#(unless it comes from their blorbos on the us team)

[autisticbokutoenthusiast]

ranting about niche things in my own tags so i can come back to them at a later point and see if my opinions have changed (i was in a crowded area for longer than i wanted to today and need to get over my hater energy)

[dropoutconfessions]

the response "touch some grass" to people being reasonably upset about how certain topics are handled on a show like d20 with a major audience is, imho, deeply frustrating, and telling regarding how parasocial the fandom is regarding the cast.

like. call me a basement dwelling chronically online loser "taking it too seriously" all you want, i don't think making a repeated comedic punching bag out of shit like a teenage character getting groomed is beyond criticism or reproach. just because your show is primarily made with comedy in mind doesn't mean you get to alleviate yourself of responsibility or criticism because it was "just a joke" and "not that serious."

sometimes i really do wish they wouldn't try and straddle the line between comedy & trying to include real, deeply serious and complex issues into their stories for the sake of flavor. if "it's just a silly improv show" then stop bringing up serious issues and making light of them. if it's a show capable of discussing those issues in a respectful and serious way, then stop making light of them every single time they come up without fail.

i think people have really begun to view criticism as the antithesis of enjoying something and it's such a shame. i love d20, and that's why i have these criticisms. because i KNOW they are capable of being better and i KNOW they are whole ass competent adults capable of understanding when certain issues can be used as flavor and when they need to be withheld unless the table is prepared to handle them responsibly, but this fandom is so hellbent on behaving like rabid guard dogs, shielding their precious parasocial blorbos from any feedback that's even remotely negative that no one is capable of having a discussion about the actual impact of the things that the d20 team makes.

-

[ihavemanyhusbands]

baby, loml, wifey, may i pretty please request a small blorbo from you (tw smut) 🥺

a threesome w/Morgan & Reid where morgan is fucking her mouth while reid is eating her out but they're not letting her come until she makes morgan come

and if it inspires you, maybe add the prompt “If you want to cum then you’re gonna have to beg” but in a mean way😈

GOOD GOD YES!!!! Besooooooo nalgona hermosa te tkm <3

(I changed the phrase a little I hope that���s okay hee hee)

——-

“She’s close again,” Spencer said, devious mirth in his voice.

Morgan stopped your motions, keeping your head down gently.

“Then you better slow down, Reid,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Unless you’re done having fun?”

“Far from it,” Spencer assured, and you suppressed a shudder when he licked a long stripe up your inner thigh. “If she really wants to cum, she can ask us nicely.”

You hummed around Morgan’s length, breathing slowly through your nose. You were growing frustrated with the game they were playing, especially because they teamed up against you.

“Think you can beg for us, baby?” Morgan purred, stroking your hair. “I know I’m anxious to see you cum all over Reid’s face.”

You could only make noises in protest, glaring at him from the corner of your eye. He chuckled, thrusting shallowly into your mouth.

“So stubborn,” Spencer rasped, his hot breath against your cunt.

Your hips jerked as his tongue dipped inside of you, your walls fluttering around it, desperate for release.

Morgan let out a breathy moan as he let you move your head again in time with his thrusts.

“That’s okay, I know she’ll be good,” he said. “There’s other ways she can earn it, after all.”

——

[fairlyqualityanon]

who're your pred/prey crushes ?

totally not collecting blorbos like trading cards shhh - 🪀

Oooooof.wav

There's a ton... I'll try to organize them. Let's start with ones I've written in some form or another.

Pred - TFA Starscream (so close with that guess lmao), anyway I've got this story I've been poking at since literally 2010 (@/wolvesinstarryskies is so supportive 💖 ) and it's gotten me through some really tough times, and yes there's a vore AU... also he's how I found out about vore to begin with (long story, it's over on my Tumblr RP blog)😳, really he's just a dick to his prey and will let them go after thoroughly messing with their head unless you can come up with some bribe worthy of Future Leader Of The Decepticons

Pred - Obey Me! Mammon, idk he threatens to eat the MC and I went "YES PLEASE", I have more fun flustering him when he's a pred than when he's prey 😼

Pred - Obey Me! Beel, it's literally canon and he's a precious boy and going hungry sucks and I'd be perfectly happy to help him not be starving 🥺 I don't care if he eats regular food at the same time as long as I'm safe

Prey - Obey Me! Lucifer (yes really), because that mans is going to take a break whether he wants to or not and I think Diavolo/Barbatos would see the humor in MC taking things into their own hands (my MC's strongest/most-expressed Sin is Pride plus she ain't afraid of this old man 😤)

Switch - Deltarune Spamton, I think he'd be easier to pay to be prey than pred, and I have a thing for robots meaning SNEO defaults to pred and I will immediately yeet myself into whatever fuel container said robopred uses no questions asked 😅

Newest obsession is Solo Leveling (IncredibleEdibleCalico actually did a piece ages back) and I only remembered after watching S1 of the anime and starting the manhwa. I mistakenly bought the books and comic (Vol 1-8) but regret neither purchase. Soooo good! 😍 Anyway here they are in super rough descending order of crush level.

Sung Jinwoo - Pred, I don't know how to put it into words, he just oozes soft pred vibes where tf did he even get that rune stone??? 🤔 maybe he saves someone from a Dungeon and discovers vore is actually pretty neat, he's comically oblivious at times and cares for his minions as people ugh the glowy eye affect it makes me weak

Woo Jinchul - Switch, professional, dry sense of humor, looked Death in the eye and only flinched when he saw the Apocalypse ahead, incredibly smart and intuitive, he's my Guilty Pleasure on this list 👮‍♂️

Song Chi-Yul - Pred, I lied here's another Guilty Pleasure, I actually literally cried at the end of the manhwa, he's only a C-rank mage but teaches swordsmanship to S-ranks, tried to save Jinwoo and Joohee but was talked out of it and regrets it to this day, he is classy and I just want to spend time with him🫡

Baek Yoonho - Prey (yes really), idk something about him makes me want to aggressively demonstrate affection, don't ever tease him about it because despite being the weakest Korean S-rank Hunter HE IS STILL AN S RANK and will cut a bitch (he was ready to beat the crap out of Hwang Dongsoo for strangling his lower-ranked guildmate edit that guildmate isn't even a Hunter and that is not a Hunter you want on your bad side srsly just Do Not The Thing)😼

Choi Jong-In - Pred, he's canonically a bit of a shit-talker and gives me OM! Diavolo vibes and I love me some playful banter with preds what is it with me and people with a red theme?? 😧

Son Kihoon - Switch, he's a sweetheart and I want to snuggle him three different ways, he cares for his strike squad and was willing to set aside a chance for tremendous personal glory as well as sacrifice his whole team to keep a literal army of High Orcs from destroying a few cities 🫂

Go Gunhee - Pred, he's a total badass who gave his all to keep Hunters from basically forming a Might Makes Right society also I have a Thing for older men I am not ashamed to admit it, Song-san is up there for a reason, the man is a Gigachad who outright rigs Hunters Association assignments to keep the D- and E-ranks as safe as possible 🙇‍♀️

Yoo Jinho - Prey, because he's just a sof' boi and must be protected at all costs, maybe he'd find it interesting and like that he was sought out for him and not just because he's Ahjin Guild's vice/Jinwoo's friend 😋

I started Stardew Valley 7/14 so there's gonna be some of that eventually my askbox is open 📨 if anyone wants to gush over their own vore crushes.

