#using the greatest video game of them all: the human mind

[voerman]

regrettably this is hanusa and minthara.

[nerd-artist]

Horizon Rock Bands AU: Alpha Prime

This is heavily inspired by the animated series Jem and The Holograms (I’m sorry if you know the reference because it means you’re as old as me 😆). There will be posts about other bands. Ereloy implied 🧡.

The band

Alpha Prime is a synth-punk rock band that performs songs about the struggles of social life and humanity's downfall. Aloy and her twin sister Beta started the band to take down Nemesis, the evil group that was winning every contest through dishonest ways before Alpha Prime showed up. Petra, Alva, Zo, and Talanah also had their own personal discordances with Nemesis, so they teamed up with the sisters to bring them down and make the world a little brighter with their music.

Unstoppable on stage, they've been number one since their first appearance at The Proving, the most prestigious battle of the bands in the music scene. There, they met the band Rock Breakers, who are not only their competitors but also great friends and allies against Nemesis.

With their manager Ersa, they’re getting ready for the competition by touring across the country. Their shows are called epic, thanks to their magical computer GAIA, which adds awesome visual effects and illusions to their performances.

Character profiles under the cut

Aloy

She's the leader of the band and their main songwriter. She plays her guitar ‘Outcast’, and her soft voice mixed with her feral screams make her the perfect backup vocalist. When she and her sister Beta were little, their mother disappeared, which shattered Aloy's trust in others. This caused her to become closed off, and now she struggles with social interactions. She seeks revenge on Tilda, the leader of Nemesis, because she suspects her of being involved in her mother's mysterious disappearance. When the weight of her mother's legacy and her own frustrations become too much to bear, she turns to her best friend Erend, the leader of Rock Breakers. Being by his side makes her feel more at home than anywhere else, sparking emotions she doesn't quite understand—emotions that end up fueling her songwriting.

Zo

Fans describe the soothing tone of her voice as healing, so it’s no surprise that she uses her ‘Fa’ mic to take on the role of the band’s lead vocalist. Always looking out for the other girls, it’s common to see her setting up meditation sessions before shows. As an environmentalist, she’s determined to take down Nemesis to stop the pollution caused by the companies owned by their members. She’s also (very) openly in a relationship with Varl, a member of Rock Breakers.

Beta

Even more isolated than her sister after their mother disappeared, she found solace in sci-fi movies and video games, completely avoiding social life. She’s a tech nerd who spends most of her time planning new shows with the computer GAIA. For her, forming Alpha Prime has meant gaining a new, bigger family that’s slowly helping her come out of her shell. Though she keeps a low profile, the deep beats of her bass, ‘Matrix,’ make the crowd feel the tremble and are essential to completing the band’s sound.

Talanah

Her cultural background made her believe all her life that guitars weren't meant for women—until she picked up "Khalis," the guitar passed down from her father, who was said to be the greatest guitarist under the sun. It felt like she had finally found herself. She made it her mission to become the best guitarist out there, regardless of gender—and she did. Now, she shreds alongside Aloy to take down Jiran, a member of Nemesis and the one responsible for her father's death.

Alva

CEO, a member of Nemesis, controls the town of Alva from a distance. Both he and his predecessors have erased music from existence there, repressing the creative minds of its inhabitants and keeping them submissive. Alva is determined to recover musical knowledge and bring it back to her people, across the world, along with her beloved Federa. With her keyboard 'Ancestor' in hand and performing alongside Aloy, she feels capable of freeing her people from the torment of living without music.

Petra

It's no coincidence that the crowd's cheers grow louder whenever Petra shows up. The power of the rhythms from her drums, 'Forge’s Breath,' combined with her strong personality and physique, make her a favorite, especially among women. She's an amazing musical engineer and has crafted all the band's instruments in their players needs. She's not here seeking justice or revenge; she's here to hit hard and push the rhythm of their songs to the max.

Thank you for reading! What do you think they would sound like?

If you want to know more about Rock Breakers check this post ✨🤘

[lazy-baby-jaiden]

Hello There, 🤗

[This is a little introduction post]

My name is Jaiden (she/her) and I'm a 19 year old trans-girl from Germany🇩🇪

I'd really appreciate it, if you took the time to read this before interacting with me😊

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First things first: This is mainly a kink blog so please only interact if you are 18 or older!

Secondly: I ask that you kindly fuck off🖕, if you're a:

biggot, homophobe, transphobe, racist, sexists, conservative, or just a general asshole with no respect and basic human decency/empathy.

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Now that that's out of the way let me tell you a bit about me😁

Why I started this blog:

There are 2 main reasons why I started this blog:

One: I want to express myself in a unique way and share a part of myself that I otherwise couldn't.

Two: I want to find friends and lovers who have the same interests as me both in and outside of kink.

Kinky things I'm into:

Diapers and Ageplay: No surprise there, I'm an AB/DL and a Little🍼. I don't really know my little age since I have trouble letting go enough to regress completely, but it's probably somewhere between 2-5 years old.

My sexual orientation: I'm pansexual as well as polyamorous (though I've never actually been in a romantic relationship before) so please don't hold yourself back from messaging me because of your gender identity or the way you look. For me the most important thing in a person (not just in a sexual/romantic context) is their actions and the way they treat others.

BDSM: I love being tied up⛓ and I love the idea of being completely helpless and bound as my partner(s) roughly fuck, spank and otherwise dominate me.

Though I find it important to say that this only goes for sex and kinky activities. I firmly believe that in a relationship all partners should be equal and make decisions together.

Humiliation: I like humiliation but only to a certain extend. I find that many people often go to far and start actually insulting people. When I say humiliation I mean it more as teasing.

Chastity: This is really just an extension of the previous two but it had to be said. Locked Girl = Good Girl🔒

Other things: I wouldn't be able to list all the things I'm into if I wanted to. I'm a really open person when it comes to kinks (and almost everything else) so if you want to talk about any "weird" kinks you have or just want to know wether I'm into something paticular just ask. I can't promise I'll be into it, but I can promise not to judge you😊

Non kink things I'm interested in:

Video Games: I'm what you would call a gamer girl 🎮. I've been playing video games for all my life. From the Nintendo Wii to the Playstation 5 I've played it all.

If you're looking for someone to play with send me a message. Video Games are so much more fun together!

Some of my favourites: Plants vs Zombies GW 2; HELLDIVERS 2; Elden Ring; The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; Celeste; Rocket League; Minecraft;

Storytelling: I love all forms of stories. I've read close to 200 books 📖 (mostly fantasy) and even more manga. I stopped counting how many times I've rewatched my favourite movies and tv shows.

I also write myself, though I don't consider myself to be very good at it and have never finished a storie I've started writing.

I don't just like consuming stories though I'm really interested in how stories are made and structured as well. I once watched an 8 hour analysis of Demon Slayer on YouTube.

Philosophy: Please don't ask me who my favourite philosopher is or anything like that😅. I never formally studied philosophy. I just enjoy thinking about all kinds of things and discussing them with others at lenght and indepth. No topic is to obscure or random for me! Using my mind and discussions with others are one of the greatest pleasures in my life.

Board games: I've been playing board games for even longer than video games. And I don't mean stuff like Monopoly. I'm talking about games more akin to Dungeons and Dragons🐉 in complexity (though I only played D&D once).

Thank you for taking your time to read this little introduction of mine🤗🥰

[ilikekidsshows]

Am I jumping to far if I call Marinette a psychopath? I mean she uses people as she please for her own benefit, she seems to has no remorse, no conscience, egocentric, impulsive and well, she could be charming I suppose, especially to Cat Noir. Idk what else to call the combi of those trait if not psychopathy🤷‍♀️

---

I don’t think we should be pathologizing selfish behavior. Marinette is selfish and spoiled, and she is being written with the awareness that she’s a wish-fulfillment protagonist. Marinette is a bad example of one, but it’s not exactly comparable with an actual neuropsychological condition, for all the writers tried to use: “she’s traumatized!” as an excuse for some of her actions. This writing direction affects the rest of the cast too, and not just Marinette. The sympathetic characters validate Marinette's behavior almost constantly and any actual criticism Marinette faces in universe is nothing more than friendly ribbing with no expectation to act better attached.

I’d say Marinette is Kirito For Girls, but, like, even Kirito isn’t as selfish as her. Marinette has more in common with the current ilk of the wish-fulfillment isekai protagonists, like Naofumi from The Rising of the Shield Hero, or any other isekai series with similar trappings. The thing about this kind of protagonist is that their actions are basically justified by the protagonist being in another world, where they obviously need to do whatever it takes to survive. Usually these worlds will be made hostile in some way, the nominal hero humiliated and brought low by those in power before he can rise in power and get revenge on them all and win all the girls’ eternal devotion.

We’re meant to cheer for whatever nonsense these characters get up to, because they’re the only real/good humans in these fantasy settings, with everyone else being an NPC in a video game, or every other character in any position of power is the most over the top, ridiculous example of human garbage. The thing is that, as paper thin as these justifications end up being, they’re still something that gives the audience an excuse to root for the hero and enjoy the power fantasy. Even when the protagonist isn’t too sympathetic, the people around them are so much worse that the hero comes across as the better person.

