#absorb any power it's all just a result of them fucking and then the power absorbed gets reflected right BACK at adam

[kassiekole22]

My Thoughts On The MK1 Story Mode

Ok! So I wanted to wait to post my thoughts on the game until after it released, so now that it is, I'm gonna spill my thoughts on all the characters!

Starting with the Earthrealmers!

Liu Kang: I LOVE his new design and I love him as a God even more than I expected! Also, him and Kitana reuniting?! AHHHHHHHHH!!! I legit had tears in my eyes when they kissed! It was such a bittersweet moment and I hope we get more of them together in the future. I'm so happy that he got his power as titan back because it just seems more right. Giving it up seemed kinda wrong. So I'm hoping it stays like that.

Raiden: He's SUCH a sweetheart and I adore him! I was surprised that Kung Lao wasn't his champion but I guess it's understandable, since he still seems in over his head. 😂 But I am very happy that he got to be champion instead. And I was SO surprised to see the old Raiden model make a return as well! I'm glad they didn't change him because that would've made no sense. 😅

Kung Lao: Ah, what can I say about good ol' Kung Lao? I honestly loved him a lot more in this game than any of the others. He seemed to have a lot more comedy moments in this one, which I really loved. I literally almost died laughing when he burped in front of General Shao and Reiko and disgusted them. 🤣

Johnny: Funny? Check! Smart ass? Check! Self-absorbed? Check! Literally the same Johnny as before and I love that! I loved his friendship development with Kenshi and it was truly something I never knew I needed. And also, him filming with his phone 90% of the time was so fucking funny and him somehow owning Cassie's drone was oddly heartwarming. 🩷

Kenshi: I knew Mileena was going to blind him in that scene! I was so sad that it happened again, despite expecting it. When he asked Baraka to tell him about his life to take his mind off of the pain, my heart broke for him. 🥺 But him discovering Sento has powers to help him was so cool to watch! I really love how they did his story in this game. And again, he and Johnny were a duo I never knew I needed.

Sub-Zero: I don't know whether I love this guy or hate him! 🤣 Honestly, his grumpy attitude makes me want to bug the shit out of him and piss him off more. 😂 And I'm not sure if he ever smiles. But it is so interesting to see Bi-Han as Sub-Zero again and I am quite happy with the results. That doesn't mean I forgive him for what he did though. 😑

Scorpion: When I heard that Bi-Han was Sub-Zero, I was worried that Kuai Laing wouldn't be coming back. So I'm happy to see him back again. But I still don't know how I feel about him replacing Hanzo. Honestly, Hanzo will always be Scorpion to me. I was upset to see that he lived a hard life on the streets before Smoke found him. At least if Hanzo wasn't Scorpion anymore, give him a good and happy life. 🥺 But I feel like Kuai Laing should be his own character. Maybe I'll whip up a name and design for him later. And also, Kuai Laing is married to Harumi?! What the fuck?!

Smoke: I did not expect him to be as sweet as he is! Like, what?! He had been through so much it makes my heart hurt! And the way Bi-Han treated him made me so sad! I'm glad that he at least has Kuai Laing to be a big brother figure to him still. Because after all, where there's smoke, there's fire. 🧡🩶

Syzoth: What a fucking cinnamon roll! Seriously! I was PRAYING he would be a good guy and not some villan's henchman again and I got exactly what I wanted and more! I already knew about his family being captured, but I had no idea it was his wife and son! He is literally this timeline's Scorpion and it breaks my heart! 🥺 At least he had a better outcome though. I hope we get to see more of him like this in the future. Also, I knew him and Baraka would be friends but I had no clue they had so much in common! Another duo I never knew I needed!

Baraka: I never thought I'd actually like Baraka, let alone feel so sorry for him! Tarkatans are diseased people? Seriously?! What the FUCK, Liu Kang?! 😭 I'd still bet money on that man who attacks Shang Tsung in the beginning being Baraka. It just all adds up. Shang mentioned his potion being able to treat tarkat and then he shows up, amgry that he lied about it being able to cure his daughter? Ok, TOTALLY him! But maybe he can help Syzoth through his grief of his dead wife and son and they can tackle Shang Tsung together once Mileena doesn't need him anymore?

Ashrah: She is literally such an angel! Fun fact about me: I used to be an Ashrah main when I would play Armageddon when I was a kid. 🤭 I hated her new design at first but now I love it! And that easter egg about her hat was perfect! 😂 Also, I didn't expect to like her personality nearly as much as she did. I mean, when Johnny told her that she is welcome to join them in Earthrealm and she said "I've never had a home. That would be wonderful." my heart literally fucking melted! 🥺💖

Sindel: We FINALLY get good Sindel back and they take her away?! WHY?! 😭 Was I the only one who actually cried when she died? Like, they made her so likable in this game. *Sighs* They giveth and taketh away. 🙄

Mileena: I am SO happy that they kept her as a good character and that she isn't always Tarkatan! I wasn't sure how I'd like her being Outworld's empress because I thought for sure she would be evil, so seeing that she was actually kind and not a blood thirsty monster made me super happy! Also, I've been waiting YEARS to see her and Kitana have an actual sisterly bond and it finally happened! Couldn't be happier with her in this game. 💖 Also, her being so fascinated by Johnny's drone was so fucking adorable. 😂

Kitana: This was probably my most favorite Kitana yet! I was shocked that she wasn't made Empress but I actually like her as Mileena's #1 supporter and protector. And she's in charge of Outworld's armies? BADASS!!! And her reaction to Johnny being shocked by her age was so cute. Wait a minute... Who's sick idea was it to sit Kitanna beside Johnny anyway?! 🤨😑

Li Mei: I LOVE this Li Mei! Seriously, couldn't have done her better! Her design is perfect, her story was very good and she did so well to redeem herself. I never would have guessed that her and Sindel were close friends. But I love that! Now if only Sindel didn't die and we got more of that friendship— 😒

Tanya: Her relationship with Mileena was so cute and God, I need more of it! 😫 Also, I really misjudged her. I thought for SURE she would be a villain!

Rain: I don't have too much to say about him other than I liked his design and I seen him being a villain coming. 😅

Reiko: Pretty cool design and I actually liked him more than I thought I would. I'd like to learn more of his story in future games as well. (Also, Syzoth randomly mocking him in the intro dialogues was too fucking funny! 🤣)

General Shao: No words other than he is a dick and I can't take him seriously after that edited picture of him wearing makeup I seen on Reddit. 🤣

Nitara: What the fuck was that?!?! I mean, her design was ok. (Except for that cone-head hairdo. 😂) But Megan Fox did fucking AWFUL voicing her! I was so shocked because Megan is an actress and from what I've heard about her, she does pretty well. But I literally couldn't focus on any scenes with her in them because of how bad she was. How could they do our girl dirty like this?! 😭

Havik: Pretty cool but he makes me squeamish. I don't know why. 😆

Shang Tsung: I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! GO DIE! 🤬🤬🤬 It's crazy because I've always kinda liked Shang Tsung because he was always such a good villain but after that whole Syzoth thing, I despise the bastard. 😂 But I can't believe Shang from the old timeline disguised himself as Kronika to fuck over himself in Liu's timline! 🤣 Also, the new deadly alliance?! Let's gooooooooo! I LOVE all the old game references, especially the Armageddon one!

Quan Chi: I LOVE his new design! His eyes were so creepy and unsettling which was perfect! It's weird because even though I knew he was in the DLC pack, I didn't expect him to be actually IN the game. 😂 Probably, my most favorite Quan Chi so far.

Ermac: JARROD TOOK CONTROL OF HIM?!?! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?! God, when he got reunited with Sindel and the girls, I almost cried! That was such a beautiful reunion! 🥺 And Sindel is now a part of him too? This is crazy!

Geras: I'm glad he is on the good side. They kind of made him seem a bit against Liu Kang in the trailer for him so I was worried. But I love this upgrade, both appearance and personality wise. He seems like a kind soul. 😌

Honorable mentions: Madam Bo! What an absolute badass! I'm PRAYING for her to be a playable character in the future! 🙏🏻 Also, the alternate timeline characters?! That was SICK! And some of them were SO funny too! I mean Klockodle? Stung Lao? John Kahner? Janet Cage? THAT FUCKING SONYA/KANO ABOMINATION!!! 😭🤣 And I'm also declaring that since there are many alternate timelines, everybody's fanfics are canon! 😤

Anyway, yeah, we have waited years for this game—four, if I'm correct—and honestly, it was worth the wait. I can't wait to actually play it! 😌💖

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

A Quick Look at Logos

I wanted to write this down to get my thoughts on paper because, yes, Wish'adel is insane but she's the Chalter of Flingers she's got crazy numbers but Logos is a lot more interesting because what he does is more unique and honestly I think he fulfilled my prophecy a while back: they're inevitably going to power creep Eyja, and I think they did it.

First, module and talent. Logos has the same Delta module as Ebenholz, meaning he does Necrosis damage, and it improves his first talent. His first talent gives him a decent chance to attack another random target when attacking for less damage (importantly, this can be on the same target) with some slight crowd control and if they're under necrosis burst, it deals additional Elemental damage.

This talent is pretty good but not exactly stellar in most situations, and amazing in others. If you're fighting a group of enemies, chances are this will just results in some decent spread damage, but against one enemy this is big fat free DPS increase that makes Logos a lot scarier.

His second talent is a small flat RES reduction and a small flat Arts damage increase, which helps Logos a lot. Logos will always deal okay damage against most enemies.

