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majormeilani · 10 months

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mei........im gonna do it....for the ask game......

Mr. DJ. Grooves!!! >:3

every question! (Or at least every question you feel like answering! you don't actually have to answer every question, it is up to you. I am just a chaotic bean)

And for the question that's a freebie: would you take mr grooves to waffle house? and if so....waht does he order.... :] 💖

omg catt okai. (meme)

Why do you like or dislike this character? i like grooves because he has a lot of complexity to his character. i like that he's not JUST outwardly nice and has selfish qualities to him. it's just very interesting to talk about and explore. though i also love that he's completely earnest in his behavior too.

Favorite canon thing about this character? i think it's probably how he was voice acted that REALLY makes me like his character and find it to be effective. his VA has a lot of range and portrays his character very well.

Least favorite canon thing about this character? i always agonize about this but i wish he got more of a role in the game beyond his chapter. especially because if you choose conductor as the winner, grooves' character is basically forgotten from there on out. i just wish he at least had more of a presence in the finale of the game, seeing as all the other characters get something to say but he didn't. (except cut dialogue lines that DON'T count at all :////) also more grooves merch please gfb.

If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in? an animated series for a hat in time would be so cool i think and if we could have little animations related to each character that'd be so awesome.

What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them? one of the songs i relate to grooves is 'two evils' by bastille and 'rhythm of the night' by corona. two evils i feel describes grooves and conductor's relationship very well and rhythm of the night is another one that i feel suits him on vibe (tho i also like to relate the bastille cover as well, if on the basis that that ver implies enduring the same thing every day after day and the whole thing driving someone a bit mad)

What's something you have in common with this character? we both love music, musicals and love to dance!

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like? i absolutely love when people explore his character and also make content of him being close to the kids. i love grandpa grooves content with my whole heart. i also like when people create content that explores his feelings on everything that has happened to him.

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? treats him as less important or interesting than conductor and also when people's only perception of his character is when all people have to say about him is just "he's gay." like it's fine of course to explore his sexuality when exploring his character but i just don't like when that's ALL people have to say about him. and him being an afterthought to every other character. 😔

Could you be roommates with this character? as much as i love him, probably not. i just feel like he might be too loud at times or a bit overbearing and that might be a bit off-putting. i can admire him from a distance tho.

Could you be best friends with this character? in my mind i already am lol.

Would you date this character? i joke about it and like to act silly about it but probably not lol. unless we're like qpr's then maybe.

What's a headcanon you have for this character? i have shared many headcanon's but probably my favorite one is him having moments where him and conductor just randomly get along and all seems to go well between them before going back to normal. i jsut think it's amusing.

What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot? 😎🥺 because it reminds me of that meme where it's a text convo like 'i don't miss you 😎' then another text 'take off ur sunglasses' and then a message with '🥺' it's just funny to me. also grooves canonically has tiny beady eyes to it's suiting to me. tho i also see him to be the type to always send smilies with his messages and spam heart emojis.

Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character. i don't really know how to describe his style but i call it like 'disco-punk' not sure if that's what it's called and maybe someone more aquainted with fashion could tell me better but that's always how i've kinda seen it. also glam rock a little bit it think?

What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.) i don't really have a favorite ship for him but i think discotrain is okay. i used to like it more in the past but now i'm just kinda alright with it ig? like i don't hate it but it's a cute pairing and everything.

What's your least favorite ship for this character? i don't really understand the appeal in snatcher x grooves and maybe someone can enlighten me on that but i just don't see it. no hate to ppl who like it though it's just not for me.

What's a ship for this character you don't hate but it's not your favorite that you're fine with? there isn't really many grooves ships to be honest? so i can't really say much on that. once i saw like. walrus captain and him and that could be cute ig???? but i don't know how it would work exactly and i'm not really invested in it.

How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire? i love love love love how he cares about his moon penguins it warms my heart so much. they care about each other sm. i also adore his relationship with the kids it's just super sweet!!!!

How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like? can't really say since he doesn't really interact with many of the characters beyond his chapter.....

Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter? DEFINITELY EMPRESS AND I WILL DIE ON THAT HILL. also i can see him and cooking cat being VERY close :]

If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like? i like to describe his actions in a certain flared and outwardly perfect way while him being extremely flawed. i also like exploring his thoughts and feelings on things. what i don't like is trying to come up with things he would say sometimes as sometimes i feel like i don't know exactly how he'd express them. technical stuff related to his job is also hard for me too but i try my best lmao.

If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like? i kinda mentioned it before but things that go in-depth with his character are my favorite. something i don't like is him not being given the same complexity as other characters (which is a common issue) and exclusively to discotrain stuff is when people just treat him like an accessory to conductor and never explore him beyond surface level. i haven't read much fic but i always seen this as a problem.

What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them? uhhhhh i can't really say atm? grooves is rather unique to me so it's hard for me to compare him to other characters. at least in the fandoms i'm a part of there's no characters i could really compare him to? i have seen others draw parallels to him and other characters but most the time it's characters i'm unfamiliar with.

What was your first impression of this character? How about now? to be honest, when i was playing hattytime for the first time, i didn't think all that much of him. originally i did kinda prefer conductor but not in a like 'he's better' way but more like conductor's personality is really strong and stood out more initially.

having conversations with people and seeing a lot of fan content about grooves made me realize that FUCK he's a really good character and then i started looking at canon content with a whole new light and suddenly my favorite character was dj grooves.

Favorite picture of this character?

this concept art i love it a lot!!!

FREEBIE QUESTION: would you take mr grooves to waffle house? and if so....waht does he order.... :] 💖 yeas i would.... though i haven't been there in a while so i'm not super familiar with the menu, it think he'd get a couple waffles with some syrup and whipped cream and maybe a hashbrowns bowl and some bacon. maybe some eggs too.... whatever his little heart desires LOL.

#🎩⏳#dj grooves #answered asks #catt-crossing #THANK YOU CATT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#i had to move the image question and remove the numbers because tumblr was being stupid #it wasn't letting me add an image and it was saying there was a character limit #which like. i know isn't true because i've uploaded 10k+ fic on here in the past just fine LMAOOOOO

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ntshastark · 1 year

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MAWS liveblog: part 5 (1x07)

Episode 7

happiest day of his life, hands down

yeah

ugh this is making me think of their first meeting in smallville, which was also in a cornfield

man i miss smallville, really need to finish watching it

THEY'RE DANCING WHILE FLOATING THIS IS TOO CUTE I LOVE THEM SO MUCH 😭😭😭😭

this screenshot looks weird out of context tho

and people say superman isn't relatable. i, too, am insane about lois lane

i love him so much

HEY THAT TALKING GORILLA IS MY NEW BEST FRIEND

soulmates

oh my god

(he looks like a dbz character and his voice is so much deeper than you'd think???)

aaaaaaaaaaaa

there's a tumblr and/or elizabeth ii joke in here somewhere

oh man, speaking of deep voices

it only lasted for that single phrase though, rip

LOOKS LIKE I HAVE A NEW FAVOURITE SUPERHERO TEAM

this episode probably would've been so much better if i wasn't a hack and a fraud and had already watched the other superman animated stuff

HELL YEAH

ah yes, time to play the time-honoured game of watching comic book adaptations: easter egg or chekov's gunn?

