#mostly rambling

[nabexis]

Been doing some studies of Viktor and made some observations about his character design that I really like, especially when compared to Jayce. It's a bit long and rambly (and I'm too tired to check if it's coherent) so it's under a cut.

Viktor's design is very A-symmetrical, a visual signal that he's from Zaun. He literally carries the design of Zaun's Asymmetrical design philosophy in his facial features, making him automatically an outsider from the symmetrical design philosophies of Piltover's attempted perfection.

A huge theme with Piltover is that they strive for perfection, while Jayce, the poster boy for Piltover has mostly symmetrical features, he's not *entirely* symmetrical (the scar on his eyebrow, his lips, his hair) but his imperfections, his looks, are downplayed in the Man of Progress imagery. His mouth is closed to hide his tooth gap, he's in 3/4 view so his eyebrow doesn't show that there's not a scar on the other side, Even his hair is slicked directly back (Jayce gets close to this in S1 A2-3 - S2A1 but in S1A1 and S2A2-3 his hair is much less symmectrical looking. The poster of him doesn't even show the way his hair lays on his head correctly.

Jayce, once he starts going through it in the canyon, stops being as symmectrical. He's scratched up, gets scars, and his hair becomes unkempt completely, even when he cleans up a bit during the final two episodes where he's seemingly had a shower and some kind of sleep, his hair is no longer perfect or symmetrical. His design embraces the asymmetry, a visual mark of Viktor's influence on him.

Jayce, as he's wandered into Viktor's commune, his outfit has become completely asymmetrical. This is where Future!Viktor's influence is strongest.

Similarly, Viktor's hair grows longer and slightly more symmetrical-looking when he becomes the Herald in the commune. While his nose doesn't get unbroken, his lips are slightly thinner, making their asymmetry less noticeable. The mole under his right eye disappears into the hexcore's corruption, losing some of that asymmetry. A result of Jayce's actions.

Then near the finale, Viktor loses almost all his Asymmetry when he becomes the Machine Herald. His puppets still show asymmetry, but they're gilded and porcelain feature are far more reminiscent of Piltover than of Zaun, and his own face splits perfectly down the middle, making him lose one of the most promenantly asymmetrical features on his face, his nose. He's transformed into the opposing design philosophy.

Similarly, Jayce's final costume plays with asymmetry more than almost all of his previous outfits (excluding the one he wears in the commune), with his paldron on one shoulder, a sleeve that's shorter on one side, and his hammer being the most asymmetrical part of his design.

IDK where I'm going with this, mostly just observations that Jayce and Viktor's visual language have influenced the other person. Something Something Zaun and Piltover's influences over the characters and where they came from, and how that influence from the other place shows on the character's designs later in the series. Viktor brings the Elitism/Perfection dichotomy from Piltover, Jayce crawls up to Future!Viktor from Zaun, living Viktor's narrative in a literal sense, which, in turn, remade him in a Zaun way over his Piltover origins.

[skyderman]

big spoilers

cold harbor is grief... the pain of loss. that’s what they’re trying to ultimately remove. that’s what COBEL wanted to remove.

imagine a “utopia” where nobody feels any pain, even the pain of loss. imagine not being able to feel loss. imagine ONLY being able to feel loss. imagine being a person, trapped in a room, where all you do is exist to grieve. sitting in that old dusty room forever, with nothing but the cold ocean water sighing from the distance to keep you company. cobel was never allowed to grieve her mother, not fully, but she created a way to distance herself from that pain…

and yet. a life without grief is inhuman. you cannot be a complete person without fully experiencing loss.

mark is already trying to compartmentalize his pain, to go somewhere where he doesn’t have to feel it. but like petey said, the pain stays with him. you cannot separate yourself from it. without grief you are incomplete.

maybe that’s why cobel was so obsessed with him. but neither of them can escape it, they have to just feel it. cobel has never been allowed to properly feel it, and mark isn’t fully letting himself. that’s why she was following him. because they wouldn’t even let her take credit for her work! she was so invested in the severed floor because IT’S HER WORK. she really IS the most capable AND deserving person to manage it. fuck me

i feel like all the pieces are coming together. i can see the universe. cold harbor is grief!!!

[starscreambbymama]

I've been thinking about the scene where Tamlin locks Feyre in the manor before heading out on a mission, claiming it's too dangerous for her because of the creatures Amarantha unleashed on the Spring Court.

Now imagine this: Tamlin is gravely injured during that mission and is bedridden when he returns, only to discover that Feyre is gone. Lucien is left to piece things together and (perhaps?) sends a letter to the Hewn City, asking to speak with Feyre (assuming Rhysand has her "captured").

