#these tags are no longer relevant to the post lmao

[indecisive-dizzy]

been thinking about The Book of Life and the fandom way back when. specifically the trans Manolo headcanons akfhakdgajdha

It's so funny to me! In a trans!Manolo universe Carlos really said

"You can be a man, son. But if you're gonna be a man You're gonna be a SÁNCHEZ MAN!"

[hermitw]

I've been thinking about this reblog of yours for months and I finally figured out how to respond to it.

I went and read No Longer Human by Junji Ito and it was a very upsetting thing to go through. I don't think I can read it again. However, I came out of it thinking that Gege was probably inspired by it.

When Yozo is first introduced, I noticed that Takaba's backstory was very similar. Feeling isolated from others, he decided to become a clown to gain acceptance from others. (Citations in Image Captions)

And later when Yozo was caught "cheating" (it's in quotes because those women are child rapists), I noticed that her face was really similar to the one Higuruma's client made when he felt betrayed by the trial outcome.

There's probably a lot more to say about how themes surrounding CSA and suicide in this work are echoed in JJK, but I'm not able to make the post myself. No Longer Human is too far out of my comfort zone in terms of graphic depiction to delve into it deeper.

But you seem strong enough to handle it, so... Idk maybe run with this some more.

Ohhh this is so interesting! I could definitely read No Longer Human again - tbh I read Junji Ito's version years ago. This year I listened to the audio book and bought a copy - but it's like, a draft in the author's handwriting (bc I thought it would help me study Japanese and if I had an English translation that I'd read it on repeat lmao). But you're real for that - I forget how disturbed people tend to be trying to read through it, I'm sorry that was rough.

I did go back to read the reblog and idk how relevant all that was - I've reread the manga since and felt like, oh I might have been misremembering some things like Uraume - idk if they actually had a freeze response in ch. 219, since they did tell Yorozu to back off though it took a minute - but it's also interesting how their CT deals with ice. Like to have a fight response, they freeze others? It's so interesting but I can't be sure whether it's there at all. (ik that yap II inspired some more coherent posts, like how it influenced Choso's self-image, etc., I linked but didn't tag you back then bc I felt Annoying especially w heavy topics but I can definitely go back and find them if you'd like.)

On a twin peaks note (without spoiling it), I feel like it inspired jjk to some extent - I've been feeling like the last chapter will end the way s2 did. Or at least - with the weird dreamy themes, "we are the dreamer who dreams and who lives inside the dream", etc...

But you're right - Yozo and the others' reactions resemble more jjk characters than I would think to connect. Takaba's jokes are truly a shield... And now I have an excuse to read Junji Ito's version again? Thank u so much (also isn't it funny how September 28 Uzumaki airs and September 30 jjk ends?).

I think gege gets inspired by the most tragic stories, I wonder how much of that is accurate but I can't always be convinced otherwise.... Especially when anime / manga series that he's confirmed as influences often deal with autonomy in ways that I couldn't handle (Evangelion, the night beyond the tricornered window).

By the way - ik we've mentioned elfen lied before, but in the first episode, you know that coffee mug? How it looks like jjk foreshadowing? Even has snail head Mahito - cut off-, the baseball, Panda, the worm (also cut off).... and later the newborn babies that look just like Yuuji...

I swear that elfen lied, Kagewani, and banana fish influenced jjk. It seems so obvious w those, maybe Vampire Princess Miyu as well.

Sorry for getting off topic - I've been looking into why Momotaro keeps coming up in jujutsu kaisen, and in the end it came back full circle to that damn coffee cup. Invest in a baseball team? A zoo? I'm going insane.

All this to say - rereading Junji Ito's version and seeing if I notice similarities between manga panels is so exciting. Gege even made a note that he asked for permission before drawing - I think it was the Uzumaki CT - So we know he's a big fan of Junji Ito. And it seems like there is a rly good chance No Longer Human inspired him as well (though I feel like characters with similar traumas having similar reactions is inevitable to some extent, if they're written in a believable way, it should be clearer when I'm reading both stories in the same format) based on the stories he has officially referenced.

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

Okay, it might be kind of late to say this, but it's been driving me crazy for months now and I just need to get it out: THE FANON THAT VOX HAS AN ALASTOR BODY PILLOW DID NOT COME FROM THE INSTAGRAMS!!!!!!!!!!!

I kept seeing people saying that it did a couple months ago, and Idk if they still are, but those people were either lying or misinformed, because I've been in the Hazbin fandom since the Instagram's STARTED, and the Vees literally never brought up Alastor in any of their posts. Not once. You can check them yourself, the Hazbin Instagram Archive is literally RIGHT THERE- they never talked about him, let alone implied Vox had a body pillow of him. As far as I can tell, it didn't come from one of the old live streams, and it wasn't even a popular headcannon around the time the Instas were a happening!!! Radiostatic was a ship, yes, but the hopelessly one-sided version of it didn't become popular until the show came out. Actually normal Radiostatic wasn't that popular either come to think of it... I looked through the Alastor/Vox tag on AO3, and only about 182 of the 1,569 fics in the tag were posted before the actual show came out, most of which had them mutually attracted to eachother. Anyways my point is that the Alastor body-pillow thing is actually a very recent bit of fanon with no roots in anything that even USED to be canon. It's a valid headcannon, nothing like. Outwardly opposes it. It was just never actually a thing.

Sorry if this is no longer relevant, I just now got the motivation to actually do all the proper research on it lmao

[cuephrase]

all the penance ✨lore✨

i say "all" i will probs forget stuff lmao. if you had any questions or this posts spark some, feel free to send me an ask!!

so okay. one of the things i absolutely delight in doing as a writer is like attention to detail for oomph and drama and sometimes that comes through very clearly, like the chapter names each being a different stage of grief (which was technically not planned, as in i didn't know that from the jump but as soon as i titled chapter 1 i knew what they were all going to be), and other times it's more subtle. basically, i overthink everything but uh i have fun and now i'm going to share all that with you!!

if you are most interested in how i came up with the ending, scroll to the bottom of this post 🫡

⚠️ SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️

cw: the fic is tagged with MCD and deals extensively with grief and mourning, however, !big ending spoiler!: everyone lives :)

the pov rule(s)

the pov could only ever be someone who could see ghost!tim. so ch1 and 2 are strictly tim and jason (and why we don't get jason pov until after he sees tim again). the first time we get dick's pov is after ghost!tim gets the bracelet that makes him visible to everyone!!

that being said, the reason why we don't get bruce pov until he's making the trade with tim is because i...i wanted bruce to look bad. listen, unreliable narrator is extremely important to me, okay? and the second we got bruce's pov we would see how he's actually doing vs how the boys were perceiving him and it would've ruined everything.

i wanted bruce to be incredibly frustrating, what can i say? it's relevant later, bookmark this for when i get to the Ending.