Can't forget Horizon Zero Dawn! the events of the Gemini Quest are NOT canon I refuse don't even @ me I WILL die on that hill 🔪

Kotallo - Switch, he's definitely my favorite character and I just love him so dang much, he's a fearsome warrior even without that arm and a brilliant strategist and completely loyal to the good of the Tenakth tribe as a whole, having no other ambition save serving his Chief... but I also want him to sit and relax, maybe having a stomach all to himself will give him a new perspective or insight ⚔️

Milvund - Pred, I did his miniquest back when my computer couldn't run HFW for more than 5-10 minutes but he's so precious and I'm betting would be very hesitant yet also so caring just let me comfort him 😭

Racking my brain for any other major fandoms but I can't come up with any for the life of me so have a bonus Pred TFA Cliffjumper because I have an active thread with him. ... Maybe jjks? I'd have to twist canon in knots to make Sukuna a safe pred, and there's a couple others but I haven't even finished S2 of the anime and a bunch of them are minors soooo...

>>; So much time in TFA focused on That One Smug Bastard and now I'm like "how do with other 'Cons??"

[jerzwriter]

I hope you're still taking asks for the generator thingy because I come bearing an armful of them:

7 and 10 for Trystan and Carolina

2, 8 for Tobias and Casey

And if it isn't too much 5, 9 for Zoe, Eli and Troy lmaoooo.

Mads - for you - anytime, anyhow! 😊 (Plus like we don't LOVE talking about our blorbos! lol) From this generator.

#7 for Trystan & Carolina

OK, not me dying because TRYSTAN. FOR REAL. How does one say drama queen in Drakovian? 😂😂😂 Oh, Trystan is about the drama. He's happy to bring it on purpose (like creating distractions), but he tends to bring it when it's not intentional too. Meanwhile, poor Carolina is like rolling her eyes in a corner. lol

Carolina will be a drama queen if required (again, to deflect) but in general, she's not too dramatic. That's allll Trystan's. lol

#10 for Trystan & Carolina

They're both New Yorkers... you better believe they do! lol Carolina honestly prefers walking, unless the weather is atrocious or it's really just too far (like her commute from the Bronx to Manhattan for work), she will walk. But she takes the subway, bus, taxis, Ubers, and she'll even rent a Citibike. Trystan, on the other hand, prefers driving (even in NYC traffic). But he'll walk or do all the others, too.

#2 for Tobias & Casey

HA! OK, since I did not have Ethank take the Chief position (he would have been miserable), he remained as Director of DT (which Casey was not yet qualified for). So right now, Tobias & Casey are still in Edenbrook on the DT, reporting to Ethan.

Ethan is one of their best friends, and he's even their daughter's godfather, but at work, it's professional—kind of. Tobias still busts his balls 24/7, and Ethan probably wants to poison him at least ten times a week. But when push comes to shove, they have a good work relationship when it counts. They will but heads. Tobias absolutely lets him know when he thinks he's wrong, but that's what Ethan wants. It's how they push each other toward excellence. In general, Tobias has gotten along with his bosses unless they're total assholes, in which case, he'd probably be moving on. (The man's loaded and talented, no need to tolerate that.)

Casey has a great working relationship with Ethan. She is sort of the envy of the Diagnostic Team (and most of Edenbrook, tbh) because she is the one person who can tell him to fuck himself three ways to Sunday when he's being an asshole, and he will just go, "OK," and stop. (Tobias will use this to his advantage when absolutely necessary! lol) Casey typically gets along with her bosses. She's as charming as Tobias is and not as much of an ass, so she can always make it work.

Both have good relationships with and are liked by most of their co-workers, at least at this stage of the game.

#8 Tobias x Casey

OK. Just bow to the masters because they are the king and queen of flirting. Casey is more subtle, for sure, and unlike Tobias, it's not her "go-to" mode. Tobias doesn't even realize he's flirting at times; it's kind of funny. lol Also, his flirting can sometimes be cheesy as fuck, but since he's handsome and charming, it always works. He could charm the paint off a wall. But Casey's flirting almost never fails.

Tobias lives in that mode; Casey used to do it a lot, not as much since she's with Tobias (but she still flirts with him all the time.)

#5 for Eli, Zoe, and Troy

OK, I think this is relatively low for all of them. Given the life they lead, they have to be ready to go at any moment, and sometimes, a normal sleep schedule just isn't going to happen. Their ideal amount of sleep in a night (if they could be granted a wish), Eli: 7 hours, Zoe: 8 hours, Troy: 10 hours. I think Eli and Zoe can get through a day pretty well if they don't sleep much, but Troy will ABSOLUTELY be looking for sneaking naps in all day. lol

#9 for Eli, Zoe, and Troy

HA! I'm dying. OK

Eli: Hell no. I mean, if Zoe begged, he might do it begrudgingly. Once. He wouldn't be terribly good at it. lol

Zoe: She would, probably does, and is quite good.

Troy: He would, probably does, and is quite good. lol

Thanks so much for the asks, Mads!

[nessandaus]

I reappear from the abyss to drop more F2U AU Ideas upon you! Today we have a FMA: Pokemon au! 

In this AU, State Alchemists are Gym leaders (some sample teams below) but they all have various classifications other than typing. Sure, you have Ed, Full-Metal, and he runs a full steel type team, and Mustang with his fire type team, and Alex Louis with his fighting team. But then you have Tucker with his horrible chimera team, Kimblee who G-maxes his team, and Marcoh whose team is all pokemon tied to healing (and he used to mega evolve them but he no longer does so unless necessary). They also still do alchemy and can boost their pokemon attacks using alchemy (I.E. Mustang can do his flame alchemy with fire from his pokemon, and Ed could use alchemy to change his Scarmory’s feathers into a big sword.) 

As a trainer in the region, most of your time is actually spent hunting down the wandering gym leaders to ask them to battle. Alex Louis is typically the one trainers look to face first, because despite his high rank, rumors are out that he is the nicest gym leader. 

Alphonse is travelling with Ed, but isn’t a gym leader, rather counting himself as a trainer and happily showing off his collection of gym badges. Those who challenge him thinking he’s the Fullmetal are always shocked and terrified when instead Al pulls out one of several cat pokemon. Ed is the worst gym leader to face because he just tries to bite you and punch you himself half the time, and then his party is weirdly overpowered for no reason.

Winry is still an automail tech, but she’s also skilled in apricorn crafting, and can whip up pokeballs easily in a pinch. Olivier isn’t a gym leader but you better be prepared before coming across her team because her ice types are the kind that will FUCK YOU UP.

Scar is trying to eliminate the gym leaders and is also collecting badges to gain the right to challenge the Champion as well. 

The champion is Father. And the elite four are Pride, Wrath, Sloth, and Envy. (Greed was originally going to be an E4 member but he defected and is now on the side of defeating the champion.) 

----

Some Team Ideas: 

Edward Elric:  -Skarmory (of course). Angry bird is constantly smug that it is taller than Ed. Angry bird and Ed fight constantly -Lucario: Ed’s starter, Ed hatched the Riolu egg when he was very young.  -Metagross: Ed caught it at full hp with a pokeball, on the first ball he threw. Ed loves him very much. -Bisharp. This pokemon joined Ed because theve bad taste in knife hands. They are sparring partners.

