#( before the sphere info comes out!

[tainbocuailnge]

[soapboxing to people who already agree with me] ongoing vs completed media works isn't a matter of one being inherently higher quality than the other because you better believe there's some truly dogshit self contained works out there it's the fact that an ongoing slash live service work by design will forever keep introducing new plot threads and coming up with ways to escalate the stakes in a way that is increasingly difficult to sustain as time goes on, while simultaneously the later parts of the story are beholden to the earlier parts to a degree they never are in things that release as one complete story, because the ongoing story can't go back and make the early stuff line up with the later stuff nearly as easily. that's why long running shows often end up reaching for some kind of world reset or a multiverse as an easy way to create infinite new plot points and get rid of some of that old stuff that wasn't working anymore.

a one-and-done story isn't dependent on indefinite audience retention so it can make riskier choices in its writing, it isn't incentivised to keep going forever to keep getting more money out of its audience so it can actually work towards a meaningful conclusion. there's benefits to being ongoing at least for a while, like i didn't watch gravity falls but from my outside perspective that show made really strong use of being ongoing to create a lot of community hype around solving the mysteries as info gets released each episode which made it way more popular than if it'd just released in one go, but I also know that showrunner had to actively fight the tv execs to actually let his show end when he'd intended it to because he knew it would become bad and sucks if it never got to actually end. in the gacha-game-o-sphere where I'm more active it's a whole fucking thing that the story can never actually end because they gotta keep introducing more characters to sell whose plot threads never get picked back up because there's more new characters to sell instead. actually, the original post was about a friend playing fate/extra and being blown away with how difficult and complicated of a person (positive) nero was before she got bastardised for gacha sales.

the promise of "more of this thing you like is coming in the future" is very strong at creating and maintaining an audience which is why execs LOVE making live service shit and throwing out sequels and new seasons and reboots of proven formulas, but that's exactly why you gotta read/watch/play something that's self contained and done every now and then, just to remind yourself of what it's like when something's actually fucking finished.

[trafficblrpolyamshipbracket]

Welcome to TPSB!

Hello everyone! I have not seen a ship bracket dedicated to polyam ships, especially for ships in the Traffic Life Series / Empires / Hermitcraft sphere (and occasionally other adjacent smps) so I am creating one. Obviously, this is characters not creators and this is for fun/entertainment, so please keep this lighthearted! Now, may the most beloved polyam ship win!

Current Blog Activity: TPSB V3 Finales has ended! Vote and create propaganda to help your polyam ship of choice win the TPSB V3 Finale!

The V1, V2, and V3 Brackets are concluded, but I will still reblog old ship propaganda and etc. Feel free to make celebratory art of the winner and tag me! I will reblog with the TPSB propaganda tag! I don't mind promoting people for the creations they've worked on :p

TAGS

#tpsb polls

#tpsb info

#tpsb propaganda

#tpsb update

#tpsb other

INFO

Polls are set to one week and I'll post the next wave of polls soon after it ends.

If you tag this account with propaganda, I will reblog it. If it is nsfw propaganda, I will tag it with the #NSFW tag for minors/people who don't want to see it to filter out if they so choose. If it is not quite NSFW, but rather suggestive, I’ll take it #cw suggestive. Haven't run into this yet, but this is in place just in case.

Feel free to put propaganda in the ask box once the shipping starts and I will clear the queue as often as I can! I will also reblog literally anything people comment that aren't hidden in tags or whatever else, so keep that in mind.

No ship bashing/shaming please! I would like everyone to vote for a ship and not against a ship, for it's more fun that way. Not every ship is everyone’s cup of tea, but that just means you stay away from ships you don’t like. As long as it’s safe and legal, ship and let ship :D

I accept ship nominations as first come first serve, no matter how rare or bizarre it may seem to you. If you want to make sure your favorite polyam ship hits the bracket, throw it in the ask box :D

If there is a ship name attached to it, it is usually because the person who nominated the ship used that ship name. Not all ships have ship names that I know of/that I was given so they may be “wrong” or whatever else. Feel free to leave a reply or throw it in my ask box for me to add a ship name if one has it.

Once we get to the end, if all runs well and people enjoy this, there is a chance to run another bracket with a new set of submissions. New ships can be added and old ships who lost can make a comeback.

The bracket is created at random. There is only intervention in round one if the ships pitted against each other are the same plus/minus a person or if the ships feel too unevenly weighted. If so, I dragged one ship and threw it up or down and left it where it landed if that was better than before. I am human, though, and will miss stuff/make mistakes, so don't be upset if something isn't quite how you want it. This will place popular ships against each other, but I can always run another bracket after this one to give your favorite polyam ship another chance against other ships :D

Winning ships do not get run again. They claim their spot in the Winners list and then get to rest to allow other ships to have a chance to shine :D

This account is run by @deityoftherain who uses they/fae/star pronouns. As one may expect, be as wonky and fun with your headcanons and such when doing propaganda :D

CURRENT BRACKET

WINNERS

V1: Mumbo/Scar/Grian aka Mumscarian

V2: Scott/Jimmy/Tango aka Flower Ranchers

V3: Impulse/Tango/Skizz aka Poly Arizona Dads

[scriptlgbt]

How should I show that a character's nonbinary when they themselves don't know? Should I even do it if they'll just be misgendered the whole story?

They're born in the early 70s (when the main story takes place they're 22). They have trans relatives but I don't think they know there are options beyond (a) staying their AGAB, (b) transitioning to the other binary gender, or (c) drag, which isn't really their thing.

I want to make it deeper than "they think gender roles are stupid" but I don't know where to start in portraying an nb egg.

[I'm assuming a lot about the culture of the particular 70s you're referring to. My POV is that I am "canadian" and much of my own personal knowledge of transness in this era comes from research in US archives. YMMV when it comes to places outside the heavily American sphere of cultural influence.]

So first of all, the 70s had a bit of a renaissance of androgyny. A common thing I'll see in advice columns of the era is someone asking what to do as a customer service worker when they "can't tell" what gender they think someone is, because of their hairstyle and the way they are dressed. I imagine there probably were a lot of people who took refuge in that ambiguity. A fro, a pageboy haircut, all these are something that people of any gender (not necessarily every texture but I digress) could wear.

Secondly, I figured out I was nonbinary before I knew it existed, before I had the words for it. (Though the term genderqueer was the in vogue one in the community at the time I figured my stuff out.) It's just that I sort of saw it as, "hmmm, well, I feel kind of between these things." And I think I'd seen it as sort of "half-trans" until I really understood transness better. (Note: this was for like a week tops.) I also went through a period of time a few years before this where I just sort of saw myself as a crossdresser (not drag - just someone who chooses to dress and cut their hair as they are comfortable and feel happy), but like, that as my gender identity, if that makes sense. I didn't have access to community of other people who felt like I did in order to compare to. But at the time, this also meant that when I talked about my feelings with others, they wouldn't have the same hangups about what it would mean for them if they said they felt the same. There were a lot of people I talked to in 2011ish who basically said they experienced gender as I did, only, I don't think most of them would understand for another 4 years at least.

One day I'd like to post more info about nonbinary history (especially in the 70s), but I'm just dumping info at this point. Something I will suggest for more on the topic is reading Lou Sullivan's diary, and reading autobiographies from trans people who were alive then. Even when they weren't out, they still existed, and lived in a world where they were carving out spaces for themselves.

