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starwarsmum · 2 months

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So after I couldn't find that fic, I decided I was gonna write my own version of it, because the idea was wonderful and I, apparently, actually cannot live without this fic existing.

Lost in Paris

Summary:

Damian has had enough of being treated like a child, or worse, as a bomb waiting to explode and kill those closest. After a conversation with Bruce about doing some vigilante work solo goes south, he comes to the conclusion that he is better off leaving home.

Little do his family know, he doesn't intend to return.

* * *

HEAVILY inspired by a fic that was deleted recently. Obviously it has my own take and writing, but I can't add the fic as an inspiration as it's not here anymore. Rated teen for language

Notes:

Heyo, so after I wrote the one shot, I became consumed with writing my own take on the fic that got away. So here's the first chapter of that.

All six have been written, but I need to take some time to read it through, make any edits, and make sure it makes sense! There is limited French throughout the fic, I'll be providing translations in the end notes.

Hope you all enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Jason

“…as though you can stop me, Father.”

Red Hood paused as Demon Spawn’s clipped voice echoed from further in the batcave. The loudest silence Red Hood had heard in quite a while followed it and he slowed down to eavesdrop.

“Tt, when will you admit that it is time I set out alone, to attempt my own vigilantism? I am a child no longer and refuse to be treated as such.” Robin sounded haughty and angry, a not unusual combination.

“I didn't say you couldn't become your own vigilante, Robin. I merely said that you would need a new mantle. Robin is Batman's sidekick, he does not stand alone. If you are ready to pass it down, I’m sure someone else will take it up. Someone always does.”

Red Hood winced at Bruce's words. Sure, all of them had held the title of Robin at one point or other, but the Fourth Robin was the most adamant that it was rightfully his, as the only blood son of Batman. And that was saying something, given Red Hood's little nickname for Red Robin and the hatred he had harbored after he found out he had been replaced. He held still as Robin drew back his hood and removed the mask.

“Father, I am Robin, it is my identity and I do not have to discard it if I do not wish to - which I do not. But if you will not give me the freedom to work without you, then I will not stay. I understand that you did not choose me, that I was thrust upon you by Mother but I have been here for 8 years now. Why do you not trust me to wear the mantle with honour?”

“You know why, Robin,” Batman growled, and there was warning in his voice. Damian clearly heard it too as his shoulders began to tense, though he said nothing. After a moment's pause, Batman continued. “You are still too angry, and you need supervision to ensure you keep to our ideals.”

“Your ideals, Father,” Damian said, his voice soft. He sounded more weary than angry and he waved Batman off as the cowled man loosed a growl. “It is of little importance. We are clearly at an impasse and nothing shall be gained by having this argument with you again. I shall be gone by morning.”

The sharp clicks of Damian's shoes were the only sound in the batcave and Red Hood counted his blessings that he hadn't been part of that conversation. Sure, Demon Spawn wound him up, but he wouldn't have thought he'd regress to his League days. Hell, some days Hood thought that he was more likely to snap than the youngest in their crew.

He slid casually into the main cave at that point, not even pretending not to have overheard the entire thing. It seemed that Batman wasn't in the mood to chat so he made himself scarce, going up to see Alfred and maybe he could scrounge some food from the kitchen. He didn't realise that this was a point in time that he would wish he could turn back to, many times over the coming years.

_ _ _

3 weeks later, and the cave was a riot of noise, voices echoing harshly. Jason hadn't suited up yet, but that didn't stop him from dropping casually into one of the chairs around their planning table so he could work out what the problem was. When the noise just continued, even increasing if that were possible, Jason let loose a shrill whistle to get everyone's attention.

“Thank you, god you lot are ridiculously loud tonight. We having trouble deciding who we're supposed to take down? Oh, hey Dick, undercover mission over with already?” He nodded at his older brother but he only got a curt ‘hi’ back. That made him sit up straighter; Dick was sunshine incarnate, but when he got angry, he got angry. God help the soul he aimed his rage towards. “Oh, shit, do we have, like, an actual problem? Did a rogue escape or something?”

“No, Jay, we're missing a team member,” Tim said sharply from the batcomputer. Jason did a quick look around but there were several of the family absent so he turned around, concerned. Tim sighed, “Robin, Robin is missing, Jason. He's been gone for several weeks and we can't find him anywhere.”

“Wait, weeks?” Jason sat up straighter, glancing towards Bruce - a look that was caught by Dick and immediately acted upon.

“What did you do, Bruce? Wait, forget that, what did Bruce do, Jay-bird?” As Jason recounted what he'd heard, Dick grew angrier and angrier, until he was agitatedly bouncing on his toes and glaring at Bruce. “So your son tells you he's gonna leave and you, what, just pretend it's not happening? For 3 weeks?!”

“Damian can take care of himself, Dick. If it wasn't true, he wouldn't have taken himself out of the role. He said he wanted to spread his wings, which of you hasn't wanted that?”

“You accused him of being one bad day away from murdering his enemies!” Dick shouted, exasperated. “And when has any of us completely cut off the whole family? Even Alfred hasn't heard from him. Has Jon? And where are Titus, and Alfred the cat? If he was coming back, he wouldn't have disrupted them!”

“You are reading too much into this and it is a waste of time. He will come home when he realises he was wrong and that's the end of it. Can we now focus on patrol?” There were noises of dissent and Tim continued to type furiously but they began gearing up. Dick shot another glare at the Bat and declared that this would be his last patrol with them if Damian didn't get in touch before the next one.

_ _ _

Jason was sitting in Dick’s apartment, watching with concern as the man paced relentlessly. It had been a month since his last family patrol and he was no closer to finding out where Damian had gone. He had League training so when he wanted to vanish, he could make a damn good go of it. Unfortunately, that left them with nothing but dead ends.

“What did Jon say?” Dick growled into his phone, muttering what Jason was pretty sure were curses in Romani. “Well, where does he think he went? I don't know, Tim, that's why I've been coming to the computer geniuses! Babs says she hasn't had any luck with known aliases and I know you haven't either. I'm at a loss, Jay hasn't had any success with his contacts and he hasn't reached out to me.”

Jason listened in silence and Dick devolved into a rant about how Bruce didn't value Damian enough and treated them all relatively poorly. He heard a short reply from the Replacement and could almost imagine the little twerp with a hand wrapped around a jumbo mug of coffee as he hunched over the keyboards. He thought back to how tired Damian had sounded during the argument with Bruce and frowned. Surely Damian would pop up again one day soon, there wasn't far an 18 year old with none of the family money could go.

Tim had hacked the bank records for Damian's private account and there had been a withdrawal for a decent sum on that first day, but nothing since. And the idea of Demon Spawn getting a job with none of the references from Gotham was laughable. But after the first month had passed with no contact, they had to admit that there was less and less chance of him coming home.

5 years later

Jason stood in the watchtower, staring at the screen in front of him. He had been doing his usual rounds, checking for chatter in some of the less underground communities to see if any of Damian's aliases had surfaced. When that had hit its usual dead ends, he decided to review Robin's original profile, to see if there was something they had missed in their initial sweep for potential allies and safe zones.

Jason had never been particularly adept at navigating the system for files and didn't want to pull up the wrong Robin file so he typed in ‘Damian Wayne' and saw the file. But, curiously, there had been another, newer reference to the name. Had one of the other heroes done a search on him recently?

He clicked the link and was flooded with a metric shit-ton of information spanning the past 5 years. There were credit searches, a courthouse request, hospital records, all in French and linked to a couple of addresses in Paris. He hesitated another minute before deciding to download the information onto an external drive and then scrubbing evidence of his search. Whilst he wasn't Babs or Tim competent, anyone doing a cursory look would see nothing amiss. And there were very few people searching for Damian these days.

It was a few hours later that he made it back to his favourite safe house to finally review the information he had garnered. He was nervous as he connected the drive to a device, wondering if he finally had a lead that would give them back their brother. He scanned the most recent entry and saw an address linked to a recent credit card application. His brow furrowed but the ID used certainly looked like an older Damian.

He jumped up, too jittery to read through the entire pack of information. He'd always been more of a ‘do now, think later’ kind of guy. He could catch a Zeta tube back up to the watchtower and then get into Paris immediately. He checked the route from the Paris tube to the address before grabbing his civilian leather jacket and a domino mask.

The time difference between New Jersey and Paris was distinct. What had been a brisk but clear December afternoon there was a wet and dreary evening here. The drizzle had started not long after he had arrived and looked to worsen in the near future. He was watching the tall apartment building, hoping to spot his brother before he made an approach but with no success.

After twenty minutes, the heavens opened, forcing his hand. He could either stay where he was, getting more and more drenched, and risk getting sick, or bite the bullet and knock on the door. With a steadying breath, he slouched across the street and raised his fist to the door.

“Attendez, s’il vous plait,” came a feminine voice, and Jason panicked. That definitely wasn't his brother’s voice, had he made a mistake? Perhaps someone else had the unfortunate luck of having his brother's name, his age. He hesitated a fraction longer and the door cracked open, a shorter French woman looking up at him quizzically. “Oui?”

“Uh, pardonnez-moi, I, uh, shit,” he fumbled for the words not knowing how to phrase it. Her brow furrowed further and he felt the panic mounting. “Is, uh, is Damian here? Damian Wayne?”

“Un moment, monsieur,” she said, eyes narrowing slightly as she took in his features. The door snapped shut and he heard a muffled conversation, the light voice of the woman and a deep masculine voice that made Jason tense up in anticipation. The adrenaline thrummed in his veins as the door opened again and the small woman reappeared.

