#lmk breaking motif

[imminent-danger-came]

MK Breaking Out of Things He Probably Shouldn't Be Able To Break Out Of:

(1x00 A Hero Is Born)

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(1x05 The Calabash)

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(1x09 Macaque)

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(2x00 Revenge of the Spider Queen)

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(2x10 This Is The End!) (Now was this one technically Wukong saving MK? Yes. But it intrigues me so I'm putting it here. I make the rules)

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(3x04 The Winning Side)

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(4x06 Show Me the Monster) (Ink MK essentially came out of the stone after it cracked, like he broke out of it-)

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(4x07 Pitiful Creatures) (Baby boy breaking that scroll apart!)

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(4x13 Rip and Tear) (Hmmmm. Breaking out of the Jade Emperor's grasp is probably unusual right)

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[urhoneycombwitch]

witch of ages, cleft for me [part I]

🍯 honey flavour: Christmas-themed fluff and comfort

🐝 the bees: Eddie x greenwitch!reader, ft. The Gang (special appearance by Max Mayfield herself)

wc: 3.8k

Content warnings: weed mention, cussing, reader is given a nickname (Poppy), fem verbiage/motifs used for reader, r is a witch with a troubled home life, fluff, pov Eddie for part I.

foreword: new series alerrrrrt. self-inserty? MAYHAPS. I’ve endeavored to keep reader neutral enough for general x reader purposes while still givin’ her some flavour. please lmk if I need to update the cw to make things more clear. smut in later chapters planned so MDNI. happy readin’!

Christmas has never been Eddie’s favorite holiday.

When he was a kid, and his mom was still around, sure- he’d do the whole peppermint sticks in cocoa, snowman-making schtick, but that was ‘cuz his mom was his favorite person and, well, shit, he didn’t have any Scrooge-like tendencies back then. He was just a kid.

The lack of holiday cheer came later, settled in around teenage-dom, never quite left. Eddie can count on one hand the number of memorable Christmases he’s had, and this one sure won’t be added to the list.

Wayne had made a valiant effort that morning to distribute the cheer- holiday radio buzzing tinny over the stove while he flipped pancakes for the two of them. Didn’t even grouse at Eddie for taking a premature smoke break. Over breakfast, he’d slid a brown paper-wrapped parcel across the table and said, “Merry Christmas.”

“Wayne,” Eddie teased, slamming a hand in the middle of his chest, syrupy palm sticking to the old band t-shirt he was wearing- “I thought we said no gifts. You’re going soft on me, old man.”

“Old man my ass,” Wayne had muttered, but Eddie was already tearing into the paper.

It was a killer gift. Special edition Tolkein, bound in red leather, gold lettering and vines curling around the sides. 

Eddie was stunned into silence as he turned the book over in his hands. Wayned tapped the edge of the chipped mug he held, thoughtfully. 

“You survived this year, boy. That’s something to celebrate.”

Clearing his throat that’d gone stuffy with emotion, Eddie flipped through the pages reverently. “Well, shit. I keep up my living streak and you get me a sword replica next year, that what you’re tellin’ me?”

Wayne had chuckled, then risen from the table to ruffle his nephew’s hair. “Don’t push your luck, kid.”

He’d offered to take Eddie along on his Christmas Day Drive (as he’d called it, which was actually just code for Wayne and his fishing buddies getting sloshed on schnapps in some dingy Hawkins living room), but Eddie had declined (assuring Wayne that no, actually, he wasn’t gonna be moping around the house- in fact, Steve’s throwing a party and he’s gonna go).

Which they both knew was code for Eddie staying home and getting high. Wayne took his time getting out the door, shuffling around the kitchen, instructing Eddie to eat something in his absence, finally taking off in that rickety excuse for a pickup just before noon.

Which suited Eddie fine. Really. He was sprawled out on the couch now, arms lax above his head, dozing catlike, thinking about lighting up one of those joints rolling around under his bed. Trying not to think about you.

And sure, yeah, maybe he stayed home ‘cuz he was hoping you’ll call. The holidays are making him sentimental, not pathetic. 

‘Kay, maybe a little pathetic.

You’d been over at the trailer last night, curled into his side on the couch while Wayne snoozed in the corner chair, It’s A Wonderful Life playing for no one in particular, when you’d told him quietly that you weren’t gonna be around the next day.

“You mean for Christmas?” He’d asked, rubbing a smooth path up and down your arm. “How come?”

Your fingers plucked a steady rhythm at one of his shirt buttons, head resting on his chest, so all he saw was the crown of your head while you explained. “I mean, I’d rather be here. With you and Wayne. It’s just… my dad asked me to hang out. And he never does, yanno? Least I can do is give my old man a few hours to try and make it up to me.”

Eddie was quiet for a bit. Even though you knew about his turbulent familial life (god knows he’d told you more about it than anyone else in his life- your fault for being such a goddamn good listener), he didn’t think a lecture about how disappointing fathers could be was quite appropriate. 

So he’d said “Sure, sweetheart, if that’s what you want,” and he’d kissed the top of your head, breathing in that earthy blend of cardamom and sweet mint that you’d tapped into your skin that morning, and you’d thanked him for understanding and gave him a kiss so soft he could’ve cried. 

You looked like you were going to cry, yourself, saying goodbye later that night in the doorway, backlit dreamily with soft streetlamps, arms wrapped tight around your frame to keep out the cold. 

He’d kissed you goodbye once, twice, got a little goofy with it and pressed quick manic kisses across your cheeks, the bridge of your nose, your eyelids that were scrunched with amusement, as if he was trying to memorize your face with his lips.

“Just one day apart. We can do that, right?” He’d said, holding you at arm’s length, trying to assure himself just as much as you. 

Your eyes were misty underneath the rim of your knitted hat, but you’d nodded, hiding the tremble in your bottom lip with a brave tilt to your chin. “Just one day apart.” And with a final kiss, you set off down the snow-covered path, waving a red-mittened hand over your shoulder before getting into your car.

So you weren’t gonna call today, Eddie knew that. He’d have you tomorrow, curled in his lap with that strange herbal tea that you were always trying to get him into, and you’d tell him all about your holiday with your dad that you lived with but barely knew. 

Just one day apart. He could deal with that, right?

Eddie groans, scrubbing his hands over his face and turning belly-down into the couch. 

The thing is, he’s not the overbearing type. At least, he tries not to be. But when you meet the girl of your dreams under circumstances such as the end of the world, you tend to be a little more on the anxious side of things. 

Eddie can’t actually remember the last time you’ve spent more than a few hours at a time apart in the last four months; at first it was you playing nurse, tending to Eddie for weeks after the demobats had fucked him up, rotating from couch to makeshift floor-bed that was probably hell on your back. Not that you’d complained. 

Those days were a narcotic-fueled haze in Eddie’s memories; the first week he really only surfaced when he smelled the bergamot wafting from your neck each time you leaned over to change his dressings, or when he heard the gentle tinkling of those delicate flower chain earrings and stacks of thin silver bracelets you wore.

And then your time spent by his side just sort of naturally… evolved, along with your feelings for each other. He’d been crushing since high school on the starry-eyed, quiet little thing that sat behind him in Kaminsky’s class. The fact that you were rumored to be a witch really only encouraged his flirting by the day. 

You weren’t so easily enamored with him- not playing hard to get, necessarily, but you never seemed to have time for romance- what with your whole saving the world thing. Information that Eddie was now privy to, after all that Upside Down shit. 

Eddie would have happily taken his crush to the grave (nearly did, he has Dustin to thank for dragging his bony ass topside) if it meant keeping things between you both smooth. Because it was smooth, easy, as natural as breathing, being around you. The fact that you made the first move as soon as he was healed up (on this very couch, no less) was a dream come true. You’d basically attacked his mouth, a story he loves to drag up at the most torturous times just to see you light up with embarrassment before he kisses it better.

So now you wear one of his guitar picks on a chain around your neck and he spends his spare change on moody 70s cassettes to stock in his van for the midnight drives he loves to take you on; neither of you want to put a boyfriend/girlfriend label on each other ‘cuz it feels weirdly trite, for the amount of intimacy you’ve got going on. 

