#there’s so many different scenarios for this that I can make

[rainba]

Hii I love love love ur yan ocs I wanna just kiss them and pat them on the head!!!! My little skrunklies!!! I have a few questions about them

What turns them on? Like if I do this we are doing it immediately even if we’re in a plane or sum 😭😭

How jealous are they on like a scale of 1-10?

How whore knee are they? How often do they masturbate or have fantasies?

What music do they like?

You don’t need to respond to this btw 😭😭 I just love ur ocs and your work! Tysm!

The scrunklies!!! :3c and also, TYSM!! Sorry I responded to this pretty late!

For kairos:

Honestly? His darling saying anything naughty will turn him on instantly– oh, and receiving kisses on his neck! Or honestly… If you lower your hand and start massaging his thighs, that’ll make him grow weak too. If you start doing any of these things, he’ll feel all hot and will beg you to keep going. (っ˘ω˘ς )

How jealous is he? Hmmm…. Probably somewhere around an 8. He gets jealous pretty easily… When jealous, he’ll usually start being extra clingy and emotional. ^^;;;;;;

How horny are they? Before Kairos could get with his darling, he… Definitely had a (lowkey) masturbation addiction. Like, he would touch himself about twice a day, all while thinking about his darling. And he fantasizes… A lot. Almost constantly. It’s hard for him to sleep at night because all of his thoughts are racing and all he can think about is you in so many different lewd scenarios. But when he finally starts dating his beloved, he’ll definitely stop masturbating so often… And the fantasies won’t be as rampant. (*￣▽￣)b

What music does he like? He definitely likes some darker stuff. He’d listen to stuff like gothic/doom metal, alternative metal, symphonic metal, etc. When asked what his favorite band is, he’d probably respond with Deftones or Type O Negative. ( ´ ꒳ ` )

For Luka:

When in public, Luka can keep himself composed for the most part… But as said before, saying really naughty things to him will turn him on. (=`ω´=) However, there is another secret thing that Luka never admits will get him extremely worked up. By worked up, I mean, ‘we need to fuck. Now. I don’t care that we’re not only on a plane, but the plane is also actively crashing as we speak.’ …And that’s if you lean in close to him while kissing his ears and stroking his tail.

Run your fingers through the soft pink fur as you massage around the base of his tail... Oh, and throw in some flirting too. He’ll be gripping your wrists and dragging you somewhere private. ^^;;;;;;;;

How jealous is Luka? Somewhere around a 6.5. He doesn’t get jealous nearly as often as Kairos does, but when he does get jealous, it’s pretty intense. (↼_↼)

How horny is Luka, and how often does he masturbate/fantasize? Luka doesn’t masturbate very often– he never really has. Probably would masturbate about the same amount as any other guy. >_< Although, the fantasies he has are another story.. Before Luka gets with his darling, he’ll end up fantasizing about them quite a bit. The fantasies mostly pop up when he has nothing to do, or right before he goes to bed. They never fail to get him all hot and bothered, but he's still able to function. ( ´ ꒳ ` )

However, he does get plagued by wet dreams a few times a week. ^^;;;; Wakes up with cum staining his thighs, blankets all over the floor and sweat running his face... Which always makes him embarrassed. ( ´ ▽ ` ;;)

When he does get with his darling, though, expect him to be fucking you once or twice a day. And when he’s in heat, expect it to be more like three or four times a day, if not more. (-_-;)・・・ It’s a bit… Overwhelming at times, to put it lightly. If you can’t handle him fucking you that much, he’ll at least ask that you give him a hand job or let him use your thighs or something. ^^;;; (And luckily for him, the wet dreams stop!)

What music does Luka like? He LOVES a lot of heavier music. While his ears might be very sensitive to how loud the music is, he gets over it pretty fast. Loves black metal, doom metal, industrial metal, etc. Luka is involved in his local alt. music scene and goes to see bands live every now and then. Luka even has a battle jacket.

(=^ ◡ ^=)

#ask #kairos posting #luka posting

[drunkenskunk]

Welcome to another Drunk Skunk™ rant!

So.

I've had some time to sit and stew on the Fallout show, and I think I've finally figured out exactly what I want to say. Because kids? I got Opinions™ about this fucking series. I sincerely wish I didn't have all these Opinions™, because that would almost certainly cause me significantly less stress.

But here we are.

The Fallout show annoys me, but not for the reasons you think.

Let's get the good out of the way first. And by "good" I mean "damning with faint praise."

The Fallout show, as a piece of entertainment and experienced in a vacuum with no prior knowledge or context of the rest of the series or any of the other video games, is... fine. It's an entertaining television show. It's not great, but it's not terrible. It's okay.

The best part of the show is, unquestionably, Walton Goggins. Which is probably the coldest take here, everyone agrees that he's fantastic in this. And it's true! Granted, he doesn't look nearly as gnarly as he should, as the makeup is really giving Ryan Reynolds Deadpool Hugo Weaving Red Skull vibes, but I can honestly give that a pass. He steals every single scene he's in. He has all the best lines. Plus, all the pre-war flashbacks with him are excellent. That first scene when the bombs drop is fucking harrowing.

SPEAKING OF THE BOMBS!

The big reveal that Vault Tec were the ones to kickstart the apocalypse. My initial gut reaction to that was... Not Great. I didn't like it. In fact, I kinda hated it. I thought it was an answer to a question that nobody asked, because nobody cared, because it was never supposed to matter who shot first. The original point was that the end of the world was the inevitable outcome after so many years of war, so many years of stockpiling nuclear weapons, and so many bad decisions from everyone in positions of power on all sides of the conflict.

But the more I think about Vault Tec being the ones to destroy the world... I dunno, the more I... kinda like it? In a fashion. Sort of. As you can see by the remaining length of this fucking rant, I have Complicated Feelings about this!

See, Fallout has never exactly been subtle with its themes, but the show drops all pretense, and openly embraces a staunchly (and honestly, extremely surprising) anti-capitalist narrative.

The Fallout show pulls a Garth Marenghi unironically, and it honestly... kinda works?

Vault Tec were the ones to drop the bombs because they wanted to recreate the world in their image of a capitalist "paradise" free of any and all government regulation. The inevitable end result of the "great game" of capitalism is the literal end of the world, and the capitalists will do everything they can to destroy any attempts to rebuild any civilization not explicitly under their direct control. Because that's what capitalists do: they pursue an ultimately self-destructive goal that is not, and never was, sustainable, and will destroy everything else in their pursuit of endless, infinite, exponential growth, forever. Nothing else matters except Make Number Line Go Up.

Side note: it is extremely funny to me that Bethesda - a hollow shell of greed and excess who have been releasing the same game with different wallpapers over and over again since Oblivion - and Amazon - which is fucking Amazon - bankrolled a show where the villains are greedy capitalists who explicitly destroyed the world because of fiduciary duty to the shareholders. Like... guys, you do realize you two are Vault Tec in this scenario, right?

