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#a character who chooses to believe in himself and not run away while also protecting those around him when he used to stick to the rules
xelasrecords · 2 months
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Hi, I was reading your works and think you have a really good understanding of characters so I wanted to ask. Do you see any scenario in which Jumin would push MC away for her own sake? Extreme cases like if his father embezzled from the company but Jumin took the fall and had to go to prison for the maximum amount of years. Or if he lost all his wealth and couldn’t afford security anymore, but still had people after him. Would he want MC to stay with him even though he wouldn't be able to protect her/give her a "normal" life?
Your marvellous mind! This makes my brain tingle. If you see from the times he's faced with threats and his bad ends, there aren't any scenarios where he pushes his loved ones away for their protection. That's more Saeyoung. Jumin is like a dragon that hoards his precious things. The more he's threatened, the tighter his grip on his loved ones would be. His biggest fear is to lose everything he holds dear, so he builds up his security to be impenetrable.
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If Jumin had to take the fall for his father's embezzlement, I think he'd set up emergency funds and security for MC and hide them away from the media before he goes to prison. He has a private island where MC can stay. These plans may even have been set up way before as a precaution. He'd try to make MC's life as comfortable as he can and hope she would wait for him to come back.
If Jumin became poor and had bad guys coming after him, it's possible that he'd go to Saeyoung for help. He's not above pleading for his lover's safety and be indebted to someone when he can't hold up a fair bargain. I'm also thinking about when he tries to give Elizabeth the Third to V because he doesn't think he's a good owner, so I'm tempted to say he could push MC away if he thought she deserved better. But even then, he can only part with his cat because he knows she'd be with someone he trusts. He is still in control.
More importantly, Elizabeth is a cat who can't choose him back on an equal stance. MC can. You know how pliant Jumin is over MC's words. If MC told him they wanted to stay with him despite everything, how long do you think it'd take before Jumin's resolve broke? Maybe they could run away and start afresh where nobody knew them. It wouldn't be surprising seeing that he takes this route in his BE2 DLC. Maybe MC could protect him instead. Maybe they could work together to protect their relationship and future.
When faced with imminent danger, Jumin snaps into ultra logical mode. So if he actually pushed MC away for their safety, it wouldn't be due to pure angst. It'd be a calculated act where he had some control over.
Also, during the RAE crisis, Jumin's confidence never falters. He still believes there's something he can do to protect the RFA and he toils away endlessly for solutions. All the while losing his job and friends and half his assets. It's this that makes me think when everything goes to hell, the only person he can trust is himself and therefore MC is the safest with him.
Jumin's selflessness isn't by giving up his lover. It's by giving everything he has to protect them even at the cost of himself.
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pinepickled · 2 years
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Back at it again to talk about just how much I hate the very concept of Jason 'giving up' on the Joker to return to the batfam.
Like, I see so many people who write meta and fics that claim that the one true solution to the current conflict between Bruce and Jason is for Jason to have a come to Jesus moment about why killing is wrong and to just accept that the Joker will continue to live, doing so for the sole reason of reconciling with Bruce. To me, it just reeks.
I cannot say this enough, but their conflict is not about whether killing is moral or not!!! That is not why Jason just cannot make up with Bruce as things are! Jason was considered one of the only comic book characters to be permanently dead for a reason, his death continues to mean something even after his resurrection for a reason!! The conflict starts in that the man who was supposed to protect him failed to and Jason DIED! The conflict continues because Jason was not avenged at all! His death was meaningless! Completely, utterly, meaningless!
The whole reason Jason goes on his murderquest in Gotham is because he saw newspaper clippings of the Joker, still alive and well, escaping Arkham! He must have thought of all the times Joker escaped while he was just a little kid, how they were constantly rounding the guy up and putting him back, watching the body count that this man has personally caused go up and up and up while they were functionally powerless to stop it. Jason himself says so, directly asking Bruce why he's let the Joker fill entire graveyards with innocent lives!
Under the Red Hood is a well thought out story. It never meant to make the case for whether murder is morally justifiable or not, that was Batman's trauma filled excuse. The reality, as outlined in samiralula01's post, is that Jason's death killed Bruce. He lost his ability to be compassionate, loving, merciful, and more. His little boy was dead. Clinging onto his belief that murder is wrong was just a means to justify to himself why Jason's death would have to go unavenged, and as a direct consequence of this delusion and trauma, which is explicitly said in UTRH, most of Batman's sidekicks have left him! Oracle, Tim, Steph, Cass, everyone except Dick! He's pushed them all away because of this crippling fear of losing them like how he lost Jason, this fear that has made him a colder, less loving man. The fear that turned him from a bringer of justice and hope into a dark shadow.
Jason is right, at the end of the day. He knows the Joker cannot be rehabilitated nor contained, he knows that Bats is just making excuses for himself, and his point of view is further justified by two events: 1, the fact that Barbara was brutalized by the Joker even after Jason died, and 2, that Bludhaven and supposedly Dick was literally NUKED right before Jason went to kill the Joker and instead of running to see if his son was okay, Batman went after Jason.
Batman chose the Joker over his kids not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times.
Jason dying and the Joker living on was the first.
Barbara being tortured to the point of disability was the second.
Dick being nuked and Bats not running to save him was the third.
and Jason having his throat slit by a batarang so Bats could save Joker was the fourth.
UTRH is the story of how Batman does not actually have a solid moral ground to stand on anymore. It displays not only what a broken and defeated man Bruce is, but also implies several times, most notably through the coffin maker's story, that even Bruce believes that Jason is right. He believes that his precious second son deserved to be avenged, not even through bureaucratic or judicial means, but through death. UTRH is a story about Batman, all alone, making huge mistake after huge mistake.
Jason asks Batman to choose: him or me. The Joker or Jason. Your kids or a villain.
Batman chooses.
The Joker puts it the best, after Batman upholds his no-killing rule for the Joker by killing Jason.
"You managed to find a way to win... and everybody still loses!"
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sevenyeargap · 1 year
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welcome to my very own analysis of edgeworths character and insane rambling on why i write him Like That. first of all i want to rec one of my favorite essay on political theory/legal philosophy of possibly all time aka the discourse on voluntary servitude by la boétie (which you can read here, its also a fantastic text to read in these coronation/anti-monarchy times)
anyway, if you don't want to read it (although it is quite a short and clear read), the main thesis of this essay is that basically a corrupt political system/dictatorship (here called a tyranny) doesn't stay in place because people are afraid of change and rebellion, but because people don't want anything to change, and they're satisfied with their condition, therefore complicit with the system (see also MLK's quote on white moderates "but the white moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action'")
the tl;dr here is that a system stays in place because no one does anything to change it, and people prefer turning a blind eye to the situation but its not because they're afraid of a new system, it's because they're scared of what it will take to get this new system.
with that being said i think that edgeworths anger and resentment at the legal system post turnabout goodbyes wouldn't be directed at the system right away because he upheld the system. he loved it! (which btw is so so much worse than killing his father. he didn't kill his father but he's complicit in enforcing a terrible legal system!!!!!!!! awful)
and miles loved this system!! i think that even at the worst point of his bratworth era he still believed he was Bringing Fair And Real Justice and was doing The Right Thing. but what happens when you realize this system is deeply, incredibly flawed? when you've spent your whole life fighting for it? deliberately ignoring the ugly parts of it in favor of maintaining a perfect win record?
that's when you choose death!!!! (literally or figuratively depending on how you analyze it.)
i looooove edgeworth celebrating his not guilty verdict but he would start thinking about what he's done. which again is so much worse than simply killing his dad. like he literally says that in rfta
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and thats so??? fucking sad!?!!! because how is he supposed to trust in himself now??? phoenix (no matter how good his intentions were) HAS entirely destroyed his whole worldview!!!!!!!! and thus the unnecessary feelings line but you can read more about my thoughts about that line here (tl;dr this line for me a) challenges his views (see supra) b) didn't phoenix "steal" his dream of becoming a defense attorney, in a way? phoenix had the chance to move on and change things for the better but miles... didn't.
ANYWAY edgeworth gets angry at individuals, after turnabout goodbyes, because he hasn't realized how deep the corruption runs yet - he's angry at phoenix, at misty, at everyone who either failed to protect him (misty, mvk, the mvk household, maybe even his own dad for """leaving him behind"""???) OR tried to protect him from this system (phoenix, maya - because how dare they challenge his views on this system he has oh so loved?) also you can read this post here because it really summarizes my feelings about his aa1 arc
every day there is a new media where two people are fighting together for a system. they both come to realise the system is flawed, and while one of them tries to take the system down, the other decides it is still necessary and must be protected at all costs. why is it always the first one who becomes the villain? who is deeply sympathetic but goes too far in their quest for justice? i think for once it should be the second one who is trying so hard to protect the system they believe in that they slowly slip into tyranny
i dont really have a conclusion here but i will say that i think The Note and edgeworths year off were necessary (as tragic as it was) for both edgeworth & phoenix because theyre insane they need some time to think about how much they don't know nor understand each other anymore at this point in time. anyway. thanks for reading?!! i hope this made sense. mwah!