To my understanding also, a lot of trans culture at the time sort of distinguished "transvestite" (trans people generally? but who haven't accessed medical transition) and "transsexual" (trans people who have or are intending to transition medically). Trans people of every variety might change gender expression based on their outness or the safety they had, and this didn't make them less seen as trans per se. A lot of people who ID'd either way (though more for "transvestite") would have a variety of approaches to things like name and pronouns. If this were the dominant terminology of the time that I were figuring things out, I'd probably have called myself a transvestite, though I would have likely been questioning the transsexual label for a while and ultimately not been able to access medical transition. (Though it depends on when in the 70s iirc - there was a time earlier on where it was easier to access I believe, but I'd need to fact check.)

In terms of general nonbinary egg mode stuff, or at least egg for an era where being nonbinary is not widely known to be a thing, here's some 'signs' (some are just straight up "that's canon if you put that in") I've brainstormed.

admiring specific fashion trends and looks that are gender nonconforming or androgynous (especially celebrities - maybe glam rock musicians, Joan Jett) (Joan Jett was huge for egg me personally...)

finding a lot of different ways to express how they feel in words (the "man/woman in a woman/man's body" phrasing is something that has historically bugged me, but people have used it throughout history) (more examples, dependant on the person, "I feel just as un/comfortable in my body and the way people see me as I would if I'd been born differently." "It's not a wo/man's haircut, it's mine." "I feel like a guy among my guy friends and a girl among my girl friends." "I feel uncomfortable when I go out with my partner and we are assumed to be straight/gay, though I don't know why." "I really enjoyed breeches roles when I did theatre in high school." "It felt good when I was mistaken for a woman.")

referring to themselves in their head with neutral terms

having dreams where they are recognized as themselves

feeling at home around trans people and queer people in general

watching or listening to certain songs/movies/etc that feel Gender for them over and over again

some kind of fixation on facial hair/other body part or lack thereof

it feeling different when different people use gendered terminology for the character (ex: a conservative Girl Guide leader calling everyone "ladies" vs a gay man saying "hey girl"). this is usually to do with what it's assumed the speaker's assigned meaning to the word is.

Re: misgendering through the whole story. A really convenient way to curb this would be to just have the character feel like the way they are (mis)gendered is also a part of their identity, it just isn't the whole picture. Another thing I sort of thought of in my early years was like, if people think I'm a woman, at least they understand there is something off about it. Whether they think I'm a butch lesbian or intersex (which was very regularly assumed throughout my life, at least until the general public started to catch wind of genderqueer identities). It matters to me that they at least understand my approach to gender is queer.

Another approach would be to have the story written from a distant past tense where the reader knows the identity of the character, because everything is told in distant hindsight. This is my favourite approach personally.

-mod nat

[wyfy-meltdown]

I FINALLY DID IT!!! SHE IS DONE!!! Meet my first Madoka Magica OC: Komoe Mimura!!!

Below the cut is more info about her ♡✧⁠*⁠。

Bio / Base Information

Name: Komoe Mimura

Wish: "I wish I could grant wishes!"

Age: 16

Height: 5'2

Weapon: Magic Wand

Power: Grant Wishes*

Soul Gem: Purple, Rabbit Head Shaped

Witch Name: Velveteen

*Her ability to grant wishes is limited to things that can be created or destroyed.

Ex: she can grant the wish "I wish I had lots of money" but she cannot grant the wish "I wish I was rich" (one implies gaining something while the other implies altering the current reality).

Ex2: she can grant the wish "I wish [Name] would break up with his girlfriend" and/or "I wish [Name]'s girlfriend died" but she cannot grant the wish "I wish [Name] broke up with his girlfriend" and/or "I wish [Name]'s girlfriend didn't exist". (1&2 implies events that can occur in the future, 3 is past tense [meaning it would have already had to happen, thus altering the reality], and 4 would alter reality).

Personality

Design Breakdown

She has a very optimistic outlook and determined personality. She tries her best to get to know everyone, and her soft voice contradicts her upbeat personality. She absolutely loves magical girls to a stalkerish extent: she's willingly gone into witches labyrinths with hopes of meeting magical girls, and has a diary where she keeps all her information on the "magical girl secret world". She's very girly, and loves feminine things: dresses, long hair, and cuteness are all things she adores. Her favorite pastimes are watching tv, sketching, and hanging out with friends. Often times she can come off as pushy or intimidating (especially to girls she scouts to be magical girls) but she genuinely means no harm, and doesn't ever realise she's acting poorly. She takes great pride in being a magical girl, and her current goal is to thank the magical girl that saved her.

Trivia

I'm not sure if I fully like the design (mainly the waistcoat thing, and I should've given her gloves) but I'm happy I managed to actually draw her. This was a very self-indulgent design (not a sona though) and so I included ungodly amounts of ruffles and pastel pink!

Underneath her skirt is layers and layers of ruffles to the point her legs are not visible, and she has a double sleeve situation (also with ruffles underneath). The teacup & saucer hat is... rough, but I loved the concept and wanted to include it! Her rabbit ears are attached to a headband which has a ribbon on it. Her soul gem is located on her monocle chain; the alternate locations were the rabbit ear headband, one of the hairtie ribbons, and an anklet. I went with heterochromia because I could not decide whether I liked the pink or purple more (I also debated on mint, but I wanted to keep the colour palette analogous), I also struggled with very light purple vs very light pink for the hair; and went with very light pink (but I'm not sure how I feel about it). Those hair flicks near the top of her head aren't real rabbit ears, but are meant to resemble floppy rabbit ears. I wanted her overall design to invoke the feeling of "magical girl" strongly, and I hope I succeeded in that!

Her magic wand shots a magic beam(?) thing from the top (between the ears) and functions like a whip; the hand-guard is based off a rapier's, and the bottom has a sphere that looks like a rabbit tail. Her soul gem features a rabbit head on top, and a clock face (sorta) as the bottom symbol. ALSO! I promise her purple eye is the same colour as the soul gem, the glass shading from the monocle makes the eye look lighter!

Her original wish was "I wish to be a magical girl!" but Inkyuu (the resident incubator) told her to pick a different wish since she'd become a magical girl regardless

She was aware of magical girls before being approached by Inkyuu due to being saved from a witch by a magical girl; she has gained an obsession with magical girls as a result

She uses her power of granting wishes to scout potential magical girls for Inkyuu

Her white rabbit theming is because she leads girls down the rabbit hole of becoming magical girls (the day I stop using metaphors and symbolism for everything is the day I die)

[Adding onto above] She has no particular love of rabbits or Alice in Wonderland, but thinks her theming is cute and so plays into it

She'd either be a mentor figure or an antagonist or possibly both

She either knows the secret of witches or if she found out about the secret of witches she'd probably be supportive of incubators (maybe even intentionally becoming a witch[?])

She hasn't been a magical girl for very long, but is very enthusiastic about it so she's fought many witches

She's very close with Inkyuu and carries him(?) around with her

[linnaealyn]

Old mod page, abandoned 3/2/24; New mod page @ Godsibb

Finally, after 2 years of work, it is complete. -But still being updated.

There's a Japanese version of the mod now!

