#it’s just such a more…caring interpretation?

[transmutationisms]

what does therapy do, in your eyes? i know youve said that like, its a lot of self help platitudes and fairly shallow in a lot of ways (which i generally agree with, thrrapy for me was really only helpful in that i could talk about most things with a person mostly disconnected from my life, and thats about it). but i know there are others who at least feel like they have gotten a lot out of it. why do you think that is? is there a place in your idea of a better system for a person whos job it is to be the person people talk to, or is the fact that exists just kind of a relic of our shitty psychiatric system?

sorry for the long ask, but i assume youve thought more about this topic than me and am curious.

SAID NONJUDGMENTALLY i think people like talking about ourselves i think it feels good and is sometimes useful to boot and we all spend 24/7 locked inside our own heads and we can never truly understand even 5% of whatever is going on in someone else's head and so yeah it feels good to feel understood & cared for. if you are one of the very few people who is materially positioned to experience therapy as a room you voluntarily enter to talk about yourself and your problems, and you like doing this with a specific kind of worker-client professional etiquette, then yea i imagine therapy feels great sometimes.

however i don't really think it makes sense to talk about whether 'therapy' as such would exist in a better world because this ⬆️ is not actually what therapy exists for, this ⬆️ is an incidental output of a system that is designed to medically treat various forms of social non-compliance by interpreting them as evidence of brain diseases. that is not something i want to exist or think is necessary, and if we're not talking about that then we're not actually talking about therapy, despite this website's best efforts to wilfully disregard what it means to medicalise. i do think people will always enjoy talking to each other about their problems and i don't have any opinion on whether that's done with a stranger or not; that seems like mostly a matter of personal preference to me, once we've dispensed with the notion this is some kind of scientific medical treatment that can only be legitimately performed by a trained emotions technician.

[mournthebird]

James.

summary: You help him remember what he lost.

warnings: Post!HYDRA Winter Soldier | Post!HTP and abuse | Flashbacks of HTP | Past dehumanization | Past SA mention

a/n: So sorry for the wait on my writing. Started this back in January, just got around to finishing it.This is the last installment as of now for this series. Might not be the ending everyone wishes for, but this was the ending I was writing for all along.

I never expected my writing to get so much attention and I thank everyone for commenting and telling me how much they enjoyed it. I have plenty more to come, more series, more WS oneshots, etc. I hope you enjoy this last part. Not edited ignore mistakes. ;; wc: 3k

He was actually talking, forming full sentences and expressing himself in ways you hadn't seen before.

Recovery had been progressing well these past few weeks. The conversations between you two were becoming more frequent and natural, his initially trembling voice gaining strength and confidence with each passing day. He was still somewhat soft spoken, and hesitant every so often, but he had overcome retreating into silence. His words flowed more smoothly now, and the progress he'd made since those first difficult days was great. After months of providing him sanctuary in your home, seeing these improvements filled you with a deep sense of relief and hope that he was getting much better.

Your dedication to helping him recover had led you down numerous paths, including the risky but necessary task of infiltrating HYDRA's classified files. Your efforts hadn't been in vain - you'd managed to uncover another name, an identity that existed before they'd reduced him to simply 'Soldat'. You felt the potential benefits outweighed the risks by approaching him with this information. You didn’t want to send him into a mental break, but you also wanted to give him a piece of his identity to have and keep all for himself.

He deserved that much.

He was sitting peacefully in the living room, taking small bites of the sandwich you'd prepared for him. You settled onto the couch beside him, watching as he ate. "Soldat?" you ventured softly, drawing his attention. His glacial eyes shifted from the television screen to meet yours, and he deliberately finished chewing before swallowing his food. Through months of careful observation, you'd learned to interpret his quiet, attentive gaze as his way of showing he was listening.

"I found some stuff about you..." You began carefully, choosing your words, "Maybe it could help you remember some bits of your past before...you know." You placed the gathered paper files on the coffee table, positioning them next to his plate, your heart racing slightly at the weight of what these documents might mean for his recovery.

He gazed down uncertainly at the weathered tan folders spread before him, tilting his head slightly as he tried to comprehend their significance. Though their contents remained a mystery to him, your insistence on their importance lingered in his mind. He used the back of his organic hand to wipe his mouth clean of any crumbs before carefully reaching out to lift the heavy folders.

The weight of history pressed against his palm as he felt the substantial collection of papers and photographs within. Soldat's movements were measured and cautious as he opened the first folder, his eyes immediately drawn to what appeared to be an identification page.

The document contained what looked like a detailed patient dossier - complete with vital statistics, biographical information, and extensive historical records beyond the cover. But what caught his attention, what made his breath catch in his throat, was the photograph attached to the file. The face staring back at him was unmistakably his own, though from a time before HYDRA had claimed him - a fact he had yet to fully comprehend.

You hoped this wouldn’t send him spiraling.

A deep furrow formed between his brows as he leaned in closer, studying the image with an intensity that spoke of desperate recognition fighting against decades of delicate programmed amnesia. "...is this...me?" The words emerged as barely more than a whisper, his metal finger hovering tentatively over the photograph on the right side of the document. The military uniform the man in the picture wore stood in stark contrast to anything he'd known in the past seven decades that it felt like looking at a stranger.

"Yeah, that...that's you. And this," you said gently, making a sweeping gesture toward the thick folder, "This is all about you. I found it during my research into historical military records. The moment I saw this photograph, I recognized you immediately. After reading through your service history and your supposed 'death,' there wasn't a shadow of doubt in my mind - this was definitely you."

Soldat stared intently at the folder, his eyes scanning each line of information with the practiced precision of a soldier. His movements suddenly halted, brow furrowing in confusion as he reached a particular detail. "I have a birthday?" The question emerged barely above a whisper, laden with genuine bewilderment. The concept of having a birth date felt alien to him - such normal, civilian matters had been stripped away during his time as HYDRA's carefully crafted weapon. Personal milestones like birthdays had been deemed irrelevant to his function, reduced to meaningless data points in his fractured memory.

A distant memory stirred in his mind, hazy and distorted like looking through frosted glass. They had once arranged what they called a ‘birthday celebration’ for him, though the term felt wrong, tainted. The party existed in his memory only as fragments of sensations - a searing pain in his ass that had lingered for days afterwards, and the persistent acrid taste that had coated his mouth and torn throat, making even breathing an uncomfortable reminder of whatever had transpired. The memory carried no joy, only phantom discomfort and a deep-seated unease.

"...I don't understand, why are you showing me this?" His voice carried confusion and cautious suspicion as his gaze shifted to meet yours. The soldier in him searched for hidden motives, unable to reconcile your consistent kindness with his understanding of how people treated assets like himself.

Your genuine concern and humanity towards him stood out to the cold efficiency he had grown accustomed to. The question that truly plagued him remained unspoken but clear in his hesitant expression: how could someone like you see him as worthy of anything?

"Because you need to see that you exist - you're a person. A living being, not a machine. Not an asset. A human. You need to see this because you need to break through all that awful conditioning and see for yourself...your person is documented, you're real. Every moment, every breath, every thought you have belongs to you and no one else. Your experiences, your feelings, your choices - they're all valid and they all matter. And I want to give you all I can to help you understand that." You reply, voice determined and firm but gentle and patient.

It truly pained you, as much as you adored and loved caring for him, being a protector, a source of comfort for someone so damaged. Watching him struggle with his own identity and worth was like watching someone try to catch smoke with their bare hands - frustrating and heartbreaking all at once. You knew he couldn't stay this way forever, trapped in this cycle of self-doubt and learned helplessness.

He needed to heal, to find his way back to himself, and without this step, he would remain stuck in this limbo between who he was forced to be and who he could become. There was only so much you could do by yourself, only so far your words and actions could reach into the depths of his trauma. He needed another push, something more than just comfort and reassurance.

You wanted to keep him forever, but that wasn't right. You needed to give him a chance to live again.

The hours slowly drift by as you both remain seated in your living room, poring over every detail and fragment of his past and personal history. While you offer what assistance you can, you're aware of your limitations - you're not a historian or memory specialist, and many of the answers he seeks lie beyond your expertise. The simpler questions you can tackle with confidence, but when the inquiries delve into more complex territory, you find yourself struggling.

Despite these limitations, you pour your heart into helping him. Though your search for living relatives yields no results, you pay careful attention as he recounts his encounter with the man he fought prior to your meeting. You listen intently as he works to describe the individual in as much detail as possible, trying to capture every significant characteristic.

"Actually...he kind of looks like this kid but...bigger." His finger traces to a particular photograph, indicating a small-statured blond man whose frame seems incongruous with his age, suggesting some underlying medical condition or chronic ailment that may have affected his growth.

"Really? Him?" Your eyes scan the photograph with heightened interest, faint recognition tugging at your consciousness. "He looks familiar but...not." You furrow your brow in concentration, unable to figure out who this blond looks like.

"Huh. Well, I'll see what I can find," you say thoughtfully, your eyes drifting toward the old analog clock mounted on the wall. A deep yawn escapes you as the realization of the late hour hits. "Shit...it's almost three in the morning," you mutter, your hands moving up to rub your tired eyes, feeling the weight of exhaustion settling in. "I think I'm gonna have to call it a night..."

The soldier glances up from his position, his head tilting slightly as he follows your gaze to the clock. He carefully sets the stack of folders down on the coffee table before rising to his feet. "Me too."

"You don't have to because I am -" You begin to protest, not wanting him to feel obligated.

"Please..." He pauses, his voice carrying a hint of vulnerability. "I...I just got comfortable sleeping so...so I think this stuff will help me ease into sleep better. Knowing a little bit more about everything." He tries to explain in hushed tones, his shoulders lifting in a gentle shrug as if to downplay the admission. The gesture is small but meaningful, and you can't help but respond with a warm, understanding chuckle as you motion for him to follow.

"If you say so, silly," you reply with gentle affection. "But I'm absolutely exhausted...we can try to look up more tomorrow when we're both fresh."

The evening routine was a blur of haste.

Both of you moved through the motions with heavy limbs and tired eyes. Hours of staring at screens and poring over documents had left you mentally drained, your vision slightly unfocused from the extended research session. The familiar rhythm of brushing teeth and washing faces was performed almost mechanically, both of you eager to find solace in sleep.

When you finally made it to the bedroom, he followed his usual pattern of climbing into your bed rather than retreating to the spare room down the hall. Your bed had become his sanctuary, a place where he found the comfort and security that eluded him elsewhere. The spare bedroom was always available to him, but remained unused.

He preferred the warmth of your presence.

