#i fuckin RAMBLED my god

[gingerbreadmonsters]

I feel like all empathy daemons are either too childlike to even know what being in love feels like (Caelum) or they are asexual (Cam)

i.... potentially?? this is a good point, anon, and i fear that you may have opened the pandora's box of lore theorising in my brain 🤠🤠

everything i'm about to say is extrapolated from the only two empathy demons we've actually met - caelum and regulus (i think cam is a serenity demon, and thus might operate on different rules?). as such, it's likely to be wildly wrong, but i just like speculating lmao

in my mind, empathy demons (at least when they're young) can be quite easily impressionable, and actually have significant problems figuring out where the acceptable boundaries for manipulating/commenting on/sharing other people's emotions - they know that humans like feeling happy, and that they can help (well, force) them to feel happy, so there can be a bit of trouble getting them to realise that they shouldn't just reach into a human's brain and turn on the happy juice for a few minutes.

(this is part of the reason why caelum and freelancer's relationship is so important for both of them - caelum needs someone who can show him a healthy perspective of what makes humans feel certain ways, and how he can control the effect he's having on people.)

to me, his general bluntness and willingness to directly tell freelancer how their emotions are changing in real time (although it is very endearing) suggests that his youth means he might not quite be familiar with the general etiquette surrounding stuff like that, where humans tend to be a lot less open with discussing/revealing emotions than demons (seeing as they're not used to the people around them always being able to directly sense their feelings).

that weird relationship with happiness intersects very bizarrely with concepts about love, romance, and relationships in general, and i'd guess that it takes most empathy demons quite a long time to figure out how to negotiate even very basic relationships with humans like platonic friendships, and romantic relationships are even harder.

(caelum and regulus can't really help us in that regard, seeing as caelum is a child and regulus is... well, regulus, and the fact that cam comments on the fact that he's worried about what post-escape regulus will do to his listener indicates that regulus is not a normal example of an empathy demon in a romantic relationship with a human. as such, i'll hold off on theorising about why those relationships might be so difficult in too much detail, if only from a lack of information.)

after all, it's a reasonable problem to have if you're a freshly-coalesced empathy demon: it sustains me, and it makes both me and my charge feel good, so i should create it at all opportunities, right? humans feeling happy is always a positive thing, i am able to induce happiness in humans at will, so why shouldn't i just create happiness at all times?

i might not say that all empathy demons don't know what love (well, romantic love at least) feels like - regulus certainly thinks he does, and he clearly experiences some form of sexual attraction/sex drive:

however, as we said before, regulus is not exactly a model empathy demon, so it's unclear just how different from the rest he is. it's possible that all empathy demons, at least at some point in their lives, are capable of feeling romantic and/or sexual attraction, but it's just as plausible that only some of them do.

or - and this is less likely, but still possible - it might be that regulus is more of an outlier than we thought, and he's sidestepped the general outlook of empathy demons to effectively condition himself into sexually desiring his listener (and/or feeling sexual attraction in general) because sex makes them feel good, and he's addicted to their feelings of pleasure and happiness. considering what we know about regulus, re: how unhinged he is and how much he craves his listener, i don't know that we can rule this out as a possibility entirely.

tldr: we just don't have enough information! we don't know enough typical, adult empathy demons to be able to make an educated guess about how your typical, adult empathy demon behaves. in my opinion i suspect that empathy demons are capable of love, in both a platonic and romantic sense, but whether or not they do feel it depends on things like their own mental/emotional maturity (i expect physical maturity too, but i don't know enough about how demons physically change as they grow older - we know that they coalesce fully formed, but it's unclear whether they retain that form forever, or if that form changes and matures as they grow older and more emotional mature. do demons go through puberty? this excludes incubi to some extent, as we know that they change their appearances at will, basically whenever they like), their personal and individual disposition towards those sorts of feelings, etc.

