#this is what it feels like to talk to ''''''empaths''''''

[stygiansun-totaleclipse]

The little moment where Aurynn can comfort the MC after the incident with Parim's tea set got me wondering. How would the RO's react to an MC in a vulnerable emotional state just hugging onto them, burying their face in RO's shoulder, chest etc while crying and shaking? Be it a bad dream, or ptsd from war, or missing their siblings etc?🥺❤️ I just need my very soft MC to be held and comforted.🥹

Kieran: very taken aback at first—they didn’t expect mc to seek comfort from them but perhaps it is only the circumstances since mc is very vulnerable and they’re the only one around. They aren’t quite sure if they should hold mc and struggle with indecision on what to do. After some hesitance, they’ll do what they always did with Alektis when she was very young and hold mc and murmur their favorite myths/tales.

Nihm: 🥺🥺💔 tell them what’s wrong and what they can do to help. They’ll hold mc and try to empathize so they feel less alone—they know what it’s like to lose family and they have night terrors too. They comfort Alektis when she is kept up by nightmares/grief etc too tho she doesn’t often want to be held unless she’s really in a state, but they’ll stay up with her and listen or talk about/do other things. They can do that for mc too if they want.

Lilith/Lucien: acts immediately—folds mc into their arms or lays them across their lap and gently rocks them or caresses their face. They’ll stay with mc if they don’t want to sleep alone and will hold them while they sleep if mc is comfortable with that. They don’t sleep very soundly due to night terrors and insomnia themself, but they’d probably have an easier time staying asleep with mc. They find it’s easier to sleep beside someone.

Samira: she’s touched mc trusts her enough to be vulnerable in front of her and to seek comfort from her. She’ll hold them and listen until they fall asleep and will gently lay them down and tuck them in. She’ll stay a while to watch over mc to make sure they don’t have any nightmares and might accidentally fall asleep on MCs divan to her own chagrin the next morning.

Aurynn: a bit taken aback at how vulnerable mc is rn and that they’re latching into him and might come off kinda awkward in his attempts at comfort at first. He might ask if mc would prefer he finds Sam since he thinks she’d be better at this but if mc doesn’t want to be left alone he’ll empathize and while he’ll be quiet as he doesn’t know what to say, he’ll hold mc like he wished to be held when he was young or how he’d like to be held now (though he doesn’t realize/want to admit it) when he suffers night terrors among other things.

[alexthebordercollie]

Scalene Cipher (the second)

Behold! I've referenced her occasionally, but she needs a proper introduction. This here is my Billford baby, little miss Scalene (Or Lena for short, "Starshine" to her father). She was named after Bill's late mother. Scalene is from the Hand of God AU as well as the Good Ending crossover AU with Domesticated by @jellyskink (and recently Married Life by @matcha-milkies has gotten wrapped up in the Good Ending as well) For those who don't know Hand of God, in that AU, Ford opened the portal 30 years ago and became god emporor of the universe alongside his husband Bill Cipher. Soul bonded to his husband, H!Ford shared Bill's powers. Their relationship is incredibly abusive and codependent, but they do genuinely love each other under all the dysfunction. Ultimately, their daughter, Scalene, proved to be the motivation Ford needed to leave his abusive marriage, which would set off the domino effect that would lead to both 08'\ (HoG) and 04'\ (Domesticated) Bill's deaths. In the Good Ending, Domesticated Ford is Scalene's step-dad, whom she calls DeeDee and absolutely adores. Her primary custody was actually given to her uncle Stan though due to her father being in a pretty fragil state when she was little. Scalene never knew Bill. Everything she knows about him comes from H, who would share the things he used to love about Bill with her, but avoided talking about the years of abuse or telling her what a monster her other father was. Scalene is a mind reader and powerful empath among a host of other powers, including shape shifting, dream walking, and gravity manipulation. No one is sure just how many of Bill's powers she inherited. Despite being a baby godling, H tried hard to raise her like a normal kid. She's generally very emotionally intelligent for her age, loves musical theater, and learned music and dance from H, who Bill had trained in musical theater when they were together. Scalene wears little tap shoes everywhere. She has a hard time allowing herself to feel things or express feelings, she worries would be a burden or distressing to the adults around her. Her clickly little shoes and love of theater help her take up space despite her compulsion to make herself small.

