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mrs-luigi-vargas · 6 months

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A Burning Secret

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Characters: Bowser Jr, Rosalina, Luma, Bowser Relationship: Bowser Jr & Rosalina, Bowser Jr & Luma, Bowser Jr & Bowser, Bowser & Rosalina Tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Summary: Almost half a year after the universe was reborn, Bowser Junior lets Rosalina in on a secret. Word Count: 1,995 words A/N: Inspired by this post!

[AO3 Link]

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Rosalina’s afternoon was proving to be peaceful so far.

Shortly after lunch, she’d taken to walking in a nearby park with one of her Lumas as company, enjoying the time before she needed to get ready for the next scheduled kart race. She’d run into Mario and Peach, who’d evidently had a similar idea. Mario had even given her a spare bag of birdseed before they’d parted, which she was sitting on a bench near an empty playground and using now to feed an eclectic variety of local birds.

Or at least she had been doing that, until a green and yellow blur sped into the cluster of gathered birds with a yell, sending them all squawking and flapping their wings to flee, which likewise sent her Luma into a giggle fit. When Rosalina lowered her arms after the cacophony had ended, someone was standing in the middle of the space the birds just left, laughing triumphantly about their departure.

“Bowser Junior, was it?” Rosalina asked, and he turned to grin broadly at her.

“Yeah, that’s me!” He puffed up his chest, looking every inch his father’s son. “Prince Bowser Junior! Hey, you’re that Star Lady from space!”

“Princess Rosalina,” she corrected, but Bowser Junior was only half-listening, looking for more birds to scare.

His search, despite bearing little fruit after the ruckus he’d caused earlier, only extended a certain distance away from Rosalina’s bench. “Dad got lost,” he told Rosalina when she asked why that was, “and this is where I’m supposed to wait for him if either of us gets lost.”

“...I see.”

Bored with searching for birds, Bowser Junior cambered onto the bench next to Rosalina. Eventually, now that everything was still, some birds came back to eat the remaining birdseed on the ground. Rosalina tossed them some more to snack on.

Floating above them, their Luma companion mused about the birds they were feeding, and how tiny and insignificant their lives were. Like theirs, it supposed, small stitches in the vast fabric of the universe. Stitches that affected the fabric the most when cut. It giggled. “Ah, to have my string cut someday...” it mused, bobbing and twirling in the air. “To leave behind a void that will never be the same, even if it’s filled...”

“Cut...like dying?” Bowser Junior furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Of course! The string of fate, sliced clean by the blades of the unturnable~!”

“...You’re weird,” Bowser Junior said. The Luma giggled again.

Rosalina’s eyes slid from the regrowing crowd of birds to the child sitting next to her. She considered giving him her bag of birdseed, so he could have a go at feeding the birds and perhaps deem that a better way to interact with them than scaring them off, but he looked too deep in thought to be bothered. And sure, almost half this planet’s orbit ago he had been a whole lot of trouble as part of Bowser’s attempt to take over the universe, but that was more his father, not him. Which was why she felt the need to ask him if there was something wrong. “Sorry about my Luma,” she added, thinking something it said had upset him. “Its demeanor can be...off-putting to most.”

Said Luma pouted at her. Bowser Junior huffed a laugh. But he still looked rather troubled for someone so young, fiddling with his bandanna and staring off into the distance. Rosalina decided not to push him, being patient. And that patience paid off, as with a final look between her and her Luma, he asked, “Can I tell you a secret?” in a small voice.

The Luma floated toward him, curiously. Rosalina leaned in, subtly.

“I died once,” Bowser Junior quietly told them.

“You did?!” The Luma gasped, an outward echo of Rosalina’s own surprise that exchanged her muted horror for amazed delight.

“Shh!” Bowser Junior covered its mouth, looking around furtively. “Quiet! It’s a secret!”

Whatever the Luma wanted to say next was muffled under Bowser Junior’s hands. “When?!” it asked when Bowser Junior removed them, obediently dropping its voice to a hushed whisper.

“Uh...a couple months ago, I think?”

Ah, Rosalina thought. “That supernova...you were sucked in by its black hole.”

“Huh? Black hole...?” Bowser Junior looked confused, as if he had no idea of the event that almost had the entire universe destroyed, despite being near the epicenter of it. But his face quickly cleared, and he shook his head. Rosalina’s stomach sank. It was something else...?

“What was it like, what was it like?!” the Luma asked, vibrating in excitement.

“Um.” Bowser Junior backed away from the Luma’s enthusiasm, bumping into Rosalina. Looking down at him in concern, she was about to tell him he absolutely did not have to indulge the Luma’s curiosity in the slightest, but then he took a breath and began speaking, each word carefully considered.

“I fell,” he began, frowning. The Luma leaned forward in anticipation. “And the ship fell, too. And then...and then...” His voice trailed off.

