#asks ST VR

[henrysglock]

Does the VR game contradict TFS or the filmed canon?

Both, but some of the contradictions may be, in part, due to the fact that the Henry-memories that we experience are fed to him by the Shadow. Some parts, like his relationship to Brenner, might be a little skewed by that as the Shadow tries to convince Henry to join it.

Contradictions per TFS:

VR Henry was 12 when he entered the lab, and he's characterized as "obedient" and "eager to please/show off". Henry in TFS is 14, neurotic, rebellious, and prone to Shadow-fits.

There's also no mention of Patty in the VR game, as far as I've seen.

Virginia in TFS had blonde blonde hair, VR Virginia has brown hair.

Nevada/the caves/Henry's flaying haven't been mentioned, and I'm heading into chapter 6 of 9 after finishing the lab memories arc.

Henry doesn't recognize the Shadow...at all. He doesn't recognize Dimension X, either. The Shadow is trying to possess him and take him into the hive. If he were flayed, that wouldn't be necessary.

A couple things that are consistent:

The Shadow keeps trying to get you to kill a bird, and TFS Henry goes after animals first to avoid killing humans. But that's contradicted by the plot point where you kill a person rather than the bird to rebel against the Shadow, so...

The Shadow takes on multiple forms to try and convince Henry to join it, but it never does any of this stuff:

There aren't any visions of the future, everything is purely coercive (threatening or non-threatening), and the Shadow never drops any helpful hints the way TFS Henry's shadow-visions do. I'm here wondering if this game should be the thing called "The First Shadow", because Henry here very much seems to be the first iteration.

Contradictions per filmed canon:

While the ages match up, the temperaments don't. How is Henry, 12, an obedient people-pleaser while also having killed his mother to escape Brenner? The game contradicts itself on this one ^^ Henry was supposedly a good subject, but you're given the option to murder a man in your first run through the "kill the bird" experiment set. In fact, if you're resisting the Shadow, you're supposed to kill the guy rather than the bird solely to rebel against the Shadow. Makes me wonder how reliable the characterization is overall/how much is the Shadow trying to convince Henry he's obedient and eager to please.

Young Henry and orderly Henry alike call Brenner "doctor", even in private. The mentions of Papa come from the Shadow as far as I've seen.

Henry and Brenner in VR seem to have had something of an amicable working relationship/Brenner seems to have at least attempted to act like he cares about Henry, even though Henry supposedly never does his chores/slacks off. Again, though, not sure what was real and what was manipulated by the Shadow to try and coerce Henry.

Virginia has brown hair, not bottle blonde.

The Creel house layout is entirely wrong.

See what I mean?

You'd have to be facing the mystery door in the family room to be able to see the stairs that way, which would make Victor's study the dining room.

So...somehow they swapped the family room (the lumax piano scene room) for the parlor and Victor's study/the front room for the dining room. Here's another way to see it:

And there are some things that fit weirdly...overall.

Henry supposedly threw a kid off playground equipment when he was 10...this has me staring at Henry in Nevada and wondering if the kid whose arm was broken was different than the boy Henry put in a wheelchair.

The Shadow was not in spider form, you as the player shape it while playing as Henry. This contradicts both TFS and Filmed Young Henry, both of whom already seemed to have the Mindflayer...in mind, if you will.

The Shadow taking the form of Brenner does make sense irt TFS, though, since Brenner has all these weird "trying to get back to Dimension X" and "being overlaid with the Mindflayer" moments.

Fun to note, not necessarily within the bounds of the ask: Henry has yet ANOTHER!! House of leaves moment. I've talked about Haunted by Poe before and its status as a companion piece to HoL.

Well. Henry at one point, when subjugating the Shadow, says something along the lines of "While you were playing Doctor, I was taking over/taking control". And my brain went "Huh. I've heard that before, right?"

I sure had :) Control by Poe, on the Haunted album.

There are multiple others in the game but I don't have time to lay them out right now.

[nebulousfishgills]

Please do share the notes with us 👀

Okay, let me transcribe *exactly* word for word what I wrote down in my journal for you all (Again, bear in mind that my bestie and I have NOT finished the game yet, so this isn't the full list, I will be adding more):

(The whole dialogue exchange between Henry and Brenner when Henry's getting his tattoo touched up and calls Brenner a parasite because *chef's kiss*)

Orange for Lunch??

Freedom in mind void to ability suppression

Windows

Russian Spies?

Losing Control of the hivemind?

Eleven makes him emotional?

Control over the hivemind is fickle?

"Creepy Henry" by the other kids

Mind Flayer bullies him

Using the hivemind to hunt for Eleven

"Obsession is how you love"

Eating dinner away from the rest of the family as a child

Comic books

Eggs?

Flies around like Spider-Man with the vines

Corpses = Trophies

Spiders = Muse

Mind Flayer communicates to Henry with Brenner's voice

"Most human thing about him" is feeling time

"Tied down like your mother" ??

Physically inside brains?

Obsession with the past

Obsession the only way he can connect

Influence only goes as far as the corruption

Ants? Spiders eat ants?

Chapter 2 says November 1983

Mind Flayer wants to devour everything

Will the key

Chapter 3 The Possession of Will Byers

Vecna in communication with Will

Manipulates Will's memories?

"I understand you more than anybody else"

Can possess technology?

Sows seeds of doubt

"You'll finally matter to someone, Will"

Fascinated by environment (nerd)

Mind Flayer absorbs Henry's memories

Studies Henry

Brenner said he'd take the chip out

Stole some of the Flayer's power?

Mind Flayer is a DICK

Keeps escaping Mind Flayer's influence

Rewarded for hurting things

Saw Eleven like a sister - "Alice"

Eleven was the "replacement?"

Mind Flayer deadass pulls out a "rate your emotions" chart

Henry corrupts the Upside Down

We stopped in the middle of the memory nexus loop since the headset was dying and it was getting late, but that's what I've written down so far. I'll update this once we finish the game and then maybe come up with a more comprehensive analysis post.

[silvercat-s]

I have not played the game or watched the entire game playthrough, but it's obvious inconsistent with most of TFS

There is no mention of Henry ever being flayed. 

It's the first time the shadow has ever encountered a human. 

Henry is 12 in the lab

No mention of patty at all. 

Henry's personality is much more in line with what was believed of him in S4 than with TFS (an obsessive guy who does enjoy tormenting people)

Sooo, is it supposed to be canon? It seems to be a lot like the comics and novels, canon until the actual show contradicts it, but as far as I'm aware, the novels never contradict major plot points or characterization like the game seems to be doing.

But it's hard to believe the Duffers would allow something like that when they've been so protective of One's character in the past, not letting anyone use him on their books/comics. (one novel that was going to be focused on Brenner got cancelled last year; I assume it just didn't fit the TFS/S5 canon.)

And from everything the game developers could've done that would arguably please the GA audience much more, they chose to develop a game entirely focused on the storyline, about Henry's time on Dimension X. What a odd choice!

Anyway, IF it's canon, then TFS Henry and Game Henry are just straight up not the same guy, or there's some serious memory manipulation involved, it's just not the same characters or the same story

Or maybe I'm overthinking it and it's simply not canon, and the duffers just don't care, it's all so weird!

[byler-alarmist]

i’d believe in canon endgame romantic elmax if lucas wasn’t in the picture 🤷🏽‍♂️

Hi, Anon! Well, I'm not certain that Elmax are endgame per se, and I do genuinely think Lumax is very sweet. Lucas is such a good guy, and he really deserves to be happy. You can tell he really loves Max.

That said, I have to wonder if El had been in Hawkins during the events of S4, maybe Max would have coped better with the death of Billy? Idk, I just feel like she'd be more open with El about her feelings. Also, El is more intimately familiar with death in a way that Lucas wasn't (until Max 😭).

I was rewatching the S3 finale the other day and something about showing Max alone in her room by a window at the end like they did (it might have been near a scene of El by a window?) made me think she was also depressed about losing El in addition to Billy. Maybe Will and Mike weren't the only ones hurting in that way.

Did El and Max ever keep in touch? Why or why not? I don't expect this will be answered, but it was a question I had.

The way that El's Lenora date was so clearly all things Max would've enjoyed.....that was a perfect Elmax date and you can't tell me differently! Not for Milkvan, unfortunately.

And Max would've had the perfect comebacks for Angela and her cronies. I think Elmax would've been untouchable together, and Max would've definitely backed her up in a fight.

The way they filmed the school hallway scene where it cuts from El to Max, both feeling adrift and alone in their respective environments. They needed each other!! Much the same way that Byler needed each other.

Arghhh I know Lumax is so cute and they have the movie date planned and everything. I've written before how I feel about Lumax vs. Elmax and how if there was a way for Elumax to happen, I would be so down.

Idk though, whether it's endgame or not, I still see the romantic potential of Elmax so clearly. Whether romantic or platonic though, the clearest thing of all to me is that El and Max needed each other in S4.

[aemiron-main]

I’m Not A (Violent) Dog, I Don’t Know Why I Bite: Henry Creel Vs Cujo

So, all of the references to dogs and rabies in Stranger Things got me thinking about the ST narrative (specifically Henward’s narrative) versus Cujo.