Logos' Skill 1 is crazy. If you've ever used the Besieger Relic in IS4 and watched Typhon show off why she's IS4's incredibly special girl, this is Logos being Hypergryph's incredibly special boy. The instakill threshold for a maxed out Logos is 2,565 HP. That's pretty respectable on its own and puts a wide swath of enemies both in "instantly dies when entering attack range" and "will die upon taking any reasonable amount of damage", but remember, that's without buffs. If you use Skadi the Corrupting Heart's and Warfarin's S2 on Logos, that HP threshold jumps to 4,155.

Since the remaining HP is deal as damage to another enemy, it is VERY easy for large groups to suddenly have massive chain reactions where enemies instantly die, deal damage to another enemy, and that enemy also instantly dies. This skill is great, it's one of the most efficient skills at clearing out large groups of trash.

Logos' Skill 2 is deceptively powerful and his strongest boss killer kill on his kit. Due to the scaling damage increase and the insane attack speed triggering his first talent repeatedly, this skill ends up having a really high DPS that's all extremely compatible with attack buffs and Inspiration. It also gives Logos 90 RES, which essentially gives him 16,000 HP against Arts damage, and has good skill cycling time. I wanna see Logos and Mandragora trade beams.

Oh yeah this is also great for piling on Necrosis damage btw.

I want to say this is the kind of flashy S3 that won't really see use over his other skills, but it's really hard to argue with a skill that, at base, gives him 3,420 ATK and lets him hit 3 enemies at once. The primary gimmick of this skill is stopping and absorbing enemy projectiles, and I think this does probably have more uses than the funny showcases against Talulah, but this is just a good skill for having an on-demand mini Volcano.

There's a pretty reasonable chance this might be Logos's best skill in IS too, just because a skill that reads "quadruple your ATK" goes insane with literally any additional stage ATK buffs. Survivor Contract in IS3 already let's you do insane shit, and I genuinely wonder if getting to 6 digits worth of ATK is possible with Logos.

There's something to be said that Eyja's S2 is still really good, and I don't necessarily want to disagree. But I think what Logos brings to the table is both very powerful and very unique, and I think players are going to find that they edge much more into bringing Logos into squads than they do Eyja.

I mean you can also use them both, the cops can't fucking stop you.

[numbfandom]

Kinda rant/analysis of Chetney and Ashton in ep 78:

So, Chetney wants Ashton to leave. That makes sense. Ashton fucked up majorly.

But Chetney’s reasoning is about selfishness— but not just that. He tells Ashton that they could’ve hurt Fearne.

And Chetney says that he would have left if he couldn’t control his lycanthropy… which isn’t entirely true. Chetney has hurt members of the Hells before. He’s hurt FRIDA (if that counts), and he’s hurt Orym. He doesn’t have full control over himself.

Like FCG. Like Laudna. Like anyone in the Hells, if you go through each case. Chetney has never told any of them to leave, because they all struggle with controlling themselves.

Chetney thinks Ashton absorbed the shard to gain power for his own benefit, which is true, but it isn’t the only reason. But not only was it a breach of trust, it disregarded Fearne (in Chetney’s eyes), who he is arguably the closest with.

In my opinion, Chetney’s blatant annoyance toward Ashton is just a reflection of his defensive tendencies. He’s experienced a lot, and he genuinely appreciates the Hells, and he sees Ashton as a threat that could dismantle the group, but he ignores the fact that each of them has their own struggle with control, which could result in catastrophe if they keep ignoring it.

[blujayonthewing]

17, 28, 31 and 32, for Melliywk!

17. how did they spend their summers/free time as a child?

In general, gnomish childhood is for exploration and trying new things, so a little bit of all kinds of things! But, in particular, she got into tinkering really young-- one time as a little little kid she woke up early and borrowed her dad's alarm clock to take apart; it made him late for work, but it also resulted in Mel getting her very own alarm clock, as well as her own beginner toolset and strict instructions to please ask for her own things to muck about with, lol. Her mom's the handyman of the house, so she learned a lot about various hand tools and basic repair tasks from her, and she was definitely doing rube goldberg setups and Sid Toystory type shit in her room all the time. She also has a lot of really fond memories of going out on bug collecting daytrips with her dad!

28. how do they show that they care about someone? how do they express that they don't like someone?

Melliwyk does a lot of teasing and playful banter; she's a little bit just like that in conversation in general, but for example she (lovingly) picks on Zhartook a lot, lol. She tends to be kind of self-absorbed-- not in an egoistic way but just, you know, wrapped up in her work and not really thinking about other people, so she's not always proactively caring towards others, but if she can get outside her own bubble at all once in awhile she can be surprisingly thoughtful. One of her main love languages is acts of service-- she's always delighted to put down whatever she's doing to help others when asked, and does a fair number of projects just on the basis of 'might be nice/ useful for [friend]'.

On the other hand, she's not subtle about disliking others, or even being temporarily mad at them, lol. She can be kind of a petty little shit, frankly-- biting sarcasm and cold shoulders. At the very least, she's not as warm and friendly as usual, and certainly not playful. She's had sort of a... precarious falling out with our bard that I frankly don't wanna get into but the point is it kind of doesn't feel safe for her to be obvious about her dislike for him :') But she's just sort of withdrawn from interacting with him more than she needs to, and maintains a baseline politeness at most, neither of which is too hard to manage when she can tend to be kind of a recluse anyway.

31. do they like receiving gifts? giving gifts? what is their ideal gift?

Gift giving is her other biggest love language! She loves making things, much more than she cares about having things, so she really likes making stuff for her friends, whether it's something she thinks would be useful for them or just something she thinks they might like or appreciate. She's also (usually) happy, if not excited, to get magic items into the hands of whomever in the party would make the best use of them, or to loan out hers if she's not willing to give them up permanently (like the cloak of elvenkind, which was a gift, or the ring of the depths, which has shockingly powerful magic in it for a novelty item [at-will shapechange, but only into very low level sea animals] and is an artifact of an ancient artificer she admires; she's even offered to let our fighter borrow the enchanted nightcap she literally never takes off because of chronic nightmares, if she thought it might prevent nasty people casting Dream on her to fuck with her).

She also does absolutely like receiving gifts! On the receiving end she's very much an 'it's the thought that counts' person-- any gift that the person clearly meant sincerely is going to make her happy and be greatly valued, whether it's something really thoughtful and personal or just a gag gift they thought she'd think was funny. It'd be hard to nail down a specific 'ideal gift' for her, but obviously any magic item would be top tier.

32. do they have any habits that aren't particularly self-destructive, just maybe odd?

I don't roleplay this as much as I'd like because it'd be kind of disruptive over video calls as opposed to in person, but she talks to herself a lot, in the form of thinking out loud. She was a hermit for a really long time, and kind of a loner even among others for awhile before that, so she's quite strongly in the habit of rubber-ducking to Baxter, even when he's not actually around. When they first started traveling together I imagine there was a significant adjustment period where she'd start talking conversationally through some problem, Zhartook would answer (likely in confusion), and she'd be startled and maybe a little annoyed because she's not talking to him and also not expecting any kind of response at all aside from maybe encouraging 'hmm's now and then, lol. She also talked to her house's ghost a lot, despite not believing he actually existed; 'Now cut that out' when the wind was noisy in the chimney or 'I'll be back soon, don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone' when she had to go into town, etc.

ask about my OCs :3

[benjaminbadger]

I'm sorry gay people in my phone but the new Doctor Who has thoroughly fucking confused me and was kind of a letdown

Thoughts under cut

I thought they were gonna genuinely do something with the story and aliens being extremely generic? Like. The Doctor regenerates back into their 10th form, coincidentally near Donna Noble, coincidentally while a plot's going on that feels like a self parody of Dr Who as a show. Tiny overly cutesy alien, gets found by and connects with teen who hides it from family, getting hunted down by big scary alien army, scenes like the plushie hiding thing that feel pulled straight out of a generic 80s scifi family film??

The Meep being evil was obviously gonna happen but I assumed there would be a second twist to it? Like, maybe they were both an elaborate set up bc some larger entity wanted 10 and Donna together. I thought bc it was the anniversary they were going the meta approach by making a threat that basically encapsulates the exact set up you imagine when you think about the show, mashing all the tropes together into one adventure made especially to encourage Donna and 10 back into the old days. Even the end with an oops silly mistake resulting in them being stuck together in the Tardis.

BUT THEN. THEY PLAYED IT COMPLETELY STRAIGHT?? AND THE EPISODE JUST ENDS?? NOT EVEN ANY CHARACTER ACKNOWLEDGING HOW WEIRD THIS WHOLE SITUATION WAS???? JUST COMPLETELY ACTING NORMAL. EVEN THE DOCTOR

I'm seriously hoping that this is explained later on as a setup for somethig larger, and that in later rewatches it'll be way more satisfying. But rn I'm confused as hell and disappointed, and if the show wasn't so important to my childhood I proly wouldn't wanna watch further. If it is all setup then... I don't want an exclusively setup episode. That's lame. At the very least if you ARE going that direction foreshadow it better

Some minor things I'm nitpicking also

- I know Doctor Who isn't meant to be that serious but come on the intro of David Tennant just greenscreened standing in space explaining the setup was so goofy it made me howl (and I don't think that was intentional)

- I love an important trans character, that's based as hell, but the trying to act relevant and appeal to Gen Z was kind of annoying. Not as in "Grrr my old show is woke 😡" I'm literally one of the wokes. As in "Haha women are so much cooler and smarter than men 😏 Doctor assuming pronouns 😳 Binary Nonbinary 😁😁" "🦡 Wow that's not very funny and a little irritating, it feels like a cistraight guy wrote this". It was a funny episode and some bits of this were funny but certainly not others

- For real tho I'm obsessed w "Binary Nonbinary" that's so fucking stupid

- For all the set up and stakes put on Donna remembering the Doctor, the way it resolved felt like a copout. Passing down and sharing the power was fine but literally just going "Nuh uh" and sending it away?? I really feel like that diminishes how importantly the time lord power was set up just for the sake of Donna being alive for more episodes. If they need her they could've at least let the two deal with it together for a while, before finding a better way to get rid of it down the line

- ^ It also made Donna's death have less impact for the problem to be solved in such an easy way. Her dying was emotional, was well executed, until it wasn't and she was fine and she was back having fun doctor times and woo!! everything to do with her absorbing that power and losing her memory is done and dusted and doesn't need further exploring 😁😁👍👍 I mean come on man..... give us something............

