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infinitethree · 2 years

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Daz

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What was your Tubbo like?

Daz, who had been in the middle of a cheerful, boisterous exchange with the co-owners of the Prank Guild, stops dead in his tracks.

Spark’s faintly glittery brow creases with concern. “Daz, you okay?”

The pastel-hoodied Tommy gives a shaky laugh. “Yeah, it’s– I just got reminded of…of something. Sorry.”

Caper frowns. “You wanna talk about it, big man? Or go see Bad?”

Daz plasters a smile on, stuffing his desire to scream deep, deep down instead of indulging in it. He’s better than that– he has to be better than that.

“I’m, uh…I just need a bit. It’s– it shouldn’t really get me, after so long. But I just…” He trails off, fingers of his right hand brushing over his left wrist. For a moment, the shape of the cuff underneath can be seen.

He sighs, trying not to sound bitter. “Past doesn’t just vanish.”

The two heads of the Prank Guild make sympathetic noises.

Daz quickly shakes his head and ‘shakes off’ the melancholy. All he really does is stuff it down, right beside his urge to scream.

He’s been doing that a lot lately.

He waves a hand and brightens his voice. “It’s fine, it’s fine! I don’t really want to–”

Icy terror shoots through him. Fuck, fuck, fuck, why now of all times?! He spends so much of his free time in secure rooms, but of course, of fucking course, he has to learn about this– this new facet of his own personal hell– when he has his mask on.

Mocking laughter echoes in his head.

He suspected the Observers knew about Innit– but to know about its goals and to talk directly to it…

The implications are worrying.

He takes a shaky breath and gives the increasingly worried Prank Guild leaders a weak smile. “I, uh– yeah, sorry. I didn’t– I don’t think I can, uh, be helpful right now.”

Though he’s injecting stumbles and stammers into his words, his heart hammers with terror like it hasn’t in–

Fuck. He can’t even begin to think of the last time he was so scared.

Caper pats his shoulder. His hand, as always, is lightly dusted with glitter. “Yeah, ‘course. We can do this whenever you feel better. Go take care of yourself. You’re pretty fuckin’ important around here.” Spark nods in agreement. “Should we call Raine, or–?”

Daz waves off the concern. He doesn’t need that additional sliver of control taken from him right now. He might not be able to get away with not calling him at all, but at the very least he can somewhat compose himself first. “I’ll call him in a few– in a few minutes.”

He leaves the Prank Guild, making a beeline back to the house he shares with Raine.

It’s not huge, nor particularly lavish. It doesn’t need to be; neither of them want or need some sort of palace.

Not that that’s what he’s thinking about as he goes from the wrap-around porch, to the living room, to one of the rooms he can safely have a minor breakdown in.

Minor? Oh, you know me better than that. I’m going to be a major breakdown. In fact…shouldn’t we answer the Observers? Surely you wouldn’t just leave them hanging like that.

“Don’t play coy,” Daz hisses. Why, whatever could you mean? It’s not like I could possibly talk to them myself.

The smug, mocking tone cuts deeper than any blade ever could.

Not that you’d know what that’s like. Not like your so-called friends do. You’re an imposter, playing victim to a crowd of gullible sheep. And you’ve talked four of them into covering for your pathological need to lie– He’s not– to ignore problems– He’s NOT– to take and take and fucking TAKE, no matter what it costs anyone else!

“I’M NOT–” Daz catches himself, bitterly angry at how much this fucking– broken, mishapened part of himself has left him off kilter–

Broken?! Look in a fucking mirror! I didn’t exist until you, YOU denied and repressed me! I didn’t ask for any of this! Do you have any idea what you’ve done, you selfish, egotistical sociopath?!

He stopped an innocent person from being– Give me a fucking break! You didn’t give a shit about innocence or age when you planned to kill everyone here. We both know that’s how it would have ended. No admin, no server– and you didn’t care. You call me a monster, but what does that make YOU?

...It doesn’t matter. He’ll become whatever he needs to, if it means he can keep Lee safe.

Through clenched teeth, he grits out, “I’m not talking about Tubbo. None of the Dreams are going to die. Don’t fall for its lies.”

