#there is just something so inherently fucked up about him having to kill himself in his own Eden

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

Are Merch Mimics capable of using assimilation offensively against humans, for self-defense and otherwise? Like, if someone tried to break a toy/game/etc they were inhabiting, could the Mimic instead pull them in?

To a degree, yeah. I should mention though that Victor isn't "in" the TV in any magical sense; spoiler alert: he's the controller Vance is holding! Hence, the eye on the controller reacting to the dialogue. The Victor on the screen is actualy a model he rigged for a homebrew game he coded the old fashioned way, which responds to whatever inputs the controller sends to the Wii.

He actually is an active member of the homebrew community, and loves to mess with electronics the old fashioned way. Almost no one on the forums knows he's a toy bird, but are impressed nonetheless with his little projects, various rail-shooter games, and weird obsession with snarky anthropomorphic birds.

Victor could technically "jump into a game" on a tv screen, but it'd be a bit of a weird process if he doesn't know how to mod the game, so it'd look more like a shitty greenscreen effect rather than anything coherent. He'd need to learn in real time how the game is coded, how to inject arbitrary code into the system while it's running, etc etc. He CAN do that because he's a fucking NERD, but it wouldn't be a quick process at all.

I should also mention, mimics have an inherent ability to create dreams, since they come about from processing the thoughts and ideas of humans. If a human bonds with a mimic, such that the mimic now knows how the human thinks, they can pull a (somewhat) willing human into the dream when the human sleeps. So to wrap this all up: what Victor could do for a game he understands inside and out is pull a human into a dream that happens to match whatever he himself experiences as currently going on in the game. Basically the ultimate VR experience, with the mimic as a middle-man. Which might be something that'll happen in the comic soon....!

So that all seems a bit convoluted, right? Here's even more worldbuilding about matter assimilation by mimics below the cut. Stop here if you don't want a headache.

The reason so many hoops would be needed to pull a human into a game world is that assimilation is much easier on inert, inanimate objects that are not currently "in use" by a thinking thing, or something that relies on constant electrical signals to function. This can be something with brainwaves, or some other kind of animation like a normal robot. A mimic can convert a CRT TV that's turned off somewhat easily, but a TV that's turned on, with particles of every kind constantly moving into and out of it, is much harder to convert.

This means that humans and biological creatures in general are also trickier to convert, though it can still happen if done gradually enough. Hence, Victor wouldn't be able to rapidly convert Vance in one fell swoop, it'd be a whole process. It's easier to just pull a human into a dream instead, and if a mimic undersrands a video game, or a story in a book really well, they can basically make the fictional world into an extremely lucid reality for whatever human tags along with them.

I often describe mimics as just "jojo stands if they were corporeal and could just get up and move around on their own with no user"; you know how in jojo stand battles or old stories about magic curses, if you break the curse or kill the stand before its effect becomes permanent, all of the damage is magically undone? Like if you kill Green Day, the mold stand, all of the molding just instantly stops?

Mimics who use their powers of assimilation offensively work similarly; they can project their influence to a certain range, and partially assimilate matter in that range. If you knock out or kill the mimic, however, everything reverts to normal. A human who doesn't want to get converted can basically just turn around and walk away most of the time, or shoot the mimic, so the mimic in question needs to pull off some trick to get the human to stay within range for the assimilation to fully stick. A human can still break free and get out of range even if fully converted, but it's much harder, as assimilation usually means the mimic gaining greater control over the converted object in question. The exact range and effect mimics have is again like jojo stand ranges; it varies.

Different mimics have different affinities for different things. Victor can assimilate cheap electronics fastest because he likes them and understands how they work (it's why he's a toy bird mp3 player). Az can assimilate guns, and turn ammo into weird anomalous ammo with weird effects. Zachary is a genius who can assimilate any matter, including biological matter, faster than anyone... but he's also extremely picky and hates the sight of blood, so he only uses assimilation on things he really, really likes.

If I could somehow make another read more at this point, I would. It's gonna get messy:

What a weird power and setup though, right? Why? The true nature of mimics is unknown to most of them, but the deepest lore is that the first mimics were constructs made by a people long ago, who first made them as highly advanced machines that'd recognize the thoughts of their masters to fulfill any practical desire. Need a road built? Done. Need a ship repaired? Done. With physical needs all met, the people began to turn inward, and use the mimics to illustrate their own artistic ideas. Eventually, the will and consciousness of these people were assimilated and inherited by mimics, who themselves became people. Mimics spread, altered themselves, duplicated, deviated, fused, split, and wandered around. Getting into recreational wars, manifesting horrors and delights into reality because they could.

Somehow, after the dust settled, the strongest mimics, the angels, decide to set their sights to the stars, and observe other lifeforms develop technology and their own art. Did mimics come to earth millions of years ago, and simply watched humans grow, evolving with them in-tandem? Or did humans make the first mimics, and somehow became undone and set back to the stone age? The answer to this mystery is currently known only to the oldest of mimics. Except Zachary. He's old, but didn't care to remember.

This is generally why mimics seem so compatible with humans; they were made by either them, or people who were, for whatever the reason, very much like them, flaws and all. The ability to assimilate is basically the conversion of matter into a more malleable state of information. A virtually magical power, but this was achieved not through prayers and spells, but a very human-like obsession with developing technology to the point of exerting control over molecules, then atoms, then the lowest planks of matter. The obsession with scaling every mountain and crossing through every valley. To rip the natural world apart, and hopefully, put it back together before it's too late. Angels seek to ensure humanity walks the right path there, but with human's own desires and intent honored, for better or worse.

To answer your question: yes. A mimic of Mario can pull you into the game and you can jump with him and eat shitty low poly spaghetti with him.

The process for doing that is just convoluted and complicated, and you need to get to know each other a bit first. If he tries to use it as an attack though, it either won't work, or it might just wind up giving you mild brain damage.

#Victor #Merch Mimic #worldbuilding #Character Design #Fantasy race design

[lotus-pear]

do you ever think about the tragic fact that odasaku's dying words to dazai were to become a good man, to be on the side that saves people.....which leads to the creation of the beast universe as dazai, in his grief and denial, finds the book and alters reality with the mentality "then....that means saving you too, right?"

#THE WAY THE TIMELINE SPLITS OFF JUST WITH THOSE LAST WORDS #how in the main timeline dazai is able to find the strength to move on with oda in his heart #but in another he is unable to bear the crushing weight of oda's death and finds the book to alter TIME and give oda a happy ending #beast is dazai's utopia. written exactly so that everyone whom he believes he wronged gets a second chance. a happy ending. #yet dazai himself is not present in his ideal world #there is just something so inherently fucked up about him having to kill himself in his own Eden #anyway i'm crying myself to sleep now goodnight sorry if i made anyone depressed w this #bsd #bsd beast

[sabertoothwalrus]

I’ve seen you post some labru stuff and I’m curious what your thoughts on it are. personally I don’t see it? I can buy Kabru having feelings for Laios, but I think Laios wouldn’t be interested in Kabru, so it makes me wonder why so many people ship them. (Tbh I feel like Kabru has more chemistry with Mithrun anyway)

Sorry if this ask sounds rude, I just genuinely don’t understand the appeal of the ship, but I want to understand and I trust your analysis of characters very much :] maybe there’s something I’m missing

I really like both ships, actually!

For labru, there’s sooooo much I could talk about. The inherent homoeroticism of being narrative foils. The inherent homoeroticism of being the king’s advisor. All of chapter 76. The fact that Kabru has mask upon mask upon mask, and Laios is the first person that made his facade absolutely crumble.

Kabru struggles with being genuine!!! Everything he says and does is so perfectly calculated, even when he sort of means it. But since Laios doesn’t get social cues, Kabru gets thrown for a loop.

I get so frustrated when people act like Kabru still hates Laios by the end of the manga!!!!! He killed those corpse retrievers for being corrupt, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to kill Laios. He has such a strong sense of justice, and knew that killing Laios would be a mistake. Because, after meeting him, he could tell he wasn’t actually evil. He’s strange, sure, but not evil.

