#Expert Concept Elaboration

[transcriptioncity]

What is Concept Elaboration? Concept Elaboration Services

Concept Elaboration and Understanding the Importance of Clear Communication The intricacies of language often present challenges, especially when conveying complex ideas across different cultures. Concept Elaboration, a vital process in language services, ensures clear and comprehensive communication. This article delves into the origins, implementation, and significance of Concept Elaboration,…

[floralfractals]

so id say my tumblr network (as in, the people who tend to see/interact with my posts) is pretty mathy. i wanted to see how people interact w math and how they like to learn about it :) (and: maybe do something with that on my blog!!! wouldnt that be fun)

polls have a limited amount of characters i can add per option, so ill clarify some concepts here:

informal education is learning via a coordinated effort by an instance/expert outside of school system (e.g. voluntary lectures, social media posts, museum visits, youtube videos or similar). by informal i dont mean "its school but the teacher is chill" or independent research!!

formal education is learning through a school system (usually mandatory/with a teacher or professor present)

i refer to any education you do without making use of coordinated programmes as independent research, so that would be just you picking up an advanced math book to educate yourself, or perhaps scanning wikipedia, or emailing math profs with questions

when i talk about reading math in a general context, i mean that the material discusses math for a broad audience, so it doesnt talk about super niche specific mathematical concepts, and doesn't contain any complicated formulas/proofs/math speech

please do elaborate in the tags!!!

[teruuu]

Exploring The Complexities of The Lamb and Narinder’s Relationship

Long post warningsgsgsgsgsh!!!!!! 🥺🥺

For those of you who want a quick rundown of what the AU’s about, check out the link at the bottom of the post.

Warning: Mentions of Cannibalism, Unhealthy & Obsessive Relationships, and Spoilers for The Art of Acquiring Devotion

Now, firstly, I’ll have to give my thanks to @nimbudcat for providing me with ideas as to how the relationship would function and opening the gateway for me to fully explore all the nooks and crannies of their romance.

I’m no expert on the deep complexities of toxic relationships, so I don’t have the courage to fully label the Lamb and Narinder’s love as ‘toxic’, but I know damn well that it’s not a normal love at all. Let’s think—what is a normal, healthy relationship composed of? Trust, of course. Mutual love and trust, absolute honesty... Those are the most basic building blocks of a healthy relationship. In this AU, for Narinder and Lamb, those concepts are extremely warped. They have all of those components in their relationship, but it’s so twisted that it’s difficult for me to define their romance as either healthy or unhealthy.

Narinder and Lamb trust each other, and it runs so deep that the best descriptor for that trust is pure devotion. They trust each other with their lives. This may not make sense since they are immortals, but think about it—the cannibalism that they inflict upon one another results in death for the two, each and every time, and they trust only one another for their resurrections. They allow the most vulnerable parts of themselves only to one another, and this is so incredibly meaningful because of all the aspects of their pasts. They trust themselves of course to always only tell the truth to each other, and the love that they share is simply reverent.

Now, let me elaborate on why all the things I expanded on above mean so much. Let’s start with the Lamb. I as I said in my previous post, the Lamb’s past for this AU is derived from my fanfic. We don’t know much at all about pre-sacrifice Lamb in-game, so I took the liberties to expand on their world myself. I’ll allow some passages from my fanfic to speak for itself:

It was through these traumatic experiences that the Lamb became hungry at the thought of companionship. No, the Lamb doesn’t just want some of Narinder’s Big Fluffy Gyatt™. As I’ve depicted in my other artworks, in this AU the Lamb considers Narinder as their savior, their one and only salvation, and perhaps the only person that has ever cared about them. And this is where things start to get murky—it’s because of this that the Lamb is so incredibly attached to Narinder and is absolutely insane about him.

The Lamb isn’t just attached, actually. They’re obsessed with Narinder. So obsessed that they develop a panic if they don’t hear his voice after more than half an hour. So obsessed that they begin to see any and all followers that interact with him as an enemy. This is also why I hesitate to consider this as toxic, because, see, Narinder likes it.

Moving on to Narinder’s part of the AU, it’s important to understand that, although he pretty much brought it to himself because of his high and mighty behavior, he was also quite isolated in his earlier years.

For Narinder’s side, he firmly believed himself to always be in the right. Think of it as a mad scientist whose ideas are way ahead of his generation. He had innovative thoughts and concepts in mind in the duration of his reign. He’d been supplemented by the knowledge that Shamura had provided him with, and that caused him to possess the mind of a radical inventor. Unfortunately, his ideas were less than desirable for the rest of his siblings and his own followers, so little by little the worship he received dwindled. Narinder was frustrated by this—why couldn’t anyone see the genius that he had to offer? Initially he had good intentions in mind, but he grew a tyrannical mind and eventually decided that the only way for the world to see his wonders is to force it beneath his feet.

Eons of imprisonment provided no aid for his mind. What once was a head full of wonders that could potentially change the world for the better became a twisted and cruel version of itself. Violence and revenge plagued his mind, and it became his one and only obsession. So, when the Lamb came to him, he relished in the worship they had to offer.

Their devotion for one another is purely mutual, but at the same time fully in their own self-interests. The Lamb is devoted to Narinder because Narinder is all that they care about in their mind, and they desperately require Narinder for them to continue living on. As for Narinder, he had never acquired such a passionate follower before, and he grew an addiction for the love that they have to offer. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not.

They are incredibly violent for one another because that’s all they know. They don’t understand what it’s like to have a normal relationship. They cling to one another, kill for one another, and eat one another because they need each other so badly. The cannibalism is an expression of their eager desire to simply blend into one another because that’s just how much they want the other.

They know it’s wrong. They hate that it’s wrong. They hate each other for making each other feel so wrong and so crazy. But they so, so want it to be right.