NOT COMET THE BESTIALITY FIEND

sorry, i appreciate the effort with the arm, the scars and the fashion sense, but being from an evil!superman reality automatically makes you lame ://

listen, when i said i wanted more of lois being mean to clark this is absolutely not what i meant

hey guys i just had a really cool idea for the fortress of solitude, i'm sure clark's gonna love it

Her Ass Is Not Sleeping

genuinely, why does the fact that there's some evil clarks out there in the multiverse matter???? there's literally infinite earths, everything is possible, there's evil versions of everyone

yeah

#power went off yesterday so i couldn't watch ep 7 🤡#i was gonna put it all in the same post anyway but tumblr's stupid new image limit cut me 3min into the 2nd ep #this is so stupid i used to be able to liveblog like 8 episodes in the same post with the old editor #they should at least make the limit 50. 30 is a dumb number #f: dc #g: dc animations #s: maws #mari liveblogs

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starcurtain · 9 days

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A Look at Ratio and Aventurine... and Ratio/Aventurine

I was morally obligated to use this picture.

Anyway, I got an ask about my understanding of Ratio and Aventurine's relationship both in canon and as a ship that I have been holding on to for a while now because... phew, there's like... a lot to talk about there... But I felt I should at least give it a try, so here is my attempt to comment on the intersection of two of Star Rail's most complicated personalities. Long post is longgggg; you have been warned.

First, Aventurine's canon relationship to Ratio:

In the interest of not hitting tumblr's image limit, let's just throw out some of the information we have in one go:

It's pretty complimentary. (Yet somehow...)

The implication of the infamous "Keeping Up with Star Rail" video is that Ratio understands Aventurine better than anyone else, and Aventurine knows this. At the very least, putting all shipping aside, Ratio is the person who can explain Aventurine's behaviors best. He's the person Aventurine chooses do so. This suggests significantly more knowledge of each other's lives than the game first led us to believe.

Other people (read as: my GOAT Owlbert) perceive respect from Aventurine to Ratio, and although I read them as a bit sarcastic, the 2.1 mission logs not only repeatedly confirm that Aventurine views Ratio as smart and reliable, but that Ratio is reliable "as always," again indicating a longer and closer history of collaboration than we get to actively see in game. The devs were working hard to tell us "Penacony isn't Ratiorine's first rodeo," which is interesting--given Topaz's voiceline recommending the Trailblazer avoid working with Aventurine whenever possible, we're led to believe through 2.0 and 2.1 that not many people will willingly work with Aventurine more than once, let alone many times.

While going through psychological scrutiny from the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come his Harmony-infused self, the "Future" Aventurine suggests that Ratio and Aventurine are quite similar, and that Aventurine puts a surprising amount of trust in Ratio, to be willing to hinge such a dangerous plan on something as untested as Ratio's ability to act. At the very least, Aventurine's own psyche is pondering on Ratio and whether or not their connection has any emotional meaning.

But despite all this evidence suggesting Ratio and Aventurine spend significantly more time with each other than we get to see in game, Aventurine's own thoughts cast strong doubt on whether he and Ratio are actually close.

Aventurine's "About Dr. Ratio" voice line suggests that Aventurine believes Ratio does not particularly like him. He seems to think that Ratio would prefer to stay away from IPC operations where possible, and it's "unfortunate" for Ratio to be stuck with Aventurine as a conversation partner. He's tolerated, rather than enjoyed. His overall impression seems to be that Ratio mostly views them as distant coworkers.

When the "Future" Aventurine suggests Ratio did not betray Aventurine willingly, actual Aventurine immediately pushes back:

(Personally I'm on the fence about whether this was real doubt or just a ploy to continue sussing out Sunday; see my other post about this scene for some more thoughts.)

But if we take this statement to be played straight, it implies that Aventurine doesn't fully believe Ratio will side with him, even (maybe especially) in dire circumstances. If this statement is real doubt, then despite considering Ratio the person who best understands him, despite building an entire life or death gamble around Ratio's loyalty... Aventurine still doesn't think Ratio even likes him.

Aventurine's not stupid or blind, so theoretically he should be able to read the situation better than that. But actually, there's plenty of evidence both in the game and outside it to suggest that Aventurine is not the most accurate judge of his own relationships to others and is a down-right terrible judge of his own worth as a person.

"Future" Aventurine suggests that one of Aventurine's deep inner flaws--the truths that he rejects about himself--is a massive inferiority complex. This is backed up well by the mission text, where Aventurine's thoughts about himself spiral into self-harm, and the scene in the maze, where "Future" Aventurine taunts our Aventurine with the unforgettable fact that his entire life was only worth pennies:

There's also pretty consistent self-deprecation, with both "Future" and real Aventurine noting several times that he's a pathetic mess of a person that other people don't trust or like.

The overall impression 2.0-2.1 left me with is that Aventurine is perfectly capable of respecting and caring for others, but virtually incapable of accepting other people genuinely respecting and caring for him.

Part of this seems to stem from the directly-stated sense that he's a failure whose only worth is in transactional exchanges, using and being used by others (there's so many layers to this--internalized racism even), but I also suspect that much of his inability to accept genuine connection from others is defensive behavior.

Aventurine's true self, Kakavasha, is deeply hidden away, like the ghost of the child that manifests from his Harmony delusion in the Dreamscape. Although Aventurine clings to that person, claiming that he has "never changed," he actively coats over his beliefs, his kindness, and his authenticity with the mask of a "cavalier gambler," with glitz and glamor and showy distractions. No one gets to see Kakavasha. No one gets to know him, because being buried deep in the dirt is the only way to remain untouchable, and fiercely keeping one's distance is the only safe bet. (For both Kakavasha and any fools who would doom themselves by daring to care for him.)

So: Canon is telling us that Ratio is one of, if not the, closest people in the world to Aventurine. But canon is also telling us that that still means absolutely nothing at all, because Aventurine won't let himself be close to anyone living.

Aventurine's senses of self-worth, trust, attachment, and safety have been warped so badly by ongoing and untreated trauma and mental health issues that, at least until the end of 2.1, I just don't think he was capable of even accepting genuine friendship from Ratio, let alone anything more.

(Interesting side note here: Ratio is actually one of the people Aventurine calls "my friend" the least. He only says it directly to Ratio a single time in all of their lines of dialogue across 2.0 and 2.1, and even then, does so only when right outside Sunday's door, while almost certainly being spied upon by the Family. Anyone who knows how often "my friend" is peppered into Aventurine's dialogue otherwise should know that the absence of the phrase is actually pretty telling. It almost feels like canon Aventurine's not even sure he can call Ratio his friend, at least to Ratio's face.)

Which makes Ratio's canon relationship to Aventurine quite sad and ironic:

From start to finish, Ratio canonically esteems Aventurine more highly than almost any other character in the game. I'm not even talking about shipping when I say that there is no character Ratio is closer to in the entire game.

At present, Ratio has only four voice lines about other characters, and of those four, Aventurine's is the only one that isn't someone from the Genius Society. The only one. Ratio's voice lines are also notably, uh, not very complimentary. Herta is "talented but not helpful to others" and "sees no one as her equal" (read as: she's self-absorbed). Screwllum is a "monarch, rather than a genius" (with the vague implications of being a tyrant), and Ruan Mei is overly ambitious and "fooling everyone."

Meanwhile, Aventurine is "our man" (who is "our" Ratio? who?) whose success "can't all be chalked up to luck," implying that part of Aventurine's success must come from skill. Ratio notes that Aventurine questions his own ability... but as far as Ratio's evaluation goes, he seems to doubt that Aventurine will ever experience a downfall. For someone who thinks 99% of the people he meets are mediocre failures scrambling around in the filth of existence, to be recognized as skilled and unlikely to fail is quite obviously glowing praise.

Then, of course, there are numerous moments that echo Aventurine's hints, implying that Ratio spends significantly more time with Aventurine than we see on-screen, that he knows Aventurine extremely well, and, although he tries (vainly) to pretend he isn't, he's clearly quite concerned with what Aventurine thinks of him.

