#thank you for this !! sorry that i took so long with it lmao

[chio-chan2artbox]

Step Forward - Part 3 They are going on a date!!! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Check out my tags for fun facts XD

Kofi

[brucewaynehater101]

do you have fanfic recs abt gun batman??

(i’m asking for totally real not fake friend)

Off the top of my head, no, but I did look into. Under the tag "Villain Tim Drake" there are a total of 35 fics (not filtered out for any tags). That's such a small number :(

Under Tim Drake & Tim Drake, there's a total of 65 fics. Under the tag "Titans of tomorrow" with Tim, there are 23 fics.

The last tag yielded the most results, and I recommend that one for finding stuff.

Some fics:

"Tomorrow is Yesterday" by Ashynarr. Tim is confronted by a villainous version of himself (not Gun Batman), and this older one talks about the lessons they learned from Gun Batman, Bruce's Batman, and Ra's.

"Permutations" by angel_gidget. Five Batmans and one Robin get transported from their realities and told to fight to save their respective worlds.

"your legacy's not yours to see, nor is your eulogy" by soft_catus. Be ware of tags, but Tim gets hit by a new strain of fear toxin. He ends up seeing Gun Batman

A fic that's about a younger Tim confronting canon Tim and hating how he turned out is "(it) runs in the family" by violettavonviolet

[uhohdad]

SO I HAVE THOUGHTS. THE FIRST THOUGHT IS HOW DARE YOU

H O W

DARE

YOU

(affectionate)

SECOND.

:C

THIRDLY.

You wrote so much for us and so well omg I hope you get some rest. Your hands must be sore from all the fire they're producing.

This is my favourite series. I keep coming back to reread the other parts. Part 3 was my favourite of the series. It was so nice and sweet. A fun little breath of air. The waterfall? Perfection. The ending? Had me wanting to throw my phone across the room ┻⁠┻⁠︵⁠ヽ⁠(⁠`⁠Д⁠´⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠︵⁠┻⁠┻

I can't wait to read the last part :') :') :')

Sending you lots of love and encouragement 🫶🏼💕💖✨

i hope you know that it literally means the world to me that my work means this much to you. i’m over the moon that y’all see my works the way i see them fr. it’s actually bonkers <3 🥹🥹🥹💗🩷💞💕

Been working on The Aftermath a lot today!! sorry if i haven’t been posting enough writing lmao just tryna crank this baddie out. so honored y’all are excited for it 😭

⌜ KONIG X READER HUNGER GAMES AU ⌟

[lil-lemon-snails]

Hi there! Just wanted to say I love your art, especially the art piece you made of that “Pastel Moon” or “Daytime Moon” you did.

I saw in your tags to even describe what he might be like, and I just so happen to be a bit of an aspiring writer.

So I’d like to say the character you made is less intense with getting those around him to sleep, but more to either calm down or have fun. And unlike most animatronics, he isn’t showing any parts of his metal frame. Instead, he is made from a child-friendly (and person safe) fluffy, plush material (think more like a mattress or a pillow.)

This gives him the ability to be really nimble and light in his movements, enough to possibly jump over a fully grown adult.

Anyways, hope you don’t mind this long ask.

Have a good day and keep up the amazing art!

YEESSSS THANK YOU!!! This is so perfect it makes me warm and fuzzy asdfghkks I love the idea of daytime moon being more focused on calming folks down rather than sleeping it suits him really well!!!

Also I HAD to draw him jumping over some poor worker just trying to do their job. They're still a gremlin,,, just,, chiller. If you bore him he'll find his own entertainment lmao

Full image under the cut

[sanasanakun]

Jimithon Mouthwashing is such a good representation of untreated, enabled NPD like it makes me want to squeeze the life out of him. I'm endlessly fascinated when watching him interact with his crew, surroundings, and himself because he's so fucking lost in his own sauce. It's insane. If I'm being real, it makes him my favorite character in the game.

It's a little scary to say, but watching Jimmy is like seeing a mirrored version of myself two years ago before I truly committed to treatment for my NPD. He's like a shadow. The opening line "I hope this hurts," which I believe comes from Jimmy right before the crash, is such a poignant statement. It's a simple line, but I can tell you from experience that the desire to hurt others when in a narcissistic rage is overwhelming. It's such a good line to sum up Jimmy's character in that moment. Luckily, in the real world, I had my friends and family there to catch me when I hit my lowest, even though I'd hurt them so many times. Jimmy probably could've used friends to force him into therapy (cough cough Curly cough cough)

[peapod20001]

how do you draw ash,,, I'm struggling to draw him. pls break him down to his essence for me so I can better understand him

He’s got a very simple design compared to all my other ocs, so in theory he should be easy to draw…. But because his design is simple it is very easy to completely fuck up one thing and end up with him not looking right (speaking from experience lol)

So! Here’s my attempt at like. Breaking him down for you. I’m not actually sure if this will help any LMAO but I hope it does :,,) I’ll absolutely do more if you need it tho like anything specific like I had fun doing this

He’s a very round boy, as in like soft edges… really the only points on him would be like. His hair or whatever. He’s got a big mouth for yappin the ear off his family members, and big eyes for lookin at his family, and long arms to hug his family, etc etc.