why touching hurt

okay i never found a convenient way to work this into the fic, but there is a reason why touching the ghosts was physically painful.

basically, interacting with the ghost of a loved one brings all of the grief they're feeling front and center.

this is why it hurts dick the most the night that tim dies, bc the grief is intensely fresh and raw. however, years later when he hugs ghost!tim it doesn't hurt as bad, although it still hurts a ton, bc he's had time to process his grief and heal in some ways.

this is why bruce seemed unaffected, bc he is wallowing in his grief on a regular basis but doing his best to function through it. he breaks when he's standing outside of jason's room bc he was already vulnerable in that moment and didn't have anything to cover with.

this is why it doesn't hurt jason when ghost!tim touches him, until after they've started the unwinding process.

jason and tim's relationship in this fic is very...unique. they don't mean anything to each other until after tim has died. his death wasn't really something that super affected jason for tim's sake- like he was mainly bummed for dick and bruce. and then, once jason comes back to life, tim is the same to him. ghost!tim is the only way he really knows tim. the way that ghost!jason feels about tim is very much so like, he's in Robin-mode and tim is a civilian-in-crisis.

and they trauma-bonded, but also they were only ghosts together for a month so like their relationship is this haphazard blend of intense vulnerability but still only kind-of knowing each other. plus like, ghost!jason is different than resurrected!jason and ghost!jason is who tim has a connection with- it's a mess, it's so fun. but anyways!!

jason isn't grieving tim's death until they start the unwinding process, bc for him, that is the moment that tim's death becomes real to him. and at that point, he's no longer just a civilian-in-crisis to jason- he's the last person jason promised himself he'd save and he's failing him.

the reason why touching hurts less over time, specifically prolonged contact, is bc it forces them to kind of sit with their grief and feel it and accept it rather than just shove it all down. in a way, it's helpful. extremely uncomfortable tho.

why alfred was in england

he functions too well as a buffer. i needed them to be forced to deal with each other and alfred being around gave them too many outs. also, after the trade, i didn't want dick to have anyone to lean on.

about dick

idk how many of you will agree with me, but i really think dick had it the absolute worst out of everyone. no lie, the whole thing that sparked this fic was stamp (@a-canceled-stamp, darling if you see this ilysm, and also you should def check out her fics if you haven't, cardboard box destroyed me) mentioning how much anguish dick would suffer if tim died, okay, so like dick having a Horrible Time was the origin and yet. seeing him struggle was...i was sitting there like "who could do this to him" as i typed merrily.

although!! fun fact!! the scene where dick and tim hug is one of two scenes that made my cry. it was not pretty. i get like really into the pov character's headspace when i write and so like i knew that the scene was going to be sad obviously, but holy fuck it hit me so hard. i tried to like give myself a second to cry and re-group, but the tears persisted so i had to just type and blink and power through. the scene was actually going to be a bit longer and more painful, but uh. i physically could not continue.

this dialogue exchange wrecked me, i tell you- wrecked me:

“I missed you so much.” He should really shut up now. “And I’m so sorry that I couldn’t save you. I know you said it wasn’t my fault, but it was, because if I was faster, or if I hadn’t left you alone, if I’d been the hero you thought I was-” “But you are.” “I failed you.” The words are sharper than stomach acid in his mouth. “No, you didn’t.” Tim says. He edges closer. “Without you, I would have died alone. But you saved me from that.”

omfg it's making me tear up again, help me. *scrolls so i can't see it*

i did bum myself out with that tho, bc ch 3 was bargaining and i lost a moment of bargaining bc of my weakness.

dick was supposed to plead with tim to stay, to put off moving on for even just a day. and tim was going to be like conflicted but say something like, "if you really want me to, i'll stay an extra day. for you." and dick would realize how much the request was hurting tim, even if he was willing to give dick what he wanted, and know, awfully, that even though he just got his brother back, if he loved him he had to let him go again.

which yk. ow. but ultimately, i do think it worked out for the best!! i think i was able to cover all that emotional anguish later.

fun parallel

cw: vomit/throwing up

so penance is a sequel, but bile is sweeter is 100% optional. however, if you did read bile is sweeter you might have noticed this fun callback:

Tim didn’t need to ask Jason which was worse anymore. The bitter taste of failure in his mouth made the bile sweet in comparison.

bile is sweeter

Sour and sharp, the leftover bile burns in his mouth. It’s still a sweeter flavor than failure.

penance, ch 5

now i point this out, not bc it's an easter egg (this post would be miles long if i was doing all that), but bc it's actually a really fun, depressing reversal. in the first fic, tim feels like a failure bc he knows he's dying. however, in the second, tim feels like a failure bc he's alive.

i was super hoping i'd be able to twist that, and it was super satisfying. honestly all the body horror with tim was incredibly fun- at the beginning when he's a ghost and in denial about it but can't help noticing all the things that are missing. this line in particular was really fun imo:

Tim crept closer, the terror in his chest building. It was such a quiet terror without his heart pounding. 

and then, hopefully, bc lacking a pulse/heartbeat had been reinforced as a trait of ghost!tim, i was able to immediately signal what the results of the trade were when ch 5 opens:

He can feel his heart beating in his chest.

which. opening ch 5 was a Challenge. i wanted it to be very in the moment and even though tim was alive, i didn't want there to be any sense of like relief or peace. i also didn't want to flat out say "Tim is alive and Bruce is dead!!", partially bc i knew people were expecting a twist, like even if i brought tim back i might've done a fake-out as far as who traded with him. i don't drag it out very much, and i don't think it's a surprise for anyone who wasn't guessing a fake-out. but that is also why the chapter opens the way it does- one by one you get a name, so you can confirm who's alive.

but back to the body horror!! tim having a hard time re-adjusting to being human again was so much fun to write. partially bc of like all the little details, all those small things about existing that you might not notice, but also bc all of those things were working together to remind tim that he was alive- which he was not happy about. like. everything was a trigger for the poor kid.

oh!! another really fun parallel/reversal, that i can explain now bc i explained why touching the ghosts hurt- ghost!jason is the one who has to explain to tim that he's dead, right? he's the one that helps tim figure that out and learn the ropes of being a ghost. and he's comfortable in that role. however, despite that, jason is the one that has the hardest time coming to terms with the fact that tim is not alive. this one makes me !!! because like if you notice, ghost!jason never actually says "You're dead" to tim. i mean, it is implied often and evident via context clues, but yeah!! like look:

“Am I…? I’m-” The word stuck in his throat. He tried to say it again and only succeeded in making that hollow feeling inside him expand. “Aren’t I?”  He stared at Jason helplessly. He understood what Tim was asking, didn’t he? Oh god, why had he asked him. He didn’t want to know.  Jason glanced away, blinked rapidly. Nodded.  “Yeah.” He moved as if to pull Tim towards him, then stopped himself. “You are.”

