As much as I like ships involving Mama… do you think she’s capable of moving on to being with people other than Papa? After all, she is still wearing black and a wedding ring after approx 3-4 years after his death…

Yes, I do. Realistically though it would not be anytime soon. I see her as truly "moving on" only when Yinu is either a teen or adult (or if Yinu stop playing music professionally because I think being in that environment that is so heavily connected to Papa is not allowing Mama to properly grieve and "move on," which is different for Yinu as that environment has helped her to grieve).

Also like, the term "moving on" is something I have a problem with (personally, not because of you), because so many people seem to think moving on means forgetting the person you loved. At least the people who I surround myself with.

I can see Mama being able to move on in the sense that she will always love Papa as her first and true love, but will be able to love someone (hopefully) just as much as she did Papa.

Idk, it just feels like so many people have this conception that they can only love one way and that you can't love someone more without like invalidating that old love. It's why I see her and Neon as never truly getting together because both of them are afraid that if they love someone new, then that love they had for their old SOs was "fake," a "waste of time," or "not true love" when it did feel like true love at the time.

This I play up a lot in Neon J as more he can't even get over Martha since he still loves her, is afraid to love again, and doesn't think he can love someone else like he did her.

For Mama, she is less afraid of loving again, with her totally being okay with one day finding someone new, but is more afraid she might love someone more and end up forgetting about the love she had with Papa. She doesn't want to muddle the memories she has and so not dating and continuing to grieve is what are keeping those memories alive but they are also making those happy memories bitter and painful.

It also doesn't help that she does not want Yinu to forget her father, so dating someone when Yinu is young feels wrong to her. Mama feels like the second she starts seeing someone new, Yinu will either push the memories of Papa away or get mad at Mama for "trying to erase Papa."

Though Yinu would not act like this. She wants Mama to be happy and if that means getting someone new to love, then Yinu would be okay with that. She knows no one will ever replace Papa and wants Mama to realize that as well.

This is why I really like Mama and Neon together (either as friends or as lovers, doesn't matter to me), because both of them help each other realize their worth and that love is not a single monolith that has to be done one way. You can love more than one person without invalidating the love of another. The two help each other accept that the loves they had are never coming back, and that it's okay to still hold those loves close but to go out and try to find new love.

The only reason I can see Mama and Neon getting together before Yinu turns into a teen is mainly because of how adamant Neon is that he is not a replacement for Papa. Other people Mama might potentially date come with the risk of those people feeling inferior to her love for Papa, or that they think they can be better than Papa (both as a father or as a lover).

Neon on the other hand feels like he will never be good enough and is okay with that, as he doesn't think anyone could be better than Martha (which... honestly so many people can be better than her). So he wants to make it clear that he is not some replacement or trying to force away memories that Yinu and Mama might have. He is very careful around past loves and never wants to step on any toes, but still wants to make everyone as happy as he can.

So yeah. I can see Mama moving on when Yinu gets older, if Mama gets out of the environment she is in, or if she finds someone willing to let her keep her love for Papa without feeling inferior or trying to erase that past love.

Also, the fact she still wears her wedding ring was something I forget is a grieving mechanism and a reminder of her love for Papa. I just never saw it as that for some stupid reason. To me it was more of her always wearing the ring and just deciding to not take it off for comfort and familiarity, but now that I think of the REASON behind that comfort and familiarity, of course it would have to do with grieving and keeping Papa's memory alive (also I personally have it as Papa dying 5 years before the events of the game take place. So it has been quite a while since his death. I mainly think Mama not trying to find love is also her having to work a lot and raise Yinu basically alone).

Do people know there's a difference between:

an aro spec character being "cured" of their aromanticism by their "one true love" by the end of the narrative

And:

An aro spec character who finds one of the few people they happen to click with in an amorous (but not necessarily romantic) way by the end of the narrative

Does anyone understand that aromanticism is a SPECTRUM and that someone writing an aro character finding someone they want to be in a relationship with might be doing so for reasons other than 'curing' them?

