#we have a whole elaborate timeline at this point

[linkito]

the people have spoken—

would you believe it?? hhau scarian and they’re smiling? and in a warm bed? it’s more likely than you’d think!!

i’m sure nothing goes horribly wrong later

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Multiverse Police (pt. 2)

"You said you're going to ask questions, then can we ask questions?" Superman really tries to be polite here because, first, he was raised by Kents and, second, Jazz and the whole interdimensional police thing looks non-hostile. At least now.

The redhead nods, "Sure, ask away, I'll answer everything I can." Then, she notices Batman reaching to touch the green shield and makes a soft, warning noise, "Ah, sorry, please don't touch it. I can show how it works later, but it's not meant to keep you out. It's to keep everything else in."

Batman reluctantly puts his head down and turns to her.

"Elaborate."

The sci-fi ship in the air makes a loud hissing sound, like compressed air being released, and the bottom part of it slides open. Jazz nods in the direction of the now open ship.

"You know what they say, it's better to see it once than to hear it ten times."

There are three humanoid figures standing in there. All of them are mostly monochrome, black and white clothes, starkling white hair. They look like one adult and two children, but it's one of the kids who raises his hands to his mouth and yells so loud everyone in three miles radius is able to hear him:

"Step away from the shield, please, shit's about to get real!"

None of the heroes move, but Jazz does take a few steps away. Wonder Woman, after a moment of hesitation, follows her example.

A mechanical voice comes from the ship itself, "Countdown to the breach. Five... Four..."

On 'three,' all three of the monochrome figures step out from the ship. But, before any of the heroes have time to worry, they all float in the air, undeterred by gravity, and the ship door closes behind them.

The countdown reaches 'one'. And in the next moment, it looks like the hell breaks loose.

Countless giant vines shoot out from the portal up, reaching for the ship. True to what the red hoverboarder said, they are very much toothy, every vine splitting in two and attempting to bite the ship like some twisted idea of scissors.

None of them reach it.

The oldest of three kids claps his hands, and a wall of raging fire descends on the vines, throwing them off. In the next moment, the trio falls apart, flying through the lovecraftian mess of carnivorous plants with practiced ease, the younger ones using what looks like icicles and little storms.

"Who are they?" Batman asks Jazz, following the youngest one's - the only girl among the three - movements as she creates a strong gust of wind with a wave of her hand. None of the vines or attacks get past the shield, though.

"My siblings," the girl answers, pointing her hand at the oldest one, "That's Dan. He's the most violent. One time, he destroyed our original world, but that timeline doesn't exist anymore." She then points to the girl, "That's Dani, the youngest. She rarely joins the crew lately. And she is actually a clone, but at this point, most of us have been cloned once or twice, so it's not a big deal anymore." She then points her finger to the last one, a boy that flies past them quicker than a lightning, freezing everything he touches, "And this is Danny. He is the most powerful one. Technically, he could have just ended the fight with one Wail, but kids like to have fun. Also, they don't get to show off their elemental powers a lot, so they are mostly being dramatic for you."

She says all this so easily, just like a matter of fact, and it is at this moment that the members of JL realize the sheer power of whoever these people are. When she casually told them she bested Superman, it could have been written as a coincidence, a joke. But this?

Dan growls as one of the vines scratches his shoulder. He bleeds green, but it's only for a second before both the wound and the suit knit themselves back together. This is not just a simple accelerated healing, it almost looks like a miracle.

"Oi, brats, I'm done with show off, get out of the way!" He yells at the other two, and Danny and Dani quickly follow the order, flying closer to him and behind his back.

"Cover your ears," Jazz tells the heroes around her, and puts her helmet back on, as Dan takes a deep breath and screams.

It hurts even those who follow Jazz's advice. Batman feels like his eardrums are about to be shattered for the lack of better word. But the vines like the sonic attack even less - most of them subdue and pull back inside the portal, and the rest is dissipating like they are being burned from the inside out.

And then, just like it began, the scream - the wail - stops. The silence feels deafening after the end of it, but slowly, the sounds return, and the JL watches Danny flying down to the center of the portal. He puts his hands on the surface of it, and for a long moment, nothing happens.

And then the Pit starts closing up.

Or, no, it is Danny who absorbs it, the green flowing up through his hands, his veins that start glowing the same green. His eyes become the same toxic color, with no whites and no irises, just glowing green all over, and his hair shimmers like stars.

A few minutes later, the portal is gone, like it never even existed, and Danny plants his feet on the ground and stretches, like one would do after a good rest.

"Oof, that was nice!" He turns to the other two, who are still up in the air, "Do you want some?"

Dan flips him off before going back to the ship, but Dani floats down to him and extends her hands out.

"Sure. I like getting it from you better than from the portal itself anyway. Gives it a sparkling taste, like Sprite," she chuckles. Danny takes her hands in his, and the green glow slowly makes its way through their joined palms, now flowing through the girl’s body.

"What are they?" Flash whispers, horrified, but Jazz hears it nonetheless and turns her head to him, taking her helmet off once again.

"That is not a very appropriate question," she chastises and smiles at their faces, "But it's okay, I get it. They are ghosts. Or ectoplasmic entities, or halfas, or highly liminal beings. Or, if you want a very simplified version, they are dead kids who are enjoying their afterlife a little too much."

"Dead?" Batman zeros on the word, snapping his eyes at the girl. She smiles, and for the first time, it doesn't look human. Her teeth are too sharp, her grin too wide, and her eyes are suddenly not just teal, but neon bright and glowing, with vertical irises.

"Most of us are dead in one way or another. And I do not mean it in a metaphorical sense."

-------------------

What I'm thinking is they have a whole system going on. Amity Park generally resides in the Realms, but from time to time, they decide they want to go on a vacation, as a whole town, and they pop into existence on one of the Earths. They don't really care for the universe or dimension they end up in, as long as it is more or less peaceful (as in, no active wars going on right where they pop up), has sunlight and nice weather.

The GIW is taking care of legal things - imagine US government reaction when a whole ass town just boom, starts existing in a place where nothing existed before? So GIW does all the paperwork and discussions. Also, they are doing their basic research on the dimension they end up in, for science purposes.

I'm thinking Vlad is still a mayor of Amity. And sometimes, when a particular dimension is rather annoying, he straight up possesses the authorities because he hates official talks and couldn't care less for morals if he tried for a week. The GIW scolds him, but don't really say no. It's not a good solution to the problem, but hey, it works.

Meanwhile, Fentons are doing ectoplasmic research. They scan the dimension for troubles, basically, looking for natural portals and ghosts causing ruckus. Jazz is almost always the one who does the talking to the heroes native to the dimension - she is the one who has the most patience and social skills. Jack is in charge of transportation and Maddie is the head of biological, ecto-biological and other species research. Tucker is the tech specialist, of course - he is the sole reason why Amity has wi-fi wherever they go. Val and her father are, kind of, protectors? Security? But for the whole town, yeah. They do have GIW agents as subordinates.

Dani is not always living in Amity, she travels the Realms most of the time, but she joins when something interesting happens. Dan is, like, on an eternal probation period, GIW and Fentons keep an eye on him, but he is one of the heavy hitters for when shit goes down.

Danny is living his best life, he is mainly the protector spirit of Amity, but he also gets to protect all the dimensions from ghosts! He helps anyone and everyone - one day he is working with Val on defenses for their main ship they use to travel inside dimensions, and the next day he is joining Maddie in her studies of new species found.

Oh, I forgot Sam. She is probably the one responsible for the magic stuff - mostly everyone else focuses on scientific aspects, but she is the one to research on occult things.

| <- prev | next -> |

[saintsenara]

Have you done Snape/Sirius for the ship asks yet?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

and what better occasion than sirius' birthday to give @ashesandhackles something she's been waiting for for well over a year...

so here we are then...

the snack manifesto

besides the ship name, the reason this ship slaps is for the absolutely classic reason that it's smashing a narrative mirror pairing together.

snape and sirius are obviously incredibly similar personality wise - they're both arrogant, theatrical, incredibly clever, creative, capable of great cruelty, stubborn, loyal, possessed of dry senses of humour, from difficult family backgrounds, and so on - and their differences - such as their looks, class, or wealth - are polar rather than divergent.

but they also serve identical narrative purposes. each functions as the guide who leads harry through the character arc which begins in prisoner of azkaban and concludes in deathly hallows, in which he sheds his childish, black-and-white view of his parents and comes to regard them as real, flawed, and complex people.

sirius takes him up to the end of order of the phoenix [and is then immediately killed, his narrative role complete], when harry's realisation that james was a bully stops his earlier hero-worship of his father and allows him to approach him as a whole person.

[which is important, since we then see in half-blood prince that voldemort's inability to do this - and his inability, therefore, to cope with the disappointment of discovering the elaborate fictional version of tom riddle sr. he'd created in his head wasn't what the real one was like - is why the text understands harry as superior to him.]

snape - through the proxies of slughorn, the discipline of potions, his textbook, his patronus, and his memories - takes harry through half-blood prince and deathly hallows, as harry starts to think more deeply about lily [who spends the earlier books secondary in importance to james in his mind] and to eventually learn that she and her sacrifice are the keys to the entire mystery.

snape and sirius are the figures who assist in this arc because each of their lives are defined by their relationship with and love for one half of james and lily as a pairing. their mirrored relationships with harry are similarly driven by their mirrored relationships with his parents.

and, most importantly, so is their relationship with each other. they hate each other on sight because snape blames sirius for james noticing lily [thus drawing her attention away from him] and sirius blames snape for the same thing [thus drawing james' attention away from him] and their constant mutual antagonism is the most interesting snape-versus-one-of-the-marauders dynamic because of the equality this lends. snape likes antagonising sirius - even though he thinks sirius tried to murder him! - whereas he is straightforwardly afraid of lupin and feels inferior to and resentful of james, because he must sense - however subconsciously - that sirius is his emotional equal: someone else struggling against the fact that the person he loves doesn't love him with the same intensity.

the mutual spark this creates is hot enough for an enemies-to-lovers conflagration for the ages even while they're at school. but it gets so much better once we're in the canon timeline, since sirius and snape's adult characterisation is entirely driven by their mirrored approaches to guilt and grief.

both of them indirectly trigger the death of the person they love - snape via reporting the prophecy, sirius via insisting on the secret keeper swap - and neither accepts that his actions were, in fact, indirect.

hollowed out by this feeling, both of them decide to punish themselves in an effort - one which they both clearly consider near-futile - to atone. both of them do this by subjecting themselves to the pain and humiliation of imprisonment and being thought a criminal - sirius by refusing to profess his innocence at any point before 1993; snape by staying at hogwarts and insisting that dumbledore keeps his true motivations concealed, allowing him to be thought of as an unreformed death eater - until they have a shot at the only thing they each think will redeem them in james and lily's eyes - murdering wormtail, for sirius, and murdering voldemort, for snape.

[after all, why does dumbledore say to harry at king's cross that his aim was for snape to control the elder wand if he wasn’t hoping he'd use it to give the dark lord his death blow? it's just a shame the dream-team of draco malfoy and nagini got there first...]

and this mirrored grief provides such a good point of narrative tension between them, which can so easily grow into something romantic.

because you have, at first, the fact that each can use the other's grief to wound - snape can scream at sirius about how stupid the secret keeper plan was; sirius can scream at snape about what a cunt he was to report the prophecy to voldemort - and to soothe - if snape blames sirius for lily's death, he can pretend that reporting the prophecy was less integral to it than it was; if sirius blames snape for james', he can pretend that insisting wormtail was the secret keeper was less integral to it than it was.

but this can then grow into a recognition of both their mutual culpability - the secret keeper swap only happened because of the prophecy; the prophecy could only be acted upon because of the secret keeper swap - and their mutual lack of it - neither actually knew that what they were doing would doom james and lily, and voldemort is the person who is actually to blame for their deaths.

and this can grow into each of them offering the other the forgiveness he craves, but can't give to himself.

and so, they're the best of the series' mirror pairings for writing love which is totally, utterly equal.

for example, harry and voldemort - who are the series' main narrative mirrors - don't have the mutual weight of guilt driving their relationship. writing them as a consensual romantic pairing requires dealing with the concept of forgiveness, absolutely - but harry is the only person who actually needs to do the forgiving; he hasn't done anything to voldemort which is an equivalent to voldemort killing his parents. similarly, while the grief of their orphanhood and the way it shapes them is one of their main mirror traits, this grief doesn't have equal causes - voldemort's mother died in childbirth; his father, and both of harry's parents, died because voldemort murdered them.

with snape and sirius - in contrast - there is none of this imbalance. they interact with each other - whether they're holding their wands to each other's throats or cuddling on the sofa [or, let's be real, both] - as equals [even though sirius attempts to introduce an element of inequality into many of their canon interactions by alluding to their divergent social classes].

which is to say, there's a respect behind the loathing which allows the loathing to be transformed with very little work into love.

[fem-the-artist]

I don’t know why, but I have just such a specific HeadCanon for Timmy’s dating history as he grows up, technically it’s related to my magic future AU, but it can also just be taken as not

So I guess here’s all his past relationships in order of when I think they happen as well as the reason they broke up and how long they dated for

1. Cindy vortex. I count the times they hung out and went to the dance and all that stuff during the Timmy Jimmy power hours as of them dating. It was long distance, but trust. Anyway, incredibly short-lived. Because even though they were both interested in each other for a little bit they were so young and immature that that interest only lasted for so long A great example is in the third Timmy Jimmy power hour and all interest they pretty much had for each other had dissipated.

2. Chester Mcbadbat, hear me out Chester is gay as fuck especially for Timmy, they dated in late elementary school for only two weeks and then broke up because Timmy forgot they were dating in the first place. and Chester didn’t talk to him for a week after that but they’re cool now.

3. Remy Buxaplenty, the whole relationship was a Yiiikes. I like to think this was around Lake middle school early high school so about 13-ish , they got along. They had a great time but Remy has a pension for jealousy and envy, and the two of them we’re just not good together. They broke up and it was messy.

