#talking time with Ink

[linesofink]

Buckle up yall, I'm going on a rant about how I think Junko got power over each Remnant of Despair (ignoring the canon brainwashing because I hate it, it makes no sense). Warnings for death mentions, different levels of manipulation, and trauma being used against people.

Y'all ready? Okay.

Imposter was a tiny bit difficult, but nothing Junko was unable to control. They probably felt empty and wanted a chance to exist without impersonating someone, so Junko likely just made a promise and used a little bit of sweet talk to trick them into believing that her plans would let them just exist and be able to do what they want. The despair of knowing that you basically don't exist would break them eventually.

Teruteru, simple leverage and threatening, probably blackmail too. Junko likely has ways to look into everyone's pasts and relationships, so she probably dangled the life and prosperity of his mother and the family diner over his head as a way to force him into things. It probably escalated at some point, and ended up just outright becoming what he wanted to do himself. If you put enough pressure on something, it will break eventually.

Mahiru took a little effort maybe, but Satō's death and the guilt of having a bit of involvement in Natsumi's death weighs down on her and thus Junko was able to make her believe it really was all her fault which in turn drove her into despair.

Peko was simple, all she had to do was get Fuyuhiko on their side and Peko would follow. Junko would've probably just killed Fuyuhiko too if he wasn't useful to her, so maybe Junko threatened his life which made Peko desperate to do anything to ensure his safety. Her entire existence revolved around his, and if something happened to her, she would be useless. The thought made her frantic and plung into despair due to that.

Ibuki wasn't difficult due to her IQ. Ibuki wasn't the brightest, but she was useful in some aspects. Junko probably went with either tricking her, or using popularity and relevance as leverage aswell, maybe even using other classmates again. Ibuki got a little anxious, and it spiraled over a long period of it into a state of despair at the constant worry.

Hiyoko took some time, but her own past was in play and used against her. Junko likely promised she'd be able to see the people she loved again and that the pressure from popularity would stop. Hiyoko likely fell apart when she realized she wasn't going to see her only loved ones again, and like the rest broke and fell into despair.

Mikan was one of the easier targets. Her issues with her past and her constant anxiety made it easy to get her to attach to Junko. Mikan was so used to being mistreated that just a slight bit of positive affection or even just a bit of praise got her to follow Junko around and cling to her, she's traumatized and unstable and was easy to control. Even the slightest bit of negativity from Junko after that would cause her to spiral towards despair and make her desperate for the rare positivity.

Nekomaru took effort, but once again it was likely the childhood. Since he was bullied for his name (at least if I recall correctly) she likely used that as a "Don't you want revenge?" tactic. Maybe she used his heart condition too, "you'll only live a certain amount of time, use it for what's really important." He reflected and realized he was doomed to die and his childhood was nothing but pain, so he tripped and smacked into the floor of despair.

Gundham was simple; his loved ones and his childhood made it easy. She could've easily used the Devas against him or even his mother, and probably made comments about his father and the people around him growing up. The Devas were dear to him, so she likely used an anger and desperation tactic and made him feel despair out of worry for them.

Nagito was both easy and difficult. He was so dead set on the fact that Hope was always triumphant, it took a bit more. She probably made him reflect a lot on his childhood, the treatment he faced daily, probably berated him then gave him rare praise, took time to slowly ease him away from his Hope mindset and into Despair. He was a process, but he eventually submerged to Despair when he finally gave up and thought, "What's the point in continuing on if my luck and presence will only torment everyone?"

Akane was yet another game of Childhood Trauma as a weapon. The childhood she faced was rough and she was still not stable from it, Junko probably exposed her to things that reminded her vaguely of her childhood that got progressively more dark as it went on. Junko used the fact that Akane would jump and snap into action as reflex, and she trained her like an animal to pounce at things. Akane slowly drowned in her thoughts of her life and it turned to a despair-ridden rage.

Kazuichi was merely another childhood and peers case. "You'll never be loved by anyone," she said, "You'll never be loved romantically, and probably never were in a platonic or even familial way." She would repeat. She'd break him slowly by using everyone else and probably claimed to be the only one who cared. Kazuichi is highly emotional, and he fell into despair rather easily since he -like most teenage boys- probably cared a lot about how people viewed him.

Fuyuhiko was easy. "You were raised to kill and hurt others mercilessly, do the one thing you're good at." She told him. Natsumi's death, the pressure of his life, whatever traumas he experienced as a kid. They all added up. He knew what he was capable of, and he probably subconsciously wanted to act on it. Put too many things onto one thing and it'll eventually topple over onto that one thing, he was crushed by the weights on his shoulders till it made him drop to one knee in the face of despair herself.

