#that could even be PERCIEVED as insulting to him

[phylomedusa]

free speech absolutist everyone

[total-drama-brainrot]

How would Alejandro react to Assistant Noah complimenting the charmer for manipulating Sierra WITHOUT flirting with her + for tricking Sierra into embarrassing his boss (Chris Mclean)? 😎

Well. If Noah's complimenting Alejandro for his sabotage of Sierra in New York, the first thing he'd try to do is deny it entirely.

Despite being proud of his skills in manipulation, a lot of Alejandro's gameplan rides on him being seen as genuine and trustworthy by those around him - straight up admitting that he tricked Sierra into falling out of Chris' good graces would be a blow to the manifacutred image of a chivalrous and good-spirited Alejandro, which is what he presents himself in the early competition.

He does something along these lines to Heather when she calls him out for exactly this in the episode. Though, it's less outright denial and moreso redirection of her attention... via flirting... Speaking of Heather, the only reason Alejandro is fine with her suspicion/antagonism is because he knows that no one else is going to listen to her. If anything, Heather's "dislike" of him lends credence to his act - since any enemy of Heather's is automatically a friend of pretty much the rest of the cast.

Of course, Noah would see straight through the paper-thin lies, because he's got the same perspective as the audience (that is to say, he's got a third party perspective of the competiton and can easily recognise Alejandro as the season's main "villain", plus he's seen the confessionals) and, in all likelihood, had a hand in casting Alejandro in the first place to be the antagonist; of course he knows Alejandro's true colours.

So Alejandro would be met with a conflict of interests here; on the one hand, he's been given the perfect oppertunity to build a rapport with Chris' personal assistant, potentially ensuring himself some insider help for the competition at hand and - if he plays his cards right - knowledge and blackmail material on his competitors.

On the other hand, he'd have to drop his act to do so, which could be disasterous should any of his other castmates see and/or overhear.

Plus, Noah specifying that he's impressed that Alejandro can manipulate people without flirting would be a point of contention between the two, or at least a percieved jab at Alejandro. He's a very capable and very prideful person by nature, and Noah implying that he had previously assumed Alejandro only knew how to exploit people via seduction/flirting would absolutely be taken as an insult, even if it wasn't meant to be.

Though I doubt Alejandro would put two and two together in this instance and realise that it's just a round-about way of Noah asking him if all of the flirting he'd done towards Noah himself was an attempt at manipulation or not.

Personally I see this whole scenario being a poorly worded olive branch on Noah's part which Alejandro unintentionally snubs, thus cementing Noah's initial "dislike" and distrust of Alejandro.

As a result, Alejandro would fail to react at all, too overcome with indecision to reply in time before Noah's interest/investment in the conversation wavers and he walks away. Leaving Alejandro to stand there dumbly, wondering how Noah could so easily pick up on his schemes when everyone else (sans Heather) is clueless.

[prettyboypistol]

Mercs Reacting To a Kabedon! (TF2 x M!Reader) +18

For reference if you don't know, a kabedon is this pose!

You were being teased by the merc, relentless smiles, winks, and coy mururs that they knew turned you on. Eventually, you snapped. You grabbed the merc by the wrist and slammed them against the wall, unable to care about who overheard or saw you. You could barely contain your emotions as you grit out into thier ear.

"If you don't come back to my room with me, I will drag you by the back of your goddamn neck, boy."

Scout

As soon as you pin him to the wall, he was flushed red. When the words left your mouth, especially calling him "boy", a shiver went up his spine. He wanted tp argue, to talk back, but any words came out as mumbled mess. He dumbly nodded and whimpered in response. Your offer has Jeremy tripping over himself to follow you. He gets shit the next day for sobbing a little too loud into your pillows about how much Jeremy wants his daddy to fuck him silly.

Pyro

They weren't intending to rile you up so much, but that's certainly a plus! Pyro loves how they can make you blush and squirm, especially since you express it as huffiness and annoyance. They like the way they can just gesture and get you hot under the collar. Your proposition is heavily considered, but Pyro makes you wait in your room for a painstaking moment before they come in and finally give you what you want.

Soldier

Is very red under his helmet, but also a little insulted that you humiliated him in such a public manner and undermined his percieved and self-believed authority. Don't get him wrong, Jane is having the biggest confused boner of his life and he will swiftly join you in your room after he fully processes the situation, but he needs a minute to figure out what feelings you just made him feel for the first time.

Demoman

Is more than overjoyed that you finally had enough of your mutal game of cat and mouse. It had been what- weeks since you and Tavish had started dancing around each other? The demeaning pet name made Tavish want to yank your pants down and suck you off that minute, other mercs be damned. Tavish hummed with a smug smirk as he pushed his hips into you, an invitation after you gave your orders. Needless to say, no mercs got sleep that night until you two passed out.

Heavy

You were not the shortest guy around, but pinning Heavy is moreso due to Heavy letting you pin him rather than you actually having the strength to do so. Nevertheless, the look in your eye and the desperate and demanding tone in your tone makes Mikhail know exactly what you want and how you are going to have it. He finds it endearing in a way, but still allowed you to take control that night. After all, he was "your boy" tonight, you made that abundantly clear.

Engineer

Flushed red. Goggles fogged. Stutter in full gear. Dell is the smoothest southern gent around, yet in front of the pissed off nd lowkey horny glare of the man in front of him, Dell was barely able to squeak out a response. He felt humiliated that the other mercs could see how easily he was flustered- worried slightly that he would get some shit for being even more soft than just relying on machines in battle. He takes a few minutes before joining you in your room, but wants to have a talk about how you kinda made him nervous. (After sex tho. you turned him the FUCK on.)

Medic

Overjoyed at your cute little response! He's a rather tall fellow, so you trying to pin him to the wall was adorable. It might be the beer in his system, but Ludwig was rather taken by your final push and admittance of feelings... Even if those feelings were "i'm going to fuck you" and "I'm going to bend that german ass over and rearrange your guts". Gingerly followed you to your room, but he gets his fair amount of gropes in. The most receptive to your snap and 100% wants to kiss the scowl away.

Spy

Mixed feelings when you easily box him in against the wall. His dainty frame never stood a chance as your hot breath made him shiver. He was a fair bit older than you, your guess was a minimum of 5 years. When you called him "boy", he felt a breath of his wild and young livlihood in his veins. The impulsive energy of lust and spontaneous desire pangs in him and he can't help but chase the high. Spy murmured something in french and dragged you to his room.

Sniper

Mick isn't too surprised by your reaction, but definitely struggled against the grip as you warned him. As soon as you released him, Sniper hid his face in his hat to try and (fail) to hide the blush that painted his cheeks. He doesn't join you in your room, but cannot think about anything else but that lustful cadence in your voice and how blown your pupils were. After a few days, he knocked on your door and asked if the offer still stood.

[teecupangel]

After reading a couple of fanfics(i have lost track of what ive read XD) where Desmond uses the Eye to connect to Ezio in the library and send him back to his 17 year old self to save his family: I got the idea/prompt that when Ezio awakens back in the past he rushes to his family, ignoring a golden thread of Importance. It cant be more importsnt than his family, surely? Either way, Ezio ends up discovering he has like 1-2 day to save his family(im unsure of the timeline, but i imagine he lands before he gains his scar). So, he rushes to save them. Here i kinda get a bit lost, im not very good at planning, but i imagine he ends up killing Alberto and exposes him as a traitor to his father etc. Eventually, after a few days things finally calm down enough that Ezio can finally check out that object his Sight has tagged as Important without feeling guilty for leaving his family alone. He follows the thread to a orphanage and there he sees a 1-2 year old with a scar on his lips and brown eyes that flash a very familiar gold when the child sees Ezio. "Desmond?"

So basically, the Eye damaged Desmond too much, so when he went back in time with Ezio, he had to be recreated. You could give him the charcoal black arm with golden lines or even his tattoo(could be interesting seeing peoples reaction to a child having what is percieved as a criminal brand?). Heck, maybe even give golden fluffy wings that he can hide? Idk, i mostly just want/need fatherly!Ezio bonding with baby!Desmond and this idea has rapidly gone out of control in my head. XD

but yeah, basically Ezio decides that Desmond has given him such a gift with allowing him to save his family, that now Ezio will take care him(he also feels pretty guilty ignoring the Important glow for so long).  He just needs to figure how to get his family accept what is looking like to be his motherless bastard, hopefully withoit too many questions. I also imagine Ezio gets the iconic scar this time from a fight with Vieri when he throws insults at Desmond for being "lesser": being a bastard and an Auditore in one package.

