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darkclouds-rainsounds · 4 days ago

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Recently in trying to come to a logical comprehension of the abstractness and esoteric narrative of ENA, I eventually came to speculate that all episodes' Enas are different ones. I even mention this in the tags of this post that I chose to not add and instead screenshotted them to preserve them.

The reason I came to speculate this is simply because I'm the sort of person who tries to make the incomprehensible, comprehensible. If something appears to have at least enough sense and continuity to it to not be complete 'nonsense', then I will persistently attempt to break it down into something that makes logical sense and unearth a "true/concrete understanding" (much to my own chagrin and annoyance. Motifs and patterns and connections-making brain is too used to doing this that I can't really "turn it off"). I am also aware that that's not what ENA is about— at least not initially, given the hourglass dog unlockables in DBBQ make mention of "lore" within the ENA universe (but even I'm skeptical as to how the word "lore" is being used, because I'm doubtful it's used to mean 'a canon' of sorts).

But ENA as a narrative is more akin to Hylics than something like your standard JRPG: there's a world and a relatively understood comprehension of how the laws of it work (to an extent) and things like entities and recurring people, but there's no real overarching plot to them— though Hylics doesn't exactly fit 1:1 with this description as both games do have a sort of plot, but the first game's is a lot more mere happenstance and not something like a "god-given quest".

Or in short, things really happen just to happen. DBBQ is to ENA what Hylics 2 is to Hylics.

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Anyway, why exactly I speculated that all the episodes' Ena's are different ones has to do with my having attempted to understand when Power of Potluck takes place.

I've already theorized how PoP possibly fits chronologically into the ENA series as a whole in two instances, but temporarily gave up out of acquiescing to the highly probable case that ENA just isn't something that a comprehensive timeline is necessary for or was even considered in the making of it.

To summarize my tags in the first link, based on a post someone made about how Ena in PoP is missing the middle strap of her suspenders which matches how she looked in Auction Day (where for Extinction Party and Temptation Stairway she has the middle strap), the op theorized that PoP chronologically occurs before Auction Day. I misremembered when they said PoP possibly chronologically occurs as before Extinction Party.

This time placement still matches up if PoP is placed in the gap between the two since Ena only has the middle strap in her design from specifically Extinction Party forward, so reasonably, any time before then she could have not had it yet.

(And as an aside, due to the possible achronological nature of Ena, it's also reasonable to speculate that the episodes in the order they were released also didn't chronologically occur in that order.)

But that's not my point of discussing this, just that I misremembered and that in my tags, were Auction Day to be put in place of my mention of Extinction Party, my point would still stand.

As you can see, I tried to come to a logical understanding of how PoP fits in with the rest of the series— not just because of that post pointing out the possible timeline placement— but because it doesn't make sense what with the ending of Temptation Stairway.

Sure, maybe one could offer the argument that the Great Runas' wish fulfillment wouldn't be permanent for one reason or another (ala "you can't just wish away your sadness; as an emotion, it will inevitably come back and this wish will only offer temporary solace at best"), but Ulysses literally tells Ena that she's trapped within the Divine Door until it next opens, which won't be for a long time, so how is she in Power of Potluck?

Maybe she really did just wait out the whole time and is still alive (how one would even figure out a life expectancy for a functionally immortal and achronological entity like Ena, I don't know), but this feels like a stretch.

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That was then that I considered "what if it's not just PoP Ena that is a different Ena, and Auction Day; Extinction Party; and Temptation Stairway are all one Ena, and DBBQ is yet another Ena, but that all of the episodes have different Enas?"

This is actually implied within the series itself with Rubik in Extinction Party and Shepherd in Temptation Stairway addressing Ena as though there existed multiple of her.

Some people have taken this to mean that Ena is a species rather than that there are multiple of specifically her. Put another way, multiple of the same entity (as is shown in the Holy Code with multiple blue/yellow Enas frozen in place and intermittently glitching into mannequins).

If it's already established that in some form there are multiple Enas (regardless of if being a species or just multiple of one person), then why not take it a step further and speculate that the Ena in each episode is also a different one? Why assume that the Ena we watch through all the episodes is the exact same one?

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What really made me seriously consider this was that, going based on this theory, it makes what was going on with Ena in Temptation Stairway make sense.

In Temptation Stairway, the whole way through, Ena's voices don't match the side they're typically assigned to (male voice coming from sad and female voice coming from happy). Sometimes they match, others they don't. Sometimes for one sentence from sad, it's the female voice but for the immediate subsequent sentence it's the male voice, creating this weird dissonance.

In Auction Day, Extinction Party, and later Power of Potluck, this mixing of the voices never happens. For those episodes, happy is always the male voice and sad is always the female voice.

Going into Temptation Stairway with the belief that its Ena is the exact same as the Enas in the prior two episodes creates dissonance and confusion because she never had this 'issue' before, so why are her voices so mismatched now? But if one goes into Temptation Stairway with the belief that each episodes' Ena is a different one, then that clears any possible dissonance and confusion because then it'd just be this one instance of Ena in particular that's all weird.

This also in turn, makes Power of Potluck's events even happening make sense since Ena shouldn't have been able to leave the Divine Door until it next opened (is it possible for her to transfer herself to a different mannequin on command? Like, without dying first? And if she were to be transferred to a different mannequin, would the Great Runas' wish fulfillment still be in effect or would it be null since she's technically a different entity (mannequin, not Ena) than the one who made the wish?). If the Ena in Power of Potluck is a different Ena, then that could mean that Temptation Stairway's Ena could still exist simultaneously.

Though, that's if one's interpretation of "multiple of the same entity" is the straightforward "clones"-type understanding. It's possible that while there are multiple Enas, there is still actually only one of her.

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That's where the theorized achronological aspect of her comes in. Many different timelines/chonologies overlapping each other at different points to create the 'illusion' of there being multiple of her, but there is still only one of her in the strictest sense.

But then there's also the "one person can be in two places at once" thing.

To explain it as simply as I can and how I understand it, Ena basically functions like Celebi from pokemon, but like, a bit more convoluted.

This understanding of "Ena is multiple of the same entity" contradicts how Power of Potluck works— depending on when it occurs.

On one hand, if Power of Potluck chronologically occurs after Temptation Stairway, then it doesn't make sense since all Enas are actually just one entity ever but there's some timey-wimey shenanigans going on with her thus making her "multiple", and if Ena is trapped behind the Divine Door and possibly can't get out even by using a different mannequin because it'd possibly nullify her wish, then how and why does Power of Potluck occur?

Her wish was fulfilled, and while Ulysses says "desires are never fulfilled nor quenched", given the many Enas floating motionless in the Holy Code, glitching, the rest of the events of Temptation Stairway implies that this Ena actually succeeded whereas all the others failed.

(And this also makes the events of Temptation Stairway very interesting when viewed with the belief that there is only truly one Ena but there's time overlap going on. Because, as Shepherd implies, she has met Ena before. Ena has entered the Divine Door before. she has tried to make her wish to the Great Runas before— and as the many instances of her in the Holy Code show, she's tried this many times. And it was only during the events of Temptation Stairway itself that she (seemingly) succeeds.)

So if Ena is stuck within the Divine Door and wouldn't have been able to leave for a very long time and her wish was fulfilled (for a literal god, I find the idea of the Great Runas' wish fulfillment not being able to stick disappointing and portrays the genies as not all they're cracked up to be. That they don't deserve the reputation they have if their powers are naturally impermanent and there's nothing they can do about it), then why does Power of Potluck even happen? Why is Sad back?

And of course, I have to address the elephant in the room that is Moony having reverted back to her normal form than the cursed humanoid form she got as per her wish in Temptation Stairway.

Again, this is only really a snag if one views Power of Potluck occurring chronologically after Temptation Stairway, if it's viewed as having occurred prior to T.S, then there's no issue.

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But that then leads me to what I theorized about the nature of PoP in relation to the rest of the series: Power of Potluck is an alternate timeline of Ena where she failed in having her wish granted by way of not making it to the Divine Door in time.

It can't be her having failed some time after having entered it because remember, the Door closes right after she and Moony enter it and she can't exit it until a long time later.

And as I stated in my tags above, I find Power of Potluck chronologically occurring after Temptation Stairway— just in general— rendering T.S redundant since... what was the point of all of that and Ena having her wish fulfilled in having her sadness removed if it just comes back in the next episode?

People try to logically explain it as "the Great Runas' powers probably aren't permanent or weren't permanent with the nature of Ena's wish in particular (and Moony's, I guess)", but that feels like a stretch since for all how glorified and praised the Great Runas is, I've no reason to reasonably believe that it was exaggeration— or that the nature of Ena's wish was incompatible with permanence (the Great Runas is literally "Run As". As in "run as administrator". I kind of doubt something with that level of power could be so easily undone. It's literally a metaphysical rewrite).

But if Power of Potluck is a different timeline altogether where Ena failed to even reach the Divine Door— and Moony is still a moon rather than humanoid, meaning she also failed to reach it— then PoP makes sense, as its existence doesn't conflict with Temptation Stairway.

If one ascribes to the flavor of "Ena is multiple of the same entity" theory where she's all just one entity ever but there's achonological overlap, how Power of Potluck occurs would alter the nature of this take on Ena into something even more convoluted. That being, each Ena, rather than assumably all being from one timeline and occurring in the past or future from when they're supposed to be— creating the illusion of there being multiple Enas— is actually "every 'instance' of Ena is an Ena from a different timeline".

And that with each Ena being from a different timeline but they're able to cross over to other timelines and also have the same aforementioned achronological format, then shit gets really confusing.

Basically then, only Ena would be able to "jump" timelines but not any of the other characters. That way it's still only one Ena but it's Ena from different timelines.

(Technically, this is also the same take as how I explained "each episode's Ena is a different one, which explains what was up with the voice dissonance with T.S' Ena", as each episodes' Ena actually being from a single timeline is literally just the same as the take that the Ena in all episodes is the same exact one.)

If one ascribes to there literally being multiple Enas (not a species, just multiple of the same entity ala "clones"), then Power of Potluck almost makes sense. Because, while this does account for the conflicting existences of PoP's Ena and T.S' Ena, it doesn't account for Moony still being a moon rather than humanoid— and we don't have any reason to realistically believe that there are also multiples of Moony (and possibly every other character).

So, in the end, the most sensible explanation for Power of Potluck occurring without being in conflict with Temptation Stairway is that PoP occurs in a timeline where Ena and Moony failed to reach the Divine Door (which in itself is inherent to believing that each episodes' Ena is a different one).

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Now, having established that every Ena seen is a different instance, how does Dream BBQ's Ena fit into this?

My first theory was that she too, was a different Ena but still originally was blue/yellow Ena that somehow became how she is now, and while I still think this, there's now more to it.

While I did reblog and found much of the theorizing in this post agreeable, when it came to DBBQ Ena being implied as being Temptation Stairway's Ena, that... sort of didn't register properly in my brain...

It's like "water is wet, yeah." then going "OHHHH. Water is wet!" like, ?????? it didn't??? click right??? in my brain??????

Understanding but not true understanding?