Sonia was quite literally "Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna just go apeshit?" Her life was dictated by her social standing. Taught from birth to be one way, ignore all interests and indulge in one goal. "You are not a person, you're a leader." Junko would remind her, then claim she was so much more than what she was taught. She grew sad, then angry, then cold and sadistic. Despair made her emotional and irrational, so she acted out of impulse and revenge.

We know Izuru joined Junko just because he was bored and wanted entertainment, but I don't believe it was that simple. He wanted entertainment, yes. He was bored, yes. But that couldn't be all, right? He's strong, mentally and physically, at least he was supposed to be. He was so tired of the calculating life he lived, tired of not knowing who he once was, and tired of how tired he was, and it probably gave him a subconscious sadness. He grieved himself without realizing it, and he was probably not mentally stable due to his existence. Junko took advantage of it. She knew he was bored out of his mind, so she promised him ways to feel something other than empty boredom. "In a world without them, you can do whatever you want. You can find out who you once were, you can watch people act out of Despair and Hope, and you can even watch Despair and Hope battle till only one remains." She'd convince, speaking innocently till she brought him into a sense of false security and then turned it all around and left him to his own devices when she started THH.

Of course, there's also Chisa. She was exposed to the first Mutual Killing Game, and it hurt her emotionally. That couldn't break her though, logically it made no sense for that and the Reserve Boy to be what broke her, and the literal lobotomy didn't make sense. Sure, exposure and warping of the mind works, but Chisa'e actions come from her heart. So I think it'd be more fitting if Junko had used Chisa's loved ones as leverage. Kyosuke, Juzo, class 77, they're all important to her and she loves them dearly in their own separate ways. So Junko probably used all of their wellbeing against her, and she acted out of desperation and panic, cracking and shattering into shards of Despair slowly when Junko would speak.

Then, Chiaki was the cake on top of it all for them. Her death would ruin the tiny hints of sanity they clung to subconsciously, and it'd send waves of Despair through them all at once.

Class 77-B was her perfect target, and Izuru and Ryota were what she needed to help that plan become reality. She used her charms and their weaknesses to her advantage, and they ended up worshipping her as a savior. She "woke them up" in a sense, that's what she told them at least. In the end, she had some victory, but we all know how that played out in the end. Moral of the story, don't be batshit like Junko and try to watch out for people like her!

[inkskinned]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[krysmcscience]

Narilambs your goat

Get adopted, idiot

[fl00mie]

something i did when i saw a post of joku talking about this topic: it's an interesting concept but practically impossible because nothing stops artists from continuing to create (this is convenient for ink), based on this i tried to adjust the words of the creator of dreamtale herself to her characters under an objective truth— there is no limit to the multiverse

here's the post and the translation

[zu-is-here]

<– • –>

[rad-roche]

Style Study

Modelled after one of my favourite artists, Darwyn Cooke

[sketchingstars03]

a struggle us ink fans know all too well

I’ve said enough

[kaiserouo]

i love 1999 gears

also the version w/o gears because apparently i've never made a portrait for normal version excalibur

btw this is for the 1st option of this

[onebizarrekai]

♪ crystal's [ ds ink's ] & ellie's [ ds error's ] themes - The Big Bunch

most of these were never shared; this includes both crystal and ellie's fatal flaws themes! (which have not received official names) both of those tracks seem to work better not looped. I tried to loop them, but it was lame. enjoy!

[maream-zaream]

Don’t know if this is still going on, but here’s a (kinda) quick drawing of Ink in that one haori in that post by @letsatomicbanana !

Additional notes under the cut (be warned though it’s a lot lol):

So when I saw the post I ended up reverse image searching the photo in order to see in what context this haori and hakama would’ve been worn in (though it didn't really matter in the end, as I just ended up drawing Ink painting on their sleeve). Just to like get an idea of what kinda thing I wanted to draw Ink doing in it and stuff, as well as just to get a better idea of how it’s supposed to look when worn. Now, for this specific one I’m not entirely sure, as since it seems to have been reposted on like a bajillion different websites, with many of the ones listed in the search not being in English. So needless to say, no clue where this thing came from!

However! My search wasn’t for naught! From the list of suggested links from the Google search, one was for a haori and hakama set from a rental clothing company called “Keio” (I think… keep in mind I’ve still been using google translate since the website was in Japanese lol). The specific outfit in question was this:

Now, this looks very similar to the one Banana posted, so I’m going with the assumption that the two outfits were probably made for similar purposes. Especially since not many adult haoris are made this these kinds of intricate designs (at least none that I could find). Anyways, this ensemble was listed under clothing one could rent for their child to wear for the Shichi-go-san (literally “seven-five-three” in English) Festival.