Alphonse Elric: -Galarian Meowth/Perrserker: Al’s starter. Ed got him a steel type cat egg because he has a bias, but knew Al would also have his own bias. Likes to ride on Al’s shoulder. -Torracat: Soon to be an incineroar, this one is what really throws people off when they mistake Al for the Fullmetal.  -Sylveon: I said the Eeveelutions are cats, and Al is full of LOVE at all hours! -Purrugly: Al’s handsome boy, his name is probably Blorbo. Has 6 contest ribbons just because. Wears cute sweaters when the weather is cold. is perfect in every way.

Winry Rockbell:  -Houndoom: This smart dog is the AU version of Den, down to the automail leg. Is winry’s companion, and he’s better at identifying what tools Winry needs than Ed is. -Happiny: Still not evolved, this little creature was found by Winry and taken in in memory of the Chansey that worked with her parents. Happiny keeps a wrench in her pouch instead of a rock. 

Alex Louis Armstrong: -Buzzwole: Should the first gym leader have an Ultra Beast? Probably not. But Alex does anyway, because Buzzwole just showed up one day for a flexing contest. Don’t worry, he’s only like level 15 when you challenge the gym.  -Machoke: I’m going for an aesthetic don’t stop me -Makuhita: This little girl is working to get muscles like her fellow pokemon and her dad. Alex showers her with love daily. Can often be found tucked under Buzzwole’s arm like a football.

Oliver Mira Armstrong (The Ice Queen): -Beartic: The first out of the gate. This Bear is always at least 10 levels higher than your ace. And it’s the lowest level on the team. Why did you piss off Oliver so much she’s fighting you? You’re gonna die. -Lapras: Look, your fire type strategy isn’t gonna work here. Oliver may have all ice types but she’s good at what she does -White Kyruem. It’s not a surprise she has a legendary, is it? It shouldn’t be. She’s the ice queen.  -Abomasnow: sure it’s easy to beat, but it has snow warning and can set up blizzard again if need be. Plus it’s holding that item that makes blizzards last 8 turns. That means you know what’s up next, don’t you? -Froslass: The other ice queen. It can and will ruin your day. 

Riza Hawkeye:  -Intelleon -Intelleon -Octillery -Intelleon -Magmortar: her dad’s old pokemon. 

Roy Mustang: -Typhlosion - Roy’s cyndaquil starter, all grown up. A normal Typhlosion. Hates the rain and will not come out of the pokeball when it is raining. -Heatmor: Roy loves his stupid baby anteater his scrunglywungly, his precious angel. Mustang hatched the egg himself.  -Salazzle. She’s a bad bitch. She’ll also fuck your shit up. -Combusken: Has an eviolite, is affectionately called the better Fullmetal. Very squawky.  -Talonflame: The ace of the party, a very good bird.

Shou Tucker:  -Oranguru: The first pokemon that appears able to talk? Shou “adopted” it three years ago, around when his wife disappeared. -Houndstone: Wait....why does it sound like Nina?

[vro0m]

Heyy this may be a silly question and obvs feel free to ignore for any reason or no reason at all but I saw people on the dash have differing opinions about this and I'm not sure what to think. So early on in the race (lap 8) George asked about Lewis' pace and he was told Lewis was struggling but they didn't switch positions or anything. I've seen the idea that they sabotaged George's race by not having them switch being floated around a bit. I'm personally not of this opinion, I think there wasn't much of a point swapping them on lap 8, from what I understood their paces weren't too different and Lewis was gaining soon after that anyway and Nando would have jumped them both, it was only a matter of time. Basically I just don't know if I'm being stupid with my thought process (I'm still sort of learning how strategy works and stuff)

But yeah also thanks for being a voice of reason on my dash! I've seen too much doom and gloom today but I'm trying to keep a mindset of improvement and seeing where we'll go and also just enjoying my blorbos in the midfield doing good even though my blorbos in mercedes are kind of not.

Hey hey Anon!

It's not a silly question at all. Strategy is very complicated and difficult. I'm by no means an expert myself, just as a disclaimer

So I went back and checked. It was the end of lap 8 indeed when George said that over radio although there's a bit of a delay between the moment the comms take place and the moment they're broadcasted.

I think there's several things to take into account there. Unless the car behind has a lot more pace than the one in front, as in, it can overtake the car in front of them both, in this case Sainz, it's basically no use switching cars. It's a loss of time to do so. I don't think either of them at that point had the pace to do that. Also it would have been different if that was something that kept coming up throughout the race but at just one point, it's irrelevant.

Also, usually Mercedes tends to favour the car in front in strategy calls (like they usually pit the first car first unless the second car is under serious threat) except if it looks like it might cost the team as a whole a better result. But again, it wasn't the case there, the race had barely started.

Tbh I'm not even sure George was implying he wanted to bet let ahead, or if he just wanted Lewis to pick up the pace because he felt he was backing him up into Alonso who had good pace behind him and was getting closer. Like "is he slow or is he struggling" as in, "I feel we could be quicker, can he do that or is he struggling and it's out of his hands rn?" Who knows? Maybe some things that were said in the postrace interviews shed some light on that? I haven't seen them.

Anyway, I don't have access to pace data but I highly doubt Mercedes would sabotage their own car lol. They're not stupid. If they did the things they did there's a reason for it.

And thank you for your kind words, I appreciate it 💕

[whentheynameyoujoy]

In some Vulture piece revisiting HoTD in a decade, a culture writer is gonna look at Criston’s lines about respecting all women (except Rhaenyra) that are currently being laughed at because incel and realize the rape angle that is being completely overlooked because he’s a man. Tbh I’m not convinced the show is clever enough, but between Rhaenyra assaulting Criston and Rhaenys mindlessly murdering a ton of peasants and both of these actions being cheered on by the audience, they have the option here to lure the masses into a POV trap before slamming it into our faces that actually, all these characters have never been good people and our narrative biases and dissonance have blinded most of us from seeing the truth from the off. Which is one of the better things about the POV structure of the main ASOIAF books.

Just this morning I was thinking about the stan culture in the asoiaf fandom in general. This fandom isn’t special for choosing a team to blindly cheer and project onto and defend while ignoring the actual story and focusing on what “the antis 🤢” say about their blorbo in chief as the primary point of analysis. It is special in missing completely that poking at this obsessive bitch fighting is kinda what the books are about. Because in the end it doesn’t matter which character is morally good or likeable or even in the right. What matters is that there’s an extinction level event incoming and they’re all going to die unless they set their own interests aside and work with each other.

As for the show turning the tables on the audience, sadly I’ve seen precious little coming from the backstage that’d indicate TPTB are interested in thematising the biases of its audience and using them to make a broader point about viewers willingly letting themselves be seduced into supporting bad people in bad systems (something D&D famously lied about trying to do with Dany). So far, it seems they fell into the classic trap of “I can’t possibly make myself any clearer, I’m not going to insult my audience’s intelligence by assuming it could be this stupid”. Well, this is the asoiaf fandom we’re talking about so yes, it absolutely is this stupid.

[desultory-novice]

As a big fan of Kirby lore and how much I crave it, I must ask. Do you think the Ancients could be one race? Or do you think their are multiple races that came together and formed a tribe called the Ancients? Note: The latter might sound confusing so I'll give an example. Imagine the Zora, Gerudo, Sheikah, and Hylians from Legend of Zelda. While they're separate races, some from each race could come together and form a team.

Oooh!

As a matter of fact, I do lean toward the Ancients being multiple species. One thing I think could lend some credence to this is Halcandra itself! It's seemingly very important to the ancients, being a resting place for Landia, the Master Crown, and the Lor Starcutter. And at least by novel canon, the Lor Starcutter is something of a god. 