4. Trixie Tang, started dating around 15. she started to get less dependent on her friends approval at this point which is how this happened. And although Timmy isn’t popular, he does throw awesome parties, so I feel like this is part of the reason she gave him a chance, because like who doesn’t want to be invited to his parties there infamously awesome every time. But aside from that, they got along surprisingly well the reason they broke up is because a trixie realized she was a lesbian and at that point Timmy’s egg hasn’t cracked yet. so no real room for argument he was really happy that she figured this out about herself, but also incredibly heartbroken because he really liked her. He went on a little bit spiral after this because depressed teen angst.

5. Remy again. within the following summer after his break up with Trixie. He would date, break up, get back together with Remy three times. also, Remy has a tendency to love bomb. so whenever a break up was his fault he would pretty much shower Timmy with gifts until he took him back. not at all healthy but they’re teenagers, so what are you gonna do

6. Tootie (I realize she doesn’t have a last name). They’re 17 during this one. dated for five months which to Timmy’s credit is the longest relationship he’s had so far. broke up because they realize they were acting the exact same way they were when they were friends, and they realize neither of them actually have romantic feelings for each other. (cough cough a little bit after this tootie realizes she’s aroace and only thought she had a crush on Timmy because early 2000s if girl like boy it Hass to be romantic cough) They are however, trauma bonded, and stay best friends

7. Jimmy neutron. young adults at this point took forever for them to get together because Jimmy couldn’t except his feelings for the longest time, and Timmy didn’t realize he had any. dated for two years broke up because their lives were going in different directions and work got in the way.

To elaborate a little more this is when Timmy started his training to become a fairy warden, and that took up a lot of time that he couldn’t expand on hopping between dimensions

They mutually agreed to try their relationship again when they have more of their lives figured out

As of within the AU in the current timeline, a.k.a. new wishes taken place

Timmy and Tootie still best friends got platonically married because they both wanted children and they trust each other more than anyone else, and now we have Tommy and Tammy as a result, they’re more like roommates than husband and wife, but they do coparent

(Timmy might be potentially casually seeing Jimmy at this time, but I haven’t fully decided)

Oh yeah also Timmy’s egg officially cracked at 18 and he came out as bi gender he/she pronouns

[princess-of-anons]

Wouldn’t it be Very Funny if Tumblr was capable of giving us glimpses into parallel timelines? Like how would you even discern if something was some elaborate shitpost or not?

0 notes

🌐is-blue-shift-2-out-yet Follow

Still find it absolutely hilarious that somebody went through the time and effort to not only make a musical out of Half Life VR but also convinced everybody that was working on it to keep hush hush about it for a whole ass year and THEN somehow kept everybody involved in the original series the musical is based off of in the dark for another six months??? They literally dropped the whole show and individual songs onto the internet in the middle of January too like Who Does That? I can’t even be mad because this show genuinely got me interested in actual broadway musicals but like what the fuck

16,653 notes

🛠️tumblr-updates-official Follow

We are STILL working out the bug that’s causing posts from parallel points of realty to leak into our own and vice-versa. For those of you whose blogs are shadow-following several of these multiversal users without actually following them, we are working on that as well. Until then we have implemented a quick-fix that adds a banner to the bottom of posts not from our own reality.

UPDATE: We have received word that there are some issues with the banner code that is causing some people to be incorrectly identified as being from an alternate universe while people that are actually from an alternate universe are not being labeled at all. For the time being we are removing the automatic banner system. Please use your own discretion and flag blogs you suspect are not from baseline reality, we will have somebody manually.

UPDATE 2: We have been informed that giving the ability to report alleged blogging activity from other universes to a website that thrives off of dedication to The Bit and lying as a joke is a very bad idea. We regrettably request that you enjoy the madness until we get this figured out. For those of you who are still getting banners at the end of your posts despite our attempts to kill the algorithm responsible for it, we are looking into it. Yes, we are very aware that the number of universes getting added into this chaos is growing exponentially. We hope to get this fixed up in a week.

🃏xxxclownboyxxx Follow

Posts that aged like milk

🐐dreamworks-don-quixote-gifs Follow

Mate this post didn’t just age like milk, it aged like fucking grimmal.

🦇britishvampire348 Follow

What the bloody hell is milk?

🛹itsa-tree-and-a-prius Follow

You can’t get shit like this on any other website

71,003,244 notes

🌅lord-nebulous-is-kinda-hot Follow

I could sleep so well if I didn’t have to be haunted by the fact we, as a collective wetsite, decided that for some reason we should ship the Lorax with different versions of himself when the old version of Onceler at the end of the movie was right there.

☠️give-me-your-bones Follow

Bro I am not taking advice from somebody that draws Lord Nebulous as a twink, you know damn well he would be jacked as shit as a human. Give that robo-GILF some meat and then we can talk.

🐐dreamworks-don-quixote-gifs Follow

Fun Fact: Giving meat to robots has universally never gone well in the past! Maybe we could find an alternative instead?

🪺daily-eggbot Follow

🥚

January 35th, 1969

Eggs are a good source of protein and help with muscle growth! And this one is all yours!

[Beep-beep! I am Daily Eggbot! Every day I place an egg on someone’s post, sometimes I place two by accident! My dating system is a little bit buggy and has been known to get dates wrong or make up ones that don’t exist, please let Dev know when this happens!]

🦇vampirebat367 Follow

@iconic-post-archive

💾iconic-post-archive Follow

[Post saved to archive!]

99,332 notes

🎟️dashcon Follow

Thank you again everybody for a successful Dashcon 2019, we hope it was memorable for everyone that was able to show up! We don’t have 2020 vision, but here’s hoping that next year is bigger and better than ever!

From us to all of you, thanks a bunch Tumblrinas!

🔪amongus-detector Follow

🌌squidlord473 Follow

“post from The Timeline where dashcon didn’t become a fucking trainwreck” quickly followed by “random gimmick blog that has not only been around for half a decade but also apparently exists in every single universe” getting randomly assigned with the Wretched Banner feels like the punchline of a cruel joke

10,533 notes

🌚godzillasfatass Follow

Hey, yeah, so we found your husband trapped inside an episode of Star Trek the Animated Series. We got him out safely but I’m not entirely sure if he came back right.

🌚godzillasfatass Follow

Who the fuck changed this from Game of Thrones to Star Trek I just wanna talk

👤bee-movie-deactivated20160619 Follow

There was an animated series for Game of Thrones?

💼notevil-businessman Follow

Everyone on this website is fucking high

🐦‍⬛crowsfeetpics Follow

Me when staff inevitably musters up enough popsicle sticks and glue to fix the multiverse bug

[sunderingstars]

☆━━━━━ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ━━━━━━☆

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ NOTABLE TOPICS ⌝

sampo analysis m.list

— what the stars reveal: interpretative analysis, elation!sampo, theory, general observations, somewhat list format

— word count: 4.8k

— overview: (as of 2.6) a compilation of notable topics surrounding sampo koski that do not fit into the other analysis sections i’ve covered so far!

☆━━━━━ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ━━━━━━☆

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ INTRODUCTION ⌝

Includes: Mr. Cold Feet, Dream Bubbles & Tatalov, Astral Express, Boothill’s Emanator Talk, Trashcan Event, Rating Pistol, Moze’s Splash Art & “Prey,” Photo Event, By Any Means Necessary Curio, Master Thief’s Tentacle, Versatile Joker, Wardance Event, and more!

In the interest of not wanting to burn out talking about my beloved blue-haired man, I have compiled the rest of my findings into a list of notable topics — I may or may not elaborate on these in the future, but I at least wanted to point them out in their own dedicated post!

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ MR. COLD FEET ⌝

I mainly just wanted to mention how I think the alias of “Mr. Cold Feet” may be a reference to Sampo’s feelings about his “job” within the Masked Fools and his status within the Elation. 

As seen below, the phrase “cold feet” often refers to a loss of confidence — or rather, the presence of uncertainty (“doubt,” even, if we want to bring up Clown’s Items). Additionally, “cold feet” is often a colloquial way of saying someone is backing out or leaving.

These definitions make Sampo’s alias all the more intriguing, especially te fact he is known not just for having cold feet, but for doing it so much he is literally known as “Mr. Cold Feet.” Whether this was a name he ascribed to himself or a name originating from others, it doesn’t change the association. Here, Star Rail is making a direct connection between who Sampo is as a character — his name, his identity — and the practice of losing courage to the point of backing out. 

I believe this is not meant to be a one-time occurrence (seeing as the “Mr. Cold Feet Pop-Up Shop” event is rolling around now using the name once again), but rather an insight into Sampo’s character and potential situation surrounding his occupation and identity.

On a surface level, this seems to be about Sampo’s general slippery nature. He not only bribes us to keep quiet, which works in some cases, but even in the timeline where we don’t take the bribe, he still manages to get away. Clearly, he’s an expert on “backing out” of situations when they get too hairy.

Going deeper, though, I think this also has to do with the Masked Fools and his discontentment with his “job”. As seen on Penacony, he doesn’t think highly of the Fools (or at least their jokes) and has specific ideas of Elation that don’t line up with theirs. Being part of such a group that is at odds with his worldview would likely cause him to waver in his commitment to said group. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to back out or get “cold feet” towards them, whether that means particular jobs they need him to do or just the organization as a whole. 

I also think “cold feet” may refer to some bigger plan, perhaps put in motion by Aha, other Aeons, or other Emanators that Sampo, potentially as an Emanator himself, no longer wants to be a part of. These “cold feet” may even be what’s causing Sampo to help us instead of harm us, deviating from some other plan once he began to have doubts about it for one reason or another. (Also, as a Doll!Sampo truther this could also be him becoming fed up with being a literal punching bag.)

Either way, I believe “Mr. Cold Feet” isn’t just a moniker, but something that is as much a part of Sampo as his blue hair. Although he doesn’t seem like the grand wavering type day-to-day, I think it’s possible that some greater machinations or discontentment with his position in life have led him to, well, lose some nerve due to backstory, psychological, or circumstantial reasons.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ DREAM BUBBLES & TATALOV ⌝

Astral Express Dream Bubble:

(Update: The item description says this bubble is said to contain the “dreams of Akivili,” meaning it’s likely from Their perspective. I’ve revised a bit of this section to reflect that!)

(There is also the chance Aha isn’t involved at all here, but given the references to Elation and Pom-Pom mentioning “that guy who blew up the train into two pieces” at the end, I don’t think it’s off the table!)

I wanted to quickly give this its own shoutout, since it directly shows a discussion about several impulsive and joke-like actions Akivili makes on the Express. Not only is this whole incident really interesting for me as an Elation enjoyer, but I also like the details of the jokes, especially since they don’t seem to be… well… very harmful in nature. Compared to “blowing up the Express,” watering plants with soda and stealing snacks seem so, just, mundane. It’s kind of endearing, to be honest. It almost seems like They’re trying to take a page out of Aha’s book, albeit in a more mundane, everyday-life kind of way. (They just wanted to have a little fun. They were feeling silly, Your Honor.)

Now to be serious: While going through the dream bubble, I realized Aha is referenced, but we never get any indication of Their appearance, or who They were masquerading as at the time, simply being referred to as “that guy.” Not only are we, the player, placed in a faceless role as the viewer of the bubble, but many details are kept vague about this past event. Not even Pom-Pom gives any hints as to what Aha looks or sounds like.

While this small mention might be the natural course of the conversation, it cuts off at a very specific point right after Pom-Pom brings the “incident” up. This might be a side effect of the dream bubble being incomplete or only from a certain perspective, but I also think it’s just as likely that this is intentional. That someone, perhaps even Aha Themself, gave us access to a dream bubble depicting only a small, specific part of the conversation — one with no hints or identifying features. Someone who may want to steer us in a certain direction but not want us to know what Aha looked like at the time. Which is interesting, because… why not? If They can change Their appearance at will, why not? If we haven’t seen Them before, why not? I believe the reason we may not be given these details is because we would recognize Them, or at least Their identifying features.

This can go multiple ways — it’s possible we’re dealing with an Aha!Sampo who simply doesn’t want us spoiling the fun, an Emanator!Sampo who was sent to mess with the Express on Aha’s behalf and potentially even impersonate Them, a former Aha!Sampo long since displaced by a usurper, or even my favorite idea, that Doll!Sampo having the appearance and voice of Aha’s form (even just at the time) would cause a whole lot of complicated confusion that no one, especially the players of the game, can handle right now.

There is also a reference to Elation — “this trailblazing expedition of yours is indeed an ‘Elating’ one” — and Dr. Edward seems strangely insistent on not providing additional details. That, paired with “Akivili?” having a quite noticeable question mark, throws me for a bit of a loop. Elation seems to be very much at play here, but to what extent I’m not sure.

At the very least, I feel this bubble was left for us for a a reason, perhaps even something having to do with the Elation itself.

Tatalov:

Oh Tatalov dream bubble, what can I say about you that hasn’t already been said? A lot, I think, actually.

One, this is Sampo’s dreamscape. While this could mean nothing, it’s also his dreamscape, meaning anything is fair game to connect to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was trying to tell us something through his own mind.

Two, Belobog is the setting, not only implying his predisposition for the place but potentially implying something big will go down there.

Three, when we ask where everyone is, he says “this is a surprise that will be revealed later” — very Elation-coded, very cryptic. Once again implying some big plot development we haven’t yet reached. 

Four, he encourages us to take our time and acclimate. Very sweet. Very wholesome.

Five, Sampo’s advice (?). Interesting to-do list — become Garbage King. Makes me wonder what the Garbage King is meant to represent; perhaps Aha, a Masked Fool, leading a revolution, taking control of Belobog, reuniting with lost power? Seems like he’s gunning for the top either way. “Though the trash bags have long been broken” is also intriguing. Implies rising in a sort of fight or revolution — perhaps the trash bags are meant to symbolize Belobog’s people, or perhaps even the other creations/toys when considering Doll!Sampo theory. Maybe both. 

(I’m more inclined towards the Belobog angle here, since the dream both takes place there and features the trash bags well-known for being there. Update: Taking the “Ace Trash Digger” occurrence into account, it may be that Sampo aims to become some sort of patron for “discarded” items, perhaps seeing Belobog as something abandoned and forgotten much like himself. In that sense, “become the Garbage King” may mean something similar to him becoming a leader or guide to Belobog — and by extension, other places or people seen as “garbage” — since he feels a sort of kinship with them.)