But here’s the reason why Marinette can’t even manage the bare bones of rootability that modern isekai protagonists have; Marinette lacks their justifications. Marinette lives in the real world, she is the most popular girl in school, she has loving parents and caring friends and she’s the “greatest Ladybug ever” and all her “bullies” are ineffectual losers who never really bring her down outside of the almost never shown backstory. Marinette doesn’t get treated badly to justify her rise to power to stop herself from being hurt again (for all ‘Derision’ tries to prove otherwise), her world isn’t filled with awful or stupid people who can’t be trusted with power so Marinette has to take all the power for her own. We’re supposed to root for Marinette just because she’s the protagonist or we're supposed to not root for other characters, not because they've done anything wrong, but because they are not Marinette.

Basically, Marinette is the way she is because the writers view only her as a proper character instead of merely a prop and they write the series with this approach in mind. Marinette exists in a world where everyone else is a puppet dancing to her benefit, either to praise her or to make her look good when she defeats them. With this core concept in mind, of course she isn't going to feel empathy towards what basically amounts to toys. However, this creates the conundrum of: ensemble cast shows tend to have audiences with different favorite characters, Miraculous itself got a lot of praise for the five hero team we saw at the end of season two, yet post-retool Miraculous is telling us we should only care about Marinette, meaning they’ve trashed one of the draws for this show. The attitude of the writers seems to be the exact thing I brought up when discussing how even some of the toy lines are now ignoring that the rest of the cast even exists: “If you like any hero other than Marinette, fuck you, you stupid kids!”

The Marinette problem is so all-encompassing that it affects other characters and even merchandise, so it's very hard to explain with any in-universe explanation.

[lulu2992]

Hey there!

After reading your great insight on what to keep in mind when, say, writing the Seed brothers in fanfiction, I was wondering if you wanted to cap things off on what to keep in mind when writing Faith?

You don’t have to do it immediately, just when you have the time.

Hi! Sure, let’s conclude this “series” with the last member of the family, Faith Seed :)

First, while she’s referred to as a/the Siren by Dutch, a couple of NPCs, and in promotional material, this isn’t her official title in the Project. And as you probably know, Faith Seed’s real name is actually Rachel. However, unlike what the Far Cry Wiki claims, I’m quite certain her full name was never Rachel Jessop. Unfortunately, the biography on her Wiki page is partly made up and based on that incorrect assumption, so I really don’t recommend trusting it. This advice goes for all Far Cry characters, and I don’t think the Far Cry 6 Season Pass is a good reference, either, since the DLCs were written with the help of the Wiki.

In Far Cry 5, in addition to the story cutscenes, she has three sermons (here, here, and here), four answering machine messages (here, here, here, and here), and can also be randomly encountered in the Henbane River region as a “specter” (term used in the files). When she appears, she either hums the song “Oh The Bliss” (here and here) or talks to the Deputy. I think what she says really is worth listening to and adds a lot to her character. @teamhawkeye has done a tremendous job recording and compiling all her appearances in 9 videos (1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9)! As for Marshal Burke’s “apology video”, in which Faith also appears, it’s here.

I wrote a summary of what other characters say about her here (masterpost here), and all the NPCs’ comments about the Seed family are available here and here.

Faith isn’t in Far Cry Arcade and doesn’t have the same “combat lines” as most other characters, but you can still listen to everything she says during the final fight against her here.

Her deleted lines are here, and she has even more here. Most of them probably aren’t relevant anymore, but they’re still interesting and make me wonder what they originally had in mind for the character!

If I’m not mistaken, there’s only one note in Far Cry 5 written by Faith: the “Note for Tracey” (Hope County Jail). The note “A Confession” (Throne of Mercy Church) was also written by “Faith”, but it seems to me the author is one of Rachel’s predecessors.

Indeed, in-game evidence indicates Rachel wasn’t the first woman who took on the role of Faith Seed. There were at least two others before her, Lana and Selena, but we barely know anything about them or why they were replaced. Two letters, written by people who knew and loved them, can be found in the game in the Horned Serpent Cave and the King’s Hot Springs Hotel, but that’s pretty much it.

There was another note written by Faith, apparently cut from the game but still available in oasisstrings. It was supposed to be in her bunker, Faith’s Gate:

To my guardians, Because we have each other, we are already strong. But when the Collapse comes, this gate will need to be the heart of our strength. Guard it with your lives, knowing that any sacrifice you make will be for the future of humanity's greatest ideals and dreams. Jacob and Joseph have chosen you to guard this gate. You should be very proud. I know you serve me with love, but never forget that this will be your home, too. If you falter from this purpose, remember the bliss is there for you. With love, Faith

It’s worth noting that, in the game’s files, Faith (or the Henbane River) is sometimes referred to as “Selena Seed”. To me, this suggests that her identity and her backstory went through many changes during the development of Far Cry 5, and that might explain at least some of the grey areas surrounding the character.

Since she isn’t the Seed brothers’ biological sister and they weren’t raised together, The Book of Joseph doesn’t give a lot of information about her life before Eden’s Gate aside from what the game already tells us: she was a broken person, addicted to drugs, and was “adopted” by Joseph as his sister and Herald. When she joined the cult, since drugs are forbidden by the rules, she first had to overcome her addiction, and the book says she succeeded with the help of scopolamine (basically Bliss). It’s also explained she then worked with a geneticist named Peter, probably on developing Bliss. That said, in the game, he’s never mentioned, cultists never use the word “scopolamine” (always “Bliss”), and nothing clearly indicates it can be or has ever been used as a substitution treatment, so I’m not sure what’s still canonical...

Faith also appears in the short film Inside Eden’s Gate (not entirely canon to me but still good) where she’s played by Mackenzie “Kenz” Lawrén Johnson. I must admit Faith is my favorite Herald in the film; I really like Kenz Lawrén’s interpretation as well as her opinion on the character, which she gave in this interview!

Weirdly, Faith has often been referred to as the “half-sister” by the game’s main writers (such as here or here) even though she isn’t related to the Seed family in the game. It’s possible that she used to be but that was changed at some point. According to the Lead Writer, “Maybe she isn’t liked by the other two brothers as she didn’t grow up with them” (which is hinted at by NPCs and John himself in Far Cry 5). In a now-deleted interview for GameCrate, he also described her as “more of an outsider” and “probably the most fervent believer in Joseph”.

Greg Bryk, who co-created and played the Father, said he believed he needed Faith because “the maternal aspect of the feminine energy is missing” in his life even though it’s something “essential for Joseph to have”. He thinks there have been several Faiths because “when [Joseph] would lose faith, [he] would find another Faith.” And according to him, “she doesn’t need to have a specific energy because there’s something of an essence that [he needs] as opposed to a person”, and she almost has a “mother earth energy”.

While she does give a bit of information about her past life as Rachel in the game, saying she was “ostracized by her community”, “bullied by friends”, “abused by her family”, and “wanted to die”, it’s not always easy to know what’s true and what’s not when it comes to Faith because she’s known for being a master manipulator; lying is canonically part of her modus operandi. In a way, because Faith Seed is a role, I would say she’s also always performing. Unlike what a few NPCs claim, I don’t think that means she never tells the truth, but she’s still undoubtedly “very skilled at twisting the facts and turning any situation to her advantage”, as the game’s Narrative Director put it.

Although the details are unclear, I believe it’s true Rachel was “lost” and “broken” before she arrived in Hope County and joined the Project. It’s also true that, as Faith Seed, she’s now powerful, dangerous, and not innocent anymore, as her former best friend Tracey Lader, who knows her very well and witnessed her transformation (but was unable to stop it), warns the Deputy. I neither mean nor think the situation Faith is in is normal, healthy, or the best thing that could have happened to her, but I do think saying she’s unhappy with it, helpless, in danger, or that she only wishes she could run away from the cult really is a misunderstanding of the character. Faith knows what she’s doing, and she’s very good at doing it. To me, she’s the most powerful Herald.

Since the lore is a bit inconsistent, we’re not entirely sure how the Bliss works and who created it, but we know it’s an almost magical, hallucinogenic and pacifying drug made from “bliss flowers” (heavily inspired by Datura stramonium) that Faith is immune to, can control, and uses to brainwash people. “The Bliss” is also a place, but once again, the details are unclear. It could be her bunker, or maybe just a distorted version of reality that individuals who are exposed to the drug “live” in. Wherever or whatever it is, most people never truly come back from it or fully break free from Faith’s influence, as seen with the Marshal in the game…

In the Project, Faith’s role is to lure (hence the nickname “Siren”) people into the cult and convince them to follow the Father, often with the help of Bliss. If they keep resisting or are “too full of fear and doubt”, high doses of the drug can be administered to them and turn them into Angels, who are comparable to zombies according to some characters. Bliss irreversibly damages people’s brains, and those who become Angels unfortunately can never be saved. Faith and her followers seem to think they’re beautiful creations because they’re faithful to the Project and unable to sin. It seems she has the power to control them (at least partly), and the cult doesn’t hesitate to use them as “shock troops” or “slave labor and beasts of burden”, as NPCs say. They’re indeed very docile and resistant... as well as hard to kill.