[yuseirra]

My Fragile God, Fading Fast Analysis (Interpretation of Mizi's character)

It looks like something new came out, so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to talk :)

Right… I used to wonder why Mizi would voluntarily enter something like a death match/survival stage. I wondered if she really didn’t know anything about what was going on-was she just that pure? Or was there more to it. Well, now it's revealed and her life is just… wow…

Maybe I should have seen this coming. Her guardian seemed like a being with a completely different sense and perception from that of humans.

The feeling I’m getting from reading this chapter is an extension of what I felt from The True Face, actually.

I think Mizi wanted to be accepted. She wanted to be understood.

It’s just that the way that comes across—how she mentions about how Sua's "crushable"—feels a bit unsettling.

But Mizi isn’t the type to want to crush someone else. It’s more like… she wanted to have an effect on someone. She wanted to be a presence that mattered to someone in a significant way. To carry some kind of weight in another person’s life. Because she’s always been fragile, and had to survive by leaning on someone else’s warmth. At first, it seems that just being loved was able to make her happy. But living through it… she realized it was actually invasive. Violating. She couldn’t keep living like that. It’s hard to explain, but I do get the feeling.

Mizi wanted—even if it meant dying—to live among beings like her.

No matter how much those aliens who took her in cherished her and treated her as cute in their own way, it wasn’t in a human way.

They couldn’t truly understand her.

At some point, she must’ve realized: she’s fundamentally different from them. No matter how deep their affection, with just a flick of a finger, she could be killed. And living in that situation, no matter how well-meaning her guardians were, was probably unbearable.

And more importantly, they could never truly understand or connect with her emotionally. Their feelings were different. Their ways of sensing and sharing emotion weren’t human. So even if they meant well, they couldn’t connect to her heart.

I think Mizi really did love and like those aliens who raised her. And they probably loved her back, in their way. But what is “a pet,” really? It’s not an equal being.

At the very beginning of the comic, there’s a moment where she notes that Sua has the same number of fingers and toes as she does.

That really matters to Mizi. She wanted to connect with someone. She wanted to truly interact, be understood, and understand in return. That’s why she chose to go among humans even if it meant potential death.

Even if she died, she wanted to live among beings like herself.

She wanted equal interaction and communication—relationships where you give and take at the same level, where even if you hurt each other, it’s mutual. She wanted a relationship where wounds could be shared and given in return. That’s what this is emotionally about. That expression about being able to "crush" someone. However, it doesn't mean that Mizi would actively go around hurting people, quite the contrary, she's always shown to display a pretty big heart, because you see, her essence is about wanting to be understood and connected, treated as an equal.

What’s fascinating is that the “god” Mizi chooses is actually very different from what people usually imagine a god to be. The aliens who raised her are more like the conventional “god” figure: they control life and death, they’re affectionate and loving in their way, but ultimately, they’re supernatural and unable to empathize with human standards. They fit that “god” mold more closely.

But Mizi chooses Sua as her god.

And she knows Sua is far weaker than the aliens who raised her. She knows that she could hurt Sua at any time if she wants it. (That’s the “fragile” in the title.)

And I think there’s a kind of sorrow in that—less a thrill of power, more of a sadness. When you look at her expression, it doesn’t feel like she’s elated or satisfied by the idea that she could destroy Sua. It feels more like she’s melancholic by the fact that her god—this person so important to her—is so finite, so breakable, so easy to lose. Maybe even more fragile than Mizi herself.

Still, I think she found something real in that.

This soft, tender, fleeting being—Sua—is still her god and her universe.

And there’s something a little tragic in that. The sadness that comes with realizing, “My god is someone who could die.”

When Mizi says that she could crush Sua, it’s not from a sense of domination or power.

Mizi needed a god she could understand. Sua became like an anchor for her heart.

Maybe… after her mom(?) died, Sua was the first other person she really met and got close to?

And Mizi wants to be a person.

Even back in The True Face comic, Mizi’s actions were driven by her desire to be understood. She tried to get along with the other kids with this kind of innocent purity she put up as a facade of sorts. (Because she wanted to live among them.)

But deep down, she didn’t want to be accepted just for being harmless. That’s why she snapped when Sua said, “It must be easy for you.” What she really wanted was for someone to recognize her for who she is. And I think she eventually found a lot of that in her relationship with Sua. Mizi must’ve loved Sua a lot—That’s why she called her my universe, my god.

