#until she's forced to choose

[dreamedfyre-a]

not to be morbid on main but i saw this art and honestly that and the one f&b art where she's running towards jaehaerys' body while b&c leave always makes me think of the horrible violence and its aftermath, the grief and loss, the trauma and shock, a mother unwilling to let her son's mutilated body go, his blood on her hands, her dress, her hair (it doesn't matter; nothing matters but the fact there is no life in him anymore). she holds on to bloodied clothes even after. she haunts the room where the stones are stained with her child's blood. more self flagellation than remembrance, because it hurts and she wants to hurt, because she doesn't think she deserves to stop hurting. it's her blood on the stones, on the clothes she won't let go of. the life she birthed, the horror she let happen, it's all hers and she won't let go of it. it's repulsive and frightening and horrible and her fault in so many ways. she can't let go.

[ambeauty]

Ok let’s discuss partnership agreements for a quick second. I own a business and I have a partner. It’s common and it’s necessary to have a partnership agreements. It’s going to list the official profit share, how much time each partner is going to commit, what skill each partner brings to the business, and what factors are in place in case one partner wants to leave or dissolve the business. This is a very basic overview of a partnership agreement. Sydney needs this. It will legitimize her position as partner in the Bear. So Carmen extending this agreement to her is significant. He can’t necessarily force her not to leave but they have to have a protocol in place in case she wants to. It could get sticky but not if they follow the agreement. Unless she doesn’t sign it…

What’s strange to me is him saying “So I can push you and you can push me.” This makes me think he knows that he’s going to get toxic and he doesn’t want her to just walk out like she did in review. It’s like saying “for better or worse.” And also tell me when I’m fucking up because I don’t want you to leave. I have it in writing how much you mean to me and this business. So neither one of us can just fuck off when the going gets tough. Signing this agreement would make her (both of them) contractually committed to working things out with him even when it (he) gets difficult. That’s still a spiritual marriage. A business is a marriage and a (legal) marriage is a business.

[blazingblorbos]

HONAKI PART 2 CHAPTER 3 SPOILERS

I hate gay people I hate gay people so much.

[dykedvonte]

I think the most baffling thing about the Tulpar as a vessel to me is the fact that the ship really did only have a one way communication system.

I know it was cheap but even the most basic of vessels regarding major transport would have some way, shape or form for outside communication. Not only that but there was absolutely no form of innate emergency signal to show they may have been offline or in trouble despite clearly having a system to dock credits if they went off course. It's another factor that really shows that bad situations are made to get worse by design. One person who is required to relay all information to the crew and make all the choices without feedback. No way to update or call for help in case of a dire situation. No way to inform of inner personal conflicts and acquire procedures accordingly.

It really is like they are all in some sort of fucked up solitary confinement. They have their own world with strict roles that are meaningless in the end, as long as the cargo makes it, it doesn't matter what happens on that ship to the company. They don't want to hear anything and will come to conclusions on what happened based on how much pay they can withhold from the workers. Even what they do send is short, sterile and corporate to the extent it was likely written and sent out with a command by some random unmanned computer in an office.

There's something to be said about how unfair it is to force absolute power and control onto one person when you as an entity could do so much more to offload it but I've said it many times before so I won't again.

[itspileofgoodthings]

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[helpimstuckinafandom]

JUSTICE FOR DAVINA CLAIRE I'M SO FUCKING SERIOUS FUCK OFF OH MY FUCKING GOD

[moonilit]

having so much emotions over Jote and Joshua I can’t even articulate, like

[zikadraws]

I couldn't exactly get what I wanted for Halloween done, sooo you're getting some OC stuff.

Her name is Salomé, and she's been 11 for twelve thousand years.

Happy Halloween.

