#but that's NOT mob's experience!! and it isn't even because he has powers!! it's because he's surrounded by good people | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zukkaoru · 1 year

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okay but actually i think one of my favorite things about mob psycho is that. mob is very autistic coded, right? but he's just. he's a normal kid and he has so many friends and everyone loves him!! when he wants to get in the top 10 in the school marathon, no one tells him that's an impossible goal; they all try their best to help him train and encourage him every step of the way! he isn't the butt of the joke, and even when reigen does try to tell him he's misreading things and the people he thinks are his friends aren't actually his friends, that is 1. proven not to be true, 2. not portrayed as a funny haha joke moment, and 3. reigen faces consequences for saying it. mob is autistic coded, and no one treats him any differently for it. it's just one of the many things that makes mob who he is, and no one dwells on it. and it's so nice to see a character who, in pretty much any other show, would be an awkward loner and a loser and an outcast, have so many real friends. mob isn't popular, he's awkward, he doesn't always read situations correctly, he's a middle school boy who has never fit in with his peers. but he has so many friends and so many people who care about him and maybe he's not the most popular boy at school but he has more real friends than tsubomi, who is clearly the most popular girl, and at the end of the day, popularity doesn't matter. being happy does, and mob is happy. like,, it's refreshing to see a school friend dynamic where there's a middle ground between "popular" and "social outcast" and it's also so nice to see a neurodivergent-coded character treated just like any other middle school kid in the show. he's no different because of his autism. it's just a character trait

#mp100 #there was some post i saw abt how the best autism representation is always unintentional #and like i'm not autistic but i WAS a lonely neurodivergent girl who had three friends and hated my life in middle school #and mob's experience at school makes that girl inside of me so so happy #he isn't forced to be lonely because he's neurodivergent or because he's different from his peers #he has friends who care about him not in spite of but BECAUSE of the things that define who he is #and it's so nice to see #bc so much of media would isolate a character like mob and his peers would make fun of him and no one would really like him #(like we see in the mogami arc)#but that's NOT mob's experience!! and it isn't even because he has powers!! it's because he's surrounded by good people #and it's so nice #anyway idk if this makes sense i just have feelings lol #shigeo kageyama #hello grace here

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 19 days

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Since malleus is top 5 the most powerful mages (iirc?) how powerful is top 1? I hope that they someday give us more information of the top 4

Would be funny if top 1 is just a regular mortal who dresses up casually like a normal person lmao

At first, I thought that one of the other top 5 would have to be Malleus's grandmother, Maleficia, and that she would be above her grandson in ranking due to her long-lived experiences... But seeing how her magic can't brute force override Malleus's UM, then either 1) she cannot be in the top 5, 2) she is in the top 5, but is slotted in a place below Malleus, therefore she is still "weaker" in comparison, or 3) she is ranked higher than Malleus, but his overblot boosts his power to a point where it overtakes hers.

(Side note: While we don't know where exactly Malleus falls in the ranking, I believe he is not #1. This is because if he was then everyone would be referring to him as "the" strongest mage in the world, not in the top 5.) I think other contenders for the remaining spots (at least of the characters we know of right now) could be Crowley and Ambrose, since they head prestigious magical institutions. Crowley more specifically has implied that he is much more powerful than he often lets on. However, I don't really have a basis for this besides that. Twisted Wonderland is such a big world, so it's totally possible that the other 4 in the top 5 mages are scattered around and we have not met them or even heard about them yet. (And if that's the case, then I'd like to know why the world's strongest mage isn't being informed about what's going on in book 7 and rushing to deck Malleus www) I'd love to learn more about these people and see how they stack against him. asihbfbyoqew8WVPbrw #1 being just an average joe schmoe or an innocuous mob character somewhere... Honestly, that's so real, kinda reminds me of how some irl billionaires are obsessed with the "clean" and minimalist aesthetic with just like some pants, a watch, and a bajillion dollar plain black shirt yes, I'm talking about Steve Jobs.

#twst #twisted wonderland #Malleus Draconia #Maleficia Draconia #twst theory #twisted wonderland theory #twst theories #twisted wonderland theories #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #question #notes from the writing raven #Dire Crowley #Ambrose the 63rd

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grimalkinmessor · 4 months

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The thing about Age Swap AU that I really like is the fact that both Mob and Reigen are inherently so much more unstable.

On Reigen's end, most of it is from the fact that he's a kid—he doesn't have the same amount of emotional intelligence because he has less experience overall, and the fact that his relationship with his parents isn't,,,,great, even in a canon setting. A boy still mucking around in the trenches of parental abuse/neglect is always going to be more rickety emotionally and mentally than a grown man who's been given years to heal and distance himself from it.

And then there's Mob. Mob is a bit more a wild card in this area, just because without Reigen his childhood is more or less an unknown. Did Mogami find him? Would it have made him crueller if Mogami mentored him instead? What about Claw? Did they take him in? Is he still with them, did they fall, does he regret it? Is he jaded or riddled with guilt or stuffed so far back in his shell that it takes a little blond boy wielding a huge emotional and verbal hammer to start breaking through it? Either way, I definitely don't see him being as emotionally stable as canon Mob. He likely hasn't reconciled with Shigeo, he probably never truly accepted his powers, and thus has the emotional maturity of a ten year old—Reigen still beats him on this. Mob's only point of positive advice would've been Ritsu, and that's....I mean, it's Ritsu. He hasn't had any significant good influences in his life so he absolutely struggles on how to be one himself.

The potential for these two to be codependent is SO much higher and I love it. Unhealthy dynamics are my absolute JAM (one of the reasons I have this animatic rotating in my head at top speeds 24/7 365) so the inherent prickliness of whatever Wrongness™ these two have going on just. has me. Reigen clings because it's all he knows how to do—even if Mob banishes him from the office, he's a persistent kid that hasn't learned you shouldn't chase after moody grown men with emotions so repressed it manifests as a literal eldritch alter with no morals to curb its desires. And Mob has had to go even longer alone in this sort of universe than ever, and Reigen is likely the only person who's never been afraid of him; he's latching onto that kid like bear trap and never letting go. He's still tenderhearted, but it's plagued with years and years of loneliness and inner turmoil that he's had no one around to soothe; he's over a decade too late for 'healthy'. Not that Reigen minds <3

