#the inhuman objects? yeah those

[nerdy-hyperfixations]

Got flashbacks to when I was trying to explain that I was looking up ship art of the literal sun and moon, and when I looked it up all I could find was FNAF stuff only for my classmate with ears made out of concrete or something I guess to say "ew! Why do you ship Sun x Moon they're literally the same character!!! That's selfcest"

[positivelybeastly]

X-Force and Krakoa as a whole was a bad time to be a Beast fan. So for fun I just wanted to ask, if you were in charge of Beast during the Krakoa era, what storylines would you have liked to see done with him? I feel like there was a lot of potential there that didn't get realized because he was basically trapped in X-Force hell and rarely appeared outside of it. For instance, with the whole cloning thing, he could've technically gotten his human-looking body back for real, without the intelligence-draining drawback from X-Factor. It might've been cool to explore that temptation. Would he even still want to go back? Has he fully accepted who he is at this point? Maybe he'd view it as cowardice to erase his outward mutation when others can't. And then there's the potential for exploring his thoughts on mutants separating from the world as one of the more connected mutants who often worked to try and bring them together with humanity. I feel like a lot of his story potential with Krakoa was wasted due to the plot he was forced into.

So, I've had thoughts about this.

Yeah, I categorically have to agree, Beast was criminally wasted on Krakoa.

Like, even if you do take the view that his heel turn was done well (it wasn't), it was a logical place for his character to go (it wasn't), and that his villain arc was satisfying (it wasn't), it's still, objectively, the stupidest thing to do with him, in and out of universe, because Hank is actually fairly unique among X-Men characters in terms of how he can interact with the Krakoan status quo?

So, let's explore some of the stories that we could have gotten during the Krakoan era!

Now, in the interests of fairness, this thought experiment will have a few ground rules, most notably that it has to treat everything that came before it, up to 2018-2019, as hard canon, and it has to flow naturally from that point. We're also not going to radically alter the rest of the Krakoan story, in part because I hate the wankery of 'oh, everything would have been fine if this one character had been here,' and in part because Krakoa was designed to fail, so we're keeping those themes and intents intact.

Ah, but I hear you say! How can that be so when X-Force can't happen without Beast there?

Easily, I say! One, because X-Force doesn't actually do shit in the wider Krakoan story - it's, like, genuinely worthless as part of the wider narrative, there's a reason every recommended reading list for the era skips it - and two, because we can just put Dark Beast in charge of it instead, and the story doesn't change at all.

Why not? If Sinister can be on the Quiet Council, why can't Dark Beast get his shot at a position of authority? He's still alive, so we don't have to worry about justifying his resurrection under the no clones rule, and it would suit Sinister's wider story beats to have an ally who owes him for saving his life in such a useful position.

But yeah, this legitimately doesn't change the story one bit. All you have to do is tweak a few bits of Jean Grey, Colossus, and Domino's dialogue, and nothing changes. So, X-Force is completely intact. You're welcome. Now, on with the show!

Option 1-A: Exile/The Nonconformist

One of the more interesting and maybe divisive choices I think we could go with for Hank - what if he just says no, I wouldn't want to be on your kooky culty ethnostate island? Or, alternatively, what if the Quiet Council string him along, get him to create their miracle drugs, and then exile him from the island because he's considered a rogue, unstable element?

It's within their character, especially Shaw, Mystique, Apocalypse and Sinister, to not want him around, and frankly, I don't think Jean, Charles, Kurt, or Ororo would really vouch for him, either. The X-Men have been established not to fully trust Hank, thanks to the time travel debacle, and he doesn't like them much, either, after they stabbed him in the back during Inhumans vs. X-Men and got him fired from Harvard, so it'd be very easy to more naturalistically pick up on the story beats from there with him just not being welcome on Krakoa or not wanting to be there.

It also fits with the wider course of his character, where Hank has repeatedly expressed unease at being an X-Man and left the team as a result, multiple times. Hell, this is where he's at with Charles and the X-Men as of 2018.

Not exactly champing at the bit, is he? He sounds tired, and over it.

This opens up a more realistic and, let's be real here, interesting dynamic than we had on Krakoa, where everyone is, by virtue of editorial dictate, now magically fine with one another to the point where they'll all live on the same island and also completely fine with establishing a new nationality for themselves.

We can argue about Krakoa's isolationism, capitalism, human policies, etc, but the fact remains, everyone was made a monolith and they all moved in together, and it was kinda lame if you stopped and thought about it. They did it because the X-office wanted all their eggs in one basket so they could hand them out to their writers and not have to share, not because it was a natural move for a lot of these characters.

As you intimated, it especially doesn't really make sense for Hank to do this - he's been an Avenger for almost as long as he's been an X-Man, a lot of his best friends are on that team, and his friendships with the X-Men are rocky at best, textually speaking. His very human and pro-mutant parents are still in Illinois, and still alive, as of 2018.

I also think it's an interesting move from the Krakoan side - you establish early on that there's some real double standard bullshit going on, just like you do with Sabretooth, but EXACTLY as with Sabretooth, it's against an 'acceptable' target.

It's also a good springboard from which to spur Hank into action - maybe this is his penance for his actions, exile from paradise, the punishment he kept saying he was ready to accept but that no-one seemed willing to dole out. Maybe this pushes him to clean up his act. Maybe this is what Eva Bell was talking about, when she talked about the Trial of Hank McCoy - the trial that determines that he's unfit to be Krakoan. This is really interesting emotional ground for him, too, to be ostracised again - does it hurt as much, does he rave, does he go ballistic, does he quietly accept it and cut ties?

Where does he go from here? I don't quite know! Maybe Jed MacKay gets to use him for his new Avengers team, come 2023, and he gets to join the fight against Orchis as part of Fall of X. Maybe we get a Defenders reunion, with Gargoyle, Moondragon, and a few new members. Maybe we get a Beast and Wonder Man team up comic! Hell, get him to join the Fantastic Four or Spider-Man as a supporting character - Hank has so many connections, you can literally use him anywhere.

Option 1-B: X-Club.

An offshoot of the above - what if Hank appears to be exiled/a non-conformist, but he's actually on a secret mission for Xavier? More specifically, what if he's been given the directive that he SHOULD have been given from the start - to find a way to oust Sinister from Krakoa, permanently.

Think about it. Hank is objectively smarter than Sinister, he just doesn't obsessively focus on genetics. He is the single smartest X-Man. If anyone can rebuild, steal, or substitute Sinister's genetic database, the one bit of collateral keeping every X-Man from obliterating him on the spot, it's him.

Enter X-Club volume 2.

Beast, Kavita Rao, Doctor Nemesis - throw in every scientist you've got. Their one mission: get their hands on Sinister's database. I'm thinking a five issue miniseries, short, sweet, loaded with science and sass. In the end, they fail, because the rest of Krakoa has to unfold, but guess what? At least they tried! At least the Quiet Council is trying! Maybe they get away with a small victory, maybe a portion of the database, maybe they only put a stop to one of Sinister's schemes (which would make it intertwine with Hellions nicely), but at least they tried.

You also get to play with some of the more interesting aspects of being an undercover operative - namely, the emotional toll of lying to your friends and family about what you've been up to. Imagine the charge of Hank having to shit-talk Krakoa, knowing that Bobby and Warren and Jean are all going to hear it, and then he has to go and fight for it, and he can't say a word about it? There's pathos and tragedy in there!

Option 2: Temporal Guardian

The X-Men cannot escape from crossing fate - uh, I mean, temporal drama and bullshit. Krakoa especially was rife with it, thanks to shit like Sins of Sinister and Moira X, so, why not let's actually interact with it, using one of the characters who has both the knowledge and the power to interact with time on a higher level?

Hank McCoy canonically had: 1) intricate knowledge of temporal physics, 2) temporal senses that made him mentally immune to changes in the timeline, and 3) the ability to move, completely independently, through time using magic.

The guy's just a fucking Time Lord at that point.

So, let's let him Time Lord! Imagine a circuit between him, Rachel Summers and Tempus - Sins of Sinister would be over like that. You're worried about the timeline where mutants always win or always lose? Just use the mutants at your disposal to metagame your way to the timeline you want! You literally have the tools, you just won't use them!