And the same thing for ace spec characters! And, you know, actual people.

there's this character dynamic i like to call "older tgirl you met at the start of your journey who taught you how to stand on your own feet and also blew your back out so hard it cracked your egg". that's yoo joonghyuk and breaking the sky sword saint to me

I think we should bring back basic etiquette lessons such as shutting the fuck up when you’re watching a movie in a group that is not exclusively your friend group 🙂

(me bursting into grrm’s house in the middle of the night): I will stop holding this knife to your neck if you promise brienne of tarth will receive the kind of gentle romantic love she yearns for and deserves

"COsTumE ChoICEs MaTtEr" proceeds to dress eddie for a date in a nearly identical outfit to buck from the poker date

being a little loud there are you bud????

[Coping with Loneliness and Cracks in Control]

Ah, it’s happening again. This irritating habit of leaving the body alone But there’s no one here either. It’s youyouyou no matter how much you call. (so cavernous it echoes) so stop doing it Your mind has been cracked open over and over again with every repair the damage worsens how long? “Tuvok, how do you do it?” desperately. The Vulcan mind is a fascinating thing. Mysterious. Resilient. Much like the Vulcan people - it can survive much worse than this. “Give me all you’ve got!” because I’m empty empty empty desperately. Meditate. Sort it out. Hm? Isn’t this too much for less than half a person? I can’t live like this. What other choice do you have? [A Mind Meld - Desperately]

personal.

“boohoo, why isn’t LauraxMax more popular than LauraxTravis, Laura and Max are canon after all-”

Max is fucking boring. He exists to be bitten to kickstart the game’s events and propel Laura’s story forward, and then remains unhelpful and moping for the majority of the rest of his screentime, which is only about 20 minutes in total of a 10+ hour game.

you get to play as him for literally a minute and a half, where he can be instantly killed off or just stands on a dock and waits...and that’s the end of his story. you can only get an ending where he and Laura reunite that involves Ryan dying for literally no reason and Laura murdering Travis, when he hasn’t shown her any aggression and was trying to deescalate everything happening in chapter 9. and that also leaves the curse still intact and potentially several counselors infected and doomed with no knowledge how to cure themselves and no one left to actively try and hunt Silas to free them all. such a great, happy ending... 

also, if you want content for a ship, nothing is stopping you from making your own or commissioning someone else to do it for you. that sounds like a You problem if you’re not finding enough content for the “canon couple” that you think should be more recognized and is so much more interesting in your eyes...

i will not be an internet asshole i will not send a random stranger hate for being casually aphobic i will not type five hundred fuck yous in their replies just because they're prey to amatonormativity like the rest of us i will not i will not i will n—

corv reminded me that i literally wrote an anti-valentines day rant into book of red murder lmao. that sure was a thing i did.

out of the shower , feeling slightly less shit about myself (and way less like saying uncalled for immature mean things) however still dealing with the realization that I am possibly the most replaceable person in the world

Sorry if it's weird to ask this about a post you made so long ago, but could you elaborate on why you put orange instead of green between Camilla and Palamedes? Or instead of both orange and green? Thank you.

Green was a sort of catch-all for “this relationship matters deeply to either the plot or the characters, but there is no other color on the list that applies or I don’t have enough information to make the call”. Camilla and Palamedes have had one career, one set of aspirations, and one best friend shared in common between them since they were children, and Palamedes literally died the first time Camilla lost track of him for twenty minutes. They’re the definition of codependent, so orange it was. Bonded pair, do not separate.

I only used multiple colors if the two aspects of the relationship were in conflict (e.g. friendship and jealousy between Gideon and the Sixth), or if I thought the relationship was particularly funny.

And no worries, it’s not weird at all. I love that people are still looking at and thinking about something I made!

it's making me a lil sad to listen to my s.potify wrapped bc a good chunk of the songs are from playlists i made for ships, and i don't write any of those ships anymore. and dude, the energy i had for toiling over a playlist until i got it just right!! i remember spending so much time and going over and over the playlist until it flowed just the way i wanted it to. and i think it's a mixture of missing the connections i had and missing the energy i had bc i know i haven't been at my best this year. i feel like i don't do a good job of forming personal connections, not that i was ever the best asdf but i've noticed how i've changed. i have a lot of feelings and a lot of ideas, but the energy or motivation is really hard to find sometimes. remaking has helped tremendously, but listening to this playlist is like looking my problems directly in the eye and can i just say yikes

i think a lot abt biker and jacket's relationship for someone who does not like them together romantically

whenever people talk about having love lives or partners i just sit there like 😐👍