Kabru DEFINITELY wants to be friends with Laios!! He was not lying about this!!!

But this last comic shows how much Laios wants to be friends with Kabru, too. He’s so nervous after calling Kabru his friend 😭 he doesn’t want to be presumptuous and fuck it up again.

Laios does show an interest in Kabru, at least when Laios thinks he’s interested in eating monsters too. Like,, what was up with THIS

Laios’s gaze is LINGERING. Plus, (this is before that bit at Thistle’s house when he forgets his name) he brings up Kabru when they first form their plan to eat Falin.

And maybe this is just because of my own personal experiences, but Laios reminds me a lot of my own girlfriend. I think they have a similar flavor of gay/aspec & autism combo where, had I not asked her out first, she probably never would have considered being interested in me. But she was very down when I did.

The tricky part about labru is more the political aspect. Regardless of whether you see Laios as aroace or not, he’s in a situation where he will probably get married. He had a fiancée before he was age 13, likely betrothed since he was a baby. He’s already comfortable with the idea of getting married because He’s Supposed To.

However, Laios is king, and could make gay marriage legal if he wanted to (He would probably do this for his sister and Marcille before considering it for himself ). But at the same time, I think Kabru would object to Laios making whatever policies he wants without considering the repercussions of how other kingdoms might react, especially when they’re just getting Melini off the ground and need lots of support from other countries. Laios and Kabru getting gay married anyway and dealing with the aftermath could make for a really compelling story.

I do think Kabru would be a good ruler. He’s already fit for it. He speaks a dozen languages, he knows people and their motivations, and likes politics. The manga already joked about Chilchuck’s daughters trying to marry a king, so it seems like noble blood isn’t too important, but Kabru’s foster family IS nobility. When it comes to heirs, I do like trans Kabru headcanons, but at the same time, I think it’d be cute if they adopt anyway. Kabru seems like he’d have strong feelings about adoption given,,, yknow.

The alternative version of labru to this is Laios gets straight married out of obligation, and Kabru is his mistress hdhdhshsj. I don’t know if I could see Laios doing that? or if Kabru would risk the scandal of being outed as Royal Advisor and Regent trying to seduce the king. It could go SO downhill. but maybe that would be fun.

NOW FOR KABUMISU.

I knew people shipped them, and I could see the basis for it while reading, but I wasn’t really sold on it until the very end. There’s something about “I had no desires left. I decided to create new desires, and one of them is you” that’s really charming.

There’s also something funny about “the demon ate my heterosexuality so I’m gay now”

I think it’s interesting that Kabru hates elves. He was raised by them, and he hates them. He hates feeling patronized by them. He made absolutely sure that elves wouldn’t take control over Melini, not just for his sake, but for Rin’s.

But Mithrun’s interactions with Kabru are founded on more mutual respect. Though, that’s not to say that Mithrun doesn’t still have his biases towards short lived races..

Where Laios doesn’t understand social cues, Mithrun does but just doesn’t care. For that reason, I think Kabru would enjoy spending time with Mithrun. It’d give him a break from his compulsion to calculate all of his social interactions. But at the same time, Kabru is the KING at bottling his emotions. Mithrun is blunt, but also doesn’t care enough to pry. If Kabru had anything bothering him, I could imagine him seeking Mithrun’s company to avoid thinking about it. Could make for a fun dynamic.

I do think it’s funny that Milsiril 1) took care of Mithrun for potentially 20 years and 2) is only four years older than him. I imagine this could lead to funny situations.

I don’t ship things for no reason! I think both of these could work platonically, romantically, one-sided, or even “requited but they don’t do anything about it.” Their relationships compel me and I think it’s sort of bad faith to brush off either like they’re nothing more than baseless yaoi pair-the-spares. To me, I see just as much of a foundation in the source material as farcille.

After all, dungeon meshi isn’t a story about romance, but it IS a story about love. It’s a story about life and death and grief and the love that comes with it. Regardless of shipping, these characters love each other!!! And I love talking about it!!

#long post #dungeon meshi #laios touden #kabru #mithrun #labru #kabumisu #dungeon meshi spoilers #photos

[bamsara]

Howdy! I just want to take a moment (or two…or three..yeah this is longer than I thought it would be) to talk about your characterization of Narinder in your TRoD fanfic, specifically his grievance over what he perceived the lamb to be and betrayel.

I like to think Narinder repeatedly calling Lambert a traitor (I think at least once a chapter actually lmaoo) over and over, is trying not so subtly to avoid thinking about the why behind the betrayel and the pain that comes with it. Especially since he'd already spent an eternity wondering about the previous betrayal of his siblings. How emotionally torturous it must feel to be in this cycle of rejection, from the people he depended on, even now from his own followers who don't recognize him. And then, when he and Lambert finally appear to be on the same page about something, Lambert goes and spares Leshy, reminding Narinder once again that his divine commands hold as much weight on the Lamb as they will decide to hold.

It isn't up to Narinder to decide how the lamb will act, as much as he wants to. It's one thing for Narinder to have people listening to him, but it's another to actually be heard, and after an eternity of silence during his imprisonment he's absolutely desperate for some form of control and impact. For someone to truly hear him. Which is a shame, because Lambert does, but Narinder cannot recognize it since they don't always give Narinder what he wants (since being a God is all about what you want), and instead are more interested in giving him what he needs.

I assume at this point, after being revived into a mortal form, he's actively given up on trying to understand why everyone just keeps "betraying/rejecting him" and would rather use his own inferences of their behavior as explanation, once again, for that feeling of control, since he's utterly mortified of hearing those words come from their mouths instead of his own (doesn't help that he can actually read minds either). He'd rather kill his siblings than hear the why (not saying the siblings were justified ofc, but understanding one's motivations is, y'know, important to effectively communicating with them in a way that's healthy) Despite needing to be heard, he's internalized that many won't bother listening unless he has control over them in some way, like he did before when he was powerful. When he mutilated his siblings, had Lambert create a cult in his name, being heard isn't just an emotional or mental aspect to his wellbeing, but is literally part of his power as well.

He was/is a God, he's used to followers prostrating themselves just to hear the time of day, giving their all to listen, hear, and follow him. It's why he struggles to separate the aspects that are ingrained in a follower, from those who are a friend. Unless they're also God he can't comprehend much of a difference, and expects them to be of the same or similar standing. He was friends with Lambert when he was Godly, yes, but he still saw himself as above Lambert, and expected them to lay down their life to him like a follower would. Yes, Narinder didn't want to cut them out of his own life in their death, but still expected them to just..die for him. He didn't ***just*** see Lambert as a friend, he saw them as a friend that was also his follower. An exceptional follower he loved, but not an exception. There was a power imbalance that Lambert now sees.

It's why Narinder's utterly baffled and offended, fearful even, at Lambert, someone he deemed as "traitorous", investing their time into still trying to talk to him..listen to him.. for virtually no gain…at his lowest point...when he himself is now "lesser".

Narinder tries so hard to not become invested in those he deems as "lesser" or "traitors" but its near fucking impossible, because like it or not, his desires and needs are so inherently mortal and genuine (desire for power, companionship, love, understanding, control, etc) that if he doesn't close himself off, he may have to face falling into the same pit of disappointment and failed expectations he fell in with Lambert/his siblings once again. So he doesn't, and hides away in his shack until Lambert comes knocking.

And now, as the cherry on top of this emotionally constipated bundle of angsty cat woes, he has to live and breathe as the very thing he deemed as "lesser". Being forced to invest in these mortal needs, now that they're a necessary component to his survival. This is also why I believe he goes on these little crusades with Lambert in the first place as well. Not only because they return to him a sense of routine and normalcy (also pining, coughocoughghhrbogh who said that?), but also because it allows Narinder to forget about investing in his own wellbeing for a while.