Ah well. That's capitalist realism for ya.

Anyway, the more I think about it, the more sense it makes that Vault Tec were the ones to drop the bombs.

HOWEVER.

Maybe this is just me being a cynical, drunken asshole here, but... it feels like this was a decision that was made, not because it was the best way to take the narrative, but instead as a means of enforcing the Status Quo of Bethesda Fallout.

See, the thing I liked about the west coast Fallout games was that it showed a world ravaged by the apocalypse, but it also showed that world beginning to heal. 200 years after The End, and civilization was returning. It was a natural evolution of things, emphasizing the post part of "post-apocalypse." It showed us a world that really sucked a lot of the time... but also gave us a small sliver of hope that, no matter what nightmares existed after The End, things could - and would - get better, so long as we put in the work to make it better. It was a world that showed us that nothing was ever so broken that it couldn't be repaired. We just had to fucking EARN that happy ending.

Bethesda Fallout, on the other hand, is just Wacky Wasteland Adventure Time. They are not interested in showing a world evolving or changing or growing, they just want a blasted hellscape that looks like it was freshly nuked yesterday. Why? Because that's the surface-level Aesthetic of Fallout. That is what is recognizable. And Aesthetic is all they know how to do. That's the mother fucking Brand.

Doing something different would risk changing the Brand, and if that kind of change happens, then it's no longer easily marketable. So they just keep with what's familiar: freshly irradiated hellscapes, caps as currency, makeshift weapons, psychotic raiders with no purpose or goals beyond Fuck You, and more of the fucking Brotherhood of Steel. It's all the stuff we remember, so we can point at the screen and go "I recognize that!" instead of allowing the setting to evolve and creating something new.

And that's what annoys me the most. Because even though Vault Tec destroying the world in 2077 makes a certain amount of sense, it also feels like it only exists as a means of artificially enforcing the status quo of the setting. Which means that nothing will ever matter in Fallout ever again. It doesn't matter what happens, or what changes in the future, or who wins the next ideological conflict between the same factions that keep reappearing over and over again like radroaches. Because whenever something strays too far from the established setting, Vault Tec (or, more accurately, Bethesda) is just going to nuke it again, like what happened to Shady Sands.

And, y'know, Shady Sands getting nuked like that really does rankle. Not because I ever had any attachment to the NCR, but because destroying it in the way that they did just felt so fucking lazy. If they wanted to get rid of the NCR, there were easily half a dozen other things they could've done that would've made far more sense. The NCR was a fantastically corrupt government, making the same mistakes as the same governments that (up until the show) were responsible for destroying the world. California was running out of food and clean drinking water because of gross negligence and mismanagement, public unrest was high because of excessive taxation and the "stop tolls" of corrupt border guards shaking down people, and both the military and bureaucracy of the NCR was spread fucking paper-thin, due to their policies of violent imperialist expansionism trying to take far more territory than they could reasonably hold, far more quickly than they could ever manage.

And did any of that matter? No. Not at all. Pursuing any of those plot threads would've required the writers to actually come up with some new ideas. So, instead, it was destroyed because of a cryogenically frozen Vault Tec middle manager with family problems. It was such a fucking lazy solution to a problem that should never have existed in the first place. It felt like the Fallout equivalent of "Somehow, Palpatine has returned."

That's why this show annoys me so much. Because this show that exists without subtlety or subtext, is telling us, to our face:

Don't hope for a better future, because it will never come. The world of Fallout is a destroyed, irradiated hellscape, entirely devoid of hope, and it will never, ever change, ever again.

Because that's the Fallout Brand, and that's what fucking sells.

#drunk skunk rant #Fallout #fallout show #fallout tv show #fallout show spoilers #it took me three hours to write this #what the hell am I doing with my life

[ladyhatter614]

#subin and jisuk’s spots are interchangeable #there’s so many different scenarios for this that I can make #kind of want to make a part 2 #manhwa #eleceed #webtoon #eleceed webtoon #seo jiwoo #ju iseul #kayden break #casein nitrate #kartein #kang sucheon #park seongha #vator #I really hope that’s his name #wooin #goo inhyuk #han seongik #subin lee #yoo jisuk #arthur bryan #meme #alignment chart

[moongothic]

You know, I would love it if we could see Mihawk just. Get slightly fucked up by someone, have his sword stolen and watch him figure out how to fight with some random ass sword instead

I just think. It'd be neat.

Like we kinda know how The World's Greatest Swordsman fights with his itty bitty knife, we know what kind of damage he can do with his iconic Yoru

I just think it'd be fun to see him fight with a regular katana and try to get his stolen sword back or summin' IDK

#Moon posting #Cross Guild #Mihawk #OP Spoilers #OP Meta #IDK something something Cross Guild can't pay for Garp's bounty so Blackbeard's crew goes and attacks them #Kidnaps Crocodile and Buggy to steal their abilities and takes Mihawk as captive to see if he'll join BB or not #Steal his sword in the meantime to give to his crew as a toy to play with or something #I don't know there's something about this scenario that facinates me #Also if Luffy and co went to save Garp from Blackbeard I could imagine a scenario where the crew find CG in the prison #And free them. And could you imagine Mihawk asking Zoro to borrow one of his swords while he goes gets his back or summin #I JUST THINK IT'D BE NEAT #This scenario facinates me. I would love to see it #Especially since we didn't really get to see that much of Zoro and Mihawk interacting so like. It'd be cute #Also like GENERALLY SPEAKING I would just love to see Mihawk in a 1v1 duel with someone OTHER THAN ZORO #(Or Shanks) #I dunno I think Mihawk is just Neat but we barely get to see him Do Things so it'd be so fun to see him Do Things #Break Week is hitting hard. It's been So Many Months and we still have no idea where the CG subplot is going #I can only speculate and make 50 different suggestions for where the story could go from here #(I say ''break week is hitting hard'' on the Friday evening after 1101 was released unofficially) #(This week is gonna be rough y'all lmao)

[even-disco-baby]

Suggestion/request if you need any, maybe Kim and Jean talking after Kim joins Precinct 41?

PERCEPTION (Hearing) [Medium: Success] — Wait. You can hear voices just outside the window. Familiar voices. If you concentrate, you can just make out what they’re saying through the pitifully thin glass.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “…smoke Drouins, too?”

KIM KITSURAGI — “I’m giving them a try.”

ELECTROCHEMISTRY — Oh, *hell* yeah. You should go join them for a smoke.

SUGGESTION — Or… hang around by the window for a minute or two first.

YOU — What? Why?

SUGGESTION — Oh, come on, Harry. Aren’t you a *little* curious about what those two talk about when you’re not around?

