#I guess it'll be a surprise!

[yuzuna123]

Jun...my sweet beloved lonely angel...you don't deserve this my love! 😢😢 i hope future games and future tekken 8 content, or any content after Tekken 8 whatever they may be, manga, light novels, Story DLC's, movies, treats you with the love you have for Kazuya and Jin.

#tekken #jun kazama #tekken 8 #tekken spoilers #tekken 8 spoilers #it hurts seeing jun sad i wanna hug her #she's the most wholesome person ever she should be happy not like this #the fact that she still haven't seen her son in the real world yet #and while she took kazuya the whole scene was cut short #we should've gotten a reunion scene #but i guess they wanted to surprise new fans who thought jun was dead with that reveal #but not a good move for fans who already knew #i mean yes of course this does leave room for future canon content for kazujun since both kazuya and jun are alive after this #i should be happy but unfortunately i am not #i just hope we don't have to wait for FREAKING tekken 9 for kazujun content #i want a movie next year showing what happens after tekken 8 and their reunion #it could be between tekken 8 and 9 #hell even manga and light novels will do or even story dlc's just something #as long as they do the characters justice and they write them well it'll be fine by me #i am not asking for much am i? or am i ungrateful? #kazuya and jun are like a canon couple and og protagonists they deserve recognition too #KAZUYAAA HUG YOUR JUN!!!

[sysig]

"...we could just run away somewhere, the two of us.” (Patreon)

Too many for a single photoset, but since these are a bit on the scribbly side I didn’t want to split them up either ♪ Enjoy the added commentary!

Couple’a cut panels, Max is reacting to Dexter putting his plans in motion here

Very inspired from the ever-so-slightly earlier scene in Helix of Max covering his ears to block out Dexter’s call ♥ Even when things are going his way it’s too overwhelming!

*Summer home. I forgot what he referred to it as lol

Can’t be a meeting if you just ditch entirely!

Surprised by this turn of events, just keeps getting better and better

Of course he had to say something and make Dex mad again haha ♪

Unfortunately his dialogue here was a little too silly for being high and sad and stressed so I had to move it, but he still turned out cute so here it is instead!

Guilty guilty guiltyyyy

Knocked out from the long car trip ♥ He definitely needs it

I love this shot, Dexter leaning in to check on him 💕

He’s so flippin’ cute I fjdsklafd

Very awake all of a sudden, spooked out of sleep. You’re the first ones here, it’s all fine

Head tilts forever ♥

He is still coming down after all

Pathetic, as always

Walked to be within sight of the house so he doesn’t go wandering off

Staff at the summer home?? Sure, why not lol, maybe they’re preparing for the Vyers to come by

#Doodles #SCII #Helix #Max Vyer #Dexter Favin #Apparently I'm not done with this idea hm #I keep making Max's hair too long - I wonder who's the blame for this lol #I mean besides me pfft ♪ #These are mostly planning doodles but I like so many of them! And as much as I'm still stuck I don't know how long it'll take #So impatient lol ♫ I want to do everything and have it all done! #I mostly just wanted to get the setup pinned down - where it diverges from Helix - and then little ideas started getting at me #Starting to make a proper shape in my mind! #The rest is pretty much down to the set I posted a while ago of Max imagining a life with Dexter hehe <3 #Actually having to deal in reality tho hehe ♪ It's not so nice as just imagining an easy out! There are consequences! #Not all~ negative but consequences nonetheless hehe #I had a surprising amount of fun drawing the car interior from different angles here lol I'm not sure why! I wouldn't normally #Maybe I was just relieved I wasn't drawing the outside pfft #I'm also quite enamoured with how hard Dexter works to keep things peaceable <3 He's skilled at what he does! #Surely he has more than just tricks to keep Max tethered to his lovely cage :) Certain things ready at a moment's notice hehe #Or at least quick to get ready - guess it depends on how paranoid he is #With Max? Probably fairly pfft #I also love Max being pathetic about moving around haha he's getting what he wants but ough walking? Blegh...carry me pls (lol) #That one of Dex escorting him up to the door reminds me so much of a doodle I made ages ago with a couple of my DQIX characters actually #Similar dynamics in a way haha ♪ How fun

[songsintheattic]

it seems like it would be too soon for it to actually be making a difference but i feel really good (but not too good lol), like the kind where you suddenly realize how bad you felt now that you no longer do. so hopefully that doesn't change

#most things do tend to have an effect for me within 2 or 3 days so i guess it is very possible #just surprised #it'll take a while to fully settle on dosing for this one but im always nervous to play with anything consequential #realistically this is probably safer than iron because the consequences are similar but the doses are way lower #and i did just fine with iron #so I'm not really that worried about it logically it's just unfamiliar to me therefore somewhat scary lol

[sneezysubbyboi]

I've always stood out a bit from the crowd because of my beanpole physique for a guy — but today it was funny to get an audible "wHOA-" from my coworker, who's always just seen me in an oversized sweater until I took it off 😅

like yeah bro, these skinny arms helped you open that container you struggled with not too long ago, what about it?

