#so i'm giving up and just posting this

[ilovedthestars]

I'm curious; what's X and Y?

(Writer Ask Game)

You've fallen into my trap and given me an excuse to talk about the other Yuma and Crowbar sequel fic! (mwahaha)

(CW for brief mention of a suicide attempt)

This one takes place farther in the future. After spending a bit of time on Preservation together, Yuma and Crowbar have decided they want to join the Polaris network / underground railroad and help Niri & the others get more SecUnits to freedom. They're set up on a CR station near Preservation, with an apartment that can serve as a safe house, a few helpful contacts, and all the equipment Yuma might need to fix up a SecUnit.

The fic starts with the very first SecUnit that comes to them--and not unlike Crowbar, it comes to Yuma in a crate, looking basically dead. It was illicitly sold for scrap and a contact bought it for Yuma to try to fix instead. It's been shot through the power cell, a very expensive part to replace, but they manage to hook it up to external power and get it back online. It's very visibly freaked out, and it can't talk--voice, feed, signs, anything.

It becomes clear pretty quickly that its voice was taken away by its former owner, and also that its injuries were probably self-inflicted. Yuma sets out to fix its voice, and when she succeeds, one of the first things out of its mouth is that it left another Unit behind, and can they help it too?

X and Y are the placeholder names for these two SecUnits (and if I can figure out a way to work it into the story those will probably be their actual names at this point). I started off writing from Yuma's POV but I've also gone back and written sections focused on X and Y, about the relationship the two of them have carved out under their oppressive owner. (I can't help it, I have to keep writing SecUnits who Care About Each Other despite everything <3)

[ariadne-mouse]

I feel fandom would get along a lot better if there was mutual understanding that liking a character, agreeing with a character, and thinking the character is well constructed/executed are all separate (if often overlapping) positions, each with their separate tastes and subjectivities. Also: character portrayals are intended to make the audience feel things; this is separate from (if often overlapping with) analyzing/appreciating their actions and role in the story.

[iamanartichoke]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a creator -

I am fine with "the audience" -

downloading my fics

printing my fics

copy/pasting or screenshotting my fics

sharing your saved copy of my fics with anyone else who might want them in the unlikely but never impossible case that my fics are no longer available on ao3

making a book of my fic(s) and running your fingers across the pages while lovingly whispering my precioussss

doing these things with anything I create for fandom, such as meta, headcanons, au nonsense like 'texts from the brodinsons,' etc

I am not fine with "the audience"

doing any of the above with the purpose/intent of plagiarizing my work or passing it off as their own in any capacity

feeding my work into ai for any reason whatsoever

Save the fandom things. Preserve the fandom things. Respect the fandom things.

Enjoy the fandom things.

[emmavakarian-theirin]

🐦‍⬛

[royalarchivist]

Phil: I still stand by, if I get a snail, I'm gonna fail RP and log out.

Sneeg: I don't think they're gonna give you one just like, unsolicited. Especially 'cuz you've threatened to not play? 🙄

Phil: [Cracks up] I've played these games before! I've done it before, man! I genuinely probably need therapy, but I'm just putting it off! [Laughs]

Sneeg: How do you explain to a therapist that you're attached to an Egg from Minecraft though? 🤨

Phil: Ok, so there's this server, right? And it's ran by my friend, and– It's– brings in people from various different cultures and languages, and then– and then he decided: "Oh, you know what would be really cool to keep people playing? And invested? What if we give them a fcking EGG?"

Phil's Chayanne and Lullah emotes were made by @strawbekka.

[ Full Transcript ↓ ]

—

Phil: I still stand by, if I get a snail, I'm gonna fail RP and log out.

Sneeg: I don't think they're gonna give you one–

Phil: Good

Sneeg: –just like, unsolicited. Especially 'cuz you've threatened to not play? 🙄 Um...

Phil: [Cracks up]

Sneeg: I don't think they're... I don't think they're gonna gamble on that.

Phil: I'm not doin' this NPC, like– actor– like, thing on server again! I've played these games before!

Sneeg: [Laughs]

Phil: I've played these g– I've done it before, man! I genuinely probably need therapy, but I'm just putting it off! [Laughs] For- for fckin'–

Sneeg: How do you explain to a therapist that you're attached to an Egg from Minecraft though?