Especially this last one. "No wonder that gambler likes you so much" is pretty intentional on the devs' part, confirming that Ratio and Aventurine are having off-screen conversations we players are not privy to, which obviously would indicate a closer relationship than the in-game cutscenes could cover.

Then, Trailblazer has the option to flat out ask Ratio to "rate" Aventurine. (Star Rail ship bait is not even subtle.)

At first, this line might read as all over the place:

"The bosses say we're partners but I wouldn't say that" -> Read as: Ratio wants people to know how their relationship is classified but doesn't want to admit to being actually invested.

"I see myself as the teacher to everyone I meet" -> Read as: Ratio at least pretends that he doesn't view anyone as his equal; everyone is either above him--geniuses--or below him--students.

"Aventurine is not that bad of a student" -> High praise; even Ratio can't pretend Aventurine's untalented.

"Actually, Aventurine's probably in metaphysical danger" -> Read as: Ratio is aware of the "void" Aventurine is experiencing and his mental struggles.

The ultimate takeaway of Ratio's "rating" actually says more about Ratio than Aventurine. When it comes down to it, Ratio's choice to answer this question for the Trailblazer instead of dismiss it tells us that Ratio has spent time quantifying and trying to define his relationship with Aventurine, is willing to at least discuss that relationship with other people (when we have no evidence he ever discusses any other personal/non-academic matters with anyone), and that Ratio pays attention to Aventurine's mental states.

Canon Ratio is not beating the allegations, I'm afraid.

But actually, I think the biggest tell about Ratio's canon relationship to Aventurine is that Ratio's behavior completely changes the moment Aventurine appears in the game.

In every single one of Ratio's other appearances, two facts are hammered home again and again:

First, Ratio hates interacting with fools and "noisy" people. He wears his plaster bust so that he doesn't even have to see them. Canonically, we're informed by both March 7th and Argenti that Ratio brought and was wearing his headpiece in Penacony. Curiously though...

The players never see it throughout 2.X--probably because 90% of Ratio's scenes are with Aventurine, and Ratio is never shown wearing his bust on screen with Aventurine--even in their very first meeting in the Final Victor lightcone. Aventurine clearly knows of the bust, but despite Ratio verbally going on and on about how Aventurine is the most "flashy" and "devoid of logic" person Ratio knows... the devs deliberately send their message: Ratio has chosen not to cut himself off from Aventurine.

Aventurine can be more "clamorous" than a screaming peacock, but Ratio will still not put up walls against him. This isn't accidental. The devs had every opportunity in the world to go the opposite route and make jokes about Ratio refusing to take the bust off in Aventurine's obnoxious presence; instead they decided that Ratio apparently has a glaring, Aventurine-shaped exception to his "I don't want to perceive you fools or be perceived by you" life rule.

This "willing to tolerate shenanigans only if Aventurine is involved" behavior continues basically throughout all of Penacony's plot. In 2.3 for example, if you turn around and talk to Ratio again on the Radiant Feldspar, he flat out says:

But there's no actual explanation for why he's there in the first place. He mentions he was assigned to watch over "the IPC's ambassadors," which theoretically should apply to Jade and Topaz, yet we never see him interacting with them in any capacity. He's never even shown in the same room as Jade or Topaz, and he's not shown doing any other form of business for the IPC on the Feldspar either. Theoretically, he could have been on the Feldspar to meet regarding the Divergent Universe... except Screwllum wasn't there yet, and Ratio doesn't mention a single word about the Divergent Universe to the Trailblazer.

The only person Ratio talks about in his dialogue on the Feldspar is Aventurine, and the only non-Trailblazer he talks to in 2.3 at all is also Aventurine, replying to him and only him in the group chat.

He looked like he might give it a shot to try to befriend Boothill and Argenti at the end of 2.3... but immediately changes his mind and leaves without saying a word to them.

It's not really a stretch to suggest that the only reasonable excuse for Ratio to attend the party on the Feldspar was if he was there for Aventurine, a behavior that he himself notes is out of character. ("A waste of time" he says, as he stands there anyway.)

But, second and even more importantly: Ratio's single most defining character trait is that he believes people need to pick themselves up. The entire point of his debut appearance in the game was to present his philosophy that if the powerful or privileged intervene to continually "save" the mediocre, ordinary people will never learn for themselves or get the chance to grow. It is in times of desperation, he says, that fools exceed their limits and reach greatness.

This is why, in 1.6, he insisted on Asta and the Trailblazer being the ones to solve the attacks happening on the space station, without relying on Screwllum or the other geniuses. Although Ratio did actively intervene a little (using the phase flame to save the researchers from death), he did so only from behind the scenes, where his actual help would not be noticed by those affected and where it had no impact on their decision-making or their struggles to solve the mystery.

He let Asta and the Trailblazer panic. He let them flounder. He even deliberately misled them at points, claiming that Duke Inferno must have kidnapped the researchers (when it was actually Ratio himself who re-routed them).

Ultimately, Ratio let Asta and the Trailblazer grow from their experiences.

This is also why he lets the Trailblazer go blazing in to fight Ruan Mei's faux emanator of the propagation, despite knowing that Trailblazer was not actually strong enough to win. Ratio watched and was ready to intervene... but in the end he did not, because it was the Trailblazer's fight to lose.

Ratio's most defining character trait is that he believes standing back and observing is the true kindness, rather than inserting oneself and denying people their autonomy or opportunities to grow.

Buttttt... then there's Aventurine, and suddenly the story is completely different.

Suddenly, Ratio isn't an observer but becomes essential to the plan. He's even walking around making big claims about being the manager of the task, flexing all of his C+ acting ability to actively carry out their mutual ploy.

In 2.3, he claims he was just there to watch, and his Penacony sticker asserts he's only "a supporting character"--yet we have never seen Ratio take a more active role in the entire game. Unlike with the Trailblazer in 1.6, he's not primarily watching events unfold from shadowy corners. He's in Penacony as Aventurine's active partner in crime.

And, even more telling--he later jeopardizes their entire mission just to ask if Aventurine needs help.

What? Huh? The character who is famous for the voice line "You look distressed. Is something troubling you? If so, you can figure it out for yourself" is suddenly offering his assistance entirely unprompted?

The guy whose motto might as well be:

Is suddenly out here throwing his own core philosophy out the window to solve Penacony's mystery for Aventurine and save him from himself in Aventurine's hour of greatest need?

A lot of people get hung up on the second half of Ratio's letter, the part about staying alive, which of course is very sweet. But I think the second half causes people to forget that the first part of Ratio's letter is, quite literally, the answer to Penacony's mystery.

Ratio gave Aventurine the answer.

This is like if your professor just gave you and you alone the score key to the final exam and then turned around to insist he "doesn't play favorites."

Of course, Aventurine is brilliant and didn't need Ratio's answer about dormancy, which makes the fact that Ratio went out of the way to give it to him even more odd. Ratio despises unnecessary repetition. If he wasn't dead worried, he would never have given Aventurine an answer that Aventurine had the power to find on his own.

And, as far as canon tells us, Ratio has never done this for anyone else.

The difference is night and day. It's literally the Gordon Ramsay meme, with everyone else in the entire game being the "fucking donkeys" to Aventurine's "Oh dear. Gorgeous."

So: Even if we entirely put aside shipping, if we look strictly at what we're given in canon:

Ratio treats Aventurine with more respect than he treats most other characters in the game.

He involves himself in Aventurine's struggles in a way that he flat out refuses to do for anyone else.

He compromises his own beliefs purely out of concern for Aventurine.

So, at least as far as we've been shown in canon, it is accurate to state that Aventurine is the closest character to Ratio--and unlike Aventurine (king of self-gaslighting), Ratio isn't even good at acting like he doesn't care.