You would NEVER see him mad like you would my other ocs, he’s the type to start crying when put into a situation that makes him really upset (you probably wouldn’t even see him very upset either as he has a tendency to run away from situations that make him feel bad)

He’s very aware of his body and the space he takes up, so unlike my other gangly ocs he isn’t clumsy at all. He DOES find himself in awkward situations sometimes (like accidentally eavesdropping on people cus they don’t notice he’s there and he’s too awkward to move away cus what if they think he’s listening in on purpose)

He’s not very outgoing with most people and it takes him a bit to really warm up to someone, but once you’re in his good books you are never getting him to chill out. He’s got a serious case of “lack of volume control” and he talks to people like they are across a big room pretty much all the time. If he isn’t yelling he’s probably whisper talking to try and seem less obvious, he gets self conscious about taking up too much space.

He’s a big talker he’s always trying to say something to someone if they’ll let him and often times it has no relation to the current topic or situation (only he seems to notice how the topics flow together) He can and will go on for hours if no one stops him. He’s got like, an internet sized brain in his noggin so he could quite literally go on forever about literally anything (he goes down research rabbit holes for fun)

I should probably stop rambling about him now LMAO sorry I just love him a bunch he’s a nerd

[doubleedgemode]

that post u made about A.B.A regarding her classic GG quotes is so interesting I had no idea she said that! I haven’t played the earlier games, would u happen to have screenshots of where she says that or where I might be able to see some of her classic/unused quotes ? I just like having that stuff on hand lol. Thank you!

Thanks to you, anon, for making me revisit the screenshots, and sure thing! I'm gonna link the page, keep in mind it's super meaty and covers a lot of characters so ctrl F search will be your best friend to find specific character/quotes :)

I found them in this big quote compilation in guiltygear.ru, click the sentence to go there. (Kudos to @/solradguy's big gg neo.cities archival efforts making me find the page)... BUT before anything, important DISCLAIMERS❗:

1. Some of the quotes in general can get kind of explicit or with double entendres so uh keep that in mind.

2. Something I just learnt after going to find you the translations, it's to keep in mind their author: See, this is better explained in the aforementioned ne.ocities archival, but a lot of the site's translations were made by someone who, without going too much into detail, is... a controversial member of the community, who is known for putting a good bunch of misconceptions and mistakes into their translations. (Also they have, in my opinion, unsavory and even problematic takes about the franchise. Don't try to argue with them, just block, per proper net etiquette) I don't know japanese so I don't know if this quote index suffers from that so in the end, we'll have to take all this quote info with a huge grain of salt.

Keeping all this in mind, this is already probably a wordier answer than you expected BUT since we are at it, I'll ramble about some A.B.A quotes (in no order) that I found interesting about the topic under the cut, if you want to read that.

First and third quotes in this picture are pretty self explanatory about this part of her character. The vs Faust intro... Man, that looks straight out of her strive song. Dunno if they pulled inspiration from that, but it seems even in the classic days they had a pretty clear idea of part of A.B.A's story being existing and thriving in her own unique way.. Which makes me kind of emotional for some reason ;_;

These were NOT unused as far as I can tell, but obviously do correct me if wrong!

I find it fascinating how much of clear glimpses these are are into her law obsession (more on that specific one later) and believing herself to be a high class person and looking above "lower classes" shoulders.

Some of these aren't exclusively about the aforementioned topics but they mention her cooking god knows what creatures (like in that one infamous xxac ending) and just.. being a scared, pathetic individual at heart. Sigh.

There are probably more examples of all this but this post needs to end sometime today.😭 So, returning to her law thing being an obsession in capital letters, look at her ingame overdrives:

But before that, the elephant in the room: People's observations of her instakill looking pretty taxing to her to perform and even making a berserk Paracelsus look like even he thinks this goes too far are not far from the truth. "I might not recover this time... Dying!!!" What else can I say, that's just sad.. and very interesting lorewise about the toll of this kind of summonings. Yeah, people noticed that in strive, she can summon the same exact door as in her insta with no struggle (or at least not the same level for sure) indicates her power or skill have improved which is so so fascinating.. Anyways. Back to the law thing. We've always had a huge sign under our noses: Her saying Evidence in her overdrives. While sure it can be evidence in a more general meaning, like proving facts or something, it does call to LEGAL evidence, too

...Maybe that was super obvious for everybodh but I'm afraid to admit I didn't connect the dots til now haha 😅

I cannot access my xxacp copy right now to see if her saying shouko during her overdrives is correct, but were we to take this as truth and also trust a japanese language study site as solid because. Again I have zero knowledge of japanese... According to Nihongoclassroom..

It can be used in a legal setting.

And with this we can neatly wrap this up... Tdlr I guess she's living up to her creator being a mansion owner (which isn't precisely cheap) and it gets so interesting and double edged (HAH) if you believe her classic games was as self aware while doing this and fooling herself as strive A.B.A is.

AND she has or had a HUGE interest in law (and if u allow me to reach mayyybe morality too?). While probably not as core to her as her key thing, she sure has told the audience almost as much as it.