#feral about them #age swap au #mobrei #reimob #mob psycho 100 #reigen arataka #mob #kageyama shigeo #grown up reigen at least has the emotional maturity and common sense to know how to fix his fuck ups with mob #grown up mob....would NOT have that #and kid reigen likely wouldnt have anyone telling him that hes inherently worth something #canon mob has ritsu and his absent-minded but well meaning parents and even the telepathy club/bic #tiny reigen probably has his sister and thats it #and even then #you couldnt beat that kid off mob with a stick #and ritsu would probably know. hes tried.#it doesnt help that mob has subconciously psychically glued reigen to his ribs #theyre soooo unwell your honor 💕💕

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msfbgraves · 2 months

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The first Godfather movie is on Y*utube for free now! I rewatched it and it was just as great as I remember, so on to Part 2. But then I went on redd*t to check out some Godfather threads, and was disappointed to see so much discourse on who was hotter, Apollonia or Kay. And why there is so much hate against Kay, mainly because she is “too feminist” and “educated”, doesn’t “obey or support” Michael, and that she’s not as beautiful as Apollonia. All in all a disappointing experience. I didn’t see any male characters reduced to how handsome they were or were not : /

Let me help you there, then, Nonnie - of course Michael was destined to become the new Don - he is far prettier than Fredo, Sonny or Connie. And Vito was prettier than Don Fanucci all along! 😎

All this "Kay isn't good enough for Michael" discourse - he pursued her. Both in film 1 and 3. And the only time I felt Kay was weak, was when she said yes when he returned. Imagine, here is your war hero boyfriend who says he wants a clean American life... and then he shoots two people, leaves the country, ghosts you for a year, tells you he has become a career criminal and then proposes marriage. She should have said no, she really isn't open to this, but is this man, who she knows has people killed with no repercussions, a man she can refuse? As little as Vitelli could really refuse Michael's request to court Apollonia. The first thing Michael says to him is: "If you don't do what I want, I will kill you, and what I want is meet your daughter."

But alright maybe love isn't rational. Maybe they loved each other still. Kay really wasn't suited to mob life and that is on Michael. He knew who she was and it didn't matter, he wanted her. He had barely a clue who Apollonia was, her with no English and he with broken Italian. It didn't matter, he wanted her. Kay would have been perfect for Michael Corleone, aspiring senator, which is what he was when they met. But he didn't care Kay was not suited for who he was now. Why didn't he grieve Apollonia and find another mob wife? Why didn't he remarry after their divorce? Even when he proposes Kay is already reluctant and Michael pushes and pushes and pushes. She must represent something he actually does want, still.

But it's always the woman's fault when relationships don't work out, isn't it? No Kay wasn't a good mob wife. She didn't want to be one. She got out with her children - that is something Michael never managed. And Apollonia is something many men imagine they want, but when they have it, they get bored. I am not saying Apollonia wasn't intelligent, but if you get told to completely erase yourself into motherhood, which means you can't offer more than comfort and sex - that's not enough for a lot of people. And it's not like these women wouldn't have had more to offer but everytime they try they get shut down. And what you get then is Carmella, which may have suited Vito - that man who craved domesticity above all else - but even Sonny and Michael needed more input from her than she could give. So Michael fell for the total opposite. And maybe Apollonia was a fierce presence who might have become to Michael what Connie became, but we can't know. We don't know what she and Michael talked about. We know she was very beautiful and made Michael laugh, and she may or may not have had a slight independent streak. That's it.

I feel that they might have worked because they clicked emotionally and Apollonia knew the life. But Michael didn't look for someone like her again. He looked for Kay, again and again and again.

If she doesn't suit him - and no, she doesn't suit a Don - Michael should try to figure out what itch he was trying to scratch with her. Oh, and that obedience shit - in my experience, boys who go on about that are deeply insecure about something. They couldn't get a well trained dog to obey them, let alone a person!

All these men who think they're owed power while being unwilling to do what they'd have to to obtain it, always want women to fawn. Men who have what it takes to gain power, should they aspire to, usually spend time honing a skill. They rarely throw their weight around putting others down. No matter where they start, the bottom or the top - they put the work in. Michael did, Sonny did, and Fredo mostly complained. As much as we see anyway. If Fredo had done a good job with what he was given, or would have found himself an opportunity, he would have won Michael's respect. Not position,but respect, like Tom. Instead Fredo demanded respect for his position as an older brother.

That's the type of man who whines about having women obey him.

#the godfather #michael corleone #kay adams #Apollonia Vitelli #fredo corleone

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phoebepheebsphibs · 3 months

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Overanalyzing Raphael's fear...

Ok here we go again, fourth time's the charm!

Ok so this will be analyzing a fear we saw and the fear we almost saw... on with the show!

We all know that ROTTMNT Raphael has separation anxiety, and when that is aggravated, it results in DID (dissociative identity disorder), and he becomes "Savage Raph". But so long as he was with people he knew and in a place he felt safe, it never got too bad. But that was the show, this is an alternate universe in which Raphael grew up as an only child with a mob boss and gladiator ringmaster as a mother.

...I think that Raph's anxiety would have been immensely worse without the safety of his brothers with him. There's something about having your siblings by your side that is just utterly comforting, and adding the fact that the Hamato clan members have a special power that relies on familial trust is an extra factor! But Raph grew up without that. As a result, his anxieties are worse, his fears innumerable, and when it comes to his separation anxiety, he doesn't just go "savage"... he goes nuclear.

So why was Leo the one to help him? When he doesn't really seem to care that much about the "family" they have, when Mikey would most likely be the one to help with the fear fungus (he's already helped two people!), when he has the knowledge and experience and mystic know-how? Why was Leo the one to come first, to break the trance? Answer: because he's done it before. About midway through the story, the group take a trek through the woods together and start to bond as brothers. They even tell each other special needs they have, such as Mikey's hypoglycemia and ADHD, Leo's insomnia, and Donnie's autism. Raph embarrassingly admits that he has severe separation anxiety, and at times even needs someone to stay with him at night so he can sleep. Mikey volunteers to take that responsibility, but one night when Raphael wakes up, he finds Mikey left him (to answer the call of nature TMI) and starts to panic. He causes a commotion, to which Leo is the one to respond. Leo helps to calm Raphael down, and even stays with him afterwards to help him fall asleep again. So, that's one reason why Leo was the best equipped to help with the fear spores...

...The other reason is kind of obvious, even Leo himself states it in the comic! "I know how scary it is to be alone..." Leo may not have separation anxiety, but his fear of abandonment gives him an understanding of what Raph is going through. Their fears are similar, so they can understand each other best.

