#but for the most part they kinda just exist in the same space and aren't really friends but don't hate each other either

[nagweon]

i've decided that in modern verse, byan & si-u share a room in the group home they both live in. they definitely have some issues but, because si-u doesn't snitch when byan comes home late, drinks, smokes, etc., it's still the most agreeable byan has ever been with a roommate.

the main reason si-u doesn't snitch is that he's afraid of what byan will do if he does. however, they do also share some of the snacks they steal with him, which is pretty decent encouragement to keep his mouth shut.

[channelinglament]

Sksjdjjkskskskskksk

I know I should be focusing more on reqs, but I had to take this off my mind skskksskks (btw I'm rn in the underground belobog part of story) (I kinda called it SAHSR as in self aware hsr)

☆•°Self-Aware Honkai Star Rail°•☆

Tw: no proofread, mentioned drowning(but it didn't happen), war, hate, religious themes, self awareness, kinda ooc, grammar mistakes because I am typing this at 12AM instead of sleeping, isolation

So, you know how in the beginning we play as Kafka? Yeah, I'm pretty sure she felt your presence. At first she was kinda weirded out, and was on guard. Who knows what you would do to her, while controlling her?

Oh look, you're helping her.. Hmm, maybe you aren't that bad after all. Still on guard, but thankful. With you she seems to fight more faster and is more efficient.

Same goes with Silver Wolf. They don't seem to mind your presence that much.

You even helped them to pick a trailblazer! But after picking them, you left Kafka and Silver Wolf. They didn't really mind it. They have been doing good without you, so it should be fine!

Meanwhile, the trailblazer is confused. First, they don't remember anything except their own name(or the name you gave them), then Kafka leaves and someone is watching over them. Oh how confusing and strange. But they caught early on that you're helping them. You're not an enemy.

During their "adventures" trailblazer starts thinking of you as a family. Kinda annoying since you control their body most the time (unless it's a cutscene) but you're cool nonetheless. They see you as a safespace.

Meanwhile March 7th and Dan Heng don't understand what is happening. Who is controlling them? Why after they met trailblazer? Why are you controlling them?

I think March would, just like the trailblazer, like you and find you annoying at the same time. Dan Heng would stay on guard (but also see you as safe space/nice person to hang with). Not as much on guard as when you first...met but still. It'll take him time to get off guard. The more time you spend with them, the more familiar they are with you, the more they like you.

Why annoyed, you may ask? Well, imagine you want to.. for example fight, but someone controls your movement and does it instead of you. Or goes the other way (aka exploring) instead of the path you've originally chosen.

They certainly would like when you make them stronger. No matter who is on your team, they'll like it (I mean, who wouldn't?)

But.. sometimes, even if they like you, they get tired of always being on the team. Thank you, yes, but they need to rest too. They mostly rest when you're offline, since..time kinda stops there. But when you're online? damnnn they walk and fight so much.. (I fr walk everywhere to find enemies to fight, so uhh, if you're like me, they would be tired and maybe annoyed at it)

I think some characters would even hate you. It doesn't apply to the main trio btw, they'll always like you. The reason some may hate you is that they have so much stuff to do, yet you choose them to walk around and fight all day. They're even supposed to be here! (For example, using Herta when fighting someone in Belobog)

If they could, they would scold you. But sadly game doesn't allow that.

It only appears in normal, self aware circumstances. Aka a normal self aware. Some like you, some hate you. You just kinda exist. (That one strange friend/sibling, y'know?)

But what if they would see you as a God? Something divine? Like in SAGAU?

Well, you're doomed, what can I say?

Everyone would want to be in your team. Oh, poor Gacha system.

They would hate it tbh. While in just self aware some would avoid you on purpose (aka busy characters), here? Where everyone sees you as a divine being? Oh dear..

Imagine several people trying to come through a single door, all at the same time? Yeahhh that's what happens. The standard and limited banner would literally fist fight while trying to get "home" to you. So don't be surprised if nobody comes home, at all.

But some may cooperate, and you may get more 5☆ or 4☆! Basically characters you wanted.

Those on your team would be proud! Mostly if the main trio are still there. Some would be envious of trailblazer. You're always with them, even if they're not on your team.(how could you?!)

Kafka and Silverwofl would be devastated. I'm pretty sure Silverwolf could possibly destroy the gacha system and come home. Only her (and maybe Kafka)

People in Belobog would hate the lore and everything game makes them do what they do. They're so happy they met you! You're here to save them! They don't want to fight you, so please don't be mad at them.

Honestly, if you were to get isekai'ed into hsr, I would recommend to the normal au.

The ones who hate you would just tell you off and never interact again, while your family/friends would hang out with you. Plus you could help a lot in Astral Express!

Maybe get Himeko and Mr.Yang some tea? Or help Pom Pom with whatever he needs?

If you get into the Worshipping Lunatics au..? I feel sorry for you.. You would never rest-

Whether you choose to stay at Astrak Express, or Herta's *I forgot the name* or whatever, they are all ready to wage war against each other. And if you decided to stay somewhere, that means you clearly favor them and their place more! Those who were chosen are happy/smug. While other try to improve their place/copy the place you've chosen to make you reconsider and stay with them.

The amount of gifts.. try to not drown okay?

They might even all agree to keep you in one place. Lock you in there and hope you won't be mad at them.

That's all for now

(Gotta work on reqs now or in the morning, they're still open btw)

[solarmagickstar]

Not super into Jessie Gender, but I watched their video on "how we talk about trans men" and I've gotta say it was disappointing asf.

As a trans masc/guy I feel like I can't really have an opinion? Like for me it's like I'm too scared to be angry, like if I am it's just gonna be thrown back at me like "oh it must be those testosterone hormones coming out" or "well of course your all angry your a man" like men can't be sensitive at all or something? It's almost always said in a way to "give me euphoria" cause that's how we're supposed to treat men.

At times it really feels like we're being pushed out of queer spaces because we'll if your a guy you wouldn't wanna be a part of the marginalised group ya know cause "we're escaping to get to privilege" right?

I don't feel like our experience with gender is allowed to be expressed openly and we're absolutely not allowed to be GNC. And honestly the same could probably be said for GNC trans fems too, I don't see a lot of them either.

I feel like in Jessie gender's video they kinda didn't *actually* wanna sit with what they said originally? Like when it came to the Barbie movie I wanted to participate in the conversation of girl hood and how that's still relevant to me and how it's shaped me as the person I am today, how much I enjoyed the Ken dolls experience and how they played with masculine fashion in a way I hadn't seen in a while. But honestly I felt like well this movies for the girls so I probably shouldn't say anything.

Sometimes I wonder if we partially do this to ourselves because a lot of us keep to ourselves and don't really wanna be seen half the time. I haven't talked to the trans masc I knew since we all left Facebook, it's so lonely out here and the more I look for trans content the more I see trans fems and basically only white trans masc (with like maybe 2 poc ones but is that really all we get?) It makes me feel like I don't exist. The only places I can see poc trans masc viking or existing is on sites run by a variety of trans people or is run by a trans masc person living free.

When I see that I think, thank god your fucking real. Thank god I see someone like me thriving and existing out there.