“You don't have to discuss it,” Rosalina interrupted firmly, with a stern glance at her Luma. “Not if the memories are too much to bear for you.”

But to her surprise, her words had the opposite intended effect; Bowser Junior’s vulnerable expression was joined by a stubborn glint in his eye, and he barreled on.

“I fell and it got hot,” he said in a rush. “And bright,” he added. “And really hot. And then...” The resolve faded. He searched for what to say next. He swallowed, thickly. “I woke up,” he finished simply, head bowed and shoulders hunched.

Though his description was vague, the Luma practically had stars in its eyes hearing it. “...Did it hurt?” it breathed, enraptured.

“.........Yeah.”

“Woah...”

“I’m sorry,” Rosalina said, heart heavy.

“It's okay, I think...you didn't do anything,” Bowser Junior reassured her, as if that wasn't the entire problem with this situation. But she'd been too far away to even see most of what was going on in Bowser’s galaxy back then, let alone do anything to help. And there was no way Mario and Peach knew either, Rosalina realized abruptly, though they'd been closer to the action. They'd be beating themselves up about it endlessly if they did. But what about — ?

“Does your father know?”

“No!” Wide-eyed, Bowser Junior grabbed at her dress. “Don't tell him! Or he won't let me go fight Mario with him anymore...! He already barely lets me help, now...!”

...She should probably tell his father. But Bowser Junior had started tearing up some, so...

“Alright, I won't tell,” Rosalina promised. Bowser Junior sighed in relief. “But,” she continued, “only as long as you promise to tell your family about what happened soon.”

“Yes, you should tell them!” the Luma cheered, twirling around the pair. “The knowledge of what's after death! It deserves to be treasured and shared~!”

“...You’re weird,” Bowser Junior told the Luma, but there was the faintest of smiles on his face as he wiped at his cheeks. “Okay,” he said next, and Rosalina gave him a starbit to munch on for it. And then a couple more when he started pestering her for them, and then a few more after that.

Not long after, Bowser walked down the path towards them, face pinched in worry and clearly in search of his son. “Dad!” Bowser Junior exclaimed, hopping off the bench and running up to meet him.

“There you are!” Bowser knelt to ruffle his son’s hair. “Didn't I tell you to stay with me so you wouldn't get lost?”

“I wasn't lost,” Bowser Junior grumbled. “You’re the one that disappeared.”

Bowser chuckled indulgently. But then Bowser Junior’s exasperated expression became overshadowed by uncertainty, and Bowser’s grin dimmed to match. “What’s up, son?” Bowser asked, voice softening.

“Um,” Bowser Junior said, and then quieted. His eyes flicked to the ground, to his father, to the Luma who had floated into his periphery, to a different spot on the ground. He shook his head. “Nevermind.”

Bowser bent down further to better meet his son’s eyes. “You sure?”

Bowser Junior nodded.

“Oh.” Bowser straightened, putting a hand on Bowser Junior’s shoulder. “Okay. Uh, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

“I know!” Bowser Junior chirped. He smiled at Bowser, small yet light. “Maybe later. I’m going to go play over there now.” he pointed at the nearby playground.

Though he still looked worried, Bowser met his son’s smile with his own, similarly warm. “Go for it,” he said. “Just don't wander off again, yeah?”

“You wandered off,” Bowser Junior insisted with a sigh. Nonetheless, he ran to the playground. The Luma followed him, sprinkling stardust as it floated about his head, stardust that caused Bowser Junior to sneeze. The Luma laughed, and when Bowser Junior began chasing it around in indignation for doing so it flew off to a hiding place underneath the slide with a wide grin. Bowser watched them go with a thoughtful look, but he seemed to accept his son’s new friend in the end.

But then he noticed his son’s new friend’s guardian, and he flinched at her cool stare. Rosalina kept it up even as he worked up the nerve to say something, perhaps because their charges were getting along mere yards away.

“So, uh.” He tried to meet her eyes. He didn't succeed. “He didn't bother you too much, did he...?”

“...He was fine,” Rosalina replied tersely. Bowser huffed at her answer.

“No, he was definitely a handful," he said. "He’s always a handful.”

Despite the complaint, he sounded fond. Rosalina understood that feeling intimately. So she decided to throw him a bone. “No more than any of my Lumas can be,” she offered, and Bowser laughed a little, relaxing slightly.

“Yeah, I guess you’d know about that.” He grinned at her like she was just a fellow parent, and not like he was the monster who had attacked her home, scared her children, and almost destroyed the universe months prior. There was really no reason he couldn't be both, Rosalina mused. But as a fellow parent, Rosalina should probably tell Bowser something about what his son had told her. She’d promised not to, though, so she didn’t. Instead, “After the universe was reborn,” she said, “how did your son fare?”

