#they are simply doing basically everything in a way they believe is perfectly normal and straightforward and is confusing and offputting

[wheelie-butch]

I could write a summary or try explain the plot and concepts and why I'm doing this but actually I think my wolfpack x player character fic can essentially be characterised by the line above tbh.

[cheqorb]

your mer-love fic was so good and ugh i LOVE mermaid au’s (esp with blue lock but theres BARELY any)!!

anyways u should do a pt 2 of your mer-love drabble/fic with rin, sae, kaiser and ness!! i’d love to read it if you do

MER-LOVE, 1.3

mermaid au! bllk boys with a researcher! reader

featuring. rin, sae, kaiser, ness

notes. thank-you for requesting anon! this might be absolute dogwater but hope you enjoy this…a few months after you even asked this (sorryyyy).

mer-love masterlist here !

any interactions with RIN are short and definitely not sweet. if he isn’t being harassed by any other mers that are interested in him, he normally stays around you because you “don’t bother him as much as the others do”. quoted by rin himself; which is considerably high praise coming from the rather aloof merman.

you probably first meet him simply because he got dragged by bachira or the like, but he’s not much of a conversation starter since he just sorta glared at you the whole time. it doesn’t get much better from that point onwards either, you’d think rin believed the world was against him by the way perfectly normal, well-meaning compliments are thrown to the side as if you’re insulting him.

with time though, he’ll start growing more fond of you! how can you tell? unless you’re freakishly talented at guessing people’s real emotions, who knows.

he (kinda) gets cuter in a way? maybe it’s just you being optimistic but you could’ve sworn that he has this look of pride whenever you choose to spend time with him over the other mers. like, of course you don’t want to hang out with weaklings like them or something along those lines. it takes a while but he’s noticeably softer with you than he is with his friends — he actually calls them lukewarm, but that’s just rin for ‘friends’ you think.

“Rin, ya there?”

He stares at you with mild disbelief, which almost makes you burst into a fit of laughter. “Since i’m very clearly here next to you, I think the answer’s quite obvious.”

You nod, grinning. “Thought you’d say that but anyways,” you say whilst reaching into a bag, “I wanted to give you a present! Take it as a token of my gratitude for you chatting with me.”

He eyes the object you give him coldly, but takes it anyway with a ghost of a smile on his face. How adorable.

SAE is someone very hard to come by, and even harder to start conversation with that don’t end in him just swimming away from you. if you thought talking to rin was like talking to a brick wall, just wait till you meet this guy.

he’s seemingly apathetic to anything and everything, incredibly blunt, and overall not a very nice guy. at least his lil brother doesn’t outright ignore you (he does call you an NPC and half baked though)! speaking of which, if you meet rin first you can definitely see the resemblance between the two. appearance is a main one, you would know those under-lashes from anywhere and now you definitely know where he gets the attitude from.

any signs of him ‘warming up’ to you are basically non existent. he’s as straightforward as ever and isn’t keen on the idea of suddenly being all over you like humans normally seem to do with the people they like.

to give credit where credit is due, he tries? even though he’s still a bit brutal with his delivery, you think he tries to avoid being so aggressive with his tone. he’s not exactly sugarcoating things, but simply not saying what’s on his mind as much as he used to. that whole spiel about if you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything, right? and besides, just him tolerating your presence should be enough for you to understand he’s trying to be nice (it really isn’t).

Sae has a talent for ruining any positive conversations with his honesty, the aftermath typically being him leaving the person or awkward silence ensues. To give credit where credit is due however, you also think he’s got a talent for somehow making people feel better.

He doesn’t sugarcoat things and while it can be harsh, it also means that compliments from him are genuine.

He listens to you rambling on about some annoying incidents at work, making the effort to nod every once in a while to remind you that he’s paying attention. “Sounds like something you can deal with yourself. There’s no reason to worry yourself about it, that’s a waste of your time.”

amidst a certain merman’s grumbling of someone called ‘KAISER’, you gain snippets of info that paint a less-than-flattering picture of the merman. he sounds like a major jerk. yet, despite his (isagi’s) colourful descriptions shall we say, you can't help but wonder if this kaiser fellow’s supposed villainy is just an exaggeration. but then again, to evoke such hatred from the usually amiable merman, he must be quite the character.

your first encounter with him is unremarkable, only seeing him as another mermaid who decided to show their face and you as some random human.

his curiosity is piqued however when he notices how fond the other merfolk are of you, and in typical kaiser fashion he’s determined to outshine everyone else. from your perspective, he’s just a weird dude. it’s as if he expects you to be grateful for his attention, even though it’s clear that he’s the one vying for your approval.

it’d be somewhat cute if it were anybody else, you think..? on him, it’s aggravating.

and yet, the more you pull away, the more determined he seems to become to disrupt any semblance of peace you have. he appears so often that you’ve grown to actually tolerate his presence and it even amuses you sometimes if the day is particularly boring. kaiser finds you just…okay (liar). he means- you’re nothing special so don’t get ahead of yourself but like, if YOU wanted to, he wouldn’t mind being with you until nightfall.

also don’t mention the sheer disgust and almost betrayal on his face whenever he sees one of your total losers of a colleague on watch duty instead of you. even worse if they’re partnered with you.

Judging by the very obvious glare Kaiser has on his face, you would say that he’s not too pleased with the sight of you and (coworker) together. Still, he could at least try be more discreet about it. You sigh as your companion only spares you a sympathetic look.

What’s annoying is that Kaiser occasionally glances in your direction — of course, whilst still glaring daggers at (coworker). Like he wants you to do something about them tagging along.

Having enough of it, you say, “Kaiser, you’re embarrassing me over here and yourself.” He pauses for a moment before simply turning around, probably sulking over the fact that you do indeed have relationships with other people that don’t involve him. That, or he’s embarrassed he got called out.

you’ll naturally come across NESS if you’ve already met kaiser and at first, you simply took him for the more timid type which could be the reason why he follows the former around like a lost puppy. wrong. not in the slightest.

well that’s a little harsh, but you mean that while he definitely has a bashful quality to him, he also seems to flip completely if you dare make a comment about kaiser. it’s a little scary. in spite of his dedication shall we call it, he’s actually one of the easiest mers to get along with. talk to him normally, avoid the topic of kaiser too often, spare some affection for him and he’s all over you soon enough!

just being generally nice around him is something he’ll appreciate it even if he doesn’t say it outright. poor thing is a little unfamiliar with people showing him basic human (or in this case merfolk) decency. makes you want to pat him on the head and spoil him a bit/squish him until he breaks — depending on what type of person you are, i guess.

when he gets more comfortable with you, ness is also clingy. like, really clingy. practically chasing after the other mers if they dare come within 10ft of you kind of clingy. it’s one of those rare moments where you appreciate the fact that kaiser is there since ness is still able to be reasoned if he’s there with him. sounds a little toxic at first but just set him straight and be patient with him. the end result is (hopefully) a slightly more relaxed version of him.

“…You alright, Ness?” you ask hesitantly. The merman in question is suspiciously quiet, especially after he just got into a mini spat with someone else.

Now, he looks up at you as if you’re a saint which weirds you out even more. He nods his head, before asking, “Are you worried about me?”

You’d think it was intended to be a snide comment, if it weren’t for the fact that you were dealing with Ness here. Besides, he says it so sincerely that you’d feel bad for poking fun at him. Maybe later though. “Of course.”

It seems to light up his whole world.

[perfectlyoongi]

LONG-DISTANCE!YOONGI who takes a photo of the moon every night and always sends it to you with the same description. and you saved all the moons. in a way, Yoongi counted the days spent with you, even though he was miles away. in a way, that moon kept all your conversations and promises to itself; between its craters, in its darkest places, the moon wrapped your words in a small starry cloak that would be kept there, far from the evil of the whole world, always waiting for your first date to make it rain all the stars that your words turned into. “i had another conversation with the moon today. she told me her love story with the sun. i could only talk about you.”

LONG-DISTANCE!YOONGI who orders flowers for you on the most important dates. birthdays or promotions, good news or a task accomplished, any opportunity was seized by Yoongi, always ordering large, colorful bouquets that lasted eternities on your table. Yoongi might be far away, but he did everything he could to make up for his absence, showing you small acts of love that always filled your heart. Yoongi knew you and, as such, he knew how to love you — and sometimes flowers speak louder than mere words. “i’m not there, but i want you to know that won’t stop me from showing my love for you. it’s just a reminder that i love you.”

LONG-DISTANCE!YOONGI who falls asleep with you on call. he didn’t do it on purpose, he swore, but there were days that were simply exhausting and only your comfort could soothe Yoongi’s soul. it seemed almost instinct to Yoongi. when he got home and knew you were available he would call you immediately. a quick dinner while he told you about his day. quickly tidying up the kitchen while he listened to you talking about your day. and the comfort of his bed when all the tiredness weighed on Yoongi. wrapped in your words, when you spoke about everything and nothing, Yoongi listened to you attentively, really, but your voice was an ethereal melody for Yoongi, which cradled him in divine comfort and made him dream without him even realizing it. “i swear your voice is all i need to recharge my energy. only you, your voice and your soul are enough to make me feel safe and truly rest.”

LONG-DISTANCE!YOONGI who offers you a basic hoodie in your favorite color with a small personalized tag. Yoongi knew perfectly well that what you craved most were his hugs. Yoongi knew perfectly well that you would only found comfort and courage in his arms. but Yoongi also knew he was far from you, separated by painful miles. that’s why Yoongi bought you a hug. in the form of a sweater, warm and cozy, Yoongi offered you a hug that would comfort you when he was on the other side of the screen. “when you wear this hoodie, i’m hugging you. a warm fabric that will always reflect my soul. i love you.”

LONG-DISTANCE!YOONGI who shows your photos and videos to his closest friends. Yoongi was in love. he already knew that, he had already accepted it. so it was only natural for Yoongi to talk about you. of course he was a private man and wanted your story to be yours alone, private; but he couldn’t hide the wide smiles that took shape whenever a notification from you appeared on his cell phone; he couldn’t hide the radiant glow that beautified his eyes every time he saw a photo, a video of you. he liked you. you liked him. Yoongi wanted to show everyone how lucky he was. but for now, just his closest friends were enough. “it’s when i talk about you to them that i really realize how lucky i am. you like me. me. someone so insignificant and normal. i am the one who conquered you. and i still find it hard to believe that this is true. but, oh, how happy i am.”