Belonging, though, that’s a phrase you’ve both used before, to each other. You’re mine. You belong to me. Said sweetly and chastely during backyard BBQ’s at the Harrington house, with possessive fierceness between open-mouthed kisses, whispered cozily under the cover of thin sheets and sprawling nights. 

He was your boy, for sure. You were his girl. And fuck’s sake was this day without you dragging its goddamn heels.

Eddie pounds a closed fist into the couch cushion, petulantly, then shoves himself up and off, the metal chains at his hip clinking with the sudden movement. He roots around in his bedside table drawer, then the top of his bureau where you stash your clothes sometimes- clothes that probably still smell like you. If he’s gonna be pathetic, mind as well be really pathetic, right?

Eddie’s just pulling out one of your lacy tanktops with a victorious fist pump when there’s a knock at the front door. If it’s carolers interrupting this pity-party, he’s gonna lose his shit.

But it’s not carolers. It’s Max Mayfield, red braids poking out of a green knit hat that he knows for a fact you made her last winter. She’s holding a blue tin of Danish butter cookies, customary scowl on her freckled face.

“You gonna let me in or make me freeze to death? Don’t think I won’t call child services on you, Munson.”

She ducks under Eddie’s arm, and he lets the door shut behind her with a bang. “Look, Red, Merry Christmas and all that but I’m really not in the mood to-”

Max holds out the tin, bracketed by her fuzzy mittens. “These are for you. My mom’s making me take some ’round to all the neighbors.”

Eddie pops the lid and is mildly surprised to find not the customary butter cookies but a neat stack of gingerbread people, with gumdrops for buttons and chocolate chip eyes peeking out from the wax paper. 

He lifts an eyebrow at the girl, who’s dripping melted snow into his carpet, and can’t help but tease. “These look like they took some effort, Red. You treat all your neighbors this nice?”

Max glowers again, crossing her arms best she can against the thick puff of her coat sleeves. 

Eddie bites the head off one of the cookies and points the desiccated corpse in her direction. “You want something, huh.”

“No,” Max says, a little too quickly, then sighs, and cranes her neck down the hallway. “Not from you, anyways. Where’s Poppy?”

Eddie flinches a little at the nickname the kids all use for you (an homage to the red lipstick you used to wear, or maybe it was the detention you got for getting caught with a jar of the seeds on school property freshman year, the story changes each time he asks) and drops the partially-eaten cookie back in the box. “She’s not here today.”

“She’s here every day,” Max counters, still looking down the hallway hopefully.

“Trust me, I wish I was lying to you,” Eddie continues, snapping the tin closed and setting it on the kitchen counter. “She’s with her dad for Christmas.”

“Poppy is willingly spending time… with her dad… for Christmas?” Max repeats the information slowly, as if she thinks Eddie is not so bright.

He lets his silence and return scowl do the talking for him. Max stamps in place, knocking more snow onto the carpet, annoyance rolling into uncomfortability. “Uh. Okay. Well… I guess I’ll just… ride my bike to the party across town. In this blizzard,” she tacks on, pointedly.

There’s a beat of silence. Eddie drums his fingers against the countertop. It’s hardly a blizzard, and there’s less than an inch of snow on the ground, but he knows what you’d do, if you were here, which you usually are.

“Goddammit,” Eddie cusses, before snatching his keys off the hook behind Max’s head and stuffing his arms into his thermal flannel, muttering, “If she wasn’t actively making me a better person, you’d be a popsicle, Red.”

___

On the drive to Steve’s, Max pokes around in the dash and complains about the lack of Kate Bush before settling on a Fleetwood Mac tape and shoving it into the deck. 

Stevie Nicks croons Rihannon over the speakers, and Eddie thinks maybe he’ll get a few minutes of peace and quiet but no such luck. He’s making a slow turn onto the main road when Max asks, “What’s this?”

Eddie fights the urge to snatch the crushed velvet jewelry box out of Max’s mittened grasp and stares resolutely at the road. “I’m trying not to spin out and kill us in a fiery wreck, kid, would ya put that back where you found it?”

She bumps the dash compartment closed with her knee. “Someone’s testy today. Is it for Poppy?”

“Yes,” Eddie grits out, white-knuckling the wheel. “Christ, Max, you’re like the annoying little sister I never asked for. Would you put it-”

There’s a quiet snick as Max ignores him and opens the box. “C’mon, don’t you want a lady’s opinion?”

“Lady, my ass,” Eddie mutters. It’s pretty quiet in the passenger seat area all of a sudden, and he forces his gaze to stay safely on the snowy road as he asks, “Well?”

“Cute,” Max muses. She lifts the delicate chain from the box, the charm at the end swinging like a pendulum with the movement of the van. “A little on the nose, though, don’tcha think?”

Eddie was afraid of that. But when he saw the tiny poppy in perfect cast silver at a jewelry store on his big city excursion last month, he couldn’t help it. His girl makes him all sorts of mushy.

“Put it back,” he tells Max again, the fight going out of his voice, and she complies, this time, reaching out to pat his shoulder after reassembling the box.

“Don’t worry. Girls go crazy for that cheesy shit. Especially if they’re in love,” she says, sagely, gloved fingers absently playing with the gold heart locket around her own neck. 

“Uh huh,” Eddie says, with a pointed grin aimed sideways at the girl.

“Shut up.” Max flushes beet red, then reaches for the volume dial and cranks Stevie up to ten.

___

The Harrington house is a flurry of activity, apparently chosen as the main hub for the Gang and their various extensions. Mrs. Byers chirrups a hello as he passes the kitchen, Nancy waving a wooden spoon in greeting. There’s a cheer from the group of boys in various states of sprawl over a board game on the living room floor when Eddie clomps in, Max practically shoulder-checking him on her way to Lucas’s side. 

If anything, this party will be a welcome distraction from the silence that is his trailer without you. Eddie figures he’ll hang around for a bit, help eat up some of Harrington’s fancy holiday food, and dip into his weed reserves (that lacy tanktop of yours on his mind) before the bell tolls six.

After giving a dorky salute to his Hellfire kiddos, Eddie drops into the last available couch cushion: next to Argyle (silk black hair adorned with a pair of reindeer antlers), who turns sleepily and gives him a weed-laced lazy smile. 

“Heyyyy, brochacho. Where’s your girl? I still owe her some cold hard cash money for those morels,” Argyle says.

“She isn’t here.” Eddie pinches the bridge of his nose. Maybe this party won’t be a good distraction after all, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t wanna keep bringing you up anyways. “What the hell are morels?”

“Mushrooms!” Jonathan pipes up from the end of the couch. Judging by the red eyes, he’s just as gone as Argyle. 

Eddie isn’t judging. Christmas is hell without the help of weed and pretty girls.

“Yeah, dude, mushrooms.” Argyle slings an arm around Eddie’s shoulders, talking over the raucous noise of the kids engaged in a tense game of Monopoly a few feet away. “She’s a wicked good forager. Better than my mushroom guy back in Cali by a loooong shot.”

“Morels are the ones that look like brains,” Jonathan says, focused on his attempt at a house made of paper money on the coffee table in front of him. 

“Brains,” Argyle confirms. This seems to set Jon off in a fit of giggles, and then Argyle starts up, snickering into his closed fist, and the sight is almost enough to get Eddie to crack a smile when Steve Harrington appears in the archway.

“Uh oh,” Jonathan says, practically spasmodic at this point, “His hands are on his hips. That means he’s pissed about something.”

“Would you chuckleheads knock it off?” Steve snaps, hands still set on his hips in prissy little fists when he rounds on Eddie. “And seriously, man, you couldn’t’ve waited until the afterparty to get them stoned?”

“What, you think I did this?” Eddie gasps in faux shock. “I’m real hurt, Stevie, that you think these fine established gentlemen would need my help in getting their hands on good kush.”

