#the stuff we’ve been coming up with is legitimately so good

[teenageukulelescreamo]

I feel like I’ve regained access to an OC of mine I expected to be shelved away for a long time, but she has suddenly found herself back with the original story she was going to have and it’s actually… so cool???

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

✨✨✨ (so I can id my post)

Aita for not wanting another color guard member to be in leadership when I’m technically not either?

I (m18) am a junior in high school and have been doing color guard since the winter of my freshman year (over 2 years at this point) and besides our seniors, (who, for obvious reasons, are not going to be there next year) I am the oldest and most experienced person in our guard. Our captain is a senior, and since July, people have been saying that they think I should replace her as captain next year. I’ve been wanting to be captain after her since before then. We aren’t doing winter guard this year, but the past couple of months, we’ve been meeting after school on Wednesdays to practice. Our current captain and only other squad leader are both seniors so they haven’t been coming, making us leaderless for the time being. I’m more likely than not going to be captain next year, given that I’m the only person who’s willing and qualified, and have been attempting to step up to the plate with these practices, but but am having some problems with a certain member that we’ll call K (nb14/15).

When I told K that we’d be doing the practices weekly and gave them some of the details, they said that they knew already and that they were the one to organise it with our band director. This confused me, because I was the one who talked to our BD about the practices and she said nothing about having already talked to K about it, but I figured that it was just a communication mess-up and moved on.

The next week, I reminded everyone that we’d have practice after school on Wednesday at a specific time and in a specific place. On Wednesday, I went to the assigned place, but nobody was there, which confused and worried me because I had seen everyone that was going to be there earlier. I was legitimately really worried because even when I called/texted everyone that was supposed to be there, I was not getting a response. I’m kind of freaking out at this point, so I go to the band room to ask our band director if she’s seen them, and she tells me that they were in the gym. I go to the gym, and everyone’s in there, already practicing. I was pretty upset, because I’d told multiple people multiple times that I’d be at practice, which was happening in another place and when that changed nobody came to get me, but I brushed this off as a miscommunication. At this point, I was starting to notice that K has been doing a lot of stuff without talking to me first, and sometimes was getting information about specific guard stuff before me.

The next day, I ask K if there was a way that we could meet up for lunch to talk about color guard next year, because they were taking on certain leadership roles lately and I didn’t want to undermine them, but wanted to be able to handle things myself. They said that they were busy that week and next because of an English assignment (which shouldn’t be taking up lunch time for a full week, but I digress) and I took it and told them to get in touch with me when they were available to meet. I reminded them the next week, but they said that they were still too busy.

A couple weeks later, a different guard member texted me and said that she, K, and a few others decided that it would be best to cancel practice for the next two weeks because we were all really busy with school work that week, and had a special school event the next week. I was a little annoyed that I hadn’t been involved in this conversation, but was ok with it because I needed the time anyway. Two weeks go by, it’s Wednesday, and I’m about to go home because I thought we wouldn’t have practice, but when I passed the place that we usually meet at, everyone was there and was practicing. This time I was legitimately upset and pulled K to the side and told them that if they’re going to make decisions like this, they’re going to have to make sure EVERYONE is told, because good leadership requires communication, they apologized and we tried to move on with practice, but I left early, because there wasn’t enough space for me and it didn’t really seem like anyone wanted me there. (And even though K apologized, I was still upset about the situation)

This week (at the time of submitting) I wasn’t able to go because I was sick, but it was also the first time that some new people would be practicing, so I texted K and told them to teach them drop spins and pull hits. They responded and said that they’d taught them before so they knew what they were doing. I had not heard of this happening before then and it threw me off, but I was too tired to do anything.

this makes me look really bad, but there are a few things to take into consideration:

Before this all went down, it was sort of mutually established between us that I would be taking over next year, so it’s not like K is just doing what needs to be done, because I’ve been doing it already.

K is a freshman, and has only done color guard for one season, so they’re under experienced for the role that they’re attempting to take on

I mean this as no offense to them, because they work really hard and legitimately love guard, but K isn’t very good at it. This wouldn’t usually bother me, but I’m scared that they’re going to teach the rookies the wrong technique and it’s going to slow them down at band camp next year

I have a plan for what next year could look like, that I’m pretty positive that K would like, but I need to talk to them about it first and they’ve sort of been avoiding me.

What are these acronyms?

[eldrigeonsss]

I just made it back from Portland last night, and the post-con depression do be hittin a bit, but I got things to say, and people to say it to!!!!! So without further ado,

To my crew,

Thank you all so much for giving me legitimately the most fun convention I have ever been to, and the best birthday I’ve ever had. I could never have asked for a better crew and family. I’m sad we all have to return to our little corners of the world, but I am excited to see you all again. Because this is not goodbye, you’re stuck with me now. We’ll see each other again, be it in a year or whenever, it’s only a matter of time! I love you all dearly!!!

Ollie, ( @crypticcoffe )

To the small boy we keep on our ship (or rather in our hearts), thank you so much for being such a wonderful person. You are family, through and through, and I am so grateful that you made the decision to come to Kumo and hang out with us! It was so much fun, and I cherish every single memory we made together, and I look forward to the next year!! (Fingers crossed for the madoka magica cosplay group!) Thank you for making me feel wanted every single day, even with something as simple as a good morning and a good night. You don’t know just how much even that means to me. I want to repay that kindness someday, make sure you know just how important you are to all of us, no matter what. You’re family, and I keep saying it, but it’s just as true as the first time I said it. I’m so glad you accidentally joined the discord server, because it’s lead to probably the greatest group of people I could ever hope to know. It would never be the same without you, and I’m so glad you stuck around and hung o it with us. Love you, Ols! /p Can’t wait to keep making ridiculous memories with you!

Fish, ( @aquaticgoblinking )

You are legit one of the funniest people I know, even when we first started interacting there was just something to you that screamed that you were the king of comedy. I’m still studying the Atlantean alphabet diligently, the world is not ready for the day that I can just write it without a guide. You are such an integral part of our crew, you breathe life into it and inspire others even when you don’t mean to. By the way, that book you made me is going to be something I cherish forever, I’m probably going to end up filling it up pretty quickly, but I’ll be figuring out ways to make it last! I’ll be sure to bring it to Kumo next year and if you end up coming I’ll show you all the silly stuff I drew :3. Btw, I’m so so so happy you came to Kumo, I know we weren’t sure if it was gonna happen, but I hope you had a good time! Excited to get our silly crew together again soon!! I love our family, every single silly part of it.

Syren ( @sisiren )

To my Jay Ferin, my silly brain-linked buddy. I really don’t know what qualifies someone as a best friend, but I do know you’re like number one in terms of friends in my books! To think we only met one year ago, by complete chance, and soon we’re gonna be able to hang out so much more often!! You’re such a kind, understanding person, it makes my heart hurt. On that same point, GOD, do you know how to break hearts with your writing. Literally, if anyone ever wants their fucking emotions torn out and scattered like dandelion seeds, just read literally anything this absolute demon of a person has come up with. It’s harrowing. That aside, I cannot imagine a life without you in it. I can barely imagine life before you were there, it’s so funny. I joke about you me and Ti being albatrio, but I truly think we’re just all meant to exist together. Something deep inside of me knows that I’m exactly where I’m meant to be. We’ve talked a lot about fate and destiny, and not to sound super sentimental or anything, but with the little bracelet you got us sitting on my wrist, I can’t help but think. I think you two are my destiny.

Idk, that’s probably cheesy as hell. Still, I can’t wait to go skydiving with you, and celebrate your birthday like it’s the end of the world, and drag you out to experience every single thing life has to offer. See you soon, Sy!!

Tigers, ( @tigers1o1 )

Not to be gay, buuuuut.

I miss you, so much. It’s been a day, and I already miss hearing your laugh and leaning up against you and being able to reach over and touch you and just know that you’re there. We can call, of course, but I am counting down the days until I can see you next. I’ve actually started using a calendar, since I’ve started talking to you in full, which is hilarious. If you were to tell me two months ago that I would be staying up every night falling asleep on call, counting days like an advent calendar I would probably call you crazy, because why would anyone ever spend that much time with another person, especially when they are so far away??

Yeah, I get it now. A lot of things make sense now. Like why people are made with an inherent sense of yearning, a need to find that other half, that missing piece. Why completionists exist, why someone would spend their entire lives searching just for an inkling of a feeling. Freight train, am I right?

You and Sy are people I feel like I’ve known my whole life, despite only really being aware of each other for such a short amount of time. I don’t feel like the small time period takes away from our closeness, though, which is funny. Like it wouldn’t matter if we’ve known each other years or months or days, as long as we know each other. That’s all that matters. All that matters is that we’re connected, by whatever force or coincidence.

If you end up moving to Portland, that’ll be so damn funny. I definitely won’t be bouncing off the walls and running victory laps or anything ahah. It’s weird, to be so aware of one’s own loneliness, but to also be fine with it, because I know it will be filled when I get to see you next. Because I made an oath, and I intend to keep it, extra forever.

Okokok that’s the end of my spiel. Well, also, to Ollie’s dad, and to Fish’s sibling thing, thank you so much for joining us for Kumo as well!! To Nick who officiated the fish and chips wedding, thanks a million! To my sister, who was eternally our biggest hater, keep it up, your hatred only fuels us (/aff). And to that random dude on the street who offered me and Ti his blanket to dry off a bench while waiting for a train, I hope your days are filled with warmth and your belly is always full. Also to the black ops larper who stopped me in a market to talk about the government, hope ur doing alright king.

NOW IM DONE!!! HERE, SOME PHOTOS

[clumsiestgiantess]

So I’ve had a cool idea for a new story but it’s hella long and would probably span like three books so I’ve only ever written short snippets for prompts and stuff.  With promptober/inktober & nanowrimo coming up, I thought maybe y’all should have a synopsis of the story.  This is just so I can share more of my writing and you’ll actually understand what it’s about.

The story opens in a fantasy world that’s sort of medieval, sort of rural town-ish.  There’s known magic and monsters and legends and gods that live somewhere too high up to see, like a version of Mount Olympus.  The main character is your typical hero’s journey type hero.  He’s prophesied to become a great warrior after finding a powerful sword and goes out on a quest to save his village from a famine.  His sister doesn’t believe in magic and thinks it’s a wild goose chase.  She begs him not to go because he’ll probably die trying, but pressure by the rest of the village convinces him to leave.  There’s a legend of forest spirits who have magic that can help them; our hero must slay one and gain the core of its power.  The village elders can then use the core to get rid of what’s causing the blight.

After the typical heroic quest fighting monsters and such, he comes across the forest spirit’s rumored home.  It’s creepy and derelict, overgrown with strange plants.  The hero, while exploring the place, finds a living resident hiding in a collapsed house.  A fairy.  (fairies in this universe are small, but not crazily small.  Our hero is minigiant height compared to her)  She’s an eerie sight to be sure, with bug-like features and multiple limbs, but boy is she scared.  She knows the rumors about their kind — knows our hero is there to kill her.  She would fly away, but they're inside and he’s blocking the door. 

Thankfully, the hero realizes she’s no creepy monster, and can’t bring himself to kill her.  However, there’s a reason the fairy’s village is so decrepit.  Her kind had been infected with a plague of parasitic mushrooms like the ones that infect ants.  The mushrooms use the fairies’ cores like magic fertilizer.  Just like how the irl mushrooms use ants to carry their growths to a good spot then plant themselves there through the ant’s body, these mushrooms are using the fairies to bring them cores to continue growing itself, like a mind-controlled cult offering.  The hero (being the hero he is) uses his powerful sword to kill the giant hivemind mushroom, freeing everyone under its control.  

Of course, the fairies are thankful, but they still can’t offer him their power (because it’s in them.  They would legitimately have to die and tear the core from their chest.)  Our hero’s new fairy friend (& potential love interest) offers to come with him herself and use her magic to help the village.  Both he and her kind simultaneously tell her no.  People would kill her the moment she stepped into the village.  (That’s also the reason she and everyone else couldn’t go for help when the mushroom took over)  However, the village comes together to pool their magic and form a talisman of sorts that will keep plants from dying.  After a heartfelt goodbye, he leaves the fairies’ village and returns home with the promise to come back and visit.

His own village celebrates his return and everything is better than ever!  His sister is glad to have him back safe, but she’s really surprised by the magic.  There are good reasons she didn’t believe in it.  She’d been doing research while he was away.. she doesn’t believe the gods are, well, gods.  (Of course they are!  We’ve seen them!  They wander by once and a while!)  But things don’t add up.  It’s…  almost like the gods don’t know they exist.  They’re giant behemoths.  They walk right by looking right out over everything.  She’s done every blasphemous thing she can think of in secret; they’re supposed to come drag her off and smite her, but nothing’s happened.  Everyone prays for rain from them and expects it to come, but she can tell by patterns in the weather that it’s not going to happen.  She knows it’s a bunch of bullshit.  Our hero tells her to just keep it to herself, fearing she’ll be exiled for her beliefs, or worse, hung.  He doesn’t believe her.  She says she can prove it.

(That’s part one) Part two is in the sister’s perspective, happening at the same time as the first part.