As he settled against your chest, you began tracing patterns across his scarred back. Your fingers danced carefully across his skin, drawing invisible masterpieces - delicate spirals here, geometric shapes there, occasionally spelling out words or numbers in a gentle game of touch. He’d guess them sometimes, or say them in Russian for you. You knew his preferences well by now, avoiding that particularly sensitive area where flesh met metal, creating a jagged reminder of his past. Your touches were meant to soothe, to ease him into sleep, and you would continue until his breathing evened out into the rhythm of slumber.

"You think I'll learn who I was again? Fully?" His question pierced the quiet of the room, barely audible above the steady hum of the white noise machine that helped mask the nighttime sounds of the house.

You took a moment to consider your response, a gentle smile forming as you replied, "Of course. There's so much information out there, and plenty to learn. Plus, if we figure out who that young man is in that photo, then I'm sure we can go off of that."

"Yeah...you're right...always right," he mumbled, his face pressing closer into your body as if seeking additional comfort. Responding to his movement, your hand naturally migrated upward, fingers weaving into his long hair to provide the calming sensation of gentle scalp massage that often helped lull him to sleep.

His breathing gradually slowed and deepened as he drifted towards sleep, your gentle touch working its familiar magic to ease his troubled mind. The soldier's muscular frame relaxed against you as consciousness slipped away, his strong arms remained wrapped around your body tenderly, holding you close like a cherished pillow. Though his body radiated warmth like a furnace - a side effect of the serum that coursed through his veins - the smooth, cool surface of his cybernetic left arm pressed against your skin provided the perfect counterbalance.

He ironically always complained about being cold, yet his skin was hot to the touch. You wondered if the repetitive freezing of his body messed with his ability to regulate body temperature, but now wasn’t the time to ask.

You shifted slightly to nestle more securely into his protective embrace, your own arms encircling him in return. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat against your chest and the gentle rise and fall of his breathing began to lull you to sleep. As your eyelids grew heavy, you felt yourself being drawn into a deep, peaceful slumber - the kind of sleep that had eluded both of you for far too long.

Tonight was the first time in months that you both slept without disturbances.

The following day came and you returned to where you had left off. You delved deeper into researching, as you did, you couldn't help but notice the growing signs of restlessness in his demeanor - the way he shifted his weight from foot to foot, how his eyes darted around the room, and the increasing frequency of his pacing.

"Talk to me, Soldat...what's going through your mind?" You finally broke the tense silence, looking up from the computer screen where you'd been working. His movements had become more pronounced now, an unmistakable anxiety radiating from him as he continued his agitated path across the room.

"I have to go...I need to find out more. I want to. I...I want to find the man from the bridge, he...he seemed to know me..." Bucky paced restlessly in your living room, his heavy steps wearing a visible path in your rug as he moved back and forth with nervous energy. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, metal fingers whirring softly with each movement as he struggled to articulate his thoughts.

"Are you ready for that?" You asked gently, standing to meet him, careful to maintain enough distance to not overwhelm him. You knew this was coming, it was only a matter of time.

Your voice was soft but steady, "I want you to be happy...I want you to be free. If this is what you want to do, then you should go.” You reached up, moving some stray hair from his face and tucking it back with thicker bits of his hair before letting your hand rest on his chest, “Find yourself again. Discover who you truly are."

He looked down, shoulders hunched slightly as he processed everything he had been through with you. His long hair fell forward, partially obscuring his face once again - stubborn locks - as he remembered each careful interaction, each small victory.

You were the first person in seven decades to show him kindness, to show him the care and patience he needed when he was nothing more than a frightened, broken man seeking shelter. Surely, anyone else would've thrown him back out on the street, called the authorities, or worse.

You didn't do that.

You were persistent, taking care of him with such a gentle touch, helping him rediscover his humanity piece by piece, showing him that he deserved tenderness and understanding...he couldn't be more grateful for that.

"I want to go," he said quietly but with growing determination in his voice. You nodded slowly, understanding the significance this moment held for him - a step toward reclaiming his identity and place in the world.

You observed as the soldier - James, Bucky - selected and donned a well-worn brown jacket over top his layered preference on style. His hands, steady now despite their history, secured a nondescript cap over his dark hair, adjusting it just so before his eyes sought yours . "What do you think...? Civilian enough?" The question came softly, almost hesitantly, his searching gaze holding yours as he waited for your familiar reassurance.

You couldn't help but give a small, warm smile, your heart swelling with pride and affection. Watching him take these steps toward normalcy, toward reclaiming his place in the world, it made your eyes glisten with emotion threatening to spill over. He reminded you of an injured bird, carefully testing its mended wings after a long recovery, finally ready to take flight once again. Meeting his questioning look, you offered the reassurance he was looking for, "You look perfect. You..." You paused, taking a breath to calm your emotions.

"You can always come back whenever you need me. I'll be here for you, you know that, right?"

"I know," he whispered, taking a hesitant step forward as his eyes grew visibly misty, mirroring your own. "Thank you, for...for everything you've done. For being there through all of this. I...I don't even have the words to begin to express how grateful I am. How much this all means to me...I—"

"Hush now...there's no need to thank me...just," you took a shaky breath, your trembling hands smoothing down the lapels of his jacket, trying to steady yourself. "Go out there and find yourself again. Rebuild your life piece by piece. Take all the time you need. I know you have the strength to do this. Just…don’t forget about me…"

He gave you a gentle, tender smile - one of those rare, genuine expressions you'd seen so few times before. “How could I?” He leaned forward slowly, he placed a soft, lingering kiss on your forehead, full of unspoken gratitude and affection. After a long moment, he finally pulled away and reached for your front door, his hand hesitating briefly on the handle before turning it.

He had already taken the first crucial steps toward reconnecting with the core of who he was beneath the layers of conditioning and control. He was far from being healed - the deep psychological wounds and trauma would take many more years of patient work to process and integrate.

But with time, he would at least rediscover and reclaim his identity as James Buchanan Barnes.

Dividers by @/strangergraphics

Cover image from Pinterest. I do not claim as my own.

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Let me know if you'd like to be added/unadded anytime.

[catsweatshirts]

I really liked this article about Ayn Rand using Medicare for its language (tho I have not slept in a While, so idk)

I hated this one, which argues why Rand’s use of social security was not hypocrisy, which is frustrating partially because I don’t think that Rand saw herself as someone ‘morally allowed’ to use Medicare, due to the social worker’s words in the first article. I haven’t read the book though, so I can’t say anything on their interpretation of her words.

This one, also discussing whether or not Rand’s use of benefits was hypocrisy, is significantly better. It’s the also the first of 5 websites to mention the thing I was looking for, which was the fake name thing—turn out, it’s just her legal American name, one different from her maiden/writer’s name. Also, it provided a larger chunk of the interview with Rand’s social worker, giving me more context, unlike the first article. It then provides the entire text where she says what the second article said she was saying (yikes, that was a sentence). Apparently, it comes from a letter she wrote to a fan. I stopped reading after that ngl. I don’t really care whether it’s hypocrisy or not—I know I disagree with her, I just wanted to confirm the fraudulent name thing. From what I read though, this article is better than the second because of its verbiage. It reads as significantly less high-and-mighty. I had to re-read things multiple times just to try and parse what they were saying with those verbose and ‘high-wordy’ sentences, though to be fair I am also sleep deprived as hell rn (seriously? ‘high-wordy’?).

Edit: OH!! Yes, the third article felt more comprehensive!! The former 2 were like, here, we use language that makes our position very clear, while the third threw all the context at me. It was very nice, I liked that.

Alright. So. I have a confession to share with you. In middle school, I strongly identified as a libertarian. In my defense, I was 13 and I had autism. Against my defense, I was literate, and capable of using common sense. I confessed this to you willingly, so go easy on me.

One thing about this that I can share with you is that I, as a 13 year old boy, read Atlas Shrugged. I read it as someone very committed to the ideology, who wanted to believe it, who wanted to like it, and there are two things I can share with you about that book from that time period.

The writing is terrible. It has the slowest, most boring, most pretentious prose you could possibly imagine. Calling it glacial would be a compliment. It makes glaciers look like Formula 1. There is no description for the pacing outside of hellish torments. It is like being condemned to watch a dog with an itchy ass wear the Himmalayas away only by scooching. It is like counting the grains of sand on a beach while Alexa reads off random phone numbers. It is like dipping saltines into lukewarm tapwater while listening to white noise in a beige room with no doors. It is like wearing a blindfold and being told to guess what a man is painting by sound alone, but there is no man, there is only a dog licking cold vaseline off a window. Forever. It is all of those things and more.

There is a multipage rant about how affairs are Good and Rational that is so insanely desparate that even middle-school-autist me thought she must have been having an affair while she wrote this. And then I googled it, and the answer was yes, she was. She called her philosophy Objectivism, because she believed, like everyone else in the world, that her ideas and motivations were Pure and Rational and Ojectively Correct, but I still find the name accurate, because it was really written with one Objective in mind, and that was finding a way to never admit that Ayn Rand had ever made a mistake in her life.

I was going to rant more about this but I kind of lost my train of thought. The book fucking sucks. It was propaganda of such remarkably low caliber that it actually helped me move out of those circles. Every time someone talked about liking the book, I'd reply with something along the lines of "Yeah, I especially loved the part where she destroyed the post modernists by unequivocally condemning affairs", and if they agreed with me, they would have lost my respect forever, and if they looked very embarrassed, I could at least acknowledge that they had a soul, albeit small and malformed. I had dozens of people claim that they read the book, and only three or four actually passed the test.

And now, goodnight.

[fishnapple]

What to embrace more within you

This is a general reading meant for multiple people. Take only what resonates and leave out the rest.

Your feedback is much appreciated. If you find the reading resonated with you, leave a comment, I’d love to know 🎐

About me | Masterpost Book a reading with me - KO-FI (→ personal reading)

Clear quartz 

Losing control is not something you are willing to face and accept. Circumstances might lead you into unknown paths that you have no control over. But you tend to resist them with all your will. You want what is graspable, what you can understand, and can hold in your hands firmly. You avoid uncertainty and ephemeral existences, because they signal an inevitable ending.

You're protective of what is dear to you. You're willing to go hundreds of miles for those you love, but with a price. They should safely stay in the nest you build for them. You may not realise that you want everything, everyone in your life to stay in one place, predictable. You care a lot, your love is large. That is something you need to always treasure within you. But there is a childlike spirit within you who longs for adventures, to just let go of the burden of keeping everything in control. The more you learn to let go of your grip, the more wind you let in to push you forward. You can still care for others, but instead of keeping them behind safe fences, you can help each other to go out into the world, safely, with support. Life knows how to take you to where you need, you have the ticket, you just need to step on the train.

