Lil fun fact before I head off: Cannibalism as a metaphor for love is actually an ome trope I've decided quite a bit ago

this is a largely meaningless observation but, based on the fleki uniform demonstration comic, mithrun seems to wear the default style of the canary uniform, probably because he has no desire to personalize it or preference for how to do so, etc. when he does seem to pick his own clothes, though, they don’t look super in-line with what we’re shown of elven clothing styles in his region: high collars look like they’re fairly popular with elves in general, but out of uniform he tends to be a lot more covered up than everyone else—long sleeves, long pants, boots rather than sandals, and he dresses that way both prior to getting eaten and after the events of the series. anyway it’s kind of cute that after everything that happened to him, someone cared enough to remember what his clothing preferences used to be.

So I'm confused about something. There was a cover story about Ms Goldenweek and other Baroque works agents breaking Crocodile out of prison but he just. Told them no? And stayed there with Mr 1 and Mr 2? I don't get why he wanted to go to Impel Down just to break out when he had the chance

I can't tell you 100% why Crocodile chose to stay in prison and go to Impel Down, but my best guess really is that he was just...

Taking the L with grace

More specifically. Crocodile had lost everything. I think deep inside he might've been literally too depressed to want to go free again.

Like he does literally say that. He gave up.

He had been building his reputation as "the Hero of Alabasta" for at least 10 years at this point. He had built not just a criminal organization that he had been running for four years, but also he had been running legal business stuff (like his casino) for probably longer than that. A decade's worth of work and effort to take over a country, and most importantly, get away with it. The reason he had orchestrated that whole rebellion was so that the rebels and the royal family could "take each other out", leaving the country wide open for a World Government Official such as himself to take up. The reason Baroque Works was doing this all in secret was so that the WG never found out, otherwise they wouldn't have let him have Alabasta.

But indeed, his plans were foiled by a kid in flipflops in less than 24 hours, just at the final moment before Crocodile would win. He lost everything. And the World Government found out about what he had been planning.

So even if he escaped from that prison with his former agents, what was he going to do?

He wouldn't be able to take over Alabasta anymore because he did not have manpower (as he had lost all his goons), and having lost his financial empire he wouldn't be able to build a new army any time soon. And even if he did, now that they knew what he had done the people of Alabasta would not accept him as their new king, even if he personally assasinated Cobra and the entire family. Not to mention, the WG finding out about his plans meant that they had every fucking reason to try and stop Crocodile if he did as much as set foot on that island again. By which I mean, they could launch a Buster Call on his ass. Send all the fucking Admirals after him. And so, even if Crocodile still believed Pluton was somewhere in Alabasta and that he just had to comb through the entire desert to find it... Between the Alabastan people and the WG in the way, finding Pluton would not be easy. Especially when Robin wouldn't even be there to just point him directly to it. It could take years, if not decades, while fighting off the WG by himself. And that's while assuming Pluton was somewhere in Alabasta. Like WE the readers now know Pluton is in Wano, but since Robin didn't tell him that. All Robin said was that the Poneglyph "didn't mention the weapon", and Cobra's reaction to the name merely proved the weapon's existence in Crocodile's mind. But surely, because Crocodile is a smart young man, he'd understand there was a risk that Pluton could exist, but just not be in Alabasta, right? Like that would be a possibility too, right?

I think this is why Crocodile has given up on Alabasta. He had one opportunity at seizing the country, and he failed. And without Robin, he could spend the rest of his life combing through a haystack for a needle when there's no needle, and he'd have no idea. I think is why he explicitly says in Impel Down he no longer has "interest in that country". He won't be able to pull off another stunt like this, ever.

And that leads us back to "why not escape earlier and avoid going to Impel Down to begin with". Thanks to his status as a Shichibukai, Crocodile hasn't been on the run from the WG for like two decades. And the past 10 or so years he has seemingly lived a life of luxury in his funny little casino. But now, having lost everything, he'd be back on the run. And because he's a world famous former "hero of the people", there would be nowhere he'd be able to go where people would not recognize him and send the marines after him. So he'd be on the run, for the rest of his life or until he'd get capture again. And mind you, the guy does not trust anyone, so he'd be on the run alone. Without any purpose or goal.

