#there probably is legal gambling but she'd never go for it

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

Vriska: I'm shocked, SHOCKED, to find that illegal gam8ling is going on here!!!!!!!!

Jake, with a fistful of boonbucks: Your winning's, ma'am

Vriska: Thank you

Vriska: Every8ody, OUT AT ONCE

[ninjagirlstar5]

I was in the mood to draw Minako Tomori, and so I did. I put her in this melancholic pose while dressed in casual clothes, like she's hanging out in public, but she started getting distracted by past regrets...

Her casual clothes are based off of this sprite edit I made of her for my fanfic:

There's no tattoo-covering-a-scar on her shoulder in this sprite cause I literally just came up with that headcanon yesterday and this sprite edit is almost a year old (I just never posted it until now). Not that you would've seen it that well from this angle anyways.

Her tattoo is based off of the flower, Sakurasou or the Japanese Primrose, btw. Kinda proud on how it turned out, ngl, as I'm not really that good in designing tattoos for characters. ^^;

Anyways, I made an off-the-cuff Minako Tomori analysis under the read more, oops:

I've been seeing a lot of Tomori family talk lately and that made me start thinking of Minako again as she's, well, kindof my favorite out of the 6.5 crew next to Dr. Ando (which led to me making this drawing of her). Now, I'm not defending her in how she raised Kizuna or her horrible attitude or anything like that. She's pretty horrible in DRA 6.5 and she gets called out on multiple times by Ryutaro and even Dr. Ando, and rightfully so. But man, from what I can understand in DRA 6.5, she's clearly a goddamn mess. From all the smoking she does to (badly) cope with the stress of dealing with her failure of a marriage to a shitty husband who is also a shitty dad, to constantly cheating on him cause she'd rather be anywhere but with him and can't divorce him due to collateral so she's just legally stuck with him so she goes off to find other men (usually younger but at least they're of age) to ignore her problems at home, puts importance on money because she's the only one trying make sure they have a fuckin' roof over their heads cause her husband is too busy gambling and drinking all their money away, and probably put importance on her appearance more than anything else cause it's one of the few things she can control about herself and feel confident in (and even then, she can't stop the passage of time that is old age). And all of this, plus how she interacts with Ryutaro in her Talk sections (a.k.a. her FTEs) by constantly calling him brat and trying to get him to go away, and no wonder Kizuna turned out the way she did. She had a dad that was never there for her or his wife, refusing to take responsibility for anything and just focuses on himself, and her mom is dealing with SO many things that she's constantly stressed about money and her appearance to the point that she's unable to be emotionally supportive to her daughter in any healthy manner that her flaws, her own attitude about men, and her beliefs in money and appearance is all that matters just ended up trickling down to her daughter and influencing her in a way that it turned her into the messed up girl she is in the short time we got to know her in DRA. Like, holy shit, Minako. You're an asshole of a parent, but when you really think about it, the poor woman got the short end of the stick in life and that really affected how she acted in raising her daughter. Again, not defending her as she's still a bad influence but it's hard not to pity her when she's left to do all the work herself, from parenting, to working, to just trying to take care of herself (by coping in very bad ways)...It's not an enviable position, that's for sure. But honestly, that's what makes Minako so interesting to me. She's not a good person, far from it, nor is she the "better" parent in this scenario. But she still cared enough about Kizuna to follow a suspicious note and getting kidnapped in the process, even when it had the underlying motivation of deciding that she had enough of her shitty husband and took the opportunity to run away from him. And whenever the other characters, particularly Dr. Ando, call her out on her nonsense, I think she gets struck silent in response. Like their words are genuinely getting to her and making her question the way she acts.

And you know what fucks me up the most?

The implication that, between finding out what happened to Kizuna and the rest of the class in DRA post 6.5 upon getting rescued and before the events of SDRA2, she actually changed and improved as a person. Minako, while she is gossiping in the epilogue, is a lot more nicer and friendlier here, is giving us a rundown of what happened after the Utsuroshima Killing Game and the rumors surrounding it to Midori, and making light-hearted jokes in an attempt to cheer Midori up by making fun of herself. And when Midori starts to cry over Teruya's death, Minako's sprite goes sympathetic and concerned and it fades to black for awhile and we come back to Midori reassuring Minako that she's feeling better now with the implication that Minako was trying to comfort her through her mourning. And then she gives out some pretty sound advice, even when dropping this bit in the process:

(The translation is an unofficial version and this bit of dialogue appears at the 3:55 mark.)