It wasn't until I started doing this theorizing completely separate from that post that I organically came to the same conclusion.

As per my tags from different DBBQ analyses:

With things from the series literally being referenced in-universe, I don't think it's meant to just be a "wink wink, nudge nudge" for the player, but is actually something that has occurred in-universe. Emphasis on "occurred", past tense.

And with Worker Ena during the end of chapter one having technical difficulties in loading into the mannequin at the hub where she blips through her "hangover form" and even blue/yellow Ena for a single frame, I think it has actual bearing in-universe. That it's not just an easter egg, it means something.

I phrase it in the first post's tags that "she has been blue/yellow", but that was postulation for the sake of fitting within tag and tag character limits. It has not been proven that Worker Ena once was blue/yellow Ena, but evidence throughout DBBQ heavily implies this to be the case.

And even Worker Ena's 'bugging out' at the end of chapter one is just my interpretation of what was going on: that she was being loaded as past states (like... a computer. Save states, system restore, etc) before she was properly loaded back as Worker Ena.

I interpreted it this way based on the appearance of Hangover Ena being a completely unique state of Ena (as opposed to the emotional extremes which aren't unique states since they're just emotions from a blue/yellow or cream white+blue-grey/red Ena) and viewing the single frame appearance of blue/yellow Ena with knowledge that the events of the series have already happened (because I've seen some people speculate that DBBQ is a prequel?? No???), it lead to me thinking that the appearance of blue/yellow Ena during the 'technical difficulties' alongside Hangover Ena was that these two states of being have something in common.

She has been Hangover Ena. She has been blue/yellow Ena.

So, how does this tie into Worker Ena potentially being Temptation Stairway's Ena?

Since I have established my belief in the theory that Worker Ena isn't a completely separate "type" of Ena (along the lines of the "Ena is a species" theory) and instead formerly was blue/yellow, I can properly start explaining.

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Referring back to this analysis, this is the only analysis I've seen that makes any mention of the wish option Ena could make to Theodora about "punishing the moon".

Things like aspiring for a blissful life or eternal happiness can be understood within only the context of Worker Ena as we know her in DBBQ (completely divorced from her being series Ena) given how overworked she is and how much she hates her job and outright states she no longer has personal agency.

Aspiring for Frank's forgiveness on his behalf is also understandable— especially since he's 1. one of the few characters (as of chapter 1) that is genuinely kind to Ena with no backhanded compliments or remarks about her and 2. pronounces and spells her name correctly as ∃NA.

He is the most respectful character thus far to Worker Ena, so her aspiring for his forgiveness on his behalf being because of his genuine respect for her makes sense.

Then there's of course the aspiration to get rid of the smoke, the entire reason Ena even came to have an audience with Theodora.

But then there's the option at the bottom.

"Aspire for the punishment of the moon." The heck does that mean?

Well, as this analysis theorizes, Worker Ena isn't just any random instance of Ena, but is specifically Temptation Stairway's Ena.

To quote said analysis,

"But if Runas was in fact the murdered Genie, then there is one suspect in particular that pops into my mind. Someone who has met Runas. Someone who was... unimpressed. Dissatisfied. And found herself trapped inside his domain for a long, long time."

This aspiration only makes sense in the context of Worker Ena being the same Ena as in Temptation Stairway.

Why? Why would it specifically have to be Temptation Stairway's Ena and not a different one? Aspiring for the punishment of the moon doesn't really convey a form of specificity to the events of Temptation Stairway, theory that the Great Runas was killed and Ena was blamed for it/being punished on behalf of Moony or whoever did it or not.

Well, there's several reasons.

The first being the constant mention of God that Worker Ena has ("bless you for your business", "worry not, you're still a child of GOD", "GOD knows the rest") makes the most sense with Temptation Stairway's Ena— though this can come across as confirmation bias.

Another reason is that DBBQ Ena is overworked, stressed, and one of her sides is literally anger and anxiety, and that Worker Ena was formerly blue/yellow but Something Happened. That one of her aspirations to a GOD is to "punish the moon"; Moony would have had to have done something absolutely horrific to Ena to have led to series Ena becoming the way she is now and first chance she gets at reaching a wish-granting god is to punish Moony.

Yeah, I think the reverence of God despite Meanie remarking she "doesn't believe in anything" and upon Worker Ena meeting a wish-granting god like Runas who doesn't grant wishes without limit unlike him, is to aspire for the punishment of "the moon", I think they're connected.

Basically god/genie-based trauma about what was unfairly taken from her (after so many instances of her failed).

Also, "punishment" as a concept has only been spoken of in some form by only four characters thus far across the series and DBBQ combined.

Moony in Temptation Stairway

Ulysses in Temptation Stairway

Taski Maiden in Chapter 1 of Dream BBQ

Theodora in Chapter 1 of Dream BBQ

What's interesting is that the instances of punishment being mentioned in the webseries are in Temptation Stairway.

But Moony's mention of punishment when viewed under the lens of her having done something to Ena— whether directly or indirectly— that eventually caused her to become Worker Ena is... extremely worrying.

The full context is:

"Pay the debts of the loser." "Rude entities like you get punished for the sins of others." "Aspire for the punishment of the moon." and Theodora's response.

.......

Anyway.

Postulating this to be the case, that would mean that for "Full Happiness" Ena to have become Worker Ena, then the Great Runas' wish wasn't impermanent (again, like it naturally faded over time or that it was incompatible with the nature of series Ena's wish), but was, well... more akin to the type of wish fulfillment loophole trickery that genies in other media are known for (not that I think the Great Runas tricked Ena, but that he fulfilled her wish exactly and other negative emotions eventually arising was just a consequence of lack of foresight on Ena's part in not specifying she only ever wanted to be happy).

Yes, Ena's sadness was removed, but there was nothing that specified a different emotion couldn't take its place.

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This reminds me of my analysis on someone's post about Worker Ena regarding how Meanie is specifically cream white/very pale yellow. How, with the way Anxiety is displayed on Meanie by default looks like shading and given how abstract and wacky the characters in ENA are, the shading peculiarly being completely absent on Salesperson's side isn't that odd.

It's not until the Purge Event that during the phone call with Froggy, Ena's sprite during the call visibly shows the "shading" creeping down her face, revealing that it wasn't just weird shading that only applied to the Meanie side, but was actually a whole third color.

And if Anxiety, as a third color, was cleverly disguised as being weird shading that isn't out of place for something as bizarre as ENA, then Meanie being cream white/very pale yellow rather than a stark white could be along the same lines. That Meanie being yellow-tinted isn't "just lighting", but is also something more that's cleverly disguised.

I stopped thinking this to be the case, but now upon theorizing that Worker Ena is Temptation Stairway's Ena and that the Great Runas' wish fulfillment is strictly still in effect, that perhaps there is merit after all in Meanie being comprised of formerly Happy and Sad (I'm still holding out on it out of residual skepticism, though).

Though, it wouldn't really be "Sad" since that side of Ena was removed.

Anxiety is blue-grey rather than a pure grey. It is not a pure blue like Sad was. Anxiety is not the same emotion as Sad.

Like I said, the Great Runas' wish fulfillment is still in effect: Ena is still rid of her Sad side.

But if Worker Ena really is Temptation Stairway's Ena, that informs the specificity of what T.S' Ena wished for. That it did not include her always and only being Happy, just that she wished to be rid of her sadness.

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But wait! There's more! This also ties into how Worker Ena being Temptation Stairway's Ena affects how Power of Potluck exists as it does.

Temptation Stairway was stated by Joel G. to be a "season finale". This on its own means that Power of Potluck is the first episode of the second season. Joel G. also says Temptation Stairway was "the end and the beginning of something".

There are several comments he replied to and two in particular caught my interest.

Given that Dream BBQ's trailers exist before Power of Potluck, and PoP Ena is along the lines of how she's already been depicted in season one, it's safe to say that he was referring to Worker Ena here.

And then... this.

"One of these characters will stay with the new look on [sic] the future".

Obviously this doesn't apply to Worker Ena since she looks completely different from Full Happiness Ena.

But we haven't seen Moony yet in Dream BBQ.

He said one of them will "stay with the new look", so there's little reason to believe he changed his mind— especially since we have not seen Moony yet to confirm whether that is the case or not.

Regardless, until more episodes and chapters come out, I'll still just view Worker Ena as "connected to blue/yellow Ena" but that's the extent of it. I'm not banking on this being The Singular Truth and then it warp my perception of Worker Ena into "oh poor Temptation Stairway Ena" when that hasn't been confirmed despite there being a lot that supports that theory.

It's too early to be making calls like this when there literally are only four episodes (three episodes in season one and one episode in season two thus far) and a single chapter of the game. Still think it's worth speculating on, though.

#【𝙿 𝚁 𝙸 𝚂 𝙼】#ena #ena joel g #∃NA #ena dream bbq #ena theory

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angelfoxx · 2 years ago

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┊ ➶ ｡˚ ° “…US?”

…in which their feelings for you become apparent.

FEATURING: simon “ghost” riley, john “soap” mactavish, & keegan p russ I AM SALIVATING

WARNINGS: suggestive, but nothing nsfw. yet 😇 also so sorry i write k**gan’s name and i just get fucked up. i just can’t behave myself. so i lose my mind a little in his section eek

NOTES: excuse my rather small starting lineup; i’m still new to the game and all of its lore and i’d rather get to know the characters first rather than make horrible headcanons based off of their fanon interpretations. you know, like making a six foot ten war criminal dresses in a fucking executioner’s hood a little uwu baby

— SIMON “GHOST” RILEY.

✧ Everything I see on TikTok regarding this guy makes him seem like a fucking demon in the sheets. I really don’t get that vibe. Especially not at the start of a relationship.

✧ The first time you meet, he thinks you’re attractive. And then he pushes that thought aside, because he’s a soldier. He’s actively at work doing a high-risk, high-stress job. You’re attractive, yes, but he’s not going to pursue you. This is not the right time for that.

✧ Things develop after…like, a long ass time. And it’s not sexual in the start. It’s, like…you’re cleaning your gun down after a mission, and you get a clean rag thrown into your lap. You look up into those hollow soulless fucking eyes and Ghost just shrugs, not meeting your gaze but instead just vaguely gesturing at your gun. “Your rag’s dirty. You’re rubbin’ dirt int’a the thing.”

✧ It’s small things like that. Things that are helpful but always laced with a comment that could be considered sort of rude or abrasive. He doesn’t notice; he only realizes that he’s coming off as rude and probably pushing you away after he makes a comment on your form being lazy and Price, sort of quietly laughing, asks why he’s so insistent on snarking on you. He replies that mistakes like yours could get you hurt. Which, they could. But so could everyone else’s, and he doesn’t make comments about them. So…?

✧ Phase two of him trying to…hit on you? Exist with you? Who fucking knows. Anyways, he just stops talking. He’ll still throw you clean rags, but he won’t make a comment about how using a dirty rag is ruining your gun. He’ll still make a point out of sweeping fallen food and shit off of your spot at the table after you eat, but he doesn’t grumble and scoff at you not to waste anymore. He resorts to silent acts of service to the point where it gets annoying. He’s always quiet, but now he’s unnervingly quiet and honestly, is it still him if he doesn’t catch you for random things every now and then?

