#this turned into another ramble

[bakawitch]

Oh my god

Au where after Mr Bakura fuckin dies from ring/zorc exposure (dsod) and Yami Bakura/Zorc kills Shadi (and the child cult???) Ryou is left alone in the temple. A few days later, representatives from the Ishtar clan arrive, and they decide to take Ryou in since a Millennium Item chose him as its true host. So underground he goes!

Upon his arrival, Forefather (Mr Ishtar) tries to take away the ring from him because surely this heathen can't be the one true bearer of the ring, but the ring spikes dig themselves into poor baby Ryou's chest so that's a no go. Ryou is down for a few days, and Rishid ends up taking care of him during that time. Malik barges in once, demanding Ryou to play with him, but Rishid manages to persuade him to leave Ryou to recover.

After he gets back on his feet, Forefather graciously allows him to keep the ring, and he gets adopted into the Ishtar clan to the same degree as Rishid. So he's sort of like a lower class servant? Rishid and Ryou grow closer while he teaches Ryou about his duties and chores, while Malik gets increasingly more jealous in the background because Rishid is paying some newcomer kid more attention than him. It gets even worse for him when Isis starts babying the timid kid despite Ryou literally being older than him and not even being the sane class as them. He gets a bit more aware of his alter, and he starts getting more withdrawn.

Something happens, which causes Ryou and Malik to get trapped in an abandoned dark room together, and they are forced to confront each other. Malik is fully on the offensive, but Ryou is mostly just trying to diffuse the situation. Malik freaks out when their oil lamp flickers, but Ryou manages to distract him with stories of the surface world. They talk a little, and Ryou opens up about the ring and the voices which Malik can sort of relate to. After the light burns out, Malik nearly snaps and switches, but his new friend(?) is able to soothe him with a big warm hug and maybe lullabies his mother used to sing to him and Amane. Rishid and Isis manage to find them.

Plot progresses as usual, but now Ryou is present. He goes up with Malik and Isis to the surface to show them around and unconsciously lifts the motorcycle magazine Malik liked. When they go back down, they see the Forefather nearly killing Rishid and Malik snaps. Yamima comes out to front and catches the whip midair before it could strike them. Yami B also subtly takes over just in case to protect the host body and to observe. Yamima gets the rod but is embarrassingly clumsy with it, clumsy enough to warrant Bakura tell him the key to using it properly. Isis is mortified but quickly puts two and two together and realises that the baby is possessed by a fuckin demon. Yamima does the murder/skinning bit, and Bakura just laughs. He says goodbye and gives control back to Ryou while Yamima goes after Rishid. Ryou again manages to calm him down and Rishid whisks them away after he comes to, leaving Isis and the rest of the clan behind.

Ryou and Malik grow up and start the Ghouls together. Bakura takes care of a lot of food and resources in the early days, but Ryou eventually learns from him and becomes just as good. He's also trying to tame Yamima part-time, which is not going as well as he'd like.

Timeskip to when Yugi lends the puzzle to the museum. Malik gets notified of the completed puzzle being exhibited in Japan, so he sends Ryou ahead to scout and establish himself as a friendly face to Yugi. The rest of the plot again progresses as normal with the difference of Ryou being a bit more cheeky and pushier than in canon, Bakura and him actually working together and an extra reveal of him being involved Malik the whole time.

I'm gonna cut it off here because I don't know how to continue from here... But rest assured, there's definitely some weird ass conspireshipping dynamics involved here XD

[barbaricjester]

I'm think so hard about Stanley Pines I'm gonna fucking cry. Have you guys ever noticed how he talks to Ford even before he got him back. In Carpet Diem he scolds Ford and says his carpet is ugly. He asks the wax lookalike if he wants anything from the kitchen. He tells Ford to shut up when he's reading his journal. He tells the kids he talked to his reflection while fishing alone. He needed his brother so fucking much and I'm

[rputthebottledown]

Look it‘s Nerdanel & Fëanor with cute little toddler Nelyo. Sometimes I just need some fluff in my life

part I

part III

part IV

part V

part VI

[wasyago]

joel with a ponytail ( best kind of joel tbh )