TLDR special was very fun but I expected it to do something interesting and subversive and it ended up playing the parody of itself completely straight. I'm hoping as more stuff comes out the showrunners are proven to be complete masterminds who purposefully made it like that and I'm gonna look like a bumbling idiot

[dangermousie]

Of course Ming Ye’s plan to save Sang Jiu involves gruesomely dying in her stead. If aesthetically suffering was an Olympic sport, the man would be going for a gold medal.

I have my issues with this portion of the story (not the way it’s written, it’s done well, but with my liking or lack thereof for this couple, about which more below) but this is the important point! Yes, the tears are important blah blah but this is a lesson about how to swap someone’s demonic stuff without, you know, driving nails into them like they are evil Jesus. 

By now, I am quite done with these two boneheads, but I confess that made even my cold black shriveled heart hurt.

(I guess they had a starter marriage :P)

Ummmm, honey! She just massacred 10K people! I am sure they had old and kids among them. Like...by now I want to smack both of them with a shovel, tbh.

Awwww. Even with my annoyance at these two, this once again made me :(

Sang Jiu being her charming self. Let the man die in peace (or, since you yourself are about to keel over), let him survive in peace. 

OK, OK, Mousie, stop being irritated and concentrate on how pretty LYX looks here.

And then she’s all “psych! I can’t be undevilized or even survive because my normal body is dead.” You couldn’t have let him know BEFORE he got repeatedly flambeed for you?

It’s OK, hot dimbulb, there are many many fangirls who will gladly accept your...ahem...divine essence. All night long.

What the hell! Now that she’s dying, she still wants to do her best so he’d not have any peace. No dissipating before a final twist of the knife. WTF! By now, any shred of sympathy I had for her (and to a large degree MY) has disappeared utterly. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s bad writing - just as MY is terrible at communicating and prone to dramatic gestures over common sense functioning, Sang Jiu is incredibly self-absorbed and immature from beginning to end. She was someone who thought it was a great idea to marry a guy who did not know her at all because he was hot. She also thought it was a great idea to force him into sex right after they got divorced. She didn’t wait to find out whether the method she came up with would result in divine punishment or whether it was still worth it to use the crystal chalice despite where it came from or or or or or really anything. It’s just before she went powerful and evil, Ming Ye and the viewer could ignore the red flags (which got redder and redder; I mean much as fictional dubcon in 14 was hot, it WAS 100% dubcon/sexual assault; no nice sweet good selfless well-adjusted person does that) but once she got power into her hands and trauma really shoved her further, it became really clear. It’s kind of like Tantai Jin. If he has no status and no power, does it matter in terms of its effect on the world if he would love revenge or is cold or has trauma or w/e? No, of course not because whether he’s a well-adjusted sweetheart or dysfunctional psycho, he has no power to carry out anything, whether it’s to open a puppy shelter or to carry out a wholesale slaughter. But once he gets power, his traumas and quirks become everyone else’s concern and one must deal with them somehow because he makes it everyone’s business. Same here.

What. The. Fuck. That is not romantic, this is UGH. Honestly, I am glad MY and SJ found each other because they should not inflict themselves on other partners. It’s kind of amazing that I started out liking them and by now I am all “thanks divine lightning, hurry it up with your barbeque.” 

He ultimately does not but by then I stopped caring. I am so so so happy we are back to our headcases Tantai Jin and Susu.

The thing is - my ranting does not mean I did not enjoy this portion of the story (unlike in the novel where I skimmed it since I dngaf about it at all.) The acting is great, the visuals are nuts, and the characters, including MY and SJ are completely internally consistent and their actions make total sense for what and who they are - their arcs are logical. I strongly dislike both of them by the end, but that does not mean it was not a well-done story.

[rjmhereunderprotest]

The Polly/Oz Shipping Post for Personal Mental Well-Being

It's been one of those past couple days, and frankly I'm in need of a break from... well a lot of thoughts. I've not been absorbing some stuff well. I'd normally slip into Gwenpool stuff, but at the moment that's kinda being a mental drain. So, I need to focus on something positive and happy and anything that makes me smile and- oh look Polly and Oz of Monster Prom!

For something that is not technically canon in any respect, because Monster Prom's canon is whatever the hell you want it to be relationship wise, Polly and Oz have always spoke to me as the S-Tier Romance of the game. Sure, many people ship Oz with Damien and Polly is... well I'm not sure who is preferred. I've noticed at least one person goes REALLY hard for Polly and Vicky. Regardless both and all Monster Prom ships, regardless of popularity are equally valid. This isn't a definitive statement about canon because right now canon isn't always the answer for me. Even though a lot of Monster Prom's promotional material likes to show Polly teasing Oz in an overtly flirty manner, that isn't a definitive statement about the creator's preferences. They've had Oz decide to date Zoe in a Monster Road Trip trailer, it means nothing. (Although Zoe is fricking awesome and is my second romance choice behind Polly) What matters most in Monster Prom, at least to me, is emotional connection and compatibility. I think it's the same for, well, frankly a lot of ships.

So this is a bit of Fandom Mentality self-care where I talk about why I've written in my mind that Polly and Oz make the most sense for romantic partners. Because I love them a lot and I find them cute and I think it just makes sense. So... let's start.

So, Oz... why do I main Oz so much is probably the real question I should be asking myself? Maybe because they fit the most with me and my high school experience. Oz is an extreme introverted, nervous social outcast. Everything about his dialogue and actions we can see him doing in the game suggests he is a mega nerd, a good student and, quite frankly, at the bottom of the Spooky High totem pole. Like I was.

I'm not a Vicky who was bold and outgoing, I'm not a Brian who was aloof and tried to coast, I'm certainly not Amira, the fiery bad girl. No, I was Oz, perpetually afraid of high school even as I took the work seriously but constantly wanted to get out of there because it was a fucking pressure cooker!

The difference between me and Oz is obvious, THEY are some kind of amorphous shadow creature who, apparently, is the embodiment of fear. He's probably older than even Liam. He's quite possibly super powerful. And his little imaginary friends who he uses to try to cope are real, they're those little phobias who pop up around him and do cute things. And yet, they choose to be THIS, they choose to be this scared high schooler who is insular, lonely looking and desperate for love/affection. At the very least he seems to WANT acceptance. Like most of the super thirsty monsters among the main characters of the game. I identified with that a lot. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, he's clearly lonely and probably not always in the best place mentally as he tries to navigate a high school that he probably doesn't need to be in. Honestly, none of the monsters need to be there though, I mean... they don't exactly LEARN anything there as far as I can tell. I'm not even sure if they have a full staff of teachers or if most of them are just jokes.

So I've always just seen Oz as my closest facsimile to my High School experience, at least in terms of how it felt, terrified of everything and wondering if I even belonged there. So while I like the other characters, Vicky and Brian especially, I always felt more connected to Oz as a result. I know this sounds like "He/They are Literally Me FR", but it's more... I just can more easily place myself into Oz's headspace and emotionally connect with him to a degree. I don't think I'd make all the choices he does, but I can certainly understand him the most out of all the characters in the cast.

When the eventual Monster Prom Reverse is released, I fully expect Oz's character will be better fleshed out. If he hasn't been already in those Monster Road Trip sequences where he can be a hitchhike passenger. This is mostly just my interpretation based on what I've seen. This is the unique thing about Monster Prom shipping when it involves anything with the MCs. A lot of it is speculation and, a little if not a lot, of self-insertion. So it's best to always keep that in mind. This is a dating sim after all, fantasy wish fulfillment is inevitable, it's something even the game criticizes about itself a lot. That a lot of this is very silly and stupid and unrealistic in terms of actually setting up a real relationship with someone, especially a romantic one. It's why it usually doesn't take itself too seriously. Which is epitomized by, who else...

Polly Geist, the ghost party girl who I'd call the face of Monster Prom if I didn't think Damian could arguably be just as much at this point, at least Tumblr wise. Polly is still super popular though and its easy to see why. She funny, fun, cool, extremely sex positive, her outlook is very progressive, lighthearted and she is herself... sexy as hell. She's just a really fun character and it's hard not to enjoy any of her scenes on their own.

Whether she's pulling pranks with Scott, (Well, mostly leading Scott into pulling pranks because the dude is too stupid and nice to know how to do them) starting food fights by flashing people, causing general mayhem in the pursuit of advancing the science of partying or scamming you into performing a nonsensical sex act, Polly is highlight of Monster Prom. Even when she's too drunk to know what's going on, or high, or drunk and high, Polly is the afterlife of the party... which goes on forever from her perspective because she's dead. And yet despite that she is the love interest in Monster Prom who loves life the most and refuses to not spend it to its fullest. You have to admire that level of extroverted joy.

