#she was literally in the concept art PUT HER IN THE GAME

[aidenlydia]

I have seen that you are very open about supporting trans people and that your pronouns are they/them. How were you able to understand that you were trans? (If you are.) I've honestly felt so confused lately and don't have anyone I can ask about this. I love your ftm ghost art. I think it is amazing. I just don't know what to do or how I'll ever be able to figure out myself. Totally not your job but was curious if you had advice.

Not sure how helpful this will be, because my trans experience is deeply interlinked with my Dissociative Identity Disorder and Autism, so I'm sorry if this is a bit confusing.

What is Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder - Terms and Definitions

Autism and Gender

The reason why I go by they/them is because we're literally multiple people. Our two Hosts Aiden and Lydia (aka the alters interacting most with the world outside of our own head) are a man and a woman. We spend all our time together, sharing a body and the control over it.

We used to go by he/she, but people would only view us as a girl because of our body, so we switched to they/them. It makes more sense and feels better to be acknowledged together instead of Aiden being left out all the damn time.

Now bear with me here.

Though Lydia is a cis women, she grew up never belonging anywhere because we're autistic, so she feels like an imposter and a fraud when trying to connect to her feminity. Most days we barely feel human at all because we've been othered all our life. But she still views herself as a woman - motherhood in particular is a big important part of her.

Aiden is a trans man, but he doesn't mind our feminine body and doesn't plan on getting surgery ever. Testosterone maybe, but even that isn't super important to him at the moment. To him knowing he's a man is enough, passing isn't a priority at all. And because all of our Littles are girls he's rather protective of their body - any kind of medical procedure would cause a lot of fear in them.

He realized he's trans because he preferred a male name for himself, short hair and male clothing. It happened very quickly because exploring gender has never been an issue for us, it's fun and simply felt comfortable.

We do have two Agender Alters, but they don't come out in our regular daily life. They don't feel like anything really, they're deeply connected to nature and just want to exist as genderless beings, so they prefer not taking control of our body. It feels peaceful not being put into a box or defined by gender expectations and whatever other bullshit the world comes up with.

In the past we used to have another trans male Host, but he was suffering deeply from gender dysphoria. He couldn't stand the sight of our body or existing in it and became very self destructive about it. Until one day he just stopped coming out and hasn't been back since.

Before I even realized I had DID, gender wasn't really a concept to me. Same with names, it just didn't make sense to me why someone couldn't just change their name if they didn't like the one their parents gave them for whatever reason. I think of people as people, not boys and girls. Sure there are physical differences, but the meanings/genderroles we attributed to them are completely made up.

Folks love nagging me about how I draw my Ghost, but the truth is he can walk around looking like a cis girl and still be a man, I truly dgaf. So what if he's smaller and more delicate looking next to that big bear of a captain, that doesn't make him any less of a man.

The best advice I can give is you don't need to label yourself if you don't want to. You can experiment and just see what feels good. Maybe you'll find a label or make a plan along the way, but don't feel pressured to.

Common things people do is try out a different name, change their pronouns, create and play as video game characters of the opposite gender/sex (or gender non-conforming in general), listen to trans playlists/musicians, shop clothes/stuff in the other section (including underwear or things like jewelry ect), read books or watch movies about different kinds of trans characters, watch video essays about trans topics, create OCs or sonas, look at trans art and watch/read about other people's trans journeys.

Of course there are "what's my gender identity" tests you can take too, idk how helpful those are but I guess they can give you a bit more insight and maybe make you ask questions that you haven't asked yourself before.

Lastly here's a list of gender identities and definitions that might be beneficial to have a look at, as well as my trans resource list I put together last month about what can be done to change your gender in various ways

#trans resources

[squidswithsocks]

(guy who's totally not mad at a crk pink choco snub) wouldn't it be cool if pink choco was in kingdom

#space doughnut #pink choco cookie #she was literally in the concept art PUT HER IN THE GAME #ps my commissions are open check out my carrd xoxo

[lucabyte]

obligatory ramble about postcanon loop ask

also your art is amazing

Hiiiiiiiii :D thank you :)!!

and thank you for the excuse to post the. just absolute wall of text that i truncated down to form the tags of that post. (i did,,, hit the tag limit. i forgot tumblr had one of those...) so let me just paste that and tidy it up a bit...

I am putting this under a readmore because it's a bit long. but:

This is like. The General Context for all* of my postcanon doodles? (Except AUs obviously) Like this is the base idea I've been drawing them all in. So, feel free to backread with this in mind. I've basically had this 'postcanon' timeline set in my brain since finishing the game...

My general thoughts are that I like the idea of Loop (even if through dubiously ethical means) being able to slowly reintegrate with the party as a whole new person, because they are, in fact, their own person.

It's a muddle of thematic threads im pulling on and "wouldn't it be fucked up if", but. (at its core, it's powered by the fact that like, while narratively isat's theme of 'the only person who can truly take the first step to help you is yourself'. (wrt: loop helping the party help siffrin in act 5) which i LOVE AND IS GREAT NARRATIVELY…. would be super fucked up irl to learn that your friend 'learned as a lesson' while you stood by kinda uselessly. I know i'd be upset about it. but thats mostly background here. doesn't really come up. at least not until loop has to explain who they are and the party realises they had to fall back on literally themselves again for help, but i digress,)

The real core concept is: Occam's razor. It is like, inherently, a buckwild thing to accuse a person of being somehow a clone or copy of your friend. Even if they start vaguely alluding to a backstory it's far more likely they were some other person before all that. (I still think Odile has that theory in the back pocket but she's rational enough to know it's a really long shot without a solid explanation. and i think Loop deep down knows this, and would, if cornered into confessing, turn the situation around to go J'ACCUSE and make HER explain it instead. Ever longer dodging being direct with their emotions...)

And the party are nice! And if someone has changed and wants to keep stuff secret it's kind of not their business? (Though it's hard not to speculate… see: the main joke of the doodles) And they seem important to Siffrin so they just try to accept them abrasive quirks and all. And eventually the question of their prior identity just fades away since, well, they're Loop. Their friend Loop.

but yeah. personal headcanon is that a few months/weeks after picking up and getting aquainted with Nille** (since that was presumably the IMMEDIATE TASK postgame), Loop reappears (either after a literal period of nonexistance, or just spending a few months wandering the french countryside alone being attacked by wild dogs). Since Siffrin has had a while to be therapised by the party they're doing mostly okay, but Loop showing up and still being agitated/aggressive pulls them both into a bit of a backslide behaviourally and puts the party on the back foot again.

Hooowever, I do think that due to no longer being literally stewing in the worst pressure cooker of all time together, the two do mostly actually sort themselves out with productive conversation. (Via a cycle of: genuinely distressing argument -> weeeird lovebombing -> ok we're good -> repeat, that gets less intense over time)

Thus, allowing the party to just. Integrate loop as a new person. They and Siffrin shuffle into different ecological niches (Loop taking over stuff Siffrin is now too squeamish for, etc (see: hunting, mostly)), and while it's not exactly what Loop wanted they generally get that beggars can't be choosers and it's a pretty good deal. And the rest of the party does straight up just like them as a friend, especially when Loop quits trying to actively antagonise them after a few weeks of being around them, since they just can't keep up being mean to people they like forever.

As for how I think the truth eventually drags itself out. This is where I invoke The Isabeau Torment Nexus™. So its gonna get shippy here for a bit hold on.

Which is, I think giving them time before Loop reappears long enough that Siffrin and Iseabeau actually manage to become established, Isabeau has to be the one to nudge the pair of them and go. "Hey. You know we're in Vaugarde right. I'm okay with polyamory if we all communicate." Before Loop and Siffrin actually even acknowledge that whatever the fuck they have going on kinda looks a lot like a relationship of some kind. (or have already been agonising about that via fighting and arguing, depending) (Obviously this comes after Isa "Emotionally intelligent enough to keep a lid on the jealousy" Beau has managed to use that big brain of his to Not just go Scream somewhere on the daily because oh godddd they keep talking like theyre suicide-baiting each other jesus chriiist. is it overstepping his boundaries to bring that up?? god)

This, taking a bunch of the tension out of Loop and Isabeau's relationship (Since I imagine Loop is a. being weird for the obvious reasons and b. feeling kinda guilty about 'getting in the way of' Siffrin and Iseabeau), allows them to actually get close in a normal friend way. (I think an interesting turning point could be Isabeau actually taking Loop's side in an argument vs Siffrin, which would absolutely break Loop's brain. Especially if it's an argument that matters. Like what do you mean he isn't just going to play favourites. What?)

