#Surface Changes

[meru90]

my fav barbie girl <3

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Why would you—That's not—I just wanted to ask for help, why did you have to go and make it awkward???

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[ganondoodle]

(comic concept art)

rough goron design for my zelda comic, struggled with it for a while bc i didnt want to make their build too similar to demise, tho thematically it fits, ended up going for a more turtle-armadillo kind of approach and a tail just feels right for them and their habit of curling into a ball

since they are even older than the ones from skysw i figured it would still be plausible if they evolved into how they later looked from this

the mogma will need a slight redesign only and parakwa will mostly stay the same as in canon bc i think their goofy look just kinda fits xD

[lnkedmyheart]

People saying Dazai has done more for Sigma than anyone else when my man has been constantly risking his life to save people since before leaving the mafia. He risked his life (and the city) to give Chuuya a choice at 16, he tried to risk his life for Oda in dark era, he risked his life and actually flat lined in Dazai's entrance exam, he risked his life for the agency and got shot, he risked his life during dead apple and has been super gentle with Chuuya after every use of corruption barring the fight with lovecraft, he is now risking his life for Sigma. I am sorry but Dazai has always been a normal person with severe mental illness exploited by his environment and those around him till he was left feeling inhuman and desperate for death. He has been trying again and again and I hate ya'll for acting like this is the first time he's been nice or self sacrificing since the series started.

Edit: it wasn't DEE it was 55 minutes where his heart stopped and Yosano healed him. I mixed that up somehow.

[beanghostprincess]

It still amazes me the number of people who see the juxtaposition between Nami and Usopp during Wano and their fight against Ulti as "Nami's devotion to Luffy is unmatched, unlike Usopp's" when she isn't able to say he won't be the king of the pirates but Usopp is telling her to lie.

I think most people don't have in mind, either, that Usopp isn't the one being directly asked. He is looking out for Nami and begging her to lie to keep her alive because he is scared to death they might lose her for something as insignificant as lying. For him, lying is a form of survival and it is not that big of a deal because he trusts Luffy enough to tell Nami to lie about her feelings. It is something that will only stay between them because he knows it is better to lie than to die and Luffy would want it that way too.

And that doesn't mean he isn't loyal to Luffy or his dream. He is just looking out for Nami's safety. And as I said-- He isn't being asked directly, either. It is easier to tell others to lie about something of the sort than to do it yourself, and if the roles were reversed I personally think he'd have the most awful of times with it too.

Nami refuses to say Luffy won't become the king of the pirates because for her, even if lying has gotten her out of messes, she puts her trust and loyalty in Luffy before her own instincts of survival because lying is what got her to push them away when they first met and this is the one thing she can't lie about because it would hurt more than death.

Then again, I think she would do the same exact thing Usopp did if she wasn't being the one asked. It is the whole point of the scene, actually. They both know the most rational thing is to lie so the one witnessing the scene will always be cold-headed about it, but the one having to lie is the one suffering the bitter realization of how lying about this and saying it out loud is way harder than it seems from an outsider's perspective.

So I am tired of seeing people criticizing Usopp for his decision during the fight against Ulti as if it were that easy for him to see Nami being about to get killed if she doesn't lie. Sorry for the guy to actually want to protect the people he loves instead of letting her be reckless and basically kill herself freely for telling a truth even Luffy would tell her to lie about if it meant living.

[arcane-gold]

hello i made a character

[gay-jesus-probably]

Seeing as the Gerudo turned on Ganon, he might not have been that much better of a ruler.

First of all, we literally have no idea, because the only ancient Gerudo that we actually get to interact with is Ganondorf himself, and he has nothing to say about his own people. The ancient Gerudo sage doesn't count btw, she doesn't have a name, we never even see her face, and she has literally nothing to say except repeating the exact same dialogue as the sages for the other races. The narrative does not treat the ancient sages as people; they are four completely interchangable weapons that are owned by the royal family.

And secondly, I don't care how Ganon ruled them; the Gerudo only get one man every century, if their king sucks, they've obviously got their own system of government to fall back on. I have no idea what kind of authority the sages had among their own people, but honestly I'd say if the four of them were in charge of their respective people, then they were just puppet rulers appointed by Rauru, given that all four of them happily agreed that to sell their entire race into servitude the second Zelda asked them. Say what you will about Ganondorf, but I fucking know that if he was told the Gerudo people existed for the sole purpose of serving the glory of Hyrule, he'd drop kick Zelda into the fucking sun.

