Major Path To Nowhere Spoilers Under The Readmore, Shalom Interrogation Thoughts And Theories, Got Some

Major Path to Nowhere spoilers under the readmore, Shalom Interrogation thoughts and theories, got some serious theory crafting and some silly ones

Chiefff I love her so much, getting to hear her voice again is amazing, and her past is so sad!

Due to her saying: "Mark my words, you'll regret this. If you don't end me right now, you're in for a world of pain!" It leads me to believe that past Chief was provoking her on purpose, so that Shalom would be "forced" to kill her in order to remove the shackles.

About that Chief.... um, past you probably would depise that you're still alive... :(

Past Chief: *hates Shalom, hates everything, everyone, herself, shackles Shalom out of anger and desperation so Shalom would kill her*

Shalom, finally experiencing emotions again: FRIEND :) She's so amazing, able to fly under the radar, she's so great, incredible, even now she keeps her humanity(-> proceeds to call us a monster, multiple times)

SHALOM I know your experiencing emotions again in awhile so you're clearly overwhelmed but girl calm down she didn't do what she did to be nice or to help you! She probably knew nothing about that, she just wanted death... :(

Also... I know the Shalom touches the Chief (presumably on the head as seen in the first CG) Also the CG is so pretty, poor past Chief looks so depressed and broken in how she was slumped over in that chair. Yet even after that, there seems to have been a delay between that touch and Shalom being shackled..? Does this mean that the Chief shackled Shalom without touching her?? Chief is straight-jacketed. If the Chief's shackles were always hers, then it stands to reason past her would know more about it, things she possibility wouldn't want to tell anyone about. Something present her has also done, hiding information for her own protection.

Not to mention, in the prologue, the Chief also shackled Hella without meaning to... So maybe it really doesn't require touch, it's just easier to establish the connection to a Sinner's mania through touch?

On a serious note.. What happened... Past Chief seems to hate everything, everyone, and most importantly, herself. She obviously seemed to want to be dead. (Whose protection is the straightjacket for? Hmmm?) I mean, obviously a lot happened to her.

"I will never forgive, never!!" Forgive what? Did Past Chief find out something she shouldn't have about the MBCC, FAC, 9th Agency, Paradiasoes? Never forgive about being experimented on by the Underground?(In the unfurl flashbacks when taking about how the shackles were acquired from the Underground, it shows the Chief in a strange form, so it seems that she and her shackles were the og, and her shackles were presumably "defective" from the Underground Shephard's(?) .

Then due to her being presumed defective, hence a risk Paradiasoes wouldn't like, when really it was her shackles and not her personally, her shackles were replicated into the previous Chiefs of MBCC until for some reason("no other choice but her") she was forced to become Chief. Perhaps the shackles being implanted into her, and possibly the experiments done on her to replicate it so other people could wield them. Perhaps she found out about the secret MBCC lab(possibly the lab the replication experiments happened) that Suspect R destroyed in the prologue which is shown behind her actually. It's all very curious, and all of those could be a factor. It required the Chief credentials to access, so it's possible that the Chief found out about it, and hence Suspect R somehow? (To me due to Suspect R's closeness with Chief and how initially she wanted to take Chief with her in the prologue, it makes me feel like Past Chief and Suspect R were in cahoots until the plan fell apart? Perhaps to get back at the world, since Suspect-R seems motivated by the administrations failures, and also Suspect-R expresses disgust by the shackles, perhaps Past Chief shared a similar view on the shackles and the exploitation(replication) of her powers, hence one of the reasons she wanted death to prevent this? )

It's all so interesting and curious. It's hard to craft theories with so little info since a lot of it isn't certain, and what info we were given spawns even more questions...

Anywho, serious theory crafting over, silly theory crafting next:

Second of all,

I love how this implies that the Chief was given a haircut BEFORE being shoved into the reconstruction pod. The Chief's hair is indeed longer in the past!

Lmfaooo, who do you think gave her a haircut and why?

I vote Nightingale 😂

Nightingale: Chief, with all the operations you've been on, your hair gets so messy because it's so long. Instead of complaining about it, let me fix that for you :)

Past Chief, probably traumatized by experimentation: NO

Nightingale: *>:(*

Later:

Reconstruction Researcher: We're about to place her in the pod.

Nightingale, scissors in hand: ONE MOMENT-

Later:

Adela: If you ever need a haircut, please, stop on by.

Present Chief: I'll consider it :)

Nightingale: You've got to be kidding me...

