#deviating paths

[x23innocencelost]

Really funny if Geneveive was around during Worlds End TBH

[laurajameskinney]

the thing about dv8 is for most of them it makes very little sense from a worldbuilding perspective bc imo its pretty clear that the reason the genfactor or whatever worked on gen13 is because they were the children of team 7, who already had active gen factors. but for most of dv8, that isnt the case at all so theres the question of like. why did the genfactor work.

like at least for ellis the answer is: because theyve been kept in project genesis since early childhood, if not birth, so they flat out werent subjected to the same experiments as gen13

but then for heisler, the dv8 kids were just other kids who recruited to the project genesis bootcamp (except for hector, who is a clone??) (yes these are directly contradictory no this is never brought up), which again, doesnt make sense

[rainbow930]

weapon of war

[medowlarken]

"anders and fenris are two sides of a coin!" yes, but also for your consideration:

[fistfuloflightning]

When Ming Fan finally fought his way through the underbrush to where the Rift had appeared, it was already too late. Shizun and Luo Binghe stood at the edge of the yawning chasm, swords unsheathed and pointed at each other. He hadn’t thought much of it when Shen Qingqiu had flown past him so soon after the earthquake that had torn open the Rift, but he could now see there was something very wrong. Shen Qingqiu’s back was turned to Ming Fan and his face hidden, but he could see plainly the fear and confusion on Luo Binghe’s face. Along with the glowing, damning mark on his forehead. Something demonic.

Ming Fan gripped the foliage, forcing himself not to run out. Not yet. He’d end up dead or wishing he was. He had mocked Luo Binghe early in the Conference, yes, but he knew the younger boy had done nothing to merit this kind of punishment—!

In a matter of seconds, Xiu Ya had stabbed forward, Zheng Yang had shattered, and Luo Binghe had staggered back into the Rift.

Everything seemed to still.

Ming Fan sucked in an breath and darted out of the foliage—but it was too late. Luo Binghe’s arm vanished over the edge just as Ming Fan ran past their shizun. He lunged forward the last few feet, fingers clawing at Luo Binghe’s forearm just in time. Caught, held. The sudden weight had him crashing again against the ground and the wind was knocked out of him. The taste of charred earth mixed with that of fresh blood where he’d nearly bitten his tongue in half.

But that was inconsequential. Not when he could feel the weight at the end of his arm that told him he didn’t fail. Even when the only person he needed to acknowledge that fact was someone he couldn’t stand. No one deserves to die like this, Ming Fan thought viciously. Not even him.

Dangling below him, Luo Binghe’s eyes were wide with terror and confusion, at odds with the damning, demonic seal glowing on his forehead. But there was something like gratitude there as well, out of place and so painfully frail.

For a fragile second, it felt like they were breathing the same

“Shixiong—”

With a cry, he was wrenched from Ming Fan’s grip and into the Abyss below. Ming Fan’s cry was strangled in his throat.

He didn’t know how long he remained there, clenching the burned grass with white-knuckled fingers and straining his eyes to see through the acrid smoke that rose from the chasm for even the barest glimpse of Luo Binghe. But time moved on and the Rift sealed shut and when Ming Fan blinked and once more became aware of his surroundings, he realized he was not alone.

Shen Qingqiu loomed over him like a stone Buddha, face cold as jade. His spiritual sword was once more sheathed, his robes neat and not one hair out of place. As though he hadn’t had a hand in what had happened here.

“You… you killed him,” Ming Fan breathed, still unable to fully process what had just taken place. But that’s what it was, a death sentence fed to the hungry maw of the Endless Abyss.

Shen Qingqiu. “He was a stain upon our sect.”

Ming Fan could feel the rage slowly rise. “He was a disciple of Qing Jing Peak. He was your disciple.” Acknowledging it was like vinegar on his tongue but a boy was dead because of him. He stared at Shen Qingqiu as if seeing him for the first time. Stripped of his elegance and his masks…

“He was a demon.” Shen Qingqiu sneered down at him. “There is no need to explain to you why he needed to be eradicated.”

Ming Fan tore burning eyes away from that frigid, impassive mask. He couldn’t bear looking at the man he had so long idolized. Instead he stared at the ground, in fear he would do or say something he could not undo. And beside his knee he saw slivers of metal.

