely underestimate him.

They also don’t realize how fricken annoying he’d be (mainly to Shale) if he stops being afraid of them. He doesn’t particularly want to get stabbed for trying to prank either of them, but if he’s convinced they’re chill, then all bets are off. He will test his limits with each of them. He will replace all of shale’s 57 black shirts (exaggeration) with nearly identical ones that he partially bleached. He will steal all of Nightshade’s shoes and hide them around the manor. He’s an agent of fucking chaos and they are not prepared.

Unfortunately for Nightmare, his brand of intentionally annoying is rather similar to Nightshade’s, so as much as Shale’s going to bitch about he’s also becoming more attached to the little shit

They do tease Nightmare a lot, but Nightshade’s teasing is ‘friendly’ because he’s mainly just trying to make Nightmare less and less likely to realize something’s wrong.

Shale’s more of an actual bully, but he’s toeing the line between actual harassment and affectionate teasing (which he pretends isn’t affectionate at all, regardless) for the same reasons Nightshade keeps his teasing sounding friendly

After a certain point, Nightshade and Nightmare’s flirting with each other is just affectionate teasing and the not-too-rare dirty joke.

Nightmare’s favorite way of showing that he likes you is pranking you, so if Shale ever gets fed up with Nightmare’s bullshit and tries to turn the tables-

…well. one, it won’t work, because Shale hasn’t pranked anyone in decades (if ever) and Nightmare has been doing it for decades, so Nightmare sees it coming a mile away. But the fact that he tried at all is very much encouraging Nightmare’s bullshit

so like…TLDR they do like him, but he needs to stay well the fuck away from them for his own good. Not that that’s a surprise; the Jet and Obsidian alts are being manipulative and shit? Whoa…who could’ve guessed…?

And as (I…think?) I said, once Nightmare caves and decides he does want to be with Lucidity (specifically romantically), Lucidity won’t care what Shale and Nightshade do so long as they don’t physically injure (or really upset) Nightmare. So when they start trying to ‘convince’ him to stay in the manor, he’ll pretend he doesn’t see a thing

[freakinator]

If you don’t mind, I’m gonna yap for a second.. I think another problem with Kab is how sudden the turn around was. Like in the first convo where Kab was acting “evil”, Zam fought back with the argument that she’s wasn’t really evil at all and I think he did believe that at least a little. And if Kab slowly began to turn her path around then he would be a bit more trusting cause he would have SEEN her actual emotional growth but the turn around was so fast, it feels like there was no emotional growth at all and that Kab is still the same as before, cause she basically is. She still wants Mane dead no matter the cost and she’s still, intentionally or not, trying to manipulate Zam, but she wants to be treated as if she’s had that whole long term emotional growth

yeah ii think this is where her majority experience with short-term smps really bit her in the ass, i think there are two main directions that other ppl take it tho: 1. is as what you speculate in that some ppl think that she hasnt had genuine growth and hasnt changed at all and 2. that she genuinely changes too quickly and is therefore unreliable regardless of if shes being honest or not

i think the reason zam was so receptive to her in silent scream was cause this has been a recurrent plot point for a couple streams now, kab trespassing zams base to yap while zam tries to decipher her wants and motivations until eventually she just let it all out and in that instance i think he did genuinely believed that she changed even if it was slowly/just a little bit

....but then die for you happened lol

ssee the thing about kab is that shes shes all-or-nothing, going from one extreme to the next after just a little bit of change in character which can be jarring to some ppl to say the least (unless you thought she was lying and therefore any character development shouldnt be believed i suppose) but is something that was a great asset in shorter and arena-based smps where you had to get as much advantage against your opponent as possible without having to worry about the long-term consequences of these actions ie them not trusting you while still having to interact often in mundane ways even after messing with them. while she Can be swayed this only really works with things she was already unsure of which while a great motivator and trait to keep her on track with her goals (again another great trait for short-term smps), can be really jarring and distressing for other ppl if the things she was absolutely sure about goes against their own perspective like for example her thinking that derapchu killing her constitutes zam getting payback for her as the protector of the server (The protector, not A protector like zam insists, The protector of the server)

i think shes far too used to the fast-paced instant acceptance of changed personality in arena smps that is a natural consequence of them being short-term and having a revolving door of members and teams which is why she expects ppl to accept her growth and efforts so quickly even if realistically nobody would hand over their trust that easily esp after essentially being harassed in their own home multiple times, like even in normal smps where theres a baseline amount of trust ppl still wouldnt trust you after doing that, what more in a server like lifesteal where general trust is low basically all the time?

[arbitrarygreay]

