#but this is the first time i've legit wanted all the variants

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I know UMG is garbage with the merch orders generally but they replied almost instantly to the two orders I just cancelled and refunded immediately and I'm very impressed right now.

(Now I'm trying to decide if I really do want to re-order them with combined shipping or if I should take this as a sign to be fiscally and environmentally responsible and not order additional variants after all lol)

[sprinklenoodles]

I'm baaaaack! I got a doozy of a piece too! For The Heir of Despair!

Read all that was there and I am here to share my thoughts in a slightly coherent way! Sorry in advance if I repeat myself! First, Byakuya, my boy. Oh my gosh are you an irredeemable prick! I say this in a good way by the way! Like, you wrote him good in the sense that I am routing for his downfall in some way and was very excited near the end when he slightly didn't get his way. Bravo! You have succeeded in making me dislike my boy! (I still love him <3) But, anyway, reading what's here really got my brain thinking! Like, what might happen with Byakuya and Junko. In fact, Here's a lightning round of fun little questions that make my brain do acrobatics in a skating park! Not for answering of course! That's be lame! I must expel these out though haha!

There! Got it out of my system!! As for some other thoughts, I enjoy the canon divergences! Obviously the main gimmick is itself one, but you get what I mean! Also, I have no way to segway into this but I was no joke quoting and spouting a bunch of goofy crap and like, I can't just NOT give a peak into the innerworkings of my mind. So, here. Take those and a bit of tidbits on the context I said them in. "Leave that little guy alone!" - Said mostly for Chihiro and Makoto, both when Byakuya was manipulate, mansplain, malewife-ing his way through existence. Less malewife though. Or scratch it. No malewife-ing for him. Not in this time line u_u "Byakuya! Have you learned nothing!" - Just any time Byakuya was doing stuff I found worthy of mocking him for. Might have to re-read everything to find the specifics cus I unfortunately did not count those moments in a spread sheet T-T "You're no good, Byakuya! You'll never be shit! You're just like your father!" - I find this one funny cus I legit find Kijo a saint in this in comparison to his son. It's both because the man hasn't really done much and he's not the focus. I also had a realization though that the reason I want this Byakuya to suffer so much is because I know he can do better than this! Like, Byakuya as a character! Unlike Kijo, he has the potential for redeemable qualities which makes his reveling in his own ego less camp, more pathetic. Like, Kijo makes it fun because he sucks, he will never improve, and that's that! And it's not like Byakuya can't be that fun camp! He just has to not be a monster! I like this factor in this Byakuya though in this fic. It really encapsulates how bad he could be. How he can surpass his father in horrible behavior, and actions. Like, it's sick reading how much he enjoys all of this and you did a really good job at it! Also, I have no idea how to fit this either but I DID mentally joke to myself that I wouldn't mind Junko actually cutting of a limb from Kijo just to make Byakuya suffer a bit (even if it probably won't be much sadly) and I have no idea how to take that... I think that, weirdly enough, I like ridiculing this Byakuya. I want him to fail. And like, it's insane you're writing can do that!! Be proud!! Like, this isn't even the type of fic I normally read and I've been able to enjoy it. You wrote many variants of just one rich guy and they're all distinct enough to feel different about them but similar enough where you can see where the divergences lie and I really like that!! And, it's oddly cool reading something and knowing that I could never write this. This goes for all your fics by the way but like, it's really cool reading this and just knowing that someone's able to write something I could never. I'm too much of a softie for Byakuya, even when I'm mean to him heehee! No clue if this makes sense by the way. I'm kinda blabbering now so I might end it here! But yeah! You got some cool stuff!

Aaahhh!!! Thank you!!! LOVE the art as always, it looks AWESOME!!

And yeah, Byakuya is NOT a good guy. He's very much a prick and supposed to be like that.

As for your questions, I obviously can't answer those... Though, the answer to some are no and some are yes... That's all I'll say.

And Chihiro is really going through it, with Makoto joining him soon. Byakuya will unfortunately not be leaving them alone 😔

Kijo is strangely enough a better person here, though he still ain't good. Like, he is very much on board with the killing game. He doesn't really like that Byakuya is in it cuz he doesn't want his heir to die, but that's all.

He's also very petty tho and is quite offended Byakuya kept him in the dark about everything. It's why he agreed to the motive. And unfortunately, no missing limbs for Kijo. That is reserved for another dad only in an AU that isn't mine...

But Byakuya is not nice, yeah. And like you said, he could be much better but he simply doesn't want to. He likes the way things are and loves to manipulate some of his classmates.

And that makes people not like him, just as intended. He's the protagonist but one you want to fail. Cuz if he doesn't, that means something bad for the rest of the cast...

