#Despite all of its problems...

[toonpel]

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Soma Spirits (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Heart (Soma Spirits) & Soul (Soma Spirits), Heart & Soul & The Sun King, The Sun King & Elder Oakley Characters: Bright (Soma Spirits), The Sun King (Soma Spirits), Heart (Soma Spirits), Soul (Soma Spirits), Elder Oakley (Soma Spirits), Lunar (Soma Spirits), Sunny (Soma Spirits), Form (Soma Spirits), Dissonance (Soma Spirits), Absolution (Soma Spirits) Additional Tags: Post-Soma Union, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Or Is It?, Heart and Soul are best bros, Redemption, Second Chances, The Sun King Needs A Break, New(Old) Friends Bonding, Sibling Bonding, Brotherly Love, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Violence, battles, Blood and Injury, Absolution Sucks, Reincarnation, Listen to Elder Oakley Please, Other Additional Tags to Be Added Summary:

Given a second chance, The Sun King has no idea what to do with himself.

Oh well, at least he still gets to spend time with his new(old) friends!

[askoverkill]

check on your eye, maybe that'll get it over with

transcript below:

(...You still haven't had your bad bleed yet.)

(You carefully unwrap the bandages.) (And then, gently, feel at the dead skin.)

(...)

(There's nothing in there.) (But there's no blood yet? How is that possible?)

(You glance behind you, back at the well.) (So it was the price for your wish, after all.)

(Heheh, you place the bandages back in place.) (Thank you universe!) (Thank you Loop, or whatever power comes from the well!)

(This is your chance!) (You control time, you can do anything!) (With enough tries, you'll succeed!)

(You'll prove it to everyone.) (Despite everything, you're not dead yet.) (Nothing is going to stop you.)

[wienners]

"dude its not that embarassing to rewatch some creepypasta stuff you liked as a teenager" the character i imprinted on like a baby duck at 16 was a demon from new jersey that acts like the humanization of every offspring song and canonically listens to scissor sisters. His favorite color is purple and his favorite pokemon are gengar and haunter. His favorite candy is reeses cups. He leaves people notes with emojis on them. He acts like a beetlejuice scare actor at halloween horror nights. His catchphrase is "feeling sassy?" Hes (allegedly) worked with every war criminal throughout history and been every serial killer. even the gay ones. He ate a baby. His animal motif is a rabbit. Hes kind of based off the donnie darko rabbit. He almost exclusively wears merchandise of the quentin tarantino movie death proof. He talks to his cats in a baby voice. He wears a white fedora that makes every video he wears it in feel dated by like 7 years. Hes 5'3. Sometimes he barks like a dog. Hes from new jersey. He hacked a girls tumblr blog so he could post about how awesome he is. He added a laugh track over a video of him killing people. He named a chainsaw rex. He torments people by playing frank sinatra at them. His name comes from an animal collective song. His creator drew his "true form" as a giant buff wolf bug anthro. Theres a (semi)canon blog entry where he makes the speakers blare rob zombie before he enters a room, then holds a guy at gunpoint to describe what he did to to him while "making sure to leave in all the cool parts". The guy hes possessing has radioactive blood. He tried for 2 whole minutes to pick up a bottle of ketchup with a grabby hand. Hes kind of suicidal.He can be reasonably compared to pretty much every major tumblr sexyman. His actor has gone on record saying heath ledgers joker inspired his acting choices. His creators were too attached to him to permanently kill him at the end of the series. Sometimes his voice gets distorted and it makes him sound like bill ciphers first year on HRT. Hes basically like my artistic muse. For some fucking reason i associate the song cake by the ocean with him. I firmly believe that if everymanhybrid didn't require a masters degree in creepypasta autism to comprehend, he would've caused more teenage stabbings than the slenderman incident and more kin war tumblr scenarios than nagito komaeda.

[valoale]

JUST CAME BY TO ANNOUNCE THAT DESPITE ALL THE ODDS AND HARDSHIP DURING THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE THIS TWINK IS ACTUALLY GRADUATING IN MAY

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP

[bitchfitch]

I had a shrink appointment today and while I could not see it I knew my doc was going through the five stages of grief while I explained my fool proof strategy for doing my t shots despite a crippling fear of needles: By abusing my vastly more crippling fear of being an inconvenience.

My mother and I play phasmophobia together every week. she usually has a pretty limited time to do this bc she's like. a doctor and a college professor whos always busy. So I asked her to just. hold me to doing them. We don't start playing until the shot is done. so my needle fear doesn't matter because now it's Wasting™ her time and I have to do it quick. Using one neurosis to defeat another.

It's a horrible coping mechanism because it's feeding the inconvenience fear, but it is definitionally a coping mechanism.

[nabaath-areng]

I have way too many alts that I keep to myself (which is why I generally refrain from posting them), but I'm going to ignore that habit for a moment just because I'm feeling particularly insane about this guy.