And don't get me started on the implications of the cultural differences we see between the independent Gerudo and the annexed Gerudo. The background Gerudo characters all have their own models, and we can clearly see that the ones siding with Ganon have their own unique looks - for example, the amazing lady with the mohawk that summons the molduga swarm in that one flashback. And men are never mentioned in these flashbacks at all, which implies that the Gerudo genuinely didn't care about settling down. Ganon even speaks derisively about marriage, implying that it's very rare for Gerudo women to make serious romantic commitments with men. It implies that their culture is more along the same line as their portrayal in OOT - they are a closed culture. Men trying to force their way into their areas are arrested, and mocked for being entitled dumbasses. Outsiders are only welcome if they can prove that they respect the Gerudo as people, and aren't just there to try and pick up chicks. It's never outright said, but OOT also makes it pretty clear that the Gerudo women just aren't interested in marrying outsiders - close relationships occur with other Gerudo, Hylian men are only considered useful for making babies.

Meanwhile the Gerudo we see serving Hyrule are all trying to measure up to Hylian beauty standards, and appeal to their men. Their one goal in life is to meet a man and get married. Men are welcome in their lands, and only kept out of the town itself... and even then, there's a small army of guys trying to force their way into the town anyways, which is brushed off as just haha, boys will be boys. No men allowed isn't even about independence, it's just a silly romantic tradition.

Of course this is just a fictional culture in a game world, but it's still really fucking uncomfortable that the 'evil' Gerudo are the ones that have independence, both politically and socially, and display a unique culture that refuses to tolerate disrespect from outsiders. Meanwhile the 'good' Gerudo are the ones that canonically exist to serve a kingdom where 95% of the population is light skinned (even setting aside the unfortunate implications, just saying one race exists to serve a different one is super fucked up), they have classes on how to be more appealing to Hylian's, and their entire social structure is built around finding a Hylian man to marry, making them all inherently dependent on the goodwill of outsiders. Even their biggest value of 'women only' is treated as a joke; men trying to trespass in BOTW are just shoved back out the door, letting them keep trying all day if they want. The crowds of men plotting to force their way in are laughed off as a joke. Nobody cares that there's a guy running laps around their city walls and trying to trick women into being alone with him. I mean for fucks sake, in TOTK we find that the creepy guy trying to lure women away has taken advantage of a massive disaster to get into the town, and he's still there once things return to normal. You can't kick him out, or alert anyone to his presence. And the Gerudo just tolerate Hylians blatantly ignoring their boundaries. For fucks sake, TOTK even reveals that the seven legendary heroines they've been revering the whole time were actually completely useless and unable to achieve anything... because they needed the eighth hero, a Hylian man to teach them basic tactics and do all the heavy lifting.

TOTK does not respect the Gerudo people in the slightest. It doesn't respect anyone who isn't Hylian or Zonai.

...This got a little off track, but the point I'm trying to make is, no, I don't consider the Gerudo turning on Ganon to mean anything. The entire game does not feel like the real story of what happened, it feels like the propaganda version of history meant to make Hyrule look as good as possible. I genuinely cannot believe that we're being told the real story about the Imprisoning War, because none of it feels real, and we don't get to know any details that might have made Hyrule look even slightly imperfect. We're told that Ganondorf is evil because he hates Hyrule, and he hates Hyrule because he's evil. The Gerudo people followed Ganondorf and saw him as a hero of their people, then suddenly he was their worst enemy. Hyrule is a perfect kingdom that has strong, equal alliances with the other races, but also all of the non-Hylian races exist for the sole purpose of serving Hyrule, and their leaders are expected to swear eternal loyalty and submission to the Hylian royal family. King Rauru and Queen Sonia united all of the races in peace and equality, which is why they're sitting on the world's supply of magical nuclear missiles, and every member of the Hylian royal family is allowed to walk around wearing them as cute accessories, but everyone else only gets them at the last second, and they all need to outright swear to only use that power to benefit Rauru and his descendants.

