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dirtytransmasc · 1 month ago

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I think I need MelVik connecting when Viktor was on his sick bed. they had been amicable before, maybe a little more than that due to their connection through Jayce and her presence around Hextech and such. but they weren't entirely friends. not yet.

and she goes to see him. perhaps she feels a tinge of guilt at assuming the worst about Jayce, or her bleeding heart makes her feel responsible for keeping Jayce out of the lab when Viktor had needed him. maybe Jayce needs to step out for a moment, and she soothes his worry by promising to sit with Viktor. maybe she just wants to be closer to the man that's so painfully important to the one she loves, wants to befriend him, wants to know him, all before it's far too late.

maybe it's a little bit of each.

but she goes to see him. she sits in the chair that Jayce has nearly worn a hole through, and keeps a semi-awkward distance between them, not knowing what is too close and too far.

this man is dying. he is dying and he has accepted that. he looks like a corpse. cold emanates off of him. he is something she doesn't fully understand.

she doesn't know how to approach.

but she does.

she greets softly and speaks softly and hesitates to touch, but rests a hand over Viktor's and feels how cold he is, even as a sickly warmth brews in his bones, leeching the warmth from his skin and the energy from his body.

he seems surprised she's there. it feels out of place. like the song and dance of their dynamic has shifted, and now he needs to relearn the steps. and now this is a dance of two, not three.

she will tell Viktor, in enough detail to be understood and not enough to be awkward, where Jayce was. because it feels right to confess. it's not an apology, but the avoidance of keeping something like a secret from a dying man.

Viktor will probably just nod and say something self deprecating, because what else do you say when your body is already making a joke of itself? before assuring her that Jayce is not his keeper, that she is not to blame, but even that comes off as some twisted attempt at humor. sue him for being sardonic as he lay dying.

but unlike Jayce, who will cringe at the jokes, she will hide a smile behind her fingers, muffling a soft, if not saddened, chuckle in her palm.

Viktor's eyes will light up ever so slightly.

she'll feel awkward once more. should she have laughed? was this playing into a complex? was this right of her?

Viktor will smile weakly.

she'll feel a little less awkward.

she will realize Viktor needs someone to laugh with. that Jayce, bless his soul, cannot be that person for Viktor. his worry has brewed too long. it's too strong.

but maybe a fresh face like Mel's can be there to smile when Jayce cannot. will laugh when Jayce cannot. can make cheeky jokes and pokes and prods.

the three fit together like 3 pieces of 3 broken puzzles. they fit together, not perfectly, but they fit, and create a finished object, even if off kilter her and uneven there. but it's ok, they're making due.

#jaymelvik #melvik #but this post is specifically about rhe MelVik brainrot #but Jayce is there in the background #something about their dynamic. in power. in physicality. in where they're from and how they got to the position they're in.#it's all so interesting #I think it would be so interesting to see these two come together more #and I think them coming together at the very end of Viktor's story (pre hexcore) would be bittersweet #they're running out of time before they even become anything #they both know that #but maybe that's what Viktor needs #someone who cares. but doesn't know him. does not know hum enough ti care so deeply it hurts.#and Mel is very physically affectionate without it being overboard #(looks at Jayce and how he cannot be chill with keeping his hands to himself)#like I think they would just be sweet #im imagining them curled up in her big bed. he's covered in blankets and she's resting on his shoulder. watching him breathe.#she's warm like the sun and he's keeping her grounded to earth #and the banter would go crazy. those are two gossip girls if given the chance #mel medarda #viktor arcane #she's everything Jayce can't be for Viktor. she can laugh and smile when Jayce can't. she can keep her cool.#Viktor needs that energy in his life #arcane

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ourtubahero-blog · 9 months ago

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I don’t know where to go with this. He’s too pretty for his own good!

#michael sheen #good omens #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #good ineffable omens #welsh seduction machine #good ineffable husbands #the white curl #i’m fangirling too hard #that smile makes my heart melt #so much happening here #jesus christ michael #michael sheen the man that you are #michael sheen is a dilf #michael sheen thirst #aziraceow

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noxexistant · 1 month ago

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one of the newsgirls complimenting the brooch katherine is wearing so she just. immediately and thoughtlessly takes it off and gifts it to them

#presses it into their hand and curls their fingers around it. smiles #the girls can’t really wear them lest they be stolen so they just. Keep them. hide them away and treasure them #newsies #katherine plumber

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lassieposting · 10 months ago

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Absolutely obsessed with the ecosystem and interpersonal political implications going on in Poppy Playtime right now, like.

What we have in the Playtime Co factory is a society made up of creatures who were all, at one point, human. And while it's stated that the experiments have varying levels of intelligence and ability to recall their former lives, we know that a lot of them, if not all of them, retained at least some of their humanity post-transformation. For example:

Most of the experiments are angry, resentful and vengeful towards Playtime Co - they understand they have been wronged, and they are capable of holding grudges.