(Okay sorry for the bad essay lmao adios)

[nesiacha]

Saint Just's speech of November 13 analyzed in a few words by the famous lawyer Jacques Vergès

Jacques Vergès ( 1925-2013)

In a YouTube video, the famous lawyer Jacques Vergès is interviewed on an Algerian TV show. Vergès is well-known in Algeria because he was the lawyer for many members of the FLN (National Liberation Front) and, above all, fervently supported the cause of the Algerian revolutionaries. He not only defended them but also married one of the most famous Algerian revolutionaries, Djamila Bouhired. At the time, defending FLN members during the Algerian War was a huge risk. Lawyers could be assassinated by extremists, like Pierre Popie, who was killed by the OAS (Secret Army Organization), or Maître Ould Aoudia, who was allegedly assassinated by the French secret services, as claimed by Raymond Muelle (this is also mentioned in the video, among other things).

Where it becomes especially interesting for those of us passionate about the French Revolution (or experts, considering some Tumblr users ^^) is when, at one point in the video, Jacques Vergès is shown two images: one of Saint-Just and another of Louis XVI (specifically at 1:28:12). Vergès explains that Saint-Just’s speech to the Convention on November 13, 1792, is, in his view, an "indictment of rupture" (this holds significant meaning for Vergès, who excelled in defenses of rupture, having achieved the remarkable feat of never having a client executed, particularly in the highly rigged trials of colonial justice during the Algerian Revolution). This is rare, as prosecutors (or at least those leading the accusation at the time) typically invoked the law. Vergès then elaborates (I’ll quote him directly from here on): "In the king's trial, some argue that it was impossible to try Louis XVI because the monarch had immunity tied to his functions, while others argue that the moment Louis XVI betrayed that immunity, it no longer applied."

Vergès concludes by referencing Saint-Just’s speech: "One day, people will be astonished that in the 18th century, we were less advanced than in Caesar's time—there, the tyrant was slain in the Senate itself, with no other formality than twenty-three dagger blows, and no other law than Rome's freedom."

The video continues a bit further on the topic of Saint-Just. Vergès finishes by saying that Saint-Just serves as a fantastic example for youth, ending with the revolutionary’s quote: "I despise this dust that makes me up and that speaks to you; they may persecute it and kill this dust! But I defy anyone to take from me this independent life I have created for myself in the ages and in the heavens."

What truly intrigued me was the legal perspective of Vergès, a specialist in defenses of rupture, on Saint-Just’s speech—particularly the concept of the "indictment of rupture."

Here is the link to the video (but it is in French and there are no subtitles) as a reminder the part that interests us, that is to say the evocation of Saint-Just, is at 1:28:12

Here is the link to the video (but it's in French and there are no subtitles). Just as a reminder, the part that interests us—the mention of Saint-Just—is at 1:28:12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZsK9975YoA&ab_channel=allkhadra.

[neversetyoufree]

Just recently found your blog and i love it!!! do have any theories for vanitas' original name? My guess is Abraham, for all it doesn't really fit him, after Abraham van hellsing, who is both a doctor and vampire expert, which I think matches mochijuns naming conventions. Doesn't hurt that it matches with Noe (noah) religiously.

Thank you!! Welcome to the party ;D

Traditionally, I've always said I don't have any strong theories on Vanitas's name—at least none that I actually expect to come true. I think(?) I've talked about this before, but that's not really the kind of theorizing I do? Since right now any name theory is wild guessing and speculation, not elaborating from the text.

That said, I do now have one pet theory that I'm partial to (one I didn't have the last time someone asked me this). I don't actually think this is going to be the case in canon, but for now, I really enjoy the concept of Vanitas's real name being Byron. This is mostly because I think it would be funny, but there are some actual connections too.

Long context short, Lord Byron wrote an unfinished draft of what would have been the first modern vampire story, and then his personal doctor (John William Polidori) took the same idea and fleshed it out into The Vampyre—the actual generally recognized first modern vampire story. But! Polidori's version of the vampire (the version that established a lot of our vampire tropes) was partly inspired by Byron himself. So Byron is sort of this almost-but-not-quite vampire author, writing but also inspiring the tropes of vampirism, which reflects interestingly on Vanitas's relationship to actual vampirism. He's not a vampire, but he's much closer to one than any other human, and in demeanor, he acts more stereotypically vampiric than Noé and many other vampire characters.

Also, Byron is the namesake of the Byronic hero, which Vanitas is a perfect example of. He's brooding, cynical, arrogant, and intelligent, but despite his gloom and self-destructiveness, he has a sort of lonely magnetism about him. Once again, the concept of the Byronic hero is inspired by/named after both Byron himself and the characters he wrote.

As I said, I don't think I'm going to be right about this, as there's a million other theories that could fit just as well, but in the meantime, the concept does tickle me. Polidori's Byron-based vampire even has an especially strong connection to the moon :D.

Anyway, I really like your theory as well. I've noted before that it's interesting that there's no Van Hellsing reference in VnC (or any direct Dracula references at all, save poor dead Mina). It's almost surprising given Dracula is the iconic vampire story. I never even considered that there could be a Dracula reference hidden right there in Vani and waiting to be discovered, but it does make sense. The doctor/vampire expert connection is really fun and fitting! Though I'm afraid I don't know enough about the biblical Abraham to say anything interesting about that aspect beyond what you pointed out there.

