#the protagonist is in someone else's body and has to pretend to be her | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ystrike1 · 8 months

Text

The Evil Grand Duchess Has a Secret Life - By Lee knockknock (7.5/10)

So, you're dead. Want to do God a favor, so you can have an excellent afterlife? A veteran actress gets hired by Heaven to play the role of Duchess in another realm, with another secret agent as her partner. Nothing goes as planned. Her partner, the Duke, knows nothing of the plan and he's madly in love with her. How will she find time to fulfill God's wish, with him hot on her heels?

Elise was born a sad orphan, but she made her life great. She became a successful actress, and she still managed to keep her old friends in her life.

She's beautiful. She worked hard. She's perfect. She didn’t forget about the little people along the way. The first chapter is literally her covered in gold and compliments....

....but sadly she is terminally ill. With six months left.

Her best friend murders her too, for unknown reasons. How unfair. She fought day and night to be somebody, and she died alone like everyone else. She felt alone, when the man she trusted the most shoved a poison needle into her.

Heaven tells her to play the role of Duchess Elise. She is a famous beauty who uses her body to seduce and torment her stepbrother. Her poor husband, Blake, is a background character who defends her out of duty. Elise must torment the incoming protagonist as well, by using Blake's good name to get away with bullying.

So, why is she here?

The Gods seem to control all realities here. They want their "stories" to end the right way, so they hire actors to ensure that their favorite main characters become happy.

Duke Blake is a cold and dutiful man. The angelic angel inside him doesn't have many lines in the script. Elise thinks he's on her side. She thinks he's a great actor, but that's not it. There is no agent inside the Duke, and the character has gone wrong.

He loves his wife. She is not just a partner to him.

She finally realizes he's not a fellow actor when he throws her on the bed. All of his romantic lines seem so real. They are.

Her angel partner is inside Lucas, the main character, which is very bad. The Upper Realm wants the story to go as planned. That cannot happen with an angel inside the male lead. Angels are bad actors. That's why Elise got hired. Angels play only the most minor of roles. They are supposed to observe for the gods. Lucas can't act for shit. Elise has to teach him in secret, and her husband gets jealous as a consequence.

Actually, he gets very jealous.

Elise was originally killed by her best friend Cain. Cain drank poison right after he murdered her. It's starting to look like her followed her into the other realm. He's the one messing up the story. He's doing it to be with her. Duchess Elise is healthy, rich and beautiful. She's not sick like old Elise. Cain did something to get Elise a new body.

The Gods even mention this is a problem. Transmigrators have been bending various realities to get the lives they desire, and it's a problem for the gods, because humans are supposed to die. It's cheating when their spirit floats off to rule a kingdom somewhere else.

By the way if this theory is true Cain is an extreme yandere, because he's lying. He is pretending to be Blake, and he's very controlling.

Elise is not an angel. This is her first and only mission. Her only chance to get a favor from God. She wants to send Cain to hell as her reward. She has no clue why her friend would murder her. He knew about her incoming death. He didn't let her enjoy her last precious days. She wants revenge.

The angel must start acting like Lucas. The story is about to fly off course. The Prince is wrong. The royal succession is already a mess. The Prince was supposed to be an evil womanizer, but someone else is in the princely seat now.

Elise tries to teach in between possessive arguments with Blake.

I'm kinda surprised that she hasn't guessed the truth yet. Blake is too obsessed with her.

She kisses Lucas to follow the script.

By the way, Elise has no feelings for Blake. She thinks he is the perfect man and stuff, but she's here on a mission. She knows she won't be here forever. Currying favor with God is way more important. More possessive things happen after the kiss.....and Elise gets a brilliant idea...

....it's very dumb.

She decides to use Blake, who seems loyal, to fix the holes in the story. She is going to flirt with him, and seduce him more, even though she sees him as a tool.

That's going to backfire.

#The Evil Grand Duchess Has a Secret Life #yandere #male yandere #yandere male #yandere boy #recommendations #recs #rec #recommended #webtoon #otome isekai #otome

239 notes · View notes

trillscienceofficer · 7 months

Note

i totally agree with your post about ds9 execpt for the part about kira looking at it solely from in universe, its definitely not great. but nana has said that the plot was what allowed her to keep her job on the show, and i think thats incredibly important to keep in mind. again, the fact they had to do that is shitty, but she has said that the plot was what allowed her to continue doing ds9 without having to only be in shots that would not show her belly. and honestly i dont think the plot itself is too horrible either. its not great but its not as bad as it could have been. i do agree with a lot of your points though

In reference to this post.

I understand the sentiment behind this ask, and I'm aware of the reason why it was necessary to work around Nana Visitor's real life pregnancy. Kira's pregnancy plot on DS9, however, is not the only way this could've been achieved. One option, like you mentioned, would've simply been to pretend it wasn't happening, like in the case of Gates McFadden's pregnancy on TNG or Roxann Dawson's during most of season 4 of Voyager. I don't think that the production, however awful it was to the actors, would've risked losing one of the show's biggest roles over this.

I don't mind the idea of having Kira be pregnant on the show, on the contrary, but I take issue with how this was presented. Even beyond the fact that it boggles the mind that this at all happened through an emergency medical procedure between aliens (??), at no point either Kira or Keiko (and I'm very sorry for having left Keiko out of the equation in the original post, I shouldn't have) are allowed to have feelings about what happened to them, about the choice not-quite-choice they were given, the risks inherent for Kira in carrying a fetus (not even of her own species!!) to term, what it means to gestate for someone else. Nothing except acceptance of whatever may come, which can make sense on a character perspective but it sends a certain message just as much (ie pregnancy is a blessing so if it happens by accident you roll with the punches! unless when it is a curse, ie when you want it for yourself, see Jadzia).

Again, the trouble with the Kira pregnancy plot to me is that it represents the first in many similar narrative threads in which pregnancy is a plot device with dubious relations to choice, and where the protagonists of said plots have pretty much no space to grapple with what it means for them! Which is crazy because wouldn't be an inter-species gestational surrogacy be exactly the kind of absurd scifi scenario Trek loves so much in order to make a point, or even just have characters Have Emotions over the enormity of the question that the situation asks? But no, what Kira gets is one small scene where the only one who affirms her right to decide over her own body is Jadzia, and later on, after giving birth, confessing to Odo that she doesn't know how to express the feelings of loss she has re: Kirayoshi. Keiko gets exactly zero scenes. It's so so glaring, especially in a show that has dealt with people's ownership of their own bodies so often, especially with Odo! And upon reflection you can see this trend already in some of Jadzia's plots, where so often she is the object of someone else's choices (Verad's, Joran's and the Symbiosis Commission's, Curzon's) and her only agency is to bear the consequences on her own shoulders over and over, and she simply never speaks of it again. And well, then she dies just as she was making decisions about her future.

Of course the case of Sarah Sisko (and, on a lesser degree, Kasidy's pregnancy later in s7) the lack of choice or voice is SO MUCH WORSE. We never even meet her. We never hear Sarah's opinion unmediated by the Prophets. We just hear this horrifying story about lack of anything resembling consent surrounding Benjamin's birth and we simply have to move on. It's perhaps the final culmination of DS9 resorting to using women (glaringly, women of color—see Keiko above) as devices upon which the plot can be enacted, or men can have feelings about, once the show starts running a bit on fumes in the rush to complete the final seasons. Those fumes are revealing, imho, of underlying assumptions.

I suppose it looks especially evident in Kira's case because in other situations she is allowed to have feelings about what happens to her. But then again, Season 5 doesn't even let her mourn her dead friends, so. Don't get me wrong, I love Kira and I still think her existence in 90s television is nothing short of extraordinary; there are many places, though, where DS9 fails her (and the rest of the female cast) pretty badly, and the pregnancy plot is one of them.

#askbox #ds9

23 notes · View notes

purplewitch156 · 3 months

Note

Ooh, I'd love to hear about Strange Horticulture or the White Road!

Strange Horticulture is a video game. It’s quirky and chill and atmospheric. You run a plant shop, receive mail, find cryptic notes in your desk from the previous owner, and make concoctions from your plants to sell to customers. Periodically you get to travel and source new plants for your shop. It rains often. It feels very Victorian. You can water and rearrange your potted plants. You have a cat.

I’m aware that by making Harry a plant shop owner, I’m pulling him pretty far from his canon blueprint. That’s more the kind of thing Neville would do. But I think I can make it work. I love the idea of how much Lily could have influenced Harry with her Potions expertise. I easily imagine little Harry tagging along with his mother when she set off into the woods to find mushrooms and sap and plants, etc, and help her chop and brew. The fact that you do get to make potions fits in nicely.

It's been a while since I’ve played the game so I’m stretching my memory, but the protagonist has memory problems that seem to hint toward something big and dramatic and there is a cult in the town that is trying to resurrect some kind of demon and you’re kinda in the middle of it.

ALSO, I recently read (and bounced off of cuz I wasn’t enjoying it) Into the Woods by Tana French. In that story when the main character was a child, he and his friends were in the woods and were attacked. The two friends are never found again and the survivor has lost all memories of the event. That was a very compelling idea to me and it’s something I’m mulling about in regards to this story, especially if I decide to lean into the memory loss/amnesia that is implied in the game. But I also may not do any of that. Or I may go down an entirely different road.

I don’t have a whole lot of ideas yet for this one, so I’ll just list some of the big ones down below.