“Please, monsieur, come in,” she said politely, opening the door wide. Jason heard another door in the apartment close softly. The room was spacious and sparsely decorated, a three seater and two seater sofa selection which she gestured towards him to sit down on. “You speak English, non? I speak it too, so we can converse in that, if it is easier for you.”

“Uh, yeah, thanks, mademoiselle.” Jason’s eyes darted around nervously, taking in as much as he could. “Listen, I'm sorry for just showing up here, I just- I've been looking for my brother for years and I found something that said he was living here and I-”

“Monsieur, please, moins vite, slower, I cannot comprend- understand if you speak that fast,” she said, in a soothing manner. She had leaned towards him, frowning but not so much that he worried about being thrown out. He took a deep breath and gave her a shaky smile in apology. “Merci, now, you said the word ‘brother’, that means frere, non? Why are you looking for him now?” After all this time was implied, but not said outright so he wasn't sure if that was what she meant.

“Sorry, my brother, Damian, left home several years ago, he got in a fight with our dad. We thought he was cooling off at first, maybe spending time with a friend,” Jason said, taking care not to speak too quickly. “He was 18, you know? He was allowed to have a little time to himself. We've all chafed against the old man at one point or another- I mean,” he corrected, seeing her confusion, “we've all fought with Bruce at different times. We thought he was gonna cool off and come home, but he never did. And we couldn't find him, we tried, we were so sure we would manage but then days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into yea-”

“I understand,” she cut in softly, placing a hand on the back of his. He took a shuddering breath and realised he was close to tears, rambling in his nerves. She was about to say something else when a door opened and a tall, familiar man stepped into view. He had filled out some, his limbs no longer holding the gangliness of youth but firm and solid. His hair was still jet black and ruffled looking and his eyes the same piercing green.

“Damian,” Jason choked out, shooting up and launching towards the man. He looked even more uncannily like Bruce, the same jawline, similar builds, but he had a softer edge. He caught hold of Jason, gripping the back of his jacket tightly as the larger man shook slightly. “God, I can't believe it's really you.”

“It is me, Todd,” Damian replied, releasing himself from the embrace. They looked each other in the eye, Jason's still with that edge of pit madness but Damian - Damian looked at peace. “I must admit, I did not anticipate you visiting so suddenly,” he added drily.

Jason let out a short bark, shrugging even though all he felt was overwhelmed. “None of us expected you to keep using your actual name, Demon Spawn. God, we searched so hard, Dick was furious with B. I don't think he's spoken to him properly in years.”

Damian frowned but then the woman stood up and spoke softly in French to him. He rumbled something back and she nodded, patting Jason's arm as she passed him to go to another room. Damian indicated the sofas again and they sat down, a tense silence settling in the room. Having another person in the room had helped to ease some of the tension - Jason and Damian had never been close. But they were still brothers and Jason had been so angry with Bruce when he realised that Damian was gone.

The sound of a kettle filled the silence and the woman poked her head back around the door. She smiled at them both, a sunny, bright expression. “Pardon, would you like un thé ou un café, Jason? Or jus? We have orange or apple.”

“Uh, coffee's fine,” Jason muttered, trying to let the tension in his shoulders dissipate. He turned back to Damian after she bobbed her head once and vanished back through the door. “She, uh, she seems nice.”

“Marinette is a great many things,” Damian said, clearly amused. “Nice is the least of them, but I appreciate you saying so. We have been through much together, and she is very strong.”

“So are you…” Jason trailed off, not sure how to say it without offending someone. He waved his hands helplessly, hoping it conveyed his sentiment and Damian snorted. He was saved from answering by Marinette coming back into the room with a tea tray.

“I have sugar, lait, some macarons and cheese with crackers,” Marinette said lightly, placing the tray onto the coffee table and perching next to Damian. He reached a hand for her knee and she placed hers on top of his. Jason spied matching rings on their fingers and his eyes widened. Marinette noticed the direction of his look and gave another laugh, squeezing Damian's hand lovingly. “Oui, Damian and I are married. We have been for nearly two years.”

“Congratulations. I gotta admit, I didn't think you were ever going to settle down Demo- Damian,” he corrected, seeing Marinette's eyebrow rise. Damian nodded, glancing at his wife with a slightly chagrined look on his face.

“To be honest, the Demon Spawn you knew would never have deserved to marry Marinette,” he admitted, waving away her sudden frown. “Ma cherie, you know I speak the truth. I was a mess of a man when we met, I lashed out at everything and everyone.”

“Mon coeur, you were nothing of the sort,” Marinette reprimanded firmly. It sounded as though this was a well worn argument and Jason was almost envious of the evident love he could hear in her voice. Not that he thought Damian didn't deserve it, but he had often yearned for the kind of love that was pouring out of this petite French pixie. “Heureusement, you did not lash out at me too harshly, and accepted that you could not do this all alone.”

Jason was shocked - Damian had settled down. The pair had clearly grown together, matching each other in their differences. And Damian had changed, even more than he had begun to during his time in Wayne manor. He seemed more sure of himself, confident in an easy way. Jason cleared his throat again, drawing their attention back to him. “So, uh, if you got married, how…how much have you talked about your past, D?”

“Ah, I wondered if you would be concerned about that, Monsieur Hood,” Marinette said, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. She waved her hand as he tensed again. “Damian and I have no secrets. It is difficult, making a life together, without sharing such things. I understand the importance of keeping these things to myself. We are, comment dire, birds of a feather?”

Jason raised an eyebrow himself now but they were interrupted by a soft cry, coming from an adjacent room. He tensed but Marinette sighed and made to get up, before Damian shooed her into her seat, standing himself. He came back moments later, carrying what looked like a bundle of blankets that he cooed to in a mix of French and Arabic. Jason went rigid with disbelief as Damian settled himself back into his seat. A shock of dark hair peeked out of the blankets and Jason sucked in a sharp breath.

“Her name is Penélope Robyn Dupain-Cheng. Penny for short,” Marinette said, her voice soft and full of love. Jason's head whipped towards her and Damian chuckled.

“It seemed fitting, I had no need for the mantle and it connects me to my past without shackling me. Marinette understood better than I did that I did not want to lose who I had been.” Jason was stunned. Damian was speaking so nonchalantly about a moniker that he had almost killed for - what he had considered a birthright. His voice softened as he looked back up at his brother. “I am truly at peace, Todd. I let go of my anger before I married as it would have been unfair to Marinette if I had allowed it to continue consuming me.”

“How-how old is she?” Jason croaked, transfixed with his niece - his second, after Kor’i had given birth. He couldn't remember how old Mar’i had been when she was this size and the Tamaranean in her could have changed things.

“8 months,” Damian said softly, turning his gaze back to his daughter. “I would do anything for her, Todd. She will want for nothing as long as I can control it. She is loved, in ways I didn't know were possible.”

A silence stretched between the three adults and Jason took a sip from his now tepid coffee. His mind was reeling; he felt as though everything he had ever known about Damian was wrong and now he was meeting what was essentially a stranger. Penny had clearly drifted back to sleep and Damian stood to take her back to her room. Marinette cleared her throat as he left, making Jason shoot her a questioning look.

“I must ask you, are you here as a lookout? When should I expect your father,” she clipped the word out, thinly veiled rage coating it, “to descend upon my home? I must warn you, I will not allow him to harm Damian again.”

“They aren't,” he answered flatly. She looked at him again, surprised. “I told no-one of my suspicions, I came alone. Like I said, we've all fallen out with Bruce at one point or another and when Damian left…well, let's just say the team isn't running quite so smoothly any more.”

“I thought you were all ‘the world's greatest detectives’,” she replied sardonically, dropping her voice as she heard Damian returning. “If you are lying to me, I will not be contente, comprennez?”

“My love, please tell me you are not threatening our guest?” Damian rumbled, laughter barely concealed in his voice. “I apologise, Todd, she is protective of those in her care, a trait from her younger years.”

“Je suis toujours jeune, Damian,” Marinette said, a light growl lacing her words. He nodded sagely and Jason snorted. It was just so…domestic. If someone had told him 5 years ago that Damian, the little brother who threatened anyone who breathed near him, would be married, with a kid, he would have had them committed to Arkham. And yet…

“They all miss you, lil D,” Jason said softly, imitating Dick for a moment. “Tim was frantic when he couldn't trace where you went, he still gets upset when he thinks about how he failed you. And Dick - I mean, he loves you, you know that. If he could have ripped B to pieces without ruining Gotham, he would have. He has a kid himself you know,” he added, setting his cup down.

“But I didn't come here to ask you to come back. I can see you have a life here Dames, a good life. Christ, I didn't think it was possible for anyone to give up our particular lifestyle and settle down but you clearly did and it's obviously been the best thing to happen to you. I'm proud of you, for whatever that's worth. I just…I would like to be part of your life again, I want to get to know the you now. Don't get me wrong, you were a little beast before you left, but you're still family. And I don't have a whole lot of that left.”

“Well, it's not like we can just leave,” Marinette said, with humour. “Merde, maman et papa, they would kill me if I just disappeared with their only grandbaby.”

“And- am I welcome back?”

“D’accord, but I will ask that you only share the information with your father if he specifically asks about Damian. It is a talk we had as soon as we were expecting Penélope, he is not welcome to my family without begging Damian for forgiveness.” The steely note in Marinette's voice brooked no argument, and Jason had none to voice. Bruce was the reason Damian had left all those years ago and he was the one who asked least often about any updates.