even in this moment, jason can't bring himself to like fully admit that tim is dead- neither of them say the word, partially bc they don't need to to know what they're talking about but also it's like a fun lil speck of foreshadowing that jason wil really struggle to grasp that the tim he knows is a dead kid.

which, if you're like, hey wait a minute cue, but jason knew that there was a second dead robin and it was part of what made him upset with bruce, sooooo. correct!! so the reason for this is bc of jason's memories getting all messed up. he doesn't super associate the ghost he knew to the robin that died after him, mainly bc he didn't think the ghost memories were real. his fury over the follow-up robin's death is more about the Principle of the Thing than 'you're actions lead to the death of someone i care about'. plus like, there is no robin when jason comes back to life- robin is someone who has died. but tim? tim is exactly like jason remembers him. so they just kind of exist as like separate entities for jason. which is-

don't get me started on the character's headspaces, okay, we will be here for hours. i was having the absolute time of my life working out their reactions and relationships fr

tim's memorial case (or really, the lack thereof)

remember how i said earlier i was going to cycle back to wanting bruce to look bad? well. obviously the lack of a memorial case was a big strike against him.

highlighting that particular detail was really fun, even if i felt manipulative af for it bc i knew that the only reason there wasn't a memorial case is bc it was too hard for dick to have that.

fun fact: within the scope of the fic rn, i don't think tim ever finds out about this? this gets revealed when dick and jason are fighting (gah also super fun) and in the whirlwind of shit that happens just does not get brought back up.

it's also one of those things that really emphasizes that to dick, bruce, and alfred, tim was dead. a couple things may have happened here and there that made their skin prickle, but overall they were just...grieving. they didn't suspect any ghosts. bc really, the lack of a memorial isn't that heinous- yes, it's hurtful to tim, but they have no way of knowing that. and to them, they know how much tim means to them and the different ways they carry his memory with them every day.

like, tim thought they didn't do anything on the anniversary of his death. he thought bruce went out like it was any other night. which just showcases how being geo-locked inhibited ghost!tim's awareness. like, he thinks he's omniscient to an extent when it comes to bruce and alfred, bc he's in the Manor- he sees them when they think they're alone. but he isn't with any of them 24/7, even if he is seeing them in situations he wouldn't have when he was alive.

truly so many misconceptions in this series- i love it sm.

the ending

look. there were a lot of ways i could have ended this fic. however, stamp had mentioned not really liking sad endings, and i took that as a personal challenge. how could i write this fic about grief, in all of it's messiness, and deliver an ending that felt tonally and thematically in line that wasn't sad? honestly? i had no clue. before i started writing the first chapter, i knew that i wanted everyone to live, but i had zero clue how i was going to achieve that.

now, in general, i do not plot. i had 5 scenes in mind when i started writing this fic, and none of them were in the last chapter. i started that last chapter blind. well. sort of. i had a sort of mental checklist- i knew i didn't want the end to feel like a cop-out or contrived, so i had these three things i wanted to establish before there was proper hope for bruce's return:

the boys could not save bruce

tim accepting the fact that he was wanted and loved

jason accepting them as his family

and even tho we do get bruce's pov before all of these get established, they do occur before bruce is offered the deal and there's like a tangible, in-story plausibility that he might live.

the only other thing i knew for certain was that bruce was going to have to choose his kids over his parents. but i didn't know how that was going to get set up.

when the shadow-spirit came onscreen, that's when i saw how bruce could get his loophole.

the shadow-spirit is a soul guide, it's whole entire job getting bruce to the Afterlife and it's super fed up with bruce bc he's not going. time isn't supposed to keep looping the way it is. it thought that by giving bruce his parents, the transition would be quick and easy and yet this one is struggling. it doesn't offer the deal to bruce out of kindness, but cruelty. it thinks it knows how to out-think and break bruce, and kind of wants to punish him for making its job so difficult.

fun fact about the shadow-spirit: it looks the way it does for two reasons- one bc i couldn't picture a person and decided to stop trying and two so that i could get this line:

The darkness rushes at him, consumes him.

which tickles me bc darkness is literally rushing at him, but also the metaphor?! so much fun.

i also needed bruce to get his memories back bc it was Very Important to me as the writer that bruce knew exactly what he was doing when he chose his sons/chose to live by letting go of his parents. bc in that moment, bruce is accepting the fact that they're gone and he can't save them, even if he wishes he could. which is such a big deal for bruce bc his grief over losing them motivates him sm.

but i truly believe that he loves his kids so fiercely that as much as he would want to choose the happy life he never got to have with his parents, he would give that all up if he got the chance to continue being their father. bc he knows what it's like to be a son and lose your parents. but it’s still a hard sacrifice for him. so hard.

bc his parents are the easy choice, yk? who would blame him, really. and the boys already think he’s dead and can’t be saved, and as we see, they’re a mess but they’re coming together. they would never know that bruce could have come back to them if bruce decided not to. and bruce would forget that he ever knew them, so he wouldn’t even have to mourn them. so it’s tempting.

which is why i think it’s so !!!!!!!! when he chooses his kids bc i think it’s like believable that he might not choose them. within the story, and also outside of it, bc readers trusted/expected me to be evil and last we saw the boys, things were rough but they were coming together.

the boys could heal. bruce could be free.

but that’s not the story i wanted to tell. it’s not about accepting death. it’s about accepting life.

this is also why you don't see how the trade with bruce and tim goes down until the very end- it wasn't just so i could leave things off on a cliffhanger. it was so i could end it on this sentence:

He accepts the trade.

yes, bc it reflects the title of the chapter, fun, but bc by accepting the trade, tim is accepting life. which in some ways, is still me making commentary about the grieving process, bc in my experience, one of the hardest parts is accepting that you yourself are still alive. you've got to find some way to keep going despite the loss.

but it's also me making commentary about superheroes and the genre, bc yk, they're typically pretty damn willing to die for others. they'll make that ultimate sacrifice. but in some ways, the harder sacrifice is not dying, is choosing to live and deal with the aftermath of tragedy.

the title

penance: voluntary self-punishment inflicted as an outward expression of repentance for having done wrong.

and that’s kind of what they’re all trying to do the whole fic, sacrifice themselves as punishment for their perceived mistakes and shortcomings.

but their basic premises are wrong. death is not their fault. they are not mistakes. there’s nothing they need to atone for. all they need to do is be there for each other.

anyways!! i think that's everything i can think of rn, shy of like dissecting the whole entire fic. if you read through all this (and/or the fic itself), tysm for entertaining my ramblings!!

