BO BURNHAM: INSIDE SENTENCE STARTERS!
(Change as needed. NSFW and triggering content ahead.)
CONTENT
"Interesting, now leave me alone."
"Sorry that I look like a mess."
"I booked a haircut, but it got rescheduled."
"Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt."
"I'm sorry I was gone."
"It's a beautiful day to stay inside."
COMEDY
"What the fuck is going on?"
"It's like everything happened all at once."
"Um, what the fuck is going on?"
"The more I look, the more I see nothing to joke about."
"Should I leave you alone?"
"Should I be joking at a time like this?"
"The world is so... fucked up."
"Don't panic."
"Call me and I'll tell you a joke."
"I swore I'd never be back, but now I'm back on my feet."
FACETIME WITH MY MOM (TONIGHT)
"Pour me a drink and clear my schedule."
"Oh, look who's here."
"How you doing, bud?"
"I'm not so bad."
"That's the deepest talk we've ever had."
HOW THE WORLD WORKS
"The world that's around us is pretty amazing."
"But how does it work?"
"It must be complicated."
"Everything works together."
"That is how the world works."
"That's how it works."
"Hey, everyone."
"Look who stopped by to say hello. It's [muse name]!"
"Where've you been, [muse name]?"
"Not quite dead, not quite alive."
"It's similar to a constant state of sleep paralysis."
"Boy, that sounds complicated."
"How about you give it a try?"
"Don't you know the world is built with blood?"
"That's pretty intense."
"No shit."
"Read a book or something, I don't know."
"Just don't burden me with the responsibility of educating you."
"It's incredibly exhausting."
"I was just trying to become a better person."
"Wait, wait, wait, no, please!"
"I don't want to go back. Please."
"I can't go, I can't go back."
"Are you gonna behave yourself?"
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, sir."
"I hope you learned your lesson."
WHITE WOMAN'S INSTAGRAM
"Is this heaven?"
"I can't believe it."
"It's been a decade since you've been gone."
"I miss you."
"It's got a little better, but it's still hard."
"Still figuring out how to keep living with you."
"I got a job I love and my own apartment."
"I got a boyfriend and I'm crazy about him."
"I'm crazy about him."
UNPAID INTERN
"Who needs a coffee?"
"I'm writing down the orders now for everyone."
"The coffee is free, just like me."
"I'm an unpaid intern."
"You work all day, go back to your dorm."
BEZOS I/II
"Come on, [muse name], you can do it."
"Pave the way, put your back into it."
"Tell us why."
"Show us how."
"Look at where you came from."
"Look at you now."
"Amateurs can fucking suck it."
"You did it!"
"Congratulations!"
SEXTING
"It isn't sex, it's the next best thing."
"I'm in bed."
"I'm ready to go with you."
"Tonight, I'm thinking of taking it slow."
"That's pretty abstract."
"Crisis averted. Thank God."
"Are you naked?"
"I'm getting hot at just the thought of what I'd do to you."
"I love you, baby."
"Send a picture of your tits, please."
"Jesus fucking Christ, I guess I never learn."
"I sent my titties, that's not fair."
"Another night on my own."
LOOK WHO'S INSIDE AGAIN
"There isn't much more to say about it."
"You'll do any old shit to get out of it."
"Try telling jokes."
"Look who's inside again."
"Went out to look for a reason to hide again."
"Come out with your hands up."
"We've got you surrounded."
PROBLEMATIC
"Please forgive me."
"I did not realize what I did."
"Are you gonna hold me accountable?"
"Isn't anybody gonna hold me accountable?"
"I wanna show you how I'm growing as a person."
"I tried to hide behind my childhood, and that's not okay."
"My actions are my own, I won't explain them away."
"I've done a lot of self-reflecting."
"I was totally wrong when I said it."
"My bed is empty and I'm getting cold."
"What should I do with it?"
"I've been totally awful."
"I'm really fucking sorry."
30
"I used to run for miles."
"I used to ride my bike."
"I used to wake up with a smile."
"I'm turning thirty."
"God damn it!"
"Now, my stupid friends are having stupid children."
"I'll be forty and I'll kill myself then."
DON'T WANNA KNOW
"How are you feeling?"
"Do you like the show?"
"Are you tired of it?"
"Never mind, I don't wanna know."
"Are you finding it boring?"
"Do I have your attention?"
"Yes, or no?"
"Are you on your phone?"
"Is there anyone out there?"
"Am I all alone?"
"It wouldn't make a difference."
"I thought it'd be over by now."
SHIT
"How we feeling out there tonight?"
"I am not feeling good."
"Feeling like a bag of shit."
"All my clothes are dirty, so I'm smelling like a bag of shit."
"OMG, that is just my luck."
"What's up, you useless fuck?"
"Are you feeling what I'm feeling?"
"I haven't had a shower in the last nine days."
"Staring at the ceiling and waiting for this feeling go away."
"It won't go away."
"I'm not really feeling like I wanna get lit."