Now, on to the deleted scene!

In the alternative scene - which would have been easier and quicker to draw but not quite as angsty - we see Raph argue with Mikey. Mikey scolds Raphael for not being a good brother, for letting everyone down and being a disappointment. Raph has carried expectations for a long while, expectations to be strong, smart, savvy like his mother. Being the adopted son of a business tycoon and mob boss does come with some high standards, even if those standards are simply self-inflicted. Whether or not anyone else thinks that Raph should live up to his mother's and brothers' ideals, he thinks he needs to, and as such struggles with this.

Mikey also mentions how his being in the medbay is not the first time this has happened, and that last time it was Raph's fault. This isn't true, but it is what Raph believes. During the traveling arc - the same one where Leo witnesses Raph's savage separation anxiety - Mikey gives Raphael his food to help him with his hunger, despite knowing that he may not have enough for himself. He lets things go too far, and Mikey starts having his symptoms. Raph feels guilty, and attempts to fix his mistake by getting Mikey some sustenance! Only one problem... they're in the middle of nowhere. Literally the middle of the woods! With nothing to eat for miles! Fortunately, they find a small grove of berries, and Mikey eats to his heart's content! Unfortunately, the grove turns out to be the poisonous "No-No berries", and Mikey soon starts hallucinating and getting ill, even wandering off under the influence and getting himself lost before he passes out. (Don't worry, everything works out in the end!) But anyways, Raphael blames himself for all that happened.

He's the big brother. He's meant to be the responsible one. So why is he always the one screwing things up, being too afraid, too weak. He's afraid that he is not enough. He's afraid of being a disappointment.

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kunstkombi · 2 months

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MP100 Fallout AU

I wrote down some headcanons for this AU (& others) in February & well, come April there's suddenly a Fallout TV series? (& there are Magic the Gathering Fallout cards since earlier this year, too??) Well Fallout brainrot is revived, here's long-ass worldbuilding/background ramblings.

Vault Tec & Claw

Claw existed before the Great War as an organization researching psychic abilities; though in this universe powers initially don't nearly reach the levels of MP100 canon

Toichiro & his wife start working with Vault Tec overseas & are assigned Vault 100, that is just being constructed

They are to conduct experiments with FEV-variants on promising psychics to try & enhance their abilities by new means the vaults offer in the future

Mob is born in 2058

Several years later Toichiro starts to "collect" mostly young espers to populate the vault with; of course the plan of direct & experimentation with yet unknown risks is left out

Parents of the kids he's interested in are offered contracts that promise a safe place for them to survive with the downside of being taken away to 'monitor', but the desperation over the worsening state of the world makes it easy to agree

The Kageyamas even beg for them to take both their sons, not only the one with some innate abilities - and succeed

Toichiro's wife leaves him over the increasingly unethical plans for the vault, but to her dismay their own son stays with his father

Vault Occupancy

In 2072 the contracts take effect & Vault 100 is populated and sealed (with mostly kids from JP & USA families)

Toichiro & the Ultimate 5 are in charge and oversee the vault and experiments

For about two years the vault is operated with its young residents living a pretty standard vault life, they have restricted permission to be in contact with their families

As the experiments so far show no effect & the young population is getting harder to control, the decision is made to make them enter cryosleep early & continue with different lines of experimentation while in this state

In 2074 all residents except the six in charge enter cryosleep, including Toichiro's own son

Correspondence with parents of the kids is fabricated from here on

Many of the kids die in the next few years while supplemented with barely tested substances to increase their affinities

In 2077 on the day of the Great War, Toichiro & the Ultimate 5 enter cryosleep themselves, joining their own experiments as subjects now that the fatality rates have reached 0 & brain scans look promising

They set their own systems to awake at a scheduled point in the future

Post-Apocalypse

It goes as planned; the 6 of them wake up & find themselves enhanced with never before seen psychic powers, marking their final experiments a success

Vault 100 is unsealed & Toichiro wakes only Sho from the remaining children, to take him with him

Sho is initially too weak to fight back but doesn't take to it kindly; as soon as he is able he goes back

He wakes Ritsu first, of course

Together they start waking the remaining kids - some of them, including Ritsu, don't seem to see any changes in their abilities, several of them are incredibly disoriented

However, Mob's cryopod malfunctions and won't release him - they could break it, but can't guarantee his survival should they forcibly remove him

They can only try to look for someone to help, so even if Ritsu has a hard time leaving he and Sho start their wasteland journey with that mission, while Teru stays back to watch over the others and Mob

Unfortunately Toichirou comes back in search of Sho and they are forced to flee, leaving Mob unattended

Reigen & Mob

Not too long after everyone's gone, Reigen instead finds the vault - it looks newly opened which could promise a fortune (& he isn't so wrong about that)

Despite, or because, not knowing what he's doing, he ends up accidentally releasing the single kid left

Mob is fine but overwhelmed & immediately starts frantically looking for Ritsu

Reigen's words don't get through to Mob - he gets some reaction when he talks to him in Japanese, but ultimate can just follow while Mob scours the whole vault

Soon he gets a showcase of Mob's new powers & in their strongest form, while Mob reaches 100% despair

In the explosion, most of the vault is destroyed

Reigen is shocked but fascinated and he stays with Mob and calms him

His initial plan to bring the kid somewhere safe asap change with the idea of taking him with him to profit from these powers - Reigen himself is not the strongest & survives mainly on charisma & luck out there

Reigen lies to him about knowing more than he does & possibly being able to help him find his brother

Throughout Mob's traumatic awakening into an entirely unknown world alone Reigen is his only company & guidance, so Mob trusts him quickly - & Reigen gets attached quickly

Reigen continues lying but his own gains aside, he soon genuinely tries to help Mob find Ritsu as well as the truth

Somewhere along on their journey they meet Dimple, an intelligent super mutant & he tags along, initially also out of interest in Mob's powers

#i have not decided yet in which year their awaking is set #mp100 #mob psycho 100 #reigen arataka #arataka reigen #kageyama shigeo #shigeo kageyama #kageyama ritsu #ritsu kageyama #reimob #mobrei #ok this gotta be enough tags #& yes ofc this is reimob there's no universe for me where these two aren't destined for eachother fight me #this is also definitely shorit #probably shoritteru #maybe terumob shared some kisses during the vault years #even more likely shimateru had a thing but I am not yet sure if it might have been a horrible one (sorry Teru I adore you so)#either way I wanna write some vault years hcs down at some point too #how the esper kids relationships evolved & all #and I think it would be interesting for Mob to meet the claw members first before reigen #even with lesser impact because nobody has strong powers yet at that point #and yeah Reigen needs a backstory I couldn't decide on yet. If he was born in the wasteland or in a vault or if he might be from pre-war to #headcanon #mine #my writing

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necronatural · 1 year

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All I ever do at 4am is manically Mogami post but anyway I really like Omelas as an expression of his beliefs. It's like my pet framing device. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is a short story about proposing a utopia, the reality of this utopia being questioned, and the narrator going "you know what you miserable cunts, fine, it isn't perfect, it's got a torment nexus and Omelas is only able to flourish because they put a child in the torment nexus, are you satisfied with the realism now". I really cannot accentuate enough that this story is not a trolley problem, the scorn with which the child's torment is revealed is part of the text.