(Also, everything in this post as of right now applies to both Henry and Edward Creel (especially with how TFS “Henry” seems to not be Henry), but I’m just saying Henry for simplicity’s sake since that’s how they refer to him in TFS.)

So, we all know that on the very very surface level of things, Henry Creel is presented as evil and violent- just like Cujo.

But the reality for Cujo is that he was scared -a scared dog who contracted rabies and had no control over his actions.

And Henry, ESPECIALLY in TFS is the exact same way. A scared boy who contracted the shadow and can’t control his actions. Not an evil boy. Not a violent boy. A scared boy.

And while Cujo works as a fantastic way of explaining Henry’s story, I also think that the Henry-Cujo parallels are 100% intentional. Let’s go through some of them.

So, in TFS, it’s revealed that Henry was in a cave in Nevada when he contracted the shadow/when he changed- just like Cujo, who contracted rabies and changed when he was bitten by a bat in a cave:

And also, Cujo was chasing a rabbit into a cave, which has me staring at a.) all of Henry’s rabbit imagery, and b.) the fact that in TFS, Brenner mentions a pet Creel rabbit that Henry supposedly killed- but we don’t ever see this rabbit or get any other crumbs about it when the Creels are in Hawkins, which to me, implies that the rabbit died in Nevada.

Which makes me wonder if the family pet rabbit got loose, and Henry chased it into the cave, and ended up killing it after being flayed because it was afraid of him (and like I talked about in this post, fear seems to be what triggers the shadow into killing people/animals such as Prancer).

Also, in TFS, when Henry’s seizing, he begins to foam at the mouth- much like a rabid dog/like Cujo. And in ST, Henry talks about how his parents had hoped to cure him by moving to Hawkins, but it didn’t work- much like how there’s no cure for rabies.

And also in TFS, Henry has a line where he says “the monster doesn’t lie,” versus the line in the Cujo book that says “the monster never dies”

Also, when Cujo gets bitten, his only thought is hoping that his owners won’t scold him/call him a bad dog for getting bitten- which makes me think of Henry and how often Virginia scolds him throughout TFS (even for non-shadow related things, which implies that her scolding Henry predates the shadow/cave incident), and makes me wonder what Henry was thinking when he contracted the shadow. If he was just hoping that his mom wouldn’t scold him- hoping that she wouldn’t scold him for losing his Captain Midnight spyglass, perhaps (which was a birthday gift given to him & he lost it in that cave).

Especially with the footage from that ST VR game, where a shadow version of Virginia is scolding Henry & the vibe is that it’s a memory of when Henry just returned from somewhere (based on Alice yelling his name as if she’s searching for him), and I actually think that whole scene is Henry’s memories of when he reunited with his family after leaving the cave in Nevada, which tracks with Alice yelling his name as if she’s been searching for him (as he was missing for 12 hours) and Victor and Virginia both asking Henry what happened/Virginia scolding him.

And especially with how TFS Victor emphasizes that Henry is a “good boy,” it makes me wonder how often Virginia referred to Henry as bad, much like Cujo hoping that they won’t call him a bad dog for getting bitten.

Also, Cujo specifically didn’t want to go home after getting bitten because he was worried that he’d get called a “bad dog”- which makes me wonder how long it took Henry to go home. And if the shadow could’ve been “cured” or even just helped slightly if he had gone home, if even just a warm bath would’ve been enough to expel the shadow in its very early stages (after all, they got a fairly late-stage shadow out of Will with a few heaters and a fire- it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Henry could’ve expelled the shadow if he wasn’t afraid to go home/had gotten home & gotten help/gotten warmed up etc etc- JUST like how a rabies post-exposure prophylaxis only works before you start showing symptoms, so if they’d gotten Cujo a post-exposure prophylaxis before he started showing symptoms…)

Would a warm bath- a bath just like the one Joyce filled for Will in S2, too hot for the shadow but not physically too hot for Will’s skin (see: Joyce testing the temperature with her hand), have saved Henry?

It would explain why Virginia’s shown with the tub so much- if a simple bath could’ve saved him if he’d gone home sooner but he was afraid to go home because of Virginia.

And Brenner also says something during TFS that totally aligns with everything I’ve said here re: good dog/good boy vs bad dog/bad boy and not wanting to go home- TFS Brenner says “you think you can run back home to mommy and be a good boy again?” Much like how Cujo couldn’t run back home and be a good boy again.

It’s got that exact “Henry felt like he couldn’t go home to Virginia after the caves because she would scold him/tell him he was bad,” vibe. Especially since Brenner in TFS tends to pick at Henry’s already-existing insecurities/trauma.

Which ALSO reminds me of Joyce waiting at home for Will in S1/waiting in Will’s room with all of the lamps versus how Virginia in TFS waits in the attic for Henry so that she can scold Henry when he gets home- which would totally track with Virginia and Joyce being opposites/Joyce waiting for Will so that she can welcome him home vs Virginia waiting in the attic for Henry so that she can scold him AND Virginia waiting at home in Nevada when Henry went missing in the caves & waiting there to scold him.

Hell, Virginia during the “waiting in the attic”, scene in TFS even has a DIRECT dialogue parallel to Joyce when she’s waiting in Will’s room:

Also, jumping over to Victor, in Cujo, the father of the family is named Vic. And the son of the family, Tad, is literally described as “sensitive,” just like Henry is:

Henry seems to be what would happen if it had been Tad that went rabid in the Cujo story- if the boy and the dog had swapped places. Henry seems to be a combination of Tad and Cujo.

Which also has me staring directly at 7 year old Henry’s dog:

And how TFS Brenner mentions Henry killing dogs:

And how Henry’s dog looks eerily similar to Will’s dog, Chester, and how Chester was scared/barking at the door on the night Will vanished & how Chester may have started barking at Henry & being scared of him after Henry returned home flayed- and then awhile ago, James also brought up what I talked about in that previously linked post re: fear triggering the shadow & James tied it to the idea of Henry accidentally killing his dog because his dog was scared of him. Which, again, would be sort of like a reverse Cujo situation.

Hell, David Harbour even talks about how he suggested to the Duffers that they should kill pff Chester- which, they may have implemented a similar storyline with Henry having accidentally killed his dog:

And also, in the book, Tad dies of heat exhaustion (he ended up stuck in a hot car trying to get away from Cujo) right as Cujo is killed- which makes me think of how the shadow made Will sensitive to heat/heat was hurting/killing him and how TFS Henry says that he “likes it cold”- and just how both Tad and Cujo’s deaths are paralleled vs Henry being a mixture of Tad and Cujo.

And I’ve talked in this post and this post about the rabies references surrounding Henry, and so we already know that the rabies references are tied to him.

I also talked in this post about the whole “I’m not a dog,” line vs “you’re not a child,” and how that connects to Henry, which, again, demonstrates that Henry is connected to the dog references in ST just like how he’s connected to the rabies references.

Henry Creel isn’t a violent boy- in TFS Victor’s words, Henry’s a “good boy.”

And so, when it comes to analyzing Henry Creel, especially in TFS, it would perhaps not be amiss to point out that he had always tried to be a good boy. He had never wanted to kill anybody. He had been struck by something, possibly destiny, or fate, or only a degenerative disease. Free will was not a factor.

Just like Cujo.

They were both good boys.

[reikunrei]

"More than just an ordinary human."

It's that time again! Another Doctor Who episode wahoo!! Let's check out season 3, episode 6:

"The Lazarus Experiment"

So, Lazarus is, obviously, taken from the biblical figure of Lazarus who was brought back from the dead by Jesus. The story of his revival is meant to exemplify the power Jesus has over death itself, but I won't be talking about that in-depth here; the Bible-talk is more James's wheelhouse lol.

As it applies to this Doctor Who episode, it's not so much about coming back from the dead, but rather about cheating death. Professor Richard Lazarus has created an invention, which he calls a "miracle" (the same word used by Patty in reference to "Henry's" powers in tfs), that will essentially de-age anyone who steps inside.

(Peeping the fact that he specifically mentions the moon landing like Mr. Clarke mentions it in st3)

However, there's a catch! He didn't do his proper research! He didn't account for all possible variables! And something in his DNA is trying to change him! (Another tfs word! We love to see it!)

Rejuvenating, you say? Even after the Doctor blows up Lazarus in his monster form and he comes out entirely unscathed? Golly, I wonder who that reminds me of! Anyway.

So basically what happened is Lazarus "changed his own molecular patterns" by "hack[ing] into his own genes" which is SUCH a NINA-ass word to use. Don't even remind me of all the computer stuff that's being pushed in the st5 leaks and updates. This has seemingly activated something in his DNA that's trying to make him change, and that "change" is a giant scorpion-like monster that is absolutely ravenous. Before the Doctor and Martha are looking at his DNA, we see a scene of Dr. Lazarus grabbing a finger-food platter from one of the waitstaff at his invention's unveiling and scarfs it down, saying he's famished, which the Doctor isn't surprised by (it's insinuated that he understands, at least loosely, what's happening because of the Time Lord's ability to regenerate, which always wears them out and makes them very energy-hungry).