Again, there are some discrepancies regarding what happens to potential converts in the Henbane River region, but it seems people first have to walk along the Pilgrimage path and, at the end of it, take a literal leap of faith from the statue of Joseph, just like Faith explains she did (even though whether or not the statue already existed at the time is a bit uncertain). As unbelievable as it sounds, NPCs confirm it’s entirely possible to survive the leap. After walking the Path, some pilgrims become Angels, some simply join the Project, and others don’t survive, either because they don’t make it to the end or die when they jump (maybe because their faith isn’t strong enough, I’m not sure how that works).

In the Family, Faith can be described as “the favorite child” (and I think that makes John jealous), who saw Joseph as her savior when they met and wants others to experience the same feeling, by force if necessary. Just like her brothers, she basically weaponizes her trauma and makes people relive a sublimated version of her life story: she targets the most vulnerable individuals, gives them drugs to ease their torment, and sometimes takes their minds away from them. Even though Faith is fully capable of thinking for herself, isn’t mind-controlled, was a drug user before she joined the Project (not after), and left her old self Rachel “in the darkness” willingly to be reborn as Faith Seed, she still became a new person for the Father and expects the same from anyone she converts, even if that means she has to completely brainwash them.

In conclusion, we don’t really know much about Rachel and her backstory, simply that she was broken, saw Eden’s Gate as a chance to start anew, and happily took it. Since she was young, desperate, and therefore suggestible when she met Joseph, one can wonder if Faith is simply a manipulated, brainwashed victim; a poor, helpless soul devoured by a cult. But although that situation is far from ideal or normal, she and other characters confirm that she too has teeth, and she doesn’t hesitate to use them. Rachel should theoretically just have been a victim, but as Faith Seed, she’s transcended this status. She’s found purpose, power, and is committed to her beliefs. Not everyone in Hope County precisely knows who she is, but now, she does. She’s a multifaceted mystery whom people tend to underestimate, and it’s something she likes to cultivate because that’s how she gets them. She’s a Siren, but in my opinion, also a Phoenix, who was consumed completely and rose up from her own ashes to be born again. Rachel was broken, but Faith is strong. Rachel lost herself, but Faith was found. Rachel was nothing; Faith can be anything.

[twistedtummies2]

Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes - Number 14

Welcome to A Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes! During this month-long event, I’ll be counting my Top 31 Favorite Fictional Detectives, from movies, television, literature, video games, and more!

SLEUTH-OF-THE-DAY’S QUOTE: “You attacked reason. It’s bad theology.”

Number 14 is…Father Brown.

Originally created by author G.K. Chesterton, Father Brown is one of the most famous detectives in English literature. Having said that, I must immediately make a confession: I’m not THAT well-versed (perhaps surprisingly) with the original “Father Brown” short stories Chesterton wrote. I’ve read some of them; specifically, I’ve now read all the ones collected in the book “The Innocence of Father Brown.” (My favorite is “The Invisible Man,” which, for the record, has absolutely nothing to do with anyone named Griffin). However, beyond that, I’m not especially familiar with the original writing. I also have not seen either of the two English-language film versions I know about (one played by Walter Connolly, another by Alec Guinness), both of which were based on the story “The Blue Cross.” And I should also immediately state that I have seen only one episode of the TV series starring Kenneth More from the 1970s, which I know has been highly lauded in years since.

So…since it seems like I am unfamiliar with nearly EVERYTHING that has brought this character into popular culture…how DO I know Father Brown, and why is he so high on the list? Well, because there is one version of the character and his universe that I am VERY familiar with: the most recent TV series adaptation of the stories, which began in 2013 and is still going strong today (with a new season coming this year). This show, simply and appropriately titled “Father Brown,” stars Mark Williams (whom many may recognize for playing Mr. Weasley in the Harry Potter films). While it frequently changes a LOT from the original Chesterton stories, the show is still EXTREMELY good. In my opinion, it modernizes the stories in a way that is pretty decently handled, so that even if you haven’t read the originals, you can still get a lot out of what’s being given to you. The spirit of Chesterton’s work is still intact. Much of what I say here will be informed by Williams’ portrayal of the character, which is why I wanted to make all this clear right off the bat.

Father Brown is an example of what might be called “the busybody detective,” or even more appropriately “the accidental detective.” What I mean by this is that he’s not in any way officially tied to the police; in fact, the police frequently see him as a nuisance, who gets in the way of their work and often makes them look like fools. He also never makes a career or a proper hobby out of his detective work. Being a detective just…kind of happens to him. Father Brown, on the surface, is a simple and humble local priest; a God-fearing, God-loving man of the cloth who is charitable, good-hearted, and at times seems sort of fumbling and shambolic. He’s not someone, therefore, you’d expect would make a great sleuth.

A great sleuth, of course, is exactly what this mild-mannered Catholic priest is. Father Brown’s rather simple demeanor belies a steely will, an even more steely faith, and a very cunning and alert mind. He typically ends up playing detective not so much out of a desire to one-up the police or some obsessive desire, but simply because he notices something amiss and begins to question why that is. His greatest assets as a sleuth can be summed up as two simple attributes: common sense, and, above all, human empathy. Father Brown doesn’t necessarily look for fingerprints or psychoanalyze criminals like a forensic profiler, but simply notices things that don’t make sense and then tries to make sense of them. He uses his understanding of people’s personalities, looks at their character traits and ideals, and uses them to his advantage; if he feels it isn’t in someone’s nature to shoot in cold blood, he follows his instinct, and he’s usually proven correct. If he sees someone showing some weakness or vulnerability, he latches onto that to try and sway them. He tries to redeem his enemies more often than he tries to ruin them. Contrariwise, this man also knows when NOT to trust people. While he’s noble and forgiving, Father Brown isn’t a pushover. In fact, the Williams version is revealed to be a war veteran; he’s seen some action (and horror) in his lifetime. This, combined with his devotion to the confessional booth, means that he knows very well that people are not perfect. With that said, despite being a religious soul, he isn’t superstitious, and tries to be tolerant of others with different beliefs. In short, Father Brown seems to understand that good people are good people, and tries to find the good in everyone, even those he seeks to defeat. Whether you’re spiritual or not, he’s not only a good detective, but arguably a good role model: I think a lot of us wish we had a Father Brown in our lives.

Tomorrow, the countdown continues with Number 13!

CLUE: “Are you with me? You might even be way ahead of me.”

[youngestdaughtersyndrome]

Is there any chance you can give us a tag directory?

I can certainly try!!! Its not a complete directory because i have over a hundred and even i lose track of all of them. Anyways im putting the list under the cut ... i tried to organize it to the best of my ability so GENERAL is for housekeeping, TANGIBLE CONCEPTS are for physical things, FLEXIBLE CONCEPTS are things that hover between physical and conceptual, INTANGIBLE CONCEPTS are things that fully conceptual, and SPECIFIC MEDIA is for specific bands/shows/etc. I highly recommend if youre on mobile you DO NOT hit keep reading because its absurdly long and will take over ur dash. Anyways have fun knock urself out

GENERAL:

hollyws: original posts..... went by holly for a while on here, first url was honeyhollows, hollows has similar spelling to holly, you get the gist

a: a is for assorted, so anything that doesnt have an actual organizational tag goes in there-- memes, textposts, current events, etc

srb: self reblog, but not for every one of my og posts that i rb, just the ones that surpass a thousand notes and therefore get deleted. Its my greatest hits pretty much

for later: links, resources, things i want to return to, you get the gist

tag game: those like questionnaire-type games one gets tagged in

asks: asks that ive answered

vdo: in-app videos

the world flows past on both sides distant and mute: audio tag. From nazim hikmet's poem "things i didnt know i loved"

mb: moodboards

our hands empty except for our hands: webweaving and parallel posting. From ocean vuong's "on earth we're briefly gorgeous"

fave: favorites, obvs

blog thesis: the tag equivalent of me calling something real as hell, containing things that qualify as my belief system

my face: selfie tag, but most (all of them actually) get deleted approx 24 hours from original posting time so there's not really anything in there

maeve tag: pictures of my dog reside here

foster tag: my family fosters dogs sometimes, so if we've got a foster and i post a picture, it goes here

matryoshka dog, blue is your color, gi posting, betsy's ordination song, evan's dream journal: personalized tags for friends of mine

TANGIBLE CONCEPTS:

born to blow your mind or something along those lines: art! From the last shadow puppets' "miracle aligner"-- pretty much everything but photography...

the human eye is the loneliest creation: ...because this is the photography tag. I typically only use it when an image doesnt fit into any other tag, so its basically my "a" tag but for like formal images only. Kind of an ocean vuong quote but i changed it from "the human eye is god's loneliest creation" to that bc i go back and forth on god and whatnot

there's a brand new talk but it's not very clear: fashion, both in the conceptual runway sense and the "this is cute, i would wear this" sense. Aptly from david bowie's "fashion"

play pause rewind: anything having to with film or tv (that i dont have a specific tag for)-- gifsets, interviews, editorial style guides, etc.

