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#eyes ears etc so this is just a concept of only changing one part of her body to cat eyes
spirit-of-a-kiger · 6 months
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Headcanons about how each member of the TADC cast feels about physical contact
Ragatha definitely loves touch the most out of any of the human souls. Her favorite kind of contact is hugs by far, but she’ll gladly accept any other form, too. She’s pretty bummed that none of the others are nearly as cuddly as her, but she respects their boundaries nonetheless.
Gangle isn’t nearly as cuddly as Ragatha, but she generally likes it. Her ribbons are very soft and silky and smooth, but her porcelain mask is her favorite place to be petted. She loves it when people pat her head, stroke her cheek, and most of all, when they wipe her tears. Sometimes, if someone comforts her while she’s crying, she’ll even snuggle up to them. Sometimes, she even loses track of her ribbons, and before anyone knows it, she ends up a tangled mess around the other person.
Jax is pretty neutral. If someone touched him affectionately, he would be confused as to why they would even want to do that, but he would allow it. They’d have to be pretty lucky for him to not make any snarky comments about it, though. Also, while he doesn’t care for it much normally, he would grow to really like it if it went on for long enough or if he was in need of comfort. He wouldn’t admit it, of course, but I’m picturing someone petting his head for a while, and eventually, he gets so relaxed that he lowers his ears, closes his eyes, and leans into it (kinda like in Bendy and the Dark Revival when Audrey pets Tom). He may even doze off a little.
Kinger is way too nervous to enjoy touch for the most part. Occasionally, he’ll awkwardly pat someone if he sees that they need comfort or if he just wants to show a bit of affection, but if anyone touches him, he freaks out. The only person whose touch comforts rather than scares him is Ragatha. He especially likes when she strokes the little cross atop his head. When Ragatha does so (provided there is nothing else going on that would keep his guard up), he kneels down and bows his head as though submitting to her.
Pomni is similarly afraid of touch. Currently, she spooks if anyone touches her in any way, though that may change once she’s been in the circus long enough to establish trusting relationships.
Zooble isn’t really scared of touch, per se, but they do find skin-to-skin contact disgusting. If you grab them and refuse to let go, they will go from struggling to attacking you with their antlers. Unfortunately, Caine doesn’t feel pain, so not even stabbing him in the eyes with a pointy, jagged horn deters him. Once whoever it was finally lets them go, they begin to shudder violently for however long it takes to get it out of their system (which usually depends on how long they were touched for – usually around 2-5 minutes, though it can certainly go on longer and has many times). During this time, their eyes are wide open, looking at nothing in particular, and they hold their arms out away from their body, as if even their own limbs are invading their space. For several hours afterwards, their personal space bubble is greatly expanded.
Bubble may be a strange, mischievous little gremlin, but he is also happy to be Caine’s lapdog. He loves being hugged and petted. Sometimes, he enjoys it absently with not a single thought behind his beady little eyes; other times, he will return it gratefully, such as by eagerly licking Caine’s face.
Caine is very touchy-feely. Since he doesn’t even understand that stabbing people hurts and scares them, he’s definitely not gonna know about more subtle concepts like personal space. (Heck, even some humans have trouble with that.) He often shows affection to members of his troupe by hugging them, swinging an arm around them, patting their heads, etc. Even the ones that normally welcome touch get scared when Caine does it.
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a-s-levynn · 19 days
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How i do stuff | Part 2
Okay so i'm kinda doing this backwards going from the shading back to the sketching but not like i did anything logically ever.
THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE A LINE FOR LINE PROCESS because i am not that insane. Yet.
To be honest the entire sketching process is very intuitive on my part so i don't think i can provide much insight here but i'll try to make it make sense.
It is really not as conscious as the shading.
So first: have an idea to work with
Find a concept i like and go from there.
I decided that i want Vessel to look upwards and a little bit to the side and add some other details (which you are not going to see here yet. We are talking about sketching people here not background or whatever.)
Next step: i try to find a reference image that is as close to the desired pose as possible. It could either be made by a posing tool or actual reference image. Whichever is at hand.
(For whatever mysterious reasons i have a small catalog of IV pics in my head rent free so i actually knew what i was looking for.)
I use reference pictures for a few reasons. For one, they make it so much easier to figure out poses and movements. But more importantly by looking at them i can figure out the flow of the body much more faster than just from memory. They also help with understanding how cloth is draping or the way light hits certain shapes and surfaces. There are a lot of benefits.
Anyway so we have our reference picture:
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But i wanted Vessel to look the other way so flipped it. (Zoom in not mandatory but we don't need the rest of IV for this.)
Ye okay i can now kind of figure out where goes what in relation to one and other.
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Okay okay okay i know: draw a circle than finish the fucking owl.. no bear with me. I need something on the page to talk about what i do. Lemme explain:
So first i'm starting with the traditional x or cross (blue on the pic below). I usually i orient it in my head that the meeting point of the line is the part of your nose dips right above the nosebridge. Because that is usually in the same level as the eyes. At least how i start, they could be moved up or down later.
So the horizontal line for me is the middle of the middle pair of eyes/eyeholes for Vessel or if there is only one set of eyes than it is the middle line for the eyes. I found it most comfortable in proportion wise for me to start with. (This horizontal line would be the tip of the ears as well if i had ears on here.)
Than i pick where the tip of the nose and the mouth is going to be roughly. Doesn't have to be more than a little dot or line, it is going to be changed later anyway.(pink lines below)
I also pick a comfortable spot on the vertical line where the point of the chin is going to be, where throat starts and pick a spot for the addam's apple.(pink lines below)
Than i make the whole head into somewhat head like shape (pink egg like shape below), because where that ends is basically what i'm connecting with the chin point to find the jawline. (green lines below)
Maybe even add to a line or two for where i imagine the hood to go just for funsies.
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What else i do simultaniously with this is finding the flow of the face because where his adam's apple is, will tell me where the neck bends in the movement, the neck curving point will show where the shoulder connects, but also where the tendons are going towards the suprasternal hollow and then where the collarbones start and angle back up towards the shoulders etc. Everything connects to the next thing.
(I also do this for half or full body figures as well, only there i'm trying to find the flow of the entire body. Or more accurately the curve of the spine in a natural or close to natural shape first and then figure out the smaller parts.)
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Look i'm not gonna lie, for this to be eyeballed off of even a pretty close reference picture in a way that looks close to natural or makes sense, you have to have a basic understanding of anatomy.
It doesn't have to be a conscious understanding but it has to be there. There are endless tutorials out there to help with this and i highly recommend looking up a few because i know not everyone can learn it just by looking at dancers and anatomy lab videos.
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Next step: find a reference for the mask and preferably for the mouth because i'm bad at drawing mouths and i want to learn. If it is moving make it not moving, it helps a lot. Kill it with a screenshot, put it in Paint, bury it in a jpeg. Simple as that.
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When i have my mask reference, i'm just trying to find a sweet spot that matches it in a way that feels good. First i'm going for the rough outline of it, details can be added later. It is not going to be a one-to-one to the reference because it is not the exact same angle, but it still helps.
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And from here it is mostly just trial end error of putting lines and details in and than erasing them until i reach a state where i can say: yup this is look decent enough and can refine it into a lineart and start shading.
Not much else i could share here about this part of the process because as i've said most of it is pretty intuitive and based on a certain level of anatomical understanding.
(Hopefully you'll see the end result in a couple of days but we'll see how much time i'm going to have.)
Love you all and i'm sorry i can't provide more than this ♥
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adobe-outdesign · 1 year
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How do you feel about the pre-evos for the pre-release revealed Gen 9 mons? (Or to put in more simple terms, Charcadet, Tadbulb, Shroodle and Cetoddle)?
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Charcadet is more or less what you'd expect from an Armarouge pre-evo. It's small, it's cute, and it's pretty clear how it transitions into its evo. The coal mask is clever and the dark parts of the body give the design good balance and contrast.
Notice, however, that I said it's what you'd expect from an Armarouge evolution. It's very bizarre that it has a split evo, yet the pre-evo so strongly resembles only one of its evolutions. The Gumbi limbs, the color palette, and the shoulder pads are all Armarouge-like, while literally the only Ceruledge element in it is a tiny spec of blue at the top of its fire "ponytail". It would've been easy enough to work some more blue into the design if nothing else, so I don't know why they didn't do so. Not that big of a deal, obviously, just the one main thing that bugs me about it.
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I actually like Tadbulb more than Bellibolt. I don't love it or anything, but I feel like it's stronger in concept and overall design than Bellibolt, which felt somewhat unfocused.
The idea of a tadpole that's also a lightbulb is simple but effective for an electric-type. The body shape conveys this well, with the upper body having a distinct light bulb shape and the tail being more tadpole like.
That said, I'm not a big fan of the colors or the markings. It's hard for me to unsee the yellow on the head as hair, and even putting that aside, brown doesn't feel like a good pick for a light bulb; a solid yellow body, or even white, would've worked just as well. The white dots on the yellow are also bothersome; what even are those? I'm also not big on the face, but that's just a personal thing.
So in short, I like the idea and I think Tadbulb has the right idea overall; it's just that the execution could've used a few more rounds of refinement to really work.
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For some reason a lot of people seem to be confused by a "mouse" evolving into an aye-aye. To me, it makes perfect sense—as Shroodle's name implies it's a shrew, not a mouse, and shrews are one of only a few venomous mammals. This fits with Grafaiai's poison-typing and poison saliva. And Pokemon have never needed to evolve into the same species as they start out with, so I don't get why people have an issue with this.
What I will say, however, is that I find the change in anatomy jarring. Grafaiai has relatively realistic anatomy with defined limbs and whatnot, so it feels weird to go from that to this shapeless little blob. Stuff like it having no whiskers, nose, or proper limbs make it feel like a completely different Pokemon despite the obvious visual similarities (such as the eyes, colors, "hair", etc.).
And just in terms of isolated design, the "notch" in the black feels strange (mostly because it's hard to unsee it as an ear), and it having pupils feels weird. It's fine enough, but I don't find myself liking it even a fraction as much as Grafaiai.
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Finally, Cetoddle is fine; nothing spectacular, but nothing bad. When I first saw it I thought it looked a bit too much like Cetitan, and indeed, it doesn't progress at all in the land whale department. However, the "toddler" elements, such as the uncertain gait and single buck tooth, save it from feeling pointless.
It also has some visual differences; it lacks an underbelly or any gray on the design whatsoever, the mouth is a different shape meant to close around its single tooth perfectly, and the pink covers only the upper eyes instead of the entire outside ring. It also only has one horn and no claws. These changes, combined with the slightly tweaked concept, help it stand out a little against Cetitan. It's still obviously not a groundbreaking pre-evo, but it works for what it is.
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So overall: Charcadet is good except for the complete lack of Ceruledge elements to it. Tadbulb has some design issues but is still stronger than Bellibolt, Shroodle doesn't quite fit artstyle-wise with Grafaiai but at least makes conceptual sense, and Cetoddle is perfectly fine and does what it needs to.
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theladyoracle · 5 months
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ur a veteran emo? please teach me ur ways, I aspire for the 2000s emo culture but I can't find clothes anywhere😭
Yess! <3 Absolutely.
I'm truly no expert, but I can definitely share some insight with my personal experiences! Honestly by 'veteran emo' I always meant it as a 'I paid my nickel' type deal. I still dress alternative and dark, but my style has definitely changed to meet my needs as I've gotten older (no more skinny jeans for me LOL.) However, I do want to write all the tips I've picked up on my emo-inspired fashion journey - because I really do dress in homage to my 12 year old self. So without further ado, as per my 21 years of being an oddly dressed, dark inspired, self proclaimed emo veteran....here are my top tips to perfecting your own style:
1. Don't Be Afraid to Cut Your Clothes.
Seriously. Don't be afraid. I am so shit at sewing its not even funny (and I have TRIED) but if I've learned one thing: if you're not wearing the clothes anyway- cut em up.
I never wore any of the T-shirts I bought myself until I cut all of them into an "off the shoulder" style. Now that they're comfortable for me, I feel so much more confident in them! And they're way more flattering too. This tip goes for any clothes. Don't be afraid to fuck them up - dye, cut, tie, add patches if that's your thing, embroidery, etc. If they end up looking like garbage that's okay! You can just donate them/toss them/use them as rags lol. The main thing is that you'll start building confidence on how to DIY your clothes, at least minimally.
2. Iconic Emo Hair is a Journey
HAIR!!!! Growing up in the 2000s, I would go to a cheap seat salon, holding my little printed out photo of some emo girl from the internet. I was excited beyond belief! I would sit down and ask the jaded 50 year old stylist to cut my hair like the girlie in the photo, only to be met with judgmental eyes and horrible experiences.
One time, this lady deadass said to my impressionable 11 year old self; "Ah, yes, the iconic style of.....that."
I have had way Too Many Karen haircuts in my life. Some I totally slayed ! Others were.....mm.
Anyway, my recommendation on hair is this - either do it yourself (I could never) or do your research. Find some local non-chain salons in your area and look at the stylists. Stalk their instagrams! Look at their work. Find someone who loves doing shags and wolfcuts. I now go to a "higher end" salon. My girlie Caitlin has tranformed me into the punk emo princess of my dreams! I already had a side part, so I basically asked for a shaggy mullet with a bunch of layers, but I asked to keep a swoopy bang/fringe and some pieces of hair in front of my ears to frame my face.
3. It Grows with You Over Time.
It doesn't matter where you get your clothes. What matters is that the clothes you're getting bring out the most authentic, confident and amazing version of yourself! Style is an extension of yourself, so don't be afraid to adapt concepts from 2000s emo culture into the modern styles you might love today.
The first thing I recommend for literally ANYONE trying to discover themselves and their style is to make an aesthetic board. Not a board specifically for fashion, but rather one that encompasses you. Scenery, trinkets, textposts, aesthetic images that remind you of yourself, even just things that you like! Having a visual for who you are and who you want to be is so helpful. Literally anything and everything can be used as closet inspiration, and having an aesthetic board that completely revolves around you and how you perceive yourself can be so eye opening!
You might even recognize patterns in your interests that you didn't even notice before! Color palettes, textures, and shapes can all come to light. All of these things are very helpful in figuring out your personal style.
Once you have a genuine idea of your personal aesthetic board, you can then make one for fashion. Adding outfits or articles of clothing that you're interested in will help you when thrifting and shopping! I always pull up Pinterest when I'm at the mall or thrifting. It helps me get an idea of the clothes I already have and the types of outfits I want to wear.
For example, here are some of the patterns I recognize on my aesthetic boards:
Silver jewelry (layered necklaces, lots of rings)
Spider imagery
Long black skirts
Black, deep reds, dark blues
Platform boots
Celestial imagery
Leather jackets
Oversized button up shirts (flannels, dark colored corduroys)
Witchy plants
Shirts with long, interesting sleeves (bell, balloon, flared)
Big ol' sweaters
Bat imagery
Black tank tops with a 'v' neckline
Your style will evolve as you get older. And no matter who you are - style is versatile. Even if you love to wear corsets and gorgeous form fitting skirts most days....eventually you'll need a day in just sweatpants and your coziest sweater. As stated - what matters is that the clothes you have make you happy and bring forward your most authentic and confident self.
4. Don't Put Yourself in a Box!
Making your style your own will not only help you feel confident in your own skin, but also gives you flexibility in your closet. Style evolves with you! You shouldn't worry about you should or shouldn't be wearing just to fit into a special box like "emo" or "goth" or "cottagecore" or any of that! Instead, take the elements of those styles that you love and implement them into your wardrobe. This also helps you find clothes that are comfortable and that you'll actually wear.
5. Emo Style Starter Pack
For emo clothes in particular, I recommend accumulating clothes that are black, dark grey, grey, and white (yes white.) And then choose an accent color! For me, my favorite colors to wear are blue and purple. So when I started accumulating a concrete wardrobe my Junior year of high school, I mostly focused on black clothing and found accentuating accessories or articles of clothing that matched my fave accent color.