Then Isabeau, just actually open minded and charmed by Loop (and maybe even somewhat at Siffrin's suggestion?) tries to close the final open side on the polyamory triangle here and that's the final straw for Loop on "This lie by omission is too unethical to keep up, this is just actually sick and wrong. I can't do this while he doesn't know who I am." Though. Obviously it probably goes. Very poorly with emotions high like that. And the added element of several months of deceit. Getting dark here for a second but that dagger is going MISSING and so are THEY for a hot minute.

Then yaaay everything works out in the end 👍 yippieee!! all it took was maybe a lot of harrowed recontextualisation of all the weird shit your new friend said and did when it turns out they're your old friend. It's fine.

But yeah. this is basically the context all of my postcanon doodles have existed within? And those exist to give other people something to chew on. So this does too.

I suppose TL;DR: Imagine if sloopis almost fucking happens before isabeau knows who loop is. can you fucking imagine. can you imagine having to navigate that. nightmare.

*Yes this includes the implied cannibalism comic. Uhh. Comes part and parcel with headcanoning that Loop went way off the deep end similar to A5 Sif But Maybe Worse before giving in. Add weepy half-asleep confessions to murder wherever you see fit in your mind palace. 👍👍👍

**Re: Nille footnote. I don't have anywhere to put this besides here! I have some thoughts on Loop and Nille having an odd dynamic. I don't imagine Nille to be super gung-ho on trusting a bunch of adults (even if they are majority around her age) given their implied backstory. It's probably a big shock to the system, especially since Bambouche is a good couple hundred Kilometers up north from Dormont and these guys don't seem to have trains. She would've been unfrozen and without Bonnie for some time....

Which is to say: I think she's suspicious of them. I think she may be looking for excuses to distance herself, keep Bonnie safe. SO.... A new guy showing up? And antagonising the party? What do they know that I don't...? I should find out.

And since... Loop didn't ever know Nille, they have no ammunition or real reason to be cruel. Plus, if they're trying to stay on Bonnie's good side (SINCE... if Bonnie thought Loop was cringe they may as well kill themselves. In their mind.) they SUPER have no reason to antagonise Nille.

Mostly, they might be able to open up to each other easier than they can the rest of the party?

I feel like this resolves with Loop feeling compelled to apologise for what they and Siffrin let happen to Bonnie, though... Hmm... Depends on how you interpret Nille that they'd be glad nobody else had been told about that yet, or furious it had been secret this long. I lean toward the former.

#PHEW THIS IS LONG. i wrote some extra footnotes and tidied it up a bit. but uh. here you go! my personal headcanon baseline for postcanon. #i could probably elaborate more but that would get unwieldy. like i have opinions on loop's dynamics w each party member but. LONG POST... #lucabytetalks #isat #isat spoilers #in stars and time #isat loop #isiloop #sloopis #WONT be tagging everyone thats absurd. loop centric post though with a chunk about nille at the end #isat act 6 spoilers

[ouroborosorder]

So, Deepcolor's oprec released, and upon reading a summary of it, I basically felt the entire world of Arknights click into place. Hear me out.

Deepcolor's Oprec details that Deepcolor was convinced by a messenger of the Cult of the Deep to become Seaborn. But she stopped her own assimilation when she realized that the Seaborn do not appreciate aesthetic beauty. She was disgusted, and literally left and stopped her own assimilation entirely due to her love of art, and has been holding it back with her painting.

And this made me realize. This is true of every character with seaborn blood who has resisted assimilation. Skadi sings. Specter sings. Laurentina sculpts. Gladiia dances. Mizuki cooks. Deepcolor is a painter. Amaia still translated books long after she had become Seaborn. Garcia played the piano. Lorenzo cared for the Stultifera.

Which also means...

... Anita was never assimilated. Not fully.

But this makes sense, even outside of a "art holds back the darkness" power of friendship-tier story beat. Assimilation is the surrendering of the individual self to unity, the acceptance that you do not matter, that all that matters is giving your life and your existence to the perpetuation of a greater Whole. They cultivate only to consume. They sing, but their song is a profound silence.

And what is more individualistic, more self-revealing than art? There is no artistic expression without the self, without the understanding that you are a distinct voice, that your perspective matters, that there is only one you.

Perhaps you may have noticed, but this is the same as the Yan-Sui. They hold back the collective with their individual passions. Painting, movies, poetry, games, war.

There's one other thing with a connection to artistic expression - but this time, positively. Originium Arts. Artistic ability has long been associated with Originium Arts capability - Amiya plays the violin, Frostnova sings as she enters the battlefield, Goldenglow's hairdressing, Astesia's divination powering her arts, Lucian the Blood Diamond. I mean they're called Arts for the love of god, it's not exactly subtle.

But the Rhine Lab manga tells us that when an Oripathy carrier dies, the Originium left behind contains their DNA sequence, left behind after death. They may die, but there is something that is always left behind, something that always remains behind. There is always the thing that let them do their Arts. There is always their artistic ability.

There is always their art.

You do your art until you are taken by death, but what remains behind is the traces of it, the artistic DNA you have left behind, your Arts itself. You're gone, but the remnants are still there. And someone else will find it, taking your Arts into themselves to do their own Arts themselves. Sometimes it becomes part of you, living with you and growing inside you, granting you your abilities. Sometimes you simply hold it and use it as fuel and inspiration to make your own Arts.

And this is always what Arknights has been about. Not just metaphorically, but literally.

They hired individual artists, asking them to make characters according to their own sensibilities and style, then putting them into a cohesive world. They got talented musicians and gave them carte blanche to contribute to the musical identity of this game. They got talented voice actors and let them just go ham on the mic. The game's story concept debatably originated because of Lowlight creating Kal'tsit for a make your own OC art game.

It has always been about individuals, putting everything they have, everything that makes them unique, every part of their histories and sensibilities and quirks and personalities and identity and selfish desires and allowing them to shine as a collaborative effort, working together towards a greater goal that means something to people.

An organization of people, Infected by the artistic DNA of those they carry close. People using their Arts to push back the darkness, as best as they can. Even if they stumble and fall, even if they make mistakes, they will always try. To enjoy their life and practice their art.

Because the two greatest threats to the world of Terra, the Seaborn and Sui, are held back by.. simple artistic passion.

The passion and love of the community, the individual given space to shine and collaborate, singing to drown out the terror of the song without sound, the art without beauty, and the collective without the individual.

#arknights #long post #critical analysis #whoops guess who wrote an extended essay about arknights instead of doing her homework again

[egg-emperor]

Evidence for Eggman's age being 50+ and not "under 50"

First off, it was specifically the OP of the Twt thread saying Eggman's age was literally "under 50" as if it was said to be 100% certain and confirmed final fact.

But when they quote Iizuka directly, it turns out he apparently said: "His age *hasn't been disclosed* but he's *probably* under 50"

This isn't "Yes, Eggman is 100% under 50, finalized solid fact." Iizuka still saying it "is not disclosed" and the use of "probably" isn't confirmation.

He's just making a probable estimate that if Eggman didn't know Maria and Gerald, then he might not have existed at the same time.

But concepts, Sonic Channel and even finalized information the games, suggest Eggman's age is at least 50+

They considered putting Eggman at 60+ in the Sonic CD concept art,

he's referred to as old and middle aged constantly by himself, other characters, and bios,

Eggman uses the Washi pronoun in JP which is commonly used by older men, again implying older age,

Sonic Channel associates Eggman with Respect for the Aged Day, a day to celebrate senior citizens in Japan. If he was under 50, he'd be too young an age to be considered anywhere close to a "senior",

Most recently we have the Egg Memo where Eggman specifies he "never *really* knew" Maria (Eng) / "didn't know [her] *well* (Jp), so he had to exist at least some time when she was alive. It'd go without saying if she died before he was even born.

It seems to imply he didn't *really* know her *well* because while he was alive at the same time, even if just a little, he didn't meet her in person and only learned of her through how others talked of her.

As for him saying she was "gone" immediately after, it seems it's just him then jumping to the part after her death, where he really started learning about her through her becoming the big subject after her tragic death.

So there you have something from within the actual games, finalized lore instead of outside word, implying that Eggman's age has to be at least 50.

He's an old man, he looks like one, sounds like one, is consistently referred to as and hinted to be one lol

But overall, Eggman's age "is not disclosed" as Iizuka said. It has always been down as "unknown" for all of his bios for canon media.

So the final answer is that it's all just probable estimates but it all points to him being over 50.

Please consider supporting the Twt thread version of this! Thank you 💜

#dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #my post #age #maria robotnik #robotnik family #eggman age #hits

[lopposting]

guys.

I think I did it.

I think I cracked Lies of P.