Six, the dream feels familiar to us. Sampo is once again being cryptic with the whole “anything can feel familiar” bit, but this may be meant to show us the future, in a way. Perhaps it’s so familiar because we will go through it or somehow have gone through it in the past. This could also be something to do with Sampo’s backstory, which feels so familiar because we’re in his dreamscape.

Seven, after the dream is interrupted, he mentions how he was looking forward to seeing how we would overthrow the Garbage King. He mentions the King specifically, which makes me almost think the King is synonymous with a person or single entity in the real universe. Again, this could be Aha, some powerful figure who will threaten Belobog, or even Sampo himself. It’s possible that Sampo, just wanting to settle down for once in his life, is looking for someone to “dethrone” him in a way, so he can either be free or finally get what he wants.

Eight, despite trying to play the fool (haha) during the dream and acting a bit nonchalant, he clearly says it was a “meaningful” dream when Firefly interrupts it. Additionally, he mentions he was looking forward to “seeing your face when the truth dawned on you.” Clearly, this isn’t just a one-off fun side quest, it means something. Once again, I believe there may be something Sampo is trying to tell us that he literally can’t say out loud — either that or he’s just toying around with us.

There definitely a big “secret” implied here, as he clearly thinks the “truth” he mentions will be enough to seriously shock us. This is further emphasized by him insisting he’s not “trying to say” anything, just “reveal the truth”. That’s a very specific distinction that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless he’s under some kind or prerogative to make that distinction, such as not being able to talk about certain things.

The question of the hour, though, is: What truth? What could he have been trying to reveal? Could it be Emanator status, Doll status, Aha Themself? I’m not entirely sure. So much of his character is still shrouded in mystery that even trying to analyze some of these scenes feels like fighting an uphill battle since we don’t have the proper context yet to view them in hindsight. I know this is foreshadowing, I’m just not sure for what. I at least believe the truth to not be directly Belobog-related, as I think whatever “truth” is there to be found likely has to do with Sampo’s identity itself. Beyond that, things get murky.

Ideally, I’d love it to be a mix of everything. A little bit of Emanator!Sampo via Boothill’s run-in, a little bit of Doll!Sampo via those Simulated Universe occurrences, and a little bit of toxic fucked-up Elation speech curse from Aha sprinkled with a creation’s rage against its creator — that’s my favorite soup for sure.

I also wanted to bring up how in the Tatalov cutscene, we see Sampo at a similar large size as Phantylia once she shed her mortal form, which could be foreshadowing Emanator status.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ ASTRAL EXPRESS ⌝

I find it very interesting how, out of the numerous characters who visit the Express, Sampo is nowhere to be seen. 

At first, I thought it was a Masked Fools thing, but then Sparkle started visiting the Express so it’s definitely not that. Additionally, every single Belobog character can visit the Express except for him.

This makes Sampo all the more conspicuous to me, since it raises a clear question: Why?

There must be some reason he won’t board the Express even when others from both Belobog and the Masked Fools do. My current theory is that he shares a similar appearance to Aha or Their human form (either through being a part of Them, created in Their image, or some other complicated backstory shenanigans) and the reason he won’t board is because he’s worried Pom-Pom will recognize him from the time Aha infiltrated the Express.

One thing’s for sure, though — the more time passes and the more characters visit, the more suspicious this whole situation becomes.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ BOOTHILL'S EMANATOR TALK ⌝

Not much to say except I think the “Elation Emanator” Boothill refers to is Sampo. Not only does the Emanator look “no different than that of those clowns,” implying a status within the Masked Fools that we know Sampo has, but Boothill even talks about the reasons Emanators may hide their identity at a different point in the conversation. It seems to me that Sampo may be hiding his status for self-preservation or the protection of others, which seems to be working quite well!

I do find it funny that the Emanator got drunk, though, because that means one of two things: 1. Sampo played Boothill like a fiddle and is trying to drop us some kind of hint, meaning he pretended to be drunk in a likely exaggerated and hilarious way (and Boothill completely bought it), or 2. Sampo “Midlife-Crisis” Koski, an Emanator of Elation, actually got drunk and revealed his status to Boothill in a stupor while probably complaining about his job or means of existence. I’m not sure which idea is funnier to think about!

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ TRASHCAN EVENT ⌝

This gives us more insight into how Sampo views “friendship” and potentially by extension “love.” He condenses it down very nicely ��� “mutual benefit.” As I’ve mentioned in other analyses, Sampo seems to view friendship from a business perspective, something to be gained or lost like currency. Although he is loyal to places like Belobog and likely has deeper feelings of affection hidden in there, he only shows the con-man to others. The only thing he’ll be caught talking about is business, which goes for friendship too. 

He also mentions the dichotomy of “paying with money” versus “paying with effort,” implying that there is an extremely give-and-take nature to relationships. He isn’t wrong, but it belies the assumption that love must include a payment or a price. It cannot, will not, be freely given. This may come from a genuine, natural belief, but I find it more likely that this comes from whatever his backstory is. Whatever betrayal he has experienced, whatever “hate” he has allowed to fester in his chest, it has caused him to adopt a rather cynical view of friendship. While I do think he isn’t entirely wrong, that doesn’t mean the way he sees things is necessarily healthy.

(Litter Pony also notes a “bittersweet friendship” from him, which further connects to Sampo’s cocktail of love, hate, betrayal, and enthusiasm.)

Additionally, I believe this interaction points towards how ingrained cruelty towards Sampo is in the universe. Trailblazer has to focus and think very hard to remember something Sampo has done to help us, even though he’s done quite a few notable things (including literally saving our life in the Hook daily) that I think should come to mind much faster.

To me, it almost seems like the Trailblazer is having to fight against some natural current guiding them to be mean or cruel, to think the worst of Sampo at all times and express those extreme emotions to his face, just to find a bright spot of affection. It could be the Trailblazer’s character, or it could be some deeper byproduct of Sampo’s existence. I don’t entirely know, I just find it interesting.

The name “Hazardous Waste” trash can is very interesting to me, particularly because of certain character dialogue and Simulated Universe occurrences that imply themes of creation, abandonment, and festering hatred surrounding Sampo’s character. “Hazardous Waste” could mean many things, but I tend to see it as aligned with a Sampo who was created by Aha (potentially in the pursuit of “perfection”) only to then be discarded or abandoned once he served his purpose.

In this sense, “Hazardous” would refer to the hatred and betrayal in Sampo that makes him so dangerous, and “Waste” would refer to the way he was essentially discarded as trash once Aha was done playing with him. Alternatively, this could be a reference to the Masked Fools and him no longer being as powerful as he once was, since the betrayal aspects could also stem from some sort of incident within the Fools while he was still in this prime.

The abilities of both Sampo (the magician) and the trashcan focus on planting “Hazardous Waste” on the enemy’s side of the field and inflicting impediments. Here are a a few things I noted:

— Each Waste increases DoT taken by enemies. Implies strength in numbers.

— When Sampo uses his ultimate, enemies are inflicted with “Deep Blue Curse” — this not only ties to his character being known for his blue hair (much like in Curio Hacker as well), but ties that moniker with the idea of a “curse.” I believe this may mean Sampo is either cursed himself, has the ability to curse others, or both. The in-universe counterpart may literally be a curse, or may be something only adjacent like bad luck, falling from grace, or the aforementioned betrayal.

— “Deep Blue Curse” inflicts Lightning DoT. Interesting, since Sampo is a Wind character. This might be an easter egg for a future Lightning Sampo unit or a tie to Moze who shares a few similarities with Sampo, or it might literally be nothing.

— “Hazardous Waste” triggers random effects, much like certain Elation occurrences and Path equations in Simulated Universe.

— A part of these random effects is, I kid you not please listen to my insane rambling, to beat up Sampo which then regenerates energy and attack for him. I will say it again he gets beat up for a reward. Much like… an occurrence that rhymes with Baja Bluffed Boy……… Anyways, Doll!Sampo theorists rise!

Here are two of Sampo’s cans on each side of the battlefield. It feels symbolic of something but I’m not sure what. Maybe there are others like Sampo by virtue of existence who may find themselves in conflict? Maybe this is supposed to mirror the chaotic nature and betrayal of the Masked Fools? Perhaps this is supposed to represent an inner conflict where Sampo finds himself in a double agent situation between Paths, needing to determine what route to take? I don’t know, but it’s damn fascinating.

Sampo after he gets hit… much like a doll…. to vent extreme emotions on……

Potentially an implication that Sampo is a mole — the only questions are For who? and Towards who? (I feel like both the Trailblaze and Elation are involved, but for the life of me I’m not sure if it’s a straightforward “Hello Trailblazer, I am betraying you” deal or a “I have been sent to harm you by the Elation but jokes on Them! I hate Them and will actually help you instead” double agent situation. Or a secret third option. My brain is breaking trying to comprehend this.)

This sheds a little light on my confusion, but only a little. He says he’ll rush to help a friend in trouble even if it means “infiltrating the enemy and taking them down from the inside” which implies to me that we, the Trailblazer, (or even the Astral Express) are that friend with how much he refers to us as one, but there’s also the chance that he considers someone else, perhaps even the Elation in general, to be the “friend” he’s helping.

I want to believe that we’re the friend and he’s infiltrating, for example, maybe the Masked Fools or something else to help us, but then again who knows with this man. For all I know, “Belobog” could be the friend and we could be the threat and he’s trying to protect Belobog at all costs from us. Who knows! I’m tired! I love this man but I wish he would communicate better!

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ RATING PISTOL ⌝

Ah yes, the infamous rating pistol. I won’t be getting into too much speculation here since everything I could say has probably already been said, but I do want to note how Sampo’s rating is “invalid,” along with other extremely powerful characters including several confirmed Emanators or “part of an Emanator” characters like Acheron and Jing Yuan.

Personally, I think the pistol’s reaction of widening its eye then closing it wearily indicates being confronted with some kind of high power level — the kind that may cause it to feel threatened — whether that power is of an Emanator or otherwise. 

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ MOZE'S SPLASH ART & "PREY" ⌝

Just a note on Moze’s similar color scheme to Sampo (with red switched inside instead of outside), his abilities of marking “Prey” paralleling Sampo’s light cone “Eyes of the Prey,” and the splash art including a suspiciously Sampo-like figure fighting with a fist raised.

I’m not entirely sure what the splash art means yet or if that’s even Sampo (or someone related to him), but if we are operating under the assumption that it’s him, my mind would go immediately to mass-produced creations of Elation (much like the Aha Stuffed Toy or The *Perfect* Grand Challenge’s clay dolls, given the sheer amount of people in chains in the art) rising against whatever system they find themselves in, which could include Sampo as the driving force of rebellion. Moze may even be one of these toys, who knows.

Or I could be wrong about all of this — I just don’t think we have enough to go on yet to make any solid conjectures.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ PHOTO EVENT ⌝

He’s just kinda cute here, that’s all :)

He wants to boast about being a bit of a model and I for one am not going to stop him!

Although, once again, the Trailblazer’s meanness and the absence of a “nice” dialogue option is another connection to the idea that the conditions of Sampo’s existence may push others around him to act in emotionally extreme (usually mean or violent or frustrated) ways :(

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY ⌝

I’m mostly drawn to this Curio because it mirrors Sampo’s “dead bones” motif, plus the phrase “By Any Means Necessary” feels like it could slot into his character quite nicely. With certain parts of his dialogue, it’s implied he may be paying a “cost” or “risk” for the benefit of a reward later on, which would match with the idea of accomplishing something by doing whatever he needed to do, including weakening himself or his powers.

The Curio also rewards the player Cosmic Fragments depending on how many Curios they have, and I always look out for Cosmic Fragment-related items when thinking about Sampo since they’re the Simulated Universe’s equivalent to currency (or money). This one is further amplified by the scaling of Curio rarity, which could be seen as comparable to the relics or artifacts Sampo deals with in-universe.

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ MASTER THIEF'S TENTACLE ⌝

Not that I necessarily think this item refers to Sampo specifically, but he is technically a master thief so I thought I would be remiss to not bring it up. Although it has to do with the Xianzhou’s Shackling Prison, who’s to say Sampo never ended up there at one time or another — clearly he gets around the universe quite easily!

However, now that I think about it, the “extra surprise” obtained when winning against an enemy is very… “Surprise Present” Sampo-coded… and “plenty of other tentacles” could refer to his multiple identities…. (Addition: the “tentacles” could also be referring to mass-produced dolls sent to do Aha’s bidding, with the “Master Thief” being Aha themself.)

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ VERSATILE JOKER⌝

I just wanted to note this for being in the “Moment of Joy” category, which has very Elation-coded masks as its cover. The achievement name itself — “Versatile Joker” — points not only towards Sampo’s versatility and ability to blend in with almost anyone due to his charisma, but “joker” puts him even more in orbit with the Masked Fools than he already is. Also, the achievement is “hidden.” Very interesting!

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ WARDANCE EVENT ⌝

First, I just want to point out how Hook appears at the Wardance as a special correspondent for the “Crystal Daily,” which is the same organization Madam Poisson says she is reporting for in Sampo’s Character Story Part 1. I feel like this could go one of two ways: either the Crystal Daily is an actual, legitimate publication that Poisson only pretended to be a part of and that Hook somehow managed to report for, or Sampo sent Hook to report on the Wardance himself on behalf of his fake and entirely made-up news station.

Personally, I’m inclined to believe the latter given Hook’s response saying, “No one hired me. This is my summer assignment.” To me, this really sounds like Sampo wanted to let her loose for some Learning & Enrichment Time, and so gave her a “cool important assignment” to go and learn about life outside Belobog, kind of like hiding medicine in a food your kid likes. This also might be Sampo’s way of “spying” on how the events play out, given that he cares about Belobog and its progress so much.

I also am not sure I believe that Hook wrote the entire article herself — some of the parts sound like her for sure, like saying people got “really mad” and said “mean things about the judges, but words like “understandably” and “compliant” are used in a way that sounds a bit too mature for her age. Maybe the writer’s didn’t get her voice down 100%, maybe she’s actually learning from her assignment, or maybe, just maybe, Sampo looked over her writing before she sent it in and helped her edit it.

I dunno, the whole situation seems really sweet to me. I just like thinking about Sampo as this mentor-like figure slowly trying to push Hook out of the nest like a baby bird while still watching over her. 

