#stuff like this makes me feel so trapped. this isn't real.

[w-40-k]

*Insert gif of the nodding nun who says 'it has to be said that I do enjoy a good statue' but replace 'statue' with 'angst'*

Like, this is a yandere scenario, would be odd if he didn't have at least *some* trauma from that.

Oh, you know what.

Say, before the lion get's deployed -for the first time since their reunion- he, secretly without the sons noticing, gives Guilliman a device or xeno artefact that, when Guilliman activates it sends out a signal to lion as an indication Lion needs to get Guilliman out of the sons grasp again.

(Imagine then, a scenario where someone who *shouldn't* -chaos agents working under Lorgar pherhaps- get their hands on the device and uses it to lure lion in a trap.

Then use the Lion as a bargaining chip against Guilliman.

And Guilliman has his hands tied, because whilst he wants to help,

(thats his *brother* one of the few that remains and one of the few people who treat him like an actual flesh and blood *person* with feelings and desires of his own as oposed to the distant idol the Imperium and arguably even his sons see him as)

and a(nother) primarch in the hands of the arch enemy is a the stuff of *nightmares*,

(the dark mechanicum would *love* to get their hands on a whole primarch, think of what they could do with all of that fresh, uncorrupted *geneseed!*. One of the bottle necks for making new chaos astartes *is* the limited quantity and quantity of their geneseed)

he *can't* do anything about it personally because the sons would *loose their shit* if he so much as *looks* in the direction of chaos.

By that point the lion would've probably managed to collect the rest of the Fallen and got the angels to calm their tits *somewhat* (going from paranoid about *everything* to being paranoid a normal amount).

Lion and sons vs Guilliman and sons happens on special occasions and is treated as close to a reenactment of the Siege of Terra as they can.

(I imagine they might go to some place that isn't Macragge for that since they actually like their chapter world and people *live* there.

Then again, would that mean that they wouldn't be as prepared for when the actual palace gets eventually attacked?)

Now, Guilliman vs sons would be an *interesting* prospect.

The sons might insist because 'what if, due to the sons failing to protect him Guilliman get's influenced by chaos in some way!'

(or someone manages to put a spell on Guilliman so he perceives the sons as the enemy -pherhaps chaos astartes- and the sons need to occupy him long enough to disable the spell)

Guilliman would certainly be hesitant, because it brings up bad memories (the sons did had to get him to hold still long enough to put the collar on him *somehow*), but he would eventually relent because he can see the merit of this idea (also because the sons get *very* anxious about this if he doesn't).

Guilliman's going to be on edge the entire time of the engagement and is going to be withdrawn from the sons (he turns towards the baselines of the Network during this) and in a foul mood for some time afterwards.

(Can we take a moment to appreciate just how bonkers this entire au is from a meta standpoint?

Because we have a primarch, one of the most *powerful* mortal -debatably- entities in existence. And he's forced into a scenario where he is acutely *helpless*.

With his *sons* -gene conditiond to be *absolutely* loyal- as the perpetrator no less!

And they do it out of *love*, the sheer animal *horror* that they could *lose* him for *real* this time! (a gift Guilliman has never *wanted* yet is nonetheless given)

A primarch -this demi-god made of warp stuff, more myth then reality- is afterall *still* mortal.

'Yandere au involving a primarch and his legion, but with the primarch as the victim' is an *insane* concept!

So let me say this, from the bottom of my heart;

Thank you for coming up with this au!)

The custodies could very well train with Guilliman (of the few that aren't busy supporting the Imperium's already streched thin forces that is).

Got an angsty idea:

-In Short-

Yandere ultramarines binding/caging/disabling Guilliman at all costs for his own safety. Even if they must hurt him, even break him to do it. No more fulgrim/mortarion incidents.

-In Long-

Basically, what if after witnessing his reckless personal behavior towards personally fighting his brothers and his "death" at the hands of fulgrim as well as his LITERAL death at the hands of Mortarion (regardless of the fact he was brought back, he fucking DIED), the Ultrabois just fucking go full Yandere and try to keep him out of battle and under watch as much as they possibly can to ensure his absolute safety from ANY harm, even himself? And what if this desire, this NEED to keep their primarch, their FATHER, safe went to the extreme as he inevitably tried to get back to business, including personally fighting? He's a primarch after all, weapon first, human second, and his duty is to guide and safeguard the Imperium...

My brain basically had an idea of a gilded bird-caged and bound Guilliman and spun a background around it. Some mental images even include a blindfold and gag for the Ultrabois benefit cuz you know Guilliman's words are some of his best weapons (best way to talk them out of it- to a point).

Very OOC, I know, but with the way the Ultrabois were willing to die in droves to get him away from fulgrim as he was dying AND to protect his stasis before his revival, it seems it could very easily become a possibility via Slaaneshi influence, Lord of Excess and all...

GOD I wish I could draw bodies or write 😭

[killbenedictcumberbatchagain]

sigh. why are you doing this to me

[arolesbianism]

I wanna take a crack at making some fake screenshot graphics for my Sif Odile duo loopers au but I do not feel confident enough in my ability to mimic isat's art style and I also have a crippling fear of drawing backgrounds

[buckysouvenir]

breaking the ice “You don’t have to treat me gently, Bucky” when bucky doesn’t know what sex is like in the 2000s, you volunteer to try his fantasies. warning: 18+ content

Bucky’s shoulders are tense.

Not the ready-for-a-fight kind. Not even the post-mission-comedown kind. It’s something else. He’s been quiet since they got back, barely picking at his food. Just drinking his beer, eyes flicking to you every so often.

“You ever think you’re broken in ways that people don’t even have names for?” Bucky asks, voice low, not looking at you.

Y/N blinks slowly, registering the shift in the air. That wasn’t small talk. That was him — the real him — poking through the layers he usually hides behind sarcasm, behind folded arms and gritted teeth.

“Yeah,” you say. “All the time.”

He lets out a breath that sounds like a laugh but isn't. “It’s not the violence. That I can handle. That makes sense to me. But... the other stuff?” His jaw tightens. “The intimacy stuff? I don’t know how to do it anymore. I feel like I’m standing outside something I used to understand.” His voice is low. Rough.

Then you ask, evenly: “Do you want to do something about it?”

His gaze snaps to yours — startled. “What?”

“Just… make it about you. What you want.”

He stares at your like you just said something dangerous. “I don’t even know what I want.”

“You could find out,” you simply say. “With me.”

There’s a pause. Tension, thick and electric.

He studies your face — you mouth, you eyes, like he's scanning for a trap. But all he finds is calm.

“You don’t have to treat me gently, Bucky,” you add, softer.

His fingers twitch against his thigh. “Don’t say that unless you mean it.”

“I mean it.”

Silence. Thick. Charged.

He doesn’t kiss you at first. He just looks at you �� eyes dark, jaw clenched, like he’s fighting something in himself.

Then, without a word, he grabs your face with one hand and crashes your mouths together. It’s not gentle. It’s messy, unpracticed, needy.

His hands grip your jaw, then your throat — not tight, but enough that you feel the intent. Your fingers slide into his hair, tugging, and that’s when he growls — low and deep in his chest.

“On the couch,” he mutters. “Turn around.”

You obeys without hesitation, crawling forward until you’re on your knees, braced against the backrest. He’s behind you in seconds, breath hot at your neck, hands moving over your body like he can’t decide where to start — your hips, your thighs, your pussy.

“Tell me to stop,” he says, voice tight. “Now. Or I’m not going to.”