[onebizarrekai]

totally valid, i like looking at your works sometimes, i can tell they're very thoughtful! i like the fact you tend not to leave things unanswered unless it's a great question, demonstrated by the fact you have a height reference tag LMAO, i've wondering if there's anything in kcu or ds that you've never said about them before, even just the most fandom facts character-oriented or not! or if not, is there any scrapped concepts for eithier that you decided not to introduce?

heck! there's probably so much. I have so many docs sitting around about everything I've made, some having collected more dust than others. I can give you some fun facts about various things I've made. I don't remember which ones have been mentioned or not, so I'll try to find really specific things.

ink was going to be the literal son of satan in the old version of fatal flaws exclusively for the meme

kevin the chicken appeared in the bizarre saga as a different godly talking chicken character before dreamswap

there's a lot of stuff I haven't shared about the kcu because it's unfinished and I'd like to complete it when the dangan vibe comes back, but I gave byakuya a relative named tony t. togami who works at the future foundation and he's absolutely terrible (in a good way). there is also a character named the alpha roomba, but I will not elaborate at this time

the kcu is an honorary video game, because there's a roomba racing minigame and one of the expert mode challenges is kaito, who is always slightly faster than you

with greyscale's art style, I was planning on adding more and more colors in every chapter as they befriended more people, while xaki stayed more monochrome until their heart was opened in the end. it was a cool idea on paper, but it ate through my art supplies and nowadays I would prefer the art being easy to manage over the metaphor.

have I ever mentioned that I occasionally imagine ibvs as a beat 'em up game with crappy ds graphics

the evil sans squad was going to exist in ibvs (back when I was first coming up with ideas for it, like a long time ago) until I realized that they had no reason to be in the story besides utmv points and also completely undermined nevin and chris's plotline

felix was going to be a one-off villain but then he kept coming back and now he's the main villain of season 2

honestly you can safely assume that I've imagined almost everything I've made as a video game at some point

[jewish-sideblog]

i have a question. i don’t mean this horribly!! but per this post you reblogged: https://www.tumblr.com/jewish-sideblog/744967243590434816, you believe to call what’s going on in palestine a genocide is antisemitic. can you elaborate on that, please?

I don't want to get in the habit of addressing things other people have said in posts I reblog, because those aren't my words and a reblog isn't a blanket endorsement of everything other people have said. But this topic is really important, so I'll weigh in just this once.

The primary concern I have with the use of the term genocide is Holocaust Inversion. Most people don't have a conception of genocide outside of the holocaust, so the usage of the word genocide is often an obvious ploy to weaponize Jewish suffering against Jewish people. Its sole purpose is to equate Israelis to Nazis and Jewish government to fascism.

Yet, there is a lot of death in Gaza right now. Horrible death, needless death. I think any erasure of that is as horrible as Oct. 7th denial. To outright deny that a genocide is happening exclusively because of the historical reality of the Holocaust isn't just or beneficial. So we have to look at it objectively. As I said earlier today, I'm not an international relations expert, so the following is my understanding and should be taken with large grains of salt.

"Genocide" as a war crime is extremely similar to murder as an individual crime. The key component (besides death) is intention. If you kill someone on accident in most English-speaking countries, you'll likely be charged with manslaughter, not murder. Similarly, genocide requires the intentional destruction of a population of people, well beyond the necessary realities of civilian casualty in active war zones. Death itself, even in large numbers, does not a genocide make. Civilians will always die on the battlefield. Always.

The International Criminal Court says that Israel has to meet standards of care in Gaza to ensure that genocide does not occur, meaning they don't think one has already occurred. There's some dispute on whether or not those standards are being met-- Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say that Israel is failing to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, while the Israeli government issued sealed documents to the Hague last month detailing their compliance measures. It'll take a while to hear back on those. Personally, I think starving Gaza is an obvious measure of intention to destroy Palestinian civilians.

Anybody is obviously welcome to disagree with the highest court of international law in the world. But the fact that the experts seem hesitant to make that determination gives me pause. Why are so many people keen to bring Israel to the Hague, not Russia for their indiscriminate killing of Ukrainians or the Houthis for manufacturing a humanitarian crisis in Yemen? Hamas, one of the governments of internationally-recognized Palestine, fully admits to intending to destroy the Jewish people in part. They say they'll do it again if they get half the chance. Why is only the Jewish state called out as a unique, genocidal evil? Must we label Palestinian deaths as a genocide in order to mourn them effectively? Aren't hundreds dead a day reason enough to mourn and to push for peace?

Again, I don't want to deny the allegations of genocide any more than I want to accept them. I'm following the experts on this one. And so far, the experts say "maybe". As long as they say "maybe", anybody who insists on definitely and absolutely labelling it as a genocide creeps at least suspiciously close to Holocaust Inversion in my eyes.

[1moremilgram-enjoyer]

MeMe and Control over One's Own Destiny

Alright I've been holding off on talking about Mikoto until Double releases, but I saw he was on a train and my brain went Silly. Don't you understand how crazy the symbolism is?! (<- Mentally unwell)

So now I have to talk about how MeMe handles the concept of destiny and the control the alters have on the system's future, because it's honestly so interesting to me.

CW Murder

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on DID, feel free to correct me if I get anything wrong

The first big connection between MeMe and the idea of destiny is obviously the recurring theme of tarot cards. These are used for divination, meaning the practice of trying to learn about the future through supernatural means. In other words, they're deeply tied to the concept of destiny, of future events that will come to affect us, and the ways we may influence it. What's important to take away here is that, regardless of whether or not you believe in it, reading tarot cards is a way for people to try to understand their future so they can take try to take control of it.

Once you make this little connection, a lot of the imagery in MeMe starts to get interesting. To give you an example, one of the opening shots is of a bunch of tarot cards all scattered in water.

So, their future is scattered, it's uncertain, it's messy, etc. You get the idea, I don't think I need to elaborate on why Mikoto's life is a bit of a mess.

However, I think there are two scenes which are particularly interesting in this regard. When Aokoto (host) draws a blank card in the first chorus, and when he gathers the cards in the deck at the start of the third chorus.

So first, we can be sure this is Aokoto because the lyrics not only use 'boku', but also express confusion at the situation, which only really fits the host.