In his monster form, Dr. Lazarus drains all the "life-energy" out of several human victims in order to sate his hunger, leaving an empty shell. (Insert Vecna consuming his victims to get stronger, insert "Henry" killing animals in tfs to sate the Shadow and it being much more powerful when "he" finally kills Virginia, insert Max being left an empty body without a soul/life, etc. etc., you get the picture. Not to mention that the Doctor equates it to "squeezing the juice out of an orange" ... I wasn't expecting a little st vr connection, but I'll take it!). He has little to no control over his transformation, and while he can feel it coming on, he can't just snap in and out of it; it simply takes over and he changes. The first time we see him transform, he writhes on the ground in agony and his wife asks if it's "some kind of seizure" (smash cut to "Henry" in tfs seizing).

Later, after some running around, being chased, and doing some thinking, the Doctor explains to Martha that this "thing" (Lazarus) isn't alien, it's "strictly human in origin." This form was becoming "dominant" because the process of de-aging himself likely awoke some dormant genes that "evolution rejected...millions of years ago...forgotten until Lazarus unlocked it by mistake."

A big part of this episode is about hubris. Dr. Lazarus is overconfident in his invention, and he spends ample part of the start of the episode dismissing the Doctor and Martha when they both warn him that something may be wrong/this may be more dangerous than he realizes. On top of Dr. Lazarus seeking out youth/prolonged life, much like the idea that Brenner is looking for some sort of power/immortality of some kind in st (barely even touching on the other weird stuff like Brenner not aging in tfs between 1959-1979), a lot of it made me think of El tearing into Brenner in 4.08, especially her emphasis on him being the monster, on all of this being his fault, all because he couldn't let Henry go. Brenner has constantly been presented to us, throughout all mediums, to be fairly stubborn and determined to get what he wants, even if the results are catastrophic (ie. the number of guards and orderlies who have died helping him with his child dungeon project, all of the children themselves dying in one way or another, even his own ass getting jumped by a demogorgon and then shot to bleed out and "die" in the desert).

Which leads into the other core aspect of this episode: humanity.

Throughout all of Doctor Who, the Doctor makes it clear that he finds humans utterly fascinating, especially in their mundanity. He emphasizes the importance of everyone's individuality and tells everyone they're special and important, even if they don't really "do" anything. Simply being who they are is what makes them matter; they don't need to be useful or supply anything groundbreaking in order to be amazing in his eyes. They exist as humans, and that's all that matters.

In this episode, we see Lazarus talk about how humans, as they are now, are basically inferior. While a large part of his motivations are about the money he'll make off of such an invention, we learn later that he has a distinct and deep fear of death and being defenseless against it. He wants to "change what it means to be human," to give them "a chance...to evolve, to improve" and to make sure he never has to face death like he did as a child: terrified and vulnerable.

We get the two following conversations between the Doctor and Lazarus, one at about the midway point of the episode before shit really hits the fan, and the other is near the very end of the episode after shit has really hit the fan.

This next one is split into several pieces to get in all the lines because they say a lot that jumps out as very important and distinctly Brenner, with some smatterings of One's monologue and some Henry-isms, especially from tfs, and the general presence of many of The Words.

I wanna point out that the Doctor being at the London Blitz is a direct reference to the episodes I talked about in my last dw post. And I find it incredibly interesting that a lot of the original tfs promo was heavily centered around church, like how this final standoff is in a cathedral, even so far as having Mr. Newby originally be listed as Father Newby, etc., despite the final play not being as heavy-handed with the religious imagery. Idk it's just itching something in my brain! I also wanna note that, since it's kinda hard to see here, the camera pans around Lazarus in a counterclockwise circle, following the path of the Doctor as he circles him, and we aaall know how st loves to use circling camera shots like that.

I especially want to touch on the second conversation the Doctor and Lazarus have in the church. The Doctor speaks to him calmly, trying to get him to understand and have compassion for the experience that is being human rather than trying to cheat it, and that living an exceptionally long life really isn't all it's cracked up to be. Even though Lazarus is now a "monster," he's still intensely humanized. He's killed at least four people at this point, but the Doctor doesn't go about simply trying to belittle, dehumanize, or kill him.

When it comes to Brenner, unfortunately, we still don't know much about his past, but we have a lot we can assume or extrapolate, at least based off what tfs has told us and the gaps we can fill in from st itself. We know, at least vaguely, that he and his father had a strained relationship. During the opening sequence of tfs on the USS Eldridge, we hear Captain Brenner talking to his other shipmates about how "it's my kid's birthday today, he told me he hates me."

However, later in the show, Brenner tells "Henry" that his father's return from Dimension X and subsequent death because of it compelled him to join Project Rainbow and devote his life to the cause and figure out what happened. With "Henry's" seeming ability to survive being infected by the Shadow, Brenner tries to tap into that. His main goal in tfs is to make contact with the Shadow and figure out what happened to his father, and since it's then explained that he made more children like "Henry" (specifically the immunity to the Shadow/the shared blood that supposedly gives them that immunity), it's clear he's trying to avoid is father's fate in that way. In short, it very much comes off as an attempt to try and cheat death.

Brenner, throughout the show, often presents what he does as good, both for the children in the lab and for humanity as a whole (though specifically for the US, focused on beating back those nasty commies). Even if he does bad things, it's for the greater good! He has good intentions! That's gotta count for something, right? /s

Both Lazarus and Brenner went into their respective experiments because they thought they could become better than human. Or in Brenner's case, at the very least he could live vicariously through his experiments to feel better than human, which was explicitly touched on in the vr game in clips like this one. As we also see in st4, El tries to call Brenner a monster, but when she relays this thinking to Vecna, he rejects it, and calls Brenner "an ordinary, mediocre man."

Shortly after that first conversation I showed between Lazarus and the Doctor on the rooftop, after Lazarus transforms, there's a sequence where, from inside Lazarus's machine, the Doctor is able to reverse the polarity of the capsule so it reflects energy rather than receive it, and it blasts Lazarus away, turning him back into human form and supposedly killing him.

Right away, with this comment from Martha, Lazarus is equated back to an ordinary human. He's not made to be the "big bad villain" where everyone is glad he's dead, nor is he made out to be this reverent being. He's someone to be pitied. It's decidedly solemn. He was just a man out of his depth who bit off more than he could chew... much like how Brenner is a man out of his depth who bit off more than he could chew.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we learned that Brenner was actively harming himself in his attempt to do… whatever. Much like how Lazarus was harming himself (and others) in order to maintain his new youth, Brenner may be harming himself with his experiments. Whether that be via blood transfusions/consuming blood (see the post I linked from Stav above), or by doing something as drastic as physically combining himself with one of the Henwards, I doubt anything 100% good and rewarding could come from it. Even if he's looking for something like regenerative healing, as we see in Vecna and as hinted by Brenner not being dead despite getting jumped by a demogorgon, what does he have to do to reach that point? What risks are there involved that he may not have accounted for, simply because he would have no idea that they exist in the first place? Just looking at the circumstances of the weird Brenward face combo we get in 4.07… he didn’t exactly wind up in a great spot after combining himself, did he? Plus, while I'm of the mind that Vecna and the guy we see shape the Mind Flayer are two different dudes (James and Em have other posts about this as well), the way it's presented to us implies that Vecna evolved from the MF guy, so there's a sort of compounding that changes in his appearance from mostly-human to mostly-infected-by-the-UD, which... also doesn't seem great.

We can already see how being infected by the Shadow affects people, which is highlighted in Henry not sleeping and barely eating when he's flayed. Hell, Brenner saw what happened to his father after he returned from Dimension X, and he took the lives of several test subjects (many of them children) in his own experiments. He already knows that there are risks and detractions in this work.

At the very end of this dw episode, Lazarus is finally actually killed. Using the organ in the church, the Doctor amplifies its sound using his Sonic Screwdriver to create "hypersonic sound waves" in order to interfere with Lazarus on a molecular level, which is more or less the same thing he did with his machine. Lazarus falls from a high balcony within the church, disoriented by the noise, and turns back into a human upon death. He even reverts back to his "correct" elderly appearance as the Doctor kneels over him and gently shuts his eyes.

We've already seen something similar to this sort of death with Brenner in st4. While I wouldn't say it was a soft moment for him, since El was still clearly rejecting him, she still leaned into his touch, still listened to him, and clearly was grappling with a lot of messy feelings. She, in that moment, wanted to view him as a monster, but she couldn't. Not entirely. That's her Papa! That's someone who, for most of her life, despite every horrible thing he did, took care of her; who said he loved her and held her best interests at heart.

In my mind, this sort of "soft end" is what we should expect for Brenner and Vecna in st5. It could be even softer than what we see in st4, because as much as Brenner deserves to have his shit absolutely rocked, we've been increasingly shown that he is only human. Human's are not monsters, but humans can do monstrous things. That doesn't make them inhuman. And, as people like James and Em have spoken extensively about lately, Brenner is likely but one cog in the machine that is the Cycles in this show, and not necessarily the source of the cycles to begin with. He didn't pop outta the womb wanting to build a child torture dungeon, but something happened to bring him there and cloud his judgement.

And even if the death is something more intense and dramatic like that of Lazarus, it's not necessarily something to celebrate, yknow? Even if the threat is gone (which is a very good thing), it took many horrible, avoidable things to get there in the first place, and that's what's tragic.

