#because she's barely sapient
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getvalentined · 4 days ago
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Buddy. Pal. Friend. Your agreement with this exact concept of what defines humanity (and therefore defines one's worthiness to exist) is literally your entire character arc in Crisis Core. This line of thinking is what drives you to try to kill your oldest friend, and then lament that you failed. This sentiment is what leads you to force your protege to kill you, even though he doesn't think this way at all and never does.
God, Baby Angie makes me so fucking sad. Because he's right! Not all people are like that! But he is—or he will be, within the next decade.
I can't stop thinking about what the world would have been like if he'd been just a little less scared, or at least willing to admit that he was scared at all. If he'd been willing to ask for help, ever, at any time. If he'd been brought up in a way that allowed him to truly admit weakness and fault, a way that didn't leave him constantly trying to be everything to everyone while refusing to accept that he might be wrong.
But he wasn't. And that's the biggest tragedy of all.
Gillian, when I fucking find you—
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enigmaris · 6 months ago
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If Lois Lane had a nickle for every time she had to help an overpowered boy from the midwest with the power of journalism, she'd have two nickles. Which isn't a lot but its weird that its happened twice.
Danny watched as Lois pulled out her phone and pulled up a recording app.
“What are you doing?”
“You came to a journalist and are surprised to get an interview?” She asked him, her tone clearly joking. “What you’ve given me here is great kid, but newspaper clippings and copies of federal laws don’t get the public’s attention. I need a story, Phantom’s the story.”
“I’m not Phantom.”
Lois looked at him, less than impressed. Slowly, she turned the screen of her computer until it was visible to both of them. There, in full clarity, was a front-page story from his hometown newspaper. ‘Danny Phantom saves Bus Full of Children!’ and there was a picture of him in his ghost form, his face crystal clear on her screen.
"Phantom’s a ghost. I’m just a dumb kid.” Danny tried again.
Lois pinched the bridge of her nose with her right hand and muttered to herself.
“Why do all you midwestern boys have the same schtick?”
“I’m sorry?” Danny said, unsure if he should be apologizing or not.
“Changing your last name from Fenton to Phantom does not a secret identity make kid. It might work for most civilians, but anyone familiar with the hero game will clock you from a mile away.”
“I’m not Phantom.”
“Sure, kid. But I’m sure you have a way for me to interview him, right? Because I want to talk to him before I do anything else about your town.”
Danny hugged himself and looked down at his knees.
“Is it really that bad?”
“Not the worst I’ve seen. Wonder Woman’s is paper thin. I'm pretty sure most people in DC know who she is outside of the cape and just don’t say anything because she scares them.”
Danny snorted involuntarily at that, looking back up at the woman.
“What’s going on in your town, Phantom? Why come to a journalist and not the Justice League?”
“The Anti-Ecto Acts got passed like a year ago. They state that only being that produces or contains ectoplasm above a certain amount is considered non-sapient and is to be turned over to the government for disposal.” Danny said. “I put the whole thing in there for you to read, but it's long. Amity Park has a lot of ectoplasm in it. It's seeped into the air and water. Normal human people have it in them now. At first, those agents were just firing at me whenever I finished a ghost fight. I could deal with that. Their aim is terrible anyway. But then they figured out that humans can become contaminated with ectoplasm. They decided that meant the entire town was under their jurisdiction. They've decided that means that no one in town counts as human anymore, that we don’t have rights, that they’re doing us a favor by not just exterminating the entire town like the law says.”
Danny leaned forward, putting his hands on the desk in front of Lois Lane. He looked right into her bright eyes and spoke seriously.
“When it was just ghosts under attack, I didn’t think anyone would care. I’ve tried calling the Justice League for help, but they’ve brushed me off. People need to know what’s happening. Anyone can become ecto-contaminated. You just have to be in the right place at the wrong time. It’s not right what’s happening to Amity, Miss Lane. I came to you because if anyone could get the world to listen, to believe, then it's got to be you.”
And Lois Lane smiled. It was a proud, eager smile. The kind of smile Danny had seen on Sam right after she convinced the school to serve a vegan lunch. He barely held back from shivering.
“Well then, Mr. Phantom.” Lois said, before tapping onto the recording app on her phone and starting a recording. “Let’s begin.”
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burningcheese-merchant · 7 months ago
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PLEASE MERCHANT LISTEN TO ME
I started watching Burning Spice Cookie's flashback in the game and suddenly I started thinking "is that all? How stupid" because there are characters older than him and who apparently haven't had this problem of "boredom from "same old thing" so he leaves the Burning Spice Cookie thing as childish. but then I started thinking, what if I developed this? You see, if a person doesn't have a proper childhood they can develop psychopathic traits (more or less what I've seen in Burning Spice Cookie) so what if he and the other Beasts didn't have childhoods? We are not given any clue that they have grown, which gives us to understand that they appeared among the common cookies as adults.
Imagine that you barely have time to know your own name and suddenly you are thrown into... (I don't know, a battle?) expecting you to help calm everything down. What if, as soon as Burning Spice Cookie was born, he began to be burdened with many responsibilities and having to fight to unify Beast-Yeast into one nation? It would be a good reason why he "got bored" with everything, since some psychopaths have that trait of enjoying causing harm or hating monotony and social rules (it could also be an explanation for your au's Burning Spice Cookie).
I am SO glad someone else sees the problem with Burning Spice's "boredom". We have a million immortal characters in this universe and not a single one has had this issue with their lives. The Ancients live forever thanks to the Soul Jam, and they don't seem bothered by it at all (hell, look at Golden Cheese. She is actively pursuing immortality, for herself and especially for her loved ones). The Elementals are immortal, and they have zero complaints about it. Millennial Tree and Sugar Swan are older than the world itself, do you see them crying about it? Nope. They live and carry out their duties happily. You don't even see this with the ones that actually WERE mortal once. Fire Spirit? He loves who he is now, he's said so out loud in cutscenes in Ovenbreak. Sherbet? Though he misses being with Cotton, he otherwise loves being free to travel and see the world almost entirely unburdened, the way he always dreamed. Frost Queen? She adopted her role and upholds the balance of nature with grace. Life and immortality are only what YOU make of them. The Beasts are a bunch of stupid, selfish babies. The end.
"Not having a childhood" IS an interesting point to raise, though. You're absolutely right: having a tumultuous youth can and often does lead to psychological issues of all kinds, big and small ask me how I know lol. And for all we really know, they WERE born adults right from the jump. How Cookies are born and how they age are SUPER weird in this series and neither is ever explained properly besides "baked in oven", so... What's keeping anyone from imagining characters just born fully grown right away?
With this in mind, and with the points you've raised, we can maybe look at the Beasts like this: people who were brought into the world without being asked (although no one is), and burdened with nigh-impossible responsibility right away. Immediately told to sacrifice themselves for people they do not know or care about, who do not know them or care about them. To uphold a balance they may not understand, nor did they create themselves. Never having been allowed the chance to live and grow as all sapient beings are entitled to; to go out and have fun and be foolish and make mistakes that they end up learning from. They were born abnormal, and they never never allowed to escape that abnormality once. They live only for others, never for themselves, not even for small things. One has to wonder if they even counted as people at all in the eyes of those they fought for, or if they were just archetypes whose faces and actions were used to placate and justify whatever anyone wanted them to.
