#the whole experience is traumatizing for victor

[scorchamp]

i know i said i was taking a hiatus bc of illness but i’m currently playing sword and i just.  i think there’s something so inherently traumatizing about the gym challenge being such a public sensation, even being televised, particularly for victor.  i feel like his journey would’ve been less traumatizing had it not been the spectacle it was, but given that all his losses were on national live television, and the whole country saw him lose, because the gym challenge is followed very closely by those not competing, the multitude of feelings that come with any loss are amplified.

#this is smthn for when i have a coherent thought but like #victor in particular has been so traumatized by the gym challenge's publicization that he will quite literally Never Recover from it #the repeated losses against raihan were humiliating enough #but the speculation about whether or not he'd ever win against him #whether he was good enough to keep going #it really took a huge toll on him #and i don't think becoming champion really helped that #i dont really think victor went into the bracket expecting to win #he wanted to naturally #but he didn't expect to like. deep in his soul he thought he'd never make it to leon #facing raihan in the bracket especially like. was fucking Nauseating for victor #he doesn't really remember his battle against leon #and then holding onto the championship title for as long as he does #the whole experience is traumatizing for victor #and when he loses he bows out with grace and humility #and disappears as much as he can from the public eye #these tags should go in the fucking post and they will eventually rn im just. Thinking #▌║ ♢ 〈 ❛ headcanons. ❜ 〉

[hexhomos]

Sorry, I'm asking here because asks aren't on your doomreed account, but do you have any fic recs for them ? You and vinnies art have intrigued me 😭 they both seem like such wet cats in different ways, and I love that

help i didnt know asks were off fixed that now thank you... I have two fics i keep in my back pocket as like, exemplary distillations of their whole thing (one in college vs one of their usual superhero stuff,) these are;

Supersymmetry and Night Blooms

Rly good examples of their usual shenanigans, the second one is directly based on a canon comic issue that *feels* like fanfic by a prolific yaoi author, the first is set in a modern-time re-imagining of the fantastic four where they meet in a supergenius internship thinktank for gifted youngsters. There's other fics that are good but i think they might be super confusing without canon context! which leads me to my second point. After you read these fics...

A lot, and i mean A LOT of official doomreed stuff feels straight up like fanfic. Either because its so beautifully woven or insane in concept (doctor doom points a gun at the real life Jack Kirby and Stan Lee to get himself written back into reed's life in his 3rd ever classic appearance, in the 60's, THAT'S the bodyswap issue)

or because the literal authors themselves come out to say 'they're soulmates' or 'they're in love' and Im talking abt this:

(^joseph culp, the first ever doom actor from 1994)

(^fantastic four (2019))

I've got even more stuff under the cut!! AND recs!!! CLICK! v v v

(^jonathan hickman, author of arguably the best FF saga & Secret Wars (2015)!!!)

(^Cantwell, author of the Doctor Doom comic!!)

These are excerpts from the canon fantastic four book, DOOMGATE:

There's even an RPG INSTRUCTION MODULE based on the idea of an earth where Reed & Victor partner up in college, Reed dies a tragic death (via their lab experiments) and Victor assumes such a traumatized widow role in his honor that he grows up to be a golden hero and protector of earth LOL (still a bit nuts):

This is not even to touch on the breadth of all their comic issues and little moments together. Victor canonically delivers Reed's second child and he chooses her name! Shes treated like his child too and calls him uncle doom!!

...Victor even asks Reed out on candlelit dinner dates for a yearly Latverian holiday!

In fact, that's the great starter doom/reed issue i keep recommending: read [ My Dinner With Doom right here. ]

If you enjoy that, check out my [ broader post guide for doomreed reading. ]

Still on the fence? try out these single comic issues:

Doctor Doom:

*Fantastic Four (1961) annual 2 (Classic origin of Doom issue) *Some call it MAGIC (the introduction of Doom's struggle w/ the devil for his mother's soul)

Doomreed:

*Marvel Two-in-One (2017) annual 1 *Marvel Two-in-One (2017) #11 (2nd fic i linked is based on this!!!!!!!!!) *'Duel Intentions' short story *Doom 2099 (2019) *Fantastic Four #700 special *Shame Itself (noncanon satire mini)

Anyway I've had a lot of fun reading these series generally and their big, year-spanning arcs are incredible. People hype up Secret Wars for a reason, Hickman's fantastic four builds up a really compelling doom/reed epic of cosmic divorce proportions. And its about love! And Forgiveness!

#hexposts #doomreed #meta tag #victor von doom #reed richards #fantastic four #mister fantastic #doctor doom #mr fantastic #dr doom #fantastic 4 #marvel comics #FF #fic rec #long post

[lorata]

any particular ideas about the victors and empathy? like are there any that are low/no empathy, or any that are hyperempathetic? it would be interesting to see how empathy or lack thereof would impact their experiences/images both before, during, and after their games (even if panem probably doesn't have a very good understanding of what that entails from a psychology perspective lol)

a fun thing is that both Selene and Petra are low/no empathy, which makes them a fascinating pair. Petra knows she's missing something early and so outsources her sense of right & wrong to The Rules while Selene just does not care and this is a source of conflict for the two of them quite often.

Selene bases her morality around You Are Annoying Me, Personally whereas Petra's is You Have Broken The Rules This Is Bad And Unfair And Wrong which is why they drive each other up the wall

at their first kill tests Selene doesn't feel guilty. she vaguely thinks she should? but she doesn't, and they're here to kill, so, oh well. Petra asks her victim what she did, learns she did something bad, and is like, all right then, I'm good. they have a chat after Selene's about how neither felt bad and it's the one time they're both weirdly sympatico

both Selene and Petra have images that are slightly ... off/wild/feral, in no small part due to this. Selene they have to constantly remind her to pull it back or she'll go full villain (ha ha OH WELL given that she kills her district partner immediately but Misha knows). Petra's original was a bit more on the like ..... off-putting aloof killer vibe, similar to Clove, but with the maces she never got to pull that out so she had to go for the nymphomaniac over the top angle instead.

post-Games it's easy to keep things from Petra re: the state of the world until things explode because she just doesn't think about it. she has enough to deal with re: her own healing and constantly getting re-traumatized and all that nonsense that she doesn't have the mental energy to put towards things like oh what is it like for the districts or the other victors or is the only person who's nice to me actually doing this as part of a giant machiavellian scheme. it all falls apart in canon divergence once she has time to really sit and wrestle with those questions? but boy it takes some time and work and the others (particularly the younger ones) have some choice words for her in the meantime