Instead of a cat, Harry has Hedwig.

Snape will be a friend to Harry. I’m leaning more towards making him the same age as Harry, but we’ll see. I think he could still have a crush on Lily but in a childhood/innocent kind of way that would make Harry often say, “EW. GROSS!” We’ll see. This might change.

Tom will obviously be involved in the cult and trying to utilize Harry for his own gains, but I’m not all that sure what that’s going to be yet. I kinda like the idea of him playing Harry – being a charming, handsome, helpful member of the community who is there to welcome the newest addition to the village and get into bed with him as soon as possible while also unleashing a hellish demon.

When Harry gets particularly stressed, he waters his plants and between this cult and rumors of a demon creature terrorizing the countryside and the romantic drama that I imagine Tom might cause, and the possibility of old memories returning of his two childhood friends getting eaten by said demon, Harry’s gonna be watering his plants a LOT. I have such a vision of him in one of these nervous/frantic states and he grabs the watering can and starts pouring it over some poor plant and Tom saying, “Don’t you think that’s enough?” And Harry notices what he’s doing and the poor plant’s practically drowning, flailing its tendrils, and he replies, “It can take it.”

>>>

The White Road is a short story by Kelly Link. It follows a group of traveling performers in a post-apocalyptic setting. The story is very loose and doesn’t explain a whole bunch which means there’s a lot of room for interpretation. In the story, these strange entities walk the White Road. The White Road is always there, always following, always in the corner of your eye. At night, the creatures that walk the road seek others out and if there isn’t a dead body around, they kill everyone, so if night rolls around and you don’t have a dead body, someone pretends to be dead and everyone else pretends to be mourning them. The traveling group goes from town to town, performing and delivering mail.

Now let’s talk about Harry. Harry will be a member of the group, along with Snape and Tom. (I’m not sure yet who else will be part of the caravan.) Whenever the caravan comes to a town, it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal because they have a doctor (Snape) and they have Harry who can see and communicate with the dead. People will flock to him to seek closure and the caravan is extremely protective of Harry because he (along with Snape) turn out the crowds more so than their renditions of Much Ado About Nothing.

Tom is the interesting one in this. With his personality, you’d think he’d be the guy in charge, but I’m not sure if that’s what I *want* to do. I do think of him as the protector of the group. The one who doesn’t mind taking care of threats and problems with violence and he’s killed quite the number of people. Harry’s going to be a later addition to the caravan and Tom is fascinated and scared of him for what he can do. He’s never really thought about the people he’s killed and the idea that they might be (and some of them are) following him and talking shit about him unnerves him. He’s also extremely attracted to Harry and will be pretty irritated when Harry refuses his advances every time. He will be EXTREMELY irritated when, for example, he learns that instead of sleeping with him – the most handsome bloke for miles – Harry decides to sleep with Snape. It’s gonna be that kind of dynamic, where everyone in the caravan knows everyone’s business and everybody’s hooking up with everybody else.

#wip game #future fics #tomarry #white road au #strange horticulture au

9 notes · View notes

purplemninja · 2 years

Text

The Tragic Story of Six

We all know that a Little Nightmares protagonist never makes it past one game, that is except for Six, who has suffered alongside the other protagonist kids throughout the whole journey. And we’re going to be exploring the tragedy of her tale.

Some points I need to caveat before we dive in:

1- None of what I will say justifies Six’s bad deeds, but does explain why she did the bad things she’s done.

2- Six is only nine years old. So Six isn’t even in the double digits yet when she goes through everything in this post. And since we don’t know how much time has passed between LN2 and LN1, she could have been only eight years old in VLN or LN2 for all we know.

And 3- Even though most of the instalments are played by one of the other kids, the overall LN narrative is telling us Six’s story, since she is present throughout the whole series.

Here is some music that I believe is fitting for this subject so that you can play it as you read:

undefined

youtube

The story of Six is a tragic one.

It begins with her entrapment at the Nest. We don’t know what happened to Six before this, how Six got there or how long she’s been there, but it’s safe to assume that it wasn’t pleasant for her because she hides in places where the monsters can’t get her and that she wanted to escape at the end. This is also Six at her most innocent.

During her escape, she encounters RCG and decides to team up with her but unfortunately gets betrayed by her. She finds another way to escape the Nest and is saved by RCG this time and tries to save her in return. But sadly her attempt to save RCG failed and all she could do was watch as RCG and the Pretender fall into the sea to their deaths. This moment left Six with survivor’s guilt.

Having developed survivor’s guilt, you can better understand why Six was hesitant to help Mono at the beginning of LN2 - she doesn’t want to help someone only to lose them again (that and him chopping down the door with an axe wasn’t exactly the best first impression). Over the course of LN2, Six learns to trust Mono and even actively puts her own life at risk to help him several times, as does he for her. And the ending of VLN makes the part where Six finds the raincoat hit differently.

Later, through Mono’s actions, she gets kidnapped by the Thin Man and taken to the tower where she tortured and later distorted (as evident by the part where Mono tries to pull her out of a TV, she doesn’t want to be there and is clearly in distress).

But, even when she’s been tortured and distorted in the Signal Tower, she still offers her music box which is her escapism and the fantasy that the tower has hypnotised her with, meaning that she wanted Mono to join her in the fantasy. The LN Twitter hinted twice that breaking the music box was why Six dropped Mono ‘Extracting someone from a fantasy can be deeply upsetting for everyone involved’. So now you may understand Six’s perspective of the situation, which Dave Mervik hinted at in an interview when asked why she did what she did. LN2 is shown through Mono’s perspective and doesn’t easily offer us Six’s perspective, so we can only interpret it.

Here’s how I interpret it:

‘I tried to save someone even after they betray me, but I failed to save them. I then met a boy with a bag on his head who offered me his hand, I didn’t want to take it at first because I didn’t want to lose someone else all over again, but circumstances forced me to accept his help. We gradually bonded and I tried even harder to ensure that my friend would make it out alive by putting myself at risk to help him. He did nothing when I was taken and practically torn in half (Shadow Six’s creation) but when he finally arrived, I offered him to join me in the fantasy I was in, I either didn’t know that my body was distorted or I didn’t mind it (after all, Six doesn’t really seem bothered by her monstrous form). However not only does he refuse my offer, but he forces me out of it. No matter how much I screamed from the pain and tried to stop him, he kept doing it (since Six screams and hunches over in pain whenever Mono hits the music box). I’m not given a minute to process what just happened when he destroys it because walls of flesh start chasing us immediately afterwards and I barely managed to get to the exit. I catch him but then I think:

Why? Why did he do that? I tried to save someone else but failed but this time I changed myself by putting my own life at risk to help him several times and offered him to join me in the fantasy that helped me heal from the pain caused by the man in the hat that he released even when I tried to stop it from happening. But not only does he refuse my offer but he forces me out of it against my will. No matter how much I screamed and tried to stop him, he wouldn’t stop hurting me. After everything I did for him, this is the thanks I get? I changed myself by putting my life at risk to help someone else, so why?’

And like the LN Twitter said: the more of us understand the pain that Mono caused Six than we realise.

With how the tower was collapsing as she held onto Mono, Six had to think fast. And well, we saw what happened (before people try to put words in my mouth, no, none of this justifies what happened to Mono, but makes it understandable). Afterwards when she comes out of the TV, we see her hugging herself, showing guilt or remorse before Shadow Six appears.

And finally in LN1 we see that Six doesn’t help any other kids anymore, either because she’s afraid that she’ll just lose them all over again or because what happened with Mono made her lose trust people, essentially shutting everyone out. It’s probably a bit of both. The only ones she’s shown to still trust are the Nomes, evident by how she hugs them and gives them a source of warmth/light by lighting a lantern when one is available and freeing some Nomes that got themselves trapped (such as the Nomes in the fridge and cage in the prison chapter and later in a jar in the kitchen chapter). Why does she trust the Nomes over the other kids? It could be that they remind her of the two friends she’s lost (RCG and Mono) or because she sees herself in them with how skittish they are like she is (and for good reason), or she doesn’t trust people anymore to show kindness to them but still has to the desire to be kind to something that is considered inferior to her or maybe a bit of each of these.

But unfortunately along the way she saw that the children on the Maw are turned into sausages, so when the hunger hits her, she is forced to choose between knowingly committing cannibalism or eating something that we know is also a kid but she doesn’t know, and she chose the latter option. And finally, after defeating the Lady, Six is forced to knowingly commit cannibalism to satisfy her hunger and she obtains the Lady’s powers in the process. The way she slowly turns towards the camera marks the end of what little innocence she had left, and now she exits the Maw and awaits rescue, killing any guests that try to eat her along the way.

What happens to her afterwards is yet to be seen, but with Six trying to save RCG even after being betrayed by her, to at first not trusting Mono but eventually trusting him and changing herself to risk her own life to help him several times but betraying him when a big misunderstanding occurs, to not even trying to save any of the other kids anymore, you can now notice Six’s mental deterioration.

Something to remember is that all of the monsters (except the flesh walls) are human, mostly adults. But they weren’t always adults; they were once children themselves. Whether the world went insane long ago - when they were children, or not that long ago - when they are now adults, either way they were once children too and now live to prey on the next generation of children. And as we saw and confirmed by David Mervik himself, the world has shaped Six to become one of them, now existing to prey on others to survive and all child-like innocence she had is gone.