But Polly is not a superficial party girl, she might be dead and therefore removed from all consequences of her lifestyle, but she isn't a shallow sex obsessed ghost. She has actual depth, probably the most out of the other main love interests, barring maybe Vera, but that's mostly because of her sisterhood with Valerie gives her some much needed motivation beyond just being an evil criminal mastermind/capitalist. (Although I imagine a few people would say there's little difference between the two professions) Polly's depth is ALL hers. Because this is the thing... Polly's Forever 22, Stupid and Partying attitude? It's a front.

Oh she doesn't actually HATE partying, sex or drugs. She loves and is ALL about that. That's as much who she is as anything, but she plays up the idea that she's an idiot... when she's far from anything. Polly is actually an accomplished MASTER Chess player, a highly advanced gaming skill level that requires a lot of forward thinking and strategizing. She really good at Chemistry, mostly because it enables to make her own drugs, but Chemistry is a highly analytical field involving math, problem solving and attention to detail. Her favorite field of study though is literature, Classic Russian Literature in the vein of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. This is reflected in one of the Pre-Game Skill Boost choices, where the FUN option (Which is Polly personified) involves making a movie that has several of the most famous Russian Novelists going off on a Hangover-style adventure.

The point is, Polly isn't an idiot. She's actually highly intelligent... so why does she act like a fool? Because... she wants to. She wants to spend her afterlife how she most desires. That doesn't preclude her other interests of course, she still loves chess, chemistry and "War & Peace", but she's capable of more than just those nerdy pursuits. She pushes herself to remain highly socially, outgoing, never allowing her love of life to dim even in death. And she just doesn't want to advertise, I think, her more intellectual pursuits. Likely because she doesn't want to appear above all of that, as better than the people she cares about, because she does care about people.

Scott is probably her best friend, as a Fellow Prank Masterz (With a Z). And Scott IS an idiot, like a complete idiot. Look up the word Himbo in the dictionary and you find his face. He might be a lovable genuinely nice werewolf jock... but he is very clearly a dumbass. But Polly will spend time with him, why? Because she's enjoys his company, she enjoys being with him and pulling pranks. She never considers being more intelligent than him as something to lord over Scott. She might easily lead him into some situations, but she never wants to make him feel inferior to her.

And that attitude extends to other people, like Kale. You might know him as the plant guy, as well as the Asexual/Aromantic character of the game. He has no interest in sex or romance... but Polly hangs out with him and smokes weed with him anyway. When your character tries to seduce Kale (albeit you do not know he is an ace at the time) Polly is irate with you for making shit weird. It's very clear Polly understands and respects personal boundaries. She'll tease people, try to make them come out of their shells, open up, live a little... but if she knows that someone is not interested she won't push things. Kale is a friend and despite being a flirty party girl, she does not do anything to jeopardize that with him.

There's a lot I could on with about Polly honestly, her friends with benefits relationship with Faith of the Coven, her sunny friendship with the cold Vera, her seemingly really good organizational skills for setting up an Orgy... but at some point I'd just be arguing that Polly is best girl and that's not why we're here. I'd just wanted to lay this all out so we better understood who Polly is.

So why with Oz? I'd be lying if there wasn't some sort of wish fulfillment element to it. Like I said, a lot of dating sims fall into this category and Monster Prom doesn't pretend its any better, it's just trying to acknowledge it and offer a different take on it. So the idea of a popular party girl falling for a neurotic nerd who's afraid of everything is no doubt appealing to me on a personal level, but I like to think there's more to it. If only so my enjoyment of this pairing isn't completely concieted sounding.

Here's the deal, Polly's obvious flirting with Oz, pushing his buttons, taking an interest in him, is clearly an effort to get him to come out of his bubble and enjoy things. To not be so scared to live life. I don't think any of it is pushy though, it's mostly knowing looks, brushing her hands along sensitive spots, she's gentle about it. She never seems to be forcibly pushing Oz to leave his safe space, but urging him to try.

The idea that Oz would be willing to try, because this crazy hot ghost girl takes an interest in him is... well frankly cute in both respects. Him because he's willing to take a risk for personal self-growth. Her because she seems to be doing this without any concept of a reward. She's not overtly trying to get in his pants and I don't think she's maliciously messing with him, playfully yes, but she clearly doesn't have sinister designs to make a fool of him. She's just decided Oz could use the chance to escape his box and she'd like to be the lockpick... and knowing her she'd probably make that into innuendo, but that's just Basic Polly at that point.

But why would Polly be interested in Oz romantically? We can already discern why Oz would be. Polly is a sexy fun party girl, she seems to take an interest in him despite having the pick of the litter. Finding out her hidden depths would like only make Oz like her more, although I suspect he'd be concerned that he thought less of her for a bit. Ultimately Polly is designed, like all the love interests, to illicit this response with ANY of the main characters you can play as. The thing that makes it different, special with Oz is that his personality as the shy nerd boy makes their match with the outgoing party girl appealing aesthetically. But why would Polly be into Oz?

Well those hidden depths I mentioned are part of it to a degree. Polly's intellectual pursuits never held her back. She probably doesn't want the same for Oz. Although I feel their more calm, collected and less extroverted nature would give Polly an anchor that she probably sometimes needs. While she is good at knowing when to stop, what her limits are and should be, let's not kid ourselves, like everyone at Spooky High, Polly has a tendency to go overboard to an extreme degree. Like, one of her endings involves the literal apocalypse so... yeah. Polly could use a tether and she probably wants that to some extent. Both for reasons I'll explain soon and reasons I've already stated. Polly likes to know when she is crossing a line because she isn't outwardly malicious, she doesn't want to hurt people in her pursuit of fun. Polly only ever gets mad if you're ruining her fun by being boring or just by being a jerk to people she thinks don't deserve it. And Oz likely knows better at times what lines she doesn't want to cross herself.

Another part of it is who Oz is himself, besides seeing some things in him that are like her, Oz doesn't come across as the kind of person who would consider Polly as just another sexy girl they can bag. Oz very clearly respects Polly, that's what a lot of the point of the events that can lead to dating of the love interests in the game are about, respect. Respect for yourself and respect for the person you want to be with, understanding who they are and appealing to those aspects, showing you're willing to meet them at their level. In my mind, if anyone would respect Polly as a person rather than just a shallow sex kitten a lot of people sometimes see her as, it would be Oz.

And this is because... well Oz himself, or themself, isn't all they appear to be. They are, after all, the embodiment of fear. As I alluded to, Oz does not seem to fit in Spooky High in any sense. He's probably more of an Eldritch than even Zoe. At least Zoe has a recognizable form as basically an adorable version of some sort of Lovecraft Mythos Tentacle Beast. Oz is some sort of shadow creature. Some people have assumed he's like Slender Man or something to that effect. An SCP that's gone rogue and decided to attend high school. He should not be intimidated by anything here. Although I imagine, if anything could make a shadowy creature that is the living concept of fear itself quake in terror, it would be high school. Oz doesn't strike me as someone who sees people as what they are on the outside. Oh imagine he would be shocked to see how different Polly is on the inside, but he's not going to let that completely deter him. If nothing else I think Oz is a very determined shadow creature. Why would he keep up this appearance of a pathetic frightened geek? Maybe because he is genuinely frightened, maybe he has other motives, maybe he's just doesn't want to be defined by what the world says he has to be. But I am certain that, at the very least, he chooses to be what he is now as much Polly chooses to be what she is now. In a strange way, they're both seemingly living an afterlife... or different life.

As a sort of aside, there is something to be said on a mythic level too of a ghost, a spirit typically meant to evoke fear in people of the inevitability and permanence of death, and a creature that is the literal personification of fear itself, falling in love. A spirit that was once mortal and a being that has just always been since time immemorial. It's kinda like something out of Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" when you look at it in that respect. And I do like me some Sandman.

But if that's not enough to convince you of at least some substantive reason for why I like Polly and Oz together... well here we go. The one time Polly ever got serious feels most appropriate when it is connected to Oz rather than any other character, to me. Let's talk about the Locket.

The Locket is an Event Item you can unlock in Valerie's Store, like most of the added Event Items that were added in around the Holiday Season, it's meant to flesh out the love interests some. While they're not exactly lighthearted, Scott's deals with being abandoned as a pup, they're not exactly bereft of comedy either. But The Locket comes close. It starts out with the mysterious haunted inhabitant of the locket trying to share his sad story of lost love... and then Polly shows up and decides to hijack that whole plot as she do! Because she's gonna smoke it! Yeah, she's gonna literally smoke a locket and she wants you to join her. This leads to a few choices about responsible drug use, probably useful. Honestly if I ever did drugs I'd at least want to be safe about it.

However the good times of you enabling Polly's addictions is somewhat ruined by the untimely arrival of the Coven, Spooky High's pre-eminent supernatural hero squad in the vein of Charmed/Buffy, except not objectively terrible (Charmed) or written by an asshole. (Buffy) They're quick to do the usual "Just Say No" deal at Polly, wishing she wouldn't supplement her partying with constant drug use. Polly, dropping her usual fun façade, gets serious and lectures back. Insisting she is not being irresponsible... she's dead. And therefore nothing she does can hurt her and even regardless she practices safety first with her drug use. She is not any worse than someone who really enjoys a lot of chocolate and she is in control of her drug use unlike such people. "Drug Use, Not Abuse" she explains.

It almost works, the Coven actually respectfully admit that they're probably sticking their noses in a place they don't belong. Polly isn't stupid, she is responsible and more importantly she is already dead so it's not like she can really harm herself anyway. Then Polly lets it slip that the locket she's smoking contains the soul of a dead guy and they take issue with that. Smoking haunted artifacts is fine, but a clear line in their eyes is basically smoking a soul for your own benefit and possibly destroying said soul's afterlife. Polly is fed up playing nice and tells them to fuck off, because it's HER afterlife and she'll spend it how she wants. Making reference that she knows plenty about drugs because drug use was how she died. Joy, the Coven's leader, then makes a mistake. Thinking this is another bit of the ongoing gag of Polly making up how she died, she has a lot of them and this feels no different, but seemingly more insensitive by making drug abuse a joke. She tells Polly that maybe she wouldn't be so flippant about her drug use if SHE had been harmed by someone's use of drugs.

