#soma is dying.

[somaticmilk]

Dude if Vincent didn’t look like my brother I WOULD BE ALL UP ON THAT STUPID WOLFY MOFO.

#soma says #soma- soma is lying.. #other than the fact he was made by EP - come onnnn #come onnnnnnnnnn #come ONNNNNNNN #he’s a cowboy. how how.. #nvm- but uh Yk??? #vincent metzger #yk I always loved eating dogs 😋 #<- I can say that stfu. #soma is dying. #don’t get me started on Sano..

[butbabeitsnotreal]

my 2023 playstation and nintendo wrapped

#jkppost #gaming #video games #playstation #ps4 #ps5 #nintendo #nintendo switch #lies of p #playstation wrapped #nintendo switch 2023 #2023 #dark souls #dying light #bloodborne #nioh #soma #bioshock #wolfenstein #detroit become human #the callisto protocol #kamiko #oceanhorn #zelda #botw #totk #breath of the wild #tears of the kingdom #immortals fenyx rising

[yeonban]

Naotora and Tsubasa who went in thinking they'd save both Soma and Shishikado only to return without them AND without Tatsuomi:

#tbd. #muse: takeda naotora. #orient spoilers / #What gets me is that Seiroku can feel that Soma died thanks to the obsidian heart linking them but the Grand Generals have NO idea #Shishikado; Soma and Tatsuomi are dead. They think the others are out there saving them rn but no they're dust particles #If the next time Naotora appears he recalls any one of them even Once it'll end my whole career #*That is to say if Naotora even survives his own battle. Which I sure HOPE he does bc he's the only fav I have left in these barren lands #(Ngl it's so tragic that it's become hilarious. First Mikito; now Soma; soon Seiroku; it's ALWAYSSS my faves dying 😭😭😭 #I can't even say I hope Aijiro survives bc there's no way he will. He'll definitely join my pile of dead faves)

[poliodeuces]

someday i'll step on the soil of that planet with my own feet / a pipe dream finally turning into a worthless reality

saito soma- crystal world

#saito soma #soma saito #what a nice name #斉藤壮馬 #seiyuu #france art #i like that line #in the context of the song it's smth the person says after locking them up in a safe room or a vehicle to escape to another planet #and the persona is uncertain if he'll ever follow or see this person again #bc it's a saito soma song it's scifi of course and i think the title is literally a jg ballard reference #song is full of 'it's okay's and 'we'll be fine' and 'how can you laugh at a situation like this'...empty comfort at doomsday #idk idk something abt a dream coming true but under the worst circumstances ever (world is crumbling dying etc etc #which is a classic soma scenario #this guy kills all his characters and for what #i support his love for apocalyptic fiction and unintentionally romantic non-romance music abt people promising to meet in the afterlife

[intrepid-creations]

5/15/23

Hey did I mention I really have a fascination with historical armor?

Look, Soma's a smart jarlskona and she'd definitely use some of her rug budget to spring for some decent armor so she doesn't idk get stabbed or something. I mean ... not like she'd ever get stabbed ever. Like, that's a ridiculous notion.

Her wielding a Dane axe is just due to personal preference.

My personal preference.

#Soma jarlskona #pay no attention to whatever the fuck I drew at the bottom there #soma #ac valhalla #soma ac valhalla #if I saw her coming at me with a dane axe I'd surrender and propose in the same breath before dying a happy death #more soma fan art of her in historical armor challenge 2k23

[theodaione-incorrect-quotes]

Ciel: I’m telling you, my team is competent. Lizzie, rushing in: Ciel! Soma tried to make pasta in the coffee pot and now it's broken!

#harry potter #harry potter incorrect quotes #harry potter x black butler #black butler #orwell chess #ciel phantomhive #elizabeth midford #soma #he sighed before moving to fix it #celaena is dying in the background

[skelekins]

Even tho he’s toxic I bet seabun has been bitten before

Got v upset

Whoever bit him probably died due to toxins while Kelek’s just over there

“D,X ow my ASS why would u do this”

#i initially had this more angst #but also him just being all OW MY ASS #while whatever bit him is seizing and dying #is hilarious to me #he’d b concerned if he was damaged around soma or fang tho :( #doesn’t want his poisons getting in their gills #skelekins speaks #Kelek posting #seabun posting

[ashkii-0]

Please have a million babies with me

Soma please it's been a whole month now, IM TIRED. 😭😭😭

#artists on tumblr #soma fuck off #pls #im dying here #work is already enough i cant #😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[yotd2009]

the kuro anime has a fundamental misunderstanding about what equals a cathartic ending for ciel

#him dying alone w only sebastian there isn't bittersweet it's just tragic. ciel's relationships w other characters matter so much it's why #lizzie's betrayal and soma's confusion over the two ciels situation is so gutwrenching in the manga . #and for the same reasons ciel becoming a demon. faking his own death. and sebastian staying as his butler forever isn't either #they're trying to frame tragic but inevitable endings as some sort of ideal conclusion as if it's not the worst case scenario #romeo.txt

[mass-convergence]

More Soma sketches/drawings.

