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hannie-dul-set · 11 months

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CRASH & BURN.

p — PARK SUNGHOON x gn! reader. g — fluff, humor. w — swearing, one absolutely horrendous dad joke, the secondhand embarrassment is even worse this time i'm not sorry at all, the rest of the en-kids are also losers. 1.3k words.

note — listen, who am i to deny the public from their needs and wants? i have no idea how rizzless hoon became such a hit, but ask and you shall receive. i'm sure this won't be the last you'll see of this loser. PART ONE. if you enjoy loser! hoon, you might also enjoy this other series of mine.

also tagging those who were asking for a part two hope u all don't mind! — @gyulune @jngwnlvs @snowysab @miercerise @karinasswifee @cerealdreamwriter @dinonuguaegi @tyongff-ff

for the past five days, you have been routinely returning to the skatepark at the same time without fail. this has obviously attracted questions from your friends considering the first time you tried out a longboard, you crashed and scraped and bruised your chin within seconds, but you can’t exactly tell them the truth about your endeavor— that you’ve been trying to catch a glimpse of mr. kuromi bandaid with the rollerblades again, and being left disappointed every single time.

he hasn’t shown up. not even once.

it’s day five, and there’s still no sign of him nor his lollipop. it’s day five, and you’re just about to give up until you spot from your peripheral a familiar group of boys that scared the shit out of you the other day— except this time, they aren’t staring at you like maniacs, and they seem to be one person less.

“are you fucking stupid?” you overhear as you hesitantly approach their circle, cautious steps because they’re still as intimidating as you can remember. they all look so serious, two individuals glaring at each other while the rest simply watch, both unconcerned and amused. “oh yeah? you really think you can beat me? wanna duke it out right now, dickwad?”

cold sweat breaks out and you freeze in your tracks, expecting them to spiral into a fist fight.

“my dragonite will sweep your fucking team, loser.”

“your dragonbitch doesn’t stand a chance against my tyranitar!”

nevermind. you really shouldn’t be so quick to judge them again.

you regain the bounce in your step and race up before they could metaphorically kick each other's asses.

“hi!”

you flinch when the six heads suddenly snap towards you. your smile twitches, discomfort lasering into your skin from the half a dozen set of narrowed eyes leering at you so intently and so intensely. “who are you?” the one previously bragging about his dragonite asks.

“dumbass.” another one smacks the former on the backside of his skull. “it’s shoelaces.”

the nickname sets a few lightbulbs off, and a pair breaks away from their violent staring at you to give each other knowing glances. “oh, shit!” this time it’s mr. tyranitar who exclaims. “right. the dude hoon absolutely decimated himself in front of. poor guy. he’s still going through the five stages of grief.”

hoon must mean sunghoon. you want to open your mouth and present your business about the missing individual, but it’s not so easy to butt in when they’re busy conversing amongst themselves.

“what do they want?”

“how should i know? i’m not them?”

“no fucking shit. but what do you think they want?”

“maybe it’s about hoon?”

“no way. that guy’s done for.”

“hey, don’t be too harsh on him! he’s grieving!”

“what if it’s because we‘re being too loud—”

“what if they’re here to have a pokemon batt—”

“you do realize they can hear you, right?”

light-haired guy is right. you can very much hear them, and they’ve all finally quieted down, slowly turning their heads to you once more but with a dampened intensity this time. they’re waiting for you to speak. you can’t believe you thought they were scary. you can’t believe you were intimidated by a group of nerds.

“sorry for the intrusion,” you smile, pressing your palms together. “i noticed one of your friends hasn’t been coming around lately. is he okay?”

a cough. a nudge. a silent conversation between the six pairs of eyes. “he’s been sick these past few days,” dragonite owner finally says. “sickeningly unbearab— ow!”

your smile disappears. “oh no.” he’s sick? he already didn’t seem that strong when you met him the other day, collapsing into the ground and all.

“i think you can help him get better— ouch! jungwon, what the fuck?” one of them gets hit again. you’re sure it’s been the same guy hitting the rest of them since earlier.

“why are you asking about him?”

the nicest looking one squeezes out of their group while asking his earnest question, fishing out the answer from you with bright, curious eyes. “ah,” you sound out. “i just wanted to tell him that i also think his shoelaces are really cool.”

they stare at you, then stare at each other. and then someone spews out, “is that a new pick-up line, or some shit?” before getting hit again, and the light-haired guy comes forward to block the squabble happening behind him, and to tell you that they’ll be dragging their friend tomorrow at the same time (isn’t he supposed to be sick?) so you can compliment his shoelaces in person(?), and that they are looking forward to welcoming you to their family (whatever the fuck that means).

as promised, they do drag the sick man into the skatepark— literally dragging him because the guy who introduced himself yesterday as jake is pulling him forward by the sleeve while jungwon pushes him from behind as the wheels of his roller skates make sure that sunghoon keeps on moving. he looks like he’s ready to move on into the afterlife. your eyes light up when they drag him closer.

“c’mon, hyung! just a little bit more— a liiiiittle bit—

“i told you, i’m never coming back here again!“ you hear him groan, attempting to break away from his escort team. “never ever. never again. this is is where half of my dignity is buried. my pride. my shame. my—”

and then he freezes.

sunghoon gets frozen by an invisible force when your eyes meet, frozen but his cheeks are set ablaze. his friends did a great job in escorting him to you, encasing him and in consequence his view of his surroundings until you’re within an arm’s reach so he doesnt run away. the heat from his face thaws him back into movement, panicked and angry expressions sent to his friends and they all look pretty stupid trying to talk with just their eyebrows, but it’s cute nonetheless.

“hey!” you finally chipper in, causing sunghoon to freeze once more, creaking to meet your gaze.

“h—hello. hi.”

sunghoon’s greeting comes out as a choke. jake and jungwon send each other signals before hurling the poor boy at you.

it’s like he’s suddenly forgotten how to skate. he can’t control his muscles, sliding over the short path at a dangerous speed that mimics his racing heart and oh shit— oh shit, oh shit. how does he stop again? how does he make a turn? how does he not fucking crash into you like a meteor being sucked into the earth’s orbit?

“oh!”

like all of his (very limited) interactions with you, sunghoon crashes and burns. it’s inevitable. but this time, he crashes and burns into you. you’re both on the concrete and his hand feels like it got crushed between the hard ground and the back of your head, but that pain quickly subsides into a numbing buzz, pumping his arteries with nectar, burning his veins with gasoline, because holy crap—

“close.”

“you’re right, that was a close call,” you breathe out. “i could’ve cracked my skull open.”

“i— i mean, close, you’re— you’re too close.”

does he realize that you can’t exactly move underneath him? he probably doesn’t, not when you can practically see the smoke emitting from his head and the panicked swirl in his eyes and you can’t help but laugh. “ah, sorry.” that was a mistake. sunghoon’s face flushes warmer and like a hammer to his skull, the realization hits and he and slowly pries himself off of you.

“sorry—”

“it’s fine.” you sit up and brush the dust off your clothes, stretching out your legs as you nudge yourself closer to him on the ground. “your friends told me you’ve been sick. are you feeling better now?”

“huh?”

you’re not sure why he’s confused, but he looks very confused before turning his gaze to his friends. you find jay snapping out a thumbs up and sunoo’s stern face somehow reading don’t fucking blow it. he turns back to you with a lot more sweat on his neck than prior. “oh, yeah i was sick, i was so sick, ahaha—” he stammers. “a—anyway, what’s up?”

“i just wanted to see you again. it’s not everyday that i get a compliment on my shoelaces, you know?” you smile. “what about today? aren’t they prettier than the last ones?”

you wiggle your shoes to show off, laced in a complicated pattern that you’ve been practicing for the past five days, and you expect to receive another compliment for it, but sunghoon is oddly quiet.

he’s quiet. you’re sure you chose a cool pair of shoes this morning. you’re about to be disappointed, until you notice that he’s actually thinking. he’s thinking very hard he’s thinking of something, and that something comes out of his mouth in the form of a badly timed pun.

“...what about...toe-day...”

park sunghoon only knows how to crash and burn. all his friends are a witness to that. they’re a witness to this events that transpired this afternoon, but what they didn’t expect is for you to have an affinity for disasters. you’re laughing at his dumb joke. you’re actually laughing. they’ve been shitting on sunghoon for being hopeless, but maybe there’s something wrong with you, too.

CRASH & BURN.

#i like him a normal amount #enhypen x reader #enha x reader #park sunghoon x reader #sunghoon x reader #enhypen fluff #enha fluff #park sunghoon fluff #sunghoon fluff #enhypen scenarios #enha secnarios #park sunghoon scenarios #sunghoon scenarios

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blacknight7890 · 8 months

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welp, essay time, lets talk about the clown in the room.

the amazing digital circus spoilers below!

so, Kaufmo's room.

The room of a mad man and a recently "abstracted" human. we don't know much about Kaufmo, other than he told unfunny jokes and was looking for a way out. He lost his mind at some point and got "abstracted" as the result.

What this means and how it happens is hard to say for sure as of now, but madness seems to be the main cause of it. Before he turned however, he has spread his madness to the rest of his room, so lets look at what we have here.

Most of it is simply the word "exit" over and over and over and over again with some disturbing art as well.

"EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT EXIT"

However, there are some exceptions. Certain spots have partially readable writing on them. To start with, the head of his bed.

"CAN'T SLEEP"

Its partially obscured, but its location behind the pillow make it obvious what it says. They say that they don't need to sleep, but this implies that he wanted to sleep, but couldn't. If that is due to just his madness, or something else its hard to say. Hard to know what that means as of now, but its something to note.

Now the sketch on the back wall. The phrase is fairly self explanatory, as far as we know, there is no way out of the circus. Not much to say about that, but the drawing is interesting. A fanged Cain chasing after Kaufmo. Seems he has a fear of the ringmaster, understandable at first, but further thinking makes you ask some questions.

"NO WAY OUT"

We see at the end of the episode that Cain actually tried to make an exit for them, but never finished his simulated version of the outside. When we first see him dancing around the idea of an exit door, we assume malicious intent. However, its more likely he was referring to this exit, rather than an actual way to leave.

This place is clearly a fabrication of the world outside The Amazing Digital Circus, one half built by Cain. He said he made it because everyone kept asking about it, but never finished it and didn't want them seeing his unfinished work. He also didn't want them ending up in the void, a slightly more important reason to keep it locked up.

But regardless, he did try to actually appease them, give the trapped humans the closest approximation to freedom he could. Its clear that Cain is not in full total control of the circus, its possible that even he doesn't know how to leave.