[cheriboms]

call that an intergenerational language barrier 🙅

[wackywatchdotcom]

Rewatching episode one, I noticed that when Ragatha and Jax are talking to each other about Jax having a key, Pomni flinches away from, and lifts her arms to protect her face and head, when Jax toys with the key and catches it near her.

I wonder if she is that jumpy around others normally or if it's just when she's in a stressful situation (like suddenly being trapped in the circus) what do you think?

OK. ok. you mention this. and ive never said anything about it but i have genuinely noticed this almost every time ive seen that scene. i think about it a LOT but i havent been able to figure out my thoughts on it. but i think about it genuinely a LOT...

(i went on a huge tangent abt her thats like. only sporadically related to this specific moment SORRY. it was hard to address this moment without discussing a LOT about her i feel)

for the sake of clarity in the event someone reading this is unfamiliar, what this ask is referring to is this:

with the way that she so quickly dissociates and HARD (not that most people Never experience dissociation or smth, but its the intensity of it and how quick into this situation she starts dissociating is like. it makes it seem like its smth her body and mind are Used To Doing) she REALLY gives off the feeling that she had pre-existing mental health problems (i struggle to place anything TOO specific with the limited information we have but i feel like theres definitely a few things she has going on) before she even got to the circus, and like she COULD just be a naturally jumpy person, but with the dissociation thing and general distrust towards others, it feels like her jumpiness is also related to these issues

while her being naturally nervous is sort of implied and clear (though i think the extent of it is exaggerated by the circumstances of the pilot in particular) there ARE a few other examples that stand out to me

i THINK this can largely be passed off as her just being on edge from the horror adventure, but i this is IS notable that she reacts genuinely pretty strongly to what is a relatively minor 'jumpscare.' it happens later too w kinger pressing the tape recorder

in general she seems VERY easily startled by people, and frankly it reads a lot like it stems more from people being near her than just things happening abruptly. she notably doesnt jump hard when the angel arrives- she DOES get scared, but she isnt necessarily startled. she DOES react very strongly to ghostly, but i think its notable that she seems to find his visual appearance frightening and debatably not necessarily startling, but thats not really 100%. the times she reacts the strongest have to do with people, which imo ties HARD into her not trusting people

episode 2 breaks down her distrust of people well, and i dont think its a self consciousness thing. it seems more that she just doesnt tend to find people trustworthy- if something bad was happening to her, she would sooner assume theyd let it happen rather than help her. it could be argued that its partially a guilt or projection thing with ragatha, but im not actually so sure. pomni seems to be ashamed of leaving her behind, but particularly through ep 2 she doesnt seemed Plagued With Guilt by the way she acts towards ragatha, which implies that the dream didnt have to do with her projecting that shame in a way shed assume ragatha would turn back on her, too

it instead seems to be that she doesnt trust ragatha just... in general. the 'im not a child' thing, while a legitimate problem for pomni to have with ragatha (i love ragatha, and from my place in the audience i know her concern is genuine, and that she truly wants to encourage pomni, and is trying, but from the perspective of people around ragatha, its not an unreasonable assumption that shes JUST being infantilizing and belittling), does illuminate how pomni is seeing ragathas attempts at cheering her up- that it comes from a place of seeing pomni as immature or generally unstable. that pomni is incapable of managing herself and needs to be coaxed. it implies pomni doesnt see ragathas attempts at help as genuine. combined with her dream, that ragatha would allow the worst to happen to her even when she was asking for help, makes it very clear that, even with the 'nicest' person in the circus, pomni just... doesnt really trust her

(it is worth noting that pomni DOES seem to genuinely want to help ragatha in the pilot. she DID try to find caine. but she bolts at the first opportunity. she does care about people, but when stressed, she operates on keeping herself safe first and foremost, that she needs to do anything to get out of a bad situation even if that means leaving someone behind- and with her dream, it does seem that she generally assumes other people operate similarly, or otherwise in their own best interest)

this does, of course, improve by the end of eps 2 and 3. the funeral, and ragatha offering to include her, and how the others talk about abstracted players (combined with her conversation with gummigoo, someone who she has to assure has genuine friendships with those around him despite the lack of a true reality for them to be based upon), are able to convey that oh, these people do actually care about the people around them. theyre being genuine. they arent just looking out for themselves and thats it- they care when bad things happen to each other. and theres no true reason for me to be an exception. which is ALSO why i dont think its a self consciousness thing, she seems able to reason that shes not an exception to the intents of others, so much that when she cant assure herself that others' intents hold her safety as any sort of priority as well, any trust goes out the window. she WANTS to help if she can, but esp in the pilot, as far as shes concerned, its everyone for themself when shit gets bad, including herself

ep 3, she seems more trusting of ragatha- she has neutral and positive interactions w her, rather than assuming a lack of sincerity in it. but its not just ragatha, actually, because even before her talk with him, you can see it in how she interacts with kinger as well

she initially tries to help him run, which isnt too out there- with how she genuinely DID initially try to help ragatha, it doesnt require her to go out of her way to grab him and RUN. she can run AND take him with her. she can help without putting herself in extra danger. but then she DOES go back, which is one of my favorite and imo underrated pomni moments. because THIS is what i think actually highlights an improvement in how she sees the others before her apologizing to ragatha or taking kingers hand. because she puts herself BACK into (percieved, since its not actual sure WHAT the angels intentions were her) danger in order to get kinger away too