"...Go ahead and cry your heart out. You're still young, so you don't have to pretend you're strong."

"With age, the tears won't come even if you want to cry, so when you feel the need to cry, cry."

Which, OW to that last one.

Like, imagine going through so much shit through your life as an adult that you can't even bring yourself to cry about it. You just go, "Yep, this might as well happen," with all the apathy and frustration you can muster in your body.

And when Midori goes to leave to talk to the criminals, Minako has the sense to go "That's a bad and dangerous idea, Midori, don't go alone!" and points out that she JUST got out of the hospital and hasn't fully recovered yet. She even tries to convince her to stay by asking her to continue talking with her cause she's bored. (And, well, I can believe that, even when she's speaking some common sense.) But it clearly rubbed Midori the wrong way as she seems to want to be useful in any way she can, regardless of whether or not her life gets put in danger, so she goes anyway. Aaand Minako complains about Midori's parents not teaching her to treat her adults with "respect," and has brought up "worrying over Keisuke getting a scratch on his pretty face" earlier in conversation, which shows that she's still a flawed person. But I consider that good writing as just because she's a better person now, that doesn't mean her flaws are just going to go away or disappear suddenly. Taking away a character's flaws in order to make them a "good" person will only make them bland, boring, and flat as a paper. Flaws are meant to help characters be more nuanced in personality, and Minako still being abrasive is good as it's a flaw that is a part of her to be aware of and keeps her character recognizable despite the implication that she's trying to do better now. And when Midori gets kidnapped, she immediately runs over to Ryutaro and Keisuke to tell them what happened, calling Ryutaro "kid" in the process, and showing fear for Midori's safety. I don't know if the translation between Kid and Brat is any different, but it's a step up from brat, at least. (And honestly, I can see Minako using "kid" and "brat" as a more affectionate nickname to Ryutaro over time since she comes off as the type to show affection through teasing.) And to top it all off, the cigarettes from her DRA sprites have been replaced with lollipops in her SDRA2 sprites, and candy is a common way of trying to combat addiction to nicotine.

In other words, the way Minako acts in SDRA2 shows that she's trying to be a better person, even if that development happened between games. (And frankly, we shouldn't just stop everything in the epilogue just to have a flashback of "here's why so-and-so acts like this now!" Like, that would just kill the pacing of the epilogue and defeats the whole purpose of a time-skip between games.) It's just a shame that Kizuna's death was the wake-up call that put her on that track to growth in the first place (alongside the call-outs). It's through the death of her own daughter and what led up to it and why she acted the way she did in that moment that made her stop, take in the call outs she's been dealt with throughout the 6.5 chapter, and go, "Oh. I've been a shitty mom and that played a part in how Kizuna acted and led to her death." Cause think about it: if Kizuna was never concerned about her appearance, if she never had this belief that she had to extort others in order to benefit herself, whether it's men for money, affection, popularity, attention or anyone else for anything else, DRA's Chapter 2 probably wouldn't have happened the way that it did. It may not have prevented Kizuna from dying at some point during the killing game, but her behavior was something that she learned and inherited from Minako. And that realization had to sting for her as she not only lost her daughter but had to come to terms with the revelation that it was indirectly her fault for influencing Kizuna in a way that made her a terrible person that decided her only option to survive was to try and kill (which backfired on her hard). But unlike some people, who would double-down on their behavior or just grow worse through their grief, Minako seemed to have reflected on everything up to that point and decided to grow as a person instead. But even though Minako is trying to be a better person now, she can never make it up to her own daughter that she messed up the most. Because that chance is forever lost thanks to death itself.

Reflection is important, because if you don't do that much, you'll never realize what you've done wrong until it's too late and the chance to make it up to your loved one is forever stripped from you.

...At least, that's how I've interpreted Minako Tomori.

[thetwobosses]

For the Boss ask meme: #1, #10, #18 for Boss/es of your choice! I'm one of your newer followers so I'm looking through your stuff about your Bosses now and I'm very intrigued 😊

Hello and thank you! :D I'll answer for Meryl, Colin and Eli since they are my main Bosses and the most developed.

1. Is your Boss's name a secret? Do some people know but not others? Do they use a pseudonym? A nickname?

Meryl's full name used to be Meryl Tammesalu, but once the gang stuff got serious in SR2, she legally dropped her surname to try to keep the rest of her family from being as publicly associated with her and thus safer (that and people kept mispronouncing it). The name is Estonian (it means 'oak grove'), as her grandparents were among the thousands of Estonian expats fleeing WW2 to North America.

