#though this is cronus we're talking about

[fictofaggot]

alright, i'll bite. what's so bad about beforus?

there's quite a lot bad about it! it's interestingly often referred to in fanon as the utopia to alternia's dystopia... i can understand where that idea comes from of course! having a society that is relatively peaceful compared to alternia + one that allows trolls to be the eusocial insects they are (compared to alternia which thrives from forcing isolation) can obviously make it seem like a utopia from an outsider's view

however like. if we stop and think about the beforan culling system in particular... of course its not alternia's... we're not murdering trolls for being weak here, which makes it definitely the better of the two unfortunate options. however the beforan culling system quite literally involves owning weak and lowblooded trolls as if they're pets (others have said this before, but it is basically just petstuck but with other trolls instead of humans). it is so fucked up! it is normalized so much in society that it's not only seen as the right thing to do in every situation but directly influences literally every single interaction between any beforan troll with anyone else ever (obviously lol...it's a society thats how it is :P but still this is just a transition)

beforan highbloods are supposed to be like.. super overbearing "autism moms" (closest comparison i can make to humans honestly).

they're supposed to see lowbloods as incompetent, and they're supposed to compensate for that, to treat them as children incapable of fending, thinking, and speaking for themselves. and then they're supposed to feel good about themselves for it! they feel as though in doing that and removing any autonomy from those lower ranked than them they've fulfilled their societal duty, because they have.

i can see groups of highbloods talking amongst themselves about how muched they've helped lowbloods recently and how well they've treated them and oh, i met such a sweet rustie the other day and it was just so darling how quiet and gentle it was.. etc etc.

acknowledging lowerbloods' existence is seen as this brilliant upstander move that makes you a wonderful, wonderful troll being who deserves praise. you're supposed to treat lowbloods as pets who need to be coddled and protected, and even just treating them like people would likely be seen as very strange... like a human treating a dog as a person, for example. just very very fucked up

this is shown particularly nicely, i think, in the majority of the lowblood dancestors' personalities. we have kankri, who clearly overcompensates for never having been treated as if he can fend for himself. we have damara, who's snapped at this point, reacting with extreme anger (rightfully so!) and rebellion towards all those who've treated her like shit this entire time. we have rufioh, who's rebellion is more quiet (running away to live with a group of other misfits). mituna does not conform to the passive, docile lowblood trope whatsoever (mostly due to his disability, but i believe that's just part of who he is), which gives him this reputation amongst his fellow beforans as a horrible, unpleasant troll to be around. (i'll elaborate on these in a different post)

and don't even get me started as to how meenah and cronus's behavior (towards karkat in particular) implies the ways lowbloods are treated sexually on beforus. the implications are awful.

there's definitely more that's implied, but i would honestly have to go back into the text and search for the full scope of it. basically, beforus is fucked up bruh

[davekat-sucks]

The entire Cronus - Vriska controversy that is happening here could be avoided if this person stopped for a few seconds and read that the vote is about the worst ship and not the worst character.

But let's go by parts since the worst takes of Homestuck ever made seem to be made by fans of the dancestors. It is a consensus here, in the other answers that Cronus is in fact worse than Vriska, no one is denying this or diminishing his actions. So using the "hating women" argument to try to invalidate people who find "Tavris" horrible doesn't work.

"But you are comparing a child who was raised in violence and homicide with a pedo/rapist who has the desire to kill people he considers inferior blah blah blah" Nobody here is comparing the characters, especially because Vriska is a victim of circumstances, nobody denies this, but again we are comparing >ships<, how toxic, cruel and even criminal they are.

For example, the previous vote for best ship we had, amazingly, Spiderbreath, I didn't see anyone questioning the ship even though Vriska was controversial, why? Because we know that canonically spiderbreath was a good dynamic, other ships in the "worst ship vote" involve some couples with good people like Katnep, no one complain about the characters here because they're good.

Since the crippling and murder that Vriska committed is so trivialized because she is a victim of Alternia's cruel reality, let's remember the crime that no one forgives and that Vriska committed. Vriska committed SA against Tavros. Forcing someone to kiss is SA, you can say what you want about Vriska's past but nothing will justify the SA she committed, not even the fact that she was a child at the time.

Cronus may claim he wants to exterminate people, but we haven't seen it on screen, nor has Aranea mentioned it. He's just a pathetic character that you're giving more importance to than he really deserves, but then again we're talking about ships and the only person who probably has involvement in Mituna crippling was Kurloz.

So yes, speaking of impact, crimes, and casualties Tavris is exponentially worse than Crotuna.

Is Vriska a person worse than Cronus? No. Never. You can feel her pain, you can understand the person she became, you can feel symphaty for the tragedy of her life. And you at same time can hate her actions.

Bro, you can repudiate Crotuna all you want, I think it's disgusting too, but don't try to diminish Tavris.

[neopuff]

Since you recently finished watching it, how would you improve class of titans?

WELL I think the show suffered really badly from having to stick to the status quo. Things couldn't significantly or noticably change til the end of the series which really doesn't work for a show like this - like, I'm still confused about what happened with Cronus in the middle of season 2. They captured him but then no they didn't and he's out? I felt like I'd missed an episode or two somewhere lol

So overall writing a coherent story for the show to follow would've been nice. Also more consistency on how the Gods are portrayed. I liked Theresa's anger in the finale but it came out of nowhere, it would've been really easy to build up to it. Everytime they have to fight a gods battle because of a terrible thing the gods did in the past, they should be upset about it, y'know? Who wants to fight someone else's battles.

Also I love that they had fun with the gods but I'm disappointed that they gave Zeus and Hera a cutesy romantic moment near the end. In the Christmas ep maybe? Anyway Hera should hate his cheating ass it's funnier for me

Cronus is a fun villain but what made me like him so much at the beginning was that he was charming and polite lol later on in the show he got meaner and maybe that's intentional but it just felt like they lost track of his personality

(which reminds me - the ep where everyone except Neil got amnesia? Probably the best ep of S2. I would've made that a double ep and continued the amnesia shenanigans for an excessively long time)

I would also redesign a lot of characters. Whoever did the character designs for this show seems to think all the Greek gods and their descendents have red hair. Like. There's less than 10 dark haired characters in the show, and I'm including every side character. That's stupid. The obsession with making everyone redheads or blondes is annoying.

Romance-wise, I think Jay and Theresa are fine but they could've had some more fun stories. I also sometimes felt like they were already dating and sometimes it seemed like she just had a one sided crush on him?

Archie and Atlanta were a nightmare ship for me. Everything I hate in a ship thrown together into a ball of bad writing. In the first ep where they talk about his crush, I 100% thought it was gonna stay one sided and Atlanta would be Without A Man since that's how shows portrayed lesbians back then lol (one of the characters said something like 'i don't think any guy has a chance with Atlanta' so I was hoping it'd be like the lesbian from Fred's Head) but noooo. Goddddddd they were so painful to watch. I would've gotten rid of that 'romance' and let Atlanta be gay (also Neil, though based on his midas touch ep I think it's possible that the writers were headed that way).

Archie as a whole needed an attitude adjustment. At first he was interesting and then they just had him get in fights with everyone on the team. Like...why is he in conflict with every single character? Maybe there should be an ep exploring his anger issues instead of making fun of his fear of water all the time. I think he suffered from Status Quo stuff cuz he could've been an interesting character. Nothing wrong with the angry guy who doesn’t trust anyone but his characterization was so inconsistent it was hard to keep up

That being said, a lot of the characters were inconsistent. Neil and Jay were the most consistent (except for Neil randomly bullying Odie in that S2 ep with the sphinx, i don’t remember Neil being a huge awful bully in any other ep?) but everyone else would occasionally just be all over the place. I think this is definitely due to the Status Quo problem...most of the problems in the show can be tied to the inability to develop your characters properly. 

Also back to character designs: there's no reason why Odie had to be the only character of color in the main cast. We're going back thousands of years and you're telling me only one of these kids ancestors ever had a baby with someone who wasn't white? Bad. Dumb. Also it's lame that none of the kids were Greek immigrants imo I know Jays mom is but why couldn't Jay be an immigrant too? Give him a lil accent and have him be fluent in Greek. Obv it’s not necessary but I think it would've been nice.

Okay I'm getting off track but that covers a lot of stuff I'd change. I really did enjoy S1 of the show and I felt like it had a lot of promise but then it just fell off the wagon. S2 had a lot of episodes that I struggled to get through 😔

Oh also Cassie! I would've introduced her earlier and had her be recurring cuz she could've been fun

[writingdesknashu]

Writing from the Eyes of Gods

From Dark Orange: Reborn Chapter 11—Roles Played

Hi again, silent eyes of the Tumblr Sphere. It's been a while hasn't it?

Today marks the release of Dark Orange: Reborn Chapter 11 though, and rather than my usual post talking about the details in the chapter, I'm going to talk about its concept instead.

You see, Dark Orange is a story about Gods and man, and how they both inform each other. At the heart of it, Gods are how humans define the luminant remnants of an ancient race once having been a source of information that then turned into a source of dominance and destruction. There's a whole story that you can read in Dark Orange: Revive, but over here in Reborn we're past those stories and dealing with how they affect the world.

Gods are back, more or less, right in time to see the world end and try to claim its new beginning. Our protagonists prepare for the battle with the worst of them all, but when Gods were once myths, preparations take a lot more effort than the mortal world was ready for.

That's your recap, but today, I find myself thinking about writing gods. The only real experiences I have with divine stories are of course the ones the world talks about and the ones often told. Gods are powerful and unimaginable beings, meant for us to bow before and beg for mercy, but with Dark Orange, I ask myself, what are Gods to each other, and what are mortals to them.

The image that heads this post is my answer, leaning into some of the things we know about Zeus. The chapter itself is about how divine roles empower gods, and how that power is fed. It would be easy to write them as kinglike figures, but I think gods come with how we worship them.

We can fear a king. He has all the resources and the power to shift our lives in ways we don't like. Either he can send his arm to stomp us or send his army to burn our crops. At the end of the day though, a king could die in his bed to disease. He can be killed. And no amount of force is going to change that.

But gods aren't man. Ivan the Terrible can become a nightmare, but he was at the mercy of the storm just like the rest of us. Gods are not kings, though they can be, but since they aren't kings they wouldn't see death the same way.

Zeus fears that a son will overthrow him in part because he overthrew his father and ripped his siblings out of his stomach. Despite the violence of it all, no one is really "dead" so to speak. Cronus is sealed but still alive as if he's more than something physical. They're all more than something physical. If you can gut a god who has eaten others, and everyone makes it out of the situation alive, what really provokes their fear?

Perhaps taking power from what lets them live?

Or perhaps giving more of that power to something else.

Gods are conceptual beings after all, and there is a story in the idea of how they die. Zeus overthrew Cronus. Cronus was probably a God of the Harvest, which would have been a powerful thing for mankind for a long time, and always threatened by the storm. If Gods are unimaginable things we should beg for mercy, then would we not beg the storm to spare our harvest? And so long as we need a harvest, Cronus can never die. Storms never stop either, so what's there to kill Zeus?

Maybe nothing, or maybe it's a slow death. And when the sky is just the atmosphere, and storms are things we can predict or protect our crops from, it becomes a silly thing to praise or beg it for mercy. But not so much the forge, which always exists to give us tools and weapons, and is more immortal for how we know it will give them. Or war, which is a great and terrible thing that lets not-so-great but more-so-terrible men gain more than they can ever need.

Writing from the eyes of Gods is fun when you see them like that. Of course, they'd hate mortals for being small, but they'd probably fear the mortal who grew bigger.

[backmaskedliedermacher]

Fire-Toolz Creates Something New Under the Sun

She doesn't talk about it. I watch her talk with this other woman about therapy and trauma and all these things for 45 minutes and she doesn't mention it for 45 minutes, and then she tosses it in, offhandedly, as an aside. It's praxis, right? You don't want your whole life to be about that (I want my whole life to be about it) but you don't want to make it look like you're hiding anything, and besides, obviously everybody can tell (I couldn't tell).