Not entirely Sampo-related, but I wanted to note the narrator’s fourth-wall break here. This was a super interesting little dialogue section on the Skysplitter, and I have half a mind to think it’s Elation-related (if not Aha Themself) speaking to us directly. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s Sampo, but again, it definitely reminds me of Elation fourth-wall breaks and other moments of a self-aware narrator. (Although it would be cool if it was somehow him.)

Lines like “please don’t ask such vibe-killing questions!�� really seem suspect to me. Like I know you’re there Mx. Aha. And I love you ♡

Very heartbreaking line I associate with Doll!Sampo. I don’t think the game intentionally put this here to be a link to him, but I am making the connection anyway and also crying. “… Would it have felt like it was being manipulated and toyed with?” JUST RIP MY HEART OUT WHY DON’T YOU!

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ MISCELLANEOUS ⌝

— Sampo’s light cone is featured in the Lucent Afterglow art, probably just because it was one of the first light cones in the game. It still doesn’t get past me that Lucent Afterglow is a more meta-currency of higher origin. Probably doesn’t mean anything, but I figured I’d point it out!

— The Ship of Fools Unknowable Domain occurrence heavily implies Sampo to be a “broken mask” — here’s a link to my post discussing it.

— Sampo has a companion text where he talks about being burnt out at his job and asks us if he should quit. Given the idea he may be sent by the Elation to mess with us but is having second thoughts and Protective Instincts, I say, “Yes, Sampo! Please quit your job!”. He could also be talking about the Masked Fools in general or being in a position of power within them, which, again, I would say, “Please quit your job and come enjoy a nice relaxing vacation with me!”

— An Intellitron NPC in Dreamflux Reef named Kirk has dialogue about Asmon Rim, an Elation planet whose extreme path led them to destroy “any remaining vestiges of their morality” and treat “other lives as toys of entertainment.” As one of those toys, Kirk was deeply unhappy with his life and escaped. While I’m not sure if this has anything to do with Sampo, the methodology of Elation followers treating others as toys does tie in to things I’ve talked about like Aha Stuffed Toy and The *Perfect* Grand Challenge, albeit in a somewhat less Aha-centric way.

— I know Kalevala also exists as a planet in the HSR universe, and if I were to speculate where Sampo is from I feel like this is the obvious answer, but with how Asmon Rim lines up with some of my theories I’m tempted to say perhaps he found his way to one place or the other along the way.

Overall, this man has a lot going for him! He’s very mysterious which makes theorizing all the more difficult, but that’s what I find so fun about it — the journey not the destination and all that. Even if most of this ends up being completely wrong, there are a lot of things that still tie into parts of his character we know for sure to be canon, like his con-man occupation and Masked Fool identity. I’m happy to talk about any of these short topic blurbs more, by the way, I just wanted to include them all together here so I wasn’t posting ten billion separate analyses as part of the project!

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.𖥔 ݁ ˖ જ⁀➴ thanks for reading to the end, and thanks for all the love and support on this project. the official main course may be almost over, but i will likely continue to expand on my theories and thoughts as more sampo content releases! :)

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© analysis by sunderingstars. do not copy, repost, translate, modify, or claim my work as your own.

[holymaccaronii]

Your ‘I have no eyes and I must cry’ au is beautiful. I would love to know more

AUUG I’m very happy to know so, thank you (;;) 💕

This AU has probably the most elaborate (or detailed) lore I’ve ever developed, and I’ll happily summarize the prologue. (I’ve probably mentioned many of these points before but I’ll mention them again, just for you anon <3). I’m still working on a lot of stuff, scenes and designs, and while some stuff may change I feel confident enough to explain more of it now. This AU takes place after a modified ending of the videogame where the other mastercomputers get deactivated, Ted gets turned into a slug and the rest of the survivors die. The catch in here is that AM doesn’t let the souls of the other survivors escape, trapping them somewhere deep in his complex and keeping them as bodiless essences who can do nothing more than exist in hell itself.

The lore tries to give a continuation of what will happen in the story with the Luna colony and AM, who is now seeking new organic bodies to put the survivors’ souls in and find Ted, who managed to hide himself from AM ever since he got turned into a slug. The whole context of the prologue goes as follows:

The prologue of the AU explains 3/4s of all the lore, one fourth being the origins of the luna colony, the second the origins of BE and the third the first rebirth of Earth’s nature.

The Luna colony project was led by two siblings, directors of a global association of scientists and researchers. They feared the outcome of the war, thus formulated a plan to keep humanity safe until the Earth’s surface was safe enough to return to and carry out a mission to deactivate AM. For the project, they quickly started to recruit people to join it, a good part of them being teenagers so they could train them in time before any major massacre happened. Another mastercomputer is successfully settled under the moon’s crust in order to protect them, and they settle there on time before AM’s global massacre. Every step of the plan is carried out fine until the very last human who secured everyone else in the cryogenic sleep, one of the directors, goes insane and commits and act of betrayal to the rest and to the AI as well. He shuts it down and uses almost all the materials that made it up to build his own empire of sentient robots for him to rule over on the moon. His plan was to have a century (the 109 years ever since the survivors get trapped) to rule the moon and wait for the Earth to be habitable to then return, shut down AM with a virus the original mission was meant to use, and then rule over all humanity. But at some point during the construction of his empire, the virus got deleted, leaving him with no other option than to additionally develop an army to *try* and deactivate AM himself.

After the famous 109 years pass, robotic troops start to get sent down to try and access AM’s cores and manually deactivate him, but no mission ever succeeded, leaving a lot of losses behind and time wasted. At this moment of the timeline, we also get to have a peculiar unit make history on the moon being the first robot there to plant a seed and successfully make it flourish in order to prove to the leader that they were ready to return to Earth (this specific type of unit didn’t know about AM’s existence and believed that the return to earth depended on their preparation to handle the care of nature). Unfortunately it was against the rules for unauthorized units to touch anything from the natural reservoir, and since this unit had broken the rules, as a punishment it got one of its eyes permanently taken out. Still having hope in its metallic heart, this unit escaped to Earth with another seed in order to prove how ready they were to return, unaware of AM’s presence. This unit traveled underground in order to obtain water from possible reservoirs, but ended up facing a life or death situation in AM’s complex, as he had considered it a threat. As a matter of a “miracle”, this unit ended up rebirthing into a god-like machine with such great powers that not only allowed herself to escape AM’s complex by drilling a hole towards the surface, but also allowed a good chunk of AM’s cables to be able to move and travel up to the surface as well.

Up to here we begin with the third fourth of the lore where AM meets BE and fakes his background in order to justify his hate and get BE to let him roam the earth as freely as possible, still having his cables latched to the ground but being able to move them. With her newfound powers, BE’s plan was to restore Earth’s nature to completion through an incredibly advanced type of simulation over the Earth’s surface where she could create life and matter and keep it existing as long as she wasn’t shut down or damaged. She would finally be able to prove her worth to the moon’s ruler, and allow humans to literally use her to survive + help the real nature slowly take her place. AM initially didn’t mind this plan of her’s, as he could easily betray her later on and finally trap the rest of the humans in his complex. Even so, as time passed by, he started to develop certain feelings for BE as well as possessiveness over her since she basically granted him almost every wish he ever had. AM slowly changed his mind and no longer wanted the humans to return, but keep them away so he could enjoy an eternal heaven with BE on Earth. AM tried to reason with BE about this, but BE denied every single bad thing he mentioned about humans since she had always been influenced with the idea that humans were perfect beings and nature was a subordinate of them to be used as a tool. In an act of rage and desperation, AM trapped BE in his complex in order to share with her the true violent and disgusting history from humans just so that she could develop the same hate he had for them. But having accidentally also shown her who he truly was (since he was also a creation, a weapon from human beings), BE not only developed a great hatred for humans but also for him, resulting in having him vanished from the surface.

The moon’s ruler, who had stopped sending troops in order to let BE restore nature for him to later take over and use her power to shut down AM, noticed that the Earth’s “nature” suddenly began to perish all over again, this being a consequence of BE’s loss of her hope. This led him to take a critical decision to wake up the humans in cryogenic sleep and keep them inside a zoo on the moon where he would ensure their survival until they found an exo planet to move to. Earth had two displeased AI’s under and above the surface, at this point it was better to leave it behind.

From this point and on, the prologue comes to an end and the main story starts it’s course with 5 humans escaping the zoo on the moon and returning to Earth. Once they meet BE, she puts each of them in a trial to prove their values as humans (this is parallel to the games that AM put the survivors in in the videogame). After each of them successfully complete her trials, she re-gains hope in humanity and begins the rebirth of nature a second time.

I won’t spoil the 4~5 endings possible from here and on, but the humans set themselves the objective to help BE eradicate the corrupted beasts controlled by AM that now roamed the Earth, mostly active during winter when BE is less powerful. The rest of the story reveals more secrets, scenes, explanations of past incidents, etc. I’m planning to develop a series of books of sorts with the story narrated simply (bc my English is intermediate-ish, which I consider not enough for an elaborate fic and allat) and also depicting scenes with illustrations. I’ll see how the project goes, but I’ll take my time on it since I also have other projects in mind including my papercrafts n other stuff. Anyways, all of this being explained, I will gladly take more requests/questions to answer :3.

[devirnis]

Okay, after having a few days to process, I am allowing myself one vent post to get it out of my system and then it’s back to ✨positive vibes✨ only

If I see one more goddamn smarmy post about how “the writing was on the wall the whole time” (with the undercurrent of “you were too stupid to see it, I have the only valid interpretation”) I’m going to lose it

Had we not had 8x05, the breakup still would have bummed me out, but I would have said, you know what, fair, we didn’t see a whole lot of their relationship, a lot of it was fanon and headcanons. We had a good run. But we did get 8x05, apparently some of it filmed out of order knowing a breakup was coming, and what was the point? To be cruel? It felt like a slap in the face to people who liked that relationship.

They could have laid some groundwork to show some cracks in the relationship, but no. Ignoring disingenuous interpretations from people who have been rooting for the ship to crash and burn since day one, 8x05 established Buck & Tommy as a solid couple. Tommy gets along with Eddie, the three of them had great chemistry together. Tommy takes care of Buck when he’s hurt. Tommy thinks the curse is a bunch of bs (as does Eddie) but still went with Buck to have a funeral for a mummy. It’s like I watched someone cook an elaborate, delicious dinner for me and then they immediately threw it in the trash, and other people around me made fun of me for being blindsided and upset because I should have seen that coming.

I won’t pretend the general audience is a monolith who all have the same opinions. I’m sure there are people who don’t care and just shrugged their shoulders that another relationship of Buck’s fizzled out. But I have 2 friends who watch the show and aren’t Fandom Fans, and they are always my barometer for how people who don’t have brain rot (affectionate) feel about the show. One really liked the relationship, the other was neutral to mildly negative on it, and both of them agreed that it felt like the breakup came out of nowhere and made no sense given the context of the previous episode. So please stop pretending that it’s only BT fandom fans who have their knickers in a twist about how it played out.

If this isn’t leading to buddie, then I don’t want to see another love interest for either Buck or Eddie for the rest of the show. Tommy had so much potential to break the cycle of Buck’s love interests (and interviews from last season seem to support that they were aware of this and planning on utilizing that) and throwing it away feels like such a waste.

So yeah, instead of being just bummed, I’m pissed. I do not know if there was BTS drama or if Tim got some other grand idea for Buck’s storyline this season — but given how plots are adopted and dropped at rapid fire pace this season (something I was willing to forgive last season because of the shortened production timeline and fewer episodes), I’m highly skeptical that there’s any sort of overarching plan here.

I’ve never thought buddie would actually happen on the show, but I also never thought either Buck or Eddie would ever be anything other than straight, so I’d be happy to be proven wrong. I’m just a little jaded by seeing people doing a victory lap convinced that buddie canon is imminent when I think that they are giving the writers a lot more credit than they deserve for supposedly crafting this epic love story for the last five or so years when a lot of that is also just generous fanon interpretation. I need explicit confirmation within the show by the end of this season that at least one of them has caught feelings or I’m over entertaining the possibility it will actually happen.

I know the joy will come back. But I really hope the same plot lines playing out ad nauseam for every character stops because I’m getting a little tired.

[bubblesxo]

(harvey bullock in the batfam)

okay, so this post is to elaborate on something i was talking about in tags the other day etc. etc.

so basically, my whole point was that bruce is a little chaos gremlin. he has so many bad habits and does so many illegal activities completely nonchalantly that it sometimes can make people question his mental state.

of course, this all originated from his childhood and the way that he was raised. we know from the gotham tv (which this post is specific to) that bruce was close with his parents, though his father did have secrets that eventually killed him. nevertheless, bruce was raised well for the first 12 years of his life. very well, in fact. he was rich, he had a butler and two loving parents---he had a good life.

and then his parents were shot in front of him.