Although the ending she got may not be as bad as Mono’s, RCG’s and RK’s, and until LN3 comes out (provided it’s actually a sequel this time) to prove otherwise, Six’s story and fate nonetheless remain a tragic one. And Six’s fate is one shared no doubt by many other children.

Thank you for reading if you’ve read all of this, I’ll see you in the next one.

286 notes · View notes

ijustliketoreadstuff · 2 years

Text

Jubilation teaser analysis and speculations (Spoilers below)

The teaser starts off with Marinette jogging through the town, but as she passes by a billboard advertising the new alliance rings, we see that Mr. Damocles, her principal, is once again in his Owl hero costume, climbing up the side of the billboard trying to save a cat that’s stuck at the very top.

Mr. Damocles means well by dawning his superhero attire but when he first began his heroic efforts, he couldn’t understand that he shouldn’t try to mimic the abilities of the heroes themselves as they are capable of performing abilities beyond the average human body because of their magic suits, which are also indestructible and capable of protecting them from sever damages. Mr. Damocles was quick to jump into action to help someone in need, but his attempts to help involved putting himself in constant danger as he preferred to perform physical feats that his body couldn’t keep up with.

After realizing that he was putting himself in pointless danger by trying to mimic the heroes in his favorite comic book and the heroes of Paris themselves, Mr. Damocles began to change his outlook on how he could help Paris and began to devote himself to doing as many good deeds as he could that would help the community, such as tending to gardens, providing supplies to the homeless and feeding the animals of the community, if he faced a situation that his body couldn’t handle then he would call on the assistance of other people who had the proper equipment to help him save the day, like calling the fireman to help save a cat with a ladder rather than attempt to once again climb it himself and risk falling from a height that could severely hurt him at his age.

But after what happened in “Strike Back” when Monarch sent out his message to all of Paris about how powerful he has gotten, Mr. Damocles might be attempting to up his game and increase his involvement in the city, but this may mean he is going to put himself at risk again in situations that could be thought out more logically. The billboard the cat is stuck on has a lift set in place on the side, that lift looks like it can be used to take a person higher up, but rather than call on the employees who use this equipment or use it himself, Mr. Damocles seems to have chosen the more risky option of climbing the ladder that’s on the side of the billboard.

The next shot is of Marinette turning around to see him, realizing his presence and probably hearing him say something that alarmed her. But as she turns around we see her notice a girl wearing a Ladybug costume, making her way up the billboard to where The Owl was trying to save the cat.

Of course seeing The Owl is one thing, but a girl in a ladybug costume brings a whole other problem, its nothing new to see someone else in the show wear a ladybug mask or costume, but if that person wearing the Ladybug costume is willing to run around the city or pretend they are the real Ladybug either to the public or on T.V.(Like how Chloe did in “Antibug”) then that’s going to cause some problems for them and the real Ladybug.

According to the synopsis, the girl in the Ladybug costume is named Soquelin, a former classmate of Marinette’s. Marinette does try to convince her to stop wearing the costume, but weather or not she takes Marinette's word seriously is something we will need to wait for the premier to find out. According to the synopsis, Monarch ends up believing this girl is the real ladybug, and before anyone starts complaining about how he can possibly confuse Soquelin with the real Ladybug, remember that this is still a kids show so “Cartoon Logic” remains regardless of a person not having the benefits of the quantum masking effects provided to them by a miraculous, and by cartoon logic rules, anyone wearing the costume of a hero/protagonist look alike is automatically confused for being the real one unless they reveal themselves or are finally noticed to be an impersonator.

In the next part of the teaser we see Soqueline talking to Mr. Damocles who looks to be saddened by whatever it is that she said to him. If Mr. Damocles did believe that she was the real Ladybug then perhaps Soqueline decided to take Marinette’s word and reveal to him that she wasn’t the real Ladybug to prevent him from taking her performance seriously, of course news like that would sadden Mr. Damocles as he could have been very excited in believing he was finally fighting crime and helping Paris at Ladybug and Cat Noir’s level, but to know that the girl he sided with was not Ladybug and had no real motivation to be a hero other than just play pretend would be enough to leave him vulnerable to be akumatized by Monarch into The Dark Owl in this episode.

The remainder of the teaser shows Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting The Dark Owl and Monarch being shown using the power of the miraculous to better transport his akumas, with the horse miraculous, to where he needs them at a much faster pace, but aside from akumatizing Mr. Damocles , we also see that he has provided Dark Owl the power of the Pig miraculous, but not the miraculous itself. Why he is provided the pigs power is anyone guess but if Mr. Damocles got upset over being lied to by Soqueline about being Ladybug and if Monarch is targeting her, then he might have given Dark Owl the pigs power so he could confirm if Soqueline was really Ladybug or not.

Dark Owl uses some sort of ray gun that is able to blast the gift of the Pig’s power rather than a tambourine like Pigella’s, and knowing this is the power that shows a persons deepest wish while surrounding that image in a pink light, this means that the next image of Cat Noir and Ladybug kissing is the result of one of them being hit with the pigs power, which is bad because a person will remain still as their deepest wish is being revealed.

We also see Monarch touch the ring with the symbol of the Pig, so its pretty obvious he is using the rings themselves to send the villains the power of the miraculous, how he is able to do that is something I don’t know just yet but it must have something to do with the kwamis since they are capable of doing all sorts of things around technology, like phasing through walls or elevators to open them up (which Tikki did in “Oblivio”) and remaining invisible through any technology that records them.

Ladybug can also be seen picking up an alliance ring in the teaser, this ring very quickly shines a pink light before being picked up by Ladybug, I don’t know if she noticed the light but I wonder if Ladybug will begin to suspect that something is off about the rings now that she and Cat Noir have faced a second Akumatized villain using the power of the miraculous, but without the actual miraculous on them to take back once they return them to normal.

20 notes · View notes

purgetrooperfox · 2 years

Note

30: “What if there’s no happy ending for us?” for Noctitra ❤️❤️❤️

man I have two ideas for this and they both HURT so here's the one I finished first. I'll probably finish and post the other soonish ;-;

[ prompt list ]

rating: T

pairing: Kit Fisto/Clone Medic Nocte/Dara Idella

characters: Kit Fisto, Clone Medic Nocte, Dara Idella (@spacerocksarethebestrocks)

tags: implied dysmorphia, polycule supremacy, established relationship, going grey, accelerated aging, angst, hurt/comfort

ao3

It's not vanity.

Nocte scowls at his reflection in the 'fresher mirror and pointedly ignores Kit hovering in the doorway.

It's not vanity.

For all intents and purposes, he's 25 standard years old. It's not vain to be unnerved by the ever-increasing amount of premature grey streaked through his hair. Maybe it's karma for teasing Fox when he went a few weeks too long without shearing the sides of his hair and revealed his own salt-and-pepper. Maybe Carrion's right, and he needs to stop internalizing so much stress, and this is a sign.

Raking his fingers through the discoloration at his right temple, he resigns himself to another stint of simply pretending this isn't an issue. If he feigns indifference for long enough, everyone will eventually believe it.

"It just seems rude," he admits, since Kit's still watching him, "that on top of everything else, I have to deal with double-time greying. Someone should really file a complaint with the longnecks."

Kit hums what might be an agreement and flashes a lopsided smile. "I think it makes you look dignified," he says. "Roguish. Like the protagonists in those old spy thrillers."

Nocte hasn't seen those old spy thrillers but he still has his doubts about that. "If you say so."

All he could do at this point is dye his hair and he absolutely will not be doing that. So he blows out a sigh and twists it into a braid - if only so it doesn't try to strangle him in his sleep - then turns to face Kit. To his credit, there's no discernible pity in the dark depths of his partner's eyes.

There's sympathy in droves, but not pity.

The words they need don't come easily at times like this. Stabs at humor save them from directly acknowledging one of the uglier realities of their situation.

As Nocte shuffles past Kit, he rises up onto his toes to plant a chaste kiss at the corner of his mouth. The toll of the day's exertion on his body is rapidly making itself known, pressing down on his shoulders as he sheds his clothes and slumps onto the bed. Dara simply puts down whatever she was reading on her 'pad and reaches out to squeeze the crook of his arm.

To say that Dara's conservative with language would be a wild mischaracterization, but she's good at knowing when advice or comfort aren't needed. Or wanted.

Nocte tosses his shirt and pants toward the corner of the room and finally Iays down, curling onto his side and pulling Dare close with an arm around her waist. The familiar scent of her soap and detergent - lavender and citrus and linen - begin to ease his roiling anxiety. She trills softly, almost too low to be audible, and shifts like she's trying to burrow halfway underneath him.

"Comfortable, sweetheart?" he murmurs and watches her tendrils quiver happily.

"Mm." With her face mushed into his chest, it's a bit of a challenge to discern what she's saying. "You're warm. Comfy."

It doesn't bear repeating that he runs hot, another side effect of his heightened metabolism. "Someone has to be," he says instead, "or the pair of you would probably freeze."

"Ah, hell," Kit exclaims from somewhere behind Nocte before the bed dips under his weight. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever figure out the real reason we keep you around."

Whatever sarcastic remark Nocte would've made is strangled by the yelp that punches from him when frigid, ice-fucking-cold toes dig in behind his knees. Dara only offers a muffled giggle before curling her legs around Nocte's to warm them up as well. Then sticking her free, equally cold, hand down in his boxers to rest on his bare hip.

A chill rattles up his spine, because of course it does.