Just kinda had this idea of her as like this detective person ... okay really I wanted an excuse to draw her in a shirt with rolled up sleeves and looking like she was about to shoot someone.

And I'm slowly trying to regain my confidence in my ability to color things.

#Soma jarlskona #mass draws shit #I did a lot of deleting of art in this round lol #fan art #Soma #assassin's creed valhalla fan art #I need to stop thinking I can color #Look I've been on day shift the past week and a half and I'm slowly dying because I physically can't get up at 5 am

[tailsisfluffy]

Soma hides his feelings (little analysis)

I think Soma doesn't really show/brushes off negative emotions because of the environment he was brought up in. He was brought up in a restaurant and learned customer service skills. He had to learn to put his feelings last and a give a great experience to customers first. He's used to insults and knows to deal with them outwardly despite hurting internally.

Also, his father had an impact as well. Soma saw that Saiba was spiraling into depression after Tamako died. Soma tried to cheer him by doing what he remembered made Saiba have fun, which was cooking. Saiba said that Soma was a strong kid ever since, which leads me to believe that even though he was grieving as well, Soma tried not to show it in front of his father in case it may trigger Saiba again. I don't remember if Soma said it himself, though.

But it is clearly shown when Megumi is about to get kicked out of the training camp. He's clearly angry during that whole mini battle arc with Shino, but pushes it down several times when Megumi or other people were around. It was only when he finally had a few seconds alone did he let out his frustrations.

And maaaybeee I'm reading too far into it, but the times he's alone in general he's super serious and in his head. When he is with others, he adopts a carefree personality while still keeping a good head on his shoulders, kind of like Isshiki. Right now, the only time I remember seeing the facade break was when he realized how much trouble he was in during the preparation of the Autumn Election finals and he went silent in thought while Fumio was driving him and Megumi back to the dorm. There may be a few more examples but that was the one I remember the clearest of him barely cracking a smile.

#I feel like someone may have posted this before but I don't remember who #this fandom is slowly dying and I still think about it daily #am I reading too much into this? #possibly #souma is just a really fun character to pick apart #food wars #shokugeki no soma #yukihira souma

[somaticmilk]

@watterbarrel

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

#soma says #Everclear anon #OKAY VERY FUNNY BUDDY.. #NOT THE TIME #dog tags #How much was this #oml #i think i’m dying

[miawinters]

anyways, even if there wasnt some weird specific problem im having with a game, i wish there were always difficulty/accessibility options or even a skip section if i want to complete the game for the story or whatever. even if i was the worst gamer in the world, i'd still kinda feel like i experienced it, without having to be told to get good or watch the game on youtube after i've already bought it

#personal #like control had an invincibility mode. if deathloop had that i wouldve turned it on lmao #and soma i think had combat but i was feeling so lazy and tried the version w/o and i never once thought: oh boy wish i was running/fightin #apparently ppl also said scorn sucked bc of the combat? idk i think u can also play a game w/o fighting... its ok... who cares #im not exactly playing online fighting games #hhhhh idk. i have terrible completionist tendencies to where i'll try so hard and in the end i'll still think i hated it. it doesnt pay off #how does deathloop have adaptive difficulty if im dying over and over. the npcs should be like. dumb as rocks at this point. whats going on #or hell rockstar's games never have difficulty bc u can skip after failing an amount of times. if i get jack kelos ran over by a #bulldozer enough times itll offer 'u wanna skip?' to which im like PLEASE. a game from 2011/2017

[zhao-tianyou]

the lack of fanfic for any of the judgment/lost judgment characters hurts my heart

#yakuza #judgment #lost judgment #shut up kristen #someone write some fluff about fumiya or toru or even fucking soma please #im dying here lmao

[yeonban]

* Date Soma - Pirate AU.

The infamous Date Soma, Captain of the Uminyudo pirate ship, the capital ship of the Funayurei pirate fleet famed as one of the five largest pirate fleets and the worst one to come across, is most well-known for his tenacity, the imposing aura every survivor remembers him by and the rare swordsmanship only recognized in some northern parts of the land of the rising sun as part of the emishi that had been shunned from Japan by the imperial authorities' legacy. Never has there been a single enemy lucky enough to escape the Funayurei after choosing to stand against Soma regardless of whether they were pirate ships or royal fleets, and only those he has personally granted freedom to can rest easy at night without keeping an eye open.