[nonstandardrepertoire]

Congrats on watching all of Star Trek! Did you have a good time

mostly yes, altho i'm going to be real that Enterprise was a rough time. anyway i know this ask is from a million years ago but i finally went thru and made a rec list for the entire franchise and by rec list i mean thirty seven pages of digressions, inside jokes, and tangential commentary about broader trends in speculative fiction and US masculinities here you go if you are curious have fun: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1keGBG3FL9UvxMQw4hfD0xFWQBw7NwBBZTJ9C4qOF6tQ/edit?usp=sharing

[awkwardtickleetoo]

boo :)

ello awkwardticklee, don’t worry if it takes you 8 years to answer this,, but whenever you feel up to it i’d love to hear literally any thoughts you have on what would go down in a lee sap, ler karl, ler dream situation 😁

heyyyy finally answering some asks from….. a year ago……. teehee

okay so. dream and karl are suuuuch a good ler combo for sap. bc dream and sapnap have known each other for FOREVER, they’ve literally grown up together, and karl was the person who got sap more comfortable with physical touch and cuddling and now he’s just the sweetest little cuddle bug :(( and they both know him so so well, so them teaming up to take sap down???? that poor boy is a GONER

plus, we know karl can get sapnap all soft and melty in minutes, and we know that dream loves hugging sapnap from behind and cuddling up to him

so here’s what i’m thinking

karl is staying at the dteam house, the three of them are just chilling in the living room talking, and dream leans over to sap and hugs him all sweet. karl smiles at them, pats both their heads and lets it slip that “oh, sap loves being held like that, don’t you, handsome?” which immediately makes sapnap’s cheeks turn pink and makes him squirm in his seat, already flustered. and he whines at karl to not say that, bites his lip against a smile and turns away, but dream just hugs tighter and kisses his cheek gently

and then… karl and dream decide it’s a great time to talk about all the other stuff they know that makes sap flustered and blushy and adorable like that

and sap. is practically dying. he’s blushing brighter than the red throw blanket on the couch next to him, squirming and hiding his face as much as he’s able to, crowded in by both boys who are looming over him as they talk, and he THINKS he’ll survive this…

until they somehow end up talking about how ticklish he is, then the spots they both know, then the teases that work best on him, and sapnap is prepared to fall through the floor from how embarrassed and flustered he is in that moment

he tries to get them to stop, begs and pleads for them to just leave it alone, until karl– who is able to get sapnap to agree to anything– holds his face so gently, and goes, “c���mon, sweetheart, please? let us try it out?” and sap is appalled, because absolutely not, no, no way, but karl just smiles and goes “please?” and sap is just putty in his hands. he stares at karl, glances at dream, looks back to karl, and melts into dreams arms as he goes “okay :(“

and then they pull him in closer and take him apart so, so gently, trailing their fingers over every spot they both suggest, making the smaller boy squirm and giggle and lose himself in the laughter and the warmth that bloom in his chest from all the attention 🥰🥰

and if afterwards his mind is completely full of static and fuzzy beyond belief, and all he knows to do it cuddle up to the other two and hide his face in them and whine at them? well, that’s just a bonus for all three of them isn’t it

[onepiecebdays]

What’s your honest opinion on power scaling?

honest opinion? if we're strictly talking the definition, it's fine. it can even be a kind of fun thought experiment. but it's just that, a thought experiment. in no way do i think it is the best way to analyze media lmao, especially one piece.

ive found twitter to be extremely annoying about power scaling, with the constant 'x is stronger than y' and complaining that 'x got nerfed' or 'y is a fraud'. and just. aren't you miserable constantly thinking like that lmao? for me personally, one piece has never been about the fighting, it's always been about the emotion behind them, which is something these uh. fans. never seem to consider. i'm so tired of seeing these discussions over and over again because i really think they're kind of pointless.

strength is not all one piece characters' goals and to rank everyone based on this alone without any other influence is frankly stupid. not every thing in one piece is a competition about who is stronger than who. i get that it's a battle shounen, but i think it really does the series a disservice to reduce it to that. there's a lot more to it than just the fights, i honestly think the overall plot and themes as well as the relationships that the characters form take a lot more precedence over the fighting. ignoring all of that in favor of making constant rankings of who would theoretically beat who is quite frankly stupid. i think generally these are just used to push whoever is the original poster's favorite as the strongest no matter what, and they usually fail to mention that often times there are other factors at play during the fights. the context is always important, as they're not all strict one v. ones, and environment and emotion carry weight in a fight that these posters usually don't account for.

if this is in reference to [spoilers for chapter 1118/1119] bonney's joy girl form, i'll just come out and say that i absolutely love it. i think it not only is completely within her skill set, but it also makes total narrative sense as well. regardless of that, i think ultimately, sticking to your themes and making sure you are hitting proper emotional and narrative beats is more important than just the fighting. while you can't just completely break a character's established move set to serve whatever purpose you need from them at the time, i'm personally of the opinion that it's alright to stretch it to a small degree every now and then when you really need or would like something done.

i'm kind of talking in broad strokes here, this got much longer than i wanted it to and i don't want to make it drag on too much, so i'll just end by weighing in on the age old question of who's stronger, zoro or sanji. i think it's very simple in that really it does not matter. it does not matter and it will continue to not matter unless the death pact needs to be fulfilled, even then i doubt a simple one v. one will be the solution, but i digress

[eatmy-customjorts]

another night out on earth

[good-beanswrites]

Just wanted to plant an idea if you wanted a bit of fuel: Mahiru asking Yuno to come to her cell before everything goes down.

Edit: I forgot the ask didn't say it but this is part of Kyanako's incredible Order Of Attack AU!

Didn't mean for this to become a mini Mappi study but here we are ✨ Thank you for the request! I fully intended to write them hanging out, but it's more right before they hang out lol. Went a bit on-the-nose with foreshadowing, but isn't that the fun part? It has become Emotional Over Mahiru Hour...

