#'for research purposes' lmao that's too real

[petalbcrnes]

✫ㅤ𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐄ㅤㅤ𝑜𝑓.ㅤㅤ𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆ㅤׁ . °ㅤ

𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐘 ㅤ＼ 𝓙𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐃 ’n shazam!reader

♡ · REQUEST — Could I please request a Jason Todd X Shazam!reader? Reader has the same powers and Shazam and she looks damn good in her suit, Jason and her are the chaotic couple everyone in the Justice League and their side kicks are jealous of, and they get fan edits made of them lmao

⊹ 💬 · my knowledge of the Justice League is vvv limited so i apologise if they’re a bit to ooc, i did all the research i could to fully understand this req (forever a tattooed jay truther so don’t mind the moodboard lol)〟

ഒ DIRECTORY⠀’N⠀RULES.

Before Jason, the Justice League headquarters felt isolating for you. Which sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?

You, who’s blessed with the gifts of gods from the very mountain of Olympus. You, a hero intertwined with the same golden threads that make up demigods. The world could be so small under your fingertips—wisdom, strength, stamina, speed and courage—you’re supposed to have it all. And somehow, it feels like you keep nothing at all.

Being at the top of the world is truly a lonely feeling. You experience it everyday with the other heroes between these walls. They don’t necessarily do it on purpose. You’re just so painstakingly different. Off. Something they haven’t dealt with before.

Before Jason, that is.

You’ve had lightning dance across your fingertips, bend to your will and strike along the sky for you. But Jason Todd was something else. Something else with his sharp sea-green eyes. Something else with his stupidly charming grin. Something else with the way he’d find you every time in this labyrinth of a building and untangle the knots in your body with his quips, mean and handsome face, sparkling eyes—he is thunder in front of you—unbowed, unbroken, unshakable, perfectly imperfect and for some reason he’d started directing his stupidly charming grins at you.

Wandering the halls with your shoulders stiff, walk hurried, eyes cast to your feet and nervous of every word said to you—never mind if it was kind—was a draining ritual you bonded yourself to.

Falling for him was too easy. It was natural how you’d seek him out too. It spurred you even more when there was a flush on his cheeks after seeing how you’d call out his name in a crowd of other shining heroes. You two got drunk off of each other like the very presence of one another was ambrosia—golden life ichor sent by the gods.

They’d truly blessed you this time. You’d never give this up. The way the relationship you two had actually grew into a real relationship. How you’d have your hand in his and he’d trace circles on your palm and how he’d kiss your shoulders and fingertips, claiming you needed to be taken care of. He understood that isolation. Jason Todd understood and changed it all to a fairy tale.

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

Even now, sitting with him in one of the many common rooms the headquarters has, bodies pressed close, head on his shoulder and his arm playing with a strand of your hair. His head is tilted back against the cushions, a rare, soft smirk on his lips as he mutters something that makes you laugh quietly.

He smelled like smoke and leather and warmth.

You could’ve stayed like that forever.

It hadn’t dawned on either of you that the relationship wasn’t exactly public yet.

Most of the League is returning from a late mission. They’re tired, soot-streaked, and ready to debrief and crash. The doors slide open with a familiar mechanical hiss as Diana, Barry, Hal, and Bruce step in—talking quietly among themselves.

But the chatter halts.

You two absolutely, undeniably comfortable. Domestic, even.

And in public.

Barry stares wide-eyed, as if there was a comically big light bulb above his head that just lit up.

“Are you guys—? Wait. Is this—? Are you two—?”

Jason didn’t even look up. “Took you long enough.”

“Seriously?” Hal sounded like he was choking. “You’re dating Red Hood? Jason Todd? Are we just letting anyone into cuddle territory now?”

You sighed, not moving. “He passed every test I gave him.”

“I barely passed,” Jason added, smug. “Or maybe I’m just effortlessly charming.”

“Are you kidding me?” Barry blinked between the two of you. “You’re like—lightning bolts and golden capes! And he’s—he’s literal Gotham crime trauma incarnate—no offense.”

“None taken, I guess?” Jason said, finally glancing up. “We make sense in a messed-up but perfect way.”

There was a pause. Even Diana didn’t say anything at first. Just observed them, the way you leaned into him like it was the most natural thing in the world. The way Jason’s hand never stopped tracing soft, lazy circles on your side.

“You look happy,” Diana said after a moment.

“I am,” you replied simply.

That was something you were sure of. The happiest, the purest joy had threaded itself into your being when you were with this man.

Diana nodded once, apparently satisfied. “Then that is all I need to know.”

Bruce was silent. No one expected anything else.

“Still feels illegal,” Hal muttered, grabbing a drink from the nearby fridge. “Like, morally. Cuddling with Jason Todd in the Watchtower.”

Jason gave him a lazy grin. “Then close your eyes next time.”

“I am texting Clark,” Barry announced. “Power Couple status: officially threatened.”

You finally cracked a smile. “Tell him we’ll duel him and Lois any day.”

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

Seeing you two cuddling on the couch was a shock. But fighting side by side? That was truly a sight.

The ground shook with the force of the blast. Smoke curled upward in jagged columns as buildings groaned, half-toppled. Civilians were still evacuating, but the League was already deep in the mess—and so were you and Jason.

Jason reloaded without missing a step, ducking beneath a burst of plasma that barely missed his head. “Three on the left, armored. One's got a cannon.”

“A cannon, seriously?” you deadpanned, eyes glowing gold as static crackled along your skin. “Cannon first?”

“Cannon first.”

You launched into the sky with a thunderclap, a streak of white lightning behind you. The cannon-wielding merc didn't even have time to flinch before a bolt ripped through the clouds and slammed him back into the earth, smoking.

Jason whistled low. “Damn. I don’t think that I need to tell you how attractive that was.”

“Focus, Hood.”

“I am,” he muttered, firing three quick rounds into the knee joints of the other armored targets. “Deadly attractive and helpful.”

Roy and Kori are perched on a broken wall, watching as Jason and you tear through another group of enemies with terrifying precision.

Roy let out a low whistle. “Okay, I’ll say it—hot.”

Koriand’r smiled brightly. “They are very passionate! It is nice.”

Back on the ground, Jason threw a smoke pellet, vanishing into the haze just as another unit arrived. The moment they were disoriented, you flew in from above—fist-first—sending shockwaves that scattered the troops like dominos.

Then came the lightning—pure, radiant energy arcing from your hands, guided by Jason’s markers, precise as a sniper.

He appeared beside you again just in time to catch your elbow, steadying you.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Never better.”

Jason grinned. “Then let’s end this.”

© petalbcrnes | all rights reserved. even when credited, these works are not allowed to be reposted, translated, or modified. viewer discretion is advised.

[twistedwonderlandshenanigans]

"Stupid" Things the TWST Cast Believed As Kids

I was going to post this without a preamble but it just looked wrong LMAO -----------------------------------------------------

Heartslaybul

Riddle - He just mispronounced a lot of words out loud. This is actually common in a lot of kids that read a lot, they don't know how to say a word any differently than the way they've pronounced it in their head, so some examples: (Ladle -> would rhyme with Saddle, Rhythm had over-emphasis on the first 'h', etc.)

Trey - thought butter was made from the fat collected off of cow butts ('butt' was also the only 'naughty' word he knew for a long time). The thing is he had probably seen his parents make butter. either by accident or on purpose and it still didn't click for him.

Cater - only ate black beans, (when they were served). when he was a kid because he thought they were the same as coffee beans. He saw his dad eating chocolate covered coffee beans and got mad when he denied him the Delight Of Caffeine at Three Years Old so thought eating black beans was like. A super sneaky way of being like his dad.

Deuce - Chocolate covered strawberries came from a special plant, he didn't think his mom just set them up for him sometimes. He ended up asking more than a few times when his strawberries were plain when they could 'go back to the store and get the good kind' and would call the strawberries without chocolate 'rotten'.

Ace - For whatever reason, he didn't think bears were a real animal. Just. Teddy bears existed. And of course when his big brother showed him pictures of real bears he thought he was messing with him. Ace will not admit how long it took him to realize that bears are real.

Savannaclaw

Leona - Falena told him once that vanilla extract comes from 'beaver butt juice' and it was in all the vanilla flavoured desserts he's ever had. Yes Falena was messing with him to get his portion of desserts because Leona was too grossed out to eat them. It managed to last about 6 months before Leona was fed up and researched the information on his own.

Ruggie - His grandma protected him best she could from food scarcity, so he genuinely believed she knew how to make something from nothing. Same with his clothes.

Jack - Refused to eat hotdogs because he thought they were made from real dogs and cried whenever he saw someone else eating hot dogs. Even when they bough turkey hot dogs he thought they added 'turkey flavouring' to the Dogs.

Octavinelle

Azul - Thought cuttlefish were 'cuddlefish' and would get so SO upset when they didn't want to snuggle with him

Jade - When he first heard the word 'hermaphrodite' he thought it meant someone who just really really liked hermit crabs.

Floyd - Was SO disappointed to find out ice cream didn't scream while you eat it (I-scream)

Scarabia

Kalim - Used to try and eat really fast, so Jamil told him if he ate his food too hot his tongue would melt to the top of his mouth. (Yeah Jamil got in trouble for that one but it worked, Kalim savoured his food and he still makes sure his food is cooled down a little before he eats).

Jamil - Didn't eat yogurt for a long time because he didn't want to 'feed the bacteria in his belly'. That was his only reasoning.

Pomefiore

Vil - thought candy cigarettes were real cigarettes, this resulted in him biting one of his dad's or fellow actor's cigarettes and Regretting it. (Even the fake ones are filled with like an herbal blend, you don't want to eat it still)

Rook - kinda sad, but genuinely thought termites were considered dessert. They were fairly rampant in his home so he would eat them any chance he got (raw termites supposedly taste like pineapple).