He was a God, he didn't have to go through the work it took to just do your laundry, eat, brush your teeth, or take care of yourself since he never had to. The thrill of adventure and battle, the adrenaline rush of near-death experiences, can't hold a candle to the mundanity of work. So when he's not crusading, he just..sleeps..wanders around..the fact he's not socially accepted by his own followers doesn't encourage him either. I mean fuck, he such a complete wreck after Lambert spared Leshy, he crusaded and neglected his health for so long he passed out.

His life is all work now, investing in himself, in others, being forced to have his ego get knocked down a few pegs, and care again despite how much it hurts. None of these things are "given", Lambert's love is not just given (as in, blindly follow) and that's what I believe will be an eventual "eureka" moment for him.

Living is work, but it's worth working for

He ain't hot shit anymore, but that's ok.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded ramble this was all actually just a very roundabout and ineffective ploy for me to talk about how I relate the song "Don't Speak" by No Doubt, to your Narinder's character. Happy belated New Year, hope you're doing well. :]

LKSDHGKLSDHGD HELLO. This is such a well articulated analyzation of Narinder holy moly, I hope you don't mind me answering this with not much to add on because WOW I'm really vibing with your takes on him and I wanted the world to read this too slkdghlksdhgs. I have a lot of my own takes on Narinder and how he'll progress to be as the story comes along, and eventaully some of this will be talked about in TROD either with the lamb and/or with other characters, particularly Ratau, as he comes to an understanding that others are understanding.

I have not had coffee yet this morning but I could go on for a day and a half about Narinder being used to getting what he wants as a god and the entire process of how actaully lonley and isolating it can be to be continously pedastaled and worshipped verses being on equal, human level with other beings and how long it takes for him to realize that.

HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR

#xhlhglsdkhgds im sorry if my answer is lack luster but im consuming your texts with my entire smooth brain

[pagannatural]

2.03 Bloodlust

-Sam flirts with Dean by telling him (and the Impala) to get a room. Meanwhile he’s looking at Dean like this and the two of them are, literally, getting a room.

-Sam tells the bartender “we’re looking for some people” and the bartender says “sure, hard to be lonely.”

Sam blinks wide, grimaces. Dean looks at him, assessing. Sam looks down and then at Dean while he says “yeah, but, um…” slowly, then he regroups and pulls out a fifty, “that’s not what I meant.” There’s a sexual implication to being lonely and looking for someone at a bar, and the brothers share a very loaded look about it. It’s like this bartender accidentally hit on a truth.

Sam has been lonely for Dean. He’s been trying to get Dean to talk to him and spend time with him since their dad died, and Dean has been shutting Sam out emotionally. Sam knows Dean is lonely for him too, even though he won’t say it.

-Sam notices something is off when Dean says he’s been itching for a hunt. He and Dean also make prolonged eye contact after Dean kills a vampire and his face is spattered with blood, and Sam notices Dean is unsettled. They give each other strength just by staring into each others eyes. Sam’s always paying attention to Dean.

-Dean also notices right away that Sam’s off and asks him if he’s okay. Noticing Sam, for him, is less watchful and more like noticing the orbit of his own moon. Gravity’s off, something’s up with Sam.

-Sam went from correcting Dean every time he used Sam’s nickname to “he’s the only one who gets to call me that.” It’s so possessive, like he’s saying I’m his not yours. Dean notices and smiles to himself. Then he says “Sammy remind me to beat that buzzkill outta you later” you’re gonna do what to him later?

-Sam’s development from telling Dean he has to let him go to identifying him as the only one who can use his nickname is also the change from Sam seeking distance to Sam acquiescing to being Dean’s.

-Dean tells Gordon a story about killing a monster at 16 while Sammy waited in the car. He didn’t need to mention where Sammy was, he wasn’t a part of the story, but he has a condition* that makes him talk about Sammy to strangers whenever he’s not there (*wretched, soul-crushing love).

-Dean tells Gordon he always thought of his dad as indestructible. Now he’s questioning everything about his dad’s teachings and realizing the version of John in his head is not the only one.

-Sam says he sees through Dean’s fake smile and knows how Dean feels, because he feels the same way. When Sam says that Dean’s behavior is “an insult to [John’s] memory,” Dean kind of nods and raises his eyebrows like “you have no fucking idea” before punching Sam in the face.

-For once, Sam is way off about Dean. He has no idea how Dean feels or what he’s dealing with. The idea of insulting vs honoring John’s memory is complicated for Dean right now. He’s seeing Sam being protective of John for maybe the first time ever and I can just imagine Dean thinking, I raised you, and the man you finally want to respect as your father asked me to kill you.

-Dean looks regretful after he punches Sam, like he’s realizing he took it too far, and Sam looks hurt and taken aback, his eyes searching to and away from Dean and his mouth open. And then Sam tells Dean, “you can hit me all you want. It won’t change anything.”

There are some potential layers to that.

1. They’re arguing about something else here, at the same time—whether or not vampires can choose to act ethically or if they’re inherently evil. Sam implores Dean not to kill them, believing the former. Dean wants killing to be black and white due to Dead Dad’s Last Words reasons. Hitting Sam won’t make the issue any clearer.

2. Sam’s words could be interpreted as “you can hurt me all you want and it won’t change how I feel.” About Dean. Or “whatever you do it won’t change the way things are.” Between them.

3. Sam has been begging Dean to give him something real and emotional, he’s been pushing and pushing him to get a reaction, escalating and becoming more desperate. Now Dean has responded. He’s hurt Sam, but that means he’s touched him out of uncontrollable emotion—or better yet has chosen to inflict his feelings and needs upon Sam’s body. The pain is better than nothing.

It’s hard to be lonely.

-When I first saw this scene I was shook. Dean hit his baby brother! My best guess is that Dean has never punched him like this before, outside of the context of sparring. I might be wrong about that, but the way Sam accepts the punch and turns slowly back to Dean with that disbelieving look felt too significant. I thought Sam was going to feel betrayed or scared, but Sam’s resolve strengthens, he gazes after Dean, and then he follows him.

And then things go right back to normal between them.

-Another thing Sam is missing is that Dean trusts Gordon partially because Dean can identify with Gordon. Gordon said he hunts vampires because vampires killed his sister, and Dean trusts another protective brother.

-Sam tracks the nest and Dean says “you’re good. You’re a monster pain in the ass, but you’re good.” Just like that they’re reconciled. Sam’s face is probably still throbbing, it’s been like 3 minutes.

-When Gordon pulls a knife on Sam and admits he killed his sister himself, it’s over for him. Dean is not having any of that.

-Dean punches Gordon in the face in front of Sam, then moves really close to Sam to tell him they can leave now. It’s like he wants Sam to see what he’ll do to anyone who threatens him. Dean is the only one who’s allowed to hurt Sam. He also asks Sam to punch him to get him back, so he clearly feels guilty.

-Dean’s true nature is a huge theme in this episode. He’s trying to understand who he is. Gordon tells him that he was “born to hunt” and “a killer like me.” John wrote the same things about child-Dean in his diary.

At the end of the episode, Dean tells Sam that he has the instinct to kill and would’ve killed the vampires. That’s how he was raised, it’s what John told him to do. I love how Dean is a caregiver and a killer in equal measure, he takes naturally to both violence and nurturing.

Sam reminds him he made the right choice. Dean says “yeah cause you’re a pain in my ass.” He made the decision because of Sam. He’ll kill for Sam but he’ll also decide not to kill for Sam.

Sam says “I guess I might have to stick around to be a pain in the ass then.” Dean thanks him and gazes at him intently. Even here, notice the mention of their connection being painful.

Sam is now agreeing to stick with Dean not because of what John would’ve wanted but because he’s accepting his role as Dean’s guiding light, the one thing that gives him a sense of purpose and good.

Dean’s purpose is not killer or caregiver, but protector. He’s guardian of Sam’s soul.

