#there.... isn't enough evidence to theorize what will happen
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IMPECCABLE TIMING . . . 🏁🍒🏎️
LICENSE TO DRIVE ; f1 driver!oc x platonic! f1 grid
. . . as a part of katarina's media duties in the paddock, the press questions about her "sudden" move to porsche, with people theorizing about her impeccable timing of doom.
amgf 2.1k words... set during the bahrain pre-race press conference, mention of red bull controversy, implied media play, mystery(?)
license to drive ; masterlist
SITTING FOR INTERVIEWS ISN'T REALLY KATARINA'S FORTE, just like the other drivers she'd rather race. But at the same time, she enjoys the chaos press interviews bring. Especially for the upcoming 2024 season, a lot has happened over the winter break.
One transfer which Katarina is heavily involved in, and despite not being one to tell all to the press, the feeling of slow feeding information to journalists, leaving crumbs of information here and there, laying down innuendos is more than enough for her to agree for the press conference schedule.
It's the first race of the season, drama is about to unfold, and Katarina is ready to watch them all from the palm of her hand.
Greeting the drivers, she sits right beside Lewis as the conference had just begun, with the host talking to Lando furthest to her. At the same time, Carlos walked from the sea of reporters, Lewis teasing him, gesturing his watch.
Katarina scoots over to the edge, with Carlos situated next to Lewis. Opting to get interviewed last, knowing very well of the questions she's about to receive.
The female driver keeps herself busy with her thoughts, listening in to some of the drivers and their questions. As much as she hated interviews listening in to the drivers answer repetitive questions was funny up to a point.
"This season is not only filled with finales but also debuts. Shocking everyone during the first half of winter break, having moved from Red Bull to Porsche. In her 8th season we have Katarina Lombardi— how do you feel about moving teams and debuting in Porsche for the season?"
Katarina smiles, picking up the microphone from Carlos beside her. "What a lengthy introduction that was. I think it was a pretty good move, I mean for me I moved a few times before, nothing shocking really it's just fun. I'm absolutely happy in Porsche— not that I wasn't in Red Bull mind you."
She clears the air and jokes around realizing the cameras pointing at her on live television. Watching Max from the corner squinting his eyes playfully, earning a small laugh from Karina.
"To me like what Lewis and Carlos have said, moving is a common occurrence in the sport, I mean just four years ago I was in Mercedes, and then moved to Red Bull, and now I'm in Porsche. It's our first year together and things are definitely looking interesting. Not just for me but for the whole team, we're learning together and getting through the ropes, I'm happy and I hope we can deliver through more of our goals."
Katarina smiles, satisfied with her answer, if it wasn't evident with the big smile on her face one can clearly see how she's enjoying this season. In fact, Katarina is excited, having worked with the car, their only goal was to score points, and if possible chase Max in his rocketship of a Red Bull.
Despite the rumors of her falsely being kicked out of Red Bull, Katarina left in her own volition. Offered a seat in Porsche, the female asked one question before solidifying a contract with the team.
When Porsche revealed they were planning on signing Liam Lawson to the team it was enough for her to move, she had faith in him, and together they could score points together. During the break she spent her time with Lawson in Germany testing the car. Which performed more than she expected, not bad for a first time, but the female knows the only results that matter is on the actual track.
"Hello, I am Felipe Santos. Question for Katarina Lombardi–" Your eyes perk up, as you watch a middle aged man in his forties from the back ask his question, "following your move to Porsche there has been a lot of speculation in your move, a lot pointing out the comedic timing of your move, back in 2021 from Mercedes to Red Bull and in the same year the championship went to Red Bull, and now with the issues going on in Red Bull, you moved teams to Porsche. People have been calling you a horseman of doom, are these issues the reason behind your move? Or are they mere coincidences that happen? Are you glad to have moved out from Mercedes and Red Bull?"
Katarina grabs the mic from Lewis, formulating her answer in her head before speaking. This is the type of questions the female's PR manager prepared her for, there are times for snarky remarks or sarcastic comments, and there are times for prepared responses, as what her PR manager instructed.
There is no such thing as a scripted answer, we are prepared when such occasions arise– yadda yadda yadda something about keeping the team's integrity or brand. Shit.
Katarina hums, filling the silence still contemplating on the response to give out, on the far corner of her eye she sees Nicolas, her PR manager staring at her, hands waving on his neck.
Breathing in at an attempt to keep her composure, but the insinuation of Katarina's move as some comedic timing, as if real people weren't involved fumed her in a different way.
She may act indifferently to the press about moving teams, and how her calculated moves benefited her, but they don't see the late night negotiations and hours of talking to lawyers and advisors for the best move.
She didn't like being involved in the drama one bit. "I think calling it comedic timing is inappropriate. Because the situation is not comedic at all, it's not funny, nor do I enjoy seeing my decisions plastered into this controversy. It's disheartening, in this time and age to hear about these allegations. I am glad to have moved but not at the expense of my decisions being held to a higher standard than the actual controversy going around."
Silence.
She could feel her PR manager rolling her eyes, but Katarina couldn't care less. It was one way to shut up the crowd, she was not about to let the media use her move from Red Bull to Porsche as a cover up story.
She's been in the sport for so long, things have to change. She passed the microphone back in Lewis' direction as the media got back to asking questions.
For the remainder of the interview, no one dared to ask her another question.
"WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?"
The first words Nicolas, her PR manager spoke as soon as she left the press conference schedule.
"It's the truth! What do you want me to say? Some neutral answer to pacify the press?" Rolling her eyes, Katarina entered the Porsche motorhome greeted by Alessia, her trainer who was waiting for her.
"You know that the team has given you freedom to speak whatever is on your mind, and we admire that. But a heads up could be good, I knew for a fact you weren't about to answer the memorized paragraph we spent hours together—"
"You want me to say it in a nicer way? Is that what you're implying?" Katarina cuts him off, turning around to face the man stressing about the stack of papers in between manila folders.
"The media will do everything to twist your words, tread lightly."
Katarina laughs, head shaking at his statement, "Yeah, and if they dare twist my words I'll just have to speak up more about it then. I worked hard for this, moving to Porsche was a gamble to my career! Not that I'm not enjoying it right now, it's definitely better than I expected, but for my move to be belittled as some comedic timing? No way! I fought my back out of Red Bull, they can't twist my words against me."
Nicolas nods his head slowly, arms rubbing around the female's shoulder trying to calm her down. "I know. I know how hard you worked to get out of Red Bull, and how Porsche is your saving grace for offering you a seat but they don't know that. They don't know you took one of their junior drivers, and that's what they're trying to get out of you. So calm down, and think before you speak- would be my advice as your PR manager. But as a friend, I want you to know that we're a team here, and whatever you plan on doing, we'll be here to support you, but don't go in blindly like that. Tell us, we've been through thick and thin, don't you dare think I'm about to leave you after working with you for the last 10 years."
A small smile curves up in Katarina's lips looking away bashfully at Nicolas, "Fine. As my PR manager I promise not to do things without telling you first. As a friend, thank you. For staying, and coming with me despite Red Bull's efforts to poach you undr my nose."
Leaving Red Bull was a sensitive topic for Katarina— but she'd rather act to the press about an amicable split then open up a whole can of worms. She had to leave and she doesn't like to talk about it.
Her decision to leave was done before the 2023 season even ended, yet none of the grid knew of her transfer. Not even her previous teammate Max, and other than Liam, after the news of Lewis' transfer to Ferrari, Katarina greenlit Porsche' announcement of her and Liam Lawson as their drivers for the upcoming 2024 season. That being said, her winter break was definitely eventful.
Raising her head from her notes, Katarina watches Lewis welcome himself in her motorhome.
"Katarina Anneli Lombardi, we're full of surprises this season huh?" Lewis closes the door behind him, getting comfortable beside you.
"I'd like to say the same with you, Ferrari, good choice— maybe by the time engine regulations come you'll come out on top, or Charles doesn't matter to me, I'll beat either of you."
Scoffing, Lewis closes Katarina's notes pushing her legs in his direction, facing him. "So, how did that happen?"
"I could say the same to you, you know." Katarina shrugs, parroting his own question back to him.
"Yeah we're not doing that. You know what's the deal with Mercedes, I'm glad you didn't sign that contract extension. But you, what happened?"
Looking away from Lewis hands settled on hers, zoning out on the wall behind his silhouette. Left frozen in her own thoughts, gulping as she avoids the question.
"If you're not ready to say anything, you don't have to say anything yet. I just want you to know that I will always support you."
The female blinked her thoughts away, slowly nodding her head digesting what Lewis said. "I'm glad you got out of Mercedes too. I hope this season will be kind to you."
Lewis laughs, dropping the topic behind them. "But during the press conference, what that interview said, comedic timing huh? Didn't even realize that."
Katarina sneers, "I almost got myself stuck in Red Bull if I didn't move then."
Her eyes widened, she spoke too soon without thinking. Fuck.
And Katarina was right, her words didn't fly past the older male beside her, raising his brows. "Katarina..."
Fighting the urge to roll her eyes as Lewis pulled up with his "serious dad" voice. "I promise you it's nothing."
"You say that, and then I find out later it's something serious. Anneli, what happened with Red Bull?"
The female shakes her head, refusing to answer. "I'm sorry Lewis, but now is really not the time to talk about this." Looking left and right the windows of her motorhome, Katarina stands up towards the door, checking if it's locked.
"I promise you I'm fine Lewis. Who else would I tell you if I don't feel good?" Twisting the door open, hiding her actions under the guise of a polite act, "But now it's time for you to leave because I have to rest and study for free practice. Now go back to your garage, they might tamper if you're not looking."
Lewis faces the younger incredulously, shaking his head, before pulling Katarina in a hug.
"I'll see you before free practice?"
Katarina ponders before turning her head side to side, "Nope, I'll see you after free practice."
Lewis hugs her once more before leaving her motorhome, the female standing by the door watching his back leave. Checking the area around the motorhome, Katarina takes note of the neighboring team garages beside them, to the right was the familiar Williams motorhome, and in front of them was the fiery red Ferrari.
Going back inside the comfort of her room, Katarina shakes off her thoughts focusing back on her notes for the upcoming practice. Knowing very well that there are vultures lurking, waiting for a feast before their eyes.
Only time will tell, but today isn't one of those days. Because like how the journalist coined, it'll all come in impeccable timing. She was a horseman of doom like they said, and soon she'll have to prove herself like she did eight years ago.
amgf why'd she leave red bull? i guess we'll find out soon hahahaha i enjoyed writing this so much, i think i'll be writing this following the 2024 season, of course tweaking the scenes a little bit but what an introduction! i can't wait to write more about her, and hopefully we see a more fleshed Katarina and how she came to become like this. enjoy 👍
#f1 driver oc#f1 female driver#f1 x oc#f1 fluff#f1 imagine#f1 fic#f1 fem driver#formula 1 x oc#formula one x oc
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To set something straight, I've been making theories about this guy the second I heard his backstory (big spoilers ahead!)
At first, hearing about how Capsaicin Cookie was born from a lava lake, instantly gave me the idea that his birth was the result of an experiment gone wrong. And when "Legend Of The Red Dragon" came out within an update later, my gears only turned even more, later theorizing that Capsaicin Cookie was likely the result of the first attempt in making the puppet dragon
I would go on to soon drop due to not having enough information to properly cover it, but thanks to the beast yeast, like a phoenix, theories were born from the ashes anew! But not just theories my friends, a full blown prediction!