Why am I [boku] here? It must be a mistake? Take a good look at me [boku], until you find me The truth will come to reveal itself I won't forgive you if this is happening to me even though I'm right

Why am I [boku] here? It must be a mistake? Take a good look at me [boku], until you find me

(Note: If there is no clarification on which pronoun is used when I put lyrics here, it's because the Japanese doesn't actually use any pronouns)

What's happening here? As stated, the tarot cards are a representation of destiny and their future. By drawing a tarot card, Aokoto is trying to understand his situation and destiny better. And by stacking the deck up neatly, he's trying to take control of his destiny, of his future. The desire to be free and be able to control his life is a very important part of Aokoto's character:

(T1) Q14: What will you be doing in 10 years? M (Ao): I'd like to work independently and make my own design company. That way I'm free to do what I want.

(T1) Q8: What are your reasons for wanting to work for your current job? M (Ao): I work at an advertising company that's at the top of the business world, you know? Just being able to get to that position is something to be proud of. I worked really hard to get hired there, too.

Aokoto places high value on the work he's done, because that shows how committed he is to having control over his life and his job.

(T1) Q12: How do you get to work? M (Ao): I ride a road bike. It's a hobby of mine, and it's good to exercise too. I don't need to worry about missing the train, but that can either be a good or bad thing.

I've seen this answer interpreted a few different ways, but personally I believe what Aokoto's implying is that the freedom of not having to rely on the train is both good and bad. Essentially, he doesn't have to stress about missing it, but there's also no guarantee that he'll get to work in time without the reliability of the train. However, he still prefers the bike, because it gives him more freedom.

... Foreshadowing is a narrative device-

There's also the matter of the tarot spreads which appear in that "blank card" scene. There are two distinct ones:

Now, the whole mess is too complicated to get into here (and I actually am holding off from analysis until we get extra context from Double for that reason), but I believe one of these spreads belongs to Aokoto, and the other belongs to Midokoto (Secret Third gatekeeper alter). Which is which doesn't matter, because the card I want to focus on is the card in the "Hopes and Fears" position (EXTREMELY long story), which is I - The Magician (upright) in both of them. The Magician represents (among a fuckton of other things because tarot cards are frustratingly ambiguous by design) power, potential, basically the ability to achieve your goals. Thus, in the "Hopes and Fears" position, it would mean Aokoto wants to be able to control his life and fulfill his potential, and is afraid he might not be able to.

There is also the "Present" or "Self" card being the reversed XII - The Hanged Man. The Hanged Man upright represents (among other things) patience, the hope that as long as everything continues the same, things will turn out okay. Thus, reversed, it could be read as implying the querent is trying their best to change their situation, but are failing at it.

And this is where we get to the second part of the scenes I pointed out before. Because when Aokoto draws a card by itself, it's a blank card. In other words, no matter how much he wants to, Aokoto doesn't have full control of his future. I mean, obviously, right? He himself can't control his destiny when the other alters are also doing pretty impactful stuff. Depending on what theories you subscribe to, he may have ended up in Milgram without even murdering anyone, which is what I believe.

The same can be seen when he tries to put the deck back together. You might notice the deck there is actually thinner than the other time we see it.

He tries to "fix" or "arrange" his future, but he's "playing with half a deck", he's only half in control of his future. In this metaphor, the other alter(s) would have the rest of the deck, would control the rest of the system's destiny. Does that make sense?

Which gets us to the other alter who does tarot reading.

Notice the red mannequin there? The way 0 - The Fool's pouch of food is now a skull? And you can see this alter, heavily implied to be Orekoto, reads a Celtic cross spread with the Fool in the "querent" or "present" position.

Thus, The Fool represents Orekoto, and he too desires control over their future. That's why he's reading the spread, the same way Aokoto previously tried to draw a card to check his future. And I think it's pretty safe to say Orekoto must have killed or attacked at least one person, which is his way of trying to secure a better future for the system. Protector alter and all that.

[Timelines] Mikoto (Ao): Can you hear me talking like this? If you can hear me, then answer me. Why are you doing such horrible things? Hey. It's your fault things have become like this. ……Answer me!! Mikoto (Ore): Ah, ahhh!! Because, I did it for my/your (Boku's) sake…! Because I/you (Boku-ga) would break apart!!

(Translation by Maristelina)

Plus all the other reasons to believe that.

That spread is a bit odd for many reasons, but one thing we can pretty much be sure of is Orekoto's "Hopes and Fears" are represented by VII - The Chariot.

The Chariot (among other things) represents strength of will and control, basically think of it as a more forceful version of The Magician. Thus, Orekoto also hopes he can take control of their life, though he does it through force, and he fears he might be getting too forceful.

If I could laugh, if I could go back I'd play dead even though I'm alive right? If I could end, if I could stop How long would this dream go on?

Assuming it is Orekoto singing here (no pronouns so), it seems he doesn't want to kill, but sees himself cornered, like he has to kill. If he could stop, he'd "go back and play dead even while alive", he wouldn't kill anymore. But when he feels "boku will fall apart", he tries to save him through any means he can, which is likely murder. The exact reasons are as of yet unknown (someone stalking them, stress, could be a lot of things), but that's the idea.

However, you tarot enthusiast might notice a few interesting differences between this Chariot card and the actual Chariot card. This is important, because the meaning of these cards comes from the images, so when the image differs (apart from stylistic choices obvs), the meaning differs with it.

First important difference: the real Chariot has lions, MeMe's Chariot has bikes. This again relates bikes to the idea of freedom and one's own will.

Foreshadowing is-

Second; MeMe's Chariot has the protagonist swinging around a mace, which the real Chariot just has a wand. I frankly don't think this means anything other than MeMe's Chariot explicitly references murder rather than other, non-physical forms of strength and force.

Third, an important part of the real Chariot is that the man doesn't hold a leash on the lions, he controls them through force of will, apparently. Meanwhile, the mannequin in MeMe's version does hold chains to control the bikes, which again I believe simply implies a more forceful and direct version of the meaning. Orekoto doesn't trust his destiny to guide the system in the right direction as long as they're strong enough, he feels he needs to have more direct control.