Callista is also very low empathy, this (ahem) very clearly factored into her image & strategy. She does not care about the other districts and she says what she wants and if you get offended that's on you. Now mind you, while Calli has low empathy and her circle is small, IF you are inside that circle her compassion level is extremely high. Calli knows that Nero is hurting and she wants to do many, many murders on his behalf. She is very angry that she cannot. Ditto with her tributes, most of whom are similarly villainized by the narrative which is part of the reason she keeps choosing them anyway. In the AUs where she does manage to land either Creed or Alec she doesn't get what they're feeling half the time but she will help them regardless and god help anyone who tries to stand between them.

on the flip side we have Devon and Alec, who are both on the hyper-empathy end of things. Devon is able to control and use his fairly well, both in the Games and beyond; Alec has much more trauma and tends to be paralyzed by it for a lot longer before finally managing to work through things as an adult. part of Alec's problem is being unable to make his own decisions or justify his emotions

ironically Claudius is also very high on empathy but has no idea for a long time given that his specific cocktail of trauma and rage responses resulted in him lashing out and hurting people, so his whole "i'm a monster" thing dug in pretty deep and he withdraws. post-games though he can't help it and it lands him in trouble fairly quickly since he can't stop THINKING about other people and it sends him straight to treason town before he's even finished his victory tour, lol. post-canon divergence he winds up being like ... a teen counsellor for ex-centre kids which is the last thing he thought he'd be doing, but there you go. funny enough Eibhlin is the first person to tell him that he's high empathy and he doesn't believe her. but one of the reasons he's so good at 'mentoring' Selene is his ability to get inside her head before she even knows her own feelings really

in general while they don't have official vocab for it the Centre definitely IDs kids who have high empathy and/or compassion and has ways to decentralize that, whether it's giving them a cause or comfort in the rules or helping to carefully dissociate what they do from who they are. for the kids on the other end it's more a question of managing that line so they don't go too far.

#lorata answers #we must be killers: tales from district 2 #transrevolutions

[skyfallscotland]

I just had to do a massive presentation for French about Victor Hugo and the whole time I just wanted to reread your fanfic but I controlled the urges and finished (all 21) slides yayay now i can read your fic as a reward. (don't ask me what this is I just felt like sharing my traumatic homework experiences)

One time I had to write an essay on fandom and I wrote about Supernatural and the way they incorporated meta episodes breaking the fourth wall and what they meant to do by that, and the professor said I misinterpreted the source material I referenced and that’s not what they meant/were saying basically and I was like??? Nah but you’re wrong because I was just at a convention and they were asked…so they said what they said, straight up… (but no, in academia you are always wrong and the professor is always right and fuck you for suggesting otherwise) my degree is the most expensive piece of trash I ever bought 🥰

#and that’s that on academic trauma

[thefourchimes]

Talking more about The Four Chimes AU because yes

so there’s been an interesting surge of apocalypse four (though most people call them vecna four) content recently, which i am very much thrilled to see

in line with that, i’m gonna share a bit more on the au that has been built from the ground up ever since last year, having definite arcs and various aus and sub aus of it already

the four chimes au

this universe has been mine and @lumaxramblings 's blood, sweat, and tears for the past year, ever since July 14

i've made a few posts about it, and shared some snippets on it in some wip weds and weekends, but i never fully explained the universe beyond the little bubble of the discord thread in the discord server im in

so let me explain now. we know this already but the apocalypse four are vecna's four sacrifices to make the four gates, but in this au, they're not just the four sacrifices. they're the four chimes too.

you see, vecna had a vision. he had remembered the story of the four horsemen of the apocalypse from a time victor creel had brought him and alice to the Church to listen

the four horsemen of the apocalypse, he had mused...and inspiration struck him.

he had a vision, and he saw it through.

and he got them all. he won.

and now he has his four horsemen of the apocalypse, or in this universe rather...his four chimes of catastrophe.

you all know who they are, but the question is, who is who? well, as @lumaxramblings has said in that fateful ask that started this whole universe in the first place, it would be:

chrissy = famine

fred = death

patrick = war

max = pestilence

as for the reason, canon itself gives some details and evidence to point out who would be who. (tw ed mention on chrissy's part)

chrissy is famine because of her eating disorder and her "hunger" to be free in a sense. fred is death because of his survivor's guilt and all the constant grave and death visuals. patrick is war because of his home life and how he's always in constant conflict. and finally, max is pestilence because of her thought process on being something that plagues others...and vecna!lucas' "you are sick."

there's quite a few more points that can be brought up, along with how some of the canon scenes actually fuel this universe, but i'll talk about that another time

so now, vecna's sacrifices are no longer who they were before everything.

now, they are his soldiers, his little experiments, his four chimes of catastrophe.

and just as they had been broken, they will now be the ones to break the world.

...

(but then...you remember, the apocalypse 4 weren't the only ones who got caught in vecna's curse and vision.

you know who else did?

nancy wheeler.

and in the four horsemen of the apocalypse lore, wasn't there something going on with the white rider of the horsemen? the fact that...there's a bit of confusion on whether the white rider is pestilence...or conquest?

...in another universe, nancy is conquest, the fifth chime of catastrophe.

an incomplete chime.

...but maybe that's a story for another day...)

—————————————————————————————————

i actually had started the fic of this already, but it's been a few months since i've updated it, oof :")

anyway, that's a bit of an explanation on the four chimes au.

it kind of becomes a s5 alternate universe in a sense? finnthony and i already have an idea on what happens all throughout the main story, complete with arcs already lmao (and that's not even talking about the sub-aus, like the conquest au...)

its lots of angst though, lemme tell you

i dont want to reveal too much but there is a lot of platonic and romantic dynamics here

platonic being the party's friendship (heh), the teens' friendship, best friend soulmates stobin ofc, and all other platonic relationships that can be connected with each member of this ragtag, traumatized group

for romance, we got lumax (with future elumax), byler, duzie, ronance, stongyle (aka steve x jonathan x argyle), jopper, and...well. a few others too, but i'll be keeping those quiet for now.

i’ll likely post more stuff at some point, to get it out here lmao and because this au is just <3

tagging the people who’ve been here all through out:

@laurienotteddy @mitski-slope @itsanotheridiot @hellsfireclub @history-of-stories @she-wont-miss

#four chimes #apocalypse four #vecna four #four chimes au #the four chimes au #max mayfield #fc pestilence #patrick mckinney #fc war #fred benson #fc death #chrissy cunningham #fc famine #nancy wheeler #fc conquest #stranger things #stranger things au #tw ed mention

[otter-pop]

Big post about Victor!!