[datastate]

oh i am very curious which yttd routes did you play first :O? (mine was alice/shin <- this was literally because i was hyperfixated on alice + i was playing it with my friend who was hyperfixated on shin.)

oho... i believe my first route was true logic! (reko + shin) -- i'd pushed the fake reko, because my view on the whole 'doll v. human' thing is. well. humans will always be preferable if they're still alive, though even after death it's a shaky trail to follow. of course, while alive they can still be manipulated & gaslit into certain things, but the AIs can be changed on a very fundamental level with the intention of deceiving someone they care for (whether they mean to or not; mishima, for example, whose values weren't necessarily changed, but just shifted to see those he would've cared for as enemies), and the idea of them being so easily reset - to me - makes it more difficult to view anything you do with them as permanent. which, while that may be something worthwhile for some (sara w ytts, hiyori w shin ai...), i find scarcity to be something very important & i just hate the idea of desecrating who someone was after death. what you see as the ai will often have a very tangible effect on how you perceive the person post-mortem as well, which isn't fair to you or them, regardless of how genuine they believe they're being.

or, well. that's the gist of my thoughts on it x']

in any case! i do wish i could've kept alice alive, but this was a 'no resets' run for me & i still wouldn't have changed my answer here... sorry reko ai.

as for shin, i chose him primarily because my sister (kid) really enjoys his character & i was very intrigued in seeing where he'd go once pushed further than this. i felt terrible killing kanna for this, & realized during her death (i. started crying also <3) that if i were in this situation that i'd never be able to work w someone who enabled kanna's self-sacrificial nature. which shin evidently echoed, rendering any logic behind the choice null, ironically because i failed to take into account the emotional attachment between them all.

& of course the influence this has on ch3-1... where sara had very obviously sacrificed dolls for her allies before, it just makes it tasty...

however! as for my current routes, i think i favor true emotion (alice + kanna) -- i really wanted to know more abt alice before he died & i was surprised it was even an option so early on. i also enjoyed seeing alice getting after gashu outright + i think he deserved to have that personal chance in getting after hiyori again... even if the realization he's become a 'real murderer' (he had still pushed hiyori w intent to kill, you know...) is held against him here.

and, in terms of character development, upon reflection: i really do think i'm more interested in seeing kanna truly overcome that desire to push herself aside for others' benefit... it'd be so much more fulfilling to me, with what i'm searching out, in a game like this where pushing forward really is the only choice you can make...!!

as for both, they don't get the focus i wish they could've in ch3-1, but i nonetheless find it a more interesting route going forward, even if i still don't agree w the choice made to keep alice alive x'] the implications for sara's character in either route are really fun to consider :D

[quietwingsinthesky]

hi not to complain about a poorly written game from a decade ago, but can we please talk about how egregious it is setting the dinner chapter directly after separation in beyond: two souls? i have gripes about how poorly this game utilizes it’s non-linear narrative in a lot of places, but this stands out as the worst offender to me while replaying it. directly after we reveal Ryan (already the face of the CIA that we know will later go on to hunt Jodie down and who “used her”) as also the man who tears Jodie away from the only home/family she’s really had, we jump directly into. them in a romantic relationship.

Ryan is not just some guy Jodie could have as a love interest. He represents a very negative, very exploitative force in her life. Hell, going linearly, you have Jodie yelling at him not to touch her in The Embassy straight into the hijinks of The Dinner. It’s jarring and not in a meaningful way. Not purposefully, at least. Like, Aiden getting Ryan to leave the apartment during The dinner is one of the requirements for the “be evil whenever you can” achievement, right next to literally trying to kill children. There’s so much dissonance between what we’re told (Jodie and Ryan’s relationship is Normal And Fun And Sexy, Actually) and what we’re shown (Ryan is the face of the agency that takes and uses and hounds Jodie all game, and no relationship they could possibly have would ever be on equal footing.)

