#sorry. I'm normal about them I promise

[seaside-lovers-archive]

scarecrow + robot are just gigantic compared to everything. love me some robots that are significantly bigger than humans. also, parker posey is my height. look how much taller robot is than her

[beargregor]

wait i'm curious, what makes you say that gregor doesn't like everyone else (if i read that post right)? just curious since i've never seen anyone else say that

i don't necessarily think gregor dislikes everyone else at lcb but i do think that gregor is an incredibly petty person that isn't nearly as close to the rest of the sinners and even outright dislikes some of them cough cough rodya cough cough which a lot of people just Refuse to see because he's as much of a doormat as he is. there's several examples i could get into to try and prove my point however i'll just focus on what i personally think to be the biggest ones.

additionally, this is going to be kind of long, so i'm adding a read more. read more! read it. sorry for being so wordy. i have several diseases.

Pt1. gregor is the type to try and get along at least decently with everyone, especially if he gets a good first impression from them.

this is less a point in favor of gregor's distance w/ the rest of the sinners and more just a contributing factor to it. once again there's several examples i could point to here but i think the most in your face one happened in canto I with yuri, as several people have pointed out. even before gregor comes clean about growing attached to her as quickly as he did because she reminds him of his sister, we get this interaction.

i'll go ahead and make the disclaimer now that i don't necessarily think gregor is the most reliable of narrators, especially when it comes to his feelings and interactions with most people, but from the way he acts when the topic of yuri comes up (and the way we still see him act even all the way up to c7, nearly a whole year after yuri's death) i don't see reason to question his sentiment here. gregor immediately got that aya and yuri were close, potentially even taking note of their traded belts, and went out of his way to get something nice for yuri despite hardly knowing her.

i feel like a lot of people have forgotten as much, especially since it's been so long since c1, but gregor actually spent a good bit of season 1 doing the exact same thing with the other sinners! gregor reads a connection between him and ishmael pretty quickly despite getting off to a rocky start

mostly because gregor can tell that ishmael is pretty sardonic in a very similar way to him. there's been multiple instances where ishmael and gregor have essentially expressed the same sentiment at different moments, most notably gregor's little argument after ishmael got shot with a decay ampule in c4

and ishmael's response to pilot talking about self-sacrifice in c5

i could go ahead and pull up more examples, but in general pm has gone out of their way to show us that gregor and ishmael are pretty similar, so it makes sense for gregor to assume that they're friends, right?

this will be pushpin 1. keep note of this for Later.

ishmael's only the first sinner we see gregor trying to do this with in s1, we also see him try it out with heathcliff, sinclair, and ryoushuu

he's tried to get along with charon, being one of very few sinners that we've seen actually try to establish a connection with her at all

even rodya, despite my insistence that gregor doesn't like her nearly as much as the fandom thinks he does

all of these seem pretty fine and dandy, right? sure it frequently leans towards self-degradation, micromanaging, and commiseration, but gregor can at least be pretty chummy with most of the sinners, can't he?

Pt2. hell's chicken was more than just comic relief guys please

i'm fully aware that this is quite the hot take, but i think hell's chicken deserves a lot more credit for character writing than the fandom gives it. hell's chicken gave us foreshadowing for several events, such as the donqui bloodfiend reveal

heathcliff's distortion in c6 (as well as hong lu's highly speculated distortion at some point in the future)

and ryoushuu and sinclair's continued connection by making him the odd one out on her team

which, hey! that implies something about gregor's odd one out, don quixote, too, doesn't it? yes. yes it does. that's pushpin 2. keep note of that for later.

speaking of pushpins, hey! that's pushpin 1!

splitting into teams is one of the major events in hell's chicken, and most of the sinner's choices are either motivated by very little, backhanded, or motivated primarily by not wanting to be on the opposite leader's side. i didn't include all of the picks, just because i feel like including most of them already gets this across, but i think gregor took one major thing from this: most of the sinners, when push comes to shove, will only side with gregor when they refuse to or can't take his opponent's side.

now, don't get me wrong, i'm fully aware that this is primarily intended to be comedic relief, but when gregor is being described as having his trust broken by ishmael or nearly crying because no one on his team properly sided with him for him, i feel like it's pretty fair to read into this.