This is the most 'comic booky' of the options, but I honestly think this could have been fun as a gimmick for a book, battling across centuries for the fate of mutantkind, taking on all comers - hell, maybe you could even use Orbis Stellaris for something instead of having him just sit around in his dumb orb, and he decides to try and engineer a win using temporal warfare!

It'd be neat, is all I'm saying.

Option 3: The School

Remember how Krakoa didn't have a school?

You know? The island nation, didn't have an actual place where you'd go and learn shit? The thing we had when we were a superhero team, but the instant we decide we want infrastructure and a nation and a full on population, we just don't want it?

Think I found your dude.

It always struck me that the move to teacher made more sense for some X-Men than others, but for Hank, it really was the most natural fit in the world. Highly academic, empathetic, good with kids, open minded, versatile - he's perfect to lead a school. And, now that you've divorced the school from the X-Men, you avoid the issue you had when Hank took over the school during Here Comes Tomorrow, where the pressure destroyed him - he doesn't have to worry about the fate of mutantkind, he's literally just a teacher now.

But, 'just' a teacher? Of mutants? Ha!

This would be a really interesting coming of age/community book, I think, maybe more slice-of-lifey and akin to Wolverine & the X-Men volume 1 in content, though maybe not as whacky in tone. Academy X students, nascent mutants, people who just want to pick up a community college class, people who never got a formal education, hell, characters who find they need qualifications in things that they never got - you could literally throw everyone in here, and Hank can bounce off them all.

This is maybe the 'safest' place for Hank, the most obvious and 'boring,' but I think a good writer who's interested in the mutant metaphor and the generational aspect of it, as well as the passing vs. non-passing mutant dichotomy, would have a lot of material to dive into - your ideas, of Hank grappling with his role as role model to these kids, of working on his complicated feelings regarding his mutation, would slot in well here, I think.

A story where Hank arrives to teach a class in his human form, much to the shock, worry, and disturbance of all of his students, and the ramifications of such a choice, would be really interesting, and a good opportunity to comment on the Krakoan tendency towards disposable bodies and the cheapness of death, too.

That being said, I do think it's worth noting that Bendis' choices with Hank and the subsequent story flow seem to indicate that Hank's dysmorphia and dysphoria were associated primarily with his feline form, since he'd come to terms with his classic form and seemed more comfortable in his modern form immediately.

The switch from full kevlar vest, bandolier, pants and body coverings to the shorts says it all, doesn't it? One of these bodies is acceptable to display. The other is not. But, even if Bendis took away the feline mutation in favour of a design that appealed more to nostalgia, that doesn't mean we can't use this book to unpick that idea, and talk about Hank's feelings on that and why one is okay while the other isn't. There were aspects of this in New Mutants, and this would be a good way to handle it from yet another perspective!

Option 4: Reunion and Reconciliation

So, it's pretty fair to say that the O5 have drifted apart.

So.

Let's DO something with that, shall we?

O5 reunion book. Let's hash it all out. Every petty grievance, every massive failure, every way they've hurt one another, not been there for one another, let's DO IT. Let's hear Hank tear Scott a new one for not saving him from Osborn until the time was right. Let's hear Scott tear Hank a new one for breaking the space-time continuum just to try and hurt him. Let's hear Warren tear Jean a new one for the shitty way she treated him when they were time displaced. Let's do EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Let's put it all to rest.

Maybe this could only sustain a big giant size issue, but fuck it, it's a better use of page space than that Original X-Men one-shot that ended up being nothing but an advert for yet another Wolverine book! And it would be high key dramatic as fuck. Let's do that thing that often makes for the single best episodes of a TV show or movie - people in a room, around a table, TALKING at one another. There is so much history there, and you wouldn't know it by looking at Krakoa as it is! Scott, Warren and Bobby never even speak Hank's name, and god knows that Warren got shit fuck bugger nothing to do for most of the era once X-Corp died, so let's DO something, like, my god. These people are meant to be family - let's treat them like one.

And hell, while we're at it? Let's settle what happened with Abigail once and for all, too! Are they together? Are they not? What's the story, morning glory? I hate existing in this nowhere space where we don't know shit about fuck!

Option 5: X-Forces Beyond Our Control

All right, so, I've been outlining all of the above, and the assumption has always been that X-Force just ends the way it does in 616, though it's probably a little less homoerotic, Dark Beast probably just bites it at Logan's hands and it's all as uncritical as Percy's normal work.

Well, what if X-Force were good, actually?

What if we leverage some old history?

Bring Beast in as a supporting cast member for X-Force once Dark Beast, their Director, goes rogue.

Let's explore and unpack Sage and Hank's relationship - let's look at the way that Xavier wronged them both, made them both child soldiers, brought their genius to bear, left them emotionally unprepared for the future they faced.

Let's unpack Hank's lingering resentment over the choice that Sage made for him, that saved his life but 'trapped' him in the feline form for years.

Let's unpack Sage's jealousy and confusion over Hank being Charles' favourite, let's take the old man to task, let's see where this goes.

Hell, while we're at it, let's even do something with Colossus, and dive into Hank's guilt over Piotr's taking of the Legacy Virus cure so many years ago. Does Piotr even realise Hank felt that way, realise that he feels he probably killed Piotr? Does he forgive him? Does Hank forgive himself?

And then we lock in. Beast vs. Dark Beast. The final confrontation. It's been brewing since 1996, and it's about time we settled it.

So, those are my thoughts on what Beast COULD have been up to Krakoa, instead of being stuck in a 100 issue long diatribe about how 'Kissinger Was Bad, Mmkay?' by a sub-par writer. I also think that while you could choose one of these options, it's not out of the question to do ALL of them, if you really wanted to maximise your Beast per year values. They're not exactly mutually exclusive, if you think about it!

Hopefully that answers your question, friend!

[ronearoundblindly]

Hello bestie! I was just thinking about how 'Superhero AU' isn't usually something the non-Steve CE Babes get to partake in. What do you think everyone's superpowers might be?

My mind is awash with possibilities, I can't wait to see what you come up with!

This. THIS was so unbelievably fun I could answer it in like 12 hours, wow. Honestly, I'm just sooooo glad you made this throwaway comment yesterday because my brain went brrrr and never quit! Love ya. Magical. No notes. And no warnings just fun!

James Mace - Mind Control

My beautiful, practical babe, bless. Mace is forever trying to choose the best, most efficient path forward, and he is endlessly irritated by people who argue with him or can't see that. If he could only tweak their mind to see his reasoning, everything would go a lot smoother and faster. Mace would love to have that control, and I truly think he would not abuse that power...much.

Curtis Everett - Super Strength

Curtis is keeping it simple--he'd like to pummel bad people. The end.

Sure, he can use unflagging, inhuman strength to help a lot, but the first and real goal is to stop those making terrible choices on behalf of those who cannot choose. Curtis has that violent side. He needs to let it out in a positive and beneficial way.

Jimmy Dobyne - Invisibility

He has a manually intensive job that doesn't require much intelligence, but I think Jimmy would love spying in a meaningful way. He's halfway there already, being invited to and blending in at upper crust parties, so why not gather up some info that can be used to stop those manipulative people from profiting off those like him, huh? There's a small part of this that is Jimmy simply not wishing to be seen sometimes, and every once in a while he'd like to not be found at 5am to start working. Let the man sleep in once or twice, jeez...

Johnny Storm - X-ray Vision

Ok, even I have to laugh at this one, but I also had to think about Johnny the longest! At first it hit me that maybe he'd still want to fly, but since he was already a pilot of all sorts, that might not be necessary. Then I considered he'd want to manipulate things like Sue, but nah, that seemed too...indirect for him??

Finally, I decided that there's an ability Johnny may have been hoping for since he was a boy--he'd like to see through walls. Yeah, he wanted to check out girls in the locker room for a while, or he'd like to win tons at a casino by seeing what cards are coming up. Then I kept having this idea he'd be more like Iron Man with Jarvis's heads-up display?? Again, weird, I know, but Johnny is military and NASA trained. He's a pilot and was supposed to be an explorer, so wouldn't it be awesome for him to see beyond barriers!!! It's sorta perfect, no?