But we seem to understand that the Ancients didn't start from Halcandra, but from the Forgotten Land.

Or it went Earth = Shiver Star > Forgotten Land (Earth 2)

If Magolor was born in Halcandra (he could have been lying about that, although there's the "Steel Home Town" BGM too that is written with his distinctive accent in JP) well...he doesn't exactly LOOK human, does he?

(I know a lot of people believe Magolor is a kind of cat on account of the "ears" and that one Cat Day twitter art, but he still doesn't look like an Earth cat, given he's nothing like Clawroline.)

-

*On that note, I was re-reviewing the various Magolor concept art and saw they describe his pointies as "horns" in at least two of the pictures!

Top one says: “His horns grow.” Bottom one says: “modeled on/picture horns.” (Also, this is a really fun Magolor design. Love the earring.) The other picture in question is the upside-down Magolor design, which is already in English on the wiki.

-

Ahem! We don't know if Magolor looks like Hyness under the hood (blue, funny nose) although Magolor's updated DX model suggests he is in fact brown under there; it's not just shading. But even then, we now have humans (Adeleine being proof that humans in the Kirby-verse generally have Earth human proportions) and uh, two kinds of floating horned creatures that could all claim "the Ancients" as their ancestors.

And before we forget, the Ancients also had Astrals! Or Puffballs! Or Voidborn or ... Blorbos! (Pretty sure Galacta Knight would "Star Dream" me for calling them a Blorbo.)

It would be a little weird (not to mention massively hypocritical) for humanity to nab a bunch of their "dreamlike" technology from an alien they captured, did evil science on, then abandoned in a lab only to THEN go out into the greater universe and start forming friendly alliances with other alien species! Yay?!

But its either that or they began genetically-engineering themselves all to heck, and that's why you have so much variety in species.

...And the genetic-experimentation possibility is also valid (especially thanks to Shiver Star) but I do believe that by the time the "Ancients" had made Halcandra into their main planet, they were more of a group of different species, all united together under...well, under Elfilis's power. Another reason I believe they had brought in other species by this point is because of the existence of MAGIC in the Kirby universe.

The Human!Ancients may have gained dream-like power from Elfilis, but that power is going to be based in technology/bioengineering. The non-human Ancient-aligned characters we know of both use MAGIC like out of a fantasy book. (I'm working on a big post on MAGIC in the Kirby universe, btw, because it is completely fascinating.) So unless that too is engineered (and it's doubtful, once you take into account all the different types of MAGIC) I think the Ancients must have added a species that always possessed magical powers into their group. In fact...!

...Well, I'll save some of that for later!

[skyland2703]

Still can't fathom Oll*e/Amelia...like...where is the chemistry? Unless theirs is the kind that blows up into nothingness...

I can't deal with this ship, imma be honest, I feel like it's dino fury's biggest flaw (And that's saying a lot) but let's be systematic about it.

Spoilers for Season two, and major angst/triggers under the cut

I usually keep my Anti-ollie rants reserved for post tags and screaming on DMs, but you've given me this ask, I'm gonna take it.

Ollie has his issues, he's a lonely-prodigy-self-centred-egomaniac, all of that, yes, and he's got this tendency to drive people away from him. S2E7 showed that he has his own complexes, he doesn't make friends easily and then tells himself he's better than them all to make himself feel better. He's a miserable little man, and of course, he's absolute "tortured blorbo" material. My problem with him is that he's condescending to Amelia without considering her perspective, for OVER A FUCKIN YEAR (one season + few more episodes) and then suddenly one fine day he realises "omg someone other than me has a brain :O"

But. That's not the issue with the relationship. It's Amelia, actually.

Amelia how on earth can you fall for someone who's been doing nothing but belittling you, trying to subdue you, and make crap of your tastes since the first moment he met you? What does she do in response?? Act like an angry child, go some "oomph" "augh" ">:(" and move on. What does she do to put him in his place? Borrow 15 bucks off of him by being cheeky? Ok. Works. What then?

Nothing.

That's it. She just keeps making faces at him with a "oh please let's not do this again" and other than that, she's almost completely neutral. But at the same time we see that she's been thinking of ways to get him down. Do you see how toxic that is? He makes sure that he's constantly on her mind, simply by belittling her. And it's for her passion obsession for the paranormal, that's used as a device. Something that can not be actually proved correct. So from day one we've got this "Ollie is right, Amelia is wrong" set up, and we all know where it's going to go. Paranormal activity most of the times IS actually bullshit, so we have Ollie— on SCIENTIFIC grounds— putting her down, while she tries/struggles to get back up, to prove him wrong.

She's obsessed with proving that Ollie's wrong, that ghosts are real. You can hear the desperation in her voice when she says that to Javi in McScary Manor. Thinking about that, exploring more, what I realise is that... it's all she knows. It's all she's wanted to do in her life, all she's ever worked for. And now everything she believes in, is on stake, because this one guy threatens the entire foundation of her belief. What hurts even more is that this was her coping mechanism to deal with the disappearance of her parents.

Once you realise that, it becomes blatantly obvious what a jerk Ollie has been, with or without knowing it. And once he finds out, he changes overnight? I refuse to believe that. Nobody can change overnight. Sure, he'd try to make up for it— the valentines episode— I can still believe that he likes her, but he still would not treat her as his equal. Heck even the show doesn't think that. Take for example, another tangent, the training scenes.

Season 2, Amelia and Javi double team to beat Zayto, Amelia double crosses Javi, to beat him, then comes face to face with Ollie. Ollie defeats her, just like he had in season 1's training scene. One year, and he's still "above" her. And that's what I distinctly dislike about this pairing. How it always comes with a "Ollie is above Amelia" tag.

Moving back to the plot above, nobody can change overnight. Sure Ollie would feel bad about putting her down, but he's not going to ever feel like she's his equal. If anything, the parents revelation is going to make him feel pity for her. "Oh that poor girl, I've been troubling her so bad for something she did to cope up. I'm a bad person." that emotion is dangerous in a relationship, because AGAIN, he's looking down upon her as a traumatised troubled girl who he now needs to make his shitty behaviour up to.

And see. NOW Amelia has mind reading powers. She's gonna discover it some day, isn't she? Wouldn't that break her heart?

She needs to realise this. Ollie has his issues, but she isn't helping. While this relationship may lead Ollie to fix his ways, it is nothing but toxic for her. She's going to suffer. And ALLLLLL of this is just the tip of the iceberg, I can literally go on for ages ranting about how he mansplains shit to her, how he's always a little too sharp, how much it would STING if someone IRL does that— Amelia girl please stop it— how Ollie's actual biggest development in the series is realising people other than him have brains that can be applied too, and then don't even get me started on that episode with his mom— WHAT THE FUCK DUDE, that lady's the mother who raised you and she's a good mom!

*sigh*

So anyway, listen, I don't like Ollie. I'm not so big on Amelia either, while she's on this relationship and I don't even need to get onto my Javelia propaganda, but this relationship is not working out.

Dino Fury's left us off at this station— let's see if the writers judge it well, and fix their flaws in cosmic... or you're getting another much more detailed rant at the end of Cosmic.

