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silverskye13 · 13 days

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that update's got me curious

what's tango and wels been up to since the last time guish was on hermitcraft?

Tango crouched on a tangle of redstone lines, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. He liked fixing redstone. Redstone was kind. Straightforward. It either worked or it didn't. Forget some dust here, flip too many ticks on a repeater there, and it broke. Set it to order and everything was fine again. The challenge was only in figuring out where he'd gone wrong. Retracing his steps.

Tango rubbed his eyes. He hadn't slept yet, and the gritty, sandpaper feeling of fatigue in his eyelids was starting to get annoying. But he needed to set this right. He needed to set something right.

"It's been longer than a month," he said to himself.

Tango blinked uncomprehendingly down at the redstone line. He abruptly decided the problem wasn't here and moved on, walking carefully down the line, trying not to bump into anything unforgiving of random Tango bumps. He glanced down at his watch, where a little window told him who, out of the other hermits, was awake. Most of the list read "inactive," though a few people, like Xisuma and Grian, had emergency calls enabled, which meant they were probably asleep but might not mind being bothered.

"I need a rubber duck," Tango scowled.

Tango shook his head and stopped walking down the line. He scrolled through the list again.

Doc was awake. Doc was always awake when he should be asleep. He could call Doc. It would take him awhile to get here from the Perimeter, but he could take a break from breaking the world to help Tango un-break his redstone. Doc was the kind of person who could talk about a lot of nothing, just like Tanguish could. And Doc would <if Tango asked very firmly> ignore the redstone so Tango could actually fix it, instead of Doc pulling things apart and breaking it six ways before inevitably coming up with a more efficient way to do it.

However, Doc had been the one to help him recover when he'd collapsed. There was a strong chance Doc would zip over and flip that funny little dial by his redstone eye that turned on what he called his "people diagnostics", which meant he was going to poke and prod and really, really lean into the doctor part of Docm77. Or worse, he would turn the dial one tick further and pull up his mental health database, and Tango didn't want to talk about his feelings right now, no matter how much Xisuma said everyone should schedule "wellness time" for it.

<Besides, Xisuma is a robot. He doesn't get feelings.>

Tango sighed out loud at himself.

"Xisuma feels feelings just fine. They're just... Robot feelings. Not Tango feelings." He stood and reassessed that statement. "They're Xisuma feelings."

Tango continued walking.

It was a marvel Tango even had alone time, really. Welsknight had become a second, frustrating shadow. And it wasn't just that he kept popping in to "check in". It was that he pointedly popped in at random times, for random amounts of time. There was no consistency, except that, eventually, like right now, Welsknight had to sleep. Then, and only then, did Welsknight leave. Not that it mattered. Tango hadn't seen Tanguish in his reflection since Wels had done... That.

Tango realized he'd passed the module he had intended to check next. He sighed. He rubbed his eyes again. He backtracked.

The command had really sealed it. Up until then, it was mostly just... Well, it was Wels. He got white-knight-y sometimes. Most of the time it wasn't violent, or if it was, it wasn't turned against anyone important. When Doc had lost some withers on the server, Wels had popped up looking all formal and official -- he and False were a lot alike like that. People asked for help killing monsters and they just. Showed up. Geared and serious. Welsknight had a habit of holding the door for people, and letting the ladies on the server enter buildings first. Whenever people visited Wels was vigilant in making sure they didn't overstep any bounds. But also Welsknight was funny, and quirky, and he had a sense of humor. And also this was Hermitcraft and knights didn't have to slay dragons here. So maybe that's why Tango hadn't expected Welsknight to try to slay Tanguish.

Do you know what that thing is?

Tango stopped. He'd passed the redstone module again. He sighed. He rubbed his eyes. He turned around.

Wels just... Didn't get it. Tanguish made Tango think straight. It was like. It was like. It was like Tango's mind kept running in circles. He could stop, he could set it to order, but it was hard. It took work. It took self control. It took. It took getting a regular amount of sleep for one thing. It took knowing when and where to stop, and being able to focus, and being able to control where his thoughts were going. Tanguish did that for him. It was the ice, Tango thought. His fire ran rampant until ice was in the room. He needed the cold and dark to stop his mind from running. Without it, he just sparked in every direction and inevitably burned himself. Tanguish talked, and Tango's brain stopped being unmanageable, and he got work done twice as fast, and it was great.

Tango stopped. He looked around. It took a few moments of blinking to realize he hadn't passed his module. He kept walking down the redstone line.

"You don't understand what those things do to you," Welsknight had told him, all stern and concerned, like a disappointed dad, which was funny, because Tango was pretty sure he was older. That was the worst part, really. Welsknight had this pitying look on his face, like he was telling a kid Santa Clause wasn't real. "I know you think he's your friend but he's not."

"He is my friend! He's not like you and Helsknight! I don't know how many different ways I have to say that before it sinks in!" Tango had lost all pretense of being reasonable after the third or fourth time Welsknight had insisted he knew better. "We don't try to kill each other every time we see each other! We enjoy each other's company! He's helping me build Decked Out!"

"You don't understand--"

"I understand perfectly Wels!"

Tango stopped walking. He looked around. He rubbed his eyes. There was a brief moment where he couldn't recognize where he was.

"Just after I fix this."

Tango looked around. He forced himself to think about nothing until he found the module. He stared at it. He rubbed his eyes again. They were really starting to hurt. It was the pervasive kind of fatigue migraine that sat right behind his pupils and applied pressure until all he wanted to do was curl up with his face pressed against his hands. Except his hands were always hot and uncomfortable to him. That's why he liked having Tanguish around. He was like soothing a burn.

"It doesn't matter." Welsknight had told him, his voice all controlled and reasonable and stern. "Listen Tango, you haven't dealt with them like I have. That's how they start out. They act like they're helping you, or that they're reasonable, but they don't stay that way. And when they get bad, they get really bad. You've seen what Hels does to me."

"Uhm, actually I haven't. You don't talk about it. We try to get you to talk about it, and you don't talk about it," Tango spat angrily. "All we see are the death messages in chat, and even then, those have been gone for ages? He sure doesn't seem to be bothering you all that much."

That was mean spirited, but it finally got a reaction, the crinkling around Welsknight's eyes as his concerned frown turned into something more emotional and fraught.

"That's because I've worked really hard to get him off my back."

"From what Tanguish says, you're the one bothering him," Tango sniffed. Welsknight opened his mouth to argue, but Tango was already shouting over him, "Look! It doesn't matter because this isn't about you Wels. This is about me, and my helsmet, and how mine is nice. I'm sorry you're all knightly and fraught over this or whatever, but Tanguish has never once hurt me. Not even unintentionally. Sometimes I wonder if they guy even knows how to think for himself."

"Then you're doing something already that he wants you to do," Welsknight insisted.

"Oh get over yourself Wels."

"I'm serious Tango, this is concerning. He shouldn't be this attached to you. They're made to make us worse. He's probably hiding something from you."

Tango lightly kicked a hopper in his module, and watched as the redstone blinked and everything powered. He rubbed his eyes. His head was really starting to hurt. It was hard to focus. He also kind of wanted to cry, which was very, very stupid.

"I'm building a game I want my friends to play," Tango told himself, and he rubbed his eyes harder. He wasn't crying, it was the migraine. He needed sleep. "Because I like my friends and I'm proud of my work, and I want them to enjoy something with me. I'm not doing it because I'm scared of them."

"You know what your problem is?" Tango had yelled at Welsknight. "You're upset because Helsknight forces you to feel stuff, and that makes you uncomfortable."

"That's ridiculous." Like a disappointed dad rolling his eyes at a kid who insisted the Tooth Fairy was real.

"You're always so composed," Tango said scathingly, all sparks, and redstone, and fire, and the desire to break something, because if he was loud enough he could scream the paranoia away. "You're always trying to do things right, and then he shows up and suddenly you get angry, and you say emotional things in chat, and you talk to people about what scares you and--"

"He's a demon, Tango," Welsknight snapped, suddenly much less aloof. "They're all demons. They are fighting over our souls with us."

"They're filling needs." Tango said. "You're just jealous mine knew I needed a friend, and you needed someone to remind you you're not perfect."

That one hadn't felt good. Well, it felt good at the time. But everyone knew, in that unspoken way everyone knew you didn't joke with Doc about losing limbs, and you didn't question False's memories, that Welsknight was hurt by his helsmet. One too many times buying health potions. One too many times seeking quiet company late at night after an ominous death message in chat. One too many times caught scrubbing blood out of armor. One too many self-deprecative comments that seemed to come out of nowhere, evidence of bitter meditation on something told him by a cruel tongue. It had felt good at the time. But Welsknight had looked at him like he'd been stabbed. And like a man viciously trying to ignore a stab wound, he said, in that voice of reason like sunlight: "Say what you want Tango, but I'm not letting you go through this alone. I'm sorry."

And then, because anything else would've led to more unkind words, he'd left.