In spite of his reputation as a ruthless pirate however, Soma takes great care of the pirates under his wing and often grants the innocent a choice rather than immediately sinking them to the bottom of the sea. This kinder side towards his own men, paired with his strategies, resilience and greatly amassed power, is the main reason why many continue to obey him, as well as why many prefer to steer clear from the places he's known to be at, much too afraid of accidentally directing his wrath towards them. In the same vein, Soma upholds his pirate code down to the letter, never once having violated it.

Most of Soma's time is spent on the Uminyudo, at times boarding other ships of the Funayurei as well depending on the circumstances, but it's not an incredibly rare sight to come across him at various taverns either. When setting foot on land, it's always with the intent to either acquire (better) alcohol or to sell rarities he's come across at sea for exorbitant prices, but unlike many pirates, the Uminyudo and the Funayurei never attack ports nor cities where civilians can be found. As such, the general public's opinion on the Uminyudo remains rather unclear - with some wishing for him to be caught and killed, and others offering to cover for him if need be.

The Uminyudo pirates and the Funayurei fleet

Named after the Umibozu yokai from Soma's birth region of Tohoku, the Uminyudo primary ship as well as its allied forces conform to the myths of japanese folklore that stem from Umibozu and its creation of Funayurei.

The Uminyudo pirates are rumored to only attack sailors when the sea is unusually calm, most often on nights with a clear moon, and as such "the calm before the storm" has become a collective fear of all those who set out to the sea without baring a pirate flag. The Uminyudo under Soma's leadership may choose to spare the sailors willing to hand over all of their ships' goods, but the naval ship they are a part of will always either be destroyed or made their own in his wake, allowing the sailors' escape to only ever be made on smaller or makeshift boats. That being said, there have been instances (though few in number) in which sailors have chosen to become pirates under Soma's leadership rather than risk their lives to reach the mainland on their own.

In comparison, the Uminyudo's treatment of other pirates depends on several factors - from the number of pirates onboard, to their infamy, and to the state of their ship/s. For similarly large pirate groups, there is generally little mercy to be shown, and the Uminyudo endeavors to sink every massive pirate ship until theirs is the last to remain, therefore also perceiving each pirate fleet as an enemy. When it comes to smaller pirate groups, though... the Funayurei pirate fleet has gained its name after sinking hundreds of pirate ships and granting them the privilege of making a choice: to either sink and die as proud pirates under their own flags, or to discard their former identities and join Soma's fleet. With the fleet being comprised solely of defeated pirate groups that chose to obey the Uminyudo, they are considered "ghosts of pirates who have died at sea, seeking to bring others down with them", hence receiving the japanese folklore name of Funayurei.

As opposed to the tactics used against sailors, the Uminyudo and Funayurei tend to use the weather to their advantage when faced against fellow pirates, creeping in on them during foggy, rainy or stormy conditions and taking them by surprise, typically already dealing cannon blows before the enemy can become aware of their presence. As such, many lesser ships have started sinking before they could even tell that there is an enemy nearby, and many have sank as a result of cannon fire paired with rough waves.

Though there have been cases of other pirates or naval fleets successfully sinking Funayurei ships, the worst of their losses have always resulted from accidentally encroaching on siren territory after being tossed wayward by the rough seas during storms. Unable to make contact with other ships from the fleet and being beckoned to sail even closer to the sirens after listening to their mesmerizing songs, many pirates from the Funayurei have found their final resting place deep within the waters, leaving only their empty ships behind as warning. The Uminyudo (and thus Soma) has never personally experienced the call of a siren nor has it ever seen any, but it has found plenty of its allied ships laying in the middle of nowhere with no soul left on board to tell him their tales. After years as a ship captain and then as a fleet commander, the first siren Soma has laid his eyes on, is Seiroku.

#muse: date soma. #How... do I even tag this. ADGSAJDASDHSADK #atp I'm allergic to not adding at least SOME bits of Tohoku lore in everything I write about Soma so it had to be done #and after professional mental gymnastics; Soma retains p much the same ol' personality his Orient counterpart does <3 #except instead of accepting an alliance w the other large bushi bands; pirate Soma goes against the other large pirate fleets #and instead of facing oni/kishin & Obsidian Eight members daily; out at sea there's the merfolk/sirens & the enemy ships #Tbh pirate Soma is pretty chill if you get to know him. Less worries than he has in Orient and much more alcohol on board #plus unlike w the Obsidian Eight towards which all he feels is pure disgust; towards sirens and merfolk he feels a tinge of curiosity #like yeah he ISN'T pleased w them considering his men keep dying bc of them; but he doesn't necessarily see them as smth evil #he knows that no matter how at home he may feel out at sea; the sea isn't /theirs/ to own; it belongs to the creatures living IN the water #and as land creatures who have ventured into the unknown of their own free will... some of them are also bound to die out at sea #it doesn't really make a difference if it's at the hands of a storm a siren or another ship; which is why he doesn't feel hatred for sirens #w that in mind tho Soma DOES try to steer his fleet as far away from places known to have sirens as possible instead of going after them #but alas if the sea has other plans for them (ie. drifting them into siren territory / meeting sirens in places they shouldn't be) then. L #QUEUE.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