(me rn)

i keep going back and forth on carlo's death.

i know i was adamant before, on him dying from the petrification disease. i think logically he would have to have had it because of ergo.

but here's another weird point about his death,

i just realized why we intrinsically think he was killed.

Carlo is wearing his school uniform when his stalker finds him, and on the floor at that. That's quite odd. Maybe not being on the floor, but the uniform. Why the uniform?

"He didn't even come to your graduation?"

For the son of an aristocratic family, would this be the image of a deathly ill son in care? Did Geppetto know? Wouldn't he be in palliative care, as Lady Antonia could afford?

Why wear the uniform after graduating?

"Oh, she's here! Grab her!"

"...Gemini, get rid of them! I'm off!"

Was his death literally right after his graduation, on the same day?

And also, Gemini is a little lamp guy. (She doesn't look to be carrying the lamp.) Why does she tell him to take care of the boys? What can he even do? Tell them off?

Here's another funny thing... We NEVER see Carlo outside of his school uniform. (at least, in the "past", "real" Carlo time line).

And as we know, the school uniform has a prominent Sailor collar, the type that is associated with nautical outfits [down to the three stripes, supposedly called a "naval collar"]. The Graduation pendant that he gives to Romeo is of an anchor. [I know that these are all artifacts of the charity house. but they are nonetheless associated in tangent with Carlo]

When we find Carlo's painting, it's right next to this one of a ship. [also, two bottles on the counter, perhaps representing the "two lives" of Carlo and Pino]

also... when Carlo's memories materialize... it's in the sand. Only on the seaside.

Remember, Romeo seems to be associated with a fire element, and Pino with water, the same seems to go with Carlo. The original novel of Pinocchio itself seems to have a strange fixation on the ocean.

And now, might I present to you:

The DLC images are also of a ship and some kind of water turbine.

Director Choi (in pre-release interview): "I'll put it this way: there are more stories I want to tell in Lies of P, so I hope [it] does well."

Also: "There sure are stories we could not introduce in the game" (talking about the story being adapted into another form)

[basically, that there was more to the story than what was really present in the final game.] I'll leave all this to your consideration without adding my own just yet. (I'll add it in a reblog on my own blog without tagging it) Just kidding I want to keep wasting everyone's time

Perhaps after the events of the game,

This is some sort of effort by Pino to either learn more about the deceased Carlo or try to remember his "previous life" as Carlo, by taking to the sea.

Maybe even after the game, Pino will STILL attempt to "awaken" as him so to speak [:(].

[Maybe he actually will.]

Again, Carlo is strongly associated with nautical elements. Again, he is never seen outside of a sailor suit, basically. Also, when we gain the memories of Carlo, they materialize on the sand, at the seaside. Remember, he DIED in the sailor outfit

Maybe we are to take the "sand memories" more "literally" as they are in the sand?

Did Carlo drown and his body wash ashore, which is why these memories materialize in the sand? Why is he so associated with ships?

Pino is also depicted in the water, remember, including what looks to be concept art that was used for the OST? Maybe it isn't "just" a motif? [even simple things like his "official" coat and his eyes being blue, blue blood's tailcoat, and him being associated with the colour blue in general]

Which is why Pino is pictured in the water, since he was "born" from Carlo's death... He was birthed in the water the same way Carlo died in it?

[more notes in reblog]

#lies of p #liesofp #lop #speculation #theory #lies of p spoilers #spoilers #pinocchio #oh my love don't forsake me #take what the water gave me #FINAL NOTE: When “Carlo” appears in the real boy ending #it's raining. #I HAVE EVEN MORE THOUGHTS I HAVE EVEN MORE THOUGHTS BEAR WITH ME HERE #REMEMBER WHEN THE DIRECTOR CALLED THE STORY A PUZZLE? #more notes in reblog #long #tw drowning #carlo #lies of p carlo #dlc speculation

[gooselycharm]

hi there! i'd just like to say that your kris and noelle "something else" comic has been driving me insane /pos and i'd love to hear more of your thoughts on those two!! their relationship is one of my favorite things in deltarune and your comic just got everything about them so right 🙏

thank you for reading "something else"! oh man, [more of] my thoughts on kris+noelle.... i sure got some of those.

this was one of the first tweets i made after finishing chapter 2 nearly... freaking 2 years ago. and basically i've just been saying that over and over again in different ways because i'm still not tired of the concept yet and probably wont ever be LOL. i'm obsessed with how badly the narrative wants to force them into an easily categorizable dynamic, especially the romantic one in snowgrave. the literal THORN RING, the more possessive dialogue options, spamton calling noelle a side chick LOL... it all creates this unnerving visual novel bad end atmosphere that feels manufactured by someone who's only ever learned about romance through secondhand sources. they're two queer teens trying to navigate their changing relationship with the only role models they know being their parents' own failed heterosexual marriages. they're so divorced² (divorced children of divorce).

i also like that for being so tragically doomed coded they can be funny! both in a dark humor way and also like, genuinely funny, like the stories of them as kids with kris covering themselves in ketchup and hiding under noelle's bed lmao. i mean there's even something funny about the romantic trappings of the snowgrave route, like trying to put wedding cake embellishments on a crime scene... you know, funny like kids trying on their parents clothes but they're too big and for some reason they're also crying and covered in blood? um.

i'm also SOOOO interested to see how snowgrave will continue in chapter 3! i really liked the hopeful note chapter 2 ended on (well. i took it as hopeful anyway). there's that bit where noelle is talking to herself and she says something like "recently kris has been acting so strange and no one else has noticed... i have to figure out why" and then kris jumpscares her LOL but i think i took that one line and really ran with it. noelle really is the one who knows kris best and despite how scared she is, she's still determined to help them... i like the little subversion of victim/hero going on, the implication that kris might be the one who needs rescuing.

the additional story/lore that came with the spamton sweepstakes made me CRAAAZYYYYY like my GOD... it's cute that noelle likes glitches/creepypasta when kris is kinda a walking creepypasta <3 also, god, noelle falling asleep listening to kris playing piano in the other room... there's so much like. wistfulness and nostalgia and this like... distant/detached intimacy packed into how noelle narrates that scene. it's kind of funny how much there is to dig into when like on a surface level they're just fairly regular childhood friends who grew apart LMAO they're extremely deep to me okay...

on another note i guess i do ship them? i like their dynamic whether it's platonic or romantic (the best is a weird mix of both 👍). it just can't be boring LOL like... this is one ship where trying to apply cookie cutter tropes to them really falls flat and the game is ahead of you on that anyway. in terms of romantically shipping them, i honestly don't think they're doomed to repeat patterns forever... i think they could actually be good for each other! but that's not really the aspect of their relationship that interests me akldjf;alk;sdg maybe i will make 60 page comic of kriselle going to couples counseling some other time

ANYWAY i'm going to cut myself off here, because i really could go on forever lol. i'll give you some links for further reading though

hellspawnmotel's deltarune art

lula pillowbug99's deltarune art

this art by raspbearis which features prominently in my internal kriselle bible

my own unfinished kriselle playlist

my own essay on gender & allegory in deltarune if for some reason u are not tired of hearing me talk yet

okay bye now & thanks again for reading my comic!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#deltarune #kriselle #im post #im really posting now. i be talking.

[homestuckreplay]

Violin Concerto in the Key of Meteor Strike: Who Is Rose Lalonde?

Character Deep Dive 2 - 6/2/2009

Homestuck’s narrator formally introduced us to John Egbert right as the comic opened, but our getting to know Rose Lalonde has been slower and more natural. From her earliest conversation with John on p.63, to her becoming a ‘playable character’ of the comic on p.139 when she and John begin playing Sburb, to our switch to following her in person actions on p.214, we already knew a lot about Rose before we had her name and list of interests. She’s just as weird as John but with a spooky gray filter applied, she’s a regular kid who will probably summon a demon, she’s an absolute control freak who’s still kind of a failure at video games, and she is our second Main Character, set up as a contrast to John as well as a friend.

Much like with John, I’ve used Rose’s list of interests to group the information we know about her, and to discuss her relationship with the other characters and with some themes of the comic so far.

Essay below the cut - about 3.6k words.

Quiz here - 13 multiple choice questions.

1. You have a passion for RATHER OBSCURE LITERATURE.

If this was the first thing we learned about Rose, I might see her very differently. I’d definitely take her more seriously. But I saw her destroy the plumbing and put the bunny back in the box, so learning this now comes off very differently.

With John’s ‘passion for REALLY TERRIBLE MOVIES’, we were given posters to illustrate his taste, and based just on critical reception, ‘really terrible’ is a huge oversimplification. So we know that the narration isn't completely objective, and we know from other clues that Rose's interests in psychoanalysis and games are fairly surface level, which makes it an easy leap to ‘Rose reads a lot of HP Lovecraft and thinks of that as way more obscure than it is because she’s 13 and gets book recommendations from forums’.

