#Skewed Compass

[minyardsmeds]

No one:

Neil Josten at the Fall Banquet weeks after his teammate was killed:

[bithermal]

No because Foolish was probably the best person for Bad to tell his plans to. He’s a lot smarter than people give him credit for. Even if he does tell someone about this they either never take him seriously enough to think he’s being honest or he talks in circles so much everyone gives up on trying to understand him.

[july-19th-club]

we talk a lot about how the shtriga case was bad parenting and horrible just being-a-person-ing from john back when the boys were KIDS but this time im talking about how . it's also horrible parenting when the kids are adults. like you held the guilt of that night over your son's head in his childhood, you looked at him different, you know? and that was worse. and THEN he's a grown twenty-something and he hasn't seen you in half a year because you're back on your old obsessive quest and you keep him busy by sending him cases to work. you send him this one because you know your son, and you know that when he realizes what he's hunting here, the same child-devouring creature he once left his little brother vulnerable to (although you never told him what he needed to look out for, and never gave him a reason behind the orders, and never explained), and that he will hound himself over it and insist upon finishing it and you allow him to do the job and you allow him to continue to take responsibility for your decisions seventeen years ago, when you left an anxious eight-year-old alone with a preschooler for three solid days to be bait for a thing that would kill them. he finishes this case thinking he's finally righted the wrong from back then, finally made up for his failure (as a CHILD) to protect his brother, to follow the orders, to obey and behave, and he'll never be corrected about this. he will insist to the boy in this episode that it's not that kid's fault, he will insist that it is not really his father's fault, no, dad gave me an order and i didn't listen. don't. don't. but nobody will ever tell him this one wasn't his fault

[hyeriyearner]

are hitler jokes bad if I'm being asked if I'd be the eva to her hitler. but in a way that's intended to be welcoming and sweet.

[agapestricken]

hello, hello, you all — so... i hope you all are having a great thursday thus far, and i thought i'd bring this up now since i hadn't before; but with ana's zombification comes some noticeable differences to his behavior as well as appearance. because, and don't get me wrong, he was already pale before... but now anastasiy's skin now has this pallor that takes on a sickly look. and it has become necessary for ana to have to apply some concealer to his skin daily to hide the fact that his lips are, indeed, sort of tinged blue + some veins (particularly around his eyes and mouth) can clearly be seen and it definitely isn't the most uhh. natural look, to say the least JSJSJ

now, i'll probably cover more about his behavioral differences later, but one thing is that this man does have these SICK and TWISTED urges to consume human flesh as a zombie would in typical fiction would... so that's lovely / j LMAO nahhh, i'm totally being sarcastic with y'all right now as that is actually horrifying. but anastasiy does try his darndest to resist giving into this temptation because cannibalism is a BIG no-no in society for a reason (because its absolutely terrible and extremely gross) + with... slightly mixed results 😬

[retiredtothebriars]

mum when i was 8 years old: ur not allowed to watch south park its not appropriate

mum also when i was 8: ok mummy daughter time lets watch house and dexter and big brother

[scrawnytreedemon]

Seriously tempted to make a highkey detached headcanon/pseudo-analysis post regarding Zant and gender. Probably a bad idea.

[heartepub]

physically incapable of writing morally grey hades!csc lol

[watcherscrown]

i actually keep thinking about areas that have been deforested and paved so the cicadas can't get out and it makes me so anxious i get nauseous!!!

