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hotmencoreplus · 2 years ago

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𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧 ‘𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭’ 𝐑𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐲’𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

Pairing: Simon Riley x sister!reader (she/her)

Summary: Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley, the infamous, relentless and fearless Task Force 141 soldier. And the particulars of him being the guardian of his baby sister.

Warnings: Talks of war and deployment, mentions of a traumatic childhood, language. Attempted to do it chronologically, but have added bits here and there

Word count: 3300+

A/N: Basing this off the theory that he is mid 30’s in mw2.

Likes and reblogs are much appreciated! Copying and reposts are not! My fics are only posted on tumblr, under this sideblog @hotmencoreplus for the account, @hotmencore

‣ Simon wasn’t at all prepared to be an older brother, but when he saw you, he knew it was his job to protect his little baby sister.

‣ You were the only one who was fortunate enough to not be killed by Washington, so when Simon was made aware of your survival, he took you in as his own.

‣ He doubted himself at first, fearing he would turn out like his dad, but also didn’t want to abandon you like he had been as a child.

‣ He wasn’t experienced in any way shape or form with taking care of a baby, so most of his days when not on deployment consisted of him watching youtube videos and going online to figure out how to do stuff and take care of you properly.

‣ When on deployment, he left you with a trusted neighbour who he had known for years before. (I feel like this would either be like a man who he would call his ‘best friend’ when home, or an old woman who has kids of her own, that use to babysit him)

‣ He would spoil you the best he could, and make you as happy as possible, not wanting you to have a childhood anything remotely like his.

‣ He definitely still gets help off of google for some things. He isn’t really too good with knowledge on ‘girly’ things.

‣ When home, you and him would always sit at the kitchen table of an evening, you playing with barbies whilst he sat across from you modding his rifle. As you got older, it would be the same just you with homework. You didn’t speak much when sat with each other, though it was always a comfortable silence for the both of you.

‣ Once when in primary school, you came home with a pout as you were jealous of your classmates pigtails and plaits, seeing that Simon only really knew how to brush your hair. So that night, he spent an hour watching videos over and over so that he could learn how to plait your hair.

‣ He felt stupid watching the videos, and frustrated that it took him so long to get the hang of it, but he knew it was all worth it when he saw the grin on your face the next morning as you looked at your hair in the mirror to see it all pretty and plaited.

‣ He also felt the same each birthday or christmas when you were little, worried that the little amount that he was able to get you wouldn’t be enough to make you happy. But 100% of the time, it was just him underestimating himself.

‣ When you were young, he never bothered to mention his own birthday. But one year when with your neighbour, you found out his birthday was a couple days after he came back from deployment. So you saved up money for the 2 weeks before he came back, and bought him a little teddy bear and a bar of chocolate. You also made him a little loom band bracelet, and haphazardly wrapped them up and hid them under your bed.

‣ When his birthday did arrive, you came downstairs to him in the living room, holding the parcel out in front of him. He lifted you up onto his lap, taking the parcel from you. “What’s this?” He asked, looking at it as he peeled his fingers from the cellotape of which you’d badly wrapped it with.

‣ “Happy birthday” you say softly with a smile, and that right there made Simon’s heart melt. He unwrapped the gift, and held the bear out in front of him. You looked at him eagerly, though his expression was confusing to you. “I hope you like it” you say with a slight hint of doubt. But Simon smiles at you, yes, smiles, and pulls you closer to him, placing a small kiss on your cheek, “I love it, thank you Y/N” he says, and the grin returns to your face.

‣ Simon had never felt more appreciated by anyone in his life.

‣ He let you off that one morning to share the chocolate with him, after eagerly placing the loom band on his large wrist, showing him that you now had matching ones.

‣ And he wears it everyday, even on deployment, under his uniform.

‣ And he still does to this day, years later.

‣ He also has a tattoo tucked away somewhere that he got for you, most likely your initials.

‣ When he first joined 141, Price was the only one who knew about you, and that Simon was the one who took care of you.

‣ He knew from Ghost’s files, as when he joined the task force, you were at the age where Simon wanted you written down as who was told when he died.

‣ You were at the age where it was harder to just pretend he never existed. Because when you were a baby, that was his plan. Before he joined it was your neighbour that was put down, just as a telling that you would need to be put in someone else's care.

‣ When Ghost requested the change to his file, he asked Price that someone could go over and tell you in person, rather than just a phone call, or his dog tags through the mail. Which caused for him to have to let Price know of your existence.

‣ He also asked for Price to tell Laswell, as he trusted her and wanted someone there for you who was in the UK more than he was, and in case both him and Price were on a mission/ far away.

‣ He also did it as he believed that you needed at least one female figure somewhat a part of your life, though you've only met her like once or twice.

‣ It takes a good amount of time and full trust in a person for Simon to be comfortable with them meeting you, or even just knowing of you. Which is why Johnny found out so randomly.

‣ You were late pre-teens when Simon was coming home from deployment, and got a call from his friend, apologising that he couldn’t pick him up from base. Johnny overheard the conversation and insisted that he dropped Simon off, though he was perfectly fine getting a taxi.

‣ Simon did message you to stay in the house, but you weren’t paying any mind to your phone, just looking out the window waiting for his arrival. Your own excitement blinded you to the fact it wasn’t the car of Simon’s friend dropping him off, so when you saw his skull mask through the car window, you jumped off the couch and ran out the door to him without a second thought. You didn’t hesitate in giving him a massive hug, which, though Johnny hadn’t pulled off yet, Simon reciprocated, as he knew there was no way of exactly hiding you now.

‣ It wasn’t at all that he didn’t trust Johnny enough, Simon just always felt awkward bringing it up and didn’t expect the circumstances of which he was in, so wasn’t prepared at all.

‣ Soap didn’t like to pry, but was curious and immensely shocked to see a young girl run out of his house and jump onto Simon’s huge frame. He knew it couldn’t have been his daughter as Simon would have simply been far too young for that to be true. So he made the conclusion of you being his sister, and tried to keep it to himself.

‣ Though on the next deployment, Johnny did ask about the young girl he saw, and with a grumble of a reply, he then understood that his guesses were correct. By then he trusted Gaz enough as well, so the whole of 141 eventually knew of Simon’s little sister.

‣ Simon keeps a little photograph of you in his uniform, in an inside breast pocket, above his heart. It’s a photo of you when you were little, the first year he put aside his fears, and took you trick-or-treating. You were dressed as a little fairy, grinning up at the camera, your face covering most of the shot as you leant forwards into the frame.

‣ You two don’t have any proper photos with each other, apart from one from when it was your birthday one year, and you told Simon that the only thing you wanted was a photo of the two of you together. So Simon begrudgingly granted your wish after a lot of convincing.

‣ In the photo, you are stood next to each other in the hallway of your home, you grinning with your short arms attempting to wrap around his large waist, and him stood looking emotionless with his simple skull mask on, his arm behind you resting on your back.

‣ It wouldn’t look sentimental at all to anyone else, but you treasured it. It stays on your bedside cabinet, with one of his old dog tags that he let you keep. You also have another old one of his attached to the zip of your school backpack.

‣ Simon never really decorated your room too much when you were younger, as he was new to the whole thing and decided that he would let you do it with him when you were older and found your own passions and interests. So first off for several years your room consisted of a small single bed, a wardrobe, and littles shelves for your toys, all of which he built with you sat on the floor of your room with him one day.

‣ But when you did find yourself and what you liked, you both spent a couple days decorating it. As it was just you and Simon in the house, you weren’t ever very ‘girly’ so the walls were painted a pale blue, and he bought you some new shelves and some fairy lights/ LED’s to hang up around your bed.

‣ When you use to get nightmares or just couldn’t fall asleep, you would sneak into Simon’s room, and wake him up so that you could stay with him. Although due to his own nightmares, was usually awake before you came in anyways. But there was something he secretly found so sweet about hearing your little feet try to quietly pad down the hallway to his room.

‣ He never minded, because he had nightmares all the time. Simon would never admit it, not even to his baby sister, but he enjoyed the nights where he would have her with him. Because in the long run it did actually help him fall asleep, knowing he wasn’t completely on his own.

‣ He had you.

‣ Due to him being away quite a lot, you have been aware of his job since you were little.

‣ Though when you got older, you wanted to know more about it. Simon didn’t really want to tell you much, as he didn't believe it was something he wanted his sister knowing about, but after so much pestering from you, he caved in. You learnt about his callsign, and how he always wore the skull mask.

‣ Once meeting Soap properly, he was the one to tell you about how infamous your brother really was on the field.

‣ You found it pretty cool that you were one of the only people in the entire world who new what the Simon Riley truly looked like, and secretly took pride in it.

‣ You have always known Simon with and without his mask, so it never feels weird. He rarely wore it when you were a toddler, though when you were first born he mostly kept it on, scared his scars were gonna frighten you.

‣ But the first time he took it off in front of you, you babbled and giggled, and reached out to his face. So from then on, he didn’t bother wearing it around you.

‣ There was one occasion when he came to pick you up from a neighbours after almost a year long deployment, and you were shy with him. It hurt Simon a bit, and made him feel guilty for not being there, and that you had grown so much in the time he was away. But the feeling soon melted away once your neighbour gave you a little push from behind their leg, you softening in Simon’s touch as he held you close in his arms.

‣ His teenage years were the most traumatic for him, so when you transitioned into yours, he became even more protective of you. You sometimes fought over this, and Simon felt bad, but you knew that he was doing it because he wanted nothing more than for you to be safe.

‣ When he bought you your first phone, he definitely made you have Life360 or something like it, so that he knows where you are just in case he needs it.

‣ He would never go crazy on where you were and who you were with. He trusted you. But when away, every night before he went to bed himself, or whenever it was late in the UK timezone, he would check that you were at home. It made him relax slightly about being away, knowing that you were safe.

‣ You were about 15 when you were properly introduced to the 141 team, as behind Soap’s teasing and pestering, Simon knew that you needed some other adult figures in your life. So, much to your own surprise, he messaged you asking if you wanted to come get him from base one time with his neighbour.

‣ You knew that Simon wasn’t really much of a physical affection type of guy, but you could never resist when he was coming back home after a deployment. And even less so now that you were able to come to base. But he also knew that much to his dislike for the public display of it, there was nothing he could do to stop you from doing so.

‣ And with that fact in mind, he knew he had to reciprocate the gesture, so when you did run up to him with your arms out, for a second he forgot about that fact the rest of the guys wouldn’t let cold old ‘Ghost’ hear the end of it, and wrapped one arm around you, lifting you up with ease, his bags clutched in his other hand. You practically squealed to him how much you’d missed him, as he mumbled back in your ear that he did you, too. Lucky for him the others didn't hear that.

‣ Once he had put you down, he very much awkwardly introduced you to the others in a grumbly tone.

‣ When you turned to them, the first thing that they all collectively noticed were your eyes.

‣ You had Simon’s eyes.

‣ Johnny’s hello was an enthusiastic “Good to finally meet you lass,” Simon glaring at Soap, aware of the amusement this brought him, knowing his lieutenant was annoyed as hell.

‣ Gaz nodded at you with a smile, and Price said hello in a deep but warm tone, looking on at you with an almost proud gaze.

‣ Price didn’t know what to expect when Soap loudly made everyone aware of Ghost’s new visitor at base pick up, as Johnny was the only one of them who had seen you before to recognise you as Ghost's sister, though they knew you existed (much to their inital surprise). But when you turned to the rest of the team without hesitance, Price instantly felt an even higher level of respect towards Simon as it was clear from your confident and polite hello that he had raised you well.

‣ Much to Simon’s own self doubt.

‣ One night when the 141 were all at a bar, Price quietly told Simon about how he had done well with you, knowing that he was definitely uncertain of his own worth in your life. But Simon heard the sincerity in his Captain’s voice, and with a quick look of appreciation towards John, he then didn’t doubt himself as much as he had before.

‣ Simon sometimes does mess up though with his language around you, only recently now that you have gotten older. But he isn’t too fussed, just as long as he doesn't hear you repeat any of it.

‣ Seeing that it is only you two in the house 24/7, you both surprisingly get on really well, and there have only been a rare few occasions when he has had to put his foot down.

‣ But these rare occasions would mainly consist of something silly to the point that he got sick of your nagging, like when you begged him to have ice cream for breakfast.

‣ “Please Simon, just this once-“

‣ “No, Y/N! You said that last time. Now drop it.”

‣ There have definitely been times where neither of you can sleep, and now that you're older, you both just sit with each other in comfortable silence. Occasionally just putting a random film on in the living room, but most of the time you would just be at the kitchen table, with a bowl of cereal at like 2am. That is until, and this is 98% of the time, you fall asleep with your head on the table and Simon has to carry you to your room.

‣ When you got to the age where Simon was comfortable with you in the house on your own, you once mentioned to him that the first day of him being away was always the hardest, and that it felt really weird in the house.

‣ You both knew he couldn’t do much about that, but he tried little things to make it somewhat bearable.

‣ For instance, he knows one of your favourite things is leftover takeaway from when you two have one, so the night before every deployment, he always orders takeaway for dinner so that there is always some in the fridge for you on the first day of him being gone.

‣ It’s the little things that Simon does for you despite his mostly cold heart that mean the most to you.

‣ On long deployments, you write Simon letters for him to read. You do message him too, but prefer writing them, as you know he will write back, which you feel is more sincere. His letters are never as long or heartfelt as yours, but you know your brother, and that he loves you dearly.

‣ His replies would often be a few sentences, praising you on anything that you would mention about school or just exciting stuff in general, signing off with ‘Simon’, and a barely noticeable ‘x’ next to it.

‣ You keep every single one of the letters he sends back, your favourites being the ones that he would occasionally send to you, first. And secretly Simon does the same, keeping your letters tucked away in his bag under his bed.

‣ He tells you unless its an emergency, that you should stick to letters or texts, so that he can still stay focused with his job and that if you do one day call him, he knows straight away that it’s an urgent matter.

‣ There was one time when you forgot about the emergency rule, and called him to tell him you passed a test you had been stressing about.

‣ He was about to shout down the line asking what was wrong and where you were until you beat him to it with a loud “I PASSED SIMON, I PASSED THE TEST!”

‣ “That’s amazing Y/N, but you just scared the fucking life out of me.”

‣ “Oh crap. I forgot, sorry. But I passed!!!”

‣ "Great love. I'm proud of you. But next time stick it in a letter, yeah?"

#call of duty #modern warfare 2 #simon riley #simon ghost riley #simon riley x reader #ghost mw2 #ghost x reader #simon riley x sister!reader #platonic #task force 141 x reader #task force 141 #task force 141 platonic #soap x reader #captain price x reader #gaz x reader #modern warfare x reader #simon ghost riley x reader

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wolfgirlcoven · 4 months ago

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My Experience with P-Shifters & Mythicals, and why I'm Anti Physical IDs for Alterhumanity.

[Massive TW for Cults, Abuse(Including Digital SA, including COCSA), Delusions + Validation/Encouragement of Delusion, and probably more that I cannot for the life of me think of off the top of my head]

Hello, I'm Phoenix, but you can also call me Silverthorn. I've been in the nonhuman community since 2011-2013, and initially got my start in P-Shifter/Mythical communities, the ones of most note being ArdaErellon, GrowingWings4Life(usually just called Grow Wings.), and other adjacent webs.com forums.