( plus an attempt at drawing him with green skin but idk i don't think im gonna use it )

[rayjayoo]

figuring out everyone's designs as i go ft dess and susie this time

[lucabyte]

Different standards

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

very funny (and fitting) that Lucanis takes out his bad moods on Spite more than the reverse... like Spite is WAY more willing to compromise/share considering their situation. which makes sense since Lucanis was used to independence/had a life in a much more relevant way than Spite ever did but STILL. Mr. Crow over here drinking 28 cups of coffee per day just so his new buddy doesn't get a turn driving, when he could have arranged some sort of babysitting situation instead and gotten actual sleep most nights, since after the first couple weeks Spite isn't even trying to run away he just wants to know what candles taste like and check out what Manfred's up to. But Lucanis says NO. we live in a pantry now so you can't even look at fun things while I'm brooding. petition to swap their names honestly

[bruhstation]

*Breaks into your house to stare wistfully out the window* Do you ever think that CTHenry is, at least by some perceptions, a corpse being kept alive by gold dust and the whimsy of a goddess whose motives are unknown? I do. *Puffs on bubble pipe* Anyway. I'm still holding out hope for a happy ending for our Miserable Train Gays. Iram gentlemen. Have a good day 💗

out of sight, out of mind

[rustedhills]

Somewhat articulate Kris thoughts, ch. 3+4 edition. Heads-up for spoilers and discussion of the series' themes of familial abuse. And why "Kris is evil actually" sucks.

Man, the ending of ch. 4 is genuinely kind of heartbreaking, and even more terrible in a way than any of the others--because it's so obvious that Kris is just a kid dealing with way too much.

Beyond the Knight stuff, the delta warrior stuff, the prophecy... Kris is just the town weird kid who came home with a friend, saw their mom dancing wine-drunk with the convenience store guy (after an entire Divorce Gameshow Extravaganza and a Horrible Visit to Noelle's Household ft. her abusive mom ft. horrible soul hockey, not to mention all the exhausting darkworld adventuring), and who just has to deal with all that. Unrelated but someone noted that Susie saw a drunk parent and immediately left and I can't stop thinking about it.

Kris is pulling their soul out more and more--maybe we just haven't seen it until now, but it seems like they've had to do this for a while (Toriel mentions that Kris just runs the tap and acts chaotic on impulse sometimes, lol how quirky amirite anyways) and no-one has recognized or been able to help, except now Noelle (hopefully that proceeds well?). But of course, monsters don't have souls--and Kris needs a lot of help with a lot of things that their parents etc. just can't handle. Toriel checking out that book on human care so much speaks to that lack of resources / knowledge.

Even amongst their family, Asgore is a complete outcast, Asriel is away at college, and a lot of the adults in town are nice but ultimately unable to help them. Take away the fantasy, and you're left with a community of friendly but ineffectual guardians who can't--or won't--recognize that Kris is dealing with chronic mental and physical issues. Susie is the bad kid, Kris is a nobody, and Noelle is the nice girl. They all have to fight to be seen as anything other than the stereotypes people envision them as.

Maybe that's why the dark world is so fun(?) for Susie and Noelle--you can literally fight the things that hurt you. Lancer's dad sucks, so Susie gets to have her big arc by telling him off. Queen is controlling, so Noelle triumphantly says "no" to her. But Kris...?

HOLY [[Cungadero1997]]!!! KRIS, YOU [[little sponge]], YOU'RE FUCKED!!

Every character whose insecurity ties into Kris' own--Tenna's desperation as a tool turned to trash, trying to keep a drifting family together, Spamton's garbage life as a puppet controlled by a voice on the phone... they fucking fail. I think they're ok on some level? Even Berdly gets to have a more cathartic end-of-chapter arc than Kris!

Kris isn't Evil, or the ultimate secret bad guy, or whatever. They're a traumatized kid clinging to any guardian figure they have, even when that guardian is overly controlling and potentially abusive towards them, just so long as they promise a way out of the present situation. Especially Carol and Mike (if the voice on the phone is indeed Mike).

