#new perspectives run

[golvio]

Tried the Damsel route today.

This shot and the sequence leading up to it is probably one of the most disturbing things in the whole game. It's to existential horror what the Prisoner sawing her own head off was to physical horror. If anything, the Prisoner's autodecapatation is now less horrifying, in retrospect, because at least she got to keep her personality and free will throughout the process.

But, also...even in the routes where we don't mean to hurt her, where we do everything in our power to avoid physically hurting her...we still hurt her.

Even if we came in here with the very best of intentions and tried to "do the right thing," we still hurt her by our thoughts and desires hollowing her out until she was reduced to...this.

Going through the "happy" version of the ending didn't feel so triumphant, after that. Not just because the ending wasn't quite as satisfying from a narrative standpoint without any sort of conflict to struggle against, but because the whole time it felt like she was following a script. Apart from the vague impulse to leave that all Princesses possessed, she'd been hollowed out of everything that had made her...well, her, before Chapter II. She didn't panic when the door shut, she didn't stop smiling when we suggested she might end the world or have to cut off her arm a second time. The only thing we noticed about her in Chapter I was her lack of response to pain and her sweet smiles, and our fantasies hollowed her out until she became nothing but that.

Can we say she was "happy" if she lacked the capacity to be anything but "happy" with our choices for her? Can you call that love? Or is it something that's even lonelier than outright being alone?

Honestly, it was a relief when the Shifting Mound took her. Seeing her made so shallow felt incredibly cruel, given who she was before she was flattened, and what she would've been capable of if we had done literally anything else. At that point, "You molded her to love you" and "She has served her purpose" felt like both an observation and an accusation.

But, given that my time with the Damsel was paired with Shifty's third vessel dialogue...it got me thinking about what She wants.

She says She doesn't want anything, that She's governed by the whims of whatever force is shaping Her at the moment, but...is She really happy, having who She is be subject to the whims of who's perceiving Her? Is She okay with not being able to hold a shape She's discovered she likes as soon as someone else perceives Her to be something different? Would She ever want to take a break from...all that? After all, She's drawn to us. The Long Quiet. The god of eternity and order. On a certain level, She craves stability.

Is her "gift" to us what She's secretly wanted all along? The power to choose Her own fate, Her own identity, and the power to change it if She doesn't like the path She's on? And what does that say about our gifts? Do we yearn for the completion we offer her through the vessels, given that we keep shattering to pieces every time we go back into the breach and start the loop again? Is this some kind of wacky flipped-upside-down Gift of the Magi situation where each of us gives the other what they yearn for but lack due to our being permanently separated into two beings against our will?

[cult-rangoons]

i literally just got here

[dissentersbedamned]

THEY'RE YOUR BEST FRIENDS!!!!!

art commissions

[spinjitsuburst]

watching secrets of the forbidden spinjitzu while i get some stuff done and i like to think wu's overly harsh vibe at the beginning of the season is him trying to reclaim SOME sense of authority after his ninja literally had to raiSE HIM FROM A CHILD GFDHKJGKJ

[plurralthiing]

this was just supposed to be a brief sketch in between doing commissions and uh. proceeded to get carried the fuck away anyways heres her

[hexados-on-a-string]

ghosts can't haunt ghosts silly, must be your mistakes then !

[torrentofhermits]

doodled two of my fav moments from ren's latest ep

[dare-to-dm]

In some ways it's hard for me to give specific DM advice with confidence because every time I run a campaign, I choose a different design philosophy from the last one. And not in a "The last time went poorly so we're learning from our mistakes" kind of way, but in more of a "Woo, that was fun! Now time for something COMPLETELY different" kind of way.

[wellnoe]

the thing about a starstruck odyssey. that i run into. is that margaret's position is not really discussed w any depth or specificity at least up to like. the point i have watched to. and that's a bummer specifically bc the position of the show seems to be that: she decided to help this ragtag team and she left the company before she did anything irredeemable. but this is disproven by her position. like it is unbelievable that she did not believe in scummy things and go along with horrible actions in order to reach her level of prestige.

the impression that margaret is a good person, that she's trying to get out of bad company, is largely bc ally plays margaret as someone who is fair and sympathetic to other people. ally beardsley (player) wants to help so margaret encino (character) must also have good impulses. which is nearly impossible to reconcile with margaret's backstory at this point. like. why is she doing any of this. she's such a weird character.

also. the way the show/game reacts to her wielding her power is a little unsettling. none of the crew are good people necessarily, but there is a recognition of the way norman's power and his use of it is abusive. this recognition does not carry through into recognizing the inevitable harm margaret must have actively pursued to have the position she does, and the way that power then influences the crew. its a little bizarre!