So, whats your thoughts on this? Anything you think is missing or want to add to?

Transferring him right as he gained his scar (like the rock hitting him was the trigger) would also serve as some kind of symbolism of his connection with Desmond, not just due to the similar scars but also because that is the first memory Desmond relived as Ezio (as long as we don’t count his birth). That would also give him 3 days max since the scar incident was on December 26, the guards tried to arrest the Auditores on December 28 and the execution would be on December 29.

Also, if you want to really hammer in Ezio feeling guilty about leaving Desmond for so long, a plot point could be that Ezio assassinates Uberto Alberti and he was able to prove to Giovanni that Uberto was a Templar BUT not that he was planning anything against the Medici or the Auditore. Perhaps, a simple Templar ring was all Ezio could give to Giovanni and telling him he was planning it with another man that Ezio hints to be Rodrigo Borgia without flatout saying it’s Rodrigo Borgia since he, as his teenage self, shouldn’t even know who the Borgias are at this point in time. This becomes a scandal all by itself and not even Lorenzo could protect the Auditores, telling them to leave Firenze as quickly as they could. Stand down and keep a low profile for now.

This leads to the Auditores leaving Firenze quickly and asking for sanctuary in Monteriggioni. Ezio would stay there to make sure everyone is safe and also to be ‘trained’ as an Assassin because Giovanni believes he could no longer wait until Ezio is as old as Federico to tell him the truth because of what Ezio has done.

Ezio also has to stay to show Giovanni that he wasn’t some rabid dog that would bite anyone.

This can range from months to even 2 years (technically 1-ish year since Ezio returns to the past in December) which is the same time frame Ezio had to train with Mario and his mercenaries in the previous timeline.

Either way, Ezio finally gets a chance to check on the important gold once he’s been deemed ‘good enough’ to go to Firenze while Federico goes to Roma with Giovanni as part of his training and maybe even ‘final test’.

And then he finds Desmond as a 2-year-old child who isn’t liked by the other kids because he was ‘creepy’ and they say he’s the devil’s child. Maybe Ezio didn’t recognize him immediately but their eyes met and Desmond’s eyes flashed gold and Ezio’s first instinct is that he does know him. He doesn’t remember when but he does know this child.

The one in charge of the orphanage finds him looking at Desmond and he tells him about how Desmond was heard crying somewhere Ezio knows all too well.

It was the same place Ezio had died on, the very same bench…

Someone gave him to the orphanage and they have nothing of him, he had been left naked in the cold that they feared he would have died had he stayed there any longer.

Then to hammer in the guilt, the reason why the children believe Desmond is the devil’s child is because of the charcoal black arm he had that no doctors could explain other than ‘he had been burned’ and Desmond had cried each time they tried to ‘examine’ it with their tools.

So Ezio takes him in, not knowing what else to do.

Then, it’s only the next day after he dreams of the only time he saw Desmond in Altaïr’s library that he puts two and two together and realized that the child was most definitely Desmond. He had to be.

And now, Ezio believes that Desmond is the reason why he had a redo and that he had failed Desmond for letting him be alone for so long.

He wouldn’t even think that people would think Desmond is his son until he hears it from one of the courtesans and he’d be like “Oh! That’s a good idea! I’ll just say he’s my son so people would stop asking questioning about who he is!”

And that was a mistake because now everyone believes he has a child out of wedlock. Perhaps Cristina would even think he had cheated on her considering Desmond’s age and now he has to suffer through his family’s questioning and lectures about having a child out of wedlock.

Then Desmond’s back starts getting itchy and later on it starts growing a pair of lumps…

That breaks his skin painfully, revealing puffs of feathers red with his blood but, after cleaning him (and trying to get him to stop crying because “Owie, papa! Owie!”)…

Ezio sees the feathers were white…

With lines of gold that he has become familiar with in his previous life.

[horizon-verizon]

You are convinced that Aemond raped Alys and your reasoning is "Alys Rivers was a war prize “proving” Aemond’s power and military prowess. If you are taken as a war prize, you are an object, a literal reward or prize. You have no ability to even give consent because your other option is violence/death. Aemond raped her and this son is a rape baby." Your words not mine. Then I click on your blog and you ship Rhaegar and Lyanna lol lets apply that logic to them now! The Greens suck but come on.

Disclaimer: I might edit this post a lot because I might realize some things to add.

1)

Did you know, anon, that the word “rape” in medieval society could either mean the sexual attack or just straight up taking a woman/girl away from her father/brother/husband’s control and authority? Or whenever a female laborer of a household has been taken out of her previous household, unlicensed by her lord?

Its roots come from the Latin word, “rapere” and its past participle “raptus”:

“the usual Latin word being stuprare "to defile, ravish, violate," which is related to stuprum (n.) "illicit sexual intercourse," literally "disgrace," stupere "to be stunned, stupefied" (see stupid). Latin raptus, past participle of rapere, used as a noun meant "a seizure, plundering, abduction”

Rape had the legal and cultural meaning of “property-taking”, sometimes more than when a someone forced a woman into sex. And it comes from ancient Roman culture, literature, and ideas medieval societies would be adopting into their own systems (Ovid's Fasti and Livy's History of Rome): The Rape of Lucrece. 

Of which medieval or Reniassance writers have made use to create doubt and suspicion for the state of their various female character’s chastity. Why does such matter in those stories? A woman’s chastity is linked to nation building and male-alliances. Marriages were for alliance, resources and power -- not love. Lyanna was arranged to marry Robert because of power and resources and to strengthen/solidify the alliance already set up by Ned and Robert’s friendship before.

So when we go back to A World of Ice and Fire, which says:

“Brandon Stark, the heir to Winterfell, had to be restrained from confronting Rhaegar at what he took as a slight upon his sister's honor, for Lyanna Stark had long been betrothed to Robert Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End. Eddard Stark, Brandon's younger brother and a close friend to Lord Robert, was calmer but no more pleased. As for Robert Baratheon himself, some say he laughed at the prince's gesture, claiming that Rhaegar had done no more than pay Lyanna her due...but those who knew him better say the young lord brooded on the insult, and that his heart hardened toward the Prince of Dragonstone from that day forth.” (pg. 127)

We get the sense that the Starks percieved Rhaegar taking Lyanna and even just gifting her the crown of blue roses as defiling her female chastity. It wasn’t about her and what she wanted it was about Robert’s claim over her. And it was more about Ned’s ties to Robert and why he was sent to the Eyrie to be fostered in the first place, where he befriended Robert -- to create alliances amongst various families.

By contrast, Lyanna clearly did not want, respect, nor love Robert. When we read AGoT and keep track of Lyanna and Rhaegar (not their families, but themselves), we see that Lyanna wanted Rhaegar over Robert and they formed a genuine relationship.

She expressed to Ned:

"Robert will never keep to one bed,” Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long ago when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm's End. "I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale." Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, nor would he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had only smiled. "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature.”

(A Game of Thrones; Eddard IX )

AND

"You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert," Ned told him. "You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath. She would have told you that you have no business in the melee."

(A Game of Thrones; Eddard VII)

AND

Robert reached for the flagon and refilled his cup. "You see what she does to me, Ned." The king seated himself, cradling his wine cup. "My loving wife. The mother of my children." The rage was gone from him now; in his eyes Ned saw something sad and scared. "I should not have hit her. That was not … that was not kingly." He stared down at his hands, as if he did not quite know what they were. “I was always strong … no one could stand before me, no one. How do you fight someone if you can’t hit them?” Confused, the king shook his head. “Rhaegar … Rhaegar won, damn him. I killed him, Ned, I drove the spike right through that black armor into his black heart, and he died at my feet. They made up songs about it. Yet somehow he still won. He has Lyanna now, and I have her.” The king drained his cup.”

(A Game of Thrones; Eddard X)

So, if Robert, a canon and confirmed serial rapist (Cersei) and sexual abuser of children (that 14 year old sex worker that even Ned was like “...bro”) by the time he was 40ish, could not see that Lyanna did not want him and only thought of how pretty she was....while Rhaegar gifted her the crown of roses for her participation and victories at the Harrenhal tourney (however politically stupid it was)...who’s the true rapist here? Would Robert have respected Lyanna’s indifference to him if they did get married? Fuck no.

So if there were any persons defining and saying Lyanna was raped, it was never her or about sexual rape but those who would have benefited more from Lyanna marrying Robert & about “stealing” virginity.