I'll be documenting my experience with the community chronologically to the best of my ability, but do be aware that it may be a bit splotchy, as my memory of it all is a little janky due to the trauma and the fact this occured over 10 years ago now. It is of importance to note: I am neurodivergent, I speak from the perspective of someone who has been dealing with undiagnosed autism since childhood, which in turn, did influence my level of understanding of the world. My memory is also a little messed up due to dissociation from childhood trauma.

2011 - 2012: The Start - My start with P-Shifting began in 6th grade, when I was 11. I had met someone, who I will refer to here as Dragon. Dragon was my closest friend, however this was NOT a good thing. I had begun awakening to my inherent nonhumanity, but you know, when you're young, you'll believe in very fantastical things. Dragon was a P-Shifter, and I thought I was too. This is how our friendship really solidified. What easily could have been innocent schoolyard RP became grounds for abuse, manipulation, etc. Dragon convinced me that everyone hated us, and people would actively run away from me because where I went, she followed. Dragon was notoriously an asshole to others, but she used this to convince me that everyone hated me.

2013-2015: Aka "The Peak". 2013 is when I entered the online P-Shifter scene. Now, I had read websites and guides on p-shifting prior to this, but this is when I actually got INVOLVED so to speak. After reading some of the Maximum Ride books, I began experiencing phantom shifts of wings, which in turn lead to me joining GrowingWings4Life (colloquially known as Grow Wings), a forum on webs.com for Avians and other mythicals. I, obviously, began attempting to grow wings. This is where I met my flock. I've named two of them here before, but for the sake of this post I will be using stand in names. I also got my first scoliosis dx at age 13, during a school evaluation. This will come up again in another section of this post.

Aqua was the first one I met, she was basically a sister to me. She was honestly the first REAL friend I had, to the point where we called eachother sis. It was through her where we met the rest of our flock, albeit most of them would separate except for Red. Red was another one of the flock, unlike the other key members (Julio and Cailen. I WILL namedrop them for the bullshit they did. Julio was 18, and I don't remember Cailen's age but I do believe she was older than me, Aqua, and Red. I think maybe 18 but I'm not Positive.), he was also 13, like Aqua and I.

Julio got kicked from the flock for trying to groom Aqua and I over kik (classic 2013 experience I know), and Cailen went separate ways after a breakup with Red (she did some HORRIFIC things to him, which I will not disclose here other than it being SA) Things with the flock started out good at first, I mean why wouldn't it? Of course, we also learned about Awtok. We genuinely believed in them, and in part, were responsible for bringing knowledge of Awtok to Grow Wings out of sheer FEAR for everyone's saftey. Awtok's chokehold on our flock specifically remained.

Enter G32: Another school friend of mine, and self-professed Keyblade master. Though not an avian and p-shifter like the rest of us, he was part of our flock. I do fully blame myself and take responsibility for getting him involved with the flock + the consequences of doing so. He got involved the summer of 2014, but I had known him prior, and trusted him. G32 was someone we went to for advice and whatnot. In a way, despite Red and I being the leaders of the flock (when we started dating in 2014), I'd consider G32 to be the one pulling everyone's strings.

It was through G32, that Red became convinced he was a monster. Again, wont go into full details but this lead him to spiral into full on delusions. I remember him texting me in a state of extreme distress one night because he had "seen" his "true form" in the mirror. Looking back, this was clearly a hallucination. He ended up having MULTIPLE experiences like this. Now, he had been having some experiences akin to this prior to G32's claims about Red's true nature, but it was only after those that things got as bad as they did, such as full on berseker shifts for what his species was. (According to G32 the species was like an offshoot of the heartless from Kingdom Hearts.)

G32 also, on multiple occasions, forged messages from AWTOK, usually through 3DS swapnote, and then also forged messages from other "keyblade masters" who got involved with the flock via fake phone numbers.

Back to Red, because of the sheer amount of abuse he went through, ended up repeating the cycle of abuse with me. What he did to me was not ok. He had, through Cailen's abuse, become to believe he was possessed by a succubus who was Cailen. This began his manipulation of me, going so far as for this "possession" to lead to basically the Succubus threatening to leave me if I did not engage in sexual text-rp/sexting with Red as a way to prove my love & devotion. It eventually stopped, though i cannot remember what caused it to stop. Again, we both were 14 and severely mentally ill. I DO NOT HOLD THIS AGAINST HIM, AND I FORGIVE HIM FOR THIS. WE BOTH WERE VICTIMS.

Now, Red was VERY remorseful of what had happened, though we never actually talked about it or mentioned it after that, though I wish we did. It pretty much was him just apologizing but not specifying the incident (most because I told him not to), and me not actually letting him confess to what had happened. I wish I would have let him speak, but I was a scared child. Like I said, looking back now, and not out of a place of hurt, I can recognize he and I were both victims of abuse.

Come 2015, shit with G32 really hit the fan. From forging messages from other keyblade wielders turning against the flock, threatening to kill us for being traitors by aligning ourselves with Red, and the like, to then, when we stood up for ourselves, claiming it was all fake and a lie he spun, and then back to threatening us with the keyblade wielders after. It got to a point where it almost became a physical altercation on school grounds the following day. It was after this that things fell apart. The flock stuck together but ultimately separated, with the last I've heard from any of them being in 2016.

2016 & Onward: 2016 I still held onto some P-Shifting beliefs, but had begun to break away from them. It was really only come 2018 that I had fully recognized the nature of my beliefs were steeped in delusion, albeit the occasional relapse into p-shifter thoughts does occur to this day. I'd be lying if I'd said I haven't attempted to p-shift despite knowing and accepting it's impossible.

Now, other things not in this timeline that did happen, but I didn't feel were as interwoven with my flock experience:

ArdaErellon - when GrowWings went down, this kinda became one of the main sites people went to. It's not up anymore but I do remember the admin, Tinnuwen, asking people for their IRL locations, like addresses and whatnot, in order to open portals near them so they could travel to the realm of ArdaErellon.

Razgriz Pack & Other Cyberpacks - I got involved with a cyberpack when I was 13, when I didn't want much to do with them they threatened to send their other werewolves after me lol. I Don't remember if it was Razgriz or a different pack that I was involved in, mostly because I didn't spend much time around them.

Why I'm Making This Post:

I make this post because I've seen a resurgence in the P-Shifter & Mythical communities. Moreso, I've seen this become accepted and welcomed into the alterhuman community, which poses a SIGNIFICANT threat to the saftey and wellbeing of others. I've seen people ACTIVELY encouraging and validating delusions of Clinical Lycanthropes/Zoanthropes, claiming that it is harmless. IT IS NOT, I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE.

My wing delusions were encouraged, and we avians took any criticism of our attempts as threats and people just wanting to be assholes. Because of the repeated validation of my "physical" wing growth, i actively avoided getting treatment for my scoliosis for over 2 years. Like i said earlier in this post, during an exam at school, they felt my spine was curved. However, because I fully believed I was growing wings, I REFUSED to let my family take me to the doctor, refused to let them get x-rays of me, for fear that they'd discover my wings, because I was a terrified CHILD. This lead to my spine becoming so severely curved that I was at risk of my lungs collapsing. I fear to see what would have happened to me had I not eventually gotten surgery in 2015. The point is, the beliefs involved with subcultures such as p-shifters, holotheres, mythicals, etc. is inherently harmful. The denial to accept ones biological humanity, and the laws of physics that come with it, is a saftey risk. When people speak out about their experiences, they get dogpiled by the physical therian community, and victim blamed. When we explain why these things are harmful, we get accused of a whole slew of things, such as trying to make humans like us, or bring ableist by saying that encouraging delusion is harmful.

Me, Red, and Aqua should NOT have had to live out our teen years in fear of AWTOK, in fear of uncontrollable shifts, in fear of hunters, etc. We should have been able to have our formative teen years be normal. My friend Sundew, also known as @aesthetikins , was there when I was going through all of this, as we met in highschool. E knows first hand the amount of damage this stuff did to me, as again, e was there when it happened.

This is also the one time I feel OK to be That Guy and put this in the tags of the harmful groups I'm talking about, because maybe, JUST MAYBE, it'll save someone else from going through shit like what I went through. Edit: this is ok to reblog, and i actually encourage it

#therian #otherkin #alterhuman #nonhuman #physically nonhuman #physical therian #p-shifter #p-shifting #holothere #mythical

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carlyraejepsans · 11 months ago

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UTY!Flowey, "lore" and how to criticize a fan prequel without being an insufferable pedantic, a guide by Biscia.

(for my muskless fellows, here's a transcript of my thread on Undertale Yellow that I posted on Twitter. enjoy!)

There's this really frustrating attitude in fan spaces i like to call "lorepilling" where people are substantially more concerned with encyclopedic knowledge of details & minutiae (so called "lore") in place of full-text thematic/narrative analysis as if the two are mutually interchangeable.

It's especially common in large franchises and story heavy videogames, and it's like... Are You Treating This Piece Of Art Like A Trivia Battle Or Are You Treating It Like A Story

This is coming from a person who is also deeply autistic about UTDR trivia btw, I'm just saying that when it comes to transformative *stories*, depending on the impact it has on character, themes, and narrative structure... lore is expendable.

Ultimately this is why most of the UTY criticism i see (on twitter specifically) falls flat. What does it matter if "lore" means Flowey couldn't chronologically be there when the justice human fell, as long as the game narratively justified his presence in the story in a compelling way?

The real criticism, in the end, is that it didn't.

He's a plot central, main cast character from the canon returning in a cast of mostly OCs and what does he have to show for it? An admittedly sick boss battle in 1/3 endings, sure but... not much else. He has no significant "presence" in the story, no tie, interaction, or even just... an opinion on the rest of the cast. Which is a huge miss when Flowey's meta role is to be Thee completionist player mirror. He's the OG lorepilled UT fan! He's an opinionated little shit!

This isn't to say that UTY *didn't* engage w/ his metanarrative. When me and @a-town-called-hometown first started playing the game (we were both skeptical of Flowey's inclusion), he immediately said "It would be really cool if they made it so this has been going on for a while and Clover has no idea". Which is precisely what the game did in the neutral ending, and what I will openly say was the most well written & well executed part of this game's story...

...a part we almost didn't see, because the pacifist ending disappointed us so much we lost all will to replay.

To put it in the words of my friend Mel @clowwwnbytes, there's a deafening hollowness to UTY Flowey's motivations & core principles where his guilt towards Chara—and resulting black and white thinking—should be. You're telling me Mr Kill-or-be-killed, "sacrificing yourself to do the right thing is stupid", would stand there after 1000s of failed attempts to make Clover survive, look on as they make the same mistake Asriel he did, and fondly call them friend? Cue the guitar, roll the credits?

He would lose it. Oh my god he would lose his goddamn mind, he would throw the nastiest temper tantrum in the world. Are you serious? How dare you. How DARE you. All this effort, all my patience, and you just let yourself DIE for a few worthless idiots? I should've let you ROT!

*clears throat* sorry got a bit too into character. as i was saying.

I can understand a UT prequel wanting to distance itself from the canon Chara storyline in order to form its own identity, but then turning around and choosing Insane About Chara The Character™ for a sidekick is... far from optimal. In the end, Flowey comes across as underutilized and inconsistent, with a whole lot of wasted potential.

This is an issue I have with UTY's character writing (original AND returning) and story structure as a whole. Lots of inconsistent character arcs, tonal dissonance, overuse of situational sadness... it's an amateurish work, after all, and you can feel it. There's no shame in that.

(Though, there ARE some issues that i take more seriously with its writing, especially when it comes to its two main female characters—Ceroba's lack of narrative agency and depth borders on misogynistic writing imo. But that's a topic for another day)

Over all, UTY was an incredible piece of collaborative transformative work, with gorgeous art and a genuinely incredible OST, which... would have benefited from more experienced writers. But hey, you can only ever learn by trying!

For all it could've been a better story, it certainly did not fail to entertain: both when my friend was playing it, and after in our many discussions of its writing, its faults and how it could've been improved (royal scientist!ceroba character fix you will always be famous. to ME!)

I'm sure this project served as an incredible source of experience for the developers: as individual creators AND as a team. I look forward to their future projects!

but also if i have to see another person say UTY is better than Undertale i might turn into The Jonker.

end of the essay! really couldn't stand any of the pedantic ""criticism"" I'd seen of this fangame so far, so i had to say my piece as someone more versed in analysis. happy to elaborate on anything in the replies or in my inbox!

#undertale #undertale yellow #uty #flowey #mywriting #metanalysis

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sleepy-grav3 · 5 months ago

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Glitching issue

So I was getting distracted again. I heard Masochism Tango and Stalker's Tango, wanted a yandere playlist with intense ballroom songs, that types of thing.

And then I thought of another story idea for my current hyperfixation: DCxDP

One of my favorite ships in that fandom is Dead Tired/Brain Dead, cause I love them... so much...

Anyway-

With the context of the yandere ballroom playlist, you should know where I'm going. And I read a few fics/prompts/whatever else you'd call them where it portrays a normally pretty toxic relationship but they're actually in a really healthy relationship.

There was one about mutual stalking, another with kidnapping shenanigans, one that mentioned attempted deprogramming- you get it. (don't ask me for them, I don't know what they're called and there's too much to sift through to find them, very sorry, do feel free to reblog/comment the authors of them or ones that hold some relevance)

But yeah, now I'm making a fic with a playlist as storyline inspiration. Idk the layout yet.

1 Long Chapter : 1 Song

Story Arc (probably short) : 1 Song

Always a 1:1 ratio, maybe a special 2 songs here and there? Not sure.

But so far!!! I have the usual: Masochism Tango and Stalker's Tango.

Got the Cell Block Tango ready. El Tango de Roxanne will be there too. I got some waltzes and looking into other types of rhythms like them. Tango, Waltz, thinking about Salsa and Swing, got a few others too

Looking into some less yandere themed songs since I can't solely do it on yandere themes. I want it to be drama filled but with some healthy doses of attraction, y'know?

Yeah, that whole thing is going on a headcannon and an idea.

Ghosts feel things more strongly, so some unhealthy things to humans are meh or minimum level things to ghosts. Because of this, Danny's a bit unhealthy in what he considers love (his vigilante life didn't help with that, especially with Vlad), but his human side keeps it more on the downlow

There's a different species of beings that are immortal in a way: The Undying. Life loves them or they're obsessed with Life. Tim is one of the only true Undying. They're as rare as true Halfas.

So... yeah. Love this little idea. Been working on it for a few hours now. And I need help. Song recommendations mostly, storyline ideas are welcome.

I'll be posting a playlist once I get it all sorted out, chronologically, and the outline of the story put up. The summary will be a genuine summary and not just some background info or a quick sentence like I usually do.

But I want a happy ending. No bittersweet, no hurt/barely any or no comfort, no fully angst-

I need some kind of betrayal for someone to go to jail TvT

Will it be Tim or Danny? Who fits best as a viewer for Cell Block Tango, just casually listening to people talk about killing (and that one framed murder).

Who's the one that lives off the thrill of getting hurt (I'm thinking more of the bdsm way, but also the "I'll only let you hurt me" type of way too? Doesn't have to be physical or verbal or even intentional... I'm making this sound worse-)

I got this one part for the Roxanne one

The yandere is "cheating", no idea if it's fake or a previous relationship, or whatever. still under planning for that.