For someone starting to shop for traditional emo clothes, here's a shopping list I've curated:
Long sleeved shirts (black, striped, patterned) (to be worn under other shirts or stand alone)
Black tank tops (different straps)
Band t-shirts! Or just dark t-shirts with alternative designs
Heavy jacket/button up shirts (flannels, jean jackets, leather jackets)
Dark pants (can have as many pocket/rip/design elements as you'd like)
Dark boots (could be platforms)
Canvas sneakers
Oversized hoodies
Layered necklaces
Fingerless gloves
Multiple rings
Belts with dangling elements like chains
Beanie hats (you can get cute oversized ones)
Flat brimmed caps (LOL YES! IF YOURE INTO IT)
Black bandanas to wear over your hair (I think you can wear them in a lot of cool ways :3)
At the end of the day though, if you just wear a lot of black any normie will call you an emo. Find clothes that you feel comfortable and clothes that will make you feel badass!
Hope this helped! Or maybe it didn't lol. I'm just glad I managed to actually finish this post.
xoxo
-Oracle
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inamindfarfaraway · 2 years
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Dark Oracle AU
Okay, I need to expand on this concept. I present my personal idea of a timeline from the canon state of affairs (or, well, my interpretation of them because comics are so inconsistent and full of crap, basically pre-New 52 with Duke) to Big Sister dictatorship!
The Batfamily is battling a really serious threat, like Ra’s al Ghul or the Court of Owls or a supervillain alliance or something. It’s a big deal. Very high stakes. The only reason they’re even attempting a mission this risky is because, thanks in large part to their resident information-finding specialist Barbara, they have a great deal of knowledge in advance and are sure they’ve planned for every possible outcome, as Bats tend to do. Except the villain has a secret advantage, another trick up their sleeve. There’s no way Babs could have found out about this, but of course she doesn’t believe that and blames herself, as Bats tend to do. The heroes aren’t prepared and in the chaos none of the contingency plans they’re able to execute work. By the time they defeat the threat… Black Bat and Batgirl are dead. Steph is killed first, heroically sacrificing herself, and Cass, the nearest to her, is caught off-guard in her shock.
I’m sorry! I am! But I truly think that Babs could not properly turn evil if she had Team Batgirl to remind her of her definition of heroism, of her own lingering inner Batgirl. She needs to just be Oracle. Cass is buried in the Wayne Manor cemetery; Steph in a public one the closest to the same distance from the Manor and Crystal’s house. They both get memorials in the Batcave.
Babs shuts down in depressed and self-hatred. She watched her daughter figures, her protég��s, her Batgirls die because of (in her mind) her inadequacy. She feels like she’ll similarly fail at anything she tries to do now. She quits being Oracle and withdraws from the Batfam and her father. Remember, she has an eidetic memory, and watched and heard Steph and Cass’s deaths via the family’s mask cameras. They’re all she can see when she closes her eyes. Those screams are always ringing in her ears.
Meanwhile, Bruce takes this about as well as he took losing a child/young vigilante he inspired and mentored the last two times, but doubled. Although he and Alfred have enough experience that he doesn’t get quite as bad as fast as when Jason died, he’s still significantly more antisocial, aggressive, reckless and self-destructive and isolates himself more over the first months afterward. Jim notices the disappearance of Black Bat and Batgirl and the sadly familiar changes in Batman’s behaviour and puts the pieces together. He offers Batman what comfort he can, but is simultaneously worrying about Babs on top of his job. Crime rates go up whenever the Batfam’s numbers decrease.
The remaining Batkids are distraught. Other than Jason, they grow closer in their shared grief. Jason is off on his own turning his pain into violence even more savagely than normal. He recognizes that he’s falling back on his terrible coping mechanisms and doesn’t want to hurt his family this time, so he just doesn’t interact with them. Tim is hit especially hard due to being the closest to Cass and Steph - not to mention that he in particular so fucking sick and tired of his loved ones dying across his teenage years. He’s very unstable. Steph was one of the key people who taught Damian how to have fun and be a kid, and how important it was, so without her he’s more liable to forget that and backslide into acting cold, aloof, violently temperamental, etc.. Duke is made acutely aware of how short life is and that anyone he cares about could die at any time, so he actually strengthens his friendships with the We Are Robin kids. They can break down and be vulnerable with each other in private, but mostly push themselves harder because they each feel that it’s their duty to both keep Gotham safe and prevent Bruce and their siblings going off the rails. Dick is probably the least emotionally vulnerable because he has the most practice bottling up intense grief effectively and, with Bruce’s psychological decline and constant busyness, steps up more as the Responsible Adult alongside Alfred.
Bruce forbids Tim, Duke and Damian to go into the field and Dick agrees, because can they stop losing family for five minutes? A number of restrictions are implemented to uphold this. It’s Tim, Duke and Damian, though, of course they get out anyway. Helping people directly is one of the only sources of serotonin they have.
This is when things really start to go to hell: Bruce is killed. Because of his recklessness and accelerated by his poor health due to neglecting self-care. Because he charged into a dangerous fight alone, Alfred in the chair occupied with the Batkids. Because, Babs can’t convince herself otherwise, he didn’t have Oracle watching his back. The Batkids really could not stop losing family for five minutes. He’s buried right next to his daughter, the death dates just three months apart. Memorial in the cave, natch. But they don’t pretend he isn’t dead this time, so the whole city must mourn its Dark Knight. There are huge memorial services, statues made of him. Jim cries a lot. He already lost Harvey, now Bats?
Oh yeah, and - released a little later to throw people off and let them form a convincing cover story - Bruce Wayne is dead too. A massive blow to Gotham’s morale and even greater surges in crime follow. Their inspirational ray of sunshine and hope and belief in humanity is suddenly gone forever, and so soon after their original and most accomplished superhero. Who are they going to believe in now? Well… at least they still have the rest of the vigilantes.
Babs returns to work. Throws herself into it the way other people throw themselves off bridges. She stays on more formal terms with the Batfam at first, but does reconnect with them over time. She moves Cass and Steph’s memorials to the Clocktower “for motivation”, and this is evidently effective, seeing how she goes into overdrive and is soon leading and coordinating everyone alongside Dick. Gotham is floundering without Bruce and Batman and she refuses to let it fall into anarchy. She’ll be its Oracle, guiding it to a brighter future. She’ll never not know or foresee something ever again. She can’t. Jim is getting extremely worried.
If she’s doing badly, Bruce’s own children’s mental states can be summarised as deep shit. Everyone embraces the family’s classic coping mechanisms, workaholism and emotional repression, harder to try to cope with the chaos. Tim takes over more Wayne Enterprises responsibilities. You know, ‘cause he doesn’t have enough on his plate. Unlike last time, Bruce is definitely permanently dead and he doesn’t take that well. Alfred… is going through it. Sorry, Alfred. A small comfort is that Jason is inspired to treasure his remaining family and he and his siblings and grandad work on repairing their relationships.
Things don’t go Gotham meets Oceania overnight. Babs eroding her code of ethics to the point of evil dictatorship is a slow process, the kind you may not even register until it’s happened. One year after Bruce’s death she’s composed enough to run for mayor, still cripplingly afraid and resentful of Oracle’s limitations. She needs political control over Gotham to make it a better place in the long run. Who are the people going to believe in now? Barbara Gordon! Her loved ones are proud and supportive of her, having been reconnecting with her lately, if concerned that she isn’t processing her grief that much even compared to the rest of them. Her policies are focused on security and reforms to the police force and legal system that aim to reduce crime and corruption, which in the context of the soaring crime rates and spiralling despair of the Gotham public all seem wonderful to many. Surely, things at least can’t possibly get worse than they have been. She wins in a landslide.
The mayor’s power plus Oracle’s power soon goes to Babs’s head. Over the next year she slips from hero to antihero to a darker shade of grey. Her level of surveillance gradually moves out of the reasonable zone. Her patience for disagreement wears thin. When the Batfam or law enforcement take down a crime organization, she will siphon off their assets and information to consolidate her power rather than redistribute all of it to the people. For the greater good, obviously!
This culminates two years after Bruce’s death when Oracle defeats the Court of Owls with a cunning scheme (if they’re the ones who killed the Batgirls, this part hits extra hard): she fakes an alliance with them to set up a double cross, her ‘downpayment’ of information to gain their trust being false and luring their high command into a massive vigilante and police ambush. But Babs doesn’t dismantle the Court like the Bats expect her to. She takes control of it and integrates its vast, rich archives and information network into her own, now essentially omniscient regarding Gotham’s criminal underworld. She also uses the Court’s under-the-table connections to manipulate political and legal proceedings. It’s great for eliminating all corruption besides her own.
This move triggers the ideological conflict that’s been brewing amongst the Batfam to spill over into a devastating fight. Babs and Dick are at the forefront. Babs is accused of tyranny and selfish ambition, Dick and his allies of holding onto a naive, obsolete ideal of protection, both sides feeling betrayed and that the other is “becoming what they fought against”. It’s very emotionally charged. Very painful and bitter for everyone involved.
In the end Alfred, Dick, Jason, Duke and Damian leave in regret and disgust. To explain why them: Alfred is never turning evil. We all know that. The fabric of the universe would unravel if he did. Dick is likewise functionally incorruptible because he’s Dick Grayson, he’s the light of the DC universe. He is utterly heartbroken though. Him and Babs being enemies is the maximum angst option, I couldn’t not take it. Jason has already been through a ‘using villainous methods to protect Gotham how Batman won’t because a) I genuinely believe the ends justify the means and b) my mental health is a train wreck’ phase and basically come out the other side. He isn’t gonna do that again, but as a subordinate. Him and Duke’s backstories make them both more down-to-earth and grounded in the reality of the average and lower-class Gotham citizens’ everyday lives than anyone else in the Batfam, so they can see most clearly how Babs’s actions are harming their people. And Damian is closer to Dick and Duke than Babs, but also similarly to Jason did the edgy ‘morals hold you back, absolute punishment and terror will fight crime more efficiently’ thing and outgrew it. He learned to value human life and rights and swore his loyalty to the mentors who taught him this and their code. He learned how to reject the toxic bullshit the League of Assassins had been feeding him his entire life; it would insult his character growth in my opinion to have him accept Barbara’s toxic bullshit.
That leaves Tim to be Babs’s primary enforcer. Sorry, Tim. Someone had to do it. Between his severe psychological vulnerability and lack of his brothers’ personal experiences with immorality and insights into the average Gothamite’s life, I think it should be him. He’s also the CEO of Wayne Enterprises and involved in the Wayne Foundation and that pairs nicely with Babs’s data collection. Any Wayne Technologies device can covertly monitor people. To sever himself from the bat and bird motifs of the lost and unenlightened and show his allegiance to Oracle, he creates a new vigilante identity called Python. This is a reference to the Greek myth of a giant serpent called Python (from the original name of Delphi, Pytho, and the namesake of the snake classification) who resided in and guarded the site of Delphi, before Apollo killed it and installed his own prophetess Pythia in his place. He’s got a green scaly jumpsuit with armour plating. Two curved swords imitating fangs. Scale throwing blades. A penchant for nonlethal gas and aerosol tools like knockout gas, tear gas and smokescreens, in allusion to the natural hallucinogenic fumes at Delphi that led to its holy reputation. It’s cool. Sinister, but cool. Snakes don’t have eyelids, matching the relentless surveillance theme. Fun fact: pythons eat bats and small birds.
Shock of the century, Babara “Heaps of Recent, Untreated PTSD From Losing Loved Ones and Compulsive Need to Always be Aware and On Top of Everything” Gordon doesn’t take being ditched by all but one of her found family in stride. She has a total breakdown, blames herself for not being able to make them see things her way and lashes out by cracking down even harder on the populace. She’s accordingly immensely grateful for Tim staying and very protective of him. Were he to leave her too, it could be enough to shatter her.
The five rebels join the Birds of Prey, who leave Barbara after hearing how she turned on them, the Gotham City Sirens, Holly Robinson, Slam Bradley, Duke’s We Are Robin friends and a number of other malcontents, including Crystal Brown, to form a resistance. This alliance is called the Shadow Guard - ‘shadow’ because they literally are largely nocturnal, but furthermore it’s a contrast and opposition to Oracle’s prying and shining a light onto things; a declaration both that they are her blind spot and that privacy, the unseen, the ability to keep people ‘in the dark’ deserves to be protected. They’re guardians in the real shadows and of the figurative ones. There’s the angle that they’re only shadows of the Batfamily at its peak and the people they were then too. The rebellion uses pre-internet technology to be safe, with the occasional exception of scavenged tech cut off from Babs’s network.
Mayor Gordon declares Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin and the Signal to be dangerous, untrustworthy public enemies, even suggesting that they’re responsible for the mysterious disappearances of Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne and Duke Thomas. This forces Jim, who’s been putting off realizing that his beloved daughter and the only family he has left is having a moral degradation arc in favour of softer appeals to her compassion, to confront that Babs is now pretty damn totalitarian and he cannot stand by any longer. He joins the Shadow Guard as a spy, and supplies resources, equipment and other employees with consciences to their ranks. His hope is that once her power is removed, Babs will have to face the consequences of her actions and come to her senses. The three year mark is when her directing of the police cycles around to be so militarized and oppressive that her initial real ethical reforms are trampled, vindicating Jim’s decision.
Why don’t external superheroes and the government officials intervene? Because Babs is still their information broker. She provides them with vital intel and has truckloads of dirt on all of them. She isn’t above passive-aggressively reminding people of her ability to ruin them to get them off her back, even demonstrating it by leaking sensitive information, causing a scandal, giving an advantage to a rival, etc. every now and then. The rest of the US is watching the events in Gotham thinking, as people so often do, “Someone should do something! …But it’s not gonna be me!” (For the sake of the plot just quietly ignore the Superfam and Wonderfam and Flashfam and so on, okay?). Besides, Gotham’s crime rates are the lowest they’ve ever been. Oracle is untouchable and none of the illicit activity can be traced back to Babs, or even proven at all most of the time.
Keep in mind, Babs still doesn’t technically directly kill anyone. Tim doesn’t either. He just arrests criminals and disturbers of the peace and hands them over to the justice system. Business as usual. When they and all records of them disappear overnight, and when nobody ever gets out of Blackgate or Arkham… well, questioning that isn’t in his job description, and Babs and his job are all he has left. He’s come too far to give them up.
Four years into Babs’s mayorship, Gotham’s settled into its continually worsening dystopian status quo under a utopian facade. The roll down the slope accelerates when Jim’s spying is discovered. Babs is horrified, furious and deeply hurt. She almost, almost backs down, but falls victim to the sunk cost fallacy and desperately reaffirms her self-righteousness. He has frustratingly durable moral integrity, so she orders him arrested to get him out of sight and out of mind because again, she cannot handle another loss. The rebel Batboys break him out, they fight Python and the police, it’s sad and dramatic. The rebels get away by the skin of their teeth, but they’re followed. A raid on their base deals harsh blows and gets a sizeable proportion of them arrested, killed or traumatized into submission. They regroup and try to find a way to take Oracle by surprise. Jim is now the Shadow Guard’s co-leader with Dick.
Gotham is peaceful. It’s orderly. Supervillains are a thing of the past. Barbara is like the oracles of legend: whatever she says will be, will be. Needless to say, she won’t have much competition in the upcoming mayoral election. From there, she plans to expand beyond Gotham. The only problem that remains is how to stop her treacherous family and lay the past to rest once and for all…
That’s the catch with oracle stories, isn’t it? In the end, you find you’ve become exactly what you most strived to avoid being. Think of King Oedipus, the archetypal Greek tragedy and ironic prophecy story: a just, wise and noble leader stubbornly seeking knowledge to protect their people from ruin in a time of great suffering, only for they themselves to be the criminal they were looking for and the cause of their city’s corruption.
I’m ending it here with a five year time difference and pretty much in the heroes’ darkest hour, because this is where I would have (my) canon Babs, Steph and Cass transported to this world to help bring dark Oracle down.
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manofmanymasks · 2 months
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The Man of Many Masks
I would like to introduce you to my main deity. The Man of Many Masks is a very personal deity to me. I've only ever worked with a masculine face, so I refer to him with he/him. However, he contains multitudes, and I'm sure there are parts that use any pronoun you can think of. Some people may see him as a concerning deity to work with due to a lot of the verbiage he uses to describe his domains or the fact that blood can be an appropriate sacrifice, at times. He is not an easy God to work with, but he makes me feel fulfilled and like I am not alone in the way I am. I hope you can appreciate him as much as I do and consider integrating him into your practice. He has certain aspects that encourage plural folks to seek him, I believe, and have listed it as a domain of his. I don't see it as "he causes plurality" and much as he is and protects those who are plural.