[tarufai]

[sluckythewizard]

THEY could give me the surgurey i need (inspired alot by evojellys designs for em. GREAT STUFF)

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

I'm in love with your drawing of Wally and Howdy fighting over the arm. I love how mad Poppy is. Her saying "is2g" gave me the idea that she starts cussing more the longer she has to deal with this bs. And I'm also imagining Frank leaning against Eddie's hat saying "oh Eddie we're really in it now"

10 out of 10 artwork. Good job. No notes.

it has been Well Received it seems! i'm very pleased, i was hoping i wouldn't be the only one who found it funny ahaha

and i couldn't resist:

[luck-of-the-drawings]

OOH YEAH BABY! PARTY TIME BABY! MUSIC! DRINKS! SOCIAL PRESSURE & A PSYCHEDELIC BREAK DOWN! WELCOME TO VAMPIRE SOCIETY MOTHERFUCKER! ARE YOU SCARED? DO YOU UNDERSTAND YET? ITS OKAY IF NOT. FIRE DISSOLVED IT! ITS ALL GONE NOW. HAVE FUN!

[alilaro]

those damned anime weebs were right, Neon Genesis Evangelion really does go fucking hard

[stardustintheabyss]

"Omg Yamada is so attractive"

Haha YEAH OBVIOUSLY HE OF COURSE IS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE ONE

[can-of-slorgs]

Local owlbear, what she gonna explodee✨

[novantinuum]

when the blind reactors you watch are starting to get into the Nitty Gritty of plot and you are going to have to be Very Careful in your meta ramble comments from now on so as to not accidentally sway their thinking or Give Anything Away

[meanya]

Y'all-

[sluckythewizard]

had this thought rotating in my mind since arthur had to wear that Anti-Sun disguise. and well. now u see it too

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Heya! Was this the piece you were talking about?

Seems to be from someone going by seyorrol

YES!!!!!!

HOLY SHIT YES THERE IT IS!!!! THANK YOU LOVE YOU YOU'RE AMAZING MWAH MWAH MWAH

[luck-of-the-drawings]

THE ORDER OF PALMS An order of holy folk that serve The Helm, working to create powerful Aasimar Paladins for the purpose of protecting any who hire their help. [BACKSTORY UNDER CUT]

One day, Gjör and her peers were lead by their mentor Opheria, to a mission far from their home. On the peak of that mountain village, they saw upon the horizon, the castle of their home go up in flames. Horrified and scared, the apprentices sought to follow their mentors guidance, and followed her lead into a small barn. It was there, that Opheria proceeded to slaughter each and everyone of the apprentices. It seemed she somehow had a hand in this sudden attack on the Order of Palms. Gjör D'annevual survived a sword through the 'heart', on account of a rare condition, that places her heart on the other side of her chest. When she finally managed to bring herself back home, the Order was insulted by her survival. She had so many better peers, why couldn't any of them have survived? This runt was seriously the only thing that survived Opherias wrath? It was better to just wash their hands clean of this. Thus the Order decided to banish Gjör from their ranks. She now travels the land in search of a purpose.

[im-smart-i-swear]

im sick so i drew my girl nika to cheer myself up,,

[schmooplesthesecond]

as much as i would love a remake of BG1 and BG2 in the BG3 engine after the absolute character assassination of sarevok and viconia i don't want larian anywhere near those games.

[doomednarrative]

Personally I cant do really early days STARS/RPD era Chreon for a lot of reasons, one being I'm just not interested in it because theyre cops at the time, but the other reason is that like. Part of what Compels me about these two as a pairing is seeing them years down the line when theyve already been in the fight for awhile against bioweapons and all that and theyre on equal footing in their own right. Chris is a BSAA captain, Leon is a capable agent, it puts them on equal ground but it also means that they've already seen so much shit that they Know what each other has been through this whole time.

I think both of them struggle with the notion of wanting a relationship, and even just with friends at times, because they don't to involve anyone on the outside of the fight who doesn't understand the depths of things. People who don't understand that this will probably end in death or heartbreak, or even just watching someone you love get hurt a lot and having to deal with that pain. And its That unique situation that makes Leon and Chris compelling to me personally, because here's two guys in the thick of it who Know the risks and the threats inside and out and they chose to say "No, I'm going to care about you reguardless because its better to go thru this together than alone, even if it hurts" and I dunno man, something about that kind of defiance, especially with how headstrong they are just as separate individuals, it gets me.