Tango looked down at the redstone line. He didn't remember walking back down it again, but he was pretty sure the module he'd been checking wasn't broken. He wished it were broken. He could set it to order and go to bed. But it wasn't broken. It was working as intended. He didn't know what to do about it. Something in this line was broken. It wasn't working right. He needed it to work right. He needed sleep. He needed Welsknight to stop being so noble, and confident. Because noble and confident people always sounded right, even if they weren't, and Welsknight couldn't be right.

<He's never hurt you before.>

No helsmet is harmless.

They are demons fighting over our souls.

If he isn't hurting you, it's because you're already doing what he wants.

Tango scrubbed his eyes with his hands.

Tango scowled and buried his face in his hands.

Tango yanked his pickaxe from his inventory and threw it as hard as he could off the side of his redstone line, watching it slam into two other lines on its way down into the bowels of Decked Out. When the last clatter had stopped sounding, his watch beeped. Tango read it with bleary, exhausted eyes. It took a few times to read it correctly.

[You are on Do Not Disturb]

[Incoming Message from Welsknight. Allow notification?]

[Y/N]

Tango felt a nauseous twist in his stomach.

"I want Tanguish," he said to the empty room.

He denied the message. He started walking down the redstone line. He needed to fix something before he went to bed.

#rns ficlets #tangotek #welsknight #this one was interesting to pick at

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whetstonefires · 1 month

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I think a part of the reason I feel so connected to JGY and XY is that I, too, think everyone is lying about what a good person they are. Sure, there may be a few genuinely good people, but those are in the minority and never claim the title.

I don't know about never; some people are pretty straightforward.

And in some ways the whole point of the concept of 'a good person' is that the feeling of losing the right to consider yourself one can impose instinctive recoil from doing wrong, in situations where you don't have the leisure of working your way through an ethics diagram and choosing the logically moral path before reacting to a situation. It has practical utility.

But that system can backfire pretty horribly too, in a lot of ways. It can be hijacked by definitions of 'good' that actually make you recoil from ethical acts because they're deviant. It can lead to disappearing up your own ass lmao.

And definitely the threshold for 'talking about how you're a good person' enough that it makes you suspect as either a) a liar or b) someone who values that self-image over objective reality and other people's wellbeing is. Not very high.

Jin Guangyao, ironically, is one of those people who's so performatively A Good Person in his public life that in retrospect it looks like a red flag. Which knowing this about himself in an ongoing fashion ofc just reinforces his own cynicism about everyone else lmao.

Even Lan Xichen, who I think he may see as a genuinely good person, he also sees as an easy mark who will reliably choose what is comfortable over what is 'right,' if you just structure the scenario to make that an easy choice that's easy for him to justify.

Xue Yang's bitterness is in many ways more exciting than Jin Guangyao's because he has a way more unusual relationship to reality, but it does share a lot of notes.

The role of deception in his psychology fascinates me because as far as I can tell he's as instinctively straightforward a person as Lan Wangji, albeit along quite different lines involving a total lack of impulse control, but has adopted 'deceit' as a weapon against the wicked world in the same way he has adopted 'murder.'

But when he feels someone is not merely lying but papering over bad behavior with principles they are not living up to he is livid.

People claiming to be better than him because they're 'good' when 'good' is a construct of privilege, is the underlying idea he's not equipped to articulate. Except he takes that and applies it to 'hitting me to interrupt my random murder of some guy who happened to be within arm's reach when I wanted to hurt someone.'

Which isn't like philosophically perfect, but the underlying problem he's actually reacting to is that he understands the social contract as a lie that has never protected him but seeks to control him, while protecting rich men it has no power to control.

Which it is fair to be mad about, but then his feeling is that since that's the nature of the world and all people, he is entitled to amass for himself the power to inflict hurt without consequences as much as he possibly can, and to use it against the vulnerable for fun, and no one is entitled to interfere.

Which brings him to a place where he is violently angry at anyone talking about trying to treat other people well as a value, because either they're a hypocrite and a liar or they threaten his entire system of rationalization for why he can be The Worst and still In The Right.

'Everyone is equally bad, actually' is like, an understandable take for anyone who's had cause to become embittered. Everyone is free to make whatever philosophical peace they can with the world and by and large there's no ethical weight to any such opinion, in itself.

But it's an ideological crutch people tend to wind up leaning on very heavily when they can't or don't want to take responsibility for their own behavior.

Which is an approach that Xue Yang, Jin Guangyao, and Su She all share, and which not only is shitty of them, it...traps them in a wheel of doubling down on their own worst impulses because rather than going 'that was bad and I shouldn't do it again' they've repeatedly invested all this energy into making what they did actually the correct thing, according to their interpretation of the context. Which means they're more likely to do it again.

(I think this is how Jin Guangyao became a serial killer, for example. He followed a doing-a-murder-impulse and then internally doubled down on how he had nothing to be ashamed of, so he was more likely to do it again, every time.

Wei Wuxian's strain of self-righteousness about his revenge was less...thorough than Jin Guangyao's, because he had the benefit of going after people on the opposite side of a war from him while Meng Yao's first known murder plot was against a shitty boss. But it probably didn't help him not try to solve army-shaped problems with mass murder, even after that stopped being allowed.)

If any of them had just like, zero moral sensibilities they would have created very different problems, and very possibly fewer of them. It's making a central goal of your operations 'self-vindication in your own internal narrative, created retroactively via reframing' rather than 'figuring out what I think I should do and trying to do that' that traps them in the self-reinforcing murder pissbaby vortex.

So if you look at it one way, these three villains are themselves perfect examples of how pursuit of the 'feeling of being good' (or at least 'not the bad guy') can make you worse.

Notably Wei Wuxian was also extremely sensitive to hypocrisy in his youth; it was the only part of Madam Yu's behavior he was ever shown objecting to. But he's sufficiently mellow and cynical from regret and burnout by the 'present' timespan after his resurrection to just get disgusted and alienated about it, rather than outraged.

He wasn't even all that mad at Xue Yang, though honestly that may be partly because he stopped entirely characterizing him as a person at some point during their interaction. Like, there's no point being angry at someone whose moral sensibilities operate exclusively on the plane of 'is this unfair to me' for manipulating and destroying people who were good to him, and then getting obsessed with his own self-pity about it. This is not a person who understands how not to be, metaphorically speaking, a cannibal.

And Wei Wuxian did know better and still got roughly the same result, so what business does he have getting angry?

Anyway yeah those two villains are both delightfully relatable if you sit down and put their perspectives together; they are clearly operating with the same basic suite of human needs and emotions as everybody else, without that being in itself particularly exculpatory, which is honestly refreshing. They've just got the most fantastically toxic interpersonal habits that knowing them counts as some level of Suffering A Curse.

Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang do both stand as scathing rebukes of the society that created them. But within the narrative, wherein they're people, the fact is that each of them had agency and one of the things they chose to do with it was develop rationales for why they were the most special little guy and everything was someone else's fault.

And their moral nihilisms, while also grounded in serious trauma, ping me as emotional masturbation of this variety.

#ask #hoc est meum #Anonymous #rambling about ethics and villains lol #this isn't an organized essay but it's the best i'm going to manage #wei wuxian #xue yang #jin guangyao #meta #mdzs #this is why wwx is not that invested in how the underlying machinations made his bad choices 'not his fault' btw #spending too much time chewing your own vomit narrows your view until you can only be selfish #jiang cheng is also somewhat trapped in the pissbaby vortex #but he did get deliberately stuck there by people who loved him (his mom and wwx mostly)#and he has much higher standards than the villains about who he takes it out on and how #and there is a non-zero chance he will claw his way out post-canon #which none of those three was ever going to do no matter how much time and paradigm shifting information you gave them #so i cut him more slack

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dieselpvnk · 6 months

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yes i do kwanna know more about him actually please tell me about him

hello I went to sleep yesterday right after the reblog but now I am awake and can answer.

(pic for context)

HE'S MY FAVOURITE GUY I LOVE HIM SO BAD <- the most important thing to know about him. He also came to me in a dream. Yeah.

His name is Crowley btw. Overall an unpleasant guy, a little mean, a little too straightforward and blunt, but not like a BAD person. Very much a loner, only has one friend, but he doesn't mind really. Fascinated with everything unknown and macabre, Crowley's both full of morbid curiosity and a scaredy cat.

He's a writer and an alchemist, and also a little fucked up. Peeped the horrors™ and now chases them, and he was, in fact, successful, a little too much even, letting beings of chaos roam the world freely, now his primary objective is to fix that little problem before it's too late.

^ the first one of the horrors™, not really a horror, just a 6-10 year old he kinda adopted because he felt bad just leaving her be (that may or may not be a bad idea). Just a kid full of energy, optimism and love for the world. Her name is Critter. My oc names are just kinda like that, don't think too much about it.