Anyway, back to my point. Cain is weird, strange, and insane, but he's not really "evil", so Kaufmo's depiction of him doesn't make total sense. But then again, the eyes of madness are hardly a reliable source. We will need to see more of him to learn his true intentions, but for now he just seems unhinged rather than actually bad.

Back to the room though, there is one more thing I want to go over, the foot of his bed.

"WHAT DID THE E------ SAY TO THE C--------"

this one is hard to determine, but thankfully for us, this isn't the only place we see this sentence. We also see it scrawled onto one of the paintings in the wide shot.

"WHAT DID THE EXIT SAY TO THE CLOWN?"

Now at first this seems nonsensical, but remember who wrote this. Kaufmo liked to tell jokes, this is the only real thing we know about him. In that light this is clearly worded as the setup to a joke. This begs the question on what the punchline is, but it also implies that the supposed "exit" somehow communicated with him. Probably not but its something to note.

We have no idea what the punchline could be at this moment sadly. It could be that him abstracting could metaphorically be the "punchline", or the lack of a response from the exit might also be it, hard to say.

"NO EXIT"

This is all what I can really determine from what we have seen in this room, other than interpretations of his various framed paintings, but I'll leave that to an art major or something.

Of course we have to ask if the "Exit" that he refers to even is the same exit Pomni found. They might have found something else, or maybe that exit door is a lot more important than we know. Maybe that weird computer is important.

Pomni seemed familiar enough with it that the mere sight of it sent her laughing mad. That vr headset looking thing is probably what she put on to get there.

All of this is just observations and speculation on the future, and I can't wait for the next episode!

#the amazing digital circus #theory #tadc #Kaufmo

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israbelle · 4 months

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A Conspiracy theory about the Epilogues

Alternatively titled; "Isn't it fun to take the stupid plot holes seriously sometimes, just to see what happens?"

So - The hemospectrum. I have often been taken out of the story by how little they mention it in the Epilogues and HS^2, just sort of... handwaving it away as a solved, purely cultural issue. Doylistically, they seem to be endorsing the popular "caste differences were just an enforced social norm by the Condesce and Lord English so trolls hate each other more" theory. It's been a glaring hole in the worldbuilding for a while now, and I never had a satisfying answer to it.

First off, psychics and psionics. I will talk about those more later, but... *gestures* Yeah. Second, and more relevant to the idea that the caste system is a, how do you say, natural state of troll society that has to be actively worked against to avoid falling down the pit of oppression; lifespans.

That sentence sucked because it's 4AM and it's quite difficult to think straight while listening to Mouth Moods. But anyway.

There is a popular headcanon that the Condesce, puppeteered by Lord English to create a tougher landscape, and using her Thief of Life powers, artificially shortened the lifespans of lowbloods (or maybe lengthened the lifespans of highbloods?) and had they not been under her control, they would all live to the same age and have no physical differences. This is explicitly non-canon:

Everybody say "Thank you, Kankri Vantas!" Aren't you so glad he's right about everything he says all the time and everyone always listens?!

There would be seadwellers - no, there would be ceruleans who remember the dawn of history. Can they live normal lives? Do you think that one violetblood grub Karkat holds in the credits remembers his touch? Did they hang the snapchat photo on their hive wall as one of their baby pictures? Do they brag about it?

This world would be quite different from the one shown to us today. Screw "trolls' birthrate is higher than humans" being the crux of the population issue, what about how half these trolls literally never die?! Highbloods would naturally have trouble relating to or empathizing with the lower castes they outlive dozens of times, a natural "immortal being loses touch with its humanity as it sees the cycle of life repeat evermore without ever truly experiencing it" trope, and the hemospectrum would reinvent itself and simply slot humans in at the bottom.

Which leads to the big question: why isn't this what happened? Why are humans the dominant force, while trolls seem to have been metaphorically (so far, thanks Jane) neutered? And why are they losing the war so hard when they have all those dang psychics?

You know, the psychic powers that let you shoot killer lasers and throw things around from afar and commune with beasts and fly-

...And fly?

As far as I'm aware - with the exception of Vrissy, who is a clone of an Alternian troll - there have never been any mentions of psychics on Earth C. Even when she talks about them, her information is wrong, almost as if it was only ever a historical afterthought in class instead of a reality of her life. Isn't that curious?

Apologies in advance for the hats. Tinfoil really is an awful material for garments, you know. But with all the evidence laid out as it is, there's really only one* reasonable† explanation: they did something to trolls. They flattened them all out into one homogenous mass, stripped them of nearly everything interesting and alien about them, neutered them into the Grey Humans we've all tried to fight against this whole time! And they did it with slime!!

*There are most likely many other possible explanations, and there is not a shot in Hell that this is what was intended in the text. †This is a completely unreasonable claim.

It could've been an accident, it could've been a well-intentioned impulse enacted by a bunch of teens who don't understand what eugenics are, but it happened in the ectobiology room, and I think the "how" of it is that they mixed together the troll and human slime. This flattened the curve of lifespans to be about human average, and either highly reduced the chance or outright deleted the ability for psychic powers to form. Reproduction stays the same, because that involves way too many complicated biological changes rather than just flipping a handful of proteins.

The great Alternian trolls of yore are but a distant memory, replaced by these tragic, broken copies, failed by their masters; chained to the ground with their wings torn off long before Candy Jane ever entered the scene.

#homestuck #homestuck^2 #homestuck epilogues #media analysis #shakes you READ MY WORDS READ MY WORDS READ MY WORDS READ MY WORDS #THEYRE STUPID WORDS BUT ILL EAT YOU IF YOU DONT

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alovelyburn · 1 year

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Random Berserk thought moment:

I was thinking about the answer to that Ask I did earlier, and the symbolism of the child with the broken soldier doll as regards Griffith's innocence, and then I thought...

If that child is symbolically Griffith's innocence, his purity of spirit, etc, then that moment in the Eclipse mindscape sequence where he tells the child he can't bring [the child] with him because the child is already dead has... even more bite. It tells us what he's given up to get as far as he did, and also foreshadows what he's about to give up in order to keep going, and....

The thing is I think a lot about the way the Eclipse/Sacrifices in general are framed. Because the direct rule is that you sacrifice the person or people you most love - people like to debate this because they have a hard time with it I guess, but this seems implicit because when the Count states he could kill anyone except his daughter, they’re straight up like yeah that’s why it has to be her.

It must be "someone important to you, part of your soul... someone so close to you that it’s almost like giving up a part of you.”

This is backed up by say...

the way Slug Count's wife is referred to as half of himself.

So the rule is, Someone or someones so important to you that they are part of your soul, and losing them is almost like losing part of yourself.

But if you juxtapose that with the mythos of the crimson behelit:

"Whoever possesses this is destined to obtain the world in exchange for (their) own flesh and blood.”

So that contextualizes what is going on there right like you're cutting parts of yourself out, that’s the sacrifice on a metaphorical level - you carve your heart out and so it is replaced by yada yada.

But really, the rules of the sacrifice are almost certainly designed specifically to support Griffith’s character and provide the context for Guts and Griffith’s connection to the reader.

So bearing that in mind, when you contextualize it in Griffith's character specifically, we can see that this is just the most extreme form of what he’s always done: he cuts pieces of himself out and trades them for the tools he needs to keep going. And as a result of that he loses more and more of himself until we arrive at the Eclipse, where he just has nothing left to give. That’s why it happens at that time (or, well, more specifically, that’s why this point is reached at the time when the Eclipse was predestined to occur).

Because he's out of options (including just retiring in relative contentment since the one thing he needs to do that is leaving him again) and he's out of things to trade away from his own body or his own spirit and so he trades out his heart - his metaphorical heart, the people who mean so much to him that losing them is like losing a part of himself, and most significantly the man to whom he is explicitly the other half.

It's like the third night in Rumpelstiltskin - this miller’s daughter ends up in an impossible situation where she has to keep giving away the things she values in order to survive. Then she arrives at the third night, when she’s already given away her ring and her necklace - now all she has left is her child. It’s that kind of moment because like the girl in the story, all he can do is give up that last thing, the one thing he has left, the people who are part of his soul - “his own flesh and blood” - because if he doesn't then everything was for nothing and all the sacrifices he’s already made are meaningless.

...even if his current self is completely empty and evil, which I don’t think he is but lets suppose for a moment... even if he is, the fact that he exists because of all this - because this strong, brilliant, determined and well-intentioned person just gave away more and more pieces of himself until he had nothing left, and then he broke -- makes him tragic anyway.

And the thing is, even though he obtains all this power, he ultimately loses what made him such a magnetic and beloved person in his human life to begin with. He loses that spark that made him the White Hawk. Because yeah, Griffith as he is now has supernatural charisma but its....supernatural.

As a living human, Grifith had the same impact just because of who he was.

#ariel talks about berserk #back to the salt mines

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asherlockstudy · 3 months

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Did you give your thoughts about the colonoscopies? I would love to know your take on what was said and implied because I have some thoughts..

I almost didn’t do it but okay let’s go.

The Brolonoscopy (they pronounced it as Brolinoscopy?)

I will once more start with the puzzle piece reference. Let’s see the exact quote: “Well, the technical term is colonoscopy when a doctor explores your large intestine with a little camera to check for signs of cancer, polyps, gastrointestinal abnormalities, missing puzzle pieces. It could be anything.” Okay, with all the objectivity I can master, the possibility of this being a throw-away statement and not a reference to their own old video is, very seriously, below 1%. Let’s start from what the joke is on the surface. The superficial joke is the weird objects people insert in their rectum for sexual gratification. But why say puzzle pieces of all things? I don’t think I need to explain why a puzzle piece has a shape that is not meant to offer any pleasure but is sure to cause huge discomfort. Nobody (I hope) would like the idea of sticking a puzzle piece up there = 0% pleasure, 100% cuts and pain. So why go with puzzle pieces and not a million other objects that would have a more reasonable shape? Furthermore, notice that it is the ONLY irrelevant item Rhett mentions. He says cancer, polyp, other health abnormalities… and MISSING PUZZLE PIECES. He jumps to it straight away. It is not part of a series of items that have no business in your butt. He just says this one, in specific, all alone and nothing else. Lastly, of course this quote is from the scripted intro. No incoherence, no thoughtless blabbering. Scripted intentional statement.

The Link butt flashing is nothing truly important, it’s a throwback, Link had also done it in the brosectomy. Rhett looked the other way but there was also a cut there lol

I love how butt flashing Link thought Rhett was being indecent because a little bit of the shoulder was showing 😂

Let’s go to drugged up Rhett. The things he says are: a) using buttplugs regularly, b) eating a lot of hotdogs (although when sane he has said he doesn’t often opt for actual hot dogs), c) a man fond of looking and entering the asshole (although when sane he identified as a vagina fan man). So he spoke of three things and all were associated with anal sex and more so gay anal sex (hot dog). I think at some point Link’s embarrassment almost became genuine. There’s more to be said here but I will come back to this later.