This sets the boys on the couch off into conniptions again, this time Dustin barking at them to “Keep it down, assholes, we’re getting cutthroat over here,” and Nancy calls out “Language!” from the kitchen, which has Mike yelling back at her, and Eddie is just starting to enjoy himself when Steve whips the towel previously over his broad shoulder at Eddie’s face.

“If you’re done wreaking havoc here there’s someone on the landline for you,” Steve says, bending down to wipe crumbs from the coffee table.

That wipes the smirk off Eddie’s face. He sits up ramrod straight. “Who?”

“Who do you think?” Steve shoots back, and then shouts at the board game group, “ALL right, which one of you little shits spilled orange soda on the rug?”

There’s a return yell of “LANGUAGE” from the kitchen as Eddie hustles down the hall, the noise of the party fading as he reaches the mounted wall phone. He nearly pulls the cord from its socket in his haste to get the receiver to his ear- “Shit- hello?”

“Hi, Eddie.” 

Eddie sags against the wall, letting his head tip back, eyes closed all the better to savor your voice- “Sweetheart. Thank god. I was dyin’ out here. Say my name again, would ya?”

“Eddie,” you laugh, and it’s chiding, but he doesn’t care, too flush with relief at hearing from you.

“How’s this nightmare of a holiday treatin’ my girl, hm?” he asks, settling the phone into the crook of his shoulder. If he had it his way, there’d be technology to laserbeam your voice permanently into his eardrums. 

“It’s okay,” you sigh down the line. “I tried calling you at the trailer first, then when it kept ringing I figured you were at Steve’s party.”

“Yeah, honey, I’m at Steve’s. You want me to come pick you up?” Eddie brightens at the idea, warming up to it the more he talks. “I mean, I’d keep you all to myself, but it’s Christmas and I’m feeling generous. All anyone’s asked about so far is where the hell my girl is at.”

“That’s sweet,” you reply, and Eddie thinks you sound a little distant, a little… off, somehow. “No, that’s okay. I’m not in a partying mood. I just wanted to hear your voice, that’s all.”

“Well you have it, sugar,” Eddie purrs. “You want me to read to you? There’s a real slick copy of the phone book hangin’ right next to me. Could really get you going.”

Eddie’s only partly joking. He’d happily read the yellow pages to you until his voice gave out if it meant keeping you on the line for a little longer.

He can picture you so clearly in his head- sitting pretty in that bay window, sock feet tucked under your thighs, twirling the phone cord around your fingers in anxious little twists as you speak softly- “That’s okay, Eds. You enjoy the party, okay? I’ll come by the trailer tomorrow morning with your gift.”

“Sure,” he replies, a little deflated. 

After saying his goodbyes, he hangs the phone back on the hook and returns to his spot on the couch, leg bouncing a frenzied beat amid the chaos.

He lasts about three minutes like this, which he feels is more than generous.

As he’s sliding his arms back into his green fleeced flannel, there are a few jeers from the peanut gallery about how “Eddie’s going to suck some face with his girlfriend”, which earns the room a halfhearted and generalized middle finger. 

Mrs. Byers stops him in the hallway, but it’s just to hand him two cling-wrapped plates of food with a warm, knowing sort of look about her.

And then Eddie’s off into the night to see his girl. 

___

okay hoped you like it gonna post pt. 2 soon follow if u wanna see when it comes out!!

[forgotteneilionora]

Mock-Up for House ???

that's right! the sheer magnitude of my inanity on full display here bc here's a mockup for an unnamed house from an unnamed land ;DDDD -- i had a notion that lena might come from a house whose sigil was the moon to keep w the celestial theme for the stafford girls and this happened...

obv not final colors/designs or anything...just general thoughts

1

not sm intended to be an eclipse as a victory of the night over the day/the sun and moon as reflections and aspects of one another ~symbolism

2

same as the above but w stars and/or the rays of the moon! she shines too! the full moon and the crescent moon are the same moon and the stars attend her sorta thing

3

see #2

4

see #1 but w stars!

5

see #2

6

7

so w this i was sort of...channeling the idea that this was a searfaring culture, right, so like...the reflection of the night sky on the water/the night sky is how sailors navigate, the sea and the sky as one lowkey inspired by the up is down motif in potc 3 ngl laksjdflkjsdf also no sun/full moon here just stars idk

8

this one's inspired by a poem ill transcribe below (the first two lines are super famous and that's really the inspo here) but basically the same as above but also like the ship and thus humanity is so tiny in relation to the epic scale of the sea-and-sky esp as one etc

Sea-Fever

BY JOHN MASEFIELD

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by; And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking. I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying. I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife; And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover, And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

anyway!!!! lmk which one(s) you guys like best!

anyway, none of these are finalized as is w colors or arrangement etc this is just general notions so yeah lmk your thoughts! also the poll is set to last 1 week so yeah idk!

[prince-liest]

hi! I always get super excited about fandom OCs, so it's been such a treat to hear about Tzafael! I worked a little on a design for them (lmk if you're ok with me posting it) but a lot of questions came up:

this is gonna sound really vague, but what's their vibe? I'm getting "pretends to be a gentleman but will ABSOLUTELY fish for compliments and randomly fuck with people cause of the power play" but I could be totally off. does he ever snap at people/hurt them if they're not polite? are they super condescending like some of the other angels or is he more like adam and kind of,,, uhh openly a dick? or are they more of a crowley type (kind of gooey inside and mostly left heaven because it was too bureaucratic and constricting)? do they burst into hell buildings and just incite chaos? again I know this is super vague but like ,,, basically I need a dialogue snippet to know what they're like lol

what's their accent? do they have special vocal quirks/tics? special catchphrases or words they use a lot?

do they have any real friends in hell (not just contracts)? do they miss anyone from heaven?

did they like being an exorcist?

hobbies?

what are the implications of the magpie/eyeball motifs? do they have a transcendent sense of sight? are they overstimulated or even haunted by the fact that they have to see so much all the time? do they have any bird habits (preening is a must lol but anything else?)? do they have a nictitating membrane and freak people out by blinking sideways with all of their eyes?

is their magpie form like a really scary demon form or are they just like. a normal bird. (that's way funnier imo)

I'm sorry but,,, I'm such a sucker for angst. where's his soft spot? how does he react to having it poked? does he lash out like a panicked animal or break down and try to hide?

do they have sharp teeth? I've seen that in other art of them but since they're not technically fallen I'm thinking of just doing fangs

how would he react to seeing a child (is he good with children? does he terrify/terrorize them?)?

what does "very good grip strength" imply???

whew, sorry for that monster of an ask! you said you liked talking about them so I just vomited everything that came to mind while I was drawing him, but definitely don't answer anything you don't find interesting!

PLEASE DO NOT APOLOGIZE YOU HAVE MADE MY EVENING. Both by offering me a delightful plethora of questions to answer about Tzafael, and also by drawing them aaaaaaaah- I would absolutely love to see you post it!! <3

Long post incoming!!

Their vibe: They are still an angel, and subscribe to morals that involve seeing themselves as a relatively good person - kind of like Lucifer's sense of superiority over sinners! So they are polite and friendly in a way that sometimes makes it evident that they know they can afford to be because they're above most of the people around them. They won't overtly fish for compliments, but that's why stroking their ego is so effective: they won't ask for it, but it's their most major vice. It's like petting a purring tiger. They enjoy when their presence is shocking, so they will absolutely walk casually into places where they know anyone able to identify them will freak out, and they'll visibly find the results amusing, but they won't outright admit to doing it on purpose. When they actually get into conflict with people, they like to look like they're being the bigger man about it, but they're honestly biting at the bit for a reason to go casually nuclear on someone who looks like they deserve it.

Speech patterns: Tangible but not over-the-top valley girl accent. They think it's fucking hilarious. Mildly prone to nefarious laughter, though it's generally because they're genuinely amused.

Friendships: Their concept of friendship is a little bit detachedly celestial. They definitely have friends in every ring, but they're bad about accidentally not visiting for long periods of time and they're prone to feeling like nobody in hell can genuinely understand them. They make contracts with relative ease with people they are friendly with specifically because they like feeling like the person people come to for powerful assistance. They'd probably do best seeing if they can befriend any of the seven sins, to minimize the baseline imbalance of power level and lifespan, but it just feels awkward when they all know Lucifer. The unassuming, baseline comraderie is the main thing they miss about heaven.

