#those kinda characters dont get the same kind of 'humanization'

[disheveledapathy]

so a little peak behing the curtain for my world building in my post canon au for stp is that i may think toooooo much abt what the characters are and shit. like what species they are post construct cuz like in the construct theyre the idea that the two gods live thru - two gods who believe they are mortal but have no real context for what the outside world is like

like the world narator came from is not really gone into detail (cuz its obvsly not what the games abt duh) beyond that nara is bird like and based LQ on himself AND the world outside is a colorful chaos compared to simple black and white and muted tones of the construct

(while the game is in mostly black and white, red and yellow do apear to create some contrast, also i dont remember the line specifically but nara mentions the colors of things which makes me thing the construct isnt completely black and white like how in isat colors dont exist anymore - but to maintain the constrast i think the construct is prolly lest vibrant.)

we dont really know what kinds of "people" nara mentions existing (or if nara is even i bird man himself but i digress) - just that there are bird people (us) and human like people (the princess)

but judging by the vibe of the game and since nara nor the voices react any which way abt the princess being mote human like same with the princess not reacting to the player being a bird man - sooo bird people must then obvs exist.

(u could argue that neither react cuz what else could they know besides each other, and also in writing thatd prolly just be too much to add - but i posit that if the princess knows nothing abt u (as both her lines at the starting cabin and patd imply that she didnt know anything besides the cabin) that her looking down at her hands and clothes then looking at us would cause some sort of discomfort. as much as she is shaped by our perception, in the constructs form of her shes still a person. anyway)

all this is to say that post construct, each princess has to fall into something that fits in the world that they now eist in as individual creatures. for the(most) voices this is easy - avians are already implied to exist, and us as audience know of other examples in fiction (dnd, etc) - but the princesses are all so unique. so the point where they devolve from human shape entirely. or arent as corporeal like spectre and nightmare. like what would the creature beast is be called, what makes spectre and nightmare different creatures even if they both turn into wraiths, what the fuck is razor, and so on

also for the sake of my own sanity im not doing each princess chapter as their own princess. 1) thats so MANY CHARACTERS AAA and 2) for the exclusive chpter 3s theyre kinda just a continuation for the chapter 2 princess. like witch and thorn feel like the same person to me just one is later in their story ykno? same with like damsel and hea, nightmare and moc, beast and den. theyre all just an escalation where as combo routes (fury, wild, grey, etc) are more lateral movements on the themes of the first route. so in my au when deciding what, say, the beast is and what shes like post construct i look at her route and dens route and kinda pick and choose what i like from those routes

like, i love dens design, i love the six limbs the wings the horns the big expressive eyes - but i love beasts personality hair and "clothing". in the den idk if id say shes on level mentally to be a person (i mean she is in construct but post construct idk if could make her be that way cuz of her themes) where as beast 1) talks and 2) has goals beyond killing and eatting, if she wanted to just eat u getting bit in half wouldve been fine. she wants out and shes intelligent enough to know she needs u. but she also speaks in an interesting way, in metaphors and grand yet simple sentences. between her clever mind of trying to trick the cabin and her catlike nature i think a sphinx is prolly what ill end up calling her species in my au. unless anyone has other mythological cat women out there lol

now for hunted lemme explain. for all the voices they are avian except hunted for 1 reason, his route has the most becoming one with, taking on atributes of, consuming of the princess then any of them. and it goes the other way too. in beast, she describes taking his corpse and draping it over her to try and fool the cabin into thinking shes him. if she swallows u it can take u to the wild where the player and her believe they are one entity, in den with stubborn u can eat her back and become like her just as she becomes like u. in each route with hunted u can become more like her, and her like you. so it would stand to reason that whatever hunted is, its shaped (at least) more like her post construct than it is like the others. so id dome research on mythological wolves (and also incidently was watching princess monaoke recently) and learned that along with two crow/raven companions (huginn and muninn) odin also had two wolves one named freki. orginally i was gonna have hunted just be a griffon and be done w it but i felt bored with that idea and was like:

"what if in the stp world they had a similar creature to griffons instead?" and so I decided to name that species Frekninn and instead of eagle and lion, theyre raven and wolf. hunted is gonna few other animal traits like a stoats tail and a gait like a rabbit but u get the idea

both sphinxes and Frekninns are intelligent nomadic creatures but where frekninns prefer obvs to live in packs or groups of people, sphinxes are solitary. not necessarily aggressive to other beings, but ure more likely to meet a sphinx for a night ont he road and for them to move on without u then u are to have them follow you. both creatures partner for life tho (tho frekninns may have multiple life partners with in their social group). sphinxes and frekninns rarely get along, so hunted and beast are defo outliers. both creatures are massive, hunted sitting is like eye level with hero who i hc as beeing 5'11-6'1" (his first design has become like my scale ruler lol)

frekninns rarely walk on their hind legs because it can hurt after long periods of time. their wings are lower than avians, beging right above the hips. their faces have two mouthes 1st) below a beak for talking 2nd) ontop of the beak and under a wolf like snout for eating and intimidation. they also have two sets of eyes, the main pair are similar to humans and when theyre open amke the wolf muzzle and dark fur and ears look like theyre only wearing a mask. the second open when hunting or fighting and are more like a wolfs.

sphinxes have six limbs, the front most limbs are more delicate abd bird like where as the 4 others are of a lions. their small flightless wings sprout from their hips and are covered in featherlike fur. sphinxes dont wear much clothing, mostly wraps to carry trinkets and gloves of some kind to protect their more delicate hands when walking. manez are rare, and im undecided if its like w lions where the "males" have it, especially since i plan on having beast and hunted be an it/its sphinxes are collectors and story tellers - in universe this is where their supposed penchant for riddles comes from - tho beast herself isnt much for telling stories. she does like shiny and interesting objects. while nomadic, they are long lived and so may seem to "settle" in a region especially if it has v interesting things or stories. beast herself has less interest in places and more interest in people. especially her voice and the voices he meets up with. tho she keeps herself out of sight of them for a reason she herself hasnt figured out and makes long journeys away fro. hunted to watch other people. ill go more in depth later

i always worry i go too in detail abt these things, especially w stp where A LOT of stuff is up to interpretation abt the world naras from. like whatever razor is i have just as much if not more detail on abominations and where they came from that id didnt go into and dont know how id include any of it if i do write it. same with spectre, nightmare, mages like prisoner and damsel.

[telenovelameta]

So, episode 1 of Mania de Voce aired yesterday... I thought it was pretty good, tbh! don't know yet if I'll commit to it. But so far, I'm intrigued. Despite a lot of people complaining about the amount of events in the first episode, tbh I don't think it truly a breakneck pace like Avenida Brasil. Maybe it's all the beach-imaginery and copious amounts of glare in the photography, but the impression I get is that it's gonna be a lot more of a slow burn experience. Luma, Mavi and Marcia all seem like they're gonna be doing Violent Crimes (tm) pretty soon of course, but it *seems* like they're the types to do them very cleanly, kinda hannibal-esque, to the soundtrack of classical music. The aesthetic in general is the highlight for me so far. Even if, again, the photography with the overuse of glare and weirdly cold coloring bothers me, overall the package. Speaking of music, one thing that did rub me off about the aesthetic is how much the soundtrack is composed of USian music :/ I think only the main track and 1 other song were actually brasilian, which i think is very disappointing tbh. Not only does it rob it of showing non-hegemonic culture, it also feels very... lazy and viralata, I guess? like, I mean, to this day I still feel "Set Fire To The Rain" was not at all appropriate a theme for Rita and Jorginho. Like think of a character dynamic most dissimilar to a sound, and it was that... but alas, it was a "hit" at the time, and gringo af, so they picked it. Sadly that seems to be the case with most of the music in this novela, so far.

[lunasdestiny]

Hi! Wow, you answered that ask faster than I thought you would XD (I am gift headcanon anon for clarity). And yeah, I probably should have sent an ask before with the headcanon I had that the rescue bots suffer varied levels of survivors guilt before I sent that other one for context, whoops. (Spoilers: long rant ahead, (and also may get a little dark?) I don't know where boundaries lie, I'm sorry) I know Rescue Bots is a kids show and can't really go in depth with the war like in Prime, but I really wished they had little snippets with the bots having 'reality checks' every once in a while that cybertron was gone and struggled with that fact. Blades feels it the most because he is an anxious mess that lets his thoughts get away from him. So the fact that they went into stasis only to wake up and find everything/everyone they known and loved was gone for millions of years…that would mess anyone up real bad. And the fact it was all gone because of a long, brutal war they completely missed by sheer luck?! That's not something you just brush off.

I can imagine in the beginning Blades remembering friends/family he'd love to talk to about earth and his new mission only to get slammed by the reality that those bots he talked to a few days ago are long since gone and he can't talk to them ever again! PLUS the fact that Decepticons hit Rescue Bots first thing in the war and Sigma 17 were the only rescue bots to survive the bullet! The last four of their kind. I refuse to believe Blades didn't immerse himself in human movies and internet so he wouldn't spiral. He knows deep down he's not responsible for what happened, nor could he control anything afterwards, but after seeing new cybertron it's really hard not to think about the people he knew that don't get to enjoy this new peaceful world. And he feels he can't confide to Bee because how do you tell a war veteran with serious trauma that you feel guilty because you took a nap for millions of years only to wake up and play hero with humans while he and his team battled horrors beyond your belief just to survive everyday of a brutal war that killed your whole planet and everyone on it?! You do not dump 'Sorry I wasn't there to watch all of these terrible things you experienced, but I kinda sort of wish I did so I can feel I deserve to be here and enjoy this without my spark eating itself alive from thinking about how many suffered while I got off scott free'. Nope, nu-uh, not saying anything, hey look at that new thing! That looks like fun hahaha!!!

(I am so sorry this got so long (and got a little too dark?). I honestly love Blades to bits but sometimes I do wish they were more in the Prime continuity so we can get more backstory/inner thoughts/growth from their characters.)

OHhhhhh mANNNNN 😭😭😭😭😭

Dw I have the same wishes for any show I watch but I guess that's left for us to interpret!

Tho I imagine Blades does have a boiling point. Kinda a follow-up on the last ask you sent as well, but Blades and Bee are staying at a place during their time in Cybertron. Bee returns to the room only to see Blades with his back turned and making little sounds. He asks if he's okay only for Blades to turn around and he's just crying big Ghibli tears

Of course seeing Blades cry makes his whole world stop so he goes up to immediately hold him. Blades of course tries to make a joke but it just makes him look more pathetic.

"H-Heatwave said we couldn't cry. He's such a liar! I've done it before a-and I'm doing it now!" But he can't hold it in anymore and his voice breaks with a sob "I'm sorry!' "What are you sorry for?" "I'm supposed to be enjoying this trip and I'm ruining it!" "You're not ruining anything. You're upset...Blades you can talk to me...you dont have to but you can."

That's when it all spills out.

"I just can't stop thinking about everything from before! I miss my family! I miss my friends! I miss the rink! Everything I remembered from home is different or gone! I could have seen them off but I missed it all because of a stupid energon eater! And while I was in stasis all of that got destroyed! I should be grateful that I didn't experience the war but I feel like I'm being tortured! I know it's not true, but for some reason it feels like my fault! AND NOW IM RUINING THIS TRIP BY BEING SAD ABOUT IT!"

Bee just holds him tighter. He knows he can't exactly relate, but he wants to comfort Blades as much as he can. So, while holding him, he lets Blades have a good cry.

"What can I do to help you feel better?" *sniff* "I like this actually..." "Good. You've been holding in a lot, haven't you?" "Mmm..." "I can't say I relate completely. But know I'm here for you if you need anything. Even if it's just for this." "Thank you...Heh. It's funny. I remember getting teased a lot for being a crybaby back when I was younger. It got to the point I tried my best to hide somewhere whenever I did." "Sad that we weren't friends then. You could have cried around me if you wanted. Knowing how I was, I probably would have tried to make you laugh by doing something stupid." "Hehe...It would have probably worked. I was easily amused." "...Tell me more." "About what?" "What were you like back then. Maybe other stuff...If you want to, of course." "...Sure."

They end up falling into recharge in each other's arms.

[plasticine-paws]

ship opinion: krusie

character opinion: susie AND kris -@luckycharm-2

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK 🥹🥹 YAY 💗 Let's see!

I was absolutely team Krusie in the SURVEY_PROGRAM days, really enjoyed the bits we got, but I didn't get into the fandom until ch2 so just thinking they're neat was the extent of it. It also just kinda fizzled out by that time... :V But this year I somehow re-ignited my love for them, definitely very much looking forward for their interactions in the new chapters To me krusie and kris&susie friendship are kind of interchangable because i enjoy their dynamic nonetheless and imagine as a ship they would not label or really aknowledge their relationship in any specific way and it would pretty much be the same as what they're already doing. Though I currently agree with the reading that Kris has a crush on her. I think it' interesting that compared to Ralsei and Noelle this is the option Kris seems to approve of the most as far as ship tease goes. Susie definitely really loves them too already but I dunno if she's ready for romantic relationships or even really cares for those. Somehow they'll make it work comfortably for both of them 😳 I can imagine them being roommates if they're still close by the time they're older. Queerplatonic reading? Probable! Though they dont know these words.

Extremely curious to if the past bullying gets more aknowledgement as well as to see more of Susie's backstory and how that fits into everything. The theory where she comes form a human town/human family is cool but I'm not married to it. 🤔

Didn't care much for Kris intitally (who is THAT they'll never be Chara 😤) but they really grew on me. Probably my favorite character. I miss my little enby Tails I miss them... Very endearing and intriguing to me, I love pieceing out their personality from flavor text and other character's dialogue. Curious yet scared to see what horrors they'lI go through next. doubt they'd die at the end or anything but I have an inside joke about Toby Fox announcing that Kris will be buried in a closed coffin 😭 and what's the deal with the twsited sword....

Susie was my fave during ch1, fizzled out on her during ch2 and recently got back onto that :] Does she know she is awesome and everyone loves her... well not everyone but you get what i mean. I appreciate her complexity, big heart and strong will. And Maya Fey inspiration. Her eating habits being likely tied to neglect really reminds me of Kyoko from pmmm compenasating the starvation she went through🤔 Once again can't wait to see more of her backstory and lore! and more ways she goes against the intended game experience.

[d-apperc-adaver]

FORTUNE

Green. Viridescent. It was the first colour his eyes saw and even if we were to take arbitrary guesses, it would be the last he’ll see, for he surrounds himself with green.

At first, it wasn’t ‘bout money. Truly, you could say it was never. It was about the riches of the old farts creation! it was helping and giving, and making art of trees that could conquer even the most steepest plains, that could grow tall and proud, plants of a million kinds each one of them strange or beautiful and birds of the paradise that flew like phantasms whisperings songs of holy news. It was Eden.

He always got attached to objects. I mean, if your parental figure would overlook your help you’d try harder, but cope in the lost moments of loneliness, with what you have left.

He loved his vast forests. But what he loved the most was the big dirt patch the geezer conjured on the more neglected, lower side of the planet, and he made sure that it would get the same treatment as the rest of the creations. But what was most curious about this, is that the objects he got attached to were usually of his own making. Not that he couldn’t accept gifts back then, but he just knew he didn’t deserve them.

And when he got to hell he made the greed ring in its image.Just like the Great Architect did with those humans. Of course he couldn’t replicate it or even get close to the creativity he had back than, his mind was far decayed by insects now.

He used to hate the fact that whatever he did he could not get rid of his siblings teases of how he was acting by the patern of the old geezer, take Fizzarolli and the clown pageant for example. But now he just doesn’t care anymore. He ruined one more bond, no, two. And he could care less.

For now, I can only give you a question, which the answer for might be in this very text :

“What does greedy man want?”

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AHOY HOY! authors notrs! Genuinely dont know how to feel about this. So I got my inspiration from “A fallen Family“ by Anglotorn on ao3 (which got recomended to me by a lovely person in the comments of a post here on tumblr) which WAS GREAT (possible bias cause I have an oc that lives in the envy ring with a scottish accent which ties into the respectives story choice to make Leviathan have a scottish accent :] )

But ANYWAY!! Having the sins come out of the mob spawner at the beging of hell is kinda boringgg.🤑🤑🤑 i mean man. Wheres the real deal, ANGST. No owl soap opera melodrama.

And tbh Im a firm believer in “every character should have a reason“ on big choices (like not something out of your control, or talking without thinking, ehich usually has a resosbn too, despite unconscious)

ANYWAYE HOPE YOU ENJOYD GUIZ!!