And if you wonder why I bother to introduce medieval society when this is a fictional story with European medieval-inspired and not-so-differently modeled infrastructures and ideologies.....I can’t help you.

2)

Lyanna was 16 when they left for the Tower of Joy and had Rhaegar’s child, and they met when she was 15 at the Harrenhal tourney. 

We remember that she was betrothed to Robert before she turned 16, and Robert was 19/20 at the Harrenhal tourney. 

Rhaegar was 22/23 at the tourney and 23/24 when he went with Lyanna to the Tower of Joy.

Lyanna, by real, American, modern standards, is a minor/child by the time she’s pregnant with Rhaegar’s kid, but she’s an adult by the Westerosi age of majority. And she’s past marriageable age. 

To totally ignore that noble women of both real life and Westeros actively were treated as adults and like Rhaenyra Targaryen, and participated in politics as if they were adults is to:

deny any reality of their political and psychological autonomy and ability to reason

suppose that the man she chose broke a law or principle that is then recognized as a crime

....but if you go back to how I bring up the definition of “rape” and what that means for male-alliances, then you should realize that the crime that anyone would have thought what happened was that Lyanna was not passed into Robert’s authority (and out of her father and brothers’) and Rhaegar intercepted that licensed transfer.

3)

Robert is Rhaegar’s foil. Rhaegar displays an sense of responsibility and emotional intelligence (if not always a political one) that Robert simply lacks and never bothers to develop.

A foil is:

a literary device designed to illustrate or reveal information, traits, values, or motivations of one character through the comparison and contrast of another character. A literary foil character serves the purpose of drawing attention to the qualities of another character, frequently the protagonist. This is effective as a means of developing a deeper understanding of a character by emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, a literary foil allows writers to create a counterpart for the protagonist that puts their actions and choices in context.

And you can look up Rhaegar’s characterization by clicking HERE (of what I collected). But the universal consensus (except for Robert, but fuck him) is that Rhaegae was generally both a good and impressive person. He was loved by most and even Robert didn't dislike him until he gave Lyanna the crown and stepped on his "turf".

It is actually more in Robert’s than Rhaegar’s character to rape. Robert thinks Rhaegar raped Lyanna (the other meaning) because he would have raped her. Because to him, "rape" is unallowed transfer of a woman's body, not about her consent. He feels every man naturally thinks and would treat Cersei/Lyanna as he does/would have. (Meanwhile, can we say that his own friend, Ned, that he would do that to a woman?)

Rhaegar was a gloomy person and mimics the Byronic Hero trope; Lyanna was a lot more positive and vibrant, mimicking the Rebellious Princess or Spirited Young Lady tropes:

The Rebellious Princess is usually a teenager, typically brash (since it goes hand in hand with being rebellious). If she's not the hero, quite often she's the hero's love interest. This will sometimes invoke Marry for Love not only as another way for her to rebel, but to also get out of an Arranged Marriage. She usually qualifies as a Royal Who Actually Does Something.

Thus these two embody Forbidden Love, Opposites Attract, and dabble into Good, Bad Adultery.

Edit: I just realized that Rhaegar also fits into the Royal Who Actually Does Something Trope. Also, he and Lyanna are the inversed versions of their traditional gendered roles: Rhaegar becomes the musical, singing quieter lady imbued with remembrances for a time past while Lyanna actively participates in tourneys and masculinized quests/journeys like the Prince Charming/Knight in Shining Armor. Subversion of narrative and gender tropes!

Rhaegar loved Lyanna for:

her bravery and passion

protecting those needing to protecting

her determination to stand up for what she thinks is right despite constrictions placed on her bc of youth and gender

positivity

Lyanna loved Rhaegar because:

he had much more of a sense of responsibility and the sense of grief that comes with his need to "fix" certain wrongs in their current society (thus was more...he cared more than any other person, regardless of gender, about what it means to rule apart from having power) 

that that responsibility went even beyond her

that that sense of responsibility went further than most noblemen’s while not trying to change or repress her, nor disregard her entire personality for his own sense of power or (for him, nonexistent) fantasies of her person

his passion

And tropes =/= “trite” or cliche. You can think of them as building blocks for themes, storylines, and characterizations.

Martin has painstakingly made sure to convey that their story and deaths are tragic not just for them and their families, but for Rhaegar’s ambition to remodel and begin to reverse the damages done in Westerosi history after having learned of the prophecy.

4)

What defines a war prize, anon? Assuming you’ve read the post you seem to be referring to (this ONE), you should know that they are people or things that a warrior claims or is given as a reward for victory or conquest during/after a war/a battle.

Lyanna and Rhaegar form a romantic bond and they go off together before Rhaegar ever actually battles anyone or there was a war happening. Before Robert rebels and lords begin to gather weapons and troops.

It begins with him giving her the crown for Queen of Love and Beauty at the Harrenhal tourney, passing his own wife. You can look at all the posts I have tagged “lyanna and rhaegar”, or click HERE for more.

So just by definition of a war prize, Lyanna was never a war prize. 

[auddityy]

trumpism is actually a great instruction in branding. i think he's genuinely falling out of fashion for the final time in his life but i think studying his career and public persona/mode of communication is an excellent insight into "how to brand".

you have to literally believe and say you are number one and have something to back that up that is either actually of supreme quality or be of an unknown quality to anyone other than your customer, who is 1. such a small minority that they can't sink your public brand to the majority of your audience 2. so rich that they essentially pay a 100% or more markup for the exact same product that poor people use, but with an upper class brand on it - this is exactly what he did with his first big success, trump tower. he bragged that it was made with the absolute premium in materials to the most amazing standards. construction crew said that the materials were the cheapest possible. the trump tower customer was so rich that they would pay more than double in rent simply to be associated with what was said to be the best. the people who couldnt afford it never lived there and could never find out there was no difference. thus there was no proof - he advertised a supreme product and delivered an adequate one.

like its that simple. you have to say, with apparent conviction, that you are the best and then deliver something at least adequate to someone who doesn't know that what they have isn't better than average. you can actually deliver the best, but the most profit is to be found in delivering something adequate, which is what all "number ones" do - none of them ever overdeliver. people who actually deliver the best are number twos, or even lower - they invest so much in the product that their profit and therefore growth falls behind those who cut corners.

the physical difference between "the best" and "adequacy" isn't actually percieved at all by most people. number ones create the feeling of overdelivering through emotion rather than physical substance in the product. saying something is amazing, high quality, and simultaneously having lots of others saying the same thing, generates way more interest and loyalty than physically having a superior product and remaining quiet about it.

i'm thinking about this because the two number ones in regenerative agriculture p*lyface and GJ follow the same method of branding - essentially trumpism. "i'm the best", "i'm amazed at the quality of my product", saying so loudly and often, without ever specifying their own failures or mistakes, unless they fit into a narrative of being long-past (no longer affecting quality of current product) and being a learning experience that actually improved the product.

GJ lost over 200 sheep, more than 90% of his flock in 2023 - nothing about that to be found anywhere online. the only reason i know is because i talked to his wife intimately in person. for over 20 years he's advertised them as the most hardy sheep in the US, and still does, despite losing ALL of the original flock he's built over 30 years... but he repeats many anecdotes of mistakes from 20 years ago that made him a better producer.

also, never responding to critics unless it's in a disparaging way. trump is famous for insulting critics in crazy dramatic ways, but all number ones do this. polyface does it to the USDA, vegans, people who disagreed with their stance on covid/vaccines. GJ does it to conventional people in his comments or just whoever he sees as he's traveling.

when you inspect closely it is not completely honest, and seems to be lacking integrity. i wonder if honesty and integrity are considered virtues because everyone else being "honest" and "having integrity", in other words damaging their own brand, benefits the number ones who don't do that. everyone making themselves harmless gives the few willing to be sharks free reign.

this sounds like it's coming from a place of jealousy. i don't really feel jealously i am just learning the choices i'll have to make. i will have my own business/brand and i could make the choice to follow the trumpist branding strategy, and have the successes it entails...

[cerealandchoccymilk]

Trigun Bookclub: Trigun Vol.1-2, Chapter #09

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I’m doing a deep-read of the Japanese original print (reread) and Overhaul 1.0 (first read) side-by-side, and writing down everything I notice from small details, version differences, translation differences, etc.

The volume numbers will be mismatched for most of the remainder of Trigun, since the Japanese first edition is 3 volumes while all later versions are 2 volumes.

As always, here are the non-analysis panels:

And the rest is under the cut.