She seems like the type who always wants to connect with others.

And she really, genuinely means it. She wants it to be genuine.

Honestly, in this series, I think Mizi may be the one who cares most about "people", in the broad sense along with Hyuna. Both Hyuna and Mizi seem to have strong compassion for humanity, but it’s displayed in different ways.

For Hyuna, it feels as if it’s more about ideals—justice, belief, freedom, inherited principles. Her love for people comes from a value system, a kind of universal ethics. She's a very humane and idealistic person.

But Mizi simply likes the people around her. (Not saying Hyuna isn't! She loves people too.) She has a desire to be with people. Her love for humanity comes from a more personal place.

That affection projects onto Sua—and Sua is her most precious person.

Even if Sua is weaker than the aliens who raised her, in Mizi’s eyes, she’s the strongest and heaviest presence in her world. But also, the most fragile—someone who could die at any time. A fragile god.

That’s what “My fragile god” means, I think.

Well, that's what I felt from reading the comic!

These kinds of feelings are fascinating to read. There’s so much tangled up in them… but I think I understand. This is just my personal interpretation, but unraveling through it is really enjoyable...I enjoy reading them!

[liltalle]

I want to add a note about Caleb Michaels, a Badger Lion from The Bright Sessions. Spoilers for Season 7: The College Tapes below the cut:

Caleb is very much not a villainous character, buuut in S7 he's having a breakdown. He's an empath (as his superpower), and he's long been overwhelmed by other people's emotions. It's gotten worse of late, as he's awakened an ability to influence others' emotions as well, which has him fearing and dehumanizing himself, and doubting if what others feel is real. And, as a very nice person, he has a fearful relationship with his Lion secondary and his physical strength. He's expressed his overwhelm from other people's emotions in physical violence before, and he's terrified he will again.

All this culminates in a breakdown, where he seeks out Oliver, another atypical who has (long story) a magical book that puts emotions onto its readers. Single, stable emotions; Caleb is using the book like a drug to cope.

And the way that Caleb lashes out at Oliver, he's so tired of everyone else's emotions impinging onto him, and he starts to blame them for their feelings. Oliver is existing near him, and his feelings keep changing, and Caleb, terribly overstimulated, feels every emotional shift as painful, and even as an attack (my autistic sensory issues totally get this). And with that Lion secondary, he's angry, he yells, he tries to get Oliver to just leave him.

Eventually, Oliver seems to calm him down, but when his back is turned, Caleb takes the book and runs. Turns out, it was manipulating him One-Ring-style into thinking he was supposed to destroy it, but he actually brings it back to its master.

And that guy, Professor Blackwell, gives Caleb a speech about how misunderstood atypicals (people with supernatural abilities) are, and how the book is meant to help people understand, and how he should side with his own kind. And Caleb, maybe the nicest guy in the series, pretty clearly almost joins what's been shown to be a quite fascy apocalyptic atypical cult. (Instead he finally talks to and makes out with his ex-boyfriend, for which I'm delighted.)

It has me thinking about this as an interesting road for a Badger Lion villain. Empathy can be a tool for morality, but that sensitivity can be overwhelming and painful, and when people get too much of it and don't have agency over it, other people's pain can feel like an attack. And a Lion secondary wants a very direct solution to a problem, which, particularly in the throes of emotional distress, can be violent.

So, what about a villain who, feeling others' pain so intensely, wants them to stop feeling? It starts to feel... terrifying, invasive, how-could-someone-blame-you-for-this. (And relatable, it's how I feel about loud noises outside sometimes.) The literal magic empath is a simple road you could take with it, but I think there are others. I could see someone like Maedhros, oathbound to slaughter his enemies yet empathetic, beginning to hate his victims for their pain, because of the way it hurts him. He might refuse to see it, think of more cruel, indirect methods of violence. (This would put a whole wrinkle in the Kidnap Family scheme.)

The horror of it is that, to put it bluntly, empathy does not equate to morality. It's a sentiment that I, as an autistic person and a Snake primary, find rather comforting, but it can be used in other ways.

I see that Huffledor (Badger/Lion) is pretty often describe as a "protagonist sorting". But is it possible for such a person to be more of an anti-hero, or even villain under certain circumstances?