So she talks about the pandemic and talks about not being able to go to a friend's wedding in Alabama as if that was the only reason it wasn't safe for her to go to a friend's wedding in Alabama.

And her new album… I don't think any album has hit me like this since before the apocalypse… before the genocide… before the pandemic, sorry, I get my words mixed up. The album doesn't talk about it. I mean, it's not even there. She's upset because she sees something that's not there, we all see something that's not there. Just like we all saw things in ourselves that we told ourselves weren't there.

The first lines to the first song, "It Is Happening Again":

"Angel, it's not happening again"

There's a longer version in "The World Is a Yellow Brush-Fire & I Am No Longer Afraid to Surrender" from 2022's I Can't Die As Well:

"Angel, it's not happening again The things that happened in your past are not happening now."

It's happening again, and when we admit it… when we admit it, we're the messengers, bringing a message none of us can bear to hear. Of course she can't say it. She's trying… you know, Christian mysticism, Eckhart Tolle, a Course in Miracles, mantra after mantra. Talk about the eternal spirit, abstract it away, transcend it away, I mean, there's no "transcend" without…

But that would be talking about it. Transmute or transcend. Or whatever the fuck, man. I mean. I didn't mean that in a gendered sense, or anything.

[Extreme Psychological Pain: 0:28 - 1:44]

Everything and everywhere is a mirror. If these mirrors are divine, though, why do they do these things to us? Why do they haunt and torture us like they do? Why does the Great Mystery have to be so sorrowful?

"I Couldn’t Have Been BoRn At ThE wRoNg TiMe Because I Was Never Even Born LOL!"

Or maybe she was born, I was born, we were born, and what we're going through now is… a birth in reverse in America. Maybe this mirror, this mystery, this thing which we see that isn't there, is devouring us.

The divine mystery… Christian mysticism, Christian divine, to me it all comes back to Dick. Everything I know I learned from Dick, because he is the spirit of gnosis, which is not patience and thoroughness but vision and struggle.

Dick saw an empire that never ended, and a new-old thing which stood against it, and to him, and maybe to Angel, that resistance takes the form of the fish, the fish which multiplies until its bones fill thirteen baskets.

I don't see an empire. I see Cronus, the devourer. He says, and it is true, that he gave us life. Not, however, by his seed. He fathers us with his sickle, with his sickle which he used to castrate the sky. He castrated the sky and from the castrated part came a white foam, and from the white foam came Aphrodite, came beauty.

Robert Graves says that Zeus castrated Cronus, as Cronus castrated his father before him. He's probably wrong. The things that happened in our past are not happening now. Even if Graves happens to be right, so fucking what? We don't fear castration. Castration gives is what gives us life.

Something is happening, and - the boomers may sneer at me for saying it, but I'll say it anyway - I don't know what it is. I've never seen anything like this before in my life.

Recessional: Robert Wyatt, "Sea Song" Fred Neil, "The Dolphins"

[entoman-created-by-the-tallgreys]

💀 Death is Death 💀

I bet that was ones and extremely beautiful house, Live and Bright Sunnytown full of thousands of people hustling and busting and leaving their day-to-day life.

[ Warning : Extremely Long Post ]

NOW LOOK AT IT, LOOK WHAT'S WAS LEFT OF IT ! ! !

You're no Different, Death is Death !

. . .

Time is Precious, DON'T ! WASTE !! IT ! ! !

. . .

It doesn't matter how much money you have, doesn't matter what paranormal being you are, if you are a living Panama being I guess that counts as supernatural, it doesn't matter time kills us all, we are all dying the moment we are born even though we're Growing, and none of us can be a 100% sure will live a full life, Look at how many people die prematurely before the life of a hundred years old.

! SHIT !

Okay everyone that died before they're 20 or 30 years, old.

. . .

Death is everywhere and it's a fucking constant,

Death is all over the fucking place, like Rotting Blood all over A Corpse face,

. . .

Some of you reading this will probably die tonight and some of you will die tomorrow how do I know that maybe one of you won't die this week or someone you know will die or something will die how do you know they whoever reads this will die within this fucking year.

Death is everywhere and it's a fucking constant

. . .

You can't escape death you can't really prevent death either all you can do is tonight, denying the inevitable all you can do is temporarily push it at Bay as a softly tackles in the background slowly catching up no one can ever truly escape death no one can change truly ever defeat the Grim Reaper and oddly Enough the Grim Reaper is also the God Cronus

Try as you might, Iowa escaped Cronus try to get away from him try to fight him as much as you want and you know those who have exceeded and becoming completely immortal every last one of them has gone completely insane because the human brain was never capable of living a life forever the human brain is a inferior piece of shit

Every single mother fucker the average heat immortality every last one of them went insane, every last single soul who achieved everlasting life isn't alive anymore are they because they were immortal they're not invincible and they all went insane and met their demise because of it they found a way how to live forever they didn't find a way how to become indestructible

. . .

💀

. . .

So you right now reading this I just want you to be very aware of what little time you have left in your life even if you're a stupid fucking kid death is coming to you, death is coming for you, try your hardest to escape it but I hear about child death all the time in the news I can't turn on my fucking phone and look in the newsfeed without hearing about some kids somewhere fucking dying or school shooting killing like 20 different fucking kids

. . .

One minute you have a school for a happy kid next minute we have over a hundred corpses in the shooter committed suicide

. . .

Death is everywhere and it's a constant

. . .

I don't even know someone nearby they were petting a dog they were loving it that was last week their dog is dead now

I know a lot of people who love their dogs so much that when their dog died they committed suicide

. . .

It's because It's all Thay had no one else in their life except for a foreign species that It couldn't they couldn't relate to them in any way a foreign animal called a pet

He must get past because they can't get love in the real world they talk to it if they understand the highly sophisticated complex complex language like English

IT DOESN'T

Humans lie themselves, and tell themselves that the dog or the cat is getting a human experience with them and is human why do you think so many cartoons and so many movies have animals acting human in animal form they have human voices they have human emotions human expressions of n if been around an animal you Realize this thing isn't fucking human

. . .

So what you really have is you have people who have gone completely insane who kidnapped an animal they hold it Ransom in their house, and they treat it with as much human love to a basically an alien creature that is extremely undevolved and in no way whatsoever loves them it's just thankful for survival and the benefits there's no love from the animal no animal loves a human being all it comes down to is mere survival once the human stops feeding it and the neighbor feeds the pet the pet will no longer want to be with you if you give the pet love and the neighbor gives the pet food and water the Pet's not going to be around very long because they don't give a fuck about your personality no animal does

And when the stupid fucking animal dies the human has no more ability to lie yourself the human can no longer lie to itself the human has lied to itself to the extreme and telling himself that this foreign object basically or this fucking alien which is an a cat or a dog which is basically an alien to a human being has died and they realize they have what they've already known that the whole time they have no one in their life to love them so they end up committing suicide

They put all their emotion and all their love and all their tender loving care into a stupid fucking animal that in no way at any part of the relationship was able to connect to them on a human level

😡 Idiot's 😡

You have a dying country you have a failing infrastructure you have 8 billion people in the earth that's 8 billion people eating 24/7 you have homelessness on Rampant you have Mass chaos Mass looting Mass Insanity you have the whole the human race starting to concave on in

We have billions of people Lying to Themselves every day tell them something better as inflation gets higher and higher

Food fries are getting so bad I'm seeing them get up to $20 for just one fucking item

And everybody trying to get themselves some kind of spiritual meaning that things will get better everyone's trying to trying to distract themselves real everyone's trying to find a lie they can believe in to keep themselves sane

Death is Everywhere in it and it's a Constant

. . .

And human beings in Mass going completely insane and Breaking Down,

You have hundreds of thousands of millions of human beings trying their best to keep themselves sane the give them some saw some kind of reason to live but they got no reason and once all the illusions are gone the human being realizes how worthless how meaningless how empty how Dead how devoid and how shitty everything really is and that the only thing that really mattered was their relationship with other human beings and when that no longer exists they realize there's no purpose of being a soul with a body

You are a soul with a body

And you're starting to slowly realize that everything in life is meaningless if nature slowly deteriorates breaks down and destroys everything man has ever created it doesn't take long for something in the media to be destroyed it doesn't take long for your favorite cartoon or something else that was of your time period to be gone you don't realize it but you think it's in the background somewhere easily accessible but you don't realize that it's Actually

Gone

. . .

People like to think that the experiences in their lives be around forever people love to delude themselves and give themselves a delusion that their life is eternal or things in their life or eternal or everything the fucking jam that will last forever and people love to lie to themselves they love to live in a lie that can make them feel good they love to be mentally insane

Being having your mind not sync with what is reality is sickness it is the definition of being truly insane and human beings like that human beings like to live a lie humans Love lies they love to lie they love to believe in lies they love to think in liez humans love life they just completely love lies

To live a lie is their life

. . .

And so I bring the data to you, you are no different than all the other shit that died for you you are

YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM THE 100 BILLION MOTHERFUCKERS THAT WERE HERE BEFORE YOU

They thought basically the same thing you did that their lies to go on forever they died they thought the shit in their lives would go on forever to culture change it didn't pagan's thoughts of the world to be pegging for all eternity they were wrong the Christians went fucking insane and killed all of them

The native Americans lived on the lived on America for hundreds of years worshiping Mother Earth and to the Christian piece of shit came across the fucking sea conquered the land start a war with them and completely genocide their fucking people

THEY, WERE WRONG TOO ! ! !

. . .

Everyone, Everybody likes a thing that the here and now is there forever everybody like to think that their emotional experience goes on for eternity

YOU'RE FUCKING WRONG

Shit changed all the time time changes everything except the elements of air earth water and fire those are constant

Also the sacred forces of light and dark those are also those are especially a constant

Those are truly permanent things planets can be destroyed with all the elements but the Sacred Forces are The Eternal

JUST LOOK AT HOW MANY VIDEO GAMES ARE NO LONGER IN EXISTENCE

I think how many movies you watch that you can't watch again think about all the times in your life that you played or happy that are gone they have all the friends that have died in your life that you'll never experience ever again until until you yourself are Dead 👻

Think to yourself of all the things you've lost in your life and so has the rest of the world in the culture think of all the movies you loved and all the actors are now dead

Think about all the works of art that have been destroyed over the process think of all the websites have been shut down you thought those would be up forever

THEY'RE FUCKING GOOOOOOOONNEEE ! ! ! ! !

And you Realize you Start to really realize everything in your meeting your life is meaningless that life is meaningless that all your progress is basically an illusion everything you ever loved and cared about every human being has to experience watch it die every human being goes through this this is something natural it's also ignorant to think that it'll be around forever and nothing's around forever shit changes all the fucking time

Time Makes Everything irrelevant

Now do you start to understand and see that your life is meaningless, NOW !

Are you able to understand how worthless you are how worthless I am how Worthless it is, all the stupid animals out there they don't know they're going to die someday

Are you starting to understand why government take themselves too fucking serious and actually the governments are completely fucking insane for taking everything so fucking serious

Are you now able to understand that nature is Sacred and you should just be part of the Whole

Are the sacredness of creation part of the Universe part of nature to go back into it all and spiritually love the universe I'm not saying pull away from any deity I didn't say that but understand the Sacredness of Nature

Now that is something that you can never take too seriously

. . .

Nature is Holy nature is sacred nature is love

Nature is literally fucking Divine

Do as Thou Wilt and have a good day

Because your time is running out

. . .

And mother fucker it won't be long until you're Dead

. . .

And the next day before comes along after you thinking that they're alive eternal and their life will never end thinking they know everything and they seen everything and yet they haven't seen one fraction of what happened before them because one Cronus's BIGGEST Middle Finger is letting you know nothing of the past

. . .

Have to leave you ignorant and keep you completely unaware of all that is and happened before you you can get you can experience these brief echoes the past is seeing the residue of things once were but you'll never know what it's like to be there you'll never understand the feeling the Vibe

The Emotions you'll never know all the things that were said you know the sounds the Sight's, The Smells unless you were there and that specific time unless you experience that specific point of existence and what you experience in that area

YOU'LL, NEVER FUCKING KNOW WHAT HAPPENED

. . .