After doing the things mentioned above (her trying to see if the gods even know about them), she decides to run off and find out where exactly the gods live.  She blames her leaving on trying to find her brother so the village doesn’t get suspicious.  After weeks of wandering, her supplies have almost run out and she’s lost.  Following the gigantic gods is so hard when they move with such large steps.  She’s beginning to fear the worst for herself when a goddess happens to stop nearby.  They’re searching for something in the grass.  She sneaks over to investigate and finds the goddess is capturing monsters with her bare hands, collecting them like little trinkets.  She’s so fascinated by how harmless the monsters appear to the goddess that she doesn’t realize she’s been spotted.  Next thing she knows, she’s captured just like the monsters.

As the world of the gods is more fully fleshed out to the reader, its revealed that the gods’ realm that’s too high and far for the people of the village to see is actually a house.  The entire fantasy world was nothing but the field in the back between it and the woods.  The ‘monsters’ are just more gruesome depictions of small animals and bugs.  The fairies.. yeah no the fairies are still real.  

The ‘goddess’ is actually just a woman who works on the farm where the ‘fantasy world’ is located.  She’d been collecting some new bugs for her pinboard collection with a bit of free time and unknowingly took our tiny main character too.  She’s suffocating the bugs one by one, attaching them to new spots on the board absentmindedly.  Meanwhile, our main character is scared to death because she’s going to be suffocated and impaled.  

Thankfully, the human realizes she’s not a bug and studies her with fascination.  At barely two centimeters tall, she can’t understand our mc, and the human’s voice had been so loud and dragged out over the outdoor space that everyone believed the gods spoke in their own language.  Through a long process of fear and angst, the two figure out how to communicate, and realize they aren’t that different.  Both bond over the fact that our mc was right!  She’s very intrigued by all the strange human technology.  She wants to go back and tell the village the truth, but realizes she can’t.  That would tear apart their entire religion and way of life!  And that’s if they believed her.  If they didn’t, they’d surely punish her with some sort of gruesome death sentence.

After staying with and befriending the human, she returns to the village because she’s been homesick.  Living with everything at such a massive scale can be stressful and tiring.  Plus, she wants to at least see her brother if he makes it back.  The human offers to bring her close (but not too close) to the village and they make plans on how to contact eachother again.  They’ll go on all sorts of small adventures together, searching for her brother and just getting to know and trust one another. When her brother does return, she tells him her theories, he doesn’t believe her, she says she can prove it, and the whole thing ties back together.

(part 3, the fanale)

Back to the ‘present’, our hero curiously follows his sister out on a little adventure, and when they get to the meeting spot, she sets up the message for the human to find.  A storm blows in while they wait for a reply and our hero and his sister get separated by rain. Just as he finds his way back to her, he sees she’s being taken away by the human.  The human is really just getting her out of harm’s way, unable to hear that she brought her brother along with the noise of the storm.  All our hero sees is his sister yelling at a goddess who — as per the stories of those who blasphemy the gods — is being dragged off to nowhere to die.

Our hero immediately seeks help from his fairy friend, the only one who might be powerful enough to bargain with a goddess.  When he tries to tell her about it, she just looks at him confused.  (What gods? / The giant ones that look like me but massive!  Haven’t you seen them before? / You mean the humans? / The what?)  Fairies know about humans, and know that they’re unpredictably dangerous.  Both mc and fairy are convinced that his sister’s in major trouble and come up with a plan to get her back.  Meanwhile, said sister has told the human about the mix up, and they go back to look for her brother but obviously he’s gone.

The two are soon confronted by a rescue party of one concerned brother and fairy duo.  The fairy threatens the human with magic, but soon everyone is confused by the sister herself defending the human.  Human’s confused because that’s a real actual magic fairy.  Fairy’s confused because the human has somehow been tamed.  Our hero’s confused because he thought his sister had been kidnapped.  His sister’s confused because why does her brother know a forest spirit?  (He’d kept that a secret for the fairies’ sake) 

After a long explanation from all sides, everyone calms down and hangs out at the human’s house, staying the day because that day was exhausting and no one really wants to go back home.  When they do, they come up with a plan: they’ll let the village know that the world isn’t as scary as it seemed.  The spirits in the woods are actually really friendly, and the towering gods are just them but bigger, no ethereal powers whatsoever.

They do try to get everyone to communicate, and things go pretty well.  It takes people some time to understand, but utopia is beginning to form as everyone shares technology and achievements.  The smaller people (They’re what’s called a cight, tiny humans that can see and predict the future to an extent) are far more inventive and ahead of the fairies’ time (though the fairies do have magic), and the human’s technology is ahead of both, though they could also learn quite a lot from the other civilizations.  

Things are going well until the brother/sister duo gets kidnapped.  It’s the original village elders who’d mysteriously disappeared before anyone could question them on why their ‘knowledge’ was wrong.  The truth is: they knew all along, and have reasons for keeping everyone apart.

Before their village was established, before they even knew humans existed, their kind forsaw the ‘end of the world’.  It would be caused by an event just like this, where all three beings would try to come together in peace.  In those old times, no one had even seen another being that looked different to them, but as humans expanded and territories moved closer together, they began to see eachother so the elder lineage decided to do something to stop the coming together of all beings.  They created the belief that fairies would use their magic to overtake them, and turned them into monsters to be slain for a reward.  They turned humans into uncaring sacrifice-demanding gods as an excuse to get rid of people who might find out the truth.

The elders of this day forsaw our hero’s sister finding out the truth about humans, but also saw that she wouldn’t reveal the truth unless she had her brother around to confide in.  Therefore, they made up the prophecy that he was meant to be a hero and sent him away on some silly quest to a place they thought he would never return from — the fairies’ village.  (Before the mushroom takeover, if someone found a fairy the collective would imprison them in their village to stop people from revealing where they live.  They’ve done this with both humans and cights. The elders knew where it was because they have foresight)  However, once our hero returned there wasn't enough time to prevent him from coming across the human.

Now in every single future they see, the humans eventually wipe everyone out.  The siblings argue that the human wouldn’t tell anyone, but it doesn’t matter according to the elders.  Apparently, either the others who know the human get suspicious of them and find the village, or the next humans who live there sell the farmland and everything gets plowed under to build more houses.  There are other less likely scenarios, but many of them end with someone getting too curious for their own good and accidentally trying to befriend a horrible human. It might not happen this generation, or the next, or the next, but the two siblings have sealed their fate by revealing the truth.  Inevitably their kind will go extinct by the human race.  Shortly followed by the fairies.

The story will end on a hopeful note after defeating/escaping the elders.  Everyone lives at peace and the human does their best to keep everything secret, only keeping the knowledge within the family line of trusted successors.  Though I guess I’d leave it up to the reader whether or not the ‘end of the world’ comes to pass or was avoided by everyone working together.

Thats it, that’s the thing. I told you it would be too long to write.

[titleleaf]

Henriad - 2, 12, 25 please?

2: a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

People need to open their eyes to the rich potential of historical m/m sex without clear-cut receptive and insertive roles, not because it’s more moral but because it’s fun and it’s hot. Imagine doing hand stuff with a Plantagenet. Big terrifying hands with long fingers and they’re thinking about invading France the whole time. If my fave must either top or bottom I think I could make a case that Richard II would consider being topped by anyone else a politically incendiary act, but my heart wouldn’t really be in it. All the baggage around who does what to whom and the personality traits and social roles we ascribe to bottom/top identities are a big part of what makes them fun and hot, as well as being able to go “no, I don’t think (for another monarchical example) Hilary Mantel’s Henry VIII would be a bottom”, but then the fun part is also coming up with all the caveats, codicils, exceptions, and so on.

12: the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Doll Tearsheet deserves a Poins-style fandom deep dive into what’s really going on with her, how she really feels about Falstaff, and how she feels about Hal skulking around. She’s a really interestingly positioned character among the working class Eastcheap crew and her status as a sex worker attended by flurries of very Elizabethan jokes about venereal disease is worth digging into.

25: common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Common in a broader context of discussions of Shakespeare rather than in my corner of Histories fandom as such, but characterizing the character of Richard II as a moody weakling and by extension the play itself as boring and weak because there’s no big manly uplifting military focus like in H5. Be patient with the text and it’ll reward that.

“People only like [play] because of [popular actor]” is also annoying af, that is legitimately a tale as old as time. We’ve all felt frustrated by people doing fandom wrong but they must have been bitching about this one at the Globe, those silly girls who think they’re interested in dynastic politics because Richard Burbage has a pointy beard and good legs.

[thequietmanno1]

TheLreads, Vigilantes ch 119, Replies Part 2

1) “Oh right, the scar in his face. The scar that he did after O'Clock got caught by AfO and had his quirk stolen. Something that happened like, four years before the start of the main series.

…

what the fuck is going on right now”- Furuhashi’s trying to show both a “what if” scenario and demonstrate that what gives AFO power over his pawns is preying on their loneliness and need for others to understand them, thus the greatest counter to that is the empathy of the main characters in understanding that,, no matter how monstrous or insane the villains become, there’s still a human being underneath all of it. 2) “End of flashback I suppose, we’ll have to wait a bit longer for the bombastic revelation that will make me start drinking for real.”- Since it was a metaphor, it was showcasing Koichi’s survival coming to Nomura’s attention, and the fact that he does have somebody to face in the emptiness of his life, symbolised by the empty playground his child self amuses itself with all alone. 3) “Also, are you sure about that Koichi? Because I was pretty sure you were on your last legs like four chapters ago, when you lost a ton of blood and a building collapsed on top of your already broken body.”- Koichi’s limits are whatever Furuhashi needs them to be. At least when Midoiria breaks a limb, he legitimately cannot use it anymore without some outside-the-box thinking and further damage dealt to him long-term. 4) “I would Koichi. I came here to see blood and broken bodies hitting the floor, and by god am I going to get what I want”- I mean, we’ve got Koichi’s blood and Nomura’s burned and broken body all over the place, so I’d say mission accomplished in that case.   5) “I would just say you have a morbid curiosity Koichi, I can’t blame you, considering my current position.”- Curiosity = empathy towards the villains in this case. After all, it’s not that nobody else doesn’t notice their inner sorrow, they just don’t acknowledge it, and conveniently label them whatever they need to to excuse the fact that sometimes the villains are just people in a bad situation with no means of expressing themselves except lashing out. Koichi’s curiosity about why they’re like this is a more subdued form of Izuku’s innate empathy, and his “butting his nose in” to ask them about what’s troubling them is a (rather more ineffectual) means of him trying to diffuse their rampages. 6) “No… those guys seemed like the opposite of wanting help. They used trigger because they wanted to feel powerful and cause chaos, they are not like the people turned into monsters by the Factory.”- Let’s just chalk this up as Koichi wanting to see the innate goodness in everybody, even those who probably don’t deserve it. 7) “Now that’s the state I was waiting to see you in Koichi, but I was expecting that by then you’d realize that you are a hero to, and it’s time to do what heroes do

kill villains 

no wait that’s Hawk’s stuff- erm- make commercials for beauty products?”- Gonna be a bit harder to get Koichi on camera with a tooth knocked out. 8) “And as added symbolism, let’s make Koichi shadow over McBee”- Even with him naturally overshadowing Nomura, Koichi’s shadow and presence blocks out the loneliness that torments him, and in turn prevents AFO from fully controlling and manipulating him like the does later on to Tomura, who Izuku doesn’t recognise as somebody needing to be saved until it’s almost too late, with AFO’s very soul starting to leech off of him by the present day. 9) “Do I need to say how unforgivable it is to make this McBee’s appearance be purely symbolic rather than what he actually looks like? Because it is, and I’ll never forget this, Furuhashi.”- I mean, between the shapeshifting and his mental condition, not even he knows what eh actually looks like now. It may be tragic, but the reason Nomura clings so hard to a fake identity is that he’s truly lost any of his original one, whatever it may have been.

10) “Welp Koichi, you’re still here, but soon you’ll be over there- both physically as well as spiritually. Well, part of you will be over there, the other bits will be all over the place.”- After this point, I’m half-convinced Koichi’s Quirk was holding his body part together like a china figurine stapled together with super-glue – and not an expertly-handled job either. 11) “Oh yeah, you guys are still around here.”- Say what you want about some 1A members, but they all contribute to the fighting in some way, especially the PLF war. These guys are just sorta there, and they didn’t even realise that it’s Koichi fighting the guy at present, nor that they should try and help somehow. 12) “You know, I think you two should’ve switched dolls around, McBee is the one using overwhelming force to crush his enemy, and Koichi is the one zapping around with speed and agility.”- It is an ironical reversal of their respective Idol’s powersets, and whom they’re presently embodying the most in a pitched fight. 13) “I also think it’s hilarious that, in a way, Furuhashi is saying “those are two kids playing pretend in a playground””-Both of them are playing pretend “heroes” with their own values, and even the high-stakes of the fight doesn’t change that at their core, both of them is motivated by the child-like wonder they felt when first seeing their hero in action, which they’re now trying to emulate to the best of their ability.  14) “Yeah that’s definitely Koichi being on his last legs, that’s for sure.