[4pfsukuna]

Hiii❤️can you write some headcanons about sukuna with a asexual reader? It could be modern sukuna or any version. Of course you dont have to if youre not comfortable with it🙏

OMG Can i? This is my first request you can bet Sukunas masochism i can! Originally i had no idea what to write and then i had 17 ideas.

Then i began writing couldn’t save it as a draft it got deleted so now here’s the second idea i had.

It’s not often someone steals Sukunas attention but you do it with ease.

At first he’s annoyed by the way you stare at him with a deadpan gaze. No thoughts, no emotions just gaze.

He’s used to either fear, adoration or lust but you just give him a blank stare it’s torture…he kind of likes it.

• He likes listening to you read, sing and cook you do those things with such passion it engulfs you to the point of you forgetting he’s there.

That’s when he takes the time to Admire  your hair, dark pink curls that resemble the soft texture of cotton Candy… kinda smells like it to. (It’s vanilla) 

and no matter how many times you swat his hand away he cant help it…its pretty. Like you.

He’s infatuated and how dare you not be equally infatuated with him as he is with you?!

You get lots of…gifts. The head of a goat, skull of…something and the blood of your enemies. You don’t want to question how he got any of these things.

“What? Why do you not look happy?” He questions yet youre speechless unaware of the same dead gaze you’re still giving him. He cant read it but he knows its not joy.

“I shower it with gifts and yet still no emotions, these human things are so confusing”

“I’m not a thing or an it im a human and im not emotionless im asexual” 

Now its his turn for the blank stare except you can read his and hes completely confused.

You laugh at his idiocy, how can you not. Or maybe the irony of someone like Sukuna trying  to get you to show emotions.

He wants to hate you laughing at him but he likes the way your plump lips reveal your sharp teeth and you’re shaking with laughter.

He definitely ask uraume about asexuality. Uraume just stares— the same stare you give and it dawns on him uraume is also asexual. 

Sukuna is very hands on hes just adapted to different ways.

Biting? Yes he will bite you just for his own shits and giggles. Hard enough to leave bite marks but never enough to break skin…ok maybe once but he thinks its okay because your blood didnt make him want to eat you.

hes learned your blank stares at this point and this one means you think he’s an idiot.

He also will just randomly pick you up and sit you on his lap as you rant about the characters in your book. And when you think he isn’t listening…

“Sweetheart if they were real id dismember them and make a necklace of their blood for you to wear” he promises wrapping a curl of yours around his finger ignoring the countless times youve told him to stop touching your hair.

This results in you biting his hand. 

He likes having his hair played in, he won’t say it aloud but the soft groans he lets out that turn into snores is all the confirmation you needed.

Imagine how angry he was waking up to an empty bed, hair not being played with to see you talking to one of the guards in the middle of the night.

“Jealousy doesnt suit you, king Sukuna” and he hates when you call him that as if you were nothing more than just a servant and he meant nothing to you.

He uses all 4 arms to make sure he doesnt wake up in the mornings without you. Sometimes he’ll peak one if his eyes open and it’s never long before you feel his gaze and smile.

“Im still here… Now go to sleep before i poke you in your eye” Did you just threaten him? He smirks turning his head the other way… he wasnt willing to risk that.

You sometimes wondered if being asexual bothered him… it didn’t. He like that someone just wanted to spend time with him no fear, no lust, no requirements to do or be anything.

Especially after a long day of being king he just wants to rant about how annoying everyone is especially you since you weren’t there because you were soooo busy.

You went shopping with uraume, who seemed to like you for Sukuna. Though After spending the day with uraume you understood why they were bestfriends. Uraume was equally as unhinged just quiet.

He hates when you use your pointer fingers to direct his frown literally upside down. And your giggle that you let out… he needs to punch something— or turn away so you cant see him actually smile.

When it comes to dates he takes you to grand places he’s not a date person. He heard you talk about stars once so he takes you to the top of the castle and explains each constellation watching the way you hold onto every word with fascination.

Or he shows you his domain for the first time and tells you about war stories and as you look around at the piles of skeletons you notice this may be where he got the skull he gave you as a piece of him. 

You realize he might have a crush on you.

Or the day he avoids you completely after you yelled at him about plucking a fish from water just because only to wake you up at 2am to show you the koi fish pond he had installed with so many different colored fish.

Hes shocked when your tiny body hugs him, laughing in pure excitement before leaning over the lake admiring each and every fish.

Its when you turn back to him the same adoration on your face this time aimed at him that his brain lags for a second. He finally… FINALLY got what he’s been wanting for so long.

and like the greedy man he is he wants more vowing to say yes to whatever you want.

He doesnt process you running back into his arms with pure excitement until you speak.

“Can we get more? I think a bigger lake. Sukuna could you imagine a wall in our bedroom with these fish? Or a secret mini pond in the throne room that can only be accessed by us” 

And the sounds of we, our bedroom and us along with the way your bright eyes gaze up happily and hopefully at him makes his insides hot. 

You never talked about the status of your relationship but he was yours the moment you gazed at him with that deadpan expression. And the way his name rolled off your lips through your razor sharp teeth infatuated does nothing to explain how he feels about you.

[radaedan]

Turns out I lied again😁 I lied so much, you guys better call me Focalors lmao (just dont behead me😅). However, perhaps this is going to be my last post before I go hiatus... hopefully.

I think Xiuhcoatl had some blame on the fall of the Natlan Dragon civilization.

"Wtf Radaedan??? You're literally the Xiuhcoatl's no.1 simp??? How could you say something like this about him???" Hey we love someone, we have to accept all of them, flaws and all. Plus, it doesn't make him less undeserving of everything that happened to him. To me, it just show how tragic my beloved Sovereign is🥲

Okay, for starter, let me remind you about the conversation of Xiuhcoatl & Kukulkan first. In the quest "Sealed Site of Sacrifice", we get a memory of Kukulkan during the finale of Astral Assamblages' construction, in which Xiuhcoatl & Kukulkan conversed about the 'right-or-wrong' of Xiuhcoatl's method.

And following it, in "The Forsaken Sea of Wisdom" quest, Xiuhcoatl & Kukulkan conversed regarding the Huitzilopochtli & the first experiment of The Astral Assamblages. The devices, as Kukulkan said it, "must be activated and actively attached to serve as countermeasures against corruption. Before they are completely warped by the Abyss, they will self-destruct and eliminate its influence." And Xiuhcoatl planned to be its lab rat, because, "...if nothing else, this decrepit body may still serve in this manner." (My king...😭)

But the following conversation is the crutch of my debate:

Xiuhcoatl created the Huitzilopochtli because he believed that there's no other way but total phlogistonization of life to save his kind from the Abyss. In this world of his, name has no meaning. Self has no meaning. Nothing truly matters exist. And we have seen the power of Huitzilopochtli, no? In the alternate ending of the quest finale. The existence that our Little one endured, that near-eternal, limitless white of nothingness, with nothing tangible and the self in agony.

However, I think that is not exactly what our Sovereign aimed. When Xiuhcoatl spoke of the Huitzilopochtli, he envisioned that all dragons will lose their sense of self, and became one. His vision is more akin to the concept of Human Instrumentality of Evangelion, rather than the white nothingness we see later.

Whether the white agony our Little One endured is a mistake in his grand plan or not, we'll talk about it later. This time, I want you to get this sink in: Xiuhcoatl regarded that losing your individuality, memories, your sense of self, and merged with other all your kind, is better than being swallowed by the Abyss.

With how Kukulkan yapped about how "dragons have reached an evolutionary stalemate" & Xiuhcoatl's own concept about the Huitzilopochtli, it seems it is safe to say that this whole thing is inspired from the Evangelion's Human Instrumentality Project.

For those who don't know, this is the simplest run-down of the show that I can think of: Human Instrumentality Project aims to eradicate the barrier of individuality in all humans. Humanity would transform into a sea of collective consciousness. Everyone would have access to each other's thoughts, memories, and self. There's no individuality, uniqueness, sense of self, because everyone is one. You are everyone and everyone are you, at the same time.

In the Neon Genesis Evangelion Proposal, the Human Instrumentality Project is described as "a plan to save humanity, which has reached an evolutionary stalemate." Kinda similar to Kukulkan's words, no?

"Okay Radaedan, all of that yap, but what does it means to your argument?" It means A LOT. Because in Evangelion itself, the narrative rejects this project.

You see, the characters of Evangelion are... miserable, to say the least. The main core of the show isn't the Sci-Fi attacks or what, it is human connection. Our characters struggles or suffer from it. The father of the mc, and arguably the antagonist of the show, Gendo Ikari, put his son, the people around him, and all humanity through all the shitshow to achieve the Human Instrumentality. Why?

To reunite with his wife, Yui.

This is not a traditional romance, mind you. Gendo HATES himself. He doesn't have a sense of worth, found his existence only hurts the people around him, and afraid of human connection, because he believed he couldn't form it. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way. He's distant from his son, Shinji, because he believed he could only hurt him. Yui is his sanctuary, the only person whom accepted him as he is, the only one Gendo could form a connection with without the fear of hurting her or himself. When Yui is gone (not actually really gone but that's another matter entirely) he did all of bullshit to reunite with her. However, when his plan is about to be fulfilled at last-

Yui rejects him. And confronted his wrongdoings, his treatment to their son, and his deepest fears.

She killed him, not giving him a chance to join the sea of collective consciousness.

Gendo wanted to forego his individuality to feel safe. Yui rejected that. She wanted him to own his mistakes, wished him to form a connection with their son and have hopes for humanity. He didn't, so she killed him.

"Yet another yap😭" JUST STAY WITH ME. This is important to my point.

Now let's turn to Shinji, the mc. Just judging from his father's situation, you could see that this boy suffers immensely. I shall not name his other miseries or how he managed to do it, but you see, in the end, he was thrust into the responsibility of activating the Human Instrumentality Project.

For a depressed person, the Human Instrumentality Project sounds... nice, in a way. You need not to suffer. Everyone understands you, because everyone is you. You need not to feel fear of human interactions, because everyone is you. You need not to be yourself, because everyone is you.

Shinji has a chance to not suffer.

And he rejects it.

He rejects the Human Instrumentality Project, because he realized, in the end of the day, the project is just another way of running away. Suffering exists because of other humans, mistreatment and our inability to understand each other completely, yes, but so does happiness. We feel happiness because we are connected with other humans. Our music, our game, our art, our friendship, such and such, wouldn't it be sweeter to be shared with other people, instead of locking it up within ourselves? Of other people appreciating you and finds joy with you? People who loves you as you, not because you are everyone. Your loved ones love you with as theirselves and you love your loved ones as yourself.

That is the joy and pain of self, and Shinji, despite all of his suffering, finally sees the truth in it.

Now I want to apply it to Xiuhcoatl. I think, what Xiuhcoatl really did with the creation of Huitzilopochtli, is running away. Perhaps his time during his 'false death', when he was imprisoned in the lava all alone, and his own abyssal infection fueled this, but it still running away, nonetheless.

Maybe during his false death, that loneliness traumatised him. Maybe he thought that erasing the barriers of his kin's individuality is better than going through it all over again. Just like Gendo, he thought that being one with everyone is better than actually making efforts of working together to find the solution, to connect with each other.

"Istg your lack of appreciation for Xiuhcoatl's efforts-" I AM APPRECIATING HIM!!! APPRECIATING ALSO MEAN BEING HONEST OF OPINION AND ACKNOWLEDGING WHAT THEY REALLY DO!!! AND WHAT XIUHCOATL REALLY DID IS ACTUALLY LOSING HOPE!!!

Yes, for all his talks to Kukulkan losing faith in his people, I think it's Xiuhcoatl himself that was losing hope. He didn't hope that his civilization could survive the Abyss. He didn't trust his kin to fight the Abyss. He didn't have hope for them to win. That's why he created the Huitzilopochtli.

And you know how his dragon kin still worshipped him while he turned into a senseless walking corpse? You think they just trust blindly into him like that? No, I think Xiuhcoatl, intentionally or not, nourish that behaviour. He had this "I can fix this, you better stay put" mentality. Kukulkan did say that there are dragons who were afraid of the Huitzilopochtli, but nobody could go agaisnt Xiuhcoatl. Xiuhcoatl forced them to accept the Huitzilopochtli, ready or not. Kukulkan did say that Xiuhcoatl should let the Dragon people find the solution together by themselves, but he rejected it. And eventually, he threatened Kukulkan to just kill him, if Kukulkan thought his plan was so extreme.

He was conditioned to be listened and be worshipped, and he thought it was his subjects' duty to accept this idea. Thought that rejecting it is the same as wishing his death.

But here's a thing; you can't solve a problem this big by yourself. And you can't force people to accept your solution willy-nilly, especially a solution as terrifying as this. He forced his people to create a weapon that annihilated the entire world and themselves. He forced his people to "do as I say. Don't even dare to think of other solution. This is for your best." He forced his people to think that they had no hope of winning, and they are better of losing their individuality than even fight against the Abyss.

And what exactly does this Huitzilopochtli achieve? Kukulkan became terrified of this project, he abandoned his dragon kin to find solution in humanity before his brother could activate Huitzilopochtli. His dragon kin listened to their zombie king. They were ordered not to even hope against the Abyss, so they didn't. They put all of their hopes in him instead, even when they were afraid. Do you think that one of the reason why they were so fractured is because they were afraid that if they were found lacking in faith, they would be cast away to be annihilated instead of joining the collective consciousness?

Where did it get them? Fractured, self-cannibalizing, defeated by the human forces. Dead.

Xiuhcoatl lost his hope, forced them not to hope. And now they're all dead.

Another thing, Xiuhcoatl named the Secret Source Servant prototype "Kukulkan", claiming that the owner of the name would care less about it. But isn't it Xiuhcoatl himself that say that all names would lose all meaning with the activation of Huitzilopochtli? Doesn't it means that the name "Kukulkan" doesn't have meaning to him, anymore? That (just my headcanon, btw) his children', the Dragonlords, names, with their titles and greatness planted in their names, have no meaning, didn't carry his prayers and wish of the qualities he hoped they would embody? That his dragon kin's names wouldn't have any meaning anymore? That he, the forger of all names, found that names have no meaning anymore?

You wished to destroy all names, Xiuhcoatl, why you cling to it?

But you know who's the one who never lose hope? Kukulkan.

Not exactly hope for the dragon kind, but hope to fight the Abyss. He did some evil shit, experimenting on his son, snatching human souls, orchestrating the suffering of the Saurians afflicted with the Flamelord's Blessing. But he did it because he has hope for humanity. He says it himself:

Kukulkan: If I had truly wished for a dragon to activate that system, should I not have raised them within the Sacred City, teaching them to hate this world? Why did I send them to be by a human's side? Kukulkan: Perhaps... deep down, I still wished... to believe. Kukulkan: But look. Isn't it wonderful? It made the same choice I made back then — and Och-Kan too, for that matter. Kukulkan: ...My king, my elder brother, O lord who gave me life on the day you yourself were born... You once said that in my final moments, I would understand your desire. Kukulkan: Haha, but it seems that on this point alone, I cannot concede...

Xiuhcoatl once said that Kukulkan would follow the same path as him. Kukulkan conceded him with everything, but not this. Not the annihilation not the hope. He didn't understand his brother's desire, because he still had hope.

In a way, our Little One is the Shinji to the Xiuhcoatl & Kukulkan's Gendo. Xiuhcoatl who wished for Dragon Instrumentality Project & Kukulkan who done his shit in the name of humanity & thought he was running out of hope. Perhaps our Little One didn't suffer as much as Shinji, but like him, he realized that the world without connection isn't a world worth living. He chose us, for all the pain and joy and sorrow of the world, God he chose us. Even if we parted with him in the end, even if our journey would cause pain and longing to him, it's our memories that matter, our joy that matter, our selves that remembers them that matter.

Just like Shinji, he chose individuality.

Wow this is a long ass read XD

Tl;dr: Xiuhcoatl didn't hope that his dragon kin could win against the Abyss, forced them to accept his solution, thus fracturing his own civilization because they blindly followed him without thinking for their own solution themselves. Ironically, the one who didn't lose hope is Kukulkan, whom, despite all the shits he done, never actually intend to activate Huitzilopochtli with his actions.

And finally...

I FUCKING LOVE XIUHCOATL!!! MY TRAGIC AND COMPLEX DRAGON!!! MY FUCKING EVERYTHING RAHHHH WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT YOU WISH TO DESTROY ALL NAMES YOU LITERALLY CALLED YOURSELF THE FORGER OF ALL NAMES??? WDYM CALLING YOUR BROTHER LOSING FAITH IN YOUR PEOPLE WHEN YOU YOUSELF LOST HOPE THAT THEY COULD EVER WIN BY THEMSELVES??? FUCK YOU ILY SO MUCH XIUHCOATL PLEASE BE PLAYBLE I LOVE YOU!!!