#not snz #i've had one woman point to me and say she wished she had a waist like mine 😩 #liike thanks?? #I guess?? #I live in an coastal area full of buff surfer dudes so I can understand the surprise #I am incapable of gaining weight or muscle but I feel like it'll catch up to me in my later years

[falling-from-dawn-au]

War is Over - FFD Short Drabbles (-2)

This marks the start of the short stories I'm gonna be doing for Falling From Dawn! It'll be smaller stories based on each page, and I'm going to try to post these when I'm lacking in motivation to make pages. Every story will be under a read more for the sake of not accidentally making posts that take forever to scroll past.

@tmntaucompetition @rottmnt-au-summit this is propaganda btw

CW; Wound mentions. Word Count; 141

Mikey breathed a shaky sigh of relief as he closed the portal, stopping Krang Prime from escaping the Prison Dimension. He looked down, tears stinging the corners of his eyes as she saw the odd, pixel-like wounds on her hands and arms, before looking up again at the sound of Donnie’s voice. 

“Mikey, come here.”

Mikey shook a bit as he glanced over his shoulder, worry and fear in her teary eyes. “...Is Leo...” He trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

“Not dead yet, Angelo...”

Mikey froze at the sound of Leo’s shaky, damaged voice, but couldn’t stop the weak smile that came onto his face, stumbling over to Raph and Donnie’s side. They were all wounded, Leo’s wounds being the worst out of any, but they were all alive. And that’s what mattered to him the most.

“...Good.”

#I CANT DO INDENTS ON TUMBLR AND IT MAKES ME SAD </3 #ffd writing #ffd canon #ffd au #psst psst!!! open the tags <333 #falling from dawn #falling from dawn propaganda #ffd propaganda #rottmnt au #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt #save rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #save rottmnt #hey tag checkers; guess what i have a surprise for you guys #I'M MAKING AN AO3 FOR FALLING FROM DAWN!! i'm on the waiting queue for it right now!! #it'll be posted here when it goes up but YEAH!! #anyway bye

[vorefluff]

bite 2.0, this time for Alexander. Another character from @luckyshotwrites ‘s story ‘What I’d do for a Livable Income’. Because bite, I guess. If I’d been thinking I’d have waited for a bit and put the two bite doodles together on the same post.

But well. If you look at that sideways face, do you really think there’s a single thought behind those eyes? /lh 

Head empty only bite.

#my art #Doodle #WIDFALI #I finished drawing this literally 5 minutes after lucky headed off to bed wups #I guess it'll be a nice surprise in the morning haha

[todayisafridaynight]

Which piece of art did you make that you're the most proud of?

ermmmm idk, im proud of a lot of things i make tbh LOL

#snap chats #not to jeopardize my plans by jynxing it but ive been workin on an animatic for the past couple months #and by Working On It i mean ill glance at the files i have for it and realize im too busy to touch it anymore fjALKJEALKRG #i make animatics sometimes but i never post em since theyre just of jokes only id find funny jELKJ #but my spring break's coming so if i finish that during that week then i guess that'll be somethin im proud of #last time i made a long animatic. all the frames corrupted 💀SO WITH LUCK AND JOY nothing bad happens to this one #i mentioned wanting to do it months back but if people forgot ermmmm guess it'll just be a surprise :) if i finish it #aside from that tho things i have made .. like Again i dont have one piece in particular im proud of #i like a lot of stuff i make Obviously so i cant really pin down one specific thing #im proud of all the comics ive made over the years ig- my comics are my favorite pieces #i dont think im too Artistically Minded for pieces with symbolism and subtlety so comics are my favorite way to Express Myself or whatever #plus a lot of them are goofy and i like goofy so teehee

[jekna]

I randomized my character in Baldur's Gate 3, including genitals, and didn't look to see what genitals she ended up with

Haven't seen them in any cut scenes yet, including Lae'zel's first sex scene. So at this point, Lae'zel is the only person who knows what genitals my character has.