Phil: Ok, so there's this server, right? And it's ran by my friend, and– it's–

Sneeg: [Overlapping with Phil] There's this server– and then there was an Egg, with a glock. [Laughs]

Phil: –Brings in people from various different cultures and languages, and then– and then he decided: "Oh, you know what would be really cool to keep people playing? And invested? What if we give them a fcking EGG?"

Sneeg: Attachment. [Laughs] Attachment to something!

Phil: "What if we give them an Egg that- that has wants and needs? And you need to look after it."

Sneeg: And a personality!

Phil: Yeah, "And a personality, and- [stammers] and quirks and- and–"

Sneeg: [Overlapping with Phil] And its life's in danger, people– things were trying to kill it.

Phil: Yeah. And things keep trying to kill it, and you have to save it, you are its– you are its only s– hope.

Sneeg: If it dies, it's your fault. It's your fault! Your fault. [Laughs]

Phil: [In unison with Sneeg] Your fault! Your entire audience of thousands of people will be PISSED if you don't care! If you don't care, you are a MONSTER!

Sneeg: [Overlapping with Phil] And they're so valid, they're so valid 'cuz it's true.

Phil: [Laugh] Imagine joining my stream, and I'm just like reading a bedtime story to a little Egg.

Sneeg: [Cracks up]

Phil: Like– [Laughs] Like, what a CRAZY way to come back!

Sneeg: "Oh, my favorite vanilla Minecraft streamer Philza Minecraft's on– playing Minecraft today, let's see what he's doing!" [Voice cracks as he tries not to laugh]

Phil: Yeah, "What's- what's Kusump?" [QSMP]

Sneeg: –and you're like: [Leaning into his mic] "Humpty Dumpty." [Laughs]

Phil: "What's Kusump? What's this? Why's he got an Egg, and why is it just holding up a sign that just says 'Food'?"

[kensatou]

you think YOU had a bad day at work?

bonus: sid shrieking "no!!!! NO!!!!!" loud enough to be heard in the stands and on camera

[asgardian--angels]

there's meta to be had about just how much of viktor's arc is about loneliness and the blatant visuals they use in his evolution about metamorphosis, butterflies, cocoons, in utero, etc, as he molts from a soft, vulnerable larva who keeps getting hurt in his bids for love and acceptance, into a hardened final form complete with an exoskeleton acting as both physical and emotional armor. a shield keeping his emotions in and the pain of loneliness and rejection out, until it's cracked and his humanity is forcefully exposed. like. sorry if it's just the entomologist in me but this was blatantly obvious the very first time i watched the show and I've been continually surprised that no one's really pointed this out. as a certified lonely person it struck such a deep cord with me, when he accepted his fate, his path ahead, to be one he'd have to walk alone, finally putting up that last seemingly impenetrable wall around his soft parts (but keeping the blanket, this signal that he never asked for this, and that he's not unreachable). So much of his s2 arc centered around not just his desire to right his wrongs and help the world, but to connect with others and not feel alone, both of which got twisted by the hexcore. His attempt to create a hivemind where no one would ever suffer loneliness or rejection or loss, and he would feel their souls with him as well (even though that was an illusion in the end, he truly believed it). The whole 'I now speak with all their voices' but he's just floating in an empty space. And for the consequence of the glorious evolution to be eternal solitude, it just drives home how that's the worst possible fate imaginable for Viktor.

[yaekiss]

o. okay. vampire brainrot blurbs part two.

because of castrum kremnos' pomegranate juice representing blood, you don't find it odd when mydeimos— your mydei— eyes up your neck on the warmer days where your turtlenecks and necklaces are switched out for tank tops and sweat that rolls down your face and neck... he hears nothing but the pumping of blood up the jugular vein, your panting after a hard day's work, the frustrated growl when your procrastination gets the better of you. you know mydei can help with that, right? just follow him to his room, focus only on the deep and satisfied groans he lets out at the exquisite taste of your blood. how could he resist when your fingers splay over his back or when your nails dig in to his strong shoulders? how could he resist when the taste bursts upon his tongue like the pomegranates he oh so adores?

bladie is a tsundere, for lack of a better word. he loves the attention you give him, but rarely do you get more than a hitching of his breath or a stutter in his words when you're looking. unfortunately for bladie, the red in his warm cheeks give him away every time, no matter if it's from you feasting/feeding from his thighs or purring lewd promises into his sharp ears. he may look away and scoff some nonsense about how you simply must stop this perverse routine, but you know better. you know bladie better than he thinks, so you know that he loves when you spoon him, attention only on him as you feed only on him, speak only to him.

dan heng is an equal, truly. you share glasses together in the cool breeze of a summer's evening often, and neither of you feel a wanting for more. it's comfortable living with him in your life: there is no hunger, for blood nor food, there is no yearning when your love is but a mere room away. human or not, dan heng there for you just as you are for him: a bared neck to feed from, a glass of blood to share in slow kisses, a wonderful lap warmer if he feeds from you.

𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒔 - 𝒑𝒕. 𝟐

꩜ Room Content: Dom! GN! Reader x Subby! Mydei, Subby! Blade, Subby! Dan Heng (separate), no gendered terms for reader, vampire! AU, blood and biting, a mix of fluff and smut for Blade's and Dan Heng's parts, brief mention of a handjob (reader giving) in Dan Heng's part, lmk if I missed anything! ꩜ A/N: MORE VAMPIREPOSTING YAHOOOO! about 1k to be exact. this one is a lot more errr fluff and feelings than I expected it to be, I think mydei's one is the raunchiest one while dan heng's is the fluffiest one (there's still smut ofc dw) HOPE THIS IS NICE orz... I don't know if I'm that good at writing more intimate feelings fluff content >< ꩜ Adjoining Rooms: Part 1 (Childe, Kaveh, Diluc)

🏷️𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟓: 𝑴𝒚𝒅𝒆𝒊 ꒷꒦ Human!Reader x Vampire!Mydei ꒦꒷

Mydei always has something to look forward to when he's around you, regardless of the climate or season

If it's a colder day and you have a turtleneck or a scarf on to keep the chill out, he can't wait until the both of you are back at home, where the temperatures are perfectly nice and cozy. Indoors, it's finally warm enough that you can shed the layers you've been bundled in (by none other than your sweet Mydei for the fear of catching a cold). The both of you settle in for the night after a day outside and he, at last, has unfettered access to teasing and biting at your neck. Alternating between mischievous nips along where your pulse bounds the hardest and heated kisses pressed to your skin, Mydei can't get enough of you at all,,,,

Warmer days. You've said it all pulpie!! Urgh can you imagine him soothing you over your frustration (the unbearable heat of the daytime definitely didn't help your mood). Mydei's nothing but honeyed affection as he leads you to your shared bedroom. He already has everything prepared on a side table. Curiously, a goblet of pomegranate juice is there too, a vibrant scarlet. Temptingly, he sets himself onto your lap before he helps himself to the feast at the crook of your neck, laving over the area first, only then does he bite down. You get to hear his breathy pants right next to your ear, groaning low at the taste of you on his tongue. Then suddenly, he licks over the puncture mark one last time before pulling back. Your confusion only doubles when he grabs the goblet and tips it until the red is spilling over from his clavicle down down down way past his torso. He guides your head over to his neck, mirroring his position earlier. You can hear the rising hunger in his voice.

"Don't you want to see just how sweet I can be for you too? Go on, bite down."

🏷️𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟒: 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒆 ꒷꒦ Vampire!Reader x Human!Blade ꒦꒷

He gets so blushy when you ask him to keep his legs apart so that you can drink from his inner thighs ("Surely there's somewhere less... perverse." A lot of talk for someone who's not kicking you away.)

His muscles jump when he feels your lips brush across the sensitive zone there, a hand caressing up his calf as if to rile him up even more. As you lean in again to sink your fangs in, all his senses hone in onto those two points.

"I swear, ah, this is the last... time I let you- hah... do this to me!"

(Your Bladie has said this many many times before in the past. How many times has he unwrapped the bandage around his right thigh for you? How many times have you caught him staring breathlessly at you when you feed from him?)

But there's also something so indescribably intimate about the whole ordeal, regardless of how repetitive it has gotten. Your eyes flick up and catch his hand fisting and toying with the sheets beneath him. Time to wrap mealtime up for now.