今は日本語版のMODがある！

This is a mod for Xenogears using Retroarch's Beetle PSX HW core real-time texture replacement feature. (It requires the Vulkan driver, so make sure your graphics card supports that.) (Duckstation doesn't have a similar option, unfortunately.)

It replaces every single character dialogue portrait, menu portrait, & (almost every) battle portrait (looking at you, Yggdra officer Gear pilots) with high quality, cleaned up artwork, as well as recreated high quality UI while keeping it as close to the original game as possible.

And best thing about it is, if there's anything you don't like about it, like certain aspects of the UI, you can locate and delete that file from the folder. Everything is optional. (if you have any questions as to what's what, drop them into my dms)

Current version: 1.4

現在の日本語版: 1.4

(More screenshots below download info and UI changes.)

Being a real-time texture replacer, it should work with any English version of XG, both base-game and modded/patched. Any fan-translated patch using the US version as a base should display correctly.

There's a separate version for the Japanese version of the game. May need some editing still with other characters' UI ("Ether"/"Spells"/"Arcane"/etc) but for the most part its good to go in terms of battle UI. Let me know if you find any errors.

(I've been using it with the Perfect Works Build mod. Highly recommended!)

(Note!!: If you use PWB mod, don't use its "readjusted portraits" patch when patching your rom, as that patch interferes with this mod's portraits texture replacing.)

(It works on Steam Deck... but don't ask me for details in setting that up in particular, I don't own one 😅)

~~~

Download/ダウンロード

I recommend reading the instructions txt files I included in the DL.

This includes information such as how to set up .cue and .m3u files, swapping discs, renaming the texture folder, Retroarch settings and Beetle PSX HW Core settings to get the mod working, settings suggestions for making a cleaner looking and faster playing XG (YMMV), and settings to fix certain emulation issues Ive come across (freezing on fast-forward, crackling audio during 3D/effects-heavy cutscenes/gameplay, blank screen during Rico flashback, etc).

~~~~~~~~~~

-Changes made to the UI include:

Menu UI:

selection triangle, Walk/Gear icons

menu portraits

▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow menu icons

ABXY button DeathBlow menu icon- alternate textures

Battle UI and on-foot specific battle UI:

Circular battle palette and tags behind text

Battle palette text, "Combo", "Return", "Enter", "Miss", "EP", & HP/DMG/heal/AP numbers

HP/AP bars

"Time", "fuel", "total damage", AP numbers, "1/2/3 point(s)", "cancel end"

battle portraits

▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow icons

ABXY button Deathblow icons- alternate textures

Bottom screen mid-DeathBlow ▲ ■ ✖ icons (unfortunately, there's no way to change the other mid-DB quadruple-button icons)

Combo 1-7 and Accept icons

In-Gear specific battle UI:

"fuel" and fuel numbers

"Fuel" (when using boost)

fuel bars (top and left)

All Gear status menus' green text/numbers

Attack level numbers and ∞

Gear menu backgrounds

Gear "power shut down", "camera damaged", "out of fuel", etc, statuses

background UI elements, runes, triple red triangles, Gear lock-on UI (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular part of this UI)

Misc UI changes:

Red/grey spheres (in the menu and loading screen)

All instances of selection diamonds, both horizontal and vertical

Load/save screen "CARD 1"/"2" text, memory card icon, load/save bar/text

Disc 1 and 2 maps (with alternate color versions; makes the enterable area indicators harder to see though)