Now the question about AfO not caring about his quirk comes back to haunt me.”- Spoilers. The answer will leave you pretty unsatisfied. 15) “Those were some hell of some visual metaphors, but my god Furuhashi is just throwing stuff and hoping that something sticks, isn’t he?”- You could say he was going for a bit of a Metaphor: Re Fantasio, perhaps? @thelreads

[timecma]

cyrus appreciation day!! mainly because of boredom but also i’ve just been feeling this urge to make these lol.

first and foremost, big thanks to you man. we’ve been friends for like….almost 2 years? 3? i’ve lost count lol— and i really have appreciated your friendship. you’re always willing to listen to me and my silly little rants whilst also giving me some advice which for me…it’s a little weird for me because i’m not used to being able to rant to people, i usually much rather listen to others ranting. did i mention i’m the complete definition of a hypocrite lmao-

but yea i really am grateful for your time and ability to give such incredible advice, be it actual or just little jokes. quite literally you are the dad figure in our friendship lol. and like an older brother i never had (in this scenario my cousin brother doesn’t count lol-) you are genuinely one of the sweetest, kindest and most optimistic person i know and oh my gosh your art <333 to die for. i love your style and just the way you draw !! and your roleplay…and knowledge…and theories…and canon explanations and basically just everything about you lmao- thank you once again and here’s to making more memories in the future (yk…when i’m not burdened with exams and losing my mind lol) <33

gift ;;

AHDHSIGWKZHAIAGHSVZKDGAISGA SHRIIIIIIII OMG THIS IS BEAUTIFUL THANK YOU SO MUCH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I LITERALLY LOVE THIS SO MUCH IT’S SO PRETTY IM IMMEDIATELY SAVING IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA YOU’RE THE BEST THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL HOLY MOLY IT’S AMAZING ARE YOU KIDDING ME AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

Shri this was legitimately the best thing I could ever wake up to—you’re such a kind person and you’ve been really toughing it out for school and you’ve been doing such a good job!!!! Way to go on your exams btw!!! I know how hard you work for school, and you’re really going to go far!!!!!!!! Also, I’m always happy to just listen to you rant because honestly we all need someone to listen to us every now and then and I’m also super hard on myself when it comes to school and exams and stuff and your little tidbits about your school days are sometimes really funny or they’re just downright shocking—it’s always really fun to see what’s going on with you because there’s days where you’re just like “today something CRAZY happened and I HATE it” or “today something CRAZY happened and we got McDonalds” and it’s always the best ahahahaha!

I can’t believe we’ve been friends for so long already!!! Honestly where the heck did the time go???? But also it’s so nice knowing you because you’re such an awesome person and you make REALLY PRETTY MOOD BOARDS I SWEAR LIKE THIS IS GOING RIGHT NEXT TO MY XANTHOUS ONE REAL!!!!!! And you always have such aesthetic writing and you make really cool stuff! I can’t wait for when it becomes like officially summer and you get to relax and just do fun things again like write and roleplay and stuff and RELAX BECAUSE YOU WORK SO HARD DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaa you’re so nice and kind Shri this is gonna make me cryyyyyyy!!! It’s literally everything I could have ever wanted this is amazing I’m keeping it forever and ever!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you times a million 🙏😭!!!

Also uno reverse and shoutout to you for always being super fun to message and share stories with because you’re literally one of the best people ever!!! This post has contained more exclamation marks than I’ve ever used before but I’m just super excited and also super grateful you’re so awesome and sweet!! Here’s to many more years of being friends and listening to your wild stories about how school’s going AJDGKAGAJAGSJAA!!! You’re the best! Seriously thoooo!!! Thank youuuuu!!!!

[ollieofthebeholder]

to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest): a TMA fanfic

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] || Also on AO3

Chapter 11: July 2016

[CLICK]

ARCHIVIST

Right. There we go. Martin, what do you see?

MARTIN

W-what?

ARCHIVIST

I can’t really stand up yet. I need you to describe what’s going on. For the record.

MARTIN

Oh. Right. Yeah. Um, Sasha tackled Tim and there was a bit of a struggle, but she made it out of the Archives. That was about five minutes ago, and…she’s probably gone to get help. I don’t know for sure, but, well, it’s Sasha. She wouldn’t just abandon us.

ARCHIVIST

Did it look like any of the worms…got her before she left?

MARTIN

No, I don’t think so. Tim neither, I think. It’s a bit hard to tell, what with—it was a lot out there, but I think they both got out without a mark on them. [mumbling] Or a new one, anyway.

ARCHIVIST

Tim. What happened to Tim?

MARTIN

They got split up and he ran to your office. That was where they came in, you said you’d made a hole, so…Christ, I hope he’s careful in there. Jane Prentiss didn’t follow him, and, and the worms should be coming towards her, so as long as he doesn’t…maybe he found the spare CO2.

ARCHIVIST

Spare? What? Where? I never saw any.

MARTIN

I hid a couple in the old casefile boxes.

ARCHIVIST

What, why?

MARTIN

So they’d be handy? I’ve been stashing them pretty much everywhere I can think of. There’s only the one in here, though, since the room is sealed, so…

ARCHIVIST

No, I mean, why hide them?

MARTIN

So the worms wouldn’t find them.

Look, I know it sounds stupid.

ARCHIVIST

Yes. Yes, it is. They’re just…they’re just unclassified parasites. They don’t have consciousness, they can’t plan, they’re just an unthinking infection.

MARTIN

[Sounding tired] Whatever helps you sleep at night, Jon.

ARCHIVIST

[Audibly bristling] And just what is that supposed to mean?

MARTIN

You can’t possibly actually be this big of a skeptic. Nobody can work for the Magnus Institute and not have some idea of what’s going on—and I know you’ve never doubted when it comes to Prentiss, or to Leitners, you always treat those statements with a lot more…I dunno, respect. But when it comes to anything else, I’ve listened to you recording and you just dismiss them. You tear them to pieces like they’re wasting your time, but half of your “rational” explanations are more far-fetched than just admitting that there’s a ghost or something. It’s one thing to want evidence before you confirm something is legitimate, but there comes a point when you’ve got to just…accept that you believe. For crying out loud, you thought I was a ghost, and your only evidence for that was Tim.

ARCHIVIST

Of course I believe. Of course I do. Have you ever taken a look at the stuff we have in Artifact Storage? That’s enough to convince anyone. But, but even before that…why do you think I started working here? It’s not exactly glamorous. I have…I’ve always believed in the supernatural. Within reason, I mean. I still think most of the statements down here aren’t real. Of the hundreds I’ve recorded, we’ve had maybe…thirty, forty that are…that go on tape. Those I believe, at least for the most part.

MARTIN

Then why don’t you—

ARCHIVIST

Because I’m scared, Martin! Because when I record those statements, it feels…it feels like I’m being watched. I…I lose myself a bit. And then when I come back, it’s like…if I admit that there’s any truth to them, whatever’s watching will…know somehow. The skepticism, feigning ignorance. It just felt safer somehow.

MARTIN

…

It’s a good strategy, I’ll grant you that. Worked for Joshua Gillespie, I guess. For a little while, anyway. Don’t think he’s the only one, either.

But it won’t work forever. Ignorance only keeps you safe for so long, but the minute you start accepting that any of it’s true, the only safe way is to accept that all of it is true. Pretending not to believe is just going to get you killed, because it means you’ll miss something until it’s staring you in the face, and by then it’s too late.

ARCHIVIST

…I suppose you’re right.

Still, it’s not my fault we’re about to get eaten by worms. Speaking of, can you see anything?

MARTIN

Not much. They’re just…there.

ARCHIVIST

How many?

MARTIN

Too many. And they’re coming up through the floorboards still. I didn’t think they could fit through.

ARCHIVIST

Prentiss?

MARTIN

No, I can’t…[frustrated noises] Hold on. This glass…

[DEEP BREATH, FOLLOWED BY A FAINT HISS OF STATIC]

She’s over by the shelves. Or at least there’s a lot of…there’s something person-sized over there.

ARCHIVIST

[Dry but slightly shaky] You might be able to see better with your glasses on.

MARTIN

Yeah, you’d think, but it’s easier to pinpoint without them. Christ, that’s a lot.

ARCHIVIST

A lot of what? Worms?

MARTIN

Yeah, basically.

Yeah, it’s Prentiss all right.

ARCHIVIST

What’s she doing?

MARTIN

Not sure. She’s messing with the boxes. She’s just picked one up and—aah!

ARCHIVIST

What?

MARTIN

She’s…she’s destroying them. Sort of.

ARCHIVIST

Sort of?

MARTIN

N-no, more like…Corrupting them. I’m not sure what that stuff is coming out of her mouth, but I think we should probably burn them.

ARCHIVIST

Right.

Right.

MARTIN

…

I’ll teach you the way we used to burn Leitners.

If you want.

ARCHIVIST

We?

MARTIN

Me and Gerry and Neens. The three of us.

[FAINT CREAKING NOISE AS MARTIN SITS ON THE COT NEXT TO JON]

I lied, Jon. Or, well…not lied, not about most things, but I haven’t told you everything. The only thing I really lied about was my CV. I don’t have a master’s in parapsychology. I don’t even have a degree. I was seventeen, my mum was having…problems, and my stepfather was starting to get forgetful. It wasn’t too bad then, not so bad he couldn’t function or take care of Mum, but it caused issues for him at work and he lost his job. I had to drop out of school to support us all, but nobody was hiring without qualifications and when I offered to take over Mum’s job at Pinhole Books Aunt Mary said I wouldn’t be needed, thank you very much. I started making things up. My lie about parapsychology got me in the door here at the Institute, and I know why Elias hired me after that, but…honestly, most of my employment details are made up. I won’t even be twenty-nine until next month.

The reason I know so much about Leitners isn’t because of a degree or a thesis or anything. It’s…that was literally most of my childhood. Mum and Mary Keay were—I don’t know if you’d call them friends, but they worked together, and not just at the bookshop. If they’d actually been witches, they’d probably have been a coven. A lot of what they did was tracking down Leitners. Books of power, you know? And the three of us got recruited to help.

ARCHIVIST

That’s why you’re here? In the Archives, I mean. I—truth be told, it’s been bothering me for a while. You’ve been living down here for four months, under the constant threat of…this. Sleeping with a corkscrew and a fire extinguisher. You must know that’s not normal for an archiving job. That’s why you stay?

MARTIN

Partly. Partly because I realized you didn’t know what was going on, not like I did, and I thought…I just thought if I stuck around, maybe I could keep you safe. You and Tim and Sasha. [bitter laugh] You can see how well that worked out.

ARCHIVIST

We’re alive, aren’t we?

MARTIN

For now.

Mostly, though, I haven’t left because…I don’t think I can. While I was still…you know, upstairs…I think I could have walked away, no harm done. Once I came down here…well, I think we’re all caught now.

ARCHIVIST

Yes.

Yes, I—I see what you mean. I think.

MARTIN

[Softly] I wish you did.

[CLICK]

———

[CLICK]

SASHA

[Breathing heavily] Oh, God, that’s so much.

Okay, Jon. I know you’ll want to know what’s been happening. If you’re alive after this. There are worms on the upper floors. Not so many as down in the Archives, but enough.

I set off the fire alarm, so everyone’s evacuated but me and Elias. I haven’t seen any sign of the fire brigade, but I haven’t been near a window in a while. There was…a wave of worms, I guess, and I got separated from Elias. We were on our way to set off the fire suppressant system manually. I hope he made it, but who knows. Maybe everyone’s dead already.

I’ve had to retreat into Artifact Storage. That should tell you something about how bad it is out there.

God, I hate this place.

Did I ever tell you I joined the Institute as a practical researcher? I had to analyze and investigate all the stuff in here. Take notes after sleeping in the rusted chair, write in the memory book, that sort of thing. I transferred after three months. Would have quit, but I couldn’t afford to back then.

Never understood why we keep all this stuff secret. I mean, we’ve got enough here to send any skeptic packing, but it’s just locked away. I—I asked Elias about it once, but he just mumbled something about funding and mission statements. He’s good at changing the subject, isn’t he?

Sorry, I’m rambling. No worms, though, that’s—

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

Get back!

SASHA

What—who’s there? Who are you?

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

Just—shit. Get out of here!

SASHA

Look, you shouldn’t—

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

[Agonized and desperate] Listen to me. If you take one more step forward, if you look at that, you will die. Get out of here.

SASHA

Are you threatening me?

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

Damn it, I’m trying to save you! I don’t know who you are, but you don’t—[gasps in pain]

SASHA

Are you hurt? Shit, the worms—come on, let me—

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

[Panicked] No, no, don’t touch me! Not yet! Just—

SASHA

Wait, that’s—is there someone else in here?

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

Oh, fuck.

[SASHA SCREAMS, THE MYSTERIOUS FIGURE YELLS, A DOOR SLAMS]

SASHA

What was that?

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

Don’t know. That’s never been my—

[MYSTERIOUS FIGURE DROPS TO ONE KNEE, MAKING STRANGLED NOISES OF AGONY]

SASHA

Are you okay? Have you—have you been bitten?

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

[Strained] No—no, it’s—give me a second. It’ll pass.

[DELIBERATELY FORCED BREATHING THAT SLOWLY EVENS OUT]

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

Right, okay. Get out of here. If you know a way out that isn’t that way, I suggest you take it.