Lmfao, remember the whole "Midnight Barber" meme audio, Nightingale is the Midnight(ingale) Barber

happy to this place is becoming more popular :) can I get um... a white tea, no milk art, in a green tea cup, with a side of crocus, please? oh and make it angsty. thanks!

a missed opportunity 

summary: at first, your feelings for ningguang had been small enough not to notice or act on. however, as she visited your shop more and more, you felt as though these feelings had to be spoken. unfortunately, your confession didn’t go as you had planned and your relationship with her became strained. you thought that would be the last time you would see ningguang... until she shows up at the worst possible time.

masterlist | event

customer’s order: a white tea (ningguang) with no milk art (headcanons) in a green tea cup (*jealousy) with a side of crocus (an almost romance). extra: customer requested it to be angsty

*brewer’s choice, as it was not specified in the order

pairings (seperate): ningguang and (brief) beidou x reader

reader info: uses gender neutral pronouns (they/them), reader owns a small shop in liyue, and reader is not the traveler 

word count: 795 words (4 minutes~)

genre: romance, angst, rejection

format: headcanons

warnings: rejection, negative self talk (ningguang to herself), mentions of heart break, ningguang getting jealous, urge to scream, and ningguang being posseive and thinking of trying to win you back

a/n: ahhh you’re so sweet nonnie 💖i’m glad this place is becoming more popular too!! i tried my best to make this as angsty as i could </3 thank you for the request and i hope it was a pleasant read💖

you hadn’t thought much about lady ningguang

of course, you appreciated her sacrifices and admired her struggles to get to her position, but most days she didn’t cross your mind

until she began to visit your quaint shop

she even made small talk with you as she shopped... something you were surprised by the most

oh, and her flirtatious gestures

her scarlet red eyes flittered from the items on display to you with equal curiosity

each of ningguang’s visits to your shop left you a little flustered, but you appreciated the business

until you began to catch feelings for her

because now you caught yourself stumbling over your words whenever you made eye contact, your heart beating faster than it has ever before, and— wait, when did your palms get so sweaty??

finding yourself loathing the feelings more than your fear of rejection, you made the bold decision to ask her out

when you did, a brief look of regret washed over ningguang’s face 

before she twisted into a cool and neutral expression

“i think you’ve got this all wrong. i wasn’t flirting with you, archons above no, i was just... have you heard of the art of the deal?”

she left your shop soon after, leaving you speechless and alone with the remains of your broken heart

you felt so... hollow 

so you closed down the shop for the rest of the day

... and then the next... and the next...

until it had been a full week since you last opened. 

but you eventually managed to stumble out of bed and get on with your life and continuing to run your business

of course, her words seemed to haunt you as you continued on through each day

each time a customer made small talk with you and asked about your life, you became more selective with your words and guarded each aspect about yourself as though it was your deepest secret

until a certain captain stepped into your shop, alongside her entire crew

it was the first time in a while you had smiled and laughed so hard, and captain beidou had easily burrowed a special place into your heart

but just as those feelings had begun to escalate, a familiar someone stepped into your shop

and ningguang was... not too happy to see you and captain beidou talking... 

and how much beidou leaned across the counter practically infuriated ningguang

but she managed to keep her cool

“oh, hello... captain beidou... i wasn’t expecting you to be here. but i see you’ve met my friend... it’s good to see you, by the way. i’m glad to see you’re doing well.”

unbeknownst to you, ningguang has been sulking around for the last few weeks

she’s mostly kept it to herself in private, but she really regrets rejecting you so harshly

especially when she was actually looking so forward to a date with you... only for her inner thoughts to get into her way

they’ll be better without you, she had thought, they don’t want to be in the spotlight all the time. it would be suffocating for them.

because she knows what it’s like, and she doesn’t want to worsen your quality of life somehow

but she really misses her almost daily visits to your shop (which her secretaries all nagged her about before) 

ningguang has been feeling lost without seeing your face

but, she sees you with beidou, the remains of a smile on your lips disappearing quickly

... and she experiences hearbreak

but ningguang instead just smiles at you, trying her best to convey all of her regret through her eyes only

“i’m sorry for bothering you... i was just here to...er, pick up some packages i left behind last time i visited. i really need them.”

soon enough, you hand over her items and bid her farewell after taking her payment

ningguang feels her throat burn as you turn back to beidou

she stood there for a moment, her eyes now burning, as she watched the blush that bloom on beidou’s cheeks at the sudden attention

ningguang can’t take more of it, so she just turns on her heel and walks out

once she steps out of your shop, she feels the remains of her heart spilt into many pieces

but instead of crumbling down into the streets of liyue, she holds her head high and sweeps those broken pieces away

because ningguang would be damned before someone caught her crying over something as trivial as this

you weren’t even hers and yet seeing beidou being so casual with you... argh, she wanted to scream her fury out

but ningguang just walked the streets calmly, a plan formulating in her head to try and win you back before it’s too late

thank you for reading 💖 all forms of interaction to my posts are appreciated 💖

Am I the only person who thinks that Roland and Miranda could've Gone about their wedding and telling their kid/s about their new relationship a bit better.

