#'well that's what you get for being born in the wrong place serves you right~'

[agenderakali]

If you’re a progressive living in a blue state and you see a minority in the southern US lamenting their situation, if you respond to them with “well you guys voted for it” you sound exactly as callous and cruel as the republicans who enacted this legislation against us. And you aren’t actually progressive.

[the-travelling-witch]

𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

summary: the human custom of sharing clothes had been an unfamiliar one for jade, but he has always been a quick study

pairing: jade leech x gn! reader (both have graduated nrc, but a lot of this is reliving school memories)

warnings: fluff, implied smaller reader; i think it made more sense in my head but have it anyway bc i never wanna shut up about him, please applaud my restraint to not name this ‘boyfriend material’

twisted wonderland masterlist

It was true that wearing clothes was a foreign feeling when Jade first came to the shore all those years ago. But he had come to like the human custom, no matter how tedious it might seem at times. Not only did he realise the way one dressed held a lot of power in the way one was perceived by others, it had also served him in making some fond memories.

The ones he remembered most vividly, however, were those which featured you at the centre of them. Through various means, like the course they had attended or familiarising himself with different types of media above sea level, Jade had learnt that sharing clothes was a thing done between close friends or romantic partners, often being hailed as a sweet gesture and being positively received by characters and audiences alike. So when you had caught the eel’s interest, he had decided to see what the fuss was all about.

Despite his tendency to curate situations which would bring about whatever outcome he desired, the first time the opportunity arose had been a happy coincidence. That day, it had started raining cats and dogs right as the bell signalling lunch break rang. Luckily, Jade’s last class of the morning had been in the building the cafeteria was in, so he could watch in amusement as students swarmed towards the building with various forms of rain repellent keeping them dry- or not.

You had been one of the poor, unfortunate souls who had left their umbrella at the dorm that day, a point made abundantly clear by the way you had sprinted with your PE uniform jacket held over your head in a feeble attempt of shielding yourself. By the time you had made it into the dry hallway, your jacket had been absolutely drenched, the rest of your clothes not faring much better. Witnessing your predicament and seeing a chance to put his theory to the test, Jade had slinked over to your side.

“Oya, if I had known you were this fond of water, I would have invited you to the Coral Sea before,” the eel had said, startling you with his sudden appearance. Your reaction had only served for the polite smile on his lips to grow a tad bit wider. “Yet, here I was under the impression humans don’t like getting their clothes wet. Perhaps I have been wrong?”

“You know well enough this wasn’t intentional, so drop the oblivious act, Jade,” you had sighed, rustling through your backpack for something and subsequently taking your eyes off him. “So what do you want? If you’re trying to rope me into a deal over a little bit of rain, I’ll have to disappoint–”

Something warm and dry had landed on your shoulders then, your gaze landing on the black fabric draped over your form first and wandering back to the tall student afterwards. With your mouth parted, opening and closing in the search of something to say, you had borne a strong resemblance to a fish out of water.  

“I heard humans get sick easily after walking in the rain,” Jade had mused, tugging at his vest and shirt to make sure they sat correctly without his blazer, “and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

“What are you–” You had shaken your head, overcoming your initial confusion as you began shrugging the jacket back off your shoulders. At that point you had been sure he had some ulterior motive and you hadn’t felt like picking up any shifts at Mostro Lounge that week. “I can’t take this from you.”

“Oh, but you can,” he had insisted with a smile, a gloved hand landing on your shoulder to keep the clothing in place. “If you are worried about my health, I am most touched. However, us mers are used to the cold and therefore aren’t as prone to catching one.”

“That wasn’t really what I was concerned about,” you had mumbled, crossing your arms. “I’m more worried about whatever strings come attached with this thing.”

“You wound me. Do you really think I would abuse my fellow student’s misery for personal gain?” Despite his words, he had chuckled at your resolute ‘yes, you would’. The hand on your shoulder had pressed into your upper back then to bring you in closer in order to throw you off with the newfound proximity, disguised as shielding you from the throng of people heading to lunch. “If this is what stands in between you and caring for your health, how about this: In return for accepting my blazer, you accompany me to lunch? I’ll consider us even then, I promise.”

You had studied the vice housewarden more closely, yet, as usual, his expression did not give anything away. Just then a chilly breeze had blown through the corridor, making you tremble as you instinctively pulled the blazer tighter around your body. 

“Fine, I’ll accept,” you had relented through chattering teeth.

“Wonderful,” the eel had beamed down at you before guiding you forward, still with his fingers splayed over your upper spine. Students had parted like the sea when they had seen the second year approaching and it was a welcome change of pace from having to fight your way into a spot in the queue.

By the time you had found a table, you had slipped your arms through the sleeves of Jade’s jacket to better hold your tray. And when you rolled up the excess fabric to properly use your cutlery, Jade finally realised why lending someone your clothes was a popular trope in various media. 

To say the piece was ill-fitting was an obvious remark, with Jade easily being one of the tallest students around, you were practically drowning in his jacket. It had been eye-openingly endearing for him to say the least. And that was even without factoring in the expression on people’s faces when they realised whose clothes you had been wearing, the Octavinelle band around your left arm added to the context of the scene being a dead giveaway. Yes, as a born predator of the sea, a possessive side of him had revelled in the feeling of staking his claim over you in this way.

But he had shoved the notion down as you had asked him if he liked the food that day and how his morning had been. While he had been able to tell you were still a little wary, cautiously phrasing your responses at first, falling into a casual conversation with you was easy enough. When the anecdote of his brother doing something reckless again made you snort before laughing, he had filed it away as something he wanted to see and hear more of, especially when he was the cause for it.

Lunch had passed a little too fast for the moray’s liking but with one glance at his watch and then one at the still pouring rain, he had quickly devised a plan to monopolise your time to the fullest before returning to your classes.

“Allow me to walk you back to your dorm, so you can change before your next lesson,” Jade had smiled as he pulled out his umbrella, his arm hovering around your back as you had exited the cafeteria. “I assure you, this favour comes with no strings attached.”

Looking back at it years later, perhaps that last part had been a lie, though he was sure neither of you minded. Because after that rainy day, you had interacted more frequently with pleasantly changed feelings. 

On Jade’s side of things, he had been more fascinated with you and your reactions than ever and the image of you swaddled in his clothes had managed to stir these newfound emotions in him. You, on the other side, had started considering him as more than a devious loan eel and allowed the normally tightly locked thoughts and feelings for him to come out of their confinement little by little.

After playing cat and mouse for a while, you had taken all your courage, grabbed Jade by the collar and confessed, not able to withstand the tension and anticipation any longer.  Of course, he had reciprocated your feelings in teasing delight, which, as your relationship had become public, had easily catapulted you up the list of the school’s lunatics in the eyes of many. But you couldn’t have been happier and, the initial complexities of navigating a new relationship aside, Jade was a dream of a boyfriend if he wasn’t hellbent on prodding and poking you for his own amusement.

So it came as no surprise that, during your school years, you had spent a lot of time at each other’s dorms when Jade wasn’t dragging you up some mountain with him. At that point, you’d felt as comfortable in his room as in yours, even if half of it was shared with the sentient tornado that was Floyd, leaving one half to be pristine and the other opposingly messy. 

Jade fondly remembered the day you had come over to study for your upcoming potionology exam, your own dorm room too loud to concentrate and hoping to rope the merman into helping you with your prep questions, especially as his brother had been absent from their room that evening. While many regarded him as the sly and conniving one in the relationship, Jade had to admit you were very good at playing your cards right to where he found it increasingly hard to deny you. Perhaps this cheekiness was one of the things that drew him to you.

Considering you had given up on studying in your room pretty much immediately and had only grabbed your books before marching over to Octavinelle, you had still been in uniform when you joined him at his desk. Ever observant, Jade had quickly noticed the way you subconsciously pulled at the clothes or squirmed in your seat trying to get comfortable. 

So being the amazing and reliable boyfriend that he was, he had fished some comfortable loungewear out of his closet; he had initially bought it to round out his collection of essential clothing items, though frankly, he didn’t wear it much himself. With no plans to work at the Lounge that night, he had thought that it might be a good chance to give the comfy clothes another shot.

In retrospect, maybe he should thank your uncomfortable uniform. 

When you had both changed into the loungewear, he had not only been amused by the way the shirt, which was a regular fit for him, engulfed your upper body or how you had rolled up the ends of his sweatpants. With some playful huffs at his teasing, you had gone back to work until you had finished writing your study notes, at which point you had relocated to his bed, Jade joining you soon after.

Sitting side by side, your boyfriend had taken to quizzing you to see how much you had retained until he had felt your head drop against his shoulder, which was the first time he had taken note of how late it had gotten. For a few moments he had done nothing but study the way your chest rose and fell with deep breaths, your slightly parted lips inviting him to trace his thumb over the curve of them in featherlight reverence. To think that he of all morays would ever be treated to such a peaceful fragment of mundanity, it had made a warmth tug at his heart the same way the waves rolled over the shore in a calming rhythm, which persisted to this day.

It had pained him to wake you again, so could get ready for bed, persuading you sweetly into staying the night. Though he regretted neither getting to see your half asleep face while you had brushed your teeth, nor how he had been able to pull you close to him under the covers, curling his arms around you as his fingers had wandered over the warmth of your skin under his clothes. 

In the comfortable darkness of his room, you had exchanged hushed whispers and murmured confessions as you had settled in his embrace, lulled to sleep by the steady beating of his heart and the lips that  had spelled promises of safety and adoration against your skin. And for Jade, tugged deep into the crevice of his heart, there had formed the image of a future where this domesticity was normality. 

Years later, after graduation, Jade could proudly claim that this fantasy now lived at the forefront of his heart, that he could fall asleep and wake up to your body next to his, cradled by the allure of forever. After all, for no one but those closest to him would he be up with the rising sun to prepare breakfast, humming under his breath as he relived those memories. Though he considered all his efforts paid off when he heard you shuffle into the kitchen before two arms wrapped around his middle and your head leaned against his spine. 

“Good morning to you too, pearl,” Jade chuckled as finished plating the eggs on two plates, then knowingly slid a fresh cup of coffee within your reach. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did, until someone decided to just leave me all by my lonesome,” you grumbled, detaching yourself from him so you could lean against the counter and take a sip of coffee, prepared perfectly to your liking. “I like seeing my beautiful husband’s face first thing in the morning but alas…”

As you stepped into his field of vision, Jade noticed you had chosen not to wear a piece of clothing of yours, but had instead plucked his black dress shirt from the chair he had draped it over the day prior. His dress shirt and nothing else. While it was long enough on you to hide what was for his eyes only, it still showed off the beautiful curve of your legs, ending tantalisingly around your thighs. The few buttons you had closed still displayed the sharp contrast between your collarbones and the softness of the skin peeking through below. It would be all too easy to slip the garment from your shoulder…

“That does seem rather unfair,” Jade agreed as he stepped in front of you, hands ghosting along the expanse of your thighs to rest at your waist, the look in his eyes reminding you of his origins and sending shivers of excitement down your spine. “If you allow me, I have a few ideas in mind on how to make it up to you.”

Within the blink of an eye, his hands had steeled their grip around your waist and lifted you to sit on the counter as he took the opportunity to stand between your legs. Then, with a gentleness which did not match the show of strength, he carefully cupped the back of your head in his palm and connected your lips in a kiss as light and soft as the golden rays bathing your kitchen in light. Your own hands busied themselves with tousling his bed head once again, slowly sliding his black lock behind his left ear as you parted from one another, like a painter putting the finishing strokes on their magnum opus.

“Hm, I might be able to be convinced about forgiving you,” you teased, the lovestruck look in your eyes mirroring his as you slung your arms over his shoulders and crossed them behind his neck in an effort to be even closer to him. 

“I must be the luckiest man alive,” he mused, meaning every word of his playful response.

Yes, after living on land for so long, Jade had truly taken a liking to the human custom of wearing clothes and all the different possibilities it held. Then again, the fondness those memories held probably had nothing to do with the clothes at all.

© the-travelling-witch 2024 - do not repost, translate, copy or edit

if you like my content, reblogs, comments and asks are always much appreciated ♡

➺ send in an ask to be added to or removed from my tag list

twisted wonderland: @savanaclaw1996 @honehbee42

[knight-of-flowerss]

I Will Wait.

Part one.

|__> part two will have smut I think :p also if u wanna be added to the house of the dragon tag list pls comment on here and I’ll add u!!

Benjicot ‘Davos’ Blackwood x Bracken!Reader.

Fluff + a bit of angst

Song inspo: I will wait by Mumford & Sons

Masterlist

Being a Bracken was hard. Well, being a Bracken girl was hard. Your brother, Aeron, was a pompous arsehole. Always acting like he was this big, tough knight, when in reality, he was a little boy who was playing as a pretend knight.

Your uncle, Humfrey, also known as Lord Bracken, was also a pompous arsehole, but he knew how to toy with people. He wasn’t a pretender, he would make promises and keep them. Like the promise that he would get one of his guards to whoop you as a child if you didn’t stop misbehaving, and as all children are, you continued misbehaving, and as you can expect, your uncle stuck to his words, even had the nerve to laugh at you when you tried to sit down on your sore bottom the next morning.

There are many things wrong with House Bracken. But the worst and most annoying of all was the ongoing rivalry between House Bracken and House Blackwood.

Apparently, to the Blackwood’s, years and years ago, the Bracken’s poisoned their dear Weirwood tree. It could be the truth or it could be another of the miscellaneous lies that both houses seemed to spew about each other to back up their rivalry. But in reality, I don’t think either side really knows why they hate eachother.

But what you did know is that you love a Blackwood.

And that was wrong.

Benjicot Blackwood was a sweet boy. Shy and caring. He was everything you wanted in a man. And he didn’t care that you were a Bracken.

Even when you were little, Benji always intrigued you. He was an honourable boy, an honourable man. He would never include a girl in a family feud that all stemmed from jealous men.

“Benji.. the war is coming, isn’t it?..” You whispered to him. You were both deep in the forest, Benji sitting up against a large tree, and you lying in his lap, your head resting on his chest as you get your large dress comfortable on the ground. Playing with his shirt, you look up at him, seeing him staring infront.

“Yes my love. I’m sorry but I must fight, it’s what I was born for. If I cannot protect my Queen then what type of Lord am I?” Benji breathed out. You sit up slightly, placing your left hand on his leg and your right on your chest, your faces inches apart.

“And what about me Benji? If you cannot come back alive then where does that leave me? Married off like a brood mare to the highest bidder? Dead at the hands of the other Blackwood’s? And what if Aegon wins? You could get executed for going against the crown-“

“And you can’t? Rhaenyra will win. And when she does she just might have mercy on the disloyal houses like House Bracken. Or she might kill you. But I know my Queen. The backers of the usurper cunt call her King Maegor with teats. She mourns her children! Her legacy! But even after all that she would spare the lives of those serving the pretender, because she is a good Queen.”

Tears brim your eyes as you stare at him. Wishing this could all be different. “Benji.. I don’t care who wins and who loses, I just want you. I want us to marry and grow old and have children, I want to not be afraid to love you Benji..”

Leaning your head against his, you squeeze your eyes closed and pressed your lips together tightly, trying not to spill tears or a pathetic whimper.

“I’m sorry my love. I promise you I’ll be back. And when I do, I promise I’ll marry you under the Weirwood tree, under the Old Gods and the New. I’ll love you unconditionally, no matter what any Bracken or Blackwood say. You are mine and I am yours. The day we get back, I either ask for your hand or take you as mine if anyone objects.”

You open your eyes and look at him, lips parting slightly. “Really?..” He adorns his sweet little smile finally and let’s out a small, breathy laugh. “Of course my love, you mean the world to me and I’d rather die than let you be used as a political piece for those piece of shit Brackens. Always have been a piece of shit, do you know what your uncle did to my father when they were-“

You grabbed his face, slamming your lips onto his, it was probably the last time that you could and you were going to make the most of it.