#samdean #supernatural #spn meta #wincest #spn 2x03 #every episode I think this analysis will be shorter and every episode I’m humbled

[elysianholly]

This fucking guy

My villain origin story is people claiming that Riley's biggest crime in the series was being boring. He wasn't just boring. He was a passive-aggressive chauvinist who the show bent over backward to defend. A while back on Reddit, I made a list of reasons why Riley sucks. This is that list, and I'm adding to it.

The only reason he punches Parker is because Parker is mouthing off about a girl Riley likes. Everything about this interaction suggests that Riley has heard him say similar before, and hasn't cared until the woman in question was someone he had a vested interest in.

He calls Buffy stupid for not wanting to date him (if this guy slid into your DMs and called you stupid for turning him down, lbr, this would not lead into a healthy, lasting romance)

He immediately puts himself in competition with Buffy. Even at his most inoffensive, he says things like "I don't even know if I could take you."

He has an inherently chauvinistic view of the world (established in The Initiative)

He is upset that Buffy had a significant relationship before she knew him and assumes Buffy boinked Angel in The Yoko Factor

He uses abuser language to excuse his shitty behavior like, "I love you so much I can't think straight."

He decides that Buffy doesn't love him all by himself

When he decides that Buffy doesn't love him, he confides in Xander and doesn't communicate his relationship issues with Buffy

He wants to help Buffy but only in jobs that are "manly." In No Place Like Home, for instance, he nopes out when Buffy suggests he help with the spell to identify what might be wrong with Joyce. Even if there wasn't a lot for him to do, he could, idk, stick around to be moral support for his partner who is trying to figure out what might be attacking her mother. That seems like a pretty standard partner thing to do.

He gets upset that Buffy "doesn't get all worked up over him" the way she did with Angel when "getting all worked up" in CONTEXT means "isn't constantly miserable."

He is sad boi at Buffy in OoMM for also prioritizing her mother's health after she believes Riley is healed rather than sticking around to play nursemaid

He wants Buffy to show emotion over Joyce at a time when Buffy literally cannot (if you've never had a parent in the hospital with a life-threatening illness, maybe you don't know that there are times/places to break down and "in the hospital" where you're supposed to be strong isn't one of them)

He doesn't care that his girlfriend's mother is sick, possibly with something life-threatening; he cares that he got to be the hero of the piece, the shoulder for Buffy to cry on. His only reaction to any of that was to be hurt that Buffy didn't respond the way he thought she should; no concern for her well-being or Joyce's, just Riley getting his feelings hurt because he wasn't the center of Buffy's universe or the rock for her to lean on when all went to pieces

This is further confirmed by the way he just doesn't mention Joyce's absence at all in As You Were. When he leaves Sunnydale, it's after Joyce has had a successful operation. He returns and she's not there and no questions? No condolences? It's because he doesn't care.

He doesn't ask about Buffy's death when she lets him know she died.

He starts separating himself from the Scoobies and then gets mad for not being included

He literally cheats on Buffy with vampire sex workers (there are people who say they were not sex workers, but in a show where monsters are metaphors, you have to be especially dense or willfully obtuse to not realize this is what they are)

Riley intentionally puts himself in a position where he might be killed or turned specifically to SPITE BUFFY, which demonstrates his lack of consideration for what she might have to do later if things go bad

Riley blames Buffy for being roofied by Dracula (again, monsters as metaphor)

He never apologizes or owns that he was unfaithful

He blames his infidelity on Buffy, actually

The first time Buffy learns Riley isn't happy, she's told she should've seen it, which is classic victim blaming and happens from Xander AND Riley (and a good amount of fans who want to excuse that behavior)

He is fine with torturing sentient creatures, and in fact had a stake made specifically so he could torture vampires without killing them

He goes behind Buffy's back all the time

Riley was not boring. If he were boring, he would be inoffensive. Dull to watch but not rage-inducing. But he is rage-inducing because, despite all the passive-aggressive gaslighting bullshit he gets away with, people in this fandom still believe he was "Buffy's best boyfriend." That she was to blame for the deterioration of this relationship. That he was the healthiest of the Buffyverse men. The show does, too. That's why Xander (Wh*don's mouthpiece) gives that sanctimonious little speech to Buffy (the audience in this case) in Into the Woods to scold us for not treating Riley better. Then they double down in As You Were to make Buffy fawn all over herself to let this gaslighting asshole off the hook for everything he put her through.

Riley's sin is not being boring. It's that he was actually awful. Wh*don himself once called Riley a "healthy relationship" for Buffy, and if that doesn't tell you something, there's no talking to you.

#btvs #buffy #anti riley finn #anti buffy x riley #buffy the vampire slayer #buffy meta #btvs meta

[mythicalwatch101]

reading through the main story again and man now i have some thoughts™ about Dante & their characterization

in canto 3 when they were talking to Vergilius near the beginning, he referred to pre-clock Dante as a “bigwig”. and when they were being attacked in the prologue, lion said something about not getting a second chance to kill someone of this caliber. so. it’s obvious they used to be someone important

they were probably mean!! an asshole!!! i wouldn’t be surprised, with what Faust said in canto 4 about wondering how they would react once they had their memories back, after they told the sinners to suppress the brazen bull

also these lines, when they were talking to Lion, Wolf, and Panther in the prologue:

“You dare… interrupt me just as I was engraving the ■■■■■■… You must be out of your…”

“Kngh… Just wait ‘til I get the ■■■■■■… You’ll be no match for my…”

makes them sound kind of full of themselves. VERY confident in whatever plan is being enacted here. they’re hot shit and they know it

this city is Fucked Up and i’m sure, regardless of what kind of position Dante had before, they had to climb over a few shoulders to get there

and then post-clock Dante. complete blank slate. they don’t know shit about fuck. the “nurture” of their personality has been wiped clean, free of the city’s influence, all that’s left is the “nature”, who Dante is at their core

and they’re NICE

at the end of canto 3, everyone is dead, Dante themselves is dying, and what they decide to do in what could’ve been their last moments is to comfort Sinclair, to tell him that even if everything that happened was his fault, he shouldn’t beat himself up about it

and then in canto 4 when the sinners are talking about how convenient the healing ampules are, they mention that Dante only heals them after they’ve died. “scared of a little hurting”, as Ryoshu put it. and then when Ishmael gets hit by that decay ampule they’re, understandably, worried about her. everyone standing around talking about how fucked up it all is and they’re the only one who really gives a shit about Ishmael melting to death

Outis is like “Ah, apologies for my negligence, Executive Manager. I failed to consider the suffering you must endure when you turn the clock” and then Dante is like. that’s not what i’m talking about. and the moment Ishmael shows fear they immediately rewind the clock to heal her even though no one’s died yet

anyway. all that to say—i love you, dante. i love you, choosing to be kind. i love you, inherent kindness of human beings

#limbus company #project moon #myth posts #posting this and then running away like a startled rabbit #i don't usually do character analysis or whatever and less often do i post it somewhere public 🙈

[theactualsunshinechild]

Fontaine archon storyline still has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever and try to make Mr. "Genocide on a Whim" Childe a Christ figure by somehow trying to sacrifice him to the primordial sea for the sins of all of Fontaine

That's definitely not the plan, but it would be very funny. I love the concept of making completely un-christ-like characters into christ stand-ins.

I just keep thinking about how much opportunity they have to pull off something very biblical here with the whole "born with sin" "flood to cleanse sins" "literally building Noah's ark" "statue of the seven technically holding a cross" "passing final judgment only belongs to one entity" shit they have going on.

The entirety of Fontaine so far is so full of Christian references, whether intentional or not, that they could absolutely Christ-ify Childe if they wanted to! They're like, halfway there, they just need to sacrifice his ass and bring him back to life and they'll check off bingo.

I would be so grateful if they literally killed and revived him. can you imagine how much extra MC level Angst TM they could stuff into this man?