Carnelian 

You have an image to keep, a reputation to uphold, a ground to protect. All of these keep you in a narrow path without much branching, no getting sidetracked, no exploration. Sometimes, you're your own worst critic. You shut down any grand ideas that you have immediately, for fear that they would make you yearning for more, for a more free existence. 

You have a lot to take care of, lots of responsibilities that stoop your shoulders down, keep you legs dragging heavily. You want to run but you're afraid of being lost, of running over the edge with no one to catch you. You have many wonderful ideas in your head that you don't share with anybody. Prefer to keep them stay silently inside. Ideas that would fulfil you more.

What you need to embrace is your vision, no matter how outlandish, how crazy you think it is. You're so used to normality. Let some bizarre thoughts have their space inside you. Don't shame yourself, don't limit yourself. The more you embrace strangeness and unpredictability, the easier it is to make a decision, to go on a different path. Embrace them with nonchalance, if fear creeps in, greet it but don't let it become the master of your inner house.

Sodalite

The message is about embracing your "voice", both your speaking voice and the voice you hear in your head. You have a very intuitive heart that can often show you the way, if only you just listened to it. You might disregard it as wishful thinking, delusional fantasy or irrational fears that try to sway you from what you want to do, or to mislead you into the path of failure. You don't trust this voice enough, so when you have a brilliant idea in your mind, you're your own worst skeptic, you swallow back the ideas, refuse to let them see the light. This can be interpreted by another person as a taciturn nature of yours. 

Speaking loudly might make you uncomfortable. Maybe you tend to stop mid-sentence or take too long to speak your opinion. You might feel that others don't let you speak, they all seem much more confident and assertive than you're. But that's just your perception. In fact, if you're able to get over the barriers of your mind, when you're able to speak freely, you have the ability to captivate people with your words, your voice. There's a force within that when used right, can completely change people's perception of you for the better. Look for merry interactions, where you can laugh freely, talk and exchange ideas without fear nor shame. Get yourself used to the company of people, but not just as a passive listener but an active contributor of the conversation. Slowly, you will find your voice much more lovely, much deserved to be listened to.

Aventurine

I see a lot of movements but also obstacles in the crystals, as if movements are being stifled. The restlessness inside you need an outlet. It's not something you should feel shameful about, not something you need to control with iron fists. Your life seems to be rooted in one place, one routine for quite some time, day after day, nothing much happens that can stir the stillness of it. You don't want to disturb the peace, in a way, you feel content with your current situation, even though there might be some hardships here and there, but overall, you feel safe in it. Yet, you instinctively know that, your life can't go on like that forever. You want to change, to break free of the mould, to walk the many paths that are available to you. You can see far ahead, but your feet are still reluctant to move. 

Embrace your desire to change, to travel and experience life. If you feel restless, bored without knowing why, maybe consider changing something, going away for a while, or even changing your living space. I see a wanderer beneath the seemingly stable surface. Drastic changes might momentarily scare you, but they're also very alluring. Heed their calls sometimes and you will find your fortune turns. 

Strawberry quartz 

There are some habits of yours that you might want to reexamine their usefulness. Your energy feels a little timid, pliable to others will. Not that it's something bad that you need to change, but consider how much you take in other people's ideas and feelings, assimilating them into yourself. Sometimes, you need to separate the influence of others from your core self. Question what's really true, what's really valuable to you.

The message is you should embrace more of your inner rebel. You might readily accept an idea, an opinion or a viewpoint without questioning it too much. You don't want to stir the water of any connections that you have. Showing disapproval, opposite ideas or being aggressive is not welcomed by others, or so you believe. But the truth is, the more you go against the grain, the more spontaneous and random you act, the more connected you are to yourself and to other people, that's your charm. People always admire those who know their own minds, those who dare to go after their visions. If you don't feel too confident with your mental power and think that you never learn and know enough to express yourself in conversations, know that's not true. You have something valuable to bring to the table, that's your unique view of the world.

Amethyst

This might sound weird but you should embrace your more selfish desires sometimes. I see a lot of burdens on your shoulders, almost like you're living for everyone else but you. Your every action is done with consideration for others, you think about the impact, the consequences of your actions greatly, sometimes, to the point of being paralysed and passive. You don't want to hurt others, you don't want to feel like a burden to others, yet you're so willing to shoulder others' burdens. Your charitable spirit is your gift, but also your curse. You hardly have the time for yourself. 

You need to embrace the child within you, the one who needs abundance of care and joy. It's okay to voice your needs and wants, to set aside responsibilities for a while so that you can spoil the part within you that is so in need of love and fun. This also influences your love life. Love can be too heavy, too intense in your eyes, you feel like you always need to do something, to "save" the connection from going downhill. This attitude sucks out the lighthearted fun of love. The child within you craves for a simple love, to feel love with their all and not to have constant anxiety and duties lingering on their heart.

[bluebnny]

Scenario - they take an interest in your hobby

characters: law, ace, kid

contents: what the title says, just how i think they would engage with your hobby, G/N reader, fluff

warnings: none

a/n: ok i'm trying something new bc the longer fics are, well, longer and i want to also try more characters :) and this was sooo much fun to write! Let me know if you would like a part 2, because i already have ideas (i mean i'll post it anyway, but y'know, maybe there's some specific characters or hobbies you would like me to include). Sort of proofread. Dividers made by me, please enjoy!! <3

word count: 2.313 (700-900 each)

Law - Fandom

Law would love to have a partner who’s into fandom just as much as him. He excels at being a pirate, being amidst the most sought after in the world and known everywhere for his ruthlessness and cruelty. But the nerdy fanboy side of him is a little neglected at times. As it turns out, not a lot of pirates really care about Sora, Warrior of the Sea as much as he does, if they are interested in comics at all, that is.

I think he would immediately become even more head over heals upon finding out that his partner likes to read them too. He’d like it if you had the same taste as him, but would probably prefer it if you didn’t, because it means you two could give each other recommendations and even swap comics to read.

If you’re also a pirate with your own crew, you two would naturally spend long amounts of time away from each other. You usually go months at a time before meeting up again. So, as with any long-distance relationship, you have to get creative and make it a whole thing.

When you two see each other, you’re constantly talking about what comic you read, how far you are in the story, talking about your favourite characters, and sharing your own interpretations and theories. It quickly becomes the highlight of every encounter you have, both of you already looking forward to the next reunion the moment you part ways. This is also when you have the chance to swap back the books you had borrowed from one another, and to give each other the next volume in the series.

When you’re apart, however sad it makes you, at least you have each other’s books to cling on to, both of you having a special spot to keep them safe. Yours was on your nightstand, liking to read in the evening before bed, or even during the night if you can’t sleep. Since you miss Law, having the comics he lends you always in reach makes you feel a little less alone, and it just makes you look forward to your next reunion that much more. Law keeps yours in his desk in the top drawer, so he can quickly reach for it when he’s too distracted to work. He would rather die than tell you this, but he always pretends it’s your voice reading it aloud to him. You had done that one time when he had had his hands full, wanting to show him a funny passage. He loves imagining the intonation you would use for every line, and how you would chuckle at a specific joke, your laughter echoing in his head.

You basically have a two-person book club at this point and have started leaving little pieces of paper with notes and theories in the books after reading them, maybe even the occasional drawing. It’s always a comfort to read through your favourite volume again and stumble upon a little note from your partner.

Law loves reading your random thoughts on certain characters, everything from who you ship, to what food the characters would like (you make it a point to add “bread” for all the ones you think law would like most, and “onigiri” for those he would hate, just to tease him). It always puts a smile to his face. The notes you find in your books are less creative, but they make you burst out with laughter, because they’re just so Law. The most common thing you find are little post-it notes critiquing medical inaccuracies, like “Patient bleeding out from cut in abdomen! Chest compressions would NOT help with this !???” He even adds citations if it’s less obvious knowledge, as if he thinks you will fact check him or something. The rest are usually weirdly accurate predictions for how a specific aspect of the story will unfold. When you question him about it, he will assure you he hasn’t read ahead, always saying “Well, it’s obviously what’s going to happen!”

Whenever you dock at a new island, you always see if there’s a place that sells comics, trying to find new stuff to read, and keeping a list of titles to lend the other once you’re done.

Ace - Pottery/Clay

Ace, curious as ever, would instantly take an interest in any one of your hobbies, as it means also taking an interest in you. He’ll notice you moulding some clay one day and become super interested in hearing about it. From then on, every time he sees you working on something, he’ll rush over and ask what you’re making, genuine interest on his face. He loves that his partner is talented and will quickly start to brag about it to anyone who will listen.

He'll even go as far as to ask you to teach him, and his attention is immediately caught by the polymer clay with all its different colours, especially after you show him some simple things you’d made from them, like some charms in different colours.

Ace learns. Fast. But if you go over to him to watch him work, he’ll stubbornly hide it, telling you it isn’t ready yet. It wouldn’t take him very long to make stuff, though, generally focusing on smaller items. He also had the enormous advantage of his particular devil fruit; he could simply hold what he made in his hands and bake it just like that, wherever and whenever.

Contrary to Ace, you prefer working with natural clay, being far more durable and versatile, but also taking much longer, as it needs time to dry before being burned in a kiln for days. This isn’t a big issue if you’re not on the same crew, though. If you’re on different ships, you often go months without seeing each other, but since Ace has quite a bit of freedom as first commander of the 2nd division, he would sometimes visit you on a whim if you were within a day’s travel of each other.

Being the best, most affectionate boyfriend in the world, Ace always made a quick stop somewhere first to pick up a snack for you, even stopping to pick a handful of wildflowers or a pretty seashell to bring you if there was no town nearby. You had always insisted that it wasn’t necessary, but he would have none of it, preferring to act like some sort of bird performing a mating ritual than visit his partner empty-handed. Plus, despite you teasing him for his seashells and shiny rocks, he knows you keep them all in a little box under your bed, with the dates of his visits written on each one.

You had always liked knowing he took that tiny bit of extra time and effort to put a smile on your face, even if it was just from handing you a funny looking acorn. But after being introduced to your hobby, Ace’s casual presents have become more thoughtful, now almost always showing up with a little handmade something. The first time he showed up with a creation he deemed good enough, the gesture rendered you speechless. And he remembered that.

Ace’s first gift to you was a bracelet made of red beads that matched the ones on his necklace, just a little smaller. You were torn on how to react. On the one hand, you were about to cry from how sweet of a gesture it was, on the other, you couldn’t stop smiling over the fact that the beads were a little uneven in size and shape. It was so endearing to you, seeing how Ace was clearly still in the process of developing the precise fine motor skills required for making little beads.