Understand that your time is running out and you just try to start living your life as if everyday was the last, BECAUSE YOU'LL NEVER HAVE A FUCKING IDEA WHEN IT IS THE LAST YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU'RE SOMEONE'S GOING TO MURDER YOU AND YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY AND YOU WON'T MAKE IT THROUGH

You have no idea when you're going to die you live your day-to-day life grinding away on the clock trying to get this piss poor false resource called money just so you can live your meaningless fucking life and be thrown away like a fucking used tampon for the Government

Your life has more value than that

. . .

But you're in control of your own life just like you control yourself to read this entire article to the very end you did that as an act of free will

. . .

Now after reading this entire thing do yourself a favor fuck me the author that wrote this, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR

GO DO WHAT YOU WANT AND STOP WASTING YOUR FINITE AMOUNT OF TIME ON THIS FUCKING PLANET

[anachronistic-falsehood]

While you personally don’t want to write an essay in the tags of my post, vis-a-vis Cronus Dynamics, how about writing one here?

Genuinely really interested in hearing your thoughts!

-Nekropsii

I accidentally deleted this ask from my inbox somehow but I saved the post to my drafts beforehand, so hopefully this still posts the way it should! @nekropsii

Everybody sit down because I’m gonna learn you a thing about Cronus Ampora.

Basically, when looking at Cronus and his dynamic within the dancestors, we're need to start by taking a long gander at our first interaction with him and pick apart his character in general.

First thing he does is try to flirt with Meenah, and badly. Which at first glance is just... fine. He's a parallel to Eridan's failed love life, but he's much more overconfident with it. He's arrogant; this is the very first character trait of his we're introduced to. And Meenah's reaction to him sounds like she's used to it. This is NOT the first time Cronus has tried to make a move on her, and it will NOT be the last.

He hammers in this idea that he's royalty but he's still this "cool, progressivwe, easy going dude." However, by trying to push the point that he doesn't care that he's royalty, he just keeps bringing it up. He puts himself on such a high pedestal for just being, and he thinks everyone else holds him up on that same pedestal, while denying that he put himself on the pedestal in the first place. He believes he deserves something for just existing. He calls everyone else "8ROKEN," "freaks," "rejects," which pushes forward the idea that he's somehow better than them. He claims that he listens to people and cares about them, but that is directly contradicted in the things he says about everyone else. He's entitled and a huge hypocrite.

He insists that he's "sensitivwe" and deserves someone to pity him for that, but it's a straight up lie. Cronus is NOT as sensitive as he claims. He tries to open up to Meenah about feeling like a human, but even during that conversation, he keeps making passes at her. He's not sensitive; he uses his "sensitive artistic nice guy" persona to attempt to manipulate people. He's without a doubt, manipulative, even though he's not that good at it when it comes to Meenah.

When interacting with Meenah, Cronus is a nuisance at worst. Meenah is above him on the hemospectrum and doesn't display any obvious disabilities that would make her easy to mess with. She's nearly invincible to him. His demeanour changes, however, when he interacts with Mituna.

Mituna is a) lower on the hemospectrum, and b) displays clear symptoms of disabilities, making him vulnerable. And the first thing Cronus does is make fun of him.

Cronus mocks Mituna, and then immediately launches into what could easily be interpreted as sexual harassment. Cronus claims that he listens to people, but he doesn't do that with Mituna. We can't see what's physically going on, but Mituna keeps telling Cronus to stop touching him and he gets no reaction. Cronus compliments and insults Mituna in the same breath, under the assumption that Mituna can't understand what's being said but he still tries to flirt with him regardless. He keeps trying to push himself into some sort of quadrant with Mituna despite the fact that Mituna very clearly does not want that. Cronus even convinces Mituna that the "weird touching" is just a friendly thing.

When talking to Mituna after Meenah leaves, Cronus even admits that he only says "sorry" and acts pitiable in order to get girls to like him more. He calls Mituna a "mustardblood," insults his relationship with Latula, and even says that he would have killed Mituna himself if Beforus had the same culling system as Alternia. As soon as Meenah, someone of a higher caste, isn't around, the mask comes off. After she's back and his "pitiable soft boy" act has been revealed, Cronus threatens to spread word that he's going to off himself for sympathy points. Yikes.

Cronus shows his true colours around Mituna, which begs the question: how the fuck does this man interact with the other trolls of his group?

We more or less know how he acts around Kankri. Kankri validates whatever feelings Cronus has, so of course Cronus isn't going to get that pissed off at him. We also don't get much mention of Kurloz, aside from the fact that Kurloz doesn't pay him much attention.

Cronus' dynamic within his group of trolls and the Sgrub session they played is widely up to interpretation. I could probably get into Cronus' classpect, blood caste, etc. and the Amporas' foils againt Jake English as Hope-bound players, but I feel like that would deserve its own post, so I'm going to get right into his dynamic within the dancestors, and why the fandom's erasure of his negative traits does his character a disservice.

The dancestors are... an interesting group of people. Their interests and traits vary wildly. In the Ministrife is the only place where we really get to see more of them interact in the same conversation, and even then it's a clusterfuck.

In my opinion, the most antagonistic characters in their group are Damara, Meenah, and Cronus. I won't talk much about Damara, because I don't feel qualified to talk about her at length, but in short, Meenah provoked everyone until Damara went off the handle, leading to Meenah's own death and a number of other things. Everyone else was so caught up in their own personal problems that playing the game was far from first priority. Meenah and Damara caused most of the problems in the game itself, but most of the personal issues were caused by simple conflicts of interest and misunderstandings. However, despite how little we actually know about how Cronus was during their session, there's ample reason to believe he caused a lot of interpersonal conflicts, which in turn contributed to the overall dysfunctionality of their session.

Cronus has absolutely no boundaries. He will flirt with anything that moves, shown in the Ministrife when he makes a pass at Tavros and even asks Eridan out (gross). The two characters Cronus seems to be the most hooked on are Meenah and Mituna, although there could be others; these are just the only two we've seen him have extended conversations with. Cronus alludes to interfering with Mituna's moirallegiance with Kurloz in order to attempt to jam himself into one of Mituna's quadrants. He also shows himself to be slightly jealous of Mituna concerning his relationship with Latula, as Cronus claims she could do better and implies that he would be a better option than Mituna, or even that he could fill Mituna's flushed quadrant instead. Cronus is hypocritical, entitled, arrogant, and manipulative, and when we group those traits in with the people he seems to be involved with the most, it's safe to assume a few things regarding his dynamic with the others during their session.

a) He likely flirted with Meenah all throughout their game, despite her repeated rejection.

b) He possibly tried to wedge himself between Latula and Mituna to get with either one of them (maybe both), and maybe even tried to do the same between Mituna and Kurloz.

c) He was not well liked.

Along with the Damra/Rufioh/Horuss situation and the Kurloz/Meulin situation, Cronus' godawful flirting towards Meenah, Mituna, and possibly Latula and Kurloz made the entire session a romantic mess and kept a large focus on everyone's complicated relationship problems with one another. Cronus is a perfect catalyst to mess with the only functional relationships within the session, being Mituna/Latula and Mituna/Kurloz.

Cronus is a shit-stirrer who ignores boundaries and pushes people, especially Mituna and Meenah, to their limits. He could very well be part of the reason why no one was focused on playing the game and was instead fixated on their own relationships. Maybe things would have turned out differently for Mituna in particular if Cronus wasn't constantly on him about his matespritship with Latula or his moirallegiance with Kurloz. Maybe they could have figured out a way to win if he hadn't distracted some of the only people who were in stable enough relationships to play the game well. Cronus alludes to him and Mituna being friends before Mituna's accident, which might be why he's so bitter and angry about his relationship status with Mituna now. Cronus is obsessed with Mituna's quadrants and is desperate to be in one of them because he sees Mituna as an easy catch; they were friends once, so he should theoretically be able to get back to that point in their relationship, and now Mituna is disabled which makes it easier for Cronus to manipulate and take advantage of him.

There are perhaps some sympathetic traits to Cronus, if you've got a shovel and you're ready to dig for them. His flirting could be a desperate cry for help due to his crippling loneliness. His humankin issues could be him reworking his shattered dreams of being a wizard and a hero into something he understands better, now that he's met some of the humans and seen how powerful they are with their god tier powers. His hope for being something greater than what he is has long since been destroyed, so he's likely projecting onto them in order to gain some sense of belonging in a group where he's alienated and lonely. The greaser persona could be a wall of false confidence to cover up the insecurities he holds. He could be verbally bullying the others in order to try making himself feel better in comparison.

But... that's no excuse for his actions. He straight up admits that he abuses Mituna. He violates people's boundaries with no care for how they might feel.

That's also why it puts me off when people put Cronus and Mituna in a kismesissitude. Cronus is obsessed with Mituna to an unsettling degree. Despite how lowly he thinks of Mituna, he is set on being in one of his quadrants, and it's not healthy. A kismesissitude is built off of mutual respect, competition, and rivalry, not disdain, abuse, and obsession. It's entirely possible that when they were friends, Cronus thought their relationship was headed towards a quadrant, then Mituna filled both quadrants that Cronus was potentially aiming for, leaving Cronus bitter and fixating on Mituna as a whole. That could very well be what happened; it's not canon, but judging from context clues, it's a very big possibility. But even if that's true, this shouldn't frame Cronus as some sad angtsy heartbroken man; he's obsessive and arrogant. Even if he did end up in a quadrant with Mituna, it would not go how he wants it to go.

We'll never know exactly how Cronus interacted with everyone in his group and exactly how his actions contributed to the fate of their session. But that's why I like speculating about it! Cronus is such an interesting character, which is why I hate it when people try to erase his negative aspects in order to make him seem more likeable. He's not supposed to be likeable; he's supposed to be an asshole! He's an antagonistic, bitchy, desperate guy who's got a lot of issues he's unwilling to work through in order to actually improve as a person. He adds something interesting to the alpha trolls' session if you're willing to dive deep and explore his dynamics.

I'm not saying people can't like Cronus. I fucking love Cronus. He's a toxic person who's incapable of change because he won't let himself change. He is a bitch and I love to hate him. When people erase his negative traits, they just create a whole new character and slap Cronus' name and face on it. It erases the abuse Mituna goes through and a lot of the interesting (but unhealthy) dynamics he has with others. People take away the interesting parts of his character and leave him as a woobified angtsy sad boy who's pitch-pining for Mituna and flushed-pining for Kankri, when that's not at all who Cronus is. The fandom does his character a disservice by mischaracterizing him this way.

TLDR: Cronus is a bitch and I love him so much (derogatory)

[writingpaperghost]

There is a Me Who Can Become Strong (Chapter 44)

Chapter 44: Perfect Invincible GAMER

Parad wakes up to realize he's missed a lot, something's very wrong with Emu, and the power to counter Cronus' Pause is now in hand.

Uh, mind the newest tag, Self-harm, Emu has a moment here. We're. One chapter away from what would have been the end of the fic if I didn't add chapters. And we're only just now getting Hyper Muteki. I still have like, ten chapters before this fic is over. Anyway, don't be surprised if I don't post here Sunday and instead just post something I wrote for the Mighty is Here AU. I've been a bit busy the past couple weeks and so this chapter is the last finished one I have, but I'll be unbusy by the end of the week.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32857183/chapters/88722412

The last thing Parad remembers was fighting Emu. He had known, in theory, that he would probably die in that fight. Knowing though, didn’t really prepare him for the moment. For the Gashacon Sword piercing into him, dropping his Gashat as Emu stared at him with an almost numb expression. That hurt, and it wasn’t even from the stabbing.

Then he’d disappeared, hadn’t he? He died, like Bugsters do. He thinks he hear his name being called, but it didn’t matter anymore.

There were…. Some vague feelings and glimpse Parad could get, hazy and he couldn’t really make them out. So much, yet nothing at all. Something pulling at him, something shoving. This feeling that there was sometimes someone else with him.