Domains:
• Concealment, Deception, Doubt
• Multitudes, Plurality, Reflections
• Protection by way of hiding, information and knowledge for self protection
• Paranoia, Anxiety, Instinct
Prayer Marks
The graphic is not all exhaustive. These are just what I've figured out. Learning the language of your God is the hardest part.
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[Image id: bluish-white digital drawing on a black background. 8 symbols are labeled. From the top, left to right: "greeting" is a chin shape with a single line to the left inside. "Knowledge" is the chin shape with a triangle inside, pointing upwards. "Doubt" is the chin shape with 4 lines inside. Furthest left is a sideways J. Next is a short line above it. Next is a long line that goes past the top of the J. Next is a short line, shorter than all the previous. "Change" is the chin shape with a downward pointing triangle in it. "Mask is a chin shape with an oval near the top and 3 lines below it, making two eyes and a nose. "The Self" is a complicated mask. 6 vertical lines point from the chin, and are matched across the center line. The lines descend into the chin like steps. There are two off-kilter Xs in the free space on either side of the lines. "Rejection/Punishment" is the chin shape with an X in it. "The Other" is the chin shape with a total of 5 lines. One is in the center and goes about halfway down. Two on either side are a little lower but the same length. In between each line is a very short dash, making eyes. End Image id]
Communication
• Mirrors or Pools (srying)
• Tarot (masks)
Suggestions
The Man of Many Masks is very internal. Communication is often through you. The relationship tends to be very transactional and distant. This deity is very personal to me, and this guide includes a lot of UPG.
Emoji associations
Any face, but especially: 😶‍🌫️🥸, 💦👤🐢🦚🦎🍽🌑🌚💧🌬🌫🎭🪞🪟🚿♒️🆔️🔹️
Ways to worship/devotional acts
• Therapy: Shadow work, Self-Reflection, IFS, Working with the idea of different selves in different situations
• Religious: Prayer Marks and prayer, Mirror scrying/Water scrying, reading Tarot, meditation (especially for reflection)
• For systems: internal communication, switching intentionally, striving for functional multiplicity. Striving to understand roles and triggers. Not disclosing status to others to keep yourself safe.
• Art: Community Theater, acting/voice acting, Role-playing or "being someone else." Making or printing masks. Writing/representing the self through characters.
• General life: Self Defense Classes, Home Defense Classes, not just "how to defend" but "preventative measures." Hot showers. Keeping animals that choose to hide or disguise themselves. Wearing earrings or other bilateral clothing/accessories that doesn't match. Protecting your information (not just regularly changing passwords, but not disclosing more than necessary to coworkers, bosses, Teachers, landlords, strangers etc. They are not your friends and they do not need to know.)
Correspondences:
• Objects/Concepts: Masks, The Self, Deception, Names, Multitudes, Mirrors
• Animals: Turtles, Chameleons, Octopi, Cuttlefish, Snakes, Peacocks
• Plants: Bee orchid, Lithops, White dead nettle
• Crystals/Gems/Rocks: Pyrite, Fake gemstones (think craft store gems), Metamorphic rocks, cubic zirconia, zircon, moissonite, glass
• Elements: Water/Air
• Celestial Body: Neptune
• Numbers: 2 (masks in the comedy/tragedy masks, representations of the self in a single mirror), 3 (minimum to not be a singularity or duality, but multiple.), 10 (average numbers of alters in a system)
• Scents: Lemon, Bergamot, Green Tea (alertness), Vanilla (Safety), coconut (protection), Rain or Ocean (water)
• Colors: Gray-Blue, Blue, Mirror-Green, Gray/White
Offerings
• Foods: Cookies or other foods shaped like something else, ie. Heart cookies, gingerbread men, braided bread, meatloaf Man.
• Burning Appropriate Incense or Colored Candles
• Mirror (dedicated, with Prayer Marks drawn onto larger mirrors), Masks (make them, display them, wear them, use mask shaped soap, etc etc)
• An array of one kind of object's variants. One of each color of a candy, a set of tabletop dice, a bunch of different novelty erasers. Show Multitudes through objects.
• Any listed correspondence can make a good offering
• Shredded documents. You could even blend them and make them into clean new paper.
Transaction/Ritual examples
• You want to know if you can trust someone. You set yourself in front of a mirror and begin meditation. Draw the appropriate marks on the mirror if large enough, on a chalkboard, paper, tablet, etc if not. Appropriate Marks may include "Knowledge" "doubt" "mask" "the self" "the other" and directional indicators like arrows, joining symbols like circles, and other grammatical symbols. Keep your face visible. When you feel sufficiently connected and like he is with you, pray and commit your offering. This should be appropriately scaled to the task at hand: consider current distance of relationship, social standing of target, and how guarded they may be. Once the offering is complete, scour your face for changes, and interpret accordingly. Consider the language of the deity, and what his communication may mean. This Ritual may be helped with steam, smoke, or other concealing things between you and the mirror.
Altar/Shrine Ideas
• Appropriately colored flowers, especially the correspondent flowers. If those are difficult to get, Fake flowers are not only acceptable, but encouraged.
• Mirrors
• Masks. Black, blue, or green masks, especially ornate ones. Any representation of the theater masks are also acceptable, and if they have meaning to you, can be used.
• Chalkboard, Whiteboard, second mirror for writing on, etc. These are important for your Prayer Marks. Choose something you can wipe off (dry or wet erase work. Wet erase is good if you plan on leaving it until next time.) Unless you're okay replacing your sketchbook from time to time.
• Candles. Blue or green. It may be hard to find candles that are the correct color with the correct Scents you want.
• Incense. See above Scents. Finding an appropriate holder can be an exciting devotional activity.
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[Img ID: blue-white digital drawings on a black background. From left to right: a circle labeled candle. A long, thin rectangle labeled "mirror." Above this is handwriting that says "mask is on mirror, glued to top." Below is handwriting that says "optional incense" and below that is an upside down house shape labeled "chalkboard." To the right is another circle, assumed to be another candle. An arrow points towards the mirror and says "The mirror has a metal frame that swirls. Flowers are woven in." End Image id]
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merionettes · 1 year
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Just finished "Gone to Ground"
//spoilers for anyone who hasn't read it yet
and am entertaining myself thinking about how Felix would operate in the future negotiations vs Sylvain—how the Srengi would receive them differently, how Felix would need to adjust to everything (the culture, his own expectations vs the reality), etc. I have a loose vision of what the settlements look like and have plopped Felix in there with relish.
I was just wondering how you think it would go within your own vision of Sreng and Sylvix. How does Felix change things?
And, of course, thank you for writing it ♡
you have great timing with this because just a couple weeks ago i was tromping around in the ice and snow asking myself "so how will i make this sylvix" and the answer went something like, "skiing? snowshoeing? DOGSLEDDING. dogsledding... with irján." so that's how i started thinking about a felix pov sequel. will i write it, not super likely, but now it exists as a concept.
to answer your question directly, turns out felix does NOT adjust very well to finding himself back on a patch of ground for which his only personal association is "that time i almost watched sylvain die." he's got culture shock too! that handful of srengi phrases memorized under intense pressure aren't much to go on and the intense distrust radiating from him at all times is... not helping.
on one hand felix has less baggage wrt sreng as a concept than your average inhabitant of gautier and he's gone through several years of personal growth since the last time he was throwing around accusatory generalizations about an entire population so in a sense it's not that hard for him to see this group of srengi as individual people. it's just that he doesn't trust these individual people. 🙃
i mean lowkey felix thinks his job IS to be actively distrustful, you know, to make sure there are no more fucking surprises. he's not exactly right but he's not totally wrong, having felix lead security allows sylvain to focus on policy and negotiation. like i think both felix and sylvain (and dimitri signing off on this idea) recognize sensitive diplomatic maneuvers are Not felix's strong suit, so his role wrt treaties is primarily sounding board/second opinion/extra eyes and ears, only he's too busy keeping his guard up for the last part.
anyway i figure after an excruciating few weeks and probably several arguments eventually he'll be forced to drop his guard .005 centimeters due to the realization that this is a priceless opportunity to hone some valuable skills like tracking and adaptive survival techniques that haven't gotten much of a workout since mid-war and HEY might turn out to be pretty fucking critical. and then the challenge of a physical task to be mastered is always... felix wouldn't use the word "fun" but. it's fun. the experience is good for him and for his standing with the srengi experts he's working with/learning from/futilely competing with.
from the srengi side, overall, this guy seems like an asshole but an asshole who's good at his job, so like, respect? he's not the guy doing the talking anyway so whatever, THAT guy is great. good cop bad cop without actually trying!
i think any potential future diplomatic excursions, if they happen*, would go more smoothly for felix but this one is pretty rough.
*"the territory i nominally administer will look after itself and the king is in a strong enough position he doesn't need my in-person presence to back him up the year round": easier said than realized!
jesus this was long. i am SO pleased you have a vision for sreng and are pushing a little felix puppet around it, literally nothing could make me happier!! thank YOU!!!
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wildcard-rumi · 1 year
Note
Thoughts on Sonic Prime, the Netflix series? ^^
I binged it yesterday bc I got curious from seeing from the gifsets you were reblogging (oh, messed up alternate timelines my beloveds) and I really enjoyed it! :D
So, any notes? Anything in particular that caught your eye or that you'd like to see in future episodes? 👀
Well, I mean, I haven't really thought about it too much since we've only got eight episodes so far so I'm gonna wait till we've got the whole thing before I judge the series. But from what we've got so far:
I really like it.
It's not my favourite Sonic series, that's still Sonic X but nostalgia and the fact that it has a lot more episodes probably plays a big part in that so I'm not gonna hold that against Prime.
This personality for Sonic is a little bit different than what I'm used to but I still think it works really well and he manages to carry the show with his little comments.
I adore the alternate universe versions of the characters and how they take one aspect of them and change it, i.e Tails is a genius but if he never met Sonic and learned to have confidence in what makes him different so he becomes Nine, Amy is extremely kind and empathetic but if she couldn't talk about her feelings they go out of control and she becomes Thorn, etc. It's a simple concept but it works so well and they do it in a way where you don't need prior knowledge about the characters but if you do, you get some more enjoyment from it.
The worlds are all really interesting, my personal favourite so far is the pirate one, probably because there's no "We can't trust you!" Kinda thing going on like the other worlds 'cause that kinda conflict just irritates me after a while. And also just... Pirates are fun and the voices they have in that world are fun.
Speaking of voices, the voice acting is really, really good. I was a little nervous when they said the cast was gonna be different from the games because like... The voices have changed so many times... And it always starts arguments... But I really like this cast, especially Devan Mack as Sonic. Like he's not copying anyone, it's his own version of the character and he's got the cockiness, the cheekiness, the awkwardness, everything works perfectly. Not to mention, he nails the more serious scenes too like when Nine shows him the Grim and he has to turn him down. Apparently a lot of the cast were in MLP but I never saw that series, it wasn't on any channels I had growing up so I can't really comment, but they sound great in this series!
Another thing I love is the animation. I love the sheer amount of squash and stretch they use, it really gives Sonic's speed this zippy quality and just gives off this really fun vibe. And the fight coordination is really good, like that fight between Sonic and Shadow in Green Hill was great to watch. Not to mention, the effects they use for the prism powers look great. And my absolute favourite thing: They animate Sonic's ears to convey emotion. Instantly won me over with that.
Although, the thing I'm most looking forward to seeing more of has to be Shadow. Ngl it's been quite a while since he was written this well. I like the IDW comic version but even that has its problems sometimes. But I like how he is working towards what's best, he just sucks at communication and butts heads with Sonic because they both think they're doing the right thing. And while I don't like the characterisation of Shadow fighting Sonic on sight every time he sees him that most modern Sonic stuff does, I will say in Prime it's completely justified. I still find it funny that the first thing Shadow does when Sonic joins him in the void is punch him in the face.
Honestly, the only thing I'm not enjoying about Prime at the moment is the Chaos Council. I just don't find them funny or threatening. It's literally "oh here's five weird versions of Eggman with their own gimmick" like... Cool. Can we have just plain Eggman back please? The only thing I like about the Chaos Council is Rusty Rose. They might get better in the new episodes but I'm not holding my breath. They just really don't appeal to me.
But honestly on the whole, I'm really enjoying the series so far and I love all the small details they put into it like the aforementioned ear movements, how Rouge sleeps upside down, how Tails' tails are a lot thicker than Nine's tails because he actually uses them, the fact that the story ties back to the original Sonic game's themes of anti-industrialism in different ways, etc. Not to mention the little easter eggs like Tails' passcode being 1992, the year he debuted in Sonic 2, and Big's New Yoke identification code being 1998, the year he debuted in Sonic Adventure. I hope we get to see more things like that because they put a smile on my face.
Honestly, I hope the new episodes put more focus on Shadow now that he's finally got Sonic to come pick him up but I think he really has a lot of potential. And I'm really, really curious to see what Rouge's world is gonna be like. A lot of people are saying they'd like to see a Western style place which I agree would be pretty cool. And I hope more of the alternate universe characters interact with each other like how Rusty Rose and Black Rose did because that could lead to some interesting dialogue.
I didn't mean for this to become an entire goddamn essay but apparently I had some Opinions. Also none of my mutuals are really into Sonic so I don't get to talk it often so I guess it all just kinda exploded here.
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Text
AU idea
Fack, I can't stop making AU's can I- But I got another AU, an Eddsworld one specifically, a superhero one specifically
I just love superheros alright-
It's one where the neighbors (including Todd) and the main boys, (including Tord) would be super heros, they have side rivalry's but they all have one goal, take down the big main villain
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Edd: We all know Poweredd, no need to introduce him, but he also has telekinesis in this AU because it's funny to think about, and because I said so, he's the leader of his crew as always to stop Numero Uno and his team
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Tom: He's basically the same- But he now uses his monster form to save people I guess??? IDK He does not really NEED much change for a super hero AU
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Tord: He would probably have a wrestler-like name that sounds like it belongs to a villain to "sound cool" or whatever, like "The red destroyer" or "Skull smasher" or somth, but he has no powers of his own, his "power" is his giant robot which also counts as his suit, his robot's now dressed like an anime-magical-girl magical-girl wand and everything, you can STILL recognize it as "Tordbot" it's just dressed like an anime magical girl- Like just picture the Tordbot wearing something like this:
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Matt: HE'S NOW MATT GOKU
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/j /j /j /j /j /j /j /j /j /j /j
(The image is not mine I found it in the wiki's gallery)
Nah I have a proper concept for him for this AU,
So he'd be called "Mirror Man" or "Mirror Justice" or- something to do with mirrors-
He now lives in like a "mirror world", how it works is like picture a gigantic invisible bubble in the real world, and it follows Matt everywhere and he lives in it, Matt is the only one in the mirror world who can touch and interact with things in the real world, he can also be seen unlike everything/everyone else who enters the mirror world but he can chose not to, if your in the mirror world you cannot directly be seen, you can only be seen in reflective surfaces like an actual mirror or a puddle or a shiny object, etc. etc. this applys to objects too and Matt can chose if this applies to him or not as well at anytime he wishes, you also cannot touch anything unless it is in the mirror world, say there is a book, you can see it but you wont be able to touch it unless Matt brings it into the mirror world but once it's in the mirror world everyone in the real world cannot see it or touch it, unless your Matt
I hope that was not confusing- That's the best I can describe it-
For his suit I'm thinking like a purple full body suit with maybe dress like features and it's purple and teal and has these mirrors on it, not a shit ton but a few here and there like maybe 3-4 on the whole suit and they're small mirrors
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Eduardo: Again, we already know Numero Uno, no need to introduce him but just like PowerEdd he also has Telekinesis because I said so
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Jon:
He's just Danny Phantom now/hj
So Jon died, not by Tord by some other cause and while dead he figured out how to turn human so now he's like part human part ghost somehow?
I'm not sure on his super name, maybe Jonny Phantom(/j) but I don't think he needs one cause he's a more "Help and fight from the shadows" hero
And I don't think he needs a suit since he's invisible to the naked eye in ghost form
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Todd:
You know the show Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts?
