#to let you in on a little secret

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy Birthday to Fallen London; My favourite British people beefing it with bats simulator.

[kingkatsuki]

Imagine Dynamight going to a school to be interviewed by the little children there, sitting down in one of the chairs in their classroom that is far too small for his hulking form but he sits down in it without complaint as the kids sit down in front of him with crossed legs.

And he loves it, because they have no filter— just like him, and they end up asking him the most blunt questions without hesitation. And some of the questions he’d never usually answer if they were coming from broadcasters or reporters, but he can’t lie to these kids so he keeps responding openly and honestly.

Even when one of the little girls asks “Mister Dynamight, do you have a girlfriend?”

It’s a rumour that’s been circulating for months as the media try to work out who the mysterious woman is in his life (if there even is one!) and it’s confirmed immediately when Bakugou answers with a, “Yeah, I do.”

And as his PR manager is having a meltdown in the corner, Bakugou’s grin is wide when the little boys in the room sound out a simultaneous chorus of “ewwwwwww”

[theoppositeofprofound]

not to go off topic but i think that ideal post-canon dungeon meshi situation for kabru is for him to simultaneously have a slowburn domestic cozy noodles and rare escapes to go monster hunting and falling asleep in the same bed situation with mithrun AND some sort of high politics high stakes power dynamics they can't escape, manipulation equally matched by hopeless affection, glances shared over council tables, getting caught in the closet with the king again (explaining basic social protocols to him) thing with laios.

then just as he's coming to terms with his own feelings and the possibility that they might be romantic he learns that mithrun and laios have in fact been carrying on some sort of psychosexual no-strings affair the whole time (mithrun sits on the dresser and dispassionately explains horrific and bizarre monster situations from around the globe while laios gets off seven feet away)

[tritoch]

one thing I find neat about Emet-Selch is that his chauvinism is so intense that it actually prevents him from making the strongest possible case for the unique moral goodness of the ancients, and that this same mental distortion ties into his classic final fantasy need to turn into a Horrible Final Form Monstrosity for your final fight

(for my part I think any minor unique moral goodness the ancients possess they have due to their status as demigods living in eden before the fall. even if they really are morally/intellectually/spiritually/magically/etc. superior to every modern eorzean on a 1:1 level it still doesn't change anything because 1) they are mythical and impossible, that's the whole point and 2) even if they weren't, they still have no particular claim to existence that is superior to anyone else's, no matter how good they are. but the point here is the case Emet-Selch is trying to make, which is that they are more "worthy" of life.)

when he's setting you up for the final amaurot sequence, Emet-Selch hits you with this one:

it's a solid line! stops the party cold for a second.

it's also...not that impressive. do I think if we called a big world meeting that half of everyone would just jump up to be chosen? maybe, maybe not. but, sorry: we're having a big world meeting? are we also demigods with their every material need fulfilled in this version? do we have a one world government that almost everyone seems to fully trust telling us that it knows for real a way to stop the meteor heading towards earth? because honestly i think as soon as we start creating structural similarities like that, it becomes a lot more likely. and every step you take towards making the comparison happen on level ground makes the idea that the ancients were possessed of some unique moral fiber that made them capable of this sacrifice (as opposed to the undeniable abilities in magic and global governance that actually enabled it) seem less and less likely.

and especially if you consider it in the context of what actual people are like. human (and presumably eorzean) history is replete with examples of people sacrificing themselves to save others, even though none of us are immortal wizard philosophers. i don't know how the white-room thought-experiment "will half of you die to save the others???" turns out. but do i think, across a grand rolling catastrophe, that half our population would sacrifice itself to save the other half in a million individual acts of sacrifice to save a parent, a child, a lover, a friend, a stranger? that seems significantly more plausible. altruism and sacrifice for others is even pretty frequent in animals! it's not a very unique moral behavior!

(stanford encyclopedia of philosophy on biological altruism)

but that's not the only sacrifice the ancients made. roll the tape, hythlodaeus!

...Yet oh how the star had suffered. So many species lost. The land was blighted, the waters poisoned, and even the wind had ceased to blow. Once more did our people give of themselves to Zodiark. Another half of our race sacrificed to cleanse the world; to ensure that trees and grasses and myriad tiny lives would sprout and grow and flourish.