something that i think is pretty important to remember in conjunction with this is that we know that gregor is the type to hold a grudge, both from his general attitude towards the G corp soldiers in c1 as well as his continued distaste for vergilius

even beyond the splitting into teams of hell's chicken, the sinners have given gregor plenty of reasons to feel bitter. i feel like this is something people have noticed but haven't really put a finger on, but it's kind of wild just how often the rest of the sinners make gregor the butt of the joke

and sure, we could argue that a fair few of these aren't really made with any ill intent. quite a bit of it could have been meant as harmless teasing, but with gregor being more sensitive than most, it coming from nearly all sides, and as often as it does? yeah, i think he's prone to taking it a bit personally.

Pt3. yes i do still think gregor was the third most important character in canto VII you guys gotta hear me out okay

of course, all of this leads up to the bit of the story i highlighted, doesn't it? c7? i totally get why people haven't really picked up on all the gregor things i did in it, seeing as they were mostly not *directly* said about him or by him.

personally, i think that gregor's distaste for talking about himself on any serious level and thus leading to him getting sort of "sidelined" narratively (which i take issue with that claim, but still. it's effective for getting what i mean across atm) is supposed to lead players to take a deeper look at the times gregor gets held up to other characters and compare and contrast what's being said about them by the matchup. as i showed earlier with his immediate latching onto ishmael, i think this is something gregor himself is at least partially aware of too.

so, that begs the question, who was gregor compared to in canto VII that makes me think it's one of the most critical pieces in understanding his character?

really, i'd like to avoid getting too lost in the analysis of this canto specifically, since i'd like to do a proper post about this later, but i figure i can bury the lede a little before doing it properly.

c7 features several characters being made to perform in sansón's play, acting out the relevant backstory for this segment of the plot. a lot of these characters have rather direct, degrading reasons for playing the roles they do.

outis, a character with an inflated ego who wants her journey to have a purpose, is made to play an aimlessly wandering villager with a single line.

hong lu and ryoushuu, two characters for whom families and the expectations placed upon them are likely going to play a major role, are made to play bloodfiends.

rodya, a character who resents her lot in life and is constantly shown to be eager to leave her destitution behind her and become someone special, is made to play a helpless villager that's too poor to even offer any money to the hero that saves her.

heathcliff, a character that has spent most of his life getting dehumanized by comparing him to beastly animals, is made to play a literal bear whose sole purpose in the plot is to get beat up and then quickly left by the wayside.

sinclair, a character that has two opposed parties essentially treating him as a macguffin to procure for their side, is made to play the character who was arguably the catalyst for this entire canto, not to mention playing a decently major role in ruina.

our star don quixote is made to play her father, the first kindred, but there's someone by their side the entire time, isn't there? don quixote's dear, steadfastly loyal companion. a character which don quixote has tasked themself with getting to come out of their shell?

hello again, pushpin 2.

gregor has been made to play our unreachable star, sancho. someone had to, of course. you can't really tell a story without it's main character, now can you?

now, i should once again give a disclaimer. i am not trying to say that i think adapting what happens to donqui/sancho in c7 to gregor is the road pm is going to take here, not only would that toe a bit past the line of foreshadowing, but it'd also just amount to rehashing that plotline again, which i don't think would make for a particularly exciting story.

what i DO think is that we can take a lot of the things that are said to either directly be the case for sancho and use them to inform how we see gregor.

and god, does playing sancho have some fucking implications for our favorite ossan archetype.

starting off, the earliest moment we get to see of sancho is quite literally her just waiting for death to take her in a pile of ashes.

which, i should remind everyone, is actually pretty damn close to what happens to gregor's literary counterpart at the end of the metamorphosis. gregor samsa experiences one final breaking point that pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to just wait for starvation to take him.

gregor and sancho both consider themselves to no longer be human, something which sancho goes out of her way to highlight repeatedly throughout the canto and gregor is quick to get defensive on her behalf for when outis starts really tearing into her

sancho spends quite a lot of this story denying herself the joys of community and friendship, despite knowing that, even with the rest of the sinners frequently making jokes at her expense and outright insulting her, they were things that she desperately craved.