NESW compass letters (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular compass texture)

~~~~~

-Screenshots (before & after and alts):

And Japanese version's (日本語版) UI:

⬇!!Spoilers in images further down!!⬇

--

I won't be showing all portraits here; only the ones worth mentioning.

Portraits created for the mod that have no artwork equivalent:

Portraits to match their sprites vs official unedited artwork:

(default on left, alt on right)

Roni/Medena/Erich edited sprite equivalent vs their official PW art

Citan edited unsmiling (dialogue-only) sprite equivalent vs official smiling art)

Krelian(s) edited sprite equivalent vs official art

Portrait alts created for fun:

Both sides of scar-eyed Bart

Two-eyed Bart

Kim lab coat with glasses

Fei-colored Id

Fei-colored Id with Id's yellow eyes

Fei-colored young & older Emeralda

(might add to this list later. have any suggestions? fun ideas? lmk. It doesn't have to be canon-compliant.)

Screenshots of alt portraits in-use:

I'll continue to update this and subsequently reblog it as new versions are released.

With any new updates, just DL and replace/overwrite the old folder.

In-progress tumblr post of the past as a bit of a time capsule for myself 😄

[wynought]

since i haven't seen it being pointed out before

all of the first stoats' names essentially mean "light"

kiran is of sanskrit origin meaning "ray of light" (and, according to wikipedia, an explicitly unisex name), uri is a hebrew name meaning "my light", hester is a variant of the name esther (of biblical/jewish origin) which comes from the same old persian root as the word "star", and, while i didn't find any particularly reliable source, various babyname websites at least seem to agree that jomei is a japanese name meaning "spread light"

additionally, their names seem to correlate with their purpose/position in last bast:

jomei is the speaker, they are in charge of propaganda - quite literally spreading the belief system and worldview of the first stoats aka the Light. it feels like this name is extremely straightforward in its meaning, but i was also unable to find much else on it, so there may be some additional hidden truth that i'm missing so far.

hester is the silence (the one with the gas mask missing their lower jaw and tongue) and their sphere of influence is secrets. now, i'm no religious scholar, and i have all of my information from quite literally the introductory paragraphs of the wikipedia article on the name esther. however, it seems that queen esther only took this name after ascending to the throne of persia to hide her true identity. this is reflected in the hebrew root of the name esther translating into "hide"/"conceal". (i am unable to provide more info on this, but anybody with a working understanding of how hebrew works and/or with more insight on the book of esther, feel free to interject/correct/add on to this)

uri is our beloved stoat pope. apparently, the name uri comes from the verb for "to shine" (to either be or to give light) and the mark of possession, resulting in the first connotation i mentioned earlier - "my light". this possessive marker, however, can also be interpreted as the name Yah which would be an abbreviation of YHWH - a marker of the divine, if you will. Therefore, Uri can also mean "Yah is my light", a very fitting name for the stoat whose department we only see called "faith".

i was unable to find a deeper meaning behind kiran's name, although to me "beam of light" feels very much like a name befitting the first stoats' leader. considering the way they commanded the wolf of theseus, it also seems to reflect the way their magic/their brand of control worked (their line of sight was part of how they controlled the wolf, indicating that was a key part of either their magic or the conditioning inflicted on the wolf - i'm partial towards the latter, considering how the wolf reacted to tula after she healed it). if anybody has anything more concrete to offer, though, i am all ears!

anyways, the first stoats' names are really cool, and we as a fandom don't talk enough about them because they died so fast. huge props to aabria for this fun bit of world building!

(disclaimer: as mentioned above, i have no background in theology or judaism, nor do i have any deeper knowledge of sanskrit, hindi, and indian mythology/folklore, nor japanese, and japanese mythology which would give me a deeper understanding of these names. my information comes from google and while i did try my best to verify the claims, i am fallible and happen to currently be very tired, so please correct me, if i made any mistakes!)

[amoransia]

Really late, but here's my ekuoto chapter 70 commentary. Nothing special, just me freaking out. You know. The usual.

Watch out for spoilers!

Dante got a very special dialogue balloon with "..." in it. Which is curious to me. I'm sure it means some sort of reflection or surprise happening within him; I really want to what he's thinking. How do you feel? Knowing that the that child you were entrusted can't even bear to be awake anymore? That he runs to escapism? Must suck. Anyway.

On the other hand, dearest Daniel is real composed. Good job on getting info out of Belphegor. That's not really a high bar, though lmao... I mean, how are you a demon and can't LIE? Embarrassing... Go back to demon high school or something. Fall from grace again! The whole premise of your existence is being a lying thing that leads people to sin, and you're here having communication issues??? Dude. That's so moe.

Everyone thinking Belph's got something up his sleeve is fucking hilarious. No. Sorry. He's not Kira or anything like that. It's not all according to his "keikaku". He's just kinda dumb and suffers from Villain Monologue Syndrome...

Him saying "my witch", though... ough! (takes critical hit)

Really funny how he showed him off sleeping and everything. Why are you bragging? Is this something to show off? I guess it is for you... I'd be embarrassed if all my coworkers suddenly saw me sleeping on a plasma 100" inch TV, though. Maybe have a little consideration! Also, I don't think anyone's mentioned this before, but I think it's a cool detail that Priest's in a fetal position. Not only does this position bring one comfort, but it can also represent how he's about to be "reborn" as a witch of Sloth. The sphere he's sleeping in can kinda be a uterus, right?

Belphegor and Mikhail replying to each other while Leah was suffering out of confusion was funny. She got the straight man role forced onto her. Miha's "I see!" was cute. Very casual, as if he wasn't talking to a Demon Lord lol. To be fair, Bel is not really intimidating.

Meanwhile, Vir is busy trying to lead his shounen manga team to victory... (or not really.) They'll definitely get some piece of Belphegor though. I wonder what it'll be... he doesn't have anything like Asmodeus' eyes sticking out, so this is a mystery to me.

Me when I get excited about an interest of mine and end up yapping too much

Dante and Vergilius are heading to the same place, so they'll meet up again... I'm looking forward to the mess that comes out of that 👀.

Imuri needs to step up her game, or I'll be taking matters into my own hands because this is ridiculous. Femme Fatale? Wtf are you talking about. Fraudmuri. The Demon Lord of Fraud. Her true title.

Her biggest crime so far is being more in love with the idea of being in love with Priest than actually caring for him. Does that make sense? So far, she hasn't done any effort in actually coming to know him. She needs to KNOW!!!! At least I can respect that she also takes male rivals seriously... and her aggressiveness towards them. Lole.

She doesn't call Priest "sleepyhead" in the JP raws. I don't really mind the addition, but I thought it was worth noting here anyway. Makes it cute.

"It'll be over soon" Naw bro Imuri is coming at you with a fucking sledgehammer. Watch out.

Tiny Imuri is so fawking cute. I've been craving these Imuri flashbacks for forever because we know virtually nothing about her. What moves her. Why does she long to love!! We'll know in due time, I guess. But please show me a bit of it, Aruma-sensei...

Asmodeus being considerate enough to make sexual things vague to Imuri is nice, but it confuses me a bit. Well. I shan't dwell on it, lest my head blows up.

Imuri seems to have some complex about being a demon with no demon power, because she keeps asserting that she is a demon? Am I explaining this properly? Like in this chapter (ch.70) and chapter 3.

Anywho.

Imuri imagining the BL route... save me... my fucking sides... I burst out laughing the first time my eyes laid on that panel. True to her succubus nature, she didn't even consider the possibility of them using blood or whatever else instead of straight-up KISSING. Those are still bodily fluids, right?? Calm down, girl! Stay put!!!

"I'm not letting his first kiss go to some guy that just appeared!!" HE'S BEEN THERE FOR A DECADE! YOU ARE THE NEWCOMER!!! IMURI, GIRL!! You absolute buffoon! Clown, even!

Whew. Lmao.

This arc also feels like a callback to that one "sleeping beauty" comment from chapter 3.

...except their roles have switched.

This time, Imuri will be the one kissing Father on the cheek to wake him up, and it'll be so, so cute. Trust. Trust me. This will happen. (Going insane).

Go and make him your witch, Imuri... Dew it... Make a move... (screaming and crying)

[imustbenuts]

im free from yakuza kiwami 2. fuck the writing in this one. this was a complete mess of pulling from the most popular generic east asian drama tropes at the time of 2006 and having it be handled by a super inexperienced writer at the helm.

i went from having no expectations, got somewhat surprised, only to end up downing alcohol and laughing hysterically before the credits rolled. so that should set the mood for how i feel about this one. thought vomit under the cut, a lot of info dump about culture incoming