[link for if the images aren’t in horizontal rows]

To start off, we have Meryl talking about buying designer handbags. This part was very confusing in Japanese because even though I could recognize Prada, the two other brands she named were completely bogus to me. What the hell are エピピ(Epipi) and NCM!?

So I asked my mom about it last night (she knows a decent amount about brands popular in the 90's, since she was still living in Japan back then). She was also stumped for a bit, but after a while she asked to see the way "Prada" looked. She noticed that it was written like プラーダ(purāda) rather than the correct プラダ(purada). I didn't notice because I don't know shit about fashion... but she suggested that maybe all of these were slight variations on real-life brands. She said that NCM is probably based on MCM Worldwide.

Epipi probably took a solid 20 minutes to figure out.... We were naming every brand on earth searching for anything that could even vaguely sound like "epipi." Right when we nearly ran out of ideas, she thought of googling just part of the name, like "epi brand," and voila, apparently there's a line of Louis Vuitton leather called Epi.

Epipi (and brain soup) is an inside joke between us now btw.

The chapter cover!! Everyone here is so damn cute... also I'm sitting almost exactly how Vash is right now.

This is the second appearance of Vash's shades. I can't see the details, but the design looks the same as the one before.

I'd completely forgotten how tiny Kaito is??? Literally half of Vash's height.

Vash's response to Kaito's insult(?) is「お前そりゃないだろ…」and is something more like "C'mon, man..." or "Seriously?"

big eyes vash big eyes vash i want to scoop him up and put him in a jar with holes in the lid

It's so cool how Vash immediately understands exactly what's going on through what he's overhearing, thanks to his childhood on the spaceship and his time at Home. How can this man not drive

I think the engineer is talking about the Plant here, so it should be "The shock could kill it." (although the Plant dying would also kill everyone else. ykwim)

Didn't know that guy was called a helmsman.... In Japanese, the word for helmsman, 操舵手 (the scan is super blurry and looked like 士 but the correct word is 手) was written as ライツ(raitsu) with 操舵手 written in the ruby. Maybe raitsu was the name of the helmsman? Or it might be something else boat-related that I don't know about.

Vash's silent reaction to Kaito's words say a lot. This behavior is nearly identical to Vash's (again, more so in Maximum, after Vash remembers the events of July and gets even more depressed). He understands Kaito's pain and guilt, and worries for him, but he also can't help but see himself in the boy... however he feels about that. This gets a bit more into theory territory, but I think Vash doesn't want Kaito to turn out like himself. Of course, he wants everyone to strive for peace; he wants people to be like that part of himself, in that regard. However, he doesn't want people to act self-destructive like he is. One obvious reason is that Vash genuinely doesn't want Kaito to be hurt, especially when he believes that people always deserve to start over and live a happy life.... But another underlying reason could be that he doesn't like percieving parts of himself in others, out of self-hatred.

One of my favorite lines ever!!!!! (has 50 favorites)(its not my fault trigun/trimax is so constantly banger) While humans views the Plant as a tool and an incomprehensible being, Vash simply views them as just a girl that needs calming down—"people" just like him and everyone else. He has a familial relationship with every Plant, which I absolutely adore. And!!! I will expand on this bit in the next(I think) arc and beyond, or maybe even make a separate post!!! I have so many thoughts surrounding this and it's a core theme to Trigun as a whole.

Noting some SFX since some non-Japanese readers may not have noticed - the plant is making a high-pitched scream from here on. Also, Kaito says that it's a "voice," not a "sound."

More Plant object-person dichotomy!! This unfortunately gets lost in translation, but it's a very neat storytelling trick. In Japanese, This is written in an interesting way:「プラント――　それは『���りだす』もの」 with もの(mono) having dots above them (in this context acting like italicization for emphasis in English). Usually, this もの would be more specific. There's 物(mono) which means "object" or "thing," and there's 者(mono) which means "person" or sometimes "being." The narrator intentionally leaves the identity of the Plant vague. Again, in humans' eyes, Plants are machines of production. In Vash's eyes, Plants are full-fledged people.

I would write that line closer to the original format, with quotes around "creates" and leaving it at that.

A longer translation correction—just going to transcribe it here:

水 紫外線 酸素 そして微電力を与える事によって物理法則を超えた『生産』活動を行う生体システムである They are organic systems that, when fed water, ultraviolet light, oxygen, and a bit of electricity, can "produce" things in a process that surpasses all physical law.

The sound effect here is loud footsteps on metal. I think it's neat that Nightow showed Vash running up the stairs with just onomatopoea and a shot of the stairs.

In Japanese, Vash says that he's counting on/leaving the rest up to the engineers/the others on the ship, after telling them to deal with it.

Again, Vash considers the Plant his family, a sister. He is talking directly to them and treating them with respect. The word used here is actually 兄弟(kyoudai), which means "brother(s)"/olderbrother-youngerbrother, where in this situation with a brother and sister of unspecified age/order it would usually just be きょうだい(kyoudai, spelled out)... it may be that back then, people didn't really specify or mix-and-match sibling gender (姉弟 兄妹 etc) in writing as much as we do now.

The first appearance of feathers on Vash!! During my first read, I was absolutely mesmerized by this page. Mannnnnnn the angel imagery....

Also bonus reaction from my dear friend from my Instagram liveposting back in April (yeah. my first read was only a bit over 2 months ago). booty CRACK

This is the "beeeeeeep" sound of a flatlining heart monitor. Until now I thought it was more of an imaginary thing to show that their hearts have stopped, but I just realized that it may also be a real sound of the Plant's vital monitors. Could be either, to be honest.

Apparently "yards" are normal? In Japanese it's written as ヤーズ(yādzu, yards) instead of what would regularly be just ヤード(yādo, yard), so that may be the subtle miles-iles change?

This line would be "The pipes are stuck! They won't even budge!"

And the SFX here is a distant chattering and cheering crowd.

And here is the last scene, with Kaito humming Rem's favorite song. Idk, this just gives me a raw emotional reaction... I can't really analyze it lol. Rejoicing that you've survived through hardship. That while things still aren't perfect, this imminent danger has passed. That you still get to enjoy being alive. The same song of humanity still sang. Something something....

Anyways that’s it for Chapter #09! As always, the Japanese annotations are in the reblogs.

[brekkie-e]

I can not stand how the Inquisitor can genuinely follow a different religion from the Chant of Light, but is not allowed in the narrative to speculate that perhaps they do have a holy calling.... it was just bestowed upon them from a different force than Andraste.

Im going to focus mostly on the Dalish playthrough since that's the one Im most familiar with. You are able to establish if your Inquisitor is religious, and if they follow the Elvhen pantheon or not. Given that is a fact, the narrative should further reflect such a character would be living their life with a different worldview than an Andrastian. Not just an "oh yeah, im an elf btw gang" comment here and there. They are percieving this world through a religious and political lens that is vastly different than Andrastians.

:readmore:

Why wouldn't a practitioner of the Elvhen gods not have hidden doubts about the mark being a gift from one of them? Or a holy calling to rally their people? Or simply a sign that yes. Your prayers were heard, despite all odds, the gods of your people never stopped listening. Or perhaps a punishment? For forgetting part of the old ways and insulting them somehow?

Consider the struggle of them trying to parce out which god it is from? The obvious hope that it is their "patron" god. Which Dalish wouldn't dream of the one who's vallaslin they bear choosing them as their champion? If not their patron, perhaps June? Blessing them with the ability to craft the heavens as he once blessed their people with the ability to craft weapons? The secret fear that no matter how much they hope that is true, the most logical choice is Fen'harel as he is the only one still believed to walk the land.

The thought they'd never voice that creeps in during the dark of night, that perhaps it is a gift from the Dreadwolf. But if it means he has decided to turn his gaze on the human world for a change and give their people a slight reprieve, they are willing to be a pawn.

Now this is all well and good for a characters internal battles over beliefs. But the opportunity for narrative conflict feels like a gaping hole in a wall. Imagine if the Inquisitor had the ability to outright contest Leliana and Cassandra's belief it's a gift from Andraste. Not in a "I dont think it's holy" way, but looks them dead in the eye and claims it's from an Elvhen god.

Could Cassandra deal with that level of heresy? Later in Inquisition, after befriending the Inquisitor, possibly. But I doubt she would have been able to at the start of the game.

Many of the companions would be pretty horrified or upset at the suggestion. Solas would most likely be extremely frustrated and get close to blowing his cover at such an outright display of Dalish religious beliefs. And he's known for being so sweet and charming when someone ticks him off about Dalish things.

