#is Killer actually an evil mastermind?

[nethhiri]

Marooned: Chapter 26

Kid x FemReader x Killer

Warnings: Sexual content, violence lite

...And Find Out

On either side of you was a wall of muscle, effectively trapping you in your seat at a booth in a new bar. Kid had made sure that you wouldn't be getting into mischief here, unless he was a part of it. You had gotten some food into you, though you were still swiping drinks from Kid or Killer's glasses when they were preoccupied talking with someone else. Kid's hand was wandering under the table, torturing you on purpose. This was your punishment for making a fool of him. First it was on your lower back, playing with the edge of your pants, then it was pulling at the strings lacing them up the sides. Your legs were crossed tightly since it was only a matter of time before he got bold. 

"Remind me again what ya wanted?" Kid taunted.

His hand pinned yours to the table when you tried to grab his French fries. "For you to shut up," you grumbled. You jumped when he pinched your thigh.

He faked a pout. "If ya keep hurting my feelings I might not wanna...what was it?" He tapped on his chin, pretending to have forgotten what was now seared into his brain. "Put your ankles behind your-"

You covered his mouth with your own and bit him to make him stop. "Shut up. Shut the fuck up," you said against his lips. Why did you drink fucking absinthe? You could hear Heat and Wire laughing in the background. You harshly whispered into his ear. "If you don't cut it the fuck out, I'm not gonna let you put my ankles behind my ears."

Kid grabbed your chin and bent into your neck to whisper back, "Keep acting like that and I'll tie you up that way so everyone can have a turn." He snickered at your reaction. His metal arm was around you, such that his hand was resting on your thigh and he could feel the temperature change in your body when he said it, heat pooling around your thighs. Kid stopped openly fucking with you, returning to talking about what supplies they needed to stock up on while they were in port.

It was just the upper officers and you at the table, which you were grateful for at the moment since Kid's hand was inching ever closer to nestle itself between your thighs. He was good at acting like nothing at all was going on. You tried your best to mimic that, as hard as it was while his metal finger traced over your clothed slit. Your flushed skin was giving away how you were slowly unraveling. You clenched your knees together trying to trap his hand from continuing to move. His ankle hooked around yours, gradually prying your legs farther apart. Taking a drink of ice water and pressing it to your temple, you were trying not to think about it.

"You ok, Y/N?"

You didn't immediately realize Heat was talking to you. "Oh... yeah I have a headache." And its name is Kid.

"Do you need to go back to the ship?"

You waved him off, shaking your head. You couldn't say anything at the moment, teeth clenched to keep any other unwanted noises from leaving your mouth. There was a low laugh from next to you as Kid saw how hard you were struggling. Since it was his metal hand playing with you, there was an element of coolness wherever the metal touched, and also since it was his metal hand, he could make it do whatever he wanted, including vibrate. That took you by surprise, causing your knee to hit the table when you jerked back. "Sorry, adjusting mmmy legs." 

"Headache has you a little restless, huh?" Killer sympathized. Or at least you thought he was sympathizing until you felt his hand holding your knee in place. He was met with a black look from you. 

You swore you could see a blue glint from within one of the holes in his helmet. There was nothing you could do trapped between the two of them. If you had been in a more private setting, this would be a dream. Even if it was the same scenario without Wire and Heat, that would be better. You hid your face in your hands under the guise of the lights bothering you, which was obviously not the case since the lights were fairly dim to begin with. Both of your legs were pinned apart and Kid had not stopped teasing his fingers across your core. Controlling your breathing was hard, made harder when Kid pressed down at the apex of your cunt with a medium strength vibration running through his fingers. A small moan slipped out, though it could have still been confused for one of discomfort. You shifted slightly to glare at Kid through a crack in your fingers. He was hungrily grinning back at you, pressing the vibrations harder into your core. Your legs quivered. If he kept doing this, you were going to cum right there at the table. The thought made you hotter, yet you still fought it. The fact that Killer was in on it too was really making your mind race. Did that mean you would get both of them when you went back to the ship? The thought made you lose composure, burying your head into the crook of your elbow resting on the table, your other hand falling under the table and grabbing Killer's. Your fingers entwined with his over your knee, nails digging into skin as you got closer to the edge. 

Kid withdrew his hand, stretching. "I'm bored. Let's go somewhere else." 

The orgasm that had been building faded away and left you yearning. You picked your head up and blinked at him with lust-clouded eyes. "Fuck you," you said breathily. 

It almost pained him to stop, you looking up at him with such pleading eyes. "Don't worry, doll. I got somethin to help that headache." 

Next to you, Killer shook his hand out from under yours. "You got a strong grip, darlin." He patted you on the leg. 

It took some time for you to blink back into awareness. So this is how it's gonna be. A long night of teasing seemed to be ahead. You weren't wrong. The next establishment was a little rowdier so no one noticed when Kid took you into a dark corner to make out, sliding his flesh hand between the leather of your pants and your skin, edging you again. The one after that was more of a dance club, where you were bounced between Kid and Killer and their grabbing hands. The third one was a gambling hall, where you patiently sat in Killer's lap, listening to him whisper compliments and dirty thoughts alike and watching Kid play cards. After that, at the insistence of whatever straggling crew remained, it was a whorehouse. 

At this point you were drunk and very horny. You were promised that this would be the last place they stopped before returning to the ship. The men other than Kid and Killer found companions to take upstairs fairly quickly. You had gone to the bathroom and came back to both of them having their laps occupied by women. They were just as drunk and horny as you were, though you were hoping to harness that energy for yourself when you went back to the ship. There was motion in the corner of your eye as a man scooped you off your feet and started carrying you upstairs, thinking you were one of the working women. 

"I think you're mistaken. I'm not for sale." Kid and Killer were still preoccupied as you glanced back. 

"Everyone has a price, little miss." 

You toyed with the man's earring, giggling. "I don't think you can afford me."

"And why's that? I don't look like I have money?" His voice was slightly angry.

"Let's find out." You pointed to the wall next to the staircase, that was decorated with bounty posters. "I should be up there somewhere. Last time I checked, I was close to 90,000."

The man stopped in his tracks and looked at you. "You?! 90,000?" He had started to open a vacant room.

You didn't appreciate his unbelieving tone. "Yeah. 90,000. So unless you're gonna pay me or a fuck from you is worth 90,000. Put me down." He didn't move. "I SAID PUT ME DOWN! ARE YOU DEAF?" Kid was rubbing off on you, in more ways than one. 

The man dropped you on the floor, stepping over you to find another lady. 

Pulling the switchblade out of your boot, you caught his ankle and sliced his Achilles tendon, sending the man tripping down the stairs. You put the knife back in your shoe and pushed yourself up. "Fucking rude." You stepped on his hand as you came down the stairs and returned to your table, noticing that the ladies were no longer there. "Where'd your friends go?"

"Where'd yours go?" Killer shot back, a drunk lilt to his voice.

"I asked first, but if you must know, I stabbed him and tripped him down the stairs." 

Kid laughed loudly and patted his lap. "Atta girl." He grabbed your waist as you took your seat. "Those are just the waitresses, doll." Kid laughed again. "Were ya jealous?" He played with your hair and buried his face in it, inhaling deeply, breath tickling your neck. 

"Fuck no," you laughed. "Why would I be jealous when I know the whole time you would be thinking of me?" You leaned your head back to rest on his shoulder and grinned at him, simultaneously poking Killer with your foot. 

One of the waitresses returned with 3 beers in her hand, a disappointed look in her face when she saw you perched in Kid's lap. 

The three of you drank and chatted while the crew did god knows what upstairs. You wished Killer didn't have to wear a helmet all the time, because you felt a little bad about only making out with Kid. You tossed back the rest of your beer before moving from Kid's lap to Killer's, Kid only whining minimally. Killer's hand sat on your hip, thumb brushing at the skin. You couldn't kiss his face, so your lips found his neck. He didn't stop you. By the time you left, his neck was covered in different shades of red, some from your lips, and some from Kid when he was feeling left out. 

When you returned to the Victoria Punk, there were scattered pirates passed out all over the deck. Even Mini plopped on deck to sleep, not wanting to walk all the way to your bunk. She wasn't used to late nights. Kid threw you over his shoulder and made a beeline straight for his cabin. You noticed that Killer didn't follow. Kid tossed you on his bed and started tearing his clothes off. 

"Where's Killer?"

Kid gave you a questioning look. "I'm not enough?"

You rolled your eyes. "Don't be stupid. I thought he was into it, that's all." You kicked off your shoes and started to unlace your outfit. 

Kid shrugged. "He's probably tired. Stop worryin bout him when ya have to worry bout me." Kid tugged your pants off, and made quick work of your top. Kid kissed from your hip to your neck, nipping at your ear as he climbed on top of you. 

You had been waiting all night for this. You didn't honestly think he would wait this long, you thought after you initially pissed him off, he would come fuck you in the back alley. He had a hard time waiting you guessed, since he was already grabbing your hips and pulling them up to meet his own as he sunk his cock into you. You let your head fall back on the pillow and groaned. 

Kid grabbed your hair and jerked your head back to look at him. "So ya think ya can tease me and get away with it?" He started slow, watching you move underneath him impatiently. 

"I was counting on not getting away with it," you smirked at him, rolling your hips in time with his. You gasped as he took one of your thighs and brought it back next to you, opening you wider for him and allowing him to get a deeper angle. 

Kid picked up the pace. You were much too coherent for his liking. "If ya wanted it rough, ya can say so." 

"Nnn-not as fun." Still too coherent.