Jake Jensen - Control of Machines

Duh. He's already trying this IRL, so of course Jake wants to innately have machines do anything he desires. Pretty sure he's first on the waitlist for every new 'doll' robot anyway. This power would practically mean he could make his own perfect woman, and he could remain as awkward as he likes lol.

Lloyd Hansen - Mind Control

Big shock--people annoy Lloyd. His life would be a lot easier if everybody just did what he said, no questions asked, and with no regard for their safety...especially since Lloyd has no regard for their safety. He doesn't care. He would absolutely abuse this power. That is the whole point.

Ari Levinson - Teleportation

Seems like the type of impatient who get an order or an idea and needs to get started now. Let's go. He needs to be in another part of the city? the country? the world? Well then why isn't he there yet? He needs to extract people from danger? What are we waiting for?! Blink: he's there. Blink: he's back. Person: safe. Object: recovered. What's next?

Ransom Drysdale - Invisibility

Basically so he can steal stuff he wants and mess with people, but Ran is also good at gathering information to use against his family people. Whatever power you give him, he's using it selfishly, end of story.

Andy Barber - Time Manipulation

Being able to move around a crime scene before anything can disturb it would be great, but being able to rewind what happened? maybe even stop it? That's ideal. I think in a way Andy is tired of helping to get justice after something terrible has happened. He would thrive with a preventative power.

Steve Rogers - Healing

This one almost feels like a giveaway because he could have saved his mother from TB, and Steve would obviously have never wished for a damaging power. He won't even carry a gun for goodness sake, and while he is absolutely there to fight bad guys, hitting, injuring, or taking down bad guys directly PROTECTS GOOD PEOPLE. He doesn't want anyone to die, actually. Steve would just show up at a different hospital everyday and clear the place out. That's like his dream job.

Bucky Barnes - Telekinesis

He admires the magical abilities of, say, Gandalf in The Hobbit & LOTR, and while I guarantee he'd totally show up at a crazy shrine school in freaking Tibet to silently study magic for years, Bucky would also just...love to be able to move stuff with his mind. He was a sniper in the army and as Winter Soldier, so distance from the thing he's affecting has always been a goal. Bucky would totally enjoy a sort of 'hands off' ability.

Thank you for asking!

A/N: I would be VERY INTERESTED to know what powers you think these guys would want/have, so please share your thoughts!!

[Main Masterlist; Who Would... Masterlist; Ko-Fi]

@supraveng @patzammit @whiskeytangofoxtrot555 @yiiiikesmish @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory @brandycranby @buckysprettybaby @ellethespaceunicorn @late-to-the-party-81 @bigtreefest @mistressmkay @astheskycries @veryprairieberry @bitchy-bi-trash @rogersbarber @blogbog710 @yenzys-lucky-charm @thiquefunlover63

[angst-and-fajitas]

more notes on the political ramifications of UI avatars within the cloud

at first when we saw the Cloud in s2 episode 7, I kinda sighed because it felt like watching Belle again lol (I didn't really enjoy that movie, but that's a different topic)

BUT Pantheon's politics and philosophy are so much more developed that it, perhaps inadvertantly, assigns a lot more meaningI think in the cloud, all avatars are kinda a political statement, for everyone. Whether intentional or not, it reflects your attitude towards humanity, and where you feel you exist in relevance to humanity.

We'll focus on the admins here at first:

On a surface level, the three admins are all cultural references. Fairy godmother lady is...fairy godmother; benevolent, kind, pro-human. TAE-O (big head), is a Wizard of Oz reference; powerful, authoritative. Monk dude is a monk; objective, enlightened, neutral.

On the next level, however, the avatars represent how an individual sees themselves in relation to humanity. More humanoid avatars generally show a UI is more in-touch with their "humanity", seeing themselves as still human despite the shift, or at least still connected to humanity.

Fairy godmother has the most humanoid avatar of the admins, essentially just a slightly cartoony human, and she sees humans as "respected ancestors" and still family. She still has ties to humanity.

Monk dude also has a humanoid body, but altered. There's no face on his model, reflecting a voluntary giving up of personal identity, and there's focus on his eyeball thingies, which adds a further focus on analysis and objectivity.

TAE-O is just a head. His is the most divorced of the admins from humanity--rejection of the body in favor of focus on the intellect as the core of the self. However, he is still a human head, which on a more meta level reflects his inability to still let go of human ways of thinking. (RE: my post about MIST and the UIs repeating the discrimination of the humans before them)

The same story goes for the rest of the UIs we see in the background--there's a clear visual gap between UIs with inhuman avatars and UIs with very human avatars--those who still see themselves as human, and those who believe they have evolved beyond that. Some of it is also just having fun with it like changing up a pfp, but that political core remains. Take Ellen and Waxman for another example--despite being very fast-living UIs, they still see themselves as human and are connected to the physical world and their old lives.

Ellen's family is all still in the physical world, after all, so it provides an anchoring point for her that holds her to her humanity. Waxman has made mild alterations to his avatar (surfer bro lol) but has very much the same effect as well.

But yeah, to sum up my thoughts, it does appear that UI avatars within the cloud represent a UIs personal alignment about human-UI politics and relationships by displaying their own individual view on their humanity or lack thereof

[nadg-ttrpg]

Controversial opinion (?)

The magnus archive role playing game (TMARPG) is a good TTRPG. But it's not a good Magnus Archive TTRPG, it's a good TTRPG that happens to be set in a Magnus Archive universe. Hear me out. It's published by Monte Cook Games, using their Cypher System. The Cypher is a good system, used in hits like Numenera or The strange, but it's not adapted to play a Magnus Archive game. They tried really hard to make it work, and they made very interesting changes to the base system. From the health tracking making you more fragile to the eponymous Cyphers being more like abilities than magic objects like in other games. And honestly, yeah, it works! It's a great investigation game, cthulhu style, allowing you to play a crew of archival assistants or a similar group, trying to survive unspeakable horrors and maybe stop rituals. But. BUT.

Magnus Archives, the podcast, isn't just about the investigation. It's an office comedy, and a tragedy, and - most important to me - a reflection on morality, mortality and humanity. It's a podcast that, to quote a tumblr post I saw once, "spend the first 100 episodes showing you irredeemable inhuman monsters... and the 100 next asking you to change your mind on them by showing the protagonist is becoming one". It's a story talking of powers beyond human understanding, but mostly of the humans stuck with them. Asking how far you'll go for a taste of power, how far you'll go to survive, how far you'll go to protect the ones you love. Showing times and times again that getting the power you crave will divorce you from humanity, and that this pull is hard to resist. And that to stay somewhat human, you need anchors, friends, connections. And frankly, there is nothing in the TMARPG to encourage this kind of story. I agree, this is mostly a me problem. My standard is that when I play a licensed RPG I want the original story to be possible with the rules as written. Maybe this is too much to ask. I genuinely don't know. But it's the rule by which I judge a game. When I play an Alien TTRPG, I want the monster horror and the PC betrayals to be encouraged by the rules. When I play a Lord of the Ring TTRPG I want mechanics for travel, honor and temptation. When I play a My Little Pony TTRPG, I want the game to help me with the magic and the friendship. And when I play TMARPG, I'd like the rules to encourage the same themes as the podcast. I could do this freestyle with the rules as is, GM my way out of this, request the help of the players with their backstory and character arcs. Or I could turn to an other TTRPG. Enter Unknown Armies (UA), an occult game about broken people conspiring to fix a broken world - sounds familiar? It wasn't made with TMA in mind, it was published before the podcast even existed. It also have it's flaws, I heard it described as "taking itself too seriously" many times. But despite this, UA drinks at the same source than TMA.

