#well-maybe not (unless…)

[999999999inadream]

toby fox needs to add like a bit of narration in deltarune abt kris like "they themmed they/themily down the stheirs" cus i cant go on seeing them constantly get he/himmed in yt comment sections

[raviollies]

Rook projecting their period cramps onto Solas

[sergeantwoods]

inhale, exhale. inhale, exhale. inhale, exhale. inhale, exhale. in--

the thump of the helo hitting the ground lifted ghost from his thoughts, and he sighed. exhale.

roach and gaz slowly broke apart from their huddling, probably talking about some dumb shit. ghost huffed, turning away from the two.

see, soap was dead. he has been for a while. a while is 8 months. but that's still a while in his books. because he could never let johnny's death go. never.

roach was soaps replacement. but he could never amount to johnny. so as much as he tried, he wouldn't get half of ghost's respect. roach wasn't bad, don't get him wrong. the kid was good at his job, smart, funny. but if he thought he could replace soap, then he was sorely mistaken. nobody can replace soap.

ghost doesn't understand how gaz and price moved on so quickly. their mourning only lasted about, what, a month? two? even so, it was too fast. like they dumped the idea of the bright-eyed sergeant away too quickly. it cut at simon's heart.

a pat on his shoulder had him roused from his thoughts, and he met eyes with price. price nodded at him, and he dipped his head back. swallowing shallowly, he stood up, following behind the captain.

once they reached the snowy ground, price waved nik off, and nik grinned and winked before launching in the air again and leaving. now, it was just the four of them, plus the two rookies that had been assigned this mission.

"alright," price started, coughing. his eyes narrowed, and he gestured at the facility that was barely visible from their view. "we're just going in to grab intel. they have guards, yes, but they are easy to bypass. it's easy. don't make it harder than it has to be." at the collective 'yes sirs!' he recieved, he nodded.

"sergeant valkyrie, lieutenant mirage, go on overwatch. me and the others are going into building A. keep watch for us. don't mess up; this is important." when the sergeant and the lieutenant nodded, he turned to the direction of the building.

"alright. when we get there, i'll tell overwatch where to set up, then we'll go and get that intel. shouldn't take too long." clapping his hands, he continued. "let's get going."

they trudged at least a few miles towards the compound, dropping of overwatch on the way. when they reached the cliff that dropped down to reveal the building, price split them into smaller groups.

it took them a few minutes to get down, grunts of effort being heard through comms. the awkward shuffling from the rookie's side of the comms were picked up, agitating ghost's ears. he was tempted to turn it off, but he decided against it. it would stop later, anyway. they'd get busy and focus.

gritting his teeth, he took out his assault rifle. price gave them a few more directions, before they took off for their missions.

it starts off slow. yeah, it started off slow. but now, here they were, huddled under some block of cement, to hide from the rain of bullets coming their way. price curses under his breath from ghost's side, reloading his gun hurriedly before peeking out from the side of the block and shooting.

ghost looked out from the side as well, shooting enemies one by one with deadly accuracy.

"overwatch, how many more are there?" price hisses, reloading his gun again.

"they just keep coming, sir," valkyrie says, growling under his breath as he snipes some soldier in the swarm of konni's coming after them.

"fuuuck, there wasn't supposed to be this many!"

ghost couldn't help the snort that left him. price side eyes him, then roughly grabs his shoulder.

"we're moving, lieutenant, come on."

nodding, he covered the captain as the sprinted into the building next to them. once they entered, it became eerily silent, save for their shoes squeaking against the sterile marbled floor. it looked like a part of an airport, almost, minus all the obviously military things lying around.

even when price lowered his gun, ghost kept his up. they couldn't afford to be caught off guard.

"simon. there isn't anyone in here."

flicking his eyes to price, he slowly lowers the gun. if price told him to lower the gun only for them to get --

he lets out a surprised sound as something -- no, someone -- tackles him to the ground. his head hits the ground first, and the all-too-familiar feeling of the barrel of a gun being pressed to the back of neck is present before he hears price letting out a shout and barreling towards the figure on top of him to the ground.

ghost groans, head spinning. he hears the sounds of price and the russian tussling besides him, but he can't seem to care over the pain in his head.

it takes a few seconds to finally come too, but when he does, he realizes that price is being attacked. and suddenly his senses are in overdrive, and he sweeps the attacker of their feet and onto the ground. their gun goes flying, and they land on their back with a pained grunt. he goes to stand over them. and now he gets to see their face.

his heart drops.

a familiar face. it isn't supposed to be familiar -- the eyes. it's fucking green, not blue. and the muzzle. and the fluffed out, ruffled mohawk. it isn't johnny. but it is? johnny wouldn't betray them. and he wouldn't do... whatever this is. wouldn't agree to it.

soap snarls from his position on the floor, eyes narrowed and staring apoplectically up at ghost. his breaths were coming out in short, angry puffs, the sound strange from the muzzle.