Frankly, the whole thing is a little sad. Ratio's behavior is so blatantly out of character that a smart person like Aventurine should easily be able to determine it is genuine, but Aventurine's personal hang-ups and ongoing trauma make it difficult for him to even see that authenticity, let alone put faith in it. Even in canon, Ratio is mostly unable to help himself when it comes to Aventurine, which is especially unfortunate given how badly skewed Aventurine's perception of himself and others is by the start of Penacony's story.

PHEW! I finally made it through canon content!

Now there's just... everything else... 🫠

Well, to be honest, I don't think I could ever manage to put all my thoughts about this ship into one post. Probably not even fifty posts.

So rather than trying to say everything there is to say about Ratiorine, what I want to focus on is how fantastically these two characters just fit together. Like puzzle pieces that need to be mirror opposites in order to link, these two characters parallel each other while also perfectly filling in each other's voids. It's some of the best character pair writing I've seen in a long time (though I'm still sort of convinced it was at least 50% sheer luck on Hoyo's part), and my perspective on their ship can really be tied to my underlying perception of Ratio and Aventurine's characters as remarkably similar individuals:

It's obvious that Aventurine is not a healthy or well-adjusted adult man, but like... neither is Ratio.

Both of these characters are "not quite right" marginalized people who, at least in my interpretation, have essentially given up on even faking normality and are now just vaguely play acting their way through being functioning members of a universe that is entirely unequipped to accept them for who they are. In a world full of cyborg cowboys and people with wings growing from their heads, the game still manages to somehow convince us that Aventurine and Ratio are odd ones out.

Kakavasha can't even exist in the dystopian capitalist hellscape of the IPC's machinations. "Aventurine" isn't even a real person, just a never-ending performance, a slick, devil-may-care persona without a single ounce of substance.

Ratio, meanwhile, is a world of one, rejected from the only place he thought he could find validation and acceptance but unable to lower himself to fit in anywhere else.

Aventurine is so bad at making genuine connections that he turns everyday conversations into gambles because he doesn't believe people will care enough to keep talking to him without tangible incentive.

Ratio's insistence on treating everyone as students, not as equals, also means he has an excuse to never emotionally engage with anyone he meets. (This is not at all a textbook method of intentional avoidance to prevent any chance of social rejection. Not at all.)

At the end of the day, Aventurine and Ratio both come across as desperately lonely, and so caught up in their own situations that they really don't have the ability to climb out of that hole on their own.

Preventing them from even being able to maintain any form of relationship is also the fact that neither one of them can even find justification. Neither one of them has a reasonable answer to the question "Why am I alive?" anymore, because Aventurine's reason died on Sigonia and Ratio's reason died with an IPC invitation instead of a Genius Society letter. Though their differing perspectives have led them on opposite paths pursuing their own answers to that ultimate question of "Why should I keep living?" (Aventurine was headed toward giving up before the end of Penacony, while Ratio has invented an immeasurable, impossible goal to distract himself from feeling purposeless), both of them are pretty much miserably unfulfilled in their current lives.

They're also both violently allergic to emotional vulnerability and to having any of their flaws or true desires actually be perceived. Both of them put up insanely high walls. Aventurine pushes boundaries with everyone he meets to provoke their hatred in advance, before they can come to disdain him for his "real" flaws. He acts out harmful racist stereotypes to use others' preconceptions for advantage, manipulating every situation he's in--incidentally affirming the stereotypes against his people by doing so.

Ratio puts a physical wall of plaster between himself and others, but the plaster bust actually doesn't have anything on the mental and emotional gymnastics he's engaged in to justify his isolation from the world, doing everything in his power to convince himself that he's isolated by choice, that it's perfectly logical for Veritas Ratio to have nowhere to truly belong, no one to truly belong with. He's so mundane after all. Of course the geniuses don't want him, that's just commonsense. But everyone else is so... different, so foolish, so illogical... It just wouldn't be reasonable of him to try to become one of them either, to be their friend instead of their distant educator. (You know, if you never try to integrate with others, then they can't reject you. Ratio has learned his lesson.)

Somehow, Aventurine and Ratio are two of the most competent and successful people in Star Rail's entire universe and simultaneously also two of the most misfit, reject, dysfunctional messes in the game. Like... Blade has a better support network than Aventurine and Ratio combined. The 7000-pound murderous mech with a disabled, genetically-modified war veteran who never got to live a normal human life hiding inside it is more capable of making friends than Aventurine and Dr. Ratio.

Which is why I love that the devs decided to make their canon backstory: "Some absolute treasures in the IPC and the Intelligentsia Guild had the galaxy-brained idea of pairing Ratio and Aventurine as strategic partners." The game's writing really said: "These two characters are so socially stunted, they have to be assigned a relationship like it's homework."

They may not have it all figured out yet, but the fans see the design: Now that Ratio and Aventurine have each other, they're not alone anymore. I have never seen two characters better fit the "Is anyone going to match my freak?" meme only for the actual answer to be "Yes."

Ratio is "plays chess with himself" levels of loner weird? No problem--Aventurine is "Wanna take bets on who's going to die today?" weirder. Ratio wears a plaster bust to ward off idiots? Aventurine transforms into a monster on command, which is pretty much guaranteed to achieve the same effect.

Ratio wasn't chosen by Nous? That's fine, Aventurine's one job as a "chosen one" was to save his people and now they're all dead. Nobody can keep up with Ratio in conversation? Watch a single comment from Aventurine turn him into a fumbling mess on live television.

Ratio's inability to relate to the experiences and development of any peers his own age have left him extremely isolated and with a permanently scarred sense of self-worth? Wow, I wonder if Aventurine knows exactly what that feels like.

They just... fit.

And, changing focus a little here at the end: While I personally think that recovery from trauma requires internal motivation and self-kindness foremost, I also think that Ratio and Aventurine's relationship should be considered from the perspective of how they help to fill each other's gaps.

Unlike any connection at the Genius Society who will always evoke unpleasant memories of Nous's rejection, Aventurine isn't going to make Ratio feel intellectually inferior. Aventurine has nothing but good things to say about Ratio's intelligence, and it's even apparent that Ratio felt comfortable enough to at least mention his Genius Society woes to Aventurine, something he explicitly does not do with anyone else.

Even when it comes to social interactions, Aventurine isn't going to make Ratio feel inadequate, because honestly? Aventurine's almost as bad at them as Ratio. Aventurine is much better at faking it socially, but when it actually counts? When he's trying to be real with others? A solid 70% of the people who meet Aventurine still end up wanting to strangle him. The guy tried to apologize for threatening to detonate the Trailblazer like a bomb by buying them a model train...

Then there's this:

Aventurine is the only character explicitly called Ratio's equal in game, and more than just treating him respectfully as an equal, Aventurine also exhibits one extreme appeal that no one else in game has ever shown to Ratio: Aventurine makes Ratio feel needed. For Aventurine, Ratio is not a forgettable after-thought as he is to Herta and most of the other geniuses. He's not just "some weird guy who scolds me about school" like he is to the Trailblazer. Ratio's intellect and skill were integral to Aventurine's plan from step one to the very end. Ratio has a place in Aventurine's plots. For a character who directly assesses worth by how beneficial a person can be to others, the fact that Aventurine can make Ratio feel wanted and valued probably produced some of the strongest personal fulfillment Ratio has had in years.

On the opposite side, Ratio's in a unique position. Out of every relevant character in Aventurine's story, Ratio is the only one who has nothing to lose by choosing Kakavasha over "Aventurine." Ratio doesn't profit off Aventurine or take any expensive gifts from him, like the Trailblazer does. He doesn't need Aventurine's luck for anything at all. He'd be able to work for the IPC even if Aventurine wasn't in it. Ratio certainly doesn't want the glitz and glamour of a shallow gambling hustler persona. His work doesn't require Aventurine's continued involvement like Topaz's and Jade's does. He'd probably prefer not to know any Stonehearts at all, thank you for asking.