Kid picked up your other thigh and matched it to the first one, pressing both down into the mattress. If you thought you were going to manipulate him like that and get away with it, you were mistaken. He could feel you twitch under him. Kid knew it wouldn't take long to put you on the edge again since he had done it several times during the night. 

Folded in half under Kid, you couldn't move much. You didn't have to with the way he was drilling into your deepest parts. Your thighs were covered in your own juices from being so wet. The knot in your belly got tighter and tighter with every thrust. The only sounds you could make were whines and ragged moans. It wasn't much longer before your thighs were shaking and you were gripping at the sheets. Kid sucked at your breast and moved up your neck to your ear. The sound of his panting was too much. Right as you were about to snap, there was a feeling of emptiness as Kid came across your stomach with a grunt. 

The thought of how mad you were about to be and how much begging you were about to do was enough for Kid. His release felt heavenly, even though he would have preferred to stay buried in your hot, gushy walls. But he couldn't let you cum that easily could he? The glazed over look in your eyes was turning into frustration and then into a glare, so hot it almost made him hard again. 

"Was that fun enough fer ya, doll? I had yer ankles by yer ears. Just like ya asked." 

"Fuck.. you, Kid," you said between pants. You reached your hand down to take care of yourself. You didn't need him. 

He grabbed your hand. "I don't think so." He grabbed your other one, holding them both over your head. "Killer."

Killer came from somewhere in the room. You didn't know where he had been. Was he there the whole time? He was shirtless and his jeans were unzipped, but he was still masked. He had something in his hands, which he put around your wrists. 

"That's not gonna do anything. You know I can..." A panicked look entered your eyes.

Kid laughed. "Oh, Killer was into it. This was his idea." 

Killer attached the manacles to something on the headboard. "Picked up a souvenir from that marine vessel." Killer traced a finger down your center. "Seastone."

Next Chapter

[tocomplainfriend]

It feels less like you want to address a real life problem to characters, but more like you want to have another of your characters you constantly baby and want others to fangirl over.

TW: Rape, SA, Racism, Stereotyping, Homophobia, Acephobia, Arophobia.

The representations of topics in media DOES affect real people.

Fiction can affect reality.

Let's start easy, Jaws. This goes back to Hazbin I promise.

"Since the release of Jaws in 1975, the world has witnessed a staggering decline of 71% in shark and ray populations, and around 100 million sharks are killed each year." (including multiple practices of mass hunting sharks in competition)

Both Steven Spielberg and the original writer Peter Benchley regret the movie and book. It's a big reason of the shark treatment, when it started by old fishermen worrying about shark biting people in the beaches they made money of.

Even if you aren't a shark killer yourself, a lot of things you believe of sharks are untrue myths that come from making sharks "evil" human killer animals. Sharks cannot smell blood from miles away, that's not even how water works, the particles of blood need to enter their nostrils. Sharks are not man eaters, they attack other prey animals before human. Shark attacks are extremely rare, even if they happen they are not justifiable to kill all sharks.

Sharks actually have personalities they can fit in, they are smart and recognize people and boats- and form positive relationships with people. They can even like getting pet by people.

Other level to represent other thing sin media that affects reality we can address Queer, representation as a topic.

I hope it is not a surprise for you... possible non-straight, non-cis person reading this. That the constant representation of gay man as kid predator is a problem. They used old commercial (PSA) to spread negative views of gay man. Media is used to spread messages and affect its viewer. This is, there are cartoons created by Jehovah witness (or similar religions) to spread their beliefs and teach to their children in an easy, digestible way.

Same with the amount of straight woman that went off to read shitty yaoi manga and fetishy gay wattpad stories, and went to sexualize and diminish queer men. Constantly making gay man's personality into bottom or top (uke and seme shit). I witness this irl, others have too.

Same with shitty men that view Lesbians as a porn machine for men, cause "monkey brain like woman, lesbian = two women". Which happens in general and adult media. All of these are EASY examples.

Another one which turns out many people don't think about. Having your representation of an AroAce character (on purpose or not) be the psychopath with no feelings. Associating the not being romantically or sexually to means you have no heart, to be abnormal, by then a psychopath. An abuse or serial killer.

Fiction does affect reality-

A racist film, 'Birth of the nation' Revived the KKK and let to all the discrimination, and the homicide of black people of centuries ahead.

-

Coming back around, how you treat the topic of SA, and r-pe- affects the real world. You would think someone who wrote that, had in mind on how that affects people in real life. Didn't you want to represent victims of SA/R-pe that are sex workers and male?

Reducing the r-pist, pimp, trafficker character to an air head to treat as silly is crazy to do. Specially as... oh idk... the creator? Both this and the tweet of the voice actor calling Val "Bubbles Coded" is so crazy. The character is also not deep enough by itself, it's pretty much Stupid and a R-pist sex trafficker. The tweet below Viv's fucking kills me too.

The fact Val is shown to be air head stupid doesn't delete he backed Angel (and by being a sex trafficker and a pimp, and him licking charlie that means he has multiple victims) into a corner and under his control. Too then abuse of him in many different ways. Manipulations are not only done by Super mastermind people, and representing it in such way diminished, affects people who have being manipulated and actually try to question if they have being or not. Manipulators can be normal, average people, they usually are not obvious. Even if Val is openly a shitty person that's really obvious, it doesn't detract from him being manipulative to people. The scene where Val threatens him in chains that is manipulation, his text messages are manipulation (even if you think it is too obvious to be successful).

How you represent SA/R-PE, and its perpetrators, do affect real life.

Going around and having your "serious R-pe episode", to then go in other episodes or the other series you are writing to make r-pe/sa jokes is terrible. For the person that directed the whole scene of poison to NOT be r-pe/sa victim (said by themselves) with a r-pe fetish with this character's in specific, to directed in the most graphic way possible is awful. To go around babying your r-pist character is crazy.

Hope you understand that this doesn't mean not treating any topic at all. Creators should be awere on how they treat topics and the scenarios they create with them, too. People and viewers need to also put their brain to understand the media they consume. But you can't always put all blame only on the viewers of a series, if media is messy is a fault of the media. You can criticize both.

You need to acknowledge Valentino is indeed a terrible person, You don't need to delete his actions or the weight of them.

I also just know that a lot of Val fans just like him to draw him in r-pe art and get their fetishized gay ship. Cause that's what they are into. You won't even do that with a woman, because you are into your fucked up fetishized gay porn from wattpad you never left behind.

If you like him, FUCK IT, just please take his abuse seriously. Don't default your entire usage, and view of the character to be 'uwufied' fandom stuff, please.

I hate how the topic has being treated, in and out of the show. I'm a victim, and I'm hurt by how these things are treated and knowing how it affects others. Even in things I haven't watched! Don't make the argument don't like it? Just don't watch it. The movies from the video of SA of men being a joke, many I haven't watch- that still affects over all. It's still a problem and it's disheartening.

Also have this:

[a-student-out-of-time]

Episode 13 was...something

I have to be real with you all: I don't think I liked this episode very much. And no, it has nothing to do with my theory. This is a lot more serious than that. But hey, we're actually moving forward with the plot, and there's a lot to discuss about this episode

Let's cover the big things in detail, shall we?

Levi the Moral Sociopath

So let's get this out of the way: yeah, I was probably wrong here. I thought maybe Arei had talked to Levi about his secret and they reached a mutual understanding, and that turns out not to have been the case. In ways that NOBODY predicted.

See, we were all under the impression that Levi had moral reasons to kill and that's why he holds "no remorse." Turns out that interpretation was meant literally; as in, Levi doesn't experience remorse. Or compassion. Or empathy.

From the way he describes it, it sounds like Levi has Antisocial Personality Disorder or something similar, something that impedes his sense of empathy. See, there's two types of empathy to consider: Cognitive Empathy and Affective Empathy.

Cognitive is where you can interpret the emotions of another, while Affective is the ability to share in emotional experiences with others. Low cognitive empathy is what autistic peeps (such as myself) experience, while low affective empathy is what one would associate with sociopaths. They recognize emotions in others and mimic them accordingly, but they're not able to share or really understand them.

Levi...seems to be lacking in both. He has trouble interpreting emotions and he admits he doesn't really feel anything when it comes to the others; their deaths might as well be the deaths of complete strangers on the other side of the world. He murdered three strangers and his own father, yet he barely remembers them because he's moved on since then.

But Levi is not an evil person. Quite to the contrary, he still believes in doing good and helping people, even if he has no emotional attachment to doing so, because it guarantees him a better and easier life than continuously being a delinquent. He may not really be able to feel compassion for others, but he'll still try and help protect them. That's such a rare presentation of a character with low empathy, especially compared to the more common stereotype that they're all serial killers, and I just think that's really neat.

Way more interesting than him being the volatile, crazed murderer so many believed he was.

2. Hu, Veronika and Nico

So while it was largely skimmed over, here's what I did get right: Hu is the one who's attempted suicide three times and Ronnie has engaged in self-harm in the past. The latter didn't share because she decided it would be more interesting to hold onto it, and also because she considers suicide a boring motivation. Concerning.

And as it turns out, we finally discussed the murder method and they managed to draw an important conclusion: Nico's attempted murder of Ace and our current murder do indeed have a connection. That entire scene wasn't just there to happen, I'm still willing to believe that it was due to David's influence and that was the first attempt.

Because, again, the last people we saw with David before the attempted murder were Nico and Hu. And then Nico tries to kill Ace. And then Arei apparently dies in the same method.

