#but i think it's horrifically worse if it's not

[munsonsmixtapes]

My hurt/comfort request:

Reader and eddie somehow survived the upside down together, despite spending time in the hospital afterward for a good few weeks. Now it's well after all that hell, but reader isn't doing well mentally. They keep pushing Eddie away, indulge in drinking far too much, and rely on pills to feel numb. But the PTSD is strong, and nightmares won't go away. Sleep is a luxury now.

One night reader risks calling Eddie while drinking, only to hang up after a few words feeling like it was a mistake. Eddie doesn't take it lightly and comes over to find reader on the floor with a bottle of alcohol, crying and shaking from their last nightmare. Comfort ensues.

Feel free to change anything if you write this!! I know it's a pretty heavy prompt but I rarely see people explore the PTSD side of things with these characters. We forget how much hell the show actually portrayed. (Apologies for the long request lol)

Thanks so much for the request, lovely! This is exactly what I was looking for!

cw: mention of PTSD, reader’s deteriorating mental heath, and abuse of both alcohol and medication, hurt/comfort

You didn’t know how you did it, but after being dragged through hell and back, you had barely escaped death in the Upside Down. Both you and your boyfriend Eddie had been experienced the most unimaginable injuries, seeking immediate help at the hospital even though you knew that they wouldn’t believe how you had gotten hurt so badly.

Both of you had spent weeks there, racking up outrages bills as you were nursed back to health. Eddie had been worse than you, though, having to be on life support, but you were definitely suffering more mentally. Even though you had escaped the Upside Down physically, you hadn’t been able to in your mind.

All of the horrific, traumatic images replayed in your head on a torturous loop that you hadn’t been able to shake. It was as if you had never left even after months of being back in the real world. You couldn’t think of anything else. Especially when it was time to go to bed. Even falling asleep next to Eddie didn’t help. You still somehow always woke up screaming.

Eddie did his best, but it was so hard to watch you fall apart right before him. The person that he loved the most was in absolute shambles and you wouldn’t let him help you. You just insisted that you were fine and told him to leave it alone whenever he suggested alternatives to your unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Instead of seeking therapy like you probably should have, you resorted to the pills you had been prescribed for your anxiety and alcohol to numb your pain. If you weren’t drinking, you were popping pills after pill, and when you were really desperate, you’d combine them, even though it said very clearly on the bottle not to mix them with alcohol.

Over time, you favored your new obsessions over your own boyfriend. You found yourself pushing him away, not wanting to hear his judgement, even though you knew very well that he’d never judge you. He just cared for you in a way no one else did and it made him sick to sit by and watch you self-sabotage.

You sat on the floor of your bathroom, surrounded by empty beer bottles, your phone right in front of you, practically begging you to call your boyfriend who you hadn’t spoken to in weeks. And it wasn’t because you didn’t want to. It was because you couldn’t. You had convinced yourself that he had been upset with you and you just didn’t want to hear it.

But you did want to hear his voice. It was one of the only things that brought you instant comfort, never failing to make all your worries fade away. You knew he would have picked up if you called so you didn’t know why you were so nervous.

You picked up the phone and used the rotary to dial his number, surprised you could do it with how drunk you were. It rang once before your picked up, Eddie’s lovely voice ringing through the phone.

“Y/n?” He asked, breathless, like he had been holding it for too long.

“Eddie,” you cried, feeling tears welling up in your eyes, desperately wishing he would hold you in his arms. You knew he would if you just asked. Why couldn’t you ask?

“Y/n, oh my god. It’s so good to hear your voice, honey. What’s wrong?”

“The nightmares-” you cut yourself off, terrified to tell him what they were really about. You felt like talking about them would make them even worse.

“What about them? Have they gotten worse?” Eddie could always somehow read your mind. Maybe that was why you worked so well together. If you were even together anymore. You wouldn’t have been surprised if he would have broken up with you because of you pushing him away. You thought you deserved it.