^ a much scarier guy, Choronzon. Pretty much THE evil, a suave well-spoken thang that can and will bring chaos, torment and destruction, manifests as natural disasters like famines, droughts, etc, rather than directly affecting people. He doesn't REALLY have a body/physical form, on his own he's more like an amorphous blob, it needs some soft of wireframe to keep a consistent form, such as, someone else's skeleton, and that's exactly what he's using (they were dead beforehand dw). Except it doesn't have a head, so it needs to be substituted with some hollow object, can be pretty much anything, a pumpkin, a box, a different skull.

^ kitty :'] Crowley's only friend. Generally monotone, emotionless and suffers from resting bitch face. As you can see from the ref, she's a taxidermist, but her works are um. unconventional.

And finally, Crowley's sister, Chardonnay, they're not on good terms. Evil woman.

as a bonus, here's him, but small

#dieselask #oc #thats a lot of words

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green-lotus · 2 years

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Relationship with Raphael scenarios, pt 1

(i suck at giving titles jesus. this right below is something of a fanfic scenario, except written in form of an ask or just in points, just a situation description regarding some problems to be encountered having Raph as your man. hope someone will enjoy, i plan on producing more. i don't have strength to reread it so here it is)

• So, Raphael is incredibly insecure deep inside that he's not good enough for you. As if that's news

• There's the obvious insecurity when IT comes to the fact what he is and how he can never offer you things any human could, but that's not all of it

• He's also very much aware he doesn't really have that many great personal qualities compared to his brothers, with whom you're also really close. Which is priceless to him, but has its price

• He knows he isn't a naturally charismatic & composed gentleman like Leo, he isn't an insightful, highly intelligent, even if a little awkward thinker like Donnie either, and he doesn't have Mikey's self - acknowledged "dazzling personality" and passion for showmanship, flirt, dance or all other kinds of fun. What does he really have to offer you? Being an awkward grunt who can only really stand in the way of any harm that comes to you? Why would he be the one you choose to be with romantically

• He doesn't really want it, it's not that he has any problems with the rest, but he can't help it to just stand by and watch when you goof around with Mikey or randomly insert himself into conversations when you're discussing some more elaborate matters with Donnie, his doubts just kinda push him into that sort of behavior. And when you vibe with Leo, he used to just stroll by and grab you from the back or put his arm on your shoulder

• And yes, you always smile in the same, special way whenever you see him. Your eyes always light up in a way they don't for any of his brothers and you always reciphrocate the gesture, you place your hand on his or give him a peck on the cheek, always

• But that's simply not enough, he wishes it were, but he's still paranoid

• He's been considering talking to you about it, but he doesn't want to appear straightforward jealous and scare you off, and he's not quite there yet to simply open up and talk about it

• It really doesn't take you long to notice his pattern. And knowing what you know about him, you're trying to understand it, but then he almost forcibly pulls you from a chill conversation with Donnie or his grab hurts when you're having a laugh with Leo

• And you're pissed, more than that, you're furious. You suspect where he's coming from and you're sympathetic, but you ain't taking in shit like that

• Worse than angry, you're scared. You won't let anyone treat you like that, even and especially someone you hold as dear as Raph. But what if he won't be able to restrain himself? What if you won't solve this peacefully? What if that one time, that'll be the serious streak on your relationship and worse, a breaking point? Everything's been so surprisingly well between the two of you

• You tell him you need to talk and confront him alone, far from his brothers' ears. You wish you could be calm but there's no point in pretending

• "What did ya wanna talk about?" He's playing it cool but you can see he knows something's up and is waiting for your move

• You don't hide anything. You tell him it's frankly disgusting what he's doing and that you all knew in the first place relationship with him would mean a close bond with his brothers as well. You love them just as much as he does. They're your brothers too. You're never jealous of time he spends with Mikey or Casey or April for that matter when she comes to visit and you're not around at the moment. How the fuck could you be

• Raph takes it all in, but you can see from his face you've called him out, and he doesn't know what to say. He's got that funny look of confusion and insecurity mixed with irritation coming from the previous two spread all over his face. He can't keep still and doesn't know where to look

• "Just tell me something. Anything. Whatever it is. I'm your girl, Raph, that's not about to change no matter who and which one of the others I talk to or laugh with or vibe with. But i'm not taking in shit like that"

• His gaze stops at you for a second when he hears you stating you're his and you can see a shade of relief in him, but the tension's still heavy

• He grunts, but doesn't say anything constructive, so you try to calm yourself and you give him time

• "Raphael", your own worries kick in. "Look at me"

• So he does. His eyes are so anxious

• "Talk to me, man." You come to him and reach to gently place your hand on his shoulder. He freezes under your touch "What is that about? Just tell me. I'll take it, trust me"

• So he finally breaks and speaks

• "I'm not... jealous, y'know. I ain't angry at you or anything. Uh... I didn't want to insult ya... my girl" A brief smile appears on his lips and you're suddenly reassured a bit yourself

• "Uhum. I know. I assumed you didn't. So...?"

• He breaks from your touch; you give him space, you yourself aren't particularly still in emotional moments either

• He keeps moving for a moment, and then he takes a deep breath and finally suddenly breaks

• "I guess i'm scared! Yeah! I..." he hesitates. "I don't want you to leave me for someone else! I don't like seeing you with someone else... No, that's not right."

• You don't stop looking at him, even though keeping still takes quite some effort at this point

• "Ugh... No. I... "

• He punches the wall behind him.

• "You're scared. You said it. Good. That's all fine bro, really. But...?"

• "I'm scared you'll find someone better than me! Someone better at talking, at having fun, at everything! And you'd deserve them, like hell! I..."

• The tension between you is almost touchable

• Silence keeps on

• "Man, I think I can see what you mean and where it's coming from. I do. But i'm not gonna say IT for you, I need to hear it"

• You decide it'll be worth giving him one more shot. You gently grab his hands, and then place them on his face. His eyes grow soft the moment you do, as you hoped

• "Look... Hey..."

• He pulls you to the ground. You sit by his side, one of his hands around your waist, but you don't move any closer. He hesitates for a moment longer

• "Look... I ain't a gentleman or whatever like Leo. I ain't a genius like Donnie or a... spontaneous baffoon like Mikey. Why... Why do you wanna be with me when even they could offer you better... Things"

• Yea, that's good enough, you suppose

• "Raph..."

• He is silent. You don't really know where to start yourself either.

• "Raph, let me be straightforward with you. I think you'll handle it. And let me finish"

• He takes a deep, uneasy breath again, but nods. He gathers his courage to look at you

• "I'm not gonna be supervised by you, trust me on that one. Just not. It's absolutely fucking delightful how you make your presence known around me and how you mark that i'm with you, but only as long as you do it subtly. Barging on me in a conversation or pulling me from a casual laugh is a fucking no - go. And don't tell me you don't realise it, you're smarter than this"

• You watch him closely, but you don't judge your words, you don't intend to go easy on him in such a matter. It's not your thing to keep him in check, no matter how much you're helpful and supportive of him already

• You can almost smell the abashment and edginess rising in him. No matter

• "That being said, Raph. Look at me"

• So he does. He seems to be on the verge of saying something, but he's holding it in

• "I'm YOUR woman, you stupid turtle. I love your brothers as you do, I like people up above, but I am yours and you never need to worry about that. You're the one I want for me and nothing has changed in that regard"

• And in the blink of an eye, almost all of the anger disappears from his face.

• "Your brothers are great, but you're the one among them who I want in my bed, by my side and the one I have eyes for. 90% of them, say. You're the one who makes me feel special, loved and appreciated. You're the one who makes me melt inside... And out."

• And at this point, he's practically fighting off tears from his eyes.

• "Now should I embarass you further and pretend out of courtesy you're not crying because no of course you're not, and list everything that makes me feel that way for you, or is IT enough for now?"

• He buries his face in your dress and embraces you. At least he isn't violently denying he's tearing up, that's progress

• "Nah. I... I'm good"

• You chuckle, stroking his shell, but you're still not absolutely relieved yourself

• "Look, I... Maybe I don't feel good seeing you with other guys so much... But i didn't want to make you angry"

• "Raphael. I will not be fucking with you being possessive. I... I just won't. But y'know what. How did that shit of yours go. Third most important ninja trait or whatever"

• "...honor"

• "Yeah, sounds about right. Now listen, I may not be a ninja or whateve, but I can tell you this for what little... Some honor I possess. I'm yours, as long as you're mine. And i'm not in habit of saying things like that unless I mean it. And I wouldn't trade you for any normal guy or any of your brothers cause who the fuck else would carry me in his arms through the rooftops of the city by night, and who would fascinate me as much as you do, not any human that's for sure. And it wouldn't be half this much fun with Leo or Donnie, and Mikey's too much of a child, like jesus fucking christ, come on, really?"

• He starts laughing. You're glad

• "So...? Bro, talk to me"

• "Uh - uh. You know... Thank you. I... I'll remember it. What you said"

• "Yeah, do that, for my and your sake, honestly. I love you. I'll tell and show you that however mamy times you need. But don't act like that anymore. I'll bear a few more times but you get the drill"

• "Yeah, and what if..."

• "Mmmm?"