Outside of deliberate-acting insults about Sigonians for Sunday's sake, we're not told that Ratio has any connections to--and therefore has no preconceived biases against--Sigonians. Being a person who values self-determination and a refusal to live in mediocrity above all else, he would have nothing but esteem for how far Aventurine has managed to come despite the harsh circumstances of his life. Ratio probably wouldn't even think Aventurine's belief in Gaiathra is that strange; one of Ratio's doctorates is actually in theology.

Unlike literally everyone else in the universe who needs "Aventurine," we have every indication that Ratio's respect and admiration will only grow when he finally gets to meet "Kakavasha."

Loneliness, rejection, betrayal, a lack of understanding from others--all of these can leave wounds that only genuine, deep bonds with others can heal.

On death's doorway, in the darkest shadow, when Aventurine had to make the choice between passing on to be with the family that loved him and choosing to return to a reality without them... Ratio's letter was there, telling Aventurine the exact thing he needed to hear to choose life: Someone is waiting for you to come home.

If the resounding rejection of Star Rail's Nihility is belief in humanity's power to make meaning in our own lives through our connections to others, then the ultimate message of Ratio and Aventurine's arc in Penacony is that no one needs to be alone. The world is not as empty as you fear.

And that is a message that Ratio and Aventurine can learn best through each other.

(I just... love them so much...)

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 3 months

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june 2024 octa + 4koma manga updates

As a reminder, no Episode of Savanaclaw manga chapter this month ^^ And without further ado, some of the highlights (in my opinion) of the latest manga updates:

This month's cover page illustration features Yuuta and Grim marveling over a chess board (since at this point in the story they're camping out in Savanaclaw). If you look closely, each of the pieces on the chessboard represent the relevant TWST characters; there are two card soldiers (presumably one for Ace and one for Deuce), a wolf for Jack, a hyena for Ruggie, and a lion for Leona on the "white" side. On the opposing "black" side (fitting, since Azul will OB soon) are two eel pieces for the twins and one octopus piece for Azul.

We continue the adorable overly flattering Ace from last month's chapter! Sad to say that I, too, would be completely fooled by this act-- asbfalebqejdqo The older merguard is also very cute and enthusiastic. I love that the manga can give faceless NPCs and mobs actual eyes. It grants them a lot more personality and soul! We continue the adorable overly flattering Ace from last month's chapter! Sad to say that I, too, would be completely fooled by this act-- asbfalebqejdqo The older merguard is also very cute and enthusiastic. I love that the manga can give faceless NPCs and mobs actual eyes. It grants them a lot more personality and soul!

HECK YEAH, IT'S TWEELS tERRORISM TIME BBABY 🤡 Jade and Floyd got sooo many good shots this chapter????? Love that the second page above shows us just how long Floyd is + how the two genuinely delight in scaring our crew (RIP Ace, he looks so close to death's door when he seeks Jade and Floyd peeking at him).

These panels paint the picture of the chase and fight being very frantic for our crew, but really being a chill game to the Leech brothers. They definitely have the upper hand this whole time, and the art helps to convey that feeling!

(Side note: that face Deuce makes with the pinched mouth is also top tier 👌)

So this chapter is the one where Leona swipes the keys to Azul's vault and robs him of all the golden contracts. This results in many, MANY distressed, panicked, and/or desperate expressions from Azul... all of which are soooo delicious <3 There's a ton more than what I've included here (I picked some of my faves), I just couldn't include them all because of Tumblr post image limits.

THE SMUGZUL LAUGH?????? ?? ??? ?? ?????? ? HIS ANSWER TO THE OJOUSAMA LAUGH

Featuring: out-of-shape nerd (relatable) Azul fans fr feasting this update 🙏

RUGGIIIIIIE �� He makes a lot of :3 faces that are just great!!

ANOTHER THING THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION WAS THE SHEER AMOUNT OF LEONA SMUG IN THIS CHAPTER I MEAN SEEING LEONA SMUG MAKES ME GRIT MY TEETH AND WANNA KNOCK HIM DOWN A PEG BUT WOW IS HE PRETTY LIKE THIS AUVYFB32T73RANfhbabfobiqrBI/.L;,'KJM;N GGRRRRRRRRRRRRRR I HAT EYOU KINHSCHPLAR I HATE YOU SO MUCH i'm gONA PUNCHHF YOU IN YOUR STUPID SLUTTY ,.,NAFCLAVICLE

anyway Anyway ANYWAY!!!!!! Azul is so close to snapping now, boys :)))) Soon... SOON, OB AZUL AND CHILD!OCTAVINELLE IN HIS FLASHBACK...

Now for 4koma news! This month features a comic about Epel playing Magift/Spelldrive and another comic about Jamil cooking curry.

My favorite segment from the Epel comic! Grim is peak cuteness here, love that he curls into himself to brace for impact, INCLUDING THE FRIGGIN TAIL.

HLBQVUFOQVIYFA; This part made me think of my Gordon Ramsay in Twisted Wonderland series, specifically the fish-themed installment with Jamil and Deuce; in it, Jamil plots on making a seafood dish to serve to Azul as revenge for the events of book 4. In the Jamil 4koma this month, Jamil sees Octavinelle and then considers making a seafood/fish curry with that smug-ass face in the bottom-most panel 💀 That's all for now! See you next month for more~

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darkcandy-starfait · 6 months

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Theory: Ralsei is a Titan (or at least a Neo darkner)

Hey so. this theory and analysis has been long over due, I'm so sorry but I kept forgetting and getting sidetracked with school work.

Okay so many people have noticed how weird Ralsei is, he's honestly a whole can of worms on his own without considering every theory being made about him.

But I have had this particular theory in my for like almost a whole fucking year, so let me propose a weirder one: Ralsei is a titan.

What do I mean by that? Honestly, I kind of only half way know what that means, since this is more of crack theory but here are my points

We all know that Ralsei looks different between the first two chapters. But a few people have pointed out that Ralsei's transformation from chapter 1 to chapter 2 is rather strange, as the two look very different. Toby has said that Ralsei looking different was a recent choice made during development.

He first starts out as this black, fluffy figure in a ratty looking robe, with his hands mostly obscured, and a hat. but after he takes off the hat, he suddenly looks very different: white fur, and more boss monster like. in chapter 2 we see his robes are neater looking and his arms are visible with black sleeves.

I find this bizarre, because it's such a drastic change. Looking at his two forms side by side, it almost looks like two different characters. Like, taking off a hat should not change your form like that, even if it might be dark world logic.

Ralsei is also shown to disappear when he's downed in battles. Susie, Kris and Noelle all have sprites of them kneeling or collapsed on the ground when their hp reaches 0. But ralsei just... turns into a pile of his clothes, in both forms. Almost like he's made of nothing??

Ralsei also seems seems just show up in dark worlds without Kris or Susie bringing him there in his supposed object form. Other darkners like Rouxls and Lancer are physical objects (both of them are playing cards), and need to be carried in Kris' pocket to the Cyber World. Kris has to physically take all the objects from rooms and bring them back to the supply closet.

Since we still only have two chapters at the moment, what object Ralsei actually is in the light world is currently a mystery. Some say he could Kris' red horned headband (personal favourite of mine), or even the missing green crayon in the Dreemurr house.

I even theorised that he might be Kris' mysterious knife they always seem to have on them, which is why he's always in the dark world shortly after Kris and Susie arrive there. But we never see Kris' knife in their inventory anywhere, unless Kris is just. materialising the knife out of thin air???