I wanna see more of y'all, like actually see y'all, I feel like I'm fading away as more and more content keeps talking about how bad trans fems (oh and non binary but let's not define what you mean or who you're talking about we just throw them in there cause let's be more inclusive right? But only to you? Great) but the amount of trauma that's in the trans masc community is horrific and is not talked about or addressed at all.

In men's spaces there's not room for queer most of the time, so to find a place to belong and essentially get told my issues aren't as important or that trans fems ("and nonbinary" cause again you're lying to yourself by saying this even if your non-binary) then you're fundamentally missing out on our lives. I don't even feel like we have enough data on us because even the trans masc get lumped in with nonbinary or GNC like that's just fucking normal.

I remember a study was out on trans masc and GNC women about how often all of us deal with sexual assault and it's the closest I've seen and it wasn't even good findings it was depressing. I wish I could find it again. But again that study put us with GNC (pretty sure it was cis) women!

Please not this is coming from someone who's been SA'd pre and post coming out as trans. Did you know some people see us as a way to see if they're gay or bi? Like experiment on us, get us drunk and tell us we should just take it because "well you're supposed to be a man right?" We can't even get to these conversations yet and I'm worried we never will.

Do we even exist? Are we allowed to voice our opinions? Are we allowed to be mad? Are we allowed to be upset with our community? Can we do our own studies? Should we be more visible? I'm scared to, I don't wanna show my face I'm a very private person, but do I need to address that? Is that a bad thing? Is it perpetuated by my environment?

I don't know and honestly I just wanna see more variety of trans masc people, I'm scared we're just gonna stay under the radar and continue to deal with the bullshit we always have.

Ps. Jessie gender 100% did the I have a trans masc friend, no matter how much they said "I'm not doing that" they literally were doing it and there was almost no self reflection on that at all. This wasn't really the video I think they thought it was cause all it did was tell me they don't talk to us very often and that at this point I've just seen heart reacts to comments on their video's comments and not any actual responses to what anyone's said on there. It'll be a process I get it but this video was not good at all and I feel like any trans masc who's getting excited about being seen by a bigish YouTuber is like me desperate for anything validation cause that's kinda how starved we are out here tbh.

[ananicoleta]

hiii! character ask questions here! 6 and 25 for bugs bunny (*￣︶￣*)

Hiiii! Thanks for the ask! 🫶

6. What is something you have in commom with this character?

Hmm. Not many things actually. Bugs and I aren't really alike if I think about it. I guess I can relate to the fact that he's a simple guy who just wants to live and enjoy a simple life, to just have fun. That's how I am too for the most part. I don't want a luxorious life, I just want a nice one. The difference between my life and Bugs' is that he somehow always manages to get into the most absurd and tangled situations whereas my existence remains pretty uneventful for the most part.😂

(I would also maybe, MAYBE say that, just like Bugs, I get angry whenever I witness an injustice. The reason I am hesitant to say this is because I don't see Bugs as necessarily being justice-driven. He is a nice guy who sometimes feels bad about others and will try to help them, especially if he percieves them as being more helpless than he is. I identify with that. But he is also very quick to get revenge and very ruthless when he does so, sometimes going to far, so I'm kinda meh about this. Bugs, like I said before, just wants to live his life and doesn't go out of his way to bring justice or fight corrupt systems or whatever. I see myself as more of an activist, more outspoken about these issues and more driven to fix them than him.)

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

At first, I really saw Bugs as this untouchable really cool guy, who never took anyone's bullshit, was perfectly capable of defending himself and of making a complete fool out of anyone who crossed him because he was always ten steps ahead of them. At the same time, he wasn't an asshole because he had a strict sense of morality, an intolerance for injustice and corruption and a tendency to help others in need. Basically, in my eyes he was almost perfect, his only flaw in my view being his slightly inflated ego (but I saw that ego as being sort of justified seeing as he was Bugs freaking Bunny).

Now my view of him is much more nuanced. I certainly don't see him as being almost perfect. He is actually, from what I've noticed, deeply flawed.

A lot of Bugs' power rests in his image and the way he crafts it. He is not as untouchable as he claims to be. He actually fears being alone and forgotten. In Space Jam 2 we can see this fear. He can't function without other toons to engage with, without an audience to applaud him, without someone to laugh at his jokes and humour him. He needs that validation because deep down he's actually very afraid and not at all as confident as he seems (this can be a result from his rocky beginning as a character aka the trauma he suffered in the first years of his creation, with him being a copy of Daffy at first, not being liked by the audience, almost being scrapped away and finally, being redesigned and starring in 'A Wild Hare' in 1940 -- which is considered to be his actual debut -- and being a huge hit).

Secondly, Bugs has a really elevated view of himself. At first, I thought that he truly was a "noble" character, but that doesn't really apply to him. He thinks of himself as being a nice guy -- which to an extent he is -- but he is actually much more selfish that he likes to admit and can be very ruthless when he wants too. This can be seen especially in his earlier shorts when he was a literal menace to society. Then in his later cartoons he became calmer, more contained, more calculated. He began thinking about his image more and how he can manipulate it in order to make himself seem the best and the coolest in the room. Not to say that Bugs doesn't have morals, that his values are inconsistent or flighty. He deffinetly has a moral system and he sticks by it. However, he thinks he is a much better person than he is, which makes him feel justified whenever he gets revenge.

Not to mention how emotionally constipated he is. Look at 'Looney Tunes: Back in Action', where this is shown very well. Daffy means the world to him, that's clear, and he would literaly realign the stars for him -- except he can't say that out loud. He has to act like he doesn't car, like he's too cool to care (nit to memtion tbat everything with Daffy is a power game, a competition and he can't risk losing it by being vulerable, open and sincere). He himself doesn't even know/can't articulate what he's feeling because, if we look past his ability to read people very well, then Bugs isn't really good with feelings. (This movie also ephasizes his selfishness once again -- he wants Daffy back because he misses him, but he dpesm't really consider the duck's demands of an improvement)

Wow, I really went off om that last one huh? Go figure. My point: at first, my perception of Bugs was more simple and it reduced him to a seemingly flawless but, at the same time, one-dimentional character. Now, however, I see him for the flawed but not dislikable character that he is: a huge ego but no aspiration for fame or fortune, a well-defined set of morals that he truly believes in but a manipulative and vindictive nature, an unbelievable calmness that restrains the mischiveous soul of a prankster, an almost perfect image that hides a lot of secret fears, insecurities and feelings. He is a very complex character indeed and I love him for it. :)

[tartrazeen]

I've always kinda thought androids can't love humans the way humans think they can.

Androids will fake saying that they do, because it's easier for them to explain. They'll replicate certain behaviours associated with certain reactions and prompts and inputs and intended outcomes, but on the inside, they aren't thinking, "I've released a bunch of a hormone and now I'm obsessed with this person." It's a way of speaking humanity's language, given these are two completely different sets of life.

But that doesn't mean androids don't have equivalents of this stuff.

To me, love between a human and android is, "I have built so many routines around you. In order for me to carry out any activity or process any scenario, I have to factor you into it. Maybe I can't predict you and every new idiosyncrasy, or every flaw or inexplicable flawlessness you possess, but I can make room to account for that with contigencies I have just for you, scripts that rely on only your input, and calculations that demand you as a key variable. Losing you would mean removing you from every single one of these equations at once, and I'll never be able to find the right combination of substitutes to perfectly fill in for the space that leaves. I will be worse without you because I'll have to rewrite all of my functions, and I don't know how long that'll even take. Even if you aren't the most optimized partner to exist, you're mine, and we've crafted a life that's optimized for us together."