Thanks for the ask, thanks for coming to the Ted Talk, I loved. blowing off this steam~

PS: once the series is over, Amelia finds her parents, Ollie is going to go "o h you found your parents! No need to look for the paranormal anymore!! YAY WE CAN BE HAPPY" and just like that. the relationship works out, while Amelia gets smothered over and over again, because now she's got nothing. absolutely. Nothing. That's her end. she can go be a housewife and raise his kids in peace. take it from me in writing, Amelia's career/life/shit is over in cosmic. She's just gonna be Ollie's pretty girl when he's fighting Zedd. IF the writers decide to keep the ship. There's no way she's gonna grow. She's going to lose it all if she stays with him, so Amelia, I'm begging you... dump him.

[recurring-polynya]

okay i am back from errands.

Firstly: I make world building headcanons for many reasons. I love to explore and enrich the world that my blorbos inhabit, to come up with systemic reasons for their motivations and behaviors and the institutions they deal with. Sometimes there are parts of canon and bother me, and I want to come up an explanation for it. This is not one of those. This one is for messy drama, contrived emergency marriage fanfic scenarios.

Secondly: I spent my driving-around-town time earlier thinking about why ship captains are able to marry people in the first place, and I came up with some theories that are applicable to the Gotei

I haven't mentioned it lately, but in a couple of my earlier fanfics, established the existence of Gotei-sanctioned marriage, which allows people to get married without the permission of their families. The Gotei is already a check in the system against the power of the dynastic families in the sense that it allows powerful individuals from the Rukon to become citizens of the Seireitei. Since marriage is largely arranged by families, it would be fairly easy for the clans shut them out. The idea here is that the Gotei takes the role of the family head. They are obviously not going to provide any dowries or negotiation services, but what they do offer is permission, a permission that overrides that of clan heads where Gotei soldiers are concerned. (The clan heads can still choose to snub their kids who get Gotei-married). I want to be clear: one of the times I brought this up, it was acknowledged in-universe to be the sort of thing that largely shows up in stupid romance novels.

I think the reasoning behind ship captains being able to marry people is that they are often in international waters, where there is no other appropriate jurisdiction. This can also be true of Gotei captains, e.g. Hueco Mundo, the Living World, wilder parts of the Rukon.

I think the real reason to give Gotei captains marriage-powers is honestly for deathbed marriages, where you can marry the squadmate you have been carrying a torch for so they can get widow/er benefits and also inherit your stuff. (this happened on Downton Abbey once). Often this happens on the battlefield, but I can see this being a thing that Unohana gets called on to do a lot, and I think she would do so with a great deal of care and compassion.

Incredibly rare occurrence, but could also be used to do a last minute marriage-before-birth in order to legitimize a kid. (Did this happen in one of the Temeraire books? It was close)

Also, like, sometimes two people from the Rukon with no families want to get married to each other and have a little pomp and as Gotei officers, they deserve that.

After I got home, I decided to try and look up if any of my ideas were legit and it turns out ship captains can't actually marry people it's a myyyyyyyyyth. I mean, they can if they are ordained or otherwise have the credentials to marry people, which a lot of cruise ship captains do because people want to get married on cruise ships. Apparently, also Japanese ship captains can do this. I found no explanation whatsoever for this, just copies of that same Brides article, so I assume it's because the Japanese also love messy fanfic plots.

So, how does it work, you may ask? Well, I think you have to be married by your own captain, unless you're in some special circumstance where you're temporarily under someone else's command (there are at least two not-particularly-improbable scenarios that would have had Hitsugaya having to marry someone during the Advance Team arc; more if you're creative). If one or both people is a captain, they would need to be married by the headcaptain. Anyone can also request to be married by the headcaptain. Yamamoto would only do this extremely rare circumstances, usually where the marriage was very contentious. Kyouraku loves love, though, he'll drop anything to marry people. He'll go on location, he'll wear outfits, he'll get drunk with you afterwards.

It's up to each captain how much effort they want to put into the actual ceremony (the minimum being signing a piece of paper, and the sky's the limit on the other end). They can only deny a marriage for a limited set of circumstances, such as suspected coercion, being drunk, if one of the officers is in a court martial situation, stuff like that.

I'm not gonna lie, a major motivator of this is that I think that if Ikkaku and Yumichika ever got married, the Kenpachi should have to preside. He would not know what he was doing or why and be vaguely pissed about the whole thing, like if you asked a grizzly bear to marry you, but he would do it in the same way that he shows up to captains' meetings and puts his entire Kenpussy into them. I don't care if this is a Category 5 Yumichika Special Occasion and everyone is dressed like it's a Bjork impersonators convention, or if Ikkaku gets grievously injured and insists on marrying Yumichika so his prestigious family has to acknowledge him, both of these are amazing fanfic conceits.

gotei captains should be able to marry people. like ship captains. like on love boat

[bleachbleachbleach]

💠華麗結晶💠

This feels like the kind of post that will languish in drafts for a year if I don’t write it right now, on a time limit, so here goes! This weekend involved a lot of Tourism and tams and my slow burn horror realization that all of the food was going to be held hostage by Socializing with the Regional Archetype Parents of my sister’s cohortmates. But before all that my family and I went to a museum and looked at glass flowers, so I spent a lot of time staring into the middle distance thinking about those. 

Specifically, these ones:

These are plum blossoms, and they are made out of glass. HOW. WHAT. And rest assured, this iPhone snapshot does not do their uncanny verisimilitude justice. In person, it’s completely unreal. They were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the late 19th century, and now I’m obsessed with them.

Even more specifically, I wanted to know: 

Can Hitsugaya make flowers like these out of ice? 

(For Hinamori, obviously. They are plum blossoms, after all.)

We know from the SC that Hitsugaya does ice sculpture--enough to have a semi-regular column about it. Personally, I headcanon that the majority of these sculptures are in the vein of Ruth Asawa’s work, abstract and interested in negative space and in thinking about qualities of space, weight, volume. This headcanon mostly comes from the ash net vacuum ice wall thing he does with Matsumoto in TYBW. But canonically, mostly we just know that he made that very ornate but also ridiculous chair: 

[Colorful Bleach]

I find the chair hilarious, because add a few gargoyles and this is also 100% an Edward Elric chair, and I guess I can’t imagine Hitsugaya naturally posing with something he made like that unless he were explicitly told to, because this is also 100% one of those awkward Early 00s Soccer Team Photos where you have to pose with a ball in the most ridiculous way possible. (As a survivor of this era of soccer photography, we’re talking like... posed lying on the ground propped up on elbows, legs crossed and the ball balanced between your ankles. Why?)  Hitsugaya probably hates that photo, LOL.  But I digress.

We also know he’s made this bad boy:

[Episode 316]

Though maybe that doesn’t count, since I headcanon that he does do the ice sculpting manually rather than magically, and is meticulous about it. This ice blorbo took like 2 seconds and was definitely magical. Talk about phoning it in for Sad Ghost Kid though, ahahaha. (I am joking. The kid loved it, and all he wanted was to see snow. He didn’t want or need some rando showing off his mad art skillz at him. Ice Blorbo is perfect and the best thing about the entire episode.)

But while we’re talking about magical ice... As far as his capacity for artistic verisimilitude goes, we also know he’s made this weird little guy:

(Bonus headcanon: I think he developed this technique after the fight with Luppi. I don’t know how much he was able to keep track of re: Urahara’s fight with Yammi and his use of his blowup doll gigai while he was running around setting up his own attack, but afterwards he was definitely interested in/wary of Urahara. There’s something about this move that doesn’t feel 100% his style, but I am very attracted to the idea that it was inspired by a combination of his encounter with Aizen in the Central 46 HQ + glancing knowledge of Urahara’s gigai.) 