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sunshinecherryblossom · 5 months
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And here we are with the news on the new chapter of Boruto. We see Sasuke saying that Boruto has become stronger than anyone else and that he wouldn't know what else to teach him more than what he already knows (he's literally a genius; at this point I wonder what the point of his training with Sasuke was since he doesn't come never shown what he taught him and it is assumed that he already knows everything). We see how once again Sasuke outlines his love for Naruto and that he is training Boruto because in him he sees the same eyes and the same determination as Naruto (he is the person who changed him and saved him from darkness and in short the person most important for Sasuke within the team 7). The scene shifts and we see Sasuke and Boruto who are intercepted by the enemies, Sasuke tells Boruto to run away while he is transformed into a tree; recommends him to take care of Sarada. The scene moves to Konoha where we see many characters like Moegi who is transformed into a tree to protect the inhabitants and we also see the leader of these divine trees ask them to decide on a target and so does every tree character e.g. Moegi decides to choose the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Bug takes Eida and Sasuke aims at Sarada (in short, Sarada is the most important person for Sasuke. So fans expect an intense battle between father and daughter or between master and student). The leader of these divine trees instead decides Naruto as the target (the reason is because his instinct tells him to act like this and because he feels an evolution; yes, I didn't understand either but ok, I'm not surprised by anything anymore). We then have Sumire and Sarada talking to each other about the current situation in Konoha, the conversation is interrupted with the arrival of Boruto who explains that Sasuke saved him despite doubting his memories because he believed in him and also thanks to her. Sarada runs to hug Boruto saying the phrase "you're late, stupid Boruto" who is shocked by the gesture but then reciprocates by saying "sorry, I'm home now". In the meantime we have Sumire witness the scene between the two in silence (needless to tell you that on social media there is nothing but talk about this embrace and how it is the parallel according to the pro enders of the SS during the hospital scene because once again people do not accept the fact that a non-canon ship is present in the intentions of this manga and therefore they tend to deny the obvious parallelism with the NS just because Naruto did not return Sakura's embrace or because the ship did not become canon and therefore it is impossible for them that BS will have the same treatment). I'll be honest, I don't give a damn about these parallels and I would really prefer that NS wasn't part of this rubbish but here we're talking about totally denying the evidence even when we don't like it. It's been pointed out a thousand times that Boruto is like Naruto and Sarada is literally Sakura 2.0 with all her flaws removed. I also like to point out how the author himself highlights the nickname that Sarada gives to Boruto as soon as she sees him again, i.e. "Baka" which is exactly the same as the one Sakura uses with Naruto. I also hear people say that Sarada has feelings for Boruto while Sakura only loves Sasuke and sees Naruto as a friend and yet when evidence is shown that Sakura really liked Naruto it always comes back to brotherly love; or that while Boruto reciprocated Sarada's gesture, Naruto did not do it with Sakura and therefore it is not the same (perhaps because the situation was different and while in the first case it is a comforting hug in the second we see a reaction of shock?) . do you see the double standards here? I'm sure that if the BS doesn't become canon in the end anyone would agree to compare it to the NS but given that this isn't the case and that since the beginning of the manga the story has been set up with Sarada as Boruto's love interest and him as her protector, people will always find justifications to give grist to their own mill
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lyledebeast · 9 months
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Since rewatching Gladiator the other day for the first time in many years, I've been thinking how oddly similar the fight between Maximus and Commodus is to the fight between Benjamin Martin and William Tavington in The Patriot, with one jarring difference. In Gladiator, it is the villain who wounds the hero prior to their fight to give himself an advantage and yet loses the fight anyway. In The Patriot, the hero does exactly the same thing. I am by no means an expert on fight choreography, but I believe a good fight scene, like a good sex scene, is one that provides the audience with greater understanding of the characters involved. Gladiator's fight scene does that. I'm not sure The Patriot's does, or at least not in the way the filmmakers intended.
Maximus and Commodus's fight is a piece of theatre orchestrated by Commodus to help him win the affections of Rome's citizens away from Maximus. He doubts that he can defeat Maximus purely based on skill, so he stabs him in the shoulder blade while Maximus is bound just prior to their appearance before the crowd in the Colosseum. Even gravely injured, Maximus is able to get the upper hand through his superior skill as a fighter and force Commodus to drop his sword. Commodus immediately demands another sword from the soldiers surrounding them, expecting another chance at victory to be literally handed to him. While this demand is made and refused, Maximus watches. He does not take the opportunity to kill Commodus while he is unarmed; he even drops his own sword. When Commodus pulls a surprise dagger out of his armor sleeve, Maximus again outfights him, getting control of the blade and stabbing Commodus in the throat.
Commodus's plan drives home what we've already seen of him in his relationships with his father and sister. He expects love purely on the basis of who he is, just as he expects the Roman people to transfer their affection to him for no other reason than that he has killed their hero. He fails to realize that the people do not love Maximus only because he wins. They love him because he wins against overwhelming odds, he's a good leader, he's resourceful, he's fair and even merciful. And he is a hell of a fighter. Most of these qualities are also on display in his fight with Commodus even as he is seeking vengeance for the wife and son Commodus murdered. Even though Maximus is as dead as Commodus at the end of the scene, finally having bled to death from his shoulder wound, it is his body that is carried from the arena with honor.
Martin and Tavington are more fairly matched than Maximus and Commodus; scenes prior to the film's climax show that they are both skilled fighters. But it is quite clear from the beginning that Martin has no interest in a fair fight. When they meet on the battlefield, they charge, Tavington on his horse and Martin on foot, holding the American flag repaired by the son Tavington killed like a spear. Just before they come into contact, Martin drops to his knee and stabs Tavington's horse in the chest. Horse falls, Tavington flies through the air and into the oncoming line of British soldiers. Once the fight is in progress, Tavington's bleeding from the mouth is better accounted for by this fall than any of the other injuries he recives. When he gets up Martin is waiting to shoot him with a ball made from a boiled down toy soldier belonging to his other son that Tavington killed while Tavington is disoriented from his fall and his hands are empty. Fortunately for Tavington, a cannonball hits just behind Martin and causes him to hit Tavington in the bicep, not the chest. And then it's on.
In addition to being absolutely awash in kitsch and sentimentality, there is something going on with Martin's development here. Throughout the film, he has been torn between two roles: the father and the fighter. For most of the run time, it is the role of fighter that he chooses. His choice to stay out of the war and protect his children is met with revulsion by his peers and oldest son, and later Martin himself regrets it. "I have done nothing, and for that I am ashamed," he says. But when he gets his ass whooped by a wounded British officer he had hoped to shoot while unarmed, his being a father becomes very important again. Tavington, having knocked Martin's weapons out of his hands and beaten him to his knees, takes a moment to gloat: a long one. Then two things happen almost simultaneously. An American flag drifts into Martin's field of vision, reminding him of the son he is meant to be avenging--the flag son, not the toy soldier one--and Tavington, theatre queen that he is, announces his next move: "Kill me before the war is over will you? It seems you are not the better man." He swings his sword, Martin ducks, swings around, and stabs him through the torso with a bayonet. "You're right," Martin growls. "My sons were better men." The he stabs Tavington through the throat because that was all the rage in 2000.
Up until that sudden turn of events, the clearest understanding the fight gives us of Martin's character is that when he made his promise to kill Tavington his mouth wrote a check his hands couldn't cash. Tavinton may be a child-killer and a woman-burner and executor of surrendering/wounded soldiers, but the only thing this fight tells us about him is that he is a Bad Bitch on the battlefield. His gloating is consistent with earlier behavior--the man does love to make a speech--but Martin's response is consistent only in the narrative handing him triumphs he has done nothing to earn.
In Gladiator, the fight itself is important. The way the men fight tells us important things about them. In The Patriot, it does not really matter who fights well, or fairly, or even who wins the fight. The only thing that matters is that the hero lives and the villain dies, which makes the fight between them feel a bit gratuitous. I find it satisfying to watch, though, if only for the look of shock and anguish on Mel Gibson's face when he realizes he is losing. Joaquin Phoenix's expression at the same point in his fight with Russell Crowe is quite familar: This can't be happening. Doesn't he know? I am Too Special To Lose This Fight!! The difference is that in Benjamin Martin's case, the story agrees. He is too special to lose this fight.
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yahoodarling · 1 year
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Small answers for my SAGAU question. 
General warnings: abandonment, manipulation, death, sacrifice, yandereish themes.
Would characters give up their family/siblings in your name if you, their God, asked?
Childe and Albedo(unedited)
"Would childe be willing to let his family die if only to choose his savior, his god's side?"
Childe had to choose. It ripped him down his core but he had to. He knew you were his god, the one that gave him such love and protection in his times of the abyss, a deep darkness even the Tsaritsa was not even able to touch, yet you guided him and loved him for even the changed man he became. There were still those hesitant if you were the true God or not, one being the Tsaritsa herself, she couldn't believe such a great being such as her God would take the form you had, it was blasphemy and she stated any who took your side were traitors. Childe had to choose. It ripped him down his core but he had to. And he chose you. Unable to do anything about his family still in shneznayan, he stuck to your side. Had the fatui killed them for his traitorous acts? Were they still allowed to live? The questions assaulted him but all that worry cleared as he felt a pressure on his shoulder, he turned to see you, a brilliant smile on your face to shine away the sadness. "I appreciate all that you have done for me, Ajax." 
He falls to his knees to your feet, oh so tempted to reach out and hold himself to your legs but he stops himself from acting out of line. This is all he needs, his god's love. How could he even brew on the idea of choosing his family over you? The choice was so simple. If only his family were also willing to believe in you, you would have saved them, but they don't, they believe the Tsaritsa and so really it's their own fault, right? Whether they live or die is up to them, for once he can focus on himself and he chooses to focus on you. His body, mind and time are yours to take, to be used by you is proof his existence truly has worth.
"Would albedo leave Klee to fall to prey of life, to no longer support and protect her all to join you? How would he feel?"
"Brother Albedo, where are you going?" Klee asks, confused as to why Albedo was packing away only his most valuable resources. "Klee we have spoken about this, you don't want to come with so i can't tell you." He was on edge, she didn't know anything, she hadn't felt your grace and acceptance yet she was still so young, she didn't understand, maybe when he joins you he can ask you to take pity on Klee and show her why she should accept you as Teyvats god. True your rising was only recently and many were confused or angry believing you to be fake but he'd much rather follow a god that welcomed him into their arms like you had to him then a land that saw him as a threat. "Why would you want to leave? I still don't understand? Will you be back?" Albedo slammed his filled box on the table, he was getting tired of having his emotions pulled like this. "I'm taking you to stay with Jean, maybe in the future we will meet again but for now… my dedication is better valued elsewhere."
Klee cried as they walked down Dragonspine to Mondstat. A deep dark part of him hoped she would die, she was going to be surrounded by people feeding her lies to hate you, to believe you are fake, and there is no way you would accept her then and since she can't come with him since she isn't a believer… maybe death would treat her better than your wrath. He let go of Klee's hand while they were in the middle of Dragonspines trails and walked away from her. He couldn't do it himself, and by leaving her there may be a chance she survives, a small hope in him but it dimmed in comparison to the feeling he had of being with you.
"Albedo, you are always welcome in my arms. You belong somewhere that values you, I am that place." He could feel the soft strokes of your hand still running through his hair. "Come, accept me as I have accepted you." At the end of the day he is not human, he will never truly be accepted by Mondstadt but that doesn't matter now, he has you and you do. You love him and guide him in ways none ever have, you set a feeling in him that makes him feel warm but dangerous. He was actually scared of what this feeling you were awakening in him was, it felt like the fibers of his being were being pulled apart and rearranged but it was also a nice feeling, he could feel your hands rip him apart by each thread and knit them back together into a new him, a better him as he is remade into your perfect way, and that warmth covered him completely. This is his Grace, this is the true God of Teyvat. Maybe Klee will realize this in time, when she is alone and in danger if she comes to accept you she will be saved and welcomed in by you. He did a good thing today, by abandoning Klee in the harsh land of Dragonspine he created the chance for her to meet you.
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calbun · 9 months
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Why the Ink Demon and Little Bendy are the same guy and, very likely, a kid
So, I see a lot of people discrediting the possibility of The Ink Demon being a child like his smaller form (and yes, I believe they're the same person). This is not to discredit those peoples own beliefs, it's kind of a “pick and choose” thing for him being either an adult or a kid at the moment, which I find troublesome, but it's not something I can control, obviously.
So, here's what I think.
First of all, I believe that if little Bendy and The Ink Demon were truly meant to be separate consciousnesses (which also has problems, in terms of the demonization of DID, but I'm not exactly qualified to talk about this as I'm not a system and opinions vary between those who are as well), there would be a lot more to indicate this in the writing.