Does that mean Nico is the culprit no? No, probably not. As I've said many times, we have to consider that rule that the Blackened doesn't have to be the murderer, they have to be the "most mastermind-y." Nico also really doesn't seem to have any motivations, at least at this point in time. Levi seemed like he did, but as he explained it, it became clear he had even less reasons to do so than we thought. Nico already has very few reasons themself.

This isn't us zeroing in on the culprit, just moving the story along. And boy did we REALLY need that. Now time for the part where Mod complains.

3. The Wheel-Spinning Is Becoming A Real Problem

Now, one thing I've praised DT for in the past is how well it handles foreshadowing. Small details always come back, no matter how seemingly innocuous. It really gives the impression that everything in the story matters in some respect, which is what good stories should do.

...But we've only just NOW started discussing the murder plot, and it took only a couple minutes to say what many of us have been saying: they used the carousel the hang the victim and snap their neck using the trash and the rafters. We're on Episode 13 of this chapter. It took us 5 episodes and 17 months to get here.

That's what's made this trial and this chapter in general so frustrating to me, because most of our time hasn't been spent on what's relevant to the situation at hand. Most of it has been spent on tangents about secrets, or just pointless nonsense and comedy hijinks. And I get it, this is DR, that's to be expected. But at this point? We should have more information than we do, because we only have a handful of episodes to work with and so many things left unexplained.

I harped on the smaller details because time was devoted to them, attention was drawn to them, and I refused to believe they're going to be totally irrelevant to this chapter. Now I worry they are and I have to wonder why time was spent on them this chapter and not the one(s) where they'll actually matter.

There were so many tangents this chapter and so much time spent on discussing them, I want to believe we're building to something for the climax.

"You mean your theory, right?" You may ask.

And I have to be honest, the theory is barely on my mind at this point. My concern isn't just the many, many tangents that don't seem to add anything, but the direction DT seems to be heading.

4. What even was that scene with Arei?

I have...so many questions about David's flashback.

To immediately dispel the obvious question, no, he's not lying here. If we're allowed to see it, that means it's what actually happened. What Arei said in that scene was what really went down. And I'm not really happy about that.

Now, I'll admit, I had a very negative initial reaction to that scene. Arei confronts David about his secret, and it turns out...she's relieved that it's true. My initial reading of that scene was that she was giving up on being a good person because David being a liar has proven it's pointless. She then goes on to say that Eden's probably done something terrible as well, so there's really no such thing as a good person, and it really felt like a cynical, mean-spirited undermining to everything that came before.

But revisiting it, that's not really what happened. TA and Poi pointed out how, no, what she really seems to be saying by "there's no such thing as a good person" is there's no one who's just naturally morally upstanding. And that it's okay, because it means she's not too far gone.

What came off as her giving up really seems to be more of her deciding not to live by some arbitrary standard about who isn't and isn't a good person, because everyone's probably done something they really regret. Her saying Eden's probably done something terrible isn't dismissing all her good efforts, since she still considers her a friend. It's her accepting that labels like "good person" are meaningless, and that it shouldn't stop you from trying to be better.

And she extends a hand to David, hoping that maybe both of them can be better in the future.

And David...doesn't share a word of this with anyone, especially not Eden. That means that scene only exists for the audience's benefit. We're meant to consider what she said for whatever reason, and while my initial interpretation wasn't wrong, I do have concerns about that.

First of all, while this could still work with my theory, this is probably the biggest factor that changes things. At this point, I'm willing to accept there's an 80% chance I'm wrong. The problem is, theory or not, I worry what exactly showing us that scene is meant to suggest. Why did we as the audience need to see it for dramatic irony purposes?

There are only three interpretations that really come to mind, and I have to say, I'm not fond of two of them:

My theory is correct and this is all part of Arei's 4000 IQ play.

My theory is wrong and that scene only exists to twist the knife for our sake, especially if David is the Blackened.

My theory is wrong, David is the rival, and that scene exists to facilitate his future character development.

And that last one is fridging. Like, it's blatant fridging, where a (frankly more interesting) female character dies in order to spur development in a dude. I'm going to be genuinely pissed if that happens, because it renders her entire character arc this chapter pointless and ends it in such poor taste. It's also a very dumb course of action because why would you ever say all this to someone you know is a MANIPULATOR WHO TAKES ADVANTAGE OF PEOPLE?!

The second one is just poor writing, where it's only there to hurt the audience a little bit more. It's unnecessary and ends things on such a pointlessly bittersweet note. But I'll take that over option 3, because I genuinely don't give a shit about David and I really don't want Arei's death only happen to focus on him more. He doesn't want to change, he believes it's better to sacrifice everyone's lives for some cause he refuses to disclose.

And at this point, I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. Whatever, I expected to be wrong anyway, but that's hardly my biggest concern.

My biggest concern is that DT is resorting to genuinely bad writing decisions and it's going to have a lasting negative effect on the story. I don't understand what other interpretations there could be with that scene, and I really don't like the possibilities we do have. Everything I point to as a basis for my theory could end up being completely pointless to the story, and I have to ask what the point was.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm reading all this in bad faith and something else will happen, and we'll spend the remaining episodes discussing everything I've brought up in detail. I've been burned a lot by stories I've enjoyed going in very poor directions and characters I got invested in bore the brunt of it. Regardless of my theory being true or not, I don't want the same to happen to DT.

And I can see reasons why I may be wrong here: David only really gives a damn about Xander, for instance, and we've yet to really discuss the hows and whys of the murder. And I still wonder why J has been getting so much focus when she was barely in Daily Life.

Overall, while I got really negative here, I hope next proves me wrong and things head in a new direction.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 161 thoughts

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 18

Aqua Hoshigan Status: For the future

Never has an OnK chapter gone from It's Hoshinover to We Are Oshi no Back quite as hard and fast as this one. I have issues with this chapter in terms of what it implies about the story's overall structure and the fact that it sort of ruins 153-4 by association but this chapter's back half is so fucking good and the chapter itself works so well in isolation that much like 153-4, I kind of uhhh don't care about the structural issues because the story's heart is, for the most part, not just intact but beating harder and more passionately than it has in a long time.

To get what I don't like out of the way, the story seems to have settled on Super Evil Serial Killer Mastermind Kamiki as his final form characterization with some helpful Tsukuyomi exposition to just straightforwardly Tell Us things the manga probably should have spent some of the last 70something chapters Showing Us about Hikaru. The basic idea of Hikaru being some sort of serial killer so dedicated to upholding Ai's legacy that he kills women with the potential to surpass her was more or less always where I expected his character to land and this settling of his character does at least preserve what I think is the most important thing: that he genuinely loved Ai and his bent towards villainy only came after her death.

What I don't love as much is that this chapter seems to continue leaning into Uber God Manipulator Mastermind Kamiki like last chapter. I already talked at length about my issues with this framing in my previous chapter review so all I'll reiterate here is that the story's attempt to frame Hikaru as being equally or even more culpable for the actions of Nino and Ryosuke fall entirely flat to me, especially when the manga itself does such a pisspoor job of actually explaining how or why Kamiki was able to control and/or predict their actions to the extent that he supposedly did. And ESPECIALLY especially given that Nino and Ryosuke seem to have already been dangerously obsessed with Ai by the time they approached him.

In general, Hikaru's character is honestly just so inconsistent at this point that making any sense of his actions feels fruitless. If I really dig into what's going on, I can infer that maybe he fell into the same trap as Aqua by overcompensating for his trauma-induced helplessness by becoming overly controlling and guess that his fucked up trauma response to Ai's death combined with those terrible words Kindaichi gave him at Airi's funeral lead him down he road he's traveling now. I can even extrapolate that Aqua showing him the DVD message in 153-4 pushed Hikaru to this extreme and now that he has nothing to lose, he's lashing out at his children too - though, it should be noted, that the manga still hasn't actually established what Hikaru's culpability is in Nino's attempt on Ruby's life, outside of Aqua saying "well you didn't use your psychic powers to perfectly predict nino's actions so it's on you".

But like - this is all stuff I'm having to infer and extrapolate and guess, reverse engineering logic from our end point in an attempt to create a stable foundation for this characterization. The manga has done such a poor job of properly establishing Hikaru both as an antagonistic force and as a consistent character that I feel like I'm trying to assemble a coherent image from two different puzzle sets with all the fucking corner pieces missing and that's with Crow Girl looking into the camera and Explaining Him to me.

And listen, I am a bitch who LOVES to infer things. One of my absolute favourite pieces of fiction of all time ever is Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, a mystery story that literally does not contain any straightforwardly explicit, textual confirmation of the culprit's identity or motives because it believes so strongly that you, the reader, are smart enough and empathetic enough to put in the time and effort necessary to understand it regardless and it deeply, deeply values being able to give you that experience. But OnK feels less like it's intentionally encouraging me to think hard and enjoy the process of putting my head and my heart to work - it feels like it's leaving its homework unfinished and letting the reader do the actual hard work of sewing up the internal logic.

I probably won't talk much more about Kamiki this chapter cos I'd just be saying all this shit over and over but I really just am struggling to understand from a perspective of authorial intent what the vibe is even supposed to be. Like I mentioned in a previous ask, if this is where Kamiki's arc is reaching its conclusion then it means that the Movie Arc was essentially a whole-ass waste of time in and out of universe. Blech. Hate that.

Also, before I move on, I don't want to leave this just implied - making Kamiki explicitly a CSA victim and then ending his arc on Aqua (and implicitly the narrative) dismissing him as being too broken/corrupted to be saved is a really major misstep that I think represents a huge black mark on OnK's handling of CSA as a topic. The idea of an eternal defilement or an unfixable core wrongness in the self is already something real life CSA victims struggle with in the process of unpacking their trauma and having our likable and supposedly morally superior protagonist espouse this unchallenged in a work as prominent and relevant as Oshi no Ko is irresponsible bordering on dangerous. It's incredibly disappointing that after all the care Aka and Mengo seemingly took in handling this topic that it was whiffed so badly at the last second.