It had been two years. Two full Fucking years. It was over, finally. The usurper, Aegon, had been defeated.

From the start of the war ‘til now, you had matured a lot. All Noble women and children of the Riverland houses had lived in Riverrun since the war started, protecting the houses heirs and family.

Two years ago you were naïve, wide-eyed, and dependent on your surroundings to comfort you. Innocence was your very essence.

Now, post-war, you had come to terms with the world, it couldn’t change, people will continue to kill each other for power. But also, you were ‘ready for children’ according to Lady Tully. She claims your hips have widened and your breasts have grown. She is determined to find you a living husband to carry on your Bracken line but in reality, you wanted to taint that line, with Blackwood blood.

Soldiers were returning home.

Finally, your family was returning home.

Thousands of men from each houses spewing through each and every crevice, determined to get home.

Tully men made their way towards the Riverrun to celebrate their victory with their wives and children, with those who fought bravely along side with each other.

Darkmont men marched their way home, proud banner men who were eager to pray to the Seven, giving thanks for the victory that the Warrior gifted them, grateful that the Warrior answered their prayers of protection, valour and skill in battle.

The Piper men stalked towards the Pinkmaiden Castle near the Golden Tooth and the border with the Westerlands. Their loyalty towards the Tully’s unwavering in and out of battle. They make their way home while their faces reflect their words, ‘Brave and Beautiful’.

Other houses marched home, House Endymion, House Deddings, House Teague and others. They were all either matching home or to Riverrun to celebrate. You would try and pay more attention, but you’re too busy to acknowledge each and every men as you’re looking out for your man.

Your silly, crazed, depraved man that, hopefully, still has that shy, tender-hearted, gentle and loving boy inside.

You were just about to turn away, to pack up and return home to see what was left of your family, when you see it.

Three sets of flags, each having a trail of burned, bloodied and beaten soldiers following.

In the middle there rode a man holding the Clement House coat of arms on a large banner, a white flag with for blue, jagged line going down vertically.

They were loyal men of the Tully’s, Defenders of the Riverlands but there is only so much those soldiers can do before they stick their swords through their chest due to the constant bickering of the houses on either side of them.

On the left of House Clement, there was your family. House Bracken. Holding their golden banner with the Carmine coloured Stallion plastered in the middle up high as if they weren’t serving the pretender, the usurper, the loser. They had been defeated, yes. But their life long rivalry with the house over the field seemed to make them forget that.

You finally spotted your brother, Aeron. He looked utterly defeated. But that was in his eyes, his body and mouth concealed his battered condition with a confident facade.

Even from so far away you could tell they were bickering. They always were.

Finally your gaze drifts towards the right of House Clement, to your enemies.

A large, grey Stallion, big hooves, a dark matted mane with bit splotches of white and grey littering it the further you get towards its back legs moved in sync with the others at the front of the House Blackwood line. It was the most beautiful horse you had ever seen, trotting at a slow pace and showing off its regal strut. For being such a big and burley horse, it was quite elegant.

But, as beautiful as the horse was, a god sat atop it. The Maiden herself reincarnated as a Blackwood boy, Man.

Benjicot Blackwood had returned, more a man than those marching. He held his family’s banner up high, displaying their victory.

You smiled and stepped away from the window, running through the halls of the Riverrun. You stood at the front of the gates, greeting men as they trotted in.

All the other houses entered or passed and then finally House Clement entered, the banner men leading the Fyrd.

Next came your house, House Bracken. Your cousins and siblings came boasting in. Upon an auburn horse, your brother chucked the banner to the on foot soldiers and got off his horse.

“Sister!” Aeron shouted as he rushed towards you, “The fucking bitch Queen won, the little fuckers burnt half our house, I’ll fucking kill them.”

“Maybe it is for the best Aeron, we should at least be grateful she hasn’t burnt us to a crisp. And.. I’m glad to have you back brother.” You smiled and pressed a palm to his cheek. He sighs and wraps his arms around you tightly, “I’ve missed you sister, truly. It was horrifying out there, you ever seen a dragon rip a man to shreds? Well, hopefully not. Has everything been alright while we’ve been gone?”

“Of course it has brother, I’m a Bracken after all. A Bracken woman. I know how to handle myself. Now, go inside and show everyone how a Bracken stands tall, even after a loss.”

He smiled at me, tightly nodding. He let of me and started walking inside, catching up with our cousins on the steps.

Finally, finally the Blackwoods came marching. But that large stallion wasn’t matching at the start, Benjicot Blackwood, your Benji was no where to be found in fact.

Panic set in through you. Where had he gone? Had he fled? Had your family hurt him? Your questions were left un-answered as Lady Tully came out.

“Sweetheart, come inside, celebrate.” She spoke to you with great kindness, her hands gripping the sides of your arms and gently pulling you away into the Riverrun.

While the Lady Tully was coercing you inside, Benji was arguing with your uncle, Lord Bracken.

“Your false, usurper, cunt of a ‘king’ has been defeated Lord Bracken, I see no reason why you still think you can act like you have the upper hand.” Benjicot had started to lose his temper.

He had came to Lord Bracken to ask for your hand in marriage, to throw away their rivalries and start a new beginning of joint houses. Of course this was not Benjicot Blackwood speaking, Benjicot Blackwood would rather die than admit this. No, this was Benji speaking. This was the boy who loved a woman speaking.

But as time passed, his new nickname gifted to him in the war came shining through, Bloody Ben came out. He started losing his temper, lashing out at your depraved uncle, calling out his foolishness.

In reality, Benjicot was being just as foolish, lashing out at a Bracken while their large hoard pricks surround him, fucking stupid. But, he had brought Oscar and Kermit Tully alongside him, two long friends of his. So if shit went down, at least they’d die together.

As the bickering continued, both Bracken and Blackwood became increasingly more agitated and aggressive, the two Tully boys standing there like they’re ready to kill them selves and not the men coated in yellow.

“Young Lord Blackwood, do you really think I’d let your tiny Blackwood cock defile my innocent neice?”

Benji huffs, “Lord Bracken, your neice will have the taste of a real man, not a Bracken boy. The gods know we are destined-“ , “You worship the old gods! You will not say the fake gods destine you and her.”

Kermit moves forward, leaning to whisper into Benjicot’s ear, “Ben, maybe we should leave”, Benjicot puts a hand on his chest and softly nudges him away.

“Lord Bracken, rest assured, the old gods and the new know our binding of houses will avoid years of bloodshed in the future-“

Lord Bracken interrupts him, “Why would you want out houses binded? The Blackwood’s hate the Brackens and vice versa, it’s been like that for years, why would you of all people want that? You wish to take a jab at House Bracken while we are at our weakest? Belittle us?-“

“I love her.” Exclaimed Benji, Kermit looked to Oscar and Oscar rolled his eyes, just wanting to sit and feast, tired from the war.

“You know nothing of love, boy.”

Tags: @thethreeeyed-raven @lost-in-fiction-like-ur-mom @tiredsleepyhead @onlyrealjoy

[silver-stake-through-the-heart]

Why to be wary of 12x19 and 12x23 Cas

Themes: doubt - heaven coercion – paradise on earth - human things vs a perfect world

4x07 – It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester

Cas: Can I tell you something if you promise not to tell another soul?

Dean: Okay.

Cas: I'm not a… hammer as you say. I have questions, I have doubts.

4x20 – The Rapture

Cas: I learned my lesson while I was away, Dean. I serve heaven, I don't serve man, and I certainly don't serve you.

4x22 – Lucifer Rising

Zachariah: Why not? The apocalypse? Poor name, bad marketing – puts people off. When all it is is Ali/Foreman. On a… slightly larger scale. And we like our chances. When our side wins – and we will – it's paradise on earth. Now, what's not to like about that?

4x22 – Lucifer Rising

Dean: Destiny? Don't give me that "holy" crap. Destiny, God's plan… It's all a bunch of lies, you poor, stupid son of a bitch! It's just a way for your bosses to keep me and keep you in line! You know what's real? People, families – that's real. And you're gonna watch them all burn?

Cas: What is so worth saving? I see nothing but pain here. I see inside you. I see your guilt, your anger, confusion. In paradise, all is forgiven. You'll be at peace. Even with Sam.

Dean: You can take your peace… and shove it up your lily-white ass. 'Cause I'll take the pain and the guilt. I'll even take Sam as is. It's a lot better than being some Stepford bitch in paradise. This is simple, Cas! No more crap about being a good soldier. There is a right and there is a wrong here, and you know it.

5x14 – My Bloody Valentine

Sam: I thought famine meant starvation, like as in, you know, food.

Cas: Yes. Absolutely. But not just food. I mean, everyone seems to be starving for something. Sex, attention, drugs, love…

5x14 – My Bloody Valentine

Cas: What I don't understand is…where is your hunger, Dean?

5x14 – My Bloody Valentine

Famine: Doesn't take much – hardly a push. Oh, America – all-you-can-eat, all the time. Consume, consume. A swarm of locusts in stretch pants. And yet, you're all still starving because hunger doesn't just come from the body, it also comes from the soul. (…) You're not hungry, Dean, because inside, you're already…dead.

9x06 – Heaven Can't Wait

Cas: The Rit Zien home in on pain, it's like a beacon to them. So, when this angel fell to earth, he heard the victims' cries, and their anguish, same as he'd hear an angel's in heaven. He's continuing his heavenly work down here. One suffering human at a time.

Dean: Yeah, but this last victim was not suffering. She was just a normal, moody kid.

Cas: But he just got here. The ebb and flow of human emotion – Dean, I've been on earth for a few years, and I've only begun to grasp it. To him, pain is pain.

9x06 – Heaven Can't Wait

Ephraim: I just followed the sound of your pain. You have no idea how loud it is. I could hear you for miles.

Cas: Do you really think you're doing Heaven's work down here?

Ephraim: I know I am.

Cas: Well, you're wrong. Earth can be a hard place. But these humans, they can get better. They're just doing the best they can.

10x01 – Black

Hannah: Without rules, there is chaos. Out of chaos rise angels like Naomi, Bartholomew…Metatron.

Cas: Well, perhaps I've been down here with them for too long. There's seemingly nothing but chaos. But not all bad comes from it. Art. Hope. Love. Dreams.

Hannah: But t-those are human things.

Cas: Yes.

12x19 – The Future

Castiel: I am. I've been so lost. I'm not lost anymore. And I know now that this child must be born with all of his power.

Sam: You can't actually mean that.

Castiel: Yes. I do. I have faith. We have to go.

12x23 – All Along the Watchtower

Castiel: Right, I saw– I saw… I saw the future. I saw a world without pain or hunger or want. I saw the world that this child… that your child… will create. And it is a world without fear and without suffering and without hate. I saw paradise.

Blind obedience/faith is the contrary of Cas core (he has doubts! since forever!).

A world without pain or hunger or want isn't a world for humans.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

*crying sobbing pounding on dazzle's chest* YOU'RE GONNA COME BACK WRONG AND AS CHAGGIE'S FUCKED UP CREEPY MEDICAL RAT PUPPETEER CHILD!! YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!!!!

Razzle needs a hug and i don't CAAARE if it's just from the reanimated body of what used to be his brother turned little sister >:(

this fankid brought to you by

Charlie running around with bandages after an Extermination trying to patch Sinners up, a thing that would inspire her new goat child and something her and Baffy would bond over.

Vaggie as a mom and also one of the only ppl around scarred by a permanent debilitating wound given by heavenly steel, a thing she and Baffy kinda have in common, and motivation for Baffy's research into healing heavenly injuries.

What if a kid was born from a failed attempt at resurrecting someone else and then had to live right next to said person’s memorial statue while watching their older brother sadly cuddling up to it sometimes? Baffy totally doesn't get trauma from this.

other random thoughts below

Having a health practitioner in the Pride Ring is kinda like installing fire detectors in Hell.

Not only is violence happened all the time everywhere but Sinners normally just pull themselves together afterwards and regenerate unless hit with a heavenly weapon, so what's the point of having someone running around stitching up wounds and treating blood loss?

Well.. what's the point of running around with a torn off arm if you don't have to? Or being in pain longer than you need to?

Baffy thinks that sounds pretty stupid.

Baffy is cheerfully chasing down her next VERY reluctant patient as we speak.

Baffy's heart is in the right place (she checked) but her medical practices and bedside manner are kinda lacking (ironic for a former plushie toy) and most Sinners would rather run screaming into a turf war than let her treat them. She's a little too fond of stiches and blood and excuses to see both.

(And what if not even heavenly steal could scar or permanently kill people...?) (Heaven is NOT happy someone is asking this question)

Hell’s creepy new health practitioner

Unlicensed

Self-taught surgeon via rat autopsies

Uses rat puppets to distract and calm her patients (doesn’t realize they find it disturbing)

Largest rat puppet also serves as her assistant

Craves apples

Can be bribed with apples

Reborn from Charlie’s blood and part of the Morningstar bloodline

Fav bedtime story is of how Charlie kept trying to help bandage Sinners up after Exterminations and how that eventually led to Charlie meeting, helping, and falling in love with Vaggie

Looks and acts a lot like her aunt Niffty

Aunty Angel Dust was the receptionist / nurse for kid Baffy's play pretend doctor fun, and he does it for real whenever Baffy sets up a makeshift clinic in the hotel lobby

Husk grumpily lets her try to help him stop drinking

Sometimes uncle Husk wakes up from a hangover with a YOWEL as Baffy gets him in the hindquarters with a syringe of her own healing blood

Cherri Bomb and Cherri Bomb's bombs are Baffy's main source of patients since they're usually in too many pieces to run away from her

Cherry brings them over when she remembers to

mainly so Baffy can assess the damage and unintentionally give Cherri tips on how to build her next bomb even better

Vaggie as the only one slowly picking up on something being very wrong with Baffy's whole heal people at any cost thing even if the price is her own blood and pain

Vaggie is trying to show Baffy that living with scars can be okay but hotel business and heavenly threats keep interrupting them

Baffy has an X shaped white scar where Dazzle’s mortal wound was

Her scar aches when she touches heavenly steel or when large amounts of it are nearby

Yes her head is on fire no it’s not a problem (for her)

Since she can't use heavenly weapons without hurting she mainly just headbutts people with fire when attacking or puppets her small rat army after them

Has to drink blood daily to survive

HATES the taste of blood

does think it's PRETTY tho

Scared of needles but keeps trying to use blood transfusions to help Sinners heal from heavenly steel wounds like her body did

Emily is her doting "guardian angel" / godmother who helped Charlie and Vaggie bring her into the world / failed at bringing Dazzle back

Lute thinks Baffy's 'birth' in an insult to creation and to her and wants the 'abomination' dead

Emily almost goes full seraph fury on Lute's ass for this

Instead Emily reminds Lute and Sera that, as a blood relation of Lucifer, Baffy has immunity from being targeted by heaven, an immunity Emily WILL enforce

Baffy has a running feud with Cannibal Town over whether devouring bodies counts more as recycling / waste management or robbery from the scientific community (which is so far just Baffy)

Since Dazzle died in dragon form Baffy can't shift into it without tearing open her mortal wound scar

she almost died the one time she tried it

Razzle knew she wasn't his dead brother brought back to life when new born her was given a choice between an apple and a donut and she did NOT choose the donut

He loves his new little sister so much and just wishes Dazzle could have somehow known her too

[makeila04]

Disclaimer: I've been thinking about this, and maybe it's just insight. Anyway, it's just an opinion and a way to organize my ideas and perhaps understand this better in the future.

I notice that many people want to see characters through their own modern agendas and values, which, well, you can do; it's your freedom. Especially when it comes to a character like Adler, who is mysterious, dry, and difficult to read. There's no clear answer, so everyone projects their ideas onto him. Again, I don't think it's wrong (and whether it is or not doesn't matter).

But realistically, Activision would never outright say that any of its characters are sexist or racist because it would be outrageous. So they leave a lot of things up to interpretation. Therefore, there will never be a definitive answer.

