#tldr: yeah

[bestworstcase]

actually ppl don’t want an Ozlem reunion since some ppl think one or the other is abusive towards the other and they would see it as abuse apologism. Yes I seen ppl say that, I even did at some point lol. I think ppl need to stop seeing everyone as abuser and victim bc that is not how the world or stories works. You can be both or be a victim that hurts others.

i mean i would actually characterize the ozlem kingdom era marriage as abusive; like, i’m not sure how else to accurately describe a situation where one spouse is engaging in such extreme deception over such a long period of time for the purpose of religious conversion. but abuse is just an action—or more specifically a pattern of actions over time—and where change and reconciliation are concerned (esp in the context of a fictional relationship in a fairytale story) intention matters a lot.

ozma didn’t lie to her or manipulate her because he saw her as a means to an end (<- which is 100% what salem believes now) he did it because a Literal God told him the world was condemned and she was beyond saving, and oz was terrified and desperate for that to not be true. salem meanwhile has been the tortured scapegoat of this same god for millions of years and she knows exactly how cruel, petty, and manipulative he is; once she understands why ozma did what he did she has every reason to let go of her anger and accept that he’s as much a victim of the brothers as she is, in different but intertwining ways. and ozma once released from his curse has every reason to never lie to anyone like that again, especially not to her.

so this is a narrative that is set up to be resolved through reconciliation and healing together; both of them Want That—or at the very least salem clearly wants some closure only he can give her—and ultimately what tore them apart and turned them against each other was the manipulation and cruelty of the gods. part of overcoming that is closing the rift torn between them.

i think people are as a general rule deeply hostile to narratives about cycles of abuse resolving through peaceful reconciliation because in real life, (serial) abusers often don’t change. but that’s also not a very constructive stance to be absolutist about because there are also, in real life, an abundance of people who are abusive at some point in their life and then do change, because they learned better or matured or healed from whatever trauma or health problem provoked the abusive behavior (<- e.g. sudden out-of-nowhere cruelty is a red flag for brain tumors) or got out of their own abusive situation and stopped shoveling their own pain downstream. like. treating ‘abusive’ as a lifelong brand that someone can never ever possibly stop being is not. helpful, actually. people can and do change and abuse happens for myriad complex reasons, it is not in any sense a simple problem.

but yknow. nothing fandom loves more than a thought-terminating buzzword to be reductively black-and-white about because gods forbid a story have nuance.

[ridaine]

Of Power and Poison

[OC]

[mintjeru]

"but there is nothing more beautiful and terrifying than innocence."

open for better quality | no reposts

[timethehobo]

Just finished Emmy’s personal questline and am too full of feels rn so all I have is a tiny doodle tonight. I love him sm. 😭

[edwinisms]

george rexstrew deserves awards for many things but i have to say. edwin’s bloodcurdling scream as niko gets killed deserves a whole award unto itself. like. that scream did not feel at all like a tv show scream. to a somewhat jarring degree. and i can’t express how much I respect that

[insertdisc5]

hello!!! isat is a beautiful game and it single-handedly made me realize i was aromantic. that being said, as a creator does it bother you that people mostly know you For isat alone? i've always been worried that if i ever made it big with something it would make anything else i worked on seem insignificant in comparison and i was wondering if. you have any advice on dealing with that or if it has affected your approach in developing things like project ts at all. thank you!!

Hi! Nah, not really, because isat does rule. Plus, every so often people reblog my old stuff and go "IS THAT PERSONA 5 SAD FANART FROM THE ISAT CREATOR???" like I just appeared out of thin air just to make isat and it's always funny.

however, I can't say that isat's success isn't influencing the way I make my new game. I do catch myself going "aw but this plot development is pretty similar to isat's, won't it be obvious for isat players?" or "isn't this way too different from isat? Won't it upset some players who expect me to do another totally similar story? Isat but different?"

And then I hit those thoughts with a squeaky hammer because I'm not making art for solely isat players, I'm making art that I want to make. Of course I'll try and make a game isat players won't be disappointed by, but by nature of the next game being "the game after isat", it WILL disappoint some people no matter what. But I know some other freaks would love what I'm currently making 💖

[blueskittlesart]

thinking abt hungergames yuri... how do u feel abt madge and katniss <3 both as friends and as a romantic pairing :>

rereading a book you originally read as a young teenager when you're an adult is a really fun experience if only because i can now appreciate how insanely Sixteen Years Old katniss everdeen is. "yeah she talks to me at school and sits with me at lunch and she came to say goodbye to me and cried and gave me a pin that belonged to her dead aunt but idk if we're like FRIENDS or anything" KATNISS THAT GIRL LOVES YOU. JUSTICE FOR POOR MADGE SHE WAS TRYING SOOOO HARD.