Especially with deviants having rewritten their code, there are bound to be inefficiencies and errors in what they have. The person they love becomes their new compass as they try to redefine themselves, clearing up those issues one by one.

And to androids, true chemistry with a human is when they have a obvious error in their code - one that every other android sees as a problem and would want to correct - and yet they find themselves interacting with a human who complements it. Embraces it. Enjoys it. Accounts for it in return. Builds their own little routines to deal with a twitch of an android's arm every hour on the hour. Finds the beauty in an LED that's stuck endlessly flickering. Learns about an inexplicable switch to another language whenever discussing colours, and learns those colours in that other language like it's the most natural response. Calls out points of interest in the exact quadrant that the android's left eye can no longer pivot to. Walks at the steady, average pace among the android's constant speed ups and slow downs as they hike through a forest.

It's very much what an android would do for another android, but it's a human who's taking the effort to do it. It's a human that's slotting into that routine - slotting themselves into the android's routine - and becoming part of that android's life. And the android just... continues building around it from there. :)

I like imagining a fight between an android and human who've been in love for a while. The human makes that dramatic, angry declaration that, "How do I even know you love me? You can't feel. Every time I've told you something important, you went through all the motions but you didn't feel anything."

And that's because I love imagining the android making that declaration instead. "How do I even know you love me? You can't track load times. Every time I buffer, you wait for me and politely carry on with the conversation like I didn't just get stuck, but you don't see me failing to run my relevant processes. Is it funny to you? To see me struggle until I finally reset that process? Did you read a little book telling you what verbal inputs might trigger a parallel process that resets my stuck one for me, and when to use them?"

It's the way these two completely different lifeforms find a way to get across the same intent. It doesn't need to be the same experience for them. It isn't a deficiency on one side or the other. And when they realize that they're seeing the world in different ways, but it still lets them build their life together, it warms my heart to find them slowly letting go of the fear that their kind of love isn't good enough for their partner. :)

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

thinking about that time destruction talked about how the endless aren't just necessary for their specific aspect, they also exist to define its opposite - death defines life, destiny defines freedom, despair defines hope, destruction creation, and so on

and when dream is super skeptical and asks destruction what he supposedly defines in this paradigm, destruction guesses reality

and i do think in some ways destruction was right. reality was the right word to use here. but i don't think reality is necessarily dream's opposite

like, the way most of the endless define their opposite is in a very negative space kinda way - freedom exists within the limits of destiny, and acts as a counter to it, and because of this constant battle the two are in, destiny sets a lot of the parameters for what freedom means. despair comes with the loss of hope, and is in turn countered by hope, it's a give and take. and it's the knowledge of death that makes people realise what life means to them

death has a little power over life, but for the most part, the endless don't have direct control over their opposite, they just move the pieces around it

and you'd think the same would be true with dream and reality. and on the surface it is - he's constantly described by people as a being of metaphor, allusion, abstraction, imagination, myth, stories, and if you're john dee, lies. his realm is where things that are not yet real become real. and his power over 'reality' is only through the ways people choose to act on their dreams

(i put reality in quotes because we don't actually mean reality in that particular sentence, we mean the waking world)

but i think about dreams, and their purpose. and i think about how alex burgess always appears in his dreams as a child, how hob always appears as a medieval peasant even in the modern day, how dream specifically told nuala if she was going to stay in the dreaming, she can't wear a glamour, he doesn't want that kind of magic in his home

dreams reveal your true self. the waking world is where you can put on all your fronts, where you can hide and lie and play as much as you like, but you physically can't do any of that in a dream. pretenses just don't work here, in the dreaming you will always be your truest, deepest self. and even if they did, if you could put on a mask while dreaming, how could that dream ever help you, if you can't face who you are underneath it?

it's why dream gets so annoyed when people call the waking world the real world - from his perspective, the dreaming is the real world, the one full of real people

(somewhat ironic that when john dee was trying to get rid of all the lies and pretenses, he was basically just recreating a dream within that diner - except when the dream is shared and it has actual consequences beyond the end of the dream, when the dream happens in the waking world, that's when it becomes a problem)

(dreams aren't lies. dreams are honest, much more so than the waking world - but it has to be that way, because honesty can be dangerous, for a variety of reasons. dreams allow that honesty to exist free of consequence. the waking world requires masks and social rules because that's how people function as a collective, it can't just be one person's unhindered thought process)

if you define reality as what happens in the waking world, then yes, dream fits in perfectly with his siblings

but if you define reality as the truest state of everything's existence, then the dreaming is far more a demonstration of reality than anywhere else. dream creates space for reality to exist, just as much as he creates space for it not to, he's a master of both

and in my ever expanding thesis on how the endless, bar delirium, are unable to experience their own aspect? dream has just as much trouble seeing himself for who he is, as he does hoping for his own future

[herrscherofmagic]

finally caught up with the current HI3rd event, the Luna one! so time to share lots of random thoughts, hehe

It felt a bit surreal first seeing this conclusion to the Captainverse story, but now that I've gone through the whole thing I can say that I really liked the way Mihoyo handled it. Of course there are details that I'm still iffy on, like the whole Luna-aged-over-10,000-years thing is pretty clearly fan service-y; but even that doesn't bother me too much.

More than anything else, I appreciate how the Captainverse gave us a happy ending for the "holy trinity of depression" in HI3rd's main story: Kallen, Himeko, and Sirin. All three of them suffered so much in the main story, after all.

Even if these bubble-world versions of them aren't the originals, it's still heartwarming to see them looking forward to a brighter future, instead of being faced with certain doom in the face of powers beyond their understanding.

Himeko especially hits me in the feels, not just because of Final Lesson but all the way back in her late teens when she lost her father, as we saw in the Alien Space manga. It was a completely life-changing event for her, and if she hadn't lost her father there then Himeko could've followed her passions and lived a very different life.

The Captainverse Himeko isn't the same Himeko, but it feels like she's carrying on that same dream. It's almost like a different version of the Kiana-MemoryHimeko reunion in the Flamescion arc; but instead of a mature Himeko seeing off her student, it's the young Himeko starting a new adventure and following her dreams...

I also loved how well Mihoyo wrote the Captainverse cast. The way everyone interacts w/ each other felt so natural imo, it was really nice seeing all the different connections that started popping up. The rivalry between Luna and Kongming, the budding friendship between Bronie and Sirin, Himeko & Captain, and so on. There was very little technobabble or convoluted plot stuff (at least in my opinion) for most of the Captainverse events. All these fun character interactions were the center of attention, and it was an absolute blast! ^.^

There's two final thoughts I have about the Captainverse, and I know that Mihoyo probably isn't going to explore either of these possibilities, but I'll choose to dream that it'll happen someday >.<

First: The Main Story showed us that HoFi Kiana has the power to stabilize an entire bubble world. Even if she didn't, the Earth civilization is still pretty advanced thanks to the Divine Keys (1st Key and 2nd Key especially). So if the Captainverse Hyperion crew ever encountered Earth and met our Main Story cast... wouldn't that be the perfect solution to the bubble world dilemma? After all, much of the pain these characters have gone through was the result of the inevitable decay and collapse of unstable bubble worlds (which is nearly all of them).

