#and how interesting that would be to shape the story because then the gravity of it becomes that much more real

[bleue-flora]

What's often interesting to me, is Dream spells it out in the finale and people often still don't get it, so I thought it'd be interesting to see what he was actually referencing here. To see where it all started.

[24:27] Tommy: “That first war, me and Tubbo versus you–how it should have ended–why’d you take it?” Dream: “Tommy, you ambushed me and killed me. You stole all my shit! You tried ambushing me in a little cave–you don’t remember that? I feel like you just–your memory is just–gone.”

So here is the ambush Dream is talking about, where Sapnap and Tommy basically decide to just kill Dream and then kept all of his shit. [Death 1]

He gets killed again when he tries to take back his stuff. [Death 2]

Tommy kills him for fun right after he respawns with nothing. [Death 3]

Then after Dream gets his stuff back (via our boy Punz) and he takes the discs to get Tommy to stop, he gives Tommy back his items. But unsatisfied, Tommy goes after Dream, gets one of his discs back and hides it in the little cave. Dream tries to find it, while Sapnap and Tommy try to stop him. They are unsuccessful until, Tubbo brings them axes and they sneak up and corner Dream in the little cave, ambushing and killing him. Once again, taking all of his shit, (including, yes, the other disc.) [Death 4]

[27:58] Tommy: “Think about that, we could’ve been friends but no because you have to figure out the reason you have to get–”  Dream: “Yeah we could’ve but you–you ruined the chance of that long ago. It was you.” Tommy: “I ruined it?” Dream: “You ruined it!”

And I don’t think it’s unfair for Dream to say that in the finale, because for Dream it’s this stream early on, these moments that started it all. It’s these instances of of Dream getting murdered and robbed and made fun of over and over. Him, trying to not just make peace for everyone, but also reclaim respect and peace for himself. It’s Tommy chasing after Dream when he has nothing to kill him and rub it in his face. It’s Dream, even after all of that, giving back their items. It’s these instances of violence taken too far to the point they clearly pissed Dream off and didn’t care or follow his very simple request of just giving an apology and his belongings back that shape my distaste for Tommy and sympathy for Dream. It’s these moments that I feel like are gone from Tommy’s and our memory that highlight a different story.

[28:34] Dream: “Yeah, we could have been friends if you weren’t a little shit.”

#c!dream #dsmp #don’t worry I’m also covering what Tommy next to be fair… #dreblr #dream smp #dsmp finale #dsmp analysis #dsmp lore #dishing up lore #lore thoughts #c!tommy #interestingly enough it is actually tubbo who kills him here in the cave which is an interesting parallel to tubbo killing him in the final #c!tommyinnit #dsmpblr #c!discduo #discduo #c!dream and c!tommy #I sometimes like think that maybe these three or at least on of these deaths was canonical for Dream since it is plot relavent #and how interesting that would be to shape the story because then the gravity of it becomes that much more real #this of course only works if Dream and punz could later revive people back to fill lives which unclear if that’s true or not… #I did consider this more before I saw a post highlighting that punz and dreams tests on themselves happened after the staged finale

[ckret2]

I don't know if anyone asked, but how do you think about the Shapeshifter? Especially in Bill's perspective you can think of.

P.S. You gotta find this comic interesting. The problem would be, how to access Shifty's Mindscape?

https://moringmark.tumblr.com/post/113688377238

So here's the story of Shifty as I see it:

A baby hatches alone on an alien planet, and is immediately seen as a wild animal and caged.

The only "parents" it's ever known keep it locked alone in the dark when they aren't around.

Even though its nature is to transform into anything it sees—and as a baby, with its mind still growing, it probably needs to be exposed to new forms for its developmental health—it's kept contained where it has very little fresh stimuli.

One of its "parents" wears a mask over his face so it can't learn what he looks like. Its other parent wants to just freeze it and leave it underground.

Even after it learns to talk and its parents know it's a sentient, intelligent being, nothing about its captivity changes.

Shifty has learned how to speak! A few words at first, but every day he’s been learning longer sentences. Increasingly, he asks “Who am I?”

It's searching for a sense of identity. It's asking for help from aliens who don't know what to tell it, and who give no indication that they want to help it find out.

It's only allowed to learn new forms from pictures in books. It knows one of its parents has several journals full of wondrous shapes it's never seen before. It's not allowed to look at them. It isn't given a good reason why. It's treated like a threat that can't be trusted with new forms—even when it's given them no reason to think it's untrustworthy.

And if it's going to be distrusted no matter what—for nothing except its born nature as a shapeshifter—why should it be trustworthy?

In desperation, it ties up its other parent (without hurting him) to fool its main parent. In return, they freeze it underground—and it's left there, abandoned and forgotten, for thirty years.

I truly believe Shifty became a monster because it was raised like a prisoner. Isolated, under-stimulated, inadequate enrichment for a child of any species; treated with academic curiosity, suspicion, and fear rather than with affection and care. Why wouldn't it have become a monster? What in its environment could have led it to become anything else?

Ford and Fiddleford weren't equipped to handle a new, living person; they treated it like an animal, and when they learned it was an intelligent being, they didn't change their treatment. As much as Ford sympathizes with "freaks," I think occasionally Ford forgets to respect the sentient ones as people—too caught up in his research to think about anything else. And I don't think Fiddleford's ever seen personhood in non-humans as anything but unnatural and a threat.

(As far as Bill is concerned—if anything, seeing how Ford interacted with Shifty may have made him underestimate just how strongly he'd fight against Bill's plans for his dimension. After all, he might not like Bill's plan, but it isn't like he really cares about anyone else in his dimension, right? Except Ford does care. He just... never really thought through what he was doing with Shifty.)

I think Shifty should be given a heartfelt apology and unleashed in Gravity Falls. Sure, it might commit murder and mayhem! But it was treated like a criminal when it was a baby who'd done nothing wrong. It deserves a second chance and a fair shot at living a free life. The humans don't have the right to keep it in indefinite cryogenic solitary confinement until it's actually proven such extreme measures are necessary.

#car9723 t #ask #gravity falls #headcanons #shifty

[chen-feiyu]

The impact of Chu Wanning and his values on Mo Ran's morals in the second timeline of 2ha

When I read 2ha, one of the most satisfying things about the story for me was observing how Mo Ran's growth as a person was intrinsically linked to the way in which he perceived Chu Wanning and his values since, deep down, he has always been his reason for existence and the force who restores his faith in humanity.

1.0 is complicated in terms of morals, in the sense that he has no interest in helping others and shows contempt toward Chu Wanning and Sisheng Peak for caring about injustice and the common people so fiercely - albeit with Chu Wanning, there's the added resentment that he devoted his life to helping anyone in need, yet let Shi Mei die during the heavenly rift and refused to acknowledge Mo Ran during all of the time in which he was his disciple.

He loathed to be dismissed by Chu Wanning when he was Taxian-Jun too but at this part of the novel, Mo Ran's PTSD opts to repress most of Chu Wanning-related thoughts for avoiding emotional pain, to the point in which he even comes up with a different retelling of Chu Wanning's death in 0.5, where it occurred by his own hands.

Unlike Taxian-Jun, Mo Ran 1.0 has no desire to trample over the weak or perpetrate suffering. He's merely self-absorbed and focused on enjoying the moment and newfound positive emotions, considering he didn't have any for decades.

Mo Ran is, however, fully aware of the gravity of his actions since the beginning. He doesn't sugarcoat it, doesn't pretend that he had any justification for the pain that he caused, and deliberately makes the choice to not take revenge on Rong Jiu in chapter 2 of the novel, giving us a glimpse of the Mo Ran who strived to stand by Duan Yihan's maxim of repaying gratitude and not holding grudges.

The novel starts with Taxian-Jun being suicidal, talking about his crimes, calling his life sinful, stating he has blasphemed and that his hands are stained with blood. In this regard, Mo Ran is an outlier in comparison to characters like Song Qiutong and Rong Jiu, who don't hesitate to explain their behavior and justify themselves with their circumstances. In Mo Ran's eyes, he's someone who sinned irreversibly and it's a miracle that he got a second chance when he didn't do anything to earn it.

Mo Ran tends to describe himself as a simple person who doesn't like to overthink and has difficulty grasping complex things, especially emotions, yet he knows what he craves the most is acknowledgment and acceptance. He can't overlook when someone does something for him, which is why his feelings for Chu Wanning tend to be so conflicting after the injury in Butterfly Town arc.

After this, Mo Ran begins to observe him closely and is unable to stay away entirely. Instead of feeling sheer hatred at Chu Wanning's lack of ability to take care of himself, he's concerned and takes him food he can actually eat since he really doesn't want Chu Wanning to starve or suffer, and rationalizes his need to protect by thinking he's only doing things because he doesn't want to owe Chu Wanning anything.