[royalarchivist]

Dono: [Tells Rubius that some streamers called Quackity for advice on how to beat the Ender Dragon in their Minecraft Hardcore world]

Rubius: [Knows damn well Quackity doesn't know how to play Minecraft]

[via @duolimalimon]

[scarapanna]

I liked your art, you won🎉🎉🎉

WE WON NO REDEMPTION WAHOOOOO/silly

I'm still terrified of the redemption route for this clown though hdhghfg, I want his silly self to stay evil and wimsy and goofy and with redemption uhhh

We're like

I dunno I'm sooo scared devsis is gonna take away that aspect which is what makes him just so funnn. Please pretty please let him be god awful and rotten and rude and goofy if you take that route Devisis I want him to keep his funny wimsy qualities. Please please pleaseeee write him well y'all are doing sooo good with him don't fumble by taking the redemption route (And if they do it better be good and he better stay chaotic and goofy and sassy and condescending and all his "rotten rabid thing" qualities)

If they do him (And his fun aspects justice in this dreaded hypotetical) then I may be cool with it. Though the mean ass possum has grown on me so much I'd 100% miss that evil and unhinged part of him TONS, devsis have mercy pretty please/silly

[Longer more insane ramblings are in the tags hsfhfhhv]

[francy-sketches]

hating on game of thrones in current year is a bit cringe like girl move on etc. However my complaints are more specific than the average person so I can at least feel like I'm bringing something new to the table. Instead of writing the one bilionth 'they butchered dany we were robbed' post I'm instead going on coke rants about how they character assasinated jaime by making him unfunny and how they didn't give my favorite irrelevant minor characters enough emotional depth and actually now that I'm saying it out loud that sounds worse

[mintjeru]

“Since I love you, I want to take care of you.”

based on a scene from you make me feel special by @kdj-225!!

open for better quality | no reposts

[demonkinguwu]

The Three Subcon Bosses [My fanon version lol]

The trickster shadow, the wrathful queen, and the disappearing moon

Lore Below <3

Snatcher: Once was a kind lonely prince whose only talent was painting, often overlooked and ignored due to this. He fell in love with Vanessa quickly as she was the only one who understood the loneliness of his paintings. The two married after a year of courtship, but the prince worked hard to learn to rule by her side, even going to law school. Unfortunately, he ignored the terrible treatment by his frantic wife for fear of true loneliness until it was too late...

Now the kind prince turned into a terrible and manipulative shadow, using robbed souls and his smarts to grow as powerful as he is, growing to be the sole ruler of the Subcon Forest. He prefers to be in control and over-possessive of everything he deems 'his', including the terrible wife who killed him painfully. He despises her but deep down knows she's the only person who will ever truly care for him even as a monster so she gets to stay as his pathetic little toy <3

However, he can't help but enjoy the very small snippets of moments between them that remind him of a better time when they were young and naive. He can't help but smile as the princess Vanessa was once shines through that red mass of anger, oh how he wishes to rip open the beast and find his princess within it, safe and innocent as she used to be

Vanessa: She was once a kind and sweet princess filled with so much loneliness especially since her father ran away. On a visit to a foreign kingdom, she was immersed in the large gallery of paintings depicting how she felt perfectly, lonely. She soon fell for the painter, a kind but mischievous prince who was just as lonely as she was. But her horrible mother was jealous of her daughter's happiness and poisoned her heart and mind with her evil words, reminding the princess of her father who ran away. The princess' desperate thoughts turned dark and possessive, wanting the prince all to herself, even getting rid of her mother who she thought wanted her prince. The now Queen was more desperate, her heart and mind growing darker and bitter with each day that passed without her beloved... Soon it would all explode, taking every soul within Subcon with her.