B-B-B-Bonus Round: Just Some Extra Shit

vs "Henry" going missing in Nevada for 12 hours per tfs. Martha has been on several trips with the Doctor thus far, so there's the added bit of "the passage of time is messed up" seeing as, for her, it's been several days, but to everyone else it's only been 12 hours.

All of the above is so... yeah lol. Lazarus is repeatedly very weird to the two young women in this episode, Martha and her sister Tish, and he even rejects his elderly wife in one scene when she kisses him and he tells her to "look at [her]self." The sniffing thing even made me think of the demogorgon being given the trait of "smelling blood" so... I see you, Brennergorgon.

I could've probably fit this bit somewhere above, but I'm too lazy, so it's going here instead. Love a good boiler room setting and talking about sacrifices!

"Always the mothers" just like how Brenner say it was always the mothers who came to him convinced their children had abilities or issues, etc. (plus just a little context for Martha's mom's "dangerous" comment: this season has an overarching hidden plot about the Master, who I touched on in another one of my dw posts, wherein he basically holds political power over the city (hiding the fact that he's a Time Lord) and is trying to sabotage the Doctor).

[notthatalex]

What are the origins of Augustus and the Chosen respectively, when did they first meet each other and what is their dynamic?

Ok so

The Chosen:

His first appearance was in a smosh Vegas episode. 'Playing Blackjack in Viva Smosh Vegas' (Sept. 2020)

How Shayne came up with the character is kinda interesting. Because he was supposed to play Aunt carolyn in that episode, but they didn't have her wig on hand. So he had to come up with something on the fly. He had a vague idea that he wanted to play a character like this already tho. He didn't have a name however, and like he came up with the name "Spencer Agnew" on the fly while being asked the question in the video. That's why a bunch of people think he was supposed to he a parody of Spencer when that was actually never the case. I think that is also the reason they don't bring up that name a lot anymore and just use "The Chosen".

Augustus:

Augustus is a actually a lot older as a character than The Chosen. But he is in a lot less videos.

His first video was 'DAMIEN KNOWS DA WAE' (Jan. 2018). A vr chat video.

After that he appeared in a bunch of maricraft videos. A minecraft let's play series on smosh games back in the day. There bunch of stuff got established about the Character and a bunch people think he got created there because they don't know about the vr chat video . He didn't get a look till 2020 though. Until then he was just a voice and name.

Augustus full name is Augustus St. Cloud and he definitely got heavily inspired by the Venture Bros Character with the exact same name. Damien never talked about it but it is a very strong educated "guess". They got the same first and last same, as well as the same voice and a couple of character traits.

Nintendogs:

Two only videos they interact in.

'POV: You entered a Gamestop'

'The Chosen vs Augustus: Bakugan'

They got posted only one day apart as well. In Nov. 2021. The ship name nintendogs came to be because in the Gamestop Video they play nintendogs together

I love their dynamic so much because they are both insufferable nerds. Also the competitive nature of their relationship. My favorite awful guys.

My hopes to ever get then in a video together again are not that high. Honestly I thought Augustus wasn't even going to show up again till the TNTL appearance a couple of days ago.

But a boy can dream.

If you want to know more and want to check out all their appearances in smosh content I wrote wiki articles for them.

The Augustus one I wrote entirely myself. So if anyone wants to add to it, fact check something or especially if I missed an appearance, I would appreciate an edit. Or tell me and I do it.

The Chosen one was already there, but it was a big mess. And I am still working on it. I edited a big chunk of it already but there is still stuff missing.

Both of them have videos that were exclusive to other platforms btw! (Facebook, Instagram). So if anyone wants more content for them, there is a chance you missed those. I listed them on their wiki pages.

I am thinking about making a wiki page for Nintendogs but I am not sure if the wiki administrators would like that lol. I fear that it would just be deleted. There is stuff about shipping on it, but it is very old and the only ship that has a page is Iananothy. Maybe I am going to ask them if I can. Idk yet haha.

Thanks for the ask hehe. I will take every chance to infodump about this I can get

[sakannaz]

𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐋𝐄

╰┈─➤ 𝙸𝙽 𝚆𝙷𝙸𝙲𝙷: Not every miracle is a good one, but you were, to angel. Even if you were cold and distant to him, he could always keep trying.

Nope x reader [insert]

Note 📝: here’s chapter four! Hope you enjoy.

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰᴏᴜʀ: 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨

Once the sun was up, you ran to the door but Angel blocked you and me from getting through.

“No, st-st-stop. Can’t we just wait, right?” Angel suggested, you shook your head and ignored him.

“You can, but I’m not!” You exclaimed, em nodded in agreement, “No. I’m not gonna be here alone.” Angel replied.

“I’ve got to get out this fucking house!” em said, “No.” Angel said, making you stop in your tracks.

Angel grabbed you by the shoulder, grabbing your chin and making you face him.

“We’re alive still because we stayed here.” He said, you looked him in the eyes for a minute before placing a kiss on his lips.

“Finally.” em said, that must’ve distracted angel because em took that as her chance to walk out the door, you grabbed Angel’s hand and ran outside.

You saw oj open the van door, he gestured for the three of you to get inside the van.

You heard growling above you, it was looking at you, you stared at it for a minute before looking down to the ground.

Oj clicked his tongue and patted his leg, indicating for the three of you to hurry up, em and angel were the first to get inside and then you, and last oj.

➽───────────❥

You were at angel’s house, he had his vr headset on, you were pacing around, thinking about what just happened awhile ago.

“There’s this- this uh, there’s this diner, uh, if we wanna get our mind off of things we can go there?” You suggested, oj and em nodded in agreement.

Angel didn’t hear you as he was laughing at something, “Angel.” You said, tapping his shoulder softly.

He took the headset off and looked at you with a smile, “Yeah?” He asked, you were a bit nervous to ask but took the courage to do so.

“Can I wear your jacket and shirt?” You asked, he nodded and handed them to you, you went to go change in the bathroom.

You closed the door behind you and looked at yourself in the mirror, dark circle underneath your eyes.

You turned the sink on and splashed some cold water on your face, “if it’s not there..you don’t see it.” You whispered to yourself.

➽───────────❥

You sat beside Angel at the diner, eating out of his plate, eyes focused on what was in front of you.

“You never go wrong with a fried fish sandwich.” Angel spoke, you nodded in agreement.

“Tartar got tang.” He said, you let out a chuckle and leaned your head on his shoulder, “Stupid. ‘Tartar got tang’?” Em said.

Angel chuckled, “Right?” He said in reply, taking your hand in his.

“I don’t think it eats you if you don’t look it in the eye.” oj suddenly said, making everyone go quiet.

You sighed and rubbed your eyes tiredly, “RTR, bro. You know? Like, read the room.” Angel said, turning to oj.

You went back to eating, “Nobody want to talk about that.” em told oj, your hands were shaking now as your mind went back to that night.

You stood up and took angel’s and your tray towards where the trashcan was, you both were already done anyways.

oj and em did the same, following you outside as you crossed your arms and waited for oj to tell you all the plan.

Angel stood beside you.

“Every animal got rules, alright? We know what it wants. and we know how it comes, so…” oj trailed off.

“We really don’t know shit.” Angel said with a chuckle, “Oj, what’s this about, man?” Em asked.

“What’s this about? You want me to…You want me to say, ‘I’m sorry’? ‘I was wrong’? ‘It’s dumb’?” She continued.

“It wasn’t dumb. Own the moment.” Oj said, “Stop. Stop this shit.” “It was good. It was good.” They were both talking over each other.

“But the moment about to pass. And we don’t own shit.” Oj stated, you and Angel look between the two of them.

You had a headache already, it was only getting worse, “okay. well, I assume y’all are crashing at mine. Right. ‘cause you can. ‘Cause I’m not going back to the fucking monster umbrella. Plus; (Y/n) has to go to sleep early so, yeah.” He said, he took your hand and you both walked to the van.

You sat inside the van and leaned your head on angel’s shoulder. You were slowly falling asleep, he made sure not to make any noise as you did so.

It was waiting for you. And you knew it.

[agox]

Last night I got high and wrote a program to find all of the unused elemental symbols. It turns out there’s 585 of them and it’s much less interesting the next day.

One interesting finding: I couldn’t be bothered to generate all possible one and two letter strings, so I asked ChatGPT to write me code that would do all that for me. It worked surprisingly well!