(every time I read this speech and hit the ff1/3/5 ref about the land and waters and wind i become mylongestyeahboyever.avi)

this is the step beyond, and it's what separates the ancients from modern humans. they viewed themselves as stewards of the star and really meant it; whatever other criticisms you might level, you can't doubt the depths of their commitment. and this i think really does make them morally distinct from modern people, or at least raises that possibility in a much more compelling way than the first sacrifice. half of the living population sacrificing itself not in a moment of duress and apocalypse but in a moment of calm? when the sacrifice isn't for anything but plants and animals and some tiny proto-eorzeans? that kind of cold, calculated, long-term altruism, aimed at people and living beings that are nothing like you...that does feel like something a little more unique, more worth preserving. even in just the text of the game, we can say with real certainty that the ancients were at least more capable of facing their problems and had greater moral integrity and care for the world than, say, the people who made ra-la.

but emet-selch can't ever say that because rejecting and dishonoring the decision the ancients made as stewards of the star is his primary goal.

like, "my people were uniquely morally good. half the living population sacrificed themselves not for their loved ones or for the survival of their people but simply for the world. for the trees and grasses and the wind and the water. for the humblest insects and for the summer breeze and the tides." that fucks! damn, you got me there! i watch enough people throw aluminum cans in the trash on a weekly basis that i find this sincerely moving and beyond the seeming abilities of my own brethren! oh no, i'm being persuaded by the fascist immortal space wizard!

"and therefore, because they are uniquely morally good, we are going to sacrifice and kill the very things they gave their lives to save, so we can have them back :)" well, shit. i'm experiencing some dissonance here.

but you can't actually lie to yourself as long as emet-selch without distorting your understanding of the truth. you cannot choose to see the world falsely half the time and clearly the other half. in committing to self-deceit and willful ignorance regarding the value of the modern world, emet-selch blinds himself not just to the world as it is but to the ancients as they were. if he could describe accurately the ways in which the ancients were genuinely noble and benevolent, he would also have to able to see clearly how he has entirely deviated from that ideal. and he cannot do that and stay on the path he has chosen, so he simply chooses not to see things accurately.

i cannot help but link this blindness of his to his trial. here, at what seems to emet-selch to be the last stand of the ancients, he says to you "to be clear this fight IS a metaphor, and in that metaphor i stand in for the Entire Unsundered World."

and yet, in standing against you, he betrays both the customs of the ancients and his very title, itself a direct signifier of the mission he was charged with as one of the convocation of fourteen: "to ensure that all is right in creation, that our star may know a brighter future." contra elidibus, for whom remembering his duty to the ancients is one and the same act as remembering his name, emet-selch declares his own to be mere pretense. and that's before we even reach the matter of his transformation.

emet-selch believes the only way he can save the ancients is to betray their principles, forget their greatest triumphs, and abandon their trappings. he renounces almost everything of the ancients, save for his pale and sad and faceless amaurot, in the hopes of bringing them back.

i am reminded a little of borges's three versions of judas, a short story which uses the lens of fictional literary criticism (appropriate for a story as interested in competing narrative interpretations as shadowbringers is) to recast the betrayal of christ by judas not as the greatest of sins but as the greatest of sacrifices.

The ascetic, for the greater glory of God, vilifies and mortifies his flesh; Judas did the same with his spirit. He renounced honor, morality, peace and the kingdom of heaven, just as others, less heroically, renounce pleasure. With terrible lucidity he premeditated his sins.

and, in turn, the sardonic footnote to that very same line, which unsettles that sentiment as soon as it has been presented:

Borelius inquires mockingly: “Why didn’t he renounce his renunciation? Or renounce the idea of renouncing his renunciation?”

[starflungwaddledee]

from: @starflungwaddledee to: @post-it-notes7

message from santa: "happy holidays post-it-notes! 🎄🥳 i know you very politely only wished for a few modest things- characters high fiving, or struggling in christmas attire- but i hope you'll still enjoy this given that i kinda went the opposite direction entirely! i'm an enormous fan of your work and most times you post anything i wind up browsing your art tag from tip-to-tail in enraptured delight. as such, i thought it was only fair i give back something a little more significant in gratitude for all the joy your work has given me. i knew i wanted to do a comic, so i was thrilled you already had a whole storyverse for me to work from!! this scene seemed the most obvious choice (chapter 8 of "wishful thinking" on ao3) given that i enjoy a dramatic fight scene 😂 i tried to stick as beat-by-beat to the writing as i could and worked in as many details as possible; i hope it'll be fun to see it envisioned this way! merry christmas! ~starflung 🎀🔔 "

[fyllophobia]

[egophiliac]

With the best of your writing or drawing ability, how do you sum up Twisted Wonderland Book 1 till Book 6?