Colin was born in London as Sean Healey, but moved to Stilwater in his late teens to escape his destitute life and start fresh, experience the "American Dream" and all that. In his mind, a new beginning demanded a new name, because he felt his was too "soft" and "uncool". He picked out 'Colin Alton' because he thought it sounded more sophisticated without being overly pretentious. As the Saints rose in fame, Colin would downplay his past, including his old name. While he didn't manage to scrub all evidence of it, it wasn't too well known either. When Colin ended up stranded in Meryl's universe after SR3, he initially didn't tell anyone he used to go by a different name, so Meryl's searches for a version of Colin native to her universe didn't bear fruit. Colin had figured that if he hadn't changed his name (and thus moved to the US), he probably would have remained languishing in London and he decided he would rather not find out whether that was the case. He ended up ultimately being proven correct, as he and Meryl were confronted by an incredulous and pissed off Sean Healey during a trip to London, but that's a whole story on its own.

Eli's last name is Chase (there should probably be a middle name as well but tbh I've never really wrapped my head around middle names being a thing in many countries so none of my characters have them xD). He's an enby and goes by all pronouns, though generally defaults to he/him, and kind of as a part of that also encourages variation in the pronunciation of his first name. It can be the usual 'ee-lye', but also rhyming with 'Ellie'. Pierce and Shaundi tend to go with the latter and even shorten it to 'El/Elle' as a nickname.

10. How has your Boss changed throughout the games/years?

Meryl has probably changed the least of the main three. She'd initially joined the Saints because it had seemed like a cool and interesting thing at the time (plus she was going through a rebellious phase), and while she did go through a darker, more brutal period after her coma as many Bosses would, her underlying personality remained fun-loving and excitable over her career in the Saints.

Colin would let his vengefulness and quick temper get the better of him at times, especially in Steelport when his knee-jerk reaction was to not let Killbane get away. The loss of Shaundi, and the discovery that while Meryl had led her Saints through almost the exact same situations, her Shaundi still lived, had Colin eventually choose to make a concerted effort to curb some of his worst impulses. It's not perfect, but these days he can usually swallow his pride and take a slight without blowing up over it (though he will grump about it later in private).

Eli has grown a lot in the Saints. He joined up only after Jack woke from her coma and begun reforming the gang, but started out as rather meek and anxious, and with very little combat experience. He stood out as a tactician and strategist though, and once Pierce took him under his wing, Eli really started coming into his own in the gang. Jack gambled and elevated him to lieutenant to replace Carlos despite Eli's similar lack of experience with leadership. After Jack got killed in a Masako ambush and the Saints were torn on how to respond, Eli ended up grabbing the reins much to everyone's surprise (including his own). As much as Eli wasn't a fond of Jack's ruthlessness and penchant for violence, and vowed to not end up following in her footsteps, the later war against the Syndicate forced him to make some uncomfortable compromises. Yet he would never go as far as she did, and would still try and look for non-violent solutions first.

18. Do they have a best/closest friend?

Meryl grew up close with her family, especially one of her brothers. In the Saints, though she was naturally close friends with Johnny, Shaundi and Pierce, she wouldn't find a true soulmate until the arrival of Colin. Despite their many differences in upbringing and personality, their shared traits and experiences in the Saints helped bring them together as friends and then lovers. She also eventually grew a real fondness for Sean Healey, after Colin brought him to live with them in the US.

In his old universe, Colin had been especially close with two people: Johnny Gat, and fellow Brit Colin Faulkner. Colin and Johnny fell in together early on in the Saints, though Colin never revealed to Gat his unrequited infatuation. Johnny's "death" hit Colin hard, but rather than properly process his grief, he buried it deep down and tried to ignore it. Colin Faulkner (a non-Boss AU version of @princessdemeter's Boss) was an (ex-)hooker in Stilwater whom my Colin ended up befriending after his coma. Faulkner soon became Colin's confidante and friend with benefits, in part because he never officially joined the Saints. Colin's hopeless feelings for Gat made him willfully blind to the fact that Faulkner had fallen for the Boss, or that his own affections for Faulkner might have been more than just platonic. Unfortunately the two of them would never have the chance to work things out except in AUs, as a few months after SR:TT, Colin would end up permanently whisked away to Meryl's universe by a wayward piece of Zin tech. There, after somewhat rocky beginnings, he and Meryl quickly grew close. Colin eventually also decided to make peace with his humble origins and reached out to Sean Healey despite their poor first impressions. They found enough common ground to become good friends over the years and Colin even brought Sean over to live with him and Meryl in Steelport.