INLAND EMPIRE — You don’t want to know. Don’t even think about it. Lock that thought away with her letter and anything else that might hurt you.

YOU — Isn’t it wrong to eavesdrop?

SUGGESTION — You’re not eavesdropping, you’re just getting a breath of fresh air by the window! It’s not *your* fault that your two closest friends also just so happened to be having a smoke right outside the same window. The precinct is public property, anyway. If this was a private conversation, wouldn’t they have it on *private* property?

ENCYCLOPEDIA — I think you’re confusing private ownership with privacy.

SUGGESTION — Oh, look, a new copotype. Grammar Cop.

They’re my friends, so I should respect their privacy. (Step away from the window)

They’re my friends, so they wouldn’t be talking about anything they wouldn’t talk to *me* about, right? (Eavesdrop)

INLAND EMPIRE — You’re too trusting. So are they, it seems. You’re going to be the death of each other, someday.

PERCEPTION (Hearing) [Easy: Success] — You casually lean against the wall beside the window, sipping water from the cooler and listening to the muffled voices outside.

KIM KITSURAGI — “…late nights?”

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “Everyone here works late. I’m sure you’ve noticed. But Jude and Trant have kids to look after…”

EMPATHY — He’s got nobody. That’s something you and he have always had in common.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “This late, it’s usually just me and Harry.” He pauses, perhaps to take a drag from his cigarette. “…And you?” He asks more than says it.

KIM KITSURAGI — “And me.” His voice is flat and quiet.

EMPATHY — He’s got nobody, too.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — Another long pause. You can see Jean’s hand suddenly come into view through the glass.

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] — Don’t panic! He’s just flicking the ash from his cigarette. See, it’s fine. If you’d flinched, they might have seen you.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “How’s the Drouin?”

KIM KITSURAGI — “Not bad. I might make the switch.”

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “Ha. I like them better than Astras, but most people disagree.”

KIM KITSURAGI — He gives a noncommittal sort of hum, nothing more.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “Any reason for the switch?”

KIM KITSURAGI — “Just wanted to try something new,” he says lightly.

DRAMA — A lie if I ever heard one, sire.

ESPIRIT DE CORPS — Astras remind him of Martinaise. Of loneliness. Smokers on rooftops and balconies and in traffic jams. A corpse on the boardwalk. A corpse that could have been *you.*

-1 MORALE

INLAND EMPIRE — I told you not to listen.

SUGGESTION — No, no, surely if you listen long enough, you’ll hear something *good* about yourself.

Walk away.

Keep listening.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “…Can I ask you an unprofessional question?”

KIM KITSURAGI — He hesitates, just briefly. “I suppose.”

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “Why the hell did you agree to transfer here? I mean, don’t get me wrong, we’re glad to have you.” A pause. “Well, more like we were totally fucked without you.” Another pause. “Okay, we’re still fucked, just less fucked. But you could have stayed at the harbor and *not* been fucked.”

ELECTROCHEMISTRY — If only there was as much fucking going on around here as he makes it sound.

KIM KITSURAGI — “Hm… I suppose I could have.” He pauses for a smoke. “But I think that the 41st will be… more important in the grand scheme of things than the G.R.I.H.”

ESPIRIT DE CORPS — “UN JOUR SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI.” Whatever is coming, he feels it’s going to come here first.

KIM KITSURAGI — “And like I said, I’ve been wanting to try something new.” You can almost hear the smile in those words.

DRAMA — But they are still not entirely truthful. Oh, he *does* long for something new. That part was the truth, sire. But he won’t find it here. Deep down, he knows it. And there you find the lie he tells himself over and over again, every day he reports for duty.

CONCEPTUALIZATION — “Nulla sarà cambiato della luce.” Nothing will be changed about the light. Nothing will ever be changed…

PERCEPTION (Hearing) — Silence falls, so lengthy that you almost think that they must have finished their cigarettes and started their way back. And then—

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “I thought maybe it had something to do with the shitkid.”

COMPOSURE — To call the following silence “loaded” would be a massive understatement.

YOU — Oh… I don’t know if I want to hear this…

INLAND EMPIRE — Leave now. Please, just leave.

SUGGESTION — Stay! They care about you, that’s what they’re going to say!

INLAND EMPIRE — That’s what makes it all so sad.

Spare yourself.

Stay.

KIM KITSURAGI — “…And if it did?” His voice is calm, like deep, still water.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “Then I was going to warn you not to bet everything on a losing dog.” His voice is calm, too. That’s what hurts the most. “You haven’t known Harry long enough to see the pendulum swing the other way. And it *will* swing, Lieutenant. It’ll happen right when you start to think that maybe it won’t. And then things will get uglier than you ever thought possible.”

DRAMA — …He isn’t lying, sire. Nor is he trying to intimidate the lieutenant. He believes every word he’s saying.

YOU — Wait, so then… then it’s true? All the progress I’ve made… is it worthless?

INLAND EMPIRE — Nulla sará cambiato…

VOLITION — No. He’s waiting for the past to repeat itself. But it doesn’t have to, Harry. At least, not always in the same way. Don’t lose hope.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “…I’m not trying to be cruel.” His voice suddenly softens. Saddens. “I just don’t want you to end up with regrets. There’s no fixing that guy, Kim. People have tried.”

EMPATHY — *He* has tried. And for his troubles, he’s had all sorts of cruelties hurled at him. Humiliation, abuse, betrayal. Broken promise after broken promise. He’s almost exhausted any hope he ever had.

ESPIRIT DE CORPS — Almost, but not quite. That’s what hurts him the most.

-1 MORALE

INLAND EMPIRE — You’ll die at this rate.

VOLITION — Why are you doing this to yourself? Their words are not ironclad truth. You don’t need their permission to live. And you *definitely* don’t need to hurt yourself like this.

SUGGESTION — It doesn’t matter. You don’t have a choice anymore. You *need* to hear this.

Stay.

KIM KITSURAGI — An uncomfortable shuffle of nylon can be heard, even through the window. “…I appreciate your concern,” he says stiffly. And that’s *all* he says.

ESPIRIT DE CORPS — He knows he doesn’t sound like he means it, but he does. And he also knows that Vicquemare will be embarrassed, maybe even hurt, by the curt response. But he can’t think of a single word to say.

EMPATHY — It’s hard for him to face people head on like this. It’s easier when he has something to hide behind. Like you and your antics.

PERCEPTION (Hearing) — A long sigh. You’re not sure whose it is.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — And then you see Jean’s hand toss his cigarette butt into the grass. “Well, who knows? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you’re some kind of miracle worker. I mean, two of you apparently *attract* miracles. You know, with your pheromones.”

KIM KITSURAGI — “He wasn’t talking about *our*… khm. Actually, never mind. Let’s not start the cryptid thing again.”