and, while this is getting into my "outis is a red herring meant to distract us from gregor's eventual betrayal" theorizing, i also think it's worth noting for this discussion that sancho's fellow kindreds, her family, all seem to be under the impression that she dislikes them and ultimately her departure was an act of betrayal

and that, despite gregor being one of LCB's resident mood makers and attempted conflict de-escalators, one of the sinners that's most prone to making appeals to the bonds they've all forged together, only him and faust remained silent during everyone's speech

so yeah, i think there's quite a lot of little details and hints building up to the reveal that gregor's not quite as fond of everyone as he presents himself to be. i do think a lot of this ultimately comes down to gregor getting in the way of his own happiness, similarly to donqui, particularly because he's been frequently portrayed as something of a self fulfilling prophecy, especially by giving him as many christ allegories as they have by way of priest and garden of thorns. gregor is convinced that the rest of the sinners don't like him because he's not convinced anyone could like him, so he convinces himself that he hates them because why should he care if someone that he hates hates him too?

a lot of this ultimately ties back to my personal interpretation of what happens in the metamorphosis as well as my own theories regarding all the times gregor has made weird callbacks and references to lobcorp and ruina, but yeah. i think about this guy and his deeper characterization a fairly normal amount, i think.

to end this off i'll highlight one of my favorite little "gregor is fucking seething and trying so hard to keep it cool" moments, in the credits CG for c7 we see rodya teasing him by drawing a little horse on his window and actively pointing and laughing at it, which gregor really doesn't seem all too pleased about.

i personally think this ties into the other cruel part of sansón forcing gregor to play rocinante, which is the more literal "he's actually just straight up playing rocinante" side of things. gregor was quite literally made to play something less than human, less than even animal really, as he was reduced to nothing more than the shoes don quixote wore as she got to play the leading role. sansón directly makes jokes about gregor being nothing more than shoes in the play twice, which adds to this reading, i think.

this, imo, really plays into the adaptation of the metamorphosis! i've seen a lot of readings for the book that posit that, despite being the protagonist, gregor samsa can't really be considered the main character due to nearly everything he experiences in it being used to further his family's character development at his expense, which i think fits nicely with limbus gregor seemingly having the most said about him through indirect means by holding him up to other characters. also it's rodya carelessly making fun of His Big Major Insecurities™ again like she did in c1 which i always find fun. rodya i love you but god you're the worst.

[lordoflucky]

Been working on a bit of an Albert Harebrayne character analysis/rant/opinion piece because he's my favorite, and there's something that I realized that's a bit too much of a van Zieks centered tangent to fit with the flow, but I still want to talk about it. (Spoilers for 2-3 & 2-4)

So, at the start of 2-3 Harebrayne has a lot that he believes in. He believes in his hypothesis and that his invention could help make the world better. He believes in Asman & Drebber and that they are genuinely working alongside him to make something great. He trusts them. He trusts the experiment. And he is taken advantage of because of it.

This is all solidified at the end of the first trial segment: Harebrayne's hypothesis is faulty, and Asman and Drebber were most likely using him to steal government grant money. Harebrayne is left at a complete loss because of it as everything he believes in is proven in a court of law to be faulty.

Except one thing.

He believes van Zieks has his best interests at heart.

Even after everything- being betrayed by his investor and engineer, seeing van Zieks's courtroom cruelty- he still trusts his old friend.

And! He's right! Van Zieks does care about him! He does have Harebrayne's best interests at heart! Shown no better than in the the iconic "Laudable not Laughable" scene:

As Harebrayne calls himself a fool for "Misguidedly believing he could do whatever he set his mind to, despite his lack of talent" and van Zieks rebuffs him in an instant: "To believe in yourself and work your fingers to the bone to realise your dreams… That's laudable, not laughable."

And then there's van Zieks himself.

Van Zieks can't trust anyone after the initial professor betrayal, and that's only enforced by the many attempts on his life while acting as the figurehead for the Reaper. He has reason to toss trust and belief in others aside, and that's exactly what he does for the majority of the game before finally agreeing to Ryunosuke's defense in the finale.