Now this was said a few times already, but I'll say here for good measure: Capsaicin Cookie is, in some way, connected to the beasts in some, more specifically, Burning Spice Cookie
I mean, c'mon! The evidence is right in front us!
They have similar character designs
They have similar color schemes
Both have something to do with spice
They're in the same frickin pose
And the fact that Capsaicin used to rely so much on him "holding back," and Burning Spice being notorious for destruction is just too perfect
Ok with all the information out of the way, I've narrowed it down to three regarding Capsaicin's creatio. It's either:
A. Capsaicin was the original "empty" vessel for Burning Spice, but something happened, causing in his birth
B. Burning Spice could be a great ancestor of Capsaicin, which would explain why his was locked away in the first place, maybe whoever locked him up knew of the beasts and saw him as a threat
C. Burning Spice could be a part of Capsaicin in some way(TLDR: pulling a Steven Universe)
At the point l, you might be wondering, "Sure, these are possible theories, but what about the prediction?" Well friends, may I direct you to our second key player, Golden Cheese Cookie. Now, knowing that everyone in her kingdom is basically in a coma, and seeing her friends forming armies for the war, it's pretty logical that she'll have to find other cookies to volunteer to fight in the war, but has every reason not to. Mostly due to what last time, the main reason is that she gets attached way too fast, way too easily. Fortunately, other ancients are very understanding of this, but do try to convince GC into doing the right thing, and eventually through one way or another, she ends recruiting Capsaicin for the war
Their relationship is very slow burn, with GC showing Capsaicin nothing but tough love as to not get attached to him(think Toph from ATLA) but ends not working for her, and slowly and surely, the two get close, like mother and son. . . At some point in the story, it isn't long for a certain someone to find out about their relationship
Now tell me, what sounds more metal. . ?
Learning about your past, and being forced to kill your mother figure due to her "stealing what's ours!"
Or Getting closure after loosing so much, just be forced to harm your adopted son after finding out his origins
#cookie run kingdom#cookie run#capsaicin cookie#burning spice cookie#put on your tin foil hats people#also may or may not have another post in the works#stay tuned^^#golden cheese cookie
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For people who say Tentoo isn't the Doctor because "he would be half Donna's" on pretext he "sound / look like her", specifically because of this moment :
Well... admire almost the same scene down to the head movements, but with different dialogues :
As for the "Oi", yes, often said by Donna :
youtube
Now admire the 10th Doctor who has also already used this expression :
youtube
The only thing the Doctor did in relation to Donna was echo Donna's tone of voice. Which, if you know the Doctor Who universe, is not the first time this has happened :
Oh, and he also stole her this expression :
youtube
youtube
Which can either always be explained by the voice thing we just said (the most logical). Or maybe it's because the Doctor is simply imitating the behavior of his companions... Hello Clara :
You could even theorize that Ten's tongue tics come from Rose (I mean... David Tennant outright said that Ten imprinted on Rose. So thinking that isn't that crazy) :
I'm not even the only one who thinks so :
The tone of voice and the expression "Well isn't that wizard ?" are literally the only noticeable changes and they are minimal compared to the other regenerations ! Other than those two things, Tentoo acts like he always acted as the Doctor / Ten (including the way he speaks) :
Even in official audios with Tentoo (from what I know), those two things are literally always the only differences ! In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it's even just the famous expression "Well isn't that wizard ?" which is listed as being the only difference in Tentoo since Metacrisis / Regeneration (don't hesitate to correct me about this subject in the comments if I'm wrong ! I really need to listen to these audios). Which is logical that he only has minimal changes, since the essential symbolic goal of Tentoo was that the Doctor no longer changes, to remain Rose's Doctor :
Afterwards the only thing Tentoo lacks is having said "Allons-y !", and "Molto Bene !". And since he keeps his "Oh yes !", "Oi !", "Brilliant !", "Ha !" even "Well...", and according to the "Empire of the Wolf" comic, he also kept "What ?!" (Oh, and also his glasses) So, I think it's pretty obvious that he kept it "Allons-y !" and "Molto Bene !" too. (In addition to having, as shown above, kept all of his physical ticks)
Ten himself doesn't say all these expressions in the episode JE. He only says "Brilliant", and that makes sense, because we're not going to make a character say all of his cult quotes in one and the same episode. The individual being doesn't work like that. The only reason why Tentoo throws out so many of these expressions is precisely to make the public understand that he is still the Doctor we knew ! But obviously that wasn't enough for some...
Beyond that to return to Donna and the Doctor, they have always looked alike anyway. What are two more similarities ? Evidence from one of my old posts :
And why does it look the same ? Because brotherly relationship :
What the metacrisis essentially allowed was to make them real brothers and sisters at the biological / DNA level. And I don't know if you have brothers and sisters, or if you know someone who has brothers and sisters, but similar ways of speaking in tone, and having expressions in common, that happens a lot among brothers and sisters. The fact that they literally only have one expression in common is a miracle. And then frankly a minimal addition when you consider how similar the Doctor and Donna have always been.
Essentially the Doctor didn't want to change, he wanted to remain Rose's Doctor and he did. He remained the same physically, in his vocal expressions and body gestures. But ironically he added a little of the impulsivity of his ninth incarnation with whom Rose fell in love, and finally definitively concretized the brother/sister bond he had with Donna, from a human point of view, on the biological plan. But since the body has no real importance for the Doctor, he kept something more tangible from her, namely, a fondness for the way she spoke (as he did with Rose, but in a less present way), especially since he will technically never be able to see her again. And all that, well it’s very beautiful.
#Youtube#the doctor#doctor who#tentoo#the metacrisis doctor#doctor metacrisis#metacrisis doctor#the tenth doctor#the 10th doctor#ten#donna noble#rose tyler#tentoorose#tentoo x rose#rose x tentoo#tentoo and rose#rose and tentoo#tenrose#ten x rose#rose x ten#ten and rose#rose and ten
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Really normal length Skoodge analysis
Gonna just start with the simple things. Things you can get from watching one time alone. Maybe. Probably not I don't think you people think about him enough to gather any of this. No. I'm sorry I love you all. I'm just a specific level of detached from average not-Skoodge viewers and don't know what all is expected. It's that one meme "Even when compensating, experts in any field will overestimate the average person's knowledge."
It's rough. Let's get into it.
Speech is probably an easy one! Yeah? Yeah.
A lot of the things he says are very literal... there's a lot of tacting things that are currently happening. A lot of stating the obvious.
Admittedly... this is probably a byproduct of him not being a "main character." His dialogue is a lot less important than that of characters like Zim and Dib. But it's still worth talking about! I'd like to think it's genuinely just his personality to be obvious and talk about things as if people aren't already aware of them. Maybe even have him be a bit tone-deaf. That's more headcanon territory though! So let's walk on past that before I confuse myself and all of you.
DOUBLE NEGATIVES...!
... only happen once. In the background. While he's being talked over by a bunch of teammates.
("Yeah; really that's actually good and more logical cause I don't really wanna make a chain or nothing like that.")
His speech is a lot more casual and, in transcripts for unfinished episode(s)(?) almost innocent!
frothing at the mouth at this one actually i dont like it. not good. this is just exposition. he would not fucking say that (probably wrong) (this was written by the shows writers) (it still makes me angry)
This one I just wanted to add because it's silly. Look at how silly he is. He's just a fun loving guy. Why does his mind go to dancing straight away? We'll never know... the inner machinations of his mind are an enigma.
Skoodge reads as... more impulsive than anything (and maybe a little anxiety-riddled but that might also just be me projecting). He doesn't strike me as a critical thinker who really tries to like... weigh the consequences of his actions. He just does shit and when it doesn't work out he does more. I imagine that's what most irkens are like, actually, now that I think about it...
His gut instinct must be controlling him because if it isn't then I honestly can't find any good explanation as to how he's survived for so long.
Which perfectly segways me into something a little more analyzing-like:
Skoodge is a cockroach.
He got shot out of a cannon and still comes back to the Empire. He... really does seem to believe that being here will help him out somehow. As if it hasn't already been proven that nothing he will do will satisfy the society he hails from.
Desperation can make you do desperate things; and Skoodge's entire character just reeks of desperation.
From apparently being considered to eat his own skin (before being deemed too much by the network) [no screenshot available because I don't even know how I'd begin to look for it] to the more canonical screaming-like-a-baby whenever something happens to him, it kinda makes you wonder how the hell he even got to where he is in the first place.
Now, this is more speculation than actual evidence, but I think it's a fair enough bet to say that Skoodge earned his title as an invader. He has no height to propel him forward in society, so whatever he did would've had to've involved sheer tenacity and an inclination for survival.
He is almost definitely, genuinely, afraid of death. And because of that, he just... doesn't die.
I know at an objective view, he doesn't die because it's funnier that way, and helps with jokes and gags, but like... c'mon. This is a deep analysis post. I'm allowed to get a little indulgent with it.
Treading into more theorization-territory here.
Irkens are raging Xenophobes.
And Zim fits this bill perfectly! He's slotted himself into this mindset without any issue, making up... unique slurs for humans and other things he comes by. Because he tries too hard to be a perfect irken. Maybe. That's a topic for someone that's insane about Zim, not me. This is about my guy.
If Zim is the perfect representation of an irken soldier (on a purely superficial level), then Skoodge is an outlier. Not in that he's good at his job; he's supposed to be! No, rather, his differences lie in his temperance. His composure, whatever you call it. He is far too complacent and even possibly a bit meek, if you wanna go ahead and call him that.
You see that? That right there is respect for a... honestly almost certainly, by irken standards, inferior species.
Now, this could either mean one of three things.
Either A) Skoodge is not space racist (best case scenario)
or B) Skoodge lacks self-confidence; not seeing himself as superior, and thus being compliant and respectful to the obvious figure of authority in front of him.
or C) Skoodge does not have respect for his Empire (very unlikely, seeing as the only reason he's still here is because he's trying to gain a promotion from said Empire)
Shooting down option A immediately with this dialogue here (Battle Of The Planets)
Sorry folks... he is very much so still space racist.
As for option B...
I'm going to be completely honest here. I think I've been interpreting this wrong in my series. I have a whole lot of complex reasons explaining why Skoodge doesn't have much confidence, but honestly, he reads as more... chill. And down-to-earth, than he does as self-loathing.
There is possibly evidence of him having a more quiet and subdued personality, instead of just him not being a xenophobe; and it comes from the very first episode!
Crying in front of the tallest at the Assigning. Admittedly, Larb cried too; but he at least had enough push in him to say something.
Skoodge doesn't. He's even disheartened by the Tallest's initial jeering of him! Which admittedly, might not be the best example of low self-esteem, because those are the literal Leaders of his fucking Empire... but it is definitely a shift from him being the proud, confident, short-and-ugly invader that he's shown to be in Battle Of The Planets. Invading Blorch must've really (rightfully) inflated his ego.
Which he normally lacks.
He lacks ego, but that doesn't mean he lacks confidence. He knows that he's good at things in spite of his flaws, and takes pride in it! Even though that pride ends up shooting him in his own foot. Sad.