ANYWAY!!! Now all the beef's been dealt with, we can cleanse our palettes and move onto everything else I liked which was… basically everything else in this chapter!

Admittedly, Aqua's overall arc is still suffering from us being kicked out of his head from like 123 onwards for no real apparent reason and while 150 was a welcome refresher on where he's at in this part of the story, it still feels a bit like the story is prioritizing preserving the surprise factor of its twists over making these surprises feel earned. Compare it to volume 1 - you are basically told exactly what is going to happen to Ai, especially in the manga when Saitou and Gotanda outright say as much - but her death is still incredibly impactful and upsetting. I think this chapter is very effective, but could've been a lot moreso if we'd spent more time in Aqua's head leading up to it.

THAT SAID… If the intention of keeping us out of his head was to recontextualize Aqua's behaviour across the past ten or so chapters in this new light, I don't hate it as much as I might have. I initially took issue with what felt like the story off-screening and not addressing the resolution to Aqua's suicidal ideation so whipping back around to prove that it was still very much present puts some particular Aqua moments over this past volume into a very different light. As some people pointed out, Aqua missing Kana's pitch - literally dropping the ball in responding to her feelings - and his wide-eyed look of alarm in 151 seemed very ominous omens for the success of her confession and that beat of him covering his face when Kana approves of his dream… very incheresting knowing Aqua was still struggling with 'love or revenge' at this point.

Most interesting of all to reconsider is Aqua breaking down in tears in Miyako's arms in 155 when she addresses him as her son for the first time. At the time it read like catharsis but now I can't help but wonder if this was Aqua grieving for something he desperately wants but thinks is out of his reach.

i do have to say though. i get the general vibe of this plan and think it works fine as the apex of aqua's self-sacrificial protectiveness for the people he loves but how is being the daughter of a serial killer somehow any less scandalous for her career than being the sister of someone who killed one dude. does aqua think they just won't notice that kamiki happens to be their biodad or something. wasn't that the whole point of the movie. goofy ass plan.

What really saves this whole scenario is the emotions at play, though. This really does feel like Aqua at his most Aqua in a really long while and this chapter has so much love and respect for his life as Aqua and the bonds he has formed as a result. The dreams Aqua lays out are so agonizingly simple, too - he wants to pursue the career he finds rewarding. He wants to date the girl he likes. He wants to accept Miyako as his mom and Himekawa as his brother and to make things right with Akane after hurting and using her. He wants to see Ruby achieve her dream and be there to support her when she does.

But Aqua's always considered his dreams impossible, hasn't he?

I fully admit; I got spoiled with the full page spread of Aqua stabbing himself way in advance of the chapter and initially hated it as a twist. But with the full chapter as context and the sheer weight of Aqua's longing to just fucking live and find joy, it's not just effective but absolutely gutwrenching. It is the synthesis of Aqua's series-long battle to choose love or revenge and it resonates perfectly because it has never been one or the other for him - Aqua's revenge has always been rooted in the fact that he loves others so wholly and completely and hates himself so utterly that he thinks sacrificing himself to preserve their futures is the only path for him to take. It's the culmination and final release of the suicidal ideation Aqua has been dealing with since he was four years old and like Ai's tragedy before him, there's a horrible sense that maybe there really was no other way this could've gone.

Aqua being the character who actually takes the knife also firmly cements him as Ai's narrative echo in the text which has me barkin and howlin because it's what I've been saying all this time. Not just that, but so many of Aqua's expressions in this chapter pointedly and deliberately echo Ai's after she was stabbed. Not just that, but Aqua's achingly simple dreams echo Ai's own heartrendingly simple regrets - all the two of them ever wanted was to be happy with the people they love.

This also reframes the story's prior establishment of Ruby as paralleling Ai and seems to place the twins in the position of echoing not Ai in her entirety but Ruby as 'Ai of B-Komachi' and Aqua as 'Ai Hoshino'. This was actually something I outlined in one of my very first meta posts on the series, but I think making it more specific to 'Ruby as Ai the idol' and 'Aqua as Ai the human', this actually gives Ruby's arc in relation to Ai a bit of breathing room. Don't get me wrong, everything I've said about her post-BH writing being underbaked and inconsistent is still the case, especially when it comes to how confused the story is on whether Ruby is her own idol or New And Improved Ai 2.0 but giving it less ground to cover helps in terms of her writing no longer being spread quite as thin.

Speaking of Ruby, that beat of her seeming to react or sense something is up the moment Aqua takes the stab. 'Something happened to my loved one far away and I just Feel It' is a trope I'm always a sucker for and I really dig it here.

"The public don't care about the truth, so let's tell them a lie" is such a crazy hard sentiment to go out on too. Holy fuck.

There go our boys…!!! Quite a few people predicted they might go over the edge when Aqua showed up in his Mephisto fit (Mefitsto) and I'm interested to see if we get any parallels to the ED's imagery in the next few chapters. Overall, though, I'm really excited for where things are going - I don't think Aqua will die, but I do have some theories about what might happen. I can't think of a more traditional misogi purification experience than the middle of the ocean in late December, after all…

No break next week! Woohoo! While the delay of episode 12 means we won't be getting them on the same day, that is the same week S2 of the anime will be concluding and Aka does like lining up his bombshells with the anime. So who knows what we'll see.

seriously tho aqua. everyone already knows kamiki is you and ruby's biodad. HOW IS THIS ANY BETTER THAN HER BEING THE DAUGHTER OF A SERIAL KILLER AS IT ALREADY STANDS

[onlymurdersintheafterparty]

OMITB S4:E5 "Adaptation"

We're at the halfway mark and I feel like fans with a Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes type of IQ could solve the mystery by now but I am not one of those fans so I'm just here to recap and debunk or strengthen theories I already had. I say this every week but I am truly loving the pacing of this season and that they don't shy away from answering questions early on instead of trying to shoehorn everything in for the season finale. As always spoilers ahead!

Ok so now we officially have confirmation that there are two killers. After circling back to the footprint on the windowsill of the Dudenoff apartment, the tacky paper used on the photoshoot and production room set reveals that the footprint belongs to one of the Brothers sisters. We see that one twin is physically strong enough to lift a body when she lifts Oliver and moves him onto his correct mark. I don't think that necessarily means both twins are involved in the murder though. We also end the episode with that same twin being missing and hearing a gunshot implying that she has been killed. I have been waiting YEARS for a season in which the bodies start piling up and it's finally happening!

This episode was narrated by Marshall the writer and I don't know how to feel about his character. I get that he and Mabel are supposed to be similar in that they both have imposter syndrome but he in general just gives off red flags. He's inserting himself into investigating which is something killers do and him having the fake facial hair introduces the idea of the killers having disguises so clearly he was important to this episode. Not to mention he's giving stalker vibes or parasocial Arconiac vibes. I find it very interesting that Mabel and Charles did not view the video of his stand up to verify his alibi. This could very well mean that he was at the Arconia the night that Sazz was killed. He also never stepped on the tacky paper so we don't have his footprint. That's two strikes against him.

You know who else we didn't see step on the tacky paper? Glen Stubbins. Who is back by the way. I still don't care for his character but I am starting to suspect him. He's physically capable of jumping on the windowsill because he's a stunt performer and for that same reason I'm sure he's also capable of aiming and firing a gun. Also how did he know exactly where Charles lived? They only met the one time at the Stunt Man bar. And yes it's sweet that he brought bread but he could have left it downstairs with Lester. As Ben's stunt double I can't help but wonder if he was present at the Arconia the night of Sazz's murder but in disguise. There's actually a really compelling theory on the hulu subreddit that Glen is the killer if you want to check it out.

Bev actually does have an alibi for that night and seems to only be guilty of wanting her movie made. Can we rule her out just yet? Idk but we'll see. She didn't seem that confident while aiming the gun or firing it off to prove it wasn't loaded. Her revealing Sazz's voicemail and the time it was left definitely proved helpful in establishing a timeline and confirming that there are two killers. Or three if you think it's three people working together.

Howard working for the production team is only strengthening my theory that he's the Moriarty. This man is everywhere! He was working at the theater last season and immersed in the plot there and now here he is in the center of it all once again. Again I don't think he's an evil mastermind, I just think he started off envying the closeness of the trio and now he's high off the power of manipulating things behind the scenes.

Have any of you heard of the opera La Forza Del Destino? In A Series of Unfortunate Events, there is a reference and parallel to it in which a character is mortally wounded after a weapon is accidentally fired off and strikes them. What if the killer was aiming for Charles, saw Sazz dressed similar to him and was aiming to shoot, and the accomplice called to warn them that it was the wrong person but something startled the killer and they accidentally shot Sazz? Like for example they were ready to go and then someone knocked loudly or something which not only muffled the noise of the phone but startled them enough to shoot.

This season has so many parallels and coincidences that we have to assume is on purpose. We've got multiple dopplegangers and cases of mistaken identity, guns being misfired (Eva with Rudy's prop gun and Bev with Sazz's loaded gun), and even the blackout in the S4 premiere vs the fire alarm going off in the S1 premiere.

My small takeaways from the episode:

Mabel being 30 and having an identity crisis is so relatable and I hope she finds her way by the end of the series.

Lester talking about wearing a gimp mask is WILD

Charles mentioning having an account in Belize and Detective Williams pretending to unhear it is hilarious

I'm beyond tired of this Oliver and Loretta plotline and him being insecure about her new status as a celebrity. WRAP IT UP!