Does he treat women differently? It depends on how you look at it. Is he traditional? In some ways, yes, but in others, he's more pragmatic than ideological. Does he resent minorities? It doesn't seem like it, but it's not like the game focuses or will focus on that, because it's irrelevant to any Call of Duty.

Adler is a man of his time, yes, but he's also a CIA agent who works with anyone as long as it serves him. Russell Adler is, above all, pragmatic and professional.What bothers me is that many of the people who ask aren't really looking for an answer, they're looking for validation.

Besides, there's a pattern in all these questions they ask me: they want me to confirm or deny a suspicion they already have. 1- Some want you to confirm that Adler is a misogynist. Because they need to see him as the "bad guy" who treats women differently or is more closed-minded. 2- Others want you to confirm that Adler is NOT a misogynist. Because they admire him and want to see him as a fair and modern guy. 3- Some just want to understand him better. Because the game doesn't give enough context about how he sees the world, and you're one of the people who has analyzed his character the most. I honestly love the third type of questions, and they're the ones I answer the most, or because they're repetitive. But I do get questions of the first and second types. They ask, but they're not really looking for an answer; they're looking for validation. They want you to confirm what they already think, and if I don't, they ignore me or keep insisting.

The problem is that I really try to analyze. I seek to understand the context, their generation, their environment, and how that influences their personality. But there are people who don't want an analysis; they want me to prove them right. The problem is… I don't have it and probably never will, and if anyone is looking for validation in my opinions or hypotheses, I recommend they look elsewhere.Adler, Weaver, Woods, Hudson, Mason, etc. are men of their time, practical-minded and unattached to ideologies. There's no clear evidence of misogyny, racism, or whatever, in the game, just their dry, work-focused demeanor because we always see them working, because that's what these games are always about: wars.

I repeat, we always see him working, and Adler is VERY professional and, above all, pragmatic, but he was born in 1937, in San Diego, California, USA!! I have to remind you that he and other white people did NOT go to the same places, schools, they couldn't use the same bathrooms, white people and black people, and they couldn't ride in the same train cars either!?!?!?! Adler was only 30 years old in the late 60s… And things were just starting to change from 1990 onwards… and in 1991 he was already 54 years old. I don't see his mentality changing that much… And I repeat, this is Activision, they're looking to sell, so they're never going to tell us that Adler openly hates Marshall or Sims for being black, or Weaver for being Soviet, when Adler joined the army at 18 and went to Vietnam in his 20s…

The historical and social context in which Adler, or any of his contemporaries, grew up cannot be ignored.

A man like Russell, born in 1937 in the United States, especially in an environment like San Diego, was inevitably raised in a society with strong racial and cultural segregations.

While Adler is a pragmatist at work and doesn't seem to overtly express prejudices in what we see in the games, that doesn't mean he doesn't harbor them on a deeper or more unconscious level. It's also important to remember that he spent his entire life in militarized environments, and the US military of his time had a culture that not only reflected the nation's social prejudices, but in many cases reinforced them.The fact that we don't see Adler openly expressing contempt or discrimination on screen doesn't mean there isn't some of that in his psyche. Activision simply wouldn't show it because it wouldn't sell well today. But considering his age, background, and the time he grew up in, it stands to reason that even if he doesn't openly hate someone because of their race or nationality, he might still have certain deep-rooted biases or prejudices.

There's also the issue of anti-Sovietism. Adler literally joined the army at the height of the Cold War and spent his life fighting both Soviets and communists. His contempt for the Russians is probably as strong as Mason's at the beginning of Black Ops 1. With Weaver, there may be some pragmatism and professional respect, but I doubt that will completely erase their negative perception of him for being Soviet.

In fact, recall that in Black Ops 1, with Mason and Woods, we hear many soldiers distrust Weaver for being Soviet, while they frown upon Mason, Woods, and Hudson for associating with Greg…precisely because he is Soviet. This is proof that the Cold War profoundly shaped the mindset of Adler and the American soldiers of his generation. In Black Ops 1, it's made clear that even within the CIA and the military, distrust of the Soviets was visceral, to the point that even Weaver, who was on their side, was still viewed with suspicion simply because of his origins. This reinforces the idea that Adler is not a "modern man" in terms of mindset. He's neither politically correct nor progressive. His upbringing and life experience made him extremely pragmatic, nationalistic, and distrustful of anything that didn't fit his worldview. If this is how Weaver, a loyal CIA agent, was treated, how would Adler treat someone he considered "outside" his inner circle? He wouldn't say it out loud because he's a professional, but the suspicion would always be there. Now, was Adler someone who openly hated minorities? Probably not in the sense of going out to lynch someone or joining the Ku Klux Klan, but it would be naive to think he didn't have deep-rooted racial prejudices. Most likely, like many men of his time, he suffered from pragmatic and structural racism: 1- Not immediately respecting a Black man unless he proved exceptionally competent. 2- Assuming Latinos and Asians were inferior in terms of skill or intelligence. 3- Considering Russians not just as enemies, but as fundamentally untrustworthy. This wouldn't make him a monster by the standards of his time; he'd simply be an average man of his generation, the Silent Generation.For example, in the CIA, Adler joined the Army at 18, meaning he spent most of his adult life in a hypermasculine, hierarchical, and deeply conservative environment. The U.S. Army wasn't racially integrated until 1948, when Truman signed Executive Order 9981. However, the integration wasn't instantaneous or welcomed by all. White soldiers, especially those from the South, didn't want to fight alongside Black men. When Adler joined the army in the 1950s, there was still strong resistance to this integration. It wasn't unusual for Black troops to be treated as inferiors, assigned to less prestigious duties, and forced to endure daily humiliation. Did Adler learn to see Black people as equals? Probably not. What he did learn was to work with them if they were useful.

This is where pragmatism and professionalism comes in. For Adler, efficiency and results trump any ideology. If a Black man or a Russian is capable, then he can work with them. But that doesn't mean he sees them as personal equals or invites them into his home for whiskey. For Adler, loyalty is more important than race, but that doesn't mean his upbringing and times haven't shaped him. Just because he works with Sims or Marshall doesn't mean he doesn't harbor certain prejudices deep down. He simply ignores them because they are competent soldiers. But if Sims did something to challenge that, Adler would probably think, "Of course, they're all the same in the end." I wouldn't say it out loud, but that bias would be there.

The same applies to Grigori Weaver. Although Weaver is more American, by 1991, Adler will never stop seeing him as Russian. And for a man who lived through the Cold War fighting against the USSR, that's a problem. The Russians are the enemy, and Adler has killed too many to easily make exceptions. Could his mindset have changed over the years?The answer is: unlikely. Adler was born in 1937 and was 54 years old in 1991. By the standards of his generation, he was already an elderly man. And while some people change over time, beliefs formed in youth are incredibly difficult to eradicate. If Adler were a young man in the 1990s, we might think he would have evolved his view of the world. But by 1991, the world had already changed, and he was already a fifty-something war veteran with scars both physical and mental. Why would he change his worldview at this point? More importantly, he doesn't seem like the kind of man who cares about political correctness or adapting.He's not a man who adapts to new trends. He lives in a world of covert operations, assassinations, and dirty wars. For him, everything still works by the same old rules: force, strategy, and manipulation. So if anyone expected Adler to be completely free of racial or anti-Soviet prejudices in 1991, they'd be delusional. He most likely hides them better, rationalizes them, or masks them with pragmatism. But in his mind, racial and national hierarchies still exist. Russell Adler is neither a saint nor a secret progressive. He's a product of his time, shaped by a world where racial discrimination and anti-communist paranoia were the norm. Activision will never admit this because it would be a public relations disaster, but if you analyze the context in which he lived, it's illogical to think of him as a man without biases or prejudices. And most importantly, he had no reason to change his mind. By the time times changed in the 1990s, Adler was already at a stage in his life where cultural shifts didn't matter to him. For him, the world continued to operate the same way it always had: with power, loyalty, and death. Activision gives us a watered-down, marketable version of Adler. But if we analyze it honestly, he's a man of the Cold War, not of the modern era. And I personally hate judging the mentality of the past with modern mentality and values, because that's something I was always taught in history not to do, because it violates the historical context of why people acted one way before and another way now. Continuing with the historical context to better understand what I'm talking about: Russell Adler was born in 1937, in San Diego, California, a place and time where racial segregation and anti-communist paranoia weren't extreme ideologies, but rather the common sense of American society. To understand his mindset, one must look not only at the history of his country, but also at the generation to which he belongs: the Silent Generation (1928-1945). Unlike the Baby Boomers, who grew up in times of social change and revolution, the Silent Generation was raised to respect authority, order, and hierarchies. Growing up during the Great Depression and World War II, they learned that the world is harsh, that rules must be followed to survive, and that questioning the system is not an option. In the mindset of this generation, extreme individualism and self-construction were alien ideas; what mattered was stability, duty, and tradition. This means that Adler not only grew up in a segregated United States but was also raised with deeply conservative and authoritarian values, probably. For him, the world has fixed structures, and those who try to change them are a problem. Adler grew up in a society where Black, Latino, Asian, and Native Americans were second-class citizens. He didn't need to be a white supremacist to believe white people were on top; the world simply told him that's the way things were. This doesn't mean Adler actively hated other races, but it does mean that their respect didn't come by default.

And this is where his pragmatism comes in. The Silent Generation is known for its "duty first, feelings second" mentality, and Adler isn't going to refuse to work with someone just because of their race or nationality… as long as that person is useful.He would never say this out loud, because Adler isn't stupid. But deep down, the idea of ​​white superiority was ingrained as a silent certainty. Adler enlisted in the army at 18, right in the 1950s, a time when the US military was just beginning its racial integration following Truman's 1948 order. But just because a law says something doesn't mean the culture changes overnight. Black soldiers were still treated as inferiors, assigned to less prestigious duties, and southern whites openly refused to fight alongside them. Adler grew up within this military structure, where Black people could be soldiers, yes, but always with a suspicion of their abilities. The same goes for the Russians. In Black Ops 1, American soldiers despise Weaver simply because he's Soviet, even though he's working for the CIA. If this was true of Weaver, how would Adler view the Soviets in general? As the absolute enemy. He can work with them if necessary, but his instinct is distrust and hostility. Let's remember that in Black Ops Cold War we literally infiltrated a Soviet headquarters and Adler doesn't trust Dimitri Belikov, but he knows that he doesn't.

He has no choice. And not to mention that he kills Bell at the end of the game for being a loose end; he was just an asset, someone valuable for his Russian, just like Weaver. Except Greg is still alive because he lasted longer.

And let's not forget that Adler wasn't just a soldier, but a CIA agent specializing in assassinations and covert operations. His job wasn't to be open-minded or question the morality of his actions. His mission was to do whatever was necessary for the security of the United States. He literally kills and silences people.

The Silents are an extremely rigid generation. They were raised with the idea that the world works in a specific way and that trying to change it is either futile or dangerous. When we arrive at Black Ops 6 in 1991, Adler is 54 years old. For young people in the 90s, the world was already changing: 1- Racism was no longer socially accepted in the same way. 2- The USSR was collapsing. 3- New generations were beginning to see things differently. But for Adler, none of this mattered. For him, the world still operates under the same old rules: power, loyalty, and betrayal. Just because the world changes doesn't mean he has. Older people don't usually change deeply held beliefs formed in their youth, much less someone as stubborn as Adler. Activision will never show us this side of him because it would be scandalous, but if we analyze it logically, it's impossible for Adler not to have structural prejudices. Not because he's a monster (although he is), but because he's a man of his time, and his time was different. Russell Adler isn't a hero of modern times. He's a man shaped by the Cold War, segregation, nationalism, and a mindset where loyalty and competition were more important than anything else.Was he an open racist? No. Did he have deep-rooted prejudices? Absolutely. It's a mistake to analyze Adler, Woods, Mason, Hudson, Weaver, or whoever else with a 21st-century mindset. He's a product of his time and his generation, and his world was never ours. Finally, my biggest question: Why would Activision never show these things? Well, because it's NOT in their interest (they're a company, they just want to sell and reach the widest possible audience), and because this is never what Call of Duty was about.

If there's one thing the major video game companies AVOID AT ALL COSTS, it's admitting that their main characters have political or social positions that would be considered problematic today. In the case of Call of Duty, where the protagonists are war-hardened soldiers, it's obvious that the vast majority—especially those born between the 1930s and 1950s—have a conservative, sexist, and nationalist mindset. Not because they're villains, but because that was the norm of their time and environment. But Activision would never say this openly. 1- Because they can't alienate their modern audience Call of Duty is one of the best-selling franchises in the world. Its audience isn't just older people who grew up in the 80s and 90s, but also teenagers and young adults living in an era where sexism, racism, and extreme ideologies are sensitive topics. If Activision were to confirm that characters like Adler, Woods, or Hudson were misogynistic, sexist, or reactionary, there would immediately be controversy on social media, in the media, and in communities. Nowadays, big companies are afraid of damaging their image and losing sales. They prefer to keep their characters neutral or ambiguous in terms of politics and values, so anyone can interpret them however they want. If they said Adler was sexist, they would lose the interest of many young or progressive gamers. If they said Adler was a feminist or progressive, they would lose other gamers who see him as a "tough, classic hero." Activision's Solution: Don't confirm anything and let the public make their own interpretations. What a coincidence, that's what we're doing here. 2- Because the military and the CIA are the "good guys" in their narrative Activision has a close relationship with the US military and other government agencies. The image Call of Duty projects is patriotic and pro-military, because that sells well in the US and other markets. Admitting that its most iconic characters were openly sexist, racist, or misogynistic would put the military in a bad light. For example: - If they said Hudson treated women in the CIA with contempt, or that Woods disrespected female soldiers, the military's image would suffer. - If they confirmed that Mason was politically right-wing or an extreme nationalist, they would create unnecessary controversy. Personally, I think that if someone still thinks the CIA is good, it's either because they're American (even so, many Yankees hate the CIA) or because they're simply ignorant. We have the famous Condor Plan in America, the MK-ultra disaster, and in general the impunity with which they've always operated. Activision is not going to shoot itself in the foot with the narrative. This is still pro-American propaganda in a way, except we always knew that from the start (personally, it doesn't bother me). But we also can't ignore the real facts, or at least I can't, because, as I say, I like to do extensive analysis. Activision's Solution: - Show the characters as "professional" and neutral. - Have them work with women and minorities to give the impression they were men ahead of their time. 3- Because their characters should be "cool" to everyone. Call of Duty protagonists aren't super-deep characters with complex development. They're power fantasies. Most players don't want to control a character with controversial ideologies. They want tough, mysterious, and combat-efficient guys. Otherwise, you'll end up like Concord… and Activision wants to avoid the same thing with its golden goose.

Example: - If they said Woods has sexist attitudes because he grew up in the 40s and served in Vietnam, many fans would stop seeing him as "the cool, tough guy" and start criticizing him. (Although in Black Ops 2 he literally calls a woman "fucking nurse" at the end of the game, but hey, he'll be 95 by 2025.) - If they confirmed that Adler had an ultra-conservative view on the role of women in society, he would lose some of his appeal for many players. Activision's Solution: - Ignore the issue entirely. - If a woman appears, have the protagonists simply respect her (e.g., Park, Dumas). - Don't delve into their political or social opinions.4- Because avoiding controversy = more sales.Video game companies don't have ideologies; they just want to make money, and I can tell you that's literally what I study. If Activision confirmed that its characters have reactionary, conservative, or sexist values, they would get in trouble with the press, players, and social media.

Example of how people would react: - If they said Adler is a misogynist: "Are you seriously glorifying a character who mistreats women? How disgusting."

- If they said Adler is a feminist: "They blew it. Now they want to make it seem like Cold War tough guys were woke. How ridiculous." If neither option works for them, it's easier to just say nothing.