... Yeah, that sounds pretty shitty when you put it that way lol. It just goes to show how the Ancients are the true rightful owners of the Soul Jam, in my opinion. They EARNED that power, it was not given to them on a silver platter. They were able to live life as regular mortals for a while, then actively sought out that power and proved themselves worthy of it. Hollyberry united an entire region of warring houses. Dark Cacao tamed dragons and brought peace to a long-devastated land. Pure Vanilla endured the many arduous trials of the Sugar-Free Road in pursuit of truth and enlightenment. These are all things that require hard work, dedication, humility, and a certain wisdom that you gain from experiencing life in general. Wisdom that the Beasts may or may not have possessed, because they may or may not have ever been able to attain it in the first place.
As for my Yandere AU Spice... Yandere Spice is well and truly a psychopath (all the Yandere Beasts are). It's the thing you see often with actual stalkers: he's more in love with the IDEA of Golden Cheese than the woman herself, as she actually exists. It's all about what HE wants, what HE needs, what HE expects from her. Pure, utter selfishness, projection and delusion, as psychopaths are fundamentally incapable of empathizing with others (that's what marks them as psychopaths in the first place). With the Accidental Yandere Golden Cheese one, he's the same, but A) leaning a bit more into his bloodlust/enjoyment of harming others (which is also common in psychopaths, like you said), and B) him actually being clever/manipulative enough (at least to some degree) to know how to play into Golden's wants and feed her ego in order to sway her (Golden in this AU is also just kind of a fucked up person on her own, independent of Spice, so it's an unlucky combination). She's not "boring" like everything and everyone else is. She captivates him, she surprises him, she keeps him on his toes. He "loves" her. Therefore, he owns her and vice versa, and he will do whatever it takes to have her all to himself, up to and including hurting and killing innocents (it's not like they mattered, anyway). What caused him to be this way ultimately does not matter; maybe it's that overwhelming burden of responsibility and lack of a choice or a chance to live life that we addressed earlier. Perhaps he was just born broken. Whatever it is, he's a bloodthirsty, selfish, uncaring monster and it is Golden Cheese that he has chosen to make pay for it, unfortunately.
TL;DR Not liking immortality is a skill issue. The Beasts are dumb little crybabies. Yandere Spice is disgusting and should face a wall. I like writing deranged people far too much. I enjoy engaging in meaningful conversation with others about things. Thank you for the ask, I vibe with your thoughts and ideas, I hope you find lots of money on the ground today
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emo-crowgirl · 3 months ago
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I guess this could count as a continuation my whole “Miko being a glitch and somehow reverting into a root form” post. Because I did a lot more thinking on Glitch!Miko-focused scenarios and just: What happens if Miko were to encounter something that also originated from her game. Ranging from an npc to an item to an enemy.
Because ignoring any kind of “Miko Encounters Herself” scenario, just imagine.
Like for an item, sure Miko would probably be drawn to it immediately, especially if it’s something that her game equivalent uses. Glitches act on their code and even if Miko is Sentient/Sapient, consciously or not her game code will definitely at least influence her.
But what if it’s an item that Miko CANT use. Like say that Miko’s game has some kind of class system and Miko’s class isn’t meant to use a specific weapon, or Miko herself originates from an enemy or NPC and therefore simply can’t use any weapons that the player would pick up, because entities that aren’t the player can’t pick up and use the player’s stuff. They just aren’t programmed to be able to do it.
For a real world equivalent or items from any other glitch, Miko’s fine. Her programming doesn’t care because there’s nothing in her code telling her that she can’t pick this thing up, plus Miko is obviously not a regular glitch. She’s Sapient and clearly capable of at least somewhat defying her programming. Or maybe her code literally does not recognize this glitch item because it’s not explicitly from her game of origin. Glitches are good at effectively ad-libbing or ignoring stuff like that.
But then Miko sees some item from her own game, and her code can TELL. Miko may or may not recognize it, maybe some deja vu, but her code knows exactly what it is and exactly how Miko is and isn’t supposed to interact with it. It could range from a complete mental block where Miko can’t get herself interact with it because her code is subconsciously preventing it, to Miko managing to pick it up, only for her code to freak out and start breaking down because it has no idea how to handle this scenario that according to it, should be impossible. Maybe the item can also tell, it’s also a glitch with its own programming, and just doesn’t let Miko touch it. Sliding away from her, doing it’s best to get the fuck out of Miko’s hands if she manages to pick it up, and also proceeding to freak out and break down if Miko holding it is such an crash-causing event.
And then there’s stuff like how characters from Miko’s game would interact with her. If Miko’s a player controlled character, enemies would probably zero in on her immediately, because even if there’s other techs around, they are literally MADE to fight Miko specifically. If she’s an enemy or boss the same goes for glitches of the player character(s). Or if she’s an NPC, who knows? Characters may not be able to interact with her at all. Enemies ignoring her because they were never programmed to attack NPCs, player characters unable to harm her because they were only programmed to speak to her, etc.
(Then again, Glitches DO seem to be able to ad-lib and operate just barely outside the normal restraints of their code if they need to, for example dialogue like Count Nogrog altering his single player dialogue to use plurals when dealing with two players or Team-Enter-Name creating dialogue on the fly when interacting with what they think is a regular map, so the glitch could just reclassify Miko as an enemy/player if they need to, but still).
But that also applies to Miko. She could see an enemy from her old game and go ballistic. Don’t even know if she’d even be aware of what she’s doing or if the sentient part of her just blacks out and whatever old programming she has buried beneath the parts of code that make her Miko takes over for a bit. Or she could see an enemy/player character/NPC and just. Not be able to harm them. She can harm other glitches, but her programming actively prevents her from harming something that according to it, should be impossible for her to harm in her original game.
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azzg · 9 days ago
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🚨⚖️ Transformers: EarthSpark and the World Without Law
How Earth, Cybertron, and Everyone In Between Violates Rights, Treaties, and Ethics — and Calls It Peace
🛰️ G.H.O.S.T. — A Government Above All Law
G.H.O.S.T. presents itself as Earth’s official peacekeeping body, but it:
Imprisons Cybertronians without trial
Experiments on prisoners or like Mandroid on himself (?)
Dumps alien waste (Mother’s Day)
Militarizes civilian zones
Weaponizes alien tech without oversight
Deploys children and Terrans as field agents (?)
🔻 Violates: Geneva Conventions, Nuremberg Code, Refugee Protocols, UN child rights, environmental treaties
🔗 Scientific Slavery and Human Experimentation
Dr. Meridian (Mandroid) is captured, experimented on, and mutilated by Karen Croft — a G.H.O.S.T. official.
No medical consent
No psychological treatment
Stripped of identity
Becomes a villain because institutions failed him
🧪 Croft's actions mirror historical scientific atrocities and violate every modern ethics code. Her death by experimental tech (which she misused on Mandroid) is quiet, clean, unprocessed — erasing the horror she helped create.