"Tell us how you're feeling."
"Well, I feel like shit."
"Feeling like a saggy, massive sack of shit."
"Big ol' motherfucking duffle bag of shit."
"Are you feeling like shit?"
"Tell me, are you feeling like shit?"
ALL TIME LOW
"My current mental health is rapidly approaching an ATL. Which is, um, that's an all-time low."
"You know, I feel OK when I'm asleep."
"Like, when I'm asleep, I feel all right."
"It's basically from the moment I wake up, I just get this feeling in my body, way down deep inside me."
"I try not to fight it."
"My heart, it gets to tappin', and I think I'm gonna die."
"Um, yeah, not doing great."
WELCOME TO THE INTERNET
"Have a look around."
"If none of it's of interest to you, you'd be the first."
"Come and take a seat."
"There's no need to panic, this isn't a test."
"Just nod or shake your head and we'll do the rest."
"Be happy, be horny, be bursting with rage."
"Don't act surprised."
"Could I interest you in everything all of the time?"
"Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime."
"You know? It wasn't always like this."
"We set our sights and spent our nights waiting for you."
"Now, look at you. Look at you."
"If we stick together, who knows what we'll do?"
THAT FUNNY FEELING
"I can't really play the guitar very well, or sing."
"Apologies."
"The backlash to the backlash to the thing that's just begun."
"There it is again, that funny feeling."
"The whole world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door."
"Full agoraphobic, losing focus, cover blown."
"The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all."
"Hey, what can you say? We were overdue."
"It'll be over soon, you wait."
ALL EYES ON ME
"Get your fuckin' hands up."
"Get on out of your seats."
"All eyes on me, all eyes on me."
"Are you feeling nervous?"
"Are you having fun?"
"It's almost over."
"It's just begun."
"Don't overthink this, look in my eye."
"Don't be scared, don't be shy."
"Come on in, the water's fine."
"Heads down, pray for me."
"You wanna hear a funny story?"
"I've been hiding from the world, and I need to re-enter."
"You say the ocean's rising like I give a shit."
"You say the whole world's ending. Honey, it already did."
"Get inside."
GOODBYE
"So long."
"Goodbye."
"I'll see you when I see you."
"You can pick the street."
"I'll meet you on the other side."
"Do I really have to finish?"
"Did I say that right?"
"So, this is how it ends."
"I promise to never go outside again."
"I'm slowly losing power."
"Has it only been an hour?"
"No, that can't be right."
"Hey, here's a fun idea!"
"Am I going crazy?"
"Am I right back where I started?"
"I'll panic."
"Call me up and tell me a joke."
"You're really joking at a time like this?"
ANY DAY NOW
"It will stop any day now."
"Any day now."
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"mithrun is the only real monsterfucker in dungeon meshi" is objectively the funniest bit you can get out of his everything, but in all seriousness i think his attraction to his love interest is deliberately overstated—and that makes sense, because romantic jealousy is a classic and digestible motive, which is explicitly what kabru was aiming for in condensing mithrun's backstory, and also because until chapter 94, mithrun wasn't willing to admit to the true nature of his desires.
but because romantic envy is both classic and digestible, it probably isn’t a unique enough or complicated enough desire to tempt a demon’s appetite. mithrun’s wish, as far as we can figure from kabru’s reduced retelling, was to have a life in which he had never become one of the canaries, and that carries like 3857 implications and desires within it. that’s delicious. his love interest acts as sort of a red herring to his motivation for making it, though. (side note: i'm saying "love interest" here because, keeping in mind that i barely speak japanese on a good day anymore, "想い人" is something i'd usually take as just kind of an old-fashioned and romantic way to refer to a lover, but in context i wonder if both the connotation of yearning and the vagueness are intentional, and i think this phrasing gets those aspects of it more effectively. anyway.)
mithrun considered his love interest to be untrustworthy. there was a minute where i thought that comment might be about a similar-looking elf (yugin, one of his squad members), but comparing the two…
the "sketchy" arrow is definitely referring to the elf we know as his love interest—the bangs go toward her right, she only has the one forehead ornament, and, most notably, her ears aren't notched.
every time she’s given a full-body depiction in his dungeon, she’s drawn as a chimera, with the body of a snake from the waist down. (side note: the “what if a dungeon has chimeras before reaching level 4?”/“then the dungeon lord is unstable” exchange just being mithrun grilling his past self alive is so funny. he’s so. but anyway) there are a couple things about this.
first, the snake part of the chimera appears to be modeled after some species of coral snake mimic
which, in the biology-for-fun manga, i… doubt is a coincidence, especially with the added context of the “untrustworthy” comment. the dungeon’s conjured illusion of mithrun’s love interest was a harmless copycat of a venomous original. for whatever reason, he felt this person was a threat and made up a "safe" version of her to be in a relationship with, and while it’s definitely possible to be attracted to or even love someone you find to be toxic and/or intimidating, when you take that into consideration alongside the configuration of her body, you get some interesting implications.