"You make an excellent heater," Kit comments. His arm comes to rest across Nocte, reaching just far enough to idly stroke Dara's tendrils.

Any other time, such an innocent statement would roll off him like nothing.

He knows he's more than that to them. He knows they care far more than they probably should. He knows they love him. He knows that there's a space for him, carved out with gentle intensity, between and alongside and before and behind them. They can rib him about being nothing more than a source of heat because he's so much more than that.

It scares him more than he ever likes to admit. Feeling scraped raw, he edges back against Kit and squeezes Dara and tries to center himself.

Acrid emotion threatens to rise up his throat but he stubbornly swallows it back down. It's a small miracle that when he eventually finds it, his voice comes out steady, "You'll need to invest in a heated blanket at some point."

As soon as it comes out of his mouth, it sounds entirely too morbid.

"I just mean… I won't be around forever," he retries.

The reality is that Nautolans live far longer than nat-born Humans. If he's incredibly lucky, Nocte will live half as long as a nat-born Human. Every day the war drags on increases the odds of him going down as one among thousands of casualties. Fulfilling his purpose.

It's not vanity to bemoan the signs of his accelerated aging when they serve as reminders of who and what he is. A fraction of a man with a fraction of a life, bred to replace someone exactly like him, to die, and to be replaced. An interchangeable part of an army of clones.

He forcibly unclenches his jaw when neither Kit nor Dara answers him. "It's not–" and this time his voice does betray him, breaking around a single syllable. Dara turns her face toward his and brushes the backs of her fingers along his jaw, waiting. "What if it's just not possible?" he manages to grind out. "What if there's no happy ending for us?"

What if I'm wasting your time?

What if this was a mistake?

What if I'm just intruding?

What if we were doomed to hurt from the start?

What if–

"Then we cherish whatever happiness we can get," Kit cuts off the downward spiral of Nocte's thoughts. "To have this, now, is worth it."

"We cherish what we have and we fight for the future," Dara adds, just above a whisper. "We all fight for it. Whatever it takes."

dm or fill out this form to be added to my writing tags <3

@willowworkswithwords @saradika @catboy-kenobi @dikut @voidika @certified-anakinfucker @milf-plokoon @secretlyatimelady @spaceydragons @tayylie @moonstrider9904 @thelove-ablepenguin @maulpunk @frietiemeloen @spacerocksarethebestrocks @zinzinina @quinnqueens @thefact0rygirl @misogirl828 @amyroswell @rain-on-kamino

#leocs #others' ocs #clone medic nocte #dara idella #kit fisto #oc x canon #leo.writes #asks answered

18 notes · View notes

jutsei · 2 years

Photo

(Art not done by me! Commissioned from, drawn by, and uploaded with permission by @queenieboo22 !!!)

Coming at you with another new OC! Lately I’ve been having ideas, but to do said ideas, I needed new OCs, so I decided to have an exercise and try to make side characters, characters that aren’t protagonists, but still recurring and make appearances within stories that are still important and still serve a purpose, this is the first attempt at this!

Meet Niko Lampi, a Game Modder who lives in the beautiful town of Silverburg, not too far from Goldvale (Where Sachi lives!), a bit farther from Bronzeton, but far away from Platinum City!

She is a programmer with a passion for modding games and creating new experiences for games she loves, she got her start modding 3rd Gen Video games, but learned and even began helping with mods for the hit Toolbox Studios games, but is currently focused on a platforming game with a huge modding scene

Online, she is known as Zanark385 , and is quite well known for helping bring mods together!

Outside of modding, she prefers to not go outside, and doesn’t do a very good job of taking care of her body, often forgetting to eat, going without sleep, and usually forgetting to brush her hair, even when she does go out, her lack of training in social cues results in her looking awkward and strange, but she still tries!

Lately, she has been helping with a massive mod for the platforming video game, but has begun doubting her skills, other modders had broken into actual game development, and here she was, still no offers from companies, still no offers to make paid mods, she was stuck making passion products (which she loved), but was beginning to doubt her skills would ever result in a comfy living. Sometimes, she dreams of being someone else, someone who’s successful and well loved.

At the apex of her doubt, while she was working on a mod, a mysterious storm happened, and she was sucked into the video game! What happens next? Well, gotta make the video game she got sucked into first!

And, lastly, of course, she has a passion for sweaters, they’re comfy, they help hide how thin she is underneath, and help serve as a way to keep her mind sharp when the internet is down, she has a sweater for every occasion!

She was inspired by many things, Tomoko, the Hex Maniac, but primarily was inspired by the gaming mod scene, which I’ve long been fascinated with (and interacted with on a few occasions), and the character of Shiki in The World Ends With You, who is so full of self-loathing she gives up her appearance and pretends to be someone else, which is a theme in the “Sucked into a game” part of Niko’s backstory

Overall, she’s been a lot of fun and I hope people like her, making her with Queenie sure was fun!

#commissions ive gotten #shins other ocs #shins other settings #original character #art not by me-

7 notes · View notes

gillianthecat · 2 years

Text

The Devil Judge: Episode 12

I just finished The Devil Judge and something about this show compelled me to take copious notes - it had emotional intensity and layers of mystery. These are long and rambling, so they're likely not of interest to anyone else, but since I spent all that time writing it I decided, why not post it. Perhaps someone will find it interesting.

Below are my moment-to-moment reactions, predictions and analysis as I watched episode 12.

eps 1&2 ep3 ep4 ep5 ep6 ep7 ep8 ep9 ep10 ep11 ep12 ep13 ep14 ep15 ep16

I wrote about my initial impressions, up to episode 5, here and here.

This is cleaned up only slightly. I followed the spelling given in the Viki subtitles. I mostly don't explain what I'm reacting to, so this will probably only make sense if you've seen the episode recently. Occasionally I give timestamps.

YSH making this choice!

G and M.A. convo in the car. They've barely talked, but can relate. Hollowness at the death of your long time enemy

YSH! So betrayed

The way Y is touching G here. He wants to pull him close and hold him tight and comfort him but he feels he needs to shake him into just following the plan. You have to follow my plan! His face as he watches G walk away. Heartbroken by trying so hard not to be.

He had nothing without his plan. He doesn't even have friends to play cards with. He can't let it go even now, especially now.

I think his first reaction to seeing G search the body for the files was he was heartbroken and/or appalled that G had become someone who could be so callous. The way Y just stood there and looked at him. Then when YSH got there he switched into action mode, but I believe he was legitimately stunned. And he'd seen people die before. I'm not sure if he directly killed anyone, but he indirectly killed at least that firefighter. And we didn't see his reaction after he walked away, but I'm betting it wasn't this. Now, some of that is due to plot relevance. Cha's death will hit even the characters harder because she's more plot relevant. But I think a lot of his heartache is over seeing how it's hurting G. And changing G. And then on top of it his desperate fear of losing G.He was clinging to his jacket and trying to pretend it was a demand. But it was a plea. They even had him shorter then G, when previously they've been the same height or an illusion of Y being taller.

It's quite possible that G is the only friend Y has ever had.

This scene with G and E. Heartbreaking, but it's also very 'dad broke up with his boyfriend and now I'm losing him too. '

Oh right, the look-alikeness. I guess that's the justification for all the intense emotional emotions and strength of connection. So maybe this is censored bromance if they're going to explain it away like that.

Fuck. Yo-Han's face outside Elijah's door. Broke my heart made me cry. (Min 24). And "you never apologize" wow so much in that.

But also, this is a breakup scene. It's not a fight between close colleagues or even between friends. It's a romantic breakup. It's this new world that Y never even intended to build coming crashing down

And then there were 4...

Seon-Ah all in red. Is that high neckline hiding the cross pendant?

She is slipping in power too. I think because she's forced (?) not to play her own game but to protect Yo-Han. But maybe she's rattled by Cha's death? Or maybe the men are emboldened by it.

Gender thoughts, gendered insults.

First mention of sex?

Battle with Prof Min over G's soul. I don't think I will be able to fully evaluate until the end.

Prof Min is trying to operate in the real world, where making change is hard enough, especially if you don't have any allies. Poor guy doesn't know he's really in a drama world, where the rules and consequences all bend to fit the protagonist or the plot. (This is why he has no allies.) Here having an effect is literally impossible.

I suspect this conversation between Yo-Han and Prof. Min is revealing the the competing moralities the show is examining

Y: (32:50) "I have never mistaken myself to be just. I'm just making a choice. So far, I haven't had that many options. It's either just accept everything or fight everything, and that fellow [Ga-On] also made a choice by himself" "That choice is for him to make."

Min: "Fight everything? You seem to think you're fighting a monstrous world. If you look into the abyss for a long time, the abyss will also look into you. You have to stop. You are ruining the world."

Y: "I think you're misunderstanding. I am the abyss."

Yo-Han is so heartbroken at feeling like he can rely on Ga-On any more. And Mysterious Assistant looks heartbroken for him.

Breakup breakup breakup

(34:30) Long long sequence of memories. Everything reminds him of him. He prepared food for you! 😟

Ga-On changed him! He's trying to connect with Elijah and the housekeeper, trying to create the same family that Ga-On was helping them build. but they're not used to it, he seems weird to them. He's lost and floundering, he's just started the processing of changing and then the underpinnings of that new identity got taken away from him.

I like how these memories imply a full domestic life that we only got glimpses of. I like when the flashbacks are things we haven't seen before, or slightly new angles on previous information.

