#wow that's a long sentence

[aprilmr]

Hey guys do you think Rebecca straight up lied about Rook's death and her knowledge of it because she was the one who actually sent him on this suicide mission, and she desperately tries to forget and remove herself from these memories by voluntary choosing not to know the details of it? Hm??

[homicidalbrunette]

Here's 3 minutes of Katya and Trixie acting like an old married couple

[daytaker]

Sins, Virtues, and Motivations: A Critical Analysis of Characters in Shall We Date?: Obey Me!

In this essay, I will argue that each demon brother some of the demon brothers can be associated with a sin (no duh), a virtue, and a core motivation--and that this motivation is best pursued through a synthesis of that sin and that virtue. Hegel would be very proud. Yes, this is critical media analysis. No, I will not try to explain the twisted, broken path that led me to this point in my life.

I will be looking at Lucifer, Mammon, and Levi in this study. Their core sins are obvious - Pride, Greed, and Envy. Their accompanying Virtues and Motivations are listed below.

I used the Seven Heavenly Virtues for this little game. These are Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, Faith, Hope, and Charity.

They should not be confused with the Seven Capital Virtues, which are inversions of the Seven Deadly Sins. These are Humility, Charity, Kindness, Patience, Chastity, Temperance, and Diligence. I tried these first and damn were none of them easy to match up. Tell me, fandom for this mobile game designed for players to lust over hot demon men, which brother should have the "chastity" virtue?

Lucifer

Core Sin: Pride. Core Virtue: Fortitude. Core Motivation: To protect his family.

Lucifer's core motivation is to protect his brothers. He looks at this as a sort of penance for the outcome of the Great Celestial War. He knows that he's the reason they rebelled, and he feels responsible for their wellbeing. He is able to endure the relentless pressure of the responsibilities he puts on himself thanks to his core virtue, fortitude.

Fortitude is strongly associated with courage. Specifically, it is courage in the face of pain and adversity. We see him displaying this trait any time those he cares for are in jeopardy, and it often helps him make difficult decisions where neither outcome is ideal. Lucifer is decisive, canny, and accepts the consequences of his choices, good or bad.

His driving motivation is also bolstered by his core sin: pride. He views himself as ultra-competent, while his brothers consistently make mistakes; beyond that, it's only natural that he take responsibility for the choices of his brothers (like the choice to join him in rebelling) because he is so significant an influence as to virtually rob them of their autonomy.

This has led to Lucifer having a somewhat toxic relationship with his brothers. Lucifer often acts as a parental figure rather than a peer, while the rest of them are all in arrested development of some sort, often acting more like kids than the adults they insist they are.

Lucifer either doesn't recognize that by doing everything for the family on his own, he's stemming their ability to grow and learn, or he does know the consequences of what he's doing and he feels conflicted about it. He ultimately blames himself for the fact that they're all in the Devildom in the first place, living as avatars of sins to the extent that they struggle to function as independent adults.

So, while fortitude and pride allow Lucifer to simulate the act of protecting his family, it's a matter of perspective whether controlling every element of their lives is protection or harmful coddling.

Mammon

Core Sin: Greed. Core Virtue: Charity. Core Motivation: To be valued and valuable.

Mammon is simultaneously a vessel of greed and its inverse, charity. This is because his core motivation is twofold, and those are the rewards of greed and charity; to be valued - to fulfill a want, to be desired, to look flippin' cool - and to be valuable - to fulfill a need, to have inherent worth, to serve a purpose.

Setting aside his unhealthy relationship with money, let's examine how Mammon behaves and what his deeper interpersonal motivations tend to be. He clearly places a high value on his brothers and MC, and he has shown on multiple occasions that he is willing to put himself at risk to help or protect them. Early on in both the original game and in NightBringer, Mammon attempts to heroically rescue MC (and his younger brothers, in NightBringer). In both cases, though, Lucifer shows up and does it for him. Mammon's pursuit of his core motivation clashes with Lucifer's quest for his, and Lucifer is strong enough to simply take it from him. Although in NightBringer he and his brothers do earn the not-insubstantial reward of the title "Lords of the Underworld" after Lucifer's rescue, he appeared so dejected by Lucifer's oneupmanship that he spent a good portion of the next day sulking. In the original game, Mammon wants MC to promise that they won't be saved by anyone else besides him in the future. It appears that his greed for an improved status in his interpersonal relationships is left unfulfilled.