• "What if I'll want to...? What if I'll... Uh, think like that again? When I'll be seeing you with Casey or someone else?"

• "You wait, and then you come to me. You tell me. We'll figure it out"

#tmnt #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016 #tmnt bayverse #tmnt raph #tmnt raphael #tmnt headcanons #tmnt raph x oc #tmnt raph x reader #teenage mutant ninja turtles #bayverse turtles #tmnt oc #tmnt raph relationship #tmnt raph scenarios

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garthofshayeris · 4 months

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MY OFFICIAL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ON AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM. Spoilers ahead.

OKAY. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. It was very fun and it did not have the problem of too many villains that I was expecting based on everything I read. If that was the result of the rewrites and reshoots, I am happy for them.

A lot of the visuals and smaller adventures felt very Silver Age! There were certain creatures that were directly from the 60s, which I appreciated. Topo was lovely. If you know me, you know one of my major gripes with some of the recent Aquaman comics is that they do not lean into the animal sidekick thing anymore. And the group of whales straight up killing all those people? THAT is the Aquaman content I like to see.

The horror elements were just enough to balance out the sillier parts. Although I knew Arthur Jr was never in any actual danger, this is the closest DC has come since the 70s to making it even somewhat realistic that they would kill a baby. Like, I knew they wouldn't. But for once I said to myself, "they've established this enough that I believe this threat." You know my stance on DC trying to bait another Death of a Prince...

The cursed Trident possessing Manta was giving such Preboot Orm vibes. I liked it, I appreciate a slow possession arc. Manta was scary and felt like a real threat, which is difficult to achieve when he's a human and he's fighting people so much stronger than him. Shin was also SO good, you knew he was going to redeem himself but it still felt very natural for him to do so. Idk why Manta trusted him with the baby duffel bag tho, after all the times Shin clearly was snooping and giving Manta disapproving looks. Also why did they put that baby in a duffel bag lmao

Overall, it was a pretty straightforward story that felt easy to follow. This isn't always the case for superhero films, so it was refreshing. And a good end to the franchise. This actually felt like it would have been a great end to a TRILOGY, and that we were missing a middle story...

HOWEVER.

Not to make this about me and my blorbo but.......this would have made a lot more sense as a story about Arthur and Garth. I'm sorry, but it's true. Every time I saw a Silver Age reference, I just said to myself "oh yeah, that's a story with Aqualad in it, but now it's Orm." I KNOW that Orm needed his lil redemption arc, but if Patrick Wilson was not besties with James Wan, I don't think he would have gotten one.

Because Kordax was Slizzath. He just was. They took Slizzath's story and renamed him Kordax. So many parts of the movie I was like "this is adapted from Tempest (1996)" BUT IF THEY HAD USED SLIZZATH WITHOUT GARTH I WOULD HAVE BEEN PISSED so I get it but I don't get it, you know? But Kordax was just Slizzath.

I posted a few years ago about my ideal Aquaman trilogy, and tbh this felt like my ideal third movie, plot-wise and tone-wise......except my vision was about Garth, not Orm. Orm could be there, I guess, but imo he should have had a sequel redemption and then the third movie should have introduced the evil sorcerer thing. It would have made perfect sense to need Atlan's blood, thinking they're fine because they saved the baby but then Garth accidentally bleeds on the altar and unlocking his powers, and releasing Slizzath. PLUS then he could freeze the ice caps again with his new found powers lmao I'm worried about the implications.........nobody in this universe has ice powers.....

I get that it would have been hard to introduce a new character for a sequel with absolutely no chance at a third movie, so I do understand that Garth was never an option....but holy shit, Garth would have been a perfect fit for this movie.

AGAIN, not to make it about my blorbo .......

also I cannot believe they killed Vulko via plague?? I almost laughed out loud. It's absolutely because they could not reconcile that if Vulko was alive, Arthur would not need Orm's help lmao RIP Vulko I choose to believe you were hanging around as a ghost like in Vol 5

One last gripe but omg Atlan's trident looked so BAD in some scenes??? It looked very prop-like, and not metal at all??? did anyone else notice it? It's really bad on the iceberg scene. The costumes were actually great but omg that trident prop lmao

OVERALL, it was a really fun movie. I'm happy to say that I liked it. I think it will get bad critic reviews and really good audience reviews. It just felt very fun and heartfelt. The action scenes were also well lit and easy to follow, and that alone should convince people to see it

I'm going to see it again tomorrow and I want to make a list of the other random things that I noticed. I know I'm missing a lot. How did ya'll feel about it??

#aquaman #aquaman and the lost kingdom #yes I DO need to make everything about my blorbo sorry besties

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itsclydebitches · 1 year

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I'm honestly curious as to what Salem was referring to in the first volume when she said, "there will be no victory in strength" - alluding to all the times Ozpin has failed to defeat her. Interestingly, Salem never directly strongarms her followers into working for her - violence only comes in when they disobey her (Cinder) or she has her followers do it for her. Meanwhile every conflict the heroes face is solved with violence with the exception of heel-turned antagonists who are either narratively disposed of (Ilia + Raven), added to the cast-bloat of 20+ onscreen characters (Emerald + Aceops) or killed off (Hazel), thus not having to reconcile with new dynamics that aren't "everyone is best friends, all the time".

In some respects it feels like a reversal of the standard moral we would expect from a tale like RWBY. (Though, as I always want to stress, not an intentional reversal.) Meaning, most shonen-esque, fairy tale-esque, young protagonists fight some evil force-esque stories present the message that it's not their literal power that saves the day, but rather the Power of Friendship/Love/Purity/Whatever. Or, more accurately, one leads into another. By embracing the emotion that the story wants to uphold as significant, they receive their power up as a cosmic reward (like going Super Saiyan over the love of a friend), or are otherwise rewarded with the solution to their difficulty (like the Guardians of the Galaxy crew splitting the power of the infinity stone). The in-world universe looks at the hero who has Behaved In The Morally Correct Way--which often includes overtly rejecting power--and says, "Here, have a lot of power anyway as a treat. You've proven that you deserve it." Something, something the best leaders don't want to be leaders (insert Ruby's Beacon arc here) and similarly, the people to have a ton of power are those who don't inherently want to be powerful because now there's little chance that they'll misuse it. And for a hot second RWBY went in that direction with a "simple soul" who doesn't want to be the "bees knees" but does want to "help people."

Problem is--as you say--Ruby and the group just solve all of their conflicts with violence. Not in a Power of Friendship/Love way, but ordinary, prodigy, punch-them-until-they-stop-moving violence. Particularly in the later volumes. Ruby doesn't defeat Cordovin with a power-up because a teammate was injured in the fight and she now wants to protect them, they just shoot at her until a massive grimm shows up to finish the job. They don't defeat the Ace Ops with the Power of Teamwork, they all split into separate rooms and we're told they're simply more talented than these professionals, period. Blake doesn't find the strength to defend herself by thinking about Ruby, she begs Ruby to wake and do the work for her. Jaune doesn't save Penny by unlocking some upgraded semblance at a crucial moment out of a love for her, he slits her throat. The group doesn't defeat Cinder in Volume 8 at all. There's no strategy anymore, or success tied to Love--and I do use the word "anymore" deliberately. Because for a long time RWBY's saving grace (no matter its other flaws) were the Silver Eyes: a straightforward ability Powered By Love that was at the heart of our hero's development. Ruby sees Pyrrha die and it activates. She sees Blake in great danger and it activates. Even in Volume 6 when it was getting very flimsy with memories of decorating the dorm and what-not, at least it still revolved around the concept of a found family, even if it was retconning the idea of mortal peril being a trigger. It still mostly worked.

Now though, Ruby simply decides that the fight is over and disintegrates the Hound--no emotion necessary--and she doesn't react at all when her sister is murdered. We lost the one aspect of the show that still revolved around the Power of Friendship/Love.

Which finally brings us back to Salem's opening speech. "There will be no victory in strength." AKA, the standard moral. You can't defeat me by training, learning fancy techniques, or even being a prodigy. At least, you can't wield those things on their own. All the straight-forward power in the world isn't going to bring me down. Her immortality should be a metaphor for that message, wherein the cast learns the thematic lesson of upholding the Power and Love by figuring out how to circumvent the practical problem of an enemy that can't die. This setup works. It's tried and true and tested!!

But than, as said, RWBY swerved hard. Now they're saying that strength is enough. Strength is the ultimate weapon. How do you deal with a traumatized ally? You punch him and demand that he return for more violence. How do you convince an abused brother to help you? Threaten him with your sword. How do you beat the best team in Atlas, possibly the world? By just being more powerful than them, duh.

How do you defeat Salem?

By fighting her. That's the closest the group gets to offering Ironwood a "solution" to their problem: we'll stay here and fight her. How is that going to work given the whole immortality thing? They don't know. They don't care. There's absolutely no discussion about the issue, yet the protagonists continue to push the message that the best--the only--solution is to stand your ground, sharpen your weapons, and find a way to punch the problem into submission. Oh, RWBY still appears very Power of Friendship-y with all the speeches about how they have to work together, but post Volume 4-ish the writing hasn't followed up on that message.