yakuza kiwami 2 is pure heterosexual east asian romance bullshit.

im gonna just. describe as best as i can what i know and remember from the general media coming out from the 90s to the 2010s in around this part of the world before i just start explaining why i think this story is a mess.

so. 2 parts i swear is responsible for this rubbish.

1) East Asian Beauty Standard

the general consensus for a beautiful feminine woman AT THE TIME in this sphere is the following

be willowy thin (fat = lazy and ugly)

have black hair that ISNT short (dyed = too much individuality, too much WESTERN INDIVIDUALISM, gasp how dare!)

fair skinned (bc dark = she works in the fields and is from a lower class)

young. if you heard of the term "Christmas Cake" in japan context, yeah. (ie women over age of 25 are undesirable)

be educated and refined, bc that indicates class and femininity (failing this means shes vulgar and gasp like a barbarian)

be submissive to her male peers in the sense that her authority cannot override his at least in public (for the sake of his face)

dresses feminine and not like a man (trousers and jeans are man-ish. traditional clothing, skirts and dresses are preferred. the further back the stronger this sentiment is.)

incidentally, theres a lot of classism tied to this EABS due to sinocentric culture influences. it has to do with the chinese court system and how korea and japan copied it and a lot of the culture wholesale but. anyway. thats like over 1000 years of history in there thats not really worth detouring to rn.

and also, the worth of a man is sometimes (not always) upheld by how classy and feminine this wife of his is. as of 2024 though, this line of thought is still around in the more conservative pockets. also, the education might not matter as much these days as how deep her and her parents' pockets and wealth are.

moving on.

2) media tropes

so. off the top of my head.

if you wanted a popular romance drama in this time period, the popular offerings no matter where you looked tended to offer the same flavors of tropes.

the woman always has dark hair, is fair skinned, thin and younger than her male love interest. ive never seen this broken or subverted in my time absorbing via osmosis the dramas playing on local tv growing up in the early 2000s.

everything else about her can be subverted though. sometimes she can wear fancy pants or have short hair to indicate her strong individualism. BUT, her personality no matter how strong it begins, no matter how her intro begins will 99% of the time encounter an effect where catching feelings turns her into a meek loyal woman to her love interest.

bc she cant override his authority in this culture context.

at worst, she becomes highly irrational and even hysterical in the dramas when bad things happen. this includes things like love triangle, or a fallout of family business, drama, plot or whatever. she would cry and sometimes even die.

see: sawamura yumi. sayama kaoru.

meanwhile, the male love interest can be anything. ive seen middle aged guys to young good looking upcoming actors playing the lead, with looks varying from haggardly okay to young and handsome. it. really depends on the genre.

depending on what specific country it came from, the drama would have the male either grow, become manlier (by learning honor ig), become stupid in the name of love, but he rarely if ever actually dies. the woman effectively becomes yoshi for mario to lauch off on when they're crossing a chasm

the romance is forced. a lot of the BIG LOVE SPARK ie kissing happens in tense moments bc it builds drama, but in reality comes too fucking close to sexual assault (some of the old jackie chan movies does this iirc for slapstick even)

see: sayama getting kissed right after handling her biological father's ashes less than 24 hours ago and admitting to kiryu that shes scared. this scene right fucking here.

bc in general, the scriptwriters for popular dramas tended to be guys themselves and tended to write more human dudes. and the women in the stories are reflective of the ideal societal expectation at the time: being a Refined Housewife.

so her character development is often headed in the direction of marriage and being a stay at home mom.

if it sounds a little like tradwife bullshit, it is.

Refined Housewife

(i have massive negative thoughts about this which i KNOW for a fact is a thing bc a lot of these societal culture femininity was impressed on me as a kid in a world where it was already getting increasingly impossible to have 1 spouse be a SAHP. and also i hated the whole thing about giving face to the patriarch of the house when i personally saw so much ego dick measuring from my uncles. anyway understand that this is both a bias an a lived experience, so proceed with that in mind)

there is a problem with the Refined Housewife expectation: education.

in general, education has been a good metric to judge how classy or smart one is in asia's largely on-the-surface meritocracy based culture. people will look at each other's school first and then judge them from there, and pretty hard too.

so everyone regardless of gender will be expected to study super hard. and bc having good test scores and going to good schools looks good for the family's face, parents will often pile on tuition to the child to get them a leg up in life.

bc also no good degree from good school means no future.

but then... the woman is expected to be a housewife. 🙃 meaning... the education, her accomplishments, are kinda... tossed away in this context. put a pin in this.

it wont matter how much she studied or accomplished, bc the expectation is that the woman would marry and obey her husband, and give him face/honor that way. the kids will come eventually bc having kids = being filial to ones parents in this context.

also uh. no, having adopted kids is not thought of as being filial. continuing the bloodline is.

and if you've been paying attention, then yes, ive been skirting around the backbone of sayama kaoru's writing foundations this entire time.

Her story has been butchered so clumsily i cant even...

lets just. ugh.

she fits the EABS standard, her tropes are trying to subvert the expectations of a womanly woman in this context, she has IMPRESSIVE education and career achievements. she works in a male dominated field, and is keenly aware of sexism. she is strong, stronger than her male peers, at least we are told.

by 2006s standards, its still considered a fresh take with those alone in japan. sexism there is its own flavor of crap. (if you noticed ive not spoken about LGBTQ+ stuff at all, its bc how ridiculously BINARY the expectation is at that point in time. it still is today but less so)

however, the writing has this sense of trying to copy the popular tropes at the time while not fully understanding and dissecting them, and ends up butchering sayama's character before the romance even properly began.

i mean, for fucks sake even, sayama and kiryu has a whopping 14 year age gap. when im told these are supposed to be believable people living in japan, this is too big for me to just go 'oh ok!'. and remember the Christmas Cake thing? shes 25. (FUCKING--!!!! !!)

the problem here that i see is the writer trying to apply all of those while trying to play the tropes straight. trying to imitate. trying to make a statement but then finding out theres nothing within yourself to stand by what you want to say and backtracking.

we are told:

sayama is strong yet she goes down with 1 slap by random thugs and needing kiryu to come in and body them. because romance ig.

we are told shes a yakuza hunter but she doesnt scare a single one beyond her introductory scene.

she goes from defiant and bossing kiryu around to getting her actions overridden by kiryu and ryuji, both men, towards the end

her subtext is that shes not feminine and therefore conventionally undesirable, but then kiryu tells her shes actually feminine and therefore desired, as if its all that matters.

she becomes so stricken by grief and freaked out that she runs off solo to deal with ryuji in the most out of left pocket planning ive ever fucking seen.

and then yells as she takes out her police baton to take down the big yakuza dude, drawing attention and turning herself into a hostage.

i know the writing will fumble but i didnt expect it to fumble this bad.

for all the good the surface chemistry kiryu and sayama has, its being undermined by a fundamental failure to understand tropes and then using said tropes as a crutch so much that everything here has become a bloody mess.

this failure of over-relying on tropes without understanding them extends to yumi too. sawamura yumi was young and beautiful, and became the Refined Housewife to the Not-Male-MC and ends up regretting it, and gets killed for it.

her defining trait is that she is beautiful in subtext. thats. thats what the tattoo is. in a world where the tattoo makeths the person, thats what she is and all that she is.

dear lord.

ive read up a bit more on sayama and you know what. good that she chooses her career over kiryu. the romance would have caused both of their characters to explode with the trajectory this was heading in. ffs sayama could have had her own game. she has so MUCH potential.

and also GOOD that the writer is forced to think of kiryu in the position of the Stay At Home Parent for haruka and the orphanage down the line!!! subverting the fucking traditional BS expectation! yes!!!!!

all i got was sayama and kiryu making out before the bomb went off in front of my alcohol and salad while they're like 'eh, haruka will forgive us for dying :')'

and i ran out of alcohol.

sexism? maybe. incompetence? definitely.

hhgrhgrhrghrghrgrhgr wow this got long. ugh. guhhhhhh.

[purplesaline]