First of all, changes are taking place in Victor's biography. I also redid what is written under the full-fledged story posts. As a child, Vitya was a healthy, curious and sociable boy. Of course, not everyone wanted to communicate with him because of his strangeness, but he managed to find companions. The traumatic train accident occurred when the boy was 10 years old. His friends called the boys to go for a walk on the railway. When they were playing, the company ran across the street, bragging about their bravery, including Victor. Only the kid and his friends did not notice how his foot got stuck between the sleepers. As a result, he fell, and they helped him only when a train passed and cut off Vitya's leg. This case affected the whole family. His parents divorced, and Vitya stayed with his father. He grew up in love and care, graduated from school and university with honors and became an abdominal surgeon, just as he dreamed. After the traumatic incident with the train, a deviation appeared in his psyche, which turned into a disease – bipolar affective disorder. Gradually, it developed and it became more difficult for Victor to control himself. His father noticed his strange behavior, but Vitenka waved away his advice about going to a psychiatrist. It ended with the surgeon having a fight at a corporate party with the head of another department and being fired. This affected the emotional state of the man and he went to a psychiatrist, where he was prescribed treatment. He was in the psychiatric hospital itself for 3 months and was under the active supervision of doctors for 3 years. After treatment, Victor went to the hospital himself and at that time Grigory (a volunteer) was attached to him, who was supposed to monitor the ward's visits. It lasted two years. At first, Grisha treated the former surgeon indifferently, but as they talked, they became good acquaintances or even friends. Two years went by, and Vita needed a job. He worked as a handyman, but he didn't like it. At that moment, Grisha got a job at the morgue as an assistant. When he saw that his friend could not find his place in life, he helped his friend find a job as a pathologist. A year later, Victor loses his pills, but is in no hurry to buy new ones, as he was sure that he no longer needed treatment. Also, one of the reasons is the lack of time due to work. But Victor forgot that the disease returns if you do not take medication. Therefore, he gradually lost stability. Morgue workers began to notice his strange behavior, but Vitya didn't care. Gradually, crazy ideas about reviving a corpse appeared in his head, like in the movie Frankenstein. In two weeks, he had planned the perfect plan and even experimented on frogs. Nevertheless, he needed helpers and turned to Grigory. Upon learning his friend's crazy plan, Grisha thought it was just a big joke and nothing more. It turns out that Victor was not joking, and for three weeks they were making equipment for the experiment. When it came to the corpse, Grigory realized that the case smelled fried and tried to convince Vitya that this experiment would not work. The mad scientist did not believe him and there was a strong quarrel between them, and then a conversation. Vitenka calmed down and on the morning of the storm they brought him to a psychiatrist for treatment and scheduled sessions with a psychotherapist. Now Vitya is being treated and learning to accept himself as he is.

#art #electrobones #my ocs are my babies #my art #didgitalart #mad scientist #oc artwork #artists on tumblr #oc ref sheet #oc art #doctor #mad scientist vibes #russian artist

[wheelercore]

Actually those victor-ted parallels are real bc ted may very well have PTSD, it just again, like Victor, he doesn't display "stereotypical" symptoms of PTSD seen often in media. You know, violent bursts of anger, short temper, dramatic flashbacks, etc. Not to say that there's any wrong way to experience PTSD of course, just that the "emotional numbing" part is often left out. Which I'm pretty sure may be what is being portrayed here.

As I've mentioned before, the creel parents parallel the wheeler parents but specifically the wheelers in s2.

Victor describes his torment specifically as "living memories" which, again, is not something we see Virginia and Alice experience (Virginia gets the whole spiders in the bathtub treatment and Alice gets unknown nightmares). Victor is really the only one we know so far so gets transported back to a traumatic memory of his past as Henry "holds the mirror up".

(it's kind of funny actually. We know what Karen's and Victor's deal is but we don't know what Virginia's or Ted's is. It's like they're intentionally leaving blacks to fill.)

Ted not knowing where his kids were was a haha funny he doesn't care about anything joke but the fact that they (maybe. Most likely) intentionally paralleled it to Victor's "baby burning in the fire place" scene makes me question why they put the s2 scene in there in the first place. It was funny, but the show runners are very clear about the fact that every scene has a purpose. Victor was so consumed with his obsession with this "demon" that he failed to see what was right under his nose. In fact he didn't even know Virginia had been planning to send Henry away.

If Virginia had suspicions about Henry, which she did, she did not tell Victor. Seems like she didn't tell him anything really. Victor was completely clueless to Virginias attitude towards Henry, and definitely gives me vibes that it alludes to Ted's passiveness in the face of Karen putting pressure on Mike. Or Ted just not knowing where his kids are and having to ask Karen, who is seemingly overwhelmed (and feeling unappreciated) by her responsibilities.

The two are portrayed in different ways- it seems to me that Victor's inattention (blindness) to the goings on of his home is a result of his constant hypervigilence of this "demon" that he could feel is constantly watching. Ted seemed to have more of a withdrawal/distant type of inattention- being aware that his kids "don't live here anymore" while not putting enough mental energy into finding out where they are.

Both possibly could be stemming as a response to a trauma that presents itself in behaviors that distract them from actually dealing with the issues head on. Victor's guilty conscious which leads him to automatically assume that this demon has some to "punish their family for their sins". Ted repeatedly withdrawing from his family, never defending his son and neglecting his wife.