At random parts of Book 1, Mo Ran would make passing mentions about how when he looks back at some of the things he did in his previous life, he's horrified and unable to understand how could he become so cruel.

It is important to mention that while these are attempts for Mo Ran to truly reflect on what happened enough to make amends, it isn't until he hurts Xia Sini, realizes how selfish he was, and is able to see Chu Wanning in Xia Sini's words, that he stops being able to repress the influx of guilt, regret, and confusion over the person that he used to be and the things he did. Chu Wanning's figure as his moral compass begins to shape in full form over here, given it is his memory that triggers the need for repentance.

Something I must add about Mo Ran being different than RJ or SQT is that during Xia Sini's soup incident, is very clear that the reason he made Xia Sini wait was due to Shi Mei's insistence on Mo Ran to stay by his side, yet Mo Ran takes full responsibility for what happened and doesn't excuse himself at all. Accountability is something he definitely doesn't struggle with.

It is a common belief in the fandom that without the heavenly rift event, it'd have been difficult for Mo Ran to change his mind about Chu Wanning, and I'm inclined to agree here because as I stated before, disliking Chu Wanning's hypocrisy about the common people and his disciples WAS one of his values.

Hypocrisy is a trait that Mo Ran detests profoundly in any person regardless of the timeline where he's at. It's precisely the reason why Ye Wangxi will always be worthy of respect in his eyes and not Song Qiutong.

Knowing that Chu Wanning died for him changes his paradigm and shatters his reality entirely.

Mo Ran 1.0 used to be a person with no purpose who barely reflected on things, tried to remain in the present as much as possible and assumed that because he already experienced many things in the past, he could take advantage of what he knew and keep going mindlessly as long as Shi Mei was around. He didn't feel the responsibility to help or make amends. Caring about humanity wasn't even an afterthought, but an absurd concept overall in his mind.

2.0 is the exact opposite.

Before Duan Yihan left, she took good care of providing Mo Ran with a maxim that he could hold on to since the world was cruel, and she was aware of what could happen to him if his values didn't remain strong.

The flower removed this and broke Mo Ran's biggest value, leaving him with no sense of self other than spite and resentment over all of the tragedy he had to experience. There was nothing to feel grateful about: Shi Mei and his mother were dead and his Shizun always hated him, so indulging in destruction, debauchery, and revenge was all he could do, regardless if he found it enjoyable or not, if it made sense or not.

Mo Ran 1.0 is the middle ground between a bitter, tired adult who had been drowning in hatred for decades and a teenager who was acquiring new experiences and slowly developing empathy as a consequence.

Mo Ran 2.0 is a profoundly traumatized and broken man who doesn't know what to do with all the pain he carries inside and the voices in his mind who tell him he's dirty, irremediably evil, and undeserving of the sacrifice that Chu Wanning made for him. He can't exteriorize any of this, and can't give up on life either because it was a gift that Chu Wanning granted him.

He's worthless in comparison to Chu Wanning, but if he can dedicate his days to acting in half the decent way that Chu Wanning did, then maybe that would be enough to clean the stains on his soul, if only a little, at least.

In 0.5 Duan Yihan gave Mo Ran a purpose, the flower took it away from him and Chu Wanning tried to restore it, with no luck, when he asked Taxian-Jun to think about kindness and not harbor evil.

In the second timeline, Mo Ran starts his new life with no purpose, Chu Wanning gives it to him by showing him genuine kindness, by letting him see that he had always been acknowledged and protected from the shadows. A pure soul took care of him and gave him another chance, and his purpose in life became to not fail him in return.

Chu Wanning turned into Mo Ran's pillar. He was the person Mo Ran thought about before making any decision, the one who gave him strength during lonely days, and the God of salvation who visited him as he hallucinated during his episodes.

Doing good deeds in Chu Wanning's name became his second nature. Anything Chu Wanning would do, he'd do it too without hesitation and with this, he forged an unbreakable moral code, impulsed both by his devotion to Chu Wanning and crippling guilt.

As the story advances, Mo Ran is able to see that his lack of understanding about his feelings toward Chu Wanning and the inexplicable, obsessive things that Taxian-Jun did over Chu Wanning in 0.5 strived from a misconception about the relationship between sex and love.

Once this is clear to him, all 2.0 can see in Taxian-Jun's actions is nonsense which only works to reinforce his beliefs about his lack of intelligence. I'll discuss his sense of self further in future posts.

In conclusion: Chu Wanning has had a different, yet consistent impact on Mo Ran's morals throughout all of his life stages.

In 0.5, Chu Wanning started as a force who restored Mo Ran's faith in humanity and then gave him a strong sense of identity over being the disciple of the man that he perceives as the embodiment of justice, goodness, and compassion. In my next series of meta posts, I'll be exploring how this is the reason behind Taxian-Jun's cognitive dissonance around him.

In 2.0, Chu Wanning and his sacrifice disrupt Mo Ran's misconceptions created by the flower and external manipulation.

Chu Wanning's selflessness used to be annoying for him, then unsettling because he didn't understand it properly, and in the end, it devastated him so much that it shattered his reality and helped him to forge a moral code.

#first post for my series of 2ha meta! #the first series will be fully focused on mo ran but I'll be addressing other themes in the future #long post #2ha meta #2ha #the husky and his white cat shizun #2ha spoilers #mo ran 1.0 #mo ran 2.0 #mo ran #chu wanning #ranwan #二哈和他的白猫师尊 #mine #erha #erha spoilers #my meta

[ruthlesslistener]

♦️ for Hollow

♦ - quirks/hobbies headcanon

-Oohh this is a fun one. Hollow is full of quirks imo, first and foremost being that they are a burrower by nature and will disappear entirely if you ever put them in a bed with enough pillows and blankets for them to nest in (this is made even easier by the fact that I headcanon the beds of the beetle tribes to be cup shaped and lined with soft padding). How does something so tall fit into burrows so easily is anyone's guess, but they manage to fold themselves in there just fine!

Second is that they're a very good visual learner and managed to learn how to read and engineer simply from watching PK do it, though they have zero interest in actually doing any engineering past fixing any appliances that cause problems later on in their life. Reading is a different story, however- once they begin to realize that they're allowed to have autonomy in their life, they start to pick up on it more and develop a preference for what they like to read. That preference is romance novels, and no, quality doesn't count in the slightest. They're more fascinated by the dramatics of it all than the actual romance (though they think the romance is very sweet)

Third quirk is that I think Hollow is just naturally a very quiet person, in pretty much every sense of the word, and that's how they got away with being the Pure Vessel. They're just...still. Their body language is naturally subtle to nothing, they're not at all fond of 'speaking' in any sense of the word, and they generally prefer to just sit in the sidelines and observe the world and all its nuances by default. These are all characteristics that got amplified to unhealthy levels by the Pure Vessel plan, of course, but that's how they got away with seeming pure before they fully grasped the gravity of the situation (that, and the fact that they were paralyzed by overstimulation after being pulled from the dark hellhole of their birth to a blindingly white and relatively safe world for a good long while). Void-speech is more of a stream of shared consciousness detailing physical sensations and visuals and impressions rather than anything close to words, but if they were to have a void-name, it would be The Silent One. Post-ascension, it would be Bringer of Silence- Silence for short. They don't want anyone but their void siblings (and maybe PK) to call them that, however, because its similar to a true-name in that its uncomfortably close to their nature and thus not something they want revealed to the world.

Fourth is that they're hyperempathetic. This one's weird because they really have no reason to have this at all, given that both of their parents have little to no empathy simply bc of their nature- but they do. This pairs badly when you factor in how similar to PK they are in terms of depressive disorders and emotional dysfunction bc they care they care they care so much but they have no outlet for being able to care other than to give the entirety of themselves to, well...everything. What they went through was absolute hell and was a torture that no being should ever experience, and left them with extreme CPTSD, but if they were told that trying again would end with it working the second time around, they'd do it all again in a heartbeat. Hyperempathy + no sense of self-worth because they attribute all of that self-worth to their success of completing the task they believe is their life's purpose is not a good combo for their own good, but it also makes them an absolute nightmare to anything that gets in the way of caring for those they consider their own

Fifth is canon imo and it is that they are stubborn to an extreme. Good fucking luck trying to change their mind because it's not going to work and the more you attempt it the more they dig in their heels. This is a trait that is inherent to the entire Pale Family and yes this drives Hornet absolutely insane because she's so used to being the stubbornest person she knows so dealing with her just as stubborn family makes everything Even Worse

#gemisbored #hollow knight #the hollow knight #the pure vessel #pure vessel #hollow knight headcanons #ask game #ask meme #reply #i could talk about them for ages i love them so much

[mswyrr]

Things like prolonged abuse can give people very uneven social and emotional development. They can be very responsible and "mature for your age" in some areas and also very stunted and immature in others.

