#tson rambles

[columbocorners]

What are your thoughts on Otro after listening to the the episode?

Everyone thinks he is the worst (he is a terrible psychologist, I’ll admit to that) but he very obviously has unresolved childhood trauma that is making him act up.

The latest episode broke my heart, poor Noone “you promised” but we all knew this was going to happen, it was inevitable.

honestly, the chapter five episode had me literally verbally making commentary because I was SO into what the people were doing with that, also just in general props to itsjustjord given he wrote the chapter five episode which is so fucking cool and really shows on some level who in the community of theorists in little nightmares have a lot of credibilities that the people who are promised with making the franchise what it has so much faith in its community to provide them the chance to look into writing it. as a whole, I think otto is a very misguided, genuinely good person who kept going on and doing things that progressively sabotaged whatever collaboration and chances he had of trying to do better. and he is redeemable in my eyes, but it's like, he's too caught up in the way his own trauma and what happened with cece ( cici ) and this world to try and understand and on some level, that slowly reeled its nasty little head more into his work than the idea of actually helping noone. It's so sad because to me, I really think otto acted kind of fatherly to noone, like he genuinely cares for her, as much as he's grown to be so inherently selfish about wanting to find out things about cece ( cici ) and it's like. it's the little things that get me because to me, it could've potentially been so different if he had adult patients but given he works with children and we DON'T KNOW how the other coworkers act, but they probably are a lot less forgiving or even empathic to their patients (referring them by numbers and etc. ) it's like. he is very much a bad counselor, but he definitely does so in ways that just make me go ' he got attached ' and you definitely can see why we don't have a lot of inherent knowledge on what the copy is like, how long noone was staying there, and it's only after finding out about how bad noone's nightmares was that otto went ahead and made it a point of going because before he went, " oh her case isn't that bad, others are worse off " to " I want to oversee this all the way through " and it tells you, as much as it is for personal gain, there is a concern there too. he does try comforting her and doing all of these things to try and just make her stay a little more welcoming because some things should be procedural and a lot more professional but it's like, I think the thing that always got him was him admitting he had no answers to give about her dreams, and reassuring her she wasn't sick or that anything was wrong with her. as well as the moment where he took her to see the reunion room, at the end of the day, even I feel like people forget otto also gifted her that flower in chapter five as a means to try and let her know he was sorry for his actions last chapter, and I just think in general, otto is a bad counselor, but equally as bad with communication and expressing some things and I feel like it comes with the added notion that he wants to have noone actually see him in a good light, so he can help her and solve what his own problems are and what is going on with him but no matter how he strung it, he fucked up. and that is on him, of course I do think some things the two as a whole could've done better but noone went through a lot and she is legit just a child, and otto needs to try and make it up in a better way than simple gifts etc. ESPECIALLY WITH THAT ENDING BUT LIKE .. part two incoming bc I wrote too much btw

[cynthiadasorceress]

I'm making a M.A.P.!! (Hopefully...)

It's not open yet, as I'm still figuring out character designs, and more importantly, the song. It'll be an animation about Rusty from The Sounds Of Nightmares (my boy doesn't get enough attention T^T) to either Circus of the Dead or Carousel.

When I am ready for participants, I'll post links to the Discord, Google Doc, and any other resources for the project, along with putting a video on YouTube. So keep an eye out if you're interested!

[verytallfox]

THE SOUNDS OF NIGHTMARES CHAPTER 6: THE LONELY WAY OBSERVATIONS

The end is here, and the Counsellor begins his descent.

SUMMARY (LIVE):

The Counsellor will sink. He’s not in a good state of mind it seems.

Side Note: On another note I finished reading truly the most missed out on manga of our generation, especially in how it touches on all the injustices of our world directly and without room for misinterpretation. Eden: It’s an Endless World offered hope amidst all its despair. Warning though, it’s very fucked up. Some pretty serious content warnings apply to it and it is definitely for the faint of heart or really young people.

NOW BACK TO LITTLE NIGHTMARES!

Noone was gone longer than ever before, coming back only in the morning, appearing in the institute’s courtyard. The Counsellor takes this personally, believing the Ferryman let her go to fuck with him.

He’s looking into the Zaheer’s (Zahir’s?) Gaze. He’s gonna use Noone OH FUCK HE’S GONNA TURN HER INTO AN ASTROLABE! Yeah he’s not Otto anymore as far as I’m concerned. Thankfully, Noone has hands to throw at him.

She calls out the Counsellor on all his lies, and says that he hurt her more by hiding the truth about her tumor instead of telling her outright. He’s still trying to win her over. He says they can fight her monsters together. Also, he phrased this as her “letting him in.” It’s always been about him.

Oh, and he didn’t tell her the Candleman goes by another moniker. Noone is a smart kid and knows where he got that name from. She’s putting up resistance but he’s still pushing her. The Counsellor wants to hook her up to a machine that will “put her into a deeper sleep than ever before” and also allow him to join her. It’s noninvasive, apparently.

And now this arrogant fuck is saying there’s no going back! GOD DAMMIT COUNSELLOR! He’s forcing her to consume sweets which I’m suspecting have drugs in them.

Now we’re back to the dream sharing.