So in the series Kipo is like half mega mute well that's kind of my Todd in this AU
So like Kipo, Todd can turn his hands into these giant jaguar paws, he can gain the jaguar ears and listen with them he can just straight up turn into a fuggin godzilla sized jaguar with three tails and six legs and all that
So basically in a nutshell he steals her powers in this AU without "Stealing them" technically, like he has the same powers Kipo does
Todd just, does not use an alt identity, he wears his alt outfit he wears when adventuring (Literally the same outfit but he took his dress shirt off leaving only his tanktop under it-) but that's it- The others claim this is risky but Todd is like "Dude I can just crush the threat with my Jaguar paws it's fine"
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Mark:
WOLF MAN WOLF MAN WOLF MA-
His is a little wonky-
So Mark is one of those night heros that only appear at night, he's a werewolf and uses his wolf form as a super form leading to him to only show up at nights there is a full moon
his hero name could have something to do with wolfs or somth
And for his super suit/form just picture a buff ass blond wolf man in a ripped royal purple super suit :P
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And thats it!
.....
You REALLY thought I was done?
There's a little more!
Paul's a superhero too,
So he's like an angry fairy dude, he's human sized but a fairy, like just picture Paul in a ballerina outfit and with the fluffy fairy wings
Paul has a magic wand but it's not really magic, he just beats people with it instead lmao, and his preferred magic wand is a gun :)
He also has fairy powers but he mostly only just uses the wings while instead shooting bad guys and beating them with the wand
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I'll also talk about the big main villain, I won't say who he is but I'll let y'all just assume since-
Just-
Just take one look at my current pfp-
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So the main villain has powers of darkness and destruction, he can kill you with a simple spell and is heavily insane- He also has the ability to turn anyone into his little "Puppets" and pull the strings and make you do as he wishes easy he also hides in the shadows like a snake and plays this little "game" of his seeing the heros as his "puppets" on his quest for more power
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I like this AU I just made :D
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eternal-echoes · 2 years
Text
Solidarity
The natural law understanding of society is an organic one, in that it takes the members of any society to be related to one another in something loosely analogous to the way that the organs of a living thing are related to one another.  Just as each organ serves a distinct and essential role in realizing the good of the whole organism, so too does each member of a society serve a distinct and essential role in realizing the good of that society. And just as an organism takes care to nourish and protect each of its parts, so too ought society to be organized in such a way that each of its members can flourish (subject to the qualifications entailed by the principle of subsidiarity,...).  The parts of the body are in solidarity with one another, and so too must each part of society be.  
...
Political authority, on the natural law conception, was originally an extension of paternal authority, with the earliest rulers being patriarchs or fathers of tribes and nations, analogous to the fathers who governed nuclear families.  As nations got larger and the relationships between citizens less personal, heads of countries naturally came to seem “father”-like in only the loosest way, and the consent of and input from the governed came to play an increasingly prominent role in governance. This is perfectly appropriate given subsidiarity (again, to be discussed below).  But the essentially organic nature of society, and the need for each part to be in solidarity with the others, does not change.
Solidarity is incompatible with the notion of class struggle.  In an organism, the fact that head, heart, arms, legs, eyes, ears, etc. have very different roles and needs does not mean they are in competition or at odds with one another.  On the contrary, they need and complement one another.  Similarly, capitalists and managers on the one hand and workers on the other, political authorities and those they govern, men and women, people of different ethnic groups, and so forth, are not in the nature of things at odds and cross purposes, but also complement one another and bring different strengths to the table.  The health of society requires, not the victory of one class or group over another or the elimination of class and group distinctions altogether, but rather the sober recognition of their differences and mutual respect and cooperation between them.
Solidarity is also incompatible with the notion of racial struggle, which is essentially a reflection of nationalism, the perversion of patriotism.  For one thing, though the solidarity we owe the human race in general is not as strong as the solidarity we owe our own family or country, we do owe it.  Every human being is a brother in an extended sense, and thus it is wrong to regard any other racial or ethnic group with hostility or contempt.  For another thing, very large nations are united not only by blood but by ties of shared history, language, culture, and so forth. Even in the absence of blood ties, there is something analogous to an adoptive family connection between citizens.  One’s countrymen of any race or ethnicity are thus owed the same allegiance.
Now, this organic conception of society has two key components: the notion of society as a whole that is analogous to the body of an organism; and the notion of the members of society as analogous to distinctive parts of this whole, corresponding to the distinctive parts of the body (eyes, ears, heart, legs, etc.).  Distortions of the ideal of solidarity tend to distort one or other of these key components.
- Edward Feser
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lazy-bumdraws · 3 years
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lost boys au -
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more design concept sketches!
i literally cant find the reference photo for skeppy's windbreakers o bear with me with the colors owo
also the bat tattoos on punz head and antfrost's wrist is when they retract their wings
also quackitywithsnakebites quackitywithsnakebites quackitywithsnakebites
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shihalyfie · 3 years
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Shounen anime character archetypes, and how the Adventure and 02 characters don’t entirely follow them
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Adventure is a kids’ show, and so it’s only natural that its characters would have certain surface archetypes common to others in the genre, like “the impulsive leader” or “the cool-headed rival”...except it actually doesn’t, really! It was actually a deliberate decision to make the characters go against their archetypes, and even the ones that did toe closer to it still had a number of nuances that distinguished them greatly from what you would usually expect from these kinds of characters. A lot of this was a deliberate attempt to make the characters relatable, so that it would allow each and every one of them to have their own unique strengths that their usual archetypes wouldn’t generally allow them to.
To be clear: tropes are not a fundamentally bad thing, especially since fiction very much relies on them to communicate (Adventure and 02 sometimes being so contrary to media expectations that they often frustrated viewers for not apparently making sense), and moreover, there are tropes that still are very true to reality (for instance, although the archetype of the “crybaby child” wasn’t in this series, many people have stated that Tomoki in the significantly more conventional Frontier was no less a realistic representation of what a child his age might do in an unfamiliar world). It’s also quite foolhardy to claim that Adventure and 02 never indulged in tropes at all, of course. However, things that fall outside the conventional mold are much more difficult to find proper representations of, and there’s an unfortunate trend of many (especially those in the mainstream who don’t quite remember the series well, or mainstream press) often pigeonholing Adventure and 02′s characters back into those tropes because that’s what you’d normally expect of them, sometimes to the point of negatively comparing them to other things -- and that’s just something that really isn’t fair to the series!
Disclaimer: Note that the following post works first and foremost off of the original Japanese version, so if you’re coming purely from the American English dub, there may be some substantial differences in what’s described (most noticeably in regards to Mimi and Daisuke).
Taichi
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While shounen media has been a lot more willing to change things up a lot since Adventure first aired in 1999, the general idea you get of a shounen protagonist is a hot-blooded one who charges recklessly into everything on impulse. Taichi definitely fits a handful of the traits on principle in that he’s a passionate sports boy, and one who takes an “action-first” philosophy and often acts on impulse, but there’s a lot more nuance to that than you might expect.
Firstly, it would be very off to pigeonhole Taichi as the belligerent type to like fighting and to charge into everything thoughtlessly, because while Taichi does get cocky in the midst of battle while riding the adrenaline, he’s not the kind of person who likes fighting enemies just for the sheer sake of fighting and defeating them (and, in fact, it would probably be incorrect to say this about any Adventure or 02 character). As is pointed out by Koushirou even when Taichi is at one of his most haphazard and reckless in Adventure episode 16, Taichi’s actions are still always out of consideration for others, and he’s the kind of selfless person who in fact only hits his most reckless points when he’s cracking so much under the pressure of needing to do things for everyone’s sake that he even throws himself into the fray out of self-sacrifice. Even during the late points of the series in Adventure episode 45, he felt that the method of “pushing forward despite everything” was the best way to repay the sacrifices their Digimon friends had made for them -- he has a tendency to advocate for actively doing things because he firmly believes that sitting around doing nothing won’t solve anything, or would result in more victims. He has had introspective moments of weakness (see Adventure episodes 17, 20, 21, etc.), and it’s specifically because he has to reconcile the facts that he knows nothing good will come out of being a sitting duck, but he also has to figure out a way to do it that won’t accidentally cause collateral damage.
Taichi is “impulsive” in that he tends to play things by ear, but that doesn’t always mean he advocates for the most aggressive solution -- in fact, there are times where he’s often too chill and is picking the simplest and least complicated thing to do for now while he tries to figure it out later. Plus, it’s not like he recklessly charges into battle against everyone’s wishes -- the few incidents he does are explicitly marked as his moments of weakness, and in fact the reason he gets into conflicts with Yamato so much during the early part of the series is technically because he’s taking the time to argue back at him and try to make his point instead of just going ahead and doing it anyway.
Taichi doesn’t have that much of an ego! Adventure episode 28 reveals that he’d never even thought of himself as the group’s “leader” to begin with, nor did he necessarily think he should have the position (by all means, despite how unreliable he was at the start of the series, responsibility belonged to Jou as the oldest in the group). But Taichi has a remarkable knack for seeing things on the bird’s-eye view, and that’s what makes him suitable as a leader -- not in the traditional shounen sense of just aggressively pushing everyone forward into battle, but looking at the full picture and making judgment calls, delegating jobs, and bringing people together. It’s a much more true-to-life description of what a “leader” needs to be beyond what media (or even real life resources, honestly!) would usually suggest, and Taichi being someone naturally suited to this position encompasses most of his personality -- it unfortunately makes him not very good at seeing the little things in front of him, but he’s capable of assertively and firmly making decisions for the sake of everyone’s welfare.
And even when Taichi does hit the general shounen lead trope of being on the argumentative or irritable side, a lot of it has to do with the fact he’s a bit of a playful troll who doesn’t take things seriously enough, not that he’s brash and wants to start a fight -- he sometimes makes insensitive remarks because he was under the impression others shouldn’t be taking it so seriously (”it was just a joke!”), or he gets defensive when someone (usually Yamato) calls out his plan for not being that great. But on the flip side, the fact he treats people equivocally and without distant weirdness allows him to have a sense of charisma to bring people together (it’s the very reason Koushirou was willing to approach him to begin with), and because he has a priority of pushing everyone forward productively with a sense of firmness, he’s able to conclusively make judgments and decisions during times others would hesitate. Even if they turn out to not be great decisions in the end, they’re still decisions that he consciously thought through to at least some degree, made for the sake of helping everyone and pushing them forward.
Yamato
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Yamato’s archetype is one that goes down to appearance -- the cool-looking, bishounen rival who advocates for a more “rational and cold” approach in contrast to the lead protagonist’s hot-bloodedness, who looks down on him for being stupid and irrational, and refuses to get near anyone due to looking down on them (or the concept of having friends in general). This is to the point where his own voice actor saw his design and immediately expected him to be this archetype to the point of worrying that he might not be able to pull off this role, only for himself to find out that Yamato is the exact opposite.
Yamato is, in fact, one of the most openly emotional and compassionate people in the entire original Adventure group, and given that Taichi is actually someone who often is too chill and doesn’t take things seriously enough, Yamato is actually the one who actively instigates fights with him and escalates things to physical levels, because he perceives Taichi as being inconsiderate. His first focus episode (Adventure episode 3) has him completely go off his rocker for Takeru’s safety, but while Takeru definitely elicits the most extreme reactions from him, he really does escalate fights immediately the moment he feels sufficiently offended on others’ behalf. So in other words, “rational and cold” are just around the last words you should be ever using for Yamato.
Moreover, what seems to be detachment from the others ends up ultimately just being a byproduct of awkwardness -- even as early as Adventure episodes 6 and 18, he had no problems openly laughing and smiling with the others, and it was just his prior lack of friends beforehand that made him unsure of how to open up to others. Adventure episode 51 has him directly say in words what his actual reasoning for his awkward behavior and friendless background was: it wasn’t that he didn’t want to be near others, he was just so obsessed with being independent and self-reliant that he felt that he shouldn’t be dependent on others. He liked others’ company, and he didn’t look down on them at all -- he cared a lot about the others’ welfare, he was just averse to the idea of actually being emotionally dependent on others, until he was able to be snapped out of that mindset and able to understand that relying on others doesn’t indicate a personal failing.
These kinds of characters usually are fueled by some kind of pride or condescension, but in fact Yamato doesn’t have that at all (in fact, you could more accurately say that it’s insecurity more than anything). Even when he openly breaks down into a crying mess in front of everyone (he has the highest cry count in Adventure, at that!), he doesn’t seem to have any shame about having exposed some of the rawest parts of himself to the others -- think about how this archetype would usually get embarrassed about people finding out they’re “soft” -- and there’s no evidence that he has any sense of superiority whatsoever.
By the time of 02, since he’s portrayed as having become openly sociable and cheerful, for all intents and purposes, the only thing he has left in common with the archetype is just the fact he seems to be really into a sort of edgy aesthetic. Otherwise, he’s just as emotional as ever, makes even some of the funniest facial expressions in 02, is on fantastic terms with Taichi (it is very important that the single punch he lands on him is purely in a sense to snap him out of it and not made out of anger or condescension), and, really, if you want to say that he has a responsibility of reining Taichi in, considering Taichi’s penchant for being a little too assertive about his decisions, it’s just in the sense of lightly reminding him not to get too ahead of himself, which is not any worse than keeping an eye on a cat with a track record of getting into willful trouble. This is especially because, after all, Yamato is someone who has compassion for others’ welfare and feelings -- and that includes Taichi, too.
Sora
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This kind of character is usually thought of as the “badass action girl”, especially since Sora is established as also being rather physically active much like Taichi, but one thing that often comes with this sort of character is that they often “have it together” all of the time and are seemingly implacable in personality. Adventure goes out of its way to indicate, even as early as episode 3, that while it is true that Sora has it together and is capable of pulling her own weight, she is also not a saint -- that is to say, she’s capable of having moments of pettiness, poor judgment, or irrationality like any other flawed human being. In fact, her first focus episode (Adventure episode 4) has her outright look down on Piyomon for being, in her mind, overly mushy and clingy and not really up for the job of protecting her, only to be proven very wrong at the end of the episode.
One thing Adventure and 02 don’t shy away from is the concept of “selflessness to the point of self-destruction” -- it’s good to be kind and considerate, but at what point are you doing so much for other people that you’re not properly taking care of yourself? In Sora’s case, the problem is defined as compulsive -- even when, in Adventure episode 26, she claims herself to be an inconsiderate person who doesn’t care about anyone and is incapable of love or affection, it’s revealed that, despite consciously thinking that, she’d still gone out of her way to help everyone behind the scenes in the last few episodes because she still couldn’t stop wanting to help people. Even her own flashbacks (and rather inaccurate testimony) about her past with her mother have a constant thread of her working for others’ sake more than she’s doing anything for herself.
In other words, being this image of a perfect, well-behaved, reliable person whom everyone can depend on no matter what is actually pretty unhealthy for her, because she’s capable of cracking under the pressure and not being allowed to be, well, a normal human being once in a while. Being that sort of person requires constantly catering to obligations (real or perceived) to others, which she’s unfortunately capable of falling so deeply in and not thinking of herself at all to the point she gets self-destructive. Because her problem with this is so bad, Jou and Yamato reaching out to her in Adventure episode 51 literally just involves reminding her about the sheer concept of personal will and volition, because without that, she’d basically considered herself a piece of the situation who does everything she does because that’s what she has to do.
And yes, indeed, a “lead” female character in this position would usually be played up heavily with the main lead male character, because media traditionally loves to hint that the sheer existence of a male and female lead with any kind of relationship whatsoever means that they have to be fated to be in love, but given the philosophy of not wanting to apply tropes unless there’s an in-universe rationale for it (of which “pairing the main male and female leads” is directly cited as one potential such trope), it is true that just because Sora knew Taichi from the soccer club and is usually the first-listed female character in Adventure doesn’t really necessarily indicate she should be obligated to fall head over heels in love with him (especially because they don’t interact nearly as much as you’d expect two characters with that kind of backstory to, and Koushirou, who’s also from the same club, hangs with him much more prominently) -- and in fact, when the issue of her love life does come up in 02, it’s treated as a very non-dramatic issue that becomes a background element of the narrative, which is not how you’d usually see the issue of romance or a love life usually treated in the kind of media that loves to bring that front and center most of the time. While the fanbase loves to treat it like it was some kind of love triangle, that kind of reading actually requires an extra dose of interpretation from a very ambiguously portrayed situation that ultimately isn’t given much fanfare by even the characters in-universe, because, really, two fourteen-year-olds dating is...rather commonplace and not actually that big of a deal, especially when compared to something like preventing monsters from blowing up the city.