The shards of Zheng Yang, tangled in the burned grass. Ming Fan’s vision blurred and his breath grew sharp and ragged, anger slamming into him full force. He wrapped his fingers around the pieces, the razor pain of their edges grounding him as the rest of his world unraveled like poorly woven cloth. His shizun had failed him.

And he had failed his shidi.

[nimarts]

Just saw your timeloop thing for Mim

Can you do Kiwi and Audrey too ( ・∇・)

I was going to wait to answer this because I wanted to redo Miriam's and make it look nicer but I don't think I'm going to :') Here you go!! I love putting these guys in Situations

[hungwy]

recently ive been enjoying thinking about amount of deviation from an ideal as a score for skill

[fernhelm]

never forget that aaron hit andrew with "i'm not the one dating a mafioso" .... one of the few times he was outquipped😭😭😭

[copepods]

i alwys get annoyed when i see fanon depictions of artificer being affectionate with five pebbles because in my mind artificer has complicated feelings towards him that lean towards dislike and they see him more as a weird alien creature-machine who carries a great deal of knowledge and talks to arti for lack of anything better to do, and artificer brings him pearls to stave off crushing hopelessness and loneliness but like i dont think artificer actually likes him. i think theyd find him off-putting and unpleasant. of course that's just headcanon in my mind though which is why its a little funny that alternate depictions annoy me so much. we are all making this shit up

[usernyoom]

20/10/23, Austin. Daniel Ricciardo in the paddock during his first grand prix weekend after his injury. Photo by Song Haiyuan, edited. Quote. Inspo.

[moonsavior]

Nostalgic Sweetness Rei the man that you are

[x23innocencelost]

your rachel + 1 3 10 14 18 20

I assume you mean Rachel Goldman, as she's the only Rachel I really talk about, so here goes.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Well at risk of sounding basic, Rachel gets some of the most screentime of the DV8 cast, and is co-leader with Leon Carver. Also, I really like the trio of her, Leon, and Gem.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

Is it a cop-out if I say I think she wasn't done justice by the writers? Because that's sort of what I think about everybody and everything in DV8...

10. Could you be best friends with this character?

Probably not. We have very different interests and, like most of the DV8 cast, Rachel can be difficult to get along with-- this is one of the most appealing things about the series to me, the idea that abused children can be, well, pretty shitty, and that in no way invalidates the fact there is nothing anybody (let alone a child) can do to justify receiving abuse, and also that no matter how rude or unpleasant an abused child is, or how much they lash out, they are still fundamentally deserving of help.

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

Man I don't fucking know. One time we see her in what I can only describe as a Lolita maid costume with minor heart motifs, but that is nowhere near in line with what she usually wears, which is like. Extremely peak y2k fashion (trendy for the time she was being published).

Well I mean I guess y2k then, though to me this indicates more that Rachel tends to dress in a trendy, currently-fashionable way-- I don't think she would wear that in a modern setting. She definitely cares about her appearance (she's the only character I can remember who is shown with multiple hairstyles, from it being down to in a ponytail to in a bun-- even the hair accessories change at times), which combined with her wearing clothes that were fashionable at the time of her original publication, makes me think she would dress in whatever's currently in-style.

18. How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

I don't think "admire" is the right word but I like her and Leon :) they're cute

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

I don't knowwww... Like I said, I really like the trio of her, Leon, and Gem, but none of them fit the role of "best friend" really-- Leon is her partner (however that's being defined), and Gem is significantly younger than both of them, meaning she's not exactly best friend material (but Gem would probably describe Leon as her best friend).

Other than those two there's Jocelyn, I guess, but I don't remember them exactly being besties and it's pretty telling that she fucked off to do her own thing after DV8 split up. Then there's Geneveive, but we don't see a lot of her and Rachel because Gen-Active got cancelled and their relationship is probably more them figuring out what level of parental they're both okay with.