I would love to see a truly, unambiguously villainous Badger/Lion. You could absolutely do it - there are so many scary ways Badger primaries can go bad, and what makes a Lion secondary a Lion secondary is the way they keep going until something breaks. That could easily be a villain trope. 

That said, I can’t think of any Badger/Lion villains. The best I got is John Winchester of Supernatural, who is structurally antagonistic during the first part of the show. But never, ever framed as something so easy as a “villain.” 

[the-paris-of-people]

Also it's fucked up to yell at members of marginalized communities for acting within the two party system and not burning it all down when you don't have a plan. People are not your fucking sacrificial lambs to skewer and roast on a stick

[cavennmalore]

so interesting that in chapters 12 + 13 of unraveled keefe and cassius don’t just respond to what each other are saying but speak directly to the others emotions. through the whole conversation keefe takes 90% of his cues from cassius’s unspoken feelings and cassius does the same. we get to see what keefes conversational style looks like with the right partner; keefe picks up and addresses the other persons emotions because to him (and other empaths) conversations happen on two levels: the spoken and unspoken. it’s the kind of conversation only two empaths could have and i wish we could see more of that unique kind of communicating

[readandwritesilver]

wwdits spoilers

if u disagree that's okay and i see you and i hear you however i fully don't think being canon was ever nandermo's future. there were a few things about the finale that i didn't like generally but nandermo isn't one of them. both these characters are so complex and maybe if we're talking about how going back the last 2-3 seasons should have been strictured differently then yeah sure there are definitely ways the story could have been told where some kind of definitive romantic conclusion made sense but at some point we're just talking about a different show.

yes i thought the plotline with nandor and the guide was really weird. yes i wish last season and especially this season had the emotional intensity and serious moments/plots of seasons past. but even if both those things were true i still don't think oh look we confessed our love now we are kissing yayyyy was the ending they deserved😭😭 seeing people comparing it to like supernatural or whatever other [insert queerbait here] just. idk i feel the pain that is being expressed and i understand deeply the place that it is coming from but i think calling nandermo queerbait is very misguided. those characters are both explictly queer. and they explicitly care about eachother a lot. they are also both explicitly not in a place for that kind of ending to be a legitimately satisfying conclusion.

the whole point of the finale is that life is going to go on (literally) infinitely for these characters. all the vampires are going to be there for a very long time. guillermo has grown exponentially in the last six years and while he doesn't know exactly what he wants to do with himself, he has a much clearer picture of who he is in the first place and we can feel sure he's going to make descisions according to that. nandor literally says to him when they're leaving canon capital, you're not just a human anymore, you can't ever just go back to that life, and he's right. they are both going to live their lives, and sometimes they'll be together and sometimes they won't, and eventually maybe they'll figure out something that works between them and maybe they won't.

i love nandor and guillermo together. i have written i think around 40,000 words just on the subject and made countless more posts on here. this isn't about the quality of them as a pairing, it's about telling a story, and i just don't think that was the story wwdits needed to tell in order to have a good conclusion.

tldr i think season six had a lot of sloppy moments and there are a lot of things about the season as a whole that i found disappointing, however nandermo not going canon wasn't one of them

[skyeslittlecorner]

Can I request a Raphael x angel MC please 🥺

The Gabriel x Michelle and Lucifer x Michael were so good 😭😭

I'm stuck with you and your scenarios now 😠

You're welcome, dear~! I see my total eclipse of the brain bring some good after all. I hope I will be able to fulfill this request. Rafael is on the verge of being a character I dare write for, but let's try.

It was all your fault, that you make Raphael feel so special, then forget about it, and after all, you died. Lowly, pathetic human being. How dare you? Do you think he will forgive you for this? Tsk. Not only stupid, but naive, too. You are lucky that you chose to be reincarnated in heaven. Maybe there's still a chance for your pitiful soul.

And *maybe* you will repent if stop teasing him and start to suck.

Even though you were below him, licking his piercing and letting him tug at your hair, you knew who was boss. Poor, unaware angel. Blessing? Being the chosen one? Good joke. Only few strokes and his tip was already covered with whitish ooze. You raised an eyebrow and snickered.

“And who is the pathetic one?” 

He grabbed your hair harder. 

“Shut... up. Do your work.”

“Truly pathetic…” Your tongue stroked his trembling manhood. “Swayed so easily.”