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “Yeah, let’s not.” He sounds a little gruff as he says it.

EMPATHY — He is sad that no miracle ever happened for him, and angry that it came for someone else at all. But most of all, it hurts him that your miracle was someone else.

YOU — I’m sorry for forgetting…

EMPATHY — Forgetting what?

The things he did for me.

The things I did to him.

Why I am the way I am.

All of it.

EMPATHY — He can’t hear you, Harry.

VOLITION — There’s no point in being sorry for how everything played out. Your relationships with them, your sobriety, the case, the Insulindian miracle— all of it is as much a product of circumstance as anything else. A matter of who was in the right place at the right time. All you can do now is choose what to do with what came of it.

That is why they’ve run out of things to say now. They are sad and uncertain, but they have chosen to carry that. What do you choose?

To tell them I don’t need their fucking pity.

To be sorry all the same.

To distance them from me before the pendulum swings.

To make sure they never leave me alone to die.

I don’t know. I want to do what’s right, but I don’t know what that looks like.

VOLITION — None of us really do, Harry. Just do your best.

KIM KITSURAGI — “…I’m not trying to fix him.” His words come out clunky and awkward. Sudden, as if he said them against his better judgment.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — “Uh huh.” He sounds doubtful.

KIM KITSURAGI — The lieutenant clears his throat. “That is to say… I believe he can get better. He *is* getting better. But I don’t think… Well, let’s call it a… a chronic problem.” He clears his throat again, clearly uncomfortable.

EMPATHY — It’s hard for him to say that he doesn’t think you’ll ever put it all behind you. It makes him feel callous.

KIM KITSURAGI — “But… I think that’s all right. We all have things we simply have to learn to live with. But we do live with them. And I think he’s getting better at living with… with everything,” he finishes, trying to put it as delicately as possible. “That is all I can ask of him.”

ESPIRIT DE CORPS — Maybe someday, he’ll tell you and Jean about all the things he has learned to live with, and the times when he very nearly didn’t. But not today.

JEAN VICQUEMARE — You hear the click of a lighter. Another cigarette. “…I see. Well, if he’s made any progress, he probably owes it to you.” He makes a valiant effort to conceal the bitterness in his voice.

KIM KITSURAGI — “No,” he says quietly, “I don’t think so. I think… Well, it doesn’t really matter what I think.”

ESPIRIT DE CORPS — A freshly cleaned room. A little girl come in from the cold. A handkerchief pressed into the hands of a working class woman. A wall with the words “I LOVE YOU CUNO” painted in giant red letters. Dancing ecstatically around a hole in the world. He remembers it all, but he is at a loss for the words to explain the true miracle of it all. He wishes that Jean could have seen it and understood.

YOU — So do I…

#disco elysium #jean vicquemare #kim kitsuragi #harry du bois #requests #anon #THANK YOU FOR THIS ONE I RLLY ENJOYED IT… #jean and kim are so. interesting. #since kim is smth of a wish fulfillment fantasy for the suicidal #and jean is like… well more like the nightmare scenario ksbsjdnc of someone who you’ve managed to push to the breaking point #but who still cares about you and that’s the most painful part #so i imagine jean and kim’s dynamic to be a little tense w a slight resentment from each of them #where kim dislikes how vitriolic jean can be but also understands where it’s coming from and even feels a little guilty abt the situation #and jean is legit hurt that his friendship w harry (sort of) withstood so many years of harry being an asshole #but didn’t seem to make any difference to harry #and then in walks kim who’s just Some Guy and suddenly harry is cleaning himself up for him #but he knows that’s not fair and he genuinely likes kim so he’s just like. *miserably befriends you* #and then on top of that the case in martinaise is starting to crack through kim’s resignation to being a cop #but jean is so… well idk if anything will ever get through his resignation tbh. #‘’there is nothing more in that beloved future of yours. we are all done there. done and gone.’’ #so yeah. lots of tension between them and lots of thoughts that kim can’t bring himself to share w jean which only makes the tension worse

[sennqu]

oh i think i have a possible scenario to lead into the quarry scene now.

Henry trances Mike and makes him feel guilty for stepping off the quarry cliff. Mike feeling so useless that cloudy day that when the opportunity came for him to drown in the same quarry lake that Will did, he took it with a step forward.

How could Mike have lost hope so easily? Did he not have faith in his own abilities? in his own belief that Will could still have been alive? He heard Will didn't he? Why did he give up on Will so quickly? It must have been so painful to realize how powerless he was, how there was nothing his ordinary, average self could do. Just as there was nothing he could do now.

#ku blarghs #strangely blogging #we're writing fanfic on this fine day apparently #i love thinking of ways we can revisit the quarry so maybe i'll have a different scenario by tomorrow #i can play a little. S5 is still 2 years away #like see. there are so many ways to make mike suffer that don't have to hinge on IH

[natsmagi]

The emotions I'm going through with the office au...I LOVE THEM, I LOVE THEM BOTH. I adore the way you draw them. Then you have Tsumugi still being utterly oblivious. Love.

WEHEH THANK UUUUUU 💕💕💕💕💕 i love playfully flirty natsume matched with an oblivious tsumugi i think it is so cute and fun.......... that and an overly affectionate tsumugi matched with an extremely flustered/embarrassed/angry natsume are my bread and butter i love it all sososo much !! truly a dynamic that never misses!!!!

#AND THANK U FOR THE COMPLIMENT SNIFFLE...... #always makes me happy when ppl like what i draw/how i draw it !! 🥹🥹🥹 #ask #oh but there is so much fun mix and matching u can do with ntmg and their dynamic....... #so many different scenarios u can come up with for them and it just never gets stale #bc they are both so needlessly complicated and they can truly just. do anything and if u play ur cards right itll work #and feel like its canon #i love them

[true-blue-sonic]

Hey I'm asking myself about espio and silver's first love thing

I mean ...who will try to flirt with the other for the first time

And ...what about their first date, who will ask it, and who's the most "lover" between those two

And...also about their first kiss, will it be a shy one or a vigorous, I don't know but I love so much that ship, I think this is my favourite

Also, I just ask you if you have any idea about, by the way, if you don't have you can just not answer or tell me 👍

And to finish i love your writings, those are very cool💞

Thank you for the compliments!💕 I definitely have plenty of ideas about this, New Beginnings looks into it a bit as well ^-^

Regarding flirting, Silver probably has no idea what it is or how it works... but I can still see him be the first one who tries it out. I can imagine all their friends ship them, so he's getting pulled aside by them to get some tips on how to ✨be romantic✨, and thus this hedgie all but tumbles into the whole world of flirting with no small amount of enthusiasm. It's definitely not misplaced, but I can see it be a tad awkward: instead of suavely draping an arm over Espio's shoulders to make a move Silver just pulls him into a chokehold-hug, and instead of sweetly whispering teases he just kind of hollers about how amazing and lovely Espio is. Right in his ears, ouch. Still, I can see Espio appreciate the sentiment! <3 And let's be honest, it's not as if our chameleon boi is particularly better at flirting than Silver is XD

For their first date, to me that seems more like it is Espio's idea. I like to think he's got good knowledge on all the quiet places around the city, and thus he takes Silver there one time, to just have a picnic together or something. I can also see Espio finding it far too weird to call such outings dates because he can be plenty stuck-up and withdrawn, and thus he staunchly insists they are simply hanging out together (no-one believes them and Silver has no idea). But once they are older and have spend more time together I can see Silver be the one who thinks up some romantic date ideas instead, taking Espio to all sorts of lovely locations he's found and doing romantic things galore!