LONG-DISTANCE!YOONGI who makes a list of all the things he wants to do and say when he sees you for the first time. it was something childish, pathetic, Yoongi knew that, but he couldn’t control his hands when they started typing quickly on his cell phone with phrases that he could only tell you in person. and, behind words, plans emerged, possible outings and probable moments to adorn Yoongi’s notes with the celestial magic of a love so lasting and eternal that not even distance could break it apart. “with every plan i make, it’s as if a new flame of hope lights up inside me. the hope of seeing you. the hope of being with you. the hope of finally being able to love you as you deserve to be loved.”

LONG-DISTANCE!YOONGI who appears on your doorstep on your first birthday. you had agreed to start dating only when you were physically together, but that didn’t stop you from celebrating small dates that were also important to you — among them, the day you started talking. and, on that warm spring morning, when they knocked on your door, you never expected to see Yoongi in front of you, with a smile on his lips, a sparkle in his eyes and flowers in his hands. he was there. in front of you. physically. you and Yoongi were together for the first time. you and Yoongi were together. finally. “i can’t believe i can finally tell you in person how much i like you. i love you. so much, but so much. my love for you consumes me from the inside and shapes my entire existence to be able to love you.”

[tomwambsgans]

i'm ngl it's because i recently read fight club, But i'm thinking a lot lately about castration and the true/deepest implications of it irt nero and sporus and tom and greg. obviously we've got tom's line about greg being "castrated on pay" and some pretty solid analysis on that being a matter of tom keeping greg dependent on him, but tbh even with said meta posts...

like, i'm sorry, but it's a weak line. it feels just as strangely on the nose as shiv falling down the stairs, and in fact like a line that exists specifically to match shiv falling. it almost even seems like a last-minute rush to complete Following Up The Nero And Sporus Thing, like they did the first part and managed to get all the way to the last episode before realizing they'd forgotten to do the second thing, so they had to reach for anything they could relate castration to without having to film a new scene. this feels especially evident/likely in the fact that there is NO way greg's salary is actually getting docked to the degree that tom implied. it's markedly disappointing, too, in the way that setting it up with shiv literally falling down stairs had the audience looking forward to how the rest of the overt symbolism would play out. castration on pay was the most mundane and least expected possible conclusion, lol. and not at all on par with the literal fall. like if that is the castration we were actually waiting for the whole time...

it's also all overkill, for that matter, considering that the s3 finale fit "pushed his wife down the stairs and married sporus" thing perfectly fine and a perfect amount of vague. like tom ALREADY betrayed shiv, symbolically "killing" her, and had an ancient-roman-wedding-handshake agreement with greg about his soul. even tom and greg's initial dynamic in the final season often feels like that of a married couple. which begs the question: why have the stuff in s4 on top of that? it may very well be simply one of the many marks of s4's drop in quality, caused by a myriad of irl factors. or it could possibly be on purpose to specifically bring home something else about the nero and sporus story. maybe it's to reinforce the tomshiv divorce and also tom and greg's marriage after all the rapid shifts in dynamic. who knows.

but what i DO know is that i wanna get to the bottom (lol) of the castration symbolism/motif. so i'm gonna go through everything that could possibly inform the audience's interpretation.

i'll start with the least significant, which i believe is the reality of castration in ancient rome and in the circumstances around the irl nero and sporus. part of why this falls on the bottom rung is the fact that historical accounts of nero especially with sporus are hotly contested. another reason is that the story tom tells is one that not only omits many details in a technically misleading/recontextualizing way, but also adds details that are present in no known accounts.

so: WHY was sporus castrated? there are 2 main possibilities/reasons.

to maintain his youthful [and therefore feminine] beauty. the real sporus was most likely around 16 when nero had him castrated. and the practice of castration to preserve youth had precedence. basically, twinks were REALLY in. it's alleged that sporus may have already been more effeminate (and sexually attractive) than average. but it's also said that sporus bore an uncanny resemblance to poppaea, which nero chose him for specifically and wanted to maintain.

in order to marry him with legal/social sanction. ancient roman society, rather than being built upon the heterosexual, was more built upon the Top/generally masculine. Eunuch was a gender class/category essentially equivalent with Woman, which allowed sporus to specifically be nero's wife. this didn't mean that his marriage to sporus was necessarily seen as good and normal, only technically acceptable.

and i have a ways more to go with the analysis but i'm gonna say right here that i do not think the first reason bears any significance to tom and greg. firstly due to that there is no textual evidence that tom wants greg to be explicitly feminine, even compared to himself, and a LOT to the contrary. tom consistently invites greg to join him in performing masculinity and gaining power through it, case in point the "let's fight like chickens" scene that directly follows the nero and sporus story. secondly, sporus's possible resemblance to poppaea does not track to greg and shiv more than incidentally; greg being shiv's cousin doesn't directly earn tom anything. but more importantly, imo, is the fact that what would have made nero want sporus to look like poppaea is in direct contrast with both the story tom tells AND the way their arc plays out.

so NOW, to demonstrate this, let's look at the irl poppaea's death/murder, which happened during her second pregnancy. different historians (even those alive at the time) have different theories for how it went down. who knows how much truth they're based in, bc there's a clear heavy bias against nero, but they're all we have anyway and therefore all tom would have had. here they are:

nero kicked her in the stomach in a fit of rage, while she was fighting with him about how much time he spent at the races (main theory/rumor)

nero kicked her in the stomach in a casual outburst

nero "leapt upon her belly" either accidentally or on purpose

nero poisoned her (uncommon rumor, most likely bs)

she died through no fault of nero's at all, simply bc of complications with her pregnancy (this has the most evidence, and is believed by many modern historians)

you'll notice a complete lack of stairs-related death theories, and in fact a near total lack of Nero Purposefully Murdered Poppaea theories. the general idea is that nero deeply mourned poppaea's death (and was remorseful, if it was his own fault), and proceeded to replace her with sporus, even calling him by her name.

which feels like a good segue into the more significant story of nero and sporus to analyze: the one that TOM told.

Sporus was a young slave boy. He was Nero's favorite. And, uh... you know what Nero did to him? Well, Nero... pushed his wife... down the stairs. And then he had Sporus castrated and he married him instead. And he gave him a ring. And he made him dress up like his dead wife. ...I'd castrate you and marry you in a heartbeat.

without looking into the actual story, this would sound like nero murdering his wife in order to marry sporus. with bringing up sporus first, it even sounds like nero met sporus and started favoring him prior to killing poppaea. which is also overtly analogous to tom and greg's relationship arc.

despite what tom must have read in his book, and what one could very easily imagine him, a Wife Guy, latching onto in that book... tom isn't telling greg about the tragedy of an emperor who accidentally killed his wife and then had to replace her with a young boy. tom literally invents a method of death that there is NO preexisting source for. furthermore he chooses one that does not sound remotely unintentional. at best he keeps in line with themes that suggest a violent miscarriage. but he removes all notions of an accident. he turns it into an unambiguous, purposeful uxorcide.

so, since all notions of trying to keep sporus looking like poppaea are not only unfitting as potential parallels, but also utterly irrelevant to the version of events that tom tells, and since we know tom twists and omits many other details (like what happens just a year into their marriage) anyway... what reasons DOES tom have for bringing up castration in this story? here's the possibilities i can come up with:

to make it sound less overtly romantic through means of the bizarre. classic diversionary tactic. literally without the castration it would sound undeniably like he's just saying "i read about this ancient roman gay marriage. an emperor murdered his wife so that he could marry a boy. i would like to do that with you also :)"

to make it sound less gay, specifically, because of nero's power in the situation. this of course calls back to that second reason for the actual sporus to be castrated. it's not gay if i've made you a eunuch, greg.

to emphasize the cruelty on nero's end. tom often puts himself in the role of a villain, especially irt his behavior with greg. considering also that this whole scene follows tom talking about how he's going to prison (AND that the next time he calls greg sporus it's in the scripts before the diner scene, where he agrees to sacrifice himself and go down for greg), it would make sense for him to buffer this confession with the caveat of what a bad person he is, like express in SOME way how insane his feelings are and how terrible he knows it is that he feels this way about greg. tom is notoriously unable to make normal apologies either, so. it tracks.

i think all of these are true, and i'm sure most would agree. i'm also sure most who've read this far are in full agreement that tom fixated on the story of nero and sporus in particular because it was a gay relationship with just enough ambiguity that he's able to relate to it without panicking. hell, the "he gave him a ring" line alone doesn't even evoke an ancient roman marriage nearly as much as a modern american one. i can't find even any sources that specifically mention a ring from nero to sporus, so i imagine tom invented that as well.

BUT while i'm here i do still want to mention a couple other queer things about nero to drive home that it's not just incidental gayness but overt homosexual desire being portrayed, as well as to emphasize that second reason that the irl nero may have had to castrate sporus:

prior to knowing sporus, nero had a mock-wedding as part of festive role-reversals during saturnalia. in this wedding he took the role of a bride, marrying a different freedman.

this is apocryphal and practically historical fiction, and may also specifically be due to perceived deviancy in nero, but it's old enough (like 13th century) that it's lowkey in the nero "canon" that he had womb envy and was obsessed with being the one to get pregnant

okay so NOW... how does all this translate into the actual events demanded/foreshadowed/symbolized by this story? if pushing shiv down the stairs is the betrayal that keeps her from being able to block the gojo deal (but also shiv is shown to fall down a couple real stairs)... and marrying sporus is making the "deal with the devil" (AND the sticker on the forehead)... then what's the castration? what was the first, less on-the-nose-and-simultaneously-meaningless castration, at least?

my best answer is that it's tom getting greg to drop his brightstar buffalo plans and follow him instead. because if death is just corporate death, then your testicles/manhood is your independence. tom says you're a joke, you can't function on your own, you need me (i need you). he's insecure that greg will leave if he has the option to do so. fair enough.