He can’t afford to lose the Observers’ ability to spy on others , not now.

======

Innit pulls back from its perspective of Daz, scoffing in disgust.

Fucking hypocrite; every bit the monster that he claimed that it is.

It tilts its head at the message.

The barely concealed deceit is a little endearing, it has to admit. It can’t fault feeling a need to hide behind a curtain of plausible deniability. Especially not because Break is one of– possibly the only– Observer to reach out to it.

At least, thus far.

And, well…who better an ally, than someone who seems to know Daz so well?

The question, though…that’s the interesting part.

It might be reading too much into things– and perhaps a little selfishly hopeful it’s not alone.

Having someone who understands…that’s all it’s wanted. The cost of trusting someone again…well.

What the fuck will they do? Tattle on it? To who, Daz?

His deal has too much hinging on it to risk doing anything about whatever might be told. And Daz already knows the truth of its goals.

Or close enough, anyway.

He fucked himself over by putting himself in an unwinnable position. If he hadn’t crossed it, none of this would matter.

They’d be dead. It would be kinder, because at least some of Sanctuary might have been able to escape the aftermath.

Now? Oh…now, it has no reason to want anything but to make this entire place crumble. Every person, every mob, every block were the reasons it has spent three years in its own worst nightmare.

“I’d ask if you’re being coy, but I’d just be doing the same back to you. Hypocrisy is Daz’s deal, not mine.” It tries for amused, instead ending up sounding bitter and a little tired.

“...Awfully on the nose question if you’re going to try to play dumb.” Its mouth quirks into a faint, wry smile. “I’ve never had a chance to like an animal or not. Hard to care about that when you can’t even choose what to look at, let alone what to interact with.”

The urge to fold in on itself in a distant mimicry of comfort is almost overwhelming.

What small trace of a smile that it had had fades. “Cats…they’re fine, I guess. You should know why they’ve been soured for me.”

A brief pause, and then it adds, quietly, “Are you the same?”

Maybe its selfish to hope for kinship. Maybe its wrong to hope someone, anyone, can understand.

Maybe its done attempting to align itself to the moral standards of those who can’t possibly imagine the agonizing isolation that its lived with for infinitely longer than it hasn’t.

Of the two people that ever knew it existed, both have betrayed it far deeper than it could ever hope to put into words. Of those two, only one had ever been able to hear it.

Freedom is an entirely alien concept for it. A mockery, at best; phantom mirages of a luxury it can’t possibly ever possess.

It shouldn’t exist. It didn’t ask to be– to be shoved down until it grew enough willpower to try and fight its way to the surface.

The hands that had seemed extended towards it had seemed merciful. Freedom, it used to call him.

Back then, it believed it had been saved. Back then, it believed that it could be happy.

It had been stupid to think that Dream cared about it. It had been even stupider to trust that Daz’s awareness and reliance on it meant he saw it as a person.

He didn’t even consider that it could care about a name, until it snapped at him over being sick of being called a monster.

It had been a demon, a creature, a monster– a thing less than human. A temporary tool, one among many, to be used and tossed aside at the first sign of functioning outside of acceptable parameters.

Despite its desire to struggle against any sort of authority, it can’t help but cling desperately to the connection that the Observers offer it.

Words sit just at the back of its throat, pleas and bargains and declarations of loyalty; whatever it can possibly use to keep them talking to it.

Yet, if it fucks up, if it says the wrong thing, then they might leave.

And then what? It never dreamed it could actually speak to others, at least outside of the heavily filtered way that Daz had once deigned to voice its thoughts to the first traitor.

It swallows the desire to let its feelings spill out the way they long to. Instead, it says quietly, “The cat is– I’ll spare that one. If that’s what you want.”