Koushirou
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Adventure actually has two plays on the traditional “nerd” character, separating the archetype into one who’s good with data and random trivial information (Koushirou) and one who’s good at rote memorization and doing practical calculations that are good for school environments (Jou). So already, there’s a bit of subtle nuance in the fact it makes this distinction at all, in that there are different ways to be “smart” -- Koushirou’s depth of knowledge is significantly less practically applicable than Jou’s in most ordinary situations and isn’t tailored well to institutional expectations like school and exams, but he has a much wider range of things he knows about and ends up more directly pertinent in regards to his knowledge about computers and data analysis.
In any case, a “smart” character would often have an angle of being condescending, i.e. lording over others that they know so much more than them and knowingly being showoffs as a result, or actively disliking people and considering machines to be superior. In the case of Koushirou, however, it’s established that while he does have a certain level of intimidation around other people and find himself more comfortable around his computer, and while he can get absorbed in gathering information or rambling off about things because he’s passionate about it, he doesn’t actively dislike nor look down on others (rather, he’s actively intimidated by them, according to Adventure episode 38), and he states outright in Adventure episode 10 that he doesn’t want to spurn Mimi nor does he care about his computer more than he cares about others, he just genuinely thinks that what he’s doing right now will benefit even Mimi in the long run, too.
Koushirou may not be experienced in dealing with other people and may be a bit uncomfortable in high-pressure social situations, but at his core he’s a very kind and compassionate person who cares about others! The fact he’s constantly polite to others isn’t just out of awkwardness, but also out of a genuine desire to keep courtesy and distance, and as the series goes on it turns out he really is as polite and humble as he sounds -- he’s doing it because he’s shy, not because he considers himself above the others, and by Adventure episodes 38 and 54 he says that he would like to be able to speak more casually and be closer to others, it’s just that it’s going to take some time for him to do so. And even if he does mess up a social situation, if he’s informed he’s messed up, he’s easily capable of taking this to heart and trying to do better (which makes up all of Adventure episode 10 when he eventually realizes he went too far with Mimi). Just because he may not be fantastic at handling the fallout doesn’t mean he doesn’t fundamentally care or want to minimize harm to others. Not only that, he’s also one of the youngest in this group, and for all it’s worth, he shows every indication of being properly respectful of his elders from his position.
Moreover, while Koushirou is so heavily associated with his computer, the series doesn’t take long to establish that the computer really is not the focal part of his character as much as it’s the concept of “gathering and analyzing information”. However much knowledge Koushirou had gained prior to the series, and whatever tech skills Koushirou may or may not have (if you look closely, his tech feats aren’t actually that impressive within the scope of Adventure and 02, and a lot of what he does in terms of tech feats is heavily outsourced), are considered relatively unimportant in comparison to his actual attitude about it, which is that he never stops wanting to learn more or dig deeper into things whenever something’s piqued his curiosity. The conflict in Adventure episode 24 that establishes the true, functional meaning of the Crest of Knowledge has very little to do with computers at all, but rather Koushirou insatiably pursuing more about the Digital World itself and Gennai, and, really, the topic could be anything as long as it’s new and interesting -- it’s just that computers (especially ones connected to the Internet) are a convenient place to gather and analyze different kinds of information, and the Digital World happens to be an absolute treasure trove of new things to discover.
In other words, Koushirou knows a lot of things not because it gives him some status of superiority over others for being “smart”, but rather because he’s genuinely passionate about exploring and learning about things, and you can also see it in the difference between the way he approaches “gathering” information versus “disclosing” information. During times he’s focused on gathering or analyzing information, he focuses on it and tends to shut others out because he wants to make sure he’s uninterrupted and can get every little detail out of it, and whenever he’s talking to himself, others might sometimes get lost in his rambling, but whenever he’s put in a situation where it’s of importance that he explain to others (examples being Adventure episodes 19, 28, and 42), he clarifies when people have questions, sometimes checks to make sure everyone’s still following, and, in general, has no sense of condescension about the fact he knows more than them, with the implication that wants the others to be able to understand and appreciate the information he’s passionate about.
Koushirou is also one of the most visible seniors in 02, because as someone whose defining trait was “curiosity and inquisitiveness”, it stands to reason that he’d be the one most curious about what his juniors are getting involved with, what’s going on with the Digital World, and anything else to do with it (hence why he occasionally asks his juniors to test things for him, such as in 02 episode 17, and hauls himself all the way down to Tamachi to pick Ken’s brain about anything he knows in 02 episode 33). Again, like in Adventure, his character portrayal actually has very little to do with computers, despite what the imagery and archetype would suggest -- it’s more about how he’s now become able to take a leadership role like that of the computer club and start coordinating and organizing people to be able to figure out even more things, while also being able to personally unravel more of the mysteries behind the Digital World and the story itself.
Mimi
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Coming from a background of being a bit pampered and spoiled, Mimi aligns a bit to the “pretty girl” archetype that generally has a few things associated with it -- someone who might be a bit materialistic or fixated on appearances, and someone who’s a bit condescending or high-horse in compared to others. So it’s interesting that Mimi is actually portrayed as, for the most part, not that absorbed about appearances or materialism (it’s not to say she doesn’t care at all, but any references she makes to appearance are vanishingly rare in the series, and she’s even willing to warm up to the Numemon or Scumon/Chuumon and not hold grudges against them), and in fact all of her “complaints” that she makes in the early parts of the series are meant to be in line with what an average child would have in her situation. Complaints like “I don’t like this” in reaction to little things like having to get dirty or endure something tiring aren’t complaints she makes because she looks down on it as much as she’s just had a very sheltered upbringing that hadn’t involved a lot of hardship, so now that she has to grit her teeth and go through a lot of difficult things, she simply has low tolerance and high sensitivity and is having difficulty coping.
Beyond that, Mimi is consistently portrayed as likeable and devoid of malice or condescension towards anyone -- so much to the point that even at the beginning of the series, she saw no reason to look down on Koushirou or make fun of him when her classmates did, because she didn’t see why she should. Mimi is said to be someone who is so naturally likeable that she has no problems making friends with anyone, which is why she’s the one who’s able to gather together allies at the end of Adventure -- because she lacks condescension or malice, and is compassionate enough to never get on the wrong foot with anyone, everyone ends up able to get along with her with no problem. As one of the youngest in the group, she’s polite to her elders and uses proper honorifics on everyone, and moreover any lashing out she does is purely defensive and not aggressive towards others. She lashes out because she doesn’t like herself or her friends being hurt, but otherwise she doesn’t care to do anything cold or rude towards others, nor have a grudge; her first focus episode (Adventure episode 6) involved her having absolutely nothing but "they don't seem like they're having fun" towards everyone making fools of themselves in front of her, and she even goes as far as to outright call them her “friends” at a time in the series when everyone barely knew each other! This is also why 02 depicts her as having already made a ton of friends in America (such as Michael, or the attendees of the huge party in 02 episode 14) despite having been there for only a year; she’s that likeable to the point she can get along with people from even an entirely different country easily.
Mimi is “extremely empathetic”, which means that she won’t cause harm or pain to others because she herself feels their pain when they’re in trouble or hurt -- the closest she got to being on a power trip was her “princess” mental health crash in Adventure episode 25, which almost immediately led to her having nightmares about everyone feeling betrayed and potentially hating her and turning around in less than one night. Hence, she won’t do anything to hurt others’ feelings, because she herself feels hurt if she does. However, that means that once the Dark Masters arc kicks in and many of their friends are hurt and killed in the process, her feeling every bit of that makes her the first to take it the hardest and become unable to fight (and, by extension, is very tied to that “extra sensitivity” that made her so sensitive to pain or unpleasant experiences at the beginning of the series). Mimi is consistently portrayed as a pacifist, and while many other shounen battle series would portray this as a weakness, Adventure episode 50 establishes that while it of course isn’t good for her to sit around doing nothing, it would be inhumane to force Mimi to personally participate in something that causes her so much pain, and instead may be better channeling her abilities to bring people together by amassing allies and contributing to the struggle in other ways. While Mimi does eventually get herself together enough to participate in the direct fighting in Adventure and 02, she never gets portrayed as someone who enjoys it for the sake of it besides the end goal of protecting others, and in 02 her ability to bring people together and not hold grudges is a much more significant influence on her juniors (especially Miyako).
As a side point, this kind of “pretty girl” character is often also stereotyped as being rather lacking in common sense or airheaded, but while Mimi certainly isn’t the paragon of intellectuality compared to some of the others in the group, she’s never portrayed as particularly lacking in common sense, and in fact her sense of empathy and sensitivity makes her very able to “read the room” and say things or act in ways that are in fact extremely helpful to others. “Emotional intelligence” is a fairly prominent character trait for many characters in Adventure and 02 (particularly in regards to Digimon partners), and, especially in a narrative where the characters are dealing with a lot of stress and emotional issues, is no less important of a role in terms of figuring out what’s going on and figuring out the best possible solution for everyone going forward.
Jou
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Jou’s got two archetypes going on here: one being the “studious nerd” type (touched on earlier in Koushirou’s section), and one as “the oldest and therefore most responsible” -- except we quickly find out that Jou is extremely stress-prone, often high-strung, and not particularly put-together (especially because, as it turns out, he’s actually the youngest of his own siblings, meaning he’s not particularly used to being in the role of the oldest). Nevertheless, he takes his role as the oldest very seriously, but the way it’s played is interesting: while he initially seems like the type to hold his position as “the oldest” over everyone and act as if they’re obligated to treat him with respect, Jou actually doesn’t have any indication of caring that much about status or esteem as much as he considers himself obligated to fulfill the role of the oldest and take care of everyone. Hence, why he’s willing to even throw himself recklessly on a Unimon in Adventure episode 7 -- he’s a very selfless person whose main drive is to protect others and help people more than he cares about his own status.
That extends to his role as a “studious” person too -- someone like him who comes from an “elite” family of doctors would often be portrayed as someone who themself cares about the prestige and honor of being a doctor, or at least is proud of being an honor student over everyone else, but there’s no indication in Adventure or 02 that Jou has any interest in the act of studying itself or the status that comes with it as much as he considers it part of a “comfortable routine” that’s integrated into his life, especially compared to the stress of being in an unknown world (Adventure episode 6 even has him preface his statement with “don’t laugh at me,” acknowledging how unusual it would normally be to miss something like studying). Adventure episode 35 has him be mostly rather unfazed about getting a bad grade, past an initial (understandable) bout of disappointment, hinting that this whole affair is actually him going through the motions moreso than he has any real attachment to this lifestyle. Jou doesn’t have a condescending bone in his body, and in fact a lot of his behavior has heavily to do with high stress and a feeling of obligation to help others.
Eventually, via his brother Shin, Adventure episode 38 clarifies the reason for Jou’s behavior of being the “studious type” yet also not really being into it all that much -- Jou’s doing this out of his obligation to his family more than he even personally cares about it, and the “elite” track of being a doctor was never something he personally wanted as much as something his father wanted of him. So in other words, Jou had no personal investment in status and thus can’t be motivated to do something with passion unless it’s something he personally has a reason for wanting to do. He certainly was very motivated to throw himself recklessly into situations where he could sacrifices himself for others in Adventure episodes 7, 23, and 36, because it was a no-brainer that he wanted to help people, but something like the status of becoming a respected member of society is comparatively nebulous and vague to him, especially since, as per Adventure episode 38, he has a phobia of blood that makes the profession outright uncomfortable to him.
Because Jou is the kind of person who wants to do his best for others’ sake and help others, it’s only when he rationalizes that with his father’s desire for him to be a doctor that he’s able to form a desire for it -- namely, the Dark Masters arc has him witness pain and death, and combined with him outright coming to terms with the fact that he's not that great at fighting to begin with (in Adventure episode 50), he decides that the Digital World is rather lacking in healers and that he needs to be there for them. Hence, why his goal to become a doctor is still “unexpected” in its own way, because he’s not doing it for the status of becoming an “elite” doctor the way his father wants him to, but rather one specialized in helping the denizens of the fantasy world that society isn’t all that aware of. It’s also why, in 02, he seems to be fairly unfazed by the prospect of having to temporarily ditch his studies in order to get Gomamon or his juniors out of a pinch -- because if he allowed there to be casualties on his road to becoming someone who can help people, that’d be pretty hypocritical.
Takeru
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The “designated kid character” usually manifests in one of two ways: one who’s an immature brat who often causes a lot of trouble, or one who’s much weaker than the others and holds the others back from constantly being emotionally overwhelmed. While neither of these are really things you can blame a child for being at this kind of age for being (especially in such a stressful situation), Takeru is nevertheless neither. Mainstream media, and sometimes even people in the fanbase itself, will talk about him being a “crybaby”, but Takeru’s moments of breaking down into tears or having extreme emotional reactions in Adventure are actually quite uncommon (Yamato’s moments of such outstrip his by a landslide, and almost all of the situations Takeru ends up that way aren’t particularly more unusual than any of the other characters in this cast, especially Mimi).
In truth, Adventure episode 43 makes it clear that Takeru detests the idea of being a “ball and chain” holding everyone back, so, as a result, he’s going out of his way to be “put-together and well-behaved” -- hence, why he, as one of the youngest, keeps on his best behavior in front of his elders and has a constant sense of responsibility. Moreover, there are multiple indications that he’s covering up his own emotions to unhealthy extents as part of his attempt to be so “put-together” -- he has moments where it’s obvious he’s thinking about the impact of his parents’ divorce (a freeze-frame in Adventure episode 3, his reminiscence in Adventure episode 12, or his talk about dislike of “family” getting separated in Adventure episode 26), but constantly tries to veer away from the topic or even lie about it (see Adventure episode 12 where he basically pretends he doesn’t remember anything at all about his young childhood despite the fact that we as the audience are shown that he very much did).
The fact that 02′s incarnation of Takeru has him show a lot more viciously negative sides of himself may catch one off-guard, and it’s sometimes been said by observers that he seems to have taken a mysteriously nasty turn in his personality, but, in fact, Takeru’s habit of being dishonest about and hiding a lot of negative emotions had existed as early as Adventure -- observe him blowing a complete irrational fuse at the well-meaning Tokomon/Patamon in Adventure episodes 22 and 33, just because things had hit him a little too closely (the latter episode is especially notable because Patamon’s statement had been completely innocuous for the most part, only for Takeru to suddenly get angry at him). Such a thing isn’t something you would have expected from an eight-year-old child, given that the archetype is usually portrayed as “innocent”, but it had remained largely unaddressed by the end of Adventure, and it’s only natural it would have gotten worse over the three years in between Adventure and 02, especially as Takeru became older and more independent. When Iori points out the strange “duality” between the kind and cold sides of Takeru in 02 episode 34, he’s really just directly stating what had been going on since the very first episode of Adventure.
That said, it’s also not like Takeru’s trying to be dishonest or guilty of subterfuge -- it’s just that his coping mechanisms are very poorly developed and that he’s constantly trying to keep the peace and come off as pleasant while suppressing all of his negative emotions under a smile, only for things like anger and personal grudge to explode all at once at inopportune times (his punching of the Kaiser in 02 episode 19 being the most famous, but you can see traces of it emerging even beforehand in 02 episodes 11 and 13 whenever things get a bit too personal, to the point it almost jeopardizes his ability to help Hikari in the latter). Hence, why the positive development for Takeru by the end of 02 involves him becoming someone who’s better able to express his thoughts and feelings with the help of Iori, who, despite being younger than him, is also significantly more blunt and straightforward.
Hikari
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Being tied to a Crest that’s linked to “life itself”, Hikari comes off as the sort of saintlike figure who has purity of heart all the way through and has nothing but peaceful thoughts about everything. However, a lot of her appearances in Adventure were heavily impacted by context -- other than the fact she was sometimes held back by illness, Hikari was otherwise portrayed as an ordinary playful and cheerful young girl, and there are multiple layers to her character added or enhanced in 02 that indicate that she’s not quite the saint that her archetype would suggest.