There's just so many fucked up contradictions, and so many hints of something more nuanced going on... but the story refuses to acknowledge any of it, and just keeps aggressively pushing the narrative that Hyrule is the ultimate good and couldn't possibly do anything wrong. I don't even believe that Ganon was a bad king honestly; we never hear why his people stopped following him. We also never even see if the Gerudo people turned on him at all; all we know is the ancient Gerudo sage wanted him dead, and given that she also happily sold her people into slavery, she's not exactly the most trustworthy source of information. All we know is that Ganondorf was a hero to his people, only one of his citizens is ever shown having an issue with him (and her motives are never explained), and then he lost the war and was sealed away, leaving his people open to be conquered by Zelda and annexed into Hyrule. By the time we see any Gerudo actually opposing Ganon (apart from the ancient sage), it's been ten thousand years since the war, and all anyone knows is the Hylian version of the story.

[adelinamoteru]

its kinda crazy that yall will apply real world politics and situations to gotham when it comes to jason and his ‘vigilantism’, but never choose to take that angle when analyzing any other bat character’s

brother eye from batman? hello? does constant nonconsensual surveillance seem like an ethical way to keep an eye on supposed allies or stop crime in real life? does beating people up until they comply with u (under fucking duress) seem like the ethical way to produce testimonies and confessions?

but nah, one speech from jason in utrd and yall are up in arms about how nothing he’s saying is actually conducive to lowering crime rates.

at the end of the day, it doesn’t fucking matter who’s right and who’s wrong regarding these morals in real life because the dc universe is so fucking far from reality in the crime that the justice system has to deal with. there is no point in arguing a reality standpoint if its not going to be applied to vigilantism in the bat comics as a whole.

and on the topic of fiction, the willful ignorance as to how jason’s story also portrays a victims revenge/justice is just boring at this point. how are themes in a narrative not coming through to you. especially when doing literature analysis for any of these comics.

[helga-grinduil]

can someone please explain to me how afo reveal 'absolves' nana and kotarou? i mean, nothing about nana's actions and etc changed with this reveal. literally zero. she still chose to keep ofa with herself instead of passing it on. she still sacrificed her own happiness for the sake of others and hurt her son by doing what was right. it only confirmed that what she did was for nothing.

afo didn't manipulate kotarou to hate heroes and didn't suggest being strict with tenko, he only encouraged him ALREADY being strict with tenko. and lord, okay, you can argue that kotarou's trauma was the result of afo hunting down and killing ofa holders (nana included) and their families, but we knew that since, like, forever. why did this become a deal breaker only now???

why are we taking afo's words about tomura having no agency literally? what is this, 2019???

[ducksbeloved]

lol i wonder if lucy came up with the "high 5 heroes" party name

[starcats1219]

Surface Changes

Chapter 1

Masterpost - ao3 - next chapter

no warnings i can think of for the first chapter, so i hope you all enjoy!

From the outside, the building looked normal. An office building with a boring grey exterior that you could find in any city. If you didn't know the true purpose of the building, it would continue to look normal in the interior as well. An entranceway with a receptionist's desk and elevator, and floors and floors of cubicles and meeting rooms. Completely ordinary.

The contrary, however, could be said for those who knew the truth.

If you were one of the few trusted, you were given a passcode. Punch that into the elevator, and instead of travelling up to the office spaces, you would travel down, to the true purpose of the building.

The headquarters for The Sanders Society.

The underground headquarters is a mirror of the prop office. Offices and meeting rooms, with employees on computers and talking with one another. There's even a break room fully equipped with coffee and snacks. At first glance, everything would seem average, making one question why there was so much secrecy.

That is until you notice who is in this building. Besides humans, it's common to see aliens, ghosts and ghouls, fae, and all sorts of supernatural creatures. You see, that is the point of The Sanders Society. They deal with what governments don't want the general population to discover. All the supernatural sightings, kidnappings, and anything that could be pinned on "abductions", were investigated and stopped by the team.

Thomas Sanders was the head of the facility, and he accepted only the best for his select team. Field agents were required to pass extensive physical and psychological training, while medics needed to have the best medical training possible. Researchers specializing in the supernatural were valued as well, collecting information for those going into the field. While all members of the TSS were valued greatly, there were a few at the organization that Thomas secretly favoured.