“I won’t.”

Your shirt is yanked over your head. Bra undone. He leans forward, teeth grazing your shoulder as he unbuttons your jeans, dragging them down slowly — not to tease you, but because he’s still trying to hold on to the edge of his control.

“You want me to use you?” he mutters against your skin. “To figure out what I like?”

“Yes,” you mumble. “Do whatever you want.”

He exhales like a man starved — one hand fisting in your hair, the other slipping between your thighs. His fingers explore first — rough, deliberate — making you gasp and arch against him. When he finds the right spot, he circles—once, twice—then presses harder.

Y/N bites down on a whimper, pushing back into him, and Bucky groans at the feel of you, at the way you move for him without hesitation. He leans in close, lips at your ear now, voice ragged.

“Like that?”

You nod. “Fuck,” you mumble, barely breathing. “Yes. Don’t stop.”

“I wasn’t planning to,” he mutters.

He keeps going, fingers working you over with a rough rhythm that borders on desperate. His other hand stays tangled in your hair, keeping you exactly where he wants—on your knees, bent forward, completely exposed. The tension rolling off him is thick, dangerous, like he’s right on the edge of losing the careful grip he’s been holding for far too long.

A harsh exhale leaves him, followed by the sharp sound of his belt coming undone.

You hear the zipper. Feel the shift behind you as he pushes down his jeans. His hand disappears from between your legs for just a second—long enough to line himself up—then he’s gripping your hip and pushing in, slow but unforgiving.

Y/N gasps, both hands clawing at the backrest for leverage.

He pauses only when he’s buried to the hilt, jaw clenched like he’s in pain.

“Fuck,” he mutters. “You feel—God. I could lose my mind in you.”

“Do it,” you say, breathless. “It’s just me.”

That’s all he needs.

He pulls back and thrusts again, harder, more certain. There’s no rhythm at first—just raw, unchecked need, his body slamming into yours with bruising force. The couch shifts under the both of your, soft grunts and gasps filling the space.

He’s not talking anymore. He’s focused—consumed. Every time you moan, he answers with another thrust, another growl, another pull of your hips against him like he can’t get deep enough.

When he pulls your leg wider, changing the angle, you sees stars. His dick, long and thick, hitting that one spot in your walls. Your head falls forward, and his lips starts bleeding from the strength he is using to bite his own lip. He’s unraveling, and you’re letting him.

The sound of skin slapping skin is loud in the quiet room. Your knuckles turn white where you grips the cushions.

One of his hands slips under you again—between your thighs—and he finds that spot like he’s searching for it with purpose now. His fingers rub in tight, relentless circles while he keeps moving inside you, and the combination is almost too much.

“Bucky—” you gasp, voice cracking.

“Close?” His voice is sharp, demanding.

You nod wildly. “Yes, yes—don’t stop—”

He doesn’t. He keeps his pace brutal and focused, metal fingers now wrapped around your throat from behind, keeping you steady while his other hand pushes you over the edge.

You shatter with a cry—hips jerking, muscles clenching around him so hard it nearly undoes him right there. You barely have time to come down before he groans sharply, slamming into you one final time and staying there, buried deep as he follows you into the abyss.

The both of you stay like that for a long moment—sweaty, shaking, breath caught in the thick air.

Eventually, he pulls back, hands trembling as he helps you turn and collapse onto the cushions, yourchest rising and falling fast.

He doesn’t speak right away. Just stares at you like he can’t believe what just happened. Like he doesn’t know what the hell to do with the quiet afterward.

“I didn’t hurt you?” he asks, voice small now.

You smile — wrecked, satisfied, warm. “Only in the best way.”

[dottysdokis]

The missing Journal 3 pages in TBOB are so interesting to me in further contextualizing Ford's mindset of shame regarding Bill. We'd gotten a snippet of it in the original J3 release:

But Bill shows us the less pragmatic motivations behind his actions, the mushy feely stuff he was too embarrassed to properly journal, putting certain series events into new context. Particularly this scene where after a whole episode of dancing around it, he finally opens up to Dipper about the nature of their relationship:

"Bill wasn't always my enemy, Dipper. I used to think he was my friend, long long ago..."

But does he really tell the full truth here? The cat's out of the bag, Dipper knows they had a deal, there's no reason not to tell everything. But Ford proceeds to explain his reasoning for summoning Bill as a purely practical, scientifically-driven one.

"I had hit a roadblock on my investigation of Gravity Falls. Until I found some mysterious writing in a cave. Ancient incantations about a being with answers. It warned me not to read them, but I was desperate."

Desperate...for what? Ford would have us believe it was for the sake of knowledge. Yet TBOB shows us that this is the entry immediately preceding his and Bill's first meeting.

Ford isn't some unfeeling robot powered solely by knowledge, he has human needs. He was lonely, lonely enough to summon a demon for companionship. A companionship so intimate, he describes his meeting Bill as the best day of his life, and laments the periods of absence from him.

That desire for intimacy is ultimately what drove him, and even with all his dirty laundry laid out he can't admit that part to Dipper. Maybe he doesn't even realize it himself, at least not until the post-Weirdmaggedon sections of TBOB:

Under the shame of unleashing Bill Cipher's destruction on the world, there's a much deeper shame: that Stanford Pines is not a lone-wolf, unfeeling sci-fi hero, but a fallible human being, capable of illogical sentimentality and longing for approval and (in)human connection. The exact nature of this sentimentality and longing is left to interpretation, but the efforts he goes to to conceal it make me lean towards something beyond platonic. Alex Hirsch's own words might support this:

"I think he is deeply, deeply hiding from his real feelings about things, because at some point early on, he decided that he could run from hurt by achievement and by creation, and has dug that hole so deep that he has no relationships. He doesn't have friendships, he doesn't have romantic relationships, he is someone trapped in a tower of his own mind and estranged. Ford shows none of that. He has sublimated himself romantically so, so deeply. (…) I really thought of Ford kind of like Tesla in that realm.”

TL;DR Ford is up in his feelings about Bill and repressing hard. This is also eerily reminiscent of the self-blame abuse survivors engage in, the hesitance to tell others, and shame over persisting feelings for their abuser.

[laserbobcat]

I was asked how can I draw so much

-I'm unemployed lol, just got out of a super shitty job after a 4 months sick leave for back hurty and burnout/depression- I'm A-OK now don't worry. The job was basically the reason for it all. So I have a lot of time!

-I've always drawn fast, I rarely do complex or polished picees, my art is "quick get this thing out of your head before more ideas drown it"

-Speaking of ideas, therapist told me I was HIP/HEP? I'm not a genius lol (HIP is super misunderstood) but language and narration and creativity are my brain's comfort zone, and said brain is often firing way to fast for me to follow. Mental hyperactivity can be a pain in the ass, it's really hard sometimes to come down to earth. But I could tell endless stories. I could be book grandma near the fire.

-I had a total of 5 years of art school in my bag. I abandoned the idea of doing it professionally, but it helps a lot to draw the blorbos obviously. Fun fact, I've never drawn better and with more fun than when I decided "fuck art as a job" and started to just. Draw the blorbos. Pressure kills creativity for anxious people. I feel bad for "waisted studies" and for "Not drawing as well as I should" I'm working on that. I'm far from the only one in this position.

-Let's be real I enjoy the attention fanart gets. Personnal art gets less attention because the emotional traction isn't there for most people, and we humans run on emotions. So it's normal that people are drawn to things that they already know and love. And I like interacting, which is why I love ttrpgs. I need back and forth to create, I'm social on that end. It can be a bit of a trap, because the stimulation is a lot for an already hyperactive brain lol. But I'll take it.