How do you think Feyre would respond? Would Rhys tell her the truth about Tamlin’s condition, or keep it from her? And if she found out, do you think she'd go back to him? Would this change her perspective on Tamlin locking her in the manor, or even reshape their dynamic entirely?

Hi sorry for the late reply!

Oooh that's interesting! In my opinion, I believe that Rhysand may hold this information from her to keep her from going back to Tamlin. Yet at the other hand, I could see him telling Feyre yet maybe tweaking the truth a bit. I could see Feyre holding immense amounts of guilt and see the situation in a different way then probably try and find a way to get back to the spring court. It would definitely put things in perspective and that Tamlin's actions were not to keep her cooped up in the mansion or doing it out of some possessive nature, but to keep her safe from Amarantha's creature. We also would get pretty good character growth for both Tamlin and Feyre too honestly and re-establishing trust with one another! Just to pull a lil bit from Beauty and The Beast, maybe have where Feyre is cleaning Tamlin's wound and tending to him yet Tamlin could be stubborn about it which leads to them having a heart to heart moment by the fire

[diamondkat]

Due to Hazbin Hotel, mainly Alastor, being my current hyperfixation it is hard to listen to any song without imagining scenarios related to them. I put most of these ideas into the Child of Roo AU that I have in my head. I have made a few posts about parts of the AU and their song inspirations. There are several other songs. Hazbin Hotel is a musical so it makes it easy to imagine the characters singing certain songs. Below is a summary of several parts of the story along with the songs that inspired them, arranged in chronological order

Never Trust a Smile: As an Alastor fan song that sounds like a woman singing a lullaby, makes me think of Alastor being raised by Roo after the death of his mother. She raises him to be cunning and manipulative. Alastor grows to be a successful serial killer and radio presenter in life and a powerful sinner in death. He considers his upbringing with Roo, who he also views as his mother, a major part of the reason for his success. In this AU, Roo is also Eve making her the mother of mankind. Alastor recognises her as both his mother and the mother of mankind.

Monster: When Alastor first gets to hell, he loses contact with Roo. After barely being saved by his birth mother's voodoo protections from going mad due to suddenly being flooded by an overwhelming amount of power, he is attacked by an overlord who sees his first display of power and considers him a threat. He ends up killing the overlord, who he eats immediately afterwards as he is starving and barely sane. He is found in the process of this by Rosie who takes him in as one of her own but also because she sees his potential. At first, living with her, he mutes his colours so that he blends in with the rest of his cannibals. Even though he is in hell, he wants to try living by the morals his birth mother tried to teach him a little bit more. However, when the cannibal town comes under attack from an overlord wanting revenge for the overlord Alastor killed, he must embrace the monster he was meant to be to solve the problem. Reconnecting to his true self enables him to reconnect with Roo once again. He begins his journey to being known as the sinner who rose to power overnight by hunting overlords. On the other hand, Rosie gets herself a powerful new ally that allows her to be treated with more respect by other overlords who consider her the only one who can convince the radio demon to do what she wants.

Done For: The first half of the song takes place soon after Alastor reconnects with Roo and the second half of the song takes place after Nothing Left to Lose. Alastor approaches Lilith on behalf of Roo to propose an arrangement. Lilith has been killing the children of Roo when they arrive in hell as they tend to pose a danger to the stability of hell and their existence was partially responsible for heaven deciding that Hell was planning and capable of staging a revolution. In the first half, they come to an agreement that allows Lilith to borrow Alastor's services when needed and Roo promises to help Lilith with her plans to reduce heaven's influence in hell. In the second half of the song, Lilith turns against Roo. Lilith figured out that Roo was using the deal to bid her time to break free from her seal while strengthening Alastor as her most powerful weapon. The second half of the song is Roo setting Alastor against Lilith. It fight ends with Lilith having to compromise as for some reason the fight was causing the seal to break. Lilith agrees to leave hell and not attack Roo in exchange for Alastor protecting Charlie and not sabotaging Lilith's escape. It ends with Alastor getting sealed away for 7 years.