You leave a trail of kisses from the side of his calf up to where you were drinking from. Then, you shift your body so that he rests comfortably in your arms. With this arrangement, you're even more aware of the thundering pace of his heartbeat when you're pressed closely to him. Taking one of his hands into yours, you entwine your fingers, thumb idly tracing circles on the back of his palm

Cooing praises into his ears, fond amusement fills you as you watch the tips of his ears turn even more pink. He scoff under his breath but he doesn't move to pull away from you

The hand in yours squeezes tight, promising not to let you go, so you have to promise to do the same with him

🏷️𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟑: 𝑫𝒂𝒏 𝑯𝒆𝒏𝒈 ꒷꒦ Vampire!Reader x Vampire!Dan Heng ꒦꒷

Dan Heng feels like he got truly lucky to meet someone who complements him so well. He doesn't know how to explain it but he's in a sort of paradoxical state where he's so at ease and sated with you that he wants for nothing and everything at the same time

Whether you fill the silence in his room with lighthearted chatter, or the two of you simply work on your own projects in comfortable silence, Dan Heng can't help but smile softly whenever you're near him

On special occasions, you two like to share some glasses of blood. Over time, you've learnt each other's preferences, be it for blood type or food to pair it with. The breeze on his skin is nice as you spend the nighttime watching the stars, but he'd much rather stare at you instead. (If he could still blush, you'd note how rosy his cheeks are even in the dimmed lighting.)

There's no need to go through the whole awkward "I'm somehow a vampire" thing with a fellow vampire. You don't pry when he's not ready to reveal his past, and you listen when he does. He's infinitely grateful to have someone who gets him at such a personal level.

The both of you spend the nights in each others room rather often, he realises. This thought pleases him, his eyes curving up slightly into crescents while you're currently mouthing at his jugular, the sharp points of your teeth scraping across his skin but never breaking past it. A pleasant heat builds up in him when he feels your hand snaking from his chest, to his abdomen, and further down still. He grinds lazily against your palm, quiet moans slipping past his lips.

"What are you thinking about that's got you smiling like that?" You ask, incentivising him to answer with the promise of release as you swipe your thumb against the tip of his cock.

"You already know the answer to that," he rolls his eyes in faux exasperation, the arms he has around you hugs you closer to him, until he's able to tuck his face in a slot between the both of you.

"It's always just you."

Thanks for reading! Consider supporting me on kofi if you enjoyed this or check out my other works hehe ♡

[sainz100]

2024 Brazilian GP | x

[14dayswithyou]

💖 Day 3.5 is now available! 💖

For the last couple of months, only Server Boosters had access to the 3.5 update... Buuuuut now it's available for everyone to play in the 14DWY Discord — and soon itch.io once I'm happy with the QA and state of the game — so please don't feel pressured to join unless you want to!!

The full devlog + even more screenshots are under the cut ^^

What's been added to the 3.5 version?

📺 Streamer Mode!

I've been told that it's difficult to stream and monetise age-restricted videos on YouTube and Twitch, so I added an option to remove the sexual content and strong language used in the demo.

Now y'all can invite Ren into your bed for cuddles without putting your streamer career on the line /silly /lh

This won't affect the 18+ rating or dark themes/elements of the game, however! Although Streamer Mode will prevent you from seeing any "gruesome" CGs in the future, most of the core elements of the game will still be tied to the choices and decisions you make. So you won't miss out on the overall experience by using streamer mode!!

⚙️ Custom Pronouns!

It only took me one entire year to get around to it, but you can finally choose your own preferred pronouns (or use a set of pronouns instead)... At the cost of being able to change them mid-game ^^;

Since the original pronoun screen wouldn't update until a new scene was displayed, I temporarily disabled the feature. But once I find a workaround, I'll bring it back!

💗 Choose how others perceive you!

You can now choose how the cast and narration perceive you! Originally, the narration was kept strictly gender-neutral (outside of pronouns and genitalia picked by the player), but this will soon change in future updates.

For more clarity: you don't get to choose the words specifically, but you can choose between masculine, feminine, and androgynous terms!

📋 Separate top and bottom genitalia!

You can now choose your tatas and pps separately! >:3

Alongside that, you can also choose your preferred body type!

I removed the "both" genitalia option because a few players still assumed it was an obscure version of "intersex". That wasn't my intention and I don't want to mislead anyone, so I took it out for now ^^;

I also didn't want to include a screenshot of the new genitalia choices in action (because it's NSFW), so y'all get the same character menu screen for the nth time instead lmao

📱 Relationship Screen Overhaul!

You can now change your own status for more immersion, and long-term Server Boosters will eventually be able to submit and use their own icon within the game as well!

Stalking finding your friends has now become easier by using "Buddy Maps"; a new app that allows you to see the location of all the cast members!