"It's ok if humanity gets destroyed as long as you guys are here." (38:56)

(39:47) the colors. the cold reflective look to the kitchen in this lighting, but then this warm pink lamp in the foreground feels... hopeful? or indicative of Yo-Han's softening?

Y lost his only

G lost 2 people in this. It makes sense to think of her. At one point not long ago she was his whole world. And he betrayed her.

(42:20) this implies that Su-Hyeong, unbeknownst to us, has been investigating the fire for a while

Who is this dude? lawyer? reporter? Will he be important? (yes, if my track record continues)

(44:15) All a very accurate description of the trials, prof. Min. I'm fascinated at how the show keeps having characters point out the flaws in the show that I see. things I was willing to ignore under suspension of disbelief. But I still have no idea if they're going to do anything other than have a character talk about it.

they're deliberately filming this threatening caller to make it look like it could be Yo-Han. my guess is it's bamboo spear guy though

Afternoon of a Faun! that's what Seon-Ah's theme music reminds me of

that scene cut! from her dropping the cross pendant to the burnt cross on his naked back. (52:45)

Yo-Han, why are you always so sad when you're shirtless and flexing your abs? Now I feel bad for lusting after you.

(57:00) I was about to say, one of the reasons the politics of this show feels hollow is it's all been mob violence, there hasn't been state violence. (the only cop we meet is Good.) but i think this actually is state violence here?

I like the way Yo-Han and Seon-Ah's relationship is such a parody of romance that it highlights the romance of Y & G in contrast.

I'm starting to hate the fact that they made Isaac look exactly like Ga-On. I feel like the only reason for it is homophobia, to give an excuse for Yo-Han's (and Elijah's) intensity about Ga-On. they could have made them similar without having them played by the same actor. it does create a few nice moments, like in this memory/imagination, where we're not sure if Yo-Han is thinking of Isaac or Ga-On. but not worth the homophobia/weird incestous implications

the other reason is the government is so small? Judge Oh is he one announcing this? I understand they've gotta keep the character list and moving parts from ballooning out of control, and this is not a show about bureaucracy, but it has the side effect of making the worldbuilding feel slightly hollow.

the sets they've found/built/cgi'd for this show! (58:00)

(1:00:30). oh fuck

another reveal of their different goals/philosophies

oh my god.

her face. a lot going on there. and she walks away

loneliness quote

oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck

Yo-Han's face.

loneliness theme

I don't want him to be dead :-( We never even learned his name. We haven't seen the body yet, but that looked and sounded pretty unsurvivable

eps 1&2 ep3 ep4 ep5 ep6 ep7 ep8 ep9 ep10 ep11 ep12 ep13 ep14 ep15 ep16

#the devil judge episode 12 #kind of like liveblogging #the devil judge reaction #the devil judge #the devil judge spoilers #reaction by gillianthecat

2 notes · View notes

linkaluote · 2 years

Photo

I really enjoyed the farm game and gave me a lot of “company”. . The first time I started planting, I met villagers for the first time. Harvest every day. day after day~ . Sometimes I wonder if I would be so positive if I lived in it~ . I’m immersed in this game every day. . Do you feel lonely playing some games alone? Maybe? . I always pretend like I don’t need anyone else~ . But if you think about it, that’s not true, I’m afraid of being alone. . A year later, finally someone can play with me I started slowly getting into the world of multiplayer, and I really realized I really wanted someone to lean on. . But the funny thing is, never had anyone willing to play with me until the end. It’s not that I’m tired of playing halfway through the game, it’s still pretending~ . In the end, I’m still alone in this world~ . ————————————————– . In fact, I really envy the protagonist. There was such a good grandfather who left a farm for his grandson before he died. Leave a letter to grandson to let grandson escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. . Find a quiet place to bathe your body and mind in the earthy countryside. The protagonist also has a mother who writes letters to her son from time to time. . Too bad I didn’t have the same luck as the protagonist. I can meet all the people I can get along with in Pelican Town. . In reality, I was reticent, pretending to be outgoing, and not sociable, but actually the first feeling I encountered was panic. I always say the wrong thing, I don’t know how to deal with it, and I’m even more afraid of messing up the relationship with the other party. . But luckily, I found the game Stardew Valley. The protagonist is like me in another time and space, representing my life in the field. . Now my health is not very good, I can’t play for long. The disease of the body slowly took away my time step by step. . What can I say the saddest? My only regret is that I didn’t complete the final package with a friend.

#stardew valley

6 notes · View notes

ganymedesclock · 2 years

Note

[Another OC Ask Meme] For Taylor: 12, 17, 24. For Hero: 14, 15, 23

[original meme]

Taylor

12. A trait your character dislikes in other people?

They actually have a lot of pet peeves in other people. For something more serious than 'they hate when other people go "um" too much', they can't stand perceived laziness. They can get used to it if people seem to move slowly or act laid-back but prove they can be counted on, but when there's work to be done they absolutely turn into that Chris Fleming COMPANY IS COMING skit.

This is the downside of giving a slightly high strung fifteen year old levels in Leadership Skills.

17. Something seemingly insignificant that makes them happy?

By far their biggest mood booster is feeling like they made or accomplished something. They're very craft-focused. They want proof that they mattered, and that something they thought of is now real, especially if another person is using it. As a gift-giver they tend for the handmade and practical (though coming from a pre-industrial culture that does have slightly different significance) and as a gift-receiver they'll be way more affected by the equivalent of a deeply sentimental card or personal handcrafts.

If they see someone wearing or using something that Taylor gave them, it makes them extremely happy.

24. Something they are self-conscious about?

I'm going to gloss over the low-hanging fruit of 'being a skeleton/regarded as a monster by other people' and say...

Taylor actually is self-conscious about how short they are! Both of their parents were pretty tall people / in the neighborhood of six feet, and while their dad was a little more swimmer's back/all-limbs as you'd expect of a fisherman who's scrambling around the rigging of his ship semi-regularly, their mom was quite stocky. They've got all the genetics to be tall, they're just a bit of a late bloomer.

(this was affected by a period of childhood hunger scarcity that stunted their growth)

They're afraid people don't take them seriously because of their cute little babyface, or that they come off like a child trying to pretend to be a grown-up, which they sort of are, but more in the way that being fifteen is that point in your life where you feel like you're completely done growing but a twenty-year-old would look at you and realize how young you still are.

Hero

14. Something someone could say to hurt them?

I can joke and say 'a lot' but to actually deeply hurt him is pretty hard. His personal anxieties tend to hit him a lot harder and with that much 'noise' already going on, hurtful behavior from others tends to fall into one of two categories- a sort of unspoken 'ha ha, I know, I'm a sham and everyone can tell, this is fine, I'll just internalize that', or, at worst, you successfully cross enough of a line that he feels justified viewing you as an enemy, where the anxiety disappears and his ... call it 'problem solving instinct' start to rank up.

He tends to be a lot more sensitive to remarks made about his friends or loved ones but those are harder to take personally. So the most hurtful things you could say to him would probably play on the doubts that he's not good for them, or fears he already has about his wife and her health. If you were going to torture this man, the absolute worst thing you could do would be insinuate someone around him isn't safe anymore since the last time he saw them.

As mentioned, though, he's kind of an emotional shrapnel bomb, so anyone looking to exploit that would definitely bite off more than they could chew.

15. Something they might say to hurt someone else?

"I don't need to waste time on you". Not even really said as much as made clear with body language. Hero... in his better moments at least, he tries to be there for everyone, tries to be an attentive king and a champion-of-the-people. He is an rpg protagonist and he did time fetching kittens out of trees and basically doing people's grocery shopping for them. (Specifically, he's the equivalent of an rpg protagonist who did level grinding, so you better bet he has enough sidequest hours in that he practically spent half the time saving the world like he was working for a temp agency)

By default, Hero tends to actually overwork himself- he tries to support everyone and be there for them and reconcile with them, and works his already very limited health into the ground, and then because he's exhausted and out of patience he starts cutting corners with brutal efficiency and the less he cares about you the more likely he is to like, bodily shove you out of his way the second something else comes up.

And then he feels super bad about it and tries to reconcile by being there 300% with everybody he can reach and runs himself into the ground even faster. It's a vicious cycle.

So it's a pretty pointed and intense rejection on his part if he's got plenty of energy or will consistently, no matter where he is in that spiral, not give someone the time of day. It's also intimidating because it's a time people have to remember the guy's like six feet tall and used to destroy anachronistic tanks and mecha for a living.

23. What do they do for fun in their free time?

He actually super misses the sidequests, okay. You save the kingdom once and marry your sweetheart because that's the thing you both promised to do if you were both alive at the end of it and now you're, like, a king or something, and nobody will let you do menial chores. Blah blah you're too important blah blah think of your health. He rebelliously cleans rooms and nobody can stop him. Mad with power, and this mop he stole in the time someone left it unattended.

As debilitating social anxiety and an injured throat might suggest, he's really a lot more of an actions-than-words person and has been pretty much all his life, so it's soothing for him to feel like he's helping others or being there for them in a way that doesn't leave him second-guessing himself and every little thing he tries to communicate. He withers in a conversation, but loves to be the friend who comes over when you're depressed and helps clean your space because he already knows everywhere you like to put things, or cooks a meal. Doing random chores/favors for others is also a way to get out of his own head and just focus on something that seems completely clear or laid out to him.