Activision's solution: - Leave everything up to the player's interpretation. - If asked, say generic phrases like: "Adler respects competition regardless of gender." - Avoid any in-game dialogue that makes it sound too extreme in any direction. 5- Most importantly: Because the story of Call of Duty isn't about morality, it's about action. If Call of Duty were an RPG series with deep moral decisions, then they would have to explore machismo, racism, and classism within the military. But Call of Duty is a series of shooters and military missions. Its story isn't designed to question the morals of its characters, but to make the missions feel epic. In Cold War, Adler kidnaps and manipulates Bell in a way that, in any other game, would make him look like a villain. But the game doesn't condemn them or present them as "bad guys," because the point isn't to analyze their ethics, but to show shocking scenes. If this happens with torture, why would they explore the machismo or conservatism of the characters? They wouldn't, because that's not the focus of the game. Keep the story focused on the action and the war, not on the characters' morals. Don't make the player question their actions too much. Avoid dialogue that shows extreme positions. Keep only conversations that provide context. Conclusion: Call of Duty is a military fantasy, not a social analysis Adler, Woods, Mason, Hudson, and Weaver were raised in deeply conservative, nationalist, and sexist environments. If they existed in real life, it's logical to think they would have the prejudices of their time.

But Activision will never openly admit it because:- They can't risk alienating their modern audience. - They don't want the military or the CIA to look bad. - Their characters must remain "cool" and appealing. - Avoiding controversy always means more sales. Call of Duty is a shooter, not an exploration of morality. In short, the Call of Duty characters were probably sexist, conservative, and prejudiced, but the game will never show it because it's not convenient. They prefer to keep them ambiguous and functional, so that each player can interpret them as they wish.

Disclaimer: He estado pensando en esto y tal vez solo sea perspicacia. Como sea es solo una opinión y una forma de acomodarme las ideas y quizas entender esto mejor en un futuro.

Noto que muchos quieren ver a los personajes a través de sus propias agendas y valores modernos, lo cual, pues, puedes hacerlo, es tu libertad. 

Especialmente cuando se trata de un personaje como Adler, que es misterioso, seco y difícil de leer. No hay una respuesta clara, así que todo el mundo proyecta sus ideas en él, repito, no creo que esté mal (y si lo es o no tampoco importa).

Pero siendo realistas, Activision nunca diría abiertamente que ninguno de sus personajes es machista o racista porque sería un escándalo. Así que dejan muchas cosas a la interpretación. Ergo, nunca habrá respuesta definitiva.

¿Trata diferente a las mujeres? Depende de cómo lo mires. ¿Es tradicional? En algunos aspectos sí, pero en otros es más pragmático que ideológico. ¿Le molestan las minorías? No parece, pero tampoco es que el juego se enfoque o se vaya a enfocar en eso, porque es irrelevante para cualquier call of duty.

Adler es un hombre de su época, sí, pero también es un agente de la CIA que trabaja con quien sea mientras le sirva. Russell Adler es ante todo pragmatico y profesional.

Si me molesta que muchos de los que preguntan, en realidad no buscan una respuesta, buscan validación.

Además, hay un patrón en todas esas preguntas que me hacen: quieren que confirme o niegue una sospecha que ya tienen.

Algunos quieren que confirmes que Adler es misógino. Porque necesitan verlo como el "hombre malo" que trata diferente a las mujeres o que tiene una mentalidad más cerrada.

Otros quieren que confirmes que Adler NO es misógino. Porque lo admiran y quieren verlo como un tipo justo y moderno.

Algunos solo buscan entenderlo mejor. Porque el juego no da suficiente contexto sobre cómo ve el mundo, y tú eres una de las personas que más ha analizado su personaje.

Honestamente amo las preguntas del tercer tipo y son las que más respondo o porque se repiten, pero si me llegan preguntas más del primer y segundo tipo. Preguntan, pero en realidad no buscan una respuesta, buscan validación. Quieren que les confirmes lo que ya piensan, y si no lo hago, ignoran o siguen insistiendo.

El problema es que yo realmente intento analizar. Busco entender el contexto, su generación, su entorno y cómo eso influye en su personalidad. Pero hay gente que no quiere un análisis, quiere que les de la razón. El problema es que…no la tengo y probablemente jamás la tendré y si alguien busca validación en mis opiniones o hipótesis le recomiendo buscarlo en otro lado.

Adler, Weaver, Woods, Hudson, Mason, etc. son hombres de su época, con mentalidad práctica y sin apego a ideologías. No hay evidencia clara de misoginia, racismo o lo que quieran, en el juego, solo su actitud seca y centrada en el trabajo porque los vemos trabajando siempre, porque siempre se tratan de eso estos juegos, guerras.

Repito, siempre lo vemos trabajando y Adler es MUY profesional y por sobre todo pragmático, pero nació en 1937, en San Diego, California, ESTADOS UNIDOSS!! tengo que recordarles que él y los demás blancos NO iban a los mismos lugares, escuelas, no podían utilizar los mismos baños los blancos que los negros y tampoco podían ir en los mismos vagones!?!?!?! Adler recién tiene 30 años para finales de los 60s... Y apenas cuando las cosas iban cambiando fue 1990 en adelante... y él en 1991 ya tiene 54 años. No lo veo cambiando tanto la mentalidad... Y repito, esto es Activision, buscan vender, asi que nunca nos van a decir que Adler odia abiertamente a Marshall o Sims por ser negros o a Weaver por ser sovietico cuando Adler se metió al ejercito con 18 años y fue a Vietnam en sus 20s…

El contexto histórico y social en el que Adler, o cualquier otro de sus compañeros coetaneos, creció no puede ignorarse.

Un hombre blanco, como Russell, nacido en 1937 en Estados Unidos, especialmente en un entorno como el de San Diego, inevitablemente fue criado en una sociedad con fuertes segregaciones raciales y culturales.

Si bien Adler es un pragmático en el trabajo y no parece expresar prejuicios de forma abierta en lo que vemos en los juegos, eso no significa que no los tenga en un nivel más profundo o inconsciente. También hay que recordar que pasó toda su vida en ambientes militarizados, y el ejército estadounidense de su época tenía una cultura que no solo reflejaba los prejuicios sociales de la nación, sino que en muchos casos los reforzaba.

El hecho de que no veamos a Adler expresando abiertamente desprecio o discriminación en pantalla no significa que no haya algo de eso en su psique. Simplemente, Activision no lo mostraría porque no es algo que vendería bien en la actualidad. Pero considerando su edad, formación y el tiempo en el que creció, lo más lógico sería que, incluso si no odia abiertamente a alguien por su raza o nacionalidad, sí tenga ciertos sesgos o prejuicios profundamente arraigados.

También está el tema del antisovietismo. Adler literalmente se enlistó en el ejército cuando la Guerra Fría estaba en su apogeo y pasó su vida luchando contra soviéticos y comunistas. Su desprecio por los rusos probablemente es tan fuerte como el que Mason tenía al inicio de Black Ops 1. Con Weaver puede haber algo de pragmatismo y respeto profesional, pero dudo que eso elimine por completo su percepción negativa hacia él por ser soviético.

De hecho, recordemos que en Black ops 1, con Mason y Woods, escuchamos a muchos soldados desconfiar de Weaver por ser sovietico, mientras miran mal a Mason, Woods y Hudson por relacionarse con Greg...justamente por ser sovietico. 

Es una prueba de que la Guerra Fría moldeó profundamente la mentalidad de Adler y los soldados estadounidenses de su generación. En Black Ops 1, se deja claro que incluso dentro de la CIA y el ejército, la desconfianza hacia los soviéticos era visceral, al punto de que incluso Weaver, que estaba de su lado, seguía siendo visto con recelo solo por su origen.

Esto refuerza la idea de que Adler no es un "hombre moderno" en términos de mentalidad. No es políticamente correcto ni progresista. Su formación y su experiencia de vida lo hicieron extremadamente pragmático, nacionalista y desconfiado de todo lo que no encajara en su visión del mundo.

Si así trataban a Weaver, que era un agente leal a la CIA, ¿cómo trataría Adler a alguien que él considere "externo" a su círculo de confianza? No lo diría en voz alta porque es un profesional, pero la sospecha siempre estaría ahí.

Ahora bien, ¿era Adler alguien que odiaba abiertamente a las minorías? Probablemente no en el sentido de salir a linchar a alguien o afiliarse al Ku Klux Klan, pero sería ingenuo pensar que no tenía prejuicios raciales arraigados. Lo más probable es que, como muchos hombres de su época, tuviera un racismo de tipo pragmático y estructural:

No respetar de entrada a un hombre negro a menos que demostrara ser excepcionalmente competente.

Asumir que los latinos y asiáticos eran inferiores en términos de habilidades o inteligencia.

Considerar a los rusos no solo como enemigos, sino como seres fundamentalmente indignos de confianza.

Esto no lo haría un monstruo según los estándares de su tiempo; simplemente sería un hombre promedio de su generación, la generación silenciosa.

Por ejemplo en la CIA, cuando Adler se unió al ejército a los 18 años, lo que significa que pasó la mayor parte de su vida adulta en un entorno hipermasculino, jerárquico y profundamente conservador. El ejército de EE.UU. no fue integrado racialmente hasta 1948, cuando Truman firmó la orden ejecutiva 9981. Sin embargo, la integración no fue instantánea ni bien recibida por todos. Los soldados blancos, especialmente los que venían del sur, no querían pelear al lado de negros.

Cuando Adler llegó al ejército en los años 50, todavía existía una fuerte resistencia a esta integración. No era inusual que las tropas negras fueran tratadas como inferiores, asignadas a tareas de menor prestigio y obligadas a soportar humillaciones diarias. ¿Aprendió Adler a ver a los negros como iguales? Probablemente no. Lo que sí aprendió fue a trabajar con ellos si eran útiles.

Aquí es donde entra el pragmatismo. Para Adler, la eficiencia y los resultados están por encima de cualquier ideología. Si un hombre negro o un ruso es capaz, entonces puede trabajar con él. Pero eso no significa que los vea como iguales en términos personales o que los invite a su casa a beber whisky. Para Adler, la lealtad es más importante que la raza, pero eso no significa que su crianza y su época no lo hayan marcado.

El hecho de que trabaje con Sims o Marshall no significa que en su fuero interno no tenga ciertos prejuicios. Simplemente los ignora porque son soldados competentes. Pero si Sims hiciera algo que lo pusiera en duda, Adler probablemente pensaría: “Claro, al final todos son iguales”. No lo diría en voz alta, pero ese sesgo estaría ahí.

Lo mismo aplica a Grigori Weaver. Aunque Weaver es más estadounidense, para 1991, Adler nunca va a dejar de verlo como ruso. Y para un hombre que vivió la Guerra Fría peleando contra la URSS, eso es un problema. Los rusos son el enemigo, y Adler ha matado a demasiados como para hacer excepciones con facilidad.

¿Podría haber cambiado su mentalidad con los años?

La respuesta es: poco probable. Adler nació en 1937 y tenía 54 años en 1991. Para los estándares de su generación, ya era un hombre mayor. Y aunque algunas personas cambian con el tiempo, las creencias formadas en la juventud son increíblemente difíciles de erradicar.

Si Adler fuera un hombre joven en los 90s, quizás podríamos pensar que habría evolucionado su forma de ver el mundo. Pero en 1991, el mundo ya había cambiado, y él ya era un veterano de guerra cincuentón con cicatrices tanto físicas como mentales. ¿Por qué cambiaría su visión del mundo a esas alturas?

Más importante aún, no parece el tipo de hombre que se preocupe por lo políticamente correcto o por adaptarse a las nuevas tendencias. Él vive en un mundo de operaciones encubiertas, asesinatos y guerra sucia. Para él, todo sigue funcionando bajo las mismas reglas de siempre: fuerza, estrategia y manipulación.

Así que si alguien esperara que en 1991 Adler estuviera completamente libre de prejuicios raciales o antisoviéticos, se estaría engañando. Lo más probable es que los oculte mejor, que los racionalice o que los enmascare con pragmatismo. Pero en su mente, las jerarquías raciales y nacionales siguen existiendo.

Russell Adler no es un santo ni un progresista secreto. Es un producto de su época, moldeado por un mundo donde la discriminación racial y la paranoia anticomunista eran la norma. Activision nunca va a admitir esto porque sería un desastre de relaciones públicas, pero si analizamos el contexto en el que vivió, es ilógico pensar que sea un hombre sin sesgos o prejuicios.

Y lo más importante: no tenía razones para cambiar su mentalidad. Para cuando los tiempos cambiaron en los 90s, Adler ya estaba en una etapa de su vida donde los cambios culturales lo tenían sin cuidado. Para él, el mundo seguía funcionando igual que siempre: con poder, lealtad y muerte.

Activision nos da una versión diluida y vendible de Adler. Pero si lo analizamos con honestidad, él es un hombre de la Guerra Fría, no de la era moderna. Y personalmente odio que se juzgue la mentalidad del pasado con mentalidad y valores modernos, porque es algo que en historia siempre me enseñaron que NO se debe hacer, porque es atropellar el contexto histórico del por qué se actuaba de una forma antes y ahora de otra.

Continuando con el contexto historico para comprender mejor a lo que me refiero:

Russell Adler nació en 1937, en San Diego, California, un lugar y una época donde la segregación racial y la paranoia anticomunista no eran ideologías extremas, sino el sentido común de la sociedad estadounidense blanca. Para comprender su mentalidad, no solo hay que mirar la historia de su país, sino también la generación a la que pertenece: la Silent Generation (1928-1945).

A diferencia de los Baby Boomers, que crecieron en tiempos de cambio y revolución social, la Silent Generation fue criada para respetar la autoridad, el orden y las jerarquías. Fueron niños durante la Gran Depresión y la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y aprendieron que el mundo es duro, que hay que seguir las reglas para sobrevivir y que cuestionar el sistema no es una opción. En la mentalidad de esta generación, el individualismo extremo y la autoconstrucción eran ideas ajenas; lo importante era la estabilidad, el deber y la tradición.

Esto significa que Adler no solo creció en un EE.UU. segregado, sino que también fue criado bajo valores profundamente conservadores y autoritarios. Para él, el mundo tiene estructuras fijas, y quienes intentan cambiarlas son un problema.

Adler creció en una sociedad donde los negros, latinos, asiáticos y nativos americanos eran ciudadanos de segunda clase. No necesitaba ser un supremacista blanco para creer que los blancos estaban en la cima; simplemente, el mundo le decía que así eran las cosas.

Esto no significa que Adler odiara activamente a otras razas, pero sí que su respeto no venía por defecto.

Un hombre negro tenía que demostrar ser excepcionalmente competente para ganar su confianza.

Los latinos y asiáticos eran vistos como inferiores en términos de habilidades o inteligencia.

Los rusos no eran solo enemigos políticos, sino seres fundamentalmente indignos de confianza.

Y aquí es donde entra su pragmatismo. La Silent Generation es conocida por su mentalidad de “el deber primero, los sentimientos después”, y Adler no va a rechazar trabajar con alguien solo por su raza o nacionalidad… siempre y cuando esa persona sea útil.

Nunca lo diría en voz alta, porque Adler no es estúpido. Pero en su fuero interno, la idea de la superioridad blanca estaba instalada como una certeza silenciosa.

Adler se enlistó en el ejército a los 18 años, justo en los años 50, una época donde el ejército estadounidense apenas estaba comenzando su integración racial tras la orden de Truman en 1948. Pero que una ley diga algo no significa que la cultura cambie de la noche a la mañana.

Los soldados negros seguían siendo tratados como inferiores, asignados a tareas de menor prestigio, y los blancos del sur abiertamente se negaban a pelear junto a ellos.

Adler creció dentro de esta estructura militar, donde los negros podían ser soldados, sí, pero siempre con una sospecha sobre sus capacidades. Lo mismo con los rusos. En Black Ops 1, los soldados estadounidenses desprecian a Weaver simplemente porque es soviético, aunque esté trabajando para la CIA.