You didn’t know why, but you pulled the phone away from your ear and put it back on top of the rotary, scooting away from it once it rang again. You knew it was Eddie and you didn’t want to talk to him anymore. Calling him was a mistake.

You curled up and buried your face into your knees, letting out soft sobs as the nightmares flashed in your head. They were always the same. Always a reminder of the trauma you had gone through. You in Vecna’s clutches, so close to death until you found yourself in Eddie’s arms, him cradling your almost lifeless bodies in his hands, letting out wail and wail as he begged for you to come back.

You cracked open another beer and shotgunned it, before laying on the cold, hard tile, left alone with nothing but your thoughts. Nothing could fix it, nothing could save you. You were just hopeless.

The bathroom door bursted open and you sat up, startled by the sudden noise. There, in the doorway was your boyfriend Eddie, a duffle bag in his hand. He let it fall to the floor and headed toward you before dropping to the tile and pulling you into his lap.

You wrapped your arms around him and buried your face into his neck, sobbing into it while he ran his hands up and down your back as a way to comfort you. He was always so good at it.

“I’m sorry I hung up on you,” you told him when you had run out of tears. He just shook his head and brought his hands up to your face, stroking your cheeks with the pads of his thumbs.

“You have nothing to apologize for. You’ve been going through things that people couldn’t even imagine.” Eddie knew how much you were struggling and it broke his heart that you were blaming yourself for doing what you needed to do to heal.

“But I pushed you away.” Your eyebrows furrowed and you suddenly felt silly for thinking that Eddie would have been mad at you. He couldn’t have been mad at you if he tried.

“You needed your space. I’ll always wait for you, you know that.” You did know that. He had told you those exact words time and time again, especially in the past few months, when you had been going through your darkest times.

“I-I thought you were going to break up with me.” Tears started welling up in your eyes again and Eddie was quick to wipe away the ones that fell.

“Why would I do that? I love you. Nothing could make me want to leave you. You know that, right?” Sometimes he was concerned by how much he loved you. That he would defend you even when he knew you were wrong. He was always just so desperate to be on your side.

“I do now,” you nodded then looked around at all of the empty bottles that surrounded you. You couldn’t believe that you had consumed all of that alcohol in such a short amount of time. Maybe it was time to quit and get some help. You owed that to yourself after all you had gone through. “I-I think I want to go to therapy. I’m sick of feeling this way, so empty and hollow.”

“Honey,” he pulled you into a hug before pressing a soft kiss to your forehead. “I’m so proud of you.”

“You are?”

“Always,” he nodded. “Not everyone can see that they need to make changes in their life and you did. Even if it took you a minute to get there.”

“You’ll help me?” You asked, twirling a strand of his hair around your pointer finger.

“Don’t I always,” he chuckled. “Now c’mon. Let’s get you some water and then head to bed. I feel like you could really use some sleep.”

Eddie helped you up from the floor and carried you to the kitchen to get some much needed water. You looked up at him as he took you down the stairs, wondering how you had gotten so lucky as to have someone like him that was so caring and willing to help you even when you had treated him like absolute shit. You never thought that you had deserved him, but maybe after getting some help, you’d be able to work on that and realize that you really did deserve to have him in your life.

[oblonger]

I have no idea how or why my brain decided to come up with this idea while I read this post, but it's making me mentally unwell.

The idea is as follows: What if Dusknoir finds and befriends the hero before they meet Grovyle?

Like, oh my goodness gracious the POTENTIAL!!

Dusknoir finds this human child, and takes them in as a form of pity. They are weak. Incapable of defending themselves. But they deserve to have a chance to live. As miserable as a life in this world would be.

He keeps them protected and fed. They grow on him. They trust him more than anything because there was nobody else that gave them that trust. And he loves them more than he loves himself. They are his child now.

Then something unforseen happens that gets them separated. He wants so badly to search for them. But Dialga keeps threatening him. Telling him that if he does, he will make certain that those Sableye he also cares for will not live to see another moment, and he will force him to watch.