[director-yomi-hellsmile]

Cube joke (pinned post)

If you know me from @/growling or @/seth-burroughs then you get a krówka. Personal blog of Yomi Hellsmile, so just call me by that name. Serious metaphysical fictionkind & fictive, I'm actually fine with treated as literal Blorbo From Your Games it makes me feel sane and slightly better than just having it ignored. Please poke me around and bombard me with questions as much as you like I thrive off of attention and require constant enrichment in my containment chamber. Just no being weirdly invasive/rude with questions like ''what is the exact mechanism of how you tried to kill your girlfriend that one time'' or otherwise not saying shit to me I know you wouldn't say to literally anyone else please I'm trying to be so nice every day

Fine with source talk / Rain Code discussion (if you're cool with me getting a bit weird about it), fine with all sourcemates if you are respectful/nice in turn, I don't have anything against doubles and I'm waving at you same hat style but I'll probably just nonjudgmentally block you for my own comfort, sorryyyy I gotta take care of my shitty heart rate.

I'm very often not good at articulating myself and a lot of things I end up writing end up kind of incomprehensible or weird, I can't really do anything about it so don't point this out unless you absolutely need to have something clarified. Sometimes I get confused and either not really get what you're saying or can't reply to you for quite some time whether because of that or my perpetual low energy, if you @'d me or sent me an ask and I don't respond within a week then I'm not purposefully ignoring you; either need to take longer time with writing, or I don't really have an answer. Don't blow up at me for asking you to clarify something in simpler terms. My tone might be off either due to those, my brain just working differently, or english not being my first language.

Other info + disclaimers/warnings:

Trans man + non-binary bigender, masculine or neutral terms only - and no, "girl" is not gender neutral and I do not care if you use it that way. If you'd like to perceive me perhaps refer to me even: he/him, it/its or xe/xem/xir, and only those; do not call me by they. Also don't call me a "boy" I am a grown ass man.

Loveless aroace (and a fagdyke if you unlock my easter egg), aplatonic, afamilial, posting about those pretty often. Or I think. I'm trying.

Semiverbal MSN autistic + schizophrenic and refuses to shut up about it, which is the main reason some posts may be worded weirdly.

NPD, ASPD and AvPD, I also like talking about those. My brain's valiant mission to collect every heavily stigmatized disorder in order to craft the most fucked up individual in Poland. Follow me in order to fulfill your mutual list diversity quota /joking that was a /joke

Do not insult me as a "joke", or approach me with any sort of overly familiar playful rudeness. I kind of hate how normalized just being ~ironically~ straight up mean to people is on here. No I probably won't read your sarcasm unless I've already memorized all your speech patterns or something

Mainly into: Rain Code (lol. lmao, even), Warriors, Akuma Kun, Mouthwashing, Henry Stickmin, birds, cat genetics and scraping pretty rocks off of sidewalks

Plural, we are not interested in assigning roles to each other or specifying our "origin" or how it all happened as it's not currently relevant to us nor is it any of your business like why do you care. Anyway this blog is safe for endos or like, any other type of plural.

Occasional nsfw posts under the #nsft tag, which will contain a bunch of hard kinks like torture rape violence etcetera, so, block that if you don't want to see those. That's also the only tag I consistently use on this blog.

[bnuuywol]

hey. hi. hello. is phoenyx's journey. documented anywhere perhaps? i would read a thousand lotr sized novels about phoenyx.

HELLO!! sobbing and crying that you wanna hear about my boy :,)

So I have a couple different places where this is scattered forgive me, I've been meaning to rework his lore on AO3 to update/revamp the og stuff I have written and add the things I've written here on tumblr ask responses to ask memes

Right now the main places you can find his journey are here on AO3, these are majority things I wrote while in the midst of gameplay so they're incomplete and in need of some reworking but they do exist:

A Realm Reborn Heavensward Stormblood (this one admittedly is just a single chapter of smut at the moment, I didn't write much when I played through Stormblood) Shadowbringers (bonus: Shadowbringers Bad Ending AU)

(I haven't rewritten any of my Endwalker stuff yet but I'll post that too I swear)

Also fair warning, the AO3 stuff is locked for users only because I don't want AI scraping it. But I'll gladly rework and post those to tumblr too tbh.

There's also the tag "the unending journey" on my blog for writing pieces and gposes that are slices of his journey as a character

The tag "my writing" has a lot of overlap with the above but also includes a few things that aren't exactly relevant to his journey but sure did Happen namely: wolcred smut.

And finally, if you want headcanons and pictures and times I just ramble about things that happen with him without actually writing it, you can peruse through Phoenyx's tag lmao

This,,,,,, ended up being way longer than I anticipated but yeah. Enjoy reading the shit I put my poor tortured bunboy through 🥰💕

[polaris-australis]

WIP Update - Replace Their Bones with Doll Parts

I've decided to try to write a more coherent post on some of the recent progress on the novel. For those who read my intro post, I did change the pronoun in the title (I can't decide on if I should use "he" or "they" solely because, well, Cyril's not really a he by the end of the novel).

I did make some changes to a chapter I talked about in an earlier post (Anatomy Practice), but for this update, I'm going to focus on some overarching stuff + a later chapter that I worked on recently.

I will, though, reiterate this paragraph because I'm obsessed with it:

I'll talk about it another time, because of FUCK does this need a longer separate post (I call it the I guess thematic thesis of the novel in a way?? in how it establishes a LOT of Cyril's mental state throughout the novel and gives us the starting point from which he somehow manages to keep going downhill).

Immaculate Perpetuation

The chapter title comes from two terms relating to the Virgin Mary (or versions of the Virgin): immaculate conception, and Our Lady of Perpetual Health. Except, a big thing in this book is continuing cycles of generational abuse as well as toxic dynamics, so I sort of mashed things together into this.

To make it clear again in this post, Cyril's mixed: his father is a rich white guy, his mother is Latinx (Central American specifically, the country isn't specified for reasons so I won't say it but for reference my parents are Salvadoran). Cyril looks like his mother a LOT. She also had significant issues physically and mentally during and after pregnancy. All of this has led to them having an extremely strained relationship where they hardly interact.

Anyways. Cyril imagines whether or not she wanted to drown him during baptism (TW for imagined infanticide I guess??)

To be very clear, this didn't happen. He's spiraling.

The first sentence references a (still not quite edited) part about her ignoring him when he cried as a baby, as told to him by his older half-brother.

At the end of this chapter, he has a dream about drowning in a womb.

(Fun fact: I started editing this section during @coffeeandcalligraphy's livestream the other day. I asked for permission before tagging. If you read this Rachel, I deeply apologize but figure you may appreciate the disaster main character content lmao.)

Lines that I'd like to also mention:

His skin raisins, his insides burning.

Trying to play with verbs more? This isn't my best, just one I appreciate.

He is a body and he is a wound.

I was going to post that whole paragraph, but I'm not super happy with it yet.

Also, this isn't part of this chapter, but it's got a similar theme.

He's my babygirl.

I'm going to wait since this post is long enough, but other excerpts I definitely want to share include the vampire dream (it's relevant I swear) and possibly some of the more religious imagery, in which I cannot figure out if Cyril is comparing himself to Jesus, Judas, or the snake. Or all three. Genuinely would love to make a uquiz out of this.