people!: pictures where you can put a name to the face, so either celebrities or pictures that have their name in the caption

let it go free: items-- jewelry, knick knacks, tchotchkes, etc. A combination of things i would want and things i find beautiful, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive

cabinet of curiosities: a multitude of objects at once-- dollhouses, boxes full of stuff, dishes of jewelry. Its different from "let it go free" because i said so

interiors: decor, interior design, etc.

dishes: plates and platters and whatnot that i like

they really want you: dolls. From hole's "doll parts"

the light on your door: mirrors. From the velvet underground and nico's "i'll be your mirror"

releases: cars, usually crashed or rotting or in some other form of disuse, but also just normal, completely fine cars. Go watch crash 1996 dir. david cronenberg and then we'll talk

hundred voices: spirals. Also concentric circles.

nacreous: pearls, things with a mother-of-pearl inlay, etc

it's coming coming down: eyes. From sonic youth's "beauty lies in the eye"

bad girl meat: teeth. From lady gaga's "teeth"

divine and sharp: weapons, or at least some very pointy things one shouldnt run with

happiness is: a warm gun. Guns in general actually-- this is my tag for guns. From the beatles' "happiness is a warm gun". Duh

prisms: food. Lots of cake in this tag but its all foods not just cake.... i just like cake

o sailor: sailing, nautical stuff, ships, etc. From fiona apple's eponymous song

it's buzzcut season anyways: cutting hair, from lorde's "buzzcut season".

tattoos: well, its tattoos. Not necessarily ones i would want or even inspiration for future tattoos, its just that if a tattoo is the main focus of an image, it goes in here

invitation to peace: deer tag, from system of a down's "deer dance".

draw blood just to taste it hold bones just to break them: canine tag as in dogs, not the teeth, and also one that i wish wasnt so long because man this is a pain to type out. From nicole dollanganger's "dog teeth"

weird fishes: fish. From radiohead's "weird fishes"

lo voy a tener que matar: cats! From los saicos' "el entierro de los gatos". Also yeah i know it means "i'm going to have to kill him" i just think its real funny

in silence i have pulled myself free: tag for horses and all things horse related. From pj harvey's "horses in my dreams"

cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other: cowboys. From willie nelson's eponymous song

they don't love you like i love you: places i grew up in/nearby-- it's pretty much everything west of colorado with a bit of mexico in there. From yeah yeah yeahs' "maps"

like the blue blonde hollyhocks of the dead: flower tag (all sorts, not just hollyhocks). Another bastardized quote, this time from sandra cisneros' a house on mango street-- the original is "dusty hollyhocks thick and perfumy blue-blond hair of the dead". Very good book you should read it

we return to each other in waves: things relating to the water-- the ocean, lakes, rivers, etc. It's definitely a quote from something but i cant find the og source and i dont trust pinterest

consumed and refined: fire, things on fire, burning, yada yada yada

tamer: ice, snow, frozen things, etc

01010000: all things mold and rot. Referring, of course, to the date the world began to decay, which was the day it was created

FLEXIBLE CONCEPTS:

lamentations! lamentations!: art or quotes or whatever that make me scream cry throw up wail howl prostrate myself etc.

the everything the patterns: my humanity tag! Doubles as both an "awww, arent humans cute?" tag and a catchall for people who aren't celebrities and don't have their names in the caption

god and other highways: religion and god, but mostly god. If you see something in there and you think "how could this possibly be related to god OR religion?" mind your own damn business <3

i believe in angels: things i consider to be angelic, which is a classification system even more lengthy and unnecessary than this tagging system. From abba's "i have a dream"

bolts in the head: monsters and generally spooky things. And yeah ik frankenstein doesnt actually have bolts in his head and that was a lie the movie made up but also the nature and definition of a monster is just as illusory and invented as the bolts are

whispers in the air: ghosts, or the fleeting nature of things, or the imagined, or the abstraction of the memory. So yeah its ghosts

when i love you it's forever: the dead, but focusing on the flesh left behind instead of the ghost that proceeds ahead. From "confessions of a skull mask", in the anthology "necrophilia variations"

we have put her living in the tomb: houses or general structures, officially haunted or otherwise (because all buildings are haunted in some way tbh). From my favorite edgar allen poe story "the fall of the house of usher" :)

the roots of the tree: things relating to childhood, development, or family

the lovers: art, photos, etc typically with two things interacting in some familiar way. Not necessarily nsfw, but theres definitely some lesbian erotica in there so beware

cut open my sternum and pull my little ribs around you: gore and blood and all that fun stuff. Not all images of blood go in here so if youre sensitive about pictures of blood beware. You probably shouldnt follow me if you are tbh. Anways it's from purity ring's "fineshrine"

is it a love song?: hunger, desire, violence, and the place where they intersect. Gore is in here also <3 and it's a quote from the 1983 film the hunger

race my heart race my soul: images i really really love. I would say its my aesthetic but aesthetics are a lie propagated by Big Capitalism to get you to buy more shit you dont need so no its not and dont get it twisted..... from "i'll never learn" by the shangri-las, which is possibly my favorite song. I go back and forth on what my favorite song is, but this one's up there for sure

put on your red shoes and dance the blues: all things red. From david bowie's "let's dance", but the original or 2002 remaster and not the 2018 remaster because as much as i love saxophone its totally out of the blue in the intro of the 2018 remaster and i dont like it

love me blue: all things blue, from zayn's "blue". And i have no qualms with any version of this song because i love you zayn

twilight sun: all things pink, from something that someone said to me in passing once and i thought it was nice.

the dead image of life: all things green

capable of charming god: all things yellow

tête à tête: ballet, and things relating to ballet. Even pictures of models with their ribbons tied all messed up go in here, im sorry to say

do you think you've made the right decision this time?: departure, transit, etc. Coming from, though, not going to-- the emphasis is on the leaving. From the smiths' "london" (underrated track tbh)

disappearance in transformation: bugs that can fly-- mainly moths and butterflies, but some beetles and other grubs appear here too

kill this chorus: people in relation to water-- in puddles, swimming, drowning, etc. Im not saying what this is from... if you know you know and also you know why that phrase pertains to that imagery

the luckiest by far: celestial bodies, clouds, the sky, etc. From madonna's lucky star

heaven waits on the other side: weddings, mostly brides and wedding dress-type stuff. From nicole dollanganger's "heart shaped bed"

godspeed your love: all things relating to love (and occasionally heartbreak). From possibly the greatest love song ever, the righteous brothers' "unchained melody"

lily left alone: playing cards and things having to do with suites of cards. Kind of from bob dylan's "lily, rosemary, and the jack of hearts" but not really

bloodied black: martyrs, warriors, knights. Lots of pictures of armor and joan of arc imagery here

mourning lamb: farm animals, mainly sheep but also cows and pigs and whatnot. From ethel cain's "ptolemaea"

all down: typography, handwritten things, etc-- everything from journal entries to song lyrics to letters to typed notes

time is a river: myths, folklore, classics, historical art, etc. Technically a quote from heraclitus but every knows it bc of marcus aurelius

INTANGIBLE CONCEPTS:

from the fire roads: get ready for this because this and the following five tags are all connected. This is the tag equivalent of exposition on the hero's journey-- the scene is a small town, a childhood bedroom, a parking lot, etc. From bruce springsteen's "racing in the streets"

and i see big things for you: this is the first threshold (transformation) in the hero's journey. In this particular case, the protagonist becomes a groupie for a band that passed through the town, and this world of travel and casual excess is very different from the world theyre from. The scene is a basement shows, cigarettes in a hotel bed, underfunded recording studios, etc. From wolf alice's "white leather"

somewhere there's a party: the "challenges and temptations" part of the hero's journey-- our protagonist gets tired of the constant moving and, craving something more, ends up in a big city working as a model/socialite. The scene is a closet filled with frills and designer clothes, a gala, the backstage of a fashion show, etc. From the replacements' "swingin' party"

don't cry about it: now at the second threshold (abyss) of the hero's journey, things start going downhill. The protagonist loses themself in a wave of drugs, sex, and excess; the scene is now a large bathroom with a shattered mirror, a smoke-filled bdsm club, a nosebleed, etc. From lana del rey's "this is what makes us girls"

careful fear / dead devotion: with the third threshold (atonement) in the hero's journey comes the protagonist's realization of their own rock bottom and the desire to get better. The scene is a dark bedroom with light coming through the door, a park at night, an open window, etc. From the nationals' "don't swallow the cap"

born with a weak heart: the end of the hero's journey-- the protagonist takes what money they have left and splits, getting a place in the middle of nowhere and working as an attendant somewhere they won't be recognized. The scene is a clearing in the woods, a warm kitchen, a grocery store, etc. From talking heads' "this must be the place"

there was to be no death in eden: Mostly i use it for animals that i dont have a specific tag for, large groups of animals, animals in little people clothes, fantasy art, folk tales, children's books, or anything else i consider to be edenic. Im gonna be honest with you i have a weird idea of eden because i saw it in a dream ... more on that here if u scroll down to where it says september 22 2023. Its an ellen g. white quote im pretty sure, and while i personally hate the seventh-day adventists and everything that entails, i do respect a woman who gets visions

you got your good thing: things pertaining to heaven, which is a vibe i cannot possibly explain bc i saw it in a dream as well but i will link you here nonetheless and just hope you get it. In short basically heaven is an archive and the angels never build it right because they're working off pure image untainted by emotion and human perspective so everything looks a little wonky and clinical (they mean well though). From david lynch's "in heaven (lady in the radiator song", off the eraserhead 1977 soundtrack

pelican island: birds. Also any sort of ghostly island or mysterious shore. Ghosts, too. From deena metzger's eponymous poem