Mammon wants to be heroic - to be valuable - and he wants to be admired for it - to be valued. The cognitive dissonance that accompanies motivations like these is all that sustains a person with such a diminished sense of self-worth.

Speaking of a diminished sense of self worth...

Leviathan

Core Sin: Envy. Core Virtue: Hope. Core Motivation: To find joy in the things that give him joy.

Confusing motivation? Yes it is. But envy is a confusing sin. All the other sins--pride, greed, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth--are enjoyable to indulge on some level. Losing your temper when you feel you've been wronged, or eating a bunch of delicious food, or sleeping through the snooze alarm: We know why we do those things. We might regret them later, but we indulge them in the moment because of the enjoyable side.

There is nothing enjoyable about envy. Wanting something that isn't yours, that belongs to someone else, be it tangible goods, talents, a partner, a job... is nauseating. And it makes you feel like a bad person, and it drains the joy out of things that you used to love. Speaking from personal experience for a second, when I was a teenager, I played music in a company with a much younger musician who was incredibly talented, and I was deeply envious of her. I wanted her talent; I wanted the praise she received; I wanted to impress people; I wanted what she had. But there was nothing I could do. I hated feeling that way, but I couldn't shake it. And it ate away at my desire to play music. It took the joy out of something that once gave me joy.

You see the connection?

Levi struggles to find pleasure in anything he does, despite how many interests he has, because, in spite of his blustering dismissal of all things "normie", he is deeply envious of those he perceives as his social superiors. Now, I am not in any way saying that Levi is or would be an inc3l, but there's an element of his character that has a strong parallel to inc3l culture. The idea that there is something fundamentally wrong with him that prevents him from achieving what he wants socially and that the only way he can protect himself from those who would ridicule him is with a defensive contempt for the group that rejects him... Does any of that sound familiar?

But Levi is not an inc3l. No, not because you're willing to **** him and his two *****, though I'm sure that helps. It's because he has his core virtue: hope.

Have you ever heard of the black pill? It's kind of like the final stage of inc3l culture, where you accept that you're not an alpha male, you'll never be one, you'll never be accepted by a woman, you're ugly and unloveable, and you might as well just stop existing. It is sheer despair.

Levi maintains hope for the future, even if he prefers not to admit it out of fear of jinxing himself. He is able to form a deep bond with MC, who he views as a "normie", without renouncing his hobbies or being mocked for them. In fact, I would argue that the anxiety Levi sometimes displays over the possibility of being made fun of (for example, in NightBringer when he considers trying out cosplay) is emblematic of the hope he has that he can be accepted.

"But wait, daytaker," you say. "That doesn't sound like he's making progress towards his core motivation of getting joy out of the things that bring him joy! Being self conscious is not joyful!" Well, you're right. What Levi needs is to somehow find the right balance between enjoying his hobbies and allowing himself to enjoy other people as well. As we can see from his effusive excitement in sharing his favorite games and stories with MC and his brothers, the social component of media consumption is a major component in making it enjoyable. If Levi loses hope, he loses that connection to the world offline, and if he loses that connection, he loses the joy.

@blackstqr (I did it.)