RWBY said, "There will be no victory in strength" and then halfway through its run went, "Never mind, strength is awesome. Why would we write a story about strategy, creativity, and the importance of strong bonds when our heroes can just be More Powerful than the enemy? It's so much simpler to write a story where they're inherently as talented as the plot needs and they've all read the script, so they know they'll win in the end--that's their reasoning and justification. So much better than writing that complicated metaphor."

You know, I'm thinking now about Ironwood's final moments as he reached for his gun and then dropped his hand. Besides the fact that it reads as more sympathetically tragic to me than, I suspect, the pathetic angle RT was going for, within this framework it really reflects his whole philosophy. In a "normal" Power of Love story, there might be something to the idea that he isn't trying hard enough; that unlike our protagonists who Persevere, Ironwood demonstrates a pronounced weakness in giving up. But since the story has established quite clearly that conventional violence will not win this fight--AKA, a gun--it reads more like a tragic wisdom. In his final moments he's not giving up because he can't fight anymore (I mean, whatever else we might say about the guy, he's incredibly determined and resilient), but because he understands that the only course now available to him is useless. From the moment Oscar told him the truth, Ironwood has been working within the realities of their situation. It led him to doing horrific things in the name of finding a lesser evil, but it's narratively significant that he (and Ozpin) is one of the only characters who truly accepts the problem of Salem's immortality and doesn't bow out of the fight (like Raven). He understands that picking up a gun and shooting this being is the height of stupidity. It's a waste of time, of energy, of focus. It might be comforting to pretend that their weapons are still a viable option, but he's not going to spend his last slice of life chasing a delusion. It won't work.

Meanwhile, or protagonists are still ignoring this problem 99% of the time and the other 1% they're going, "Hmm... but what if we tried brute strength 🤔?"

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

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swearingcactus · 11 months

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Far Cry 3's Rook Islands - how based on Indonesia is it actually is

according to an Indonesian who is not exactly qualified to write this post but by god will i make that everyone else's problem. Long post under the cut in case you'd like to know the fun facts and insights about the game and Rook and how much they got right and wrong.

Here's what I will discuss:

Locations, Flora & Fauna

The Rakyat and what they preach and practice

Citra, Dennis and Vaas

I would like to preface by saying Indonesia is a big ass archipelago, literally the biggest archipelagic state in the world, and we have many cultures, sub-languages, and various indigenous tribes of which I'm not part of. So there could be a possibility that the FC3 game devs were basing Rook especially the Rakyat on certain tribes I'm not familiar with or with an actual cultural rep who knows more than I do, but somehow I doubt that too, considering how they seem to just base Rook vaguely on various Polynesian areas.

1. Locations, Flora & Fauna

The Rook Islands page in the Far Cry 3 Wiki does a great job of explaining this in more depth than I do, but to TL;DR it: the flora & fauna in Rook makes it seem like Rook's most likely in the eastern side of Indonesia (sharing the same fauna and flora as Papua New Guinea and Australia). This is especially evident since Rook has komodo dragons and they're only available in Nusa Tenggara Timur.

However, the vastly different animals in the North and South Islands of Rook indicates the possibility of Rook running through the Wallace Line, which irl happens between Bali and Lombok, two very close islands which have vastly different faunas.

So actually to squash down the locations into two tiny islands and grab all the crazy animals into two distinct parts like this actually happens irl, which is cool!

I got nothing much to add about plants cus they all seem to be pretty straightforward and all are available in Indonesia from what I see... with the exception that I previously had believed that the white plant that Jason can pick to craft immunity effects are jasmines, but it seems that officially they're tiares which are more commonly known as being used as leis by the Polynesian people. Either way, both Jasmines and Tiares are small, worn traditionally by women, smells nice and have some spooky connotations, so same difference to me :^)

The only location in-game with an Indonesian name is Beras Town. Beras means 'uncooked rice', so there's a little fun fact to note since when you get there the first time to see Hoyt shooting at the natives it was fittingly in a rice paddy field.

2. The Rakyat and what they preach and practice

The Rakyat is a dead giveaway that Rook is based on Indonesia or Malaysia. Rakyat means 'people' in both languages, and is pronounced correctly in-game. However, most of the Rakyat weren't speaking Indonesian and spoke with a New Zealand accent so are they like. Samoan? Maori?? God knows.

Indonesia has certain tribes who have tattooing as part of their history and culture, but the tatau seems to be based more on the Samoan tatau, at least from the name itself. Tattoos are called tato in Indonesian and not tatau. The design is also not like any known designs from tribes that have tattooing culture in Indonesia. With how Dennis explains each animal on Jason's tatau had meaning in the Rakyat's history for warriors, it seems like the entire thing was a creative liberty.

Other than the tataus, there's not much we know of about The Rakyat other than they're natives of the island. There's a side mission where you have to spy on a cheating husband, this one stuck out to me for a couple reasons. One being it's funny as hell, and also because the name of the guy the husband is cheating with is Jalak. Jalak is the Indonesian name for a Starling, there's a specific sub-species of the bird that is endemic to Bali, Indonesia. It's extra-funny if it's implied that the man the husband is cheating with is named after a bird because the word bird in Indonesia (burung) is a euphemism for dick.

Another side mission also has a minor character you have to find called 'Senin' which was pronounced wrong but it's an Indonesian word that means 'Monday'.

Those are all I remember, I'll edit if I remember more!

3. Citra, Dennis and Vaas

Citra - let's start with the most glaring thing. Citra is not supposed to be said with a 'S' sound but a 'Ch' sound. (if you go to google translate and type in Citra in Indonesia and listen to it, that's the right pronunciation). If they wanted to pronounce it like they did in-game, they should've just named her Sitra which would still sound pretty natural as an Indonesian name.

Other than her name pronunciation error, the name itself is actually pretty solid. Citra means image, like 'made in the image of god' kind of image. Considering she is the Rakyat's leader and is obsessed with cultivating an image of strength and traditional values, it's a fitting name.

Citra is also the only character to speak proper Bahasa Indonesia. She actually pronounces the words correctly and speaks clearly, which I was pleasantly surprised with! Just ignore the way the Indonesian is written in subtitles cus they are completely wrong. She only says a few lines so I'll discuss them here:

Senapan ke bawah - said when Jason first shows up with Dennis at her temple and she asks her men to stand down. Translates to 'Lower your guns.'

Berikan saya herbal - said when she asks for the first potion that Jason has to drink to get the vision that led him to hallucinate where to find Willis. Translates to: 'Give me the potion/herbs'.

Cinta untuk anak-anak kami - you can miss this if you didn't pick her ending. This is the only correctly subtitled Indonesian line, and it translates to 'love for our children'. Not child. Children. Plural. Miss ma'am... what in the everliving fuck are you trying to do hoping to have children with a guy who's shooting blanks at this point and who you proceed to kill immediately after? Let's move on.

Dennis speaks Bahasa Melayu, which is quite interesting to note, considering he is a foreigner who tries very hard to fit in. Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia are very similar to each other, hence why we can understand each other, but there is still a distinct difference between them. Since we're overanalyzing, it could be said that Dennis and Citra has never been 100% on the same page with how they speak slightly different languages.

Vaas never once speaks Bahasa Indonesia or Melayu, which considering how he has thrown away his Rakyat roots, makes some sense. And I love Michael Mando but I think he would definitely butcher the language lmao so it's great that they didn't make him say any native lines. Vaas is also not an Indonesian name, though we do have vas as a word, since vaas is Dutch for 'vase' and we picked up a few words when Netherlands colonized Indonesia. but i doubt they used the word vase for a villain name but hell, who knows. If we wanna get funky I guess we could say that Vaas was always colonized/under someone's control even down to his name.

Conclusion

Far Cry 3's Rook personally for me didn't do a good job at being Indonesian enough, from how villages look, to location names, to little things like the lack of food stalls that you would 100% be able to find if you just walk down the road in any location here. Though to be fair, it was 2012 and as such, a different time with different standards that they have since then set higher for themselves. Ubisoft did a much better job at adapting Kyrat into a believable country that was based off Nepal with rich world-building from NPC notes, locations in map, to the little items you can loot from the enemies that included Bagh-chal pieces! FC5 was also very true to Montana from what I'm led to believe from the countless praises in Reddit, and FC6 had a lot of great representation too.

At the end of the day, FC3's a great game with a solid map based vaguely off a location I just happen to be familiar with, and that is still pretty fucking cool.

#far cry 3 #far cry #far cry analysis

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crisiscutie · 1 year

Note

Hello Hello! owo

Thank you for your amazing work and please keep going with it! You're doing an incredible job ! ❤

I was wondering... If you feel comfortable to answer this question: How well would Sephiroth (may I ask for the domestic Sephiroth you wrote in your pre-Nibelheim AU? I need some fluff please ;^; ) deal with a darling that struggles a lot with their Anxiety/Panic disorder?