Ultimately, this could allow for a much more interesting political narrative. The Inquisition is Andrastian. It is founded in the Divine's honor by her left and right Hands. That can not be denied. And if the advisors and the companions have to found the Inquisition with a "Herald of Andraste" whom has explicitly stated they think the Mark is holy in an altogether heretical way, the political maneuvering is suddenly much more evident. There is no ambiguous "who is to say" while they build the organization. They are having to build their holy order with one hand behind their back clutching to a secret that could unravel all they are working for.

I know that they toyed with the idea that Inquisition never outright stated the Inquisitor is holy. But I think raising the stakes in such a way would have made for even more interesting party dynamics, better roleplay-ability, and more outright politics. Which the latter two are things I think the game desperately needed to improve on. Yes, it's full of politics. But in a gawdy completely in your face manner that loses much of what makes politics interesting. Not to mention it ultimately did not seem to have large narrative influence.

Anyways, I am sure these are opinions that have been tossed on the internet quite a lot already, but I wanted to get my thoughts on the matter out there cause it's been rattling in my head for a few days.

[absentmoon]

um well. i just wanted to say that i have a hard time sometimes expressing my emotions in a way that i feel truly encapsulates them... but i would like t o sometimes because feelings are cool and fun and awesome.

i love benny very very much and im very thankful to have him... and though im always impatient for numbers to go up the time it takes to be able to say ive been with him for x number of days is an important one.... we’re well over a thousand bennyposts and counting (along with the amount untagged and the ones i think about but never quite post, along with the discord messages and the website just for him and the times i talk about him in real life, in person). and i think its a little bit silly how attatched i am to this guy who’s stuck in outdated slang and terminology no ones used in a thousand years. but hes also stuck with ME.

i like his voice and his style... i like how he moves and i like how he uses words to his advantage - or disadvantage. i think about his wants and his goals; he’s someone i want to protect. i want to keep him safe. i feel upset when others insult him, even in-game, and especially so when they use the courier to do it (sorry. kin emotions. we’re meant to protect eachother, we’re on the same team.). i like his ego and i even like it when he’s kind of an asshole to other people (sorry to the khans as well he definitely could have paid you).

i like his devotion to his own code of morals. i like his relationship with yes man - they were together way before i came along. im protective of him and his character; and of how people percieve him, though i can’t do much about that (even though i know i’m rather good at defending an argument, its rare to be given the time of day to do so). i think he shot me for a reason. i think dispairaging his character for something you do all the time in game is rather silly - and he took the time to talk to me, beforehand. i think theres something inherent about digging myself up out of my grave and tracking him down with a single minded focus. and i think i would like to return his favorite lighter.

[temikoangie]

I always thought of tenko as being very accepting to transwomen but hate transmen

anon im gonna be super honest w u i dont think tenko cares what you identify as. i know ur basis is bc tenko Really Does hate men but. may i remind you that they tend to go back on their word sometimes, in favor of morals or what they percieve as right. they’ve comforted shuichi before because they culd empathize and Also recognize that kaito socking him in the face Nor kokichi teasing him was what shuichi needed at that time .

“how does this relate to trans people” u may ask. For Starters . there is absolutely no canon implication that tenko wuld Be transphobic to trans men / use transphobic language . if that’s what ur insinuating there. tenko just . hates men. would they group trans men with the same general idea that theyre degenerates to them? Who Freaking Knows theres absolutely no canon basis behind it. the only two times tenko has any kind of view on trans people are in their last FTE with shuichi, and the hidden scene if you give (I Think ) tenko a parasol item (this is th scene where they Pretty much invite k1b0 to the pool party because they both werent sure if he could be a guy Or a girl . and tenko’s like Eh Okay. U can join us)

if anything the worst tenko would do to trans men is just be Unintentionally Transphobic bc of course its not in their place to insult them when they come out to them ( funfact! they really do admire the strength and courage of that person when they come out like them and chihirows in drs) and them Immediately changing their language to at least show support Might make Them seem Transphobic . Which Is Both A Lose Lose Situation…. Insult the Trans Man for Being a Man, You get labelled as Transphobic.. Show Support for the Trans Man, you get labelled as Transphobic and Assume You Dont See This Person as a Man bc of the dropped Hostility.

I Dont even like the headcanons where tenko is transphobic in any compacity bc it just always falls back on the transphobic lesbian stereotype cushion and its Weeeirdddd. we’re in my city now. tenko would give you all of the estrogens and testosterones and binders stolen from shitty medical corporates’s noses like robin hood for trans people.

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for October 16th. I quite like it. It does look like a two-page spread in a manga I'd enjoy. I'm a big fan.

I am a nerd. I've always been, really, although I'm not blind to the annoying issues there are whatever it is people call nerd culture.

When I was a kid, there was a writer I read a bit of from time to time. I'm not going to name names because I don't want to insult particular people on this tumblr, especially since he doesn't seem to deserve it as far as personality goes.

He published a book, a sci fi novel with a lot of references to action movies of the time. Then he put out an RPG adaptation of the novel, which was what I got my hands on. It seemed like he was into hard science fiction, I was impressed, thought he was a smart guy. I eventually forgot about him until a few years back, when I found out what he had been doing since then.

After the books, he published some comics serving as a sequel/side story to the novel. They were pretty influenced by Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee, comics that my nerd friends usually mocked for their trashy art and horny storylines. And after that, he moved on to manga-style comics ripping off stuff like Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho and El Hazard. After that he made a set of superhero graphic novels with manga influences, and later a fantasy RPG-inspired webcomic.

So when you see the guy's body of work, it seems like he's just ripping off what's popular. He started out referencing movies of the time, then during the alternative comics boom of the nineties, he turned those hard sci fi concepts into edgy superhero stuff. When manga started really getting big, he forgot about superheroes and started doing more "mature" manga stuff (or at least what we considered to be mature back then. Manga was a lot more adult than superheroes, because of the violence, sex, book length, production model...). Then when Marvel started putting out movies, superheroes were cool again, and he's acting as if he's always been a fan. And now he's following the leader with something RPG and webtoon inspired.

So, looking at the guy, it feels like rather than being a fan who can tell when a work is quality despite it being disposable pop culture, he just looks like a drone spending money and time on whatever it is that's being published, and then scoffing at his old interests when the new stuff comes along.

Of course, even though I don't see myself that way, I am kind of the same. I got into comics during the Kurt Busiek era trade paperback boom - I wouldn't follow monthly releases, but bought the complete stories in a proper bookstore. And although I'm not from the same generation Jack Kirby's original fans are, I got really into his comics by reading reprints and digital publications - I only became a fan because someone decided to publish them.

Even when it comes to manga, I'm not exactly only appreciating quality work - I read it on e-readers (I've had four), which work great for older manga (and for ones that have an extensive and easy to find digital library), so I read a lot of Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori and Jiro Kuwata. I'm surprised when I go to bookstores and find the manga I assumed was super obscure available to everyone.

I could say the big difference between me and the writer guy is that I can percieve a work's quality regardless of how much hype there is around it. But even that is a line of thought that was drilled into me by the companies that decide what to publish. I can read a pirated italian translation of an obscure Osamu Tezuka manga on my generic e-reader and pat myself on the back for being clever and getting it, but that just means when a giant corporation starts airing the anime adaptation of a manga homaging Tezuka, I'll be more likely to watch it. And, even mentioning the guy's name on Tumblr, I'm advertising it (by influencing search engines into bringing his name up).

But, despite that, I still enjoy that stuff a lot. I think there's real quality into the work people who create comics and manga put in, and that it's an underappreciated artform. I could say, be it referring to comics from ninety years ago, or from a writer my own age, that the quality's there regardless of the hype. I read the RPG world story by the writer I mentioned and I think, sure, he's just following the lead of a bunch of Isekai stories and webtoons with a similar style, but, still, he's putting a lot of himself into the story. Whether he realizes it, or not.

[total-drama-brainrot]

Total drama except Harold is outwardly a bitch instead of hiding his distain for others until they personally attack him or are just too damn annoying

Or, more interestingly, he pulls a rachel Berry and sucks up to Chris and/or chef for half the season so that he can get anybody he wants eliminated with some fake tears and a sob story painting them as some violent irredeemable monster (does it work? Meeeeeeh)

Did we watch the same Total Drama? Harold is outwardly a hater.

He's not exactly quiet about his dislike for certain people, and he's very open about his opinions on near-enough everything. Harold literally gets the whole cast thrown out of a jet at one point because he won't shut up and stop being a little bitch - it's an integral part of his character, and an even more crucial aspect of his autistic charm and loserboy swag.