This can also happen for, say, LGBT people who were closeted during pivotal periods of development too, where dating and discovering themselves happens later and there can be a development gap for a time. And grief around never getting to be a kid when they were a kid can be a thing for people once they try to connect with the things they had to cut off because they weren't safe to feel them. I went through some of that myself, from various sources, so I have a lot of empathy for that and how absurd/frustrating it can be.

(And a lot of hope - it doesn't, as far as I've seen and experienced, take someone very long to "catch up" after a while of fumbling around like an idiot)

Anyway - sometimes I see people reading Carmy's "accidental fuckboi" behavior in terms of how a grown man who's been dating since he was a teen would be thinking/feeling, if he behaved like that. But, for me, I interpret that differently because of the “first” situation and the developmental stuff. IMO, he's basically being a feckless/inexperienced teenager dating for the first time here, because in this area of his life he is still developmentally a dumb feckless teenager (and one who is trying and failing "not to be shitty" without much of a clue what that looks like).

Doesn't make the harm less real, but the intent I think is shaped deeply by the fact that, for the first time in his life, he feels safe enough (because of how much responsibility Sydney and Nat are taking on and that is absolutely not fair to them!!) to try to enjoy things. And he thinks maybe he can even make that work with being responsible somehow, but... utterly clueless about how.

There's the caveat that he didn't go out and choose to start dating at this pivotal moment for the business - dating found him and there's complexities around how much he wanted it to find him right here and now and how much he feels obligated to be what his family/friends/Claire wants him to be. I think he'd have been able to turn down anyone who wasn't as deeply tied to his family as Claire, and I'm not ignoring his agency in the situation, but they chose to bring someone in who he'd find it incredibly difficult to balance pleasing/doing what he's expected to do by while balancing everything else for a reason.

The "executive function" stuff where he's staring at the calls coming in and unable to answer either of them is key for me, in terms of this being someone who just isn't functioning well rn at all and is coming to a real crisis point and trying to ignore that/salve that any way he can think of. Masking really hard and deep in denial and trying to keep a lot of plates spinning without being very intentional about any of it.

It leads to sucky behavior and he's responsible for that--and the other characters can and should hold him responsible for that, but especially for actually addressing the core gravity warping untreated mental illness that's motivating a lot of this frantic rushing around and being a prick-- but I don't personally see much of it as a crime of intent. Intent requires a level of insight and experience that he doesn't have in the area of dating specifically lol

That balance of someone being responsible for their actions but also, for various reasons, in a place that mitigates and shapes what they're able to do--based on the tools they have--is an interesting part of the story that gets touched on again and again through various characters. It's interesting and it can coexist with the people around someone having the right to protect their own peace and boundaries.

#carmen berzatto #sydcarmy #the bear meta #the bear #my meta #who among us was a model of perfect #insight and understanding #with the very first person they ever dated? #long post #i couldn't possibly hate or vilify claire - i am thankful to her #for being his first girlfriend #so sydney doesn't have to be and deal with that fumbling around bs! #lol #the writers chose to make claire his first ever girlfriend #for a reason #they chose to talk about #being emotionally/socially stunted due to abuse #and chose to have it be claire #in a normal life #claire would have been his high school girlfriend #but -- this is not a normal life #'you can never go back / and the answer is no' #'and wishing for it only makes it bleed' as tom waits put it

[the-bloody-sadist]

Do you mind if I ask you some random thing? I used to love shounen and shoujo manga equally....But ever since I found BL manga 3 years ago, my interest in shoujosei (especially het romance) decrese a lot, and what I search for is just the dynamic between mc (male) and male lead...I don't want to read mc (female) and male lead or mc (male) and female lead...And what I want to read mostly are just mlm or wlw stories....

What do you think is happening to me? Is it really weird?

Ooooooooo I LOVE YOU FOR ASKING ME THIS QUESTION!! THAT'S SO FASCINATING! THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING ME! If my friends know anything about me it's that I LOVE to psychoanalyze, so let's see what I can do here *cracks every knuckle*---

I'll preface by saying I have NOT read any het romance in the MANGA world at least--or otherwise japanese/chinese/korean sources--but did grow up only reading/watching/writing that and thinking I hated romance in general because it was so fucking boring LMAO. If I can compare any het media to non-American BL media, I would have to say anime is my only reference!

With that said, I came through the same arc you did. I tried het romance my whole life, suddenly fell upon BL, said WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS AND WHY IS IT SO GOOD COMPARED TO THE SHIT I'VE BEEN READING, never went back to het romance, and now do BL in all shapes and forms full-time.

What seems to be the big factor in BL/yaoi being so much more enjoyable is that there's an inherent difference in the dynamic of male/male vs. male/female--as portrayed by media, at least. And there's just something about that dynamic that makes it more gripping. It's easier to feel that line of tension between the characters, not to mention the fact that most male/male couples' conflict is far more relatable than the ones I see in female/male. In het media, I tend to see incredibly petty choices of conflict, whereas a LOT of BL chooses trauma, mental illness, and sometimes the acceptance of being gay as the reasons the couples struggle.

I identify far more with those issues than I do with the more stupid conflicts I see in het media like "HE'S WITH ANOTHER GIRL WHATEVER SHALL I DO!" (and it's just his sister) or "HOW DO I KNOW IF I ACTUALLY LIKE HIM? MAYBE I DON'T! LET ME THROW HIM FOR LOOPS AND GO BACK AND FORTH!" and other common, annoying tropes. Especially the jealousy and love triangles. BL does some love triangles, but it's just less...petty? There are usually more founded issues for the conflict that comes from those situations.

I say this with hesitation, but I also feel that BL/yaoi tends to have more creative and unseen concepts than het media. Actually--erase that hesitation. I believe that wholeheartedly. They tend to choose traumatic situations more often than het media--and this is the important part--THEY PORTRAY THEM IN A MORE REALISTIC MANNER.

This doesn't go for all BL because of course it doesn't. An entire genre of different writers--many good and many bad--can never have a singular good trait shared between all of them. But the majority of BL that I've read that include scenes of rape, child abuse, or sex trafficking keeps some sense of terror and gravity to the situation. That's something I tend to see less of in het media. Instead, things often feel more exploitative or voyeuristic. Suffering as a spectacle, as they say. However, it may just have something to do with the female gender being the victim, which we've all seen countless times in all shapes and forms. It feels fresh and new to see a male character going through those issues, instead.

On that topic, I would add that the main audience for romance as a whole has always been dominated by women, so women are more likely to be the consumers of both het and queer romance. When it comes to yaoi, the automatic power balance of male/female is gone, leaving only male/male and opening the option for different ways to imbalance that power--automatically feeling more creative and new than the age old female-victim-male-aggressor-but-he's-kinda-hot trope. In addition to this, so many het romances have unapologetic portrayals of romanticized abuse (The Notebook, 50 Shades of Grey, Blade Runner [speaking to the romance PLOT, sorry, more obscure], the After series, The Kissing Booth, and so on) that never get brought up, never seem to affect the female lead negatively, and always get the couple together in the end. This is endlessly infuriating to me and I've never enjoyed the popular het romances for this reason. It feels like gaslighting--gaslighting of the audience--to see harsh moments of outright abuse and then see the female lead react as if it's sexy, and to feel nothing but gut-freezing disgust as a viewer. It's even more painful when the audience around you also reacts in that way because they're so used to seeing it in your everyday het romance.

Contrasting this with yaoi/BL media--this issue is completely flipped. Countless stories show abuse, address the abuse, portray the male lead suffering from the effects of that abuse, and proceed with a motivation to fix, endure, or to run away from that abuse. To claim that yaoi/BL has less romanticization of said abuse is not wholly true, but the problem for me has always been that het romance PRETENDED THE ABUSE DID NOT EXIST AND/OR IS SEXY AND NORMAL. Whereas yaoi seemed more self-aware that they were writing abuse, and--if they chose to romanticize it--more often did so because the abuse was being experienced through the eyes of the victim. This is important because victims of abuse in reality DO this to cope and survive, so the romanticization is a direct result of a trauma response, and it's made far more clear in yaoi that this is the case.

This is why the kidnapping, Stockholm syndrome romances (Killing Stalking at the top), and toxic relationship themes in BL are far more attractive and validating to read.

Say, for instance, the romances that include themes of kidnapping, sexual assault, and captivity in het media. What have we got for that that's good and actually explores the nature of abuse? What I tend to see that meets that criteria (possibly) isn't really included in the romance category at all--it's either listed as horror or it's a lightened romcom version of that event (kidnapping, specifically)--unless you think of the more popular ones like 365 Days where it's supposed to be sexy and everyone has no brain. I might be flimsy on my point here, since this is the first time I've tried to pick apart this subject, so I apologize. But in addition to these het romances with the themes that I'd like to see not really existing in a way that's been done WELL--I also personally can't watch a woman getting hurt the way I can watch a man getting hurt.