But when Harebrayne's belief starts to waver, and he's on the cusp of becoming entirely disillusioned, van Zieks is the one to pick him back up. He doesn't want to see Harebrayne lose that passion, the way he did.

Harebrayne's passion, how much he believes in people and himself, it isn't a flaw. It's his best quality. And van Zieks is the one to state that- in all his distrusting glory- he is the one to tell Harebrayne that.

Look I could say many words about van Zieks arc and it's pacing, but this sets up 2-4 so well.

When van Zieks finally agrees to Ryunosuke's defense and he says he can't trust anyone. Not the police, or the judiciary, or other lawyers. Despite that, there is one thing he's willing to believe in: Ryunosuke's determination to uncover the truth.

I can't help but feel seeing Harebrayne's willingness to trust Ryunosuke and van Zieks despite everything may have inspired him to finally open up in the finale.

Harebrayne chose to trust van Zieks, and now van Zieks chooses to trust Ryunosuke.

It's just so important to me how much respect van Zieks has for Harebrayne. Yes, that man is silly, and eccentric, and has his idiosyncrasies. He makes mistakes, he's forgetful, he's trusting to an arguably naive degree.

But that trust and passion is exactly why van Zieks respects him so much. What Harebrayne launches to call his greatest flaw, van Zieks sees as his greatest strength.

[somegrumpynerd]

More doodles of the new chapter of How Nightmare Became Dadmare by @topazshadowwolf please go read it

[milolovesbmc]

The Dream (The Angel's Kiss)

Based on the sculpture by Auguste Rodin (1905)

(Censored just in case even though it's nothing explicit, uncensored under the cut)

"I remember you, something about you... coming to me, and sinking into me, and giving me breath again. . ."

[thirdtimed]

its so crazy how 3L is literally not that serious. but It Can Be. if you use your beautiful mind

[skrunksthatwunk]

nobody's doing it like itsuki yyh. i've been thinking about him and sensui a lot today but like. ok get this. imagine being a demon and this cute human guy (you are gay btw green hair and pronounsed and everything) shows up and tries to kill you and almost succeeds. you survive because you lament that you're gonna miss the finale of a show you watch/see a niche pop artist on tv (depending on adaptation, but either way these are your last words and it airs the next night), and he says he's into it too. you become partners. this man, shinobu sensui, is a spirit detective who's been haunted by demons his whole life, has been killing them with the complete, unwavering belief that he's right for it, since he was in pre-k. you being a demon does not seem to change how he thinks about this. it doesn't change your feelings either, since he fascinates you. you help him kill demons.

one day, your human is confronted with one of the worst sights imaginable, one that shatters his worldview completely. he sees demons being tortured and slaughtered hedonistically by a group of humans. he can't process it. he splits. your shinobu is now one of seven within his body. you love each of them. you love him. you watch as he pivots into a deep hatred of humanity, and of himself for slaughtering so many demons, and of his own inescapable humanity. you love it. you can't get enough of it. watching someone so pure and self-assured become confused, disillusioned, twisted, evil, broken, it thrills and captivates you. it's beautiful, and you egg it on. you make it worse, obsessively. you make him worse. you only want what he wants, really. but you want him to want it worse. sensui is spiraling and you don't steady him, you accelerate it and accelerate it, until he's deciding that before he dies (which will be sooner than you'd like, sooner than you know what to do with), he's going to end humanity. he's going to unleash demonkind on them and secure his redemption, his doom, his punishment. it's a baptism by fire. what a way to go. a very sensui way to go, and you love it like the rest of him: poisonously. you don't need a word of convincing, no argument (as desperate as sensui is to argue his case for this), not a second of that tape, to follow him. you watch as sensui breaks the fragile people he encounters, wrenches them into misanthropic weapons. he's amazing at it. minoru is amazing at it. he brings together his crew of heart-bleeding, self-loathing pawns, and in your downtime you and sensui watch human tv, share your love for animals, plants, the human world. you cherish, distract yourself with, and celebrate these together. they're what brought you together in the first place, and you will destroy them together. you wonder if he knows that these things he loves will surely die when the demons come. you expect he views them as necessary casualties in ridding the world of human evil. how deliciously cruel he can be. you savor it. you have to savor it. you don't like thinking about the end. that sensui will barely be alive to enjoy his victory. is he so convinced of humanity's foulness that he would never bend, never doubt his genocide at all? or would he come to regret it? would he hate himself even more than he does now? once the greater evil, humanity, is eliminated, would he turn his sights on himself? he may see himself as one of the "enlightened" humans who know mankind's evil, but he is still a human with plenty of demon blood on his hands. you want to know. you're desperate for it. you don't ask him what he thinks he will become. you want to watch it unfold naturally, for as long as he is around. let the ink bleed over the page. don't blow. don't wave the paper, don't even touch it. be patient.