Rhett was somehow so endearing when he was mumbling how Link complains about everything except peanut butter.

Link makes it clear he’s fine with something going up his dookie shoot.

Overall, sedated Link is more of a normally sedated person than Rhett was and there is stuff to be said about it. But first, let’s talk about the normal stuff: when Link is brought to during the colonoscopy, he initially is antsy, has discomfort, asks repeatedly if the doctor found anything bad, tries to move. Those reactions were normal. The only not normal one up to this point was wanting to canoe down a colon… But, again, there’s a lot more to be said.

“I’m glad we saved ourselves for each other and broke the seal together” intentional joke when Rhett was fully awake.

Link also said something like “I spent all my life with a cone up my ass” probably a metaphor of repression.

And now: THE REAL PART

As a person who has had an endoscopy with anaesthesia (maybe more than a regular dosage), a relative who had one with half the typical dosage of anaesthesia and a thug relative who did it with NO anaesthesia, in case you are young and vibrant and healthy, which I very much hope so, and have not undergone such a procedure yet, let me tell you something: regarding many parts of their incoherent sedation, THAT’S NOT HOW BEING INCOHERENT DURING SEDATION WORKS.

Link commented in the end of the video that he was more out of it than Rhett was and Rhett disagreed due to all the insane stuff he had said, for which he took no responsibility. The thing is, Link was telling the truth and perhaps intentionally. He was more out of it than Rhett. “Out of it” here means being more sedated and therefore more incapable of communicating or talking. And certainly NOT saying sexual and other supposedly crazy stuff with extraordinary detail. There is proof for that in the video, as spoken by the doctor, which was not edited out.

The doctor said Rhett took less medicine than the typical dosage is and, you know, doctors have the tendency to minimize pain anyway. Which means that for the doctor to be impressed that Rhett handled it so well, he was in fact not all that drugged up. The dosage that was given to him was apparently enough to numb the pain / discomfort but he was pretty conscious for most of the time. Compare it to Link, who was given more medicine and when they tried to wake him as much as Rhett, he had discomfort, was making motions and asking the doctor questions about his health. Link’s state was making a lot more sense. There are several cuts and edits during Rhett’s colonoscopy but in general I feel like he took one up for the team (literally) so that he would say certain things under the cover of incoherence. Like they said, they asked the doctor to use the minimum drug dosage so they could be as alert and conscious as possible - apparently Rhett was able to tolerate a lower dosage that inevitably made him remain more alert for a longer time. Bodies are different. In any case, Rhett took much less drug than his doctor expected him to need, which means he was able to communicate well and maintain an unusual level of consciousness during such a procedure. Besides all the sex jokes he made with full phrases, this is more obvious in the “Jessie” question. Here’s how sedation works: if you are in the state that you don’t remember your mother for example, you definitely also don’t remember the lyrics of an obscure song you listened to once. End of story. What happens with Rhett here is exactly that. He supposedly is incapable of remembering his wife but he has no problem remembering… let’s analyse this.

Doctor: So, Rhett, who’s Jessie? You got a tattoo.

Link: That’s his favourite proctologist.

Rhett: You’re talking about Jesse Pinkman?

Doctor: We got Jessie on your right buttcheek.

Rhett: … he was the right hand man of Walter White in Breaking Bad.

Link: No, they are talking about your wife, dude.

Rhett: Jesse James was a…

(Irrelevant chatter about endoscope going in.)

Nobody:

Rhett: Jussie Smollet was a…

Link: No, let’s not talk about him.

Also look:

Look at him. He is pretty alert. He looks at Link when he talks to him, he is wide-eyed, he raises his head. He also repeatedly looked to his right (our left) during the Jessie conversation. This was a bit. Perhaps the various Jessies were written on a paper there because he could have a problem remembering them on his own. When the endoscope was inserted, he was like “oh yeah hehe there it is, hello, ask for consent maybe hehe”. It’s funny, it’s inappropriate but IT IS NOT incoherent. It was a sex joke very suitable to the situation. He knew what he was saying at all times. Therefore, no matter how numbed he was, he was not enough to forget his own wife or repeatedly ignore the cues Link and the doctors gave him about her, all while listing a sidekick character from a show, a notorious bandit from the American civil war and a controversial but little known gay actor who staged an assault against himself and has mythomanic tendencies.

Link emphasises on the bit by saying to the doctor: “ I wonder if he’s gonna remember his wife when he wakes up. Because he certainly remembered every other Jessie he’s ever heard about”.

Like, okay? Trust me on this. Anaesthesia doesn’t work like selective amnesia. And few very particular amnesias work like remembering the obscure thing and forgetting the pivotal one.

This. Was. A. Bit.

And even Link’s embarrassment is parts real, parts a bit. Like, emphasising on how Rhett can’t think of anything besides buttholes.

Meanwhile, Link’s eyes are half-lidded and whenever the endoscope moves he tries to move and the nurses stop him. He’s on a bigger dosage and he’s more sensitive to this procedure than Rhett. Honestly, Link is just way more normal, I don’t know if Rhett was that hell of a champ or there was crazy editing going on. But Link is brought at some point more to as well. And then he says this:

“You know, Rhett, I am glad you are here for me. Why don’t we hold hands?” *Editing with a lot of stuff about polyps, business decision etc, at this point Link communicates well too* “I am so grateful that I get to have something shoved deep into my colon, in your presence… because you know that’s what life is all about.” Throughout this monologue, Link also looks somewhere at Rhett’s left and he is a little robotic. Maybe he was reading as well. This, too, was a bit.

And just like with all recent videos, this has similar vibes to another one. Let’s go back to the We Dug A Medium Sized Hole. As Rhett and Link dig with their shovels, Link says;

“You know, there is nothing I’d rather be doing now than digging a hole. Seriously, this is exactly what I want to be doing. And there’s no one else I would rather be digging a hole with.”

That’s all from me, you said you had thoughts as well, if they are additional or different, I would love to read them!

#rhink #rhett and link #randl #R&L #anon #mail #good mythical morning #gmm #brolonoscopy #brolinoscopy #mythical

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cranberrymoons · 11 months

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hi! i'm sage. I'm glad you're here!

this blog is multi-fandom but I'm deep down the firefighter rabbit hole right now. stranger things and supernatural brainrot are also here to stay 😔

you can find my writing on ao3 here and under the 'my fic' tag on this blog and in the masterlist under the read more. reblogs of other peoples' fic are tagged as 'fic', and writing resources etc are tagged as 'writing'.

love you!!!!!!

fic masterlist 🩷

here you come again stommy | 16,172 words | rated e

Steve and Tommy haven't talked in nearly three years. After everything, maybe the best way forward is back.

i'm a cliché (who cares) buddie | 7,326 words | rated e

“You okay?” Buck asks, and Eddie blinks, lets out the breath that had gotten caught in his throat. “Yeah,” he says, even though – no, not really. “Sorry, just – a surprise, I guess. Hearing from him.” Which is weird, come to think of it, because they used to be close. Closer than anything, as close as – well, as close as him and Buck, but in a different way. In a way that felt frantic and clinging and desperate, something to hold onto while they were being shot at. Eddie hears from an old army buddy; it brings a few things to the surface.

current wips

the seas be ours (steddie pirates au) (2 works, 10,943 words, rated E)

Eddie The Dread Pirate Munson captures the Harrington heir with the intent of ransoming him back to his family for an easy payout. He really could not have guessed what he was getting himself into.

back in the new york groove (26,823 words, rated E) summer 1999 | tumblr post | ch 6/? rockstar eddie/middle school teacher steve, soft dom steve

“Ha!” Eddie says, jabbing a finger into Steve's chest. “I have a publicist. That automatically makes me cooler than you.” “Oh yeah? Well I have about eighty twelve year olds back in Santa Monica who think I’m the coolest guy on the planet.” (new york isn't home, but it's the next best thing) Steve and Eddie chaotically parenting their gen-z toddler in the late 90s (part of the future fic series)

future fic series (23 works, 64,995 words, rated G-E)

a love letter to the idea of home or, the happily-ever-after future in which Eddie is a rockstar and Steve is a middle school teacher and they have a bunch of kids and live by the ocean (rockstar eddie + middle school teacher steve)

a love to last past saturday night (3,550 words, rated T for now but will go up in later chapters) | ch 1/? coffee shop au

There’s a little cafe at the end of Steve’s block that he’s only ever been in once. It’s called Corroded Coffee and it’s dark in there and maybe a little pretentious, but not pretentious as in… people reading classic novels or having discussions about French Cinema. Pretentious in the sense that there’s an intimidating collection of vinyl records taking up half an entire wall and they use single origin arabica beans and the scary baristas look at you sideways if you order regular milk in your latte.

complete/one shots

we all fall down pre-buddie | 1,634 words | rated m | infidelity/angst

Buck hates that he was here for this. He hates that he was here for this, Eddie and his girlfriend and the fucked up thing with the woman who’s not Shannon, and Buck just standing there in the middle of it, the four of them trapped together in Eddie’s living room on a random Thursday night like something out of a soap opera because they all happened to converge at once. when the metaphorical house burns down, you don't want to be the only one left standing in it

such a sweet thing (i wanna do everything) bucktommy | 5,582 words | rated e

Buck doesn’t want to take it slow. He doesn’t want Tommy to ease him in or treat him gently. What he wants is to suck a dick.

closer than my hands have been (4,578 words, rated M, 911)

Eddie never feels easy. Tommy feels easy, but Eddie – he doesn’t. He doesn’t feel easy now, and he didn’t feel easy last night, and he didn’t feel easy the night before that or before that or before that. Well, except for the parts where he did, when everything felt easy and loose and uncomplicated. Free. He misses that feeling. buck and tommy are together, and eddie's fine with that. it's fine. it is.

i feel a change in the weather (i feel a change in me) (2,133 words, rated M, 911)

It all comes to a head on the hot dusty path up to the top of Runyon Canyon. It feels inevitable, feels like something they’ve maybe been inching toward in fits and starts ever since they met. Feels right and easy and lived-in already, like a favorite shirt that’s been folded in the back of the closet for years, just waiting to be picked up and put on. buck and eddie go for a hike, kiss in the sunlight, and fall in love, not necessarily in that order.

you and tequila make me crazy (1,533 words, rated M, 911)

His arm is still draped over Eddie’s shoulders, hand still holding the other side of his head, and he shifts so that his fingers push up into the hair at the back of his neck, thumb slotting up against his ear. And he’s so close. Half an inch closer and he’d be able to feel Eddie’s heartbeat under his tongue, solid and sure and alive, and – “Hey,” says a voice above them, sharp enough to cut straight through the fog that’s settled over them. “There you guys are.” in which buck and eddie lose chimney because they're drunk and horny

for the rest of mine (644 words, rated M, 911)