🧍‍♂️ Optimus Prime: A Leader Without Recognition
Optimus acts as the de facto head of state for Cybertronian survivors — but:
No country offers him diplomatic status
No Earth government signs treaty with Cybertron
No embassy, no legal framework
Earth uses him as a tool, not a dignitary
❌ Violates: Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations ❌ Denies a foreign leader political voice 🧠 He likely doesn’t even realize it — because Earth never informs him of his rights.
Many countries — especially those with human rights commitments or strong intergovernmental institutions — would recognize Optimus Prime as the head of a displaced alien nation or at least as a foreign dignitary in exile. Countries like Canada, the UK, Germany, and even neutral states like Switzerland would likely advocate for formal recognition, diplomatic protections, and potentially even Cybertronian asylum or ambassadorial channels.
🇺🇳 Yet in EarthSpark, no other country is mentioned. America — acting through G.H.O.S.T. — dominates the narrative and withholds diplomatic framing, likely to maintain control and secrecy. This is a soft violation of international expectations regarding displaced states and alien contact protocols.
✈️ Robby Malto’s Trip to Finland — and Beyond: Child Travel Without Consent
Robby travels alone to Finland, and before that:
Leaves home and runs away with Terrans
His parents are unaware
Crosses borders with unregistered alien lifeforms
Emotionally unstable and unmonitored
❌ Violates: Child protection law, travel protocols, unaccompanied minor policies ❌ Terrans have no passports or diplomatic status — Robby is in their custody, illegally ❌ Emotional manipulation and absence of mental health support compound the harm
🚸 The Malto Family and Child Endangerment
Dot and Alex Malto expose their kids and the Terrans to:
Live combat
Toxic waste
Alien conflict zones
Dangerous emotional codependency with the Terrans
Zero therapy, processing, or reporting
❌ Violates: Domestic law on child welfare, trauma-informed care standards, guardian responsibility
⚙️ The Terrans: Children Without Legal Identity
The Terrans — Twitch, Thrash, Hashtag, Nightshade, Jawbreaker, and Breakdown — are:
Born from alien tech (Emberstone)
Never granted citizenship or sapient rights
Used as emotional surrogates and tools
Denied education, spiritual context, cultural heritage
❌ Violates: Sapient rights law, AI protection codes, child development and autonomy principles
🛣️ Bumblebee and Hashtag: Walking Traffic Hazards
Both drive in public spaces with:
No registration
No insurance
No driver training
Frequent reckless behavior
They:
Speed through towns
Transform on roads
Carry children without protection
Disrupt traffic and public safety
❌ Violates: Traffic law, vehicle code, child endangerment law
Hashtag’s violations are worse:
She is a child herself, barely emotionally stable
Drives at high speeds, often on impulse
Has no comprehension of Earth’s laws or consequences
And no one — not police, not government — holds her accountable.
🌐 Cybertron: A Government That Abandons Its People (?)
Cybertron never sends:
A council
Refugee support
Cultural preservation team
Recognition of its own creations (Terrans)
Even as its children suffer, Cybertron remains absent — no embassies, no reparations.
❌ Violates: Refugee rights, cultural responsibility, existential autonomy codes
🌍 Earth’s Silence Is the Real Crime
No nation steps in. No United Nations involvement. No international law enforcement. No support for displaced people, human or alien.
The world shrugs, and outsources moral judgment to G.H.O.S.T. — an unaccountable, militarized agency.
Earth wants Cybertronians’ power — not their rights. Earth accepts Terrans — but doesn’t protect them. Earth raises children — but lets them disappear with no one asking why.
🧩 Gratitude Without Recognition: How the World Exploited the Autobots
Yes — and this makes the diplomatic silencing of Optimus Prime and Cybertron even more problematic.
Autobots had a global wartime impact, even if postwar presence is centralized in the U.S. No countries besides the U.S. are named or shown engaging with Cybertronians. The war was global, but postwar policy is exclusively American, via G.H.O.S.T.
This selective memory — where the world was defended by Cybertronians, but only the U.S. controls the peace — creates a massive ethical and diplomatic imbalance.
🧩 Canon: Autobots Aid Many Countries
In Transformers: EarthSpark (and implied backstory):
Autobots fought in the global war against Decepticons,
Helped defend human cities and civilians,
Worked with multiple nations, not just the U.S.,
Provided technological and tactical assistance,
And in peacetime, some (like Bumblebee) were dispatched across Earth for stabilization efforts.
This implies a broad international relationship with Earth.
⚠️ Contradiction: No Diplomatic Recognition
Despite this immense contribution:
No formal treaty exists between Earth and Cybertron.
No country (not even the ones aided by Autobots) offers asylum, reparations, or diplomatic status.
Cybertron is treated as a vanished myth, not a living culture.
Optimus is not acknowledged as a world leader — only as a “noble ally” under Earth’s terms.
🧨 Why This Is a Violation
This treatment exploits the Autobots' goodwill. It’s a form of narrative and political gaslighting:
They are used in war, but denied personhood in peace.
Their sacrifices are remembered, but their nationhood is erased.
Earth reaps the benefits, but writes them out of global law.
💬 If a foreign power defends your cities, dies for your people, and remains peaceful — — refusing to recognize their sovereignty is not diplomacy. It’s domination.
🧵 Final Reflection:
Transformers: EarthSpark tries to tell a story about peace, healing, and found family. But underneath the colorful world and hopeful metaphors lies something much darker:
No one follows the law.
No one protects the vulnerable.
No one is accountable.
You cannot build peace by hiding violations. You cannot raise free children inside unspoken cages. You cannot call it justice when so many are denied personhood.
Disclaimer: This post was written with the help of ChatGPT.
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cattofwatt · 21 days ago
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The Cinnamon Post
Welp here we go. About our favorite rodent.
Role in game:
Cinnamon is weirdly important to this game. For most of the endings you need it in the first place. How lucky for Vincent. His pet is very important as a key item you get very early on
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Non Xin-Amon ending role:
Btw I love her design here and how they use the cage like it’s their torso. Anyway it’s very tragic we force this innocent pet to look at something it could not hope in any universe to understand at all. It’s probably either very hungry like it’s Xin-Amon form or it’s terrified.
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Its battle in the Xin-Amon endings:
I honestly don’t care for its appearance in its boss battle (not counting The Claws, The Maws, and The Eyes as its own design) it’s a little basic. I do enjoy how the theme now fits this battle of “oh god what have you done” while you fight this beast you created and cannot hope to control. Imagine the Visitor watching like “wow very cool”
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The God Rat:
Honestly more terrifying than the Planet Rat to me. Because this seems very more…personal if that’s the word for it. Like it’s not even going to be the end for everything just if you encounter it. Also the idea its skin is made of screaming victims is terrifying. And the fact the three astronomers in there could still be sapient and forced to watch as this animal mind commits awful acts for no reason other than hunger. Is terrifying. Don’t like it. But I also love it a lot
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The Xin-Amon:
People need to draw more stuff involving Cinnamon in general. Fun fact in this image you can see the original two normal rat teeth. I love the idea of the planet itself being turned into this terrifying creature. If there is any life on other planets they now have something massive to worry about. Also the process of you beating Xin-Amon just getting rid of the astronomers holding a minuscule control over it. So now you’ve made things worse. And sam being taken over and his own hand biting him. Don’t know it’s excellent existential horror beaten only by the Visitor itself.