In particular, not once in any of The Ink Demon's dialogue does he imply this. You'd think if he felt as strongly as is assumed about physically turning into another person, he would actually comment on it. But he doesn't. I guess he doesn't say anything to imply they're the same either, but him not saying anything, to me, almost wordlessly implies they're the same person.
(all of his voicelines. like I said, he doesn’t mention his smaller form at ANY point)
And maybe little Bendy's behavior could imply otherwise, but—while he agrees that he doesn't want to hurt Audrey when asked, it's possible that The Ink Demon actually didn't at that point, and wasn’t a discrepancy between them. He shows up before Audrey is about to enter the Gent workshop, and maybe he wasn't going to harm her; just didn't want her to go inside. We don't exactly know, as obviously, he physically can't show up as a threat again even if he wanted to after that point—since the Gent building's constructs force him into the smaller form. But I'd like to believe that my hunch is correct.
Before that scene as well, Bendy was running away from Audrey, and every time afterwards, The Ink Demon would show up. It seems like he was scared of her, and turned back to lash out and protect himself from what he believed was a threat. That makes sense to me, at least.
My perception of the “difference” between the two forms in terms of his mental state is this:
They're the same, but The Ink Demon's change in appearance from the first game almost functions as a protective shell for Bendy. He's vulnerable in that form, while The Ink Demon is anything but. It's like when an animal makes itself appear bigger to scare off predators. Maybe a lot of the things he says are just him talking big to keep Audrey away. He initially wants to consume her and take her power to keep it from hurting him.
Now—with that laid out, I'd like to get back to what I was talking about in the first paragraph.
While it's true that adults can be ”childish“ and play with toys, I really don't feel like that's the intention with little Bendy. Everything seems to genuinely frame him as a child. Like, even The Meatly calls him “Baby Bendy.“ I'm not sure why you would call an adult or an ageless being a baby.
(Also- I'd like to point out a lot of people assume The Ink Demon's dialogue is flirtatious, and is inappropriate to be said by a child. I don't necessarily think this is the case??? Maybe Sean Crisden intended his delivery that way, but I'm not sure it was written with that intention and is a bold claim to make.
Either way, if it was intended, I think it may have just not been thought about implications wise on the part of Sean and Joey Drew Studios. I'm not implying anything malicious on their part.)
I think the original cartoon character is ageless, like Mickey Mouse or SpongeBob. But the version we see in Dark Revival is meant to be a child, or at least heavily child-coded. I feel this is something that's neglected, actually—they're not necessarily the same person, this Bendy is still only a recreation of the one on paper.
I know that, years wise, The Ink Demon has existed for around 27 years (his creation being in the year 1946, and Dark Revival taking place in 1973) but—keep in mind that he's an artificial being, and a demon; he may not age like a human. And even still, I'm not sure he would have actually aged at all—considering a lot of that time was probably spent in the cycle, repeating the same events since ~1960, over, and over again. It doesn't appear that any of the other characters have aged within it, either.
But again, this is all my own view of things. I will not be arguing with anyone for this reason, as I don't think anyone else is WRONG per se if they think differently, but if you have questions, you may ask them as long as you'll be reasonable.
I certainly understand the interpretation of him being an adult if you view a lot of things about The Ink Demon to be problematic under the lense of him being a child, but I think it should still be considered that it's just as possible to interpret as the alternative. 
Thank you for reading! <3
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twotangledsisters · 1 year
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Forgive me if I’ve asked you this before but what’s your favorite headcanon about each of the tts gang?
First off, apologies for taking so long to answer! I don't have a cool excuse I just saw it while out, though I'd remember to answer later and... didn't.
But super cool question so let's get into it!
Rapunzel
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For Rapunzel, I surprisingly can't think of too much, I'm sure I'll think of a million things after pressing post, but I'm going with one I included in a recent chapter because I think it's adorable:
The flowers in Rapunzel's hair are picked from the garden every morning by Eugene for her.
Eugene would pick flowers for her early on because, you give flowers to your girlfriend, Rapunzel would accept the little bucket with a smile, but not knowing to put them in a vase like any normal girl she'd go straight to the mirror and add them to her hair. A constant reminder of Eugene.
And he'd of course pick her fresh one's every single morning because if his girlfriend wants flowers in her hair she's going to have the very best.
Eugene
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My fave is one you've probably all seen but will forever warm my heart. It was by guiltyhipster and @dannybird22 on tumblr though the first, I looked it up and they don't seem to have a blog anymore.
In fact, because it only seems to be around in image form, it took me a while to find but here it is:
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It's so sweet.
And the idea that neither remember and it's just a coincidence would make it all the sweeter in my mind!
(I also headcanon in my fics Eugene didn't stay put in one kingdom's orphanage and kept running away and ending up in new ones so that would allow for this to be possible still).
Cassandra
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There are so many good headcanons with Cass because there is so much left unsaid about her (who's her dad? why did Gothel have a kid? How did she get Owl?). Choosing just one, choosing a favourite is very hard.
But my fave headcanon (which is huge spoilers for many of my fics because I use and reuse it a lot, but I won't be saying which fics because a few have other ideas) is that she's at least half magic.
Let me explain, we know she's Gothel's daughter. But Gothel is literally pure sundrop magic at this point, that's why she dies when Rap's hair gets cut. So any child produces by Gothel is unlikely fully human.
I don't think she can use these powers in the way Raps does, I think it just kinda sits in her blood completely inactive.
This also explains why she can grab and use the moonstone magic without it trying to kill her.
Lance
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That the day he got caught and sent to prison he sacrificed himself so Eugene could escape (probably without Eugene realizing that what he'd done), because Lance is the bestest big brother ever and for as many jokes as he makes I just know he'd do anything to protect his friends/family and their happiness.
Where does the tts gang end....? I'm just gonna keep going... sorry?
Arianna
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Probably my fave characters!
She's a huge animal lover. Before Frederic she kept a bunch of pets but when she became queen and didn't have the time to give them the attention they deserved, she stopped getting new pets.
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I mean she has two dogs a horse and a bird in her royal portrait!
She's also clearly into weapons as she has several (something I definitely dig into deep later in my fic).
Frederic
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I think Frederic was probably raised in "royal isolation", that is to say, he had tutors and teachers preparing him for his future duty, there were servants and such, but he didn't really get to hang out with other kids his age, because of that he sometimes struggled with understanding other's emotions and comes of as awkward at times.
Captain of the Guard
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So, in Eugene vs Cassandra, I was always really struck by Cass' explanation of how Cap raised her, specifically the line: "how to earn my keep". I don't doubt Cap loved her, but I do believe growing up with the Captain as her father was more discipline than nurturing. Especially because of where she came from.
I think Cap probably wouldn't let her get away with bad behaviour or attitude, not because he wanted to be strict or pushy, but because he was scared of the king and queen and how people would treat the daughter of the princess' kidnapper.
I think he did what he thought was best for her. But I think ultimately it backfired.
I could probably go on with every single character who ever made an appearance but, I've been writing for a while now, so hope you enjoy some of these!
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arkhamasyl-m · 4 months
Text
Superman and the Authority
Really this entire comic can be labelled as “Boomer VS Gen Z.” Not really “VS” as in they are fighting each other, but more that they are challenging each others views.
This comic is about an older Superman, this Superman is still strong but can’t fly properly and is slowly losing his powers. Because of this he decides to enlist the help of some younger “heroes” to protect humanity while he cannot. The Justice League are mentioned, but only in the past tense so it’s unclear if they are still running.
Now Superman’s new team of younger heroes isn’t just younger heroes, but rather anti-heroes with his first recruit being Manchester Black. Now, Black originated from a comic about anti-heroes, comparing them to Superman and ending with Superman villainising the whole idea and defeating Black. That comic was about traditional heroes vs anti-heroes. One was a group of colourful heroes, fighting crime but never killing unless they had to, and protecting the world, the other was a group of edgy youngsters who believed some villains didn’t deserve second chances and needed to be put down. That comic was great but the main issue with the story was that Black and his Elite were partially right, and instead of hearing him out and making a compromise, Superman went straight to fighting.
Now, this comic brings that up. Black is the first person Superman recruits, personally choosing him as he reflects on his past, when he was in his prime and heroes were saving the day. He laments that they could’ve and should’ve done more, and he wants to listen to the younger generation now instead of turning away from him. That is, of course as long as Black doesn’t kill anyone.
Black initially disagrees to help. He hates Superman for their fight years ago and he doesn’t want anything to do with it… but… that’s a lie. He does want something to do with it. Despite still being edgy and all, he still wants to be a hero just like he did on his first outing. He still wants to save the day, and he still idolises Superman even if Superman blatantly disagreed with “his way.” So he turns around and agrees to help.
Now this is his chance to prove himself. There is no trickery, no betrayal, just an edgy, punk British dude and an aged superhero genuinely trying to save the day.
Now we get to the rest of the team. Now I’m going to use a word I hate, but I promise it’ll make sense and isn’t derogatory… this new Authority that Superman builds… it’s woke.
I believe this was intentional, again the story is about Boomers VS Gen Z, so it only makes sense that the group representing Gen Z also represents most of Gen Z’s stereotypes too. Manchester is bisexual, Midnighter & Apollo are gay, Steel is a black woman, Lightray is queer and Omac is genderfluid. Superman is the “boomer” in this situation, however he is also “woke.” He completely understands all of them, is completely okay with it and respects pronouns and such. He is an understanding person.
Half of this comic is just introducing the Authority and again, I believe that was the point. Superman mentions a threat he needs them all to deal with, but the threat itself is rather minuscule and doesn’t really matter because the focus is on the characters. You might think having your story be 90% introducing characters and 10% fighting is dumb, but the story is about the characters.
It’s about Superman’s lack of understanding on anti-heroes and his desire to learn from the younger generation. If the story was about Superman fighting Braniac for the 50th time, it could’ve just been a Justice League story. No, it’s about the characters, it’s about Manchester Black, and Enchantress’ desire to do good in a world that villainises them for their methods or just because of who they are and Superman is giving them an opportunity to prove themselves without worrying about any… *ahem* authority brushing them off. And y’know what? They all passed. Black, Enchantress, Midnighter, Apollo… They all succeeded in doing their assigned roles and proved to Superman that they truly wanted to do good.
One thing I should mention before ending this is there are some minor villains that are AI’s fed by the internet. These AI villains however, were fed by internet trolls and thus are racist, transphobic and homophobic and spend their minimal screen time shitting on “wokeness” in superhero content. Considering this is again, a story heavily focused on the passing of the torch down to Gen Z, having a villain be Redditors that hate wokeness and the younger generation is a nice touch.
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hungerofhadarr · 7 months
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For the companion tav ask game:
Gen 7
Story 11 and 12 :))
< 33 THANK YOU MY FRIEND
questions here !
7) Do they have their own personal quest that spans the course of the game? Can it take different branching paths depending on the choices the Player Character makes?