He struggles a lot more with open-ended stuff. It's a lot more relaxing for him to do anything that has already set objectives and parameters, or someone else who's deciding how it all goes. Health permitting he'd love nothing better than to spend a day cleaning out an old room, hauling furniture, scrubbing floors, etc.

Failing all of that, he does like a good puzzle, because it's the same idea. Thing to do, all the parameters are laid out for you, there is a guarantee of a solution and the only thing you have to do is work to get there.

#original character ask meme #rpg tomfoolery #Taylor the Friend of Darkness #King Hero the Hero King #readmore

6 notes · View notes

revui · 9 months

Text

levi rambles about her fantasy project again

one of the funniest things about the story to me is how, with over a dozen main characters, not a single one of them wants to be a protagonist. even the ones who you think would be egocentric enough to want that or think they're the main character of life are all fucking horrified the moment where they realize that the story is about them. it's not about the person they pretend to be, it's not about the person everyone perceives them as, it's just about them.

harker grew up with little knowledge of the world outside the forest and based his entire understanding of it off the stories he read, and when he compares himself to the heroes he read about, he feels fundamentally unqualified to fill that role.

miranda is desperate for people to like her but when she realizes she's the only one willing to do what needs to be done and that it might make a lot of people hate her, she curses the position she's in even though she previously would've loved to be the center of a grand story.

ignatia genuinely just wants to live uneventfully. she loves order, organization, and control. she doesn't care about the rest of the world so long as her little piece of it is fully within her control, and the narrative basically has to kick in her bedroom door and drag her out kicking and screaming the whole way.

quin fully accepts that the story is about the girl he's next to. she's the bold one, the skilled one, the strong one, and the decisive one. she knows exactly what she wants and how she wants to get there, or at least, that's how she seems. quin is content going along with whatever she does because she's so obviously the main character that it terrifies him when he realizes he has to start making his own choices, acting on his own feelings and beliefs rather than relying on her perceived infallibility.

kassandra already starts the story feeling like a fraud because she literally is, she was put in charge of a cult a year ago and has been lying about being their god the whole time when their actual god is standing two feet away doing drugs. she talks a big game but feels genuinely unworthy of almost everything and eventually tries to run away from the narrative spotlight to let it shine on someone else because she thinks they're more worthy of main character status.

azar is maybe the only one who notices that she's the main character and responds by going "maybe this won't be so bad" but then she starts fucking up left and right and tries to give main character status to literally anyone else because this shit STINKS and she doesn't want it anymore. unfortunately that's not how it works.

tessera basically doesn't even want to do anything with her (after)life but party. she hates responsibility. she hates having to care about things. she hates the entire spectrum of human emotion aside from 'ecstasy.' like kassandra she tries to run away. unlike kassandra, tessera is unable to die because she already did that. and the narrative has now forced her into a position where she will be miserable if she doesn't start being the protagonist. she basically spends the whole thing trying to fist fight the story itself. and losing.

alastor used to want to be the main character but then shit went sideways and he got cursed. so he's now thinking that he would really like to go back to that 'normal life' stuff, please and thank you, but then the narrative digs its teeth into him and he realizes that if he doesn't take the path the story gives him, there is nowhere else for him to go.

hyacinth is another character content with being generally unremarkable. her satisfaction comes from magical mastery. she's fine so long as she can keep working on her necromancy, and this leads to her making a deal with a ghost so she can further her studies. it takes her until the moment she fails to hold up her end of the deal and gets her body possessed that she realizes maybe the story was about her and she should've been a lot more careful up to this point.

skyler is beyond trying to fist fight the story itself. she's trying to kill me in real life. she's basically clawing her way through every page trying to reach my throat. moving on.

lilith is the only character who actually likes being the protagonist but this lasts like 5 minutes because she's quick to learn that being the narrative's favorite is not a good thing. in typical lilith fashion, she basically smashes her way through the story with a hammer, because that is the only way she knows how to solve problems, and the moment that stops working, she becomes hysterical.

pippin doesn't even believe the story is about him for a while. i mean, he's functionally god, or at least working with her, but as someone who was raised in a cult, he's of the opinion that the story would naturally be about his actual god and not her vessel. he's of the opinion that the story accidentally pointed the spotlight at him instead of god.

colum hates the idea of being a protagonist so much that he functionally fucking lobotomizes himself to remove all his knowledge of the narrative and the other central characters so the story won't get to him next. this does not work. it actually achieves the opposite. because while his attempt to run from the narrative is the most effective out of anyone's, it turns out that when the protagonist learns to run the story learns to sprint.

percy is so apathetic to the idea of being in a story that he doesn't even notice he's causing the majority of the plot by accident and he has to be told straight-up. and he still doesn't care. the story is all about him and when he realizes it he just continues to not care, so aggressively indifferent to every narrative dilemma until finally a tangible and incredibly personal reason to care is thrust in front of his face and he can't look away from it. and he's motivated by it but still righteously pissed off that he has to do any of this.

delilah, at this point, has witnessed what The Narrative does to people. and she is quite convinced by now that it would never turn to her. she's generally quite docile and polite and takes care not to shake things up too much. she doesn't think of herself as being in any particularly special position. she's so passive that she almost feels like a background character in her own life, someone who may be competent at a few things but not in any area that matters for a real hero. so when she finds herself being nudged further and further into this disaster of a story, she begins to actively resist someone for the very first time—me. not even the antagonist. she's the only other character who is directly trying to defy the author.

and then, finally, there's veerabelle. as the last protagonist in the story, she's watched what everyone else has gone through, and unlike delilah, she knows she's next. she's been waiting for it, dreading it the whole time, and she even goes so far as to use magic to discover how the story will play out because she knows it's coming and just wants to be able to brace. she pushes herself through the whole thing, every awful and inevitable event, and tries to believe that she can make a happy ending for everyone at the end of all this. she swears it, to her friends, to the audience, that she will find a way to make everything work out.

and she does. and the story is over. and they can all finally leave. no more narrative. just nap time.

#levi rambles #foreverlands

0 notes

linkspooky · 3 years

Text

The Protagonist of Another Story

Aren’t protagonists just the worst? Just assuming everything revolves around them you know, like they’re the main character of some story? Gege has stated several times they want to write a story where no one single person is right, where they can’t always be correct no matter how good those intentions are. I believe he’s continuing that theme by now introducing another protagonist just like Yuji, who assumes he’s the hero of this story and making them fight each other. More on the relationship between Yuta and Yuji under the cut.

1. Heeeeeeeeere’s Yuuuuuuta.

A stated by Gege themselves in their commentary for this week, Yuta’s central character trait is his indecisiveness. In other words, Yuta is lacking so much in confidence that he doesn’t make decisions for himself and instead relies entirely on what other people say.

Yuta’s central flaw he’s confronted with in volume zero is his codependency towards others. He relies on other people to validate him, to tell him that he’s a good person and that he’s worthy of living.

There’s nothing wrong with this desire, it even parallels Yuji’s in a way. Yuta wants to be surrounded by others who tell him it’s okay for him to keep on living. Yuji wants his life to mean something, he wants to help others so he’ll have plenty of people surrounding him when he dies. It’s basically the same desire, a desire to help people and be needed by people so they won’t have to be alone.

However, there’s two layers where this behavior can also be a problem, especially when applied to Yuta. Maki is the first one who calls it out. Is Yuta actually a good person, or is he merely acting like one to treat him nice.

Yuta is entirely passive, and rather than active control of circumstances he tends to play the victim and pretend to be helpless. He believes himself to be a good person who hasn’t done anything to deserve what’s happening to him, and that can make him blind to his own faults. Like a person who has been bullied in the past, who acquire a victim complex, and now sees any kind of conflict as someone attempting to bully them. Yuta doesn’t seem to ever realize when he might be in the wrong, because his view is that in every situation he’s just a good innocent person being bullied.

Passive isn’t good, it’s just passive. Yuta has a hard time seeing when he’s at fault in situations. Such as when he believed for several years that it was Rika who cursed him, when in fact it was the other way around, he was the one who cursed Rika.

Yuta is also, someone completely codependent. He’s so afraid of losing people that he can’t function without them. This also informs the reason why he cursed Rika, because he himself couldn’t let go of her. Yuta learns in volume zero that he has to let go of old friends, because he can always form new friends, he can always find new reasons to keep on living, however he clearly hasn’t completely conquered this flaw.

His lack of faith in himself, his codependency, is what ultimately leads to his indecisiveness. He can’t have faith in his own decisions so he puts faith in the people around him instead to reassure him and back him up. However, this makes him insanely protective of the people around him, because if he ever loses him then Yuta’s fragile world comes crashing down. He is entirely dependent on the people around him in order to keep living.

Yuta doesn’t actually care about the world at large. He doesn’t even care enough to argue with Geto about his points. He’s not even sure that Geto is the bad guy, he literally just wants to kill Geto for hurting his friends.

For Yuta, all that matters is protecting his small little bubble of friends. He’s learned that he can make new friends,but not that the world exists at large outside of his greater bubble in sorcer society.

2. Me, The Protagonist of Reality.

So, Mahito kills one of Yuji’s friends right in front of him. Yuji then swears bloody violent revenge, doing whatever he can to take down and kill Mahito, unable to move on until he’s punished Mahito for the crime of killing Junpei.