They both embrace a Jungian philosophy gosh that sounds so pedantic, the idea that the collective unconscious of the humanity create archetypes, powers, Fears. They both feature relationships as both something that needs to be cared for and link to humanity. They both have heavy use of trauma and mental breakdown, depicted as realistically as possible. Actually, UA link them directly to your stats. Witnessed violence? You can react either by being hardened and unfazed by it, or traumatised and deeply troubled by it. This will make it either easier for you to fight, or to dodge. I love it. They both have a supernatural system where you can only get those powers by acting in ways that make you an outcast, be it by being an arsonist, someone living their life through a camera lens tape recorder anyone?, or even someone fascinated by the flesh and blood. They both have weird artifacts. They both have ways to become avatars. And you can actually have a power imbalance betwen the PCs! You can have an avatar and an "antechrist's plus one" is the same party. They are made for each other. TLDR: Unknown Armies is a better Magnus Archive TTRPG than The Magnus Archives Role Playing Game. TMARPG is a good TTRPG, but not a game that actually uses the themes of the podcast. If you want to play an investigation team cthulhu-style, by all mean, play TMARPG. If you want to play a tragedy about inhumanity and power, play Unknown Armies. The Magnus Archives is a podcast written by Jonathan Sims and distributed under a CC NC-SA-BY 4.0 license. Thanks for listening.

[valenteal]

What is Arahabaki? What is Corruption? How do they differ from each other and For the Tainted Sorrow?

Ok so Chuuya theory coming up. I’ve been idly toying with this for a while, never really dedicated a ton of brain power to it but I think it’s come together in my subconscious to post at this point.

So. Chuuya might be a clone. This is a genuine possibility. This doesn’t mean he’s inhuman, it’s specifically stated that Chuuya is genetically and physically indistinguishable from a normal human, which in my mind means that he is human, even if he wasn’t born naturally. I don’t necessarily think he has to be a clone but I’m not ruling it out.

Here’s the thing though: N and the other Arahabaki researchers didn’t just copy the original experiment that created Verlaine. N thought that the whole thing was monstrous even with his own incredibly skewed morals. So there’s something different about Chuuya.

Here’s how I see it: Chuuya’s handed over to the Arahabaki team by his father who is also a military doctor. His original ability is unknown, somehow affecting inanimate objects and causing them to glow and under some unknown circumstances he could create a singularity from a single coin. Incredibly powerful. But limited by the fact that the human body and brain has fail safes to keep us from hurting ourselves. Humans don’t use all of our physical potential because doing so could lead to severe damage to ourselves. Like what happens when Chuuya uses Corruption.

So Chuuya’s original ability is turned into a singularity, changing its very nature and manifestation, as shown by the change of color from white to red. I have multiple theories on what it originally was but I won’t get into that right now. The point is: Chuuya’s gravity manipulation is a result of the singularity housed inside him, which we know because Verlaine has the same gravity control that Chuuya does and it’s unlikely that they started with the same Gift. Somehow, using their singularities, Chuuya and Verlaine are able to warp space and time. Because that’s all gravity is, the curvature of space time around mass and energy. The singularity is under control and can either be turned on and off at will (unlikely) or is somehow contained in another plane of existence that only the Gifted who created it has access too (my preferred theory). Idk what that other plane of existence is, but for now I’m thinking of it as a pocket dimension. I think it exists in the same space as Chuuya like an aura that doesn’t interact with anything around it unless Chuuya wants it to. It can’t be seen or felt by things in this dimension but if anything were to somehow get into its dimension it would behave similarly to a supermassive Shwarzschild black hole. Or maybe Chuuya’s is Kerr and Verlaine’s is a Shwarzschild… actually yeah that based on their fight.

But what about those limitations of the human body? What about Corruption? What about the Persona Model?

I think that the Persona Model is akin to dissociative identity disorder, in that it’s a separate consciousness housed in Chuuya’s mind, but unlike DID it’s unnatural and doesn’t originate from Chuuya’s psyche. It’s a mental state created by the researchers that allows Chuuya’s mind and body to bypass all limitations imposed upon it by basically turning off huge portions of Chuuya’s brain. The lines of code thing Verlaine talked about, the Persona Model, exists in Chuuya in a very different and much less sophisticated way, because Chuuya doesn’t need an artificial intelligence when he already has a natural intelligence, unlike Verlaine.

So to answer the questions asked in the title: Arahabaki is Chuuya, the code name given to him and the research team behind him. Corruption is the artificial mental state he enters to gain access to the full potential of the singularity. Arahabaki is all of Chuuya himself as well as the people who created him while Corruption is one specific aspect of Chuuya created by those people, and For the Tainted Sorrow was his original ability. I say that because I don’t think he has ever actually called his gravity manipulation For the Tainted Sorrow, just Gravity Manipulation, which is actually so sad to me.

[hummingjay]

What's your inspiration for creating SKUR? And does she have a corrupted form? Also I never heard of the great skua bird before until I saw SKUR, so thank you for expanding my bird knowledge a little.

SPY HELLO! Okay so she was based off a theme before anything else. Physical inspiration came after. What's the perfect soldier? I don't mean what's the best you get, I mean perfect. What's the ultimate soldier that every power wants? Well, we're kinda stuck because humans are not and never shall be the perfect soldier. We have these built-in things called moral compasses and personal ambitions. We have needs. We have flesh that takes time to heal and tires out even when we have energy to spare. We can't fight forever.

Well, take away the limitations of your humanity. That's Skua. She's obedient, she's tough, she's willing to die for any order, she doesn't need to eat for months at a time, she can source her food with ease, she feels no fatigue (given enough fuel), she doesn't tire, and she's terrifying. She obeys every order and is utterly indifferent to violence. She's the perfect soldier.

Well, I wanted to lean into the theme of perfection, and that meant leaning into the theme of inhumanity but still human. She's a replika, a psuedo-human if you will, but she's been stripped of her humanity, not just in flesh but in mind. So there's that.

But I like contrast. So I worked with Skuas being gentle, kind souls who love and adore and are fascinated by the world around them. Their favorite hobby is to just observe things and see what they do. They won't cause harm without command and will avoid others for their benefit. They like flowers and speak softly. They listen to Eules sing. I later decided that the gestalt template (may need to work on her later) was a gunner in an aircraft crew who was very loyal, very strong-willed, and very good with machine guns. They were also really kind. There's a monstrosity of a creature and all she wants to do is see others happy and play in fields. But instead she's stuck in a perpetual life of violence and blood. Does she know this is wrong? does she know she's only a tool?

I think it's a fun theme and I tried to embody that. A few other inspirations was that skulls are cool (I saw one art piece featuring a skull-like head for a robot too) and helldivers. I really really liked the machine guns and heavy armor combo and thought of juggernauts. A kill me. try. You have one shot and you can't make it count. kinda vibe. So she's big (not tall. Starlings/storches/falkes have elongated legs. Skuas are BIG) and uses HMGs (heavy, (non-man-portable) machine guns). Everything about her is defiance of humanity's limits. Her guns cannot be carried normally by a gestalt, she runs on corpses half the time, and her armor (which would normally be too heavy to use) is impervious to most firearms.

And yeah. that's it (sowwy for ranting). Barbaric defiance of creation and humanity, contrasting softness, and juggernautism (not a word btw).

(A few other references include the juggernaut from those old strike force heroes flash games)

(I actually have the original idea in my notes. It reads "heavy skinless replika oc". The Idea was that her skinlessness signified her lost humanity)

I wish I could give you a corrupted form but alas I'm still working on it, letting concepts work their way through.

Oh! I chose Great Skuas because they're kinda large and aggressive. Turns out it was a great choice because they hunt other birds and also have a harsh, objectively ugly call. It goes well with SKUR units so I'm happy.

[numberonetacostan]

Object anatomy confuses me.

I think there would be certain traits unique to certain objects/types of objects, like plant objects changing with the season or metal objects getting rusted or food objects being able to get mouldy (I like to go with the hjfone interpretation that they don't mold over time like actual food but can catch mold from something)

Speaking of mold do things like Taco's fillings have to be replaced even if she didn't catch mold or do they just stay the same all the time?

There's also things like OJ being sick when he doesn't have orange juice which would would probably apply to any object like that (also other things like Clocks feeling like that when the time on them isn't right?)

Do they have organs? I mean box was able to drown but that could just be her being cardboard and getting too soggy to swim back up (possibly) I don't think when they were created Mephone really had things like organs in mind especially since he doesn't have any.

Speaking of, Mephone didn't really have any interaction with any objects other than Cobs so I wouldn't be surprised if, compared to the same objects from the outside, the contestants are different or wrong in some way.

That could be in gijinkas just those made by Mephone4 being off in some way, not immediate in your face but in the way of if an outsider looked hard enough and/or spent enough time around one of them they'd pick up on the fact that there's something up.