Yes !!!!! I’ ve mentioned it before but his first love / childhood sweetheart made a deal with a Hag that went very poorly . In an attempt to keep them both safe , he begged the Hag to give him a way to take Giilvas out of harms way . She gave him a twine bracelet he had to cut when he believed Giilvas was in life threatening danger . What she did not tell him was this breaking of the bracelet would simply cause him and Giilvas to trade places .
His personal quest is triggered by killing Auntie Ethel . Giilvas has believed that he was not controlled by the terms of the hag pact , only to fall frighteningly ill after killing Ethel . This is the proof that Giilvas is still connected to the old Hag who first cursed his sweetheart , and that he is not safe from her .
Act two would involve him requesting to go to Last Nights Inn or Moonrise Towers ( depending on where the player goes first / chooses to take him ) to ask if anyone had possibly seen a Hag or signs of a Hag in the area . While this quest happens , he opens up a bit about the circumstances of his sweetheart’ s death and who he is ( if the player knows about him being the Golden Rose / Thorn of the Plains , he get’ s far more into the incident since it has been dramatized and retold over and over and he would like to set the record straight )
These leads are a dead end , since he cannot find the hag no matter how sure he was that she’ d be there .
Then you get to baldur’ s gate .
You have two long rests before he falls ill again . The exact same sickness he experienced after breaking one of the Hag’ s rules . This time , the sickness stays with him and will not go .
The players options are as follows ;
1) Don’ t help . You can tell him to leave your camp and figure this out alone . No more sticking your neck out for him . He curses you , in a semi delirious state , and is permanently kicked from your team . Ambiance dialogue in the refugee camps after kicking him out talk about hearing these pained screams coming from the distance, somewhere in the woods , and how no one saw anyone leave after that .
2) Find the Hag and enter the pact . You go one a little quest to find the Hag’ s lair . Giilvas will be present either in your party, or he will follow the player and reveal himself when you confront the Hag . When the player realizes the Hag will just kill Giilvas if she’ s attacked ( and if the player did not go through the effort of learning how to kill her without it killing her puppet ) the player can either leave ( leading to the first option again pretty much rip giilvas ) Or they can enter the pact themself .
The player will gain a twine bracelet , and it is explained that if it is broken , Giilvas will be right back where he started , and she won’ t play with him as long the next time the bracelet is broken . Giilvas will thank the player for taking this burden , and trusting that they will never break it . ( this could be the bittersweet option for a romance tbh ) Since he is an Elf , if he has a lifespan longer then the player’ s , he will make a comment about protecting their grave so that it never snaps
Secret 3) You enter the pact , then break the bracelet . Betrayal ending . Giilvas will flee the moment this occurs . If it happens while on the road , he will leave the party and run away . No cutscene , no nothing . If it happens in camp , he will have a small cutscene with him demanding answers as to why , and no matter what , he will leave . He is in danger again
4) Kill ! That ! Hag ! Like killing Ethel but you gotta do some research first and also you have to know Giilvas’ background as well . If the player can manage to make sure that Giilvas will be safe when they attack the Hag and that he will survive and that this will , indeed , break the pact , then … welll … You Know What Must Be Done
11) What do they say if the PC tries to force them to go up on stage with Dribbles the Clown?
He completely down , actually . When you first select him , he’ ll mention how he’ s had some material he’ s been wanting to show a real crowd . And that he can do better than Dribbles . When you commit to sending him up , he bows before he walks out of the crowd and onto the stage . He completely thinks he’ s gonna steal the show out from under Dribbles’ feet . Can we call this a himbo moment ?
12) Is it possible for your Tav to be kidnapped and replaced by Orin? How is Orin's deception revealed? How do they react to the PC rescuing them in the Temple of Bhaal?
Yes . As long as he is not sick , he can be kidnapped !
He tries to kill you . Smiles . ‘ Giilvas ‘ will sneak up on you as you sleep then , when you wake up , will talk about how he was a fool for following you . How he’ s neglected everything he’ s stood for to follow you , how he’ s becoming more and more like just a follower with no mind of his own . How he should kill you and be rid of a budding corruption . How everyone can succeed without you .
At that point , you either Pass Those Checks, Boy . Or you attempt to fight him off . Either way , Orin will laugh at you and reveal herself ( either saying that you caught her too late if you pass a check or that you never trusted him in the first place if you fail or if you go right into attacking him )
When he’ s rescued , he nearly catatonic . He utters a few ‘ thank you ‘ s and asks if he can go home yet . Once at camp , he’ ll try to laugh off what happened and will say that he was just a bit delirious . The player can push a bit at this and he’ ll open up a bit more about the sorts of horrors he saw . If he was romanced , he probably wouldn’ t try to joke about this and would play it waaay more straight about why he was in that state and would talk about what he was comfortable with talking about
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Thanks for all your metas! They have helped me to understand GSR so much better. I wanted to ask you about a scene in Strip Strangler (Season 1 finale). In it Grissom runs out with a gun to protect Sara. Was that intentional or just the writers/producers not figuring out the “Grissom” character, as there are other things in season 1 that we can also be explained by them still figuring him out. Thanks so much!!!
hi, anon!
thank you for your kind words! i'm glad you enjoy my stuff.
re: your question:
i tend to think that grissom pulling a gun to protect sara is a deliberate characterization choice for two reasons, and both of them are based on the fact that while he does pull a gun to protect sara at the grocery store about midway through the episode, he notably doesn’t pull a gun to protect himself at the end of the episode (hence why catherine has to be the one to save him/kill the bad guy, when all is said and done).
first, just on a purely technical level, given that he very notably isn’t carrying a gun later in the episode, the fact that he has one at the store has to be a purposeful thing.
like.
you can’t very well have him handling a gun in one scene only to later have him fail to defend himself with a gun because he doesn’t have one on him in a later scene and not have it mean something™.
and i tend to believe that the absence of the gun in the latter scene is not just something that tptb would have somehow failed to notice: the prop master would have had to have talked to the director about it, and if there were any question about the lack of the gun, then the director would have consulted the writers. billy himself might have even noted the discrepancy, just as a matter of process. on set, people would have certainly asked the question, “if grissom typically carries a gun, then why doesn’t he have one on him when he’s confronting syd goggle?” because it identifies a potential plot hole. (the reason why it doesn’t ultimately turn out to be a plot hole is because grissom carrying the gun in the grocery store is actually the exception to his rule, in terms of behavior, instead of things being the other way around; more on this point below.) the difference between “gun” and “no gun” in scenes where a character is in mortal peril and could potentially save himself by shooting is significant enough to be discussed multiple times from multiple different angles. so, to my mind, this choice most likely had to be an intentional one. the gun isn’t just something the crew would have forgotten about.
there’s gotta be an in-world reason for the discrepancy, and even if said reason isn’t explicitly articulated, it has to be implied enough that the audience can pick up on it.
which, in this case, i think it is, and i think that they can.
and, so, the second reason i believe the choice to have grissom carry a gun in the store was a deliberate one:
because if you look at grissom having the gun at the store but not at the apartment complex from a character perspective, the discrepancy does tell us something about him.
and, in this case, what it tells us is something that is consistent for him across the series.
it isn’t just “s1 weirdness” that later goes away once the writing of him evens out but rather something that is in keeping with his core behavior patterns.
while grissom’s gun habits themselves don't actually crystallize until later in the series (in s1, he is much more likely to carry one than he is at any later point) and aren’t then fully articulated until around s4 with the fromansky storyline—when we learn that despite being licensed to carry and something of a dead-eye shot, he typically chooses not to be armed in the field as a matter of personal preference—the way he both uses and fails to use a gun in this episode gives us a lot of insight into who and what he cares about and how he conducts himself as a “protector.”
his behavior is also internally consistent, both within the frame of s1 (which is, of course, kind of its own weird microcosm) and later on in the show.
in other words: unlike a lot of grissom's s1 characterization otherwise, this particular beat doesn't end up being ooc for him in the long run.
that grissom doesn't carry a gun while himself confronting dangerous serial killer syd booth goggle at the end of the episode but does carry one earlier on during the sting operation at the grocery store while he is very much in “protect sara” mode reveals so much about where his priorities lie.
of course, grissom is typically a pacifist who prefers to use his brain rather than bullets and work things out with his words rather than with any kind of show of force. of all of the members of team graveyard, he is the one who is perhaps least likely to physically escalate a situation with a suspect or person of interest.
however, when it comes to “his people,” he is nevertheless willing to “go to bat” for them in a way he doesn't usually do with himself.
we see this trait already in play with him earlier in s1, when he pulls a gun on amy hendler when she has her gun pulled on nick in episode 01x06 “who are you?”, as well as when he bodily tosses eddie willows off of catherine and orders him out of the lab in episode 01x16 “too tough to die.”
but while he would defend and protect anyone on his team who needed him to, he feels especially protective of sara.
she’s special to him, and the fact that she is is already an established point on the show even by this early date; what we observe here only further drives this notion home.
earlier in s1, the show depicts him as being protective of sara emotionally in episodes like 01x10 “sex, lies, & larvae” and 01x16 “too tough to die,” where he notices her getting overly invested in certain outcomes for her cases and tries (oftentimes unsuccessfully) to talk her down before she gets her heart broken, also sometimes going out of his way—and outside of his usual code of personal conduct—to do whatever it is he thinks might give her peace of mind.    
but in episode 01x23 “the strip strangler,” we for the first time are shown how physically protective he can be of her, as well—the man of thought transforming into a man of action the second he believes she needs him to.
one of the main themes of episode 01x23 “the strip strangler” is a theme that repeats with grissom and sara many times over the seasons before they become an official couple: that of grissom feeling helpless to intervene with sara as much as he wants to because he can’t do so without “tipping his hand” and showing her (and everyone else) just how helplessly in love with her he is.
when he first learns that agent culpepper wants to use her as serial killer bait, his heart just about drops out of his chest. when he later learns that sara has opted to go ahead taking part in the sting anyhow despite his resistance, his heart just about drops out of his chest again.
though he couches his objections to this plan to both culpepper and sara in terms of logistical considerations—and, of course, it is his genuine professional opinion that the sting is bad criminalistics praxis—the truth is that so much of his reaction is visceral, personal, and emotional, having little to do with the investigation but everything to do with the girl at the middle of it.
he is scared to death that the love of his life is going to get hurt or killed, and he’s desperate to avoid that outcome.
to this end, he tries to put his foot down, refusing point-blank to give his okay on the operation as sara’s supervisor. and when that tactic fails, he then attempts to argue culpepper and sara down using logic—expounding to them why their idea is a poor one, more likely to backfire than to legitimately help the investigation. then when sara still stubbornly insists that she wants to help, he harangues her in the hopes that she’ll back off if maybe he just scares her enough, pointing out to her how vulnerable she is and how dangerous this undertaking will be, painting a gory picture of what the stakes are.