And the "victim" is the one who's begging the yandere to not deceive them. Maybe they've been lied to a bunch of times, maybe they really don't want false hope, maybe they're fine with an open relationship as long as the yandere doesn't leave- idk, but the "victim" is the one who's pulling the strings during then.

I'm trying to think of who's the other person, the yandere, and the "victim". Who's who? Not sure. And how does it fit with the rest of the songs too... Ugh, I really should just do oneshots T^T But I can't at the moment, not with the ideas-

So yeah

Ideas? Song recommendations? Character ideas? Scene prompts????

Please?

Oh, and this post is named glitching because it broke my fucking computer. I don't have a mouse anymore. Luckily, it's touchscreen and the keyboard still works. Still annoying though

#dc x dp #dp x dc #danny phantom #batfam #dead tired #brain dead #tim/danny #tim drake #danny fenton #or maybe danny nightingale???#Should I do a bad reveal au???

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h1llzy · 6 months ago

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MUMBO JUMBO S10 LORE THEORY/OVERVEIW: immortality

Right I have a lot of things to explain, you may be wondering…does mumbo even have lore? And I’d have to tell you yes yes he very much does and it’s stuck in my brain like a worm.

And I believe he has planned it since episode 9 of his hermitcraft series…

I’ll start in chronological order.

Firstly: when mumbo is planning and drawing out his base he has a small box at the bottom with numbers. That is what is going to be the data base in episode 20 , where he talks about him / all his inventions… living on forever. (This will be a major theme)

Now that in its self is not enough to prove anything… but in episode 25… the laboratory we learn about what a certain company is trying to achieve in their endeavours.

It talks of a couple major things: red stone research…artificial intelligence…preservation of the lived experience…

But the biggest of all “soon we will be living forever..”

And they are going to “start human trails shortly…”

Also in this same episode, Mumbo changes his skin and starts to grey.

It goes from this…

To this… and it happens midway through the episode:

(Both taken from episode 25)

So we know that the mined labaratory is testing with artificial intelligence and red stone to attempt to create some sort of immortality situation. And mumbo is being directly effected by it via aging.

But the MOST DARNED evidence is within episode 29 at the very beginning!!! He made an entire cinematic sequence…

(I can’t place the clip but seriously go watch it it’s sooo good!)

From this… we are able to see testing cells… that have chicken noises and villager noises coming from them.

Where we can sort of tell:

- one: the chickens have been tested on in order to possibly experiment on their entire life cycle. (Egg, embryo, chick, chicken..)

- two: the humans within the cinematic…talk in villager noises. So human trials have definitely started.

Then the dialogue shows even more…

“I got the notification, is it done?”

“It’s done…” and then we see this…

A mind… is 100% mapped…

THEN! Midway episode 32 he changes his skin again to grey even more!

(You may say that is because he is literally being sued but that kinda just speedens the process a bit)

So here is the basic parts I have put together in a small synopsis theory:

Mumbo is essentially patient zero, the mined company want to preserve intelligence , to see if after they die they can live as an ai. They have tested on animals, and villagers/ humans (not too sure) but now want mumbo’s intelligence via documenting it all onto a computer. Where it gets trained into an ai that is a replica of the person mind, their personality…every little bit about themselves…that why the brain is 100% mapped..because it is 100% copied… the data base, is also apart of this.. and is actually connected to mumbo in some sort of way, storing all the inventions and red stone ideas he has ever made to be placed into the ai algorithm.

This is very much having a bad effect on mumbo himself, as he seems to be aging much quicker….as if in trying to preserve life they are making it fade more quickly…

But the real question is what is going to end up happening well I have two theory’s for you there….

Silly theory: Grumbot.

You see when mumbo changed his skin it no longer had the waffle…so that possibly means that when minded was mapping out mumbo’s brain…it picked a up a bit of an anomaly..such as….someone’s soul…

Grians… (mwahhaa). So while trying to obtain a obedient ai that could persevere all of mumbo’s intelligence of red stone and inventions forever through the data base. They have also inadvertently picked up a bit of Grian within the ai (which is why the waffle from mumbo’s skin disapeared, due to the fact it’s now in the ai)… creating the famously charming Grumbot!!!

Angst theory: Ai after death

Mumbo is going to die due to the rapid aging that the mined company has placed on him…in which causes them to create basically an ai replica of mumbo, placing him in a robot body where he is essentially “replaced” by his robot version, and that ai is just now him (kinda like Astro boy)

So yeah….this took 2 hours…I need help, the brain rot is bad. Um thanks!

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anim-ttrpgs · 4 months ago

Note

is there a book series or other piece of fiction you’d recommend for someone who really enjoys the way Eureka specifically does its vampires (and werewolves and other monsters)? both when it comes to themes and when it comes to specific powers/mechanics

I’ll tell ya, pickings are going to be really really slim on that front. You’re likely to find stories that have one of those elements, but not all of them. That’s one of the reasons I write what I do, because it’s what I want to see and I gotta do it myself.

The original Dracula is my favorite novel, and it features vampires that have about a 90% overlap in the way that Eureka's folkloric vampires work. It’s also just a really good novel. I recommend reading it in chronological order through Daily Dracula, they have a novel version for that if you don’t want to follow the emails for like 6 months.

If I was good at being a consistent writer on the side, maybe you’d have the novel which inspired Eureka’s lore, but right now that just sits in a rough outline form.

You can, however, read some short stories from this same canon by subscribing to our patreon. All together, they’re about 130 pages cumulatively. I’ll warn you though, they haven’t been copy-edited, so they’re a bit rough, but I think they’re really good regardless.

I can provide a condensed summary of the outline of the larger novel here under the cut.

The story takes place in the late 1800s and is told from the perspective of two vampires, Annie Mayfield and Yvette Preux, switching between their PoVs each chapter, though after starting to write out this summary, I’m questioning if that PoV-switching actually adds anything to the story, so I may scrap that. I didn’t incorporate the PoV switching in this outline.

>Comtesse Yvette Preux, who has been a vampire since her original death in Brittany in the 1200s, resides in New Orleans.

>Becoming a vampire wasn’t a conscious decision on her part, and no other vampire was involved(she hasn’t even ever met another vampire), it just sort of happened after her slow gradual death from wasting sickness. She considers the possibility that a return to the life she so desperately wanted to live may be a miracle from God.

>She comes from a prestigious noble family that she has been a regular part of for centuries, but they’re gone now. None of them were vampires, just her descendants from the children she had when she was alive.

>She has always tried to minimize her harm on the living, mostly taking blood by needle from paid subjects. Her money, however, is running out after decades spent in the Louisiana Territory. She was in a state of dormancy for decades and learned of the French Revolution decades after it happened, and since has spend most of her time paying people to travel to France and make any possible contact with her family. There has been no word.

>With no income from her family, her fortune gradually dwindles until she is essentially homeless, and has to lower herself to attempting to take a job. She is hired as a governess(caretaker of the children, not a political position), by a rich plantation family.

>She is beloved by the family and vice versa, raising and tutoring their children diligently. She is essentially part of the family, accompanying them everywhere and living in a smaller house on their grounds. They teach her to shoot, which she really takes a liking to. She loves loud noises, complex machinery, and learning difficult skills, but older guns were always a bit too much for her sensitive nose and eyes. Smokeless power has since been invented, fixing that issue.

>She spends most of her free time practicing shooting.

>The plantation family is not aware she is a vampire, and she is careful about hiding this fact, even though vampires are not really a common knowledge thing, just like in the Eureka setting. She sneaks out at night to take blood by needle from whoever she can pay.

>Living on a plantation, this rich family were formerly slave owners, and are now scalawags and run their plantation as a sharecrop. Even having grown up a feudal noblewoman, Yvette has a personal and religious opposition to slavery, as was the zeitgeist of her time. (They considered serfdom to be completely different, obviously.) Residing on this plantation, Yvette slowly comes to see that the lives of former slaves under the sharecropping system are not much better than under slavery. In some cases, the conditions can be even worse. She keeps her objections about this to herself, not wanting to rock the boat or seem ungrateful for the generosity the family has given her. She’s never had the social skills to broach complaints without angering those around her, and really never had much in the way of social skills of friends at all, never having more than a small handful of people truly close to her in any given lifetime.

>Eventually, some of the family meet over something important, they have a shocking secret to reveal. They tell her that vampires are real, and for generations this family has made it their duty to identify and eliminate them. They are so rare of course that they find one only about once in a generation, but they are certain that there is one active in the region. Someone has been paying for blood from the poor and desperate. They tell her to be extraordinarily careful, and present her with a gift: a small two-barrel derringer, and two silver bullets.

>I’m skipping ahead a bit because exactly how the family find out she is a vampire is something I haven’t figured out yet, but of course they find out she’s the vampire. The fact that she doesn’t seem to have aged at all in ten years probably helps.

>Because she has been a friend of the family for so long, and demonstrated the capacity to care for human life, they decide she does not necessarily need to be killed. She’s one of the good ones. Conditionally.

>She has to stop buying blood from the poor and desperate, further minimize her blood consumption to only a small drawing from one of the family members every month or so, never leave the family’s sight, never touch a weapon again, and she is to have no contact with the children she raised for the family.

>Even as one of the good ones, she is still a selfish monster, unnatural and anathema to the will of God, whose existence is prolonged only by the suffering of the living, and the family’s mercy.

>Under the family’s constant scrutiny, and wasting away into depression and delirium from a bare minimum intake of blood, she loses her ability to argue, and gradually comes to understand this herself.

>She stares into an empty mirror, desperate to see herself in it, trying to be normal instead of a selfish parasite. All she can get the mirror to reflect of herself is her sense of self worth and what she contributes to the world. That is, nothing.

>In the prose, the absence of a reflection is always written as a failure by Yvette to be reflected in the mirror.

>Her undeath can’t be a miracle, God would not allow something like her into the world for her own sake. The only logical conclusion is that it is a punishment from God for refusing to be satisfied with the short life He did give her or accept its natural conclusion, that she would have to take that life from the rest of the world that she loves and never reunite with her closest friend, her husband, who has been dead for centuries. Each century that passes brings her farther from the life she had with him and so selfishly coveted, and now, after the French Revolution, there are not even descendants of him in her life. Her selfish insatiable desire for experience, relationships, and the world is an anchor weighing her soul to the earth, and it’s everyone’s problem.

>She can hardly bear to take even what little blood the family offers her from themselves. They housed her, and she continues to just take and take and take.

>They’re afraid of her, even. No matter how nonthreatening she tries to make herself, she can’t be allowed out of their sight. No matter how good she is, it’ll never be good enough for them, and it’s callous of her to expect otherwise, considering their situation, mortality, and how they’ve suffered at the hands of vampires like her.

>One evening in the sitting room, Yvette is present while the family discusses their finances, and their plan to legally back out of paying the sharecrop workers their promised yearly payment. That is too cruel for Yvette, and she stands up, raising her voice and interrupting, only for those closest to flinch back and several to draw pistols from their pockets. Stuttering an apology, she retires to her room, and sits in front of the empty mirror. How can she, being what she is, take issue with them?

>She considers setting things right by ending her own existence, but she isn’t sure how, and a part of her is still too afraid to find out. She couldn’t accept death before, and she still can’t now. She’s still just as wretched as she was then, even after over six-hundred years. She’s really unworthy of God’s light, a spot of black mold eating through the canvas of His Creation, because even knowing this, she can’t help herself.

>Ironically, her name, Preux, means “courage.” It isn’t something she’s ever really thought much about before, but now that it comes time to overcome her fear and do what has to be done for the greater good, she doesn’t feel like she lives up to the name. Even the name “Yvette”, after the long-lived yew tree, feels like a hole in her chest. For some time now, whenever anyone has said Yvette, it has only been with disgust, rightfully, at her undeservedly long life. She renounces the name Yvette Preux.

>There’s no good way to really portray this in a summarized outline format, but this whole time, a fringe religious movement has been slowly taking the stage in the background. It doesn’t have any kind of mass following, but what few there are are devoted. The family is suspicious of them, and concludes that they are worshipers of demons. (If I get fully into it here then this post will become a whole different thing but “biblically accurate” demons are a whole different thing from pop culture demons like from Doom and stuff. The most “biblically accurate” pop culture portrayal is probably The Exorcist(1973), and maybe the game Faith: The Unholy Trinity, where the point isn’t really to go rawr rawr rawr and kill everyone, the point is to make humans suffer, despair, and abandon the belief that God could possibly love us. You can't really shoot them with a shotgun, the only way to repel them is to have faith that things can get better.)

>This group argues that the world is an evil place, and that humans are its evil denizens which can only suffer and beget more suffering, as is evidenced all around them. They advocate for the end of humanity, and are suspected of several violent crimes, as well as election interference.

>The family disrupts one of their gatherings by shooting up the place. They don’t spare anyone, because dangerous people ought to be killed before they can do any more harm.

>Some time later, late at night, the family’s plantation house comes under attack by a gang of armed men, and it’s a slaughter. Yvette goes to hide in the back with the other women.

>A stick of dynamite crashes through the window.

>Yvette opens her eyes an indeterminate amount of time later, in the smoldering remains of the plantation house, still strewn in the remains of everyone else who was in the room. There’s no one left alive.

>Her family is gone again, but she doesn’t really feel anything. It’s obvious what she has to do now, now that the family is gone, she has to set things right by discontinuing her own existence. There’s no one else to keep her in check, and she’ll just cause more suffering to more innocent people if she stays alive.

>There’s just one thing she wants to do first, and that is avenge the deaths of her new family. If she can do anything for them now, it’s that, and then to properly die as is natural.

>When she can walk, she rounds up the hired gunmen formerly employed by the family, and sets out to hunt down every last man responsible for the attack. Few of them are willing to trust a vampire, but they go along with her. (Her actual relationship to these men, why they decide to go along with her, and what this adds to the story is another thing I haven’t really fully worked out yet. It may make for a better story for her to just do it alone, though her reaction to some of their deaths later on does serve to highlight a few things about her that may be a hint as to why she is the type of person to come back as a vampire in the first place.)

>She deliberately doesn’t answer to Yvette anymore, instead randomly coming up with the name Annie Mayfield when asked her name soon after. It doesn’t mean anything to her, she doesn’t really think about it, it just needs to be a placeholder until she can finish this and then end her life.

>(So yeah the twist is that all the stuff you’re about to read beyond this point from the PoV of Annie Mayfield would be interspersed throughout the Yvette Preux chapters until it turns out they’re the same person.)

>The remainder of the story is a blur of violence and shame as the shock wears off and she starts to feel things again. Obviously, the men who attacked the plantation house are from the cult, and after tracking down and killing the first one she instantly regrets trying to go through with this, and laments that it represents her still not having learned her lesson, and going on to extend her life through the suffering of others even though she had resolved to end it. One of her own is also killed in the shootout, and tangled up in the regret is the desire to have known the man longer.

>After grounding herself, she resolves to not let the family down, and continues the manhunt.