Shatter Me: This story references the picture from the pilot where Alastor seems to be a tent. Alastor meets Niffty while investigating an overlord that he is considering killing. The overlord runs a kind of circus where they use other sinners as attractions. One of the attractions is a small bug-like sinner trapped in a freezing cold dome. She is only able to move slowly within that limited space. Alastor on seeing her decides that he is going to kill the overlord. He makes the circus into an alternate dimension that he controls and burns the overlord and his followers to death. The bug-like sinner who he names Niffty is one of the sinners who survives the massacre as Alastor spared those who were attractions. Afterwards, she asks him if he saved her because he is a good person and he replies that he is actually a bad boy. Niffty is one of the first souls that Alastor acquires. He later goes on to focus mainly on collecting the souls of overlords and those on their way to becoming overlords as he considers them more valuable for collection than the average sinner's soul. He also has a habit of giving the souls of random sinners to Niffty. This means that over time, Niffty became an overlord in her own right but she doesn't know.

Nothing Left to Lose: This occurs after Lucifer discovers that Lilith made a deal with Roo. Lilith wants to do something about the control Heaven has over their kingdom. However, Lucifer does not want to challenge heaven. This argument is the start of the end of their relationship.

Eyes on You: Season 1 in this AU is the same as in the series because despite this AU! Alastor being more powerful than canon! Alastor, he is restricted by his deal with Lilith from harming him as it fell under tampering with her escape which she achieved based on a deal with Adam. In the Child of Roo AU, overlords are usually careful about how they expand as no one knows what triggers Alastor to come after an overlord. This played a role in the stability of the overlords particularly those at the top. Even with Alastor gone for 7 years, with no evidence that he was actually dead, people were still cautious. Season 2 has Vox reacting to Alastor being injured and potentially weakened after his fight with Adam takes this opportunity to take over the pride ring. He and the Vees target all the other overlords and the hotel as part of their plans to become the true rulers of the pride ring.

Hold Them Down: Vox, at some point, tries to convince the other overlords to turn against the Morningstar family, particularly Charlie. He discovers that Charlie's redemption plan works and tries to convince the other overlords that it will be worse for them than the exterminations.

Ruthlessness: Alastor has been keeping out of what has been going on as he focuses on healing and trying to find a way to fix his staff. He has been healing slower than usual considering the cause of the injury but the corruptive nature of his magic has been corrupting the angelic magic allowing him to heal. However, fixing his staff has been proving to be a problem. He needs to fix it because while he can still perform magic without it, it is not as controlled as he would prefer. He has ignored approaches from overlords and even those at the hotel asking him to do something about the Vees. But, he finds himself unable to ignore them after one of their schemes hurts Niffty. He wants to kill them but Charlie argues against it. Alastor finds himself lecturing them on how ruthlessness is mercy on oneself. He points out how Vaggie leaving Lute alive could harm them in the future and how he had an opportunity to kill Vox in the past but allowed him to be saved. In the end, Charlie is still able to convince him to be patient.

Villain: With everything that is going on, Lucifer starts talking about how sinners are the worst. Alastor takes it upon himself to point out to Lucifer that his view is too black and white. After the end of the song, he reminds Lucifer that in a way Lucifer is the first sinner as the first one to break heaven's rule. He doesn't reveal to Lucifer that as a child of Roo, while he doesn't mind the fruit being given to Eve as his mother deserved the right to choose, he resents Lucifer for giving her the fruit with no warning or guidance in a way that allowed for the Evil to take control of her in a way that she still struggles with.

Get in the Water: At the end of Season 2, as Vox thinks he is close to achieving his goals, Alastor finally comes after him. After trapping the entire Vee tower in an alternate dimension, he corners Vox and asks him to sacrifice himself if he wants the remaining Vees and those under him to survive. Vox tries to beg for his life and the life of the other instead, trying to call on their past friendship to get Alastor to spare his life. Before coming, Alastor had actually reached an agreement with Charlie that if she could fix his staff, he would spare Vox and the Vees. Alastor, who could have killed Vox and the Vees at any time, allows for the delay because he believes in Charlie. Charlie is able to finish the staff in time, saving Vox and the Vees who Alastor threatens to never cross him or the hotel again. He also lets them know that they were only saved by Charlie's mercy. He uses this as another opportunity to continue to build a bond with Charlie.

[selfmaderibcageman]

Presented w an interesting question (boylikers: why do you like them, explain to outsider) and really frankly did not have a satisfying to myself answer for this. I think there’s obviously 3n-6 intangibles of like physique smell general habits that don’t really count here.

My initial answer was like, “more fun/accessible to hurt in competitions with” but I don’t have Trve Sadist Primacy as my driving force or anything…

I think probably to best examine this I should look at the additional constraints I have for women over men. While I’m not particularly great at receiving affection period it’s even more uncomfortable to me when coming from women, so arguably the easiest to define feature is a lack of like, Standard Societal Female Protector role type traits. Combined with the second and definitely more important restriction, which is like drive/passion/engagement with reality/ruthlessness as you please. Already this is getting into the corners of “things society punishes women extra hard for” & probably explains why back when I thought I was completely straight (like 14-19) I kept falling for lesbians.