SASHA

Look, I don’t know who you are, but I’m not leaving you behind. Besides, I don’t know if my friends are okay. We’ve got to stop those worms.

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

[Dryly] I’m open to suggestions. I suppose setting the whole place on fire is out of the question.

SASHA

No! Not with—the CO2 is going to be bad enough, but they can survive that. Maybe.

We’ve just got to trigger the system. There should be a manual override. Elias was going to set it off, but we got separated, I don’t know if he managed it.

MYSTERIOUS FIGURE

Lead the way.

[CLICK]

[wirewitchviolet]

The Entire Plot of Final Fantasy 14, with all the expansions, and some serious analysis of how good it actually is. (Part 10 - Post-Endwalker... mostly.)

Last time, we covered Endwalker, the most recent expansion as of when I’m writing all these, and genuinely serving as an ending to the story. To date, the plot irons we’ve hard in the fire are the threat posed by this evil empire which was very much going for a nazi thing, this mysterious council of evil weirdos whose motives were never really pinned down until the third expansion, and this whole tragic cycle of races not considered to be human summoning gods that just exacerbate tensions with their neighbors, and we genuinely did resolve all of that. We also got uh... let’s say kind of ambitious, and established that basically all life anywhere in the entire universe has been wiped out except for the people on your planet and a few stragglers showing up at the cafe we’re helping some unstoppable killing machines set up as a change of pace. And I don’t actually expect them to walk any of that back, except maybe the god summoning, because I’m pretty sure the current writing team did in fact get the memo that people MUCH prefer the later relatively light-hearted self-contained adventures to the grim political stuff.

Also last time I tried to embed this cutscene from halfway through the final boss fight and it wouldn’t let me and I need to stick it in here because seriously it is hilarious how they just sucked all the tension out of fighting the would-be destroyer of all life in the universe to throw in this random silly nonsense.

I also didn’t really get a chance to share my closing thoughts on the expansion, which are of course that it’s kind of a huge mess? Tonally it is all over the map in a really jarring way. That’s largely true of the game as a whole, but usually there’s a much smoother ebb and flow to it. You build up to a big tense dramatic moment, leave to regroup somewhere, have some lighthearted encounters with the locals, and build back up. Then major side content between expansions is either all silly, or a raid that builds things up then releases the tension with some super sappy happy ending. Here though? Intrigue with NO payoff, then some hijinks, then torture and suicidal nazis, then a big action beat immediately giving way to cute little moon bunnes, then tender gay moments with the past selves of villains, then a really legitimately dark climax, and this jaw-droppingly comedic bit with Zenos here. Just what the hell? Plus you know the actual major threat that this big old apocalypse is really going to actually destroy the world and all its splintered off alternate dimensions simply holds no teeth, because we’re coming DIRECTLY on the heels of the expansion where you pull one of those back from the bring of destruction, and nobody in their right mind would retroactively make that some sick shaggy dog story. Also it doesn’t really make sense how it plays out. We built up this meteor shower imagery forever but then it’s literally just an ominous skybox and we’re actually dealing with some sort of psychic attack.

It’s also a weirdly comedic expansion on the whole. I don’t know if I really properly conveyed it but basically every major scene has someone kinda taking the piss out of the whole conversation by being too self-aware about things in one way or another, and like, I’d honestly say it all lands. Anyway, I can’t get into the entirety of the next between expansions interlude because as of time of writing only 60% of it has been released, and again, that’s 60% of each plotline going on, so nothing has a conclusion right now. But I said I’d cover what there was to cover so here we go.

After getting back from the far reaches of space we have no outstanding crises to deal with for the first time ever, and have some nice relaxed conversations with people. Mostly Krile and Tataru who respectively are responsible for the cutscene above to some degree, and uh... from where I sit the biggest remaining threat to the world? While everyone else was off saving all life in the universe, Tataru was just aggressively expanding her personal business dealings all over the world. She’s got this international trade network going, status as a fashion designer, her own personal airship, and she’s just rolling in cash to a point where she just gifts you your own private island.

The island is it’s whole THING where you basically play like Stardew valley in your downtime and I haven’t really personally gotten into it as I have work I’m trying to get done. Everyone else is off doing their own thing in semi-retirement. The twins are still doing relief work in what’s left of the empire, Krile and G’raha just sort of went back to college, with her clearly having a thing for him and him still having this hopeless crush on you. Pretty sure Thancred and Urianger are just shacked up somewhere and hanging out with the moon rabbits, and Estinein is hanging out with Vrtra and damn right do I ship’em. Hanging out in the markets though, he finds out about this secret underwater treasure vault which is another of the things Emet-Selch shouted out as something to maybe check out when you get home, and the most recent apocalpyse mainly hitting Thavnair means there’s a lot of orphans and such who could use rebuilding money. Y’shtola comes along too because any weird unexplored secret area could be of some help in her current personal project, working out how to hop dimensions at will, both because it just seems cool to do, and because she misses the cat man she was shacked up with in the First.

So you head to the bottom of the ocean, fight some guardian constructs, reach a huge treasure vault, and it has both heaps of gold and some big ominous construct which turns out to have a small stable portal to the void inside. Oh and then Vrtra walks in and basically goes “hey guys, you’re uh.... not seriously breaking into my personal rainy day fund to rob me are you?” And uh, whoops? We also explains what’s up with the gate, and turns out that forever ago, during the backstory to that demons and air pirates raid after Heavensward, he had a big sister who charged straight on through a gate duing a big demon invasion to take the fight to their leader. I’m not really cool with us continuing to retroactively give Midgardsomnr more children we’d just never heard of so hopefully five is our final count? Anyway, he wanted to rescue her, which is the reason he made his weird little kid spy body to begin with, but figured it wasn’t worth the risk. Y’shtola is all about taking a field trip to hell, because hey, portals one can actually walk through open up to there all the time, and this was even a thing in the First with the offensive caster role quest. Vrtra has misgivings, being a responsible adult, but all you have to do is take those new warding scales we have all over to keep the protagonist from being the only one who can do most things, have Cid add some extra protective plating, research how to create an artificial version of a hell-mouth demon to absorb this stable portal and make it bigger, and in you go. Vrtra wants to come along personally and gets an upgraded version of his weird kid body that’s an adult with a worse voice actor because again, these days actually playing with other humans is strictly optional and you need a switch hitter tank/DPS to round things out. Oh and for some advanced scouting Y’shtola sends in some nixies she creates with a ritual she came up with when she was like 6 and is now deeply embarassed by.

Before we get into that though, we have some side quests to maybe deal with, and we are officially way overdue to check in on Hildibrand. After your last interaction where people got sucked through an interdimensional rift, Gilgamesh went off to do Gilgamesh things, and Hildy’s body got spit back out over in Thavnair somewhere, but he’s in a coma, so Nashu took him to a doctor. Doctors can’t fix souls being stuck in the First, which is clearly what’s happening here, so you just... rinse out that soul container you’re still carrying around and head off to grab him, and uh...

He’s fine, he just never ditched his ridiculous getup from the last time you saw him and has amnesia again. You apply the traditional cure of throwing big cartoon bombs at him and drag his soul home. There’s a bit of minor drama with Dr. Lugae’s sort of back from the dead form which ends with a big robot head in a jail cell, and then Hildy being kidnapped by a badly drawn alien in a crappy little UFO. You, Nashu and this conspiracy theorist crackpot you’re hanging out with head up to the moon to look at him, and find him... several times over. The little alien he met just kinda made a bunch of clones of him for fun. You deal with that, there’s more random shenanigans, his dad randomly shows up, as he’s wont to do, and messing around with the big stone face of mars type structure on the moon causes it’s mouth to open and this to happen.

Apparently this was a big welcoming party thing they set up and nobody remembered to call it off when people didn’t end up needing to evacuate to the moon. Also Godbert’s here looking for meteors to combine with his own extra manly sweat as the base for this expansion’s obligatory set of ultimate weapons with a very involved side quest. Kind of him to share his terrifying power.

Meanwhile, there’s those twelve gods people theoretically worship that you’ve never had a chance to kill. That’s not right. The nerd squad and some random wandering bard type guy, along with another glasses wearing orc girl nerd end up investigating a mystery spot that takes you to a big secret floating island right over Mor Dhona which turns out to kinda basically be Mt. Olympus. When you show up to poke around, a decent swath of The Twelve pop out and insist you fight them. At first they fake you out with this whole bit about being bent on taking over the world given the new power vacuum but after you go smack them around they just pop up again and apologize for messing with your head. They swear up and down that no, really, they aren’t actually gods someone summoned who are parasitic and mind controlling and all that (but yeah Louisoix totally did someone some of those based on his ideas of them the one time), and don’t actually have any evil plans. They’re just chill party people and they want you to beat them up, for reasons they’re all kinda weirdly coy about. Given that they have freaking adorable little animal alt forms they might have the same basic thing going on as the auspices, the cute animals in a cave who need to be beaten up periodically to not go berserk from post-Stormblood. They’re very upbeat in any case.

Again, this chain is only two out of three 24 person dungeon raids in, time of writing, but they’re super friendly and after you’ve punched roughly 8 out of 12 in the face, a couple ask if you wouldn’t mind touring around with them, checking in on things, as they help the nerds research what their actual deal is more. Somewhere in here Halone, the goddess they worship in Ishgard, asks you for your honest opinion on what her worshipers are like these days and uh... you are diplomatic enough that the list of possible responses doesn’t include being REALLY honest. What with the calling everyone heretics and casting them into pits and waging holy wars against the dragons and all. She’s pretty disappointed in them.

Our other raid meanwhile involves heading into the past again to help some random Ascians deal with daddy issues and some security breaches at the incredibly haunted looking prison for really super dangerous monsters people make that for whatever reason people don’t just unmake. It... really isn’t grabbing me at all, because as I’ve said, they’ve only ever managed to make one Ascian even a little interesting as a character and I particularly can’t for the life of me be made to care about the tragic backstory of Lahabrea of all people. I will note that at one point you pretty much fight Dracula though, and at another point you fight the prehistoric megafauna version of carbuncle, the very pikachu-like starter the summoner class gets. Slightly less cute than the standard variation.

Also the current cliffhanger to all that involves the whole prison appearing in the present, which is less than ideal, but again, resolution to this currently on hold.

Oh and there’s also some sort of choose-your-own-adventure dungeon with 12 possible storylines I... really should have gotten around to before I sat down to write this, and a bit where Alpha and what’s left of Omega are exploring around as the latter continues to struggle with trying to work out the whole power of love and friendship thing. Mostly though, the real meat on the bone here is getting back to that field trip to hell, and a serious extension to Endwalker’s tribute to FF4.

You pop out at this big and honestly quite beautiful gothic castle with twisted and warped architecture just kinda floating in a big cloudy void, and start just kinda charging forward killing any demon who looks at you funny to secure the area, eventually reaching its master, which is... for some baffling reason a nod to Beatrix from FF9? But as soon as you take her down, in swoops another demon you immediately have to fight after he absorbs the big smoke cloudshe desolves into, the archfiend of earth, Scarmiglione, who yes, is the first in a series of four bosses we are going to fight in rapid succession, who are all serving a big super-powerful guy named Golbez, who I guess fairly appropriately swung by to seize power after the last time you were here and killed the final boss from FF3.

Having dealt with that, you just sort of have free reign of the place. There’s still various weird looking demons running around, but while it’s not particularly useful, they’ll talk to you rather than attack. Mostly begging you not to eat them and wondering what they’re going to do now that their mistress is gone. They do however point you to a smarter than average demon they have in the prison in the basement who Beatrice was planning to kill and eat later, who as you go down and let her out, recognizes you and asks if you’re Zenos’ friend.

OK look. You can’t just go and ask a thing like that. Especially not with Y’shtola standing right there, she is definitely the type to be too perceptive and never drop it. Not a conversation to really have in front of Estinien and his new boyfriend either for the matter. Turns out that when Zenos picked up that scythe, officially switching to the Reaper class, he bound his soul to this demon (that’s just what the class’ deal with, you get one too if you take it, proving you somehow learned absolutely nothing about giving random sketchy entities a space key to your soul after Shadowbringers), and ended up back here after he died. Which... is a little confusing to me. Like he DEFINITELY died, but that was at the end of Stormblood, before these two met. Before the credits rolled, the protagonist just had a knock down drag out fist fight with him, and I didn’t get the impression AT ALL that he got punched in the face hard enough to kill him. You could make some kind of argument about him just like burning himself out to get there or not having a way back or something but... there’s a nice cafe right there. Get rest up, get a sandwich and a coffee, show up for an awkward third date in another expansion or two. You don’t go to all that convoluted effort to bring this sick freak back and then give him an implied off camera death. Anyway, you clear up how you know her, and a big light crystal someone suggested you take along for elemental opposition purposes flashes and changes her to a less demonic form.