There are two posters on the left of Rose’s wall that could be book characters - they look like amateur art of regular, non-tentacled people. I wonder if they were birthday presents from one of her friends, whether it’s John or TG sending her original concept art made by the author of a book she likes, or fanart if one of her friends is a visual artist (GG, perhaps?)

John not only loves movies, but imagines himself in their stories (for example, p.223) and the things that happen to him reflect his movies in response. Without any specific titles, it’s hard to say if the same is true for Rose - but if so, it raises questions of genre. John’s story has been lighthearted action-comedy with darker themes below the surface, light fantasy and countdowns leading to an explosion that’s almost comically absurd even while it has our hearts racing. Rose’s story is already darker both in literal color and in tone. Her inventory system is still terrible but she uses it more pragmatically and she’s far more skillful about skulking around her own house. This, the design of her house, and the sudden flashes of lightning illuminating the sky red or revealing a shadowed figure give her story a survival horror feel. If that’s her taste in literature, it would make sense that she’d imagine herself in that type of story.

2. You enjoy creative writing and are SOMEWHAT SECRETIVE ABOUT IT.

Where a normal person might say ‘hey I heard you got the sburb beta’, Rose Lalonde says ‘I understand you have recently come into possession of the beta release of "The Game of the Year", as featured in respectable periodicals such as GameBro Magazine’ (p.63). It’s the first thing we hear from her, so we learn immediately that she likes the sound of her own voice. She’s the only kid in her friend group who uses perfect capitalization and grammar in her messages, and she criticizes game walkthroughs as ‘horrendously written’, suggesting a focus on the technical aspects of writing.

Her creative interest is seen in ‘I think I will write my own walkthrough’ (p.204) where she moves beyond criticism and at least believes she could make something better, and ‘It’s not especially practical. But I think they are elegant’ (p.154) which shows an interest in the style and aesthetics of things. We also get great glimpses of her prose in lines like ‘Its lurid glare has moved on to younger timezones’ (p.174) - I can imagine Rose writing fanciful mood and setting pieces that focus on description over dialog.

In her eccentric verbosity, Rose’s character voice is more similar to the narrator’s than any other character’s is. The narrative text on p.82, for example, feels more comfortable in itself than Rose’s messages do, but it’s not a million miles away. I’ll come back to Rose as a narrator figure in the section on knitting, somehow. 

Rose is not only secretive about her creative writing, she’s secretive in general. On page 164, she tells John not to investigate after she rips out his toilet. She asks him for ‘space’ to fix it and sends him away, and clearly prefers to work unobserved especially when she’s uncertain. She also shuffles her purple package into the closet (p.218) and her writing journals under her bed (p.220) when she feels the narration’s scrutiny. The narrator states ‘You would only resort to such an embarrassing activity while no one was watching’. Rose is clearly ashamed of some of her interests and personality, and hides a lot of herself from observers to make herself seem cooler and more mysterious than she is.

(I have to note that this does not work, at least not where her friends are concerned. Before we hear from Rose directly, we learn about her from TG, who says ‘maybe you can play with TT shes been pestering me all day about it. shes mackin on me so hard all the time i start to feel embarrassed for her’. Definitely not the way she’d want to be introduced to a mass audience).

3. You have a fondness for the BESTIALLY STRANGE AND FICTITIOUS, [...]

The 'bestially strange and fictitious' is what's being referenced in the tentacle of tentacleTherapist, not an innocuous interest in marine life. This is one of her shared interests with John, who apparently liked paranormal lore. It's interesting that these beasts are 'fictitious' according to the narration, but Rose's grimoire is specifically for 'summoning' the zoologically dubious, not just learning about them. This positions Rose as a more active character than John (summoning instead of learning lore) and as someone who has grand designs and fringe beliefs - kind of an Ellie Arroway in Contact figure.

I've talked about Rose and John as scientists based on their chumhandles, versus TG and GG as religious. We now know that Rose lives next door to an impressive sized lab broadcasting from an antenna. Depending on how good their security systems are, she might have explored here, or at least peered through the windows at the strange, unethical science experiments they're surely doing (aka the extremely routine lab work that she's interpreting as mad science). Growing up with scientists as her only neighbors might have inspired this interest and got her started on weird experimentation of her own. As it's unlikely she has formal training beyond middle school, it makes sense she'd be into weird tentacles in jars instead of a more academically accepted field.

I've been wondering how many of Rose's interests are from childhood and how many go further back. The cuddly Cthulhu plush and the very cartoonish monster on her shirt suggest this was a childhood interest, even if the specific monsters she likes have changed over time - some of her more unsettling posters might be recent additions. We don't know enough about her mom's parenting style to guess if she was mostly unsupervised on the internet and able to look at horror from a young age, or if she was held back from something she had an interest in until her mom felt like she was old enough, and how that might have impacted her either way.

4. [...] and sometimes dabble in PSYCHOANALYSIS.

This is the 'therapist' half of Rose's chumhandle, and the easiest interest to guess based on her early appearances. Psychoanalysis, to Rose, appears to be the idea of knowing people better than they know themselves and guessing their underlying motivations and thought processes - therapy through telling people what's going on in their head instead of talking it through with someone. From what we've seen so far, the vibe is 'she's read Freud's Wikipedia page and cares more about putting her basic knowledge into action than reading more theory'.

In Rose's first chatlog on p.63, she accuses John, 'You're wearing one of your disguises now, aren't you? You are typing to me right now while wearing something ridiculous.' She says this right after John mentions going to get the Sburb beta from his dad - 'mom' and 'dad' are activation words to someone with an amateur interest in Freud, and she's immediately putting herself in John's head and making assumptions about his life. (She's right, but probably only because they're already good friends).

On p.160 she tries to pull a similar move, saying 'Is this how your pent-up frustration with your father manifests itself?' and John shuts her down. But in her efforts to analyze other people, she tells on herself more than she wants to - her previous message was 'I am not sensing a lot of regard for the personal property of others' and considering this message comes as she throws John's personal property around his house, leaving his things on the roof and in the backyard, I'm going to call this one projection.

Rose's only direct statement about her mom is on p.174 - 'I'd rather not risk an encounter with my mother. I battled through her cloud of gin and derision once already this evening.' In this same pesterlog she compares her situation to John's, suggesting that she thinks John's situation of 'cake, jesters, unfaltering love and support' isn't really that bad. While she's not wrong, it's a very unproductive thing for a so-called therapist to say, and it shows a lack of self awareness - Rose seems like she would hate being coddled with cake and having a business clown cramping her goth style.

I really think Rose is more of a lab scientist than a therapist, but being able to perfectly understand and predict people is such a helpful skill for someone who is insecure and wants to project an image - if you can understand how someone thinks, you can influence what they think. She definitely wants to control how she's perceived, and likes to have information in general (see: immediately looking up GameFAQs when she couldn't figure out Sburb right away). Psychoanalysis is also used in literary criticism, so it's also possible that she uses this to advance her creative writing, if she's open to any kind of self reflection.

5. You also like to KNIT, [...]

Knitting stands out from Rose's more esoteric and highbrow hobbies. It's not something we've seen her mention, but her sweaters, scarves, socks and hats scattered on her floor look finished, so she has skill and commitment (but lacks a good storage space). I bet she knits while listening to audiobooks. It's a hobby that needs some perfectionism and attention to detail, which seem like traits Rose prizes even if she doesn't possess them (see p.170 where Rose reveals that she placed the Cruxtruder without rotating the room to check if she was in the way of the door).

Rose calls her shot about Sburb's punch card alchemy on p.157, and doesn't confess to reading walkthroughs until p.178. While it's possible she was reading them sooner, it's also possible that she's familiar with punch card knitting, maybe even has a knitting machine somewhere in the house. Knitting is fundamentally the same principle as (punch card) alchemy - taking an abstract image or code laid out on a 2D card, and using it to generate a physical object. The totem lathe and alchemiter could function similarly to a knitting machine, using build grist or cruxite instead of wool, but creating patterns in similar ways.

Following this logic, knitting is a generative hobby, as is creative writing. Rose makes things in a way that John really doesn't (he's clearly never finished coding anything) and has been doing so before playing Sburb. It's interesting to associate her with creation in light of her underlying god complex. Frankenstein is another 'obscure' book Rose has probably read and loved. She is a Dr Frankenstein type of scientist, she is going to knit Fluthlu and bring them to life. The Sburb server player is such a godlike role, and she slides into it so naturally, immediately taking full control and giving orders.