i think i've only seen a soma playthrough twice and the first time i didn't absorb it great lol but upon just some light brushing up (incl a short article that was one of the few results that cropped up when i was like "show me the images for 'soma's save feature featured fisting, right' (yeah basically)") it's like, it's always fun when you're just left with a lot of room to Interpret Themes and unsurprisingly at this juncture i'm lasering in on just, like, the matter of [the self vs the other] via this premise that basically people can just make a copy of their Psyche at any point (but needing to find a new & different Soma in which to upload it but like, largely setting that aside when In This Scenario the new bodies don't affect their minds / sense of self at all....except for when they sometimes do? or maybe not. the like glitchy monsters are just kind of WAU automatons, right. and the people are all able to act / communicate themselves as people, though they might be affected by like, existential crises over the goings on) wherein like....the protagonist can Split In Two* at a few points via the psyche copying/uploading, and then the game Follows the copy that will be continuing to advance the plot, and the version of the protagonist we Were following is now An Other even though it's like, that was The Self (at least insofar as that was our first person pov player character) up till just now. and the protagonist can Know like, yeah that's You right over there also. and yet iirc from like, yesterday's light research, in the first instance he at least gets the Option to kill that Other/Self who was, up till just then, the Self to us too, if that makes him feel better abt the existential crisis, or at least discomfort, enough to like, keep moving right along lol (speaking of. just the other day i was like "adagioly onomatopoeiaing the opening banjo strums of rainbow connection from the muppet movie soundtrack does so much for me" and then i learned it was the anniversary of its theatrical release. hell yes. also memorably once when like marinating for hours in a general malaise & failing to find the wherewital to get up i was like "haha oh wait. i'm playing the song 'movin right along' from the muppet movie in my head. okay" up & at em)

anyways the fisting article (which, i was wondering what thoughts it would have on that truly interesting facet of the game. mostly it posited that the uhh sphincteresque penetration of it all would be Typically considered to make cishet men anxious / threatened / vulnerable, and notes the protagonist (hypothetically a cishet man) is indeed trepidatious about it, while also arguing he markedly Doesn't really hesitate in shit that hurts or endangers others in the course of his shit (though ig that can also depend on the player? haven't really rewatched it recently enough to know how much his dialogue adds to [as a character though he's making it clearer he just wants to cut a swath through your shit asap]) and also questions whether the game thinks of (or, from their argument, knows of) the protag as pretty sphincteresque himself. and like yeah probably imo lol like thee ending being what it is, and as far as i know no like Multiple Endings like in amnesia series* stories usually, and thus more room to have a protagonist who talks to characters in the present and i think like, without the ability to choose what he says

anyways that the protagonist can Understand like, hey see that guy over there, that's literally also you rn, and yet he can [Not accept that] in one case such that he'll kill that Self for "his own" Self's comfort really, as the fisting article expressed, to continue believing he is Unique and the One True Self, the only Real [himself]. when, to be sure, the game Could have kept the first person pov on that version of him we'd Been up till then, and had that pov of the one killed. or maybe left behind in another instance, i don't remember all the "transfers"....catherine Explicitly explaining that only the copy/upload format is possible, Not Transfers, making sense what with like. her magic brain scans that can can wholly parse & store your Psyche data, whatever that'd be like, definitely not being meant to, say, Extract the person's Psyche from their living human body upon doing so. while the ending's drama comes from the game Now staying with the version of the protag who'd been our first person pov character prior to that "transfer," who is Again like "why am i still here" despite having the "it's not actually a transfer" explained, b/c This version Just So Happens to be the copy of the copy of the copy like simon(4) or (5) or whatever and ofc can't have been the one(s) already just left behind somewhere back there in the complex or he wouldn't have been able to be at that point in the first place. and then "killing" catherine b/c he's so pissed, i remember it as him hitting whatever device was her effective Soma, but the article i think suggested she just got too stressed in turn and that Output fried the device. while, of course, post credits shows us their "transferred" selves just fine chilling in the ark like whew glad all that's done with