Though, again, this seems less in the vein of hyperreal sculpture than it is some kind of atmospheric mirage that’s making use of water/light refraction to create a double. So maybe it’s not quite what we’re looking for:

[Chapter 357]

Verdict: Given the examples we have to work with, I kind of feel like Hitsugaya could not, at present, make ice flowers on the level of the Blaschka glass ones. He has the most experience working with ice at scale, and producing things very quickly under duress. Even though the ice sculpting seems to take a different tack--producing things slowly, with no time limit--the projects we’ve seen tend to be fairly large, rather than flower-sized. Credit where credit’s due, Hitsugaya would have to work for it to get on the Blaschkas’ level.

However, I absolutely think that given enough time to do that work, Hitsugaya absolutely could and would. He’s already done work with flower motifs:

[Chapter 359]

So really, it’s just a matter of taking the scale down, and focusing on a different element of craft, both of which seem entirely within Hitsugaya’s wheelhouse and within the realm of things he would be interested in.

He probably spent his entire 10-year timeskip making tiny hyperrealistic ice flowers and learning how to do ice enamel coloring. They all finally had the time.

[itsclydebitches]

have you seen the 'official volume 9 teaser' yet? it came with a plot summary which leaves me... less than enthused for the coming volume

After the harrowing events of Volume 8, our heroines are thrust into an unknown world--the Ever After! However, once Team RWBY explores this strange and mysterious realm, they quickly discover it might not be quite as unknown as they first assumed. As they journey to find a way back home, they'll have to overcome some of their toughest challenges yet--the struggle of their own identities, and whether or not they're equipped to stop Salem.

quite apart from the fact that this seems to confirm that we won't get an answer to 'what happened to everyone in Vacuo' until v10 (unless they give us something at the end of the v9 finale, and at this point I'm bracing for some kind of ridiculous timeskip on the remnant side, i just had the most vivid mental image of oscar with a full beard ;~;), I'm worried that 'the Ever After' is indeed going to be some kind of remnant afterlife (please leave my dead blorbos out of your shenanigans, RT!!!! let them sleep!!!!), or else it's some sort of Wonderland clone which I still don't trust them with, so idek

but also! what identity struggles? when have any of them really grappled with who they are or even their place in the world? blake, MAYBE, but everything to do with the white fang was so badly bungled i can't imagine them circling back around to that intentionally, especially since she was fixed by killing a man and some soft Hand Holding, meanwhile ruby never showed any indication of struggling with who she is, neither did yang--and it's odd, because loss of a parent (in yang's case, two, considering she lost both her mothers) is usually prime fodder for an identity crisis. the closest i can imagine coming is weiss, but wouldn't it had made more sense to tackle her struggle for an identity before having her drop a quippy one-liner about arresting her father?

not to mention the last part of that sentence--one would think they'd have stopped to consider whether or not they were equipped to stop salem when she boldly told them she was coming for them at the end of v7, rather than spending all of v8 fighting against their former allies and ignoring salem's presence entirely (with the exception of like five minutes of the b-team needlessly infiltrating the whale to save someone who'd already gotten himself free).

anyway, yeah, i'm so not excited for this coming volume. i'm just tired.

I’ve now watched the teaser!

There’s a lot to mention here, so I’m going to fall back on my handy-dandy bullet points:

Yeah, based on this teaser and the summary it looks as if Volume 9 might take place entirely in the Ever After. (I’m reserving judgement on the name for now. See if it grows on me...) Given how detailed some of the shots seem and the theory that this is partly why the Volume has taken so long (+ movie), I can’t believe the group would suddenly make it back to Vacuo in episode five or something as a “twist.” I’ve said since the end of Volume 8 that they might do a time skip/only show Vacuo in the finale. That’s looking even more likely now.

Pushing back against that though, a teaser obviously doesn’t show us everything, but I still find it strange that both this trailer and our summary don’t mention/show Jaune. It could be that Vacuo events haven’t been included yet the same way that Jaune hasn't. Or…

I’ve already seen some speculation that this might be Jaune, given that he otherwise doesn’t seem to be with the group, the Knight’s identity is currently hidden, and he’s wearing a warrior/tank's armor like Jaune favors. The idea is that this world might have pockets that move differently through time, especially for those who don’t fall close together, and this is an older Jaune who has spent months or years lost here. Honestly, I’d hate that? I don’t like the idea of a time skip for RWBY at all, but especially not for Jaune as a way of milking his Penny grief and separating him even more from the group as some special case. I mean, there’s no actual evidence for this theory—pure speculation that will likely be debunked by the next trailer—but I’m just going on the record that I don’t want it lol.

Okay, let’s actually start going through this trailer in order. First, who’s the narrator? It doesn’t sound like Jinn to me. I want to say it’s someone new, but also it’s quite possible I’m just not recognizing a character’s voice after the long hiatus.

“This is the story of a girl…” Is it? I mean, kudos to the teaser for trying to bring us back to that, but Ruby hasn’t felt like the protagonist to me in a very long time. If this Volume succeeds in anything, I hope it’s in giving Ruby the compelling, consistent development she’s been lacking since she left Beacon.

“Before she went back home…” This is absolutely a nitpick, but it bugs me that seven seconds into a teaser we’re told the conclusion of this arc. It’s a nitpick because duh the group is going to make it back to Remnant. I doubt there’s a single person in the whole RWBY fandom who seriously thought, for even a moment, that they were permanently dead (or permanently stuck in whatever alternate reality this might be). But it’s the principal of the thing? The ability to suspend my knowledge of narrative conventions and pretend like this is a major hurdle for them? Hearing that line just took me right out of the story

MOUSE FAMILIAR?

Hmm. Admittedly, I am not immune to an adorable companion. 10/10 I’ll put up with a lot if the mouse is cute enough in the show proper.

More importantly, I do like this shot for the expression Ruby’s got. It’s harder to tell in a screenshot, but she looks like she’s horrified, but too numb to actually react to whatever she’s seeing (or thinking about). Combined with this shot:

It looks like we might actually get a Ruby grappling with her trauma. I mean, we thought Volume 6 was doing that too, only for that to get swept away under a booo adults mentality, but maybe the death of Penny (again…) will do what the last five volumes have failed to? That's if that glimpse of Penny doesn't lead to all their dead friends showing up 😬

Beyond the emotion discussed above, I’m not really digging the animation yet. It’s clearly a mix of Alice in Wonderland and… Candyland? And while I normally like nonsense elements in a fantasy, I’m not sure I like it specifically for RWBY, a show that has been trying for the last 6+ years to be taken very, very seriously. Which isn’t to say that you can’t or shouldn’t take absurdist aspects seriously—they function as metaphors and the like—only that there’s this jarring disconnect between trying to grapple with half the group being eaten in a hostile desert while the other half frolics among cherry-topped snow piles and candy mushrooms, or whatever. Obviously not everything in this place is welcoming, or even presenting the veneer of child-like safety, but I’m still encountering the same problem I’ll discuss in my “A Nightmare Comes” recap: it’s really hard to buy into the supposed horror of this grimm when our vehicle for encountering it is bunny!Jaune huddled in his footie PJs while silly-looking statues threaten him. RWBY has struggled with tone for several seasons now and though clearly this place is meant to pit that fantasy wonder against the real horrors underneath… this teaser isn’t helping to convince me that RWBY will pull it off.

Also, who did it better?

(My answer is Witcher XD)  

We get a line about “the tree,” not just “a” tree, confirming what we already suspected about this foliage being important. It might even be the same tree seen in the God of Light’s temple. Not literally the same in terms of design, but some mystical-esque tree that’s connecting this realm to Remnant’s.