This still doesn't change to fact that Ralsei, if he did have an light world object equivalent, would have to be carried around like every other darkner in order to travel to other dark worlds. But he doesn't. He just... shows up in Cyber World to help Susie and Kris without any explanation other than "I felt a dark presence."

Most interestingly, he later explains that darkners who don't belong in other dark worlds will turn to stone. All the Card Castle characters in the Cyber World turn to stone in chapter 2, but Ralsei doesn't. He does say that Castle Town's fountain is made of pure darkness, so that's why all darkners can live there.

Ralsei being Castle Town's ruler helps him in this case, and the fact that a piece of text in Toby's concepts for Ralsei's manual says that Ralsei's form is made from Castle Town's fountain. Makes sense that a being made from pure darkness would be able to live in every dark world. But here's another question I have.

WHY is Castle Town's fountain made of pure darkness? How did it get this way? Is it because the fountain has maybe been around longer, while others like Card Kingdom and Cyber World were created only recently? What makes a fountain pure darkness?

Well here we bring up some interesting lore from Queen in chapter 2. Queen says that she needs a lightner to help spread more darkness, by literally opening a dark fountain inside a dark world. In the Giga Queen fight, she calls it a Neo Fountain.

Berdly almost makes this a reality, only to be stopped by Ralsei, who suddenly drops the lore about the Roaring.

The Roaring is a prophecy of a sort of apocalyptic event, where opening more dark fountains and fountains within fountains could cause mass destruction. Giant beings known as Titans will form from all the fountains, and will cover the world in darkness, turning darkners to stone and leaving humans to fend for themselves.

Ralsei speaks of this like its either a prophecy that was passed down to him, or something he even witnessed first hand. Maybe that's why he has no subjects in Castle Town. But I want to go back to everything I've said here about Ralsei, the most important ones bolded.

• is able to change forms by the drop of a hat (haha)

• is supposedly made of pure darkness like Castle Town's fountain

• fades into nothing when he's downed in battles

• can travel between dark worlds without being brought physically in the light world

• doesn't turn to stone when in other dark worlds while many other darkners do

• knows about a catastrophic event where more fountains are made and giant beasts made from darkness ravage the land

That last part. When I remembered that Ralsei said that the titans are formed from dark fountains, and that Ralsei is a darkner of pure darkness... well that got me thinking: What if Ralsei is a young titan? His first form in chapter 1 could be closer to his true titan form, and he might be taking a new form in chapter 2 to appeal more to lightners.

(Side note Ralsei taking the form of a boss monster, the species that Kris' family is, is another can of worms I have to save when I talk about their connections.)

What if Ralsei is a product of a Neo fountain being created? What if he's the last remnant of a time when there were more fountains, when the sky was black with terror, and the land cracked with fear.

Like, NEO fountains are even talked about more in the Spamton Sweepstakes. When you play this puzzle on the website, and click the 3rd option on the bottom row, you are brought to a sprite of a chair.

We all know the chair, but the phrase in the window of this page definitely seems seems be hinting at the creation of Neo fountains.

What if that's Ralsei's deal. Even if he isn't a titan, what if he's some kind of Neo darkner? What if he's more darkner than darkners in general?

Honestly I'm fully prepared for this theory to be steam rolled over when the next two chapters drop, but it was fun and interesting to write nontheless! I'm interested to see if anyone else has their own theory about this or if you even had the same thoughts?

#ralsei #deltarune #theory #safeutdr #analysis #ralsei titan theory #this took way too long to make and i still had to include less images than i woulf have likes because of tumblr's stupid image limit #but. here it is. finally lmao #very interested to see what you all have to say about this!#long post #almost forgot that one djdkkf

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missmarveledsblog · 1 month

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A kind of sex education part 2 (platonic cas x winchesters x reader)

Summary : after the whole porn ordeal , castiel finds tumblr and the world of fanfiction has him asking more curious questions which the residents of the bunker are not so happy to answer .

warnings : mentions of smutty fics , cas being the curious baby in a trench coat we love .

After the whole angel porn ordeal , they were more careful with what cas was watching not wanting history to repeat itself . Like monitoring a toddler on an iPad. Especially given that y/n wouldn't come out of her room for days not wanting to look any of them bar sam in the eyes . Dean even limited his teasing when it came to the subject . Today he was luckily out while cas was on laptop , Sam and Y/N were looking over some incoming cases seeing which needed to be handled first .

" interesting this is very interesting " the angel spoke making them look over both slightly relieved not see or hear an explicit image on the laptop.

" I've been on a interesting site that led me to many other over the last couple of days " he spoke up .

" what was that buddy" she smiled over. Their joy short lived when he uttered the next few sentences out of his mouth .

" tumblr that led me to all these other sites , did you know there is fanfiction of us like the play we seen except it's classed as what they call smut " he looked up at the two .

" why didn't I go on the supply run , why am I here when he finds this shit " she cursed up at the ceiling .

" could be nothing " sam offered a weak smile .

" did you know most popular is Dean x y/n fiction seems as though you are most shipped although there are some of Dean and sam with you too " he mused .

" but I could be wrong" sam winced taking the laptop off of cas completely .

" how do you find these things " he asked looking through the tabs .

" I'm very pop culture savvy now " cas said proudly .

" what the hell man why are you reading all these " sam groaned wanting burning his eyes out seeing an explicitly wrong image of Dean and himself (no to wincest) . " you are actually popular with them Y/n " sam mused .

" that's after that stupid ghost hunting website and chuck " she grumbled wondering where she was going to start her new life.

" hey there's even some with you and cas " he chuckled.

" Alaska or maybe Australia would be better it further Away " she mused .

" wow these are extremely detailed " sam continued .

" would you call Dean daddy , the stories seem to think you would " cas asked .

" what the hell did I walk into " the man in question walked into the room .

" my resignation " she mumbled hiding her head in her arms.

" destiel is another popular one " sam chuckled.

" cas found smutty fanfictions " she looked up to see the clueless expression on Dean's face.

" they suggest that Y/n is a sub and you are a Dom " the angel stated.

" wanna see if they're right sweetheart " Dean winked .

" wanna kill me cause I can't be dealing with this" she countered wondering if she could also legally change her name.

" why are they so descriptive on the parts , have they seen them" cas sat looking between the three .

" the way Dean sleeps around they probably seen his " she reasoned.

" they also suggest you like..." .

" do not even finish that one" she growled .

"so many kinks cas did you google all these" sam asked eyes widening at the search history.

" i was looking at chucks book and comments said to check out the tumblr versions " he said looking confused to what he did wrong. " they forgot to add that birthmark just below your tits " he added matter of factly .

" when did you see her ... what he got to see i didn't" dean turned to Y/n , who honestly rather be stuck with Crowley for eternity than this .

" he walked in while i was getting dressed and it not a birthmark it's a scar from a battle with an old favourite bra "she could feel her cheeks redder than they've been so far . "i'm going to my room to pack for my new life in australia" she stormed out her room .

" she's kidding right?" dean asked looking to the mean .

" you should dom her and make her stay , they said she responds to good girl" cas explained .

" i wonder if she would let me come with her " sam mused walking out after her.

another awkward dinner bobby was almost afraid to ask. Although dean was smiling more than the others.

" cas read fanfiction , pornographic fan fiction " dean explained .

" i've also read some theories too, like bobby is Y/N Dad and not her uncle" cas smiled making bobby choke on his water.

" their theories cas they're not right ... right? " she laughed but stopped when she notice bobby expression or how he would barel look at her.

" i mean it's a possibility " he mused truthfully making her jaw drop

" great more daddy issue not like the place is drowning in them with these two " she pinched the bridge of her nose and point at sam and dean.