When she's the player character but we haven't seen her yet (p.139-201), she feels like an invisible but omnipresent narrator one layer below the actual narrator, a watchful presence that John can't escape. On p.145 she tries to select John with the Sburb cursor. It doesn't work, but what the hell was she going to do if it did? Drop him outside? I keep coming back to how she seems aware she's being watched by the narrator on p.218 and p.220, in the same way that John knows he's being watched by Rose (but doesn't seem aware of the narrator, despite reacting to their commands). Is it possible, even, that she's (consciously or unconsciously) trying to emulate the narrative voice with her messages in her efforts to take on a similar role?

Her conversation with John on p.204 is fascinating. John tells her there's a meteor heading for his house, and her response is 'I see'. She stays cool and collected and completely unattached throughout the conversation, trying to solve the problem through citing GameFAQs, talking about how much smarter she is than other people, and refusing to compromise on her incessant use of inconveniently elongated words. She fits the stereotype of the Objective Intellectual scientist so well, too concerned with what's possible to care about its fallout, taking notes on John's reactions in her lab notebook while feeling no emotions about the whole thing. It sure is interesting that a video game might be able to cause a meteor strike. Sure would be an intellectual exercise to figure out how to stop that. She is so perfectly above it all.

6. [...] and your room is a BIT OF A MESS.

I never realized John was neat until we had Rose, who definitely isn't. On p.160, she says she's 'tempted' to clean up the mess in John's toilet for him, but everything she does actually makes his bathroom worse. We've actually seen John clean (p.67) and the only out of place things in his room on p.4 are things his dad left there, if we assume that Dad left the hammer and nails for John to hang the painting. All his mess comes from accidental sylladex misuse - he even makes his bed. Rose will simply leave an expensive violin balanced precariously against the wall, drop a pre-punched card on the living room floor instead of placing it on the coffee table, and fail to return John's magic chest to his room even after she's 'got a feel for the controls' (although this last one could be her being silly on purpose). I can't decide if Rose is being an asshole by leaving John's house in a complete state or if she's just Like That and doesn't even notice.

Rose has an inventory system that she knows how to use, so it's easier for someone to be clean if they want to be. Maybe she just doesn't. The rest of Rose's house is empty besides dope ass wizards - on p.230-235 we see that Rose's house is filled with long, expansive corridors, has at least three floors, and is large and modernist with strange towers and extensions and bubbles. If Rose's mom is minimalist and Rose feels like her house is missing something, of course she would expand to fill that space, with her physical possessions as well as her personality.

7. And on occasion, if just the right one strikes your fancy, you like to play VIDEO GAMES with your friends.

John has a poster of the Problem Sleuth heroes on his bedroom wall, as well as a copy of the game, and Rose has a poster of the Problem Sleuth beasts and demons. It would be cute as hell if they played it together. Rose playing a video game has been most of what we've seen of her so far, so I've kind of covered that in other points - I want to talk about the 'with your friends' part, and specifically, how she and John met.

They seem so different, and based on Rose's strong reaction to the intelligence of GameFAQs writers, if she just encountered John on a forum she would not give him the time of day. John definitely isn't stupid, but I think he can come off that way in a first interaction, and I think Rose makes quick judgements about people. John can definitely banter with Rose - my favorite early interaction of theirs is 'TT: Can a disorder also be a complex? EB: in your case, probably!' (p.160) - so all it would take is getting over the initial hurdle of starting a conversation. So I have three theories.

The first is that they did meet on a forum, and John was just so charming in his silliness that Rose eventually warmed on him. Maybe John got stuck on the loading screen of a game and couldn't figure out how to press start and Rose helped him out and John just kept liveblogging his game in the thread. Maybe John asked a question about Slimer from Ghostbusters on a cryptozoology forum and Rose gave him a weirdly anatomically detailed answer that referenced a worrying home use of concentrated sulfuric acid. Maybe Rose posted some of her writing online and John left a glowing comment.

The second is that they met through TG. He seems to have a fair bit in common with both of them - on the surface, more than they do with each other. He could have noticed one of their shared interests and put them in contact, or he could have been trying to fuck with them by setting them up to hate each other and it backfired. Either feels plausible from what we've seen of him so far.

The third is that Rose just used to be different. John has the childlike spirit of the clown and I get the sense that he's always been the same, whimsical on the outside with a malaise hovering within. But Rose is trying to put on such a sophisticated affect, which could be recent. Rose could have been bubbly, accepting and open to talking to anyone a few years ago. She's changed as a person, but stays loyal enough to her friends to brave the evil red storm for them.

Final Thoughts

I find Rose easier to analyze than John - she's not less complex, but her complexities are made more obvious in the text. We also don't get the luxury of sitting with Rose and learning about her organically like we did with John. The meteor countdown is flashing in my mind even when it isn't on screen, and the text needs to take shortcuts, telling us about Rose instead of just showing her. As such, I don't have as many questions hanging as I usually do, but there's still a few.

What's up with both John and Rose being really talented at music, but this not being listed in their interests or directly acknowledged by the narrator? Does the narrator fucking hate music? The narrator of a webcomic which has so far included five original music tracks??

Is Rose consciously aware of the narration? Is it something that just began for her when we saw her, or has that been part of her life before? Is this why her personality is so cultivated, because she feels like she's always being watched?

What exactly is Rose's relationship with her mom? Is her mom a mean alcoholic who mocks Rose's grief over her cat, or is this a story Rose is telling herself about her very average mom?

Is Rose a weird kid who actually has a pretty normal life, like John, or is her life weird for real? Does she live in a massive haunted house or are we getting her exaggerated perspective?

More broadly, what sources of information in Homestuck are reliable? The narration and chatlogs are both biased perspectives, but what about the images? Are we seeing the characters' worlds as they actually are, or are we seeing things as the point of view character perceives them?

I love Rose. She and John have both been really easy to connect to, are extremely likeable, and feel like real people I could run into on the internet. I love how average they seem and how they really have more flaws than strengths - it adds to the realism, and sets them up with a lot of cool options for story arcs. A Rose who's a loser and kind of sucks is so much better to me than a Rose who's actually good at the things she claims to be, and my only hope is that we solve the imminent crisis and see more of her being truly silly.

#AFFECTIONATE. if i dunk on her here its because i love her and i think shes a good character #tho i did struggle not to refer to her as the sheldon cooper of her generation #homestuck #analysis #rose lalonde

[project-sekai-facts]

Since you uploaded that MMJ Miku beta design, do you know if there are other beta designs of the characters?? I'm curious since there's a little bit of concept art of project sekai.

Ah well project sekai featured in this one issue of a Japanese magazine called CG WORLD which is where I got that art from. That magazine is more focused on the costume designs though but it does have some concept art, but aside from WIP costume designs using the final character designs, all of it is blurred out unfortunately.

You can find some WxS beta designs, a Shiho beta design and some low quality MMJ beta designs out there (not entirely sure how people found these, I think they were left in a beta release and got datamined), but that’s all the unblurred stuff you can find.

And there are no VBS beta designs available. There’s some WIP costumes for Akito, Kohane, Miku and MEIKO (i posted her one ages ago), but there’s no actual concept art of them available anywhere.

I can go through what we do have though because they’re probably too low quality for me to post as an actual fact.

So these three images were in the CG WORLD magazine. You can tell who the members of Leo/need are based on the instruments (L->R: Saki, Honami, Ichika, Shiho, Miku), and MORE MORE JUMP! (L->R: Miku, Haruka, Airi, Minori, Shizuku) isn’t too different from the final designs aside from Shizuku, who’s blonde (probably because Shiho is). Niigo is harder to identify outside of Kanade and Miku. This art was also uploaded on TCRF and whoever put it there said that Mizuki is the brunette, Mafuyu is the one sitting next to Kanade and Ena is the one in the purple cardigan. It's not stated who is who in the magazine.

And here’s some actual beta assets. You’ve got WxS and Miku (there's two people in the back) here. Emu didn’t really change much aside from the eyes, but other than her...? (I edited this since it was posted don't mind the change)

We have the leader, who is literally just a palette swap of Rui's initial 2* with Tsukasa's face (excl the eye color which was given to Rui) and hairstyle. Possibly Tsukasa bc leader, possibly Rui bc design, possibly a scrapped character who was split in two

There's someone in the back behind leader boy and blonde girl wearing a pink-purple shirt and white jacket with a yellow tie. Clearly their color palette was used on Rui later down the line. Other than that there's nothing we can tell about this character, not even their gender. Possibly Rui, possibly Miku, possibly a third character who was scrapped/reworked

We have blonde girl, who's hair color and eyes seem to have been reused for final Tsukasa. Usually this is assumed to be Nene due to not resembling any finalised designs for the most part. I think she was probably scrapped, or heavily reworked and became Nene with some design elements passed onto Tsukasa (or Tsukasa was a girl?)