✧ The silent stage can go on forever, so a catalyst really saves you. The catalyst comes when a new recruit gets a little too aggressive; a small argument about your ability on the field turns into a minor brawl. Aforementioned brawl immediately ends when the recruit dares to put their hands on you and shove you and Ghost, like some six-foot-one demon cast from the pits of hell, appears behind you and gets very up close and personal with them. Asking what the hell they think they’re doing, asking if they think that’s a good way to have a team on the field, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, he makes the recruit feel like absolute shit. Oh, and he doesn’t look at you the entire time.

✧ So, obviously, now you have a weird situation at hand. You’re getting ready to go to sleep and everyone’s sort of looking at you funny, because there’s no reason for a fucking lieutenant to jump in and break up an argument like that—pulling people apart, sure, but not so suddenly and not so aggressively. The recruit hasn’t spoken to you. Ghost hasn’t spoken to you. So, anyways, you pay him a visit.

✧ You go down to say thanks, and for some fucking reason, the guy can’t take a compliment. Or gratitude. He says you were slower than the other recruit, that it’ll get you killed on the field, et cetera. He can’t just shut up and take the thanks.

“I’m telling you, I…I came down here to thank you, of all things. Can you cut the criticism one time and accept it?”

Ghost stiffens. It’s not a thousand-yard stare anymore. It’s just a wide, pissed-off glare. For a long minute, he’s silent. And then…

“Welcome.” His voice is grumpish. “Happy?”

“Sure.” You manage a little smile. It’s sort of funny; he can’t just take your thank you and drop it. “It’s improvement.”

Ghost nods once, albeit stiffly. “Okay.”

“…so, you gonna tell me why you did it?” You ask it as a joke. You aren’t dumb. You know he wants you gone. You’re expecting a harsh “get out” or something of the like. You aren’t expecting an answer.

“Disrespect makes ignorance. Ignorance makes casualties.” Oh. An actual real, reasonable answer. Surprising. Ghost himself seems a little surprised; he blinks owlishly again, and he doesn’t say anything else. He’s just a big guy standing in a little room with a skull mask on.

“Oh.” You swallow. “That’s…rational.”

“Were you expecting irrational?”

“No. I wasn’t expecting anything.” You scoff. “You’re not exactly chatty.”

“I don’t waste words.” Ghost’s eyes narrow. “I’m not dumb.”

“I didn’t call you dumb.” You shrug. “I’m just surprised you gave me an answer that wasn’t bitching at me.”

“I don’t bitch.”

“You do.”

“I’m not a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, recruit. I don’t bitch.”

“Even Price thinks you bitch. At me, at least. All the time.”

✧ Price thinks he bitches at you? And he’d told you? Oh, no, no. Externally, Ghost is stiff and stoic. Internally, Ghost is shitting bricks. Price had told you that? Straight-up told you that? Oh, no. You and Price talk and he comes up in conversation? Oh, no, no, no.

✧ He addresses this with Price, obviously. Storms in all puffed-out and pissy and asks what the hell he’s doing gossiping about his soldiers and Price just sort of laughs him off, asking what he’s talking about and then why he’s so upset that he’s bringing up one of his best men to one of the recruits.

✧ Oh.

✧ Ghost swears up and down it’s not like that. He swears and he bangs the side of his hand on the table and he curses on his own heart that it’s not like that but the whole time Price is laughing because in all of the years that he’s known Simon, not once has Simon broken through Ghost. But now, he has. The stumbling over words, the defensive aggression, the way he’s pacing so furiously—oh, Simon Riley is melting down inside that big mask and it’s equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious.

✧ Cue Price becoming a wingman. Ghost swears he’ll kill him every time he puts you two together to spar or puts you two on cleanup duty or god fucking forbid you’re in the doghouse doing some foul task and Ghost has to watch you. God fucking damn the captain, because he knows Ghost will grumble and complain but with you, he’ll eventually stop that in favor of helping you. And it’s sort of heartwarming for him to do his nightly rounds and it’s all quiet but there’s voices coming out of the kitchen and he can hear Ghost in that gruff, grumbly tone telling you how to mop and you snidely telling him that if you can’t do it right, then maybe he should do it instead. And he objects, of course, and then within ten minutes Price watches Ghost’s shadow come up to yours and he hears the mop change hands.

✧ It takes you a long time to realize that you’re really being assigned to Ghost’s side for every fucking thing you do. It takes you an even longer time to realize that Price tends to pass by you two on occasion, and every time he does, he’s smiling. And it takes you a ridiculously long time to realize that Ghost isn’t always radiating heat; whenever he takes the mop from you or takes the gun you’re cleaning from you, whenever he finishes off a task that you’ve started, it’s not that he’s always that hot. It’s that, under that mask, he’s flushed.

✧ It takes you a very, very long time to realize that the legendary Ghost has taken an actual liking to you.

— JOHN “SOAP” MACTAVISH.

✧ Thank fucking god this guy is next. Slow burn ass Ghost makes me want to rip my eyes out. Just have passionate angry sex and talk about your feelings after. Christ.

✧ It’s not exactly a secret that the minute you arrived on base, you gained an admirer.

✧ Soap isn’t someone who rarely gets hooked on someone else. The guy’s a walking heart eyes emoji. The difference with you was that it wasn’t the kind of attraction that had him sweet-talking you over drinks that night.

✧ This was different. Rather than chase, Soap wanted to impress — and, well, he tried. He tried his fucking hardest. He tried so hard the other higher-ups noticed. How embarrassing.

✧ Every time you’re in the room, he somehow gets even chattier. His voice drops. If he’s working out, he starts loading weights onto the bar he’s using to an almost comical degree. He loses his fucking mind. It’s like he short circuits. Which is ridiculous, because he’s a fucking soldier. What the fuck is he doing trying to lift five hundred pounds on a Tuesday morning? Why is he freaking the fuck out?

✧ The thing is, right, is you’re not exactly hovering over the guy. You have your own agenda to adhere to and also, it would be really weird if you just started laying praises on him, so you go about your day as regular and poor Soap is left heartbroken and also achy-armed because you literally could not care less that he’s lifting double, triple his body weight.

✧ Literally every higher-up notices. They make jokes about it and he borders on threatening friendly fire. It’s just a little crush. That’s all it is. Yeah. And so when you’re all doing team sparring and you keep winning, he’s just watching you like a lovesick puppy because it’s just a little crush. That’s all.

✧ Price can’t have his soldiers slacking off. Of course not. He can’t have them getting lazy — so he orders Soap to go up against you. Because, you know, he seems out of it and you’re the best of the recruits, so you’ll go against someone better. Yeah. That’s why he calls him out.

✧ God bless the poor guy. He panics for like three seconds and then makes a very thickly-accented taunt about how it’s unfair to you to go up against him. You, of course, in the spirit of good fun, reply to his taunt and tell him to prove it.

✧ He goes into the circle with you. He goes into the circle with you and he fucking falls apart.

You’ve quickly learned that talking is Soap’s weakness. If his mouth is moving, his feet fall behind.

“Get enough sleep last night, MacTavish?” You dodge a flying fist. “You look a little sleepy.”

“Got plenty.” A wry grin crosses his face. “Don’t worry about my beauty sleep.”

“I have reason to. You need it.” You wrinkle your nose. “Bad.”

Soap’s jaw drops slightly, and — there! — he hesitates. Probably out of surprise, but it’s enough. Deftly, you lunge in at his knees, swipe them out, and…hm. Simple. Almost too easy, actually, to pin him.

Soap’s heart is pounding under your hand. His chest is flat against the ground, but you can feel it through his back, which is wild in and of itself. He grunts when his cheek hits the ground; he mumbles something akin to “bloody hell”, but you can’t quite make out the words.

Grinning, you sit back and kick your heel up against his neck, keeping his head pinned down. The cheering you receive mostly comes from recruits who are impressed with your skill.

The minority is higher-ups, exchanging amused glances. They seem awfully humored with the sight of one of their own being pinned so easily by a new recruit. Hmm…

✧ From that point on, Soap somehow manages to watch more of your sparring sessions. He usually just watches, rather than critique; if you ask, he’ll just say you certainly seem to be doing fine. If you ask for help, though, he’ll help you. Christ, he’ll help you. He’ll genuinely spend time assisting you on whatever is troubling you.

✧ Eventually, after a long training day, you decide to ask Soap to join you in the ring. You genuinely just want to see how you stack up to a “better” opponent; you’ve apparently pushed beating him to the side. Or you just want to do it again. He doesn’t think of that, though.

✧ He’ll come in (after teasing you just a bit) and he will spar with you, just giving you advice and pointers mid-action. He’s whipped, but he’s also still a trained soldier. He knows what he’s doing, and once he gets through the brain fog you seem to weigh down onto him, he is genuinely helpful.

✧ Still, after you’re both hot and panting and finished and resting on the sidelines, you have to ask him why he helps you so much. You have to ask if it’s because he thinks you’re lacking, or bad, or if it’s some sort of personal vendetta for that one time in front of the recruits and the higher-ups.

✧ Soap just laughs and, rather awkwardly, rubs at his neck. He avoids eye contact, and he bites his lip, and he tilts his head around before he dares answer you, tone sheepish. “Consider it a, ah, personal interest.”

— KEEGAN P RUSS.

✧ SHITS MYSELF VIOLENTLY. SO SORRY

✧ i love this fucking man so very much and i don’t know jack shit abt him because i need to play ghosts and get the first hand experience like I don’t want to spoil his character but I URRRGHHGGGGG

✧ imma try to do him justice but sorry if im missing on important lore

✧ He’s not as uptight as Ghost, but he’s not as whipped as Soap. He’s somewhere in the middle; he’s aware that you’re attractive but he does push it aside. He’s working. You’re working. He doesn’t have time for that, and it’s also a safety concern. He remembers what they did to Ajax, and god fucking forbid they try to pull that shit with anyone else to use as bait.

✧ When he’s at base, he’s busy. He’s devoted to his work and he doesn’t cut corners to chit-chat. The most social he’ll really get is at dinner; he’s the kind of person who will eat with the group, but rather than talk, he’ll really just listen. he’s me fr fr

✧ Getting to know Keegan is sort of awkward because he’s just not super outgoing. He’s attractive (if your radio is on and you don’t buckle at the knees the first time you hear his sexy deep pantywetting voice over the thing, are you even real?) and he’s got the whole mysterious quiet guy thing down, and yet when you approach him to try and strike up a conversation with a simple question (“So how was your day?”) he’s prone to just looking at you and raising a brow and answering sort of flatly. (“Same as every other one. What, did something happen?”)

✧ Most of your bonding actually occurs when it’s just the two of you. You’ve bumped into him late at night before — sometimes he’s at the range shooting targets and fiddling with a variety of weapons, or sometimes he’s in the kitchen scouring the shelves, or sometimes he’s in the gym working out when nobody is there to bother him and ogle his fine ass fucking body holy shit his thighs. He’s a little easier to talk to at night, actually. Maybe it’s the lack of a crowd, but the first time you stumble into him making himself a pot of fucking tea at damn near midnight, he actually seems friendly.