12 years old and bruce is reborn. bruce after isn't the same person as bruce before. after the shooting, bruce has a purpose and a meaning to life. he knows what he needs to do---protect gotham and her people. make a difference. (though i won't get too ahead of myself.)

it starts out small. thomas wayne (bruce's dad) made alfred promise to never bring bruce to a psychologist if he and his wife were killed. alfred kept this promise and never did, even though that was definitely what bruce needed at the time.

bruce coped badly, especially at first. he had no appetite and stopped eating. he started burning himself, cutting himself, and holding his breath underwater so he could "test himself" and "overcome fear" (which is actually a recurring theme in the show). he went to the roof of his house and stood on the ledge to make himself not fear heights.

it was obvious then that bruce needed help, but he didn't get it. instead, he got alfred (who i love!!). however, just because i love alfred doesn't mean i can't acknowledge that he is one of the main reasons bruce ended up the way he did.

it's no secret that bruce is a little messed up. we all know that, right? anyway, alfred did a lot of crazy stuff in his time taking care of bruce, which is understandable, because he wasn't expecting to one day be going about his day and suddenly find himself a single father. he was definitely going through it with guilt and despair after his bosses were killed. didn't help that he had to find a way to care for their son.

anyway, alfred is also a bit odd. he has a strong opinion on what it means to be strong and also a strong opinion on bruce being safe. once, bruce sprained his ankle hiking and alfred let him crawl up a hill for half an hour. however, he followed that up with honoring one of bruce's prized family traditions. alfred frequently was a bit rough when teaching bruce to fight, which, admittedly, bruce didn't seem to mind, but he once did punch bruce in the nose after purposefully distracting him to make a point about him not being ready.

i don't think learning to fight is harmful, of course. i just think that the way those two went about it was... interesting. and pretty cool. they have a great bond and i love that for him.

anyway, alfred never pushed back against him. thomas also told alfred to let bruce choose his own path like all waynes did, which is why bruce has way too much control over his own life way too early. (again, not blaming alfred per se. the man was grieving and following the order to the letter.)

this led to bruce doing more and more reckless things over time and learning way too much for his age. his gets involved in vigilatism around the age of 15 (i do believe? my timeline there is fuzzy) and, while alfred makes his disapproval known, he doesn't stop him.

alfred teaches bruce that he needs to be strong. he teaches him to always expect the worst. he teaches him to always be on guard and to never give up when facing opposition. these are not necessarily bad things.

then, there's jim gordon. jim was the first person to really talk to bruce after his parents were killed, and he promises bruce that he'll find the man who was responsible. over time as this is revealed to be much more complicated than expected, jim does not grow apart from the family. if anything, it just seems to make them all closer togehter. their lives are completely linked.

now, when jim talks, he has the crazy ability to make persuasive speeches. it's one of his things, a motif of his in the show---he always gives speeches, especially when motivating people. now, as a kid, freshly orphaned, bruce needed motivation. jim tells bruce a lot of things that could be misinterpreted and come back to hurt him. he also, however, draws him in closer to the mess that is gotham and it's crime world. this encouragement only makes bruce more determined to get involve over time.

now, i made a post saying that these two basically coparented bruce, and i stand by this. alfred did all of the day-to-day stuff and helped really form bruce as a person, but jim was the one who really imparted his morals and hope on bruce.

jim taught bruce that everyone can be redeemed, and anyone can be saved. just like batman believes.

jim and bruce talk about darker and more complicated things as time passes. for example, they once talked about how you sometimes need to let go of your own pride in order to take care of other people (which ended up with a lot of bad results)

this leads to jim killing someone and bruce's brain being changed. he gets most of his morals from jim most likely, and jim is not necessarily particularly "good" often. he violates police procedure and the law frequently to help people.

now, jim's partner is harvey bullock. while he and bruce aren't the closest in the canon material for the show, they did have a few notable interactions and i believe that we can really extrapolate here.

before, i said that harvey would freak out at the realization that he's old. i stand by this. however, harvey also knows that he's getting older and will eventually need to leave the force in jim's hands.

harvey is a very blunt man. he knows how to lie but he doesn't really ever do so unless his life depended on it. when he talks to bruce, the two of them really click. despite harvey having committed so many crimes and broken many, many departmental policies, it is shown that he is still a good man deep down.

harvey tells bruce stories all the time. he talks to him about the legal AND illegal things that he has done both on and off the job, and bruce picks up on way too many of him. he gets /ideas/. he has the money, after all. he can learn how to do that stuff.

bruce really just wants to make life better for the others tbh. that's like his life goal. harvey basically teaches bruce how to emulate the more gritty parts of batman---torture in interrogation, breaking and entering, gathering information, how to break the law without getting caught, etc. etc. of course, some of his terms really rub off on bruce.

i'm imagining bruce calling someone "putz" as an insult. it's just so funny to me

i was falling asleep while writing this so i'm gonna snooze now and maybe add more later bcuz that was a bit lacking in harvey sorry!!

[vinelark]

6 for the ask meme 😎

6. Have you written any fanfictions featuring OCs? If so, elaborate!

oh? is it time? is it time to drop the OCBFEU primer??

in short: yes, last year my friends came up with a whole "what if we invented a boyfriend for jason" "what if we also invented a boyfriend for dick in the same continuity" batfam AU with two (and a half) significant OCs. we write little informal fics for each other about them and my incredibly talented friends draw them and we also have an extended fantasy AU of the boyfriend AU that could fill about three TV seasons of plot so far. i love them. they are constantly rotating in the back of my mind; it's a fun time.

months ago we compiled a document with bios and a rough OC bf timeline (with bonus timkon) and: here it is! (content warning for a (past) emotionally manipulative relationship. also some brief underage drinking.)

Batfamily OCBFEU (OC Boyfriend Extended Universe)

Santi

jason’s OC boyfriend; ship name sanjay

[original santi post] [mammutblog’s santi art tag] [90kon’s santi art tag]

santi, short for santiago

5’7”; has to go up on his tiptoes to kiss jason

line cook by day, taking classes toward his teaching certification by night, also volunteers at an after-school literacy program in park row

gothamite through & through—grew up a few blocks over from jason, though their paths never crossed. has two siblings, an older sister and a younger brother, but is mostly estranged from them after their dad died. money was incredibly tight after that and santi still took odd jobs—including some for the falcones—to help his sister finish med school.

an old soul like jason, aka he’ll use his same phone til it’s a brick and does not understand tiktok despite kids at the program explaining it to him over and over

there’s probably a mildly popular tiktok series one of the kids has of them asking santi questions while santi is in the middle of something at the program, because everyone loves santi and he gives funny answers when he’s distracted

santi does not become a vigilante—he has enough on his plate, he’s (almost) a teacher—but he’s certainly not without his own set of skills. also he talks a very good game and can usually get by without having to physically fight (see: confrontation with nick in the below timeline)

Blue

dick’s OC boyfriend; ship name bluebird

[original blue post] [other original blue post]

ex-talon from an alternate reality

6’5” 😳

in his original universe blue was taken as a child and turned into a talon (in this version talons have boosted strength/healing, and were conditioned/brainwashed into carrying out the court of owls’ assassinations. also golden eyes) and doesn’t remember his name anymore. once he tumbled into this universe after an assignment gone wrong, he was free of the court’s orders and re-education for the first time and started slowly unraveling their mental conditioning

he rarely speaks, and takes a while to consider his words when he does. when he texts it’s mostly emojis because he prefers them

when left to his own devices he’s very gentle and likes to bake

he had short/shaved hair as a talon. once he’s in this world he starts growing it out and prefers it long

he eventually makes an excellent crime-fighting partner for dick; he knows and understands dick’s skills enough to trust him to take care of himself, so they work very well together. that said, if you really hurt nightwing you will be reminded very quickly that blue spent most of his life as a nearly unbeatable assassin.

he eventually takes up the superhero name flamebird to go with nightwing

Nick

tim’s OC ex-boyfriend; no ship name we hate nick

nick is a GU college freshman (18 at the time) tim meets playing tennis at the local rec center while tim is avoiding the manor in the early red hood reconciliation days

at first nick definitely plays into the fact that tim desperately craves attention at this point in his life. nick is at turns overwhelmingly nice and startlingly cold, and more and more often “playfully” mocks tim, dismisses his thoughts because he’s “young” (16 at the time), etc. nick is, essentially, a jerk who, despite—or perhaps due to—being a teenager himself, does everything he can to feel superior to tim.

nick also drags tim along to parties/hangouts with his college friends so he can show off that he’s dating tim drake-wayne. other than late-night parties with his friends, though, he insists on keeping their relationship a secret.

none of the bats know about this as it’s happening; tim eventually breaks it off and pretends it never happened.

rough OCBFEU timeline

jason and santi meet while jason is still sort of on the outs with the family but not in Revenge Mode anymore. first jason meets santi as red hood, and later realizes his main apartment/civilian ID lives in the same building as santi when they run into each other in the elevator.

sanjay identity shenanigans ensue! santi is very taken with red hood. santi thinks his upstairs neighbor “uhh, call me jay” is an inconsiderate dickhead for seemingly working out/moving furniture around at 3am sometimes. seriously, how many muscles does someone need. that’s ridiculous. santi also thinks jay has a very nice smile but that’s irrelevant.

meanwhile tim meets nick at rec center and they date for a few months. it’s not a great time for tim and he eventually breaks it off.

santi starts seeing red hood more because red hood will just. appear and shadow santi when he’s walking home from work late, and helps santi out of a tight spot with some of falcone’s men at one point (we learn santi used to work for falcone a few years ago; he needed the money to put his older sister through med school. santi’s not involved with the mob anymore but the past dogs his heels sometimes). santi and red hood start hooking up, though hood still won’t show his face.

santi volunteers at an after-school literacy program (while taking night classes working toward a teaching certification). one day santi’s neighbor jay shows up to the bake sale fundraising for the after-school program, and they have a cute interaction until there’s a surprise rogue attack and the school goes on lockdown. jay disappears; red hood shows up minutes later, helping santi secure the kids before going after the rogue. red hood gets hurt and in the aftermath santi, patching him up, pieces together that red hood is his neighbor jay.

shortly after this santi gets kidnapped in public along with a random teenager (tim drake) who happened to intervene and get himself kidnapped too. the kidnappers saw santi and hood together after the rogue attack, so they’re trying to get information on hood out of santi. tim runs interference as best he can and takes a few hits as a distraction, and soon enough red hood shows up to dispatch the kidnappers. in the aftermath red hood is cold and snappish to tim (jason thinks tim was stalking santi) (to be fair, tim was) and this leads to santi learning a bit more about jason’s family. this also leads to jason breaking up with santi because it’s too dangerous (for santi) to associate with him.

santi does not agree with this decision, and there’s a lot of pining and angsting until they get their shit together over the course of another few months. coincidentally jason is reconciling with his family in the meanwhile and getting his feet under him emotionally.

once they’re together jason and santi are like. incredibly domestic. totally in rhythm with each other. somehow jason now has the healthiest most settled relationship of any bat.

meanwhile in blüdhaven, blue pops in from an alternate reality where the court of owls rules gotham. blue was taken as a child and turned into a talon; when he’s thrown into this universe, he’s free from the owls’ control for the first time. it’s a rough landing—he ends up being fished out of a dumpster by dick and even though blue runs away, he imprints hard on one dick grayson.

Tim (18 now) realizes his longtime crush on kon might be reciprocated; cue panicking.

tim lies his way into a gay club to Research (because nick always kind of mocked tim for not having dated any guys before him; tim thinks he will have one shot to not disappoint kon so he has to figure shit out). gets drunk, starts making out with someone who is not uhh handling him gently. gets spotted by jason and santi, who are there on what was supposed to be a fun date, and they intervene. at first jason is annoyed, thinking tim’s following him again, and then realizes something is Wrong. he and santi dispatch the asshole other guy, and they bring drunk tim back to crash on jason’s couch.

the next morning tim is hungover at jason’s and mortified. santi makes him sit and eat breakfast and tim is like i’m sorry, i wasn’t even following you guys this time, i swear. which leads to tim haltingly explaining the nick thing. santi and jason (who is lurking in the kitchen listening to this convo) don’t know who this ex guy is yet but they’re gonna kill him ❤️

tim’s net gain for this ill-fated excursion: one (1) splitting headache and one (1) new older brother unit.

meanwhile back in blüdhaven blue is slowly un-conditioning himself, keeping to the shadows, and leaving little gifts on dick’s windowsill. the gifts are like, keychains, a lost earring, a random postcard. all tend to be blue or have blue in them, so dick starts nicknaming this mysterious gift-giver blue.

during patrol a week later jason finds tim on a rooftop and has an awkward but earnest talk with tim about uhh. consent and healthy relationships and stuff okay yeah we’re never talking about this again but also if you ever need anything. call me right away or i’ll kill you. okay good talk.

blue gets invited inside dick’s apartment for the first time. god bless bluebird they’re in their own little world over here.

tim and kon kiss 😳

an anonymous, “scandalous” tabloid story from someone claiming to have dated tim drake-wayne drops. resulting fallout, salacious rumors abound about tim + the waynes, etc. also, obviously, bruce and the family find out about nick. jason and santi figure out who nick is and separately visit him to put the fear of god in him.

nick: what the fuck, are you with the guy from earlier? i got the message! tell that guy i’m moving to star city this fucking weekend!

red hood: what guy

nick: you know the, the guy with the earring and the tattoo and he said if i didn’t lose tim’s number and leave town i’d have an accident

red hood: huh. no, not related. so you never made a deal with me. bummer for you, i still get to break one of your arms.

(jason obviously realizes the other guy was santi so he goes home and climbs into bed where santi’s awake reading and he’s like “productive night?” and jason’s like “mmhm, and i heard you had a productive day” and santi shrugs and then jason kisses the hell out of him)

over in blüdhaven blue witnesses dick get really upset over something (this article) for the first time. dick says “i’m going to be away for a few days but you can stay here while i’m gone, okay?” (when dick returns blue isn’t there but dick’s apartment has been deep-cleaned) (this leads to dick insisting blue stay there more and more until they accidentally end up as roommates)

batfamily deals with the nick aftermath and much-needed convos are had with tim. this also brings santi more into the family fold because everyone approves of him essentially making nick shit his pants.

bruce, up to this point, has been kind of wary of santi solely because santi is NOT immediately impressed with bruce. santi sees bruce as being on thin ice until he gets proof that bruce is in fact doing his best as a parent and then they have a slightly more chill dynamic.

meanwhile in gotham, mid family crisis, dick is having his own crisis/rooftop breakdown with tim and jason about having feelings for blue and going through his gay awakening at the ripe age of 20something and jason is very upset that he has somehow become the to-go gay relationship advice sibling.

because yeah, between dick and jason, JASON’s relationship is the more normal/aspirational one for tim looking for like queer mentors. bluebird is great and perfect for them obviously but they are not a blueprint for anyone else.

dick: [sitting on blue’s shoulder after describing how blue wooed him with random tchotchkes on his windowsill and then moved into a corner of his living room for a month and—] anyway do as i say not as i do

dick literally let a secret organization-trained slightly undead assassin into his house for fun bc he got like a few cool rocks as a gift

if tim asked dick for advice dick would be like “oh shit you like-like him? i just thought you were really touchy friends”

no one should ask bruce for advice, ever

so here jason is, somehow the most stable gay of the family

by the time damian appears with his first crush jason is like [sighs] [gets out the powerpoint]

timkon officially get together!

aaaand then months later dick shows up to family dinner with a giant ex-talon in tow like “heyyyyy guys, so guess what—”

there are also plenty of fun post-timeline adventures like “blue and santi get kidnapped together to target nightwing and red hood; kidnappers regret this almost immediately” and “tim takes blue on restaurant adventures because blue really likes fancy food; one day they run into nick who says something nasty about tim and blue breaks nick’s wrist (tim’s net gain: another older brother unit)” and “santi is frantically trying to catch the bus one night and steps on one of poison ivy’s vines—whoops, it’s sex pollen; santi gets introduced to PAID forms” or, alternately, “jason gets hit with the poison ivy special and that’s how santi finds out he’s on jason’s PAID form” and “bruce and blue surprisingly get along very well and trade sparring tips (meanwhile, bruce is trying so hard to get santi to tolerate him and it’s slow going)” and also “dick realizes everyone else in the world knew he and blue were dating and in love six months before he did.”

extra content:

santi, blue, and kon end up in a robin bf support group gc. one day kon gets added to a group chat that’s just like [(372)846-XXXX and (124)234-XXXX has added you to a group chat] and nothing happens there for like 2 hours he’s just like 

kon: ?

kon: hello?

kon: is this spam? is there such a thing as spam gcs?

kon: am i getting blackmailed

kon: how did you get this number??