I kept things vague, but TW for mentioning her boyfriend's state of potential self-harm

Mahiru tried not to act superstitious, she really did. As much as she loved the idea of little luck charms, or avoided easy signs of misfortune, it was easier to keep quiet about such ridiculous things.

Maybe catching a bride’s bouquet meant no guarantees; maybe there was no real harm in stepping underneath ladders, maybe a coin tossed into a fountain had no real magic to its wish. However, the one thing she knew for sure held power was a lucky presence. Being in the right place at the right time could alter everything. And today was the right time for something. There was this waiting in the air. The prison had been holding its breath. Mahiru knew it was time to release it all.

“You must be so lonely, why don’t you let big sis Mahiru keep you company?” She beamed at Amane.

She often recalled the good fortune that she and a certain young man had crossed paths on the university terrace. She used to laugh with him about the wonderful coincidence of bumping into each other outside of the bakery, then the convenience store. 

Though she’d never spoken about it to him, she was also grateful for many occasions where she walked in on him at the precise moment to talk him out of something reckless. She always told him that they’d do everything together. He didn’t need to be alone anymore. 

“I wish to be alone. I need peace of mind to think.” Amane turned away from the cell door.

It was a good thing, too. Mahiru’s smile wasn’t as convincing as she said, “o-oh. Of course.”

She made her way around the panopticon, hearing Fuuta pace his cell in anticipation. He must have felt it too, this holding of breath. 

Or perhaps not. He turned down her offer for a bit of company, including a few more colorful words than Amane had. Mahiru just apologized for bothering him and headed back to her cell. She wasn’t sure where Mikoto was at this hour, but she didn’t feel like smiling through a third rejection.

She shook her head back and forth. She wished the motion could rattle the voices inside, she wished she could shake them all away. With her arms secured in place she could no longer cover her ears. She used to hum to keep them at bay, but lately they’d been too loud to stifle. They just kept on talking.

Their words told her the two were right. Nobody needed her company. No – nobody wanted it. Being together hadn’t helped her boyfriend. In fact, being together had been the very thing that got him killed. No wonder Amane and Fuuta wanted to avoid her. 

So then, this was for the best. She would rather deal with the brief sting of refusal than stumble in one day to find them hurt… or worse. As much as she tried to avoid the superstition of it all, the voices reminded her that her very presence could mean life or death. 

“Mappi, are you alright?” Mahiru hadn’t realized a tear had slipped down her cheek until she hurried to swipe it away in front of Yuno. 

“Hah, I’m fine! Just fine.” It was impossible to fool her, Mahiru had learned, but that never stopped her from trying. 

At least she always spoke tactfully. “Rough morning?”

Mahiru shifted her arms in her uniform, making a small sound of agreement.

“Can I do anything to help? What if I stay with you for a bit? I can do your hair, and…”

The voices were right. Amane and Fuuta knew it, too. Presences did hold power, and Mahiru’s was cursed.

But she would sound foolish admitting such a fear to Yuno. She'd heard plenty from the voices about how stupid and airheaded she was, there was no use in getting the same lecture from someone as grounded as her.

Mahiru managed a weak protest, unable to explain her real reasoning. Yuno was insistent. She didn’t give much of a choice. Could she feel the strangeness of the prison, as well? 

At last, Mahiru allowed her shoulders to sag. Yuno was lucky. And kind. Having her nearby would do her good. Amane and Fuuta would be alright. Mahiru had tried spending more time with them after verdicts were announced. Now, she made a mental note to pull back. If her love couldn’t save anyone, at least she could spare them from her curse. They would be safe. 

“Yes. Please stay. The truth is... I don't want to be alone.”

[anotherpapercut]

working with children really will make you examine your thought processes and emotional reactions like nothing else. I've found myself being so much more thoughtful in my daily life about how I respond to my emotions and environment, as well as the reasoning behind why others behave the way they do

[haroldosaur]

Hey, so I'm re-reading Simpler Times and I just hit the spot where Bluestar finds out about Silverstream. I know it doesn't go this way, but I've got a brain worm over this. What if she was so angry with Tigerclaw that she demotes him over it, possibly even promoting Fireheart waaaayy earlier than he's supposed to be? How would the conflict play out with Fireheart as deputy and Tigerclaw disgraced, but still part of Thunderclan?

That's,,, a good question! Hmm.

To start, one thing that's important to clarify is that part of Fireheart's promotion to deputy in the OG series is that Bluestar p. much has a mental breakdown and decides that he, specifically, is the only person she trusts. (At least, that's how I read it xD). So my presumption would be that something similar is happening here. If you look at it logically, there's no reason for Fireheart to be made deputy over all the other older and more experienced cats in the clan (coughWHITESTORM?cough) so if it's happening, Bluestar's gotta be Going Through It.

With that established, how would the conflict play out with Fireheart as deputy and a disgraced Tigerclaw being part of ThunderClan? Hoo boy.

I think Tigerclaw would be absolutely, intolerably furious about Fireheart getting his job. Like, he'd personally hate that more than just being exiled. He's gotta take orders from this guy every day now!! Meanwhile Fireheart is p. much treading water and stressing over Tigerclaw, similarly to canon, only it's more anxiety-inducing because the rest of the Clan STILL doesn't really see Tigerclaw for the monster that he actually is; they just thing he's overzealous n got demoted because he made a whoopsie. It probably leads into some kind of thought question: do you prefer having your greatest enemy out of sight but away from you, or constantly in your living space all the time?