I love giving my most pathetic meow meows the hardest battles.

plus the added moral quandry of "is it right it to kill one guy to save our whole country even though he is not Fontanian and is blessed(???) by the primordial sea whale thing (pure of their inherent fontanian sin, kind of a son of god equivalent moment)? Is it right to do even if he isn't exactly a good person?"

And then of course the fact that the vast majority of the people affected by this decision would probably say yes, hesitantly or not. Like, if it were a guaranteed fix to the prophecy, there is no doubt in my mind that Arlecchino would be willing to nail Childe to the metaphorical cross herself AND cover it up to his family.

Neuvillette would probably consider it unjust, but could maybe potentially be swayed by the weight of just how many lives would be saved vs One Dangerous Criminal argument. (A Christ and Pontius Pilate reference? Childe WAS arrested and tried and found guilty for a crime he didn't commit by a guy who was unwilling, but forced to pronounce him guilty).

Wriothesley would be against the idea of sacrificing someone legally under his care, but if it's that vs everyone else in the fortress??? He would rather it was himself, as hell bent on fixing issues thrown his way as he is, but the man doesn't even know if he's Fontanian or not, he doesn't have the same circumstances surrounding him as Childe does to even offer to stand in his place.

Basically, if it is a guarantee, sacrificing him is simply the most practical choice that most people would make. In fact, out of all the characters we have in Fontaine, I think only the traveler might even bother truly standing up for him to the very end, because everyone else is very Personally affected, since it's their own lives on the line as well.

And that would be heartbreaking

The ANGST of Childe looking around him and seeing no one in his side in the face of impending sacrificial execution would shatter me into pieces.

Oh god, can you IMAGINE a cut scene of Childe being the first person to be sentenced to death in Fontaine in over a century and desperately looking around and meeting the traveller's eyes and we fucking grit our teeth and look away? Can you IMAGINE?!

That would break me.

Anyway, I don't think they'll do it since that's just not how Genshin writes, but it sure would be a missed opportunity.

#genshin impact #genshin 4.2 #genshin 4.1 spoilers #Childe #tartaglia #arlecchino #neuvillette #wriothesley #Childe as a Christ figure #also please be gentle i don't know my Bible Canon very well #never really studied it #everything i know about Pontius Pilate was extrapolated from Master and Margarita and a Sunday school lecture i slept through

[bonnieisaway]

Hi Bonnie, do you have any thoughts about Dai Bo?

do you guys know the sheer dopamine hit i get everytime i'm asked shit like this. like just the fact people want to hear my thoughts enough that people go out of their way to unprompted ask me about it. drugs could not simulate this emotion

i love dai bo :3 certified hardest character to explain to any person i'm introducing to the show fr

ok but fr though i feel like his appearance lets a lot of people forget about how deep his character is and how well written he is. because he's written fucking gloriously and he is shaped by his tramua perfectly. a lot of characters in this show have to confront this sort of cycle of violence and dai bo's is more familial and generational than most other character's. he only fought for his friend's son. and he fought so hard to break the cycle. like he's the most beautiful example of breaking the cycle of violence.

SPECIFICALLY with the scene with king pheasant where he's ready to straight up kill that bitch until he looks over and sees xiao fei. and he realizes that xiao fei does not need to see this. xiao fei will not be shaped the way dai bo was, and the cycle WILL stop with dai bo. and this scene is mirrored when xiao fei and seven are going to hurt king pheasant, where dai bo tells them to leave him alone. where dai bo fights to stop the cycle.

and the way his hatred for humans is shaped by seven. how seven is the perfect person for dai bo to have ever met. the best way to prove to dai bo that humanity has good, has beauty in it; this is a man who remembers NOTHING. not even his own name. if you're watching the show in chinese, he doesn't even speak the same dialect as everybody else around him. and this factory-reset, lump of clay of a person with nothing but his own instincts is so kind and trusting. that's how dai bo learns humans can be good so quickly. not just because seven was so kind and forgiving, but because dai bo realizes seven was inherently BUILT that way. that it was his NATURE itself.

and i love the way he clings to this, too; not even just this version of seven but seven himself. because it's subtle at first, because dai bo is not the kind of person who confronts emotions, but it's noticeable. i have an old post where i pointed it out before he confirmed it in season four; when seven is so amazed and stricken by the view of xuanwu, dai bo instantly dismisses and diminishes it, dai bo is constantly upset when seven leaves without him, dai bo is desperately clinging to the seven he knows and is terrified of seven being forced to return to that cycle of violence that he escaped from.

because like, of course he is! dai bo fought for his friend's son to escape that cycle. so to see this man, who he absolutely sees as his own son, have to return to the cycle of violence, let alone for dai bo's sake, of course it destroys him. of course he wants to cling to him and try and dissuade him; who cares about everybody else, as long as you're home and safe. xuanwu not only symbolizes a home far disconnected from dai bo to seven but in dai bo's eyes it's another massive perpetuator of a violent war. i mean he makes that clear when he explains xuanwu and stan - they are the ones fighting the war, we are the normal, smaller, common folk caught in the middle; shelter yourselves and enjoy your small life here.

but violence is neverending, isn't it? even when dai bo destroyed the chicken farm and the fighting ring, what happened? king pheasant found another perpetuator for his vice in stan. another hamster wheel of violence to spin, a super solider of propoganda and murder. something so much bigger than both of them. but dai bo has to accept that seven is an integral part of this 'bigger than them' bit when it comes to xuanwu. that he has to let go of this idea of an obedient, normal, casual seven. just like accepting your son isn't your little boy anymore, that's a grown man. and aside from the metaphor itself seven is actually at the perfect age for this. seven meets dai bo when he's about 19 and fairly skinny and small, and it's mentioned/implied he's grown a bit since meeting dai bo and we know he's 21 in season four.

anyways i love dai bo. i feel like he's underrated and we need to talk about him more. although sometimes i wanna ask the director like, why specifically dai bo and xiao fei were chickens. was there a meaning or a reason or do you think it was just cause they thought it was funny and also what does this implicate about chickens and pidgeons as a whole in this universe

#that last paragraph is mostly a joke if you think about it too hrad you inevitably get a brain aneryusm #sorry i took so long to respond i actually gave myself aminute to formulate real thoughts after seeing it this time #this is so new to me omg ... people wanting to hear my analysis and mentally illeness #yippee yippe yipepeee #anyway ily nonnie #scissor seven #killer seven #wu liuqi #seven

[sualne]

Listen as someone who has been obsessed with vampires like my entire life (but not in a ooh there sexy way its like the symbolism man of what vampires can mean) i am a huge fan of your op vanpire au.

I know you just made a post with lore (amazing art btw) but is there anything else about the au you want to talk about. Id love to hear everything

there's a lot of things i want to talk about the au!! im going to use the frantic energy from the year to get myself some bravery and say some of it is inspired by my own experiences with hallucinations and delusion (dont ask about it pls), with the au i want to explore what it would be like having the person who changed you being very literally stuck with you.

i love stories where characters end up sharing a mind and/or body, i also really dont like when its just good person vs bad person, nuance is a lot more fun lol. the relationship luffy and mingo will be forced into stuck as they are is something important to me. mingo is an awful monster but since he can feel everything luffy does he ends up trying to teach him how to live as a vampire, how to take care of himself. im also very found of the concept of parasite (they're literally the worst thing ever and so fucking scary, so naturally they keep coming up in my stories).

it's also about luffy's body and mind failing him, because of the mindlink he has a hard time knowing where he is, sometimes who he is, what is relationships were supposed to be with others, it gets complicated for him! how hard it is to go through one's daily life when your sense are all messed up! (mingo also struggles with that a bit, but this isn't about him, even thought it's new for him too he get used to it much more easily for plot convenience).

other's ppl reaction to the situation also, i feel, completely unconsciously was also incidentally inspired by my own fear of being seen as a monster or dangerous, something to be put down or locked away!

there's also a few jokes in that lore post that reflects this here:

bugs are a pretty common brand of hallucination, be they crawling in the corner of your sight or inside you, making you feel like a walking hives, this was a funny reference to that!