[moku-youbi]

(VOTE WANGXIAN)

This whole poll is giving me lots of thoughts on fandom and what can legitimately be said to be influential on fandom as a whole, and what is regional/generational/cultural etc. For example, there are a plenty of sasanaru fans talking about how important it was in the early 00s for online queers and I'm just like "???" because this queer was def. terminally online in that time and in my late teens/early twenties during this period, and even as someone super into anime and manga, I never watched/read naruto, and was only tangentially aware of it. Even my group of younger friends (4-5 years younger, my little bros best friends, almost exclusively queer and majority Japanese) who were more into it weren't *big* fans. We were way more invested in Death Note, Fruits Basket, InuYasha, etc. Of course, this poll is at least in part about *lasting* impact, since it's drawing from the most popular ships on AO3. And some older ships have the benefit of having a huge number of fics created in the pre-ao3 days still being moved over, but they also need to have people still writing in them and keeping them relevant. (In a way, Spirk and MSR have an edge over other older fandoms, in that both ST and TXF continue to have reboots, spinoffs, and new episodes, but that's a topic for another post).

A couple of years ago, Hannigram would've handily beaten Sasanaru in their poll, because our fandom was fucking huge and rabid and were hoping that by showing our passion and numbers, we might get a renewal (ot, but I heard that Hannigram fans were assholes in the comments on that poll, and though I didn't see it, sorry to hear it guys :/ we got plenty of harassment in the past, but that doesn't make it okay to pay it forward on you). Same thing with Drarry or Viktor/Yuuri in their respective heydays. So Sasanaru at least stood the test of time--either retaining enough of the diehard fans, or gaining enough new to keep it relevant--but does it make it the most influential? When there are so many ppl of the same generation who've never consumed it? Who would outright avoid it? Same questions about Wangxian. They are My Ship and I will go down with them, lmao, but I think it's pretty obvious from all the "who dey" comments on their various polls, there's a huge part of fandom completely unfamiliar with MDZS and CQL. (btw, go watch on Viki or borrow the books from your library or find on amazon and change your life with our amazing fandom content for real, I will never stop talking about how good the story is, and how superlative the fic written for it is) Of course, even still their impact on AO3 is still felt, through the tag limit and not being accessible in an entire country. But still. For the people who've never seen it, and relate more to one of the other fandoms, why do they care? If they aren't in China, they aren't feeling the impact of the loss of AO3, and most of them probably aren't actually hitting the AO3 tag limit.

These are just thoughts rolling around in my head, when I see people saying things like "remember your roots." I need to order my thoughts a bit more and make a longer post. But I guess what it boils down is to "my roots are not necessarily your roots." Sure, here in the US, we see ourselves as a giant mycelium network, with Star Trek forming the roots, and then big branching off-shoots from there, with The X-Files being one of the major ones. But it's not global. Fans in other places around the world might have taken clippings and grafted aspects of our fandom onto theirs, added the /, use the word 'ship,' but that was added on to what already existed--it didn't uproot what was already there.

AO3 Top Relationships Bracket - THIRD PLACE

This poll is a celebration of fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with many of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement, and refrain from harassment.

[the-lesbian-orpheus]

GOOD NEWS THIS POST IS NO LONGER RELEVANT- IT WAS ABOUT MY TREASURED AU POST SEEMINGLY DISSAPWARING

Every post that I had linked it on the link no longer worked

And I thought it got deleted somehow

I went thru a related post I made of the au when I first had the idea and clicked the tag i made

The post still exists thankfully tumblr just broke all links to it for some reason

Original post of me asking frantically for help to find it is below the cut lmao no need to read

Guys the master post for my Hadestown AU has mysteriously disappeared off the face of the planet

I don’t know if it’s actually gone or if it’s just a glitch on my end

It’s linked at the top of my blog but every time I click it or search my blog for it or click where I’ve linked it in other posts it gives me the this page doesn’t exist blank blue thing

If it’s gone is there anyway to retrieve it

It wouldn’t be in the wayback machine unfortunately

Please reblog this post so some genius can help me I’m actually gonna cry if it’s gone

I mean i remember it for the most part and i have art in the making for it but ugh it took so much time and it had links and it’s not gonna be the same if i remake because it’s so hard to cohesively explain your thoughts

Please help

[ylojgtr]

so i am on facebook for two reasons: 1) marketplace, how else will i find the local deals on harmonicas? and 2) the harmonica community, facebook is the only place ive found where the expert players and technicians are active and responsive that's not a 20 year old forum i cannot for the life of me get an account on. and, being on facebook, i am subjected to the stupidest fucking people i swear

ignoring the "i stand with israel" pfps im seeing, the amount of 100% ai accounts saying things like "this boy built this with his own hands, show him love" and showing the most 2021-ass ai hands that have comments of genuinely impressed people saying "wow good job" or, even more depressing, people saying "i doubt he did that with his own hands, his father probably did it and had him pose" like...they're old so ofc they're not going to get it, but shouldn't there be some sort of tagging system for ai posts? shouldn't that fall to meta to protect their users? (obviously i don't expect them to do anything all they want is money but it's still fucked up)

but the thing that made me want to post is the tumblr memes. the shitty, pixelated screenshots of tumblr posts that are taken SO SERIOUSLY, and they have no clue it's from tumblr. i just saw one posted by neil degrasse tyson, the figurehead of using "science" and "reason" to uphold already settled in biases, of that post where someone drew a line from japan to hawaii across the ocean and said "of course pearl harbor was an inside job, planes couldn't have flown that far" or sth like that. and the conversation continued "can't they go around the other way?" "no, the earth is flat. basic science." "i love the logic that planes can't just fly over land" and neil posts it with the caption "sometimes *laughing emoji, laughing emoji, facepalm emoji*" and the responses are all "is humanity going down the drain?" to which everyone says "yes" or "you can't use your inability to comprehend science to debate its fact" or some shit like girl. it's a joke. i scrolled through HUNDREDS of comments and VERY few recognized this (probably because they don't get the most interaction cause they were sorted by "most relevant" but that's still a sign of something). more people were saying shit like "let's not give attention to flat earthers cause it just fuels the fire" IT'S A JOKE THEY TALK ABOUT COMMON SENSE BEING DEAD HOLY FUCK

that was a much longer post than i expected but whatever it was fun to rant

lmao and i just got thinking about the multiple times my family says something like "what do you even do on tumblr i thought it was dead" and then send me these facebook tumblr memes and they're always shocked when i tell them their origins

[lilacliquors]

welcome to atomwritez's

or as i like to call it: atom tries to write 31 spicy prompts as not only a challenge, but to celebrate the milestones reached on this blog!

rules + relevant info below the cut!