Pierce became Eli's closest friend in the Saints almost from the get-go. The two of them had similar inclinations towards choosing strategy over brute force methods, making them natural allies in the gang between Jack and Gat's bloodlust and Shaundi taking credit for Pierce's ideas. They also share similar senses of humor and several geeky interests, leading them to enjoy each other's company even outside of "work". They started dating between SR2 and 3 and managed to remain together even thought the strain of the presidency and the Zin invasion. Eli wasn't actually as close with the other Saints lieutenants as most Bosses. While Johnny was alive, the two of them often found themselves diametrically opposed and respected each other more for their skills than character. Eli was initially annoyed with Shaundi's constant one-upping of Pierce as well as her penchant for drugs, but they found a better understanding with each other over time. Of the Steelport lieutenants, Eli and Oleg got along well, while he distrusted Kinzie, remained ambivalent and slightly wary toward Angel and Viola, and absolutely abhorred Zimos. Once in space, Eli and Matt ended up becoming friends, especially since there hadn't been too much bad blood between them back in Steelport, and Eli would often prefer having Matt hack the Simulation over Kinzie.

[thebluelemontree]

What was Littlefinger thinking when he kissed Sansa after they built the snow castle? Did he plan for Lysa to see? I don't understand what his plan was, it seems like a big gamble to make hoping she'd see, then disposing of her.

I think it's a mistake to assume everything Littlefinger does is planned to a T. He is highly intelligent. He does have a rough sketch of some long-term goals, and he can logically follow through on each progressive step, but he is mostly a great opportunist and highly adaptable. There is another side to him, though. His ego and selfishness can also make him downright impulsive and reckless at times. It could be enjoying the thrill of taunting his enemies unawares with hints of his guilt or crossing moral boundaries to indulge his whims without a thought to the consequence. He doesn't seem to think there is any possible consequence that he can't manage since he boasts that he "thrives in chaos." 

Petyr just kissed her because he wanted to. From the start of their interaction, his thoughts are made known by the lascivious way he asks if he can "come into her castle." Stepping into the snow castle scene was stepping into his fantasy: a beautiful, vulnerable ingenue in need of his help. A highborn trophy girlfriend/protege that he can mold and guide in building something together. He's trying to create an invaluable and intimate connection by offering his knowledge and experience to give her her heart's desire. This is a remade Winterfell with Petyr and Catelyn 2.0 at the helm. With his Stark and Tully enemies wiped out, its a symbol that he won, and they lost. He can now claim what he feels should have been his all along. It's the ultimate boner, so he felt emboldened to top it off with an embrace.    

"I told you that nothing could please me more than to help you with your castle. I fear that was a lie as well. Something else would please me more." He stepped closer. "This."

This reads more like an impulsive escalation to their relationship, an urge he feebly tried to suppress, but is going to indulge in now anyway. He can't seem to maintain the guise of father and daughter that he insisted upon as the safest and most believable cover story. It's a reckless transgression out in the open for anyone to see, but he couldn't be bothered to care about that when he's drunk on the scene’s potency. Sansa even says he sounds like Marillion when he was drunk and forcing himself on her at the wedding.  

So how did he get from here to killing Lysa if none of this was planned? Here's how it went down:

Petyr has been away from the Eyrie for some time, visiting with characters that will eventually become his allies. As a result, Lysa is a very lonely newlywed bride, which will add more fuel to her insecurities and anxieties. Because Sansa resembles Catelyn so much, this already has Lysa on-edge where her husband is concerned. Petyr is not the only one either. Lysa is extremely possessive of men she covets, and she is easily threatened and angered by younger females. Sansa notes Lysa was displeased by the attention Marillion focused on her and that her aunt has dismissed servants who complained of being sexually assaulted by the bard. On some level, Lysa is itching for a final confrontation and permanent solution to the Sansa problem. She can't stand her niece's presence even though its what Petyr wants, so she tries to diminish Sansa's power and allure by making her dye her hair and betrothing her to her son. These things give Lysa only a fleeting sense of control and security. It's no good. Within a few lines scattered throughout this chapter, GRRM has set Lysa up to be a hairsbreadth away from snapping.     