Fans keep bringing up the cold case and I wonder if that will become the plot point in season five

Zach Galifianakis telling Oliver about how Jonk (sp?) ran through the seven dwarfs and that they could be heard Hi-Ho'ing from the trailer took me out 🤣

Charles having a new murder board each week is my favorite thing because that's literally all of us fans each week after watching a new episode

Bev and Cinda would be besties or frenemies and I really need to see them in a scene together before the season is over

[5eraphim]

dbd killers w/ somnophilia

Characters: The Clown, The Shape, The Mastermind, The Deathslinger, The Doctor

Rating: M

Content Warnings: Somnophilia, dubcon, toxic relationship dynamics

Word Count: 1.3k

(song inspo)

The Clown

He is a dirty, dirty, dirty old man. The clown is easily one of the most perverted killers in the game. Somnophilia is just another kink among his long list of perversions. Likely even one of his personal favorites.

He loves to drug you with whatever heavy sedative he can concoct, something he knows you have no hope of actually resisting. Kenneth firmly believes the weak must fear the strong, even if it's not a fair fight. This is another way to control you and keep you under his command. The instant gratification here is immensely appealing.

Loves the feeling of using his own body weight to pin you down, especially if he can feel the way you try to fight back while still weakened and encumbered by sleep, totally oblivious to the gravity of the situation. Additionally, he loves to tie your hands down while he takes advantage of you like this, thinking about how terrified you'll be when you eventually wake up.

When you are awake, he reminds you of how he sees your sleeping body as "free to use." Your body is nothing more than a commodity to him or a vessel he can use for his own pleasure and gratification. To Kenneth, your free will, mind, and intellect are all second value to your body and the satisfaction you can bring him.

The Shape

This more direct perverted side started as a by-product of his fondness for watching you sleep. Slowly over time, growing more and more emboldened around your sleeping body. Always wanting to see how close, how he could touch, how he could manage to provoke you before you stirred or awoke. Though more often than not, Michael is sly enough to know how to have his fun without you waking up suspecting a thing.

Loves to leave kisses all over your body while you sleep, which turn into bruises and bitemarks when you awaken, especially on areas like your lower stomach or thighs. Likes to get as close as possible to the sensitive area between your legs, watching how they tremble and twitch in your sleep while you are oblivious to what is happening.

Michael is far more attracted to the dominance of the act and the helplessness on your end. Rather than the transgressive nature in and of itself.

The Mastermind

Orgasm alarm clock extraordinaire. As one of the most prominent doms in the game, Albert prefers subs to be obedient and well-behaved rather than bratty. Thus, Albert is drawn to the appeal of taking you when you have no choice but to follow his lead and are at his mercy.

He likes to choke you out while you're asleep, even though it almost always results in you waking up immediately. The power he feels in the moment, no matter how brief it may be, is unparalleled.

Albert loves to record you and take pictures of you in your sleep. Sometimes it's when your clothes are already torn off your body, or after you're in a compromising position or something lewd like that, but not always. There's something about how you look so unaware and corruptible that Albert can't get enough of! Of course, these photos are strictly for his eyes only, though he would certainly consider using these as leverage to keep you under his command. And if you ever were dumb enough to try and cheat on him or try to leave him, Albert would leak them in a heartbeat.

(In the Resident Evil games) Albert is used to working late into the night and returning home when you've fallen asleep hours beforehand. It was only a matter of time before he realized your effect on him while unconscious. If you really loved him, surely you wouldn't see anything wrong with him using you to relieve a little stress and tension after a long day, right?

The Artist

Carmina is not the type to wait until you've fallen asleep at all! Instead, she lives for the thrill of toying with you while you're on the edge of sleeping and awakening. Especially into the way, you look so vulnerable like this! How you can be so extra-sensitive to her touch and how she plays with your body, white looking so at peace and beautiful, is breathtaking.

Will be sure to tell you how beautiful your moans sound while you're still half-asleep. Carmina generally prefers partners who are a bit more vocal, so she's sure to treasure every sound you make like this.

Genuinely thinks it's super romantic when you fall asleep in her arms, with her fingers inside you.

Loves to leave long scratches along your back and torso while you're asleep for you to discover on your own the following day. Carmina is always so gentle and cautious around you when you're awake. It's moments like this that help her to alleviate a bit of light-hearted aggression and sadism.

Carmina almost always can satisfy herself using your body without rousing you from sleep. Still, if she were to slip us and accidentally awaken you, she'd be able to lull you back to sleep very quickly. Even in moments of high passion like this, Carmina can almost always maintain at least some level of self-control, keeping you calm and helping you fall back asleep without frightening you.

The Death Slinger

Unlike everyone else, Caleb prefers to take you when both of you are tired rather than when he's wide awake and you're not. Also, he prefers something a bit more low-key with you, like grinding or deep kissing, rather than full intercourse.

If he could keep you like this forever, he would. He despises the way life has been so cold and cruel to him, and having something soft and warm in his bed to return home is more than enough to satisfy his jaded loneliness. Because of this, Caleb finds himself more interested in cuddling your sleeping body, holding you close to his, while he knows you won't try to leave or move away than actually fucking you.

If he were feeling a bit more adventurous, he might consider binding your arms together or to the bed just to see how you'd look, motionless and ensnared like fresh prey. You looked like the perfect prey before your hunter.

Loves whenever you nod off while the two of you are spooning. Caleb loves to start off soft and gentle, only to slowly become more frenzied and heated. Seeing how much more he can get away with while you become less and less able to stop him.

The Doctor

There's this excellent post by @mara-xx217​ who suggests Herman would have a medical insertion fetish. Given the sheer magnitude of his sadism, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine someone like him taking advantage of you while you're out to do something like that to your body.

He is only slightly less into somnophilia than the others because he generally prefers to torment you while you're awake, and he can really appreciate your reactions. Because of this, he may try to concoct something that would give you nightmares while you're in a deep sleep. He knows he won't be able to fully watch and savor your fear, but even though it's less fun for him, Herman knows that won't make it any less of a hell for you to go through.

When he can, Herman prefers to use injectables or gasses to try and get you to fall asleep the fastest. Rather than some of the others who would rather watch you fall asleep slowly or wouldn't try anything unless they knew you'd been out for some time now. Herman is too addicted to control and power to wait for you to be the one to drift off on your own.

Herman loves how powerful and intelligent he feels looming over your poor, dumb sleeping body. It makes him feel as though he has the power of a God while you can do nothing but sit back and watch.

[stellocchia]

I've been thinking about Color's chat a bit more (they're forever called that in my mind) and I've come up with just... a bunch of headcanons. None of these have any basis in the canon of Othertale aside from the fact that Patience is Color's favorite and what the consequences of that may be. Considering the fact that these are souls of dead children, keep in mind there's a mild cw for child death mention.

Integrity:

He's the oldest of the bunch (it takes a while for kids to develop integrity, so, yeah). He was probably already a teenager when he died (imagine 16-17 age range)

He's very often the only one having any common sense in the group. And that is counting Color

He speaks up relatively often but is in no way the most chatty of the group

He is closest to Kindness who he views as a sort of annoying little sister (affectionate)

If I remember correctly, in canon Undertale the items connected to the integrity trait are a tutu and ballet shoes. So the shoes stay the same, but I say you find a fancy sparkly unitard in Waterfall instead from him

He has some very vague memories of his life, mostly of what pushed him up Mount Ebott and then of his death. Like all the others, he does not remember his name

He and Color have a pretty positive relationship, though on certain occasions Integrity does get frustrated with what he perceives as Color's complacency and his overly trusting nature

Perseverance:

She's the second-oldest, being around 15 when she died

She's a nerd but in the "evil scientist" kinda way (she's not really evil, but she has fun roleplaying that kinda stuff). She is the holder of the braincell, except it's rarely gonna used in a productive way

She speaks rarely, and almost exclusively to come up with some convoluted plan that would most likely end up making the problem at hand worse. She just really wants to watch the world burn sometimes and would probably get along great with Killer

She is closest to Bravery, as they have a sort of evil mastermind and her henchman kinda dynamic. She's also rather friendly with Justice, to everyone's surprise

The items you find for her are the classic Torn Notebook and a pair of glasses. Except, instead of being cloudy, they are missing the lenses. That's because she could see just fine, but she liked the aesthetic

She has a lot of memories of her old life, but never speaks about them with the others. Color sometimes wonders if she actually remembers her name, but doesn't want the others to feel inadequate and doesn't use it because of that

Her relationship with Color is chaotic. To Color, it often feels like having a younger Killer stuck in his brain. Except usually less stab-happy

Justice:

They were 14 when they died

They're an extremely bright and energetic kid. And they have the strongest moral compass in the group. They still entertain Perseverance and Bravery's antics rather often because they know those two can't exactly harm anyone. At times they can get a bit preachy about their beliefs, but someday here has gotta have a moral backbone...