#baldur's gate 3 #character creation #Schrodinger's genitalia #it'll be as much a surprise for me as anybody #except lae'zel now i guess

[dandyshucks]

EHEHEHE ITS COMING ALONG SLOWLY BUT SURELY

#im figuring out colours rn :3c #blurry shot bc i dont rly want to post a proper WIP shot bc i want it to be a teensy bit of a surprise hehehe #if i post a proper WIP clip then I'll end up not being motivated to work on it anymore SBDHDKL #i have tried to colour correct my laptop and my tablet screens (cannot do it on my phone RIP) but somehow all three give me diff results 😭 #like the proper WIP screenshot i sent to my friend looks different on all three screens fdsgjkl sobbing #idk what it looks like to everyone else... i guess as long as it looks okay colour-wise on all three even if theyre different then its okay #like even if theyre different as long as the colours dont look muddy or clashing on any of them... SIGH #maybe its a good thing to have different colours on each screen bc then i can rly test what it'll appear like for other ppls screens LOL #dandy.cmd #doodlebug.jpeg

[aureliawisenri]

cloud datacenter stress test more like queue simulator player patience test

#text post #final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #i'm not sure what i expected. #i wonder if it would have been better or worse if i'd started an hourish ago when it opened but i was busy then lmao. #cloud servers often have poorer performance than physical servers #so honestly i think it'll be a miracle if these don't shatter apart under the strain. #i was kinda surprised they're even considering it because i'd swear i recall them previously talking about it not being an option. #anyway i guess i'll see what the queue times are like while i eat dinner (so far they're ugly) #and then my ass is back to doing other shit again. i thought it would be fun to participate but #i'm not wasting hours in queues for a character that gets deleted in a week. maybe later if it gets better.

[dahkis]

so beast tamer is getting replaced (lynched) by the new class 'lynn'

rip beast tamer 2023. couldn't make it to the end of the year LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

#me thoughts #maplestory #also apparently kms is getting lynn as well which is surprising to say the least. the first overseas class released in kms...i wonder #if there's potential for kanna and hayato's addition considering the interest kms players have for them #also also i wonder what her faction is #...whatever the fuck those horns on her head are??? since wonky was involved in the creation of lynn #i doubt they would add a whole new faction so i guess theyll just stick her in the anima BUT SHANGRI LA??????????????? #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #she's just a human is my final answer #cope #also pwease dont touch her already existing link skill and legion me would very much appreciate that *bats eyelashes* #chase and her critter crew are kinda lowkey hilarious in gameplay now that i think about it...most silliest class goes to her tbh #even have the whole circus LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO #i guess rhats one aspect ill miss about beast tamer if not for the game's earnest attempt at a unique gameplay #im curious about lynns support capabilities and whether it'll be on par (cope) or lesser bishop since lynn's main branches are split into #bossing mobbing and support. internally i want bishop to die in hard bossing parties if it werent for the fact that nexon sucks at balancin #their supports because like NO ONE compares to bishop. #so apparently beast tamer was nearly on the chopping block much like jett...pretty scary how straight up removing a class can be considered #a solution

[fierykitten2]

I just wanna say: Robert comforting Falcon after an autistic meltdown/shutdown

#I wanted to make a point but wasn’t sure how #captain falcon #dr stewart #captain falcon x dr. stewart #autistic headcanon #meltdown #shutdown #hurt/comfort - I guess #I’m sorry I’ve been thinking about this stuff this afternoon #I'm in a strange mood #hopefully it'll be a bit different tomorrow #I know he's a surgeon not a specialist in neurodivergent conditions but Robert should definitely know how to help someone with autism #I mean he's also from the future so I'd be surprised if he didn't #idk whether I headcanon Falcon as being diagnosed as a child/teen or undiagnosed but not the best at masking #but it's the future why would he need to mask #I'm way too optimistic about equality in the future

[linguenuvolose]

poor thing is going to have a heart attack

#he's joining for Easter dinner with the fam + cousins + grandpa #there's no one I've known as long as these people and I'M overwhelmed #most of them don't even know he exists lmao it'll be a surprise I guess? #idk if my dad is planning on mentioning it to them before we'll see #also he's like ?? A2-B1 in Swedish perhaps? 10 family members speaking over each other will be an immersive experience for the gods haha #we'll see how it goes I'm nervous but excited we'll figure it out #snicksnack #any advice of any kind is appreciated #but yeah I think they'll like him <3 I hope so <3

[beholdthemem]

The universe saw fit to gift my grandmother with a lovely case of covid for Christmas because of course it fucking did, so the past few days have been, uh...

Busy.

#personal #she's not in the hospital- she did end up going to urgent care on the 25th but they sent her home. #she did not TELL US she was going to urgent care we found out via whatsapp from my aunt #who'd been trying to coordinate a family zoom call and was informed by my granddad 'later. we're #at the hospital now'. #why did they not call and ask us to drive given that we live TEN MINUTES AWAY and granddad shouldn't be driving at the best of times? #that i could not tell you. something about 'not wanting to inconvenience-' which is insane #dad and i have been going up to try and get everything we can done for them since then #nana's been granddad's caretaker since he got diagnosed but anyone who's had covid can tell you it takes fucking EVERYTHING out of you #to just fucking walk around. im off work till the 9th thank god so i can be there as often as required but even so... #I have a sense that i should probably be freaking the fuck out but mostly im just... calm? it's not a happy calm idk what emotion this is #but it definitely isn't positive- but im not panicking. i feel like new bad info does not surprise me anymore it's just kind of a grit-your- #teeth-and-adjust-to-handle-shit deal. like. 'mm. god shits in our collective dinner once again. figures.' #there's no point in flying off the handle just figuring out how to fix things. im not happy but im... steady i guess? #im resigned and bitter and optimistic until im given proof not to be but mostly what i am is tired. not physically just- #my brain feels like a wrung out dishcloth. i keep trying to write because i know it'll make me happy if i can but its not working. #i keep writing paragraphs of shit that aren't matching up with what i want and if somebody gives me some meaningless platitude about #how maybe it's a sign it should be there and to try and incorporate it ill rip their face off. shut. up.