Gonna summarize this more briefly:

-Noone floats down through an endless dark

-She reaches a musty room with tons of fabrics piled up

-There’s a smell of candy apples and enchanting sad music alongside a machine whirring

-Oh and there’s mannequins without arms because of course there’s mannequins

-THERE IS A RACK PACKED WITH CLOTHES, INCLUDING THE PURPLE SUIT MAN’S CLOTHES

-I don’t recognize the other clothes but maybe they’re from other characters we’ve met

-There’s smaller outfits in a chest

-THERE IS A YELLOW RAINCOAT AND THE COUNSELLOR RECOGNIZES IT

-The Puppet is in here too, pinned down by rusty shears in his torso

-I don’t think he’s just a sentient puppet but it’s not impossible he’s a strange puppet given life (or used to be something that wasn’t a puppet)

-I lied I’m totally giving live reactions

-The Puppet is still alive and grabs Noone with his one remaining arm but she fights back, smashing a bottle into his head

-He stops moving after a bit and the music stops, so she hides in the chest

-There’s a mannequin standing in the doorframe with a dress on

-Her movements are stiff and mechanical, “her hair too shimmery, her lips too wet, and her eyes too glassy”; she’s not fully real or fully fake; she’s definitely made out of a person or outright used to be one

-She’s examining Noone’s killing of the puppet (it might not be dead just unconscious, but a number was already done to it)

-The mannequin lady opens the chest while Noone burrows herself deeper inside

-She describes the mannequin sewing clothes like how the Nowhere is sewing pieces of Noone back together, making her stronger and free

-She’ll be next soon so Noone holds the lid shut tight

Back to real-time stuff! The Counsellor is harmonizing frequencies as Noone reaches the “hypnagogic state” and he’ll be able to join her after that. The chest is opening too soon, which is freaking out the Counsellor.

Noone is now both asleep and awake at the same time. It appears she’s back in the chest while also present in the room. The Counsellor (I keep catching myself from calling him Otto lmao fuck youuu Otto) is pleased by this and wants her to wait. She’s now in a halfway place.

She’s sinking and floating, and there’s the brightest stars above or below her. This series is cosmic horror galore hehe! There’s a door in the distance, and the Counsellor is begging her not to go to the door without him. No matter which direction she turns, the door is there, approaching her. It’s “ancient, the color of twilight, made of knotted wood.” It’s alternatively liquid or both at the same time, and the frame is squirming.

Lastly, there’s no doorknob but there is A FUCKING EYE SHAPE IN THE CENTER! And I believe the door has opened.

Uh oh, the Ferryman is present. The Counsellor is asking questions.

THE FERRYMAN IS SPEAKING.

“A WORLD AS WIDE AS THE DEEP, AND AS NARROW AS THE WELL.”

“SINK, SINK INTO THESE TIDELESS WATERS.”

He’s welcoming Noone over, and now there’s stairs. Noone is enthralled with the beauty of the stars and the pulsing red moon… “no, not a moon, not stars either. They’re all eyes, too. Every size and shape you could imagine… watchful, shimmering, their light dripping into the dark mist.”

Apparently they are peering into Noone and like what they see. She asks the Ferryman to take the Counsellor with them. THE FERRYMAN HAS BEEN SPEAKING TO THE COUNSELLOR THIS WHOLE TIME. HE WANTS HIM AFTER ALL.

He is really hard to understand, but I can make out “BUT TO PLUNGE YOU MUST BE PUSHED.”

The eye in the door is changing, with a blur of faces. The door is drifting away now. The Counsellor is begging for information. The Ferryman appears to agree but the Counsellor has to figure it out for himself.

“SLEEP NOW RUTH (dunno what that means, was she called Ruth before or have I painfully misheard this guy). SLEEP INTO NOWHERE.”

Noone takes his hand.

The Counsellor begs to see his sister again.

Things are changing.

Everything is rushing away.

And then, silence. But wait, Noone is still talking. And she is concerned. The darkness is still here. That’s the secret, apparently. “It hides in this place. My body knew all along.”

And the sound of a door presumably swinging shut occurs.

Sorry for this atrociously long, half-conceived summary.

Noone has vanished and the Counsellor is genuinely broken up it seems, saying “not again.” He’s now questioning how his older sister could have left him behind.

5 minutes left y’all. HE COULD HEAR THE FERRYMAN. There’s a toll the Counsellor must pay to enter. He’s gotta sink lower and lower until he wakes up again, somewhere else.

LMAO he’s considering this a burden on himself. He believes the Ferryman has revealed another means to enter the Nowhere, and his toll will be paid in “bricks of fear.”

There’s another child here now. Ethan’s dreams have led him to the Counsellor. He’s sleepwalking. OH NO. DON’T DO IT. He’s gonna use the kid.

“I think I’ve just found it.”

“And tomorrow, together, we’ll dream, and dream, and dream, until we sleep again anew.”

He’s giving Ethan a sweet too. There’s definitely something in the candy. “Sweets for my sweet.”

And that appears to be it. Goddamn, more answers than questions, yet I’m also content I think? This could only ever end in some fucked up way, and it has.

THOUGHTS:

There’s a cycle here. I think the Counsellor has to pay the toll in children to enter the Nowhere.