“What are you making?” For a moment, you panic, thinking that you might’ve just scared the shit out of poor Keegan by speaking so suddenly and from behind where he’s standing beside the sink, a little humming kettle in front of him. His shoulders god his fuckinf shoulders i want to lick them don’t so much as twitch, though — and then you remember the guy’s entire job is stealth and observation. Hell, he probably heard you across camp.

“Tea.” Yeah, he couldn’t sound less concerned. His voice is as low and gravelly as usual; he sounds a little more relaxed, actually, not so brash and shout-y. “Chamomile.”

“Sergeant Russ drinks chamomile tea?” You laugh a little, sort of tentatively. You two aren’t strangers, but you’ve only had a few conversations…if you can call brief exchanges conversations, of course.

“…yeah?” Keegan actually sounds confused; it’s dark in the kitchen, but you can make out the outline of his head turning over his shoulder. “What, you got a problem with that?”

“No. No, sir. No problem.” You shrug. “I just didn’t peg you to be the chamomile tea type.”

“Didn’t you?” The short scoffish bark Keegan lets out is a brief laugh. “What did you peg me for?”

“Dunno. Black, I guess.”

“Are you calling me boring?”

“No.”

Keegan hums in response to that. He busies himself with pouring his tea and thank fucking god your eyes have adjusted to the dim light in here because god, his fucking hip to waist ratio under that gear is something wicked and you let your conversation slip. You’re in here for a snack, but you don’t want to bother—

“You come in here for somethin’ other than staring?” Oh. Good. This is the Keegan you’d expected after hearing him sass half of his team on comms. You can hear the edge of a grin in his voice; there’s a shuffle as he turns around and then a wooden groan as he leans against the counter. A short second later, you hear the almost exaggerated slurp of tea.

“Crackers. I’m hungry.”

A wooden scrubbing sound. He’s moved over, presumably to let you open the cabinet housing boxes of sort of dry, not particularly good crackers. He doesn’t say a word; he just keeps drinking his tea and pretends to ignore you as you make your way over, crouching down to fumble for a bag of crackers. Pretend, because you can feel that he’s watching you. His presence on the field is invisible; his gaze in the kitchen is not. Still, he doesn’t bother you; he lets you get your crackers and retire to the edge of the counter across from him to snack, and he doesn’t say a word.

“Are you always so quiet?” You gesture vaguely at the slight shape of him. “Is it just part of the job?”

Keegan laughs, more to himself than in response to you. “Sure.”

✧ He is, generally, pretty quiet. His usual demeanor is laid-back and observant; if he’s not under stress, though, and you start talking to him, he’ll respond almost always with something mildly sarcastic. You come to learn that he isn’t actually boring. He’s got a quick sense of occasionally-dark humor. Sometimes he laughs at his own jokes—usually after he’s started to walk away from you. He’s fiercely protective of the Ghosts and any recruits training near or with them. He also doesn’t seem to mind you.

✧ You’d hesitate to say you two were friends — it always seemed like there was something in between you, though you couldn’t name what — but you were friendly, and it was nice.

✧ During group dinners, he’d stand against the wall behind you. Or across from you, though usually doing that meant that he’d make a game out of trying to get you to squirm under his constant staring. He’d run into you late-night in the kitchen and make casual, not uncomfortable, small talk. Hell, at one point he offered you a drink post-training and made a sort of point to always offer you one whenever you had returned to base and were lingering around in the later hours.

✧ After a particularly long day, you find him in the kitchen, just drinking straight from the bottle. He offers you the thing — he seems more than a little tipsy, but when you decline (he’s been drinking directly from it, and…the fuck does army hygiene look like?) he sort of half-laughs and says, sarcastically, “What d’you look so horrified for? Too good to share a bottle, princess?” and then he immediately excused himself afterward.

✧ You know that saying, “drunk words are sober thoughts”? Yeah. Yeah.

✧ i need the fatty part of keegans thigh in my mouth right now i need to bite it i need to bite it and go rrrrrahrhrahrah like a fucking rabid dog

#cod smut #cod x reader #call of duty smut #cod ghost #simon ghost riley #ghost x reader #cod soap #john soap mactavish #soap x reader #cod keegan #keegan p russ #keegan x reader #IIIII NEED HIS HANDS IN MY MOUTH #IIIII NEED KEEGANS HANDS IN MY MOUTH NEEEEOWWW

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timeagainreviews · 1 month ago

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The Robot Revolution Will Be Televised

If headlines were anything to go by, pre-screened reviews of the latest episode of Doctor Who, “The Robot Revolution,” were mixed. The ending was referred to as “controversial.” My gut reaction was worry that it would be yet another lore change. I felt like the Babadook mum screaming, “Why can’t you just be normal?” There were a couple of moments that I felt could be divisive. Cat fanciers might have balked at the untimely demise of Lucy from number 7’s cat. Then there was the moment when our lovable robot pal, Scoot, vacuums up Alan at his most zygotic. But Lucy from number 7’s cat was quite literally RTD doing the opposite of saving the cat to let you know these robots are bad business. And the sperm and egg line is so camp that it’s going to be one of those “my girlfriend is a paving slab instances.” But we know the real reason this episode might spark controversy.

Was that the first cannon mention of sperm in Doctor Who? I certainly can’t recall another instance of the word in the show’s nearly 62 years of existence. The new Davies era has added quite a few new words to Doctor Who’s lexicon. We now have cosplay, sperm, and even incel. That’s two new additions in a single episode! Bravo! Jokes aside, it’s the incels who may or may not be mad about this episode. I’ve learned to turn down the volume of those types of people years ago. I often refer to it as background static because that’s what it is. The truth is, the only issue I have with Belinda Chandra saying “It’s the planet of the incels,” is that it’s a bit on the nose. But this episode is so camp that I’m not even upset.

The Chibnall era had the unfortunate knock-on effect on people’s perception of a woman Doctor. Because the show wasn’t very good, some people (idiots) blamed it on Jodie Whittaker’s gender. Another knock-on effect was how it made so any legitimate criticism of the era also had to first combat claims of sexism. It was a messy time in the fandom. But when the show is good and people are still complaining, then what is the complaint? No episode of Doctor Who is perfect, but this might be one of those times where if you didn’t like the episode, it’s probably because you’re an incel. You’d have to make one hell of an argument because, baby, I had fun!

My impression of Russell T Davies has always been that he’s a man who appreciates when Doctor Who is a little camp. He even refers to the Robots as “camp” on Doctor Who Unleashed. Part of Doctor Who’s charm is that it exists in a hyper-reality where Doctor Who is possible. This week, he leaned heavily on the retro-futurism of ‘50s B-movies, citing 1955’s “This Island Earth” as one of his main inspirations. Fans of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 will be well-acquainted with This Island Earth, as it’s the film they riff in the MST3K movie. It’s a gloriously corny bit of science fiction from Universal in their post-horror era. The AI Generator’s throne room could easily have existed on Metaluna.

However, the usage of retro-futurism here is also part of a growing trend in sci-fi to embrace vintage tech. In the Alien franchise, we’ve seen the return of the chonky mechanical keyboards of the Nostromo. The computers in Star Wars still look like absolute dogshit. And. I. Am. Here. For. It. It’s nice to see the Doctor using computer panels that resemble something the Second Doctor would have utterly destroyed. I’m reminded of “World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls,” when they took the look of the Cybermen from “The Tenth Planet,” and updated their texture and materials enough to make them seem realistic. Things don’t always need to look how you expect them to, they can look how they need to look. The Doctor doesn’t need to pull up a Tony Stark-type HUD of holographic buttons for me to believe he’s on an alien planet.

Grounding this fantastic wonderworld in a bit of much-needed reality is Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra. Belinda is a nurse who works hard for the NHS. She lives off of the least spoiled items in a community fridge. She’s a no-nonsense type who treats her work with the utmost sincerity. For the most part, nobody needs to tell us that Belinda takes her job seriously because it’s evident through her actions. Belinda doesn’t just sleep soundly; she sleeps on her stomach over her covers, presumably where she collapsed in exhaustion the instant she got home. This is precisely the sort of character work I’ve been missing from RTD since he returned. His work crafting the Tyler household was so strong that you felt as though you knew Jackie and Rose. I hope he keeps developing Belinda in this fashion.

We first meet Belinda as a teenager, talking to her dickweed of a boyfriend, Alan Budd. It’s clear from the outset that Alan doesn’t respect or even particularly like Belinda. He wants to possess and control her. He names a star after her but needs to associate it with her marital status by adding “Miss” at the beginning of her name. He critiques how she tears open her gift. He also steals the world’s most awkward and unearned kiss from her. In part, Alan is a knob and she knows it.

I found it a bit odd that Belinda would keep the star certificate all of these years later. But despite the irksome “Miss,” or Alan’s name on the diploma, it is still a bit cool to have a star named after you. Alan, as it would turn out, was the least significant part of that equation. In the words of Bilbo Baggins, “Why not keep it?” The episode wastes no time bringing the Robots into Belinda’s life. They drop in, break down some walls, terrify some nurses, and vaporise Lucy from number 7’s cat. RIP kitty. But things don’t happen so fast as to deny us a brief moment with the enigmatic and fourth-wall-breaking Mrs Flood. She’s up to her usual spooky shit. Very little new to report there. The question one must ask, however, is whether Belinda lives near where Ruby lived, or does Mrs Flood get about?

The Doctor tries to save Belinda, but as he’s chasing her, both she and the Doctor experience a “schwup,” in the space-time continuum, causing them to arrive at their destination at different points in time. Their destination? Missbelindachandra One is a planet whose name I would have read as gibberish the first few times in a book but is simply Belinda’s name as it appears on the star certificate, sans spacing, plus one. The Robots are the merciless hatchetmen of an imbicilic AI Generator. This is one of those rare moments where Doctor Who referencing current events doesn’t feel painfully dated, as the AI debate still rages on. You’ll be happy to know that anything you ever read on my blog is always 100% me. Fuck AI.

The Doctor has ingratiated himself into society on Missbelindachandra One. He holds the prestigious title of historian, which, when you consider megalomanics and their attitude toward accurate history must have been torture to the Doctor. Can you imagine trying to spin the AI Generator’s status as a bronze Torbjorn main as something cool? The Doctor truly is selfless. I’d have been stealing shit from the office every day. Call it quiet quitting, I call it fighting the power. My wibbly wobbly timey wimey lunch breaks would redefine the meaning of thirty minutes. Though, I do find the timing all to be a bit off. The Doctor says it took him a long time to rise to the role of Historian, but he’d been there for 6 months before Sasha 55 discovered him. Though, as we’ve learned from the Eleventh Doctor, any time sitting still is interminable. In an episode so fucky, it’s ironic that that’s the only timeline that confuses me.