[villainsidestep]

for the ask game: 5 + 6 + 9 +14 +19 + 25 (that's so many i would say im sorry but im not🧡)

5. How far is your OC willing to go to get what they want?

GONNA BE HONEST….. it’s a cop out answer but it really depends on what it is? bc for most things the answer is “they’re willing to do anything… as long as chen wouldn’t order them to stand down for it” . but for certain fun things. like taking the fight to mother dearest. the answer is “genuinely the only way ur going to stop them is by killing them”

6. How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

someone who fawn deems responsible for their actions (ie north inside the farm, chen/ric outside of it) could order it from them, but for actually Convincing ?? I’d say probs 50-50

they Are still a sidestep so u have to put up w that classic stubbornness (trying to make them do smth they don’t want ?? c’mon) but fawn’s Personal moral compass probs allows way more shit than you’d expect. so like… probs a really good argument could sway them in your favor but it might also just make them yell at u a bunch

9. Do you have a specific lyric or quote which you associate with your OC?

(ethel cain voice) I TRIED TO BE GOOD. / AM I NO GOOD? / AM I NO GOOD? / AM I NO GOOD?

there’s more ofc bc they have an entire playlist but. that is the main one that makes us go “🥺….. fawnie…..”

14. How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

above all else !!!!! they want to be seen as a good person who is deserving of love <3

“I thought they wanted to be seen as a hero” WRONG. well. not wrong. but being a hero is actually just an extension of them wanting to be seen and valued as Good.

19. How does your OC behave when enraged?

fun fact !! we have thought abt it and decided it involves Quite A Bit of screaming (and sometimes angry-crying!) and furiously yanking at their own hair (w the intent of causing pain to try and let themself feel in control of literally anything) 😌 it’s an emotion they tend to associate w feeling helpless (bc anger just takes up SO MUCH of their emotional processing when it hits) so they basically try to burn it up out of their system asap

and before you ask: yes absolutely ric Has been on the receiving end of a screaming match and come away w the claw marks of trying to physically restrain them from doing it <3

25. What is your favorite thing about your OC?

dog coded :)

um no but serious answer…. I think we very much have a soft spot for their weird relationship towards being a villain ?? where they both accept it as being what fate has planned for them while also being so clearly unwilling to go along w it ?? trying at every opportunity to mitigate the damages as much as possible even when it not only doesn’t benefit but even genuinely works Against whatever plan they had in motion (ie saving people at carter’s mansion -> oops! back to square one)

fawn being a villain is truly just when a dog asks to go for a walk and then the entire walk is u dragging them by the leash bc they don’t want to anymore

[thedoctorsaysimwrong]

( verse ii. ) live long enough to see yourself become the villain becomes even more of a cursed verse - ignoring it's a crossover verse with arrow which makes it already cursed pfffft - when you think about the fact that "house of the dead" happened, jack got a final talk with ianto ( which could loosely be called closure but let's not go that far; ianto just stopped him to sacrifice his ghost instead so ya know ), was ready to die in a black hole forever, and still fucking went and became malcolm. even if he brings ianto back with the pit, jack's going to get his ass kicked into the next century just for how far he went and for what?

[aromacaque]

i think the reason analysis on donnie's character riles me up so much is almost every bad take i ever see is just straight up ableism. it's someone who did not take into account that he's autistic while trying to pinpoint what's going on in his head and, as a result, grossly misinterprets his character.

[blackmoldmp3]

read a bad atlantic article where this lady was like ‘this book on how institutional sexism in medicine has fucked up menstruation care and research etc was good but the use of inclusive language was troubling’ beloved someone’s periods don’t automatically stop when they identify with a diff gender like they still need care and they still face challenges trying to access that care……

[daz4i]

finding out that lucky compass is the su minigame ppl get 3 stars on the least (less than the lasers one????) is stressing me out.. do ppl not have the patience to wait 5 seconds..... once you learn how to beat it it's almost impossible to fail wtf man......😭😭😭

[smbcky]

i really like fics where sambucky meet pre-catws bc i like to see sam having moral crises... like yeah obviously ideally it doesn't take long for him to see what truly lies under the conditioning and that's what makes him truly fall in love but also i think he should fuck the asset at least twice before he finds out bucky is not a terrorist willingly

[crystals-and-claws]

[ Mentioning: @chronicparagon 's Harmony ]

The time between each tick of the clock seemed much longer as Cyrian and Mr. Johnson stood in silence. Time always slowed down in that room.