[lightningfists]

My wallet is screaming

#I'm hoping it'll be less but i won't be surprised if it's upwards of $250 #rip me i guess #i NEED it #critical role #keyleth #vox machina

[unproduciblesmackdown]

i think i've only seen a soma playthrough twice and the first time i didn't absorb it great lol but upon just some light brushing up (incl a short article that was one of the few results that cropped up when i was like "show me the images for 'soma's save feature featured fisting, right' (yeah basically)") it's like, it's always fun when you're just left with a lot of room to Interpret Themes and unsurprisingly at this juncture i'm lasering in on just, like, the matter of [the self vs the other] via this premise that basically people can just make a copy of their Psyche at any point (but needing to find a new & different Soma in which to upload it but like, largely setting that aside when In This Scenario the new bodies don't affect their minds / sense of self at all....except for when they sometimes do? or maybe not. the like glitchy monsters are just kind of WAU automatons, right. and the people are all able to act / communicate themselves as people, though they might be affected by like, existential crises over the goings on) wherein like....the protagonist can Split In Two* at a few points via the psyche copying/uploading, and then the game Follows the copy that will be continuing to advance the plot, and the version of the protagonist we Were following is now An Other even though it's like, that was The Self (at least insofar as that was our first person pov player character) up till just now. and the protagonist can Know like, yeah that's You right over there also. and yet iirc from like, yesterday's light research, in the first instance he at least gets the Option to kill that Other/Self who was, up till just then, the Self to us too, if that makes him feel better abt the existential crisis, or at least discomfort, enough to like, keep moving right along lol (speaking of. just the other day i was like "adagioly onomatopoeiaing the opening banjo strums of rainbow connection from the muppet movie soundtrack does so much for me" and then i learned it was the anniversary of its theatrical release. hell yes. also memorably once when like marinating for hours in a general malaise & failing to find the wherewital to get up i was like "haha oh wait. i'm playing the song 'movin right along' from the muppet movie in my head. okay" up & at em)

anyways the fisting article (which, i was wondering what thoughts it would have on that truly interesting facet of the game. mostly it posited that the uhh sphincteresque penetration of it all would be Typically considered to make cishet men anxious / threatened / vulnerable, and notes the protagonist (hypothetically a cishet man) is indeed trepidatious about it, while also arguing he markedly Doesn't really hesitate in shit that hurts or endangers others in the course of his shit (though ig that can also depend on the player? haven't really rewatched it recently enough to know how much his dialogue adds to [as a character though he's making it clearer he just wants to cut a swath through your shit asap]) and also questions whether the game thinks of (or, from their argument, knows of) the protag as pretty sphincteresque himself. and like yeah probably imo lol like thee ending being what it is, and as far as i know no like Multiple Endings like in amnesia series* stories usually, and thus more room to have a protagonist who talks to characters in the present and i think like, without the ability to choose what he says

anyways that the protagonist can Understand like, hey see that guy over there, that's literally also you rn, and yet he can [Not accept that] in one case such that he'll kill that Self for "his own" Self's comfort really, as the fisting article expressed, to continue believing he is Unique and the One True Self, the only Real [himself]. when, to be sure, the game Could have kept the first person pov on that version of him we'd Been up till then, and had that pov of the one killed. or maybe left behind in another instance, i don't remember all the "transfers"....catherine Explicitly explaining that only the copy/upload format is possible, Not Transfers, making sense what with like. her magic brain scans that can can wholly parse & store your Psyche data, whatever that'd be like, definitely not being meant to, say, Extract the person's Psyche from their living human body upon doing so. while the ending's drama comes from the game Now staying with the version of the protag who'd been our first person pov character prior to that "transfer," who is Again like "why am i still here" despite having the "it's not actually a transfer" explained, b/c This version Just So Happens to be the copy of the copy of the copy like simon(4) or (5) or whatever and ofc can't have been the one(s) already just left behind somewhere back there in the complex or he wouldn't have been able to be at that point in the first place. and then "killing" catherine b/c he's so pissed, i remember it as him hitting whatever device was her effective Soma, but the article i think suggested she just got too stressed in turn and that Output fried the device. while, of course, post credits shows us their "transferred" selves just fine chilling in the ark like whew glad all that's done with