since this is kinktober, this should go without saying but it's 18+ only! by participating you are confirming that you are indeed 18+ and if i find out otherwise, your request will be denied and you will be blocked

i will be attempting to write all 31 prompts / however many are requested from me. if less than the full 31 are requested, i will be at liberty to write them if i want and with any character of my choosing

this is my take on kinktober, so i will be listing all the kinks i will be writing / feel comfortable writing. i'll also link my list of characters i write for

one request per person / anon, and since i do not have 31 characters i write for ( i don't think lmao ) i can do multiples

these will be blurbs, but if you'd like, after kinktober i will be open to writing longer one shots if you enjoyed a scenario that much!

this is a first come, first serve event! if a scenario you wanted is already taken i apologize, but hold onto it and maybe i'll write it after kinktober

i write afab reader only, it's the anatomy i know and feel most comfortable writing, but i do try and use as gender neutral language as possible, as well as very little descriptive language for reader appearance

i will be tagging all kinktober posts with #kinktober2022, #kinktober 2022, #atomwritez kinktober2022, and #'character name' smut in case you want to blog these tags

the list for my characters will be here

make sure to check back to this post ( i'll link it on my navigation post ) to see which days are open!

all bold + blue text means the prompt has been taken!

day one: praise kink - gilgamesh

day two: edging - sub!druig

day three: pegging - sub!ikaris

day four: overstimulation - jonathan byers

day five: bondage - sub!ikaris

day six: sensory deprivation - soft dom!druig

day seven: mutual masturbation - kingo

day eight: public sex - kingo

day nine: wax play - ikaris

day ten: roleplay - eddie munson

day eleven: oral - makkari

day twelve: face sitting - sersi

day thirteen: body worship - steve rogers

day fourteen: quickie - dane whitman

day fifteen: lingerie - eddie munson

day sixteen: degradation - steve harrington

day seventeen: dirty talk - nancy wheeler

day eighteen: biting / marking - jonathan byers

day nineteen: spanking - robin buckley

day twenty: sex toys - thena

day twenty one: breeding kink - soldier boy

day twenty two: multiple orgasms - billy hargrove

day twenty three: hate sex - billy hargrove

day twenty four: hair pulling - robin buckley

day twenty five: shower sex - sub!druig

day twenty six: masturbation - gilgamesh

day twenty seven: sixty-nine - jonathan byers

day twenty eight: cockwarming - diego hargreeves

day twenty nine: size kink - jim hopper

day thirty: thigh riding - gilgamesh

day thirty one: uniform - dealer's choice

[earthstellar]

Thank you for tagging me-- This post is a classic! :)

The self-sacrificial attitude is a problem in the NHS as well; There are multiple formal rules and guidelines which essentially boil down to "patient safety and decision making capability are priorities to maintain: otherwise monitor each other for exhaustion and please don't fuck yourselves up too badly" lmao sigh

My dad was an Army Medic and his entire back, chest, shoulders, and upper arms are permanently scarred with shrapnel wounds from various occasions where he would use himself as a meat shield while treating patients or the field or preparing them for CASEVAC etc., and he has permanent nerve and spinal damage from jumping out of helicopters too early etc. in an effort to evacuate casualties as fast as possible.

I think the vast majority of healthcare workers are prone to these self-sacrificial behaviours or that kind of mindset in general, really.

Case in point, working in healthcare during a pandemic. I can use myself as an example, but this applies to literally everyone who worked through especially the early days of COVID.

Even though I'm disabled (relevant here are my POTS and asthma), I still applied and was hired to work at the Nightingale Hospital, which was London's first large scale COVID "field hospital" which was converted from an event centre into essentially intended to be a large assessment and treatment centre for early pandemic cases.

My thinking was that since I may die from COVID anyway, I might as well die on my feet trying to help others.

Now, that whole experience was a Situation, but I was also cleared to work at 2 other hospitals and was getting further training at a third all around that same time.

Somehow I did not perish in those early days of COVID (double masking hell yeah), but I was pretty sure I'd be most okay with dying from the plague if I caught my death while trying to help. At least I'd die trying to do good. I felt sadder thinking about my parents, if I were to die.

This was all while also working at my main job, which at the time was medical secretary and patient advisor at a specialist clinic.

If that sounds dramatic, it very much was at the time, but keep in mind it was early pandemic and as a disabled person I was essentially told I would die from the plague, so I fully did not expect to live all that much longer anyway.

Every day I woke up, I stressed that it would be the day I caught COVID and would certainly die, as a disabled and more vulnerable person. I minimised my time outside/exposed unless I was training etc., and I'm still pretty much going to have to shelter forever because the plague isn't gonna go away, but at the time I was told I'd die so I figured I might as well do something good while I could.

I still chose to work in healthcare services during the early, terrifying days of a fucking pandemic.

And I was certainly not the only disabled healthcare worker during that time!

So please don't think this is just about me lmao, I'm not that full of myself LOL-- What I'm describing here was a fairly common experience for most if not all disabled healthcare staff.

My point is just that a lot of healthcare workers can be so self-sacrificial that on top of everything else, even when caring for others might actively kill us outright and we are clearly aware and informed of this, we all still showed up for work.

I don't know what that says about me, but since my dad was a MEDEVAC guy, I'm pretty sure it might be genetic in my case, lmao

But anyway, this is why they have to make both formal rules and informal systems for trying to prevent us from literally dying while trying to help people.

Because otherwise, a lot of us would.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Honestly. I've realized that by Izzy Stan's own definitions of harassment (not by mine by theirs) I actually was harassed by them back in the earlier months. I just didn't take it fucking seriously. I considered it an above average amount of cope in my mentions and I started blocking bitches. I don't have the receipts because like Marie Kondo, it did not spark joy so I threw that bitch away. Maybe I'm just autistic(can't read social cues) with a degradation kink but I didn't register that it could be considered harassment up until now when they're holding up examples of innocuous posts that don't target anyone as harassment and now I'm like "well people in my mentions not being able to mind their own fucking business were absolutely hounding me compaired to this shit" I don't consider what I went through harassment tho I consider it chickenshit internet users asking for the block.

Re the Anon who is actually harassing you: I'm not talking about the Anon, that bitch was in my inbox too. Stop bringing that bitch up I have him blocked lmao. He is no longer relevant to me. He is a racist cunt and I've said that shit to his grey, circular, beshaded face. But what I'm saying is you're not special for getting that Anon babe. That's not evidence of an Izzy Stan exclusive problem. If it was I wouldn't be able to say "oh yeah that guy"

But like seriously I need someone to explain to me how tagging a meta post #izzy hands for the purposes of organizing ones own blog is harassment, but blowing up someones notifications for days on end with endless crying about how we're being so mean for doing that first thing isn't harassment. It feels like if one of these things was harassment and one of them isn't it would be the other way around.