And this is when Polly loses her shit. The insensitivity of the comment sends Polly over the edge declaring the Coven, and by extension us who have mostly been silent during this whole exchange, have no idea what her life was like and what she's been through and declared that if this is how they're going to speak to her about how she lives her afterlife, fine! Fuck everyone! She's going to party... but not fun party.

Polly's in-game sprite art takes on a horrifying visage. Her eyes glow, her smile turns to a painful scowl, her rage seems to basically circle her head like something out of Poltergeist or the Exorcist. And she can only speak in all-caps rage about how she wants to keep partying forever. Her anger affects the school all around her, as the halls apparently fill with ghastly wails and flying objects. You can't even talk to her at the lunch break, she will beam Liam in the head with a chair just for "Um Actuallying" her. Liam kinda deserves it, so it's funny, but the rest of this is not.

The Coven, mostly Joy, realizing their mistake, enlist you to help them fix this. You can do this by either contacting Polly's mom or a creepy yet friendly psychic kid ala the Sixth Sense. Either way, a successful meeting ends the same way, this reaction really is related to how Polly actually died but if you want to know what happened you need to talk to Polly herself.

You find Polly huffing gas in the school basement, completely forgetting her "Drug Use, not Abuse" statement in favor of just outright indulgence. Joy and the Coven apologize best they can and say they want to understand, but Polly is indignant. Revealing that her death was caused by her father. He was the drug abuser in the family and he made life difficult for everyone. He didn't cause Polly's death deliberately, it was a car accident while he was under the influence, killing Polly, her mom, her little sister... but leaving her father alive. She had been using drugs herself at that age, but she tried to be responsible with them. Possibly as an attempt to connect to her dad, it's not outright said, but it's implied. And despite her being careful she still ended up dying anyway.

Polly at that point demands to know what crazy idiotic choice between two options are you going to pick to suddenly make all this shit better. And even the game admits that this isn't really the time to be funny and offers two options that are sincere, supportive and apologetic. If successful, it breaks through Polly's emotional episode and allows her to finally put herself at ease and come to terms with her feelings.

You might be wondering why the player has to do any of this. It wasn't YOU who stepped on Polly's incorporeal toes and shamed her. You didn't awaken any long buried trauma with insensitive speech. Well, no, but you were kinda enabling Polly's worst habits. Not the drug use, but not considering the harm she could cause to others through it, like smoking another person's soul. So, really you're sorta responsible for not checking Polly's worse tendencies, just letting her ride the haunted locket smoke train without trying to dissuade her because it's just Polly being Polly. So being honest and trying to reach her by admitting that you just want to hear her out or even just be there for her right now, no judgment or anything else, that's an important step here.

Polly of course fakes crossing over as a prank to show that she's back to her old self again and promises to be more mindful of her drug use from now on. But it's not all good. After picking Polly to go to Prom, she admits to the player that she still feels hurt and sad. That in her pursuit of living her afterlife to the fullest, she got caught up in the same mistakes her father made and she's not proud of it. Most importantly though, she admits that despite everything she doesn't hate her dad for what he did, she still loves and misses him. That a lot of her drug use was more about just trying to forget rather than confront these feelings, ignoring the pain rather than dealing with it. Being happy is great and all, but not at the expense of acknowledging when you're hurting.

In all honesty, I feel this ending works best with Oz. Because I can more readily see Oz empathizing the most with Polly in this moment. If anyone knows about hurt, it's a creature that embodies fear. And Polly has admitted to hers, feeling hurt. Oz being there for Polly, trying to show that this is okay, that being not okay is ok, makes the most sense for me. Polly doesn't want to hurt anyone because she knows what it's like to hurt the people you love. And Oz I feel knows a lot about hurt being what they are. And maybe through sharing that kind of pain, in confronting things like Polly encouraged Oz to do with his own fears, they can both be stronger people.

This isn't to say these scenes can't work with other characters, they're not built to only work with one of the MCs. But for me, a lot of Polly's stories and events, this one especially, ring the most true when it involves Oz.

I think the relationship between the two can and could be very endearing. Allowing both to actually confront their fears, center themselves and be better people in the end. Monster Prom's tagline is "Be Your Worst Self", a sort of play on words, but a lot of its romances are actually a play on that concept. The phrase is really about being true to who YOU are more than anything, that includes the worst parts of you. If Monster Prom is about anything it's about finding happiness with who you are before you can truly find happiness with another. And I feel something like PollyxOz stands the best chance of achieving that goal.

I don't want to pretend it's the only solution, of course it isn't, none of this as said before is meant to invalidate your love for Oz getting with Damian or Zoe or Miranda or Polly with Vicky or Brian or even Amira. (Although I feel like no one is beating AmiraxVera on that one) This is about what works for me and my rationalization, you are free to think differently of course. I would hope this at least better explained my preferences and perhaps even helped you a little with your own anxieties as it has mine today.

Well I suppose I should try and lead you to some more Polly/Oz content if you're interested. While I do have ideas for fanfics and there's plenty of art you can look up, I'd rather just send you over to Vanilla Chinchilla, who is probably more prolific and better artistically concerning this than I ever could be. Again, this stuff is all just me working through some junk. Plus their artwork, such as the comic panels right above this paragraph, is really cute and fun and I enjoy it a lot.

That's really all from me, if you've honestly stuck it out this long with me rambling about the romance of two monsters from a silly video game... well I applaud you I honestly don't know if this is really all that compelling. This was an exercise for my own sake, but like I said, I hope you got something out of it. At the very least, I've put something positive into this place rather than just ragging on it for crass reasons. Thank you for your time guys.

[spotsupstuff]

With your meta approach that void fluid should never have been harnessed in the first place, how do your iterators feel about their existences, which rely on it? Do any of them wish to be a part of the Cycle, how many of them wish none of them were ever built? Maybe this question is presumptuous in which case apologies

"meta" sdjklgsdjlgksmclkdsgjk that sure is a one way to call my daring decision to introduce that idea into the world

with the Sparrows' Dad question answered i suppose these questions have been sort of answered, but- no Iterator believes the Void Fluid should've never been found or used. the notion of it sounds silly at best, offensive and idiotic at worst. that whole thought is rooted in some low circles were they manage to still believe in the original religions or manage to cling on to their traditions. the Void stuff is, to a degree, a solid standing point of the Global Religion which is what the Iterators are meant to exclusively work with. anything outside of it is considered nonsense. it's basically like asking one of those toxic Christian people to consider accepting a piece of Hinduism into their faith or smth. it's unthinkable, even though the pagan religions and the Global Religion have a lot of stuff in common as a result of the spiritual being tangible thing to a degree of it being science

like Euros' whole religious journey is one to behold, because it has no business existing cuz of this divide of ideas

he starts off with a really religious colony that looks up to him as an actual god, with the Houses and his first Mechanic cementing this idea of him being a real proper holy being into his mind. then Sparrows comes by and by being so casual and nonchalant about everything she starts making him doubt his status. then she tells him she's a pagan and he ridicules it. one day she complains about her noodles being cold and "Man, would it be cool to have godly powers and just warm this stuff up with snap of fingers" and Euros, with a puffed up chest, exclaims he can do it right there and then

but Iterators don't have any heating stuff in their puppet chambers. so instead he accidentally brain blasts it while he tries to figure out how to use the gravity control in his chamber to generate some heat for this stuff. Sparrows mourns her splattered-all-over-the-place food while he has an existential crisis because yes. he really couldn't warm a single bowl of noodles up. a God would be able to. he isn't a God despite almost a century of people telling him he is

he doesn't tell Sparrows about how fucked up he is over this, just keeps it to himself to ponder while he keeps absorbing the already known information on the Big Question. Sparrows brings a wheel flower with herself one day and well, they are both a lil bit of children on the inside so they fool around with it, Sparrows takes a lil bit of it even though Euros doesn't know how to guide a first timer through such an experience and it ends with her crying her eyes out because it was just too much. she says she will never do this again. he takes an issue with this, because he's worried. he brings it up to her- "don't write it all off so fatally *please,* you know if you don't work on yourself spiritually- who knows what you will end up reincarnated as? that is a path to suffering." and she gets sorta angry with him and tells him that she doesn't care for that. his life mission and she flat out says that. not to be Mean, he knows she respects why he's here, she's simply talking about herself. only herself. "even if you find the solution to the Great Problem, *i* won't be taking it. i don't care for it." is what she essentially communicates with it

and that fucks him up even Further, because at this point they've been dating each other for around 5 or 6 years. he loves her endlessly. he knows she loves him endlessly too (she's already made that trip to Zephyr... went through her first deaths without comfort for the sake of His family that despises her. he doesn't doubt her love for him). but Still. if he does what he is made for, stopping these repeating deaths- which he started to think of as doing for Her sake, after she came back to him from Zephyr all emotional worn out n destroyed because of her deaths- she will not care for it personally

so what is he doing here. he's not a God, if he succeeds in the purpose of his life it won't hold much meaning for the most important person from the people he's doing this for... what is any of this for. what is he for. he's so infinitely smart and he Does Not Know

so one day he asks Sparrows to teach him how to pray. and worship. in her own religion that is supposed to be more or less banned to him by context, the one she doesn't really care to faithfully follow herself

she shows him how to after getting over her surprised and uncertainty (as an Iterator he's not. supposed to indulge the pagan stuff This much. as a man-made "God", he isn't supposed to worship a different God). he asks about stuff and she tries her best to explain from what she does know. then redirects him to her farm district to try looking for more information there, since she's kind of dumb in this stuff

he learns more and comes to the conclusion about the Void and how it would've been better if it was left alone all by himself. would've been better if he and his family never existed. he ponders it a while and then decides to just shrug about it and keep it to himself. no point agonizing about woulds and shoulds. he just has to keep living his life as the best person he can be

so that's the thoughts on that of the only Iterator who ever touched on it

and none of them wish to be a part of the cycle. the cycle Sucks compared to what they have going on (strange immortality and almost complete invincibility). for the most part they are quite content being as they are- giant cuboids in the sky made up of millions of little dudes. only Euros, again, ever ends up wishing he could just Leave himself and one day just die. just like any other victim of the cabin fever

[slverblood]

I will polish this up later. For now, here are some bullet points on Aylin’s post-canon activities. Probably take place over the course of 20-ish years? These are not closed events; I’m open to other people’s characters being involved if they wish!