Bowser looked surprised at the question. “He, uh, fared fine. He’s lucky he didn't get hurt, from what I heard. Though” — Bowser frowned — “there’ve been nightmares. And some art. Of vents or somethin’, I dunno; he won't let me see any of it. Don't blame him, though; I shouldn't have lost track of him near the end of all that. ” Bowser’s face twisted into something guilty. “Gonna be keeping a better eye on him from now on, for sure,” he muttered, crossing his arms and looking off in the direction of the playground, where the Luma was cheering as Bowser Junior scaled the jungle gym. “We’ll get through this, and then I’m not losing him like that ever again.”

Rosalina hummed. She hadn't been sure about what Bowser’s answer would be, but the one she heard at least assured her that Bowser Junior was in good hands, and would continue to be so after he fulfilled his end of their promise.

“Dad!” Bowser Junior called from atop the jungle gym. When Bowser didn't move within milliseconds, he called for him again. And again. And —

“Alright, alright, I'm coming!” Bowser yelled back, amused. Without a second glance to Rosalina he ambled toward the playground with large steps. When Bowser Junior shouted at him to hurry up, Bowser smirked and all but stopped moving. He laughed at the resulting groaning about it, grin widening as said groaning turned into laughter of its own. As he walked further away, Rosalina tuned out the rest of his and his son’s exchange. With one eye kept on the playground, Rosalina sat back and resumed feeding her birds.

#this fic sits well below my usual quality of work #and thats because i wanted to see what would happen if i stopped giving a shit about the quality of the work XD #(i was only mostly successful in that endeavor)#a lot of aspects of this fic sit outside of my current skill level anyway #so if there was ever a time to eschew quality this was it lol #i still did a pretty decent job tho i think!#mlv.fic #smb #anyway happy three year anniversary to the post that ruined (lighthearted) the ending of Mario Galaxy for me forever lmao #don't consider it a headcanon of my own but its implications are. fascinating.#(and also really funny in kind of an awful way haha)

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quarklynx · 8 months

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So I started reading Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

...I get it now. They're gay but they're not, but they're soulmates but they hate each other's guts

#lynx thinks #orv spoilers #kinda #i read the entire webtoon in two days and then started reading the webnovel version when i ran out of that #so all in all im at chapter 183 now #this bitch really does just throw himself at a situation to solve it huh #he just keeps dying and then finding new ways to not die #I'm so invested tho #the webtoon really helped to get me into it bc it's paced so efficiently and compellingly #and the story is fascinating #im now realizing that some other webtoons ive read may have been slightly inspired by this story #but this one is way better than those ones #i do wonder whether it actually gets gay or if it's just the oodles of subtext and more overt implication #i also am curious if it's finished or not??#questions for morning me to consider tho. this story has kept me up past 2 for several nights now #i work on my sewing commission for most if the day so the evening is the main time i get to reaaaad ovo #... it's so late already tho. how bad could it be to just read one more chapter?

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orcelito · 1 year

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New way to kill someone in a dream. Literally ripping their soul out of their body and crushing it in my fingers??? Like ok

#speculation nation #dream shit #it was actually a really cool like. story kind of thing #idk they admitted to spying on my grandma to perfectly reconstruct her house (as a thinly veiled threat)#and i was just like. 'hm. okay.' and then just reached in front of this woman's face and Grasped #and there was a moment where i could hear her soul talking to me. begging for her life #but i decided she was a lying fucking snake and crushed her soul into nothing #her husband's soul was harder to pull out. Spiritually Stronger i guess. & i had to ask for help from my friends #and we pulled it out together. then made our escapes.#then there was a narration shot of maniacal laughter as this dude watched us go (we were the tokyo mew mew girls for some reason)#and was narrating to himself how regeneration is annoying. but not impossible. and he Would Have His Revenge..#love the implication here of the mew mews being soul snatching/crushing vigilante killers tho. lmfao #but yea ive killed in dreams before and i Will Again #usually it's just snapping someone's neck tho lol. very hands-on. this was definitely new.#LISTEN the dream killings r typically all justified. generally in self defense.#but yes i do have a real trend of killing in my dreams. and very very few times i die in my dreams.#miss me with that death shit. IM the killer.#it's a piece of psychological Something of mine that i find fascinating. dreams are so entertaining to analyse.