......and yet i come back to my initial disappointment, because that is barely different than the pay castration. and it's redefining greg's symbolic testes to something that tom gave him in the first place, thus practically retconning the first castration. but if that's it, does shiv's literal fall also replace her kick out of the company? that would sure be stupid! is the point of rehashing the symbolism to be stupid? to have meaningless stuff follow up the more significant events? even if that was the case, wouldn't you at least be doing it to give a visual element to the symbols? if shiv gets actual stairs, WHERE are greg's actual balls? or ANY balls!!!! greg even started wearing grey suits which he hadn't done before (but shiv had), and got a "ring" in his final scene. where's the FUCKING balls, huh?????

(anyway)

occam's razor, i think, may be that the meaninglessness of the castration specifically is the point. tom's insecurity that greg will leave if he has the option to (that greg would never actually want him but only need him), has been present for basically the duration of the show. it's just a character trait, and thus doesn't even work as foreshadowing when that just means "he's gonna keep doing what he's been doing." then, take that second reason--the purely pragmatic, not based in heterosexual-adjacent desire reason--for nero to castrate sporus. aka the only reason that makes sense for the way tom spins the story.

(it's also a motivation that leaves room for not even actually doing it. sporus wasn't going through rapid masculinization or anything. and they only lived another year. you could get away with just claiming that you did it for a while, probably.)

i should say there IS technically a third reason, postulated by modern scholars, for sporus's castration: to intentionally humiliate a potential rival for the throne. imagine if tom had told greg about nero and sporus upon first meeting. obviously things changed very quickly, but if all castration is here is tom keeping greg on a tight leash, then it works. and if the castration is nothing, then greg nearly tanking tom's plan out of naivety can be a nothing version of sporus wanting revenge. and shiv falling down real stairs can, instead of actually intending to set up a meaningful castration, be a red herring in that regard and simply foreshadow her pregnancy.

and that could be it. but... i've got One More Thing. maybe the most significant of all. lightning round:

who or what, in modern day where tom and greg live, actually IS castrated?

animals

specifically dogs

hmmmmmm

and why are DOGS castrated?

to reduce sexual and territorial aggression

reduce other unwanted behaviors

to keep them from breeding

okay. think greg's newfound sexual confidence in s4 and tom's distaste for it. tom's continued anxiety that greg's independence might lead him to leave him. think greg being tom's attack dog and how that nearly backfires at the very end. greg approaching tom at the end like a begging puppy.

think full circle: who's the rescue pup, i'll take care of you, i've got you...

i feel justified in recontextualizing all of this, and i come back to fight club:

Valley of the Dogs. Where even if they don't kill you, if someone loves you enough to take you home, they still castrate you.

[yuikomorii]

Who do you think are the most mentally strong diaboys?

// I'd like to make a top three, even if I believe number one is already obvious:

3. Kino

Being forgotten by your true "father" and abandoned in Rottenberg is a very sad scenario. Kino was also bullied because of his race, since the ghouls did not treat someone like him well. However, after releasing his powers, they began to respect him, so Kino became their leader, and unlike other characters, he also got Yuri, his friend, by his side. Kino is a mentally strong person, but he still struggles with it, especially given his resentment of the Sakamaki brothers for obtaining Karl's "love," even though they did nothing to him. He also gaslights others for "having it better," and dwells on his past to the point of obsession. It feels as if he doesn’t live for himself anymore, but merely for recognition.

2. Kou

Losing your wealth, ending up in a manhole, then in an orphanage where you were assaulted and exploited because you were a pretty child... As horrifying as it may sound, Kou has a very realistic past because the events that happened to him actually occurred in Romania during that time period. Honestly, despite his background, I'm surprised he's generally such a cheerful person. He would have been first on the list, but Kou never moved on from his experiences. He, like Kino, held a grudge against the Sakamakis for having "a better life" than him, despite the fact that he was unaware of their past. Anyway, he was in MB at the time, and based on DF and LE, he's doing much better now and is a sunshine boy, so he deserves this spot.

1. Ayato

I guess it's always been obvious that Ayato is mentally the healthiest Diaboy. His past is almost on the level of Haruka from Moshikami, which says a lot because it's so messed up that I wouldn't have been surprised if he lost all hope, but he didn't, which is really admirable.

Ayato never complained about what he went through, never gaslighted others for having it better, never engaged in a harmful coping mechanism and never projected on others. Yes, he has insecurities; he is afraid of not being loved or not being the best, but he is not dependent on these. He could still live peacefully without achieving them. Furthermore, he doesn't need a person to "fix" or help him deal with his struggles; he simply wants someone to appreciate and believe in him.

He's a carefree person who surprisingly prefers to look on the bright side and holds no resentment toward those who have wronged him as long as he knows their reasons and that everything turned out well. His ability to forgive people so easily is both a strength and a weakness because some people do such horrible things to you that they no longer deserve your forgiveness.

I like Kino but he literally burned you alive, beat you up, stole Yui, and wanted to sell you to the church to be slaughtered, but in the end, you gave him a second chance and were the first to integrate him and recognize him as a Sakamaki?? And normally, I wouldn't mind this since I give a bunch of second chances too but the thing is, nobody is willing to forgive AYATO if things go wrong, and that's painful because it's so unfair. ://

I might have realized why Karlheinz thinks Ayato is more special than anyone else, and this quote from his DF Ecstasy epilogue perfectly explains it:

Karlheinz (describing Ayato): Valuing your life, grieving, lamenting your misfortune, suffering…

And resisting!

That’s what Adam is all about!!

Basically, what makes Ayato the official Adam is the fact that unlike other demons, who are ignorant to death, he still has a desire to live and fights for it. No matter how much pain he has endured, nothing can break him.

One of the reasons his LE route was so reviled in the Japanese and English fandoms is that nothing hurts more than seeing an energetic and strong-willed character who appeared that way in seven games suddenly lose all hope and drown in misery.

I have written a too much about Ayato, but he deserves it. He’s not the smartest or most calculated guy, but he is unquestionably the most mentally strong one, and I doubt any other Diaboy would have ended up as approachable as Ayato if he had been in his position.

[firecoloredwater]

OKAY NEW AU IDEA

What if: it was standard for shinobi children to have an animal (a regular animal) sealed to them while very young, in order to give that child the animals’ abilities later, in a werecreature-ish way.  (Specifically, the type that has a distinct “inner wolf” with its own instincts, desires, and reactions.)

If everything goes perfectly, the result is a shinobi who can shift between human and animal size and shape, and also any combination in between, as well as having the option to give themself senses equivalent to their animal while in human form.  In exchange they have a few, controllable animalistic instincts/tendencies, like liking catnip, wanting to sunbathe, wanting to build/sleep in something nest-shaped, etc.

Of course things usually don’t go perfectly.  It’s pretty normal for shinobi to not have perfect control of shifting: that might mean they simply can’t access certain forms, or can be startled into/out of forms, or more specific things like “can use eagle eyesight, but only if shifted at least halfway to eagle size/mass.” It can also result in things that make being a shinobi completely impossible, such as someone with a rabbit sealed to them who exclusively reacts to battle by running or freezing, and can’t overcome the rabbit instinct in order to fight.  Or, in the worst cases, with the person being overwhelmed completely, turning into an animal, running off, and never being seen again.

I find this especially interesting because while you get all the usual werecreature opportunities (“hahaha no I don’t like him at all.  Can’t imagine why my inner animal is so mad at that other person for flirting with him!  No idea at all”) a character can have basically any animal that exists, BUT which animal they have is usually dependent on what their parents would choose/want for them, and not what necessarily suits them.  So some characters will end up at odds with their own paired animal’s instincts/traits.

Anyway!  I have lots more thoughts but I have rambled through the basics already, and I’m really curious what anyone else makes of this!

More tangential thoughts under the cut.

A sealing is believed to work better if A: it’s done while the kid is as young as possible, and B: if the kid and the animal are as close to the same (relative) age as possible.  If the animal is much older than the kid, it’s more difficult to use/control; if it’s much younger, it’s weaker.

Different clans have different traditions regarding which animals they use.

Some clans use one or a few animals exclusively.  (The Uchiha use domestic cats and hawks or falcons, with very few exceptions.  This is probably the most common approach.)

Some take that extra far, and have a specific breed of an animal that they created and maintain specifically for the purpose, which exists nowhere else.  (The Hyuuga probably do this, though I don’t know which animal they use yet.  Probably one for the branch house and a different breed/animal for the main house.  Nara, of course, use their deer, so they’re also in this category.  The Yamanaka might as well, but I’m undecided.)

Some use whatever is available/useful.  (The Senju did this.)

The Inuzuka are considered weird as fuck because they don’t seal their kids to any animal at all (because their dogs are independent people, and they aren’t going to seal their kids to anything ELSE).

I don’t know what the Aburame are doing.  They could probably seal bugs to themself?  But they also might just not seal anything to themself, like the Inuzuka don’t.

Culturally, sealing a bird to a kid is complicated.  It still happens a lot, because flight is so useful for a shinobi that needs to escape or spy.  But bird forms and traits are difficult to use in a fight (can you give yourself talons?  Sure!  But they’ll be on your feet, which is not nearly as convenient as being able to sprout claws on your hands) and are considered particularly Awkward for girls/women, because of the whole shirt vs wings thing.  Girls do still get birds sealed to them sometimes, though, just not as often as boys do.

It’s fashionable among shinobi to go around with a few of your animal’s traits visible, but you’re not supposed to keep the same traits visible for long.  So the fashionable thing to do would be to have cat ears during lunch and claws at dinner, and a tail the next day.  It’s a way of showing off control of your animal/its abilities.

But that’s like the supermodel version of the fashion.  Most people don’t have perfect control and being a shinobi at all is still impressive, so going around with the same animal trait visible all the time is still Very Cool.  (This interacted weirdly with Naruto’s whisker marks.  He tried REALLY HARD to convince people they meant he was cool, but didn’t succeed very well.  Some people thought he’d drawn them on.)

Most of my headcanons for specific characters are for the Founders because that’s the corner of fandom I’m mostly in, but:

Sasuke got a typical Uchiha animal sealed to him within a few weeks of being born (as would be normal for the kids of shinobi clans).  Probably a domestic cat but maybe a hawk of some sort.  He’s good at using/working with it in the way that he’s a genius generally and good at everything, but hates all instincts he gets from it.  He may have grown up hearing cute stories about how Itachi insisted that Sasuke HAD to get this particular animal, in which case he hates everything about it.