They're average on the speaking front. Not too much, not too little. Yet always with conviction to the point that it's hard to tell when they're joking

As mentioned, they're closest to Perseverance, but do get along great with Patience, Kindness, and Integrity on certain topics

The items you find for them are a cowboy hat and an empty gun. They claim the gun was used "For chuckin' not shootin'"

The only memory of their past life they have is that of their death in the Underground. Everything else is just vague feelings of unease about certain things

They get along great with Color whenever they're not going along with Perseverance and Bravery's antics. Their morals align rather closely. Nightmare has in the past taunted Color, saying he clearly only believes what he does because of the Justice soul. But, truthfully, they found themselves in agreement from the get-go, way before Justice had a chance to influence him

Bravery:

He also died at 14 like Justice

He's the punch first, ask questions later type. Very reckless, often obnoxiously loud. He is down with violence in theory, though he gets squeamish when they actually witness any. He's very much all bite and no bark

He speaks the most out of anyone in the group. He's far more talkative than Color as well. At times even drowning out his thoughts with his incessant chatter

He's closest to Perseverance. He really likes any Undyne because of this, they remind him of Perseverance. Also, he thinks Integrity is kinda lame but in a "Cringy Big Brother I'm still running to if I get in trouble" way

The items you find for him are a Tough Glove and a Manly Bandanna. He remembers that they were from some character he liked in life, but doesn't remember which one

He has quite a few memories from his life before Mount Ebott, but none from after his fall. Doesn't remember how he died either. And he doesn't know why he ended up scaling the mountain since he remembers only all the happy memories he had

He's a chaotic little shit and Color is a very tired single mom. That's their relationship

Patience:

Patience was a pre-teen (around 11-12yo) when he died

They are a very calm individual, oftentimes fading into the background and just letting the world pass them by. They're against any form of violence and only entertain the idea for jokes when they're certain it's not gonna hurt anyone. They're also endlessly trusting and willing to give anyone one more chance if they show an interest in changing

He speaks the least in the group. Though his calm presence is always felt regardless, mostly as a vibe

They're not especially close to any of the other souls, though they do get along the best with Kindness as she tends to be a very positive person

The items you find for him are a faded ribbon and a toy knife. He mentioned once that the fake knife was just sharp enough to get rid of the ribbon, but not of his hair

They remember very well why they climbed up the mountain. They only talked about their parents not being accepting, and them giving up on trying to make them understand after a few years. They regret giving up on them now, saying perhaps in time... they also remember their time in the Ruins in its entirety and have very fond memories of Toriel. Their death was supposedly a tragic accident, but it's never entirely clear if they're sincere when they say that

He's the closest with Color even if they don't talk much. He often helps keep their host calm under stress, and also encourages him to be understanding of others at any opportunity he gets. Color appreciates them greatly, though, at times, he does acknowledge that their help can backfire

Kindness:

She's by far the youngest of the bunch, being only between 8-10 when she passed away

She's a very happy-go-lucky kid. Very empathetic, very energetic, and a big food lover. She's very affectionate too and generally believes that anything can be fixed with a hug and a good meal. She is a bit naive, but also, well, she is a really young child

She speaks an average amount. Usually when Integrity is also involved in the conversation as he makes her feel more confident

She's closest to Integrity. That's her big brother and nobody can convince her otherwise. However, she gets along with literally everyone in the group. This can become an issue when Bravery drags her into his shenanigans because their energy just keeps building on each other

The items you can find for her are a Burnt Pan and a Stained Apron. Those were both gifts from Toriel. And, apparently, the pan got burned during a cooking lesson from Heats Flamesman (nobody else there has a single clue of who that is, Color included)

She remembers nothing of her life before the fall, and she only remembers the good things that happened in the Underground, and the nice monsters she talked with. She has a lot of fond memories of Toriel, of the Innkeeper at the Snowed Inn, of this Heats Flamesman guy, and so on. Her journey was very different and far longer than that of the others as she kept spending time with and befriending all the monsters who weren't immediately hostile to her

Much like with Bravery, Color is kind of a parental figure for her. They're pretty close, and they have similar attitudes about life, so it's often uncomplicated

-

@howlsofbloodhounds ('cause I know you mentioned wanting to see these)

[valenteal]

Ok so I just finished watching Angels of Death and omg I need to talk about it!

So usually when I get really into a story it’s full of awesome world building and it at least tries to explain everything and I usually don’t like it when a story completely disregards logic but this is different. It’s a story that focuses on character building and development and it twists reality to suit its desired narrative, which is definitely better than the stories that twist characters to do the same. And even though logic is cast aside in terms of the events and the setting it’s not cast aside in the characters.

Usually when a show or movie or book focuses on serial killers as the main character or the protagonist it doesn’t make the serial killer realistic. They are often romanticized. Angels of Death does a great job not romanticizing serial killers but instead humanizes them spectacularly. Besides that it’s actually pretty realistic in terms of psychology.

I’m not a psychologist by any means, but I have done ample research on my own into psychology so I can write and analyze characters properly. I would guess that Zack is a sociopath and Rachel is a psychopath. The difference between the two is that psychopathy is chemical, it’s an actual inability to feel empathy, and psychopaths are usually better at hiding it and fitting in and are less prone to lashing out in anger than a sociopath. Sociopaths can feel a connection with another person where a psychopath can’t though empathy is still impaired, I’m pretty sure that sociopathy is caused more by environment than psychopathy is, though both are still fairly mysterious. Also the whole evil mastermind thing isn’t used as the standard, which is accurate because sociopaths and psychopaths have the same range of intelligence as anyone else and most are not geniuses. Geniuses are not more likely to have antisocial personality disorder. Rachel seems to have above average intelligence, so do Danny and Reverend Gray but Eddie and Cathy seem average to me. I’m not sure about Zack, he’s definitely uneducated but that doesn’t mean he’s unintelligent, he’s got good instincts and he’s a fast learner so if he had a proper education who’s to say? Anyway Zack definitely reads as a sadistic sociopath to me, and Rachel is a psychopath with a whole host of other issues, probably something dissociative.

Angels of Death is written fantastically and as a writer I have to admire it for its wonderful characters that are all so human. It’s so interesting to see a story like this, entirely character driven but the characters are all so complex, they all, except maybe Zack, have very warped views of reality and get to design their domain to reflect that. The world is just the characters minds, the setting reflects their mental state, and logic operates according to their twisted perception. It’s so interesting to see!

Beyond the fascinating characters and unique story telling I’d like to add my two cents to the debate about the open ending. Personally I like open endings, and it fits a story like this that doesn’t necessarily adhere to logic and is fairly open to interpretation. But I also have to point out that the glass of the window was smashed inwards, from the outside and the cops showed up en masse before any other emergency services got there. Plenty of evidence to suggest that Zack really did escape and find Rachel. The knife had no blood on it. The blood on the window sill definitely makes it seem like someone got injured there and they didn’t just jump out the window, but it doesn’t seem like enough for someone to have died right there. However the actual scene where Zack shows up to take Rachel away definitely seems like a hallucination, Zack is in his familiar clothes and has his scythe back, not to mention the floating in mid air thing. With Rachel’s mental state and warped perception of reality I would say it’s entirely plausible that Zack did show up it just didn’t go down quite how she (and the audience) saw it. My theory, the details of which are invented by my own mind and not necessarily supported by evidence, is that Zack showed up with his knife intending to kill Rachel but a cop shot at him not realizing he was holding Rachel as he hadn’t entered the room yet and they couldn’t imagine she would go to him. They both get shot, Zack dropped the knife and they both fall backwards out window. It’s possible they survive but idk. Anyway that’s my take.

[herrscherofmagic]

a thought has occurred to me: the Seven Shus in HI3rd Part 2 would make a perfect D&D group!

In both ways too: the Seven Shus as characters in a D&D campaign, but also the Seven Shus just chilling at Thelema's mansion or smth playing D&D (as unlikely as it would be in canon, I imagine it'd make for a killer fanfic lol)

i was thinking about this because of the recent Thelema web event, and this morning I watched a video talking about fantasy taverns (largely in a historical context, then swtiching to a D&D context). and one of the things the guy was talking about was how nobles might be invested in supporting a local adventuring party, in exchange for being able to use them for special tasks.

and it hit me: Thelema is like, a perfect example of that. Not only is she a cunning noble with the skill to navigate upper society, she also has the willingness (and the power) to get down and dirty with matters.

Thelema would be such an interesting D&D character because she's superficially treated as a hedonist but in reality she's really pragmatic and thoughtful, so there's plenty of room for both fun and serious shenanigans. As for personal motives, she's totally capable of evil, but she doesn't senselessly cause harm (so she wouldn't be a murder hobo type). So she'd be very capable of doing questionable things, but she'd also perfectly willing to save the world if such a thing was in her interests.

While I haven't drawn up a complete character sheet for her, I at least have these ideas in mind:

I imagine she'd probably be a rogue with a noble background. The noble background is obvious; as for her being a rogue, I think her combat style in HI3rd gives off some of those vibes what with her chain-sword being used almost like a pair of daggers, just with a lot of extra pizzazz.

Checking the online D&D wiki I also see there's a "soul knife" rogue archetype which might fight Thelema's domination skills. Though, she also fits two other archetypes, Inquisitive & Mastermind, quite well. So idk which I'd pick if I had to choose just one since she has both psychic talent and incredible people/diplomatic/manipulative skills, lol

I could also see her being a sorcerer with Shadow Magic, but that might also be a better fit for a different Shu.

I haven't put enough thought into the rest of the Shus to give this same in-depth analysis but I at least wanted to get these ideas for Thelema out there!

However, I do have some preliminary thoughts for the classes of some of the other Shus:

Songque would probably be something to do with Illusion magic- following the book strictly she'd probably be a Wizard, but I imagine if the DM was a bit loose with the rules then she could be the Shadow Sorcer instead of Thelema; that also fits quite well with how we meet her in HI3rd!

Lantern could be a Ranger in the Hunter Conclave. It'd also be really funny if she refused to use any of the spells she learns, since we know she's adamant about her abilities being her own skill & training instead of being related to the shadows.

Litost gives Oathbreaker Paladin vibes, but idk enough about him or Oathbreaker Paladins to say for sure x-x

Ajita would be an Artificer, duh.