Meanwhile, the human is taken in by Grovyle. They grow quickly on him as well. They can't really understand each other, not as well as he would want, but they occasionally say something about a 'Dusknoir' he thinks. And they clearly speak about him with fondness.

Eventually, Grovyle and the Hero meet up with Celebi, who is being chased by Dusknoir. Dusknoir doesn't actually know that the human is with them until he sees them fall into the passage that turns them into a pokemon.

But the hero does know. They catch a glimpse of him while hiding at one point. It's crushing. He's tried to kill Grovyle and Celebi multiple times. They want to try to get them to understand, but Grovyle doesn't understand the language they speak. He stops them whenever they try. and they feel too scared and betrayed to approach him.

Dusknoir thinks that he killed his own child. He's sent spiraling into complete and unquestioning devotion towards Dialga. He's experienced such a horrific loss that he can never get close to anyone again. Treating the Sableye that work for him with a cold detachment that only gets worse as time goes on. He still cares for them, but he would never admit it.

Grovyle is extremely angry, because he saw the hero as a sibling. And it's clear that whenever they used to talk about Dusknoir, they did it with a fondness. So not only did he kill Grovyle's only family, he also betrayed them.

The Hero loses all of their memories, even forgetting their name, but they don't lose that feeling of betrayal they felt as a human. They are reluctant to trust the partner because of it.

Things continue like they did in eos up until Dusknoir arrives in Treasure Town.

Being around him makes the hero feel those same emotions of betrayal that they had thought that they had gotten over after becoming friends with their partner and other guild members.

Dusknoir doesn't recognize the hero. He's under the impression that they died when they entered that tampered passage. He still puts on the act, but the more eagle-eyed members of the guild can tell that it's just that. An act. They can't figure out why though.

The incident happens.

Dusknoir goes through that whole, cartoonish villain song-and-dance monolog before finally ordering the execution.

The Sableyes barely begins when he, in an uncharacteristic moment of emotion and panic, (to everyone but him) demands they stop.

He recognized the way the hero winced when the Sableye began their assault.

They're alive.

Sweet heavens above. His child is alive.

...

And then everything made sense. Why they were staying with Grovyle. Why Grovyle talked about them they way he did the few times that they did talk mid-fight. That look of utter terror on the hero's face that he refused to accept that he recognized.

He betrayed them.

Twice.

No. Three times.

First by not searching for them when they were alive.

Second by hunting them down.

And now by this.

He treated them like they were his child.

He loved them like they were his child.

And now he's the greatest evil they could ever conceive.

[scylla-wyrm]

Look, I'm all for hating men, but please fuck off if you specifically hate men of color more than white men. I cannot believe I'm seeing radfems popping up and saying shit like "I trust white men more than men of color, white men come from a safer culture".

White men have done, and are still doing absolutely horrific things. You are stupid and racist to think that they are more valuable than any other man. The only reason that a white man would treat you (the white woman) any better is because white women are put on a pedestal of purity and innocence. But they still see you as a stupid object to put their sperm into. You still aren't human to them.

White men are a menace to women of color, just as you think that "immigrant men" or whatever are a menace to white women.

All men are shit. There's no specific color of man that's better or worse.

[rosy-crow]

Yeah, after watching the teaser, I’m really starting to think Square is doing the Arcane thing.

I’ve been talking about it with @altocat for a while now, and I feel like it’s starting to get real. So, this is just gonna be my final theory for the story until proven otherwise.

Spoilers for Arcane: League of Legends, but for anyone that doesn’t know, basically Arcane adapted LOL and developed one of their most iconic villains, Jinx, into a very well-written character with a story that showed you exactly who she was and why she eventually lost her mind. Before this show, she was probably about as developed as Seph was in the OG.

Even though Jinx is more flamboyant and emotionally chaotic, she and Seph are weirdly similar villains from what I’ve seen. Seph reminds me a LOT of Jinx and vice-versa. I’ve even drawn them together and compared their designs—it’s funny how mad villains in video games tend to have key similar design points, even down to hair-styles and clothing, but I’ll save that for another post lol.