For one, like with Sora, we again see how “excessive selflessness” can actually lead to self-destruction if left unchecked: Taichi states outright in Adventure episode 48 that Hikari’s penchant for putting others before herself means that she won’t do anything for herself even if it results in self-harm. Hikari herself confirms this in 02 episode 31, stating outright that she compulsively cannot express her own feelings even if she wants to, to the point she’s outright jealous of Miyako for being able to do so. Because she’s so inclined to not burden others and to work for others’ sake instead, when something bad is about to happen to her and only her, such as the Dark Ocean-related incidents, she can’t bring herself to do anything and is forced to either rely on others’ help or simply resign herself to her fate.
That said, Hikari is also not characterized as someone who’s passive in general; because this passivity is tied to “excessive selflessness”, anytime the issue has to do with anyone else’s sake, she doesn’t hesitate and will even be firm in taking a stand. She’s so assertive that she even momentarily freaks Miyako out in 02 episode 18! In the end, it’s a textbook case of “it’s easier to do it when it’s for other people, but harder to do it when it’s for yourself, especially when doing it for yourself means bothering others,” and this is also something that had dated back as early as Adventure, when she’d made a lot of fairly independent decisions about things she felt strongly needed to be done, like giving herself up for everyone's sake in Adventure episode 36 (very much against her friends' will), or standing up for the Numemon in Adventure episode 49, or even being much quicker to accept the inevitable need to kill an enemy than the emotionally wrecked Miyako in 02 episode 44, because they’re all things she truly and strongly felt needed to be done for the sake of others.
Plus, it’s also not like Hikari’s such a pure-hearted, saintlike person who can do no wrong even at the base level -- 02 episode 6 indicates that she’s not above toying with Daisuke’s feelings for her in order to get what she wants, and in general, the fact she’s aware he likes her but isn’t doing anything about it has both the nuances that she probably doesn’t want to hurt his feelings but is also capable of exploiting an extra level of leverage over him as well. The fact that Hikari is seen as “charming” gives her a certain degree of power of persuasion to get her way, and it seems she’s quite well aware of it...
As the younger sister of Adventure’s lead protagonist, Hikari’s often also stigmatized as having some kind of unhealthy fixation on her brother, or a brother complex (also a rather common anime trope among “younger sister” characters), but this kind of reading requires a huge amount of exaggeration and extracting the relevant lines out of context; at no point in Adventure or 02 is Taichi and Hikari’s relationship portrayed as particularly unusual relative to a reasonable level of concern a pair of siblings that get along should have, especially since any behavior that is particularly notable or unusual or dependent is strongly contextualized as having to do with the above issues regarding Hikari being potentially self-destructive if left to her own devices, and how both Taichi and Hikari react to it (hence why the problem is ultimately addressed most effectively by Miyako, who has no real personal stake in the siblings’ relationship).
Daisuke
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Daisuke has been stated outright by Adventure and 02′s director Kakudou to have “the most anime-like personality”, and it is true that even going beyond his base profile, a lot of his characteristics are much closer to that of an idealistic shounen anime protagonist than Taichi’s are, including (as the article in question points out) that he’s a lot more “hot-blooded” on principle but suddenly loses his head when around a girl he likes. Past that, however, there’s a lot of depth going on that reveals that Daisuke is in fact quite the deceptive character.
The first thing you might realize after watching Daisuke closely enough is that while he may initially seem aggressive, he’s actually not very assertive or aggressive at all, especially in the earlier parts of the series. It's very common for the others to shut him down or overturn his opinions in the earlier parts of the series, no matter how much he may ostensibly seem argumentative about it -- he very quickly backs down, at worst seeming a bit irritated, or even going into full-on disappointment with “Oh...okay...” Hence, why Kakudou refers to him as being “prevented from doing very much in the first half,” because for the most part a lot of the decisions made by the group in said first half are made by the entire group in agreement more than they’re made by him specifically, and becoming someone who can make more firm statements is a major point of his growth throughout the series. The first major moment he’s able to do such a thing is 02 episode 20, where, despite everyone’s opposition, he continues to assertively put his foot down that he doesn’t want to pull back when doing so could result in more victims -- and that ultimately becomes the start of him starting to be more confident about doing things even when others disagree with him. Even when he does become more assertive, at no point is Daisuke ever said, in-universe, to be the “leader” of the 02 group as much as he’s simply the one giving them the drive to move forward while they all work things out as a group.
Beyond that, another point that comes out of this is that Daisuke is actually a very deeply emotional person, which means that he has very strong emotions in every direction, including those of empathy and kindness. In fact, similarly to Mimi, Daisuke’s “abrasiveness” and “lashing out” are more defensive than him ever going on the attack, since he usually does this when he feels like he’s being put on the spot, or insulted, or is suspicious. There’s a reason I like to compare him to a puppy with a louder bark than its bite -- said puppy might bark at anything it doesn’t like or understand, or get pouty and offended at times, but also will immediately switch to open adoration or genuinely wanting to make you happy, and that’s also Daisuke in a nutshell. You may notice that he never, ever says anything condescending towards others nor does he dunk on them without reason, and 02 episode 7 indicates that if he realizes he’s stepped over the line, he won’t hesitate to apologize -- something that Taichi, who often veered into the insensitive, was rather bad at doing. Moreover, whenever something deeply hurts him, he also becomes genuinely, truly upset about it -- see him openly weeping over Wallace’s problems in Hurricane Touchdown despite having just met and bickered with him, and him being very audibly on the verge of tears during the situations in 02 episodes 20, 26, and 43 (Kiuchi Reiko’s acting especially brings this out). He’s a dramatic person with an extreme emotional reaction to everything, and that often means blowing small things out of proportion, but it also means that he really, truly does feel for others and care about things with large stakes.
In addition, someone who’s this sort of “hot-blooded” would usually also be portrayed as self-absorbed and arrogant, but Daisuke reveals as early as 02 episode 8 that he’s actually extremely humble -- he knows when he’s out of depth, acknowledges when others are better than him (such as knowing even from the very beginning that he was likely to lose against Ken and the Tamachi team), and actually just enjoys being around others on sheer principle. Read between the lines and you’ll realize that a lot of his behavior actually comes not from arrogance but rather insecurity -- he doesn’t expect anyone to adore or respect him, rather, he ends up running himself in circles trying to impress others (especially Hikari) because he wants the validation of them considering him cool. Hence why he never looks down on anyone nor insults anyone, because he’s much more confident in their awesomeness, and every time he’s around elders or respected seniors, he immediately takes a much more well-behaved and respectful tone in general. For all it’s worth, he’s a pretty deferential person, and has a genuine appreciation for even the little things in life, which is why he’s okay with running a ramen cart in the future -- sure, it’s not super-flashy as a career, but it makes him happy, and that’s all he wants.
So in other words, Daisuke likes people, and he likes his friends a lot; it’s just that his tendency to need validation from others, combined with his emotional tendencies to get really dramatic about everything, makes for a surface temperament where this isn’t immediately apparent. Even his original motivation for fighting comes not from liking fighting, but from his frustration that he wasn’t strong enough to protect others three years prior (also reiterated in the Adventure novels). In the end, pretty much everything he does comes from a desire to protect others and help them, which means that he of course resents those who hurt others, and it’s why he takes Ken exploiting his otherwise admirable abilities for harmful purposes so personally in 02 episode 8. Hence why Kakudou described him as having no evil in him, and that “the only thing bad about him is his head” (i.e. he’s not very smart) -- because once you get past the initial abrasiveness, he’s extremely friendly, all-loving, and loyal, and he isn’t malicious nor does he hold significant grudges.
Even Daisuke’s penchant for being “an idiot” is played a bit differently from the usual, because it’s consistently shown to be a byproduct of the fact that he’s “simple-minded” and doesn’t do well with complex thinking or overthinking, which, in many ways, is an asset as much as it’s a drawback. It means that he doesn’t do well with complex problems and isn’t very intellectual, and it also means that he gets overly suspicious at things that aren’t what they seem or aren’t being straightforward (which is why he initially gets so antsy around Takeru and Wallace, especially the latter, whom he was suspicious of before he started flirting). But it also means that he won’t easily get distracted by platitudes or overthinking, which, during situations where the simplest answer is the correct one, will sometimes conversely result in him being the smartest person in the room. Being so simple-minded gives him a certain degree of pragmatism; while everyone else is getting caught up in moralistic issues of forgiveness or non-forgiveness, Daisuke, who doesn’t get hung up on things like grudges, becomes the most open-minded towards Ken because he practically observes that Ken is not causing problems anymore and thus should be allowed to take responsibility for his mistakes, and also successfully dissuades Ken from recklessly throwing away his life in 02 episode 26 because, as “symbolic” as that kind of penance might be, it’s also very unproductive and will make things worse for everyone. It’s also why he’s one of the first to emotionally come to terms with the potential necessity for killing enemies in 02 episodes 25 and 43; it’s not like he enjoys it, but he’s the first to point out that if they hadn’t done it, even more victims would have been taken.
And as for Daisuke’s interest in Hikari: it’s basically there as a character note as to how Daisuke will completely lose his brain cells and bend over backwards when he’s trying to impress someone he has on a pedestal, and it becomes completely irrelevant to the plot and not even brought up after 02 episode 35, so while it’s not something that vanished completely (especially since it makes a return in post-02 material), it’s also treated as an example of one the many weird hangups that Daisuke will put aside when other things become more important, and an ultimately fairly shallow thing that he hasn’t thought through very clearly (he never directly asks Hikari out nor verbally expresses having a particular crush on her at any point in the series because he’s so wishy-washy about it, which is why she’s so easily able to dodge it), rather than a guiding part of the narrative or his character.
Interestingly, Daisuke’s unusual position as a shounen lead is hinted at even in franchise meta; you might notice he’s the only lead Digimon protagonist to be so heavily associated with blue instead of the warm colors of orange or red, and when you think about it, despite having Taichi’s goggles and supposedly having the “hot-blooded” personality, you could draw just as many parallels between him and Yamato, who’s also friendly behind all of the initial awkwardness and is also a passionately emotional person.
Ken
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Really, the single most unusual thing about Ken’s character and his character arc is the fact that such a plotline even exists in the first place. How many series would take the main antagonist of the first half (not an underling, but the actual primary antagonist) and not only reform them but also turn them into the best friend of the protagonist for the second half? And not even in a “begrudging edgelord rival” sense, but legitimately the person who becomes a straightforward best friend with no standoffishness and full-on social-life supportiveness to the protagonist?
In any case, the entire concept of the Kaiser and his story is unusual even from the get-go -- we’re initially introduced to him as an “evil genius”, which is a common villain archetype because it’s very terrifying to have an enemy who’s one step ahead of you, but the Kaiser ends up being rather pathetic -- he’s constantly losing territory to a group of elementary school students, his “tactical abilities” have no real sense of scale beyond a soccer field sort of affair, he’s incredibly petty and will make irrational decisions just because his pride was wounded (see 02 episode 8), and seems to have no real long-term goal besides conquest for the sake of it. Eventually, 02 episode 20-21 reveals that he’d been doing this entire thing because he’d thought the entire thing was a game -- in short, he wasn’t taking this seriously at all, and the entire affair had been tantamount to an eleven-year-old throwing a tantrum.
The point being made here is that the facade of the so-called “evil genius” is significantly less brilliant than it’s made out to be, and, actually, when you think about it, Ken’s initial reformation is mostly kickstarted by himself and Wormmon moreso than it is the other Chosen Children, because while they’re there to drive the nail in, Ken had already been emotionally falling apart and realizing he wasn’t cut out for this for the entirety of the last handful of episodes, and it was ultimately his own realization and mental breakdown that did the honors -- the other kids were really mostly doing cleanup duty at the time, and Daisuke’s influence on him is more important to his process of healing than it was the initial calling it quits. Moreover, as we get to see Ken more in his proper element in the latter half of the series, it becomes apparent that the “true personality” of Ken is actually the more assertive, level-headed one, whereas the Kaiser was the childish and fragile facade; Ken is significantly more comfortable being in his normal element to begin with, and he’s not standoffish or edgy because he doesn’t even like being condescending. If anything, the Kaiser was a manifestation of him forcing himself into an uncomfortable mold in an attempt to emulate his brother, so of course he isn’t going to feel comfortable doing that once all is said and done.
While Ken in the second half does initially express some traits that can be misconstrued as standoffishness, because he’s significantly more level-headed and assertive in this state, it becomes clear that he’s not doing this because he looks down on the others or anything; it’s just that he has very strong opinions on what he thinks needs to be done, and he doesn’t hesitate to explain why he feels this way when he’s asked (he says outright in 02 episode 25 that he believes they shouldn’t be responsible for cleaning up his mess). 02 takes a stance of favoring the concept of “taking responsibility for one’s mistakes” over “penance and punishment”, so even though Ken himself does have moments of devaluing his own life due to his sins (such as in 02 episode 26), ultimately, he states that his primary goal is to fix the mess he started, and he’s not averse to working with the others for the sake of that goal. If he does initially push the others away, it’s simply because he thinks he’s burdening them too (and, likely, that he doesn’t feel he has the right to be around them), but even when he’s at his most irrational about this in 02 episode 30, he turns out to be fairly capable of being reasoned with in pretty short order. So he’s not standoffish or “edgy” just for the sheer sake of it nor for drama, and it’s why he ends up on a very conciliatory relationship with Daisuke and the others by the end of the series, with very little, if at all, in common with the usual “rival” archetype you’d expect in this kind of series.
Considering that Ken is characterized as “kind” and “soft”, it’s easy to not realize that he’s actually one of the most assertive people in the group, and more so than Daisuke (note that he never seems to be all that easily intimidated even when the universe seems out to get him, and in 02 episode 29 he even offers to do the “dirty work” of potentially having to kill an enemy in lieu of the other kids if push comes to shove because he knows they’re uncomfortable with it). Although the issue of the Dark Seed makes it ambiguous as to how much of his turn into the Kaiser was supernatural interference and how much of it was himself, either way, the series doesn’t try to absolve Ken of his sins just because there was something extra pushing him over the edge -- again, the series operates less on “fault” than it does “responsibility” -- and when you look at these kinds of traits, you realize that the Kaiser existed because Ken had always been capable of this kind of aggressiveness, he just doesn’t do it because he doesn’t want to unless it’s necessary, nor does he like it. It’s also why he banters so playfully with Daisuke in most post-02 material -- like many of the other characters in this narrative, being “soft and kind” doesn’t mean he’s necessarily a saint, he’s just someone who willfully chooses to be a good person for the most part.
Miyako
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Miyako is a character who has a lot going on with her at once, having a ton of traits that you normally wouldn’t see combined into one character because they usually occupy separate archetypes (and, in a textbook case of reality being a lot less clear-cut than fiction, she’s the one character out of this group said explicitly to be based off a specific person). The fact she’s outwardly aggressive may make you think of the “badass action girl” type, but she’s also the kind who gushes over hot guys and fits the stereotypes of the “materialistic girly-girl”, and on top of that she’s a computer specialist working under Koushirou who begs the image of a “nerd girl”, and, unlike all of these archetypes, she’s a rather sloppy mess of a person who ends up loudly running her mouth, being prone to panic, and spitting out the first thing on her mind without restraint. On top of that, these traits tend to mix easily, so as much as she’s in-your-face about trying to physically fight things, she’s also the kind who’ll aggressively hug or dote on anyone she likes (which is a lot of people). Miyako is closer to the shounen brash hero archetype than even Taichi or Daisuke are, and yet is also closer to the “materialistic girly-girl” archetype than Mimi is at the same time.
Much like Koushirou, the part about being good with computers is much less of a prominent part of her character arc than you might initially think -- she herself doesn’t actually bring it up much during the course of the series, and, much like computers are an outlet for Koushirou to follow his thirst for knowledge and insatiable curiosity, Miyako’s connections with computers and tech have a lot to do with how she constantly goes out of her way to be helpful to others, such as being helpful to Koushirou as his junior, or helping out Iori’s mother with their computer (02 episode 1), or helping Yamato’s band (02 episode 29), or getting to do something helpful for the group in general (Diablomon Strikes Back). She’s not particularly show-offy or even all that fixated the actual subject as much as she’s proud of the fact she got to do something helpful and useful, and it ties deeply into her personal struggle with how to be capable of doing good for others when she’s actually not the striking image of a mature, put-together person who would usually be good at that kind of thing.