Like, with all the marionette strings and fucked up families in the previous chapters, it's safe to say that Kris is in a bad situation (thematically and narratively), and deserves empathy--even when / if they do hurt others. In the next few chapters, they'll likely lash out in some really nasty and terrible ways, but... so would a lot of people.

So would a lot of [[BIG SHOT]] [[puppets]]

[otome-dissection]

Idk man I just think that mizu/ena5 and its progression was really beautiful actually. I just think that the release of the ena5 song was also really beautiful and kind of the nail in the coffin for me and I haven't been able to get the event(s) out of my head all week and that I kind of want to talk about it, actually.

It's about being hurt so deeply and continuously that any kindness that could be offered to you manages to feel like a sin, that it makes you crumble and shatter but for all the wrong reasons, not because of the newfound safety, not out of relief, but something worse and more deeply ingrained in you than kindness ever was. It's about carefully measuring the distance at which you keep others away from yourself, to ensure that it never happens again ("To save yourself the trouble", if that makes it easier).

It's about realizing that the people you've been spending all this time with are drifting closer, that they just might bump up against the unsightly parts of yourself that you've tried to keep locked away, it's about turning around and sprinting at full speed and slamming the door shut and holding onto the handle behind you to stop it from turning, because you're as frightened of the possibility of another wound being inflicted on you as you are of the possibility that kinder, gentler hands will reach out and smooth over the exposed scar. It's about hating eyes that judge and silently condemn you as much as you hate eyes that simply see you and take all of you in without scrutiny, because no matter what they're looking and they're looking at you and they know that your hand's on that door handle and they know that you're hiding something because, as much as you try to keep it shut, they've seen through the crack that you foolishly left open.

(The prominence of eyes in Bake no Hana, specifically eyes looking and searching, and finally landing on you, the viewer, Mizuki, is so fucking. Visceral in my opinion. Every character in the MV stares at the viewer in a deadpan, almost judging way. Even though Mizuki knows deep down that niigo won't really hate them, won't judge them, she just can't stand their kindness either; any gaze directed at her is a loss, another prick in their skin. It screams "don't look at me" while making sure that you know, with horrific certainty, that they're looking for you, that you're being watched. You can't go outside, can't leave your room, because they're searching for you, and while that should be reassuring, to you it's anything but).

It's about not wanting to be dissected, whether it's with hands that want to pull your organs apart or stitch them back together because no matter what they're there, and they're getting frighteningly close to your heart. It's about blinding yourself and covering your eyes to it all because seeing means exposure and exposure means they're taking something from you and you can't do anything about it, much less take it all back, much less have a say in the matter. Everyone's just taking and taking and taking and you wish you could just be alone. You wish everyone would just disappear and you could live in a world all to yourself, for only yourself (but is that really what you want?).

It's about the way that, near the beginning of the Yoka ni Mitoreta MV, Mizuki and her loneliness is represented as a dark, splotchy stain in the shadows. No colors, no patterns, no way to clean it or wash it all away, just raw ugliness marring a blank canvas. It's about the way that Ena reaches out to it anyway, the way she startles when the glass shatters just when she finally starts reaching forward, the way that the rest of the MV/song represents her searching for and reaching only further out to Mizuki, even if the broken shards of glass will only cut her fingers, potentially leaving scars.

It's about how, in every way, subtly, directly, consciously, and subconsciously, Ena shows that she fucking cares.

It's about the way that Ena lets Mizuki have autonomy, despite the situation being so horribly out of their control. And it's such a delicate thing: If she really wants to, Mizuki can take the opportunity to just run away, keep running forever, repeat the cycle over and over, and maybe she'll just destroy herself with it again, but it can't be denied that it's something important to them, something she can't quite live without just yet, their means of survival. Mizuki's autonomy is their identity, it's her tailoring her own clothes and choosing her own ribbons and styling her own hair the way she does. Ena letting them have that is as much about trust as it is about understanding that Mizuki of all people should have this right, when control was something stripped from her throughout so much of her life. She couldn't control how she was born, how people look at her or why, can't control what they think of her; lacking control has only left Mizuki vulnerable to the cruelties of others, has only caused them to suffer, which is why it's so important that it's given to them now.