Part One.

The threat attacking Selûnite enclaves that Aylin is hunting in the immediate aftermath of the game is an agent of Mask. He’s taken a leaf from his mother’s book and hopes to absorb Aylin’s power to grow his own so he can reclaim the portfolio of intrigue from Cyric.

He plays the long game, so he’s fucking with Aylin over a period of years while she’s ignorant of who’s truly behind it all.

Meanwhile, she works on rebuilding Moonhaven + the Swords of the Lady, and supports Isobel in rebuilding Reithwin.

She becomes close with the head of the Selûnite temple in Moonhaven, as one would expect. This cleric begins researching the soul cage in the hopes of protecting Aylin from it. Aylin is aware of this.

Mask has been steadily wearing Aylin down, though, and is finally able to prey on her traumas to make her turn on the cleric. Makes her believe the cleric intends to cage her.

This leads Aylin to slay the cleric, thus breaking her oath and becoming riddled with guilt + grief. The Silverlight shatters in her hands.

She then excommunicates herself from Selûne / her worshippers, and leaves on a quest to seek the Oathbreaker Knight. She hopes he will guide her toward atonement and reforging her oath.

Part Two.

She finds the Oathbreaker Knight — or believes she does. It’s actually Mask masquerading as him.

He tells her that 12 of her body parts, originally harvested by Balthazar, have fallen into other hands and must be reclaimed by her. I’m thinking heart, lungs, liver, womb, tongue, intestines, stomach, eyes, ears, kidneys, and skin (flayed from the whole body). I’ll decide the specifics of these quests later.

He also reforges the Silverlight for her. What he of course does not tell her is he’d reclaimed, at cost, the pieces of the Godsbane and combined them with the shattered Silverlight. (I’ll name this blade later.)

Unbeknownst to her, any being slain with this blade has their soul or essence consumed by him, as was the case with Godsbane. It also slowly corrupts her, as was the case with Godsbane.

I think, too, he feigns helping her lay her reclaimed body parts to rest but actually consumes them to absorb the power therein.

Part Three.

Selûne doesn’t just let this shit happen, though.

Aylin excommunicating herself in shame combined with Masks’s interference has made it difficult for her to reach her daughter, but that doesn’t mean she stops trying. I haven’t decided how she tries to reach her, though? Problem for future me.

End result is Mask screwed himself over by consuming those pieces of Aylin. When she confronts Mask, they rebel against him.

This allows her to wrest the Houndsbane from him. She does not unmake Mask, but Kezef has now resumed his pursuit of the god, and he must eternally flee the hound. He won’t trouble Aylin for a good long while.

I think this should also allow Aylin to undergo apotheosis. What he deceived Aylin into giving him was reclaimed by her, now drenched in his divine essence. This would logically make her divine as well.

This has been her lifelong goal, but I’m on the fence as to whether she’d accept it in the end.

[fantasyinvader]

I've been having this epiphany lately on how the endings to SMT V... actually do make sense.

The problem is that the game is focusing on something that's been implied in past games, that the Law vs Chaos dynamic isn't about ideology. Not after Nocturne had angels fighting for the social Darwinism that usually Chaos champions. The God of Law is only the top dog because he embodied Lucifer's “might makes right” ideal, and when he got to the top he used his power to maintain his rule. That's what Law and Chaos is, the ruling authority and any opposition to that authority.

When Lucifer killed the God of Law, he should have become the Law himself and in a way he did considering the condition of Da'at. But at that point, he discovered that what he did was all part of the Mandala cycle which, in turn, is his ideal of “might makes right” social Darwinism. So he doesn't fully take over the position of top god, but he's stuck in that higher realm at the same time. So he begins a plan to free himself but getting someone to kill him and assume the mantle of top god themselves.

It's not like death sticks for demons. As long as there's some knowledge about Lucifer, some longing to topple oppression, he will return just like YHVH says he will return when he's killed so long as someone believes in him. And there's the possibility that the God of Law is coming back, as something took Tao's soul when she died to create Panagia Tao to direct the Nahobino into taking the throne. It fits his MO with how he changed gods into demons when he took power and took their knowledge away. Hell, Lucifer is shown to be able to do something similar with how he replaced the Demi-fiend's human heart with a demon one in the True Demon route.

If the Nahobino kills Lucifer and takes the throne, he frees Lucifer.

In the Law ending, he opts to uphold God's will. Despite being the new top god, he's upholding the will of one that is supposed to be dead. This causes humanity to lose some of it's freedom, but it also allows Lucifer to try again in the future to break the cycle. The God of Law doesn't even need to retake the Throne to have his will be followed.

Meanwhile, if the protagonist instead opts for the Chaos ending it leads to him restoring power to the various pantheons, who then rule over their people which in turn leads to holy wars when their beliefs don't align. Lucifer is still free, and the God of Law can possibility return due to people praying for an end to the chaos. The Throne is still there for him to challenge the Nahobino.

Those are the endings where the cycle is intact. The neutral ending is to destroy the throne. This fucks over everyone. Lucifer is unfought and stuck in that higher realm, the God of Law can't reclaim his old spot, humans are stuck fighting demons and the miracle that saved humanity is fading away. People say this is more Chaos than anything, but that makes sense as Lucifer is still in a position where he could become top god and therefore make the world chaotic and the cycle that could remove him from power is broken.

The neutral ending implies that the world needs some form of God, just like how the start of the game makes modern Tokyo out to be the result of the God of Law's influence... though that could just be the God of Law trying to gain people to pray to him in order to return.

But the neutral ending can evolve into a better one by completing side quests. People get mad that it seems hypocritical, that after working with demons you expel them from the world to make a world for humanity only. But look how it works: Some demons eat humans, and others absorb humans that hold their Knowledge. From what we see in the Law and Chaos endings is that they want humans to bow down to them, while one of the requirements for the secret ending is defeating Shiva. Shiva, who was getting ready to destroy the world.

You break the Cycle in the secret route while giving Lucifer and God the finger.

The Throne is still there, but god and demons are no longer able to access it as they've been banned from the world. You have fucked over both God and Lucifer's plans, the latter of which doesn't hold back like he does in the other routes where he is the final boss. Humanity is safe from their influence. But at the same time, the player is left alone. As the top god, they can't interact with the world they've created and there's no demons or gods around to accompany them.

The game opens with a recap of original sin, which caused man to be banished from the garden of Eden after listening to Lucifer in snake form. In this ending, after listening to the snake Nuwa to unlock the secret ending, Nuwa who genuinely cares for humanity, you create a world free of the Mandala cycle only to banish yourself, not mankind, from the metaphorical paradise. But even then, there's the uncertainty over whether the cycle can really be abolished or if it will someday return.

And considering this game is basically a sequel to the True Demon Ending of Nocturne, where Lucifer's plan wiped out multiple worlds in order to create a super-demon to fight for him and kill the concept of time... yeah, it feels good to screw that bastard over.

[pokckygamewithbatman]

I watched My Adventures with Superman

The title sounds like a porno.

Oh… It's so bad… It's so unbelievably terrible. I really wanted to have faith that it would at least be decent. Even if it was a copy paste of the 1979 animated series that would've been fine with me but this is actually trash. HIS POWERS MANIFEST WHEN HE'S A TEEN, HE'S NOT SCARED TO MEET HIS HOLOGRAM ALIEN PARENTS, HIS PARENTS ARE SUPPORTIVE OF THE FACT THAT HE'S ADOPTED, LOIS IS COOL AND AN ACTUAL PART OF THE PLANET, JIMMY IS NOT SMOOTH. What are they doing to these characters I don't care that Lois is Korean, and that Jimmy is black, I honestly don't give a shit just make them good characters SHOWING DIVERSITY IN SHITTY SHOWS DOESN'T AUTOMATICALLY MAKE THE SHOW GOOD IT JUST GIVES A BAD REP TO DIVERSIFYING CHARACTERS.

I am so sad they sped up his backstory, I'm so sad they're starting with all 3 of them as interns, I'm so sad that Clark's powers are manifesting so slowly, I'm so sad that he doesn't make his suit, why can't he control his strength that's the power he's had the longest, why are they completely ignoring his super hearing, why is Lois a tomboy, why is Jimmy so into aliens, who is the lady who stole the robots? Is she supposed to be Metallo? If not then where is Metallo? Why hasn't the superpowered character actually defeated any villains yet, why is Superman so weak?? Why does he get a black eye, why do his powers fully manifest when Lois is in danger, why so they speed up the chemistry of Lois and Clark it takes YEARS before they get close and start dating and get married. Why is Jimmy pushing Lois and Clark who hard, how old are they supposed to be exactly? Also why are they making all the superpowered villains kids with tech? That angle is so crappy and takes away so much of the awesomeness? Why is Silver Banshee a preteen with a magic helmet she's not Elmer Fudd why am I here.