Not done yet. Here’s a extra
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Aster (The Claws):
I like how it twists his excitement to ascend into thinking he must ascend others as well by bringing them into what they have all turned into. And if you look closely his one eye is the palm of another claw. And his whole “mouth” is actually just two claws with nails as teeth.
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Aurelius (The Maws):
I think this one is the scariest out of the three to me. The thought of your mind being overridden with the animal instinct to bite and eat. Aurelius is barely in there anymore. Represented by his one eye barely being seen
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Jasper (The Eyes):
I’ve already talked quite a bit about Jasper but again very unique. And how he is still sane just unable to act. Quite literally only able to watch from afar. The actual just insane amount of eyes is cool. I wish his golden mask could be seen in the mass with just a few yellow pixels.
And finally a humble artist request:
I would love for people to draw what they think Beryl would turn into if she was able to be drawn into Xin-Amon. So many ideas.
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ilikekidsshows · 9 months ago
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Marinette is praised for alot of unwarranted things, but to this day the thing that takes the cake for me is people praising Marinette into the heavens for giving Adrien his rings back after Gabriel's death
People act like that's Marinette acting on god-like benevolence and the purest heart ever, when, like, what is she even being praised for?
For not withholding Adrien's literal control remote from him? Not wearing it herself and right away enslaving him?
Praising Marinette into the heavens for giving the rings back implies that people think that it would have been fine if Marinette had cried over this "hard decision" for the next season. And that's just pathetic at this point.
Not to mention that she objectively did nothing in the final battle to save Adrien. It was Gabriel who used the wish for Adrien's good, Marinette instead said he has to face whatever consequences as orphan now that's coming his way. So Gabriel helped Adrien, Marinette was willing to have him pay every price cuz it aint her.
Then Marinette being so uninterested in the plot lead to Bug Noire almost killing Adrien because she didn't know that she would have destroyed Adrien's amok rings alongside the Miraculous rings on Gabriel's hand. So once again, Gabriel had to save Adrien from Marinette by keeping her from using Cataclysm.
Marinette also isn't the one to take the amok rings away from Gabriel before he dies. Gabriel himself had to give Adrien free and prevent that his amoks will vanish with him.
What the hell is Marinette being praised for in the s5 finale for being Adrien's White Knight? She didn't save him in anyway. She almost killed him, she was willing to sign him up to entirely for his family's sins as orphan because "it's the right thing to do", and she didn't take Adrien's ring from Gabriel
Gabriel did all the saving and protecting, Marinette is just as always taking all the credit.
So what's Marinette being glorified for? For not instantly enslaving her abused and now orphaned boyfriend? Cause that's all the saving of Adrien Marinette did in the end, I guess: saving him from her herself enslaving him for no fucking reason
And is that REALLY something Marinette needs to be praised and made out into a saint for? Cause that's beyond pathetic, even downside offensive at this point
---
At this point, I think the show could show Marinette successfully wiping her ass and the stans would praise her for how talented she is. Everything Marinette does has to be the most amazing show of skill or the most kindhearted thing anyone has ever done in the stans’ eyes because the pedestal they’ve built for Marinette has grown so insanely tall. At this point, there’s nothing she could do that would break that illusion of perfection, I think. Even if she had kept those rings, the stans would have defended her noble decision to keep Adrien safe from people who’d take advantage of him, like Marinette herself hasn’t been taking advantage of him for free therapy for as long as they’ve been dating, no remote controls needed.
And that’s the thing with Marinette not keeping Adrien’s remote control; she doesn’t need it for Adrien to do whatever she wants. Adrien is so dependent on her that his life’s goal is just to be with her. Marinette knows Adrien is completely devoted to her, it's why she was so willing to send Zoé to confess her love to Adrien, because she knew Adrien would refuse Zoé and stay with her instead. Marinette gave up nothing when she gave those rings to Adrien, her control over him is still absolute.
Meanwhile, the fandom is celebrating and romanticizing this shit. I have seen more than one person consider Marinette giving those rings to Adrien to be like a proposal/promise ring situation, where Marinette doing the bare minimum of giving the sapient mind control robot servant his remote control is treated as an ultimate gesture of love. Because truly Marinette must love Adrien if, instead of ordering him to please every single one of her whims and needs, she grants him the magnificent honor of choosing to do so instead, while already knowing he will. How loving, how caring, how selfless.
Please ignore the reality that this entire setup relies on Marinette keeping guard over Adrien and his amoks indefinitely, because Adrien lacks the knowledge to do so himself. Please ignore the reality that, if Adrien, Marinette or both ever fell out of love and ended the relationship, Adrien would be left incredibly vulnerable because he doesn’t know about the rings being amoks. Marinette is counting on Adrien staying with her for the rest of his life, because she’s taken conservatorship over him and his free will. She has made it her job to be her boyfriend’s keeper.
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ntls-24722 · 6 months ago
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Sketched some new stuff, and realized I never posted any of the old stuff. Behold: the backlog of sketches I forgot I had.
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Homo mousike stuff! featuring an unnamed very grumpy Debu who accidentally became a zebraman village's white elephant in the first 2 pictures (not white elephant in the metaphorical burden sense, white elephant in the literal "i became their prized holy animal"). Said Debu came to one of the few sessile zebraman settlements when she was at the absolute bottom of the barrel attempting to eat their crops and was promptly taken in and showered with everything she could ever need, alongside gifts, makeup, clothes, and jewelery. However she can no longer leave. Both parties slowly figure out that the other is actually sapient and both begin to actually form a bond, stockholm syndrome Beauty and the Beast style (Debu as the beauty, mind you) - grumpy Debu starts to like and protect the zebramen and the zebramen have a religious and morality crisis because they realize "oh shit, Debu are just people and we just KIDNAPPED someone. have we been just kidnapping people."
though, i think the debu worship would still actually stay lmao... the zebramen's reasoning is kinda sound ("you're the biggest, strongest thing around and you literally change the earth with your bare hands. if there's a god i think they're one of you"). just, yknow, keeping in mind Debu aren't like their other cows, they're people,
Also, lip flaps and nose-speak. I dont think the lips would flip out vertically like in the pictures, but rather in all directions. Also, a better way to show off nose-speak/have nose speak, where you can see the muscles moving inside the nose as they speak instead of just the nostrils opening and closing (though, they can do that too).
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(NOT TO SCALE. fritz is TINY compared to comet.) The OG submarine comet and zombie fritz doodles that actually kinda went hard as fuck. Zombie Fritz was also originally supposed to have bioluminescent dotted lines around him kind of like the Na'vi to show his tie to Comet, which was badass, and now he needs a slight redesign too to incorporate this.
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Here was the updated Comet, a lot more squarish and OG Comet-ish. Chin. I moved the baleen onto the sides of her tongue, which I think is a weird, cool move, I like it better than me trying to make it into a mustache. The frontmost teeth are straight and regular but the rest of her teeth are t-rex murder bananas. Need to add a bigger root to them though...
also, see where her nostril is? I didn't put it there just to make the nose structure more nose-y, THAT'S WHAT PUFFIN NOSTRILS LOOK LIKE.