>A lot of these scenes are portrayed primarily through dialogue between Annie and the cult members she is confronting, either before, during, or after some kind of shootout. The cult members argue that the material world only exists for humanity to suffer and harm each other in, as is human nature, as is self-evident from the state of the mid-late-1800s world. Also, there’s a vampire. Would a loving God actually allow a vampire to exist? The only way to end this suffering is the extinction of humanity itself. And Annie arguing back from her perspective all the kind people she’s met, beautiful things she’s seen, and enjoyable things she’s done in centuries of consciousness. And once she’s gone, there will be one less source of suffering in the world. (she really always has to have the last word, it’s a really abrasive thing about her.) Both parties are well versed in Abrahamic scripture and use it to support their arguments.

>Annie is an incredible shot after around a decade of practicing every day, but she isn’t exactly a great gunfighter, and it’s only due to the fact that she’s literally immortal that she survives most of these early confrontations. She’s getting holes blown in her a lot, and expending a lot of energy to keep going and regenerating. It’s too much for a vampire that has been limiting her blood consumption since her original death, and recently surviving on a bare minimum amount of blood. She comes to realize she can’t keep up this pace, and it’ll all be for nothing, if she doesn’t drink some blood. She doesn’t have any money, she has to take it at gunpoint, and it takes a lot of it to keep her going at this pace. She drinks a lot of it.

>The shame, falling back on what a depraved, selfish wretch she is, it’s a knot in her throat. But she’s recovering from gunshots faster, moving faster, her vision is clearer. She’s not sure if she’s ever felt this good before. After centuries minimizing how much she takes, she wasn’t really aware one could feel this good.

>All of the gunmen she brought with her have either died or abandoned the cause at this point(if they were there in the first place, like I said I haven’t figured that out), the law is after her, and she’s killed more people than the cult can ignore. They figure out who she is and her relationship to the family, and retaliate both physically and intellectually.

>Their arguments get more personal. The family, the societal forces that put them in power over so many suffering destitute laborers, and how they treated her, are the perfect example. They’re not worth her avenging, if she wants to actually accomplish something, she could join their cause.

>This cause involves attaining political power through intimidation, blackmail, and just plain electorialism, following a precise set of instructions passed down by the demons they consort with to worsen condition of daily life and the world overall. (The exact details of this I won’t get into, this post is already so long.)

>Not only will this just overall reduce the population, but the plan is to advocate for suicide as an answer to this despair, and use worsening conditions as evidence for their message that it would be better for humanity to end.

>The shootouts are becoming more disproportionate, with her targets hiding out together, always armed, hiring bodyguards, assembling militias. Annie is getting better at this, though. She’s moving in ways she didn’t know she could, and doing things she felt she might be able to do but felt it would be shameful and unnatural to try. Vampire things. There would be no other way she could overcome 5:1, 10:1, 20:1 odds. She’s learning to cycle a lever-action with one hand so she can keep shooting in the relatively frequent event that one of her arms gets shot off.

>Annie has come to agree, largely through her own scriptural arguments, that the suspicion, scrutiny, judgement, and deprivation she experienced from the family was unjustifiable both morally and spiritually. She had a right to exist, no matter what that means.

>She has fangs now. She doesn’t know when they came in, because it isn’t like mirrors can reflect her. (Roughly from this point on, when reflections are brought up in prose, it is written that the surface fails to reflect her, not that she fails to be reflected in the surface.)

>The family didn’t love her like she loved them, and she, like the other monsters they hunted, was just another vessel for them to justify themselves and their own harmful lifestyle by comparison, and embolden their own egos, rather than any genuine desire to protect anyone. She doesn’t owe them this violence, but she’s doing it anyway, not for revenge, not because they’re “evil,” but because she’s set her mind to it, and she’s having fun.

>Really embracing her vampirism and what it can allow her to do is a whole new world to her, one she wants to keep exploring and experiencing, even if it’s at cost to other people, and they’re not going to ruin that for her.

>You can see where this is going. The movement is crippled beyond recovery, if any of them survive at all. The world is saved because someone selfishly wanted to go on living even if at the expense of others, and that that life is richer for it.

>Epilogue.

>Despite embracing her vampirism and finally drinking a healthy amount of blood, Annie has really over-exerted herself, and fades away into another dormant period. A little less than one-hundred years later, she comes back to consciousness. It’s the year 1992, and the first thing she sees is something like this.

[picture of cellphone towers against the night sky with glowing red lights]

>She can barely comprehend what she’s seeing, it’s terrifying and amazing. She doesn’t know what they are, but the radio towers, enormous glowing steel monoliths to human connection and communication, being the first thing she sees represent that she really is in a new world, one that is going to love her back this time.

>How she actually manages to integrate into this new world is its own whole story, one that is a lot funnier and more light-hearted. She doesn’t even speak English.

>She isn’t ready to go back to the name Yvette Preux, when she eventually has to give a name, she picks it out deliberately this time. Alys Cessna. Though comtesse_yvette does become her screen name on Quake 1 deathmatch by 1998.

>picture of Yvette Preux circa 2024 by team artist @chaospyromancy

[Yvette Preux, a petite white woman with long orange hair, dressed in kind of a 90s skater style. She has a skateboard with a picture of bats silhouetted against the moon on the underside, mirrored sunglasses on her forehead, and a handgun in a front hip holster. She is smiling and has very prominent fangs.]

And there it is. I left out a few subplots and other themes but this was already long as fuck.

Support A.N.I.M. and maybe in the future I’ll be financially stable enough to work on this novel even though it won’t make a lot of money.

Also in case it didn’t come across fully in the summary, the suicide cult and Yvette are the same, and through fighting them, intellectually and literally, she also ends up fighting her own overwhelming guilt and shame she feels for existing as a harmful person, and makes an argument of all the reasons she wants to keep living. She’s saving herself.

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pigeonpalindrome · 8 months ago

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My Kaku Good Guy Rant (help this is consuming my life) (this is very long)

(Spoilers for Water 7 and Egghead, obviously! I'll try and keep this in chronological order. I will mainly be using the manga for examples. This is gonna be lengthy, and ranty, and hyper-analyze...y. I will be using punctuation in this post for the sake of myself and everyone else.)

Let me start this off by saying: Is this the face of a man who hates his life?

Call me crazy (sarcasm), but I don't think so.

Kaku, though he is a Cipher Pol agent, is leagues away from any of the other Cipher Pol agents we've seen to date. The way he acts, the way he speaks, the way he treats others -- it all gets on my nerves because it makes me think he isn't so bad. But we've seen his actions! We've seen some of the things he's done and the bad people he is associated with! He's an evil person!

...Or is he?

Characters can do bad things, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are bad people, because things aren't always just black and white like that.

We know that Cipher Pol agents are taken in as children, and they are raised through the eyes of the government. They -- as messed up as some of these poor kids seem -- are conditioned to think in a way where the bad deeds they do are deemed 'right', just because they do so for the sake of 'justice'. They don't particularly know that what they're doing is wrong.

Part One: Water 7

When we see CP9 act during water 7, I've noticed that Kaku specifically was less involved in the brutal beatings of Iceberg and Paulie inside of the Galley-la mansion. He seems to stand to the side and let Lucci do the dirty work, along with all the talking.

At the end of chapter 344, Opposing Force, Paulie is seen bleeding with the blueprints in his hand. We don't see who beats him up, but it can be assumed that it was Lucci, due to him being closer to Paulie. Lucci is also the first to grab the blueprints from him. Kaku stands still in the background.

However, they could have both been fighting him, as Lucci says "Your resistance against us is futile..." although again, Lucci seems to talk for the both of them, as Kaku doesn't say a word up until Paulie reveals that the blueprints are fake. Even then, after that, Lucci still does the brunt of the talking.

In my opinion, it's highly unlikely that Kaku would beat up Paulie, because as far as I've seen, Kaku doesn't lay a hand on either him or Iceberg, aside from gently checking Iceberg's pulse.

What makes me think this? Well in chapter 345, Luffy, in casual Luffy fashion, busts in just as Paulie succumbs to the beating, to which Kaku attempts to catch Luffy with his Tempest Kick. Luffy dodges at the last second, but is apprehended by Lucci as he is stuck to the floor using metal prongs to hold him down.

Lucci then yells at Kaku to restrain Paulie, because this was "no time to be fighting (Paulie is nearly K.O'd and bleeding out on the floor)", and Kaku does this:

Notice those little lines next to his head? He's surprised.

Now, he could be surprised due to not thinking about restraining Paulie since he's literally already been defeated, but Lucci knows that Paulie could become a bigger problem if he got back up, especially with Luffy there with him. I picture Kaku as a bit of an extension to Lucci, and since they're both very smart, Kaku would know this too, wouldn't he?

Paulie could get up and free Luffy, or better yet free him and team up with Luffy to 'beat' the both of them. Kaku already knows that Paulie isn't dead, because Paulie's still conscious right in front of him, so why is he so obviously surprised at Lucci's order? Why was it so important to draw those little lines next to him?

Perhaps he was surprised because he was worried Lucci would tell him to restrain Paulie, and he was hoping he wouldn't have to.

Another reason for these little lines could be that Kaku could have been zoned-out, maybe having some heavy thoughts (regret, guilt, or some sort of existential crisis), and Lucci snapped him out of it by getting his attention.

Backtracking just a bit, back to chapter 344, right when Paulie reveals that the blueprints were fake, Lucci and Kaku understandably share a moment of shock.

Kaku, more so speaking to himself rather than anyone else (as he trails off at the end of the sentence), says: "What an idiotic thing to..."

This doesn't have to mean anything, as Paulie could be seen as both smart and an idiot for revealing this in front of them, however I like to think deeper into it, of course.

Kaku could have been calling this action idiotic due to the fact that he knew they would've had to kill Paulie afterwards, and that Paulie likely knew this too, and was just revealing this out of spite and to witness their surprise before he died.

Kaku's words seem a little out of place here. Lucci, of course, just goes straight into 'let's kill this guy 'cause he got on my nerves' mode, but Kaku's response isn't what I would expect. When I read this for the first time, not knowing that these two were in fact Kaku and Lucci, this just stuck out to me (it still sticks out to me, even now), and I can't exactly put into words why.

Again, this makes me think: "Why add this? Why is this so important?"

If they weren't so rudely interrupted by Luffy, Lucci probably would have finished the job and killed Paulie right then and there because Kaku was still standing around not doing anything and just adding random commentary.

One more thing from this chapter, then it's onward and upward from here! We'll get to the Zoro fight and Egghead soon enough!

When Luffy bursts in awkwardly through the wall, interrupting this uncomfortable encounter between the three of them, I stated earlier that Kaku tries to hit him with a Tempest Kick. Right before this, though, Kaku has a moment of hesitation before attacking Luffy.

Of course, as I've said, this can have little to no meaning.

But, can it mean something? Yes!

This little panel of hesitation could be a wave of guilt washing over Kaku, as he knows Luffy and the Strawhats weren't involved in the attempted assassination of Iceberg like CP9 made them out to be. He knows the Strawhats are good people, but he's just following orders. He's aware of the situation they've stuck Luffy with. This bit of hesitation could be him just further instating to himself that this is what needs to be done to get these blueprints.

When Kaku reveals himself to be one of the government assassins, he replies to Iceberg's disbelief with: "You're the one in the wrong. None of this would have happened if you'd handed them over to the government when it asked nicely."

That's rather depressing, combined with the expression on his face.

What is "none of this"? What does that mean? Almost killing Iceberg? Beating up your friends?

His sad expression is pushing me to think that there are more layers to this than just causing harm to Iceberg/Paulie/others.

Why would he need to justify that Iceberg was in the wrong? They were doing this for that sweet sense of justice, after all!

Perhaps the "none of this" really does mean this entire mission, as the whole reason CP9 was sent to Water 7 was to retrieve the blueprints from Iceberg. If "none of this" happened, Kaku would have never been sent to Water 7 in the first place. Makes you think about why he looks so sad, huh? He would have never gotten those five years of bliss.

Remember, Kaku was only 18 when he started the mission at Water 7. That is wild to think about, if you put yourself in his shoes. You aren't even fully developed yet, especially your brain by that time!

If you wanna dive even deeper into this, just think -- all of the other CP9 members are older than Kaku. Granted, Kalifa only has 2 years on him, but they weren't super close during Water 7, so disregard her for now. Lucci was 23 at the start of the Water 7 mission, for more reference of their age differences.

Lulu is 8 years older than Kaku, and Tilestone is 10 years older.

Paulie, however, is only one year older than Kaku. Paulie is his peer. His close friend.

I'm not saying that any of the other shipwrights weren't his friends, Tilestone and Lulu's behavior alone disproves that, however having friends -- especially when you're a teenager -- that are among the same age group as you is important, so it's a little easier to infer that Kaku has an attachment to Paulie, which could be a reason as to why Kaku isn't seen fighting him -- he grew up with him in those five years 'away' from CP9.

After it is revealed that the masked assassins were, in fact, Lucci, Kaku, Kalifa, and Blueno, Kaku is asked to check Iceberg's pulse to see if they can guess the whereabouts of the real Pluton blueprints. We can assume, that from this action, Kaku still respects Iceberg, as all of the other CP9 members have been treating Iceberg like a damn doormat.

Very polite. Just wanted to add this quick one in.

Then -- this is important -- shortly after that, we get this:

Mhm.

To me, here, Kaku is being genuine when he says this. The other members can say that they "don't have anything against Iceberg", but I believe Kaku is the only one who really doesn't have anything against him. He really is thankful for the opportunities Iceberg gave him during his time on Water 7.

Through his actions, Kaku is very obviously genuine, no matter how much someone wants to say he's not. Lucci + Co. beat Iceberg senseless, while Kaku, who could have very easily joined in with the other members, did not. He respected Iceberg down to the very last moment with him, much like I feel he did with Paulie, too.

The next few examples are going to be small, with little bits of my thoughts, because trust me, I really want to get to Egghead.

These examples are throughout the next couple of chapters.

Kaku's face, along with the bubble of an ellipsis at the sight of Paulie. Ouch.

Why does he look so disturbed from the action of hitting Zoro with his Finger Pistol? I'll say it again -- guilt?

Just wanted to add this in because it makes me sad. "Honing their skills to serve the government" is all they're good for, and they all know it.

Alright! That wraps this part up, now we're going to quickly touch on Enies Lobby and Kaku's fight with Zoro, because, honestly, not much needs to be said about the latter half.

Don't worry, the next parts will be shorter.

Part Two: Enies Lobby

I'm adding this section in after I've already finished the Water 7 part, and LET ME TELL YOU: I am currently high on 1 a.m. exhaustion-induced goofiness, and I literally had a dream about finishing this post last night so I'm WORKING ON IT NOW!! NOW!!!!

So please, if you could, excuse me. Me as a whole. Excuse everything.

ALRIGHT LET'S DIG INTO THIS!!!

So, like I mentioned just above the header for this section, I don't want to go too deep into this part, mostly because in my eyes the evidence speaks for itself (especially for the fight with Zoro) however I will go a little bit into some other parts that I find interesting.

EXHIBIT ONE!!! - 'Co-workers pressure you to eat mystery items? Hell yes!'

A bit unrelated, but I just wanted to say how I thought it was a bit funny how Kaku and Kalifa get peer pressured into eating their devil fruits, despite Kaku showing obvious disinterest, and can we talk about their reactions when handed the fruits??

