Do you think soldiers of L'manburg still remember Tommy as this war hero and meet at a bar and go:
“Yo I saw the general and I heard he came back to life and also killed that Green Guy two times and is good friends with the riches people of the server and the Angel of Death”
“I saw him being under the protection of a machine the warden created”
“Holy shit I heard he has a pet spider!”
“A big one?”
“MASSIVE DUDE!”
Tommy “i am so traumatised my therapist has trauma” innit but all the Slodiers only see their General that won L'manburg its freedom and are in awe of everything he does
“I heard he committed to peace now. Refusing to use the most dangerous weapons and only using low quality ones”
“And he STILL kills mobs easily!”
“I heard he is childhood friends with a powerful demon…”
“Isn’t the murderous fairy of the woods also fond of him?”
“Damn.”
“I saw the Angel of Death promising his aid to him…”
“You mean the guy that blew our nation up?” “Yeah”
“Mf our General is a madman! (Affectionately)”
They end up exchanging stories about how kind and badass Tommy is
Soldier 1: “He offered me some carrots when I passed by”
Soldier 2: “I heard he isn’t that well of rn tho…”
Solider 1, starts crying: “He shared despite not having much himself??!!”
Someone spots Tommy talking with Quackity, Sam, and Phil on friendly terms on the same day and they’re just in awe.
“I thought Quackity had his own exclusive country now. I have a friend there who said that no emotions are allowed, just business” “I’m telling you dude, I saw them hug!” “Man, the General truly is incredible, huh?”
Someone learns of Techno’s will as well and they’re all just shocked.
“THE GENERAL WAS IN THE BLOOD GOD’S WILL?? HOLY F*CK!” “I know!” “THAT MAN BLEW UP OUR COUNTRYTWICE, I THOUGHT HE HATED OUR GUTS!” “Ours maybe, but not the general!”
And, of course, mandatory primeboys crumbs.
“I heard the general survived a whole manhunt against Dream” “I’m starting to think the general may be related to XD…”
MORE
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Your father tells you story about The War, sometimes, sitting on his rocking chair with warm cocoa in hand and a blanket draped over his knees. Sometimes, rarely, he would even pull it back and show you his metal knee, and smile wistfully at it.
“If the General wasnt there,” he’d say, voice soft and fond, “I would’ve cleaved in half. I wouldn’t have met your mother, or found you. And for all that The War was terrifying, and The Two Doomsdays were heart wrenching, kid, L'manburg gave me you. It’s the greatest gift President Soot ever gave me. The second greatest gift I received is from General Innit, for pushing me out of the way, in that moment.”
Most days, you feel annoyed about it. It’s the same old drivel all the old people in Snowchester said, men and women gathering to tell the story of a home that was ripped from them. They would argue about things you never really understood, about discs and loyalty and Prime sent saviour that gave them a chance to live as old as they are now.
Some days, it feels more like myths than history, the way they talk about men who drove them to war for a kid and traitors that wears the skin of red and green. Some days, they feel more like bedtime stories, said to terrify children, like mosters inside the walls and hungry mind-controlling egg.
But, and there’s always a but, you think, there are days when the story is not just history, but lives lived by living, breathing people. It happens when Mister Underscore-Beloved walks by, face scarred from where The Blood God took his life. It happens when the old grandma would take of her cardigan for a shivering child, her usually hidden shoulders showing where it leads to nothingness.
It happens when your parents wake up in the middle of the night screaming bloodthirsty, and they scramble to open your door. Those nights, no matter how old you turn, you let them in your bed and weep in your hair until they fall abck to sleep.
Those nights, when the wind is cold and the fear hung in the atmosphere, you wanna chase the General and beg him for forgiveness. Those days you worship Prime, desperately thanking him for sending General Innit, because maybe your parents carries burdens but they are alive, and sometimes that’s enough.
It’s not a particularly good morning when General Innit visits Snowchester, days after your parents ordered you to take the children and *go*, because Dream The Tyrant escaped and will use every advantage he has to take the General. You did, too, grabbed the kids and teens and those who cannot fight anymore, along with half of the most abled bodied people to protect them.
The man, teen, really, you realize with sudden clarity, the dude barely older than you, dressed in Mythical Netherite just like the psuedo leader of this village. He looks pale, tired even. He’s 18, now, you’d guess, compared to your 16. And just like him, you are about to go to a war you didn’t start. You wish that he will lead you like he did your father, who is a decade older than him but willing to accept that the General is a better leader than he’ll ever be.
You approach him, shaking in iron boots and holding a sword in your trembling hand.
“My father told me you lead him in the First War,” you hear yourself say, “he called you a hero. His saviour. You pushed him out of the way of a sword, and he lived to love and care for me. He told me I was the greatest gift you and President Soot ever gave him, but I wanted you to know that him and mom is the greatest gift you ever gave me, even with you knowing.
"If I have to follow anyone’s lead to live through this war, General Innit, I was glad it was you.”
You scurry away immediately, cheeks darkening red that’s not simple cold. You cannot believe you said that, to him. To his face. You do not turn back, and does not see him staring at your back, a complicated look in his face
“They say, in Pogtopia, the General brawled with the Blood God, unarmed and without armor.”
“It’s true! I was there! Earlier that same day he opposed the Blade, defending the crowd as his fireworks were turned unto them.”
*cries single tear* “Who would’ve expected anything else from TheTommyinnit!
————
“That general, he’s such a diplomat!”
“Ey, he’s the one that talked Vice President Quackity onto Pogtopia’s side. Just forgave the man and gave him shelter in those caves.”
“Hewould.”
“And when he came back to fight for us, for L’manburg, even after exile! He truly only has the peoples best interests at heart.”
————
“Our General is both a strategist and a veritable Saint, let me tell you. Saved us all back during revolution, after the final control room, with those tunnels he dug out. Gave up his most prized possessions all in the name of freedom.”
“Silence is a source of Great Strength.” ― Lao Tzu
This picture appeals to me a great deal and I can’t quite figure out why.
I just keep coming back to it and looking at it.
Something about it is just…sexy? Sexy is the right word, but it’s not really even in a gunplay, fear-inducing kind of way. Looking at it makes me feel various unidentified positive feelings.
It always irks me when detractors of the Oxford comma go “well, yes, technically that sentence does need the Oxford comma for clarity, but aha, you could have avoided that need by rearranging it like so!”.
Like, yes, you could do that – but it wouldn’t communicate the same things anymore. The order in which concepts are presented to the reader carries part of the sentence’s semantic content. When you reorder the clauses of a sentence, you change what it means.
Asserting that clause orderings that require the Oxford comma for clarity should not be used is tantamount to asserting that certain shades of meaning shouldn’t be articulated at all – and not even because of what that meaning is, but because you think the orthographic expression of that meaning is… unaesthetic, I guess? Fuck off.
Delighted to get an ask for our king Alice!! I’ll answer the second part of your question here, Anon.
For this question, I’d like to examine Alice’s characterization before and after losing Reko. Ironically, when we meet Alice, he has one of the healthiest attitudes towards dealing with pain. Even though he is a suffering prisoner, he doesn’t repress his feelings like other characters do. He is open and earnest. However, Reko’s death breaks Alice’s spirit like nothing else ever has. Losing his beloved sister means that he no longer sees a path forward, and he becomes desperate and vengeful. I view Alice as someone who began the Death Game with healthy priorities, but that falls apart if he loses the person he loved most.