And why is it that he lacks ego? Every other irken thus far (sans maybe Sizz-lorr) has demonstrated just how... important. It is for them to have one. How almost ingrained into their nature their egos are. Why does Skoodge not go on to boast about his glory when any other irken in his situation would? Again, it's going to be another one of those things that I just can't be too sure about, but I'm going to hazard to say that it's because he's so physically flawed. Short and ugly. (Probably the reason why his uniform is stained. Why put forth the effort to make your uniform look good if it's impossible for the rest of you?)
There is. Almost no doubt in my mind, that he's had to fight tooth and nail to get to where he is, claw his way to the top. And if he's done that, he knows the struggle of being lower? He knows because no matter how high he gets, he'll still always be that "lower"? augh. what the fuck.
Skoodge has been humbled by this because he's been reminded of it at almost every point in his life. He doesn't boast to inferiors because he knows that there is nothing to boast, that he is technically one of those inferiors. Because even despite his successes, someone will always go on to point out his flaws.
Which really brings attention to Battle Of The Planets, to the Tallest pointing out his flaws. He just had his greatest success. Purple gave him one flaw, he gave another. And he gave it proudly.
... SECRET FOURTH OPTION D YEAHHHH BABY!!!!
FAWN RESPONSE.
With his inclination towards survival it would make sense to reason that he's only polite in front of potentially-threatening company because it means that he's less likely to get pummeled for being. Anything else.
Being polite is just as credible a survival technique as anything else! We just don't get to see any other irkens using it.
Skoodge is. Competent. He conquered his planet first!
He's a good invader. And that's probably because he knows when to run.
He's very vocal about it, if he knows (or thinks) that there's someone around to assist him. Silent with his impending doom (ha) at the Assigning, but very very loud when being chased down in the canyon by the hogulus in Hobo 13.
Now, I don't know about you, but irkens don't really strike me as the kind of species to back down from anything. To me, they read as more of a "do it or die" kinda group. Again, this whole trait kiiiinda almost begging to be pegged as outlier. The only thing that makes me on the fence about this one is, again, the fact that it's a cartoon and Skoodge's fear might be for the sake of gags.
That doesn't really explain this though. He has literally no reason to be scared here. In this specific scenario (Day Of Da Spookies! unfinished episode) he's disguised as a human. Every person there is none the wiser to him and his alien nature. He's just... like this...? All the time? Apparently? Maybe?
Or maybe! There's other things at play here!
Skoodge is competent...
... but.
A friend put it into better words than I could:
His brain turns to mush whenever he's around Zim.
(Honestly, the volunteer line might actually add on to his possible lack of self-respect? Hard to say if it's that, or if he's just that desperate to give respect at the sign of any spare bit of authority, even if that authority comes from an irken shorter than him.)
It makes me wonder if most of what we've seen of him is just Zim's influence on him. Scared at the Assigning? He didn't know Zim was there, so that had to have been genuine. Saluting to an inferior species? He had to have known that Zim was there, because Zim introduced himself first (and very loudly at that), but I think it was also genuine because Zim wasn't directly influencing him?
Screaming because of the hogulus and running like a child from some humans? Those are almost definitely Zim's doing. I just. Don't know How.
Screaming is a weakness, I think; at least it should be (in the eyes of irkens), and when Skoodge does it he does it because he seems convinced that Zim will help him. And yet Zim never does! Skoodge has no reason to believe this!
But still, believe he does.
They had to have been... kind of close? At one point in their lives.
Potentially. I don't know how close a person can get to Zim, but Skoodge has just barely managed to do it, by virtue of the fact that he is quite possibly the only living thing in the universe that can tolerate being around Zim for more than five seconds.
And his cockroach-itude. That definitely helps. You can't be killed by Zim's passive destructive radius if you genuinely just can't fucking die at all.
But that explains nothing of his weird eagerness to do things for Zim. It borders on obsessive. It might actually be obsessive, since he's apparently been living in Zim's vents ever since the events of Hobo 13. Without telling him.
Skoodge is fucking deranged. Skoodge doesn't even register as a blip on Zim's radar of people-to-acknowledge, but he will still always just do things for him, and be excited to, too!
I don't know what's wrong with him. The less easy and definitely one too many steps detached from canon explanation would be that he views Zim as the ideal irken and strives to be like him. The easiest explanation would be that he just really likes Zim.
Gosh. Even that still raises the question of how or why he would. Zim is fucking terrible to not just him, but everyone. He is unbiased in whose life he ruins.
And Skoodge is perfectly content with just letting Zim ruin his.
man. i hate him. i really really do.
#gerry stop ranting and raving you look like a lunatic#izrot#iz analysis#skoodge rant#i think that was the tag for that#i hope i didnt miss any points but i honestly probably did so i might end up going back and editing this
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Before the Beginning (part 1.1.)
Okay, now that I have finished picking apart the ending of S2 (ok, it's been some time, but it was my last big Tumblr project), it's only logical to turn my attention to the very beginning.
Disclaimer: I am going to work under the assumption the opening scene is real, ie. what we saw is exactly what happened.
I am aware this is a subject of discussion right now. Ever since memory manipulation has become hard canon nothing is certain anymore and the accuracy of every scene, present, or flashback (but especially flashback) is called into question. And not without good reason - there are continuity errors throughout the show that are very likely to be a conscious move on the creators' part. They might be telling us something weird is going on and things aren't necessarily what they seem.
I acknowledge that possibility, and I acknowledge that events from before the Fall are particularly uncertain ones.
But at the same time, I don't think this scene exists to hint at some sort of fabrication. We simply don't have enough points of reference about the time before time for it to work, in my opinion. No, I think this scene exists exactly to give us some points of reference for what happens later. To provide us with important information that will help us put the story proper into some perspective.
What does that scene show us that matters so much for the story?
Quite a few things, but let's start with the most evident, and possibly the most important thing - the opening scene shows us how Crowley looked before the Fall: he had regular brown eyes, he had regular circular irises, and he had no familiar sigil/tattoo on the side of his face.
When people theorize about Crowley's pre-Fall identity, they often search for an angel with some connections to snakes. And why wouldn't they? It's such a fundamental aspect of Crowley as a person, isn't it? It's hard to imagine him without it.
And yet, the angel that would become Crowley had no visible serpentine traits and I believe it is meant to communicate a lack of serpentine nature. The angel that would become Crowley hadn't been a snake. Demon Crowley was, but only since he became a demon.
Let that sink in.
The angel who made the stars, and the demon we know really and truly aren't the same person. The Fall changed his very nature in ways that are hard to comprehend and I believe we've all been underestimating the magnitude and depth of his transformation.
And so has Aziraphale, obviously.
So now, armed with that knowledge, I'd like to look at the instances where Crowley's past angelic identity is brought up. Not the Fall, and not what was happening before the Fall, but specifically the fact that Crowley used to be an angel.
I can recall three (if you think I missed something, let me know):
the Bandstand Breakup (part 1.2.)
Companion to Owls (part 1.3. - the courtyard scene & part 1.4. - the basement scene)
the Final Fifteen
All are very emotional scenes. One might even argue the most emotional scenes in the show so far. In all three forgiveness or redemption is brought up in some way.
I'll start picking them apart in the next post.
See you soon.
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815 Gate: 008 is 001’s “5 star general”.
Season Two shows us Kali’s crew in the very first episode, but it isn’t until Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister, that we meet 008 and her friends. This is episode fifteen of the series.
Dustin: You're going to crack the case, Steve.
Steve-the-hair-Harrington: *cracks a literal case*
Before this interaction, Nancy says, "The answers are here. Somewhere." A few beats later, Steve drops Dustin's bag and we get a zoom in on it. We see a ghostbuster's pin that references their costumes in Season Two.
So let's go back there, shall we? We'll start on Seventh Street.
"They turn to you, remove their [masks]."
This is not to mention the visual parallels between the Mind Flayer's possession and 008's powers:
Regardless of whether Kali had anything to do with this specific instance, as it was shown to be the Mind Flayer, the parallel is sinister. Character symbolism is also already happening from the moment we see her on screen. She's wearing gloves and covering her mouth—a classic sign that a character is hiding something.
The very next shot after that is this:
One grave reads: “Ashes to Ashes / Dust to Dust / Here lies someone I wouldn't trust.”
Meanwhile in Season Four:
A graveyard with a hand.
Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust.
Here lies a sister I wouldn't trust...
The police standing around and not seeing anything directly parallels the abilities we see Kali display in Season 2. Not to mention, the dogs in the neighborhood are clearly seeing something that we're not! Dogs in media are commonly shown to perceive the supernatural, hence why the dogs are barking when Fred and Chrissy get cursed, and yet they're noticeably silent when Steve, Nancy, Robin, Max, and Dustin return as a group. The dogs could see past Kali's illusions.
This is more theorizing than solid evidence but, I think Season Four was Stranger Things' Freddy vs. Jason moment. We quite literally have Eddie vs. Jason, and also a character named Fred who tells us he's rooting against Jason's team winning. They've also cast the actor who played Freddy, Robert Englund, as Victor Creel, and there's a cardboard cut out of Freddy at Family Video. Vecna's hand was inspired by Freddy and a whole bunch of other things, so this isn't a major reach (maybe lol).
Anyway, in Freddy vs. Jason, the townspeople of Springwood have forgotten Freddy Krueger. The ones who do remember him are sent to a mental institution as a government coverup. (I'm not suggesting that is what has happened in Hawkins, but the inspiration is clearly there as Nancy and Robin take a trip to Pennhurst to gather information from the only person who seems to know anything about the case. Henry being taken is also covered up by the government.)
Because no one remembers Freddy Krueger, he's been trapped in Hell and unable to invade children's dreams using their fear. ("Dream a little dream of me" + "Welcome to Hawkins Hell") Freddy sets Jason Voorhees on a killing spree in order to manipulate the children of Springwood into remembering him. Essentially the murders spread a wave of panic and Freddy's name gets tossed around until Freddy's power grows strong enough that he doesn't need Jason and can lure them himself. It leads to a showdown between them, yadayada.
So what does this have to do with Stranger Things? Well, we're told that Vecna is stalking his victims. Dustin says he's trying to build a strong psychic connection with them. We see as much while Vecna's in the Upside Down. But until this season, he never shows any of these vision abilities. He obviously always had them, but it seems like maybe he’s been unable to use them because of being stuck in an alternate dimension. Before this, he’s always relied on the Mind Flayer to physically possess characters like Will and Billy, but we don't see any of that this season. Max says, "All we know is this is something different. Something new."
I think, like Jason Voorhees, Kali was helping build Vecna's psychic connection to his victims. Once it was strong enough, Vecna was able to finish the job himself, opening the gates. This would account for the fact that our victims are seeing visions for awhile before they're actually killed. "Your time is almost at an end." Why not just kill them at that point? It doesn't make a lot of sense. There are also some inconsistencies at the name that Max is called. We also see lurking shots of the characters clearly being spied on, especially Mike. A big one that a lot of people noticed is the one in the junkyard where someone is watching through a car window. Who is watching our characters? Could it be Kali and the "cult of Vecna"? Kali is able to travel through the void, just like El, afterall. And maybe it's a coincidence, but Kali takes El to a junkyard in Season Two to help her train. Again, it seems to me like the writers are leaving a clue.