[fictionfixations]

the dawn knight in place of yuu

MAJOR JP BOOK 7 SPOILERS

(anyway i like calling him the knight of dawn but also thats too many words for a name im going to be repeating a lot throughout this post so dawn knight)

okay so. i was thinking about a fic to write where a character had a part of themselves appear somewhere else? like ive been getting into omniscient reader but i have a diff story im trying to commit to rn so i cant really write something with it when i dont really know shit that happens besides like end game spoilers lOl

but i find the idea of like the 49/51 (?) interesting? i think thats the right numbers. no context to people who dont know what that means but that part broke me even though all i know about omniscient reader is by reading a shit ton of orv fanfiction. my heart man... sob.

but so anyways my mind wandered to the dawn knight

kudos to that like one fic where the dawn knight's soul appeared and attached itself to yuu except i read it when i didnt even know who he was but i thought maybe he was a buddy of lilia so im just reading and getting confused on like no why you no like lilia what (also he doesnt remember iirc and i think that was just like a instinctual feeling cause yknow humans vs fae??) but uh i know context now lMFAO

but like

just imagine this person who looks like silver but blonde. who doesnt remember who he is (as hes kind of more of just a fragment of his soul? but like he appears in NRC and not RSA because he still has a lingering attachment towards silver. wanting to see him grow because he never got the chance to)

who worries over silver

is a little nervous around fae, but maybe this is ooc but like without all the pressure from what the fuck was his name henrik(??) and like the people around him who are all anti-fae, cause he wouldve liked it if they couldve been in peace and stuff yknow? and also without those memories so its not too difficult for him to get past that and see them as people who will probably not harm others (LOOK i just want twst characters to be happy man cause everything is so sad :((( )

anyway lilia has grown since then and doesnt hate humans. maybe he doesnt exactly know how to feel about the dawn knight (UM like cause meleanor. or is it maleanor? i think thats EN spelling but tbh if not for en i wouldnt know how tf to spell it. but uh ykNOW.. he kinda. uh. still killed.)

but then maybe it becomes clear that this dawn knight (who needs an actual name. dawn sounds too on the nose and i dont think lilia associates dawn with positive feelings considering when maleanor died didnt it turn dawn or something. and then they broke down because shes DEAD.???)

is not the same dawn knight he met so long ago.

like

idk

think about it in like a. okay im pulling out honkai star rail examples now. but think of it maybe like dan feng and dan heng where they're like reincarnations of each other? but not the same person? (some people think of them as still the same considering i think(? its been a hot minute since i went through story) those memories of those reincarnations are then shared to other incarnations to help them in high elder duty thingy whatever its called but i think of them as entirely different people who happen to look similar)

i guess you could view it as a 'i once was [this], but now im this and im not the same person who did all those things'

EDIT: I AM WRONG. 2.5 spoilers but its mentioned that someone made dan heng remember his past life so its NOT canon that they remember their past life. "...led her to perform certain healing arts on Dan Heng, who had just finished his hatching rebirth, so that he would regain the memories of his past life?" but anyway thats how it turned out so uh just pretend that i mean reincarnating/past life type deal but stlil having some of those memories of the former life

idk maybe theres some lilia treating him as another son since like. all three of them are orphans who were taken in???? like its implied parallel of lilia being taken in by the mal... dRACONIA family sorry i forgot the last name om. and the dawn knight being taken in by the whoever is in charge. like the dad of henrik(?) and that person whose name i cant remember i think it was leah who the dawn knight liked and married? but so anyway they both got taken in by a family and owe them a debt and fight for them (and care for them. although idk about henrik ew, but he was also like. wanting princess glow(???) which could supposedly grant wishes i think to like cure their ill father, and saying that the dawn knight should do it for leah or something? i cant remember but he convinced him with something something leah)

i dont know where im going with this thought but like. i remember the dawn knight said something like. if things could be different? but like it cant be because they've gone too far now to forgive each other? but like he wanted there to be peace.

i remember thinking about lilia's wish in the wish upon a star event, maybe it was similar i cant recall exactly

Lilia: My wish is... ...for humans, fae, and all other species to live in harmony. [Img of the wishing star] Trey: Haha, wow. That's a pretty ambitious wish. Lilia: To join joyous hands with one another is no simple feat, even for those among the same species... To say nothing of the difficulties across species divides. You've learned about our history, have you not? All the countless tales of our failure to compromise, and the resulting conflicts? I have no desire to see such history repeated. So I make the same wish every Starsending.

like the dawn knight expressed regret that it had to be this way and wanted things to change but it was far too late. but like. he never did that stuff now (well lilia will remember so poor grandpa but. he's also been really forgiving towards humans when doing it for someone? like he endures it? like when he was searching for a way to hatch malleus and these people were really against lilia for being fae when he just existed, and he didnt fight back because it would paint a bad picture for the draconias? there was another example related to silevr but i cant remember it im. not what i was thinking about but theres also when he contemplated killing baby silver but changed his mind because he'd been trying to teach malleus to like. 'walk in time with his neighbor' and so and so and i forgot what he said but that how could he do that when he should be like setting an example for malleus or something right?)

also silver learning who his parents are in a maybe less traumatic way (like NOT running away knowing malleus' mom might die and then oh shit the ceiling collapsed and IS THAT THE ENEMY oh god please dont let malleus' egg be hurt and then he shares the same face as me? and that ring-- cue silver hating himself and being dragged in by darkness and i am just sobbing my eyes out like no silver he loved you so much :((( )

and even if lilia still holds anything against the dawn knight. still has lingering feelings even towards this not-dawn knight. that he wouldnt want to condemn the dawn knight, and then have silver condemn himself for being of that blood even though he didnt even do anything yknow?

and then when lilia dies he can meet up with the ghosts of maleanor and raverne (is that spelled right? i genuinely cant remember the EN spelling but it was something like that. uhh.??) and i know thats sad but i want lilia to be able to spend more time with maleanor and raverne too yknow? but im not sure how to do that

maybe. like the. the the . council? i cant remember its name fshuidfh but those assholes who appeared when we made it to. blackscale(?) castle... ? i. forgor. maleficia(THATS GRANDMA RIGHT?? i get so confused by who is who in draconia) castle??

but like when we get there with malleus' egg and then maleanor dies

and theres just these voices of long dead old geezers who are bitches to lilia and i hate them and i dont know how they're still there and can talk but i dont want maleanor there because they're horrible. also they literally said her sacrifice was like noble or some shit like that and im just like BITCH- (also lilia is banned from the capital or something isnt he?? like i mean he can still visit the castle. but secretly. but still :( )

so i just think.

fully getting over stuff. heart demons. talking things out. lilia gets to talk about stuff for the first time in awhile (remember when like literally no one talked about the circumstances regarding malleus' birth or something so silver and sebek just had no idea what they were getting into??? and like i guess he could talk to baul? baur? idk which one is the one on EN i forgor. but idk man.)

not-dawn knight being a really good listener. being understanding, sharing his input where appropriate. and like he also gets some of his memories which put a lot of things into proper context. and so sharing thoughts of so and so. and just. basically this talk that spirals into moving on.

sharing frustrations, sharing things that never really got to be known.? like regrets, etc etc

since i think the last time they met was when silver father reveal, and time passed and he died so its just all these lingering things that never got to be said out loud for various reasons. like maybe because company is against so and so so to say something would be like idk maybe traitorous? i dont think thats the right word but words are hard and i keep forgetting words the moment i need them

its like. the unique point of view of talking about things between former enemies. like how they viewed things, etc etc

and then when lilias lived a full life, no regrets, he meets maleanor and raverne in the afterlife.

oh yeah also about his dorm i have no fucking idea. i honestly mostly forgot what each dorm represents but either ramshackle or diasomnia, which i know is like nobility or something? but anyway dawn knight married a princess, also i associate diasomnia with fae / briar valley which is related considering hes book 7 stuff so im pushing him there anyway

or maybe the mirror cant read him because his soul is fragmented. or maybe retcon and his soul isnt like that? idk but i like to think the other part of his soul is in the afterlife with his wife yknow? and eventually silver will be there and able to meet his mom and huggies, and acknowledging that these are who his parents are, but also that lilia is also his parent and the one who raised him yknow? there can be more than two parents in my eyes.

its just that his soul is like in half because of the part of him that wants to have seen silver grown. i think i said this earlier in the post but that since the last time he saw silver was as an infant (also he had blonde hair so-)

also wasnt infant silver asleep for like hundreds of years until it was either because someone who loved him came by (lilia) or because the spell finally wore off (which is what lilia thinks. i dont know where to put my two cents at tbh of which i think is right)

so dawn knight just sitting there in the afterlife like. ..man. my childs still not here. i mean. thats a good thing that they're not dead but like. i kinda wanna see them.

or well silvers the only one so i should be saying he but gidfhuj

also it was either leah or leia i am a dumbass? maybe leah was the EN one. idk i forgot.

anyway thats enough yapping for me

[bunnakit]

4 minutes ep 1 raw reactions

idk if i'm gonna delve too deep into this and do my normal analysis so for now i'll just type up my raw reactions as i'm watching lmao.

the title sequence is fucking stunning, obsessed.

ooh he has a maine coon. rich boy maybe? expensive cat and nice apartment.

i really enjoy that the heartbeat sounds in the elevator scene sound like a heartbeat heard through an ultrasound. very interesting.

but umm. if you're having severe chest pain and trouble breathing please see yourself to the hospital my friend???

oh ok definitely a rich boy, hello fancy car.

AAAAAA BAS, IT'S BAS, LSKJGAI MY LOVE, GOD HE LOOKS SO GOOD

the music in this show is fucking gorgeous but like... also why so dramatic

ok so korn: transport -> investments (secret operation??? tf?) and they want great: university -> transport. got it.

ooh 12:39 okay i see you.

ooh 12:43 ok, 4 minutes, i'm listening.

OH. OH DON'T RUN THO

also like why was there a pedestrian in there???

OH. OK. INTERESTING.

i also hate that great initially ran bc now it's gonna take so much for me to like his char, which i'm sure is the point but still (；′⌒`)

aah. okay. i understand. it seems like she didn't want to do it tho. like yeah maybe suicide but... kinda seemed like suicide under coercion? or some form of intense external pressure.

HOLY SHIT JOB. THEY LET HIM OUT OF THE BE ON CLOUD VAULT. RUN BBY YOU'RE FREE.

HE'S SO THIN??? BBY ARE YOU EATING OKAY? i mean good for him if it was healthy and what he wanted tho.

this other doctor is so fucking hot tho who the fuck are you sir god DAMN. jaw for days.

ooh those dark spots on the ultrasound look like internal bleeding.

OH I'M SO SEXY AND SMART.

sexy doctor why shifty eyed??? i have a weird feeling about him. ok his name is tyme. as of rn we do not trust tyme.

more gorgeous music tho.

oh don't twirl your scissors like a douche.

he's got dead eyes and not much for facial expressions, he's freaking me out.

ew you don't even know your patient's name??? I DO NOT LIKE HIM SAM I AM, I DO NOT LIKE TYME EGGS AND HAM.

ok i dont like tyme but i WOULD like to see him and job's character fuck nasty. i am not immune to yaoi propaganda.

GOD BAS IS SO HOT I CAN'T GET OVER IT. I'VE MISSED HIM SO FUCKING MUCH. i love bible a lot but bas is everything to me. i used to reblog the same picture of him everyday. that's my sweet cheese, my good time boy, my rotten soldier.

oh i don't like this set up tho. this feels human trafficky. or like a no way in no way out. mmmm baby what do y smell is it death? OH LMAO IT'S GAMBLING. same thing kinda.

korn seems sensitive to smells, or maybe just smoke. he's just like me fr.

oooh curly hair girl isn't here to gamble, she's here for info of some kind.

OH BOYFRIEND TIME. OHHH OH I GET TO SEE BAS KISS MEN. LIKE I KNEW BC I SAW THE GIFS WHEN IT FIRST STARTED BUT UGH. I WAS NOT PREPARED. FUCK HE'S SO HOT. I CAN'T FUCKING DO THIS. HELP.

the fact that he opens up to his boyfriend and talks about his troubles as much as he reasonably can o(T ▽ To)

oh my god get OFF HIM there's no way your refractory period is that short.

not a huge fan of how korn came over, dumped his issues, had sex, and left tho. not great.

obsessed with this asymmetrical collar of great's shirt tho.

yeah i do love that no one fucking asks if great is ok, how he's doing, etc. he just went through something horribly traumatic and he could've been hurt, like. yuck. and his mom seems sweet but the fake sweet, like saccharine.

ooh why does his watch say 11:00??? something's gonna happen, huh.

fuck bas has an fantastic ass. i know we saw it but it somehow looks even better in those pants, my god.

7:13...

ugh i love brothers that can only be (mostly) themselves around each other. i really hope that's the direction this is going. two gorgeous gorgeous men on my screen, just an absolute feast for my eyes.

omg wait. wait. korn doesn't like the smell of cigarettes and he doesn't want great smoking. is there cigarette trauma? or does his dislike of cigarettes come from his concern for his brother's health?

OH facial expressions from tyme!! what a little grandma's boy.

11 am....

exploring the psychological depths of near-death experiences. the '4-minutes' phenomenon.

INCHRESTING. was manee coerced into suicide by someone trying to obtain a real time test subject for this phenomenon???

ooh he took the stairs today.

4th floor... 1:10 (13:10)... room 4... 1:11 (13:11)... ran into tyme outside room 1... at 1:14 (13:14)...

so in theory is each cardiac event he's suffering technically a near-death moment which is triggering the 4 minutes phenomenon where he has an out of body moment where he can see future events???

oooh he ran into him again. perhaps to show some things are simply inevitable?

damn the end sequence is gorgeous too.

fuck. i might be obsessed. uh oh.

god damn it sammon, you got me again.

wait so back to when it was 7:13pm... 19:13... 9+1=10, 3+1=4 so more 1s and 4s ₍ ˶•̀⤙•˶ ₎ hmmm

idk if i'm cooking or burning the kitchen down but i'm excited to find out

[dhajetii]

Netflix DMC Reactions/Commentary

Been a while since I've done this. I think the last time was for the HBO Last of Us? Either way. Here's some of my random thoughts as I worked my way through Devil May Cry.

I played (and enjoyed) the dmc video games back in the day and i was, unfortunately, excited about this show going in. I wanted to have fun here, as I've had fun with the franchise in the past. And I did. The show is a fun watch. I think both fans of the franchise and new arrivals who know nothing of the games and just want a kickass gory anime to watch can enjoy this.

Some of the comments i make kind of spoil plot lines from the games and the show itself. This is commentary for all 8 episodes, listed in order.

EPISODE 1: some random merc: gets decapitated me: giggling and kicking my feet. "Good start!"

KEVIN CONROY?!?! i didnt know he was gonna be here T_T i miss you man

OMG thats a remix of Vergil's theme <3 i recognize those lyrics

how come only like 1 person was dancing in that club wth XD

Kevin Conroy's character doing these interrogations is doing NOTHING to separate this character from Batman in my head so far.

hmmm I wonder why this shapeshifter just happens to know what Dante's "dead" brother would look like as an adult when he "died" as a child?? MYSTERY OF THE AGES

------------

EPISODE 2:

ohhh is that Lady? <3 Lady <3 i forgot she was gonna be in the show ngl i only watched the trailer once a long time ago

why dont they fucking ask dante? why go in guns blazing?? fucking americans (i say as an american)

KEEP ROLLIN' ROLLIN' ROLLIN' - i do love the music so far. At least they havent dropped the ball on that yet.

your life worth half a mil? dude, value yourself more than that.

unflinching Kevin Conroy. Very Batman of you KEVIN. Ah, until you bring god into it ok nvm. The separation between this motherfucker and Batman has begun.

I want pizza. GDI Dante.

jfc idk what pool balls are made out of but ok. those are SOLID

i wanna replay dmc 3 now.

THE SWORD<3 i wondered where you were Rebellion my beloved

freshmen never do their homework.

-----------

EPISODE 3:

oh we actually got Lady's backstory. Neat.

LOL all the Capcom references.

"OTHER PROTOTYPE"; give the lady her cannon-machine gun- thing! I forgot the name! But it was cool! Queen maybe? Just looked it up: Kalina Ann. IDK where i got Queen. Must be some other killer machine thing from somewhere else (OTHER THAN FF14)

i cant tell if Dante is playing stupid or this is early enough in his timeline he genuinely doesnt know about his heritage yet.

REBELLION!! plz be sword time. I need sword time.