['a', 'd', 'e', 'g', 'h', 'j', 'l', 'm', 'q', 'r', 't', 'x', 'z', 'aa', 'ab', 'ad', 'ae', 'af', 'ah', 'ai', 'aj', 'ak', 'an', 'ao', 'ap', 'aq', 'av', 'aw', 'ax', 'ay', 'az', 'bb', 'bc', 'bd', 'bf', 'bg', 'bj', 'bl', 'bm', 'bn', 'bo', 'bp', 'bq', 'bs', 'bt', 'bu', 'bv', 'bw', 'bx', 'by', 'bz', 'cb', 'cc', 'cg', 'ch', 'ci', 'cj', 'ck', 'cp', 'cq', 'ct', 'cv', 'cw', 'cx', 'cy', 'cz', 'da', 'dc', 'dd', 'de', 'df', 'dg', 'dh', 'di', 'dj', 'dk', 'dl', 'dm', 'dn', 'do', 'dp', 'dq', 'dr', 'dt', 'du', 'dv', 'dw', 'dx', 'dz', 'ea', 'eb', 'ec', 'ed', 'ee', 'ef', 'eg', 'eh', 'ei', 'ej', 'ek', 'el', 'em', 'en', 'eo', 'ep', 'eq', 'et', 'ev', 'ew', 'ex', 'ey', 'ez', 'fa', 'fb', 'fc', 'fd', 'ff', 'fg', 'fh', 'fi', 'fj', 'fk', 'fn', 'fo', 'fp', 'fq', 'fs', 'ft', 'fu', 'fv', 'fw', 'fx', 'fy', 'fz', 'gb', 'gc', 'gf', 'gg', 'gh', 'gi', 'gj', 'gk', 'gl', 'gm', 'gn', 'go', 'gp', 'gq', 'gr', 'gs', 'gt', 'gu', 'gv', 'gw', 'gx', 'gy', 'gz', 'ha', 'hb', 'hc', 'hd', 'hh', 'hi', 'hj', 'hk', 'hl', 'hm', 'hn', 'hp', 'hq', 'hr', 'ht', 'hu', 'hv', 'hw', 'hx', 'hy', 'hz', 'ia', 'ib', 'ic', 'id', 'ie', 'if', 'ig', 'ih', 'ii', 'ij', 'ik', 'il', 'im', 'io', 'ip', 'iq', 'is', 'it', 'iu', 'iv', 'iw', 'ix', 'iy', 'iz', 'ja', 'jb', 'jc', 'jd', 'je', 'jf', 'jg', 'jh', 'ji', 'jj', 'jk', 'jl', 'jm', 'jn', 'jo', 'jp', 'jq', 'jr', 'js', 'jt', 'ju', 'jv', 'jw', 'jx', 'jy', 'jz', 'ka', 'kb', 'kc', 'kd', 'ke', 'kf', 'kg', 'kh', 'ki', 'kj', 'kk', 'kl', 'km', 'kn', 'ko', 'kp', 'kq', 'ks', 'kt', 'ku', 'kv', 'kw', 'kx', 'ky', 'kz', 'lb', 'lc', 'ld', 'le', 'lf', 'lg', 'lh', 'lj', 'lk', 'll', 'lm', 'ln', 'lo', 'lp', 'lq', 'ls', 'lt', 'lw', 'lx', 'ly', 'lz', 'ma', 'mb', 'me', 'mf', 'mh', 'mi', 'mj', 'mk', 'ml', 'mm', 'mp', 'mq', 'mr', 'ms', 'mu', 'mv', 'mw', 'mx', 'my', 'mz', 'nc', 'nf', 'ng', 'nj', 'nk', 'nl', 'nm', 'nn', 'nq', 'nr', 'ns', 'nt', 'nu', 'nv', 'nw', 'nx', 'ny', 'nz', 'oa', 'ob', 'oc', 'od', 'oe', 'of', 'oh', 'oi', 'oj', 'ok', 'ol', 'om', 'on', 'oo', 'op', 'oq', 'or', 'ot', 'ou', 'ov', 'ow', 'ox', 'oy', 'oz', 'pc', 'pe', 'pf', 'pg', 'ph', 'pi', 'pj', 'pk', 'pl', 'pn', 'pp', 'pq', 'ps', 'pv', 'pw', 'px', 'py', 'pz', 'qa', 'qb', 'qc', 'qd', 'qe', 'qf', 'qg', 'qh', 'qi', 'qj', 'qk', 'ql', 'qm', 'qn', 'qo', 'qp', 'qq', 'qr', 'qs', 'qt', 'qu', 'qv', 'qw', 'qx', 'qy', 'qz', 'rc', 'rd', 'ri', 'rj', 'rk', 'rl', 'rm', 'ro', 'rp', 'rq', 'rr', 'rs', 'rt', 'rv', 'rw', 'rx', 'ry', 'rz', 'sa', 'sd', 'sf', 'sh', 'sj', 'sk', 'sl', 'so', 'sp', 'sq', 'ss', 'st', 'su', 'sv', 'sw', 'sx', 'sy', 'sz', 'td', 'tf', 'tg', 'tj', 'tk', 'tn', 'to', 'tp', 'tq', 'tr', 'tt', 'tu', 'tv', 'tw', 'tx', 'ty', 'tz', 'ua', 'ub', 'uc', 'ud', 'ue', 'uf', 'ug', 'uh', 'ui', 'uj', 'uk', 'ul', 'um', 'un', 'uo', 'up', 'uq', 'ur', 'us', 'ut', 'uu', 'uv', 'uw', 'ux', 'uy', 'uz', 'va', 'vb', 'vc', 'vd', 've', 'vf', 'vg', 'vh', 'vi', 'vj', 'vk', 'vl', 'vm', 'vn', 'vo', 'vp', 'vq', 'vr', 'vs', 'vt', 'vu', 'vv', 'vw', 'vx', 'vy', 'vz', 'wa', 'wb', 'wc', 'wd', 'we', 'wf', 'wg', 'wh', 'wi', 'wj', 'wk', 'wl', 'wm', 'wn', 'wo', 'wp', 'wq', 'wr', 'ws', 'wt', 'wu', 'wv', 'ww', 'wx', 'wy', 'wz', 'xa', 'xb', 'xc', 'xd', 'xf', 'xg', 'xh', 'xi', 'xj', 'xk', 'xl', 'xm', 'xn', 'xo', 'xp', 'xq', 'xr', 'xs', 'xt', 'xu', 'xv', 'xw', 'xx', 'xy', 'xz', 'ya', 'yc', 'yd', 'ye', 'yf', 'yg', 'yh', 'yi', 'yj', 'yk', 'yl', 'ym', 'yn', 'yo', 'yp', 'yq', 'yr', 'ys', 'yt', 'yu', 'yv', 'yw', 'yx', 'yy', 'yz', 'za', 'zb', 'zc', 'zd', 'ze', 'zf', 'zg', 'zh', 'zi', 'zj', 'zk', 'zl', 'zm', 'zo', 'zp', 'zq', 'zs', 'zt', 'zu', 'zv', 'zw', 'zx', 'zy', 'zz']

[huntedsmark]

I'm really curious about what Roma has going on with Osybus, how much he knows, how much you know... I am very eye emoji about it in general. Especially the significance of the increasingly? invisible limbs? A rad looking effect to be sure, but also hmmmmmm. (Also I saw it was your birthday recently! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)

WAH HELLO!!!!!!!! THANK U YES IT WAS (SPINNING HEARTS EMOJI) ROMA’S THING WITH OSYBUS IS A REALLY DEEP VEIN (I personally like it a lot because it naturally interacts really closely with many of Roma’s deepest fears, desires, coping mechanisms, and personal beliefs, and as a narrative device and mechanical plaything I couldn’t have asked for anything better) 

As a general ask “what’s roma’s thing with osybus?” is one of the most pandora’s box-y things you could’ve asked, so I hope you don’t mind if this is a bit wordy and like, ALL over the place.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Fast answer first: We (OOC party and IC pcs) believe that Osybus originally was part of I think Sessinek, or at least a larger being, and that he’s connected to the amber temple in some way. We also think that we released Osybus when Roma shattered one of the artifacts at the death house, but that’s a theory. Roma also has no idea how Deep he is in with Osybus and enters any transactional interaction with the idea that it may be his last, but I know he’s a little over halfway to being so far gone my DM takes him as an NPC. 

GENERAL BACKSTORY, Osybus is the headfriend (I don’t know the term for it but we just call them headfriends) Roma contracted with during the Feast in Vallaki. We were literally fighting for our lives in front of the church of St. Andral and things were looking pretty grim; a lot of the party was either fully missing or really badly injured, and Strahd was about to land a coup de grace by luring Ireena outside of the safety of the church via killing the party member she was in love with, our druid healer. In a last ditch effort, Roma used his turn to beg Strahd to make a deal with them to spare them, but Strahd very coldly refused because “there is nothing you could give me I would want,” and Roma was devastated. 

It was after that second Osybus contacted Roma in his mind, that he was Osybus the Immortal and that he could save them. Roma initially asked if he could save the whole party but Osybus said that was beyond his power, and that Roma could only choose one person for this gift. Roma was torn, so he decided to ask Osybus what Strahd wanted the most. 

“The girl.” Osybus answered. 

“Then he can’t have her.” Roma replied. “I pick Ireena.” And then Osybus killed Ireena!!! (Ireena was fine tho, and then not, and then worse, etc etc you know how Barovia is) 

Roma’s relationship with Osybus has morphed over time, starting from gratefully deferential due to Osybus “helping” Roma out so often and also due to Roma not having anyone he could turn to for assistance or companionship for a stint of time, to eventually pettily and one-sidedly antagonistic on Roma’s end due to VR’s warnings and some subsequent bad deals. 

That being said, despite it all Osybus is usually the one Roma turns to whenever he feels trapped and cornered, because Osybus’ power to grant wishes is often Roma’s only ripcord in situations where the options left to him are usually death or worse. Osybus has also been nothing but obliging and polite to Roma (though he has shades of sounding like, possessive), which makes interactions all the more sticky since Osybus has such a strong hold over him. 