She had the control to make the choice to see niigo's welcoming love and run away instead of staying, and she has the control to make the choice now whether she wants to keep things the way they are or take a step forward to be at their side again. She has every right to have it, and I think the fact that Ena realizes and respects that, even if it's subconsciously, is really beautiful (there is an entire fucking Verse about this in the new song and just. God Look at this. It's so caring, unconditional, and for fucking What. I think there is something to be said about how much Ena is willing to put aside for Mizuki, and maybe deep down it isn't healthy, but for now I'm just kind of in awe)

It's about how insanely patient Ena has been this whole time. Mizuki says that she basically lied to Ena's face about telling her their secret, even after Ena said with such conviction that she would wait for Mizuki as long as it takes, and Ena is just kept waiting and waiting and worrying like this seemingly indefinitely. It's about how Mizuki danced around it, avoided it, kept the distance, straight up ran when she was finally pushed, but Ena still chased anyway when she saw that she couldn't wait anymore, kept chasing just enough to intervene and get a straight answer out of Mizuki when she really needed to, but still leaving her enough space to leave if that was truly what she wanted. It's about how relieved Ena is the moment that Mizuki finally says outright how much they want to be with her and niigo, how much she wants to try, how much more light Ena's voice sounds when she grabs her hand, relieved, the way that the relief she feels can be felt through the music, throughout the entirety of Yoka ni Mitoreta, the way that warm colors always follow her when she chases after Mizuki, just to hold onto her and stop her from running away completely.

It's about how that careful combination of Ena's directness, Ena's persistence, Ena's warmth, her patience, her bluntness about her feelings, the way she chases and holds on but not too tight and her regard for how unsafe and exposed Mizuki feels actually works and breaks it all down. It's about how she really did reach through to Mizuki, despite the thorns and broken glass shards and nearly-unfulfilled promises, the way that Mizuki did finally let her turn the door handle and step through to see what she'd been hiding all this time, the way that Mizuki's hand, limp, when Ena first grabs onto it, shifts to hold hers back as they cry in the face of Ena's gentleness.

Despite how harsh Mizu/Ena5, and even Ena herself as a character can be (or at least was in the very beginning of pjsk), everything is somehow gentle and warm in the end, blindingly so. And you know what, I think that's beautiful. And what's even more beautiful than that is how Mizuki allows themself to crumble and shatter under that kindness, that warm light, but this time, finally, out of relief.

On a final note, I just want to say that I also appreciate how all that didn't have to solve everything. The scars haven't disappeared, haven't gone away, and Mizuki knows that their desire to run hasn't gone away forever, and maybe it never truly will. But for now they've calmed it, at least a little. She's learning to allow herself to be seen, learning that when someone's fingertips brush over their scars the way Ena's did that it's only out of care, and that maybe taking in that care and allowing herself to feel kindness and safety is okay. They're safe, for now, somehow. They're learning. They're trying. And I think that's cool :)

[qkmlh]

Oh there is nothing as silly and sweet and incredulous and so so so soooo important to me as all of the Metal Cardbots sealed in the Metal Breath waking up and excitedly calling out to Jun as soon as they sensed him!! And recognizing it is him because they are tied to him in spirit just as Blue Cop is!!

Them who were still trapped inside and a distance away, felt and knew it was Jun the same way Blue Cop felt and knew Jun was still safe inside the Speranza!!

[lochlanmaxxing]

#passed around party bottom lochlan (via @mylochyboy)

the white lotus // S03E06 "denials"

[ruuinxs]

i think saiki is so bad at making passwords. he’s probably sitting there at his computer like “123four56#” and the rest of his friend group watches him type it in and they’re shocked. jaw dropped. and he’s like. what’s the point of a password. if someone steals my laptop i will simply kill them.