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???? THE FUCK
Bonus: I dont think I ever posted sketches of the ponified Fritz and Comet.
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Comet is a changeling who can't be reformed/metamorphized due to her being made neurologically and magically being unable to, as an analog to OG Comet's invasive brain surgery. She does, however, often shapeshift as a zebra that mirrors both her human form and, with the placement of her stripes, pigeons, in order to scare people just a liiiittle less. Fritz is a freaky, weird, earth pony chariot mechanic, and is both her personal foodbank and boyfriend.
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valas-illyn · 8 months ago
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When I come to, I'm laying on some kind of hospital bed. My hands are cuffed to the sides. I don't immediately remember where I was before this, how did I get here? Where is here?
The lights in here are low, but still bright enough. The now opening door reveals a comparatively blinding hallway, and a silhouetted figure composed of writhing vines. Something about the perspective seems off, but I can't make it make sense.
Someone, somewhere, in another room is scared, terrified even. Angry too. Bursting with emotions, they want to scream and sob and thrash and rage. It sounds like a lot.
I just feel tired.
The thing moves into the room, and the door slides blessedly shut.
Affini. That's the word. Suddenly the perspective clicks into focus and the room makes sense. Affini are 10ft tall alien plants with a penchant for keeping other sapients as pets, the room is sized for them which is why everything feels wrong. I'm tall for a human but I'm not that tall, the bed is human sized though so it must be on some kind of raised platform.
My mind drifts off again, lost in visualising the technical specifications for a 5ft high hospital bed. Extra trains of thought spinning off into imaging what other situations one would even be needed, or in the comical image of a human nurse trying to wheel one about. Yknow, they're always complaining that they don't have enough space on the wards, with a 5ft high one you could have modular bunk beds that just roll over each other, you could double the capacity of a hospital. You'd have to add teeth to each leg and an electric winder to hoist it up and down though. Maybe some kind of quick release mechanism for emergencies? You could-
"Petal?" The affini is standing over me, the voice is... Soft. Not quite feminine, but maybe feminine by their standards, what do I know? Do affini even have male and female? Well, it'll do for now. Her voice is a gentle rustling rasp that I can barely believe is capable of human speech. "Petal, it's time to wake up."
I roll my head towards her. The someone is getting loud again. "I'm awake." My voice is flat, lifeless. Too deep. It sounds wrong.
She seems to shrink, like she's slumped. Relief? Despair? Maybe she's just tired too. How do you read the body language of a bush? "Good, I am Luminara Verdis, fourth bloom. Pronouns she/her. What should I call you?"
I was right, feminine. I try to answer, but instead I just yawn. Long and deep.
"still a little sleepy? Let's give you something to clear those sedatives out of your system." *She leans over and a loop of vine extends towards my neck. A light glints off the end of a sharp, needle-like point dripping with something viscous.
Sudden and visceral. An emotion floods through me, but I couldn't put a name to it. I yell "No!" far louder than I intended as I throw myself away from her, straining against my bonds. I realise my legs are bound too.
The bed wobbles and she holds it steady with a vine, preventing me from tipping it over in my... Panic? Panic. That's what it is. Somewhere deep inside, a part of me sees the absurdly tall bed again and wants to chuckle, another part of me notes the axis of the tilt and the centre of gravity, and mentally confirms the platform hypothesis.
"ok, its ok petal. Calm down." She makes a show of taking the needle away but I keep my eyes in her. My breathing is ragged now. My ribcage feels like it's shuddering.
"No needles." My voice is as shaky as the rest of me, but I say it with some force. I would be pleased by that if only I knew why I seemed to be so upset.
I settle back into the bed and try to rub my face with my hand, only I can't because it's still cuffed to the bedframe.
"No needle." She agrees. Her voice is full of pity, sorrow. She's making an effort to be gentle with me, I can tell that much.
A voice in the back of my mind whispers "needle. Singular. No promises past now." I tell it to be quiet.
"i- I'm awake now." My voice is steadier now, my body more controlled. The panic has faded, gone off to that other room. I can ignore it now.
"I can see that, I'm so sorry for startling you petal but I promise you I'm here to help. What's your name?"
"I'm- i-" my voice falters as my mind scrabbles for answers. "I don't know. I can't remember, there- there was more than one I think?" I know I should be frightened, or concerned.by this. But I'm not. I dont have the energy for it now the adrenaline has worn off, instead I'm just... A bit perplexed.
If I could read plant faces... I'm assuming she is showing the concern that I'm not feeling. I had best stop that before it becomes something, like another needle. "I-it'll come back to me, it always does. I'm sorry, what was your name again?"
She shows me a smile and says "Luminara. Lumi, if you like."
I smile back and tug at my restraint again. I really want to rub my face and it's bothering me that I can't. "Why am I chained to the bed?" I try to hide the frustration from my voice, transmuting it into concern instead.
"it's for your own safety, flower. Do you remember what happened?"
I raise an eyebrow at her. She chuckles.
"I guess not. You were in an accident before we rescued you. You were badly hurt and terribly confused, and you kept trying to attack the vets. They didn't know if you would still be violent when you woke up."
That makes sense. I have brief flashes of pseudo-memory; fear, anger, terrible terrible pain. I dont think it was an accident though. It feels like it was going on for a long time...
I shiver, and shake the sensation from my head. I'm still tugging on the cuff gently, I'm not sure I can stop, the feel of it is keeping me calm.
"I don't think I want to remember... Could you untie me please? I just need to rub my eyes."
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hey guys, and welcome to watchmojo dot com. today we're counting down the top 5 sexiest objects. because as the great bo burnham once said, a really good book is better than pussy.
starting us off at number 5, we have decay and detritus. there are fewer things more erotic than becoming one with something. after i die, i hope to be one with the earth, to be churned by the fungus and fed to the flora and fauna. i hope my open carcass becomes a glorious feast, that my ashes find their root far and wide. i hope my bones are picked clean, my skull turned to diamond in the womb of the earth.
next up at number 4 is weaponry. erotic swordfights. cleaning and sharpening your blades. glistening daggers hidden in a bodice. perfect aim with a bow and arrows. ornately carved hilts and pommels of gemstone.
for number 3 we have the deep ocean. victorian diving suits, erotica in anonymity. coral reefs, countless organisms in structured colonies giving homes to countless fish. underwater volcanoes, churning up food and heat. whale falls, the corpse of a god feeding hundreds. the particulates of underwater snow, shimmering in the gaze of a submarine. a shipwreck, the gutted hull becoming home to creatures who'd never seen its purpose on the surface.
number 2 is the moon. the collective wife of every lesbian. she split off from the earth long ago, and has remained close ever since. she plays an important part in our lives, from our oceans' tides to shielding us from solar radiation and asteroids. the cultures of the world have been fascinated with her for millennia,. writing stories about her travel and her phases. we've been loving her for as long as time can show.
and our number one sexiest object is a tie between computers and gore. we'll highlight each of them.\
computers. the screens we spend perhaps hours of our day in front of. from the carefully crafted code to the thousands of pixels to the purr when she takes on a heavy file, a computer has it all. not to mention the expanded possibilities of a sapient computer. a machine that has learned to love.
and gore. cannibalism, loving someone so much you need to consume them. vivisections, needing to see the inner workings of their body, hold their heart in your hand and watch it beat for you. or something lighter. vampirism, the intimacy of drinking their blood. wound care, stopping the blood with a hand on their chest, feeling their pulse to make sure they're stable, wrapping the bandages around them in sweet silence.
and the two of them together? wires exposed, viscera woven alongside. blood and electricity becoming one in the same. a heart pulsing at the core of a machine, laid bare for your eyes only.