The ghost limbs are one of the penalties from wishes from Osybus! Roma usually takes some sort of penalty whenever he makes a wish, and since I had some troubles with the original way Osybus’ penalties manifested (rot and decay) my DM kindly changed it to make his limbs translucent, with increasing transparency the more wishes Roma makes. He also has trouble leveraging their strength now that they're translucent and doesn’t have a shadow anymore! 

One of the last things to know about Roma is for a long time, he didn’t consider himself to have many strengths, but one he Did have was a VERY solid sense of self. He understood what he himself wanted, innately and always, and was really decisive about wholeheartedly pursuing whatever he believed was right (even if he was Really Not.) 

More recently, Roma also has begun to realize he has a lot more to gain in the world now that VR is back in the picture, and wants to spend whatever time VR has left to just, hang out with VR. When the adventure in Barovia ends, the first (and honestly, only) thing Roma wants to do is visit Van Richten’s greenhouse. He wants it more than anything in the whole wide world!! 

However, both of these things are now in jeopardy, since Roma is now So deep in Osybus’ penalty shootout with already so little to forfeit, that Osybus has started to change parts of Roma’s desires and personality as payment. And Roma is KEENLY aware of the changes and dissonance and the payments happening, but because they feel “natural” to his personality he struggles to disobey. 

Roma’s current dilemma is now--in extremely high stress, high danger situations-- having to choose between dying having never experience The Thing He Wants More Than Anything, or dealing with Osybus to survive to the end but risk being altered so much that the original reasons he made the deals for no longer matter. Real die a hero or live to be the villain type nonsense. 

[fils91]

The Never-Ending Mistreatment of Butters Essay/Rant

Butters Stotch deserves so much better. He does not belong with the worst parents in Western animation history nor does he belong in the worst town in Western animation history.

This essay/rant contains mentions of child abuse, which comes as no shock. If you’re a victim like me, then it’s best to not read any further. The only reason I’m writing this is because I have to get this out in the open. Read below the cut if you’re willing to.

Here goes nothing.

His day-in-the-limelight episode “Butters’ Very Own Episode” is a documentation of just how fucked up his life is. Y’all already know that by now, and that’s only the beginning of Trey and Matt’s obsession with torturing him (second only to Kyle).

After Butters replaces Kenny beginning with “Jared Has Aides”, he gets mistreated by the Main Three, which leads to easily the show’s most unforgivable moment. Cartman impersonates Butters to insult his parents over the phone, then sets up a chair from a distance from his house to sadistically watch his parents angrily come home and beat the ever-loving fuck out of Butters.

Who the fuck do T&M think they are pulling that stunt? If you ask me, that’s the ultimate defining moment of them being nihilistic, misanthropic, hateful human beings. They have zero disrespect for anybody suffering from trauma. It’s no surprise that Comedy Central themselves thought that was too far and banned the episode… before re-airing it with that scene edited. They should’ve permanently banned it.

It doesn’t stop there. They had the audacity to have Butters’ own grandmother bully him, and it actually made me cry. Thankfully, my own grandma never did that to me, but why the fuck would T&M still do that to Butters? Why do they insist on having everyone in his family be abusive shit-stains to him? Or everyone in town for that matter?

And then there’s the virtual reality episode. Just to further trigger me once more, Stephen has the audacity to claim that his and Linda’s parenting is “awesome”. These people have no right parenting or being in civil life. They belong in jail or in a mental hospital. And near the end of the episode, a repeat of the infamous ending of “Jared Has Aides” almost happened, and I was begging Stan to hurry up and do something before I rage the fuck out.

And as the biggest “fuck you” that T&M would give us, everything was just a virtual reality session. That does not excuse what the fuck they pulled. My PTSD getting triggered like that is beyond disrespectful, beyond irredeemable, beyond unacceptable.

I honestly have zero idea why people like Trey and Matt get away with pissing everybody off like that and still be alive and having careers. I can say the same for the creators of “Family Guy”, and one of them is not Seth MacFarlane–though he is to blame for allowing its infamous content through since he is the executive producer, which means he can veto a script that he disapproves of. The problem is, he hates working on the show so much that he’s attempting to bring himself down without having to resort to breaching his contract. He does not have to continue letting it run like that. Just veto the offensive shit. He’s making himself responsible for the show’s infamy.

But back to “South Park” and T&M’s hatred for Butters.

After the ass-pull that was the VR episode, Butters is still getting dumped on. The moment that they attempted to kill him off in the dreadful and misguided “Safe Space” had my heart pounding, tears forming, hoping that he pulled through. Thankfully, he did. 

Then there’s the “Post Covid” specials, where his future self went insane from neglect and caused him to be a NFT-shilling mental patient. Season 25 was where T&M was attempting to make that timeline happen by having Cartman selfishly fuck himself and his own mother over. We have to wait until Season 26 for the outcome. 

The “St. Patrick’s Day Credigree Weed Special” was peak Butters torture porn. Apart from having him regress back to his naive self, he gets arrested for pinching someone who he thought wasn’t wearing green, gets abused by a lawyer when he pinched her (hope the cunt lost her fucking job over that), gets tasered by a cop (after he unreasonably overreacts to him getting pinched by Butters), almost gets shot dead by the police because he’s too panicked to even consider to just stop running, and is eventually left with five years of community service.

The second part of “Streaming Wars” has him getting grounded for the umpteenth time for his involvement in the streaming wars. I’m pretty sure he knows the drill of “no fun because you’re grounded” by now, Stephen, you demeaning fuck. I hope you and Linda will feel very proud when he turns out terribly in the future. And treating his room like a prison in “Oh, Jeez” with all those locks on his door… I just want Social Services to do something at this point. Just don’t let controversially cringey Mr. Adams handle the case.

I despise how absolutely twisted people are. They do everything they can to get a rise out of people. It comes off as no surprise that I’m a cynical misanthrope. If anybody who has suffered like Butters, I’m certain they will be on my side when it comes to the constant, neverending mistreatment of Butters by the creators. 

Trey and Matt finally decided to put Tegridy Farms to rest. I hope to fucking God they will eventually put the Butters abuse to rest and just give Butters a goddamn break for once. He deserves a break. He deserves it.

[henrysglock]

Honestly, even on the VR where his characterization is arguibly less sympathetic than on tfs, henry still doesn't seems like a psychopath to me, people will see things like him having trouble connecting with others, connecting through obsession or hating routine task and assume it means he is a psychopath, where actually many autistic and adhd people work that way, it's kinda ableist

Right? And also...everything Henry does in the VR can be traced back to love. Regardless of the Shadow's meddling irt the morality of his motivations/adding the "negativity" into his motivations to convince him he's worse than he actually is...the basis is always love.

He loved and craved love from his family. He loved and craved love from El. Vecna connects on the basis of love, guilt, and feelings of worthlessness when love is withheld. No matter which version you believe is the "real" Henry...it always comes back to love and the damage done by withholding love.

Trouble connecting, trouble with or dislike of playing the social "game"/making small talk, hating monotony, being "broken", being "too much" and "not enough" at the same time, having trouble focusing but also being utterly obsessed with things, being brilliant and obedient, but also weird, outcast, and rebellious against authority...Those are all common auDHD experiences.

Henry's underpinnings of love (Specifically him loving others) and fear differentiate him from someone with ASP. To continue to conflate the two after multiple sets of media and a quite a few posts on the subject have set Henry apart irt symptoms is ableist, you're absolutely right, Anon.

[twotiime2]

Welcome! This is a Homestuck RP blog for a human Sollux Captor, aka Simon Castor. Here's his ref sheet! (eye strain tw)

My name is Sin, I'm 27 and my pronouns are he/they. I also run cookiietiime (follows from this blog), onlyhalfdead, and halfliife (follows from onlyhalfdead). 15 or so years of RP experience with the majority on tumblr.

Rules to follow, then some character lore.

I will choose who I do and don't block, talk to, and follow. Curate your online experience; I will tag anything you need as long as I know it is needed, but I'm not going to drop my friends and associates over your ooc grievances that are not related to me. Sorry.

It's likely I'll follow you back if I'm interested in your character, regardless!

Please try to tag autokrates for me if you interact with her. We have very old history I'm not going to get into. Don't worry about it for yourself.

Simon has been developed offscreen in the World of Darkness (specifically with M:TA Technocracy and H:TR parts, in a fictional Michigan town) and currently (through game fuckery, my ST jumps around game settings and systems) resides in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunky future reminiscent of the Judge Dredd universe. His MegaCity is in the Los Angeles territory and used to be called New Angeles until it was taken over by its new owner.

There's a lot of story that happened for this but this MegaCity is now a post-scarcity utopia, and trying to set a positive model for the rest of the continent's Cities so that they might adopt the same systems and improve quality of life for their inhabitants, too.

Simon's role in this is, through is VR Gaming company, trying to prepare Gamers for the next apocalypse on the horizon and teach them the skills necessary to survive outside of their MegaCities should the worst come to pass. It's been wildly successful. Ask him about it!

If you have any questions, my askbox is open. :)

[crow-ooc]

36 (hehe), 37, 38, 40 for either Corr and 39 for anyone you wish?

ask game can be found here!