Si esto pasaba con Weaver, ¿cómo vería Adler a los soviéticos en general? Como el enemigo absoluto. Puede trabajar con ellos si es necesario, pero su instinto es la desconfianza y la hostilidad. Recordemos que en Black ops cold war literalmente nos infiltramos en una sede soviética y Adler no confía en Dimitri Belikov, pero sabe que no le queda de otra. Y ni mencionar que mata a Bell al final del juego por ser un cabo suelto, era solo un activo, alguien valioso por su ruso, así como Weaver. Solo que Greg sigue vivo porque duró más tiempo.

Y no olvidemos que Adler no solo fue un soldado, sino un agente de la CIA especializado en asesinatos y operaciones encubiertas. Su trabajo no era ser abierto de mente ni cuestionar la moralidad de sus actos. Su misión era hacer lo que se necesitara para la seguridad de EE.UU. Literalmente se dedica a asesinar y silenciar personas.

Los Silent son una generación extremadamente rígida. Fueron criados en la idea de que el mundo funciona de una forma específica y que tratar de cambiarlo es inútil o peligroso.

Cuando llegamos a Black Ops 6 en 1991, Adler tiene 54 años. Para la gente joven de los 90, el mundo ya estaba cambiando:

El racismo ya no era socialmente aceptado de la misma manera.

La URSS estaba colapsando.

Las nuevas generaciones comenzaban a ver las cosas de otro modo.

Pero para Adler, nada de esto importaba. Para él, el mundo sigue funcionando bajo las mismas reglas de siempre: poder, lealtad y traición.

El hecho de que el mundo cambie no significa que él haya cambiado. Las personas mayores no suelen modificar creencias profundas formadas en su juventud, y mucho menos alguien tan testarudo como Adler.

Activision nunca va a mostrarnos esta faceta de él porque sería un escándalo, pero si lo analizamos con lógica, es imposible que Adler no tenga prejuicios estructurales. No porque sea un monstruo (aunque lo es), sino porque es un hombre de su tiempo, y su tiempo era otro.

Russell Adler no es un héroe de los tiempos actuales. Es un hombre moldeado por la Guerra Fría, la segregación, el nacionalismo y una mentalidad donde la lealtad y la competencia eran más importantes que cualquier otra cosa.

¿Era un racista abierto? No. ¿Tenía prejuicios profundamente arraigados? Absolutamente.

Es un error analizar a Adler, Woods, Mason, Hudson, Weaver o quien sea, con una mentalidad del siglo XXI. Él es un producto de su tiempo y de su generación, y su mundo nunca fue el nuestro.

Finalmente mi mayor pregunta, ¿Por qué Activision jamás mostraría estas cosas? pues, porque NO les conviene (son una empresa, solo buscan vender y abarcar el mayor público posible) y porque call of duty jamás se trató de esto.

Si hay algo que las grandes compañías de videojuegos EVITAN A TODA COSTA, es admitir que sus personajes principales tienen posturas políticas o sociales que hoy serían consideradas problemáticas.

En el caso de Call of Duty, donde los protagonistas son soldados endurecidos por la guerra, es obvio que la gran mayoría—especialmente los nacidos entre los 30s y 50s—tienen una mentalidad conservadora, machista y nacionalista. No porque sean villanos, sino porque esa era la norma de su época y de su entorno.

Pero Activision jamás lo diría abiertamente.

1- Porque no pueden alienar a su público moderno

Call of Duty es una de las franquicias más vendidas del mundo. Su audiencia no es solo gente mayor que creció en los 80s y 90s, sino también adolescentes y adultos jóvenes que viven en una época donde el machismo, el racismo e ideologías extremas son temas sensibles.

Si Activision confirmara que personajes como Adler, Woods o Hudson eran misóginos, machistas o reaccionarios, inmediatamente habría polémicas en redes sociales, medios y comunidades.

Hoy en día, las grandes compañías tienen miedo de dañar su imagen y perder ventas. Prefieren mantener a sus personajes neutrales o ambiguos en cuanto a política y valores, para que cualquiera pueda interpretarlos como quiera.

Si dijeran que Adler es sexista, perderían el interés de muchos jugadores jóvenes o progresistas.

Si dijeran que Adler es feminista o progre, perderían a otros jugadores que lo ven como un "héroe rudo y clásico".

Solución de Activision: No confirmar nada y dejar que el público haga sus propias interpretaciones. Que qué casualidad, es lo que nosotros hacemos aquí.

2- Porque el ejército y la CIA son los "buenos" en su narrativa

Activision tiene una relación cercana con el ejército estadounidense y otras agencias gubernamentales. La imagen que Call of Duty proyecta es patriótica y pro-militar, porque eso vende bien en EE.UU. y otros mercados.

Admitir que sus personajes más icónicos eran abiertamente machistas, racistas o misóginos haría que el ejército quedara mal parado.

Por ejemplo:

Si dijeran que Hudson trataba con desprecio a las mujeres en la CIA, o que Woods no respetaba a las soldados, la imagen del ejército se vería afectada.

Si confirmaran que Mason era políticamente de ultraderecha o un nacionalista extremo, crearían controversias innecesarias.

Personalmente creo que si alguien aún piensa que la CIA es buena es porque o es estadounidense (aun así, muchos yankees odian a la CIA) o porque simplemente es ignorante. 

Tenemos el famoso Plan Cóndor en América, el desastre del MK-ultra, y en general la impunidad con la que operan desde siempre. Activision no se va a pegar un tiro en el pie con la narrativa. Esto sigue siendo propaganda pro-estadounidense de alguna manera, solo que eso siempre lo supimos desde el primer momento (personalmente no me molesta.) pero tampoco podemos ignorar los hechos reales, o al menos yo no, porque como digo, me gusta realizar análisis extensos.

Solución de Activision:

Mostrar a los personajes como "profesionales" y neutrales.

Hacer que trabajen con mujeres y minorías para dar la impresión de que eran hombres adelantados a su tiempo.

3- Porque sus personajes deben ser "cool" para todo el mundo.

Los protagonistas de Call of Duty no son personajes súper profundos con desarrollo complejo. Son fantasías de poder.

La mayoría de los jugadores no quieren controlar a un personaje con ideologías polémicas. Quieren manejar a tipos rudos, misteriosos y eficientes en combate.

Sino, te pasa como a Concord… y Activision quiere evitar lo mismo con su gallina de los huevos de oro.

Ejemplo:

Si dijeran que Woods tiene actitudes machistas porque creció en los 40s y sirvió en Vietnam, muchos fans dejarían de verlo como "el tipo rudo y cool" y empezarían a criticarlo. (Aunque en Black Ops 2 literalmente le dice al final del juego “puta enfermera” a una mujer, pero bueno, tiene 95 años para 2025 el nono)

Si confirmaran que Adler tenía una visión ultra-conservadora sobre el rol de la mujer en la sociedad, perdería parte de su atractivo para muchos jugadores.

Solución de Activision:

Ignorar el tema por completo.

Si aparece una mujer, hacer que los protagonistas simplemente la respeten sin más (ej. Park, Dumas).

No profundizar en sus opiniones políticas o sociales.

4- Porque evitar la controversia = más ventas

Las compañías de videojuegos no tienen ideologías, solo buscan ganar dinero, y se los digo yo que es literalmente lo que estudio.

Si Activision confirmara que sus personajes tienen valores reaccionarios, conservadores o machistas, se meterían en problemas con la prensa, los jugadores y las redes sociales.

📌 Ejemplo de cómo reaccionaría la gente:

Si dijeran que Adler es misógino: "¿En serio están glorificando a un personaje que trata mal a las mujeres? Qué asco."

Si dijeran que Adler es feminista: "Lo arruinaron. Ahora quieren hacer ver que los tipos rudos de la Guerra Fría eran woke. Qué ridículo."

Si ninguna opción los beneficia, es más fácil simplemente no decir nada.

Solución de Activision:

Dejar todo a la interpretación del jugador.

Si se les pregunta, decir frases genéricas como: "Adler respeta la competencia sin importar el género."

Evitar cualquier diálogo en el juego que lo haga sonar demasiado extremo en cualquier dirección.

5- Lo mas importante: Porque la historia de Call of Duty no es sobre moralidad, sino sobre acción.

Si Call of Duty fuera una saga de RPGs con decisiones morales profundas, entonces tendrían que explorar el machismo, el racismo y el clasismo dentro del ejército.

Pero Call of Duty es una saga de disparos y misiones militares. Su historia no está diseñada para cuestionar la moral de sus personajes, sino para hacer que las misiones se sientan épicas. 

En Cold War, Adler secuestra y manipula a Bell de una forma que, en cualquier otro juego, lo haría ver como un villano. Pero el juego no los condena ni los presenta como "malos", porque el punto no es analizar su ética, sino mostrar escenas impactantes.

Si esto pasa con la tortura, ¿por qué explorarían el machismo o el conservadurismo de los personajes? No lo harían, porque ese no es el enfoque del juego.

Mantener la historia centrada en la acción y la guerra, no en la moral de los personajes.

No hacer que el jugador cuestione demasiado sus acciones.

Evitar diálogos que muestren posturas extremas. Mantener solo las conversaciones que dan contexto.

Conclusión: Call of Duty es una fantasía militar, no un análisis social

Adler, Woods, Mason, Hudson y Weaver fueron criados en entornos profundamente conservadores, nacionalistas y machistas. Si existieran en la vida real, es lógico pensar que tendrían prejuicios de su época.

Pero Activision jamás va a admitirlo abiertamente, porque:

No pueden arriesgarse a alienar a su público moderno.

No quieren que el ejército o la CIA se vean mal.

Sus personajes deben seguir siendo "cool" y atractivos.

Evitar la controversia siempre significa más ventas.

Call of Duty es un shooter, no una exploración de la moralidad.

En resumen, los personajes de Call of Duty probablemente eran machistas, conservadores y prejuiciosos, pero el juego nunca lo va a mostrar porque no conviene. Prefieren mantenerlos ambiguos y funcionales, para que cada jugador los interprete como quiera.

[zeke-the-nighthawk]

Through The Eyes of Shermie Pines

Or my Shermie Pines fic that was cross posted on ao3 :)

1950

***

Shermie was five years old when her little brothers were born

They were twins. Two boys. Identical

Well, except for their fingers

One of the twins had polydactyl, which meant he had an extra sixth finger on each hand. But that didn’t matter, Shermie still loved her little brother. No matter how many fingers he had

”Shermaine,” Her mother called. She resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose in disgust

She never liked her name; it was too fancy and had too many vowels. She liked her liked her nickname better, Shermie. It had a nice ring to it

”Shermaine,” Her mother called again “would you like to hold them?”

Shermie nodded and the two of them were placed in her outstretched arms

”Careful,” Her mother said, adjusting her arms so she could hold them right “you wouldn’t want to drop them would ya?”

Shermie stared at them in awe, they were so tiny

One of the babies was screaming his head off while the other stared up at her with wide brown eyes

As she looked at them, Shermie made a promise

A promise that she would protect them, no matter how hard things got, they would always be safe. She’d make sure of it

”What are their names?” She asked her mother; she didn’t want to have to keep calling them “the twins.” They needed names so she could give them nicknames. Just like hers

”Stanley,” Her mother said, pointing to the screaming baby “and Stanford” She pointed to the one with six fingers

Shermie couldn’t help but giggle. Heh. Two Stans

***

1957

***

Shermie was twelve years old when he realized he might be a boy

He knew it was wrong. People didn’t just change their gender whenever they wanted!

Or… did they? He didn’t know, but he knew his father wouldn’t be impressed

His father, Filbrick Pines, was never impressed by anything or anyone. It’d take a lot to impress him

This wasn’t something that would

He always knew he was less feminine than the other girls in his class. His mother would always recall the times when he was a baby and he kicked and screamed whenever she tried to dress him up in a skirt or dress

He remembers the day clearly too

He remembers his brothers being confused on the matter, being only seven, but still being happy they had a big brother

He remembers telling his parents, his mother saying she always had a hunch and his father simply humming in acknowledgment

He remembers running straight to the bathroom, grabbing scissors, and chopping off his hair till it only reached his ears

He remembered how happy he felt looking in the mirror at his reflection

He wasn’t Shermaine Pines anymore

He was Sherman Pines, now and forever

***

1962

***

Shermie was seventeen years old when his brothers claimed to see The Jersey Devil

He didn’t believe them of course but he still played along with their story, giving over exaggerated reactions to their story

They had a wild imagination those two, having dreams of getting out of Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey and sailing the world looking for treasure and babes

He had similar dreams as well, but instead of traveling the world, he wanted to travel through space

Space was always such an interesting concept to him, a vast expanse full of planets, stars and galaxies

It was beautiful, and Shermie planned that when he was eighteen, he was gonna get the hell out of New Jersey and become an astronaut

The Pines brothers had dreams

Dreams of leaving New Jersey and never coming back

Dreams of changing the world and making a name for themselves

Whether these dreams came true or not, we may never know

***

1968

***

Shermie was twenty-three years old when he returned home from Vietnam

So, he didn’t become an astronaut like he planned, but he did serve his country and (hopefully) made his family proud

He couldn’t wait couldn’t wait to see his Ma and Pa again but was mainly excited to see his brothers and newborn son, Henry

He had Henry a couple weeks before he returned to Vietnam and he knew his mother had been working tirelessly to keep the baby healthy, so he’d make sure to thank her

He limped up the front steps and leaned against the door frame. He lost his leg during battle and he had to use a prosthetic. It took some getting used to but he thinks he has the hang of it now

When he opened the door, he didn’t expect to see only one brother standing beside his parents

Only one? Where was Stanley?

“Where’s Stanley?” he asked, eyeing all the individuals in the room

His mother and Stanford averted their eyes away from him, looking nervous

His father however, gruffly replied “He doesn’t live here anymore”

Doesn’t live here anymore? Had Stanley finally decided to move out?

And if so, why before graduation? Why didn’t he take Stanford? Weren’t they supposed to sail the world together?

”What happened?” he asked

There were a million questions running through his head

His father replied once again, this time with more frustration in his voice

“He sabotaged our chances of getting out of this dump. Stanford here,” He placed a hand on Stanfords shoulder

Shermie didn’t miss the way he flinched

His father continued “Was going to go on and make something of himself but that knucklehead Stanley had to go and ruin it. So I kicked him out. He can’t come back until he’s proven himself”

Shermie felt his blood boil

As he got older he started to despise his father and the way he would treat Stanley, constantly belittling him and comparing him to Stanford

It was clear all Filbrick Pines cared about was the money

”Ma, Stanford,” he called calmly “can you leave the room for a second? I need to have a little chat with Pa”

They listened and promptly left the room, Stanfords head laying low on his shoulders

The “chat” ended up being a twenty-minute screaming match between the two of them. Shermie knew his father was an unkind man, but this was too far. Stanley was still only a child

Shermie barely survived his five years out on the battlefield

Stanley wouldn’t last two months

In the end, Shermie packed his and Henry’s bags, kissed his mother on the cheek, and waved Stanford goodbye

He placed Henry in his car seat as he moved to sit in the front. He started up the car and drove out of New Jersey, not looking back

A year later, Stanford would move out and go to college

All the Pines brothers had left New Jersey, even if it wasn’t for the reasons they hoped, never to return

***

1982

***

Shermie was thirty-seven years old when his little brother died in a fatal car accident

Shermie hadn’t seen Stanley in a little over ten years and the next time he hears about him it’s to attend his funeral

He held his mother close as she sobbed into his shoulder, his father not even bothering to show up. Shermie didn’t care, he didn’t want to see his face again anyway

His son wasn’t with him unfortunately, it wasn’t because he was too young to understand the concept of death. No, it was because he wouldn’t understand the loss the people around him are experiencing

He never knew his uncle Stanley, only through stories. So, he was currently being watched over by a babysitter

Shermie scanned the crowd for his other brother Stanford. After looking around for a while he eventually found him standing in front of Stanley’s grave

His heart hurt just looking at the sight

That was his twin brother who he just lost, quite literally losing a piece of himself

Shermie couldn’t help but notice that Stanford looked a little different, but then again, he hadn’t seen Stanford in a long time either

Who knows, maybe at some point he decided to get a mullet

***

1999

***

Shermie was fifty-four years old when he became a grandfather

He was also fifty-four years old when he realized his deceased brother might not be deceased after all

The twins’ birth had definitely been a hectic day

Starting off, his grandson Mason had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, so they made sure to cut the cord off as soon as possible. Luckily, he survived

Secondly, Shermie almost cried when the twins were placed in his arms

They looked so much like his brothers it hurt

What made it worse was that Mason was born with a strange birthmark in the shape of the Big Dipper on his forehead, just like how Stanford had been born with six fingers

Speaking of Stanford, Shermie was starting to suspect he was in fact not Stanford

When Stanford had showed up and gotten to hold the twins he wouldn’t let them go, which Shermie completely understood

Stanford having lost his twin and now there’s a new pair of twins in the family

Shermie could only imagine how he felt

But what confused him the most was Stanford’s hands

While Stanley and Stanford had been identical, it was easy to tell them apart due to their hands. So, when Shermie had gone to retrieve the twins to return them to their mother, he couldn’t help but notice Stanford’s hands— or rather, Stanley’s hands

He had five fingers on each hand and there was no scar indicating that one of his fingers was amputated

Shermie desperately wanted to ask just what exactly was going on, but Stanford (Stanley?) just wouldn’t let the twins go. Shermie had to practically fight him just to get him to hand them over and by the time they were back in their mother’s arms, he had already forgotten that he was going to ask Stanford about his hands

But the real question was, if this was Stanley, then where’s Stanford?