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fluffypotatey · 2 months

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I missed the part where Shadow Play took place over a few days and Macky is so stupid for going “you again? You must be my biggest fan” like SIR. He is the ONLY person coming to comfort binge popcorn and cry at an empty theatre while you repeat the same hero and warrior story like how are not tired and like, is MK ok bc this is unhealthy copism inflicting that depressing af story he kept internalizing on himself by coming back here. What was the goal telling that story over to no audience anyways lmao, okay safe enough hobby, but the lack of reaction to MK mentioning the LBD but THEN saying something is coming 👀 “good to see there is some potential” the “you’re just a bit too much like him” for a revived guy who just had a trauma flashback he’s way too dang chill, but oh the genuine FEAR when not mayor shows up, I hear macaques (as in the animal) smile to show fear, matches his personality fine but sometimes that breaks too and oof, and noooo his lantern. That’s like his only belonging, I personally love lanterns culturally, so wahh hope he gets it back it’s like that one fic where he also loved it a bunch and didn’t know where to hide it bc he thought the others wouldn’t like him keeping it.

ok there is some great art made by @llumetesdellums that perfectly encapsulate Shadow Play because yeah, MK is literally just obsessively rewatching this play (mood) where he sees himself as swk's shadow and warrior and unable to keep up, and the play just enables it because it is told in favor of the Warrior, who feels scorned and neglected by the Hero. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND!!! you have the hilarity of MK coming to this show everyday, every hour, eery showing and Macky just....goes on with the show 💀💀💀

like, on one hand, yeah, Macky had set the production times and (in my opinion) is a monkey of the arts™️. like yes, sure, this play was made with ulterior motives, but who is he to say no to more showings 😂 like on a story standpoint, MK's crisis is very emotional and tugs at your heartstrings because we've all (maybe) have been in his position of feeling second best and not good enough. but when you place yourself as a third party or Macky, you just see a guy obsessively coming to a show that clearly affects him negatively and nobody is stopping him

it's so hilarious from that end but also i just love this episode so much. and YEAH macky playing off MK's attendance like that is like, bitch you can just end the charade, you have the power!!! 😂 my guy

and then when it comes to Macky's own emotional feelings, i personally always see him as someone who's "cool" persona is his shield. fake it til you make it! if they think you're unfazed then nobody will ask questions, which Macky actually doesn't want MK to ask question that pertain to the specifics of his relationship with swk.

literally every answer he gives MK boils down to "he hurt me, i'm mad about it and feel incredibly betrayed, so don't repeat history". personally i don't think Macky can talk about the specifics bc it is still raw to him. a memory like a shish kabobed eye is pretty visceral, ya know? talking about it means reliving it, and Macky would rather be annoying vague and negative than do that.

#fun fact! the fanart i shared was a huge inspiration for ch3 of frayed strings bc i was hitting a block on it #so thanks llumetesdellums <3 you don't know me probably but your artwork greatly inspired me to keep writing Macky :D #macky's trauma is so fascinating to me #and it's interesting how lmk keeps that story under implication (and by interesting i mean i am chewing their walls bc i WANT IN!)#according to the legends: the Six Eared Macaval dies #he is killed by swk #however there are adaptations and stories that play on the idea that Macky lives #that they did fight but Macky got away still breathing (tho beaten to a pulp)#OR #there are stories where Macky DID die but was able to come back for reasons #and lmk STILL KEEPS THAT ANSWER UP IN THE AIR AND I WANNA KNOW #🎶CAN YOU SHOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW ME!🎶#but the cool thing is lmk adds a wholelot of other issues bt swk & macky that even if macky lived there's still a LOT of bad blood #but yeah #lmk #asks #lmk six eared macaque

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husband-in-law · 3 months

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What a completely insane dream

#I'm fascinated by the implications of the time loop hostel #And I think that Hungarian guy was based on my best friend #Remarkable stuff #I'll get ya next time tho

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theminecraftbee · 5 months

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minor correction im pretty sure it was cleos pirate crew who rescued her when she went overboard! carol did bite them and nurse them back to health tho and im pretty sure cleo implied that theyre the one who zombified carol in the first place so that. is somthing i've been thinking about for a long long time. the fact cleo is possibly infectious and just doesnt use that, yknow.

oh I could have SWORN Carol was also in the zombie crew but THANK YOU FOR THE CORRECTION. ALSO WHAT. the implication that cleo created Carol adds SO MUCH to their weird frienemies thing I am FASCINATED thank you for this cleo lore adding it to my worldview immediately???

#answered

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comicaurora · 11 months

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I'm playing TOTK and I totally agree—I got all the memories and now I'm doing a temple and Link please please just tell Yunobo what you know

but those absolutely fascinating character implications tho

#asks #not aurora #totk spoilers #technically

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thedeafprophet · 6 months

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Fascinating is increasing…

Jamie uses (they/them or he/him pronouns)

This is a redraw of an older piece from 2021 (well, more of reinterpretation, changed some things)

Artists' ramble of overview and choices undercut for those who care about that kind of thing

This was really fun to do, just an overview in how my style has changed, as well as my approach to Jam's character design has shifted. The original piece was one of my proudest drawings at the time, and im still quite fond of it.

Many things are the same, but also quite different, which is neat to compare. I take a different approach to colouring these days.