“Enough!” 

As you opened your lips once more, he thrusted deep inside your mouth. Smiled vindictively as you chocked. He wanted you to lose your breath, to finally be quiet, and obediently end the act of his ascension. As cruelly, as holy. New madness hitted his insides as you murmured with a trickle of saliva ran down your chin.

“Better…” Those full cheeks, clenched throat and murderous intent in your eyes make you both dirty and perfect. Perfect to be used. Clouded with pleasure, he thought that he found his new favorite toy.

All Raphael stans! Let me redirect you to @livelaughlovesubs and her wonderful fics - here you got first and second part. I assume you've already seen it, if not, check it out~ She can write and catch his personality way better than me

[teighveepao]

i cant be talking to people without social literacy anymore 😭😭 its fine if it isnt ur fault but buddy i cannot handle another conversation with u without crashing out (not targetted, just smth thats always been on my mind for forever)

[temperate-rainforest]

I thought being an empath was where you can look at someone who has an injury and feel that injury on yourself, or be around someone whose physically sick and feel the same sickness, or something to that extent, but turns out that's just mirror-touch synesthesia and I have no idea what in the fuck you guys are actually on about

[confines]

my favourite thing about hannibal nbc is that will graham was already very traumatised when the show started. not yet from the gore or the abuse and gaslighting nor from the illness that nearly killed him, but from a lifetime of experience as an autistic person.

he's on-guard at all times, deeply aware that he's different from other people and that sometimes people find him so very interesting that they feel like their interest should outweigh his bodily autonomy. he meets othering from his coworkers with the grim acceptance of a man who fully understands the intricacies of how they are excluding him but also knows he can't stop them. you can see the miles of hurt in almost everything he does, every interaction he has. well, not so much with hannibal after he gets comfortable around him but that's a different post.

[practically-an-x-man]

my mom's diverticulitis is flaring up and it's really tough bc on the one hand I obviously empathize with her and i really don't want her to be in pain. but on the other hand she's even more difficult to be around when she's in discomfort because she literally does not stop talking about it

[hildannette]

i'm ngl i find the fact that there are real actual unironic existing takaya apologists mind-blowing. like. literally how can you remotely empathize with that guy

[uspspspsps]

as a person with zero desire to ever be pregnant, the fact that it is possible--through assault, miscalculation, bad luck or some combination thereof--for my body to abruptly change in painful, sometimes permanent ways i have little control over; that depending on where i live i could not only be denied access to medications that would stop it but also find the informed consent that underlies my current treatment plans crumbling; that my body could become no longer mine not only due to the being growing inside me i did not ask for, but societal norms that normalize strangers touching my body without asking and controlling what i eat; that's pretty frightening to think about.

does this impact how i view or treat other people who are pregnant? nope. and i would not consider a straightforward depiction of pregnancy inherently disturbing, or expect other people to find it so. but a work of horror that took that seed of fear and focused in on it, either with a literal depiction of pregnancy viewed from the eyes of someone who doesn't want to be pregnant or a fantastical depiction where the unwanted fetus is a monster or the pregnancy affects the person's body in ways that extend beyond the real world experience? that could be really disturbing, and the fact that pregnancy is not unnatural and many people choose it happily would not disqualify it as "body horror."

I think that there's a very meaningful criticism to be made wrt body horror and how it often can handle disability or disfigurement in an extremely reactionary and prejudiced fashion but I feel like you've lost the plot if you can sincerely say shit like "cancer isn't body horror" like I dont know I think its pretty scary to have cancer. I dont feel like we need to defend the role of cancer as a natural process of the body. Like that's not comparable to people acting like a cleft lip or a guy in a wheelchair are spooky. Pregnancy is pretty scary too like even before the question of forced birth and other such social violence surrounding it are involved. I think you're sort of dancing around the fact that the human body does frightening things to us all the time and the question of what is "natural" should in of itself be actively questioned because sometimes "natural" things are... bad!

[offthewall1979]

wait a second. the twymmf girl acting all "what did i do wrong 🥺" with the onstage michael kiss. she fails to mention that she quite Significantly grabbed his butt. like i'm not saying that should be grounds for what supposedly happened to her, but cmon you know he's weird....

[hauntingblue]

And WHERE is the gyojin island road poneglyph