anyways just getting around to the fact of how it's easy to land on catherine as the center of the game....and of course she's the one really Not having crises over [my god, copies of my Self] or others' selves or what all, having even less of a usual Soma than simon but rolling with it, and evidently having already fully absorbed her Self as a distinct version from her original Self, despite having the same links to her that make simon or anyone else who's been copied into whatever other Soma feel like he's continuously been Himself(tm), the one true Real Self he's always been....and like, naturally catherine being the one behind the entire project of [what if we copy/paste people's psyches into a big ol mmorpg server & shoot it into space so that Maybe something can happen with them / in a way they can continue to exist] so she's Been thinking of, you know, being separate from these Selves turned Others who you'll jettison into space beyond even the body of the earth. unless it's supposed to stay in orbit lol i do not remember the details....and ofc like plenty of other people are like wow that's Fucked Up or it's Not Us and like, the latter sure is true with with the [copying, not transferring] element, but also the former is more choose your own adventure (interpretation) when the game isn't about like, and the simulation Is fucked up, or there's any element of distress or dissonance to existing on the ark, though you can't really know that until the post credits scene confirms you're just hanging out for real....which, that article was also going in on the character who's on this quest to kill the WAU as like "the versions of us it makes isn't Real it's Corrupting" and like, arguably the WAU as just kind of, naturally, something capable of growing, and doing so, and the real problem seeming to come in with the [doing whatever for supposed safety but superceding/supplanting/displacing autonomy in doing so] like, people who did not agree to whatever was done re: their Somas or they would've remembered & been like yeah i'm hanging out as a robot now, or a goop guy, gunk [YES], etc. but separate from that obvious issue it's like, my guy, You're a copy made by the WAU now lol, you're your whole person that you are, with the thoughts & feelings to decide you wanna go on a quest to destroy it, and whatever capacity to pursue it....either way i think the game makes it clear enough the WAU is a Neutral force exercising no conscious discernment, it Is a body, or it's some body (once told me) anyways lol, though i guess i did just go "those Monsters that can chase you are just wau manifestations right" so that's getting kind of complex lol, but even that can be taken as, like, it Mimicking human's shapes & bipedality & other external characteristics, i guess, and just the way an overall theme can be [hmm where's that division between the soma and psyche, machine and ghost] the WAU has been expanding and making various forms of itself, and of humans, and that's also an element of the fisting that starts out as a fingering and can end with having to leave part of yourself in WAU's core if you have completed the choice to corrupt & destroy it, that Connection and Interfacing is required, with increasing [get it in there] required as well though there's no given clear in universe reason why (w/my theory here being: just the Themes of the increasing interaction / reducing Boundary)

where was i going with this. idk naturally there's people like "well you don't have to see the wau as evil or at least required to be destroyed" like yeah one can imagine the case for that, wherein again this one guy's hypothetically mad abt like oh it can't be Us it's making, like, brother in christ You are here as You are b/c of what wau did, if you don't think You're legitimate enough, how can you be dead set on pursuing any decision you make. but also the lack of autonomy wherein wau has (probably? again would have to rewatch) killed people to transfer them to a less fragile soma, but a) also maybe it's just acted when people were already dying / killed from other causes, and naturally there's the Everyone There Doomed To Die Fairly Imminently factor and b) that [wau's neutral / purely soma no psyche (or is it. etc)] aspect that is that classic mixup of wau just acting on its programming in a way unintended by its programmers re protecting life and c) i think WAU can sure be interpreted as a parallel counterpart to the ark project, where people agreed to the latter, & get to chill with simulated bodies in a simulated world, versus the WAU being that [body, world, realm of physical existence] which is funky & Not like a cool nice recreation of the usual world & is also at the bottom of the ocean, but it's sure trying to extend the existence of ppl's psyches by shoving them into whatever robots or slapping together parts or propping up their original body or what all, i don't remember that many of the characters encountered