And in the back behind Emu is a girl in a green blazer and grey skirt that looks like a school uniform. Maybe this is Miku because the costume doesn't really match with the others? She doesn't have pigtails though, but no one here has pigtails. There's literally nothing identifiable about her.

Whoever these people are there were clearly a lot of changes made to WxS and these might not even be Nene/Rui/Tsukasa. That's definitely Emu though.

And here's a gacha bg and live bg demo for MMJ. The screen on the first image seems to be displaying a less-blurred version of their concept art. For the record, the illustrations in the second screenshot are from idolm@ster, they are not MMJ concept designs, but part of Shizuku can be seen to the right of the pink haired girl.

Possibly might've been named RE:START given the neon lights in the second image. Has some backing: their first event was called RE:START from Here!, and NaytalieN said in an interview that there was extremely little development on MMJ outside of character illustrations when he was commissioned for that event (and a couple statements imply the game was still in fairly early development too). Or it might've just been a catchphrase for the group or something.

And this. High quality beta-Shiho. This was used as a placeholder card art (surprisingly finished for a placeholder) for MMJ!Miku’s initial card, which by the way, looks exactly the same as the final version only it hasn't been finished yet. I’m pretty sure this is Shiho and not Shizuku because of the side ponytail and image color. But Miku is wearing a similar costume to the one in the MMJ concept art. I mean it was marked as placeholder and was not intended for use, it doesn’t really have to make sense. Also what seems to be a costume for Miku based on this card was left in the game and is on TCRF I added the screenshot below.

I haven't finished translating the CG WORLD article yet, but there's not a huge amount dedicated to character design, as I said earlier it's mainly about costumes. What I can tell you though is that VBS and WxS apparently took longest to finalise, specifically Akito and Tsukasa.

TCRF page for anyone interested

#asks #i read on twitter that when Yukkii was cast as Shiho she apparently wasn't even shown a character design because there wasn't a finished on #though i don't have anything to back this up it was just a random tweet i saw

[gachagen]

The Skirk Design controversey is more than just "She doesn't look like a warrior at all" it's about the fact that Hoyoverse will spin this tale of a powerful warrior woman who taught one of the most bloodthirsty men in the game everything he knows, and who literally came from a dark hell dimension where there's no light and happiness to be found, and then design her to look like "Short girl in pretty dress #235".

It's the lack of creativity that makes me more upset about the Skirk design than anything. She looks like every other Hoyoverse woman in existence, I feel like she's probably the most egregious example of all of the stylistic choices they take when designing specifically female characters.

And I saw the concept art, so I know there's artists in that fucking studio who know what to do and how to design, but the people in charge don't care about putting out an actually interesting character that looks unique, they just want to continue to play it safe. And there will always be people dick riding hoyoverse and saying dumb shit like "YoU GuYs ArE NeVeR SaTiSfiEd" when it's literally not too much to ask from a multi billion dollar company.

Now I have no hope for other nations like Natlan or Snezhnaya because I already know they're just going to continue to disappoint until the very end. And I can only hope other games like ZZZ don't fall into these pit traps of awful character design and that we continue to get somewhat interesting looking characters, but I don't know anymore.

I thought Honkai Star Rail had unique characters, and they've pretty much just pumped out the same exact woman in a dress the last 2 patches.

#genshin impact #hoyoverse #honkai star rail #hsr #genshin skirk

[ilikesaladforks]

most hinged rika fan

rika's design means a lot to me because her particular build is something you don't ever see (at least, i haven't so don't shoot me)

design stuff i love but it gets more unhinged as you go down the list

wearing a men's shirt (buttons on right instead of left)

wearing a very visibly loose men's shirt (loose enough that she rolls her sleeves up once before rolling it up again on top of that)

foot tapping habit (denoting irritation, which she also does in battle when you damage her babies. she's got a resting bitch face up but you are absolutely getting on her nerves!!!!)

NO BOOB NOT A SINGLE BOOB IN SIGHT CHEST FLATTER THAN GRUSHA FOR ALL YOU KNOW HER BOOB THERE'S NOT A PEAK TO BE SIGHTED

that itty bitty little bit of shave at her parting

PIERCED EARS EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF TIMES SHE STABBED MY HEART

her legs are longer than her body and i want to highlight this so much that the paper tears from the amount of highlighter fluid being used because sure long legs are a pretty normal thing but rika's long legs are practically disproportionate like if you compare her with literally anyone, i fucking dare you, just put her in game model next to literally anyone her legs are actually longer than they (typically) should be for her height she has such a tiny fucking waist and the fact that the anime normalised her proportions (understandable. anime. just anime things. not the worst thing that could come out of anime concept art so i close an eye at this) makes me shed a single tear. she has no fucking torso she's so lanky her legs look like they trip over themselves on the regular and that's rika pokemon for you

her shoulders are so broad in concept art (ESPECIALLY IN HER OFFICIAL ART) THOSE SHOULDERS COULD CARRY SO MUCH ON HER BACK LIKE THE PALDEA LEAGUE

DID I MENTION SHE HAS NO BOOBS

the comically smooth curve that you can draw from her shoulder to her legs that gets straighter once you get to her waist down on her official art is a big chef's kiss i can't just compliment the chef i need to french kiss them

broad shoulders that get her unexpectedly occupying more horizontal space than she looks like she should mmmm MMMM mmMMmmM

boobless woman

#pokemon rika #rika simping on main

[agent-calivide]

I've been seeing an uptick in people saying they don't get why John Juniper is a fan favorite or why the fandom is so over saturated with Phoenix x Juniper or just plain Juniper content, which is valid in all fairness. I know I sure as shit contribute to it a lot.

But seeing this consensus kinda got me thinking, outside of Juniper being a trademark Tumblr Sexyman, what was it that made him click so much with the fandom and got this feral, almost obsessive pedestal treatment compared to the other villains.

And I think I've figured out beyond just the Internet's love for a basic skinny white dude, though I do think that's a big contributor.

I think John Juniper is this fandom's companion cube. Bear with me-

In Portal, you spend all of your time alone. It is just you and GLaDOS, who's a voice you cannot see or talk directly to, you can only hear her. You are completely and totally isolated, your companion is snarky and a bit rude at times, and you have to figure out puzzles and die repeatedly without any meaningful support.

Then, after all this time, these ages of complete isolation, you get a cube. It doesn't look different from the other cubes on a fundamental level, but it's got pink hearts, and you're told this cube is special. It's different. It's meant to be remembered.

Suddenly, you're attached to this thing that, objectively, isn't special. It's just not. But you love it and you cling to it because it is the only thing you are given to break you from your torturous isolating shell.

Now, IEYTD is not the little bit to the left of horror like Portal is, but JJ isn't an emotionless box either. When putting the first IEYTD and Portal in a venn diagram, in the middle you get:

Two puzzle games where you're mostly alone with only one voice overwatching you as you partake in risky, deadly games. The voice doesn't outright loath you, but it doesn't help frequently and will often mock the silent protagonist throughout the levels. Even though the Handler's is teasing, it's still mocking. While there are other things/people, they don't interact with you personally in a meaningful way outside of their puzzles and serve their own purposes outside of the player. The closest we get to personal interaction is Solaris, but she fills in the Handler's roll for the level, taking on an almost more GLaDOS approach.

Then enters Juniper in IEYTD 2/The Companion Cube. Something/one that the game inherently tells you is special in its introduction, that you are meant to interact with in a meaningful way, and have near constant exposure to once its introduced until they meet their untimely end. There is one level in IEYTD 2 without Juniper physically in it, and even then it's still all about him. Meanwhile there is only one level where the Fabricator directly interacts with the Agent, Stage Fright. While the Fabricator is there, she's more of a support antagonist.

The main difference between Juniper and the companion cube is that Juniper can talk. He has a personality, you directly interact with him, he responds to your actions. And that is the main difference in how you still get that clingy reaction, even in a game that doesn't have more horror like themes in its isolation. The tone of the overall is lighter, but the personality makes up for him not being a literal cube.

Add on to that the fact that Juniper is, as far as I've seen, the most talked about villain other than Zor themselves outside of the games (and even that's debatable), and it's no wonder people love the guy. He had a singing contest, a riddle of the week that lead to a bunch of concept art/photos of him, a T-shirt, he was the first villain we directly saw a character model of for more than a split second like Caliente or the sniper in Squeaky Clean, and he has a classic bastard personality that a lotta fanfic authors love to write.

I think all of the IEYTD villains are fun, if you asked me pre IEYTD2 who my favorite was I woulda said Solaris in a heartbeat. But we just don't know as much about them as we do about Juniper.