Anyway, from the FS teaser it looks like we have a big climax in that ultimately leads to this scene with Seph and Rosen, who have been set up to be mirrors of each other.

All I know is that the trailer showed Rosen telling Seph to make a choice about which life he wanted to save (Japanese version made this a bit clearer), and the other lives in danger are Team Glenn. Seph is gonna have to choose between them, and….well, since we know Team Glenn lives….uhh…and also….

Rosen’s dog is trying to alert the others of something. Seph made a choice or did SOMETHING, and I thiiiink it’s gonna result in Rosen’s death. Whether it was intentional or an accident, we don’t know, but it’s clear this is when sane Seph when was still good and caring, even if a little psychologically stunted and conditioned because of Shinra. He’s been consistently this way throughout the First Soldier and doesn’t change until Nibelheim.

But I get the feeling everything went wrong with Rosen. That’s why Glenn is at odds with Seph years later.

This is also why we’re getting Arcane vibes. If it’s a misunderstanding or rift caused by Seph’s intentions to save his friends…well, that’s very familiar to this notorious Arcane scene:

Basically, Jinx…or Powder, as she’s known here, makes a drastic decision to save her friends and sister from genuine danger. However, her own talents are her worst enemy, and she causes twice as much destruction as the enemies her friends were struggling with. Almost everyone ends up dead, except for Powder’s sister. It was a horrific mistake and creates a massive rift between Powder and Vi (that’s the sister).

Vi also cements the idea in Powder’s mind that she’s a “jinx” or a curse of sorts. A complex that Powder had already been struggling with, and one she later embraces as her persona.

Glenn and young Sephiroth have been established to have a bit of a brotherly relationship so far, with Glenn being the down-to-earth and honest older source of influence. There was also the whole arc between these two revolving around Glenn initially calling Sephiroth a “cyborg” as an insult to say the kid was modified and different, not a “normal human.” This lowkey came off like a deliberate reference to Sephiroth’s later meltdown over not being human, yeah?

So you guys see what I mean, the themes here are similar to Arcane and Jinx’s psychology. If Seph makes some fatal mistake or a bad choice to save his team, and they walk in on this? Or get the wrong idea? Yeah, it’s gonna turn what was supposed to be an act of heroism into something much worse. It’s also gonna be the perfect reference to Seph’s later big moment in canon…errr, Nibelheim itself, where he just embraces inhumanity and finally goes berserk against everyone’s expectations, traumatizing the main protagonist and his eventual rival in the process.

Again, the theme of “tragic mistake paralleling or foreshadowing a villain’s first deliberate act of cruelty and evil” would be VERY similar to what happens with Jinx in Arcane.

I’m not saying SE is doing this on purpose, really, but the shared themes of identity collapse and “monsters you created” between Arcane and FF7’s main “mad villains” are interesting. Their stories obviously will play out differently, but it wouldn’t surprise me if The First Soldier ultimately culminates in a life-altering decision that Sephiroth makes, one that does NOT end well and births that conflict between him and Glenn.

That’s my theory for now. These teasers are convincing me more and more. We’ll see.

[spring-lxcked]

i wrote my funt.ime foxy one time which means i now have brainrot abt how early on foxy absolutely has this mindset of like. that's my dad! my creator! i love him! and because there's a certain sentimentality involved in the fact that these are his creations and his alone, william isn't even like. opposed to that. like, william interacting with the classic animatronics and treating them as Just Robots even when they show signs of sentience due to possession/agony/remnant VS him very much interacting with the funt.imes as semi-sentient beings. and then there's foxy (and potentially the others) who isn't initially aware of what his purpose is, who is excited to entertain and show off and prove himself! and then has to come to grips with something extremely horrific that is fully out of her control and quite literally consumes her very nature.

these are the reasons i'm always talking abt beating my william to death on the multi

[offkilterkeys]

i imagine you have a vault of unreleased content that you don't get around to posting for relatable reasons. if you do i humbly ask that you grace me with something. anything! close your eyes and pick a file? let fate decide. if you made it i'll like it, that's the point anyway

I’ve posted some panels or pieces of these but never the entire sequence on here I don’t think, so but this is one of the only substantial things I’d say I’ve kept in a vault.

