Okay, but why are your themes always so ARGHSHDHHHWJFJDK (positive)

it really depends on the character tbh. toji is my favorite whore in all of jjk, if you couldn't tell

"Hope Within The Darkness" information: Blade's dynamics with the Kirby cast

Here's the link for the AU to give it a read if you've yet to do so before reading this post.

When the Dark Matter Swordsman (aka 'Blade', the alias he adopts) comes back, how does he interact with Kirby and all of his friends?

Let's find out!

I said in the AU's synopsis that I'd gladly answer if someone asked in my inbox about his dynamics with the other, but I haven't gotten that LOL. It's okay though. I've chosen to do it myself because I feel like it.

Going over how he interacts with Kirby, all dream friends, and Elfilin.

Kirby: As Kirby never holds grudges, this is an easy friendship that Blade successfully makes at the start. Kirby is happy to show Blade around throughout Popstar and some other planets. He's seen how a lot of people are uneasy and hesitant to accept Blade, which makes him feel bad... as he understand their concerns, but he's willing to see the best in this dark swordsman. He's been doing his part well in helping out. Blade appreciates Kirby. As many other people are less willing to be his friend, he's grateful that Kirby immediately accepted him in open arms.

King Dedede: Dedede is incredibly uncomfortable and distrustful of Blade. This is, of course, because of the PTSD he's had of being possessed by dark matter many times. Old wounds were reopened for Dedede when Blade came back, and it's made him paranoid about another dark matter invasion incoming and getting possessed another time. This paranoia has made him feel the need to berate Blade. Luckily, Blade has no desire to invade or possess again, but it doesn't help that he's standoffish and combative when given negative attention (because he perceives it as a threat), which has resulted in strife between him and Dedede a few times. Eventually, regulations have been made as Blade is not allowed near Dedede's castle. Blade has miserably failed to make a friendship with Dedede.

Bandana Waddle Dee: Being among Dedede's very loyal servants, Bandee is also very distrustful of Blade. He can't fathom the idea of Dedede getting possessed by dark matter again! It terrified him when the king had his stomach grow an eyeball and turn into a set of jaws back in the day. Blade has no intention to do that again after he's returned, but that doesn't stop Bandee from completely having his guard up around him. That they've had arguments (because Blade feels threatened by negative attention) doesn't help matters much either. This is another friendship that Blade fails to make.

Meta Knight: Meta Knight wasn't possessed by dark matter back in the day, allowing him to be a lot more lenient than Dedede at giving Blade a second chance. But friendship still doesn't come easy here. Considering Meta Knight is close friends with Dedede and was let in on details about the king's PTSD of dark matter, he's still very cautious of Blade. Sword duels have occurred between these two, although that's just because Meta Knight enjoys fighting instead of having any serious beef with Blade. Blade however misinterprets the fights as Meta Knight disliking/hating him. Friendship isn't necessarily impossible here if given enough time, but Blade hasn't succeeded at it just yet.

The Animal Friends: They were all nervous and uncomfortable of Blade at first. At first, they feared the idea of another dark matter invasion right around the corner, and then their fear shifted to worrying about Gooey. Since the animal friends are close to Gooey, they were afraid that Blade was eventually going to hurt him while watching them interact. But that's never happened, and Blade actually being protective of Gooey more than anything has eased their concerns a lot. Kine, Nago and especially Coo are still rather cautious (even if it's optimistic caution) while Rick, ChuChu and Pitch have came around to start getting along with Blade decently well, meaning that he's successfully made friendships with those three. It took quite some time for them to become his friends, though.

Gooey: Gooey, just like Kirby, is another easy friendship that Blade makes at the start since he's incapable of holding any sort of grudge. They've bonded over solidarity of being dark matter spawns that are free to do whatever they want after leaving their evil clan. Blade has designated himself as a big brother to Gooey and is fiercely protective of him. He'll wreck anyone that hurts Gooey. However, many people are scared about Blade's friendship with Gooey, worrying he'll hurt the little guy. He never will. He's been in arguments with others about this. After proving how much he cares about Gooey, people have decided to let them be buddies, with some being reluctant about it since they still can't shake off their distrust. Nevertheless, Gooey loves Blade as it's given him hope and joy that there's more dark matter that can be good than just himself.