[edit: Someone pointed out that Kali is surprised by El explaining how she used the void, but I think that there’s reason to believe that she’s lying about that. The purpose of the Hawkins experiment was remote listening using the void. Kali is 20 years old in Season Two, meaning she’s 7 years older than El, but she is somehow completely unaware of the existence of the void? That doesn’t make sense, but El had basically no memory of her time at Hawkins, so it was an easy lie for Kali to tell.]
Besides this, there are so many visual parallels between the opening of Freddy vs. Jason and Season Four—the Molotov cocktail being thrown and setting Freddy on fire, a human puppet on flesh strings (“Master of Puppets” + Vecna’s tentacles making him look like a puppet on strings), etc.
Okay back to connections that I swear can't just be a coincidence (To preface this, I'm not saying the characters are aware of all of these things. IMO, most are just subtle clues being left by the writers/set designs, etc.):
When El goes to visit Kali, she walks into the warehouse and passes a giant Upside Down sign that says "To Paris". Next to it is a spray painted smiley face. This season, Jonathan's wall has a Paris sign and a smiley face balloon, and his tapestry is upside down. (The balloon and smiley face motif also floats around different scenes this season—Like a smiley face balloon by the Christmas lights at Benny's when Lucas wakes up. Another link to the Upside Down.)
El also passes a giant sprayed Magic 8 Ball at the entrance hallway, just like the one 010 was playing with in the lab at the opening of Season Four.
El asks Kali, "Are you real?" just as Max does to El this season.
The sign between Kali and El is a red hand and eye with broken lights that make it read "Spiritual ISOR [eyesore]" instead of Spiritual Advisor:
Downstairs, Axel throws knives at a painted target. It's a person with a heart drawn on it. Next to him is a giant spray painted crown. This is similar imagery to Mike in Will's painting this season.
Axel says something something, "You mean the loony bin," which (offensively) connects to the Pennhurst storyline in Season Four. Kali responds with, "Mick, our eyes, our protector."
Dottie asks to play a game. "Awh, come on. Just one hand." Mick's response is, "One hand leads to two hands, two hands leads to three, and before you know it, I'm as broke as Axel." (This connects to Vecna using his hand to curse people and the motif of four. Also mimics his signature phrase: "You will break.")
Axel has the exact mask from the one they slow zoom in on at Joyce's job:
Something similar happens where we get a long zoom in on a news paper stack. Later we see a piece has been torn out and placed in Will's locker with the phrase "Zombie Boy." The eyes have been crossed out in red marker, just like Vecna's victims losing their eyes. We're never given an explanation for how it got there. We're meant to assume a random bully did it. Some have theorized it was Will's crush who asked him to dance, but that makes little sense. But we are shown that Kali and her crew have a closet where they have a collage of newspaper clippings of all the people they're targeting taped to the wall. They've drawn on clippings in red and black marker. There's Xs through the faces of the ones they've killed.
How did Kali escape before the Rainbow Room Massacre? And why does she nearly verbatim repeat Henry's lines to El while asking her to pull a train? (Also note that while El was in the Rainbow Room, Brenner tells her a story about how she needs to "leave the train station." While Kali isn't aware of the story of Nina, it's another hint from the writers about how this episode is connected.)
"He found his strength in a memory that made him sad, but also angry," Henry tells El in the Rainbow Room. Is it possible that Henry had already gotten to Kali? Where did she learn this? (Both of their speeches are longer, but line by line they parallel.)
To reiterate, we see Kali in a junkyard—the same place we're shown that the California crew is being watched from. These are the only two scenes that the writers chose to take place in a junkyard. Not shown in the screenshot, but there's actually giant "NO."s spray painted on the walls inside the warehouse, always next to Kali. They follow her into the scene at the junkyard, and in the initial shot they obscure El with a bin, so it's just Kali in the background with a big 'ole "NO." in the foreground.
There's a door with a red window spray painted behind Kali like the Creel's door. (Although it's much more prominent when El first comes to the warehouse, we can also see the magic eight ball I mentioned earlier on the right side.)
Kali questions El about what she remembers of her. On the surface this might seem sentimental, but if Kali is working with Vecna, the reason behind this is because she's trying to figure out what El knows about what happened.
One character asks, "Yeah, what about a lullaby? Did you sing her one?" Another allusion to Vecna, but also the idea of singing someone a song, when we know music is a weakness of Vecna.
One character says, "You don't kill their men and expect them to look the other way." Kali responds with, "If they find us, they will release Hell." Another allusion to Hell that we see as a continuous theme in Season Four.
Vecna's army is supposed to be undead, and we get an interesting line from Funshine, "We were dead, all of us. Kali saved us here. And here." He gestures to his heart. Whether this is actually literal is up for debate. Maybe Kali used powers similar to El's and essentially brought these people back to life, which is why they feel they owe her (and by extension, Vecna) their service in hunting down her enemies.
Kali torments El by making her hallucinate Brenner:
Does this not sound exactly like Vecna? Is this not incredibly similar to what happens to Vecna's victims? For instance, Max, when she sees her mother? Not to mention Kali's face is completely devoid of empathy, and the half of her face that we can see is lit in a purplish red glow that is eerily reminiscent of Vecna.
This line is the line. In this scene, Kali is talking about her powers, but it actually takes on a double meaning. Throughout this conversation, she earns a lot of empathy from the viewer, but look at how half of her face is obscured in darkness again. Like El, Kali is only showing us what she wants us to see.
Pt. 2
#there's so much more proof including the fact that someone caught photos of Kali's crew filming during S4#and we know that S5 picks up on the hill with footage that has obviously already been shot#ill tag as a potential spoiler but i could obviously be completely wrong#but i don't think the duffers wasted a whole episode on a backdoor pilot--we were meeting our villains?#woooo i've been sitting on this for like a month bc i didn't know how to condense my evidence AJJSKJSDKFJ#if there's typos no there isn't#stranger things#fan theory#byler#815 gate
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Hi! I just finished reading the secret history and was looking through your thread of theories and found them super intriguing! I was curious about your statement that Francis tried to assault Bunny. I must have missed this in the book, do you mind elaborating on how this was implied?
Cracks my knuckles* Alright, alright. Here we go again. So firstly, I cover this theory in this post the most, but i'll go over my main points in this responce.
Firstly, Bunny was the secret keeper: He knew about the twins, and damn well knew about Francis tastes. He lied at the time for Henrys sake, because if he spoke out he potentually could've ruined the lives of Henrys friends. And believe it or not, Bunny deeply cared for Henry and whether he had a social life or not.
Bunnys reaction to Henry's admission proves this for me (Although in the fandom his reaction gets twisted as selfish and wrong due to what Henry said on the matter. Even though Henry is known for being a manipulative freak.) As he was destraught that his best friend had commited such an act, he simply stopped trying to keep up the groups illusion.
All that is to explain why Bunny lied for Francis in the first place. And of course, why his insults were so focused on his sexuality in such a crude manner.
Now! What I see to be solid evidence: Bunny doesn't want anyone knowing he is drunk. (I'm refering to the time Richard knew Bunny was drunk, but he'd lied and said he had a cold) This is important, because Francis is shown to only go after intoxicated people (i.e Charles & Richard) I've theorized on such an occassion of drunkiness from Bunny, Francis tried to (Where he succeeded or not, I don't know.) Assault Bunny.
I further believe this to be the truth, as Richard points out the two clearly having had something big happened between the two that made them dislike each other.
They aren't friends, and purely tolerate each other.
There could be something to be said about Bunny not wanting to be open about his sex life as well -> I'm refering to the hickey he didn't want to talk about that he got from his girlfriend.
Also, I'd like to point out, why wouldn't Francis go for Bunny? Richard paints him as undeseriable but he isn't. Francis also clearly didn't have an issue going after more than one person either, considering he tried to two time both Richard and Charles.
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Also, honestly if there is enough discourse on this subject i'll write a whole offical post about it. Because to be honest, I am deffinutely missing some stuff from the book (I don't have my copy at the minute still, my bestie is reading it so I cannot refer to it.)
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The Big Alchael Meta Post
So, I'm obsessed with Alchael. I think it started as joke, but like my relationship with YIIK, it progressed to a point where I could no longer pretend it was ironic.
I’ve made Alchael related metas before, but none of them really cover everything I wanna say about them. Because of that, I figured it would be easier to just make one giant Alchael meta analysis that goes over everything in one place.
Sometimes, I’ll half-jokingly say things like “Alchael is canon and the most important relationship in YIIK”. While it’s true that it’s a joke and hyperbolic, I do think that there is some real strong evidence that Alex is into Michael in a way that goes beyond platonic affection, and that Alex’s obsession with Michael is massively important to the plot. If you’re totally new here, you’re probably wondering where I’m even getting this from, especially since a lot of people’s impression of Michael is that he’s there for comic relief early in the story, but he becomes irrelevant after a certain point only to come back when Proto-Michael happens. But in this post, I’m gonna lay out my reasoning and begin to unravel some of the Alchael related layers in the story. Also, it’s solely going to be focused on 1.25 - so no I.V stuff (I will probably have more to say on them after it comes out, but that will be its own post).
I. Background
I’m gonna start by hitting you with some general background knowledge in case you aren’t super deep into the meta-conversation and theorizing surrounding YIIK, so here it goes:
Alex, being an unreliable narrator, changes aspects of the narrative to suit his own delusions and wants. Alex presents the story as taking place in 1999, but it actually takes place in 2016. Similarly, Alex claims that he is 26 and Michael is 19, when Michael is actually older than Alex.
The biggest evidence of this comes in the form of the ONISM post “Weird game a QT’s brother made”, where Michael describes “seeing this girl” and playing a game made by her kid brother. Allison is Alex’s older sister, so if the girl in the story is Allison, it would mean Michael is around Allison’s age, making Michael the older one. The post would also indicate that Michael’s primary relationship was with Allison, not Alex.
Of course, all of this is very different from what we actually see in the game, and I think once we figure out what changes were made and why, it can be very revealing. Michael, instead of being Allison’s friend, is now recast as Alex’s best friend. Instead of being his actual age, he’s permanently stuck at 19, studying for the SATs forever. And importantly - Allison is completely gone from the picture, totally erased from the narrative aside from a few references to her. The fact that she was the one who Michael’s primary relationship was with is gone completely. Alex effectively erased Allison from the story in order to take her place - and this place was Michael’s romantic interest.
II. Nubile
So, given that Michael in YIIK is effectively fulfilling a fantasy/delusion of Alex, I think it’s worth pointing out some lines that are kind of… strange, and in my opinion, are further evidence that Alex’s obsession with Michael goes beyond simply wanting to be his friend. Mainly, I want to point out this exchange:
(footage source)
For those who don’t know, the definition of nubile is “(of a young woman) sexually attractive” or “(of a young woman) sexually mature; old enough for marriage”. Haha, funny joke right? Michael is using a word to describe an attractive woman, but he’s not a woman! How unexpected!