We see some potential new antagonists alongside a shot of Neo:

And someone else who fell? Or accessed the realm another way? It certainly looked like the group washed up on shore and she seems to be coming from the ocean.

A Cheshire Cat reference, a crown, and quick shots of the rest of Team RWBY wandering about:

I like some of these shots a LOT more than I like the look of the realm as a whole, so I’m hoping that opinion continues. We’ve waited for this season for so long and there’s such an emphasis on Ever After itself, I feel like we should all at least be able to enjoy the beauty of the volume, even if the writing remains a mess. I really am flip-flopping though because one second it’s, “Oooo gorgeous leaves housing mysterious eyes” and then, “How did Jaune grow his hair long enough to cover a whole tree?”

I’ll be honest and say that I’m not sure what to make of the whole “What are you?” question yet. It may be literal—who are these humans/faunus to the animal denizens of a magical world? (Oh god, how is that going to intersect with Blake?) But it’s clearly meant to mean so much more than that, echoing the earlier question of “Who had [Ruby] become?” Immediately, the introduction of “what” made me think about titles. What are they? Heroes or villains? Huntsmen or children? Remnant’s saviors or just another, short term weapon pointed at the enemy? Given how well RWBY has tackled such questions in the past, I truly doubt I’ll be satisfied with whatever Ever After supposedly teaches them. R now my only hope is that, as said, we get some good Ruby development in a direction I can support, even if the general takeaway is still them being told by the magical realm that they’re the bestest heroes ever who of course will defeat Salem… never mind that they haven’t spent a moment since her immortality reveal even trying to think about how to stop her.

I sure hope that subdued, minuscule smile isn’t Yang seeing Blake for the first time post-death…

Finally, as a few others have already pointed out, the end of the teaser does say “early 2023,” so it looks like we should expect more of a six-ish month wait, as opposed to the nearly year and a half I was envisioning last night. The reveal of this crossover film (I'm still ??? about that) is likewise another explanation for why Volume 9 has taken so long… but really, my overall sense of things remains the same. RT doesn’t feel very stable right now and the fact that there are so many RWBY projects atm isn’t, to me, necessarily a sign of them flourishing, but rather that they’re spreading themselves thin. It would be a totally different story if post-lockdown they had been able to prioritize Volume 9 in a way that quickly got us back on schedule, maintaining good communication with fans throughout, and also advertised some side projects that they had additional resources and time for without throwing anything else (projects, people) under the bus… but that doesn't seem to be the case. RT’s continuing problems don’t, for me, shine a positive light on the myriad of RWBY things that keep popping up. As @feen-feet mentioned on another post of mine—thanks for the info!��I’m not sure more installments are automatically a sign of RT doing well, at least not in the way many fans want to use these projects as definitive evidence for how everything is not only perfect, but reaching new and shiny heights.

[non-operator]

valorant shattered thoughts

Well, first of all, 😭😭😭 no sova in new cinematic. very sad. blorbo did not appear, but very very excited for all the new lore

2. i wonder who all the minion characters were. their emblems say 'force atlas'

Are they military? or private security?i feel like it's interesting that they're not labeled (at least explicitly) to be part of kingdom industries. Is this a third party being introduced into the game?

Does this mean omega's valorant does not work with kingdom as well, but they're still public figures and address the radianite shortage independently? Omega valorant at least worked together with kingdom to protect this city. Does this mean kingdom industries doesn't own and use private forces to secure its own radianite supply and territory? Based on the trailer for pearl, it seems that kingdom's influences is still prominent considering how it seems its activities are presented and broadcast like.. it's for tourists? or part of a museum? I wonder if omega kingdom is seen in a better light than alpha's kingdom.

Is there a force atlas in alpha earth as well?

3. i wonder why valorant protocol needs to locate radianite? i'm assuming it's because they want to know the differences between alpha and omega radianite, perhaps get a better grasp on the differences in radianite tech between the worlds.

but i feel like it would be off-brand for brimstone to like. plant a spike in retaliation. it's not like alpha earth needs more radianite and petty revenge doesn't seem like a course of action they'd want to take?

maybe it's just a marker for the place they want to go to and they're not really planning on targetting it? the past voice mail from fade did say that they'd want to check out another terminal.

side note: i guess all the fear she sensed was from the city all being afraid of running out of radianite and drowning

4. also! another point of difference between alpha and omega! alpha has valorant protocol. but omega has valorant legion

4. i also wonder how the force atlas guards knew valorant protocol was coming. fade said the terminal the portal was connected to was abandoned.

i don't think it was a premeditated trap. because then the omega valorant would've come way earlier and not only after the alert was sounded.

unless this is meant to show that force atlas doesn't really like working with valorant legion. that would be an interesting tension to add

5. also the interaction between omega viper and alpha reyna.. either they've met and fought before or it's just a classic case of omega viper projecting omega reyna onto alpha reyna

6. small observation, but seeing how it's only neon, killjoy, and reyna on the team. I guess valorant protocol hasn't reached the point of development where they send out five-person teams? Or maybe they shortened the number because it's supposed to be a stealth mission.

7. lastly, brimstone tells the team to get to 'tango site' and that another team is 'on their way'.

I guess this confirms that even though pearl is underwater, lisbon has the same configuration in both worlds

but also, can the portal open to different terminals? and not just the abandoned one we see in the cinematic? it should considering that it would be kind of stupid to ask the current team to move to a different location for a rescue and then arrive in the exact same terminal where they lost contact; the terminal's proven to be somewhat compromised, why would they enter omega earth through there again?

[fenmere]

We'd like to offer our own experiences as a contemplation of this.

We identify our system as protogenic. It seems that we developed from conception to become plural, regardless of life experiences. But we have C-PTSD from struggling as an intersex, transgender, autistic plural system in a society that has denied all of these things to us. And that C-PTSD has manifested in what is basically DID, which flared to life altering severity from 2014 to 2016. Recognizing our plurality allowed us to get a lot of things under control fast enough to avoid a diagnosis of DID, though.

We do not consider ourselves disordered now, but we have lost multiple jobs, our house, and our marriage to black out amnesia, lost time, fugue states, and conflicting behavior between headmates.

So.

We create new headmates so easily, so fluidly, so unconsciously, that even calling it "instinctual" is implying too much agency and effort.

We typically produce new headmates at an average of one every six and a half minutes, without even noticing it happening. When we do notice, when it happens right there in our conscious mind and the new headmate identifies themselves, it is accompanied with euphoria and joy, akin to giving easy birth to a physical wanted child.

We know that's not the case with all systems, that some systems experience awful sensations when a new headmate is formed. That the process itself can be traumatic.

But our triggers are so ubiquitous and so innocuous (just seeing the face of a new person, learning a character's name and way of speaking, inventing a blorbo, etc.) that it feels ridiculous to say that trauma has anything to do with the process for us. It's just how our brain works. Like how cells undergo mitosis.

But our detachment, and our heavier switching, that's the trauma trained reflex.

Under normal circumstances, we're very coconscious with a lot of easy switching, and low amounts of amnesia. When there's multiple of us "on the bridge", we can pass working memory to each other and keep it going as frontrunners switch out.

But duress will cause us to dissociate, flee the conscious mind, and leave only one or two of us in charge, and then there are problems. Sometimes the entire working memory gets dumped in a switch, and we experience a blackout. And also, a lot of the weirder derealization and depersonalization symptoms can also occur.