So to Mogami Keiji, HE is the Omelas child. He assigns himself this position of extreme suffering, and through his torment, the world becomes a better place. He gets stronger, kills those who earn the grudges of the people, world becomes less miserable. He bases his entire viewpoint on this. Because like...his suffering and failure has to mean something, right?

(This actually makes him the perfect foil to Ritsu, who also does this EXACT thing in Cleanup; he intentionally self-harms by being unhinged and doing things that sicken him because in doing so he becomes all-powerful, creating his own personal utopia. "I have obtained loss" is a sort of mania mission statement.)

The crux of the Mogami arc is that Mob is The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. He learn the "truth", and instead of choosing to forget or bearing the knowledge, he just rejects it outright.

Because remember what the narration of the short story is about? It's about Omelas being fucking stupid. There is no reason a suffering kid adds some realistic character to the utopia. Why would a child's despair help? It's not that the child suffering is morally reprehensible, it's that the entire premise doesn't work to begin with.

Mob "walks away from Omelas" because he rejects that self-pitying pessimism. He doesn't engage with it at all! To him, the suffering has no impact on the character of the world, because like, duh dude. And maybe that means he's suffered for no reason, a concept horrifying to Mogami. But it also let Mob experience appreciation for the moments between the suffering, the mundane pleasures of life that are the building blocks of his day-to-day. Mogami prevented himself from allowing this kind of warmth permeate his viewpoint.

Mob does this to Ritsu as well. Ritsu amps up his torment as far as it will go by baiting Mob and Mob just goes "well...no :)" and cleans up after him. It's an idea fundamentally incompatible with his way of thinking even before he was truly put to the test. Isn't that awesome. He's the best. Mob sweep

#mp100

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scribefindegil · 1 year

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Howdy, I think you might be making an ekurei shipper out of me XD I never really thought about them much but I'm really resonating with these posts. Not only that but I'm realizing that its so up my alley because I love love love like, unusual fantasy situations where characters experience intamacy in unconventional ways, something I feel like I don'tfind very often outside of my own and my friends' writing in our own lil corner. Like woah...the romantic potential of possession, being closer to your partner than humanley possible...imagine how humbling it would be to realized you are loved and trusted enough to be invited to share your partner's mind and body as an act of love instead just using that ability against strangers to your own ends...[cries a little] Who even needs that dang guard. Maybe I'm so enraptured with this stuff cause I'm ace, lol

Yeah yeah yeah that's it exactly!! The potential for sff to create types of intimacy that wouldn't be possible in real life is a huge part of its appeal! I've seen people compare Dimple possessing Reigen to Steven Universe fusion and I've compared it to drift compatibility myself and both of these things are very tasty, but for me it hits even harder because for them the intimacy is a choice, not a natural byproduct or an intentional prerequisite. Like, it's one thing for a sff setting to make an unconventional form of intimacy part of its worldbuilding like SU and PacRim do, but it's another thing entirely when it isn't an established part of the worldbuilding but something that the characters figure out on their own!

Like you said, for most of his existence Dimple has used possession as a tactic of violation and control. That's what you do when you're an evil spirit! It represents where he is at the beginning of the series; his view is that relationships are about who has the most power and who has the least, and if you have more you're going to use it to manipulate and subsume anyone less powerful than you. And then he starts changing! And by Season 2 he's using possession as a form of protection, not for himself but for Mob. Even when he possesses people without permission (Shinra and that one bully), he's not doing it to help himself! He does it to Shinra to get him out of danger (and says, notably, that if he let Shinra die then Mob would never trust him again), and he does it to the bully to protect Mob (and he stops when Mob says to!). And then in Mogami Arc we get the first instance of Dimple possessing someone because they explicitly asked him to, where he protects Mob's body while his soul isn't in it. Possession not only as protection but as trust! And you can tell from his reaction that this is something that Dimple has never considered before! And you can tell from how shocked he is during World Domination (manga) when he's able to possess an unconscious Mob that he especially never considered that trust like that could be an ongoing thing!

The point is, by the time Dimple meets Reigen in the middle of a psychic tornado, his concept of what possession can be has already undergone some major changes due to his friendship with Mob. But there's never been anything like what he and Reigen are able to do. There's been trust, there's been protection, but there's only ever been one consciousness in a body at a time. There's been vulnerability of body but not vulnerability of mind.

And it would have been easy for Dimple to push Reigen's consciousness down until they got to Shigeo. That's another thing that gets me; there's no reason that they had to both be awake on a technical level. But on a thematic level it is Everything to me that they're able to achieve a state that we've never seen before, that I bet if you'd asked them before this happened they both would have said was impossible, that is dependent on complete vulnerability and openness from two characters who will fight tooth and nail to prevent anyone else from seeing who they really are. It's about their shared familial love for their boy and it's about how much they understand each other in that moment.

And, like, I'm also ace, and generally not much of a shipper, and I tend to care a lot about group dynamics and platonic bonds, and I think that part of the appeal of ekurei bodysharing stuff is that even if you write about it in the most romantic way, you have to remember that the first time they did this it happened because of their shared platonic love for their kid so to me it feels just. Infused with all the different types of love and connection that the show is built on. Sometimes when someone focuses on a romantic relationship it gets deified in a way that undersells all the other bonds the character has, but for me at least romantic ekurei only works because of their other connections.