[alpacacare-archive]

its DESTINY

[allgremlinart]

haiiiiii friend can you explain jianzhu to me I keep seeing you post about them and I’m nosy and wanna know (<- stopped watching atla bc I realized zutara was never gonna be canon)

also jetko. can you explain jetko too (I’m thinking they’re more on the ghostbat spectrum where it’s like. intense friendship that left both emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives)

TEEHEE HEEHE HEE <- me when I get the opportunity to explain/infodump cross-fandom stuff to mutuals

ok so Jianzhu... ahhh Jianzhu... ((SPOILERS for anyone reading the Kyoshi novels))

This is Jianzhu and also like... probably one of maybe 4 canon images/art there is of him... he's not from the original cartoon he's from the Avatar Kyoshi spin-off novels that take place abt 400 yrs before the events of the show (idk how much you know abt atla lore from osmosis so this might get a little tedious? I'm just gonna explain as succinctly as possible.)

To be brief, he's a cunty old man. But unlike when I call, say, Minhkhoa a cunty old man it's not really loving ... its more like... I love to hate him. He's a REALLY good villain.

He's a politician. He made 500 people dig their own graves and then buried them alive. He beheaded his friend of like 20+ years. He drugs and kidnaps teenagers. etc. It's great.

His whole character arc is like... He's in control. You start off the book and he is very clearly in control, and he knows what he's doing, and he even sounds halfway reasonable sometimes but over the course of the novel he gets more and more desperate to grab hold of a situation that spirals wildly away from him and you get to watch it happen. His justifications for his actions get crazier, he gets sloppier and sloppier with his murders....

OH also you know how sometimes people think Bruce is some callous asshole who was only using his adoptive son who worshipped him as a weapon, and when he died he quickly sought to replace him without remorse ? Yeah he's like that but. Like actually this time. His dead adoptive son also then comes back after eating an eyeball in the spirit world (idk) and kills him by pressing a pebble through his sternum so. More successful than Jason at patricide I'd say. Look there's a lot I didn't cover, here's his wiki.

ok Jetko... ah... the ancient yaoi..

Important required reading before I explain this ship is this post. What you have to understand about Zuko is that for basically like... 40 episodes the only person he shares significant screen time with is his uncle so when him and Jet met in s2 and had a decent 3 episodes worth of interactions ... it was enough, lets just say that.

The basic Jetko timeline is they meet on a ferry while Zuko and his Uncle are disguised as refugees and they steal food together -> Jet tries to get Zuko (who he only ever knows as "Li") to join his emo band gang which Zuko refuses -> Jet sees Uncle Warcrimes heating his tea and correctly deduces that they are firebenders (ie not who they say they are; the enemy) -> Zuko and his Uncle work in a tea shop while Jet stalks them and steals things from their house and watches them from behind clotheslines (yeah) -> Jet confronts them in the teashop, sword fight, Jet gets arrested and brainwashed by the secret police (yeah) -> Jet dies under a lake which Zuko only finds out about a season later.

So they never had the 4 years of intense homoerotic cohabitation that ghostbat had,.. their chemistry and potential are pretty much instigated by a few of Jet's weird intense lines, such as "As soon as I saw your scar I knew exactly who you were - you're an outcast, like me." And the crux of the ship is like.. Jet both does and doesn't know who Zuko is.

He knows he is also angry and restless, like himself - he knows he is running from his past, like himself - and he knows he is going to Ba Sing Se to create a new identity. These things are all true, for both of them; what Jet doesn't know is that Zuko is from the imperialist nation that brutally murdered his parents and invaded his home and he incorrectly assumes that the anger he recognizes in Zuko stems from the same need to enact violence on those who have taken everything from him.

So I guess the "thought you were exactly like me but then I found out you're not which enrages and humiliates me so know I'm going to beat the shit out of you" thing from BTK no. 6 is something they share with ghostbat but.. Jet's anger is probably a little more justified than Minhkhoa's lol...

In conclusion it's your basic "doomed relationship/they work great together but that doesn't fix anything" ship premise. It used to be more popular back in the day... pretty sure I owe my life to maybe 3 different Taiwanese/Chinese doujin artists from 2009... yeah that's the gist of it.