She’s pretty apathetic and doesn’t really recall a name she feels like giving you, so Y’shtola just decides to call her Zero, and apparently the developers claimed to be incredibly shocked when a huge chunk of the fanbase developed an instant crush on her. Which is about as plausible to me as when Capcom put out that press release about not wanting to see sexy doodles of the giant woman with the cool hat from RE8 and then proceeded to list her exact height and shoe size. Don’t go pretending to be surprised when people are into the badass futch slow to open up half-demon woman who acts tough but is secretly all caring and dresses like freaking Vampire Hunter D. We all see what you’re doing there! Anyway she has plenty of useful info but explains that all interactions here in the void are contract work with payment, generally in the form of draining aether out of each other. Also that the reason she looks human is that she hadn’t been born yet when everyone in the world started turning into demons because look for real she’s just female D here.

Anyway Scarmiglione, as is his deal from FF4, does not stay dead and jumps in with a second boss fight. He and his minions just keep coming back no matter how much you kill them, and Zero explains that yeah, death never sticks here. Now, I already knew that, it’s something I’ve been griping about this whole plot summary, but like, it’s an official canonical thing in the Void. The connection to the whole great aether flow/lifestream from FF7 deal is just broken like a lot of the laws of physics and general state of matter in the area, so when you die either another demon eats what’s left of you, getting stronger but then also having your soul and memories stuck in their head forever, or you just... come back from the dead after a bit, totally fine, at full HP even. She doesn’t actually say “full HP” but she comes weirdly close. So the only way to keep Scarmiglione down, since you not being demons can’t eat him, and she doesn’t want any jerks all bound to her soul like some kind of protagonist of this game, that just leaves her using her super cool ancient artifact scythe that kills you and converts you into a big magic crystal. But you know, gotta pay her first.

Anyway, the other deal with this place is the world’s kinda missing but if you’re sufficiently cool you get your own personally little castle on a floating rock and minions to boss around if you promise not to eat them. Zero invites you back to check hers out and see if any of the loser demons she lets live their if they promise not to start anything know anything useful about this missing dragon sister or this Golbez guy who’s apparently a real big shot she’s not personally familiar with. All the demons look like horrible evil things and they’re all just massive cowardly dorks and I kinda love it. There’s a mindflayer hiding out in a corner who’s all traumatized having gone in for one of those summoning deals and turns out it was just some real Hellraiser type psycho who wanted freaky bondage demon sex and knife play and just nope, nope nope, screw that, back to hell, never getting summoned again thanks!

Anyway on schedule, your next boss fight is Bayonetta. I mean Barbaccia. Or maybe I do mean Bayonetta because she totally has magic hair and halfway through the fight makes a skintight bodysuit out of it and starts making her hands and feat all super huge to smack you around.

After the fight you get one of those Echo flashbacks but all it tells you is Golbez doesn’t do face to face meetings so you still don’t know where to find him, but he does have our missing dragon, who still hasn’t become a demon because dragons are just tough like that. Except for the dragons you fought the first time you were here. OK elder wyrms are tough like that, OK? Anyway, Zero overexerted herself crystalizing Barb and a significant percentage of her mooks, and not really feeling cool leaving her unconscious with always hungry opportunistic demons around, you drag her back out with you. I appreciate how the whole party apologizes profusely for yanking her to another dimension without her consent, it is kind of a rude thing to do. In order to help her recover you bring her some apples, and she just goes “OK the deal was supposed to be that I take your aether directly, but, I guess this still works, holds her hand out, and drain’s an apple’s life force out.

And this of course leads into this whole “no no, eat it all regular, get the flavor” and her not really being impressed, and you giving her a tour around the place, and promising to take her home, and her just being “I literally don’t care about anything that isn’t basic survival, we’ve been over this. You wanna keep paying me in apples to help with your thing, sure, otherwise I’ll just sit around wherever.” But then you’ve got a whole thing with Cagnazzo getting conjured through by demon summoners Golbez has an in with in what’s left of the empire, Vrtra feeling his sister’s presence over there, which turns out to just be her eye, but it’s something, and generally dropping everything to run up that way. And while you’re distracted with that, Rubicante slips through the other portal and smashes it so you no longer have the upper hand on travel. Oh and I’m just kind of assuming you’re on a first name basis with the major bosses from FF4 here. If you aren’t go play FF4 already, it’s an absolute classic. But yeah, Italian names, elemental themes. Earth zombie, wind woman, water turtle-guy, fire flasher.

While you’re being distracted up in what’s left of them empire, because you know, they also brought a whole horde of demons around and the people who are survivng out there are just barely surviving, you run into the twins again. Alisaie is super jealous she didn’t get to go to hell. And you encourage Zero to socialize with the locals a little, figuring maybe she’ll get along better with depressed former nazis than socially functioning people. And she kinda does. Bonds with that jerk from the one cutscene I linked last time a little over buuz. Spicy mongolian dumplings. Imported from the steppe here, and the absolute food worship from Endwalker continues. It comes in a paper takeout bag too.

We’ve got hair misaligned textures on hair that clips through people’s collars in cutscenes all the time still, but we are pushing these graphics to the absolute cutting edge to tear apart cheeseburgers and spicy dumplings. Like most depressed goth women I know, Zero is super into spicy food. Damn it I’m hungry now. Anyway people get spread around, Zero feels obligated to fight off a big horde of demons alone to pay back that free buuz. Partway through the boss does the fairly standard trick of dropping rocks from the sky that you need to face tank before they hit the ground, but there’s too many dropping at once to solo so down she goes (I have the same problem trying to solo a couple otherwise easy old bosses, it’s annoying). And then of course everyone else shows up to the rescue, heals her, and has a proper fight where she learns the meaning of friendship via standard boss mechanics. We get more of the spread out and catch the rocks, and some of the “everybody run to the person with the crosshairs on her to split the damage of an attack that’d otherwise kill her” thing, and yeah, thanks to the combined impact of that and spicy dumplings, she comes around to the concept of doing good things for people without a contract. Again I much prefer this sort of stock sappy love and friendship crap to the grey morality political crap from the start of the game.

That just leaves confronting Rubicante to ask about what Golbez’ deal even is, and fight him. And you know, then fight Golbez when these patches finish releasing. Turns out his plan is actually really straightforward. Every single demon has been alive and literally living in hell since the very first time Ascians tried to recombine things and messed it up, most are all screwed up from absorbing the souls of a bunch of wimps they beat to death, and let’s be frank here, a lot of them have real messed up bodies like just a floating head, or big wad of goop with a ton of eyeballs. Many of them would largely like to come over here where death at least theoretically sticks sometimes and properly get to he afterlife. It’s pretty hard to object to that, except you know, they’re also all big horrible monsters with the uncontrollable urge to eat people and it’d probably cause one of those cataclysmic elemental imbalances and also these guys are jerks literally delivering body parts of a hostage. And of course this is all in a big post-boss fight speech before Rubicante kills himself all honorable warrior style, so first we have this big fight with a fun gimmick tracing lines across moving puzzle pieces, and while the other three had pretty standard renditions of either the normal boss theme or the theme of Golbez and pals, when this fight starts we get the unmistakable strings and drums from an all-time classic remix.

No really. In one of the most impressive fan service moves of all time, they actually tracked down Hyadain for an official commission to use this remix. That’s just great even if they DID chicken out on the lyrics. Maybe later for one of those tell-this-bard-about-it remix fights with the whole set or something. As is here’s the version we actually have.

Anyway we leave off with a challenge to come face Golbez on the moon. The uh, moon in the Void to be clear. Which presumably has a nice Lunar Subterrane tribute going on. And past that, I don’t know. It certainly feels like we’re setting up dimension hopping for the next expansion, but if I stopped this far into the interlude after Heavensward I’d have thought we’d be going directly into Shadowbringers. This might resolve and then the last patch sets up some completely different thing. All I know is I’m not going to care about the whole Ascian prison raid, I don’t expect a real shocking twist to fighting the rest of the Twelve, and wow between Fray, Sadu, Gaia, Y’shtola’s class-change look, and Zero here, it is VERY clear the current head writer has a Type.

Short of double checking the last 10 levels of the few job quest lines I haven’t done for interesting bits, I have nothing left to sum up, at least until there’s another expansion to this. If you enjoyed all this though, again, money so I can survive would really be appreciated. I also have a wishlist of mostly games I’ll likely have thoughts on when I get to them. And if you somehow found this blog without seeing it, you might enjoy my also rather extensive multipart essay from a few years back about how Ranma, the character, is in fact trans, on top of the magic gender change stuff.

Past that, not sure what my next big project is going to be. Might get back to Twitch streaming, or just focus on this browser game I’ve been working on for a while. I have honestly enjoyed playing FF14 a hell of a lot more than most recent entries in the series and definitely more than any other MMO, so I could MAYBE be convinced to see what’s up with 11 if I can work out how to without costing me a ton of money and time I really don’t have? We’ll see.

Now that you’ve finished this depreciated version of this, here’s the formal, finished part 10, covering this but with more, you know, conclusions.

[schnabel53]

JJ2 update + event dialogue

The new update changed some things that I think were interesting, like the bot brain fights you in, changing from red to green. Just a couple of observations, plus event stuff, some of the conversations are unfinished because I only screenshoted what I thought was interesting.

Brains’s bot

The machine brains fights Barry at the end of Legitimate Research changed color, along with the legitimate logo being added. It was originally red, a better contrast to brains hair. But I think the color change happened because Red Photon’s final fight is also a red bot. Just to differentiate the boss fights.

The sticker album still has the red version, interestingly enough.

Big Stomper background

Before this update, the background for Stomper would be wherever you were before getting the vehicle token. Just the base background for whatever level you were in. This was the only vehicle without a distinct background, the Galaxy Ship had a space background, the Gravity Suit had a vapor wave background and Wild Wild Rex had a desert. After the update, the background is a trash yard outside of Legitimate Research.

I don’t know why, this really hit me how different this is to what we’ve seen of LR so far. It’s so gray and foggy in the background, looks like they’re burning coal and releasing the fumes. It just looks so sad to me, Barry crashing through their walls everyday hasn’t stopped the progress and destruction of LR. I’m thinking too far into this, but still just shocked me went I saw it the first time

Sometimes Rory will appear on one of the trash piles, just hanging out.

Sometimes SAM will appear behind the trash piles, broken and thrown away. I know every time Barry uses it, it eventually breaks, but this is telling us he’s not coming back this time.

Event Dialogue

This is the second piece of dialogue, the first being Craig telling Barry he’s gonna tell him some JJ facts and Barry asking if it’s to him or the player. These screenshots are missing Barry’s response to Craig, but it was similar to Betty’s.

There is a response from Robo-Barry that he wasn’t listening because he was on power saving mode.

I think this is all the dialogue for this. Also in the main game, the crying brains sprite is never used. I’d love if there was an event where we went to Betty’s universe, seems like it would be fun.

Craig says you can play JJ with one finger. Barry responds we’ve all done the tutorial, Craig.

Barry being Barry, what else do I have to say.

This is interesting because there is no Robo-Betty, unless she hasn’t been made yet or the talking toaster is Robo-Betty. If the former is true, this means their universes have more variation then just gender-bent characters.

I ran out of room for photos :( I’ll put the transcripts for the rest (these two dialogues are my favorites too!):

(This is the only one I can fit, transcript below, I am missing one piece of dialogue I can’t remember that comes before this one, but it’s part of a jingle.)

*Tailor: We’re still working on that jingle…*

*Tailor: Mention code BARRY for a 25% discount!*

*Tailor: Otto’s Tailors! - expert in sleeve reattachment for thirty five years!*

I think this is interesting, because this means that Otto has been Barry’s tailor since he was a kid. Or there’s a weird amount of people losing there sleeves, but it’s thirty five is around the estimated age of Barry. Plus the sprite I showed isn’t used when you originally meet him.

*Barry: I had all my inheritance in the gramophone business…*

*Barry: I was gonna be rich…*

*Barry: Then those MP3 players came along and ruined everything!*

*Barry: Thank goodness for floating coins! *

He’s talking to Craig btw. But this is so interesting to me. MP3 players were invented in 1997, and if he is 35 years old, he would have been born in 1988, in 1997 he would be 9. He couldn’t have invented his money at before that time unless he is much older. This would also match up with Otto because it would be when he was a kid when he would start ripping his sleeves. He would have to be born in 1979 to be at least 18 during that year. Another option for this is his father invested the money and the gramophone business that his father was working at/already invested in, took Barry’s inheritance and invested it and told Barry they would be rich. This would make him being around 35 and we know Barry’s father isn’t the best dad.

[klonoadreams]

so like I know I went on about Sawyer and all of my weird Unovan headcanons/worldbuilding/ideas, but here are some others, since again, I’ve played Black and White since the game was out in Japan, going through the English patches and also just counting down the months until it released in NA.

So some of the headcanons I had was like... I’ll put a readmore here for convenience

Fun fact, you know how I said Mama was like built different? yeaaaars ago (i was like fifteen, still baby), I was like “Okay, I need a name for her, but what.”

and then I decided “Alright Bulbapedia, what you got for me”

PERFECT.