As for shipping, Juniper, unlike Prism, doesn't inherently have ship fodder anywhere other than his dynamic with Phoenix.

Prism very easily clicks with Reginald, the two bonding and joking back and forth, Handler regularly showing concern for her and feeling a bitter-sweetness when he sees Prism still has the photo of her hugging him and Director Morales. Handler explains her little habits, clarifies things for Phoenix, and is terrified when she almost dies. All of this absolutely can be platonic, I like it either way, but it's still a notable emotional attachment for her to connect with a character other than Phoenix. Sure, you can absolutely ship Phoenix and Prism and simp for her and ship her with other characters, but this is the most positive chemistry we've seen between any characters in this franchise so far.

Juniper meanwhile has... his staff? That he treats like shit more often than not? The Fabricator? Who, let's be honest, gets along with Juniper like water and an oil fire and has a leg up over him at Zoraxis? Phoenix feels like the only equal Juniper has, which is why pissing him off is so fun! It's spitting in the face of the bratty bastard while flipping him off on the way out. No one is punching down there, there's no power dynamic like Juniper and Gibson or Fabricator, Phoenix can fuck with Juniper and Juniper can do it right back, and they're still on ground one. And that's what makes it fun and what's fun is popular.

And I do wanna finish this with- if you are sad there's not more content of your favorite ship, or hell even your favorite character, write it yourself! Not in a shitty passive aggressive way, genuinely, write it. Even if you've never written a fanfic, even if it's a 300 word oneshot, even if you think you're the only one who wants this thing, write it.

I promise you, there are people who want to read it.

#ieytd fandom

[snowflake-sage]

Something to help understand/interpret my art, also lore dump (if you care):

Mae and Sage both are my sonas, Mae is my MAIN sona, she’s literally ME, and Sage represents an ASPECT of me.

Mae uses She/her pronouns and Sage uses He/him, they are both non-binary characters that represent different aspects of my gender experience. Mae represents the more physical gender experiences Ive had, and Sage represents more so what my gender is. (This is sort of hard to explain, Mae represents the experiences I’ve had in relation to my physical body that I was born with, and the experiences I’ve had in society and how society has interpreted me and my gender. She’s still accurate to my gender, but her design is more surface level and obvious. Sage on the other had, represents my gender experience at its CORE, and how I actually feel as an individual, despite my body. I feel like I am simply experiencing a feminine experience in some ways because of my body and how society sees me, but I don’t feel like who I am at my core can be put into any box, hence me being non-binary. I feel very much like I’m sort of playing a game and this is just the avatar I have, and that who I am is neither male nor female. I just happen to have more experiences in one regard because of how I was born. Sage is the aspect that cannot be boxed. He is both masculine and feminine, and also neither male or female. He’s just SAGE.) (this is also extremely personal to MY OWN gender experience so if you don’t relate to this don’t think to hard about it, this is literally how I interpret my own identity, it probably doesn’t make any sense to anyone else)

Back to Mae representing my more physical life experience, she carries a lot of my trauma and bad experiences. She represents every part of me that has ever been hurt.

Sage represents a part of me that is less in the earthly experience. If you know what a “higher self” is, that’s basically what Sage is in relation to Mae. He is an aspect of me, and therefore an aspect of Mae, they’re part of the same character. He acts as a sort of “guardian angel” who loves Mae more than anything and he would literally go any length for her. Representative of the innate love that I feel like everyone has for themself until society fucks us over and makes us hate ourselves.

Sage and Mae are NOT romantic towards each other (any art drawn of that is non-canon, sometimes I’m bored) , they are more like a queer-platonic relationship. I wouldn’t say they’re “just friends” because their lore and story and relationship is pretty complex and doesn’t fit that box for me.

Sage is an angel in canon, that takes a physical form which is the form I always draw, I’m working on drawing his true form for lore but I’m still designing it.

Sage is an angel of healing, which is why he’s so tender and gentle towards Mae and in general such a honey.

Sage is an angel of healing, and represents the higher self, but he also represents the shadow self (if you don’t know what that is, google is your friend). He carries the pain and trauma from Mae indirectly. This is why he has a darker color palette, since he represents Mae’s shadow (I actually am contemplating a few other alternate palettes for him , a crème color palette as well a blue one, as I work through the lore I’ll decide when those apply). He is NOT a dark angel or an evil angel. His character is multifaceted and complex, and his color palette just represents what I just explained. There are evil angels in my oc lore universe but their color palette doesn’t represent that bc I think that concept is overused, also I like being ironic. Sage having a darker palette is again, linked to his relation to Mae and the trauma he carries from her.

Even though Sage is small and sweet looking he is literally insanely powerful, like CRAZY strong

Sage being the shadow self, and also being so close and loving to Mae represents that our shadow self is not a part of us that is bad and needs to be pushed away, but actually a part of us that is just hurt and desperately needs love and healing.

I draw a lot of art of Mae and Sage embracing, either lovingly or during times of turmoil. I draw a lot of art of Mae being physically or mentally hurt and being comforted or embraced by Sage, Sage having different reactions situationally. A lot of the time, Mae is representing the physical effects of trauma, and Sage is the inner self mourning/crying/ suffering the trauma. Sort of like how you feel terrible for your child self for being mistreated, or how you feel bad for yourself because of the experiences you’ve had. It’s like a depiction of self pity, but also in a way, self love. It’s like holding yourself and crying for how the world has hurt you, and wishing better for yourself.

It’s symbolism✋

#I needed to write all this out and tell people because I need people to understand the deeper meaning of my art bc it’s my soul #my soul put on a canvas #but also I highkey think it’s interesting #like this is juicy stuff #but also I just want the world to know there’s a meaning behind alot of what I draw #I mean not all of it #some of it is just me goobin around #but some of it is LORE BRO #ANYWAYS #thanks for reading this if you did #hope you think I’m interesting #if not it’s whatever I’m just drawing dogs on the internet #mae rambles #oc lore #lore

[xoxoemynn]

tag your most hard working fic writing mutuals uWu

Oh, buddy, I am friends with SO many extremely talented writers who work their absolute butts off to give us incredible fic and I know I'm going to miss people, so I'm going to cheat a bit and rec some recent-ish fics written by beloved mutuals. Would 100% encourage you to check out the linked story and then their entire collection of works because they are all fab. 💕

The Detectorists AU by @monksofthescrew. Two-part metal detecting AU. It is so atmospheric, so rich and tender and nuanced with some really incredible timey wimey stuff intertwined. I'm a little biased because I beta read these, but I think of them so often. Just a master class in story telling.

Respawn by @glamaphonic. This is SUCH a fun AU where Ed and Stede are both streamers. The concept works SO well, and the flirting and banter is top-tier. I know next to nothing about video games and I've still been able to follow along easily, squeezing my cheeks and kicking my feet the entire time.

wanna fly away (I don't know where my soul is) by @ghostalservice and @petrichorca. Speaking of fics I love where I know nothing about the concept, this is an Animorphs AU where Stede is just the most precious alien whom I would 100000% die for. It's such a fun, rich, layered story and I'm eagerly awaiting to see where it goes. Also just love this description of it: Our story is about finding one’s place in the universe (actually and figuratively), plays with the transformative nature of morphing and the power to change one’s body, and explores two individuals from wildly different backgrounds falling in love.

Moonstone Mage Championship by @blakbonnet. Holy crap, the WORLD BUILDING. Meow's mind is a wonder. I truly don't know how she does it, but I am literally in awe of her work on this fic. One of the most creative and detailed stories I've ever read.

Different Names for the Same Thing by @oatmilktruther. I have been rotating this fic in my brain ever since it was posted. I don't even have proper words to describe how gorgeous it is. It's basically my soul now. Abs' gift for blending humor and tenderness and making you feel the love between Ed and Stede is unparalleled.

My Father's House by @trans-top-stede. Owen describes this as "a t4t theatre au (kind of)" because it is about theatre, but it's mostly about gender and families and the healing power of queer art" and YES. It's beautiful and tender and hot and that last line has stuck with me ever since it was posted.

Gold Rush by @abigailpents. Potentially the sweetest AU I've ever read. Just pure love and romance. Just let yourself get swept away. It is lovely.

Tree Change by @clairegregoryau. I am constantly in awe of all the work Claire puts into her fics. She is operating on a whole other stratosphere and it's incredible to watch. Tree Change is a little teaser for what promises to be an incredibly unhinged Kinktober and I am just rubbing my hands with glee for what's to come. (ba dum tss.)

Matching spark and flame by @bizarrelittlemew. My current read that I am devouring, it's so fucking good. Everything Ida creates is just pure magic, and this one is no exception. Also extremely excited for the OFMD Fic Club discussion on this one later in the month, so be sure to read and join the server so you don't miss out.