Anyways Back To Catherine For Real. i'd forgotten this element completely, but that when catherine finds out her original self had been killed by crewmates (lol. amongst) for being set on carrying out the plan for the ark, Her Project, (i.e. launching it into space (risking that launch going incorrectly) vs keeping it on site at the bottom of the ocean here (theoretically less risky, according to at least the crewmate who killed her about her insisting on launching it anyways)) and catherine's copy / now alternate self comments on being like, a bit disappointed And surprised b/c like she says "i knew they didn't like me, but," like not thinking that dislike would lead to a semi accidental killing her (where apparently the guy who killed her may have been wearing the like powered diving suit w/the extra Strength to operate in the water pressure, like oh didn't mean to hit her That hard. in a different soma already) and seeing other ppl (not in universe) commenting on how it sure did seem to be culmination of like "the way others treated her" and how catherine always mentioned like, never having really had friends including as a crewmate here, being an Introvert....in fact, now i'm remembering that catherine doesn't even say "i knew they didn't like me, but" but rather something very close to "i know i'm not easy to like, but" like, aaaugh....like, as ever, a character or a Real Life Person sharing any particular info like "i'm [xyz]" Isn't Required for just trying to always not be ableist and to always treat other people as people even if they don't "just be normal" correctly enough, supposedly. rather than [what is "just being normal" is Correct & Good and you do Not need to undergo a continuous lifelong journey of in fact questioning this & navigating & learning how to communicate & interact & relate, you just need to fleetingly muster some superficial unhelpful Bonus efforts sometimes when you encounter the rare "exception" like someone who hands you their License To Autiste and you can let them keep their fidget cube and continue treating everyone you encounter ever organic aba style]....like, naturally in the game there's no twist where catherine turns out to be Evil or even antagonistic. she's like, patient, encouraging, friendly, helpful all throughout. she's also, ofc, simon's only guide (adding to the suspense of that [my god. my only guide was evil, and/or just my antagonist now anyways]) so he doesn't really get to pick someone he'd Like more. but that like, lifelong matter of why catherine doesn't Get to have had friends. that even as this professional associate she's treated differently, and worse, b/c you have to personally like someone & find them charming & je ne sais quoissy to Not be worse to them? it's fine to be shitty until catherine can, say, say "i've noticed you're being kind of shitty. it's probably b/c i'm autistic, officially, which i'm choosing to share with you & am now presenting my license about it, so maybe be cool about it" and then and only then go "oh ok" and Make The Exception rather than shifting your entire shitty Rule (they also would not actually really make the exception. "shoutout" too to the concept that, of course, it's actually Disrespectful to stop hating autistic ppl b/c you should treat them The Same as anyone else, and you're bringing that organic ABA all the time as part of your "just be normal" ethos life, so be sure to keep being an asshole to them & double empathy probleming putting all the depletion, extraction, punishment, losses, harms on them and all the rewards on yourself)

and like, catherine being killed b/c she was this Body who was going to take away the ark (her project / creation, which she was also just insisting on following what'd always been the plan for) wherein like, even if this guy didn't mean to kill her, he sure did after lashing out at her, same as happens w/simon in the end....and catherine also failing to be thee most "normal/default" version of a person as well by being a Woman, and probably not white either, and, of course, a nonwhite woman, also making her that much more vulnerable to being Out Of Line(tm) by just like, existing as a person & trying to do her shit, though misogyny, racism, orientalism or the like isn't explicitly invoked or especially implicitly hinted at that hard either, but it's like, how does this [scifi magical realism set in the not That distant future but material made in the way less distant past, i.e. all intents & purposes modern / current day of: in the 2010s] have Relevance beyond "would that be fucked up or what" type Invention that doesn't map on to our experiences at all....you don't Have to read into catherine twice being killed by a man who's lashing out b/c she's not delivering what he wants, but you sure don't Have to Not and be like "this is definitely No Misogyny world" like they're still being implicitly ableist b/c she's just not deemed Winsomely Likable enough, she's internalized that with that "i'm not easy to like" framing, why assume a premise of [misogyny is over] [racism is over] etc. whilest soma doesn't really proffer any scenario of like "oh if it weren't for our being able to perceive our designated Physical Differences in our human bodies, all that oppression would be over," that's not being explored even in the specific situation of its plot in the first place; people on the ark seem to have the simulation of the same bodies they originally did, ppl Can retain like, how they'd move, their voices, their sense of their bodies: elements of their physicality. and, you know, whether one even supposes there Is any meaningful body/mind division, though in soma it Is this premise like oh yeah we can digitize your psyche perfectly okay, such that your copy would experience no disruption in that Sense Of Selfness, which is what makes everything particularly like, whoah, and [wow this is just like soma] whenever something kind of invokes similar enough What Ifs but probably less engagingly lol....while also soma is flexible and spacious in letting you interpret shit, you Can defer from fisting wau to death, you don't have to be like "it's so true. thee horrors" abt the Copies Of Selves, who really just become Others to whatever now-other versions of that person, i.e. how catherine, who, as the person who wanted to scan copies of ppl's psyches & put them in a just chilling simulation server launched into space for the Chance of being copy/pasted elsewhere eventually and the chance for the participants to Exist in some form Now, and who did so, is never like, shocked or freaked out by the notion / reality of these copies' existence even though she didn't set out figuring any scans' uploads would end up on the ocean floor stations, she's not aghast & distressed in the end when after having uploaded her latest Self data to the ark & launched it, she's also Not on the ark and Still in the eventually / doomed ocean floor station, even if it's a bummer, b/c she has already just accepted That's How It Works....this [her] was not going to experience being Transferred, like she's Been saying, like she again tells simon while he's blowing up abt [why wasn't i transferred]....just clearly being an example of like, not everyone is like horrified and freaked out and like "that's fake &/or wrong" and you don't have to decide she's incorrect for being Like That, i.e. like, yep, this is the situation, i know there's the me who was killed and the me on the ark and the me here, and i know also we're also for intents and purposes separate people