ST PAUL MOMENT ST PAUL MOMENT: the nature version of my humanity tag. Refers to the biblical tale of st. paul, who was blinded then healed by jesus as a way of converting him to christianity (which is fucking crazy and sooo dramatic but we're not here to talk abt that). The point is that its the sensation of being awakened to a natural power higher than yourself, like how flowers always have a number of petals that complies with the fibonacci sequence

thou mayest: being good, being bad, the feeling of being torn between your capacities for good and evil, the shame of feeling evil, etc. Go read john steinbeck's east of eden and then we'll talk

soul opium: solitude, isolation, loneliness

thorn without a rose: hole theory. From aerosmith's "hole in my soul" #sorrywomen

shadows: poems that come off as gray to me. Yeah i dont know either man they just do its a very specific vibe and there is no other way to describe it than gray

ritualism: the color white being used in a holy, ritualistic context (or at least a context i perceive as holy)

74: my yamaha tx750 was created in 1974, which is a year that is important to me for no other reason than that (if u go into the tag its pretty obvious and if its not.... well im not telling)

p: im not sayinggggg. But here you will find white horses and things about grief

are your ears on?: writing, particularly having to do with the idea of a grand overarching narrative that tropes are forcefully enacted within

SPECIFIC MEDIA:

it's impossible to compete with the dead: my tag for all things sharp objects-related. Tag is a quote from the book

spn: that would be the 2005 cw show supernatural. #Sorry

mcr: that would be the post-hardcore band my chemical romance. #Sorryyyyyyy

shattered teacup: tag for the 2013 tv show hannibal and no other version of thomas harris's work-- silence of the lambs and whatnot can be found in the "play pause rewind" tag

little nudie turtles: tag for the 2018-2023 hbo show succession. Quote by tom (it's literally tom).

and the angels wouldn't help you: tag for david lynch's twin peaks, both the show(s) and the film

time is a flat circle: tag for season one of true detective... haven't watched the other seasons of this show because honestly nothing can beat that. So its only for season one

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

An unhealthy basis for enjoying media

Rewatching one of my favourite video essayists' take on Avatar, and how a lot of people seem to be so emotionally invested in it to a almost religious degree. I have little investment in that show beyond its representation, but it kind of got me thinking about the times I've done the same with my favourite media. Luckily with smaller fandoms and hence with a far less toxic feedback loop, but still.

The main point she brings up is that people remember the show for what it represented, as a big, mature turning point for cartoons rather than the actually good themes about friendship and diversity in it. And I think that actually extends to worse fandom obsessions generally.

Something like Steven Universe can't be a show with legitimately great episodes next to some really terrible ideas we don't talk about. It has to be the most beautiful thing ever that will bring true art and social justice to the world.

...This probably goes for like half of left-wing YouTube and adventure fantasy shows now I'm typing it out, actually. She covers those a lot.

I don't have a point to make on those media, though. Their fandoms just reminded me of the past hyperfixations I've had that turned unhealthy: how it always ended up with deifying them into the greatest thing that ever existed in my mind, how I felt the need to vitriolically defend them against any differing takes because they were my personality.

They were a reprieve from the worst times of my life. But in retrospect that's not completely a good thing - I was using them to cope, but also avoid thinking about my issues at all.

The one I feel comfortable namedropping is the most recent one on Ninjago. I kinda just brushed it off as a result of academic pressure, but as I was reading more critique on it (and since was in therapy at that time), it eventually clicked that I'd been using it as a vector to escape thinking about my relationship with being Asian.

But it doesn't only happen from flawed media. My other major example was a game that is damn near perfect in its execution, but my interactions with it - absolutely mining it for as many ideas as I could, and spending all my time on it were just the only way I could think of to escape the crushing changes happening in my life at that point. It also lead to me having really weird headcanons and intrusive thoughts about it and not acting as considerately as I should've been around my friends at the time, both IRL and in the fandom.

I think you can almost always tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy attachments though. It just requires one moment of clarity and a bit of introspection away from the media in question.

My main advice would be... well, first consider therapy if you know you've dealt with a lot of stuff in your life. But barring that, my advice is that no one piece of art can capture the entire human experience, or even your personal entire experience. Or beliefs. Or fantasies. You should not rely on them as such.

Have multiple, varied things you like going into a hyperfixation, so you can draw on them if you need. It'll probably feel less immediately rewarding, but it stops you from feeling that you're eating yourself months in and being the living incarnation of the Boss Baby Problem.

It'll also feel more fun if you're a creator, because you can get some really original ideas by pulling totally different media together.

[hijinxensues]

EDIT: i did it

I very literally need ONE person to support this idea and i will write it as a multi chapter fic

OKAY HEAR ME OUT, HEAR ME OUT. ITS REALLY SPOTTY BUT I FEEL LIKE I HAVE A RLLY GOOD CONCEPT FOR SOME FUCKING FLUFFY SHIT

miraculous ladybug and cat noir type love triangle/square????? with donnie and reader (OC, maybe???).

Reader is half-mutant/whatever (think mirko from my hero academia- basically human with bunny ears and feet. PLZ IM BEGGING FOR AN EXCUSE TO HAVE A PART-BUNNY OC) but goes arnd w a cloaking broach to continue living as a human. Regular ass job at a coffee shop (because OF COURSE they do), has a weird customer has comes in late at night, can never really see his face but donned in purple- ALWAYS. They dont chat much ever and hes pretty much in and out when he grabs his caffeine fix.

reader goes home and hops onto their computer and plays whatever video game to reconvene with “bootyyyshaker9000”, some guy she’s only heard the voice of because his cam is “always broken”. hes good company though!!! and hes fun to chat with, so the online friendship continues. god forbid she admits to herself her heart seizes when he laughs.

donnie doesnt often use his cloaking broach often (why would he? Him and his brothers literally get by as “humans” with a “skin condition”), but occasionally he doesnt want to sneak around topside, (even though yokais are relatively welcomed after the krang invasion) and so he dons his cloaking broach to pick up whatever (parts? tech related?). he runs into reader on the street for whatever reason, he recognizes them as the barista from the coffee shop he frequents. Theyre nice enough, but hes never really chatted with them extensively. SO TRUST ME WHEN HES SURPRISED WITH HIMSELF THAT HE’D ACTUALLY WANT TO CONTINUE TALKING TO HER AFTER A FEW QUICK WITTED REMARKS ON HER END. they part without exchanging contacts though but both of them are honestly lowkey INTRIGUED with eachother. (Also head canon for me that bc the boys r made from lou jitsu dna, their human forms are asian- CHECK @/smallest_of_smol on tiktok to see their asian!human!donnie which this is literally inspired by)

OKAY IN THE HIDDEN CITY, reader goes around without her cloaking broach but does use a mask to cover up their face since they mostly look human. Theyre too-mutant for topside but not yokai-enough for the hidden city so she does hide away their features a fair bit. she never needs to really venture down into the hidden city, but she likes the pizza there (always takeout so she doesnt need to take her mask off to eat) and does find some use in the mystic trinkets down there too. RUNS INTO DONNIE, as he picks up pizza for his brothers at “run of the mill”. They knock shoulders and they both drop their pizza boxes. CUE THE SASS FROM DONNIE. CUE THE SASS FROM READER. they hate eachother from the STARTTT.

OKAY PLEASE IS ANYONE WITH ME? ITS A BIT ALL OVER THE PLACE AND ITS BEEN YEARSSSS SINCE I WROTE FANFIC BUT THIS IS SPEAKING TO ME. FLUFFY AND SMUTTY MAYBE???? SOMEONE TELL ME THIS IS A GOOD IDEA AND ILL DO IT RN.

[dailyoriginalcharacter]

(credit: @prozac)

SANGRIA used to be a nursing robot, dully making her rounds. Now that she’s spontaneously gained sentience, she finds herself in a strange, apocalyptic world. Her kindness will be her greatest asset - or possibly her downfall.

If you want to learn more check this shit out. Also @kumied again, feel free to ask me questions. Smiles.

SANGRIA’s story is called Apocalypse Simulator!, a video game where you play as her. You explore the one remaining town of the world, meet the survivors, and through your actions you can either attempt to rekindle community and build a brighter future, or you can choose to delve into the town’s history and origins, forcing yourself into buried secrets to unravel the present.

(art by @numberposting hi n_n)

SANGRIA’s main friend (who discovers her AI) is the town’s only Mechanic, whose father went missing about a week ago. SANGRIA completes mechanical tasks for the Mechanic (stylized as daily missions), giving them more free time to pursue their father. As SANGRIA completes these tasks, she also has an opportunity to talk with the people who own these machines, creating closer relationships as she helps them out again and again.