Saving grace here would deffo be Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw IMO. Brambleclaw would be able to keep being nervous but determined to deal with his father, and Squirrelpaw would 100% be mocking Tigerclaw to hell and back for losing the deputy-ship because of his own impulsive idiocy. Oh my god, she would see it as a golden piss-taking opportunity. I need to stop imagining how funny she'd find i before I start writing out her dialogue. :P

I think... hmm. My first reflex is that the conflict would go better for our heroes, because Tigerclaw has lost his power in ThunderClan but doesn't have the freedom to slink around and make alliances that comes with being an exile. That said, with Tigerclaw still in ThunderClan, he could probably talk to a lot of cats individually and bend their ears into supporting him and his attempt to return to the deputy-ship (and possibly more?) To that end it'd probably become a Fireheart vs. Tigerclaw PR battle for a while, and then eventually something would give and there'd be a physical fight and then things would play out a little bit more like canon.

I'm sure there's some details I've missed, but that's all I'm thinking of off the top of my head. :D Thank you so much for the ask!!!

[judeiscariot]

I recently started listening to CSH and famous prophets (stars) is one of my favorites out of everything I’ve heard so far. I’ve seen you mention it on here a couple times and I’d love to hear more about your interpretation of it! Only if you feel like it of course lol but I’m not great at lyric analysis stuff and I’m super interested

hi yes i’d love to talk about it!!! i’ve been wanting to do a line by line of this song for forever so thanks for asking <3 (fair warning though this is gonna be really long)

this song is sort of the last 'event' on the twin fantasy timeline, even though it's more of a summary. it's the culmination of everything that this story has been building up to. it's a breakdown in every sense of the word. like many songs in twin fantasy and will's body of work at large, it has an insanely ambitious structure that's hard to even nail down. it's made up of around six parts but it's basically impossible to even separate into choruses/verses/bridge, etc, so i'm just gonna go section by section:

much like the first track on the album, this song starts off with a really simple, isolated bassline before will's voice comes in softly. the first thing the speaker does is apologize to the idealized future versions of himself and his partner who he had become attached to. he had all these wonderful visions of what their life together might look like, but he's finally realizing that none of that is ever gonna happen, and things are quickly coming to an end. the 'ripping of the tape' could refer to an audio tape, a reference to how the original version of this album was a lot rougher in terms of sound quality, and will has said before that he prefers the smoother, more professional sound of face to face as opposed to the lo-fi of mirror to mirror. the tape could also be what's metaphorically holding the relationship together, and it's finally failing. the speaker knows the relationship is falling apart, but the realization doesn't make it any less painful. in the final line, he shifts the blame to the subject, in a coy and resigned sort of way.

the bruises represent the speaker and his partner - painful, brought on through trauma, lesions that the speaker carries around physically on his body. 'kicking the back of the seat in' probably refers to the fact that most of the vocals for will's early projects, including twin fantasy (mtm) were recorded in the backseat of his car, hence the band name. the speaker has sort of embodied the role of 'emotional punching bag' throughout the story (you can text me when punching mattresses gets old), and the bruises, or the pain the speaker was caused through the relationship, were something he wore with pride as though they represented the burdens he was willing to shoulder for love of his partner. but the bruises are fading now, healing, steering the speaker towards the metaphorical 'healing journey' he will embark on after being set free from the expectations and needs of this person. the vocals up until this point are soft, almost spoken-word, but here we crash into a jarringly intense instrumental that totally shifts the tone.

this part is buried beneath the instrumentals, almost inaudible, but it's so important. i see this as the speaker encouraging his past self, who this album is sort of dedicated to, not to spend too much time lamenting over the end of the relationship, because everything is gonna turn out alright even though it feels like the end of the world. even still, the speaker knows his past self wouldn't listen to this advice if he could hear it.

an experience like the one conveyed through this album is very much confined to teenagers/adolescents. it's essential that the speaker and his partner are fumbling young people with underdeveloped brains. there are certain emotions and ways in which we see the world as teenagers that inevitably dampen when we become adults. even if the speaker and his partner, now grown, were to touch each other like they used to, they wouldn't be able to access the emotions that were conjured by their teenage brains. the speaker and his partner are no longer in contact, sure, but they've lost access to one another in more ways than one. the speaker likes to think that he remembers what it was like to be with his partner physically, but he gives just about the vaguest and most generic description of a human body that he possibly could, literally trailing off at the end like he can't name anything beyond a few body parts. he doesn't actually remember specifics about this person at all.

the speaker questions whether the deterioration of the relationship was his fault, if he could have done something different, been better, saved it somehow. at the same time, he's realizing that he couldn't have, and wondering if this whole thing, that he dedicated all this time and stress and agony and love and joy to, was a complete waste of time, simply because it was destined to fail. throughout this verse, the speaker is coming to terms with the end of the relationship while simultaneously resisting it. it's pretty clear that there have been a good few 'breakup scares' at this point, and the speaker isn't sure if this is the real, true, final end. is this how life is going to be from now on? waking life feels like a bad dream, and he's walking around wondering if this person is, or ever was, his, if they're truly gone. 'the great silence' is the enormous canyon that opens between two people who have just ended a relationship as intense and intimate as this. they go from indescribable closeness to functioning like complete strangers, and it would give anyone whiplash, but especially a teenager who had never felt truly loved or understood before this person. this relationship has been so unsteady that even once significant time has passed since the end, he still sometimes wakes up with the hope that he might roll over and see his former partner next to him.