Epel - yeah he thought he was a werewolf, there isn't much else to add.

Ignihyde

Idia - Thought that microwaving a spider/other bugs for a very short amount of time would mutate their DNA and he could keep it as a pet, despite many failed attempts, he continued trying.

Ortho - (insert ugly crying here thinking about baby boys early years) he really believed that one day Idia would find a way to bring the characters from tv/video games into 'real life' so they could have play dates with them. (Idia promised him he would try his best)

Diasomnia

Malleus - He thought computers were a type of pet people could have.

Lilia - Used to think that the stars were really big glow bugs

Silver - Fully believed the storks deliver babies thing. Not because of Lilia, but because of a story book and it made things easy so he just rolled with it anyways, until Silver was old enough.

Sebek - That the fountain of youth was real - he wanted to drink from it once he reached his prime so that he could serve Malleus always.

Others

Che'nya - Refused to believe that gum ever came from trees because he 'tried sap before and it didn't even taste like syrup so how could something sweet as gum come from trees'.

Najma - Thought she was able to talk to ghosts, it was just Jamil fucking with her lskjfhsldkjfsdf

Neige - Didn't know what owls were, called them tree penguins.

Rollo - Called ambulances 'Body Rescue Busses' because even as a kid he knew only God could save your soul. (you can take that seriously or as satire idc) -------------------------------------------------------- @fluffle-writes thank you for the compliments, and the motivation to write!! ljfkjdshflkjsdf

If you want to be on a taglist in the future lmk

[viradahlen]

✨️Wesker is totally not a brilliant mastermind with a plan. (and absolutely a pathetic and very dangerous and very unhinged creature designed by Umbrella)✨️

1. Pre RE1 goals :

* Pre meeting Birkin : "My name is Albert Wesker. I originally aspired as a researcher to become an executive in the pharmaceutical company Umbrella, which also covertly dealt in the development of Bio Organic Weapons. However, encountering William Birkin at the executive training school in Raccoon City spurred my resolve to alter my course." (Source)

* Pre 1983 : "Spencer placed all his hopes on us. He tasked us with the burden of making him a god. And foolishly, compulsively, we scrambled to follow his orders" (Note that only Alex was trusted enough by Spencer to know this. Albert spent his whole life wondering Why The Fuck It Is what It Is But Still Obeying) (source) (+ Alex is speaking here)

* 1983 : "I needed to get myself a position that had more access to information that would reveal Spencer's true objective" (Wesker's report II)

* 1996 : "Well if I am not the captain of STARS, still doing whatever Umbrella tells me to do at the respectable age of 36, living a Fake Real Life getting acquainted with non Umbrella people for the 1st time in my life and basically getting paychecks for keeping the STARS under control for whatever purpose Umbrella may have for them"

2. RE 0 goal : The Leech Incident happens. "If the old conspiracy against Dr. Marcus is revealed, Mr. Spencer's career will be over. Not to mention ours, too. (...) I will simply say goodbye to Umbrella. The biological weapon utilizing the t-Virus has almost been completed. Our only remaining task is to acquire combat data." (Resident Evil 0)

3. RE1 goal : "Receiving orders from Umbrella, fully aware of what was occurring, Wesker began planning for the investigation mission dubbed "X-Day". These orders were to make his way into the laboratory, destroy the complex to contain the outbreak, and escape with biological samples. To silence any witnesses, it was imperative S.T.A.R.S. be destroyed during the mission." (Source)

>> ATP he goes so far as to risk dying for real. His only hope to survive the Mansion Incident and get under Umbrella's radar is Birkin's prototype. However, it happens that even this part of his plan was planned from the start by Spencer lmao. He was, once again, Out Gambitted.

" This virus was administered to screen out the more gifted of the Wesker children. Some took the virus on the recommendation of a friend; others were given the virus as part of their medical treatment; still other had it forcibly administered to them. Albert Wesker was not different. His partner, William Birkin, gave him the experimental virus, and he administered it to himself." (Source)

September 1998 : he already works with the Organization and gives Ada orders on their behalf. Well, if our boy isn't still a useful tool for another shady company ("I had to SELL my SouL tO anOthEr oRganIzaTion")

4. CVX goal : does basically whatever the Organization demands.

5. RE : UC : "Wesker was the one who sent Ada Wong to retrieve the G-virus and was involved in the incidents at Rockfort Island. He appears intent on gathering as much data as possible on viral weaponry". (Source > he is still doing this on the behalf of this mysterious unnamed Organization)

"My dear Spencer, how the mighty have fallen. Your Umbrella has folded and now you are a fugitive in the same world you once sought to control. *looks over all the companies research and notes over the course of nearly fifty years* We shall meet again, before the conclusion of this drama. Then...you will learn of the history...I will write for this world. *smirks* (cut to black)"

>> OK, so ATP it seems like he wants to reshape the World with viruses already. But er... well man you could have remained with Umbrella but ok whatever. Prior to his death, this never ever transpired, interestingly. He was much more like his son, Jake. An amoral guy who wanted to be free (and, consequently, rich).

6. RE4 / RE4RE :

"Pity. But after all, just another expendable grunt. Thanks to you, however, Umbrella's one step closer to its reestablishment. And once it is, there will be significant changes in our world."

Oook so after destroying Umbrella he now wants it back. For himself *sighs*

"I do not pay you to ask questions. All you need to know is a new dawn is breaking. A hundred will give their lives so that just one may live. I am expediting that change."

"There's no room for half measures. The weak exist to serve the strong."

OK ok so he totally shares Spencer's vision unbeknownst to him ATP...

LOST IN NIGHTMARES / RE 5:

- finds Daddy

- Daddy tells him he is a good boy who dutifully followed the script

- kills daddy

- immediately continues to walk in Spencer's footsteps despite just learning that he has done this all his life and, well... Umbrella lives on !

[velvetwyrme]

Ohhhh shit if that’s Baxter TC’s dog I’m just imagining domesticated cybug TC.

Starscream and Skywarp being wild bugs sneaking into her house because it’s TRINE SEASON. not to be confused with mating seasons but it is similar in the fact that it is a season we’re unclaimed (in a trine way) seeker cybugs would look for their second and third life partners and form their near unbreakable bond.

She just caught Starscream’s trying and failing to do some sneaky link shit (trine courting TC) Most likely a hollering Skywarp is somewhere in the house too (maybe still in TC’s enclosure or rest areas and/or hiding in a potted plant or vent that leads outside) watching Starscream be captured by the dreaded plastic cup of doom.

Only for him to get sticky trapped later with a kinda concerned TC bringing Baxter to the poor idiot.

hi ur correct on So Many counts. i can finally post this because i'm postin the seekers in like A Few Minutes ill link it later lol LINKED NOW

anyway longer conversational reply/yapping under the cut

1. idk if ill ever show it because i wanna draw other stuff but in the cup image i imagine that Skywarp is off working on courting TC without Starscream </3 rhfjfhdjbtfjfhgkf he 100% watched Starscream get trapped in a cup and is just like eh he's fine.

losing it at the image of Skywarp in a glue trap though GFJFBDK save him.

2. Maybe it's Maxine "Buster" Baxter........... M as a nod to Marissa. Idk i haven't touched on the human characters in this AU (and am personally avoiding doing so just as a fun limitation and so i have less characters to keep track of) but also shes probably Buster's neighbour that TC likes.

Busters "real" name isn't likely to come up ever but yknow. fun side thoughts. Green gets to be Felicity (Flyt-city...) Greene, and Buster gets to be Maxine Baxter 😂 idk in my brain everyone just calls her Buster anyway.

3. YEAH!!! They're all different subspecies of Seeker and Buster just didn't realize <3 She figures it out at some point after all 3 of them show up though. (Shortly after posting the Reddit/Seddit Post, I assume lol)

I realised when drafting this part out that since I had already teased Buster before, it meant that I had already included TC in her pfp so either she got Starscream first (years ago) and THEN got TC, OR... she had TC and then was confused as to what Starscream was when he showed up because they look pretty different. I think I had decided to go with the latter less than an hour before ur last ask came thru LMAOO so I was yelling. Like. YEAH. EXACTLY. I also figured that trining between different subspecies was unusual less than an hour before ur last ask so I was Doubly Yelling. LMAO.

I am. not making a research article mockup, I had to write enough of those in uni fhdkfhdk,, it is a neat idea though!! (very fun idea for the rainmakers being a cameo i respect that o7)

4. HOWEVER. thank you for the inspo for a segue into the next part I loosely have planned for the seekers- since it's Unusual for three different subspecies to trine, and with the idea of her being a backyard scientist, she gets to take them in for checkups/research purposes since they're an unusual case 👍 or, to quote the unofficial title of the next seeker feature in my notes: "Starscream goes to the vet".

I already knew I needed that to happen but now it has a reason <3

[topazadine]

I often forget how much writing has enriched my life. Not even just giving me a purpose or whatever (or winning me money lol), but how it has forced me to expand my horizons and try new things so that I can write more accurately.

Like, I have always liked horses and I rode as a little kid, but I got back into it because I wanted to make The Eirenic Verses feel real and depict that bond between horse and rider. Six months later, I'm totally obsessed and can't imagine my life without Horse. I even put Mongolia on my bucket list because Breme is based on Mongolia :)

Now I'm going to start rock climbing because there's a scene in What Is That Cannot Be Unwritten where Mordrek has to free climb a mountain, no equipment or whatever. Of course, I am not going to go bouldering without safety equipment because that's insane, but I want to know what it feels like to climb so I can depict the muscle strain, the fear, the logistical choices. I'm really excited and know it'll help me with my social anxiety, too.