On exorcism: They fucking loved the power trip of being an exorcist. Too much. That's why they stayed in hell in the first place. And then they thought about it too damn long and got to know the locals, and now it's just fucking awkward to go around killing indiscriminately. Knowing too much really took the fun out of it! They used to join in on the exorcisms when they came around again, but not anymore.

Hobbies: They keep fish! They like setting up self-maintaining freshwater aquariums of various sorts, and particularly enjoy feeling like they've captured a genuine slice of nature in a fish tank. They visited Vox's shark tanks once and thought they were boring as hell because the sharks are mechanical and he doesn't have any live flora. They also enjoy being a huge gossipy bitch, which is arguably like 90% of what they actually use their powers for.

Powerset: While Lucifer has the power of Creation, Tzafael has the power of Sight. They see a great many things, and they see those things As They Are. So, basically: localized omniscience. They can't read minds, but they can tell if some is lying to them, and they can also see everything within a certain vicinity (depending on how hard they're pushing it), including through walls. This isn't weird or overwhelming to them: it's how they were designed to exist! If anything, losing that would make them feel blind. They also have a very small amount of foresight, which is mostly useful for being hard to hit in a fight and also being obnoxious by unintentionally interrupting people's sentences. This does not help them come off as less condescending.

Leaving heaven: Seeing the truth of things as they are, and seeing everything around makes the facade of heaven frustrating and tedious to swallow. They prefer hell because it feels more honest!

Bird traits: Absolutely hell yes to the nictitating membranes on every single eyeball, which also doubles as protection against any eyeball stabbing! They preen, they adore shiny shit, they love to gab and gossip, and while they are mostly a magpie, any bird seraph is going to be a bird of prey in some way or another, so it is as difficult to break their grip as it would be that of a raptor of similar size. I think it's implied that all heavenly and some demonic beings have various stages of their true forms, so their humanoid birdform is a similar style to what we see from Sera in the first few seconds of meeting her, and their true form is closer to what we see of Stolas at the end of Truth Seekers in Helluva Boss, except with about a billion more looming eyeballs. As for their most humanoid form's teeth: I figured they'd stayed in hell long enough for their teeth to go sharp like Lucifer's, but I am also super down for fangs if you have a design you're playing with!

Children: Ehhh...kinda cute, when they're not Tzafael's responsibility. Frequently funny in small doses or from a distance. Delightfully honest or else delightfully poor liars. Often just not their bag, though, especially if they kids are spoiled or self-absorbed (sorry, what was that? "Hypocrite"? Must have misheard.)

ANGST: They are a social animal and they miss their flock! They keep mooning about potentially reconnecting with Lucifer because they fucking miss heaven, except heaven doesn't feel like it did when they were a kid, so it doesn't feel like home. Any small inconveniences, they feel free to whine about with deliberately humorous dramatics, but when they feel genuinely hurt, they withdraw, hide in their nest, and keep it to themselves as best as they can. It hurts the ego to admit that kind of weakness when they're supposed to be a fucking seraph, especially when they feel alone and without equals in their place in the world. But even though heaven turned out to be a damn lie, they miss family. On a more minor note, they're also a poor sport about being genuinely made fun of in bad faith.

[icy-watch]

Me, sitting here refreshing the page for when you find out: OHOHO I SURE HOPE YOU REMEMBER WHAT I SAID ABOUT PAUSING THE QUICK FRAMES BECAUSE HOOOO BOY IS THERE A JUICY IMPLICATION IN THIS EPISODE- both of them need therapy so bad…I also want you to think back to a certain S1 ep 9 where a certain monkey’s illusions wore off and we could see his blind eye, poor plinko monkey 😔 this show is NOT going to leave his eye alone. Or well, him entirely. Also, it’s suuuuper funny that you watch this today because of the eclipse, this ep is sun/moon themed, Macaque literally showed up during an eclipse back in S1, and the storyboard artist for LMK tweeted about the sun/moon being LMK fans for this exact reason hehe. The Sun and the Moon were like the Hero and the Warrior (joke) I hit the fics before I got to seeing this episode and I thought it was kinda cringe and sappy how much these motifs were used like what is UP with “my sun/my moonlight” writing sentences using them as name replacement when narrating exposition, like I know tumblr likes their coded characters but dang. This was overkill because why did the entirety of ao3 hop on this train? And then I watched Shadow Play and it was a moment of “oh okay so it’s his fault.” And then. “Wait the heck you mean this is canon?”

👀

Lmao! The eclipse was totally that day, wasn't it? ← Completely forgot about it irl and comments on how it was abnormally dark. And, 2 days prior, joked with my cousin and his wife that they could eat during the eclipse bc it wouldn't break any rules of Ramadan

Oh, that's interesting. Funny how they put that in during his first appearance.

Also, super funny that you thought it was fanon. Believable but still lol

[fugurinrin]

Ooooh hello!!! Just found ur blog, it makes me very happy! My favorite fish.... Hm.... The thresher shark. Their tails are just too beautiful! You could say they're.... Stunning! Hehe. (The pun is because they use their tails as whips to stun prey and break up schools of fish). Um! What kind of stickers do u collect because that's my new hyperfixation, i just bought a grab bag of vintage hambly stickers im so excited for them to arrive

hello AJ! i'm so glad my blog makes u happy (´▽｀) tresher sharks are SO COOL assjdkdjs !!! (or...stunning :3)

i've been a sticker collector for super long !!! i'm a big fan of rlly cute stickers, small ones in particular bcz it's easier to decorate my diary ☆ sanrio stickers, animal stickers (i have whale shark ones & i love them very much!) & i've been liking stickers with clover motifs too 🍀 oh my god vintage hambly stickers are so fun too ... lmk what stickers u get i'm so excited for u !!!!

[everything-laito]

What do you think that Yui did different that didn't made Laito feel tediousness, other than being supportive and being able to break his walls? I know that she is the surrogate of the player so her writing is limited, but I never found her that unique, of the few characterisation given to her.

Ooooh! Interesting question, anon! This will be fun. 

Ok first of all, Yui’s character has quite a bit of characterization and development to her. Yes she’s the “surrogate” character, but compared to other otome games like Mystic Messenger, she has enough writing to her to be treated both as the player character,  but also as a character on her own. 

You are entitled to your own opinion, and I’m not here to change that despite me disagreeing, but I am going to list some examples of unique Yui related characterization. If you’re talking about her in the anime, she’s completely watered down and is written very poorly. As always, rant under the cut!

Before I get into the specifics of her character with Laito, one of the big things about Yui’s character at first is definitely her relationship with religion. She’s a Roman Catholic I believe, which is a pretty strict denomination of Christianity. I don’t practice a religion, but I do have some Catholic friends and my family is Methodist, so I do have some brushes with that specific religion. Catholicism these days are all over the place, sure it’s more strict (from what I’ve heard) compared to other Christian denominations, but some people who are Catholic these days are more lenient and just take the Bible with a grain of salt. That goes for all denominations of all sorts of religions; there’s a lot of conflict with what’s “right” practice and what’s “wrong.” However I’m just talking about Catholicism now from what I know. 

We do know that Yui was brought up in a pretty strict area. It’s canon that she wanted to be a nun as well. She was prepared to be devoted to her god for the rest of her life. In Laito’s chapter, she still continued to pray to god and to ask them for help, despite all the awful things Laito has put her through. The reason why I believe she can be a character of her own and not a surrogate character is this niche characterization given to her. I’d say most people playing DL aren’t Catholic, so putting in specific writing stuff such as that doesn’t make her a typical “surrogate character.” 

Yui’s an extremely strong female character, and her religious belief definitely gives her strength, and many people in real life also gets strength from their beliefs as well. Again, I’m not sure how that works personally, but I do know it gives most people some kind of optimism, and you can extract that from Yui’s reactions.