Him pulling a Rachel Berry, however, is a very different interpretation of him. Both as a character in his own right, and the archetypes he plays into.

(I did have to google who Rachel Berry is, as I haven't watched Glee - assuming this is the character you were referring to.)

Because he's supposed to be, in-universe, kind of an unlikable wet noodle. Having him endear himself to Chris, Chef and (assumedly) the audience at large so he can sway the competition in his favour would be A Task, and not an easy one at that.

Because he's (in-universe) not charismatic in the slightest, despite living under the impression that he is. Remember; Harold sees himself as a cool guy with a lot of cool talents - to the point that he quite often comes across as egotistical - whilst everyone around him sees him as a deluded dweeb. He's not quite self-aware enough to play into his dorky charm or tone down the more annoying aspects of his personality to be more generally likable, since he's entirely unaware (or just uncaring) about how he's percieved by others.

Harold is unapologetically himself. Oftentimes to his own detriment.

You'd have to completely scrap that part of his character, or at the very least change it considerably, to have him commit himself to sucking up to Chris and Chef. Because there's no way canon Harold would ever do that; not only would it be "an insult to someone of his multi-talented caliber" (or some other explaination along those lines that's equally as nerdy), but it'd also mean he'd be acknowledging that he needs to use underhanded tactics like flattery to give himself a fighting chance upper hand in the competition. Canon Harold is very self-assured, and likely wouldn't believe he'd need the advantage of favouritism to win.

Plus, even if he did decide to try this line of action, I can't really imagine it playing out much differently than Sierra's brief stint as Chris' favourite competitor; that is to say, it's end with him being seen as more of a nuisance than he is in canon. Harold has a chronic case of foot-in-mouth disease, and his frequent faux pas would do more to enrage Chris than any level of sucking up could possibly hope to fix. Just look at his first interaction with Leshawna. She was forgiving enough to see past his awkwardness. Chris wouldn't be.

Harold's annoyingness and awkwardness and weirdness is so constitutional to his character that I can't personally see him ever having enough social literacy to pull of a scheme like that.

Now, Beth on the other hand-

[byoldervine]

Also episode 6 backs this up even further; did anyone else clock how the only time swearing was percieved as inappropriate courtroom behaviour when Charlie said “Fuck yes!” upon convincing the Seraphims to keep watching Angel to see he could improve?

Charlie only used ‘fuck’ as an exclamation, and one of relief and excitement at that. But Adam not only used ‘fuck’ as an insult towards Charlie and Vaggie, but even to the Seraphims themselves. He directed vulgar insults towards the court and they didn’t bat an eye. Hell, even Vaggie got to say ‘fuck’ and nobody scolded her - is it because they knew she was a fallen angel and not just a regular demon? And of course Lute got some zingers in too but nobody said a word about it because they were directed at demons. It’s only Charlie that got in any form of trouble for using inappropriate language despite her being the only one to use it in a positive light

And of course there’s the fact that Adam still hasn’t explained to the court why Vaggie, who he openly outed as not only a previous Exterminator but an angel in general, was considered a Sinner demon in Hell. Can’t wait for him to explain that her great sin was NOT killing a child

Do you know what I love about Hazbin Hotel though?

That the angels are clearly sinners too.

Not only the fact that Adam curses all the time and talks about casual sex (which, he’s possibly even cheating on his wife then??) but also, the angels kill demons and Adam even admits they enjoy doing so. He calls it entertainment.

And Vivienne’s making an excellent point: when you do something bad to a group of people who are considered beneath them, minorities, everything else…

What you do to them suddenly isn’t bad. It’s okay now, it’s righteous, because you’ve dehumanized these people.

And then when they try to fight back? Like the single slain angel exterminator? Well then magically it’s a problem.

When Lute said that “the only reason [Charlie’s] still around” is that Lucifer gave her and all the hell-borns some kind of pardon or protection from being killed in these exterminations, I was like ok, that makes sense. I was starting to wonder/assume that the extermination was something that only applied to sinners because it didn’t seem to affect any of our Helluva Boss cast.

But then I was like, wait, why would they want to kill hell-borns anyway? For sinners you could argue that they “earned” it through their bad deeds, but hell-born have no choice but to be born there? And they seem to have a functioning society, just one that’s “edgier” than human society. Also, plenty of the hell-born are good people?

But THEN, I remembered that is a fundamentalist Christian belief: that you can already be born bad, and that the same deeds can be good or bad depending on who’s doing them. Lute taunts Charlie that her life doesn’t matter…that’s a sin, right? Except no it isn’t, because of who’s doing it and to whom.

I love queer people’s takes on Heaven and Hell, they’re always great.

[thechangeling]

I have to say as someone with quite a bit of trauma and let's face it probably cptsd, I really don't love the way CC portrays trauma or has other characters react to it. Like she has a habit of letting a characters issues be overshadowed by their love story or even completely wiped out in the case of Emma and Jace for example. They're traumatized by their past until they sort things our with their love interests and then everything's fine.

But what really bugs me is how she's treating Kit's issues, and as result how that frivolousness is bleeding into the fandom. Kit was raised by Johnny Rook with such fucking apathy and neglect that Kit developed a belief that he is only valued when he is useful to others. He's never been loved for the sake of just existing in any way he can remember, at least until Tessa and Jem. But they can't automatically undue years of damage.

And then there's the obvious stuff, him seeing his father ripped apart by demons which must incite some pretty complicated feelings in him regarding the distance of their relationship but he still obviously loves his father, then losing Livvy after developing a genuine friendship with her and then watching Ty completely lose himself trying to being her back. Ty's percieved rejection which I am more then willing to acknowledge was spurred on my Kit's trauma of believing himself inherently unlovable. And yet somehow after all of this, the only thing he's having nightmares about are Ty? Just that day in the beach and nothing else? And then to add insult to injury we have the other characters who KNOW what he's been through for the most part reducing that complicated trauma to "brooding."

Like??? It's not brooding it's fucking cptsd. And yeah sure you could argue it's quite realistic for people to just dismiss or ignore that stuff like with the way the tlh characters enable Matthew or ignore/demonize Alastair. But at a certain point if you never address these things it just looks like you're minimizing or downplaying these very real issues. Which then leads to the fandom also downplaying these issues by making jokes about Kit being an "angsty drama queen Herondale uwu!" And yeah I get the meneifcation of trauma and PTSD is very gen z, but I think it's kind of a harmful trend that ultimately doesn't lead to healing.

You gotta show actual sympathy for Kits trauma if you want to actually understand the character.

Even know as I write this I have a voice inside my head telling me I'm overreacting or making a big deal out of nothing. But that's the result of my trauma. I spent too much time with people who thought I was too much, too sensative and too opinionated. It's hard as fuck recovering from a life time of gaslighting and that's probably one of the reasons I relate to and sympathize with Kit so much.

So anyways I hope CC will surprise me and actually meaningfully address and discuss Kit's trauma in twp (as well as Ty's and Dru's and everyone else's) and not have the problems all end with kitty reconciling because love cures all or whatever.

[randomwriteronline]

if you are looking for writing requests, maybe more ingo/gaeric/melli stuff or adaman stuff?

I will. Do both and one of them will be fucking incomprehensible and have blood in it (its the adaman one) bc i havent talked to Anybody abt the context of it

-

"Just so we are clear," Melli hissed out of absolutely nowhere while washing his tunic, "I will never fall for you."

Gaeric arched a brow and only gave him a puzzled glare.

The Diamond warden held it for a while before pouting excessively loudly, roll his eyes, and explain as he harshly rubbed soap against blue fabric: "We may share Ingo’s love and get along for his sake, but don't expect me to one day just turn around and court you as well."

"Ah," the bulkier man only said, nodding lightly and agreeing with the statement as he had no plans of becoming interested in Melli enough to court him either.

He wasnt able to vocalize that sentiment, interrupted by a late addition: "You've got nothing to like in a man, anyways."

Now.

Gaeric could not, in good conscience, pride himself on being level-headed.

There were... A frankly excessive amount of examples from both his youth and more recent years that flooded his mind within a second of himself very blatantly jumping to conclusions (and very often, consequentially, into trouble) at the first suspicion, percieved sign of aggression, or insult - though despite the habit being hard to break he had learned to calm himself, as he needed to do so, to become a proper worthy warden to mighty and unmovable Avalugg.

So instead of instantly knocking Melli right out of his body for implying he was the ugliest man alive, he focused on how his deep breaths caused his chest to expand and strayed the path of his thoughts to the man for whom he was not going to punch the Diamond a brand new set of teeth.