And, of course, as I mentioned, I'm planning to rejoin my local caving club so I can write caving romances lmao.

I'd never be willing to try these things if it wasn't important for my writing!

Oh, and writing has helped me process so many emotional issues. Wanting to write better is the reason I started going back to therapy, because I didn't want my dissociative amnesia and anhedonia to get in the way of my work. I wouldn't care so much if it didn't cause issues when I try to get into the mindsets of my characters. I worked through my feelings about being sexually assaulted and dealing with bipolar primarily by writing about it.

I highly recommend that you push yourself out of your comfort zone and don't just write about things with research, but actually try them out yourself so you can feel like your characters do. It's made me so much happier to give these things a shot, and I know it makes my writing feel more authentic, too.

[tomorrowsgardennc]

🍠 harvesting sweet potatoes 🍠

this was my second year growing potatoes, but my first year growing sweet potatoes specifically. when i grew normie potatoes, i ended up with less than what i put in the ground... that's how bad it turned out. while researching why i did so badly, i learned sweet potatoes grow totes differently so i decided i would try those this year.

i am very happy i did.

i started off by bringing my teeny tiny harvest basket assuming i did horribly, but after half of the first plant i had to go grab my big boi harvest crate my dad made me. i also found 4 baby carrots that i grew last year during my harvest. ignore those.

prior to harvesting, i turned to the internet out of habit to see what needed to be done. sadly, the internet had varying degrees of how to handle both harvesting and curing potatoes. then i remembered farmer mama used to grow these so i hit her up for the true knowledge. i shall put it here for y'all.

there's no need to wait until first frost, and actually it's prolly not ideal if you wait. it's going to be first frost pretty soonTM so right now is just fine. it's easier to diggie dig if you trim back all the vines first. i did prune back the vines and leaves the deer left for me, and i tossed them in as my first layer of compost for the garlic bed (garlic post soon, i'm running behind on planting them...)

now i can grab on to the neck of the plant and rip it up. totally not morbid to phrase it that way. to say i squeed with joy when i saw large and bountiful potatoes this time is an understatement. hubs was prepping the perennial flower area to plant those plants and he thought i was getting attacked by yellowjackets again. my yipee and my panic screams are the same so i don't blame him.

for digging, since this was in my tall raised bed i just used my arms and hands and dug around. i had my shovel handy, but my acoustic self prefers to use hands for everything, and also because the shovel could pierce the skin of the potatoes. which isn't horrible, but an annoyance and an extra worry when curing so just not worth imo. the potatoes didn't go further than 8 inches below the soil, so no reason to keep digging. you can also tell when the roots get smaller and smaller. i also learned that for sweet potatoes like 90% of the taters are right under that neck, so also no real reason to dig around too much except if you want to find those baby outliers.

so incredibly happy with this harvest 😍❤️🍠

the purpose of me growing these was because, well, why not, but also because i want to offer sweet potato slips at the farmers market next april. i offered only a few this year because i just didn't know what would happen and if i wanted someone else to grow it and see how theirs turned out to compare. why purple? well, why normie???? purple is so much prettier and i'm actually going to focus on a lot of purple produce in 2025 lmao. but i digress.

ok so i hit the tumblr photo limit just from talking about harvesting these gorgeous purple divas therefore i shall do a 2nd post about the curing stage. spoiler alert: i am curing the baby tubers because market slips next year and i washed the big chonkas in my outdoor sink and boiled them immediately.

boiling was a mistake. good news is i learned the kitchen would look pretty with purple floors 🫠 and that if you clean up purple potato water on kitchen floor with clorox bleach that it turns the purple color blue 🫠 i love science.

since i got too overexcited i boiled too much. i saved enough in the fridge to make a sweet potato pie later this week, ate some for dinner, and then froze the rest in ziploc bags. i have a feeling i'll be making multiple purple sweet potato pies this season because why the hell not.

don't worry i'll have photos of the pie when i make it. hehe.

ok chores real quick then on to the next post about curing the potatoes, very important.

[sky-forest-inn]

i dont really know anything abt systems and i am not one myself

i was under the assumption that the . formation??? of a system can only occur due to childhood trauma but past that point anything goes.

that's probably wrong but idk where to get actual information on this bc i genuinely know nothing

Welcome to systemhood which is the most under-researched thing ever. It can be formed in many different was, most commonly from childhood trauma. Due to how under researched systems are, it’s certainly difficult to find info of them. Your best bet is just learning from systems themselves and their personal experiences. It’s different for ALL systems, so you cant rely solely on One (1) system to tell you the info. I’ll share what I know though!!

I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL IN ANY WAY AT ALL, I AM JUST SHARING KNOWLEDGE IVE BEEN GIVEN THROUGHOUT THE SPAN OF FIVE YEARS OF RESEARCHING AND LEARNING!!! Anyone (in GOOD FAITH) is free to correct me if i say anything wrong. I am on mobile (and only just woke up) so i cant provide real evidence as im speaking

(Didn’t expect to say so much but i did to the point i need a Read More bracket OOPS lmao)

The most well known systems as of now are CDD (complex dissociative disorder) systems, such as DID (dissociative identity disorder), OSDD (other specified identity disorder) and one other i cannot remember the name for. These ones are frequently (NOT ALWAYS) formed from trauma, typically at a young age and often repetitive or severe

At a very young age, your brain is often split in several parts as it is developing. Often why children tend to switch moods very quickly. As you grow up, your brain slowly pieces itself together into your true personality, however, trauma can cause your brain to remain fragmented, leaving those fragments into being parts/alters/headmates. This is a coping mechanism created by the brain so certain parts can handle unsafe situations

Aside from CDDs, there’s two terms, traumagenic and endogenic. Traumagenic is self explanatory and CDDs will typically fall under there. Endogenic is a umbrella term of MANY formations of systemhod. Spiritual, natural (it just happened some day), willogenic (willed into existence on purpose) and so much more. Some can be both, traumaendo, mixed-origin etc! CDDs can even be endogenic in some way too :]

You can have a trauma formed system, but also have willogenic headmates! You can have a naturally formed system, but also have trauma formed headmates! Hell, some systems will not even know their origin and that’s okay!!!! You do not need a label for your system!!

Both terms were coined by a traumagenic system i believe??? Who is also pro-endogenic, so anyone who is antiendo using those terms, do remember that (:3

——————————————

Alters/headmates/parts can be different just as much as systems can be. Some can just be emotional states, some can be voices, some can be fragments, some can be completely unique and (mostly) complete individuals. Even in one system alone, alters can differ between all of these! Some systems can only have 2 headmates, some have some between 10-30, some can have 100+, some can even have 1000+

There are also alters that are called introjects, who are formed from a certain someone/something (very often out of their control). They can be a factive (formed from a real life person), fictive (formed from a fictional character), songtive (formed from a song) and soooo much more!!! Some can even be mixed, some can have more than one source!

A common misconception is that introjects will form from comforting sources, or sources the system holds really closely, but quite a lot of systems actually have introjects from things they hate, or hell, are even triggered by. Introjects are very often formed from things they dont want to be formed from, and do not act the exact same way as their sources

Proof? We have a fictive of a shapeshifter from an among us series. Source is a heartless and evil killer who manipulates people. Our fictive though? Genuine sweetheart, often shy and anxious but loves her sourcemates so very much! Hell, Juli (💎) is with me right now and is a good example. Her source (julian arcane odyssey) is a genuine asshole with extremely high ego and brags to hell and back about his accomplishments. Juli here is just a girl trying to live and play games while being silly with her QPP and her friends!

That being said though, some introjects WILL act almost exactly like their sources, and this is okay!!! Even those split from absolute asshole of a person. Systemhood is often a part of healing, and that includes from individual headmates too. Recovery is different for all headmates and systems and it’s best to let them figure out how they should handle their struggles and the such

——————————————

Systemhood is extremely complex, it differs from system to system, and headmate to headmate. Some prefer plural or collective, some prefer parts, headmates, alters, personalities. Some CDDs will even prefer MPD (multiple personality disorder) [known to being an outdated term] instead of DID or OSDD and that’s okay!!

Everyone will have divided opinions over how systemhood works, but the MOST IMPORTANT thing to understand is, it’s NEVER black and white, there will ALWAYS be nuance, and honestly my #1 thing to remember is: if it’s in good faith, live and let live

Sharing terminology isn’t stealing. Sharing resources isn’t stealing. It’s called SHARING, and everyone deserves resources that can help understand themselves better and live an easier and better life. It’s good to interact with a diverse amount of systems, to share different perspectives, to understand each other, and show compassion and support for one another

It’s why, while i can understand many systems wishing for seperate spaces, it’s also good to share some spaces once a while. You don’t HAVE TO be in shared spaces, but i feel as though it will genuinely help in the long run. But as always, live and let live, and do what you feel is safe for you so long as it’s not harming anyone else

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With that aside, we ourselves are an OSDD-1b system! While we’re not safe sharing our trauma, i (💛aristris) am one of the trauma holders for some of our worst years of our life. While many CDDs typically experience memory amnesia/barriers, we don’t. Instead, memory is perceived differently from headmate to headmate. Many will remember my trauma more vaguely, fuzzy or blurry (but still remember them happening), while I can remember it clear as day, almost as though it only happened last week.

We often experience emotional amnesia more. One fronter will be absolutely pissed off upset, another fronter takes over while they cool off and can be the chillest and sweetest person ever. We tend to act really “mood swingy” because of this, especially when unmasked

We’ve recently surpassed 100 headmates lately, and we’re incredibly diverse in terms of such. Majority of us are mostly formed, though some are still fragmented or hard to see/communicate with. We’ve grown to enjoy each others’ company, though we still have a few bad apples we have to keep an eye on

Our fronting style can actually differ and never sticks to one method. Sometimes it feels like the clap of a hand switch, sometimes we meld into each other a bit before one takes over, very often we can see each other in frontspace and take turns (though that often causes a headache)

We have like two outer brainspaces. One’s our headspace which consists of a copy of the Upturned Inn from The Upturned and a pretty forest beside it, and the other is… the void. But we dont talk about that!!!

