#shalem

[senao-manythanks]

shalem

[coolchulainn]

[helytzaa]

my most normal friend shalem

[lethalfragmentation]

was reminded that i had a bunch of doodles of this guy that i never posted here

[sa-reverie]

Shalem, the “normal” guy ever

[cerastes]

Just Some Guy subgenres

Shalem -> Wants to desperately be Just Some Guy, runs at full speed every day so his backstory can’t catch up to him.

Mr. Nothing -> Insists he’s Just Some Guy, but he inevitably drifts closer and closer to his backstory, which does not pursue him, because it knows that, with time, Mr. Nothing will come to it by himself.

Jaye -> Actually, genuinely believes he’s Just Some Guy, has deep connections to the most important, influential, and powerful individuals of several large organizations, but is unaware of it.

Lee -> Blackbelt Just Some Guy, has become incredibly well-versed in dodging his backstory and not getting put in situations, and when he is put in situations, manages to navigate his way through. Is surrounded by people with backstories, and is incredibly well connected.

Lumen -> Is actually Just Some Guy, please help him.

[tainbocuailnge]

shalem's profile is weird because operator profiles are in lore written as rhodes island personnel files. a person in universe writes these files as part of the HR administration and so they are always framed through a lens of reporting on things operators told them directly, the operator's observed behaviour in the landship, things their independent investigations have uncovered, etc. occasionally there will be a section with ambiguous perspective or author where it's implausible a HR person would actually be able to write this down, but this is almost always the "promotion record" section and all the "archive file" sections are, well, plausible HR archive files.

this is consistent among pretty much all operators including fellow bearers of the curse like phantom and ebenholz, integrated strategists like mizuki, highmore, or valarqvin, ancient mysteries like the sui, and literal fairytale dreamland residents iris and bena. even sections that are written as flowery and ambiguous glimpses into their past use this framework of something a HR employee would reasonably write down in these files as relevant information on how to handle the operator in question, like bena's history being reported as a fairytale bena's grandmother told her, or fragments of sui history being conveyed through reports of ancient inscriptions.

all of shalem's files after the medical examination are written like this though

they're describing a character. and a mobile game character's profile describing a character to you likely won't even scan as weird on first read but it's completely out of line with the way every single other character profile is written. it talks about the future like it's obvious. it describes his nightmares without any mention of him actually having shared those with anyone. it explains in loving flowery detail how the crimson troupe recruited and indoctrinated its performers. it's completely unclear who wrote this or how they got this information. shalem doesn't get to contribute a single word in his own files, these aren't HR files describing what kind of person shalem is, it's a narrator describing what kind of character shalem is

the crimson troupe arguably has their claws in shalem way deeper than they do in phantom. phantom is the star performer that the troupe actually wants back but he has wiggled his way out of his role far enough that his files are actual HR files that describe him as a person in the setting. shalem refused to play the part of killer and ran away from the troupe, but even while eking out a new life in rhodes far away from his past he never once slipped out of character.

[ryuucha]

Thinking I’ll keep fixating on bird boys but is now stuck on dramatic cat and snake interaction o(-(

[tenkain]

my friend Shalem

[mizar-80]

[potatoescanbesadtoo]

[coolchulainn]

shalem is normal this is just what being an artist is like

here's the text in the first image but with more readable formatting and actual punctuation:

So it’s a fairly common sentiment among actors that once you pick up the profession your every action becomes subject to the framework of the performance, right? Even in the midst of your most intense emotional breakdowns there’s this part of you that is assessing how it looks and feels, and how you might artificially recreate these moments to convey the same impression of emotion to a hypothetical future audience. And with this comes the constant nagging feeling that even your most sincere expressions of yourself are simply a performance of traits, rather than an expression of your actual self, and that’s for the actors that weren’t raised by a theater murder cult that assigned you a personality to act out for the rest of your life or die.

And in a sense I am fortunate that the personality they decided on for me is “modest and gentle”, because this made it fairly easy for me to blend into the background of society after I ran away and built an imitation of a normal life for myself. But it’s precisely because that is the personality I was assigned that I have no idea whether I ever actually escaped or was simply allowed to leave, because I cannot be sure that this desire to escape is actually my own. I ruined my stage debut because I did not want to kill someone, but the personality that retained a conscience that wanted to leave was assigned to me by the very people who wanted me to surrender that conscience. And I have no recollection of what I was like before I began to act according to that role, so the role of modest and gentle Shalem is all I have as a self to act according to, and even while I physically distance myself from the Crimson Troupe my life and self continue to be defined by their decisions about what that life and self should be.

And if I really did not want to kill I could easily live out the rest of my days as a logistics operator never seeing the blood of another person, right? But I became a combat operator by my own choice. I cannot avert my eyes from the beauty of slaughter that the Crimson Troupe raised me to see. I am hopelessly drawn to the battlefield for the way it resembles the stage that I once so desperately sought to escape and cannot deny the rush I feel when I splatter some poor schmuck’s brains out with my shield. I mean, you’ve seen how I get out there right, I’m setting myself on fire and everything because I can’t stop thinking about wanting to see their heads on a platter. Did you know my debut was going to be Salome btw.

[mai3phy]

fanart I drew of shalem arknights dying in a glue trap (with shalem tadpole ver)

[helytzaa]

sketch dumps

[lethalfragmentation]

arts defender propaganda 💥💥

[hyuuhuhu]

scrapped Shalem