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princess-of-the-corner · 9 months ago
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I know we discussed it before but Akuma really are depressing/horrifying when viewed from Chloe's perspective cos like.
Off the cuff, her Akuma are among the more self aware and self possessed variety. Anti-Bug is basically just Chloe hopped up on magic juice and extra pissed off. She's not even utterly dominated by some irrational fixation like Dark Cupid, let alone having been rendered barely sapient like Horrificator does to Mylene.
In this regard, Nathanial being so... Well Nathanial, would also reinforce this stance to her as far as personal agency goes.
But then you add in that people can resist them, that she resisted and every Akuma suddenly comes off more like an intentional choice. Which puts the students who tried to kill her, which puts the mother who did kill her her, and the father that tried to render her a brain dead sycophantic toy into a stark and horrifying context.
How do you cope with that?
Especially as someone who is feeling increasingly isolated, like vulnerability is a huge issue and struggles to communicate in general. Treating Akuma like no big deal and Akumatizing over stuff like soccer becomes a lot more logical in that context. Because if you treated Akuma seriously, you'd have to face something far worse.
Yeah like.
I think her view on the whole 'resisting Akumas' thing is also one of the things that stems from pre-existing Trauma™ in that
This was something that she did struggle with initially until she kinda gave up on truly ressting if that made sense? Like she failed to resist Antibug or Queen Wasp, but she overcame it with Miraculer and then after that she's compartmentalized the trauma and all Akumatizations after were a 'choice' to give in.
And there's two things at play:
1.) the 'this trauma is going to happen whether I want it to or not, so my choosing to engage in it it's my choice therefore I'm not a 'victim' thing.
and
2.) According to everyone around me, things that should be simple are things I struggle with because I'm so fucking Unexceptional™ and it's easy for everyone I'm just a moron making things difficult for myself. So clearly since she /can/ resist but it was a struggle, that means it's probably easy for everyone else and they choose not to.
tbh I really need someone to say 'hey even if you think you're willing, you're very much not, but also it's super hard to resist Akumatization /especially/ when you're still mid-despair'
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batpham-discord-highlights · 9 months ago
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2024 April fools and Anniversary Event Prompt List part 5
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See what the event was and it's rule here!
Hero! Prompts:
Hero Gremlin
Wes made a new friends online that love exposing the truth of other just as much as him!! turns out that person was Tim and Bernard!
Hero Cashmire
There's some very pampered bats in the batcave, and no, I don't just mean the vigilante kind. The actual animal bats are very well cared for by Alfred and the kids. Bruce doesn't realize how pampered the bats are until one of them gets comfortable enough around people to land on the batcomputer while Bruce is working. Turns out he never actually got over his fear. And the cave isn't as soundproof as everyone thought it was.
Pariah Dark is the origin of the Lazarus Pits. He was fighting with a demon to defend the Realms and got injured, badly. As he fought, he blead out ectoplasm, creating pools across Earth. When the fight was over, he retreated back to the Realms to heal. The problem is, that the injury was cursed. A little bit of demon blood got absorbed into him. It corrupted him, turning him into the Pariah that Danny fought. As he corrupted, the pools of his ectoplasm corrupted as well, becoming the Lazarus Pits as they're now known. No one realizes this until John Constantine, fellow involuntary receiver of demon blood, looks at the Lazarus Pits and realizes that there's something demonic going on here.
Hero Bucket O’Randomness
Phantom is hard to see, not because he can turn invisible (although that definitely helps) but because he is a Borrower, a small variation of ghost who resides in the Living Realms
Tim has always wanted to meet Batman and Robin. Being a Borrower makes that difficult
Villains! Prompts:
Villain Jayden
Things have been quiet in Gotham recently. Harley finally got rehabilitated and got together with Ivy, and has been slowly stopping crime. But who’s this new redhead who’s hanging out with the two of them? And why is she always in a hazmat suit?
Jasmine Fenton finally got into Gotham University for a dual degree in psychology and English. There’s a boy in their class that’s definitely death touched, and they wouldn’t be a Fenton if they didn’t try to kidnap him.
Villain Non-Malicious Animalization
the Justice League are called in to catch a potentially dangerous entity. No one is sure if this thing is even sapient, and it's in no state to answer that question. It's injured, defensive, and very willing to bite. Danny's had a very, very bad time recently, and anyone in white is on his 'tear apart with bare hands' list.
there's a kid doing the Charleston while the Joker is in the Family Guy Death Pose (the kid is danny)
Villain Nezu
Danny may or may not have accidentally possessed the Batmobile and is trapped
If anyone wants to use and post with these prompts the Ao3 collection link is here, or post with #April Fools event 2024
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deconstructthesoup · 1 year ago
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I saw a D&D AU with the Voices, and I decided that I also wanted to do a D&D AU with the Vessels, so here goes:
*cracks knuckles*
The players are the chapter 2 vessels, who have joined together after they were each mysteriously attacked---and nearly kidnapped---by worshipers of a primordial god only known as The Narrator. Even though they're all vastly different people with vastly different motivations, they have to work together in order to figure out how they've somehow angered a long-forgotten god.
The Tower is a scourge aasimar and an Oath of Conquest paladin, who devoted herself to The Apotheosis, queen of the gods and the embodiment of justice and retribution. She acts as the self-appointed leader of the group, even though a good chunk of the other players are having none of her self-righteousness and narcissism. She doesn't believe that the Narrator actually exists, and considers the quest to just be another heretic-killing spree.
The Adversary is a tiefling Ancestral Guardians barbarian, who grew up in a rough-and-tumble all-barbarian community and is slated to become its next leader. She's just happy to travel around the world bashing heads, and she winds up clashing the most with Tower---mainly due to their very different backgrounds. She genuinely doesn't care who or what the Narrator is, and just wants to kick ass and have a good time.
The Spectre is a ghost and a necromancer wizard, who actually died when she was attacked and has brought herself back in order to track down her killer and to take her revenge. She kind of lost herself in the ivory tower of academia when she was alive, and part of the reason she's sticking with the others is so she can actually form connections before it's truly too late. She's studied several old cults in her time, but the only thing she's found of The Narrator is an old painting of a crow with sharp teeth...
The Nightmare is a dhampir and an Undead warlock, who draws her magic from the dread vampire queen who turned her. She is no stranger to being hunted, for people fear and shun vampires and their spawn, but she knows full well that this time is different. And during the attack, she managed to devour a dream of her would-be captor, getting a little glimpse into the ancient powers of the god that wants her gone... and, well, who can resist the allure of taking down a being as old as time?