But thank you!! I really like writing these different versions of him and it's really not as hard as it might seem. Tbh, it comes kinda natural if anything! Though, I get being the softie to Byakuya, I myself would never hurt him... Other than the countless times he got injured in my fics... :D

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Abandoned Loki Theories

My best friend and I tend to watch the same media, and Loki was no different. However, we no longer live in the same place, we have different schedules, and I am a much bigger Loki fan than she is (so I was much more likely to turn on the new episode as soon as I got home from work, no matter what). But since I want to remember everything I want to talk to her about after we both watch the episode, I have taken to making notes in my phone while watching. I usually condensed these notes into something more coherent before we talked, but I saved the original notes. I recently reread these incoherent, mostly caps-locked reactions, and compiled several ideas I had while watching episodes that I've since abandoned.

"Wait, is she a Timekeeper?" So this is a direct quote from one of my reactions, and I don't remember if I was referring to Renslayer or Sylvie, but I'm pretty sure it was one or the other. Obviously, since Renslayer didn't know she was a variant and the Timekeepers turned out to be fake anyway, I doubt either one is true.

C-20 isn't dead: Man, I hope this is still true; she and Sylvie had some great fake chemistry. I was once a spn fan (and my brain sometimes thinks I still am), and I refuse to accept death in shows if I don't see the body. But sadly I think if she was still alive she'd have shown up by now.

TVA planted memories of Sylvie's arrest as a child; she's really from post-Infinity War: So this was in part when I thought Sylvie was genderfluid like Loki, rather than a transwoman (as in consistently one gender), so the timeline as we know it was the same both events and gender-wise, and then at some point after faking their death, their gender shifted. Either Sylvie changed her name as an alias or as a fem name (or a name that better fits her just in her opinion; she can be Sylvie even if she's having a masc or nb day). But while I think it's possible for the TVA to have altered her memories (it's explicitly been stated that they can do it, after all), I think it's too involved for a side plot. There's too much else going on. Plus I think she's a transwoman not genderfluid.

Lamentis nexus event was a paradox; there can't be two variants together: I refuse to believe the nexus event was Sylvie and Loki falling in love (though that'd be a little paradoxical as well). I think the nexus event involves both of them, and I don't think it's for the reason Mobius thinks it is. But they were in the same place the entire episode, and the TVA didn't find them until right before they bit it, so I don't think it was just them together that caused it. I don't think it was love, at least not romantic. Loki doesn't even seem to consider this a possibility until Mobius suggested it. My new thought is this: either the catalyst is they both make the decision to trust each other (which is not something a Loki does often), or this is the moment Loki looks at Sylvie and for the first time sees the true scope of his own potential, stretching bright and beautiful and endless within this fearless, resilient version of him. This is a very subtle recreation of that one panel from I don't know which comic of a bunch of Lokis standing around and then they start whispering into each other's ears, "You can escape."

(I do not know if this is a legit panel or an edit, I'm sorry.)

Various people being Loki variants-- Renslayer, Kang, etc.: This one makes sense for why I abandoned it. Both have variants (in Kang's case, at least, canonically many) of themselves that we've already seen.

Classic Loki is Old Loki from AoA: His character design, his age, the fact that Old Loki canonically messes with the timeline, too, it made sense before hearing his backstory. And listen, seeing Kid Loki and Old Loki at the very end of the episode? I spent an entire week going feral with AoA thoughts. But the backstory doesn't match up.

[malviral]

Wesker's theories.

Hello  RE  fandom  friends,  I  have  some  Whiskers  thoughts  in  the  brain  I  want  to  post  about.  I'm  sure  I've  posted  about  these  things  in  depth  before  BUT  I'm  too  lazy  to  go  digging  up  more  of  my  big  ol  posts  so  I'm  just  gonna  roll  with  the  autism  and  ramble  in  a  new  post  here:  First  up,  Wesker  is  the  man  who  realized  host  mutations  have  something  to  do  with  the  hosts  personality.  He  also  suffers  some  complex  form  of  survivors  guilt  given  he's  one  of  the  few  infected  that  actually  survived  and  retained  some  form  of  humanity,  even  if  only  in  appearance.

But  this  is  where  it  gets  complicated.  Because  the  reason  Wesker  didn't  mutate  into  a  terrible  monster  right  off  the  bat  was  because,  unknown  to  him  at  the  time,  he  was  part  of  the  1%  of  the  population  that  was  genetically  compatible  with  the  Progenitor  virus.  So  you  might  think  this  stokes  Wesker's  ego  and  inflates  his  head  but  not  exactly. In  fact,  its  something  that  Wesker  has  struggled  with,  because  such  a  big  part  of  Wesker  wouldn't  consider  himself  worthy  and  he  thought  personally  there  was  others  who  were  (  Like  William  )  yet  this  didn't  work  out  in  practice  and  it  has  remained  a  frustrating  and  haunting  riddle  to  him. 