Always and forever the Chad calico jack apologist cross the virgin Izzy hands apologist xoxo

[maeamian]

I posted 5,544 times in 2022

169 posts created (3%)

5,375 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kelpforestdwellers

@chibi-oneiros

@beingatoaster

@cipheramnesia

@dykeredhood

I tagged 1,223 of my posts in 2022

#lmao - 24 posts

#lol - 21 posts

#:3 - 9 posts

#yeah - 7 posts

#great post op - 5 posts

#yeah... - 5 posts

#o7 - 5 posts

#this guy gets it - 4 posts

#it doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works - 4 posts

#cymru am byth - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#maybe the biggest change will come when we won't have to change much at all / when maniacs holler 'grow grow grow' we can choose to be small

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Got jury duty coming up? What better time than now to learn about the extremely cool and good things you can do on that jury if you get empaneled? (because learning about them after you've been empaneled is a crime)

710 notes - Posted September 11, 2022

#4

Hey gang, guess what!

Chicken Butt

🐔🍑

847 notes - Posted November 27, 2022

#3

Not sure I'm the exact right person for this oral history, but since the birdsite is imploding and advertisers might fucking try some shit over here it's a good time for all of us to remember everyone's favorite meme: "John C Miller, CEO and President of the Denny's Corporation, is a Capitalist Running Dog and his wealth must be seized and redistributed to the people”

Back in '16 or so, Denny's had a reasonably large presence on this site, from a non-artistic standpoint it's fair to say that whoever was running that blog did a pretty good job of keeping up to date on the current memes and staying relevant. Many of us, myself included, kinda just got used to them being here and let it happen, gave it little thought, maybe gave it a chuckle from time to time. At some point someone was like 'actually it sucks that a major corporation is trying to hang out with us and be our friend, they were, of course, absolutely right, and their genius response was to create a meme that they couldn't fucking coopt, hence "John C Miller, CEO and President of the Denny's Corporation, is a Capitalist Running Dog and his wealth must be seized and redistributed to the people" became the fun new thing.

"Coopt this you old so and so" was the idea and it worked pretty well, they did try it, but in a way that clearly was dancing around the central premise everyone knew they wouldn't be able to engage with. They stuck around for a little while longer, but it was clearly a major turning point in their ability to use this site to hang out with us, a good thing.

The point, as advertisers try to find new, less feral places to spend their advertising budgets, is that we don't have to just ignore them, that's a good start, but we can bite their fucking hands if they try it. We do not have to play nice with advertisers trying to be our friends, we can be feral.

Anyhow, I definitely am not positive I've gotten every detail right, so if there's any major corrections anyone needs to add, feel free, memedoccumentation had a post about it that helped me refresh my memory although my analysis of aspects differ from this point in history, as it were, but if you want to read up a bit more this is a solid starting point that has some fun examples

1,325 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

#2

Happy 13 year anniversary (July 25th 2022) to the last time the United States raised its Federal Minimum Wage! In an astounding and unacceptable transfer of wealth to the already wealthy, it's lost a full 27% of its purchasing power since then!!

7,355 notes - Posted July 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

BTW don't click any NYT links today (December 8th 2022), the NYT Union have called for a digital boycott in support of their 24 hour walk-out

10,405 notes - Posted December 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[husbandomail-archive]

Merry Christmas y’all!!

I’m sure you’ve noticed; I went ahead with the visual overhaul! We’ve got a new icon for the first time since starting the blog!

I’ve also updated the theme!

the inbox is on the top bar now! all other relevant links remain on the left! I’ve also rewritten my about and rules pages, in addition to updating the pinned post, although I might still recolor that banner tbh,, I’m indecisive lmao

I have gone ahead and removed the tags page for now; with tumblr’s updates to javascript pages, I was no longer able to edit the page I was using. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the tags page will remain gone until I’m able to get that sorted out, which will probably take awhile bc you know how I am lmao. until then, remember that you can add /tagged/[fandom] or  /tagged/[character name] to my url and it’ll take you right there!

and with that out of the way,, thank you guys for staying with me through everything! I know I’ve mentioned more than once that I lost my original blog due to bad IRL circumstances, and I appreciate the fact that so many of you are here reading and just hanging out with me. I currently have no intention of going anywhere, so,, here’s to another few years, if you’ll have me?

I love you guys lmao, Merry Christmas!

[woodchipp]

The slog continues.

The general quality of the writing doesn't improve at all. It's just as mind-numbing as before, both in Headspace and Faraway Town. The only gag I found genuinely clever was the "P" keyboard key hovering above a toilet in Last Resort

I neglected to mention this in my original post, so I'd like to mention it now - one of the game's main antagonists is literally called Something. The writer must've thought that it'd sound mysterious and intimidating, but it just comes off as her not bothering to think of a proper name instead

Omori overcoming his fears in an instant via the game flatly informing the player that he's no longer afraid of heights/spiders/drowning is hilariously anticlimactic

The idea that Sweetheart represents Mari's more unsavory qualities/Mari herself is interesting. However, the game doesn't show the impact said unsavory qualities had on Mari, Sunny and their friends before the game's plot twist happened (nor does it ever show that Mari had any significantly unsavory qualities, for that matter), and the idea goes nowhere as a result. Moreover, if Sweetheart is supposed to represent Mari, what does it say about Mari, then, when Sweetheart is an obnoxious, immature narcissist who tries to force Hero to marry her multiple times?

Sweetheart's theme, World End's Valentine, is actually pretty neat! At the very least, it didn't make Beev's ears bleed like most of the soundtrack did lol. I think it's decent, but I don't understand the praise towards it since I've heard better music tracks

The books with Sunny's old memories in Lost Library ultimately amount to boring fluff that should've been shown rather than told if the game wanted it to have any weight. One book in particular tries to set up the argument that forms the backbone of the game's plot twist, but ends up inadvertently implying that Sunny flipped out at Mari because he wanted to watch more cartoons with his friends

Sunny reluctantly agrees to help his Best Friends Ever™ and his sister build their treehouse even after seeing them work their asses off for the whole day. Reluctantly. "I will just be their moral support" my ass

Sunny gaining all three plot-relevant fears at once because he fell nto a deep body of water from a great height due to a spider is a circumstance so contrived that it becomes hard to take this plot point seriously

Kel asks Sunny whether the latter wants to tag along for a trip to the supermarket and then immediately responds to the question for Sunny. I'd feel bad for the boy because he never gets a say in anything if I gave a shit about him

The game's tendency to write out sound effects like "sigh" in the dialogue boxes as if the characters are actually saying them out loud drove me insane. M U N C H

Aubrey and her Hooligan friends don't seem to be concerned about Sunny, who slashed Aubrey with a knife just the day prior, interacting with them at Gino's pizza joint. One of the Hooligans even loudly calls out Sunny and Kel's names if you interact with him, but the rest of the group have no reaction whatsoever