all that is to say, like, yeah the Scifi What If specific [you can copy/paste your consciousness into a different soma] is there, but also you can be looking at it as just this like, pushing to thee limit of the Self(tm) and the Other(tm) insofar as imagining yourself, as the only Internality / Mind / Selfhood you have access to, as The One True Real Self and all Others as mere somas/bodies, whether you take that to as dehumanizing an extreme as you can or you just put some double standards on Others / treat them as lesser/less Real, or oh but just Sometimes, in Some Cases, which is fine and relevant to anything, rather than what's fine and relevant being to always be aware that everyone's Otherness is a matter of perspective, you're the Other to everyone else, everyone is just as The Self as everyone else, You Could Be That Other, that other Is [you] to themself, you are the "that could be you" to them....with soma, it can just be elevated to "that Other WAS you from 0.5 mmsec ago, and continues to be them, b/c they didn't experience any disruption in their existence, though now you're both in different situations of: different locations, different bodies, the awareness there's that Other Self over there now, possibly the difference of killing that self you were just copied from so you can go on feeling like the One Real Self"....but wherein like, that's just like, [What If: you Were able to wholly & accurately Know the self inside an Other? b/c it's you from 5 min ago] of like, scenarios like [what if you time traveled 5 min into the past] except wherein that case there's usually the efforts to Resolve(tm) the timeline of that One True Self one way or another, ultimately. or is there. obviously who's positing that soma is the only material to be About the "whoa lol. me as an other" concept made scifily literal or anything

anyways that like, it creates that situation wherein one Can point & go "literally literally me" but also simultaneously one Can go "that's Not literally me arrrgh" or "that's also Not literally me, matter of factly"....simon's wrangling with the Othering of his One True Self, but he can also Know, should he choose to shift to that perspective, that all the Others who aren't alternate copies of him are all Another True Selves, An Other True Self even, though ofc as per the nature of not having a collective consciousness, he Doesn't Know the accurate whole of their psyches b/c he was not ever [literally them], but he doesn't need to to know they're just as [a whole psyche in there] as his own have been. original catherine with her fellow original crewmates being othered enough by them for the dehumanization of treating her worse, her being isolated, that indeed her being killed doesn't feel separate from all that by her or by anyone else, just an escalated extreme final fatal manifestation of it, b/c nobody ever liked her in the first place and then she became a (psyche Piloting a) body getting in the way of what one guy with amplified strength at that moment wanted from the project she made to let others' psyches keep existing in some way, which was deemed valuable enough by that guy to want to commandeer it and keep it at the bottom of the ocean versus risk a launch, regardless of how you the player think of the idea

and thinking of the way you can like, effectively befriend that boxy underwater little propellered Regular Simple Robot Helper that follows you around at some point, that is, of course it can't talk to you, it's definitely Just(tm) this not-ever-a-version of a human robot for practical tasks (dyspeptical tasks, clerical tasks, hysterical tasks) and like, imagine Its interiority, get invested, try to protect it, humanize it regardless....whereas with actual humans, and their psyches in a microchip, you can kill them for not perfectly delivering whatever you wanted even when that's not what other humans ever exist to do. then simon loses the Company he still could've Gotten From catherine, [guy who killed original catherine] didn't succeed in keeping the ark unlaunched, b/c that's what you go and do....but really just thinking of that Thread that feels so extremely relevant of like, catherine copy being simon's only option sure and working With him on this mission until we stay with the edition of him who realizes it didn't lead to his escape onto the ark, i.e. always being in relation to him in a manner of a direct practical teamup & a [take it or leave it] sole option for that anyways....but that in her original, human-bodied life, she was always "oh only a little bit" dehumanized by everyone such that she is very much aware of the way that's defined & limited her life, never had friends, i know i'm difficult to like; until that dehumanization escalated to the extreme of trying to hit her to stop her from seeing her project through, and just happening to kill her, and the fact that this seems to no one just a coincidental whoopsie of a fate just entirely disconnected from the way others always saw her and treated her as this Other among others, while other [psyche/soma]s of others who are clearly not Your Self get to have friends and not be isolated and feel hard to like forever and end up killed by coworkers

tl;dr like love a text just inviting plenty of interpretations and lenses and perspectives, ofc gonna look at it like whoa it's anarchy in there (political cats sense) where are the borders where you are thee self above thee other....soma providing that thinnest boundary of like, yeah that mf over there? there but for the [being in a different body, in a different place, with 7 seconds of negligibly different life experience] go ye. but also the usual boundary of "that person is in a different body in a different place with a different whole life but you're [that] to them and they're just as much a person and a self and an other as you are" like catherine center of the game to me