And you might be thinking, "Daz and the rest of BW was still there!", yeah, arguably true. But at this point Crocodile had no reason to trust any of them. Like personally, I think the reason Crocodile ended up taking a liking to Daz was BECAUSE he chose to follow him to Impel Down when he really did not have to. Like Daz showed an unusual level of loyalty to Crocodile, and I think Crocodile recognized that. That's why Daz is still with Croc, post-timeskip. But Miss Goldenweek and co? Crocodile had no reason to believe they wouldn't betray him if given a chance and a reason. And if the WG would come chasing his ass, they'd have plenty of reason to try and betray Croc (handing Crocodile over to spare their own lives). Not to mention, when they come release their former boss from jail, what did Miss Goldenweek say?

"Let's do Baroque Works again"

As I've already explained in detail, I think we might know why Crocodile wasn't interested in being Baroque Works' "boss" again.

So. Yeah. If in Crocodile's mind he'd be on the run from the Government for the first time in two decades all alone, in a situation where rebuilding what he had before would be bloody hard if not downright impossible, and he wouldn't be able to obtain what he had spent the last decade working for regardless...

Taking the L and just going to prison might've been the easier option

Neo Metal Sonic refs I made for myself but figured would post for other people to use! :]

(click for better quality ofc)

alt + random closeups under the cut!

Cogito, ergo sum

Time/Place: Canon Divergence before Act 1, the Mindflayer colony

Characters: The Team

Main tropes: Non consensual body modification, ’spy infiltration’, eventual mind control

Summary: The Nautiloid manages to reach the illithids colony and the Thralls transform. They become mindflayers but for one thing: their mind is still mostly theirs. How to escape when any sane person would kill them on sight?

---

Snippet:

Walking hurt. Standing hurt. Moving hurt.

Gale could bet eating would hurt too. How did a Mindflayer even eat? Past studies of the tentacles and their role in Brain-eater anatomy flashed in front of his eye. He shuddered at the thought.

He took another step, tensing as newborn neural connections screamed in complaint. Next to him, other freshly transformed mindflayers did the same. A pulse in the back of his mind insisted he meet the Elders, pushing him forward despite the pain. When Gale tried to resist, it backlashed and the consequent headache sent him on his knees. Gale didn’t insist on fighting the impulsion after that. 

Being a Mindflayer was… weird. Gale would have thought he would not have enough of himself left to think after the transformation. All books he had found about the matter pointed to a thrall identity being erased under the worm’s evolution. And yet, here he was. Gale of waterdeep, magicien extraordinaire, trapped in a squishy body he could barely control.

A wise man once said: “I think, so I am.”

Gale wondered how much of the adage remained true when applied to his current predicament. Adages, he had found, often did not account for cursed luck.

---

Plot Description:

The Nautiloid vessel doesn’t crash after the attack. Rather  it arrives at its intended destination: illithid colonies. 

Furthermore, the infected that were on the vessel all transform, including Gale and co. The trick is, their larva have still been tempered with. As a result, while their bodies undergo ceremorphosis, their mind remain their ‘true’ individual selves. 

Now they have to navigate the illithid society while hiding their intact ego, all while fighting against the new instincts their mindflayer body provide them with. Will the Emperor, responsible for their tempering, contact them? Will they find each other, cooperate and escape? Or will they struggle alone, unaware other illithids of the same ‘batch’ are in 

We haven't seen what the daylight spell did to help the situation yet (except for drawing the attention of everyone, giving kuro the chance to get up again so tsubaki failed to put the counts blood in his mouth) but everything points towards the manga entering into the next stage of the final arc (sakuya killed his mikuni clone and misono freed himself from lily's chess game) so I assume that it will at least buy the characters some time to do other things again.