You cannot convince me that they wanted to eat those. Kalifa is struggling. But of course, Lucci comes in with the "It'll be fun", so they just decided 'yep we're doing this i guess'. Was it really that fun, though? Everyone got their ass kicked two times over in the end, so did it really matter?

You poor souls.

Moral of the story, if someone tells you 'eat this thing I'm giving you because it will be fun' -- don't.

Exhibit TWO!!! - 'Crackhead Franky burns the blueprints'

These panels just make me feel some type of way. Of course, Kaku (as the other CP9 members are) is very upset that his five years of work just got burned up into dust in front of him, but it also means that it was ALL FOR NOTHING. Everything was for nothing.

Coming to Water 7, getting the job, liking the job, participating in your interest, making friends, having a good boss and then turning around and ruining it all for the sake of some papers (that you've already been faked out of once, mind you) that just disintegrated and basically never had any meaning in the first place, because 'how the hell are we getting those back, oh yeah, we can't', is what would be going through my mind.

I mean, karma is a bitch, but damn. Also -- are ellipses just Kaku's thing? I'm noticing a pattern here.

Exhibit TROIS! ahem.. Three. - 'Zoro's sword is moaning'

Now we'll get into the stuff with Zoro -- BUT ONLY QUICKLY BECAUSE I'M GETTING TO EGGHEAD, DAMMIT!!

When confronted by Zoro, Kaku stated that Zoro's 'Will you hand Robin's handcuff key over before I kill you?' was a foolish question, followed by another damn ellipsis! What is it with him and those??

Anyways, why is this a foolish question to him? Well, it could go both ways -- Kaku would kill Zoro before he could get the key, or Zoro would kill Kaku before he could give up the key. The first way was probably intended from Kaku's perspective... or was it? Kaku knows Zoro is strong, as he says literally in the same panel that he wished he could see what Zoro was capable of.

Based on Kaku's reaction to Zoro defeating him (which we'll get to in just a moment), I believe he was anticipating his own defeat by Zoro's hand.

Fighting Zoro was almost like a game to Kaku, as he said (during the lighter half of their fight) that this was fun, and the only way for the fun to stop was if Zoro beat him. This was fun for him to the very end of it. That's pretty sad, and I feel like Kaku was excited to have someone like Zoro fighting him, especially with them both being swordsman, as he seemed to really enjoy their fights.

Now for the finale!!

^^ This is right after Zoro informs Kaku that he's fired, rubbing salt into Kaku's many metaphorical and physical wounds. vv

Why did Zoro feel the need to say this? Did Zoro want Kaku to feel bad about what he did? Because usually, foes don't get the time to talk with the person that just beat their ass, because they get knocked out/killed before anything else happens. Did Zoro hit him just hard enough to delay him losing consciousness, just so he could rub it in (and so this would be Kaku's last thought before passing out) that Paulie was upset with him?

Why would Zoro do this? Kaku is an enemy, and at this point in time Zoro didn't know Kaku was going to willingly give him his key (as in he thought he was going to have to take it off Kaku after he was unconscious), so why the hell did he not just knock him out right then and there and get the key? Zoro is pressed for time, because he needs to bring that key to Robin -- so why do this?

Perhaps Zoro is aware that there is more to Kaku than just being a backstabbing government assassin, and that he could have possibly still had a conscience at that time so he just really wanted to rub it in his face that Paulie directly fired him -- because he knew it would hurt.

"You guys... are fired."

'Paulie said that? Oh... what a mess' Kaku says as if he wasn't expecting that? Excuse me, sir?

Sure, okay, maybe he hadn't had the time to think about Paulie and all them dudes with all the shit he'd been dealing with, but honestly, what was he expecting? That Paulie wouldn't say that?

Of course not. Those words just had a lot of weight coming from Paulie, let's be real here. He knew that he was fired. He knew this whole thing would end up with him being fired eventually, so why is he so sad at the fact that Paulie fired him?

This, along with the "assassins can never find other work" leads me to think he knows he's done for. He will be stuck as an assassin until he dies, and that's just how it's going to be. I'm wondering, was he expecting to die here?

I'm curious -- who was it that told him that assassins couldn't find other work? Who is 'they'? Was it you, Kaku? Is he telling himself that?

Or was it someone like Lucci, who wanted to drill into his head that this is what he was 'meant' to do, and there was no going back for him, as if he can't ever redeem himself (praying on this y'all, please Oda PLEASE), just because Lucci wants Kaku on his side to be his partner in crime. Stupid Lucci. I hate that guy.

The next picture will be a little more focused on Zoro's reaction to Kaku rather than Kaku himself.

Again, here we go with those damn ellipses. They are starting to paint a better picture of how complex this could actually get, though, so I won't dog on them anymore.

Let's actually talk about that for a second -- the Oxford Dictionary defines an ellipsis as "the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues", and from a couple different sources ellipses in comics can be seen as "there is more to be said here, but you can figure it out because why not" or a character is thinking about something.

What is Zoro thinking about here? What's making him just stare at Kaku while he gets his key for him? Well, maybe Zoro wasn't expecting Kaku to just give him the key, so he's just... watching. Kaku is also laughing (at Zoro's zoo joke, for context), and if I was in his situation I very much wouldn't be, so that can be a bit confusing for Zoro as he might wonder why Kaku is being such a good sport.

This good sportsmanship displayed by Kaku could be giving Zoro a reason to believe in Kaku's complexity and ambiguity, along with Kaku giving him the key right before he passes out. Kaku really felt the need to give Zoro his key because he had earned it, yet Kaku wasn't killed to obtain it -- so this was Kaku's way of surrendering, and that is another reason why I think he was expecting this to be the end of the road.

Bonus to that:

Okay!! I'm done I'm done I'm done!!!!!!!!!!~ I talked a little more than I wanted to but that's okay because were onto EGGHEAD!!! WOO HOO!!!!

Part Three: Egghead

Reminder: MANGA Egghead -- ahead of the anime.

This part is going to be a bit unhinged because as I'm writing this Egghead JUST finished up (who's excited for Elbaf???? WOOP!!) and I have some STRONG feelings.

OK OK OK LET'S GET INTOOO ITTT!!

So Egghead starts and... and.. w-.. wait.

He's sitting on top of poor Sentomaru's battered body. This... this looks familiar.

Oh, that's why. That's weird. What a weird detail. Is this going to happen more in the future? Is this one of Kaku's weird things he does, just because?

Sidetracked, sorry. Anyway-

I'm going to start this off by saying that Lucci has definitely been getting on Kaku's nerves throughout the entirety of Egghead. Honestly, I understand. If I'd have to deal with stupid Lucci for as long as Kaku has I'd be pissed at him too.

It's okay, Kaku. You can kick his ass, I won't say anything.

But my point in bringing this up is that these little moments of Kaku being upset or annoyed with Lucci are building up to something much bigger. Kaku cannot catch a break, and in most of the scenes they're together in he's fed up with Lucci in some way.

Now let's talk about Kaku and Stussy.

He can say they aren't friends all he wants, but I beg to differ. We haven't necessarily seen a whole lot of CP0's interactions with each other outside of carrying out their missions, but there is an obvious connection between these two that I've grown fond of.

Kaku contemplating Stussy's 'Who do I live for?' is interesting -- he doesn't speak on this out loud, but clearly he's got something brewing in the ol' noggin.

This whole page is just wonderful. Also, I think that is the best face I have seen Kaku make. There's a lot to get into here.

So... I absolutely love that Stussy wanted to free Kaku, but what the hell does she mean by 'I know the first thing he'll do if he's released'?? Genuine question. I might have accidentally skimmed over something, because I'll admit I read egghead pretty fast (though I'm thinking about reading all of it a second time because there was just so much happening all at the same time that it got a little crazy) but I don't remember seeing anything else about what she thought Kaku was going to do.

Kaku was obviously not expecting Stussy to do this, as she was pretty much made their enemy because of her betrayal, but Edison's 'I'm sorry for making you betray that friendship' just makes me want to... like.. idk. Edison knew that Stussy and Kaku were good friends, which makes me think that Stussy has possibly talked about Kaku before to the Vegapunks?

I haven't really had a whole lot of time to think about this stuff so everything I say here I'm coming up with as I'm typing it -- it's more speculatory than the other sections.

I think Stussy asking to free Kaku is another case of rubbing salt into Kaku's wounds, albeit more indirect. Stussy cares about him, obviously, but I think what Edison said makes Kaku just do a reflection of his entire life.

Stussy betrayed Kaku, yet she still shows compassion for him because they were friends.

Kaku betrayed Paulie, but completely does the opposite of Stussy. He just completely cuts him off. Paulie and Kaku were friends. Stussy and Kaku are friends.

Despite being his 'enemy', Stussy wants the best for Kaku and tries to help him as best as she could.

This, I believe, makes Kaku do a 180. This situation with Stussy is what could have happened on Water 7 with Paulie, because if you guys remember, Paulie said he felt that Kaku and Lucci were still his friends, even after he'd witnessed CP9 beating up Iceberg.

That is why I think he looks so distressed after Edison apologizes for Stussy's betrayal to him, because he's betrayed his own friends multiple times now, and he's fully realized this isn't all that different from Water 7.

It sure does hurt to be the one betrayed, doesn't it? Now he knows how his buddies on Water 7 felt.

I also want to talk about Edison saying that Stussy's 'inner conflict is a calling card of humanity' (talking about having to choose between being on Kaku's side or being with the Vegapunks), and how Kaku has a little wobbly bubble with an ellipsis.

Has Kaku realized that having humanity might not be so bad? Cipher Pol agents, I'm assuming, aren't really supposed to have this concept of humanity, because they're supposed to be these almost superhuman monsters.

Or has he realized that he isn't like the other Cipher Pol agents, as he secretly does have a sense of humanity that he shoves down for the sake of being in CP0? If Lucci ever found out that Kaku really did have a sense of humanity he would probably deem him useless. However...

Lucci (for the first time ever, wow) shows compassion towards Kaku, being worried that Kaku would be killed in the midst of the chaos that was Egghead.

I always perceived Lucci to be the type to leave behind the wounded, as they weren't of use to him anymore, but he goes out of his way to ask Mars to spare Kaku, which was honestly very surprising. Maybe Lucci still has a speck of humanity in him. Perhaps there is hope.

You're seriously going to tell me that they aren't friends when they're both crying??

Also... do you know that one scene from Air Bud?? This scene between Kaku and Stussy reminded me of that the first time I read this chapter, lol.

Kaku is worried for Stussy's safety, as he knows that if Lucci finds her, he will kill her. And again with this -- what is Kaku going to do next?? I want to know, God dammit, JUST TELL ME!!

Is Kaku going to defy Lucci? Is he going to run away? TELL MEEEE!!

DUN DUN DUN!!!!!~~~

So Stussy is apparently dead, which, okay, when did that happen, and also, absolutely not, but why does Kaku look like he's seriously about to just unleash his rage on Lucci? Do it, please DO IT!! BEAT HIS ASS PLEASE. I HATE HIM SO. MUCH.

But the fact that he's resorted to talking in ellipses again with his face shaded, a huge frown and clenched fists is making me think that this is a breaking point for him. He's just so over Lucci and I would be too. Run, run for the hills Kaku!!!

Kaku's ellipsis bubble is also a teeny bit wobbly, and if you've ever read a comic you've probably noticed that the shape of the bubble pertains to the character's state, whether that be physical or mental, and their speech. But since he isn't talking, his wobbly bubble could mean (and I'm saying could because a lot of the bubbles in Egghead are misshapen, so take this with a grain of salt, this is just what I like to think) that his mental state is, well, not great.

So with a (presumably) dead friend, a long time of growing exasperation towards Lucci, and an already unstable mental state, I really hope Kaku can realize that a line has been crossed, so it's his turn to act.

So now, it's time for the conclusion.

Basically, I just want Kaku to be a good guy. He's so complex and I already like him so much as a character, and I would like him even more if he jumped to the other side. I feel that he's already halfway there. I hope that there might be some sort of redemption in store for Kaku and I will scream if it comes true. You might not think so, but I can dream!!

Anyways, that's my two cents! Or rather... my fifty cents.. or my dollar. That was a lot. Thanks so much for reading!

#one piece #kaku one piece #water 7 #enies lobby #egghead #cp9 #long post #really long post #one piece kaku #one piece cp9 #manga #kaku op

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atiny-for-life · 1 month ago

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Xikers Full Storyline Explained - Part 3

Masterlist

BREATHE

Opening note: Regarding chronology, everything is slowly getting a teensy bit convoluted so stay with me for a second. This MV takes place after Witch (where they were first roped in by TRICKY) and shortly before Bittersweet (where they used their powers on a TRICKY-assigned mission for the first time). In this video, we get to see Xikers get possessed by the dokkaebi , which means they're receiving their powers as well. In a way, it thus also takes place during Rockstar as that MV provided a broad overview of this entire timespan - from first getting chosen to receiving their powers.

We start out with Hunter in a phone booth on which a green sign has been taped, which reads: "Breathe, breathe, breathe / You need to breathe, breathe"

It's a section from the chorus as we'll hear later.

The line is dead as Hunter hangs up and exits, though he barely manages a few steps into the neon-lit alley before the sound blurs as a new presence appears behind him.

Someone's there, resting his arm on Hunter's back. It's Minjae and his eyes are abnormally light - he's currently possessed by a dokkaebi.

The brief contact seemingly leaves a sensation in Hunter's chest, though he doesn't seem to pick up on what happened. He touches his torso, looks down at himself, the alley around him now empty.

Minjae already disappeared.

We get a close up on Hunter as his expression shifts, growing emotionless before the screen glitches to show us images of masked faces. It's clear: he's now possessed too.

Side note: This seems to prove my prior theory that some of the members didn't wholly choose this path but were rather recruited by the others. TRICKY clearly picked the ten of them specifically as avatars in Rockstar, but they weren't all immediately possessed - there was an order to it.

The instrumental opening of the song kicks in as Hunter begins playing around with his newfound powers, conjuring up smoke and blue fire before he randomly dunks his head into a fish-less, yet water filled fish tank in the alley.

We cut to Junmin in an ambulance where we briefly take on the POV of one of his patients, only to quickly find out this is no regular ambulance.

Alongside him, Hunter and Seeun are working on stabilizing Jinsik and Yujun who seem to be dealing with respiratory failure of some kind - potentially a side-effect of getting possessed.

Though, as we know, once possessed, the value of a human life seems to be less meaningful to them, so these wannabe doctors are goofing around with musical instruments instead of making actual full attempts at resuscitation.

But don't worry, they'll all be fine - and perhaps they were just playing all along anyway.

After panning up and tearing through a hot air balloon with Minjae's face on it, we join the real Minjae in yet another alleyway where he, too, seems to now become fully aware of his newfound powers (which means this happened before we saw him with Hunter in the alley in the opening sequence).

Blue lightning now crackles around his hands, and in typical Xikers fashion, he immediately starts using it to make his dancing look cooler as he swaggers down the alley, letting the lightning flow along his body down to his feet where it spreads across the pavement.

As he heads onward, he begins zapping his surroundings with lightning, including this mannequin in a shop window which has a rib cage inside?? (That's either mad attention to detail by the manufacturer or someone hid the torso of a corpse in there - someone should check on that.)