"johnny?"

nothing in his face changes. no pause, no hesitation, no sadness, no recognition. ghost face screws up under the mask in concern. what the hell happened to him?

price shakily gets up beside him, staring down at soap. his face was white as a sheet, and he whispers out a hoarse, "soap?"

soap grips ghosts ankles, writhing on the floor, trying to flip him over. he doesn't move, stuck gawking at soap.

"what did they do to you?" he murmurs out; half to himself and half to soap.

the only response he gets is a strangled "fuck you," from the man himself, still trying to flip ghost over.

price crouches on the ground, a pained expression on his face. he looks back up at ghost, eyes tired.

"what the hell should we do with him?"

"don't think he knows who we are. i said his name, no sign of recognition. doesn't look like he's willing to communicate, either. and you're the captain. you decide."

price sighs, rubbing his forehead as he thinks.

"well, either we just leave him here, cuff him to a bar." he pauses, seeing ghosts brow furrow.

"bu-- "

"and i know that's not an option anyone would like," he cuts ghost off, then continues with an exhale. "or we could sedate him and bring him back with us, and ask questions when we get back. or we could cuff him and bring him back. which one is safer?"

"unless you want to have a sparring match on the helo, i don't recommend cuffs. sedate seems safer, the only good option. i think gaz would try and murder us if we left soap here, too. you got a tranquilizer?"

price nodded. "yeah. can you hold him?"

"of course."

already crouching, price moved closer to soap, taking out a kit with the needle in it. the now green-eyed man's eyes widened, and he jerked away from price. ghost crouches down too, holding soap down. using one hand, he gently combs his fingers through his mohawk.

soaps eyes snap to ghosts; confusion lacing the sickly green. but he's staring up ghost, confusion turning into... fascination? interest? and he's certainly not paying attention when price winces and gets closer. he sticks the needle in the side of his neck when he gets close enough, and ghost grip on soap immediately tightens.

johnny immediately lurches away, crying out in surprise, and thrashing around. it only takes a few moments for the movements to become sluggish, and before they know it, soap is completely asleep.

it's quiet in the building. except for the loud breathing from soaps muzzle.

prices hand reaches to his comms. he clicks it on, voice low and gravelly as he speaks into it.

"well. gaz, guess who we found?"

HEEEEEEEELP THAT WAS SO LAZY IM SOBBING 😭

i swear i can write better thn that -- that was like. only 50% energy. i rushed this in an hour. yes, an hour. that's not really rushing, but i got very distracted a couple times.

well, heres my serving of brainwashed soap for the night. don't expect anything from me for like. another month or two .😭i mean, the medieval fic is gonna kick off sometime, so expect that

i very quickly proofread this, so if there was typos jus,,. ignore that please 🙏

here u go, @spottlessspectre

[1495-gauge]

there's that fucked up three-eyed thing that lives in the woods. whose turn is it to chase it off again??

[lunar-system]

Izzy Hands: The Moon.

Re-imagined from the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, this version of the Moon shows Izzy taking the shape of a lone Lover, longing for what he cannot reach.

Longer exploration of the card's symbolism under the cut.

Symbolism of the card

I initially meant this card to be specifically Izzy's, but he is once again unseparable from Ed. Though the moon itself is depicted as Ed, it is through Izzy that I interpret the journey of the card. Feel free to invent your own interpretation as well!

In the original version of the Moon we see a dog, a wolf, and a crayfish. Izzy takes the place of the wolf, marking him as wild and untameable. He is accompanied by a dog, symbolizing his loyalty. The crayfish has retreated, and we can see a monster lurking in the depths of the water, reminding us of the beasts that lie within.

Rachel Pollack (2011) writes: "The Moon signifies the dangerous time between the end of one world structure and the beginning of another. On the emotional level it can indicate the strange state when something powerful has ended and you find yourself thrown back on your instincts."

In the card Izzy already has his wooden leg. He his stepping into his role as the Unicorn, marking a shift in his loyalty and his place in the world. His reign as Blackbeard's first mate is ending, and a whole new world order is being imagined.

Ed is also seen in a new light. With his short beard, he is at the end of his captaincy, possibly even at the end of his piracy. He as the Moon is illuminated by the light of the Sun, personified by Stede in another card, The Sun.