Anyway, I hope we'll see mikuni and lily starting to feel like the decision to put kuro on mahiru's path (ordinary high schooler from a sorcerer family with no magic abilities or combat experience not much to expect from to quote lily) might have been a mistake.

Mikuni is always hard to read so I'm suspicious of his decision to explain anything about his spell at all, but maybe he's getting cocky thinking there is no way they will be able to kill all his clones before the end of the ritual.

And this is probably where it will bite mikuni in the ass that he only relies on himself while mahiru aquired a huge amount of allies (potentially even more if tsubaki's subclass become his allies. And hey sakuya and lilac would probably help mahiru already). Killing 13 mikuni's with all the factions not communicating with each other and not working together? Okay, that barrier spell might have lasted until the ritual is done.

But with all the people on mahiru's side? He has almost all the servamps and their subclass, every eve except one, the entirety of C3, gear and some of tsubaki's subclass on his side. Even freaking touma is trying to stop the ritual.

The numbers are not in mikuni's favour. Even with him multiplying that much. Hugh already switched sides, jeje is still captured and lost his jinn, tsubaki is kind of stuck in his battle with kuro and lily I suspect might start to have doubts after he lost to misono.

Mahiru and kuro getting rid of the distance limit is another thing they probably didn't anticipate. It was an important part of so many plans before. Shuhei used it to try to pressure mahiru into working with C3, tsubaki used it to trick misono into thinking licht and lawless were kept apart and it put nicco under pressure when he had to take sigurd hostage. With it gone it's way harder to force the servamps and eves to do things they don't want to do.

a sneak peek for an upcoming (timeline tbd) update 😊

You’re gonna die if you keep that up (Patreon)

Thoughts on 3rd life mirror birds. 3rd life big dogs. 3rd life property police. They fascinate me and I think you have thoughts on them but I might be wrong..either way

i do in fact have thoughts on them but i think if i talk about 3l!flower husbands publicly any more rn I’ll get so self conscious I’ll explode on the spot. this being said i have still yet to watch evo but its been on my list for forever bc of 3l!property police specifically… i really love martyns petty grudge against jimmy for those first two episodes he acts like he’s 12 and really pissed off on the playground. anyways i think that martyn going from being concerned for his friend to Just Fucking Lying to split up Scott and Jimmy, because he took personal offense to Jimmy being unwilling to drop everything to go live with him on the spot is the funniest thing in the world. Girl it’s not about you

Me through most of Boom: Wow, this is a really solid dramatic episode.

Me when Moffat needlessly sprinkles in anti-faith sentiments without specifying that it’s blind faith in bad things that the Doctor doesn’t like, which makes it come off like the Doctor is just against religion generally:

i loveee when music is a super important thing in games

earlier today i was kind of thinking "man it must be pretty frustrating to be so tightly linked to another person that every song you write will always have people looking for signs that it's about that person even when it's not." and just sorta. telling myself to tone it down w the trying to draw wild connections when there aren't any

but then. guardian article. so yeah w/e they're literally just like this

Between TF and my other fandoms like BG3 and TES, I keep finding myself making OCs that have some element of "battle hardened hero who is actually good and righteous, but so traumatized by the toll of war that even after the war ends they feel empty/wrecked and can't enjoy the fruits of victory" and I'm not sure if it's bc I gravitate to a certain type of media where such OCs fit in best, or bc I have a specific character archetype I like and gravitate towards media that contains those things.

I wonder what more people would doubt, that I don't 'love' anybody but I don't 'hate' anybody either.

hallo for the bingo thang… i know nothing abt ut yellow or homestuck😭 i do know flowey is in ut yellow tho! how is his characterization? and if its chill to also request a undertale (not yellow) character, asgore !

Asgore ↓

Flowey ↓

BAM asgore and flowey x2 combo

Is Ryan Gosling supposed to be, like, attractive?