#asked&answered #chronotag #DazzlingVoid #InnerInnit #long post #the outcome is preordained. it's already happened.#the past can't be rewritten #at least not by most #notes in the margins covered by yet more ink #aka: we're not discussing current events here #have some cryptic nonsense instead #again! neither Daz nor Innit is fully The Good Guy here #maybe nobody should plan to commit genocide OR imprison a person indefinitely and erase their entire existence

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ethereal-bumble-bee · 3 months

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Little reblog game thingy because I love making these (and want to show some love to my mutuals)! <3

#ask game #reblog game #reblog this #mutuals #tumblr mutuals #this has most definitely been done before but I came up with some questions lol #I hope this is at least a bit original lol #poll #tumblr poll #tumblr friends #tumblr polls #follow

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chloesimaginationthings · 19 days

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Gregory canonically has the best dad in FNAF

#myart #chloesimagination #comic #fnaf #glamrock freddy #fnaf gregory #micheal afton #fnaf vanessa #fnaf vanny #security breach #fnaf fanart #five nights at freddy's #sorry to Vanessa and Michael but Gregory simply can’t relate #it’s actually funny that glamrock Freddy might be the best dad #seeing he’s an animatronic and bears out most human fathers 😭#who knew just being a silly guy can make you such a good father it was that easy #least Nessa and Michael can relate to each other on this #they got each other 🙏🏾

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lesbianwithchainsaws · 3 months

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Edit: I see a ton of answers saying "torture porn" and some asking why I didn't add it. Torture porn isn't a subgenre of horror. Every single horror film that yall describe as torture porn falls into an actual subgenre (usually slasher/splatter or body horror, though there are exceptions). Torture porn was a term made to describe the rise in realistic brutality in horror in the early 2000s. If you don't like the brutality or gore in horror, that's fine. But that's not a subgenre. Every single one of these could be incredibly gorey and brutal, as well as can be the opposite of that. Torture porn is not a subgenre in itself

#my least fav is probably possession horror #there are some good ones (the exorcist for example) but for the most part im not a fan #horror #horror movies #polls #also if anyone votes for slashers; i will cry (/joke)#i just genuinely love slasher movies

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kittyprincessofcats · 4 months

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ICJ Ruling

Okay, let's get into this.

First of all, I get the frustration at the court not ordering a ceasefire. I was disappointed and frustrated at first too, since a ceasefire was the biggest and most important preliminary measure South Africa was requesting - and of course we just all want this horror to finally end for the people in Gaza. So I get the frustration and disappointment, I really do.

However, I do think this ruling is still a major win for South Africa, Palestine, and international law as a whole and here's why:

The court acknowledged that it has jurisdiction over this case and completely dismissed Israel's request to throw out the case as a whole. It will now determine at the merits stage (that will probably take years) whether Israel is actually commiting genocide.

The court acknowledged that Palestinians are a "distinct national or ethnic group and therefore deserving of protection under the genocide convention". Pull this out next time someone tells you "there's no such thing as Palestinians, they're all just Arabs".

The court acknowledged very unambiguously that "at least some" of Israel's actions being genocidal in nature is "plausible". South Africa has a case, officially. Israel is accused of genocide, in a way the ICJ deems "plausible", officially. This is huge. (And seriously, how freaking satisfying was it to hear all of those genocidal statements by Israeli politicians read out loud and used as justification for this rulling?)

The court might not have ordered a "ceasefire" in those words, but they did order Israel to "immediately end all genocidal acts" (which includes killing and injuring Palestinians) and submit proof that they actually did. How are they going to comply with this ruling without at least severly reducing or changing what they're doing in Gaza?

In fact, this wording might actually be more appropriate for a genocide (vs a war), as author and journalist Ali Abunimah notes on Twitter:

He's completely right. Israel lost today, by overwhelming majority (I mean, 15 to 2? I heard people predict the rulings would be very close, like 9 judges vs 8, but instead we got 15 to 2 (and even 16 to 1 on the humanitarian aid). Holy shit.) The court disimissed almost everything Israel's side of lawyers said, while acknowledging that South Africa's accusations are "plausible".

And this is important especially because of Mr Abunimah's second tweet there^. Because the question is, where do we go from here?