Miyako is consistently portrayed as having a complex about her “aggressive” tendencies -- she negatively compares herself to Mimi (02 episode 14) and Hikari (02 episode 31), on the grounds that she’s less put-together and more insensitive than them, and labels herself a “bad partner” for being such a sloppy person (02 episode 18). She does not want people to get hurt because of her actions, especially because whenever she loses grip on herself like this, that’s something that’s very liable to happen (which is exactly what happens with Hawkmon in 02 episode 18), and her tendency to be judgmental or to have no brain-to-mouth filter means she can be occasionally insensitive (see 02 episode 31). She even ends up fostering an idea that Hikari must be thinking of her badly, while she’s at it (02 episode 31)!
The end result of Miyako’s character arc is that, while she ends up needing to adjust the more negative aspects of her personality that involve causing trouble for others and being insensitive, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she has to completely change her personality to accommodate that. Hawkmon assures her in 02 episode 18 that he likes her the way she is, and, as it turns out, Hikari and Miyako both realize in 02 episode 31 that Miyako’s in-your-face, aggressive personality is very helpful when dealing with someone who’s so closed-in and repressive like Hikari, because it means Miyako has the right temperament to go out of her way and reach out to her despite how high of a hurdle that would normally be. On top of that, a consistent thread from the beginning of the series is that her over-the-top antics bring the group proper cheer, with the kids genuinely enjoying the vibrance she brings with her dramatic Digital Gate entrances, and multiple significant scenes indicating that her being dramatic and silly will make people laugh and be happy. So in other words, Miyako is capable of being emotionally supportive and helpful while also being her aggressive and messy self, and there’s no need for her to have to change herself drastically to resolve the supposed “contradiction” that one might initially think this poses.
Miyako’s also generally the first female character billed in 02 (mainly because Hikari’s returning from Adventure), but she isn’t particularly teased as having any romantic relationship with Daisuke; not that they don’t have a compelling rapport, but any idea of them having any real feelings for each other isn’t exactly stated to any significant degree over the course of the series. Miyako herself comments on multiple people being attractive over the course of the series, and it’s interesting in how this is played; the earlier parts of the series involve her completely losing her head and getting weirdly hung up and fixated on her targets of attraction to the point of getting derailed over more important matters (see 02 episodes 6, 8, 14), whereas she’s later able to express this in a lot more straightforward of a manner without being weird about it (02 episodes 38, 39), and so in the end, it’s not exactly a fundamental sin for Miyako to be open about the concept of attraction, especially as it ends up not really having a huge place in the overall narrative, which is consistent with Adventure and 02 not really treating romance or attraction as if it’s such a game-changer for these kids at this point in their lives.
Iori
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Iori is the youngest in this entire group of twelve, and yet carries himself with a sense of maturity that goes far beyond his age, to the point he even comes off as one of the most mature in the 02 group despite being younger than all of them by a significant margin. Even taking into account the concept of the “precocious kid”, however, Iori’s not only polite but also very stoic and stern, meaning he often can come up with some really passive-aggressive or stern remarks (completely in polite Japanese). Of this entire group, the youngest one is the most likely to completely roast you with some well-timed statements.
However, one important fact to keep in mind is that Iori isn’t doing this because he’s “naturally” stoic or emotionless, but because he’s deliberately suppressing himself in an attempt to be well-behaved. (A really big clue in the Japanese version that Iori’s facade is “slipping” is that he ends up losing his composure and using casual Japanese instead of the polite form that he so constantly adheres to.) This is something that partially comes from his upbringing from his family, especially his grandfather, but even said grandfather is concerned that he’s a bit overkill in this regard (see 02 episode 6). By all means Iori should be allowed to express himself a bit more freely, but he keeps restraining himself and trying to be well-behaved in front of all of these elders that he develops a complex over the one time he allowed himself to act excited and cheerful in 02 episode 16, to the point the episode ends with Submarimon basically dragging him out on an undersea trip so he can enjoy something for once, dammit.
Iori is described as “clumsy at expressing himself as a child”, and 02 depicts the problem that comes out of the flip side of a young child being so mature that they have more comfortable company with older kids than kids their own age: Iori is outright isolated from his peers because of how different his mentality is from theirs (02 episode 3), and moreover, his stubborn insistence on doing things a certain way to the point even his grandfather thinks he’s overdoing it is, in fact, his own way of being “childish”. He’s basically trying to follow the honorable principles he wants to follow from his family, but taking them to their logical extreme because his view of the world is too simple-minded from his lack of life experience. Hence, why he develops such a black-and-white view of morality trying to categorize people into boxes of “good” and “evil”, and why he ends up trying to follow principles to pretty impractical extremes such as thinking that a single white lie is going to send him on a path to moral debauchery. In short, he’s a young child trying to deal with very abstract concepts much bigger than him, and dealing with it in a very simple-minded, overly reductive way befitting that of someone his age.
However, one thing Iori does acknowledge is that he’s probably not going about this the right way, and that he needs to understand more about others if he wants to do better. From the very beginning of the series, Koushirou (02 episode 2) identifies him as someone who has a “curious mind” like himself, but while he initially expects Iori to be like him in terms of being curious about the Digital World, Iori’s “curiosity” ends up manifesting more in terms of wanting to know about how humans work and what’s the right thing to do. This is how he ends up breaking through to the very convoluted and repressive Takeru, because he has the drive to poke through Takeru’s many layers and figure out what’s going on with him, and it’s how he eventually manages to become more open-minded about the issues surrounding Ken and Oikawa despite initially having been so hostile to them. All things considered, “understanding morality” is a pretty heavy burden for someone who’s supposed to be the designated kid character!
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newcaptainofsquad9 · 3 years
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Twice wanting to help with their Black girlfriend’s hair would include...
I’mma see how this goes. I know all Black hair is different, but I’m going off of my own experiences as a Black woman.  I just wanted to make some Black women Once’s  smile with this. Some of these have potentials for becoming entire fics, but let me know if ya’ll like them. Hope ya’ll enjoy!
 Nayeon
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• Nayeon would be so fixated on your hair, giggling every time you combed through it and applied whatever products you chose.
• She’d be super curious, it might come off as a bit rude sometimes but she’d always follow it up with aeygo, a hug or kiss. If you were really having a hard time with your hair, maybe all three.
• “Jagi, your hair looks so different from before? Do all these different gels and moisturizers help?”
• You nod, eyes staying on your reflection in the mirror as your hands grow tired. 
• Nayoen notices, reaching to grab your hand, but flinches as you sigh. 
“I’m sorry Nayeon, I still need to get out a few more kinks in the back.” 
“Kinks?”
•You explain how your hair is extremely different from her own, going into detail as she listens to every word. The moment you finish, she asks if she could help.
This took you a little by surprise, but you allowed her to help moisturize your hair. 
“Like this?” she’d ask as she carefully rubbed the Creme of Nature throughout your hair. 
You nodded and showed her how to comb down to the root. 
•Whenever you’d flinch or jump as she comb through a tangle or knot, she’d stop kiss you and rub down your arms. 
• It didn’t take as long with Nayeon’s help, but instead of stopping because of your tired hands, it’d be Nayeon wanting to make-out
• “But my hair’s not finished yet?” you’d ask.
Nayeon would flash her signature bunny grin and kiss you anyway. 
“You’re still perfect jagi.”
Jeongyeon
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• Jeongyeon sat down in front of you with her attention fully on you with a puzzled expression as she watched you mix in the two relaxers you bought with a tiny, flat wooden stick.
• She’d be so engrossed as you put on the gloves and began to comb out your hair; her expression changing from curious to  concerned in a matter of moments as you tensed at the knots and kinks you came across.
• She hurried to retrieve your moisturizer, spritz and all while looking to help.
“You forgot to add the moisturizer,” she’d say. “Isn’t that why it’s so hard to comb? I remember you told me. To get it softer.”
• Your heart sank at her soft tone, she remembered. 
“Aww, well I can’t mix the products in with the perm,” you say, gesturing to the relaxer before you. “I have to comb it out then put it in.” 
“Will that make it easier to manage?” she asks. “I-I just hate to see you in pain.” 
• You had to embrace Jeongyeon to ease her, she always worried about knots and kinks a lot. 
“Could I put the perm in for you? it could can go an hour less if I help.” 
• You couldn’t say no with Jeongyeon’s intense stare and how much you already knew she cared and wanted to learn. 
• It took awhile for Jeongyeon to comb a bit harder without fear of hurting you, but once you reassured her, it went well.
• Showed you memes while you sat with the perm in your hair and applied more Vaseline to your forehead to avoid burns and rashes.
• She shampooed your hair at your request after the perm was initially washed out to ensure it was completely out. She scratched your scalp too, just to ensure a bit more comfort during the process.
• Helped you blow dry, grease your scalp and all before ending the day with cuddles and kisses. 
Momo
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• Momo is the type of girlfriend who’d sit you in between her legs to help you with your hair. 
• You thought against it, getting flashbacks from when your mom would fix your hair but of course you couldn’t resist her pouts.
• Momo might be a bit slower than the others when picking up on fixing your hair. 
• She’d try to run her fingers through the knotted, kinky parts, but stopped as soon as you flinched or hissed in pain.
“Sorry!” she’d yelp before stopping completely to hug and kiss your cheek. 
• You’d always reassure her and told her to watch until she was confident enough to do it herself.
• Even if she was 100 percent confident, she’d always try to make you feel comfortable while she combed through the tough parts.
“Boo! Mommy wants to hold you!” she’d say to Boo as the dog trotted into the room. 
It’s as if the dog and owner were linked because Boo came over to you, crawled into your lap and licked your fingers.
• Momo always whispered sweet nothings in your ear, urging you to hold Boo tight for you both. 
“Boo and I got you baby, I’m almost done. I promise.“
Sana
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• Would love to help braid your hair all the time.
• Was confused as to why you need so many sections platted off. 
• “So, you aren’t keeping it braided up this time?” she asked. 
“No, well at least over night,” you say. “I’ll take it out in the morning.”
“Why? I love the braids, they bring out your eyes.” 
• You tell her about your worries of wearing your hair in braids or cornrows, due to how people perceive hairstyles like that. 
 • Sana always told you otherwise, but wanted to go with whatever hairstyles that made you happy and comfortable. 
• Whenever your hand would get tired while taking out your braids, Sana would help.
• She’d always ask if she was going too fast or slow, making sure you were ok. 
• Would be confused about the concept of a bonnet, since she loved touching your hair, but understood why thanks to a talk with you. 
• She’s puzzled as hell in the morning when you both way up and it’s halfway on your head. 
“What happened?” she asks.
You shook your head as you adjusted it back on your head. 
“It happens when I sleep kind of rough.” 
Jihyo 
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• Jihyo is the type of girlfriend who will make an attempt to buy hair care products for you. 
Calls you asking which product you use. 
“What’s it called again? The pink bottle, right?” she asks. 
“Pink oil moisturizer,” you say. “Could you pick up a thing of grease too?”
“Of course baby.”
 • Would like to completely educated on your hair, texture and all before she even attempts to help. 
• You’ve even caught her looking up Youtube videos on how to braid, twist etc. 
“You can always ask, you know,” you’d say. 
“I know, but it’s a sensitive subject and I just want to approach it the right way.”  
• When she does try though, she sits you in her lap and you have to talk her through it while she does so.
• Comments on how beautiful you are and kisses your cheek and neck whenever you get flustered.
•  Always has your bonnet ready when and if you need it. 
Mina
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• Mina was always fascinated with your hair, and it wasn’t until you stayed over one night that she began to ask a lot of questions about it.
• You had never seen her so inquisitive, especially when she was in the middle of a game. 
“Is everything ok, Mina?”
“Yeah jagi, it’s just--your hair is so--amazing! You need that entire bag of products to do it?”
 • Will just stare into your eyes while you’re fixing your hair, and grins with glee once you catch her(like in the gif above). 
“You look so beautiful when you’re concentrating like that,” she says. “I-I can’t help it.” 
• Mina is the one who catches on extremely quick on how to fix your hair and often asks if she could help with any new styles you’d like to try.
“Only if you want to,” she’d say. “I wouldn’t want to ruin it.”
• Once you’re comfortable with her fixing it, she’d definitely let you sit in her lap while she works and you’re gaming.
“You’re doing amazing baby, you barely tensed up,” Mina says. “Gaming really does relax you.”
Dahyun  
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• Dahyun loved your hair, yet always tread lightly when it came to how you when about doing and fixing it.
 • She often came up to you with a giddy smile, yet she couldn’t find the words to tell you. 
“Hi babe, you good?” you’d ask. 
“Yeah, uh. I know you do it yourself and all but I can help. You seem a little down at times.”
• While you showed her how to do it, she’d always lighten the mood if you grew frustrated. 
If your hand got tired she’d hold it and never let go until you’re smiling. 
• Like Jeongyeon, she will show you memes and even take pictures of you (after you’ve finished a new hairstyle of course :) ) so you can make your own. 
The captain would read: “When you’re too pretty for your own good” or “when you know you’re girlfriend material”
Of course Dahyun would keep it between the both of you, and it never ceased to make you smile or cringe at times. 
• Is super giddy when you let her practice braiding your hair. She gets super engrossed in talking about your hair and just talking about the funny thing that have happened that you have to put her back on track at times. 
Chaeyoung
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• Chaeyoung always wanted to know more about your hair and finally asked to help you during wash day.
• You happened to be about to go over to the sink with your towel, shampoo and conditioner. 
Chaeyoung popped in to use the bathroom and couldn’t help but ask if you needed her to do anything to assist. 
 • Like Jihyo, she’d do her research, but will always find your opinion on your own hair valid. 
• Loves to sketch you whenever you just fixed your hair, and gives you a cute aesthetic like Cottagecore.
• Will just take you outside in the fresh air to take in how beautiful you look and take many Polaroids. 
 • When applying whatever products you need, she’d be super slow and extremely careful. Often times a little too slow, since the oils and/or moisturizers feel a certain way to her. 
“Ooo, it feels so cool!” she’d say.
“Uh, Chae? You still have four more sections to go.”
“Oh, right! Sorry!”
Tzuyu
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• You both were going to dinner and a movie one night. Tzuyu really wanted to see you, but your hair wasn’t really working for you. It usually didn’t take you as long.
• Tzuyu texted and called you from the living room where she waited, but got worried and knocked on your bedroom door, urging if you were ok or not. 
• You told her to give you a few minutes, only for you to turn around and see her standing at the threshold of door (of course you forgot to lock it). Tzuyu staring at while you finish combing out your hair.
• She just stared, blankly then walked out.
• At the end of the date that night she just brought the encounter up again.
“I could have helped jagi,” she said.
“Tzuyu, you don’t have to.” 
“But you were frustrated. I know that look.”
 • Unlike the others, I think Tzuyu would leave most of the handling to you. It’s not that she didn’t find herself capable, but that she knew you could handle it. 
  • She mostly held parts of hair for you, along with apply grease or spritz to an area you couldn’t reach. 
• Loves to just sit in your presence, take in your beauty and compliment you.
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opalmaplehibiscus · 3 years
Text
Vice Dorm Leader Study Date HC
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Hello Anon! Sorry for the wait! I wasn’t quite sure what you wanted to see so I tried my best trying cover a lot of ideas OTL If this wasn’t what you wanted, please do request again with what you wish to see! 