#conversations #ekurei #mp100 #mob meta #fantasy intimacy is SO good #it makes me lose my whole entire mind #i've been poking at a little fic set immediately post-confession that involves Reigen/Dimple bodysharing #and i have to work on it in small doses bc the overwhelming intimacy of just Existing together in the same space is just too much #i write a sentence about how it feels for Dimple to hear Reigen speaking from inside the same body #and i get so verklempt i have to hide my face in my hands and go lie down for a while

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positivelybeastly · 1 month

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Astonishing X-men Beast, if someone were to ask you what’s the main issue with the X-men/ Professor X philosophy what would you say? Not from anyone else’s experiences just yours and events that have taken place. While I take you as someone very loyal to the dream of Xavier, even though Scott is the poster boy/boy-scout of the team, you’ve surely have diverged at some point. Not completely, but slightly. Maybe. I don’t know.

". . . Have you ever noticed something a little odd about the First Class of X-Men? Charles' handpicked selection of mutants with whom to shock, astonish, charm, and woo the world?"

"Professor Xavier had access to Cerebro, the most advanced mutant locating technology ever devised, working in conjunction with one of the most powerful and well trained minds that's ever graced this Earth. He had his pick of an entire planet's worth of mutants whom he could have chosen to elevate, to show the world, to use to prove to the human race that we were not to be hated and feared.

And he chose five white young Americans with non-threatening powers.

Sometimes I wonder - if I looked back then how I look now, would I have made the cut? Would the Professor have deemed me worthy of being a flag-bearer for his dream? Perhaps. Perhaps not."

"But that is the issue, isn't it? The dream requires infinite patience. It requires infinite understanding. It requires an infinite capacity to be smacked in the face and turn the other cheek. It requires certain qualities. It requires certain people, includes certain people, excludes others, if only by proxy.

It requires a seventeen year old boy to be nearly beaten to death by an angry mob and decide, no, I'll continue to fight for you."

"That's quite a thing to ask of a child. That's quite a thing to ask of anyone, don't you think? There are those who might say that when it comes to survival, the moral high ground merely ends up being the six foot of earth separating you and the top soil. I don't agree, obviously, but. It's not a life for everyone.

Sometimes, I think it's not a life for anyone."

"But, in the end, I do believe. I believe in co-existence. I have a mother and a father who have loved me from the instant they saw me, no matter how unnatural my appendages.

They remind me that, no matter what else happens, there are always humans who make the world better. Humans who will like us, love us, break bread with us, protect us, nurture us. Even though it may seem like all you ever see are the sneering faces calling you a gene-freak, the other kind of person exists, too. It helps, to break the surface and take a deep breath every now and then. Remind yourself what you're fighting for."

". . . The Professor himself has admitted that the dream may well be just a dream. That it needs to change if it's to become reality. It needs to include the physically mutated, the violent, the dispossessed, the unhappy, the unruly, the different. The strange.

The uncanny.

But the problem is that dreamers aren't made. They become. In some ways, maybe we're all just waiting for the new dreamer to come along to tell us what the next big idea should be.

For a time, I wondered if that might be me. But, I don't think it is. I'm excited to meet them, however. Whoever they may be. And when I do, I just hope they recognise that even if their dream is better, the Professor's dream are still the shoulders upon which they stand."

". . . Heady stuff, no?"

I'm also going to copy over my thoughts about a particular scene in Astonishing X-Men that you might find interesting, both in relation to your earlier question about body language, and about Hank and Xavier's dream. I originally posted this analysis on Reddit.

Something I really appreciate about this scene is that it highlights how different Hank and Scott are in their relationship with Xavier.

Perhaps because Scott grew up with an abusive parental figure in Jack Winters and Hank grew up with very loving parents, Scott was able to recognise Charles' toxic behaviour and break away from Xavier - it might also have had something to do with the fact that at least one of Charles' biggest fuck ups had to do with Scott's brother Gabriel? Hard to say. But Hank, who Charles very carefully isolated from his parents by mindwiping them for years of Hank's whole existence, never really managed to break free of him, and it shows here.

Hell, it arguably never went away, even into the Krakoan era - a more interesting version of X-Force would have really dived into the kind of fucked up dynamic they have, where Chuck keeps covering for Beast's moral transgressions for seemingly no reason, because in some respects, he's responsible for them. He gave him the power, he gave him no oversight, but even more pressingly, he wasn't there for him emotionally. He pulled him into this life and didn't prepare him for the toll it would take, how much it would ruin Beast by the time he gets to Krakoa. Beast needed someone to help him there, and no-one did, which is part of why he went on the skids, I think.

But anyway, Whedon does a lot of moments where Hank is present for scenes but doesn't speak, which is important for a character who's well known for not shutting the fuck up. This, the initial cure conversation, the whole conversation about Piotr - Hank clams up. He doesn't feel like he can talk about it. He's off in his own head, his thoughts are his own, he doesn't feel the need to share them.

And here, it's especially important, because this is a big moral violation that Charles has committed in their name. I know it may be hard to remember, but back in the day, Hank had a moral opinion that was worth something, so the fact that he doesn't say anything here speaks volumes about just how much he feels capable of calling out the Professor, i.e. not at all. He craves Xavier's validation, his approval, he feels a kinship with Chuck. So he doesn't criticise him like he should.

It's especially interesting given that this would continue through the Utopia era. Every time Scott distanced himself from Xavier, Hank was there to comfort Charles, and I feel like that's just something he feels like he has to do. He feels like the devoted brother to Scott's more radical, more willing to criticise brother, and if Bendis had any interest in Beast as a character, he would've played on that in All-New X-Men - the fact that Scott killed their toxic father figure, and Beast feels both free of an influence he didn't know was choking him, but outraged that Scott would break their 'family' like that.

I find Beast compelling because of his flaws, and this is an interesting moment when you take all of that into account. I don't even know if that was the intention of this scene, or if Whedon just wanted to give Scott the speech, but it's interesting.

I definitely feel as though Hank agrees with Scott in the scene, for the record, but doesn't feel able to express it. Is that better or worse? Hard to say. The way that Cassaday draws him as he tells the other X-Men that their ride is here, it communicates shame and disappointment - but not just in Xavier. He's ashamed of his fear. He's disappointed in himself, that he didn't feel capable of speaking up.

And the reason that has real weight is because of his original X-Man status - I don't feel inclined to judge Kitty here despite the fact that she's silent as well, because it's a different dynamic. I don't really expect her to, you know? But Hank, I do, and I think he expects that of himself.

I doubt that Scott or the rest of the team judges Hank for staying silent, either - it's not as if he was complicit in Danger's abuse, after all - especially since it doesn't come up in the conversations Hank and Scott have after this. But Hank, I feel, would judge himself.