Spoilers for the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme action sci-fi movie “Timecop,” but this episode reminded me of Timecop. Particularly, the moment when the evil Senator MacComb touches himself from another timeline, and the two melt into a puddle. It left an impression on 11-year-old me as it was one more way, like quicksand, which could totally kill me. Previously on Doctor Who, two of the same object or person co-existing has a plethora of effects, especially when those two items or people touch. Rose Tyler holds baby Rose Tyler, and the walls of reality weaken. Amy Pond touches her younger self, and nothing happens. Two of the same sonic screwdriver throw sparks. These diplomas throw us into a trippy Troughtonesque psychedelia where people age in and out of form like a Chris Cunningham video. It's a stunning bit of film making, and that shit reminded me of Timecop.

Much of this episode reminded me of other stories. We have echoes of “The Girl in the Fireplace,” with a society of automatons (and people) taking a name too literally. My sister and I are watching through modern Who at the moment, and we found weird parallels within “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.” The villainous Solomon even spurred my sister into saying “Incels make the best villains.” Too true, Rachelle. Too true. But the story which I thought of the most was the Seventh Doctor adventure, “Paradise Towers.” You have a dystopian future where society is thrown into chaos by an overzealous artificial intelligence. My friend Gerry and I both commented that the moment Manny showed up, we both thought of Pex. The big evil robot faces even compliment each other. I also thought of Futurama’s Femputer, which is really secretly a Fembot, which is itself a reference to The Wizard of Oz.

A man behind a curtain is exactly the issue. Alan Budd is our AI Generator. After Belinda inadvertently got Alan kidnapped ten years in the past (thanks to the schwup), he became a sadistic ruler over Missbelindachandrakind. However, due to a fault in programming, he runs on an 8-part cycle, rendering him and his robot thugs unable to hear every ninth word. Because of this, a rebellion was able to form against the AI Generator. But he too is fighting his own rebellion against himself, the Alan part of him that exists within every ninth moment yearns for death. He’s a pathetic figure, really. He’s an idiot’s idea of power. A very apt archetype for today’s leadership. I like to think it was a conscious decision on the effects department’s behalf to make one of his arms way bigger than the other. Alan is clearly working out at Onan’s Gym. It really is the cherry on top of an already stunning design.

Davies’ season openers are usually airier romps. Something to dip our toes back into the world of Doctor Who. Aspects reminded me of “Smith and Jones,” when the Judoon force the Doctor and his new companion into meeting through kidnapping. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” while initially praised as a return in tone to the Star Wars franchise, has since been reappraised (perhaps unfairly) as a rehash of the original film. Similar criticisms have been lobbied toward RTD, which accuse him of recycling older concepts from Doctor Who. It comes with the territory when a writer returns to a franchise. You’re bound to see some of the same themes. But Doctor Who does this a lot. “The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood” is basically a rehash of “The Silurians,” with a dash of “Frontios” thrown in for good measure. “Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel” is a reimagining of the origins of the Cybermen, swapping the mirrored “Tenth Planet” of Mondas for an alternate reality Earth. We’re in season two of this new version of the show, expect to see more “remixing” of the classics. You’re old now.

One thing which I hoped Davies would do is chill out a bit. Stop trying so hard and just let loose a little. This feels like that. When Rose Noble gave her speech about being non-binary in “The Star Beast,” I complained that it felt a bit clunky. It had that awkward David Lynch is your uncle telling transphobes to fix their hearts or die energy to it. It comes out a bit weird, but his heart is in the right place. But with this story, it felt more natural. Sure, lines like “You’ve taken coercive control and made it complete control of the whole planet,” are a bit on the nose, but as I said earlier, the camp tone affords those moments. This all feels very deliberate and considered.

Much of the script feels thoughtful, which in turn proves to be thought-provoking. One aspect to science fiction I’ve always wondered about was whether “humans” in things like Star Wars are like us. Belinda asks a question that you seldom hear come up in sci-fi, and that is whether or not Missbelindachandrakind share a similar physiology to humans. I love that not only does Davies ask the question, but he even takes the time to discuss the differences for no reason other than flavour. It’s nice to see Davies having fun with the ideas he’s bringing up. This tells me he’s engaging with his own concepts and developing them in a way that says, “Thank god we have more writers this year.” He’s not just in love with his ideas, he’s exploring them.

Some fans will have been disappointed that the skeletal ray gun effect from the trailers wasn’t the result of Daleks. I even saw fan theories that Alan’s golden form was the new look for Omega. This is exactly why I stay away from fan speculation as it’s never accurate. However, one clarification from the trailer for which I was grateful was the origin of the Doctor’s cream coloured costume. While the annoying side of the internet was busy melting down over the Doctor’s blue kilt, I was quietly hating on the cream coloured costume that he wears throughout this episode. Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor Who costumes have been rather varied, but generally keep to a few themes. We see a recurrence of tartan patterns, overcoats, and tight fitting shirts. His costume here is the only one from the trailer which felt wrong for the Doctor. So I am very pleased that there was a story reason he was dressed so drab.

Ncuti and Varada have believable chemistry. I like that it’s not so cut and dry. The Doctor is trying to be flashy and cryptic, whereas Belinda is reserved and direct. She doesn’t appreciate the Doctor’s showing off, which is a quality I have always admired in companions. If you read my article about older companions, you’ll know I appreciate their less-than-starry-eyed approach to the Doctor. Donna Noble, Evelyn Smythe, Ian and Barbara, Tegan; none had time for the Doctor’s shit. Belinda is in good company, and I like that she holds the Doctor to a higher standard. Belinda has a good head on her shoulders. She won’t put her skills as a nurse to waste. And she certainly won’t let someone die in her name. She’s also brave in a way I admire. She’s ready to sacrifice herself to save lives.

One aspect of the Doctor and Belinda’s relationship that I’m less into is something RTD seems to be doing more of recently. Instances where two characters experience a lifetime over a short period to insta-bond them is a weak story device. Whatever method they employ to fast-forward character bonding steals real moments of discovery between the actors and the audience. There’s showing, and there’s telling, and this was telling. It doesn’t feel earned, it feels hollow. It’s the weakest element of this episode and I wish they would stop doing this type of shit. What’s the hurry? Why does the Doctor need to state how much he cares about and knows Belinda now? What purpose does that serve other than to reveal too much of the Doctor’s interiority? Shouldn’t we, as an audience, trust the Doctor’s judgment in people by this point? It feels cheap because it is cheap.

Despite the episode’s daft energy, real stakes are established beyond a cartoonish cat skeleton disbursing into the ether. The Doctor’s friend Sasha 55 is unceremoniously cut down by Robots moments after discussing her future travels with the Doctor. The way she was talking to the Doctor like “Take me to the stars,” she may as well have painted a target on her back. It’s the Doctor Who equivalent of a policeman one day from retirement. For their sake, we pretend to be shocked when they die. But we knew. We knew. That isn’t to say that losing Sasha 55 wasn’t an effective moment- quite the opposite. Evelyn Miller gives an effective performance in the short time she’s onscreen. I know people give Ncuti grief for crying too easily, but here it’s totally appropriate. We’re reminded of other would-be companions who didn’t live to see the day. Lynda with a Y. Rita from “The God Complex.” Astrid Peth. And now Sasha 55. RIP Sasha 55. I liked you better than “Orphan 55.”

Watching Belinda walk toward her fate of marrying the AI Generator and becoming incased in gold gave me flashes of Han Solo on his way to the carbonite freezing chamber. The orange lighting pushing through the foggy clouds cast a brilliant glow on Varada’s face, convincing me that she was always meant to be a part of the Star Wars universe. This was her “Empire Strikes Back” moment for sure. The strength in the moment comes from Belinda’s choice not to hide. The Doctor and Manny were working out a plan that sounded foolhardy at best. Anyone within earshot would know it was a doomed mission. Belinda alerts the Robots to her location. She goes willingly. There’s a selflessness to her actions that screams Doctor Who companion far more than the Doctor witnessing her life could ever achieve. Her brand of self-sacrifice is heartbreaking to see, and I wonder if it's completely healthy. I hope they explore that.

The same sombre tone follows us into the ending of the story. When the Doctor fails to bring Belinda back to her own time, we’re shown images of a wrecked earth floating in space. Something or someone has removed or destroyed the earth, and it’s legitimately creepy. It’s giving “The Stolen Earth,” and I’m here for it, again. Though the “Planet of the Apes” style half Statue of Liberty must have been a massive blow to the Weeping Angels. That was like one of their tallest soldiers. I joke, but I also don’t joke. I had to sit through “The Angels Take Manhattan,” and now you’re telling me it meant nothing? It makes you ask the wrong questions in the moment. Questions like “Isn’t that thing alive?” “Is it dead now?” And “Why is it always the top of the statue? Why not the feet?”

I mentioned previously that I might try and write these reviews along with a corresponding Saturday morning cartoon. However, I believe it was my adherence to this bit that delayed this article. After I had watched “The Robot Revolution,” I felt a surge of positive energy about Doctor Who and I really just wanted to sit in silence for a bit. I usually take that as a good sign after watching something. When I sit there quietly absorbing everything I’ve just seen. But when I hit play on that episode of Spider-Woman, the moment ended. So I don’t want to do that anymore. It seemed a fun idea at the time, but I would rather just abide in the time and space allotted to me by Doctor Who. A time which might not always be there. A space so fantastic that Doctor Who can exist within it. Here’s to season three.

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0zingt0n · 4 months ago

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Oc has been created! (Still a work in progress, with the lore and coloring and such, but these are all the doodles I have—I’m just like way too excited to wait to post them💔)

This is Ellys (El-iss) Belmont! Most of their info I have to share is in the drawing…so here’s some details!

• Ellys is a newcomer, and goes by the stage name “Blue Lightning”

• You can’t tell because there’s no color, but they’re supposed to have a blue streak in the middle of their bangs that goes all the way down their hair

• Their attire is all blue (guess what their favorite color is), and there are lines on the sides of their tank top that connect to lines on the sides of their shorts…it makes a lightning bolt (you understand where the name came from now?)

• Ellys trains with their twin brother, who is the reason they box…

BOOM HE’S HERE TOO!!

Introducing Myles Belmont, Ellys’ twin brother! (“hey…twins in boxing..?” I know…so unoriginal…but there’s a twist!)

• Myles was originally supposed to be a boxer, but before his first match, he got performance anxiety and got sick, desperately begging Ellys to take his place

• Myles is the confident and extroverted twin (which made it surprising to Ellys that he chickened out before his fight), contrasting with Ellys’ naturally calm, self-reserved, and introverted personality

• Myles and Ellys get along really well! When they changed their names during their transitions, they wanted to match in a way (both names replace i’s with y’s)

• After Ellys won the fight as Myles’ sub, Myles was blown away with their skill. He tried to convince Ellys to keep boxing in his place. Ellys worried about revealing they weren’t actually Myles—because they were afraid that the WVBA wouldn’t allow a nonbinary boxer to fight the male boxers (turns out the rules are pretty loose, though…)—so they continued to fight under this “alter ego”

• Another one of their worries was that the audience wouldn’t like Ellys over Myles. Ellys had to put on a show to be their loud and outgoing brother, which was…kind of freeing. Ellys feared that if they went out there as themself, the fans would think they were weird. And strange. And awkward. And—

• While this charade was going on, the twins concocted a plan! Ellys would cut their hair shorter to look like Myles, and Myles would add a blue streak in his hair to look like Ellys (a fair trade, since they both loved their own hairstyles).