Hi Flower!!^^ Welcome back, and thank you for sending in an ask!! :)

Object anatomy is certainly an interesting subject! It would vary a lot based on what they're made of, what type of object they are, what climate they live in, and so many other factors.

I also like the hfjone interpretation of how mold works! As for Taco, I like to think her toppings stay fresh on their own, but only if they're inside her. If she were to take one of her tomatoes out and just leave it, it would rot like a normal tomato. But as long as the topping is in her shell, it is affected by the same stay-fresh effect as her shell is. She'd probably like to replace them every now and then, but it's not a must.

That could apply to a plethora of other objects, yes! Tea Kettle could feel unwell without tea in her, Lifering could feel unwell if he deflates, etc.

I don't believe they have organs. They function like they have organs, but they do not actually have them, yeah? I am not good at biology, uh, hm. Something with their nervous systems, maybe? I saw a great post about it a while back about them being the arms/legs/faces/black parts that take over a regular object and use it as their body, so I tend to go with that idea? I haven't been able to find the post in quite some time, unfortunately.

Yes yup indeed very much so I have thought this for a while. There is something off and inhumane about all of them in gijinka forms, some more obvious than others. Taco? Sharp teeth, claw-like nails, slit pupils, pointy ears, the works, sine Mephone made her to be the big bad villain, so it makes sense for her to have been made less human-y. As for OJ? He's on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. His skin has a slight orange tint, and his blood is orange juice, but no one can really tell from the outside, yeah? He looks like a normal guy. Still, normal people would have an "off" feeling about the contestants, if they met them. I like to think this sort of thing increases as more contestants are made as well. Unusual natural hair colours, appearances, abilities, etc. The season 1 cast would be the most normal, most of them pretty easily passing as regular, if quirky, humans, but much of the season 3 cast not being able to do so quite as well. Candle can do her inner flame thingy, The Floor comes out of the ground, Goo is a human-shaped glop of goo, etc. Season 2 cast falls somewhere in the middle. I like this subject can you tell?

[mike-haters-dni]

Scalding, unnecessary take that I'm going to use as an excuse to yap about my hyperfixation characters more than anything, but El's character is actually impossible to stick into coffee shop fanfiction No Supernatural Shit AUs. That's Jane you're writing about. Jane and El are not the same person. At all. And like, Jane is interesting to think about, don't get me wrong. I have thought about Jane. I love Jane. She's adorable and vaguely autistic. But Jane != Eleven.

Eleven is the way she is almost entirely because of her experience/trauma of growing up in the lab and having supernatural murder powers. Her main characters traits are being a self-sacrificing hero and not being sure who she is due to the fact she grew up in an isolated sterile inhuman environment. Unless you're directly translating those things into something unsupernatural (like growing up in a fucked up cult or something and like fighting her way out and now she'll fight to protect other people from similar experiences or something idk) you're writing about Jane the normal gorl who got to grow up with a normal personality in a normal world. And like, you can do that. It's fine it's fandom do whatever u want. But personally, the first thing I come up with when I birth an AU is what crazy powers and fucked up backstory we give Eleven here. Also how do we make her and everyone else really fucking cool but that...might be beside the point idk.

The powers have to basically ruin or have had ruined her life at one point. They have to be a curse that she either reclaims or gets rid of at the end. If she isn't tortured she isn't Eleven Stranger Things lmao

And then yeah yeah my next step is to figure out how Mike AND THE OTHERS OK but mostly Mike get involved in this. Which brings me to my next point: Jane and Mike have no real reason to talk to each other. Mike x Jane is just Normal Gorl x Normal Boy which is like, fine sure if that's what you want, but also you kinda just erased everything interesting about their dynamic. You wanna know what makes El and Mike's relationship so compelling? Objectively? I'm objectively right about everything I'm about to say here? Ok their dynamic is this: Eleven is the most important person in the world, and Mike is the only boy who will ever love her. And yeah that second one sounds really sad but 1. yeah it kinda is :) 2. its not really true that's just what El thinks which is like a major theme for her character TO ME, her underestimating how 'normal' she is esp in her later years 3. it also is kinda true because he's the only boy romantically interested in her who actually understands and experienced all the supernatural/lab trauma bullshit and is actively fighting beside her through the plot of the show, and 4. he's literally perfect and also the only boy she'll ever love and need so it all works out.

And to explain the first one, I mean, you know she's saved the world twice right? She kinda literally is the most important person in the world considering its up to her to stop the apocalypse probably in the end? But its not the being important exactly that makes Mike love her ok, that's more of a meta character thing. Like she doesn't have to literally be the key to saving the world and the most powerful being in the universe. Its more that she has to have something really special about her that draws Mike specifically to her and binds him to her permanently and inseparably and he belongs to her forever and ever and they die in each other's arms. Like she deserves. In canon I imagine objectively and correctly that it went like this: Mike is a natural outcast collector and protector due to his pervasive unconscious need to be needed and his fear of losing the few people who like him, who meets the ultimate outcast girl who literally has nothing and needs him in a very real way, and this gives him an excuse to just pour his entire self into her, fulfilling one of his deepest interpersonal needs. The best part is that she's super selfless and amazing and she loves him the same right back so its actually a beautiful thing they get going. Basically the idea of being anything less than perfect for her is so sad and horrible due to how fucked her life was that it drives the already caretaking Mike into overdrive to make her happy. Not at the cost of him still being an individual person, mind you. But that's the vibe. Also let me just say, all the self-sacrificing vibes and obsession and desperation can become toxic under certain circumstances and that is absolutely a feature not a bug. Sorry you don't like watching your faves yell at each other but we are not the same.

Anyway what the fuck was I talking about? AUs? Yeah ok so when translating Mike (AND THE OTHERS...and the others) into other stories there's more flexibility u kno because he's mostly just Some Guy. He really just needs (TO ME) an excuse to be fighting with Eleven (she has to be fighting something with the powers I know you gave her). He shouldn't be directly involved with whatever gave her the powers but he should generally know of and be somewhat affected by it. Or become aware of it/involved with it over time. Like in the show. You get it. Honestly his only real consistent character traits are being kinda moody and being the leader of the party in whatever vague or not way. And being intelligent. Like he has to be leader for a reason. I guess that's a decent base for a character right there.

oh right side note: you have to do something fun with her name. like she was basically branded Eleven by the freak that gave her the powers so u gotta take that energy and translate it into another branded name that has el in it because she needs to get the nickname ofc. unless its a cyberpunk au in which case Eleven is a pretty normal name and she can just go by that lmao.

So the point ig is Jane and Mike break up when they go away to different colleges and don't talk to each other again until their next high school reunion, while Mike and Eleven are...well you should know by now.

[hrodvitnon]

Just got out of my first viewing (spoilers so tag accordingly)

Yeah that was the most ridiculous shit ive ever seen and i had a blast lmfao.

--

To get the few negatives out of the way: Syclla and Tiamat got COOKED. That's crazy. Especially Tiamat. I had no idea she was in the movie and like choked on popcorn when they said her name. First onscreen appearance and she dies in like 3 seconds... sucks to be her. But honestly... this is probably one of those moments where Fan Content messes with the perception of a canon thing, at least for me. It hurts a lot more because of the emotional attachment from stuff like Ozymandias's story, Shamhat, and other adjacent stuff. If I had never seen those and watched her die I'd probably think "oh she had a cool design, but whatever". But yeah, my only serious complaint is her being shafted and I don't even really think I can call it objective because there was definitely an attachment there.

Ok besides that this might be my new personal favorite Monsterverse. Could be recency bias but I don't think so. Every human is at the very least entertaining. Everything Trapper did in this movie made me crack up, hearing Bernie say the words 'Discord chat' and 'Ghidorahstan64' (i stg this was a callout of some kind) onscreen gave me terminal whiplash, and although Jia and Andrew's story was sorta surface level, it was still endearing. I'd rather have a good human storyline, sure, but if we can't have that I'll settle for entertaining.

Here I thought Suko was gonna be an annoying marketing ploy to sell toys... I physically snorted in the theatre when Kong slammed him into that one ape. MVP of the film lmao. Mothra was... also there. Yeah, it really shows that she was a last minute addition. But DAMN she sent Godzilla ROLLING with a single attack. Speaking of, I don't think the Tia-Zilla form was as underutilized as I've heard people say it was. Especially that new Atomic Breath effect. Holy eargasm.