Poppy and the Prototype seem to have the same end goals (putting a stop to the experiments and saving the innocents being used in them), but diametrically opposing views on how to go about achieving them (the Prototype is a gritty realist who knows no war was ever won without bloodshed and is willing to cause collateral damage in the name of his cause, where Poppy is far more idealistic, moderate and morally opposed to/upset by the deaths of the Playtime Co employees). This dispute has escalated far enough that the Prototype apparently shut Poppy away before the Hour of Joy could begin, and Poppy now wants the Prototype dead for what she sees as a crime equal in atrocity to Playtime Co's - they are able to understand ideologies, have ideological disagreements, and strategise against each other.

Huggy Wuggy, who seems to be only slightly more intelligent than a predatory animal, can still write, and uses the ability to try to guide fleeing prey in the wrong direction - that suggests he uses the vents to hunt on a regular basis, and he's clever enough to use basic deception.

On the subject of Huggy Wuggy, when he escapes the facility, his first instinct is to go home.

There are also numerous examples of the experiments being able to form and maintain social bonds, and work together:

Mommy Long-Legs is described as "nurturing" and "motherly" towards the other experiments, as well as the children. She's placed in the Game Station precisely because her desire to protect and care for the children outweighs her hatred for her captors: she won't act aggressively in front of them.

DogDay says that he's "the last of the Smiling Critters", implying that the Playcare originally had a full complement of Bigger Bodies Critters and that they were all able to coexist peacefully.

Kissy Missy and Poppy clearly have a friendship, with Poppy willing to charge into unknown danger to help her friend.

Miss Delight originally calls the other teachers her sisters, and she's horrified and grief-stricken by her own actions when she turns on them.

Miss Delight and CatNap form a non-aggression pact that seems to include some kind of respect for territorial boundaries, as Ollie claims that CatNap usually avoids the school. That's Miss Delight's turf, and he clearly respects her space, even though it technically falls inside his own territory.

The Prototype - who's usually kept in isolation and under surveillance precisely because he's known to be violent - was on multiple occasions set loose in a room with at least CatNap (and potentially other experiments) without bloodshed. He's even confirmed to have patiently tolerated CatNap lowkey imprinting on him and following him around like a duckling.

The Prototype also opts to save Theo Grambell's life, knowing damn well that to do so means sacrificing his shot at freedom. There is no reason for him to do this other than caring for Theo.

Again, DogDay is the last of the Smiling Critters. Despite the fact that there would have been six of them, and one of CatNap. Working together, they should have been able to overpower him easily, and the fact that they couldn't makes me think that either a) there was a big confrontation in which CatNap either arrived with or was able to call out for backup or b) CatNap became an infinitely more capable strategist and picked them off quietly one at a time, using skills he'd have to have learned from someone.

Anyway. My point here: these were originally people, with all the associated moral hangups and emotional messiness, and they retained a lot of their humanity post-transformation. And they were on the same side, to begin with. During the Hour of Joy, they all turn on the workers together.

But after that? The complete breakdown of that unity and those complex social relations into an essentially animal ecosystem, and the psychological impact on the surviving experiments, fascinates me.

By the time the game starts, the experiments have run out of food, and they've begun turning on each other out of desperation. The Bigger Bodies monsters, previously social and cooperative, have been forced into direct competition for food, and as a result they've largely become solitary apex predators with fiercely-defended territories, where they can pick off smaller, weaker experiments at will. There's some evidence of cooperation and coexistence between predators - Bunzo Bunny and the Mini-Huggies survive ten years in Mommy Long-Legs' territory, possibly filling the scavenger niche and surviving off her leftovers, and Miss Delight is tolerated in CatNap's - but the small toys we see scattered bloodily all across the factory (and the small Bunzo we see picked off by CatNap as it tries to cross a room) show that there's a whole category of experiments whose lives would've become all about hiding, and sneaking, and being where the Bigger Bodies critters aren't. The predators, driven to the edge of starvation, have had to surrender a lot of the human values and morals they had before. The prey have essentially become rodents - they're in danger every second they're not safely hidden away somewhere.

And yet!

The way they've reacted to their trauma is still so human.

Like. Take the difference between CatNap and Mommy Long-Legs.

Mommy and CatNap - Marie and Theo - have a very similar start in life. Both were children when they were experimented on and transferred into their mascot bodies. Both were orphans, and both are described as not fitting in or being particularly happy in the Playcare - Marie was bullied, and Theo is described as "odd" and "antisocial with other children".