It happens on a Tuesday night, with the soft whirl of the dishwasher running in the kitchen and ESPN on low in the background and Chris’s homework left laying out on the coffee table when he went to bed about an hour ago.

heart in throat (am i dreaming?) (1,227 words, rated T, 911)

I kissed someone, he imagines himself saying eventually, when he’s ready. I think I really like him. Just like that. No big announcement, no declaration, but just – just letting it sit there and breathe between them.

already standing on the ground (1,195 words, rated T, 911)

Buck lets out a laugh, one hand coming up to scratch at the back of his neck. Laughing like he’s relieved, like he can’t quite believe the words coming out of his own mouth. “We were on a date.” And – Eddie blinks. “Oh.”

so fondly today (8,267 words, rated E, stranger things) processing trauma, getting together | tumblr post

Eddie's hair is pulled up on top of his head, and there’s a piece of it falling down to frame his face, and Steve’s sleep-deprived brain sends a shock of want rushing through him. Want: he wants to touch? Wants to look? He’s looking. Wants to… something? He feels electricity crackle at the backs of his teeth and he blinks, wanting. Wanting so badly that something aches inside his chest. (it's been a few months since everything, and steve is beginning to realize some things about himself)

get it off your chest (7,415 words, rated E, stranger things) rough sex, spanking, read the ao3 tags! | tumblr post

“You think this is me taking you apart?” Eddie asks. He lets go of Steve’s hair and plants a hand in the center of his chest, then gives him a shove toward the bed. “That’s adorable, Steve. Seriously.” (or, steve and eddie have life-affirmingly good sex) aka my Consent Is Sexy manifesto

dressed up to the eyes (8,737 words, rated E, stranger things) rough sex, spanking, read the ao3 tags! | tumblr post

Steve almost didn’t come out tonight. It’s been a long day, and he kind of just wants to be at home in his sweatpants, curled up on the couch with takeout and an old movie, but – But he’d agreed to be social tonight – if nothing else, in Robin’s honor since she was supposed to have a date tonight but is trapped in bed with the flu – and so… here he is. Being social. Ish. Socialish. Steve and Eddie are strangers in a bar... or are they?

something so pretty (3,087 words, rated M, stranger things) | tumblr post

Eddie raises Steve's hand to brush a kiss over his knuckles, then catches him around the waist again, swaying them back and forth to the rhythm of a Bangles song coming from the radio. “I said you look pretty, and I meant it. Deal with it.” Steve feels a reluctant smile pull at the corners of his mouth. “Really?” (the girls paint steve's nails and it causes him to feel several enormous feelings)

can't start a fire (3,831 words, rated T, stranger things) | tumblr post

“Are you sure this is okay?” Steve asks in an undertone once everyone has arrived that first night. He looks genuinely nervous, which is… insane; he’s a bat-wielding, bat-biting jock who saved the world, and Eddie’s just – “I don’t think your friends like me very much.” Eddie feels the corners of his mouth draw down as he follows Steve’s eyeline to where the others are huddled in the corner talking amongst themselves. (steve doesn't need people taking care of him. except, maybe he kind of likes it when they do)

the sweetest thing (14,022 words, rated E, stranger things)

It had started out simple enough between them, Eddie making some off-hand comment about Steve not being able to hold out for a whole month and Steve, ever unable to back down from a challenge, rising to the bait. “Whatever,” he’d said, rolling his eyes. “A month? Please.” He could do a month. Easy. He just hadn't counted on Eddie being – well. Himself. eddie goads steve into a No Nut November challenge; he never said anything about taking it easy on him

kill of the night (1,067 words, rated T, crazyhead)

“Do you remember the Hell Ball?” Raquel frowns, setting down her own slice. “You mean the one a few days ago where I almost got murdered and turned into a portal for demons to enter our mortal coil and take over the planet?” “Yeah,” Amy says. “That one.” “Then yeah,” Raquel says. “Guess I remember it.”

misc. series:

kinktober 2023 (14 works, 39,566 words, rated T-E, stranger things)

a collection of fics written for kinktober 2023 and eddie month 2023 prompts – works can also be found on tumblr under the "kinktober 2023" tag

steddie microfic (16 works, 6,502 words, rated G-E, stranger things)

a collection of microfic written for the monthly steddiemicrofic challenges – works can also be found on tumblr under the "steddiemicrofic" tag

discord drabbles (16 works, 8,479 words, rated G-E, stranger things)

a collection of drabbles/microfics written for daily discord prompts – works can also be found on tumblr under the "discord drabble" tag

steddie holiday drabbles (29 works, 21,715 words, rated T-E, stranger things)

the 2023 fic advent calendar! a collection of fics between 300-1,000 words each, written for steddieholidaydrabbles' prompts and warm-up rounds – works can also be found on tumblr under the "steddieholidaydrabbles" tag

#my fic #fic #writing

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kazoosandfannypacks · 1 year

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"Open to Interpretation" by kazoosandfannypacks

Pairing: Captain Swan

Rating: General

Word Count: 1K

Summary: At the art museum, Emma is appalled at works by modern artist Killian Jones- until a handsome stranger convinces her otherwise.

Tags: au, fluff, captain swan, one shot, modern au

Author's notes: Happy Valentine's Day to my lovely followers and readers! Yesterday I released a poll to see which fic I should release next... and surprise, surprise, the release date was today! Almost half of you voted for "Art Museum," so I hope y'all enjoy this one! it is, in fact, based on that list of meet uglies that was floating around!

Taglist:@zahara@kmomof4@jonesfandomfanatic@booksteaandtoomuchtv@jrob64@tiganasummertree@anmylica@teamhook@undercaffinatednightmare@gingerchangeling@lonelyspectator@caught-in-the-filter @ultraluckycatnd @cs-rylie @silver-the-phoenix [if you’d like to be added to or removed from this list, hmu in my dms or askbox!]

Also on Ao3!

"I can't believe this guy has a whole wing dedicated to his art." Emma muttered, staring at the painting in front of her. She didn't know who this "Killian Jones" was, but based on his art, she was glad she didn't.

"Why not?" A voice behind her asked.

She hadn't even realized she'd made her statement out loud, but she'd never been one to back down from a fight, even over something as trivial as art.

"It's tasteless," She turned to look at the stranger, only to find him more attractive than she expected, "and purposeless- like if absurdism and abstract art had a child in a soulless void. This guy isn't trying to communicate anything, and if he is, he's buried it so deep his viewership can't find out what it is."

"That's because they're not looking," He said, "besides, isn't art open to interpretation? 'Death of the author' and all that? Maybe the reason you're not seeing the message is that you're not looking hard enough."

Determined not to be outwitted by a cute art museum stranger, she turned back to the painting in front of her and tried to see what it could possibly mean. This piece in particular was of waves on a stormy sea- except one large blotch of a vibrant white, silhouetting a sailing ship.

"This one communicates that he knows how to paint water," Emma suggested, "but he's scared to try his hand at realism when it comes to boats. It almost looks like he intended to paint a magnificent vessel there- but backed down at the last minute."

The stranger laughed. "That's what this picture shows. But what does that communicate?"

"That he doesn't like to paint boats?"

"Then I suppose you haven't paid close attention to the rest of the exhibit," he said, "ships seem to be a recurring theme in Jones' work."

Emma bit her lip and nodded. She did recall seeing a few other paintings of ships in this wing.

"So the absence of the ship here is intentional," he continued, "he meant for this picture to be missing something."

"A purpose?" Emma suggested.

He gave half a laugh, "You're closer than you think. I believe Jones' purpose," and here he paused, for a dramatic effect, "is that some purpose of his is missing. The sea has everything but a vessel to sail on it, and without it, something is missing. A clever metaphor, really- though it may be a bit lost on less intellectual self-proclaimed connoisseurs."

"Did he just insult me?" Emma thought, though she had to admit, she started to appreciate the meaning behind the piece- there'd been times she'd felt like that shipless sea herself. Still, she was determined not to be outwit by this stranger.

"That's just one piece," Emma said, then pointed to one she'd spent twenty minutes judging, "what do you think he meant to communicate by this?"

This one was more simplistic than the other, painted in only three colors, and only using basic shapes. It depicted a classic red heart on a white background, with three lines overtop the heart, something like thorns sticking out of the lines- and those were deep black.

"A valentine's heart a five year old could draw," Emma said, "basic shapes, a self proclaimed gritty design that a twelve year old emo with Microsoft Paint would be able to make for themselves."

"You've done it again," he said, "in attempting to swing a low blow on the painting, you've instead hit the nail on the head. This is simple, it is easily accessible- and I think that's because grief is too. Whatever pain inspired this piece, he must've found it extremely extraordinary, to paint it in such an ordinary manner- as if trying to make one understand it. See how the thorns cover the heart, almost like a jail cell, like you can't reach your heart through all that grief."

Emma nodded. "Or maybe the heart is trying to get out- and the grief is the cage you use to protect it."

"So this piece doesn't exist in a soulless void either?" he asked, and raised an eyebrow.

"Two out of twenty means nothing."

"Then perhaps discuss another?" he asked.

"What about that one?" Emma asked. A few paintings down the hall was an abstract array of brushstrokes, all positioned vertically on the canvas. All of them were in shades of red, pink and white, except for two of them. These two would've been directly parallel with each other if they were centered on the canvas, but one was on the top right and the other on the bottom left. They were a deeper shade of red, so much so that they were almost purple, and on further inspection one could even see a little bit of blue peeking out the edge of each stripe, on the sides facing their nearest edge.

"What do you think he doesn't mean to say in this one?" he asked her.

"It looks like Pong without the ball or the center line." Emma said. "Is this another 'something important is missing' too, like how," and here she feigned a dramatic tone of voice, "a game of Pong without the ball is already lost?"

"Not even close this time," he said, "and you were so good up until now."

"I thought art was up to interpretation?" Emma asked.

"True, but look at this," he pointed to the title of the piece.

"Silverstein's Masks?" Emma asked. "I don't know who Silverstein was, but he must've been some kind of picasso painting himself if he could wear this as a mask."

"So knowledgeable in the visual arts, but not in the literary," he shook his head, "I believe the Silverstein in question is Shel."

"Shel Silverstein?" Emma asked, "like, The Giving Tree."

"Ah, so you do know the classics," he said, "but you may not be familiar with one of Silverstein's lesser known works, a short poem almost like a tragedy, simply entitled Masks."

"And I take it you know the poem?"