Adeleine: Adeleine is scared of Blade. She's a victim of dark matter possession just like Dedede is, making Blade effectively unable to make a friendship with her. She doesn't ever berate him, though, as she rather just hides behind her paintings or someone else at the sight of him. Blade tried to become friends as he meant no harm, but Kirby and others have convinced him to just let Adeleine be, considering her past baggage with dark matter and how bad of an idea it'd be to open that up further for her. Understanding, Blade just lets her be.

Ribbon: Ribbon has her guard up when Blade is around. She's not as fearful as Adeleine, but she still firmly keeps her distance around this guy. It made her a bit worried about the idea of another dark matter invasion happening, but it does give her comfort to see Kirby being friends with Blade as she knows that he can easily keep him in check. She's still uncomfortable with letting Blade anywhere near Ripple Star, though. Kirby agrees to make sure he stays away from there. This is another friendship that Blade doesn't succeed in making.

Marx: Blade is not a fan of Marx. He tried to become friends with him at first, until he then decided against it when he began finding Marx to be insufferable. Marx has tried to "make Blade worse" so to speak, and let me tell you that Blade has stabbed him at least once because of it. Marx is a chaos enjoyer; he's entertained by watching the tense interactions that many other people have with Blade, and so he's deliberately added fuel to the fire in some of those instances. That's pissed Blade off. Doesn't help that Marx also sarcastically asks him if he's gonna possess people again. Blade thinks that he's aggravating.

Dark Meta Knight: Blade has actually succeeded in becoming friends with DMK! It took a while for this friendship to happen, though. They're both standoffish and easily triggered to be aggressive, and they had some strife at first. But they've eventually come together over solidarity of being dark shady sword-fighters. When DMK remembered that his master Dark Mind originated from dark matter, that made him warm up to Blade. These two like to sword duel, as it's an enriching activity for the both of them. DMK doesn't have many friends, as he's not that good at making them, so Blade deserves some credit for becoming a new friend for him. A win for them both!

Daroach: This is rather complicated. There are moments where they can get along alright, but there are also moments where it's rather tense. When some people helped build Blade a home somewhere in Dream Land, Daroach began stealing from it on occasion. Because of that, Blade has been hesitant to consider him a friend as it pisses him off to be robbed. He's stabbed Daroach over a robbery one time. Daroach on the other hand appears to have no beef with Blade, and there are occasions where he's able to get some chuckles out of him by cracking dumb jokes. It's not hugely heated here, but they aren't necessarily a real friendship. They could be if Daroach stopped stealing from Blade's home, but he's shown no indication of that.

Magolor: The third friend that Blade makes after Kirby and Gooey, and an extremely helpful friend at that. Magolor was initially wary until he learned that Blade just wants to make friends, but hasn't been very good at it. He knows what it's like to try to make friends and get declined, so he's been able to empathize with Blade's frustration at times. Magolor has helped him out a lot, including helping change Blade's personality to be better at making friends. He's taught him the concept of apologizing (Blade didn't know about that beforehand LOL) and helps him understand that even after apologizing, forgiveness from everybody is not exactly possible, but still don't give up on the quest of making all the friends you can. Magolor helped introduce Blade to some of the other ex-villain dream friends in hopes of giving him new friends. A bonus that he teaches him how to cause fun mild mischief! Blade appreciates Magolor a ton. He looks up to him. This is Blade's favorite out of the dream friends aside from Gooey.

Taranza: They became friends as they formed a little "We possessed Dedede!" club. It makes it amusingly ironic for Dedede to treat the two so differently; he quickly forgave Taranza but is still very uncomfortable around Blade. It's because the dark matter possessions traumatized him a lot more by comparison, including that they happened earlier. But all the same, Taranza still doesn't judge Blade for it, especially when knowing that the guy wants to do better and wants to make friends, as he's glad to be one of them. He's showed him around in Floralia. Admittedly, there was a moment when Taranza was upset upon learning that Morpho Knight brought this guy back... he thought it was unfair that Sectonia couldn't be brought back too, but he's not mad at Blade and is happy for him.