We've seen enough women suffering onscreen, and most of the times the way it gets filmed ends up feeling sexualized in some way--especially if it's a horror movie or a thriller romance. I personally don't enjoy the lack of emotional depth in these types--and clearly they're most often written to be sexy or shock horror more than serious. Trauma doesn't feel real in these stories, so it's intensely triggering to watch it happen onscreen without a resolution to that trauma.

Going back to yaoi/BL, their romances include and very often feature abusive relationships or straight-up hostage romances. But the way they're handled is the big difference. Even though some treat the abuse like sexy porn scenes and I find myself dropping them for the same triggers that set me off in het media, this is much less of a problem, and you can get your thrills without the invalidation of watching trauma happen without being treated like trauma. There's often an arc of learning for the abuser, the relationship healing/improving (and I don't care that it's not morally correct or realistic for this to happen because it's fiction and we all need our coping mechanisms for reality), and a satisfying end where both the characters learn how to love each other. In their own way.

This makes the trauma feel raw and the healing feel rewarding, which is what I come to see. It feels like more BL writers get this and have actually been through some shit.

Lastly, it's not weird that you feel this way, and I'm worried that the discourse on social media about people who exclusively enjoy yaoi/BL has influenced that belief in a lot of people. It shouldn't be that way, and I hope people come around to the actual logic instead of copy-pasting what everyone else says to fit in!

IN ANY CASE, I HAVE RAMBLED FAR TOO LONG ON PRETTY MUCH THE SAME POINT, BUT I HOPE THIS HELPED!! That's the main difference that I'm drawn to yaoi for and I hope it might have helped you see why you are, too!!

Much love to you, and again, thank you SO MUCH FOR ASKING ME THIS QUESTION!! I loved getting to answer that.

#sadist’s answered asks #yaoi manga #yaoi discourse #I REALLY HOPE THAT WASN'T SUPER SLOPPY #I NEVER LEARNED TO WRITE ESSAYS ONLY FICTION #PLEASE HAVE GRACE FOR MY ABILITY TO MAKE #A POINT #THIS IS A THING I'VE LONG MUSED OVER #BUT IT'S SO HARD TO DIRECTLY PINPOINT IT IN WORDS #IT'S JUST A FEELING YOU KNOW?

[meteortrails]

saw someone somewhere say ‘idk what the story in cass becoming Batman would be’ and literally since that day I’ve thought about it. NON FUCKING STOP. I’m on an amusement park ride where the operator has not only refused to let me off but wholesale left the fucking building. bc fundamentally, Cass becoming Batman is a culmination of her choosing her own ideals and beliefs and rejecting those she was raised with, and it is also Cass learning new dimensions and strengths within herself. it’s both a logical next step and a transformation of what it means to be Batman, what Cass is capable of as a hero, what Cass is capable of as a PERSON.

to tackle this from one angle to begin with: to be Batman is to be the lynchpin of Gotham’s vigilante and crime scene. to be Batman is to be the sun around which everything else orbits, the gravity well that distorts everyone else’s behavior. you are responsible for both Gotham as whole, and wrangling/keeping tabs on/assembling all the personalities therein. Cass is someone who is so fiercely independent that I think this could become a really fun point of conflict in her Batman run! she’s only ever been a member of the team or an independent agent, she’s never been RUNNING HERD on everyone else.

how does her relationship with Barbara and her siblings change as a result of these shifting roles? how does she grow into these new responsibilities?? these are things that take her out of her reliable comfort zone of martial ability and explore the way her strengths translate into different arenas; her ability to read body language is something that will both serve her well and trip her up as she learns the shape of her new role (think that one episode of Wayne family adventures - you can see what people are feeling, that doesn’t mean you know how best to react to it). this all also allows a reinforcement of a fundamental truth: Cass’s strength and value both as a person and as Batman has so little to do with her physical capabilities and everything to do with her strength of conviction and commitment to doing good.

now, building off of that and also coming in from a different angle: as Cass becomes Batman, her relationship not only with her siblings will change, but with the roles that they inhabit. she’s an adult who is discovering new depths of what she is capable of and prepared to be responsible for - how does this shape her relationship with the mantle of Robin? it’s something that could be a really interesting later plot point, is her finding that connection that Bruce did to the children of Gotham, and finding her feet as a mentor and a guardian to the next generation. show me Cass rediscovering the ways in which her guardians failed her through her attempts to do right by those she has tasked herself to take care of. show me Cass trying to set these new generations free of the cycles of violence that have defined her life, even as she herself struggles to even find self worth outside of them.

and to look at that from yet another angle, there is an incredibly poignant story here about Cass finding herself as she takes on the symbol that she chose and makes it her own. she rejected the ideals she was raised with because she realized that she, as a person, values human life above all else. she choose the symbol of the bat because it reflected those ideals, and in doing so she chose Bruce as her father, and his family and ideals as the ones she will let hold sway in her life. her becoming Batman would be a commitment to that choice and to her core values, and I think any storyline worth it’s salt would at least on some level be about Cass seeing and learning to believe that the traits she values so much in Batman are things that are intrinsic to who she is as a person. she doesn’t need to contort herself to fit other’s expectations of what Batman should do or act like or look like or be good at, she just needs to be her, because Cass already is and was always going to be an embodiment of exactly what the Bat symbolizes. she doesn’t need to sacrifice herself to be perfect! she just needs to be herself!!! that’s valuable enough all on its own!!!!!

and if all of that wasn’t enough to convince you on its own, any story about Cass acting as a bat is a continuation of the idea that like. everyone who has ever been even a little bit important to you has shaped you, whether you liked them and wanted them to or not. and you’ll never truly escape that influence, but that doesn’t mean you’re a slave to it either. so many people have tried to twist Cass to their agendas, but none of them can ever change or touch who she is as a person. once you acknowledge the impact someone has had on you, you also have the power to respond to and determine the shape of that impact, and Cass is such a beautiful example of that! David Cain and lady shiva may have raised her and shaped her, but she’s her own person, and she gets to decide what of that influence she takes with her going forward bc at the end of the day she’s the master of her own life!! how is that not some of the coolest shit you’ve EVER HEARD.

anyways. in conclusion. there’s all KINDS of story folded into the idea of Cass becoming Batman, she’s so fucking amazing. can someone please let me off the carnival ride now.

#fucked up that my posts keep just getting longer and more unhinged :/ #pls talk to me about this if you have further thoughts/arguments I’m genuinely so interested #cannot believe this was me trying to be CONCISE you could write a whole book of meta analysis about her character alone. #batman #cassandra cain #batgirl

[bucky-boychik-barnes]

Sending hugs always!

3. Biggest self-insert OC?

4. What kind of music do your OCs listen to?

5. What are some of your OCs biggest fears?

6. Do you have any OCs without stories? Will you ever create one for them?

7. What are your favourite relationships between your OCs? (romantic or platonic!)

8. Do you have any OC family trees?

9. Favourite OC?

Please and thank you!

3. Biggest self-insert OC?

Sarah started out as a self-insert OC in a Xavier's School RP on the Ctrl+Alt+Del forums, in the eaaaarly 2010s. Since then, she's absolutely developed to be her own character, but she's sort of the person I would like to be now, regarding her chosen family, love of cooking/baking, and being creative. Meanwhile Oz has all of the money I wish I had and more, and Angie is as confident and cool as I want to be.

4. What kind of music do your OCs listen to?

I definitely can't list them all, just because I have so many OCs, so I will focus on my favorites for the rest of the questions, haha. Sarah loves artists like BABYMETAL and Paramore, her older sister Angie has a giant range of likes from Halestorm to Gary Allan, Oz is a big Britney Spears and general pop music/Top 40 fan.

5. What are some of your OCs biggest fears?

Oz hates all bugs, snakes, and lizards - it gets a tiny bit better when Doyle starts showing an interest in herpetology, but not much. Sarah has had to go to therapy to stop being anxious anytime she starts to get hungry, but she still carries snacks with her everywhere. Neither of them are a fan of men being loud and aggressive. Most of Angie's fears involve Sarah getting hurt in any way, shape, or form. (He is not okay when she goes through her one pregnancy - especially when he finds out about pregnancy psychosis.)

6. Do you have any OCs without stories? Will you ever create one for them?

Angie's wife, Rayne, and one of Oz's relationships, Andy, don't get written about enough. I really hope to change it someday.

7. What are your favorite relationships between your OCs? (Romantic or platonic!)

I love Oz and Calum's relationship, and how they are basically childhood sweethearts. They also have a third partner later in their life--a sweet, scholarly astrology nerd named Jakob that I haven't posted anything about on AO3, but have plenty of old WIPs with him. I also love that Oz has so much love in his life - not just from his family and partners, but he has so many friends. He considers Nic, Andy's wife, to be his platonic partner as well as best friend - they are married in a Bridgerton AU to save both of them from a life of misery.