That being said, the people who like my actual personnal stuff live rent free in my heart. If you like Luke and Ranec and the rest of my idiots, don't underestimate how happy it makes me. I'll go back to them when this hyperfixation is over, they're my favorite little puppets to play with. They're eternal.

-I have generalized anxiety and I'm bipolar, drawing is a very nice soothing escape. I really need to come down to earth and stop living in stories, and I get better and better at it! It's haaaaard tho, I'd rather lay down and eat chip #meditation #sports

Well that was long, but I don't like when people compare themselves to strangers on the internet and think they fall short. I hope this broke some misconceptions you could have.

You don't know people's lives. You don't see the advantages and hindrances they have compared to you. You don't know how hard or easy the things you admire are for them. Maybe they have a lot of support and time. Maybe it's their escape from life. Maybe they're cheating lol. Maybe they're dorks. Maybe they're old. Maybe they're young.

You don't know shit, stop comparing yourself to strangers. I know it's hard af, but do your best!

[alexanderwales]

An Idiot's Guide to Creating Themes

There's something that Wildbow says about themes, which I'll paraphrase here: themes are something that grow without you even necessarily wanting them to, so long as the characters have strong traits and act consistently.

What this means is that if you have a character who has a real problem with authority, then naturally they're going to frame a lot of things through the lens of authority, and they're naturally going to get in conflicts with people in a position of authority. Suddenly, without even really trying to, you have created a Theme.

I don't really think that this by itself is enough, and think that it helps to bring some intentionality to the process. For one thing, if you have two protagonists who have their own strong traits, you might develop two different competing themes that do not work in harmony with each other, and suddenly people will start asking you "why isn't this two separate stories" and you'll come to the grim realization that they're right.

So if you have a single strong trait, you want to pick your other traits to be in harmony, and you want to do the same when you're thinking up secondary characters, villains, etc. Themes tend to flow a lot easier if all the stuff you're putting into the pot has something that links them together. Ideally you want a funhouse mirror where you get to see a bunch of different sides of your theme, different ways that the characters react to it, their different takes on it, even if you're just doing big shonen battles.

Doing theme construction in this way often involves trying to have the story as a prism, and your job as someone writing the story is to break that beam of light down into its component parts. Find as many pieces as you can, then make those into plot points, characters, side stories, etc.

Let's try an example!

I'm writing a superhero story and want to pick a theme, so first I think about what theme I want to spend a novel exploring, and I decide that the idea that's tickling me is the alienation of globalization and the information age, the way that everything feels overwhelming and Too Big sometimes, like there are a thousand things clawing at me for my attention.

So we start with our protagonist, and he's being pulled in a thousand directions at once, never feeling like he has enough time for anything, but paradoxically, for all that people want his attention and focus, he also feels alone. I haven't yet said that he's a superhero, but sure, it's easy to see how we can fit that in: people want him to solve their problems, to settle their disputes, to use his talents, to help them rise through the ranks, and that's not necessarily what he wants, but he feels trapped by it, like there's no other way to live.

If he's a superhero, he needs a superpower, and writing a story like this I would be extremely careful with what I picked since it needs to help carry many many fight scenes and plot points, but teleportation is my first thought: there's disorientation as he enters a new place, a feeling that he's never really anywhere because he could be everywhere, and maybe some secondary sensory powers on top of that, an ability to see and hear that can help evoke an internet connection (I have not at this point decided whether the setting has smartphones or internet, but I think maybe it works better if it doesn't, because one of the things about themes is that sometimes it's best to come at them from an angle).

So I kind of have a sense of the main character at this point, if not an overall plot. If the guiding star is "information age alienation and how it overwhelms us, offering infinite connection that leaves us lonely", then maybe the plot can be something about that. We can go toward the theme by having some plot about alienation, a society that's drifting apart, and probably a significant figure pushing that, or we can go toward the theme from a different direction, having someone who promises an answer. I like the promise of an answer better, something that our hero has tension against, so we whip up a villain whose whole thing is that the world has gotten too varied, too complicated, and promises a return to simpler times. Maybe they're a cult leader, promising family, promising that through their high-control group everything can be reduced down to something understandable.

(There are at this point many many options for our main villain and his/her powers. Maybe it's a woman who makes the world go still and silent in her wake. Maybe it's a time-traveler acting as a specter of the past. Maybe it's someone with mind control powers seeking to expand their reach until they can put the whole city under their thumb. Maybe they're a former superhero who couldn't take the constant desires and demands of the public and have twisted into a dirty form of self-induldgence. There are many "villain" answers to the question of alienation.)

So we add in some side characters. They should also approach our theme in some way. Here's a quick and dirty brainstorming list:

A friend who is terminally cape-brained, always keeping track of their specific domain of expertise, retreating hard into a niche where they know everything, which takes monumental effort and a sort of nervous anxiety approach to information. Probably a superhero with an info power, name of Dispatch or something.

A father who is blissfully unaware, but shows the flaws of that approach, always ignorant, knowing little about the goings on of the greater world, alienated in his own way by that, unable to connect to people because of it.

A government handler/contact who is a friend, but always pushing our hero, always ready with another thing that needs doing, another cause that needs nudging, a criminal manhunt to help with. A symbol of pressure, anxiety, and overload, but friendly in a way that makes it tough to say no. (A stand-in for the kind of friend who always wants to tell you about the latest atrocity, who doesn't quite demand that you know the name of every person brutalized by the police, or the latest list of people whose shittery has come to light, but does seem mildly disappointed that you're not as tuned in.)

A mentor figure who burned out, maybe a speedster who ran too fast, did too much, let themselves get run into the ground both figuratively and literally.

I think that this is a good enough starting point that if I wanted to writing this story, I probably could, and maybe the core of it would evolve as I wrote, but I have a guiding star to look toward, and one of the great things about setting out to write a theme is that if you ever hit a bump, you can look over at the post-it note that describes the theme in a few words and hopefully, get back on track.

[centrally-unplanned]

To talk about monopoly & antitrust, I want to start off with your first day in Econ 101, when you learn "how prices work". The toy model that nearly everyone learns as one of the first things ever is that classic supply-and-demand graph of price and quantity; you know it, I don't need to show it. And in relation to how firms set price in a market, the explanation you get is something like:

"In a world with perfect information, zero transaction costs, rational agents, and no barriers to entry, new firms and/or increased output will enter the market until marginal price equals marginal cost"

This (seemingly) portrays a model where new companies "entering the market" is how prices go down. Like say there are Firms A, B, and C, engaging in oligopolistic pricing for a normal good; what happens is some new Firm X (with the same production costs) emerges with the sole business strategy of "offer prices lower than them because they are skimming" and it drives everyone's prices down in a race to the bottom. That, in a sense, competition between identical firms drives the price equilibrium.

That isn't very true, not in practice and not even theoretically; the 101 stuff just sort of biases you to see it that way. Firm X above is being rational in one way but silly in others; why would it enter a market where its competitors are making healthy profits just to fuck that up, knowing it has no advantage they can't immediately replicate in response? And pay all the fixed costs other firms have already paid to make that 0.1% profit? In real life firms almost never do this, they compete over (actual or perceived) advantage or market segmentation. And it also means that - if all firms are truly the same in a market - cooperating on price, far from being aberrant behavior, is the natural thing to do. Why would I look at my rival firm and lower my price to "undercut" them, knowing that they 100% can just lower it too? We both lose, immediately. In practice, companies often set their prices by looking at the prices of competing firms and matching them!