I feel like compared to my newer stuff these look super rough, but they were really good practice.

These have pesterlogs that go with them but this post is already huge so eh. This was set to occur a couple hours after Caliborn’s masterpiece, so Roxy and Dirk are talking about Halquius’s heroic sacrifice/death. Davepeta and Dirk continue that line of conversation, while Roxy is pulled into an argument about self control as I bum everyone out by reminding them that Jasprose never actual stopped being an alcoholic.

[fishareglorious]

why were they doing duels in court in chapter 4. is it a actual normalized thing for their world or saint pavlov just makes the defendant and the prosecution throw hands to see who comes out the victor. do they do it for every corruption case. can we watch madam z wrestle then dump a mug full of hot coffee on constantine's face godot ace attorney style for the whole breakout incident and for multiple instances of child murders

[y-rhywbeth2]

Something that's been bugging me about an inconsistency between some of the stuff Sceleritas says about how Durge was born (plus what they say):

"Bhaal became impotent two hundred years ago, before the time of Sarevok... I don't even know how I was conceived." - Durge

"My simpering lordling, you failed the entrance exam your august Father shed his very seed to prepare you for." - Sceleritas

"Bhaal gave out all of his seed long ago, in the time of Sarevok. You were not conceived. Bhaal sculpted you from a drop of his own gore." - Sceleritas

"This door will open only for one grafted from Bhaalian seed." - Sceleritas, referring to Durge with that description

"I was sculpted from a slice of Bhaal's own dead flesh. I have no birthday." - Durge

*Each piece of the body Bhaal sculpted is sacred. Waste it not. Cherish it. Savour it.* - The Urge/Bhaal

Consistency would be nice. I mean I suppose shedding "seed" to create the duel between Orin and Durge could refer to Sarevok (which doesn't work because Plan A (Bhaalspawn Crisis) hadn't failed yet so there was no need for Plan B (Durge)) but otherwise:

Assuming that Durge isn't being lied to, which they likely aren't because then they'd need to have been conceived prior to 1359 DR as a regular Bhaalspawn, and that clearly doesn't work because Durge can be a dragonborn and those didn't exist on Toril back then at all and that rules that out -

What, did Bhaal carve off a chunk of his own flesh and fornicate with it to produce a child with himself?

...

...Oh no.

-

It must be just the writers not communicating! Everything. Is. Fine. (...and that is most likely the actual answer, I suspect... but those lore inconsistencies now exist in BG3 canon to annoy me and Bhaal would.)

[darth-sonny]

remember when i said that prime wasn't in love with leo and was just obssessed??

yeeaaaahhhhhhh that part's changed now.....

(edit: cleaned up with better line work, a darker color palatte, and some lighting. i like it better like this too)

[ckret2]

So thanks to @edmonddemontecristo, "this human Bill kinda looks like Weird Al" very quickly turned into "Bill singing Weird Al songs would be really funny" and from there into "dance party (featuring Mabel)"

Someday I'll properly line & color this but i wanted to post the sketch while it's relevant.

I imagine that when Bill deliberately wants to be a Menace to his captors, he gets drunk, cranks up the volume, and throws a dance party at midnight. This outrages most of the household. Mabel, however, finds it fun and spontaneous.

[vaguely-concerned]

despite everything augustine and mercymorn do share one brain cell, and that braincell ping pongs between 'leyendecker themed thirst trap' and 'deicide'

[slverblood]

Bhaal 🤝 Shar — the worst fucking parents in existence

[hollywoodsargeant]

alternate reality where f1 drivers go by their middle names and i am hardcore repping drivers named hunter and jack

[starheirxero]

do you think there's some sort of intense isolation in being one of few kind variants of a mean character. and vice versa. bc i do

[grmpgm]

ok executive dysfunction is kind of ruining my life actually

[icewindandboringhorror]

A very interesting cloud formation!