but, ultimately, because he always has to frame the issue in solely professional terms, both culpepper and sara are able to dismiss him, shrugging him off and saying, “well, it comes down to a difference in professional opinion.”
and the fact that they can do so is a galling thing for grissom, because while culpepper still wouldn’t give a damn even if he knew the underlying reason why grissom so vehemently opposed the sting, maybe sara would.
if he could just grab her by the shoulders, look her in the eyes, and plead, “please don’t do this. you’re my whole world, and i couldn’t stand it if you got hurt. there are other, better ways to do this. please don’t put yourself in harm’s way. i love you,” then maybe she might listen to him.
and the thing is, he knows as much.
but the thing is, he can’t.
he isn’t ready to admit to himself, to her, or to the world just how much he loves her—not yet, not in so many words, and not out loud; not when doing so would irrevocably change the nature of his existence.
and because he isn’t ready to, all he can do at this point, once she decides that she is indeed going to offer herself up as bait, is to try his best to protect her as much as he can from afar.
so.
for as much as he hates the sting in both principle and practice, he shows up to it—and he does so packing heat, even though nine times out of ten otherwise, he doesn’t typically carry a sidearm. 
he sits in the surveillance van in the parking lot, brooding and stewing, watching her feed like a hawk. 
and the second dwight schrute the suspected perp starts chatting her up, he’s already halfway out he door, barreling toward the store entrance.
by the time the guy has his hand on sara’s wallet, he’s rounding the endcap on that aisle, charging out ahead of all of the cops and fbi agents and goddamned culpepper with his gun drawn and his finger on the trigger, because no way is he letting anything happen to her.
thankfully, it turns out to be a false alarm, and sara is—though disappointed by the failure of the sting and maybe a bit embarrassed to have let herself get caught up in the fbi circus show—otherwise fine.
but the fact remains: grissom was ready to kill for her, if he needed to.
the question then becomes why he isn’t ready to kill to defend himself later on during the course of the same investigation.
and you know that old tumblr-favorite poem? the one that goes
you’re in love with him, here’s the best part: he loves you more than his own life... so, here’s the worst part: he loves you so much more than his own life.
well, the answer to that question is essentially those two stanzas.
grissom is the epitome of that notion, because for as quick as he is to defend sara, later on in the same episode, he thoughtlessly approaches a suspect by himself, completely unarmed, and ends up face-to-face with a serial killer, who might kill him except that catherine—bless her—shows up to save his ass.
because she always carries a gun, no matter what the investigation, and no matter who is involved in it.
on the surface, it may look like a discrepancy: why does he have a gun at the grocery store but not at the apartment complex, you know?
but it all comes down to what really scares him.
by no means is he suicidal, and he isn’t even habitually careless with his own safety in the same way sara oftentimes is with hers, but he can sometimes be heedless of certain risks because he trusts so much in his own intelligence, believing that he will always be able to think his way out of any tight spot.
sometimes he is less scared than he should be of the sheer brutality and unpredictability and irrationality of the criminals he faces down, relying on his own cleverness to save him even in situations where it doesn’t factor in and can’t save him because scissors beats paper, you know?
with goggle, you can almost see grissom thinking that if he can just keep goggle talking, he can trick him into making a mistake. he thinks they’re playing mental chess. that’s why it takes him so completely by surprise when goggle “flips the board” and clocks him with the wrench. for him, it was a purely intellectual exercise, but goggle “broke the rules” and turned it physical.
that tendency in him comes from his cerebral nature—from the fact that his obsessions so enrapture him that sometimes that he thinks of nothing outside of them, including his own safety.
it’s like his self-preservation instincts and even his sense of himself as a living creature with a body (as opposed to just a brain having thoughts) take a backseat to his compulsion to solve the puzzle. he can almost forget himself if he thinks he’s on the verge of cracking a case.
but that’s never the case with sara.
he can never forget her.
if she’s in danger, he can think of nothing else.
and he would sooner himself die than allow her to come to harm.
his pacifism, his aloofness, his commonsense—it all goes out the window when she is in trouble; even his ability to keep his emotions in check (which he usually retains in almost all situations otherwise) is just gone.
we see this trait in him in play later on, when adam trent is holding a shiv to sara’s neck (see episode 05x21 “committed”) and he literally starts begging the hospital employee to unlock the door, unconscious of his blatant show of emotion.
we also see it in episode 07x24 “living doll,” when he shakes natalie davis during the interrogation, getting physical with her in a way that he might otherwise never do with a suspect, except that he is desperate to save sara.
so though the episode doesn’t explicitly remark on it, the fact that grissom both has a gun on him to draw and draws it during the sting, obviously in protection of sara, feeds into the gsr themes of the episode and grissom’s overall characterization.
here we see this man who is at times so dispassionate that he is accused of being a robot but who is so passionately in love with a girl that he breaks all of his rules for her.
the consummate professional becomes unprofessional where it concerns her.
he lets his personal feelings run away with him.
and when it comes to her, everything ceases to be hypothetical, cerebral, intellectual; it is no longer a thought exercise.
everything gets really real, and his behavior changes.
just the thought of some serial rapist killer whose “type” is tall brunette girls getting anywhere near sara is enough to make grissom go home, take his gun out of its case, and load it, and then only once he knows for certain that she is safe does he put it away again, because she is such a different kind of priority for him than anything else.
the choice to have him draw a gun in the one scene but not even have one on his person in the other tells us so much, and what it says is something that remains a through-line for the entirety of the show.
so for as much as the s1 writers didn’t have a good grasp on grissom as a character, to my mind, that particular choice is one they got right.
thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.
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loregoddess · 2 years
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As I'm going through my New Game + in Triangle Strategy, I'm paying closer attention to the early scenes I probably forgot as I took months to get through my blind run.
Despite the contempt I have for Benedict in late game, he seems to genuinely care for Serenoa early game and is seen encouraging the young lord as Symon is in his coma.
Even if he's utility focused, do you think this care is genuine? I'd like to think so, but I'm curious about your take on it.
Oh, absolutely! Apologies ahead of time, this got a bit out of hand.
Benedict is a mess of a character to try and analyze because he's got like, a hundred unresolved issues and emotions bottled up inside him, and the game narrative doesn't spend a lot of time showing (or even telling) the audience what's going on in his head. But based on what I've been able to parse together, I truly believe Benedict genuinely cares for Serenoa, and that this care isn't just because Serenoa is the lord or Symon's “son” or--possibly more importantly--because Serenoa is Destra's son, although it may have started out like that.
I think Benedict grew to truly care about Serenoa in his own Benedict way (I mean, this is the guy who's parental relationship with his adopted daughter is difficult to figure out for most of the game), but given his unresolved issues with Symon and Destra, a lot of that care gets warped in all the worst ways possible in his endroute (interestingly, all the endroutes, save for the golden endroute, bring out the worst traits of each character, to some degree or another).
The ironic thing about Benedict is that while he's utility-driven, he's not really logic-driven, and most of his late-game decisions are actually driven by emotion rather than logic. It's just not wildly obvious, because Benedict isn't outwardly emotional the way Roland and Frederica, and even Serenoa in some scenes, are. He keeps his emotions close and puts up an excellent façade of pretending like they don't rule him, but they very much do influence him. I think the fact that all the endroutes end up pointing to a different trait than what’s normally associated with their corresponding character also reflects this. Benedict’s endroute is the liberty route, not the utility route (that’s Roland’s endroute), where Benedict uses his sense of utilitarianism to “free” House Wolffort, but it ultimately only really brings Benedict personally a sense of freedom (while simultaneously trapping him within the confines of his own personal issues), and his morality is lost entirely (reflected by how Roland leaves on this route).
The tipping point for a lot of Benedict’s characterization seems to be Symon’s death, which makes sense, since many of Benedict’s issues seem to stem from his very complicated feelings towards Symon. On one hand, Benedict clearly respects Symon a great deal, and harbors some sort of affection towards Symon since he was initially planning to retire, pass the role of steward to Anna, and spend his remaining days tending to Symon personally. But Benedict also seems to harbor some sort of anger towards Symon, specifically focused around whatever exactly occurred with Destra, which Benedict also turns on himself for “failing” to protect Destra. I wish the narrative had delved a bit more deeply into Destra, because she is so, so fundamental for whatever is driving Benedict, whether it was that he respected her or loved her in some way, but we’re unfortunately just not given much to work with.
(I couldn’t work it in well, but it should also be noted that a lot of Benedict’s more extreme behavior isn’t present before Ch15, as we can see in the “bad end” to the Defend the Roselle arc where he rather quickly makes peace with the fact that Serenoa chose to defend the Roselle in the Wolffort demense rather than hand them over to Hyzante, and chooses to stay by Serenoa’s side till the bitter end, rather than getting angry with Serenoa for throwing away the legacy and safety of House Wolffort and their people, which is interesting to say the least, given how obsessive he becomes with this legacy later on).
So while Benedict seems to have made some sort of peace before Ch15, Symon’s murder does something that makes Benedict lose sight of his care for Serenoa as an individual, and he seems to view Serenoa more as “Destra’s son” and a symbol of the Wolffort demense as a whole (as Benedict is also fiercely loyal to the Wolffort people in a way that goes beyond what we might expect of a steward, opening the way for all sorts of speculation as to whether this is because Benedict himself was born and raised in the demense and fought for it in the Saltiron War, or if this too somehow connects to Destra and how the Wolffort demense became her safe haven from the royalists, but again, there’s very little to work with). Benedict ends up projecting a lot of his issues onto Serenoa, and succumbs to the worst parts of himself on his endroute by manipulating Serenoa and, in that way, utterly warping whatever care he had for Serenoa in an attempt to preserve and empower House Wolffort, or perhaps specifically Destra’s legacy (as again, I think a lot of Benedict’s issues hinge on Destra moreso than either Symon or Regna, although there’s certainly a mix of issues there to uncover).
Benedict is only able to regain his sense of purpose, and his respect and caring for Serenoa as an individual, in Frederica’s endroute and the golden route. I say this because he just sort of goes along with Serenoa in Roland’s endroute, as he knows House Wolffort will be preserved and protected, and this seems to be enough to sate Benedict’s obsessive worry over the Wolffort legacy, but it doesn’t really resolve any of his personal issues or force him to reconcile with Serenoa, and he makes it clear he’d rather not have to bend the knee to Hyzante at all. On Frederica’s endroute, Benedict is forced to face the fact that Serenoa is not Symon or Destra, despite being very much alike to both, and it’s after his battle with Serenoa that Benedict acknowledges Serenoa as Symon’s son, rather than trying to leverage Serenoa’s status as Regna’s bastard, and relents that Serenoa is his own person with his own desires, and those desires are not to preserve the Wolffort demense, but to save and preserve the Rosellan people with Frederica. I’m assuming Benedict regains some of his sense of caring for Serenoa in this route, if only because he tells Anna to go with Serenoa, rather than asking her to stay and help him as guardian to the Wolffort demense, but I do imagine there’s a fair amount of resentment as well, much as he held mixed feelings of respect and resentment towards Symon. The golden route is well, the golden route, and it features the best possible outcome for all the main characters. Benedict is forced to resolve a lot of his issues, realize Serenoa is his own person, and achieve all this without ultimately resenting Serenoa or losing the independence and safety of the Wolffort demense and legacy.