I’ll circle back to the nubile thing in a bit, but for now I actually wanted to point out something else about these lines. If we assume that the relationship that we see between them in YIIK actually represents what Alex wishes it could be, it’s strange that Michael still delivers lines that are mocking Alex in this way, isn't it? It’s also interesting that Michael’s go-to insult is often calling attention to Alex’s body, and that in this case, he uses this to point out just how attractive he is in comparison. The comparison isn’t even solely about fat shaming Alex here - the use of the word “nubile” is pretty explicitly making it about being more sexually attractive than Alex.
The game calls back to the “nubile” joke in the next scene:
I almost feel like I’m being redundant with my analysis at this point, but, like, come on. Now Alex is the one pointing out Michael’s relative attractiveness, and Michael just straight up nonchalantly agrees with him! Sure, this is the kind of joke flirting that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary between friends, but once again keep in mind that all of this is being presented to you through Alex’s filtered lens, which is why I believe that it highlights the specific belief of Alex's that Michael is more attractive than him. With the use of the word "nubile", it makes it specifically about Michael’s sexual desirability and compares him to a woman! It’s stuff like this that really makes me doubt that Alex just innocently wants to be Michael’s friend, and makes me think there’s some other stuff going on here.
III. ONISM / Obsession
Now, I want to jump all the way to the near end of the game to highlight a monologue that happens right before the New Years Eve segment, wherein Alex reflects on his past with Michael, how they fell apart, and the inconsistencies within his own story. I highly encourage you to watch this scene and the monologue yourself, especially since I see a lot of people glaze over it in let’s plays, due to the sheer amount of (seemingly irrelevant) detail that it has. Here is a link.
The first thing I want to point out is just how much about his meeting with Michael that Alex remembers and is able to recite in excruciating detail. With how much Alex is able to go on and on, we are shown how many details he remembers about the summer Michael moved in and the house he lived in. I don’t think anything in the game is described in as much detail as Alex describes Michael’s house. Yet, when it comes to remembering how old Michael was when he moved in or moved away, and what year he moved away, Alex contradicts himself multiple times. I believe that the reason why he’s stumbling over himself when it comes to the timeline is because Alex’s timeline is wrong. I think It might even be an instance where he knows he’s lying, and he’s scrambling to cover his lie.
Then, Panda reminds Alex that he and Michael had “a falling out”. The details of this are fuzzy, but it seems to involve Alex traveling to Canada to meet Michael and ultimately being stood up. Although, I think it’s very possible that the actual reason they “fell out” happened before this, and Alex is omitting those details. I find it pretty wild how obsessed Alex must be in order to fly to another country just to try and fail to rekindle his relationship with Michael.
However, it seems even after this “falling out” happened, Alex never actually got over Michael. Not only does Alex wish for a world where Michael is 19 forever and thus never leaves him, he also remains a regular visitor of his website, ONISM. In fact, it’s Alex’s obsession with Michael’s creation that sets the stage for the entire plot. It’s how Alex discovers Semi’s disappearance, and where he gets the basis for the version of her (Sammy) that he creates in his head. This is one of the main reasons why I say that Alchael is the most important relationship in YIIK.
I.V. Losing My Religion
Throughout the game, you receive phone calls from someone who calls himself “your best childhood friend” and who is very heavily implied to be Michael. In one of these calls, he describes listening to “Losing My Religion” with Alex.
The song is also brought up in the monologue before New Years Eve that I mentioned already:
So, it seems like Losing My Religion is a song associated with Alex and Michael’s relationship. Given this, is it possible that we can learn about them from the meaning of the song? Michael Stipe, who wrote the lyrics of the song, has consistently said in interviews that the song is not literally about religion, but rather about a narrator who has unrequited love for someone else, and loses his composure in front of them. He even referred to it as a “classic obsession song” in two separate interviews.
Now, it’s worth noting that the timeline that is being presented in those screencaps actually makes zero sense. Losing My Religion became a hit in 1991, but if the game takes place in 2016, Alex should have been born around 1990. For this to make sense, Alex would have to have been listening to Losing My Religion with Michael when he was one year old, and with how vividly Alex remembers the summer that Michael moved in, I just don’t find that very likely. In my personal opinion, I think what’s more likely is that this is an extension of Alex’s main character syndrome. If you’re the main character of reality, a song is a hit when you listen to it the most. If this is true, it means that Alex was repeatedly listening to a song about unrequited love and losing your cool around a person you’re obsessed with right around the time that he met Michael. Very interesting! On a related note, when I was researching the meaning of Losing My Religion for this meta, I came across a Michael Stipe quote where he said “I've always felt the best kinds of songs are the ones where anybody can listen to it, put themselves in it and say, 'Yeah, that's me.’”, which kind of blew me away because this is exactly what Alex does with all media, so it would make perfect sense if he did it with Losing My Religion as well.
With that, I'm going to end the analysis here. Although this covers pretty much everything I wanted to say about the Alchael implications in the base game, I get the feeling I'm probably going to have more to say about them when I.V comes out. I also may write some more YIIK metas on other topics, so let me know if you'd like to see that. Until then, thanks for reading!
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If I had a nickel for every time a FNAF video got me thinking critically about Bendy, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Today it's about how there's a lot we don't actually know in this series, and how maybe I need to stop driving myself crazy trying to figure it out.
So, this is where I reveal that I am anal about what I consider to actually be canon to Bendy, and that framing matters to me a lot. Like, if we're talking about The Illusion of Living for example, I will be very explicit in saying the canon is that Joey claims that Bendy was created by him, Henry, and Abby while sitting on the floor of his apartment. And that is the only thing that's canon, Joey claims this event happened in this way, but whether or not it actually happened in this way is unclear, since Joey perpetually lies to people throughout this series. Now, this is one of those events that I think he's telling the truth about personally, but no, all we have for the canon of that event is that Joey tells us it happened that way. That's not the same thing as "this is decidedly what happened". And this goes for every character, these characters are not guaranteed to be telling a truthful or accurate version of events at any time, some of them have reasons to either purposely abstract the truth, or unreliable memories due to the horrors of this world affecting their minds. I feel this VERY strongly with the books especially, because we know most of them have a lot of mental stuff going on because of the ink, but it's not just them. Look at Sammy and Susie, look at Tom, look at Wally and how charming but suspicious he is in what he knows. This series has VERY FEW reliable narrators, there is so much you have to interpret in order to get anywhere with it. So when people tell me something is "canon," I am immediately skeptical and want to know what their source is. Can't take anything at face value.
And the thing is, when you look at the canon through this lens, it is exhausting, technicalities will become the bane of your existence. This week I went back to some of the books with some friends, and the descriptions for Brant and Archie in TLO and FTB don't entirely line up with them being lost ones specifically as ink monsters (thank you Victor @reanimationstation for pointing that out and for the Sammy take that will follow here, I was so caught up in the moment I missed it on my first read-through). I feel like that's the intent with them, at the very least I feel like that's the intent with Brant because his book is literally titled "The Lost Ones", but the skeletal structure, the glowing eyes, things I would consider to be KEY FEATURES of that kind of monster are missing from their descriptions, and it leaves me with a lot of questions about what they actually are and what creatures they DO line up with. And I'm fascinated by the possibilities, because it creates a lot of fun options for fan interpretations, like making Archie a similar creature to Sammy to further unite their common threads (like why is Sammy the only character built the way he is??), or developing a new creature altogether. It is also frustrating from a theorizing standpoint because I can't say either of them are lost ones definitively, that's not the canon. They are ink monsters with x features, that is all we know, anything else is putting a label on them without knowing all the ingredients that make them up. I think Brant is probably a lost one, but I can't say that's the canon, that's something I've inferred and interpreted from the information available, which isn't a complete picture.
I want to do more with theorizing, but I think, I just wanna let myself have fun for a bit too, and not care about the canon by my usual high standards. I wanna go be a little indulgent with letting the hallucinations from Fade to Black exist as real creatures, even though there isn't enough evidence to say whether they are or not. I wanna play with the glasses more. I want to overthink about how Wilson may have used the glasses to enter and exit the studio as a possible "in" for Dark Revival. (Frankly Fade to Black has me asking a LOT of questions about Wilson that I want to mess around with.) I want to think about how Memory Joey, and how he might believe Henry and Allison are clones wholeheartedly, but he might have been fed bad information that he believes to be true (I don't think he'd intentionally lie to Audrey, but he is liable to be misinformed, he's a Joey after all). I want to contemplate "what ifs" that don't have to be based on completely factual things. I want hypotheticals. Maybe I just want to write fanfiction! X'''D Isn't that all theorizing is, fanfiction you're trying to validate with the canon? Like hell if I know!
There is a time and place for being anal about the canon I think. Establishing a timeline or a baseline of our factual information is useful and can inform a great deal of things, and it also gives you some room to anticipate where changes might occur if something gets revealed as a new twist or retconned in the future. Maybe that's just me, trying to justify things and make them fit within my view of this world (which let's be real, we all do it, I'm just hard on myself for it). But sometimes, you gotta let go. Sometimes you gotta let yourself be a little silly, maybe a bit unhinged. Sometimes you have to say, fuck it, maybe the hallucination of Henry from FTB becomes Borkis and writes golden ink messages for Cyclebreaker Henry to find. It's out there, it's stupid, but damn is it fun to consider based on nothing at all. Sometimes you get to ask if Keepers have souls for shits and giggles.
Maybe I need to stop framing theorizing as "solving the canon". Maybe we all could stand to have more fun playing with the world. And maybe we could stop calling things "canon" and debating the "canon" and just, enjoy the ride regardless of the canon. Because ultimately, it is frustrating to argue about the canon, especially for a series like Bendy where half the fun is from getting interpretative with it. Part of the fun is creating the story, using your imagination with the pieces the story gives us. And we're not always gonna agree on what kind of story this is or what's valuable about it, nor what direction it should go in or what is the best way to tell it. That's a huge part of enjoying stories, you're not supposed to all get the same takeaway from it. Bendy's story means different things to different people. And that's part of the beauty of it. And maybe, I need to be a little nicer to myself about it. Maybe I need to go learn to play again.
Maybe I need to learn not to take things so seriously. ^^''''
#bendy theorizing#bendy commentary#batdr#bendy fade to black spoilers#bendy ftb spoilers#bendy fade to black#bendy ftb#bendy and the dark revival#long post#been thinking a lot about this this week
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Can I pick yor brain to theorize a bit? So Blue won today which means they're leading. If we do a bit of math we can conclude that purgatory will end on the 18th (otherwise they could tie or it will last until the 20th which would be a bit more than 2 weeks). That would mean that if Blue wins two more times they win no matter what. The same way, if Red wins 3 more times they win no matter what.
The problem here is: no one has any concrete evidence for which is the cursed team yet. Some theorize is one, some want to be the other. But no one knows.
The Eye said guess or find out or something like it. But we don't know in what to base it. Should we base our guess in lore, in strength, in suffering, in meta?
The closest anyone got to the real truth was ElQuackity being offered to know in exchange for killing someone that day or he would die. Well, he didn't die so there's that. And he talked to the Eye again after that and didn't mention anything about it. So, did they just ignore that plot point or does ElQuackity know now which team is cursed but the audience doesn't?
You could argue that he wanted Blue and Green to tie BECAUSE he knew which team is cursed. He could either want Blue to lose so the cursed wins OR because he wanted the cursed to lose (since that would doom the eggs too).
