#the nemesis speaks

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

always here for a character whose primary motivation is inertia

#the nemesis speaks

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

not to keep beating this dead horse (jk when do i ever shut up) but i do think him and laios yelling at and beating the shit out of each other was like a gateway drug for shuro. he broke the seal on saying words out loud with his human mouth now he can say other crazy things like "thanks for following me cross-country to go dungeon diving for me i appreciate you doing that"

#the nemesis speaks #dunmeshi anime spoilers #dungeon meshi #look how COMICALLY stunned they all are. i do think that it's not even strictly an eastern thing shuro is REALLY subtle/reticent

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

rarepairs but platonic. why has nobody else thought about how fun it would be for these two to interact

#the nemesis speaks

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

listen. if you're writing dunmeshi meta i need you to understand something. this is fundamentally a story about communication and more specifically the complicated relationship between the space we take up in the world and how much of ourselves we hide. and ryoko kui understands that the way you write a good story abt a social thing is to make up a bunch of guys who are so so fucking weird and specific about the thing and put them all in a room together and shake them around. if your analysis boils down to "well this guy's normal and-" you gotta stop right there. you're going the wrong way. turn around.

#the nemesis speaks #dungeon meshi

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

ok i can't gif from netflix and these are bad caps but i had to get some of the best shots that that other post missed rq. girls... i am so well fed tonight

#the nemesis speaks #dungeon meshi #farcille

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

deltarune is so full of fun little details where the characters react to unexpected things you do, like the dialogue if you repeatedly miss the dummy in the training fight and ralsei gets increasingly confused and concerned with your inability to "press z when the white rectangle is inside the blue rectangle"

#the nemesis speaks #deltarune #swift plays dr #not pictured: the dialogue if you hit the dummy after you check it and ralsei tells you to treat it like you would him #which just made me feel bad #BUT ALSO adds another thumbtack to the board- is another instance of ralsei being Weirdly Compliant #bc if you do it Twice he says something like ''if you want to hit me during our adventure... that's ok too!'' #stop acting like a doll!! #unrelated to all that. jacob drawfee voice do you know what a rectangle is?

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

sometimes audio processing problems are kinda funny tho. like this all seems like a very dramatic and tense moment but babe you are speaking simlish

#the nemesis speaks

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

ok besides the lesbianism one other little thing i really liked is that one shot of ambrosia clattering on the floor when marcille tacklehugs falin in bed.

which sounds so random but like, marcille's staff as the instrument of dark magic was very present imagery during the resurrection. it splitting and warping and drinking up blood, etc etc. that whole scene is completely bloodsoaked. when falin comes back you can barely see her under it. the feeling of dread that dark magic has was very palpable.

...but it doesn't matter! laios and then marcille hug falin without a second thought. not caring in the slightest that she's covered in dragon blood all they care about is she's alive. even chilchuck and senshi, the two who were most unnerved by the dark magic and also have taken a backseat wrt falin (not that they don't care just that laios and marcille are definitely the two who openly and aggressively care the most) are quick to just move past it and get down to cleaning up and cooking and uncorking some wine and just, these deeply mundane ordinary tasks. it's not that they're brushing past or trying to act like the resurrection didn't happen. it's just that it's so distantly secondary to the immediate reality of being alive together.

and marcille's staff—what was previously this twisted dark thing—is rendered completely toothless in the face of that. she just drops it on the floor next to the bed she's using, and gets on with bathing and eating and etc. she climbs in bed with falin and knocks it over accidentally because in that moment it's as harmless and unremarkable as any old piece of wood.

idk it's just. detail. yeah.

#the nemesis speaks #dungeon meshi

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

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#the nemesis speaks #nemesis art #zoroark #hisuian zoroark #pokemon legends arceus #the zork

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

pla setting swap au where the protagonist and ingo’s situations are actually not unique or notable at all bc the entire population of hisui is made up of people with amnesia who got wormhole’d there

#the nemesis speaks #pokefic pitch

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

character dynamic ask game

qs focusing around how two characters interact with & see each other. any kind of matchup (partners, friends, mortal enemies, etc.) is fair game!

rules: send two characters and a question (or more!)

what were A's first impressions of B? were they mostly correct or have they changed?

if asked to describe B to a stranger, what would A say? are they mostly truthful, or is there anything they omit?

what's something A thinks in their head about B that they would NEVER tell them out loud? alternately, what's something they want to say to them but haven't/can't, and why not?

how does A refer to B (first name/last name/pet name/title/etc) in their head, to them directly, and to others? are they different? why?

A has to get B a [birthday/christmas/whatever] gift. right now. what would they get? how long would they spend thinking about it?

what does A think B thinks of them? or, if asked to describe their relationship, how would they do it? are they right?

are there any habits, mannerisms, practices etc. A does because of B? anything they do because they saw B doing it, or got advice from them about it, or something rubbed off on them? alternately, are there any little things B does that annoy them?

is there anything they really disagree on? what are they most likely to argue about?

what do outsiders think their relationship is? do they consciously or unconsciously act different around others?

how well does A think they know B? are they correct?

what's something A knows about B that most people don't? alternately, what's something most people believe about B that A doesn't?

if B asked A for help, how likely would they be to give it?

if A needed help, how likely would they be to ask B for it?

for two characters that met very recently, how would their dynamic be different (if at all) if they had known each other for much longer? for characters that are childhood/longtime acquaintances, how would it be different if they met for the first time today?

what's A's absolute favorite (or least favorite) thing about B?

free space: what's your favorite thing about their dynamic, as a fan or as a writer?