(* just remembered i had these asterisks: sure enjoying how the premise of amnesia games effectively creates Alternate Selves b/w the protagonist's present self, with however much missing time, and past selves whose goings on are completely relevant to the in media res situation you're also tackling while obtaining pieces of that past to priovide further context/info, and how this premise manifests for different stories each time; you've even got oswald like physically divided into Two Selves in a:amfp, though iirc it's not like, psychically equivalent, kinda "regular oswald & nefarious destroy the world duplicitous oswald" lmao, classic....uhh and shoutout to penumbra being similar ish in that the protagonist's story isn't want's relevant, he's trying to find out what happened to his dad and more broadly the like underground pocket world he enters for those answers? iirc....but that soma shares that amnemonic premise of [intro] [suddenly like ???] [having to navigate your present mission & figure out the past & your Missing time] but like, thee respective Lores don't overlap really, soma obviously starts present day and takes an even more obvious leap into a future / completely different location, rather than amnesia games being set in the past with missing time of like, idk months? to even just days, uhh supposedly like [forever] in justine but that's like, i dunno sure lol, the peak mysterious / withheld protagonist really, on purpose. while naturally there's also the fact that, technically, this simon we are following at the start of the game did not actually forget anything, and that's a fun distinction despite that it otherwise initially seems like the same [amnesia] premise....and that he did kind of ""forget"" things in that original simon lived however much longer before dying, that his scan then ofc didn't retroactively include. so once again it's like, well, in amnesia ppl have likewise kind of rewound to a Past Self before the missing [crucial context to your in media res misadventure] time, w/daniel (and justine) even doing this On Purpose, though as is the nature of the amnesia series, everyone regains enough of that missing info about their goings on anyways, though you the player are Not in a story of like "wow they did Exactly the same thing again and ended up in the same place anyways" and Do get to kinda choose who they are / indeed end up with some Alternate Self, potentially, despite there being plenty of room wherein like, it's not precisely, granularly laid out Exactly Who They Are at any point anyways. only just now getting extra amnemonic lore that yes daniel got all fucked up on vitae rituals b/c that's just what happens! and people are fairly horny for it! always a possible interpretation that he was high on vitae (okay one proffered pronunciation of "curriculum vitae" (which i was like lord i feel like i've gone "what tf is that" about before but what tf is that. turns out it's what CV stands for as your specifically educational resumé) does say "vitae" would, in that case, rhyme with "nigh." other sources are listing like a million different combinations of a million different ways to pronounce each syllable. also they gotta say it a way in the game but i forget. daniel's VA apparently being some chemistry teacher? just like alchemy. not what the pope said to do, weird science, it's my creation....) anyways! the psyches diverge, the bodies don't, unless they do (oswald....uhh the guy in the bunker. lambert :( ) like catching up with The Self again, encountering extreme examples of Othering and Dehumanizing and [you are just like only a soma to me] with various means and ends of acting thusly to get xyz results

#uhh nominal tagging. i probably have nonzero soma posts...? maybe? lol #soma #amnesia #atdd #soma spoilers yeah but a) game's more than half a decade old at this point b) material that hinges on Surprising you the first time as like #thee sole worthwhile feature of its experience: probably not that good; i don't think soma's even dying to keep you from guessing any #''twists'' and if you Do it doesn't feel like you're like cheated of anything lol. though i'm sure the surprises are fun. the ending is sur #like yeah oh a fucked up surprise for the player too; but that's b/c the game of course Until Now followed the ''advancing'' simon copy #c) same as (b) but like spoilers don't really ruin things anyways imo. who is reading this in whole like ''damn i was Just gonna play this' #whereas idk now you know of it. also lbr who is reading this in whole period? probably some people lol. you do not have to ofc as a fact an #as a stance. i'm like; would i read someone's longass post abt something i don't already know abt / am not interested in? not often #d) if you Are like ''nooooo SOMA spoilers arrrgh i was Just abt to play it'' like damn my bad. i'm sorry. play it anyways it'll be fun #or e) watch a playthrough. i myself cannot Firsthand Game too much & this has generally been the case #long post //// #all this uncrucial and noncomprehensive but just taking 90k words & meandering tangents to say [hand over heart] catherine.... #as is my mode of verbalizing anything really #i'll recommend the game easily enough; sure watched a full playthrough twice & may revisit for a thrice. or at least various clips lol #even got a safe mode (where you Can't Die so you can get through every part b/c thee story is the point anyways)