Come to think of it, he could not remember an occasion in which Ingo had been so absolutely fuming with rage to lose control of himself. Even in that one unprecedented, vaguely exhilarating case in which he purposefully and uncerimoniously tripped a particularly rude young woman straight into the freezing waters around the settlement with a fulmineous swipe of his leg directly across her ankles, he had first stewed for nearly two hours in her unwanted and unappreciated attentions, carefully calculating his odds before deciding mild petty violence was both a viable option and the one he wanted to choose.

How he could manage that was beyond him.

In that aspect they were really nothing alike.

Melli jumped when the Pearl warden suddenly interrupted his six whole minutes of perfect silence to burst into a booming laugh.

With opaque blue eyes turning to him wider than the hole in the sky as if he were absolutely insane, Gaeric waved a hand dismissively: “Worry not your pretty head,” he cackled some more, “I simply agree with you.”

“On what?” the younger man asked, confused.

“Oh, on your tastes and your stern romantic dislike of me,” the other replied with a mischievous grin. “I understand, really! Certainly you wouldn’t like a Pearl Clan warden, let alone a man older than youself - and I do suppose your ego wouldn’t really just let you keel over and accept him being able to defeat you in battle, would it?”

The Diamond narrowed his eyes with an unamused ‘hmph!’, unimpressed by what he believed to be boasting.

“And I do agree that I am a bit too loud for my own good-” now that fool understood, and Gaeric could have laughed in his steadily reddening face right then if he wasn’t as committed to the bit as he was “-But if it’s something to do with the beard I would urge you then to give it a chance, at the very least - you know, it can make a man look --”

Something wet and made of cloth hit the entirety of his face.

“SHUT!” Melli shrieked as the other broke out into laughter against the drenched tunic he had hurled at his face. The light blue eyes faced him again with a smirk that had his cheeks and ears burn strong enough to burst into flames, and he pointed a finger at him as viciously as he could, babbling wildly for a moment or two in absence of a proper argument.

“We even both have hair lighter than yours!”

“YOU--!!” kicking his feet around like a little kid, Electrode’s warden jumped upright and uncatiously landed a pair of slaps the brick wall of a man, who lucky for him was too busy making fun of him to get mad: “You’re- those are just - superficial details! He’s- you- you two are, you’re completely different!”

He was right, of course. But now that the similarities had been brought to his attention he felt like an idiot for trying to rile the other man like that only to become the one humiliated instead.

To add insult to injury his head was suddenly, viciously scratched and rocked from side to side by a large hand, in a way that reminded him far too much of the loving noogies Mai would administer when he was younger and that made him purple with embarassment.

“You’re one to talk!” Gaeric laughed. “You’re really nothing like him!”

Melli wiggled his entire lanky body out of the mighty hold with outstanding wrath: “And he likes me for that!” he shrieked back.

“So it is, so it is,” the other warden admitted placidly. Better to stop this here, before the somewhat light bickering went out of their control and they started getting seriously angry.

The sopping tunic was yanked away from his gracious offering hand and squeezed dry with a quiet string of frustrated mutterings. He wasn’t fluent in the dialect of the Diamond Clan, far from it - but he had heard Sabi slip into it at length enough to understand that the warden was saying something about children and treatments of sorts as he crouched back down to tend to his laundry. So this time at the very least he was certainly not being insulted.

He stretched his shoulders back as the sound of soap scrubbing on cloth got a lot more frantic than it had been previously and rolled his neck backwards, stopping halfway through to look at the sky.

It was a clear day, today.

Ingo was probably taking his sweet time coming back from Jubilife just to soak in the warmth like a Swinub in a hot spring.

Maybe he had even decided to have himself a nap in the grass. He had a habit of doing just that, he’d been told - with Gliscor on his face to both protect his eyes and discourage uncatious Pokémon thinking he could be an easy prey.

In that case, if they listened closely they could have probably heard him snore from across the region.

“Kind of strange for it to be us,” he commented to nobody.

After a moment of brooding silence, Melli caved in: “His partners, you mean?”

Grabbing one of his arms and stretching it behind his head, Gaeric hummed: “One somewhat similar to him and one not at all. Just looking at the two of us I don’t think anybody could find a pattern to make a perfect suitor for him.”

He felt a shoulder pop satisfyingly softly and repeated the exercise on its twin. Slowly, as he proceeded to work on his leg muscles in order not to remain idle, he heard the splashing sounds of washing cloth at his side quiet to a halt: when he turned to check if the other man was done he found him looking up to his face intently with no sign of aggression on his fair features, pinkish hands resting on his knees as he sat on his own heels.

They took each other in for a while, calmly, almost without thinking.

They really was nothing alike about them.

Except, maybe...

“He likes long blue hair,” Melli noted.

Gaeric nodded sagely: “He certainly does.”

“And blue eyes too.”

“Oh, definitely.”

-

Lady Lilligant had been incapacitated.

If even she could not fight back against whatever had been prowling through the Scarlet Bog, by all means, a meager human wasn’t going to emerge from a confrontation with it victorious - maybe not even in one piece.

But Adaman was still a young enough man for many older clansmen to think of him as a still grievously inexperienced child, and somewhere in his chest he ached to prove himself deserving of his title to those who doubted him more than he wanted to protect the settlement.

Leafeon followed, equally as stubborn despite the poisonous Pokémon of the swamps being more than well equipped to knock him out in one swift move, as his partner trudged carefully between a strangely meager number of Stunkies and Croagunks. Eyes and ears sharpened to the point of near straining them, both found themselves puzzled by a seeming lack of movement: even the Hippopotas and Hippodowns, usually busy with ridding themselves of pests coming too close for comfort, remained still in the muddled waters, at the edges of the bog, and even the Alpha Skuntank had left her post to retreat on more solid ground from which her flaming eyes trailed after the anomalous pair.

Just watching.

Almost... Strangely afraid.

A wet shift had Adaman turn his head in an instant.

His mind wandered, in a moment of strange detachment, to the memory of something he had heard - the description of a Pokémon, a Grotle: standing on four wide steady legs, with a shell thin in appearance yet hardy upon its back, green bushes sprouting lush from it, a mouth like a hook capable of biting a hand off if it so wanted, and big black eyes.

This did not look like that.

This, half hidden in the mud from which it arose and under the grime slowly dripping off of it as if its skin were smooth polished metal, sustained itself on a thin arm (the other seemed covered by some kind of cloth, a sleeve of sorts) and looked at him through small inescapable eyes the color of dark rotten Apricorns.

When the light shifted upon the murky waters its face laid half submerged in he saw its sclera was a horrible hue - like charcoal made liquid; the same hue coating long, sharp nails as it lifted its hand out the water to crawl forward.

Towards him.

He stepped back, Leafeon growling in some attempt at intimidation.

Between the skeletal fingers, now he could see it - between them the mud seemed to create a web that cut through the thick waters with ease, like boned fins; the hair, if hair it was, two lone long strands curling at the sides of its face, framing its peculiar simmetry centered by its broken nose, joining at the back of the buzzed head, was a dusty kind of brown that wouldn’t have been out of place on the crests of Lady Lilligant.

Its lips were pitch black, when they appeared out of the grime.

“Come a little closer, boy.”

That voice was sweet, sickeningly so. Pitched high and with a certain inflection to it that felt like honey pooling at his feet and turning hard as salt, trapping him in place. It didn’t fall out of the human-like mouth: it slithered and danced.

Its shoulders arose as its arms stretched to get itself into a crouching position. Its body was anthropomorphic in a strange way - covered in a long attush robe with patterns embroidered upon it, half of its chest escaping the elm bark fabric (ribs stretched the skin as if it had been that of a drum), one nearly atrophied leg sticking out of it as its twin laid shrouded within the cloth.

“Don’t worry,” it sang with its black and rotten green eyes pinning Adaman in place, with a tone playful in the same manner with which a Luxray’s paws push around its agonizing prey, with a curl of its nose that made the four spikes at its side move up and down.

The charcoal lips pulled back into a rectangular grin more reminiscent of a snarl: four canines - the longest he had ever seen - welcomed his sight hungrily.

“I don’t bite.”

If it had been as human as its appearance suggested the Leaf Blades would have cut through its limbs to color the puddle it still had not managed to leave a crimson even deeper that the sunset’s reflection on the mercurean waters.