Honestly, I kinda like the Rabbit's attitude/vibe

you know what lady could use rn? A GIANT FUCKIN GUN-CANNON

WENT AT HIM WITH A FUCKIN KEYBOARD LOL WHAT

REBELLION!! I really like swords ok. im just a simple little guy with simple tastes. swords are sexy.

LAST RESORT remix :o !

ok whatever this bike is made of is tough shit this is what all cars and tires need to be made of.

DEVIL TRIGGER BABBBBEEEEYYYYY. Awh. JK. not yet. tease. He'll get there.

-----------

EPISODE 4:

BABY VERGIL<3 baby dante<3

ugh, Conroy-not-Batman, stfu. I cant believe im asking you to stop talking. But stop talking. Sorry Kevin.

Dante's momma isnt the only human who wants to fuck a demon. Damn. this black and red one with the wings <3 badass

oh no the humans are dying. So anyway this background music is good.

i feel like im supposed to care more about this hit squad of soldiers? but i really dont with the exception of Lady. Girl has enough trauma already give her a break.

ah, i see. Prediction: Rabbit was besties with Sparda once upon a time I'll bet, and he didnt appreciate being left behind and trapped in Hell with Mundus

oof. more Trauma for Lady. Nothin' like a good ol' drug-induced mind fuck to darken your afternoon.

DEVIL TRIGGER <3 at least partially!! he's gettin there <3

historically, demons in this franchise have all been the same. They've not really portrayed them like this before. At least, not that i can remember. I'm not opposed to this direction tho.

-----------

EPISODE 5:

ok we're gonna have a very long-lasting fall sequence i see. That motorcycle a couple episodes ago lasted much longer than it should have too. This might as well happen.

NGL when i saw that keypad on the wall i immediately squinted at it to see if any numbers were faded to Sherlock Holmes the fuckin' code.

Right. Back to falling. OR, hear me out, fully devil trigger and use your wings, Dante.

you know, all that falling shrapnel would totally rip a parachute but okay. You know, i kind of hate the random details i choose to apply reality to and which details i let slide lmao. Like ah yes, the parachutes are the MOST unrealistic part of this show for sure, mhm.

Lady is so smart <3

devil trigger. devil trigger. devil trigger. YEAH BABY LETS GOOO

Lady really adapted and accepted this new situation with these Makaian REALLY fast for someone deeply traumatized by demons since childhood, (but i guess there is also whatever those horror-flashbacks involving her dad at play here). But good for her for being able to distinguish between civilians and the actual enemy. I'm not used to this whole refugee dynamic with the demons from a dmc franchise but I'll take it. Considering Sparda cant have been the only "good" one capable of emotion/love/empathy/etc.

LOL lady calling Rabbit's operation nazi-esque is fuckin' hilarious considering USA-VP is moments away from eradicating a bunch of ppl based purely on his religious-fueled hatred of something different from himself. Also "funny" considering current real world events. Gotta love the point made when humans turn out to be the "monsters" Rabbit used VP's hatred and he played his part perfectly.

I'm still unraveling Rabbit's trauma, but he definitely has a dislike of demons and humans both it seems like

-----------

EPISODE 6:

Rabbit backstory time? ah, incorrect. more Lady. No? Both :o okay.. why both? :o

Dad goes full mad-scientist. Oh. Oh no. I know where this is going. Right, yeah.

OH-HO! it is also Rabbit backstory. Well shit. Well then. No wonder.

Huh. Sudden change in art style. Its cute tho.

Sorry kid dont mind me while I bop to this sick tune while you run for your life.

OK, so this is really adorable and moving. Oh damn the other shoe is gonna drop soon aint it? ugh. FEELS!

OH SHIT this is the Evanescence track playing. And here's the (more) trauma. oof.

wait a minute. There has to be a reason they're running both of their backstories in tandem like this. oH FUCK! Im remembering something Lady said a few episodes ago about refugees. well shit.

But if Rabbit...? then why'd he ...?

oohhhhh. :x

Madness is the emergency exit. And Rabbit just took it.

Ok. ok. ok. HOOOOO. ok.

yeah so my prediction for the Rabbit's backstory earlier was WRONG

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EPISODE 7:

OH! OH! "Flare for the dramatic".... blue shit..... VERGIL!!<3

<3 Lady being a badass once again x2

KALINA ANNNNNNNNN. there's *my* LADY

to hell with you, Dante!

LOL

Honestly, Rabbit has a point.

-----------

EPISODE 8:

whew. okay. final episode. now its time for America Darkcom to be just as demonic as the demons.

bunny has a backup plan.

LOL enzo ships it.

ugh, this guy.

ooh another severed head

kinda hope Anders kills the VP or at least tries

oh enzo no D: .. T_T

i honestly expected Lady to use Kalina Ann more than she did all of once.

oh hey you got dante to bleed finally. Dont let it get on the necklace my dude.

"built on misery" hey thats where im from! Missouri!

rip. but like, not R.I.P. but like ripped rip.

smh, Lady!

o shit.

HAHAHA here's the Green Day, LMAO. American Idiot playing during these last few moments is just... this feels a little too on the nose maybe?

...sigh. Well shit.

oh fuck Uroboros. There you are, you bastard. (BURN CORPO SHIT)

FHJKSDHFJDKSHFDJKSFHDSJKHFS. VERGIL. VERGIL. VERGIL.

<3 Yamato <3

fun that they did a remix of Vergil's theme from dmc 5 but i like the OG better, those vocals are *chefs kiss*

-----------

in summary: this was fun. the music is good. the plot wasnt bad. something slightly different from what they usually do while also being slightly the same. but honestly i think its kind of appropriate given current events the last few years. its sayin' something.

[that-cartoony-villain]

i have some thoughts after the first ep of downfall

i really like that they have the deities disguised as human trying to shut down aeor and the beginning with their possible creation and light vs darkness was incredible

but as much as i think the binary message was a cool little touch to make it easier to figure out which gods they are, i kinda wish they didn't do that

for people that dont know exandrias pantheon, seeing those words kind of dont mean anything to them because they wouldnt know what each god is a deity of

but at the same time for critters who know the lore it became very easy to figure out who is whom by the hints the cast and brennan were throwing around without them saying like "oh hi I'm [blank] god"

the raven queen was the easiest solely because we've had more time with her in c1 and other campaigns too since death is kind of inevitable

dawnfather was a slow build and then very much you couldnt ignore that it was him once nick said "it's not dark" like the little mf that pelor is /pos

melora was also fun to figure out because animals are her thing and then she got the most upset when erathis didnt show up like the yearning little lesbian that she is

arch heart was also a slow build up to figure out, they needed to be rigid and play their part so the others could get on board, they couldnt stop themselves of visiting the city of creation, they see beauty everywhere, they're just as much of a little shit as i imagined they would be also /pos

law bearer's envoy (champion?) was easy to figure out because of meloras reaction and also for The Emissary's lines about helping civilization, he was sent to be their salvation, maybe she knows it's inevitable for the city to fall and wants to preserve as much as she can (he might be the one to send out the blue bubbles who knows)

and then we have the everlight, at first i thought ashley was playing ioun, the husband talked about her being a teacher but then you have these subtleties in their lines - asmodeus talking about her not having followers, the dawnfather's care for his sister, her compassion - and everything made sense, even her light being name Luz is just Light translated from some romance languages

then we have the npcs: ioun was easy enough to figure out from the get go, brennan was also very explicit about who she is, and the betrayers were very fun to figure out, we don't have all the knowledge about them all but asmodeus, the father of lies, choosing to be Father Milo and a cleric of the Dawnfather just to fuck with him is an incredible choice, Torog being the torturer but also the most tortured and fucked up looking is such beautiful imagery, and the other two we don't have that much but i assume the halfling is Lolth, since she enjoys the darkest corners and climbing things, while the other one might be Tiamat, just cause it makes sense for me that she would be a heavy hitter

this is all to say that brennan and the cast did a wonderful job in this first ep with the imagery and subtle (and not so subtle) references to each character in a way that fans can figure out who is each person and newcomers can learn their personalities slowly and figure out the dynamics with the time we get to see

because we need to remember, this is bells hells watching this, and many of them have no knowledge about the gods beside a few that they've met their champions, fcg followed the changebringer, orym, fearne and dorian have met the wildmother and the spider queen, laudna has some connection to the matron and they now met a champion and a follower of asmodeus, both of which they havent asked much about the prince of hell

this is as much for them to meet the deities as it is for us to see the downfall of one of the most important cities in the Age of Arcanum

[lunatic-fandom-space]

hey gang, please look at these two messy relationship charts i made

are you confused and/or curious about all this? Well, then you should watch the 2018 takarazuka production The Poe Clan. orrrr if you dont wanna do that, you can read my summary of it under the cut :3c

Alright, we start off in west-germany in 1964 with a bunch of characters who are not on either one of the charts because they dont actually matter, theyre just here to be the narrators/a framing device. However, the reason Im telling you about them anyway is that the framing device comes back at the very end in a way that I find really funny and you need some context for it. So, our gaggle of unimportant framing-device characters consists of Margerite Hessen, her 20-something nephew Louis Byrd, Beich IV and Don Marshal. Theyre vampire-reasearchers but not in the sense that they research their biology or their weaknesses, theyre not vampire-hunter adjacent in that way, theyre more like historians who are interested in tracking one particular vampire-family "bloodline", which is of course the Poe Clan. Actually the Poe Clan appears to be the only vampires in the world, so I guess they wouldnt be able to track anyone else. Margerite Hessen and Beich IV are both the descendants of two people who published books that are important primary sources, Louis Byrd has encountered two of them five years ago while he was still in school but does not appear to be very interested in the vampire-research-shit his aunt is doing which I find kinda funny, and Don Marshal is a guy that met those same two vampires 14 years ago, its not specified where or how.

Before we continue, I must say that the vampires are not actually called vampires in this story, theyre called vampanellas. I am going to keep calling them vampires because its more intuitive but I didnt want to fail to mention their actual name because I love it so much, its so girl-cartooncoded. Theres an animated adaptation of snow white where the seven dwarfes are female and theyre called dwarfelles, vampanella has that same energy except better because its a unisex term and not just for female vampires

Anyway, our researchers talk a little about these two vampires who are two teen boys called Edgar and Alan. Edgar is the actual protagonist of this whole thing and Alan is. also very important, but hes not really a co-protagonist or a deuteragonist, I guess hes kind of a love interest but that doesnt really feel right either. Idk, we'll get into that later. They start going through all their sources and documents, beginning with arguably the most useless one, the diary of Glenn Smith, who is Margerite Hessens ancestor

Basically, in 1865 Glenn Smith shot Edgar's little sister Marybell because he mistook her for a deer while out in the woods. Fortunately, she was a vampire so she survived and quickly recovered, although she did collapse due to amnemia. Unfortunately, Edgar was still really mad about that and captured him, but then I guess he lets him go free afterwards because then its said that Edgar appeared in Glenn's bedroom, in which Glenn is sleeping, the next night. Idk, he drinks some of his blood in a vaguely homoerotic manner but when Glenn wakes up all scared and upset, he tells him that he just took some of his energy with his fingers ?? One thing about about this play is that it establishes that these vampires dont suck blood out of your neck with their teeth/mouth, they suck energy out of your neck with their fingertips (I actually thought thats why they were called vampanellas at first, to distinguish them from the bloodsucking vamps) but then all these vampires ever do is suck blood. I guess maybe they suck blood to turn humans into vampires and then once theyre vampires they suck energy, but they emphasize the turning into vampires (blood sucking) so much more than the sustaining themselves as vampires (energy sucking) that it comes across as kinda weird. Anyway, Edgar either kills Glenn Smith or just kinda leaves after scaring him like that, its kinda hard to tell, and thats the end of his vampire-encounter. One thing thats notable here is that Alan is not with him at this point, they would only get together later

Then our historians wonder about his true age and when he was born and one of them is like "Oh theres this vampire-legend from a place called Scotty Village describing a boy named Edgar and his younger sister, Im pretty sure thats him, and Im pretty sure Scotty Village is where all of this started", so now we're effectively out of this little prologue and entering the story proper, and can talk about whats going on with the first relationship chart.

In the year 1741, Edgar and Marybell were a young child and a baby respectively who were abandoned in the middle of the night at the edge of some rumoured-to-be-vampire-infested woods to be eaten by either the vampires or wild wolves. But instead they were found by this kindly old woman named Old Hannah Poe who takes them in to live in her mansion in the woods which is shrouded in all manner of strange rumors. Youve already seen my relationship chart so you already know shes a vampire, but these two kids remain blissfully unaware of this for 13 years and live a very happy life with her. Also speaking of the chart, I know it wouldve probably made more sense to note her down as an adoptive mother or just caretaker but they call her grandma so I went with that, mostly for the sake of distinguishing her from their other, future female caretaker

Then we get a very brief scene of the locals in Scotty Village talking about Old Hannah from the mysterious forest mansion taking in some kids she found in the woods. Most of them think shes a kindhearted old lady but theres this guy named Bill who swears up and down that shes a vampire, everyone else who lives in that mansion is a vampire and hates her because his thinks his wife was murdered by a vampire. Its honestly unclear to me if this is meant to be true or if Bill is meat to be kinda delusional because hes like "My wife didnt die in a normal way, she was strangled, so she was obviously killed by a vampire" and Im like, I dont thats obvious actually. Whatever, he tries to rile the villagers up but the local pastor keeps em calm, so now we know theres a guy around whos just gonna stew in his deepseated anger for the next few years

Anyway, its the year 1754 and Edgar is having some fun teasing Marybell while theyre outside in the garden, theyre very cute and normal siblings. Then Old Hannah comes along with her servant, whos carrying a big basket full of roses and Edgar asks if theyre gonna be eating rose soup again and complains about it. This is a weird little detail but the vampires only give the humans in their vacinity food made of roses and its often mentioned that they seem to be followed by the scent of roses whereever they go. I dont really get why they would do that but it is cool and aesthetic, so I guess thats reason enough. Whatever, Edgar complains that the kids down in the village get to eat a wider variety of stuff and tells them that hes gonna go play with the village kids now. Theyre like "okay, but we're having a super special engagement ceremony this evening, so come back before then."

The kids down in the village see Edgar coming and decide to scare him by pretending to be vampires and jumping on him and shit, but he doesnt believe in that stuff so hes more annoyed than scared. One of the kids says "my dad says Old Hannah is a vampire" to which Edgar is like "no! grandma is a good person!" and then the kids start bullying him for calling her his grandmother even though hes an orphan who got abandoned. Theyre absolutely ruthless about it too, but before anything bad can happen, a young woman named Sheila, whos not from around here, comes along and they flee before they can get in trouble. Sheila sits down next to him and asks what happened, wipes the dirt off his faces and Edgar is just absolutely enchanted by her. It occurs to me that I shouldve probably put his little crush on her on the first chart as well, but the programm I used to make those charts is stupid and doesnt allow you to save your shit so Im not doing that now. Shes like "oh, you must be Edgar, Frank told me so much about you already" and then she explains that Frank is the Baron Portsnell and her lover whos currently meeting with Old Hannah in the mansion to get her blessing to be engaged. Obviously Edgar is like "she told me theres gonna be an engagement ceremony tonight, so dont worry about her saying no. ..... although it is a shame... because theres no one in this village as beautiful as you 😶" which Sheila finds very cute. Then he asks her if he really loves the baron and she says yes, "because he can gives me eternal love" before launching into a whole song about her backstory

And said backstory is basically, she met him when he was 15 and they fell in love at first sight but her parents had already engaged her to another nobleman for money :( then she married that nobleman at 16 and their relationship was so loveless that she was loosing her will to live, but Frank stuck by her and they finally ran away together when she was 17. She prayed then that their happiness may last forever and Frank was like "yknow, we could make that happen if you officially joined my family, the poe clan. would you like that?" and she immediately said yes. Now shes 22, Frank waited her for her to properly come of age, and theyre gonna do the thing, shes telling Edgar about it in notably vague terms

Then Frank shows up with Marybell to tell Sheila the good news and also to be like "heyyyyy Edgar, do you remember me? Because Ive met you and your sister before" but it doesnt seem like either of them remember him. The lovely couple kisses, Edgar covers Marybells eyes while he himself is just STARING at them which I find very cute, Frank has a kind of ominous line thats like "I assume you're ready to accept the fate that awaits you" which Sheila says yes to before theyre off to go back to the mansion. Marybell goes "I wish we had parents like them....." and Edgar is like "noooooo Sheila is wayyyyy too young" and somewhere in the distance the dramatic irony-bell starts tolling. But before they can keep going with that, Old Hannah's servant shows up to bring them home and tell them that theyve been asked to go to bed early and also to stay in the annex instead of the main mansion because only clan-members are allowed at the big ceremony. This obviously upsets and confuses the kids because they grew up in that mansion and Marybell is even like "is it because we're adopted 🥺" but Edgar assures her that their grandma loves her and thats the end of it.