And finally, the lions in the real Chariot are fine, but in MeMe's version, one of the bikes is fucking exploding.

So what the hell is up with that? Well, let's keep in mind what I said before. Aokoto also wants control of his life. So I believe in a way these bikes represent Aokoto and Orekoto's actions. One of them Orekoto has direct control over (he controls his own actions, after all), while the other is getting hurt by Orekoto's control. Orekoto may want nothing more than to protect the system, but the way he does it is harmful to Aokoto and destroys the control he wants to have over their life. I mean, it landed them in Milgram (according to some interpretations), and it's not like Aokoto likes the murder.

(T1) Q6: Tell us what you hate. M (Ao): Staying up all night working / reptiles / violence

[Double Preview] Hey now, I [ore] saved you right? So why in the hell are you crying?

(I will use the preview as evidence, watch me)

Temporary CW for abusive relationships and rape (Mono Poisoner)

This idea of "love" that hurts the other is also implied by Mono Poisoner, their Trial 1 cover. Though to be clear, Orekoto is not anywhere near as awful as the protagonist of Mono Poisoner, since he isn't intentionally hurting the rest of the system, and obviously isn't actually abusing the other alter(s).

“She belongs completely, entirely to me!” Kissing, sleeping together, everything beyond that too No one can hope to cut this connection between us

After brandishing that poisonous desire to monopolize and having erased YOU completely, It seems like it can be easily embraced, the entirety of that heart “YOU best not get carried away!”

Taking out the really violent and abusive elements out, this does vaguely fit the idea I'm trying to get across.

Temporary CW over

Anyways, the point is that Orekoto wants control over their life, but is accidentally harming Aokoto by taking away his agency.

There is more symbolism of this ‘drive to control destiny’ in the moon which consistently appears throughout MeMe.

As you can see, it’s in the first quarter phase. This is halfway between the New Moon which represents the beginning of a journey and the Full Moon which represents the end or rebirth, and because of that, it can represent a difficult time where decisions must be made, a point where strength of will is necessary. This again fits both of Aokoto and Orekoto, since they’re both making important decisions for their future. Hence also why the moon is half and half, the future is being decided half by Aokoto, half by Orekoto.

Alternatively, you could read it as only Orekoto making decisions, with the other 'half' being "left in the dark" because Aokoto doesn't know what Ore's doing. That would explain why the moon only shows up in relation to Orekoto in the internal world and the murder scenes.

Heavy speculation incoming (more than before anyways)

But hold on a second. I said before the upright Hanged Man, the card on Mikoto's shirt through most of MeMe, is about patience and not doing anything to change their situation. This is somewhat contradictory to The Fool, which is all about new opportunities and taking new risks (long story), and is obviously contradictory to the reversed Hanged Man because that's how tarot cards work. Because of that, and everything else I've been saying, it feels like the upright Hanged Man doesn't really fit either Aokoto or Orekoto.

Which is why it's so convenient we have a third (plot-relevant, there may be more) alter who does want their life to continue as is, isn't it?

The minus energy that I swallowed Hugged me [boku] Maybe it's okay to try to keep on living Split in half, Make that heart beat

This scene is very clearly connected to the aftermath of a murder, and shows an alter that has accepted the "negative (minus) energy" of violence. However, the use of 'boku' rules out Orekoto as the singer. Thus, we have ourselves our favorite Secret Third Alter, Midokoto. And Midokoto says, filling in the blanks, that ‘maybe it’s okay to keep living [like this]’, as long as they ‘split in half’ to ‘make that heart beat.’

Before we continue, I have to address that yes, I believe Midokoto is represented by the upright Hanged Man, even though he’s the only alter who’s never seen wearing the shirt. Either his back is turned, he’s shirtless, or straight up has a completely different shirt. However, I actually think this makes perfect sense.

It’s widely accepted that if Midokoto exists, he’s likely a gatekeeper alter who co-fronts most of the time, meaning he’s still aware of everything that’s happening even while he isn’t controlling the body (<- simplified version, read more if you’re interested [alter roles] [co-fronting]). Therefore, he’s a constant in Mikoto’s life, and it makes sense for him to always be present in some way as long as any alter is on screen. He’s on the shirt when the other two are there, so when the shirt isn’t there, it’s because the ‘upright Hanged Man’ is the one controlling the body. Does that make sense?

I should note, Mikoto’s version of The Hanged Man includes a bunch of eyes on the background.

Which fits the idea of Midokoto overseeing everything in the others’ lives, and for the inverse in Aokoto’s case could also be interpreted as societal pressure, long story.

Yes, Midokoto's celtic cross spread has the reversed Hanged Man in the middle of The Wheel, but let’s just say that means ‘present’ rather than ‘querent.’ Yes, there’s a Fool portrait in the background of that one scene, I swear there’s an explanation but it’s too long to get into here.

Point is, he’s the one who wants their life to continue as is, and thus the one who fits the idea of ‘patience’ that The Hanged Man (upright) embodies.

But make no mistake. He still has The Magician as his “Hopes and Fears” in the spread which represents him, meaning he does yearn for some control and fears not having the means to achieve it.

However, I believe the type of control he’s looking for is different from the other two. See, while Aokoto wants freedom and control over his life in a more conventional way (good job, free movement, independence), and Orekoto wants control in a ‘no one will stop “I/you” from achieving what “I/you” want’ kinda way (aka safety), Midokoto wants control over the system, not the rest of their life. He wants to keep Aokoto and Orekoto ‘split in half’ because that’s how they can both live as they please, it ‘makes their heart beat.’

That’s why the moon that represents decision-making is split in half. That’s why there’s only two bikes in The Chariot card. That’s why Midokoto never bothers to read a single tarot card. Because the ones deciding where their life moves are Aokoto and Orekoto, all Midokoto does is keep things running smoothly. Though of course, this is all just my interpretation.