your sensui is killed spectacularly at the finish line. he was struck down by a human reborn as a demon. how fitting. it's what sensui wanted, and you are happy for him, as much as you can be. it's bittersweet. you knew it would end soon. you both did. you talked about it all the time. and now it's... over. the portal is being resealed. demons will not wipe out mankind. humanity will go on, unaffected. your sensui's lonely war against his own kind is already being forgotten by the few who knew of it. such a beautiful moment, swept away by time, your sensui. and now his enemies want to claim his soul. his body. to bring him to the afterlife, for whatever judgement awaits him. and you fulfill your final obligation to him. you take him away. sensui did not want any part of that, and neither do you, not particularly. it sounds rather painful, all considered. you lift him and slip away to where no one can reach you. your own little dimension, your own little pocket of existence, just the two of you. no one can touch him now. you, either, not that you care. you hold him like you have for years, and think of your future together. here, where no one can reach him. no one will touch him or stain him or rip him or tear him ever again, not even you. but you will always be closest, and that's enough. cut off from humankind and demonkind completely. it's only you. and it's only him. you wonder how long you will live, like this. a long time. it makes no difference. sensui has broken completely, and you hold the shards of him. every piece remaining is yours, is in your arms, will be yours forever. you wonder if this should be enough for you. if you should be satisfied. you are. as someone whose last regret was missing a late night program, you don't see much point in leaving. what is there for itsuki without sensui? what is there in the world worthwhile? demons, humans, the rest of it. none of it would ever compare. not even to the shards.

you wonder, and it is far from the first or the last time, how sensui will change now, in your arms. white to black, skin to bone to dust. and when you die your soul will dissipate like his, and in a little unreality you and he will linger forever, where no one can know or recall. you will die a secret of the world, a potential wasted, a close call, a scream that is swallowed last-minute. and you will be together. it's all that's mattered for a long time. you wonder if you'll ever change. you don't expect to.

[multishipper-baby]

Not publishing the ask yet because I want to reply with the playlist but I have to comment on it because

Anon. You just gave the biggest neuron activation.

IT'S 2 AM. BUT HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SLEEP WHEN I'M THINKING ABOUT THEM.

[forcedhesitation]

okay I redid the last astarion picture I shared a wip of because it was a) too graphic for its intended purpose b) didn't fit with the more dynamic posing of the other pieces

here is a peak at the new astarion pic & a look at the wyll & lae'zel wips

[significant-narratives]

and if i say 'stop fucking crying bro' was never that serious. then what.

[follineo]

UUUUGHGGHGHGHGH,,,,

[my-past-disgusts-me]

Stayed up way too late drawing a followup comic for what I posted on my art account. I looove these fucking idiots

[natjennie]

SO THE CAPVERS OF THIS??? 👆👆👆

[sonofshu]

ㅤ

[amiharana]

You are not required to answer every ask you get! Dont stress out over them, you should take care of yourself. Best of luck with those classes you've signed up for! I'm sure you'll kill it!

anon i will start crying and melting into the floor. but also thank u. i appreciate it a lot 🥹🤍

[acewithwords]

you're free to ignore this if you want, but what are the relationships (whether it be platonic, romantic, or familial) each of your mcs have with the characters in their respective games?