We then go over to the grand engagement ceremony where the entire Poe Clan sings a catchy little song about their strange vampire-nature before waking up their leader, King Poe, to bear witness to their initiation of a new member; hes usually hibernating in a coffin so they have to wake him for this kind of stuff. Hes Old Hannah's lover and because of that I just kinda said hes also the one who turned her but now that Im thinking about it, thats kindof a big assumption to make especially because vampires turning their lovers isnt even really the norm in this story, but whatever. He tells Sheila that she must follow Hannah's lead and asks if she swears to love Frank, to which she says "From the bottom of my heart. We will walk together, die together and turn to dust together." (thats a detail about these vampires, when theyre killed they dont leave a body behind, they just immediately turn into dust)

Then Old Hannah bites her to turn her into a vampire, she passes out (which is normal) and Edgar, who snuck into the mansion and saw everything, starts freaking out. He gets restrained and everyone is like "Whats this child doing here". For some reason Old Hannah tells her servant to go get Marybell at this point, I guess the reason is she wants to emotionally blackmail him? Idk. Edgar starts yelling at her about drinking Sheila's blood and killing her but she says that she just put her energy into her and that she'll be fine. Frank adds that she'll be happy forever this way and Edgar doesnt believe him at all. King Poe is impressed by his audacity and strong and says that they'll turn him when hes come of age, all while the boy himself is yelling about how he never wants to become a vampire EVER. Then that servant is back with Marybell and we get this strange moment where shes confused and concerned about whats happening and Old Hannah is just like "Oh, your brother's been a little naughty so hes being punished" and Edgar is telling them to get her the hell out of here while Frank is like "You will join the clan when you've grown up" before they finally send her away again. The Poe Clan has such bad vibes you guys, its crazy

Edgar begs them to bring her somewhere far away where there are no vampires and they say okay. Then Sheila finally wakes up. Shes feeling pretty good but her lips are a bit dry and Frank tells her that she needs to drink some blood - specifically Edgar's blood for some reason. She does it even though hes visibly distressed and he passes out from it, although hes not been turned into a vampire

Meanwhile in the village, everyone is freaking out because turns out two more kids managed to sneak into the mansion to see the ceremony, so now theyre telling all the adults that everyone in there is a vampire. Bill is like "I fucking told you!!!! Now lets go up there and kill them!" and the pastor goes "hey, no, we gotta make sure that this is actually the truth before we do anything rash" but I think Bill is too pumped up to listen to that

The next day, a carriage comes up to the mansion to pick Marybell up and take her to London where she'll hopefully be adopted by a Baron Art. Edgar assures her that he will come soon as well, like a liar, and she's off. Hes obviously really upset so Frank tries to cheer him up a little by being like "the Art family is really nice and they dont have any kids so they'll be happy to adopt and treat her well" (even though they do have kids?? theyre about Edgars age?? idk whats up with this) but Edgar just gets mad at him. Then he turns to Sheila and asks if she regrets anything and she says no, she chose to join the clan out of her own volition and she loves Frank very much. Edgar scoffs at that like "is there really such a thing as love between vampires? i'll never be able to understand it!" and runs off. And Frank goes "Ugh, hes such a difficult child" ??? my man, that boy's world is being turned upside down right now, be more understanding. and Sheila says NOTHING it drives me crazy

At this point I feel like I should clarify that these vampires are not affected by sunlight

Anyway, Bill goes to the garden of the mansion where Old Hannah is hanging out on her own for some reason. Some of the other villagers are also there but theyre in hiding and Hannah doesnt notice them. Shes confused and unnerved by his presence and doesnt believe him when he tells her that hes just there to tend to the garden a little, so she goes to call someone over but as soon as her back is turned, he stakes her in the heart from behind and she dissolves into dust, thus proving that shes a vampire. I guess this is what the pastor meant by making sure its the truth? that seems so risky, like what if she wasnt a vampire and he just stabbed a regular old woman through the back, surely they couldve done something to properly ensure that shes a vampire. But whatever, Bill tells the others to call everyone over because theyre gonna kill these vampires.

In the mansion, the vampires have realized that theyve been found out and ready themselves for confrontation. King Poe is like "Bring the boy over, Im gonna give him my blood to turn him into a vampire so that our clan can still have a leader in case I dont make it". Edgar is horrified and goes to flee but Sheila takes his hand and just kinda looks at him, so he resigns himself to it after all. He passes out after being bitten so she and Frank take him and leave the mansion with him while everyone else stays behind to fight. and lose miserably, it seems like not a single one of them survives.

Meanwhile Sheila, Frank and Edgar are on a carriage to London and theyre waiting for Edgar to wake up. He finally does after three days and upon asking what happened and where he is, Frank tells him that they were worried he might not make it because sometimes the blood isnt compatible and kills you instead of turning you. Kindof a crazy gamble to take but I guess it was a spur-of-the-moment decision without that much thought behind it. Sheila is like "hey, your lips are dry and you must be exhausted, come take some of my energy" while Edgar is just staring with this expression that I cannot describe but it conveys his emotional state so well, Asumi Rio is honestly amazing in this role. Obviously hes like "No, stop, I dont want your energy" and Frank tries to guilt trip him like "shes offering it out of kindness, take it" but Edgar says "And if I do that, what will that make us? Comrades? Relatives? Family?!" to which Frank is just like "We're a clan!" like thanks man. Sheila tries to get Edgar to put his hands on her neck to take some of her energy by physically taking his hands while Frank is restraining him as well, and he refuses, frees himself from their grasp and jumps out of the carriage. Their interactions are so awful at times, theyre the epitome of that tumblr post thats like "heartwarming! found family just as oppressive as traditional nuclear family"

Edgar runs and ends up at Convent Garden which is in London or near London, where theres a big market taking place. Theres this girl wandering around selling flowers and shes singing about the various uses of them, concluding by saying that red roses are a gift for a lover because they symbolize passion. Then Edgar bumps into her, causing her to drop her basket of flowers. Obviously he apologizes and helps her pick them up, but then she ends up pricking herself on one of the roses which throws him off although he doesnt do anything drastic just yet. The girl is like "eyyyyyy, how about buying one of these, mister?", Edgar says no, then one of her friends comes along asking if that pretty guy shes talking to is her boyfriend, the girl says no but inexplicably offers Edgar a free red rose. Hes like "I dont need one" but the girl goes "well, if you're already here you might as well take it" and gets pretty close to him so his attention is once again drawn to her bleeding finger and he finally bites and kills her about it. This understandably freaks everyone out but fortunately Frank and Sheila arrive to get him outta there

Once theyre away from Convent Garden Frank yells at him for causing such an uproar to which Edgar is just kinda like "So what? I was just getting myself something to eat, I thought thats what vampires do" in that sort of moody contrarian teenager way, and in response Frank slaps him so hard that he falls the ground. Then hes like "Old Hannah would grieve if she knew about this!" and turns around like a spiteful toddler during an argument. Sheila kneels down next to Edgar and I guess tries to cheer him up? by being like "Youre the successor of King Poe's blood, you're gonna have to be the leader of the Poe Clan." which obviously doesnt help anything. This woman sucks so bad, but I guess she is only 22 and her fiance that shes known since she was 15 is a massive piece of shit, so I suppose I cant fault her for it. Edgar runs off again, but this time he just ends up in the Musical Void and sings about how awful he feels and how much he wishes he were human again and how much he misses Marybell and wants to go see her.

Then we go over to Marybell and before we get into it, I need to say that all of this presumably happened over the course of like a few months but thats not really made clear, so it kinda seems like Edgar was passed out for three days and in the meantime she was having this crazy ass drama, but I don't think thats how it actually happened

So, Marybell did get adopted by the family Art and they did, contrary to what Frank said, have two older sons. One of them was Oswald, who instantly fell in love with and courted her and the other one was Eucis, who was also in love with her and also courted her. But then it turns out that Marybell is Oswald's biological half-sister; she is the child of his father and a mistress he had. And so is Edgar, him being Marybell's biological half-brother on the chart was a mistake, they are full siblings. I guess that makes it a bit more understandable that they were both abandoned together, I initially assumed their parents just couldnt/didnt want to raise children, but this does make more sense. Although now Im wondering why they kept him around for like what, four or five years? before throwing him out. Whatever. Eucis was born from a different father than Oswald, so he narrowly avoided being biologically related to the adoptive sister that hes fallen in love with. And Oswald basically tells him "Okay, I cant have her, you go get her, promise me you'll make her happy" and Eucis promises.

I noted both of these relationships (between Mary and each of the brothers) down as mutual, but now that I think about it, I feel like that wasnt actually explicitly portrayed, but oh well. Marybell seems atleast okay with both of them.

Anyway, the Baroness Art strongly opposed this relationship because, and I quote, as per adorare's translation, "I cannot give my son to the daughter of the woman who stole my husband!" and Eucis was at such loss as to what he should do that he killed himself about it.

Just so you know, all of what I just described about this family takes up like a minute of stagetime, it is such a footnote in this whole story its crazy, I havent read the manga but I can only assume (and hope frankly) its a bigger plotpoint there

Of course, Marybell was stricken with grief and blamed herself for his death, but in her darkest hour, her brother, whom she assumed to be dead because she didnt hear from him after the mansion burned down but still held out hope for, finally returned to her. Edgar climbs into her room through the window with a red rose in his hand and tells her that he's been traveling with the Portsnells, today is their final day in London and he wants to say goodbye before he leaves and they never see each other again. He gives her the rose, then goes to immediately leave again but Marybell grabs him by the arm and begs for him not to leave her alone because she's been waiting for him this whole time and tells him that shes coming with. Edgar warns her that their journey has no end and that she will never be happy again, but she says that to her, happiness means being with him, so he bites her, turning her into a vampire.

ALRIGHT now we're gonna do a major time-jump and a bit of a setting-jump although we are staying in england. We're going from Silly City to Wackytown and Wackytown, thy name is Blackpool.

It's 1879, 14 years after the Glenn Smith-debacle, and Blackpool is an up-and-coming port town with a hotel thats The hotspot for socializing at the moment. They have whole bunch of cool stuff there, but the only thing that matters for this story is that theyve got an in-house doctor by the name of Jan Clifford who's young, handsome, but not single because hes about to be engaged to a sweet and shy young woman by the name of Jane Custer. Shes the daughter of Dr. Custer, the best doctor in town and the mentor of Jan Clifford, whom I shall be be calling Clifford from now on because Jan and Jane will get confusing quickly. Theyre gonna be holding their engagement party at this hotel and everyone's already very excited.

Clifford runs into an old friend from college, Beich Braun, who's the ancestor of our guy from 1960s germany, Beich IV. They talk and we find out that theyre gonna be holding the global necromancy convention at this hotel next week (necromancy here refers to communicating with dead as spirits). Clifford expresses his skepticism towards necromancy as a science and at that moment Madame Helene Blavatsky comes into the room to be like "No, it is science" and I just. okay so, Blavatsky was a real historical figure, she was a very influential occultist and socialite with some pretty fucked up beliefs, thats all Im gonna say here, look her her up if you're interested, and I am just baffled by the choice to make her a character in this. Like, shes a minor character but pretty important to the story, but I dont understand why it had to be Blavatsky specifically, I feel like if they needed some World's Most Famous Medium-character, they couldve just made someone up the way did with all the all the others, I dont get it. Whatever, we're introduced to some more characters who are all part of Blavatsky's entourage (Beich Braun is also part of it as editor of a spiritualists' newspaper) who I shant get into because they dont matter that much. The only thing I have to say about them is that one of them is a woman called Isolde, which is the name I accidentally gave Alan's aunt on the relationship chart. Im sorry, she does have a name but I dont think its ever said (I atleast wasnt able to find it), its difficult to figure out from the cast list on the wiki and I didnt want to just note her down as 'Alan's Aunt' but now Im gonna have to that anyway aughhhhhhh whatever

So then the Portsnells walk into the lobby and everyone starts whispering about them because theyre beautiful nobility. Specifically, Blavatsky seems to notice that theres something off about them.

Edgar leans over to Sheila and quietly tells her "hey, Sheila, that guy over there is looking at you" while indicating towards Clifford but she just tells him to call her mother and doesnt react to what he said. Then Marybell suddenly faints, which, Marybell is inexplicably very weak and frail in a way that she didnt seem to be when she was human and its not really explained why. Truly my best guess is that Glenn Smith shooting her somehow made her permanently anemic even though that doesnt make sense. Whatever, Frank is trying to keep the curious onlookers away from her and Clifford comes up to offer them a medical examination, which they accept. When they tell him that Marybell is generally quite weak and this isnt just a once-in-a-while thing, Dr. Custer comes up and recommends that they let him be her attending physician for the duration of their stay, which they also accept. Edgar seems way more concerned about Marybell than Sheila and especially Frank, which makes me sad :(

The Portsnells leave and Alan Twilight and his entourage (his uncle Harold, his aunt not-Isolde and their three kids) enter the lobby. The Twilights are kind of like the royalty of this port town, emphasis on the "kind of like" because theyre not nobility, theyre just rich because Alan's father was a big business guy. But now he's dead and Harold is in charge of the business, but Alan will be inheriting everything once hes of age and hes succeeding the family name so hes the one people have a lot of reverence for. Alan complains about not being greeted at the entrance before Dr. Custer approaches him to ask about the condition of his mother Rachel, whos living at the hotel. He says she's cycling between sleep and consciousness and that Clifford has been visiting her lot.

Margott, the only one of Alan's cousins who matters, suddenly exclaims that she wants to have her engagement party at the hotel like Jane, to which Harold is like "Sure, as long as Alan gives his okay" meaning, "Yeah, when Alan finally agrees to get engaged to you". He gets very upset and angry at this and basically tells him that hes too young to be thinking about this before running off.

In the Portsnells' hotel room, Clifford has just left after examining Marybell and Edgar once again complains about that guy making nasty eyes at Sheila. And once again, she's just like "call me mother" to which Edgar says that everyone thinks she's his sister because of how close they are in age. They kindof quabble a little before she just tells him "that's enough. also, that doctor seemed like a nice man". Then Edgar is like "oh, what, you're interested in him? then why dont you attack him and suck his blood?" and Frank scolds him for it, and it devolves into a whole argument where Edgar just keeps repeating that theyre cursed monsters. Frank goes to slap him again but Sheila actually intervenes this time, wow!!! so Edgar has the last word and angrily leaves the room.

Edgar bumps into Alan in the hallway whos angrily like "watch where you're going!", causing him to not pay attention and fully collide with a hotel staff member pushing one of those dish wagons. She apologizes, leaves and Edgar is very smugly like "were you watching where you're going?". Alan is not amused and when he goes to stand up and Edgar offers him a hand, he refuses it, but then Edgar goes out of his way to take one of them anyway. That hand has a little fresh wound on it and he looks at it for a moment before he LICKS it. Alan is so shocked that he cant even fully react, he just stares at him while Edgar is acting like hes being totally normal. Then he pulls off his little bowtie to use as a makeshift-bandage and Alan is finally like "its just a small wound, it'll heal soon anyway" but he says that it'll heal faster this way. Once hes done tying it Alan touches the bowtie with this strangely rapt expression on his face and Edgar is just like "What's wrong? You can leave now", but he doesnt leave, instead he just introduces himself for reasons that I cannot grasp. Edgar introduces himself as well and they make some more normal conversation (although Alan does still think hes a weirdo), during which Alan asks him if he goes to school. Edgar is like "No I dont, what about you?" and Alan tells him that he goes to Saint Windsor. Then hes like "Okay, I'll have this ribbon washed and then you can pick it up at the front desk, bye!" and thats the end of that (for now)

Edgar goes back to his hotel room where hes greeted by a worried Marybell asking if its okay for him to be here already even though he just had an argument with Frank, which is another one of those things that just adds to the horrible vibes of this family. Edgar says its fine and switches the topic to her health, telling her to take a rest and asking if she wants some of his blood, which she refuses. He feels very guilty and thinks about how its his fault that she has to "live in this cursed body" and its still not explained why her body is so cursed and weak. Then he thinks to himself, "If we need new blood for Marybell, why not his?" referring to Alan.