#any post abt ted us a tedgate post #tedgating too close to the sun #ted wheeler #victor creel

[tiredstressedemotionalmess]

hiya so i know you're a frankenstein enjoyer (same here) but im curious: what are your thoughts on the whole "came back wrong" idea? i really love it but what do you think?

short answer: yes oh my god i love that trope (?) and i love the themes and stories and implications that can be told with it gdhgdh its sooooo good bc i think it highlights the finality of death and the futility in holding on to the past instead of moving forward, but it also is such a wonderful metaphor for grief and how it warps how the dead are perceived by those they leave behind

longer answer:

i dont know if id say im a fan of specifically "coming back wrong" so much as "coming back and being perceived as wrong" or more simply "coming back changed". characters who are brought back, having gone through a fundamentally life altering experience and are expected to just slide back into the mold of their own life when they have been shaped into something entirely new that Will Not Fit. they're not a different person but they're not the same person either. they've grown and they've evolved, but no one is willing to see or accept that change because they're so used to the version that's living in their memories. i think its a really great way of showing how grief tends to form an idealized version of loved ones in our minds, and the high pedestal we put them on may make them impossible to recognize if they are brought back as they were, not as how they were remembered or expected to be. this new version isn't wrong, not anymore wrong than your cousin who you haven't seen since childhood who now has a new favorite color, but it feels wrong because it's not what you remember.

then, too, i love the idea of wrong just meaning changed. that these characters have undergone a Process which has altered them in some way, not in like a mystical or magical sense like "ooo the spell to bring them back made them Insane" or whatever, but just the fact that death and rebirth are experiences that would shape a person and absolutely have an impact on their personality in a very natural and logical way. no clue if ur a batman fan so im sorry if this example makes no sense, but like, i think thats part of the reason why jason todd is one of my favorite characters. you could easily say he "came back wrong" after being brought back to life, but there's just something about that phrasing that i dont particularly like as much because it implies to me that there's no real explanation for his changed behavior, when in reality it's the circumstances of both his death and his rebirth that actively caused him to change. i like to look at "coming back wrong" as more of a metaphor for the natural process of change and growth that everyone goes through, but it's coupled with a reluctance of those around the character to accept said change (mostly i think because they did not get to see the process of the change occurring. to them this person was simply gone and then they weren't, and they have no frame of reference for what traumatizing experience literally dying is)

i think it's an interesting idea within the concept of frankenstien as well, because i really enjoy the idea that it is both the creature and victor who "come back wrong", both in slightly different ways like ive talked about. the creature is an affront to god and nature, he is "wrong" in the sense that he should not exist, but more than that, he is "wrong" because he is not as victor imagined him to be. victor wanted to create the perfect form of life, a vessel capable of beating death. and while he achieved one of those goals, the horror of his actions catches up with him and causes him to treat the creature as a monster before he ever has a chance to be anything else. he comes to life with no memories, no sense of morality, no knowledge of anything at all, and is then turned into something wrong- something that came back wrong- because of how he was treated by the world

and then victor, i think, undergoes a more metaphorical death and rebirth (seen with his illness) as the shock and horror of what he's done causes him to reevaluate his goals in life and fundamentally changes the way he looks at the world. obviously you could just say that this is just. natural character progression and it doesn't really relate to coming back wrong at all, but i think its a nice little parallel, and honestly. victor is unable to fit back into his life from before because his is so haunted by his actions (literally and metaphorically) so i think it works as a similar metaphor to some extent.

so yeah uh. fucking love thinking abt this as a concept bc i am obsessed with the idea of death and rebirth. rebirth as a process of corruption instead of a process of purification. corruption in itself being a form of purification. coming back "wrong" meaning you've come back as the purest form of yourself, of humanity, and having everyone around you turn away out of grief over their expectations of you

#asks #frankenstein #also kaz thank you for sending this ask i fucking loved answering this sm ilyyyyy /p

[hatchetfieldgazette]

ali filling in the blanks because i have a type called character's who we have little back story for, annie cresta edition :

annie cresta was raised by her aunt and her aunt alone. she never knew her parents, but that was just fine with her. she was happy. she was busy. she was a bit lonely and didn't really have friends but she had her family and, if nothing else, she counted the ocean as a friend and often times found herself wandering the ocean whenever she has off time- a habit that she picks up on at night when she can’t sleep after her games.

she went to the academy just after her seventeenth birthday, after her aunt got sick, leaving to take care of her. the only argument that she can recalling having with her aunt was about whether or not she should attend and annie was content not to- her aunt, however, insisted. annie kinda stuck to herself, tried to keep to herself but learned. trained, and became specifically skilled at knifes alongside her skill with a sphere that she already had from fishing.

annie volunteered at age 18 for the 70th games—- a choice that was made because firstly the tribute who got reaped was young and also in hopes that if when she won, the lifestyle of a victor would be enough to provide for and care for the woman who provided and cared for her.

though trying her best to be charming, she knew who she was and was admit about keeping to who she was. she could be charming, she could catch the eyes of sponsors while keeping true- and also telling her story.

annie and her district partner, a 14 year old she knew briefly from the academy named drystan stuck by the careers, they were in fact turned on by them for both their reluctance to kill unless attacked and for a chance for the others to further themselves in the game. after witnessing drystan get decapitated, annie fled, getting injured in the process but able to make it to hiding until an earthquake in the arena caused a flood. the water was enough to briefly snap her out of her panic and cause her natural instinct and true skill to kick in, swimming until she was the final tribute standing.

while the games were one traumatizing experience, coming home was the start of another as she discovered that while she was away, her aunt had succumb to her illness.

many of the early nights spent back in district four annie does not fall asleep in her house in victors village but instead walks to the shoreline to try and calm herself down and ends up falling asleep on the sand.

the victory tour was a whole other struggle for her, both being unready to travel again and still lost in grief and guilt annie being prone to succumbing to tears and moments of shaking as she tried to drag herself through speeches and would often not eat anything at the festivities after. she didn’t attend the harvest festival celebrations in four and instead retreated to her ocean waves.

alongside trying to block out noises and closing her eyes, annie often will try her best to count in order to distract herself from whatever might be causing her panic. it’s a distraction if nothing else and one that will get her to calm… eventually if a certain someone is not around to help calm her.