Our headspace memories actually tend to be really vague upon joining front. Some remember headspace memories better than others. And sometimes front memories can get really blurred upon joining. Our headmates have to wait quite a bit for our memory to relog and catch up with us, hah

We’ve known about systems for five whole years now, and two and a half of those years, we denied ourselves ENTIRELY. We were constantly surrounded by gatekeepy systems who were antiendo and would lose their shit over a system having even a Slightly Different experience than they do. Hell, weve seen COUNTLESS CALLOUT POSTS just for suspected sysfaking. It was a dangerous space for us and because of it, we refused to ever accept the idea we were a system

After all that time, we met who is now our partner system, the Lucky Clover Collective, who were the first ever pro-endo traumagenic (or mixed origin) system we ever met. We got to comfortably discuss systemhood, including endogenic systems, and they gave us the space we needed to at least give systemhood a go. In almost 2 weeks, it will be the first year anniversary of when we finally embraced our systemhood!!

Systemhood has a hell lot of struggles. Trauma relapses, headaches, difficult headmates, emotional disregulation, but we’d never trade our systemhood for anything in the world. This system has saved us so many times, made us feel safer and embrace ourselves for who we are easier. I used to hate everyone here, being a former persecutor, but ive learnt to love my headmates as much as they love me and i couldnt be happier with how we grew finally embracing systemhood

… i hope all thats shares enough!! haha, sorry i yapped so much, i think i may have gotten overly passionate, hah. I hope you can learn from this and from many others too, and most importantly, take care of yourself!!! Thanks for reading lol

[hopefull-mindset]

I've started reading The Great Gatsby (I've fallen into the reading classical literature trap 😔. I really need to finish Crime and Punishment.)

Anyhow I think it's really interesting how Asagiri chose to characterize many of the people in BSD. Especially after learning that irl Fitzgerald was more of a cynical person (at least towards the end of his life) than his animated counterpart. And it made me think of all the other characters of the show and how their characterized.

What was Asagiri's purpose as he came together with these characters? Why'd he have some characters act as their irl counterparts while others act more like the characters they wrote or people in their lives?

These aren't really questions that I wanted the answers to they were moreso just thoughts that I had. I'd love to have a peek into this man's mind and how it works

I think a lot of us have fallen into that trap LMAO. This is my favorite topic though. I could talk about this forever because Kafka Asagiri is an interesting person who has integrated a lot of literature into this one series. I don't know what goes on in this man’s mind and I know these aren't literal questions, but I am interested in sharing what I know!

As you've pointed out, some characters do act more like the people in these works written by them than the actual people. BSD isn't purely just taking these authors, their relationships, and then implementing them just like that. it also takes these authors’ literary personas, their impact socially, and their works to make them into who they are. Asagiri is doing this because it makes it more interesting, but also imagine writing about this authors where most of them lived depressing lives with qualities that don’t make uh, the type of story you want to tell.

I’m impressed with how creative he is.

I’m trying to limit myself on how much I should talk about this, but I fear that I’ll leave out important bits about how Asagiri incorporates these people into the work. I’m also just jittering and excited. Like I almost forgot to bring up the fact the reason BSD has a war narrative is because it takes Japanese authors from Meiji to Shōwa era, so about the time Western influence kicked in, forcing them to modernize and keep up with the rest of the world during what is a fairly short time for huge development like this, to post-war Japan where, you know, the Occupation of Japan is happening and they have to intake the traumatic repercussions of everything before that.

This can make The Great War functionally WW2, but obviously not a one to one match. I’m not a historian or anything, but this should come to mind for anyone who’s in the know about some Japanese history. Now that I’m bringing it up though, Mori’s attitude during the flashback with Yosano is put into context because he pretty much says himself that he needs his country to realize that they keep up with the rest of the world and that the battlefield is changing, and real life Japan did not care about how they did that.

With N, Chuuya, and Stormbringer too. I’m almost hesitant to bring this up because it’s so serious, but yes, Japan did do lethal human experimentation for that same purpose to keep up with the rest of the world and prove themselves.

Ahh, I went off track. Sorry, we were talking about how Asagiri writes characters, right? There is a lot of crossover between the real authors and their writing, so it’s sorta hard to tell with people like Dazai where the work influence ends and the the real person begins.

For me currently in my classic lit research period, I’m almost upset at myself for barley reading anything by Ryuunosuke Akutagawa because he’s my favorite character. I’ve just been so caught up doing my Oda Sakunosuke essay that I don’t have too much time for other authors. I’ve also picked up “The Similitude of Blossoms: A Critical Biography of Izumi Kyōka” recently (and A New Hamlet by Osamu Dazai, but that’s not important).

Ah, how much should I talk about.… hmm… how about Chuuya as an example of Literary Voice vs Real Person…. Lucy Montgomery and Edgar Allen Poe for Social Impact (for Japan specifically)…. and then.. Oh whatever, I’ll figure it out. One day I’ll talk about Kyouka, but not now. I’d feel ill prepared.

If you’ve ever read a poem by Chuuya Nakahara, taken in the emotion and deep feeling, and then found any fun facts about his interactions with other authors, there’s a huge contrast between those two modes that can be jarring. Im sure you can tell how that carries over to BSD. I’m impressed by how Asagiri is able to balance both the brash attitude of Chuuya and the inner literary voice that voices the emotion and care he has in him.

Edgar Allen Poe is slightly more obvious than Lucy’s influence (or maybe it’s Lucy’s, ah it depends), but both pop out at you when it’s pointed out. He was one of the first American authors to be introduced to Japan and fairly popular, but mainly we would point to Edogawa Ranpo as the most blatantly influenced by him and who his name is quite literally attached to. While Lucy Montgomery isn’t attached to anyone in particular, Anne of The Green Gables was wildly distributed in Japan when there were few english children books and became a hit.

There’s a television series too if you search for it. Any redhead, pigtail-braided girl you see in some Japanese media is because of her! It’s probably why these two have the most presence in the story currently compared to other members of the Guild and work with the Agency at times.

There are times when Asagiri will use influences outside of the author’s own catalog to create them, some literary like Albert Camus’s The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus (in writing characters like Dazai or Fyodor, I could make a post about that), and some just of his own anime/manga interests in other series like Jojo, Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, etc. if you’re familiar.

I’d feel bad if I don’t at least show one example of this so, how about an Odasaku example with The Long Goodbye by Reymond Chandler? I was going to avoid talking about him until the essay, but I can’t help myself. Many have pointed out these parallels before, but Asagiri did point it to be his favorite book last year in an interview.

If you’ve noticed that the presentation for Dark Era in the anime comes off like a Noir film just like how Untold Origins came off like a black and white samurai film, good job! The Long Goodbye is a Noir novel about a detective named Phillip Marlowe who is unable to let go of a case involving a friend that was accused of murdering his own wife, but supposedly commits suicide and confesses to it before Marlowe is able to leave custody. By the end of the book, he uncovers the real perpetuator (a past lover of Terry Lennox’s before he was ever called by that name) and finds out where Lennox really is by poking into the story of where the message he got was sent.

He comes in with a new look and identity, and he asks if it’s too early for a gimlet. They say their last few words to each other, Marlowe flipping back and forth from acknowledging him as Terry Lennox and as a person he never knew, and then Marlowe tells him that “he’s not here anymore”. Marlowe had already told him goodbye when it was sad and lonely, so Lennox does the same here. That ends that mutual, long goodbye and he never sees Lennox again.

The immediate response I’ve see about this is how it parallels the relationship between Dazai and Odasaku. In The Day I Picked Up Dazai, just like how Marlowe brings him to his home to clean him up and meet up at the same bar for the next few months of their friendship, Odasaku also does so with Dazai and drinks a Gimlet for reasons he doesn’t know. In reality, Gimlets are a representation of the friendship between Marlowe and Lennox as it’s Lennox’s favorite drink. It makes it a little painful when Marlowe ignores him when he ask to go get a gimlet at that same bar they always went.

BEAST is more hyper specific about it by having Dazai ask the same question that Lennox asks when he gets smoked out and Odasaku asking for a gimlet with no bitters, which is specifically how Lennox takes it. Odasaku does not drink the gimlet at all though, showing that there is not friendship to start or accept or say goodbye to, as Lennox does ask Marlowe to drink a Gimlet to say goodbye to him in the letter. Just like TDIPUD is like their beginning, BEAST is their ending without ending because BEAST Dazai is not the same person he was friends with.

Odasaku fulfills being a detective and Dazai is the tragic friend with a past he doesn’t say anything about. Great. Now what I think people are missing when they entirely focus on Odasaku and Dazai when they talk about Lennox and Marlowe is that Lennox is narratively also Andre Gide.

If we were to split Lennox into three people just like his three identities, this is what it would look like:

The Friend: You help him out and don’t judge for his faults, in turn you go out to a bar with each other. It’s uneasy, but it’s worth a lot to the both of you. Eventually you have to part ways in death. (Dazai & Terry Lennox)

The Unknown: Is he someone you know? He acts like it, but he looks nothing like what you’ve encounter before. Maybe in some world you were, but that’s not now and it’s too late for this goodbye to be playing out. You let it happened though and you never see him again when he walks out that door. (BEAST Dazai & “Señor Maioranos”)

The Soldier: The past is right around the corner and its come to bite you in the ass. White hair and war memories haunting him with a scar as a reminder, he’s a reflection of you but maybe not. Who knows? (Andre Gide & “Paul Marston.”)