Lysa saw Sansa playing alone in the snow from her balcony, so she knows her niece's location. She leaves, and a bit more time passes with Sansa trying to build her snow castle. Then Petyr arrives on the scene. He has just come back from the Vale below, but Sansa had not heard any news of his arrival from the servants. This tells us his return to the Eyrie was unexpected, unannounced, and probably happened not long before the scene began. It also tells us the first thing he probably did was seek Sansa out, not his anxiously awaiting wife upstairs. Or if he was on his way to Lysa, he allowed himself to be sidetracked.  

So Lysa is probably told that her husband is home, but he hasn't come to her for a celebratory reunion as she would expect. After he fails to show up in a reasonable amount of time, where would her possessive, jealous mind tell her to look for him? The garden. We know Lysa saw the kiss because she says so, but Sansa never saw Lysa watching her and Petyr. The only reason she forgets Lysa left the balcony before is that she's horrified at Petyr's behavior and frantically tries to remind him that infidelity is wrong. And maybe there was some small hope that her aunt had seen the assault and would use her power to protect her, as at least a decent aunt would. It must have happened very quickly that Lysa saw the kiss and left in a rage. While she is off-page, it seems that she had herself a good cry, hit the wine pretty hard, and plotted with Marillion to have the little bitch brought to the High Hall later that afternoon.

In the High Hall, Lysa accuses Sansa of being a liar and a homewrecker, then tries to murder her. Petyr shows up by way of a passage behind the dais before she can. This may seem like the timing is too perfect for it not to be staged; however, it makes sense that he arrives how and when he does. Petyr would have more than enough reason to think that his wife is up to something not good.  Sansa tells us the High Hall had not been in use since they arrived, so already, it's odd that Lysa is using it outside of holding court. Major alarm bells would go off because that's where the moon door is, and Lysa has ordered the guards to keep anyone from coming in. She doesn't even trust the guards not to intervene once the screaming starts, because she has Marillion bar the doors from the inside. Who is the captain of those guards? Lothor Brune, Petyr's man, and the guy charged with watching over Sansa. He’s well-acquainted with what kind of scumbag Marillion is. These are his men at the door trying to get in. All Petyr needs is for a quick-thinking guard or Lothor Brune himself to inform him of what Lysa has done. He then can rush in through the back way to save time.   

Of course, it doesn't seem like Petyr ever intended to stay married to Lysa for very long. The marriage was merely a stepping stone, and he would have eventually devised some way to be rid of her after securing his own position of power in the Vale. Hence why he has been amassing allies among the nobles and why he got Lysa to appoint him Lord Protector of the Vale soon after they married. Lysa unknowingly hastened her own demise when she started spouting off about poisoning Jon Arryn in front of Sansa and Marillion. Lysa isn't merely an easily manipulated delusional woman in love anymore. She's an unstable loose cannon now. He can no longer trust her to keep her mouth shut or follow through on any plans reliably. He can't even trust her not to kill his most valuable possession. Lysa has outlived her usefulness, Petyr already has everything he needs from her legally, and now she's become a liability. Out the moon door, she goes. Marillion gets framed for it. Problem solved, stories are straight, and witnesses neatly wrapped up.  

If Petyr hasn't been in the Eyrie for several days, you can see how unlikely (if not impossible) it would be for Petyr to plan for Lysa to be in that exact place at that exact time when he could not have foreseen that Sansa would be in the garden in the first place. Even if he saw Lysa watching them and decided to use the opportunity to kiss Sansa in her view, why is this necessary or even practical? Sansa may have been seconds away from being thrown to her death. There is no way he could have orchestrated this with such precision that she was actually in no real danger. 

I would say the idea of framing Marillion for Lysa's eventual untimely death was something Petyr already had simmering in his mind. The Vale nobles hated the singer, they hated the way Lysa showered him with unseemly gifts, and they've wanted to see him gone a long time. No one is going to care if he meets his end in a sky cell. Lysa herself is also extremely unpopular with the nobles for many reasons.  No one is going to miss her or her disastrous reign that much, either. I think Petyr could have worked out any number of scenarios that Marillion could kill Lysa in a fit of jealousy since they were known to be inappropriately close. The circumstances that GRRM built-up make the execution of that plan become an immediate necessity and very plausible all on its own.