In New Beginnings, the bois had multiple Not Really A Kiss kisses (I believe like three or four lol) before their actual first Big Damn Kiss, but I think whether or not the kiss is very shy or more intense depends on the circumstances. When they're on the sixth "it's-not-a-date" date and Silver has finally caught on to the fact friends don't romantically hold hands and flirt with each other (his skills have gotten better!) during a picnic, they might try a shy kiss to top the evening off. Vice versa, if they're at the end of some epic Eggman battle where the stakes were through the roof, I can see it be a more dramatic and intense one! I figure either of them can be the instigator, maybe even both at the same time <3 But I like to headcanon Silver as someone who loves little touches and cuddles because he's quite touch-starved after living in a ruined future for most his life, so it's quite common for him and Espio to just give each other small pecks throughout the day while off on their own business around the house or during a job.

Generally, I think how such events went are quite artist-dependent, and I can furthermore see both Silver and Espio be the first to instigate flirting/dating/kissing etc., but that just means I have lots of different scenarios to think about😉 I hope that answered all your questions, anon!🍀

#silver the hedgehog #espio the chameleon #espilver #thanks for the ask! ^-^ #in conclusion: neither of them know much about romance but together they make it work! #this is why it is so nice to have one bazillion AUs wherein the characters are all slightly different: I can imagine those scenarios- #in as many ways I want hehe

[unproduciblesmackdown]

ppl will be explaining how a difference is a difference & not a Deviation from a Superior state, & people who are the ones considered Default Normal (superior) will be like "okay....to be polite....i Might say i consider Some aspects of Some people's existence mere 'difference' & not being less than me...." as like hey i'm a Benevolent god. i still actually get to consider you worse & don't have to "humor" anything that challenges my superiority. if you only want everything to fit into the norm then it will all come back to upholding the norm. thinking of people's analysis of their own realities as equally legimate as being like Obscure, Irrelevant, Superficial & then using that reasoning to justify dismissing them. same as worrying that the [Different Lessers (Others(tm))] as Everywhere = a manifestation of the awareness that, yeah, respecting them as equals Does threaten your norm which is smothering everything everywhere. ppl who need to lock in the idea of Borders around personhood like um Yes they're all delineated separate Identities outside any hierarchy & so i think it's relevant to for some reason push back against "ohh so now Everyone's queer" like why not. why couldn't they be. what if they were. what if queerness was everywhere b/c it's ideological not a cordoned off Alternative Identity that is accommodated by focusing on Love(tm) as the new border around whose existence we might begrudgingly accept at arm's length (i.e. being otherwise "normal"! just imagine swapping out the binary gender (or, deep breath, presumed Private Parts) of one partner in an exclusive romantic lifelong nuclear family marriage, & that is Gay / Trans Rights. still gross but maybe we can do it, as long as they don't talk about it or shove it in our faces or even exist for more than one encounter w/us in our lives b/c what are the odds). evergreen laughing at someone suggesting ableist logic might be embedded in language of past & present b/c it's just So little to ask for that it's irrelevant but it's also So much to ask for that of course i'm not gonna do anything more than pass it along like "this is why i don't take ableism seriously" like yeah it's the disabled randos like it's the individual cringe teens(tm) ruining [the cishets would take Gender seriously otherwise!!!] & that's why you won't think about it or do anything about it & continue being comfortable with the norm & resent that actually their Difference is Less & disability is something worse that ppl "excuse" & all these ways that people are & all these things that they do are funny & weird & inexplicable & etc & one can't possibly be cruising along perpetuating a hierarchy with a sense that you're reasonable, well meaning, kind, etc etc & thus Justified, systemic oppression definitely wants to maximize how uncomfortable & arduous it feels to everyone rather than push to make it more streamlined & rewarding to embrace, or at least accept, whatever superiority over others you're afforded

#circled around to lovelessness as a lens there. so long as one was loving. so long as one wasn't consciously malicious #really just mask off about keeping the same perspective of Superiority when conflating disability & ppl ''making excuses'' #same as like e.g. that ppl consider everything an autistic person does as being Bad / Wrong / Worse. (this includes ''unskilled''!!!) #(crushing the Social Skills(tm) framework in talking abt allistic difference in my fist) #such that they think sm1 saying Autistic!! is then something they might be unfairly Beholden to to Put Up With their Wrongness #at special times in special scenarios....rather than like in some contexts you are no more ''right'' than the other party #different groups & cultures whose Norms Standards & Expectations could render You presumed rude thoughtless pushy etc #obvious overlaps to consider re: the Norms of like english speaking as ''universal'' someone noticeably speaking it as nth language? #time to Presume their ideas & contributions are Less. if they had the good brain like you their fluency would render their linguistic #Wrongness in having a diff 1st language invisible thus irrelevant. like the ''ideal'' for disability! as the ''ideal'' for anyone Passing #in any way! queer ppl surely all want to be as proximate to cishet ideals (just as cishet ppl should!) nonwhite ppl to Ideal White #women's rights = Proving they're As Good As men. ladies you're using too many exclamation points!! be Confident be Pushier!! #but ofc nobody actually wants the Others(tm) to be Equal. they're just saying ''it's your innate Wrongness that means you Aren't'' #the ableism logic in everything. men just Are better at xyz. oh we Can abuse autists...into being as proximate to allistic as possible!! #just actually means ''oh we Can abuse autists.'' the ''correctness'' is your Difference ''intruding'' less into allistic existence #force you to be harmed & diminished all day then save your meltdowns for when you're alone & out of the way #ppl's tweets like ''when ppl say 'omg too sensitive ofc i wasn't talking abt disabled ppl!' like yeah no shit b/c you never think of #disabled ppl'' like yeah most people idk aren't making their life's agenda to stop everyone from saying Stupid #but like believe me people organically sense the Vintage R words when you get called Idiot in exactly the same spirit & purpose #i mean that's so rworded as in that's so gay!! cmon!! & it's fine if you don't say either to gay ppl or. or. [insert the office quote] #oh i don't call um 20th c disabled ppl morons it's bad taste!! but b/c i use it Figuratively in the present it's fine it's so Different #fr i can't remember like. an article w/1 matter of fact sentence from a doctor using a [now Just a childish insult!!] as Diagnostic Label #for someone's disability & it still registered like ice water in the face. presumably no ''especial'' Malice just matter of fact! #it wasn't ''idiot'' it may have been ''moron'' fr. the vintage ''factual'' r word is There plain as day #like yeah ofc the ableism gets channeled into alternate language. & then complaints abt that is like UGH CMON!!! #like idk shouldn't you be fine using the R word then too? not really sweating this issue thee most all thee time either but like #it's not sooo funny even if someone seems pressed extensively abt it. not that hard to in fact just not use all these words all the time #ppl will be throwing out their ableism w/o Any labels talking about how Weird Offputting Etc someone acts so you can Tell they're bad.... #and yeah you should think abt that. anytime. the [difference used to categorize ''other'' is Just difference] Is Everywhere All The Time #the idea it can & should be ''contained'' for especial limited specific occasions (when you're feeling Nice!) = upholding the status quo