Kel reveals that Hero's nickname originated from his love of hero sandwiches, which is the dumbest explanation the writer could've come up with. It would've made more sense if it was treated as some sort of in-joke for Sunny's social circle, but Hero and Kel's parents inexplicably refer to their son, whose real name is Henry, as "Hero" too. Imagine consistently calling your child "Cheeseburger" without ever using their real name just because they like cheeseburgers

Polly entrusts Sunny and Kel, two 16-year-old children, with finding Basil when he goes missing even though she, as Basil's caretaker, is supposed to make sure this exact sort of thing doesn't happen. Talking to her later has her mention that she barely knows the kid she's been taking care of for two years. Polly sucks at her job lmao

(speaking of Basil, another thing I forgot to mention in the original post is his mental breakdown in his house's bathroom on the first day in Faraway Town. it's the epitome of the game's unintentional hilarity since the player still retains control of Sunny, which means that you can make him run circles around his best friend while the latter is presumably choking on his own tears. the game doesn't even make Basil look like he's having a breakdown either - he just stands in the center of the bathroom. likewise, Basil remarks that Sunny looks "scared", but inspecting the bathroom mirror shows the latter's default resting bitch face. amazing)

Kel doesn't allow Sunny to enter the bathroom in the former's house until you visit his room under the pretense of "I want to show you my room first!", unintentionally making him come off as an asshole

Kel doesn't even slightly protest against Sunny digging around in his mom's purse to steal the pepper spray. It makes sense that Kel wouldn't jump to his parents' defense given that he was largely ignored by them in favor of Hero, but it still felt a bit weird considering how morally upright he strived to be up to that point

Aubrey's reaction after she accidentally shoves Basil into the lake is as priceless as you'd expect. tfw you commit attempted murder

Kel tells Sunny to dive into the lake and rescue Basil even though he should know that Sunny has a fear of drowning since he was there when Sunny nearly drowned in that very lake before. Not only that, but neither Kel nor Aubrey attempt to help Basil themselves, pointlessly arguing on the pier instead. They're such good friends, aren't they?

The choice prompt to save Basil doesn't have any sort of time limit to show the urgency of the moment and the game doesn't punish you at all if you choose "No". You can just have Sunny stand on the edge of the pier and do nothing while his best friend is drowning. game_design.exe

The "fight" against Sunny's fear of drowning is downright farcical because the animations for the skills Sunny needs to use in order to end the fight are the same as they were in the previous fights with his fears, which means that Sunny is breathing underwater. Logically, he should've died due to his breathing filling his lungs with too much water. So much for realism!

Hero frequently tends to sound less like a realistic person and more like a self-help booklet. He's mild and unremarkable otherwise

Hero asking Sunny to help him buy flowers for the former's mom doesn't make any sense. Why couldn't Hero just do that himself?

Finally, Hero's "Everything feels so different now... but it seems like you've pretty much stayed the same." line that he says while sleeping over at Sunny's empty house could have actually been poignant (considering that Sunny did spend the last 4 years being unable to move on from Mari's death) if the writing was competent enough to make the player care about any of these characters

All this, and we're still not even halfway through the game. Truth be told, I think it says a lot about the quality of OMORI's writing that the most fun we had with it was @the-crow-binary making memes about a completely different game concurrently with my playthrough.

Black Space awaits.

Currently replaying OMORI because I'm a masochist with my best friends @beevean and @the-crow-binary providing emotional support lmfao. Even despite how soul-crushingly boring it is, I think we're still having some sort of fun with this clusterfuck of a game

Highlights (and the misc. problems we've managed to spot) so far include:

I already knew that this game's length was detrimental to it during my first solo playthrough, but this playthrough is helping me put into perspective just how bloated OMORI is, even when it comes to an aspect like dialogue. For example, a single conversation between Space Boyfriend and the main cast took us approximately 5 minutes to get through, and it's not like the writing is gripping enough to make us give a shit about the characters or anything they're saying

Speaking of the dialogue, you can just see how hard it tries to be witty and Quirky™ the way Earthbound and indie RPGs like Undertale were. Needless to say, it fails horribly, and the end result of that was me having to fast-track some conversations because they were unfunny and weren't relevant at all

I got unintentionally (!) stuck in White Space for 15-20 minutes because I couldn't find the map the game needed me to find to let me open the door. Beev came to hate the repetitive 8-bit BGM the area had by the time I finally found the map lol. game_design.exe

Headspace's music is so ear-gratingly abysmal oh my god. I can only call it "dollar-store Kirby music" because that's the most appropriate description that comes to mind and I'm pretty sure Lost at a Sleepover gave Beev severe PTSD. Of course, the music of Faraway Town isn't any better: the "track" that plays in the first fight with Aubrey is less music than it is the result of an .exe file being put through an audio player. Sonic Chronicles might have some serious competition in the "worst video game soundtrack" category asdfghjkl

The plot of the Faraway Town segments is so cookie-cutter that it genuinely hurts to sit through. Character writing (or the lack thereof) aside, Sunny and Kel spend half a day loitering around the town and asking Aubrey's cronies where she is even though Kel could've easily gotten that information from Mikhael had he just indulged the latter's delusions of grandeur a little bit

Faraway Town's daytime sky is literally a scrolling JPEG of a cloudy sky. The battle backgrounds of the real world segments are edited JPEGs as well. Everyone's houses look exactly the same on the outside save for some of them being a different color. The developers spent six years and more than $200,000 on this game.

Sunny's fights against his fears are boring. You just need to wait until a particular turn when the game grants you a special skill you use to end the fight immediately. What was the point of designing these hallucinatory monsters if the player doesn't get to fight them at any point during the main route?

Aubrey (ostensibly) swinging a nail bat at Sunny is not treated with the same degree of realism as Sunny slashing her with a knife. Additionally, Aubrey rides away on her scooter just fine even though she's supposed to be bleeding

Mari's picnic baskets are inexplicably scattered all across the town and fulfill the exact same function as they do in Headspace. So much for realism!

I won two of the fights against Aubrey's goons even though I was trying to lose. gameplay.exe

Sunny is even more unpleasant than I remember. He doesn't respond to Basil - who is supposedly his best friend - when the latter talks to him, stays silent while (and after) Kel vents to him about Hero yelling at him and barges into the church despite Kel advising him to wait until the sermon ends. Why should I feel bad for him again?

Kel generally seems to treat Sunny like an actual baby, spelling out incredibly obvious things to the latter (e.g. that Sunny shouldn't be carrying a knife or walking in the road because it's dangerous) and making all of Sunny's decisions for him, to the point of not allowing Sunny to return into his own house until nighttime under the pretense of "there's so much to do! it's a brand new day!"

Finally, the "fight" against Sunny's fear of spiders comes completely out of nowhere since nothing triggered said fear during Sunny's adventures outside

Peak game, everyone.

And it's going to get way worse down the line!