So, the long and short of it, I do think Benedict cares about Serenoa, but that this sense of caring gets twisted into something terrible after Symon’s death, but not to the point where it can’t be salvaged or even restored, depending on the endroute. Benedict is an extremely complicated character, and I think his writing is really interesting even if I have to dig through the narrative to try and piece together what’s going on with him. Alas, until we get a proper timeline or something along those lines, I can’t say a lot of this isn’t just wild speculation with little evidence to back me up, but I have grown rather fond of Benedict the more I’ve tried to figure out his character and I do enjoy the complexities that his characterization presents.
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imbeccable-writes · 2 years
Note
3 4 and 5 for tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow because I TOTALLY don't know everything about it because we talked about it for like a week straight ;D but also seriously because I wanna hear about it :D
tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
3. What's your favorite line of narration?
Okay, listen, Wukong really tried to tell MK, okay? He really, really did.
After Mei left, he said to himself, next time I see him. I’ll tell him then. 
And MK was scheduled to come over for training just the next day! So it wasn’t like it was that far off or anything. It was great!
And then MK came over, his face shining with his smile as he came running into Wukong’s clearing and Wukong thought, he looks so happy.
And it would be super uncool if Wukong completely ruined his mood right before training, right? His head wouldn’t be in it anymore! So he swallowed the words back and greeted his successor, resolving to tell him right after training.
Then right-after-training rolled around and MK was still happy; tired and panting, but shining somehow even brighter than before. And really, who was Wukong to ruin his good mood? Was he really going to tell him hey, you’re gonna watch all your friends die and then just make him go home to those very friends? No!
So Wukong wished him a good night and watched MK rush off and get smaller and smaller until he was completely gone, and Wukong muttered, “Fuck,” under his breath.
Next time, he thought, strong in his resolve, next time I’ll tell him.
This… went on for a while.
MK kept staying happy and Wukong kept choosing to put off telling him because he simply couldn’t take breaking his successor’s heart. He would rather waste away under another mountain for 500 years, would rather burn away in that Heaven-forsaken furnace than look MK in the eye, take his heart in his hand, and crush it.
Wukong is just so much fun to write for. He's such a flawed character who has a lot of care and love in his heart for a select few people, and he just doesn't know how to communicate with them. And at this point, Wukong has had just about enough of hurting MK, his beloved successor, thank you very much.
(Never mind that by doing this, he already has. It's a lose-lose situation to be sure.)
4. What's your favorite line of dialogue?
It's a tie between
“I think,” said Tang quietly, “that there are worse ways to be hurt than by being loved so completely. In fact, I believe it to be the only pain worth having.”
“I don’t want him loving me to hurt,” she said...
and
“You listen to me, Sun Wukong, ‘cuz I’m only gonna say this once,” she interrupted, lifting a finger and pointing at him so close his eyes went cross-eyed. “You better stay with him until the end of time, because if you let him get hurt when I’m not there to either beat your ass or protect him myself, I’ll break through the gates of Hell themselves and drag you down with me, quadruple immortality or not.”
Mei and MK are so important to me also??? like. sometimes i see people describing them as siblings, and that's valid, but their bond feels so much more deep than that to me. I genuinely view them as something along the lines of platonic soulmates, and I just adore writing them interacting or talking about the other.
5. What part was hardest to write?
The hardest part to write is definitely the wrap-up of chapter 2 (which is why it's taken so long lmao). I don't know what it is about it- it's like, I want each character to have their own closure with MK in one way or another, but because there's so MANY characters, it feels bogged down with more or less the same narrative of "i'm sorry i hid this from you for this reason" "i understand that and i'm still mad but i forgive you". It doesn't help that this fic has evolved past what it initially was going to be, so some of the things I had written prior to the change don't fit anymore, which is always a tragic cut to make. So far it's basically the moment MK starts to reconcile with his family onward that's been a real pain in my ass this whole time, lmao.
Thanks rex!!! I really need to get on this fic dude. School's been killing meeeee
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wyvernwriterparttwo · 1 month
Text
Major Characters in my W.I.Ps as Tarot Cards (P1?)
Dalgari, Thrones of Legend
Formula:
Character:Tarot
Explanation of their arc and why I picked the card. May include mine or spoilers.
Enid: The Chariot
Enid is filled with the courage and determination to keep moving forward, for a better world, that her mother wishes to see for the world. She will not passively sit down and wait for things to get better and doesn't allow any of the other party members to wollow in sadness for too long.
Though they sometimes struggle internally to believe they are capable of living up to their ancestors, Enid knows they cannot stop and let obstacles stop them.
Taurn:Strength
Taurn's story is all about his strength. His physical strength allows him to protect his friends, and he takes extreme pride in it. Though because of his heart condition, he often believes this isn't enough for him to be strong, and often hides his weaknes
In order to become the hero he want to be, he must also improve his mental emotional strength, choosing to become more vulnerable and open, as this will allow him to be free of his mental shackles, and possibly fre others too.
Leon:Justice
A just, honorable knight of high status and nobility, Leon considers himself an arbiter of the law. Though his ideals are not as just as he believes they are. As they are continously challenged, they begin to think about how unfair their society is.
When he realizes how unjust his society is, he wishes to change it, and becomes more honest with himself. His noble birth has been shielding him from the truth of the world for long enough, and now he is ready to face it and reshape it.
Sophia: The Tower
Sophia was safe and felt comfortable with her life. But with her mother's disappearance and the time of her coronation coming really soon, Sophia feels as if she is falling into a fate where she dooms her country.
She desperately tries to search for her mother; to rebuild the tower as quickly as possible. But eventually she will have to admit that it just isn't possible, and that she will have to be ready to leave it behind and walk towards a better future.
Angeline:The High Priestess
Angeline is convinced that she is just as weak as her family had been telling her. And yet, she believes she must use her life to help others, often ignoring her own needs and belittling herself.
When she begins to grow and learn about her strengths and the world, she realizes that she does have the right to stand strong and be proud. She decides never to let herself be misguided by those who mean to belitte her, even if they are loved ones.
Noah:The Hermit
Noah's thirst for knowledge and wisdom has gone on for a very long time. He's always wanted to share the things he's learned with others, but he is often unable. Sometimes he is ignored and shooed off. Other times he simply doesn't get the chance.
His knowledge is invaluable to the Gilded Guardians, and he knows that he can not simply sit back and hide away. He must reflect on his knowledge, but he also needs to show it, and become a competent leader and tutor.
Wulf: The Hanged Man
Wulf, while charismatic and skilled enough to lead a band of mercs and rebels, is nowhere near ready to run a country. He often worries how he will be able to run the land he spent so long trying to liberate.
With the help of his friends, he realizes that he must take the time to learn, and even if it is difficult, he can't simply do nothing. He must act, and act with wisdom.
Shahriyar: The Magician
In order to prevent a disaster for his country, Shahriyar does whatever he can to act and face the trials of a deadly night. He's been training his skills to help protect his brother.
Willing to learn and do anything if it means achieving his goals, he oftentimes let's his ambition and willingness to do awful things get the best of him, dulling his empathy. Shahriyar will need to learn to temper his will, and still use his resources wisely.
Leilana: The Sun
Despite all of the tragedy she has faced, Leilana always seems to carry herself with a positive, almost childish attitude. She wants to make those around her feel safe and happy.
As things grow dire and negative, she will do whatever it takes to keep the peace and keep everyone positive. But it is unclear at first whether or not she is truly doing as well as she says or believes she is. She may need some assistance as well.
Amethyst: Death
After the death of her brother, Amethyst has grown distant. Hateful, even. She doesn't trust anyone except those truly close to her, and even then, not by much.
In order for her to heal, trust others, and defend her ideals and home, she needs to let go of her grief and anger and move forward. It will not be easy, especially with her enemies still alive and well, but it is necessary.
Wyla: The Star
Not much is known about the Ollphéist of her lands. And in turn, Wyla does not know much about them, other than her history. But in hopes of growing and help her country, she decided to explore the mainland.
There are many dangers she and the world faces. But she can't shy away or lose faith. She follows the Gilded Guardians with hope in her heart and bravely faces off against those who try to oppress her people.
Viria: Temperance
Viria has taken in eleven young, powerful people, and is nurturing them to be the best they can be in order to protect their world. It is a very heavy burden. Even heavier considering new threats arise every day.
The duchess must keep balanced if she hopes to achieve her goals, but she also needs to realize that she does not need to go through this alone. Just as the descendants rely on her patience and love, she can rely on them to keep her focused and balanced.
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Can you do yandere jjk characters x witch reader headcanon separately pls
Ooh i like this, I'm also lowkey into yanderes ehem*, so for this fic, i choose daddy materials men who are dominant as hell
Boys included : Sukuna, Satoru, Toji, Suguru
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You belong in a race where mankind has no idea of. Witches. Yes they make stories out of witches which can only be labelled as fiction and someone's fantasy or imagination. But it's different when it comes to sorcerers and curses, they know your kind exists
You were a witch, a real one but you were not the violent or wild type, you enjoy just living peacefully, brewing medicines and playing with your cat. Your battle prowess is equivalent to a child, you only learned healing involved witchcraft. If there's something you're good at, it's teleporting and concocting medicine.