He comes out of this haze, ever so briefly, when he’s thrown into a wall. And boy, does he hurt. He’s not really sure what happened, barely able to see anything and mutter a confused “wha-?” before he’s pretty sure he just passed out.

Which brought him to now, waking up on the couch of the CR, Kiriya standing over him and looking down. Kiriya, who is dead. Whelp, seems like Parad’s finally made it to the afterlife, or something.

Kiriya being Kiriya, of course, choosing to respond to Parad awakening, simply by going, “Oh, Ace, hey, you’re not going to try to murder us, right?”

What? Parad sits up, no less confused than he was before. “You’re dead,” Parad says, “I saw you die.”

With his ever-present casual attitude that Kiriya so easily expressed, he responds, “Eh, I got better.”

“You got better?” Parad echoes, still confused.

“Yeah, I’m a Bugster now, just like with Kuroto,”

“Kuroto’s dead,”

“Well not anymore,” Hands in his pockets, Kiriya walks away from the couch, giving Parad room to swing his legs over and sit on it. He thinks for a moment about getting up, but he’s not entirely sure he trusts his legs. “Anyway, Zero’s still unconscious, but I’m sure the others will come in here sooner or later.”

While Parad doesn’t particularly mind that Kiriya never calls him by name, it doesn’t help when he suddenly tosses a new nickname out and confuses him more. “Zero?”

Kiriya pauses, before answer, “Emu, sorry, forgot you apparently don’t remember anything from before.”

Again with Kiriya saying things that only make Parad have more questions! “Before? Kiriya, what does that mean?”

“Don’t worry about it,”

“Well now I’m going to-“ There’s a slew of muffled laughter, apparently from one of the rooms downstairs. Then what sounds like an annoyed Asuna and a door, making the laughter louder.

Soon enough, words join the laughter, “This will show him he isn’t nearly so high and mighty!” It was Kuroto, by the sounds of it, and Parad’s very concerned. Why is he laughing like a mad man, what is he even talking about? What the hell has happened since he’d died?

Then Kuroto is shoved up the stairs, still laughing, though it’s finally starting to die down. Asuna’s right behind him, pushing him up the stairs, “Emu’s resting!” She says, “He won’t get better if you wake him up and we have to figure out how to get him back to sleep!”

Parad remembers, then, that Emu had seemed rather close to Kuroto, rather trusting. After all, they had called each other brothers before. It made Parad feel something, he wasn’t quite sure what it was. Like the longing he remembers feeling with Emu whenever they saw children playing happily with their parents. As… As strange as Kuroto was, and as rocky of an ending he’d had when he’d died, he clearly still cared about Emu. Parad suspected the same could be said about Emu to Parad.

Pushing that aside, though, Parad felt a strange, almost overwhelming urge to join Kuroto in his laughter. Maybe it was just because of how crazy it all was, what with people coming back from dying, Parad himself included. Maybe it was the sight of someone as tall as Kuroto getting shoved by Asuna. Unable to help himself, Parad lets out a laugh.

Asuna freezes and Kuroto’s laughter ceases entirely as the two look over at him. “Parad?” Asuna calls, almost sounding wary.

Smiling, Parad says, “Hey Asuna, long time, no see?”

With a flash of colors, pixels, and music notes, Poppy lunges forward and hugs him, “You’re back!”

Again, Parad laughed, “Yeah, just woke up,”

“Well, glad you’re not trying to kill anyone anymore,” Kuroto comments, keeping a distance and pulling his coat closer with one hand. In the other hand, he’s holding something a bit small, gold, and shiny.

The comment makes him frown, “Kiriya said something like that too…”

Kuroto blinks, “Oh, you don’t remember. That’s… probably for the best.”

Poppy, though, pulls away and smiles, “A lot has happened while you were gone,” She says, “But most importantly, Kuroto and Kiriya are back, as Bugsters, Chronicle began and it’s… bad, but the best news is that we have Emu here.”

“Really?” Parad’s smile returned while Kiriya makes a mock comment of offense at not being considered the most important. He’s ignored. Then Parad realized the middle thing Poppy had said, “…How bad is bad?”

It’s Kuroto who answered, almost too unbothered by the words coming out of his mouth, “Anyone who plays could die to a Bugster, even if they don’t, they could die to Game Disease if they don’t beat the Bugster that’s infected them. Masamune’s gained a stupid power that I have only just managed to find a way to counter, and even then, he’s still stupid strong.” He pauses, before adding, “I’m also pretty sure Emu’s the only one who can really use the power to counter the Pause anyway.”

Parad blinked, “That does sound really, really bad.” Then Parad decides he’d rather talk about a more exciting subject, one that made his heart dance, “How’s Emu? How did you even get him to come here?”

With a small smile, Poppy answers, “He had run away from Masamune, after you died and having realized he’d been lied to. His Game Disease had gotten pretty bad, though, so Graphite asked us to help him. That was before Chronicle,” Her smile falls a bit, “He’s… not doing the best right now, his Game Disease has been flaring…”

“Well, he’ll get better, I’m sure…”

Before Poppy can say anything else, there’s a scream, one that sounded like it was of pain. Kuroto paled and immediately disappeared, while Poppy switched to Asuna and headed down the stairs. It sounded like it came from the patient room. Parad glances at Kiriya, who looked equally startled, before following Asuna down the stairs. He could imagine well enough who that scream belonged to.

He was right, as looking into the door of the patient room confirmed it. Emu was lying in the bed, groans of pain and weak screams coming from his mouth as he glitched. His infection read at being seventy-four percent, then ticked up to seventy-five. A few stray pixels rose from his body and for a moment Parad’s breath caught in his throat, scared that those few pixels would become many. Scared that Emu would disappear in front of him.

It would be Parad’s fault, too. He was, after all, Emu’s Bugster, the reason he was infected. He wanted to save Emu, yes, but at the time, he hadn’t known how badly Emu’s Game Disease had affected him. Now… now Parad was beginning to think it might have been better if he stayed dead. At least then Emu wouldn’t have still been infected, though Parad didn’t really get how he still was now.

“That’s a bit worse than just resting from his Game Disease flaring,” Parad startled, turning around to see Saki, who peered into the room with a frown. Instead of her normal clothes, she’s wearing a loose sweater colored a light blue with splashes of pinks, greens, and yellows and a pair of loose pants.

“Saki?”

She looks at him and gives a small smile, “I’m glad you’re back, Parad,”

“Yeah,” He says, though he’s not really sure what to say. There’s something here that just… seems different. In the time he’s been gone, so much has happened and there’s obviously something no one’s telling him. He feels like he’s been left behind, even though they all do seem to be glad to see him again. Maybe it’s the spikes of pain he’s beginning to feel from Emu, from the bond that they used to share that suddenly isn’t empty and blank anymore. Maybe it’s the fact that everything hurts, that Emu could die. Maybe it was the fact they all have gotten on fine while he was gone.

Then they’re all shoved out by Asuna and Taiga, with Taiga telling Saki to go back to resting. Parad wonders why she would need to rest. Just what all had happened while he was gone?

---

By the time Taiga and Asuna are done checking over Emu, still unsure what precisely was happening to him, Nico had dragged Graphite, Kuroto, and Parad out to try to deal with some Bugsters and to try to get Parad used to using Level 99, now that he has no memory of it. They hadn’t been gone long, according to Kiriya, and he mostly stuck around to keep Saki company while they were all busy. Though Taiga suspects that isn’t the only reason, but with Kiriya it’s always hard to know.

Seeing Saki’s troubled expression, though, and recalling the way Emu had planted himself at her side before, Taiga couldn’t help but ask, “Do you want to stay with him?”

“What?”

“He��s not getting much better and we’re not sure why. We don’t even know how conscious he is. But you’re obviously worried and it’s not like it’ll hurt him, so I’m asking if you want to go see him,” Taiga explained, “Stay with him like he did with you.”

Saki’s hands ball into fists on her lap as she looks down for a moment, thinking. Then she looks up and Taiga wished he had never seen the expression that was on her face before. But he had, six years ago. Quietly, she answered, “I’d like that.”

Soon enough Saki has taken up one of the chairs by Emu’s side, once previously occupied by Graphite or Kuroto. Even now, he whimpered in pain, gasps and small screams, though none yet as bad as the first. His infection has risen to seventy-eight percent. With closed eyes and ragged breathing, he laid there, nearly writhing in the bed as he glitched.

It was a painful sight. Saki quietly takes his hand, just like he had. How quickly their positions had been switched, except Emu was far worse off than Saki. Just barely, Taiga can hear as Saki begins to quietly hum.

Taiga was reminded of when Hiro had been infected, how Saki had planted herself at his side and would barely leave. Hiro, of course, had been conscious, had been able to speak to her. Not that Taiga was entirely sure Emu was unconscious, given the amount of pain he appeared to be in. He was probably aware of what was going on around him, to some degree. Still, the sight of Saki at his side was eerily similar. Saki surely was hiding how upset she was.

All they could hope was that whatever those scientists did to Emu – because that’s who had to be responsible – wouldn’t be the end of him. That Emu would be able to pull through and recover from this. For everyone’s sake, especially since Taiga was rather concerned about what would happen to Kuroto, who was sometimes barely stable when Emu was simply out of reach. Graphite could rampage again, and there might be actual casualties. Not to mention, Parad had finally returned to him, he deserved to be able to actually be with Emu, at least for a little while. After all the work they had both done and different times to reach each other, it would be terrible for it to be taken away when it was so close.

---

Everything hurt.

It was terrible and Emu wished it would stop. At first, he could ignore it, but at this point it was far too much for him to even try to ignore. Everything hurt, even when he held perfectly still. There were times when it had hurt so terribly to breathe, or he felt like he couldn’t even at all.

At some point, someone takes his hand. It’s nice. Nice to know that there’s someone there, just a little thing to try to distract from his pain. Then they begin to hum and Emu knows exactly who it was. It was Saki. Saki who was okay, who was at his side again, even though she didn’t have to be. Sometimes a hand reaches up and brushes his bangs to the side.

So much to distract him, for just a moment, so he could think of anything else. And yet, nothing really made the pain stop. Nothing made this painful feeling of being torn apart and put back together stop.

He wanted to open his eyes and look at her, so many times he did. Wanted to know he wasn’t imagining her. But he was scared. He hurt so much, how terrible would he look? Did he look as bad as he felt, how much of a body was even there? It was too tiring, too painful, too scary to open his eyes. So even though he wanted to, he didn’t. He kept them closed.

After a while, he realizes that Saki’s stopped humming, instead singing quietly. It was the same song she had been humming, at least he thinks it was. It’s not very loud, but he can just make out the words.

People make mistakes,

Holding to their own,

Thinking their alone.

Honor their mistakes,

Everybody makes,

One another’s terrible mistakes…

Weakly, Emu tries to actually hold Saki’s hand back. He only succeeds in grasping it slightly, but it’s enough to startle Saki and cause her to stop. That hadn’t been his intention, but… Well it was too late now.

“Emu?” Saki whispers.

Emu wants to respond, but he’s not really sure how. Then a spike of pain and a gasp from him, unable to keep it in at the sudden pain. He tried not to move too much, scared that he would only cause himself more pain. God, it hurt so much.

Saki shushes him, “We’re here, Emu, we’re doing everything we can to help you,” Emu simply didn’t think there was much they could do. If there was, surely it would have actually done something by now. “You’ll be okay.”

There’s no reason to think that she was right, that he would be okay. With all this pain, he didn’t even care. He just wanted the pain to stop, he didn’t care how. All he does is whimper quietly as Saki tightens her grip on his hand, reaching up to brush her fingers through his hair.

“You’ll be okay,” Saki repeats, “I’ll be here until you’re better.”

It probably said something about how terrible things were for Emu, that Saki’s words actually brought him some relief.