" so the theories of dean being her soulmate are true " cas asked.

" probably " dean shrugged winking at her .

" why did i ever come here, sam wanna move to australia with me " she ignored the other three men .

" look me and your mom had a brief thing , your dad well your dad agreed while he..." .

" australia sound nice " sam agreed cutting bobby short .

" hey stop denying our love even nerds on internet think we'd be hot together"dean spoke up .

" cas from now on stop the curiosity or so help me i will make you eat the computer " she groaned learning too much information for the day .

"we need to do dna test " she turned to bobby .

" you can pick me up at 7 " she turned to dean before walking out leaving the men speechless .

" i got punished" cas pouted .

" i got a kid kinda " bobby gulped .

" i got a date " dean smirked .

" and i got a rock ... It's a thing on tiktok ... what cass isn't the only pop culture savvy one around here " sam shrugged .

part three

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jenchan-writingmultis · 4 months

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Twisted Wonderland Boys x Fem Reader in their respective Fairytales (Series)

─────❅───── This was an ask by @cartoonykat I couldn't compile it in the inbox, m sorryyy (╥﹏╥) "Hi, I was wondering if you could do a Twisted Wonderland Boys (Except ortho) x Reader, Where they are in their respective Disney tale, or a fairytale that fits their character?" A/n: This is a pretty broad idea that makes me want to do a whole series about it! Maybe I’ll do everyone… but first I’ll put housewardens and their vice housewardens first! Thank you for requesting this! I was a bit lost how I can do this one but hopefully I hit the right point! It’ll be split into a series, cause when I was writing I realized, it got long. Hope you like it! About the Gender, I put fem, but the gender wasn't that specific in each part, it's very vague. Masterlist

─────❅───── Content Warning: This Fic will be tagged as 16+ since it is a bit suggestive along with mentions of Gorey themes (Azul), it’s very vague. I haven’t finished Book 6 and Book 7 because I’m stuck in Tartarus, but they’re not done here yet. Riddle (Suggestive Themes), Leona (Cussing, Blood mention), Azul (Obsession, Manipulation, Cussing once, Potential Cannibalism? (He eats merpeople who are turned into Polyps). The reason for potential OOC was cause I mixed both the classic Villains with the personality of our beloved boys Due to the Tumblr Limit, Each one will be divided unfortunately, hopefully it's an easy navigation for all of you! ─────❅─────

First Batch would be: Riddle, Leona, Azul Second Batch would be: Kalim, Idia, Malleus

List of Villains interconnecting with each character:

Riddle = Queen of Hearts

Leona = Scar

Azul = Ursula

─────❅───── Sypnosis: After an experiment gone wrong, you and Grim along with Deuce concocted a potion that exploded in your face, you fell into deep slumber, and due to the effects of the potion, it caused you to dream about your boyfriend/s reigning as their… villain counterparts?! And why are you in the outfit of the main character? What’s going on? ─────❅───── Riddle:

When you woke up as Alice, you didn’t expect to see Riddle in his housewarden outfit. This time, however, he was acting a bit strange. By strange, he was hostile with you, reminding you of the time when he was still in his strict, crazy, unjust ruler phase.

You thought that you were probably dreaming because there’s no way Riddle would ever be rough with you like this. Even before, he was often gentle with you, especially knowing that you were magicless. He was harsh with his words, sure, but he never laid a finger on you. The only time he did was during his overblot, but after that, he was the softest man you’d ever encountered.

“State your name,” he glanced at your figure sprawled down Infront of him, voice amplified with authority as he gripped a staff adorned with a heart symbol. He was the true image of a king—or rather, a queen. His authoritative presence reminded you of the true Queen of Hearts, whom he admired and aspired to emulate.

“Riddle don’t be ridiculous” You were hurt that he didn’t remember you since you two were practically dating in the real world, a vein throbbed on his head, patience running thin. He slammed his staff on the ground, the force sending shockwaves through the air and producing a loud clang. "I said, state. your. name.” he glared down at you, looking at you as if you were a feeble flea in front of him. "You're quite bold talking back to me"

Getting intimidated, you immediately stated your name as well as the reason why you were here truthfully, at first, he wanted to laugh at your face, transported to another world? Don’t be stupid, as if he’d believe you.

You managed to convince him that you truly were not from here by pointing out the fact that he didn’t know who you were despite ruling Wonderland. He, as the ruler, should have data on every citizen of his region, right?

That made him pause. He should have beheaded you for disrespecting him in front of his people, but you did have a point; Despite his anger issues and his pride taller than himself, he listened to what you said. “I see” tracing his fingers along the side of his staff. Narrowing his eyes at you, he continued, "If what you say is true, then you will have to stay here until I figure out how to send you back to your world."

“You’re helping me?” You finally lifted your head to look at his expression, wondering if he was lying or not, then again this was Riddle we’re talking about, he doesn’t do empty promises. Scoffing, he turned around to leave, the crimson mantle that draped on his shoulders fluttered prettily, he really was pretty.

“I rather have you gone than stay here for a while longer, so please, do appreciate that I tolerate you” he walked away, soldiers bowing in sync as he left the throne, “Trey, escort them to the guest room” he added, voice fading, Trey walks towards you, offering his hand to help you stand. “Well, this is a surprise, he spared you” he chuckles a bit while you look at him incredulously, unlike Riddle who had a housewarden outfit but a bit more exaggerated; Trey looked like a completely different person with his knightly outfit, and hair still the same, albeit neater than his usual.

“Trey?” you asked, he looked confused as you are, “Yeah? My name’s Trey Clover, you heard your royal highness, you get special treatment” Straight to the point as always, he ushers you to the guest room.

Sitting down on the soft bed, you didn’t know what to do next, will Riddle find a way to get you back home? Wake you up? You didn’t know, but you felt comforted by the fact that some familiar faces were around, despite them not knowing you.

Riddle didn’t understand himself; he kept a close eye on you while you were free to roam his territory. Truthfully, he was going to punish you, when he heard the news about a rat skewering and destroying some of his lands; however the moment he saw you, he felt an odd feeling as if he knew you, keeping his stoic façade as you were pushed inside and in front of him, he was going to be rough as usual with criminals, but for some reason, he really couldn’t with you.

You also acted as if you knew him with the way you looked at him and the way you got hurt with his harsh tone. Seeing you wither infront of him made his heart feel unpleasant and he didn’t want to see that expression you again, so he decided to stop talking to you; It was unlike him to not only halt your punishment but also offer you a bed to sleep in and have his servants feed you.

Should he be worried that you have that kind of effect on him? He could guillotine you any time, but the way you unconsciously trusted him, thinking about having you executed made him feel bad.

Part 2 (Riddle)

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #disney twisted wonderland #riddle rosehearts x reader #riddle rosehearts #twst riddle #twst x reader #disney twst #oneshot

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romiantic · 1 year

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DATING SATORU GOJO PT. 2

part two of text messages between you and your boyfriend satoru gojo <3

→ READING: gn!reader

→ GENRE + WARNINGS: fluff/crack + mention of periods, mention of drugs (meth), gojo gets blocked again 🙁, satoru gojo….a warning himself

→ A/N: part two cause tumblr has a ten image limit and I find that stupid asf 😁🫶🏽. here’s part one btw !

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @stqrriichiigo @jackibrown @mypimpademia — if you would like to be added to the taglist, fill out the form on my masterlist or let me know in my inbox !

⭑ ngl, this one made me giggle 🤣. this man is so annoying yet I love him so much

⭑ these are literally screenshots I had from part one, they just didn’t make it cause of the stupid image limit

⭑ thank y’all for the insane amount of love in part one 🫶🏽. if y’all want more parts, lemme know !