I want to offer players more incentive to check the relationship screen since they tend to miss the status updates, so hopefully this might help ;v;

It also says it "updates every few hours" so folks don't go overboard and check every 5 seconds to see where Ren is gdsghf (also keep in mind that he's a hacker lol)

🖤 Additional Scenes Update!

Day 2 received a brand new CG!!!!! Originally, I planned on only adding a few CGs sporadically throughout the game, but it didn't feel right to leave Day 2 so... empty... so I added a brand new CG to (hopefully) make things feel more balanced and natural!

If you decline Teo's offer on Day 3, Leon will now call and try to convince you to reconsider. However, players are still allowed to decline, and if they do, they'll reach a dead end.

After listening to feedback on itch, I changed some of the dialogue during Days 1-3 to make it seem more consistent! They're only small changes though, so it's honestly not worth looking for sdgjssga

🎶 Updated BGM and SFX!

I wanted to try out a different style of music to see if it fits the vibe of 14DWY more! The BGM features more acoustics to suit the "beachy" theme of Corland Bay, though I made a conscious effort to include piano elements as well to stay true to the original!!

I figured it'd be better to give players a live example before I make a poll (to see if they prefer the change or not) and publish it to Itch.

Some new SFX have also been added, though it's very minimal and honestly not that noticeable.

How to download and play the update?

(warning: clicking on the following links will open Discord!!) To download the Day 3.5 update, simply join the 14DWY Discord server, verify your age, and visit the "14dwy-updates" channel!

Alternatively, you can also wait until the update is publicly released on Itch to play it as well!! (It normally gets released shortly after a round of QA testing/getting feedback from the server, though I may release it earlier if I feel like it hehe ^^)

Enjoy!!

[rosurie]

sometimes after a long day of being molested by the whole town all you need is to soak in the bath with your bestie (˶ˆᗜˆ˵)♡

with @wreckowafer 's yunie <3

[ambusterpm]

I just couldn't stand it anymore, he deserved that hug,,,, (in reference to this post: here )

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but the irony of Nico calling Max unprofessional is sending me so bad like sir there's an entire garage full of people, who were literally in the trenches trying to survive the Brocedes fallout while just doing their jobs, who might have a few things to say about your (& Lewis') level of professionalism at that time 😭✋️

[trixxedheart]

It is amazing how the "people that love and uplift transwomen" website will instantly fucking maul a transwoman if she even remotely insinuate that using radfem rhetoric harms trans people

[beargregor]

wait i'm curious, what makes you say that gregor doesn't like everyone else (if i read that post right)? just curious since i've never seen anyone else say that

i don't necessarily think gregor dislikes everyone else at lcb but i do think that gregor is an incredibly petty person that isn't nearly as close to the rest of the sinners and even outright dislikes some of them cough cough rodya cough cough which a lot of people just Refuse to see because he's as much of a doormat as he is. there's several examples i could get into to try and prove my point however i'll just focus on what i personally think to be the biggest ones.

additionally, this is going to be kind of long, so i'm adding a read more. read more! read it. sorry for being so wordy. i have several diseases.

Pt1. gregor is the type to try and get along at least decently with everyone, especially if he gets a good first impression from them.

this is less a point in favor of gregor's distance w/ the rest of the sinners and more just a contributing factor to it. once again there's several examples i could point to here but i think the most in your face one happened in canto I with yuri, as several people have pointed out. even before gregor comes clean about growing attached to her as quickly as he did because she reminds him of his sister, we get this interaction.

i'll go ahead and make the disclaimer now that i don't necessarily think gregor is the most reliable of narrators, especially when it comes to his feelings and interactions with most people, but from the way he acts when the topic of yuri comes up (and the way we still see him act even all the way up to c7, nearly a whole year after yuri's death) i don't see reason to question his sentiment here. gregor immediately got that aya and yuri were close, potentially even taking note of their traded belts, and went out of his way to get something nice for yuri despite hardly knowing her.

i feel like a lot of people have forgotten as much, especially since it's been so long since c1, but gregor actually spent a good bit of season 1 doing the exact same thing with the other sinners! gregor reads a connection between him and ishmael pretty quickly despite getting off to a rocky start

mostly because gregor can tell that ishmael is pretty sardonic in a very similar way to him. there's been multiple instances where ishmael and gregor have essentially expressed the same sentiment at different moments, most notably gregor's little argument after ishmael got shot with a decay ampule in c4

and ishmael's response to pilot talking about self-sacrifice in c5

i could go ahead and pull up more examples, but in general pm has gone out of their way to show us that gregor and ishmael are pretty similar, so it makes sense for gregor to assume that they're friends, right?