But post-transformation, it seems Marie was largely left to, essentially, raise herself. We know that she was aggressively hostile towards staff, and gentle and nurturing towards orphans and other experiments, but we have no suggestion that anyone was caring or parental towards her. Like most of the experiments, she has a digestive tract and would have needed to eat, so she must have had a "keeper" of some kind, but she doesn't seem to have had any attachment to anyone who could serve as a parental substitute and guide her into adulthood.

When we meet her as Mommy Long-Legs, she would be a young adult - she's grown up in her mascot body. But even acknowledging that she's been driven mad by fear and isolation, her emotional development shows several damage markers you'd expect from a child so utterly deprived of love and care and guidance. She's emotionally unstable and prone to throwing extreme tantrums over small and arbitrary inciting factors, like "cheating" at a rigged game - there's very limited ability or desire to moderate or regulate her emotions. She's erratic, has poor impulse control, and when she's angry she lashes out violently at whoever is most convenient - like Bunzo - even though it's someone else - the player - that she's actually mad at. She does try to hide her disappointment at our continued existence behind her bubblegum Mommy persona, but she never quite learned to convincingly mask her emotions the way adults can. Nor has she mastered the art of making and executing a plan - when she attacks, it's all aggression - the single-minded grab-and-smash of an angry, thwarted child. Even Huggy, limited though his intelligence is, stalks the player and tries to chase them into a kill zone. But Mommy relies solely on her stretch ability - automatic, instinctive - and her sheer rage to make her the GameStation's apex predator. Left to raise herself, she never learned a lot of adult skills or survival strategies, and it's become a fatal flaw - she knows her territory, she knows where there would be machinery to look out for, but she's so single-mindedly focused on punishing the player that she completely overlooks her own safety.

Contrast: CatNap.

CatNap is also a young adult when we meet him, and if he'd also been left alone to raise himself, he'd probably have a lot of the same developmental stunting. But he doesn't, and that's interesting.

Now, let's take a very quick detour to look at the behaviour we've seen, not from CatNap, but from the Prototype. We know he's fiercely intelligent, calculating, and a tactical thinker with a talent for using his environment and anything in it (up to and including the player - he makes use of Mommy after we kill her, even though he's the facility's super predator and could easily have done it himself) to his advantage. We know he's stealthy - from how close to us he is at the close of each chapter, he's likely been tailing us from the moment we entered the factory, keeping his distance and watching us to see what we'll do and how he can make use of our actions. Some of his behaviours are strongly reminiscent of a soldier in action - I have a theory here that whoever became the Prototype had, at some point in his previous life, been a military man.

And now look at CatNap. Who has he become?

An intelligent, calculating stealth predator who uses his environment and any weaponizable thing he can get his claws on to take out his prey with minimal risk to himself. He's capable of adult logic and reasoning skills - i.e. the teachers will get hungry and harm the surviving children, so locking them in the school to fight to the death removes all but one threat, who can then be negotiated with once the children have been moved to safety. He's able to form and maintain alliances and agreements. He's even able to identify that the player is either a) not a threat to him or b) proving useful to the Prototype, and overlook his own hunger to offer them mercy: leave Playcare, or I'm coming for you.

In other words, he's grown up a lot like the Prototype.

And there's a reason for that! We know from the interdepartmental report on CatNap that for some reason, after his transformation procedure, he was allowed to socialise with the Prototype - an experiment who's considered so dangerous usually kept on lockdown in isolation under constant surveillance. And the report notes that CatNap "follows [the Prototype] around like a lost puppy" and that the Prototype "doesn't seem to mind".

Which, on its own, could just mean that the Prototype recognised Theo for what he was - a traumatized, hurting, confused little boy - and, aware that CatNap was not a threat, opted for tolerance over violence. But when you consider CatNap's history with the Prototype, I don't think that's it. Theo befriended the Prototype, or vice versa, long before Theo ever became CatNap. He was mortally injured trying to help the Prototype escape, and the Prototype gave up that shot at freedom to get Theo medical attention. They are close, and the fact that CatNap, a decade later, has assumed so many of the Prototype's traits and skills implies that they remained close for a good long while after the Hour of Joy.

Theo, aged 7, is clinging to the one person he feels safe with and protected by after a major trauma. If he follows the Prototype everywhere, he won't be left alone with the scientists. If he's not left alone with the scientists, they can't hurt him anymore. And the Prototype lets him, reinforcing the idea that you're safe with me. It's not unlikely that he feels responsible for CatNap's fate - if he hadn't taken Theo to the Playtime counselors for medical attention, the boy would have peacefully died, and wouldn't be living a nightmare - and he's stepped up to parent CatNap.

And you can see echoes of that ongoing bond in how CatNap behaves a decade later. Who taught him to hunt? The Prototype. Who taught him strategy and tactical thinking? The Prototype. Who gave him the survival skills he needed to make his way to the top of the food chain and stay there? The Prototype.