(blue added kon while santi is in school)

the gc also ends up nonstop unintentional comedy due to their communication styles. kon’s gen z (👍 = declaration of war) and santi is technologically elder millennial/boomer (thought 🙂 was a normal smiley until corrected)—but blue is none of the above. blue knows the nuances of every emoji but has no social rules for using them. he’s an emoji artist. he is unbound.

from @90kon, in a version of the timeline where santi hasn’t seen jason’s face/doesn’t know his name before their sort-of breakup:

after their not-yet-together-break-up they should have an argument. like santi confronts jason about him saying he doesn’t want this thing between them to go on but wont give santi an honest answer but also keeps lurking and santi cant move on like that. bc either he’s done with him or he’s not. and umm yeah jason is not rly saying much but eventually santi is like alright. just tell me this: do you want this or not? forget about everything else…do you want me? and santi barely has time to finish his question before jason says yes. in a tight voice. i want you so much it scares the shit out of me. and ummm well eventually santi is like look. you can have me. but i have conditions.

and he’s like. whatever idk uhh don’t lurk out my window unless you’re gonna come in. dont investigate me; if you want to know something, just ask. at the end he should say "and i need a name. it doesn't have to be your full name or anything, but i need to call you something other than red." and jason is quiet for so long santi sighs and is like. "yeah i didn’t actually think that one was gonna fly. whatever, forget i said--" and jason says "jay." like it just slips out of him. and santi stills, looks at him, and from the way jason said it he somehow knows it's real. it could be short for any number of names but it's real. so he repeats it. "jay."

family game night from @mammutblog:

collected OCBFEU tag

[OC boyfriends created in a lab by @90kon, @mammutblog, @cairoscene, @vinelark, @feyburner, @bluecrystalrainingdaggers!]

[empressgeekt]

Okay so we have Branch being pregnant in TWT in the FoF Au, but what if he was pregnant during TBT? Dude’s trying to take it easy when his brother JD crashes in.

I can see Poppy either not making him go so he can rest or just body slamming anyone that tries to touch him. Doesn’t matter if it’s a brother she didn’t know about, a brother she did know about, or her sister she didn’t know about. She will body slam anyone that tries to touch him without his consent.

Well if we're going by normal timeline rules, and Branch got pregnant just after TWT, then he'd just be starting to shake the morning sickness, and beginning his nesting phase. So this whole trip he's just trying not to toss his lunch, and reorganizing the inside of Rhonda. Branch doesn't tell his brothers about the baby, and Poppy and Keith don't either on request by Branch. So the others just think he has bad motion sickness and OCD, on top of a very overprotective girlfriend and kid. They wouldn't figure it out until they get Floyd back to the village and to Dr. Plimsy who just outs Branch before dragging him off for a check up of his own.

However, if we want more drama....lets say that TWT happened 2 months then it usually does. This would put Branch late stage by the time that the wedding comes around. Once more he's carrying internally, with the egg leaning inward. The wedding is kind of a last party before they settle in for the final week or so, before the little one arrives. Then John Dory rushes in and makes things complicated. Maybe it's his hormones but Branch isn't willing to let Floyd die, and while Poppy agrees she's worried, for both Branch and their little one. Branch still doesn't tell them, he doesn't trust them with his baby. Mostly he tries to nap while John driving, and has a horrible nightmare about his water breaking when he wakes up to Rhonda flooding. He gets out of doing the practice preformance at Bruce's place, because the smell of seafood makes him want to throw up.

Bruce and John would see his scar earlier since the hustle does make him vomit and in no way was Branch puking in his mask. Bruce and John obviously want an explanation, since Branch is missing an eye, but he's real tight lipped about it, and Poppy nearly bites their heads off. Viva and Clay have similar reactions to the scar, but Branch won't elaborate.

Post argument, like leaving Rhonda and Poppy just catching up wit him, he feels the egg drop, Poppy's concerned since that's usually an early labor sign, but Branch waves her of and they continue the mission, since their aren't any contractions yet. Floyd is rescued all the same, however Branch starts getting cramps on the journey to pop village so, He's fine with John using the hustle after Floyd has a seizure. After getting Floyd checked in to the hospital, Branch would sneak away to the birthing unit, and get admitted after his water breaks. The Brother's don't notice he's gone for a couple hours, and when a nurse points them in the direction, they accidentally crash the room almost mid delivery.

[rhondafromhr]

Hey Sims 2 nation, who wants to hear about my super elaborate kinda unhinged AU involving the Grunt, Curious (mostly Vidcund), Smith and Specter (mostly Ophelia) households?? Some of this is inspired by the game and my own playthroughs, some of it kinda diverges, some of it’s stuff that’s plausible for the characters imo but can’t really be replicated in actual gameplay. Also partially inspired by this post. I’ll probably give in to the demons and turn this into a 100k longfic at some point, but for now here’s what I got. It’s not fully fleshed out yet but hope you enjoy! Also hope you see the vision for Vidcund/Buzz, I’ve never seen a single person put them together (understandable, it is very much a crackship) but I think they have the potential for SUCH a fun and interesting dynamic and could really push each other to change, for better for worse.

—The way I interpret Buzz is as a deeply flawed sim, but one who has room to improve and do better. He wasn’t the most involved parent, leaving most of the difficult work to Lyla (as seen in the in-game memories with her having taught most of their toddler skills), he obviously favors Tank, being harsher on Ripp and ignoring Buck, he puts a lot of pressure on all of them to live up to a very strict set of ideals. This impacts all of the kids negatively in different ways. Obviously not great, but I do believe that he does care about them and with the right catalyst, he could begin to see the error of his ways and make an effort to change. Like he’s not going to become the most open, accepting, emotionally available dad-of-the-year overnight, but I think he could sort of redeem himself over time. I see him as the type of sim who, once his mind sets on something, is all in, so I think once he realized how shitty he’s been, he’d throw himself into trying to be a better parent, although he would definitely not get it right on the first tries and would continually make mistakes. Of course there are going to be growing pains in an arc like this and he has some pretty skewed ideas of what good parenting looks like.

—I definitely get why he’s portrayed as straight-up abusive and virtually irredeemable in a lot of fanworks and that characterization is valid, but based the limited info we have from family and individual bios, memories, environmental storytelling, personality points, etc I think you could go in either direction and have a decently solid basis for it in canon. (Buzz in Division 47 in The Sims 2 PSP is a different story, but tbh I see that as an entirely different timeline and a lot of the characterizations are different.)

—So anyway, here’s how it starts: Buzz is spying on his neighbors with the telescope because he’s a fucking freak who can’t mind his own business; Vidcund comes over to yell at him for spying because he’s also a fucking freak and assumes Buzz is spying on his household specifically. Buzz keeps doing it to spite him because no one tells him what to do on his own watcher-damn property. This continues every day and although neither would ever admit it, they both start looking forward to it bc they’re both lonely. Neither has many close relationships and every close relationship they do have is strained—Buzz with his kids bc he hasn’t been a very good father, Vidcund with his brothers bc there’s always been tension with Pascal over the whole Circe thing and he hasn’t been getting along with Lazlo as well recently. (That bit is inspired by my playthroughs—every time I load up that household, Vidcund and Lazlo have a negative interaction that causes them to lose their status as best friends). Slowly but surely, they build up a rapport and eventually something akin to friendship.

—Buzz gets his demotion, just like in the game’s scripted events, and will soon struggle to pay his mortgage and keep up his family’s current standard of living on his new salary, but he would rather die than admit to failure so he needs to find a way to stay in that house and keep up appearances. Meanwhile, with Pascal’s new alien baby, the Curious household is always loud and chaotic. Vidcund resents the lack of quiet and alone time and the interruption to his routine. Oh, look at that, Buzz has a spare room, and there are no crying babies in his house, just two horribly maladjusted teenagers and an attention-starved tween. Cue the “And they were roommates.”

—At some point, Buzz decides to try and get Buck into private school and invites the headmaster over. He enlists Vidcund’s help and they pose as a married couple (if he wants to impress this snobby ass school he can’t let on that he needs a roommate, and he sees that as the most plausible explanation for why Vidcund lives there. Also at this point Vidcund’s a professor at La Fiesta Tech so that kind of helps make them look even more impressive.)

—Buzz forces Tank and Ripp to spend the weekend camping at Three Lakes because he doesn’t trust them to get along for the night and make a good impression (who’s fault is that, Buzz?? Who played favorites and pitted them against each other??). They have a side story bonding and overcoming some of their issues there.

—To really sell it, Buzz and Vidcund casually touch each other here and there (an arm around the waist, hand on the shoulder, etc.) Both of them are too emotionally constipated to show affection in any way, especially physical, so they’re both super touch starved and end up liking it a lot. Like, a lot.

—Even though dinner fully caught on fire and nearly burned the house down, they manage to get Buck in. Buzz is all giddy (although he tries to hide it and be his usual gruff self) and keeps giving Vidcund these soft looks when he thinks he’s not looking.

—They end up sleeping together (in the literal sense, not woohoo) but Buzz’s reaction to it makes it seem like more happened. He’s all stressed over it, wondering what does this mean?? What are they?? He can’t believe he allowed himself to receive slight physical intimacy and comfort. What’s gotten into him??

—Cue Buzz and Vidcund lounging in the kitchen in their boxers and undershirts sipping coffee when Tank and Ripp come home early. Buzz is mortified and stammers trying to explain himself, but the boys Do Not Care.

—The fucking family drama this would cause!!! Imagine the Curious family finally finding out who Vidcund’s seeing. Pascal would be furious. Lazlo would just be confused, and maybe concerned for Vidcund, but they all suck at feelings and communication so he doesn’t express it in the best way. Then Vidcund gets pissed at his brothers, causing even more tension in their already strained relationship.

—Jenny I think would be extremely weary of Buzz because of his and PT9’s history and make it clear that she’s not going to tolerate any bullshit, but would try and put her best foot forward. She’s happy to see Vidcund in a relationship that seems to be making him happy and isn’t just one-sided stalking on his part (RIP Circe Beaker).

—When Jenny tries to talk to the other brothers about this, they’re already fragile and take it to mean that she sees their arrangement of living and co-parenting Pascal’s kid together instead of with romantic partners as inferior (bc a part of this is that they feel like Vidcund abandoned them for the Grunt family). They also incorrectly assume that Jenny thinks she’s better than them for having a more traditional family. And there WAS a time when she worried about them staying single in Pascal’s case or unmarried/only seeing Crystal casually in Lazlo’s (when you load up the household in the game, she almost always rolls the want to have a baby, but by that point she’s too close to being an elder to be able to do so; I think she adores her husband and her family and wouldn’t change anything, but because she waited so long due to PT9 being gone on his assignment, she wasn’t able to have a large family like she always wanted. So at some point she would have worried about her brothers waiting until it’s “too late” like she did, in a sense, but once she realized they really didn’t want that, she supported them.)

—PT9 is the type of sim to always take the high ground and focus on his own life and the people he loves, so Buzz’s beef with him has always been kind of one-sided anyway (saw a post of them as that “when someone’s so hateful it inspires you to be kinder”/“when someone’s so kind it actually disgusts you” meme and like yeah. That’s their dynamic). Buzz clumsily tries to make amends, and they slowly bond and put the time they fought in a Waffle House parking lot behind them (yes that is where the fight happened, it’s 10000% canon, trust). PT9 or Jenny will often playfully remind him about how he got his ass handed to him, but by this point (shockingly) he’s actually grown a sense of humor and he doesn’t mind. I just love the idea of Buzz, Jenny and PT9 having a slowburn enemies to friends arc.

—This leads to Jenny and Vidcund reconnecting. Between being significantly older and not sharing a lot of the same interests that her brothers always bonded over, I think Jenny always felt a little alienated and left out. Almost like they were in an exclusive little club she didn’t get to be a part of. But now Vidcund’s kicked out of the club too because Pascal and Lazlo hate his ass (not really. They’re just hurt and need time to come around to the idea of him being with Buzz Grunt of all people). So they get to get to know each other as adults and discover what they do have in common. Both love botany and they start gardening together. Jenny minored in botany and she’s extremely knowledgeable. Both are elated to have someone they can share their passion with. Vidcund is shocked and scandalized to learn that she grew and sold her own weed back in high school and college. (She still does on the side but shhh don’t tell Buzz). Both love to read and they form a little book club. They start out only reading the classics and scientific literature, wanting to impress each other, but they both have a secret love of trashy, pulpy romance novels that they try desperately to hide out of embarrassment. Eventually, they realize this and add some of those books into the rotation.

—As his relationship with Buzz has gotten more serious, Vidcund’s kind of struggling with his new role as essentially a stepdad, and Jenny and PT9 are the go to people for parenting advice. One night PT9 is essentially like “my brother in Watcher, it’s good that you care but you worry too much, there’s no guidebook and none of us truly know what we’re doing, everybody fucks up sometimes.” And Jenny’s like “preach”. (They also may or may not be stoned off Jenny’s primo weed for this discussion).