Suddenly Frank comes into the room and scolds him for his reflection not being visible in the mirror. This is where we find out that these vampires only cast a reflection when theyre focused on doing it, if theyre relaxed with their guards fully down then it disappears, which I find incredibly interesting symbolically. Frank basically tells him that he needs to remember to pretend to be human at all times if he doesnt want to get killed and Edgar responds "Pretending to breathe. Pretending to have a pulse. Pretending it hurts when I get my finger caught in the door. I can do that. I can show you". Then he requests to be able to go to school with the argument that Frank would be able to do his job (ie turn Clifford and get him to join the clan) much better if he did this thing that normal young men do.

This is a fairly small thing in this story, but I really enjoy this dynamic where Edgar doesnt like Clifford for being interested in Sheila and is very protective of her while she and her husband just really want that guy to be their third

Anyway, Frank says yes and Marybell asks if that means she'll have to be all alone while hes away at school, but he says that he'll bring a friend over: Alan Twilight.

(Presumably) the next day at Saint Windsor a teacher tells all the students (except Alan whos not there yet for some reason) that Edgar, son of Baron Portnell, will be joining them and all start speculating about him and immediately shittalk him bc they assume hes going to be super stuck up because hes nobility. This is where its established that Alan basically owns the school because the students wanna be on good terms him for when he inherits his father's money and influence. When Alan finally appears, a bunch of boys tell him about Edgar and ask him if he wants them to beat that guy up, which is crazy, but hes just like "ugh, do whatever you want, i dont care". Then Edgar shows up, greets him and thanks him for returning the bowtie so all the boys are like "ooooooo whats that about" which embarrasses Alan so he tries to act all tough being like "Hey listen, you move aside when I say youre in my way, you dont speak me unless youre spoken to because Im gonna inherit everything once Im 18!"

Edgar is not impressed by this at all and basically says "But you won't be able to do anything alone. Yknow, if it were me, I would deal with anyone who annoys me on my own (which is to say, without the "help" of inheritance)". He expresses his disappointment in him and then goes to leave, but a bunch of the boys get in his way and position their legs to try and get him to trip over them and he just fucking kicks them. They get angry at this and they all start fighting him, which, there are like 20 of them and the vampires arent super strong or fast in this universe so hes screwed, and it culminates in a bunch of them picking him up and throwing him through a window. Hes fine because hes a vampire but obviously a teacher comes along to ask him if hes okay and Alan feels really guilty and concerned and offers to drive him back to the hotel so Clifford can look him over. Edgar tries to refuse but he insists, although he clarifies that hes just doing this to return the favour.

Back at the hotel our doctors + Jane are talking with the necromancy guys, inviting each other to some experiment and the engagement party respectively and talking about whether or not they believe in this stuff. Clifford excuses himself to check on one of his patients at some point and then Frank and Sheila come in as well. Blavatsky eyes them with suspicion and asks Frank if he would like to participate in one of their seances. When he refuses in a very dismissive manner she tells him that she senses that theres a spirit with a message for him, and when he asks what is it shes like "I'll have to conduct a seance to find out. I can usually tell, but there's something not quite human about him." This woman is not framed as a scammer or a hustler at all, like her supernatural powers are fully real in this, but she sure is using hustler-tactics. So after that Frank is like, "hmmm, I'll think about it". Then he turns to Sheila and they quietly talk about adding both Clifford and Jane to the clan.

Speaking of Clifford, he is kissing one of his female patients when Alan bursts into the room with Edgar. She leaves completely embarrassed while Clifford keeps his cool and just starts treating Edgar like normal. Alan says "That wasnt Jane. I'll tell my mother once I get home" and Edgar sarcastically tells him that hes very friendly with women. Clifford responds to that being like "Yeah, tell me that in ten years when youve grown up" to which Edgar just says that he'll stay like this forever in a kind of mournful tone. Clifford cant really respond or react though because in that moment Frank comes in and he is really mad, he grabs him and drags him out of the room, once again, horrible vibes. Sheila comes in to be like "oh dont mind him, hes just short-tempered" and she has a brief interaction with Alan where shes like "Please take care of him even though he can be difficult at times." and hes like "I dont know if I can handle him."

Then we go into this song thats basically an argument/montage song. We start off with Frank scolding Edgar and telling him that the he needs to keep reopening that wound for a while because otherwise its going to heal within a day and that would suspicious, but the injury is also a benefit because now they have a chance to get close to the doctor, even though he was treating Marybell anyway so idk what thats about. Then Marybell asks Edgar about his friend which sets Frank off again (he was already gone when he talked about Alan previously) because that can endanger them I guess, and he accuses him of not understanding how difficult is it for them to survive. Edgar responds by telling him no he does, because they cant stay anywhere for too long because because otherwise people would notice these teens not growing up at all, and he tells them, "the both of you don't understand just how lonely I am". He also brings up the fact that he didnt have a choice in becoming a vampire

Then we go over to Clifford in Rachel Twilight's room and theyre being pretty flirtatious, but then Alan comes in to ask about Edgar; hes worried because he hasnt been in school since the fight. Rachel asks if he was involved in the fight and Alan says no, but shes just like "You're becoming just like your father, you can't be trusted". Clifford I guess tries to diffuse the situation by being like "You should just visit him if youre that worried" and then he leaves. Alan leaves the room after him and gets jumped by his cousins who were watching everything in secret, who point out that his mother always wears a ton of makeup when the doctor comes to visit. This makes him angry and upset so he pushes them away and runs off.

Then Margott intercepts Clifford and tries to flirt with him a little but gets brushed off. Harold and not-Isolde see this and scold her because shes supposed to marry Alan to which shes like "Marry that child?" and this is where its explicitly said that Harold wants this so he can properly inherit the company and keep it because otherwise Alan can just throw him out in a few years, and it seems like hes pretty confident that thats what hes gonna do. Just, family issues upon family issues that I assume are more of A Thing in the manga, because as prominent as they are here, it doesnt really feel like its saying anything about them or about family structures more broadly

After that, Alan runs into Edgar and tells him that he wanted to check on him since he hasnt been to school. Then hes like "The doctor's been buttering up to my mother" and Edgar tells him that hes been eyeing his mother too and they have a little bonding moment, yknow just boyly things. Then for some reason hes like "Youre lucky to have everything planned for you" in reference to Alan getting engaged, but hes like "No, your traveling-aristocrat-lifestyle is so much better, I wish I had that instead", but Edgar tells him that its an aimless journey and that theyre aristocrats in-name-only basically because they dont have a territory, its a whole thing. Then the topic of conversation switches over to love with Alan asking if he's ever been in love and telling him that he seems like he'd be popular with older girls, and Edgar tells him that he briefly fell in love with someone but then found out she was getting married. He says "I closed off my heart with thorns." and Alan asks if they wouldnt prick him too and he just says yes. Then they have a very intimate musical number about being lonely and wanting love before Edgar asks him if he's gonna come to Clifford and Jane's engagement party this weekend. Alan says yes and Edgar goes "Perfect... I'll introduce you to my sister." with the freakiest little smile on his face.

And that, my friends, was act 1. Act 2 is significantly shorter though, if you're worried about the length of this post

Act 2 begins with the Portnells going in for the engagement ceremony, but Edgar asks to stay behind with Marybell for a moment because shes not feeling well, so theyre just staying out in the hall or in some side room for a while.

In the main room of the hotel where this party is taking place its mostly just a bunch of people being jealous of how perfect Clifford and Jane are and generally fucking around for now. Alan notices that Edgar isnt with Frank and Sheila when they come in. Then its dance time and Margott tries to get him to dance with her but he rejects her and runs away. Meanwhile, Sheila is dancing with Clifford as part of her and Franks dastardly plan to get him into a polycule

Meanwhile meanwhile, the not-dancing Frank is approached by Blavatsky asking him if he's gonna be there during the seance. He says yes and for reasons unknown to me, she tells him that she feels a mysterious aura emanating from him that she doesnt get from other people. Granted, I guess shes not specifically getting an evil-vampire-type aura so she doesnt have a reason to distrust him, does she. Whatever, Frank doesnt even react to that, hes just like "Im an atheist and I dont believe any of that, but Im willing to do the seance for the sake of conversation"

Back with Edgar and Marybell, he asks her if shes alright and she tells him that shes sorry for being a burden. In response to that, he tells her "It's all my fault. You can hate me and shoot me death if you want." so obviously shes like "No, dont say that!" Then Edgar tells her that he was going to introduce her to a friend and she kindof bitterly says "I know what you mean when you say "friend"."

Its at that moment that Alan runs into them. He tells Edgar that he was looking for him because he wasnt at the party, and he thanks him for that before introducing him to Marybell. Alan introduces himself like normal but then he properly looks at her face and he gasps out "Rosetti!" Obviously Edgar is confused and Alan explains "She looks exactly my fiancee who died in an accident six years ago". Edgar is like "But you wouldve still been in elementary school then" and this is were it turns out that Alan was a vampire all along.

JUST KIDDING! Hah i got you for a moment, didnt I? No, he just got engaged when he was a very young child because his family is so influential and wealthy and Rosetti was the daughter of the bank president, so they had them engaged for the sake of business and politics and all that.

Edgar is like "man. I pity you." and Alan just kinda starts rambling about how she was so much better than Margott and how he wouldnt be suffering if only he could marry that ten year old (after she grew up to be his age because. theyre the same age) and how hes sure she wouldve grown up to be just as beautiful as Marybell if she had ever gotten to grow up. And Marybell is not involved in this at all, Edgar is asking him follow-up questions seems to have a fun time conversing with him while shes just standing off to the side, looking so uncomfortable it kills me. Alan offers to show them a portrait of her that he keeps in a pendant sometime and Edgar is like "Sounds awesome, hey, do you wanna come to our room right now" and Alan thinks that sounds great but refuses because its almost mealtime and he has to go. He asks if theyre coming along too but Edgar says theyre eating in the room because of Marybell's condition. Then he asks if hes gonna return to school next week, Edgar says yes, and this is were he finally directly addresses Marybell to tell her that it was nice meeting her. Alan asks if he could come see her again and Edgar answers for her ("Anytime :)") while Marybell looks the most uncomfortable. Then Alan says "Thank you, Big Brother." in this kindof exaggerated way while giving this dramatic joke-bow before leaving at last.

I havent directly pointed this out so far, although Im sure a lot of you noticed anyway, but this story is haunted the spectre of incest in a way that makes me think the manga is just gonna be full of it, like that was a prediction I made when I was halfway through the first act and. well, I still havent read the manga so I dont know if its true, but the rest of this musical has really only emboldened me in this.

Anyway, Edgar asks her what he thinks of him and shes like "He seems nice........" and he just goes "That's good" like hey man. I thought you were trying to protect your sister from everything and now youre just gonna throw her to this weird misogynist just because you want to hang out with him? Honestly, I think this might be because Frank and Sheila (and possibly the rest of the poe clan before they died, although we obviously dont see much of them) seem to subtly enforce this idea that the only way to join the clan (ie get turned into a vampire) is to get romantically involved with one of them and then marry them, and obviously these are The Times of Yore so marriage can only happen between a man and a woman, so hes like "okay, if I want this guy to be my best boy friend forever, he needs to join the clan and this is the way to do it" but still. And also, hes trying to take care of her because shes weak but again, I dont really understand why shes like that and also, now that I think about it, I dont really understand the mechanics of turning people into vampires in this story. I originally went on a whole ramble here about the worldbuilding but I think its best to take that out and keep going before I get further off-topic

While our three kids were having that very strange conversation, Blavatsky was entertaining the people at Clifford and Jane's engagement party, in a way that feels more in line with a carnival huckster than a serious occultist but I think that might be part of the reason why they dont refer to her (or any member of her entourage) as an occultist here, shes only ever called a medium. She asks the attendees if any of them have items that belonged to a deceased person with them that they'd like to offer up so she can communicate with that person, some woman volunteers and Blavatsky basically ends up channeling her grandmother for a moment. Then shes like "Wait. Your grandmother is angry... at your boyfriend. Because he's already married with three kids." and the woman looks at the guy shes with and chases him out of the room, presumably to kick his ass.

After that, Blavatsky offers Clifford and Jane an invitation to one of her private seances as an engagement gift and hes like, "Yeah sounds good, I'd like to inform my dead mom of the engagement" which, the fucking audacity of this man, whos a serial cheater, accepting an invitation to a seance for that reason after he just witnessed a ghost call a cheater out in front of everyone, is insaneeeeee. But whatever, he asks Jane what she thinks and before she can answer, her dad is like "oh come on, those two people couldve easily been paid" and she ends up declining to go. Beich Braun asks the Portsnells if theyre gonna come, they say yes and then all the men who are going to participate in the seance go away to decide in what order theyre gonna go while Sheila approaches Jane. She asks her if she already ordered her wedding dress and she hasnt, so Sheila offers to help her pick one out which Jane is grateful for because she doesnt have anyone to consult otherwise.

The men return and Sheila goes to Frank to tell her how much she likes Jane and how they need to get her and her fiance into the clan as soon as possible. And I guess while theyre talking theyre standing in front of a mirror in which Sheila's reflection is not visible because shes relaxed so Frank has to tell her to focus before the others notice. Clifford notices but because her reflection reappears so quickly he just thinks its some kind of optical illusion. He tells Beich Braun about it, whos like "ooooooo is she a vampire perhaps? you know, theres been reports of vampires appearing in london newspapers" In response Clifford asks if he believes in vampires as well and he says no, he only believes in spirits, which is pretty funny.

The next day at school all the boys are passing around newspapers and freaking out about vampires. One of them tells Alan about the seance (which he wasnt there for) and he says he thinks the whole thing is a sham. Despite this, they crowd around him to I guess try to get some validation from him anyway. Then Edgar finally shows and hes so excited :D He asks him about his injury and Edgar is like "Yeah, it healed thanks to you". Before that can continue, the teacher shows up and its time to go to the classroom but Alan tells Edgar to stay behind because he wants to show him something.

They sneak up this balcony from which you can see across the ocean all the way to ireland. Alan likes it here because the wind just blows everything unpleasant away and Edgar asks "Are there so many unpleasant things happening in your family?". Instead of answering, Alan says that hes not like everyone else who's just trying to butter him up and that he feels he could talk to him about anything, so obviously Edgar is like "okay, what do you want to talk about". Alan pulls out his pendant and shows him his picture of Rosetti and Edgar takes in his hand and is a little awestruck because she does look like Marybell when she was young and hes like "god, i feel like its been over a hundred years since she looked like this" and for some reason Alan asks why and if they have an ancestor that looks like her. He says yes and then Alan is like "beauty really runs in your family" to which Edgar is like "What about you?". Alan says "Well, my mom is beautiful" but Edgar goes "No, I wanted to know what kind of blood runs in your veins. Who knows, maybe its the type of blood that keeps you from being happy" and hes saying this in a very casual way as though these are normal things to tell someone.

Alan switches the topic back to Marybell, saying that he envies him for getting to spend every day with her. Edgar is obviously like "We're siblings" but Alan just keeps going and tells him that he wants to meet her (not meet her again, which makes sense considering how that introduction went, but still, interesting phrasing). Edgar asks if shes just a replacement for Rosetti and if he just wants to be with her to spite Margott, Alan says no to both. Theyre being very light-hearted here, like Edgar's tone is very teasing and Alan is kindof whiny in a way that makes it clear to me that he's not taking it that seriously either. But then Alan does get more serious again and asks for his pendant back but Edgar refuses. Theres a moment here where it seems like its gonna be that thing where one person is teasing the other and having a fun time with it while the other stops having fun and gets angry, but no, Alan is also having fun trying to snatch the pendant back, its very cute. He does get it back and once he has it, he turns away from Edgar and holds it up so he can look at it I guess.

Edgar just stares at him, at his neck, and he sneaks closer to him because he wants to bite him but he's thinking to himself, "Are you going to use those claws on someone you love again? To get him to join your cursed clan?" But then he does bite him and, its a little confusing ngl, but its not a proper bite, so theres no blood and nothing happens to Alan, Edgar basically just nibbles his neck a little and gives him a hickey. Alan is obviously still freaked out by it though and Edgar tries to calm him by being like "Don't be scared. It's nothing. I'm not going to hurt you." but its too late; he has already realized that he's not human. So he starts praying and quoting the bible at him, which hurts and scares Edgar so he runs away. Once he's gone, Alan screams and sobs a little and hes like "Edgar... Why did you appear before me? Why did you choose me?!"

Meanwhile at the hotel, its finally time for the seance, so Blavatsky is sitting at this table with her entourage, Frank and Clifford while Sheila, Jane and Dr. Custer are off to the side and not actually participating but still in the same room. They all hold hands and Frank gets asked whom he would like to speak to, he says King Poe, then he gets asked a few questions about him, and Blavatsky senses him and channels him. And its actually him, Blavatsky has actual ghost-powers and the actual ghost of King Poe is speaking through her, and I guess Frank can see/sense that so hes no longer skeptical about all this. He tells him that he's thinking of welcoming new members into their family and asks him what he thinks, and KIng Poe responds, "Expand the family. We need new blood. But stay away from the beach cabin. Or disaster will befall."