Thank you so much in advance!

Hey hon, thanks for your kind words and the ask! ❤️ And no problem! Writing content that dives into the psychology of our favorite characters and how it shapes their relationships is a joy of mine, so please, ask away! That's a great question!

To begin, the darling and Sephiroth would definitely be each other's comfort person. For him, the darling knows that he is still exploring very different sides of himself. Being in a relationship, a life away from Shinra, healing from past trauma and his inevitable fatherhood. That is a lot for him to process. The darling themselves are processing a lot of events. They're on Shinra's hitlist, pregnant with their top (deserted) operative's children, forced to leave other loved ones behind, and their inevitable parenthood... On top of struggling with their anxiety/panic disorder.

It's a daunting period for both individuals... As we already know about Sephiroth, he finds comfort and familiarity in those who he feels are similar to him and those who are in similar predicaments like him, so he'd be perceptive and even more protective of a darling suffering from an anxiety/panic disorder. How? Well...

Sephiroth will often include them in his meditation exercises. He'll stray away from the ones he uses specifically for warfare, since those are obviously not geared toward a pregnant civilian.

He would also give his darling plenty of reassurance, letting them know they are capable of anything they set out to do. He wants them to treat themselves with the same warmth and compassion they give to him.

He'd wrap an arm around them and pull them close, like a shield whenever they start to feel unsafe and need that physical affirmation.

I'd imagine he and his darling love to go to the outskirts of the village, just as the sun is rising and spend time in the wooded clearing. They'll feel the cool morning air brush against their skin and listen to the sounds of nature. They'll be in peaceful silence, embraced in each other's arms.

Sephiroth is a straightforward man. He'll tell his darling what needs to be done or if something needs to happen. He will hide nothing from them (except his own darkness, initially) and will always be frank with them in the face of any problem.

It's great when they both find new ways to manage their anxieties as parents. Since they don't get a lot of chances to travel due to their lives on the run, staycations are the best way to get away. Sephiroth puts in effort to make these experiences peaceful and memorable. Expect stuff like him taking his darling and their adventurous children to explore the woods during the day and watch the twinkling stars in the night's sky at dusk.

And it's really beautiful how the darling still gives Sephiroth the same support, despite the difficulties they face with their anxiety disorder! That resilience, patience and devotion are exactly what Sephiroth needs in a darling. Two hurt persons finding solace in each other and motivating each other to be the best they can be is absolutely amazing! Together they have endured so much, and they will continue to do so, no matter what comes their way. There are, however, areas of improvement for Sephiroth to work on.

Even though Sephiroth has a high level of empathy (despite the emotional isolation and trauma he faced in his formative years and early adulthood, which is bloody amazing and warrants a discussion of its own), Sephiroth may do and say things at times that may trigger the darling, but by no means, he will never do it to hurt them. It's actually good that he's an observant man. He'll pick up on cues when the darling is upset with him and/or his actions and he will do what he can to rectify his wrongs. I can't see him being a common offender since his empathy and shrewdness would make him aware of the darling's triggers. But sometimes, I can see him lacking tact when being honest and like I mentioned above, accidentally trigger them.

Also, he's going to be quite protective of his darling and may snap at others for triggering them, plus it's really just bad for expectant persons to have induced anxiety on top of what they already experience. And that's just if it's accidental. He'll learn that his darling doesn't like things getting heated, even if it's in their defense, so he'll uncover other subtle methods of getting someone to stop triggering them, like flashing that signature Crisis Cutie frown or positioning himself in front of them (thus directing the attention toward him) to make the other parties stop.

If someone were to deliberately provoke his darling and not stop, they would soon feel the depths of despair. It would be so hard for him to control his intense anger in front of his darling. If he can just barely manage his anger, he'll take the darling to a secure area, and turn the antagonizer into a human kabob later.

With his constant words of encouragement, he may unintentionally overwhelm the darling. He'll tone it down if he can catch himself.

Overall, I would say Sephiroth would deal with it very well because of his empathetic and analytical nature. The Crisis Cutie earns an A-!

Also, I need a nickname for that domestic AU.

#sephiroth x reader #ff7 sephiroth #domestic reader #domestic headcanons #sephiroth #sephiroth headcanons #final fantasy 7 x reader #ff7 x reader #final fantasy 7 #final fantasy x reader #pregnant reader

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gone-series-orchid · 26 days

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which book do you think is the worst/could have been written better? I re-read Lies a little while ago and. Wow. Definitely could have used some work.

that's a good question! honestly, it's been so long since i last reread the books (blasphemy, i know) that i have trouble really remembering any big structural or story-related problems that occurred in any of them. they're all kind of shaggy except for the first book, which i think was the most focused and straightforward of the series.

if i had to pick one, i guess i'd pick fear? not because of anything in particular, but for its lack of memorability. i hardly remember anything of note that happened in fear despite it being the penultimate book of the series, the big build-up to light's endgame, but i hardly remember it aside from a few choice scenes/characters. i think the subplot with cigar happens in fear? and howard dies? i like cigar. and howard's death should have even a bigger deal! orc's whole thing with going to kill drake as revenge for his best friend's murder is so compelling, a great subplot, but i remember it kind of fizzling out. in fact, maybe my perception of fear's as being forgettable is directly due to astrid and orc receding in prominence during it. orc's arc is more or less finished, so that makes sense, but astrid's return to society after living out in the wild felt anticlimactic and manufactured. michael grant had to get back to the status quo, i guess, and have astrid be sam's helpmate and soundboard. which is fine, i guess, but astrid deserved better than being shuttled back into being basically sam's girlfriend (now with less jesus!) just felt like a disappointment. it doesn't help that i'm completely uninterested in sam and astrid as a couple. idk, maybe that has something to do with it? i'm hopelessly biased in this case, lol. so i don't think fear is necessarily a bad book, but it's just kinda meh. too little orc, too little astrid.

that's interesting that you thought lies was the worst! i think a lot of fans see it the same way. i remember, years ago now, rereading lies as an older teenager/young adult (god i don't even remember lol) after first reading it at the age of 13. i disliked it when i was younger, finding it boring, but as an older reader, i found it a lot more interesting. i think the ideas present in lies are really cool; zeroing in on the interpersonal conflicts and political strife of the fayz rather than focusing so heavily on the gaiaphage felt really refreshing. the human crew are cool villains--they're lame, they're bigoted, but they're pathetic in a very human way. i get the sense that mg doesn't particularly like zil, whereas he clearly loves caine and drake (based on their treatment in the books' narratives). that's a good thing! i just wish the human crew's bigotry had soaked into the fayz' social fabric a little more.

maybe i'm conflating the events of hunger and plague with lies, though. i probably am, oops. but i remember enjoying lies because it gives astrid her time to shine--and i love that, honestly i do. that might be my big achilles' heel in this case, lol.

feel free to critique lies more in my inbox, though! i love reading other people's criticisms, especially about gone's female characters and especially astrid. she was done so dirty in the last few books 😭

thank you for the ask! feel free to send more, if you'd like!

#gone series #michael grant #the gone series #fayz #the fayz #astrid ellison

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edoro · 2 years

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How much about Hunter's abuse do you think Belos's inner circle knew? It's obvious they knew some degree of it, but did they know only part of it or all? I imagine that it's kinda different for each one.

that's a good question! i do agree i think it varies, just depending on... how close they are, how observant they are, how much they care.

there are definitely parts of Hunter's abuse that largely take place behind closed doors (i mean, i have made my opinions about that pretty clear here (discussion of csa at those links)) - a lot of the one-on-one emotional manipulation does, and it seems like probably a lot of the physical abuse, too.

Belos strikes me as someone who is measured and judicious in his use of violence - he does get angry, sure, but i don't think he's helplessly or thoughtlessly lashing out at all, i think he very much knows exactly what he's doing when he does it.

but the signs are all there. like just for starters, Hunter is a child soldier, although they don't really tend to view that as a problem in this society.

all the evidence we see of how traumatized and isolated and brainwashed Hunter is throughout his episodes, well, that didn't spring up from nowhere, and his fellow teens aren't the only ones who see it. the adults know he doesn't have any friends. the adults know he doesn't have any kind of social media presence or leave the castle except for missions. the adults know he's overworked and exhausted, just look at him.

the adults know that he does what he's told. they see his loyalty, his fearful obedience. they see how absolutely desperate he is for someone else to validate his sense of worth, how he clings to the tiniest crumb of attention and all but begs any passing authority figure to tell him he's justified his own existence today.

they see the scars, the way he freezes and flinches, the way he reflexively defends Belos, the way he looks back on the grueling training with fondness.

there are so many signs that Hunter isn't well, that he's going through something terrible. and these people see him every day, they see how Belos treats and talks to him, they see how he responds to the people around him. s2e13, where he just crumbles in the face of Darius's disapproval and begs Darius to tell him how to earn his position? that's how he's been taught to interact with adults.

they see him getting "special favors from the Emperor" but they know what coming to the Emperor's personal attention means. they know that Belos is not a merciful man.

so, yeah, i mean, they might not know specifics, but it's pretty obvious that he's being abused. i tend to think different people respond to it in different ways.