Trey
·       Study dates with Trey are very rare
·       He’s always busy due to his responsibilities as vice dorm leader while preparing to becoming a 4th year, so going on dates with you in general isn’t going to happen a lot
·       When you do end up going on with him though, he would cherish them and try to make it last as long as possible, trying to catch up on all the missed times with you
·       Usually, the study dates happen by Cater (best wingman ever by the way), who ends up stealing Ace, Deuce, and Grim from you on the days you’re supposed to study with them
·       Whenever that happens, Trey gets a message with a “U owe me~ ;9” from Cater as said guy drags the “interference” away
·       Trey: Cater, you shouldn’t be calling our underclassmen interference... Cater: Eh~ So, are you saying you don’t feel annoyed that they’re spending more time with you-know-who? Trey: …You don’t see me saying it up front now do you
·       He would do his best to help you study, teaching you whatever you needed to know  - tips, tricks, what topic that would be covered the most on the exam, etc
·       Would he try to make you flustered and blush though? Yeah. He thinks you’re adorable when you blush – endearing, cute, someone he wishes to cherish with all his heart
·       It’s why he would make passes on you, leaning towards you and brushing shoulders when he sits next to you as he helps explain something you don’t know or purposely having his hand graze yours as he points out something in the textbook or your notes
·       Expect to be spoiled with all types of sweets and desserts when with Trey
·       Cake? Cookies? Pudding? He would bring all sorts of things for you two to snack on when taking a break and studying, including tea. After all, you’re someone he happens to love so he has to somehow make it obvious one way or another
·       Trey has younger siblings. It’s why he naturally wipes the crumbs off your face since it’s habit to do so. Yeah. That’s it. Totally not
·       What isn’t natural is when, near the end of the study date, you would either hug or kiss him on the cheek, after finally understanding something or making progress, as thanks
·       Covering half of his face, he would turn his face away to hide his red face that could rival Riddle’s hair, trying to tell you he was fine with a small stutter and wavering smile when you ask if he’s okay
·       Now if only you would realize said study dates were actually dates and he likes you…
     Ruggie
·       Like Trey, Ruggie is a busy man. Busy doing Leona’s orders while chasing after all the money and food he could possibly get, so having study dates with him are also rare
·       In fact, the percent of having study dates with him are lower than Trey’s because of how much work he’ll be forced to deal with
·       It’s why, the only times he would be able to go on study dates with you are when you come visit Savanaclaw once every blue moon
·       Most often you would come over because of Jack, whether it’s to just hang out, give him a memo, whatnot
·       The thing is though, whenever you come over, you end up meeting Jack a bit later because something would always come up right when he’s about to meet you
·       And it’s totally not suspicious that it happens whenever Ruggie is coming back to the dorms. 100% true.
·       Don’t worry about Jack by the way. It so happens that a certain dorm leader kidnapped said wolf because he happens to be a good wingman when he’s bored
·       Also, he’s running low on blackmail on Ruggie. Might as well get a refill when he can
·       When seeing you alone at the entrance either being bothered by the other dorm members or looking bored, Ruggie ends up taking you to the lounge and chat with you
·       The conversation always  school orientated with school work and teachers coming up
·       While you’re in the middle of complaining about Trein and Crewel again over their ridiculous assignments (like seriously, what’s so important about hair-color changing potions again? And what about the history of the school’s chandelier, is this shade???), Ruggie teases you about not being able to do something “as easy as that”
·       He does his best to hide his soft side towards you when you sulk about it, seeing it as you pouting. Which is adorable and cute in his eyes and he loves  seeing it
·       Just as you’re about to get up and leave from getting annoyed, Ruggie quickly offers you his help on your assignments despite saying it in a teasing tone
·       Yes, he likes to troll with people a lot but he can be serious when he wants to, evidently seen when he helps you through the questions
·       His explanations aren’t great, yet he doesn’t give up trying to get you to understand and solve the questions
·       Will he tease you while explaining? Yes. Will he snicker at you and give his infamous infuriating cute smirk? Yes.
·       In the end, the assignment still gets done along with you feeling better with the concepts you weren’t so sure of thanks to him
·       It’s his turn to blush as you give him a surprise hug, ending up covering his face with both hands and sigh once you let go
·       As this happens, a certain lion continues to film the whole thing while covering the mouth of his “precious” kouhai with a smirk on his face. He’s not sorry when he shows it to Ruggie by the way.
  Jade
·       Having study dates with Jade happens more frequently than Ruggie and Trey’s solely because Jade would make sure he has one with you
·       By that, he means using the pretext of having to “tutor” you per request by one of the staffs to get to go on one with you
·       He will proudly say it’s his favorite excuse to use against Azul and Floyd since they wouldn’t be able to bother him nor interfere when he’s trying to spend some time with you
·       Yes, he enjoys hanging around them for entertainment but he has his own limits too. Plus, he wouldn’t have to use….some other methods to get them off his back though he wouldn’t hesitate to do so if they interfere (cough blackmail cough)
·       Studying with Jade is difficult no thanks to how much he enjoys teasing you
·       He’ll be kind, polite, and courteous but he’ll do everything he can to get to see you blush
·       Brushing shoulders and hands “incidentally” is nothing compared to the times he explicitly makes a move on you like gently cupping your hand whenever he takes your pencil so he could write some helpful notes in your notebook or sitting really close to you in general
·       The worst part is how he’s actually good at teaching you with whatever you’re struggling with
·       Makes good analogies, explains things thorough enough for you to grasp the foundation, surprisingly writes neatly and draw good diagrams – he truly lives up to his position as one of Azul’s hands and vice dorm leader
·       That along with the fact he would be providing hospitability such as teas and snacks that you enjoy definitely makes him seem like a kind gentleman
·       He enjoys teasing you during the whole time, having fun with your reactions his favorite other than seeing you blush being you being annoyed
·       Just needs to shade here and there to get a good grasp and push your buttons only to get amused in the end from seeing you huff and pout or chuckle at any smart remarks you make towards him
·       However, when you give him one your softest, genuine smile or initiate any physical contact yourself, it’s going to be his turn to blush and perhaps even tsun a bit
·       Will go wide eyes at first with cheeks dust pink to turning lobster-red if you point it out while covering half his face and look away a bit
·       Hugging is a whole different story though where you would be very successfully into getting Jade to go “Jade. exe has stopped working” after surprising him with one once you finally understand and get whatever you were confused with and do it out of happiness
·       Once the date ends, he’ll show you out before going back into the dorm and find Azul and Floyd who he knew was spying during the whole thing
·       He finds all the photos they took of him blushing and either would burn them or delete the files if saved on phone or PC
·       He does secretly keep the ones that includes you looking happy or being close to him
   Jamil
·       Study dates with Jamil happens a good amount of time thanks to Kalim who makes sure it happens
·       By that, literally Kalim would get everyone in Scarabia to help out but that’s another story for another time
·       Out of all the vice dorm leaders, he’s the one that takes the study date seriously
·       Wouldn’t really strike up a conversation because he would be focused on trying to get as much done as possible no thanks to how he’s busy in general
·       That being said, most of the time would be more studying orientated
·       Jamil would be attentive and help you with anything you need help with, going over them and making sure you get at least the foundations solid
·       His explanation and tutoring skills are nearly par to Trey’s probably because of his many years of experience with Kalim, his sibling, and now, the other dorm members
·       So, the idea of teasing you wouldn’t come up initially. Keyword: Initially
·       Just because he’s focused on studying doesn’t mean he isn’t aware of his surroundings and other’s behaviors, especially yours
·       He’s aware his attraction towards you is very much mutual since he practically caught you who-knows-how-many-times you looked at him, only to blush and stutter whenever he asks if there’s a problem
·       Cue the teasing like the rest but unlike the other three above, his is more subtle
·       He’ll be testing the water-  see how far he can go with teasing you
·       He honestly enjoys how you’re trying to keep a straight face, all cool and collected when he sits next to you to the point only a pencil case would slip through the space between you two
·       Acting innocent and nonchalant, Jamil struggles to not smirk when he sees your ears turn red and the corner of your lips twitch
·       Totally would pull “face too close for comfort” on you when he finds you getting distracted from whatever he explains something to you
·       It would only happen once and never again though during the next few study dates since he’ll realize he nearly lost his self-control when he unconsciously and nearly closed the gap between the two of you
·       What do you mean you heard him click his tongue? He did no such thing. It’s not like he was disappointed or anything because he wanted to-
·       When you hug him, he’s not going to be calm. Whatsoever
·       Pulls his head over his head and tells you not to come near him as he pulls his hoodie’s strings and try to cover his face completely
·       This is when Kalim comes out of his hiding place and tries to get Jamil to calm down while telling you that he was “just passing by” when you ask where he came from
·       It isn’t until he’s back at his room does he start calming down only to drag his hands down his face from realizing he messed up on trying to look cool around you
·       Kalim: You like them that badly, huh~ Jamil: Shut up
 Rook
·       Study dates with Rook is bad for your heart. Not because he does weird things to you or anything. It’s just that…he’s rather direct. Very direct
·       Although he does an excellent job teaching you, he doesn’t hide his attraction towards you at all
·       Calls you all sorts of endearment without any shame when you come over to Pomefiore to have the study date with him: mon cœur, mon chéri, mamour, and more
·       Like with everyone else he takes interests in, he very much likes to look at you. Even though it’ll distract you, he’s genuinely happy and in bliss getting to spend time with you
·       To him, getting to see the you studying with such calmness makes him think you look absolutely enchanting, loving to see you putting effort and trying your best
·       Despite being a hunter, he isn’t aware how you tend to look at him when he’s focused though nor does he know that you like seeing his serious side
·       …and you probably shouldn’t since the minute he realizes this he probably would take advantage of it and cause you more problems down the road
·       He spoils you a lot, mostly because he wishes to see you happy. Meaning, he would prepare all sorts of things to make sure you’re feeling comfy and happy when you’re with him
·       In all seriousness though, he does education justice when he’s the one tutoring/teaching you
·       Goes over everything thoroughly to the point where he would continue practicing and quizzing you until he knows you actually understand everything
·       Every time you get something right, he praises you a lot to the point you would probably feel bashful
·       When you’re feeling down or frustrated from the fact you can’t understand something or from anything in general, Rook is the one who’ll realize it first which often leads to him being the one to make you feel better in a short amount of time through words of encouragement
·       In fact, he’s one of the two people who would be the best comforter of the vice dorm leaders
·       By that, he’s the one you would probably pour your heart to without worries and end up feeling better after every single study date
·       Hugging can go two ways with Rook
·       When he senses you about to hug him (happens 90% of the time btw), he’ll hug you back with the same amount of excitement. He wouldn’t let go after you realize what you’ve done out of pure instinct and would instead hug you tighter while your face burns in his arms
·       When you catch him off guard, he’ll freeze and blush, completely not expecting it. Probably would be his first time ever getting flustered too as he tries to quickly recover once you let go of him
      Lilia
·       Study dates with Lilia is more like a hang out than anything else
·       He literally will pull the “immortal-being” card, where he’ll look over your shoulder and see what you’re doing before going on a long story-time telling of how each theorem, principle, historical event, etc. was discovered when he was whatever age-old at the time
·       When dealing with assignments, he would complain about doing them, muttering along the lines of “back when I was in school, we didn’t have to do these”, “kids aren’t going to even use what they learned in real life”, and so on
·       Don’t expect him to even attempt to study. He would ask you why he would ever need to when he lived who-knows-how many years and being at all those events that took place
·       With all of that being said, you would think it would be impossible to get anything done, doing a great job distracting you especially when he just name drops a famous historical person and tells you the guy/gal’s life from baby to adult all in one go
·       “That kid used to be so cute, as expected they would end up being this great”, “What’s this nonsense? How did that brat even did that when they couldn’t even answer 1+1 correctly”-
·       However, when you try to study and start struggling, he would always help you
·       There’s going to be teasing and he is very bold about it
·       When you stifle a laugh from his stories, he sulks first only to kabedon you in your chair
·       Leaning closer to you, he’ll ask whether you’ll take him seriousness now, gently holding your chin so you wouldn’t be able to look away
·       He does end up letting you go with a smirk, giving you some space and time to get over what had happened in less than a minute, thinking that you looking like a deer caught in headlights with a bright blush made you look extremely adorable
·       It’s not shocking that he teaches you well, especially when he’s the one that taught Sebek, Silver, and Malleus. How? He’ll never tell you how but the look their faces when you ask them makes you decide not to think about it further
·       Lilia also happens to be the other greatest comforter, probably even better than Rook
·       It’s because he raised three children on his own, he’s able to pick up any stress or sense the struggle you’re having when you do your assignments or studying before you say anything about it
·       When it happens, he has you take a break on studying and lends you an ear, making sure you say everything that’s in your chest since he knows you’ll be needing it
·       By the time he’s done helping you and you hug him out of gratefulness, he’ll be surprised and widen his eyes at first
·       He does quickly recover and hugs you back with a satisfied smile, rather seeing you happy and filled with joy than anything else
·       And it’s obvious that’s the case since once you leave, Malleus, Silver, and Sebek would ask him if anything good happened
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just-mint-to-be · 3 years
Text
Skin Specific Yandere Concepts I Have Pointlessly Floating Around In My Head:
Apex Edition
‘Dangerous Game’ Bloodhound:
Much like the novel and likely namesake for this skin, I can imagine a slightly older/slightly more wealthy and weathered bloodhound taking a liking to their darling after retiring from the games. They’re still an insanely skilled hunter and fighter, but have chosen a more laid back and secluded approach to showing their dedications to the all father. Alas, old habits die hard. When you’re befriended and invited by them to come stay in their remote but luxurious woodland manor, there’s no way you or your partner/friends etc can refuse. You’ve stepped right in their trap and face countless days trying to find some means of reaching civilisation to no avail. Chances are you yourself were NOT a competitor in the games, but can only imagine the sick, nostalgic thrill seeing you desperately try and survive brings them. You’ll soon discover that they have no intention of killing you, but a far more obsessive and arguably cruel fate awaits you. They intend to cherish and adore you for as long as the allfather keeps you both on the earthly realm; you’re nothing if not the most beautiful and prized addition to their trophy room.
‘Relic of Death’ Revenant:
Maybe it’s famine, disease or war; whatever the case, your people are suffering and turn to prayers as a last resort. The gods don’t seem to be answering however and the situation soon grows even more dire and personal. A family member, friend or any other loved one falls victim/is gravely ill. You were often warned not to enter the northern most temple, for the spirit resting there was not of the benevolent kind. Such warnings fall on dear ears, for the cover of early morning darkness allows to slip there undisturbed. Various offerings little the stone slab foregrounding the alleged keep of ‘The Revenant’. Gold, fruits, pelts... none of that interests him, but this foolish little human brave enough to disturb him? It’s a refreshing change from a century spent painfully isolated in these walls. You plead your case, a look of horror and fear never leaving your features no matter how adorably hard you try to conceal it. It is not often the god of death receives a request to restore or preserve life, so for that, a hefty price is required. A life for a life; one you’re prepared to pay for with your mortal life. The world as you know it slips away, though not through death. You’re a part of his realm- his kingdom now and forever, whether or not he actually deliver son his side of the promise is anyone’s guess.
‘Huntswoman’ Loba:
Imagine Y/n as something mythical- a mermaid is my first thought, but a fairy, selfie or anything really could work. Eventually, you happen to encounter Loba. She’s a notoriously efficient and successful bounty hunter. Her kit contains almost fantastical items gathered from the most elusive places; she’s encountered traps, feral beasts, curses... surely your existence shouldn’t surprise her. Alas, you’re simply divine. The bounty hunter has no qualms about taking you and showing you off. It’s utterly dehumanising; you sit in a cage, or perhaps a tank in the centre of her gilded foyer. Pretentious, finery clad aristocrats all takes turns admiring you and commenting patronising things as they sip their champagne. To them, you’re a relic; a soulless testament to the unknown with no rights of its own. Some may dare to offer hefty sums of money to Loba in exchange for taking you as their own pet. She’ll refuse, claiming you as more than some household adornment. Eventually you’ll be treated like her lover, you just need to learn to behave like one first and stop struggling.
‘Whitelisted’ Crypto:
You and your husband, Tae Joon Park, were both promising developers at a cybernetics lab. You yourself had been credited as a pioneer in developing prosthetic, robotic body parts for severe burn victims/soldiers; your latest piece nicknamed ‘Crypto’. Despite good and promising intentions, a freak accident would soon have your own invention turn against you. It pained you to see the man you loved so dearly in his final moments. Tae was barely able to muster the strength to say goodbye, alas, he had but one final warning. ‘They’re coming...’ You were perplexed, if not alarmed by your now deceased husband’s proclamation. In the wake of his funeral, you returned to the lab. You figured the pain of seeing a ghostly empty desk would be easier alone. However, as you slunk through the darkness, you could’ve sworn tear stained eyes had taken to playing tricks on you. A figure, one that soon revealed a itself to be attached to an all too familiar visage stood there. It, or rather he, greeted you with such fondness and an eerily resolute manner that for a moment you almost believed Tae had returned. Though this was not the man you had married. He was barely human; a shell of a being with steel parts and irises that were almost iridescent. Tae was gone, Crypto had replaced him. His love for you remained, but had manifested in a possessive, domineering need to protect you from whoever had decided to hunt him.
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