Sofia: has never had a proper father figure because her birth father died when she was young, implied to having been able to take of herself since a young age, didn't know what her own room would look like, slept on her window sill for the first night because she was uncomfortable with a big bed, was surprised with a ball just for her but given no prior preparation (didn't know how to dance) and hadn't even met Roland, Amber, and James until she arrived at the palace, forced to change school's to fit in with her new royal status, isn't allowed to do things she liked to do without being ridiculed

Amber and James: their mother died from childbirth, their father spoiled them because he couldn't spend that much time with them because he's a king, didn't tell them that he was now in a relationship with someone, when they do find out they're probably also told that they were going to be living with two villagers who they must now consider family. It's unlikely that Amber took to these surprises well because of the way she reacted to Sofia, and James seemed more okay with it but I don't think he was entirely comfortable with the fact that he was being given a new mother and sister out of the blue.

Also I understand why they wouldn't tell other people about their relationship because of things like classism and accusing Miranda of being a gold digger. Also being high profile by being a noble/royal or having connections to royalty/nobility would be making it extremely likely to having painted a large "Hey I'm close with this high profile person___, who is extremely wealthy and well connected. Come get me" target on their back, but my point stands that they could've at least told their kids.

Also did Roland even tell his mother or sister or were they just as surprised?

question

what's the mental effects of a period like?

i have a hunch and im gonna be SO fuckin pissed if it's right

Imagine

Imagine if the awful nonsensical "Two Gods" subplot was never dreamt up (lol) and there were no relic mcguffins, creationist worldbuilding weirdness or magical insta-solutions.

What would that mean for the setting? Well, with that in mind imagine if:

Ozpin had an actual backstory that justified the mistrust some characters have towards him and allowed him to be a flawed and morally ambiguous but well meaning being he is clearly supposed to be. Not just some person with childish toothless "Secret" that gets absolutely hilariously weird over-reaction from characters (while other actually creepy aspects like being an ageless body-snatcher are completely ignored).

Imagine if the likes of Raven were more than a walking filler subplot and had actual motivations and genuine reasons to not just go hand in hand with Ozpin's wishes.

Salem was more than a walking misogynistic trope and had a worldview, beliefs and ideas beyond being just a really bad case of a scorned lover.

Imagine writers having to actually write a sensible set of motivations for Cinder and why she follows Salem or for why Emerald and Mercury follow Cinder.

There was no convenient way to handwave away things like broken moon, state of the world, etc with "magic".

Kingdoms and characters were given actual agency to make worst possible decisions without omnipotent magical items or evil councils being the cause.

Since Kingdoms and people can make absolute worst possible decisions, characters and narrative had to actually deal with and explore issues like bigotry, classism, ableism, etc that the show merely vaguely lampshades nowadays.

Characters could find and choose their paths without being guided by wishy washy magical realms or vague concepts of "destiny" or writer's own blond blue eyed self insert OC telling them what to do and what is right.

World and setting establishment and progression wasn't dictated by using gods/relics/magic as a reason for something being or not being the way it is.

Imagine if characters were allowed to deal with trauma and form actual grounded ideas about the world.

Imagine if your four leads were allowed to grow, make mistakes , improve, heal and search for their place in the world and go on journeys of self-discovery without the story constantly needing to reset them to status quo, reiterate how they are infallible or constantly rant about how nobody should change ever. Or without a writer self insert OC eating up all the screentime.

There would not be entire volumes dedicated to absolutely awful magic/two gods idea.

It is truly curious how story that is supposedly in part about choosing to be better and walking a better path in the wake of tragedy and overcoming past mistakes completely takes away that agency from characters by making magic/relics/gods the cause of literally everything and every bad or morally wrong decision in the story somehow can be traced back to unambiguously evil vague group of walking stereotypes.

Thanks for dreaming up two magical living plot devices I guess...

TW: talks about suicide ideation and death

I genuinely could not care less if I was run over a car right now.

Does anyone else get that feeling? Like I want to die but I'm not going to kill myself but if the opportunity to pass away without it being directly my fault and it was circumstance the only thing that would remove me from the position which I am in danger of being killed is that A) my mama, dad, and siblings will be sad B) My aunty who I spend most of my time with will be sad C) the few friends I still have will either never know because they go to a different school now and my other friend's+cousin will meet up next youth night and I'm not sure the dynamic will change.

So curiosity, guilt, and fear of being in pain before dying are the only real things keeping me alive at this point.