“What about Dick? You know he would love to see you, if he hadn't been undercover when you left, he would have at least known where you went.” Damian nodded slowly at this, making Jason grin with relief. “Awesome. Wow, okay, that's great. Thank you, Marinette. I'll take down a number and we can coordinate a visit sometime? I doubt you want to come to Gotham,” Damian's eyes narrowed and he shook his head tightly,” so I'll have to get Dick here himself.”

As he stood to leave, Marinette and Damian also stood, the slight woman stepping forward first and pulling him down for une bise, kissing his cheek with warmth and familiarity. She stepped back and carried the tea tray through to the kitchen, giving the brothers some space. Damian clapped a hand onto Jason's shoulder and received a light punch in return. They exchanged numbers before Jason promised he would text as soon as he was home again, and then when he had spoken to Dick about coming back to visit.

As Jason stepped into the Paris zeta tube, he glanced back over his shoulder and smiled. Trust Damian to move to the city of love and figure all his shit out.

Notes:

So let me know what you think! I'm going to try and update once a week-ish, but may post chapters sooner if I'm ready.

French used:

Attendez, s'il vous plaît = wait please

Pardonnez-moi = pardon me

Un moment = one moment

Monsieur = sir

Mademoiselle = miss

Moins vite = slower/less fast

Contente = happy

Comprennez = understand

Je suis toujours jeune = I am still young

Merci = thank you

Un thé ou un café = a tea or coffee

Jus = juice

Lait = milk

Mon chéri/ma chérie = my darling

Mon coeur = my heart

Heureusement = fortunately

Comment dire = how to say

Merde = shit

Maman et papa = mum and dad

D'accord = alright

Une bise = Literally, a kiss, usually how they refer to the kiss on the cheek they give to say hello/goodbye

Most of the French throughout this fic is what I've learned through Duo, so if I offend some native speakers, I'm really very sorry! I have double checked it in Google for the most part, but I'm not sure that's better.

Chapter 2

#ao3 #ao3 fanfic #fanfic #daminette fanfic #damian x marinette #damianette #my writing #inspired by another fic #no possession this time!#6 chapters #1st chapter #no beta read #daminette

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another-lost-mc · 3 months

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I hate how Mephistopheles has no lore. I'm making an OC that out ranks him and the fucker has no established rank??? Sir your whole goddamn thing is "I'm a noble, goddamn it" and like no rank? No bitches? No nobility??

So I'm picking one (Grand Dutches, technically?) and going with the punches, but how do you fix Solomare's near non-existent lore so well?? This shit is hard! Mad props!

I'm grateful that we got more Mephisto lore in Nightbringer, but like many characters, new info or interactions are few and far between except when it's needed as a plot device. lol

Even though Mephisto isn't a member of the Ars Goetia, he's a Faustian demon or what I call a "named" demon which has important relevance in my personal world building. Other than that, we know that his family has deep roots to the Devildom nobility, are highly influential, and that he was basically raised to be Diavolo's friend. We know his special power now thanks to Nightbringer, but my version of it is a bit sinister because, you know, demons.

Unless you're new around here, my solution to gaps in the game's lore or storytelling is solved by personal headcanons/world building and creating OCs. I knew I wanted to write more about Mephisto, and that meant exploring his relationships and history outside of what the game told us.

Before NB existed, I was already developing his little brother OC because using characters/info only found in the games limits the potential for complexity and drama. Plus, writing an OC for Mephisto's brother helped me develop my own interpretation of Mephisto's character too.

When the game only leaves us crumbs to work with, here's what my brainstorming looks like to try and explore possible ways to fill in the gaps:

Creating an OC for Mephisto's younger brother: Mephisto is a named demon and part of the demon nobility. My thought: his brother is probably a named demon of some importance too.

Naming Mephisto's little brother: After doing some reading, I learned Mephisto wasn't part of the Ars Goetia, but that didn't mean his brother couldn't be. Result: I just picked a name off the list that I liked. LOL

Note: I have friends that have OCs based off other Ars Goetia demons so I purposefully avoided choosing those names because I write about my version the Devildom assuming those OCs exist within it.

Developing Bathin as an OC: Okay, we have a name. Cool, that's usually the hard part. Now we have to build him up from nearly nothing! What I knew about his character before NB released: he was significantly younger than Mephisto (I imagined the same or slightly younger than Luke with a similar childlike appearance) and that Mephisto was a very attentive and doting older sibling. Based on the RAD Sports event in OG, I concluded if he was that protective of Luke, he would be even more protective of his younger brother as well. I also interpreted the events and assigned Mephisto his demonic trait (having a tail of some kind instead of wings). In my mind, demonic traits are something that might be part of the family's heritage, so I decided that Bathin would look similar to Mephisto in his human form and also his demon form.

Identifying gaps/issues with Bathin's character: The main concern I had to address for Bathin was his existence as a demon of the Ars Goetia. Solomon has pacts with all of them, and this implies that he would also have a pact with Bathin - a literal demon child. Oops!

Questions I needed to answer:

Why would Solomon want a pact with a child and how did this happen?

Are there any limitations/restrictions if a pact is made with a demon child that isn't mature/"of age"?

Should I change his name to something else to avoid this issue? Nah.

Solving Bathin's existence as a child in the Ars Goetia: I basically wrote a world building theory about demon death/exorcism and respawn cycles to explain which demons can respawn and which ones cannot. Naming conventions and the impact on existing pacts are part of this theory.

Conclusion using fill-in-the-gaps world building:

A form of the death & rebirth cycle exists for demons.

Using theory, Bathin can exist as a member of the Ars Goetia because he was killed/exorcised as a mature demon. His essence/power exists within the version of him that was reborn later.

Implications and things to continue developing:

Bathin made his pact with Solomon as a mature demon and the pact persisted through death, although as a child the pact is weak and practically unusable.

Demons who respawn usually have no memories of their previous existence, but Mephisto would remember him from before. That can explain why he might be close and very protective of his younger brother. Solomon would also have memories of past!Bathin as well and that could have some interesting effects on how Solomon interacts with Mephisto as well.

Demons that are exorcised and respawned might carry some lingering physical evidence of their death - for example, the power of an angel's grace maiming some part of their body. This helped me visualize Bathin's physical appearance and explain any potential scars or flaws he was born with.

Child!Bathin won't be a copy of his former self, so there is potential for drama/angst as those that knew him best before re-learn the "new" him.

The possibility to explore Mephisto as a child and how his friendship with Diavolo was fostered/pressured by those around him (and Bathin's feelings/attitudes about Mephisto's potential (mis)treatment).

Explaining past!Bathin's untimely demise in the first place and the characters/circumstances involved.

If you ever wondered how I take a random throwaway reference in the game and expand on it to create an OC, here's what the process looked like when I was developing Mephisto's brother. He's very precious and though I doubt we'll see much more of him in the game other than some vague references, I enjoy writing about Mephisto enough that dedicating an OC to his little brother was worthwhile.

I'll end this with a treat for those of you that decided to read through all this rambling:

#if anyone wondered how I come up with ideas for ocs its your lucky day #this got a little long oops #jes.replies #jes.world building #my oc: bathin #the lil bit of art at the end is by vitaminnin on twt

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thursdayinspace · 4 months

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Tell me all your Requiem thoughts please

All of them would amount to quite an essay because I have a lot of (mostly positive) feelings about it, but I assume this is about my tags saying I have conflicting feelings about the scene in that motel room bed where Mulder tells Scully that there has to be an end and that she should go home. So I will happily talk about that!

I want to preface this by saying that I absolutely love their dynamic throughout the episode. And I love that moment when she comes to him feeling sick and he lays down on the bed with her and holds her and tells her there's more for her, that he wants her to have more. He wants her to be happy. There is so much love between them there, and it's so strong and so gentle at the same time, it's one of the most moving and beautiful moments between them without a doubt and I love it and it never fails to make me cry.

But. I still have very ambivalent feelings about the whole arc with Scully wanting to be a mother. NOT with the motel room scene (I love that one), but specifically with the arc. These feelings have nothing to do with the show or the characters specifically, and it's not an issue I had with it when it aired, but rather something that's only begun bothering me recently. I just sometimes wish that they hadn't introduced it at all, or done it better. For the simple reason that not all women want to be mothers, or they decide against it for other reasons -- like feeling passionate about their work and making that their priority, which is a perfectly valid reason to decide against something you might want very badly otherwise. And sometimes it doesn't sit quite right with me, especially in light of CC's general take on women, that eventually Scully simply has to want to have a child. I may be wrong about this and this might be the most unpopular opinion ever, and that's fine, but it reads to me a bit like "she must want this because she is a woman and women want kids."

The way it's written, it makes absolute sense for Mulder to tell her that there has to be an end, that he wants her to have everything she wishes for. I just sometimes wish for a version of events where we had seen her more conflicted about it. Where she could have made it clear in the moment that if it came to a choice between that dream and their mission, she'd choose to continue their work, with him. I also wish for a version of events where Mulder could have admitted that having a family is his dream as much as it is hers, because why does it have to be the woman who wants a family while the man wants to keep saving the world? (Just as a personal aside, I have friends who are right now getting divorced because he wants kids and she doesn't. It just rubs me the wrong way sometimes when the wish for a family is the woman's job.)

BUT! I know that Mulder and Scully are not in the same place emotionally about their work. Mulder has been committed to it pretty much his entire life. It's never been just a job for him. It always has to come first, and whatever dreams he may also have, he cannot give up the quest for the truth. Scully believes in the work too, it's important to her, she has suffered so much because of it and never stopped going. That says everything we need to know about how important it is to her. She doesn't want to give it up. It's been more than a job for her too for a long time. Her wish for a child is never about not being committed to what they do. And I think it becomes clear enough over time that Mulder does indeed want the same things she does, it's just more between the lines, less obvious. I do believe that under different circumstances, they would have decided to have a family together -- we see more to that effect later on in season 8 and at the end of season 9, not to mention in the revival. Which is why my issues with all of it are more about the way the story is handled, and less about it existing in the first place.