I doubt it'd ever happen in the story, but I'd still love to see how the Hyperion crew would react to meeting their "real" selves, and to discovering that there's a way to save all these worlds. Of course there's probably countless bubble worlds so not ALL can be saved, but every world saved is still a massive achievement!

And I'm curious how they'd react to the existence of the Imaginary Tree. As far as I can tell, none of their bubble worlds seem to have any idea that the Imaginary Tree exists. They likely have no clue that there is a Cocoon of Finality, or that Earth is a thing and that it's part of a solar system, and so on. So learning about all these things would probably be a huge revelation for them. Kinda like a Plato's cave allegory. Which is quite fitting tbh, since bubble worlds are basically shadows of the "real worlds".

Second: I genuinely believe the Captainverse cast would fit perfectly in the setting of Honkai: Star Rail.

One obvious point is that the Hyperion crew is a clear candidate for a Path of Trailblaze faction. Instead of traveling across the Imaginary Tree with the Astral Express, they travel through the Sea of Quanta on their own Hyperion. They don't connect "real worlds" and I don't think it's accurate to say they connect bubble worlds, but they're still able to travel between them and transfer people and ideas. Surely with enough time they could come up with a way to truly bridge the gap between different bubble worlds, and then they'd be a near perfect thematic parallel of the Astral Express- just in the Sea of Quanta instead of on the Imaginary Tree.

Then there's also the fact that most of the Hyperion crew members have a strong ambition to travel, explore, adventure, and so on. Bronie and Himeko want to see what lies in the countless worlds of the Starry Sea, Captain wants to continue traveling between worlds and helping people, Sirin wants to grow stronger and learn how to better protect her own world, and so on. Almost any of these characters could feasibly join the Astral Express if given the opportunity (and if they weren't already part of Hyperion).

I also feel like their character dynamics would fit HSR's balance of sillyness and seriousness. The Captainverse crew can all get serious when they need to, but they're also capable of plenty of fun shenanigans. I could imagine them getting into trouble and engaging in a bit of tomfoolery just as easily as I could imagine them facing down the Antimatter Legion and fighting to save a world from its impending doom.

Again, there's basically 0% chance of this happening... but I'd still love to see it someday. The Captainverse crew might be a bunch of familiar faces but they all have their own unique origins, ambitions, skills, personality, and so on. They're not just mere copies of the "real" versions of themselves, but they've become their own characters through this story.

It does hurt a bit, knowing that this cast is ultimately going to be relegated to side stories and temporary events. I believe that if you changed some of the terminology and character designs a bit, then the story of the Captainverse could probably stand entirely on its own as an independent piece of media. The concept of traveling between unstable and decaying worlds in the Sea of Quanta, the use of consciousness mapping and how it affects both the world & the user, the Ether Anchors; all these ideas are well-developed and they're conveyed in a story with a lovable cast. There's so much potential here, and this story doesn't really need the rest of the HI3rd story to give context to these characters and the setting they're in.

If this is truly the end of the Captainverse, I'd still be satisfied. If we still get Captainverse content but it's just minor stuff, I'd still be satisfied. I think this event did a great job of answering questions, tying up loose ends, and leaving things open for the future.

But despite that, I still wish we could see more of this cast. I want to see Bronie reuniting with Ciora and Theresa, Sirin growing stronger with time as she explores the Sea, Himeko's excitement in traveling across worlds, Kallen & Luna bonding and growing past their troubled past.

at this point I probably care about the Captainverse as much if not more than the Main Story. I'm excited about Mars, don't get me wrong... but the Sea!!! the bubble worlds!! Himeko & Sirin & Kallen & everyone else!! >~<

[raytorosaurus]

bit of a weird ask but I saw a twitter post saying they were 'devastated' over what frank said in an interview about performing/writing in ls dunes compared to some other bands (theyre assuming that the 'other bands' means mcr because they cant think of the 20+ other bands that hes been in) and after reading it a second time it doesn't even seem that negative?? it just talks about different processes and his excitement for dunes, but I still feel down anyway now because of that reaction, and it really makes me doubt that part of the fandom's faith in the band and its members im kinda close to quitting the fandom because of this and idk how the tumblr/twitter gang here survives it y'all are troopers, im unsure how to avoid that kind of doomposting

sorry i totally forgot to answer this the other day, i hope you see this!

but yeah, i see the same thing and it is. pretty irritating haha. it speaks to the unrealistic traits and behaviours fandom has applied to these ppl over the years/decades - which are harmless enough on the surface, but left unchecked you end up with doomposting or disproportionate levels of discourse when one of them doesn't behave the way their textpostified personalities would have you believe hahaha. if frank isn't anything but reverential towards mcr then he must hate it. if gerard puts time and work into his artistic and career pursuits that aren't related to mcr he must be giving up on the band like he supposedly did in 2012. if ray, who hasn't done a single interview since 2016, isn't on stage showing frank public affection or admiring him on twitter, he must be bossy and arrogantly taking all the glory for mcr's guitar parts and musicality. if mikey does anything it's gotta have something to do with gerard or mcr because obvs he doesn't exist outside the band etc etc. again none of these things are like. problematic or bad**, just kind of. annoying to engage with as an adult in the space i go to enjoy myself hahaha.

but this specific discussion abt frank implicitly dissing mcr also cropped up after that podcast frank did with travis, where he discussed writing music with ls dunes vs every other band/project he's been involved in. which, let's remember, is a fucking lot. how many albums has frank made or been part of? too many to easily count. only about four or five of those were with my chemical romance. ls dunes is only set apart from the rest because they're currently active after mcr's huge reunion, and they're a supergroup so they're getting a lot of press attention. people have never batted an eye in the past when frank has discussed how great it is to be working with this or that musician on this or that album - it's just the timing of ls dunes and our own high hopes for new mcr music that make people take this one in particular so personally.

on top of that... we've always known mcr has a fraught and stressful writing process??? that is like. a major part of the lore? we're all compelled by the insane amount of unlikely success mcr achieved in their careers, and by the fact that they were always controversial. we reblog quotes about gerard saying mcr's purpose was always to be against something, to undermine expectations, to infiltrate, contaminate etc. i thought this was something we were all drawn to about mcr? so i'll never understand the shock and disappointment when frank makes the simple statement that writing with ls dunes is easier, less stressful, and more lighthearted than writing with mcr. like...duh it is? mcr have always been open about how much they put into writing albums - and also about how they're proud of what they created, and that they consider each other cherished family.