⭑ if y’all wanna see this with another character, lemme know !

JUJUTSU KAISEN MASTERLIST + MAIN MASTERLIST

#* 💭🎧 ⌗ 𓏲 „ ˋmia is writing !#x black reader #anime x black reader #anime x black!reader #black y/n #x black!reader #anime smau #jjk smau #jujutsu kaisen smau #gojo smau #satoru gojo smau #gojo x black reader #gojo x black!reader #gojo x reader #gojo x you #satoru gojo x black reader #satoru gojo x black!reader #satoru gojo x you #satoru gojo x reader

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noxiatoxia · 2 months

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So, when Danganronpa S was released (and V3's UTDP but I'll get to that later...) Hinata and Komaeda were given noticeably different versions of their pre-existing sprites for their swimsuit versions:

If you struggle to see a difference, note Hinata's wider mouth in the swimsuit ver., and Komaeda's narrower eyes and more outlined smirk in his swimsuit ver.

I, along with many people, always wondered, why? Why change these already perfectly fine sprites and, honestly, make them worse? What gives?

Then, I stumbled across something. Back in 2012, before the Japanese release of Super Danganronpa 2, you could play an online monomono machine to win little goodies like desktop backgrounds and profile pictures. Please note these pre-release desktop backgrounds for Hinata and Komaeda:

...So, wait a minute. The sprites used in Danganronpa S aren't new edits, but beta sprites? Older than the ones featured in the original SDR2? Turns out, this website features desktop backgrounds using beta sprites for nearly every character that otherwise never saw the light of day.*

I'm going to go through them one by one, gif comparisons included. This won't be the only post, either! UTDP also has some very interesting likely beta art used in it, too. As well, some of the other sprites featured in Danganronpa S may also be reused beta sprites!

As such, this log will be broken into three parts. This is part 1.

[Part 2 - UTDP (not made yet!)] [Part 3 - DRS (not made yet!)] [Part 4 - Dangan Island (not made yet!)]

*with the exception of UTDP in some cases, as well as some other things I will get to in Part 4.

As said, semi-flashing gifs will be included in this post. They are meant to swap between the beta and final sprites at a fast pace to illustrate the differences (2 frame, half a second each). Be cautious if you have epilepsy.

Also, because of Tumblr's stupid image limit, this post will have a reblog with the rest of the sprites! So please check this post's reblogs, it should be the first one!

Firstly, how do we know these are actually beta sprites? These images are sourced from the Danganronpa fandom wiki, and while I generally trust the wiki's credibility, it's always imperative to fact-check. So, I went ahead and searched Danganronpa's old website on the Wayback Machine and uncovered this:

A character intro page for Hinata, using this same beta sprite. Now, granted, the only capture of this page is from 2015. Still a year before V3 and a few more before S, but still, it's not the 2012 original. That said, a character intro page for Mioda circa early 2014 looks exactly the same, including the usage of her beta sprite.

And, when you click on the button that says スクリーンショット(Screenshot)...

You're offered a very obviously beta trial shot. As is common with Danganronpa trials, in development, the actual character portraits are not put in until later, and to substitute, their art reference photos are used, as seen on the left.

With that out of the way, I think it's safe to say these sprite we are about to look at are indeed betas.

It's only fair, then, we focus on Hinata first.

(Please note for all the comparison gifs I had to manually size the final sprites to get them as close as possible in aspect ratio. Very minor size difference between sprites is likely a result of this and not an actual detail change.)

A lot is revealed with a simple gif. Hinata's entire face shape was changed (including ears), not just his mouth. In fact, not just the shape of his face, but the face itself is drawn very differently in the end. The neck of his shirt was raised, as well as tie being redrawn (you can actually see where the new part begins somewhat sloppily). Less notable but still apparent are his bangs being redrawn and shaded differently.

Keeping with consistency, let's check out Komaeda next.

Yet again, the differences are striking when flipped back and forth. Komaeda's face shape and ear was redone much like Hinata, but not to nearly the same dramatic extent. As well, his entire face was redrawn, notably erasing the black shading under his chin and shortening his eyelashes. Less noticeable, the hair touching his neck is shortened a bit, and the crease line on his hood is more well-defined. They also slightly changed the line art for the first fold in his shirt, the neck at the back of his shirt, as well as his leftmost bang. Interestingly, they either forgot or didn't care to fix the shading to reflect the new placement of these lines. His jacket also has some changes in line art weight.

With Hinata and Komaeda out of the way, let's touch on Kuzuryuu.

This one honestly shocked me. Besides the added detail of him spitting, I didn't notice any difference right off the bat until I overlayed the images, but the differences are night and day. His eyes are made to be less mean and more skeptical. His mole was shrunk and his nose is more 3-dimensional. Extra detail is added to his ear while his hair is redrawn in whole, including it being slightly shorter. What's most interesting is the fact the body was sized up and moved down several pixels, I imagine to change the perspective. Some minor line changes are made to the white undershirt of his suit.

It would be improper not to do Pekoyama next.

Again, just like Kuzuryuu, I didn't notice half of these changes at first. Pekoyama's whole face is slimmed. The outer outline of her hair remains the same, but almost every outline inside of it, including her bangs, changes. (Although, her right twin-tail has a slightly longer end to it.) Her outfit receives minor touch-ups, including a clothes fold on her breast and darker shading by her collarbone. Speaking of, her neck muscles and such have been redrawn. Most interesting to me is the fact Pekoyama's outline is noticeably thicker with action lines in the original beta sprite, but lack them in the final sprite as if somebody used the magic wand tool to edit the background out, editing away some of the jagged black lines in the process. She is the only character where this happens.

Since she is a major character, let's do Nanami now.

I wasn't surprised to find Nanami has virtually no difference about her. Her design was pretty much set in stone early on. That said, it's not entirely the same. Though very minor, the thickness of her left eye was increased at the top. As well, shading across her pinky finger was removed. There is also a chance her body is slightly bigger, but that's more likely to be a result of me failing to perfectly match up the two images.

I want to focus on Souda now as he was the first one I did this test with.

You know, when I first played SDR2, I thought Souda looked kind of scary. His beta is even scarier looking! I can see why they changed it...Every detail on his face is redrawn including his chin, notably his pupil was enlarged and his eyebrows were quirked. Funnily, it seems the clip on his beanie was redrawn, but like Komaeda, they didn't edit the color layer to match the new outline. Some minor line art changes were made to his back hair. The lines for his neck and collarbone were lessened, and the jacket zipper is made more three dimensional. His thumb was fixed too, as well as the lines on his hand.

Also, here's a fun little thing I noticed while replaying SDR2 just a few days ago!

The sprite used for Souda in the Dangan Island opening is the exact same as the beta sprite! This would be the only time Westerners would catch a glimpse of some beta sprites until UTDP, as keep in mind, these wallpapers were exclusive to the Japanese Danganronpa website.

In fact, Souda isn't the only one with a beta sprite in the Dangan Island opening. I will also be covering that in part 4.

Moving on...

I guess it's only natural we look at Sonia's sprite next.

Changes like these ones are very interesting to me, because if you did not do a side-by-side like this, you may never see how many minor details were changed. A lot of Sonia's line art was redrawn to be more detailed, such as more lines in her hair, thinner outlines for her braid, and redrawn creases in her shoulders and bow (as well as a redrawn button). Her face is interesting as some very minor changes were made. Some detail is added to both ears (thicker outline on the right, changed line art on the left) and her left eyebrow is slightly edited. She was also given extra eyelashes on both sides. When it comes to such minor changes, it makes you wonder why they bothered at all. I wonder what the development looked like.

Anyways, please check the reblog for the second part! That's where the rest of the characters will be!

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