One more But: I do like the fact that a woman who loves her work and is fully committed to it can still want to be a mother. Both things can be true. And that can lead to great personal conflict. And that is a very interesting thing to explore. I just also feel like that is exactly what they didn't do. They sort of just stop at "she wants this one thing and also this other thing." She wants to keep fighting and searching for truths and she wants a kid, but what that would mean for her future is something that is never really properly addressed. It's never properly addressed what it does to her feelings, being torn between two things that mean so much to her. But that would have been really interesting to see. What does she actually want? What is going on in her heart and her soul?

Still, that scene, Requiem as a whole, is still very well done, in my opinion. Within the context of the story they're telling, that scene with them curled up in bed together is beautiful. It's as close to a declaration of love as we get at that point. And he's talking about her health as much as about her wish for a child. He's telling her that her happiness and safety is more important to him than anything else in the world. Her reaction is to hold onto his hand and touch her lips to it -- she doesn't want to go. He means as much to her as she means to him. His happiness and safety come first for her too. And I think they both know in that moment that she would never do what he's suggesting. I don't think she'd ever leave and let him continue on his own. He says "There's so much more you need to do with your life. There's so much more than this." But what is "more?"

Long story short: I love the scene in the motel room. I love the love between them and the tenderness of that moment. But I wish CC had been better at writing women, and had taken more time throughout all the episodes that address this to flesh out that part of the story, both for Scully and for Mulder.

Please, feel absolutely free to disagree with me, I never mind discussing these things or even being convinced otherwise. This is just my take on it.

#thank you for the ask!#this got pretty long #I have a lot of feelings about it lol #this is most likely an unpopular opinion #and I'm not sure about any of it #but on my last rewatch those were my general feelings on it

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amageish · 1 year

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So, Nico Minoru's in Spider-Man Freshman Year... Let's talk about it.

About a year ago, Marvel spilled some details about the upcoming animated Spider-Man series, Spider-Man Freshman Year. There was a lot of discussion about it, what it was, what it wasn't, and whether what it is is better or worse then what people wanted it to be.

A couple weeks ago, a trademark filing indicated that the show was scheduled for Winter 2024. In an era where companies are killing announced and nearly-finished projects, I was honestly thinking the show was on thin ice... but since it seems to still exist, I want to talk about something that I feel has gotten surprisingly little discussion in all the discourse about the show: the inclusion of Nico Minoru, of the Runaways, as Peter Parker's best friend.

Now, from a Peter-centered perspective, I think this choice makes sense in a very specific way? If you flash back to the original 60s Spider-Man comics, which the show seems to be trying to invoke aesthetically from the little we've seen, Peter Parker had a female close friend who was representative of 1960s youth counter-culture: Mary Jane.

The degree to which Stan Lee's own values undercut MJ's counter-culturism is something that people could/do entire academic essays about, but suffice it to say that she was meant to appeal to the zeitgeist of the era and the character's spirit certainly got through to viewers. Like, there is a reason that she the OTP for Peter for so many people, even if Lee at the time had intended to keep the focus on Peter's more traditionally conservative romance with Gwen Stacy.

Nico Minoru slots into this classic pre-MJ-as-the-love-interest MJ role very well, in my opinion at least? In her 2000s comics, she was cast as a edgy goth social outcast who made her own clothes and did her own thing... In her 2010s MCU show, she was cast again as an outcast, but with a certain amount of doomerpilled depression that she outgrows as the show goes on... In the 2020s game Midnight Suns, Nico is still a devoted goth, but also draws from queer youth culture and has a certain semi-ironic peppiness to her (she calls the player "friendo" constantly - she's just like me fr).

So, honestly, I think picking Nico Minoru for Spider-Man's best friend is a really clever move that slots her into this historical role of the foil to Peter Parker - fun choice!

However, from a Nico-centered perspective, I have a lot of questions about what this version of the character will be like practically... The biggest one being: Why is Nico in New York? One of the core concepts of the Runaways as a team is that they are a response to the oft-asked question "Why is New York always under threat? Why are there no superheroes having to save LA?". While the West Coast Avengers do, y'know, exist, the Runaways introduces another answer to this question: Supervillains cannot operate in LA without permission of the Pride, a LA-based supervillain mafia who made a pact with a demon from Limbo and require a cut of all crime committed in the city. The titular Runaways are the children of these villains, who choose to reject their parent's lifestyle and go on the run rather then be complicit in their villainy.

So... How did Nico get in New York and end up enrolling in a New York high school? That's a big change for her and I hope the explanation is satisfying.

Nico and her team also don't usually appear as traditional costumed heroes with secret identities, at least not for prolonged periods of time. They've used several codenames and several costumes, but it's always bit a touch comedic - Nico goes by "Sister Grimm" because they decide they need nicknames to be superheroes as somewhat-cringy-teens while she later uses "The Gloom" partially at the encouragement of her girlfriend, but she's still largely just... Nico. It's worth noting that both Midnight Suns and Marvel Snap break naming conventions to call her by her first/last name instead of an alias - something Snap mostly does with big-deal characters like Jean Grey and Kitty Pryde, with even other characters more known by their real name like Emma Frost and Danielle Moonstar being called by their hero names instead...

So, I'm curious if Nico will be using her powers to fight crime and, if she is, what codename/costume she has... On top of that, I wonder if Peter Parker will know that Nico is a blood witch and if Nico will know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man - or if they mutually uncover that across the events of the series... Doctor Strange is also set to be in this show - will he be a mentor for her as a budding witch, perhaps even more then he is a mentor for Peter? There's a lot of possibilities there too.

Finally, there's the big question of Nico Minoru's queerness. Now, there's basically two lists of Marvel queers - the characters written as queer by the writers and artists at Marvel and the characters Marvel corporate have actually approved as being queer and stamped with a big rainbow stamp of approval. This is what separates your "did a gay kiss once" characters from your "paraded out every June" characters...

Nico is in the latter category and is potentially one of the most corporate-approved queer characters there are. This girl is BISEXUAL and Marvel is uncharacteristically interested in making sure you know it. She got a Pride variant cover kissing her girlfriend when Pearlmutter was still at the company. Her MCU show is full of gay kisses and has not one but TWO fantasy gay wedding sequences (it also got removed from Disney+ earlier this year, funny that).

Now, uh, America Chavez is basically the face of Sapphic Marvel in the comics and her queerness got reduced to a Pride pin in her movie, so I'm not sure if Nico's bisexuality will be acknowledged in the show given that precedent... but I sure hope it does!!! It'd be cute if Karolina pops in too, helping her girlfriend out with whatever antics she gets into... She wasn't in the initial revealed character line-up, but I could also see them waiting to reveal her and hoping to get hype specifically from shippers who haven't thought about the pairing in a few years since the Runaways TV show ended.

ANYWAY. That was a lot of thoughts, but I'm just very curious what's going to happen here... I love Nico and am eager to see her in this show, but it also just feels like such an unconventional choice... to the point where I am apparently thinking about it this hard a year later.

#spiderman freshman year #nico minoru #deanoru #the runaways

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kitty-does-stuff · 1 year

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QUEER, DISABLED & NEURODIVERGENT HOMELESS FAMILY SEEKING FUNDS FOR HOUSING & SURVIVAL

Tldr: homeless 8 months family need money for day to day survival & to help seek housing & work.

Ko-fi.com/kittydoesstuff

Longer version is that I have made this sort of post probably like 10 times now, each time explaining that we evacuated our home due to gun violence from another unit, each time when money is a stresser because of things like storage bills to protect all our worldly belongings or data bills that keep my family in contact with the world, allow me to write this or because we don't know what's for dinner or what as a whole we are eating.

Each time I write this I hope, I think that will hopefully be near the end, and then each time I have to make another one of these I feel like I lied, deceived & I hate it so much.

When you're homeless people treat you 1 of 4 ways

Pitied, like you're weak & stupid, something they need to "save" from yourself no matter how much of your freedom & body atomutoity they have to violate to feel better about the emotions THEY feel when they see you.

Like a criminal, like you did something wrong, like you choose to be homeless & have crisis after crisis that lead to unexpected spending. This, this here is why for roughly 6 months I have felt like a lier, I had believed in something that didn't work out & with so many viewing my family like this, despite how much we have tried to do the right things & how the only laws we've broken are the ones that say you cannot exist in a public space, especially if you're homeless.

They leave you, they decide it's too hard to watch, that they can't handle it so will just leave & leave the emotional weight. The crushing weight of calling out for help & no longer hearing them call back on you.

And the last are a little rarer, fair bit rarer: those who just treat you like people, like how they always have, like someone deserving dignity & respect.

Whenever I have made one of these posts I have been scared that someone along the top 3 would show up, so far it hasn't happened but I have had it make me hesitate to ask for help when the chips aren't down, when we have food & no bills, just simply more long term things.

Now I don't simply want to be negative, I want to show briefly how money has helped us so here's what stuff has looked like so far

Truck where we all had to sleep sitting up -> truck where me & brother could lay down -> found reliable sleeping spots -> spent a few nights here & there in motels for showers -> brought the camper -> found a campsite to stay for a little while -> found a semi parament campsite (ehich closes at the start of fall)

None of that would have been possible if people hadn't donated to us, we won't of had money & probably would of had toc resort to extreme & time comunsemming means to survive.