I really think, and bear with me because I know this chapter has Issues™️ too, that The Dinner would have benefitted greatly from being directly after Like Other Girls and taking place before we learn just how the CIA got ahold of Jodie in Separation. The two chapters obviously tie-in together with the consequences of the events of Like Other Girls falling directly on Jodie’s relationship with Ryan in The Dinner, while also having a thematic tie in Jodie desperately wanting to pretend, if only for a night, that she can be a normal person with normal relationships. It would also have led to a stomach-sinking moment in Separation where Jodie meets Ryan for the first time chronologically and you realize just how connected that relationship is to Jodie’s exploitation by the CIA. If you got Aiden to ruin their chances, then you might feel a little better about that. If you let them get together, you’re going to feel uncomfortable, and you should! (And if Like Other Girls prevented that outcome, again, poorly handled in-game, but at least it would come full circle just how violating this has been for Jodie. I cannot emphasize enough how much Jodie is seventeen in Separation, and the first line Ryan says to her (not about her. to her.) is for her to quit her adolescent whining and pack up to get drafted.)

(I also think that if the game was half as good as its potential, we wouldn’t have gotten some random SWAT guy hunting Jodie down. We would have gotten Ryan doing it. I think that would have provided a much needed layer to their relationship that’s hinted at at the end of Separation and The Mission. Ryan has manipulated her, but at the end of the day, Jodie & Aiden can fuck him and anyone else up that tries to harm her.)

[gaymakima]

Two theories I have (well, one theory and a headcanon) regarding Raven.

Headcanon: Raven's kindred links can influence her own emotional state, depending on the intensity of the other person's emotions.

Theory: Raven left to spy on Salem for Ozpin, with the specific purpose of getting close enough to Salem to create a kindred link with her. This plan succeeded. The mysterious portal in the V9 flashback was to Salem. Raven spent enough time by Salem's side to bond with her. Kindred links can only be broken when the other person is dead.

Conclusion headcanon: Raven, as we see her in canon, has been emotionally linked to a whole range of people, none of who have particularly positive opinions on her that don't come with a caveat (namely Taiyang and Qrow being heartbroken and bitter, Yang's feelings of abandonment, Ozpin's guilt, Vernal might be the only exception but, uh... decoy). And then you add in Salem's emotions to the mix, which have been stewing in Raven for over a decade by the time we see her.

Bonus: if kindred links can only be broken when the other person is dead, and Summer has turned into a Hound, what would Raven feel from that?

[saltpotion]

What sorts of stories do u like writing? Any ideas ur excited about right now??

I’m kind of newish to writing stories, so I guess I don’t have a set genre/preference yet. I wrote a lot of fiction as a kid but got bored of it eventually, and I never finished anything. The most I’ve done since then is creative nonfiction essays, which can be cathartic but definitely a very different skillset.

I haven’t gotten an idea for an original story yet, so for now I’m just working on fanfiction. I’ve been thinking kind of obsessively about the Zelda II backstory ever since I thought it would be fun to imagine what would mean for all that to go down in the context of the canon that’s been established ever since.

Originally I was just going to write a story about Aurora and her brother (who I named Itentio), two Golden Age siblings under immense pressure who are at each other's throats until the bitter end.

But the more I thought about it, the more I became interested in Aurora's life after waking up, so now this idea has evolved into a LU fic. The POV flips from Traveler to Aurora to Dawn, and we get a flashback scene from each of them while the present-day story deals with them confronting their respective pasts.

I'm still kind of in early drafting stages, but so far the story involves Traveler's dad, Aurora's dad (lots of dads), Dawn's political life, uncertainty vs. certainty at the end of the world, rehydrated wizzrobes, the blood curse, monsters who don't want to be monsters, and lots and lots of magic.

[freebooter4ever]

This is 1000% random but came to mind regarding the duck movie. I sometimies watch movies without sound if I think they might ~suck~ like that... so just a tip if you want to see it but not sort of experience it :D hahahha

heh, well. ive already seen it fully so the damage has been done. i bought it even, thinking i would want to rewatch it, but i really REALLY dont think i will. ever. i have watched a LOT of bad movies for my stupid infatuations over the years so honestly im used to it.

