desperateknot

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Containment Hall 4, 5

Swap AU: Yuri - No. 13 - No. 8

Still image:

Wow this surely won't start a hidden one sides Grete-Queequeg beef that won't be settled until Canto 24

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Noose

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Timelapse/Process: Chapter 7 & Chapter 110

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thank you and goodbye, yuno

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Chapter 7 & Chapter 110

Wallpaper version

Textless Wallpaper versions

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Chapter 110

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Chapter 7

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Oh so I can draw on paper too (and then edit on my phone)

Took a lot of wip photos because I was afraid I would ruin it midway

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The Unservering.

My worlds collided.

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🐯🕶️✨

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What if Ishmael keeps popping up in other people's family trees. What then.

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Yay

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Queequeg and her (defensive) pride (skills)

Because it's pride month, I want to reiterate how much I love these 3 pride skills for Queequeg. It's incredibly fitting, not because she has a high opinion of herself but because she's stubborn as hell.

It is also significant because the Middle also has plenty of pride skills. I have talked at length about how Queequeg's skill affinities compositions is very similar to that of the Middle. What is more interesting is, while all of Queequeg's pride skills are defensive. most of the Middle pride skills are also defensive skills, with one singular exception from that 1 Ricardo's skill.

This most likely means Queequeg's pride and also that of the Middle are reactive and not active (like Ahab, for example). It lines up if we inspect their behaviours closely.

For the Middle, if there is any slight against them, if their perceived prestige is attacked, they would retaliate to protect their pride. It is, however, not a motivating force for active actions like their envy is. Simply put, their envy causes them to lash out (it appears in a lot of their offensive skills by the way) while having their pride damaged causes them to retaliate.

Queequeg is much simpler. Unlike the Middle, Queequeg does not pride herself a better person than others (it's the opposite, it's almost like she thinks that she is the scum of the earth...pridefully/stubbornly), and thus won't retaliate when that image is damaged. She is, as I said, stubborn as hell. She wouldn't entertain any idea of distancing herself from the Middle other than actively hurting herself (she self-harms on screen, and when she talks about cutting up her tongue and brain, the word she used was "break myself").

This stubbornness can only manifested clearly when an alternative idea is suggested to her (Ishmael telling her to stop cutting herself because surely there would be a place to erase her tattoos), and she reacts to it with the said stubbornness. I don't think she ever demonstrate any active pride in herself.

To make this easier, let's compare to Ahab, who has plenty of offensive pride skills.

Unlike Queequeg whose pride is a stubborn refusal at any alternative idea of atonement, Ahab does seem to think that she is better than others. And, in a sense, she has pretty good reasons to think that. She is more virtuous, more principled. She helped her crews "endured this world". Because of that, they will unequivocally obey her. Because of that, she will kill that Whale. Her pride is her motivating force, helps her push herself to the point of manifesting her own EGO.

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Ishmael and her rope (2)

There are actually quite a few of Ishmael EGOs without her rope: 4/9. They are: Hundred-Footed Death Maggot; Wingbeat; Christmas Nightmare; and Blind Obsession.

There might be a trend among these EGOs.

Wingbeat, Christmas has "someone" suspecting Ishmael (?) and Maggot, Blind Obsession is about her...obsession?

Most of the EGOs without the rope are less human than the EGOs with the rope. Maggot is a maggot/centipede; Wingbeat is an carnivorous insect creature...thing; and Christmas is a monster under the bed pretending to be a human. Blind Obsession is seemingly an outlier to this. This is just my impression, however, I can't really articulate how Capote Ishmael is more human-like than Wingbeat Ishmael.

The interesting thing is that Ishmael being suspected of being a monster is a genre of EGO (there are 2 EGOs like that but I think it's a lot already, hyper specific too). And that is kind of strange.

Ishmael, on a subconscious level, has already realised her potential to be Ahab, who is a monster in her eyes. She keeps trying to suppress that realisation, deceiving herself and everyone around as the result. These EGOs might be Ishmael somewhat confronting those realisation, that she might be a wolf in sheep clothing, and that she might carnivorous insect monster thing?

If that is the case, then the EGOs about obsession following a similar trend of not having a rope makes sense? Because, in a way, that is still an extension of the idea that she is becoming Ahab, becoming just as obsessive as Ahab was, hence, no rope. It is notable that Pequod Ishmael is also the Ishmael ID that doesn't wear the rope on her sunset hair.

Perhaps, the visibility of the rope relates to where an Ishmael is, on the Ishmael to Ahab pipeline (which is not that long of a pipeline in my opinion). The more Ishmael an Ishmael's ID or EGO is, the more visible her rope is. The more Ahab an Ishmael's ID or EGO is, the less visible her rope is.

These are all just my conjectures, of course, and they are still very shaky.

Note: Before anyone says Blind Obsession Ishmael has her rope on her hat and on her clothes, I don't think it is the rope (TM).

For once, those are in a different colour, and since Roseate Desire Ishmael didn't got her rope's colour changed into pink, I don't think the rope (TM)'s colour should change in Blind Obsession either. Hence, not the rope (TM).

Blind Obsession Ryoshu also has that same rope (same colour) to to hold her coat, so it is probably a regular rope.

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Ishmael and her rope (1)

Some people saying Ishchun breaking the mirror worlds because she has the rope (TM) while hasn't been to the Great Lake, causing inconsistencies in the timeline. I do not necessarily agree nor disagree with this interpretation, but here is a post examining Ishmael IDs whether they could comply with her timeline, story, or canon event. Keep in mind that this is based on my personal reasonings and interpretations.