• Ellys would fight in the ring as Myles, while during interviews, Myles would just be himself! Ellys was too afraid to be on camera and mess up…but apparently Myles was just fine (oh. he must ENJOY the attention…even though he got sick due to stagefright…<hey it’s different okay? you don’t have to fight the guy interviewing you.>)

• The plan works well, aside from one crucial detail that obsessed reporters point out. Blue Lightning in the ring has a tooth gap, but not during interviews…what can this mean?

At some point, Ellys is tired of pretending to be Myles because they don’t want to pretend to be someone they’re not, and they’re afraid of getting caught and getting in trouble.

And also because Myles takes credit for everything during the interviews. Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem seeing as they look to be the same person, but deep down, Ellys wishes that was them in his place. They get into arguments over this, until finally one day Ellys impulsively reveals their identity. (Today is NOT that day, though!)

I stayed up until 2am drawing all of these. I had SO many ideas welling up inside of me…I’m glad I’m spilling them all finally😭

Anywho! If you want to ask any questions about them, feel free to send me some!! I’d love to annsswweerrr theeeemmmm!!!!!

#punch out #punch out oc #YAAAYY FINALLYYYY #traditional art #it’s so refreshing to draw with a pencil again you guys #I’m so excited to share my little guys…#oc lore #yap session

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silverlining-ships · 1 month ago

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Treats this inbox like my others friends' and sits down like it's a church confessional.

I wanna get back into doing selfship stuff with Blue Zircon, as my love for her and the series is still there, I just lack a lot of the...the–push? She's my first f/o with little canon and fanon content, so while I have like a starting base to work with, and have shared it, I don't know where else to go from here.

ALL MY FRIENDS ARE WELCOME IN THE SILVERLINING SHIPS CONFESSIONALS. cracks knuckles. lucky for you I am an expert at making a million things out of nothing

Blue Zircon is actually one of my FAVORITE su characters and I really really admire her. I think there is SO much potential for arcs with her character:

(and uh... under the read more. sorry i wrote an essay help)

She was running for some sort of leadership position on either another colony or Homeworld itself (Unrelated, but I love how she looks a bit nervous in this picture - is ok girl you're doing great).

Do you think she could have won? What kind of position? I'd imagine she would be running for something akin to a Governor in the US, managing a specific territory. If she DID win, how does that affect her daily tasks/her schedule? Maybe she's frantically busy, but manages to find relief in the few moments she catches with you.

If she loses? Maybe she's still acting as a lawyer--one thing that always stood out to me about Blue Zircon is how passionate she is about doing the right thing. I could see her championing cases for off-color Gems, or even taking up volunteering in specific territories. She definitely believes in a sound government that she can believe in, and I feel like she would do her best to MAKE it as such, despite her anxiety.

What do you think could have happened after this? She clearly comes back because she's shown running for that position, but do you think this moment (and this whole trial!) affected the mindset that she had before it? Before she was frantic, absolutely anxious (for good reason, she was trying to defend the "Gem who shattered Pink Diamond" to the "I hate the Gem who shattered Pink Diamond" people), but now? Maybe she actually has a boost in confidence. Or, on the other hand, what if that actually made her MORE nervous -- could you have maybe given her some of the confidence she needed to even run for that position at all?

Aside from the character analysis, you could also consider just your relationship and your sona in general:

You have a half-human half-gem sona, which is SO so much fun! Presumably you live on Earth. Do you know much about Homeworld? I know Silversona learns everything about Homeworld and Era 3 through her enrollment into Little Homeschool, as an idea. Or were you raised with the knowledge already? When the climax of the show hit, where were you in canon? Did you know?

One of your pieces shows the two of you in Beach City! How did the two of you meet? What brought Blue Zircon to Beach City in the first place!? (on a diplomatic mission, maybe? looking for votes? general research for her arguments on era 3? or even leisure, perhaps!)

Do you have any other relationships platonic or familial? How do they intertwine with your lore? How does Blue Zircon get wrapped in?

Finally, and this is my biggest piece of advice whenever ANYONE f/os ANYBODY - what is the story you need to hear? My lore with Jasper is actually 110% built on the idea of learning to be strong, learning what it means to be strong, so most of my art and concepts have to do with that! What do you love about this character? Is it her nerdy, anxious charm? Is it her remarkable confidence when she's on the right path? How does that intertwine with what you need to hear?

Honestly the beautiful thing about f/oing a character with little background means you get to ANALYZE and CREATE their story, which is so so much fun!! I mean hell, while there's more to go off of for Jasper, there's a lot that's implied that we just don't get to see. A lot of her character I created through whatever I could analyze!

Unrelated but i found a new jasper while looking thru the blue zircon wiki so thank u

Sorry for essay writing at you, I got carried away :''))))

#phone call ☎️#viridian-artist #analysis & lore 📒#other's ships #i hope this was able to help some!!!!

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vigilskeep · 1 year ago

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sorry if this is an insane question, it's something i've been wondering about and you are the dragon age lore understander in my mind: ...is there canonical information about divorces (or annulments) in thedas? like, in dao you can find out that eamon suggested cailan 'put anora aside' but that's very vague about logistics. it's probably just something bioware doesn't care about but it haunts me. if cailan had tried to divorce anora and marry celene to create an orlais-fereldan alliance and the divine hadn't approved could thedas have had its own anglican church situation

[the below answer should be read with the visual of me with a white-knuckled grip of frustration leaving indents on steel]

there is NO lore and it drives me INSANE !!!

david gaider, on a random forum discussion post, said “there is annulment. there is no concept of ‘divorce’”. this along with the discussion of cailan setting anora aside is as far as i know all we have

so ‘annulment but no divorce’ is presumably drawing from andrastianism’s catholic inspirations. which basically means that divorce isn’t a thing but a marriage can be declared “null” if you can come up with a reason it was never valid from the start. to go for the henry viii example, he tried to have his marriage to catherine of aragon annulled on the grounds that she had married his late brother first, and he’d suddenly and conveniently realised this meant their marriage had never been okay. the pope refused, because a) a pope had already given henry and catherine permission to marry despite those circumstances meaning the marriage was literally fine and popes aren’t supposed to take that kind of thing back and b) also as an aside, for separate reasons the pope had had his city sacked and been taken prisoner by catherine’s nephew the holy roman emperor like five minutes ago, and so had reasonable fears for his health if he said yes

(sorry if any of the above historical info is slightly off it’s been a while but that’s pretty much the gist)

i have... absolutely no idea on what grounds you could annul cailan’s marriage to anora. but we really have no data on what the chantry considers grounds. could her supposed infertility be enough? it’s impossible to say. maybe eamon was working on some argument, it’s clear he’s been pushing for this for years

that said, if cailan himself was moving to marry celene, he’d have a much better shot at getting that annulment, if only because what’s the divine going to do, not grant an annulment to the guy the orlesian empress wants to marry? this is where anora not having any useful emperor nephews really lets her down. her father could certainly raise hell in ferelden, but they have zero reach in orlais

(as an aside, all this is something i’ve thought about for one of my absolute favourite dragon age timelines, sebhawke divorce. tell me inquisition wouldn’t be improved by starkhaven desperately trying to get an annulment meanwhile the divine is fucking exploded. you can’t.)

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valictini · 2 years ago

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Here is all the concrete lore info we have that COULD hint at one team being the cursed one (as far as i know, pls add onto it if i missed something) I am not counting all the player interactions and events that no admin could have reasonably predicted (sorry team Bolas, but just because you embraced insanity after a very unlucky day 1 doesn't mean you're cursed)

Blue team:

- Dapper's the only egg to explicitly tell their parent to win at all cost

– (copy pasted from @lb1412 's response) Mariana logged on the QSMP the day before the event, among other things he was led by Codeflippa to a trap (in the Nether ?) and got disconnected with a message that said something along the lines of "now your name is blue and for victory you will fight"

-(also copied) In the first Purgatory cinematic, we saw six different people on a screen with some info about them. 3 of them were from green team, the 3 others were from red team. No blue team member.

- (from @demodraws0606 's reblog) almost all the Kill contracts have been against blue team members

Green team:

- Forever has that Judas ritual book and we dont know what it does but it is very suspicious

- ElQuackity is straight up an agent of chaos invited by the eye entity

Red team:

- Now that we know what all the tickets look like, it is confirmed that all the special tickets' owners (minus Quackity) are part of team red

- Some people make the argument that the team compositions gave a disadvantage to Red Team for how many MIA players they had and how there were no pvp tryharders among them. I'm not entirely convinced by the first argument because among the other teams are people who were bound to log in once and never show up again after the first day, too. I do find it suspicious that aside from Philza, no big pvp players were in their team, though.

Additional info:

The eye entity gave a task to ElQ that could have let him know who the cursed team was, ( i suppose to help sabotage them?) But he was too weak to perform the task and never got the answer.

> it implies that the cursed team DOES exist but it could also be a lie just to taunt ElQ for being so bad at sabotage.

It's possible that none of the parameters I've listed have anything to do with the curse. It could be just random. Or it could all be lie and there is no cursed team.

#qsmp #qsmp purgatory #qsmp team bolas #qsmp team red #qsmp team soulfire #qsmp team blue #qsmp team green #qsmp team gay green ninja #qsmp theory

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extremely-judgemental · 1 month ago

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I usually only comment on the logical aspect of the world-building because I have limited knowledge of fae lore. But I've seen a lot of discussions and theories on the fae v. mortals, and I like being unconventional (read right).

Everybody thank @flawlessrosee-blog for their curiosity or you wouldn't be blessed with this.

What do [...] believe when it comes to the human race? Do they look down on them? Do they view them as their equal?

This was in relation to the priestesses but I'm making it about the fae in general. I’m not sure of an appropriate term/label to encapsulate this idea, so appreciate anyone who can educate me here.

Leaving the slavery aside for a moment, the fae, in general, are not bigotry towards humans. The mortals are to fae what horses are to zebras.

Fae are not “super-powered humans” and mortals are not “disabled fae”.

Fae and mortals are NOT equal, in physical prowess or magical abilities. The only common denominator are the critical abilities and rationality.

Because of the similarities in the physical attributes, the argument is often led in the wrong direction. It’s often seen along the lines of classism or racism.

Instead, the fae discriminating against the humans should be considered along the lines of animal cruelty. One side of the argument is that other creatures are inferior to humans and they exist for our means of survival, and the other, every life deserves to live in harmony.

The world-building in this series is shitty and it doesn’t dive properly into these concepts. If the fae look down on mortals as mere mules, that actually makes sense from their side, ideology-wise. So some of them fighting for human rights and ending slavery becomes performative and has no proper reasoning behind it. Even those fae wrap this idea in "humans are our equals", which isn’t true and they don’t hesitate to prove it at every turn by using their powers to subdue or trick or threaten the humans.