[thatgirl4815]

As much as it would hurt from a shipper standpoint, would it not be incredibly satisfying to learn that everything Pete has said and done to Vegas since getting captured--including their potential sexy times next episode--is just his own manipulation? 

I’m almost certain that’s not the case because, as indicated by his tattoo, we know Pete values honesty. I don’t think he believes in an “eye for an eye” mentality either. But imagine how much it would sting Vegas to see someone he’s fallen in love with turning it back on him. Sounds a lot like the situation with Tawan. 👀

I don’t know. Am I the only one torn between wanting to see Vegas and Pete in love and wanting Pete to get some form of vengeance on the man who’s repeatedly tortured and assaulted him?  

There are two directions the show could go in. 1) Pete takes his revenge on Vegas for the harm he’s caused him by manipulating his feelings. 2) Pete feels conflicted by Vegas and, in the end, his growing feelings outweigh his trauma. 

^In the first scenario, Vegas is the enemy. In the second, Vegas is the romantic interest. For that reason, it seems pretty obvious that the show has chosen the second option. The point I’m trying to reconcile within myself is this: Pete has a reason for wanting Vegas to suffer, and I support Pete using his agency to make Vegas pay. But I also support an exploration of Pete’s inner turmoil over his growing feelings. All in all, the inner dilemma of both wanting Vegas and wanting to hate Vegas is far more compelling than this relatively one-dimensional, straightforward revenge arc. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting it, too. 

Why has this show turned me into such a mess? 😫

#kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #vegaspete #I do think they've genuinely broken down a few walls since that deep conversation in Ep11 #But I'm really torn #and I don't know if what I've said makes any degree of sense #I just think it's interesting that they could approach this storyline so many different ways #And I think we as viewers would accept it both ways #Because it would be justified in either sense #We can support Pete's revenge on a man who has assaulted and threatened him #and we can also support the idea that his entire world has been rocked by ✨ feelings ✨ #I think the reason we can accept both scenarios is because of Pete #Precious precious Pete #He deserves our endless support after everything #We've bonded with him

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

Hot take, but I don't think making criticisms of a character strictly "as they appears in canon" and saying they's shallow or bland or in any way lacking in qualities or traits (as opposed to making judgments about qualities or traits a character DOES have or debating which specific traits or qualities a character has) - makes any sense in the context of consuming media.

Because by the sheer fact of excluding anything not said or implied in canon, you are thoroughly breaking suspension of disbelief. By suspension of disbelief, the audience sees a character and assumes that traits are there, even if there are very few onscreen. This not headcanon because the audience is not coming up with what those traits are. The audience is only assuming that traits of some kind must exist that make this character a Real Person, because in suspension of disbelief we are behaving as if this is Real Life. And if you knew a person who was bland or shallow you wouldn't say they were bland or shallow; you would say you didn't know them that well.

So. Character A is not bland or shallow, they simply haven't been shown on-screen enough. Perhaps the creators haven't come up with any such traits yet, perhaps because they're not good at their job or perhaps because this character isn't built to do anything besides exist as a plot device. But the traits still exist, because suspension of disbelief is a superpower that makes everyone a Real Person with hidden struggles and secrets and flaws that they don't let anybody see or that the audience has just so happened to never see or that the screenwriters and producers carefully edited out to be just offscreen bc they don't know what those traits are either!

Now suspension of disbelief does take effort and not everyone is willing to put out that effort to reach a place where they enjoy the character. Maybe the character has very few redeeming qualities regardless.

Saying a character is two-dimensional, bland, boring, etc. is not a valid criticism of the author. It is only a valid criticism of your ability or willingness to suspend disbelief. If you want to enjoy the content, why aren't you enjoying it? And if you enjoy it for other reasons 'but this one character - ' why are you shattering other people's suspension of disbelief for them?

(Rabbit-holey and incomplete rambling about the mechanics of suspension of disbelief and how much people are willing to suspend disbelief and how much work the authors have to put in versus how much the audience puts in, below the cut.)

Some characters do require more suspension of disbelief than others. Major characters with too few traits are a turn-off to some ppl bc they don't want to have to put in the work of assuming traits where there are none (because there aren't; the person isn't real). If someone dislikes a character already that puts them further at risk for losing their suspension of disbelief. If a character isn't compelling or doesn't evoke an emotional response? By all means. Characters who don't naturally evoke responses need more work put into them by the authors.

Author and audience meet halfway. Sometimes a character evokes a response by being compelling or emotional, and then the author can get away with less filling-in of the blanks bc the audience is invested enough already. But if the audience isn't invested, the author needs to provide more content about the character so that the facade - that this ink on paper is in any way equivalent to a real person - can be maintained.

Now the more important a character is in the story, the more work the author needs to put in. If a character has two lines in the story, the author only needs to write the two lines, and the audience assumes this is a full-fledged person with a full array of traits, without question, because those traits never become relevant or impact the story in a meaningful or compelling way that would require explanation.

But if the character is a major love interest, the audience needs more substantiation of the claim that they is a real person with traits, because this character is impacting the plot and other characters. A love interest needs more than two lines to be accepted as a valid love interest. A main character can only swoon for an unexplored love interest with two lines so many times before the audience asks, why does she like him anyway? We don't know anything about him! At least tell us what he looks like or if he's shaved today or if he's done anything swoon-worthy for her!

A character may also have traits without them being related to the impact they has on the plot; e.g. the love interest used to have a stamp collection when they was five (and this never becomes relevant and the main character who is falling for him does not herself have an interest in stamp collections). That's a trait, but it is not a helpful one insofar as understanding the impact a character has on the plot.