With a potent gust of wind Leafeon flew across the marsh, little body landing on soft mud instead of on the rocks jutting from it by pure miracle. Adaman called out another attack uselessly, mind still stuck to a mere second before, sight and voice and hearing and the very consciousness of his own body catching up too late - only when his mouth still open in an interrupted scream was filled with dirt and acidic goo that made him want to gag and gasp for air, and his shoulder slammed harshly on the shallow bottom of the bog, and against his eyelids closed just in time he saw the burned afterimage of the ghastly face that had been so close to his.

Something sunk in his arm, through the bandages and the skin and nearly through the muscle, and with a yank his dirtied head was pulled out of the mud enough for him to vomit out the foulness on his tongue.

First he felt the wet on his neck, and then the impression of something weirdly flat grazing against it.

Then, finally, the piercing.

He spat out a scream muffled by what felt a liter of bog water as the teeth clasped around his throat, both sides of it punctured in two spots each.

It should have hurt, it should have made the adrenaline course through his body for him to writhe and struggle against the bite; and while the pain was so intense that it did make his eyes go blind for a moment, and a terrified chemical frenesy did overtake his limbs, he remained unmoving if trembling, mouth hung open even in silence, as the hold on his neck tightened so much that he could feel his bones strain under the pressure. He breathed still: it felt as if the air was warmer, saturated with a heaviness that reminded him of pollen.

A hand grasped his hair tight. Nails held his forearm in an iron grip.

He felt as if his lungs were being filled to burst.

Adaman fell to the wet ground barely registering the teeth leaving his throat or his own deep shuddering gasp. His body remained immobilized, and so all he could do was look up from where he had been uncerimoniously dropped, forced to spy through the corner of his eye.

There was a dangling ornate necklace running three circles across its clavicles - made of pinkish beads weaved inbetween tightly twisted braids of a kind of rope he could not remember seeing ever before. It was the same color of its hair.

Its wide snarling grin shined mockingly down on him, lip and fangs stained red. Its rotten green eyes were small and vicious as they glinted in the falling sun.

Its laugh was a cruel, slow sound, like the gekkering of a wounded Jolteon.

The air felt warm.

So warm.

His clansmen ran to meet him as he stumbled back up the slope to the settlement nearly on all fours, weak and near delirious, after Leafeon had returned alone yipping and barking in distress. Arezu cried and begged forgiveness when she saw the blood running down his neck, staining his clothes through the grime, pouring still in thin rivers, begged forgiveness for not assisting Lady Lilligant when she should have, for not accompanying him, for not disobbeying and following him when he insisted on taking this upon himself.

Her leader did not hear her, eyes glazed with remembrances of bright yellow eyelids behind black and green, and a voice like honeysuckle poison laughing at him, laughing.

“I’m in love,” Adaman spoke with a haunted, hoarse voice.

He collapsed prey to a spring fever as he was carried to his tent, and the wounds on his neck never healed.

[unfamiliaranimalentity]

otto is literally such an interesting character and a very good foil to sasha and the rest of the psychic 7

for sasha, hes in a similar boat of being Smart Scientist With Kinda Bad Ethics but like. hes so so emotive and has that kinda. uncle-y tone of "i will give u a dangerous activity to do have fun!!!!" and sending u on ur way where sasha is less emotive and like surprisingly fatherly in a "will look out for u and believes in u SO much but is willing 2 tell u when u fuck up." sasha seems a bit disgruntled by ethics and tends to go. ah shit no funding ehat the fuck. while otto is like. Ethics Cant Stop Me :) if im not funded So Be It i WILL find a way.

when it comes to the rest of the psychic 7, as many ppl have noticed, he rly doesnt have anyone who was like. his right hand person yknow? he def cares abt them but, despite being genuinely very emotive, it isnt all that obvious. at the beginning of the game u can hear him blaming himself 4 smth (which is less vague but seems to be based around the hyperhyglaciator) (which sasha reassures him abt which is such a good bit of characterization) whicj like. shows that despite his disinterest in ethics he still very much cares, he just doesnt rly. see risk as much of an issue! to him, and most of the psychic 7 in the past, risk was just a possible obstacle to Cool Information, he just also happens to be the one who hasnt necessarily internalized that its that lack of acknowledgement of risk is... bad. he still very much cares, just that where everyone else went oh. helmut died and we lost lucy. bc of our reckless actions, he clearly poured himself into his work and mostly felt the general guilt rather than like... fully realizing it was recklessness that got them there

as well, as smth to note, otto seemed to be the one most likely to argue with others (not in an anger way but like. that "accidentally got 2 into a discussion" kinda way where u dont rly hold it against each other or anything) which generally fits his nonchalance around many topics. ford also kinda does this, it being very common for him to jab at others in lighthearted ways or not, but most of his ruder comments tend to be less argumentative and more "i am trying to shut u down as SOON as possible and will insult u or be as smappy as it takes 2 get there" OR just in like. a lighthearted joking manner. but otto seemed to get rly into banter. this seemed to work out rly well for him and ford bc they both kinda do that, but it creates an interesting separation between him and the others.

its not rly shown how lucrecia viewed him so like. thats unclear, tho they seemed to know each other from b4 lucy actually joined ford and otto! and otto clearly held her in high regards at least.

bob is... interesting, bc helmut notes that the 2 would get high together. very specifically those 2! otto and bob both had other ppl they got along w better so ud think theyd get high w those ppl, but nah, they just got high with each other specifially. this kinda makes it seem like the two rly would argue but like. not at each other so much? or in a way where they half find it fun, even if they get irritated. also, in bobs mind, otto is the one who kinda like... embodies his feeling of being hated or dismissed by the others. my guess is that ottos seeming nonchalance abt helmuts death probably Got To Him and like. as bob isolated himself, viewed that percieved lack of compassion as very pointed, viewing their banter as more aggressive than it really had been (bob lilely had fun but just... forgot abt that part and only remembered it as Just Arguing in his extremely depressed state)

speaking of helmut tho, not much rly can b easily gathered between the 2 tbh? like . helmut seems honestly kinda dismissive of otto (which adds some irony to bob thinking otto/the psychic 7 preferred helmut over bob tbh). they may not have rly been that close? which i feel like some could interpret that as a "obvious art vs science" thing but i dont think thats It. otto seems to actually LOVE art? at least 2 me. he describes his inventions as dreams and is adamant that Thats What They Are which is a very figurative and artistic way of looking at them! this isnt to say they didnt care abt each other tho. dr touch seems to b a little aloof and odd, but is the Only sense to reassure him when he apologizes to them, and does so w a very obvious lighthearted joke that helps. that isnt smth ppl who arent close would view the other as being like! i think they just... werent as close as they couldve been yknow? which, in part, could be related to helmut, for most of his time in his mind, seeming to think otto abandoned him (which he also attributes to ford, but i think he and ford were closer b4 the deluge so less was Hurt by him feeling abandoned)

also, otto build helmut and bob a sword for their wedding. these ppl cared abt each other

Comptons dynamic w otto is also rly intetesting. hes regarded as nicer than ford in comptons mind (idk if him heing the "nice one" meants out of the 3 judges and, subsequentially, the 3 ppl theyre based on, or if he means out of the psychic 7, but for this post im gonna interpret it as out of the 3) which is a little obvious given his generally happier attitude. compton clearly views him generally positively. if the theory that the psychoisolation chamber next to his menagerie is his is also true, it wouldnt b surprising if otto is even the one who built it! and maybe even comptons hat! and, as a note, otto and compton are the only remaining members of the psychic 7 to still be psychonauts during the game itself. idk what to do w that information but like. it means Something im sure. but aside from that, compton really does seem to like otto, and im fairly certain otto cares abt him too! but smth interesting i never see mentioned is that like. in cassies memory vault otto is depicted as holding compton like hes a football. this is very funny. this is also odd tho cus if u use tk on compton he mentions that he DOESNT like being held. is otto the exception? was compton tolersting it at the time? did otto forget abt that? was otto just being a dick? who knows! their dynamic interests and confuses me

cassie and otto tho. i do not know if the two liked each other that much LOL. for one, ottos destroyed lab and cassies hive are like. ridiculously far away from each other. like. the farthest they could be from each other. also, cassies view of otto seems to just b "guy who acts smart" which is. not very positive! she also shows some irritation around no one listening to her abt the hydraulic mining but she directs that not at ford or otto but at lucrecia. in fact, she doesnt seem to hold that against ford at all! so its unclear if she is irritated at otto for that 2. all i know is that cassie doesnt... seem to care 2 much for otto. whether otto doesnt care for her either is unclear

idk how 2 end this post. basically, otto is a very interestjng character