"Quite familiar with it," he said, "'She had blue skin, and so did he. He kept it hid, and so did she. They searched for blue their whole lives through- then passed right by and never knew."

"And these stripes are supposed to represent that?" Emma asked, trying to hide how impressed she was by his recitation.

"You know more than you're letting on," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder to turn her attention back to the painting, pointing out details with his other hand, "see how these two almost look like they're moving, moving past each other. And while, for the most part, these appear like the others, you can see, just barely peeking out at the bottom- though not where the other could have ever noticed- that under all that red, they're blue."

"So?" Emma asked, understanding exactly what it meant, but wanting to hear him say it in his own words, finding his intellect and voice and his face altogether quite attractive.

"In trying to blend with the rest of the palate, they've closed themselves off from the opportunity to be understood- they've lost a chance to be truly loved because they tried to be something they weren't."

Emma nodded. "I think I get it now."

She looked up at the stranger, his hand still on her shoulder, his eyes a work of art unto themselves, one that she carefully inspected.

"Shall we discuss another one?" he asked, remembering his place and taking his hand off Emma's shoulder.

"I think you've proved your point," Emma said.

"Oh?" he asked, "and what point is that?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Killian Jones is very clearly a talented artist with a clear message in his works."

The stranger smiled a little more than expected, almost sheepishly.

"I'm glad to hear you've changed your mind, miss…."

He held his hand out to her, and she took it, noticing how strong his grip was, but how delicate as well.

"Swan," Emma said, "Emma Swan. And you are?"

"Artist in residence," he smiled, "Killian Jones."

#captain swan #once upon a time #killian jones #emma swan #ouat #fic rec #cs ff #fanfiction #cs au #Valentine's fic

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sanfangirl-cynicalromantic · 1 year

Text

Hiccstrid Drabble | High School Loners

Being a socially awkward teenager nervous about his first day of school after his father insisted on transferring him here after the semester had already started was perfectly normal, Hiccup assured himself. At least that was one thing normal about him.

He adjusted the heavy backpack on his shoulders, like a physical metaphor of his enthusiasm to be here. He should probably peel his sorry butt off the wall and look for his classroom. Navigation was so much harder with moving obstacles blocking your sight and impeding your ability to walk in a straight line.

“C’mon, Hiccup. Just a little more than a year until you graduate and then you can hole yourself up in your room and be a disappointment until Dad kicks you out and makes you work like an adult,” he told himself sarcastically. The pep talk had started out with a genuine intention to boost his self confidence, but when his self-esteem issues met the concept called positivity, his brain didn’t compute.

Room 308. He just had to get to room 308 and sulk in the back until the end of school. He craned his neck over the crowd of heads. He had really shot up over the summer, and could probably even be considered tall, but was used to walking with his head down, and wasn’t familiar with being able to look over people’s heads. It didn’t help anyway; teenagers were leaning against classroom doors or walls and lockers and it made it hard to read the room numbers. What did that door say? Room -

“Ooof!” he collided with a body in front of him, knocking his chin against something hard - a cheekbone, maybe? Or a nose. He frantically tried to regain his balance, thankful no papers had gone flying. His chin smarted and he began to babble.

“Odin I’m so sor-”

“Watch where you’re going!” the person snapped. Oh, great. This someone was annoyed. He sighed and looked up at them, and every thought eddied out of his head in an instant.

Standing in front of him was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She was a couple inches shorter than him, his chin must’ve hit her forehead. Her arms were crossed and she was glaring at him with mesmerizing blue eyes, the color a mix of turquoise and sapphire. She had golden blonde bangs swept to the side of her face and a thick braid down her back. Her arms were crossed over her chest, obscuring the large, loud design of a graphic skull on her shirt. A short red skirt with spikes followed on top of ripped black leggings. He quickly cast his eyes back up to her face so she didn’t think he was ogling her; her deepened scowl told him she’d already thought so. Her round face was perfect, with no makeup except for some drastic eyeliner wings.

The angry slant of her brows and the fearsome scowl on her face were the most attractive expressions he had ever seen.

“I-I’m really sorry, I’m new here-” she raised her brows.

“New to the school or new to being able to watch where you’re going?” she asked sarcastically.

Holy Helheim this girl was funny too. Hiccup was practically in love. Oh no, he was probably staring at her stupidly.

“First days are never fun,” she conceded, like she was irritated with having to show sympathy. “So I’ll show you where to go wherever you need to go and give you some pointers so this never happens again. I don’t like to be bothered by other kids.”

“Okay,” Hiccup agreed happily. Anything to spend more time with her. And she was talking to him, without him having to try and start an awkward conversation first! This was more than he could’ve hoped.

“Where’s your homeroom?”

“Uh, 308.” Her exasperated face fell into annoyance.

“Great,” she muttered, half to herself. “We have the same homeroom.” The day was just getting better. He was starting to like school. She huffed and started walking down the hall, not bothering to check if Hiccup was following her yet. He stared after her for a minute.

One day, he was going to marry that girl.

#hiccstrid #hiccstrid drabbles #hiccstrid fanfics #my writing #my drabbles #httyd modern au #high school au #loner! Astrid #Nerd!Hiccup #simp!Hiccup #I didn't mean to make Hiccup such simp #But it happened #I don't blame him #Astrid Hofferson is hot #hiccup haddock #httyd #my fics #modern hiccstrid

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tacozrg00d · 11 months

Text

You know what? Have my W.I.P Papyrus angst ish for my story The Aftermath

“Hey %!0~3^?”

A bright mass of red and a speck of gold sit in a secluded area surrounded by white.

“Yes, 9^974V$?”

The gold looks to the red, tilting itself in a seemingly curious manner.

“Do you ever feel like- like you-”

The red slumps, unable to find the words to properly explain what they are searching for.

“C’mon 9^9$, you know I can’t feel~”

Gold titters at this remark amused that even after all their time together, Red still can’t grasp that they are an empty shell.

“...that's what scares me…”

Red turns away from Gold, almost ashamed that they are comparing themself to Gold's situation.

“What?”

For the first time in a while, Gold sounds genuine.

“I- I feel like I’m not feeling this- this world- this life- anymore.”

--------------------------------------

Papyrus went on walks regularly, it was essential to keep his bones as healthy as they can be after all. Except, his walks weren’t entirely because he enjoyed them. If he didn’t go on his morning walk then his best friend wouldn’t have anyone to hang out with!

Papyrus would do anything to keep his best friend happy, even if he couldn’t feel happy anyway, it was the intent that counts. Whenever he couldn’t sleep he would go out and chatter to his SOUL’s content with his flowery friend always intently listening to him.

This night, however, Papyrus was hoping to avoid him. The day had been a bit of a catastrophe and he knew his friend was already watching. There was no point in seeking a metaphorical ear to rant to if he had seen everything. So, the skeleton kept to the more open, public, busy side of Snowdin.

Unfortunately, he didn’t account for the lack of things to distract him. He had planned a calm walk to clear his thoughts, not drown in them, yet that was what this walk was doing. He had looped past the Gyftmas tree for the second time when he spotted a familiar monster with a lit treat stomping out of Grillby’s bar.

Inwardly Papyrus wanted to turn and walk off. Still, when he pushed his boots slightly too hard into the snow, it caught Doggo’s attention instantly. The canine's head turned quickly to the noise, reaching to his side where Papyrus knew he had pocket knives.

“Who's there?!?”

Papyrus started to wave his hands slightly to make himself known. “IT’S JUST ME, DOGGO-!”

Doggo relaxed and tucked his hands into the pockets of his shorts, no longer reaching for the knife on his belt. “Papyrus? Didn’t expect to see you out so late! How’re you holdin’ up…?”

The skeleton stopped waving his hands and instead started shifting from foot to foot, half out of nervous energy and half for Doggo to be able to still see him.

“I AM ‘HOLDING UP’ QUITE WELL, DOGGO! HOW ARE YOU?” Even if Papyrus wanted out of this situation as fast as possible, it didn’t excuse being rude.

Doggo’s eyes seemed to scan Papyrus before he huffed out a chuckle and pulled out another dog biscuit from his pockets. “I’m holdin’ an’ that’s about all a monster can do these days.”

He watched as Doggo lit the treat, thankful for his inability to smell the smoke from this distance. After a bit of silence, Papyrus realised his quietness would make the canine weary.

“HOW’S THe- THE SEARCH GOING…?”

He regretted asking as soon as the words left his teeth. Noticing Doggo's halt in movement, he glanced at the other sentry and saw concern rather than suspicion.

“Well- The only sentry station in Waterfall is your brothers since Undyne was- is usually able to handle patrols there on ‘er own, so we don’t have many leads. We are waitin’ on word from New Home though, t’ see if she jus’ went to visit Asgore.” Doggo stopped talking to send a quick glance at the bar. “D’ya wanna talk somewhere else?”

Papyrus stopped fidgeting before remembering why he was doing so in the first place. “SURE…”

Doggo leads the way and Papyrus silently follows. They walk with a comfortable silence until they come across Doggo’s sentry post.

“Papyrus- yer a good kid- but I’m gonna have to be honest with you about somethin’.” Papyrus tensed, unsure of where this would go.

“You and yer brother are on da top of ther list. Everyone knows ya hang with her fer trainin’ at the end of da day, and your brother has the only station in Waterfall.”

The canine paused as Papyrus struggled to not spill out confessions. “But I don’t think yer guilty.”

Before he could even sigh of relief, he picked up the unsaid remark. It was accusatory, he was accusing Sans of doing something.

“SANS WOULDN’T DO ANYTHING.”

He was just making this situation even more problematic to dig out of wasn’t he, he was causing the people around him trouble.

“Look, Papyrus, I didn’t mean ‘nything drastic. It’s just- suspicious, y’know? No one even knows anything abou-”

Papyrus squeezed his sockets closed, refusing to listen anymore. Sure he knew Doggo had disliked his brother, at the very least, but-

“SANS DIDN’T DO ANYTHING”

Doggo sighed and Papyrus could hear him throw and light another biscuit.

“Okay- I believe ya.” A chuckle. “If anyone knows anything about ‘im, it's you.”

The skeleton opened his sockets and crossed his arms. They had made it to one of his puzzles sometime during the conversation.

The sentries stood in silence, save for Papyrus’ shuffling. “Yer sumthin’ else, Papyrus-” A paw is placed on his shoulder before Doggo turns around. “Don’t stress too much, the underground and guard need someone like you durin’ moments like this.”

Despite the guilt swelling up under his ribcage, in the middle of his SOUL, Papyrus couldn’t help but be thankful for the canine's words.

“Thank you” The skeleton heard Doggo pause, likely because of the shift to lowercase, before chuckling once again and going on his own way.