Roman Prince, field agent. The man was known for his bravery and skill in combat. Always the first to jump into a battle, and the first to protect those he cared about. He joined the agency when his brother, Remus, went missing. Remus had apparently been interested in supernatural beings, so Roman joined both out of memory for his brother, and the slim chance that Remus was out there somewhere.

His partner, Logan Croft, field agent and part-time researcher. While his counterpart was known for his physical skills, Logan was known for his intelligence. The two contrasted each other nicely, though their partnership was rocky at first. Logan was considered one of the best, both at fieldwork and research. He had contributed to many projects and assignments and was highly respected at the agency.

Patton Hart, medic. The oldest of a large family, he had always been a caretaker. This carried into his career, where he topped his class in medical school, before being recruited to the TSS. He treats his coworkers like his children, telling dad jokes and giving out cookies.

The three of them were incredibly close, and it showed in their work. At the tops of their fields, they were able to help with whatever case was thrown their way.

All that was tested. One case. One mistake. And it nearly ripped them apart forever.

-

Logan sat at his desk, typing frantically on a computer. Roman had been pulled to assist another team's mission, leaving Logan to do the filing for their current case on his own. It hadn't been anything difficult, just assisting some mer-creatures after a storm. Patton had been able to come with the pair, which was always a treat, and the three worked quite well together, giving the creatures the care they needed. But, work like that required lots of paperwork to be done, and being from the medical faction of the agency, Patton had different paperwork to fill out, so Logan couldn't ask him for help either.

Logan glanced up from his computer to look around the office space, hoping Roman had returned. While he couldn't see his partner, he could see other teams filling out papers, filling up coffee mugs, and chatting about their weekends. Logan had been working at TSS for years, but he was always too much of an introvert to really get to know the other agents. Roman and Patton on the other hand, were social butterflies who loved making new friends, and coworkers were no exception.

While scanning the office, however, Logan did find a familiar face. Patton met his eye, before grinning happily. Logan could see the medic begin to maneuver his way through the agency members and towards where Logan was. Logan smiled back slightly at the other man once he reached his desk. Patton's energy was infectious, everyone was slightly more perky around him.

"Hey, Lo!" He exclaimed.

"Salutations, Patton. How have your reports been going?"

The man smiled brighter if that was even possible.

"Just finished, actually! It took forever, but at least they're done. What about you, kiddo?"

Logan grimaced slightly at the nickname but continued speaking.

"Still working on them, I'm afraid. It's taking much longer without Roman here."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you two are incredibly productive together." Patton winked suggestively.

"Who is teaching you these things?" Logan could feel himself groan.

Before the dad figure could respond, a secretary from one of the department heads interrupted.

"Very sorry to interrupt, Mr. Hart, but Mrs. Roth wants to see you in her office immediately.

Patton tried (not well) to hide a nervous gulp, before turning to Logan and giving a quick goodbye, before following after the secretary.

Logan frowned slightly as he watched his friend's retreating figure, before turning back to his computer. Whatever the department head wanted, Patton would tell him when he came back. But, these forms weren't going to finish themselves.

After completing the work required of him, Logan glanced up from his desk and saw Patton leaving the department head's office. He couldn't be sure, but Logan thought he saw tear tracks running down the medics' face, and he felt concern run through him, worried about his friend. What possibly could have happened to make Patton so upset? While the medic was much more emotionally inclined than Logan, he generally kept a professional air around him while at work, it was uncommon to see him express his emotions like this in a work setting. Something really bad must have happened, and Logan could feel dread pooling in his gut like a serpent.

As he got out of his seat to go check on his friend, Logan heard a commotion at the agency's entrance. He, as well as most of The Sanders Society’s staff, turned towards the front doors. He could see a small crowd of people maneuvering a single person to a chair, someone calling for a medic. Logan saw Patton rush past him, a few other medics joining him. Logan moved closer, curiosity pushing him to see what was wrong. He tried his best to stay out of their ways, but the moment he saw who was sitting in the chair with medics attending to them, that goal went straight out of his mind.

"Roman!"

His partner looked up at the shout, smiling slightly when he met Logan's panicked eyes.

"Hey, Specs."