Oh man though, Shimo and Skar are fantastic. Skar hits the same beat as like a Celestial Dragon or Vladimir Harkonnen with way more grace than I would've expected from a big monkey. They go shockingly dark with his treatment of the ape-slaves and Shimo... especially with that female ape insinuation.

Holy shit poor Shimo, man. I honestly thought the Skar controlling her aspect would be kinda downplayed and just regular mind control, not genuine torture of some kind. I love that they let her have characterization by resisting him at every chance she gets, and that the pain control isn't always active (i'm assuming that's the insinuation of keeping her all chained and behind magma, it depowers and restrains her when Skar's not actively using her), further insinuating she gets merciful breaks from hellish enslavement only to be yanked back into it whenever Skar needs something turned into a popsicle. I think my favorite moment in the film is right after Suko shatters the crystal and the light blue luminescence fades to reveal her actual eyes for the first time. Eyes are used throughout the film to show subtle humanizing features, like Godzilla falling asleep in Rome, Kong's wide eyes when he sees his kin, and shock when Shimo realizes she's free. Having her eyes glowing the whole film makes her seem way more monstrous and inhuman, so when that suddenly goes away she starts getting framed as just an animal. Also her eyes are pretty. Also, I lied, that wasn't my favorite part of the film. My favorite part was Kong giving her chin scratches and that cute half-hug. This needs to be normalized. He needs to hug Godzilla next film. I will pay someone a king's ransom for this to happen. Final little detail, I like that Kong doesn't do his final roar from on her back but standing next to her, on the same level as all the other apes. He doesn't look to elevate himself over her or everyone else like Skar did, which is a great touch.

Also also also: Think it's time for a Doug solo film where he tries to steal all the Titans' food. Make it happen Legendary.

Much agreement here! I'd love for a solo Mothra MonsterVerse film to really capitalize on her lore and give her stuff to do (without dying at the end preferably); maybe establish some connection between the Chen family and Jia. Also, I need a little shot of Mothra going to visit Godzilla while he's sleeping in the Colosseum and just cuddle up to the big lug.

Andrews and Jia were a welcome breath of fresh air after GvK reversed Mark's characterization and Madison became... that. There was still some slight tension between Jia not feeling like she belongs and Andrews wanting to do right by her, even if it means possibly giving her up, only for Jia to go "you're my mom, you're my home, stop being dramatic". You love to see it.

Adding to the Doug solo film idea... Shimo adopts him because he's cute and she thinks his shenanigans are hilarious. Let us have fun wholesome times!

[sunshowersanddandelionwine]

YOU ASKED AND YOU SHALL RECIEVE

(this is going to be Long so prepare yourself XD)

Murderbot Diaries:

I have no idea if you've ever read the murderbot diaries books by martha wells (which, if you havent and have any sort of interest in science fiction PLEASE READ THEM THEYRE SO FUN) but the character of secunit is SO ghost coded its not even funny

for those unaware: secunit is short for security unit, which in the world of murderbot are partially artificial and partially human constructs created as cheap labor. secunits are considered property rather than people, despite being totally sentient. they are not, however, autonomous. secunits have a thing called a "governor module" that will essentially fry their brains if they do anything to go against the company/their client's orders. secunits can be repaired and reissued to new clients, so the whole thing is just super fucked up

anyway, back to the au. ghost, like murderbot, manages to disable his governor module somehow and is able to act completely autonomously. however, he's been so Fucked Up by you know... being a secunit, that he doesnt exactly know how to be autonomous or his own person, so he just. Doesnt. and he continues to protect clients as they come up, doing his best to hide the fact that hes able to act freely.

enter the 141 survey crew, who are his latest group of clients that hes been tasked with protecting. its a much smaller group than he's used to, only seven members compared to dozens and dozens, but that means he's the only secunit sent along which is for the better tbh. the members of the survey include laswell, price, gaz, soap, farah, alex, and roach.

for once in ghost's life, he's not treated as a looming threat or an inanimate object, but an actual person with thoughts and opinions of his own. and he Does Not Like This At All.

at least, not at first. but he finds his walls start getting eroded by these idiotic humans and their idiotic tendencies to make the worst possible choices. (especially a certain engineer with a taste for explosive materials, but thats neither here nor their)

of course, something has to go wrong, as it always does. there are two other survey teams on the planet - kortac and shadow company. and according to a message sent by one of them (not sure which yet lmao), something is hunting them.

and soon, the 141 is going to be hunted to

im trying not to directly copy the plot of all systems red (the first murderbot novella) so yeah!

Muzzled:

this is going under the read more because its getting too long lmao

cw for mild mouth trauma and general blood/violence

SO this one is fun.

ghost is still part of the 141, alongside gaz and price. he's a werewolf (obviously XD) and somehow, a mark gets the drop on him while he's shifted into his full wolf form

he wakes up in a tiny iron cage in a dank basement, with a burning pain across his snout, jaw, and neck. his captors managed to muzzle and collar him with pure silver, keeping him as weak and docile as possible. hes still fucking dangerous as shit, but this way they can at least handle him.

his captors, a group of hunter/poachers, have a shitton of other supernaturals trapped in the basement with him. they come down to gloat, and with them is a strange man. he doesnt talk smack like the others. he moreso tries to blend into the shadows and disappear. but ghost cant tear his eyes away from the bright blue eyes lurking in the darkness. or the thick iron band locked around his throat.

the man is clearly inhuman, but he cant - or wont - speak. hes tasked with taking care of the "feral wolf" (ghost) for the duration of his stay. from the precise wording of the orders, ghost knows exactly what the man in.

fair folk. something powerful, too, given the iron bands around his wrists as well.

days of ghost plotting his escape pass, and ghost and the fae start to come to some sort of wordless alliance. they take care of each other as best they can from their relative cages, finding solace in each other that they cant find anywhere else.

something happens later down the line, maybe gaz and price are getting to close to the operations, but the poachers decide that its time to cut their losses and skip town. they order the fae to "take care of the wolf". ghost's heart drops, because he knows that a fae cant disobey an order given by the keeper of their true name.

but in the poachers' haste to get things wrapped up, they made a mistake. they left the order unclear and open ended.

and the fair folk always take notice of loopholes.

the fae unlocks ghost's cage and releases him from the silver. ghost, rather than just go up and slaughter the entire organization himself, decides to be extra and lets loose every single other creature trapped down there with him. they all go and massacre the ring, but ghost doesnt. because the fae collapsed on the floor of the basement, dropping his glamour in the process. and the sight is grisly.

he's skin and bones, barely any muscle or fat on him at all. the iron ring around his neck and the iron bands around his wrists hang loose, showing the thick rings of scar tissue on pale skin. but the worst is his mouth.

coarse, rough thread seals his mouth shut, the wounds red and angry and irritated. locking the fae's strongest weapon away, keeping him firmly under the whims of his captors. he may have had the freedom of movement that ghost lacked, but he was as much a prisoner here as the rest.

ghost somehow manages to get them all out safe, and he finally gets the fae's name. his true name. not the silly little nickname he gave him in his head while watching him clean the basement day in and day out (soap).

for the first time in months, simon and johnny speak to one another.

there you go, hope you enjoyed! @bl-nk-sp-ce

[themightymoose]

I'll take your response as an invitation to continue :)

Hatchetfield characters & their potential relationships with the Fears: Paul Matthews & The Stranger

Gave it some thought and decided on the Stranger. To elaborate on my previous explanation, the Stranger is the fear of the uncanny, and manifests as almost-but-not-quite-right-and/or-human things such as wax statues, mannequins, taxidermy, masks, and also circuses.

It also is often tied to skin: skin is sort of symbolic of someone's identity, and because the Fears operate on nightmare logic, tearing away someone's skin is akin to tearing away their identity. Like, that is literally what happens, manifestations of the Stranger love to flay people alive and remove even the concept of identity from them.