Ran a DnD game for the first time in forever last night. I've only done it a few times before, and never with 5e so a steep learning curve on my part. Everyone had a blast though and I'm really proud of myself for adapting the campaign to better engage the players.

There was a frog race as part of the first encounter and the book had a single roll determine whether someone's frog won or lost, which I found boring. I had a bunch of resin frogs in various costumes already so I painted one for each player and instead of a single roll I made a "course" four squares long. A successful roll moved the frog forward one space, a failed roll kept them stationary, a natural 20 moved them 2 spaces forward, and a failure by more than 5 moved them back one space. I had 7 players so four spaces was plenty long but if you have fewer players and want to try this you can make the course longer.

It was quite exciting! And there was tension! 3 frogs crossed at the same time so the winning pot was split between three players.

We're playing Strixhaven, Curriculum of Chaos, and part of the encounters is class exams. Which, again, the adventure has a single roll for the multiple choice portion and a second roll for the essay portion. Meh.

So I wrote a multiple choice exam. 6 questions long. The players can either choose an answer if they think they know it (and I gave them a chance to study for it over the supper break, and oh you should have seen them! They were studying like it was a real life test. 3 adults and 4 kids under 16. It was so cute), or they can roll a skill check for the question. I read out each question and they wrote down their answers then went over the correct answers and if they got 3 or more right they passed the multiple choice section.

For the essay portion I just had them do the single roll, but a couple who failed the roll asked if they could turn in an actual short essay instead and I said absolutely! If they want to do that I'll give them a passing grade for that portion. Going forward I'm letting them know their next exam topic ahead of time so they can study and write a short essay between games if they want to do that.

They really enjoyed doing the exam encounter! There was a good mix of choosing answers and rolling when they weren't sure. Some people wound up studying stuff that didn't show up on the test at all and missed all the stuff that did, so they did a lot of rolling (the die rolls act like info they would have learned in class so the characters would have known more than the players)

Next session there's a game where the characters can shoot spheres from a magic object into buckets, whoever gets the most in a minute wins. I'm going to have the players toss nerf rival ammo into buckets instead of just doing a die roll.

I also made a physical Bag of Tricks with coloured pompoms so instead of rolling a die to see what animal they pull out they just pull a coloured pompom out and the different colours will be associated with different creatures.

Just little ways to make the game more immersive. I'm not good at doing voices or engaging roleplay (way too self-conscious and one day I'll get over that but I've had other priorities lol), so I wanted to come up with other ways to immerse folks in the world and keep them engaged. Everyone had a blast so I definitely nailed it for this audience at least!

[shipposttt]

Ship of the Day: Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr

Character Names: Charles Xavier x Erik Lehnsherr 

Ship name: Cherik 

Original Content: X-Men (also present in the comics but for the purpose of this post, focused on the movies)

Ship Info:

Before getting too far into it, what you must know is that Cherik is not mainly shipped as a fully happy together ship, these two have gone through a divorce and are only just coming back together after a whole bunch of stuff. Either that or fans are being delusional and  ignoring the canon “Beach Divorce” (will be explained later, don’t worry).

The X-Men franchise is an institution in the comics world, a product of some of the best minds at Marvel in the 60s. Homo Sapien Superior are the next stage of human development, dubbed mutants, these people are born with superhuman powers, from telekinesis to intangibility, super speed to power absorption. Standing as metaphors and representations for oppression, the othering of the non-majority, racism, genocide, government control and the fight for equality, the X-Men have stood the test of time and come out of it as a present-forward moving media.

And at the centre of this media is two figures, Charles Xavier, powerful telepath and creator and head of the X-Men and Erik Lensherr, metallokinetic and leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (if going by comics). Two leaders on what would traditionally be thought of as opposing sides, but in the case of the X-Men sphere, they instead play as two sides of the same coin against the true enemy.

The Government.

(Yeah, the writers weren’t playing about with subtlety, were they?)

(And people complain that modern comics are too liberal. This shit has always been here, complainers have just been blind to it. Somehow. I really don’t know how. It is a very much integral part of understanding the world the X-Men live in.)

Charles and Erik meet when they are both in their 20s, Charles recently graduated from Oxford with his doctorate in Genetics and Erik continuing his path of Nazi hunting while searching for the man that killed his mother when they were taken to Auschwitz when Erik was a child. They meet, stuff happens and almost the entirety of X-Men: First Class is just a getting to know you, whirlwind romance summer with a couple of breaks between the flirting and longing stares to further the plot which includes working with the CIA, building a team and, at the culmination of the film, being at the centre of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ah yes, because we needed more of a reminder that we’re in the mid 60s, it’s not like the USSR being a big deal, or the middle-aged Nazi officers or the young looking Holocaust survivors didn’t do a good job of illustrating this point. 

Thus we reach the height of the movie, the missiles are on their way to Cuba and are currently being held in the air by Erik. Erik views the shooting of these missiles as a betrayal as they have been working with those who just sent the missiles for the duration of the movie and wants retaliation so spins the rockets around and sends them back in the direction of the US and Soviet fleets. Charles is also feeling pretty betrayed but does not believe that the men on the ships should die for it. And in a moment of what is probably one of the stupidest moments of Charles Francis Xavier’s life, he tells a child survivor of the Holocaust that the soldiers who have just fired upon them with the intention to kill them are “simply following orders”.

Yikes, Charles.

They have a grapple across the floor, Erik loses concentration, he wins the fight, regains control of the missiles, continues them on their course for the ships before getting interrupted by one of the X-Men team shooting his metal helmet to break his concentration. He deflects the bullets, cause, ya know, metallokinetic. It just so happens that he deflects one of these bullets into Charles’ back. More specifically his spine. Instantly paralysing him. 

There’s a whole moment of Erik cradling Charles' body and apologising. A bunch of other things happen that ends with Erik leaving Charles on that beach with no way to go home and only a couple allies. 

Thus, the beach divorce. 

It is here that Charles and Erik’s stories can go two ways, because the X-Men movies have fully canon time travel that they used to end the old early 2000’s timeline and restart, allowing them to make more money. In both of these, Erik is arrested for the murder of JFK, in the original timeline he stays there until the mid-2000s and is often visited by Charles. On these visits they play chess and have civil conversations. As elder men, they greatly respect one another and in fact, Erik even comes to Charles’ defence against one of his own brotherhood members when they disparage Charles. Both see that the other is working towards the same goal, they simply have differing opinions on how mutants should get to the equality they are fighting for. Charles believes it can be fostered through education, defanging misinformation and working alongside the human governments. Erik believes that it is too systemic and instead mutants must take their place in the world and not fear or be afraid of humans. By the end of their timeline, they are back to being by each other's sides, any differences are put to the side due to the nature of their existence dwindling. Instead they work together and stay by each other, giving each other comfort in the others continued existence. 

In the alternate timeline, Erik is broken out of prison in the mid 70s by the combined effort of a time travelling Wolverine, Charles, Charles and Erik’s past teammate and Charles’ caretaker Hank and a very young Quicksilver, who is not yet aware that Erik is his father. Though to be fair, no one on that mission knows that. In these films, Erik attempts to build a life, getting a quickly fridge-ed wife and daughter and goes on to build the mutant nation safe haven island Genosha. Charles goes on to found his school for mutants, as he did in the original timeline. This timeline ends with Erik and Charles meeting at a cafe in Paris (romantic, huh) and sitting down to play some chess (yes, chess is almost definitely a flirting metaphor, the amount they do it).  

Type of ship: Queer Read

Despite the fact that all 4 actors who have portrayed Erik and Charles in these movies have shipped them, at the end of the day there was never an intentional move done by any of the creatives to intentionally mislead fans to the idea that a romantic relationship may develop between the two. 