The initials “P.M.” of both his past name and Phillip Marlowe’s is meant to clue in how Eileen (the past lover) is connected to Lennox by her thinking of Marlowe as her past lover as she attempts to seduce him in some trance. What I’m trying to note here though is that you can take this as Lennox being another reflection of himself. It’s easy to do that reading for both Dazai and Gide as they’re both his foils and are purposely similar, but Gide aligns more with this past identity than Dazai does and retains his white hair.

Uhhh, wasn't planning to make a mini-analysis in the middle of my talking but okay. I'm leaving it off there. I went blank a lot while writing because I didn’t know what I wanted to comment on. There's too much to say about this large cast. I have way more literary fun facts and ideas to say, but nah.

[ebonysplendor]

Where Winter Crows Go Review ❄️🐦‍⬛

TL;DR: Chaga mushrooms ain't the only thing that Crowe be foraging, but this time he doesn't want to share the spoils with the squad for research purposes.

Game Link: https://prikarin.itch.io/where-winter-crows-go

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Optional Reader-Insert with choice of pronouns, Yandere LI, 17+ Spiciness: 1/5 -- It gets a little flirty, but it's sweet and innocent LI Red Flags: 3/5 -- Manipulative, little hands on, has a temper

Want to know more? Well, let's get into it!

Okay, so, the full release finally came, and ya girl was SO excited! The demo was very promising, but I needed a little more convincing. That being said, this wasn't by any means one of the one's that I was the most ecstatic about, but I was still excited enough about it to check back occasionally for the full release. I just so happened to get lucky recently and saw that it had actually dropped back in November. So, I was late, but not embarrassingly so. Now, this review on the other hand... But listen! I just recently decided to take the plunge and start making reviews, so mind ya business lol.

Anyways, this isn't about me and my tardiness, this is about this pleasant little game that really went for it in the full version, and boi, did they go for it!

I'd classify this as one of those "slow burn" visual novels, simply because it's not obvious that our LI is a lil' psycho off the rip, and there's nothing too unsettling from the jump aside from getting caught in a blizzard. Actually, since we're on the topic, the LI -- his name is Crowe Lynn, by the way -- is actually pretty damn hospitable, and he's a full blown scientist. The most shocking part is, he isn't even doing anything sketchy! for the most part. He is deadass living in the middle of nowhere for research purposes and is writing books to know why nature is...well, naturing, for lack of better wording.

That being said, I think the intro is long enough, and I'm really excited to tell you more about this game, because you guys have got to play this whenever you get the chance! As always, I'm going to tell you as much as possible about the game without ruining the game itself.

So, boom. We're -- or Aspen, should you decide to play through their eyes, but I prefer self-insert -- going on a trip in our favorite run down car to get to some town where there is supposed to be this really nice place to let off some steam via skiing. Trust me, we did research on this; we know what we're talking about. Anyways, while driving, we start noticing how we've been on this same road for a long time, and yet, we haven't seen anybody for an equally long time.

Run down car? Long road? No one for miles? You already know what's about to happen.

Yep, you guessed it, we get a flat, and as you've also probably guessed, we have no spare tire, but bear with me! The game isn't this predictable, I swear! You've gotta understand that it can just be a little hard to get away from certain tropes, and let's be real, they kind've have to happen for plot purposes. I mean, think about if we actually had a tire in the trunk. We would've been outtie, we would've had a great trip, and there would've been no game lol. Sometimes, you just gotta cut the devs some slack.

Anywho, so yeah, flat tire and no spare. Naturally, we hike it to try to find some help, but the weather kind've picks up, and the clothes that we have, while appropriate for the cold, aren't adequate enough for a full blown blizzard. No worries though, because guess who comes to the rescue? This guy!

Everybody, this is Crowe. Crowe, this is everybody.

As you'd expect (I know I keep saying that, but lmao it's not a overly predictable game, I swear!), Crowe is this really chill dude. Actually, more than a chill dude, he's a massive nature nerd. That's actually why he's out in the middle of the woods anyways! Like I mentioned before, he's researching why nature be naturing, specifically -- at least, his current topic from the way it was worded is -- partial migration. If you've never heard of that, don't even worry about it, in the game he explains it to us. Like, I'm telling you. This man is super into this stuff, and we love a smart man.

Getting away from that though, he basically ends up telling us that the town that we're in is pretty much deserted with the exception of like 13 other people, and because of the blizzard, the time it'd take to clean the roads, the likelihood of there being another blizzard right behind the one that just happened, and cleaning up after that blizzard, getting to our planned destination just wasn't going to happen. ...Well, shit.

What are we going to do then? Our car has a flat, we can't travel, and there's not any resorts nearby. No worries though, because the bae came through! He said "Oh, you can just stay with me!" Oh wooooooord???

So guess what we do? Make ourselves cozy in this bomb ass cabin. I'm not even exaggerating about that. Like, this cabin is REALLY nice! Take a peek!

That's just our room and the hallway. You can only imagine how bomb the rest of the place looks. Like, I'm telling y'all, it's super cozy up in here. But we must stay focused! And by we, I mean me, because I could go on and on about how nice this cabin looks.

Back to the topic at hand though, we've agreed to stay with Crowe, even though, we honestly don't have much of a choice, but it was just dope that Crowe was cool with everything. That being said, during our stay, we do all kinds of pretty cool stuff! We go foraging with him for chaga mushrooms and winterberries, we create some powders to add to other stuff, and we make some medicines. Everything was going super smoothly ... until it wasn't.

Crowe kind've has...a weird temper. Like, we had accidentally gotten hurt, and he had gotten super pissed about it. We love a man that cares about his guest, but he was a bit overdramatic about it. You'd think we would've lost a limb or something. The main thing that got him really pissed, though, was when we had mentioned our car and implied leaving. He did not like that, and when I say we got into it bad? Oh, the insults were flying. Like, look at this!

So, yeah, we fought, and what about it? It's whatever. Forget him...

...Actually, we felt really bad about the whole thing, and so did he. We talked it out, and everything was all good again; however, now he's acting really weird, we're getting really suspicious, and we still have to get home. That being said, we call it an early night, borrow one of his books, and pretty much make a gameplan so we can figure out how to get home as well as what the hell is going on that is not only making Crowe act weird, but what is going on in general.

And we do! We sneak out the next morning and ... we actually make things worse because now, we're REALLY confused. I'm not going to get into the details, but just know that there are more questions than answers at this point. So, yeah, while the investigating helped, it only helped a little, and I genuinely mean only a little.

One thing that we know for sure though...

This man is definitely crazy in love with us.

And that's all I'm going to tell you! Lol I'm sorry! But if I tell you the rest, it'll literally be the ending, and it'll ruin it! You know how much I want you guys to play it, so no way am I going to spill the details, but like most visual novels, how it ends is completely up to the choices that you make.

Guys...the full game delivered.

I prefer choice heavy visual novels like Darling Duality and Forcefully Yours, but this still wasn't bad by any means. I actually thought it was quite good! Like I said, the most shocking thing to me about all of this is that this man is deadass a scientist! Like, he really isn't doing anything entirely sketchy out there! That was the biggest plot twist of the century to me! But, anyways, letting go of that. Let me tell you more of my thoughts on the game, and why I feel like you should play it whenever you get the chance.

The visuals are absolutely stunning, first and foremost. So far, my favorite VN visual wise has been Mushroom Oasis, but this is definitely a solid number 2 spot. I absolutely adore the art style. I also appreciate the revamp that they did with Crowe. There is nothing wrong with femboys by any means, but to me, Crowe was a little girly looking, and he very much so looked like a small child lol. Like look at the difference in this.

This is the old Crowe Lynn

And this is the new Crowe Lynn

Lol you see what I mean? He looked like a child that wanted to be a scientist when he grew up versus the actual adult him that chose science as a profession. The redesign was definitely a good choice, and I love how he looks now, especially with the longer hair and worn out lab coat. What do you think, though? Which did you prefer?

Aside from that though, you know what one of my favorite things about the game was? The fact that -- and listen close, because this is about to be a tip! -- the endings that you get are based more on how the character feels about Crowe versus how Crowe feels about us. How curious is that?

In a majority of visual novels, the endings are literally dependent on how far we push the LI or their affinity for us, but it's not like that in this one. We get a different ending based on if we trust him or not, if we flirt back with him or ignore his remarks, and some other factors that I don't want to include and possible spoil the story. I just thought that was a really interesting take, and that was super creative of the developer. It was definitely refreshing to play as more of myself and base the gameplay on my -- or rather my character's -- feelings versus playing for the LI and his feelings.

With all that in mind, I definitely say give this game a go! It has a nice mystery/suspense to it, and not to mention, there is a really bomb song during the credits. I was so sad to see that it was not on Spotify! Well, let me clarify, it IS, but it's not available to me which sucks ass. It's not even on YouTube, and it hurts me so bad! Ugh!

Anyways, in case my feelings and opinions weren't clear -- play this game, play this game, play this game, play this game! As always, be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they've done a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance to keep making games. Of course, donations are always helpful to them as well! Like mentioned at the very top, here is a link to the game so that you can play it for yourself, and I really want you to play it for yourself!

That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Where Winter Crows Go

[mabepearls]

sumeru boys redesigns + notes

as you may know, i redesigned the sumeru boys a few weeks ago because, as much as i love them to bits, their designs are well. not that great in some areas. also because i wanted to draw them more often without the roadblock of their designs being so complicated. i've mainly been drawing my cyno and tighnari redesigns, but i did also do alhaitham and kaveh, so i thought that i'd show off these redesigns in one post, along with some notes on why i made certain decisions. hope you enjoy!