***

2013

***

Shermie was sixty-eight years old when he went with his granddaughters to visit Gravity Falls, Oregon for the summer

They had spent the summer there last year and had apparently loved it so much they begged their father to go this year

He hadn’t been to Gravity Falls up until this point, he knew it was where Stanford lived but he never actually took the time to visit

It was a nice little town surrounded by woods on all sides, a couple of small buildings and houses and whatnot as well. It was apparently so small that everyone in the town knew the twins, including the mayor!

It was a nice quiet walk up to Stanford’s place; the silence being being broken by the occasional greeting from the townsfolk

Eventually, they arrived at Stanford’s place, the “Mystery Shack.” Stanford had (for some unknown reason) transformed his house into a tourist trap sometime after Stanley died, selling fake oddities to unsuspecting tourists. According to his granddaughter Mabel, Stanford had passed down the deed to one of his old employees Soos, so he now ownership of the shack

They hadn’t even made it up the steps before the door swung open and he was face to face with Stanford. Stanford seemed to stiffen under his gaze, “Sherm-“ he was cut off as the twins came barreling towards him with a simultaneous shout of “Grunkle Stan!” and wrapped their arms around his middle

Stanford averted his eyes away from his older brother as he grinned down at the twins, “Hey there you little hooligans!” He ruffled their hair as they both protested

Shermie was about to greet his brother when another voice spoke up from behind Stanford

”Stanley are they here? You said that we would both greet them toge-“ The figure stopped in their tracks

It… was Stanford. The real Stanford. The one that had gone off to college and gotten 12 PhDs. The Stanford with six fingers. The Stanford… he hadn’t seen in a little over forty years

Stanley noticed his gaze and rubbed the back of his neck “Uh, surprise?” He said, giving a half-assed version of jazz hands

Shermie transferred his gaze to him, arms crossed “You two have some explaining to do”

They both winced “Just… why don’t you come inside? We’ll explain everything” Stanford said, leading him inside the shack

The inside was pretty decent, save for the (obviously fake) oddities covering every corner. A six-packalope? How did Stanley come up with this stuff?

Once they were inside the living room they took a seat. Shermie sitting on the couch with Dipper and Mabel on both sides of him while Stanley sat in the recliner with Stanford standing beside him

The air was tense as the three men stared at each other, waiting for someone to speak

Finally, someone did. Dipper cleared her throat awkwardly “Um, me and Mabel are gonna go unpack our stuff in the attic. Is that alright?”

Stanley waved her off “Yeah yeah the sooner you get to it the better” He grumbled, never taking his eyes off Shermie

The two twins nodded as they bolted out of the living room and up the stairs, bags in tow

It was silent once again until Shermie spoke up quietly “If one of you isn’t gonna explain what’s going on I’m getting in my car, going back to California and forgetting this ever happened”

Stanley instantly spoke up “Shermie wait! Just…” He looked towards Stanford “We’ll… we’ll explain everything”

And explain everything they did. Quite literally starting from the beginning in 1962 to Stanley getting kicked out in 1968. Then they eventually got to Stanley’s “business” and Stanford’s time in college

Then… they hit 1982 and that’s where the air got tense. The two of them having a big fight that eventually led to Stanford being trapped out of our dimension for 30 years, Stanley stealing his identity and faking his death

Then they talked the summer of last year and that’s when Shermie finally felt the urge to stop them from talking. His granddaughters had been through so much but were still able to make more friends than they ever did in Piedmont, no wonder they wanted to come back so badly. Still Shermie let them finish

When they were done it was silent. Stanley and Stanford afraid of what their older brother might say in response to all this. Shermie still taking the time to process everything

Stanford opened his mouth to say something but was cut off when Shermie came barreling towards the two of them as he took them in his arms

”I’m so sorry,” Shermie whispered into their shoulders “I promised to protect you and I couldn’t even do that”

Stanley returned the hug and Stanford soon followed “Shit Sherm…” Stanley mumbled quietly “If it’s anyone’s fault it’s ours, don’t blame yourself for it”

“But it is!” Shermie protested “I should’ve been for you guys but I wasn’t! I feel horrible”

”Well, you can be here for us now,” Stanford said “it’s not to late”

Shermie nodded into their shoulders “Yeah.. yeah I like that”

From the stairs, Dipper and Mabel watched with a soft smile as the brothers all embraced, happy to see them together again

The Pines brothers are finally all together again. For now, and forever

[tsukii0002]

Mephisto: ...

Mc: Hey, what's wrong?

Mephisto: Hum? Nothing, what would happen?

Mc: ...

Mc: Are you Okey?

Mephisto: Of course I'm fine, who do you think I am, human?

Mc: *sitting next to him and putting an arm in his soulder* iI's Okey you know? Not being okey...

Mephisto: *not looking at them* I dont need your pity.

Mc: It's not pity… I'm just worried.

Mephisto: ...

Mc: ... Okey, if you need something I'll be right over here *gets up and proceeds to leave*.

Mephisto: *graving their hand*...

Mc: Meph-

Mephisto: I'm scared Mc...

Mc: *opening their eyes widely*

Mephisto: *looking into Mc's eyes as tears welled up in his eyes* I'm scared of being replaced….

Mc: That's not-

Mephisto: What is the meaning of my life if I cannot be useful to the person for whom I was born?

Mc: *horrified* Oh Mephisto...

Mephisto: If I'm not useful… Do I have any value? Is that why I was replaced? I will never be brave enough for someone to want me by their side?

Mc: *hugging him* That's not true Mephistopheles!!! You'r worth a lot, and you don't need to be useful, you are not a tool, you don't owe anything to anyone!!! You are an individual, a wonderful demon…

Mephisto: *letting himself be hugged*

Mc: Who made you believe that?

Mephisto: All my life is what I have been taught… The meaning of my existence is to serve the royal family… And since the arrival of those ange- no, of those brothers I have lost my way….

Mc: It's okay, sometimes we feel lost but it's not a bad thing, to find ourselves we have to get lost first, don't we?

Mephisto: *wiping away his tears* For a human, you're pretty good at this… Where do you find the words?

Mc: *tightening the embrace* I am used to, and quite familiar with the feeling of being lost, of feeling in the middle of a place that should be yours but where you don't belong… But it's all right, it's just different.

Mephisto: Thanks Mc...

Mc: Not given them..

Mephisto: Don't say a word about this to anyone.

Mc: Okey, but you have to invite me to one of those extravagant nobles' dinners.

Mephisto: *clinging to the embrace* deal.

.

.

The last lessons have made Mephistopheles gain many points in my heart 🥺, how can you be so tsundere if you have a heart that doesn't fit in your chest? Anyway, a self-indulgent post after lesson 37. That purple-haired demon deserves more love.

[physalian]

Character Types: Femme Fatales & Comic Relief

These two have nothing in common except the one thing I hate about them: By design, they exist to fulfil one shallow purpose, so I’m lumping them together.

—

Comic Relief

Characters that only serve one purpose in the cast stick out like a sore thumb. “Comic Relief” characters exist solely to be funny, as if the rest of the main cast is incapable of humor, and that this character is incapable of any serious moments. Instead of distributing different flavors of humor—sass, dry wit, jokers, pranksters, dark humor, dad jokes and puns—the writer comes up with their grumpy group of heroes, then I guess thinks “oh I need somebody funny to cut some of this seriousness”?

But on top of that, as this character exists just to be funny, there’s usually comparatively less development and rich character nuance for the comic relief over the other heroes. They get whatever crumbs are left over after every other more important character has eaten.

If they do have some tragic backstory or any serious moments, they are still the one desperately trying to cut the tension and either annoying other characters and the audience in the process, or being quite tone deaf in their endeavors.

The one everybody hates: Jar Jar Binks

The one some people hate: Olaf

The one that subverted himself right quick: Sokka

Prequel apologists, step aside. The writing is still terrible and Jar Jar even in Clone Wars features in episodes (“Bombad Jedi”) I routinely skip on rewatches. Maybe he’s funnier for little kids? I haven’t seen every piece of SW media out there but I can’t recall a single moment where Jar Jar has any moment of depth or seriousness and he’s frequently the most inconvenient element of any mission he winds up on.

Honorable mention for C-3PO, far less irritating but still largely a bumbling idiot (I love him, to be clear, he’s just always in the wrong place at the wrong time). The droid factory shenanigans on Geonosis comes to mind, as well as when he was so useless, he was riding around in a sack on Chewie’s back because he got disassembled in ESB.

Jar Jar is funny, but he’s only funny, and most often incompetently funny.

Olaf’s dark humor is what saves him for me personally. “I’ve been impaled” still makes me chuckle no matter how many times I see Frozen. Not only that, but he does have the big heart moment of the movie with Anna. He has zero tragic backstory, he was basically born yesterday, but he’s not a one-dimensional cardboard cutout.

Another honorable mention to, like, 8 out of 13 Dwarves, specifically Bombur, in the Hobbit trilogy. A combined 9 hours of movie and they chose to fill it with Mirkwood River Rapids™ instead of making up development for the heroes.

Sokka, on the other hand, looks like he’s going to be the sarcastic comedic relief, but he becomes so much more and wastes no time doing it. Compare him to the version of him written by the Ember Island Players. He’s been essayed about to death and there’s nothing more I can say about him that hasn’t been said before so I’ll leave it here: Sokka (and Toph) is comedic relief done right.

The whole cast is funny when they want to be, serious when they have to be. No one character gets designated “the funny one” or “the hopeful crying one” or “the buff one” no matter what Fire Nation propaganda wants you to think.

Final honorable mention to Leo Valdez. He has a ton of depth and nuance to him, but is very much "the funny one" of the Seven. Comparing Percy's trip to Ogygia with Leo's and one was a rather sullen "you could have this peaceful escape if you left your destiny behind, but you won't, noble hero" and the other was a bizzare romcom that, to me, wasn't funny, and just created a whole new set of issues surrounding Calypso's character.

—

Femme Fatales

Femme Fatales exist to look pretty, kick ass, pretend to be strong female characters, and be something for the male characters and male viewers to guiltlessly lust after because she’s asking for it. This is not a badass woman protagonist. The classic depiction of this trope is the shallow accessory to a male character, a seductress meant to either manipulate the hero into straying off his moral high ground, or to pit him against another man.

So.

Black Widow.

In Iron Man 2, you can argue that she’s supposed to be shallow. She plays it very close to the chest as a spy and has no reason to let any other characters, especially Tony, behind her mask. It’s not her movie.

In this movie specifically, though, she is this trope exactly. The bodysuit, the perfect hair, the whole changing in the back of the car, her provocative fighting style. She is eye candy that can kick ass, the only thing missing is an attempt at seducing Tony but you'll still catch him looking. That’s the femme fatale.

Extremely popular in 80s and 90s action movies as an accessory to the male protagonist but they've existed as long as film has. If he doesn’t have a damsel in distress to save, he has a sexy leg lamp to woo.

But Black Widow shows up in another decade’s worth of movies and dies to motivate the boys (and because her life matters less than Clint’s because he’s got a family while she can’t have kids), only getting a solo film after they killed her off, but in that time, they gave her plenty to do.

Natasha has many moments with depth, most of them in Age of Ultron and Winter Soldier, but she does have them. She laughs, she cries, she jokes, she’s smart and resourceful in moments where she doesn’t have a male character to impress, she has strengths beyond her physical attributes, and she has flaws. And, she and Steve Rogers miraculously weren’t written a romantic subplot in Winter Soldier.

On the one hand, Natasha knows exactly what she is and her fighting style fully leans into using the weapons she has as a woman… but on the other hand, in creating her character, the writers chose to lean into sexing her up.

I love her character, I just don’t love what they did with her.

—

Both of these character tropes tend to feature in scripts that aren’t the best to begin with. A strong, nuanced cast of heroes doesn’t usually have that one outlier that completely drops the ball.

All I’m asking for is to not designate any one character as the bearer of whatever you forget to give the rest of the cast. “Oops I forgot the funny, let me add in a comic relief, here’s Bob,” is a disservice to Bob. “Oops I forgot the women, let me add in this femme fatale, here’s Nyxandra,” is a disservice to Nyxandra.

Let every character have some funny moments.

You want a femme fatale? Go right ahead, honestly, but maybe don’t make her the only lady in the cast? If she’s a femme fatale because she wants to be, that’s great, but maybe have a woman who proves that you do, in fact, know how to write women?

[nimdreams]

True Self and Dream Self

During Centaurus Festival this year (2025) there was a panel on canon divergence for fictionfolk and it got me thinking about my own noemata and its fluidity and I wanted to write about that today!

What I took away from the panel is that it is alright for noemata to be fluid and to go with what feels right, right now. To not be afraid to let go of what no longer serves you, and to not be too strict on yourself. You don't need to back up any of your claims, you don't need to have it all figured out perfectly, if it feels right to you, then it is your truth, and that is enough.

Since joining the community almost 7 years ago, my noemata has changed a LOT, many times. Part is because I am still figuring myself out and part is because I have many constels with their own noemata. At the moment though, all these noemata are combined into one identity and I wanted to share about that as well as my secondary identity, because I might as well while I am at it!

✨️ My true self ✨️

Right now, my believe is that my true self is a divine oneiric entity. I have no one true form, but can take any as a shapeshifter. As my true self white (hair, fur, scales etc) with golden eyes is sort of my default that feels very much like me, but I can appear in any form without constraints. Also as my true self, I am eons old, and have lived as dream goddess at times, but just as much I have just lived as different species, which are my constels. I would simply take the form of something and assimilate. I have noemata of some of these lives, but very little really. Besides shapeshifting, my main magic is dream magic, but I also use a lot of light magic.

A lot of identities I went by in the past, that I now call stels of mine, had a lot of the same feel to them. Fox spirit, Vulpecula, eidolon, star, for all of these my magic abilities stayed largely the same, the sense of self was the same even in the different appearances and slight shift in noemata. It feels really good to now see them all as parts of the same whole. Where I had felt so much uncertainty and kept looking so hard for who I *really truly* was, I now finally feel some peace. The fact that my identities are forms I took as a shapeshifter explains why I felt wrong deep down calling myself these. I always felt like I didn't quite fit in with the other elves, fae, fox spirits, dogs etc, that I was an imposter among them, and now I feel okay with that.