His second handmade gift was a little flame-shaped charm made from red, orange, and yellow clay mixed together. It had a little hole at the top. “For putting on a necklace.” He explained. This time, you had a gift of your own ready, already expecting his. You had made him a personalized bright orange mug with a red handle shaped like the beads on his necklace. This time, he was the one to get emotional.  

His third present was far more impressive than the first two, not that you were comparing them. He had made a tiny replica of his hat, again with a little hole in the brim, so that you could use it as a lucky charm.

“Ace, this is amazing! I should teach you to cook next.” You joke, but he sees the emotion in your eyes as you hold it close to your chest.

Kid - Knitting

Kid is not the type of guy to avidly ask about your hobbies, and he won’t sit and watch you for hours while you do them (at least not openly). But he does love you, so he takes an interest, nonetheless. You had previously joked that he should take up knitting as a calming activity, since he’s an emotional guy who often gets angry, but he had just scoffed and ignored you, preferring to stick to metal.

It started on a slow afternoon, with you sitting on the deck and knitting while enjoying the afternoon sun. Kid was nearby, staring at the horizon, lost in thought, the only sounds around the rushing of the ocean and the soft clicking of your knitting needles.

“Shit!” It’s you who breaks the silence first, having stopped your movements. Your boyfriend only reacts with an absent-minded hum, eyes still locked on the ocean. “My stupid needle broke.” You continue, trying to minimize the damage to your work now that all the loops were falling off. “Kid, do you think you could make me another?” You ask him, finally pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Another? You already have a million, no? Just get one from your stash.” He answers, not annoyed, simply confused. You get up from your spot and walk over to him to explain the different sizes, and how all your other ones were either too big or too small. He seems mildly interested, examining the two broken halves you hand him.

“I can make this.” He simply states when you are done explaining.

“Really? You’re amazing!” You pull him into a tight embrace, partly to show your gratitude, partly because he’s just a really good hugger, so any excuse is welcome.

“Calm down, it’s just a stick. No big deal…” But his chest swells a bit at the prospect of being able to assist you, and so you follow him into his workshop, where he makes another in no time.

From then on, he became more interested. You even tried to teach him, but he simply couldn’t get the hang of it, quickly becoming enraged at every mistake and making the learning curve extremely steep with his regular outbursts. You give up on it after that, thinking it simply wasn’t his thing and at least glad he tried to take an interest in it.

So, you’re all the more surprised when he walks up to you the next time he finds you knitting, and confidently asks “How do you do that pattern?” as though it was the most normal question in the world. You start explaining, only getting more and more confused from the way he actually seems to be trying to understand.

After that, Kid spends the next days mostly in his workshop. It doesn’t strike you as odd, since he has a habit of disappearing every now and then. What you did not expect, however, was for him to request you in his workshop, to then hand you a hat that he had clearly made himself. It’s a little rough around the edges – kid doesn’t seem to have fully gotten the hang of how to properly do a decreasing stitch – but it still looks much better than his first attempt.

“I know you and your crew are planning to go to that winter island next, so I thought I’d make you this.” It’s evident how hard he’s trying to look tough while carefully putting the bright red hat on your head. “Y’know. So you don’t get cold.” He even attempts to remain stoic when you give him a tight squeeze but is clearly pleased that you like it.

“How? I thought you hated knitting.”

“I did.” He admits. “But then I remembered how easy it was to make you that needle. And I thought that I should just make some metal ones for myself and control them with my fruit. It’s not as much of a pain in the ass like that.” He explains, and you have to hold back a smirk at how cute he is talking about knitting of all things, despite being over 2 metres tall and generally a little scary looking.

Next time you see him; after returning from the winter island, there’s something off about the crew. You quickly realize that it’s due to them all wearing matching knitted hats.

You look at Kid questioningly, but he just grumbles and says “I don’t want to hear it. Killer and the others have already been giving me enough shit for it.”

But the crew’s teasing isn’t enough to stop his newfound hobby. More often than not, you find him somewhere on the ship with some knitting needles floating next to him, clicking away at lightning speed as he makes yet another hat, grumbling something about how knitting is “very in line with my political ideology” and that “going against over consumption by making my own clothes is extremely punk.”

One evening, while Kid is in his workshop – no doubt knitting another hat – Killer pulls you aside and whispers “Look, I really like the hats, he’s getting weirdly good at making them, but everyone on the crew already has at least two pairs. Could you maybe teach him socks next?”

Thank you so much for reading! (This is my fic, don't repost! Reblogs are always appreciated <3)

[technically-human]

Following the notion of what I said before, I do believe the end verse to people eater would fit them, Like I need someone to hear me out.

These are the lyrics- "And I'm baffled why you choose to stay with me

You're completely free, yet you refuse to leave

In the face of anger, you say, "Patience before pride"

While you're feeling dead inside, I'm so alive

And it's all thanks to you that I survived

Guess I'll say thank you for lending me your life"

-

For the part that's like: "And I'm baffled why you choose to stay with me

You're completely free, yet you refuse to leave"

It can be interpreted as the crab era because Stone has no obligation to stay since all ties with the government have been severed. Yet he still stays.

"In the face of anger, you say, "Patience before pride"" and this fits throughout all movies as Robotnik shifts his anger towards stone and he simply waited patiently.

"While you're feeling dead inside, I'm so alive" this can be in the third movie as Robotnik is more happy since he has a grandpa meanwhile stone is skeptical and doesn't trust him, even more so as he learns the plan from shadow.

"And it's all thanks to you that I survived" This one could be crab era and the third movie as stone helped him survive and took care of him. Also trying to warn him about shadow and Gerald's plans, but just overall protecting him.

"Guess I'll say thank you for lending me your life" this could also be in the end before Robotnik dies and not only says thanks (for nothing) but also realizes that stone could've left and had a good life, yet chose to stay with Robotnik because he'd prefer that over anything else. So in a way, gave up his life for Robotnik and in turn, Robotnik will give up his own for him. (And the world but that doesn't matter).

PLEASE TELL ME YOU SEE MY VISION????

https://youtu.be/IO57aOp4u7s?si=W-ABtOZQfuaML8Rx

Patience before pride. Ain't that just Stone? you're so right.

[darlingsblackbook]

Alhaitham x Academic Rival!Reader | Part One

A secretly whipped reader, academic banter, emotional tension, and one breaking point.

Genshin Masterlist

I | You and Alhaitham are notorious rivals in the Akademiya — always seated on opposite sides of lectures, always arguing different perspectives in academic debates.

II | You lowkey admire how sharp Alhaitham's mind is, how confidently he speaks, how easily he reads through texts that took you hours.

You also kind of want to punch him. And kiss him. It's a crisis.

III | Every time Alhaitham throws a jab at your logic or calls your thesis “unrefined,” your heart stupidly flutters.

It’s pathetic. You know. But it’s him.

IV | “You call that research?” he scoffs, flicking through your paper.

You just smile, cheeks burning. “Constructive as always, Haitham.”

V | You start interpreting any form of attention as affection. He looked in your direction today?

He's obsessed with you, obviously.

VI | Kaveh catches on immediately. “You’ve got it bad.”

You nearly choke on your coffee. “No, I don’t!”

“You let him insult you like it’s a love letter.”

VII | One time, you bump into him while reaching for the same book.

He says, “Don’t tell me you actually read this level of theory.”

You: “Haha yeah…” [internally screaming because he’s standing so close]

VIII | Every time Alhaitham argues with you in a lecture, you get more flustered — because he always singles you out.

IX | You once stayed up all night fixing your paper because he called your previous one “mediocre.”

The next day, he said, “Hmph. An improvement.”

You almost passed out from joy.

X | You carry a notebook of things he’s said to you — insults, dry comments, eye rolls. You’ve reread them more than once. It’s so delusional you scare even yourself.

XI | Alhaitham never really smiles at you, but he always looks your way when you speak in discussions.

You pretend it’s love. It is not love.

XII | He’s efficient, cold, and logical. You’re awkward, flushed, and hopelessly enamored. It's a terrible balance. But you accept any crumb.

XIII | One day, while leaving the library, he passes you and mutters, “I suppose if you tried harder, you wouldn’t be trailing behind me.”

You pause. Smile. “I’ll work on it.”

XIV | You know people think you’re a doormat for letting him talk to you like that. You don’t care. It's Alhaitham. You'll take what you can get.

XV | Until - In a particularly heated debate, you challenge him harder than usual. He narrows his eyes and says, “Don’t try to pretend you’re on my level. You're not.”

XVI | The words sting in a way none of the others ever did. You stare at him for a second too long. Then without a word, you gather your things and walk away.

XVII | Alhaitham watches you go, confused at first. Then quiet. Because for the first time — you didn’t smile. You didn’t take it. You left.

XVIII | You avoid him for days. You stop raising your hand in lectures. You stop trying to get his attention. He notices. He hates it. And he doesn’t know why.

XIX | When he finally corners you outside the library, he looks more uncertain than you’ve ever seen him.

“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” he says.

You cross your arms. “Then how did you mean it?”

Alhaitham's voice is quiet. “…You’ve always challenged me. That’s why I engage with you. It was never meant to belittle you.”

You hesitate. “Then why say it like that?”

He looks away, ears slightly red. “I’m not used to people wanting my attention. I thought you didn’t mind the way I speak.”

“…I didn’t,” you say softly. “Until it started to hurt.”

All Rights Reserved © 2025 Darlingsblackbook

[inhuman-obey-me]

Ah and I hope this isn't spam (I'm not too sure on how asks on tumblr usually go) but any thoughts on the Simeon seraph reveal?

Personally I wasn't a big fan of it bc it felt kind of cheap? And inconsistent with how the Celestial Realm was written, and I don't really think it makes sense. My personal takes are that the Celestial Realm comes off as a more strict/authoritarian place that values adherence to rules and compliance more than caring for the angels themselves. Simeon stood out among the angels (at least to me) because he's decently high ranking but is/was always willing to bend the rules. He doesn't (usually) bend the rules for himself, but more to help the people he cares about. His 2 major demotions always felt pretty significant to his character. I don't think it was ever specified why he was demoted to an archangel, but with Raphael taking his place, I always assumed it either had something to do with him bending the rules, or with him maybe taking a more neutral position in the War. For becoming human, he did it because he cared to save MC's life more than Celestial Realm rules. To me both instances feel like moments where he chose to do what he felt was right regardless of whatever punishment he got, and the Celestial Realm doesn't seem like a place that goes light on punishments. To just have him be reinstated with seemingly no issue,,, kinda feels like it's cancelling out whatever development or change in perspective he could've gotten. A return to the status quo for the sake of wrapping up the story.

But then again I haven't had the time to finish either game so most of my info is through spoilers </3 So my interpretation could be totally wrong lol (sorry for the ramble btw ^^;)

Not at all spam and we are so sorry we're so late to answering this! It gets us worked up when we think about it haha.......