I know I'm missing a bunch, but this list is already getting long and I need to get back to some beta work. Kissing all my writer mutuals on the forehead and giving them all the good writing vibes. May your muses be ever loquacious and cooperative. 💕

#asks #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd fic rec #lol I knew tumblr was going to mess up my formatting I just knew it #it's fine #anyway have a reading list these are all amazing #I know I'll think of more to add in about 3 minutes but #going forth!

[punkeropercyjackson]

Agere Dead Sea Siblings headcanons

Their brains do age regression as a coping and defense mechanism from trauma

Technically all flips but only Percy calls themself a caregiver since Nico and Hazel only take care of him when he's a Little while he does it in general for anybody who needs it due to him being an adult while they're only kids

Hazel's ages are 2-3,Nico's are 3-5 and Percy's are 7-8 with the occasional 2

As a cg,Percy does babytalk sometimes,carries them around,gives them extra kisses and takes them on safe adventures like gardening and playing hide and seek.He's learned how to spot when they're tiny when they try to hide it and eventually it gets to the point where they stop trying because of all his reassurances and how safe she makes them feel so now instead they make a b-line for him when it happens

Percy was actually able to repress his regression out of sheer spite and anger when it started(Poseidon genes)but after his self-eestem improved he told Sally about it and she did research so they could find out what was up with him and by then she'd adopted Nico so they knew he's one too and same goes for Hazel when him and Percy ressurected her at Persephone's request so she'd be a part of the Second Great Prophecy

They're all animal regressors too-Nico's a baby bat,Hazel's a pony/fillie and Percy's a kitty

Little!Nico and Hazel call Percy 'Papa/Mama' as opposed to their usual sibling terms for her since while she's normally already a parental figure to them,their age amps it up big time and they call Little!Percy 'Princess'

And Little!Percy calls them 'Coco' and 'Azie' while Cg!Percy calls them his 'Little Rockstars' and 'Precious'(as in pearls)

Nico likes halloween costumes,card games,chewy tender food,being thrown around and storybased songs,Hazel likes tutus,Monster High,black louisiana food sweet or heavy kinds,playfighting,hyperpop and Percy likes coloring,tickles,bubble baths,fairy tales,themed food(Cookie Monster especially)and Lo-Fi Chiptunes

Nico's a pretty quiet kid and takes naps a lot but still energetic,Hazel's even more of a little shit and gets even girlier and Percy's a handful but not in a bad way

Sally saved up to buy them an easy bake oven,toy phones that match their tastes(A box of fries for Nico,a ghost with a bow for Hazel and a pink cat for Percy)and even made them pacis with the diy skills Percy taught her

The cat themed communication cards Nico and Hazel made Percy as a thank you for all he's done for them come into use her for both Percy themself and them borrowing them since she's cool with it

Hazel plays witch often and Percy's more than happy to be her familiar wether he's big or tiny

Nico likes feeling independent so his siblings don't overdue it so he dosen't cry or throw tantrums.However,he's also extra sensitive to his chronic pain in this state so he also understands he needs help with certain things

Hazel's hair is often filled with colorful butterfly hairclips by Percy's doing at her request,Nico's hair gets put into protective styles for safety by Sally or one of his siblings and Percy perfers having his styles changed throught his regressions

Their favorite shows are Max and Ruby,Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes,Bluey,Blues Clues,Dragon Tales,Adventure Time and Spidey and his Amazing Friends with Percy having a huge (platonic obvs) thing for Gwen Stacy thanks to it and the Spiderverse movies so she has secondhand merch of her and made her Atsv suit for herself so she could wear it

And she also made a Miles Morales one for Nico since they're literally Siblings!Ghost Flower and a Peni Parker one for Hazel based off the Across concept art since Hazel has a huge crush on Peni

Nico also loves Tiny Titans and Hazel is the number one Koriand'r fan and Percy models his drawing style after the DC Superhero Girls 2019 one

Percy started collecting stim gifs for them and they did the same for him but with Sonic the Hedgehog memes and cute fanart

Nico also calls Percy and Hazel 'Squish/Squishy' as nicknames since they're both fat/plus-sized and have expressed that it makes them feel insecure

They have matching Aquapets and Percy's even more into legos in tiny mode than he is normally

They have a big children's makeup kit they all share because it has sections with different kinds and that's why Sally bought it for them(i.e One's goth makeup,another's pink and purple and yellow and the last one's ocean themed along with all of them having glitter options)

Percy's obssessed with Rainbow Dash all the time but copies her speech as a Little and can't play his scary games like Undertale and Deltarune in that state so he plays Nickjr games instead

Hazel's a no impulse control kid but knows what she's doing,perfers figurines over plushies because she likes the texture better and same goes for sneakers over slippers and adores clowns!!

Percy earns the nickname 'Wonder Woman' because of the greek demigoddess and expert at being good with kids combo

Sally made the Familia Jackson Beach Shack 100% child-safe because of them

#nico percy and hazel #la familia jackson #percy jackson #perseo jackson #nico di angelo #hazel levesque #black percy #latino percy #black nico di angelo #trans(fem)percy jackson #bigender percy jackson #cookie jackson #disabled nico di angelo #chaotic hazel levesque #lesbian hazel levesque #team parent percy jackson #sally jackson #autistic percy jackson #autistic nico di angelo #autistic hazel levesque #punk!percy #goth punk nico di angelo #pastel goth punk hazel levesque #pjo #kidcore tag #pjo agere #fandom agere #black agere #💌 #summerposting

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

POM POM: [former] KILLER OF MASCOT GAMES #12

Officer Stone vs Pom Pom

"Greetings.

Apologies to all for the interruption of your regularly scheduled Friday comic. I am Power Officer Stone; police officer against all things considered electronically cheating, stealing, and occasionally-bugged. Due to numerous complaints and reports, me and my team have been investigating that have led us to this very program you are currently viewing.

As of 12 weeks ago, scrapped mascot character taking the form of a young girl named... "Pom Pom"-*ahem*, has been sited on numerous occasions harassing, taunting, attacking, killing, or kidnapping other game protagonists; most being able to be considered as 'mascots' as well. It's unknown where Ms.Pom has originated from, but a few files of concept art and sprites have been recently archived, which are giving us an idea to where exactly this criminal came from. We will be following that trail as soon as we can. Though, it is not in our main interest to involve ourselves in NPC problems and complaints, we have finally decided to put an end to the endless calls by taking action. Ms.Pom was caught in the act, and has been detained as of now. Alongside the attack, Ms.Pom's appearance also somehow caused the targeted world to rain-unscripted. That last note is still unclarified.

Ms.Pom's punishment will be decided- depending on what she pleads- in court in two weeks time. Please attend or share with the following numbers if you have any more information on the current case."

THE END!!! (of volume 1.)

Previous Next

There should be a volume summary w/ links soon :)

Yep! It's the end of this volume. I think I'm going to take a break next week and then start it up after. Thank you guys for your support so far!

Character context (Pom Pom and Stone)

Pom Pom:

Pom Pom is a virus/glitch formed by the scrapped side-scrolling arcade game from the early 90's “Pom-Pom Panic”. Pom Pom (the main character of Pom Pom Panic) for whatever reason gained sentience halfway during the game’s development. The game was cancelled halfway because the publishing company thought it was too bizarre of a concept and mascot character to gain interest. Pom Pom heard of the news and took it way too personally, as she literally cannot fathom why someone would think she’s ‘bizarre’-even to the point of getting ‘axed’. Prompted by the ‘poor judgement’ Pom Pom went rouge-breaking from her game to ‘axe’ any ‘approved’ game mascots/characters she thought could count as ‘bizarre’ like her.

Power Officer Stone:

Stone is the amalgamation of a couple things, exactly what people aren't sure of, but it's safely assumed that he's a mix between scrapped virtual PSA mascots, an antivirus/piracy program, and the anti drug campaigns they used to put in arcade games. Stone is the embodiment of anti piracy screens and uses all of his time to prevent virtual crimes and viruses. He also can duplicate himself and multitask. However, because of his frustrations against the fact that he can't really punish pirates in real life, he often bounces the punishment to the closest playable character. For that, he's infamous amongst most virtual realms.

#Stone might stick around just a little longer than I planned #because before I said you wouldn't see him a lot so don't think this is it #pom pom #pom pom fridays #pom pom friday #anti piracy screens #anti piracy #power officer stone #officer stone #stone #parappa the rapper #parappa #um jammer lammy #jammer lammy #detective #noir #detective noir #noir films #comics #friday comics #friday #pom pom killer of mascot games