Many things actually drive the price equilibrium of course, but one of the biggest - and most useful for our purposes - is the substitution effect. If companies defacto cooperate on prices all the time, why is the price not infinity? Well because if you are selling steaks and set the price to infinity, I'm not gonna buy it! I can just buy chicken, for me it's pretty much the same. And chicken is cheaper to make than steak. As a chicken firm, I totally can set my price under your steak and you can never, ever match it; that is a real advantage, one from asymmetries of production. The price of steak is driven by the need to compete with chicken much more than it is driven by the need to compete with "other steaks". And so on down a chain of a million desires and costs and needs.

So to wrap this around to antitrust, there is a common idea out there that monopolistic pricing is increasing from the past because if I look at different industries, so many of them today are consolidated into 2-3 big firms. Your grocery stores are all Giant or Safeway or w/e it is in your city, if you are buying a TV Samsung & LG are half the entire US market. How could these companies not collude on price? Of course they do, and they don't need explicit agreements that would violate extant FTC regulations to do it; they can just softly communicate and feel out cooperation. So you gotta break them up and change the rules so they can't do that.

The trap is thinking this is any different if it was 10 firms - it really isn't! Maybe marginally, sure, and if it was 2000 firms yeah okay the sheer chaos would probably create some price churn; but in the past prices were not driven down by the diversity of firms making price cooperation impossible. The long history of guilds, business associations, chambers of commerce, and so on shows that they had plenty of avenues for cooperation - and often did straight-up set prices. Meanwhile, when Wal-Mart, Target, Aldi, and others all cut prices at around the same time, they are not mainly competing with each other. If they were they would just mutually agree to not do that, without even saying anything! How stupid do you think they are? That isn't hard to do. Instead they are competing with Amazon; with boutique local stores; with restaurants; with the changing price of labor; with shifting consumer sentiment and expectations. The industry concentration doesn't matter.

Until it does of course! Because what is the substitution good for oil? They exist of course, but they ain't cheap; people will still buy gas at gigantic ranges of prices. Here, the fundamental structure of the market is monopolistic - and also a geopolitical clusterfuck, but let's not get into that. Producers openly rig prices sometimes, and antitrust actively regulates against it, and it is a hot mess of governments and companies and all that. Are people who hold patents engaging in monopoly pricing? Obviously, that is the point of patents! It is by design; but there are tons of arguments to be made around creeping exploitation of the IP system. Sometimes hundreds of firms in a dominant market niche will offer complex, bundled products where the price of each piece of obfuscated and the value is subjective, but consensus is you can't not buy the product or you will be screwed and since you can't tell what the product even is, let alone how valuable it is, you can't object when they set the price - I hear these are called "universities", but they go by other names in other sectors.

All of the above are something like "monopolies", which maybe are getting worse over time, but they are monopolies for different, product-specific reasons. I think there is a good deal of FTC work and other reforms that could be done in the US to identify areas where this kind of rent extraction is happening. But what it doesn't look like is opposing blanket industry consolidation. And in fact the correlation is honestly pretty weak. Because identical firm competition does not drive the price equilibrium.

[genderkoolaid]

I'm not really familiar with it/its as pronouns. Like I've heard them from people before, but never truly understood why someone would feel that way. Like it's it not feeling like a person? Or is it something more than that? Idk. I really like knowing this kind of stuff because it makes me a better person so an explanation would be super useful! Appreciate you!

For some people it's related to their experiences with dehumanization and nonhumanity.

It's a little bit of that for me, but honestly I like it/its for the same reason people usually like they/them. It's non-gendered and that makes me euphoric. But it's also different than they/them. IRL I often tell people I use she/he/they, but people don't get alternating pronouns and will they/them me exclusively, which makes me dysphoric and trapped. So I like having a pronoun set that ISN'T any of the typical options because it reinforces that I am not being put in one of three boxes.

Plus it/its isn't a neopronoun, its already standard English, so hypothetically it's easier for people to pick up. But unfortunately people get Real Weird about it/its pronouns & even progressive people will try to like. save you from yourself by misgendering you

[mspopstar]

Okay! Now what would happen if you locked Kirby, Shadow Kirby, Keeby and the other Kirbys in the same room?

KE: "Kirby! Hello!!! Where are we?!? Is this some kind of game!!!"

KB: "Ah, an' Keeby's finally awaken."

SK: "Took you long enough, now that everyone has arisen. We can begin to investigate our trapping."

KU: "What the hell is goin' on here anyways! I was busy takin' a nap and now I'm here, talk about rude, right? Right, Kirby?"

KB: "Right, Kusa. Well, I'm not too sure about what's goin' on myself... It's a bit odd isn't it."

AKAA: "..."

SK: "Do you think we've been kidnapped?"

KB: "Heeeh? I don't know? Probably. I'm makin' guesses but I can't think of anyone who'd do this."

SKB: "What do you mean?"

KB: "Bein' in a white room doesn't really strike as my greatest Nightmare so it can't be the Nightmare Wizard either. We're awake and if he had a evil plan he would make it way more extravagant..''

SKB: "Anyone else that piques your thoughts?"

KB: "Can't be Yin-Yarn, we're not made out of yarn and this room does NOT feel like pants. Necrodeus can't be behind this 'cause he'd also just kill us all too. Can't be Taranza, he's too preoccupied with Sectonia and he'd rather torture me for days on end than kill us... Probably wouldn't involve any of ya'll. Susie... Susie wouldn't do this kind of thing I think and if it was her we'd already have broken out of this cage. Gryll would rather challenge ya' than trap ya' and I haven't eaten Salt, Pepper and the other one so I haven't a clue why'd I have that stinkin' witch's ire... Kracko isn't strong enough to pull something like this off....Neither is Whispy"

KU: "Woah, that sounds like... A LOT! I'm gonna take a nap, so..."

SKB: "Any other ideas, Kirby?"

KB: "Can't be Dark Crafter cause... We're all smooth. Hyness is out of the question, he promised me he wouldn't do anythin' evil. Marx is the same as Nightmare, this too borin' for him to do. Too weak too."

SKB: "How... How many people hate you?"

KB: "A lot. Ah. Hate... This is Zero ain't it."

SKB: "Wh..Who?"

KB: "No, no, no... Agh. He's... He's like Dark Mind but actually a threat! Your world's Zero's him I think. Anyways, Dark Mind wasn't that big of a deal but Zero... Zero's a big deal. I hope it ain't him. But... we're in a white room. Thinkin' about it now this seems like somethin' he'd do. Guy lives off of makin' people suffer so trappin' us in a prison with no food, water, or anything really makes sense. He's literally gonna bore us to death an' probably feed off of the resultin' sadness from that... Awh, an' he's probably gone an' messed up Pop Star while we're here. Crap."

SKB: "...I hope it isn't that but let's calm down first."

SKB: "You, yellow one. Why are you covered in blood? What do you remember last before coming here?"

KB: "It's Keeby, Shadow!"

KEB: "Hihihi! I had a really fun cage match!!! Knuckle Joe said he'd take me out for a huuuuge super mega, ultra deluxe, beef bowl with ramen if I won so I went all out! Guess I got a lil' too excited cause then I went an' passed out an' now I'm here."

KB: "Ah, sounds like ya' won. Good job!"

SKB: "Affirmative. Here I appeared closing my eyes during yet another arduous training session with Meta Knight."