anyways just getting around to the fact of how it's easy to land on catherine as the center of the game....and of course she's the one really Not having crises over [my god, copies of my Self] or others' selves or what all, having even less of a usual Soma than simon but rolling with it, and evidently having already fully absorbed her Self as a distinct version from her original Self, despite having the same links to her that make simon or anyone else who's been copied into whatever other Soma feel like he's continuously been Himself(tm), the one true Real Self he's always been....and like, naturally catherine being the one behind the entire project of [what if we copy/paste people's psyches into a big ol mmorpg server & shoot it into space so that Maybe something can happen with them / in a way they can continue to exist] so she's Been thinking of, you know, being separate from these Selves turned Others who you'll jettison into space beyond even the body of the earth. unless it's supposed to stay in orbit lol i do not remember the details....and ofc like plenty of other people are like wow that's Fucked Up or it's Not Us and like, the latter sure is true with with the [copying, not transferring] element, but also the former is more choose your own adventure (interpretation) when the game isn't about like, and the simulation Is fucked up, or there's any element of distress or dissonance to existing on the ark, though you can't really know that until the post credits scene confirms you're just hanging out for real....which, that article was also going in on the character who's on this quest to kill the WAU as like "the versions of us it makes isn't Real it's Corrupting" and like, arguably the WAU as just kind of, naturally, something capable of growing, and doing so, and the real problem seeming to come in with the [doing whatever for supposed safety but superceding/supplanting/displacing autonomy in doing so] like, people who did not agree to whatever was done re: their Somas or they would've remembered & been like yeah i'm hanging out as a robot now, or a goop guy, gunk [YES], etc. but separate from that obvious issue it's like, my guy, You're a copy made by the WAU now lol, you're your whole person that you are, with the thoughts & feelings to decide you wanna go on a quest to destroy it, and whatever capacity to pursue it....either way i think the game makes it clear enough the WAU is a Neutral force exercising no conscious discernment, it Is a body, or it's some body (once told me) anyways lol, though i guess i did just go "those Monsters that can chase you are just wau manifestations right" so that's getting kind of complex lol, but even that can be taken as, like, it Mimicking human's shapes & bipedality & other external characteristics, i guess, and just the way an overall theme can be [hmm where's that division between the soma and psyche, machine and ghost] the WAU has been expanding and making various forms of itself, and of humans, and that's also an element of the fisting that starts out as a fingering and can end with having to leave part of yourself in WAU's core if you have completed the choice to corrupt & destroy it, that Connection and Interfacing is required, with increasing [get it in there] required as well though there's no given clear in universe reason why (w/my theory here being: just the Themes of the increasing interaction / reducing Boundary)

where was i going with this. idk naturally there's people like "well you don't have to see the wau as evil or at least required to be destroyed" like yeah one can imagine the case for that, wherein again this one guy's hypothetically mad abt like oh it can't be Us it's making, like, brother in christ You are here as You are b/c of what wau did, if you don't think You're legitimate enough, how can you be dead set on pursuing any decision you make. but also the lack of autonomy wherein wau has (probably? again would have to rewatch) killed people to transfer them to a less fragile soma, but a) also maybe it's just acted when people were already dying / killed from other causes, and naturally there's the Everyone There Doomed To Die Fairly Imminently factor and b) that [wau's neutral / purely soma no psyche (or is it. etc)] aspect that is that classic mixup of wau just acting on its programming in a way unintended by its programmers re protecting life and c) i think WAU can sure be interpreted as a parallel counterpart to the ark project, where people agreed to the latter, & get to chill with simulated bodies in a simulated world, versus the WAU being that [body, world, realm of physical existence] which is funky & Not like a cool nice recreation of the usual world & is also at the bottom of the ocean, but it's sure trying to extend the existence of ppl's psyches by shoving them into whatever robots or slapping together parts or propping up their original body or what all, i don't remember that many of the characters encountered