And in addition to giving substance to the claim that a character exists, traits enable the audience to relate to and care about a character, which is the real bread and butter of enjoying a story and being impacted by it. I won't go into that tonight bc that's a whole new topic.

My point is that of course characters need SOME traits, and relevant ones, and preferably in proportion to their role and impact on the plot. (Just as a major love interest with two lines is unsatisfying, a two-line character with pages of backstory is similarly boring.) The line can be hard to strike for an author, but we can help them out by developing a robust ability to suspend disbelief.

So an amendment to my hot take: sometimes characters CAN be criticized for their trait-to-relevance ratio. And then the question is yours: do you put out the effort to suspend disbelief or not?

If we're not willing to put that level of work in for the level of enjoyment that would generate, well, maybe find a different story or at least stop criticizing other people's fav characters for being boring. (It's a lot harder to suspend disbelief when people are actively breaking it. But! That's what unfollowing and/or blocking is for!)

Remember everyone: the secret to enjoying media is suspension of disbelief. If someone shatters that, remember you can get it back if you're willing to try again.

#I find fandom in general to br destructive of my suspension of disbelief #Bc the fandom image of a character can be so off-base to my image #Or it just clouds the air with many different interpretations #There is no longer an amorphous blob of 'Here Be Traits' that you unconsciously assume #It is filled with defined traits #It's hard to step back and see the original appeal of a character with more unknowns about them #Hard to see their original facade #Hard to assume this is a Real Person when all the unfilled hints in canon are filled by fanon #All that remains is Character. No more unknowns or questions to explore #No more suspension of disbelief #No wondering #The driving force of fiction is Big Moral Question and How Does Character Answer? #What Does Character Do In X Scenario? #Does Character's Values Extend THIS Far? #How Much Will Character Sacrifice For This Value? #WHAT Will Character Sacrifice For What Things? #Does Character See It As A Sacrifice? #What Choices Will Character Make in X Circumstances? #Without the questions there's no story #No compelling #Is bland #So fandom fills the gaps of those questions and I need to get away sometimes and ask the questions again and answer differently #But THAT just goes to show that characters can't have All The Traits #They would no longer have any capacity to be compelling in the future #Anyway I digress #Writing #Suspension of disbelief #Narrative theory #Story theory #Wow this all turned into big rambling lol

[rosicheeks]

Have you ever fucked in a store’s fitting room? Would you?

👀

#no I haven’t done that #but uhm #yes pls #pretty pretty pls with a cherry on top???????? #I’m having so many thoughts I’ve reworded this a few times now #so to answer your question #no but DAMN I want to #honestly it’s always been one of my fantasies #ok ok ok let’s see if I can go into one scenario without jumping into another #SO what if we went on a cute date at the mall and before we get there you take out my lush and tell me to put it in 🫣🫣🫣 #obviously I do as I’m told and while we are still in the car you make sure everything works and is synced up and start to play a lil bit #I let out a small whimper when I start to feel it #you stop and smirk at me ‘this is going to be fun my lil pet’ #mznxmsndkndmdnsmsnxmdmn #ok ok ok so then we start walking around and I see one of my fav shops and ask (with my puppy eyes) if we could pls pls go in for a lit bit? #you agree and i take your hand and excitedly bring you over to the shop #we start to look at different clothes and I ask your opinion here and there #then all of a sudden I start to feel the slight hum of the lush and I instantly look up at you #you smile at me and gesture me to keep shopping #I do as I’m told and keep looking at different dresses and clothes #you encourage me to grab a few things and try them on and I eagerly start grabbing things #slowly starting to get used to the low setting when you start to play with it going up and down and up and back down #I bite my lip and try not to give anything away #you slowly go higher and higher in the settings so all I can feel and focus on is my lush #my legs start to go weak and that’s when you decide it’s a good time to bring me to the dressing rooms #we finally get in the small little room and you sit down and tell me to try on the clothes #I put on a little show for you and you tell me how pretty and sexy I look in each outfit #and then when I’m stripping down and naked in front of you???? that’s when you pounce 🫣 you whisper in my ear and tell me to be a good girl #and be quiet cause we don’t want anyone to know now do we?? 🫣🫣 bah I’m running out of space but yeahhhhhhhhh this is what I’m thinking about #ask

[moonsidesong]

i like how much hfjone gives me thinky thoughts. ending spins around in my brain going wheeee whats gonna happen now who knooooows

#i understand a lot of people found the super-open-ended nature of it unsatisfying or anticlimactic #but i kinda. love it. actually. #there's so many different ways things could go from here #good and bad and everything in between #and most of them. really just feel just as likely as each other #my gut personally kinda says liam's eventually gonna lose himself and just end up assuming control of the plane #(or. any new planet he ends up making from here on out.) #but the optimist in me likes to think of a best ending scenario where he's able to get Stone back #and they're able to get everyone--including liam--back home. and they can. man EVENTUALLY rebuild their lives #cause boy there is WORK to do to fix everything #and. i like entertaining both those scenarios! cause. man i cant really prove either of them will or won't happen!!!!! #and. anyways. hfjone in its entirety i always felt was probably like. a suuuper personal art piece more than . yknow #a show to an appeal to an audience. if that makes sense #so i was gonna be okay with whatever ending it ended up getting cause sometimes super personal art pieces get weird endings it happens #anyway if you read this far hello hi. hope you're well #drink a little water and try not to stay up too late #me im gonna. umm. wait for my friends to stop being busy so i can rewatch this Again with them HAHAH #hfjone spoilers #<- whoops almost forgot to put that here #brifdi

[buckynats]

.

#feeling very. Bad lately #in a despondent 'there is no future at least not for me' kind of way #hard to feel optimistic about anything. if I think for more than five minutes about the more than immediate day to day future #I get lost in a fugue of scenarios that will never come to pass because I'm too willing and ready to just be a tool and not a person #to everyone in my life and somehow still pretend day in and day out that I'm actually living a life #I constantly feel like I'm sixteen years old and never got the guidebook for life beyond hs #don't have a job and can't find one without access to transportation and my hours would be severely limited by my caretaking duties #ostensibly I have all the free time in the world right and just absolutely no drive to do anything at all with it #except lay in bed and suffer anxiety over everyone else's problems and my limited/un-ability to solve all of them #logically I am aware this is ridiculous and self-sabotaging and also impossible and also NOT on me to fix #but I've never been any good at treating myself the way I feel the desire to treat everyone else. my problems aren't worth fixing etc #life is and just always has been something that happens to other people #and most days I'm fine with that. I can find some silly interest to lose myself in and not think about it. #I'm very good at disappearing somewhere else. I don't need to exprience anything. my brain is great at theater #but right now it's just nothing. and so reality crashing in on many sides at once is destroying me a bit #I've also got a migraine right now so that helps tremendously. obviously #maybe if I make dinner now before I become completely useless I can just go to sleep early #I know this'll pass. It is what it is. I'm just Tired. and wish everything were different. y'know.