[theghostofashton]

seven sentence sunday

thank you to @heartstringsduet @paperstorm @kiwichaeng @lemonlyman-dotcom for the tags <3

He chooses a taco truck Carlos discovered a couple weeks ago, and orders the barbacoa tacos he was raving about. TK hasn’t had a chance to try them, but if the smell is any clue, he’s about to be in food heaven. He waves to the girl at the front desk as he enters the lobby and heads for the men’s locker room, where, sure enough, Carlos is standing at one of the open ones with a hand buried in his bag. “Hey, baby.” “TK,” Carlos says, as he turns, smile spreading across his face. TK puts the takeout bag down on the bench in the middle of the row of lockers, as Carlos reaches for him. He kisses Carlos gently, taking a step forward and closing the space between them. Tears burn at the corners of his eyes as he breathes Carlos in, his head moving to the crook of his neck when they break apart. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to keep his focus on the smell of Carlos’s cologne mixed with sweat and the feeling of his damp, warm skin. “TK,” Carlos repeats, sounding worried this time. “What’s wrong?”

no pressure tagging @sanjuwrites @strandnreyes @reyesstrand @bonheur-cafe @carlos-in-glasses @carlos-tk @liminalmemories21 @alrightbuckaroo @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut @lightningboltreader and leaving an open tag for anyone that wants to share!

[marciliedonato]

There's something rly satisfying abt figuring out a twist and THEN it being confirmed like I just knew I had a feeling from the start that watching the dragon scene where falin gets eaten that she was gonna be the one who haunts the narrative and my theory was seeing them scramble to try to get down there ASAP that it was gonna be too late and it was always gonna be too late no matter what. And then when they were on that third (?) floor and they get attacked by the ghosts and laios sees the ghost as falin and he just willingly goes towards her bc he feels so much guilt and feels it's his fault what happened to her bc he was distracted and she jumped in front of him to protect him and sacrificed herself and then when senshi wards off the ghosts and chilchuck is saying how he was seeing his dad (implied dead) and laios says he was seeing falin and marcille says that's silly bc she's not there and she's not even dead I just knew then and there that was foreshadowing lol. And THAT reveal hadnt even aired yet I was just like 'this is not just a coincidence that ghosts take the form of things you feel gulit for they can only take the forms of people who are gone..' and I haven't even gotten there yet (almost lol) but I'm getting glimpses that my theories were true and I'm going absolutely insaneeeeeee lol

[thotpuppy]

First & Last Lines

Post the first and last lines of the last 10 fics you posted. WIPs are welcome. Not super strict!!

Thanks for the tag @whimsicalmeerkat <3 This is a really cute game!

Triskelion Reign: The Shepherd, the Lamb and the Wolf

First Line: As the sole heir to his father’s crown and, according to the court healer, a particularly fertile omega, Stiles had always known his hand would be given to a suitor not for love, but for political security.

Last Line: “Inside,” he agrees.

2. Sweating Out Confessions (We'll Build Our Altar Here)

First Line: The dedication of worship has always presented a unique appeal to Stiles.

Last Line: He begs forgiveness to their gods in silent prayers as Scott takes him apart right there on the floor, but he knows his own sins are only of devotion to someone far more important than the faceless gods he’d only ever worshiped in word.

3. 'My Whole Life is a Reference to 1995 Hit Movie Clueless and I Still Don't Know the Plot' by Fall Out Boy

First Line: “I dunno man, that sounds like some real fairytale bullshit.”

Last Line: “Oh,” Stiles says. “I’m an idiot.”

4. Under My Skin

First Line: A sharp ringing pulses through Stiles’ head as he blinks back to consciousness.

Last Line: For now, he’s going to go be a normal teenager.

5. Thirsty

First Line: Dawn arrives with the fading smoke of a hard fought battle drifting into the horizon, melding with the fog of new day sun burning away the dew of night.

Last Line: “Go lock the door, please.”

6. Want You to Want Me

First Line: It’s not easy being a human member of a werewolf pack.

Last Line: “So,” he starts after stranding and pulling Stiles’ to his wobbly feet. “Mine or yours?”

7. Gumusservi

First Line: The stench of chlorine is still an unwelcome, stagnant presence in Jackson’s nose long after he’s shed the last of his scales and learned to embrace his inner wolf.