which brings us to our second point: if we assume that mithrun was not in fact fucking a snake, then sexual attraction, at least, was so far removed from his idea of a relationship with this person that he did not even bother to keep her dungeon copy human enough to maintain the illusion of the option of a sexual relationship. this is somewhat echoed in the depictions of their interactions, which also imply a frankly unexpected romantic distance. she kisses his cheek and he doesn't seem to react; she's at the edge of a narrow bed with only one set of pillows, on top of his blankets while he's underneath them.
the kiss is particularly interesting because it seems to contrast the text. kabru's narration tells us this was everything mithrun could have asked for, but mithrun is there looking unreadable to pensive, likely because this is right before the panel that makes it clear things in the dungeon are beginning to go wrong.
walking through this backwards for a minute, we have the physical barrier of his bedding and the spatial separation inherent in a bed made for one person, the emotional barrier of his mounting anxiety getting in the way of his ability to enjoy the affection he sought, and... the snake, which historically carries the connotation of temptation, yes, but also mistrust, barring physical intimacy. okay. ok. if a dungeon reflects the mentality of its lord, all of this might suggest that mithrun was not able to have any real desire for a relationship with this person. his unwillingness to be vulnerable or let another person in was insurmountable. but in that case, why was she such a focal point that she remained to the end, after his dungeon had stopped creating iterations of his friends to come and visit him? why would he get so upset over her meeting with his brother that he became lord of a dungeon about it?
well. mithrun's brother was also interested in her, probably genuinely. and mithrun had to win.
you have an older brother who your parents completely ignore, probably in part because he is chronically ill/disabled and almost definitely in part because he received a ton of recessive traits that resulted in rumors that he was an illegitimate child. you are aware, most likely because those same parents fucking told you, that you actually are an illegitimate child. but they keep you around because you had the good fortune of looking just like your mother. what can that possibly teach you but that you, like your brother, are disposable?
it's utterly unsurprising that mithrun, under these circumstances, developed a pathological need to be better than everyone around him. people don't keep you otherwise. i'd argue this is also why he says he looked down on everyone he knew while milsiril claims his dungeon reeked of feelings of inferiority—he sought out people's worst traits and prioritized them in his mind to protect his already extremely fragile sense of self-worth, and all the while he tried to be as likable and high-performing as he possibly could be. his parents disposed of him anyway, but even then he tried to keep up the performance. he was kind to everyone. he never once lost to a dungeon.
when he saw his "love interest" meeting up with his brother, what he saw was himself being replaced by a person his parents had always treated as worthless, and if that was what they thought of the child they'd kept, what value could anyone possibly see in the bastard they'd given away to die? mithrun and kabru tell the story like he wanted to win this unnamed elf's heart, but it was never about being with her. it was about cementing his worth, proving that he didn't deserve to be thrown away.
and so it's particularly cruel that his demon discarded him, too. but maybe it's also particularly gentle that, in the end, there was someone who refused to even consider giving up on him.
kui laid it out in three panels better than i could hope to.
yeah. it's love. you wanted to be loved, even when the only way you were able to understand it was through the desire to be wanted, and you wanted that so badly that the idea of being consumed felt like the promise of finally mattering to someone.
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— THINGS MY MUSES HAVE SAID.
Things my muses have said that have no place in any type of roleplay except crack and are likely only funny to me. NSFW. Change as needed.
"Your name's caboose 'cause you're a trainwreck."
"I got slapped in a Pizza Hut once."
"Would you prefer to hit me over the head with a rock until I stop moving?"
"[MUSE NAME] beats my ass in 4K."
"Bro can't deal with a little trauma."
"Some of y'all are freaks. I say this lovingly."
"Kisses your little head tenderly like a loving mother."
"Your mother should have swallowed you."
"It's more like I'm the hurricane taking out the town your parade is in."
"No, I think that's Hamtaro fanfiction."
"That's him, my little Baja Blast."
"Shut it, you piss-soaked urinal cake."
"You both smell like unwashed ballsacks. That's why you belong together."
"Whoa, a newcomer joins the misogynists."
"Please, sir, it's cold and wet outside. Might I just stand by the fire with my ears covered?"
"Go dong yourself."
"Do you want to end up in a garbage bag again?"
"Tell me why I've known you for going on three years and the desire to murder you in cold blood has only grown the more we interact."
"Oh no, whatever would I do if you never forgave me for maiming you after several warnings that you did not follow? My life would be ruined. Truly in shambles."
"I hope you get an incurable illness."
"I think you should seek mental help."
"Do you want to play with the tires of my car again?"
"I hope ants crawl into your urethra."
"You can try, but I have a doberman who loves to eat garbage and when we sees you, he's gonna have a field day."
"I've fucked few mothers in my years."
"You look like the Grinch's left ass cheek. Can I trade you for another rival?"
"You overestimate how much I care."
"The only nightmare here is your profile picture."
"Two kisses and I'll think about Mater for ten minutes."
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