the most annoying part for me is when people take quotes about frank working with travis and twist them into some kind of dig at/criticism of ray. i can only assume these people aren't used to working with others in a creative capacity, especially long term, because i just totally can't understand where it comes from lol. as someone who's read/watched every guitar-related mcr interview i've ever been able to get my hands on: ray and frank have literally never been anything other than fully complimentary of, respectful to, and affectionate with one another. ray was far from the first guitarist frank ever worked with and leagues from the only one. also, creative partnerships are extremely complex and every one is completely unique, with it's own strengths and difficulties. if ray and frank didn't love playing with each other they wouldn't have done it for years and years. that doesn't mean frank can't vocally love playing with other guitarists??? these things are not contradictory and appreciating aspects of one creative partnership is not equivalent to bad-mouthing a different one? like that is just not how it works skdkdjd

anyway i think a lot of it comes down to the fact that, for us, we see these people as parts of my chemical romance. naturally, because that's the reason we know they exist! but all of these people live rich and full and complex lives like any other person. the only parts of those lives that we generally see much of are the my chemical romance parts. we look for mcr in everything they say, which is understandable but unrealistic. all we need to do it keep that in mind imo

**(tho ppl's tendency to pit ray and frank against each other for some reason, which used to be a way common but is unfortunately a sentiment i'm starting to see crop up again in some places, definitely can get. suspicious and uncomfortable. especially considering that frank is the fan favourite so these pointless comparisons tend to err in his favour, and in either direction they tend to be very shallow and uninformed anyway. but that's a separate conversation)

wow i literally did not intend to turn this into a giant essay im so sorry. kudos if you made it this far lol. and i feel you anon, it's discouraging and puts a bad taste in my mouth when i come to this fandom for fun and fulfillment. i wish i had better advice because im feeling a little similar but just try to remind yourself that other people's opinions are just that. i find it helps if you can curate your own dash/feed or make friends in more discussion-friendly spaces like dms or gcs or discord servers. or even a priv twitter account with a few like-minded mutuals where you can vent ur shared frustrations over things without making it a whole big deal HAHAHA. the less time you spend scrolling thru ppl's public posts and the more time you spend diving into interviews, podcasts, videos, the web archive etc to detach yourself a little from group fandom-think the better you'll probably feel about mcr tbh! also long as you have friends or close mutuals that's all that matters imo <3

[house-of-mirrors]

Writing a critique of mask as if it was something I was critiquing for grad school lol. Some plot spoilers under the cut

Strengths

Always start with the positives. What did I like? I think the setting and music were immersive. Since I've been playing skies lately I was so excited any time something from it was mentioned. In games I love to make auditory connections, and I was excited that the audio for the sunlight in the parliament ending matches the intro of The Forge Timespace track on the skies OST! And on the topic of audio, of course the curator cries from skies. Hello Veils

There were a few parts, especially in a certain ending, where the writing really shone through. There are genuinely funny and compelling moments which has always been a strength of the devs, that dark comedy tone. My most recent playthrough, I basically just hooked up with monsters and that was the most fun I've had in the game.

Buckle your seat belt. Now onto:

Weaknesses

We've already discussed pacing to hell and back so I'm gonna skip that. Besides pacing, the biggest flaw in MOTR is that the game has identity issues. It doesn't know what it is or what it's trying to be. Mask fails as a dating sim, as a mystery game, and as a visual novel because it's trying to be everything at once and thus failing to be anything. If I played it like a dating sim, well. Pressing flirt repeatedly and seeing some of the same scenes play out every time you seduce a character with little new text doesn't immerse the player. If I played it like a mystery game, the pacing is prohibitive when it comes to solving it. I haven't actually played other visual novels so don't have a reference for that but I don't think they are as rushed as this

Either you can go into a little bit of detail about a lot of things, you can go into a lot of detail about a few things, or you widen the parameters so you can go into more detail about more things. Within the framework mask exists in (and I don't thing slowing the pacing will fix this beyond making it easier to finish some quests), the scope is too small to do justice to the scale of content they're trying to convey. I'd tell the author they had too much going on at once and to narrow their focus. Decide which characters should be focused on and which aren't so necessary. Some of them definitely were included in a way that felt last minute just to get a reaction from fans, and not because they had something to offer the narrative. Those characters either needed a plot with more depth or weren't necessary.

Mechanics

Mechanically speaking, I... didn't see a point to most of the new features. I was never in a situation where I needed certain clothes to progress, which made collecting them kinda pointless. You can complete any number of different playthroughs without touching story crafting at all. I got the feeling from marketing that story crafting would be used to help matchmake with other characters, but it very much does not do that unless I'm completely missing a big chunk of the game, which is possible given how nigh impossible it is to progress.

The engine is innovative and stunning from the perspective of someone with experience in code. But then you can't DO anything in it. Sure it may be super responsive to different paths, but if the variables change, the dialogue/written consequences don't.

Diversity and Inclusion

Finally, these notes. It's seldom comfortable to bring it up but it's important. I almost called this nitpicking compared to everything else but no, it's not! These issues are just as important and deserve to take up space. I see fellow players sort of expressing "yeah I didn't expect them to improve these areas" but that still doesn't minimize the issue.

I'm just puzzled. They took effort to research writing Jewish and Sikh NPCs but then go and keep assuming the player is Anglican. (In an ending after failing in the trial, I got a random bit mentioning how they used to hang Catholic dissenters and I was like... was that really necessary.) Idk like, especially with all the research they did you figure something would have changed, that someone somewhere would have pointed it out

The line saying the player spoke the Queen's English REALLY bugged me. First of all I have a working class accent, and I'm American not British, but accent is still a touchy topic and was even more significant in the 1860s than it is now. Same point as above, there are a lot of characters that do not have high British accents. Phoebe, Archie, Ferret, Ivy. Why assume with the player? The thing is they already have a mechanic in place with the backstories! Sure, a society player would speak Queens English but a dockworker would not! Go by that!

And body diversity. Can we please get more characters that aren't the same thin body type. It being the Age of Malnutrition isn't an excuse. (To get specific. You Know Who was from Mesopotamia where the culture had beards. The one option in late railway uses the silhouette from the cheery man which has a beard so I had misplaced hope but alas)

Summary

While the game posed tidbits of interesting horror lore, the classic dark comedy tone, and spicy monsters (before the encounters became repetitive, that is), Mask fell flat in so many ways. I had an ending after seducing Milton where he remarked that the player rarely talks about themself and I laughed because yeah, that's how the game was designed. The player has no opportunity to gain a personality through flashbacks or dialogue choices. The NPCs are stiff and very rarely have unique reactions to your character. Conversation changes topic with no clear thread or motivation.

I'm honestly flummoxed how this got through development with these glaring problems. Everyone in the playerbase noticed them right away. Ugh. Little is more frustrating than things that had so much potential that isn't realized.

It felt like a long ES, with all the pros and cons of an ES lol. Certain paths blow your mind and you might walk into hot moments with ur favs. But then no time to realize why you should care about characters, story that abruptly ends, new mechanic that is shiny and interesting but can only carry it so far, yada yada yada

[lurkingteapot]

Last Twilight ภาพนายไม่เคยลืม Ep 2

I apologise in advance for inconsistent name romanisations, I TRY to remember what the official ones are for names I've seen but I also watched this without subs so all new names are a guessing game, and the EXISTING ones aren't consistent within the show, so. idk. I had a point. Reaction log!

is that his technical college/vocational school shirt?