will refers to himself as both 'nervous' and 'a wreck' multiple times in this album, and in several other places throughout his discography. it's kind of a recurring motif. this may also be a callback to 'the bell jar,' one of the first tracks will ever released, before he was even making music as car seat headrest. as far as 'naming names' goes, this is probably a reference to the fact that he did in fact call cate wurtz by name in famous prophets (minds) in the mtm version of the album. cate wurtz is a comic artist and the author of the lamezone series, and she may or may not be the subject of twin fantasy. i find theories about the real life person who might be the inspiration for this album largely irrelevant and uninteresting, nevermind unimportant to my personal interpretation of the album, so i'm not gonna linger on that aspect of it. the last line is probably a reference to this song's counterpart. famous prophets (minds) ends with a spoken word recitation of 1 kings 19:11 - 12. the actual final lines of the verse are as follows: "But the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." in the song, the final line is changed to "And after the fire, a sound of sheer silence." right before will says 'silence,' the music cuts out completely.

by this point in the song, it seems like the narrator has fully accepted that the relationship has come and gone whether he likes it or not. this person has faded into and subsequently out of his life, as people often do. there's nothing more to be said, it's all over, there's no getting around this.

now we slide into the seminal refrain of this song. even though in the previous verse, it seemed like he had fully accepted the end, now he's crying and screaming and begging to go back. the end of a relationship like this is obviously going to cause some extreme inner turmoil and it's not gonna be a smooth transition for the people involved. the vocals here are kind of agonizing - it gets more and more intense until he's more or less howling. even after the final repetition, he goes on yelling and crying under the instrumentals. what is the speaker even begging to go back to? when the relationship was new and full of promise? before the two of them ever met in the first place? if he could go back, would the speaker do things differently, or does he just want to live out the events of the relationship again exactly as they happened, so he can cling to the fleeting moments of joy and hope that were there, even though he knows how things are going to end? at the end of all this, he asks his former self again not to spend too much time on it, which is somewhat ironic. once he's done yelling, the instrumentals quiet down almost entirely to just the bassline that was present at the beginning, with the occasional guitar note.

the speaker didn't want his partner to develop too high an opinion of him. even though this whole album is literally about his ridiculously high opinion of this person, he's anxious at the idea of his partner thinking of him the same way. he doesn't want to disappoint him. the speaker also asks his partner not to joke about his own death - this is the only person he's ever felt truly loved or understood by, and the speaker desperately doesn't want to lose him.

the speaker urges his partner to keep it together. because he cares about him deeply, yes, but also because he's not sure if he'll be able to give his partner the support he'd need if he truly lost it. the 'art' he mentions is likely a reference to the art of cate wurtz, but like i mentioned above i'm not interested in diving too deep into that whole deal.

now we're back to the seminal refrain of twin fantasy itself. the whole 'beach' theme is a frequently recurring motif in will's work as far back as the numbered albums. the 'grave' is the place the speaker is trying to lay his feelings for this person to rest, and the ocean is...everything. life, the universe, any given day-to-day experience that might bring up feelings of this person again. no matter what the speaker does, this situation affected him so deeply that his feelings will keep resurfacing over and over again long after the relationship has reached its conclusion.

the refrain continues in the background as the instrumentals build in intensity and will starts to shout over himself. when an artist’s work begins to gain recognition, whichever piece it was that initially drew the attention of large crowds of people may become their 'holy grail,' so to speak. if a particular song gets a singer famous, or a particular painting gets a painter famous, they might lean on the themes and techniques they used when creating that particular piece in an attempt to create another piece which draws similar attention. this leads them to 'descend into cliché' and create work with less creative integrity. the grave symbolism continues, and now at the emotional climax of the album, the speaker says he might ‘fill it in,’ signifying that he has reached some sort of emotional resolution. he is hammering in the nail to ensure that the coffin remains shut tightly, so he can finally move on with his life and walk away from these emotions which have consumed him. 'i could give you what you deserve' may be a reference to the oft repeated line ‘art gets what it wants and art gets what it deserves,’ which pops up throughout will's work. the speaker comments on the fact that he could continue to make music about this relationship, that he could ‘watch the hammer swerve,’ as he attempts to metaphorically nail the coffin shut, i.e. watch himself fail in his attempts to move on from the emotions he has drowned so many times in.

the mirror symbolism is a direct reference to the original version of this album, with the 'mirror' symbolizing the relationship between the speaker and his partner. i've talked about the 'mirror to mirror' vs 'face to face' images before, but i'll summarize it again here: the first image is one of two mirrors facing each other, creating an endless tunnel of reflection between two people who can only see themselves in the other. the face to face image is one of two people regarding each other, recognizing the other while existing as separate bodies. the mirror breaking is the transition between mirror to mirror and face to face. the fantasy is shattered, and will is now at a very different place in his life than when the original version of this album was written. he's decidedly beyond his adolescence, and he no longer sees his partner as a mirror. he wouldn't trade anything for this absolutely necessary change in perspective. 'blackstar' is probably either a reference to the david bowie album of the same name, or the radiohead song of the same name. 'painstar' is explicitly a reference to cate wurtz's work. basically, it's a concept from the lamezine comics of a star/entity which only comes around once every thousand years or so. when you touch it, you feel unfathomable pain, but only for a split second. i see the concept used as a metaphor for the pain of the relationship - was it worth the agony the speaker is currently in for the joy he once had? the vocals here once again grow increasingly intense as the speaker begs...someone, for something.