Naruto has the kyuubi, and no regular animal at all.  No one is sure if adding a regular animal after the fact will do something weird and dangerous to the kyuubi seal, and definitely no one wants to risk it.  This contributes to him being considered a loser in the academy, because he can’t draw on animal senses or other traits (like claws) to use.

Sakura, as the child or civilians, didn’t get an animal sealed to her at all until around when she became a genin.  Being a tween instead of an infant she had a lot more say in what she got, but she used that mostly for “what would Sasuke like?”  On the other hand she IS smart, so she probably picked something that’s known first for being pretty, but is also very useful.  A swan would work very well but is kind of the obvious answer.  A cat is also likely, especially if Sasuke has a cat too.  Regardless she struggles for a while with how to keep the animal happy/cooperative, since she’s not used to having non-human instincts or desires and finds some of them a bit embarrassing.

Kakashi has a wolf.  He REALLY wishes he had a dog, or at least a wolf that looked more like a dog, but.  That’s a wolf.

Hashirama has an Ussuri brown bear.  Powerful, impressive, but not overly aggressive; a very good standard (Future) Leader/Clan Heir animal.  Butsuma might very well have the same, and if not, he probably has a Japanese black bear.  (The Senju don’t limit themselves to one animal as a clan, but they do have sometimes very specific thoughts about what’s appropriate for/conducive to someone’s position in life.)

Tobirama has a dog, either Kai Ken or Kishu.  Useful, obedient, loyal, but not particularly friendly to anyone outside his immediate family.  Great for the second in command/backup heir.

Itama has either a Blakiston’s fish owl or a Long-eared owl: great for sneaking and spying in places/ways that bears and dogs can’t.  Mostly this was to cover the bases that Hashirama and Tobirama didn’t.

Kawarama has a boar: powerful, dangerous, and aggressive to the point of recklessness.  It was meant to make him a better weapon.

Madara skipped the “domestic” part of the Uchiha standard domestic cat and has a tiger.  He likes to give his hair stripes.  Unusually (for a shinobi that has the ability) he almost never gives himself claws because that would ruin his gloves.

Izuna has a... well, a bird.  I’m eyeing the black kite (known to spread fires in order to hunt) and Lidth’s jay (aesthetic corvid), but really any hawk/falcon/similar would work equally well.  Could get into eagles too.  (Or hummingbirds, for humor.)

Mito probably had an ordinary fox, and had some thoughts about binding the kyuubi to the ordinary fox in order to eventually merge them and make the kyuubi a bit more mortal/manageable.  It didn’t work though, for her or for Kushina (who might well have had an entirely different animal to begin with) and Naruto doesn’t have a regular animal at all.

I think that edo tensei summons just... don’t have their animal anymore.  It’s a flaw that frustrated Tobirama immensely.  All of those abilities are gone, so in this verse edo tensei versions of people are significantly limited relative to how they were while alive.  Not enough to make them weak, but it’s a pretty dramatic omission.

[izosdualpistols]

Gojo Satoru and the Burden as the Strongest

Character analysis, S2 spoilers including recent chapters.

Unpopular opinion but I think it was only natural for Shoko to not be involved in Gojo and Geto's relationship as much. Before anyone says anything - I love Shoko. She's been through so much but it all went unnoticed which I am upset about. She will always be a part of the trio and nobody can convice me otherwise.

The whole arc was really centered and about Gojo. It's where we see his growth as a sorcerer and the heavy hearted resolution he makes.

Because the arc was revolved around Gojo, we obviously got information and story in correlation to his present self. Putting it simply, I'm really just stating the obvious - the arc is and was about Gojo's backstory.

Before I dive in deeper, let's put our background knowledge to use. Who is Gojo Satoru? Well, the strongest of course. But at what cost exactly? The cost of a normal childhood, a normal life, and so on.

To be the strongest is much more closer to a curse than a gift. Gojo was born with powerful abilities so people naturally came to praise him and burden him with their problems.

Gojo was basically their god. A title he didn't even ask for. As he grew up surrounded by all those people, weak people, he became to question his purpose for serving these people.

Why must he protect him? For what exactly? For who? - Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

To bear the title as the strongest means to bear the burden of millions. It means to face the world by yourself. No matter how many supporters you have, it's all blank. It's loneliness. Loneliness of knowing that no one else can truly empathize with you.

But that wasn't Gojo. At least it wasn't when Geto was by his side.

That's where Geto's role stands in Gojo's backstory. Another person who has the potential and can be the strongest alongside Gojo.

The reason Gojo is a teacher at Jujutsu high and continues to save lives has connection with Geto's beliefs when he was a sorcerer.

The belief of "Jujutsu sorcerers exist to protect the weak" that he pushed upon Gojo so much was effective; and we can see that through Megumi, one who was raised by Gojo.

Not only that, but because Gojo Satoru, the one who once said "It's alright, we're the strongest" - came to the realization that being the strongest wasn't enough. That some people (like Geto) are beyond saving - even with the most powerful abilities in the world.

Through this, and his final encounter with Geto, I'm sure he understood why Geto chose such path - which is why he strictly tells Megumi to become strong; strong enough to not fall behind.

Geto is a character that needs to feel needed. A character who wishes to be helpful - one of the reasons he served as a sorcerer without a large purpose; without his own goals.

When Gojo grew stronger, Geto soon realized Gojo didn't need him anymore. That Gojo is now able to complete missions by himself and without Geto's assistance.

This can be seen as one of the major reasons why Geto drifted away. Following the apparent "way of the world" blindly.

Wrapping this up - in a way, Geto can be seen as Gojo's "moral compass". He who guided the strongest sorcerer of morality. Which, personally, seems very difficult to do when you see the world of Jujutsu Kaisen through Geto's eyes after his downfall.

Imo, I think Geto's death triggered his obsession with people not being "left alone/behind".

Then here comes Shoko - who did stay. Who stayed next to Gojo, sharing the sadness when Geto died.

Both of these characters' feelings are valid. Nobody is wrong; though Gojo's might be taken to be more "selfish", I wholeheartedly believe that one can feel lonely even with everything in the world.

I'm not Gojo nor Shoko so I don't really have a say, but as a reader, I can confidently say that in different ways, they both perfectly portrayed loneliness.

Gojo's story was not only revolved around him, but also Geto - because he had that much of an impact to who he is now. The Gojo we are seeing today, Geto helped him become.

The ultimate truth is that though it may have not been much, Shoko served her role in Gojo's backstory completely.

It'd be nice to see her included in future chapters with Gojo - I have high hopes when Jujutsu Kaisen nears it's end. A scene with Shoko and Gojo at Geto's grave reminiscing the past together is not a want but a need.

I've reread some parts and I'm starting to question my choice of words but please keep in mind I have no intention of downgrading any character! Gojo, Geto, Shoko are my favorite trio and they have a really special place in my heart. I apologize if I sounded off? incorrect? one-sided etc. I'll probably have to reread throughly and fix some sentences.

[ateez-himari]

Hi bb!!!! Thank you for the heartfelt reply you gave me cause like mingi has to be the most geniune idol out there❤️‍🩹, I'm not saying that he shows us everything cause obviously there's plenty of emotions or actions he can't show us but the fact that he always acts out his emotions makes me happy🥹

It's rare to see idols being natural(they're not to blame cause it's basically the idol standards put by fans) which I think is stupid, "fans" should know better than to hate on their idols for doing basic human activities such as eating normally, and should instead be happy to see their idols acting naturally and being comfortable enough with their fans to show this domestic side of them

But speaking of my actual question I knew it's gonna be MATZ I mean they're the oldest and they always think two steps ahead💓, but it's so cute that all of the members supported them and I'm so glad kq has this rule cause honestly I wouldn't expect such fine men to be single🤭, and it's stupid when comapnies put a dating ban like what? that's a basic human right to have someone love you in a romantic way

And I honestly feel sad when people focus on woosan or seongjoong just for their closeness and moments rather on their skills and talent, but I mean we're already so far into that no one could change their mindsets🤷

And im so happy they're going to couple events like that's so cutee🥹

And I wanna ask a question because I wanna do a little something hehe🤭if you were to choose a song that perfectly fit mingi's and hima's relationship what would it be??

Love you mwahhh💗💗

Hey sweets 🥰, I'm so sorry it took so long but I've finally caught up with everything so I can answer this! I completely agree with you honestly idols are humans just like their fans and they fall in love, they make mistakes, they get their heart broken, but they should get to experience this as openly as the rest of us. (Seeing how boyfriend material all of them are, I refuse to believe they're single too dw 🤭)

MATZ being the oldest meant that they were very involved in her life specifically especially because of the environment she came from (she was loved a lot but people also made many mistakes, so she was always unconsciously older than she should have been). Actually I'll give you a little spoiler for a draft that I have; When they lived in LA Himari used to sleep alone on the couch but one night Hongjoong fell asleep on it while everyone was washing up, which made her share a mattress with Seonghwa and from that day forward nightmares became rare, so they kept that sleeping arrangement until moving back to Korea.

This is a tough question so I went through quite a long playlist to answer this (it was fun don't worry) but I would say Intro: Serendipity by BTS (Jimin). The title means 'the occurrence and development of events by chance (in a happy and beneficial way)' which is essentially what brought them together, it was simply the chance of them being the same group as one another that led to the meeting of two soulmates.

The song itself talks about the fact that two lovers fit one another perfectly while the speaker asks whoever is listening "Let me love you" and since both struggle with loving themselves, it illustrates perfectly that the love they cannot create is simply given by the other. There's also a line saying "As much as my heart flutters, I'm worried", which expresses the deep rooted anxiety both have to this day (although that worry can extend from their relationship to truly anything in their lives). In a very cute coincidence, Jimin also refers to the person listening to this song as "my angel" which is Mingi's nickname for Hima🥹

I always write them as two puzzle pieces created solely for one another and this is what the song talks about, people that fate brought together by pure coincidence which led to the blooming of a beautiful relationship. The overall sound of this track also suits what their love is like, very gentle, calm, complete and despite being simple flows ever so perfectly throughout time. (Euphoria by BTS (Jungkook) would also have been a good song for them)

The fact that they were made for one another doesn't mean that she didn't truly feel love for Eunwoo or Mingyu, but it was different than what the two of them have. It was adoration, affection, love, and she felt at peace when they were together but it was not the sense of completion she has with Mingi, it didn't feel like their hearts beat in sync, their voices didn't sink into the depths of her mind when hearing it even for a brief moment.