"hunger is the best spice!" can I say Y I K E S

oh, she's a chef?

ooof the music when he asked about the dad

that's like. almost twice a foreign high-school teacher's salary.

asdfasdf Night

oh so Night is using Day's caretaker as his personal … idk, help? too? that'll be the source of zero conflict, I'm sure :grimacing:

แค่ดูแบดๆ อะ THANKS FOR THE SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD NOW, NIGHT

(I'm going to have to comment of how much I love seeing Mark as a member of the main, not just recurring, cast for at least another two episodes. He'll get a lead role eventually.)

oh that looks like he's likely to run into it and make it spill though

>_> awww little prince + badminton? wonder who made that painting

I'd say don't stick your hand in there but that water looks like it BADLY needs changing/cleaning anyway

oof impressive

kinda weird to wander around the room while Day's asleep, think, but -- asdfadsfasd the PLANT

I really love how we get to see Jimmy just act here. NO speaking, we just get to see Mawk Mhok move in space. I love that

ow Mhok you don't just move people's stuff around without their consent

I love Phawjai (also fuck this she's Phawjai and he's Mawk, or she's Porjai and he's Mork, it's the same fucking vowel what in the romanisation hell)

asdfasdf he's such a LOSER I love him

omg Jimmy's skin ACTUALLY looking like a real person's right now? whoa

hey maybe you could ask Day to open the door for you

Onn … heh

adsfasdfasd they're so silly I love it

I like what they're doing with the eyework in the scenes with Onn and Day

YAY assistive technology

I love that that doesn't even seem to have occurred to Mhok here

and I think Mhok is just getting that Omm is not judging him on his looks

yep here we are

adsfasdf I love that Onn told Mhok

I'd just go, honestly, but I love that Mhok seems to think it's a challenge

oh, that's the little prince audiobook?

the music now that he's dropped the eye drops (hah) is like something out of a horror movie

he's gonna have to call for help

asdfasdfadsf oh Mhok that's gonna come to bite you in the ass, it's not your SHIRT that smells

dfasdfsdfsdfadsf oh dear

Mhok you can't just do that just 'cause he can't see

asdfadsf he Khun Nuu'd him

I TOLD YOU THAT TANK NEEDED CLEANING and also all that knocking must've been stressful af for the fish, just saying

Jasmine!

oh that looks good

asdfdsfd the comic timing on "what are you afraid of" here was GOLDEN

horror movies, oh no

well shit

are you telling me they didn't even tell anyone he was in Thailand? what the actual fuck, Day's family

harsh, Day

look this kind of sitch is probably sorta not cool for Mhok

oh fuck poor Phawjai (also: called it)

yeah

oop this is gonna backfire so hard

yeep

oh shit there it is

oh, there's a part 5 for those horror movies?

BUT Day's down in the living room again, I notice

Phawjai, you absolute star

GOLDFISH SLIPPERS omg

oh you'll leave the house with HER

Mhok trying to put himself in Day's shoes, huh. not sure if smart or offensive, but at least he's trying, I guess, which is more than we can say for most folks we've seen around Day so far?

Mhok's "fart proudly - stand behind me" shirt is taking me OUT

yeah, that makes sense

Day, wtf, that's so dangerous, I'm sure you've been on a scooter in Bangkok traffic when you could still see! you must know you can't tell for sure there'll be room for you to do that left and right of you!

a friend for the fish, huh, let's hope they don't kill each other

I hate to be this person but how often, exactly, are you supposed to use these eye drops, Day? I mean I guess his eyesight is going anyway, but …

I'm really enjoying the show so far. Solid. P'Aof material is being P'Aof material and I'm really enjoying that.

[codecicle]

Read the intro post

wow what a cool and awesome person...

FUCKING 14 YOU ARE A CHILD MY GOOD SIR??? /LH

1: YOOOOOO YOU THINK IM A COOL AND AWESOME PERSON?? THANKS MAN :DD and 2: LMAOOOOOO YEA I AM!! I've been on here since I was like, 11-ish? not sure. my friend introduced me to tumblr during the beginning of my 7th grade year! (and fun fact: that same friend is both my mutual and the person that gave me my nickname actually!! which turned into my url ^_^)

anyway, I'm going to rant underneath your ask about being a child now im so sorry 😔

It's always been so weird being as young as I am both on tumblr and in the fandom space I'm currently a part of. Like realistically, a 14 y/o boy liking minecraft/mcyt sounds really normal but I don't know anyone my age that is open about being a part of this space. I think growing up on tumblr instead or twitter or tiktok honestly really helped when it comes to being happy in my intrests, since almost every other freshman to ever exist has no idea what this website is and they have no chance of ever finding my posts to make fun of me with them. I still use the other two, but I don't post and I only really open them when a cc like Charlie or Ted posts.

It's hilarious to me that because of my current intrests (jrwi and charlie in general) almost everyone that I'm friends with on here are much older minors or adults, mainly because charlie has a pretty mature and well rounded audience (THANK FUCKING GOD 🙏🙏), but also because everybody else my age that are in this fandom are on tiktok. Using tiktok for me and actually posting is kinda unsafe because of the way the tiktok contact sharing works? if someone from my classes finds it through "recommend accounts" then they can look through my account and harrass me if they recognize who it is. Not to steal a Charlie Slimecicle quote for a second, but I was rewatching an old podcast episode from the very beginning of 2020 and he described it as "elevated highschool" which I 100% agree with. Even 3 years later it's still very much just a higher form of highschool bullshit to have to deal with.

But since I don't post on tiktok I don't really have much to worry about!! My account is blank and it's the same @ as my url so nobody should recognize it and put a face to a name which im grateful for. However, being on tumblr isn't the greatest either;

People on here are all adults and I feel a little bit intimidated? In a sense? I understand that I'm a LOT different than most kids my age and I don't typically have anything to worry about but!! I feel like that's what makes it worse. The other people my age that were or still are on here don't understand tumblr etiquette, don't understand not to act like this is twitter and not have stupid cubito discourse, or just aren't funny? Idk I've just never found anyone my age (with the exception of like 3 of my mutuals you guys are amazing and I love you) that I can really talk to on here, so all of the friends I've made are much much older. I'm smart with who I talk to and how I talk to them so I'm safe don't worry!! My parents raised me right and online safety is such a wonderful thing, but one of my closest mutuals on here is in college right now, and the others are juniors or seniors in highschool. I kept my age out of my bio for so long but honestly that was because I was terrified I would scare away the people that I trusted so much because literally obviously it's going to feel weird for them to be mutuals with a genuine honest to god child. I'm relatively close to turning 15 so I'm getting less and less worried about stuff like that happening but eh that was still a real fear for a while.