The Ferryman does appear to serve the Eyes directly. I love his voice so much. Also, Noone was existing in two places at once, it seems. The dream gradually turned into reality and took her entire body out of her world. Farewell Noone, may you survive your trials in the Nowhere!

And it appears that they’ve explicitly hinted CiCi is Six after all. I think the repercussions of the Counsellor’s desperation are going to have an impact on the upcoming game. ALTERNATIVELY (just saw someone suggest this) she could be the Raincoat Girl from Very Little Nightmares. It’s possible as well that Six once had a yellow rain jacket as well. I’m torn between thinking which one she could be.

EDIT: I’m more convinced that CiCi is the first kid with the raincoat in VLN or that the raincoat has had other owners besides her and Six, given that there’s a portrait in the Maw of someone with the Lady wearing it (or something similar).

He may indeed be the person in the mirror after all! All he has to do is make dark sacrifices to these twisted things, and “a quarter will be granted.”

I’m not sure how but I think it’s implying either that the Counsellor is accelerating or improving the process to send kids to the Nowhere; the process happens more often than we realized; or they’re being directed to him so he can pay his way to the other side. Maybe it’s a combo of the three, or maybe it’s none.

I am certain however that the Counsellor is now in service to the Nowhere. Also there’s no fucking way he’s smart enough to realize he’s being played lmfao! Who knows, maybe they’ll be content to let him in without twisting him apart to see his sister. However, if Six really is his sister then one, I don’t think the Nowhere wants to let her go, and two, she can eviscerate him with her teeth or newfound powers. If it’s Raincoat Girl, uh that’s not gonna have a happy ending no matter what.

I also suspect that CiCi is still a child over there and has been all this time, assuming (gonna say this a lot lol) that she is still alive and/or that she’s Six or Raincoat Girl.

God I am so stoked for the next game.

CONCLUSION:

I love this podcast. I didn’t expect it to turn into an explicitly cosmic horror (perhaps cosmic horror lite) tale full of the consequences of being unable to move on or heal from the past. I’m not gonna blame the Counsellor for still suffering from that, that’s the most natural thing that’s happened in this whole damn story lol. Yet his obsession has cost the safety and possibly the life of at least one child, with more likely to follow.

What a dark, quirky, twisted little story! I actually kind of love the Counsellor as well as hate him! I know friends who will find him insufferable, and I think other friends will find him disturbingly charming. He’s a great character overall. And Noone just blew my expectations away. She’s an awesome character and I hope there’s some hope for her wherever she’s going.

Anyway, this has been very fun to share with all of you who’ve taken the time to read these! I’m not super ingrained into Tumblr but I’ve enjoyed sharing my reactions to this series on here.

Hope there’s some good nuggets of info to take away in this, I hope you enjoy the last episode for yourselves, and I hope y’all have a lovely day or night! Looking forward to where this all goes from here.

See you next time, whenever that may be!

-Fox

[piece-of-hweat]

Little Nightmares Headcanons!!

(May change over time n stuff)

listed from youngest to eldest

RUNAWAY 9y/o

No clue, he/him

Really good at swimming (main reason why I draw him as a fish-person)

Loud, confident idiot (stares at Tommy-Innit)

Hates broccoli.

Lactose intolerant

Hates being wrong/failing

Very much a "act-before-think person"

Break dances epically

Competitive. Very competitive. (especially with Six)

Hates Six's guts

Has a collection of ships in bottles

Either Runaway or Mono are trans... I just want like... supportive brother arc please--

Plays with sticks

Knows one word in French. And it's piscine. He was the one who told Mono about the piscine joke.

Athletic

SIX - 9y/o

Aro/ace, she/it

loves ducks

Will bite (you and your belongings)

Won't scratch (she bites her nails)

Knows how to swim on the surface

Pupils are slightly slitted

Sharp canines

Growls and hisses when she’s really mad, or extremely not in the mood for anything

Had a duck and mouse plush at some point

Will tear Runaway into pieces if she could

There was a head-canon idea where Six has some form of DID, OSDD, UDD, etc. I don't really use this headcanon a lot because I myself don't have DID, so :/

Dark humor

NOONE - 10y/o

She/her

Animal lover <3

Clutches/fiddles with the ends of her clothing when nervous

Looks confused/concerned and scared 24/7

Likes drawing (probably has some animal doodles in her school books)

Listens to Mono's late night singing.

Allergic to nuts (once, at school, a group of students with pbj sandwiches "offered" Noone the sandwiches despite her declining. She was sent to the ER shortly after and was excused from school for the rest of the day and the day afterwards.)

Probably will get along with Six

Ticklish

Reads a lot

Laughs at Six's jokes.

Around the same height as Mono (taller than Raincoat)

Smartest (academically) in the group

LOW - 10-11 y/o

Bird nerd

Always liked reading comic books (especially the super-hero ones)

Percussion my beloved <3

Listens to your problems and gives you decent advice

Took up archery in school

Makes friendship bracelets

*insert epic secret handshake*

Ticklish

Probably makes music with Mono and Raincoat

Apple Juice lover

Plays with sticks

Very strategic

Probably plays chess or smth

Gamer /pos

Athletic

ALONE - 10-11 y/o

She/he

Listens to your problems and gives you… advice. Not good, not bad. Just advice.