I also changed Jamie out of their more typical attire into a dressed down state, to give the more vague casual and ~seductive~ vibes alongside the references to the seduction mechanic of 'fascinating' in the game.

I also shifted the overall background to red, because i remember when i did the original piece I had inititally wanted to do a red background but couldnt figure out how to balance the colours. So challenged myself to do that this time.

I also shifted the flower imagery used in the background

I switched to real roses - with thorns and all - to give a more ominous implication. Inherent tragedy and all that.

I also added some more hands, and if you know my art you should know who and why XD. the top middle on u probs wont tho, thats there to represent Jam's ex from the surface.

Overall i wanted it to come across with slightly more of a darker undercurrent in the drawing.

#fallen london #fallen london oc #my art #oc: jamie

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kybelles · 2 months

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for the choose violence ask game: 10, 16, 18!

HELLO BABY!!! sorry in advance since this is all about DAMEN DAMEN and DAMEN cause duh... ik it's not a trendy expression anymore but he really does live rent free in my head 💔

10. worst part of fanon

OH DEAR..... yk i'm trying really hard to not sound deranged and delusional but i feel like there are so many skewed interpretations of damen even though the books are literally from his pov. here are some of them:

a. "damen is an unreliable narrator" i've literally gone to battle with people over this take cause NO HE'S FUCKING NOT?? you say 'damen didn't see laurent's good qualities and was overly judgemental of veretians' i say damen not fucking with his captors who's been nothing but awful to him doesn't mean he was unreliable!! it wasn't like laurent was a golden angel and damen willingly hated on him for nothing. book 1 laurent treated him horribly and damen had every reason and right to not trust him or find him honorable.

b. "damen was a fuckboy who discarded the people he slept with the second he was done with them before laurent" breaking news: if someone sleeps with a lot of people that means he has no respect for them and is bound to treat them like shit! the lack of canon evindence doesn't matter!

(if the take is about damen not being in love with his partners before laurent then i'm on board!! it's the implication that damen was an inconsiderate sex partner that boggles my mind cause... did we read the same books?)

c. "damen is actually bad at sex" is a take/joke(?) i've seen MULTIPLE times and it never fails to make me think what a fucking stupid thing it is to say ❤️

d. "damen learned empathy from laurent" ????? lmao. anyways...

e. "damen was lazy and kastor picked up his slack" is everything ok with your eyes? when's the last time you've seen an ophthalmologist?

f. "theomedes neglected damen" damen literally spends page after page reminiscing about his father's words, advices and their last days together. he also says theo was the only parent he knew all his life and since someone needed to raise him to be this fascinating gentle giant... 1+1=3???

g. any interpretation where damen is some sort of neanderthal who is a selfish spoiled and clueless oaf who needs to be educated by girlypopboss laurent OR where he lets laurent walk all over him and has no agenda of his own. just... no.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing

any setting where laurent is downright cold and rude towards damen FOR NO APPARENT REASON and yet damen is still obsessed with him, again for some mysterious reason??? not to sound like some know-it-all condescending bitch (tho i suspect to some degree i'm already infamous and some ppl dislike me bc of it 🥺 oh well...) but i think most people forget damen only started giving laurent the time of his day once laurent started showing him basic deceny during pg. i really don't think he'd be interested in someone who rebuked him at every chance and showed no interest at him.

(some ppl give jokaste as an example to excuse this but damen only says jokaste wasn't easily courted aka she didn't immediately jump into his bed (which is admirable omg... i wouldn't be as strong...) he never said she aloof towards him)

18.it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

THE FACT DAMEN IS A HUGE NERD!!! seriously, who listens to FOUR HOURS of poetry in one sitting... we all tend to focus on his martial insterests but ik my boy is also a sophisticated man 💅

#TYSM FOR THIS ASK!! i sincerely apologize if i talked too much 🥹#also sorry for committing no doubt a ton of grammatical errors lmao #captive prince

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tinygameroom · 4 months

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Have we even talked about the trans implications of being a god of change...

Editing to add my tags and context

When I say 'incidental' at the beginning I'm saying it feels incidental and artificial and then go on to partially deconstruct the idea that it actually is incidental and give examples of why it's not. This is not a full analysis which is why the concept is not explored with the clarity and structure that that would imply, but I'm not actually calling gender irrelevant to the game because it's clearly an ongoing part of the text. I didn't intend this to get reblogged at all much less with responses to my tags, so any issues you have with my rambles are due to lack of clarity and finished thought, due to them being rambles, not a correct understanding of my actual point.