“Your puzzles might need some cleanin’, best thing we got in case we’re all too busy to notice a human-!”

Papyrus turned toward his puzzles that were, unsurprisingly, covered in snow. He decided that keeping his puzzles in check was the least he could do. The work was tedious, the snow melting into all the little crevices when he wasn’t focused. Luckily the thought of being careful kept his mind off the dark thoughts that had previously plagued him. Unfortunately, for him or for his friend, it wasn’t long before-

“Howdy-!”

The skeleton halted in his movements, frozen to the spot. ‘What now? why now?’ Snapping back into reality, Papyrus sat on his knees and looked down at his flowery fiend. “HELLO FLOWEY! DID YOU WANT TO JOIN ME IN CLEARING MY PUZZLES? THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ALWAYS GLAD TO SEE-”

“YAWN- no offense papyrus, but don’t ya think you can take a break from puzzles?”

“NONSENSE! I CAN NOT SIMPLY ‘TAKE A BREAK FROM -”

“Oooh-! Y’know what'd be real fun? SPARRING!”

Papyrus, who was waving gestures in an attempt to distract Flowey with a rant, froze. His eyes slowly glanced toward his friend to see a mockingly innocent smile.

OF COURSE, HE’D KNOW

“Ah- FLOWEY I’D NEVER EXPECT YOU TO BE INTERESTED IN SPARRING-! AND WHILE I AM FLATTERED, I STILL NEED TO CLEAR MY PUZZLES! MAYBE WE CAN- SPAR- LATER?”

A vine started fidgeting with a few of the snow poffs that surrounded the puzzle, threatening to topple them over. “Are you really going to just listen to the mutt that accused your brother of your crime? No one thinks you're capable of it, they all underestimate your potential. Maybe you can take this as an opportunity to build a name for yourself! Golly, I-” The flower stops his pushing as he’s nearly trampled by Papyrus standing. “HEY-! It’s rude to walk away when your best friends talking y’kno- EW”

The skeleton had run over to the edge of the trees and started emptying his magic reserves. Also known as vomiting. Flowey just stayed by the puzzle waiting for his friend to finish his disgusting and totally unnecessary activity.

— end w.i.p

I lost my outline for Sans’ part and my usual chapter set up is Papyrus, sans next sans, papyrus

#papyrus #undertale #archive of our own #fanfic #papyrus angst #undertale fanfiction

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drgnbld · 4 months

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"You really think he'll let you ride him if you just assert yourself?"

She's watching Apex eye Lance like a piece of prey, and the only reason he's not attacking is because she's holding the metaphorical leash.

pov you get good rolls outside of dnd campaigns. ft. @monterraverde.

" Dragons are extremely prideful creatures, regardless if they're ancient or not; it's like this one stubborn gene has carried through centuries of generations and has no intention of stopping any time soon. "

he chuckles, but eyes the beast with a cautious gaze. cautious, yet confident. much like that prideful stubbornness, teachings on how to overcome that as a tamer came through too - in fact, it's one of the oldest teachings an elder can give to aspiring tamers, one of the first Lance had been given. of course that wasn't exactly fool proof, as nothing was, there were exceptions, such as Alexi, which come to mind, but with a beast like Apex?

yeah. it was these kind of beasts which created the need for these lessons in the first place.

" my connection towards dragons come as a gift from the very first, " he starts to explain, cape getting tugged off in the process as careful steps are taken towards the beast in question. lance is... calm. everything about him, even the stillness of the earth becomes like an aura around all three of them felt by all it encompassed. " and maybe after this we can talk about it. but for now- "

a shift in his footing - dirt collects as a small cloud when he pushes off towards the creature who does what it does best in return: gets riled up and attempts to meet lance half way with teeth bared. perhaps it didn't think the tamer would meet him head on, or perhaps hadn't thought the ways those from blackthorn were taught had been different to every other dragon user, but when lance continued forth before ducking there was a chance it had no idea just what was planned for it.

beast and conqueror return to rika's side with both parties looking a little worse for wear; apex, tired out and looking like he's been tousled through various hedgerows and deserts - and lance, who's body is now littered with deep cuts and bite marks. not that you could tell, mind you, giving the way he's grinning triumphantly upon the back of the beast and a calm hand stroking its head. this hadn't been the first time he's wrangled with a suedo-legendary and it certainly won't be the last.

" seems he's happy to after some convincing, wouldn't you say so? "

#monterraverde #tbt.

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willel · 2 years

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Hi! How do you think the connection between Vecna and Will works? If Will still had particles of the UD or if he was Vecna's horcrux he would have feel some kind of pain in S3. So through what are they connected?

I guess it all depends one when exactly Will became connected to Vecna. They were connected before Will got possessed in season 2. He knew an "evil" was looking at him and wanted to kill everyone except him. That was before he even saw the MF, he just saw a storm. There must've been a point in season 1 where Vecna linked their minds. It was either that vine, or maybe while Will was unconscious or something in the library, Vecna approached him? Whatever the case, I don't think Will remembers it given his statement about how it all makes sense that it was one evil dude who did all that to him.

This connection, I feel, is not necessarily an Upside Down connection. It's a psychic connection to Henry/Vecna himself. Just like Max probably couldn't feel them burning the Demogorgon/Vecna's body, because she's not attached to the Upside Down, but to Henry himself.

Whatever the psychic link between Henry and his victims is, it doesn't transfer his physical pain. It's also usually one-sided, but not in Will's case?

The difference between Max and Will that we can see so far is that Will seems more more intimately connected. He can actually detect Henry's thoughts and feelings. He can't feel Henry's pain, but he knows he's in pain and how much he's hurting.

I don't think Max or any of the other victims (if they survived) could be able to sense that. Max couldn't sense Vecna's intentions or if he was watching/nearby or preparing to attack. She could vaguely tell she was still marked.

(also, this makes me wonder if El also has the power to create permanent psychic links like that to other people too)

Also, I learned the proper term for horcrox in d&d. It's "phylactery".

Edit: I'll be using the word "talisman" instead of phylactery! The official term is phylactery, but it's a misappropriated religious term so ye.

First, a prospective lich must cast the spell enchant an item on the object. If this worked, this was followed by trap the soul. If it was successfully made receptive to a soul, the would-be lich cast magic jar on the object, thereby making it the talisman. This had the effect of binding the caster's soul to the mortal realm, stopping it from going onto the Outer Planes after death. Permanency and reincarnation could also be required. Then the lich's soul entered the jar for the first time, but this exhausting process caused a loss of life-force and might, as well as erasure of their most powered prepared spells. Once their soul and vitality were successfully stored in the jar, they could leave and rest for at least a few days to recover. Creation of the talisman took a tenday to achieve. Only after it was complete could the lich commence the deadly ritual to fully achieve lichdom. A lich who survived the destruction of their phylactery could create a replacement at half cost.

But, upon looking up if a lich could make a person/creature their talisman, this is an answer I found:

But I also found this

The general consensus seems to be while it is possible, it's also a stupid decision. A lich like Vecna should be trying to hide their talisman somewhere where absolutely no one can get to it or destroy it or even touch it.

At the same time, having a living creature being a talisman could be beneficial because it could defend itself, hide, or run away from danger if someone did manage to find it and try to destroy it.

Maybe Vecna made Will his talisman on purpose and he never thought two people would come alll the way into the dangers of the Upside Down to go and get him.

Finding his talisman missing, Vecna sent the entire full force of the freakin' Mind Flayer to search for him and attach a metaphorical leash on him. A leash he clearly tried to use later to get Will out of the hands of the protagonists but Will was too baby to escape and they tore the leash off of him.

As of season 3, he couldn't take Will back even if he wanted to, the gate was closed AND Will was out of his reach.

But now? All bets are off.

#stranger things #vecna #henry creel #will byers #max mayfield #theory #ask

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moonssugar · 1 year

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10, 16, & 20 for the pride asks please! :)

20. Have your ocs helped you in self discovery? How?

lets start off with 20 because its defintely the funniest lmaoooo

my main character sam is transmasc (a trans boy) and my tertiary protag is a lesbian (aubry) and she discovers this as the story goes out and let me to tell you there is nothing more hilarious than 1. writing and thinking extensively about how your character is a lesbian and pouring so much into that while being in total denial about yourself and 2. discovering even more about your own inwards trans feelings by giving your transmasc oc 90% of your personality and also through metaphor and symbolism by making a lot of the story a trans analogy. but wait, the character i see the most of myself in, sam, is transmasc but aubry, the second character i see so much of myself in, is a lesbian so how can these seemingly contradictory things be true simultaneously you ask? well it turns out that im a transmasc lesbian. who couldve saw that coming, right? (me. i saw this coming). still the funniest fucking thing about me like "yeah go ahead and tell yourself a story and accidently awaken something in yourself, this will be so funny and cool" and honestly it is so cool! one of the most writing things ive ever done

10. Does your oc celebrate Pride? How?

yes they do! sam has been to a local pride parade/event at some point with his parents (who are bi4bi). he also has a trans flag hanging up in his room that dual functions as a symbol of pride and also a window curtain that turns his room pink and blue at certain times of the day (its intentional). chelsie celebrates pride as well, mostly through self expression like with her clothing and style but she loves pride events too and collecting little pride themed objects that end up in random places. i feel like chelsie's way of celebrating pride is chaotic and spontaneous which suits her. both of them have pride themed bracelets and backpack pins, you know the baby queer stuff i love (i still love the baby queer stuff idc) and sam has trans, bi and rainbow themed tie dye shirts he made and loves to wear. aubry has never seen any pride flag or been to an event and she didnt even know gay people existed as well people and not the boogyman or theoretical person she heard about in church until she realized she was gay and met other queer people (and she literally has two dads LOL). but once she does she cant get enough of rainbows and the lesbian flag which in the alternate universe world where shes from no one knows its meant to symbolize queerness. so she gets to walk around with flags and colors that no one recognizes except her and her family. its hilarious, its her own "no one knows im a lesbian" pin. they just think shes from a different country or something (where all the pretty girls are from). sam and chelsie gifted her a lesbian flag through their mail system once she returned home and she cherishes it. mostly, i'd say my characters celebrate pride through living, being who they want to be and uplifting each other amd they love their glitter, music, make up, tie dye shirts, flags and rainbows too

16. Did you ever change an oc's identity when they were already established? Why?

my character's queer identities have been pretty solid since inception and through their development, its one of the things that have changed the least about them. sam used to be some flavor of trans/nonbinary but there are other nonbinary characters in my story now and sam ids with transmasc the most instead of nonbinary. chelsie has always been transfem as far as i can remember although i mightve imagined her cis one single time and then said "nah im gonna trans your gender no way in hell youre cis" when i didnt feel connected to her characterization [transgenderfication beam]. and aubry has remained gay as hell even as she started off as a completely different person that split into two then i used one half of the personality, refurbished it by gave it some religious trauma, pining and autism to create modern aubry then used the other half for something else. everyone else's personalities have started at the surface level idea of who i think they are and deepened and complexified from there and thats even more intricate than i could describe in one sitting and not always specifically about their queer identity

oh i almost forgot! one character (benjamin, aubry's father) has a bi panic awakening after he went through life identifying as gay and instead of a guy being the source of the panic it was aubry's mother (valid, i'd panic if i saw her too). his character started off as gay but aubry didn't hatch from a magic egg or grow from a pumpkin in a patch or fall to earth like a shooting start (amos's many joke versions of the birds and bees, amos is married to benjamin and is her dad #2) so i needed an explanation for that. he also discovers he's polyamorous in the process so good for him! other characters have become noticeably less cis over time but were already kinda gender weird to begin with if i squinted hard enough. like are you really cis if im writing you? be fr

also, sam's parents in my mind

#thanks for playing rachel! <3 ur so cool #ask game #roadtrip! by me #sam (roadtrip!)#chelsie (roadtrip!)#aubry (roadtrip!)