send me a number + a character

[laurajameskinney]

literally its just so fascinating to me that jodi repeatedly claims amanda as her mother (under false pretenses) while amanda is very adamant that theyre friends and if their relationship can be described in familial terms its big sister little sister

like for what its worth amanda is more or less right-- she does not act like jodis mother, or even really her sister. she treats jodi like her younger friend who's dad she happens to be screwing (which is not really an accurate description of amanda and marc's relationship, but it is how amanda would describe it). and then of course there's amandas fear of permanently tying herself to any one person or pair of people (jodi and marc at this point coming as a set, for obvious reasons)

on the other hand i dont think jodi literally views amanda as a maternal figure in her life so much as she like. wants to? or like she cares about amanda very much and does consider her family and wants to somehow "legitimize" their relationship in a familial way, even though, again, their relationship is not best described in the roles of a nuclear family. furthermore i think jodi was probably clingier than the average teenager due to her mom who raised her on her own dying and then cyberjack (her de-facto secondary guardian when she first went to live with marc, who she bonded with quite closely) also dying, probably within a year or less.

they should just give me amanda reed and jodi morinaka i can be trusted

[prof-peach]

i would so, so, SO love a dotaku zine!! i'm excited to see it whenever it's ready! :D

yeah me too! its drafted up, the zine follows a tour group of kid trainers visiting dotaku in the early summer for the first time. like a mini tour for the readers. it should be cute, even if its only 14 pages!

[mostlygibberish]

GTA VI looks so graphically impressive you just KNOW it's going to be mechanically bland.

[townofcadence]

What do you think is Artair's best trait - and what would you consider a weakness of said trait?

Likewise, what do you think is Artair's worst trait - and what would you consider a strength of said trait?

Ohhh another good one!!

I think the thing is that his best and worst trait are the same-- it's kindness, loyalty, love, protectiveness. Part of what I enjoy exploring with Artair is taking a trait seen typically as 'good' and showing it both as good and as bad, depending on the situation. It's kind of a reflection of how I feel-- that no trait is ever good or bad in the end, it's just how it effects the situation that can be a benefit or a detriment!

Like-- these traits are obviously good in many ways! It's wanting to help others, to connect to people and love them and want to see the best in them, that can often help others heal and find a way to hold the grief from the countless hurts they've suffered.It's love and loyalty and a desire to protect and comfort that can push people and motivate to acts the really--- save someone from a darker space sometimes. Both physically a danger for them in the literal sense, and a metaphorical emotional one. Kindness reaches people and can really help bring out the best in others. It's a listening ear, a hand in yours when you just need a lifeline, and a gentle touch at the right moment, or a shoulder to hold you when it's too much.

But conversely, that same kindness can go to extremes that-- hurt people. Artair cares SO much about other people and helping them, saving them, that he kills himself to do so, both metaphorically and not. He will take every blow he can, he will antagonize someone so they hurt and focus on him instead, he will get you out of the way. He will not call for your help, because it means putting you in a bad position, one where you might be hurt. He will throw himself into danger after danger, because if he stops it and he deals with it, then no one else has to. Any harm that comes to him feels like harm he prevented someone else from enduring. So he keeps going and going in this desperate need to save everyone, and blames himself and breaks himself to pieces when he fails, or perceives himself to have failed someone in any way.

Love and kindness fail when he sees everyone as so far above himself that his only value is what he can do to make their lives better, at the cost of himself. Loyalty and love are good traits, except when he devotes himself to people so much so that he loses himself in the process. Protection is great, except when always trying to keep someone from harm makes them feel they aren't trusted to handle hard things and they feel infantilized. Altruism and a willingness to sacrifice for others can be good, until he refuses any path that would do little harm to someone else, because they would get hurt at all, when he could take on more and greater suffering just to prevent it. It's also the sacrifice of himself to be the target of aggression and pain and rage because he can take it, and allowing himself to hurt to make others feel better. Hell, eve n offering to endure pain or suffering just to 'help'. Seeing himself as so monstrous he deserves all of it and just accepting it, and choosing it, and even seeking it, because no one but him deserves this pain. It's a senseless martyring.

And dying for people, sacrificing himself over and over.... ?

...it doesn't only effect him. The people he cares about have to deal with his loss, with seeing him destroy himself at every opportunity. With the pain of knowing they're not worth living for, and he's willing to throw himself away at a moment's notice for anything and anyone, until there's just no more of him left and then some. He's too busy playing Atlas with the world on his shoulders and blaming himself for every travesty as if anyone has the power to prevent it all, to realize how his destructive behaviors out of love and devotion and the desire to do good, no matter what, mean that all the people who come to care about him have to watch him destroy himself in their name and others.

He reaches many with kindness and compassion, but he also breaks those hearts he touches. It's the terrible downwards spiral he hasn't chosen to stop yet.