Adrian clearly knew Hunter would be scared enough of Belos that he could weaponize it against him.

Kikimora and Lilith both hold obvious grudges against Hunter and see him as competition; i tend to imagine that Kiki projects any discomfort she may feel about his treatment onto him rather than Belos, while Lilith i tend to see as just erasing the fact that he's a child in her own mind, and seeing him as a peer whose treatment therefore isn't any better or worse than anyone else's.

Raine we see demonstrate concern for Hunter, briefly, but they can't act on it. they obviously care (and they were a teacher, so, i bet they recognize the signs of abuse and trauma more than a lot of the other coven heads might) but they're not willing to jeopardize their life's work as an insurrectionist to try to break cover and help him in any more personal way.

Darius is very interesting - i've gone into it a bit before, but i like how what seemed at first to be straightforward disgust at the nepotism seems, at least to me, to have quite a lot of like, learned helplessness behind it. i think Darius cares very much, and recognizes how wrong this situation is, but especially after the previous GG, doesn't feel like he can do anything - and, like Kikimora and Lilith, he takes all of that helpless fury and ends up projecting it onto Hunter and blaming Hunter for being traumatized and brainwashed.

the impression i get from him is that he wanted to hep, but didn't think he could, that there was no way he could reach Hunter or break through the programming, but as soon as he saw the tiniest sign that he might be able to, he went for it.

Terra is a terrifying sadist who has specifically targeted children before (her enduring fixation with Raine is very creepy to say the least) and also seems to be in tight with Belos, so i imagine she's probably very aware of how he treats Hunter, more than a lot of the other coven heads might be, and has absolutely no problem with it.

we don't really know much about any of the other ones, but i think it's safe to say that they have plenty of evidence in front of their faces about how this child is being treated, and that they've all chosen to at best ignore him and at worst actively make his life harder.

#belos has also gone to some effort to deliberately poison all of those relationships #as a way of keeping hunter isolated #so really it's just bad all around #hunter toh #the owl house #abuse

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olderthannetfic · 2 years

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regarding describing people with food-metaphors: I can get that it can be annoying (especially with stuff like "olive" because those things are mostly green) but "fluffy like cotton candy" I have seen for all sorts of hair from all sorts of ethnics? also I get it being bad writing to only describe skin as "chocolate" and "coffee" and never any other skin-tone but the words themselves? Is that really considered racist or again something dependent heavily on context? (I'm nonUSA, so I got no clue)

WHAAAAAAAAAT?!?!

How dare you besmirch my beloved olives by suggesting they're mostly one color! Olives come in a delightful array! (Except for kalamata, which are pretty but suck.)

But more seriously, I think the "don't describe people like food" thing is kind of like "adverbs weaken your writing". It's the same for all the Writing 101 blog post listicle items: It's solid writing advice if you understand what it's supposed to mean and that it applies more to some contexts than others.

The biggest problem with othering descriptions is that they are literally othering: A white American's skin tone and hair texture and even ethnicity go entirely unremarked. When the text says "a person" this is understood to be a white person.

Porn with a bunch of syrupy descriptions of creamy skin on café au lait is going to bother fewer people than a straightforward mystery novel where certain suspects are introduced with gratuitous skin color descriptions while others are unmarked. To the extent that they still bother people, it will be because of a long history of icky descriptions that's hard to shake even when a given work isn't doing anything that bad.

If you're far outside that context writing in a language far outside that context for an audience far outside that context, obviously none of that applies.

The nominal argument about the words themselves is that they're products of colonialism, like foods or luxury products like mahogany that would have been exported from colonies. I think this argument can overreach very quickly: lots of skin/hair/etc. descriptions use luxury items or foods or things from the natural world. Chinese people describing skin as being like jade isn't that far off from describing skin as being like mahogany, but it's clearly coming from a different cultural place.

I think if people ditched the "only describe dark skin because only dark skin is anomalous" thing, the actual words, be they colonial products or not, would not be a big deal.

People tend to focus on "LOL, what words are left????" part to make the complaint look stupid, but "Stop describing people like me as products and people like you as the default" is the actual point. The less white-centric your personal context is, the less any of this will make sense to you.

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marlowedobbeart · 6 months

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Daydream Skies: Devlog #2

HELLO I just wanted to share some progress I've been making on my Gamemaker game I've been chipping away at in my free time :) For those unfamiliar, I've been working on a pirate RPG with a grid-based battle system for almost 1 year (!!!) and it's been a real treat to kind of teach myself coding and do a gamedev thing completely solo! As an artist, I've been trying my best to hold off on doing *too* much art and polish up front. This last year has been mostly me building under-the-hood systems so that I can get to a point where I will be 90% focused on content and 10% focused on functionality. I know that when I get to the art, I can handle it, it's all the other stuff that's new to me! SO since last time we spoke, I've checked off a lot of boxes on my monolithic whiteboard of things I need to make a playable demo. (monolithic whiteboard pictured below)

The thing that took me the longest to implement was a menu system. I couldn't quite find any examples or tutorials on how I wanted my menus to work (mostly had a hard time finding anything with decent scrolling for options) and I more or less conceived of and coded my own menu system, The menus have lots of nice variable definitions :'^) so they're pretty flexible for what I need.

I'll have to do a bit of tweaking later on if and when I need to scroll through options horizontally or need multiple columns of options but that's a problem for later marlowe!!!

Also I perfectly understood everything about the Menu system I created except one line:

After all that math I was surprised to find that it was fairly straightforward to rough out an inventory system and pause screen that allows me to collect and use items (as well as look at player stats!)

Looking at everything I'd done so far it was becoming obvious that my key input handler was not working 100% of the time and was getting pretty messy. I came across Juju Adams Input Library and was able to not only fix my keyboard inputs but also integrate controller support in like 5 minutes. I LOVE when someone else does the work for me :'^) Huge shoutouts to juju for making what felt like a monumental task into something simple. Another unglamorous progression: save files!

ME? CREATING JSONS? I never would have thought. The greatest part is they are completely unencrypted so excuse me while I edit my jsons to give me 99999 HP. AND FINALLY something actually fun to look at: I penciled out Davy's walk animation so I can soon stop using duplicates of Trixie's sprites for him.

I am very excited to be getting close to the point where all I have to do is make content and art and not make a bunch of systems. I'm looking forward to using the Finish Your Game Jam that PIGSquad is hosting on itch in November to polish up the combat system and make a few enemy variations. After that, I think I'll be working on a lot of fun, showy stuff that I can share >:) Watch this space! -Marlowe

#daydreamskies #devlog #indie dev #indie rpg

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tentatechnologies · 1 year

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Handing you Spencer prompts on a platter. 🤥🍟🙈🌙👖🌪️ (That one's real fun) and 🖍️

emoji prompts

🤥 LYING — are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

First I have to draw a distinction here, with outright lies vs. partial or carefully-phrased truths. The former Spencer almost never does, not so much as a matter of principle as a matter of dislike. She's blunt to the point of insult and prides herself on that; she is not going to mince words, and if you think she'd be the type, she takes it as a personal insult. This you have to understand about Spencer: if you don't like her, those straightforward and flat and reserved mannerisms, that is a you problem. Full stop. She's shit at outright lies; most of the time she doesn't know where to begin fabricating them. She stammers and fidgets and glances around too much. Her favored method is remaining silent, and usually let some other person do the talking.

(Exception granted if she's trolling. Then she's just fine at making stuff up.)

The latter she's much better at, and in fact get used for the sake of surviving. Spencer has kept a lot of secrets over the years, things she just doesn't want folks knowing. It is much easier to divert their attention by telling them just enough about what they want to know and nothing more, or convincing them that they don't have, or want, to know the answer. If you know her well enough, you can catch these in the way her talk and temper get shorter—if given the chance, she will otherwise like to answer in excruciating detail—but no one knows her that well, by her own design. Nobody gets close enough to figure out the flaws in her story.

🍟 FRIES — do they order food often? or they prefer to cook their own food?

Both! Uh. That is, cooking is a skill she gets exponentially better at over time, and she's also the "we have food at home" type. Unlike Shiloh, she doesn't like squandering her cash on takeout, but she isn't very good at it initially—and combined with the fact that she almost never has the energy to cook, most of what she makes are frozen foods or two-step recipes. Given the time, energy, and training, Spencer really loves to cook. I mean, she's kind of infamous for cooking on shift with stinger pots and fire-starters—no point in letting all that Salmonid meat go to waste.

Yet more often than not she does end up with takeout, maybe a sit-down restaurant if the payout's alright. As mentioned, at one point Shiloh and her make a tradition of buying each other dinner after a shift, which... they do a lot of runs, you know.