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birlwrites · 1 year

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i really do love reading your rambles, you always have the most unique and interesting ideas!! your writing on magic and how it works is especially fascinating and i was wondering if you could talk more on how it works - anything to do with magic really

SOUL MAGIC TIME

ok let's talk about metaphor, not in the sense that it's usually used in english, but in the sense that the mckinnons use it behind closed doors. the word metaphor comes from ancient greek and means, in a word, transference - which is how it's been mentioned very briefly in chapter 19 of ttdl, thanks to miles mckinnon

so what is metaphor? the mckinnons specifically use it to mean transference of the soul. it's the centerpiece of what they study (soul and death magic). it occurs at death and during the dementor's kiss (although several mckinnons are researching whether the dementor's kiss can *really* be termed metaphor or if it needs its own term because it's something removing the soul as opposed to the soul leaving. metaphor implies giving, but then *cousin madeline voice* what about metaphor in the case of murder, can that really be called consensual, and then *lord mckinnon voice* fair point but what is murder in the first place, and then *marlene's dad voice* uncle martin i thought we settled that two years ago, and then *cousin marigold who died in 1853 but does a good job of keeping up with slang voice* these things are worth revisiting aren't they?? and on and on and on)

now, there's also semimetaphor, which is a necessary step in the process of creating a horcrux. just splitting your soul via murder isn't enough - then you have to put half of that soul IN something, and that's where metaphor comes in! but you also have to hold on to the other half. making a horcrux is intentional semimetaphor - there are also unintentional types (which is to say, an interrupted dementor's kiss, except for all the issues about terminology with the dementor's kiss, repeat argument from above but now add in a few more people)

intentional metaphor (by which i mean *complete* metaphor) is a necessary step to become a ghost! becoming a ghost requires a very specific mindset and part of that mindset involves a willingness to release your mind and soul from your body, which is why so many ghosts are people who died scared, but the mckinnons have this process down to a SCIENCE so anyone who wants to become a ghost after their death only needs to consult the appropriate sources

the mckinnons are also very interested in death, but they very much study it from a perspective of what's going on with the soul - still, they know more about death than pretty much anyone else, which is partly due to all their metaphor research, partly due to their ghosts, and partly due to their necromantic practices!

#the blacks think centuries of burying their important family members on the grounds of black manor #make THEM chill with the notion of death???#pls the mckinnons could eat them for breakfast #not really because the blacks would go down fighting but like.#the mckinnons have this particular variety of cheerful and indeed scholarly morbidity #that goes over and above the blacks' 'death comes for everyone :|' mindset #should i make an inbox tag #dark lord wip #atfhv worldbuilding

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softgrungeprophet · 2 years

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fucking hell man this issue is a lot

i definitely see exactly the kind of climate this comic is being made in. (the climate of: now) the fact that he has peter say their names (and use the phrase “say their names” itself) is like, clearly very deliberate as a choice especially in this context. kelly has made it abundantly clear that this comic is about racists killing brown people for their own gain and that that is why, specifically, they are evil. i don’t think i can say whether it’s effective or not though especially as kelly (the character) herself is white and most of the characters of color in the comic are... the dead victims EXCEPT the wrestling bros (but they too are you know, sidelined kind of horrifically). but it’s definitely very much on purpose and (mostly) not sidestepping saying the quiet part out loud which, in that way is... i mean just saying “nazi” on the page within the first issue is like... more than a lot of authors are willing to do, a lot of the time, and i’m honestly sick of all the handwaving vagueness of social issues via metaphor, so seeing him just say, Yeah this is what’s up, and this is why they’re bad, and this is bad, is like. i appreciate the candor.

but also —

i mean. jeez i guess it’s easier to show than to tell but also i feel like i should put like a tw on this or something...

but

fuck, you know? this comic really has been a mile a minute so it really conveys a lot when it has a panel of silence—a technique in a lot of the better spidey comics to be sure. but that’s not what i’m talking about here of course, though it absolutely conveys a lot in the moment.

and that is... well, i have been wondering throughout this comic if kelly is writing all of this coming from the angle of peter being jewish, especially throughout issue 4 as the villains repeatedly refer to spidey himself as a half-breed and an animal, and i think that while it’s still nebulous, likely on purpose so he doesn’t get dinged by corporate or editorial, i think it’s fair to say that he .... probably is writing with that intent? without necessarily being explicit about it for most of the comic? because this page and the beat of silence before peter loses it does make it feel like it very suddenly got very personal even though the rest of the scene plays out without saying that and mostly shifts focus to having peter’s sudden blind rage rooted in his feelings about the college students and high schoolers who were killed as part of this wulf guy’s scheme.

but i think even when it’s brushed away, tamped back down into obliqueness, the intent here was definitely... the rage here is because this is inherently personal to him in a way that the kids—even the ones he knew—just aren’t.

it’s... a lot and like i said this comic feels like it’s saying a lot of stuff out loud that a lot of other comics don’t dare to touch, and whether that works or not is hard to say but i do think that overall this is... one of the better spidey comics i’ve read, especially among the... idk what age you’d want to call it. more than just the modern age like specifically the past ten years.

idk. idk.

it takes big swings, some of them miss, some of them hit really hard, and it feels like it has a lot more teeth than some of the more recent comics. and i can appreciate teeth.

HMM

at the end now though and I’m not sure about this

I mean

I get what he’s going for in that it’s still about genetic purity and there are XYZ supremacy (japanese, hindu etc) groups that often function in similar ways as aryan supremacy, but as a twist in the context i’m not sure if it’s effective? or, i guess... thoughtful? effectively thought through? Especially coming on the tails of an issue with the scene above. it feels potentially shortsighted. but it DOES explain all the stuff about “mongrels” and “half-breeds” (though i still am not entirely sure why they were calling peter that too?)

(sorry, edit like 9 months later: i realized this was specifically referring to the Holocaust and children from mixed marriage; i hadn't connected that while I was reading it, but obviously of course that's what it is, and it's clear that what Kelly is doing is, by having Zemo refer to Peter as a mongrel, directly implying, again, the unspoken part which is that Peter is Jewish.)

UGH NO DON’T SAVE HIM

STAB HIM

i mean i know peter would never do that in an official marvel comic cause they’d never let him but he doesn’t have to SAVE the man who just pulled the fucking holocaust gold fillings line like 10 minutes ago, like there are other ways to have the villain not die so other writers can use him you know????

okay spider monster is pretty good, i GUESS, i always love peter giving into his baser instincts and also turning into a horrible murder machine but man man i’m not sure how i feeeeel about this but i guess i can see why the author needed them to be both alive in the same general location... still... after that line i don’t think peter should have done anything to save him. there’s a difference between not killing someone and like actively saving them you know? but this shows up again and again in comics and it is an act of deliberation but still it rubs me the wrong way

i thiiink i’d like to check out savage spider-man though cause... i DO think this comic is good so the continuaton is probably... also good?

#nadia reads comics #i'm sure jewish and black readers specifically could say a lot more incisive and insightful things as well #about this comic and the swings it takes and whether things like this scene or the ''say their names'' dialogue works or not #i actually read the first 2 issues of this after seeing traincat recommend it on twitter and then bought it myself without finishing it #cause the first two issues sold me. i don't regret it. like i said i think this is one of the more solid modern comics i have read #really wish they had not brought the word ''savage'' into the titling though

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munchausensexdrome · 3 months

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at its core twilight princess is a game about loneliness and the uncertain line between good and evil. light and dark are not monikers applicable to good and evil, but are interchangeable. either can do evil, or good. the intro to the game is link riding alone through a twilight landscape while melancholy music plays, and as the title comes up and the wolf howls, it changes to an ominous reverberation. link lives on the outskirts of town, alone, in a house that's too big for him. he is friends with the village kids, and has a romantic relationship with ilia where it's not clear if they are dating or are just flirting, arguably. he works as a goatherd and handyman. his only real close equal relationship is with the town's older swordsman, who is afflicted by the same loneliness. it's there at the beginning of the game. the first words that are spoken are by him as he and link sit by the spring and watch the sunset, and he says "tell me... do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls? they say it's the only time our world intersects with theirs. the only time we can feel the lingering regrets of spirits who have left our world. that is why loneliness always pervades the hour of twilight." this comes full circle at the end of the game, and gives us insight into why an older swordman would feel this way. it is an immaculate setup for the story that follows, and explains the conclusion of the game.

the landscapes link travels through are often empty of people, and there's evidence that they live in the ruins of a once magical world that has fallen into decay as a result of extended peace-time and unknown ancient wars. where there are people, they live alone (with the notable exception of castle town) and are isolated from nearby towns or villages. there is solitude and vastness, all of which are magnified by the music and the color grading of these environments. and link meets and helps people along the way, but they are transient - like him - just people travelling through. they are changed by each other of course but they know they will likely never see each other again outside of these circumstances. the temple of time might be a metaphor for this - it is decayed and falling apart, but exists in its past magnitude only for link, who will never be able to show it to another person. the master sword sits alone in a enclosed area deep within the lost woods. in fact, link spends the majority of the first half of the game encountering people as spirits that he can see as a wolf, but who cannot see or interact with him, and are stuck experiencing the horror of being locked between light and dark, and have therefore become insubstantial and see only horrors. and when saved, they do not know it was him who freed them, and he moves on to continue his task.