KB: "Eh? Nuh-uh! He was doing his afternoon patrol-y thinー"

SKB: "My Meta Knight, you ingrate."

KU: "...I was playin' around at the Dedede Resort Casino. Y'know, pinball and then I decided to take a nap by the beach after a hefty loss. Then I woke up here. Well. Wake me up once you've figured out an escape plan an' all that."

KB: "Awh, that sounds like a lotta fun, ya' have to invite me sometime. I found myself here cause Gooey licked my face to get at a fish I had and I had to rub my face real hard to get all that slobbery stuff off. When I opened my eyes, I was here!"

SKB: "That's it? you were licked by that infernal pet of yours and then you closed your eyes and that's how you appeared in this room?"

KB: "Heey, Gooey's not my pet he's my friend! What about it?"

SKB: "Well, Kusa and Keeby found themselves here after sleeping. You and I simply...blinked. Akaabi over there... I don't know. What I'm getting at is that there's no connection."

KB: "Geez, you know now that I'm thinkin' about it... If I had known we'd all meet up like this I'd have packed a picnic basket or lunch or somethin'."

KEB: "Yummy!!!"

SKB: "By the stars, Kirby, you're right... This is terrible."

KB: "Heh? What, ya' don't like picnics?"

SKB: "No, you daft fool. Food. We're going to starve in here."

KU: "GAH, DON'T EVEN SAY THAT!!!"

SIX HOURS LATER...

AKAA: "here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here--"

SKB: "Akaabi, please."

KEB: "Loop numba' 3236, loop numba' 3237, loop numba' 3238, loop numba' 3239, loop numba' 3240, loop numba' 3241, loop numba' 3242, loop numba' 3243, loop numba' 3244, loop numba' 3245, loop numba' 3246, loop numba' 3247, loop numba' 3248, loop numba' 3249, loop numba' 3250, loop numba' 3251, loop numba' 3252, loop numba' 3253, loop numba' 3254, loop numba' 3255, loop numba' 3256, loop numba' 3257, loop numba' 3258, loop numba' 3259, loop numba' 3260, loopー""

SKB: "Keeby, please."

SKB: "Kirby...?" KB: "Yes, Shadow?" SKB: "We're not dead, right?" KB: "No... I don't even think that's possible, right?" SKB: "Everything and anything will inevitably die."

KB: "...Huh. Probably not. Why're askin'?"

SKB: "Well..."

KB: "Hhmm?"

KEB: "ーnumba' 3261, loop numba' 3262, loop numba' 3263, loop numba' 3264, loop numba' 3265, loop numba' 3266, loop numba' 3267, loop numba' 3268, loop numba' 3269, loop numba' 3270, loop numba' 3271, loop numba' 3272, loop numba' 3273, loop numba' 3274, loop numba' 3275, loop numba' 3276, loop numba' 3277, loop numba' 3278, loop numba' 3279, loop numba' 3280, loop numba' 3281, loop numba' 3282, loop numba' 3283, loop numba' 3284, loop numba' 3285ー"

KU: "SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOORREEEEEEEEEEー"

AKAA: "here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta hereー"

SKB: "I have done a lot of terrible things, and I have a sinking feeling that this is my personal Hell. Maybe when I was training with Meta Knight, instead of dodging properly, he halved me. Thus, for my slothful behavior and negligence leading to the harm of many before you showed up... This, this is my punishment. If so, I give my regards to Lord Morpho. She truly has outdone herself this time."

KB: "Hmmn. I don't know. This doesn't seem like a punishment, don't it?"

SKB: "That, that right there is why I'm on edge and close to losing my mind! Stop it!"

KB: "Heeh? What'd I do!?"

SKB: "How can you be so... so calm?!"

KB: "Hm. It's a little bad, yes, but I'm surrounded by friends and I always manage to get out of these sit-chyuu-waytions, don't I?"

AKAA: "here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here I gotta get outta here ー"

KEB: "numba' 3286, loop numba' 3287, loop numba' 3288, loop numba' 3289, loop numba' 3290, loop numba' 3291, loop numba' 3292, loop numba' 3293, loop numba' 3294, loop numba' 3295, loop numba' 3296, loop numba' 3297, loop numba' 3298, loop numba' 3299, loop numba' 3300, loop numba' 3301, loop numba' 3302, loop numba' 3303, loop numba' 3304, loop numー"

SKB: "AKAABI, KEEBY, CUT IT OUT!!!"

SKB: "Is it impossible for you still yourself for more than a second you spaz?!?"

AKAA: "...No."

SKB: "And you, be quiet! Nobody wants to hear that. I tolerated you licking off your own blood and babbling like an animal but if you continue that jabbering, you'll see a real animal!"

KEB: "Hii－! Scary!"

KB: "Shadow, calm down."

SKB: "Don't refer to me as Shadow, refer to me as Kirby! I hate this! Stuck with a bunch of lesser beings!"

KB: "...Well, I can't do that cause I'm Kirby. So calm down, okay?"

SKB: "H-How can I? I'm trapped with you and them and I'm stuck, and I can't go home a-and andー"

KB: "Shadow, it's gonna be fine. I'm sure of it! Totally sure! 100% positive!"

SKB: "How?"

KB: "Cause I belive in myself and my selves!"

SKB: "It's BELIEVE! BELIEVE YOU ASS!!! I'm not YOURS either!"

KB: "Anyways, chillax Shadow. I've figured out a way to get out of here!

SKB: "...."

KEB: "Ooh, ooh! Me too!"

KB: "Aren't ya' gonna ask how?"

SKB: "...How?"

KB: "It's a bit of a hunch, and I feel like dumb for not realizin' earlier but couldn't we just warp outta here?"

SKB: Can... Can the Warp Star even make it here? Wherever here is?"

KB: "I dunno, better to try than do nothin'! Plus, ya' gotta remember. The farther we are, the faster it is! Dedede said it can build up an huuuge amount of speed but then he started talkin' maths so I tuned it out!"

SKB: "Well... If that is the case, I suppose it could work. Go ahead and call it."

KB: "WAAAAARRRRRRPPPPPP STARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

KB: "Now we wait."

SKB: "Wait, wait, wait! ...Kirby."

KB: "Yeah, Shadow?"

SKB: "Correct me if I'm wrong but... If your Dedede said that the Warp Star increases with speed and force relative to the distance of the summoner, right?"

KB: "Geez, what now Shadow? Can't ya' be happy and wait patiently?"

SKB: "No. It could kill us all. You know how your Warp Star constantly explodes when you land because you don't decrease its fv? Let's say you're summoning it from...20 miles away. That's fine cause the combined velocity and force wouldn't be dangerous.... That'd be like... F⋅v≈1.2075×10^9, right? Anyways, not too big of a deal! Small explosion, very managable."

KB: "Heeeeh?"

SKB: "The force and velocity of your Warp Star expoentially increases relative to the distance of its summon or target, building up lots of energy. That's why they're so dangerous but so quick. So, if we all are far FAR far away. Depending on where we are... if it's then the force and speed of the Warp Star will increase with such an exponential level strength that once it makes impact it will be like standing right next to hundreds of thousands of Bombers exploding all at once."

KB: "Oh I'm sure it'll be fine. Plus maybe it'll break this prison! Win-win!"

SKB: "With us in it."

KB: "P'shaw! It'll be fine! I've been through worse!

SKB: "Kirby."