as the vocals descend in intensity, will mutters this, which is probably a reference to the bit in high to death that includes an audio sample from the movie adaptation of ray bradbury's 'all summer in a day.' it's a science fiction story which takes place on a planet where the sun can only be seen once every nine years. the main character, a girl named margot, is originally from earth, and remembers what the sun looked and felt like. the other children don't believe her, and lock her in a closet before the day the sun is supposed to show itself. when the sun does appear, the other children forget about her, and she remains locked in the closet. the sample included in the song is her calling "william! let me out! william! william! let me out, william!" margot is a stand-in for the speaker's partner, who is begging will by name to release him from the fantasy will has him trapped in. now the roles are reversed and the speaker is begging his partner to let him inside the locked closet. despite all the speaker’s efforts, the two of them still somehow end up on opposite sides of the door. will wants his partner to let him in, so that they may at least be in the dark together. 

the instrumentals quiet down once again so that will is singing over a simple piano tune. this verse replaces the lyrics in the original version of famous prophets which called cate wurtz by name. in the original version, these lyrics were buried, whereas these are at the forefront, accompanied by almost no instrumentals. it's impossible for the listener to miss these. in the first ‘descend into cliché’ verse will mentioned that he could 'sing another song' as a sort of coping mechanism or way of dealing with the end of this relationship, so the 'music forsaking you' could refer to the speaker's coping mechanisms not being enough to comfort him in the aftermath of the relationship. rolling the stone over the grave is the same deal as will 'hammering in the nail' in an attempt to seal off his feelings about the relationship. this also evokes some biblical imagery, with how the entrance to the tomb of jesus was blocked with a huge stone. on the other hand, he could stare his feelings in the face, confront them head on and learn to cope. 'when the levee breaks' is probably a reference to the led zeppelin song 'if the levee breaks.' it seems like will is referencing several well-known musicians while thinking of his own 'prophecy' for his music career. this could be a reach, but the stone line might also be a reference to the rolling stones if we're going with this interpretation. the final line might refer to the fact that, even though these bands were and are incredible famous, the music industry is a cyclical entity and all famous bands will eventually fade out of the spotlight.

that 'what happened to you' might be a reference to leonard cohen's 'death of a ladies man.' will is a big leonard cohen fan and references to his work pop up fairly often. but other than that this verse fades into a soft instrumental where the fractured pieces of what will eventually be the spoken word outro start to fade in:

these are snippets from 1 corinthians 13, and reesa mallen is the actress who played margot in all summer in a day. this is a direct quote from the verse, but will shifts the order of the lines around to depart from the original meaning. the intended message of this verse is basically that love is the key to everything, and that one cannot access great and miraculous things in the absence of love. this arrangement of the lines sort of suggests the opposite - that love enters your life and wrecks you on its way out, that no matter what sort of effort you put out, when love goes it will leave you with nothing. i'll talk a little more about the use of this verse when we get to the end.

this is the true ultimate climax of the song, and of the story as a whole. it's a fractured, distorted sample of my boy, the first song on the album. i can't even describe how crazy this actually sounds you gotta just listen to it. i've talked about this before but my boy is a pretty hopeful and optimistic way to open this album, and throughout the story all that optimism and hope has pretty much been crushed. to me, this part is where the speaker has a breakthrough of sorts and truly, truly understands that it's over, even though his feelings for this person will keep resurfacing, the relationship is crumbling in his hands and soon there will be nothing left at all. the only line from my boy that's not present here is 'we won't be alone,' so do with that what you will. this section is just so insane, the instrumentals and the desperation and rawness of the vocals, there's one or two moments in here where will's voice blends completely with a guitar note, it's incredible. one of the things i love most about twin fantasy is how it manages to take this experience that would generally be regarded as frivolous, unimportant, childish, naive, etc, and successfully convey how deadly deadly serious it feels in the moment. like when we break it down to its bare essentials this album is about an online relationship between two teenagers in 2009. yet it somehow adequately conveys the absolute utter and complete long lasting devastation a relationship like this can feel in a hormone-addled teenage brain. the emotions of teenagers and adolescents are very often brushed off as overdramatic and kinda made fun of in media in general, but just because adolescent emotions are affected by teenage hormones or whatever doesn't make them any less real. in fact i think being a teenager often makes interpersonal relationship experiences similar to this all the more visceral and painful. this part of the song is where that really comes through for me and i find it so incredibly cathartic. the sheer grandiosity of the instrumentals ties it all together, and the horn arrangement in particular is amazing. will uses horns a fair amount in his work and it's always beautiful, but something about this instance specifically just shakes me to my core, man. it's like he's wailing in agony with all the choirs of heaven behind him.