Above all else, SANGRIA values love and friendship. She sees her relationships and desires as choices she makes every day, which strengthens her grip on her ‘free will.’ She is outgoing and friendly, and she frequently vocalizes the emotions she feels, in lieue of not having the same body language and expressions as her human peers. She loves plants and eventually has the opportunity to unlock her own garden in-game. While at first she grows flowers and vegetables, she comes to cultivate weeds and grasses instead, letting these hardier plants bloom wherever they wish.

I love how contradictory SANGRIA is, like on one hand her desire to love & be loved stems from an insecurity that she is not “person” enough. She was not made to have sentience, she gained it from some odd, cheap glitch, and that fact haunts her. To combat it she attempts to make herself as “human” as possible, and in her mind the solution to this, to not being a robot (easily discarded tools, manufactured with no individual care, mindlessly doing their tasks with no passion or soul), is to be loved and cared for and to love and care in return. At the same time, because she used to be a nursing robot, she also worries that her desire to love and care is not actually a choice she has made (proof of her “humanity”) but rather something that is ingrained in her. That she has merely “evolved” to be able to consider more complex situations, but that she is still bound to her code and can never truly be a person. She can’t reassure herself one way or another because both feed into her core fear.

(art by @bashirs <3)

SANGRIA does not feel hunger, and she does not experience much emotional connection to music. Her way of viewing the world relates mostly to analyzing the biological processes of humans, which she attempts to warp and manipulate with the help of inventions by the Mechanic. She possesses a thermal mode of viewing, and she has a medical dictionary she can overlay through her normal camera. However, as time goes on, she begins to overwrite the medical terminology that was automatically downloaded into her software with various other vocabulary words that her friends teach her.

Also she has a crush on a power generator, which electrocutes her while she’s clumsily attempting to fix it. n_n

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

//So with 30.8% of the vote, Seiko Vs The Lizard takes the spot for our 10th round.

//Dr. Kimura Vs Dr. Connors. I'm actually REALLY excited for this one! The things these two can do against each other are so interesting,

//But let's move onto the semi-final...And I'm happy to say...It's TIME...!

[NOTE: I have shown my bias towards one particular matchup on this list (you'll know which one if you've followed me for a while) and while I personally would love to do it, do not let my opinion sway your bias]

//Connections are under the cut:

Deku: Both were born as starry-eyed kids in a world populated with powerful people with unique powers and abilities as one of a few people who do not possess one themselves, driven by their affection for a faction that represented their world (Ultimate's and Heroes). Both wished to have powers of their own but are driven by different motives (While Hajime's motives were rather selfish, wanting to become someone that mattered, Izuku wanted to become a Pro Hero to help people with a smile). Both would be given the chance to receive these abilities, along with a title they would inherit with a similar "Hope" theme ("The Ultimate Hope" and "The Symbol of Hope") from some of the most important people in their world that they greatly admired (For Hajime, it was Hope's Peak Academy, a school he attended as a Reserve Course student that he looked up to since he was a kid, and for Deku, it was All Might, the Number 1 Pro Hero and his idol). The power they inherited is among the greatest power in their worlds, and permits them to use various powers and abilities from other individuals (The Ultimate Hope Talent, which bestows upon Hajime every known Ultimate Talent in history, and One for All, which bestows upon Deku the power and quirks of previous users.) Both would attend a school full of individuals with similar capabilities (Hope's Peak and U.A.) and for contrasting reasons, this led to them taking on different identities (Hajime's personality and individuality was erased by the researchers that gave him his talents, becoming Izuru Kamukura, and Izuku Midoriya adopted the Hero Name of Deku to represent his own individuality and what he stands for). At their best, both characters are selfless heroes who are admired and looked up to by their classmates and best friends (Class 77 and Class 1-A respectively), who include a jealous rival (Nagito and Bakugou), a love interest (Mahiru and Ochako), and their best friend who always looks out for them (Chiaki and Iida). Though fundamentally similar heroes, their tales, however, are not the same; Hajime's is of a fallen hero, whereas Izuku's is of a rising hero.

Sunny: Both characters are the seemingly depressed main characters of their respective video games, which largely take place within a realm separate from that of the normal human world (Danganronpa 2 takes place inside a virtual reality, and over half of Omori is spent within Sunny's Headspace, a world made of the machinations of his mind) Both realms also exist as a coping mechanism for each character's trauma (Hajime/Izuru was placed into the Neo World to restore his original personality after he and his friends were brainwashed into being Remnant's of Despair, and Headspace serves as Sunny's "Happy Place" which he closes himself inside to cope with the death of his sister Mari) but both realms came under threat of a demonic force that threatened to take it over (Monokuma/AI Junko and the "Something"). Both characters suffer from experiencing the traumatic death of the person they loved the most, which was inadvertently caused by them (As Izuru, Hajime worked with Junko to mastermind the original Chiaki Nanami's death, and Sunny accidentally killed Mari during an argument where he pushed her down a flight of stairs) and through different means, both developed a second blank-faced and soulless personality from this trauma that existed purely in their minds, which one way or another, threatened to take over, though by different means and motives (Izuru Kamukura was born when Hope's Peak wiped Hajime's personality away after giving him infinite Ultimate Talents, and then remained as a spiritual figure inside Hajime's mind until Hajime was almost killed during a fight with Nagito, and Izuru automatically took over. Sunny has Omori, which is the manifestation of himself inside Headspace, and threatened to take over Sunny in the real world, inviting unimaginable horrors into the poor boy's mind until Sunny confronted his trauma and defeated him). Said alter-ego's also have contrasting relationships with their dominant personalities (Hajime and Izuru are shown to be quite chummy, and in spite of Izuru's lack of personality and emotional attachment, he does seem to hold Hajime in high-regard. Omori however, represents the side of Sunny that closes him off from the outside world, the "killer" he believes he is, and basically represents all of the boys inner demons).

John: Both went to a fundamentally depressing school full of remarkable people, where there is a hierarchy based on the abilities and talents of the students (Hope’s Peak acted as though Talents was the reason why someone matters, and New Bostin views the higher tiered students to be literal Kings and Queens), as two people who lacked these abilities, being given less than flattering nicknames (Talentless and Crippled respectively). As a result, they grew up as resentful and jealous young men until they were given the chance to possess the most potent gift of all; one that enables them to possess enhanced forms of other people's abilities (Hajime became the prime subject for the Izuru Kamukura Project, which granted him access to every talent in the universe, making him superior to all others, while John unlocked the power of Aura Manipulation, a power that allowed him to sense other people's powers and fighting capabilities, as well as duplicate them and amplify said powers.) But as a result of being the top dog, getting these would make them go down darker paths, and as a result, they would lose not just their former selves but also any close friends they may have had, becoming the opposites of what they once wanted to be (Hajime would transform into Izuru Kamukura, the Ultimate Despair, who contributed to the Tragedy by upsetting the stability of life at Hope's Peak and ultimately causing the death of Hajime's closest friend, Chiaki Nanami; while John would turn into a ruthless tyrant seeking vengeance on those who had bullied him and his friends, eventually becoming a bully himself and losing his friendship with Claire and Adrion.) Eventually, both would conquer their pasts, even though hints of their original personalities remained (Izuru remained as a fragment of Hajime's mind and John retained some of his savagery and violence) but were saved by new friends who helped them come to terms with themselves (Chiaki for Hajime and Seraphina for John).

Min-su: Though starting out as notably kind and thoughtful people, a great tragedy turned both of them into fallen heroes and the deadliest villains known to man (Hajime took part in Hopes Peak Academy's Hope Cultivation Plan following the death of his fellow Reserve Course students that the academy completely ignored because of their lack of talents, with the intention of developing his talents; but Izuru Kamukura, a more cynical character, was born to host his body. Min-Su is an Isekai hero who returns from another world only to confront the somber reality of losing his family and being rejected by society as a pitiful nobody). Even though each of them was given their powers with the intention of using them to save and bring hope to their own worlds, once they turned evil, they started abusing and unleashing their abilities to cause the world to descend into complete misery. They are both the de facto leaders of a group of people in a similar situation as them (the Brainwashed Class 77-B and the 9-Heroes) and both have also waged war against the entire world with the sole intent of plunging it into pure Despair. At one point or another, both were battling a group of resistances that pushed them to stop trying to build a utopia centered around despair and free the world (The Future Foundation; the Restoration Government and the Resistance Heroes.) The difference lies in that Hajime eventually overcomes his despair, returns his original personality and joins the hero team, whereas Min-Su only progressively loses his mind more and more as the series goes on.