🙈 SEE NO EVIL — what's a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

That's, tricky. It isn't really a matter of different facets so much as a matter of depth. Spencer doesn't vary much—most everyone's going to know the same hard personality traits, the same unromantic attitude. The one distinction you could draw would lie in the fact that she's much rougher on-shift; admittedly, it is an outlet she doesn't want anyone from her ordinary life learning about, but not just because of the difference in personality. It's more about the independence (although Spencer's so much more neutral off-shift that it'd come as a shock to most of her coworkers).

However, there're plenty of smaller things that Spencer doesn't want anyone knowing, and a fair number of them recontextualize the person she is and why. Those are the things masked by depth, stuff that—even if she wanted to tell—she's kept to herself for so long that she just can't fathom what another person would do with it. Spencer was an isolated kid, and it takes her a very long time to grow out of it.

🌙 MOON — what is your oc's greatest wish? how far are they willing to go for it?

She doesn't have one. Wishing implies hope, implies a desire for change. She's fine with her lot in life, she swears; that can't be so hard to believe.

👖 JEANS — what is their go-to outfit?

Her default in-game gear's the full-moon glasses, white layered LS, and red & black squidkid! Spencer was designed with a pretty plain fashion sense—layered shirts, torn jeans, sneakers, that kind of thing. Kinda like, skater girl stuff. For the period during [CLEARANCE REQUIRED] she defaults to shorts and whatever random shirt or tank top she grabs first.

🌪️ TORNADO — what is the biggest change you've ever made to them? how have they changed from their original version?

I have unfortunate news and that's that the answer to this one's major spoilers. But, it still wasn't actually a significant change: Spencer has stuck as near to her original impulse as development's allowed. Her premise and character had a lot of built-in flexibility, and I liked her in the first place because I could take off and run in whichever direction I wanted. Not to mention that I made her not even six months ago—although I doubt she'll ever change as much as Marlo did over time (benefits of being a better writer this time around) it took much longer than that for any significant changes to emerge for them! If you want a meaty answer for this one, ask about them, lmao.

🖍️ CRAYON — what advice would you give to them?

Life's longer than you think it is.

#inbox #lorebird #lmao woops you can tell i finished this at like 3 AM and ran out of steam #oc posting #oc spencer

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sunderedazem · 2 years

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My Smuggler - Kessin Meyka!

Kessin is the unscrupulous, smacktalking genderfluid gunslinger of my Moonrise legacy, and while they're a little on the boastful side, for the most part they can back up all any claims they make. They've been running the hyperlanes since they were a teenager, making their first successful shipment just before the Sacking of Coruscant, and while they'll do just about anything if the price is right, they do have three rules that they follow.

Rule One - no hard drugs. They'll smuggle weapons wherever, freight rare species for poachers, and are more than happy to run sneak shipments of banned luxury items around the galaxy, but spice is a hard no for them after it devastated their community and left them bereft of parents at a young age. Rule Two - No leaving kids out to dry, especially if they're orphaned or otherwise without someone who can keep them safe. Kessin will deny this soft spot to most people's faces, but their past experience raising their younger siblings as a teen parent has made it very difficult for them to quit adopting kids.

And finally, Rule Three - Sith get shot on sight.

Kessin's vendetta against the Sith Empire is very straightforward, and stems from one single incident - the destruction of the Jedi Temple. For while Kessin did raise their twin little sisters for the majority of their teenage years, eventually the Jedi found their Force-sensitive siblings and Kessin was all too happy to see their younger sisters go to a safe, kind home. The three siblings - the last of their family group on Coruscant - kept in contact for a year afterward, and Kessin was a regular guest around the Temple grounds, right up until they bought their starship and went on their first freight delivery off Coruscant.

It was while Kessin was offworld that the Sacking of the Jedi Temple occurred - and neither of their younger sisters survived.

Kessin has held a long-standing grudge against the Republic and Jedi Order ever since this incident, irrationally blaming them for the loss of the last members of their family, but it pales in comparison to their hatred for the Sith. Knowing of their loss, Master Bela Kiwiiks has on occasion taken it upon herself to try and reach out to this young smuggler, and the two of them maintain a distant relationship, slightly soured by the fact that Kessin feels the need to blame the Jedi (to avoid blaming themselves) for their siblings' deaths.

Aside from their Three Rules, Kessin has no qualms breaking the laws of a nation that failed to prevent their sisters' deaths, and frequently gets into minor altercations with gangsters and lawmen on the various planets they visit. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that they're an adrenaline junkie and genuinely enjoy the chaos of a good barfight, and have a cocksure, sandpaper personality that often runs counter to finding a peaceful resolution. They're the kind of person you'd want to have your back, but not your diary, unless you've accidentally become one of their Adoptive Siblings. (It also doesn't help that they are a massively obnoxious flirt - with everyone except Corso, who was Little Brother-zoned in the first five minutes.)

Kessin is about to make their debut appearance in "Crescent Moon Rising" where they will be flirting with Ranna until she practically turns into a Lethan Twi'lek, and probably berating Corrain for existing and 'not helping' Kalikori village until they notice that A) Corrain is a Padawan, B) he's about two hands shorter than them, and C) is about the same age their younger sisters would've been. (Corrain is Adopted. He is not aware of this. Kessin figures they'll tell him later XD)

#swtor oc #swtor #star wars the old republic #smuggler #togruta #kessin meyka #togruta oc #star wars oc #family and community is a huge thing for togruta so like...kessin being deprived of that is Very Sad #which is why Bela tries #but they're too hurt to really respond #they'll eventually reach back out it's just gonna take like two decades #Kessin is pansexual and genderfluid - they use any pronouns but like they/them to decrease the Pronoun Swapping #davi says things #moonrise legacy

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starbright-cobweb · 2 years

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Going to start taking a shot for every "the most progressive thing you can do on environment is: absolutely nothing" take I see; this one is

"what if invasive species were fine?"

by definition, invasive species are a hazard to balanced ecosystems around them - its not just a plant from abroad, it's a plant or creature that will out-compete and decimate an area, with knock on effects throughout the system.

And the thing around native plants and species, specifically, is that they're often rare and vulnerable in their own context - being out-competed by man, by and large. That's why they're important - not some essence of nativeness, but because we're attempting to prevent extinctions.

I am also not a fan of "native species don't matter because rising temperatures don't even mean they'll be best adapted" - accepting climate change as something that's already happened, and so why worry; accepting that extinction is going to occur on an immense level, and so why worry.

I also want to add, with "You don't have to think about what to replace the species with" - generally, nature can do that. Leave a gap and nature will fill it with something - so long as you haven't used a weedkiller (which you shouldn't)

But this post is scattering keywords and sprinkling just enough doubt around to discourage you from a useful and straightforward thing you can do in your space and area. The language around invasive species isn't Great, but this is a practical problem with a tangible solution: you've just got to go out and pull them.

(There's different tactics for different species, and not all of them will be possible for you as an individual to tackle - but some will, and that just means doing the work)

I don't like the way the post talks about a tension between an imagined "unspoilt natural" - and the reality that humans impact their environment; but then goes on to argue that environmentalists should not proactively impact their environment by pulling troublesome plants. This post conceives of working with the landscape as a going backwards rather than as a forwards.

"Oh, the problem is capitalism btw. Our infrastructure and livelihoods depend on creating environments where invasives thrive and natives cannot." - but OP doesn't really explain how this is; sounds satisfying though. I think it's just incorrect. The out-of-placeness of invasive species are those who unluckily found a perfect niche in an unprepared ecosystem.

And also "Individuals can help on a very small scale by planting their yards in an environmentally friendly way but if a highway project and new industrial center is going in down the street… nothing is going to help the local environment except lobbying and supporting conservation organizations" that's not a terrible conclusion, but have you noticed that a highway project has...nothing to do with invasive species? I'm also not wild about people opposing direct action - pulling weeds - with something as passive as "lobbying" or "supporting charity organisations".

the second post raises some interesting questions, but these refer to rewilding. Rewilding is separate to action on invasive species. "What point do we rewild to?" is a conversation for any such rewilding project to have, and it should include both trained ecologists and locals. But invasive species will just wipe out anything its in competition with. There's not some vague xenophobic moralising going on; Giant African Land Snails will demolish native snails, Himalayan Balsam causes floods, Japanese Knotweed make houses unsafe to live in, and the presence of Grey Squirrels means the absence of Red Ones.

& as ever, I'm uncomfy with this vague gesture towards "caring about the environment is actually more racist" at the end. Invasive species are intertwined with colonialism: generally, colonisers bringing some shit to a place they are colonising, or taking something home (often to sell for profit). Its not "ignoring indigenous issues" to feel like the possums (brought in from abroad, endangering New Zealand trees and birds) are a problem, and IMO it's a bit sinister to be throwing this in there.

tl;dr - OP is a call for inaction deploying various strategies to raise a sense of uncertainty and anxiety on the topic, but doesn't seem to understand what an invasive species is. Also, community projects targeting invasive species are a straightforward way to do something useful if your mobility/dexterity is ok.

#biweekly climate panic

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