Then he disappears and Frank immediately excuses himself and Sheila because they need to check on the kids. Clifford expresses his disappointment at that, specifically telling Sheila "I thought we could spend some time together tonight." while Jane looks at him, visibly concerned and insecure. Sheila goes "We'll do that another time" and then tells Jane that they should go look at wedding dresses soon. After they left, Clifford finds a handkerchief that Sheila left behind and goes to bring it to her. Beich Braun notices Jane being upset and concerned and asks her what's wrong. She tells him that Clifford was looking at Sheila during the seance and that Mrs. Twilight always has a hairdresser come to her before Cliffords room visits to her, so she thinks he might be cheating on her, but Beich Braun is just like "nahhhh dont worry abt it" which shockingly does not help. She goes to her father and asks if she could ask Blavatsky a question but he tells her that he shouldnt, although he doesnt clarify why

Clifford returns and Beich Braun tells him a little of what Jane told him while she herself and Dr. Custer leave the two guys alone. Then theyre approached by Blavatsky who asks them if they have guns. Beich doesnt but Clifford does, so she gives him some silver bullets that have been purified on Golgotha Hill that she apparently took with her when she traveled to transilvania as protection against Count Dracula's spirit (this show treats dracula as a folkloric character instead of a character from a novel, which is especially funny bc Dracula wasnt even published in 1879). Then she gives Beich a gun and some silver bullets as well. She says "I received a message that the both of you will need silver bullets." and thats the end of that

Frank and Sheila are chilling in their hotel room (without Marybell) when Edgar comes running in and tells them that Alan knows. Obviously Frank asks him how and why, and Edgar is like "I wanted to give Marybell a new source of energy" and I guess biting Alan would have done that? i still dont fully get how these vampires work. Then Sheila asks why he chose Alan in particular and Edgar says "He's cocky, but pure and uncorrupted". Then Frank asks why didnt finish the job and when Edgar tells him that he pushed him away, he calls him a pathetic bastard. Edgar continues being like, "He quoted the bible and it scared me, you wouldve been scared too" before telling them that they need to leave immediately. Frank is just like "noooooo, this town is too nice and its modern, so none suspects of being vampires, we're staying" (even though there are literally rumors about vampires going around shortly after they got here but okay). Then he tells Edgar that he doesnt need to fear bible verses or crosses or any of that because those things are symbols that cant actually harm them, and that the thing thats really terrifying is religion because they refuse to acknowledge heresy and reject those who are different. Then they sing a little song all together about how theyre lonely creatures who need someone to love and I guess everything is fine after that. Marybell comes into the room all concerned and relieved that Edgar is back because she thought he wouldnt for some reason thats not really explained, and the whole family reassures her that they will never separate because their connected by blood and its a sweet little bonding moment

Meanwhile Alan is back in his hotel room as well. Clifford and Dr. Custer are there and they tell him that Rachel had a heart attack but survived and should be fine as long as she doesnt have another major attack. Dr. Custer gets whisked away by Harold who wants to speak to him for some reason, so now its just Alan, Clifford and the sleeping Rachel in the room. He passive-aggressively asks him if his mother isnt much more beautiful without all her makeup, but Clifford is just like "You're looking a little pale from worrying too much." Then he notices a mark on his neck and asks him about that, and Alan gets really flustered and goes "I was just messing around with a friend". Clifford asks if that friend is Edgar and if they get along or hate each other to which Alan responds "Well, I'm not sure of that myself"

and honestly, neither am I. Thats why their connection on the relationship chart is red like the all the romantic ones but labeled as '???' because its just. idk, I feel like the best way I can describe it is, imagine love and hatred on the two ends of a sliding spectrum; Alan and Edgar are squarely in the middle of that spectrum. And like, not in the sense that theyre indifferent or apathetic or whatever other mild emotion you would expect to find at the mid-point of this kind of gradient, their feelings for each other are just as intense as love or hatred, I just couldnt tell you what that feeling is.

Anyway, Alan very carefully asks Clifford what he thinks of vampires and he says he doesnt really know because hes never seen one. Then he points at the mark on his neck and goes "But they suck blood from your neck...." and Alan tells him that the mark was from Edgar pressing too hard with his finger. Before Clifford can question that any further, Harold comes in saying that Dr. Custer is leaving now so he has to leave as well.

Once theyre alone, Harold just straightup tells Alan "Hey, the doc told me your mother doesnt have long to live, why dont you marry Margott as quickly as possible before she kicks the bucket, shes even already given her approval". Alan gets very upset and refuses several times while trying to leave, but Harold grabs him by the arms and not-Isolde also shows up to try and restrain him. He does manage to escape them though and runs out of the room, only to get accosted by his three cousins who, as always, eavesdropped and know everything because of that. Margott tries to pressure him into just accepting her father's decision and Alan tries to I guess change her mind by being like "But you like Clifford, dont you?" I dont really get it, I assume its meant to show Alan's naivete? Whatever, Margott is like, "yeah I like him, I even kissed him a few times, but hes engaged. And I dont like you at all, but I could treat you nicely, especially since youre about to become a rich ORPHAN" and then she rubs Rosetti in his face before he finally gets away from her.

Alan prays for a moment and then goes to find the Portsnells' room where he finds Marybell alone, resting on a couch. He asks her where Edgar is and she tells him he's still in school. She notices that hes drenched in sweat and offers to bring him a towel but Alan grabs her hand and practically begs her not to leave. Then he asks, "Will you be mad if I ask you to be engaged to me? I'm serious. I promise that you're not a replacement for Rosetti. I just want a promise. Even if it happens in two our four years, when you're older". Obviously Marybell says that thats impossible (she doesnt give a reason, but we know its bc she doesnt age) and starts to cry, and Alan feels really bad for putting her on the spot so he puts some distance between them. But then Marybell offers him to come with them and travel somewhere far away. Edgar dramatically appears in the room as well and this is when Alan realizes that theyre all vampires specifically (he only realized that Edgar was non-human previously). He asks him if he wants to join them as well and before he can answer, he launches into a romantic song about how good it is to live forever with the person you love, and after that he launches into a homoerotic dance thats building and building to him biting Alan, but before he can actually do that, Marybell loudly interrupts him. She yells, "Don't make him suffer because of me!" and when Edgar tells her its what he wants, she's like "no, he still has lingering attachments". So he lets Alan go, Alan gets the hell out of there, Marybell starts loudly sobbing, Edgar is stumbling around with the most tormented expression on his face, its all very dramatic

We go over to Jane and Sheila looking at a wedding dress in the hotel, with Marybell accompanying them as well so we can conclude that some time has passed. Sheila thinks the dress is rather ordinary and that it needs more frills and ribbons and pearls, to which the saleswoman whos trying to get Jane to buy her dress points out that that would be a lot more expensive, but Sheila tells her she'll introduce her to her own dressmaker who can apparently cut her a better deal. Then Marybell suddenly collapses. Since doctor Clifford is on a home visit to the light house, Jane tells her that she should go to her father's clinic, but Sheila says she's waiting on an important call from London and cant leave the hotel so Jane offers to take her instead.

Edgar and Frank eavesdrop on all of this and Edgar is really concerned and wants to go with them but Frank is just like "No its fine, Sheila will pick her up later". Sheila goes outside once Marybell and Jane are gone and Edgar asks why, to which Frank tells him that shes going hunting. Thats right, she is going to bag that sleazy cheating doctor for the clan. It seems like they havent had anyone join the clan for over a hundred years, but that horrible little man just really does it for them I guess.

Sheila manages to get to Clifford while hes walking back home from treating the lighthouse-keeper just as it starts to thunder. She practically jumps into his arms going "I'm sorry, I'm just so afraid of the thunder and lightning", she's really playing up her youthful innocence. Then it starts to rain really heavily and they decide to take refuge in a little old beach cabin. Once inside they subtly flirt a little until they kiss. Theres a moment of hesitation but then decide to go further; Sheila starts to kiss his neck but Clifford is kindof holding her wrist in his hand and he notices that she doesnt have a pulse so he puts some distance between them. He thinks back to that moment where she didnt have a reflection in the mirror and comes to the conclusion that shes a vampire.

If these vampires dont have a pulse, Im curious how doctors were able to examine Marybell and not notice that anything was amiss. My best guess would be that the pulse works the same way as the reflection, so you have to focus for it to be there, but thats not stated

Whatever, Clifford picks up an old pitchfork thats laying in the corner of the cabin, stabs her in the chest and books it to Dr. Custer's clinic to get Jane (he knows her whereabouts because Sheila mentiooned it). But he used the metal-bit of the pitchfork to stab her, her didnt use the stick like a stake, so Sheila survives and is able to book it back to the hotel.

Sheila looks absolutely awful when she arrives, shes on the verge of passing out, somehow not absolutely covered in blood, and Frank and Edgar immediately come down to help her. Edgar concludes that Clifford did this and says that he'll bring Marybell back. Frank is like "Okay, we'll leave town as soon as Sheila recovered" and I want to strangle this man. Like, why are you waiting for her to recover? in the hotel where the guy who stabbed your wife is employed?? YOu leave that town immediately!!

But whatever, we go over to Jane at the clinic comforting a scared-but-fairly-healthy-seeming Marybell while also self-consciously rambling to herself about how shes not as beautiful as Sheila. Then Clifford suddenly burst through the door, yelling at her to get away from that child. Jane is obviously confused and asks whats wrong and Clifford is just like "... I killed Sheila." which distresses Marybell. Then hes like "There has to be gun here somewhere" and starts rummaging through the desk which makes everything much worse. Jane tries to calm him down but hes just unhinged, hes telling her about the Portsnells being vampires, doesnt find the gun but does find a bigass cross which he throws in Marybell's general direction. This terrifies her and she she crawls behind a chair to try and protect herself while crying out for Edgar. In the meantime, Clifford has managed to find the gun and puts the silver bullets inside. Jane lunges at him to try and prevent him from shooting Marybell, but she gets hit anyway and dies. While shes dying, we see all her vampire ancestors receive her into the afterlife and its kinda goofy ngl, but I guess its nice. Idk, all those guys kinda gave off cult-vibes so Im actually not that happy for her, but oh well

Dr. Custer, having heard the commotion, runs into the room all worried, and sees that Jane has fainted. She wakes up quickly though and tells him that she saw a vampire. Hes like, "Let's go to the bedroom." while she starts screaming in agony and they leave Clifford alone in the room, Dr. Custer not once questioning the gunshot noise or the fact that a patient he just treated disappeared into thin air.

This is when Edgar enters, lamenting that he was too late. Clifford picks up the cross to try and defend himself but Edgar doesnt fear it, so hes able to get closer and pick up the gun that he shot Marybell with, which landed on the floor at some point. He asks Clifford if he has any last words and he says, "Why are you here? Why do you exist?". Edgar shoots him and then sings a short song about how he doesnt know the answers to those questions himself, and how he doesnt even understand why they live this long when they cant create new life or leave something for the next generation. He briefly wonders if he will ever see Marybell's smile again before remembering Frank and Sheila, although he calls Frank Father which is interesting.

Back at the hotel, Frank and Sheila are leaving immediately after all, thank god, but theyre being held up by all the people asking them about Sheila's condition and their kids and offering to help. Someone touches her while trying to help and flinches away because her skin is so cold, which I guess makes Beich Brain realize that theyre vampires. He calls them out as vampires and Frank grabs him by the throat and throws him onto the ground. Sheila wants him to leave her behind but he reminds her of their vows (walk together, die together, turn to dust together). Then Beich Braun pulls out his gun and shoots them both, although they stay alive for just long enough to tearfully properly recite their wedding vows one last time, and theyre dust.

And afterwards Beich Brauch is just just acting like a guy from wackytown, hes like "woah, did you all see that? that wasnt an illusion!" He gives Blavatsky, who was also there the whole time, the gun back and shes like "Man, I never thought those bullets would come in handy" and his last line of the play is, "I'll write a book. 'The Disappearance of the Baron and His Wife'." (thats one of the primary sources of our 1960s framing-device-characters)

IMAGINE murdering two people in cold blood and immediately after doing it youre just like "man, that was crazy. Im gonna write a book about it, I even have a title ready" that man was insane. Im so curious about the woman he had kids with

Anyway, Edgar saw all of that and sings a song about his grief but also about his relief at the fact that he doesnt have to keep living his cursed-vampire life anymore because all of his reasons for living are gone. But then, he remembers something...

We go over to Alan in his room - I feel like I havent really done a good job of making this clear, but the hotel rooms are more like two-story apartments than modern hotel rooms because its very fancy and old-timey. So Alan is in his room upstairs while Rachel and Harold are down in her bedroom, talking to each other about the future. Harold pleads with her to talk to Alan about marrying Margott and she says yes. Then hes like "Let's go on a trip together once youre better, I'll tell everyone else its a business trip. Where would you like to go?" and she, with a lot of longing, tells him that she'd like to go somewhere warm.

While theyre talking, Alan has slowly snuck down the stairs and listened to this conversation and looked at them on the bed, holding each other in a very romantic way, visibly very upset but theyre too distracted to notice him. Then he finally asks his uncle what hes doing and says, "I never thought my mother would betray me!" before storming back up the stairs. Rachel stands up and tries to talk to him and Harold actually follows him up the stairs, trying to convince him that he was just talking about his marriage to Margott. Alan doesnt want to hear any of it though, he yells at him, specifically accusing him of seducing his mother, which makes Harold laugh. He then grabs him by the arms and Alan pushes him off, but theyre still on the stairs, so he pushes him down the stairs, killing him.

His cousins, who are always just hiding in some corner of this room, rush in, everyone starts screaming that Alan is a murderer and I fully thought Rachel was going to have a heartattack and die as well, but she doesnt, she just hates Alan now. They drag Harold's body away while Alan scrambles to get back to his room. He's completely shell-shocked saying to himself, "I'm... I'm finished. Somebody help me! ... Marybell... I want to see Marybell!"

In that moment, the window opens and Edgar comes in. He tells him that Marybell is no longer here. Alan asks him where she is and Edgar asks in return, "Do you know where people come from before they're born?". Alan says no and Edgar goes, "Neither do I. That's why I don't know where Marybell has gone". Then Edgar tells him that he's leaving to go somewhere far away and asks him to come with him because its too lonely to be on your own. Alan hesitates for a moment but then takes his hand and says, "Let's go. I have nothing that's holding me back anymore!" and theyre off.

One of the servants of the Twilight-household tries to find Alan to tell them that Harold survived, but its already too late; Edgar has taken him away to turn him in a private place.

We're very close to the end now, its basically just the framing device-conclusion, but I need to take a moment to complain about how anti-climactic this final bite of Alan felt. Like, the scene where Alan was injured and Edgar licked his found felt more intense and important, it drives me crazy. Im also extremely mad about the fact that they didnt kiss, I was SO expecting it and then it didnt happen. I guess thats only okay for straight couples, even though its takarazuka so theyre all played by women anyway, like its always women kissing ("kissing") but having them kiss while theyre both playing male characters is just a bridge too homosexual apparently

Anyway, we're back in 1964 with our framing device-gang who just chat for a bit, wondering if Alan really chose to get turned out of his own volition because they really dont know for sure because they dont have all this context that we, the audience, got there. Like, the most intimate account they have of this was from Beich Braun, who was tertiary-at-best to this whole drama. But whatever, Don Marshal says, "Edgar, whose family was annihilated, and Alan, whose family had broken apart, were able to understand each other." which is probably true. Beich IV remembers Louis Byrd briefly mentioning that he met them at school and asks him to tell them about it, and this joker starts off by being like "How should I put it? They were the best of friends, and they were like brothers." and I thought I was gonna lose my mind when I first heard/read that.

So then we go over into a west-german all-boys Gymnasium - I was gonna go on a whole ramble about the german school system here but it wouldve been too long, just know that the students are like 17-18 years old - in the year 1959. Theyre all chatting about the newest Paul Anka-hit thats even better than his best song Diana, 'The Sorrowful Vampanella'. In case you somehow dont know, Paul Anka was a canadian pop-singer teen-heartthrob guy who was very popular in the 50s, and before you look it up, no he did not write actually write a song with that title and also that song is just a cheery 50s-pop cover of one of Edgar's songs about how sad his existance is.

