what i love about laios is that he's actually very good at putting puzzle pieces together BUT HERE'S THE THING 1) he needs to HAVE the information, and 2) (this is important) he needs to KNOW it is information he should care about
and i think this could be said of anyone but the thing with laios is that people tend to view his lack of awareness wrt social etiquette and memory problems as pure indifference and/or obliviousness; sometimes they misinterpret his motives based on their inaccurate expectations of him and therefore don't give his thoughts on a subject the credit he deserves
one of the most obvious examples of this happens at least twice in the manga as i remember it, but the most recent incident was when they were trying to resurrect falin. there's a moment where laios mentions reconstructing both of the warg skeletons, as their bones are mixed in with hers. both chilchuck and senshi balk at this, with chilchuck complaining aloud, questioning laios' priorities,
and laios quickly, angrily retorts. his reason for making the suggestion is perfectly logical and practical, but because his friends are used to his interest in monsters influencing his judgement, often in ways they see as frivolous or dangerous, they don't come to the same conclusion. one which i'd argue is kind of obvious considering the situation
we see it again during his fight with toshiro, where toshiro demands to know what laios plans to do to save falin. laios takes a minute to answer, but he DOES answer, following the logic that if falin is a chimera because of (and controlled by) the mad mage, then the logical next step is to confront/defeat/usurp them
then in the following episode, when chilchuck brings it up again, laios explains what he (now) knows about thistle, mentioning that he's the same elf that laios saw in the living paintings, which is why he knows thistle's connection to delgal. the party reacts like this:
i'd say this is an example of them feeling frustration over laios' habit of having 'bad timing', not knowing when or how to speak at appropriate moments. theyre judging him for not saying something earlier, as if he already knew all this but didn't think to mention it when it was relevant, when the reality is that laios only just now had all the pieces he needed to understand the full picture
and i mention this bit specifically because i think it's a great way to explain what i mean by point 2: laios needs to know when information is important and worth considering
which, again, feels fucking obvious. but as someone who ALSO has debilitating issues with remembering important shit, i find this particular element of it pretty relatable and critical to my overall point. it's not laios' fault that he didn't know who thistle was or his significance - why the hell would he assume that a person he met in a living painting, presumably long since dead in reality, should be someone who's face, name, or motives he keeps in mind?
ultimately, i guess what i'm trying to say with all this is that the way others treat laios' intelligence is not congruent to how actually smart he is. one of the things i love most about laios, what is possibly his biggest strength and the reason he is such a great protagonist, is that laios is willing to think things through and find the most logical conclusion to a problem, no matter how outlandish or dangerous or seemingly impossible that conclusion may be. sister got eaten? race back down to go get her. can't afford food? fight, defeat, and eat dangerous monsters. sister's fully digested? use black magic to bring her back. now she's a chimera? defeat the mage controlling her and use that power to fix it.
anyways. what was even my point with this post? i guess it is that laios is smart, at least as smart as anyone else in the cast, arguably smarter than some. he is intelligent and utilizes that intelligence in many ways, not JUST when it comes to monster info (though that is his best and sexiest brand of knowledge)
and also please be nice to your friends with memory problems. it's rough out here for forgetful bitches
255 notes
·
View notes
More ghost! Roach - Accidental Necromancer Soap AU : little moments
141 in the middle of a briefing, when suddenly Soap gasps, interrupting Price. Everyone turns to look at him and he looks back like a deer in headlights, apologises with a stammered excuse, something like he saw a spider or something, and the meeting continues with dubious looks.
"You're so bad at that," Roach giggles from where he's floating around above the table. "It wasn't even that big of a news, they were flirting for months! I have way worse, you know one of the Corporals under your command, the redhead one? She's been secretely married for years to the medic lady that stitched you up last week! Stop gaping at me, where's your pokerface oh my god-"
And then Soap uses all that information to win bets against Gaz.
Or also, Roach telling jokes while there's people around Soap. "Don't laugh," he taunts him. "Don't even smile or they'll know you're crazier than they think."
And then he tells the worst joke ever and Soap can't help the snort that escapes him and again, everyone turns to look at him.
"I can't believe you're laughing in a room full of explosives tied to people," Roach gasps, knowing full well that's exactly the result he wanted.
Soap rolls his eyes at him quickly and focuses back on defusing. He'll get him back when they're alone and he doesn't look weird talking to the air.
"He knows you find him hot, he's neither blind nor stupid," Roach says, peeking above Ghost's shoulder. "If you want him to blush you need to call him 'pretty'. Worked every time..."
And he's right. When Soap tells Ghost he's a bonnie lad, explains what it means, it's very obvious how flustered he becomes, and the visible part of the bridge of his nose gets very red.
"Be ready to be grabbed at every opportunity, his love language is physical touch but he'd rather die than admit it."
Roach has a bit of a poltergeist moment when he finds out he can touch things again. Cups go flying into walls, chairs move around, shoes disappear. Roach is very overwhelmed and gets non verbal, which is a bit hard because Soap only knows the basics of BSL and has to ask Ghost to translate by copying live what Roach is saying. (Ghost, who has seen the ghost of his dead lover save his life just a day before objects started flying, recognising in the back of his mind the quirks of Roach's way of signing being reproduced by Soap, but not willing to believe yet)
It lasts a few days and the whole base is convinced they're haunted by a ghost. They're not wrong, Soap wants to say. And not only one, but the others are far more apathetic, barely there.
Then Roach calms down, all at once, when he realises that maybe... maybe he can touch people too. He's very nervous. It's been years since he touched someone, years of his hand going through Ghost's arm as he tried to make him see him. Years of not feeling the warmth of a living being.