As usual sweets thank you for your question (and your patience)! Love you too, MWWAAHHH 🥰💕

[esther-dot]

Hi, i sent that link for more reference about the subject. The more the merrier, right? And i think it's always nice to appreciate the efforts of all the meta writers, old and new ♥

Curiously, the other post from 2017 you linked (by princess in a tower), was written after the convo in the link i sent (marydri was princess in a tower old url).

Have a good day :)

(Continuation of this convo)

I genuinely do believe “the more the merrier” which is why I always attempt to link to posts if I know where I first heard something, but I’m also reluctant to go too far into the “crediting” idea because the last time this came up, it wasn’t a celebration of what the older Jonsas had written, but an attempt to make a newer Jonsa meta writer feel like crap. It wasn’t used to include, but was a deliberate attempt to discredit and just kinda, exert ownership of ideas and prevent people from taking things in new directions.

As a Jonsa, a fan of a ship that only exists because fans decided to come to their own conclusions and offered new readings on characters and dynamics, even reinterpreted themes of the story, you have to understand just how off-putting and counterproductive that behavior seems to me. I want every jonsa to feel heard and appreciated for their efforts, for them to enjoy the fandom, which is why, when I’m active, I do my best to both boost newcomers and link to older metas, but prior experience with this works cited idea has made what I consider a pleasure, a real minefield.

Fandom is all about how we inspire each other to create, it isn’t just about the source material. A comment sparking a meta, a meta inspiring characterization for a fic, a fic inspiring art, I’ve seen all of that and think it’s a beautiful thing. So no, I don’t think that’s “curious,” I think it’s perfectly normal for a comment to inspire someone to write a meta. I’ve tagged people in asks to get them to write about an idea, had other people then write metas about it. I like it! Also, ifeas grow in unpredictable ways, and we’re all engaging with our beloved book or show via different mediums and on different websites and in many different languages, so choosing to assume the best of each other’s motives is necessary, and I’m wary of anything that discourages people from engaging. We don’t know which meta someone else has read. For a while, I read all the knew meta, this year, I haven’t even tried to keep up. Sometimes not being credited isn’t an exclusion, it’s simply because you weren’t part of the journey for that specific individual. I’ve seen people come to the same conclusion following very different paths a lot in fandom! And generally speaking, I’m really not sure how “ownership” of a parallel or of a theory works? Waymar’s death foreshadowing Jon’s or that he’ll lose an eye or that we’ll get romantic Jonsa, all are offshoots of the basic “these guys are described the same way,” but I’d think it a bit odd for the person who first noticed the parallel (years before it became a Jonsa thing) to feel ownership over everything that came after.

An infamous example of the futility of theory ownership is the poor blogger who came up with a Sansxn version of the Ashford theory which Jonsas looked at and said, “you do not know what to do with this but we do!” and ran with it, and they’ve been trying to squash people jonsa-ing it or speculating about Sansa x Aegon ever since:

You get the idea. It’s a great theory, I don’t like the original ship, but kudos for op for noticing the parallels. They saw something, someone else saw it too. Many, many people ran with it. It’s inspired a general “Jon is the last suitor” or specific, “Jon will literally go to the tourney” spec in our fandom. I’ve read lots of stuff about it and enjoyed it all. However, I don’t assume everyone who writes about the Ashford Tourney is stealing from the op. I genuinely think a lot of fans didn’t even know where it (potentially) originated, and I certainly don’t think the original goal of the theory (Sansa ends up with the Hound) precludes reinterpretations.

Anyway, I absolutely make an effort to credit Jonsas whenever I can, but having witnessed what I have within our fandom, and seeing how other people treat Jonsas because of this stuff, I’m resistant to getting bogged down in this issue. I don’t want fans to feel like they can’t post about Waymar without someone vague blogging because they weren’t credited. I’ll gladly read a dozen posts talking about the Waymar -> Jon -> Sansa wildly in love -> Jonsa idea and love each and every one of them. I enjoy reading different takes on the same idea. It takes nothing away from those who have already made up their minds about what it means, and sometimes, the new post words things in a way that clicks with a new audience which is something we all should appreciate. It’s all upside imo!

[lordelmelloi2]

Sakura Matou for the blorbo bingo

When you have lived Sakura's life, or a life with similar bullshit as Sakura, you realize how immensely boring the act of suffering is. That in of itself will make you crazy.

Her passive aggression makes me crazy. The fact that it's not considered by many to be an open aspect of her character like a rotting wood also makes me crazy, because to me, it's Right There and it's going to eat her and her relationships alive.

It drives me fucking crazy that after Heaven's Feel they basically said "Sakura is normal now". I hate the take that Sakura is totally innocent. That's just simply not what I think HF was trying to communicate, that's not what the scene between her and Kirei was trying to express. Sakura retaking her agency over her abuse also came at the cost of her realizing she now had the power to commit atrocities, and she did. When you're ritually abused like that you're whole life you can easily adopt a mindset that makes you believe it's all justified to lash out and hurt others because you suffered. I do believe Sakura was heavy in that mindset.

But what drives me crazy the most is this idea that she'll walk away from it all not still carrying the aspects of the sort of emotional and psychological trauma she endured with her. To me that's not gratifying or like... accurate. You do not endure the complex traumatic circumstances that Sakura endured and walk out the other way a perfectly functional person. I wish we could've seen an actual after-story where Sakura experiences a sort of perspective shift -- even though she's with Shirou and he's given up everything to stay with her, something's not right. Shirou is not healed of his trauma and neither is she and she is still just as passive aggressive and borderline as she was years ago, albeit less so since she's no longer literally in the Torture Chamber. There are still so many things she is going to have to reconcile with. The lifelong sexual assault by her grandfather. The lifelong sexual assault by her brother. The fact she's been incestuously abused at all! Does anyone understand what that does to your brain??? Your very being, your entire soul??? Just being with Shirou is not going to be enough to fix you, I have always been frustrated by the idea that Shirou just "fixes" Sakura as if that's a realistic expectation of him at all.

I so desperately wanted that to be reflected in the story. But, well. Given that there aren't a lot of Abuse Rescue stories that focus on how you can ruin your own life after escaping trauma, or really any that acknowledge you still have heavy effects of trauma after escaping as a whole... it frustrates me. It frustrates me immensely. I wanted it so badly. I wanted to see someone who was also tortured her entire life to see how she dealt with the aftereffects.

I just think it's truly, truly, absolutely rare to walk away from that and say "Well, I'm happy now" in the unique position that she's in. Fate is not a real story, no, but it has a lot of realism in the character's emotional processes and how that works, and I really wanted Nasu to follow through. Seeing what he's done with Sakura's character so far, I will always be unsatisfied...

[tuhhadkeryo]

Hello, I'm here for the Hacker hair hcs, please. Do you think he's always worn a wig? Do you hc his natural hair color is diff? Blonde like when he took the Ring of Radopolis?

Hiya! Any Hacker hcs are welcome and I’m dyin’ to talk ab his hair. So here they are + some doodles :3

I think he used to have hair when he was younger, but when he lost his power he lost his locks with it! Kind of like accelerated aging. That’s a whole other story so I’ll stick with his hair for now.

Young Hacker loved the smooth, effortless, dashing slicked back style of the 50s. 

Of course, as is everything else in the universe, his hair seems to be against him - coarse, doesn’t hold volume well, and is straight with the exception of a tiny bit of wave near the ends. So he got it cut into a well blended, layered/mullet style so he could carefully gel, tease, and blow dry it into that coveted 50s style. (With a dash of cyberspace trends too ofc ✨👌)

When he lost his power, it was a few days before his body started suffering real, shocking consequences and his hair fell out in his hands in chunks. Quite traumatic for him and he despises every moment that he’s forced to wear a wig instead, especially after all the time and effort he put into his hair. 

His wig he keeps in a more severe, slicked back look, perhaps more fitting for his villainous aura. In order to keep every strand out of his face and looking good, he uses his own brand of wig gel to both give it shine and keep the style in hold. 

Hacker has a difficult time embracing his hair by itself, mostly because it was basically the opposite of what he wanted - straight, coarse, flat, and medium thickness. If he didn’t know how to take the best care of it (he didn’t) it could get oily easily  and stringy. Very boring, to him. He does everything he can to change it, using products galore or various methods to get it looking the way he wants in the morning. (Messy hair 👇)

To him, throwing product after product and over brushing and overall damaging the hair is perfectly normal and he would find it very difficult to believe that somebody like Slider can wake up, shake their head, and continue on their day. 

His hair def looks perfect when he’s fixed it up, but who could tell differently with basically glue to keep it in place and slime to give it shine? Very much fake and sculpted into that beauty standard.

At night time he’ll drag a comb through it, scraping out all the shit collected in between the hairs, and underneath is a frizzy, damaged wig. He just thinks that’s how it goes to get the hair you want and it’s infused into his daily routine.

Truthfully, Hacker’s a sad case of ignorance and arrogance about hair products and embracing one’s hair texture. If he learned somewhere to take care of his hair it’d probably be shiny, more wavy (coconut oil yo), thick, and coarse. You know, rock the right styles or stick with the slicked back look - either would work. And after getting his wig, if he ever got his power back and therefore his hair, I don’t think this would be too far off from his search history. And if he did figure this out, he’d probably be much happier with it. Although I’m pretty sure he’d be happy with any hair after his baldness’s XD

Which brings me to his wish - to have a head of hair of his own. His dream style. 

Thick, voluptuous, soft, wavy, lightweight, voluminous, blonde��

And of course you might’ve wondered before, ‘well, why not get a wig with all that?’ 

It’s his own hair of course! Effortless! He doesn’t have to do anything to fight with it or change it, simply maintain! And it’s *his*. Not a bought wig which bruises his ego.

For his natural hair color - I think it’s black due to his black eyebrows, and examples of black body hair animated in the show. Blonde is possibly a color he lusted after for a long time, or maybe just a whim of the day. 

It’d be interesting if blonde was his natural hair color though - fun design!

Aaaand a random mustachioed Hacker

Thanks sm for the ask!! I hope it was good for ya

Sometime I’ll do a finished pic of Hacker wearing longer hair or something, bc I like hair :D

[tuulikannel]

I've been thinking about Fran Bow recently. This... is mainly just a collection of random thoughts and theories. Might add more stuff later if I remember other things. Spoilers ahead, naturally.