((Now quick disclaimer for the following: I am not Japanese nor any sort of expert on Japanese culture and history! As such, take the following with a grain of salt and I very much encourage you to look more into this festival on your own, as learning about this holiday was quite fun and informative and I would be 110% be happy being corrected for any misinfo, whether that be in the tags, reblogs, or any other method most preferred! Also, I've listed the websites I used here at the end of this post for y'all to check out after reading, apologies though for no footnotes.))

Continuing: During Shichi-go-san, parents bring their children of ages three, five, and seven to visit a Shinto shrine to celebrate the children’s growth and to wish or pray for good fortune. Why these ages? Glad you asked! It’s because three, five, and seven are considered auspicious ages in East Asian numerology, with this also making the date this festival is held— the 15th of November— especially lucky! It’s also interesting to note how the festival was originally exclusively done by the aristocracy and samurai families, though the tradition spread to the common people by the Edo period (1603-1868), though how the festival is currently held evolved from the Meiji era (1868-1912).

Now for the actual visit itself, traditionally five year old boys wear hakama and haori like the one pictured above (as traditionally this was the age that first allowed them to wear hakama in public), with seven year old girls going wearing a kimino with an obi (similar reasoning to the aforementioned boys; seven was the age where girls would traditionally begin wearing obi). For the three year olds? Girls may wear a hifu (a type of padded vest) and both genders seem to be able to wear hakama kimonos (take the three year olds dress stuff with a grain of salt though, not 100% sure on it lol). Also interesting to note is how in the past the age of three was the last year that parents kept their kid’s head shaved before allowing it to begin growing out more, though this practice of hair shaving seems to have fallen out of fashion around the 1800s.

In more modern times, many of these aspects are still upheld (except obviously the aforementioned hair shaving) during the Shichi-go-san festival, of now of course though with the modern addition of parents taking this opportunity to get lots of photos of their kids in formal attire lol. Additionally, parents also often get their kids some chitose-ame (longevity candy)—a type of sweet hard candy—after the shrine visit!

Slightly unrelated, here’s a quick sketch I drew of Ink eating this candy cause I thought it’d be funny:

He is NOT getting his rental deposit back (…is that a thing? Idk I’ve never rented clothes before lol)

ANYWAYS, I just wanted to put this stuff down cause I found learning about this festival really interesting and thought it to be relevant with the whole Japanese-attire thing lol. And again, don’t be afraid to correct me on anything and/or add your own additions to the info written above!

List of sources:

Tsukihana

Kids Web Japan: Shichi-go-san

Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia

Wikipedia page for Shichi-Go-San

Have a great rest of your day/night if you got this far!

[puppppppppy]

personal character design headcanons + brainrot

Note: the re-bound!au does NOT belong to me, it belongs to @chipper-smol I’m just not normal about it lol

[god-of-this-new-blog]

What if the two worst guys in the whole world were madly in love with each other?

[inkskinned]

crows use tools and like to slide down snowy hills. today we saw a goose with a hurt foot who was kept safe by his flock - before taking off, they waited for him to catch up. there are colors only butterflies see. reindeer are matriarchical. cows have best friends and 4 stomachs and like jazz music. i watched a video recently of an octopus making himself a door out of a coconut shell.

i am a little soft, okay. but sometimes i can't talk either. the world is like fractal light to me, and passes through my skin in tendrils. i feel certain small things like a catapult; i skirt around the big things and somehow arrive in crisis without ever realizing i'm in pain.

in 5th grade we read The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-time, which is about a young autistic boy. it is how they introduced us to empathy about neurotypes, which was well-timed: around 10 years old was when i started having my life fully ruined by symptoms. people started noticing.

i wonder if birds can tell if another bird is odd. like the phrase odd duck. i have to believe that all odd ducks are still very much loved by the other normal ducks. i have to believe that, or i will cry.

i remember my 5th grade teacher holding the curious incident up, dazzled by the language written by someone who is neurotypical. my teacher said: "sometimes i want to cut open their mind to know exactly how autistics are thinking. it's just so different! they must see the world so strangely!" later, at 22, in my education classes, we were taught to say a person with autism or a person on the spectrum or neurodivergent. i actually personally kind of like person-first language - it implies the other person is trying to protect me from myself. i know they had to teach themselves that pattern of speech, is all, and it shows they're at least trying. and i was a person first, even if i wasn't good at it.

plants learn information. they must encode data somehow, but where would they store it? when you cut open a sapling, you cannot find the how they think - if they "think" at all. they learn, but do not think. i want to paint that process - i think it would be mostly purple and blue.