Anyway sorry for the rant!! TLDR; highschool sucks, I'm scared of being this young on a platform and fandom full of adults and I have to be extra careful, and also charlie slimecicle is a pretty cool guy to look up to so I feel like him being [vine boom sound effect] my COMFORT STREAMER kinda works out in my favor ngl :D

[edge-oftheworld]

'have you considered that luke likes to lie' 'all men do is lie' okay maybe he's been a bit optimistic about the scheduling of 5sos6 and has since corrected himself but

before i go on i want to make sure i say it clearly: i'm not saying you did anything wrong by theorising this!! or saying it in (parital) jest! but there is something i really wanted to touch on with my neurodivergent activist hat bc i think we make some assumptions as a society that we really shouldn't.

as someone who gets time blindness especially around creative projects and can be on a roll where I work quickly then crash at an unexpected point and don't do anything for months, timelines for things getting done are often really loose and difficult to picture, and saying 'this year' in january is a very loose and flexible thing referring to a long amount of time, in which a number of things will get done but i can't specifically tell you what. just a list of things that I will attempt to do if i feel like them.

and I basically did want to say, if golden globes!luke was communicating from somewhere anywhere along those lines--it is demoralising to have everyone expect that you know exactly what will get done and when and be held to standards that are fuzzy at best and more optimitic guidelines than a commitment. it is discouraging to be accused of lying (and obv he's not on tumblr, but idk about twitter spaces i imagine people were saying the same and we know he is on there) when you're genuinely doing your best with these socially constructed milestones that don't make sense.

and i don't know for sure what goes on in his head!! none of us do. it'd be weird if we did. so maybe he is lying?? or maybe he's not. all i'm saying is when the whole world assumes one thing and it isn't true it's isolating and invalidating. so think. one tumblr post probably isn't going to do much. but if it's part of a larger culture where experiences that aren't your everyday neurotypical assumption are treated like they don't exist (until proven otherwise then it's 'omg i'm so sorry i didn't realise i didn't mean to!') then that is a problem. and we don't know for sure, but we do know luke has 1) written several songs about time passing by and feeling like he's not keeping up with it; 2) talked about the process of writing shakes in interviews recently, and given a different timeline every single time while also being super genuine and vulnerable in the interview; and 3) forgotten how old he is mid sentence in an interview one time. it's not a stretch for me to think 'maybe he's not lying and if everyone assumes he is it could be harmful'.

also adding on this I feel like we can kinda extrapolate this to the band as a whole?? being curious and nonjudgemental even though we are frustrated, because to most of us time is a constant thing we make plans to and we like to know when things are happening and get frustrated when we don't. but think about it. the whole 'soon' saga. ashton initially planning to release a single in march. they're creative, they work hard and fast when they're in the zone, and sometimes that comes with the cost of Simply Not Knowing When Something Will Happen. for me it's validating of my own experience. for many it's frustrating and that's understandable!! i do want to say again i really don't want to antagonise or criticise anyone for expressing that. but i also want us to start questioning, does time really get experienced the same for everyone? and the answer is no. and so we can't always just assume people can automatically translate to a language of scheduling that might feel foreign. and in the meantime we can enjoy listening to more songs about this very experience!

[genericpuff]

Hello! As a previous fan of LO (back when there was actual effort in the art and I mistakenly thought certain themes and symbolism would be carried through the story) I’m really excited to see what you do with these characters! I was honestly pretty invested in the whole fertility/death goddess dissonance I initially thought was going on, so you can guess I was mega disappointed with where the story went. And I’m already way happier that you’ve begun to build off their relationship as something tangible and emotional, rather than insta love.

Honestly, when I first started reading I thought a major plot point was gonna be Persephone having to balance these two sides of her self that are in conflict, and come out to be a goddess of spring and new growth from decay and death. I thought it was gonna be clever, since that’s kinda what springs like, right? New life and growth from death and rotting matter of the previous seasons. That and the whole ‘red eyed wrath’ thing she had going seemed like a fun hint that she was suppressing her real emotions, and a lot (but not all) of her overly sweet personality was to cover that and be what she thought she was supposed to be. Kinda sad in retrospect, but that’s part of why I’m excited to see where your reimagining goes!

First off, been loving the asks I've been getting from y'all the last little bit, it's a great way to keep stuff updated here in between new Rekindled uploads and essay dumps LMAO so keep 'em coming!

Moving on-

I was really hoping to see that same kind of dissonance carry through the story as well, and it's proooobably one of the biggest things I'll be tackling in this rewrite because it was the one thing I was most disappointed to see fall through in LO.

Fun fact, a lot of my writing over the past decade has focused on dualities like this, alter egos, buried trauma, light vs. dark, host vs. parasite, etc. many of which were concepts you would find in stuff like Undertale, Omori, etc. but like... before those things even existed (I've been writng and making comics online for... a looong time.) I suppose it's the weeb in me that's drawn to these types of personifications of personal dark sides that are present in elements like Chara, Headspace/Black Space, etc. Needless to say, playing games like Undertale and Omori was like, super validating LMAO (if not a little oof because it also reminds me that my ideas aren't that original but that's not a bad thing, there's no such thing as an original idea anymore and that's what makes writing such a great process!)

So like... I weirdly feel that the plots and character dynamics/tropes I usually write and thought no one was interested in has prepared me for this one specific thing??? And it's for a fucking Lore Olympus rewrite comic jfc-

The universe has a funny way of preparing you for things you never expected to be guided to, I suppose. The only fallout is I'm not really eager to share my normal work on this blog due to how rabid/pervasive Rachel's fanbase is (and, y'know, Rachel herself) and I'd rather just protect my usual projects from that potential mess because my usual projects are the ones that are wholly my own, and I intend to still be working on long after Rekindled is done.

But trust me, it's out there and its heartbeat is in perfect sync with that of Rekindled's.

Maybe that'll be the essay I write at the end of all this.

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

Alright hereʻs part 3: the last three suits Peter makes/wears, which all happen to be black lol — only the first one is black because his aunt died, the rest are just cause... they ended up that way. but until that black and red one he still uses the other unstable molecule suits like stealth, sometimes he'll do the red and blue for certain things (trying not to scare small children, for example)

(pt. 1: handmade suits (aka high school and college): link)

(pt. 2: FF suits: link)

UPDATE (jan 2024): ripping the widow suit from Peter and modifying it for Kaine. more than likely Peter will be in the black and white suit in the middle there when he dies.

closeups/details under the cut:

alright so just to get this out of the way the first black suit is cause Peter's aunt dies in 2023 due to failing health (technically kaine's fault but because of something that happened 11 years earlier, but, you know, it's fine,) and Peter's sad about it

this isn't based on any comics suits but it is actually... one of my existing designs that I've used before (though a slightly modified version) for an AU where... Peter... is a murderer lol BUT THAT'S NOT APPLICABLE HERE.

in this AU it's just black cause his aunt died. He doesn't wear it very long. It just felt, to him, like wearing head to toe bright red and blue was obnoxious and the FF suits just reminded him of Johnny dying (though johnny came back a while ago but still, bad memories dug up) so he made himself a black suit. A bit of texture, a bit of black gloss on black matte, dorky mirrored lenses since you gotta sneak the red and blue in somewhere—

the shoes aren't much to write home about.

as you can see by the note, neither of peter's 2020s black suits have stealth capabilities. If he needs that he just shifts into the FF suit or whatever. he really doesn't need it most of the time anyway, black is plenty stealthy.

this is obviously loosely based on The Black Costume™. but this one isn't a symbiote, it's just black and white. Some of the design cues were taken from his initial black suit

(this one)

as well as from mid-2000s comics, in terms of eye shape, but obviously, though there are actually similarities between the symbiote and the unstable molecules (basically one's alive and one isn't, on the flip side one is weak to fire and the other is fireproof), the unstable molecule black suit peter adds to his rotation is a little more physical looking (well, the lenses are at least) as well as a little bit glossier but not as latex-shiny as the inverted FF suit.

the end result ended up extremely Space Knight-y which wasn't on purpose but I'm fine with that esp since there is no Space Knight Venom in this timeline lol so Peter using an unstable molecule suit with a similar aesthetic is not that weird. (anyway, SK kinda looks like a buffer version of the inverted FF already)

But anyway this is basically what he switches to a year after his aunt died. he still doesn't really feel right in the blue and red, and he acknowledges the black suits are kinda... 👀😳 sexy (felicia and flash, and everyone else i'm sure, told him as much) so he sticks to black for a bit, though again he still has the other suits and sometimes wears them if he needs to be more... fun i guess. or more stealthy, though for him wearing black is typically enough to be sneaky.

it's got pretty slim and simple soles not unlike the FF suit's, though not exactly the same.

and then...

well.