---

It hurt to watch as Emu’s infection only rose. By the time he’d even seemed to respond to anything, in the simple movement of his hand in Saki’s, he was already at eighty-three percent. It only made Saki more worried, more scared and concerned about what was happening. Despite everything they had tried – and goodness knows Taiga and Asuna had been doing all they could – Emu wasn’t getting better. There wasn’t anything left to try, nothing that Saki could think of, at least.

Eventually, she pries herself away from Emu, promising to be back in a few minutes. She needed to stretch, and she needed to think. Sitting beside Emu like that was taking a bit of a toll, seeing him in pain and only getting worse. Saki needed a breather, needed to just take a step away.

When she makes her way up the stairs, she’s met with Kiriya on the couch and the newly returned Kuroto, though the others who were with him were still gone. He was sadly staring at his laptop screen, only occasionally typing at the keyboard. “Emu’s not getting any better,” He notes, looking up at her from his screen.

“No,” She agrees, “He’s not.”

Kiriya frowns, “Makes you wonder just what those scientists did to him,” He’s twirling a pen around in his fingers.

It’s quiet for a moment. Saki goes to get herself a glass of water, when Kuroto finally speaks, his voice soft and almost inaudible over the pouring water. “I think I know what’s wrong with him,”

Saki stops what she’s doing as Kiriya drops the pen he was twirling. He stares at Kuroto for a moment, as though he was trying to determine whether or not he had actually said anything. Finally, Kiriya asked, “What was that?”

“I said,” Kuroto begins once more, far more forcefully this time, “That I think I know what’s wrong with Emu.” He sounds so terribly irritated, the sort of tone of anger that his voice took on whenever he had been fighting Para-DX.

“Well then,” Kiriya starts, leaning forwards, “Spill the beans.”

Kuroto looks away once again, “You don’t want to know,” He says, staring at his computer screen. It doesn’t even appear to be on, or at the very least had fallen into sleep mode and displayed only a black screen. “Ihope I’m wrong.”

There was something about his demeanor that simultaneously oozed of both anger and fear. In an almost empty manner, he just stared at the blank screen in front of him. Setting the glass of water down on the table, Saki pulls a chair out and sits down near Kuroto. Gently, she begins, “Kuroto, if you might know what’s wrong with Emu, then we need to know,” Even though Taiga still insists she rests, she finds herself already defaulting back to her doctor mindset. It felt nice, after all that time she couldn’t use it. “That way we can help Emu.”

Bitterly, Kuroto scoffed, “It’s too late for that, now. There’s nothing we can do to stop it, if I’m right. Emu will live, sure, but he won’t be the same.”

“Kuroto,”

“That man is lucky he has the Chronicle Gashat, otherwise I’d kill him.”

With a groan, Kiriya leans over and picks the pen he dropped off the floor, “For god’s sake, just tell us what you think’s happening, doesn’t matter if you’re wrong or right. Or if Zero even lives, just get on with it.”

That seemed to be enough to cause Kuroto to finally snap, “They’re turning him into a Bugster!”

Silence. Kiriya stares, wide-eyed, dropping the pen he’d just picked up. Saki had gasped when Kuroto had snapped, but hadn’t said a word after. Kuroto simply huffs and closes the lid of his laptop, standing.

Taking a deep breath, Saki stands too, “Kuroto, why would Masamune or anyone else want to do that?”

He stops, “Think about it. Masamune wants Emu, wants to be able to control him. If Emu’s a Bugster, he can do the same thing he did to Parad or to the other Graphite. He can reprogram him to do whatever he wants.” Understandably, he sounded so very angry. Saki understood, that. She was angry too, if Kuroto was right. Hell, the fact Kuroto had enough reason to think it was possible. “I think that’s why his infection only grows, even with rest. And the pain he’s so clearly in.”

“Is that even possible?” Kiriya asked, ignoring the dropped pen, “To just turn him into a Bugster without killing him?”

Looking down, Kuroto answer, “I… I don’t know. I… I don’t even know which would be kinder.”

With a sigh, Saki picks up the glass of water, “There’s nothing we can do, now. I’m going to go back to Emu but… Well hopefully things will get better.”

When Saki returns to Emu’s side, his infection reads at a startling eighty-nine percent. Saki was certain she hadn’t been gone that long.

---

The minute Emu’s infection reached ninety-nine percent, Saki’s breath caught in her throat. She called for Taiga and Asuna. She hoped that, this time, she would not be alone if someone disappeared.

When Emu’s infection reached one hundred percent, Saki’s heart dropped, and she was certain Asuna and Taiga felt the same. There was no going back. Either Kuroto was right or Emu would disappear.

At one hundred percent, the glitching stopped. The glitching stopped and the pixels disappeared, but Emu was still there. Emu was silent, but his hand was still in Saki’s. he was still here.

Every second ticked by like it was a minute, waiting and waiting for something to happen.

Finally, a quiet groan escapes Emu’s lips and his eyes open, tiredly and sluggish. His hand tightens around Saki’s, for a moment, before his eyes open suddenly. He turns his head, looking over at Saki, almost bewildered for a moment. “…Ms… Saki…?” His words are quiet, drawn out, and slow.

Saki smiles, “You’re okay, Emu,” She says, barely containing her joy. So badly does she want to hug him, but fears that might be too much. “You’re okay.” It was a relief.

She helps him sit up as Taiga and Asuna walk over. He looks around with tired eyes, the bags beneath them seeming worse than ever, and asks, “What happened?”

There’s a moment of hesitation where Taiga stares at the screen displaying Emu’s infection, still sitting precisely at one hundred, before he answers, “Your… Game Disease flared.”

Emu looks down, “Oh,” He says quietly, “It… didn’t feel like when that’s happened before. It… It really hurt. Everything hurt.”

“But you’re okay, now,” Asuna said, clearly trying to distract him, “We’ll make sure you’re all okay, and then we can let Kuroto in to see you. The others aren’t back yet, but when they are, they’ll come see you too.”

Warily, Emu nods, “O-okay… But, um… How did I get here? Before, Kuroto and I were… were stuck with M-Masamune…”

“Kiriya helped the two of you escape,” Taiga answered.

Once more Emu nods, then once again follows with a question, “Ms. Saki… you were with me, while I was sick, weren’t you?”

“You did the same for me,” Saki smiled, “So of course I wanted to make sure you weren’t alone, and your brother was being too loud.”

Laughing a little, Emu gives a small smile, “Thank you. It was… nice.”

“You’re welcome,” Saki was just glad he was safe. Glad he was alive and more or less okay. Even if he may be a Bugster, now.

---

It was strange to open his eyes and see Saki, then Taiga and Asuna. Because though Emu had been awake through all that pain, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to open his eyes. But he was okay now, like everyone kept saying. Taiga and Asuna had done there checking over, said that he seemed to be fine. Yet there was something strange about the way Taiga had said it and the look on Asuna’s face.

They were keeping something from him.

But Emu didn’t want to focus on that much, instead, he wanted to focus on the fact that he was okay. That the pain had stopped and Saki was okay and right next to him. He’d see Kuroto and hopefully Kuroto would be okay. Even now, she was still holding his hand.

“Is Kuroto okay?” He asked, wondering if he should maybe pull his hand away from hers. He didn’t want to, it was nice and warm and he liked it, but he didn’t want anything to be weird.

Saki smiles at him, likes she’s been doing since he woke up, “Yes, he’s okay. Mostly, he’s been worried about you.”

Looking down, Emu tightens the hand that isn’t in Saki’s into a fist, “I’m sorry,”

“Don’t be,” Her tone is firmer, “Masamune and those scientists hurt you, it’s their fault that this happened to you.”

Now, Emu wanted to see Kuroto. He was probably upstairs, maybe on his laptop and working on something. Maybe that Gashat or whatever to counter Cronus’ Pause. He would be excited to know Emu was okay, probably waiting to be able to see him. Kuroto was always like that. Emu was so, so ready to see Kuroto, that was what he wanted to do next. Maybe he’d ask Saki if she could get him-

A fuzzy feeling then Emu falls to the floor with a yelp.

“Emu?” It was Kuroto’s voice, but that didn’t make sense. Kuroto was upstairs.

“Emu!” Saki rushes up the stairs, staring for a moment when she spots him on the floor.

Kuroto’s already helping Emu up, “Emu, you’re- you’re here? You’re okay.” It unclear whether Kuroto’s confused about something or stating a fact.

“How did…?” Saki wondered, watching as Kuroto wrapped Emu into a hug.

Then Kuroto begins to shake and Emu can tell he’s crying. Why was he crying? “I’m sorry,” Kuroto sobbed, “I- I couldn’t stop them and they- they-“

Quietly, Emu began, “Kuroto…” Kuroto only tightened his grip. It was strange, Emu thought that with how tight Kuroto was holding him that it would be harder to breathe. “It’s not your fault, it’s okay.” Even if he still didn’t know how he got up here.

“Emu…” Kuroto’s voice takes on a strange, strained tone. “They- they turned you into- Emu… Emu you’re a Bugster.”

Emu pulls away, startled and forcing Kuroto’s arms to release him. He stumbles backwards, off balance, before landing on the floor again, “W-what?” His voice is higher and more panicked.

The only answer he gets is Kuroto sadly repeating, “Emu, you’re a Bugster.”

Those words shouldn’t hurt so much. Shouldn’t cause such a panic in his chest or his mind to reel. It shouldn’t even be that big of a deal. Kuroto was a Bugster, Lazer was a Bugster. Parad, Graphite, and Poppy were Bugsters. So why did it matter if he was one?

“Please,” Emu manages to say, even though his throat is suddenly tight, “Please don’t- don’t joke about that. It isn’t funny.” Even though he knows it would explain how he ended up here from the patient room.

A hand places itself on his shoulder and Saki softly responds, “He’s… he’s not joking, Emu.”

Emu pulls himself away, “No! No-no-no-no-no!” He didn’t want it to be true, no matter how much sense it might have made. Why couldn’t he have just died? Why did he- why did he have to become a Bugster? He scrambles away, not really able to get to his feet. His mind is reeling, going far too quickly for him to really think about what he was doing.

“Zero-“ Another hand tried to grab at his shoulder, presumably Lazer’s, though Emu wasn’t really able to focus enough to recognize that.

No, all Emu’s mind can do is panic, “Don’t!” He wanted away, to be left alone. For people to stop touching and grabbing him and for this to be all a dream. Away, alone. Not here. That’s all he wanted in that moment.

Then he’s on the roof. He knows it’s the roof, he’s been up here before, several times. It’s the roof and it’s empty and he’s alone. At least, he’s alone. There’s a slight queasy feeling in his stomach and he wonders if he can even throw up now that he was a Bugster. Maybe it was from the panic, or the teleporting. He doesn’t know.

Instead, he just lies down on his back, facing towards the sky and wondering if maybe this was all a bad dream. He wished it was, at least, but some part of him knew it wasn’t. He was a Bugster.

He’s glad he doesn’t have to look at himself, much, otherwise he knew he’d just see a monster.

It’s quiet, on the roof. He’s alone and the only sound is that of the wind, which itself was nothing more than a gentle breeze. Some part of him is distracted by his own turbulent thoughts, while another simply wondered if Masamune or Parad could get to him here. After all, Parad had gotten to him while in the CR itself, maybe the roof wasn’t much safer. Not that it mattered to Emu, anymore. What more could Masamune do to him? More pain? More suffering? At this point, Emu didn’t even see the point in continuing.

More than anything else, at that moment, he wished that his Game Disease would just kill him already.

To some extent, Emu had calmed down, though he still was upset. How could he not be? But at least now, he could think with some degree of clarity and not just a panic clouded mind. He just… didn’t know what to do. Not that there really much he could do. There was never much he could do.

Maybe he’s still a bit on edge, though, because when he hears the sound of teleporting, a sound he’s used to and know about three other people who could come and pop up here. Yet when he hears the sound, he stumbles backward and turns to face the source, only to freeze.

Parad.

Who quickly notices him and smiles and suddenly there’s this almost overwhelming feeling of joy as Parad smiles, “Emu! You’re okay! You’re awake!” He reaches out to Emu.