(pre-note: just so no one gets confused, i also renamed everyone when i did my redesigns, giving tighnari and alhaitham first names and cyno and kaveh last names.)

tighnari ❀

(renamed abdullah al-tighnari; tighnari was made his surname because that was the case for the real guy he was based on)

i went into this thinking "how can i make this design more appealing to me while still retaining what the original design meant?". since tighnari is one of my favorites in the game overall, i put a lot of pressure on myself to make a decent design.

a lot of tighnari's design inspiration comes from moroccan (specifically amazigh) culture, which i kept in my mind through most of the drawing. this inspiration shows in his bead necklace (i forget the name), his belt, and his earring, which i remade to mirror the shape of moroccan headpieces.

gave him some muscles because there's no way a guy with his job wouldn't have them. also a bottom-heavy fat distribution for self-indulgent purposes.

the design has less layers and lighter/flowier clothes because of tighnari's canon sensitivity to heat. if you're living in the rainforest (a famously humid biome), you probably wouldn't be wearing what canon tighnari does, heat sensitivity or not.

gave him some traits that are popular headcanons, such as the flower thigh tattoo, the sharp teeth, the scars, the claw-like nails (with the middle and ring nails filed down for No Reason), and the lichtenberg figure. also gave him tan skin and wavy hair because i Cannot deal with canon nari looking like that.

sturdy shoes! archery gloves! his vision on his belt! quality of life features that an actual forest ranger would have!

i will admit that the slit pants, the shorts, and the tights were all for self-indulgence reasons, but i think they go together well with the rest of the outfit too.

a braid in his hair for cynari marriage purposes. (i hc that in sumeru, marriages are consummated by braiding each other's hair)

kaveh ❂

(renamed kaveh laghmani; surname is of iranian origin, but i forgot the meaning)

another real quick note: if i change a character's pronouns in their rewrite, i'll be using those pronouns in their notes. here, kaveh goes by he/she pronouns (she just like me fr).

his canon design is actually my favorite of the sumeru boys, so this redesign was more of a simplification while still keeping the original color scheme and such.

from my research, kaveh's mainly inspired by persian/iranian culture. this is what i had in mind with her shirt and her jacket... shawl... thing. idk what to call it.

kept him a skinny twink; imo, her being a twink in canon fits pretty well.

emphasized the bird of paradise motif with the thing on her side looking like feathers. you will see this again with alhaitham.

made him brunet for more cohesion with the color palette, also because i don't like the whole blonde-fading-to-brown situation he has going on in his canon design.

flowers!!! also giving him a pretty headpiece bc this guy is flashy. also also keeping the feather, it's cunty and fun.

i wanted to make kaveh obviously gnc/genderqueer without going into full-on feminine outfit territory. you can tell she's not quite cis but it's not super in your face yk?

made his vision one of his earrings like yae miko because i forgot to give it a proper place in my concept drawings lmao

quality of life feature: actual artist gloves that aren't cut off. seriously, them being fingerless in the canon design completely negates the point of artist gloves.

removed his braids because of the aforementioned marriage headcanon.

alhaitham ⚘

(renamed amir al-haytham; i wanted to give him the most basic name possible, though i fought with myself a lot on whether to write it as al-haitham or al-haytham)

my god i despise his canon design. it's so... not him. my goal with a redesign was just to give him an outfit that made sense for his character because jesus his canon design is an atrocity.

alhaitham is mainly inspired by either saudi arabian or general west asian culture (like what's constant and such). i was mainly inspired by casual saudi arabian menswear when i was designing him.

hot take but i don't like alhaitham being buff in canon. i made him chubby/fat in my redesign mainly for self-indulgent reasons, but also because it makes more sense to me. also gave him facial hair because yes

kept his color scheme mostly the same, along with the eye motif. emphasized the eagle motif slightly with the feather hip piece (see: kaveh's redesign).

gave him a headscarf (not a hijab or anything like that, just a regular headscarf) because he felt like the type, plus i got the design idea for it and went "well i can't not include it now".

wanted to give him the vibes of an npc who was forced to be a main character

no he isn't wearing his vision anywhere, he doesn't carry it around in my rewrite.

quality of life features: more sensible, looser clothes that are easier to live in- really the whole design is meant to be a quality of life improvement first and foremost

cyno ⚡︎

(renamed cyno al-sahrawi; surname meaning is "of the sahara" or more generally, "of the desert")

like kaveh, i'm gonna be using he/they pronouns for cyno here because that's what i put in my rewrite.

in my opinion, cyno's design is relatively solid, but with a few glaring flaws that kinda ruin everything for me. i'll bring them up as these notes go on.

they're very obviously inspired by ancient egyptian culture, specifically anubis. like, it's very blatant. with my redesign, i wanted to keep those inspirations in mind while making the outfit less stereotypical and make more sense.

why does this man, who's said to fight a lot, not wear a shirt? why are you letting the place where most of your vital organs reside breathe freely? also, why does this guy not have scars?

simplified a bunch of patterns, especially below the belt and with his headpiece. also made their helmet(?) a darker, more saturated purple to attract your eyes' attention to it.

gave him eye of horus makeup for a little cultural nod

the black piece in the back was made to look like a tail to further the jackal thing.

curly hair that resembles lightning bolts <3

the shoes were inspired by traditional egyptian footwear, because if this guy is out in the desert all the time, i'm not letting him go without some kind of foot protection.

quality of life features: a bit of armor on his arm (partially for aesthetic purposes), less flowy bits on his helmet and hips to prevent distraction or getting caught on things, the aforementioned shoes

added braids for cynari purposes, because i'm me.

hope you enjoyed reading this! please keep in mind that this is all off the top of my head and doesn't even go into color theory, how the designs mirror each other, and other smaller things like that. i might make a part 2 someday going into those things, but who knows with my memory lmao

reblogs are heavily appreciated!

[whetstonefires]

ask game for fanfic writers: 7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote (that you remember). OR 11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general? (yeah, I just want to listen to an infodump)

hi!!!!! lmao confession, the time lapse between when you posted that ask game and when i reblogged it from you was me keeping it open in a tab trying to send you an ask, like a polite person. but sending asks is, like watching television, one of those things that ought to be straightforward but which i find astonishingly difficult for no clear reason. so while cleaning out my tabs i just lowered my standards and reblogged it.

7. oh, this is a funny one actually! so this was around two years before i learned fic was a thing, so i'm in like the sixth or seventh grade. i had this really inexplicably intense dream about spiderman. i woke up and it stuck with me, you know.

so i was like, well loads of people write stories about spiderman, i don't need permission, i'll write it down and then it will leave me alone.

naturally i forgot over half the dream before i finished getting it down. but the plot definitely involved being stuck to the ceiling due to inexplicable spider-powers and a very strained conversation with spiderman on one of those external cornices you get on the fancier class of brownstone. i think whatever OC i was inhabiting was mad about spiderman existing and he was increasingly fed up with me being insane, but trying to be patient.

ig there was no plot. strictly speaking.

11. gonna answer these in reverse order.

so first, there's two classes of research for fic, as far as i'm concerned, probably because i spent too long in comics. there's general knowledge about real things, and then there's finding the correct reference points within the canon you're working from.

the first one i'm not that intense about. sometimes there's a thing i really have to Get Right so i go looking, or i'll commit to including something and then need to go read up for verisimilitude, but i generally do not get into the deep factfinding tunnels people talk about.

because i enjoy the process of learning and the process of writing, but i tend to find it very stressful to suspend the act of writing in order to pursue knowledge, so that particular constellation makes both experiences worse. so i'm more likely to redirect the story around a knowledge roadblock so i can keep moving, than really dig in to break through it, and i'm very willing to go 'okay that'll work' and return to the story if i do break for research.

rather than try to track down That One Datapoint, if i'm writing fic that requires or would benefit from knowledge of [subject], i will tend to do general reading on that subject, and then let my improved background knowledge and store of Fun Facts shape where i go with the story.

this is more fun and more likely to come in handy for other purposes later, and the writing result tends to be more natural. same approach with original fiction.

with the kind of research designed to get my fic latched into canon correctly, on the other hand, i keep trying to be more casual about this, especially for fandoms where the canon material is a hot mess, but i also keep regretting that attempt. because it lets me get a fic actually started rather than bogged down in preliminaries, but then i reach a certain point and get frustrated that this is a good fic except it didn't bother to be chronologically coherent and now it's too late.

i didn't write any ffvii fic until i'd played through the original game and taken notes, and i definitely don't regret that!

now, cool things i've found out...the first one I think of, i stumbled across an unexpected gem while browsing to brainstorm night hunt ideas for mdzs fic.

turns out one of the many many many many many archaic chinese words for ghoulies and ghosties, for which it's very unclear what the specific differences between one term and another were in any given usage, is wangxiang. translations proposed include both 'mountain spirits' and 'water demons,' but it's definitely some sort of supernatural entity, and an unfriendly one.

there's a semi-major plot point in the book where, when they were teens, Lan Wangji named a song he'd composed Wangxian, which is also their portmanteau shipname. which by his standards was a romantic declaration. but Wei Wuxian passed out, and didn't actually hear him say it. so whether it would have worked as a romantic declaration remains unclear lmao. lan wangji refuses to tell him again later.

i think a very funny element for an AU would be if he only almost passed out, and just went away believing the song was named 'wangxiang,' which sounds very similar and is a word he's reasonably likely to have relatively high in his lexicon on account of their job is monster hunting and his education is distinctly monster slanted, and was just like, 'what a creepy name for such a pretty song?? lan zhan is so weird lol.'

bonus misunderstanding points if he said it was creepy but didn't explain why and Lan Wangji was like i have been brutally rejected 😢

you aren't actually in that fandom though, so this feels like a lame answer. uhhhh.

for my Earth-3 fics when I put mirror Dick Grayson through a recovery/redemption arc and he was laying low in Europe to avoid both Bruce and Slade ('With Tongue of Wood'), i basically stuck a pin in the map and spun a dial in my head and was like he's in...Romania...working in a...bakery.

so then i had to take a hiatus to research Romanian bakeries and it turns out Romanian cuisine is in possession of many fantastic varieties of fancy pastry, and i want to eat them. it's been what, seven years? but still. curse of knowledge. there are delicious pastries in romania.