KUU: "Whaat? We're still here? Lame. What'd I miss"

SKB: "Kirby here is going to harness the infinite power of exponential force of a Warp Star and kill us all"

KB: "Nuh-uh! Shadow's bein' a sourpuss cause he couldn't save the day like he wanted. I'm about to break us out."

KUU: "Well, how long will it take? I'm gettin' sleepy again. Hungry too."

KB: "...I dunno..."

SKB: "Well, there is a positive. It's gonna come here quick. By this point, it will eventually exceed the speed of light and a blazar jet. Perhaps more even. You probably don't know, but it theoretically can travel between dimensions so..."

KB: "So... 'Kirby, you're plan might work?' is what ya' mean to say?"

SKB: "Yes! Yes it will work, it will work and then we will be disentigrated as a celestial object makes impact with the force of travelling past the speed of light."

TEN MINUTES LATER...

AKAA: "Do you all hear that?"

KB, SKB, KEB, KUU, AKAA: "?"

*Piii-------------------------------------------------------!!!!!"

*Krrkk...k..*

KB: "Yay, it's here!!!"

SKB: "..."

KEB: "AHAHAHAAH!!!! BRING IT ONNNNNNN!!!!"

AKAA: "WE'RE GONNA GET OUTTA HERE!!!!"

KUU: "Is it gettin' hot in he-"

A̴̟͇̞͈̘̱̟̙̗͑̎̓̎̎̊̇̐Ȧ̵͚̘̗͈͓̘͓Å̴͈̝̀͌̀͗̅͊̅̚͝ͅA̶̛͕̠͜A̷̗̙͕̪̻̭̞͕̗͌À̷̡̒̑̅̅̂̉͊̂̑A̶̧̠̱̲̝͎͐̈̂̉́̚Ȁ̴̡͘A̸̢̼̻̲̫̖͚͗̔͐͊͂͗̏͐͌A̷̗͛̏̐͂̉̋̿̎̋̌A̴͕͙̩͚̩̩͖̍͌̋̅̉̇̈͂́A̸̮͎̲̭͍̫͈͆͒͆̈̚͝Ą̶̩͈̱̟̱̖͖̉Ã̸̛͇̗͖̳̣̩̂͊̍͊Â̷̰̪͍̻̳Ḁ̵̌̑̄̎͗̔A̸͕͍̦̲͙̼̳̼͔̽̐͝A̵̧̢̺͉̩̺̎͌̏͛̄Å̴͔̯̽̈́̉͌͊͝Ả̴̙̎͜Ȁ̵̛͇̰̟̠̮͖̗̅͊̔̇͂̑Ȧ̶̧̰̦̮̞̭̮͕̳Ä̴͓͚̥̪̤̤́̆̈́͐̈́̐̏͝ͅH̸͚͍̱̿́̋Ḩ̶̧̫̒̒̒̚͝H̸̝̪̮̜̭͗͐͋̑̋̓̚Ḩ̷̮̳̲̤͙͚͇̇͋̓̔̐Ḫ̶̻̩̬̲͇̠͊͑͊̈́̆̍͑̾͠ͅḦ̸̛̙̱̎̽H̸̙̹̒̐̒̾Ḩ̶̛H̸̙̰͉̱̘̰̘̙̭̣̑͊͌̓̾̓̓̏̌A̸̧̨̛̰̪̰̲͈͗̉̓́̑̾͘͠͝A̴͚͔͋̀̓͘͝͠Ą̸̛͕̞̮̰̖͈͊͒̾̀̕A̶̢̡̢̡̞͔̪͔͈̲͋̈́̇̔͘À̵̢̩̱̰̙͔͆͜A̴̖͈͉̟̝̣̠͋́A̴̢̦̲̐

???? LATER...

[the-labyrinth-of-me]

I don't know if that has been discussed in the past, but I wanna talk about a few things that stand out in the apartment of the Wakes, at least for me. First off, it's absolutely weird that the apartment looks nothing like the one from the first game, neither interior nor floor plan wise. Before Alan was trapped in the Dark Place, the apartment looked drastically different. Photos for comparison:

Seems like a regular home of a best-selling crime novelist, right?

The apartment in Alan Wake 2 has, as already mentioned, a different floor plan and weird structure. Like you leave the elevator and there aren't even any further doors, let alone a hallway. As if the Wake apartment was the only one on the whole floor. Then there's the entrance area with the cameras from Alice that set off once Alan leaves the elevator, with a few paintings on the wall (like graffiti) that seem to have replaced the skyline posters.

Then you enter the actual apartment. It holds a layout that doesn't make much sense. There's also no bathroom / toilet and Alice's studio seems to be missing. Some other paintings of graffiti on the wall mix with really old, outdated, simple furniture. Nothing that displays wealth for the cozy feeling of a real home, it's rather minimalist.

If only the furniture would be outdated, though...

A collection of old files, devices (seriously, who has a telephone like that in the 2010 and upwards years?), and old toys. Since the Wakes don't have children and there wasn't any mention that they, at any point, planned to start a family, one can assume these toys weren't bought for children to be born and they seem to be well-used as well. Maybe Alan's toys from his childhood?

The books all seem to be really old as well.

All that old stuff and the composition, how things are placed and displayed, rather give me the feeling I'm walking through a museum rather than an apartment.

(wtf why is there even an accordion??)

And if we take a closer look at the kitchen...

... we see a weird oven and coffee machine. Stuff we'd expect to find in restaurant, maybe. Or a diner. A very specific diner.

Moving on, what catches the attention in the living room isn't only the lack of a television (although the Wakes had one in the first game), despite the TVs can be found practically everywhere in the Dark Place in the most odd spaces. But not in an actual apartment, of all things? Hmmmm. As if someone deliberately choose not to have one. Maybe the one who is imagining that whole stuff?

Which would be my conclusion to the weirdness of the apartment: dream logic mixed with whatever is left of the apartment in Alan's memory mixed with what is necessary for him to move on. TVs is what he might be kind of scared of, since often he sees another version of himself speaking insane rants. Nothing he could use that close to escape. The old furniture and books and toys could really stem from his longterm memory, his childhood home blended in with his actual one, from his subconscious. His mother seems to have a key role because she was the one who gave him the Clicker. And he never got to know his father. There definitely is some pain in his childhood years. Maybe he has a box somewhere in which he keeps some of his toys?

In dreams our brain processes what we experience throughout the day, sometimes memories mix in, or things we suppress / are in denial about bc we're too afraid to confront them. That could be one explanation of the interior of the apartment. His childhood even gets a small section in the musical since we walk through his old bedroom. So, early memories are covered. Brings us the next subject - striking what isn't necessary to move to. Alice's studio apparently isn't necessary (and something he doesn't have a connection to. Makes even more sense considering her work didn't contribute much to their income, as she says in the video. So her office might be kind of invisible to him. His work being the "more important" one.) Bathroom? Not necessary. Interior replaced with old stuff bc its more important to him, maybe? But what about the industrial oven and coffee machine? That really seems to be a nod to the Oh Deer diner, where his journey (and demise) practically started. Where he got the keys for the Bird Leg Cabin and met the Dark Presence for the first time. It seemed to have left a mark. Rose, the superfan waitress who helps him from the real world. Rusty, the first major Taken he had to fight (iirc Stucky came after Rusty). The Old Gods and their stupid jukebox. I'm not gonna link Coconut here don't worry. There's also a pack of the Bright Falls Blend coffee on a shelf.