The first thing that pops into Emu’s head is that he’d going to be possessed again. Panic spikes again and he tries to get away, only for Parad to freeze at his reaction, his smile falling into a frown.

“Emu?”

Emu just stares, not sure what to do. This Parad… seemed different, and the feelings Emu was getting from him weren’t quite like what they had been before. They felt less… wrong. It was hard for him to explain.

Something in Emu was so terribly pained at seeing Parad’s hurt expression, almost like a kicked puppy dog, but far worse. “You… You aren’t going to make me go back to Masamune, are you?”

At that, Parad seemed shocked, “What? No! Why would I-“ He shook his head, “No, Emu, I’m not going to make you go back to Masamune. I’m not going to make you do anything at all, I didn’t know you’d be up here…”

“You’re… normal again,” Emu notes and is almost thankful for the distraction.

He sighs, “At least you didn’t open with commenting about me not trying to kill anyone.”

“Lazer?”

“Nah, Kiriya didn’t open with it, though he definitely brought it up. More like Kuroto,” That made Emu chuckle, as it sounded so terribly like his brother. “I’m glad to see you again. Properly, not in a fight.”

Biting his lip, slightly, Emu responds, “…Me too,”

“So what brought you up here?”

“I… well… I’d rather not talk about it.”

Parad plops himself down on the ground beside Emu, carefully wrapping an arm around Emu and pulling him close. “That’s fine, sure,” He says, “I’ve missed you, all these years.”

Some part of Emu was sad at that comment, because barring what he’d seen of Parad’s memories when Parad possessed him, he couldn’t remember before. Couldn’t remember Parad. “I’m sorry,” He says softly, “I don’t remember you. I- I knew you were my Bugster, but that’s because Masamune and Kuroto told me such. Because you were pretending to be me.”

“That’s okay, it’s not your fault you don’t remember. I don’t really mind, we can just… make new memories,” Quickly, Parad added, “If you want to.”

Laughing a little, Emu nods, “I… I think that would be nice.” He pauses, then frowns slightly. “I’m sorry. For killing you. For not listening. I… I hadn’t realized what had happened and… and I understand if you hate me.”

The look Parad gives him is startled, seeming rather incredulous. “What? Why would I hate you?”

“I killed you,” He explains quietly, looking away and tugging at his sleeves, “It caused Chronicle and I… It’s my fault all these people have died.”

“But you’re the one who saved me, too. That much I know,” Parad’s smile returned, “I don’t hate you Emu, and I’m not sure I ever could. You mean the world to me.”

Still unable to meet Parad’s eyes, Emu shook slightly, “I shouldn’t. The people who care about me just get hurt. So you shouldn’t.”

“You can’t stop me.”

At that, Emu laughs ever so slightly, “I guess I can’t,” There’s little he could do to get anyone to do something. It’s always been that way. “You’re… kind. All of you are, even Lazer, I suppose.”

Parad laughs, “Hey, hey! You’re supposed to be the nice one, not me. I’m the one who’s supposed to get angry at people and be an ass.”

“I’m not. Not anymore, at least,” It’s almost amazing how often Emu finds himself unable to look at Parad. Parad who had become almost more like a beaming lighthouse in such a terrible moment, than he was just a person. “You’re far more than I’ll ever be, at least.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true.”

“It’s not.”

Emu laughs bitterly, finally looking at Parad, silhouetted against the sun so that Emu couldn’t make out much detail in his appearance. “Do you want me to be honest, about you?”

“Yes, I do.”

“I’m jealous of you.” Emu tells him, plain and simple, “You got to become a doctor, and people like you. You have friends. You’re a hero.Everything that I could ever have wanted to be, ever have dreamed of being. Now, I can only wish that I may have a future at all, I don’t think I could even dare to wish for everything you have now.”

“Emu…” Parad pulls him closer, “Just because you weren’t able to reach that yet… you can still do it. Besides, aren’t the CR your friends, too? What about Kuroto? You have family, that’s something we never really had.”

There wasn’t really alot Emu could think of trying to say to that. So he ultimately stays quiet, leaning into Parad more. They stay like that for a while, before Parad begins to shift.

He looks down at Emu, “We should probably head back to the CR, it’s getting late.”

Emu looks away, “I… I guess.” He and Parad stand. Emu doesn’t really want to return to the others, not after earlier. Not after everything. But Parad took his hand and together they began to walk back to the CR.

The whole way, Emu’s quiet, and when they arrive, Kuroto smiles, “Emu, there you are.”

Parad frowned, “Uh, did something happen?”

“We were worried when you teleported away like that-“

“Teleported?”

Looking away, Emu shakes his head, “Stop it.”

“What?” Kuroto paused.

“Stop it. I don’t- just don’t.”

Tightening his grip on Emu’s hand, Parad looks over, “Emu, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Emu says, then lets go of Parad’s hand and marches over to the pile of blankets and pillows that Graphite sat in. Emu didn’t say anything to Graphite, though, just pulling a blanket over his head with a quiet huff.

Staring, Parad simply says, “So I’m confused,”

---

The truth hurt, Emu knew that well. Just like he knew for his entire life that his father didn’t care. Just like he now knew that Masamune didn’t care. Like he knew that everyone would leave him sooner or later. Because sooner or later, they’d realize that he wasn’t worth their time.

That was an inevitable fact, recent events would only make it more clear to the CR, even to Parad. They’d see he was a monster and they’d leave, simple as that. Emu pulls the blanket closer. It smells a lot like Graphite, of the forest and something salty, with a hint of something burnt. That observation only makes his heart sink, because Graphite would leave him too.

The main room of the CR is eerily quiet, everyone having left to deal with a Bugster – presumably the other Graphite. They tried to get him to join, but he didn’t want to, couldn’t bear to. Even the thought of having to partake in the game again was too much. Maybe that was what Masamune wanted, to some degree. Maybe it was to take away even the things that Emu enjoyed.

Pulling the blanket away, Emu stares into the empty room, standing with a sigh. He doesn’t know why, doesn’t know what he’s going to do. In one of the monitors, he can barely make out his reflection.

It’s you.

He looks away, choosing to examine the room instead. Nothing unusual, nothing out of the ordinary. He doesn’t really know why he bothered looking. Maybe he could find his game, but the idea of playing anything doesn’t really sound appealing. Maybe his journal? It used to help him before. Yet the idea of even writing a word, let alone the energy required to do so, escaped him and only made him feel worse.

His eyes fall Poppy’s utensils, a colorful DoReMiFa Beat themed fork and knife. He suspects there’s probably a spoon or something somewhere around here, but the two were probably left out from Saki having cake sometime earlier. It was strange they were left out, but he wasn’t going to think too hard about it. With a deepening frown, Emu picks up the fork and knife, intending to return them to the drawer he knows they belong in. The fork makes it back to the drawer without incident, but the knife lingered in his hand. Staring at it, his thoughts swirl.

Did monsters bleed?

With a shaking hand, Emu holds the knife. It’s not super sharp, of course not, but it would be sharp enough. His other arm’s shaking a bit as he holds it out, while he tries to steady the hand that held the knife. Just a little, just enough to see if he still bled. That was all. What was one more cut, one more scar? The blade presses against the skin of his arm, just a little more…

Some part of it knows it should sting, from the accidental cuts to his hand when he learned how to cut. Those were sharper knives than this. He pulls the knife away, but doesn’t pay it much mind, just stares at the place where it broke skin.

From the cut, blood begins to ooze, lingering and forming a small glob, until it began to dissipate. Turning into pixels and floating up, before disappearing entirely. His eyes are fixated on the cut, he wonders if he’s supposed to even feel anything. No sting from the cut, no regret from causing it. Nothing. Just this morbid fascination with the thing he’d become, with what had been done to him.

The knife is pulled from his hand, hastily, but not harshly. “Emu,” It was Kuroto, Emu just barely sees him beside him. When had he gotten here?

Another hand grabs his arm, gently, pulling it closer to Parad, who began to clean the cut and bandage it. “Emu… why did you…?”

Emu knew what he was asking, and he knew the answer. “I wanted to see if monsters bleed,”

“Bugsters aren’t monsters,” Despite the two Emu was talking to both being Bugsters, Kuroto responded in a painstakingly plain voice. He was obviously trying not to let his emotions be seen, for one reason or another.

“No, Bugsters aren’t,” Emu agreed, earning him a confused look from Parad. “But I am.”

Parad takes Emu’s hand, the one on the same arm that had just been cut, “You’re not a monster Emu.”

Pulling his hand away, Emu responds, “I am. Masamune made me one,”

“Emu,” Kuroto said more forcefully, placing his hand on Emu’s shoulder, “Masamune hasn’t made you a monster, because you’re not one.”

With a surge of anger, Emu pulls away from both, swatting at Parad’s hand, “Yes, I am,” He said, glaring at the two, “Masamune made me a monster and you’re better off figuring that so you can leave!”

There’s a pang of sorrow that echoes across the bond, then another and another. Emu ignores it as Parad calls his name with a desperation that sounds wonderful in Emu’s heart but annoying in his mind, “Emu-“

“Don’t you see? You’re wasting your time with me! I’d rather you see that sooner than later so at least I don’t have to pretend I’m not a waste of time. No one needs me, no one’s ever needed me! All I’ve caused is problems!”

“That’s not true,” Kuroto responds, anger in his tone. Yet and annoyance and anger in Emu’s chest only grows with Kuroto’s words. “Just because Masamune told you that doesn’t mean it’s true!”

“No,” Emu says, his voice quiet, but his words sharp, “That’s one of the few things he’s right about.”

In Emu’s mind, he can only think of Masamune’s punishments. Of the harsh words thrown at him by the angry man, at first separate from the beatings, then later combined with them. Every name Masamune had ever called him, every word he’d ever used to describe Emu.

Pathetic, scared, weak, whimpering, useless, worthless, wrong, broken, coward, failure…

Monster.

“Nothing I’ve done really matters,” He doesn’t know why his voice sounds quite so… distant. Or shaky. “Every time I thought that- that maybe I had some control, it was just an… an illusion, a trick.”

Taking a step forward, closer to Emu, reaching out, Parad gently says, “That’s not true, not anymore.”

“I can’t even control what happens to my own body!” Emu snapped, his throat beginning to strain from his raised voice, “I didn’t even- even make some choice that resulted in my death – that might not have even been so bad – I was forced to become a Bugster! While I was still very much human and alive! I’m tired of being some test subject, I’m tired of not having any control!”

His head falls as he shakes, trying desperately to hold in his sobs. It’s too much. This is all too much, and he can’t pretend anymore. He’s done all he can, hasn’t he? He’s fixed what happened to Poppy and Parad, and now Lazer was back here. What was the point of still being around? He’s just some useless monster, that’s all he’ll ever be.

A set of arms wrap around him, pulling him against Parad’s chest. Emu had never really realized that Parad was so… warm. Nor was he used to this much contact with him with so little hostility. Certainly, he wanted to pull away, but he just… couldn’t find the energy to do so. Joining Parad was soon Kuroto, a little more awkwardly, but still present.

“That can change,” Declares Parad in a soft voice, “That will change, now. We’re here, we won’t let Masamune hurt you anymore.”

“You don’t know that,” Emu manages to say, even as the sobs break free, “They’ve said that before and- and it hasn’t been true.”

Kuroto’s hand runs through Emu’s hair, just as awkward as it had been the last time he’d tried to. “What if… I had something that could guarantee that Masamune couldn’t hurt you again?”

“You don’t.”

He’s silent for a moment, before reaching into his pocket and placing something in Emu’s hand. It’s small and strangely shaped, prompting Emu to look down at it. Gold, was what Emu first noticed, and the strange shape it had.

Confused, he whispers, “What is it?”

“Hyper Muteki,” Kuroto answered, “My solution to Cronus’ Pause.”

“A solution that only works for ten seconds, as you so wonderfully demonstrated earlier,” Parad adds, sounding slightly irritated, “Not exactly the most effective.”