But yes to all you've said!! Simeon's casual seraph reveal makes no damn sense given everything we know about the Celestial Realm and Simeon's previous demotions and why they happened.

His demotion to archangel was heavily implied to happen because Simeon seemed to cover for the brothers/stayed neutral in the Great Celestial War. He was essentially punished for not being fully loyal to God. He wasn't quite 'replaced' as far as we know -- Raphael was already a seraph before the war, though he likely did take on some of Simeon's seraph responsibilities after he was demoted. And then yes, was punished again for "stealing" Lucifer's Ring of Light from Michael to help stabilize MC's power. As you said, Simeon is always willing to bend the rules in order to protect those he cares about -- and the Celestial Realm is quick to punish anyone who steps out of line.

We've long yelled that the Celestial Realm sucks in that it is a very authoritarian place. The Celestial Realm has consistently shown that it is not enough to be "good" but that the angels need to be obedient -- and not only must they obey in their actions, but it is mandated that they can never even question Father, aka God.

This point is pushed up to the very end, demonstrated by the subsequent agony that Raphael experienced in the final NB season. He too started feeling torn between what he felt was just, and the absolutism of the Celestial Realm's judgment. Even to him, who had always been very loyal to the Celestial Realm and much more of a stickler for the rules, as we've seen contrasted with the brothers, it didn't seem right that Simeon could potentially fall forever to demonhood for literally saving the entire universe, and that the Celestial Realm was not stepping in to end his punishment to save him from that fate, when Father could have very easily made that decision. Starting to realize that contradiction caused him so much distress that it sent him into a whole magical spiral, because he couldn't bear the anxiety and denial of realizing that he was beginning to doubt God!

Now, the end of the final season seems to suggest that the combined efforts of the other angels, in trying to appeal to Michael and Father to end the punishment of becoming human, plus Simeon's own decision not to give up on being an angel (which we have some separate thoughts on...) left room for an implication that he would return to being an angel. However, this also comes after a lot of buildup that seemed to imply he actually felt pretty okay accepting that he might become a demon, as one of his greatest regrets is actually not being able to join the brothers in rebellion during the war! So to simply hand-wave it in a casual birthday video mention that he's not only an angel again, but has been restored all the way to seraph status, is not only cheap but kind of insane????

Ultimately, though, a lot of the abrupt wrap-up on Simeon seems to have come about from the equally abrupt end of content for the games. As far as we can tell, the OM team themselves were caught by surprise by this decision, considering they had just rolled out a whole new "date" feature with only the first two brothers to start! RIP literally all the other characters' fans...?? And there was a whole Instagram moment of the social media team implying they wished for the games to come back too.....so, haha. Fuck us players, we guess.

So, we're limited to only speculation, of course, but at a guess, it seems like they wanted to set up things in a way that neatly tied a bow on Simeon's whole huge arc, putting him back at angel status for any future projects so that there wouldn't be big status changes from game to game. And slipping in a mention of him being a seraph again in the middle of a birthday YouTube video is absolutely the dumbest, cheapest way for them to do that, deeply undercutting so much of the world and story they'd set up, but presumably it's just a way for them to confirm the outcome from after the ending, without actually diving into it with the care and depth that it deserves.

But hey -- to be honest, who knows how much control the devs even had about it at that point?

[scopophobia-polaris]

Why are the christian mormon etc Zelda fans so obsessed with Skyward Sword Link? Have we ever figured this out?

.

So, i think this may be a form or projection. Zelda games are very simple.

And that Simplicity can lead to many diffrent interpretations. You wonder why facists like simple good vs evil stories? It doesnt make them think, they dont have to have empathy, they get to feel good about getting rid of the other no matter ehat that other is, and there CAN be a very easy evangelical reading of SkSw.

So, SkSw's Sidequests are all tied back to Batreaux, you get gratitude crystals when trying to turn him human and you help the community out, it's nice!

So here comes the reading. SkSw is a game where Link only helps others to get Good boy points to turn a "Demon"(Batreaux is not a bad person. He just looks scary, he looks scary because Demon is his race, yes demons are referred to as a RACE in the Zelda series) to a Human and then go Serve God.

There are some very selfish people in the world who will talk about being a "good Christian" and then do everything Jesus said not to do. And i think it's very funny the most loud people in this Fandom who claim to be christian are the LEAST Christian out of all.

“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honoured by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:2-4

And also I'm gonna say this, but mother fucker you CANNOT say the Bible hasn't been changed a million times by human hands and human opinions, look how many versions there are on prostelatizing and STILL you get Chritians saying it was Jesus telling them to convert to him, mf he was Jewish. Learn your fucking history.

All of SkSw is planned by Hylia, basically everything, all the temples, where boxes are placed, why the silent realms are a thing, it's all a test, God has a plan for hik and it was decided before he was born.

And Hylia raised Skyloft and left the other races, including the Sheikah, on the surface and rose the Hylians to eden to protect them from the apocalypse, Hylia did a Rapture.

She took ONLY her chosen people, the ones who belive in her, it doesn't matter if they were good or bad they go because they're Hylian. And if you know what American Evangelicalism is like, southern Baptist FORSURE, you can sin sin and sin but if you are a Christian who believes in God? It doesn't matter if you commit a crime, if you repent you're saved and go to heaven no matter what. Hell, some people believed that if Hitler repented he got into heaven and that's just it, he's in fucking heaven

So now I'm gonna talk about the idea of Worldly people.

Its just everyone else, you could be doing everything "right" feeding and clothing the poor, caring for the sick, being kind to thy neighbor honoring thy father and thy mother but if you don't see yourself as a christan? Instant hell. It doesn't matter if you're "good" As long as you're Christian, there is a reason why there are so many sexual abuse in so many congregations. But that also has so much history and bullshit to it, it's not simple and I aint getting into it.

Oh and it find someone saying ALL Christians don't you fucking dare, im talking about very specific forms of this hypocrital shit. There truly is no hate like "christain love"

So, Sky is a warrior of the faith in a straight relationship with the human embodiment of God, and abandons all others to serve her and is now the ancestors to the royal family, he's been rewarded for his good deeds, helping the community wasn't to help the community, it was to get one more sinner to convert.

And...I can tell horror stories about people being loved bombed by christains to try converting them, apprenty the gays are so insidious but being a minor a bunch of games as an adult to talk to them about god over the internet is.....okay?

Basically, there is a reading of Sky as a selfish Christian.

And it doesn't help when First Hero through Fandom osmosis is still RELEVANT and even if he got retconned by the game having the plot it has, many people latched onto him (wife included)

And he had his la pieta moment

So like there are connections, Madas is a martyr of the faith, told by God to do it and he did. He did the thing a lot of toxic male christains want to do, die for their fucking faith.

But you know, they freak it when they hear Allahu Akbar, because that's terrorism but what we do it its our faith, and how dare you criticized us for the murder of George Tiller, that wasn't a murder, that was for God and therefore....okay :)

I could say more but honestly i started talking about the mindset, look i grew up catholic in the south and was around a lot of evangelicals when I was in public highschool.

So i wanna end it with this, I dont want people saying all Christians because that's not true, I hate it when people try to sall "all" about anyone, no matter race religion sexuality and gender, I fall into this out if anger a lot and I want to tell people it's okay if you get angry, just remember that...if you're in the Zelda fandom. Don't just block someone cuz they have Christian in their bio or do I aikt your dad, but I think it's better to find out someone's opinions and see THEIR ACTIONS before making judgment.

[evil-mushroom-overlord]

I love how both twins are so unlike your first impressions of them tho- how often is Ford characterised by people who don't know him well as a basement dwelling hermit that doesn't need anything or anyone expect the thrill of discovery OR on the flip side by Dipper as this heroic dashing selfless idol - when in reality he has a ego the size of the sun, is DESPERATE for attention and validation to the point of selling his soul for it- and wants more than anything to be remembered as being extraordinary.

And then there's Stan, who people thought of as being entirely self absorbed, thriving off a crowd and only having people around him for some kind of benefit they provided, like Dipper doing his chores and Soos just being a employee- whilst this couldn't be even further from the truth- Mr Mystery, the showmanship, is all just a means to get his brother home, he does all of it for his brother and his family, the only other time he pulls stunts Infront of people like that is in Stanchurian candidate, and that's because he is scared of being replaced by Ford as the twins Grunkle and thinks he's going to be thrown out of the Shack- and we know of course he cares about Dipper and Mabel and Soos and all of them alot. Stan likes to have a small handful of people he's close with and would do anything for them, Ford wanted the praise of many.

Idk that's one interpretation of mine, I just think sometimes Ford's 'I only wish to study my moths in peace and quiet' thing is as much of a façade as Stan running around the Mystery shack with a eyepatch and a fez.

"Mabel will be fine on her own, she has a magnetic personality"

"Stanley would have made her laugh"

Stanley and Mabel "they will be fine on their own because they are charming and absolutely the people person, what more do they need in life?" Pines' from Ford's perspective absolutely sickens me

[cirrusin]

Reading a Ghost Story: Kim Soleum vs. Baek Saheon

there seems to be a consensus that there’s somebody "right" in this freak-off and it's KSE (the "right or wrong" argument starting all the way from what the "correct" solution to abyss transpo was, to just. [gestures] their current beef). i personally think "right or wrong" is a bad framework here. they're fundamentally just different kinds of ghost story readers-- not even in a "one misunderstands, one understands" way, they just aim to get different things out of the text. we see this again and again but it's particularly encapsulated in where the feud started: abyss transpo

KSE taunting BSH in the subway

strangely... there are a lot of different interpretations on what happened? so i'm going to say the interpretation i think is the most compliant with the text

KSE knows from DER that multiple lost items can be acknowledged (commenting that the lost item stations are like a "treasure hunt" that always has "a few candidates in the luggage compartment"). he intends on making BSH regret assaulting someone out of the concern that only one lost item was eligible. this is the rationale behind KSE showing BSH the disembodied female eye [this act doesn't actually tell BSH that multiple items are eligible, but KSE doesn't seem to care]

off the bat, BSH misinterprets this. instead of feeling regret for assaulting someone, he regrets sacrificing his own eye when there was a perfectly disembodied one that KSE knew about. way to miss the point BSH but admittedly KSE did not communicate his point all too well. actually KSE seemed to just want to make BSH feel regret in general so KSE's goal is accomplished here ✅

now: was BSH's original concern justified?