Anyway I think there's tons of interesting analysis to be done about how the game approaches gender, and I don't have the energy or interest to actually analyze about it right now which is why I was more just spitballing about it. What's most interesting to me tho is that contradiction where the Princess being perceived as a woman seemingly has nothing to do with anything, yet is ever present as a commentary on agency and perception, and how people who have experienced misogyny will connect with that. I am also fascinated by the Genderlessness/Genderfulness of the Shifting Mound as an entity of change, how she appears so very feminine but her entire philosophy rejects the idea of simple classification, etc.

As a transmasc nonbinary person the ideas of being perceived as female/feminine (and therefore feeble, innocent, alien, small, stupid, etc etc) and the idea of having a feminine role that doesn't quite or always fit me assumed by others despite that are ideas that resonate a lot. I have lots of thoughts and they're unorganized!

#slay the princess #i feel like gender is so incidental and aesthetically shallow in the game #it has at once no meaning and so much meaning #like the princess is never assumed incapable or deceiptful or weak or simple because she's implicitly a woman #and her being a woman is almost never remarked on #but it's there subtextually in how the narrator and we impose on her agency and she has to continually defend and insist on it #in how she represents an ideal and sometimes even an object #it's not as if there's intentional in universe sexism on the part of the player or the narrator #but they way they perceive and interact with the princess reflects real experiences #with misogyny and being perceived as female #but the princess and especially the shifting mound defies a lot of the perceptions put on her #with the shifting mound describing herself as abstract and fluid concepts and emphasizing change #she is everything #and she is so beyond small human ideas and roles even if she deigned to think of them #so the feminine princess is more than incidental #but ultimately inconsequential

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bestworstcase · 3 months

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You’ve mentioned a few times that Salem is awkward, could you get into you’re reasoning and evidence for this characterization (as she is currently)? I’m fascinated by this reading and fully persuadable. Her origin story being the tower, it makes sense she’d be a little socially stunted but she was charismatic enough then to convince others to fight for her through words alone (tho that is different from in person social skills (to that point she persuaded kingdoms to revolt against the gods)). Millions of years of isolation wouldn’t put a shine on amicability, but these things /inform/ characterization. I’m interested in what you see in her as awkward in how she’s presented to us in the Current Era (Remnant Era?)

this post regarding her interrogation of oscar in 8.4 is salient because that's the scene that rly convinced me she's being written this way on purpose. there's a lot of contributing factors, though:

both then (fomenting rebellion) and now (recruiting hazel), salem's standard approach to getting people on her side involves basically walking up and "demonstrating her powers," i.e. inviting or just letting the person she's trying to sway kill her over and over again until they're willing to hear her out. she can (and did) make a compelling enough argument for people to follow her, but the way she chooses to make people listen is by subjecting herself to extreme violence.

further, it's shown in V8 that even within her own inner circle, there is a lot of confusion regarding what salem wants—so much so that tyrian and hazel think diametrically opposed things. why does this confusion exist? ozpin (and most of the fandom) believe it is because salem lies; but a) salem hates lies and liars, and b) the idea that salem herself is deceitful is founded on things jinn says of her in the lost fable, which is a verifiably unreliable narrative. if we look at the two onscreen instances of salem speaking of her goals—"the moment you put your desires before my own" and "in pursuit of a new world"—what strikes me about both is her vagueness.

when cinder questions her in V5, salem answers in a very oblique way: "working with bandits? leaving ruby alive? what's the point!?" -> "never underestimate the usefulness of others; take leonardo. he was one of ozpin's most trusted, but now…" both the bandit (raven) and ruby were or are among ozpin's "most trusted," and salem's point is that she wants to turn both of them against ozpin (like leo and summer). but she does not actually Say That. i made this analogy in the oscar interrogation post but i'll make it again: the way salem answers cinder's question is like showing her work on a math problem but not actually giving the answer. a lot of salem's dialogue is like this: she talks in examples, hints, and implications.

in fact the one time we have ever seen salem clearly state what she means is after ozma asks her "what are you saying?" <- i find this to be significant not only because it flags that other characters find salem's speech to be opaque or unclear sometimes, but because salem answers him honestly and without any hesitation, which indicates that she was not trying to be vague or obfuscate her meaning on purpose. asked for clarification, she clarifies.

then there is what she says to ozma once he tells her the whole truth: "why spend our lives trying to redeem these humans when we could replace them with what they could never be?"—now i am not going to get into my whole theory here, suffice it to say that i think that by "them" salem meant the gods in accordance with her longstanding ambitions—but the salient piece for this discussion is that this bolded phrase is a direct paraphrase from the final lines of 'the shallow sea' and i do think that that is, given the preponderance of thematic links between salem and the faunus, probably intentional, i.e. salem is quoting that myth to express her rejection of ozma's mandate (compare ozma's reliance on fairytales to communicate and make sense of his existence.)