Unlike Marie, Theo had someone to protect him. Someone to play with and care for him. Someone to hunt for and feed him once the bodies began to run out, at least until he was fully capable of catching, killing and pulling apart his own prey. Someone to socialise with. And he's better adjusted - for a given value of "better adjusted", because like, nobody in this factory is even remotely okay - as a result.

And that's still so human. Despite the absolute horror-show feral animal situation they're all living in.

Just? idk man i have a lot of feelings

#smiling critters #poppy playtime headcanons #poppy playtime #vidya gaems #poppy playtime meta #experiment 1006 #the prototype #catnap #theodore grambell #mommy long legs #anyway: baby catnap shrinking his huge body down so he can hide from another monster behind the prototype's legs #baby catnap practicing his hunting skills on the prototype the way lion cubs pounce on adult lions #baby catnap curling up very small beside this monstrosity of wires and metal and actually feeling SAFE

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likesummerrainn · 5 months ago

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"I think I am one of the best in the world. I think it's maybe harder for me to admit that to myself--it's a strange thing for somebody like me to that I'm that good...maybe I am...maybe I am good..."

Hangman Page Birthday Week 2024: ⤷ Day 7 - Free Choice: Happy Birthday Hangman! @swervestrickland

#hangmanpagebirthdayweek #adam page #hangman adam page #my gifs #today's theme! hangman's curls. and smile.#handsomest cowboy in all the land #happy birthday to this sweetheart i'm in love with him <3333 #gradient text

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bezzplaining · 24 days ago

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babygirl

#marc marquez #motogp #the curls. the smile. everything

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nowritingonthewall · 2 years ago

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OSCAR ISAAC + 😎

#oscar isaac #the sign in sidney brustein’s window #chrissie gifs #also curls #and crinkles #and stubble #and smiles #and 😭😭😭

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lysarria · 11 months ago

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Henry Cavill · Argylle Press Conference · Jan 18 2024

#Henry Cavill #Argylle #Argylle Press Conference #that curl #love his smile

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girldriveroscar · 3 months ago

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despite everything, it’s still you — op81

2020 mugello | 2021 jeddah

2021 abu dhabi | 2024 baku

#little osc edit bc im emotional :’)#same mannerisms same smile same awkwardness same guy!#curled up so many times making this I LOVE HIMMMM #oscar piastri #op81 #prema oscar #baku gp 2024 #oscarchive

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sthilarions · 5 days ago

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Asexual Charles Rowland who died a virgin (because he went to an all-boys school, of course that’s the reason - so what if most of his friends got up to things in town or on breaks). He liked looking at fit people, still does, and he liked kissing, but he just never happened to get around to doing anything else. Not for lack of wanting to, of course - of course! Just… never happened.

After his death he did try a few things but it just felt… wrong. Felt sort of like nothing and sort of, if he’s really, really honest with himself, like he remembers nausea feeling. He puts it down to ghost limitations. He can’t feel touch right, probably can’t feel anything like that right.

And then he’s with Edwin. And he can touch Edwin. He can feel Edwin. And every second his skin is against Edwin’s, it sings. So surely it must work, now?

It doesn’t.

Edwin’s hand creeps up his thigh, and it feels the same as it did on his hand (wonderful - but not special, not different, and he knows it’s supposed to feel different somehow). Maybe he just needs to go further? But as he’s moving against Edwin, and feeling sort of like nothing and sort of like everything (skin against skin still sings) and sort of like nausea, he thinks, ah. I guess it still doesn’t work, even ghost to ghost, even with someone I can feel. I guess ghosts just can’t do that.

Until he looks into Edwin’s eyes. And he realizes Edwin isn’t feeling nothing and isn’t feeling nausea. Edwin’s eyes are pupil-full, black and shining, looking up at him with feverish heat and naked pleasure.

Things Charles doesn’t feel.

Can’t feel.

And he’s run out of excuses for why.

#dead boy detectives #charles rowland #paineland #payneland #painland #dont worry it gets sorted out #they don’t even have to resort to Crystal or Niko or Jenny - Edwin’s been researching #he gets Charles a new pin. black white purple grey #and info dumps for an hour. AVEN to zucchini #they’d already planned to be in an open relationship so Edwin just heads to Townsend when he’s randy #Charles doesn’t get jealous anymore because now he knows Edwin’s always going to come back home to him #he will always come first #he almost feels sorry for the Cat King #he only gets to share light exercise with Edwin #Charles gets to see Edwin’s secret smiles. to curl with him on the sofa. to hug him from behind as he stands at his desk #gets to see Edwin when he is most himself - sleeves rolled up reading leaning back against Charles’s side #gets to share his existence with him #compared to that. how could he ever be jealous of the Cat King’s scattered moments?

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