Yui doesn’t break easily because of her optimism and caring nature. She doesn’t feel too alone in the Sakamaki mansion because she has her god, so it doesn’t make her despair easily. I know I’m talking about one niche characterization given to her, but I’ll be talking about more as I continue with Laito in the picture. 

Laito definitely has a corruption kink. He projects what Cordelia did to him on poor Yui. He’s attracted to Yui’s innocence and says this in Limited V of HDB in Dark 07:

“Haa…Such an innocent smell of someone who does not know what it’s like to be defiled yet. Say…Become more and more dirty until you’ve fallen. Show me that side of you who has genuinely surrendered themselves to me.” (Limited V edition)

A motif I’ve come across Laito’s route is him telling Yui that he will make her “fall.” I use my translations from @/dialovers-translations, and at the beginning of Laito’s route, she makes this T/N to this quote:

Laito: The pleasure that comes from falling. (4)

Vee: (4) The verb 落ちる or ‘ochiru’ used here literally means to fall, such as falling from a building, etc. However, it can always be used to refer to ‘falling’ in the sense of giving in to lust or any other vice. (Think of English expression like ‘fallen angel’) 

Laito references this many times throughout his HDB route. He claims a couple of times that he likes to take his “sweet time” tainting Yui. He’s taken a liking to her because of her purity. I believe Yui probably reminded Laito of himself. I elaborate on this even more in this analysis as well. 

I mention in that analysis that Laito takes a liking to Yui because he considers her as a challenge. Not only does he take pleasure in making others “fall” to make himself feel better about himself and more powerful (I’ve said this before but he’s a typical bully), but he also gets bored easily. Laito mentioned how he’s never met a girl like Yui. She’s stubborn and sticks to her own morals, and it takes a bit of time to make her completely give up her own morals and fit them to Laito’s. It takes until the Ecstacy prologue for her to ask herself if she has a right in praying to them anymore. It’s also mentioned how someone has never survived this long into the awakening before. Either the process is too much for the girls, or the brothers just get bored and find the sacrificial bride a nuisance. 

On top of Yui continuously being caring to Laito (I don’t mean not standing up for herself, because she definitely does that; although it doesn't faze Laito) and entertaining to him, there is the mystery of her blood being Cordelia’s. Obviously we know the answer to that, but Laito didn’t, and he found it more peculiar as well. Here’s another post in regards to that as well that someone else wrote. Yui’s also smart, and although Laito has power over her, she continues to try to outwit him and stick to her guns. She does that a lot in MB from what I remember, although I can’t think of specific examples (if anyone has any, please lmk!). By then in MB, she kinda knew how Laito ticked mid route, and was able to get her way temporarily by tricking him. 

This kind of went all over the place I apologize, I just love Yui and her character. It breaks my heart at the end of Laito’s route with her saying she doesn’t deserve to believe in her religion anymore and the one thing that got her through most of Laito’s character was crumbling. I’m not even religious like I mentioned and that even got me in the heart. It’s scary how someone can do that.

I hope I was able to answer (and if this mess made any sense haha) but if you have any further questions or need more clarification, don’t hesitate to reach out, anon! 

[tenn-o-s]

I'm gonna ramble a bit for a second On a Warframe idea I had.

I have alike a weird facination with swords of old medieval mythos and I thought it would be cool to create this warrior king type Warframe that can switch to these different blades...

What I Invision is a frame that would work along the lines of Lavos, where it has abilites that all function on a cool down timer.

Where it differs would be that instead of augmenting for different elemental damage, the frame is based off of the physical damage Slash, Impact, and Puncture. Debating maybe also adding either Pure/Unfiltered damage or Void Damage(kinda the same thing) but essentially damage that ignores all barriers like Shields, Armor, or Enemy type.

The frame would be based off four legendary weapons(akin to Excalibur's Nikana) and each exalted weapons would be a forme switch for the frame, changing the basic attack ability, movement ability, and special effect. With the fourth ability being the one to switch blades. Holding down the first and forth ability would subsequently return to the base forme

Design wise the frame would be akin to Equinox/Khora with a base forme that would incorporate all further forms. The base would be like a cascading melted set of 4 armors fused into one, with each main coulor(not counting energy) defining what each layer would be. When you switch forms that armor would molt out of the rest with it's specific motif and metallic coulor becoming defined. I sorts picture it looking like a candle knight night mixed with The Nameless King from Dark Souls 3

In the base form you would be able to bring your own weapons(Primary, secondary, melee) but you couldn't use any abilities other than the 4th in which you would activate your exalted form of choice. This would have a cool down of 75 seconds(even if canceled early) but every energy orb collected would lower it by 1 second so you would be locked in to your preference for a bit.

The weapons associated with each forme would be:

Exalted Dagger(forme of a Misericorde) for Impact -- Carnwenhau(Arthurian/Welsh) -- atleast one of the quirks with this weapon is that the more sheilds break under this blades attack the longer it's range becomes, with the blade of the dagger, starting at .5m range and with a max of 7.5 m in attack range each shield giving roughly .5m. the movement ability here would be a vertical that would polevault forward dependant on your blade length, and the secondary ability would be to loose blade length and damage(primarily electric btw) and refill sheilds into Over Sheilds.

Exalted Rapier sword for Puncture -- Joyeuse(Charlemagnian/French) -- the basics play style for this form would be about stripping armor. Enemies struck with 3 heavy attacks in a row would have their armor value reduced by a third each time. This builds a stack which can be leveled up 15 times (15 enemies) which synergizes with the special ability that would give +25 armor per stack maxing up up to 375 additional armor. The movement ability would be simmilar horizontal type to Gauss's mach rush but it would be a cylindrical rapier slash directly forward( you can change but it would be steering movement not like Excalibur's slash dash) damaging anything Infront.

Exalted Great Sword for Slash -- Durendal(Charlemagnian/French) -- this would be built around health damage and life steal, essentially just a built in survivability mode. Every basic melee attack would mark an enemy (assuming it doesn't kill them) marking up to 75 enemies at max mastery. This then ties into the special ability that would allow you to steal all health from marked enemies, armored enemies and shielded ones would have a resistance so the drain wouldn't be as high on said enemies unless you did it for an extended period via channeling it with a higher cooldown caveat. The movement ability would have the Frame swimming it's sword upwards with so much momentum that it lifts them a few meters off the ground and then coming back down and doing a melee slam that radiates out when the sword is re drawn from the stone marking enemies, stunning them and damaging them...

And Exalted Sword and Shield for Pure/Void -- Clarent and Pridwen(Arthurian/Welsh) -- since this is the most powerful ability you would only be able to use this form after you have utilized atleast one other in the mission, it would also switch from a timed based ability system to a channeling type which would mean it would run out eventually. The main quirk of the this game play is that your body would be surrounded by an orbiting shield that when standing still would nullify all ranged damage. You couldn't swing your sword in this form but you could block, if you are melee struck by an enemy this way you could then attack for a few seconds. The movement ability would have you doing a triple jump with an shield bash into the ground reflecting all damage received as pure/void, and the special ability would be activated by tanking hits to increase a Modifier stat that would exponentially increase how much damage is done per swing and then it would become a nuke ability when sheild bashing.

This is a huge ness I wrote at like 5 am on a whim but I think I'm gonna refine this better later. Lmk what you think

[myromanholidays]

I typed out a huge ass post at 4am trying to do a favorite mv analysis but I'm incapable of coherent thought so here we go -

The constant morphing between members implies they’re all the same person. Didn’t check for daylight rings or garlic references.

Bathroom saga - jaehyun is bitten and the transformation begins, yuta’s eyes change, jungwoo is surrounded by broken glass bc maybe he panicked/got frustrated over not being able to see his reflection, yuta holds his breath in the murky bath water could be to die and complete the transformation or something to do with the “story of favorite” teasers like trying to wake up from a dream or being reunited with his lover. Need to watch again to see what taeil did in the bathroom scenes.