That scares him. What if he can touch Soap, but he doesn't feel anything? What if it feels the same as the glasses he's been trying to juggle for days?
So he waits until Soap is asleep and he holds out his finger, slowly, hands trembling, and presses it softly to Soap's forehead. He's... He's warm, he realises with a gasp. He's warm!
Soap wakes up to sobbing and soft fingers on his cheeks and in his hair. He gets reassured very quickly that it's happy sobbing and Roach kisses him.
Ghost, after learning about the ghosts existence, starts having really bad nightmares every night. Has to be reassured that no, he's not actually a ghost. He hasn't actually died in that grave, he's here, he's warm and he's alive and loved.
408 notes
·
View notes
I have an idea I will need to ruminate on later to flesh it out more, but it goes something like this:
Shang Qinghua is God of the World, in the sense that he was a god who got a premonition of a Calamity that would destroy the entire world. So to prevent that all the gods pool their power to separate the world into one where all the mythology and stuff is real and a copy that's basically a low-magic/no-magic version that will be safe from said Calamity. They make the System to keep the two separated-but-connected and to help Shang Qinghua remake the original world when the time is right. Shang Qinghua, as the god who foresaw the looming disaster and was pivotal in averting it got tasked with taking the remaining divine power and going to the other world to hide from the Calamity and write the world back into existence once it's all over.
Except something goes wrong. One world is destroyed as anticipated, but Shang Qinghua has lost his godly powers and his memories when he got placed into the no-magic world. He's just our poor author friend Airplane bro.
The System is so relieved when the creator finally starts to write that it immediately implements it all without screening - System has been programmed to be very efficient! It can extrapolate from the smallest crumbs to recreate the world and its history in full! When Shang Qinghua has written enough that the world is back to its fully functioning glory the System is meant to bring the author-creator back to survey the world, but it does an oopsie and hey, transmigration! The restrictions on having to follow the plot are there so Airplane can experience the the life of a human in this recreated world as he had written it, so that corrections can be made before the new world is finalized. The 'Return Home' function isn't meant to take Shang Qinghua back to the other world, it's meant to turn him back into a proper God of the World(s) so he can make revisions, with full admin access. That's why it can't be dismissed permanently, it will happen eventually when Shang Qinghua reaches the end of his life or ascends.
The PIDW world also exists, as a backup copy in a way? So god Qinghua can always look at it and check what the effects of his revisions are. It's real enough that Bingge gets to hop over to the SVSSS world for his appearance in the extras.
Shen Qingqiu gets the System's attention because during his qi deviation he briefly makes contact with his incarnation in the other world and gets a full set of copies of Shen Yuan's memories. Someone who has read the Divine Work and can help keep Airplane on track with the plot and in character, because System is getting really agitated that its god is trying really hard to get out of what the System perceives as a short roleplay session. So it locks Shen Jiu's memories away for the time being and let's 'Shen Yuan' lose on the world.
A lock that gets eventually removed shortly after canon SVSSS ends. And the Shen Jiu personality and all his memories take priority because they are the ones that originally belong to this incarnation.
It's a big old mess, waking up and realizing that he lived the last couple of years as if he was a spoiled young master, shoved against his will into someone else's life. The memories from Shen Yuan's life in the other world are faded - still there, but they don't have as much of an effect on him anymore - but the things he felt and experienced since his qi deviations are all very vivid and very disorienting.
He needs time, to make sense of himself. He needs to think and he needs to be away from Binghe for a while, because the jealous disdain he felt for the child who had all the inherent gifts needed for success but still acted the helpless sheep and the love 'Shen Yuan' felt for adult Binghe are both there, equally vivid.
When he comes out of secluded meditation he's... different. Not cruel Shen Jiu, not kind Shen Yuan, but something in between. Much closer to the former, to the initial displeasure of most everyone who's not Yue Qingyuan, but there are aspects of the person he became in the last few years that he refuses to let go.
The eventual talk with Luo Binghe is beyond uncomfortable. It's not easy to admit to someone so much more powerful than him that he's more of the person Binghe hated rather than the person he loved. He's not the kind shizun, he refuses to pretend to be. If Luo Binghe wants to leave, there could be a way for him to go to Shen Yuan, who is the closest thing, but Binghe should keep in mind: that's not the person who has fallen in love with him. He likely would, if given a chance to meet Binghe, but they don't have history together.
He tells him that despite everything, the person Shen Qingqiu is now still loves Luo Binghe - loves him differently so things will need to change, but this is all he can offer. If Luo Binghe is willing to give it a try and see if he can love this sharper, more cruel Shen Qingqiu back, then Shen Qingqiu will not push him away.
103 notes
·
View notes
Real big fan of robots and monsters and aliens btw in case u couldn't tell.
And a trope I Hate is forced humanization, in general. If a non human character is supposed to become connected to humankind, then fine. It's not atrocious on it's own. I don't care.
What I do care about is when they're belittled for not being "human enough" in a "weird way". Like, yeah, maybe the alien that doesn't celebrate birthdays is strange to the protagonist. They don't have to call them out on it. The alien doesn't have to be seen at the end celebrating their birthday to solidify how human they've become.
If you want it to happen have it happen gradually. Have them become curious about it, and find out they actually like the customs they're not used to yet. Aliens finding pleasure in a playground, monsters enjoying food they'd never gotten to taste before, and robots discovering they genuinely like watching TV. Whatever!
Just work around their differences, make it be gradual, and not born from the main, human cast making fun of them or pointing out how weird they are for not liking X thing. And for the love of god, don't make "Becoming Human uwu" the center of their story. It's so... Heartbreaking. Bleak, even.
109 notes
·
View notes