One thing that super pissed me off is Ivo. THIS SHOW IS TRYING TO TELL ME THAT 1. IVO IS A DOUCHEBAG 2. HE CREATED PARASITE 3. PARASITE ISN'T THE RESULT OF BIOCHEMICALS BUT IS ACTUALLY A TECHY ASS SUIT 4. THAT RUDY JONES ISN'T PARASITE 5. THAT PARASITE DOESN'T ABSORB POWERS BUT SIMPLY REFLECTS THEM BACK AT THE OPPONENT. Also the suit itself doesn't make any sense and is a total rip off of Green Beetle's design in Young Justice, just trust me, also why does it look like an insect? Parasite doesn't have ties with insects, like kinda in the way that he's resilient I guess, but that's about it yk. But wait something that's actually interesting happens: For some reason, completely unexplained (maybe the assistant/Lois and Jimmy messed with buttons), the suit turned on Ivo and when Superman ripped it there was a shriveled man underneath omgggg BUT we don't even get to savour that bit of somewhat interesting plot bc OH MY GOD LOIS FIGURES OUT SUPERMAN IS CLARK KENT ON EPISODE 4.

Side note: the animation and art style is so lazy, and the S that symbolizes peace or sumn I don't remember on his suit is barely legible?? Also where's the S shaped hair piece because that shit is iconic.

Look at these two designs. Just look at it.

Here's why the title "My Adventures with Superman" is the worst possible title for this show: This isn't from the audience's perspective, it's from Superman's perspective, and he's not having adventures with himself, also Adventures implies an episodic series, and this is definitely trying to have a long running plot; key word "trying", also adventures with superman makes him sound like your friendly neighbourhood hero, man could crush a mountain easily he's no neighbourhood nothing and It also implies he's not even the main character; that a self insert audience character would be but like I said that's not the case. Superman: The Animated Series is straight forward, not fucking around we're doing a show about The Man, it's animated, there you go. This show however is so dumb it hurts my brain. They've done nothing right.

I enjoyed Steve. Steve is at least halfway accurate, I'll give them that.

I fucked up and deleted like half of my post and it won't come back, so even thought there's SO much more about how stupid Lois is, why Amanda Waller is keeping close personal tabs on Superman is she's the leader of Cadmus, why are there Teen Titans villains in this show (ie, Slade/Deathstroke and The Brain and M. Mallah), and why is Wheatley and therapist gorilla in this show, who are they? Are they meant to be my beloved assholes Brain and Mallah?

I had to stop watching after I saw the Brain and Monsieur Mallah, it hurt too much. They took away my machine gun beret monkey.

[oreganosbaby]

I love your post about Roman automatically recognizing as soon as Logan said he needed a "firebreather" that the person Logan was describing wasn't him. That's a new thing, I think. Kind of. Roman has always had better self-awareness than Kendall and Shiv (though, that's a very low bar). But in the past, I feel like he'd often try to contort himself to become who Logan wanted because he felt he had no other option. Now that he has another option, he's more free to be someone that Logan might reject because he has somewhere to go. Does that make sense?

I don't think Roman ever truly believed he could become the person Logan wanted, not for any extended period of time. At most, he believed he could "pass" and functionally do that but, he will easily be reminded that he's not Logan, will never be nor does he truly want to be. I mean, his core motivation was always inverse from what it's "supposed" to be, anyway. You're right that he previously felt like he had no other option but, I don't think that would necessitate complete denial of who he is. For Roman, what he's doing is not necessary insofar as this, the business shit and who Logan wants him to be, isn't like "natural." It's all socially constructed but, Roman also sees it as totalising and inescapable, in part because Logan is God but also the networks of power in neoliberal capitalism are far too complicated to escape individually, making it God-like as well-- they are both are sublime.

Roman is able to be more self-aware because he's been forcibly made aware of his own worldly existence, his body (which implies libido and emotions). He remembers this as occurring through the dog pound but, the veracity of that is irrelevant. What's important is that it's this imposition of the social order, capitalism, Logan's hierarchical system, the gender roles, etc., that makes Roman aware of this. Logan sets the norms, Roman doesn't fit them and then, discipline is imposed on him but, he is unable to really absorb this as he's "supposed to," often taking it as punishment instead because he can't sustain the delusion that he could become Logan. The result is an awareness of who he is through his inability to change. He also just has a smaller ego than Shiv and Kendall.

So, I agree that Roman is in a position where he has (realistic) options, albeit two shitty ones, which makes it more possible for him to gesture toward leaving. I also think he's just tired of all of it so, it might be better to stick with his father who will never love him the way he wants to be loved but, whom he loves regardless and might also stop demanding he kill for him now that the whole situation's changed. When Logan asked him to go to Sweden with him instead of Connor's wedding, he seemingly tried to bait him by saying that the job he'd be doing there is more suited to him i.e., being a honeypot. Like, Logan saying "You'll keep it light," is the closest he'll ever get to admitting that's what Roman's good at. So, there is this recognition of that which is interesting but, Roman of course, goes for Connor's wedding. Logan then asks him to kill someone he was once close to and has complicated feelings about as perhaps, a demonstration of loyalty.

Since I'm answering this a week after, I'll also add that Roman's already done some shit that Logan would fucking hate but, Logan's not here stop him and his feelings are strong enough to supersede certain things Logan has attempted to discipline into him (although Roman doesn't take well to discipline in the first place).

[sleepingfancies]

TELL ME ABOUT DEATHBRINGERS!!!!<3<3<3<3!! how are there no stars???? what's the giant fucked up wall (or gate? you've mentioned it b4 but I forgor) ??? what role do ur characters play in the Things That Are Happening, or do they live in the aftermath? I fuckign love hearing about deathbringers it is so cool

TEEHEE ^-^ (thank u sm for asking i'm about to type an ungodly amount im sorry)

So about the stars >=) there is a sun and people in the world Assume there May Have Been more like it in the past!! But the sun is to their world what one random dragon would be to us, really; it's there, and no one can deny Its Nature, but people are a bit confounded or skeptical about it. The absence of light at night has largely been blamed on vampires as something they achieved (incorrect, though they do benefit from only having one sun-source to worry about). But there's no more proof for that theory than there is the concept other stars ever existed at all :3

What actually happened doesn't have any definitive documentation in canon anymore!! It was all intentionally destroyed by the involved parties and the main characters never fully learn the big picture <3 but essentially. An extremely long time ago and far beyond living memory, some particularly ambitious individuals decided to Bring Down and Swallow stars for their power ^_^ the resulting conflict was apocalyptic but ultimately the stars lost, and so there are no stars anymore =) unless

---

The giant fucked up wall could refer to three things and I'm insane so I will tell u abt them all ^-^

The titular City of Gears has many a fucked up wall !! It was built into a mountain and meant to be a sanctuary for vampires, away from the sun. But the original architect wanted to ensure the vampires were safe from even the most immortal threats (teehee!!), so he designed the city as a labyrinth with hundreds of walls that could rotate, appear and disappear, and raise and lower; this on top of stationary walls, as well. The idea was that the labyrinth's pattern would never be the same twice and change once a month, thus making it impossible for an immortal threat to spend centuries memorizing the city's layout for an attack.

Blynnfell's Crown isn't necessarily fucked up and crazy insane like the City of Gears' rotating labyrinth but it is Different !! Blynnfell is the capital of the country and sits on the southeast coast, sort of boxed in by the continental-long Blackcrest River and the sea ^-^ it's surrounded by enormous and thick as hell jagged shards of stoneglass (in our world we call it alexandrite). Its primary purpose is to absorb light reflecting off the ocean + manage the city's light pollution, but it's almost as hard as diamond, so it makes for excellent defense as well. The city is always surrounded by a very colorful glow, it's rather pretty =)

The Spire isn't technically a wall itself but it is fucked up <3 it's the seat of the Lovely Prince (the title of the current and singular god). It's been heavily enchanted and covered in illusions; the Lovely Prince doesn't actually maintain it well, so it's a rather derelict mess in reality, but the illusion projects an opulent veneer. The illusion persists as long as the Lovely Prince is around to maintain it :3

---

The characters ougghghghgaaaaa the characters >=) I am sure u have heard me mention all of them at some point but the core four are Daciana Cel Tradat (vampire), Mortimer Crackbone (human), Vidar Rothmoor (fey), and Kadija Ekunye (human). The four of them get together to kill the Lovely Prince ^-^ I won't get TOO into book 2 shenanigans here just bc this is already soooo long SJDHGDSG

Daciana is the head of the group and the duology's deuteragonist. She personally assembles the gang to kill the Lovely Prince, she plans out how to travel to the Spire without drawing attention, she refuses to stop until she completes her goal, and she goes against the vampiric Grand Coven's warnings to do it. Daciana is a very "I will do what I know must be done" kind of person, which does a lot for driving events both good and bad <3

Mortimer is the soul of the group and the duology's universal foil. He quite literally monitors and cares for the souls of the other three. He contains multitudes and is deeply understanding of other people's multitudes as well; his protectiveness and gentleness directly impact the end outcome. Mortimer also foils almost every single major character; he represents both someone's doomed villain and someone else's redeemed hero.