8. Do you have any OC family trees?

Most of my OCs have fleshed out parents and siblings, though there are a few only children. Sarah and Angie are siblings, with Sarah four years younger. Oz has a sister that is two years younger than he is. There is a Gravity Falls AU that I like to think about, but idk if I will ever write, where Angie and Jakob are twins/stand-ins for Stan and Ford, and Sarah's grandkids are stand-ins for Dipper and Mabel.

9. Favorite OC?

Angie. He's such an asshole and has done and gone through so much, but he also made the decision to be better, and worked so hard to do it. He earned the relationships he has with his wife and Sarah, (they lost touch for a few years, Angie was in a bad place and acted like a dick to drive Sarah away 'for her own good') and beat his own mental health and cancer, and has a life he never thought he would have. (He always thought he would be a Very Unimportant Member of the 27 Club.)

#original characters #my ocs #my writing

[danceofthephilos]

Kaoru Sakurayashiki Character Intro + Hikaru Midorikawa Interview (spoon.2Di vol.71)

"Carla, calculate the angle."

Kaoru Sakurayashiki

"S" Name: Cherry Blossom Birthday: March 27th One of the big names at "S". Assisted by his AI partner Carla, he calculates the theoretical best way to skate. His public face is that of a famous AI calligrapher. He and Nanjo are childhood friends, and fight like cats and dogs.

Hikaru Midorikawa Interview

—Midorikawa-san, what sort of person do you feel Cherry Blossom is? Could you tell us any dialogue or scenes you think are key to understanding Cherry Blossom's character?

He's an overly complicated character, so I still don't understand him very well. (wry laughter) However, if I make a mistake in my performance, I can be corrected on it, and that's a part of acting I enjoy as well. It'd be nice to see how he came to be like this depicted someday. (laughter) As for what's important at this stage, that would be his constant low-level arguments with Joe. (laughter)

—What do you consider important in portraying Cherry Blossom, and what direction did you receive?

Like I said just a moment ago, his fighting with Joe is over the top to the point of being childish. (laughter) And delivering lines with a low center of gravity to make it feel like he's riding his board.

—In the episodes up to 7 that have been broadcast so far, are there any of Cherry Blossom's scenes or dialog that have had a particularly lasting impression on you?

Naturally, his scenes with Joe. Is it that they get along so well they can argue? (laughter) I thought Cherry was a cool character type at first, so I had the feeling like, "You're really going that far!?" but now I've completely gotten used to it. (laughter) Also, I'm interested in how kind he is to Carla. Why? (laughter)

—Cherry Blossom is constantly arguing with Joe, but Midorikawa-san, how do you feel about Cherry Blossom and Joe's relationship? What did you consider important when you were playing their interactions?

If they really had a bad relationship, they probably wouldn't take things that far. (laughter) Because there are so many scenes like that, we have to be mindful of keeping up a good tempo. I'm sure they've known each other for a long time and been repeating themselves for aaaaaaages, so it has to feel smooth, doesn't it? (wry laughter)

—Regarding Cherry Blossom, Joe, and ADAM, what impression do you have of them? Could you also give us your impressions of ADAM's skating scenes in episodes 4 and 5?

Something definitely happened between them in the past, didn't it? It's funny how Cherry has some kind of burning desire to fight him, but keeps getting flippantly ignored by ADAM. (laughter) As for ADAM's skating, it's absolutely crazy. (laughter) But it makes me want to watch it over and over again, or rather, it's addictive. (wry laughter)

—And what are your impressions of the student characters, Reki and Langa?

Absolutely adorable! Pure! Please skate together for your whole lives! ♪

—Is there anything in the upcoming story you think we should pay particular attention to, or look forward to?

How will Reki, who hasn't yet gotten to do anything protagonist-like, shape up to fill the position of a protagonist? (wry laughter) Also, Reki and Langa's friendship. I'd like them to keep being friends for a loooooong time.

(from spoon.2Di, volume 71 - February 2021)

#sk8 #sk8 the infinity #kaoru sakurayashiki #hikaru midorikawa #translation #spoon.2Di

[jaydoubler]

Whisper Me a Love Song (Sasayaku You ni Koi o Utau): Ship Rant

Where love takes on different shapes for each person...

♥⁠╣Asanagi Yori × Kino Himari╠⁠♥

Volumes 1-3 mostly focuses on the main protagonists, Himari and Yori. They each had their own meaning of love which made it difficult for them to get together right away but hey, who says we all understand what love is especially when we're just starting out anyway? They might've had troubles putting their feelings into words but, they finally manage to reach a mutual understanding by the end of Volume 3—reciprocating each other's feelings. In the middle of that though (Volume 2), Aki's interest in Yori was revealed to Himari—introducing her as a love rival that consequently helped Himari reflect on the gravity of the word "love".

♥⁠╣Asanagi Yori & Mizuguchi Aki╠⁠♥

However, that is only actually short-lived since Aki chooses to support them and hide her feelings instead—choosing to protect the friendship and happiness of the one she secretly loves over her own feelings (damn, don't worry Aki, you have someone just as hot that's pining for you lmao). It was in a short flashback at the end of Volume 1 that shower a younger Aki (probably in first year since her hair wasn't dyed yet) falling in love at first sight with a certain lone singer at a rooftop. This means she's been hiding her feelings for at least 2 years already man...

♥⁠╣Izumi Shiho (×) Mizuguchi Aki╠⁠♥

But it seems romance would be the farthest thing from Aki's mind right now after the heartbreak as Izumi Shiho—SSGIRLS's former guitarist/lead vocalist—formally enters the story at the end of Volume 3, foreboding a complicated relationship with SSGIRLS's bassist. This bitter old friend aggressively returns to flip Aki's life upside down as she reveals to her former best friend her knowledge of Aki's secret love. It's a love that she was able to hide for the past two years, so how could've she known something that even the recipient didn't pick up on? Well, I don't know if anyone was surprised: it turns out that she too, has been carrying secret feelings—something that Shiho attempted to convey through a letter but instead found out about Aki's own secret feelings—for another.

♥⁠╣Whispering You a Love Song╠⁠♥

Their story still hasn't reached a proper conclusion yet as each side still has no closure over the abrupt ending of their friendship. A lot of people hate Izumi Shiho for acting the way she is because certainly, Aki doesn't deserve all the bitterness she gets from her former friend just because of unrequited feelings that she doesn't even know about. However, whenever flashbacks of their past is shown, I get weak for the possibility that they reconcile and slowly progress towards a romantic relationship. With the way they are now and the heavy and bitter past behind them, I don't think they are going to date right away even after Aki learns of her feelings because there's just too much going on.

Love that is reciprocated—a happy ending.

Secret love that hopes for the other's happiness—a bittersweet feeling.

Hidden love consumed by jealousy and bitterness—a strife never-ending.

#takeshima eku #eku takeshima #sasayaku you ni koi wo utau #whisper me a love song #whispering you a love song #gl #yuri #yuri nation #gxg #lesbian #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+ #gl manga #yuri manga #yuri hime #sasakoi #manga #girls love #high school #school band #japanese #unrequited love #love at first sight #secret crushes

[sundaypenacony]

⋆｡°★ [5] Thoughts about the new leaks - Part 2

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ WARNING: This post will talk about a lot of story leaks and character leaks in general. This post will talk about an analysis I did before which mentions a religious cult named "The Family" by David Brandt Berg which is known for SA but besides that, it is also known for, abuse, shunning, religious discrimination, conversion therapy, ritual abuse, child abuse, etc.

Credit to StepLeaker for the leaks , the_chanels and blednay

⋆｡°★ Story Leaks

⋆｡°★ Storyleaks P1

Isn't the Trailblazer having so much fun...! As always!

I am just lost who the heck the "Clock Boy" is supposed to be... Also Watchmaker is interesting to see... I do wonder what the hell is going in this leak, I wonder if this is a kind of "dream" that is happening, because why would Sampo turn into that but also why would Sampo attack Trailblazer out of nowhere?

⋆｡°★ Dream Hotel

Also what could the Dream Hotel exactly be? Well I tried to look into on of the Relic setsnamed "Penacony, Land of the Dreams" where one of the relics is named "Penacony, Land of the Dreams" which I assume is the hotel the leaks are talking about.

Okay so, reading the description of the relic does give a little bit more information about what this hotel may be.

It is mentioned when entering the hotel the scenery gradually becomes more and more incredulous and it feels like one has been lifted by silk how other quests may even walk on walls and defy gravity. This is also mentioned in the leak, how the Trailblazer is floating. They than go on to mention things that are very different to what it is originally.

Then the most important part is mentioned: "They were never awake, but are instead witnessing Penacony's true nature in a dream - a place where time stops in a neverending dreamscape." When they enter the hotel they are under the rule of The Family and how some quests who have suffered a lot of pain come to this hotel to soothe their worries and wounds.