Which is also why the second war fails to make an impact in the narrative. Like everything else, it's only proof for specific characters' inherent goodness.

Emphasising this so you don't twist it around on me: Slavery is wrong. Mortals deserve to be free. But the whole "justice and equality for everyone" is only a facade since these fae who fight don't have a proper moral foundation to explain what truly drives them.

#the term is *speciesism*#same old same old no inner motivation/purpose #same old same old no character blueprint #same old same old sjm is shady and it's showing in her writing #anti acotar #anti sjm

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csvent-2 · 1 month ago

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/779341647691595776/777726792946663424hey-just-wanted-to-put-it-out-t

So now you’re mad about the Cold War storyline I’ve had since like 2017? And got characters for in species starting in 2021 (the year I joined)? There was no way for me to know Russia was going to invade Ukraine in 2022. And that’s not really a reason for me to stop writing about the USSR being shit and getting overthrown in a whole alternate universe (entirely fictional timeline beyond 1991) either. If you think that’s glorifying the USSR or any modern day country your reading comprehension is lacking.

And I already had a Manhattan project character a while ago too because the Cold War involved nukes so they had to at least exist in my AU. Like that whole concept wasn’t new either. I literally put *the name of the Manhattan project* on the other character’s ref and was posting that guy around like that for a while.

There was no way for me to know *anyone* was bothered by my fiction because literally nobody brought anything aside from Cherenkov up as an issue until 2024 (and even Cherenkov was only brought up like… 2 months ahead of everything else). And there’s no reason for you to expect me to have known you were bothered by it. You can’t just not have a conversation and then be mad because someone didn’t read your mind or inherently know your personal boundaries.

I check artist TOS and try to avoid commissioning people who say they don’t draw cbcs or historical fiction or whatever else for that kind of content, or I ask questions to clarify if the TOS is vague or confusing to me. But if you’re in a server posting comm ads and not posting your TOS, not having a TOS, or not mentioning what you won’t draw, *and* not doing any research into the characters and lore that are (were ig) literally all on my toyhouse when you know you don’t like certain things, that’s on you actually. And if you’re sitting there watching me post about my AU, being upset by it, and not either blocking me or asking me to add a tw, that’s on you too.

Again, I *did* stop posting my writing in the server after Cherenkov was brought up to me in December. So it’d already been at least a couple months where I was like hmm…. maybe this is not the place for real topics. By the time the “cold war nuke dogs” got brought up it’d already been a minute since I’d even posted my writing in the server and you were still digging through my profiles looking for things to be mad about. Like frankly I did not even talk much in the first place. But especially not after Dec ’23.

Btw bringing minors into this like that’s an argument is wild because history isn’t - and current events aren’t - even an adult topic. Like if you think kids aren’t hearing the news.

Imo having to even have a discussion on whether people could or should talk about real topics in the species, just because some people can’t either block content they don’t want to see or have a mature conversation about it, was ridiculous in the first place. But yeah my take on it since December (literally before any charity was even brought up or at least before I had any say in it, lmao) was that species spaces were no longer a place to talk about real events and posts probably needed to be kept to silly/cutesy things. If what you’re gonna try to claim out of all that is that I’m personally against charity or pro-censorship or whatever else, idk what to tell you. Keep doing McCarthyism I guess.

I’ve been here for years making a massive joke about how Every Government Ever is shit… you just got here, except you’re actively condoning the same kind of shit while trying to claim the moral high ground.

Defending violations of artists’ and workers’ rights (or trying to cover that up by changing the subject) just because I made an art you don’t like is fucked up. Expecting people to just know your boundaries / triggers / etc and getting mad at them and acting like they’re the problem when they don’t (or can’t) “read the room” is fucked up. Do better.

🌸

#waterdogs #csvent #closed species venting

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triciabeloved · 1 month ago

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Louie and Sophia's official lore dump!!

hiii!!!! i made a lot of changes to louie and sophia’s backstories a few months ago, so i thought it’d be a good idea if i finally made a proper post about it!!!! …. buuuut it ended up getting really, really long, so i’ll just put everything under the cut 💔 apologies in advance if it’s a bit corny. my brain is fried 🤧

(their ref sheets are here and here! )

louie and sophia had an awful childhood with equally awful parents. their parents had to rushed into marriage due to societal expectations, and it is one of their biggest regrets. these two were never cut out to have children, but they still ended up having kids anyway. their mother, ava, was a massive perfectionist. if you aren’t perfect in her eyes, you’re not good enough for her. <- and she enforced this idea into her children just to compensate for her own failures in life. ava never explicitly said she didn’t care for louie or sophia, but her actions spoke louder than her words. she would often dismiss their emotions, twist situations to make herself look like the victim, and strategically withhold her affection just so she can keep them in a constant state of seeking her approval. <- this tactic unfortunately worked the most with louie. in ava’s eyes, louie was her second chance to prove that she isn’t a failure and that she was capable of being a proper mother. she showed him enough care and affection to make him crave for more, but never enough to make him to feel secure. she made louie believe that he had to be “perfect” to be loved by her, which was what made louie carry the exact same mindset into every relationship in his life. louie believes that if he was good enough, ava would finally love him the way he wanted, but that never happened.

sophia, on the other hand, was barely acknowledged by their mother. ava saw too much of herself in sophia; all the regrets, the unfulfilled dreams, the flaws, everything. ava strongly believes that sophia was the reason why she never got the chance to live her life, and this is all because ava had to drop out of college just to take care of her firstborn (sophia). and in ava’s eyes, sophia was a failure. ava criticised sophia for every little flaw, constantly reminding sophia of the things she failed to achieve. if sophia ever tried to confront ava about her cruelty, ava would gaslight her into making it look like sophia was just being overdramatic, making sophia feel crazy for just wanting to be treated better.

their father, jacob, was not as cruel and manipulative as ava, but he was still a man who went through his life doing the bare minimum of what was required for his family. jacob wasn’t mean to louie and sophia, but he also wasn’t involved. he provided them their necessities (like food, education, and shelter) but he never made a true effort to truly connect with louie or sophia. he rarely asked about their lives and just expected them to figure it out on their own.

but through it all, louie and sophia stayed together. even if their mother tried to cause a rift between them, they never grew to resent each other. in a household as dysfunctional as theirs, they became each other’s only source of comfort.

but that didn’t last for long.

by the time sophia was about 13 years old, she couldn’t take it anymore. she was tired of getting brushed aside by her own mother. she was tired of fighting for a mother that didn’t even care for her. and one night, after another brutal argument with her mother, sophia snapped. and even if she didn’t mean to, even if she never would have intentionally done this, she lashed out on louie. she didn’t mean to, but she did. sophia accused louie of not defending her, of never standing up for her whenever their parents treated her like she wasn’t even there. but that’s the thing, louie does care, louie had always cared. but back then, he didn’t know how to fight back. he had always been too scared to lose the fragile love he had from their mother, too scared to make things worse. and even if the words sophia said weren’t true, they still stuck to louie. and this is where louie first realizes that he had failed sophia. he was not good enough for her. and when it was already too late, when the words had already left her mouth, sophia had realized what she had done. she saw the look on louie’s face and the way he didn’t even try to fight back. and then sophia ran, slammed her bedroom door, and never said another word to louie again. and when louie woke up the next day, he had found out that sophia had ran away from home.

sophia’s disappearance has caused major damage to the family’s relationship, which was already damaged to begin with. sophia didn’t leave louie because she wanted to, she would never want to do that to him. but sophia had realized that: if she stayed, she would disappear completely. if she let this house keep swallowing her whole, there would be nothing left of her. running away… leaving louie… it wasn’t something she wanted, it never was. this was the only way she knew how to save herself, even if it risked her relationship with louie. and sophia had convinced herself that louie was better without her, so what was the point of staying?

after sophia ran away, her parents didn’t even try to look for her, because they didn’t care enough to try. all they cared about was blaming each other for sophia’s disappearance, and louie was unfortunately caught in the middle of all of it. louie tried to look for sophia, he really did. he begged his parents to look for her, but he was only met with rejection and indifference. and when their father finally filed for a divorce one day, their mother just… let him take louie. she didn’t even try to fight for custody over her son. and their father, jacob, took louie, not because he truly wanted to "save" him, but because it was easier. the family had already lost sophia, and jacob simply didn’t want to deal with another runaway. louie’s father never told louie that he wanted him. no, no. he wasn't the type of father to do that. the one and only thing he told louie was: “don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

when louie was about to turn 16, his father had brought up the idea of starting a school. and when his father first brought up this idea, louie thought, just for a moment, that maybe his father finally saw potential in him. louie thought that this was maybe his father's way of making up for the years of distance and indifference. and louie wanted that so, so badly that he convinced himself it was true. and a small, selfish part of him agreed to take on the responsibility, not just because he believed in the purpose of the school, but because he needed his father to look at him and finally say, ‘i’m proud of you.’ but that moment never came. to louie's father, this school wasn’t some grand vision, it was just another way to keep louie busy. just another problem off his hands.

meanwhile, sophia was all alone in the outside world. she was in desperate need of a place to go. fortunately, she did find someone that would let her stay at their place, but somehow, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, she ended up going to the worst possible school she could’ve gone to: hearst high. now, sophia absolutely did not want to go there, but she ended up there anyway. for sophia, she saw it as the only “necessary” decision. she was never part of any of the sabotaging hearst has done. she was just… there, existing in the background, unnoticed, unheard, and alone. she made it so nobody would notice her, and, well, that's what happened. but as time went on, her time there only made her more and more bitter.

fast forward to a few years later, set during somewhere in the middle of HSS storyline, louie and sophia eventually reunite somewhere towards the end of louie’s sophomore year. louie, who was convinced that his sister was gone for good, didn’t expect to see her again. and despite sophia believing that she doesn’t deserve a place in louie’s life anymore, louie still welcomes her back into his life. sophia wanted him to hate her. she expected for him to hate her… but he didn't. he could never hate her. and during louie’s junior year, he convinces sophia to transfer to his school. the two of them eventually learn to forgive and heal from the wounds of their past. and no matter how many times sophia tries to push louie away, no matter how much distance is between them, louie will always come back to her. <3

--------------------------------------------

and that’s most of it! ! i tried making this as short as possible, but i’m.... not very good at that. i actually think this ended up way longer than the previous lore dump i made....... sigh....... :')) 💔💔💔

anywayyyyyy, feel free to send me some asks if there's some things you want me to clarify!!!! :)

#oc: louie magnaye #oc: sophia magnaye #my art #if theres a typo here i might actually just roll off a cliff /j

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greatwyrmgold · 7 months ago

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There had better be more to Sanji than this.

Okay, summary. Reiju (Sanji's sister) is expositing backstory stuff at him. According to her, Papa Vinsmoke* did genetic engineering on his sons to make them into emotionless superhumans, but Mama Vinsmoke* tried to stop them, and for whatever reason it only stopped the "bloodline element" engineering for Sanji. That's why he has emotions.