After a few years of mindless wrath and pain, she 'cooled down'. Finally gaining sense and guilt, but since no one wished to accept her apologies, she learned not to care over such matters anymore. Her heart grew bitter, cold, and uncaring of much but the evil monster her beloved became. His very existence enrages her, reminding her that her kind sweet prince is gone and all she has is this thing, this terrible and evil shadow who took everything from her. But even so, she can never get rid of him, for he is the only one who will 'care' for her, who could relieve her of her loneliness even if his actions are cruel and taunting. She doesn't want to be truly alone, but he is the only one she can truly trust, so he is the only intruder who will remain safe from her terrible wrath even if she hates him so. Though she knows her prince is gone, she relishes the small brief moments she could see a flicker of him through the monster's wicked being. Oh, how she wishes she could grab her prince in that brief second and never let him go.

Moonjumper: He was once a naive but adventurous lad, a time traveler who shone bright with the moon. Crashing into the strange planet, he met a cold princess whose heart was as cold as ice. He felt understood as he didn't understand what love was either, so he decided to stay with the princess and become her king to find out what love was. They soon had a princess who they named Vanessa. The king loved his daughter very much but didn't love his title or his wife, for he was a being of freedom. Without confronting his wife, he planned to take Vanessa and escape, but he left her behind once his wife figured out his plot. His wife, who grew to love him, was heartbroken and distraught over his betrayal, and so she cursed him with her magic to death, over and over again.

The man became a distorted time rift, cold and alone, wanting nothing more than to find someone to stay with him in his lonely horizon, especially his little princess.

Hundreds of years have passed, and he watches on with great pain as the sweet girl his daughter was once turned into a monster. All thanks to the monster who took over Subcon with that disgusting smirk, he made his daughter the monster she is! And she was no better! Being easily influenced by that monster and turning into a monster herself, they were both horrible beasts! Both were responsible for taking away his little princess! Once he has the chance, he'll get rid of them both! But since he is much weaker and scared of them, he'll abide his time until he can finally avenge his sweet daughter. For now, he searches for someone he could keep in his lonely prison, someone who he can raise to be just as perfect as his little princess...

[just-null]

hii! i was thinking, after seeing your who's-your-fav-clone post ,about who would be their darling's favorite & i just wanted to 2share my thoughts.

honeslty my fav has always been urogi and in real-life context, i would be drawn to think that he would be the best yandere choice. like, he is the embodiment of positive emotions; everyone would like that, right? he fluffs up when he sees you, is happy to keep you company and loyal to his bird-like side, whenever he would see some shiny piece of something, let it be a jewel or radom metal or anything he likes, really, he would bring it to you and offer it as a mating gift^_^ so everything's perfect, right?

wrong😖 i mean all of the things above r still true, but urogi can get super overwhelming and your drawings + the you-mention-a-new-name post lowk highk made me scared of himm LMAOO like he is just so menacing, his devotion and love feel just super threatening no matter how sweet he tries to appear.

then, maybe the most gentle one, aizetsu? 🙅 nuh-uh, no. i actually really love your aizetsu cs i never thought about him in like this passive-aggressive manipulative/victim-complex toxic boyfriend light but it just fits him soo much! out of all the 4, he'd probably b the most emotionally drainig to be around.

sekido doesn't seem like a bad option too, if you put aside his bad temper... meaning, putting all of him aside lol. i mean, he seems like a guy who's dealing for the first time with very intense romantic feelings and his first instinct is to raise his guard up at like maximum security level🙁 all of his worries and uttered love confessions come out the wrong way and it just makes his darling withdraw from him, wich makes him panick. he tries to 'make things right' only scaring them further. his darling doesn't want to see him, spending all of their time w the others and he eventually lashes out on them and his siblings. even though he's only trying to look out for everyone..

soo i really think karaku is the better option. hes just a chill guyTM who might or might not be trying to get under his darling's pants sometimes, but he's so carefree (convinced that they won't never ever manage to escape since everyone is always watching them 24/7) that he just kind of lets them do whatever. like yeah you wanna go out? sure. have fun. if their darling is coming to seek any of them for comfort, it would most likely be him.

ultimately, i think the ranking would b this:

1. karaku

2. urogi

3. aizetsu

4. and much to his dismay, sekido

All pros and cons you stated are pretty accurate but you missed Karaku's cons. Surprise, he also is awful like the rest! Yes, he does let you go out and about, but not without consequences. He does things that could get others (or you) hurt on purpose or to save you from problems (that he made) You probably won't get overwhelmed if the others are there to regulate everyone, so you'll be a semi regular couple. Harem?

Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing as the saying goes. Karaku is too carefree. He's too confident that you'll bounce back if wounded. He's too confident you'll still come back to him at the end of the day.

They're parts of a whole at the end of the day, they need each other so they dont make you lose your mind, and life. The worst of them can end up being your saviors and vise versa.

As for our special hedonist, Karaku likes to PORTRAY himself as a pretty relaxed guy, to you specifically. He's not too pushy unless he knows you won't be too put off by it. But that damn thrill seeker side.....

He gets bored easily and constantly seeking pleasure like an addict. How do you get the best hit? After a disaster, of course! A disaster he made since things can get pretty quiet without a push.

Karaku wants your praise and favor, but he's not going to ruin his image in front of you. (Un)Fortunately for him, he knows you aren't able to have your eyes on him 24/7. In that downtime, he can do whatever he wants, like causing disaster around you or others. Little things that snowball and have you calling them (specifically him) to "save" you.

It's a good day if all Karaku does is try seducing you.

[arsenicflame]

It's a time-honoured tradition- every time Sam comes across Izzy (and Ed) in their travels, he asks Izzy to marry him. And every time, Izzy turns him down.

At this point, Sam is asking more for the sake of it than any belief Izzy will ever say yes, a remnant of childhood dedication touched with 30 years of heartbreak and regret- though even now, a small part of him still holds out hope. Sam's promises have only got more extravagant over the years, from a job as his first mate, to a captaincy, a fleet at his command, a whole fucking island if that's what Izzy wants- but he knows it isn't though, not really. If Izzy was ever going to agree to marry him, to leave his life and go with Sam, it wouldn't be for anything Sam could offer him. Izzy never did care for flashy shows of wealth, for a ship or to be captain. The only thing that ever mattered to him was loyalty given, and loyalty shown in return. 

It all comes to a head after Stede left and came back, after Izzy lost a toe, lost his leg. Sam hasn't seen him since before things with Ed started to really slide off the rails, before stress permanently set into the lines of Izzy’s face. So, when he sees a dishevelled man with a hoof for a leg in a no-name port, he doesn't even consider the idea that he might know him. It's only when he turns towards him, and Sam catches a glance at those oh too familiar tattoos, he realises this is Izzy, his Izzy, that stands before him.

Knowing Izzy's discomfort with pity, he doesn't treat him any differently than he would in years gone by, positioning himself in Izzy's line of sight before approaching and sweeping him up into a bone crushing hug. 

“Israel-goddamn-Hands!” he exclaims, as Izzy grumbles back a begrudging “Samuel-fucking-Bellamy”, a tradition almost as old as their friendship itself. Izzy might not hug him back, but he can’t keep the corner of his mouth from twitching, just for a second.

(If Sam holds Izzy a little tighter and a little longer than usual, well. That's his business)

By the time Sam lets go, most of the crew has appeared in the town square, drawn in by the commotion. They may have given Izzy his leg and welcomed him as one of them, but still there’s an underlying tension, with nobody quite ready to set aside everything that happened before the Kraken. Seeing him cosying up to an unknown man sets everyone on edge, unsure whether to come to their first mate’s aid, or to assume that they've been betrayed once again.

When Ed sees that the yelling was Sam, his hand goes tense where it's held in Stede's. He knows the routine, has seen it more times than he can count, but as he watches them part he realises that this is the first time in a long time he's unsure of what Izzy's response will be.

Knowing that something’s different, knowing that Izzy's feeling vulnerable already, Sam doesn't go for the same flashy proposal he’s been giving for years. He doesn't promise Izzy the world, he doesn't cause a scene (or, any more of a scene than he already has, anyway). He looks at the fractured man in front of him, takes his face in his hands, and says the exact same thing to him he said when they were little more than boys. “Israel, I have to ask you. I know what you'll say, but I have to try. Come with me. Marry me and sail away with me. I'll keep you safe”

And Izzy… hesitates. He glances over at Ed, at Stede, and says to Sam “...We’re staying in port for a week. Ask me again then”

That's the moment Sam knows there is something deeply, horribly, wrong. He's not just looking at an Izzy who got seriously injured in a fight and is struggling to cope, this is something so much bigger than that- and that Ed has something to do with it. Izzy wouldn't even be considering leaving if he didn't. Whether it was negligence or something more sinister, Sam doesn't yet know, but he intends to find out.