Afterwards, they go on to mention the past of this hotel and how "the thread that weaves the dreams comes from reality" which suggests a connection between dreams and real-life experiences and how the fabric of our dreams, the imaginative and often surreal scenarios we experience during our sleep, is influenced by the events, emotions, or situation we encounter. The dreams are shaped by our experiences in the real world.

Than something else they mention is how the Hotel used to be an IPC (Interastral Peace Corporation) prison where countless inmates were relocated to salvage the overflowing Memory Bubbles for the Garden of Recollection. "People repeated their endless toils until their bodies were as heavy as lead, but their souls became as light as bubbles. At some unknown point in time, the small cells cut off access to reality, but people's consciousnesses became linked in dreams. In the midnight bell, that shared dream seemed so real, reflecting the sheer hypocrisy of reality."

In the Link Rope (which will also be mentioned more about later), they go more into the IPC past of the big metropolis. They mention how the IPC sent a huge number of prisoners to the Asdana star System in an attempt to stop a catastrophe from spreading. There, people reclaimed memoria, gradually becoming lost between fantasy and reality. The spherical work chambers in a vacuum became an unforgettable "memory" for the prisoners. When others who regained freedom went to discover the dreamscape, the cages went along with them and they mention how they instead of trying to destroy the inescapable nightmares, they embrace it and add "colour" to this place.

Then they go on to mention how The Destruction stopped the IPC and how the Trailblaze "connected this frontier to the other stars" which probably implies how they did an expansion of exploration beyond localized area. And then The Harmony (Xipe) was the one to establish and encourage peaceful relations.

After this happened, they erected a myriad of skyscrapers and rebuilt it into a metropolis that is a new place for dreamers in search of wealth and opportunities and the best place for those who want to search for indulgence and pleasure. And the rest of the text greatly emphasises how they don't talk about the past.

We also have the Link Rope of this set named the "Penacony's Dream-Seeking Tracks" which talks about how only people who "stay and dream" are considered to have officially arrived at Penacony. Now I wonder how many people have gotten stuck there...

They talk about the Spheroids which are the main transportation in the dreamscape metropolis and guide guests around every place of the city. BUT! They also mention how the vehicles are actually imprisonment cages and how they were originally used to lock up prisoners.

Also, they start to mention some places in this metropolis named the "Moment of Daybreak", "Moment of Scorchsand" and a stadium called the "Moment of Stars".

"In the present, the fast-moving colorful Spheroids moving all over Penacony and the slight reverberations coming from within them... are all quietly hidden in the light of the dream city, blending in with the ambitions and laughter, like a land of dreams where time forever stands still."

⋆｡°★ Storyleaks P2

Well now that we know what this Hotel is and that we have more info about Penacony we can continue!! I feel like what the Trailblazer at the moment is experiencing is sort of a dream, but I do wonder how much of this is actually a dream and how much isn't.

A couple of characters are mentioned after this and for people who are unware of who they are here is a list!

⋆｡°★ Firefly / Sam

Firefly or also knows as Sam is a leaker character for Honkai Star Rail who is a Stellaron Hunter. They were the one to go with Kafka to recruit Blade and held Blade down to give Kafka the time to convince Blade and went with Blade and Kafka to recruit Silver Wolf.

In the story the will reveal they're Sam by saying:

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hide it from you, I just... I just wanted to get to know you as 'Firefly' instead of 'Sam'. Wil you forgive me? You will forgive me, right?"

It is also mentioned that she is frail girl who is searching for the meaning of life.

⋆｡°★ Archeron

In leaks it is mentioned how she comes to Penacony as a Galaxy Ranger and attend the Family's banquets. She later reveals her true identity as an Emanator of the Void. She is an IX emanator of Abundance, a "Self-Annihilator" born out of nothingness with no memory or past, wielding a sword that cuts off the path of life. (cough Sigma kinnie ok bye)

She is described as a cold and silent intergalactic ronin, an ascetic imperial maiden. She has embarked on a lonely journey for vengeance, but still seems to have goodness in her heart.

⋆｡°★ Black Swan

She is the memo keeper of the Garden of Recollection. I think her voice line leaks explain it better than what I can say really. It is mentioned how she cannot get into trailblazer memories.

⋆｡°★ Adventurine

Adventurine is an employee of the IPC Strategic Investment Department. He is a coworker of Topaz and it mentioned how Diamond (their boss) has given him a major project involving Penacony (wow how surprising IPS cannot stay away huh).

⋆｡°★ Robin

Robin: A leader of The Family - a faction aligned with the Path of Harmony on Penacony. She appears in the Dreamscape as an agent of Watchmaker - the true master of Penacony - and sends invitations to members of all the families to attend a banquet on Penacony.

She also has some insane powers that she uses to get people to join The Family, like holy macaroni see this. Also it mentioned how she wants to eliminate Watchmaker so...! Let's say she is NOT loyal to them.

⋆｡°★ Storyleaks P3

OKAY YES- Now we are back to the story leaks! Sorry, I had a lot to explain first before we could really get into it. The trailblazer is at the hotel mentioned above and is basically really experiencing all the effects of this hotel. I do wonder how Watchmaker got into this... Especially when they make such a big connection between real life and a dream and how much life influences dreams.

At the arrival of Penacony, I feel like they were getting used to the weird gravity thing in the Hotel and then meet Robin and Sunday (<333 theeeemmmm explodes). There was also another leak of voicelines between these three:

"Robin: Are you all right?

Trailblazer: I seem to be seeing hallucinations…

Robin: Haha, this is normal for people who enter "dreamland" for the first time.

Sunday: It seems that this guest isn't used to the change from reality to the dream world. Don't worry, this kind of weightlessness is common among travelers who are new to the dream world.

Sunday: Robin, please help our friend better adapt to this dream.

Robin: Leave it to me.

Robin: It's okay. Just relax. It'll be over soon.

Robin: "Breathe in." …… "Breathe out." ……

Robin: You are now in complete control of your dreams, {NICKNAME}—welcome to Penacony."

So this is the part where they get introduced to Penacony.

Now for the part where they mention Firefly having a teardrop in the corner of her eye, I feel like this is something that happens later after certain events that I cannot predict, sadly,,, Trailblazer is I think getting some kind of dream again that does resonate with reality.

And well than! Firefly and Archeron get into a fight...! GREAT! I feel like Archeron, as how is mentioned, does have a kind heart so I feel like she may be protecting the Trailblazer because they know about them being Stellaron Hunters, though I am a little unsure about this claim.

And than Black Swan just drags the Trailblazer away! GREAT! Like they aren't having enough already lol. Blackswan is the one that is the memo keeper of the Garden of Recollection. I think they do have something to do with the IPS because of the entire "prison where countless inmates were relocated to salvage the overflowing Memory Bubbles for the Garden of Recollection". Hence why Aventurine is there, who literally WORKS for IPS and got a job for the Penacony from his boss. I do feel like it has something to do with the Garden of Recollection but absolutely the past of the hotel and Penacony in general with the IPS.

THAN! Look at that! Robin's fake death! Which confirms this event all took place in World 3 where Robin performs her own death in order to force out and eliminate Watchmaker...! Dang the puzzle pieces are really connecting now...

The story feels a little chaotic at the moment and there absolutely some parts between the leaks missing.

⋆｡°★ Light Cones Leaks

Baptism, ah, here I go again back with my Christian references.

Okay, so the emphasis on cleanliness and the idea that "truth eludes impurity and can only be approached by purity" resonates with the Christian concept of moral purity and the idea of being cleansed of purified thoughts by repentance. Christianity often talks about living a righteous life, how the lightcones talk about how the idea of truth is approached through purity is probably them saying how like in the Bible maintaining moral integrity and avoiding behaviours is considered sinful. Furthermore, the concept of purity and truth is found in passages in the Bible like for example in Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God".

⋆｡°★ Chinese

I DON'T KNOW CHINESE ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO TRANSLATE THESE WELL ENOUGH BUT I DO READ SOME THINGS ABOUT PENACONT AND THE GARDEN OF RECOLLECTION SOBBING

I will try to translate these some other times and get more into it, but I cannot promise good translations because my Chinese knowledge is very very limited.

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ THANK YOU FOR READING!

#hsr

[thekingofwinterblog]

Tolkien's forgotten dragons

So going over a gallery of tolkiens personal artwork, you learn a lot of lesser details about his legendarium that's not exactly mainstream.

Like learning that all flying servants of Sauron(most famously the nazgul) had their own coat of arms a unit, or that they had a specific name(Mordors Special Mission Flying Corps, no im not making that up, that's the actual canon name).

Or the story of Turin getting that damned bridge built across the river from Nargothrond, which if you just reqd the text might not seem like the worst idea ever... Until you look at an actual draging of the gates of nargothrond, and you realize that any army of large enough size could have crushed their way through provided they knew where it was.

(Honestly the elves of Beleriand, whatever else their talents might have included, they were not very good at defensive fortifications)

But there is one aspect of them that really stood out to me because it completely recontextulizes a lot of Tolkien's works.