In fact, you can even tell based on what we believe each alter to do. Aokoto does the day-to-day work, making sure he has the opportunity to achieve his dream of working independently in the future. Orekoto deals with threats until the system as a whole is safe, which includes throwing away evidence so they don't get arrested. He does a dogshit job at it, yeah, but he's trying.

However, once they get into the apartment, when the external threats have been dealt with, the one who bathes to make sure Aokoto doesn't learn of Orekoto's actions, the one who keeps their lives metaphorically 'split in half', is Midokoto.

Heavy speculation kinda over

So, where were we? I said this was inspired by the Double thumbnail, didn’t I? Well, yes, even if I have very little to say about it in relation to this post. You could say I kinda, uh, went off the rails a bit (<- I am immensely unfunny)

As I said, he’s on a train. And with all the stuff I mentioned before about how bikes are associated with freedom for him and stuff, it makes the imagery of being stuck on a train with the victims (I assume that’s what the mannequins represent, I’ve seen other interpretations) a lot more interesting.

Think about it. When you get on a train, you made the decision to enter it, but you don’t have control over where it goes. And that’s what’s happening here: the alter on screen is in for the ride, and he feels there’s nothing he can do to alter the course. It’s like a railroad.

Aokoto didn’t get on this train. Obviously the scene is metaphorical (otherwise who left their mannequins in the goddamn public train), but we know Aokoto doesn’t use the train. However, he’s on it now, alongside Orekoto who is probably the one fronting here? I assume, given the red light in the background. In my mind it would make sense for the thumbnails to be Aokoto T1 -> Orekoto T2 -> Midokoto T3, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

What I’m trying to convey is the symbolism of the system being stuck in a set path, a set destiny, caused by a decision not made by Aokoto. And if Orekoto is really the one fronting or being represented here, he’s miserable because of the path his actions have landed him on.

If I could break it, if I could change Can I do it, I wonder from when I started to give up

He’s ‘given up’ because he’s accepted he’s ‘on the train’, his path is already set and he can’t change it (“if I could change”). Yes, give me that Orekoto angst!

Anyways, please keep in mind this is all my interpretation of the symbolism and all of this is extremely subjective, especially with how confusing Mikoto's entire story is. I hope you forgive my brainrot at seeing a guy take a train. Take care!

[transmutationisms]

could you please elaborate that post about spiritual ennui not being the cause of many social phenomena? theres a whole book I started reading recently (work pray code) which is predicated on the idea that in the US work has come to replace religion as the centerpiece of peoples lives (simultaneously bc of a withdrawal from religion as a country and bc of capitalism demanding that life revolve around work) and I wasnt completely convinced by the authors evidence toward that hypothesis. or was the social phenomena in question more like online culture stuff?

i don't know that particular book or author, so i don't have a sustained critique of them. but in general, yes, i'm frustrated by hypotheses that basically boil down to the idea that a decline in religiosity and religious infrastructure is causing some kind of spiritual poverty that is in turn responsible for various social ills. commonly i see this argument used to 'explain' phenomena including: the persistence of astrology and occult sciences; gun violence; political 'polarisation'; drug use; perceived cultural decline; 'mental health crises'; &c. broadly these analyses tend to draw elements from max weber's idea of disenchantment,¹ a large-scale diagnosis of modernity's devaluation of religion, and from the related notion of desacralisation, the process of divesting individual objects or institutions of their divine properties or provenance.

i think these analyses are really fucking bad and here are some major reasons why:

they're not materialist. by this i mean that, instead of looking for material factors and conditions that might explain social and cultural phenomena, they turn to metaphysical, philosophical, and intellectual explanations. let's think about the persistence of astrology as an example here. on a disenchantment analysis, people are getting back into astrology because, having lost (organised) religiosity in their lives, they feel a spiritual void and seek to create new cosmological meaning through engagement with an anachronistic science-turned-spiritual practice. this explanation sucks. in addition to the fact that astrology and occult sciences never really 'went away' in the first place (& neither did religion lol), this explanation treats spiritual practice and belief as mostly an individual/psychological phenomenon, neglecting rigorous sociological attention to how these ideas spread and how group and community dynamics nurture them and form around them. it also ignores things like the profit motive for astrological practitioners, and related points about how heterodox sciences in general thrive in contexts where professional and class interests create a massive gap between laypeople and experts, barring the general population from accessing and engaging with scientific discourses and critique. 'disenchantment' also grafts onto a general idea about 'alienation', positing that the decline in religiosity creates a sense of loss and disconnect and that this psychological experience drives interest in practices like astrology. but when we talk about 'alienation' in a marxist sense,² we mean material conditions of production: the literal, physical alienation of a labourer from their products, and of a capitalist from the world (because they produce only proximately, via the labourer). the psychological experience of alienation is a result of this real material process of estrangement and expropriation; a weberian analysis that tries to put alienation down to cultural or intellectual factors is not useful for understanding material changes and the 'base' economic relations.

these types of 'disenchantment' analyses tend to claim or imply that they're making universal sociological arguments: religiosity decreases, x takes its place. but in fact these are highly culturally and historically specific arguments. weber's formulation was explicitly premised on a highly eurocentric and teleological conception of 'modernity' and modernisation, wherein the west led the world in a process of 'rationalisation' that involved jettisoning spirituality. that he was ambivalent about the consequences of this process does not make the argument any less flawed. for example, even defining religiosity is not so easy (do we measure by church attendance? private internal belief? community values?) and although the catholic church has become less powerful in certain ways since the reformation, a) it's hardly gone away and b) it doesn't follow that spirituality or religiosity writ large have declined. sticking with the astrology example, if the weberian explanation holds, we should be able to come up with some set of criteria for identifying societies with high or low degrees of religiosity, and then associate that with prevalence of astrological practice. but uh, both of these things vary widely between countries, regions, social groups, &c, almost as though there are other factors at play here, and 'religion' and 'astrology' themselves also have varying meanings, uses, and practical manifestations in varying social and historical contexts.