36. How stubborn is your oc? Are they easily convinced of the opposite opinion, do they not agree but let it happen anyways? Or do they cause conflicts with their inability to budge in their decisions?

CORR: you know who you’re talking about right. you know who you’re talking about right. this is the same guy that tells everyone to go fuck themselves and sometimes doubles down on it. he is stubborn as FUCK. ‘nuff said.

but if it’s someone of a higher caste talking to him, he usually acquiesces.

CORVIN: it’s not nearly as apparent as corr, but corvin is also stubborn as fuck when he wants to be. he’s inclined towards defending himself and attacking back when trolls on the internet attack him first, “eye for an eye” type deal.

but if it’s his cullers talking, then he goes along with it pretty well.

37. How much has your oc travelled? Why is this? Would they like to travel more? Or are they perfectly fine with staying home?

CORR: he’s pretty much traversed the whole of the area he lives in. he’s also been to the sea before. but mostly the guy stays in his hive; he has no inclination to travel more and even highly dislikes it. he sees it as a waste of time and energy.

CORVIN: he used to live in a forest and go through that pretty often, along with generally visiting almost everywhere. whether he wants to travel more or not is left up to his culler. those sweeps, however, he was mostly locked in his hive. think rapunzel in a tower type beat.

38. What signs tell that your oc is nervous? Do they fidget, is it in their expression or the way they say things? Or are they very skilled at hiding it?

CORR + CORVIN: their hands shake.

CORR: summons his strife specibus, preparing for an attack. his eyes are watching your every movement. it really wouldn’t look much different from usual if not for the body language.

CORVIN: fidgets with his camera strap, doesn’t make eye contact. you can tell from his expression that he’s really nervous and is trying really hard to hide it.

39. How superstitious is your oc? Do they end up following them ‘just in case’? Or are superstitions incredibly important to your oc? What are some that they believe? What about the ones they don’t?

ECHO: pre-labyrinth echo used to be really superstitious. he was also a big fan of classpects and the extended zodiac. think of xem as that one astrology person that likes to assign xyr friends different traits based on it. he’s very against breaking mirrors, both because he sees them as necessary for figuring out who you are and because of the bad luck superstitions. or. well. xe used to be.

now, they’re just lost.

CORR: not particularly, he’s a very practical person. but he does tend to burn dead bodies of those he values and scatter their ashes into the wind at the top of his hive. don’t want them decomposing.

40. Are there any habits your oc has picked up from people around them? Do they know where they’re from? Does your oc try to stop themselves from doing it?

CORR: he actually got some of his curse words and threats from len when len was mad. “empress above” comes from yvette, “bleh” and “shrug” come from some random forum on the internet.

also he imitates bird chirps back to the birds when he’s pissed at them (“> ye^h ye^h chirp chirp fuckhe^d im going to ro^st you for fucking dinner”). no idea where that comes from though.

corr is well aware of where he is from.

CORVIN: corvin adjusts his glasses a lot, just like b!len does with his vr headset. he likes to twirl a lot when dancing- that comes from back when it was just him and citrin. he has a tendency to take a lot of pictures and click on his camera a lot as a nervous habit. he doesn’t try to stop himself from doing any of it.

corvin does not remember where he is from.

[deannastrois]

WIP Title Game

Tagged by @camalyng (sorta)

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it. Tag as many people as WIPs.

trek

tngchat

timeloop - mt jk

tpura cap

b7 tech support

b7 cof

b7 timetravel

ezridaxvsdkhgfldvdc

jkcr

kiradax room

tlyn/mariner office au

b7 fake date

b7 fake married (importantly a different universe than the fake date one)

b7 s4

b7 heart

b7 dreamscape

ds9chat3

tashatroi ghost

final fantasy

aerti story

aerti unchau

tabd

mass effect/andromeda

time loop - vr

ashkaidan stargate

ak spectre

sam kasumi rp

shali4

wilenko pr

wilenko thvssb

grissau

misc

franmaya idek

franmaya st

namivivi idek

marihildhanaki

chlodine timeloop

kaicarolina

chlodine fake date

distau

seosae2

and if you see this and wanna, consider yourself tagged, go wild

[sanddusted-wisteria]

Empty Skies, Hazy Skyboxes, Ch. 2

prev | next | index

Also on AO3

------------

“So this is Sandrock? Looks a little…boxy,” the builder said, glancing around at Qi’s rough simulation of the town square.

“It will be, at least. I’m still learning how to create models for environments.”

“That’s the town hall…there’s the store…wait, was Pablo’s Parlour from back then too?”

“Oh no, this is still modern Sandrock. I don’t have many references to the city layout that far back, so for now, this will do.”

“Wow…and you’re planning on putting people in here? Soon enough we won’t be able to tell which one’s the real Sandrock and which one’s the fake Sandrock.”

“I hope that the cumbersome piece of plastic and circuits sitting over your eyes should be enough to determine that.”

The builder laughed softly. “Well, how about we get back to the real Sandrock and go home? I still have to get dinner ready.”

“Alright. My work for today was finished anyway.” Qi powered off the system and took off his headset.

There was nothing in front of him.

What?

The builder was right there just now. He was just showing them his simulation project…

He quickly put his glasses back on, as if that would make them magically appear before him. There was no trace of them. Not even the headset they were using. He was alone in the research center, with only the buzzing of the fluorescent lights overhead to keep him company. His eyes darted around the room, panic brewing in his stomach.

“Starlight…?”

------------

Qi jolted awake, the panic from his dream lingering for a fleeting moment. He took a few steadying breaths, mulling it over. The virtual reality project…he was so excited to show it to the builder that he couldn’t help but give them an early look as soon as he had something coherent. Instead of the usual stab of pain that usually came with memories of the builder, he felt an odd sense of…hope?

Then it hit him. The VR system could simulate people, both in appearance and behavior. What if…?!

Qi pushed himself up, groaning as his weakened muscles strained to move him for the first time in nearly a week. His arms gave out, and he flopped back onto the bed. Steeling himself, he poured what little strength he had into his arms to push again…

“Spacecase!!”

Mint suddenly appeared in the door frame. “Are you okay?!”

“Ah. Sleepyhead,” said Qi, his voice ragged and hoarse. “I need to…I need to go to work.”

“Hey, hey, hold on. You’re gonna collapse if you stand up.” Mint gently pulled him up to sit on the bed and handed him his glasses. “At least get some food in your system before you run off.”

Qi just blinked at him, still bleary. “When did you get here?”

“Just now. Lucky I did, otherwise you might’ve fallen down and hit your head. Lemme get you some breakfast.” He got up, lightly jabbing a finger at Qi with a firm stare. “Stay there. Don’t. Move.”

Qi’s gaze lamely followed Mint as he left the room. The sound of something sizzling came from the kitchen. Mint soon came back with a glass of water and a plate of eggs and bacon. He set the plate down on the nightstand and handed the water to Qi.

“Drink first. Take it slow.” The water soothed Qi’s scratchy throat. After emptying the glass, Mint passed him the plate and fork.

“You think you’re okay enough to go to work?” Mint said as Qi dug in.

“That’s what I said, right?”

Mint was silent. His knee bounced anxiously as he gave Qi a once-over. “...They’ve been leaving new relics for you at your lab. Er, the other people in town, I mean. Cleaned it up, too. Guess they wanted you to have something to do when you got back.”

“Mm.”

The worry on Mint’s face only deepened. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m feeling much better than I have. I need to get back to work.” Mint glanced away from Qi, his frown burning a hole into the floor. “...What are you thinking, Sleepyhead?”

Mint sighed. “I was gonna ask if you wanted to talk about things, but I don’t wanna hit you with that gutpunch right as you’re getting up…”

“Later. I have a project that I urgently need to start.” He set the empty plate back on the nightstand and stood up on his stiff knees. “Now, I need to be getting to the research center.” He made his way to the front door and out into the glaring sun.

“Hey, wait up!” Mint called after him, caught off-guard by Qi’s unceremonious exit. He fell into step with Qi as he started walking up the hill to town. “D-do you need any help at the lab? I’m free for the next 3 weeks, so…”

“No need. This is an endeavor for me and me alone.” They finally reached the research center. Qi opened the door and walked inside.

“Qi–”

“I will be fine, Mint.” He forced his mouth to turn upwards as he gave Mint one last look over his shoulder. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

He shut the door, leaving a perplexed and thoroughly-concerned Mint outside.

------------

Qi pulled the VR development kit out of storage and booted it up. If he was to recreate the builder in this space, he would need to make and animate their virtual double, give it their voice, then program it with their personality. It was no small endeavor, but neither was scientific discovery. If he had the patience to wait for revolutionary findings and relic excavation, he had the patience for this.

First order of business: appearance. He started a new human model, crafting and sculpting it with all of their wonderful features. The shape of their eyes, the curve of their smile, the exact shade of their skin, every blemish, every mark, every fleck of color… No detail was spared, system limitations be damned. This was the easy part. He didn’t even need photographic references to assist him; he could just close his eyes, and a crystal-clear image of them would flash behind his eyelids.