And since then, Mama was just named Monta, which could’ve possibly come from モンスター, or monster. Which again, looking at it now with how I’ve told you Mama is built different...YEAH. :V That’s her as a kid (this is totally not me just indulging in the idea of Mama being a massive tomboy who got dirty and didn’t even bother letting her hair grow out for SO long grhjgfk SHHHHH)

Anyways give it up for Monta - or Mama, which is what Sawyer accidentally calls her and it just sticks. (it’s embarrassing, but Mama just pats her on the head)

Moving on, because at the time, all we had were the BW Players Japanese names, I would just call them Touya and Touko - which, fun fact - their names mean the same thing, which is to fight...their names are just gender flipped versions of each other. This and their resemblance to each other, is why it was common to portray them as twins. Just in case anyone wonders, because in other areas, they are not at all related (like in the Pokemon Adventures manga).

It’s hard for me to let it go for Hilda and Hilbert, which is why I still call them Touya and Touko. And yes, these are clearly Japanese names, hence the headcanon I have of these two being of Japanese descent (or effectively, what is the Pokemon world equivalent of such).

And how does this carry over from Professor Juniper??? Because I ALSO effectively meshed her names together, except Juniper is her GIVEN name, her surname is actually Araragi. Her father is Araragi Sr.

So in Araragi Sr’s case, his given name is Cedric, but at the end of the day, this is the Araragi family. :V (and where’s Mama in all this? She passed away years ago, from an illness, but the family has since moved on from this - it’s why they were ALL just busy with research and other stuff for a good chunk of their earlier years)

and then there’s Alder (or Adeku, as I would call him back then)

Idk what it was (maybe his clothes), but I always saw this guy as being Mexican, or Indigenous Mexican and never looked back on that. :V

I still haven’t changed my mind about that, however, an addendum - because of Legends Arceus giving us this beauty

(apart from the confirmation that Maxie and Archie have been divorced through the ages, to the point I legitimately think they’ve reincarnated)

Seeing as Hisui (later, Sinnoh) is effectively Hokkaido, this would imply Japanese ancestry in Alder to some extent. So again, I’m just saying “yeah, that still stays” because Mexico also has a Japanese population. In fact, one of my favorite snacks - Japanese styled peanuts - came to be because of a Japanese immigrant living in Mexico. They’re a staple in certain snack foods, like tostilocos :V

While on this train of thought - fun fact, the Alder Moth, where Alder gets his name from in the English localization, can actually be found in Japan - specifically Honshu and Hokkaido. :V

Anyways what I’m saying is we’ve come full fucking circle. in some way.

But also, now Sawyer genuine joins the group of OCs that are Mexican-Japanese, because I went “why the hell not” (friendly reminder that I am indigenous Mexican, the only thing American - from the States - about me is that I was born here in California).

Since I’ve already stated that Sawyer was a twin switched out at birth with a stillborn by Team Plasma as a bargaining chip for Ghetsis to have on Alder, more to it is that - remember, the Elgyem line was introduced in Unova. Consider that they can manipulate memories, in case anyone wonders how it was easy for them to just switch out Sawyer like that. The timing of it was never intentional, but when Ghetsis sees an opening, HE TAKES IT.

So he’s part of the reason why Alder hasn’t been doing that well, since hey - remember how Benga got added to the family. Add to the death of one of his Pokemon years later, and he just...wanders around aimlessly. He still comes home, but he’s really taking it hard. (you can only imagine the anger and RELIEF he feels when he finds out about Sayer)

So anyways, while Sawyer looks like her mama (much like Touya), she does take after Alder in skin tone - being someone who tans easily (Touya also tans, but his default tones lean towards pale, like Mama).

As her hair gets longer, it starts looking more and more like Mama’s - leaning into Hilda/Touko. Bianca likes to brush her hair, and is the one that first pulls it into a ponytail when she notices “doesn’t it get in the way?”. She also braids her hair, but otherwise, yeah.

The way Sawyer got her name is through a book that Professor Juniper forgot to get rid of years ago. It was just something she had in her bag, usually forgetting about it for something else. It was a book on baby names, because she was helping her sister pick out names for the twins.

Sawyer picked the name she did because it stood out to her. Team Plasma has a name for her that she doesn’t exactly respond to, because very few people ever referred to her by that, usually just saying “you” or “brat”.

Sawyer isn’t her name...but for now, it feels right - because it’s better than having nothing at all.

So remember what I said about the twins??? Her real name is Touko. And that alone needs time for her to adjust. But there’s no rush. She has family now - she is loved.

But it was still a painful journey to get there. But hey, she isn’t alone.

[quibbs126]

Not all my schoolwork and projects that I put off catching up with me and causing me stress as I continue to avoid them and make it worse

*sigh* For context, I have a psychology essay due tomorrow that requires we pick a current event to connect psychological concepts we’ve learned to, and we need to have them checked and I haven’t even started, and I have a group architecture project that we need to start making a proposal for and we need to come up with ideas on what to do and I have no clue what ideas to say because I’m bad at ideas for this kind of stuff and I haven’t really watched the lectures in some weeks, so I don’t really know what’s going on, and me and another member of the group got messaged by the professor because one of our members has been repeatedly contacting us and we both haven’t been responding (my bad on that front legitimately), and so we need to contact her by the end of today or we get kicked off the group (I have contacted her, but I said I’d come up with ideas when I don’t know any, and I feel like it’d be shitty to say “I’m not good at coming up with ideas, you do it like you’ve had to do everything while I do nothing and have shown I am unreliable” or at least that’s how I feel it’d come off). And also, all of our Physics homework is due on Saturday, and it’s four chapters of long homeworks that I’m fairly certain take hours to complete, and not to mention I didn’t really do last exam’s homework so I need to do this one’s. But also on Saturday I have a volunteer thing I signed up for in the morning that I’ll be exhausted from if last year was anything to go by, and that has training attached that is required prior to going that I also haven’t touched and need to do. And there’s probably more stuff I’m forgetting on top of that

And a lot of this probably could have been avoided if I actually did stuff over Spring Break, where I had like 10 days of free time, but no, I had to be stupid and lazy and decide not to do anything over break despite knowing it would be a good time to do stuff because “it’s a break”

*sigh* sorry, I’m getting a bit heated over all this. Why am I even writing this, I know no one cares

Guess I had to get it out

[mashedcontroller]

Just a disclaimer, I’m going to make some social commentary and in a subject that I’m not particularly experienced in. So please keep that in mind when reading. May contain: misuse of terminology and misrepresentation of demographics. I sincerely apologize ahead of time. Also, this really is just me thinking through stuff as I type, so if I contradict myself, that’s why.

Also important, there’s a very good chance that trigger warnings won’t be appropriately tagged. I also apologize. I wanted to talk about how our society handles the topic of sexual predators and abusers. The word “rapist” will also be thrown around, though I don’t intend to get into specifics. I don’t know the appropriate terminology used for related TWs that Tumblr will properly filter, so please take this as a general warning about the topic.

I’ve been mulling over how our society seems to handle the concept of sexual predators and the discussion around or involving them is just really immature. Sexual predator is used as a boogyman so frequently yet whenever someone actually gets sexually preyed upon there’s a high chance that nothing gets done, especially without a frankly uncalled for amount of effort on the victim’s part. I know for a fact that historically and modernly, the idea of a sexual predator will get thrown at any and all demographics our society takes issue with, whether that be fat people, trans women, black men, lesbians, gay men, immigrants, ugly people, weird people, etc. I think the funniest one I can think of was when Fox News was accusing adults of being pedophiles for enjoying certain children’s entertainment (this was, like, at least 10 years ago, I don’t think it ever caught on). And this happens because our culture has a violent kneejerk reaction to the concept, regardless of inaction. I imagine that attitude also translates to our inaction because we see sexual predators as monsters rather than as people. We do the same thing for fascists, abusers, and other categories of people who inflict trauma. So, when someone turns out to fall under any of these categories, it’s very easy to mentally go “that’s not an abuser, that’s Ryan.” We’ll conceptualize these bad things as a category of person rather than a category that people can fall into. This attitude also translates to people refusing to acknowledge their actions as rape or abuse because that would make them an abuser, something we’ve determined to be a specific type of person. I understand the complexity of this topic comes from the clashing facts that a lot of rapists, abusers, sexual predators, etc. could in most generous terms and cases be described as people who fucked up while executing on cultural expectations, but that doesn’t mitigate the fact that their victims deserve, at absolute minimum, closure and recovery. The idea of sexual predators being monsters is a cathartic premise, but it’s also, at best, unhelpful, and at worst, a compelling source of denial and an effective justification to hate oppressed demographics.

A major factor in all of this is dramatization. I want to say this now that traumatizing someone doesn’t make you a monster because there’s no such thing as a monster. This is important to acknowledge both from the perspective of understanding both those inflicting trauma and those being traumatized. I’m saying this from the perspective of someone who has been traumatized by multiple people who I would never call monsters. They’re friends and family, people I love or want to love. Some of these people are still in my life because they legitimately have changed for the better, there are other instances where I sincerely doubt that they ever will, and there are other instances where they haven’t changed enough but they’re still trying. In each case, I get why they did what they did. In my friend’s case, we were both young teenagers and my friend grew up in a particularly toxic environment, so he had a lot to unlearn. Even when he hurt me with the intent of hurting me, I sincerely believe he never intended to do so in an abnormal way. Rather, to him, at that time, setting out to hurt me was a reasonable action. It’s similar for the other instances in my life too where the person who traumatized me had stuff they failed to unlearn and that’s what caused the issue. That’s part of the reason why victims of abuse can have such a hard time leaving, because abusers aren’t monsters, they are people. And accepting the idea that this person you care about is an abuser is a really fucking hard pill to swallow. As a side note, I still have a hard time accepting what I went through was abuse on any front even if it obviously is, so I instead used the terminology of calling the relationship toxic (because abusive relationships are toxic, even though the phrasing usually refers to when both sides are culprit) and that helped me sever ties and come to terms with it a lot better. And I’m fully aware that there are people who are fully aware of what they’re doing and will still do it. I’m not going to pretend to understand their reasoning or perspective because I haven’t interacted with such individuals. All that I can say is that the majority of the people I have interacted with don’t seem to comprehend the extent of what they’re doing. This isn’t an excuse, merely an observation. Regardless of whether someone understands the full consequences of their actions or not, it doesn’t change the reality that those actions and their consequences happen. And figuring out what to do from there is going to be more individualized and complicated.

It’s a common idea that you shouldn’t try to sympathize with these categorically bad people, but I believe this ideal is, politely put, flawed. The reason people say this is because doing so recklessly threatens the risk of indoctrination. Like, you shouldn’t go up to, say, a terf and ask “hey why do you hate women?” because you’re basically just asking for their doctrine. I wouldn’t recommend doing this to an ex-terf either. But that doesn’t mean that healthier methods don’t exist. Personally, if I wanted to get a better understanding in why terfs hate women, I’d look to ask someone who studies terfs over asking a terf. I think studying why people behave like this requires both a strong understanding of how culture functions and a lot of practice in the ability to both pull and analyze information from individuals. Also, discussing this stuff absolutely requires the fundamental understanding the everyone perceives the world differently and that it’s completely fine and that someone else’s interpretation of actions are just as real as your own and concepts like morals and standards are much more fickle than we give it credit for. A major reason for this is that a lot of the time people don’t hold ideologies because of the ideologies themselves. A rapist, for example, may be desensitized and normalized to the idea of raping people, which isn’t something they’re going to tell you by becoming friends with them. The best comparison to an active social justice movement that comes to mind is one regarding the issue of racism. White Fragility, if I’m not getting words mixed up, is the concept that white people will often deny their own racism out of a refusal to see themselves as racists. This happens because our culture created the idea of a “racist,” which is someone who unapologetically hates black people. Side note, the concept of racism itself in layman’s terms is often depicted to be black people vs white people when that’s such a wrong conceptualization of the subject that it can’t even be called oversimplification. But the reality that movements countering racism have been working to get across is more or less that racism is a cultural issue. You can’t just decide to be not a racist because racism is so culturally ingrained in everything that everyone does that avoiding it requires an active effort on everyone’s part. If I’m not mistaken, a very similar theme can be found in feminist, LGBT, ableist, etc. movements. Adding my own thoughts into those subject matters, I don’t think racists, sexists, homophobes, etc. are real demographics because they’re spectrums. Demographics can exist within spectrums. For example, gender is a massive spectrum, yet we still have plenty of demographics centered around it. The thing is, like gender, racism is also a massive spectrum and we simply don’t have terminology to even begin to describe it. I guess going with the weird racism to gender analogy, I’d say dividing it between “racist” and “not racist” is the same level of inaccurate as considering gender to be a binary between “male” and “female.” Like, a quick example, someone who literally cannot distinguish a latinx person from a black person and has never interacted with either is fundamentally different from someone who thinks harassing black people is funny and that, too, is going to be very different from someone who says slurs regularly but rarely goes out of their way to harass people. And that’s just describing categories of people that most would consider obviously racist. What about people who don’t consider themselves racist but will act more cautiously around certain races regardless, or people who consider themselves allies but tend to gatekeep people from their own community? All this shit applies to the other “ists” where, while demographics exist, the demographic of x-ist is just way too vague for me to take it as a serious categorization of humans, which is why I’d consider them to be imaginary demographics. 