In this situation, Yuji is the good guy, and Mahito is the bad guy, right? Therefore Yuji is justified in only thinking of Mahito as someone he must kill. However, Yuji has a tendency to assume that he is the good guy in every situation. Yuji believed in a very simple story, that he was good and the people he was fighting against were evil.

Even when the story grew more complicated, Yuji just decided he didn’t have to think too hard about his role in things. He didn’t have to think about the bigger picture, he just had to kill his enemy.

Mahito is very much a straight forward bad guy, but the problem with this line of thinking is that not every situation is going to be as black and white as it was with Mahito. The problem with the decision to just not worry about it and not think things through, is that when you get into one of those gray situations you won’t be able to realize that you’re in one. Killing for revenge is wrong, because it’s not usually a straightforward story. Now, Yuji is on the opposite side of the story.

Yuji’s direct actions cut Inumaki’s arm off. It is a very grey situation. Yuji made a choice to walk around with Sukuna in his body, knowing Sukuna might be able to take over at any time. At the same time it wasn’t Yuji’s intention to hurt Inumaki in this way.

The same way that Yuji doesn’t want to think about the moral grays in his situation. It’s very likely, that Yuta doesn’t want to think about how his situation must be gray as well. Yuta right now sees himself, as Yuji saw himself to begin with, someone killing for revenge in order to punish them for hurting a friend.

I really think it’s much more interesting if Yuta actually does want to hunt Yuji down, rather than secretly pretending to be on his side all along, because it’s a direct consequence for both of them declaring they don’t need to think about these things. If you don’t want to decide for yourself, then others will make your decisions for you and you get used.

Straightforward revenge has always been a mistake for the characters before. When Choso wanted to kill Yuji as punishment for killing his brothers, the consequence to that was him nearly killing someone who could have potentially been another of his brothers. This might be the parallel to the Choso situation, Yuta wholeheartedly believes that Yuji is an enemy he must kill and it’s a consequence for both of them.

They both think they’re on the good side. They both believe they’re on the right. Yuji wants to help people, and Yuta wants to protect his friends but they don’t think of the greater interpretation of their actions, because they both assume they’re good.

However if they can’t both be the good guy then what else can they do? PROTAGONIST BATTLE! COME ON, PUT YOUR DUKES UP! WHOEVER SURVIVES GETS TO BE THE REAL MAIN CHARACTER OF REALITY.

#okkotsu yuta #sukuna #ryomen sukuna #itadori yuji #yuji itadoru #yuuji itadori #itadori yuuji #jjk 137 spoilers #jjk 137 #jujutsu kaisen 137 #jjk meta #jujutsu kaisen meta #jujutsu kaisen

2K notes · View notes

euterpessi · 3 years

Text

Romance Manhwa/Manga Recommendations:

Historical Manhwa/Manga:

Death Is The Only Ending For The Villainess

I’ve reincarnated as the reverse harem game’s villainess, the one and only adopted daughter of the ducal Eckart family.

But the difficulty just has to be the worst!

Everything I do will only lead me to death.

I must be paired with one of the main male characters from the heroine’s harem before the ‘real daughter’ of the duke family appears!

Two older brothers who always pick a fight with me on every little thing.

The insane crown prince whose route will always lead to my death.

‘I only see the heroine and no one else’s wizard, and also her loyal slave knight, too!

‘First, let’s take some of them which I see no hope in, out of the list!’

“I didn’t know my place up until now. From now on, I’ll live as quiet as a mouse so you wouldn’t care the slightest bit!

But why do their interests in me keep on rising every time I draw the line?!

The Villainess is a Marionette

Cayena, the Imperial Princess, was known as the most beautiful woman in the Empire. She was a woman who knew nothing but evil and luxury.

However, she was destined for ruin: she would be used as a chess piece by her younger brother to secure his throne and killed by her crazy husband.

“I’ll make you the Emperor.”

“… Sister, are you referring to me?”

“In exchange, give me freedom.”

She had to change things before she became that Cayena.

The Reason Why Raeliana Ended Up At The Duke’S Mansion

Poisoned to death by her own betrothed?! Eunha didn’t wake up in a novel’s story just to get killed off again as an unfortunate extra! To change her story she needs a cover… 6 months pretending to be the fake fiancée of the novel’s male protagonist, Duke Noah Wynknight. But will this cold-hearted, angel-faced demon of a man really help her avoid another ill-fated ending?!

Your Throne / I Want to Be You, Just For A Day

The story follows main characters Medea Solon and Psyche Callista, who become archenemies after competing for the position of crown princess of the Vasilios Empire. On the day of the Yearly Prayer, Medea and Psyche accidentally switch bodies.

The Remarried Empress

Navier was the perfect empress, however, the Emperor wanted a wife, not a colleague. And so, the Emperor abandoned Empress Navier and placed an enslaved girl beside him. That was fine until Navier heard the Emperor promise the slave the Empress’ position. After many ups and downs, Navier decided she would accept being the Queen of the neighbouring country and remarry.

Kill The Villainess

Eris Mizerian was the villainess of a novel. The only daughter of a marquis, she got executed after scheming against the pure and lovely protagonist, Helena. My only goal, after possessing her, is simply to leave this world and go home. I am prepared to face even death, but the laws of this world keep stopping me.

A changed Eris begins to draw the attention of three men who once loathed her; the Crown Prince, the High Priest, and the Knight.

"It doesn't matter. I will never be able to love this world."

Even if the only way out is death,

even if the only way out is make a deal with a witch...

I will absolutely leave this world!

This is the story of the villainess who defies fate, Eris, and her escape from this world!

The Way To Protect The Female Lead's Older Brother

I accidentally took possession of someone in a 19+ reverse harem novel.

The problem is that I became Roxana Agriche, the older sister of the sub-villain. My damn father kidnapped the heroine’s brother. Now, is the only thing left to meet a terrible end from the vengeance of the heroine?

But what if I can avoid that horrible development?

“I’m also interested in this toy.”

“I’ll protect you until you can get out of here safely.”

The heroine’s brother, Cassis Pedalian, will definitely be able to pay me back later.

Shadow Queen

“Can you be my daughter for me?”

By his offer, Elena became Duke of Franceschi’s fake daughter.

She became the queen and gave birth to Crown Prince’s son.

Then suddenly, Princess Veronica who was assumed dead came back.

She was only just a toy.

But eventually, Elena gets her son taken and is murdered.

However, she went back to the past.

“I’ll destroy all of you.”

I’ll never live as a toy again.

Elena decides to seeks revenge.

Under the Oak Tree

The daughter of a duke, the stuttering Maximilian, married a knight of lowly status at her father’s coercion.

After their first night, her husband departed for an expedition without another word.

He comes back three years later, this time as a famous knight in the whole continent.

How would Maximilian face him on his return?

"The more I think of you, the more lonely and lonely I become. I don't know why I can't quit even though it's so painful."

I'm Stanning The Prince

Angela’s fanfic became such a sensation that it even reached the Imperial Family, leading her to get arrested on charges of treason. Nevertheless, her fanfic improved the First Prince’s image, and his sister, the Princess, decides to take political advantage of this and keep Angela by their side.

The heroine who can now fangirl to her heart’s content, and the Prince who doesn’t know how to act around her. As they bicker back and forth, they start growing closer…

Miss Not-So Sidekick

Hyejung loved to read to escape her daily stress. But that’s before she woke up inside the bizarre world of her favorite novel! Instead of the main heroine who courts three eligible men, she is now Latte Ectrie – a minor villain that everyone hates?! One way or another, it’s a chance to live out her most beloved storyline, with popcorn in hand to watch all the drama! Taking charge of the narrative takes on a whole new meaning!

Even Though I’M The Villainess, I’ll Become The Heroine!

I wasn’t able to overcome the harassment and took my life, but I was reincarnated with the perpetrator? The perpetrator is the heroine, Florre, and I am the villainess, Dahlia, who’s going to die horribly.

“They said you are a villain with neither blood nor tears, but unlike the rumors, you often shed tears.”

“Your Highness must believe all the nonsense the idiots are talking about, huh?”

Grand Duke of Cervian, the half brother of the Male lead and who will be punished for treason afterwards. He approached me. I can’t lose the man who will be my greatest ally.

“Your Highness, would you marry me?”

“Now…… what did you say?”

“And take revenge together.”

A similar situation, a fixed ending. The heroine is not the only one who knows the ending of the novel. I took a long and arduous path of revenge.

Who Made Me A Princess

The beautiful Athanasia was killed at the hands of her own biological father, Claude de Alger Obelia, the cold-blooded emperor! It’s just a silly bedtime story… until one woman wakes up to suddenly find she’s become that unfortunate princess! She needs a plan to survive her doomed fate, and time is running out. Will she go with Plan A, live as quietly as possible without being noticed by the infamous emperor? Plan B, collect enough money to escape the palace? Or will she be stuck with Plan C, sweet-talking her way into her father’s good graces?!

The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass

With the marriage of her prostitute mother to the Count, Aria’s status in society skyrocketed immediately. After leading a life of luxury, Aria unfairly meets death because of her sister Mielle’s schemes. And right before she dies, she sees an hourglass fall as if it were a fantasy. And just like that, she was miraculously brought back to the past.

“I want to become a very elegant person, just like my sister, Mielle.”

In order to face the villainess, she must become an even more wicked villainess. This was the new path Aria chose to take revenge on Mielle who murdered both her and her mother.

The Evil Lady's Hero

Junipe Magnolia, a villainess friend of the heroine in this novel called Rael Cania.