[mentalmeles]

Decided to draw Steve's full design from my earlier art (as well as Bucky's human one) for the Dungeon Meshi AU that lives in my head uwu

[cultivating-wildflowers]

ladies, I need to wander despondently across a foggy moor asap

[blunt-force-karma]

I think we, the people, should talk about Barry the Butcher more. For real, I think we should, both in the grand scheme of things of the narrative of Disco Elysium and just cus it'd be a bit funny to. Think about it, how many people even really KNOW who Barry the Butcher is, or who remember Barry the Butcher? Do you, human reading this possible unhinged post remember Barry the Butcher? Do you recognize this man? Hell, do you think he could even be real? Well, those are all valid questions, dear reader! For one, he's named, yes, but all we really know about him is that he's friends with the man on the water lock (said by the Man on the Water Lock so who knows if they really ARE friends from what we see but let's just assume they are), he's stuck on the other side of the water lock, wears overalls, and looks disappointed that the water lock is broken and about about his salami being eaten by his friend. We can also assume that yes, he is a butcher. His name is Barry. He can make salami. Very astute observations.

This is the only bit we got of him too. Again, no portrait, no looking into the window of his soul. No can-opening. Nope. Nothing. Nada. All this man does is wave and look sad. You know this guy's irrelevant to the plot when we get more information from corpses. And sure, maybe that's not fair to Barry. The main corpse is related to the case and the other is related to a side case you can chose to do that has it's own emotional core to it. Only in Disco Elysium.

You never see the Man on the Water Lock or Barry the Butcher ever again by the way. After you interact with the Man on the Water Lock and MAYBE go back to talk with him again, once you enter a building and come back, he's gone, alongside Barry the Butcher. Day 1 exclusive guy's too. I am pretty sure if you never interact with the Man on the Water Lock, you can just never see him in the game after Day 1. Hell, I would not be surprised if you were to go into the game and the minute you're done talking to the Man on the Water Lock, Barry just despawns. Barry the Butcher doesn't get mentioned ever again to my knowledge, neither his salami eating friend though that makes sense. We never get to learn more about Barry the Butcher or get a callback about him. Nothing! And that's just so fucking FUNNY to me. On a game level, Barry the Butcher is probably one of the rare characters we meet that has a name, has his name in the dialogue box AND never gets a portrait while also never having any speaking lines either or just more than one paragraph of text related to him. He is probably actively one of the most irrelevant characters in this game which is definitely an interesting achievement to have as a character specifically in Disco Elysium of all games. On a meta level too, it's just funny. Like, Barry the Butcher was made and he was put in the game and he was given a MODEL! He has a MODEL! Like, some characters WITH portraits have no models. Barry the Butcher is so fucking SPECIAL in his mediocrity and that needs to be acknowledged. He doesn't matter at all but is so fascinating in how little he matters and the unique circumstances of his existence. Then, on a story level, it's fascinating to me. In the grand scheme of it all, Barry the Butcher is just a guy. He really is. He's not relevant to the story cus he's not relevant to the case. So, we simply never hear from him again. He's not even relevant in terms of thoughts cus he's just not that impactful to either the player OR Harry. None of Harry's skills can even chime in and give commentary on what they see about this man either. Barry the Butcher isn't even like those few people you can interact with who have stuff to say but you can never TALK to them cus they're just talking to themselves. Plus, they never get named cus Harry just never thinks about them ever again. They don't impact him. Barry the Butcher to me is fascinating on the fact that he IS named though. That he's given a model and not a portrait and never speaks and who knows. Maybe he just doesn't speak. We don't know that as the player or as Harry. And we'll NEVER know simply cus we're not meant to. Our story does not collide with Barry the Butchers. It barely even grazes whatever life Barry has going on. And, I think that's just beautiful. It's beautiful that a game like Disco Elysium can fascinate me on the fact that a character like Barry the Butcher exists. This game is in a world where people can just have different lives going on and not everyone in the plot "matters" plot wise. Yet, the fact that they're here and exist makes the world feel more alive. And not even in that way of filling the area with character models which I mean, not that there isn't characters like that in DE. There are. There's a good chunk of people you just can't talk to in the Whirling-In-Rags. Barry the Butcher is just like, so crazy to me though. He's so close to just being like one of those characters who just exist to fill space but it doesn't feel that way cus we're in DE and cus he at least gets the opportunity to be named and shown on screen to any extent. So, what I'm saying here is that we, the people, should come together on this. We should come together and unite for Barry the Butcher. I dunno how and I have no clue if this dumbass post will have any impact. I just needed to let this all out. Do it for Barry the Butcher. DO IT FOR BARRY!