lastly, there are several occasions when salem is talking (to her inner circle in 6.4, or to ironwood in 7.11, or oscar in 8.4) only to be interrupted with unexpected new information (ozpin is back; ruby used the lamp; oscar is fronting). in the first two examples, salem responds by either kicking everyone else out or leaving herself. see the linked post for a more thorough breakdown of her conversation with oscar, but suffice it to say that she responds in a very awkward and disjointed way before she's able to get herself back on track.

so we have a pattern of:

speaking vaguely or being cryptic, in a manner that other characters explicitly find to be confusing,

clarifying readily the one time she's asked for clarification,

paraphrasing the concluding lines of a myth about people embracing change and leaving their old selves behind to live their truth in a new world that is harsh but free, in order to articulate her rejection of "redemption" and the divine mandate,

and ending conversations very abruptly when interrupted mid-speech.

and this pattern exists in correlation with a pair of soliloquies whose language is markedly more eloquent, even poetic, and delivered with a clarity and emotional smoothness that is often lacking from her spoken dialogue.

what this suggests, to me, is that salem struggles to articulate her thoughts (the soliloquies) into words (her dialogue), and that she deals with it with preparation—by planning out what she intends to say and how she'll say it in advance. that she relies heavily on scripts and rehearses speeches and conversations in her head specifically to avoid having to speak off the cuff, in essence.

(and i think this is generally the basis for ozma's distrust and doubts: she told him the truth but in a really confusing and cryptic way that didn't always make sense. if she wasn't coherent—and how could she be after millions of years alone?—of course he wasn't sure whether he could believe what she said!)

basically, i think she's capable of being compellingly persuasive only under particular circumstances (planned speeches given to an audience primed to listen to what she says by violent, spectacular demonstrations of her immortality), and she flounders in ordinary conversation because a) she struggles to find the right words to express her meaning clearly, b) her natural affect is blunted and sometimes erratic (<- "well… :) perhaps you and i can have a better working relationship……… >:( oscar, was it? /:"), and c) she knows both of these things make her come across as an insincere liar.

<- there is a performative aspect to… nearly every scene in front of her inner circle or her enemies; that informs this reading too. as does the fact that there are many, many characters who are tangibly more charismatic than she is—ozpin, blake, oscar, cinder, robyn, ruby, yang—whereas the character whose manner of speech most resembles salem's is pyrrha, who speaks in an overly formal way and explicitly feels socially isolated and unable to form real connections with people.

#it's also not just the tower #it's the millions of years being the only living person on the planet #i think part of it is she's so accustomed to having nothing and no one to talk to except herself #like a lot of her Being Cryptic comes across as salem #really needing the other person to ask clarifying questions bc she doesn't know how to organize information cogently #but she's surrounded by people who Don't Ask Questions

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strqyr · 6 months

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Yang: You're right. I don't know you. I only know the Raven dad told me about. She was troubled, and complicated, but she fought for what she believed in, whether it was her team or her tribe! Did you kill her too?

Cinder: You know, I've heard so many stories about you, Raven. They say you're a cunning leader, that you're strong, that you're clever. It's a shame that they're wrong.

they're. the same: "here's what i've been told about you -> i don't think it fits."

yang is told about raven by tai (one of raven's old teammates). (she's also told some by qrow, but that lines up more with qrow's conversation about summer with ruby in V7) (tho yang being saved by raven while she was unconscious and qrow giving her raven's message how she shouldn't expect that kindness again -> what happened at the beacon tower for cinder to possibly be out of the way when qrow came to retrieve ruby; did summer get cinder, thus potentially saving unconscious ruby if cinder had come to first?)

anyway.

cinder's "they" is more vague, but if that "they" includes summer (another one of raven's old teammates), then they'd be even more same, but what really fascinates me is how yang's focus is on family—for raven, team strq and the branwen tribe—while cinder's is on leadership—

Qrow: You should come back, Raven. The only way we'd beat her is by working together. All of us. Raven: You're the one who left. The tribe raised us, and you turned your back on them. Qrow: They were killers and thieves. Raven: They were your family. Qrow: You have a very skewed perception of that word. Raven: I lead our people now. And as leader, I will do everything in my power to ensure our survival.

two concepts that are present in raven and qrow's conversation in V4. notably, raven thinks that it's qrow who left, that the tribe is their family, and once qrow insults raven's perception of the word "family", she makes it clear she leads their people now (their family), and that she will do everything in her power to ensure their survival.

you shouldn't turn your back on your family; a leader should do everything to ensure the survival of their people. "one's family" and "one's people" are the same, in a way, to raven. team strq and the tribe.

summer was the leader of team strq. whatever happened on the night of her mission, it left enough of a mark that raven thinks summer failed fundamentally at being a leader, me thinks.

which, looping back to cinder's focus on leadership, if she has heard those stories from summer, then the fact that summer would talk about raven in this manner as well is intriguing. the implication that the two had their differences re: leadership (and how that relates to family, perhaps)... their issues are rooted deep to the day team strq was formed, isn't it.