So, let’s just establish that I think some demographics are made-up. What does this accomplish? Marketing, basically. By creating an imaginary demographic, it’s possible to ascribe stereotypes to said demographic. But because this demographic isn’t real, there’s literally nothing to dispel these stereotypes. Racist isn’t a real demographic, so you aren’t going to have a group of racists saying something like “we don’t just hate black people” or “we aren’t always violently racist,” it becomes canon with the definition of said demographic. Compare that to a real demographic, like, say, married individuals. You can’t put “has a child” as being part of the conceptualization of a married individual because doing so would be met with resistance by married people who don’t have children. Instead, you would need either a separate term for married people with children and married people without or you would have to externally enforce the idea, such as saying you cannot legally get married unless you have a kid. And the second option would be a hypothetical example of systemic oppression. Also, I want to make clear that I don’t think every instance of an imaginary demographic is as heavy or nearly as damaging as the ists, but they definitely should be distinguished from true demographics. Off the top of my head, I’d say “hardcore gamer” and “casual gamer” are two examples of imaginary demographics. The idea that these imaginary demographics are trying to address is that different people playing video games are going to have different levels of commitment, open-mindedness, tolerance, available time, etc. when they pick up a videogame, but I’ve just described four different spectrums. I think by now, people know these two demographics aren’t real, but the idea of a hardcore and casual gamer does result in some bipolar game design decisions, such as how Pokemon games have been increasingly stripped away of their content while competitive Pokemon has been receiving an unprecedented amount of feature creep (at least, by the series standards), which I personally think does more harm than good on both extremes of that spectrum. I don’t want to say imaginary demographics are a problem when it’s a term I literally just made up while writing this tumblr post and I haven’t had time to mull over it, but they do seem quite destructive on average because they create a lot of stereotypes that cannot be disputed and their boundaries/definition so largely open to interpretation that you could fit multiple potential demographics within the extents of said boundary.

Note: while editting, it occurred to me that nonbinary gender would somewhat fit my definition of an imaginary demographic and it would be a positive example of the concept. I’d hardly consider the term destructive, though I wouldn’t be too surprised if it became outdated in the distant future. Unless I’m completely mistaken about the semantics and history of the term, nonbinary is meant as a catch-all term for genders that are neither male nor female. Here’s the thing, a lot of those gender identities only might fall under what I just described the definition of nonbinary to be. There’s enough room for interpretation that different individuals who’s gender identity is neither male nor female may or may not consider themselves nonbinary. For me, I am agender and I consider that to be within the realms of “nonbinary,” I’m certain that there are plenty of agender people who do not consider agender and nonbinary to be compatible as agender means “no gender” while “gender is not binary” implies the existence of a gender. Meanwhile, do genders like demi boy, demi girl, bigender, and genderfluid count? I strongly suspect that the answer to each of those questions individually will have variance in their answers. Furthermore, there are plenty of people who identify their gender as nonbinary with no other qualifiers. I believe there’s also the identity of genderqueer, which, if I remember correctly, is a gender identity basically saying, “my gender is that I don’t want to identify with any specific gender.” For me, I identify as agender and nonbinary but not genderqueer. I’m certain that you could find someone with any possible combination of carrying for each of those three identities. The term nonbinary is very useful because it’s empowering. The word sort of just means both something and nothing at the same time. That sounds complicated, but think of it like referring to the person you’re romantically engaged in as your “partner,” it’s a short-hand way to both say that you have an identity while still obscuring it. In the “partner” example, you’re most likely expressing some level of alliance with the LGBT community because the idea of addressing your romantic relation as “partner” has history and affiliation with it. That’s why the word both means something and nothing at the same time. And with nonbinary, the demographic doesn’t really say much of anything about the person’s gender but it also does. Thinking further on it, the LGBT community has a lot of imaginary demographics within it. First of all, the menarche of LGBT has its own history of what was and wasn’t considered a part of it, to the point where it would be repeatedly changed to include variants like LGBTQ, LGBTQIA, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA+, and LGBT+. Alongside that, the individual identities within it aren’t inherently correlated. The modern association with the term is to refer to people who are either not heterosexual or not cisgender. Even that definition is very questionable and open to interpretation. For example, someone who identifies as a cisgender male may be sexually oriented towards femininity, which isn’t the same thing as being attracted to women. Thus, this theoretical person only might identify as LGBT depending on their interpretation of the boundaries of the demographic. What about someone who identifies as both cisgender and nonbinary? Consider these edge cases, all demographics have them because that’s just how categorization works. But the LGBT community has had time to expand what demographics are and are not considered. Maybe a possible way to group it as an imaginary demographic vs a true demographic is that an imaginary demographic is a reaction to something while a true demographic is something that’s more cemented. Like, if you wanted to get population information, a true demographic would be dividing people between the country they were born in while an imaginary demographic would be something like what country everyone considers to be their home. 

Actually no, this would need to be a third category rather than being clumped with what I described the ists and casual vs core gamers to be. While both categories have very open to interpretation borders, I suppose the difference between those two categories of demographic is that it doesn’t feel like the ists and casual vs core gamer categorizations were created by the people who intended to identify with them while the LGBT categories I was describing absolutely were. That said, I don’t think that’s a sole distinguisher, it probably looks something like this. 

I may have formatted this as a set of boxes but it’s definitely a spectrum. Jumping to the gender example, I think the binary genders lean closer to being abstract labels due to our cultural idea of being able to look at someone to assume gender while the not binary genders would lean more towards abstract identity due to them requiring individuals to do some amount of soul searching before they can enter that demographic (as in, our culture defaults every individual as binary cisgender, so identifying as anything else requires extra steps on the individuals’ part). Anyways, here are some examples of demographics in each category that I personally fall into.

Btw, I was making shit up with the abstract labels because the whole thing with abstract labels is that they’re describing hypothetical people. 

So, returning to the original subject of how our society treats concepts like sexual predators and connecting it to the rant about demographics. “Predator” would be an abstract label, but it does have sub-categories that lean more towards being defined labels. In particular “rapist” is a good example of a defined label because it means “someone who rapes/d.” When I was talking about imaginary labels when talking about the ists, I was struggling to properly conceptualize what I’m calling an abstract label now. Just remember that abstract labels are allowed to be whatever you want them to be because as a label, the boundaries and definitions of the demographic are not in the hands of the demographic in question, while as an abstract, said boundaries and definitions are extremely subjective and malleable. Therefore their definitions can be frequently altered and manipulated to achieve desired results and no interpretation of the demographic is any more valid than the other. 

I think a lot of the demographics that have maintained their strong negative connotations over the many social movements are either abstract labels or are sub-demographics of abstract labels. I think just interfacing with abstract labels has to function differently than everything else because when identities get negative connotations, there will be people holding those identities to defend it because it’s part of their identity, while when defined demographics get slandered, you’ll have people who have to unavoidably deal with said slander.

I strongly believe that understanding oppressors is important for anyone who intends to interact with them under any capacity. The intends part of that sentence is important; I don’t believe their victims are obligated to value their perspective on any level. The other clarification to that sentence, when I say “interact,” I mean on any level, whether that’s in the form of activism or you willingly associating with the individual. Depending on the category of oppression, how insidious it is or isn’t will vary, so I’d argue that some level of general knowledge and understanding on this stuff is important for everyone, if only to enable maturity around the subject. Like, it’s important to learn how to handle the situation if you learn that, say, your best friend raped someone or that your coworker is a neonazi. Both in the event that you’re part of a demographic that’s victim to those demographics and for when you aren’t. 

[jdgo51]

Boundaries Without Question Marks

Today's inspiration comes from:

Good Boundaries and Goodbyes

by Lysa Terkeurst

Editor's note: "If we want more peaceful relationships, we have to turn our life from accepting chaos to pursuing peace." The Good Boundaries and Goodbyes Online Bible Study by Lysa TerKeurst starts July 24th! Sign up today!

"'It’s no wonder we are anxious and feel boundaries are only acceptable and legitimate if the other person agrees with and respects them. In other words, instead of stating our boundaries and ending the sentence with a period, we tag on a question. “You good with that?” “Okay?” “Does that work?” “This is understandable, right?” “You see where I’m coming from, yes?”

Posing a boundary as a question opens us up to be questioned, debated, and disrespected. If a boundary is presented with doubt, it won’t be effectively carried out.

Now, add on top of that the weird notion that if we are Christians, then we are absolutely obligated to sacrifice what’s best for us in the name of laying down our lives for others.

Where did we get the idea that we aren’t allowed to say no, have limitations, or be unwilling to tolerate other people’s bad behavior?

If we are filtering our thoughts of boundaries through wrong perceptions, it’s no wonder many of us find boundaries not just challenging but pretty close to impossible.

Here’s why:

We aren’t sure who we really are. We aren’t sure what we really need. We aren’t sure that if others walked away from us, we’d be okay.

Let’s take an honest look at an important question.

Who are you?

When I took time to answer this question for myself, I wondered why I’d never addressed this before. In a moment of honest reflection, it felt incredibly freeing to state for myself who I really am rather than when I’m trying to defend myself against the judgments of others.

Here’s who I am. I am a woman who loves God and loves other people. Therefore, because of Christ in me (Galatians 2:20), I am empowered to be the version of me God intended when He created me. I’m kind, creative, caring, generous, fun, and loyal. I have those qualities, but they aren’t what is most apparent when people use me, take advantage of me, make unrealistic demands of me, and make wrong assumptions about me when I say no. In other words, when I’ve let someone violate my boundaries, I can get so frustrated that I act in completely opposite ways from the woman I really am. This type of reaction is on me — and I need to totally own it — not what someone else does, but my reaction to what they do.

So, boundaries help me stay true to who I really am. Without boundaries, I can hyperextend myself to the point where I become anxious, bitter, resentful, angry, annoyed, and distant. That’s not who I really am, so it’s my responsibility not to let another person’s actions and expectations wear me down to the worst version of myself. In a biblical sense, it’s me not allowing another person to make me betray who I am in Christ.

Okay, your turn to answer this crucial question: Who am I?

Pause here. Think about this.

And if you’re having a hard time answering, maybe it’s because you’ve lost her. Sometimes we’ve let other people’s opinions and needs define us for so long that we lose ourselves in the process. Or maybe circumstances have been so confusing, maybe even brutal, that we feel like life has reduced us to someone who others feel badly for. I’ve felt this exact way during the past several years of my life. I wanted to be a victorious woman of God, not a victim of a bunch of circumstances that caught me off guard and ripped the rug out from beneath me.

There is so much more to us than just being a sum total of what’s happened to us. Right?! So, how do we get back to that person we were before all the hard stuff?

Join the OBS I was on a group Zoom call recently with my friend Amanda after she had read an early version of what I’ve written here. She got choked up as she told me about a picture her mom found in her grandmother’s jewelry box after she passed away. The old black-and-white photograph was of a beautiful little chubby-cheeked baby with dark hair.

“That little face in my grandmother’s jewelry box was one I hadn't seen in more than twenty-five years since I last laid eyes on the picture. Twenty-five years. It’s me as a baby. The most pure version of me. This is me before life happened and wrote its own story on me. Before I got hurt and heartbroken and jaded and run over by what life had become.”

Her tears spilled down her cheeks as the rest of us tried to manage the lumps in our own throats. The baby in the picture was Amanda, but the truth of this moment applied to all of us.

Picture yourself as a tiny baby fresh from God’s hands. Innocent. Blissfully unaware of tragedy and trauma. Imagine yourself looking into her eyes. What would you say to her? Who do you want to tell her she is before life gets written on her? Speak that over her now.

Remember, you are closest to who you really are when you are the closest to who He created you to be.

Another memory you could recall is to remember yourself before you were really hurt. Before she said what she said. Or he did what he did. Or, before that event when everything changed, and you felt a bit damaged. Who were you?

Think of a memory, a memory from early on in your life, and try to remember who you were before you started looking to others for validation. Before you started becoming so hyperaware of your faults and frailties that you stopped seeing yourself as worthy, valuable, and designed by God on purpose. If nothing comes to mind from your early childhood, just speak to one of your baby pictures and tenderly tell her why she doesn’t need to live her life with an unhealthy pursuit of constantly seeking validation from people.

Now, write down the qualities that are true about the most authentic, wonderful version of you.

That’s your beauty. The goal is to humbly, and purposefully, walk in that beauty and own it. Serve from that fullness. Give from that wholeness. Walk confidently in the fact that our all-sufficient God did not make you insufficient or broken. Yes, we need to grow and develop and seek to become more and more like Jesus. But just like a seed contains everything in it necessary to bloom, so do we. All that a seed goes through to grow into a plant is part of the process of becoming what it was designed to be — not a process of determining its worth or value (1 Corinthians 15:38–44).

This exercise is more important than you know. If we don’t know who we are, we will constantly be manipulated into who others want us to be or become enmeshed in the needs of other people.

When we know who we are, we are whole and available to love, serve, and give to others from that fullness. If we don’t know who we are, then we will love, serve, and give, hoping people will fill our empty places and make us feel whole. And in doing so, we will always be defined by how well or how poorly someone else makes us feel.

My passion for all of this may have put a tad too much wind in my sail — or words in my chapter. Welcome to my overextended TED talk. Just kidding.

There’s an even more secure foundation to knowing who we are than just naming it for ourselves. We want to let God’s Word become the words of truth for our identity.