the announcement says, "There is a lost item. If you've found the lost item, please disembark at the next station and hand it over to the station staff." KSE makes his later remarks based on the nature of a "lost item"- and BSH uses that approach too! after a person loses their hat and gets it returned to them, do they want a second identical hat? a "lost item" is no longer lost when it is returned for the first time. BSH's original concern is justified

a lot of horror puzzles require a kind of leap of faith (ex. "the 75% chance must be true, and the 25% chance false). KSE knows that the metaphorical 75% is canonically true im DER- he is only certain that multiple lost items can be acknowledged because he is a cheater with meta knowledge. BSH is unable to be certain and unwilling to take a leap of faith about his own survival, so he (rationally and ruthlessly) takes care of it

Their feud

famously, this difference in abyss transpo kickstarts their legendary freak-off

Viper from DER canon thrives in daydream. he's suited for ghost stories- reading them, and surviving them. and in abyss transpo, KSE finds out that BSH is fundamentally Viper

this is why KSE is so unnerved by him!!

some people seem to think BSH is "stopped from being Viper by KSE's mind games"? but that's not true. BSH never loses his instinct to always go for the coldly rational solution (as GSGW goes on, every time KSE appears to bare his neck, BSH goes for it. despite--and even because of-- how KSE is seen as a threat)

interestingly, BSH (who isn't afraid of ghost stories) is more single-minded about survival than KSE (who is a HUGE COWARD, yet finds the time to worry about others)

KSE's feud with BSH stems from that. if someone were doing everything BSH did out of panic, KSE wouldn't be nearly as on-guard. but BSH doesn't need cowardice to do what he does

As ghost story readers

KSE's position within GSGW is "a good reader- one who understands ghost stories." so with their feud, does this mean that BSH is a bad reader?

again, BSH thrives in daydream, and he's good at nailing what it takes to survive. BSH is an equally valid reader- he simply lacks the evolutionary pressure (KSE's fear) to become the kind of reader that KSE is

BSH's nature means he (can afford to) embrace the ghost story at face value

KSE's cowardice does not allow him to do this- he doesn't share BSH's resilience (and ruthlessness). naturally, KSE takes a lesser-walked perspective on the ghost story. one where he makes textual analysis leaps of logic

it's important to note how KSE's knowledge of previous escape records/DER plays a crucial role in his reasoning. as stated previously for abyss transpo, concluding that "multiple items are allowed" can only be done through knowing about other escape records. and sure, BSH could've chosen to skip this blatant escape opportunity like the rest of them-- tried to use the deeper nature of what a "destination" is, like KSE did

... but BSH would never throw away a blatant escape opportunity for himself

again, KSE and BSH have different priorities when reading ghost stories: mainly, "empathy" vs. "self-preservation." despite being a coward, KSE loses the "self-preservation" olympics. he places as much emphasis on others as he does on himself in terms of escaping alive and well. maybe even more, when considering what he does at the bureau (Looky Mart). and this empathy extends to the actual ghost story! KSE's evolving relationship with Braun can take up an entire post by itself

meanwhile, BSH is willing to pay the price of taking ghost stories at face value- any blatant escape opportunity will do, he lacks the standards that KSE's empathy gives him. whatever gets him out and alive

BSH was born to survive ghost stories, KSE was born to manipulate them

*end note: this is tangential, but it's funny how a lot of people interpret all of this as KSE being a good person. i mean he does good things certainly. and he's a "better person" than BSH is. but... wow KSE's sense of morality can be its own post

[autistichalsin]

Those of us who were raised near Evangelicals (like me who grew up in a largely Evangelical/Fundamentalist community) or in the cult themselves (many of my friends growing up) have been trying to warn you all for YEARS not to underestimate them, and our warnings went ignored because "no one is that evil" or "they're just stricter Christians, they wouldn't actually do that."

The exact same reasoning used when we tried to warn you 20 years ago how evil Republicans were, which isn't a coincidence because they are the same people.

So let me break it down for you, and if any of this sounds too harsh, feel free to talk to literally any exvangelical, who will back this up.

Yes, they are cartoonishly evil. I know, I'm going to get hate for saying this. But if you ignore this point, none of the other points will make any sense. This is the framework you have to use. This is cartoon villain levels of evil.

Evangelical Christianity is, first and foremost, a death cult. They want your deaths, they want their own deaths. Birthdays are a celebration of being one year closer to going home to Jesus- no more and no less. They crave death like a suicidal person, but they would never actually commit suicide because it's "a sin," so instead they long for a rapture where they die and go to heaven while the rest of us go to hell. That is their ideal world- no world at all.

You have to understand that the root of evangelism is nihilism. NOTHING in this life matters at all, except for accepting their interpretation of God and Jesus so you can enter heaven. Your work, your relationships, your family, only matter if they are in service of God and Jesus, and not at all on their own merit. God/Jesus are the only thing that objectively matters. Which leads to...

Other humans only matter if they worship your same iteration of God and Jesus. Other Christians are liars at best and will go to hell. If your entire family dies, it's just God's will, no need to be sad- it's actually a beautiful thing because they're with Jesus now. It's why you will never persuade them to support abortion even in cases where the mother's life is at risk. If she's a good Christian, she'll know there is nothing more beautiful than to die while birthing another soldier of God, and if she's not a Christian, she deserves to die and go to hell as punishment for rejecting scripture. It's why you'll never persuade them that school shootings are worse than being queer. School shootings just send Their Own to heaven, and the nonbelievers to hell, but being gay sends everyone to hell, even themselves for tolerating it. If you don't believe in their God, the best thing you can ever be to them is a potential convert, and the worst is a test sent by God himself that they CAN'T fail lest you go to hell. Leading to...

Tolerance is cruelty to them. If you tolerate "aberrant" lifestyles, you are dooming them to hell, and yourself too. That's why they claim it's oppression to be told to tolerate others. They think only oppressing the "lesser" people will motivate them to become Good Little Christians, and avoid hell. And they think they themselves will go to hell if they are too tolerant to those outside the group.

They are pro-Zionist not because they support Jewish people in any way, but because they think it'll bring about the End Times. They want Israel to exist because they think it leads to the End Times where Jews will either convert or die. They support Zionism because they hate the nonconvertable Jews and want to convert the ones who will- that simple. Palestinian Christians are, to them, just cannon fodder sacrificed in the name of bringing about the End Times. (And of course, other peoples' Zionism isn't even the same as supporting Jewish people either, but it's especially duplicitous here).

Don't take this to mean they care about their own all that much. They see them as closer to human, but still ultimately just a soldier for God. Their deaths aren't a tragedy but a reward/celebration. They will subjugate the women in their congregations with glee, they will hatecrime queer people, and white evangelicals hate POC even if they have shared beliefs. They will tell their children to their faces they will only love them if they are the perfect Christians.

They think an Evangelical who commits rape or child molestation is still a better person than a nonbeliever who spends every minute of every day working for charity. Remember, nothing matters but accepting Jesus, so the former is fine, but the latter not only doesn't accept Jesus, but they're providing support to potentially the wrong people, which "deprives" them of the chance to be converted by an Evangelical who would capitalize on their suffering.

They know Trump isn't a Christian. They know he espouses exactly zero Christian values. They don't care because he is going to end abortion in this country and because his policies primarily make people they hate (IE non-Evangelicals) suffer. He's a flawed weapon they'll never stop using and adoring for that reason.

Similarly, they don't think climate change isn't real. They know it is. Rather, they want the Earth to become uninhabitable, and many people to die, to bring about the End Times. Then they get to go to heaven, and the rest of us sinners get to live on a ruined world as punishment for our "sins." Yes, they want to destroy the planet just so they can go to heaven in 10 years instead of 40. They are that staggeringly selfish. That's what a lifetime of being taught only Evangelical lives matter does to them. Again: they think life is nothing but a test of their worthiness to enter heaven. They don't take this life any more seriously than we took gym class. Leading to...

Every instance of human suffering, in their eyes, brings the End Times closer and is to be celebrated. Death, war, plague, etc, they think it means God is going to take them home really, really soon. They aren't interested in peace, because Jesus won't come in a time of peace. They want a worse world so they can "remind" God (who they think needs their help to do it) that it's time to start the Rapture. And this sounds weird, doesn't it? That if God is all-mighty, and even the Bible says no one will know beforehand when it's coming, why would they do this? Well, that leads to the last point...

They do not read the Bible carefully. They are told what the Bible means by their pastor, and that interpretation becomes law. That's why they believe in "the sin of empathy" despite Jesus saying to feed the poor and heal the sick- not only are they told they can't extend charity to non-Evangelicals lest they go to hell, but they are also told questioning their pastor is akin to rejecting the religion itself and thus they WILL go to hell for it. And in fact, interpretations of the Bible offered by others are seen as trickery by a false prophet, that they are being tested to ignore by God. You can't reason with them as another sect of Christian any more than you can as an outright atheist. They will not listen to you. They have been conditioned their whole life to see you as an evil agent of Satan who wants to deny them Heaven. You may as well put on a pair of horns and a devil tail and tell them to worship you.

Again: we tried to tell the public for years that these people weren't to be discounted, that their insanity and fringe beliefs made them MORE of a threat and not less, that it most definitely WASN'T reassuring that they were just "fringe lunatics" because they were working from the start to seize control of the government to turn the USA into a theocracy. Well, what happened? People stuck their heads in the sand and when they took them out, a newborn theocracy was there.

We can still mitigate some of the worst, but if people keep ignoring this and pretending they aren't going to do what they literally said they're going to do, a LOT of people are going to end up dead. Even more than the inevitable amount from climate change now that they've killed our last chance to stay below 2c of warming.

[thesweetestsupervillains]

Hi! Autistic person here who was forced to be social because my parents wanted me to be 'normal'! Here's some fun rules for surviving in social situations and how to understand them with our more logical brains:

Rules and laws do matter, but which laws and which rules matter at what times and to what people is debatable. For example, diplomats have diplomatic immunity, meaning that if they commit minor crimes they're immune from it. Also, people in authority regularly use that authority to get around the rules. That's not because they don't matter, it's because everything has a pattern, and it's not hard to see that some rules only apply to some people. The lesson: absolutes and universal things are only useful for sith lords and cultists.

Conversational etiquette is important, but how important depends on the gathering, the amount of people, and how formal everyone is. For example, at a fancy dinner, it may be more polite to use the back and forth method. Or, it may be more polite to just let someone talk. It really comes down to time and place. There is structure, so first identify what that is. Also, some people will try to pull a power move by dominating a conversation; you can use this to your advantage too, especially if you become good at faking interest. That's not rude, it's a survival tactic, and it also means you don't have to talk about yourself! The lesson: all conversations have different flows and rules. Think of it like D&D; the rules for conversation at the noble's ball at not the ones at the tavern. Determine what you need to do, then execute on it.