the only constant link has is midna, who is a cautious ally. throughout the game we do not know midna's true intentions, and she frequently alludes to them being based on revenge or dark in nature, which makes the player question if we are doing the right thing by helping her. the first boss link kills decays and implodes into a haunting artifact, accompanied by ominous music, and midna refuses to tell link what is it or how it will help to save people from the twilight. when he does find out, it is in a vision a light spirit sends to him about the birth and death of hyrule due to sorcerors, who are all depicted as mirrors of link. he kills ilia, is killed by the sorcerors, and then takes his place among them as one of the dark rulers of hyrule. as he returns to reality his face changes - he is pursuing true power. he can have it. he wants it. to destroy zant? to save himself? to win? or to have it because he can. he is the chosen hero, picked by the gods - long dead, voiceless, who now only exist to the light spirits who guide him and in the triforce mark on his hand. zelda in the first meeting with her says "this was once the kingdom where the power of the gods was said to slumber." there is no god in twilight princess. there are only men, and men are the cause of hyrule's destruction due to their nature. he can't help the want - the power.

when we first meet zelda she is alone in the twilight world that enshrouds hyrule castle, looking out on her kingdom. midna greets her mockingly - her people have won, but she is working with zelda. we have allied with midna. what does this mean? zelda reveals that she bowed to zant in order to save her people, not realizing the tortured half-existence they would live. she is allowed to fully exist to prolong her misery, alone in the tower, watched over by guards. then when midna is dying, her final request is for zelda to tell her how to break the curse on link because he is the only one who can save hyrule, and by extension zelda's people. we finally begin to understand that midna is good - she will abandon her goals in order to restore balance of light and dark. and order to save her, zelda kills herself, giving midna her lifeforce, despite midna begging her to stop. midna could have been free of her terrible journey, and in that moment of freedom desired nothing more than the salvation of a people she does not belong to. but by zelda choosing to sacrifice herself for both midna's people and her own, she traps midna back on a path that leads to destruction. midna says "zelda, i've taken all you had to give, though i did not want it." no one in this story wants to be a part of it, but they are helpless. they must follow the string to the end, even as a pervasive doom permeates the game. the areas link travels to are less and less hospitable or even accessible to human life. the temple of time, containing forgotten magic. snowpeak, the frozen mountain. he visits the arbiter's grounds - a tomb for ancient evil - then goes into the sky.

the line between good and evil blurs again when midna explains what happened to the sorcerers who crafted the fused shadows and sought the god's power for their own. "what do you think happened to the magic wielders who tried to rule the sacred realm? they were banished. they were chased across the sacred lands of hyrule and driven into another realm by the goddesses. it was another world entirely... the antithesis of hyrule, where the sun shines bright. Its denizens became shadows that could not mingle with the light. eventually, most came to call it the twilight realm, and from it, none could return to the world of light. they were forever doomed to live in the twilight, flitting in the half-light of dusk, mere shadows of hyrule."

she further explains that it was a whole tribe of people that was banished, not just three sorcerers as the light spirits have lead us to believe. and in the twilight realm, these people have continued to life for centuries, trapped in the space between with no escape. such a punishment cannot be fair - it's wrong. the descendants of the sorcerers are innocent, as was the tribe that was initially jailed with them. the people who inhabit this realm have adapted to it, and now enjoy a peaceful existence that was disrupted by zant's quest for power. again they are suffering for someone else's wrongs. it also casts zant and midna in a new light - is zant's revenge fair? to trap the people of hyrule in the same way his people have been condemned? midna - her mockery of horrified hyrulians as they are reduced to spirits - is this not justified? light no longer equals good, and dark no longer equals bad. they are not universal truths.

but it almost doesn't matter. whatever outcome occurs is already happening. it is set. the story is linear, and there is nowhere else to go. link can continue his journey, or stop, and do nothing, but to do so would mean abandoning the game, because no matter the actions of the player, the die is already cast. and so you and link continue deeper and deeper. link continues and collects all pieces of the fused shadows - the sorcerers ancient magic.

when ganondorf's tale is revealed, you have to question the story the sages tell you. like the light spirits they are messengers of the gods, who we know either did not know the whole story of the banishment of a whole people or choose not to tell link the truth. so is he a "demon thief, an evil magic-wielder", or has his story been twisted? when ganondorf was executed the goddesses had already left hyrule, leaving the sages no answer for their mark that he also carries on the back of his hand. link and zelda are both considered "blessed by the goddesses", but ganondorf is not. because he is an outsider, and all outsiders, in all the fables we are told about hyrule, are evil, and must be destroyed by someone pure of heart. but why bless him at all, then? most tellingly, when the sages execute him, they attempt to do so with a sacred sword of light that vanquishes evil. and it does not kill him, so in desperation they do what they know they should not, and banish him to the twilight realm.

so there is no other choice. link must gather the mirror shards and go to face zant in the twilight realm. as the mirror opens, midna wistfully says "some call our realm a world of shadows, but that makes it sound unpleasant. the twilight there holds a serene beauty... you have seen it yourself as the sun sets on this world. bathed in that light, all people were pure and gentle, but things changed once that foul power pervaded the world."

the sages then confess "it was all our doing. we overestimated our abilities and attempted to put an end to ganondorf's evil magic. i hope you can find it in yourself to forgive our carelessness, o twilight princess."

so the sages know that the twilight realm is a peaceful place - in this exchange it is revealed that it is exactly the same as hyrule. a kingdom bathed in a light that makes it 'good', that outsiders seek to pervert and control. in this way, midna and zelda are mirror images of each other - zelda, who would not abandon her people to save herself, who's final act was to sacrifice herself so her people had a chance of survival. and midna, who had her powers stripped from her in a coup, and ran in order to find a way to exact revenge on the ones who did this to her. as she looks upon the piece of the fused shadow she possesses - the magic that doomed her people - her face contorts into a vicious grin of rage. she - in that moment - was ruthless in her quest to regain power. it is revealed that she watched and waited for the divine beast, and confesses "i thought i could use you, link. and i only cared about returning our world to normal. i didn't care what happened to the world of light, not at all."

but the journey has changed her. zelda's sacrifice, and link's continued pursuit to save hyrule have influenced her. she knows they must save both realms if they are to do any good at all. while their quest is lonely - link does not talk to midna, and midna cannot be honest with link - they have changed each other. and the people that link have met have changed midna too. she's been watching and listening from his shadow, always quick with a disparaging remark, but learning that these people are the same as hers.

likewise, link has not been going along with midna for nothing. his motivation in twilight princess is fascinating. his actions are of vengeance and survival, until everything changes. at the beginning he finishes up his farmwork as usual, when ilia takes his horse to the spring without his permission, because he has been jumping fences with her and ilia is angry that link might have injured her. when he finds them, they are attacked by monsters. link is knocked out and ilia and his horse are abducted. when he comes to, he runs after them, only to be pulled into the twilight by midna and transformed into a wolf by the latent protection of the goddesses.

he is motivated by his own desire to save the people closest to him, and when he eventually finds out that the village children have been kidnapped he wants to save them too. when he eventually finds them, colin tells him "i understand what my dad meant when he told me i needed to be stronger, like you, link. he wasn't talking about strength, like lifting stuff. he was talking about being brave. ... you can do anything. you can do something to help the gorons in the mine too, can't you, link?" wherever he goes, there are more people to help, and no one else to save them. he and by extension the player are trapped by the narrative. he has to grow stronger because he is totally alone on this journey, echoed in the wide empty spaces and the barren fields he travels through. the evil places no one else will go, long forgotten, and full of ancient secrets. his journey is carried within himself, inexpressible to others both by his lack of speech and the terrible weight of it.

the golden wolf or hero's shade is the only character who understands this. the long dead spectre of link from ocarina of time, filled with regrets from being unable to pass on the lessons of his life to those who came after him after he was sent back in time to his childhood. he gave up his childhood to save hyrule, and by leaving the kokiri forest has no way to return, as adults (or those who have lost the ability to be a child) cannot enter. it is inferred that he became a wandering knight as his armor has no hylian sigils, and eventually died of exposure in the forest trying to find his way back to his home and friends. as the result of his heroism, he too ends up alone. once he teaches link the final hidden skill he is able to move on, saying "although i accepted life as the hero, i could not convey the lessons of that life to those who came after. at last, i have eased my regrets. you who have marched through countless foes, each mighter than the last... you, who now gaze to the future with vision unclouded... surely you can restore hyrule to its stature of yore as the chosen land of the gods."

so the end of the story arrives. ganon sits on the throne, having decapitated all the statues of the goddesses. he has restored zelda to life only to use her as a puppet. he grew strong off the twili's hatred of the hylians who imprisoned them, and was able to pull himself back to hyrule. he possesses power far beyond that of link and zelda, the other two people chosen by the gods, and implies that the gods intended for him to rule, but his hatred of hyrule has grown since his imprisonment and he now seeks to destroy and remake it. to be honest, i don't think he can be faulted for this, and there is so much unknown. this genuinely could be what the gods wanted.

it becomes clear that link and zelda will not be able to beat him. so midna teleports them away, and faces him alone. ganondorf acknowledges that the twili were and are powerful, and empathizes with their banishment. midna's response to ganondorf's claim to power is "but if you are one of the chosen wielders of power, as you claim, i will risk everything to defy you." she extends her rejection of hyrule and their gods to ganondorf, who aims to side with her. their battle destroys hyrule castle and the surrounds, and when the smoke clears only ganondorf remains.

and at the end, when link faces ganondorf on the battlefield, he fights link with a sacred sword made of light - the very thing that was intended to execute him and could not, though it should destroy any evil thing - while link employs dark forbidden magic and the aid of the light spirits. he finally succumbs - link stabs him through the chest, pinning him to the dirt, and he unleashes an agonized, furious wail. then, despite this grievous injury, he stands. he dies upright, still facing link, in an act of final defiance of hyrule. link and zelda both bow their heads. the final scene is shown from a distance. link turns and faces a little way off to the side of ganondorf, as though he cannot bear what he has done, while zelda appears to pray.

link finally turns away, and there is midna on the crest of the hill, surrounded by the light spirits. despite the battle, she has survived. and link runs to her. she has been restored to her true form as the twilight princess, and leaves to return home. she thanks zelda, and imparts this to link: "well, the princess spoke truly: as long as that mirror's around, we could meet again. link... i... see you later." she looks at him, maintaining eye contact, and as she returns home, shatters the mirror with her tear. they will never see each other again.

the game ends with the goatherd looking for link at his house, but he isn't home. we pan to ilia, who is looking down the path that heads into the forest. and the last time we see link, he is riding out of ordon. he no longer belongs there. like the swordman who trained him, and like the hero's shade, he is forever changed, and in many ways, will be alone forever.

i don't know where he went, but i think you don't need to. a perfect, full-circle, bitter ending to a tragic tale about the danger of the mandate of heaven.

#tp

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