*Not their actual names

I see what Oda was going for here. Papa Vinsmoke is deliberately shaping his children to be be the same kind of dick he is, Mama Vinsmoke is trying to undo that damage. This would work in isolation without any superscience, but the superscience was added to make it less bleak and also justify the Vinsmoke siblings' superpowers (and why Sanji didn't have them).

The problem is that you can write things you didn't intend to, and in this case, Oda wrote bioessentialism. Sanji didn't get the evil genes, so he has empathy and his brothers don't. As an aside, I do mean genes. I think this argument would still be valid if the "bloodline elements" were just a fantasy heritability mechanism, but they are explicitly DNA.

I'm not sure how you can get more explicit in a setting where "deoxyribonucleic" is not a word. Anyways, Sanji's brothers are genetically emotionless and incapable of empathy, but he's not.

Part of why I dislike that is the vaguely political implications. On one hand, it has been (and still is) common to assume certain kinds of person are biologically predisposed to certain psychological traits; women are emotional and weak-willed, black people are violent and dumb, etc. On the other hand, some groups (e.g. autistic people) have been stereotyped as being specifically emotionless and incapable of empathy as a result of immutable biological characteristics.

And part of it is that I just find bioessentialism boring. Various forms of bioessentialism are extremely common lore points, and all it ever does is reduce ambiguity. Sanji's brothers have the evil genes, so they're going to be evil and that's that. Sanji doesn't have the evil genes, so he doesn't have to worry about ending up like his brothers. They're bad and he's good, if we overlook the sexual harrassment. It's only interesting if it's subverted, and it only makes sense to subvert it because almost everyone plays it straight.

I hope that Oda has a subversion planned. That Sanji had the special bloodline elements all along, he learned to be nice (mostly) because he was exposed to less indoctrination and more cooking or something. Maybe that could be his big shonen power-up. But that's not usually what happens with this kind of plot point.

#one piece #black leg sanji #bioessentialism #rant

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monosanimegenericzone · 4 months ago

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Hunter x Hunter: Gallery Fake pt 8 at least idk i lost count

bruh if there is a condition tacked onto gallery fake that i dont know about imma be pissed.

so it came to mind that gallery fake might be an ability where either the user or the object or both have to be idle to be copied.

that's a pretty powerful condition. in fact, that makes this entire ability completely useless in combat.

....

WHICH IS BULLSHIT.

I WANT TO SEE LITTLE MAN GET ACTIVE. I WANNA SEE HIM CHUCK SHIT AT PEOPLE WITH THE SPEED AND FEAR OF G O D.

but it would make sense. kortopi has an absurd amount of aura that realistically doesn't make sense unless he was a nen prodigy, an advanced user, or hacking. we don't know his age so its very hard to tell. (AHEM BACKSTORY CHAPTER PLEASE A H E M)

but i have to face the facts. we have never seen gallery fake used in combat and it was probably for this reason. THAT BEING SAID. there are exceptions apparently

(i still cannot figure out how bro copied and pasted like 50 buildings in the span of what we assume at least 6 hours. like dawg what the fuck did you do. how did you do that.)

now, kortopi using gallery fake: either of these conditions could be true. 1) he has to sit still or 2) the object has to sit still. in his little demonstration in yorknew we see both.

he is able to move the copied objects himself so the 'sitting still' part doesn't have to be very long.

a secondary example is when kortopi made the fake corpses to plant outside of the auction house but we can assume similar conditions were met when making them.

third time was on greed island copying a card to prove shalnark's theory about the island. again, same conditions could apply.

fast forward to the chrollo hisoka fight, chrollo is moving as he's making copies. but are the copied people moving?

physiologically a living person never stops moving but for the sake of the argument lets say that if a person ceases exterior movement that counts as "standing still"

the only demonstration we see (aside from the initial example of the referee's corpse) is this. chrollo, using gallery fake, is only copying every so often. Based on who i can see reacting to the fakes, these might have been people standing still.

not that it matters

because APPARENTLY. chrollo can CHANGE THE CONDITIONS OF A NEN ABILITY. because that makes sense.

so throw the entire hisoka chrollo fight out as evidence for this.

all i have to base this claim on is the two feats we see in yorknew and the minor feat in greed island. we never see gallery fake used by its original owner again.

the only two things that make me hesitate on declaring this as a personal headcanon is that a) i want this boy to box. sue me i want him to have a velocity condition on gallery fake. itd be fucking sick. b) HOW THE FUCK DO WE EXPLAIN THE BUILDINGS???

there might be other conditions like: he can never copy an object once it leaves his left hand; he can't dupe the same object until the copy disappears; or something completely unrelated like pakunoda or chrollo's specialist conditions.

i want to believe this guy is op as fuck with a near bottomless aura reserve but togashi has been introducing troupe nen lore for the last 3 years and its driving me insane. please, tell me if kortopi is secretly op and you had to kill him bcs he would have shattered the black whale in one hit or if he had a condition that throws combat gallery fake out the window.

i dont need sleep i need answers.

this is a certified nen nerd post. and a desperate plea to togashi.

#hxh #kortopi #nen nerd post

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studentinpursuitofclouds · 3 months ago

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Hello Mousey! I've been reading some of your headcanons and i really enjoy them, and i wanted to request something.

So i have my farmer named William and i have created an avatar of him in picrew.

And then i look at him much closer and thought "he looks like he could be related to one of the Amethyne in rsv, maybe like Sonny?"

So i wanted to request how would the non-datable rsv characters (maybe even Belinda and Raeriyala) would react to someone mistaking the farmer as their relatives?

Hey hey! 👋 Glad you like my silly writhing, hehe 😊

I really like your Farmer, and I'm interested to hear about your OC's lore 💜 (if you're okay with that, of course, no pressure!). Thank you so much for the ask, and enjoy!

I wasn't sure if you specifically wanted your OC Farmer or just Farmer, so I left Farmer neutral (they/them). Hope you don't mind.

_________________________________________

Keahi and Trinnie had spent nearly half an hour passionately discussing all sorts of crazy theories about how Farmer was a member of the Amethyne family, but for some reason didn't live with them. Had Farmer been kidnapped when they were little? Or was it something else? The argument was so interesting that even the ever-busy Yuuma stopped for a moment and joined in to listen to his peers, as he had heard from his older brother that Farmer were indeed with Amethyne members quite often. Though he dismissed the kidnapping theory immediately as absurd.

"What!?!! As if there would be someone like Farmer in our-" Overhearing the children's conversation, Louie was about to go back to his old song about his great and rich family, but quickly stopped himself. "No, Farmer is not my older sibling." Though the youngest member of Amethyne kinda wished the rumour was true, if it meant that Farmer would spend time with him more often. Aside from the servants and other family members who are all always busy, Farmer, despite Louie's rude behavior towards them at first, is probably the only friend he has...

"Sonny, I want to ask you something." Still, a hope remained in Louie because, to be honest, Farmer did look something like his relatives. And since Sonny had always been honest with him, he would definitely answer his question. "No, young master. Farmer is close friends, but we are not related." The rumours turned out to be false after all. The old butler's heart clenched a little as Louie' gaze filled with a fraction of sadness. Sonny promised himself to finish chores at the manor as quickly as possible and cheer young Amethyne up with ice cream.

Belinda knew Farmer's Grandparents well, and sure enough there was no mention of their family ties to this Amethyne family. Yes, they all lived in the Valley, went to festivals together and were very friendly, but that's all. Not to say that the leader of the Cult pays much attention to it, as she has far more important things to do, like preventing the evil intentions of Gabriela and her minions.

Raeriyala was even more familiar with Farmer's family (Grandmother, specifically), so she confirms her lover's statement that there are no family ties to the Amethyne. Not to the family itself, nor to any of the servants. Plus, the forest spirit of Ridgeside often hears Sonny's prayers for the well-being and good health of his family members (and the Amethyne family) by name, and Rae is sure that a kind soul like Sonny would definitely mention Farmer's name if they're related. Though he'd started praying for them too, but she'd heard the word 'friend'.

"Amethyne? Dear, is it true?" Lorenzo was a little surprised when his younger brother and sister mentioned the rumour that Farmer, whose grandparents he knew, was somehow connected to one of the richest families in the entire Republic. But why guessing if it was true or not when he could ask his beloved wife Shanice, after all, she had taught the still young Zayne Amethyne (and Louie recently) and should know. "No. At least, I've never heard of such a thing." Shanice answers her husband honestly, returning to her inventory in the shop.

Mr. Aguar doesn't care. The former wizard, to be frank, doesn't care at all if Farmer is related to those noisy and pompous Amethyne family or not. He has a job to do, don't bother him and he won't bother them. Farmer is a good friend and a useful helper in the protection of the Ridgeside Village, their origins are none of his business.

"Farmer is definitely not related to them." Freddie once casually gibbered to the youths who gossiped non-stop about Farmer's very similar appearance and clothing to the Amethyne members, for which he received a stern look from his wife Lola. Both former assassins know everyone who lives in the Village or comes to visit. Though retired, they sometimes fear that old enemies might drop by and with the help of some "connections", they verify information on new residents. So they both know where Farmer is from, but naturally won't tell them about it. Lola distracted the youngsters with another topic, and quickly left with Freddie.

What? No, Farmer is not Ariah's older sibling or cousin, and definitely not related to any of her family or servants. Now that she's answered all the questions, can Aria finally get back to her book? She has exams coming up and she can't be distracted.

Didn't have the courage to ask me a question directly instead of spreading all sorts of rumors?" Maive can't stand the gossip that swirls around her family (even if it's true). She's a pretty straightforward woman, and always says whatever she thinks about the person she's talking to, so the elderly head of the Amethyne family isn't shy with her words when she hears what the locals are talking about the Amethyne again. Though, why should she even have to justify herself? The family's business is none of their business, and she doesn't have to answer to anyone. Not Farmer's fault, but the whole thing is tiresome...

"Do you seriously think our Farmer is one of the Amethyne?" "Huh, did I miss something?" Lenny with Kimpoi, Bert and Richard at Pika's restaurant one day, discussing the latest news in the Village, and everyone was a little surprised at the latest rumor that had been circulating among the residents. On the one hand, gossip wasn't particularly nice thing, especially about their good friend, but on the other hand... so interesting! Until Olga showed up at the company, barking a little to stop this gossip, and took her husband home. The others agreed that gossiping about whether it was true or not about Farmer could have negative consequences after all.

Maybe it's true, maybe it's not - Malaya slightly laments her husband for gossiping with his friends about whether or not Farmer is from Amethyne. It's none of their business, just as it wasn't the business of the other outsiders who gossiped about Malaya too, when she was acting a little weird (trying to keep her secret). Farmer was a friend to many, and rumors behind their backs were at the very least rude.

Honestly, Carmen didn't want to hear all the rumors and gossip at all, and she wasn't particularly interested, but her daughter was discussing it so loudly with someone (Sean, most likely) about Farmer's very similar appearance to the Amethyne family members that only a deaf person could not hear it. "Ay ay ay, would you like it if people were saying stuff about you?" The older fisherwoman couldn't stand it and decided to appeal to her daughter's conscience after all, putting a stop to all these silly theories.

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