Learning to admit fault and compromise is a good skill, and it will earn you many friends, because it means that you have empathy, aren't a giant jerk, and are willing to compromise. This will, in fact, get you far in life. However, lots of people are not willing to do this, and in fact, view compromise as a weakness. Furthermore, most people interpret evidence via what they already believe; that's why giving people facts doesn't change their mind. Know when to hold your ground, and when not to. The lesson: most people, in fact, can have their minds changed. The way you do this is by using it through the lens they use. Everyone has a lens; a religious person and a businessman look at the world differently! Determine what they value, what they care about, and what opinions they heed and which one's they don't, and move accordingly. Life becomes easier when you know how to grasp people's internal moral compass.

One thing that always helped me: people are, in fact, usually rational actors. It's just that their rationality is often very different from our own. Studying history of other places is great for this; if you can begin to understand the thought process of someone with entirely different worldviews than yourself, then you can do it for the living.

People aren't perfectly solvable, but you can usually get through most social things in life by going 'what do they want' 'what do they value' and 'what are they looking for from me?'

Social situations are all about separating yourself from the situation. 90% of the time, they're not actually interested in you, so there's no need to give them you. Give them a rough approximate to what they want, and they'll be happy enough.

Does it kinda suck we gotta hide ourselves to get along? Yeah. But everyone kinda has to do it in some ways. No one is completely themselves in the open, for various reasons.

Autistics are so "rational" yet a huge number of us keep on believing that rules and laws matter despite a lifetime of evidence that they don't

[weekly-twst-fics]

Hiiii🦐

I, @hiperonimia , will be ur first request :D

Just aceyuudeuce (platonic or romantic, whateva) being Grims family, like, they take care of him like three tenagers would take care of a baby (or cat) that they just found on the side of the road like Mr Peabody found Sherman (i still love yhat movie even tho i haven't seen it in YEARS)

Hi thanks for the request I'll probably write it more platonic but it's up to interpretation

aceyuudeuce taking care of Grim

Lots of snuggle piles usually initiated by ace (or any of them) just scooping grim up and holding him above their head while they yell "snuggles!"

Ace scoops up Grim causing him to let out a yelp which is immediately ignored by ace lifting him above his head like Grim is the new Simba and loudly declaring snuggles causing deuce and yuu to immediately tackle ace and grim onto the couch (making sure grim gets extra cuddles and kisses for being so adorable)

Yuu and Deuce learnt how to swaddle grim so they could carry him around like a little baby (nearly giving trey and riddle a heart attack thinking these morons somehow acquired a real baby)

Yuu holding a swaddled grim as they approaches trey and riddle while they're having tea careful not to show Grim's face as they loudly say "look what I've got!" causing Riddle and Trey to nearly choke on their tea in panic thinking it's a real baby before sighing really loudly and I mean really loudly in relief when they realize it's just grim (riddle totally yells at Yuu for trying to give him a heart attack)

The trio brought a baby highchair that they keep at ramshackle and take turns using to feed grim (he lost his solo eating privileges after he attempting to swallow an entire roast chicken whole)

Deuce strapping in a particularly fussy grim struggling before eventually getting feed up and yelling at grim to sit down or no tuna to which grim starts dramatically calling for Yuu so he can snitch and say Deuce yelled at him (he absolutely plays up the "I'm just a cute baby" to get payback for Deuce threatening his tuna)

they all have a shared fund for buying baby clothes to squeeze Grim into it ranges from buying Grim fancy suits and occasionally dresses for babies to street wear and those cheesy shirts that are like "my dad would rather be fishing" or "I'm a Mama's boy I only want is mama"

Grim groans loudly as he's put into a baby dress big pink ruffles with a Disney princess on it and all while Ace, Yuu and Deuce coo and giggle while taking pictures and calling Grim their "pretty little princess" (he was not amused)

I couldn't decide between doing more of a list of headcanons or an actual story so I kind of did both I hope you enjoy

[demonslayedher]

Today while watching the second half of the Entertainment District Arc at the theater (for context: in Japanese with no subtitles, but I'm relatively fluent in it as a second language), I had a bit of a startling moment as Tengen recalls his ninja past.

"Huh?" I thought, "Did I miss something? Was it that seven of the Uzui siblings simply died of the harsh training that their father put them through?"

Like, the importance seemed to be placed on the fact that the lifestyle and cruel mindset was what killed them, and that Tengen did not want to live like his father and surviving younger brother. Emphasis was not placed on Tengen having killed any of them himself.

"Was this one of the edits made for the film version?" I pondered. "No, I think this scene was always like this. Why did I remember his back story differently though? Did I miss a more archaic word for them having been put up against each other to kill each other?"

But as I kept watching, it kept bothering me.

Like, "But that all really only made it sound like they happened to die due to harsh training. That's really different from being put against each other to cull each other. Did the manga say more in that scene? I need to check when I get home, because that is a big difference... Maybe Tengen will mention something about it in the grave scene. After all, at least a couple of them are dead because of him. Right...?"

But there was nothing to imply guilt in the grave scene. Just that he regrets they are dead at all and that he needs to live it up for their sake. I had always assumed this scene was set after the Fanbook #2 detail of how he used to say he was going to hell until his wives got mad at him for it. But he said that because of the guilt of killing his siblings, right?

Or... was it just general guilt over going along with the shinobi lifestyle and killing people???

But... but he did unwittingly kill a couple of his siblings without knowing who they were because their faces were covered and he was just following his father's orders, right? After all, I... I mentioned that in a fanfic. I mentioned that in timelines. I mentioned that in meta. I mentioned that in so much meta.

I grew more and more bothered as I kept watching the movie, wondering if, all this time, I had attained some false memory. I've been wrong before; I am but one nerd on the internet. It's not a big deal to be wrong. But, but if I wanted to avoid leaving false info out there, I would have to fix so much. I would have to completely reevaluate the way I have interpreted Tengen's character for years.

Where did I even get such a far-fetched idea with no basis in that flashback? Because Japanese is so contextual, did I completely misattribute Tengen's father's fault onto Tengen himself? But where did I assume those details about him not knowing they were his siblings until after he killed them? Was it fanon? Was it a mistranslation somewhere (I've come across a few widespread ones, after all)? How did I fool myself into this? How will I go back and amend all those posts???

So anyway. I got home and checked the original flashback text (in Japanese). Pretty much the same as the anime. Gulp.

Checked Fanbook #1. Basically a recap of how he did not want to live like his father and remaining brother. An extra tidbit about being given three wives when he turned 15, as was their culture. Nothing to justify my vivid memories.

But finally--in content that wasn't published until months after the manga ended--Fanbook #2 had it!!! Every detail as I felt I had already accepted as canon long ago, and then some--three Uzui siblings died beforehand, and the remaining six were put against each other, Tengen killed two without knowing who they were, his remaining brother killed another two without caring.

So why am I telling you all this?

So that you can appreciate the relief I felt as I said,

"I'm so glad Tengen killed his siblings!"

[emoclowncircus]

i respect the time and effort you've put into this,but unfortunately,i still disagree on regard of the "Anthony" boy being Vergil. And,quite frankly, I find a lot of the points you provide to be quite shallow and don't go beyond personal interpretations when the episode itself provides enough implications that the "Anthony" boy is indeed Dante.

First off,the elephant in the room. It is directly disproven by the "before the nightmare" novel,where it is explicitly stated that Vergil hasn't gone under any aliases unlike Dante. This alone erases all the probability of Vergil being "Anthony".

You might argue that despite it contradicting the current established lore ,the time the episode was prepared was still based around Vergil --"so the point still stands". But,i'd say otherwise. Because as I mentioned earlier the storytelling and the evidence only points to one of the Sparda kins,and it is Dante.

The first obvious clue,is the picture shown in the episode. The Anthony boy is shown wearing red(with a BLACK blouse,NOT "blue"). We all know red is associated with Dante. If the boy really was intended to be Vergil, wouldn't the producers atleast put on his signature color?Seems like an odd creative choice to make if the kid really were Vergil.

The second point,the hidden box. Dante didn't just guess where it was,he knew where it was. Near the end of the episode we it's digged up(and since it can't be Ernest we're left with Dante).why would someone like Dante go as far to do something like that when it holds no sentimental value for him?If Ernest really were just a stranger,this thing should hold no significance for him.Why bother?

"Oh!For his brother!The box signifies Vergil's blue and has the letter "V" on it!" Again,this is nothing more than a mere personal interpretation,and doesn't rise above the actual implications provided by the episode.

Third,"Anothony Redgrave" is obviously a reference to Tony Redgrave...(does this need spelling out?..) DMC's original creator,Hideki Kamiya has stated before that the alias Dante takes is from a journalist named "Anthony Redgrave". (Would like to bind the source here but it's an old tweet and the ask itself is deleted)

Fourth...you argue that Dante does not care for Ernest. Then what's the point of this scene?

The melancholic atmosphere,the expression,the used soundtrack...Why the hell would Dante brood over a stranger's words?The same bothersome stranger that supposedly "mistaked him for another" the entire time?...He could simply shrugg it off as another unpleasant encounter. He's had plenty of those.

But from the way it is shown,he doesn't. He CARES. Because he IS Anthony ,and the guilt he carries is a burden for him to this day.

Everything from start to finish,the framed picture,the box,Ernest's crash out,leads to this. Why convey such an emotional conclusion if the journey had no impact?

"OK ,but then why does Dante keep on denying he's Anthony?"Maybe he's not "known for lying" as you said,but that does not exclude him from the act. Dante's not a reliable narrator with his own identity nor past. He denied his own heritage,put on fake names and lived as another for a really long time. If he tried tricking himself,what makes other people,or even the audience to an extent,an exception?Furthering my point; Dante distances himself from ordinary people as much as he can. In EP2 he says he doesn't like dealing with human folk,and again in the "before the nightmare" novel one of his reasons for not attending Patty's birthday party is that he doesn't see himself fit for an event involving ordinary people. He has lost the people dearest to him because of demon heritage ,and seeing Ernest,somebody directly from his past who could've been a victim of the past tragedy(CAUSED BY HIS DEMON HERITAGE)He'd obviously wanna cut ties the sooner he can.

Putting all of this together,I see no trace of Vergil anywhere in the story. People push this theory because they take Dante's words for granted,but if you were to analyze it just a little more,the pieces add do up.

Devil May Cry: The Animated Series (2007) - Dissecting Episode 8 "Once Upon a Time"

A.k.a. spending many words addressing what I feel is a much dismissed episode of the 2007 anime.

Ep 8 "Once Upon A Time" is a Vergil backstory episode. From what I've seen over the years, this apparently flies over the heads of even people familiar with all other works in Devil May Cry canon. But I think that this episode deserves re-evaluation, because it is really very consistent with how Vergil is portrayed both in DMC 3 and in his more recent re-appearance in DMC 5.