Izzy bears witness to their combined light, unreachable to him on the ground. He teeters at the edge of the water illuminated by that very light, and is faced with a choice. Will he turn, follow the path and try to reach the unreachable? Or will he explore the unknown waters in front of him?

In tarot, water symbolizes emotions, intuition and subconscious. Pollack writes: "Here in the unknown territory our animal selves take over. We cannot suppress the wild emotions but only travel through them." The message of the Moon beckons Izzy to step into the water and face his emotions.

However, there are also dangers in the murky waters of the subconscious. Pollack continues: "The Moon card calls forth powerful dreams, visions, and the power of the feminine." In tarot water is a feminine element. Izzy, a beacon of masculinity, has in the past confused the feminine with the monstrous. He is now dared to invite the feminine within him to the surface. His posture already mirrors that of the feminine lover from the Lovers-card. It also calls back to the Fool, to someone at the beginning of their self-discovery.

Tl;dr: Izzy, the Fool and the Lover, is on a journey from one world to another. Will he follow the path and try to reach the unreachable, or will he find the courage to plunge into unknown waters?

A comparison between the original Rider-Waite-Smith card from 1909 and the re-imagined version

Izzy's pose mirrors the feminine Lover

Sources

Image source: Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, republished as Tarot of A. E. Waite, 2016, AGM-Urania, Germany

Text source: Rachel Pollack, A Journey of 78 Steps, 2011, as cited in the booklet for instruction and guidance of Tarot of A. E. Waite, 2016, AGM-Urania, Germany

[habken]

Have you seen the new my hero movie?

no I have homework and also the irl friend that I wanna go with has pneumonia </3

[mikashisus]

connections between venti and arlecchino that i found particularly interesting, a rambling 🗣️

ARLECCHINO STORY QUEST SPOILERS‼️‼️

(these r just some cool things i found kinda sus and interesting. this was for fun.)

1. first, my thoughts on clervie — specifically what she says in response to learning about mondstadt:

2. the similarities between arlecchino and venti regarding “freedom”:

venti fought for freedom that was earned, and eventually became the god of freedom shortly after he earned said freedom.

he also tested vennessa. he tested her by saying he could grant her freedom and waited to see if she would leave the cell with him, but she didn’t. she stayed and showed him how freedom was meant to be earned, not given. venti was more than satisfied with her answer and left.

venti has shown time and time again that he believes freedom is meant to be earned. at least, that’s how i see his character and his ideals.

now i want to bring up what arlecchino said towards the end of her story quest. i find it interesting how she also believes that freedom is meant to be earned, not given.

pretty interesting.

3. now for my own personal rant and theories:

“freedom” itself is always being mentioned in this game. it started in mondstadt, the nation embodying freedom. the god of freedom himself entered the fray and showed us what freedom truly meant.

liyue was “freed” from their own god, who saw it time to step down from his position as archon and left the task of ruling & protecting liyue to the humans.

wouldn’t say there’s much freedom in inazuma tbh. unless you count the people being “freed” from the vision hunt decree and the sakoku decree.

nahida being freed from the hands of the sages/akademiya.

furina being freed from her curse and the act she played out for 500 years.

i wonder if we’ll see any freedom in natlan too.

ANYWAYS, ALL THIS TO SAY (i didnt mean for this to become a venti rant, i have constant venti brainrot) — i believe that venti and freedom play an ENORMOUS part in the lore of the game and we haven’t seen anything yet.

i am a firm believer that venti is one of the most important characters in this game. bro has lore in literally every nation, maybe with the exception of fontaine (iirc, there hasn’t been anything in fontaine calling back to barbatos).

he even has lore in the chasm and enkanomiya, which says A LOT. i haven’t finished the remuria world quest yet, so idk if there’s any lore about him or istaroth sprinkled there too. tbh i wouldn’t be surprised if there was.

everything always comes full circle when it comes to venti. he’s everywhere, which is pretty cool to think about when you realize that he’s supposed to be the embodiment of the wind, which is everywhere all at once and can hear everything.

which brings me to my last point —

4. this voiceline from arlecchino about the wind.

hmmm.. 🤨

[nikuttek]

here's Thorin and Bilbo being oblivious and in love at the Carrock

[seeks-for-knowledge]

The Daedric Alphabet

"I tire of all spell scrolls I come across saying Woe Upon You. Why not something nicer, like Joy Upon You?"

- Seeks-For-Knowledge

The Daedric alphabet is used by both the Dunmer and the Daedra, the Dunmer using it as a remnant from a time when they worshipped the Daedra, before the Battle of Red Mountain in the First Era.