Which brings us to now, we have a place that is safe to stay, that we feel safe being left while our is gone with our mother as she looks for work & goes things like apartment viewing.

We need money for the following

Bills

Food, drinks & basic survival things.

& once those are covered money I am rising will be directed to things like housing & dental bills to help my brother.

If you need more info on the exacts of what is going on I urge you to look though my Kitty Says Stuff tag which prior donation posts are all tagged.

WHERE TO DONATE

Ko-fi.com/kittydoesstuff

& dm if you need a paypal to send it to instead.

#homeless #donation post #mutual aid #single boost #kitty says stuff

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be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie · 1 year

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So as I was just chilling being bored when all of a sudden it hit me. Soulmate aus are sweet and all, but what about a darker soulmate au? Here are the some I think would be most interesting + the pairing I'd want to see them used on (some are my own brain children, others are ones I mixed and matched with the a few I saw):

(Also there are NO LOOPHOLES here at all for those of you who are weak of will and like to try and find ways to weasel in a happy ending. That's right, I see you out there already concocting a bunch of would-be happily-ever-afters smh just let the people suffer.)

Soulmates share the same soul and this soul is split in two. However, souls must be whole, therefore one soulmate must kill the other before their 20th birthday or else both will die. I'm going Ao'nung and Rotxo for this one because HEAR ME OUT they are literally joined at the hip imagine the person you're closest to being the one you'll have to kill. Either them or Kiri and Spider.

Alternatively, soulmates share the same souls (again, split in two) but unlike the first one in this one after they touch each other for the first time they cannot be more than certain distance away from one another or else they will both die. For this one I'm thinking Norm and Tsu'tey because I say so. These two are so different I'm loving the potential. The whole Norm-is-a-human thing would be fun in this one because his avatar does not count. His soul is not moving anywhere, he's just controlling a system of nerves from inside a link.

I really liked this idea I saw about how your soulmate is actually your worst enemy and so I decided to tweak it to where not only are they your worst enemy but also the person you love and hate the most, and the irrational urge to kill them and protect them intensifies with age due to the soul's inability to tell emotions as powerful as love and hate apart with reliable accuracy. Romantic soulmates are nothing but a fairytale. I nominate Neteyam and Lo'ak for this one your honor, no questions asked. However, I also nominate Ao'nung and Tsireya. Both Neteyam and Tsireya are everything Lo'ak and Ao'nung aren not; everything they are compared to and can never be as good as. Love the potential for this one as well. Bonus points if the story chooses both pairs of siblings and each pair handles it differently with one ending up tragic and the other ending happily (or, staying closer to the theme, at least bitter-sweetly).

An au where you can dream your soulmate's memories, but only the memories in which they have killed someone or others are being killed. Neytiri and Jake for this one 100%. The idea of Neytiri screaming awake in the dead of night with Jake's memories of war back on earth still fresh in her mind. I love this especially because Jake is 22 before kyro (and I guess mentally still pretty much when he wakes up) which would make Neytiri around 12 at that time, so imagine the horror.

Soulmate au where a version of hanahaki disease does in fact exist, but only soulmates can catch it---and this is only if your soulmate hates you or does not love you to any extent after a certain amount of time, be it platonic or romantic. I'm feeling Tsu'tey and Jake for this one. This is another darker soulmate au that could have a happy ending, but where's the fun in that?

An au where there is no way to tell who your soulmate is unless one of you dies a horrible or unfortunate death. Suicides count. In honor of Ghost Neteyam, I raise my hand in favor of Neteyam and Spider for this one, but I'll also take some platonic soulmate Spider and Neytiri as well.

All people have more than one soulmate. On its own this is no big deal. However, the soul can only be split two ways. Soulmate groups must kill until there are only two of them left. I'll give this one to all of the locorro people out there. No particular reason. Just like the idea of Lo'ak and Spider having their Last Survivors moment. I'd also take some Jake/Tsu'tey/Neytiri or even the mind-bending Jake/Neytiri/Tonowari/Ronal thing I've seen every now and then. Interpret the circumstances in whatever way you want. Tsu'tey could be the lone survivor of his own soulmate battle after something went wrong who just kind of latches onto Jake (and platonically Neytiri); Ronal and Tonowari and Jake and Neytiri could be survivors of their own separate soulmate battles who find that there's been a glitch, who can say.

At birth all soulmate pairs are given all of their traits unevenly. Some of these traits or small like one getting all of the ability to see color while the other has to see in monochrome, or one being able to smell but the other not. However, sometimes it can be far worse, such as in our pairing's case: one being able to feel emotions and the other not, and one being able to feel physical sensations and the other not. For this one I'm thinking either Ao'nung and Rotxo (I think I may be entering an Ao'nung/Rotxo phase and I legit don't know why like there's no reason) or maybe Ao'nung and Neteyam (just to appease all of the aonete*?* people out there), but I also like the idea of it being platonic soulmates Neteyam and Tuk because why not.

And that's all for now, folks! Boredom Anon out.

Hey Boredom Anon, that's me trying to finagle the happy endings fuck off it's hurt/COMFORT not hurt/NO COMFORT in this house. This is pretty fucked up of you, okay. I'm thrilled we are still on our soulmate au shit, though. I'm swamped with edits for my final portfolios for my two workshop classes rn lol. I should give you all snippets but tweak them for Avatar :).

-Ao'nung and Rotxo is pretty fucking sad, bUT KIRI AND SPIDER? You can't convince me that Spider wouldn't be happily planning to die for Kiri his whole fucking life. He has a purpose and he's thrilled to fulfill it.

-I like the distance one because it does have some comedic elements. Norm and Tsu'tey get into an argument and they just have to sit as far as possible facing the other direction like glaring away from each other lol. Like, if this is the way the world is then people have probably adapted pretty well to handle it. I think I understand you correctly about it being Norm's human form that has to be close. This doesn't make full sense to me, because it seems like the soul is what transfers between bodies. If thats the case though, I would just assume that Norm would have to pass through the eye of Eywa pretty quick lol. I did immediately picture the image of them having sex with Norm's human body like in a corner cause we need that nearby and that made me cackle unreasonably I'm so sorry.

-Sibling pair angst I can totally get behind. I mean, one already did end tragically lol. I like the idea of things settling eventually for Ao'nung and Tsireya, but Neteyam dies before Lo'ak was able to work out their emotions. That is essentially the truth.

-Dream one is pretty good, I feel like it has such empath potential. Adult Neytiri then seeing Jake has been haunted by his memories of war trauma as much as he's been haunted by hers of Sylwanin's death. I think you've accidentally made them closer from the get go lol, because they See each other sooner. It would be hard not to talk about these things they've seen, and hard not to understand where the other is coming from when you've seen their most traumatic moments. I actually really love this one. @dinas-bracelet work it into the dream one.

-THE FUN IS IN THE COMFORT YOU SOCIOPATH. I wasn't going to rat you out for this but guys, Boredom Anon sent me three long asks in like less than an hour. Mhm, see, we all know now. I actually have never vibed with Hanahaki, it's one of the tropes I've learned about the latest in life. I love the Jake and Tsu'tey idea though. Jake would be the one to get it, because I don't think he ever hates Tsu'tey. I think he'd forbid Neytiri from telling Tsu'tey, and eventually she'd crack when he started to get really sick.

-I will get on board for Ghost Neteyam for this one because I am DETERMINED that Spider and Ghost Neteyam can have a happy ending, okay? I have yet to figure out how. But they can.

-This idea is like the fucking Hunger Games, dude. I'm picturing like a government conspiracy where thy say the soul can only be split two ways so they Hunger Games you and locorro, who've known and loved each other their whole lives, are determined to win. But everyone else in their group are so good as well, and idk, I'm thinking it's all a lie and the government just hates poly people. Doesn't want those soulmates too powerful, Sense8 style. Very tragic, very cool, we are writing our lgbtq rep dystopian novel rn.

-Lol we love an Ao'nung and Rotxo phase frfr. If you want it to be like a goddamn superpower mix it with those au's where they can take each others pain and injuries. Once they meet, they can swap sensations, right? Like they pass the colors back and forth, as well as pain and certain emotions. It's kind of creepy because it makes them like, not real people to an extent.

Anyways, always fun to discuss soulmate aus Boredom Anon. We all love you but fuck you for this one!

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whinlatter · 1 year

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Hello, I was hoping you could provide some of your brilliant insight to this ask: How many people knew about the horcruxes in the end? Dumbledore told Harry not to tell anyone, but Harry kind of announced it during his battle with Voldemort, and everyone knew he sacrificed himself. Hagrid witnessed it, and so did the DE. I’m sure this started rumours about how the Potter boy cannot be killed by the AK curse. Hagrid must have wanted answers too, because watching Harry sacrifice himself and then come back alive after he watched the AK curse kill him would have been detrimental. So besides Ron and Hermione, who else knew about the Horcruxes and the reason Harry sacrificed himself? Did the Order know? Did he tell the DA? Did he tell Ginny?

Damn, I wish I had brilliant insight - alas, all I have is a pathological inability to stop running my mouth and a crippling hyperfixation. To that end... loved this question, so thoughts about whether or not Harry ran his mouth about the Horcruxes after the war (and to whom) below the cut!