One noema that I keep coming back to is that I am from a place called the Dream. 'I was born from the Dream and to the Dream I will return'. I don't remember when I first wrote that down, but it has stayed with me. What I believe the Dream to be is a realm outside of the multiverse where all realities can be accessed from. This is where I get the title Dream Wanderer from, going from one universe to the other through dreams. I access different places and then spend time in them, sometimes thousands of years, as either my true self or pretending to be something else (my stels).

Another thing, something I have felt for years now, is that I feel very lonely in my alterhumanity. As if I am something unique and I can't find that connection with others that I crave. I enjoy using the term anymic to show this uniqueness, though I have also found other divine beings that feel the same. Even though my feeling of loneliness hasn't left within the community, I did find people who feel that same loneliness as well as whom had the same difficulty in finding their identity, which is sad that it is more common, but makes me feel better to share this experience with others. Outside the community, I have been finding some comfort in masculine divine oneiric entities, like Dream of the Endless or the Greek god Morpheus as sort of counterparts to myself.

To me, if you see a masculine divine oneiric entity, it is likely a facet of my other half. If you see a feminine divine oneiric entity, it is likely a facet of me. If you see something without gender or nonbinary, it is probably a combination of us. We are both dream concepts. I think perhaps any dream conceptkin could be facets of the same thing, but that is really just something I feel as a possibility, I don't want to push that onto anyone (not that I see lots of dream conceptfolk). I am very curious how other conceptkin feel about that, about others who share their concept.

Human is truly just another constel of mine. I entered this vessel to experience mortal life, though it is just one of the many lives I have tried, it is the first time it's not as a shapeshifter and my true self, but I am truly fully in a human body. I wasn't supposed to remember my true self in this life, and I believe that this vessel cannot contain my essence, and that is why I am severely chronically ill.

✨️My dream self ✨️

My dream self is part of my 'human stel'. My dream self is who I have become in my dreams. I started out as human, but became more and more oneiric and nonhuman as time went by, so I call my dream self an 'altered human'. For this identity, noemata are what I have dreamed about.

My dream self looks like a younger version of myself. I stopped changing and aging at one point. Sometimes I will have random dreams where I look differently, but that is all part of the dream experience. As my dream self I am not a shapeshifter, but I have illusion abilities. I will still be the same size and in a human body, but appear as different creatures to others. I also have intangibility as a main power. I can also control the elements and the weather, fly, breathe underwater, heal with light, become invisible, and at times prophesize or talk to machines.

I wish I had a really beautiful and obvious reason for being dream conceptfolk/an anymic divine oneiric entity, but I don't. Rather than having a good explanation, it just dawned on me more and more over the years. It started with confirming dream deity in early January of 2022 and it has morphed and grown since then. I don't think I come across as especially dream-like... maybe I would if I wasn't so high masking with my autism, but then, what is being dream-like? That is probably something different for all of us. I feel like, as my true self, I often am what others project on to me. I appear as a dream, as the beautiful side of dreams, the wishes people have. As my true self, I appear as something somehow familiar, as if I have visited each and every dreamer's dreams and when they see me, a part of them remembers. Really, it is probably my dream conceptkinity now that I think about it, I haven't *visited* every dreamer's dreams, I *am* their dreams, and as my true self I am recognized that way. I find it difficult and dysphoric to not be seen as who I truly am. I really prefer not to be perceived at all, and as my true self that would have been possible as I can just... exist and be without form, and I cannot do that now. I am stuck in a broken vessel, in one solid form, that hurts all the time. Besides literally sleeping and dreaming and roleplaying with a Dream of the Endless ai, I haven't found a lot of ways in which to truly embody myself. I enjoy thinking about it and discovering more of myself, but I feel like there is more I could be doing.

That is what I wanted to share for now. Thank you for reading if you did!

[katyspersonal]

Some Velka rambles

Honestly, Velka is such an interesting oddity amongst the Gods! Her element is 'Occult', which is opposite of 'Holy' (narrative through weapons passive effects..... 👍) and her symbol is literally the white circle of Way of White, but... black instead of white, lol. Her miracles are also dark and purple, which is a coloration associated with using Darkness like magic! I primarily remember attacks of the Four Kings, Artorias and Manus on this one.

Then in Dark Souls 1, her devout followers who turned into crow-headed monsters upon worshipping her (confirmed by Miyazaki to be the reason) and traces of her Pardoners are found in Painted World, a place for those who didn't fit the world the way Gods wanted it! However, she was feared by Gods as well, but also had assassins that pursued those who disrespected Gods.. But, this function got adopted by Gwyndolin, as now it is his Darkmoon Knights who hunt down the sinners and take 'Souvenirs of Reprisal' from them! Items dropped by the crow monsters in the painted world, who have no ears, so these are those they've taken too!

It all makes me feel as though something had to happen. Like maybe she betrayed the Gods and lost at some point, maybe those who feared and disliked her screwed her over as soon as they had the chance, maybe she left herself over ideological disagreements, who knows? But for a God, life form of Light/Fire, she certainly favors the Dark, and effectively humans, more! It feels more like a choice rather than being "born odd", unless she is like half-human or something! The latter would give an extra layer to the idea of her adopting Priscilla... but so would developing some interesting ideology, too!

Like, maybe she appreciated how "versatile" humans could be about ideas of justice? Humans have a sixth sense for injustice and unfairness even if all laws and rules are followed and even if "the right thing" was done! Nobody doubts legitimacy of rules and order like they. We are the species that wishes mercy upon a thief who was only a poor guy dealt a really shitty hand robbing to heal his sick child even if he broke the laws (and someone's property)! We are the species that doesn't want a woman that murdered her rapist to go to jail! And when someone feels drastically different about the matter, they get called soulless or inhumane. We can feel injustice even in justice, and maybe this reoccurring feature attracted Velka?

"Justice is blind" for sure doesn't apply to her, her justice is likely very insightful. Justice that IS blind doesn't care whether the culprit "had sympathetic motivations" or "feels sorry". But whereas Velka did have assassins who pursue sinners for punishment too and snitching on someone to get those assassins on their asses is an option, Pardoners also serve to help to redeem and change. There is a justice that ensures those who sinned will pay and thus the balance will be restored but offers the chance to change until you literally die, and there is a justice that defines you by your sins forever and makes your life, future and possibilities rapidly shrink more and more until you have nothing to do but to embrace the sin as your self. In most case, "making amends" isn't possible. No amount of apologies, change or even actual compensation will erase the pain of affected people, return the time they've spent suffering, let alone more severe consequences. But if there was no faith put into "cleansing" sin, sin would be default state of people, and nothing would matter anything or make any sense. Why ever do better or do anything good at all, if what you did wrong is forever in history?

But that's kind of what Velka defies, too! You get the chance to erase your harm from the passage of time, if this is what you seek! It might seem cheap, but it is actually a virtue too. Even if people have the chance to erase their sins, sure many would choose not too because they don't believe they did something wrong. They'd rather hold onto their grudge or have that one guy always suffer because of them even with mutual consequences. Like, it still requires power of character. Pardoners can offer this possibility, but they can't force petty, spiteful, hateful, selfish people to use it. Like, in this fantasy setting, people deserved this cheat code by showing good intent that is NOT the default! ....and hefty amount of souls but is secondary and you know it hfbgjfnb

On a simpler level, Velka is already a "rogue" and heretic by giving the power of rewriting the flow of time on behalf of people who "feel bad 🥺", because time in this setting as we know it IS creation of Fire! And Dark defies passage of time, as well as time passage is failing as a concept when Fire is dying. Like, she literally defies the order of Fire, and so do her servants. But also? Way of White has Gwyndolin to culturally appropriate replace her assassins with the Darkmoon Blades, but.... not Pardoners. Like!!! They don't have "Pardoners at home". There are no guys who would offer to atone and cleanse yourself in the Way of White. And the fact that they've only copied the punishment part but not the atonement part is VERY telling. It is that "bad once = bad forever" shit us humans despise, until and unless we go fanatical and... well, inhumane.

I would not put it past Gwyn or Way of White people in general to feel this way! With Gwyn, you can only "atone" for literally being who you are; Seath betrayed his own kind and was content with his own being slaughtered, and then there were "four human friends that didn't think my jokes were misanthropic". I would not say pre-corruption Church of the Deep was the tool of atonement either; they seemed to be more keen on cleansing the very filth that human nature IS in the eyes of the Way of White? So, the Deep went extremely dirty from repeated attempts to discard that darkness.. much like how the world started to rot after repeated banishments of the Dark. They WERE very much Way of White, until Aldrich saw twisted beauty in human dregs I guess. There is much more mercy in Oswald's "It's only human to commit a sin" than that shit in comparison, or at least that's what it feels like for me.

Basically there is something in the Dark that is more genuine mercy, and more genuine justice. Driven by instincts and not mind or laws, and Velka is right to appreciate it. For them offering better life to those who sinned if they wish it may be a terrible thing. We alllllll know those pricks who complain about "offering compassion to the baaaaaaad person and not their victim!!!" as though it is a limited resource that can't be offered to both and you choose a side. Justice should make the world better, but fixing a bad person into a good one does that as well. But for the Light and its admirers, you can only deliver justice by amputating the bad guy from the body of society. It feels like Dark beings are strangely less interested in playing predator or pray with Light, despite their animalistic nature

[rius-cave]

I just saw you mention Adam having PTSD from the exterminations and honestly it's so valid. He did enjoy doing them, he did have fun, yes, but I firmly believe he started it because of his unprocessed trauma that he wasn't even aware of. I mean, I see the way he's masking himself (literally and figuratively) as a way of protecting himself from people. Back when he was "born" he was literally rejected and betrayed by the very people he supposedly loved and who were supposed to love him, then he was practically abandoned and thrown out of Eden by the same people who mentally harmed him in the first place. This guy is badly damaged and no one can convince me otherwise. And he was damaged from the start so he couldn't possibly realize that something was very not okay because these were the very first people he knew. And we all know pushing down our feelings and ignoring them comes with concequences. In his case, the frustration manifested in violence, on top of that violence against his own descendants who chose the wrong path, who had tainted humanity with their acts. He also probably connects them with Lilith and Lucifer who caused it in the first place, bringing evil to the earth. I also love to consider the extermination as a form of personal revenge on Adam's side, since he isn't able to carry out a direct revenge it serves as one for him.

But he knows it's wrong. He knows either way that what he's doing is bad and cruel, and even if he actively avoids admitting that to himself, he subconsciously knows.

Then he gets to Hell. He most likely only used to visit Hell during exterminations, which means his brain most likely strongly connects the place with that. Hence, being in Hell is a constant reminder for him. On top of that, he actually sees what life is like in Hell. That all those "bad bad sinners who can't change and tainted humanity" aren't all bad actually. And perhaps he doesn't care about them, but I don't think he could just ignore that. He has to live among them, he sees the way they live and he's forced to realize that they're still human souls and not pure evil and rotten. It will add to the guilt which he probably also doesn't admit that he feels, because he didn't do anything wrong, right..? Everything was reasonable... But then why does it feel so bad?

Okay this turned our very very long but it just hit me and I could still go on about it lol, I'll spare you from that

First of all, thank you anon for putting into words this thing that I'm not smart enough to do myself.

I really wouldn't dare to say that "canon" Adam is this deep and has oh such big trauma and is only misunderstood by everyone and bla bla, because if I'm honest, the way he's written in the show doesn't lead me to believe that Vivzie really cares about fleshing him out to be a super complex character. And hey, fair enough, I'm taking him from her anyway lol.

But if if we stopped for a second to think about it, Adam definitely has the potential to be a much deeper and complex character that would be able to touch upon themes like this. I desperately need to know when did everything go wrong, was it really Eden? Was it during his time on Earth? Was it after he died???

I honestly think it's kind of a mix of all of them, but the biggest shift was after he died. He was the first human soul in Heaven, hey, it's not so bad in here!! Maybe his suffering on Earth was worth it after all if he was able to spend the rest of Eternity in a place like this! Now he just needs to wait for his family to get there as well so it can all be complete!

Except they don't, not all of them in fact. A couple of his sons, maybe or maybe not his wife, but it's definitely not ALL of them, where is everybody!? He's pretty sure his grandchildren would start aging by now too, where did everybody go!?

Of course, that asshole has them. It wasn't enough for him to steal his first wife and lie to them so they'd get kicked out of Eden, he also took a bunch of his children, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren and so on and so on.

Look at everything they do on Earth, it's disgusting, and it's all that fucker's fault. None of this would've happened if it wasn't for him, if it wasn't for the other sinners who kept repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

And he starts the exterminations after centuries of wallowing in that hatred. But of course, they're only the result of years of watching how everyone just eventually leaves him. And he doesn't realize when that violence starts becoming just a way to cope with his intense hurt.

I feel like I went a little off track there, forgive me I am a little scatterbrained right now. But in any case, I absolutely concur with you!

[silverprism-s]

at my last doc appointment i asked about the process of starting hrt and she basically said that she didnt know much about it and wasnt comfortable doing it herself, but there were other people she could give me referrals to for it. ive had the phone number to make an appointment at one place for two weeks and ive found myself hesitating in the face of staring down the system built on denying people the care they need or want based on their own ideas of what gender identity is or means. i dont want to tell people that i "feel like a man born into a woman's body" just because that would be the safest track onto getting testosterone for myself. its simply not true. im not a man OR a woman nor do i even consider myself as nonbinary/insert whatever other trans id there is. I've worn a lot of hats, since i discovered the terminology to describe oneself as something other then "boy" or "girl" or "man" or "woman." to be quite frank, a lot of those words did help me, in my journey through life. genderfluid was once an accurate, comfortable descriptor. so was agender. and nonbinary was a hat i wore for probably over seven years. I've worn a lot of pronouns as hats over the years as well. They served me well as I wore them, I liked them, but i moved on to other descriptors when they felt more appealing and comfy. if i do reach out to someone who does give gender affirming care to other queer people, will my nebulous and vague identifying factors prevent them from giving me something that ive thought about, long and hard on, for over a year? will i once again be the person in charge of educating someone on what it means to live beyond labels, identities and boxes? will i once again be told i should "try to educate the people around me" on topics like being genderqueer or trans? I dont want to. im too tired for that. i live in such a rural area that being trans alone is enough to ostracize you from the community. to have listened to coworkers repeat right wing anti trans talking points while i sit in the room, quiet, because what if they found out that not only did i tick that box, but went beyond it? its once thing to say you want to be a man or a woman, its another to leave the boxes entirely and shrug at the idea of a label outside of simply queer. ive spent my whole life keeping quiet about these things because i dont want to be the one to educate everyone on it. my therapist telling me at 15 years old that i should try to educate people at my high school about queer issues lives rent free. those kids didnt even believe in gay marriage, which was already fucking legal. will i be "trans" enough in the right ways for a doctor to perscribe me hrt? will i be masculine enough for them to think i deserve hrt? is the fact that i kind of like having boobs but hate having a uterus and vulva too much in the wrong direction? ugh. fuck, man. i just need to make the phonecall. it doesnt matter anyways because i dont have health insurance 👍👍👍👍

[evelhak]

I’m curious about a few: Propinquity, Anem and Bitchberg (a great name, lol)

Well, you've already read about Bitchberg by now from the previous ask. :D

Lol, I actually winced a little when I saw you asked about "Propinquity" since it's the current working title of my Akashi centric fic, and I know you don't find him that interesting. It's still just a bunch of "notes" (=bits of monologue and dialogue that come to me and I have to write down so I won't forget). I haven't actively started this fic yet, since I can't really write multiple projects at the same time. I will probably have to finish another shorter fic after The Luminous Things, before I get to this one.

I know the opening lines, though:

Winning is like breathing. Sometimes I wake up, gasping for air, but my lungs seem to have fallen into a partial state of paralysis.