this will be pushpin 1. keep note of this for Later.

ishmael's only the first sinner we see gregor trying to do this with in s1, we also see him try it out with heathcliff, sinclair, and ryoushuu

he's tried to get along with charon, being one of very few sinners that we've seen actually try to establish a connection with her at all

even rodya, despite my insistence that gregor doesn't like her nearly as much as the fandom thinks he does

all of these seem pretty fine and dandy, right? sure it frequently leans towards self-degradation, micromanaging, and commiseration, but gregor can at least be pretty chummy with most of the sinners, can't he?

Pt2. hell's chicken was more than just comic relief guys please

i'm fully aware that this is quite the hot take, but i think hell's chicken deserves a lot more credit for character writing than the fandom gives it. hell's chicken gave us foreshadowing for several events, such as the donqui bloodfiend reveal

heathcliff's distortion in c6 (as well as hong lu's highly speculated distortion at some point in the future)

and ryoushuu and sinclair's continued connection by making him the odd one out on her team

which, hey! that implies something about gregor's odd one out, don quixote, too, doesn't it? yes. yes it does. that's pushpin 2. keep note of that for later.

speaking of pushpins, hey! that's pushpin 1!

splitting into teams is one of the major events in hell's chicken, and most of the sinner's choices are either motivated by very little, backhanded, or motivated primarily by not wanting to be on the opposite leader's side. i didn't include all of the picks, just because i feel like including most of them already gets this across, but i think gregor took one major thing from this: most of the sinners, when push comes to shove, will only side with gregor when they refuse to or can't take his opponent's side.

now, don't get me wrong, i'm fully aware that this is primarily intended to be comedic relief, but when gregor is being described as having his trust broken by ishmael or nearly crying because no one on his team properly sided with him for him, i feel like it's pretty fair to read into this.

something that i think is pretty important to remember in conjunction with this is that we know that gregor is the type to hold a grudge, both from his general attitude towards the G corp soldiers in c1 as well as his continued distaste for vergilius

even beyond the splitting into teams of hell's chicken, the sinners have given gregor plenty of reasons to feel bitter. i feel like this is something people have noticed but haven't really put a finger on, but it's kind of wild just how often the rest of the sinners make gregor the butt of the joke

and sure, we could argue that a fair few of these aren't really made with any ill intent. quite a bit of it could have been meant as harmless teasing, but with gregor being more sensitive than most, it coming from nearly all sides, and as often as it does? yeah, i think he's prone to taking it a bit personally.

Pt3. yes i do still think gregor was the third most important character in canto VII you guys gotta hear me out okay

of course, all of this leads up to the bit of the story i highlighted, doesn't it? c7? i totally get why people haven't really picked up on all the gregor things i did in it, seeing as they were mostly not *directly* said about him or by him.

personally, i think that gregor's distaste for talking about himself on any serious level and thus leading to him getting sort of "sidelined" narratively (which i take issue with that claim, but still. it's effective for getting what i mean across atm) is supposed to lead players to take a deeper look at the times gregor gets held up to other characters and compare and contrast what's being said about them by the matchup. as i showed earlier with his immediate latching onto ishmael, i think this is something gregor himself is at least partially aware of too.

so, that begs the question, who was gregor compared to in canto VII that makes me think it's one of the most critical pieces in understanding his character?

really, i'd like to avoid getting too lost in the analysis of this canto specifically, since i'd like to do a proper post about this later, but i figure i can bury the lede a little before doing it properly.

c7 features several characters being made to perform in sansón's play, acting out the relevant backstory for this segment of the plot. a lot of these characters have rather direct, degrading reasons for playing the roles they do.

outis, a character with an inflated ego who wants her journey to have a purpose, is made to play an aimlessly wandering villager with a single line.

hong lu and ryoushuu, two characters for whom families and the expectations placed upon them are likely going to play a major role, are made to play bloodfiends.

rodya, a character who resents her lot in life and is constantly shown to be eager to leave her destitution behind her and become someone special, is made to play a helpless villager that's too poor to even offer any money to the hero that saves her.

heathcliff, a character that has spent most of his life getting dehumanized by comparing him to beastly animals, is made to play a literal bear whose sole purpose in the plot is to get beat up and then quickly left by the wayside.