These days I like to wink nod shortcut this description by just saying I like it when girls are vriskas, because it saves time and is mostly correct. I think the only way this works for me is when I’m kind of a curiosity & useful tool, which has never really enabled anything longer term anyway. (Also, because I am extremely independent and risk averse, I don’t tend to expose myself to interesting(dangerous) people so much….)

With guys, I feel like it’s a lot easier. I’m not really in danger of receiving unwanted affection, a little vulnerability there is perfectly exploitable by me as well, competition and aggression of that nature is rewarded, and usually I garner some level of real respect for my talents as opposed to getting them wrung out of me. It is simply easier for me to say what I like around guys, even if i am scheming, partially because they just aren’t thinking like that (which is a little boring tbqh), but also because I feel a lot safer about like, not being reported to HR for being intense about strange things. Maybe guys are more into entertaining other guys’ strange fixations and thoughts?

I guess there’s some fundamental heteronormativity respect gap here that isn’t entirely my fault

[just-gay-thoughts]

Been thinking about disabilities a lot recently between my hip fuckery and seeing firsthand progressing dementia, and God nothing opens your eyes more to ableism than firsthand experiences with it. The way my grandma is getting treated like a child who can't do anything by my aunts who also constantly use nursing homes and assisted living as more of a threat (like if it werent for my uncle living with her she def should be in a nursing/assisted living situation which is not a bad thing! That's just life sometimes and she deserves to be taken care of properly!)

My other grandma has also been having memory problems and the night and day difference between the sides of family is astounding and I love them both, but it's also made it so much more irksome to see the jokes about Biden having dementia. Because of fucking course that's something to joke about, idk if it's even true but good god the way its talked about is appalling

[weeb-cheese]

you know maybe it’s a good thing I never finished kaze, because based on what I know about how it ends, my ass would not have been able to handle that when I initially read the manga at 18. I needed several years to learn how to process shit and get to a place where I’m mentally healthy enough to not internalize all that. Anyway, I’m very excited to track the manga back down and finish it now!!

[unchangingeverchanging]

i don’t wanna work anymore, why can’t i be a cute little fairy just fluttering around with no care in the world 😔

tunglr don’t flag this plz

[pucchochuu]

A random long note.

I saw this meme post recently about how non-asians (I think?) feel when they got into supermarkets/stores for Asian groceries. (Sort of like they didn't fit in or felt like they were trying too hard.)

Most of the time, I don't pay much attention to whatever anyone is doing or saying. But if you're specifically saying strange things that make it seem like you are superrrrr obsessed with whatever Asian culture - then yeah, I do find it weird and funny.

For instance, I overheard a conversation recently. They were saying they were choosing a new name for themselves. That's cool. However, they said "is it weird I want to have an Asian name? Maybe like Chinese, or Korean idk"

imo, it is weird. I don't like when people do that. You're not that culture and maybe it's based on people's opinions. But personally I think if I met a very Caucasian person who was not mixed and they said their name was Xiaoting, I would never be able to take that seriously. And yeah, I like Kep1er ofc.

You can't just use a random Asian name, even online. Idc. You can do it, but you're gonna look like an idiot. I remember ppl asking someone in a game before "are you Japanese? Cos your name is _" and they had to clarify they aren't at all. They were American. With an awkward laugh.

For whatever reason, imo you're not proud of your own culture's names. If you find yourself obsessing over Asia for some reason, you should reflect on that imo. Think about how actual Asian people may feel hearing how obsessive you are. Cos like, to those people they think it's so *fun* *exciting* *interesting* to learn about a whole other culture that they think is amazing. I see their point cos ofc I like many aspects of Asian cultures.

But you don't understand that for thede enthusiasts it's like a past time/hobby as opposed to their LIFE. A lifestyle. Something they grew up with. If you immerse yourself in that culture, lived there for so many years etc, then I understand how overtime that could be the case.

But for most people that is not the case. They just wanna try buldak noodles for the week and say how they "need to have a Korean bf" before they get married. How they're "super obsessed with c dramas rn" then next year say they had a weird phase for liking them so much.

"I feel so much better after watching Asian movies and shows. It's like a whole culture that just makes me feel so much better. So I became really obsessed with Asia." (Sort of quoted from a recent show I watched)

Don't you think about the fact that's their people's normal food, normal media, it's not "other" or "special" it's just *NORMAL* for them.