So... one question obviously is how much of it is real, and how much is just Fran's imagination,which is of course a question that is basically impossible to answer, and I think I'm going to ignore it, at least for now.

I'm honestly more curious about whether or not Fran killed her parents. It has been hinted at so many times. I think already in the first chapter there was bloody text on the wall, saying something like "it was not me," and when she saw the dead nurse in the cafeteria, she also exclaimed that she didn't kill her. All these denials make it sound like she does have something on her conscience.

Remor does claim she killed her parents. But... the thing is, can we really trust Remor? He wants to make Fran feel as bad as possible, of course he would claim that. Although... talking about Remor. That name... almost sounds like Remorse. Fran's remorse after killing her parents? Remor tells her that she is the manifestation of his desires, but maybe it's the other way round. Maybe Remor is the manifestation of Fran's remorse and guilty feelings.

Now, if Fran did kill her parents... how did she do it? She's just a little girl, could she really slice them up like that? In that flashback we simply see her stabbing her father repeatedly. Then again, she did slice through that poor beetlepig without any trouble... Even so, you would imagine two grownups could fight off a little girl, but... let's imagine she attacks first her father. Even if she's behaving strangely, most likely he doesn't believe she'd actually attack him. She hits him, her mother screams (she did hear a scream from her), and then she attacks her mother... who's too shocked to fight back. Who knows? And here's another question - were the parents really killed as brutally as they were in what is possibly Fran's imagination?

Of course, there is the possibility that if Remor is real, he could have possessed Fran and given her super strength. Or then Fran found her parents dead, snapped and started stabbing the dead bodies...

...I honestly wonder how good her relationship with her parents really was. There was that text in the asylum... "Daddy wasn't there, Mommy would not care." And most of the stuff on the walls were hints... so yeah. I wonder. It does seem like Fran honestly misses her parents, but it is perfectly possible that she loved them dearly and still had this deeply buried anger inside of her, if they were negligent. I'm of course not saying parents aren't allowed to go out and have fun, but there was that scene where they went out and left her with Aunt Grace. So yeah. Maybe that happened often. Who knows?

Also... in the beginning, Fran said that "everything is fine, it feels like heaven." This same line was later said by the other Fran in Ithersta, the one sitting on the throne who killed the cat. And I wonder... "everything is fine." isn't this like a line that people keep on telling themselves exactly when everything is not fine?

In any case, honestly... Fran is not alright. She's no qualms whatsoever to kill the beetlepig, and just wrench out that poor skull's teeth. And her reactions to the awful things she sees is simply much too normal, most of the time. She's clearly not okay. The question is, was she okay before her parents' death?

There's so much about split personality and the two sides of the brain and all that tho in the game. Maybe Fran has some kind of a case of split personality? And the freaky side we see at times is her other side? (Of course it could have been just intrusive thoughts.)

But there's one more thing I wonder about... what made Fran so special? (Unless... all that was in her mind, and it was just her thinking she's somehow special?) In any case, Oswald was interested in twins. Why would she care about Fran? Is just being the daughter of a twin enough?

Here's one wild theory... what if Fran was a twin too? Maybe that other Fran she kept on seeing was her dead twin sister? This is very random, but there was that child you could see in the basement of the asylum, who said something like "I've been denied the path to life"... Maybe they're experimenting on the connection between a living and a dead twin... (Yes, I know, I'm pretty much in the realm of fanfiction here XD)

Annnnnnd here's one theory @solarsavoy just made after finishing the game, and I love it. The little Fran in the beginning of chapter 5... what if that is the real one? Who has imagined all of this... She knows about all the people, including even Leon, has a drawing of Fran flaying on Palontras... Hmm. I just realized she doesn't know about Mr. Midnight which kinda complicates things. But even so, I like this theory: the little Fran is the real one. She's crazy, and has a very vivid imagination. Who knows if she killed (or at least tried to) her parents in reality too? Cause Daddy wasn't there, Mommy would not care...

[melancholic-entrails]

a lengthier intro that explains things in simpler terms :) heyo! you can call me star or sil!

i use any pronouns including neopronouns, i especially like it/it's and they/them. just make sure to add some variety sometimes if you're going for less neutral ones :)

i am a minor- i occasionally horny post/ etc however. reminder, this does not equal consent. but i normally tag them #suggestive cw or #cw suggestive if i remember.

i don't always remember to tag possible triggering things, so please proceed with caution!

a little bit about me:

i am a self shipper ( with fictional characters ) . i'm always okay with "sharing" fictional characters, because i believe in the multiverse theory when it comes to both selfship and otherkinity. the multiverse theory basically explores the idea of the multiverse with fiction- different versions of the same fictional character. meaning that in my eyes, "sharing" fictional characters does not exist because we all see them in different ways. of course, it is perfectly alright for you to be uncomfortable with sharing, but that is what i personally believe.

i believe in ship and let ship. nobody should be harassed for their taste in fiction. people can be groomed with fiction, but people can be groomed with anything. yes, this includes whatever "disgusting" things you are thinking of. it is okay if you despise them, just block and move on. don't send hate.

we are all living breathing human beings with thoughts and feelings and wants and dreams. don't send hate.

i do not believe in thought crimes. yes, this includes whatever you're thinking of. thought crimes are not real.

there is nothing wrong with having paraphilias, because oftentimes this is a result of trauma or you simply cannot control it.

however, i only stand for consensual contact in real life. meaning that i am anticontact on sexual zoophilia, pedophilia, etc.

if you find my stances personally disgusting, block and move on, please.

for trans-identifiers: most common being transgender, less common being trans-species, trans-race, etc:

bottom line, as long as you are not using these labels to mock fun of the community you are taking on the labels of, it does not matter.

people may take on these labels as forms of empowerment, simply relating to them, or any other reason.

and for the topic of system origins, such as the origins of a dissociative identity disorder, i will only say this:

i am not a doctor. i don't know the inside of your brain. so i cannot know if you are faking or not. the same goes for any mental illness. this means that i am not someone who knows enough about dissociative identity disorders and the like to properly say that endogenic systems- systems not formed by trauma- are real or not.

what i will say, though? exclusionism isn't fun. it's not nice. if the endogenic person(s) are simply existing, it is simply mean spirited to mock them.

something else i have noticed is: there are endogenic systems or plural people or etc that label as nondisordered, but i personally think many are disordered rather than they claim, simply because dissociative disorders are not researched enough.

bottom line, i don't care what you call yourself- i care how you conduct. and that includes for all sorts of discourse, including the proship vs antiship discourse, the traumagenic vs endogenic discourse, and everything else.

internet safety things: please, please, don't share a list of your triggers or diagnoses online. it is simply dangerous.

post-script:

no matter how vile you believe someone is, because you disagree with them, find them annoying, or anything else?

it is never a kind thing to doxx someone or send death threats because of their opinions on the internet.

especially for proship discourse on tumblr dot com.

just think twice, kay?

[creature-wizard]

Continuing along its agenda of conspiracizing and demonizing basically everything, The Illuminati Formula Used To Create an Undetectable Mind Controlled Slave claims cattle mutilations are the work of satanists and alien abduction memories are from satanic ritual abuse.

First of all, there's no evidence that "cattle mutilations" even exist. Yes, people found dead cows that were missing some of their soft bits and supposedly had all of these incisions. surgically precise incisions. But on the other hand... these supposed "mutilations" sure sounded like perfectly normal decay. When an animal dies, its softer parts go first. Between bloating and skin decay, eventually the skin will tear and you'll see these "surgically precise incisions." Chalking this up to cultists is just as silly as chalking it up to aliens.

As for supposed "memories" of abductions... do you know what the Satanic Panic and ufology has in common?

Hypnosis.

Lots and lots of hypnosis.

As most of us know, hypnosis is a great tool for cultivating false memories, whether or not the hypnotherapist realizes it. In The Threat by David M. Jacobs, you can see them describe a number of cases where people allegedly "remembered" alien abductions. The author claims that they were oh so careful not to implant ideas into their client's minds, but once you actually read the transcripts, you can see that they did exactly that by merely asking leading questions. Here's an example:

Simon: Was that operating room in the hospital blue? Barney: No, it was bright lights. Simon: Did you feel that you were going to be operated on? Barney: No. Simon: Did you feel that you were being attacked in any way? Barney: No.

A hypnotherapist might not think these are leading questions, but they absolutely are. Literally all of these questions include certain preconceptions that could easily shape what the patient experiences under hypnosis.

Meanwhile, The Illuminati Formula claims that mysterious seemingly alien-related pregnancies in which the fetus vanished before term have something to do with SRA. The Threat likewise speaks of people who reported being impregnated by aliens, only to have the fetus vanish. Interestingly enough, many of these people had experienced hysterectomies, meaning that pregnancy shouldn't have been possible in the first place.

So, Fritz, so Cisco, do you think that the Illuminati can give people who've had hysterectomies ectopic pregnancies, and extract the fetus without a trace? Is that a thing you believe can happen?

Or is it maybe more likely that these people have reproductive-related anxieties (certainly an undesired hysterectomy can be traumatic for someone who wanted children, or was at least open to the possibility) that manifest as weird dreams or "memories" about aliens stealing their babies and/or false pregnancies?

If we hear hoofbeats, should we think that it's horses or centaurs?

And by the way, if anybody thinks that the entire ufology community could be full of bad faith actors deliberately cultivating false memories for purposes of ritual abuse, no. The people using hypnosis are just another flavor of conspiracy theorist. They're not very good at science or critical thinking, but most of them are sincere in their search for the truth. Unfortunately, because they are conspiracy theorists, and this means that they fundamentally believe that they already know the truth, and therefore tend to interpret everything as evidence of what they believe.

The book then claims that the "aliens" are actually demons of the Christian, which is not worth taking seriously in the slightest, because literally all they're doing is demonizing a belief system they don't agree with simply because it's not their shitty libertarian brand of Christianity. They talk about some common alien types in New Age belief, such as Pleiadians, Sirians, Orions, and Zeta Reticulans.

Then the book asserts:

Fritz, the co-author of this book kept an open mind on the issue, could there be any benevolent aliens ? Some abductees believed that their aliens were benevolent, but when they are debriefed they admit that mind-control and sexual molestation is carried out by the aliens.