Engineering <3 (probably would be really into those lego-machines)

Hits harder than a truck. Be careful, you might've shatter a bone.

Probably was a batter in baseball

Probably will win in a arm-wrestle against Mono.

Hits you lightly when laughing

Allergic to nuts

Apple juice lover

Doesn't talk much

G R E E N

Knows how to handle and discharge a gun properly. Do not ask her how or why she knows this. He simply does.

Person with the most amount of obscure knowledge (more people drown in freshwater than they do in saltwater. fear that creek in the forest behind your house. fear it. It will take your life one day)

Fascinated by wires and Mono's powers

Probably needs glasses

Reads a lot

MONO - 10-11y/o

Bi, He/him

Is British

Plays the violin (but it’s more like a guitar bc it’s big for him and he lost the bow)

Despite being taller than average, he walks around on his tippy toes

Barely knows how to swim (just fails around and barely stay afloat)

Dino-arms

Knows very limited amounts of Japanese and German (knows a couple of words in French, but only really remembers bonjour and piscine)

Punches hit like a truck, but it hurts Mono's hand a lot

Asthma

Very ticklish

stands awkwardly in the corner

Probably makes music with Raincoat and Low

Plays with sticks (uses them to direct magic)

Broken humor

Has negative associations with trains (doesn't like them)

RAINCOAT - 11-12 y/o

No Clue, She/her

Is Sisi

LOVES horses

Wanted to be an actress because MAKE UP, COSTUMES!! ACTING!! SINGING!! AAAAA!!

Good at cooking and baking (stares at my Bakes-Cookies-for-Otto headcanon)

Has some experience with piano and choir, but nothing else really

Bestest big sister ever

Will totally paint your nails while you ramble about something

Really likes playing with hair (another career dream she had was a hair stylist)

Will tease you (/lh)

Really pretty voice <3

Typically the one breaking conflict up

Probably makes music with Mono and Low

Reads bedtime stories to others

Around the same height as Mono (shorter than Noone)

Also, secret funky art post on youtube

[end-orfino]

i'm watching superhorrorbro's new video and while i disagree with some things he's saying, one comment got me thinking again about what happened to Otto and his sister, anyway? We don't know much, but I think we know just enough to throw some loose speculations? It seems like only children who were somehow traumatized/badly treated are able to reach the Nowhere (something superhorrorbro states, but it seemed pretty clear considering everything), that's the first thing. Also, if Otto is still not capable of moving on from Sisi's disappearance YEARS later, having lived the majority of his life without her at this point, then that means that she must have been incredibly important to him, and everything could have possibly gone downhill for him after she disappeared. Another thing to note is that Sisi was the older one of them two.

My personal guess was that Sisi and Otto had a somehow bad living situation when they were kids - maybe their parents were abusive, maybe they were entirely left to fend for themselves, I don't know. I don't think we have enough information to speculate on what exactly it was. What matters here is that this would have possibly lead to Sisi, as the older one, to be Otto's main caretaker - someone who carried most of the weight of their situation on her shoulders, trying to make most of what they had for her little brother. At the same time, Otto wasn't offering the same kind of support to her, although I don't think it was because of malice, but because of him being too young to realize how much she struggled and/or lacking a way to help her. (I'm especially basing it off him saying he was just a boy after Noone claimed that Sisi could have felt relieved to be free from him. I'm guessing he would have realized over the years that Sisi was struggling more than he could have known back when she was still with him.)

Still, this DID lead to Sisi being incredibly important for Otto. She would have been the main person who cared for him, and I doubt that his situation would have gotten better after she vanished. I think this would be able to explain why he gets so obsessed with finding a way to reunite with her as soon as an ocassion shows up. After so many years, he could even have a somewhat twisted, biased view of her as a person, thinking of the time she was with him as the "better times", having some kind of weird nostalgia(?) for it.

TL;DR: I think Sisi and Otto were stuck in some kind of bad living situation (eg. abusive parents, but we don't have enough info to speculate about what it could have been.) This led to Sisi, as the older one of the two, caring for Otto most of the time without having much support from anywhere herself. Because of this, she was hurt enough to eventually vanish to the Nowhere, leaving Otto - who she was incredibly important to as his main caretaker - to fend for himself in whatever situation they were dealing with. This would explain why her disappearance had such an effect on him that even now, as an adult, he is not capable of moving on from it, and grows progressively more obsessed over trying to reunite with her.

[thousandbuns]

Oh yeah baby, it’s time for the unhinged, unscheduled and unstructured Ylthin rambles, today’s topic: loose thoughts on the overall structure of “Horus Rising” (based on my increasingly more faded memories so forgive me for any inaccuracies) and how it contrasts the first few chapters of “Flight of the Eisenstein”.

*cough*

So, in no particular order, and jumping around subjects a bit...

Remembrancers. I know you probably don’t care about them because they’re either annoying, forgettable, blatant writer self-inserts so that Graham McNeill can ogle some fictional women, or have the misfortune of competing for attention with Astartes and Primarchs, but... they are so goddamn important to the story structure, characterization and theming in “Horus Rising”. They are sheltered civilians and bohema-roleplayers fed mountains of propaganda before getting shipped off to create more propaganda about “our brave boys”... and they get reality-checked on multiple levels.