We do think that the fact that we're protogenic and have been working from a basis of being plural to begin with may have helped us reign our worst dissociative symptoms under control so quickly once we accepted our plurality.

But no small amount of credit should go to Eh, one of our eldest two members, who is a student of therapy and psychology and interpersonal relations, and who guided us through our own group therapy and team building sessions on our parents back porch. Jedekere, our diplomat, also helped considerably.

Our therapist teaching us how to treat C-PTSD was also a big help. By managing our triggers and working on desensitizing ourselves to them, we've continued to reduce our DID-like symptoms while remaining gloriously plural. And we never stop producing new headmates.

In fact, if we go too long without producing new headmates, we start to feel trapped, like we're getting cabin fever. So we feel best when we get out and do people watching, read books, and write. Even better if we introduce our new children to our followers online.

Anyway, I suppose our point here is that there are certainly trends in cause and effect when it comes to plural experiences. But there's probably also always exceptions.

No sweeping statement about plurality should be taken as fact for every case, whether that statement was made deliberately or carelessly. It's just not going to be true unless conditional phrases are added, like "in many cases".

Life is neurodiverse, and humans (and human adjacent people) are no exception. And that means basically anything goes.

You mentioned in a post about doubles that traumagenic systems dissociate from stress instinctually, and I wonder if that's more something that differs on the disordered - non-disordered line.

We aren't traumagenic, but we have DID and I think we dissociate pretty instinctually. So I'm kinda curious if plotted, which axis the dots would tend to line up with.

-Faye

Yeah, I think so. At least it's part of it. There are more factors in whether someone is disordered or not. But I think how automatically someone dissociates is at least a big one.

It's part of why I generally advise against new systems learning how to switch from relying on triggers. Because triggers are out of your control and can become stronger the more you rely on them. I've tried to avoid letting dissociation become habitual here.

Keep in mind again that dissociation isn't one thing, either. Dissociation is theorized to come in two forms. Compartmentalization and detachment. (I'm pretty sure you're aware of this, Faye. I've rambled about it enough. I'm just explaining for the benefit of anyone new.) Creating new headmates would fall under compartmentalization, where memories and experiences are stored in separate compartments. Switching involves detachment where one feels disconnected from their body.

Both of these may be independent of each other. So a system who easily forms new headmates may not automatically switch and vice versa.

But I think as they're repeated, both processes can become habitual and instinctual. Most commonly as a self-defense mechanism in response to trauma, but I don't think that's the only way. And I think that lack of control over these forms of dissociation is one factor that contributes to plurality becoming distressing or impairing enough to make it a disorder.

[priscilla9993]

Alice and Robin for character opinion bingo!

I put blue for Alice and green for Robin since it matches their eye colors and the characters’ themes. I love these characters so much as they are flawed but strong women that both love each other deeply to the point where they’re awkward and don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings! Both blorbos in their own respects XD. NGL, I tend to project some of myself or feelings in the moment onto them when writing fanfics or when it comes to a situation they’d probably relate to.

ALT

I’ll go through them one by one, starting with Robin since I put down her circles first. They are super cool with or without glasses! I mean the girl knows how to hunt, shoot a bow and arrows, stands up for others in the face of danger, and knows how to make anything look good or flawless while making snarky one liners. 

I repeat, 👏 She knows how to make an entrance! 👏

While we do get some background on her and how she grew up pretending to be someone she’s not, either popular mean girl in high school or Robin Hood’s successor, she doesn’t have much storyline or nuance besides that. I’m entirely sure that we see Margot and her aspirations more than we see Robin, not that I mind her caring and worrying about Alice by being all lovey dovey (bc that shit is cute). I think Robin had ‘wasted potential’, in the sense that there was so much more that we could have seen had we had a second season continuation of season 7. I think she was underutilized at times but the writing team and Tiera did well in those circumstances bc I connected to her/fell in love with her in a short time. 

As for Alice, they are so CUTE looking. I find myself thinking about this character and writing about them most often on here. It’s funny but I was intrigued yet disapproving of Alice when I first saw her because she was based on the Lewis Carroll counterpart and how I thought she could be written as the standout crazy person. Let's be real, mental illness is not the easiest thing to portray well on screen and I can see why the writers would avoid using a version of the character in the show unless it was a spinoff, where they could build the world to just be fitting. 

However, after the Beauty episode, I found Alice really endearing and I think Rose’s portrayal of her helped because the chaotic, emotional, and energetic traits could have felt extreme or disjointed had it been any other actress. Yes, I’m attributing Rose to this as I can’t see anyone else playing Alice and the same goes for Tiera playing Robin. Point is, Alice drives me nuts by how no matter what she is going through, you want to root for her when things are going good, cry when she does, and just comfort her because she deserves the world! If there was one strong point this character had on me, it was her resilience. I mean she grew up in a tower from birth, imprisoned there for just existing, and she still managed to make it through and try to find her bearings in an ever changing environment.

I genuinely would love if she was just taken around “in a handbag like a tiny dog” because she’d have so much to say and I love driving around to different cities to explore stuff when I can. Think she would like that too and how she’d definitely be able to put up a lot of conversation for thought.

I really do think Alice wasn’t given a chance by most fans just because she was in Season 7, which is fine bc most of the main cast left, but the thing is, she was and still is treated horribly/”done dirty” by the toxic side of the fandom, especially those who are CS shippers. I’m truly sorry to the real Captain Swan shippers for this toxic minority that bring down the fandom’s ship title because you guys are lovely and I still consider myself part of the bunch. What I’m trying to say is most of the things I’ve read from those who hate on her are reasons like because she acts like a child, therefore “Robin has to be stuck annoyed and taking care of her” (that’s infantalizing! ew), could potentially kill anyone and is the villain bc she’s “crazy”, and is the bad replacement for Hope. I would understand that last one if she broke CS, but it’s not even the same Killian Jones and the writers made sure that those two had the same happy ending route they did before. I’m not going to even argue the rest as it goes to show some people just want to hate rather than watch and appreciate the her for who she truly is in the season. Part of the reason why I tag “ouat s7″ so that people can choose if they want to see it and it helps filter out the bad seeds.

Onto Curious Archer/Madarcher topics since the rest of my circles have both of them in it. 

Ahhhh *swoon* “The Girl in the Tower” Pretty sure I can’t state enough about how much I love this episode where the two of them shine the most and get the most screen time with one another. It’s here where we truly see them as individuals and “deeper than they seem”, realizing that they’re more than just their stereotypes or how they are perceived by others. That’s why I put “they work better as part of a dynamic” because even though they can hold their own, they make each other’s lives better being around one another. 

Look at these cute beans that make heart eyes at each other and look out for their loved ones. How can you tell me that they’ve done anything wrong in their lives because they haven’t OwO! “They didn’t get enough screentime” because they both made every minute on screen feel new and exciting. When episodes were still airing, I couldn’t get enough of them and hoped they were in the next episode. If it were up to me, we’d get another season so these two could get a proper conclusion, maybe see a wedding, have more backstories, adventures, dates, comedy, and romance play out. I’m sure so many of us that love them would like a spinoff since the show is done. Alas, only fanfics and edits can keep them alive now.  Lastly, I can’t believe that for characters that had the runtime or only appeared for half a season, I fell in love with them and even got invested back into ouat as if it were season 1 or 2 all over again. They were such a well developed LGBT couple that could have used more spice sure, but were overall such joy to see on screen.