I just find it very strange how people kind of normalise such an obsession and sort of weird thing about Asian cultures. Like you can't just join. It isn't yours. You can like parts of it but be normal? Like I do love how massively popular K-pop has become cos I like seeing Asians succeed. However, every so often I see some comments that make me feel so weird and I can't even explain it.

Honestly I don't care if people think "so can people just not like stuff? How can you say if someone is obsessed or not? Would you ever find a non Asian person to be acceptable in liking Asian culture?"

I think it depends on what they say/do and that's all I can say about that. It's personal opinion.

Like wdym you're in a Chinese restaurant and you don't know what tofu is? And you're not willing to try it either? Like, just leave please. You need to get out of this space cos it isn't for you.

[agnesmontague]

devastating news for the discourse poster: “media literacy” in the modern age includes the ability to identify which posts are bait

[flame-shadow]

hey did you know??? that if you stop stretching and maintaining mobility in your body then it goes away?? things get tight and you can't move the way that you used to??? and when you decide to try getting a stretch routine going that the first week fucking sucks because you keep going 'damn i used to be able to do this no problem' and then you have to switch gears and be kind to yourself and just focus on getting better from here instead of berating yourself for dropping the good habits in the first place??? and your body never stops aging so you gotta keep taking care of it and sometimes you gotta take care of it extra in certain areas because of things that happened when you were younger and it's boring and sometimes hurts but it's so necessary???

i am yelling this at myself right now i am going through An Experience (trying to get into a routine of body maintenance again for my physical and mental health)

[beyondthebcundary]

Teeps bad brain hours at work

It is what it is, I guess but I dunno

Ignore me im just gonna ramble while on the last few minutes of my break

I'm stuck like between wanting to do longer things with more overarching character growth all around and also shorter stuff that can also establish some things.

But i also wanna work on OCs and stuff but then comes that annoying feeling in the back of my mind that it's like "I'll do all this ground work and iconing but then when I'm ready to roll them out, especially with my work schedule, people will have lost interest."

There's also like, I know people want me to use my other touhou muses but like at the same time I can make a post of one of them that gets 0 traction or like a few likes and just, I don't wanna complain cause everyone is busy, but like likes aren't interaction.

And it doesn't help that either I'm at work when half the community is active, and sleeping when the other half is active thanks to my schedule so I can't even really plan things consistently, especially with them changing my schedule every other week so I can't get a definitive answer to things until like Thursday or Friday when my new schedule is up.

It sucks.

I wanna rp and stuff! I wanna be involved! I wanna mush characters together and make them grow and change!

I'm also just feeling a little lonely cause there's only like 5 people on my shift and 2 of the guys I talk to are out sick and the other two are older dudes that made some comments when I first started that just made it clear we would never vibe with

My supervisor is cool tho cause he's 71 and doesn't give a shit and has cool stories from his trucker days

Venting helped a little ok be back on in like an hour/ hour twenty during my lunch

[fade-rat]

Niche playlists are a necessary byproduct of my roulette of hyperfixations. This includes a dedicated "Solas" playlist.

The fun thing is that I started it pre-Veilguard and continued after Veilguard's release, and there is a MARKED tone shift in the middle of it like - part 1 is mostly very sad, melodic and instrumental, themes around being the bad guy by choice and circumstance and not loving it. And a lot of those themes are the same for the whole playlist, but the intensity amps up significantly - more violent, antagonistic. It matches with his Veilguard double-down, y'know?

[fox-guardian]

"maybe if i dress more boring i'll get gendered correctly by strangers" that's the devil talking

[bluerosefox]

Prom Invite

Wanna know what would be funny.

DeadTired Prom story.

Like no really hear me out.

As a bet or a dare or just Danny deciding to shoot his shot, Danny asks Tim Drake-Wayne to Casper's High Senior Prom via social media. He honestly thinks it will NEVER happen because come on its the internet and stuff.

But what if, what if Tim whose had an argument with Bruce or something and wanting to have some normal fun again before he became CO-CEO of WE or Red Robin see's the @ Danny sent him and decides you know what.

WHY THE HECK NOT?!

Danny wasn't expecting the guy to show up on prom night to pick him.

[five-oh-first]

au where anakin doesn't become a jedi and ends up overthrowing the hutts on tatooine with kitster, his mom and adopted family (the lars'). however, tatooine now needs a government, and the best way to get the planet back on its proverbial feet after the hutts' draining rule is to join the galactic republic. naturally, being some kind of Gift From The Desert (anakin is still very force-sensitive), anakin is voted tatooine's senator. and there, he is introduced to the jedi and the lovely senator from naboo...

now has a part two !!