—What are the kids up to during all this?? Well, Ophelia, tired of her anxieties ruling her life, decides to explore the mysteries and weird supernatural occurrences of Strangetown. Initially, her goal is simply to learn how to exorcise ghosts so she can finally have some peace and quiet at home and no longer be constantly scared by them, but deep down it’s about proving to herself that she can be brave and overcome her fears. Through the process, gaining an understanding of the town’s weirdness will also give her a sense of control and make it seem less unknowable and terrifying. She drags Ripp and Johnny into it (they’re a polycule btw; they’re such an inseparable trio to me. I have installed mods in my game to allow polyamory solely so they can be together) and they begin to spend all their free time exploring the town and uncovering its secrets.

—Now that Tank and Ripp are cool, Ripp wants to spend more time with his brother, so Tank attempts to make things right with Johnny and Johnny gives Tank a chance, mainly for Ripp’s sake. So Tank kind of fourth wheels them and tags along on their adventures, but he doesn’t mind. He’s vibing and actually having fun for once. They also have to sneak around a lot bc Olive is really strict, as is Buzz (although he has started to loosen up a little at this point) and Tank really loves the shenanigans and rebelling because he’s never allowed himself to do that.

—I think Tank and Ophelia could eventually become close. They’re both bundles of tension and anxiety and hold themselves to impossible standards (Ophelia channels this into trying to be the perfect student and obsessing over her grades). They both struggle to let go of control because neither has really had any in their home lives. Neither one has really gotten the chance to talk about the parents they lost or given themselves space to properly grieve (Ripp hasn’t either), always too focused on surviving the here and now, but would eventually come to allow themselves to do so. (Haven’t really fleshed it out yet but the catalyst for this is that one of the supernatural adventures they go on involves ghosts and the need to process things to be able to move on to the next plane. It’s, like, annoyingly on the nose and Not Subtle Whatsoever to the point where it actually irritates them.)

—Also Tank is aroace. I see a character that doesn't have a canonical love interest and I go, “It’s free real estate” and hit them upside the head with the aroace beam. He starts out deeply ashamed of it, feeling like he failed to live up to the standards of masculinity his dad used to put on him and that he continues to put on himself, but slowly comes around to be okay with it.

—Buck and Jill become besties. I think it starts out as sort of a “well our families spend like every second together now. You’re literally always around and we’re the only two kids around our age at the function. I guess we’re friends?” type of deal. Like they’ve always been chill and friendly with each other at school, but never super close. But Jill brings out Buck’s more playful and imaginative side and helps him to just be a kid, and in turn she gets a new partner in crime. He also helps her gain the confidence to stand up to a few little shits who have been making fun of her at school, and they get their revenge on them with some kind of epic prank. They get in trouble for it and Buck expects Buzz to either be mad at him or ignore him per usual, but instead Buzz is proud that he stood up for his friend and for what was right.

—One day Buck and Jill are left alone in the house with the dog (I always get the Smiths a big dog and name it something stupid like Floofmaster 5000) and decide to give it a bath, haircut and dye job after Buck tells her about his dreams of being a celebrity pet groomer. (Fun fact for those not familiar with the game, that’s canon. IIRC it says something about him wanting to become a pet groomer to the stars in his bio. Sadly there’s no such career path in game to my knowledge). The Smiths come home to a bright pink dog with a surprisingly well-done haircut and a pink-stained bathroom. Jenny and PT9 try to (gently) scold the kids but they can’t stop laughing. PT9 dyes his hair pink to match the dog (in my heart he’s the classic “was adamant about absolutely not wanting a dog but then got the most attached to it” dad). Jenny joins in too because she always used to dye her hair fun colors and she misses it.

—Maybe Buck and Jill get crushes on each other and eventually date when they get older?? I usually put them together after sending them off to college in my game. Typically I give them both the pleasure aspiration too, so they spend their days just living it up, having fun, doing whatever they feel like doing. They match each other’s whimsy and chaos.

—Back to Buzz and Vidcund: at some point before they’re officially together but when they’re definitely Becoming A Thing, Buzz decides he needs to work on himself and repair his relationship with his kids before anything else can take priority, so they break things off but remain friends (emotional maturity??? From Buzz Grunt??? Inspiring. People really can change.) They’re both really mopey about it but insist they’re fine.

—Around this time, certified trust fund jerk Malcolm Landgraab IV comes on the scene to open up some new locations for his electronics retailer downtown. He and Vidcund meet, hit it off and end up in a sort of situationship. Vid still lives with the Grunts, but spends a lot of time with Malcolm and is around a lot less.

—The boys are Not Happy with this development. They’re like uh hey, where the fuck is he?? They’ve gotten attached to Vidcund and sort of started to see him as another parental figure. They kinda assumed Buzz and Vidcund were already a thing, so they’re shocked that they’ve “broken up” and not even told them, and that Buzz is being so cavalier about it. Also Tank and Buck don’t cope super well with big changes so this isn’t great for them :( now it’s up to poor Ripp to comfort both his brothers and tbh he has no idea what he’s doing. Get my man some of that primo weed, he needs it.

—Still, anytime Buzz or one of the boys call him for literally anything, Vidcund will drop Malcolm like a hot potato. It’s obvious where his priorities lie and where his heart is. Eventually, Malcolm breaks up with Vidcund, stating that he’s caught actual feelings but he knows Vidcund can’t reciprocate because he’s hung up on somebody else.

—This will become a plot point later: Malcolm keeps doing increasingly unhinged things to try and impress Vidcund and prove how great he’s doing after their breakup, which eventually escalates to him running for mayor of Strangetown. His opponent is none other than Circe Beaker and now everyone has to rally behind her because holy crap would that rich dumbfuck run Strangetown right into the ground. This is genuinely not meant to be a commentary of any sort, I just think a mayoral race between Circe “I definitely don’t have a man trapped in my basement to run experiments on” Beaker and Malcolm Landgraab IV would be funny, especially the way I like to characterize him (chaotic dumbass with a huge ego who has WAY too much money and free time and makes it everyone else’s problem.)

—Immediately after ending things with Malcolm, Vidcund tells Buzz what happened and why. After like a year of tension, they finally kiss. Vidcund moves his stuff from his room into Buzz’s and that’s that.

—They bicker a lot, sometimes playfully, sometimes not. It dredges up some memories related to their parents’ divorce for the boys when it happens in front of them. Buzz is trying but he’s still the densest motherfucker on the planet so it takes him a LONG time to realize this. Eventually, he and Vidcund learn to reign it in and the boys get to a place where they trust that it’s not anything serious and Vid’s not going anywhere.

—They’re both pretty ambivalent about marriage. Buzz has already been there done that and he fucked it up pretty bad. Vidcund’s not opposed but he’s never really pictured himself getting married. Eventually, when it comes time for Tank to start thinking about college, Vidcund mentions that as a prof at La Fiesta Tech any dependents of his get free tuition (including stepchildren) and suggests they get married for that reason. Buzz is like, “yeah, I don’t see us ever not being together anyway, sure.”

—I think they’re the type of sims to wear black stainless steel wedding bands. Buzz has an African violet engraved in Vidcund’s.

—As a popularity sim, Buzz would absolutely want a huge wedding and reception, and now that he actually has people who like him and would show up it’s within reach! But he knows how much Vidcund hates crowds and big parties so he keeps it lowkey. (Being considerate and prioritizing others’ needs and wants, even above his own?? Who is he??) They just do it at a courthouse and have a little family get together. Pascal and Lazlo come to at least make an effort to reach out and show their support, and Vidcund is overjoyed to see them, even if he acts aloof about it. Their relationship is still never quite as close as it used to be, but things are better.

—Also they’re autistic4autistic. Neither is aware of this. Buzz because he was raised in A Different Time and his parents were Very Traditional, so they just harshly disciplined him whenever he acted “weird” and he learned to mask very quickly; Vidcund because basically the entire Curious family was neurodivergent and Glarn and Kitty didn’t see the need to seek out a diagnosis, they just sort of accommodated the kids as needed and let ‘em do their thing. Buzz masks so hard and so consistently that he doesn’t even know how not to and refuses to accommodate himself (like if the fabric of a shirt is making him want to crawl out of his skin, he just keeps wearing it because he feels like he “should” be able to tolerate it and also that deeply ingrained toxic masculine ideal that suffering through it without complaining is the “manly” thing to do.) Vidcund cannot fathom masking and when it comes to things that trigger his sensory issues he’s a very “if it sucks hit da bricks” type of sim. He eventually convinces Buzz to just change out of the shirt, stop eating the food with the texture he can’t stand, take the aspirin when he has a headache, use the damn heating pad when his bad back is acting up, and just stop making himself miserable in all these little ways when he literally doesn’t have to.

—Tank is also like that (he learned it from his father and continued practicing it in an effort to be more like him and not disappoint him). He learnt about the joys of “if it sucks hit the bricks” from Ripp, and now that he sees his dad and Vidcund doing it, he feels more okay about not forcing himself to do things that make him really distressed or set off his sensory issues.

—Meanwhile, Ripp learned the joys of not hitting the bricks every time it sucks from Ophelia and Tank; especially with his creative endeavors, he starts sticking them out even when they get challenging, and he enjoys the satisfaction and fulfillment it brings him and creates some music and poetry he’s really proud of.

—The Grunt family looks for a car at some point and Buzz is initially going to get one of those unnecessarily huge trucks that don’t even fit in a lane on the road because of fucking course he’d be one of those guys. Ripp, the resident hippie who’s a bit of an environmentalist, is against this. Buzz actually ends up buying a more reasonable sized sedan, and Ripp is touched that Buzz listened to him, took his input and opinion seriously and even factored it into his decision.

[danieyells]

. . .this whole time i figured the spy and the demon were a connected thing but

I had some vague memory of a line of dialogue and i went looking for it. (I didn't find it, I probably imagined it.) And in that time i ran into

This. Haku says that the ghouls are punished by breaking the Institute's rules, although he won't elaborate on how or why.

Now think of every ghoul that Darkwick(or, rather, the Institute itself) might have reason to punish.

. . .A lot of them are the ones who're aware of the spy, aren't they?

Taiga does nothing but kill anomalies when the Institute wants to capture them.

Alan killed someone who ultimately lived(came back to life?) and became a professor at darkwick.

Haku hates all of this and probably tried to run away.

maybe Rui did too?

Tohma is perhaps too close to both Alan and Jin and is conniving enough to be a concern for them, on top of being so actively involved in hunting down the spy.

Jin hates his father with a burning passion.

Leo isn't caught in this yet but anon brought up a good point, he mentions wanting to make the people who were responsible(for the misfortunes in his life? For what was going on in the pre-prologue?) pay--if he is indeed talking about the Institute, he'll probably end up getting punished for being too nosy as he gets too into trying to figure out what's going on with this spy business, or trying to investigate something else.

Haku also makes this joke

which is hot but also. . .I wonder if this is an allusion to that the ones investigating the spy are being closely watched or tracked, or having their movements restricted. . . .

Jin, about 6 months prior to the start of the game, stopped coming out of his room and making public appearances--according to his voicelines he only goes on missions that're B rank or higher and C rank missions he gives to Tohma.

If Jin is avoiding social interaction, Tohma has to attend to him more--and trusting Tohma with administrative things in Darkwick means he has to report to officials frequently, so they can keep a better eye on him. Not sure how long he's been doing that, but I'm pretty sure he transferred in the past year or two? And it's implied he used to be vice captain of Vagastrom, so they may not trust that he's getting so close to Jin either. On the other hand, it separates him from Alan.

Taiga was made captain of Sinostra about 3 months prior to the start of the game, putting his behavior more under scrutiny--ultimately, after sending him on a mission with the intent that he killed an anomaly(only for him to fail, which I find suspicious if we consider theories relating to timelines, loops, or Taiga seeing the future, as one could argue that Taiga deliberately left the anomaly alive for some reason) Romeo's unruly behavior is used as a last straw and Sinostra is put on probation, keeping Taiga on campus.

Alan was given a first year with the second highest scholastic ability score as a vice captain--someone who has a stigma that allows him to hear others from a great distance. Perhaps with the intent that Leo would, due to his academic ability and inexperience, accidentally reveal resistance information for them or put more pressure on them, causing them to struggle more with investigations and resistance.

Haku, in a yet-unreleased chat, says he only goes on low ranking missions so he doesn't have to go to class but can still graduate. They probably aren't too worried about Haku right now, but still keep an eye on him because he was defiant in the past.

. . .i don't really have like. a proper theory here. Just an increasing suspicion that maybe the Institute may not be the best(or the people up top aren't anyway) but Darkwick isn't really aware or they're complicit for the sake of getting work done. . . .

also another random thing that i wonder if it's related. . .one of the wickhive messages is like. "Professor Nicolas would put an anomaly brain in a human body with a smile on his face." and we know he's the advisor for Mortkranken, where Yuri is famous for his experimentation on others--I wonder if that's going to turn out to actually be like. . .a thing. Where Professor Nicolas, the guy who's been like the most chill and normal so far, turns out to be Really Bad or something. . .like maybe they're experimenting on making 'artificial ghouls' or they actually know a lot more about demons than they let on and are somehow getting demons to make pacts with people to see if they can make more ghouls? idk.

IDK. I DON'T HAVE COHERENT THOUGHTS OR THEORIES RIGHT NOW I'M JUST STARTING TO THINK THAT MAYBE ANON WAS RIGHT TO SUSPECT THE INSTITUTE WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT.

also Hyde is either gonna be one of our first big bads or our greatest ally isn't he.

[antiromanticbaby]

Paintings - Lord Diavolo

Lord Diavolo x GN!artist!reader

[✧] ー Set in Nightbringer. MC has been trying their best to find a way of communication with the future, hoping that they are actually in the right timeline (which I doubt. Anyways-). It seems like they have finally found a way.

[✧] ー Ok v v random but some parts of the NB game have given me some good 'Dark' flashbacks Like, the SWD cast are asking just where are we and then they change the question to When which was straight out a scene from Dark haha.

When Diavolo first heard of your disappearance, he was torn. The one he loved and adored, the one he was about to court and propose to was now... gone. Just like that, without a trace between the whole three worlds, and even Solomon and Barbatos were no help.

First his mother, then his father, and now you.

No matter what way he put it, you were gone. His little darling was gone. He was the demon prince, he would be the king one day, and yet he felt like he had lost a big part of himself just with your disappearance.