#part one of idk however many if you want to know more because i could ramble about my lore for annie in my HEAD #i could write a whole goddamn essay about her games #and beyond that the victory tour because ha. Yikes BUT #but hi. this is my girl and she means so much to ME thank you #( ANNIE | HEADCANONS )

[captainclervals]

something so minor that I find kinda interesting is the parallel yet contrast in how Clerval vs. Walton interacted with Victor re: his repulse toward the sciences after the creation of the creature

Clerval promptly sensed Victor's anxiety and despite not knowing anything about its source, made the connection that something about his scientific studies was to blame, and packed up all of Victor's lab supplies AND rearranged his whole apartment just to hide any signs of what could've been upsetting him. and when Victor's professors tried to hold scientific discussions with Victor, Clerval interjected that he was personally ignorant about science so courtesy would require the professors to move to a new topic to include him and take the uncomfortable attention away from what was so upsetting to Victor. but despite being so aware that something was desperately wrong, Clerval never tried to make Victor tell his secrets

then in parallel, Walton also shielded Victor from persistent questions that could upset him, and had the tact to remark that he didn't want Victor to share his story if doing so would renew his grief. but he pressed Victor to elaborate more on the creation process, despite knowing not only the gist of what a horrible experience it was for Victor, but having been told in descriptive detail of the traumatic effects it had on Victor. (he is definitely foremost another man of science/exploration...) he was told nearly everything about Victor's life but still pushed to extract that last secret as well...

(personally that makes a point of him viewing Victor as an uncharted territory+new secret to conquer stand out to me more....? his whole fascination with the pole is to discover the 'wondrous power' in magnetism, and his curiosity is fixated on the one part of the world that no other man has ever seen before or set foot on. so to me, another reason he's so enthralled by victor is not only just the main & first parallel of both being men of science bent on discovery even to their destruction, and Walton projecting onto Victor in ways and seeing him as proof/validation that even the most wild of scientific goals CAN be accomplished with work and determination—but in addition the fact that Victor also holds secrets that no other man has ever heard, and is something he describes similarly to the pole as being beautiful+wondrous+mystical. but then just as he had to turn back and never uncovered the scientific secrets of the pole he was so desperate to learn, he also never fully uncovered Victor's secrets either)

#txt #im skimming book again because i have the pre-job interview anxieties LOL

[oscarwyldd]

OK CRIMSON RIVERS x WOLFSTAR APPRECIATION WORD VOMIT POST

⚠️spoilers⚠️

TLDR: ULTIMATELY just the thought of having someone who loves the physical aspects of relationships but loves you MORE and is willing to drop that to be with you is really special to me 🫶

ok so laying the groundwork: Remus is this wild rebel child with lily before he gets captured like this man’s a mini revolutionary in 12 ok? He gets captured by the capital and is forced into servitude for 6 years before Sirius. As servants they have to wear a mask and can’t speak with it on bc it’s molded to their face and they are experimented on and such.

Fast forward and Sirius volunteers for Reggie, goes psycho, kills 12 people in his games and wins. He comes back from his games and is turned into a sex symbol of the capital (a parallel to finnick in the og). People say they’ve fucked him and stuff and he gains a reputation of desire and seduction.

New games=Reggie and James are called. They go to the capital and Remus is the servant assigned to them. Sirius takes remus mask off so he can speak. At this point lil rebel remus is on the dl bc he’s low key traumatized. He thinks Sirius is cute and flirts bc yeah

SIRIUS is like omg I’ve never felt this way towards anyone before (demisexual rep woop woop) and is really nervous and cute and enamored and not at all like his reputation draws him out to be

Meanwhile remus “I’d have fucked him days ago if I could’ve” lupin is really kind and patient with him as he figures things out and when they do eventually get together Sirius freaks out bc he doesn’t want to play into the capitals view of him and remus stops point blank no questions asked and does the whole “I still want you even if you never want to do anything. Just being with you is enough for me”. It’s really fucking wholesome bc Sirius is portrayed as this provocative victor but in reality he’s a mess

DEMISEXUAL REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA >>>>>>>

#marauders #crimson rivers #wolfstar #demisexual representation is important #remus lupin #sirius black

[paris-geller-was-straightwashed]

everyone shh be quiet I’m thinking about the scale between henry/001, kali and el and the differences in how they all, as isolated and deeply hurt children, view others and the world around them.

Henry/001

on the far side, we start with henry, who will in time become the murderous vecna. once we finally have the curtain revealed in ep7 through his monologue, it’s clear, that from the beginning his character was set up to be a villain.

in his isolation at feeling ‘different’ and anger towards his family & a world he didn’t understand, he processes this all into a gradual tirade of hurt and violence - beginning by harming woodland creatures and creating horrifying illusions, to in the end, murdering all his family save for his father. he says, how he would end up hating both his mother and father bc after peeking into their minds, he saw what he believed to be things so terrible they were inexcusable (though I still don’t totally understand why; I’m assuming he thought that about his father bc victor killed ppl in the war, but it’s not really clear what he says his mother did, but I’m assuming it’s for fearing what he was capable of and wanting to send him away? not sure). and then finally in the lab, it’s revealed that he was the one who murdered all the other experiments. in his own eyes, henry can justify this, either by claiming it was deserved or how regardless, everyone is just waiting to escape this cruel world around them anyways. becoming so warped from his own feelings of being an outsider and no doubt trauma wrought from brenner, he has turned to harm as a comfort, as a way of control, and something, to put it plainly, he has no issues handing down.

either way he tries to justify it though, it’s clear from the scene, that he is dangerous and craving both destruction and violence - aka, a villain, plain and simple. it starts, with a quiet, sensitive boy, who feels so unattached from the world and people around him, that he found comfort from his isolation in hurting and overtime, it grew completely into evil villainy.