Both characters have had female partners throughout the duration of the movies and yet, neither of them last. Erik’s wife dies simply to further the plot within 10 minutes of introducing her on screen and Charles has a kind of girlfriend who he ends up wiping the memory of and leaving alone. By the end of the timeline, they don’t have any partners and are instead with each other. 

Erik and Charles are so compelling as characters, both separately and in combination and one of the reasons for that is how they act as foils for one another. Differing values, same mission, the utmost respect for each other. They are lovers ripped from each other by tragedy, both in terms of the divorce and in terms of being on opposite sides. But they are not just on opposite sides, instead they lead them and that is one of the most tragic parts of their existence. They love each other, but not more than the fight they lead, the ideas they believe. 

At the end, in 1983, when they both finish their missions, passing them on to the next generation, they come together in the romance capital of the world and play chess together. They come back together after so long apart and simply begin to exist in each other's presence in a way they haven’t done since the 60s.

Admin🦉

[halikyon]

Smash or Pass: Ryune Avereth

Tagged by: @vasheden

Tagging: anyone since it seems like this has permeated my Tumblr sphere pretty much completely

Basic Info:

Height: 5'3"

Age: 30

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Pan

Pros:

Always looking to help out. She isn't one to be drawn into the Bystander Effect. Willing to make sure a job is done right, even if she has to redo it all herself.

She knows her way around the crafting world. If you need it, she can make it. If she can't, she'll find someone she can. She also is a prolific resource gatherer and, while not an avid fisher, she knows her way around a rod.

She has no care about wealth or position. As someone who only recently had much gil to her name, she really doesn't care for those who flaunt it around. If you have that much, why not use it to help folks who actually need it?

Very touchy-feely and cuddly. She thrives on physical affection and loves when she can spend time with someone in person. Friends will suddenly find her head in their lap as she looks up at them mid-coversation, lounging across where she had been sitting.

Loves animals, especially birds. She even has a sparrow that follows her around named after her dead brother, Vic.

She has a tendency to adopt both people and animals into her circle. She even has Statice as part of her family group now, which does entail a few shenanigans here and there.

Cons:

Is bad a putting the needs of others before her own. She has often exhausted herself in the effort to help others, forgoing even basic needs.

She has no filter and no self-boundaries. You will know things you didn't wish to and there isn't much you can do to prepare for it.

Her mental state isn't as stable as it once was. Zenos did quite a number on her and as a result she has PTSD. Most days are uneventful, but occasionally her thoughts go sour and it takes some doing to pull her back out of it. Herbal remedies have helped, but they only lessen the intensity, not the frequency of events.

She will often adopt the stance of 'I'll do it myself.' when things need doing, disregarding that others are both capable and wanting to participate in whatever activity is going on. She can be stopped, but that is her default.

She was wanted by the Brass Blades for a while, but a name and hair change threw them off before she ever became an adventurer.

Other Facts:

She is in a romantic relationship with M'naago, but is open to more physical ones. Her time earning gil with the U helped her to delete the stigma that came with sexual activity, and she will engage with anyone she finds she trusts enough or who is willing to pay enough (with some exceptions). M'naago is fine with this as long as there aren't suddenly a bunch of little Miqo'te to take care of.

To deal with the above point, she has knowledge of a tea that acts as many things, including a contraceptive, that the U use themselves for all kinds of purposes.

She loves spicy meals a lot, and can put away a great deal of food, especially after intense physical activity.

She is the unofficial head of the new Fists of Rhalgr, and seeks to rebuild the order as an organization of trusted individuals with the capacity to solve problems themselves. Its not unlike some versions of the Jedi Order, but with primarily the martial arts of the Monk. She wants the people of Gyr Abania and surrounding areas to see them as a good thing when they come through, and to have earned enough trust with those people that they are able to come forward with their problems rather than having anything build up into larger ones that will be harder to deal with later.

She has a lot of 'street smarts' but is only semi-literate, as she never received a formal education. She can typically work out what something says through context clues and earnest questions. Her writing is also not great, but its legible. Do not ask her to do math past the most basic of multiplication. She likes to learn, and has taken up an interest in founding formal schools in Gyr Abania now that things have settled down.

She is a switch and wants her partner(s) to primarily enjoy themselves. If someone expresses interest in her, she isn't afraid to bluntly tell them Yes or No, though it has historically done more to accidentally chase people off than anything else.

She is quite forward in most social aspects, and isn't afraid to make the first move. Her stance and intentions will be known quickly to any involved.

Will fight anyone and anything, though she would prefer at least an attempt to talk first.

She would have chosen smash on almost every one of these so far.

Is not immune to tassels.

So, what'll it be...

[pumpkinsy0]

its a vague one but ik u always eat with the vague ones... hc for pony getting hyperfocused on something??? (probably writing smth or a book this NERDDD)

omg thank u for having faith in me here im always scared ill fuck up the vague ones and IM SORRY I GOT TO THIS A LIL LATE, i was a lil sleepy bastard last night💔💔 BUT YKNOW WHAT ill make this a generalized thing cause i feel like this happens quite a bit for him that i cant just pin point this to ONE thing if u know what i mean

•fixations for pony r def a roller coaster because chances r it comes from like 3 things, stress (for the future or whatever else), trauma, or its just out of genuine enjoyment from something (ND king here)

•id say how ppl react to how fixation would def push him into to same sphere of him not rlly taking care of himself to some degree, however getting there r two different things and its all based on if its academic or not

•if its academic, everyone is basically pushing him to do better, and he feels WAY more stressed out, it gets to a point where thats genuinely all he can think about and he feels like hes justified in not taking care of himself, cause its for “something good”, he always needs to b reminded or forced into taking care of himself at this point

•so hes more stressed out, but doesnt FEEL that way, he feels like hes just “working hard” and those r the consequences of it

•if its something thats NOT academic, ppl tease him for it and so hes more inclined to hide it and wont fully commit himself to it, so while hes less stressed, he FEELS like hes more stressed bc hes going back to what he SHOULD n doing for his future

•either that or hes worried about if the fixation makes him more or less tuff, he cares desperately for how ppl perceive him

•ALSO, maybe this is y pony was so annoyed w darry for making him flip flop between “doing school work vs letting loose” other than the obvious reason of it like just being confusing for him as for what to prioritize/do, it also just made pony even more stressed because his emotions kept changing over it, he wouldnt consistently feel one thing and that was an outside factor that just rlly fucked him up

•PERSONALLY, i do think he hyperfixated on fire and writing his essay and on fire for a good long while, hes also hes fixated on a few movies before but i feel like hes a pretty picky movie guy so it doesnt happen a lot

•i think the only person who would ever realize that ponys gettin rlly into something is soda bc sodas had/has the same issue, only thing is ppl write sodas off as him just being quirky and pony as being like a “go getter”

•while writing his essay, instead of like writing in small burst, he would write for a good long amount of time, like in huge burst, spend maybe even a few hours without realizing bc it was like 10mins in his eyes

•with books, he doesnt rlly get into like that, like yea he likes books but i dont think its exactly common for that to happen, at least w like story books

•w non fiction factual books, bc its the 60s he does rely on those quite a bit for his other fixations to get the info he wants, u can find a couple books in his collection relating to his interest at the time

[trenched-horizon]

Clan OC Rambling part 1 out of 21255425525623