Anyways Back To Catherine For Real. i'd forgotten this element completely, but that when catherine finds out her original self had been killed by crewmates (lol. amongst) for being set on carrying out the plan for the ark, Her Project, (i.e. launching it into space (risking that launch going incorrectly) vs keeping it on site at the bottom of the ocean here (theoretically less risky, according to at least the crewmate who killed her about her insisting on launching it anyways)) and catherine's copy / now alternate self comments on being like, a bit disappointed And surprised b/c like she says "i knew they didn't like me, but," like not thinking that dislike would lead to a semi accidental killing her (where apparently the guy who killed her may have been wearing the like powered diving suit w/the extra Strength to operate in the water pressure, like oh didn't mean to hit her That hard. in a different soma already) and seeing other ppl (not in universe) commenting on how it sure did seem to be culmination of like "the way others treated her" and how catherine always mentioned like, never having really had friends including as a crewmate here, being an Introvert....in fact, now i'm remembering that catherine doesn't even say "i knew they didn't like me, but" but rather something very close to "i know i'm not easy to like, but" like, aaaugh....like, as ever, a character or a Real Life Person sharing any particular info like "i'm [xyz]" Isn't Required for just trying to always not be ableist and to always treat other people as people even if they don't "just be normal" correctly enough, supposedly. rather than [what is "just being normal" is Correct & Good and you do Not need to undergo a continuous lifelong journey of in fact questioning this & navigating & learning how to communicate & interact & relate, you just need to fleetingly muster some superficial unhelpful Bonus efforts sometimes when you encounter the rare "exception" like someone who hands you their License To Autiste and you can let them keep their fidget cube and continue treating everyone you encounter ever organic aba style]....like, naturally in the game there's no twist where catherine turns out to be Evil or even antagonistic. she's like, patient, encouraging, friendly, helpful all throughout. she's also, ofc, simon's only guide (adding to the suspense of that [my god. my only guide was evil, and/or just my antagonist now anyways]) so he doesn't really get to pick someone he'd Like more. but that like, lifelong matter of why catherine doesn't Get to have had friends. that even as this professional associate she's treated differently, and worse, b/c you have to personally like someone & find them charming & je ne sais quoissy to Not be worse to them? it's fine to be shitty until catherine can, say, say "i've noticed you're being kind of shitty. it's probably b/c i'm autistic, officially, which i'm choosing to share with you & am now presenting my license about it, so maybe be cool about it" and then and only then go "oh ok" and Make The Exception rather than shifting your entire shitty Rule (they also would not actually really make the exception. "shoutout" too to the concept that, of course, it's actually Disrespectful to stop hating autistic ppl b/c you should treat them The Same as anyone else, and you're bringing that organic ABA all the time as part of your "just be normal" ethos life, so be sure to keep being an asshole to them & double empathy probleming putting all the depletion, extraction, punishment, losses, harms on them and all the rewards on yourself)

and like, catherine being killed b/c she was this Body who was going to take away the ark (her project / creation, which she was also just insisting on following what'd always been the plan for) wherein like, even if this guy didn't mean to kill her, he sure did after lashing out at her, same as happens w/simon in the end....and catherine also failing to be thee most "normal/default" version of a person as well by being a Woman, and probably not white either, and, of course, a nonwhite woman, also making her that much more vulnerable to being Out Of Line(tm) by just like, existing as a person & trying to do her shit, though misogyny, racism, orientalism or the like isn't explicitly invoked or especially implicitly hinted at that hard either, but it's like, how does this [scifi magical realism set in the not That distant future but material made in the way less distant past, i.e. all intents & purposes modern / current day of: in the 2010s] have Relevance beyond "would that be fucked up or what" type Invention that doesn't map on to our experiences at all....you don't Have to read into catherine twice being killed by a man who's lashing out b/c she's not delivering what he wants, but you sure don't Have to Not and be like "this is definitely No Misogyny world" like they're still being implicitly ableist b/c she's just not deemed Winsomely Likable enough, she's internalized that with that "i'm not easy to like" framing, why assume a premise of [misogyny is over] [racism is over] etc. whilest soma doesn't really proffer any scenario of like "oh if it weren't for our being able to perceive our designated Physical Differences in our human bodies, all that oppression would be over," that's not being explored even in the specific situation of its plot in the first place; people on the ark seem to have the simulation of the same bodies they originally did, ppl Can retain like, how they'd move, their voices, their sense of their bodies: elements of their physicality. and, you know, whether one even supposes there Is any meaningful body/mind division, though in soma it Is this premise like oh yeah we can digitize your psyche perfectly okay, such that your copy would experience no disruption in that Sense Of Selfness, which is what makes everything particularly like, whoah, and [wow this is just like soma] whenever something kind of invokes similar enough What Ifs but probably less engagingly lol....while also soma is flexible and spacious in letting you interpret shit, you Can defer from fisting wau to death, you don't have to be like "it's so true. thee horrors" abt the Copies Of Selves, who really just become Others to whatever now-other versions of that person, i.e. how catherine, who, as the person who wanted to scan copies of ppl's psyches & put them in a just chilling simulation server launched into space for the Chance of being copy/pasted elsewhere eventually and the chance for the participants to Exist in some form Now, and who did so, is never like, shocked or freaked out by the notion / reality of these copies' existence even though she didn't set out figuring any scans' uploads would end up on the ocean floor stations, she's not aghast & distressed in the end when after having uploaded her latest Self data to the ark & launched it, she's also Not on the ark and Still in the eventually / doomed ocean floor station, even if it's a bummer, b/c she has already just accepted That's How It Works....this [her] was not going to experience being Transferred, like she's Been saying, like she again tells simon while he's blowing up abt [why wasn't i transferred]....just clearly being an example of like, not everyone is like horrified and freaked out and like "that's fake &/or wrong" and you don't have to decide she's incorrect for being Like That, i.e. like, yep, this is the situation, i know there's the me who was killed and the me on the ark and the me here, and i know also we're also for intents and purposes separate people