Y'all know I'm not a fan of New Age belief and wish it would go the fuck away due to all the colonialism and genocide packed into it. So keep that in mind as I say:

BULL. SHIT.

No, Fritz, not everyone who experiences engagement with aliens in some fashion is being sexually assaulted by them. You're just cherry picking. You aren't listing a single legitimate grievance against New Age, so I can only conclude that your real beef is that there are people who dare to have different spiritual beliefs from your own.

Also, what the fuck do you mean by "mind control"? This term is so nebulous that it could mean anything. The fact that you don't elaborate is pretty suspicious, Fritz.

Next, the book claims that the Illuminati stopped using blood rituals because now they have "high tech harmonic machines" that implant thoughts. Yet another variant on the belief that the Conspiracy is controlling people's thoughts with electromagnetic waves that we can dismiss summarily.

Next, the book talks about a book titled The Island of Blue Dolphins and says:

This is a child s book by Scott O Dell. The people of an island have both an everyday name and a magical name. When the chief gives his magical name to a Russian captain named Orlov, he and his warriors end up being killed in battle. The alters of Monarch slaves have names they can give outsiders and then their access code names which must be kept secret. Part of the story is to stay in line with what one's ancestors have done.

The story is literally about Native Americans - Nicoleño people, to be specific. I dunno about you, but I think there might be something racist about implying that Native Americans trying to preserve their culture is bad, or that having multiple names (a common practice in many cultures, for many reasons) is bad.

I'm sure the author's whiteness has made the story highly problematic, but as with New Agers, there are no legitimate grievances named here. It's simply conspiracized and demonized just for depicting different beliefs and different cultural practices.

And now the book claims that The Lord of the Rings is Illuminati literature:

Some Illuminati survivors are always looking for a ring. Rings play a significant part in the lives and programming of slaves. One section that is coding/programming found in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

I dunno, I think if you're at the point where you feel comfortable asserting that JRR Tolkien was a secret Illuminati agent, you need to take a long, long break. Touch some grass. Get some (real) therapy. Something. Anything. It's time to put down your typewriter, word processor, or whatever you're using, and come back to the real world.

[henryclaremontdiaz]

Recovery

You can’t have a story of recovery without relapse. -- Charlie's hurting, Nick just wants to help.

Mentions of mental health issues, eating disorders, and hospitalization.

read on ao3

 Charlie Spring knew way too much about relapses.

 He knew his mental health was kind of, well, shit sometimes. When he was in inpatient, the therapists and nurses told him recovery wasn’t linear. He didn’t want to believe it though, he told himself they were wrong. Once he got better, he would simply just be better.

 Every day since then he’s proven himself wrong.

 When he was in the hospital, days merged together. It was like a rollercoaster, full of ups and downs. They promised him it would be better, but that it was still not a straight shot to being perfectly mentally healthy.

 Now it was less like a rollercoaster, and more like a road trip. It took some time to see, but it might be a road trip with no endpoint. He’s just along for the ride. And sometimes, it’s a fucking great ride. He’d wake up and everything would feel right, normal. Like that day would be okay. And it would.

 Those days he looks forward to most.

 The days that aren’t exciting, or even fun. They just are. And the days he can just be, that’s more than enough for him.

 Today was not one of those days.

 You can’t have a story of recovery without relapse.

 If when things were going well is like driving down the highway on a road trip, then relapses and bad days were dirty, run down bathrooms at rest stops. Or like blowing a tire.

 Sometimes it was just kind of inconvenient, when it isn’t too bad. Nick asked him about it once and the best way he could describe it was it was like an itchy shirt tag. It was annoying, and it was there in the back of your mind even when you tried to not think about it. But it wasn’t the worst thing you could feel.

 And then the other days? It tears him apart. There were days where he woke up and he just knew, he felt everything inside of him weighing him down and even the air was suffocating him. Those were the days where he didn’t want to get out of bed, what was the point?

 He knew he’d be no fun anyways, and he wouldn’t eat. So there was no need to get out of bed.

 Today, as he laid on the couch watching Inside, he realized it was going to be one of those days.

 It was the little things, first he realized not only what he was watching but that it was so mindlessly that he felt nothing at all. The next thing was that he realized he hadn’t eaten since breakfast the day before.

 He felt so weak - physically and emotionally.

 Why couldn’t he do the basic thing his body needed to survive? It didn’t matter though, just because everyone else needed it that didn’t mean he did. He had gone days with barely eating and he was fine, so this was fine.

 Shit, that’s not fine, is it?

 Charlie could feel himself sinking, and it made him sick.

 He pulled his blanket up over his head as he felt the tears well up in his eyes. Why was he like this? He tried to wipe away his years but they wouldn’t stop coming, he was so pathetic. So fucking pathetic.

 He took a shaky breath and closed his eyes, his head laid back against the pillow as he tried to calm his heart rate. Why couldn’t he just be better? What had been the point of all that time in the hospital, the meds, the therapy, if he was still hurting?

 What was the point of any of it?

 He didn’t want to spiral, his hand went to his phone without thinking and he opened his messages with Nick. He sent one message, quick and to the point.

   Come over.  

 Charlie curled in on himself as he waited on Nick, he didn’t know if he’d even see it but he had to hope he would. The minutes ticked by and he didn’t get a response and he felt a pain deep in his chest, soon squashed by the sound of the knock at the door. His sister let him in and he heard Nick come in, but he stayed under the blanket.

 He heard a small sigh and he expected to feel the couch dip beside him, but he was surprised when he felt himself being lifted. Nick held him close to his chest as he carried him up to his bedroom, laying down on the bed and holding him still. “Thank you,” Charlie whispered. He kept his ear to his chest, Nick’s heart a steady beat that kept him grounded.

 “You don’t have to thank me. That’s what I’m here for,” he said softly. Nick rubbed his back slowly, he hated seeing Charlie like this. It broke his heart, but he tried to see any kind of silver lining. At least Charlie was telling him when he was feeling bad now, at least he was showing this side of himself.

 He wasn’t trying to hold it in anymore.

 Charlie sniffled as he curled up closer to Nick, his face so deep into his shirt that all that surrounded him was Nick. The smell of him, the warmth of his shirt. It was something that could comfort him.

 “Why can’t I get better?” he asked, his voice muffled.

 Nick frowned, just rubbing his back more for a bit. He never knew what to do, what to say. He just knew that he loved him, and that might not be enough to fix him but it’s more than enough to get them both through the day, right? “You are better,” he finally said, looking down at Charlie’s mop of hair. “You’re so much better than you were before, just because you went back a little doesn’t mean you’re not still getting better,” he said, giving him a soft smile despite the fact that he couldn’t see him.

 “You really think so?” he asked, pulling his face away just enough to look up at him. His eyes red, Nick’s heart hurting at the sight.

 “I know so. Get some rest and start fresh when you get up. Every day’s a new day.”

[strifeinfinity]

The Wonky World of Powerscaling

[Or, How to get indoctrinated by idiots]

Powerscaling, or better known as Battleboarding, is a format used by people who are hardcore character debaters to see who wins using feats and abilities which would pull through for the win. Unfortunately, powerscaling is now a bunch of debates based on what people think is the strongest character and then dropping them months after to find another strongest character. Let’s talk about it.

PART ONE: Do you even scale, bro?

How do you even.. powerscale, exactly? Well, you need to take into account on how a character works in stats. In powerscaling battles, you must drop all pretenses of actual character writing and how they’d actually act in favor of earth-shaking clashes. It’s kind of like removing rationality from your brain so you can allow yourself to confront some other dude who wants to clobber you. It’s fun to debate on characters, but it’s not so fun on how there is a monopoly on the debate. Powerscaling at it’s most basic form should simply be people with differing opinions explaining why a character can beat this character— but it’s not. Powerscaling has been made much more complicated than the simple “Goku can blow up a universe. Kratos can’t. Goku wins!” because it has been made that way, thanks to varying degrees of beliefs.. And lack of knowledge. This monopoly I mentioned earlier is a massive quote-on-quote conspiracy created by many things. But we must start with the thing that is responsible for many strange terms.

PART TWO: Tiering System seems normal.. (Not!)

Powerscaling’s biggest benefactor is known as Vsbattleswiki, a Fandom domain where many internal issues lie deeply under it’s surface. It’s very skimpy surface. Let’s start with the basics: The tiering system. The tiering system is, at least according to them, an way to place a character’s power reliably in Attack Potency and Destructive Capacity. These two things are the reason a character gets on it’s level. So it goes smoothly. It goes perfectly fine with normal explanations. For example, Multiversal is 10 universes. If you destroy a “multiverse”, you’re multiversal. If you destroy an infinite expanse of multiverses, that’s complex multiversal. Everything’s cool. Then you reach Outerversal. And also, the bias for dimensional tiering rears it’s head. Let’s talk about the term Outerversal.

PART 2.2: What is an “Outerversal”????

To understand Outerversal, let’s put the previous tiers in perspective. Multiversal, as stated, is 10 or more universes that are destroyed in a singular move, or overtime. Obviously, overtime depends and is iffy, but if you can destroy it, you have the destructive capacity to be multiversal. Complex Multiversal is the destruction of an “infinite expanse” of multiverses or multiple multiverses at once. For example, there are 52 DC Universes. There are 10 each, besides two. This makes it a complex multiverse. Said complex multiverse has to be destroyed. For example, the Anti-Monitor had wiped out INFINITE universes, making him a Complex Multiversal threat. If you wanted to be more baseline and ignore the idea of complex, you’d have a multiversal threat. Hyperverse is being able to destroy a finite amount in these infinities. However, these terms.. are a bit strange. It’s kind of like segmenting being able to destroy a multiverse into different kinds which have no real meaning besides the original to make a character stronger. But they seem to work. Outerversal.. Doesn’t work. Basically, being above time and space warrants it.. When feats can contradict it otherwise. For example:

See? That’s a claim. A bold one about Fate Servants. One that holds no weight, considering Fate servants are still bound to the laws of time, and it’s from a secondary source known from Fate/Zero. That’s not going to change anything when the servants should be destroying universes en masse and oneshotting characters like the Anti-Monitor. There are people who unironically believe that, by the way. Being in a higher dimension doesn’t make you magically stronger than anyone else. In this case, Outerversal is a poorly defined term that is either “above time and space”, “above dimensionality”, or “can destroy infinite infinities”, which those are 3 distinct terms. Also, Fate Servants are literally clones, and not the original real individuals. They’re just made up of what humanity believes them to be in modern day. Some are exceptions, like Artoria, but they still don’t transcend “time and space”. Because of this stigma that makes people think a character is stronger because they transcend others in a cosmology (There are exceptions, like TOAA), you now have a flawed dimension tiering system which people think matters above all else. Dimensionality works differently, guys. And just because Lovecraft monsters exist above things doesn’t necessarily make them all-powerful. They have like.. 0 feats. When you’re in an higher dimension compared to another, you have more movement options that nobody can dream of. Using DC’s version of dimensionality (I assume that is what is being commonly used for these points), is a fundamental misunderstanding of dimensions. No matter what dimension you are in (Unless it specifies, then if not, then just don’t even bother), you will not be above time itself if you’re in a higher dimension, like the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is just a dimension separate from our usual spatial ones. Dimensional tiering should not be the decisive factor of a character’s strength when it varies for different fictions.