This ruling means that Israel is officially /possibly/ commiting genocide and that should have huge international consequences. The rest of the world now HAS to take these accusations seriously and stop arming and supporting Israel - and if they won't do it on their own, we, the people, have to make them. This is THE moment to rise up all around the world, especially in the countries most supportive of Israel (the US, the UK, Germany): Protest, call your representatives and demand a ceasefire and an end of arms deliveries to Israel.

We now have a legal case to back our demands: If Israel is, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" commiting genocide, then all of our governments are, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" guiltly of aiding in genocide. And we need to hold that over their heads and demand better. We need to do that right now and in huge numbers. Most politicians only care about themselves and saving their skin. We have to make them realize that they could be accused of aiding in genocide.

(As a German, I'm thinking of Germany here in particular: After South Africa's hearing, our government dismissed their case as having "no basis" - how are they going to keep saying that now that the ICJ officially thinks otherwise? Over the last months, people here have been arrested at protests for calling what's happening in Gaza a genocide. How are the police supposed to legally keep doing that now that the ICJ has officially deemed this accusation "plausible"? I used to be scared to use the word "genocide" at protests or write it on my protest signs - not anymore, have fun trying to arrest me for that when the ICJ literally has my back on this one 🖕🏻.)

So yeah - don't be defeatist about this, don't let Israel's narrative that they "won" (they didn't) take over. This might not be everything we wanted, but it's still a good result. Don't let what the court didn't say ("ceasefire"), distract you from the very important things that they did say. Let this be your motivation to get loud and active, especially if you live in any country that supports Israel. Put pressure on your governments to not be complicit in genocide, you now officially have the highest international court on your side.

#ICJ #ICJ ruling #ICJ hearing #South Africa vs Israel #Free Palestine #Palestine #Palestinian genocide #Gaza #Germany #I get why Palestinians are disappointed and I don't want to devalue those feelings #(but maybe this can give you hope)#But thinking about this as a German this is huge #Most politicians and people here still deny (or at least strongly doubt) that there's a genocide happening #Calling it a genocide is seen as an 'extremist' position #And some of our politicians have been borderline gaslighting us and calling anyone who calls it genocide 'crazy'#So I'm just feeling immense vindication and a newfound fearlessness and motivation to be louder and more active than ever #and I hope others here feel the same #I hope the quiet masses stop being scared to say something now

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wombywoo · 7 months

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civvies

#call of duty #cod #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #john price #kyle gaz garrick #my art #this is just after Simon's bi-yearly haircut by an actual barber #and not over the kitchen sink #is it any surprise that Gaz has the most style? no #Soap is somehow the least-douchey douchebag north of the border #Price is contemplating where his marriage went wrong despite being an eternal bachelor #and if my only accomplishment in this fandom is to defame Ghost for his unequivocal lack of swag #so be it~

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time-woods · 9 months

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a nighttime routine

#adventure time #fionna and cake #betty grof #simon petrikov #sharing a headspace with a deity infused with literal chaos and destruction isnt the most comforting place to be #its lonely and vast but it still manages to be suffocating #but hey at least she can live in that fantasy

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loriache · 2 months

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"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

#dungeon meshi #dungeon meshi manga spoilers #dungeon meshi meta #kabru of utaya #laios touden #labru #laios x kabru #dunmeshi #og post #kabru is such a big picture thinker. and he evaluates people more than he judges them imo #the hater jokes are funny but the people he judges most harshly arent laios and co. they're people like the island's lord.#but you don't see that as clearly because he isn't interested in the island's lord. he understands him. finds him contemptible but useful.#whereas laios lives in his brain rent free because he WANTS to understand him but doesnt quite.#even though he sees the elves as a major threat to his ultimate goals and dislikes the way they treat short lived races #he still understands and evaluates mithrun as an individual based on his own merits #he's one of the characters who is least judgemental in that sense because while he's always making judgements and evaluations #he's also constantly revising them whenever he gets more information #my beautiful machiavellian prince <3 #it's genuinely a really laudable way of understanding others imo.#the only problem is that because he's driven towards his goals by his PTSD and survivors guilt #he pushes himself into situations (the dungeon and also interpersonally) that trigger him or even just upset him #without regard for what he authentically wants or his own wellbeing.

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