Serapeum could be a Druid (Dreams circle) or Wizard (Enchantment school), both seem fairly fitting for her powers of unity.

Baiji would be none other than the Dungeon Master! he gives DM vibes ngl, and it'd be really funny if the rest of the Shus were actual characters but Baiji was just a disembodied voice speaking at the rest of the gang

[ombrathefurry]

canon vs fanon main characters

I’ve had to answer this ask six times because Tumblr on my phone keeps deleting my response

Sf 

Canon: Severely traumatized, not very loud about his feelings, not very loud in general, good intentions but DEFINITELY not innocent, avoids attention and confrontation as much as possible, a cat, child that needs protecting, actually kind of smart sometimes, “everything that happens to me isn’t my choice anymore” but in a bitterness to the world way 

Fanon: Neurotically anxious, main character syndrome, loud, “PLEASE DONT HURT ME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE,” panics a lot (but not in the way he actually does this one is more like a meltdown than a panic attack,) innocent bean, literally almost every other animal other than a cat (usually mouse or sheep,) kind of dumb child that needs protecting, shouldn’t be left on his own, warms up to people too fast, “everything that happens to me isn’t my choice” but in a woe is me kind of way (main character syndrome)

Phoenix 

Canon: Literally a horrible person, woman, boxy and strong, scariest and most dangerous out of the main cast, a literal sadist, horribly unwell both physically and mentally, actually just a monster she’s just become the epitome of a monster, TORTURES people and never intentionally KILLS them, absolutely terrifying especially in a fight, very unstable mentality (which leads to her being not so evil sometimes,) she cannot be fixed 

Fanon: Man (???) less scary than loading (??????) kind of edgy but not super scary, the cool lady baddie character that everyone avoids because she’s kind of scary, kills people, isn’t very cruel she’s just insane, “ehehehheee” evil instead of just actual pure evil

Loading 

Canon: Mentally unstable, gayest man alive, very severe mood swings (can be the nicest man alive or the most viscerally psychotic creature chasing you like a rabid dog,) a stupid idiot, no capability of manipulation (he also would have no interest,) manic killer, loves Draven with a deep passion, people think he’s evil because it’s just the way he is, silly 

Fanon: Big evil mastermind, calculating psycho, always evil, kind of a jerk, smart, a simp for Draven, people think he’s evil because he tries to be, sfs worst nightmare (occasionally #1 tormentor???????) scariest of the gang 

Draven 

Canon: Apathetic scary man, he’s scary because he’s unpredictable, occasionally sadistic and when he is he’s actually really bad, doesn’t look for much trouble but when he does his craziness shows through, but he’s also actually traumatized and is struggling with it, love loading with the same deep passion, okay yeah now that I think about it he’s actually very mentally unwell too 

Fanon: Emotionless man who doesn’t care about anything (he does he just doesn’t show it) not scary, kind of uninterested in loading, dad vibes sometimes I don’t know how 

Reena 

Canon: Bubbly, kind of a jerk actually, annoying, nice to her friends though, can’t do much about anything that’s happening to sf despite really wanting to, watches over sf rather than protects him 

Fanon: Protects sf, innocent, elegant, kind peaceful ghost type thing idk there’s not much else she doesn’t get a lot of attention 

[tatumslollipop]

She did it for fame ,you for love

GF!jill roberts x fem!reader

Jill and you have been together for 2 years now but in the last few weeks shes been acting weird. Always coming home late,never telling you where she was or lie. You love her of course and she loves you but you still start thinking she cheats on you. Which you never confronted her about scared she would break up with you. But otherwise shes a very loving girlfriend.

Today the school is having their famous stab-a-thon where they watch every movie of the series of horror movies. But you needed to stay home because you had an history exam the next day. Its been 2 hours since jill left and kirby sends you an text "We are at my house now. They cancelled the marathon. If your finished studying you should come too! :)"

You finished studying after another hour and walk to kirbys house.You brought some popcorn. At the entry you see a dead body lying there. It is still bleeding. But all you could think about is jill. Is she dead? You start crying at the thought. You grab your knife that your parents gave you for protection You walk slowly to the door and open it. Carefully you open it but it squeaks and now shes looking at you. Jill your beloved girlfriend was the mastermind behind the killings. "I didnt want you to find it out this way. Actually I didnt want you finding out at all" she stabs sidney in the stomach and goes up to you. "Why are you doing this?" you say terrified and in shock. "I did it for fame. See how do people get famous these days? huh. You just need fucked up things happen to you. But we can be famous together baby. If you play along." she says. She sounds psychotic and evil. Her eyes darken. " Can you do that?" she says while carrying her knife carefully along your cheek not hurting you. "Or do I need to kill you." she says serious.You know she meant it. She really expects you to help her. You think for a while but then kiss her "Lets do this" she smiles at your comment and kisses you more passionate then she ever did. "Babe you need to pretend I stab you okay" you take some blood from the floor and walk into the living room. " Oh my god please help me. He stabbed me" Kirby walks over to you and you stab her in the stomach 3 times. Jill comes in with the ghostface costume on and says "Welcome to Act 3" she pulled out a gun and shots trevor who wanted to run away. Charlie comes in too and you stab him 6 times in the heart. Sidney is coming in again with a knife. "You cant get away with this" "Oh I cant lets see about that." Jill says " Why are you doing this?" Sidney asks "Do you know what it was like growing up in this family? Related to you? I mean, all I ever heard was Sidney this and Sidney that and Sidney, Sidney, Sidney. You were always so fucking special! Well, now I'm the special one."Then she shots sidney in the head. "Baby we are gonna know fame like you never even dreamed off" she says kissing you. She prepares everything to make it look like charlie and trevor were the killers and she gets away with it.

You two are now the survivers of the woodsboro murder in 2011. She got her fame and you got your girlfriend but at what price? And can the secret be kept?

[t4tails]

Yeah, like... I get when writers do the work and put them on sympathetic lights or when they don't go the crazy serial killer and go for the serious mastermind but at the end of the day... too many of those characters have very real issues like not even hinted we know for a fact that Riddler, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze and Harley Quinn suffer from disorders. These aren't theories we know for a fact that we've been given names to their problems and yet... well, that's the status quo of comics, isn't it? They'll always be villains who get thrown into a mental asylum.

yeah... not to mention that for every story that treats their issues with respect, theres two others that just show them as inhuman freaks. it leads to this cognitive dissonance where textually, batman doesnt kill so people can get better, and the bruce wayne side of things tries its best to fix the more systemic problems, but on a meta level, dc will never allow for either of these things to actually happen, so it makes bruces optimistic philosophy look ridiculous since it feels like so much of the context around it is pointing towards futility and some people just being innately evil. its not like you can just say "stop printing batman stories" so its just the drawback of the medium, i guess.

[kit-walk3r]

The Evans as Ghostface

What each of the Evans would be like as Ghostface from Scream

Warnings: mentions of blood, gore and violence

*Spoilers for the Scream franchise*

Tate

The most obvious Ghostface

Masked killer already? Check ✅

He’d think he was killing people to protect those he loved (aka Violet)

His kills would be pretty quick, like a couple of quick stabs and that’s it. They’d be quite messy though

Unless it was someone who had physically hurt Violet, then they would get a drawn out more painful death

He’d love doing the phonecalls and would be absolutely savage. He’d definitely say things like “hang up on me again and I’ll gut you like a fish” and “I’m gonna slit your eyelids in half so you don’t blink when I stab you in the face” (actual Scream quotes)

When it comes to the reveal he just cries

Would definitely fall over a lot when trying to chase people

Kit

Okay I’m cheating here but I refuse to believe that Kit would ever become Ghostface

Instead he’d be everyone’s number 1 suspect, like how everyone thinks he’s Bloodyface

He’d be the final boy instead of the killer. He’d be the Dewey Riley but more competent lol

Kyle

Kyle would be the Charlie Walker of the Evans: manipulated into doing all the killing

Poor Kyle would just be doing as he was told, he doesn’t know any better

Definitely the muscle

Doesn’t do any of the phonecalls though

He would be the most brutal Ghostface, we’re talking Olivia level kills. Messy, blood everywhere, dead body absolutely massacred

He would probably get the Charlie Walker treatment and be killed by his partner and then framed as the sole killer :(

Jimmy

Unpopular opinion?? Jimmy is one of the Evans most likely to become Ghostface

He’d do it for the freaks to protect them, similar to Tate but not as deluded since his victims do actually pose a threat to his family as opposed to just being like a school bully

He’s quick. Very much gives off Scream 5 vibes with the quick stabs to the neck

The first kill wouldn’t be planned, it would be in a fit of rage like how he killed the cop, but after that he gets the idea that he can protect the freaks by taking out those who could hurt them

If he had to have an accomplice it would be Amazon Eve but he’d rather do it alone to avoid getting any of the freaks in trouble if they got caught

Maybe his reveal would be that he hands himself in? Maybe there’s a Meep situation and one of the freaks is framed as the killer so he hands himself over to protect them

Jimmy’s not like other Ghostfaces. He’s not necessarily ‘evil’, he’s just seen the shit he and his fellow freaks have had thrown at them and wants to stop that from happening anymore

James

Hear me out: James wouldn’t be a good Ghostface, or at least not when it comes to the killing

He wouldn’t really see the point in concealing his identity

He wouldn’t really have any sort of motive, he’d just do it for fun

He’d do great phonecalls, but it would be so obvious it was him from his dialect

Honestly he’d be a great Ghostface mastermind, like he’d probably be the best one out of the Evans, but he wouldn’t really see the point in dressing up in a costume to do the murders so he’d be a Ghostface mastermind but not actually Ghostface