I also wonder if this might have played into why Hank got so much more vocal and active in opposing Scott's actions on Utopia - because he felt ashamed by his passivity here, and felt obligated not to let that tendency to repeat. But also, on some level, because he felt more like a peer to Scott, and less like a child, compared to Xavier.

In those instances, Hank is often morally correct, but, in some respects, naive and unhelpful, and he recuses himself from making what we might perceive to be the correct decision because of his ethics. I feel that there's a tendency to call him a coward or obstinate because of that - but is it really cowardly to make a moral stand? And, especially given what Hank would do as time went on, would we not have rather he kept making those moral stands, rather than desperately trying anything he thought would work?

I genuinely don't think he opposed Scott because he didn't like him or didn't love him, because I feel like he very clearly did, but because he felt it was the right thing to do for the both of them. In Hank's mind, he's fighting for the X-Men's soul, for Scott's - for his own. Scott, meanwhile, feels like it's all worth it so long as mutantkind makes it through. They're both right. They're both wrong. That's what makes it a worthwhile conflict.

#water-god19 #outofmuffins

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blackjackkent · 3 months

Text

Onward into High Hall!

I seem to recall being told that we'd have another chance to change up our party before the final fight, but I'm almost tempted not to. It feels like a nice bookend to have Lae'zel with Hector here at the end, just as she was at the beginning, especially given how their friendship has evolved over time.

There are a bunch of terrified civilians running everywhere. I particularly feel for this unfortunate one:

Who ran straight into the fire surface, set himself on fire, burned all the way through his six hit points, and died in front of us for no reason. :( Lots of dead Absolutists, mind flayers, and other civilians around here too.

Report from the climb up!

An absolutely bangin' and very dramatic soundtrack.

Some city watch folk who were pretty freaked out by Orpheus's presence but who Hector convinced to join them and help rather than fleeing.

A long-rest-in-a-box restoration chamber like we saw on the Nautiloid and in Moonrise.

Several dead ends which we have to get around by jumping around on pieces of shattered rampart.

More winged horrors. They're not very difficult to fight thankfully and everyone keeps one-hit-KO-ing them. The team is clearly so pumped full of adrenaline that they're even more of a battering ram than usual.

Fighting as Orpheus (he's attached to the party for now) is making me realize the benefits of going full worm; as a mind flayer he can use actions and bonus actions interchangeably, which is very cash money of him. His abilities, which are per turn with no other restrictions like spell slots that I can discern, are also insane:

Starting to think maybe the Emperor had a point. :P

Reaching the upper level courtyard of the Hall we start running into a lot more enemies.

Per @zenjestrr's advice, our current strategy is repeatedly summoning the more cannon-fodder-y Friendship Buff mobs to help clear the field; the main goal right now is to keep our primary party and our big heavy hitters (Aylin, Buddy, Yurgir, etc) in good shape for the final fight.

Once again the game manages to replicate a key D&D table experience - the feeling of knowing there's a big boss somewhere up ahead and trying to figure out how to ration your resources so you're not tapped out by the time you get there.

At least to begin with, the courtyard isn't too scary. As usual, Hector and Karlach are juggernauting away at the front line and Lae'zel is slotting in perfectly alongside them just like Minsc did. Team Single Target Damage is on the case.

Jaheira is holding down the backline and not looking as squishy as she used to which is also great. I'm wary of using her too much because most of her AOE and powerful stuff is all high level spells that I don't want to burn. I'm spending some of her actions on summoning our mobs of friends, which pleases me from an RP perspective because of the four of our team she is the hardened experienced fighter and I like the idea of her kind of directing the battle.

I'm probably playing a little TOO conservatively with my abilities here, actually, but I'd rather be too careful than not. I didn't use the long-rest-in-a-box before so there's also the possibility (I think) of running all the way back there and tapping it before we reach the brain, but I'm not sure.

It does amuse me that we keep getting gold and trash loot drops here because there is zero point to it anymore I think.

At first the courtyard seems like a bunch of small isolated fights, but as I have Hector start running towards an ogre near the center of the field, the WHOLE PLACE lights up in a battle with [counts rapidly] TWENTY-EIGHT ENEMIES, including the ogre, several mind flayers, and a spectator. FUCK.

Maybe time to start using those big spells after all, Jaheira.

This isn't quite as scary as it looks because we really are powerful as shit at this point. Hector continues to be completely terrifying, Karlach is too, Lae'zel has three attacks on a turn (or six with action surge), Jaheira can set out a Haste pool for everyone to run through, Orpheus's illithid skills are upsettingly good, and we have a LOT of friends who are (I hate to admit) expendable. But that bar full of enemies too big to fit on the screen is stressful.

Oh this is going to be very scary on Tactician though I bet.

One of Zevlor's Hellriders casts Flame Strike on a big crowd of goblins which I would be much more on board with if HECTOR WAS NOT DIRECTLY IN THE MIDDLE OF THEM. Flashbacks to the last time Hector being in the middle of a fireball was considered an acceptable cost; it wasn't much fun then either. He does manage the save though so this time he takes no damage because he is badass, and the Flame Strike kills five enemies, so...worth, I guess.

This battlefield is also ENORMOUS and difficult to maneuver on, lots of high ground and curbs that mess up pathfinding.

So exciting to see Zevlor back in his element again, having found his paladin conviction once more.

One of the Hellriders did get dominated by a mind flayer, which led to this upsetting exchange:

Eventually victory! Gods, what a long fight. But we actually did quite well; everyone except Hector still has some of the temporary hitpoints we got from Ravengard, and we didn't lose any of our guest combatants. :D (And the one that got dominated is back safe. <3 )

Onward!

#bjk plays baldur's gate 3 #hector carlisle #inteeeeeeense

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misc-obeyme · 5 months

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This is probably something out of the blue but

Can you imagine all the obey me characters (except MC, I'm saving them from the trauma) going through the Corpse Party experience? Aka doing some weird charm, ending up in a haunted school, witnessing too many dead bodies and unable to get out because haha haunted school cancelling their demon powers so they have to appease the evil spirits the hard way?

While I have never experienced Corpse Party, I think I get the general idea!

I have to say I think even just losing their demon powers would be pretty crazy for most of them. But then to be in a haunted school, too? Yikes!

My immediate first concern is Mammon because we all know how that guy is about haunted stuff. He'd be scared out of his mind, but trying to pretend he isn't. And MC isn't there to comfort him?? Who's gonna protect him?? His brothers?? They're more likely to spook him further on purpose lol.