Kali

my love, my life. kali stands as an interesting tie, between both henry and el. kali is no villain, but she too, has found comfort in taking the lives of others - but only the lives of people who’ve actively done harm, namely people involved in the traumatic abuse she had to undergo.

unlike henry, kali has still retained some of her humanity. she’s is kind and gentle towards el, saying how upon finding her she felt she’d become whole again. and before even knowing who el was, stopped axel from possibly harming her, not wanting him to hurt some innocent kid. she’s helped those in her crew, ‘saving them’ according to sunshine. she very much wants to help el, wants her to become stronger, to help save herself from the lingering affects of her trauma (their shared trauma).

but at the same time, she can also be cruel. while I would argue that kali taking the lives of child abusers isn’t exactly the same as henry slaughtering whoever he saw fit (including literal children), the fact still remains, that they both have decided on their own terms who deserved that cruelty. on their own terms, they’ve taken it upon themselves to decide who will live, and who won’t. both see the world as cruel and unjust for their own reasons, and so, hurt from what they’ve experienced, find a new purpose & go about their own ways of ‘fixing’ things. henry wanted to ‘restore order’ to a world he didn’t understand, and kali is also wanting to be restorative in her actions, by getting rid of the people who hurt her & others and therefore make things better.

both of them have felt isolated from their past in the lab; henry tells el that brenner sees her as nothing more ‘than an animal, a monster’, and kali too, in trying to get el to reconcile with her past, says that ‘we will never be anything more then monsters to them (brenner & the lab).’. they also both, use anger as a motive. both of them tell el to call upon a memory that makes her upset, and use it as a way to fuel her power. again, both of them, for perhaps slightly different reasons morally, have taken to anger and vengeance as a way of motivating them.

it’s wild actually, as I go back and look at ep7, how close their ideas and motives are - but still, when it comes down to the actual killing, there is a difference. kali, specifically, hurts those who hurt others - she’s after the lab and the lab alone. she never kills unless for a very specific reason, and where henry thought killing the other experiments was ‘saving’ them, kali would never hurt anyone, let alone kids, who’ve done no harm. it’s clear to me that kali only chooses harm when someone else is being hurt (a lot like how el does, in some ways); an innocent such as she & el were in the lab, being harmed by another. to henry though, he’s dwelled enough in his hurt that everyone he comes across, is already guilty and worthy of punishment.

kali still has a heart. unlike henry who felt his differences and powers made him alone, kali is able to bond her story of struggle with those of her friends, and even when they’re at the gas station, kali tried to deescalate rather then attack the upset owner, saying how ‘they’re on the same side’ - she is able to empathize (like el, though with not as strong of a bleeding heart as el has), where henry cannot. but she too, has started to warp in her bloody crusade for justice. and just as henry made his parents (and later max & ppl in hawkins) see their worst fears, kali makes el see brenner, a person she is still deeply afraid of and cries upon seeing him. again, motives are different (henry to scare and horrify the victim, whereas kali was trying in all the wrong ways to make el confront her past), but still, the actions are the same. she’s definitely not villainous, but her actions can’t be called morally pure either.

(also, tangent - what is up with the different powers? all three of them are different. henry shows he’s capable of both visions and telekinesis, which is interesting that he has both abilities. kali, as far as we’ve been shown, is only capable of visions, and el has only used telekinesis. does this mean they both developed one each, from the DNA brenner extracted from henry? but then I wonder, why is it that all the other experiments showed in el’s flashback only use telekinesis? why is it only kali has the ability for visions, if we’re going by the DNA theory. OR, was kali sought out kind of like how henry was - she held a sensitivity to the supernatural, and then was found and taken by brenner who wanted to use her for them. so many questions, but back to the main topic).

I feel like the difference is, is that kali has a very specific purpose, and a deep sense of justice (hence why the writers named her as they did), and I think that flame she holds to help people cast down and make things right, is what saves her from falling into her cruelty. at the same time, holding onto that anger could prove to be a great downfall for her, if taken too far.

El

that leaves el, at the opposite end of the scale. el has proven herself, time and time again, to be different then her siblings - in that she is very gentle in nature, and takes on a great deal of empathy for the hurt she encounters, whether caused by her or not.

she defies both her siblings when they ask her to hurt someone else. henry uses it as an out for her, to join his mission and escape the lab and brenner, and kali tells her that killing the lab worker who once tortured them was a way to both heal her trauma and restore justice. but in those moments, el sees only one thing. she sees the brutally murdered kids taken by henry’s hand, and she sees that killing this man will only end in a dead body and two little girls without a father. and in both moments, el says no - and chooses mercy instead. she refuses to be the one to take a parent away from a child, and she, seeing who henry really is, refuses to let him get away with any more killings.

almost every time el has ever used her powers, hurt someone on purpose, was either bc she (& her friends) was/were in danger, or bc she felt like she was being threatened. the only outlier was when she knocked max off her skateboard - and then outside of that, were just accidental outbursts, like tossing lucas (or just for cheeky, harmless fun, like spying on the boys and such). and EVEN in times when she’s done a cruel act, like hitting angela harder then she meant to, she’s shown to be deeply upset by it despite how angela treated her. all through s4, el is wracked with misplaced memories of the lab massacre, deeply upset and haunted by the notion that she might’ve been responsible.

when it comes to hurt, when it comes to cruelty, there are no excuses for el, unlike her two siblings who’ve created their own ways to justify it. el sees someone in pain, or is instructed to inflict pain (such as the cat in the lab), and there’s nothing to her that makes it okay. she stands up to a powerful foe like henry to stop him, or she risks the traumatic punishment of the dark room for refusing to kill the cat, bc with such a sensitive heart, she can’t stand to see any more pain.

el has undergone just as much trauma as both henry and kali experienced while in the lab. she too, has felt isolated and different, has felt like she had no place in the world. she’s been deeply hurt by the world and people around her over and over again, being handed more cruelty then she would ever give. for her siblings, they have used this in their own ways, to become destructive.

but el has refused. every opportunity she’d had to hurt, she’s chosen love. it’s love, after all, that allows her to defeat henry; love of her friends and family, that helps carry her through all her battles. she’s had such a cruel start, and yet she, is so soft.

Overall,

I think both the similarities and differences between all three of them and how they’ve each come to see the world, are really fascinating. they’re all interesting character studies, all different outcomes for how they each moulded themselves after experiencing very similar, if not the same, trauma. henry took his pain and isolation, his hurt at feeling like an outsider and anger towards others, and used it to hurt people under a guise that he was ridding the world of wrongs. kali took hers and tried to make it righteous, tried to make sense of her trauma by making those guilty pay for it, and while uses it to help save others from possible pain, is still leading a murky path. and el instead, holds onto her pain, and refuses to weaponize it, or let anyone else get hurt.

but with each character’s outcomes, I feel like there is a tying piece that connects to one of the biggest threads in the show - and that’s about the love for each other. it’s the love of el’s mom that helps her stop henry, it’s the love of her friends that she uses to guide her. it’s the love from her friends that saves max from vecna, the love from joyce (and jonathan) that saves will from both monsters that try to take him. el chooses love at every critical turn, never harm. kali has taken a dubious path, but it’s clear that she loves her sister, and that she cares about her and her friends - a driving force, even in her angry vengeance, that wills her to stop anyone from hurting them or others again. but with henry, that’s not a factor. his motives aren’t powered by care for others, despite trying to say that he was doing a righteous service - rather, he has rendered everyone at fault, calling humanity a ‘disease’ of which he wants to extinguish bc they did not understand him and he didn’t understand any of them. different from kali’s and not at all like el’s, he carries no compassion in his drive. he’s consumed entirely by vengeance and violence, and, in the end, it’s what costs him his (mortal) death.

there’s always more to dissect, but this has gone way past lengthy. I just wanted to touch on the fascinating dichotomy, of giving three characters very similar history but having it play out in various different directions, based on who those characters are at their core. anyone else is welcome to add-on and discuss!