Emu glances up at Kuroto just in time to see Kuroto roll his eyes, “I told you, Emu’s the only one who can use it’s full power. For the rest of us, it might only work for ten seconds, but for him…” Kuroto looks at Emu with a small smile, something so strangely and wonderfully kind in his eyes, “For Emu the full extent of its power will work.”

Looking away, Emu clutches Hyper Muteki tightly, “…Why me?”

There’s a moment of silence, where Kuroto considers his answer. Where he brings both his arms back around Emu and simply makes him feel strangely safe. Warm and comforted and squished against both his brothers. Emu could feel the curious fabric of Parad’s coat and the rougher fabric of his sleeves. The fabric of Kuroto’s button up and jacket that Emu was so used to feeling, after the past six years.

When this was over, he couldn’t help but wonder, would there be a place for Emu in either of their lives?

Finally, Kuroto answers, “Because, in the end, everything will start and end with you. Game Disease as we know it may have started with you, yes, but you also have the power, maybe not to end it, but to limit its reach and to end Chronicle.” He gently guides Emu to look at him, “Emu, you’ve always had the potential to be a hero, now you can have the power you need to be one.”

His words bring to mind a decision Emu had made as a child, though he could not remember precisely when. “If heroes truly existed…” He began, seeing the flash of recognition in Parad’s eyes, “We would have heard of them by now.” After his accident, Emu had decided that there were heroes, yes, but they didn’t go by that name. The heroes were the people who saved others’ lives, like the doctors and nurses.

Doctor Kyotaro was a hero, he has saved people’s lives, Emu’s included. Emu was not a hero; all his actions had ever done was caused pain. Caused people to die whether he’d meant to or not. Now all he could really do was try to make up for that, but that didn’t make him a hero. Trying to clean up his own mistakes wasn’t something hero worthy.

Placing his hand over Emu’s, over the one that held Hyper Muteki, Parad responds, “Then make them exist. Be the first one they hear of, be the hero you always thought should exist.” His words feel Emu with a strange warmth, one that he had barely felt in years. “Be someone who saves people’s lives, you have that power now, so take it and use it.”

Emu looks down, “I’ll only mess up. I’ll only make things worse.”

“You won’t,” Kuroto promised.

“We’ll all still be here to help you,” Parad adds.

Footsteps come up the stairs as the others return.

---

The next day, when the other’s go out, Emu still stays behind. He’s not entirely sure he can bring himself to go, to fight again. So, he stays behind and finds himself looking at Hyper Muteki, unsure of what to think. Were Kuroto and Parad right, would this really be what they needed? Did it really have to be Emu?

Could Emu become the hero that he always felt was missing? As a child he resolved that such a person never existed, that the closest anyone would ever come was the doctors and nurses he’d seen in the hospital. Yet… could he be that hero? Could he save people?

If he had the power to end Chronicle then… then he should use it.

But looking at Hyper Muteki, he doesn’t really know for sure. Would it really give him the power he needed? He had only Kuroto’s words and Parad’s apparent trust in that. And Parad’s apparent trust in him. Emu didn’t understand that, didn’t understand how Parad could so easily trust a person who had been his enemy.

Yet their faith in him made him almost want to think that, maybe, just maybe… maybe he could be… something. Maybe not a hero, maybe not the one he had imagined and wistfully hoped for as a child. But maybe he could be something.

Emu stands up, feeling a strange surge of confidence. He could be something.

Then that confidence is cut by something else, slashed by this worry and anger and a hint of fear. Emu could only think of one reason Parad might be feeling that, might be letting such feelings project over so strongly. He’s already rushing out of the CR, accidently teleporting short bursts, as his brain supplied the answer. Masamune.

He’s able to use his and Parad’s bond to track them down, able to let it guide him like he’d let it before. This time, though, Parad almost seemed to be trying to tell him, too. It was nice, but Emu didn’t have time to dwell on it. Dashing through the city, soon enough he can see the painfully bright green on black that he recognizes as Cronus.

Masamune was here. Masamune was here and he was going to hurt the CR, was going to hurt Kuroto and Parad and Saki and N and- all of them. Emu already had Maximum Mighty X out, already activated the Gashat and shoving it in his Gamer Driver, praying it still worked.

Saidaikyuu no powerful body! Dariragan! Dagozuban!

Maximum Power! X!

His transformation catches Masamune’s attention, but this time Emu doesn’t let that stop him. There’s too much on the line, too much to worry about. He takes Hyper Muteki, finding the button on it and activating it.

Hyper Muteki!

Emu stands across from Masamune, with the CR to their side. He places the Gashat in the center of his Gamer Driver, to the side of Maximum Mighty X. Then he presses the button on top of it.

Then Masamune reaches for his Buggle Driver and everything stops. For a moment, it dawns on Emu that, before, he hadn’t realized when the Pause occurred. This time was different. Then Hyper Muteki continued and Emu could feel as it began to activate.

He’s launched out of Maximum Mighty X’s mech as he gains Hyper Muteki’s power.

Muteki! Kagayake! Ryuusei no gotoku! Ougon no saikyou gamer! Hyper Muteki Ex-Aid!

If Emu had to describe Hyper Muteki, he thinks it’s right there in the name. Invincible. It was so much stronger than Maximum Mighty X, Emu could feel it. Stronger and stronger, and it was so strange but not unwelcomed. All of him was stronger than before, it felt like. All of him except the part that mattered to him, but those weren’t what mattered to the others.

Emu rushes at Masamune, Gashacon Keyslasher in hand, unaffected by the Pause. There were a lot of things he was feeling in that moment, fear – this was his worst nightmare in front of him, after all – yet even some degree of confidence. It was clear by the power that he held, that he was stronger than he had been before, he could feel it. Masamune was terrifying, but Masamune was also… human, probably? The point was, he wasn’t all powerful or whatever and eliminating the use of the Pause, even on one person, would be a big change.

He slashes, only for Masamune to dodge, then the Pause resumes. As everyone else resumed to motion, he hears Poppy gasp and a few other sounds of startlement. It’s Kuroto who actually says something, though, “That’s – see, I told you he’d be able to use the full power of Hyper Muteki!”

“That’s Hyper Muteki?” Parad wonders aloud, “Wow – that’s – wow. Why is it so…?”

Graphite finished the question in a less of a question and more of a statement, with an odd tone, “Shiny.”

“Because it’s a final form,” Kuroto declares, “And final forms have to look cool!”

Though Emu can’t see Masamune’s eyes, he knows the feeling of Masamune’s glare, “That Gashat’s power should only last for ten seconds!”

With a voice steadier than he felt, Emu responded, “Not for me,” He lets his grip on the Keyslasher loosen, reminding himself not to be so tense, “So long as I can use this power, you’re Pause won’t affect me!”

Normally, Emu would want to do more, try to fight Masamune more, but he knows he’s not in the right headspace for this. There was too much trying to vie for attention in his mind, even as he tried to force it all out and focus on the fight. He had to get this fight over, sooner rather than later. Even with the new and arguably wonderful sensation Hyper Muteki has given him, Emu can’t help but feel with every second someone else should be in his place. Which he knows is probably not a good way to win a fight.

Taking a deep breath, Emu activates his finisher. Even if it didn’t fully stop Masamune or Chronicle, it would stop the fight, hopefully.

Hyper Critical Sparking!

He tosses the Gashacon Keyslasher aside. Leaping into the air, he launches himself into a kick, and though Masamune blocked it with a kick of his own, Emu realized that alone wasn’t the end. He gave more and more kicks as Masamune tried to continue blocking, then Emu began to teleport, too, to change places and catch Masamune off-guard.

Finally, Emu lands on the ground, now behind Masamune. Yet, Masamune seemed unaffected. “Did you really think that your attack would work?” Masamune asked in a smug tone. Though Emu could not see Masamune, it was clear that he was not suffering in any degree from the number of kicks he’d just taken.

Emu’s heart drops. Nonononono – didn’t it work?

Standing, perhaps too hurriedly, Emu’s about to turn around when he hears a strange sound. A grunt, from Masamune. Then the sounds of attacks and then Masamune falls to the ground.

Oh, so it did work. It just had delayed damage. Well, that was a huge relief, Emu had been particularly terrified for a minute, there.

When Emu turns around, Masamune’s gone, but he’s okay with that. He hadn’t really meant for this fight to end it all – if that would even be possible at this point. The only Emu had been trying to do was end the fight, keep the CR safe.

Before he has a chance to untransform, he’s pounced and knocked over by a green blur, “You’re shiny and gold and sparkling!” Graphite declares from his new perch on top of Emu.

“Uh… Graphite?” A quick glance to the side shows to Emu that everyone else is watching with a confused expression.

“My Kin’s name is fitting now,” While technically an accurate observation, Emu really wished Graphite would do that while he wasn’t crouched on top of him.

Emu stares, reaching to the best of his ability for his Gamer Driver, “Graphite, could you get off me?”

Graphite doesn’t answer and Emu’s forced to awkwardly shift and reach until he’s finally able to remove the Gashats. Though Graphite appears to pout slightly, something hard to tell while he’s in his Bugster form, he does get off Emu. Which was a relief.

Then Parad teleports over, excitedly picking Emu up and hugging him, “You did amazing, Emu!”

“Uh- what?”

“Now that we know for certain that you can use Hyper Muteki, we finally have a way to counter the Pause!” He lets Emu go and allows for Emu to move away slightly, “We’ll be able to defeat Cronus, now.”

Emu wasn’t sure how he felt about all that, but at the very least… well so long as he was the only one who could truly use Hyper Muteki’s full power, then he knew he’d have to use it. They had to stop Chronicle, and that meant they had to stop Cronus.

You move just a finger,

Say the slightest word,

Something’s bound to linger…

Be heard…

[cerulean8looded]

Hey, Mod Dave, about your tags... Well, not to go off but. Uh.*

Your Hogwarts house is based on the qualities you value rather than the qualities you possess (by the end of your time at Hogwarts you should, ideally, possess those qualities.)**

So we have Gryffindors, those who value courage and bravery, Slytherins who value cunning and ambition, Hufflepuffs who value kindness and loyalty, and Ravenclaws who value wit and intelligence.

You stated that he definitely wouldn't be a Hufflepuff, which is fair. It's very obvious from his behaviour that he doesn't strive to be kind.

I can't find much evidence that would tie him to being or not being a Ravenclaw at all honestly, so we'll just go ahead and rule that one out, although it's cool on an aesthetic level.

So now we're left with Slytherin and Gryffindor. These houses are quite similar in many ways, honestly, and at this point I think some people would begin to disagree, but in my opinion he's most definitely a Slytherin.**

For the sake of fairness, I'll talk about Gryffindor first though. Some other things that Gryffindors value are nerve and determination, and if there's anything we can be sure that Cronus displays it's those. Gryffindors are also known to be cocky and reckless and well... That's just Cronus to a tee. He's overly arrogant about himself, and he never seems to consider the consequences of what he says.

However, there are many things that tie him to Slytherin as well. He's certainly ambitious, and Slytherin is also tied to water. Slytherin is also known for producing dark wizards, and Cronus isn't exactly the best person on a moral level. Another tie is that he would most likely consider himself misunderstood, and, as all Slytherins know, the house is often very misunderstood and misrepresented.

Finally, the main thing that the Sorting Hat is seeking in when looking for a Slytherin student is the potential for greatness. And, personally, that's something I believe Cronus really did have. Wasted potential, for sure, but the potential was always there.

The only way I could see Cronus being in another house is a Harry type situation; the Sorting Hat knows he's a Slytherin. That's the house that will allow him to thrive. But he doesn't want to be a Slytherin. And the only house I can see him requesting would be Gryffindor.

*This was done mostly from memory with minimal research, so I may have messed up on a couple facts.

**I'm aware a lot of my commentary focuses on his behaviour, but with a character like Cronus where you only really have his behaviour to work with, then you really just need to make assumptions based off it.

***I completely changed my mind here after typing for a bit because I realised that actually I was totally wrong and he's definitely Slytherin

Cronus, pre-game: i didn’t attend sewven years of hogvwarts school of vwitchcraft and vwizardry for this shit.