(theres probably a case to be made that ragatha didnt seem to be in immediate danger- she was in pain, that much was clear, but kaufmo had ran away by then. but even still, pomni couldnt have known kaufmo would shift gears and start chasing her instead of ragatha that first time. and i dont know if she actually knew death wasnt possible here yet. which isnt very flattering for pomni but also people do not act in flattering ways under extreme stress, esp given a predisposition to not trusting others, which ill elaborate more on in a second here- not that pomnis abandonment was ok OR that it was like evil of her or smth. shes just a person. there is no way she was prepared to know how to act correctly in this situation, and she didnt)

theres also this

which is SUBTLE but highlights a genuine increase in trust even before their heart to heart. now that she knows the cast (save for jax, who she seems to react to the harshest, which is worth noting imo) are not acting solely in their own best interest, that they WILL consider the wellbeing of those around them including her, that their concern for one another is genuine (which is concerning that she even assumes that to begin with, which ill circle back to momentarily), she very clearly has way more faith in them and the idea that she should stick around the others for safety

and of course, ive said it before, but her taking kingers hand has little to do with her enjoying holding hands. its her knowing that, if kingers wrong, this is going to end very, very badly. if holding their breath isnt the solution theyre BOTH going to get possessed, and who knows how theyd get out of that situation. but she decides in that moment that her trust in the others isnt ONLY about looking out for them and believing that theyre sincere in their concern for her. but that she is willing to let the others put her at a potential massive risk. getting possessed was a blatantly immediately traumatic experience- and she lets kinger put her at risk of it happening again. THATS why she holds his hand, at least symbolically. she doesnt like contact. but she can brave something that she doesnt like, she can let him lead her into and through something potentially horrific, because shes deciding to trust him and the others, that theyre not just people she can interact with without fear of ill intentions, but that theyre people who she is going to coexist with. the best thing she can do for herself and the others is trust them and work with them actively

anyway that got off-track, the point being that her having to have these ideas instilled in her at all through shared experiences and trauma implies that, while these issues with distrust may have been exacerbated by the stress of everything, they didnt come from nowhere. these are problems she likely already had to some degree. its great that theres been improvement but that improvement directly implies thesse were improvements that needed to be made to begin with. and the fact that the person she gets repeatedly most startled by is jax. who, even with episode 2, she explicitly doesnt trust. in the pilot, at least, her distrust is more vague (i think the dream sequence in ep 2 IS what highlights it best) so her flinching from jax can be passed off as related to a general lack of adjustment to the new environment and situation shes in. but it happens again with jax in episode 3 (and, notably, she pauses afterwards but it takes a moment for her to relax even knowing its just jax), after shes adjusted somewhat, and after shes gained some trust with everyone except for jax (given his absence from the scene at the end of ep 2). it also happens when barons voice plays abruptly next to her

point being that imo, she IS naturally jumpy. she says herself that she doesnt handle jumpscares well, which somewhat implies this even outside of the circumstances of the circus. but with how she reacts to things, it feels like her general jumpiness is far, far worse when it comes to people she doesnt trust (be it because jax is Like That, or because shes not familiar with baron). the way i see it, then, her distrust extends to perceiving physical threats easily around people she hasnt ensured are safe to be around. she IS able to gain this trust in people, but she seems to automatically place the intents of others as being Potentially Unsafe from the jump, especially under stress. she can jump back from it fairly quickly for what its worth, but to be honest, it seems more like she operates on some general, everpresent level of hypervigilance thats just sometimes worse based on the situation

and frankly i dont think we know enough about her as of ep 4 to fully determine if there IS a reason for this. because someone can have a reason to be this jumpy around others, or they can just... be nervous and dislike people moving suddenly near them. combined with the dissociation thing, though, im inclined to think the circus did not cause this, just made it more extreme with more unpleasant stakes. there is hardly any time between her entering the circus and this happening. she hadnt even seen kaufmo yet in that very first example, but she was already on alert for a physical threat, and i just. i think about it all the time...

i think the main takeaway from all of this is that i think she isnt necessarily jumpy like that all the time, but i think trust is not a given with pomni, and her jumpiness massively depends on how much she trusts people near her and the situation shes in to not be a physical threat to her. its definitely worse in the circus, but i think it was probably still something present in a different context in the real world, too

[ajastu]

ive been replaying da2 right. and it made me think about why datv feels a bit different to the previous games in the franchise in regards to, like, how messy it gets (different but not in a bad way this is not a crit post)

This is also not like, a deep analysis tm or anything, im literally just writing this bcs i cant fall asleep but LONG STORY SHORT.