the book was not about me, it was about a young boy. his life was patterned into a different set of categories. he did not cry about the tag on his shirt. i remember reading it and saying to myself: i am wrong, and broken, but it isn't in this way. something else is wrong with me instead. later, in that same person-first education class, my teacher would bring up the curious incident and mention that it is now widely panned as being inaccurate and stereotypical. she frowned and said we might not know how a person with autism thinks, but it is unlikely to be expressed in that way. this book was written with the best intentions by a special-ed teacher, but there's some debate as to if somebody who was on the spectrum would be even able to write something like this.

we might not understand it, but crows and ravens have developed their own language. this is also true of whales, dolphins, and many other species. i do not know how a crow thinks, but we do know they can problem solve. (is "thinking" equal to "problem solving"? or is "thinking" data processing? data management?) i do not know how my dog thinks, either, but we "talk" all the same - i know what he is asking for, even if he only asks once.

i am not a dolphin or reindeer or a dog in the nighttime, but i am an odd duck. in the ugly duckling, she grows up and comes home and is beautiful and finds her soulmate. all that ugliness she experienced lives in downy feathers inside of her, staining everything a muted grey. she is beautiful eventually, though, so she is loved. they do not want to cut her open to see how she thinks.

a while ago i got into an argument with a classmate about that weird sia music video about autism. my classmate said she thought it was good to raise awareness. i told her they should have just hired someone else to do it. she said it's not fair to an autistic person to expect them to be able to handle that kind of a thing.

today i saw a goose, and he was limping. i want to be loved like a flock loves a wounded creature: the phrase taken under a wing. which is to say i have always known i am not normal. desperate, mewling - i want to be loved beyond words.

loved beyond thinking.

[moth-flowers]

moth-flowers #21

[javierduffy]

ch2 javi gives boaz a chili pepper leaf once as a treat (because javier himself loves chili peppers) and the capsaicin gives him a tummy ache but javi doesn’t know that capsaicin is bad for horses so he has no idea what the problem is and is freaking out a bit so he very incredibly begrudgingly drags himself to kieran, whom he knows probably will have an answer, and kieran is like “he just has a tummy ache, he’s okay :)” and javi is so unbelievably embarrassed but kieran was so nice to him that he’s also a little … charmed ?

[keuwibloom]

Its been a while since ive posted anything Parasynth, so I thought id make these polaroid-inspired drawings to make up for it!

As an added bonus-- I have nicknames for the guys! I actually made these a while back, but I figured id post them here for organization purposes, and so its easier to differentiate when talking about Parasynth.

The nicknames + my reasons behind choosing them listed below the cut!

Blue "Polaris" - Also known as the "north star", polaris is the only stationary star in the night sky, commonly used as a compass for navigation. A star that symbolizes stability when you've lost your way.

Dream "Apollo/Pol" - Named after the Greek god of the sun, music, medicine, and archery, twin brother to Artemis. Went with this because of the twin thing and sun symbolism, plus the healer and archery association.

Ink "Opal" - Opal is a gemstone that shines with rainbow colors. A true opal gem also has a base color of white, which fits with Ink's whole thing. Ink also calls others "pal" so I thought the name would be a nice reference to that.

Axe "Condor/Kon" - A large scavenger bird, related to the vulture. One species of it is the largest flying bird in the world. A condor's head also has no feathers, which kinda reminds me of Axe's skull.

Nightmare "Artemis/Arte" - Named after the Greek goddess of the moon and the hunt, twin sister to Apollo. Chosen for the same reasoning as Dream's nickname. Artemis is also the goddess of wilderness and wild animals, which fits with the gang (in a "they're a group and they are dangerous" way).

Killer "Shrike" - A cute little passerine bird that is known to impale its prey on sharp things, usually thorns. Shrikes are also known as "butcher birds". I think it fits with his vibe, plus shrikes have these black markings over their eyes that remind me of Killer's eyes.

Dust "Owl" - A nocturnal bird that has eerily silent flight and large eyes that reflect light in the dark so it looks like its glowing. I was in between this one and "Kestrel", but I feel like Owl fits Dust's general vibe better.

Cross "Cypress/Cy" - A tree that symbolizes longevity and endurance, but also mourning. It's also associated with protection and strength. I was looking for stuff that was associated with the goddess Artemis and the cypress tree was one (also the gang as birds and Cross as the tree they rest on).

Error "Oregano" - An herb that has a very strong bitter/peppery taste and smell. It's known to have antiviral properties and other benefits, but it is best used in small amounts. I also chose this name to parallel Opal (rock VS plant).

Swap/Blue belongs to the AU Community

Dream and Nightmare belong to Jokublog

Ink belongs to Comyet

Horror/Axe belongs to Sour-Apple-Studios

Killer belongs to Rahafwabas

Dust belongs to Ask-Dusttale

Cross belongs to Jakei95

Error belongs to Loverofpiggies