Susie: This may be a bit unexpected, but they've become friends! Susie was highly curious upon learning Blade's return, as it interested her to learn that this was another positive dark matter spawn that's different from Gooey. It actually didn't take too long for them to become friends when they met, as Susie compliments Blade for looking super cool and he's appreciative of the positive attention. At one point, after Susie has shown interest in learning more about dark matter, Blade lets her in on details of the rest of the dark matter clan, and how he used to be a part of it but was given the chance to escape because of how it mistreated him. That revelation shocked her. Susie is how Blade learns about modern technology, and he's attempted to use some gadgets she made... with various results.

The Mage Sisters: When they learned about what this guy originated from, it made them all giddy to meet him. Blade has managed to become friends with them! Flamberge is the one he likes the most by virtue of having a sword like him, as they will sometimes sword-duel with each other for enrichment. Zan Partizanne has him learn about calling other people nicknames. Francisca is the one that Blade least interacts with, but they're still friends. All three of the mage sisters have enchanted his sword with elements (just like the element system in Star Allies) to allow him to do various things. Blade thinks they're a good bunch, and he gets along with Hyness as well.

Elfilin: Elfilin was initially very scared of Blade. He's generally rather neurotic, but he also thought the guy was bad because he watched the distrust that others have for him, and it didn't really help matters when he learned that Blade used to be apart of the evil dark matter clan that Gooey was never apart of. After learning that Blade is no longer evil and isn't attempting another invasion, Elfilin's opinion eases just a little bit. But he's still intimidated by how standoffish and aggressive Blade is, so he continues to keep a distance. Sadly this is a friendship that Blade does not succeed at making.

That's basically it!

It looks like Blade has had greater luck with ex-villain dream friends then he did with ones that weren't ever villains to begin with. Many of the characters that appeared in the DMT (except Gooey and some of the animal friends) weren't really in the bag for Blade to become friends with for reasons that may be self-explanatory enough.

Thanks for reading if you did, haha.

Hello, I just saw you're post about working with Ares, and I'm curious. Especially about what you said with him being a comfort to you as you work through your trauma since I've been working through mine. I've been thinking about working with him for a while, and I'd be happy to hear anything you have to share about him.

I think its a shame that he's so pigeon holed. I've seen a lot of people who worship and work with him say he's a paternal and comforting figure. Someone who encourages you to keep going through the worst of it. That'd someone I could really use right now.

Dia duit! My apologies for the delay, i constantly forget to check my asks inbox 🤦‍♀️

You are very correct that the modern interpretation of Ares is very limited and pigeon holes him as an angry, terrifying, almost evil presence. While some of this can be attributed to Athenian bias against Sparta, part of it is also due to the lack of knowledge about his various cults outside of Sparta.

Before I go too far I'mma drop this recently answered ask here about researching Ares, as it has good info about a few things I'll mention below. Ok, so getting into it. Let's talk about a bit of historical background because duh, I love history, and then my personal experiences.

Ares as a Protector - Historical Context

Here, we journey east into the rising Sun to the ancient lands of Anatolia, now modern-day Turkey. Many of the Greek gods worshipped here were syncretized with pre-existing deities as the Greek world expanded. Many of these deity names have been lost to time, but we do have evidence of a pastoral protective male deity that was likely syncretized with Ares. From what I have read, we have the most evidence for this new/syncretized cult of Ares from the Lycian and Pamphylian regions of southwestern Anatolia.

The ask I linked above contains an excellent free paper on an oracular cult of Ares in this region. We have documented inscriptions that this oracle called for a protective "binding" of a figure of Ares for the citizens to protect their shores from raiding pirates. Figures of Ares or figures symbolic of Ares were often found in areas around the city, another demonstration of his dual nature as both pastoral protector and invader.

Coinage is a very useful tool in archaeology for learning more about the important cultural figures in a given society. Time and time again we find detailed coins with an image of Ares, usually with a helmet. While we cannot use this to determine how Ares was worshipped, we can surmise Ares was a large part of daily life in western Anatolia.