I see Satan getting serious and being like okay this is a mystery to solve. We don't have our powers, but we have to get out of this somehow.

I dunno if anybody would have an issue with actual dead bodies or not... Levi kinda strikes me as potentially squeamish, but he's also a demon and has likely experienced corpses before.

This may be weird, but I kinda imagine Belphie would fall asleep in a pile of corpses if they weren't too decomposed. Hmm I'm both concerned and amused by this mental image.

As always, I may be biased, but Barbatos is known for being ultra competent at everything he does. I can't imagine he would have any issues getting out of such a situation. And if he's with everybody else, I imagine he'd be a calming presence to all.

If we're dealing with non demon characters too, does this mean that Solomon would also not have access to magic and such? Because while i don't think he'd be too concerned about haunted schools or corpses, I do think he'd feel incomplete without magic. And that'd make him antsy.

However there is something to be said for mob mentality in a situation like this. Since we're saying all the characters ended up in this place at the same time, we can assume that more level headed ones like Lucifer and Diavolo might be able to keep the rest calm. But I could totally see them all losing control of the situation if the others were chaotic enough. Mammon running off screaming, Asmo worrying more about the state of his clothes than getting out, Beel starting to eat things that quickly make him sick... even just Belphie falling asleep. Some of them wandering off and getting lost.

Oh I also hadn't considered Luke or the three undatables in this scenario... but if they were included too, you know Simeon would just be completely preoccupied with protecting Luke. Raphael might be more helpful but I kinda see him raining down spears on every ghost he encounters and being more of a hindrance than anything. (Assuming the spears don't require magic.) Mephisto thinks the whole thing is stupid and leaves everyone to their own devices. Thirteen might actually be the only one who's helpful since she's a reaper and possibly knows something about ghosts and such?

It's a good thing you left out MC because they'd be the only one capable of keeping those fools in check. Let MC rest for once!

Sorry I got a little carried away but apparently I had a lot of thoughts about this lol.

#I haven't even played Corpse Party #it's a video game right?#anyway I'm just thinking of them all in a haunted school without their powers #and I think it'd be hilarious #obey me #obey me nightbringer #tired-writer-in-progress #misc answers

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thotpuppy · 5 months

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hi. it me. who and what is ghost? :o

im blowing u the fattest kiss

ghost is my special lil whumpee OC. the 'world' is kind of your classic generic xmen rip off - humans are developing weird powers, government enacts prejudice, etc. i have.... so much story for him totally unwritten akdgjkjagkajdgk i have like... the entire timeline for him birth into adulthood like... environmentally ? but i never managed to settle on an actual Plot for the story...

but anyway! Ghost has no name because he is the result of human experimentation paid for by a criminal organization on trying to isolate, reproduce, and control the genome that triggers powers in nextgen humans. teeeechnically speaking, though, the experiment was a failure. they managed to isolate and trigger it, but had 0 control over WHAt the ability was, and they got Ghost, who's ability is "intangibility". they wanted like, human flamethrowers lol. he still underwent all of the training and indoctrination to become a human weapon, even tho he rly doesn't have any supernatural offensive ability. he's totally brainwashed for the first huge chunk of his life but when he gets *cough* too old *cough* for the mob boss, he gets thrown out by being framed for a crime he hasn't Actually commited (tho he has commit many crime, including assassinating his boss' father, the previous mob boss)

when he's in jail tho in the middle of his whole life purpose being completely upended, he meets someone who helps him start trying to get himself sorted (striker). it turns out, the guy isn't REALLY in jail (for the reasons known to the warden) and he's part of a freedom fighter organization that's staging a jailbreak because of how many nextgens are in there for the crime of "being different". so it's both a literal and metaphorical rescue for Ghost.

(here's a reference image of ghost and striker in the prison uniforms from the brief period where i was convinced i was gonna make a comic)

anyway its technically a story of healing from trauma and becoming a person in the face of a world that would rather see you gone but with a side of superpowers, ass kicking, and found family.

this is the logo i made for the comic i will probably never make

#like-lazarus #doughritoanswers #my art #listen.........#i have so many thoughts that never go anywhere #but he's my BABY boy #i have so much art of him both by me and by other people #and i make him in every single picrew i play with

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adventuringalchemy · 8 months

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Beware, incoming ramble!

For the time period question I always saw MC as purely medieval, at least when you as the player pop into the world.

Either by nature or because of post apocalyptic consequences. Each explains the hordes of zombies/undead, structures, old strongholds, etc. Either created by old magic and ancient wars that created those old bastions and constructs (blazes, guardians, irongolems so forth) or simply leftovers of a greater civilisation that has vanished now.

While the world of minecraft itself is purely Medieval, humans/players bring knowledge and technology with them! We know how to mimic big skyscrapers, tele communication, modern structures and such because we have seen them before and know how things work already! Knowledge that is lacking in the other "native" inhabitants of the world.

Humans/Players (and I guess the mods they might bring with them) are the varible that determines how advanced the time setting and technology can be.

Or I suppose in case of MCSM- where humans act merely like any other inhabitant of the world- the admins. They determine what experience the server should offer, after all. They just mod the world themselves and give the tools needed if they just want to. Maybe they even go out of their way to remove possibility of modern features if they like to keep it fantasy like, or bust all doors open for people to create their own modern utopia. Fancy thinking. Much theorising.

Opinions, thoughts, counter arguments?

ANONYMOUS SENT AN ASK .

sorry if this isn't 100% because my benadryl is kicking in super hard atm but i 100% agree with you. especially since in mcsm there are actual mc youtubers put in there but they still act the same as other humans inside the universe there. their world was just a lot more modern as seen that they have modern clothes on, act a little different, and reference making things for people to watch.

it does make me wonder though. i have always thought the admins to be the gods of mcsm. they have the power to create things and to delete things. what about the other worlds? did fred, xara, and romeo all make those other worlds? did they make the old builders to see how they would fuck around with shit? romeo has obviously tried to find a new "champion" and/or people he can simulate into an admin without making them an admin to try and replace the old friends he fucked over. i mean if you think about it, they had to have right? because of all the technology that these other worlds have compared to jesse's world. but then again maybe not because the old builders did that all themselves. the mcyters in mcsm made everything themselves as well.

sometimes i wonder if the admins were the first actual people to spawn in the underground. the world below the world. like they are the humans that are playing the game yet they're absolutely forbidden to talk about it. or perhaps they were humans that were teleported into the mc world by force and they haven't had the ability to come back out. idk. just something i've thought about.

another theory i have is that romeo put the command block in the world to see how people would react to having true admin/god power. and it was all just a huge test before giving jesse the gauntlet to see if anybody would be worthy or capable of becoming friends with him / being the next new champion. obviously the order of the stone wasn't capable of destroying it, but jesse was. and that's what made him reach out to him.

i don't personally know much about the lore of base minecraft other than that there are several stories woven within a world you make yourself. like saving the end and the endermen. the piglins are a hostile mob protecting their home. villages with everyone having their own life to deal with. the illagers and their dark culture. the alchemist who was in the igloo trying to figure out how to heal zombification. though it is strange that you and your friends are the only humans left in this world.

to me it almost seems fair to assume it was some sort of amnesia thing. the character spawns in and is so fucking lost and confused but gradually figures out what to do along the way.