1. Your PC is not someone Important

2. Your involvement with the Politics Tm is not as extensive

In origins, you have to go around n convince people to help you fight the blight, while ALSO dealing with the whole Loghain situation. the warden is literally one of TWO people who can get the job done. kind of integral!

da2, of course, deals with the mess that is Kirkwall, with its rising tensions and inevitable tragedy, with Hawke becoming Important to the city, with all the bullshit that entails. (and also it unfolds over the course of, like, what, 10 years?)

Dai... youre literally made to be the head of a religious organization with a lot of power and influence. You aren't given a choice, u have to be the chosen one now.

Datv? Rook isnt really all that imporrant. They aren't even high up in the ranks of whatever faction you choose for them. They werent even supposed to be in charge in the first place.

They also dont have to convince most of their allies to help with fighting the gods (aside from the wardens, ofc), because everyone understands the stakes. Of course, you help them out and all that, but they are Already your allies, they would be fighting this battle anyway.

Rook isn't a chosen one. theyre not a champion, they're not the only person who can do the job. They just.. happened to land in the role of the leader. Solas connection is a bonus, as is the dagger, but again. Not exactly irreplaceable. (the treviso/minrathous choice comes to mind here. it took me two playthrus to understand Why exactly Rooks presence made a difference, because like... theyre just a Guy. what does it matter where they go? but it wasnt Rook who made the difference. it was the dagger)

So, the focus is less on politics and more on building a reliable team, a community. Theyre not choosing stuff like who will become the new archon, or who is supposed to be the first talon, or whatever else. That just simply isn't their role.

Theyre just here to try to kill two blighted gods and not die in the process, ideally.

Theyre not important. The team is. And they are an integral part of that, but again, not THE chosen one. Their role could be fulfilled by different people, which cant exactly be said about the warden, or Hawke, or inquisitor.

and idk, i think thats fun. very stressed-employee-trying-to-meet-deadlines kind of vibes. someone please make them go take a nap

edit: ok ive been informed u Can choose the next archon if u save minrathous but my point still stands. rooks involvement in stuff like this is Minimal compared to the previous three protags

[uinferno]

To be a Hater, you must go at it alone. You must be known as "the guy who hates XYZ" in your friend group. If everyone in that group falls under that umbrella, then you've got yourself a crab bucket. Not even in a "getting help" sense, you'll just feed off each other in an endless cycle wasting too much of your time until that's all you ever talk about.

If you've ever seen subreddits dedicated to venting/problems or being critical of something, you'll understand why. Normal people say their piece and move on. They won't stick around for long. However, in order for those subs to be maintained and its community to remain active, you need to have regulars keeping the ball rolling. When that happens day in and day out with no breaks, that's just a downwards spiral, mister.

Ranting to friends who don't actually give a shit is key. Their zen attitude grounds you back to reality, and your disdain for shit that doesn't matter is amusing from the sidelines. For me: One friend is "the one who hates Fourth Wing." Another is "the one who hates Danganronpa." I'm "the guy who hates Legend of Korra." We all have our own niche, and by maintaining a variety of haters who don't all agree, we cultivate a welcoming environment of complaining.

[camcorderrevival]

replication really is the core of elevenamy to me. theyre both forever stuck in amelia's garden trying to make it work this time, rebreaking the fracture over and over again to heal it. amy makes rory dress up as eleven, eleven tells her he'll fix the fact that she's grown up, amy chooses the replica garden, eleven chooses her younger self, amy tries to hide that she's not that little girl anymore, eleven ages just to be kind, amy spends her life retelling the same story, eleven carries clara to her bed and then waits outside for her. their lives wont always run the same but they were SUPPOSED to.

[pineappical]

father and son

[nenoname]

the experience of reading stan twins fics and being constantly haunted by a name

[toffeebrews]

I'm saying this before I forget it but hearing I got people to appreciate characters more or even consider them more because of my art/posts is the highest compliment. I just didn't ever think my art would have that type of influence over anyone. Thanks <3

[ragepups]

i've been playing through ff7 rebirth for around two months now and i'm at chapter 9 still. it's mostly due to my lack of time but i also don't want to finish this game LOL T__T i've been waiting for so long for PC release i actually don't want the game to end and i'm enjoying it so so so much I KNOW I WILL BE SAD WHEN I'LL REACH THE ENDING.... this is depressing

[bytebun]

test doodle. the max pack watercolour brushes are sooooo nice