The premise of the episode is that a man named Earnest heard that his old friend Anthony had resurfaced running a business called Devil May Cry. He had fallen out of contact with Anthony 20 years ago following a fire that burned to the ground the port town called Morris Island where they lived - killing the majority of the population. The fire was claimed by survivors to be caused by a demon attack on the island. Dante denies meeting Earnest before. He goes along with Earnest to visit the town anyways because he wants to know who is putting Earnest up to this.

Consulting the various pieces of evidence.

1) Dante is not usually known for lying (except for withholding information), and yet he says repeatedly "I'm not the Anthony you are looking for". That's a pretty odd way to phrase his denial, but it makes sense when you realize why the show can't just outright say "that wasn't me, but it might have been my identical twin brother". A conceit of the show is that it never once acknowledges in words that Dante had a twin brother. The show is allergic to saying the name "Vergil" (not even once!), which made it surreal to watch as an introduction to the series in 2007 and to later learn "oh, he has a twin brother!....OH NO he has a dead twin brother!" Because of the way that in retrospect it's obvious that Vergil haunts the narrative in at least half of the episodes.

This is almost the exact same way that Vergil is handled in DMC 4, where he's very plot relevant despite his name never being spoken. The Yamato belonged to "Dante's brother" - that's the extent to which anyone acknowledges him in words. Because the writers have decided to address the question of "how do you make the viewers aware of the past escapades of the characters without wasting screen-time on exposition dumps" with the answer of: "Don't! :)"

Real people don't start off every new relationship by explaining their tragic backstory - so when characters like Patty and Nero are introduced they are surrogates for the fraction of the audience who did not play the previous games or read the books and are reacting to the mysterious figure of Dante from an outsider perspective.

2) This point is one of the weakest (because it only works in hindsight), but it should be said that as of DMC 5 and Visions of V it is known that the demon attack on Morris Island is entirely separate and unrelated to the demon attack on the Sparda mansion near Redgrave City. It is also heavily implied that Dante was constantly up in Vergil's business - making it unlikely that Vergil could keep a secret friend from Dante and also have that friend never find out about his twin brother.

Plus there is the timeline to consider. DMC 1 takes place 20 years after the attack on the Sparda mansion. Morris Island takes place 20 years before this episode of the anime. There is a gap of at least a few years between DMC 1 and the anime considering that there was enough time for Trish to partner with Dante, change the shop name, and then for Trish to leave and the shop name to change back. So even the timelines don't match up if these 20-year time spans are strictly correct rather than vague approximations of time.

3) Dante has a completely separate backstory about where he ended up after his family home burned down in a fire and he was separated from Vergil. Because of the shock and to protect himself he buried his real identity in amnesia for like 8-10 years and created an identity as Tony Redgrave. He became a regular human mercenary and unaware of demons until suddenly he was pulled back into it and forced to remember. This is covered in the DMC 1 novel. The DMC 1 novel has been more decisively folded into canon as of references to its events in DMC 5: Before the Nightmare. In contrast, Vergil's whereabouts during the same time period were a mystery. What would have been the point of giving Dante a new personal history set in a small port town when you can instead take the opportunity to fill in the blanks on the person whose past is unknown?

Basically, the writers take it for granted that there is a tacit understanding with the fans that they will be faithful in writing Dante's character to the extent that is possible. Thinking that the viewers understand that the 2007 anime is not an adaptation of any previous works and has no desire to re-tread those previous works. The version of Dante as he appears in DMC 3 and subsequently in the anime is written as the character he would be if he experienced the events laid out in the DMC 1 prequel novel. Anything that they've retconned is exclusively related to Vergil - Vergil was not abducted by Mundus as a child and Vergil did not experience the events of the DMC 1 novel (and is unaware of Gilver in general). So if those things did not happen - then what replaced them? The way that anime Ep 8 and DMC 4 are written imply that the writers already had ideas about the answers (it's only 3 years between DMC 3 in 2005 and DMC 4 in 2008), but outside of more prequels there is no graceful way to deliver information about a character who is canonically dead - everything about their thoughts and intentions is filtered through 2nd and 3rd hand unreliable sources.

Even so, Visions of V re-creates the singular kid Vergil scene that was shown in the DMC 3 manga. In that case the scene takes the form of a surreal nightmare that is forced on him by the demons that he is conversing with in the present. It's surreal in the sense of the symbolism of being naked and afraid and stabbed to a gravestone with your own name on it.

Whereas the Visions of V version positions itself as a more straightforwards narrative account of the event. Vergil chooses to acknowledge what he was really thinking and feeling that day as a step towards working past it:

4) Earnest and "Anthony" had a favourite teacher - Margaret - so they seem to have both had a scholarly inclination. The unique cutscene introducing the Vergil playable route in DMC 3:SE (and at multiple points in the DMC 3 manga) shows him browsing books in a library.

The plot of the episode is that Earnest has an ill-begotten plan to open a portal to Hell and summon a demon. Dante tries to talk him out of it and is unsuccessful. This is a smaller scale version of what Vergil did in DMC 3. The parallels - they are here.

5) The kid in the photo that Dante sees at Earnest's house is wearing a blue/black jacket and red shirt. Blue with red interior lining being the colours associated with Vergil at the time of DMC 3, but even more directly with Nero in DMC 4. Morris Island is a port town. Fortuna is a port town on an island. This anime was being written and produced during the same timeframe as DMC 4.

6) Earnest and "Anthony" buried a box of treasures as children and it was a secret between the two of them. The box that Dante digs up has a scratched out name on a field of blue. The first letter of the name is a cursive "V". How did Dante know where the box was? Dante and Vergil were twins and were still similar enough at age 10 or so that Dante could guess where Vergil would have hidden something. They were similar enough that they both chose the same name of Anthony/Tony when they tried to obscure their identity. The identity confusion is a feature, not a bug - it's part of the tragic irony. It's toying with the same question as DMC 5: if their positions were switched, would their fates be different?

Dante does not care about Earnest. At all. At least, beyond the point that he's a person about to do something foolish that could get himself and a lot of other people killed. Dante is doing the bare minimum to humor this man - so if not because of some gesture related to their "friendship", why even dig up the box? For the same reason that he went to visit the town: curiosity. He was looking for proof of Vergil's existence in the world before that one time he showed up when they were 18 talking about a lunatic plan to raise a demon tower and open the connection between human and demon worlds (DMC 3 manga), and then at age 19 actually went through with that plan while revealing that the point of it all was to gain more power (DMC 3), followed shortly by throwing himself into Hell while severely injured at the end of DMC 3. What would motivate a person to do these things?

7) This port town being burned down in a fire caused by a demon attack explains a lot about the psychology of Vergil, in ways that would not be explicitly confirmed until DMC 5 and Visions of V. He's motivated by his fear. He did not hide from Mundus as successfully as Dante, and even when he tried to reinvent himself as a different person the demons caught up with him. Dante lived through one tragic fire and loss of home and safety and he knows how devastating it is - but he repressed the memory and moved on from it in his own uniquely dysfunctional way. Vergil experienced at least this 2nd attack, which begs the question of how many more times did it happen that Dante is unaware of? How badly would it damage a person to live in fear of being constantly hunted and unable to stay in any place for very long or form lasting attachments to other people? Dante can relate to this a bit given his own personal tragedies, although unlike Vergil he has a handful of people like Lady and Trish to keep him grounded though the years.

But for Vergil it can be extrapolated that he was forced to be alone after any attempt to get close to normal people ended in further tragedy, and it seems like the demons won't stop hunting him until either he is dead or the mastermind sending the demons to hunt him is dead. This evolves into an obsession with power, detachment from human social connection, and willingness to make the decision that a city worth of humans is acceptable collateral damage so long as it gets him that power and opportunity to end Mundus.

If there is a single detail that calls in to doubt that Ep 8 is about actual Vergil post-separation from Dante, it is that "Anthony and his mother" lived in the village. On the other hand, the inclusion of this detail seems as much designed to baffle Dante as it does the viewer. This could be a hook for Dante that has him doubting Earnest's story and/or his own memory because he was certain that their mother died at the same time that Dante and Vergil were separated. However, although there are photographic records of "Anthony" in the town there don't seem to be any of this "mother", and her name is never given.

So if indeed "Anthony" was Vergil, then this mother figure is a continuing mystery. The possibility is that Vergil was accompanied by a woman who was a mentor to him in some way, similar to Dante with Nell Goldstein. Could have been a magical mentor - how did he learn to fling about spectral swords anyways? Impossible to say for certain (i.e. more flexible for future use as a plot point), but if Patty and Morrison from the anime are canon then this suggests that other things set up in the 2007 anime could get a callback if ever there was a DMC6.

As for the purpose of this episode in the context of the anime - it would have been deliberately designed as an attack on Dante by Sid - the mischief maker of the series who is advancing a background demon resurrection plot. One of the times that Dante confronts him Sid says "In the end you were drawn here by the smell of a devil weren't you?" before backflipping off the balcony as the scene lights up with blue lightning.

What is it that Vergil says in the Mission 13 fight in DMC 3 the first time he uses his devil trigger: "You will not forget this devil's power".

This whole episode is a twist of the knife to deliver a reminder that Dante and Vergil weren't so different once, that kid Vergil probably missed their mother as much or more than Dante because he didn't have the luxury of willing himself into amnesia, and that while Dante managed to make it to adulthood before demons found their way back into his life Vergil was not so lucky. Understanding some of the reasons that drove Vergil to obsessively seeking power only makes it worse that Dante was now twice responsible for unknowingly playing into Mundus plans by severely injuring Vergil in a fight to the death in DMC 3, and then by killing him instead of saving him in DMC 1.

Bonus: Even the alcohol gets in on the theme. Dante in his own home office enjoys a "Budweiner" beer with his buddy Morrison as he gets the details about Morris Island. The end credits show him with a glass of "Back Janiels" liquor - these are his usual tastes. When he visits Earnest's house it is just after seeing that photograph of (presumably) kid Vergil that he is offered a glass of red wine.

This is some classic gothic imagery where red wine evokes the look of blood. The last time that Dante and Vergil fought (intentionally - not counting when Vergil was under the control of Mundus) it was over what it means that they have the blood of Sparda. And blood is present in the lyrics of the lesser demon battle music that plays through Missions 2-13 right up to the scene where Vergil is trying to open the gate.

... Taste the blood, Taste your fate, Swallow your pride, With your hate, ... Knee's in the blood with your crying pleas, Wade in your sorrow, bathe in your fear, Clear the mind of the righteousness suffered, Witness the moment of your failure's prosper!