#stranger things #stranger things season 4 #stranger things spoilers #stranger things s4 #eleven stranger things #el hopper #kali prasad #eight stranger things #henry creel #vecna stranger things #this also isn't even to mention the similarities between henry and will which loads of ppl have been pointing out #of be a 'sensitive and lonely kid' #again a lot of layover but I feel like for will it's the same case as el #he's got too big of a heart to ever turn out like that

[climbing-starrs]

Tell me more about Orions life immediately please

HELP i just saw this after dadposting don't enable me glass (/J PLEASE ENABLE ME GOD I LOVE MY SILLIES)

A LOT OF IT IS IN THE WORKS UNFORTUNATELY (@authorswife and @fuckyouimcrustyheathen is helping me out with a small chunk of it!!!) BUT THE NOTES I CAN SHARE AS OF RN

orion has three (3) dads!!! they're related to 2 of them, and one is step :]

they didn't get to know one of their biological dads since he left before they were born (from what i know) but they're super close to the other, victor ravenswood!! (owned by pumpkin/mika) their step dad however,,, they're on thin ice about. he's not a bad guy, orion's just suspicious and they don't want their dad getting hurt again (dw they eventually warm up to him)

YES THEY HAVE ABANDONMENT ISSUES (ie being a clingy MOTHERFUCKER)

they don't have any siblings (may change?) but they do have a childhood friend !!

sudden lore drop ORION IS NOT FULLY HUMAN. they do not know this. quite literally nobody knows this except for their dad because it does not show up in them in a very noticeable way (it acts more like a bodily disorder, being immunocompromised, prone to bleeding and bruising and overall injury and a bunch of other stuff they kind of just pass off as shitty genes).

they were a sweet kid in elementary/pre-k and then this motherfucker hit middle school and quickly got mixed up in the wrong crowd. started out with staying past curfew, "minor" drugs, stuff like that before it turned into almost never staying at home and constantly being surrounded by shitty people and doing shitty things (i am not going to go into detail for reasons!!)

obviously they got away from this but not without a big smack in the face (metaphorically, kind of) ie the whole gun thing and other traumatic experiences throughout that time. they prefer not to look back at those days due to them and a lot of guilt surrounding their own actions and definitely how they hurt people around them

with a lot of emotional and physical help from peers and family they did get to heal and eventually got to go back into schooling :]

theyre super into forensics!!! but ended up choosing the nursing path instead,, which is still dope as hell

they didn't really know about the whole inhuman/altrs/etc shit until they started seeing more stuff to do with them and some encounters themselves, and probably ends up getting their job at IRIS with some help from their dad due to his line of work

orion also gets a lot of their fashion sense from their dad which i think is very dope

however!! they didn't end up getting top surgery until a year or two after they started working for IRIS, kind of just disappearing off the face of the earth for the time they had to take to heal up.

also they hate dogs /hj theyre kind of scared of them (they make exceptions i promise)

they are not medicated but definitely need to be

I THINK THATS ALL I GOT FOR RN RAHJSDGHRKJDGRD i love my silly doctor tysm glass ilysm

#drug use tw #lmk if i need to tag anything else #FORGIVE ME FOR RANTING!!!!! HEHE #shut up sunny #answered asks #dr. orion #irisona shenanigans #glass-trash-bab #original character #more stuff to come when it comes to orion lore i prommy!! anyones free to ask questions though >:DDD

[lorata]

I’m loving the “outsider/insider perspective” fic that’s going on re: the Games. Your Rowan and Blake, @cloversworldsblog’s bit about the outlier Victors and Alec, it’s so good and it helps add so many layers to the worldbuilding! The idea of the people who “know” (or think they do) the Games, and yet, they really don’t know everything.

For Rowan, the thing that caught me was the whole attitude about the 74th being a love story-how clearly the Centre sees that it’s just that, a story, how the rules change wasn’t ever going to last, even how Katniss was fully prepared to shoot Peeta in the end (a kind of ruthlessness Two would begrudgingly approve of). But even though they *know* it’s just an angle, the word comes down from the Capitol, and Two falls in line, parrots the storyline even though they don’t believe it.

Also, I’d love to see a story with Two’s Mentors (it would have to be Two, One is too resentful and Four is in that odd space) dealing with the outlier Districts, and just flat out telling them, “You would have done the exact same thing if you had the chance. To save your children, you would make the same choice we did, and if you deny it you’re lying.”

"You would have done the exact same thing if you had the chance" is exactly the undercurrent and the tension that plays in a lot of the mentor interactions, and I swore I wrote that precise line in a Ronan scene somewhere but I can't find it so maybe I imagined it? or maybe it's just like ............ so steeped in all the unsaid even though he's never actually said it aloud, haha

I'm really loving the discussions and interplay that's coming out of things lately as well! Chaff's "I'm nothing like him" (Alec) is incredibly damning but it IS the mystique that the Capitol -- and the Centre machine itself -- work so very hard to maintain on many different levels. D2 kids die, yes, but choose to be there. D2 victor prostitution is "different" because they choose their targets; they aren't sold, they're selling themselves. D2 victors might be disfigured or traumatized but they wanted this so they can't complain.