[minweber]

Me, with two different Tavs, mocking Orin with the fact that Bhaal and Sarevok don't care about her and have both betrayed her: ha-ha, get fucked lobster woman, shouldn't have done all the murders

Me, with Durge, after practically no new information about her character has been added, but Durge's story has reframed her as the unwanted child, the always-second-best, looked down upon and despised by everyone whose approval she desperately sought her entire life because they created her to do so, while the framing of two of them as siblings creates the implication that they are of the same foundation, coming from the same place and following the same course up until the point when, through what was essentially a random chance, one that she never got, one of them was thrust upon a path to possible freedom and redemption - a path that inevitably leads them to crushing her as the very entities that set those fates in motion cheer on: oh.

[jichanxo]

how it started:

how it's going:

[necrotic-nephilim]

What do you think about the fab five polycule

(Dick x donna x wally x garth x roy)

i'll be SO honest i wish i had like. insightful interesting opinions on them but i've always been a Young Justice kid and sort of. breezed past consuming Fab Five Teen Titans content-

but of what i *do* know, from the few comics i've read with these characters is this is one of the best ships for Dick, honestly. it always deeply annoys me when fanon content breezes past the Titans as if they're just some distant teammates and not some of Dick's closest friends, if not a second family. *especially* the Fab Five. for most, if not all of them, it's the first time getting to actually connect with other teen heroes. so there's something fun about how sort of terrible they are at it, at first. they all care about each other a lot. but they're kind of chucked into the deep figuring out how to work with each other and get along with *very* different personalities, so it's fun to see where the conflict comes.

as a ship, i do really love it. the Titans are a family. like we call a lot of teams found families, but for the Fab Five, that shit is the truest. they depend on each other and trust each other. when Dick and Bruce are on outs and Bruce fires him, he goes to the Titans.

i also enjoy how, to an extent, all of them are outsiders of some kind. Donna is alone in a new world she's never experienced, the same as Garth. Roy is still new and awkward to living the rich life with Oliver. Wally doesn't connect to his parents well. and of course, Dick has lost his parents and only has Bruce, who isn't the most emotionally available. of course they're going to cling to each other, as the first people they can really develop connections too. they're very clingy with each other and i think that's both cute and *fun* to explore like, codependency issues with them. how protective they can be of each other, how they default to trusting each other over their mentors, etc. it's all very interesting for a polycule, especially since for most of them, it's their first real relationship. i'm a big fan of "none of us know what dating looks like bc we've had such strange childhoods so we don't understand the Rules very well. we're all just going to date each other bc why would i date only one of you. do teamups count as dates now." vibes with teenage polycules. and the Fab Five just. have that on lock. they each fulfill a different "niche" in the group. Garth is the softer, more emotional one you can go to if you're upset. Donna is the one for planning bright fun trips and making sure you don't wallow. Roy is protective and can pretend to be suave, but he shows affection through gift giving and grand gestures where words fail him. Wally can cheer any of them up with jokes and distractions. and of course Dick is the logical one who makes sure they all keep their heads on and don't drown in the responsibility.

overall i think it's a really cute ship and i do wish i just. knew more about them to be able to write them/read fic of it because i do love their dynamic. and i'm just a firm believer in the Titans being Dick's family, just as important to him as the Batfam. they're a disaster and for that you gotta love them.

[bright-eyes-strawberry-lies]

Luke, 9 years old, traumatized for life, actively hunted as prey, and homeless: I’m a demigod and it’s the source of literally all of my problems.

Mortals: wow cool I want to be a demigod!

Luke, shoving breadsticks in his mouth because he’s also starving: I have to go

[infinite-bleps]

I'm so late about a bunch of choices books. Why did no one tell me there was a "crossover" book with Open Hearts and Hearts on Fire and that the cover looked like this?

This genuinely looks like a shitpost meme edit. I almost choked on food while laughing.

[akechi-if-he-slayed]

wake up babe new mishima reaction pic just dropped

[lord-squiggletits]

I don't know Drift's character very well so I don't feel confident doing this myself, but are any of my followers interested in Drift/Pharma or Pharma/Drift/Ratchet and willing to give it their best shot to describe how that might work out (positively)? Doesn't have to be art or a fic or something, could just be a meta or rambling in my notes theorizing about it