On  top  of  that  Wesker  is  aware  he's  lost  himself  to  the  virus.  This  was  something  he  had  to  contend  with  even  before  the  virus  started  destroying  his  body. 

He  describes  himself  as  a  passenger  in  his  own  skin  much  of  the  time,  and  he  never  truly  feels  like  he  has  the  wheel  in  a  sense.  This  being  said,  it  brings  me  to  the  other  thing  regarding  the  virus  and  something  Wesker  seemed  to  work  out  as  well:  If  the  hosts  will  is  STRONG  enough  they  can  hold  off  and  even  revert  mutations.  We  saw  this  with  Manuela,  Steve,  Leon,  Ashley,  Alexia  to  an  extent,  and  yes,  I  believe  Wesker  himself.

This  was  true  for  Wesker  and  may  be  the  reason  the  virus  started  poisoning  and  killing  him.  From  the  experience  of  seeing  other  infected  people  transforming  into  hideous  monsters,  Wesker  decided  he  would  never  let  that  happen  to  him  so  eventually  the  virus  in  Wesker's  body  hit  a  "celling"  of  sorts  that  Wesker  had  built  and  it  began  to  act  out,  poisoning  him  as  a  result.

Therefore  Wesker  eventually  had  to  rely  on  a  special  serum  to  suppress  the  virus.  The  correct  dosage  of  this  was  imperative  as  too  much  could  kill  the  virus,  thus  killing  Wesker  too,  while  too  little  allowed  the  virus  to  continue  poisoning  him  anyway.

Once  again  I've  spoke  in  depth  about  all  this  in  other  posts  as  well  as  detailed  relevant  lore  tidbits  and  possible  theories  to  explain  for  all  the  stuff  that  the  game  never  really  explained  but  I'm  currently  going  with  this  particular  theory  as  canon  for  me  in  why  the  virus  was  killing  Wesker  after  according  him  so  much  power  and  superiority  as  it  just  felt  weird  that  suddenly  it  was  working  against  him  and  I'm  sure  the  game  legit  never  bothered  explaining  why.

So,  essentially  for  me  there's  a  heavy  suggestion  the  virus  is  its  own  being,  in  a  way,  having  its  own  type  of  consciousness,  this  was  heavily  suggested  with  Alexia  and  everything  with  William  vs  the  G  virus  backs  it  up.  Now  we  also  have  everything  with  Saddler  in  the  RE4  remake  also  supporting  this  because  KEEP  IN  MIND  TWO  THINGS:  All  the  virus  we  saw  up  until  re7  were  variants  of  the  progenitor  and  the  original  games  HEAVILY  suggested  the  Progenitor  had  some  type  of  relationship  to  the  Plaga.

As  a  result,  Wesker's  constant  mental  resistance  against  the  virus  was  pissing  it  off  and  it  was  making  him  sick  as  a  result  but  to  the  bitter  end  Wesker  refused  to  give  in  to  it.

There's  no  telling  what  would  have  happened  if  he  did  and  its  possible  that  "giving  in"  could  have  been  the  solution  to  all  Wesker's  problems  but  his  only  remaining  human  attribute,  his  sense  of  fear  of  the  unknown  and  his  apprehension  and  vanity  over  the  idea  of  becoming  an  unsightly  monstrous  mass,  was  stronger  than  any  type  of  megalomania  the  virus  might  have  unlocked  in  Wesker.  And  I  think  its  so  funny  that  a  big  part  of  Wesker's  fear  really  was  "ew,  I  don't  wanna  be  ugly"  LMAO.

Anyway  I  think  its  funny  that  Wesker  might  have  been  able  to  mutate  and  if  he  bother  actually  letting  the  virus  do  as  it  wanted  he  might  have  even  been  able  to  change  himself  back  in  a  similar  way  to  Alexia  was  able  to  do  in  the  start  but  yeah.   Wesker  was  afraid  of  not  being  able  to  go  back  and  TO  BE  FAIR  TO  HIM,  as  far  as  my  canon  goes,  Wesker  never  WANTED  to  become  what  he  became,  or  rather  never  knew  that  would  happen  and  he  spent  A  LOT  of  time  trying  to  study  himself  and  other  infecteds  similar  to  himself  to  understand  his  affliction  more  but  that  proved  difficult  given  they  all  had  a  tendency  to  get  murked  before  he  could  make  any  use  of  any  of  them.  

All  he  had  in  the  end  was  the  Ndipaya's  myths  of  the  ancient  god-kings  (  Which  Wesker  was  a  modern  form  of  )  but  he  failed  to  find  these  overly  helpful  given  they  were  legends  from  an  old  time  and  may  not  have  even  been  entirely  accurate  accounts  and,  of  course,  Spencer's  insane  plans  and  we  know  how  all  that  ended  up.