He just gives people tips and instructions

Rory

Rory would love the theatrics of getting to be Ghostface since he’s an actor

But the thing about Rory is that he would not be able to keep it a secret that he was Ghostface

He would accidentally announce it in an interview or something

His motive would be something stupid like people not giving him roles. It would be people like casting directors, producers and other actors who ‘stole’ roles from him who were his victims

Would he try and get Audrey involved? Potentially

He’d have a lot of fun doing the phonecalls but would probably out himself as Ghostface over the phone too

“You stole the role of ___ from me you little bitch” … “Rory is that you?” “Fuck”

His reveal was be very over the top (if he didn’t accidentally reveal himself before) but after his monologue he’d stop and ask if it was good or if they wanted him to try it again in a different way

Kai

Masked killer already? Check ✅

Heard of the cult of Ghostface theory? Yeah, he’d be the leader

He would have an incredible reveal, although probably not much of a surprise

He’d have great one liners

Gives off big Billy Loomis vibes

Would probably be in charge of the phonecalls and would maybe leave the killings to the others for them to prove themselves

Unless it was a big person they were planning to kill, then he would get the others to bring them to him and he’d kill them himself

When he’s killing it’s slow and torturous

Mr Gallant

He’d be a follower, not the mastermind

Agrees to go along with the Ghostface plan but doesn’t think it will get as violent as it does, he just thought it would be a bit of fun

Only wanted to do the phonecalls

He only kills one person and it’s similar to how he killed his nana, he’s made to think it’s someone else

He doesn’t want to go along with the Ghostface plan anymore so he decides he’s going to kill his partner and end it. They’re out and his partner is planning to kill someone. Gallant sees someone in the Ghostface costume and, thinking it’s his partner, stabs them a bunch of times

Surprise, it’s not his partner but is instead just an innocent person wearing the same costume

Austin

Him and Belle are basically already a Ghostface duo

The most iconic Ghostface

His Ghostface would come with musical numbers

He’d definitely end up singing the phonecalls

Motive? There’s no real motive besides the craving for blood. He just uses the costume for dramatic flare ✨

Kills would be messy but it wouldn’t matter because he’d be drinking the blood afterwards

Peter

Struggling to think of why this lil’ bean would want to kill anyone but if he were to it would be under his dad’s influence and would be to do with mutant rights

Erik and Peter Ghostface duo? Would be iconic

He’d be a great Ghostface because he’s so quick, no one would see him coming

Bit boring though because there would be no chases since people wouldn’t even have the chance to run

His speed might actually give him away as Ghostface so he would probably have to slow it down

If he’s using his mutation then the kills are quick and clean but if he’s slowed down then they’re a bit more bloody

•———•

I’m open for requests!

[mygwenchan]

Meanwhile Jason does what he's doing best which is beating people up and being a creep...

Tbh he's actually just a spoiled brat. No one ever dared to say no to him, so he thinks he can order people around however he pleases. Dude needs a good spanking if you ask me 🙄 Ab auf die stille Treppe!

Now Jason doesn't just want Jump dead, but also Aob (the traitor) and Nont (the guy who dyed his hair). The list gets longer and longer...

But before Jason has a chance to make that hit list even longer, someone sends him a very interesting clip!

That's Jump and Porche!

(I really thought the killer twink was Zouey, but nope, it's our unhinged little master!)

And Porche has just "killed" Jump!!!

Kind of funny that Jason doesn't get suspicious at all. So much for being the great evil mastermind lol

Side note: The shot with the city lights in the background is really nice, almost looks like stars :)

Daddy Jason is having a great time right now. Finally the asshole who fucked his beloved son is dead! Wooot~

Look at him! He's so happy XD

Porche is kinda badass & sexy here though, have to give him that

And as if he has just waited for the right moment (he did), Porche shows up at his daddy's office!

Oh the drama! The acting!

Jason is really eating that up. He loves it so much, I bet he's popping a huge bonder right now... Guess Porche will have to sacrifice his butt for a day or two. But at least he's getting out of this alive, so that's something

Damn 😶

He's crazy...

[aihoshiino]

Chp 160 was so??????? that I am straight up unable to form an opinion on it.

Like I can see the story going one of two ways. 'Kamiki is the evil mastermind actually he faked his reaction to the dvd' or 'Kamiki is playing the villian but is actually not the culprit'

And like both directions have massive problems.

The former would mean that the movie (which we spent nearly 40 chapters on) amounted to fucking nothing. Other characters ominous talking about Aqua trying to kill his father with it? Ruby's so called revenge arc? Nah, that meant nothing, the movie didn't do a damn thing.

And while I prefer the latter interpretation as it's the tonally and thematically consistent way, it would also mean that Akasaka has been circle-jerking us with the 'Kamiki is an evil serial killer.' -> 'No wait actually he isn't.' -> 'SIKE, HE IS EVIL.' -> 'Nvm he isn't.' for some inconceivable reason.

It's a mess no matter how you slice it, honestly I am so tired of oshi no ko and I just want it to be over already.

YEAH. THAT'S BASICALLY WHERE I'M AT.

In general, I just don't know why we're having a second confrontation with Kamiki. Narratively and emotionally, it's redundant - having him come back into the story and get his final resolution would be fine but playing out Yet Another Big Dramatic Showdown between him and Aqua just falls so flat for a number of reasons. We've already had the huge release of tension that was Aqua and Kamiki facing off like nearly an entire volume ago and everything that was emotionally riding on that confrontation was emotionally resolved. I know some people are still mad that Aqua didn't hit Kamiki with an orbital laser or something, but the absolute fucking gutpunch that was 153-154 was so incredibly effective and also just more interesting than this much more generic standoff. Not only is it kind of mid on its own merits but I feel like it retroactively makes that first confrontation weaker because like... it ends up not really mattering and we get a take 2 where Kamiki is acting like an entirely different character.

@yuseirra made an excellent point in their discussion of ch159 which is that (thematically speaking) the movie has to be the method by which Aqua achieves his revenge because Ai's tragedy was the result of the public's perception of her. If it isn't able to do that then not only was that arc just kind of a waste of everyone's time, reader and character alike, but it means the movie itself as an object in the narrative loses what little shaky thematic ground it has.

An issue the Movie Arc always had that it never really engaged with to my satisfaction is the underlying discomfort of watching Ai's life being turned into a movie. I said this over and over as the arc was ongoing, but there's something almost repulsive about taking this character whose life was warped and eventually ended up the exploitation of the entertainment industry and the voyeristic gaze of the public and indulging in that voyerism by creating fiction out of her life, chopping it up and outright making shit up to invent a version of her that the public can devour. It claims to be a movie about 'Ai Hoshino' but literally and explicitly fictionalizes the most pivotal events and relationships in her life - the 'Ai' of 15 Year Lie is just as fake as 'Ai of B-Komachi', just sold with an even more insidious lie to make her go down a little sweeter.

If the manga actually engaged with this idea or was even the slightest bit aware of this underlying discomfort, the Movie Arc as a whole would've been much better off for it and so would all the resolutions in the arcs following that rely on it as foundation. But as it stands, the movie is thematically dead on arrival and the fantastic emotional resolutions we got out of it, in spite of everything, have been seemingly retconned into irrelevance.

[colourful-void]

Going Through All the Mastermind Gin Arguments on TVTropes

Only I get progressively more and more ridiculous as the arguments begin to break me.

Incorrect! We see Gin get pulled to the ceiling in Chapter 3 as a result of magnets in the collar. He DOES have a collar.

It *must* be important? Really? There's no way this is a funny gag. None. Come on, you can do better than that. The idea of little kids using adults/older siblings as toys to play with isn't even uncommon, how many gags are there of little girls dressing up their fathers in fancy outfits to play tea party? This doesn't hold weight.

"He's suspicious because he's not suspicious!" That's what this argument boils down to.

?????? What on earth is this trying to argue??? Gin can die in the game so he must be dying for the game? Sara can die in the game too? Most of these deaths are mini game game overs, and you can get gin as a partner often in these. You know who else you can often get as a partner? The other characters who have personal info available.

1: I can't believe "A child didn't talk about going into the next grade while he's in a murder game where he could die" is actually listed as reason why he's secertly an evil mastermind. You know what, you're so close. Maybe the reason Gin doesn't expect to graduate to middle school is because he could die! In this murder game. That he's trapped in. Like everyone else. Come on...

2: That's a joke my guy! That is a joke about attractive men who flirt with a lot of women being referred to as "Lady Killers"! If anything its foreshadowing about Megumi, but it's not an implication on Gin's part unless you're reaching. Midori calls him a lady killer as a reference, and to unsettle the audience by implying he's been watching the whole time.

This is the only one I don't have a solid rebuttal to, I admit. Gin sure does respond with ellipses. Does that mean he's secretly an evil mastermind? I.. still don't see this as being anything to make a case on, but I will concede this one. One point.

before we go any further, I wanna say that Op is in fact trans, alright? okay.

...

Top ten reasons Gin is seceretly evil and killed over a dozen people: he maybe kind of misgendered a guy, possibly we're not sure.

Nope it's just a child playing with a toy. It really could be that simple. I won't rule out that there's something hidden within Mew-chan, but somehow I doubt an entire fucking human head has just been chilling in there for several days and no one has commented on the smell, and it's somehow not leaked any fluids which would stain the plush.

"This 12 year old is: *Procceds to list off autistic traits*! Clearly they're trying to avoid suspicion!"

This is the part of the analysis where I stop and give up.