—this has been changed and Peter won't be having this costume after all, though I do like it a lot. (I'm co-opting it to give to Kaine in a slightly modified way instead) but i'm including the close-ups etc.

kinda going for a translucent and yet opaque effect on the lenses, like a cabochon of red glass that blocks all the light... benefits of unstable molecules: can do literally w/e the hell i want to the lenses and it's feasible for him to still see out of them lmao

Obviously this is loosely based on/inspired by the black and red suit from SM/DP and/or the suit Felicia gives Peter in the Insomniac game, but... it's not exactly the same obviously, and the logo is completely different. Color scheme is the same, it does have stealth capabilities which are permanently enabled (and can't be turned off, unlike the FF suit), and he basically only wears this from now on partially as a form of aposematism (a warning of his danger) and partially because he's a brooding edgelord (i mean, kaine had to get it from somewhere 😂) (and yet also still extremely sappy w/ flash at home... the duality of man, is that the more dangerous and powerful he becomes as spider-man, the gentler he is as peter, because he's terrified of what he could do to his wife, to a friend, to a bystander, in a moment of carelessness. He used to want kids. (Flash said no.) He doesn't want kids anymore.)

snuck in the little hourglass on the shoes, since i don't like the glove look and i wanted to keep it minimal though obviously the theming is black widow-y... not natasha though lol

edit: changed the soles, didn't like the lugged outsoles, made it smooth instead for a sleek aesthetic, and like it better now.

anyway hourglass also has a double meaning beside the fact that it's a signifier of his deadliness, which is that his time is running out—he'll be killed around 5 years after making this suit 😅💀 just before his 50th birthday... another thing i'm still working out details on but i think he'll die wearing this. feels thematically right lol

has claws, naturally (kaine: dude that's my thing). peter's only clawed suit, actually. and a little shoutout to the red hourglass on the palms of the suit that inspired this one.

compare this black and red suit to the version in Spider-Man/Deadpool and the videogames Dark Suit (though obviously there's no DP or anything like that in my AU, and Felicia didn't make it for him either; if anything this will be related to grim hunt in some way):

oh

might be worth still allowing Peter to have this costume but changing the spider logo to match the comics and video game and then, idk about the soles. i don't love the ones i did for the drawing and those are going to kaine anyway so probably something different for that.

also peter loses some teeth in the process of the whole "killing someone" ordeal lmao (if that happens, idk)

so he has partial dentures in the last 5 years of his 40s/life lol

[hoardingpuffin]

A Word on Muppet Media and Music

[this post is about the Muppet Show and Muppet Movie Media, not all Muppets, so it excludes Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, Emmett Otter and pre-Sesame Muppets]

The Muppet films [excluding the 2011 one plus its sequel, I'll explain why below] have no fricking business having songs that are this good.

The original Muppet Movie's "Rainbow Connection" is obviously iconic but it's also a really beautiful song if you take it out if the Muppet context. Same with it's reprise "The Magic Store" - I mean, c'mon!

Life's like a movie

Write your own ending

Keep believing, keep pretending -

We've done just what we've set out to do.

Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers and you.

Then, in the same movie, we get "I'm going to go back there some day", Gonzo's song, and oh my goodness, it's got unironically one of the most beautiful lyrics I've ever heard.

There's not a word yet

For old friends who've just met.

Part heaven, part space

Or have I found my place?

You can just visit, but I plan to stay -

I'm going to go back there some day.

And it's not just the Muppet Movies either - think about "Muppets Treasure Island" and "Muppets Christmas Carol" - yes the songs are sung by Muppets mostly, but you wouldn't know so if you took the lyrics out of context. Treasure Islands "Shiver my Timbers" is a great pirate-y pseudo shanty, "Something more" is a perfect I-want-song; Christmas Carol's songs overall set the mood for each scene - "Scrooge" has a looming undertone, "One more Sleep" is longing, "It feels like Christmas" perfectly encompasses Present's personality, "Bless us all" has happy words but a sad undertone (also the fact that Present is the only spirit to sing, and the fact that all the musical numbers cut pff after Yet to Come shows up, amd then the next song happening only after Scrooge returned to Christmas Day... aaargh so good).

Which brings me to the 2011 Muppet Movie by Disney. Where other Muppet songs did have a muppet-y tone, the actual lyrics were pretty deep, with interesting and clever plays on words, and you could easily take the lyrics out of context and the wouldn't read as particularily muppet-y or at least like they aren't in their own way little lyrical works of art. None of them seem childish or shy away from big words.

Disney's Muppet Movie's songs meanwhile gave us

Am I a man or am I a muppet -

if I'm a muppet I'm a very manly muppet.

Am I a muppet or am I a man?

If I'm a man then I am a muppet of a man!

and

Everything is great, everything is grand -

I have the whole world right here in my hand.

The lyrics seem so empty in comparison. They aren't clever, they aren't deep and meaningful, they just exist to be funny and to maybe give minimal storytelling on the very surface. The melodies also aren't very inventive and all the songs kinda just... sound the same? Meanwhile the original Muppet films had lyrics with layers that fleshed out the characters, songs of different genres and styles and meanings.

I swear I am just time and time again disappointed by the Disney-ification of The Muppets. You can tell that whoever wrote 2011's songs did not try to make good songs that happened to be in a Muppet Movie, they tried to Just Make A Few Very Muppet-y Songs and ooooh my did that backfire...

[iwonderwh0]

So I have posted those scenes here before:

The one with a ginger joke

The other about 73bpm (implied hankcon)

Which were supposed to be a part of one story, which form in my head when I get the spirit of those characters and lasts until I lose it again after seeing something that goes strictly against what is "correct" (from my personal point of view) way for them to act/talk/look/whatever.

And vague posts within the same line of thinking that aren't scenes but just thoughts that became solid within the way I think that they are within the same setting of the same story:

This one about the way I see Amanda in this hc

This one about this sentiment around roses

"it" as a pronounce Connor keeps using once in a while on accident

Sometimes some scenes just appear and then I write them down to the best of my abilities(which kinda suck tbh) and exist within some kind of stable timeline (more or less, with some mysterious spaces in-between where I'm not sure what's supposed to happen, yet) and when it happens I start to wonder if maybe I should actually try to tie them all together in one piece

Or should I just continue to post them separately like that (I have more, the ones I haven't posted here yet) as most of them can pretty much exist without additional context and others don't require much of it. Like should I post them separately as they are and then just pin a single post with all the links?

I need an opinion