The Witch is a tabaxi Circle of Spores druid and an Arcane Trickster rogue, who's been living on her own in the woods after suffering a great betrayal and heartbreak that damaged her trust in anyone. She's only working with the others because she believes she'll get further if she does, and while she initially intends to backstab them once they're no longer useful, she finds herself growing closer to them as their journey continues. All she really wants is to go back to her old life... but her goal may change as her walls begin to come down.
The Prisoner is a human Armorer artificer, who once angered an archfey and was cursed to always be bound in chains. Undeterred, she turned this to her advantage, reforging her chains into armor that she could use as a weapon. She starts traveling with the rest purely due to self-preservation, as every time she resolved to just hide, The Narrator's worshipers found her again---but she's definitely the practical mind that they needed.
The Damsel is a half-elf College of Creation bard and a Beastmaster ranger, and she's a princess whose kingdom was usurped by an evil family member, leaving her on the run. She's very naive about how the world works, mainly due to being sheltered her entire life, and is sure that this situation can be solved with a nice conversation. Thankfully, she has someone to help her...
The Beast is a fey that was cursed to take the form of a barely-sapient panther, and she barely recalls her life in the Feywild. Still, she has a soft spot for the innocent princess she came across in the woods one day, and she will protect her for as long as she can.
The Razor is an elf Soulknife rogue and a College of Swords bard, and she's actually a pretty well-known circus performer. She's absolute chaos personified, and she really doesn't give a shit about The Narrator either way---she's just ready to kick ass, stab people, and hang out with her new best friends. Even if not all of them are super into being friends with the crazy blade lady.
And last but not least, The Stranger is a changeling Divine Soul sorcerer and a Grave Domain cleric, who unknowingly draws their power from the long-forgotten goddess of change, transformation, endings, and new beginnings. They woke up one day with no memory of who they were, and were immediately attacked for reasons they could not explain---so, needless to say, they're pretty traumatized. It also doesn't help that they don't even know what they really look like, so they're constantly changing to reflect what people expect of them... which isn't the most healthy thing, but they're an amnesiac, give them a break.
So... yeah!
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captorations · 5 months ago
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anyway fingers crossed they go for the. "sapient sentimonster won't die when the amok is destroyed if it has an Identity Of Its Own" gambit. because that'd mean kagami would no-sell hers getting smashed and she deserves to get to do that. it also means that adrien developing agency over the course of this season will literally save his life. or, you know, just barely fail to and he has to live as chat noir for a bit and is terrified to detransform. that'd be fun
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hummingjay · 3 months ago
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How much of Kasuar is self-insert?
How much of Kassandra is self-insert?
HIKEY HELLO
I’m going to be well and truly honest here, not a lot., barely any. all the self-insert you see is purely accidental. There’s small bits and pieces but largely I’m not a self insert person. I get waaay more than enough of me already without projecting onto my characters.
to answer your question I’m gonna say mostly some personal aspects. But not much. Whatever is there is accidental. They’re not far from my height (Kasuars are only about an inch taller than me and Kassandra is my height) they both have RIDICULOUSLY high pain tolerances and they’re kinda depressed. They also spend a lot of time very, very angry. The angrier they are the harder they are to actually kill. All this is because they tend to be outlets for me. Other than that, nothing.
This is for two reasons. One, I want to like my characters. Self insert defeats that entire thing. Secondly, to me characters are predominantly concepts. Themes I want to explore. Both kassies are themes of soldiers, nameless, expendable grunts in wars that care nothing about them, so they can die horribly and painfully and insignificantly after short and miserable lives.
Theyre stories i play with, not fantasies. so really not any of them. They’re kind of like me simply because they’re outlets for my frustration with the drawbacks of being a sapient being. That’s why Kasuars are tough yet very scared and tired and just want to be loved. It’s not as intense for me but it’s a good outlet to exaggerate.
Kassandra’s similar cause she’s basically a human au for Kasuars.
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valas-illyn · 6 months ago
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Update on my still untitled HDG story:
Part 1 - Awakening
When I come to, I'm lying on some kind of hospital bed. My hands are cuffed to the sides. I don't immediately remember where I was before this. How did I get here? Where is here?
The lights in here are low, but still bright enough. The now opening door reveals a comparatively blinding hallway, and a silhouetted figure composed of writhing vines. Something about the perspective seems off, but I can't make it make sense.
Someone, somewhere, in another room is scared, terrified even. Angry too. Bursting with emotions, they want to scream and sob and thrash and rage. It sounds like a lot.
I just feel tired.
The thing moves into the room, and the door slides blessedly shut.
Affini. That's the word.
Suddenly the perspective clicks into focus and the room makes sense. Affini are 10ft tall alien plants with a penchant for keeping other sapients as pets. The room is sized for them, which is why everything feels wrong. I'm tall for a human, but I'm not that tall. The bed is human-sized though, so it must be on some kind of raised platform.
My mind drifts off again, lost in visualising the technical specifications for a 5ft high hospital bed. Extra trains of thought spinning off into imagining what other situations one would even be needed, or in the comical image of a human nurse trying to wheel one about. Y'know, they're always complaining that they don't have enough space on the wards. With a 5ft high one, you could have modular bunk beds that just roll over each other. You could double the capacity of a hospital. You'd have to add teeth to each leg and an electric winder to hoist it up and down though. Maybe some kind of quick release mechanism for emergencies? You could—
"Petal?" The affini is standing over me, the voice is... soft. Not quite feminine, but maybe feminine by their standards, what do I know? Do affini even have male and female? Well, it'll do for now. Her voice is a gentle rustling rasp that I can barely believe is capable of human speech. "Petal, it's time to wake up."
I roll my head towards her. The other room is getting loud again. "I'm awake." My voice is flat, lifeless. Too deep. It sounds wrong.
She seems to shrink, like she's slumped. Relief? Despair? Maybe she's just tired too. How do you read the body language of a bush?
"Good, I am Luminara Verdis, fourth bloom. Pronouns she/her. What should I call you?"
I was right, feminine. I try to answer, but instead I just yawn. Long and deep.
"Still a little sleepy? Let's give you something to clear those sedatives out of your system." She leans over and a loop of vine extends towards my neck. A light glints off the end of a sharp, needle-like point dripping with something viscous.
Sudden and visceral. An emotion floods through me, but I couldn't put a name to it. I yell "No!" far louder than I intended as I throw myself away from her, straining against my bonds. I realise my legs are bound too.
The bed wobbles and she holds it steady with a vine, preventing me from tipping it over in my... panic? Panic. That's what it is. Somewhere deep inside, a part of me sees the absurdly tall bed again and wants to chuckle. Another part of me notes the axis of the tilt and the centre of gravity, and mentally confirms the platform hypothesis.
"Okay, it's okay, petal. Calm down." She makes a show of taking the needle away, but I keep my eyes on her face, not her—hand? Vine? My breathing is ragged now. My ribcage feels like it's shuddering. I try to force myself to take deep breaths.
"No needles." My voice is as shaky as the rest of me, but I say it with some force. I would be pleased by that if only I knew why I seemed to be so upset.