Exceptions

The letters Xayah (X) and Yahkem (Y) are sometimes omitted in scrolls and books, leaving only a blank space where the letter would be. They appear more commonly in banners and signs.

Writing styles

Daedric is not always written from left to right. On occassion it is written from up to down instead. Some places even write it upside down or mirrored, though this is less common. However, the most interesting way to write it is the decorative way often used in signs and banners, where the letters can overlap each other and vary in size, though the starting letter tends to be the largest, and different in colour than the rest.

Traveler's advice: If you ever journey to Morrowind, learning the basics of the Daedric alphabet can really enrich your journey, and also lessen the humiliating need to ask for directions when standing right by signs written in Daedric.

[luck-of-the-drawings]

"And soda; runs off into the street..." "...and soda... is totally okay!"

[ndostairlyrium]

I was mean to them, so now they can leave the pit of doom to just cuddle and have some sleep <3

[evilkitten3]

i have a theory about shinji, gin, and aizen, but i'm not really sure how to word it.

we never really see shinji and gin interact all that much, which makes sense bc both of them have significantly more important relationships with aizen, but at the same time it's a little odd how much there isn't.

like. gin cut hiyori in half. shinji is understandably pissed about that, but he aims that anger at aizen - and this seems to be one of the very few things in the bleach world that honestly isn't on him bc he never told gin to do that, he never even implied it. hiyori was never a threat to him. hell, we don't even know if she was charging in the right direction; if anything, attacking her implies that she was which is a really stupid thing to do when you're surrounded by a bunch of people who super want you dead and would kill you if they could be sure you weren't tricking them into stabbing each other (ofc it could also be a fakeout but still)

but i don't remember shinji's beef ever really being with gin, even tho he didn't seem to anticipate that gin was working with aizen the whole time during tbtp. so like does he feel responsibility there? cuz gin went straight from academy to 3rd seat and shinji could plausibly feel like that sent him right to aizen bc he doesn't know that gin was always aiming for that. did he blame himself? does he feel like he should've seen it coming? does he still see him as some weird genius kid? does he just view gin as an extension of aizen, which is both dehumanizing to an extent but also entirely fair bc gin did that to himself?

the thing is, since we never really see them interact much, it's kind of only interesting on shinji's side of things, bc gin doesn't really care about much outside of whatever the fuck he thought he was doing and the version of rangiku that he has in his head who needs back something that the real one doesn't ever seem to have realized she lost to begin with. gin's so disconnected with basically everybody that most of the time you can usually assume his thoughts are just "lol. lmao" and there's no reason to think that doesn't extend to shinji as well (gin has deep thoughts on: aizen, ichigo, and matsumoto (massive asterisk on that one ofc) and i think everyone else is kinda set dressing to him lmao the guy is Fucked Up)

anyway i think it's interesting to toy around with that relationship as it was in reality as well as how it might've been perceived, but also in the sense of both of them being sort of opposite ends of the manchild spectrum - shinji leans into his childish side but still has a fairly adult worldview, and gin is able to pull off maturity to an extent but was never able to escape a deeply childish mindset

[horrendousmustard]

“Beach Date Kaneki When?” - today!

@winterbl0ss0m @just-another-tokyo-ghoul-fan new Neki >v<

[artbyfuji]

my summer piece for @rwbyprism 🥀

[warriorend-2]

Went and rewatched a recording of KBOOM I did (mostly for personal reference) and. It is an interesting detail to me, because of the whole "Welcome, Agent Phoenix" thing on the cabin screen, it leads me to believe that there was something going on there that just. Doesn't get covered except indirectly in various lines.

Roxana says she doesn't have access to the lava generator systems in her cabin, which. she does have access to a lot of stuff in her cabin that Phoenix just doesn't have, but it's interesting that that gets mentioned, because those lava generators get used Constantly. In terms of the lava generators alone and the ability to move the lava between the cabins, Phoenix's cabin almost behaves like an admin cabin, in a sense.

It also has a forge, and a parameters panel. Roxana might have the parameters panel on the other cabins, but given she does parameters when she's in the central...tower area, I'm unsure.

The screwdriver is something Phoenix probably brought, but the metal just kind of laying around, and the forge templates, those were probably there from the start, along with the cans of butane and...liquid nitrogen iirc. And the welding mask.

This is all probably mostly to make the level doable, but there's a lot more direct interaction between Zor and Phoenix in the third game, which. if there's that much direct interaction, it just strikes me as a bit odd that it's always. pretty convenient. The shield generator is just left in the underwater lab, free for the taking. With a demonstration of the kinesium chain destabilization and a guide on how to use the shield generator.