all that is to say, like, yeah the Scifi What If specific [you can copy/paste your consciousness into a different soma] is there, but also you can be looking at it as just this like, pushing to thee limit of the Self(tm) and the Other(tm) insofar as imagining yourself, as the only Internality / Mind / Selfhood you have access to, as The One True Real Self and all Others as mere somas/bodies, whether you take that to as dehumanizing an extreme as you can or you just put some double standards on Others / treat them as lesser/less Real, or oh but just Sometimes, in Some Cases, which is fine and relevant to anything, rather than what's fine and relevant being to always be aware that everyone's Otherness is a matter of perspective, you're the Other to everyone else, everyone is just as The Self as everyone else, You Could Be That Other, that other Is [you] to themself, you are the "that could be you" to them....with soma, it can just be elevated to "that Other WAS you from 0.5 mmsec ago, and continues to be them, b/c they didn't experience any disruption in their existence, though now you're both in different situations of: different locations, different bodies, the awareness there's that Other Self over there now, possibly the difference of killing that self you were just copied from so you can go on feeling like the One Real Self"....but wherein like, that's just like, [What If: you Were able to wholly & accurately Know the self inside an Other? b/c it's you from 5 min ago] of like, scenarios like [what if you time traveled 5 min into the past] except wherein that case there's usually the efforts to Resolve(tm) the timeline of that One True Self one way or another, ultimately. or is there. obviously who's positing that soma is the only material to be About the "whoa lol. me as an other" concept made scifily literal or anything

anyways that like, it creates that situation wherein one Can point & go "literally literally me" but also simultaneously one Can go "that's Not literally me arrrgh" or "that's also Not literally me, matter of factly"....simon's wrangling with the Othering of his One True Self, but he can also Know, should he choose to shift to that perspective, that all the Others who aren't alternate copies of him are all Another True Selves, An Other True Self even, though ofc as per the nature of not having a collective consciousness, he Doesn't Know the accurate whole of their psyches b/c he was not ever [literally them], but he doesn't need to to know they're just as [a whole psyche in there] as his own have been. original catherine with her fellow original crewmates being othered enough by them for the dehumanization of treating her worse, her being isolated, that indeed her being killed doesn't feel separate from all that by her or by anyone else, just an escalated extreme final fatal manifestation of it, b/c nobody ever liked her in the first place and then she became a (psyche Piloting a) body getting in the way of what one guy with amplified strength at that moment wanted from the project she made to let others' psyches keep existing in some way, which was deemed valuable enough by that guy to want to commandeer it and keep it at the bottom of the ocean versus risk a launch, regardless of how you the player think of the idea

and thinking of the way you can like, effectively befriend that boxy underwater little propellered Regular Simple Robot Helper that follows you around at some point, that is, of course it can't talk to you, it's definitely Just(tm) this not-ever-a-version of a human robot for practical tasks (dyspeptical tasks, clerical tasks, hysterical tasks) and like, imagine Its interiority, get invested, try to protect it, humanize it regardless....whereas with actual humans, and their psyches in a microchip, you can kill them for not perfectly delivering whatever you wanted even when that's not what other humans ever exist to do. then simon loses the Company he still could've Gotten From catherine, [guy who killed original catherine] didn't succeed in keeping the ark unlaunched, b/c that's what you go and do....but really just thinking of that Thread that feels so extremely relevant of like, catherine copy being simon's only option sure and working With him on this mission until we stay with the edition of him who realizes it didn't lead to his escape onto the ark, i.e. always being in relation to him in a manner of a direct practical teamup & a [take it or leave it] sole option for that anyways....but that in her original, human-bodied life, she was always "oh only a little bit" dehumanized by everyone such that she is very much aware of the way that's defined & limited her life, never had friends, i know i'm difficult to like; until that dehumanization escalated to the extreme of trying to hit her to stop her from seeing her project through, and just happening to kill her, and the fact that this seems to no one just a coincidental whoopsie of a fate just entirely disconnected from the way others always saw her and treated her as this Other among others, while other [psyche/soma]s of others who are clearly not Your Self get to have friends and not be isolated and feel hard to like forever and end up killed by coworkers

tl;dr like love a text just inviting plenty of interpretations and lenses and perspectives, ofc gonna look at it like whoa it's anarchy in there (political cats sense) where are the borders where you are thee self above thee other....soma providing that thinnest boundary of like, yeah that mf over there? there but for the [being in a different body, in a different place, with 7 seconds of negligibly different life experience] go ye. but also the usual boundary of "that person is in a different body in a different place with a different whole life but you're [that] to them and they're just as much a person and a self and an other as you are" like catherine center of the game to me