This is in stark contrast to mainland Greece, where images of Ares outside of pottery and sculptures are quite rare; Ares was often seen as the literal personification of war itself, the din and fury and bloodlust that comes out during war is all because of Ares. Here, Ares was almost feared out of respect for his chaotic nature and ability to turn the tide in war rather than admired and worshipped for his protective nature.

Ares as a Protector - Personal Experience

Well this is the fun, UPG part! Everything you've heard about Ares - his protective nature, his warmth & tenderness, his encouragement in the face of darkness are all so true it nearly makes me cry! My experience with Ares has been about 70% him being fatherly and tender when i was in therapy to finally talk about my SA trauma and 30% helping me learn to deal with my anger towards life in general (for this I look to wisdom from the mythologies surrounding Ares, especially the death of Adonis).

I'd say currently Ares is more of a "hey, I'm here if you need me" presence in my life, always at the edges and sometimes coming to say hello unprompted, just as a loving father would do. While my worship of Ares has only gotten stronger and more involved over the year-ish I've had him in my life, his daily presence is much more subdued. And i think a lot of that is because I don't need him in my life as much, which is honestly a good thing!

Ares came to me at a time in my life where I was caught up in unresolved trauma from an incident years prior and experienced something that broke the floodgates holding everything back. He was there nearly every second of every day - a warmth at my shoulder, an echo in my mind. At night when i was lying awake trying not to let my mind spiral, i quite honestly felt a warmth by my side as if someone was sitting next to me tracing their fingers along my back to calm me down. What I find a bit unnerving as far as UPG goes is that is what a lot of other people have said their experiences are like with Ares.

It seems to me, from my experiences and what I've heard from others, is that Ares is wonderful at providing solid ground and a strong arm to hold on to when it feels like you are in free fall. He is not pushy or demanding and delights with any time we spend with him. Of course this is not to say his war-like aspect and place on the battlefield does not exist! But rather, as literally any other Greek god I can think of, he is a god of duality and while war and protection may seem at odds, they are truly two sides of the same coin.

Can you tell I love Ares just a little bit?

Been a while since I've done one of these so!

Hit this post with a like if you'd want any of my muses to come invade your inbox! Be it a meme you've reblogged or something else entirely!

Specify a muse if you have multiple, and if you'd like anyone from me in particular.

Gonna cap between 3-5 and prioritizing folks who have newly followed, recently followed or folks I haven't interacted with much!

Hi, it's two part anon. How have you been?

It's been a while since I last invaded your inbox cause erm... Last time I got discharged, I managed to hit my head quite hard and had to stay in the hospital again. (Even I find it very funny, lol) Don't worry, I'm okay now. I got discharged, again.

Anyway, I read your update post. I'm quite sad because before the hospital incident, I checked your tumblr everyday in the morning like an old lady checking for daily newspaper. I'm not sure why you have to close your request, but I hope you are okay. I hope the best to you. Also, I want to add that you can pause my request fics to give yourself more time, if you are too busy ^^ it's cul, I can wait for an eternity.

Another note, if you'd like it, I can continue sharing my ideas. I mean, you don't have to write it. I'm already happy that you listen and like my ideas so much. (maybe I'll even start to write myself, idk, you really inspire me) Or if you want to share about your day, I'm all ears (and I think your 999 other followers are, too)

Aight, I think I've rambled enough. I hope you are doing okay. Take some time for yourself, drink water, and... Idk watch One Piece? Anyways, have a great day!

Hopefully, I'm not gonna get a third trip to the hospital.

Two part anon! I'm so sorry you've been in the hospital! I hope you'll be okay!

As far as my inbox, I'm okay. 100% honest? I feel like very few people care about me, only that I keep putting out fics so after I finish up my inbox, I'm going to work on some personal projects, post a couple of things, but not as often. I mean, I have people who care! I know this, but the majority only seem to care if I put stuff out so 🤷🏻‍♀️. You're always, always, always free to spam my inbox, I love your ideas! and they're always so well written out. not too much, not too little, perfect to inspire me!