[inthelittlegenny]

tavern talk is great; just completed it. 10/10 would recommend if you want something super chill (i'm going to ramble in the tags so probably spoilers)

[ladysnows]

sara is very aware of how lucky she is to have a brother who'd never force marriage on her.

[nunyabznsbabes]

Katniss is like Lucy Gray this, Katniss is like Sejanus that, and yes fine that's all good and true and lovely but Katniss Everdeen is also a direct parallel to Coriolanus Snow and people NEED to start talking about this because it's driving me crazy.

Think about it: they both grew up poor and deeply vulnerable, losing parents at a very young age, with a matriarchal adult (Katniss' mother and Coriolanus' Grandma'am) who fails to provide for them emotionally and physically. They intimately understand the threat of starvation, even developing with stunted growth because of it, and their narrations in the books share a fixation on food. Throughout their childhoods, both experienced constant fear and suffered a fundamental lack of control over their circumstances. Because of this, they're inherently suspicious of the people around them. They resent feeling indebted to others, especially those who have saved their lives. They're motivated almost entirely by family and deeply connected to their communities. Both are used and manipulated by the Capitol, both are forced to perform to survive and despise every inch of it, both are thrown into the Arena and made to kill. Both have a self-sacrificial, genuinely sweet sister figure acting as their conscience. Peeta and Lucy Gray - performers and love interests with a fundamental kindness and sense of hope about them - fulfill markedly similar roles in their narrative. Both contribute to the development of the future Hunger Games, Snow throughout tbosas and Katniss towards the end of Mockingjay.

It's easy to ignore these similarities because, as mirrors of each other, they are exact opposites. Katniss is from District 12, viewed and treated as less than human; Snow is the cream of the Capitol crop, given the privilege of a name with social weight, an ancestral home, and the opportunity of the Academy despite having no more money than a miner from 12. Katniss has no agency over her life, and responds by being kind whenever she's able, while Snow justifies horrendous evils in order to continue his quest for complete control. Katniss does everything she can to protect her family; Snow does everything he can to protect his family's image as an extension of his own ego. Katniss loves her District and connects with its inhabitants on a meaningful level, but Snow is indifferent at best to his peers - the apparent "superior people" - and only engages with his community for personal gain. Katniss emerges from the Arena horrified at herself and the system, but Snow takes his trauma and turns it into an excuse to perpetuate the violence with himself at the top. Katniss cares for Prim until her death and then snaps at the loss of her little sister, while Snow survives on Tigris' blood, sweat, and tears and then torments and abandons her, presumably because she calls him out on his insanity. Snow actively adds to and popularizes the Hunger Games because of his vendetta against the Districts following his childhood wartime trauma - Katniss briefly agrees to a new Hunger Games in the pursuit of vengeance, but later stops them from happening by killing Coin and choosing a life of peace and privacy. Snow is obsessed with revenge, but Katniss empathizes with the Capitolites and does what she can to keep them from suffering. He exists in a cruel system and selfishly upholds it; she exists in a cruel system and works to dismantle it for the good of her family and community, at great personal cost. And Peeta and Lucy Gray are incredibly similar, but Katniss and Peeta forge a relationship of genuine love and understanding that shines in comparison to Coriolanus' obsessive projection onto Lucy Gray.

So, yeah, Katniss is Lucy Gray haunting Coriolanus. But I bet you anything that eighty-something year old President Snow looks at her, the girl on fire, bright and young and brilliant, emerging from a childhood of starvation with a relentless hunger for success, a talented and charming performer helping her win the Games, and he sees the ghost of his own past. And that's why he's so afraid of her! Because if he sees himself in her, then he's up against his own cunning, his own talent for manipulation, his own charisma, his own genius. He's up against the version of himself that he once wished to be, with the nightmare army of his childhood at her back and her star-crossed lover at her side, spewing Sejanus' truths in his own voice. This isn't to say that Katniss ever achieved the level of power and agency that Coriolanus did during her time with the rebellion, but it is to say that Snow was taken down by what truly terrified him - his own morality, come to finish the job.