We switch to Seeun who's dragging a 10kg hammer down yet another alley, leaving behind a glowing crack in the asphalt.

I'm starting to feel for the mayor of this city who'll have to deal with all the property damage complaints the next day.

Meanwhile, Hunter has figured out how to use his smoke-based powers to fly.

Cut to Hyunwoo in a mannequin storage room.

The line "Even in the dark, clear aim at you - sniping" is sung as we see him in someone's crosshair - perhaps another Namoo/government drone like the one Sumin smashed in Bittersweet to overcome his fear.

Hyunwoo hurries to the back of the room to hide, only to get even more green lasers aimed at his heart and lungs - there's no hiding.

Meanwhile, in another area of the room, Junghoon and Yujun keep trading places seamlessly as they rap in front of a full-body mirror.

"Yeah, can't figure it out? Feeling breathless? Feeling frustrated? But what can you do?" - these lyrics seem to be a hint toward TRICKY's state of mind and the way it lured the members into accepting its offer in HOUSE OF TRICKY #1.

Y'know, the way it reinforced their self-doubts and sense of abandonment at the hands of their peers, the way it kept affirming that, yes, they are different and they don't belong into this world.

Here we can see that strategy translate through the words of the dokkaebi.

This interpretation takes on even more validity in the next scene in which we see a being with Hunter's face looming like a giant over the alleyway from which the real Hunter, currently unpossessed, looks up with fear in his eyes.

This behavior, this intimidation tactic, has previously only been expressed by TRICKY itself in its own realm. It loves to make itself huge so it can feel powerful and like a puppeteer.

What this tells me is that the dokkaebi spirits aren't self-driven - they're being entirely controlled by TRICKY, they're like an extension of it, and once possessed, TRICKY can control Xikers themselves just as easily.

This is what TRICKY meant all along when it spoke of them like game pieces.

During the chorus, we see Xikers in front of what I can only describe as a huge hot-rod engine-looking thing with a bunch of curved exhaust pipes rising up and pointing toward the camera.

Throughout, we also occasionally cut upwards, first to Junghoon then Junmin, both swinging by on a wrecking ball (standing up, mind you, not Miley Cyrus style).

We then move on to Sumin's rap verse during which the lighting shifts to green and the members are replaced with gas masks on poles as the room slowly begins filling with smoke.

Next up is Yechan's rap verse during which he begins climbing through the same miniature city we first saw Sumin in a moment ago.

He raps about feeling possessed, going crazy 24/7 and how he's been running till his shoes fell off before he says something that stuck with me: "Someone stop me, this is chaos / If I keep going like this, I'll faint".

It seems he's starting to pick up on the true dangers of accepting TRICKY's offer, and on how little the dokkaebi care about the health of the bodies they're in.

And as he's saying all this, we briefly see him in yet another alley where he receives his fire powers which he later uses to burn down the miniature city, signifying the destructive power of the dokkaebi once again.

During Jinsik's part in the next chorus, we see him in an alley with a translucent blue wall reminiscent of entering a new zone in a video game.

He let's himself drop through and, after another cut away to the choreo, we get to see what (or rather who) was waiting for him on the other side: Junmin.

His image shatters on the screen before the camera takes us through a tunnel of criss-crossing blood vessels and back to the "engine" room where the choreography sequence continues.

I personally believe this tells us that Junmin was the first one possessed by the dokkaebi and, by willingly crossing through the barrier, Jinsik became the second and it all spiralled from there.

After this, we get a cute shot of the youngest members (minus Yujun) eating ice cream before Junghoon transitions us to the final segment of the song.

Our final shot is of all ten members in the alley surrounded by slightly pixelated blue flames - 10 avatars acquired - reality has now blended with the world of video games, just like TRICKY has been longing for all along.

#xikers #xikers lore #Minjae #Junmin #Sumin #Jinsik #Hyunwoo #Hunter #Junghoon #Seeun #Yujun #Yechan #breathe mv #house of tricky: spur

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theluckygroundhog · 21 days ago

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★Who We Are Under These Stars ★ Series Masterpost

because i didn't plan to get this far and now I need to organize it

Top features of this series: sonadow! disabled Shadow! Sonic having emotional intelligence (?!) Sparring that looks like murder attempts! The wild trust dynamics I've imbued into these hedgehog's beings! Sleepy (and cuddling) hedgehogs!

Reading/Chronological Order:

"You Hold My Life In Your Hands (But Never Take It)" (+doodle of the following morning) ->"Yet You Save Me Without Hesitation" (bonus scene of #1, read when it makes sense to you)

"A Shared Cup of Chamomile" (~a week after end #1)

...and more to come!

Some people have noted they interpret my fics as them being a QPR, to which I say: good! >:)

I am 100% down with ppl interpretting them as queer platonic or romantic. its like choose your own adventure (yes, even if they kiss or smth.)

Playlist!!! ↓

Background info that is canon to the series

aka hcs I can make canon bc this is my story >:)

Things otherwise no stated can be assumed to be aligned with game/idw canon

Shadow came out the tube NOT grown. although this period was very short due to his accelerated aging, it reinforced Shadow and Maria's relationship with him being her baby brother, even if around the ARK raid, he was probably a bit older mentally. He lived on the ARK a few years.

Shadow knows basic medical practice, it is innate to him the same way he came out the tube speaking language.

SHADOW IS DISABLED!! His airshoes are mobility aids. Without them, he has poor control of his legs, so the shoes correct his balance and gait. Additionally, they powered by his Chaos energy and redirect some into his legs. He mainly controls his legs with Chaos energy rather than with his muscles. Without his inhibitors, he would be chronically fatigued.

Sonic technically doesn't live at Tails' house, but there is space reserved for him, and he very regularly crashes there, especially when it's too cold to sleep outdoors (Tails keeps saying he will catch a cold, Sonic doesn't always listen)

Sonic and Tails are brothers. I mean. They canonically are. But, yknow. It means a lot to me.

SONIC CAN COOK! Shadow can NOT. Sonic has traveled the world and raised a child (Tails). Shadow was raised on frozen astronaut meals or smth and his mood chronically too low to cook.

Maria was hispanic (from her mom's side) therefore so is Shadow. This is never mentioned in the fics but whatever.

(also irrelevant) English and Japanese was spoken on the ARK, so Shadow knows both. He also knows Spanish through Maria and Russian from Gerald.

Shadow has PTSD and is diagnosed, but little is done for that bc: so far his body has proven resistant to medication, and he doesn't really invest time into treatment.

SHADOW HAS FREQUENT NIGHTMARES. This is a driving factor of the story. Even on nights he doesn't have them, he has insomnia, or will purposefully avoid sleeping.

SONIC ALSO DOESN'T SLEEP. Again, a driving plot point. He has Restless Leg Syndrome and insomnia (and ADHD).

Their Chaos energy is linked, meaning they can almost always find each other, for better or worse.

My fics are post-Shadow Gens, but where else on the timeline is ambiguous. If it means anything, I have in mind this is a few years past SA2, Sonic and Shadow are about 19.

Now, finally, I will yap about my aroace hcs readers don't need to adopt but are obviously shining through my fics anyhow:

As a behind-the-curtain/out of universe look into how I write them I generally consider Sonic to be gray-biromantic asexual and Shadow to be demi-homoromantic asexual. In-universe, I think Shadow has never touched a label in his life, and Sonic is either unlabeled by choice or uses a general term like queer (mayyybe asexual? broadly?)

You can also hc them to experience NO romantic attraction and I think that is also a great way to interpret them. Or use your usual hcs. I really don't mind, and it's not like I would know 🤷

#this post will update #and i'll prolly clean it up later #i call this my eepy hedgehogs series in my mind #sonadow #who we are under these stars au #shadow the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog #my fics #i wonder how much could be assumed about me by looking at how i write these hogs #probably a lot #Spotify

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katyspersonal · 5 months ago

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I was struggling with Nox timeline lore but @swallowtail-ageha kicked my ass and we actually concluded some things thanks to her insights!!

We've noticed that it is strange how Nox seem to be extremely ancient, considering Shamans and Nox are Numen both, and Tail said the cultural split between them could have happened waaaaay back then! Like SO long ago, that by the time Marika and her people migrated into Lands Between (Shadow Land has not always been severed from Lands Between!), Nox were already banished underground and a lost culture that anyone could only try to recover the bits from!

I definitely believe this, especially with how strange it is that Erdtree people sent scouts to search Eternal Cities:

If Marika was so closely familiar with Nox, also Numen, how comes the practices of Eternal Cities are such a mystery? If you are familiar with Bloodborne, it all feels VERY similar to the Pthumerians! They are ancient superhumans, whose civilization fell and very few still live amongst humans (Logarius case in point), but prior game events Byrgenwerth and then Healing Church started searching the Dungeons, the underground ruins of Pthumerian civilizations! Because they wanted their lost knowledge about messing with Gods and aliens! This is extremely similar to how Erdtree got interest in Eternal Cities!

Tail also says Nox are probably THE first Numen to arrive to Lands Between, and they presumably were able to settle after Ancient Dynasty became weak and more scarce, presumably because of Scarlet Rot as there is a lake in Eternal City? Rauh possibly existed at a similar time! Moreover, Blue Dancer, titular God of Rot enemy, is from Rauh ( x ), and since we find tail of God of Rot (Scorpion Stinger) at the Lake of Rot he (?) was killed all the way back then before Eternal Cities were cast underground! But maybe despite the "victory", everything was just too drained to go on? Or maybe someone from the Nox who arrived killed God of Rot that first time? (God of Rot is basically "how many times do we have to teach you old man" joke)

So, Shamans were definitely a much later wave of migration! The last one, in fact!

^^^ Marika's age at the time of the arrival is not certain, only that she arrived, not was born within Shamans! And yet by then Nox were a lost culture banished underground, that could not exactly just spread the knowledge about their discovery of not trusting Two Fingers! But I also think the hunches of their discoveries had survived, and, in fact, it were Hornsent who first tried to seek and recover Nox knowledge!

^^^ It is not like they are strangers to researching the remnants of ancient civilizations! And I just really doubt that Ancient Civilization and Rauh had to be very far apart from each other chronologically!

Their religious beliefs are heavily based on the idea of reaching "the gods", which is not far away from what Nox were doing! "The gods" might mean Greater Will or hypothetical plane of reality where Outer Gods come from! They created Divine Gates to have a God amongst them that maybe could communicate with the Outer Gods, they had lion dancers that channeled the Divine Beast believed to live in that "heaven", Curseblades are failed attempts to make a divinity.. but also, there were Jolan and Anna, and Jar Innards.

Jolan and Anna were born at one of the gaols and raised to become "swordhands of Night", that just strongly feels like trying to get "Black Knives at home"! At the same time, Shamans are considered the "key ingredient" in Jar Innards that are also attempts at creating a "saint"! The rest of the bodies chopped and shoved in tend to be their fellow Hornsent that were convicted. So maybe there was more to it than disdain to those who didn't have horns? Such as belief that specifically using Numen, whose species is said to have attracted the attention of Greater Will itself and who arrived from "another world" could finally get them to "heaven"?

Basically, Hornsent religious researchers might have discovered bits and pieces of Nox history and figured that they kind of "had a point" in trying to mess with powers beyond their comprehension! So they just.... decided that Nox probably just did something wrong, and if THEY try to do a failed thing again then maybe NOW it will work out? You know, how history never teaches people anything and when they see an idea or society that historically failed their reaction is just "let's try that, WE won't fail". XD Hornsent admittedly did use different methods and didn't seem to try and harm Two Fingers but instead just wanted to doxx them (and other Outer Gods?) as opposed to sitting and waiting for their choices, but the root is similar!

But then, much later, there is a possibility that the history was meant to repeat itself TWICE:

Erdtree people also saw that Hornsent were actually doing something interesting, and who knows, maybe this is the reason for sending people to search Eternal Cities? After all, the Altar Radagon used to cleanse memories of his war crimes might have just been a remain of Eternal City that stuck out, like the ruins found in Liurnia! Not to mention Nokstella is literally under Liurnia! But it was only later when they tried to actually figure out what Nox were doing with that "reaching gods" thing?

So, basically, Nox must have already been a history by the time even Hornsent populated Shadow Land, let alone the time when Marika and her tribe arrived! And when Nox themselves arrived, they kind of territorially replaced Ancients!

#elden ring #elden ring theory #elden ring headcanons #elden ring observation

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emcapi-gaming · 2 months ago

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Ardwin's poetry

An attempt I made (first four a while ago, last one today) to write some poetry from Ardwin's perspective about the people she loves/has loved.

(If you can guess who all of them are about, you get a cookie; as a hint, they're in mostly chronological order. Answers and author commentary under the cut. I'll also post on AO3 in a minute.)

I. Fire

Wild thing, bright spark, not quite tame but here with me, my campfire, my hearth.

I need you. I will always need you.

Wherever I go, so do you. Wherever you go, I am home.

Your heart keeps me warm, wards the ice from my skin, soothes the ache from my back when the sky grows too heavy.

Tell the hungry things that lurk: we are not theirs to devour. Let me keep you burning. I will let you keep me safe.

II. Volcano

First, I thought you were a mountain. One more peak to climb and conquer. Beauty, danger, thrill and challenge. I ignored the warning signs: your heart held nothing but destruction.

And so: catastrophe.

The mountain, gone. The city, in ruins. The skies, all ash and fire.

Despite everything, I still yearned for the climb. Forgive me, if I still mourn for the mountain.

III. Inferno

Another self-same spark, taken root among drought and decay. Your love: overwhelming, consuming, uncontrollable. All the fiercer for how long I have refused you.

You were the only salvation left for me. My heart: neglected, choked, overgrown. Weighed down and tangled up, forgetting how to live.

You know what I need. Burn me down. Take me apart. Only through the ash can I begin to grow again.

IV. Star

Light born from a cradle of darkness, fearless, piercing through. Flickering, sometimes hidden, but persisting. A miracle beyond compare. When I first saw you, I was lost. I followed you and found my way. Now, you are too far to touch, but I have reached the stars before. I know it can be done again. Just a little longer, love; I’ll find my way back to you.

V. Spark

Sparks fly at our first touch: blinding, our hands brush, snap our circuit closed, trade high to low, and I understand how you’ve endured. But now, bottled lightning, break your glass. Retake the sky.

Answers for who's who:

I. Fire: Ardbert

II. Volcano: Zenos

III. Inferno: Fray

IV. Star: Zero

V. Spark: Arkose

Would Ardwin actually try to write poetry? Probably not. Most of her creative drive goes into crafting (BSM/ARM and CUL). She does very faithfully keep a journal, but it's closer to a bullet journal/log than a diary, mostly practical with only incidental emotional commentary.

Individual poem/relationship notes:

Ardbert: Pretty self-explanatory, for the most part, I think. (Blink-and-you-miss-it Atlas imagery go brrr. Would have been a good Azem name, but I wanted something a little more unique and Arkadios fit well too.)

Zenos: Debatable whether that whole thing qualifies as "love" in the same way as the other ones. This is definitely only something she'd write much later, after the fact; it takes her a while to come to terms with her complicated feelings about him.