[adelaides-hall]

What does fashion and clothing look like in the Night Divine setting? what does “standard casual wear” look like? Is there required regalia for saints?

Also, what does River and Solis’s fashion sense look like?

Casual fashion kind of runs the gamut depending on where you are, and I don’t deal with the planets very much, but I’d say most of it is an extension or mild version of some form of real-world alt fashion (cyberpunk, EGL, that sort of thing). Casual clothes like we have IRL are definitely a thing, too, but you see a lot more alt fashion type things in this setting than you do IRL. I think there are probably a lot of places that have the fashion vibes of real-world places like Shibuya.

Saints have formal attire that varies depending on their role. Sanctitas’ Saint is also their Commander, for example, so her stuff would differ pretty significantly from that of Saint Solis (Aspect Master) or Saint Emmett (head of Research). All the church stuff is based at least loosely on shapes that come from real-world Catholic church attire. They’d probably only wear their serious stuff for formal proceedings of some kind, including ceremonies. Saint Solis has to wear his when he does disciple selection and he sort of hates it, lmao. (What is “it”? Anything adjacent to teaching.)

River’s fashion sense changes pretty dramatically between when he’s a teenager and when he’s an adult. Teen River liked nice jeans + high tops + oversized sweaters and that sort of thing (think “nice casualwear for a K-pop band member”), but when he’s grown up, he’s a lot less afraid of being seen as gay and leans a lot more intentionally into alt fashion that makes him visually read as queer. He’ll wear a lot of stuff, but he likes fitted shirts and will wear things like a statement earring or really intense eyeliner if he’s going out. His more everyday casual leans into something adjacent to qi EGL (because I am who I am) for the shirts — kind of an Eastern aesthetic applied to some more Western clothing shapes. He also likes boat necks a lot. I’m sure this is clear as mud, but basically, he’s more invested to trying to find different clothes to suit his mood or purpose in going out than he was as a teenager. Also, he likes to look pretty in a masculine way. (:

Solis has no casual fashion sense to speak of because he’s literally only worn a uniform for basically his entire life. (Back in fabrication, I think he probably would’ve been in a more standard-issue Integritas uniform that lower staff wear until he became “worthy” of dressing like his Saint. And he did get to wear casual clothes one single time in a side fic I haven’t finished but should.) Post-canon, he’ll have more opportunity to figure out what he likes, and I think he’ll probably lean “dark academia” because what is this bug if not a cringe nerd teacher in the depths of his very soul????

[arthurs-better-half]

heyyyy you mentioned your aus 👀👀👀

can you tell more abt them?

YEAH OF COURSE

Okay so my friend Jae and I bounce back and forth off each other to create these so I consider them Our AUs they're my favourite ever

Bird/winged AU (unnamed)

Fix-it AU (unnamed)

Two Times Trapped

So for 1 the bird AU is because birds are a special interest of mine so I came up with it because I get obsessed with wingfics in every fandom I'm in so I invented one. Mostly undeveloped, follows canon closely just with added bird wings, tails, some other features. I have the most fun with research with these so most of it is just finding birds for characters (Arthur - Falkland Steamer Duck (female he's trans), John - Pied Crow, Yellow - Malaysian Hawk-cuckoo, Bella - Yellow-crowned Canary, Noel is some sort of flamingo Oscar is some sort of dove and Marie is some sort of ostrich. Daniel is the same as Bella. No don't ask me how Faroe works with the hybrid species idk. Yes we know how ironic being part duck is with the whole. Drowning thing. That was partly what solidified Arthur's species LMAO)

I'll skip to 2xT because the Fix-it explanation is long so for Two Times Trapped this one is mostly mine it's a canon divergent scenario of Larson managing to separate John from Arthur in the s4 finale and John getting trapped in his head with Yellow. And then everybody survives the finale and Larson gets away and then it splits into two POVs of Arthur's side with Noel, Butcher and later Oscar trying to aid Arthur in getting John back (Arthur is still blind) while sorting through their own stuff (Kayne also takes his frustrations of his favourite duo getting separated out on Butcher and Butcher basically gets sent to chronic migraine hell instead of getting his head sploded. And the classical music in his head gets replaced with like modern day hyperpop he's not having a good time.) and Arthur is also slowly descending into madness and the others are seeing how unwell he is now that his filter is being stripped away.

And on John's end he has Larson's eyes, foot, and he and Yellow share possession of Larson's left arm (read: they fight over it constantly). Yellow and Larson are a laser focused deadly task machine and have their sights set on the Greystone except they Do need to get John to cooperate at least a little bit because it is hard to get anything done when you've got Only One That Can See Between The Three Of You That Alway Lies. Also Larson is really just using the concrete goal of the Greystone to distract John while in reality his real goal is to get John to reject the human side of him and embrace godhood so that he can be more powerful. And Yellow is on this also but Yellow's feelings are more complicated than I can explain in this post. But yeah these three are constantly bickering they're actually so unserious. Larson stubs John's toe on purpose several times a day to get him to shut up. Yellow and John have many simultaneous "SHUT UP, LARSON" moments. Everyone is always lying to each other to the point where no one knows what's actually true any more. John can't call Yellow out on his KIY act bullshit because then he'd be exposing his own KIY act and the same for Yellow calling out John's. I want to put them all in a tube and shake it.

Anyway enough on that for now for the Fix-it AU this one Jae came up with based on the premise of John getting his own body, marrying Lily, and Arthur living in their house with them. And then I proceeded to suggest that John is a system with Yellow as an alter (because throughout the whole podcast I've had the recurring idea of John being a subsystem and with s4 with the whole him and Yellow having to share the same plane of existence and memories and only one "existing" at a time that just further solidified that idea in my head) and got obsessed with that. So now it's human+plural!John, Arthur, Lily, Noel and Butcher are there too as their neighbours or something, Marie and Daniel are there too. Though I am nearly wholly focused on the system thing so give me one moment I'm putting this under a read more

(As a disclaimer I do a lot of research constantly and spend a lot of time around systems so this is second-hand knowledge and observations and such and from research not experience but anyway)

John's system consists of the main system (named Miles to Go) and a subsystem that he's part of

The King in Yellow subsystem:

John - Host/protector He got the body first, rarely ever not fronting or cofronting.

Yellow - Cohost/symptom holder (PTSD)/persecutor Yellow's role changes throughout the story. He rarely ever fully fronts and only ever cofronts in the beginning and mostly only as a voice. He has the worst time adjusting for a number of reasons but a lot of it comes down to Arthur and Larson. On the rare occasion that he does front he'll visit Larson in prison (or wherever the hell Larson is haven't actually figured that part out) and he's kind of the only person Yellow will willingly have full conversations with that don't immediately turn to pity parties or aggressively defensive shows of power. Also Arthur is not helping and Yellow is not helping either and nothing is going right for him really but it's fine he'll get there. It gets worse before it gets better for him but it does get better. I think about him a lot (Main brainrot for this au)

King - Prosecutor (later turned physical protector + emergency fronter) Mixtive of stories of the King in Yellow, Arthur's experiences, John and Yellow's fractured memories, Noel's stories (and factive!Noel's recounts). Literally just feels like those times when John or Yellow put on that big scary act when they're scared, King is that personified.

Outside of KIY:

Arthur - Factive, physical caretaker One who actually knows how to do human stuff. Also a litmus test for how well other Arthur is doing depending on how he treats this Arthur. John nearly jumped out of his skin when he first showed up because he had no idea that the system thing was not limited to just the KIY situation so when he heard Arthur he freaked out. L. First alter outside the KIY subsystem. Probably split when John was alone and panicking and Arthur wasn't there.

Noel - Factive, mask Most often fronts when they need to be around other people and act normal, but mostly doesn't front often. Split after Arthur probably.

There will probably be more, there are definitely littles and there is probably a Faroe factive little (from factive Arthur's need). Other Arthur does not cope well with this but it's fine they're fine.

I have like. Ideas of KIY differing headspace and body designs because those three definitely have the worst dysmorphia when it comes to the body (John has it easiest, Yellow worst). But yeah anyway John is studying to become a doctor Arthur is still a private investigator but mostly quit, just takes the occasional case (with John). Uhhh that's all I'll say for now before I go on about Yellow too much.

Okay yeah I have more to say on like all of them especially Yellow always Yellow. And playlists also. Because the brainrot is strong. They kill me always. And Jae is literally the best for making AUs with he's my idea guy for real

[the-nexverse]

@thicc-pirate oh boy this is gonna be a hard one

BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: all the knowledge i have about mental disorders is very basic and the most i'll do is read the disorders' wikipedia articles and maybe one or two other articles from trustworthy sources. also please note i'm in no way a psychology expert, so i don't know specific terms or variations, i'll go for a general view on the way they think and view themselves and the world around them, and if there's an illness that matches those conditions, i'll mention it. but again, i am no expert on this, i could very well be wrong about any of it

Agnes: my heart tells me some cluster B personality disorder, but with more of an isolation flavor. substance abuse, bursts of rage, lack of empathy and reckless behavior are there, but also a general internal void/lack of purpose that she fills by finding someone to follow. that could be a dependant trait, but not in the way DPD is described. she also develops depression during arc 3, and deals with depressive symptoms throughout arcs 4-5

Ryan: he has some narcissistic characteristics, but that doesn't really mean he has NPD. he's empathetic, maybe even too much for his own good sometimes, but he's also calculating and manipulative when he wants to, even if his goals aren't for his own gain/selfish reasons. he does have a very black-or-white view on certain topics tho

all of this is about arcs 1-2 Ryan. arcs 3-5 Ryan's issues could fill up an entire book lmao. being locked up, isolated, physically assaulted, tortured and so much more fucks him up in the head so much, but i haven't really developed that part of him too much. PTSD, C-PTSD or both. can it be both? i don't know. i have to look a lot into it, it's too complex

Lisabel: APD straight up from the DSM-5: disregard for others' rights, lack of empathy and remorse, bloated self-image and manipulation, sprinkled with sadism and straight up psychopathy. all of it completely untreated, and she's in no rush to get herself checked. she's perfectly fine!