I absolutely love writing your ideas and hearing them! but if you want to write them yourself, let me know who you are, I absolutely want to support you! you're so amazing!

Don't worry, I'll take care of myself. you do the same, I worry about you!

I’m coming to invade your inbox to talk about Drag Race UK and Drag Race Italia (since I feel like its been a while and I love hearing your opinions)💜

When it comes to Drag Race Italia I absolutely adore Nehellenia and she’s definitely my favorite since she’s super talented and I love her runways but more importantly she’s just such a sweetheart and she’s always so kind with the other queens (I love her and Aura’s friendship🥰) and gives us such precious moments (like this week when she talked about her relationship with her dad🥹). And of course La Diamond is so good and her runways are great and she gives me Sharonne from Drag Race España vibes in the sense that she’s professional and has been doing Drag so well for a while (and is certainly living up to her reputation) and continues to be a front runner. I’m also loving Aura and La Petite Noire and Skandalove continue to grow on me more and more with each episode

When it comes to Drag Race UK my favorite has to be Cheddar since I love her attitude and how she looks at things and how great her runways are and how there’s always a message behind them and how talented she is. But Danny is up there too since she’s so incredibly talented and funny and friendly and I’ve been loving her runways too (and I could imagine either of them potentially winning the season)

What about you? How are you liking Drag Race Italia and Drag Race UK? Which queens are you loving/rooting for?

please do, you are always welcome!! i feel like this season of uk has gone by so quickly i can't believe next week is the final already!! once again you have great taste! i agree with everything you've said as usual 😝 i will admit i think i underestimated nehellenia a bit when i watched the mtqs, but she really has been excelling this season! i especially loved her entrance look and her horoscope runway, so good! i think la diamond is my favourite, all her looks have been amazing and as you said she is super professional and it shows! the challenge last week was.. interesting to say the least (they really didn't do the queens any favours) but the fact that la diamond still did amazing really shows how talented she is! also can i just say i love how italia, drdu, holland etc always have wider age ranges, i think it brings a lot more to the show this way! and yes aura 🥰🥰 she is so sweet and charming (and funny) i have a lot of love for her! also quick appreciation moment for chiara, she really is the bright light on the judge's panel oh for sure yes, it definitely seems like its between cheddar and danny, i'd be so surprised if anyone else wins at this point! (though at the beginning of the season i did see peppa as a potential winner too) i'm probably rooting for cheddar to win slightly more but i would still be happy if danny won. and yeah the runways have been so strong this season!! i'm very much looking forward to seeing what everyone wears at the final and hopefully we'll get to see the eliminated queens again too! i didn't expect to fall for dakota as much as i did and like most people can't wait to see her again 💕

hi this is the anon before who said their only criticism for tmc was the timeline, but after al3x’s recent twitter qna i suddenly have a few others things i want to say about this series that i’m not sure where to share so i’m going to dump it in your inbox if that’s ok <3

anyway first things first i just want to say i love tmc, it’s one of my favorite analog horror series, i love the characters and the aesthetic, i love getting on discord to watch the newest videos with my friends, but even as my favorite series i’m still willing to criticism it (excluding the timeline thats already a mess). 

and lately i’ve been thinking about it after rewatching the latest video a few times and seeing other content creators react to it, i’ve just now realized that the series… doesn’t scare me anymore? maybe its because i’ve been watching it for a while, but probably not because the old videos still ruin my insomnia after i watch them tgouivrfi but aside from that ever since vol4 was released i just haven’t gotten scared by anything presented in the new videos at least once.

like the latest video didn’t give any horror vibes for me especially when adam namedropped god like ok cool (although i did love the sarah+evelin interactions we were given and hope there’ll be more of that duo), and the diary thing just idk its interesting but meh. this is just my opinion tho i hope no one attacks me for it

then i saw al3x say in his qna that vol1 was his least favorite video overall and tbh that… kinda makes me sad? because i still love that video since it still frightens me to this day, and seeing him not like it and make a new version that had some good parts removed + make it less scary just ehh this series really isn’t as frightening to me as it used to be…

its probably because of everything that’s gone with crewdela, with gab3 being fired and the community being infested with minors who want to sanitize horror (and a certain person in the crew who shall not be named) so this is just the end result…

but at the end of the day this is al3x’s series and he’s free to do what he wants with it and i will be seated for vol5, its still an interesting series to watch at the end of the day but just not as scary for me.