But what will happen if someone who desires peace and quiet accidentally caught the interest of borderline psychotic men
Sukuna
Now, how did you manage to caught his interest
Oh i don't know, you just so happen to see him fucking the life out of a woman against a tree
Your cat was being a menace and decided to play your wand, biting it and running off to the woods
With every step you take into the woods where your cat was already nowhere in sight, incoherent noises can be heard
The more you step forward, the more the noises became clear
Not really thinking of the consequences, you revealed yourself to the people fucking in front of you
You jumped to the conclusion that the guy was forcing himself on the girl
You were about to reach out to the girl when she suddenly said "more, harder, fck me harder"
You were quick to retract your hand but was stopped when the curse caught you in a grip
"What are you doing? Let go" you demanded
"Hmmm, how about no" he cheekily responded
"you don't get to decide that, and can you stop talking to me, while your railing your lover"
"she isn't my lover tho, hmm do you wanna join"
"hmmm, how about no" you also cheekily responded, feeling victorious for imitating his words
Contrast to your expectation of him becoming irritated with your behaviour, the curse was now fully intrigued
He stopped thrusting, and pulled out completely and sweeped you off your feet
"Hey, let go, you are so rude, you know that"
"hmm, no one actually said that to me before"
"oh so that's why, you became like THIS" you said while eyeing him up and down, scrutinizing his being
"keep that up and you're gonna be sorry"
And now For the million dollar question, why aren't you scared or hastily running away from this maniac
Here's the answer
You fully believe that as long as you can get your wand back, you can easily escape
What you didn't know is that, the curse carrying you already smashed your poor little cat, completely flat to the ground and hidden your wand, with no plan on returning it
You don't need that wand, after all you are not going anywhere forever
Satoru
"Don't kill it"
"It's a curse"
"It's my friend"
You are currently sheilding a 2nd grade curse behind you from a white haired masked guy
You met the curse a month ago, it helped you locate your cat and for some odd reason, you guys became friends
"Why is even a witch protecting a curse, Look here, i was tasked to get rid of that curse and you, a little witch can't stop me" he threateningly said
You felt yourself back away and that's when your cat lunged at the man, but completely turned to smithereens in front of your eyes
You froze and the man in front of you took the chance to kill the curse behind you
Oh how you regretted not learning attack spells cause now your only choice was to run away, you were still thankful you excelled in teleporting since he didn't get a hold of you in time
But that relief soon vanished when he teleported moments after you
You teleported again and again, he follows you everytime you teleport but makes no effort on actually catching you
For your last option, you teleported to the farthest location you can come up with
That took a lot of mana, and you feel like your gonna faint the moment you landed that last teleportation
Your knees were ready to give up and yours eyes slowly came to a shut but not before seeing the silhouette of a grinning man
Satoru caught you the moment you started falling, took the wand that fell out of your hand and completely destroying it
"i hope that was enough teleportation to last you a lifetime" he sickeningly whispered to your ears
The moment you woke up, you knew it was over, walls and floor painted with blood, a pile of bones, torture devices decorating every part of the room and in the middle of them all sitting in a chair is your soon to be psychotic boyfriend
Toji
How did your act of kindness turn to this
You did nothing but help him so why
Why are you chained to a bed with no possibility of escaping
2 days ago, you went to one of the humans convenience store and bought some stuff but on your way back, you encountered someone in the alleyway bleeding
Thinking it was no big deal, you gave him a healing potion and instructed him to drink it but unfortunately he wasn't well enough to drink it on his own
Your cat also urged you to do the method you were thinking of by meowing nonstop
Already worked up your courage, you open the lid and drank the potion yourself before giving it to him through mouth to mouth
The man gladly gulped down the liquid, his wounds were starting to heal up
"You suck at kissing" he blurted
"SHUT UP"
"Don't tell me, you've never kised someone" he jokingly said
With no meaning to it, you became embarrassed and turned red from his statement
"so what if i never kissed someone" you grumbled
If you're seducing him then you are doing a very good job right now, cause he can't take his eyes off your form. You might be bad at kissing but you certainly have a knack for seduction
You saw how his wounds are almost all closed up so you quickly stood up, said your goodbyes without looking back
You slept and the next day everything was normal and went to sleep again, so how did you become chained to his bed now
"your way of saying thank you sucks too" you spit to the man in font of you, seeming amused of your defiance
"if this is your way of saying thank you, i don't want it" you added
"It's not a matter where you like it or not cause either way, you're staying here with me" he stated as a matter of fact
"also, we might as well improve your kissing skills" he simply added before tightening the chain in your ankle
Suguru
Mahito is the root of all this
He somehow mentioned that there was a witch lurking around the area
This of course made suguru want to go hunting
And tha target is
You✨
While you were just enjoying the view in Tokyo, you failed to notice someone following you
Though the moment you used a road where not a lot of people go by, suguru decided to come face to face with you
You were quick to realize that he was up to no good so you whipped out your wand and was about to teleport when he took hold of your cat
He saw how you treasured the cat after following you so he was sure you are not going anywhere as long as the cats in his hold
Though a sudden thought came to mind, what would your expression be if the cat died im front of you? Will you attack him? Or will you break down
He threw the cat upwards and sent a slash moments after
He was so sure the cat would die and you'll fall into despair
But the situations different, you teleported to your cat cradling it, taking the hit, you were so sure you could save your furry friend but alas your cat also got hit
With the intensity of the attack, you were quick to fall down but suguru caught you
You are now bleeding out in the arns of your murderer, slowly dying
You could see despair painted all over his face that clearly says, this isn't what should've happened
With each second, life was slowly being sucked out of you
Until you became fully limp in the hands of your killer
A/N: Bless the cat ❤️
Masterlist🌻
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iyumeu · 3 years
Text
i can be your angle or yuor demon
summary: [takes place right after the angelic demons event] in front of you stands an angel and a demon. which would you choose?
characters featured: lucifer, mammon, leviathan (aka older brother trio)
⭒☆━━━━━━━━✿ᏊㅇꈊㅇᏊ✿━━━━━━━━☆⭒
It had been a few days since the party that had taken place in the celestial realm. Your demonic housemates were now back to their normal, devilish selves but you notice that they seemed a little... odd. Subdued, even.
Today was no different; the brothers had been quiet during dinner, either picking at their food or simply straight up not attending dinner. You had gone to bed feeling off-kilter and worried. That was it, you decided, it was time to stage an intervention. You were going to confront your demonic housemates tomorrow and they weren't going to be able to do anything about it!
With determination in your heart, you closed your eyes... and then immediately found yourself in a strange white room with...
Lucifer
After the party
> He had immediately thrown himself back into a mountain of paperwork.
> You knew that Lucifer was the embodiment of overworking but even this was too much. He hadn't been present for dinner since all of you had returned to the Devildom and if it weren't for the incredibly rare times you caught him out in the hallway, you would have come to the conclusion that he simply decided to start living in his study room
> Alas, even when he was outside he was short-tempered, snapping at anyone who was around him and was generally just a little more forceful than usual.
> There was a moment where you brushed past him in the hallway and he had grabbed your wrist, tugging you towards him. You had jumped and whirled around, startled at the sudden action, and you weren't quite sure what your expression had been like but you knew that it prompted Lucifer to immediately let go of your wrist as if he had been burnt. He then retreated back into his office, slamming the door shut without even saying a word to you.
> He had kept his distance after that and the two of you hadn't spoken to each other since.
In the white space
Two Lucifers stood before you, one clad in his angelic costume while the other wearing his demonic form.
> They seemed to be talking to one another, the Lucifer you were familiar with getting more and more agitated by the second while the Lucifer dressed in angelic garb was crossing his arms, looking at the demonic Lucifer with a placid expression on his face.
> When you step closer to them, they turn to look at you in tandem.
> "MC."
> It's strange how your name can be spoken in such different ways. Lucifer spoke your name in his usual commanding tone while the angel said it with such gentleness and cheer it gave you goosebumps.
> "Luci... fer?"
> "Yes?"
> The both of them answered together once again. It was seriously freaking you out. Were they both really Lucifer? Or was one of them a clone?
> You quickly made your way closer to them.
> Once you were closer you could see that Lucifer looked tenser than usual.
> "Where are we?" You couldn't help but glance at angel Lucifer too when you asked that question. From the corner of your eye, you see Lucifer's hand clench into a fist.
> "It doesn't matter where we are," Lucifer replied brusquely. You hadn't seen him this upset before, not even when he tried to kill you for harboring Luke in the House of Lamentation.
> "Is this how he talks to you all the time?" Instead of answering you, angel Lucifer asked you another question. It was a question that confused you. What did that have to do with anything?
> "Um... not really? He's just a little bit frustrated," you reply, eyeing the angel Lucifer warily. Something about him made you feel... something. It was a negative something. You didn't like him one bit.
> "I see." Angel Lucifer reaches out towards you. Before you can flinch back, Lucifer's hand was already painfully gripping your shoulder, tugging you to his side in an almost violent manner.
> "You are not to touch them," he said. Angel Lucifer's gaze slowly slid from you to him and you were able to see it frost over in real time.
> "Neither are you," he said, "if you're going to be so forceful. Look at them, they're hurt."
> Lucifer turned to look at you. You were frozen in the middle of rubbing at your shoulder and his eyes darkened.
> He stepped away from you.
> "You believe that everyone around you will bend to your whim," the angel said. "And if you don't, you force them to. You carry out your actions uncaring about the way it affects others and how they may think... Tell me," the angel was looking at you now, "how does it feel to live with someone so full of themselves?"
> Beside you, you can tell that Lucifer has stopped breathing. His red gaze was boring a hole through you, his wings twitching as he fought the urge to block your view of his angelic doppelganger.
> You lick your lips, gathering your thoughts. The angel too your silence as agreement and a smile spread across his face.
> "Don't you see, demon? They're afraid of you. Your overbearing, domineering treatment of them has rendered them too afraid to dare speak up in your presence."
> Lucifer flinched at the angel's words. You suddenly had a very vivid fantasy of pouncing forward and violently ripping handfuls of feathers out of the angel's wings.
> "They'll be much happier with me, don't you think?" the angel asked. You glanced at Lucifer and was absolutely shocked to see him considering the angel's words.
> "No!" The word was out of your mouth before you could even think.
> The angel raised an eyebrow. "No?"
> "No." You dug in your heels, glaring at this... oversized avian who dared to don the face of your beloved demon. Who dared to make him doubt himself like that. "No, I'm not scared of him. No, I do dare to speak up. No, I absolutely would not be happier with you!"
> You turned to Lucifer, not wanting to look at that... thing for even a second longer. He was staring at you, a rare look of surprise on his face. You stepped towards him, poking a finger at his chest.
> "You!" you started, "You may be absolutely full of yourself, but you do care! You care for Diavolo! You're always taking care of him even when it comes at the cost of your own health! You care for your brothers! You protected them when all of you first entered the Devildom and you protect them even now, even if you try to hide it. You care for me! You give me food when you notice I've been staying up late to study and you constantly ensure that my time at R.A.D. is safe and enjoyable! Do you think I don't notice this? Do you think no one notices this? Why are you believing that thing's lies?!"
> With every jab of your finger, Lucifer's eyes grow wider.
> "And you!" You whirled around to glare at the angel. "You're sitting there running your mouth when you're the one who's acting so full of yourself! I'm sick of your holier than thou attitude! Lucifer is caring, he is thoughtful, and he is so much more than what you accuse him of!” You pause for a moment to take a breath. The angel is examining you like you were a particularly interesting specimen slotted under a microscope. You’ve reached your limit. It was time to resort to violence.
> You were stopped before your feet left the ground by a pair of arms wrapping around your shoulders. It was soon followed by a curtain of dark feathers, blocking the angel from your sight, and you from his.
> “That’s enough,” Lucifer said. His voice was filled with the same confidence and pride that you know and love. “That thing is not worth your time.” A pause and then, softly, almost inaudibly, “Thank you.”
> And then,
> You wake up.
After the dream
> You were happy to see that Lucifer was no longer locking himself up his office again.
> He was also, strangely, a little more affectionate to you?
> He was also around a lot more often; not hovering per se, but just... there. A comforting presence, him by your side.
> His texts to you are more often now too.