His dragons.

Now we all know Tolkien's Dragons, most famous being Smaug, and depending on your age, ans how you were introduced to the legendarium, you probably know him from one of the above portrayals.

Enormous, huge body, massive batlike wings, the only genuine difference being wheter he has 4 legs or two.

It's a very iconic image, seared into every single person who is a tolkien fan, wheter it be of smaug, or Glaurung, or Ancalagon the black.

All throughouth Tolkiens works, dragons are also refered to ubder the secription "Wyrm" which likely brings to mind the image above of Glaurung. Not a conpletely different concept, but a dragon that is more hunched over, his center of gravity being more to the geound so he looks more snake like.

But that's not at all what it means.

It is also a completely false impression of how Tolkien's dragons actually looked.

Because Tolkiens dragons... Looked like this.

Tolkiens dragons are called wyrms, because just like eastern dragons, they are very much meant to be snake like.

They have incredibly long, serpentine bodies, massive whip like tails, with a lesser neck between the upper set of legs and the head, and they have very clear and large ears along with huge heads.

Meanwhile their legs have a very peculiar shape to them, with smaller back joins and massive front parts above the feet.

Obviously they could be a bit bigger and thicker, as aeen with Tolkien's drawing of Glaurung setting forth from Nargothrond, but the very unique design remains. He and all his kind were far more like snakes, than they were dinosaur like.

We also get to see tolkiens ideas of how his dragons looked evolve over time.

Here is how Tolkien first drew Smaug, and though very different from how later adaptions make dragons, he is not quite there yet. His tail isnt whip like enough, he lacks the distinct shape of the legs, and though Tolkiens smaug was never the level of the Live action movie's behemoth, he is still a bit too small, along with lacking the dragons enormous head compared to their body ratio.

Meanwhile, here we have a later sketch of his final moments, and you can see Tolkien's idea of his dragons have solidified completely, the legs, the head, the enormous size(comparing him to the buildings of laketown, he has to be twice as big here as the previous sketch if not more), anf of course that incredibly long, whiplike tail that only tolkien's dragons have.

Its a very interesting take on dragons, more in line with Avatar the last airbender than any actual adaption of tolkiens work.

It also makes Ancalagon the Black's apparent size come across very differently.

Maybe he really was as big as some imagine him... But he would have been a giant, flying serpent, ala. Jormungandr the world serpent from norse mythology, not a living mountain as most takes draws him as.

#tolkien's legendarium #j r r tolkien #smaug #ancalagon #glaurung #dragons #meta

[percyarchive]

i treat love like a new dimension. if time is the fourth dimension, and 4D beings interact with our world like gods, crafting our realities, then id like to think of love as the fifth.

there are only so many things that effect every organism, living and not living

- The three dimensions we all recognize, x,y, z, width, height, and depth. This is true for all things, because we live in a 3D world, nothing is truly flat even if it seems like it. Even atoms have height, width and depth, even air.

- The dimension of time. We can only feel the effects of time, and not see it as a tangible dimension, because our world is 3D, not 4D. But supposing there is another plane of existence with four dimensions, including time, the concepts of gods crafting worlds and universes begin to make sense.

I think of it this way, to make it easier to understand. The existence of a 3D world, like ours, suggests a hypothetical world that is 2D- completely flat. Say we had access to these 2d worlds somehow (Superstring Theory/ Parallel Universe theory) we, as 3D beings could shape their reality- creating and destroying entire worlds simply by drawing. Someone's painting could be a universe for these beings. So, imagine a 4D being that found access to a 3D universe.

Theoretically they could create and destroy and mold entire universes in our dimension, and because we can't comprehend or fathom what a 4D being could look like, we posit them as gods, a being that is always there but never physically seen. And we cannot fathom 4D, because it doesnt exist in our plane- it's like trying to imagine what other colors are out there outside of variations of ROYGBIV, and it's impossible because, we as humans, cannot and will never be able to perceive different colors, despite knowing that they exist due to the limitations of being human. We know different dimensions exist, but it's impossible to perceive due to the limitations of only having three dimensions.

So when I think of gods of higher beings, I imagine them as 4D or even 5d beings that have mastered travel through parallel universes, basically running Sims simulators on our universe. And the longer I think about it, the more fascinated I become with the idea because I think about how God couldn't come down to earth by himself. Christians tell the story of God coming down in the form of his son, because 'Nobody can see God and live.' Like, is it because humans cannot fathom a fourth dimensional being??? So this being made a representational version of itself into our world so that we would be able to fathom it.

Like imagine a stick figure seeing a 3D human for the first time. Itd freak the FUCK out, so like I can imagine a human freaking the fuck out if we saw a 4D creature. Or even like that anatomically correct angel, where it's said that the sight of them are so horrific and awful that the sight of one will kill a human.

And if time is a fourth dimension that we feel and exist in but cannot tangibly feel, what are the others? Is consciousness another dimension? Is love another dimension? What are things we can feel happening to us but cannot touch? Gravity!! are those dimensions?

This is my special interest so I could talk for hours and hours about the connection of religion/spirituality to quantum physics, but for now I will simply link some fun articles and videos about it and write another essay another day.

#this is what happens when quantum theory is your special interest #quantum physics

[fishymom-art]

I've lost my mind, okay...

If the m&i guys and the gravity falls guys met, would they communicate?

Who would be more outgoing and who would rather leave before the next Weirdmageddon starts?

Also..

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH fkjlwfbsj

Thanks for everything you do for us that means a world ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Well that’s an interesting concept XD

Ford would probably be fascinated by how weird everything is and how strange everybody looks. He (and probably Dipper haha) will try to explore the studio! “Try”, because guys would never let them walk off on their own X)

Dipper just goes around and listens to everyone’s stories and finds every single one extremely fun and cool, until Sammy goes from telling his story to complaining about everyone in the studio (especially Joey). When he meets Henry they just… sit down, breath out and go “oh mY GOD I AM SO DONE WITH THIS PLACE”

Mabel will give beauty and love advises to those who have a lot of drama around it phphphph. She’s be scared of Datura after she’s told how he handled his relationships throughout his life hahahahaha.

Bill wanted to hang out with Nightmare, because he’s very powerful and a demon (although Bendy also fits this description, but Bill finds him boring). Nightmare doesn’t like him tho. He also really wants to get into Joey’s mind. And, of course, find out about the Golden Timeline and how it works because come on, that’s rebirth, time bending and shaping, and two completely different universes connected to each other, because of one single thing. There’s no way he’s missing out on something like that.

Stan just didn’t go because no thank you I ain’t dealing with another weird demon magic thingamajig

#fishymom-ask #ALSO THANK YOU VERY MUCH YOU ARE VERY KIND ILY TOO!!!! #metal and ink #gravity falls

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

12 and 14 please!

From the Unpublished Fic Asks? Sure! Lemme see..

12. How far have you planned ahead?

Usually this depends on how long the fic feels.

Feels like <20K I dont plan. I just start from whatever scene got me hooked and i spin the idea forward or back from there.

Feels like >20K. I usually write whatever scene got me hooked and then figure out the basic premise of every chapter. what are the major plot points i need to build out. I dont start writing anything else until I at least have all the tentative chapter titles and 1 big thing that will happen in them. Anything in the middle is usually pretty flexible but i need to know the ending or else i cant really get far.

Now where I get into trouble is fics like Out of Reach or Unbroken.

Out of Reach (Chakotay gets amnesia) I never thought it would get as long as it did and I had built it up to be quite big without knowing which ending i wanted. im still debating what i want there and how the characters can achieve it.

Unbroken (Basics rewrite) god i thought i had this one but the ending wound up being too vague. so that i had a hard time grasping the full shape of the story. and that's made writing the middle very complicated. i need the ending to make sense, have the gravity and impact that it needs to but that means the middle has to go just right. exploring that has been fun but definitely dont want to share more yet because i keep tweaking things.

14. Is there any unwritten/unpublished fics you planned on doing, but now you're feeling like you're gonna scrap those ideas?

Ive scrapped a lot recently...

mirrorverse-esque J/C. struggled with the characterization.

Pirates of the Caribbean AU J/C - it started as a killing game scenario but i really am not enthused by watching them lose. Then i thought it could be an interesting historical AU but the amount of research to give it the authenticity it deserves is more than I have time for. I think I'd still like to do it to see KJ Elizabeth Swanning all over the place. but maybe create it as its own unique holodeck adventure instead.

It's hard for me to say im truly scrapping any though because usually i canabalize the scrap heap and the ideas will wind up useful to some other fic. That was the case for my first Voyager fanfic. I envisioned Maquis Heart as a 3 part YOH alternate ending but while working on part 3 i realized i'd rather have it be the kick off for a longer story about what it was like reconnecting with Earth in Season 4. So i shelved that for later.

#that writing life #elephantwrites #fic asks #fanfiction #ask game #ask me anything #thank u for the ask!