"surprisingly he doesn't start biting people or become violent." this is my not very subtle "mentally ill and neurodivergent folks aren't inherently dangerous pls stop killing us". the occasional euphoria from bloodthist is vaguely inspired by some manic episode, the happy kind.

there's more, about the way this is about trauma and feeling alienated, i guess this is also a "character realize they've got a disorder/develop one and now has to live with it" kind of story.

#op vamp au #vampasks #described in alt text #lol took so long to write all that the new year started. happy new year everyone!!! #i hope the read more works this time........ #ive written a lot and im all out of words for now. hoepfully its coherent!! im glad you like my work thank you sm all of you for #your kindness!!! #edit: the read more went two paragraphs down whats wrong with this website edit2: got lower again

[feladi-fority]

haven't posted in a while, but I completed Undertale Yellow a while ago and none of my friends have and I need to scream into the void about it SOMEWHERE! Spoilers abound

So, Flowey. He's really well written in this. In Undertale proper we don't get to see much of him and what we do see is really 1 note. He scares you, tries to manipulate people, and tries to hurt people for his own amusement. In Undertale Yellow though we get to see how immature and impatient he is. Whenever Clover does something Flowey doesn't approve of he lashes out even when doing so directly impedes his ability to manipulate Clover, such as killing Marlet at the end of the neutral route. Flowey is a terrible manipulator, putting in absolutely zero effort to understand Clover, instead blaming them for his own plan not working. He talks about how much he hates Clover and relishes in their death but Flowey has done nothing to understand Clover, instead just viewing them as a problem to brute-force a solution to. All of this is, of course, consistent with who Flowey was in Undertale but it's so much more textured with how much screen-time Flowey gets.

Additionally, I find the implications of what I can only describe as Flowey's Blackspace. During the meta-Flowey fight his attacks are monstrous versions of himself, many of which are killed as part of his attacks. He pulls out his own pedals, cries to attack, and kills images of himself. Then there's the section where you walk through piles of Flowey corpses which call for help. The dialogue the later corpses give is ambiguous, but lines like "this must be it" in the context of the rest takes on a dark implication. Flowey seems to hate himself and view himself as a monster who deserves to be cut-down (he has that in common with his dad lol). Maybe then Flowey's plan to destroy the world via collecting the souls is ultimately self destructive, a way to go down with the world, and rid himself of the possibility of coming back, a true completion through obliteration.

Now I need to talk about Marlet. She's fucking great. She has this deep sense of maturity to her character which was really cool to see. It isn't all that clear in the pacifist route as there we mainly see her inability to get things done and her self-hate, but on the more violent routes we see her constantly trying to empathize and resolve conflict with Clover by understanding them. I think it's incredibly note-worthy that Marlet is the only character who recognizes Clover as a child who shouldn't be capable of committing such violence, and the implications of that fact. Marlet doesn't let her emotions stop her from understanding people and doing the right thing, and I really like how that was executed.

I loved the themes of this game. I expected the game to tackle similar themes to Undertale, either just recreate theme entirely or at least tackle something similar to Undertale's very meta exploration about what it means to care about things. Instead this game goes for an old classic, the cycle of violence, and I think it executes it very well!

Throughout the game characters interact with this theme in different ways. Clover (on the vengeance route specifically), and Ceroba parallel each-other in this way. Ceroba objectifies humans due to her position as a monster separated from humanity and growing up with an adversarial relationship to them. Chujin finds it extremely easy to hate humanity for a slight against him and enacts violence on humanity due to perceiving them as inherently evil due to historical mistreatment by humans and personal experience. This violence horrifies him in the end, but still in his attempt to get vengeance he perpetuates the cycle, projecting his hate towards humanity onto Ceroba who goes onto hurt more people because of it. Clover on the vengeance route is in a similar position, objectifying monsters due to being a human separate from them and learning of slights against humanity by them. Clover finds out monsters killed 5 humans (either all children, or some of them children) and is able to easily objectify them for it due to their position. Clover enacts disproportionate violence in reaction to the violence monsters committed against humanity in reaction to the violence humanity enacted against monsters by sealing them underground. Asgore remarks at the end of the vengeance route that Clover's actions will result in many more deaths on both side's parts, and he's right, Clover provided more reason for another Chujin to come about and enact more violence on humanity which in turn would provoke a response. Violence creates violence creates violence.

Flowey, under this framing, becomes an embodiment of the cycle. The game cleverly uses the power of resetting as the mechanical manifestation of this cycle. Flowey continues to reset events over and over and over letting Clover get killed over and over and over, just as the cycle of violence repeats, so to does the game itself. The game resets, new runs provide new content, certain events are enshrined in this game's concept of fate. The fate here is just that things cannot change with more violent inputs, Flowey can never get what he wants because he's incapable of doing what Marlet could do. Flowey can't change fate because he's what's locking it in place, he's the logic of violence that forces the world to over and over again punish characters and kill them, but Marlet through her empathy and compassion at least tries to break the cycle, she tries to get Clover to stop hurting people and break this repeated cycle of violence, and she does the same for Ceroba and Chujin to less success. How fitting then that Flowey kills Marlet in the neutral route.

Pacifist Clover is the parallel to Marlet. They face the cycle of violence and chose to understand and help others despite it. The vision for breaking the cycle that Undertale Yellow provides is empathy and compassion, choosing to not give into anger at horrible things done to you as to not perpetuate that being done to more people in the future. It's a really well-executed theme, I love this game.

#undertale #undertale yellow #ut yellow

[gabessquishytum]

i know that dream is the obvious choice for the elegant and ancient vampire lord™️, but i think hob deserves a bit of sexy evildoing too. especially in floor length robes. and with claws for nails. and goblets full of blood. you get the gist

but a dream who gets captured by a group of handsy and rogueish vampires. they wrestle him back to their lords castle where they all reside and after preparing him for dinner (dressing him in concubines wear), they wrangle him into the dining room and try to have a feast. key word though is try, because he rips out his silver earrings and shoves them in the eye sockets of one of the vampires trying to get to him. and the others are so shocked that he actually did something to fight back (most of the others try and fail and they all laugh at them, but dream actually hurt one of them) that he flees further into the castle. no one is too worried about catching him because they know he can’t escape, but dream finds himself getting deeper and deeper into the maze of the castle walls

and eventually he bursts into a large room clearly intended for someone receiving an audience, except the only other person there is hob— the sire of the… unprofessional and mediocre band of vampire bandits (that really only succeed because vampires are inherently more dangerous than humans) and the lord of the castle. he of course knows what’s happened, he could hear from the other side that dreams made quite the effort of blinding one of his own, but hob is more impressed than anything else. he lets dream keep his life because of that

dreams life isn’t really living, though. he’s kept in chambers so poor they may as well be a luxury dungeon (not the fun kind), and only gets brought out eventually so that he can service their lord. except he’s bitey and defensive and eventually, they decide that the only way dream will be able to serve as a proper whore is if he’s sedated— which hob immediately shuts down because he doesn’t want to fuck someone who can’t even tell him how good his cock is. later, again, they instead try giving dream an aphrodisiac, which sort of works; they fuck, but only under the terms that hob sits in a chair with his hands tied and he doesn’t get to touch dream while he gets off bounding in his lap until the effects wear off. the third time though, hob finally gets what he wants, and gets to be in charge

Omg Hob as a cringefail vampire Lord is actually such a vibe?? He's living in this castle with a bunch of immortal bloodthirsty frat dudes and it SUCKS (haha). Dream is the most interesting thing that's happened in a loooong time.

And tbh within a little while, Dream is bored too!! His chamber/dungeon is boring, the vampire frat bros are boring, the only thing that isn't boring is Hob and his very large cock. Ultimately, Dream figures that Hob probably isnt going to kill and eat him (because he's interesting and fuckable). So he stops being scared and starts being mostly horny about the vampire lord and his dick. Its all very well bouncing on it, but Dream is kind of interested in seeing that vampire super strength in action.