ElQuackity has not logged since going to Blue so we can't test this theory well yet.
Or maybe the Eye is lying about the whole thing, which wouldn't be a surprise, and no one is cursed.
If by any God forsaken chance Green was the cursed team... F in chat to our eggs, you will be missed. The Gay Ninjas tried their best. There's no coming back from this one.
One of the tweets also said "May the best egg die". How does that work? What is "best" here based on?
The more I hear the Eye talk the less I fear him. Can't he threaten people better? He showed a video of the eggs running away like two months ago. Show them now you half-baked villain, we've known they ran away since the end of the happy pills arc. Do you actually even have them? Forever could do a stone Richarlyson at his home, you're not impressing anyone with this. Just cause your is bigger and has Pomme's beret it doesn't mean anything. (I hope. F Pomchas.)
Also, once again it begs the never answered question: What WOULD happen if they tied? What will Eye do if they don't do anything all day? Like, sure, if cursed loses is bad but if it's before the last day they didn't lose yet. Just that day (technically).
If we go meta, I think they didn't choose the cursed team yet and may do so only based on the results from the event. But that's boring so let's talk about lore and real fun things like that.
For me, the cursed team being whoever had ElQuackity on them is something that has some kinda of proofs, but at the same time wouldn't make that much sense. Like did the eye know from the beginning who would be the teams? And why would everything fall on ElQuackity? And would that mean that cursed team changed from green to blue? If the curse truly is on the person I mean.
And can I be real? The eye guy SUCKS as a villain, sure he is ominous and can see everything but guess what? So could the feds, and the eye plans are a lot worse than theirs which mean they are horrible cause like, the feds are the guy who sent a single worker on a boat to purgatory!! The eye is not what strikes fear really, it's the islanders minds that do, the ones that keep thinking of the what if, what if they lose? What if they are cursed? What if they never go back? I get what they were trying to do with the eye but it didn't really work, he isn't around enough to really strike fear on us. And like, not that we know a lot about the reasons of why the feds do their stuff, but why the egg hates sinners and eggs so much? Is he god? What is he?
Okay got a bit distracted sorry, the whole "may the best egg die" thing sounded more like just a play on words really, but what if the best one is the one who survives? What if the statues really were connected to the eggs and the ones who weren't killed will be considered the best? Doesn't make a lot of sense but honestly cannot think about other possibilities for that choice of words.
The tie also makes me confuses, when it was said they would all die, did they mean everyone including red? Or if not, would everyone just be sent to red and they would win by default?
I'm a believer that there isn't a cursed team really, that it's mostly a mind game from the egg part to see how low the islander can go, to see them running around like rats trying to survive while also hunting each other like wolves, because there are no clues for the players really, like we as an audience can have our theories based on millions of povs, but what about the islanders? they can't do that.
I would like there to be clue drops over the next days since we are so close to the end but, I don't think it will be the case really. I think the curse team doesn't exist and this will be revealed at the end.
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oh are people still expecting a post from me?
Anyways, my hot-ish take is that, while I fully understand that things Paul and John have said concerning their relationship and their own orientation has led to speculation regarding the nature of their relationship, I think it does a disservice to all parties to try and force a romantic narrative on the break-up of the Beatles.
That isn't to say the theories are wrong or that romantic feelings – whether reciprocated or unreciprocated – played absolutely no role in their falling-out, I just think applying them to the break-up specifically often seems to leave out details in order to tell a more straightforward story of a lover scorned (John) and a jealous third wheel (Paul).*
*Whatever the nature of their relationship, I think it would be disingenuous to boil it all down to romance. I'm NOT saying that romantic relationships are inherently less complex or something silly like that, I'm saying that I have literally seen people say things to the effect of "They were in love with each other and couldn't handle it. End of story."
The reality is that John and Paul were both going through A LOT in 1968/9. They were grappling with Brian's death and dealing with a business they didn't know how to run; they had lost the rights to their songs; John upended his life and more or less abandoned his family from one day to the next – a family Paul cared about as well, mind you; Paul himself got out of a five-year relationship; John entered into a relationship, which seriously infringed upon quality time, which had once been reserved for Paul and the rest of the band; John began heavily using heroin, greatly affecting him as well as everyone around him; John dealt with Yoko being hospitalized due to a miscarriage just after painful divorce hearings; Paul slowly had to realize he was not in control of any of this.
I don't see how them being in love would somehow make all the above circumstances trivial in comparison. Nevertheless, more often than not, I see the two (and more Paul than John, to be frank) being framed as responding "irrationally" to the other – and here "irrationally" seems to be equated with "in love" in a strangely direct way.
Is it really that unreasonable for Paul to be distraught at so much changing about how his best friend is interacting with him and the people around him (on top of all the other shit currently happening around him)? Sometimes I feel like people are being willfully obtuse by framing these changes as "John just brought his girlfriend to the studio why does Paul care??"
And while I have a harder time defending John's actions as "measured", per se, I don't for one second believe that every single one of them were solely motivated by capital L Love. He was a vulnerable man struggling with severe mental illness, who was often acting in ways he felt would lessen his suffering, which had many origins, not only Paul not reciprocating or committing enough to him or what have you.
There's also this pattern where the fact they didn't always treat Cyn/Jane well is somehow evidence of their feelings for each other rather than a reflection of their own shortcomings as partners (to put it very nicely).
So yeah, I think my point is, while I understand theorizing about these men, I think it's odd how much people will flatten a convoluted tragic sequence of events to make it fit more neatly into a preconceived narrative.
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Something that I have been surprised to notice is how frequently DC's young male heroes in the 1990s are depicted as crying. In a genre that is so typically associated with a certain kind of masculine expectations, I find it unusual to see this occur, frequently without censure from other characters or the narrative. Some do it more often than others, but Tim, Kon, Bart, Grant, and Ray--all of them have been shown at one time or another in this state of emotional vulnerability, and these moments are often the most poignant of their series.
This time, I'm going to look at how this applies to Bart specifically. He's usually pretty carefree and resilient, but there are several notable occasions of his succumbing to tears. And there's a pattern here.
I am focusing on occasions where crying is made explicitly evident through visuals or dialogue. Some ambiguous occasions (such as his telling Cissie about how Max almost died--she is crying but his eyes are hidden) have been left out for simplicity's sake. If I missed something, please let me know!
The earliest instance of Bart's crying comes pretty soon after he's arrived in the twentieth century. One of the Rogues has attacked him, and Bart, unused to pain after a life in VR, doesn't take it well. Wally sees this as childish and petty and snarks at him for crying. This particular narrative is from Wally's POV and thus not meant to be very sympathetic to Bart, so the point of this incident is to reinforce the view of him as immature and bratty.
This is the only case with this perspective, however!
(The Flash 1987 #97)
Here, Bart has lost his speed and Max is in the hospital. Bart is deeply upset by this and has responded by being withdrawn and lethargic. When a schoolmate taunts him about not caring about anything, Bart is enraged at being so misunderstood and lashes out physically. He's in tears by the middle of the fight and as he runs out of school, calling futilely for Max.
(Impulse #10)
The death of fellow speedster Johnny Quick is (I think) the first time that Bart witnesses death as applying to someone he knew and utter grief from Johnny's daughter Jesse. It's a lot to process.
(Impulse #11)
Bart and Wally don't tend to get along most of the time, but when the adults theorize that a recently disappeared Wally must have allowed himself to die, Bart is devastated to think that anything like that could happen to his cousin, whom he looks up to more than he's usually ready to admit.
(The Flash 1987 #141)
The news that Max is dying is bad enough, but failing to work up enough speed to get him to the speed force for a cure is hard on Bart.
(Impulse #62)
As is the prospect of losing his AI friend Dox, and then realizing that he really is gone for good.
(Impulse #64)
The climax of the Mercury Falling arc is highly emotional, and I didn't realize until I took these screenshots just how often Bart cries here--as he fears for Max's life, as he tells Thad that self-sacrifice is what you do when you love someone, as he struggles to bring Max to the speed force.
(Everyone cries in this sequence. There's even a single tear from cold, detached Thad at one point.)
(Impulse #66)
And finally, after a long, emotionally fraught day that culminates in his losing Carol, whom he has just started to have feelings for, Bart openly weeps. Unlike the first instance, when he was mocked for doing so, Iris assures him that it's okay. This reaction isn't childishness; it's a natural expression of grief that's the right and proper response to everything he's been through. Bart's emotionality is regarded not as a weakness but as evidence of his warm heart.
(Impulse #75)
From here on until the end of YJ (everything after that is beyond my area of expertise), we do not see him clearly crying again. Not when he vicariously experiences his own death on Apokolips (...maybe? one panel is a bit ambiguous). Not during his subsequent depression. Not when he has to leave Helen--she's the one crying there, and he's trying to be positive for her sake.
With the exception of the first instance I've listed, all of these cases have a common thread: they are in response to a loss, actual or feared. A lot of people that he loves have left him for various reasons, so the prospect of yet another bereavement is what can move him to tears. He usually deals with internal turmoil by retreating within himself, as he does at the start of Impulse #10 and during his multiple depressive slumps toward the end of the series, but once these feelings involve another person, it's a different story.
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A Mask of my Own Face
Words: 3357 (AO3)
Originally Posted on 11/2/2022
Summary:
Tim and Danny Stoker seem perfectly human on the surface. They're sociable, they have very human friends, they're the last people to be suspected of being ghouls.
Tim's going to keep it that way. Even after Danny isn't able to.
My fifteenth bad things happen bingo entry! Prompt: Punitive Mask
There are no such things as monsters.
This is a fact that every ghoul knows, that there is nothing that goes bump in the night and lurks in the darkness purely to be frightening. The things that lie in wait to inflict fear always do so for a purpose- and the definition of such things always depends on perspective. A monster to a worm is a bird, to whom a monster is a cat, to whom a monster is a man, to whom a monster is a ghoul.
The only things that are to be feared are other ghouls and the Doves. Nightmares are only dreams; darkness is only shadow.
The humans are the only real threats to anyone, though, because most ghouls tend to leave each other alone unless they've been truly wronged. Humans, on the other hand, go ballistic at the very idea of a ghoul, so that must be avoided at all costs. Most ghouls handle this one of two ways: either they disconnect from human society altogether, choosing to live in an enclave of ghouls and interact with humans only to hunt; or, they participate in human society while continuously masquerading as humans themselves, treading carefully at all times to keep suspicion away from them.
The Stokers have tended towards the latter category. They wear their masks well, always outgoing and personable to everyone they meet, willing to go out for meals or drinks with friends, though of course both of the brothers seem to have a bit of a caffeine addiction- but who doesn't, these days?
Tim and Danny Stoker seem like they are perfectly human. Neither of them seem to have any connection at all to the two clown ghouls sighted in the same area of London, and they would both prefer for it to remain that way.
These ghouls- who are, as far as anybody knows, entirely separate beings from Tim and Danny Stoker- are never sighted together, but their complimentary clown-themed masks are enough to clue anybody in on the fact that they are working as a unit. They never hunt more than necessary, only having, at most, one death per month attributed to each, the minimum required amount of meat for a ghoul- which has led the CCG to labeling them as low-priority targets. What minimal investigation has been done has determined that these two ghouls are likely related, given that they both have rinkaku kagunes that they use in similar ways- though the physically smaller of the two has six of these tentacles, while the larger one has only four. Other than these, the major difference between the two is that the physically smaller ghoul wears a mask that is predominantly red, while the other wears a mask that is predominantly pink. The CCG has also theorized that the red-masked clown ghoul is the older of the two, but this is mere speculation, as no solid evidence has been found to back it up.