This is such an interesting question and one I think about alllll the time and am desperate to have a stab at writing about at some point (like everyone, lol). On Horcruxes - I think Harry (and the trio, to a lesser extent) would feel less beholden to Dumbledore's instruction not to tell anyone after Voldemort has gone. I think it would be more a case of the trio trying to decide how much is safe for the public at large to know, in case they embolden lesser, weaker copycats. (There's that great conversation between Harry and Hermione in chapter one of Castles by @pebblysand about the Harry/Voldemort showdown honestly makes me laugh every time - Hermione basically being like, why did you have to publicly confirm the existence of an Elder Wand? Just how dumb are you? Harry like sorry it was obviously improv???)

I imagine Harry will tell the public a small amount (a much simpler story that does broad outline, light on detail, the focus of which is exonerating Snape and rehabilitating Dumbledore). I think he tells the Order and the DA - so all of those loyal to him who both deserve information and who witnessed the Harry/Voldemort conversation - a much fuller but still incomplete story in a private address at the Burrow where the trio share it between them and their comrades can ask questions. I think this version would cover Dumbledore's plan, the Horcruxes, details about the Horcrux hunt, the context of the Elder Wand, the Snape story, the Regulus arc, etc. I like to think Ron would choose to tell his family what really happened that last Christmas during this session (though Harry and Hermione would insist he doesn't need to), and talks about how and why he messed up in a way that shows how far he's come (and also lets Bill off the hook for snubbing his mother's Christmas in the middle of a war lmao). I think this conversation wouldn't cover the Hallows and that Harry would decline to talk in to much detail about what happened in the Forest, which I think all three of the trio would agree was both too personal and too dangerous (given the Stone) to share, especially to a room of grief-stricken friends and family who may well be drawn to an object that allows them to reach out to the dead.

I do think, though, that he tells Ginny everything. I don't think he'd ask permission from Ron and Hermione, per se, but he'd give them the heads up that he intends to let one more person in on this secret between them and Dumbledore. I think Ginny gets the whole truth: Horcruxes, Hallows, what happened in the Forest - and I think he tells her over the course of that summer. Canonically, that's his intent and priority at the end of the series: she deserves to know, and he needs her to know. The would he tell her question for me is less tricky to think about than the how. These would be very difficult conversations: I actually think they'd be unbearable for Ginny to hear, in many many different ways: what happened in the Forest, of course, but also just how horrific it would be for her to discover a part of Riddle's soul, the same thing that was in the Diary, was living inside the person she loves the whole time. (I think a lot about that OotP 'lucky you' scene. What's crazy about that scene in retrospect is that Harry comes out of it reassured by Ginny that he isn't being possessed - but of course, the truth is neither of them should be reassured. Harry feels better thinking this is different to what happened to Ginny, but actually their experiences have more in common than they realise (though are still ofc distinct): Harry's got a bit of Voldemort's soul in him, the same thing that controlled and terrorised little Gin. It's a classic example of the series' many ironies: characters coming so close to the truth but getting it (understandably but terribly) wrong. Even the thought of living alongside the locket at Grimmauld in the OotP summer - I think Ginny would find the thought of that, in retrospect, absolutely sickening).

All this is to say: I think the trio deliberately cultivate public silence over certain very volatile aspects of the Horcrux/Hallows story (in ways that probably does incur a certain degree of public speculation and resentment). But I think Gin gets the whole picture. I can't imagine Harry ever wanting to keep it from her (or even managing to - the man let slip their plan at the dinner table in DH. He's not keeping secrets from that girl. Man canonically sees those big brown eyes and starts running his damn mouth)

PS. Obsessed with the idea of rumours that AK can't kill Harry. I'm sure it would be in his professional interest when hunting the last of the Death Eaters to keep that particular myth going lol. Avada Kedavra? Can't kill me, mate. Good luck to ya

#myrtle is lowkey kind of a mood #horcruxes #meta #hinny #thank you anon i loved thinking about this #ask #also if i haven't answered your ask yet SORRY #forgive me #am trying to get through em #but if i don't answer it's either because i don't have tons to say and/or don't want to give away beasts spoilers if that's ok!

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mortalkombartwistedreflectionau · 1 month

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Who would be the Keeper of Time?

Hey. I come with a different kind of post today, because I found this subject interesting.

So, as most of you must know, we currently have an official MK multiverse, thanks to MK12. Which, if FGLK can explain for me:

(Thanks for once, Firedude)

There it is. According to this concept of multiverse, every universe (or timeline, whatever you prefer) is the result of a different character getting the Hourglass and doing whatever they want with their world. I wonder which MK character wanted to create Stung Lao now. 🤔

I am personally ignoring this concept of multiverse for my stuff, because of how limiting it is to me: every different thing from normal canon in each AU cannot be random, it has to be something an MK character would have done with the Hourglass. If I wanted to do a universe under the premise of What if Bi-Han spared Hanzo?, for example, I would have to explain why a Keeper of Time would change only that event and nothing else. It just limits the potential of a multiverse from my point of view.

Even official MK seems to think like this outside of MK12. Unless an alternative Kronika who won the MK11 battle or something is revealed in the future, the universe of MK: Onslaught seems to lack a Keeper of Time completely.

Every AU I'll ever make will follow the logic of being a 'natural' AU, it exists without the need of a Keeper of Time creating it previously, which includes Twisted Reflection of course. Their origin will be the original one: the Elder Gods destroying the One Being and creating the realms as a result.

However, I think that putting my little brain to work to think who would be the Keeper of Time if I actually needed to do it is interesting. So here I will present who would be the Keeper of Time of Twisted Reflection as an alternative take (I emphasize, not what I am doing for the actual story).

With all that said, here we would have the most plausible Keeper of Time for Twisted Reflection:

With the reasons why I would choose her being the following ones.

It goes along with the overall themes of Twisted Reflection

This is a universe in which the good intentions of most of the regular MK heroes are twisted by many factors until they become villains. Who better than the twisted goddess of life and virtue to be its creator?

It could explain Mirror Shao Kahn and Mirror Shinnok

The majority of characters in Twisted Reflection try to have a reason why they are different from the canon characters. Mirror Reiko grew up in a non-tyrannical society and had a good role model in Mirror Shao Kahn, Mirror Sindel was raised from birth to be the authoritarian evil ruler she is, etc.

The three big exceptions are Mirror Shao Kahn, Mirror Shinnok and Mirror Cetrion herself. They are different because I want and I can. And I am going to keep it like that.

However, in this alternative scenario, Mirror Cetrion would be a Cetrion corrupted as a consequence of the actions she took after getting the Hourglass, and she could use it to influence Shao and Shinnok's lives, as you will see in my next point.

There is a way to connect Cetrion's MK11 ending and Twisted Reflection

In Cetrion's MK11 ending, her objective is for 'good to flourish', to triumph over evil. She reaches the conclusion that for mortals to 'embrace the light', they need to battle 'evil' until they manage to overcome it, and she proceeds to 'baptize the realms with fire' to make it happen. Needless to say, this is a ridiculously drastic measure which can perfectly be read as her desire for everything to be perfect from her point of view becoming an obsession. With that, we already have our twisted version of Cetrion.

Now, what about the rest of the characters? Well, Cetrion's ending implies that her forces of evil would include Shinnok, Dark Raiden and even herself. But what if that attempt failed and decided to restart the timeline and try something different?

She knows who tend to be the most prominent combatants across all realms, which factions will be the most prominent ones in future battles. Why not turn them all into fighters of 'good', so the 'evil' ones who remain are completely overwhelmed in the next timeline? And why not give them even more motivation to fight?

With that line of thought, she would make the changes necessary for the already virtuous combatants to follow paths which would lead them to not just oppose what's wrong, but to persecute it, exterminate it, impose their ways over everyone. That's why she would give the first Edenians who ever existed certain ideas so the most ideal Regime she could think of was created, for example.

With those who were evil in the previous universe, on the other hand, she would try to 'fix them'.

Maybe she gave them better influences or better lives. Maybe she spoke much more constantly with her brother since they were young (by Elder Gods' standards) so he could see the beauties of peace annd prosperity. Maybe she took care of teaching Shao Kahn the ways of virtue from the moment he was created (protector god equivalent of being a baby, let's say). And yet, in the end, they would end up opposing her and her allies. She would write them off as a lost cause, believing they were always meant to be 'wrong' no matter what. In her obsession, she wouldn't realize she actually succeeded too much for her own good, and they all have become individuals with enough moral integrity to oppose her.

All left for Cetrion would be following her plan for a great war between 'good' and 'evil' to happen in her new timeline, hoping that she won't need to restart it again, and not knowing that her plans could backfire this time...

And that's been my little alternative scenario for my own AU. AU of an AU? 😵

Feel free to tell me what you would think of this if it were the case, I would be very interested to hear it! 😀

#mortal kombat #twisted reflection #cetrion

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beyondthisdarkhouse · 2 years

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What is the Tumblr kokobot mental health thing and why does it keep messaging me when I go into various mental health/neurodivergent tags? I'm generally looking for community and I don't appreciate this site deciding I am In Danger. You're a therapist and I feel like you've probably talked about mental health apps before so thought I'd ask

Uuuugh, that thing. I think I blocked it a couple months back. BUT, I'm going to be as fair to it as I can.

The part you and I bumped into is their automated chatbot, which monitors traffic on social media sites to detect people having mental health crises and try to convince them to access mental health support. Apparently their bot got good enough at detecting human behaviour patterns online that they actually spun it off into a separate company for a while and then sold their tech to a corporation, before returning to the mental health idea. They returned to it, critically, as a non-profit, which is why I'm willing to give it a second look at all.

tl;dr: I would not immediately warn everyone away from using it! Which is more than I could say for a lot of Silicon Valley mental health startups. I don't love the current implementation, but I think they might have the makings of a decent mutual aid platform for temporary moments of stress.