Louis comes up to a group of guys singing the song and tells them about the new english transfer-students, Edgar and Alan, apparently not being very friendly. Despite saying this, he immediately goes and greets Edgar when he sees him. He also asks him if his full name is Edgar Portsnell and if he has a sister named Marybell because those names are both mentioned Glenn Smith's diary that his aunt showed him. Edgar says yes to both questions and clarifies that he had a sister who is now dead. This makes things pretty awkward for Louis so he just goes "Oh, really? what a wild coincidence ahaha" and starts walking away. Alan calls for Edgar, so he says bye to Louis and goes to hang out with his best of friend who's almost like a brother. Then all the other boys start singing the Paul Anka song while Edgar and Alan move to the middle of stage to hold hands while kindof knowingly looking around them, and thats the final ending of the musical

And thats why I had to tell you about the framing device, because I couldn't possibly leave out the fact that apparently canadian teen heartthrob Paul Anka somehow got his hands on this story and wrote a charts-topping song about it so that it can play in the conclusion of this musical which inexplicably takes place at some german highschool in the 50s even though the rest of the story takes place in victorian england. Ive said this before, but thats how every piece of historical media should end I think

Alright, I have two last small things to say before my final concluding thoughts:

Frank fucking sucked as a father on every conceivable level but I do think that he was a pretty husband to Sheila, which is a pretty rare combination. I mean, the fact that they fell in love when she was 15 isnt great, but I guess it was a little more normal at the time? he atleast waited until she was an adult? idk why I bother trying to find redeemable qualities in this man

I truly do not know what to think of Sheila as a mother. And just for the record, her not being a good mother doesnt make me dislike her, I like her a lot and I think shes very interesting, but. Idk. She had her moments of good and bad parenting for sure, and in the end it was kinda her fault that her daughter and husband and she herself died. And just because she wanted some sleazy cheater of a doctor to be part of the clan, although Im not gonna put the blame solely on her because Frank clearly wanted him too and was so fucking careless during all of this and didnt even put in any of the work, that was all her

Okay, now Im done. Despite some one the things that I said about certain things not making sense or being confusing (especially on a first watch), I really love this musical and would highly recommend watching it, even though youve been thoroughly spoiled for everything if you made it to end of this longass post, just because I think the songs and the direction and the costumes and especially Asumi Rio as Edgar were so great. Im gonna be honest with you, part of the reason I was motivated to write all of this is that Im extremely desperate to get other people into this, because there are a total of seven fanfics on ao3 (four for the takarazuka production, 3 for the original manga) and I wasnt able to find literally any others on the other major fanfic sites, so please please please please please watch it (pleading emojis) and also please read the manga, I havent read it yet, Im probably gonna read it next week when Im less busy so I can really sink my teeth into it, but if its anything like this show I already know Im going to love it.

Thats it, I hope you enjoyed reading this

[the-s1lly-corner]

Which of the creepypastas would be okay with an asexual s/o?

Creepypastas w/ an ace!reader!

yahoo!! sorry for taking so long to get to this!! i kinda had a small lil slump for a few days but im back!! sorry for any typos or if these seem... bllluguuguh!!! im still trying to get through that lil slump so my brains still a lil... boo!!! obligatory these are with characters that i think would be compatible with an ace reader so this isnt going to follow my base/go to list of characters! a lot of these are going to dip into admins experience as someone on the ace spectrum (asexual/aegosexual!) reader is written as vague ace identity but like. mostly involved to be ace. admittedly this leans more into most of this being ace hcs since i think for the most part they dont care/dont find issue with your identity

Characters: Slenderman, Trenderman, Eyeless Jack, Masky

CWs: mentions of sex but like. nothing too bad mostly just vague sex drives and that sort of thing, really!

Slenderman;

honestly i think he might be on the ace spectrum, or maybe thats because i dont think he really knows what sex /is/

okay well he does know what it is but he only understands it on a surface level, but otherwise he doesnt really care much for it in an everyday setting

yeah i think hes on the spectrum; i also think he might be on the aro spectrum!

only really initiates intimacy if you want it (reminder that not all aces dont have sex! attraction stuff is the main thing) but otherwise i would write him the same way as i do with a non-asexual reader!

extra headannon since his is kinda short but really hes probably the most supportive out of any creepypasta simply because i like to write him as this entity that doesnt interact much with others but is still. curious. this man does not know what lgbtphobia is (and thinks its dumb when he does find out!)

Trenderman;

very similar with slenderman but more in tuned with identity stuff and things like that

personally i hc him to be greysexual, or demisexual! i think trender is like. the only one out of the 3 brothers (that i claim) that i dont see being ready to get down and dirty? like unlike slender he KNOWS what it is and understands attraction and all that but just doesnt. feel it

so he gets it! he interacts with people more than slender but like. not openly, i mean like not as himsef?! this is kind of a side tangent but i like to think that slender beings can create false human bodies and trender is the main one who uses it

anyways! im kind of getting off topic

he understands the stigma and hate ace people can get so out of the four characters today i think he would be the most likely to offer an ear when youre getting flack

i wish i had more for trender as well but this is genuinely the first time ive written for him so im still all OWOWOOOUGH!! with how i wanna portray him

speaking of i need to do like a catch up post for him, and some other characters so i might do that soon^^

Eyeless Jack;

okay so! the two above characters are fine with it because theyre on the spectrum above but i feel like eyeless jack just outright doesnt care if your ace or not since he has a fairly low sex drive 99% of the time

sappy man, one of those "i prefer people based on their personality rather than their looks" but not in the "im so deep for this and im lying through my teeth" way i (personally) see people say (school was ROUGH man) but in a "im literally turning into a monster my skin is fucking blue and starting to rot i have no place to say anything" way

anyways

he adores you so so much and he really feels like he doesnt deserve you, bro could not care

probably tries to find flowers around his cabin that make up the ace flag/which ever flag you use

though im not sure how many grey flowers there are... hes trying his best!

Masky;

similar to eyeless jack he has a low sex drive imo so it isnt too much of a big deal to him, plus i think hes graysexual? at least i feel like he would if he knew about the label

i think asides slender and trender, he doesnt know much about this sort of thing so youre probably going to explain it to him

he mostly gets it! he gets things mixed up but hes trying his best!

overall supportive bf!! probably steals a pride pin from somewhere (dont ask)

imagine he grabs the wrong pin/j

wweoeoeohh! i hope this post is okay! admittedly i wasnt sure how this was going to turn out since, as stated above, i feel that a lot of the characters wouldnt mind/are on the spectrum themselves im not gonna lie this couldve been better but im so out of it rn that my brain is all scattered n stuff :( regardless i hope this is sufficient, and once again im so sorry for the wait TToTT

[beagle-amarelo]

pls tell me everything about sed & tricho & eve?? can i draw them?

omg !! sure i can tell you about them :') i will write a short summary about them here. and omg yes you certainly can draw them ;_; id love to see your drawings of my characters!!!

here's a bit about the three of them:

sed, tricho and eve are the main characters of my story that happens in a world where there are mostly only plants, cacti, succulents & fungi folks. theyre like human people!! they have jobs, families, personalities, dreams, fears...

sed is based on the succulent called sedum rubrotinctum. he's a young adult who is kinda melancholic in general. even though bad things do happen to him a bit often, it also sorta depends on his point of view too?? he's always very negative. it's not always that bad. but he's really a "sed boy" (a pun with his name). he's not rich or middle class, but i wouldn't say he's poor, he pays rent for his apartment (that has some leaking) and has a job as an customer support intern for IT. he's got colleagues at work but he's soo insecure that he doesn't get along with the folks. however!!! there's a couple of pals in the place where he works that are closer to him. he wouldn't call them his friends "friends?? i dont think anyone likes me, really. i mean, they're a bit close, but i don't think they care about me..." he would say. truth is that those two who are closer to him (tricho and eve) do care about him, but they just don't take work friendships too seriously. they're not overthinkers like sed, so they do like sed's company (when he's not being too dramatic), but they just dont think too much about it.

eve is working at that same company as sed, she works at customer support too, but she doesn't know much technical stuff like coding (sed does know a bit of it since he's in an IT long distance university). she's been working at that company for a bit longer than sed, so she's no longer an intern. she got hired because her family has connections with the CEO and the folks over there, but she's not horrible at her work. she just doesn't put much effort into it, she's there solely for the experience, doesn't really care about the paycheck. you might find her listening to loud pop music in her earphones even when she's not at work. she cares a lot about pop culture and trends... and she's got some followers in her social media app where she shares lifestyle stuff. she doesn't want to be successful at her 9 - 5 job though, her dream is to be a famous influencer one day!! she started getting along well with sed because sed secretly is into pop music too, so they talk a lot about music stuff. sed encourages eve to express herself more in real life because he thinks she has social media addiction.

tricho has hired as an intern at the same day as sed, and they were kind of partners in their work days, but as sed kept stagnated as a customer support intern, tricho quickly developed himself into a project manager. he kinda grew apart from sed as his goals aimed higher and higher, until he became sed and eve's boss. tricho is naturally egocentric and selfish. his childhood dream was to be successful at work, he always had the highest grades and would lead the teams at school activities. but he's not a good boss........ at some point he faces the fact that no one likes him and he feels upset for that. he's kinda detached and hyperfocused on "success" so he didnt notice he was acting like a dumbass. he starts learning empathy and feeling sorry for his mistakes. he's still the gemini cactus he is, though. he's never not gonna be like that. so yeah his default mode is still kinda selfish, but now he apologizes and tries better next time.

i think the three of them live in the same building too, by the way. there's a whole thing about the landlord and his family, but that's enough story to tell for another time :-)

i hope you enjoy the little lore i have about those silly plants!!! thanks for your kindness again! <3

[trtfposting1987]

Everything i like about trtf4

Hi! If you've seen my other posts, you know the deal by now. I talk about a trtf game, and all the things i like about it with not a single backhanded compliment.

Admittedly, trtf4 isn’t favorite in volume 1; It's a very rushed game and because of that, there's a lot of bits of it I'm not too fond of. However, this doesn't mean I'm not gonna try to make this post work. As is the case with all these games, there are things to love about it. Even at the series' lowest point for me, I still have a lot of good to say about it. Let us begin, then.

Firstly, I do wanna say that I like lockjaw's design in this game. Yeah, trtf3 lockjaw is iconic, but this one is probably just better. I especially like all the ways he's posed and rendered in the game, always being in this sort of shambling zombie pose, and even shambles in your office when he gets there. It's honestly a really cool way to utilize a human animatronic, having him resemble an undead, and I kinda hope there are more TRTF remakes that use him like this.

also the intro cutscene is hype as hell and i LOVE it. the lights flashing on, the entire building shaking, like that kinda stuff is just SO COOL.

also these two. i like them. both bears. me like

VINCENT VINCENT V mm ahem lemme explain... so this character is purple freddy, a hallucination that can appear in your office and. instantly kill you. A lot of people default to calling him shadow freddy, which i get, but..... like if you think of it this could probably actually be vincent. its a freddy suit. its purple. vincent is purple and wore those. and because gron's corpse is supposedly in the location he's probably here because he knows his best friend is somewhere around the location and hes tryihng to find him and oooogh...... sniff.... my probably-not-canon-headcanon is making me cry.... i miss you so much vincent....

speaking of gron tho

yea. i know what you want me to talk about

listen. hear me out. its a silly minigame. yes. but i like it anyway. silly pixel minigames from old fangames are peak. i like this for the same reason i like photoshop fangames. it is silly as hell and i LOVE that kind of silliness. also more grontent is GOOD content

AND ALSO having night 6 end by having Golden lockjaw unavoidably kill you is uber cool, i liked it in sister location too, and it made me realize that i kinda wish more fangames did stuff like that

also this render of gron trying to escape from the arcade machines are cool and i DONT care what you think

annnnnnnnd yeh i think thats about it for this game and volume 1. again i certainly dont have as much to say about TRTF4 as the others, but again, there ARE still cool things about it! oh well, hopefully trtf4 legalized edition is able to bring the game to its fullest potential

So, am i gonna make posts about volume 2 and the major updates next? yea prolly. hope ur there when it happens!!!

[davekat-sucks]

Something I dont think gets talked about enough is other race/ethnicity headcanons on the Peixes. While not the most popular headcanon of course apparently there were actually several people who saw the Peixes (specifically Meenah/Condesce) as being SWANA (Southwest Asian North African) coded and that Condesce often gave off like this Egyptian type of vibe. Some also make comparisons to her and Vexus from My Life As A Teenage Robot. This can also go in hand with how some view them as Italian coded. Some people in regions of Italy are of mixed descent and have SWANA ancestry particularly in Southern Italy. Many people who view them as Italian just view them as white but SWANA/mixed Italian could also work too and kinda funny how it might go with how Condesce lived in and was the ruler in the Signless and Dolorosa era, who ARE, based off West Asian biblical figures, even though she was likely ancient as fuck then too given her blood. But if trolls are to parallel humans then it historically makes sense with how SWANA civilizations are some of the most ancient. And there are some major historical connections and interactions between Southern European civilizations and SWANA ones such as Ancient Greece and Rome. HS does reference a lot of mythologies of both and many others.

While Latino is not a race but an ethnicity that can include any race there are some people who have viewed the Peixes as Afro-Latino rather than Afro-American. Specifically Brazilian given the surname Peixes. That can make a lot of sense as Brazil is the country with the largest black population in the world outside of Africa. Some may even go for Afro-British (like how several have viewed the Peixes as white British/Scottish/Irish from the UK similar to how the Amporas are commonly viewed) or go the route of mixed ethnicity and nationality. There are many different Afro- cultures out there as black people live around the world.

It also is just so interesting how the Peixes (Meenah/Condesce) accent has been interpreted so differently across many people. Some view it as AAVE, some view it as some kind of European accent, or probably something entirely different. It is interesting how there have been those who point out how the accent Meenah/Condesce have is very similar to Eridan and yet the Amporas do not have much of the same discourse.

However Andrew Hussie intended the characters is one thing and who knows how many times he could have changed his mind on how he codes or doesn’t code characters or if one even wants to agree or believe in the idea of trolls being coded to begin with. But at the very least I think it should be acknowledged how much the readers and the audience actually have quite a diverse view on the Peixes ethnicity. There may be a crowd (or more) that shouts for things to be a certain way and act as if it is accepted fact. Common belief taken as the truth. But regardless of what is truth or not, what is canon or not canon, it ironically feels quite not open-minded and disingenuous at best to completely ignore how not everyone views the Peixes the same way. It does not matter if the creator truly intended the Peixes to be coded as black, white, raceless, or many races. People seem to not take account that not everyone even agrees what race or ethnic group the Peixes are. Yeah them being seen as black may be one of the most dominant headcanons but that does not make it the only one let alone the truest one.

It would be nice to see an official statement on what Hussie has to say on this matter if there ever was one instead of relying on mere speculation and guesses. Yet then again Hussie has been shown to be a huge troll who retcons and plays frivolously with race a lot. Maybe the answer is right under our noses and many just dont see it or refuse to see it? I just really hope there can be a day where, even if many agree to disagree, fans can realize not all fans see things the same way regardless of whatever canon has to say and fans seem to be so stuck in the illusion that other fans view their race/ethnic group as others do. That is all.

Andrew Hussie also comes up with things on the fly if he thinks it sounded cool. Not really planning them out like he did with aspects and classes. There could be a chance that things like Virgin Mary do have some other equivalent in other countries. It's like that in many myths, lore, folklore, and fairy tales. To accurately pinpoint the origin is difficult. I wouldn't be surprised if he did only surface level research or knows the basic summary, and decides to apply it with Homestuck. The reason for Amporas not getting same kind of discourse as Peixes is because Eridan and Cronus (and by extension Dualscar if they apply Cronus personality more on him), are unpleasant. Making them POC in some way carries bad implications for either of them. It's often why even if they are same sea dweller race as Peixes, they are given different ethnicities/race from them. Some also see Eridan's stuffy personality being like a stereotypes to other characters who are a different race that has this. Things like British accent or European. For a fandom that claims diversity, they would unconsciously assume stereotypes from what they heard/seen/experienced. And I think the fans not admitting they would stereotype or assumptions is the part that causes lots of in-fighting and chaos. Nobody wants to be racist despite everybody is a little bit racist. That's the fact of life. We all have bias and assumptions about something. It's not just in people, but media, places, and more. The whole "Don't judge a book by its cover" applies. Our minds make up things faster based on appearance and hearsay more than people going out to experience it themselves. Sometimes it can be right if there is a sign that someone or someplace could cause harm, sometimes it isn't. It varies. I think at this point, we should all accept that people make assumptions and stereotypes of all kinds no matter what. The only time it becomes a problem is if it starts to advocate or actually harm people. Whether or not Hussie admits about the race thing truthfully for one moment, the fans should respect others for their own thing and never enforce it onto others.