Just because Darkseid who is an embodiment of evil and a being inbetween 4D and 5D doesn’t mean Goku and friends is stronger than him in any sense because they “shook a fourth dimensional void” (Like that means anything. Literally an unquantifiable feat that can’t even be used. Please stop using shaking as feats.), and Darkseid has actual stronger hax and feats to back up his win against Dragon Ball. And no, being stronger than someone doesn’t make you immune to hax in dragon ball. It’s literally “if you’re stronger, their ki is weaker than your ki meaning you can overpower them”, which is why the Jiren claim where he “transcends time” (Only being above Hit’s faulty time stop using his ki) exists. Nobody takes that literally but powerscalers! So. What did we learn about the term outerversal? It doesn’t exist. And it was made up by the people on Vsbattleswiki. Boundless is also a terminology, but there is no “true omnipotence in fiction” and from what I’ve seen besides wank, nobody is above their cosmology besides TOAA. Even if he isn’t omnipotent (Taking some stuff into account), he’s still above it. How does that make him Tier 1-A? Because he lost in a book that everyone disregards as non-canonical? Because nobody ever references it? Because the entire trilogy contradicts Marvel Canon? (Seriously, how can you try to connect Thanos VS Hulk to Infinity, or the Infinity Conflict to anything, when Thanos was dead at the time?) But when they use the “Creator from Umineko” (which isn’t a real term by the way, nor a real character. It is Lambdadelta’s beliefs on what the Creator could have been if Featherine Augustus Aurora had come in contact with the power to become it.), they’re Tier 0 because they.. uhh.. Transduality! And other buzzwords! And the fact he didn’t lose, ever! (The Creator is a misconception who doesn’t exist.) Vsbattleswiki is a deeply flawed website on dimensional tiering, which they heavily use.

PART THREE: The People on Vsbattleswiki

There’s a staff member named Antvasima who happens to really be an idiot. He spends a lot of time getting mad when anyone opposes him, and then he makes some lengthy apology about his life being busy and being miserable. The issue is, is that besides him and his silly groveling act.. He and others are incredibly biased. For example, Touhou as a verse which is incredibly powerful was downplayed hardcore to Star Level for years. Naruto continues to be oppressed on the wiki. Meanwhile, Beyblade is magically declared Universal+ because people like the verse. SCP is declared boundless because SCP is popular and hyper wanked by many, and so on. Vsbattleswiki profiles are heavily incompetent, considering they take hyperbolic statements in God of War novels and put them to their most literal sense. And they use PIS wrong.

(Note: Concepts in Marvel literally can grow and diminish in strength depending on what the situation can embody. Al Ewing is allowed to write in any way, shape or form. He is not a bad writer for such nonsense. This also is an example and exercise in lack of understanding proper storytelling, as he wants everything to be consistent. Not everything is consistent, Antvasima. The Tiger God’s power comes from the darkness. He is the opposition to the Phoenix Force. He is at it’s strongest when a candle in the flame (Lifebringer Galactus), stands against Logos (The Darkness). Al Ewing doesn’t even like power levels or consistency.)

Calcs are heavily favored over what is shown. For example, in MAGI, Sinbad destroyed a large chunk of a mountain, which should solidly place him at somewhere near mountain level. Then the calc somehow put him at Island Level. They also do pixel calcs, which make 0 sense as well.. Because you can’t just calculate a sprite to get your answer. This means someone can create a faulty calculation, and because many of them lack knowledge in math, and you can’t really calculate the size of a fictional explosion because on the screen it’ll look smaller and in the verse you’ll never know what size it is, you’ll end up getting a crazy calculation based on their tiering system which allows crazy shit to happen. Threads are locked daily if someone tries to oppose a staff member, and it takes forever to get a CRT approved if the staff team is biased against the verse. Marvel and DC threads are always an unfinished mess, and it took an incredibly long time for staff members to admit Roshi could destroy a moon (A LITERAL ON SCREEN FEAT WITH UNDENIABLE PROOF), and many more issues. There is also claims of transphobia within the community as well. With these issues established, we can move onto the community most affected by Vsbattleswiki

PART FOUR: THE LAWLESS WASTELAND

Welcome to Tiktok, and by extension, Youtube Shorts debaters! Where they have been most corrupted by faulty logic of the wikipedia known as Vsbattleswiki. They have zero idea to what they’re talking about. Many characters (Like the Weaver who’s shown like.. Planetary feats) are wanked to an extreme degree. The biggest flaw with these two “powerscaling outlets” is that it’s short. Nobody actually knows how to debate, so you end up getting the most factually incorrect statements ever. For example..

So, what am I supposed to say about this? This is what happens when a bunch of people who have no grasp on the english language or lacking intelligence shows up to the table. People enjoy wanking characters because they’d rather see their verse with rose tinted glasses stomp every other fictional verse (even though that’s impossible). What the fuck is a Scarlet King Spider + 8 Eyes God? Godzilla Ultima True Form doesn’t even exist. That’s not a thing. Godzilla Ultima was going to destroy the universe overtime, but he lacks the destructive capacity to destroy buildings until Jet Jaguar knocks him over. The big issue with these people is that because of the format, it lacks proper discussion. I have seen people claim Kratos is a hyperversal god who’s lifted the 9 realms and can lift infinity even though God of War’s verse shows maximum mountain level feats, ONLY LIFTED TYR’s TEMPLE (If he lifted the 9 realms, the entire story would go incredibly different, and change everything), and the infinite sky is hyperbolic to describe how large it was to others. I have seen people say “God Fusion Goku” destroys fiction. (What the fuck is a God Fusion Goku? That’s not even a thing.) I have seen people say Hajun and Dies Irae characters are outerversal characters who clobber all of fiction. (Even though Dies Irae only has a multiverse at best.. And Hadou Gods only become universes. The throne controls the multiverse. They’re strong, but nothing shows them to be “1-A”. When you have images of characters flashing around in gif form with something like.. “Rick Sanchez VS Thanos”, you get a very skewed outlook and bias. It doesn’t explain anything due to the format, and people will go “wow lol this guy wrote a whole essay” when it is only a paragraph or a bit shorter which nobody can see in time on the tiktok or short, allowing them to be swayed. They also use Vsbattleswiki terminology and fail to understand how poorly made it is. You also have Gilgamesh from Fate wankers. I don’t even need to say anything.

PART FIVE: The Strongest Character Bandwagon

On these websites, there is a singular thing in common. The strongest character. People have wanked and extrapolated feats en masse and even made up scans (Demonbane. LOL.) to argue that nothing can stop this certain character from sexually assaulting your favorite fictional universe. With poor grammar and faulty language. They don’t stick around on a character for long either. Featherine. Hajun, Demonbane. SCP-3812. Rune King Thor. Lucifer. And so on. They choose who is the strongest because they want the character to be the strongest. It is literally a side-effect of this. Nobody wants to see their favorite characters lose. Nobody wants to concede in a debate to someone else. This is how wank gets out of hand. Fate Extra/CCC was notorious for it’s wank and overhype, especially on comicvine. Nowadays, you can easily disprove it by being a Fate fan, but you’ll find Gilgamesh wankers out in the wild. It’s why they don’t stick to characters long. Because there’s always a new strongest character around the corner with dimension 6000D powers that can annihilate everything in one blast. (if homestuck was more popular we’d get Lord English wank which he’d be even stronger than he already is considering he can oneshot dr manhattan good lord)

Part Six: Adhering to Consistency

Many scalers don’t believe in the idea of inconsistencies. Everything must be straightforward in one spot from beginning to end. It is what they believe. It is their law. And it sucks. It really does. When something does not line up with what they believe in, they will shout PIS. They essentially smash it into bits. You cannot say anything that is contradictory to their consistent worldview. A character can have anti-feats. A character can be inconsistent. Goku has to turn on his durability if he wants to survive any fight. Superman can struggle sometimes. SCP-3812 isn’t some omnipotent god. TOAA may lose (he never does lol…..). That’s the power of inconsistencies in media. You can work around it. And create stories. Consistency is important and serves to keep a story on track, but writers can go in any direction they want to keep the story rolling. So why am I talking about this? Well, some verses can’t actually be quantified in scaling. Like SCP. It has too many canons and realities to argue in favor of that a character is some omnipotent god when there’s a million stories. There are some verses that should not be scaled, but here we are.

Part Seven: End of the Road

Powerscaling is a mess. I didn’t cover everything, but just the tip of the iceberg. There is way more. I could have gone into the faulty scaling of Ben 10. I could have disputed Warhammer 40K. I could have done much more. But the point does not lie in debunking nor debating. I like writing. It’s a hobby of mine that I actively do because I like doing what I do. I don’t need to adhere to a strict logic unless it is required. Power scaling is a mess. It’s filled with people who have no idea what they’re talking about, spitting out infernal buzzwords. It’s filled with administrators who are borderline close to dictators. It’s filled with tons of stupid, disgusting idiots. But power scaling is also fun. If you know what you’re talking about. Which many people don’t.

I am not discouraging you to power scale. But I am going to make you aware of this immense issues that go on in the community. And for one last huzzah, let’s show you a moment where they know nothing. As usual.