*slams down the door* HELLO I WILL NOW BE EXPOUNDING A BIT ON THE RELATIONSHIPS OF MY MCS (I'll do like a visual relationship chart when I remember)

Obey me

• Akio:

They are way closer to the brothers compared to the side characters during the 1st year of their stay in the Devildom. Eventually they do get closer to the side characters. They mainly see the newest characters in season 4 as acquaintances.

They mainly have a more familial bond with most of the brothers including Luke. They considers Luke as a little brother they never got to have. They teach him a couple of cooking tips they got from their grandparents. But they'd consider the dateables as friends.

They're very close friends with Levi since the two share a common interest in video games and Akio likes listening to him ramble.

They also are close to Solomon since they technically have a mentor-mentee relationship but they also have genuinely vibed well together even before Akio were taken in as an apprentice so they're good friends.

However, when it comes to the romance department they have a crush on Satan and Barbatos. They're just kinda nervous and unsure whether to confess or not so they don't really do anything about it.

• Ace:

For Ace, she genuinely considers nearly everyone as family but Thirteen, Raphael and Mephisto are people she's still not very close to. So she'd consider the three as like a weird family friend currently.

She sees the 7 brothers as like her weird older brothers with Lucifer being the single parent clearly.

While, Simeon is the cool uncle who Ace trusts a bit more. She sees Luke as a younger brother and they hangout a lot together. Barbatos is also the other cool uncle who Ace considers as a baking mentor. They bake a lot of things with him once Luke invited her for baking sessions with him and Barbatos when she told him that they wanted to learn how to bake as well.

Ace sees Diavolo as like a rich older cousin. She finds his presence a bit overwhelming sometimes but she enjoys hanging out with him. Meanwhile, Solomon is their weird shady uncle/teacher they're close to especially during Nightbringer.

Arcana Twilight

• Why:

Why doesn't particularly view anyone as family but she does mainly consider the guide committee as her friends. She struggles a lot with her memory so she's glad they're doing their best to help her out a lot.

She's pretty close friends with Alpheratz and enjoys sitting near him doing something else while he naps.

She also likes hanging around Spica sometimes even if they aren't super close. They usually hangout together while in the meeting room or while he does paperwork. She also occassionally hangs out with Arcky and Polkux but she couldn't really say she was particularly close to the two either.

Sirius and her have a complicated relationship? They're sort of like frenemies. They bonded a lot while painting nails and talking about the weirdest topics. She didn't expect to get close to him but the universe can be quiet strange.

Rigel is someone she doesn't really know so she can't really form a proper opinion on him. Principal schedar on the other hand is someone quite strange so she mainly just considers him as an acquaintances.

She rarely has ever felt romantic attraction to anyone but then she met Vega again and now she doesn't know what to do. She doesn't think he likes her back and only sees her as a friend. Somehow everyone else is confused about it.

Twisted Wonderland

• Thorn:

Thorn never really considered someone as Family outside of his own but now he doesn't really have anyone else but Grim and the ghosts. It's a little Ramshackle family!

He's definitely close friends with a few people in school. He likes hanging out with the firdt years especially Deuce and Ace but even if he can be a bit mischevous he's somehow also really good at not getting caught so sometimes they end up getting the brunt of the blame. He's also pretty close to Malleus. Thorn has always had a messed up sleep schedule so he ends up hanging out with Malleus for long hours throughout the night. Along with this he frequently ends up hanging out a lot with Lilia, definitely unexpected by msot but they somehow got along well after the Savannahclaw arc.

He's fascinated by a lot of the people in NRC but he wouldn't entirely say he's super close to them but he'd consider them as "friends," sure. The ones he probably doesn't entirely get along with but respect are Vil, Leona and Sebek.

Thorn works a few side jobs occassionally as a waiter the Monstro Lounge and with the rare instances of helping out Sam in his shop. He does also actually get paid as well for making or fixing up a few things surprisingly.

The teachers are people Thorn wouldn't consider being close to but he does respect them. But Crewel and Trein do have a very small a soft spot for Thorn, he's pretty hardworking and dedicated to their classes specifically but neither would ever admit it of course they don't play favoritism.

Azul is still on thin ice though...

Crushes? He doesn't know 'em sorry. That's a lie he ended up getting a crush on someone but who knows really...

--

And that is all I think.