Khan Xaiden of Clan Tiger of the Horizon, my beloved. One day your doc and outfit refs will be made eventually Eventually Clan Tiger of the Horizon info dump will be out Im end up making more info for this guy Facts: - Xaiden is a Clanner and was Star Colonel when Operation REVIVAL happened. He then became Galaxy Commander in 3052. And then Khan 3062. He retired to seKhan in 3067, and returned back too Khan in 3071. His term ended by his death at 3076. - First mech was a Adder, second was a Black Hawk, third was a Summoner, and last was a Kodiak (same mech as Yaibi had pilotted) - He was 26 in Operation REVIVAL. Making him 28 as Galaxy Commander and 38 as Khan. 45 when he was seKhan, 50 as Khan, and 56 when he died. - Nerthus (former Khan) fucked up everything. Xaiden saw this as an opportunity too take advantage of the corrupted Council and persuade them to let him and other galaxy commanders to rule the council. With this being said, Xaiden did a trial of annihilation and position. However he did it up close and personal aka no usage of mechs. - Context for the council. The Clan Tiger of the Horizon trains their clanners to be psychologically smart and have philosophy mindsets. Xaiden and his group aka the rebellion of the clan took down the Council through manipulation, persuasion, and fucking their own military over. The loyalists were killing each other as Xaiden and his own council forced Star Colonels to tell them to do so underneath the excuse of "wait, they're the rebellion!". Xaiden also killed people that he had to kill. - Xaiden was a elemental in training before he proved himself to be a mechwarrior -Bisexual masc-lean -Literally does not care about his pronouns. Will respond to she/her, they/them, it/its, etc etc -Unphased by most insults, gets really pissy with 'pussycat' insults and jokes -Learned German while in Clan territory (his clan kept some parts of the inner-sphere) and gaelic when the clan emerged to the Inner-Sphere -Short king, 5'4. Genemother took over his height genetics -When it comes too shipping with canon these guys fit perfect: Jayden, Ezra, Wimmer, Mia, Akari (maybe) - Puts himself before any other choice - Soft and tender, but will snap if you don't get what he's saying or you didnt do what he told you to do - Lacks empathy but has common sense. He has a soft spot for nuturing children and keeping the innocent safe. Xaiden loves to be there with his Whelps and will father them until they're okay - Xaiden is a psychological liar and narcissist. He is classified Lawful Evil leaning too Neutral Evil. He follows the law and will corrupt it if he has too.

[thothunter-420]

what do you think about the stuff pete did... Im sure you know what i mean... the whole pedo thing........ i love him lots im just really not sure how to like him Publicly knowing someone might ask about it and i was wondering what u had to say about it since it seems you're pretty open about liking him

idk what to put in the tags for this one ngl SO SAYING IT HERE: sensitive content warning for mentions of csa and discussion around illicit materials. if anyone wants to shoot me a message with actual tags i should put on this, please do!! would rather be safe than sorry here but i never use this app smh. so it's a complex subject for sure but i don't think he's guilty based on what i've seen and read. his autobiography touches on this a lot, with the discussion ranging him from being a csa victim himself to attempting to go vigilante mode when he was doing a google search to donate to a russian orphanage (i think it was cuz one of his friends was involved in some kind of charity) and stumbled across a horrible site. what he did with putting his card into a site after that as part of his research or whatever was so incredibly stupid of him, and he def knows it now. and while you can go "yea that's his autobiography of course he wouldn't say anything", there was no evidence found of him possessing anything and there has been no pattern of him doing it before or attempting it again as far as i know. he's a celebrity and they would have absolutely cracked down on him to make an example of him if they could have, but pete stuck to his story and was also backed by daltrey 100% (which is huge considering their rocky relationship but i digress). on top of no one else coming out with anything to really incriminate pete, there is nothing to really prove anything. it's a super awful and suspicious sounding case, but i don't believe he's actually all of that. plus i doubt he would found a charity like double 'o' if he did not genuinely have compassion for victims. there are people who have done a lot worse in the classic rock sphere with actual evidence against them also, so i really do not think he is this deplorable individual. knowing pete's track record and personality, he did something stupid and ill-advised but had his heart in the right place. silly ol me on tumblr isn't the best source though so feel free to look into things on your own as well!! the info is out there, and i encourage you all to do your own research if you're comfortable with it for sure

[bpd-girlie]

I think I've made myself very clear on the Venus exile/detriment period in Aries being a marker of things changing, but I thought it'd be nice to have a more thorough explanation as to why !

Venus will enter its exile in Aries soon. As I mentioned before, a planet entering its exile/detriment means that they're weaker from a cabalistic perspective-- those who wish to create a talisman or make requests to the planets are encouraged to not do so during those periods, and rather do them during the planet's domicile period (more info on this in "the book of talismanic magic" by Francisco Stiglich)

But this Venus in Aries (ViA) is particular because it'll happen while Venus is in retrograde. This hasn't happened since 2017. What does that mean? Whatever happened in 2017 during ViA will be replicated this year, either the complete opposite or literally the same. I'll leave it there as a general message for those who like astrology as much as I do ! Think about what happened to you in 2017 and keep your eyes peeled this upcoming month, especially when it comes to your love life

How does this link to the mcyt sphere? That's a trickier question. This period will make or break relationships, friendships, bonds of all kinds, so dear crit blogs out there, be ready for some fallouts and new relationships !

One I will focus on is the one I've gotten some asks about recently: Shubble and Ethan Nestor. Their friendship started in 2017, as far as I'm aware, and I know some have been speculating on whether or not they're together, flirting, if it's a one-sided crush. Considering my recent reading on Shubble, the fact that she's a Leo and he's a Scorpio, my conclusion is: situationship. This ViA will either establish that as a real relationship or make them become distant/go back to being purely platonic friends

Another one: tubbo and ginger. same thing as the last one, but theirs I feel will go slower !

As for the dream and tommy drama, this period will be a closing chapter for them :)

Feel free to ask about this, I love being a nerd over this stuff

[starvingtongue]

gonna put some X-2 canon divergent headcanon things for Wakka here. some of these are stated in the info document I have for Wakka, but I'm putting other things here too:

While I do ship Wakka and Lulu, their relationship starts much later than what we see in X-2. They admit their feelings to each other shortly before X-2 and it takes Yuna leaving to join the Gullwings for them to begin dating. Lulu is by no means pregnant. Them finally admitting they have feelings for each other was a slow process, neither of them fully realising it until a few weeks before X-2 starts. This is definitely a slow build up and not something that happens overnight. Maybe one of the grannies finally asked when they were getting together and it clicked.

Would Yuna have known this before going off on her adventures with the Gullwings? I don't think so, but I'm open to this not being the case, mainly cause Besaid's small enough that a small shift in someone's behaviour can cause people to sniff out the truth really quickly. Yuna can also be pretty observant, so she'd probably be able to put 2 and 2 together. Wakka or Lu would probably come clean when Yuna visits in Chapter 1, maybe Lu would after Wakka runs off in search of a sphere. Speaking of which...

There's still the conversation of Wakka wanting to find that sphere of his parents (which turns out to be a sphere of Chappu saying it didn't exsist). Wakka still goes out to try and find it, nearly getting himself seriously injured in the process, because he's been out of the guardian game for near 2 years at this point. He remembers it and wants to find it, which brings up the thought of having children and fatherhood. That aspect doesn't change.

While he does sometimes play blitzball with the Aurochs, he's not entirely their Captain anymore. As he was helping the Al Bhed with their rebuilding efforts in the period between X and X-2, he didn't have the time. In comes Beclam during X-2, who takes over captain duties and wants to burn the temple down, which makes Wakka realise he misses more than he thought he did. The same series of events happen where Beclam wants to burn down the temple and is disappointed by how the Aurochs are, especially after hearing they won the tournament 2 years prior. Beclam leaves the same way he does in X-2, and Wakka finally resumes his duties as captain of the Besaid Aurochs.

Post X-2, Wakka is once again the full-time Captain of the Besaid Aurochs and spends a lot of time between Besaid and Luca. In instances where a Tidus is around, Wakka invites him to be part of the team once again and eventually invites him to Co-Captain it too. This gives him something to do outside of staying on Besaid and lets both him and Lu have a little freedom from each other. He, of course, lets Lu go off and do her own thing as well. He'd be a hypocrite if he didn't.

Neither he nor Lulu are the leaders of Besaid. Wakka advises on a couple of things here and there, as does Lulu, but doesn't feel like Besaid is big enough to be governed by one person. And considering how busy he can be with the Aurochs, he doesn't always have the time to lead.

Both of them, however, do help out with keeping fiends away from the village. Wakka still has his World Champion blitzball in his hut and will occasionally go outside the village walls to make sure the fiends are taken care of. This keeps both of their skills sharp, especially after what happened with the fiends that poured out of the temple.