sinclair, a character that has two opposed parties essentially treating him as a macguffin to procure for their side, is made to play the character who was arguably the catalyst for this entire canto, not to mention playing a decently major role in ruina.

our star don quixote is made to play her father, the first kindred, but there's someone by their side the entire time, isn't there? don quixote's dear, steadfastly loyal companion. a character which don quixote has tasked themself with getting to come out of their shell?

hello again, pushpin 2.

gregor has been made to play our unreachable star, sancho. someone had to, of course. you can't really tell a story without it's main character, now can you?

now, i should once again give a disclaimer. i am not trying to say that i think adapting what happens to donqui/sancho in c7 to gregor is the road pm is going to take here, not only would that toe a bit past the line of foreshadowing, but it'd also just amount to rehashing that plotline again, which i don't think would make for a particularly exciting story.

what i DO think is that we can take a lot of the things that are said to either directly be the case for sancho and use them to inform how we see gregor.

and god, does playing sancho have some fucking implications for our favorite ossan archetype.

starting off, the earliest moment we get to see of sancho is quite literally her just waiting for death to take her in a pile of ashes.

which, i should remind everyone, is actually pretty damn close to what happens to gregor's literary counterpart at the end of the metamorphosis. gregor samsa experiences one final breaking point that pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to just wait for starvation to take him.

gregor and sancho both consider themselves to no longer be human, something which sancho goes out of her way to highlight repeatedly throughout the canto and gregor is quick to get defensive on her behalf for when outis starts really tearing into her

sancho spends quite a lot of this story denying herself the joys of community and friendship, despite knowing that, even with the rest of the sinners frequently making jokes at her expense and outright insulting her, they were things that she desperately craved.

and, while this is getting into my "outis is a red herring meant to distract us from gregor's eventual betrayal" theorizing, i also think it's worth noting for this discussion that sancho's fellow kindreds, her family, all seem to be under the impression that she dislikes them and ultimately her departure was an act of betrayal

and that, despite gregor being one of LCB's resident mood makers and attempted conflict de-escalators, one of the sinners that's most prone to making appeals to the bonds they've all forged together, only him and faust remained silent during everyone's speech

so yeah, i think there's quite a lot of little details and hints building up to the reveal that gregor's not quite as fond of everyone as he presents himself to be. i do think a lot of this ultimately comes down to gregor getting in the way of his own happiness, similarly to donqui, particularly because he's been frequently portrayed as something of a self fulfilling prophecy, especially by giving him as many christ allegories as they have by way of priest and garden of thorns. gregor is convinced that the rest of the sinners don't like him because he's not convinced anyone could like him, so he convinces himself that he hates them because why should he care if someone that he hates hates him too?

a lot of this ultimately ties back to my personal interpretation of what happens in the metamorphosis as well as my own theories regarding all the times gregor has made weird callbacks and references to lobcorp and ruina, but yeah. i think about this guy and his deeper characterization a fairly normal amount, i think.

to end this off i'll highlight one of my favorite little "gregor is fucking seething and trying so hard to keep it cool" moments, in the credits CG for c7 we see rodya teasing him by drawing a little horse on his window and actively pointing and laughing at it, which gregor really doesn't seem all too pleased about.

i personally think this ties into the other cruel part of sansón forcing gregor to play rocinante, which is the more literal "he's actually just straight up playing rocinante" side of things. gregor was quite literally made to play something less than human, less than even animal really, as he was reduced to nothing more than the shoes don quixote wore as she got to play the leading role. sansón directly makes jokes about gregor being nothing more than shoes in the play twice, which adds to this reading, i think.

this, imo, really plays into the adaptation of the metamorphosis! i've seen a lot of readings for the book that posit that, despite being the protagonist, gregor samsa can't really be considered the main character due to nearly everything he experiences in it being used to further his family's character development at his expense, which i think fits nicely with limbus gregor seemingly having the most said about him through indirect means by holding him up to other characters. also it's rodya carelessly making fun of His Big Major Insecurities™ again like she did in c1 which i always find fun. rodya i love you but god you're the worst.

[tls123]

everything else in the story aside you know jiang cheng doesn't really want wei wuxian dead because wei wuxian tells him to calm down when he's reminding him just why he can't stand wen ning even after sixteen years and the guy still gets to walk out of that room alive, like

calm down? i'm gonna kill you