I settle back into the bed and try to rub my face with my hand, only I can't because it's still cuffed to the bedframe.
"No needle." She agrees. Her voice is full of pity, sorrow. She's making an effort to be gentle with me, I can tell that much.
A voice in the back of my mind whispers "needle. Singular. No promises past now." I tell it to be quiet.
"I—I'm awake now." My voice is steadier now, my body more controlled. The panic has faded, gone off to that other room. I can ignore it now.
"I can see that. I'm so sorry for startling you, petal, but I promise you I'm here to help. What's your name?"
"I'm— I—" my voice falters as my mind scrabbles for answers. "I don't know. I can't remember, there—there was more than one I think?" I know I should be frightened, or concerned by this. But I'm not. I don't have the energy for it now the adrenaline has worn off. Instead, I'm just... a bit perplexed.
If I could read plant faces... I'm assuming she is showing the concern that I'm not feeling. I had best stop that before it becomes something, like another needle. "I-it'll come back to me, it always does. I'm sorry, what was your name again?"
She shows me a smile and says, "Luminara. Lumi, if you like."
I smile back and tug at my restraint again. I really want to rub my face, and it's bothering me that I can't. "Why am I chained to the bed?" I try to hide the frustration from my voice, transmuting it into concern instead.
"It's for your own safety, flower. Do you remember what happened?"
I raise an eyebrow at her.
"I guess not," she chuckles. "You were in an accident before we rescued you. You were badly hurt and terribly confused, and you kept trying to attack the vets. They didn't know if you would still be violent when you woke up."
That makes sense. I have brief flashes of pseudo-memory; fear, anger, terrible, terrible pain. I don't think it was an accident though. It feels like it was going on for a long time...
My body shivers, and I shake the memories from my head. I'm still tugging on the cuff gently. I'm not sure I can stop. The feel of it is keeping me calm.
"I don't think I want to remember... Could you untie me, please? I just need to rub my eyes.
__________________________
Part 2 - Rescue.
The ship was found drifting at the edge of a red dwarf system. an old medical transport and, according to the report, woefully outdated even by the standards of the feralists. The ship's computer system was fried long before the rescue ship arrived and large portions of the database were badly corrupted. Some parts even physically destroyed. I'm told It will take time to rebuild the entire database, and with the near total absence of written documentation that leaves us for now with very little idea of who our adorable new florets even are.
The medical transport appears to have suffered catastrophic computer failure and been left dead in space, unable to avoid several impact events. There were 7 humans on board still alive, and several more who were killed by whatever happened there.
My human seems to be a young adult male with some primitive augments, integrated military hardware it seems. This one was still conscious when the rescuers arrived, conscious and delerious. Cold, hunger, and malfunctioning implants had left them insensible and violent, they had to be heavily sedated before the rescuers could bring thim in.
It most of a week for the vet Sjahi worked to repair all the damage, but even so they woke up several times and tried to attack her. She haf to cuff the feral human to the bed to prevent them from harming themself and undoing all her hard work, poor petal, but even Sjahi said the look in its eyes was only an animal terror, nothing malicious or even deliberate.
That is how my floret looks the first time I see them in person. Pale, still yellow in places from old bruising, hair patchy and just starting to grow out. The few patches of bare metal or chrome ports showing what remained of their implants. Laying there asleep in only a medical gown, arms and legs bound to the bed by thick cuffs. I know instantly that we will love each other, mistress and floret.
A medical screen informs me my floret is still sleeping, though coming around slowly. I stand with Sjahi in an adjacent observation room as she gives me the medical report.
"... unusually tall for a human, so keep things back from the edge of the counter. Badly malnourished, I've sent you some dietary recommends to fix that. There was extensive physical damage including multiple fractures and two broken bones, all of which is fixed now along with the frostbite damage to the extremities. There was some damage to the nervous system too but nothing major, just some fried nerve endings from the implants overloading. I removed most of them, they were military tech anyway. Rudimentary but advanced by terrain standards."
"Most of the implants?"
"yes, there's a basic terrain net interface and a replacement ear still, and one arm is synthetic from the elbow down. I have repaired them all and made sure they're compatible with our systems."
"I see", I hope my floret wasn't too attached to their little mods. "Could the damaged augments be responsible for the violent behaviour?"
"very probably, yes. There was a complex cocktail of combat drugs being fed into the bloodstream, and at least one implant was suppressing parts of the brain. I expect they'll be much calmer now but do expect some confusion when they wake up, after such an ordeal some temporary memory loss would not be unusual either." An alert from the medical screen tells us the Terrain, my human, is coming around and Sjahi waves me through to say hello.
The waking human lays on a terrain style hospital bed atop a low table, bringing the floret up to my chest level when I sit in the accompanying chair. The bed was my idea. I hope it will be familiar and comforting. The lights in them room are still dim from the sleep cycle and their eyes are heavily lidded, barely awake.
Leaves quivering in anticipation, I step over beside them and lean down to whisper "Petal." They sigh softly but otherwise don't acknowledge me. "Petal, it's time to wake up."
Their head flops over in a disconcerting manner and they distractedly mumble "I'm awake."
Not ideal, but I persevere. I should be patient for now. "Good, I am Luminara Verdis, fourth bloom. Pronouns she/her. What should I call you?"
My poor neglected human doesn't answer, just stares blankly at my face. "Still a little sleepy? Let's give you something to clear those sedatives out of your system-"
"No!" They jerk away violently, face contorting into a mask of pure terror, they throw themselves so hard I have to grab the bed to stop it toppling over. Okay then. I make a show of taking my thorn away from them.
"Okay, it's okay, petal. Calm down" I say, trying to soothe and keep the panic from my own voice but they don't break eye contact for even a moment.
The raw animal terror in my humans eyes is gone now. replaced by fear, distrust, maybe stubbornness? "No needles." Impressively demanding given the state of them quivering like a new leaf.
"no needle" this time. I can't promise to never use one...
The rest of the conversation was... Concerning. I know the vet said that memory loss was to be expected, but the reality of the situation shook me somewhat. My poor petal was so obviously distressed the whole time, but bravely putting on a mask of humour.
It was not long before they fell asleep again, worn out by the emotional exertion and sleeping naturally. Sjahi was uncertain about it, but I insisted I take my human home with me then and there. I want them to wake up somewhere more comfortable, and without the restraints.
While I wait for them to wake again I receive an update on the analysis of the unknown ship. It seems the TAS Vulcan was a feralist research vessel that went missing some decades ago, disappearing into the void shortly after the war with the compact. It seems the computer failure was a deliberate act of sabotage, by one of the "research subjects". The language used in the recovered data makes me shiver, these people were used for testing experimental weapons platforms specifically to fight the affini, and they were not all willing participants.
The patient records are still fragmentary and it will take a while longer to match them with individuals. but even there they are referred to by 5 digit numbers, not by their names. I can feel my thorns growing, expressing my rage.
My reading is interrupted by noises from the bedroom, my petal is tossing and murmuring in their sleep. I lean closer, hoping to catch some clues about their identity.
"no, it's not right. wrong story. I have to change the story."
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