The injured man spoke quietly, so much so that Logan had to move closer to even hear him. Up close, Logan could see the cloud of pain in Roman's eyes, that he was trying to hide away for the sake of his own pride.

"What happened?"

Roman grinned slightly, this time feeling more genuine.

"Mission didn't go quite as planned. When we were running from the banshee I tripped on a tree root. Team medic said it's some sort of fracture." Roman explained, wincing slightly in discomfort as a medic examined his leg.

Logan cringed at the injury. "I'm sorry, Roman, that sounds like it hurts. You've been given pain medication, correct?"

At Roman's nod, Logan looked and felt relieved. Roman would be okay. "Good. Go with medical, I will see you once you have a cast and any other necessities. Got it?"

Roman nodded, his face breaking into a large smile.

"You got it, calculator watch."

-

They ran along a darkened hallway, being dragged faster than they were able to keep up. They tripped over their feet, still weak from the experiments. They could feel their collar being jerked up, keeping them from dragging everyone else to the group with them. They arrived at their destination, getting a small moment of reprieve while the door was unlocked.

They were shoved back into the darkness of their cell, the barred door clanging shut. Their body ached down to their bones, with deep exhaustion that wouldn't go away with just a short nap. They collapsed to the ground, strength leaving them, before hearing a quiet voice from the cell next door.

"How bad was it this time?"

They mustered enough strength in their body to manage a short response.

"Bad. I can't- I can't-"

Another voice replied to their hushed conversation.

"Hey, breathe. It's not ideal, but we'll survive. We have to."

They nodded, knowing the other two couldn't see them. They slowly clamoured off the floor, a new strength rising up. The strength that came from the need to survive, the strength needed to endure truly horrible situations.

They knew they needed to escape. This place would kill them sooner or later, and they couldn't do that to the others, to the cellmates they called friends, to the family they hoped was still searching for them.

They wanted to do more than survive this place, they wanted to live away from it.

And with that thought, Virgil smiled.

[lilacs-stash]

I need more S2 final four shenanigans so I made some.

Redraw of the forever weed brownie comic by @punkitt-is-here :3

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Smell Check [Easy: Failure]

MDZS Disco Elysium AU part 1 (part 2 - part 3)

[khattikeri]

drives me nuts when people treat jin guangyao or wei wuxian like they're socialist revolutionaries like no! they're not!! in fact their respective roles in society and complacency regarding its hierarchies is why ANY of the story even happens to begin with!!!

jin guangyao doesn't hold bitterness just because he was born lower class. he is bitter because others deride him and his prostitute mother in spite of both their intelligence, skills, and efforts to climb the ladder.

why do you think we were shown scenes of other prostitutes in the brothel deriding meng shi for being literate, for "trying" so hard? why do you think we were shown scenes of anxin taunting meng yao and throwing shit at him because he was trying to learn cultivation at his mother's behest?

why do you think jin guangyao arranged for the arson of that brothel, burned to the ground with everyone except sisi inside? that's not the behavior of someone who believes in true equality and the inherent worth of sex workers as human beings!

that's the behavior of someone who thinks he's better than them. the behavior of a man who already came up on top through political games and war crimes, backstabbing and spying for the sake of the "greater good".

i won't rehash his argument to nie mingjue that he didn't have a choice-- he had some choice, but no matter what he does his class will come up and people will always assume the worst and try to hurt him for it, which forces his hand to do whatever will protect him best (hence 'no choice').

jin guangyao did everything he could to secure his own safety and a place among those already higher up. and by that point, he'd won it.

the fact that the temple rebuilt on the brothel site is to guanyin, the goddess of mercy, is even more ironic! the fact that jin guangyao has the goddess's statue carved to look like his own mother is proof that he viewed both her and himself as higher than them. more worthy than them.

of course he cared about the general welfare of others (read: the watchtowers). but consider also that there is no watchtower near yi city, which ended up being one of xue yang's playgrounds. jin guangyao can and will turn a blind eye to certain sufferings if it is convenient to him.

sure, jin guangyao made undeniable contributions to cultivation society and accessibility, but he is not at any point trying to topple existing class structures. his adherence to them is in fact integral to his own downfall in the end.

it brings with it the inevitability of society conveniently ignoring his triumphs and genuine moments of humanity to deride him once more as an evil, disgusting son of a whore once his crimes come to light.