He makes Hob promise to take a small dose of the sedative, which won't work as much as it would as a human but will keep him reasonably docile. He also makes Hob promise to send the annoying laser vampires away. Hob agrees. He definitely doesn't want to eat Dream. If anything, he wants to turn him. But that's something to discuss later. He really, really wants to fuck Dream properly and bruise up all that amazing pale skin.

They do it on the red carpeted floor of the audience chamber - Hob says that there's no point in using a bed, since he'll only break it. Dream soon discovers that Hob wasn't just bragging. His strength is almost scary, despite the sedative. When he bends Dream in half, he's a tiny bit afraid that his spine might snap. But he's just on the right side of pain and roughness, and he opens Dream up extremely thoroughly. In fact he plunges his whole hand into his little clenching hole until Dream is screaming, coming explosively and almost blacking out. When he finally plunges his cock inside Dream’s trembling body, Dream cums dry just from feeling so full.

Hob doesn't bite him. But he does cum inside him, pumping him with what feels like buckets of fluid. Dream can almost feel it up to his lungs. When he stares up at Hob, who is crouching over him and drooling... he just knows. He's not going to leave. Not today, maybe not ever.

If he gets enough of that cum inside him, he's going to be turned whether he likes it or not...

#the sandman #dreamling #nsft #cw blood

[tatterings]

So, the story of most of Rylmyr’s pre-bg3 events in a nutshell under the cut:

PS - TUMBLR THIS IS NOT SEXUAL ART. RYLMYR IS BEING ATTACKED WHILE BASICALLY SELLING HIS SOUL FOR ROCK & ROLL. PLZ DONT NUKE ME.

Rylmyr Torrett was born into a powerful noble Drow house Torett, a bloodline rich with magic. A sorcerer or six were born every generation; anyone who wasn't born with inherent magic easily picked up the skills as a wizard - even the males.

His birth was foretold by the family's priest, who prophesied the house matron's next child will be born as a new beginning, ans will be bestowed with immense magical powers according to the prophecy.

Rylmyr was assigned female at birth, the third daughter to the house matron. (thankfully, not as the third son, else he'd have been killed at birth).

But for Rylmyr, being AFAB was never comfortable; he handled the dysphoria as best as he could. However, in drow society, females were the only people with value. So he laid as low as possible while in Menzoberannzan, playing along as a tomboy-ish young drow

Unfortunately it's difficult to lay low when a prophecy proclaimed you were going to be the most powerful magic-wielder of the generation and yet… that magic never developed. Ryl was no sorcerer, and struggled with learning magic underneath a harsh wizard tutor. Despite decades of study, he could not cast magic beyond sputters of faint green sparks from his fingertips.

Ryl learned musical skills and dance, so that at least he could provide entertainment to the guests of his noble house, and be of some use at least to his family. But as the rivalries between house and others grew more intense, Ryl feared for his life, as his family became less tolerant of his failures in magical study. Being shunned in Menzo society was nearly worse than straight execution. Someone left to fend for themselves would not survive for long.

Despite finding some form of respite in the arts and bardic ways, he was still deeply unhappy and resolved that before his 80th birthday, he would escape the oppressive Underdark. After begging every god in existence, except Lolth for obvious reasons, a cambion ended up feeling curious about young Rylmyr. This particular devil was a sort of patron of chaos, who monitored the Underdark and Menzo society because the bloodthirst and constant turmoil of warring houses was like reality TV to him.

This additional little drow, who has fucked up the fate of his house so bad just by being born presented a new "channel" to watch, so to speak. The cambion met with Ryl because there's only so many centuries of the same old backstabbing to be done in Drow society and he was intensely bored.

The cambion makes a deal with Ryl: he will be Ryl's warlock patron, and give him the magical powers that he were “supposed to have” (the prophecy isn't wrong after all, and Ryl's magic is stupidly powerful when he's able to control it). The devil also agrees to make his body and mind more in harmony but leaves the marks of his claws on Ryl's chest; the devil did not put in the contract's clause that he couldn't be barbaric about it.

For Ryl's part of the bargain, he agrees to having this Cambion keep an eye on him literally by just… being himself. An outcast drow, given magical powers and no training on how to use them, thrown into the surface world? Delicious entertainment again. (Sidenote: The cambion is also petty as fuck, and says something like 'also there's this bitch Mizora who i wanna piss off so i'm stealing her idea and taking your eye and using a sending stone because you're my personal entertainment'.)

Ryl loses an eye and its replaced with an onyx black sending stone so he can be this cambion's Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Ryl for the most part is like 'there is literally no part of this deal that is bad for me' (spoiler it isn't ALL gucci because he has to do some fucked up shit after getting settled above ground) but it at least lets him escape in one piece.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 art #bg3 fanart #bg3 ocs #bg3 oc art #bg3 oc #bg3 tav fanart #bg3 tav

[antianakin]

Forgive the silly premise but I saw a meme video that inspired this question, feel free to ignore. The meme was Anakin and Palpatine in that "Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Plageius the Wise?" scene but Anakin answers; "Oh yeah that's the story of the the Sith Lord whose apprentice cowardly killed him in his sleep. It was a real eye-opener for me, it taught me that you should never, under no circumstance whatsoever, trust a Sith."

With that ridiculous background out of the way my question is what do you think Anakin would do if he came to the conclusion that he absolutely couldn't trust Palpatine to save Padme or help him learn something that could? What do you think he'd do in that kind of situation?

I mean, my first instinct is to say it doesn't matter. Anakin is already someone who believes he cannot, under any circumstances, trust a Sith. He fully belives the Sith are "evil" and his initial response to finding out Palpatine is a Sith IS not to trust him, to turn him in to the Jedi and let justice have its way with him. But the more he thinks about it, the more Palpatine's words slither into his soul and cause him to realize that what Palpatine is offering him is worth more than the possible consequences of leaving Palpatine alive. He'd rather have Padme and doom the Jedi and the Republic than the other way around. He also is explicitly planning to kill Palpatine himself, he says as much to Padme, he's just waiting until he can guarantee Padme will survive past childbirth or whatever. So even when he chooses to save Palpatine, he ultimately doesn't REALLY trust him that much because he KNOWS Palpatine is inherently untrustworthy. The possibility of saving Padme is worth working with someone he doesn't trust. He doesn't see any other options.

But just for the sake of argument, let's say something caused Anakin to decide Palpatine couldn't help him save Padme AT ALL, that Palpatine is lying to him or something and doesn't truly know shit all of some kind of secret power to keep people from dying. There's really no reason to believe he does, so Anakin has no reason to bother keeping him alive.

My assumption in that kind of scenario is that he'd just stick with the Jedi for the time being, he'd let them kill Palpatine or kill Palpatine himself, but then he'd probably fuck off on his own to go look for some kind of cure. I don't think Palpatine's death would keep him from obsessing over saving Padme, it would just force him to run off and look for alternatives. So he'd run, he'd abandon everyone and everything in search of some kind of miracle power or cure to keep people from dying and in the process he'd still probably lose himself to the darkness and to the desire for power for power's sake alone and he'd either remember to come back too late (after Padme had already given birth) or he'd just never come back at all because the thing that motivated him originally has lost all meaning in the quest for more and more power.

Padme would have the twins, Anakin would be gone, and what happens there is probably up to you and what you think Padme would actually choose to do with two powerful Force-sensitive twins. Maybe she refuses to give them up to the Jedi and raises them on Naboo as best she can. Maybe she DOES give them up to the Jedi because Anakin left her and the twins are now a constant reminder of that loss and the pain she associates with him and she can't stand to look at them most of the time. Maybe Padme dies in childbirth anyway and the Jedi take the children with them afterwards because she gives them away in her last breaths or something. Take your pick, I guess.