[spkyscry-a]

There’s an underlying trend in who ends up getting hired to work at places Vera runs. It’s not necessarily if they’re capable, because if they’re not she can MAKE you capable. It all comes to her soft spot for ‘strays’. People outside of their element, confused, and probably more than a little scared. Outcasts, culture-shocked out-of-towners, etc. If you stumble past Vera, she probably has a job for you. 

Now, she won’t word it as sweetly as this, but it is why you’ll find such a wide array of monsters in her positions. She has a soft spot. 

#Down Your Spine ;; OOC #Seem So Unsafe ;; Vera #Break Your Bones ;; Vera HCs/About #and also manpower is manpower why waste a perfectly good person? #granted she doesn't do HAND OUTS she has to naturally stumble upon you #very different scenarios there y'know? #also yes there are MANY orphanages she runs #and they ARE nicer than most peoples fucking fancy apartments #which is all to say I continue to make a somehow morally good villain #who will still kill and torture for pleasure #she's three dimensional she can have character traits #hi hello i wanted to sleep more but body said no

[princesssarisa]

In the past I've shared other people's musings about the different interpretations of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Namely, why Orpheus looks back at Eurydice, even though he knows it means he'll lose her forever. So many people seem to think they've found the one true explanation of the myth. But to me, the beauty of myths is that they have many possible meanings.

So I thought I would share a list of every interpretation I know, from every serious adaptation of the story and every analysis I've ever heard or read, of why Orpheus looks back.

One interpretation – advocated by Monteverdi's opera, for example – is that the backward glance represents excessive passion and a fatal lack of self-control. Orpheus loves Eurydice to such excess that he tries to defy the laws of nature by bringing her back from the dead, yet that very same passion dooms his quest fo fail, because he can't resist the temptation to look back at her.

He can also be seen as succumbing to that classic "tragic flaw" of hubris, excessive pride. Because his music and his love conquer the Underworld, it might be that he makes the mistake of thinking he's entirely above divine law, and fatally allows himself to break the one rule that Hades and Persephone set for him.

Then there are the versions where his flaw is his lack of faith, because he looks back out of doubt that Eurydice is really there. I think there are three possible interpretations of this scenario, which can each work alone or else co-exist with each other. From what I've read about Hadestown, it sounds as if it combines all three.

In one interpretation, he doubts Hades and Persephone's promise. Will they really give Eurydice back to him, or is it all a cruel trick? In this case, the message seems to be a warning to trust in the gods; if you doubt their blessings, you might lose them.

Another perspective is that he doubts Eurydice. Does she love him enough to follow him? In this case, the warning is that romantic love can't survive unless the lovers trust each other. I'm thinking of Moulin Rouge!, which is ostensibly based on the Orpheus myth, and which uses Christian's jealousy as its equivalent of Orpheus's fatal doubt and explicitly states "Where there is no trust, there is no love."

The third variation is that he doubts himself. Could his music really have the power to sway the Underworld? The message in this version would be that self-doubt can sabotage all our best efforts.

But all of the above interpretations revolve around the concept that Orpheus looks back because of a tragic flaw, which wasn't necessarily the view of Virgil, the earliest known recorder of the myth. Virgil wrote that Orpheus's backward glance was "A pardonable offense, if the spirits knew how to pardon."

In some versions, when the upper world comes into Orpheus's view, he thinks his journey is over. In this moment, he's so ecstatic and so eager to finally see Eurydice that he unthinkingly turns around an instant too soon, either just before he reaches the threshold or when he's already crossed it but Eurydice is still a few steps behind him. In this scenario, it isn't a personal flaw that makes him look back, but just a moment of passion-fueled carelessness, and the fact that it costs him Eurydice shows the pitilessness of the Underworld.

In other versions, concern for Eurydice makes him look back. Sometimes he looks back because the upward path is steep and rocky, and Eurydice is still limping from her snakebite, so he knows she must be struggling, in some versions he even hears her stumble, and he finally can't resist turning around to help her. Or more cruelly, in other versions – for example, in Gluck's opera – Eurydice doesn't know that Orpheus is forbidden to look back at her, and Orpheus is also forbidden to tell her. So she's distraught that her husband seems to be coldly ignoring her and begs him to look at her until he can't bear her anguish anymore.

These versions highlight the harshness of the Underworld's law, and Orpheus's failure to comply with it seems natural and even inevitable. The message here seems to be that death is pitiless and irreversible: a demigod hero might come close to conquering it, but through little or no fault of his own, he's bound to fail in the end.

Another interpretation I've read is that Orpheus's backward glance represents the nature of grief. We can't help but look back on our memories of our dead loved ones, even though it means feeling the pain of loss all over again.

Then there's the interpretation that Orpheus chooses his memory of Eurydice, represented by the backward glance, rather than a future with a living Eurydice. "The poet's choice," as Portrait of a Lady on Fire puts it. In this reading, Orpheus looks back because he realizes he would rather preserve his memory of their youthful, blissful love, just as it was when she died, than face a future of growing older, the difficulties of married life, and the possibility that their love will fade. That's the slightly more sympathetic version. In the version that makes Orpheus more egotistical, he prefers the idealized memory to the real woman because the memory is entirely his possession, in a way that a living wife with her own will could never be, and will never distract him from his music, but can only inspire it.

Then there are the modern feminist interpretations, also alluded to in Portrait of a Lady on Fire but seen in several female-authored adaptations of the myth too, where Eurydice provokes Orpheus into looking back because she wants to stay in the Underworld. The viewpoint kinder to Orpheus is that Eurydice also wants to preserve their love just as it was, youthful, passionate, and blissful, rather than subject it to the ravages of time and the hardships of life. The variation less sympathetic to Orpheus is that Euyridice was at peace in death, in some versions she drank from the river Lethe and doesn't even remember Orpheus, his attempt to take her back is selfish, and she prefers to be her own free woman than be bound to him forever and literally only live for his sake.

With that interpretation in mind, I'm surprised I've never read yet another variation. I can imagine a version where, as Orpheus walks up the path toward the living world, he realizes he's being selfish: Eurydice was happy and at peace in the Elysian Fields, she doesn't even remember him because she drank from Lethe, and she's only following him now because Hades and Persephone have forced her to do so. So he finally looks back out of selfless love, to let her go. Maybe I should write this retelling myself.

Are any of these interpretations – or any others – the "true" or "definitive" reason why Orpheus looks back? I don't think so at all. The fact that they all exist and can all ring true says something valuable about the nature of mythology.

#mythology #greek mythology #orpheus #eurydice #orpheus and eurydice #analysis #interpretations #adaptations #long