anyway sorry for traumadumping LOL /j

ohyah, you're free to info dump w/e thoughts you got! :3

i was honestly in the same boat as you, where tmc used to be my top series of all time cause of the usage of religion here, instead of the cookie cutter aesthetic of haunted animatronics or aliens invading the earth. while rlly not scary to me overall, the unsettling nature behind was enough to spook me!

however, as you've mentioned, it just stopped being scary overall when not only god was namedropped like that but....the intrigue around the series was just gone when "gabriel" revealed who he rlly is after all this time. the reveal happened way too soon, and using the usual "THE DEVIL WAS BEHIND IT ALLLLL" is just eh :/ could have made it where it could have been something else puppeting the body of the archangel gabriel??

and tbh, with how much lore and attention is given to emo fuck ( adam lmao ) here, it's feeling more and more like a damn soap drama that your grandparents would watch lmao nothing rlly horrifying, unsettling, or even violating in the sense that it's supposed to be intimate given the core concept that used to be present in early vids ( there's a reason why intimacy and religion tends to go hand in hand )

all the biblical horror flies out the window when we're seemingly supposed to care about adam here -- i honestly don't give a shit about the guy atp lmao i was here to watch some actual frightening shit, not...this

yeah, alex has mentioned several times that vol 1 wasn't his fave but goddamn, did he just...rlly made the scare factor and nostalgic elements even worse. nothing there to grasp you except "LOOK! THE ANIMATION IMPROVED!! :OOO"

those are my thoughts there lmao x3

Imagination anon! Make a list of the five things you've been thinking about your muse doing with another muse on Tumblr! It can be a random AU, regular verse - go wild! Be sure to @ them too if you want. Send this to 5 other people with anonymous enabled to get the imagination running!

I admittedly kept this in my inbox for a while bc I was waiting for my Cursed Vatican Squad(tm) (or my scipionic circle, like I like to call it) to join but I gotta clear my inbox and this is an interesting ask so kcfnv

lauren // @laurendiluca; I want to see lauren and roberto bonding like the good family they are?? I want to see roberto going to visit lauren (because in this house we go by anime canon and don’t accept the novel canon, aka that roberto has never ever seen lauren) and the two of them slowly opening up to each other. I want to see roberto and lauren being sarcastic bitches @ each other. Also, lauren having to stay at his place for a while (sometimes u just break out of prison and have your buddy hide you from the cops) because tbh these two living together would be something great (especially if we go with lauren having a v lowkey crush on roberto??). I want to see these two learning to put down, to an extent, their defenses when they are around each other. I want to see them trusting each other

steven // @bloodfroze; tbh I want to see roberto and steven acting as old friends (I mean, gestures @ that one idea too but why doesn’t the vkc timeline make sense orz), looking up to each other for their loyalty towards hiraga and klaus respectively. But I also want them to share those bittersweet moments, them both feeling like they’re alone against everything and pretty much... bonding over that? Over their similar mindset? And I want to see them caring for each other like the... weird mom friends they are, but overall just having that kind of friendship that allows them to find support in each other without invading each other’s personal space? And since one of the novel hints the whole squad is sleeping in the same place for one of the examinations, then tbh I want steven to share the room/house/hotel/whatever with roberto or the robehiras

nagisa // @awadatsu; ok but, roberto going full on Mom Friend around nagisa?? I can totally see him starting as being kinda uncomfortable about nagisa’s attitude, but he’d probably change his mind pretty quickly because nagisa is such a positive and caring person and he feels the need to protect him? AND TBH I want to see roberto actually helping nagisa with one of his pranks or something?? Still starting with the ‘no you can’t do that’ attitude, but then he’d probably go ‘alright what do you need’ because I mean it’s not like the vatican squad hasn’t broken the law already so what would a student’s prank even be