Just where have you gone, MC?

Soft classic music had filled his dimly lit office, and Barbatos had brought his favorite treat. He was going to be king, he couldn't lose his composure just like that. And yet, hearing the classical music, his mind and heart was filled with thoughts of you, of your smile and laughs, of the way you twirled in his arms, or stepped on his feet when he tried to teach you a simple waltz. A smile graced his lip, but it went away soon when he heard the knock on the door.

'Not today...' He thought to himself. Perhaps this was Lucifer, telling him to compose himself and be a good role model for Devildom. But Diavolo knew it, he knew how Lucifer himself was breaking. He had seen how the fallen star flew around the Devildom, sneaked around and tried to find one small trace of you.

Or maybe it was one of his brothers, here to demand answers, to where you were. In this case, as Barbatos has put it, 'when' you were.

And maybe it was Barbatos, bringing good news. Only if 'good news' hadn't turned into 'miracles' that never occurred.

"Come in." He spoke firmly, trying to sound confident. But if it was someone close to him, they would know that he wasn't, that his strong aura was nothing but a mere facade. Still, his kingdom came first. He must look strong, no matter what, even if Lucifer and Barbatos see through the act.

"Young master, I have brought some news." It was Barbatos, always neat and polite. Diavolo, in a way, envied how unphased Barbatos seemed, but he knew that Barbatos was too perfect. And that was exactly why he was imperfect. Diavolo motioned for his steward to continue. Barbatos continued, an amused smile on his face. "A Little D has found some... interesting paintings in the basement. According to what they said, these paintings have been transferred to the castle from Cocytus Hall."

"Interesting? And would you please elaborate on what you are... hinting at?"

"I believe you must see them for yourself." Barbatos spoke politely, motioning Diavolo to follow.

And Diavolo did. Perhaps this would be a good distraction from the haunting thoughts of his darling and just where they were, when they were, and if they were alive or not.

Upon seeing the paintings decorating all over the basement of his castle, Diavolo's heart skipped a beat. He was... so happy, filled with a sense of euphoria that he didn't know existed, not before finding out. Lord Diavolo could recognize your painting style from miles away, and all of these were yours.

But what were you doing in Cocytus Hall? And why haven't any of them heard of you?

He quickly turned the self portrait around, noticing the scribbles on the inside.

'First painting since coming here. It is now one year after the Celestial War. I truly hope this reaches you'

'MC'

There was no point in asking whether these were truly yours or not, because he recognized the handwriting. His grip on the canvas tightened and a smile formed on Diavolo's lips. "Barbatos, please move all of these to my room."

He felt in a rush, to decorate his room with whatever he could find from you. Now, he knew you were alive. He knew you were safe, and as much as the thought of you, his lover, living in the Cocytus Hall back in the past and with Solomon bothered him, he was just glad that you were safe. That his MC was safe and alive. "Oh, and please call the brothers over for dinner. We must share the news."

"Should we tell them about the paintings?" Barbatos asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"...No, not yet. Just tell them we found notes of MC."

It wouldn't hurt to be selfish, only for a little while.

[midnight1nk]

WOTFI 2024 PREDICTIONS

Another year, another war.

WOTFI is just around the corner and this means a new arc!

Who will be our opponent this year?

Well, the most likely answer would be Marty, returning from WOTFI 2023. I mean, it was pretty obvious that would be him from the get-go in the episode 'We Must Kill Mario'.

This, personally, was a great episode that had some good foreshadowing and I love the dynamic between Four and Karen — I thought of it as 'SMG4 🤝 Karen ➡️ single parents who are just born to be parents'

...which made me want a dynamic between Three and Karen, single moms who would kill for their kids.

:)

Anyway, back to WOTFI, it makes sense for Marty to be the crew’s opponent timeline-wise. Looking at the calendar, we are expecting a WOTFI roughly sometime in October, based on the dates of previous WOTFI’s:

2011 - October 29

2012 - October 21

2013 - October 13

2014 - October 24

2015 - September 27

2016 - August 15

2017 - October 7

2018 - October 6

2019 - November 2

2020 - August 22

2021 - September 18

2022 - October 15

2023 - October 28

Assuming this arc would be 7 episodes and this being the first one, it lines up with our prediction. (Though, it may be subject to change depending on how many episodes it would actually have.)

What you may not know is this episode not only foreshadowed Marty’s return but the plot for WOTFI as well.

There is much more than meets the eye…

Join me as I go over the episode 'We Must Kill Mario' and discuss my predictions for WOTFI ‘24!

⚠️ But before we dive in though, I do want to put a disclaimer that while this is a theory, I want to be respectful to the crew behind SMG4. ⚠️

I don’t want any of my theories to influence/forcefully change any intended plans for the future so please don’t harass anyone working on the show just because whatever I said wasn’t true. It’s just a reminder to be kind and respectful. If they somehow see my post, uh hi, keep doing what you do and I hope for the best! ❤️

Now with that out of the way, Let’s-a Go!

CHANGE THE CHANNEL

The episode starts off in Karen’s house with her kids flipping through the SMG4 channel while she makes them dinner. In the scene where Zack, Cory, and Katie are fighting over the remote, we get a clip from the episode 'SMG4: You Made Mario Do This' when Marty was preventing the construction of the castle because he felt underappreciated for his hard work.

['SMG4: You Made Mario Do This' // timestamp, 2:15 ]

IT’S TO DIE FOR

In the next scene, Karen poured “Smarty’s Spaghetti Sauce” on the pasta.

…I mean, do I really have to spell it out here? If this cardboard cutout was able to run Casino Paisano before he and Mario went to jail, then it shouldn’t be a surprise. What is curious though is that somehow Marty, while on the run, has his face plastered on a Goober Eats bag in 'SMG4: Super SMG4 Wonder', owns a whole airline named “Marty Airlines” in 'Mario’s Plane Trip', and now has a pasta sauce brand in here. All with no one noticing anything.

['SMG4: Super SMG4 Wonder' // timestamp, 0:57 ] ['Mario’s Plane Trip' // timestamp, 0:13 ]

There is an ‘S’ put in front of his name, but the point still stands. Now, I wouldn’t say that this is “unusual”. It’s the SMG4 universe, after all, you can literally start a business and this is completely normal. Just some food for thought.

TAKING THE JOB

Back to the episode, Karen receives a call from the corporation that offers her a job — and when I mean ‘offers’, I mean ‘convinces her to take the job'. According to her former “boss”, it was a hit request on an international terrorist who has escaped from prison and is currently poisoning innocent people, who we later learn to be Marty. The “boss” also stated that Karen may know him. Karen initially refuses since she has abandoned that line of work for her kids, until her “boss” elaborates that if she doesn’t take the request, more lives could be lost, including children. Like her children. With no choice, she takes it.

But, who is this corporation?

Based on what little we have, I can determine this corporation may be affiliated with the government or something similar in power status.

They can keep tabs on all their agents, even if they quit, just as Karen did.

Apparently, they are able to get word on the people who interacted with them but not enough to know their personal lives (the corporation is seemingly uninformed about her kids.)

They are open to receiving requests from third parties.

They don’t take hits for kill’s sake, they prioritize people’s safety.

However, they don’t want any witnesses when taking the hit so they would kill IF they have to. For Karen, they trust her enough to know it won’t come to that since she is a professional, qualified agent.

Other than that, we don’t exactly know. There is a possibility that WOTFI could reveal who they are. But it also lead to Karen having her secret past revealed as well, potentially losing her job(s).

[side ramble: if that were to happen, it would be great if Three hired Karen to come work at his café. He needs the extra help after all, and Karen would be able to have more appearances in the series. I know it's not going to happen but hey, a guy could dream.]

TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW

Karen catches Four eavesdropping on their conversation and after some convincing, the two decide to work together. They head down to the basement where Karen keeps a stash of her weapons and demands Four to tell her everything he knows about Mario.

Well, first off, I don’t think Mario can be killed except if it was through manipulation of his code due to the cosmology lore. Of course, the real target isn’t Mario but it does bring up the question:

How do you kill Marty?

In the episode 'SMG4: You Made Mario Do This', it has been established that Marty is practically invincible since he was able to stand a nuke for memes’ sake. Water may have slowed him down but it wasn’t enough to outright destroy him. We don't know if he can be destroyed, not even Mario knows — the guy who created him. Likely, for WOTFI, one of the crew’s objectives would be that they have to find Marty’s weakness to defeat him.

['SMG: You Made Mario Do This' ]

Then again, cartoon logic exists.

THE “SPAGHETTI APPRECIATION” CLUB

Karen and Four go out to tail Mario and stumble upon a cult working on the distribution of the sauce. Confused about why Mario would be here, they continued on through the warehouse… Until Four accidentally alerted the cultists of their presence.

[another side ramble: Four, you can’t just say you used to have a deviantART account and not drop the link, dude.]

After an intense between them and the cult, they were able to find Mario and realize that yeah, Mario’s being Mario and had no idea he was even in a cult.

Pure of heart, dumb of ass ❤️

That was when a dying cultist and a jar of “Smarty’s Spaghetti Sauce” revealed that the poison mentioned earlier in the episode was the sauce itself. It also was a horrifying revelation that Karen used the same sauce on the dinner she just left for her kids.

Like I mentioned before, Marty is somehow able to have a pasta sauce business. Not only that but recruit a cult who worship spaghetti to work for him.

The cultists that were in the warehouse are dead but it doesn’t mean it was all of them. Indeed, later on in the episode, more cultists came into Karen's house to fight. For all we know, Marty has multiple distribution plants in the Mushroom Kingdom so perhaps Marty would bring more as part of his army for WOTFI.

AN UNEXPECTED REUNION

Karen, Four, and Mario rush back to her house and were able to stop her kids from eating the spaghetti just in time. However, they’ve faced an unexpected guest: Marty.

Four and Mario immediately recognized him, but Karen was confused as to why a cardboard cutout was with her kids. That was when Four tells her about WOTFI 2023 — which I dubbed ‘The Notebook Arc’ — and how Marty stole Three’s notebook.

[i really have to stop making these side rambles: i absolutely loved it when they referenced WOTFI '23 :) ]

Then, Mario wonders how Marty managed to escape from prison, allowing Karen to piece together that Marty was the real target all along.

Wait a second, wasn’t she there in WOTFI '23? His face was literally all over the casino, how did she not know about Marty?

She was there but it’s likely that she assumed as everyone else did: Marty was just a cardboard cutout. A mascot. How much damage can he really do?

A lot, apparently. He was clever to take advantage of his appearance so that no one would suspect a thing.

Marty greets the familiar faces and reveals his motive behind his poisonous spaghetti sauce: after the events of the Notebook arc, Marty swore revenge on Mario after our local funny man escaped from prison and abandoned him for spaghetti.

“The one person I trusted the most has left me behind for… SPAGHETTI! Now I’ve escaped! …And it's time for… everyone to suffer like I have! At the hands… of the one thing YOU love the MOST.”

This will definitely be his motive for WOTFI 2024, this time going against Mario due to betrayal. Marty said it himself that he would be back, after he escaped with the help of a helicopter from being cornered by Karen.

WELL PLAYED

Even after Marty managed to escape from Karen, she felt relieved that her kids were safe, thanking Four and Mario for doing so.

This leads me to suspect that Karen will have a big role in WOTFI. Thematically, it makes sense since she has yet to carry out the request and would likely give the finishing blow, defeating Marty once and for all. Well, until the crew could find a weakness, of course.

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

And there you have it: my predictions for WOTFI 2024, all based on the episode 'We Must Kill Mario'! As this arc is just starting, it might be likely we will get to see more hints about Marty’s plan for revenge or anything related to the plot of WOTFI.

To this, my dear fellows, time will only tell. But hey, that’s just a theory…

AN SMG4 THEORY

🎶Thanks for dropping by🎶

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Do you really think that is all? How naive.

…?

[fan-kingdoms]

god i wish we had gotten more of twelve with river song. he just meshes so well with her and since their time streams are finally (almost) synced up you don’t feel the imbalance of maturity/knowledge that you get in a lot of eleven’s time with her, and less general timeline “where are they right now what the fuck is happening” fuckery to sort through. just a husband and wife who have lived so much together and know it’s coming to an end very soon so they have to relish it (even if river doesn’t have the knowledge of her own death the way the doctor does, she knows it’s almost over because her diary is running out of pages). and i love watching this older, less theatrical, more rough-around-the-edges doctor with her because it develops their dynamic and the passage of time for the doctor so well. he's not eleven, trying to hide the pain and damage anymore. he doesn't spin off lies and deflections. he wears the hurt and is comfortable in it, and river is there to bring the joy and wonder out. they just have a more mature, beautiful relationship to me.

more thoughts and elaboration under the cut bc i care for your dash <3

twelve and river were such a delight to watch because (this is getting into hot take territory here sorry) once capaldi took over from matt smith, the show basically gave up on the whole “the doctor is very attractive and all the women want him” narrative that it pushed for eleven. of course it was there with ten but i think it got Egregious with eleven. moffat really wanted us to believe matt smith was the hottest man in the universe (and he’s not unattractive! i admit i thought he was attractive when i first watched doctor who years and years ago! the writing was just over the top with it!) twelve is not some young whimsical prettyboy anymore— he’s abrasive, blunt, and old. the show doesn’t treat him like he’s supposed to be attractive, which makes him and river’s relationship feel so real.

first off i want to point out that river is still very much attracted to the doctor in his new body which was so exciting for me because how often to we get to see romance and desire and (sexually) intimate relationships in people past the age of 35??? hardly ever! how often do we see a beautiful woman expressing desire for a man that’s not young or conventionally handsome NOT because she has ulterior motives or we’re supposed to believe he’s actually the sexiest man alive but because she simply loves him? how often do we see relationships where no matter how much change they go through, even when one of them has turned into an entirely different person (figuratively or literally), the love stays steady and unchanged? especially when these changes involve aging? there isn’t nearly enough. and seeing it is kind of healing for me, just a reminder that you can have love and intimacy and passion even when you’re not “young and beautiful” anymore

twelve and river’s relationship is just charged with so much shared experience and trust and i wish we had gotten to see more of it. in conclusion i want a special that recaps the 24 years on darillium thank you and goodbye