And it runs DEEP. I'm pretty sure they don't just forget who they are, they become literally unable to distinguish between people, including themselves. Someone can speak, and they won't be able to tell if it was themselves or someone else who said it. I think it also applies to objects, they won't be able to tell where they are or what something is. They could be fully convinced that they are a sentient pile of rocks. They won't be able to see themselves as people, and barely even as things.

The Stranger's ritual (meant to bring it into existence) is called the Unknowing, and that's basically what it does. Given ALL of this, the Stranger clearly ties into identity (specifically the lack or loss of it), and even relates to roles that people can be easily changed to fit, willingly or otherwise.

So, now that I've broken down the Stranger, I'm gonna explain why I think it suits Paul so well. Paul is a Normal Guy. Aside from disliking musicals, that's his whole thing. He's just A Guy. That is his role in the world, and he's perfectly okay with that (or maybe not given his "I've never been happy" line in Let It Out). And then Pokey decides to make him His leading man.

In TGWDLM, Pokey steadily strips everyone of their individuality, and turns them into almost-but-not-quite-right versions of themselves that come off as creepy and uncanny. And He does all this to torment Paul, to slowly break him down and isolate him, until he is forcibly turned as well. (There is also the theory that Paul became the new brain after destroying the meteor, which I think makes sense.)

Paul was made into something not himself and forced into a role he never wanted and actively Feared. Because of Pokey, he was preyed upon by the Stranger and eventually unwillingly served it in the end. Maybe even became an Avatar of the Stranger.

Avatars are people who give themselves to a Fear (willingly or unwillingly) and become something inhuman that serves it. They often die in the process of Becoming and come back Wrong, forgetting their humanity and why they were ever scared at all. The Fear is their God, and they worship and feed it.

(I was gonna do more than just Paul, but I ended up rambling. The Fears in TMA are just so fascinating. A friend of mine described it like those icberg analysis things, where it seems simple on the surface, but the more you dig and really analyze, the more you find. And it doesn't just relate to TMA either, it totally makes sense that the fear of the uncanny comes from that lack of identity. The Fears are just so poetic and yet literal at the same time and I could ramble for hours about all the themes and depths and how they apply to the real world and ahshkdggaisbdk)

Hell yeah more TMA/Hatchetfield >:D

I honestly love Paul connecting with the one that's whole thing is identity/the fear of losing it

I honestly don't have a lot to say, this is already perfect

[liviavanrouge]

Drago Lore pt 2

Belle: Drago, why didn't you tell us anything?

Drago: Don't wanna think about it...

Wise: I know....but, how did you escape?

Drago: ....Seraph....he was the big brother to us all

Drago: ...it happened so fast...

~~~~~

Drago(?): *Walks with the others, holding Seraph's hand*

Candace: *Sniffles, quietly sobbing as Minnie held her hand, their arms bandaged*

Minnie: *Sobs quietly* I-I want my sister...

Seraph(13): *Looks back at them all, smiling* We're all gonna go home! I swear it! Once our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins hear about what these people done to us, I'm sure they'll have our backs!

Jodie: *Rubs his eyes, sobbing* My parents sold me to them! Several of us were given away for money! We have nobody

Seraph: Then I'll have your backs! Me and whatever family I have left that must've been searching for me!

Seraph: We're gonna get out of here, you'll see- *flinches at the sound of a gunshot, his eyes wide*

Drago: *Turns around curiously*

Onyx: *Stumbles forward, a wound in her head* Se...raph...

Onyx: *Falls over, revealing the scientists and guards behind her*

Seraph: EVERYBODY, RUN!!! SCATTER!! THERE'S EXITS ALL DOWN THIS HALLWAY!!!!!

Candace: *Pulls Minnie, running in a different direction*

Jodie: *Yells in alarm, ducking his head as he bolted into a different hall*

Seraph: *Flares his wings turning them to steel, blocking bullets from hitting several of the retreating kids*

Drago: Seraph...

Seraph: *Grabs Drago's wrist, running down the hallway, his eyes wide*

???: Capture them all! If they fight back, kill them!!!!

Seraph: *Stops at a steel door, quickly turning the wheel to open it*

Drago: Seraph, there's no use...

Seraph: Drago! You may not understand what it means to live but once you find those you cherish more than anything, you'll understand!

Seraph: *Looks at him, smiling* I hope...you find those people that you love so much, you'll destroy everything for them..

Drago: What-

Seraph: *Runs past Drago towards the incoming guards, his eyes narrowed* GO DRAGO!!! DON'T LOOK BACK!!

Drago: *Turns around, his eyes wide* Seraph

Seraph: *Grabs a guard, yelling as several taser sticks zapped him from all sides, his wings turning to steel and slicing their arms off*

Drago: *Flares his wings, flying towards him* SERAPH

Seraph: *Grabs Drago's wrist, tossing him through the door* GO!!!!

Seraph: *Smiles at Drago, watching him fall* You gotta find your family, little guy...

Drago: *Stares at Seraph, his eyes wide as bullet wounds appeared along Seraph's chest, several guards tazing the winged boy down till he couldn't move*

Drago: *Flares his wings, turning away and takes off into the air, tears threatening to fall*

Drago: *Looks down, spotting the other experiments running into the city* They're all okay...except Seraph

Drago: *Closes his eyes, trembling* Seraph, I'll destroy everything...

~~~~~

Drago: *Stares out the window at the rain* Drago has only seen, Candace, Jodie and Minnie since that day....hope everyone else has found family..

Belle: Seraph...he sounded like a great big brother to you all, he sacrificed himself for everyone..

Wise: I'm sorry that you had to witness all of that....

Wise: Experimentation on kids...turning them into beings they don't wish to be, just who were these people to do such an inhumane thing...

Drago: *Shakes his head* Drago does not know but they were awful to all of us, they'd starve us, dehydrate us, poke us with weird objects all for the sake of science

Drago: *Lifts his claws, staring at them* Drago is made from ethereal corruption, they lock me in room and made me succumb to it then turned me into this...

Drago: Drago has no memories from his time as human, only from his time as Drago

Belle: Who named you? Did you name yourself or did Seraph give you all names

Drago: Seraph give names, before Drago I was called Experiment 1022, he named all experiments....

Belle: Sorry that we made you remember all of this...

Wise: Yeah, it's not a good memory to revisit

Drago: No, Drago understands what Seraph meant back then, I has found my family with you both and I wish to stay

Belle: Of course you can stay with us! We wouldn't have it any other way, Drago!

Wise: Yeah, you're family, we enjoy having you around and teaching you new things

Belle: Speaking of which....we haven't shown you hot chocolate yet! It's great for cold and rainy days!

Drago: Hot chocolate?

Wise: *Chuckles* Yeah, wanna try some?

Drago: *Nods, lifting into the air and flying away*

Belle: *Chuckles, hurrying after Drago* Wait up!

Wise: *Walks after them, smiling slightly*

~

???: *Watches from the top of a nearby roof, arms crossed over their chest*

Seraph: *Smiles as the clouds cleared out, a collar around his neck* Found you, Experiment 1022

Seraph: *Lifts a hand to his earpiece* I found him, give me some time and he'll be back in the lab...

Seraph: *Flares his wings and takes off, his eyes narrowed* Now....how do I separate him from them!