Long version below

Like, I was not a fan at all of Trill when Tumblr partnered with it, because I felt that they were using well-intentioned volunteers to do potentially harrowing and dangerous work without adequate training or support. (Or not-so-great volunteers, since I was dubious about their vetting process) And a lot of Kokobot's origin story is in some ways really similar to Trill.

Most of these startups and initiatives mean well. They want to make the world better and help provide comfort and support to people who need that. I admire them for their dedication to a good cause. However, I believe that when you are devoting significant resources to building a system where you ask people to choose you for support in their moments of vulnerability, you cannot put your intentions ahead of their needs.

Like: It is really great that people want to help the less-fortunate. I think it shows warmth of heart to want to go somewhere and build homes for the homeless. But if you've never built a house before, and the houses you build are so poorly constructed that they fall down or catch fire or whatever, and they wouldn't have if you'd put the equivalent amount of money into hiring local out-of-work carpenters to do the work properly, I don't think you should keep operating like that as a charity.

I'm also judging Koko a bit as the former teenager who wanted to help people, in terms of how much they provide guidance and support to the helpers they've recruited.

Finally, I feel the need to remind all of us, as useless as such reminders feel, that if you are not paying for a social media platform, you aren't a customer; you are the product. "Kokobot", the organization, the platform, the AI, are not the core producers of its value. Its users are. Without people in distress to whom to provide support, and without supportive people there in times of distress, it would not exist.

Maybe this will never be an issue. Maybe this conflict will never arise. Maybe the nonprofit organization will be devoted enough to the needs of its userbase that they will serve them faithfully and well. I hope so.

I'm just... jaded, by things I've seen before.

What I don't like at all:

It took me a lot of work to go from looking up Kokobot on Tumblr to understanding how the company worked, what using the app was like, and whether their work was being informed by anyone with a lick of knowledge about mental health care. I still don't know a lot of stuff about how they handle anonymity in situations like imminent suicide or homicide, or abuses of the platform.

Kokobot messaging people out of the blue is creepy as hell. My first response was, "Fuck off, I can TELL you're not ethical." Most ethical guidelines I know of for mental health therapists explicitly forbid directly soliciting clients ("Hey there, I can tell you've got a few issues. Here's my card"), especially when people appear psychologically vulnerable or in distress. The only wiggle room there is when you're working in disaster relief and crisis intervention, but that does not make it an "anything goes" situation.

@kokobot posting lots of testimonials from users about how great their service is. Again, something usually strictly forbidden by ethical standards! When someone has just come to you in distress and you've provided them help, and then ask them to give you a Yelp review, you're not usually going to get thoughtful, measured, and informed feedback. It's a weird power dynamic that might be great advertising, but not great informed consent.

While Koko might be a legit company that does its job well, its presence and behaviour opens up the field of what is acceptable behaviour on social media. If one app can track mental health tags and solicit vulnerable people into joining their group, why not another? What will stop Scientology (which has done this in person for decades) from creating a similar app, pitching it to people in need, and coaching its users to go off all their psychiatric medications and use pseudoscience instead? Where are the safeguards?

What's Not Terrible

Kokobot is clunky and weird, but like I said on my post on Trill, the hardest part of moderation on social media is the amount of labour it takes, and the human cost of that labour. It seems to me that by using AI, Koko might have found an efficient way to automate much of that labour.

I tried out the actual app itself, messaging on Telegram; for my "problem", I just said I was concerned that a friend was messaging Koko a lot and I wanted to make sure it was legit. Sending it out required answers to some pretty vital questions—did I feel hopeful or hopeless about the world? What kinds of best- or worst-case scenarios was I imagining? They were worded in a way that felt human and genuine, and the chatbot was responsive and encouraging before my problem ever got human eyes on it.

(For the record: These are questions that can very quickly give information on whether someone is likely to be a danger to themselves or anyone else, which are really important.)

Then, at the bot's suggestion, I also helped a couple other people, where I was given very rough and ready training on active listening, then coached into writing a response. It avoided a lot of on-ramps to community toxicity, inasmuch as the problems and replies were private and anonymous, and there were instant feedback options if anything was worrying or upsetting.

This process showed what I think was a more sophisticated and useful implementation of AI than, uh....... like 99% of the AI I've seen. This is mostly a statement on the state of AI, but still. Koko seems like the bot's responses were really carefully workshopped and designed by actual humans who knew about crisis intervention and risk assessment.

The replies I got to my "problem" were fairly good, empathetic and genuine. (The bot encourages people to be a little dorky, and seeing an auto-generated response I myself was suggested made me roll my eyes; this could reduce the value for some people.)

I can definitely see the benefit of encouraging people who are feeling distressed to help others. Engaging in peer support encourages empathy, and helps people feel like they've got something to offer, and that problems might be solvable.

In the end, Kokobot is an expansion of the kind of work volunteer-run distress and crisis hotlines do. It has the potential to do a lot of good, but the organization itself has to consider so many other factors and processes than its users do. I sincerely hope it and Tumblr are being extremely thoughtful and careful in how they handle this work.

I would be delighted to be proven wrong, and have them turn out to be totally amazing. I really hope they do.

#suicide discussion tw #mental health #kokobot

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fantasiacafecat · 21 days

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I just got done playing everyone's route last night on Seduce Me 2: The Demon War. It was on switch and I realize that they may have changed some parts up on the switch than the original. Because I was doing the naughty scene for Sam and I remember him saying "Maybe I really am a brute" and they basically scrapped. So I decided to ne cutsey and remember I bought the complete story, demon war 2, and the first game before I knew switches existed. I downloaded all three on my chrome book.

Number 1: If I do rewrite all routes for Seduce Me 2 there are gonna be some major changes.

The wives (if I decide to even add them) won't be in the Demon world mostly because they don't bring anything to the story. I'll most likely give them their own moments before Mika is kidnapped. Like Carrie in Jame's route. And they'll be mentioned (example: say Mika gets a couple dogs in Sam's route. When she realizes that they have no one feeding them, Sam would reassure her that one of the wives would be taking care of them.

More serious roles for all of the brothers. And maybe one on one scenes with them (I might make a version where Mika doesn't romance anyone or its the harem version as well because I want to). It seems like only Sam gets to have more conversation with his brothers in his story. And it does kind of hurt my soul that in every route only one brother gets to help kill the Demon lord, their shitty father. I know Sam would probably do anything to kick his ass.

The whole story probably won't be a week long. And there would probably be more Battle scenes. Depending on who you choose as your trainer you might get to be part of some missions, like assassinations with Shadow. Or scouting with Fae. I also don't know how dark and sinister I'm gonna make this story (if I do it). Part of me wants to genuinely traumatize the MC (when do I not).

Number 2: As for the Human Heart routes. I'm almost completely sure it's gonna have a similar plot like with each of the Demon brothers. Unless I was writing very tiny snippets of the relationship between Mika and their human lover, I don't think it'd be interesting enough to make a full fanfic (that's based off a game with magic) that doesn't have magic in it. It would be hard to find out a general enemy or problem for each story. Every single one of the brothers has their own baggage to overcome, James with angels, Erik and Oribel, Sam with Dragon's and returned devil lover, Matthew with his Mother, Damien (but mostly Mika) dealing with his humanity.

So let's say "The Human Heart" generally could start in at least 3 ways.

1. Mika never finds out that she has magic, but she still has some magic in her which causes her to be kidnapped and Mika doesn't know jack shit of what's going on, what demons are, and what to do. A decent 4/10 idea.

2. Mika finds her grandfather journal again, and learns magic at a softer and slower pace. Though when reading she knows that it wouldn't be a good idea to tell her spouse that magic exists (because the book says so). So if she does get kidnapped, her spouse cannot help her. Decent 5 or 6/10

3. Mika finds the journal again, and decides it'd be beneficial to tell her human spouse what magic is (because keeping secrets isn't healthy in a relationship). She gets kidnapped because she has Demon magic, but assuming their human spouse learns what Mika learns. They could come to the Demon World. I like this one the best because it just the least amount of plot holes.

As for whether or not the Demon brothers are in the story. It could also go one of 4 general ways.

1. Just because the boys leave Mika in the first game, doesn't mean Diana was able to convince any of them to return, nor does it mean the boys wouldn't think about seeing Mika in the future. Say they come back to Chicago, only to hear the only Anderson child's been missing for the decent part of the week. 8/10

2. The brothers are part of the rebellion because when Diana convices the brothers to come back. They come back to Diana's kingdom in flames. 5/10

3. The boys never actually leave Mika in the first game, Mika just falls for Naomi/Suzu/Andrew. Mika goes missing before their wedding and the boys do the same thing like in any of the Canon routes. 7/10

4. The boys are not part of "The Human Heart storyline". 0/10

I might post more about the idea for The Human Heart.

#Seduce me the otome #seduce me 2 the demon war

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livlepretre · 8 months

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I know we’re way past it, but that miscarriage Elena had just messed me up.

Is Klaus going to ever find out? Tyler?

And will maybe Elena ever get pregnant when she with klaus because a girl need her HOPE lol

The miscarriage is the darkest point of this story-- it was also the hardest part to write, but something I also felt couldn't be shied away from just because it was hard-- one of the core missions of this fic is to write about hard things in a real way, despite the supernatural trappings-- and to try to give them the emotional weight they deserve, which is so often glossed over in media. (Like, depression and grief are not story arcs. They cannot be resolved in 4 or 5 episodes, and it's offensive how often those things are treated that way with a simple solution. The reality is there is no single solution. Time doesn't heal all wounds. We just hope and pray that we grow strong enough to hold those things, that we find room inside of ourselves to hold them.)