Infinite: Both signed their lives and what heroism they had away after being tempted by the ultimate power of their universe (Hope and Talent and the Phantom Ruby) which was eventually gifted upon them, or rather infused into them, to use at their leisure by a powerful group of people with a dark underbelly (The Hope's Peak Academy Steering Committee and the Eggman Empire). Both characters snapped and gave up everything, including their old personalities, to undergo said villain's brutal experiments, with the catalyst for their decision being told to their face that they are weak, useless and don't matter in the grand scheme of things (by Juzo Sakakura and Shadow the Hedgehog respectively) and through some coercion and manipulation, the two became the right hand man of the most evil villain in their respective universes (Junko Enoshima and Doctor Eggman), aiding them in bringing complete control and destruction to the entire world, in which they succeeded (Izuru led the Ultimate Despair against the world and helped Junko bring about the Tragedy, and Infinite defeated Sonic, allowing Eggman to conquer the world). Thus becoming the biggest and most powerful threat to the resistance organization that battled against them, including a spiky-haired protagonist (Makoto Naegi and the Future Foundation, and Sonic the Hedgehog and the Resistance). Both characters are also shown to possess a degree of boredom to the world that they let guide their actions (Hajime/Izuru is so powerful, he doesn't have to put effort into most of what he does, taking the excitement out of doing anything, whilst Infinite initially accepted Eggman's offer to join his army because he was bored with the peaceful world as it was) Both at one point possessed a title with the word "Ultimate" in it (Hajime is the "Ultimate Hope" and Infinite was once the "Ultimate Mercenary").

[leveractionlesbian]

i've been playing fallout 4 a lot recently, and i've come to realize the story is actually good if you're willing to meet it halfway. it's only crime is being a story that's just "good" in a franchise with three (fallout 3 isn't real it can't hurt me) of the greatest stories ever told in any video game

elaborating under the cut:

you cannot play fallout 4 as an RPG. you will hate it. there is very little roleplaying outside of the very few avenues the game gives you for it (roleplaying as "generic member of the faction you're playing as" is actually pretty fun) because character builds don't build character narrative and the dialogue options are miserably limited. fallout 4 is a looter shooter with a branching story, and if you treat it like that, you'll have a good time.

the Minutemen questline is cool but underdeveloped. you should play it with the mod We Are The Minutemen for an improved experience. but generally, it does a good job making the player feel like a goody two shoes minuteman running to help the farmers and settlers, and building a small idealistic republic. it ties the narrative into the settlement gameplay very nicely as well. imo, they should have just made Preston Garvey the general so that him giving you orders makes more sense

the Institute are good villains. they remind me a lot of Caesar's Legion (though significantly less interesting and well written), mysterious and frightening until you reach their home base and learn more about them. they're also pretty evil, but you can at least understand them on some level: they're the greatest minds of the modern world, controlling things from the shadows using kidnapping and violence because they think being scientists makes them better than everyone else. it's not great, but it gives them enough depth to be more than just "the evil faction who is evil because they're evil." giving the player character the personal connection through Shaun was a good idea too, since it adds a layer of complexity to the question of if you should destroy them

the Synth issue in the game is misinterpreted by a lot of people, but that's because the game does an extremely poor job of communicating it. it's not "are synths human," because we interact with them enough to know, with absolute certainty, they are. the question is moreso "if this group fundamentally poses a threat to literally everyone around them, can you justify letting them exist?" this is pretty well outlined by Maxson during the BoS questline and the situation with DiMA in Far Harbor. the choice of accepting synth baby shaun is a decent resolution to this theme: do you accept this child as yours? it ties into how you feel about synths but adds the extra weight of it being your son. it's pretty cool!

the Railroad questline is kind of terrible, but it ends up being pretty fun, and i don't think it's by mistake. the characters and quests and interactions with the other factions are so absurdly goofy that it just becomes a sort of "fuck all the other factions" playthru in the same vein as Wild Card. it's not very good, but i like it for what it is.

the moment to moment writing kind of ties it all together for me. obviously the extremely limited dialogue options are awful, but it wasn't the end of the world for me, although it is definitely the worst thing about the game. but the companions are pretty likable, and the NPC dialogue has enough character to not be boring, and the side quests are mediocre at worst. there's some good writing in them, but for the most part they're extremely basic motivators to go shoot things, and the gameplay is fun.

its by no means perfect. the dialogue option sucks. the Railroad, while very funny, still kinda sucks. Preston Garvey sucks, and he's the main dude for the Minutemen questline. the reason the Synth issue is so often misinterpreted is because the writers are bad at properly explaining it outside of a few specific scenes. these are just a few problems, and most of the problems are actually extremely detrimental, and a story where you have to meet the writers more than halfway at least half the time is a poorly explained story but i still like it. it's overhated, and when you're just playing the game and actually are meeting it halfway, it's fun to take part in

[adarkrainbow]

So, the thing I have been hinting at since a few posts is that - if you are not aware, Bill Willingham, the creator of the big DC comic book franchise "Fables" (a landmark in the history of both fairytale media and urban fantasy), decided to make "Fables" public domain. And everybody is losing their mind.

I am not sure of the details of the matter, but from a quick glimpse around the boiling Internet, Willingham was fed up with how DC handled their ownership of Fables and kept reinterpreting the contract Willingham had with them, ranging from DC chosing cover artists Willingham had not approved of, to him receiving apparently no money for the video game adaptation "A Wolf Among Us". So, tired of having to constantly battle with a DC company that apparently wasn't "playing fair", he decided to "cut the grass under their feet" as we say in France, and to make Fables public domain so that now everybody can make Fables work and sell them legally.

I am not sure if this will actually be happening since I am fact-checking my info while writing, and DC Comics has published a response explaining they will do everything they can to prevent this from happening - so this seems to be the beginning of another legal battle between Willingham and DC.

I also see a lot of posts heralding Willingham as some sort of hero for standing up against the "big company" that is DC and all that, I'll take a minute to remind you how before this all happened, Willingham had gotten a more ambiguous, if not unsavory reputation. I do like Fables (or at least I like the core of it, after a moment it really dragged on too much and tried to live way past its natural lifespan), and I am thankful it exists - but it doesn't change the fact Bill Willingham hasn't proven to be the greatest guy. His most recent dark note being his rudeness at the "Writing Women-Friendly Comics" convention, where he participated as a member of the panel, but apparently kept interrupting, mocking and disagreeing with all the women participating in a very rude and stubborn way. The guy certainly had cool ideas - but it doesn't mean he is a good guy, and given the series of accusations against him, and bad behavior incidents he got into, the whole "public domain" thing doesn't surprise me. Willingham has been giving off "petty diva" vibes these recent years, and this "public domain" move can be read in this direction.

I already highlighted how when it comes to actual variety in genders and sexuality, we have to wait for the spin-offs of Fables rather than the comic itself, spin-offs not written by Willingham - and there is also the whole thing of how he wrote one of the most perfect and heart-touching metaphors in Fables for the experience of being a trans person (the story of the wooden soldiers who wanted to become humans of flesh), but from what I heard he actually is not at all a trans-ally in real-life, not to say he might be transphobic? (Note: as I am writing this I discover he might also be doubtful, if not actively denying, climate change? Really?)

I am not sure of it all, again there's a lot of drama going on I have not spent my life documenting. But all of that to say... if Fables ever becomes public domain I would be so happy, because the original Fables truly exhausted its run in Willingham's hands (the recent revival has proven to be very disappointing, furthering my point), and only got breaths of fresh air within other writer's hands so far, so I would be very happy to see the franchise being explored and remade by other people. Again, Fables is a great concept and has been a big influence on so many things - it deserves to exist without the shadow of Willingham's dramas behind it.

At least that's my personal opinion. And with DC making all it will can to prevent the entering in the public domain, it might as well not happen...

[luwupercal]

Why are all the Primarchs so fucked up mentally other than the Khan and Guilliman

i mean shit various reasons not in the least the fact that in warhammer 40k humanity itself has been traumatized

like, ok imagine for a minute suddenly hard borders erupted around the earth encasing the entire surface in blocks of, i dont know 200km. to give you an arbitrary range. no one can get through these barriers you cant even communicate through them you cant even see people through them. youre just stuck there. no contact with friends or family or any loved ones outside the cube. maybe you werent even from those 200km but you are now! you gotta! youre gonna live the rest of your life in that place!