now for wei wuxian. he's the righteous protagonist of the story and he doesn't give a fuck what society thinks, yes, but he wasn't out there trying to cause an uprising so that all the poor servant classes and lower could become cultivators. he wasn't trying to redistribute wealth or insinuate that those who are lower deserve to be viewed as equal to the gentry.

the most critical and non-explicitly stated fact of mo dao zu shi is that wei wuxian has always been resigned to his position in the social hierarchy.

his unreliable narration, especially regarding his own past and thoughts, is so damn important. he doesn't EVER tell the reader directly that people treated him any which way at their leisure because of his parents' differing social classes.

no. instead we are shown how much prestige he is afforded as cangse-sanren's son-- reputation as a talented and charming young cultivator, made head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang-- and how little respect he is given in the same breath, as the son of servant wei changze.

the way he is treated by others is as fickle as the wind. if he obeys and does as told, there is no reward. of course he did that, that was the expectation to start with! if he does anything even slightly inconvenient, there is a punishment. of course he has no manners, what else would you expect from an ungrateful son of a servant?

wei wuxian's righteousness is not a matter of adhering to principles he was explicitly taught, the way nie mingjue values honor or the way jiang cheng always tries to prove himself. wei wuxian does the right thing regardless of what the consequences are to him because his good deeds are always downplayed and his bad deeds are always singled out, no matter who or how many people were doing it with him.

he has faced this double standard since childhood. there are points in the novel where it's clear that this sticks out to wei wuxian, but does he ever fight back against that view of himself? does he EVER, at any point in the story, explain his actions and choices to jianghu society and try to debate or appeal to their sense of reason?

no. because he knows, at his very core, that any explicit deviation from their interests whatsoever will be punished.

slaughtering thousands of people is fine when they want him to do it, and when the alternative is unjust torture, re-education camps, and encroachment upon other sects' lands.

slaughtering thousands of people who are trying to paint him as evil for not going along with their genocidal plans, however, is punished.

wei wuxian knows his acceptance among the higher classes is superficial and unsteady. from the age of 10, when jiang fengmian took him in, he knew subconsciously that he could be kicked out at any time.

he knows that cultivation society doesn't care about war crimes and concentration camps and mistreatment of the remaining wen survivors of the sunshot campaign. but the right thing to do now that they aren't at wartime is to help them, plus they'd punish him either way for it, so he will.

in this regard wei wuxian is more self-aware of his position than jin guangyao. he does care about common people and he does try his best to help them as an individual. even if that ends up with him disabled, arrested, targeted in sieges, or dead.

but is he revolutionary? in the full equality, fight the establishment, rewrite laws, change social structures and people's perceptions of class sense?

no. no. he isn't.

now my knowledge of chinese society and history is fairly limited to my hindu diaspora upbringing and our shared cultural similarities ... but speaking to what i absolutely know us true, adherence to one's social class is expected.

this is rigid. efforts and merits might bring you some level of mobility, but in the end, the circumstances of your birth will always be scrutinized first, and your behavior compared to the stereotypes of where and how you originate.

mdzs is not about revolution, and none of its characters are able to truly change its society. there is no grand "maybe cutsleeves aren't inherently bad" or "i'm sorry for persecuting you and believing hearsay, you were truly a good person all along!" at the finale.

people ignore history and repeat it again with the next batch of ugly gossip and rumors.

wei wuxian, lan wangji, and luo qingyang find peace only by distancing themselves from cultivation society and its opinions.

jin guangyao and wei wuxian both cannot ever escape from others' perception of their origins and actions. regardless of their personal beliefs, they are not revolutionaries.

[fromtheseventhhell]

I also find it funny that fandom will only accept Lyanna being her non-conforming, wild self in the context of saying that Arya isn't meant to be pretty; Any other day we get back-to-back posts about how Lyanna is actually super traditionally feminine cause she sniffled at a song once, so she's actually more like Sansa. Instead of constantly speaking on Arya and Lyanna, how about you guys reflect on why your standards of beauty for women are attached to how well they perform feminity within the patriarchy?

[shrimp-propaganda]

"change your filter cartridge every 3 months" is a lie made up by Big Filter to sell more filters. i haven't changed mine in ten years and whatever's living in there is like my family now