[blueskittlesart]

I see you refer to Kris and Noelle as besties a lot. I haven't played the weird routes yet and I certainly don't know the normal route dialogue like the back of my hand, but I thought that Noelle and Kris were estranged family friends, not super close anymore, before the events of chapter 1. That view is specifically because of Noelle's private blog post about Kris from Spamton Sweepstakes (https://deltarune.com/kris_dreemurr_kris/). Noelle wrote, "Even then, with my eyes open, there were times when I wasn't even sure if we were friends." What do you think about this blog post?

well ok first of all when I called kris and noelle 'best friends' in my noelle post which im assuming is what this is about it was after about 3 paragraphs about how significantly they had drifted apart after dess's disappearance. I'd certainly not call them besties as things currently stand, but i think that BEFORE dess's disappearance and the player's takeover of kris they were at minimum the most consistent friend in each other's lives. the real point of that post was that i think they were probably significantly closer than noelle leads the player to believe based on her dialog alone, and that she is an unreliable narrator when it comes to she and kris's relationship. If I listed out every piece of evidence I can think of off the top of my head that she and kris were close this post would get insanely long, but literally just walking around her room in chapter 4 will paint you a pretty clear picture. she had a cactus named after them. and when she mentions that berdly renamed it kris gets pissed off about it in the flavor text afterwards.

as for that blog post, I kind of think taking that one line out of context does a disservice to the picture that is actually being painted here, because honestly I'd argue that the full text supports my point even more. full text of the post for context:

It's funny... there was a time when they were coming over almost every day. We'd play, and we'd play... then after a while, they would suddenly get very still, like they were remembering something. They'd go into the dining room to "get a snack," then after a few moments, I'd hear the piano. The first few times, I went into watch them play, but when they realized I was looking, they'd always shut the piano and come back. So over time, I just started staying on the couch in the living room. I'd lie there, listening to them play, sometimes for hours, sometimes even until I fell asleep. Even then, what were they thinking about me? Maybe they weren't thinking about me at all. They didn't have a piano at their house, so they probably just came over to use mine. Even then, with my eyes open, there were times when I wasn't even sure if we were friends. But when I closed my eyes, it felt like a concert just for me.

Yes, there's a level of removal going on here. Noelle doesn't quite understand kris's motivations and is struggling to contextualize their actions because of this. But I think it's important to remember that this blog post is recounting the memories of a young child, and written from the perspective of a teenager, so it would probably be a miracle if nothing got lost in translation. This is Noelle reflecting on a relationship which has very clearly changed drastically in recent years, and if there's one thing we know about noelle it's that she's avoidant as shit. It's nowhere near above her to recontextualize memories in her own head in order to make her previous relationship to kris feel less personal, so she won't have to feel as sad about losing a close friend. We literally watch her do this in real time in snowgrave--painting over and/or blocking out memories that scare and upset her in order to avoid reckoning with those feelings. I think she likely finds this easier to do with kris because kris seems to have been pretty introverted and kind of. weird in the ways they expressed affection towards her as a child (particularly the pranks she so often mentions) which makes it easier for her to spin their relationship as something obligational rather than true closeness. But because Kris was such a big part of her life for so long, her altered memories are still imperfect. In the same post where she says kris probably wasn't thinking about her at all she also mentions that kris was at her house every day and that she felt an intense personal connection to their music. And for what it's worth, there are at least two other pianos in town that kris easily could have used if all they wanted was to practice--one in the church's choir room and one in the hospital. They weren't at the holiday house purely to use that piano. more likely than not they really were playing for her.

[violent138]

Batfamily member's civilian identity becomes some serial killer's target because it fits some profile. Cue said murderer going after this member of the Batfamily, earning a very shocked and mildly exasperated set of swear words and then getting their ass kicked. The Batfamily member doesn't even bother calling the cops, just tosses the would be killer in the back of their car (which has bloody gloves in the seat and weird files on people), leading the murderer to conclude they're in the presence of a much worse serial killer.

Tldr: Outsider POV fic where a Batfamily member earns the undying adoration of an actual murderer and it's a slow, convoluted process to getting the evidence to arrest them while also protecting their secret identity.