these 'disenchantment' explanations pretty much all start from the same rhetorical operation, which goes something like: "[x problem] is bad and harmful, which is discordant with my imagination of what 'the west'/the usa is 'supposed' to be like. why does such a [developed/modern/wealthy] society have these problems?" from there, it's a move to a critique of modernity/rationality/the speaker's notion of 'progress', and specifically a critique that aims to identify and root out some kind of spiritual rot or void, without ever challenging or problematising the construction of such notions of 'progress' or the processes of imperialism and colonialism that make 'the west' and wealthy lifestyles possible. in other words, these are generally reactionary arguments that seek to preserve the status quo of the material processes of exploitation and production, but want more psychological fulfillment for a few people.

these explanations are just really fucking bad and over-simplified explanations of how religion functions and what effects it has in a society. again, part of the issue here is that 'religion' is not even really a cohesive category and certainly not a unified set of practices. it works sometimes through institutions, which have their own financial and class characters; it interacts with and sometimes seeks to control politics; it also functions to enforce group identity and community cohesion. these are not inherently good or spiritually fulfilling things, and these effects all vary in different religions, societies, and historical contexts, which makes statements about the consequences of 'declining religiosity' kind of nonsensical on their face. religion can be a vector of racism, of caste, of other inequities; given astrology's essentialist character and resemblence to similarly class- and race-enforcing and -creating psychological projects, i'm certainly willing to entertain arguments that modern astrology performs these religious functions. but again, this argument would require actual materialist analysis, not just the vague diagnosis that 'people want to create spiritual meaning' in a 'modern' world supposedly too 'rational' to fulfill that need.

¹ term borrowed from schiller, but schiller used it somewhat differently and in a different context

² marx's later texts largely subsume the idea of 'alienation' or 'estrangement' into a larger analysis of 'commodity fetishism', which has its own theoretical problems in the construction of the 'fetish' concept; see j lorand matory's "the fetish revisited: marx, freud, and the gods black people make".

[divinecomedyproductions]

The Steps of being a RWBY Stan

Engaging with a dissident of RWBY wanting your words to come out of their mouths

Gloss over or outright ignore the dissidents thoughts and feelings and the reasons for their satisfaction and dissatisfaction

Reduce their arguments to whatever component makes them sound stupid, especially feelings, and label their arguments accordingly without elaborating

Tell dissidents to consume alternative you approve of, even if it doesn't have what they're looking for

Imply these people are not entitled to anything nor allowed to have a personal anything, and expect them to surrender every aspect of their autonomy to you, the "experts”

If they take matters into their own hands with either fanfiction or original works that recycles ideas and concepts, passive aggressively or patronizingly imply they're ultimately nothing and contribute nothing and these dissidents have no good reason for what makes them happy

Tell others to "curate" their consumption of media and interaction online, but never practice what you preach yourself, because you supposedly know better and need to correct and educate everyone

Inspired by this video

[wutheringmights]

I don't think I get The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson.

I didn't really know anything about this book going in. I bought it some time last year while on a quest to find Carson's Greek play translations. The summary looked interesting enough, and I was intrigued by the concept of a modern adaptation of Herakles's tenth labor.

Before reading it now, I tried to take a day to do a little research into the story of Geryon to prepare myself. I even looked at Stesichorus and what little is known about Geryoneis. I felt very prepared.

And... yeah. I still am not sure what's going on. I enjoyed the narrative and I loved Carson's lyricism, but I have no idea what it ultimately means. There's a depth of meaning in this novel, but it's too opaque for me to see.

Granted, I'm not really an expert in verse. As important as reading poetry is, it also always leaves me a little bewildered. For the first time in a long time, I wished I read this in school. At least them the professor would have supplied some pre-reading materials to review that would have informed my reading experience.

I did try to look up analyses on my own to help me parse through what I read. One paper I read (that I never wrote down the name of) elaborated a lot on the explorations of myth vs reality, which I found helpful. By and large the best article I read was from LitHub on the ways Carson utilized humor. That really helped me to figure out what Carson was doing with the sections about Stesichorus and Helen.

Even then, I'm still not sure where that leaves me. I've taken a few days to digest my thoughts, and I'm left with one lingering question: why Geryon? Why use this myth to tell this story? If I can just figure that out, I think everything else will fall into place for me.

That being said, I'm happy I read this. I didn't know this was a beloved piece of queer literature before I purchased it, and I was really happy to stumble into all these different accounts of queer readers finding truth in how Carson portrays coming of age, loneliness, and monstrosity.

This is a very special and important novel. I'll have to reread it someday and, hopefully then, I'll be able to take more from it than I did this time around.

--

The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

Rating: 4.5/5

[architectuul]

Utopia K67

In his novel Blindness Jose Saramago narrate a story of a plague that affects the city so the encounters between inhabitants become increasingly frightening. The immense absurdity of the capital development of the contemporary city recalls Saramago's apocalyptic vision of the development affected by an epidemic of white blindness.

How will we live together when public spaces are sold out? The story is a parable of the fear of the unknown - is it war, isolation or just the fear of being to close to each other? 

Public talks in K67 with local cultural and political figures transmitted live on-air of Independent Coastal Radio NOR.

The utopia starts in projects that are going beyond the expected rules. It points out the neuralgic problems of the location and seeks the analysis of the current state of matter. One of the utopias stands in a small Slovenian coastal town Koper - in a public square where a parking lot is situated on the most prominent position next to the sea.

The utopia - K67 kiosk, designed by Saša Mächtig in 1967, concludes its story with the absurdity of the use of the public square next to the sea in favor of parking. As the writer and journalist Martin Reichert, to whom we dedicated this project, would say, “it is a parking lot with the most beautiful view in the world."