#⚗️ ASKS .#⚗️ METAS .#minecraft #mcsm #mc

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pancake-breakfast · 10 months

Text

It might be a bit of a stretch for me to finish Volume 7 before the clock hits midnight on Sunday, but hey, I'll give it a shot.

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 7, Chapters 3-4 below.

Chapter 3: King of Loneliness

CW: Body Horror

You know, as much as I want to say this title absolutely, most definitely applies to Vash, it might apply to Wolfwood. Or to Knives. At least Vash and Wolfwood have friends along the way. At least they have each other.

Dude. Conrad opposed the experiments? Maybe I was being too harsh with him in my last notes.

It can be hard to know when to have difficult conversations like this with kids. I'm sure that was only further complicated by them being hyper-intelligent, extra-powerful plant babies. But kids are often better at understanding these things than we think they are.

Well, at least Knives admits he's putting up a face here. And he's still young enough that Rem can peel it off. I'm glad he got to cry to her, even for a bit. Even if he rejects her comfort on the very next page and puts the mask right back on.

Now he's starting to look more like the Knives we know.

Ohhh, now he's straight up looking like the Knives in Vash's memories.

They do look pretty happy here, though. I mean, they even fall asleep all next to each other.

Ugh, Baby Knives is not doing well.

He looks too much like Adult Knives here. It's uncanny.

Face stained with blood and tears and twisted in fear, and then blackness. Great composition.

And there he is, celebrating his victory, the ships raining down around like falling stars.

Vash calls him out, but Knives isn't anywhere near ready to admit the truth of his statement. Ironically, he's to scared to admit he's scared.

"This is not fear. This is anger." Ohhhhh, man. I could go on about that from my own experience. Let's just say that a lot of times, those who have spent a lot of time afraid learn to mask it as anger, since anger allows a level of action that fear often does not.

Oooh, she's got some mandible action going on here. Also, not sure, but I don't think she's quite happy about this situation....

Stuff going fwakoom?

Betcha Bagworm Legato is super-jealous of Elandira's ability to run to Knives' side right now.

Alright, that looks both very cool and very uncomfortable. Like, physically, it looks like it would at least be awkward, if not painful.

Oh, yeah. Plant girl isn't happy about this at all. That is not a happy face. But since when has Knives cared about someone else's happiness compared to his own purposes? It's... it's been a long, long time.

He has a double angel arm now? Cool, cool. I'm sure that won't be a problem or anything....

Yeah, definitely thinking the chapter title is referring to Knives at this point.

Chapter 4: Bastards and the Blues

This cover picture of Knives is somehow simultaneously slutty and immensely disturbing.

Ha! It's the rubber band scene! Vash needs this.

Look at that. It's an old-timey mob, here for an old-timey hangin'.

Awww, I know we've just met him, but I feel like Hancock really doesn't deserve all this.

As if there was any doubt what Vash would do in this situation.

Ok, so... I could be wrong here, but this all feels off. Vash is doing Vash things, but he seems waaaaaay too openly depressed while doing them. It's like he's doing them because Wolfwood is standing there expecting him to do them. He's going through the motions (which, to be fair, is a legitimate tactic to get through depression for some), but his heart isn't in it.

Yyyyyeah, hearing people scream about his inhumanity is probably not gonna help things.

At... at least he made two friends out of it? At least this time everyone backed down immediately? But Vash doesn't want people to live in fear of him like that.

Wolfwood playing lookout at the door.

If these guys turn out to be serial rapist baby snatchers or something, I'm going to burn down this whole manga. Vash needs a break. It doesn't need to be a big one.

Gods, his fake smiles are baaaaad here. He's not even trying to hide. He's just smiling 'cause he doesn't know what else to do.

Not sure how I feel about Vash getting drunk again, even if there's a spirit of camaraderie in this instance. I feel like Wolfwood, the actual heavy drinker here, feels the same. It's notable he's staying dry for this one.

Granny here seems chill. Like she's seen enough things in her life to no longer have time for anything but kindness, even if the best she can do is the small kindness of booze.

OMG GENUINE WOLFWOOD PEACEFUL SMILE I SHALL TREASURE IT FOREVER

Actually, these seem like good people for Vash to talk to right now. Sure, neither of them leveled a city (probably), but One-Eye at least has a deep understanding of what it is to be haunted by deep regrets.

WHYYYYY is the alcohol called Blades?!?!

But... Vash doesn't want to be alone. And neither does this guy, for that matter, or he wouldn't have Handcock around. And Vash... he may be running and sad and hiding... but he's not alone this time, either.

Ugh, drunk and depressed Vash is in no shape to fight.

Wolfwood might be indulging a bit now, but he knows he's the designated driver here, and he's being careful enough to make sure he can keep an eye on Vash.

I like how the tails on Vash's jacket get longer when Nightow wants them to look particularly dramatic. These are beautiful, but if they were actually that long, he'd be tripping over them as they dragged through the sand.

Also, flashy light is probably Bad.

Guess they're screwed.

The loss of communication would be really bad. It's always bad in times of conflict. Quick and reliable (or even semi-reliable) communication can win wars... and here I'm guessing Knives decided to take the upper hand for his first declaration of open conflict.

Yyyyyeeeeeaaaahhhh, Knives, honey, that doesn't look healthy....

What's that, Elandira? Were you secretly kinda hoping you'd somehow make it all the way through Knives' pending genocide?

Man, Vash sure can sober up fast.

There we go. Babygirl does genuinely look better here. Like, he's still sad, but he's not lying. He's genuinely grateful for this.

Good, I'm glad they got a bit of a break.