This sequence makes sense to me except there’s Parthenon style pillars and Greco-Roman marble busts and statues (of Atlas and a woman, prolly someone hot but fatal lmao) in two different sets. For them to be in both ancient civilization and early 20th C film noir type locations, shouldn’t they already be transformed? Possibly Jungwoo’s heart was only beating bc of the butterfly, not bc he’s human (so memories of his past love make him feel alive or want to be alive? The symbolic butterfly defrosted his icy stone heart and the red veins/blue arteries meant *angsty longing* overcoming unalivelihood?)

The sequences on the cliffs are gorgeous - haechan ofc dissipates into rose petals when the sunlight breaks through the clouds but it makes me wonder if the butterfly tornado around jungwoo and Doyoung was supposed to protect them from the sun or transform them into haechan or represent them engulfed in their feelings for whatever the butterfly denotes and choosing to die on the mountaintop for it? It’s the only instance of more than one member in the same place at once aside from dance sequences. Are they in the same spot, experiencing the same thing, but separated by time?

Roses. I’m always gonna think of taeyong first but regardless, rose bushes + floating petals spreading across the aurora borealis place as the sunlight grew stronger during the dance break implies the vamps might have passed away (is the sleeping set the other side or did the butterflies somehow make them immune?). The aggressive electronica prolly symbolizes their fighting spirit but need to rewatch for more rose moments or lyrics tie ins

I noted some stuff about the aurora borealis set and the starry sky (johnny with the curly hair and the shooting stars 🤌) but tbh like most of this post, nothing of substance.

No idea what the dead tree place Taeyong and Mark were in is but it looks cool af. Noticed the apples motif from taeyong’s hacker shoot and SuperM teaser (mark singing let’s go everywhere after pilot played in the countdown live, yes I cry over SuperM crumbs 😭), the heart balloons (?) seem wrapped in twine that makes abstract crosses (yes this is a stretch) or have sew on patches and I think taeyong and mark were the only ones shown with fangs and biting at the camera. Who knows, maybe it’s a greenhouse the artificial UV rays make them aggressive lmao I’m sure there’s some deeper metaphor for the dead tree and another specific tie in to marklore but lmk what

The mv starts and ends in the same place, taeyong sitting up and swallowing (?) the butterfly then lying back down, so it’s not too much to say “it was all a dream” but tbh I doubt it. To flip things up, instead of love in some form motivating them, what if the butterflies actually subdue/doom them? The butterfly keeps taeyong asleep, turns jungwoo’s heart to stone, leads Johnny to starry ends, passes in the bg of the second chorus in the aurora borealis stage which turns into the rose/sunlight filled stage during the bridge? That’s in line with the “this love is destructive” theme in the lyrics.

I’m a working woman so imma stop here but someone with a brain larger than a pea, pls help 🙏

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

it’s taken me a while but here we are!! listened to bloodwater ballad [TUMBLR | SOUNDCLOUD] by @gerrydelano so I’m gonna dive (ha, dive, get it?) into some analysis even tho I haven’t taken a proper English class since AP English Lit in high school and the god complex it gave me has never left (RIP to everyone else, but I’m different). But I do have a degree in Psychology and am a Researcher, so I know how to dissect things (this is probably why the god complex never left lmao)

disclaimer: I have only listened to TMA through one (1), read it ONE time, so if you read something that seems wrong it probably is because my memory is not The Best (the seasons are 40 eps long and 30 mins each, Jonny why) and I’m probably straight-up not remembering or misremembering some aspect or detail about either a character and/or their relationship

(and before you say it, i absolutely CANNOT just go relisten to an ep out of order. my nd brain Will Not Let Me until i have listened thru all 4 seasons, In Order, several times)

ALSO: i speak very definitively here, but it doesn’t mean i’m right abt my analysis

bold and italics are lyrics, regular font is analysis. if there’s a more accessible way to format this, lmk!

analysis under cut

honesty that's what she gave to me mary didn’t hide who she was; eric knew exactly what he was getting himself into

into the water i bleed into the sea sea motif/metaphor to describe how eric viewed his relationship with mary

truthfully even when she lied through her teeth it only meant she trusted me to lay at her feet rationalization from eric: he knows she’s lying, and she probably knows he knows. but she also knows that he won’t do anything about it

oh, heave-ho it's over the edge i sink more of the sea metaphor in pieces in ribbons in tatters i'm thrown into the dark of the drink ribbons and tatters: reminiscent/hint of mary needing a piece of his skint to keep his ghost in the leitner

oh, heave-ho it's over the edge i go blow the man down, he's a jewel for your crown (blow me down) and no one will ever know ”jewel for your crown”: suggestive of how mary used eric like an object. jewel and crown suggests that he was useful to her in an important way, tho, still an object ”no one will ever know”: suggestive that no one else, looking in on their relationship, would even see it for what it truly was, nor would they ever expect mary to throw him away so casually like she did

war, you see is somewhere you go just to bleed the end of a book you can’t read (books you cannot read) a legacy’s greed “book you can’t read”: suggestive of mary’s relationship with leitners ”a legacy’s greed”: commentary of leitner; bc this is eric telling his story tho, this could also be about how mary pulled eric into her plots regarding leitners, and then gerry

distantly, familiar hope came to me that even with blood in our teeth my son stayed asleep ”even with blood in our teeth”: eric knows what role he had to play in all this and is not absolving himself of blame ”my son stayed asleep”: often sleeping can be used as a metaphor for ignorance. in this case, eric is hoping that, despite what gerry’s mother is and what eric has been complicit in, will not affect his son i think it’s interesting to note here that the backup voices cut out for “my son stayed asleep” (put a pin in it)

oh, heave-ho the ship is my body, i gave to my wife as the captain, the whip, and the brine, the shark lurking under the waves more of the sea metaphor; also a metaphor for how complicit eric was to mary’s will i think it’s super interesting that she’s the captain, whip, brine, and shark in this metaphor. all things that can hurt eric, as the ship. suggests that mary is in complete control of eric (as the captain). also adds to the notion that eric knew exactly who mary was and still loved her anyway (”i gave”).

oh, heave-ho the ship is my body, she cracks the mast of my spine, spills my blood as her wine (lightning strikes and) i really like this line bc it makes me think of the marriage lines in corpse bride: “your cup will never empty, for i will be your wine.” and i love that it’s turned on its head here. cuts a flag from the skin off my back (takes all the skin off my back) a direct callback to the fact that mary has to take strips of eric’s skin to keep his ghost in the leitner book, while also staying with the metaphor that eric is a ship out at sea

way, ay, i wanted to say though blinded i still saw the light at the end of the hall, in a crib with his eyes almost grayer than mine in the night direct callback to eric blinding himself, twice! also represents how much he loves his son: “light of my life” is a common saying and gerry was that for eric

i gave up the sight of his face for his life and i would have lost more for the same i'd cut out my heart to save his from her bite and i almost don't know who to blame again, direct callback to him blinding himself so he could escape the institute a demonstration of how much love he holds for his son, willing to give up more and more of himself if it meant keeping his son safe heart motif! both for eric and gerry i really like the last line here bc he’s saying he doesn’t know who to blame for his blindness (aka cutting out his heart): himself or mary. bc, as i’ve stated before, eric knows who mary is. and he still loves her. still had a child with her. i also think it’s foreshadowing. and the reason i say this is bc, in the end, eric was unable to save gerry from mary. this song is representative of his statement to gertrude, so at this point, he’s a ghost. tho he may not know exactly what mary has done, he knows who she is enough to know that after he died, mary would raise gerry in her likeness, with her ideals

is it a murder if i made my bed by her side when i knew what she was? and here we have eric, most nearly explicitly, stating that he knew mary’s true colors. and loved her anyway. perhaps i'm complicit; i fell asleep first in the bloodcutting comfort of jaws this also solidifies his stance that he should shoulder some of the blame for allowing himself to love her when he knew what a truly terrible and deadly (literally) person she was ”bloodcutting comfort of jaws” is also really nice alliteration