& you can technically live an entire life within a 200km by 200km by 200km cube but like, all grids you modernly know of will go kaput, unless youre lucky enough to get to live in a cube with all the energy plants and water treatment plants and fucking banana plantations needed to continue your previous normal daily life

this is what happened to humanity in 30k when slaanesh was born and ruptured ftl. that's textual. that's horrific. they had no way of knowing this would happen. we don't even know how common interplanetary travel was prior to the great collapse. fucked up!

so, a couple hundred thousand societies broken by being forcibly separated from everything & likely a lot of them doomed to a slow death due to not having the basic resources to maintain its population. this is traumatic as shit. this is an unspeakable tragedy, obviously. there's nothing stopping these societies from going to complete shit and basically all of them do (yes i'm counting even macragge because idk much about macragge but it being a monarchy is already dystopic. all monarchies are dystopian and that includes the uk lmao).

and these twenty eighteen complete miracle children are launched alone each into a different one. that's the biggest goddamn recipe for disaster i've ever heard. doubly so given why they were made, what they were made to do... in the immortal words of benny gecko, "from where you're kneeling it must seem like an 18-carat run of bad luck... truth is, the game was rigged from the start"

like, they're all of these brilliant goddamn geniuses and perfect tools of conquest... every stupid tyrant hated them, any smart one coveted them and/or used them, but all tyrants feared them, because the primarchs were custom made to be better tyrants and brighter tyrants and more convincing tyrants and more convinced of their own righteousness. perfect tools for a person who built himself as tyrant above tyrants, and now they're to be raised by squabbling feudal lords?

recipe for COMPLETE disaster. COMPLETE disaster

like, at the best of times you can fuck up raising a child, much less raising a goddamn orbital laser with delusions of grandeur with a supernatural ability to instill belief in the divine right of kings in passersby, only a couple millennia after the literal greatest tragedy humanity has ever experienced and likely ever will (surpassing by twelve hundred thousand magnitudes the horus heresy, easy). and that's if you've got their best intentions in mind, which like, considering how valuable a primarch baby is...

then after that its a significantly more individual thing. there's common threads, but if i start talking about them im going to go on an unhinged rant about tragedy and ARCHIMEDES and i dont think anyone cares for even more new vegas references or my enthusiastic ranting about that jacob geller video i saw the other day

that said if you DO want me to speculate on the brain trajectory of any specific given primarchs just give me one or two at a time and i'll handle them. or tell me to run through all of them actually i think i could probably do it. it'd be a goddamn monstrosity of a post and i'd stick most of it under a cut and i'd probably fuck up a couple primarchs but i'll do it, idgaf

anyway if this is unintelligible my bad i'm hungry as fuck. i'm gonna go order mickey ds if anyone wants anything lmk

[m34gs]

For the anime ask: 6, 9, 14, 25

Thank you for the ask, friend!! (from this post) There might be some spoilers ahead, but that kind of comes with the territory for questions like these. Beware!

6. popular anime you didn’t like

Are you trying to get me killed, friend. Do you want to see the Meags dead in the ditch. (I jest. Only god can kill me, and only when I'm ready.)

Alright, I have to admit: I don't actually tend to really know what's popular. Sometimes I know, sometimes I'm like 'oh this is so good I bet everyone watches it' and no one else I know has heard of it, or sometimes everyone is like 'oh this show is so popular!!!' and I'm over here like 'whomst?'. Comes from not being allowed a internet or personal ipods/computers when I was younger, and our TV channels were limited. So, bear that in mind while I list my answers and my reasons.

Sword Art Online: Hate. Hate hate hate. Loathe. Kirito? More like Kiri-NO. He's so...bland. And annoying. And I just despise him. Couldn't watch the full thing. Don't like. Don't like at ALL.

Yugioh: I used to watch episodes here and there on 4KidsTV. I didn't like it. I did not like the art style and character designs and I didn't get what the big deal was about them battling with cards. And even now that I'm older, I could probably go and rewatch it, but I don't really want to. Just. No desire.

Kuroko's Basketball: Let me just first start by clarifying. I was actually interested in this anime at the start. But then they started making the sports actions out to be super-powers...and I didn't know at the time that Sports Anime is just Like That. So then I became more neutral about it. And then. It dragged. It dragged so much. Like, the plot got so slowed and I got so bored I ended up not finishing it. So, there were parts I did enjoy, and I really liked a lot of the characters, but I can't say I liked this anime overall.

Chobits: Idk. It's cute and all, but also I just didn't enjoy the main dude. I found him annoying. Also stopped watching this one part way through. That's just something I do. If I find it does not Spark Joy, I stop watching the show. Because I don't like to waste my time on shows I don't like.

9. favorite anime child

This is a toss-up between Somali from Somali and the Forest Spirit and Anya from SpyxFamily.

Anya is cute and funny. She's so relatable in a humourous way, and she really does try her best. She fails a lot, but then sometimes her failures inadvertently save the day. Plus, she has some of The Greatest facial expressions.

Somali is an innocent human child discovered by a Golem in a forest; in a time and place where humans are nearly extinct and are hunted down by Beasts and magical being. The Golem is trying to get Somali back to her own kind. Somali is a sweetheart. She does her best to follow the Golem's direction and she genuinely cares about him, and she calls him papa. Similar to Anya, she is just trying Her Best. In contrast to Anya, she is much more quiet and timid.

Honestly, I can't choose. Both girls are very sweet.

14. saddest anime you have ever watched

Ok, Honestly, I've probably watched a lot of anime with sad things, and bittersweet endings...it's hard to really choose One. But, that being said, I do have one that comes to mind. Take it with a grain of salt, though, because this is my opinion, and my opinion is subject to change at any point and time lol.

Corpse Party.

Yes, I know it's based on a video game. Yes, I know it's in the horror genre. I don't care, it is still sad. It is sad more than anything. Why is it sad? I don't know where to start. I'm not going to recount all the deaths, onscreen or offscreen, because that would take too long. The situation itself is bleak; students trapped in a ghostly school with all sorts of spirits after them to hurt them and rip them apart? Maybe it's sad because they're children? They're supposed to represent hope and light and the future, and they get stuck in this school and (literally) torn to shreds. Also. The littlest one dies. Which, is like, that is a Big Thing, ok. LIke, even in regular horror movies; there was a time where You Did Not kill off the children (yes, I know there are plenty of child deaths in horror now, but it is still one of the more disturbing aspects of those movies). Kids end up being the unlikely heroes. The ones who persevere and survive despite their innocence and trust in others, or maybe even *because* of it. (or they end up being the demons, but that's not relevant here).

So when that little girl gets tortured and murdered, After putting her trust in an older boy who said he would help her...it brings a huge wave of sadness. She was so helpless. She just wanted to find her big brother. She went from hopeful and trusting to Terrified, and then dead. (not to mention the ghost possessing the place to begin with is Also A Child)

25. anime you would recommend to someone who hates anime

I don't really know if I have one specific anime for people who hate anime. I don't think there's a catch-all that everyone would enjoy. And I don't really like pushing things on other people if they've indicated they don't like it.

If I were to recommend one, it would entirely depend on the person. If they're nice to me about it and they indicate they want to try anime, I would talk with them and find out their interests before recommending. Someone who loves romance might not wanna sit through One Punch Man, you know? So I'd take the time to figure out some actual suggestions that they might genuinely enjoy.

But.

If they're mean to me. Or talk down to me.

I'm gonna recommend they watch Boku no Pico with their Grandmother. 😀

[sys128]

I sometimes find it hard to get into a new habit, even if it benefits me in the long run! I can't even count how many examples of this I can give, because they all and the same way: I do it for a few days but it almost never lasts! I personally believe that it will become an issue in adulthood. Usually, the human brain develops until the age of 25. And that age is fast approaching, even though I'm almost 18. It might only be a matter of time for these habits are ingrained in my brain permanently, and will therefore be much harder to solve. I have tried many ways to combat this procrastination issue, but finding a solution is quite difficult. I always seem to find some way to snap out of it and continue doing the things I have been doing instead of the things that I should be doing.

That isn't to say that it never works, however. I have managed to maintain a month-long streak by learning Japanese on Duolingo and continue to rely on other sources to get the job done, so obviously I am capable of building some sort of habit. Another example of this is how I've managed to become fluent in another keyboard layout. But there are so many other things that I wish to do going forward, especially when it comes to YouTube. I have been very on and off about video production, which has resulted in months and months between videos, which I don't think the audience would appreciate if this continues. I need to find some sort of way to continue work on them more often than how I'm approaching them at the moment. It would have to be in a way that is most comfortable for me whilst also getting quality work done. Over the past year or so, this has been the greatest challenge I have ever confronted, and continues to be to this day. I figure writing about it will jump start me finding a process to this madness.

Perhaps I can always come back to old ideas and give them another try. One of these old ideas is putting something at stake and acting on it depending on the outcome. Like for example, I wanted to prevent myself from doing something I wanted to if I didn't get something done first. I think I want to try this again, because it sounds like something that would be very effective. Looking back at my childhood, this was very effective in getting my chores done, because I couldn't access my video games until then. Even though this was years ago, that does not mean that this could still apply to present me. Another old idea that comes from my childhood is scheduling. When I was in around 4th grade, I was often supervised by another teacher because I had pervasive developmental disorder, and one of the things that they found that ended up helping me was having a second schedule on my desk that laid out the things that happened during that day. I also have a friend that schedules things 30 minutes ahead of time. (He even calls these things "keyterms.") Using that sort of way of scheduling, it is easier to keep track of what you want to do at that specific time. It seems to be very effective on him, and have been thinking about doing something similar for a while. The reason why I think this will work better than some other methods I've tried is because I tend to jump to the next thing kind of quickly. There are times where my mind is more in a "hyperactive" state rather than completely focused on one thing, whereas other times, the opposite is the case.

I hope to solve this mystery within the next year so it will not be an issue when I become an adult. This would end up helping me in a lot of areas, especially things with deadlines because I have seem to have a little bit of trouble with that. Maybe instead of deadlines, I can focus on getting a little bit at a time each session. But maybe I can't do this with everything, because school assignments rely very heavily on deadlines, so there will be exceptions. Other than that, I think there are ways to solve it, but I have been all over the place in terms of how I'm going about solving it, but I hope I find it one day.