They expect glorious, refined, “peak of humanity” warriors - they get barracks filled with what’s at best scaled-up teenagers, and at worst actively hostile war machines. The Astartes typically dismiss them, avoid them, treat them as a nuisance - which is why someone like Mersadie or Ignace having direct access to Garviel Loken is such a big deal for both sides. They get to talk to a company Captain and Mournival member - and he doesn’t shun them. He’s actually a little sympathetic to them even if he doesn’t quite understand them. That sets him up to be a “good guy” type - an image that is then viciously (and forgive me for using a word so abused it’s lost all meaning) subverted, because...

Whisperheads. The Remembrancers perhaps expect the scattered strands of humanity to kneel before the majesty of the Great Crusade, then rise into a glorious new future - and then they see the reality of ruined cities filled with hostile locals and keeps lined up with mangled bodies. And remember - Luna Wolves don’t particularly revel in violence, they specialize in fast, precise assaults to decapitate the enemy. The action at Whisperheads isn’t a malicious slaughter. It’s an execution, a burst of gruesome yet detached violence, and its aftermath shocks the Remembrancers even before the supernatural gets involved. It has what may be one of my favourite moments in 40K novels - Loken calmly, yet callously dismissing a grievously injured soldier’s pleas for spiritual solace by calling them “superstition”, then mercy-killing him through a decapitation. This is our “hero”. This is a man we’ve seen cheering and fraternizing with his battle-brothers like a middle-school kid. This is a man considered to be a good leader, respected and liked by his men. This is one of the kinder, more mortal-friendly Astartes.

And then there are the others. Abaddon, who can be choleric and brash, but not a blood-addled fool or a sadist, whom we see frolicking with the rest of the Mournival and trying to ease Loken after the Whisperheads - who then gets into a vicious argument with his own Primarch, to the point of driving usually calm and fatherly Horus to throw his wine glass, command him out of the room, threaten demotion and only consider showing mercy if his First Captain comes back groveling and begging for it. All of it over Horus’ refusal to conduct a direct military action against the Interex clashing with Abaddon’s warmongering attitude and disdain for the “deviant” civilization. Torgaddon, the king of witty retorts and master of dad jokes, an “older friend” type to Loken - and yet you don’t see him fraternizing with the Remembrancers. Wish I could say something more about Aximand - but his silence and general withdrawal is also somewhat telling. You see their human side, yet they stay away from mortal humans and keep to their insular little coven of warrior-brothers instead.

“Horus Rising” succeeds at making its Astartes human-yet-dehumanized by having them interact with - or avoid - mortals, and all of it plays into the further themes - the intended nuance and tragedy across the loyalist-traitor divide. The doubt over the veracity of Imperium’s stated goal. The insidious nature of propaganda, the inherently repressive nature of this authoritarian state. The fallen idol of gold we see in 42nd millennium was standing on feet of clay from the very beginning, and the book isn’t subtle about it. Doesn’t have to be - nuance and subtlety aren’t inseparable - and shouldn’t be because the 40K fanbase is full of people like me, who need to be whacked over the head to understand something, and also people who wouldn’t get the memo even if it gave them a wedgie and stole their lunch money, like some of BL’s own writers.

I’ll spare you the extended screaming match over “False Gods” killing all nuance, assassinating half the cast (for now figuratively) and taking a massive step towards an oversimplified “good Imperium vs. evil Chaos” storyline that misses the entire goddamn point and actively makes the whole series less entertaining. I’ll also fast-forward over “Galaxy in Flames” struggling to pick up the pieces as it has to rush forward and cover a major event without having the same amount of time and word count to flesh out some of the key players in it, and deepening or firmly rooting in the problems of the previous two books as a result. We’re now at “Flight of the Eisenstein” scrambling to flesh out Death Guard the way “Horus Rising” fleshed out Luna Wolves.

And I’m just 4 chapters in, about 70 pages out of 280-ish (discounting all the superfluous marketing/publisher crap inflating the pagecount of BL novels). Things could change. I could be wrong and full of shit, and I’ll be the first to admit it if the novel somehow corrects itself on the problems I have with it right now: namely that everything is once again so goddamn flat and simplified.

Remember the nuance with which both halves of the Mournival were written? Fuck that. Grulgor is a brash dick with no redeeming qualities, Garro is a saint of a man and Typhon is Erebus Mini. Remember how the Remembrancers served to highlight that even the kindest Astartes is still a cold, uncaring war machine at the core? Fuck that, so far the only mortal character - Garro’s housecarl - is here to show you that Grulgor is a dick and Garro is a saint. The divide between diminishing ranks of “watered and fed” Terran-borns and Barbaros Legionaries whose ancestors struggled in extreme conditions - and how it feeds into some really toxic mindsets (I’m not apologising for this awful pun) across the Legion - may as well end up being another botched “good-evil” binary, and I saw enough derision towards the “lows” of society (working class deriding the margins, working-ascended-to-middle class looking down at both, big city middle class sneering at them all) to feel afraid.