[fleverian]

New group of characters! I had some of these designs sitting around for a while, because there were parts I didn’t know how to draw. I ended up just doing sketches of those desings (which are the last three, I’m just not very good at creature design) 

Some of these drawings have been sitting around for nearly a year and I had to make a few changes to them because the proportions and hands and stuff looked even more off than they usually do. The ones with the thicker lines are the older ones. 

I almost forgot what the whole story was with these three. I think I remember most of it though. I think I took a lot of inspiration from Gravity Falls and It. 

Penny and Melody live in a very small town, it’s in a valley surrounded by mountains. Melody has lived there her whole life and Penny moved there when she was younger. I haven’t really figured out their family lives and backstories completely. Melody has a really big family with lots of siblings. Penny is an only child. Melody is loud and outgoing and adventurous while Penny is a shy and quiet book worm type. 

Penny’s family moved to the town for a reason that will be important to her character, but I haven’t decided on that reason yet. They meet soon after Penny moves to town and become fast friends. Melody enjoys Penny’s company because it’s nice to be around someone’s who’s calm and actually listens to her. Melody has so many siblings she often feels overlooked and talked over. And Penny has such vastly different interests than most people in town she finds it exciting to talk to her. 

Penny doesn’t make friends easily, Melody is basically the only friend she made since moving to town years ago. Penny is a genius but she’s too shy to talk to most people. When she tries to talk to people her age she’s often made fun of because they think she’s just trying to sound smart. She became friends with Melody because they met at a young age and Melody was the one who initiated the conversation. Melody actually loves to hear her talk about her interests (which is science or something smart idk) even if she doesn’t understand a lot of it. 

The problem is Melody makes friends very easly. While none of them are as close to her as Penny, she’s still very social and gets along with people. Penny is always afraid she’s going to lose her or they’ll drift apart, which ends up leading to jealousy sometimes. And Melody isn’t great with emotions, while she’s loyal and loves her friends she often doesn’t pick up on the more subtle things and doesn’t realize if someone is upset. She very much lives in the moment and doesn’t put much thought into the future. Penny on the other hand worries a lot, she often looks too much into what people say and often derives meaning where there is none. She’s always worried she’ll lose her friendship with Melody because of something she said or did. She’s just very self concious and is always afraid she might come off as annoying in some way. 

Melody would never think ill of her or consider her annoying and never realizes Penny is so worried about these things. 

One day during summer they are exploring the woods, there’s not much else to do around town. They end up wandering further than they’ve ever gone and stumble across an old large abondoned building. This is where they meet Echo.

Echo is an immortal interdimensional being that crossed over to our dimension and has been stuck here for years. (I don’t know how many I haven’t figured out the timeline yet). Echo doesn’t have a gender and goes by any pronouns but I’m just going to use he for him for this. 

Echo is part of a race of beings that don’t remember when or how they came to exist. They do not age, and they cannot die as far as they know and can take almost any form. They have always existed in their dimension/universe. They do not have much sense of self and instinct is what most drives them. They were meant to destroy and create, to shape they universe they exist in. But they never really figured out the create part. I think they along with the universe they exist in were created by some powerful being or god but then abandoned before they ever got to know their purpose. 

They never learned what they are or their purpose so they ended up destroying and consuming what existed in their dimension. They consume and become more powerful but when their is nothing left of their dimension they try to reach into another one. One of them figured out how tear open a hole to another dimension. The portal they opened sent them to another universe but closed before the others were able to cross. In the process of crossing dimensions they lost most memories of where they came from or who they were, their mind was not much more than that of a wild animal. In this universe they were less powerful than they were in their original, able to be harmed, and needed to eat to survive instead of just for power. 

After ending up in this dimesion they basically existed as a cryptid for years. Mostly staying hidden in woods. They would eat animal or people they came across. 

Penny and Melody stumble across them while they are hiding in an abondoned building. They almost become the creature’s next meal. Most people that encountered them were paralyzed with fear, for they could take any horrifying shape in order to frighten their prey. But Melody was the first human to seemingly show no fear (she was actually terrified lol). She attacked the creature with a branch and when that failed and she was backed into a corner she stood in front of Penny with her arms out to protect her. 

The creature doesn’t understand these actions and is curious. For the first time they try taking a shape similiar to the humans they usuallly preyed upon. They change it a few times until they find one the humans seem less afraid of. The humans still seem scared and  they don’t understand why (he’s not very smart at this point) They reach out a hand and the red haired human seems hesitant before reaching forward and taping one of their fingers and says “one too many’” before spreading her own fingers and wiggles them. It seems humans only have five fingers. (they don’t pay much attention to detail and usually get something wrong on whatever they shift into) 

So Melody actually befriends the horrifying creature and names them Echo. Penny doesn’t like this, at all. And she has good reason lol. This was not Melody’s brightest move. How about we don’t befriend things that eat people Melody? 

She argues with Melody about how absolutely terrible of an idea this is but Melody doesn’t seem worried. 

So Penny’s going to be stuck hanging out with her bestfriend and her bestfriends pet shapeshifter all summer it seems. 

Melody starts teaching Echo about how to act like a person. How to talk and not kill, you know, the basics. Echo is a quick learner and for the first time in his whole existence actually develops true awareness and a sense of self. He still doesn’t have memories of what he was before though and most of his time on earth is foggy. 

Melody starts spending more time with Echo and becoming friends with him. While not neglecting her friendship with Penny, her attention is divided. Penny becomes jelous and feels like her friend is being stolen away by this monster. Does Melody actually prefer this thing over her? 

Melody is just thick skulled and doesn’t realize that, hey, maybe making friends with the eldric horror wasn’t the best decision you’ve ever made and your’re pushing your best friend away because of it. 

They have a bit of a falling out at one point or an argument and Penny stops spending as much time around Melody. 

One day Melody is with Echo out in the woods and Echo starts to remember, his life on Earth and before. It’s too much for him and the power he does have starts going out of control. 

At the same time Penny shows up, she was looking for Melody so she could apologize for the argument (even though she did nothing wrong) She shows up right as Echo is freaking out. 

He shifts into his other dimensional form and unconciously opens a portal that goes out of control and Penny sees her friend pulled through it. The portal begins pulling everything around into it, Penny lets herself be pulled toward it and grabs onto Echo before she is pulled in and stabs him in the eye with her glasses. This closes the portal and Penny is thrown backwards. The last thing she see before she blacks out is Echo burrowing deep into the earth. 

She wakes up in a hospital with her parents there. She finds out a part of the forest and town was destroyed. She was found near the site of origin. There’s goverment people there who question her, they’re researching into what happened. She tells them she doesn’t remember because she doesn’t think anyone will believe her. But she developes a plan. She’s going to find Echo and make him open the portal and get Melody back. 

When she’s released from the hospital her family moves again. Penny throws herself into her school studies. She graduates high school early and goes to college to get a degree that will allow her to join the teams studying what happened in her town.She kind of loses herself in the process. All she thinks about and all she cares about is getting Melody back. And she wants revenge on Echo.

 When she joins the teams they seem to know that something supernatural happened in that town, so she explains what she knows. Surprisingly they believe her. They begin to develope ways they can find and capture Echo.

They locate him in a cavern deep underground. He puts up no resistence to his capture. He seems broken emotionaly and is willing to comply with whatever they want. 

Penny wants him to open a portal but he doesn’t know how. Penny hates him and is willing to do whatever it takes to get Melody back. They run dozens of tests. But still no portal. 

I haven’t decided what finally makes him able to open one but it will be something emotional. 

Melody has been stuck in a sort of in between dimension this whole time, her body ages but she needs no food or water. She been stuck in one place unable to move but mentally she has been able to view and walk through other dimensions. She is not able to physically interact with them but she can travel to them like she is a ghost. It feels almost like a dream to her. 

When they are able to open a portal to get her back they accidentally open more than just one. Beings from Echo’s home dimension are able to get through along with many others from other dimensions. 

Penny doesn’t care. She has Melody back. But Melody isn’t the same as she was before. She’s angry and confused and distant. She’s so happy to see Penny and be in a physical realm again but her time in the portal changed her. She also has some kind of powers but I didn’t decide what yet.

Penny, Melody and Echo are tasked with capturing the creatures that came through the portal. 

Penny does eventually reconcile with Echo but it takes time. 

The white hair black body suit is Echo’s base human form, and what he prefers. The younger version is when they where kids and he changes it when they are older. He can take almost any form though, but often gets details wrong. For the human forms the hair and eye color always match and his pupils are sort of diamond shaped. The bottom sketches are other forms he takes. I haven’t designed what he usually looked like in the other dimension yet. The last picture is his original and first form.

That’s all I have figured out for now. I’m not good at writing things out and have a hard time putting my thoughts into words so this is kind of a mess.

#my art #my characters #ocs #original characters #digital art #long post #character design #character concept #shapeshifter