#rwby #side note: poor cinder #her life is already a tragic mess #and now she's also narratively connected to the Greatest Mess of All Time

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barblaz-arts · 7 months

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I've been doing research recently on monsters & myths/legends from my own culture (and from different cultures, as well.) And here's an interesting fact, my mom's hometown in Mexico has a legend of a creature that shares some similarities with the Manananggal. Mainly in the whole, detaching their upper body from their legs.

It's called the "Tlahuelpuchia," & it's a type of vampire or witch that lives with its human family. It's able to shape shift and sucks the blood of infants at night. Tlahuelpuchi are born with their curse and can't avoid it. They first learn of what they are sometime around puberty. Most tlahuelpuchi are female & the female tlahuelpuchi are more powerful than males, apparently.

Tlahuelpuchi are able to change form by detaching their body from their legs (which are left behind in their house) while they hunt, usually in the form of some bird like a turkey or a vulture. The tlahuelpuchi has to perform a ritual before she can enter the house of a victim: they must fly over the house in the shape of a cross from north to south, then east to west.

Tlahuelpuchi must feast on blood at least once a month or they die. Their victim of choice are infants. There's no way to really detect a tlahuelpuchi except by catching them in the act. If anyone identifies a tlahuelpuchi, they must be killed on the spot. However, if a tlahuelpuchi's family discovers them, they'll protect them out of shame because if a family member is responsible for the death of a tlahuelpuchi, the curse will be passed down to them. It's also said that garlic, onions, and metal repel the tlahuelpuchi.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that cuz I find it so fascinating when different cultures share similarities with legends/stories/folklore even if it's just tiny stuff. Kinda how a lot of cultures have legends of a woman dresses in white clothes with long dark hair wandering around at night.

-Twicetheheartx2

(PS I'm not just talking about Mexico's famous legend of "La Llorona." If you're interested, you can ask me about "La Yeguatzihuatl" from Chiapas.

That is genuinely so cool tho. Similarities in different cultures are fascinating af, but I didnt realize that could also happen for folklore monsters. Lotsa people here genuinely believe that the aswang(umbrella term for Filipino folklore monsters) are real, including me tbh to some degree, so possible implications with all that considered are interesting.

#asks #long post

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user-needs-new-hyperfixation · 7 months

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Rare(ish)-pair Yuumori ideas that I may or may not ever write (but they're like, bottom of my ideas list, so if anyone is inspired by these have at it, I can always do my own versions later lol. Tag me tho, I wanna read stuff!)

(These are for the most part absurdly off-canon and varying degrees of cracky. Roll with it.)

Bond/Albert in which Albert is a virgin and Bond has never had sex post-transition. Bond tops. It's like a very affectionate friends-with-benefits deal where they're learning new things together.

Billy and Louis friendship fic where Louis expects to find Billy annoying because he's kind of boisterous and overly familiar and whatnot, but instead finds himself surprisingly charmed and then they're buddies.

Billy and Bond fic where they bond over being Americans who faked their deaths and changed their identities. They may or may not kiss, idk.

Jack Renfield/Queen Victoria 😂😂😂😂

Mycroft and Miss Hudson have an incredibly tame, mature, and vanilla romance that is absolutely fascinating to everyone around them because they're all crazy people (affectionate). They do gentle missionary for the first time on their wedding night and have a baby precisely forty weeks later and everyone claps.

Mycroft/Moran. Has anyone done this? I literally have no reason for it other than that I was playing around with the character profiles trying to see which people might actually have anything in common based on age etc, and huh. I could find a way to make this work. They never have sex beyond handies because they can't agree on who would top. 🤣

John and Moran fic. Probably just a friend fic. Frankly this should be considered more in general in Holmes adaptations: these two are foils of each other, each the loyal soldier at Holmes' and Moriarty's respective sides. They should be drinking buddies in the Yuumori-verse, but in everything else they should be enemies with belligerent sexual tension.

Mycroft/William set in between A Scandal in the British Empire and The Final Problem, in which they have a lot of technically very good but very miserable sex while pining over each other's brothers and picking apart each other's brains brutally.

William/Billy thing where William after the coma is still working things through and is kind of emotionally distancing himself from Sherlock because he's still not Okay, and Billy is there for him. (Vermissa gets pushed later in this.) They get quite emotionally entangled in bonding over their similarities, but nothing actually comes of it, and Billy is the one to ultimately give William the push he needs to open up to Sherlock. It ends on a bittersweet note with the implication that Billy is more than a little in love with Liam, but knows Sherlock is who he should be with. Sad gays.

Bond/everyone where he's at the center of the most successful polycule in recorded history. 😂

#moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #fic ideas #silliness

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