Vidar is the body of the group and the duology's antihero. He is a creature of indulgence, and indulge he does!! His hunger and consumption have enormous ramifications on the plot, especially leading into the second book. Vidar is also fundamentally selfish, cowardly, and mocks other people's feelings for a laugh. But still he takes the heaviest beating in defense of the other three, and consistently utilizes his advantages as a fey for their benefits.

Kadija is the heart of the group and the duology's protagonist. She can and will choose kindness every single time, even at great cost to herself, which shapes the entire overarching plot. Kadija is also the center of the conundrum and always was. She is the core of the story, the overlaid note in everyone else's arc, and she always was and always would be. Kadija's arc would have happened regardless of what the other three did or didn't do <3

[poryphoria]

OOH! OK OK!! ABOUT THE HCS UMM HOW ABOUT SHERIFF?? AND/OR AUDI? :O

OOOOOOOOO ive actually been thinking abt audi a good bit lately bc i picked them up in an rp server a bit ago and once i start writing for a guy i guess im just cursed to absorb them as a blorko

so the way employers work to me, all 4 of them are given a certain "domain" to preside over and work with- conductor has time, stygian has death, deliberator has karma and auditor has society. however, as society did not always exist within nevada (u know, since with all periods of evolution there was a time where the animals were Just Animals), Auditor did not always exist!

the maker only brought them about once nevadeans began to band together in organized groups and figured stuff out like agriculture, making them the youngest of the four employers. despite this, they lie pretty flagrantly to the agency and pretty much any non-Employer that'll listen, claiming to have powers they don't or that they've been around since the dawn of creation. agency clones, for the most part, actually straight up don't know the other 3 employers exist (based off the way sanford & deimos react to mentions of the employers in m:pn)! and, because they're the most involved employer in nevadean society, it's not like the other three are ever around to correct or object, since their respective jobs keep them away from Nevada pretty much full-time.

also because of such hands-on involvement, which krinkels has described before as "ill-advised", theyve picked up a ton of nevadean mannerisms- employers are extremely different from nevadeans in a VERY obvious way, the most noticable being that they really don't do much idle behaviors. they truly are focused beings created for a single task, and it's extremely evident in their lack of behavior. however, auditor's broken past this over the years- their siblings find all their idle fidgeting and noise-making and expressions rather strange.

because they're the youngest, and because they so frequently remain in their simple, humanoid form for ease of communicating with the agency members, they are significantly weaker compared to the other employers. it's more difficult for them to access their more natural form, and even when they can, they have less energy to work with combatively. of course, a nevadean facing off against them would never know the difference- but in a fight against any of the other 3 employers, they'd likely go down first without any form of extra aid. (which is likely why they were so desperate for the keystone fragment!)

more personal hcs, but them & phobos have a sort of father-son relationship to me, in like a real fucked up cycle of trauma way. they were the one who selected Phobos to man Nexus personally to prove to the other 3 they were a capable decision-maker (which was swiftly pointed out by the other 3 as a horrible idea, being that Phobos has an original S-3LF- and original S-3LFs are historically known for being corrupt leaders). to further try and prove the other 3 wrong, they made Phobos out pretty much exactly in their image, and you can outright see the resulting parallels in the series- DOWN TO THE PEOPLE THEY'RE BETRAYED BY! THANKS, CHRISTOFF AND HOFNARR!

phobos & audi cant fucking stand eachother half the time and their relationship is super terse, cut and dry businessy, though they always act really pleasant around eachother in that insufferable corporate "im trying to one up you" way. phobos actively defies auditor at every turn he can get just to prove he answers to no one, and auditor delights in using whatever means they can to force him to do anything, just to remind him who put him in that position in the first place. the agency and nexus used to be competitors as much as they were eachother's suppliers, and auditor delights in knowing they've outlived Phobos and Nexus as a company. (they figured they would, being an employer, but they enjoy the satisfaction nonetheless!)

and, since you asked about sheriff as well, ill say this- auditors relationship with sheriff is definitely an ill advised one. sheriff's whole life is really only gonna be a blip to them- of course, between enmeshment and cloning tech, they could find ways to keep him around forever...

but would he really want that?

does he get much of a choice, at the end of things?

NAWW don't worry about it tho. they're happy for now!!! :o)c

[echowilds]

y'know i just realized that 'characters whose internal magic system is fucked' is a bit of a theme for me

hanni

as aurene's champion they're always soaked in her magic. they aren't really branded but you can definitely tell they're a dragon champion based on their magical signature

as i mentioned before, they absorbed a part of balthazar's magic, which changed their own magic's signature more towards fire

but even before that they unconsciously started walking a very perilous line as they absorbed a lot of latent natural magic just by being the idiot who jumped at any weird magical stuff happening (and ate a good amount of it)

on more grim days they're just waiting to go up in a big explosion

but it's fine! they're working on a solution with taimi! everything is going great!! (sometimes they wonder what would've happened if they jumped in front of ankka's extractor instead of aurene)

they actually used to dabble in alchemy and elixirs but balthazar's magic messed it up entirely for them and most of what they brew now ends up as great explosives but isn't doing what it's actually supposed to do. at least the pact demolitionists are always happy about the results

leikkya

the experiments she was subjected to as a kid included her getting exposed to a low amount of magic continuously for years

while her body had gotten used to it over time, the abrupt cutoff after being freed messed her up again

i'm not entirely sure yet how i want the effects of that to go about but she might be a little addicted to magic. only a little though. it's fine

and two more peeps under the cut because this whole thing got so long

sade

while nowadays their weapons of choice are a disapproving frown, harsh words and noticable disappointment, they used to be an exeptional warrior

they're also old as fuck so when it comes to magic seem to have only improved, both in their control of it and the amount they can wield

but re: that being messed up

there were Things Happening and a sacrifice (though more borne out of a desperation not to die) that didn't work quite as planned and they got the whole magical essence of their closest friend a companion dumped into their own

which generally wouldn't be too big of a problem, but things can't be easy around here. the internal magical essences of the two aren't exactly compatible due to being of very different species and there still being a certain amount of intent left in the dead companion one's

they've had many years to get used to the dichtomy and figure out how to make it work for themselves but it can still flare up from time to time (and fire magic in the archives would be utterly disastrous)

it also seemingly came with immortality. joy. (it's actually just an extremely long lifespan and a.... let's call it failsafe against dying)

laerus

he's probably the least affected in his personal use of magic by the Events That Happened To Him To Make Him That Way out of all my characters but still

glossing over some stuff right now to keep this from devolving into a whole essay he has some souls attached to him (and is attached to them in turn but only emotionally)

there was a failed ritual and lies and betrayal by someone they all trusted and now laerus is the only one with a body, the voices of his allies in his head and some 'minor' temporal displacement

technically he's kind of a revenant now? but none of the other's were really all that powerful magically (and still aren't) and mostly it's made him really good at strategy, human royal ceremonial tasks and observation (spectral eyes that can see behind him are eternally useful). it's also distracting as hell

he's still mainly a necromancer, his soul and magic just have more people attached than what's common

it has made magic trickier for him since he needs to make sure he isn't drawing on the others' magic, but mixed into the usual necromancy green is some blue colour wise

[kentuckycaverats]

Your script for Del's Embrace was wonderfully crafted. As cliche of a compliment as it may be to give, the imagery put forward was powerful enough to both imagine everything and keep up with the weight of what was happening seamlessly and immediately. It normally takes a little while, for me at least, to get into the thick of things when starting to read something new. Not the case here at all.

Did Del lose any of her Humanity over the death of her namesake?

thank you so much!! that means a lot to me, i really love the script format and im glad it works visually in other people's heads too ✨️

the short answer is yes! the long answer is:

she lost a Ton of humanity, essentially all at once; over the real delphine's death, over diablerizing sabina and absorbing part of her fucked up soul as an unknown consequence, over abandoning her other touchstones (her parents), and over having the blood leech predator type. (c'mon, between watching delphine be eaten and then her own first meal post-Embrace being diablerie, how could she be anything but blood leech?) so her humanity and empathy are reallyyyy low, and as a result she's developed this bizarre superiority/inferior complex toward both mortals and other kindred.

one of her convictions is "mortals are to be pitied," and a few sessions ago i rolled a messy critical while she was interrogating a hunter, so the beast took over and she just went beserk. killed him so violently she took 2 stains for it and horrified our brujah fledgling. when the remorse hit later she was miserable, but it wasn't that she felt bad about tearing a dude to pieces; it was the thought of how delphine and their parents would look at her if they knew what she'd done. she doesn't care about mortals in general--only her parents--but she's bitter about how cavalier kindred are with mortal lives; about being watched for years without even knowing it; about camarilla society having no problem with kindred openly abusing their ghouls. del sees herself as better than mortals because she's so much stronger now than she ever was before, and she hates that she was so vulnerable as a human. so on that hand, mortals are beneath her; but she also resents kindred because she never wanted any part of their world. she was ghouled against her will and Embraced the same way, and she absolutely loathes the feeling of losing control to the beast. it reminds her that she's a monster, and she hates herself for so much of what she's done; but at the same time she's like fuck you, why should i be sorry for becoming what you made me?

she skips town after she kills sabina. she doesn't know then that she's a thinblood or that sabina was sabbat, but she does know that the diablerie alone is enough to earn her a blood hunt. she doesn't go home to say goodbye to her parents first, because how can she possibly look them in the eyes after luring delphine to her death? she can't bear to face them, doesn't think she deserves to besides, knows that they're in more danger if she sticks around, and she certainly can't tell them the truth: so she runs. she never says goodbye, never goes to the funeral, and that never stops haunting her. in the current in-game timeline del hasn't seen her parents in 7 years, and they're her only touchstones, so she's uhhhh. not doing well.