#the nemesis speaks #ask game #ask meme #hmmmmmi probably should not tag ramble here too much on account of i want ppl Not following me to not be like put out by it #anyway short(ish) list bc i wanted it to be questions that were actually like. interesting for the majority of characters #i.e. questions that were unlikely to just be ''idk whatever'' #+some of them are kind of a 2-in-1 for that reason #ANYWAY #anyway you can always ask me about pla characters. it is always morally correct #or msa or w/e but. yknow. im mostly a pla blog atp

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

i know i've posted abt this before also but i did not have screenshots to demonstrate just HOW gently passive aggressive ingo is to volo when they talk. i have no idea if they intended it this way but he sounds so "sadly my strict standard of conduct will not let me tell you to fuck off for asking weirdly personal questions just so you can share your theories but with the subtext toolkit available to me i am VERY much shooing you out of the way so i can get back to what i was actually trying to do."

#the nemesis speaks #pla analysis #idk if it really comes across without the context of volo's whole ramble #but he really did just sort of rock up to you while you were TRYING to get through this quarry #just to be like ''hi ingo. hey tell me about your memory loss. great now listen to what I think about the whole thing'' #though the exchange does also make me feel like they have had prior conversations to this effect #ingo feigns not recognizing him at first but the way he says ''continue to prioritize'' specifically makes me feel like #this is not the first time they've tread this particular ground #volo also greets ingo pretty familiarly at the start of it imo #these tags are getting long but one other thing that sort of strikes me atm and i'm curious to see if it continues #is like. this is the rudest (by his standards) ingo gets with mmmost everyone in pla #-except melli. who he is actually fairly direct with. and melli in turn doesn't rise to it really at all #for a guy who bitches at literally everyone just saying ''well guess we don't always see eye to eye!'' is like. WILDLY notable #and then ingo asks you to say hi to him later #they're friends i think. thanks for ur time

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

au in my head where the travelers' return from hisui is the classic portal fantasy "as if nothing ever happened at all" where they come back at basically the same time they left, returned to the selves they were at the moment they were taken, and protag goes through the standard "i tried to tell my family and they didn't believe me/they wouldn't believe me if i did tell them, so i'll just hug them and say i love them and go on carrying this secret experience with me while they go 'huh wonder what that was about'," ingo gets home and without hesitation goes "emmet you will not fucking BELIEVE the day i've had"

#the nemesis speaks #pokefic pitch #it doesn't even occur to emmet that his brother could or would lie to him either so he's just like wow. that IS messed up

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

oh my god you know what else was happening in europe in the 1850s

fucking The Origin of Species was being published

is that what the protagonist is gonna be doing. proving whatever the pokemon worlds equivalent of the theory of evolution is

#the nemesis speaks #mostly not french admittedly. cuvier was french tho and he got involved. a little earlier than this is targeted #but.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

various sneas

#the nemesis speaks #nemesis art #pokemon legends arceus #hisuian sneasel #sneasler #sneasel: the funny animal pokemon #<- tag for sneasler art #i keep meaning to do art of other pla chars but then i sit down and oops! sneasler again #i keep subtly changing this design bc i feel like i still havent quite nailed it #but fr she is so much fun to draw. catbearweaselthing #i do really like that Big Noble in the first drawing tho

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

i don't know maybe it's the translation i read but i guess i always thought it was made fairly clear that shuro never legitimately hated laios so much as he resented him for being able to be the way he was. much like laios (albeit for very different reasons) shuro's affect is frequently commented on by others to be strange and at a mismatch with the prevailing culture around him, being very reticent to the point of the part where he tells the girl he likes that he likes her being when he Proposed. quite a few characters say something to this effect! shuro was raised in formality and stoicism and i think has a tendency towards not rocking the boat even besides that, and now here's this guy who breaks every one of his rules and he makes it look so easy. it's like a two-pronged frustration of "doesn't this guy understand that you can't just do that" and "fuck, what would it feel like to be able to do that." of course he gets mad! it's frustration, but it's also envy.

#the nemesis speaks #after their fight they're very chill/friendly and in the nightmares chapter laios literally says something to the effect of #''i thought we worked this out already!'' when dream shuro shows up. so he does consider that fight to be Working Things Out #&that like. imo makes it pretty clear that shuro's dislike of laios was never like inherent? it was just another product of him not- #-being able to say clearly when he likes or doesn't like something. trying to keep a lid on that pot until it boiled over #once the air had been cleared and laios was aware of it- i mean the relief of that honesty must have been- #-kind of fresh air to shuro atp regardless after not saying anything for so long. #& i think you can't bare that much of your soul to another person without becoming friends at least a little bit #plus all of shuro's actions after that chap and his demeanor towards laios are much warmer in general #idk where i'm going with this i guess tl;dr it's not even that shuro hates laios' autistic traits it's that they're like- #-out of place socially in opposite directions and shuro dislikes how unfamiliar laios is but also kind of wants to be more like him #this is beyond just the fact that the final line of their fight (in the translation at least) was quite literally #''that's the part of you that i envy''