"Harmony was not my savior," the former politician replied eventually. "She was not my light in darkness, she did not .. 'bring me out' of darkness."

Cyrian's body shifted, arms crossing at his chest as his head leaned back. He didn't saw the ceiling he was staring at.

"She was simply somebody that had no business with my grand goals. Somebody I could return to after a day of work and not have to think of said work. Somebody that I could simply talk with, free of the behavioral requirements that my work imposed. She reminded me to not act the same with those I need not keep a role up."

"But you were never truly relaxed around her, were you?" inquired the therapist, whispered voice echoing in the room. Cyrian could feel the shame being sapped from his body as the realization hit him. "You did mention a letter you wrote for her for your closure."

That dammed letter. Cyrian wanted to take it back and rip it up the moment he sent it to be delivered.

"It did anything but give me closure," he growled. "It did not feel as if I said enough in it, but I could barely say anything to begin with. By saying more, I would involve her with the work I wanted to separate her from. It would be just another person that I had no business with being hurt. Eventually I would have done to her what I did to Nerei."

"You did mention you had a dream with Nerei in it. By what you told me, Nerei and Harmony are quite alike. Do you think you approached Harmony at first in the same way you approach your work because she reminded you of Nerei?"

The living statue remembered when he met Harmony. It was during a time he was much more vicious and attempted to lean into the villain persona he tried to create. Sadistic in nature and constantly menacing in mannerisms. Not something he held up for long. It was tiring and not good for PR. But it was how he approached Harmony.

He resented himself for it. For doing the same thing - for consciously choosing to do the same thing he did so many decades ago. Despite knowing better. Outside of this room that resentment would have lingered, but not here.

"Maybe.." he sighed, but then added quickly "but I never one thought of Harmony and Nerei as the same person. Two different people entirely with just a few similar traits.

I think I wanted to prove to myself I was not the same man anymore. With Nerei I was fully aware that by doing what I had done would hurt them — yet I still regreted doing that. I thought that... managing to make somebody that was seemingly just as kind see me as a monster I identify as and not regret it would prove that I am not the same person I was before.

It only reinforced the image of my previous self."

On the ceiling Cyrian looked beyond, the therapist appeared upside down, sitting in his seat. He checked the clock and looked down at the former politican, notebook and pen in hand.

"And that image is?"

The former politician sighed and rubbed the back of his aching neck as he straightened his posture. Mr Johnson was now on front of him, rather than on the ceiling.

This wasn't the easiest question for him to answer. When does one previous self stop and a new one starts? If we are defined by our past, but need not be slaves to it, then what do we do with the past? he thought to himself.

"A person who does what they need to survive. Everything else is just keeping the borderom from being the one that kills me mentally — and I see no reason to harm, physically or emotionally, those that are not a threat of me." he responded with a shrug. "Nothing much changed between those two versions of me."

The therapist wrote down a few things as Cyrian spoke, the notebook blinking at him as if not properly understanding him. Cyrian blinked back at it until it looked somewhere else.

"Well, we're just about done here. Here is my homework for you: make a list of your qualities and flaws before, during and after you gave yourself the title of 'Jailer'. I would like a better idea of your mentality through the hole process of transition," Johnson requested, closing the notebook that folded into itself two more times.

This one would be something he'd chew at for a long time. Tedious, but hopefully not unpleasant.

Cyrian resignated with a sigh. He grabbed his mask from the table as he got up and fastened it over his head and face. "Nothing too difficult."

As he was guided out by his therapist, he could feel the invisible mouths that fed off him detach and the muffled and slowed, reverberating tick of his watch cleared itself and sped up.

By the time he was out the door and in front of the receptionist's desk, barely ten minutes passed propely during their hour-long conversation.

With a short goodbye towards Ms Johnson and his receptionist, he left the building to head back home and work on the six lists. He figured he could mentally track them while sculpting and write them down later.