Last Line: “So, who’s topping?”

8. Touche (Confessions in the Dark)

First Line: The dull thwap of rubber hitting net is soft in the muggy twilight air.

Last Line: Stiles is almost struck dumb at the boldness, and Jackson smirks at him over his shoulder, stepping quickly towards the Jeep and tugging him along.

9. Elementary, My Dear Sheriff

First Line: “Bobby said you didn’t turn in your latest paper on time.”

Last Line: “Me too, kid,” Noah agrees. “Me too.”

10. Get It While It's Hot (Dessert sans Dinner)

First Line: Stiles has never been a particularly talented cook.

Last Line: Oh yeah, he can definitely go again.

Woo! What a list!! I didn't realize how few fics I'd written were like... wholly for me and not at least Partly for an event ehheh,, anyways!

low pressure tagging: @mirrorthoughts @outtoshatter @geekmom13 @one-fandom-became-all-fandoms @lucky-bishop @renmackree

[clansunsharp]

since i cant put this in her bio on site: perenth's actual job title is Supreme Bitch

[aprilmr]

Dragon Age: Inquisition has many funny moments but the one that makes me almost cry laugh every time is in the Jaws of Hakkon DLC where this poor orlesian human historian tries to remember the elven gods' names and he says something along the lines of: "There's only one "f" for Falon'Din. Oh, I suppose I forgot about Fen'Harel" and Solas goes: "Most people do". Pure comedy.

Upd: found it

[inkykeiji]

sobbing sobbing sobbing i am sobbing so fucking loud oh my god i love him so much he is so beautiful i am going to kiss him all over his neck and jaw and chin and cheeks and nose and eyes and forehead and hair and lips and everywhere

his wrist his palm his nails his knuckles his fingers each and every fingertip i am going to trace lines of his palm with my tongue i am going to cover him in ME until he knows how much he is loved—until he knows how much i love him—and then i am going to do it some more

[rayclubs]

Heavy is probably the only person who can lift Soldier - like, actually lift him, feet-dangling-above-the-ground lift him, hold him up like a kitten, sit him on his shoulder, hoist him like one of those damsels - because, y'know, everyone else gets carried around, like Medic or Spy or even Demo, who's really not that tall and looks bigger because of his armor - and, well, Soldier can pick all of them up, but they can't or won't pick him up in turn, and it's fine, it's not like this is a tactical necessity on the battlefield, but, well, he hasn't been picked up since he was a child, and though he doesn't really remember much from that long ago, sitting on Heavy's shoulder makes him feel huge and powerful, and he shouts "PUT ME DOWN, MAGGOT!", but bites his tongue when his feet touch the ground - thankfully, Heavy is not a vindictive man, so he does it again, maybe when there's cause for it, maybe when Soldier gets shot in the leg in a fight - he's thankful for it, he's thankful for the bullet in his thigh - and he doesn't get to feel quite as huge because Heavy is being way more careful, but Soldier thinks - between cusses, because the bullet in his leg hurts so much, but he doesn't mind it, and it's weird, and he knows it's weird, but he's never cared for "weird" and doesn't intent to start - Soldier thinks it's better than rocket-jumping or flying - not that he'd know what actual flying feels like, but even if he did, he doesn't think it'd be quite as good.

[majimassqueaktoy]

The way Saejima has such a calm, soothing domestic streak to his personality is one of my very favourite things about him.

[ramelcandy]

So I noticed something about Wally's clothes

While I was scrolling through the wh website I noticed something in the art of the first page.

The button of Wally's cuff looks like an eye.

Which I thought was really interesting. Because, with how it was portrayed, it made the button seem like Wally's eyes, that tends to stand out against the other neighbors eye for not being as roundish and cartoony as theirs normally are.

Seeing this, I went to the next pages to check for it on other pieces of him. But I couldn't find it.