Fray: ...I keep mentally referring to the weird as hell dynamic between Ardwin and her version of Fray as "Fray's Combo Questionable BDSM/Bootleg Therapy." Ardwin is so fucked up by the end of EW that she reacts to people trying to make her Talk About Her Feelings by lashing out (sometimes verbally, sometimes physically) like a wounded animal in a trap, Fray fixes her by dragging her through it kicking and screaming (often literally), they make out about it sometimes because Ardwin is Selfcest Georg. Yeah.

Zero: When they first met, Ardwin was improving but still like 40-50% fucked up, and got really emotionally attached to her in a slightly unhealthy way. She put Zero on a bit of a pedestal and also thought of her in terms of the whole dark knight "person I'm dedicated to protecting" role. (This, inevitably, wound up backfiring somewhat when Zero pulled her stunt with the Wall of Light, and Ardwin had such a bad panic attack she thought she was dying.) The subsequent magical-girl paladin transformation was a big turning point for Ardwin that went a long way towards fixing her general tendency towards being overprotective, and the time apart has helped soothe a lot of the lingering hurt feelings from the Light stunt. But also the second they get that hourglass working, Ardwin WILL be going to visit her girlfriend.

(Side note: it's a really good thing that Ardwin got over so much of the overprotective tendencies, because if she was like that with Arkose, they would have found her completely fucking insufferable and probably wanted to kill her.)

Arkose: Think I mentioned this in the previous lore post about Arkose and Eutrope's history, but they did have literal sparks, because soul shards/reflections where one has imbalanced aether can temporarily balance each other out by touching. I also mentioned in that post how they felt extremely trapped in Solution 9 and the Heritage Found lightning dome. Getting to get out of the dome and actually see the real sky for the first time in their life has been a Huge Fucking Deal for them.

It's interesting that this poem wound up being a lot more structured than the others. Part of that, I think, is from me writing it so much later than the other poems, and I just felt like it. Though if you want to go full literary-analysis, you can also look at the stronger structure as a reflection of Ardwin's mental state. She's gone through so much recovery since Endwalker and she's doing fantastic lately.

#ardwin tag #ardwin lore #once again i have Rambled. sorry not sorry.#my writing

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imkazz · 5 months ago

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finished saiki k and i am not coping well

yeahh i get why they said theres no development until the last 2 episodes. because i have thoughts. more than i had for season 2 or season 1.

@peapodsinspace ing because this isnt from discord and i was freaking out with you real time when i was watching loll

cannot believe this is only about three episodes. how is this just three???? im just going to go in chronological order and hope for the best and barely proofread loll

the future talks. ohhh i am ill about the future talks. saiki kusuo has more pressing matters than his future and it kills me every time. because he cant focus on himsef- there is an active volcano that he has always been rewinding time for. he cannot have the time to think about university or a future career until this is all over, which is so unlike me (a normal teenager) that it makes me ill because this is what a normal teenager should be thinking about, not the fucking country that you have to save by yourself. and at least i was so happy that they were crowding around kusuos desk until they started talking about the very future that he has to save, and then i was even happier to hear that kuboyasu and hairo want to become teachers because those types of characters always kill me (despite the fact that the anime also made fun on the fact that it is a trope too) and they are both really good picks from the gang to actually become them. i also enjoyed the quiz game they did to guess kusuos college- teruhashi was the only one to get a ‘hm good guess’ out of kusuo, and his chosen places are literally ‘economics’ ‘literature’ ‘literature’ and the fact that everyone said “thats so normal”in distaste implies that they believe that kusuo could do better. and then THIS.

and the fact kusuo thinks “maybe this could go on forever…” with a smile on his face???? like my dude you are wayy too attached to them noww..

ok so it seems i might even just. be doing a paragraph per episode. now.

the robot?? i agree with what i said my first watch: WHY IS THE SAIKI FAMILY SO DEPENDANT ON GENERATIVE AI AND ROBOTS. i wasnt sure which one it would do- if it would fool all his friends or if it would be too suspicious for them. but i was dead wrong- it says ‘yare yare’ too many times and it is obviously saiki kusuo in the flesh (get it?). i was growing more concerned (and out of breath from laughing) at all the shenanigans that happened along with how kusuo attempted to get rid of it, showing a bit more of his battle iq and intelligence along with his relationships with the other psychics, through his quick strategizing along with utilising his abilities to help in specific situations, along with the relationships he has cumulated with them in order to get them to trust him and follow his word when serious times arise. not only that, but kusuke gets additional information about all of that along with us the audience because he is also a part of the audience (my brain hurts from some of this stuff).

then for the battle. i am illllllll. so. for many many episodes, we have watched kusuo try and make plans to avoid his friends in all sorts of situations. but this bit? its golden. he finds a disadvantage from not knowing what toritsuka has been doing all week, and that temporarily weakens him until he comes up with a new plan on the given information he knows and has pieced together himself, and then used it to get his body back. then not only that, he begins to fight without his limiter. and we know its hard even with the limiter!! we watched him struggle to throw balls, and then practice to ensure that he could control his strength. amazing already, but then he begins to turn a bad situation into something favourable especially with toritsuka in the mix. because both saiki brothers are smart af. even if toritsuka isnt of use, kusuke reuses him as a hostage and then when that doesnt work, himself and the limiter (all things important to kusuo). kusuo is able to put together that the bomb was fake because kusuke spoke for too long and he remembered aiuras word and trusts her power.

and then the battle plan is so smart?? kusuo is able to use his disadvantages as advantages (teleportation doesnt need the 3 minute cooldown), and then purposefully drained his strength to be able to pick up the limiter and put it back into his head without breaking it. he could read toritsukas mind and realised that he didnt actually hate kusuo (i found how this was shown as really cool too? instead of the background it was soft shapes and colours implying friendliness as it showed both of them). he made enough of a friendship with toritsuka to get him not to hate him even after being brainwashed. kusuo dragged out the battle to try and gauge what the cat tank could do. AND HES SEVENTEEN. what shocked me further was the fact that he took out the limiter. which he thought would reveal his powers to the world. sure its an asshole thing of kusuke to say/do to kusuo but he at least disabled it a long time ago. but im more focused on kusuo. he took it out. he took it out. thats HUGE. he really thought he would be letting go of normalcy and never be able to go to school without being worshipped. and he did it on his own terms. i was so happy to see how he was smiling and happy thinking about his friends too.. like kusuo was happy with the time he spent with them as a normal kid. but then he was so ready to blast them with full power after both of their comments lolll. and i also found it interesting how kusuke took off his telepathy blocker when explaining why he disabled it so that his brother could know he was telling the truth. and the fact that they moved past the fact that kusuke made a limiter that completely erases kusuos powers?!??!?! and i was confused when toritsuka and kusuo moved past it so easily but. thank fuck they revisited that tidbit???? what made me sadder was the fact that kusuo wanted it so badly, and yet couldnt. because of the volcano. it was good foreshadowing when kusuo thought ‘move forwards.. theyre right. i should clean this up quickly’ in the first part of the episode and then to have this too.. the emotional turmoil is too much. on one hand he could get rid of powers he hates and yet he still has to save the world which he has been putting on hold because he needs more power. like yeah please kill me now, especially that last interaction between toritsuka and kusuo. like yeah hes fake mad at toritsuka at first but then he has to give his genuine thanks because there was no way kusuo would have won if it was just himself, as toritsuka was a key part of the battle from his new powers to his status as a hostage to the fact he broke past the brainwashing.

and when they finally start planning that trip (callback to the first segment of episode one!!) and they decide upon the place where an active volcano has tried to blow up for four years. absolute madlads. kusuo diverted them at first but its a comedy anime too- ofc they are going to oshimai.

and everyone asking why he cant go is hillarious too.. “what plans do you have?” “im sure its nothing important!” ‘im saving the world?!’ yeahhh he has to go, because he cares. he doesnt want them to cancel what they think is their last fun time together before third year. its not because his mom forced him. its because he loves them. the cumulation of four years with these losers has made kusuo soft for them.

when they actually get to oshimai, i would have loved to watch their shenanigans. im sure they are chaos incarnate while on a play date with each other, but i really liked how the anime showed the tension that kusuo had. even as the rest of them were having lighthearted conversations, there was always a pit in my stomach as kusuo continued to refer to the mountain and was generally downcast while the group did all of those activities i would have previously have laughed at if it was not for the huge threat right there and despite the fact that kusuo looks the same as always (silent, in the background, neutral face) i felt nervous because he had said so just barely a minute ago and hadnt mentioned again. its shown through the way he allowed teruhashi to do as she pleased, how he would look at the mountain constantly, not say anything mentally to the audience.. it was offputting and really set the vibes. his face reflected in the window, with owari yama right there too? perfect way to end the segment.

i found it clever how saiki used a previous part to help him: the robot. he now knows that nobody suspects anything if he just says ‘yare yare’ and he now uses this with his hypnosis (seen in many episodes, such as s1 ep 24) to mesh together a perfect stand in (according to his friends OOF). and then he uses the clones (from s2 ep22) to help with the eruption (s2 ep13). not only that, his plan is pretty good. he has already used toritsuka as a stand in (when kusuo turned kaido and nendo into stone) and then aiura has already helped him with a previous eruption which he had to turn back time on. it was also a callback to kusuo in the previous episode: no way kusuo would have asked kusuke for help on how to solve the volcano problem if they had not cleared some things up after the fight, and no way would he have if there was no power canceller, and no way if the limiter being pulled would still tell the world about his powers. this is a big climax towards things that the plot has been working towards, and it is a mix of everything: many specific instances, his training, previous lore, character development, his friends and family, kusuos priorities, his emotional stances. they all played some sort of part in his plan to enable time to move forwards.

i was concerned to see him beat up (because looookkk hes just two years older than mee and also pretty oppp) but i was so fuckin pumped that time was moving forwards and he was also pretty happy, given the smile. and the joy immediately left. because everyone showed up, and then to show that alternate universe where things were almost the same but slightly different?? and the fact that kusuo literally told all of them about his powers because he knew he could go back in time and erase all of that? its killing me because he did that because he knew he could experiment for a reaction and then erase it as if nothing actually happened. and it really seems like theres no getting out of it right. his friends saw him, they see the clones, they see toritsuka faking as kusuo, they see the real kusuo holding the ground and preventing the eruption. theres no lying to get out of it. but the same as i thought from the shipwrecked episodes, of course saiki kusuo gets out of it. kaido realises it too and he just wants the truth because he trusts kusuo so much. its been there since the beginning, how much kaido cares about saiki and wants him to be happy because kusuo has made kaido happy, and how much kaido values their friendship. he has always wanted kusuo to remain safe and happy and to be friends with each other.. we see how the rest of them just want kusuo to tell the truth, because they will love him no matter what. and it was shown through the alternate timeline, too, how they dont care about the powers, even if they dont understand, that they know kusuo and know that he has their best interests in mind because he is their friend. and somehow its nendo who is the reasonable one, we have seen him be kind and understanding towards both kusuo and others at so many instances but it is this one that touches kusuo because nendo has always been there for him, throughout all sorts of situations. sure he is dumb, but nendos strength is not athletics. it is his kindness.

then the fact that everyone agrees with him.. theres no way this is a comedy anime. this is a slice-of-life coming-of-age angst/horror anime which has comic relief. it was shown through the alternate timeline, too, how they dont care about kusuos powers, even if they dont understand, that they know kusuo and know that he has their best interests in mind because he is their friend. and he knows that even if it is a different timeline, that they would still remain the same in the stance. so he speaks. with his mouth. its huge!! his eyes are shiny because this is absolute confirmation that they would love him even if they knew that about him, because he has given them the same treatment- he has seen a huge part of them that they dont share, and he still loves them, so the opposite is also true. ..but he cant share it yet, not until his powers are gone of course. and it makes sense, of course. if i was one of his friends, i would prefer learning about that after his powers are gone- and this is a decision he is sure about. kusuos powers have caused him so much suffering. while he has many typical teenager traits, he is all in all, incredibly different due to his enlarged responsibilities over himself and the world. sure, his powers have helped him in many situations, but for kusuo, the bad outweigh the good and this has been his ultimate goal for a very long time. while removing his powers will not get rid of the weirdness surrounding him, it will get rid of a lot of the pain and stress. and i was so fucking excited when hairo said that kusuo called everyone over- because we the audience know what will be happening. and it would definitely be for the best, as kusuo really wants to apologise for many of the things that happened because of his powers.

and then the fucking window.

then this is why im very happy for the watch order to be posted. because this cliffhanger is too much without reawakened episode 6.

i find it so funny that while kusuo has lost his powers, that he still has the ability to break the fourth wall. when asked if his delusions are the same as kaido in middle schooler syndrome, he has to reply with an “absolutely not”. i love how he is feeling the effects of losing his powers. he has relied on his powers as another limb his entire life, and they are suddenly gone. even if they are overall bad, he still used them daily and isnt used to life without it because he was forced to live with it previously, meaning that he would find some use through the disadvantages. i also really liked how while kusuo could very blatantly feel the loss, he could also appreciate the beauties of normal life. actually be able to see his friends rather than just a skeleton, probably have a peaceful sleep, any of those powers he couldnt turn off have finally done so and he has a lot less weight as a result. it is really interesting to watch him try and get out of situations he would have previously avoided using his powers, as he has to rely on his own intuition and chance rather than himself and his abilities.

but it is an anime, and god hates him, so kusuo is stuck with teruhashi on their project. he sees the disadvantages everywhere- things that normal people are used to but he is not, and it seems like good representation for disability- having something and then suddenly having it gone, so you are only left with routines that are no longer possible because you are missing a key component. and not only that, there are hinders towards kusuos journey.

he gets a fucking bookshelf toppled over onto him. huhhhhhh???? would you really go so far as to kill a kid for accidentally becoming partners with a girl for one school project?? and i was also confused until i saw nendo- in all his glory. seriously, this guy is insanely good at protecting people without a single thought beforehand (he has to get it from his dad right). and not only that, we watch toritsuka and kuboyasu against the bullies- two people insanely good at beating people up. this is a great place to show some character development- nendo gives a speech to kusuo about how even the strongest can need protecting, and it is shown with how nendo instinctively went to protect him from the bookcase and toritsuka/kuboyasu went to beat up the ones who caused it.. finally kusuo himself can get protected by his friends. because he isnt used to it in the slightest. he desperately wanted to get rid of the powers without fully realising how much he relied on them for daily life. even in dangerous situations he would subconsciously rely on powers he doesnt have anymore, and he even realises it and doubts his decision. but nendo comes in and saves it and i find that very precious and important to kusuo to realise that he doesnt always have to be the overpowered one because there are people around him who still care regardless.

but it doesnt last. he cannot even get used to having no powers because they come back only two days later. the way it was presented was pretty cool, too, with how kusuos hand made an indent into the wall from where he slammed it, to the thought bubble from kusuke. and i also thought the way the dawning horror was shown was pretty cool. the purple and blue spirals towards a terrified kusuo without his limiters or glasses, at night, while kusuke continues talking and says that kusuo has evolved past being human in order to control his powers? yeah terrifying, i felt the horror in me too. because how long had he been evolving for? if hed gotten rid of the powers faster, would it have worked? if he hadnt spent so long on the volcano, could he be normal? was he ever actually normal? was it only recently since his body had changed to adapt? because with his body, kusuo relies on his powers. it could be compared to another heart, or a limb. his body needs powers because that is what they are used to. eyes that see through skin, a brain that can hear thoughts, muscles that are used to carrying boulders.. the list goes on and it shows that he has no choice but to use powers, as his mind has always been on fixing problems using parts of him that he has always had, his own biology has been on that. yeah psychological horror much.