forgive me, forgive me, i did try to swim with my hands and feet bound to my heart heart motif! okay so this one has so many layers for me: so, for all intents and purposes here, eric has effectively cut out his heart, which his hands and feet are bound to, and is now in the jaws of a shark (mary), who is dragging him down to kill him. he tried to save his son by getting away from the institute by blinding himself but it didn’t work weighted and anchored with love for my son who by birthright deserves more than scars legit, this confused me for a bit bc i always saw “with my hands and feet bound to my heart” as the anchor that pulled him down, as you’d weigh someone down with big rocks if you wanted them to drown. however, in the context of tma, i realized anchor could also mean the way martin is jon’s anchor. eric’s love for gerry was his reason--the person who he kept fighting for as best he could

additional note: these 4 verses are all sung without backup voices. i think it’s interesting that the lyrics/verses that revolve around wanting to save his son, and that are about his son, are sung with his singular voice. i wish i could articulate more what that means, but despite my best efforts, i’m not musically inclined even tho i’ll kinda be talking abt music composition for firesorrow girl lmao. link at the end

my eulogy the carpet red under my feet like standing on top of the sea (standing on the sea) the frenzy beneath don’t ask me why but i really like how this last part of the song starts with “my eulogy” bc you can tell the song is coming to a close now by that lyric. what’s really nice is i can “picture” eric closing his statement with gertrude with the request that she finds his son more sea and shark metaphors

infamy how do you remember me? that fool just so desperate to leave that he couldn't see? i also really loved these lines bc eric most likely knows how gertrude thought of him, and can probably sense how she feels of him now, after his story then i love how “couldn’t see” has a double-meaning here: 1) of course, he blinded himself but, 2) that he was also metaphorically blind to what kind of consequences his actions had, both on him and his son

oh, heave-ho a dead man has only one tale listen,,, i know i keep saying this, but i love how ron turns turn-of-phrases on their heads. bc “dead men tell no tales” right? eric has one tale, tho: his statement bc he’s a ghost who’s been bound this book and kept, for all intents and purpose, alive i knew she had hunger for blood in the water and that means it was no betrayal again, confirmation that eric knows that he has to shoulder some of the blame for the consequences of knowing who mary was (this bloodthirsty shark) and still loving her anyway

oh, heave-ho though, i have one request of you now if my son can be found and his own hands unbound (find my son) cut the rope - don't you dare let him drown (don’t you dare be the reason he drowns) so a throwback to “hands and feet bound to my heart” tho perhaps gerry’s heart isn’t what’s dragging him down, necessarily bc he was raised by mary, he didn’t have a choice. the moment he was born, he was tied to her. and the moment mary killed eric, there was no chance he could get away and then, of course, the gut-puncher: “don’t you dare let him drown”/“don’t your dare be the reason he drowns” are especially poignant, given gertrude uses gerry much in the same way mary did. gerry becomes bound to a different entity and is used for gertrude’s gain. so he drowns anyway.

--

alkjdlf i hope this is semi-coherent. i tried to do it more “professionally”--i even thought abt breaking it up and putting it back together, out of order, to address all the themes and motifs all in one spot--but then decided what would be best for my brain, was to listen to the song and just add my thoughts in as they came, stream of consciousness style *finger guns*

firesorrow girl analysis | meme i made for these analyses bc it’s funny and i wanted to share

[rithmeres]

Will u talk about that fma pic you just reblogged because it sounds like it's got symbolism but I'm not sure what it is and I am very intrigued

*breaks fingers* HOENHEIM OUT HERE LOOKIN LIKE GOLDEN JESUS.let’s talk about one of my favorite visually symbolic tropes: the crucified christ pose, or as tvtropes calls it, the crucified hero shot.

im not sure how much religious background the people reading this will have, so let’s start with the basics. in christianity, jesus was crucified by the romans on a cross, in what is regarded as one of the most painful kinds of death anyone can suffer. this involves nails through the hands and feet, arms outstretched so that he hung there for hours until he suffocated or died from major organ failure. the bible says that although he could have avoided the unjust death penalty, he chose to die in the ultimate gesture of sacrifice, redemption, and unconditional love to save the world from their sin, although the world hated him and had him killed. the theology of the crucifixion is that the wrath of God that was meant for mankind’s sins was poured out on jesus when he made his sacrifice on the cross.

in media the outstretched-arms pose is typically used when someone (the hero) makes a sacrifice to save someone else. they might die or take a blow/blast from the villain and be left with their arms spread wide and possibly their head hung in death. rarely is the pierced hands trope used. it isn’t always meant to draw God/jesus parallels, but it does here. hohenheim is the greatest sacrificial tragedy of fma, and in my good christian opinion, the most deserving of this christ-trope. he was given immense power but he sacrificed everything to save the word and save his children. in that screencap, he’s a broken physical barrier between his son and the monstrosity that could destroy the world - arms outstretched in protection and sacrifice, head hung in pain. christ on the cross. 

van hohenheim used up his philosopher’s stone to protect his son edward from a blast that would have killed him. until this point edward harbored extreme resentment towards his father and never once made an effort to forgive him or treat him as something other than the man who walked out on his family when they needed him. despite later knowing hohenheim’s reasons for leaving and understanding why he had to leave, edward does not change his outward attitude towards his father. it saddens hohenheim to see his son’s hostility to him, but he’s never angry at ed for it. i believe it’s this instant - when hohenheim intercepts the wrath of father in a physical act of salvation to save the son who never loved him -  that something switches inside ed and this is the catalyst for his forgiveness to his father. this act of sacrifice is unconditional and that’s what it means to love, and that’s the example that christ on the cross represents. i believe this action is why ed finally cries when hohenheim offers his life for al’s, because ed has seen how much his father would give for his family and he understands the guilt that plagues his father because its the same guilt that plagues him for his wrongs.

thanks for coming to my TED talk

i can think of five other instances when this pose/trope is used (also if anyone thinks of any others, please lmk so i can analyze the crap out of them)

1. when greed gets boiled down to philosopher’s stone juice, in the manga he’s tied to a crucifix. the scene was animated differently probably to appeal better to western audiences – because japan is not entrenched in christian symbolism the way america is, it wouldn’t be seen as making a religious reference or even sacrilegious to some (a deadly sin incarnate on a cross?? how EVIL). if we want to go ahead and analyze that bit even though its not meant to be a religious motif, we might say that greed on a crucifix represents the twisted nature of father and his seven sins. he wants so desperately to be god and have the knowledge and power of god, so he ‘crucifies’ his son. twisted. (the dwarf in the flask, i might add, is a sweet sweet take on biblical descriptions of lucifer… more on that in another post) (maybe) but we can also look at this as being something of an unjust punishment for greed’s rebellion against father. he didn’t really do anything wrong, right? he just wanted some friends.

2. kimblee. kimblee kimblee kimblee. this is a weird villainous example and I’m not quite sure if it counts, but i’m including it anyway because it feels significant. idk. after heinkel rips out kimblee’s jugular, he’s bleeding out in the grass with his arms outstretched but instead of looking crucified or sacrificial, he just looks powerless. limp. he can’t move. i think it’s not an intentional christ pose. i think his hands are spread as far from each other as they can be to show that he cannot transmute anymore and he is the epitome of powerless. do with this information what you will. 

3. ok when wrath literally stabs roy THROUGH THE PALMS WITH HIS ARMS OUTSTRETCHED ON THE TRANSMUTATION CIRCLE can you get any more obvious??? roy wanted to be a savior to amestris, and help it start anew after he overthrew the old regime and what happened? he was stabbed through the hands and forced through the portal - which is one of the most traumatizing things that can happen in the fma world. usually the main character in the show is the savior-archetype, but on promised day, ed’s just in it to get his brother back and punch out god if need be. saving the world’ is roy’s goal, not ed’s. roy (and olivier) is the one who makes the big political moves and has the long-term goal of freeing amestris from the homunculi that control it (saving the world from their sins!! what!) and creating a better world from a fresh start. and he gets sacrificed for it with swords driven through his outstretched hands. 