I’ll give it benefit of a doubt in one area for now - remember how “Horus Rising” focused mostly on conflict against “normal” humans - not insane technobarbarians, not deranged Chaos worshipers, but conventionally acceptable “civilized” worlds, some of which proclaimed themselves to be the Sole Human Empire In The Galaxy (what could Dan Abnett mean by this, I wonder) - and only introduced a planet of “hostile xenos” as a (forgive me for using this cursed word again) subversion to once again remind you with the subtlety of a brick through the window that the Imperium’s policies are horseshit across the board? “Flight...” opens with an assault on the world-ship of distinctly inhuman xenos who go as far as to implant combat augments into their “children”, which has potential to be another stab against the Imperium and Astartes... but unless it gets elaborated upon later, it may as well end up being a footnote in the story, a cool little setpiece to introduce the characters and little more - or worse, be repurposed into yet another pro-Imperial argument without a hint of self-awareness. After all, we’re already setting up an abridged rehash of “Galaxy in Flames” so we’ll have the basis for Garro turning against his Primarch, siding with the Emperor and flying the titular ship to deliver the news of the Heresy.

A story that could easily have the same nuance and message as “Horus Rising”, but that will most likely end up being boring “good guys outsmart the bad guys” drivel.

Wake me up when Heresy remembers what does “no good guys” actually mean again.

[thor-is-trans-and-pan-he-told-me]

I've said this twice but again otto is a fucking bad therapist

you don't fucking experiment on a goddamn patient especially if that patient is a child you don't experiment on your patient at all and use them for your own personal goals you help them THAT IS WHAT YOU DO

like fr how did otto even become a therapist in the first place??

[nickellvart]

2020 → 2024 I cant believe ive had these characters for 4 years!

[columbocorners]

hola! I loved your little nightmares Otto ramble! Like you can tell that the world they live in is already messed up the patients being so separate stuff like that. Giving the adults more sympathy and them also being victims in both tson world and the world of nowhere is just so much nuanced then kids good adults bad! But anyway I’d love to hear your Otto ,noone or any ln hc

you have!

HONESTLY THATS WHY I KEEP GOING ' I just don't see otto as a bad person ' because in spite of every little thing that this man has done it is rooted in the fact he couldn't get over a trauma and he has to live with that daily. to me, there is obviously a lot of characters in the games who've displayed signs that they're not all entirely good, but then moments where none are entirely bad either. mind you I feel like I'm one of the few people who also think about six's betrayal and go ' in her perspective, it was understandable ' because no one ever really thinks about how she saw mono's face, in spite of the fact that her being transformed into a monster was as horrible as it was, she was comfortable and safe for one of the few times in the game beyond the start, it was an imprisonment that she could at least respect, so mono " saving " her from becoming a monster, and then seeing his face and knowing he was ultimately just the thin man all along was really a gut punch of her having her world crashing down, and in general I feel like to some degree a lot of the people who become monsters within the realm of TSON / LN really become DIFFERENT people, they always have, so not only was six vengeful but, she wasn't entirely herself after that. you could chalk up the monsters like the teacher as being potentially at one point normal, because she still engages with a lot of the habits a teacher does but then it's like, is she? because she still is very aggressive, in ways a teacher shouldn't be, she morphs, all of that, and it's just odd. this world not only brings about nightmares but it twists people the longer they stay there and it has always been the adults in some means but it just as much the children, because to put it bluntly : all of them have the capacity to become worse people, within any time of their lives.

it's just those who haven't are likely the most lucky ones, and to me otto is probably the BEST person we could ever get who genuinely is just good who isn't a child, and I feel like people need to understand, he is so shitty, but he is nuanced in what he does. his comfort to noone is as much projecting as it is he genuinely cares for her and he can't help but project in my eyes because he sees' someone experiencing that all and just does not want to go through it again. noone and otto are kind of trauma bonded like that to me. but otto goes so far, he mixes his own desires of wanting things for himself between wanting to help noone and it shows. going, " he is your tormentor " in ways whereas noone is and isn't tormented. she is not afraid of the ferryman / the candleman. otto is, he always has been, and he just merges that idea into one. all of his actions are attempts to try and do better, and honestly like : one of the things I genuinely always thought of as like ' otto just wants to try and do better ' is the fact he did not tell noone about her tumor. yes, she did need to know but after all was said and done, they'd been arguing and he had no real way to bring it up and he still wanted to find out what was going on with the nightmares, with cece, so how could he? and also it's like, that is something that ultimately needed to be looked into because it was a spiral-like eye tumor in her BRAIN, like dude. yeah, I do think that's cause for concern, and he doesn't have this sort of ' oh I win ' attitude when she finds out, he's as cold as he is really upset to me. and it's why after all is said and done, he tried to at least still do an experiment while she was asleep at least to figure out for himself what was going on and honestly idea because I think of it : the flesh eyes from little nightmares 2 which are connected to the thin man, I feel like they're infecting noone's brain because it is so SPECIFIC to have noone getting a tumor as a result of the constant nightmares like the flesh is literally taking over her body from the inside the more she has them and doesn't allow the ferryman to take her. so, it's like, I feel like something will happen to otto but I feel like something WAY WORSE is going to happen to noone. because it kind of adds up especially with the way otto had an interaction with an eye on that monitor and freaking out the way he did and the thin man's soundtrack song lightly playing in the background of that.

part two of this because I wrote a lot

[octoberobserver]

The Comforting Detective - Sherlock & Co. Fic

(Read on ao3 here)

“No! No, plea—help! Please! Somebody hel—”

“...tson. Watson! JOHN!”