Even in the voywex page I didn't find this detail. However, I still feel like this has some importance. Because while this specific detail cannot be found anywhere else. Even in the more recent concept art for Wally, where he has normal buttons instead of the cross ones, that detail is still highlighted. And it was always highlighted when he had the cross ones.

If this wasn't important at all, I don't understand why Clown would draw them with such emphasis that it would draw our attention towards them.

What is also interesting, is that, in the drawing, where I first noticed it looked like an eye. You can see another eye drawn on the rock Wally's sitting in, and it has similar colors to the button too. And, said eye, resembles yet another one from a concept art, the creator made, of a spiral with an eye on the center.

Now, aside from this emphasizing the themes of eyes and staring/being stared at, I'm still not quite sure what exactly is the significance of the buttons.

However I wanted to compile all the things I noticed about them because it feels significant, and also just in case someone notices something else about it now that they're aware of this.

But this is all I found for now.

[aboxthecolourofheartache]

🐈

For a hot second I forgot about the intimidation ranking meme and thought you just sent me a kitty which was honestly a pretty nice thing to find in my inbox! As for being moderately intimidating, I can kinda see how that might be. I do my best not to be mean, because there is enough of that on the internet and we don't need more, but I've also been told I can come across as (very unintentionally!!) condescending and/or weirdly formal in text-based communication, which is hilarious given that I am, in person, not particularly eloquent, fluid in speech, or physically imposing ^^;

[other-peoples-coats]

Thanks, @dodger-chan for the tag! sorry it took uhhhhhhh time to get around to actually doing it. rules: post the first lines of your 10 most recently published AO3 stories. if you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics. Hilariously, I have 11 posted fics, so like. missed by one. also this is going by update date in terms of the ongoing stories because I'm lazy and ao3 makes it annoying to see post date vs update date easily.

(10) What I want when I'm wanting

"Cody, darling, this is the best thing to happen since the six o'clock swill."

(9) Ain't it a gentle sound

In her hands, the clippers hum; outside, the rain patters steadily against the window.

(8) Ghost at the back of your closet (which is an ongoing fic, and the first part of a yet to be posted series)

The first time Bail meets Ben, he’s in a cell on the edge of the mid-rim, rather expecting that he’ll come out of the situation with far more scars than he went into it, if he makes it out at all.

(7) The small dark corners

Later, he will say it was a calculated choice, that he looked at the odds and looked at the clones and decided that better the Jedi he didn't know than the Sith he did.

(6) Be that monster you've been wanting (which is an ongoing fic! and also the first part of a series)

Qui-gon Jinn officially meets his lineage brother when the younger Knight murders Qui-gon's mission partner in the bowels of the Theed Generator Complex, before saluting Qui-gon with an almost playful Makashi flourish and flipping backwards to escape down the reactor pit in a flutter of dark tunic and tabards.

(5) The paths we used to roam (which is sort of a sibling fic to see a dying star less; bc same universe and more vibes. this is a warning)

He dies on the Death Star, that monstrous creation a twisted shrieking cacophony in the Force echoed only by the still reverberating horror of Alderaan, the far distant past Knightfall.

(4) The wind and the land

Bail wakes up to the smell of baking pastry, and allows himself to grin like a little child for a moment before hauling himself out of bed.

(3) Set the hounds on my tracks (part of the same series as be that monster you been wanting; set in about chapter 7 of that fic, so couldn't say if this makes sense outside of context)

"Why is it that banthashit scientists always hole up in the worst, shittiest place on the most backwater planet they can find." Quinlan bitches, and beside him Master Jinn snorts dryly.

(2) See a dying star (sibling-ish fic to paths we used to roam; less bc same universe and more vibes. this is still a warning.)

The first time through, when everything is new and immediate, he trains four Padawans.

(1) We are kneeling at the river's edge

There is only ever one Stewjoni Jedi in the Knight corps at a time. 

no pressure tagging @glimmerglanger, @elwenyere, @lttrsfrmlnrrgby and @frostbitebakery; if anyone else wants to join in feel free to consider yourself tagged!