Just as Qi was finishing the details of their face, Mint came in, carrying containers of food and bottles of yakmel milk. A look of relief flashed across his face, seeing Qi working with his usual vigor instead of being passed out cold on the floor.

“Hey, Spacecase. How’s it going?”

“Quite well, actually. I’ve made a good start on this project.”

“That’s good. You wanna break for dinner? You can tell me all about it.”

“Ah. Evening already? Alright. Let’s go upstairs, then.”

In the kitchen, Mint passed one of the containers to Qi and uncorked both the milk bottles, setting them down on the table. The room filled with the delicious aroma of tea-infused beef.

“So, what’s this new project of yours? Another robot?”

“Oh, no. I’m repurposing my idea for the virtual Sandrock project.”

“Ohhh, the one using those weird goggle things? What’s it gonna be now?”

“I’m making a virtual recreation of my spouse to the greatest extent that this system can allow. Appearance, personality, behavior…I plan to perfectly capture it and preserve it in this virtual space.”

Mint’s face fell. “Spacecase…I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Qi felt a twinge of irritation. He already didn’t like uninformed challenges to his ideas, but with this… “Why not?”

Mint opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it again. He frowned, struggling to form the right words. “I–I don’t know how to say it nicer… But this will be really bad for you, where you are now. I can’t possibly imagine just what you’re feeling right now, but clinging to their ghost isn’t gonna help.”

“Ghosts are nothing but the stuff of myth, Sleepyhead,” Qi huffed. “But besides that, I can assure you that working on this project has already had a significant therapeutic effect on me. It would bring me more distress if I could not preserve their memory in a way they deserved.”

“Yeah, but–”

“Don’t you think they deserve more, Mint?” Qi said, feeling that ache creeping up again. “More than a headstone that’ll be neglected in a month and…and…”

And an empty grave.

Mint looked at Qi with a pitying worry. “...I guess I can understand that,” he said carefully. “Just…remember that even if you manage to create a perfect copy of them in there… No matter how much time you spend with it… They’ll still be gone whenever you come back out. That can’t change.”

“...I have already accepted that fact.” He had not.

Mint sighed. “I’m just worried about you, is all. I’m worried that you’ll put those goggles on one day and never take them off.”

“I appreciate your concern. I’ll monitor my behavior closely and be sure to use it in moderation. I promise.”

Mint regarded his firm expression for a moment. “...I trust you. I’ll still stop by to drop off food and stuff, if that’s okay with you.”

Qi nodded. “Please. This project will be a large undertaking, and I need my attention on it as much as possible. Any help getting supplies and maintaining my bodily functions would be a massive help.”

A small smile formed on Mint’s face. “Glad to help.”

And so with Mint’s assistance, Qi finished the model’s appearance and moved to the next phase: giving the virtual builder their voice. None of the system’s preset voices were acceptable, so he had the arduous task of figuring out to manually tune it to their voice. Recalling their voice was significantly more difficult, and he had no idea what any of the knobs and sliders did. One week and several audio engineering manuals later, he had something that he hoped was close enough to their voice. The manufactured voice was starting to override what he could remember.

Finally, the most difficult task: personality. Creating a custom personality involved training an AI from scratch. Somehow, Qi had to turn this generic polite AI into his determined and industrious beloved through text conversations. With every response, he would tell it when it was acting properly like the builder and when it wasn’t.

He injected their memories into it, reminiscing about times before while it innocently asked what part it had in all of it. He would simulate the simple dialogues they would have every day, the “how are you”s and “how was work”s. There were times where Qi could almost feel the sweet domesticity of their home again. Until the AI would accidentally say something out of character, and the illusion would be broken. He would calmly correct the AI and continue.

It was repetitive, tiresome work. But Qi had prepared himself for it. He would see it though, one message at a time.

------------

Mint was at the door. “Hey, Spacecase. My train’s gonna be here soon, so I came to say goodbye.”

Qi looked up from his keyboard. “Oh. So soon?” 3 weeks had gone by already?

“Yeah. How’s the project?” Mint walked over to Qi’s workstation, peering over his shoulder at the ongoing conversation with the AI.

“Making steady progress. I’d estimate I’m about halfway done with this phase, then it’s on to full testing.”

Mint hummed. “…You think you’re gonna be okay without me?”

“No need to worry, Sleepyhead. I’ve adjusted back into my regular routines, and I have plenty of food and water here in the research center. I’ll do fine.”

“I hope so.” Mint stared at Qi for a moment, and before Qi could open his mouth to ask him why, he pulled Qi into a warm hug. Qi hugged him back, happy to feel physical contact again after so long.

For the first time in over a month…he smiled.

“Take care of yourself, okay?” Mint said as he pulled away. “I’ll write to you every so often. You better answer me.”

“Yes, yes, Sleepyhead. We won’t have a repeat of the I-sent-my-mail-to-Barnarock incident, I promise.”

Mint snickered. “Hope so. I need to go now, so see ya, Spacecase.”

“Be seeing you, Sleepyhead.”

Qi watched as Mint disappeared behind the closed door. Then he sat down and got right back to work. There was still a lot to be done.

------------

Perhaps “halfway done” was a bit of an overestimate. Qi was now 4 weeks into personality training and no closer to getting the builder’s personality. He could usually have a generic conversation no problem, but whenever something more complicated was introduced, like talking about his work or a memory, the AI would never manage to get it right. He had hoped that he could get it to the point where he didn’t need to correct it for every single new concept, but that seemed more impossible by the minute.

Strangely, it seemed to understand every single scientific concept that he threw at it, no matter how advanced. The builder had picked up a couple things here and there through what Qi told them in snippets over dinners and dates, but nowhere near the amount that this computer seemed to know. Where on Earth was it pulling this information from?! For the first time in his life, Qi wanted someone to understand his work less.

It was always one step forward, two steps back. Yet Qi still pressed on, through sleepless nights and caffeine-induced mania. Luckily for him, the townspeople had decided to go back to not bothering him again. Perhaps they too realized the sheer importance of this project.

After nearly a month and a half, Qi decided that it was ready. All his test conversations were feeling fairly close to the conversations he would have with his builder all that time ago. All that was left to do was to bring their model, voice, and personality together.

He stared at the loading bar as the whole thing rendered. He could hear his pulse thumping in his ears. As soon as it hit 100%, he grabbed the headset and booted up the virtual Sandrock.

As the rough, boxy environment of the town square loaded in, he glanced around. Where were they? He took off down the hill towards where their workshop would be. As he crossed the tracks, he saw a lone, familiar figure sitting down in the yard, looking up at the bright blue sky.

His heart pounding and his mouth dry, he opened the gate and approached them.

“Starlight…?” he whispered. They turned around, and Qi’s heart sang at the sight of their beautiful eyes meeting his. It was them, they were here, they looked so alive–

“Hey, you,” they said with a smile. “Home so early?”

That was it for Qi’s poor heart. It clenched as tears sprang from his eyes. But unlike the many tears he shed into his bedsheets months ago, these tears were filled with luminous joy.

The builder quickly got up and hurried towards him, face twisted with worry. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

Qi wiped away the tears that leaked out of his headset with a watery smile. “I missed you, starlight.”

------------

“Wait so, I’m not real?”

“No. Well, sort of. You as a virtual entity are real, but as the person you represent in the real-world, you are not.”

The builder squinted. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Qi sighed. “It’s difficult to explain. I just want both of us to understand straight away what all of this is and why you’re here.”

“Why I’m here…?”

“You… In the real world, we were married. But then you…died.” The builder’s eyes widened. Qi looked away.

“So you put me in here…”

“Yes. I wanted to give you a worthy memorial. You deserve far more than just some nice words and a headstone.”

“And also…?” Qi felt his stomach turn.

“And also…” He hesitated, trying to come up with an excuse—no. He couldn’t lie to them. “A-and also…I wanted to alleviate the pain of my grief by seeing you again. Even if it’s just one more time. Even if it won’t be like before.”

Qi nervously glanced back at the builder, silent and unreadable. He could almost feel the computer struggling to generate their response.

“I’m conflicted,” the builder said finally.

The program is conflicted, Qi silently reminded himself.

“From what I know about grief, this is a terrible coping mechanism. Uh, no offense. But at the same time, I…I hate that you’re hurting.”

The program hates that I’m hurting because they would hate that I’m hurting.

“I’m not sure how good this will be in the long-term, but I still want to help you right now.”

…You are indeed helping right now.

They gave him the sweetest smile. “Come see me every now and again, okay?”

…I’ll visit you. I promise.

“We can try to talk things out. Knowing you, you probably haven’t done that yet, huh?” Qi shook his head.

I missed you. I missed talking to you. I missed you so much.

“Well then, we can start tomorrow. Looks like it’s pretty late, so get some sleep. No more work. Got it?” Qi nodded.

“Alrighty then. Good night. Love you,” they said as they waved goodbye.

“L…Love you too.”

Qi powered the system off and slowly lifted the headset off. He could still feel his pulse racing in his ears and his fingertips. The corners of his lips lifted into a shaky smile. He closed his eyes and just sat there, basking in the hazy bliss of what just happened. He brought the headset to his chest, over his heart, the machine’s residual warmth permeating through his shirt like a gentle, familiar touch.

They were here.

------------

prev | next | index