I. Compilation and division

Group 1: IDs that are *likely* to comply with the timeline of Ishmael went to the Great Lake, met Queequeg, grabbed onto her rope and coffin to survive when the Pequod crashed, worked various jobs and trying to stay alive so she can go kill Ahab later.

LCB Sinner Ishmael for obvious reason

Zwei Assoc. West Section 3 Ishmael: In chatter #3, Ishmael explicitly stated that she went Whaling in the past and will have to take revenge on that "bastard."

Shi Assoc. South Section 5 Ishmael: Ishmael took a lot of odd and dangerous jobs in this backstory, which maps perfectly to the period when she wanders around, trying to survive so she can hunt Ahab later. This is not as explicit as Zweimael, however.

LCCB Assistant Manager Ishmael: working in the LCCB is a plausible career for Ishmael to have in the period of her wandering. There is nothing else to prove that she had been Whaling though, apart from the rope (and we already consider this unreliable).

I am less certain about the 2 next ones, but I think we can still make a case that these 2 Ishmaels went to the Great Lake:

R Corp. 4th Pack Reindeer Ishmael: R Corp. Ishmael is...very strange. She wants to find more info about the old R Corp., and because of that, willing to become a Reindeer - the most torturous R Corp. pack to my knowledge - and going to the Library. I don't think she would go to such length just for simple curiosity. My personal theory is that Ahab is from the old R Corp., and this is Ishmael way to find out more about her then take her down. But of course, this is conjecture.

Liu Assoc. South Section 4 Ishmael: Although being a Liu Assoc. Fixer should fit into Ishmael's wandering years, this Ishmael is rather...lax. She seems more settled into the role of a Fixer than other IDs, giving me the impression that she isn't concerned about hunting Ahab, and thus, might have not gone to the Great Lake? But this is also just my personal impression.

Group 2: IDs that are *likely* not to comply with the stated timeline.

Lobotomy E.G.O::Sloshing Ishmael: Isn't she supposed to be hunting Ahab? Why does she suddenly want to liberate technology?

Edgar Family Butler Ishmael: She is another interesting case. Although she is said to be a drifting Fixer in the past (compliant to the timeline), she does not have any purpose before being taken in by the Edgar Family. Presumably if she did go Whaling, that part should be mentioned here, since it is significant enough. And if the thing with Ahab did happen, she shouldn't be purpose-less before then, her purpose should be hunting Ahab. This, plus the usage of the word "blind obsession", implies Butler Ishmael is in her Ahab-hunting phase but instead of hunting Ahab, it's serving the Edgar Family.

Molar Boatworks Fixer Ishmael: Her purpose is not to hunt Ahab now, it is to return to V Corp., which is also her home...Yeah this is not an Ishmael who specifically went to Pequod.

Kurokumo Clan Captain Ishmael: Um. Right. I think an Ahab equivalence existed in this mirror world. Them boarding the Pequod and then crashed most likely didn't happen though. She also seems very content and settled as a Kurokumo Captain.

Family Hierarch Candidate Ishmael: The whole reasons I have the chance to make this. Even though she said she has gone to the Great Lake to get the clue to immortality at the start, Carmen then interjects and says no she didn't. And then in her voiceline she said she got the water from Lethe.

I will close my eyes and say that this isn't supposed to make any sense. So it makes sense that it doesn't make any sense.

There is also The Pequod Captain Ishmael ID, which is a special case. For once, this is an ID without a visible rope on her sunset hair. She, however, do have ropes on her leg harpoon and harpoon harpoon, which is absent on Ahab's design. I consider this the rope(TM), since it should have no business there if it is just "of Ahab". It has to be "of Ishmael". And the rope "of Ishmael" is that rope(TM).

What does this mean? I can't be sure, but my immediate interpretation went like this.

Queequeg (or her equivalence) existed, met Ishmael, and died leaving her only the rope to mourn. However, whereas other Ishmaels put it on her sunset hair (the hair that Queequeg so dearly loved), Pequod Ishmael snaps the rope in half (or maybe someone else did...Queequeg perhaps?) and uses it as an instrument to fulfill her obsession (harpoon leg and harpoon harpoon). Queequeg's final and only true wish was for Ishmael to find her own way, but Pequod Ishmael, much like how she tramples on the rope, tramples upon that wish, and tread Ahab's path instead, losing herself (and Queequeg) in the said obsession.

II. Possible explanations

Now, even Ishmael in the mirror worlds that doesn't comply to the timeline has her rope. There are a few alternative explanations:

All the mirror worlds where she has the rope but didn't go to the Great Lake are all dreamt up (like Ishchun mirror world), and thus doesn't have to make sense

In the mirror worlds where she didn't go to Great Lake, she met Queequeg (or maybe someone else equally important) under different circumstances and got the rope under different circumstances. The said circumstances is of equivalent to Queequeg being swallowed by the Whale and left Ishmael only that rope to remember her by. In short, something similar but not the same happens for her to keep that rope.

She just finds a random rope fashionable idk. Why does a child of the prestigious Jia family wear a random rope? Maybe she is just making a fashion statement.

Right, so that is for IDs. We need to talk about EGOs, because there are many Ishmael EGOs that just don't have the rope. But that is for another time.