as someone who was around in the early 2010s and saw how the prevailing fandom attitudes were basically ... well, the above, it's really gratifying to see such rich, nuanced conversations happening around all the districts and the propaganda that goes into keeping the people divided. partly due to people growing up but even new & young fans are having these discussions, partly, i think, due to like ... world events that have happened since. a 14yo in 2012 has had a very, very different life experience than a 14yo in 2022

also just as an aside since you mentioned it, Katniss and Peeta have very different skillsets as far as the Centre is concerned and it makes for fascinating watching. Peeta has the crowd work while Katniss does not -- they point this out, that he's the one who's been giving her audience appeal, he's the one who (if he weren't bleeding to death) could have walked out with sympathy by throwing the knife away at the same time Katniss pointed the arrow, but he lacks survival skills. Katniss has a singleminded ruthlessness (in the Marco Animorphs sense, where she can see the bright, clear line from A to B) that makes survival possible, but the audience doesn't like her and she makes very little effort to do so until forced. they need each other and it was a fascinating game to analyze, from a strategy standpoint.

the trainers always assumed the rule change would be revoked at an appropriately dramatic point, but they also thought that whoever won would be a disappointment without the other as complement. a weird game to play and no clear resolution, until the kids blew the whole thing up

not one that would work for any of you, indeed

#lorata answers #westbrookwestbooks #we must be killers: tales from district 2

[bklynmusicnerd]

I love Sprina so much. I just really need them to address that literally almost everyone is Spencer’s orbit has emotionally or physically traumatized Trina. From Esme to Victor to Cyrus. And Laura occasionally facilitates it? I loathe Trina’s narcissistic boundary-less momma, but I’m starting to understand her point. Trina keeps getting retraumatized almost every week and has to suck it up. I wish someone on the show would acknowledge that. Maybe only Ava understands it. But SOMEONE, my lawd!

I actually think from the post-nyc "five year plan" discussion to the Cyrus confrontation, and now this last, blowout fight, this element of their dynamic is being addressed because it's at the core of Trina's perspective. I love your use of the word "retraumatized" to describe Trina's experience in this whole demon spawn situation because that's exactly what happened.

She watched Spencer become a team again with the girl who drugged and framed her. And she forced herself to grin and smile through all of it and pretend to be okay because that's what Spencer and his family needed from her. This is why she has concerns about him switching up on her when it comes to Cyrus too.

While Spencer was blissfully hiding from his daddy issues, Trina was put back in the mental space of being the girl walking into a trap that almost destroyed her life while trying to support a guy who barely supported her in return. This is why I'm kind of defensive of Trina's "finally" that pissed Spencer off. Yes, it was insensitive. It was also a completely human moment for a girl who, up until that point, put herself to unreasonably high "understanding girlfriend" standards.

I would honestly describe Trina in this relationship, from the moment that sociopathic mooch moves into Laura's, as holding her breath. She's enduring. But between all the milestones they experience in the NYC trip and being retraumatized by Cyrus' release, I think that "finally" is an example of her losing her martyr resolve and just letting go. Letting herself breathe and be human and be relieved at the idea of having one less trigger perpetually in her orbit. She just did not have it in her to be the perfect support system to Spencer in that moment.

She's been sacrificing to be the perfect support system to Spencer all year. Spencer got used to her being the fixer, but Trina is in self-preservation mode over all the reminders of her being endangered surrounding their relationship. And he's still asking her for more and honestly, for indefinite sacrifice or else. It's all very absurd and trauma-based on his end as well.

The one thing I will push back on in your q is the idea that Trina "has to suck it up". That's what Trina convinces herself, that it's always her obligation to endure for the betterment of the people around her. That it's her obligation to keep her pain as quiet as possible so as to not be a burden. That she needs to be the one to "fix" things. But uh, that's not actually true. That's her savior complex talking and it's her character flaw. People admire her for it, but it's a self-destructive behavior. She never has to do any of it. It's a choice she makes. It's her (kinda unhealthy) way of expressing she cares.

And on the Portia having a point end, that is why I was disappointed by the decision to have Portia be one of the props for the sociopathic mooch. There was something really compelling about Portia being hypocritical, judgmental, manipulative, toxic, and yet still not entirely wrong about the situation her daughter landed herself in.

There was some justification, however warped, for protectiveness as her motivation. This all got undermined when they had her bond with the drugger of her daughter. Now she's just another person Trina can't count on to be on her side.

#gh #trina robinson #spencer cassadine #portia robinson #thanks for the q anon #sorry for the late response #i wanted to be sure about trina's archetype before i responded

[willel]

El has powers because her mom participated in that study for it and was unknowingly pregnant during it. I don't think it has to do with an actual family history of having powers—it was induced.

I disagree. There are indications that Terry and Becky's aunt Shirley is also a little out there with no lab interference.

I don't think the lab can just grant people powers. If that were the case, they'd be luring in pregnant women from all corners of the world and they'd have a whole army of super powered babies by now. No, they relied on finding children and kidnapping them at various ages. Some of those children were born from MKUltra parents, but clearly not all of them. Kali, for example, was kidnapped at 5 years old from England.

I believe people exist who have some kind of preexisting condition for powers. Usually those powers don't present themselves in normal every day life unless they experience something traumatic or something else is wrong. I also believe this is something that is inherited in families, and those families are usually viewed as eccentric, weird, or maybe tragedy surrounds them.

Season 4 gave us the biggest example of all. Henry. As it stands right now, there are no indications that Henry or his family was ever involved in the lab before he killed his family. He unlocked them himself after apparently experiencing a lot of isolation and emotional issues. "A sad memory from his past." No lab experimentation required.

Also if you look back at Henry's backstory, as well as Victor's, you'll note that Victor and Virginia were somehow able to detect Henry's abilities.

Victor said he doesn't really know how, but he could "sense" the demon was close by. Victor was right on target, Victor searched the attic where Henry was using most of his powers. Henry said somehow, his mother figured out he was the one giving them nightmares and making them hallucinate. Isn't it questionable that she'd believe her son was casting spells on them, so much so she supposedly called an expert to send him away??

We don't know about Virginia, but Victor certainly doesn't appear to have ties to Hawkins lab.

I think all of this is implying having powers is a family trait, but it doesn't necessarily mean everyone in the family can and will have powers. Just the potential is there. I think it's also pretty clear at this point that age matters. Becky (Terry's sister) isn't about to start busting out telekinesis and ripping open alternate dimension gates even though her sister and niece have abilities.

Victor isn't about to start twisting the limbs and ripping out the eyes of his fellow prisoners just because his son is super powerful.

#stranger things #theory #ask