John shot up, his eyes bursting open, his whole world tilting on its axis.

A strong hand gripped his shoulder, stopping him from toppling off the…?

“Why’m’I on the couch?” he mumbled, his vision swimming as the chaotic sounds of gunfire and screaming still echoed in his ears.

“Because we fell asleep on it after getting back from the pub,” Sherlock replied, tone tired and still a little tipsy. “Your shoulder makes a surprisingly comfortable, sentient pillow, Watson.”

“Hm. Thanks,” he grumbled, running a hand through his hair as he felt Sherlock shift against him. “You wanna sit up, mate? This couch can’t be good for your back. I know mine is bloody killing me.”

“Can’t. Trapped.”

John frowned, turning around to gape down at him.

“What do you mean you’re—o-oh my God.”

A snort of laughter escaped him as his bleary eyes fell on Archie, who was sprawled right across Sherlock’s midriff, fast asleep and snoring loudly.

“Looks like you make a pretty good sentient pillow yourself, Sherlock,” he teased, groggily digging around in his pocket for his phone.

“Don’t you dare.”

“What?”

“Don’t you dare take a picture, Watson. I can see, even in my post-inebriated state, those cogs turning in that little brain of yours.”

“My brain isn’t little.”

“No, it’s perfectly average-sized for an adult male,” Sherlock waved his free hand, the other holding Archie in place. “But I can still see you scheming. Stop it.”

John half-heartedly dropped his phone back into his pocket, grumbling, “Fine. Spoilsport,” but firmly snapping a mental image of his flatmate and dog cuddling for him to chuckle at later.

The soft ‘tick tock’ of the clock on the mantelpiece, with the accompaniment of Archie’s not-so-soft snores, was all that sounded throughout the room for several beats. Until…

“Do you want to talk about it?”

The tears currently drying on John’s cheeks were enough for both of them to know what Sherlock was referring to.

He cleared his throat, trying (and probably failing) to subtly wipe at the corner of his right eye.

“Not really.”

“Okay,” he felt Sherlock shift again, the back of his forearm resting against John’s knee. “The offer to hold my hand still stands, though.”

He looked down at the narrow palm and long, bony fingers pressing against his jeans, and a familiar (if a little confusing) ache rose within him.

“Thank you,” he replied, his breath a touch uneven as he let his hand fall down on top of his.

Slowly and slightly awkwardly, Sherlock’s fingers closed around his and squeezed gently.

“Hm,” he murmured. “One more thing, Watson. Your equipment was still recording when we got back to the flat. So you may want to go in and edit out all of our…drunken ramblings and…everything that followed. Not sure the listeners would find that very enthralling.”

John thought the listeners would find that a lot more than very enthralling if the constant tweets, posts and emails speculating about the progression of their relationship were anything to go by. But he smartly kept that to himself.

“You’re a good friend, Sherlock,” he smiled softly, squeezing his hand back and feeling his once hammering heart beginning to slow.

He had said the ‘F’ word again. The good one. It wasn’t the first time he had referred to him as more than just his flatmate, but he could tell the detective was still surprised nonetheless.

“You too…John.”

With their hands clasped together (something John couldn’t find in him to be self-conscious about), another quiet enveloped them, even more comfortable than the last, until Archie let out a particularly loud snore that had them both chuckling. Sherlock’s entire body shook with it, despite his efforts not to rouse the dog.

“I wonder what dogs dream about,” John managed to ponder through his laughs, a fond warmth flowing through him. “Chasing squirrels or pissing against lamposts, probably. Not warzones or other traumatic things, I hope.”

Sherlock made a humming noise, his thumb brushing John’s pinky finger.

“Experts wager that they do have their own version of nightmares,” he mumbled, his face angled towards Archie, no doubt analysing him. “Fear of abandonment, a time when they fought with another dog, being caught in a thunderstorm, those sorts of things.”

John let that sink in, his index finger resting on Sherlock’s knuckle.

“And what do these experts say help rid our dogs of bad dreams?”

“Comfort from their loved one,” Sherlock answered easily, his tone laced with something John couldn’t decipher as he watched him begin to pet Archie’s head. “A good cuddle should have them back to dreaming about squirrels and lamposts in no time. Apparently. If the studies hold any water.”

“Huh,” John said almost to himself, remembering with vivid clarity the hugging machine and was troubled not for the first time at the thought that that was all he had had for comfort until John and Mariana came along. “So they need comfort, then. Hugs and cuddles and holding hands. Like people.”

“Yeah, like some people. However, they do lack opposable thumbs, Watson. So, ‘holding hands’ is—”

“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Smarty Pants, you know what I mean,” he cut across him, grinning and rolling his eyes simultaneously, something which he did with startling frequency since meeting Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective.