(* just remembered i had these asterisks: sure enjoying how the premise of amnesia games effectively creates Alternate Selves b/w the protagonist's present self, with however much missing time, and past selves whose goings on are completely relevant to the in media res situation you're also tackling while obtaining pieces of that past to priovide further context/info, and how this premise manifests for different stories each time; you've even got oswald like physically divided into Two Selves in a:amfp, though iirc it's not like, psychically equivalent, kinda "regular oswald & nefarious destroy the world duplicitous oswald" lmao, classic....uhh and shoutout to penumbra being similar ish in that the protagonist's story isn't want's relevant, he's trying to find out what happened to his dad and more broadly the like underground pocket world he enters for those answers? iirc....but that soma shares that amnemonic premise of [intro] [suddenly like ???] [having to navigate your present mission & figure out the past & your Missing time] but like, thee respective Lores don't overlap really, soma obviously starts present day and takes an even more obvious leap into a future / completely different location, rather than amnesia games being set in the past with missing time of like, idk months? to even just days, uhh supposedly like [forever] in justine but that's like, i dunno sure lol, the peak mysterious / withheld protagonist really, on purpose. while naturally there's also the fact that, technically, this simon we are following at the start of the game did not actually forget anything, and that's a fun distinction despite that it otherwise initially seems like the same [amnesia] premise....and that he did kind of ""forget"" things in that original simon lived however much longer before dying, that his scan then ofc didn't retroactively include. so once again it's like, well, in amnesia ppl have likewise kind of rewound to a Past Self before the missing [crucial context to your in media res misadventure] time, w/daniel (and justine) even doing this On Purpose, though as is the nature of the amnesia series, everyone regains enough of that missing info about their goings on anyways, though you the player are Not in a story of like "wow they did Exactly the same thing again and ended up in the same place anyways" and Do get to kinda choose who they are / indeed end up with some Alternate Self, potentially, despite there being plenty of room wherein like, it's not precisely, granularly laid out Exactly Who They Are at any point anyways. only just now getting extra amnemonic lore that yes daniel got all fucked up on vitae rituals b/c that's just what happens! and people are fairly horny for it! always a possible interpretation that he was high on vitae (okay one proffered pronunciation of "curriculum vitae" (which i was like lord i feel like i've gone "what tf is that" about before but what tf is that. turns out it's what CV stands for as your specifically educational resumé) does say "vitae" would, in that case, rhyme with "nigh." other sources are listing like a million different combinations of a million different ways to pronounce each syllable. also they gotta say it a way in the game but i forget. daniel's VA apparently being some chemistry teacher? just like alchemy. not what the pope said to do, weird science, it's my creation....) anyways! the psyches diverge, the bodies don't, unless they do (oswald....uhh the guy in the bunker. lambert :( ) like catching up with The Self again, encountering extreme examples of Othering and Dehumanizing and [you are just like only a soma to me] with various means and ends of acting thusly to get xyz results

#uhh nominal tagging. i probably have nonzero soma posts...? maybe? lol #soma #amnesia #atdd #soma spoilers yeah but a) game's more than half a decade old at this point b) material that hinges on Surprising you the first time as like #thee sole worthwhile feature of its experience: probably not that good; i don't think soma's even dying to keep you from guessing any #''twists'' and if you Do it doesn't feel like you're like cheated of anything lol. though i'm sure the surprises are fun. the ending is sur #like yeah oh a fucked up surprise for the player too; but that's b/c the game of course Until Now followed the ''advancing'' simon copy #c) same as (b) but like spoilers don't really ruin things anyways imo. who is reading this in whole like ''damn i was Just gonna play this' #whereas idk now you know of it. also lbr who is reading this in whole period? probably some people lol. you do not have to ofc as a fact an #as a stance. i'm like; would i read someone's longass post abt something i don't already know abt / am not interested in? not often #d) if you Are like ''nooooo SOMA spoilers arrrgh i was Just abt to play it'' like damn my bad. i'm sorry. play it anyways it'll be fun #or e) watch a playthrough. i myself cannot Firsthand Game too much & this has generally been the case #long post //// #all this uncrucial and noncomprehensive but just taking 90k words & meandering tangents to say [hand over heart] catherine.... #as is my mode of verbalizing anything really #i'll recommend the game easily enough; sure watched a full playthrough twice & may revisit for a thrice. or at least various clips lol #even got a safe mode (where you Can't Die so you can get through every part b/c thee story is the point anyways)