All of that's not to say that when those clown ghouls are active, Tim and Danny don't have any other hobbies- they do, though it's usually Tim going along with whatever new thing Danny's decided to pick up this month. Kayaking and skydiving were some of Tim's personal favorites of those, but Danny's new thing shows promise- he's decided that urban exploring would be something fantastic to try out, especially considering that neither of them would have to worry about the usual dangers that all the humans in this hobby have to put up with.
Tim thinks that this may end up interesting, but he isn't going to be joining in anytime soon. He's got work, for one thing, and he doesn't want to risk any of his good shirts going into old and decrepit buildings- and trying his hunting clothes would just bring up other issues.
No, this new hobby in particular is one that he's going to sit out on, and cheer his brother on while on the sidelines. Whatever pictures he manages to grab are probably going to be interesting, plus Tim is always down to help research places to go- but he won't be setting foot anywhere that he isn't supposed to be anytime soon.
That promise holds true for about a month- excepting the usual escapades into particular places that neither of them should be going specifically for food-related reasons- until it doesn't.
Danny's been acting... strange, recently. He found a place that he wants to start exploring, some old performance hall or something underneath a modern building, and while that would be all well and good, after he went in the first time he became damn near obsessed.
He swears up and down that he hadn't seen or heard or otherwise sensed anyone else there, human or otherwise, but he also swears up and down that there were shadows moving in human forms, and there's a photograph that he caught that has the heel of a foot in the corner of the frame- and that foot did not belong to Danny, because he was the one taking the picture.
So the first thing he did was go down a research rabbit hole, trying to find any evidence of hauntings, of all things- because though Tim stopped believing in anything like that a long time ago, Danny remains insistent that if an entire species that can only consume human meat exists, then other things may as well, too. Tim can't find fault in this logic, but he still feels like he's in the right on this issue, that the only things even remotely supernatural in this world are creatures like himself and his brother, and really- they aren't supernatural at all.
The next thing that Danny did after finding absolutely nothing on the haunting angle was try and go back again, to find more evidence as to what he could have possibly seen. He says that he plans to actually go through with this tomorrow, but tonight he's crashing on Tim's couch and raiding his fridge because Danny decided to eat too much of his most recent hunt at once, like a dumbass.
Tim doesn't know what to think of this whole deal. Realistically, the whole thing was probably a combination of Danny's imagination and a hunt that he didn't tell Tim about, judging by the foot in the photo, but there's a lingering, nagging thought in the back of his mind that he just needs to make sure that it's nothing. It's tiny, the slight itch of paranoia in his head, but it's enough to tempt him into wanting to join Danny on this fool's errand. There would be time, of course, especially since he won't head out until tomorrow night, a Saturday, so he won't need to try and work around his work schedule- it's convenient enough for him to go along and make sure that everything remains fine. Not that he doesn't trust his brother, of course, it's just that he is the better fighter of the two, realistically speaking- alright. He's decided.
He's going urban exploring.
It will only be the one time, just to make sure that this supposedly haunted place isn't just a nest of antisocial ghouls or something. That's all.
He falls asleep, resolute in this decision to accompany Danny to what will probably be nothing dangerous, but interesting enough not to call it a waste.
-----
They go at sunset the next evening. The place just looks like any other building to Tim, but he's willing to believe that there may be some hidden thing beneath it, especially given that they're in one of the older areas of the city.
It starts out normally enough. They go in through a back door, Danny leading the way since he's the one who's been here before. The place is eerily silent, missing even the usual chatter of insects and things that usually go undetected by humans' ears. Already, Tim feels inexplicably tense, even though he knows that he has no reason to.
Ghosts and monsters are human superstition, nothing more. There is nothing that will endanger them here. The stories told to the humans are nothing more than cheap thrills for those who made them up, or else cover for other ghouls' hunts.
There is no real merit to them. There can't be- or else they wouldn't have been dismissed by every ghoul and their mother for being nothing more than human idiocy.
Repeating this assurance isn't helping the creeping dread that Tim feels as he follows Danny deeper down below the building and into a practically untouched performance hall that looks like it's two hundred years old, at least.
At first glance, the seats are all empty, as expected. He hears nothing but the occasional scuttle of a spider, and he's ready to dismiss the whole thing as nothing more than Danny's imagination going wild in a place that is, admittedly, rather unsettling.
Then, Danny tenses in front of him, and Tim turns to look at where he's staring to see a humanoid form slouched in one of the seats. Tim can't hear breathing other than their own, nor can he smell any human or ghoul that isn't himself or Danny, which has escalated this entire thing into something that is definitely creepy. Tim idly wonders, for a moment, if there can be a species that feeds exclusively on humans, is there something that does the same to ghouls?
"Alright, I believe you about the weird shit here, it's time to go now." Tim insists, while Danny remains completely still beside him. Tim backs up a step or two, and crashes into something that he swears wasn't there a moment ago.
He looks at the floor to see a mannequin, dressed as a circus acrobat. He looks back up at Danny, who still hasn't moved. Tim allows his eyes to bleed black, in an almost certainly ineffective show of threat against whatever the hell is in here with them, before he grabs at Danny by the arm, trying to pull him back the way they came.
Danny startles, and turns back to face Tim, who starts pulling him more insistently towards the exit. He, too, allows his eyes to turn black, and the both of them start running out.
It isn't long before more footsteps join theirs, following too closely behind. Tim slows down and pushes Danny ahead, and turns back to whatever's chasing them, pushing his rinkaku out of his back, tearing his shirt in the process, and towards whatever was behind them.
They snap out blindly, knocking over a mass of what feels and sounds like plastic- but it can't be, because it was clearly chasing them- and he doesn't pay the incongruency too much mind, instead focused on beating their remains to smithereens with the rinkaku. The amount of noise drowns out Danny's footsteps, and when he's finally done, he doesn't hear anything other than his own breathing.
That's fine, because Danny's probably far ahead of him by this point, if he's kept running at their earlier pace. Tim decides to follow that lead, and runs back out the same way he'd come in, bursting out of the back door to the building to see the very beginning of sunrise.
He hadn't thought that they'd been down there that long, but time does sometimes seem to pass too quickly or slowly in isolation. Looking around, Tim doesn't see Danny around anywhere by the entrance, but instead of allowing himself to worry- he'd cut off their attackers, there couldn't have been any other way for them to get to Danny, right?- he decides that taking down the things that were down there must have taken longer than he'd thought, and Danny must've gone back to Tim's flat.
He hopes so, anyway, and ignores the lack of new messages on his phone- Danny must have forgotten to charge his again. Of course. No other reason he wouldn't text Tim.
Tim pulls his rinkaku back under his skin and forces his eyes back to a human-like appearance. He sneaks back home, pretending to be drunk when necessary, and tries not to freak out when he finds that it's exactly the way he'd left it last night.
Danny must have gone to his own flat. That must be the right explanation, because nothing can just kill a ghoul, not without a fight, not just that quietly- Danny's going to text him when he plugs his phone in at his flat. It's fine.
Everything is going to be fine.
-----
A week later, Danny still hasn't texted or called. Tim went to his flat yesterday to find it empty, with things strewn about, exactly as he'd seen it last week when he'd picked up Danny to go to dinner and then his own place.
So Danny has clearly not returned to his flat. That's not ideal, obviously, but he's probably just stuck down at the place that they explored, lost without a flashlight and definitely holding his own against whatever was in there with them, because Tim knows that he taught his brother well enough to survive in a hostile environment like that.
He goes back in at sunset, exactly seven days after the first time, this time completely alone. He creeps in silently, flashlight off but in hand, making his way briskly and efficiently back to the performance hall. He knows that if Danny's likely to be anywhere, it's there- it seems to be the epicenter of this place, so it makes sense that that's where he would end up getting cornered, and likely turned around while he's at it. It would be a decent place to set up as a base camp, as well, so Tim would be remiss not to go there first.
When he enters, it appears exactly as empty as it had immediately seemed a week ago. There's no obvious setup of a makeshift bed or anything, no indication that Danny's set up here, but the thought occurs that he may be in the audience seats.
Tim fumbles with his flashlight for a moment before it flicks on, and he waves it slowly over the audience seats. It seems like there's nothing to be found, until it catches on a single glimmer of color in the corner of the ring of light it gives off.
Tim moves the flashlight to focus on whatever it caught on, and it illuminates Danny, sitting slumped in one of the chairs like nothing's happened. Tim starts bounding ahead between the seats before he realizes that something is wrong.
Danny's eyes are back to a human appearance, but his rinkaku is limply slumped over the seats around him, which shouldn't be possible. His skin also seems to sag in places it hadn't before, and he's slumped in on himself more than he ever has before.
Tim stops, and stares ahead at the now slowly-moving body in front of him. Danny's rinkaku is sluggishly moving around, knocking into empty seats, as though he suddenly isn't used to having it out.
Its skin stretches and pulls in a way that isn't right, almost like it's catching on the opening on his back where the rinkaku normally comes out.
It moves unsteadily, unnaturally, its chest doesn't move to breathe, its rinkaku doesn't twitch with energy, and Tim knows that that- whatever is in front of him- that isn't Danny.
He feels like a coward, when he turns and runs, but he doesn't want to fight the thing that looks like his brother. It even has his kagune, that's not- he can't. He won't, he can't, even though he knows that that thing can't properly control the extra limbs it would feel too much like fighting his own flesh and blood to really try it.
Besides, it would call backup. He knows that it would call backup, and then where would he be? The same place as Danny?
No, he can't think about that now, he won't, he knows that it is in his nature as a ghoul to be callous about these things but fuck he's going to mourn properly once he gets out of here. He won't just forget about him and move on like so many others tend to do, not grieving for nearly as long as the humans do- and he knows that that's because of the damned Doves coming after everybody, but Danny was his last remaining family. They've been blending in well enough, he's allowed to properly grieve. He's allowed. Danny's gone and he is allowed to mourn.
Before he manages to get out of the amphitheater, there's another mannequin that's appeared in front of the doorway. It's dressed as a ringleader, with old-style clown makeup on its otherwise featureless face. It tilts its head at him, just slightly, and there's a tension in the air as it prepares to do something, taunt him perhaps, but he doesn't give it the chance. He leaps forward and tears it apart at the seams, and though none of its plastic seems permanently broken, he hopes that it hurts. He shoves past its pieces and out the door, through the ancient hallways and stairwells back the way he came for what should be the final time.
Tim bursts out of the back door to see the cloudy night sky. He runs back to his flat, still too full of adrenaline to walk there, and it isn't until he's locked the door behind him that it really hits him that Danny is gone.
It was an objective fact, when he'd seen that thing that wasn't Danny. He'd known that the only way that it could do that was if Danny wasn't alive anymore to control his kagune, to move properly, to speak, to breathe, but- but it wasn't something that sunk in until he'd walked over to his couch and seen Danny's old blanket he'd brought with him to stay over last week.