The root of Talder tragedy

Tally doesn't think that intent is magic, but Alder kind of does? So, Alder often talks about having no choice, and how the ends justified the means (example: her decision to deploy the Citydrop privates), but ultimately, she falls back on her internal motive, that she did all of the things she did with the intent to protect her people. She believes that that is sufficient to engender (enough) trust between her and the unit to work together in 1x10. Tally is focused on the practical fallout of things. In 2x6, "[Alder] causes more problems than she fixes, doesn't she?" In 3x1, she beats herself up for accidentally compromising the Dodger facility. "Oh, if you ever need anyone to ruin everything, I am available. No, seriously. Alder, Penelope, now this? I may just be the Camarilla's greatest weapon." something something linked to how her Sight focuses her on how the world will be, not how she wishes. So, of course, these two mindsets collide in the worst possible way in 2x5. Tally is focused on the effect of Liberia leading to the creation of the Spree. Very notably, Alder immediately concedes the point that it was a bad call. "one of my deepest regrets", "an even deeper moment of personal failure", "prideful failings". She did the same in 1x10, easily conceding that she did all of the things the unit accused her of, holding that she wasn't the same as Spree simply because of her motive. In 2x5, what Alder fires back at Tally as the transgression that Alder is offended by isn't about the actions. She is incensed by "accusations of conspiracy and nefarious intent". Arguably, Alder does not pursue punitive action against Tally for this because Tally successfully protests the framework. "I just wanted answers" successfully shows that Tally was not looking at Alder's intent. Unfortunately, Alder and Tally are similar on this point of what stirs them to anger: to be willfully misunderstood. Alder tolerates the power-jockeying of her subordinates for the most part, so long as they're on the same page that it's all for the sake of protecting their people. For anyone to intimate that she does more selfish things is where she gets incensed. I wrote previously how Tally gets the most enraged when others impugn how she should feel. So, Alder thought that Tally attacked her intent (which is magic), but then let it go when Tally cleared that up. Unfortunately, in doing so she attacked how Tally should feel and act about it. And the root of the tragedy is that though they are similar in what moves them to anger, they are drastically divergent on how they act on that anger. Where Alder's reaction to slights is to rebuke then forget (because she has the power to do so), Tally's reaction to slights is to burn bridges. So, Tally doubles down on "it's about the consequences, intent is not magic" and tries to tear it all down. In 2x10, her empathy wins out. She says to both Nicte and Alder that she understands that they didn't have nefarious intent. However, this is Tally just sympathizing with them, not that she has changed her mind on what matters. She can't get over how her own actions seemed to have backfired, no matter her intent. (And so, this history fundamentally influences how Tally and Alder interact in S3, where they consciously try to avoid falling into the same failure modes with engaging with each other.)

[gravesung-moving]

(sighing dreamily) chiaki in an awakened state is Fucking Terrifying.

[celtigaar]

my base canon for cerys post-dance is she does find viserys, is the one who looks after him, and eventually returns with him to westeros. obv this is a divergence from canon in re to the rogares. while cerys would never, ever knowingly permit the marriage between child viserys and larra, i do think there's room with my version of events for the rogares to still have found some means of ingratiating themselves if the rogare conspiracies are important for anyone's portrayals.

[lovesickeros]

in the meantime come to horrifying realization there's like zero yan clorinde content so everyone sit down and listen to my ted talk (this is a requirement I have locked the doors and blocked the fire exits)

personally don't think Clorinde leans towards threats to be honest. she'd feel horrible and guilty if she did and I don't think she could handle you hating her or being afraid of her (maybe if you pushed her far enough then maybe she could justify it because she's trying to protect you but you'd really have to push it).

imo? leans more towards following you around with a hint of subtle manipulation behinf the scenes0. even if it's within the confines of the Court of Fontaine and the place is swarming with Gardemeks you can never be too sure. absolutely fumbles the excuse if you catch her though (if)

the epitome of gentleman, too. she "bumps" into you a lot and always offers to help– even if it's just a few small bags she takes them from you to help ease your burden, basically following you around like a lost puppy. it's a lot easier to trust the nice, polite woman who helped you then the stilted, awkward woman desperate for your attention.

her reluctance to threaten you or force you to do anything doesn't extend to people you know, though. she can cook up any manner of crime that'd get them stuck fighting a duel with her or dealing with a trial that'd get them sent straight to the fortress.

of course, the first thing she'd do is make sure you're okay. she still cares about you (and she really doesn't mean to manipulate you, but really, don't you find it odd that everyone around you is so sketchy? you should be more careful about who you trust. you trust her though, dont you?).

clorinde is very much in for the long game, in the end. she'd only kidnap you as a last resort. she'd much prefer slowly getting closer to you and having you come with her of your own free will (even if it's because she's been planting ideas in your head that you really aren't safe all alone like this. all your friends turned out to be criminals, after all, and what if they start to blame you and try to hurt you? it's best that you stay with her for a while)

if you had a lover, though? oh, she's livid. she makes sure to pin an absolutely heinous crime on them– one that would involve you. after all, she could swoop in and play savior after killing that wretched pest. she did save you from their alleged plan, after all.

a bit awkward with physical affection to be honest, but she tries in her own way. she does what she can to make your life easier– protects you, makes sure you have a roof over your head and nice clothes, a bed and warm baths, expensive foods..anything you want, she would get you without even asking.

why would you ever want to leave? don't you know how dangerous it is outside? who would take care of you if not her? she provides you with all you need, and with only the best (please don't leave)

basically your personal guard dog. she won't bite if you just listen to her and stay put.

and she's just absolutely smitten. careful if you actually use her gifts, because she'll think you're reciprocating her affection whether you are or not. you'll be drowning in new clothes, always trying need food..and she'll always be hovering over your shoulder, watching.

[theokusgallery]

I freaking love your au and your latest comic because MAN

I FELT THOSE LAST WORDS AND I WAS LIKE "OH FUCK"

First panel was already a bit unsettling itself - like you get it's just intimate manners as you do as a couple but he felt so possessive already and

Sunny's inner thoughts

I'm sure 100% his abandonment anxiety will increase drastically the more he stays with nick and honestly slay

I mean it's kinda obvious

But like I felt that

Yeah

Nick is unhinged

Nick is crazy

Y'all are gay for him

Good 😵💥

Sunny has soooo many issues. So many of them. He's so vulnerable and he makes himself vulnerable to Nick while still being intimidated by him, it's... Dude's got some problems.

[lateseptemberdawn]

Ngl bad parents give me such an ick like stay tf away from me ew