Summarized, we can say that dream logic blends all kinds of things together whenever Alan visits the apartment in the Dark Place. Not to mention that it even looks different each time he goes there, during each draft. If I find the time I'll try to draw floor plans of each version. I think it's very interesting.

If you made it this far, thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

Edit for additions / stuff from tags (holy shit is this a long post now)

- @taniushka12 yes you're right of course, the bathroom appears later however and not during the first draft. It seems Alan readjusts the apartment due to what he needs to go further, or Alice had a say about this. Idk. The bathroom appears in the next draft I think, with the expedition. He remembers they have a bathrooms yay! But it still looks completely different.

- @omena-perkele thanks for elaborating on that. I was planning to go into more detail about Alan progressively forgetting how his home looks like but only put it in half a sentence lol. It's my interpretation of how empty the apartment actually is, like not much personal belongings, if any. Bedroom is almost empty. There are pieces of furniture he remembers or remembers there should be some at certain walls in the rooms, but many empty spots. The rest is mixed with old stuff and dream logic / dark place fill-ins.

Thanks for each comment on this!

[arolesbianism]

Guys why is rain world so good (<- rewatched some scenes and teared up on all of them)

[oh-no-its-bird]

Please tell me more about force fem Minato being made the shinigami's wife

From this ask meme

I fucking knew someone would single that one out. Anyways, from my notesapp:

Force fem Minato being made the shinigami's wife as punishment for his hubris He and Kushia used to joke about Minato being the wife between the two of them, so he's eventually able to cope w his situation and dissociate by relying on the "I'm Kushina's wife" joke as a crutch to make it all feel slightly less awful The shinigami sends him on errands as his wife (collecting souls lmao) and Minato uses it as an excuse to watch Naruto and Kakashi from affar,, Umm maybe some of the errands involved Minato baiting people into making deals with and summoning his shinigami husband? He is the lure and the shinigami is the stick lmao The shinigami can't actually do things or manifest in the real world without someone first inviting them into their lives, so, like, that's part of what Minato's wife duties are. To get people to open the door to the shinigami. Among other things

+ Bonus which is kind of unrelated but was on the same notes page:

I like Minato for the take that there's something fr wrong w him and he makes a concious effort to appear normal and kind

He's like. Somewhere on the spectrum of sociopathy or has severe borderline personality or just some genuine mental illness and he works very hard, borrowing the mannerisms of those around him, to be charming and nice n stuff

I forget what fic I saw that in but like THATS the fic that made me care ab him

Hashirama 🤝 Minato

'Being friendly to the point that there's smthn genuinley wrong with them'

Minato !! I think he has a lot of untapped potential specifically in the market of fucking w shinigami. Like, what's even up with that? Let's play with that a little.

The man who would kill a thousand people in a day and return home happy to his wife,,, now turned into the wife who the shinigami who would kills thousands in a day returns home to,,, is this karma?

There's a few different directions this could go in tbh— both from the angle of like. How Minato is feeling / what he's going through but also like. Shinigami and yokai lore. What kind of shinigami / yokai lore are we playing with here.

The question isn't just what Minato is going through but also where the fuck is he. Is he in the Shinigami's personal little death dimension? Stuck inside the shinigami mask with him? Or is there some sort of broader shinigami world he's now living in? Is it only the shinigami, who Minato has to deal with? Or does he watch over any of the (no doubt countless) souls the shinigami has in its collection? Does he interact with any other yokai? Are the yokai he meets inside of whatever death dimension he's in or is it that he meets them when he leaves it to run errands? Or in some other, third place? Is Minato even human anymore or does he classify as some sort of yokai now too?

So many fun thoughts!

Anyways ummm. Thinking. Having thoughts. Specifically having abstract thoughts ab some sort of enraged Uzu fox ghost Kushina and new yokai shinigami wife Minato

Kushina's ghost is an Uzumaki one,, she grew up in Uzu where they just kind of have death god shrines n shit, apparently, she was never going to become a normal spirit. And that's not even counting the fox in her + all that weird yin/yang stuff w kurama. She is an angry, angry fox ghost with Uzumaki roots and she wants her wife back !!!

Umm Romeo and Juliet style forbidden love in the afterlife of Minato one day running back into Kushina's spirit (probably while they're both taking a moment to watch over Naruto / check in on Kakashi)

And they like. Do the spider man pointing meme bc HOLY SHIT OMG MY SPOUSE YOURE ALSO TRAPPED IN THIS AFTERLIFE LIMBO and also make out and like tell eachother what they've been doing (Kushina w her cool Uzumaki spirit lore and Minato w his much less cool "yeah so the shinigami um. Turned me into his wife. So.") but then they're forced to separate bc Minato can only leave the shinigami's domain for so long

Forbidden romance under the eye of the shinigami,,, if Minato gets caught the shinigami threatens to make him reap Kushina's soul to add to his collection

Idk but there's just a lot of potential here.

Naruto not from the POV of anyone living but instead from shinigami wife Minato trying to slip in time to see his fox ghost wife again as the plot of Naruto happens in the bg, could be fun

Then the Uchiha massacre happens and suddenly so many more angry spirits are getting added to the mess, oh boy

But yeah thank u for participating in the ask game here is a much longer than I meant for it to be tumblr post as ur payment

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 1 part 3

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3] ep7 [1][2][3][4][5][6] ep8 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] ep9 [1][2][3][4][5][6])

so babe, hear me out. we could adopt him. just spitballing here (agatha, probably)

bwahhaha fantasy!billy and his death stare, meanwhile real billy is such a polite baby

if you look closely you can tell Joe Locke is fighting for his life holding down laughter in a lot of his scenes with Katrhyn. he has nerves of steel, couldn't be me

(also, billy telling her she has neither the respect of her peers NOR a fulfilling home life? harsh, but fair.) (at least her wife is trying to fix the home life part)

honey, don't go around kicking grumpy little twinks now! perfectly in character. despite her chaotic exterior, rio is a very lawful person. she is literally the laws of nature!

the Ballad plays faintly in the background when Billy mentions the Road

I love when good actors have to pretend to be bad actors. and I also find it interesting that Agatha cast herself as a good guy. does it make her feel better? is she telling herself that all the atrocities were justified, that it was only survival instinct? (like rio said, she's only lying to herself)

I had to look up the painting, it's Macbeth meeting the three witches (thank you Reddit!) So Macbeth (Agatha) and Banquo (Billy) meeting Lilia, Jen and Alice?

how did I miss Billy sitting on the chair Rio was just on?! amazing lens choices here too

Wanda's death makes her cry again. I honestly, honestly believe she feels awful about what she did to her. but guilt will never be enough to redeem her - especially because she tends to run away from it.

Wanda's magic was so strong that it took at least four things to undo the spell: Wanda dying, Rio's intervention, Billy's counterspell, and Agatha's willpower. It was a group effort, Agatha could have never done it alone. And despite her scorched earth tactics, there are still two people in her life, rio and billy, willing to help out in her hour of need

it's naughty tiiiime

I still really love the curls

can I say iconique?

it's like someone's about to die at the end of this

bwahahahahaah and oh my GAWD all the case files and boxes, where did she GET that stuff, did she rob a precinct, did she make them with the power of arts and crafts

you know what I think? being naked here is a power move. she is being very over the top because she's really uncomfortable, she just woke up and she's in those moments when you stop dreaming and have to relearn what's real and what isn't. she is someone used to calculate and scheme and micromanage every aspect of her life and she is not in control right now. what does Agatha do to reclaim control? she puts on a show. to her, being under the spell was way more like being naked, her insecurities and emotions and past were out in the open for everyone to see. being physically naked could never be nearly as distressing, and this is a nakedness she chose, because it tells people nothing about herself, nothing of what she wants to keep secret and protected. she's got the upper hand, not the other way round

you are all cowards and sheep for not saying Wanda's name, says the lady who would rather hide under a dozen magic layers than face her problems

that is so nice that they brought her groceries actually??? and lol those are the flowers in Agatha's crime scene pictures

that little girl is having a great time

FUCK CLOTHES BUT FUCK THESE CLOTHES SPECIFICALLY!!!!