I'm so sorry to make you wait so long for such a stupid joke

[spicyraeman]

flat laezel , yes =w= but what if nipple piercings ? 😔

yes yes yes hard agree

[s-che]

Parasitic Games

So I've been rewatching Gravity Falls, right? And reading the Book of Bill, of course. And also playing a lot of Cultist Simulator? Which is a weird one but also a very specific combination of vibes.

Anyway I blacked out and finally wrote a twin pair of journaling games, A CALAMITOUS COINCIDENCE and THE ALCHEMIST. I wrote them in my dark basement research center (apartment) while remembering only occasionally to fulfill my obligations to the outside world (still going to work, I guess) while attempting to string together the clues and assemble, at last, my magnum opus (get them on the actual page, or screen I guess).

Anyway, let's do some normal ad copy.

Calamitous Coincidence is based on stories of lonely investigators, clever children, and inescapable tragedy (like A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and Gravity Falls) while The Alchemist lets you jump right in to bullshit esoteric thinking inspired by absolute freaks like John Dee and Aleister Crowley (or Cultist Simulator and Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, which are the reasons I actually wrote it).

I'm really putting that religion degree to good work, huh?

Both games give you the tools you need to figure out who you are in the world, what you're looking for, and where you think you'll find it -- neither give you the answers you're looking for. You'll have to find those yourself.

Both games are prototypes, currently available on Patreon for anyone paying $3 or more. As always with my patreon stuff, I extremely, extremely encourage you to sign up for a month, download the stuff you're interested interested in, and then cancel. It still means a lot.

Both games have been setting my brain on fire for the last month and a half, and I'm glad to get them out into the world (even if they are still a little broken).

I hope you like them:)

[violent138]

Because no member of the Batfam can be relied upon to watch their health, Alfred develops a covert buddy system where the kids keep an eye on how long since their "assigned" sibling slept, dealt with an injury, or ate something that didn't come out of a blender or wrapper. It's pretty successful, and due to the methods the kids use to knock out or provoke each other nobody has caught onto it yet.

[paper-lilypie]

CLOWNS?????? FUCK NO

[djarinova]

plagued with visions about daryl dixon rn you guys. meeting him, getting to know each other and falling in love during the apocalypse. loving each other enough to want to get married, but knowing that that is a luxury that you don't really get to have at the end of the world.

you come back from a run one day with an unusually wide smile on your face and drag him away from the crowd as soon as you get the opportunity. you tell him to hold his wrist out and close his eyes and he squirms a little as he feels something brush delicately against his skin. but when he opens his eyes he's met with a small piece of thread tied loosely around his wrist, just below where a shirt sleeve would sit. he meets your eyes and you explain that it was the closest colour thread you could find that would match your eyes (you had to ask maggie to help you because there were no mirrors for you to look in) and you watch as he traces the thin thread with his fingertips, slowly and carefully pondering over the gift you've given him, before taking your face into his hands and kissing you with such adoration that your knees almost give out under the love you feel pouring from his lips.

[elminster-big-naturals]

feminism is gortash being the one to sleep his way into money & power, not orin

[bluebird8683]

Creature!Batfam with Human!Tim

I've read a to of pics where Tim is secretly a dragon, or a demon, or something and sometimes hides his species status.

From this idea, I propose to you: Human!Tim while the rest of the vigilantes are all non-human, even Bruce.

imagine the drama!

All the research Tim would have to do on different demonic/magical/etc species to pick one and to be able to pass off as one to others who actually are in a position to be able to tell.

What kind of creature could he hides himself as? How could he pull it off?

Does he befriend magic users who help him hide the fact he is purely human from the other's super senses? Does befriend an alien or a creature of the type he choses to impersonate or a similar species who helps him? Does he find grimors and use them in order to make his play believable?

[italwayshadtobeyou]

[wu-does-art]

decided there wasn't enough RK charms in the world (none), so im making one and putting it out there later for anyone who might want one too!

heres the concept.