Meenah: you rite, you shore didnt attend seven years a hogwarts school of fishraft n wizardry

[ardalionandnatalia]

Ardalion and Natalia (VIV)

Sam: Natalia! Where did that woman go? I need to see Katya now!

In a designated herb garden, Natalia enters, bearing an armful of golden, ripened wheat sheaves for the ritual. She now carefully examines the selection of herbs and flowers required in the ritual tomorrow. She frowns and sighs sourly at the loud-mouthed, childish Sam clinging onto her like a crass boy with pranks.

Natalia: Katya is undergoing purification for the oracle's forecast tomorrow!

Natalia: She cannot mingle with the outside world now.

Sam: Oh, that's too bad. I thought I was scoring with her! Damn, that pussy was ripe for the picking!

Natalia: You should go and do the labors Iole set before you!

Sam: What labors?

Natalia: You're disgusting! Away from me, or else you will corrupt me and then I cannot participate in the forecast!

Sam: I don't care about the temple, so why should I listen to what Iole suggested?

Natalia: So you can become a better man! You would be wise to heed Iole's exhortations.

Sam: Why do you want to help Katya anyways? You know nothing about her! You're getting paid to do this, aren't you? Because of Iole and stuff right? Listen, can I PAY you guys to return me back home?

Natalia: Unlike you, you little dog, I want to help her because she is a new soul lost int this other world. Also, Katya seems like a kind and gentle soul who could use a friend. Get back home?

Sam: *sniff* I'm a kind and gentle soul too.

Natalia: *blinks in confusion*

Sam: Well, yeah. I want to go back to New York city!

Natalia: What do you mean? We can never go back. We're all dead here. This is a new world we must live in.

Sam: Are you sure we're dead? I don't feel dead. You guys keep on saying you're dead, but who knows? You might not be.

Natalia: And I can never return to my beloved Venice! You must learn to live here now.

Sam: I don't feel dead at all.

Natalia: I remember dying- it was quite vivid.

Sam: That's your decision not to return. I don't remember dying.

Sam: maybe some of us are still alive, what do you think?

Natalia: We have a second life here, and we too will die here in this other world.

Sam: There's no point!

Natalia: So we must live our second life carefully.

Sam: We just live and die. There's no point in living. Nah, I don't think so, lady. I need to either find a way back home, or you know, just bum around and see what outrageous messes I can create here.

Natalia: There is a point- you can simply live and appreciate the joys of living. Begone, ne'er do well! If you won't help me, then find something else to occupy your idle time. Go and throw a bacchanale with the Sophists on the canal.

Sam: I don't even know what you're talking about. I just want to see Katya again! Damn, I saved her! I should be the one getting closer to her!

Natalia: *bends down and resumes her herb and flowering selecting*

Natalia: She is occupied now! You know nothing of our world and our ways.

Sam sighs and walks away, and eventually bumps into Ardalion.

Ardalion is heading towards Natalia.

Preoccupied with her duties, she failes to see Ardalion at first.

Ardalion: Natalia?

Ardalion approaches her and taps her on the shoulder.

Ardalion: Do you need any help? I-I want to help out with the ritual as well.

Natalia: *startles slightly at his touch and the sound of his voice- she straightens and looks over her bony shoulder at him, curious at his tone, so devoid of its typical arrogance and swagger* I only said this to Sam to distract him, or else send him away. I fear there's not much you can do to assist us with the ritual- except keep away from the temple. You mustn't touch me, since I need to remain pure to accompany Katya during the forecasting.

Natalia: *eye Ardalion with an air of suspicion* You seem curious about this affair- why?

Ardalion: What do you mean by pure? I can't be pure? *scoffs*

A bit of his arrogance and sarcasm returns to his voice.

Ardalion: I was just a bit shocked by Katya's return.

Katya: I did not think I'd see her again.

Natalia: *remains hardened- she will not be swayed by his sarcasm* You never knew the meaning of the word purity. And yes, it is odd- how this world works. So many of us have yet to be reunited with our loved ones, yet here, you have seen yet again the woman you almost ruined. Perhaps fate is telling you something, Ardalion...

Ardalion: Yes, I know what you're going to say. In fact, I may try it out. I'll win her heart again and reform. I'll prove to be better than the man I was before. And better yet than her husband. *his voice sounds particularly cold and mocking when he spits out the last word*

Natalia: It seems futile- I advise you not to. She has a husband, already.

Ardalion: How do you know I won't be successful? He's not here.

Natalia: You're jealous- jealous your son is the better man.

Ardalion: I'm not jealous. I just want to change myself!

Natalia: She remains married yet- do you have no honor? But then, a man like you might be unfamiliar with the concept.

Ardalion: God dammit, Natalia. You are obsessed with portraying me as the villain in all of this!

Natalia: You are jealous- admit it. *remains calm and picks a few herbs*

Ardalion: How can a man be jealous of his own progeny?

Natalia: Besides, how is winning a woman you almost ruined change anything about yourself? If you truly wanted to change, you'd focus on yourself, not some conquest on a woman.

Ardalion: I am focusing on my biggest flaw.

Natalia: Even the gods of the lore envied their scions! Look at Cronus- he devoured his own!

Ardalion: Please, those gods don't exist! Actually, I thought you had it figured out already. Gods are all illusions! *laughs* The only gods in this universe, are men.

Ardalion has a twinkle in his eye.

Ardalion: men can become gods, especially now in this 'Afterlife.' Aren't you a Goddess, too, if you see yourself as such?

Natalia: No, they don't exist, but perhaps they do in our minds. We ourselves are like them, vain, carnal creatures urged and ruined by own egos.

Ardalion: Because primitive humans couldn't see themselves as gods so they have to project and create false, ludicrous images. Some people refuse to see the world as it really is.

Natalia: You'd best not let Iole hear you talk like this- she would be sorely furious at your words. *smirks*

Ardalion: *smiles* Katya was beautiful today, though. Seems like having a child didn't ruin her looks too much, at least not yet.

Natalia: What is the reality, Ardalion?

Ardalion: I wonder how she looked like when she went inside the baths.

Natalia: Is not reality subjective?

Natalia: Ah, typical of a man- focused on a woman and her body.... you never once gave through to her own self, her feelings, her thoughts.

Ardalion: I shall go inside the baths, then.

Natalia: You will be killed by the guards, then.

Ardalion laughs.

Natalia: You only crave after the carnal, like some beast goaded by lust, it seems.

Ardalion: Oh no, I only want her to return my love for her.

Ardalion's voice becomes crudely mocking.

Natalia: Love?

Ardalion: Kind of like those tales you'd read about, about some prince pining after some woman.

Natalia: Men like you know nothing about love...

Ardalion: I've obsessed over her for so many years!

Natalia: Such a love doesn't exist.

Ardalion: I was just so afraid to see her again. And now here she is.

His voice is even more mocking now.

Natalia: You only want her body. Had her body been altered, you would have rejected her.

Ardalion: I thought we were all eunuchs here in the afterlife, aren't we?

Natalia: What if....*her voice grows cold and hard, bitter and sharp* What if she became like me? I wonder how repulsed you'd be then. I am repulsive, am I not? You flinch if I reach out to you, do you not?

Ardalion: So I can't harm her. And gender doesn't matter now that we're dead, so I should be allowed inside the baths as well. I'm just as much of a woman as she is!

Ardalion laughs and cups her face.

Natalia: Who knows? We have bodies, we eat, we drink, we feel pain and die.

Ardalion: You're not repulsive to me, Natalia, if you really want to hear.

Natalia: Don't touch me! *slaps his hand away*

Ardalion: Nothing really repulses me. I'm someone who can see beyond the physical.

Natalia: I'll scream and slash your face if you come closer!

Ardalion: Oh, typical. You wouldn't even want it even when it's given to you freely. Funny! You were pretty much begging for me to do something like that, anyways.

Natalia: All you want is a woman's body to devour, like a piece of meat, you animal!

Ardalion: You're always this self-hating little wretch. You're jealous of women like Katya! I may not love Katya, you're right about that, but she's nothing like you, you wretched, screeching, over-emotional little thing! She's dignified and always had a sense of grace about her, nothing like you!

Natalia: I do not envy her- beauty means nothing to me now, especially when all beauty does is attract scum like you. All you men want is beauty! Beauty! Beauty!

Ardalion: I wonder just how jealous you actually are of her...She's not beautiful! How is she beautiful? She is the most common looking person I have ever seen. She looks like a peasant.

Natalia: Do you really think insulting me will elicit the reaction you wanted to see from me? Why pester me like this?

Ardalion: What attracted me to her wasn't her beauty, but her vulnerability and her obsession with improving herself!

Natalia: Then why lust after her?

Ardalion: I lusted after her because she wanted me so badly.

Natalia: Tis a shame you didn't care about herself when you devoured her!

Natalia: You're hardly a man, Ardalion.

Ardalion laughs and walks off.

Ardalion: tell me if you need my help, Natasha.

Natalia: You're a beast motivated by the basest, and even more ridiculous because you possess some shred of intellect. Let me in peace! *snarls at him* *fixes her eyes on him as he trails off in the distant*

Sam sneaks back into the scene.

Sam: Hey, Natalia! Sorry that old guy is bothering you!

Natalia: *gazes down in pensiveness* Is that all men really want from we women?

Natalia: Let me be, Sam...

Sam: What are you talking about? What men want from women? Are you frustrated that men seem to be only interested in the flesh? Then get yourself a Nice New Yorker like me! We don't care about things like that. We just want to make money and be nice to people! And make tons of movies. Nothing like that wretched old guy we just saw. I'm a lamb, not a wolf!

Natalia: I wasn't talking to you- I spoke to my mind for contemplation. I know nothing of this New York-what happened to your Old York?

Sam: And I'm not even good at athletics. Me and my friends are horrible at sports! No girls like us because they discriminate against us! It's all because we're not Anglo-Saxon!

Natalia: I want nothing from the world of the living, especially from men as you and Ardalion are like.

Sam sighs and starts humming a klezmer tune.

Sam: Oh, Natalia! You are one of those scorned women who will eternally be without companionship! With that sour attitude of yours.

Natalia: Ardalion is Russian, Sam, he is not English, nor German.

Sam: My Rabbi would say that. He'd have some good advice to give you.

Sam: I'm Russian too! I won't let that old guy steal my Russianness from me.

Natalia: Your Rabbi means nothing in this new world. When will you and Ardalion understand this? Our life of the living means nothing now. This is a new world, governed by new laws and a new nature. We cannot live and operate under old ideas.

Sam: Don't you DARE say my Rabbi means nothing!

Sam laughs and continues.

Natalia: I prefer the companionship of my sisters here. Now, I must resume my duties- you and the old lecher have distracted me long enough! Away, both of you!

Sam: That's true, my Rabbi would say to be more open. Things often don't matter. I'm one of the sisters too, you man hating twerp. Under communism, gender doesn't matter anymore! The new Soviet man! The new Soviet woman! The new Soviet PERSON!

Sam helps her to pick some herbs.

Sam: Is this doing the right thing?

Two other furies, both green-skinned naiads, enters the garden. They seem concerned for Natalia's stress. They approach them, glaring at Sam.

Sam grins at them.

Sam: Who are you two? You gals look wonderful today, don't you? Love green! It's my favorite colour!

Natalia: Elpis, Jocasta, help me- this whelp torments with his ranting and raving.

Sam: Be a little more tolerant! I'm one of the womenfolk!

Elpis and Jocasta glare at Sam, eyeing him with disdain...

Sam: Don't you know my Dad's a hardcore feminist!

Sam: I see you don't want me here anymore. I shall promptly disappear, then.

Sam sneaks out before the two can do anything to him.

Elpis: You must be the loud-mouthed trader from the desert. Can't you see our sister wishes to be left in peace?

Sam decides to find Ardalion and talk to him.

Jocasta: You can't interfere with the ritual! Be gone, Sam!

Natalia: *bows her head gratefully* Thank you, my sisters. *resumes her duties of selecting the herbs and flowers*