(wait am I allowed to post butt cheeks? what are the rules right now?)

she turns quiet and emo as soon as she's alone

why doesn't she just - kiss the wiwwle bunny. bury her nose in that big fluffly head. even villains need a cuddle sometimes.

sure, bring señor scratchy. so menacing. that'll show them.

poor boy. trapped in a closet with ralph's bluray collection

aaand I really want to get to the next scene so I'll start on it right away, hopefully it'll be ready later tonight

go to part 4

[manatee-rp-memes]

Drawfee and Secret Sleepover Society Sentence Starters

~Feel free to tweak as needed~

"He strikes me as a pervert."

"This is not fine. You're actually, like, completely fucked."

"YES! First try, baby!"

"You must know, the room is in shambles."

"She shlep on my philly 'til I'm red hot."

"It was never my intention to brag, but I wrote a whole song about it."

"The thing I think you don't understand... it feels so good!"

"Oh nooo, I'm too handsome and strong!"

"That fucking song slaps my damn crack."

"I bet I can interest you in some junk!"

"Is there something here that has caught you off-guard?"

"I'm the big boss man!"

"I hold myself to a higher standard. That's why I only say really smart, cool things."

"You know what they say; early to bread, early to rise."

"It's open season on_____."

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit, you piece of shit."

"Do you even care that he's trapped in a storm beyond time?"

"I don't like to start my day with waking up, it just happens."

"If God's ever been mad at anything I've said, he hasn't done shit about it. So, he either doesn't care or he's a coward."

"That's not a real name. That's what you call a horse with a lot of personality."

"This isn't just regular nonsense. This is advanced nonsense."

"Let me be very clear. In a manner of my choosing, on a day you least expect, revenge is coming."

"I'm going to punch your wiener clean off."

"Life is pain and suffering, what's up?”

"I think our talk later is just going to be a murder."

"I have a fast stroke... of my pen! Of my pen!"

“It’s like we all vaguely hate each other today."

"Stop the violence!"

"Oh, hitman!"

"I know you've been going through some stuff right now, and it's on us tonight. We're gonna make sure you remember, y' know, why life is fun and worth living."

"Have I mentioned you look really sexy?"

"We're getting a little buck wild."

"I'm literally engaged in the artistic process, you assholes!"

"We'll be annoying in any situation, no matter how life-threatening."

[iscopeee]

my null playlist is finished yayayayay

(warning for loud and glitchy sounds through most of these songs. it's NULL what did you except lol)

yapping about my song choices/reasonings for way too long under the cut

ok as a preamble a lot of my song choices here are for the interpretation that NULL is a real person trapped inside the game, which for some reason seems to be a controversial take for some people from what I've seen, so I feel the need to explain why I think that (also i'm just using this as an excuse to infodump lol). skip this next paragraph for the song reasonings if you dgaf

so basically i've seen a lot of people being like "UM well NULL licherally says he ISN'T a person trapped in a game, so of course he isn't, duhhhh 🤓" which. I don't wanna be too harsh considering how much of this game's fanbase is literal children but characters are in fact capable of being untruthful. the way I see it the fact that NULL randomly says apropo of nothing "oh nooo I'm TOTALLY not a real person trapped in a game haha, that'd be RIDICULOUS lol" (suspiciouslyspecificdenial tvtropes dot com) immediately followed by explaining that he "can't talk normally" and has to be "vague intentionally" because "some stuff is classified" combined with other hints he gives of his speech being censored by the game in later dialogue makes it clear that he obviously can't directly say what he is. the fact that he's using reverse psychology to get around the game's censorship seems pretty clear to me. (there's also the specific word choice of him calling the idea of being trapped inside a game "ridiculous" when he also describes himself as "ridiculous" earlier in his monologue but that's a bit of a stretch lol). The lake image clearly showing NULL standing by a lake in the real world is another obvious hint to NULL originally being a real person as well. his pain is neverending LOLLLLLLL (this isn't shitting on ppl who have different interpretations of NULL obviously!!! in his own words he's "vague intentionally". this is just my thoughtz :3)

ANYWAY onto da music YAY

UZUMAKI - Machine Girl -

very erratic/glitchy sound obviously. also themes of cycles, feeling trapped in negative spirals, hopelessness.

hand crushed by a mallet (N0THANKY0U remix) - 100 gecs -

any version of this song probably would have worked but I chose the N0THANKY0U remix for the compressed sound which seemed the most fitting. the themes of grief could tie into NULL's longing for his old life but I mainly chose it for these lyrics which are very NULLcore methinks

"I don't want you to think I got bad intentions/Never wanted you inside, you made it your mission, yeah/Didn't wanna hurt no one/But you just went and made it fun"

"I'll never go, I'll haunt your studio/You won't think of words when you write at all/You'll just hear me singing this song/You'll think that's okay, you'll just sing along"

i love this song ^_^

Final Transmission (The Living Tombstone remix) - Temporal Walker & [voodoopony] -

more glitchy electronic sound, as well as the lyrics being about a man getting in over his head and stranded away from his old life. regret as he realizes he's beyond the point of no return. maybe being trapped inside videos game is just like suffocating to death in space.

maybe he knew something that we didn't/staring at the mirror with a different kind of vision

Couture - Epsyle -

he's stuck on this fucking planet. he's stuck on this god damn earth. not much else to say for this one

The Mind Electric - Miracle Musical -

maybe a cliche choice for a character playlist but idc :P picked the distorted version for obvious reasons.

this pick is mainly about the power the game (?) holds over NULL (the whole censorship thing i mentioned in the preamble and the mentions of things being "classified" and "not being allowed" to do certain things in his dialogue) and the impact this must have on his mental state.

Child Protective Services Theme Song and Action Winter Journey - Nero's Day at Disneyland -

lumping these two together because both lack lyrics for me to go over. both have a very erratic, almost desperate feel to me. as the glitching which goes without saying at this point

BTSTU - Jai Paul -

WATER IMAGERY 🎉 also feelings of angry determination and of feeling lost

Cabinet Man - Lemon Demon -

i fully admit this one is a stretch buuut it's Guy Trapped In Video Game. I kinda had to lol

computer vision - sunsetcorp -

a gentle nostalgic sound is quickly cut short by dizzying electronic noise. the imagery is obvious i think

TIME STAND STILL - sunsetcorp -

feeling trapped in time. forced to stay in one place and reflect on the past endlessly by being trapped in an outdated game (I'm looking back) and being unable to progress forward and make meaningful change by destroying it and escaping (but I want to look around)

angel - sunsetcorp -

the death imagery appearing at the end of the playlist. The end of NULL style is approaching. more feelings of being trapped in the past.

END OF LIFE ENTERTAINMENT SCENARIO #1 - sunsetcorp-

the death imagery is even more blatant now. the past is looping in on itself. Escape is impossible now.

NULL tries in vain to calm himself to stop the worst from happening. One, two, three, four...

cemetary 4 - osno1 -

It's too late.