> You start receiving gifts from him, packaged and pretty hanging on your doorknob, charmed with a powerful spell that curses everyone but you if they touch it. He still pretends he doesn't send them but you know and he knows you know.
> One day, over a dinner at the Ristorante Six, he'll finally tell you, in words, that he wants you to stay by his side; but until then, you enjoy his non-verbal affirmations of love.
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━[ᓀ˵◇˵ᓂ]━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
Mammon
After the party
> He became a shut in on par with Leviathan.
> However you notice that he has a lot of akuzon deliveries brought to his door, definitely more than what he could afford.
> When you try to talk to him he only shouts at you from behind his door. When you try to enter, you almost get squashed by the amount of piled up akuzon boxes and haphazardly piled up items.
> You knew Mammon was inside but you couldn't see him at all. You'd genuinely think that he got suffocated under the mess of his purchases if he hadn't been talking to you through the mess.
> But he still refused to come out to see you and you didn't know how to navigate his room, so you decided to leave him be for now.
In the white space
> There were two Mammons in front of you, one dressed in his angelic costume and the other in his demonic form. They seemed to be discussing something but you paid them no mind.
> Mammon had been your reliable protector since the start of your time in the Devildom and hence you had grown to associate safety with his presence.
> That was why you literally all but teleported to his side when you caught sight of him.
> However, the words coming out of the angel made you freeze in your tracks.
> "Shameless, greedy scum," the angel said. Mammon's body language finally registered in your head. Slightly hunched over, head turned to a side, wings curling in on himself, fists clenched and shaking... You hadn't seen him this bad before.
> "You know that they're too good for you, but you can't let them go. You'd rather chain them to you forever rather than allow them happiness. Your greed truly knows no bounds, even for someone you lo—"
> You skitter to a stop between the two. It was unnerving how much he looked like Mammon. Apart from the attire, the only difference you could tell was his eyes; Mammon's eyes were open and expressive while the angel's eyes did not give away his emotions at all. Controlled, you would call them.
> "MC," the angel greeted you with a smile.
> "MC, what're you doing here?!" In contrast to the angel, Mammon seemed aghast to see you here.
> "You want their attention and affection but you are reluctant to give yours," the angel said. "Greedy, greedy, greedy. The Avatar of Greed, do you really think you're worthy enough to stand by their side?"
> Oh, the angel was talking about you.
> Well if you weren't already angry before, you were now.
> You turn to look at Mammon only to see him shaking slightly. He refused to meet your eyes.
> "You actually hate it, don't you?" the angel said. The angel was looking at you now. "How unreliable he is. How selfish he is, always putting his own desires and needs above others. A nightmare to live with, much less be with."
> With every word out of the angel's mouth, you see Mammon flinch. You reach out to soothe him but he flinches away from you. He looked like he regretted it the moment he did it, but he had no chance to apologize before the stupid angel was opening their mouth to yap on.
> "How can anyone love something like him, much less you?" the angel asked and. Boy.
> You whirled around and threw a punch at the angel's face. It barely injured the angel and left you with a hurting fist, but the shock on the angel's face was worth it.
> "I love him," you declared loudly. "And so do his brothers."
> Mammon was staring at you with wide eyes and an open mouth.
> "And the things you've said? Utter horseshit. Mammon is one of most selfless demons I know." No one as powerful as him would allow himself to be a punching bag for his entire family without retaliation, no one but him. Mammon was the demon with the highest control, with the softest heart, and it showed with the interactions he had with his brothers... and you.
> He rarely said anything affectionate towards you, and the times he did were often rushed and unintelligible, but he didn't have to. Not when his love and affection shone through with every action he made.
> He was always giving love, only rarely ever receiving, And he never complained about it.
> And so hearing this angel spout such bullshit about Mammon, and Mammon believing it, really made you experience something.
> That something was an attempt to beat up the angel in front of you.
> You were quickly pulled off the angel, Mammon holding you tightly and firmly in his arms and you tried to continue with your punches and kicks.
> "That's enough." It was a rare occasion that his voice was so serious and it immediately calmed you down. Mammon shifted you to a more comfortable hold but did not let you go. "Ya ain't gonna hurt me with those dumb words," he told the angel, puffing out his chest. "I'm the great Mammon! I ain't gonna listen to your bullshit!"
> Warmth blossomed in your heart as you hear Mammon regain his confidence.
> "And MC is mine! No one's worthy of them but that doesn't mean I won't—"
> You wake up.
After the dream
> Mammon finally exited his room and the first person he went to was you.
> He swooped you up in a big hug, abruptly waking you from your slumber.
> He started becoming more honest and less shy as well, no longer putting on airs. His affection for you was as clear as day. It's a work in progress but Mammon is still able to convey his affection even if he ends up screaming it with a red face.
> You notice that he's been taking up more responsibility lately, even getting a steady part time job. He uses the money to take you out on nice dates and buy you nice gifts.
> Also has become even clingier, but it's not like you're going to complain. ⭒☆━━━━━━━━━⸜₍๑•⌔•๑ ₎⸝━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
Leviathan
After the party
> Leviathan had been making some headway in getting more comfortable in his own skin, cutting down on insults to himself. This party set him back a thousand years.
> Every word out of his mouth was self-derogatory and full of hate.
> He refused to answer your texts.
> He never left his room, even for mealtimes.
> In fact he didn't eat at all? Which was concerning. You even tried to bribe him with Ruri-chan, but all it resulted was a crash and a faint sob.
> It was after that that you decided to leave him be for a while.
In the white space
> There was nothing in the white space except a pond and Leviathan in his angel costume.
> Recalling Leviathan's reaction to you before, you carefully approached him and called out his name. To your surprise, he turned to look at you with a smile on his face.
> You were delighted at first but the delight quickly drained away when you recognized the bright but bland smile on his face, along with his calm, placid eyes.
> It was the Leviathan from the party looking at you now, not the Leviathan you were missing.
> "MC!" he said cheerily. "I'm so glad you're here!"
> "...hello." He didn't seem to noticed that you were being subdued, quickly stepping forward to grab your hands. You tried to suppress your flinch, fearing that Leviathan was actually in there somewhere. You scanned his body for the brainwash bangle but did not find it. Worry started to gnaw at your heart. How were you going to break this curse if you couldn't find its anchor?
> "I missed you," angel Leviathan continued. "Sorry for avoiding you, I was just throwing a temper tantrum. I won't be doing that again. As I've said before, I'll be giving up on anime, manga, and the like to forge closer connections with my brothers... and of course with you."
> You step back. The angel follows.
> "I was weak before, a no-good shut-in loser who'd rather lose himself in the 2D world rather than face reality." Unlike before, the words were spoken without an ounce of shame or even emotion. It was like angel Leviathan was stating facts rather than belittling himself. Somehow, that bothered you more.
> "You're not weak," you spoke. "You're not any of those at all. You've been putting in a lot of effort lately, and besides being interested in anime isn't a weakness. You're passionate about what you like and unafraid of showing it. Isn't that a strength?"
> Angel Leviathan shrugged, brushing your words aside. It was incredibly uncharacteristic of him.
> "I suppose," he said. "Either way, don't you prefer me like this? Outspoken, confident, unafraid? I can tell you how I feel. I love you, MC. Don't you love me?"
> There was something wrong. A nagging feeling in your heart had been present ever since you entered this strange place and right now it merely grew stronger.
> "Not like this," you said, pulling your hand away from his. "There's something wrong with you right now, Levi, you're not in your right mind."
> "I'm in my right mind. In fact, I can safely say that I've never been better. Say you love me, MC."
> Leviathan would never push you like this. He had always respected your boundaries, knowing how unpleasant it was like to have his own constantly prodded and pushed.
> "You're not Levi," you realized. Immediately you looked around, quickly moving away from angel Leviathan. "Where is he? What have you done to him?"
> Angel Leviathan looked so confused for a moment that you almost believed him. But then his expression turned to derision and your blood ran cold.
> "Why do you care about that disgusting otaku anyway? Aren't I better? Why don't you choose me?"
> The angel must have been out of his fucking mind if he thought that you were going to choose him after all this.
> You took another step back and—
> You plunge into the lake, the breath knocked out of you by the impact. Just as you started to panic, your eyes catch sight of something that made you freeze.
> There was Leviathan, the Leviathan you knew and loved, in his demon form staring back at you with wide eyes.
> What the fuck.
> Had he been here the entire time?!
> Instead of you, now Leviathan was the one panicking. He grabbed you and swam quickly to the surface, bringing you out of the lake. You gasped for air once you breached the surface, Leviathan's arm supporting you and keeping you upright.
> "Levi!" you said once you caught your breath. "Where were you? Why didn't you come up?"
> Leviathan was not looking at you. Once he had placed you back onto the shore, he suck back down into the water until only his eyes and the top of his head were visible. You put the pieces together.
> "...were you hiding?"
> "Of course that coward was hiding." Oh god. The angel was still not done. Now that you knew for a fact that he wasn't Leviathan, you felt an incandescent rage start boiling within you. You tamp it down. For now. "He didn't want to face the idea that you might choose me over him."
> Choosing again. It seemed important.
> "It's okay if you choose him instead," Leviathan was clearly lying through his teeth. "If... If it makes you happy. Who would want to be with a loser otaku like me who can't even tell the person he loves that he wants to hold their hand? Much less that he loves them?"
> Your heart was breaking and you pushed yourself into the water again. Leviathan yelped in surprise and quickly swam forward to catch you. You took the opportunity to put your hands on either side of his face.
> "Levi, there's no way I'd choose anyone over you," you told him. "You are my Lord of the Shadows and no one else can take your place."
> You feel Leviathan's cheeks heat up under your palms.
> "Do you mean it?" It was said in a whisper but you managed to catch it. You nod and a brilliant smile spread across his face.
> He looked up at the angel and maneuvered you around so that he was in between you and the angel. His tail had found its way to you and it was now curling around you in a possessive manner you had long grown familiar with.
> "MC is m... MC is my Henry! Not yours!" Leviathan declared. His tail squeezed a little tighter but you still felt no discomfort. "And I am their Lord of the Shadows. I'll protect them, so there's no way you'll ever get your hands on them!"
> You tried to cheer Leviathan on but then,
> You wake up.
After the dream
> Leviathan sent you a message to meet him in his room and you went there immediately. There, he apologized for ignoring you, saying that he hadn't been feeling well but was better now.
> The tip of his tail was subconsciously curled around your ankle but you didn't point it out to him, not wanting him to be self-conscious.
> After that you notice that Leviathan was a lot more open with his words. He still stuttered and turned red, but he was trying. Even if he ended up running away afterwards sometimes.
> Soon, he even grew brave enough to ask you to h*ld his h*nd! Once the first barrier had been breached, however, the two of you started holding hands all the time.
> If his hands were busy with gaming, expect his tail to seek you out.
> One day, he'll muster up the courage to tell you how he feels. But until then, you're happy to wait. ⭒☆━━━━━━~>º˵)ニニニニ>━━━━━━☆⭒
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