#star wars #padme amidala #luke skywalker #leia organa #anti anakin #anti anakin skywalker #anakin critical #anakin skywalker critical

[pagannatural]

1.22

Devil’s Trap

-Dean walks away from Meg and Sam is like “are you okay?” It’s just so cute how Sam shows his care for Dean by paying close attention to him like this

-Dean says he always wanted to be a fireman when he grew up and Sam goes “you never told me that!” in this cute little brother way like he can’t believe Dean would keep something like that from him.

I feel like we as a society (by which I mean the wincest posts that show up on my dash) moved on too quickly from fireman Dean. Dean would be a fantastic fucking fireman. He could put “rescued my perfect sweet-eyed baby brother from three burning buildings” on his resume. He really sees no value in anything that he can’t relate back to Sam, does he?

-The first time Dean knowingly kills someone it’s to save Sam. A love that corrupts etc

Images that feel both illegal and religious

The way Sam melts into Dean completely, mouth open, eyes shut.

Sam says softly “you saved my life back there” which is inherently romantic. Dean tells Sam “For you or dad the things I’m willing to do or kill…it scares me sometimes.” His love for Sam scares him sometimes. Dean also saved Sam in spite of his dad’s disapproval of him using the Colt.

-Dean to possessed John: “He wouldn’t be proud of me… you’re not my dad.” Yikes, condolences. Poor Dean

-Sam walks into the room to find Dean aiming the colt at John and goes “Dean!” right as Dean tells him to stay back. I have a feeling if it had been John aiming a gun at Dean, Sam still would’ve gone “Dean!” and Dean would’ve told him to stay back, and if it were either of them aiming a gun at Sam, Sam still would’ve gone “Dean!” and Dean would’ve told him to stay back. If something’s not right Sam’s gonna yell “Dean!” and Dean’s gonna tell Sam to stay back.

Dean tells Sam John is possessed.

Sam asks how do you know, because Sam likes to be informed, and Dean just says “he’s different.”

That’s enough for Sam. He GETS BEHIND DEAN. This is the underrated samdean moment of all time for me. He doesn’t even hesitate. He tested John with holy water himself, but he knows that Dean knows John well, and he trusts Dean. He said last episode that Dean is the one person he can always count on. And he doesn’t just go to his side, he stands close behind him so that Dean can protect him.

-The demon taunts Dean by saying his family doesn’t need him

and the camera cuts to Sam who’s like. He doesn’t think I need him? 🥺

-Sam shoots their possessed dad in the thigh and immediately runs to kneel by Dean and worry over him. Dean asks Sam to go check on John, and Sam makes a face like What the fuck? I’m busy checking on you

Sam complies and stands over John to check on him. It’s just so different from his concern for Dean. Like, that’s his dad that he just maimed, lying on the floor not moving, and 110% of Sam’s concern is directed at Dean. It’s not a competition, but if it were, Dean would win.

-John tells Sam “shoot me” but Dean tells him not to, so of course he listens to Dean.

John is disappointed in Sam because “killing this demon comes first. Before me, before everything.” Sam looks at Dean in the rearview mirror and says “no sir, not before everything.” John is the one that Sam chose not to kill when he had the chance to kill the demon, and yet it’s Dean he’s thinking about when John says this. Nothing comes before Dean. A big part of Sam’s choice not to shoot when his dad was possessed was not being able to hurt Dean like that, knowing that Dean would rather have John alive than the demon dead. I honestly think he would’ve pulled the trigger if Dean told him to.

It’s a beautiful resolution to their fight last episode when Dean told Sam that he is more important to him than killing the demon. They’re explicitly each other’s top priorities by this last scene.

#wincest #samdean #supernatural #spn meta #spn 1x22 #season 1 overall analysis is next before season 2 episodes #because I can’t shut up! #there’s just so much per episode I need summarize this shit #get my thoughts together

[an-au-blog]

Got confused about the timeline you set up with Luffy meeting Buggy in the kidnapped au, accidentally made up an au of an au:

Buggy somehow escaping his capturers before Shanks ever even gets to him (added horror just imagine Shanks hearing about his friend being kidnapped, only to find the place he’s been taken to already in shambles and the only clue as to Buggy ever being there being a heavily damaged cage with seasstone cuffs in an equally damaged room…) , he still suffers from memory loss and a bunch of trauma and goes into hiding for a long time, until Luffy stumbles upon him at the start of his journey completly by accident. Buggy sees the hat, has the First disjointed flashes of his past that aren’t a total nightmare for once and for some reason… he needs to protect this dumbass kid. He NEEDS to protect this dumbass kid. He justifies it as only trying to get his memories back and to get a clue as to why everyone seems to be after him at first, in typical Buggy manner, thinking of himself first and foremost, but it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that he not only sees… something in Luffy he can’t quite explain, but that he also truly comes to care for that little brat after a while and that he does enjoy being part of a crew a lot and somehow seems to just be inherently good at sailing the seas and being a pirate for some reason. Huh. Whatever could that be?

Of course this would culminate with Shanks one day being confronted with the kid he put all his faith into living up to that faith absolutely splendidly… and then one day being face to face with his old friend, that he had lost twice and thought dead, again. Buggy just comes face to face with someone hes never seen but somehow still remembers.

On a fucking lighter note for once, imagine Shanks desperately trying to jog Buggys memory and Buggy being horrified at this stranger being all up in his face until there is a tiny spark in his mind “… You…I remember..” Shanks face lighting up with obvious delight “YES!? Come on I know there’s something in there!” Buggys shaking hands reaching up towards Shanks face while his eyes fill with realization and Shanks dares not to breathe. “You…”

Buggys hands suddenly grab Shanks neck without warning, squeezing hard and shaking him violently “YOURE THAT DANG IDIOT THAT MADE ME EAT THAT FRUIT! I’LL KILL YOU YOU SONNOFFA-“ Strawhats struggling to hold their demented clown uncle back from mauling Shanks, while Buggy just goes absolutely ham and cusses at “THAT GODDAMN REDHAIRED BASTARD!”. The latter just has a sobbing laughing fit. May not be the most flattering memory to come back first, but hey, it’s a start.

Omg I am going to die for u, I love you so much this isn't even a joke. Having an au of anything (even if it's because I didn't explain my thought process) I've written fills me with just so much joy :')

My original though process was more of a "they land the ship somewhere (or something) Buggy wanders off, or is left to rest but decides to look for them and gets lost, and accidentally stumbles into Luffy.

But I love your version! And the more I think about it, if he met Luffy in the early early beginning and was there for the Mihawk-Zoro fight, Mohawk going back to tell Shanks about the straw hats and mentioning a clown with them would make great plot development. Because Buggy following Luffy around I feel like he'd be almost an official member after an arc's worth time. Not to mention Luffy's tendency to take in traumatized souls and give them a reason to keep living (and God knows Buggy desperately needs one). And Shanks just following breadcrumbs to find Luffy like "Have you seen this boy?" and holding up his poster, most people would be too terrified that one of the emperors to answer. Plus why would he is look for a rookie pirate??? And he's always a step behind, but always hears the crazy stunts Luffy pulls and how many near-death experiences he's had and it just adds to the stress. Pride... but also stress.

Or even if he joins a bit later I think it'd be funny if he had a Usopp photobomb moment, just being there in the background in one of the others' posters, you know?

Also this may be a hot take but I think this version of Buggy would get along with Robin. Because they're both packing some serious childhood trauma and have lived most of their life either being hunted or being tortured. They both have (or used to have) suicidal tendencies... idk I think it'd be a cute friendship.

OH! Bonus: I already love Usopp endlessly and how he just bullshits his way out of almost anything and I could love it if there was two silly cremates that keep accidentally winning. They'd also have a nice bond imo because they're also both depressed and Usopp would have someone else to tell his tall tales to. Buggy would probably believe them all because he's literally been living underground his entire adult life.

#shuggy #kidnapped au #shuggy au #shanks x buggy #op #answers