now the instrumentals quiet down and an unfractured recitation of 1 corinthians 13 fades in. this verse perfectly sums up everything this story is about, and the whole idea behind remaking the album in the first place. the speaker and protagonist of the album is an adult now, and he's had years to process these events by this point. he no longer views them through that addled adolescent lens, but he remembers what it felt like to be shaken to his core by this situation. even still, he now sees the relationship for exactly what it is. he no longer sees others as a reflection of himself. he's able to regard the person who he underwent all this agony for as a separate, independent being and understand that his perception of them was false. no matter one's age, it's often borderline impossible to grasp the full significance of important life events as they're happening. only with time and reflection can we truly come to understand and process how events have affected us and how we are changed in their aftermath. the speaker in mtm is clouded by raw emotion, and therefore only capable of knowing 'in part.' the speaker in ftf is more mature, has garnered more life experience, and evidently spent many painful hours working through these events. therefore, he now 'knows fully,' and with the ability to know fully comes the ability to be fully known, to be truly loved and understood as he never could while operating under the delusions fueling this relationship. the instrumentals drop off entirely for the final line, which is a slight alteration from the actual bible quote. the original is as follows: 'And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.' this change allows for ambiguity as to which of the three remain within the speaker. the change could also refer to the two versions of the album which now exist, or it could refer to the speaker and the subject as people.

so that's famous prophets (stars). it's an absolutely incredible song and if you've never heard it you really really should. you can only really get the full affect if you listen to the whole album straight through, but i know not everybody feels like doing that lmao, same as many people don't feel like listening to a 17 minute song in the first place. but i think this song is best heard in your room, in the dark, at night, played over a speaker, while you're maybe just a little too high. can't recommend enough.

[blujayonthewing]

17, 28, 31 and 32, for Melliywk!

17. how did they spend their summers/free time as a child?

In general, gnomish childhood is for exploration and trying new things, so a little bit of all kinds of things! But, in particular, she got into tinkering really young-- one time as a little little kid she woke up early and borrowed her dad's alarm clock to take apart; it made him late for work, but it also resulted in Mel getting her very own alarm clock, as well as her own beginner toolset and strict instructions to please ask for her own things to muck about with, lol. Her mom's the handyman of the house, so she learned a lot about various hand tools and basic repair tasks from her, and she was definitely doing rube goldberg setups and Sid Toystory type shit in her room all the time. She also has a lot of really fond memories of going out on bug collecting daytrips with her dad!

28. how do they show that they care about someone? how do they express that they don't like someone?

Melliwyk does a lot of teasing and playful banter; she's a little bit just like that in conversation in general, but for example she (lovingly) picks on Zhartook a lot, lol. She tends to be kind of self-absorbed-- not in an egoistic way but just, you know, wrapped up in her work and not really thinking about other people, so she's not always proactively caring towards others, but if she can get outside her own bubble at all once in awhile she can be surprisingly thoughtful. One of her main love languages is acts of service-- she's always delighted to put down whatever she's doing to help others when asked, and does a fair number of projects just on the basis of 'might be nice/ useful for [friend]'.

On the other hand, she's not subtle about disliking others, or even being temporarily mad at them, lol. She can be kind of a petty little shit, frankly-- biting sarcasm and cold shoulders. At the very least, she's not as warm and friendly as usual, and certainly not playful. She's had sort of a... precarious falling out with our bard that I frankly don't wanna get into but the point is it kind of doesn't feel safe for her to be obvious about her dislike for him :') But she's just sort of withdrawn from interacting with him more than she needs to, and maintains a baseline politeness at most, neither of which is too hard to manage when she can tend to be kind of a recluse anyway.

31. do they like receiving gifts? giving gifts? what is their ideal gift?

Gift giving is her other biggest love language! She loves making things, much more than she cares about having things, so she really likes making stuff for her friends, whether it's something she thinks would be useful for them or just something she thinks they might like or appreciate. She's also (usually) happy, if not excited, to get magic items into the hands of whomever in the party would make the best use of them, or to loan out hers if she's not willing to give them up permanently (like the cloak of elvenkind, which was a gift, or the ring of the depths, which has shockingly powerful magic in it for a novelty item [at-will shapechange, but only into very low level sea animals] and is an artifact of an ancient artificer she admires; she's even offered to let our fighter borrow the enchanted nightcap she literally never takes off because of chronic nightmares, if she thought it might prevent nasty people casting Dream on her to fuck with her).

She also does absolutely like receiving gifts! On the receiving end she's very much an 'it's the thought that counts' person-- any gift that the person clearly meant sincerely is going to make her happy and be greatly valued, whether it's something really thoughtful and personal or just a gag gift they thought she'd think was funny. It'd be hard to nail down a specific 'ideal gift' for her, but obviously any magic item would be top tier.

32. do they have any habits that aren't particularly self-destructive, just maybe odd?

I don't roleplay this as much as I'd like because it'd be kind of disruptive over video calls as opposed to in person, but she talks to herself a lot, in the form of thinking out loud. She was a hermit for a really long time, and kind of a loner even among others for awhile before that, so she's quite strongly in the habit of rubber-ducking to Baxter, even when he's not actually around. When they first started traveling together I imagine there was a significant adjustment period where she'd start talking conversationally through some problem, Zhartook would answer (likely in confusion), and she'd be startled and maybe a little annoyed because she's not talking to him and also not expecting any kind of response at all aside from maybe encouraging 'hmm's now and then, lol. She also talked to her house's ghost a lot, despite not believing he actually existed; 'Now cut that out' when the wind was noisy in the chimney or 'I'll be back soon, don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone' when she had to go into town, etc.

ask about my OCs :3