Anyway.

The miscarriage is not "over" as a story element. Elena is still grieving it, but she's grown able to bear the burden of it. That happened over the years and years alone at the manor when she had to find a way to do that or else give up and die. It could certainly come up again in the right circumstances.

I'm not entirely sure whether either Tyler or Klaus would ever find out. If Elena sees Tyler again, she might tell him-- or she might decide to spare him the grief of a child that died years ago, and keep that pain to herself. Especially if she thought he had a chance of being happy. I'm not saying I think that is the right thing to do, just that I could see her choosing to do that. And also... because I think she might be afraid to open that door inside of her heart again, to crack it wide open as far as she would need to to tell the father of her lost baby what happened. But who knows. Maybe sharing that with Tyler would bring her some catharsis, and maybe she would do it because she thinks he has a right to know, painful as the knowledge is.

As for Klaus. I also don't know. The thing about the miscarriage is that the entire grief of that episode-- the entire existence of this child she loves despite not even knowing she existed until after her death-- belongs to her. Solely to her. Right now, it's not something she would ever want to share with him. Perhaps she might in the future. She would have to both want to tell him and need to tell him, for her own reasons, emotionally. He's certainly not going to find out otherwise. I don't think Rebekah would tell Klaus casually-- even she understands what a confidence Elena was sharing with her, and besides-- she thinks it was a normal pregnancy with Matt or something.

What happens exactly with this thread is something that I'll only know for sure once I get there. It's going to depend on what is right.

(I also thought Elena would tell Klaus about her suicide attempt in New Orleans in chapter 41; that happened in the original draft, but I realized as I was working on it that she would keep that back from him-- it wasn't the right time emotionally for her to share that with him, if she ever does.)

As for whether she will ever get pregnant again in this fic-- it's certainly possible. She knows that hybrids are fertile, or at least, they are fertile when sleeping with her. (She might not realize they are generally able.) It might be something on her mind were she to sleep with Klaus again. (when, lol)

But whatever the case, as I have promised many times before, Elena herself is going to have some version of a happy ending when all is said and done. Whether that includes having children with Klaus is something I will leave as a "read and find out!" (But: can you imagine having children with FE!Klaus????? YIKES)

#anonymous #fairytale ending #miscarriage #tw miscarriage

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dearrosaceae · 7 days

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I hope moving on doesn’t turn me into stone.

Dear Tumblergh, a lot has happened recently. To summarise, I have decided (as I should have from a long time ago) to move on from my first love. We have a long history that stretched way back to two years ago. He was the one and only man, and an experience that I ever come close to a real romantic relationship so in the light of that obvious lacking in references, it is very devastating on my part.

I burned a poem and a couple bookmarks I dedicated to him from two years ago when he rejected me (the bookmarks were prior) at night on a random tuesday or wednesday. It was significant that I got rid of those memoribilia because if I have anything more that reminded me of him, it’ll made moving on harder.

I also recorded and edited a video about it which gain traction among my friends.. as well as him. He texted me about the video, claiming he didn’t know it was about him or that all this time, all of my poems had been about him, my posts, my hints of insane yearn. I just.. yelled at him for that response, he was so oblivious and frustrating.

He reassured me that if we are meant to be together, we’ll find our way back to each other which is a nice thing to say but I’m tired of hearing it because I’ve told myself that a million times already. Afterwards we did text again when he initiated, even call which took me by huge surprise. I was cathartic by his invitation.

“You just want (a place) to rant, right? Let’s call.”

However, things took a sharp left from there. He immediately went cold and distant, like he had always been. I thought at first I’ve got a chance to salvage our relationship which is stupid yes because even after burning those memories, I still have hope for him but this time he made it clear that he doesn’t want anything to do with me. You know what they call this type of people?

Asshole.

Hope-giving-motherfuckers.

I posted some Twitter screenshots and poems on my WhatsApp status and Instagram stories about moving on and being abandoned. It is how I cope with pain and apparently, severe attachment issues. He posted Tik Toks too and today a poem in our mother tongue. This is just how we’re communicating lately and somehow, none of us know if we are doing it right.

Listen, I know he’s not the best guy there is. My heart only thinks so because he fits my type perfectly and like I said, he is my one and only experience so I have nobody to compare him to. He won without competing. I also acknowledge that I’m having a hard time moving forward because I cling to the nostalgia of us, and the possibilities of “what ifs” and “what could’ve been”. I couldn’t give anyone or myself a chance.

This hurts but nothing wounded cannot heal with time. Plus, it’ll leave a scar but a reminder could be helpful in the future. Day by day, I try to make a step forward towards moving on. I don’t want to pretend that he’s dead or he never existed, because that would also mean leaving our memories unacknowledged. I, too, refuse to demonise him so I could hate him and move on. He is still as good as he can be to me.

Instead, I will just look for other things to enrich myself and be the best version of myself. Be my own type so no man can easily impress me in terms of attracting me. Improve myself so much that my future partner doesn’t have to deal with my baggages such as this, or if I don’t find a partner either, I can be completely content just by myself.

Of course, I hope that this experience does not make loving traumatising. I have seen what this can do to people. I don’t want the same thing to happen to me. I want to continue loving with purpose, choosing to love again and again, courageously, even though I risk getting hurt.

Because eventually, I know this love will triple itself on me.

Love wont turn me into a stone.

#love #moving on #rosareflects #rosaneedstherapy #rosamance #reflection #loving #partner

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thepromisedbride · 2 years

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i made a poll about whether people think chuuya is the original or the clone, and @rennbo asked me to elaborate on why i support the chuuya as a clone theory, which was much appreciated, so i put together some of my thoughts.

(please be warned, this was written on my phone in my notes app, and i don't currently have access to my copy of stormbringer. i'll go back in and edit it when i can!)

so first i’m going to look at stormbringer itself, wherein we’re told that chuuya is a clone (and we briefly see the other chuuya, who is supposedly the original). from what I can remember, and please bear in mind I don’t actually have my copy of stormbringer with me so there might be something else, the main evidence that implies chuuya is the original is the scar on his wrist, which the other one doesn’t have? i’m willing to dismiss this for a theory i like. in terms of given evidence, i think there’s much more that he is the clone, not only because that is explicitly what we’re told, but also because the only other character who actually contains a singularity is verlaine, who was artificially constructed. both guivre and arahabaki exist as ultrapowerful, interdimensional, and almost certainly sentient beings, contained within a vessel: if one vessel was artificially constructed then i think the very fact that there is any evidence for chuuya to be also artificially constructed means that he was.

but honestly, the main reason I think that chuuya is the clone is less due to evidence and more due to symbolism, and how chuuya’s character works alongside two others: namely, paul verlaine and dazai osamu. chuuya works as a foil for both of them, and i genuinely think that him being a clone not only adds to that, but adds to it significantly.

verlaine is himself an artificial creation, and he is constantly fighting himself over whether he’s human or not. his only friend was rimbaud, and he owed (or at least saw himself as owing) everything he was to him. his loyalty was never to the french government, but rather solely rimbaud. however, and again be aware this is my interpretation of it; because he gained everything from rimbaud, even his name, arthur became almost another creator for him. that loyalty was not unconditional, especially after verlaine’s history, and it faltered when verlaine found “another version of himself” in chuuya and had to decide if “he” would once again choose his creator or freedom. he sees chuuya as the only other being in the world who can relate to him, and he’s willing to do anything to have that, because he cannot see himself as possibly having a family any other way.

(side note because it isn’t really in my main idea but I also think adam adds an interesting counterpart to this dynamic, in that he isn’t human and has no interest in being one, however much he likes them.)

dazai is human, but everything about his characterisation is designed otherwise (i’m talking pm!dazai here, though of course ada!dazai has his own displays of this). his nickname is about him being a demon rather than human. his attitude is cold and detached from everything and often seen as inhuman by other characters. his very ability is called ‘no longer human’. chuuya is very clearly his counterpart, which is both why they fought so much and why they worked so well together. where one is brash, one is calm. one is strength, one is smarts. one is driven by emotion, one is near emotionless. i can’t properly think of how to say this, but it seems only right that one of them should be human but still seen as a created experiment, and one should be artificially created but all too human despite that. this is especially notable when you consider that there is a certain line to be drawn between professor n literally creating chuuya and mori creating what dazai was.

and ultimately, chuuya is neither of them, and so in this can act as a foil to both. despite coming from a similar background to verlaine, he is able to let go of what has happened and form his relationships based on friendship. he sees the good in people, rather than distrusting them based on past circumstances. and he’s not like dazai, who is calculating and able to separate himself from whatever plans he is making and their results, because chuuya is driven by emotion and forms bonds as easily as breathing. if chuuya is a clone then the choices he makes and how it counters and contrasts verlaine and dazai works, in my opinion, far more compellingly than if he was the original human. it adds a lot more to his character and his relationships, knowing that what he has is more important than what he is. He is human, clone or not, and the fact that this is what he chooses is just another way he adds into the story.

also if chuuya isn’t a clone then the whole of stormbringer is based on a misunderstanding, and i love that book too much to let that be the case.

#nakahara chuuya #bsd #i just have a lot of thoughts about chuuya and humanity #anyway hope this makes sense lmao it is very late #bungou stray dogs #dazai osamu #paul verlaine #bsd stormbringer #bsd stormbringer spoilers #bungō stray dogs #as i say. i’ll edit it later #long post

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