His heart rate was finally back to normal.

“You know what else works wonders for comfort?” he asked, feeling much more himself again as his eyes landed on the clock.

7:04 am.

“What’s that, Doctor?”

“Good food,” he squeezed his hand one last time before gently extracting himself and standing up, calling over his shoulder, “Archie! Breakfast!”

Predictably, the dog shot awake, jumping down from Sherlock’s stomach with force.

“Oof! Ar…chie!” he scolded, winded from the blow. “B-Bloody dog!”

Another laugh escaped John as he made his way into the kitchen, untangling his recording equipment as he went, noticing the flashing low-battery light on his microphone and finally switching it off.

It was just a quiet, hungover breakfast with his friend and his dog. The listeners could wait.

Some things were just for them.

[fluffyblue-multifandommess]

you ever see a gif from a show you used to watch, with a character you loved deeply, and maybe it’s even of a scene that made you emotional, but since then you’ve developped a strong dislike for that show and you’re just like. I Am Having Feelings. And I Do Not Know What They Are. Or What To Do With Them.

[piece-of-hweat]

Little Nightmares... but flowers?

Okay so there's this thing in OMORI where each main character has a flower that correlates to their personality. Kel being a cactus because he's resilient, Hero being a rose because he's universally loved, etc.

Now what if we were to assign flowers to each Nightmare Kid?

Like Noone, Low, Mono, Six, Cici, Raincoat, etc.

I've left a whole essay on this topic below, so you can look at that if you really want to--

NONETHELESS! I really wanna hear yall's thoughts on this- Feel free to reply your own ideas!

-------

Ideas/flowers I assigned are listed below:

I think Mono would be a crocus or a forget-me-not. They're both colours I think he'd like, and I've always imagined Mono to be a winter-birthday kid. Crocus are flowers that bloom in late winter, and I suppose that also represents resilience in a way??? Not many flowers bloom in the winter because of the cold. As for forget-me-nots... I think it's easy to explain? Forget-me-nots usually symbolize faithfulness and remembrance, and Mono just... radiates that stuff.

Six would either be a poppy, dandelion, or a bleeding hearts flower. Poppy because they actually have two meanings! In western culture, it represents death, because of its blood-red colour, while in eastern culture, they represent success or passion, if I remember correctly. Dandelion is... self-explanatory? It's yellow, like Six's raincoat, and it's a weed- just like Six- (/hj /hj) Bleeding hearts is also self-explanatory. It's literally a flower that looks like a bleeding heart. Plus they're cool, and I think Six would think so as well. I rest my case.

Noone is probably the easiest? I mean... she did have a flower in the podcast so my homework's already done for me. I think Noone would be a chrysanthemum or a poppy. Poppy for the same reason as Six, it means death and success Chrysanthemum because it's the flower that her parents left her before she was taken under Otto's "care"

Raincoat would probably be a hibiscus or a carnation. Raincoat was a pretty short-lived character, just like how hibiscus have a short life-span. They also mean "gentle" or something of the sort. Since Raincoat radiates gentle older-sister-energy, I'm giving this to her. Red carnations are a symbol of love (both romantic and platonic), protection, and passion. Raincoat feels like a very loving character, and a passionate one at that. She feels like she'd do anything in her power to protect anyone she loves. She just... feels like a carnation.

I don't have much to say about Runaway, but he feels like a periwinkle person. Reason 1, it means hope (apparently), and Runaway seems to have a lot of ties to "hope"? I'm not sure where or how we got there, but... nonetheless it's still there. Reason 2, it's blue. That's it. It's blue, just like Runaway. I would say the typical "water lily" or "lotus", because Runaway has a lot of connections to water... but... That's basic. Plus, lotus and lilies mean like... "purity" and "calmness" and all that jazz, and the Runaway in my head is the pure and utter opposite to "calm" and "virtuous". The only lily-flower I'd refer him to would be pink or yellow water lilies. Pink because they apparently mean friendship and joy, yellow because they mean energy and new beginnings.

Low and Alone are their own can of worms that I can't even open. We know next to nothing about these two, so how am I supposed to assign a flower based on their characteristics if I have no characteristics to work with? The only thing I can offer atm is Alone being a tiger lily and Low being a Birds of Paradise flower. Tiger lily because they remind me of Alone's silly goofy hair. And Birds of Paradise because... um... bird-boy.

[curiouswraith]

i keep wondering how everyone has like, 1,300+ kills and 70+ wins with Loba when she just came out this season, but then i realised that i have more than 1,500 kills and almost 90 wins as Wraith this season...

[readymades2002]

like...i DONT trust lefttubers fhkdsj ill listen to their shit bc its long and its white noise but like i do not trust any of them 

[thor-is-trans-and-pan-he-told-me]

on episode 4 of the sounds of nightmares and yeah otto is not a good therapist

if your patient has to point out that that you're supposed to help them and you're doing the complete opposite of that by causing them emotional distress to the point that they have a near panic attack than you're fucking doing something wrong and otto is fucking doing something surprised

[neonkoii]

i finally washed my goddamn knee pads and i put them outside to dry bcuz i have a game tomorrow morning AND IT STARTED FUCKING RAINING. when is it my turn to win