the fact that it doesnt work. being told to live normally and peacefully without thinking about his powers doesnt work. because kusuo is far too used to them, he doesnt even think before using them for the little things in daily life such as opening the door or pushing in his seat. its like a papercut on your finger and only then do you realise how much you use that finger all the time- he doesnt realise it until its too late. and then he continues to remain ignorant until it actually happens, such as clairvoyance and new (useless) powers forming. he is already too used to it that he uses them without realising, because that was his normal. kusuo can also realise this with his dawning terror at each thing that happens with his power, with the foreboding patterns with dark colours and his horrified face. he is trying so hard to deny it because even if there are good things that come with his powers, ultimately, they cause him suffering. but it doesnt even fucking work.

its really sad to see him accidentally use powers, as they come back swiftly. kusuo is trying so hard to deny his symptoms but there is really no use: the illness is back. he teleported home, used clairvoyance, talked using telepathy, went invisible, used psycokinesis, saw through someone.. theres too many to deny that his powers are back. but kusuke asks valid questions: did anything good happen without them? and the answer is kusuo thinking about the bookshelf incident. because there are both good and bad things from it, he had to get protected and was weakened by the fact he couldnt see it coming, but it was good to know that so many people are willing to protect him. but then theres a fucking meteor. its also a manipulative thing for kusuke to do, asking that question and then thrusting a natural disaster upon his brother going through an existential crisis. because kusuo has a choice to make. he could try and suppress the powers even further and live a normal life until the end and let kusuke deal with it as that is the path that he chose. or kusuo could accept that the powers are a part of him and that people will still love him regardless, and make the choice to save the world and possibly never live normally again. and its a shitty situation all around. a seventeen year old should not have to make such a choice.

and yet he has to. because kusuo can hear his friends pleading for help, their fear, their reactions, confusion. kusuo knows he cannot have his father do something of this scale, or let his brother do something like that to their dad. he cant let the meteor hit earth because everyone he loves is there. kusuo was always one to complain verbally(mentally) about shit he gets wrapped up in, but from the context clues and his actions throughout the series, he has shown just how much he cares and tries to help even with how much he drags his feet and complains and insults. because all kusuo wants is for his friends to be happy, and to live normally. but those two things cannot coexist, at least not for long. and then he smiled. he chooses their happiness, because that is the kind of person kusuo is. he has said that he is a psychic in so many situations and for so many reasons, but at the start and end of the series, it is the same ten words.

“so my life of peace is over, but i feel that is not so bad after all.. perhaps i like to deal with hassles after all. yare yare. my name is saiki kusuo. and i am a psychic.”

#the disaster of psi kusuo saiki #saiki kusou no psi nan #saiki no psi nan #the disastrous life of saiki k #saiki kusuo #kusuo saiki #saiki #psychic kusuo #saiki k #saiki kusuo no psi nan #my brain cannot comprehend masterpieces #but i tried #i dumped this over 3 hours folks #i am in love if you cant tell #saiki kusuo deserves so many coffee jelly guys #my brain is mush

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mumms-the-word · 1 year ago

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The Shadow Curse Events

If you haven’t already, please enjoy my unnecessarily long totally not me avoiding writing an actual dissertation irl thorough deep dives into Ketheric Thorm and the Shadow Curse!

They are…well, very long, but I wanted to incorporate in-game texts and conversations to give an overall “lore-finding” feel to each post as I was working my way through theories and ideas about how these events unfolded in more or less chronological order.

Each post is written with an attempt to combine elements of in-game books, letters, and conversations with my reasonable(?) conjectures about how things might have happened and an occasional foray into stylistic nonfiction-style writing (which, you know, is interesting when you’re writing about things that didn't actually happen in real life). Basically this started as something I thought was cool and ended with me having, perhaps, a bit too much fun in the nerdiest possible way.

Maybe you’re into that and maybe not. But if you are, then welcome! Please enjoy these deep dives, all of which are linked below c:

Shadow Curse Events Part 1

Ketheric, Selûne, Shar, and Aylin

This first part covers Ketheric's descent from Selûnite devotee to Sharran general following the death of his daughter Isobel. Not only does it touch on him building and training a Sharran army, it also goes over the Selûnite resistance building against him, including one desperate mason named Morfred who makes a deal with a certain devil.

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Shadow Curse Events Part 2

Harpers, druids, and the battle against Ketheric

The second post is all about the Harper/Druid war waged against Ketheric and the days involved in the battle itself. I present this idea that the Harpers and druids sieged Reithwin for several days without attacking and then launched a three-day battle against Ketheric. But a lot of this is conjecture since I'm trying to piece together a bunch of differing accounts about the actual days devoted to fighting and surviving the brief war between the two armies.

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Shadow Curse Events Part 3

The first 40 days

The final post is a kind of walkthrough of the first 40 days of the shadow curse from the moment Ketheric dies to about 40 days later. I chose 40 only because it's vaguely symbolic in various cultures, but also because one diary I used to construct the timeline here ends on day 35, and that felt like a weird number to end on too, so...I added a few days. Anyway, this might be the most experimental of the posts, but it was fun(?) to try and place myself in these past events to imagine how the landscape changed into what we see 100+ years later walking into this area with our Tavs and companions.

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In the end, these posts were just for fun and are not meant to try and convince anybody that my theories are absolutely 100% the way things happened. What I find interesting about this little deep dive journey is that it mimics trying to piece together actual history too. Everyone will have a different account or perspective on historical events, so trying to stitch together a narrative 100+ years later becomes an exercise in drawing sensible conclusions and admitting you can't fill all the gaps.

I could very well be wrong in my theories, and someone else could come up with a way better logical conclusion than I did. That's awesome! Maybe these posts will help others come up with cool theories too.

But anyway. Enjoy my long-winded ramblings about fictional events in a video game that I have put way too many hours into :)

#bg3 #bg3 discourse #bg3 theory #bg3 critical #bg3 brainrot #bg3 headcanons #ketheric thorm #halsin #halsin silverbough #jaheira #I mean halsin and jaheira are mentioned in all of these because they were there obvi #also promoting this because i worked hard on these #and because i don't have anything else to promote for a minute #because now i can no longer ignore my dissertation

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kayray-art · 4 months ago

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plz do elaborate on the AU!

also hear anon out: yue x azula kids...

first off i’ll address ur suggestion bc the au bit will be long! i just gotta ask do you mean fan kids or a childhood friends au because i love both ideas

anyway onto the au elaboration:

so oomf described this as an arranged marriage / superman and lois lane love triangle type of thing

our convo was very long so i’ll try to shorten it into bullet points— we were kinda all over the place so pls forgive me if this isn’t in story chronological order

both characters are older in this au but we never specified how much older

yue is the avatar in this au

yue and azula get married as a sign of good faith between the NWT and FN (our princess marries your princess deal)

azula is secretly an assassin with a mission to kill avatar yue when she least suspects it

the first assassination attempt falls flat when azula is caught sneaking around

yue assumes her to be a robber and doesn’t make a big deal about it bc well she’s the avatar and this robber can’t possibly go toe-to-toe with her

because of the superman-effect and the fact that assassin!azula is goofy while married!azula is a bit closed-off yue doesn’t immediately put it together that they’re the same person

assassin!azula hides her bending abilities as to not be caught bc her abilities are so unique (lightning benders are rare and blue fire is something only she has)

at some point azula starts dressing up in her assassin gear just to talk to yue because that persona allows her to be more free

assassin!azula dresses more masculinely than married!azula bc married!azula cannot express her masculinity due to her status/traditions that she must follow

yue mistakes assassin!azula for a boy and when she notices her attraction to both assasin!azula and married!azula she has a bi panic moment

when the truth is eventually revealed yue’s brain kinda short-circuits for a moment with her first thought being "[assassin!azula’s nickname] is a girl!??!?"

assassin!azula tries to pretend to be a water bender by creating steam

avatar yue has mastered water bending and earth bending already and married!azula is teaching her fire bending (which seems counterintuitive to azula's mission but it is a more convincing action for her whole marriage act)

that is how yue gets closer to married!azula too so she can have that "ugh i think i like them both" moment at some point

azula reads books on the avatar to try and counter yue but she just keeps helping her with the same info when they re together

bonus content : screenshots of some of our scene scenarios

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #azula #yue #yue x azula #azula x yue #yuezula

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halliescomut · 4 months ago

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Boy Next World, post- ep 3

So... I've watched the first 3 episodes, I didn't really feel like I had much to say really about the first two episodes, so I didn't post anything. Now that things have started gearing up, I feel like I actually have some things to talk about. I will try to go kind of chronologically, but inevitably this will probably become a mishmash of all three eps so far.

To start with episode one, it's very much direct from the novel, I feel like. There might be some parts that are new, it's been a year since I read the novel, but it felt very much that. It's a good and intriguing introduction, but also, you're not overly invested in the story. I was more focused and excited to see Boss and Noeul working together again, and because of the premise of the story we don't have to wait to see them be soft and adorable with each other, we're given that immediately with alternate reality CirPhu. That being said, while the first episode I think does a good idea of introducing Phu, we're not getting much from Cir.

I made a short tiktok about episode one, where I mentioned that there is potentially a bit of a Edward Cullen Syndrome happening with Cir. He's characterized as cold, and so he feels very distant, in an almost too extreme way. I think this is intentional on the part of Boss acting-wise, and the director, but it does make it difficult for me to really be invested. It's not really until episode 2 that I start to soften towards Cir.

I think a lot of the confusion I feel in this first episode comes from the perspective from which we are offered the story. Phu has just basically stumbled into all of this, he has no idea what's happening, so there's no insight to be gained from him yet. Cir is at best an unreliable narrator as he's recently suffered a head injury, and so we truly don't know exactly what is happening. I'm not entirely sure how much of this confusion is fully intentional, and how much is accidental.

Moving into episode 2, our story is chugging along, but we're not really offered a lot more information overall, just little glimpses that bring more questions than answers. I am a person that already struggles with mystery stories, I've never been good at picking up clues or solving things, even when dealing with mysteries from masters of the craft. So truly, I'm not really trying to figure out exactly what is happening, but I am trying to be observant of what is going on. The issue is that the little oddnesses I notice lead to different conclusions.

For example- Jin; his reactions to Cirrus and specifically the things he says are very cryptic and weird. But they make me kind of think that it is exactly what happens int he novel, but that Jin has been noticing Cir, and is saying these things to express and almost give warning that he knows even if Phugun doesn't.

What we've seen these first couple of episodes, the final clip in the trailer; those two things combined almost feed into the idea of something like a Butterfly Effect situation. If you're not familiar with that film, guy figures out he can change his past, he basically inhabits his past self, and the new choices he makes change his future and those around him in ways he can't predict. With the sort of opening scene of the car thieves trying to bust into Phu's car and the revisit to that scene repeatedly, combined with Cir's 'lack of interest' in attempting to get home, kind of makes me think that the Phu in the other world is gone. And so what we're seeing is the Cir figuring out some way to come to this other world and now have the Phu that is here.

There's also the odd nightmare situations we've seen in episode three (and maybe episode two, I'm not 100% sure) which kind of lead one to think it might be a head injury- coma dream scenario. Like the nightmares are him becoming lucid perhaps. I don't know. Everything is pretty open-ended right now, and nothing combines into an idea that really solidifies.

If you haven't read any of my other posts about TBNW, I did read the novel, and recently read the special chapters as well, so I do know what the original story is, but they've added a lot, specifically a lot that might alter where the story actually goes. Also for transparency, I think Mame SHOULD (and hopefully has, since it's already been filmed) change the story. The original conclusion is at this point out-dated and is pretty problematic, which is saying a lot when we're talking about Mame.

Episode two has Phu kind of confronting this idea of Cir/the parallel universe, and is more Phu-centric than our first episode. We're given more insight into who he his as a person, his superstition, and his daily life, while we see how Cir fit into that life in the alternate reality. We get more glimpses of their life together there, and are shown very directly how much that loss is affecting Cir. I talked a bit about it in my novel breakdown, but episode two really brings home this idea that providing support to Phu is almost a compulsion for Cir. It's existentially concerning to him to simply let Phu deal with the consequences of his 'flighty-ness'.

I will say my favorite thing about the second episode is seeing the point of divergence, that is the decision that was made that split the timeline (see graphic below) which is the cup/string phone incident in high school. Phu drops the cup out of the classroom window and Cir, on the floor below picks it up. Cir either answers or doesn't, and it eventually becomes Cir either directly meeting Phu or not. I think it gives a lot of insight into how both people became who they are. In both realities Phu makes a choice to be bold, to tell the joke into the cup-phone, but in one it's rewarded, and in another it's not. So we see a Phugun now who doesn't really take chances. He has his small band of friends, people he has an easy time getting along with, but he's not really putting himself out there in any significant way. It's the same for Cir, that moment where he could choose to be brave and literally answer the call or not, and in one he does and he finds a relationship and a life full of warmth, and in another he hides and as a result is never really seen by the person he want to see him.

Episode three feels focused of Cir, but so much of my focus is on Phu, because we see him choosing to help Cir. He decides that he must help Cir get back to his Phu, and I believe does his best to help, but it's not really a problem you can look up a wiki-how for.

But this now spending time with a handsome man who treats you like the most precious thing in the world, it's hard not to fall for that. It makes sense why Phu is so reluctant to be close to Cir, because in his mind Cir is taken, and he's softhearted enough to worry about how a lone Phu would feel with a now-ignorant Cir. Again, this is what kind of makes Cir's lack of desire to get back to his Phu even more suspicious. We really start to see Phu falling for Cir, understandably, even in the face of concern over his 'taken' status, which has me as a viewer very concerned. I don't want his heart broken.

We do also see the official introduction of Cir's mother...who is a raggedy bitch and can get bent. It really feels like Cir is grasping at any semblance of control or agency he has, given that it's made pretty clear that his mother does not plan for him to be making any choices.

I have some things to say about Phu's isolation, and how it relates to his grief over his father, his mother leaving, and how that's kind of made him do the opposite thing to Cir. He had someone he loved deary and lost abruptly, which dominoed into him losing his mother. I know she's not dead, just absent, but for a grieving teen it might as well be the same thing, because he's fully separated himself and makes no effort to really build relationships. Cir has never even had the freedom to want anything, all choices were made for him, and so when he finds a person that sees him as more than a token, he cleaves to that person disregarding all else, which while it seems sweet, is not healthy behavior and can have very detrimental consequences.

Lastly I will say the cinematography continues to be absolutely beautiful. I'm so glad Mame brought directors back in, because it really does up the visual impact of her stories, and I truly hope she keeps this guy on the books, because he's so talented.

I joke, but truly there are some really beautiful shots throughout the first few episodes.

My Mame BL Masterpost if you're looking for more TBNW content, or stuff I've written about other Mame shows.

#The Boy Next Worl #TBNW #BossNoeul #CirPhu #Cirrus x Phugun #Noeul Nuttarat #Boss Chaikamon #MeMindWhy #MameBL #HallieSMeta

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