He wants to scream. He wants to scream and he wants to tear something apart, but he can't- he can't do that. He can't make too much noise about it until he reports it to the police, covers everything up, makes sure that Danny's humanity remains unquestioned even in death.
What will he even say? He can't tell anyone where Danny was really spotted last, unless he wants someone to find the thing that isn't him and see that distinctive rinkaku to make the connection between the two of them and the ghouls they really are. No, he's going to have to make something up, and get rid of all of his meat while he's at it, make sure that he seems as human as possible- he'll have to go into Danny's apartment and do the same.
That's not even mentioning the masks. Why, of all things, did they choose a clown theme?
After he reports Danny missing, he's going to have to make an appearance in that mask. Danny's mask. To make sure that nobody connects the sudden disappearance of the clown duo of ghouls to the disappearance of Danny Stoker.
The pink thing was brought to Tim's flat along with Danny's other things last week, "just in case." It fits his face well enough that no one would question it, if he's just seen in it once, then the connection won't be made by the Doves.
He's only going to have to wear it once. That's all.
Technically, he could risk it, and just toss both his and Danny's damn clown masks and hope that the Doves don't come after him out of the million-odd people in London, but some part of him says that he deserves it, he deserves to have to wear that mask and pretend to be the brother he wasn't good enough to protect.
That's not until later, though. That's after he files the police report, which will be after he cleans up, which will be tomorrow morning. Tonight, he's going to drink all of his fermented blood he's got hidden in the back of his pantry, and he's going to hope the neighbors don't hear him cry.
#tma crossover#tokyo ghoul crossover#crossover fic#my writing#A Mask of my Own Face#A Mask of my Own Face fic
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what is your perspective on why EH shippers (or EM haters) are still obsessed with wanting eren to be the father even though he isn't and there was never strong enough evidence for it? like, even with the anime doubling down how eren was a still a childish boy, an idiot who got his hand on power and never once ever mentioned historia or even thinking about her and the alleged kid he left behind...why would they still want that for them? and why would they think historia would want/choose that as well? is it all seriously about eren not being a virgin before he died? is it all seriously about not handling that historia could have agency to choose any partner she wants and that it doesn't have to be the mc when the person she had a kid with was never the point or truly relevant? i can't comprehend why ppl can't let it go or why they'd want eren, a mass murderer who murdered millions of not billions of families and babies, to have a child? or why they'd want historia, who was horrified when he told her, to be intimate with and sleep with the man who just told her that? he stated to zeke that he isn't pursuing a relationship with mikasa because there's no point because he was gonna die, so why is the logical to them that he'd then not only have a relationship with someone else he wasn't interested in, but also a child at that? i swear this series has the most wild, weird and unsettling ship war logic i've ever seen in any fandom, unsettling because it borders delusion with how certain they are and can't let it go that it was always just a shipping fantasy. eren didn't need to be with ANYONE in that way for very good reasons
That's a good question.
I think they can't let it go because they've convinced themselves in their head that this was absolutely the direction the story was headed (despite, as you say, there never being any, actual evidence that Eren was in love with Historia, or that they had sex and had a baby), and when it didn't pan out the way they'd theorized it would for months and maybe even years, they couldn't handle the fact that they'd misinterpreted the story, and so they lashed out by saying the ending was "bad" and "made no sense", acting as though, if Isayama had simply followed their own, deluded theories and ideas, the ending would have been perfect. Basically, they just can't admit they were wrong, about Eren, about Historia, about the story and what the story was about. That's something a lot of people suffer from, lol, the inability to admit when they're wrong.
So they still cling to this notion that Eren and Historia should have been in love and their crazy theory of the baby being Eren's should have panned out.
Historia got pregnant on purpose to delay having to eat Zeke, and in so doing, she allowed Eren and Zeke both to go through with their genocidal plans. Historia definitely has agency, and she exercises it. She makes this decision on her own, for herself. Nobody makes her, nobody forces her to, nobody suggests it. Eren had nothing to do with it. And it's in line with Historia's character, too. She was always an extremely selfish person. She flat out admits that during the Uprising arc.
Anyway, yeah, it's just because people are mad that their theories about what was happening turned out to be completely off the mark, and they can't accept that. So they blame Isayama and say the ending was terrible and stupid, and continue to cling to the idea that their ending would have been so much better, lol. It's just sour grapes.
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Oliver Fox's mildy physcotic Undertale/Deltarune Ramblings
Ok i have an insane undertale/deltarune theory regarding Gaster and ik this blog has mostly been random shit but i REALLY REALLY wanna say this so deal with it
What The Hell was the creation Gaster fell into?
As you know, the only "creation" that we know Gaster made fully was the CORE in Hotland, and it can be inferred from the Gaster Followers that he fell into the CORE somehow. But the Followers words are just vague enough to leave room for interpretation.
It can also be inferred that Gaster created the blueprints that Alphys used to create the Determination Extractor, seeing as, when she refers to the blueprints in the entries in the True Lab, she only calls them the blueprints. Not my blueprints, the, thus implying that she didn't create them. Seeing as Gaster was the only other known royal scientist in the Underground, and blueprints don't just spawn out of anywhere, it's safe to assume Gaster made them.
It's also theorized that Gaster was expirmenting with Darkness, as shown in Entry 17. I think that, Perhaps, in the wake of Deltarune, this was not normal darkness, but Darkness. The kind that creates *cough cough* Dark Worlds. Ones that can be created by Determined Enough Beings.
I'm getting there, hang tight.
MY THEORY GOES THUSLY;
Gaster created the Determination Extractor before Alphys.
Ik that is a CRAZY conclusion to leap to and there's no evidence but for the purposes of this ramble, you gotta just go with me. Besides, it would be unlike a scientist of such high standing to not create prototypes. And this happened in the in-world past of the Underground that we know not much about, so there isn't enough evidence for this to be proven nor disproven. Again, just go with me.
SO, Gaster created some kind of Determination Extractor Prototype, drawing out the blueprints and leaving them for Alphys to find later.
Determination (as we know) is the force that allows being with strong enough Souls to create Save Files and Reset, as well as create Dark Worlds, in Deltarunes case. And, because of Toby Fox's monumentally clever writing skills which I envy every day, he made Saving and Loading diegetic to Undertale's plot, even going so far as to making Floweys entire backstory an in-world stand-in for players who detach themselves from the world of the game. Meaning that Determination has a direct in-universe link to the game's code and inner workings.
But why, dear Captain Oliver, I hear you cry, did you mention Gaster's experiments with Darkness and their connections to the creation of Dark Fountains and Worlds?
Well I'm getting to that so hold your horses.
I think, using the Determination he had harvested with the Extractor, Gaster created some kind of Dark World, (perhaps we are shown this in Entry 17 with the line "photon readings negative, which implies the photons are emiting darkness, which has been shown possible in Dealtarune every time Kris and Susie find a new Dark World,) and I think THAT is what he fell into.
But perhaps this Dark World was unstable, created not by a steady supply of raw Determination from one being but rather a amalgam (heh) of dozens of monsters from all over the Underground, and when Gaster fell, the Fountain sealed or exploded in some way, destroying the Extractor and shattering his consciousness across time and space.
Or perhaps, rather, files and code.
Since having video game logic is diegetic to Undertale's plot, perhaps their version of "time and space" for us is just lines of code and flies. And perhaps, Gaster being "shattered across time and space" only meant that he had become integrated into the games code.
That's why we only know about Gaster's existence through a few testing rooms, random NPC encounters and unused files. We can only find these things if we dig around through the Code of Undertale, something Gaster has become intimately familiar with.
SO, ALL THAT TO SAY;
I think Gaster, from his strange not-quite-Dark-World created the files and code for Deltarune, seeing as every time a new chapter releases Toby's twitter account is possessed by the good doctor, and its heavily implied that the Goner Maker sequence is just Gaster talking to the player. For unknown motives, Gaster created Deltarune, the Prohpecy, and Dark Worlds for us, the Player for, again, unknown motives.
I feel like that's all I want to say on the matter. I could go on about Ralsei's weird knowledge of Dark Fountains and Noelles weird connections to the good ol' mystery man and the disappearance of Dess but it's already almost 2 in the morning and that would definitely be overdoing it.
If you are reading this and haven't had an aneurysm, I applaud you and thank you for indulging me.
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hi Charity, I've just started on Pride and Prejudice and I read that you typed Jane as an ISFJ. I wouldn't say she isn't, since I'm just at the first few pages, but she seemed to me like a high Ne + Fi user, the way she has such pleasant opinions on everyone that seem unaffected by the opinions of others, and the way she is so 'positive thinking' about others (which does make me think of enneagram 9 and 7). though she is described to smile a lot so I guess that's a sign of Fe? I would like to ask if you typed her as an ISFJ because of her tendency to stick to social norms, and her agreeableness and proper-ness? is seeing things on surface level and believing the best in people a low Ne thing? as I thought sometimes, xNFPs are described to be like that as well. I'm only asking this because I relate to her, after a bit of religious teaching, I realised I tended to believe the best of people I met, and I tended to see things in a very positive way, and coupled with me mostly being in my own world, I only realised later that I was wrong.
I'm just starting the book though, and Jane hasn't appeared enough times for me to make a solid judgement on her personality. her agreeableness makes me think enneagram 279 currently, would you agree?
or perhaps I need to come back after finishing the book, but alas, I was so excited to talk about it. I hope you don't mind my questions.
Ha, ha. Cute gif. I am really not that scary, am I? ;)
I am open to her being an INFP. I even had her typed that way for a while when I started doing this, but I overall felt she seemed more "appropriate"-minded than she cares about being authentic to herself in a Fi way. She is pleasant and agreeable and everyone loves her (which happens more with Fe users, since they adapt themselves to fit the situation). She does not theorize about anything and seems to want a simple life -- to be a wife and mother. She also lacks some discernment in terms of assuming the best of everyone and that it will all work out happily in the end (which is admittedly, all 9).
Much of what you suggest for Ne and Fi can be true of Ne and Fi, but it's also just... being a 9. She accepts everyone and assumes the best of them, she doesn't want to think of anyone as being hurtful to anyone else or out to get them, she is giddy with delight when things work out pleasantly, and it is hard for her to say anything negative or mean about anyone else. She is a 927 for sure! (And Bingley is a 972, which means, as her father says, "you will always get cheated by your servants!")
I don't see inferior Te in her, or any Te at all, even though Lizzie does say that Jane is so private, she doesn't even share her feelings with Lizzie, when she's confronting Mr. Darcy about calling Jane a gold-digger ("I saw no evidence of her being in love with him). The bluntest thing she says is that Bingley's sisters are mean -- which is true but not cutting. Low Te has a way of being blunt semi-regularly, not out of any meanness but because FiTe is disconnected from other people and their feelings and absorbed in its own emotions.
ISFJ 9s can be quiet about what they want and their feelings, for fear of being inappropriate, rejected, or condemned; that is different from IFP 9s mulling over their feelings deep inside them and never expressing them except through gestures. With an ISFJ 9, there is just pure sweetness. With an INFP 9, there is also self-soothing through telling stories / getting lost in fantasies and/or being eager to explore the unknown (like Lucy in Narnia).
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