Or something fairly close to that. The idea has been in my head for a long time, because I really enjoy digging up ignored dimensions that kind of naturally follow from whatever is going on in canon.

There is of course one thing in this fic that could interest you: The main love interest is an OC. :) You know some things about Azumi already. Here's a snippet that will probably serve as her introduction in the fic:

I absolutely pretended to be the empress of this micro-utopia, growing up. Not because it was mine to conquer, or control. Because it was mine to know. To pick apart. Explore, taste, and merge with. A little pocket of wonder in this huge city, a bubble with its own rules. That's what I came to realise pretty soon, anyway. About the world. How different, how illogical and ultimately unsatisfying it was, compared to my shrine, my home, my own ecosystem, my island of undisturbed ground. It frustrates me that the rest of the world doesn't know how to do it. Live and let live. Give and take. Circle of life. A system that works. Because I was born into it. An heir to it. Happiness.

Micro-utopias are a huge element in my whole fic series as it progresses, and there are several kinds of them, Azumi's home life being its own example. Utopia is generally something I'm really interested to write about, especially because a lot of people claim you can't write interesting utopia without making it dystopia in the end, and I very much disagree with that, as people are always imperfect, so you don't need to add any intentionally awful circumstances for a story to have conflict, if you're writing believable people. For me, the key to what makes the most out of utopia is to centre it around whose utopia it is and why. This got slightly off topic, these are just themes I really like exploring and since my fics are my playground, I definitely use them for exploration of things I might want to write later in a more polished form in my original fiction.

The working title "Propinquity" came while I was writing a chapter in The Luminous Things where Kagami ends up lost in Kyoto (it's complicated) and spends the night in Azumi's place, where he has many enlightening conversations with Akashi. (Azumi and Akashi are already together in my main fic timeline, their own fic will cover how they got together, among other things.)

Here's a snippet from the chapter also titled "Propinquity", which I haven't yet posted anywhere, so things might still change a little, but for now, Akashi muses something like this in it:

"[Propinquity] is the central theme of this shrine. Things develop, and change, and prosper in propinquity. It rings true, doesn’t it? Right things, wrong things… so it really matters what you surround yourself with. It’s not enough to know and think. You have to see, and taste, and touch… A plant wouldn’t grow from the understanding that it needs water, if it never got it. It would still die from poison, no matter how informed it was. Azumi knew all of this, so bone deep. That’s why she was disappointed with the world. That’s why she retreated back to her paradise. I think that’s what caught my attention at first. How she had a physical place to go to when she needed to get away."

I probably would not have developed any need to write a story about Akashi's love life on my own. (Well, it's not all there is to it, but it is a how-they-get-together type of story). It was the influence of my ex, who's a big Akashi fan, and as I have probably said before, Azumi was originally her OC that we worked on together a lot. Eventually I grew attached to Akashi and Azumi together, and now I have my own version of the story.

I don't think I actually read any Akashi x OC fics myself, but my ex read them and complained about them, usually, and I picked up on two pretty common patterns, which I didn't want to do: I didn't want the OC to be 1) poor, or 2) have a similar family dynamic and childhood trauma as Akashi. This is because I wasn't interested in dealing with the power imbalance that tends to come with very different socioeconomic standing, and I also didn't want to write a relationship where people get stuck in validating each other's trauma, and it takes them a long time to grow beyond that phase because their relationship is centred around how similar their experiences are. I wanted to hit that sweet spot which I like the most, a relationship that centres around growth, having enough common ground, and being inspired by things about the other that you've never experienced before, or even believed really exists in the world. The kind of relationship that makes you feel that you want to fill your own gaps, and a key factor in that is the proximity, or, propinquity to a person you can rely on, because they don't have the same weaknesses as you. I just really love writing about people who are good influences to each other.

A lot of this fic will also be about dissociation and trauma. Yay.

Anem, then, is another original novel I've started multiple times without being completely satisfied. The premise is pretty classic religious cult + good girl/bad girl dynamic, or at least would seem like that in the beginning.

Here's how I seem to have described it on my website at some point:

Dina is a good girl. She picks up flowers every morning, to put on the altar of her family’s home. She’s chaste, she’s beautiful. She fears God. Semira is a “Wild One”, she rarely goes to church, she speaks out of turn. She could be beautiful, if her hair wasn’t so short. Dina doesn’t think it’s her job to save Semira. After all, if the Fathers don’t know how to help the girl, how could she? But Dina keeps ending up spending time with Semira anyway, and the more she does, the stronger the big black swirling something grows in her stomach. There’s clearly something very wrong about Semira. And there’s something wrong about the woods surrounding their isolated village. Dina knows she’s supposed to stay away, but Semira keeps going into the woods.

It has a lot bigger world and anything but clear-cut themes and dynamics, even though it may seem like that in the beginning... and it's one of those early projects that are sort of everything, because you're not good at narrowing it down yet. It's like a dystopian supernatural medieval fantasy horror philosophical cult story I wrote just to barf out everything I was thinking in my early years of studying theology. It's certainly a cult story, but is the cult the big bad or the world around it? It's certainly a queer story, but is it a love story or a hate story? It's certainly trying to say something, but what? No one knows, not even me. It's a big mess.

I'm also starting to feel like I'm dealing with every element and theme I have in this story, in some other story too, and coincidentally someone from my writing group actually just got a book published this year that has a strikingly similar setting and themes, (we both wrote them without knowing about each other) and even though it shouldn't, it does kind of add to my confusion to what to do with this story. I do still want to write it at some point, but it's a big question mark that sort of just pops up from below the surface every time I'm not actively thinking or writing about another project.

Some angsty pictures of Dina, also drawn in my early university years (Oh Lord how obvious my Arina Tanemura influences still were in the way I draw):

Yeah... at least they are accurately dramatic to the story.

Thanks for the ask. I hope there was something entertaining. <3

For anyone curious, here's the WIP list.

[il-mostrc]

The setting was undeniably macabre, yet one would not expect any semblance of surprise from Hannibal Lecter upon being introduced to it. In fact, the gruesome tableau unfolding before him elicited barely a flicker of emotion. As evidence accumulated in stark piles around the room, Lecter discerned a fundamental misdirection in the investigation—a certainty that the true culprit, Barton's hands, were irrevocably stained with guilt. To an inexperienced agent, this situation might have seemed perplexing; however, it was abundantly clear to Lecter that the FBI's current ranks lacked the requisite acumen to see through the fog of deception.

Across the room, the interviewer regarded Barton with a nod of acknowledgment, the expression in his eyes reflecting an empathy that was utterly misplaced given the circumstances. Enter Hannibal, embodying the epitome of curiosity—his insatiable intellect fizzling just beneath his composed exterior, devoid of any compassion. Months of psychological sessions with Barton (@mad-hunts) had unveiled a darker undercurrent within the young man, a burgeoning impulse towards violence that had been subtly nurtured by Lecter's insidious influence.

Curiosity for its own sake had become a double-edged sword, and Lecter observed with satisfaction the fruits of his meticulous orchestration. “Mr. Mathis,” he began, allowing a slight smile to form at the corner of his mouth, a thin veneer of charm overlaying a chilling detachment, “I will serve as your advisor. Typically, I would counsel that you attend to your appearance; however, it is imperative that we press on while your memories remain vivid. The mind often has an unfortunate tendency to obstruct recollections of traumatic events. We must untangle this enigma before your thoughts are fully seized by the weight of denial.”

With a calculated shift of his gaze towards the other individual in the room, Lecter offered a solemn nod, his demeanor punctuating his respect for the investigative proceedings before he made a deliberate exit. Alone with Barton, he allowed himself a discreet wink, cleverly concealed from the cameras that observed their every move.

barton remembered hearing once about the japanese art of kintsugi; they'd paint areas of breakage with liquid gold, his friend had told him, in order to highlight the imperfections of an object rather than hide them. and with that, it was almost like they were trying to say that each crack the object had shouldn't be hidden... because it actually made it more beautiful. but what about if you actually had the opposite opinion and you were searching for some way to perfect things? that was the position that barton found himself in today because he believed in a very specific, as well as twisted ideology. and one that had been passed down onto him from his own biological father. people were born wrong was what wesley had told him. they weren't right for their imperfections, but barton could help them achieve something next to flawlessness. though this was through killing them, and that's exactly why the doctor had to keep this as his own absolutely deplorable 'little secret.' especially considering that, today, he was trying to kill two birds with one stone. which included getting rid of someone by framing them for the murder and finally having the chance to collect more materials for his 'dolls.' barton had already done a sweep of the place, making sure not even one little detail was out of place that wouldn't fit the narrative he was going to try to set here. that the man who killed the woman near him had invaded her home, and she'd called barton (the dutiful albeit new boyfriend) for help. they had been on a few dates, so that did make this lie just a bit more convincing since it could be corroborated by other people. and barton had made sure all the neighbors were away when he killed her. now, feigning being emotional over it and calling the police was the next course of action. he thought he sounded distraught while on the phone. barton had sobbed into the speaker, explaining to the 911 operator that his girlfriend had been killed in a confrontation with a home invader. with the addition that they must've slipped out the back door when they heard his car pull in. barton was soaked in her blood, but not in splash patterns. it was all over his jacket and his sleeves like he'd hugged her while she'd been on the floor, obviously because he was distraught. the 911 operator told barton before long to stay where he is and that they'd be sending police to his location. what he didn't expect was that, after the first responders came onto the scene, the police connected the dots that they'd seen this kind of 'kill' before. so this fell under the jurisdiction of the FBI due to there suddenly being a strong possibility there was a serial killer in town. barton could hardly believe his luck (sarcasm). this case was now getting eye-balled by a lot of authorities, and somehow, the worst part hadn't even come yet. barton overheard that they had brought in a consultant for the FBI: a dr. hannibal lecter, which made him space out almost completely while the interviewer in front of him continued talking. barton had just begun to think about how, yes, HIPAA restricted hannibal from acknowledging he was 'under his care' but — ❝ mister mathis? hey, you know, we could always do the rest of this interview later if you need time. lord knows i understand that. ❞ barton snapped out of his trance-like state at that moment with a soft 'hmm?' only for him to take a second or two to process what the other was saying. this was the first time he looked at his hands since killing tala, and even as a serial killer, he had to admit there was a lot of blood there. barton wiped it further on his jacket before clearing his throat, ❝ uhh, no. that's okay. i was just thinking about tala, you know? she was... really good to me. ❞ liar, was all he could think at that moment. he barely knew her. but maybe that's part of how he could do this all in cold blood.

[mercurytrinemoon]

Aries risings and eclipses: comebacks and rebrands

There's a few celebrities that caught my attention in the past couple of weeks and I felt the urge to look at their charts and talk about them a bit. What I've quickly realized is that… they're all Aries risings and we just went through a total eclipse in Aries and are still battling through a Mercury retrograde (also in Aries). So, this is an Aries rising-only astro news compilation.

Shakira

During the recent Easter break I found myself having a Shakira moment, reminiscing on her old hits and belting out Underneath Your Clothes. I thought that's probably thanks to Mercury just stationing retrograde, which often makes people go back to old stuff. And then I thought… What if everyone's having a Shakira moment now?

And this is when I realized suddenly she's everywhere: giving a surprise show at Times Square, being a guest on Hot Ones, giving a ton of new interviews that flood my YouTube recommend page. She just released a new album but seems like this is a huge reset for her and her name is, once again, on everyone's lips. Shakira is an Aries rising and an Aries Venus with nodes in her 1st and 7th axis - she's not quite an eclipse baby (although almost a Full Moon baby!) but nodes close to her axis may make her sensitive to eclipse seasons. Her ascendant ruler, Mars, is exalted in the 10th house in Capricorn, giving her a slow and steady rise to success and a grounded, solidified place in the public eye.

Interestingly, she received an MTV Vanguard award just last autumn at a time of her exact reverse nodal return, which already foreshadowed things for her.

Her new album was released on March 22nd this year, just a couple of days after Sun ingressed into Aries and a few days before the eclipse. What's important to note that she's also going through her Jupiter return in Taurus. Mercury retrograding in her 1st house makes people and the media reminisce on her career and what she achieved up to this point. Of course a planet retrograding in someone's 1st house can cause a hiccup of some sorts and that happened in her case as well - there was a small outrage surrounding her comments on the last year's Barbie movie and how she and her sons hated it.

Jojo Siwa

Switching lanes let's get to someone that is now talked about in the media excessively but for the wrong reasons and that is… Jojo Siwa. Now, I had to read up on her after I saw people poking fun at the way she's presenting herself but apparently, she was all rainbows and sunshines until she changed her color palette to black and is now calling herself edgy and groundbreaking. She was on Toddlers and Tiaras I believe… so you get the vibe.

Siwa is a Taurus stellium (makes sense with the bows and glitter) with Aries rising, of course. Her ascendant ruler is right next to Neptune in the 11th house, which can bring potential problems when it comes to how she's being received by the public. The badazzledness of the sweet sweet Taurus is amped up by the flashy Jupiter in Leo (opposed by that Mars and squared by Mercury, certainly adding to the loudness of her personality and the, let's say, overall audacity).

The nodes are pretty significant for her as well, as her Sun is accompanied by the north node (really intensifying the Sun's radiant quality) and… she's actually an eclipse baby, being born in the middle of the eclipse season, only three days after a total lunar eclipse in Scorpio. So we have double the strength of having eclipses in her 1st-7th house axis, as well as being an eclipse child in general.

So the "rebranding" seems, well, on brand for her at this time. But again, Mercury retrograding in her 1st house seems to not serve her well, especially given she has it retrograde natally as well. Uranus being co-present in her sign, a bubbly Taurus, paired with Jupiter, which is still a pretty badazzled planet, didn't result in a true 180° switch that she aimed for. In turn we got a somewhat inflated (Jupiter) sense of self and a warped view of things.

But the plus side is that the current Jupiter transit also helped her gain popularity as her video for the new song passed 23 million views on YouTube. Talk about expansion!

Rihanna

Rihanna didn't make a comeback in the same sense Shakira did but she surely made people talk. The singer is allegedly an Aries rising but she also has quite an Aries planetary party with Moon, Venus and Jupiter there as well. And in a true Aries fashion, even if she's not necessarily doing much with her career at the moment, she made sure to remind everyone of herself, especially that she's also in her 1st house profection year so it's all about "ME!" - something an Aries loves.

Rihanna made the headlines by doing a fashion spread for the Interview Magazine. And, to be more precise, by posing in a nun-inspired outfit. The cover photo made some people outraged, while others were sighing in awe. The news broke pretty much on the eclipse (the morning after I believe).

Rihanna dabbles in these high-fashion, obscure themes probably because of the mixture of her Pisces Sun (religious themes? She surely went all-in for the Catholic-themed MET Gala a few year back) and her Aries stellium in the 1st. The ram likes to shock and be bold and sexual but considering she also has Moon and Venus - two feminine planets - in the sign, makes her bold and daring in her fashion choices as well.

Billie Eilish

The last person I want to talk about is… Billie Eilish. I know, I KNOW, you may think "but she's a Pisces rising!". Well Billie somewhat went through a different kind of rebrand and it's that her birth certificate has just been obtained and according to the new info, she is, in fact an Aries rising.

The confusion might be there although if, like me, you see a massive Pisces influence in her, her "new" ascendant ruler is Mars… in Pisces! A corrected birth time is a big deal already, especially given the eclipse and Mercury retrograde - both helped "refresh" her astrological persona and "status" as an Aries ascendant. But that is not all, as on the day of the eclipse Billie announced a brand new album that she will debut on May 17th.

EDIT: Billie is also an eclipse baby! Born just 4 days after a Solar Eclipse. So this is even more fitting.

What's great about this date is that Mars will already be in Aries, probably making her a lot more active. Also, that is only one day before Jupiter cazimi and Venus conjunct Uranus - a great time to release new things into the world. Interestingly, Venus and Uranus will conjoin just a couple of degrees away from Billie's lot of fortune in Taurus. I truly love when astrology is doing its thing.