The Junipe inside the novel has always loved the male lead, Iseed. To the point where she harassed Rael out of jealousy because she's loved by Iseed.

And thus, Junipe is destinied to die in the hands of the male lead of this novel.

But one day.

"Why did I become Junipe?!"

But let's think about it, it's still one year away from the time Junipe is going to get killed by Iseed. So, I have to meet Iseed and Rael first, I'll be able to find a way out of my death if I do so.

Yeah, let's meet them first!

But, this man is just so tender-hearted and kind. Would Junipe be able to escape from this man?!

I Tamed a Tyrant and Ran Away

God gave me a chance to relive my life. Before the rebirth, I had been used for the past 400 years as the empire's sword. And so, I swore to destroy the empire. I found the young prince of the country and became his teacher. I taught him how to become a tyrant and asked for the country.

"I will do the lady's will."

He conquered the whole empire for me, and I ran away.

"I came to take you, Charlize Ronan." Dylan became a perfect tyrant and searched the entire empire for me.

"You tamed me, so why did you run away?"

Untouchable Lady

“Please, Hilise. Please die in place of Gabrielle.” My always dignified brother begged me for the first time. He wants me to die for our stepsister, whom we don't even share a drop of blood with. “For the first and last time, I ask you this.” I've always been miserable, and there is no exception this time. The seventh time that I was betrayed and killed, I was completely free of lingering feelings. “I'm glad that you're a scumbag until the end.” I won't be swayed by love anymore. It's my turn to abandon them first.

I’ll Live On As A Villainess

I reincarnated as the villainess in a book!

The one who dared to commit attempted murder on the heroine is the owner of this body?

Let's just live in a quiet place where we have fun and eat! That's what I thought for a while.

It was so, so, so cold here in the north, where I was kicked out as a punishment.

Before I froze to death, I called the Great Demon of Fire and set fire to the fireplace but...

Why isn't he going back? If you've done the job, shouldn't you go back?!

I was flustered to find out that I had signed a life contract with a demon just to start a fire but to think that I'd be responsible for relieving his desires!

The bickering romance between a big puppy demon and a small villainess lady!

It Looks Like I’Ve Fallen Into The World Of A Reverse Harem Game

When I opened my eyes, I was in a different world. I had become the game’s villainous princess who was feared by all. Not to mention… Completely naked men I didn’t even know were approaching me left and right! “Are you cold? Shall I warm you up with a hug?” “Oh? Have you not had enough yet?” Seriously, what’s up with this situation? And just how the hell am I going to get out of this freaking game?!

Father, I Don't Want to Get Married!

I’m Jubelian? The daughter of the duke and the villainess of this novel?

I managed to avoid my death with some previous knowledge about my life, as this was my second time at it. Now, I should be able to live a peaceful life!

“I’m not going to marry a man unless he has everything. I want the most wealthy, famous, and competent man there is.”

I dreamt of a glamorous life as the daughter of the duke, but my father tells me the Crown Prince who is known to be a lunatic is to be my husband! As an extraordinary measure, I couldn’t help but start a contract relationship. That is, with a handsome side character that looks better than the main one.

“Why are you trying to avoid being engaged to the prince?”

“He’s scary. I heard that he even kills his own entourage if he doesn’t like them.”

A few days later, the prince sent a terrible letter to me.

“I will not kill you.”

Oh no, did I set up another death trap for myself?

Like A Wind On A Dry Branch

"Hi, You."

Count Casarius fell victim to a plague and died suddenly, leaving behind a will stating that Rietta, his beautiful young widow of the manor, whom he tried to use as a concubine, be buried alive alongside him. Just before Rietta is buried, Archduke Axias, rumored to be a cruel tyrant, arrives at the funeral to collect the enormous debt Count Casarius still owes him.

“Everyone here seems to feel sorry for her, and I still have a debt to collect from Casarius… If I take her instead of debt, I think all of you here should be happy," he smiled.

"Hello, Temptress."

Everything was a Mistake

Roa Valrose reincarnated as villainess in the book. In order to avoid the fate of being burned at the stake, she approaches the hero, Nocton Edgar.

It hurts every time she gets closer to him. Nevertheless, for her survival, she does everything he wants her to do.

“Come again, Valrose.”

The mysterious Nocton unexpectedly sought her out every day.

Then one day, her friend for 10 years says something unknown to her.

“Actually, I have a dream. The Duke of Edgar is a terrible villain!”

He is not the hero, but the villain?

As soon as she realized that she had misinterpreted the role, she decided to get away from Nocton.

“Let’s not meet anymore.”

But the villain’s reaction was strange.

“Don’t go. You’ve always been special to me.”

She was suspicious of his sudden change of attitude.

Will she able to get rid of Nocton safely?

I Became the Tyrant's Secretary

I became the secretary of a tyrant in place of my clumsy brother to survive.

But I have so much potential for it. I’m so darn good at my job. Because I served the tyrant so well, ‘Everyone has a happy ending’.

Well then, shall I quit being a secretary and live a leisurely life now?

“Rosaline, tell me what you want.” He asked as he stepped down from his chair.

“I want to quit.”

His eyebrows twitched slightly.

“Do you want to die?”

Your highness, you never hold on to people who want to leave, so why’re you being like this to me?

Seduce the Villainess Father

After being in a bus crash, I woke up to the world of my favourite web novel.

Not only that, It was before the protagonists were born, to their parents’ world!

To stop the incoming multiple bad events.

I tried to prevent the kidnapping of the sister who is pregnant with the female lead!

But I got kidnapped instead?!

It's depressing to be kidnapped, but my body couldn't handle the mana and became a sunfish-like state

But... if I am next to the emperor who kidnapped me, my body becomes normal!

Right! The way to save that man from marrying a witch and getting killed by his son, and for someone who is vulnerable to mana such as myself to live, is for us to get married!

The Villains Savior

Set on a path to tragedy and misfortune from a young age, Aseph Randell is doomed to die a villain. That is, until the mysterious Elzay Tiathe appears in his life with a promise: "I can save you." After having vivid visions of him for so long, can Elzay untangle the twisted fate tied to Aseph... or will they both be dragged down together?

Contemporary Manhwa/Manga:

Night Crying Crow

This woman; who is she?

If something was action, it'd be action. If something was romance, it’d be romance. The A-list actor Cheon Woo Kang, who's great at every (genre), had his heart stolen away by an unknown woman who’d broken into his house!

“We'll meet again.~"

Woo Kang contracted an over imaginative illness as he drew the woman, whose name he didn't even know. In front of Woo Kang, she reappeared as the police officer Park Tae... Could the shadow of the crisis that appeared in front of them be a coincidence?

Raise wa Tanin ga Ii

Yoshino Somei would have been a normal high-schooler if not for the fact that she is the granddaughter of the leader of the Osaka-based Somei Group, the Kansai region's largest yakuza organization. One day, Yoshino hurries home after hearing of the news about the unification of Kansai and Kanto's biggest syndicates, the Somei and the Miyama groups. This, according to the article, will result in a marriage of the leaders' grandchildren—one of whom is Yoshino herself! Despite her best efforts to annul the arrangement, Yoshino has to go to Tokyo to visit her fiancé, Kirishima Miyama, who is unexpectedly nice and charming.

During their first meeting, Yoshino is swept up in various events and becomes unable to refuse moving to Tokyo, which is why, half a year later, she now lives with the Miyama group. At school, she soon realizes that Kirishima is very popular, so her relationship with him garners the hate of his fangirls and subsequently results in bullying. To make matters worse, Kirishima could not be further away from her prince charming since he, after all, was born to be a yakuza member.

Raise wa Tanin ga Ii follows Yoshino and her new life in Tokyo that is filled with nothing but troubles connected to the underworld. However, though she wishes to be as far from it as possible, this isn't Yoshino's first time dealing with the world of the Yakuza...

Positively Yours

To Hee-won’s dismay, the BFF she crushed on and her other BFF are now dating! Seriously bummed, Hee-won decides to go wild just one time, and find solace with a handsome stranger. A very satisfying one night affair has now turned into more — she’s pregnant! Fate brings them together again, and now the regimented Doo-joon is determined to do the right thing and marry her. But they’re basically strangers! Except... their bodies have been very intimately acquainted. What’s this mother-to-be to do?

True Beauty

After binge-watching beauty videos online, a shy comic book fan masters the art of makeup and sees her social standing skyrocket as she becomes her school’s prettiest pretty girl overnight. But will her elite status be short-lived? How long can she keep her real self a secret? And what about that cute boy who knows her secret?

Cheese In the Trap

Hong Sul is a ordinary college student. Yoo Jung is the school's most popular upperclass man. He's good looking, rich, smart, and even nice. However, Hong Sul thinks there's more to Yoo Jung than what meets the eye…

SPY x FAMILY

The master spy codenamed has spent his days on undercover missions, all for the dream of a better world. But one day, he receives a particularly difficult new order from command. For his mission, he must form a temporary family and start a new life?! A Spy/Action/Comedy about a one-of-a-kind family!

Doppio Senso (18+)

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about a guy.”

KyungHyun stopped in the middle of a deep kiss and sighed. His lips began to form a smile, but his fierce glare said otherwise. Possessiveness and jealousy spread across his sculpted face.

“Will you tell me his name?”

His easygoing and languid voice reached her ears.

“Why?”

“So that I can shoot him down.”

317 notes · View notes