If I read this as pure like. Story wise. Not bothering with the game needing to be beatable or fair:

-The shield generator is just left behind in the underwater lab, which...seems like an odd enough decision on its own. It can block kinesium explosions, that feels like something that'd be kept under pretty tight security, and Zor knew that Phoenix would be going to the lab anyway considering they leave a tape. And instructions. And a demonstration. Yes the demonstration was a power play but it was a demonstration of how their Big Evil Plan worked.

-Zor does slip a little threat in the tape recording, to be fair ("know whatever end you meet"), but. In all honesty I mostly read that as saying it for the sake of keeping up appearances. Doesn't make much sense if they actually expected Phoenix to die down there. Even with the squid.

-Zor sets up the explosion at Roxana's factory, which kills all her robots and was apparently intended to kill her. They seem mildly surprised when she's alive in KBOOM, though they shake it off pretty quickly. It's entirely possible Phoenix was "supposed" to go into KBOOM with the shield generator, given it was just left free for the taking during Hot Water.

-Phoenix's cabin in KBOOM has the ability to control and use the lava generators, a forge for making various bits and pieces, metal for the forge, and...very conveniently everything they'd need to interface with the destabilizers. This could be chalked up to them getting lucky and getting in just the right cabin, but. well.

and oh, huh. the laser grid relies on a set of gears that have a very easy cover to remove. and hey would you look at this can of convenient liquid nitrogen, or this screwdriver, or-

-Everything about Zor's little speech at the end weighs on my mind constantly. I've mentioned their tone before so I'm going to skip that. There's a very specific line in their final speech I'd like to dwell on for a moment, if you'll pardon me.

That being this line.

I'm going to play semantics for a second because god damn if I didn't take a lot of classes in high school where wording was a Constant Thing.

Obviously Roxana believed her robots were better than Phoenix for most of the game, that's not what I'm questioning. I'm questioning why the word "fooled" specifically. Not "you convinced Prism to believe in you" or "you made Prism believe in you", it's just. fooled.

Zor has obviously seen Phoenix pull their plans apart like string cheese on multiple different occasions by this point, and seems to base various plans on the fact that they'll survive various trials, so I don't read this as them doubting Phoenix's skills or abilities. What they're doubting, I'm not sure exactly.

I'm putting this under a disclaimer: It's entirely possible that my own personal interpretation of Phoenix is going to have some amount of influence here. Maybe everything I'm reading out of this is BS and I just have confirmation bias, but this section did make me adjust my interpretation of Phoenix somewhat, so there's influence going both ways.

I will write out the full speech, just for convenience:

"So you fooled Prism into believing in you. Well, even the great Agent Phoenix will eventually burn out. Believe me when I say there is nothing left in the Agency worth saving. I would know. Be seeing you."

The way this reads to me does not necessarily imply "you're going to die and lose one of these days", because there's a lot of other stuff going on here.

There's the fact that Zor uses the phrasing of "burn out" to refer to Phoenix, because. burning is sort of what phoenixes do, like that's their whole Thing. Split in half, I could probably read it as saying, effectively, either "one of these days, you'll die" or "you should ditch the Agency before they get you killed", and just take it at that, but without that split, neither of those really feel. complete.

Maybe they're just trying to throw Phoenix off, unsettle them a bit, but this specific little monologue reads as something more to the effect of "good job fooling people (possibly even yourself) into thinking you're just the Agency's little back-pocket weapon, but you know they're kind of worthless, right? See ya later, "phoenix"" it's a very crass and flat way of writing out the way i interpreted it, but it gets the point across.

Maybe Zor knows more about Phoenix than they let on. Maybe they're just talking bullshit and trying to get under Phoenix's skin. Maybe it's both. Maybe it's neither, and I'm overthinking it, and they do genuinely just think Phoenix isn't as good as they seem. But. Yknow.

They wanted Phoenix captured alive in the second game. If Phoenix is really that much a thorn in their side, why not do what Juniper suggested and just shoot them while they were unconscious? Phoenix was vulnerable after they got captured. Vulnerable and practically in Zor's hands. The Peace Summit was apparently a plan "years in the making", but they didn't. Stop Phoenix. What Juniper did was the equivalent of sticking a cat in a carrier and telling it to stay.

[laventadorn]

i am trying a thing where i just write stuff and don't worry too much about it. i tend to fiddle with something to death, which is one reason why i'm (checks calendar) 12 years and counting on a single story ahahaaaa. "everything has to sound Exactly Right!" says the little foreman of perfectionism in my head. can i fire that guy? or give him a different job?