When God is the source of our identity, we are much less prone to others feeding our insecurity.

I’ll leave you with these words I first wrote in my journal and then put in my book Uninvited years ago: “God’s love isn’t based on me. It’s simply placed on me. And it’s the place from which I should live... loved.”1"'

Lysa TerKeurst, Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 259.

Excerpted with permission from Good Boundaries and Goodbyes by Lysa TerKeurst, copyright Lysa TerKeurst.

[blazzlehoochas]

oh! sure!

so, we never really see lance in a formal leadership role in the series, but we do see a lot of hints about what kind of leader he would be given the right opportunity.

from what we’ve seen, back in the garrison days, it doesn’t seem like there was a formal leader position in the sim teams. however, lance is the pilot, and i've been on enough roadtrips to know that the person who controls the vehicle has a decent amount of say-so in most situations.

now, this is s1e1 stuff, so things are not going well for the team at this point, but we see lance trying to look after the team. he jumps in between pidge and iverson rather than leaving her to deal with the fallout of her outburst alone. he takes the responsibility of social coordinator (even though i'm pretty sure hunk and pidge both wish he wouldn't) because he understands that team cohesion is important, even if he doesn't understand how to achieve it.

lance is a people focused leader. i think the most important thing about lance's leadership style would be how different it is from either shiro or keith. where shiro and keith are both more action oriented, lead from the front, set examples and inspire types, lance cannot be that. he tries to be, and that's when things don't work out.

lance is at his best when he steps back, not forward.

there’s a bit in the comic run where pidge cites his strengths as being able to team up with others for cooperative attacks and having a good team awareness. this makes sense (and is kind of really necessary) for a ranged weapons specialist. the 'good team awareness' comment is in the context of a chess game, so it speaks to his understanding of the flow of combat from a holistic perspective. a sniper needs to be able to see and understand the chaos of a battlefield and ensure none of their teammates accidentally end up in the crossfire. the sniper also has to assess inbound threats and give warnings and support to those on the ground. despite the physical distance, it's a very team focused role.

we see this in action in s7 when lance is guiding the ground team through a complex environment, allowing them to complete a high risk mission with no losses. not that he couldn't handle it if he needed to but he would be less effective in the ground unit, and the team comp as a whole would be worse.

even outside of strictly combat situations, lance is really focused on other people; what they think, what they want, what they expect. and this is both a strength and a weakness from different angles. on one hand it makes him act out, leads to a lot of shallow interactions because he wants to look impressive to the people around him. to meet their expectations of what a hero should be. on the other hand, it let's him understand and empathise with people's struggles. he's given legitimately very effective pep-talks to both allura and keith at different points. but, again, this requires him to step back and let go of his own ego for a second.

lance's main struggle is finding his place in the team, and having the confidence to genuinely fill it (i imagine a lot of this comes from being a younger child in a large family and the struggle to be heard and find a niche to claim). a matured leader lance would have an in depth understanding of himself and his team, and how those two concepts interact. what his strengths and weaknesses are and how they work with the strengths and weaknesses of those around him.

i imagine lance as a leader would be very personable and approachable. totally unintimidating. he’s the kinda guy you can just chat with and really feel heard. his approach would be about building people up, getting them into advantageous positions, and ensuring he’s able to have everyone’s back.

so yeah, those are my thoughts.

The true leaders of Voltron!

My lovely attempt at fake official art :D

(Am I allowed to use the logo like that?)

[astaroth1357]

Demigod MC Series: Ares

Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus, Demeter, Athena, Hades Pt. 2, Poseidon, Ares

Lucifer

He cannot overstate what kind of damage this mortal was able to do in their first few seconds in the Devildom...

The instant they got to their feet, they had managed to incapacitate Satan and knock down Beel. Lucifer himself tried to get between them and Diavolo but…

If he hadn’t moved his head, if he was standing just ONE INCH to the left… he wouldn’t have a head anymore. Barbatos was there to intervene, but had he not they could have probably taken out the Avatar of Pride and done critical damage to the Demon Prince himself in one strike...

Frankly, Lucifer prefers not to dwell on that moment... He's sure Ares must be proud of this one...

He pretty much treats the mortal like a live bomb afterward, if he can get away with not interacting with them at all, that’s what he’ll do.

He’s NOT scared of them... much... It’s just that they have a bullish and uncooperative attitude at best and since they know they can take any of them, they don't even consider him - Lucifer, the eldest demon brother - a threat...

But you know what the most frustrating thing is? They won't give him an inch of respect, but they'll always listen to Levi! Levi!!

Look, Lucifer knows he may not hold a rank among the Hell's army and he might not have been a major player in the Celestial/Demonic wars of the day, but he's still the strongest demons here, dammit!! 😡

Lucifer finds nothing is more embarrassing than having to ask Levi of all people to keep the mortal in line because he can't... Oh, the humiliation… He hopes they leave soon...

Mammon

At first, he thought they were scary. But in time he thought they were scary… and also pretty damn awkward.

Mammon wasn’t there when they more or less wiped out the majority of his brothers in the Conference Hall but when he finally showed up he'd never seen Lucifer look so pale… If THAT doesn't make you shit your pants, he doesn't know what will.

Naturally, he kind of toned it down on the "stupid human" stuff real quick after seeing that…

But here's the thing. After the two made a pact together, Mammon started to notice that the MC wasn't all that mean, they were just… violent?

He legitimately thought that they couldn’t stand him for a while until one day a guy on the street called him a dirtbag. The MC threw a punch right there! No questions asked, they just decked that guy!!

It was kind of touching… and messy. Very messy. Did he mention that they’re terrifying yet? 😥

As it turns out, the MC has apparently spent a lot of their life just fighting things and being asked to fight things so they're not very used to showing non-violent affection… 

It took him awhile, but he realized that their way of saying, "I like you," is, "I will attack your enemies." So now all he does when his brothers tease him is say, "I'm telling MC!'' and they'll stop immediately. It's great!! 😁

Considers them to be his bodyguard when he goes out to gamble in some… shadier places. Most of the time not even the bouncers want to take on the MC, ain't nobody getting paid enough to lose that many teeth…

Leviathan

Okay, so. It's not very obvious anymore, but he USED to be on the front lines of the war against demons in the Celestial Realm. He was in charge of battle strategies, he led armies, and even now he still holds the highest rank of the royal navy!

So leave it to the kid of a war god to sniff all that out about him, huh…? They appeared to know all about his record the instant they saw him and they actually seemed to respect him for it!

For context, this mortal tells pretty much everybody to shove off but any time he’s around they call him “Admiral” or “sir” and actually pay attention to what he says! He can tell it drives Lucifer insane, but honestly? It’s a bit of an ego boost. 😌

It’s sort of cute when they come to him asking for tactical advice… They get just as into it as he does with his anime and any time he points out something that they haven't seen before they get so excited it's like they're a kid watching a magic trick. HUGE ego boost. 😏

Speaking of anime, it’s hit or miss whether or not they can watch any of it. Anything with good fight scenes (and let’s be honest, not that much talking) they’re on board for. But if the hero and the villain talk to each other for like an episode before throwing punches then the MC will just rant...

MC: “The enemy is distracted... Why aren’t they attacking yet??”

Levi: “Because the villain killed the hero’s best friend and they’re-”

MC: “They could avenge their friend right now if they ended things right here!”

Levi: “MC, we’ve been over this... That’s not how plot works.”

MC: “And now he got away!! See?? They should have killed him when they had the chance!”

Levi: “*sigh*... Let’s just play some CoD.”

Satan 

The last thing he remembered when the “human” hopped out of the portal was a sharp pain to the side of the temple and Asmo wailing as he fell unconscious…

Yeeeeah, not great. And unfortunately for the mortal the Avatar of Wrath tends to hold a grudge… 

For a comparatively brief moment in time, all of Satan’s considerable ire had shifted away from Lucifer and to their new housemate. They found their bed, clothes, pillows, food, and even their toothbrush cursed!

… But Ares kids must be built from some strong stuff, because half of what he employed didn’t even faze them! He even put an explosive spell on their backpack and not only did they tank the blast, it didn’t hurt them at all!! It was like they’re damn near immortal!

Annnnd they kind of are. Apparently the MC had taken a dip in the River Styx at some point before and became nigh invulnerable…

Was it maybe a little terrifying to know that they had kidnapped a nearly invincible demigod on the level of Achilles? Yes. Did that also mean that they must have had a weakness too? In theory....

Satan honestly devoted a depressing amount of time trying to uncover the “Achilles’ Heel” of his new sworn enemy… until…

The MC was walking with him and Asmo to RAD one morning when they passed by a group of lesser demons harassing a small puppy. Now Satan may be more of a cat man, but NO ONE fucks with animals while he’s around.

He was right about to go over and rip those demons a new one but the MC actually beat him to it! Apparently, the second that they realized what was happening, they launched themselves forward and started bashing the abusers' heads into a wall!

… Live by violence, forgive by violence because in that very moment Satan decided they weren’t so bad after all. He even joined in!

Oh, Asmo gave them both shit all day for the bloodstains on their uniforms and the scratches on their… everywhere, but it’s not like either of them cared. Righteous justice had been served and it was glorious!!

100% would team up with the MC in some kind of vigilante “punish-all-animal-abusers” gig. They have but to ask. 😌

Asmodeus

Oh they TERRIFIED Asmo when they first showed up! How else was he supposed to react?? They brought down his brothers like they were made of cardboard!!

Though he had to admit that the confident, battle-ready look they had about them was sexy as hell, he knew better than to go bear poking! 😣 He avoided them like plague until they finally asked him for a pact.

And then he discovered something… something very unexpected….

They're actually adorable!!!

Okay, like, not in appearance (they look like they could pile drive Cerberus for Pete’s sake!) but he discovered that they have NO CLUE how to handle physical affection. Like zero!!

The first time Asmo actually got the courage to try and hug them he expected them to toss him off, but instead they just stood there like a malfunctioning doll, all flustered and confused… It was so cute!!! 🥰

From that point on, Asmo would take every chance he could to wrap his arms around them or kiss their cheeks just to watch them try and fail to handle it. It's more fun than picking on Levi!!

It took two months for them to finally attempt any kind of reciprocation and even that was adorable! They pecked him on the forehead without thinking about it then nearly passed out from the realization. Apparently, they had never felt like kissing anyone before so he was quite honored!

The brothers know that if the MC's looking too mad to listen to Levi, they just need to call Asmo. A nigh invincible warrior becomes a LOT less scary after you’ve cuddled them into submission! 🤭

Beelzebub

Beel didn't like them one bit, at least not at the beginning. They had managed to get past him and actually attack Lucifer which was NOT a great first impression on their part...

He honestly saw them as a threat for a while, but unlike the rest of his brothers he didn’t avoid them. He just kept an eye on them.... constantly….

Look. Beel is a big guy. Stealth is not his strong suit… If he's tailing you, you're probably going to know about it because there's a six-foot something behemoth in orange following you around while pounding down bags of chips. He's not very subtle…

That being said, after following them around for a while the two finally got to talking and he realized that they didn’t want to hurt anybody or anything. They were just acting on instinct before.

After making the MC promise not to hurt any of his family, they got on much better terms. Hell, he actually got them into fangol!

Beel's sport of choice is pretty much just ultra-violent American football so the MC took a liking to it instantly! After enough begging, the coach let them try out and they got onto his team immediately.

He likes having them as a teammate! They're very good at the game, uh... even if they take it a little too seriously…

They once tried to convince his teammates to decorate the team bus with "the helmets of their fallen foes." They're REALLY into the sport… But hey, they haven't lost a game since they’ve joined. It’ll be fine!... Probably.

Belphegor

Hahaha… He’s in danger… 😥

It took one look at this mortal to make him rethink the whole, “Trick the Human” plan… Since when have humans looked like that?? They could crush his skull under their heel!!

It took all he had in him to play it cool when they first met because his internal monologue was nothing but screaming… THIS was the "human" he had to use to get him out of there?? How in the WORLD was he going to kill them?!

Admittedly, he had to think about it for a while. Belphie's a clever guy… and a demon. So who needs an honorable fight, anyway? If he can’t win one-on-one, then he’ll cheat!

He waited until the MC got the door open and didn't attempt a frontal assault… No laughter, no gloating. He just waited for them to turn their back, claws ready to dig out their heart, and then-!

MC: "Do you really want to try that?"

The MC must have had some kind of danger sense, because they didn't even have to turn around to know what Belphie was doing…

MC: "Look. I like Beel and you're his twin brother… So I'm willing to let this slide. But if you really want to try me…"

MC: *looks over their shoulder with the glare of a bona fide killer* "I won't hold back."

That was... very persuasive.

The MC brought Belphie down to the others peacefully with his tail between his legs and honestly Lucifer was more relieved that he wasn’t a bloodstain on the floor than he was mad… They could have killed him sooo easily… 

They did, indeed, forgive and forget about the whole “attempted murder” thing, though Belphie was never quite able to shake off how frightening they were in that moment… He had nightmares for a while.

Thankfully, Asmo clued him in that the MC would melt into a harmless puddle of fluff if they got even the slightest bit of physical affection... Oh, the sweet payback he could dish out... It’s cuddle time. 😏