Eric: ngl he might be the only neurotypical person in the room lmao

Léan: 100% autism spectrum. hyperfixations, sensitivity to loud sounds or bright lights, stimming, some compulsive behaviors, difficulties socialising, etc. Eric wanted to adopt someone who wasn't very likely to get adopted and give them the love they deserve

Rask'r: i doubt there's a lot of research on mental illnesses in TES, but he has dyslexia, and as a lukiul (an argonian that grew up away from the Hist) he has argonian-specific social autism, aka can't read body language and his own body language is undecypherable to other native argonians. add that to wolf-like behavior like tail wagging and you got yourself a complete mess of social cues!

Raz: also dyslexia, some degree of anxiety for sure, abandonment issues, general childhood trauma. another bundle of complicated things

Donovan: not a mental illness per se, but definetely suffers from acedia/apathy

Lee: can you diagnose a non-sapient being with mental illnesses? i think so. PTSD and social anxiety, but he gets rehabbed :]

Vreytus: unidenfitied identity issues and feelings of emptiness/lack of a goal in life (which he fixes by himself. it goes well. for real :) )

Bug: trauma from being experimented on and all the social difficulties of not having been socialised with humans. otherwise they're just weird

Voirdity/voirds: there are no existing words to describe Voirdity's issues

Chad: definetely checks most boxes for NPD, but with time and lots of forced practice he learns to tone it down. not the best therapy method, i know, but probably the best you can get during the post-apocalypse. also self-esteem issues after he became physically disabled

Lewis: social anxiety and autism spectrum. hyperfixation, difficulty with holding eye contact, stimming, autistic self-injury, big meltdowns. to be fair, he's exposed to a lot more of stressing stimuli (Half Life events) so his reactions are a lot more intense and uncontrolled

thanks for the ask!!

@creators-club

[la-noche-cae]

I think it's Extremely Relevant right now to talk about Skylanders' military propaganda [Edit].

I will not be graphic. But your further research on this... most likely will be, at least in a descriptive way.

A. Skylanders was created by Activision, the same company that made Call of Duty. Call of Duty (among others) is a game used to reel in youth for army recruitment. Just to picture what's the typical order of business for leaders at the company.

B. The whole idea of the Academy, ranks, "Us vs Them" mentality. "Light and order" vs "Darkness and anarchy". Regardless of your opinions on Anarchy as a system, darkness often equaling Kaos' workers such as trolls (and even gyps*es), and for Skylanders meaning dark skinned creatures, is pretty clear sign of their idea of evil.

[Edit: Light=Good and Darkness=Evil is not a universal experience. Multiple cultures consider it just as sacred, an equal, instead of an opposite to Light. Symbolically and Philosophically, there's more to it, beyond the typical eurocentric imaginary.

Speaking of eurocentric imaginary: to an uncritical consumer, this could potentially reinforce their ideas of good and evil. There is little wiggle room for these ideals to be challenged. They are exceptions of Skylanders' norm.]

C. Just in Superchargers, there are references to a Border being kept between Skylands and Outlands, High Volt being this "elite guard" that protects the border. Notice he looks like a riot police, in colors and gear- one of which is a riot shield. Protesting is a right, and in these parts of the world, it is often met with unhinged police violence. Regardless of your opinions on borders, the way such a thing is enforced in the USA is extremely violent. Even here in Puerto Rico, we have border patrol and constant surveillance (mostly aimed at keeping out our Dominican neighbors).

Do not get me started on the long history of Puertorrican oppression inflicted by USA Imperialism. (Agent Orange, Forced Sterilization, Vieques Occupation).

[Edit: Just... Copaganda in My video game? No, thank you. For ME, If I portray High Volt, I'd redesign and reinterpret him. He's like, a lightbulb. Perhaps he is part of a watch tower, but for other purposes].

D. Sorry, Nightfall here goes another problematic thing about you: Nightfall is dressed like a type of Navy admiral: A long coat with yellow buttons and yellow cord epaulets. She also has a vehicle called the Sea Shadow, referencing a real-life military ship designed for surveillance.

[Edit: Not every country has a military. And those who do have the biggest budget for it are typically using it as an imperial, colonial force. This is important, more so because Skylanders' target audience is the young eurocentric USAmerican. The parent company is Activision Blizzard, stationed in USA. The way other Skylanders talk about the Superchargers is like the Air Force are talked about by others in the army- they are the more "prestigious" ones with shiny new vehicles lmao].

E. The idea is that one can be a hero through this hard, thankless fighting... in another's land, "Securing" that land from the "evil ones". Sounds like Occupation and / or a Coup to me. Goes hand in hand with the point about Borders and Light vs Darkness.

[Edit: People. I am talking about this above with Manifest Destiny in mind. I am not claiming all the Skylanders are colonizers, lol! I'm saying there's way too many references to USA military propaganda to ignore. I ask you to use your own discernment / research to make your conclusions. There are things I didn't pick up.

I simply did Not appreciate Buzz telling Stormblade to do Psychological Warfare, or calling Glumshanks an "apple-polishing troll" when the guy just wanted to help. To me, this is not funny haha. It's funny like weird!]

___

These are the things on top of my head I've wanted to talk about for a while, but now more than ever is pressing to bring it up and discuss with intent to move forward. Don't go "You're overreacting" Please don't tell me I don't know anything about something I experience every day. Also, don't put words in my mouth, thanks. You can visit this post if you have questions.

If you can help it, don't give Activision any more of your money, for example, buying their newer games. Buy second hand.

Avoid spending at companies like Airbnb (which not just supports settlers but directly worsens my country's housing crisis), Apple, Hp, Motorola, McDonald's, Starbucks, Coca Cola, Mars chocolate, Nestle are a few others that dont have a clean track record. Get familiar with modern-day imperialist interest around you on your own, or with friends.

👋[If your knee-jerk reaction to this is to hate me perhaps inspect why that is? I'm not a big influential blog. Why you threatened? I can't force you or bully you to do anything, I'm just making my opinions known].

[svpernovae]

a bunch of Florian hcs no one asked about (tw: arson/gore-ish mentions)

based on his deductions Florian's parents were scientists or possibly chemists. depending on the research, fire was used as either an aid or the subject itself since in the 19th century we start to see a rise in combustion based appliances and the revolution of gas/coal. the bunsen burner being invented during this era in a response for a need to control temperatures more accurately during experiments. that may explain why the family house went up in flames so suddenly and brutally, to the point his parents only had time to push him out of harms way. the deduction's imply this fire was the result of an accident, we don't know yet whose it may be, but perhaps it may have been Florian himself who accidentally caused the ignition trying to replicate what his father showed him.

the fire took his parents but it also took his right eye and ear. both as a child and as an adult he's seen using gauze rather than a leather eye patch, even though by then the burns should have been healed. my theory is that he chooses gauze for it's far more gentler on the scar tissue and it does not react as quickly as leather does to high temperatures, as leather goes rigid faster. i imagine it must be extremely unpleasant to feel it on the face when one's constantly throwing themselves into fire pits.

referring to his uniform, it's the typical 1866's english fire fighter uniform, the first of it's kind. the badge on his jacket should have a number that corresponds to his rank within the brigade, the lower the number the higher the rank and he should also carry an axe (also lmao did you know the oldest firefighting corporation is from my country? 1395...the more you know) to note though, fire investigators are not the same as fire fighters, as they only really approach the fire scene after the firefighters are done, as it's their job to inspect and research about the causes of the fire. during the 19th century a lot of domestic fires were caused on purpose for insurance money and Florian was most likely hired for this (and then used his position to his advantage to cover his tracks)

but lets get back to the past real quick cause this piece of lore is actually really interesting. the orphanage he was sent to after he lost his parents was White Sand Street Orphanage (i fucking hate this map), the one that was founded by Kreacher Pierson (Thief) and later on was converted into an Asylum. Based on his deductions, the entire reason the Orphanage managed to expand at all was at the cost of Florian bringing in investors as the "miracle". Since his deductions later mention nuns, Father Duke may have been the first investor and was already the head of the Orphanage by the time the fire happened. Sister Lorriane and Emily/Lydia (Doctor) may have already been there, as well as Emma/Lisa (Gardener) and Robbie (Axe Boy).

funnily enough a large reason why the orphanage was converted into an asylum was due to the claim that many of it's children suffered from mental illness, which wouldn't be wrong in Florian's case, as he is an arsonist. however, this illness only really manifested itself in the orphanage and as a way to call upon attention to himself again. though this too, was probably fueled by the drugs he was given in the orphanage, as his deduction mentions "These drugs cannot treat anyone, but they can help me in another way." referring to the instances before he causes the fire.

this deduction also proves that he has some understanding on chemistry and was privy to the drugs being worked on in the orphanage, as the note says "I'm sorry, Sister. I broke two vials by accident. Can I borrow your keys to get more from the storeroom?" if we add this to the scene in his trailer where he ignites the fire, it's possible he was previously helping the nuns making the drugs (but that's a theory... a game theo-)

and that's all folks!