@queen-of-twisted

[kekkuda]

Part of the process of recovering from my first psychotic episode has involved revisiting all of the famous gothic horror literature i read and was fascinated by as a preteen and reading Poe has been a constant experience of yeah I’ve been there before buddy and it really does feel like he was ahead of his time in terms of presenting reality as inherently absurd in a way his peers didn’t often touch upon. People often stop their analysis at “Edgar Allan Poe utilizes unreliable narrators a lot” instead of going a bit further to put themselves in the shoes of the characters and asking what it feels like to live in an unreliable reality. Reading Poe stories feels so very melancholic at a moment in my life when I don’t know how to get care for these issues, whether or not I’m actually sound of mind or just convincing myself I’m losing touch with reality-- in other words “faking it.” Ever since the incident moments of joy and curious hobbies have gone from being seen by those around me as quirky hyperfixations to something more sinister and unwell. Others who I thought really cared for my health and safety seem to treat the revelation that I am “losing my mind, no literally. . . please let me tell you what happened” with the if i’m retelling the story of what flavor of soda i picked at the vending machine. It’s so alienating as if being terrified of your own mind and it’s capability to break apart the rules of reality isn’t alienating enough. I think Poe really captures that feeling I get when things are just a bit off until they crescendo into an event that seems massive and tiny and inconsequential all the same. I really can’t describe it because the fear I feel is unlike any other fear I’ve felt and you don’t know it until you’ve felt it and it clicks. Out of curiosity I wanted to see how well H.P. Lovecraft held up or if my distaste for his work was strictly from the knowledge of who the man was in life. The answer is no, it does not. Frankly I find it insulting that H.P. Lovecraft is put at the same level as Poe, far above the tens of Gothic writers that preceded him by decades to nearly a century. . . of whom Lovecraft would openly take influence from just to water down down everything that makes those works interesting. The “indescribable” horrors that Lovecraft describes are paradoxically comprehensible. I’ve had many discussions with my partner about why more grounded surrealist art feels far more surreal and uneasy than art that is comprised of endless “weird” imagery. To keep this topic brief, think something like David Lynch. His films are utterly bizarre compared to your average hollywood blockbuster, sure, but as far as surrealist media goes? His films are very grounded in reality, but that reality feels off and strange in a way that genuinely is indescribable. When I read Lovecraft on the other hand, it feels like he read a lot of gothic literature about the sublime, indescribably transcendent nature of the universe and replaced that with essentially. . . a big scary monster. When Lovecraft writes “indescribable” or other similar words as a descriptor for what his characters see, it feels akin to when 14 year olds discover the SCP wiki and think that the more you write REDACTED or [DATA EXPUNGED] the scarier the object of horror is. It feels lazy when you’re not given any other reason to feel afraid. When I read Dagon it feels like I’m reading an early 2010s creepypasta written by someone who hasn’t been writing long enough to analyze what makes something scary. It genuinely feels like someone trying to write what they think psychosis might be like. His stories are so inhuman (and not in the way he’s trying to achieve) and detached, and I never get the is it real or not feeling I get from older gothic stories dealing with notions of sanity and humanity’s role in the universe. I know the big spooky space creatures are real in the universe of the text, so I don’t really connect the Lovecraftian hero’s lapses of sanity. You don’t see the same tragic decay of mind and body and ill-fated social dynamics that permeate so many of Poe’s stories. I genuinely don’t know what purpose there is to be gained from the oft-quoted declaration that the core of Lovecraft is about uncovering knowledge you aren’t supposed to know. I frankly don’t know how you can separate the art from the artist for HPL when so much of his work seems to pretty clearly match up with antisemitic “secret global society” conspiracy theories that go back centuries upon centuries. Think about it for two seconds: the “terrible knowledge” that gets discovered is typically the existence of some all-powerful cosmic race that seems to hide itself at all costs and could possibly end humanity’s pitiful existence should they so choose to do so. So much of his work involves this utterly unsympathetic view of otherness as an “indescribable threat” in society whereas I think a lot of Poe’s writing really captures the terror of being othered at a time when the treatment of mentally ill and disabled people was at one of its all-time peaks. I might revisit this idea again when I’m not tired as shit but I think in all, Lovecraft feels almost boring. Nothing feels really impressive despite the scale of its horror. In some ways, Poe really feels almost shockingly similar to a lot of postmodern man-vs-reality narratives, whereas Lovecraft feels like he takes a lot of the same aesthetics of gothic literature and uses it to craft a narrative that is far more simplistic than it seems at first glance. It hardly even qualifies as a man-vs-god narrative prevalent in the time of the Illiad, but given HPL’s track record when it comes to respecting human beings it’s all just a bare bones black and white us-versus-them man-vs-man narrative. Now, art doesn’t have to be thematically complex to be good, but I find it a bit insulting when the man with the copy-paste self insert characters with the personality of soggy paper wants to profess understanding of profoundly existentialist, indescribable terror. . . and the vast majority of his work is just an allegory with a metaphor writing-hand heavier than CS Lewis’s own that gives me no insights about the world other than that he literally couldn’t get over the “indescribable” fear of “grug look different from ogg, grug bad!” dog you didn’t make a cosmic discovery you are literally the fuckin meme “men will smoke weed once and think they’re enlightened for discovering empathy” or whatever. i have more transcendental experiences railing twinks and cuddling with pretty girls talk about smth really indescribable!!!!! it’s fucking caveman shit. mf really would be writing shitty fanfic of shadow puppets if you locked him in the cave fr fr. prolly wouldn’t notice he’s in an allegory fr fr life is indescribable and that’s what makes it beautiful and tragic and precious just eat a cock like the rest of us instead ur scarin the hoes with your shitty octopus fursona!

[terrazooid]

🖤⚔️🎤🦸 for honor bound, let me hear about those side characters <3

🖤 - So far I haven’t come up with a version of slash for my au, but if I did he would probably be a desert tortoise or a common snapping turtle. He’s definitely bigger than all the other turtle mutants.

⚔️ - KARAI MY BELOVED. Yes she is a key character that I really should talk more about outside of discord. She is 14 years old and under the complete control of her mother (Kitsune) and to a lesser extent her father (Shredder). She has limited contact and information about the world outside of the Foot Clan. She has no friends. She doesn’t even get to have a real relationship with her half sister (Miwa). She is severely emotionally neglected. She wants to be emo but she doesn’t really know how or what that even is. She’s probably decapitated someone. She’s supposed to be her father.

Anyways I prommy I’ll get her out of there eventually but oof 💀 it’s not fun for her.

🎤 - No reporter April here, only stem student April. I want her and Donnie to be freaks about science together.

🦸 - Not letting Casey beat people up feels inhumane so yeah he gets to be a vigilante lol. Give him a blunt object and let him loose.

[twigstarpikachutroll22]

For the three ask songs game (I see ya):

#11, #13, #30

😺

=~D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11) three favorite songs from movie or TV series soundtrack

*SCREECHING UNCONTROLLABLY AT INHUMAN VOLUMES AND PITCHES AND FREQUENCIES ENOUGH TO SHATTER FRAGILE OBJECTS AND SHAKE THE BUILDING FOR AN IMMEASURABLE AMOUNT OF TIME IN LITERALLY HOW THE ACTUAL FRICK DOES ANYCREATURE HAVE ONLY THREE FAVORITE MOVIE OR TV SHOW SONGS OUT OF EVERY MOVIE AND TV SHOW EVER THROTTLING YOU*

…Fine. I will pick three movies and a favorite song from each of those, and three TV shows and a favorite song from each of those.

And because of me actually having a stupid amount of indecision over just the fact that some movies I thought of were movie musicals and some just happened to have a song or two in them, frick it, separate sections for movies alone!

MOVIE MUSICALS

Get Back Up Again from Trolls

The Greatest Show from The Greatest Showman

Welcome To The Show from Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks

MOVIES THAT HAPPEN TO CONTAIN A SONG OR TWO

Aisling’s Song from The Secret of Kells

Kaze Ni Naru from The Cat Returns

Petey’s Song from the Fantastic Mr. Fox movie adaptation

TV SHOWS

Are we counting web serieses?

…Frick it, I’m going with the Exact Wording and saying these have to be shows actually on TV. Maybe I’ll do three from web serieses separately if anycreature asks.

Our Movie’s Better Than Yours from Phineas and Ferb (this is not my number one favorite Phineas and Ferb song, if you have just one there’s a good chance you haven’t heard enough Phineas and Ferb songs, but it is one OF my favorites and it’s massively underrated.)

My Evil Dreams from Sofia the First (I don’t think I have a one favorite song from Sofia the First either, it’s another show with a LOT of good ones, but yeah this is one)

Finale from Hazbin Hotel

13) three songs you want at your funeral

Jubyphonic’s acoustic english version of Itte or Say It by Yorushika

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, though there is the slight problem of having no idea what version, especially since I haven’t heard a single rendition of it that has ALL the verses I’ve ever heard. ….maybe one day I’ll do that myself and they can play a recording of that at my funeral.

…frick it. We Ran Out Of CD Space by Psychostick

30) three songs you really want your followers to know (for reasons other than those above)

Wicked Girls by Seanan McGuire

A Glacier Eventually Farts (And Don’t You Listen To The Song Of Life) by Chris Christodoulou

Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care by Relient K