4&5. after alphonse sacrifices his soul for ed’s arm, his arms fall back to the ground in the crucifix position. al has sacrificed his own soul, the only thing he has left, and when the transmutation is complete, ed is the one pinned (’nailed’ through the arm!!) with his arms outstretched. with the culmination of the only thing al had left to give, the transfer of sacrificial hero was literally placed on edward and it’s up to him to save the world & his baby brother. from the moment ed kneels by his brother’s broken spread-crucifix armor until the moment ed transmutes his door (,,,, prayer symbolism in ed’s transmutations… maybe i need to make a post for that) and leaves with alphonse, there’s this expectancy, this weight of ‘what is he going to do? what can he possibly sacrifice?’, and all that starts with that crucifix-trope-transfer from al to ed. fma is about love and sacrifice and most people equate sacrifice with death but fma says sacrifice is simply being willing to die for the sake of unconditional love.

[imminent-danger-came]

So in regards to MK breaking out of things he shouldn't be able to, I'm like. He's gonna break out of the Pagoda right. He's gonna do it

If it should be able to contain anything forever (like the Calabash), it sure won't contain MK

[little-murmaider]

I'm full force in it recently and you aksed for asks so give me ur thoughts on godklok

Whooooooo MAN I’ll throw this under a cut.

So my GodKlok Thoughts are less mythical than most. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading about other people’s stuff involved ANCIENT POWERS AWAKENING (esp all your Demon Pickles stuff it’s wonderful) but my ideas are more like…how would this realistically manifest in the show had we gotten a season 5. So kind of ridiculous!I agree with the Metalocalypse Wiki when it comes to God Titles. Nathan is God of Power, Pickles is God of Chaos, Skwisgaar is God of Life and Toki is God of Death. (The wiki says Murderface is God of Ugliness BUT I read a fic that called him the God of War and I like that better.) The Dethlights “activated” everyone’s God Status and granted them individual powers that are in line with their title and an organic extension of their personality. Nathan gains super strength. Like he could punch through a mountain and change the strength and direction of the tides. He’s the backbone of the band and the most respected by both the band and the fans, so naturally he would get the most destructive power. Skwisgaar gains healing powers. He’s the least physically combative of the five in life, so it makes sense his power wouldn’t be offensive. Also it’s a bit of karmic irony; after a lifetime of being the lead he spends an eternity offering support. Also based on the lightning/bird motifs that trail him throughout the series (plus “I want to be able to fLY THE PLANE” and his obsession with dragons) I think he’d gain the power of flight. Everybody gets a secondary power too but Skwisgaar’s the only one I’ve thought through SURPRISE. Murderface gets the ability to weaponize other people’s insecurities. Basically he can zero in on the thing people are most insecure about and amplify it until it drives them insane or they lash out at those around them. Pickles and Toki’s powers are similar, but I haven’t completely thought through how they would work. Both of them can like. Shoot shit out of their hands. Balls of light and fire. Toki has something to do with controlling shadows. I had a fic idea that I’ll never write (I might write the Skwisgaar parts) where they’re working through their powers, but then the council deploys Operation Falconback which is what causes Murderface to TURN. Once he turns the band’s powers are deactivated until the band can get him on the right side. Murderface attacks Toki but Skwisgaar takes the hit, thinking he’ll heal immediately, then it’s a race to the finish for Nathan and Pickles to find and turn back Murderface vis a vie friendship, while Toki stays with a rapidly-deteriorating Skwisgaar. Toki and Skwisgaar’s powers are strongest when they’re together; Once Nathan and Pickles turn Murderface back everyone gets their powers back, and Skwisgaar projects an energy SO POWERFUL it heals every single person in the hospital. There’s also a side plot about Serveta but like I said, I will never write this, if anyone wants to take it off my hands and let me write all the Skwistok parts lmk.Anyway! Once they save the world they mostly use their powers for their own amusement. (Pickles keeps asking Nathan to break various parts of his body so Skwisgaar can heal him, etc.) After the Metalocalypse Mordhaus becomes a New Olympus, and the five of them chill and fuck around until the end of days. 

[illaneous]

Theatre Wallpapers: The Band’s Visit 3/?

Go ahead and tell me I should keep on trying Go ahead and tell me I should break the ice 

Ayyyeeee here’s more wallpapers, I really liked the flower motif so hehe these are more for me lmao.  Okay okay last one I think maybe yeah but lmk if u want more. Please like or reblog if you use!

(1) (2) (3)

[imminent-danger-came]

Lofty crack 'theory‘ (?) idk, it‘s more along the lines of the

'I connected the dots!'

'You didn‘t connect shit' Meme

Everytime MK barely touches something and it falls apart? That's the good ol‘ Harbinger of chaos touch. Destruction is just woven into his very being and marks his every action.

(Like how he barely touched the pinball machine and it fell apart. And how the crate containing the weird vegetable babies opened up despite the fact that it shouldn’t have been possible with how heavily secured it was)

Also the way he accidentally alters the world around him ('summoning a scary monster forest through stress'- still one of my favorite things he‘s done tbh. He‘s just such a funny guy. My favorite little disaster.)

Of course- very possible that that this is just cartoon logic. But I think it‘s just a funny concept. XD

It's so hard because LMK is teetering on the edge of being SO tight. We just have to acknowledge a couple things from s1/s2 (the key, the 1x01 seal, LBD ''undoing the memories of the world) and then the show has a potential to go from a 9 in my book to an 11.

And like, here's what I mean.

So with 1x03 and the pinball machine you mentioned:

Sandy: "Uh, maybe a little more tape?"

Azure Lion: "All you had to do was wait. After this was over I was going to release Sun Wukong, help him see reason! That is now impossible! Not after what you've done!" Pigsy: "But...we can get him back right? Sandy: "We can fix it! Maybe we can find some magic tape!"

MK: "No no—I broke it. Part of being a hero is owning up to your mistakes."

MK: "Monkey King's a hero he wouldn't just-" Azure Lion: "You saw it with your own eyes! His betrayal his brutality—he took the only friends I had from me!"

Sandy: "There ain't nothing a bit of tape can't fix!" (And this is said in an episode titled "A Lifetime of Mistakes")

MK: "We can't fix everything. We just need to leave it a little better than we found it. As long as we stay true to that? We can deal with whatever comes next."

-

SO. LISTING ALL OF THAT TO SAY:

Destruction being woven into his being from s1 is just so plausible. But it's also like, I'm still not a 100% sure about it—but ALSO, the fucking "No no—I broke it. Part of being a hero is owning up to your mistakes." line is insane. Especially since it's after MK had just broken an object of value in half. Like, look:

SO I JUST DON'T KNOW MAN. Cartoon logic or narrative foreshadowing. I never know with this damn lego show

[imminent-danger-came]

did u know. that in monkie kid s1 ep8 (the skeleton key episode) there’s a bit where mk and mei are playing arcade games and mk’s avatar looks like him in monkey form. bc i didn’t until i rewatched the episode yesterday and got jumpscared by the foreshadowing. he’s been doomed to this the whole time methinks

YEAH.

(screenshot gumy is talking about for reference: )

Side note MK's monkey inflatable and snorkel from that episode make a come back:

Anyways! I've mentioned before why I think Monkey MK was definitely planned from the start, and also the fact they specifically don't show MK in the demon revealing mirror, so me certainly agrees. Like s1 lied to us!!! "Oh look at the Monkey King's normal delivery boy successor go on some cheeky little adventures-" *slams us with the narrative bus*.

And okay. Go with me for a moment: MK has a habit of breaking out of things right—specifically things where you're like "hey you shouldn't be able to do that!".

And, there are weird things going on with chains in this show as a whole (including the chest/chains above):

I think it's very interesting that the same key that is used to free LBD from her prison later that episode, is first used to unlock a similar "chest" that gives MK and Mei the power to win the "game" (*game motif intensifies* (motif post pending)).

And then you have this chained-up guy on a mural in Tripitaka's Library (that's only ever on screen with MK I might add):

And sometimes you have to wonder why LBD needed the staff/MK's powers to break the chains on the mech to begin with, whatever they were, and wonder how MK keeps breaking out of things not even SWK is able to, and wonder who that chained up figure is.