K67 is one of the best examples of design during the former Yugoslavia. In the context of the presentation in the public space, with the help of the owner Coastal Galleries Piran, it was placed on the square in Koper in December 2021, in order to become a new generator for its urban content.

From spring to late autumn 2023, a process of tactical and performative urbanism took part in the K67 in favour to create an inclusive public space. The main concept proposed and elaborated within the municipality was based on the change of the current parking lot on the square into a green community space.

Unfinished project Solis was more than ten years a failure of a PPP concept. After COVID the investor succeeded to add two more floors of the private apartments.

Tactical urbanism is the opposite of investment urbanism, which has a dispersed structure of activity in space and builds various, mainly residential buildings that sell well, but without a well-thought-out placement in the context of the city. The last plan for Koper was signed by the architect Edo Mihevc in the 1960s.

Urban Plan for Koper, Edo Mihevc (1961). | Source © Neža Čebron Lipovec

The renovation of the new roof for the city market was executed via the municipality but without a public competition.

Today it looks like investor urbanism is much faster than the concept of town planning per se. This results in a fact that there is no more urban planning in the city of Koper today.

The farm market with live animals in plastic tent on Ukmarjev square shows the discrepancy of communication between the municipality and experts.

In Koper as in other towns across the Adriatic coast there is an obvious pressure from investor urbanism. Public spaces are mostly touristized, privatized and don’t belong to dwellers anymore. Therefore is important to ensure that buildings are not built without public competitions. The K67 stays a reminder of a utopia that shall make aware of the importance of reuse and creation of community spaces.

The cruise ships don't need to pay tax in Koper so instead of Venice, were are banned are welcomed for a pollution of cruise tourism.

The utopia K67 is dedicated to the writer and journalist Martin Reichert.

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Exhuma

As last week's edition of this little column succumbed to a bad case of the painbrain, I've taken steps to ensure this wouldn't happen again. This is to say I'm writing this thing ahead of time. Today, we'll be looking at a movie that combines two things I like a lot. Spooky scary hauntings with cultural relevance and procedural.

Exhuma is a Korean ghost story, and features a small entourage of spiritual experts, chiefly professional shaman Lee Hwa-rim, her assistant Yoon Bong-gil, Geomancer Kim Sang-deok and his business partner/might as well be regular partner, Burials Guy Go Yeong-geun. They're pulled together to solve an unusual problem, the spirit of a deceased grandfather coming to take his relations back to the world of the dead with him, which turns out to be the top layer of problems in a layered cake of historic and spiritual atrocities.

Exhuma is interesting in that it seems to cast the audience as the primary sceptic of the film. In a more typical ghost story there'd be some smart-aleck personal assistant or distant relative that needed to get the hows and whys of the spirit world, and probably tells the audience he doesn't believe in all that nonsense just to tell us the audience not to get attached as he is practically mincemeat already.

No, Exhuma has a very low-key approach to the supernatural. For the opening act of the movie, it's all shop talk. Hwa-Rim diagnoses the problem, Sang-Deok gets seriously bad vibes to the burial site, they come up with a shaman hack that theoretically could solve the problem but has never been field tested, and so on. The movie doesn't really exert itself to sell the supernatural stuff right away, but it clearly has a cinematographic sympathetic eye to the concept.

This isn't to say the movie holds back or tries to make things ambigious once the hauntings start, though. As soon as a freak rainshower postpones the planned cremation of the problem body and the whole spectral kit and caboodle gets unleashed from its former final resting space, the haunt is ON. A particular set of scares where the thoroughly pissed-off ghost goes to town on his family are simple but very effective, including a pretty fun phone-based scare that's basically all acting and timing, but WOW does it work.

Uncovering the true underlying source of spiritual problems, as these things often do, include digging around in some history some people would rather you'd forget. In Exhuma's case, the tale is connected to the notoriously brutal Japanese occupation of Korea and, by extension, some Japanese ghosts. It turns out they make the ghosts meaner over there, which if the ghost stories are any indication, might very well be true. It's one of those Act 3 escalations that makes both thematic and practical sense, but I personally would never have guessed at. I do find myself wondering if this spiritual occupation was an attempt at prolonging the Japanese soldier's reign of terror, or just a particularly wacky idea someone had. This might be one of those cultural ideas that I don't get, though.

Exhuma is an interesting take on the ghost story, and while it's not as scary as other, more explicit stories, it does serve up a delicious mix of spooks and specialists unwinding an elaborate and complicated mystery. Whenever I can get that without having to sympathize with a cop, I'm generally having a great time of things, and if you're anything like me on this you should give it a watch.

[srbachchan]

DAY 5434

AbDh, Ju S ho                Dec 31,  2022                Sat 11:41 AM

Birthday - EF Nandita Kao ..  Pankaj Purohit .. Manish Sevalal Tiwari .. Saturday, 31 December 2022 

Birthday Ef - Shrikant Deshmukh .. Saturday, 31 December 2022 

the state of the mind loaded with overnight thoughts remembers to remember the thoughts of the written .. words and lines of the conversation within , in discrete observance of the reality not to be in the release of what is desired .. 

And then .. fate and desire much like the Beethoven 9th Symphony .. battled it out with the soft and the deep base organ desperate for its mind to be known ; in some surreptitious intend .. and it fails .. 

Fate victorious .. desire dug deep but dug its own grave in the graveyard, ironically of the fated .. 

Much was tabled here on this whitish yet often stained content provider , in some elaboration .. the writings were highlighted in the blue of the ocean about, to be copied so it may be retained for more writings .. 

And then FATE struck .. 

the fingered finger went to the point of the saving or the copying and did what is normally a most controlled act - but NO .. 

fate had its own reckoning and wiped away the most intricately composed elements on the stated mind .. 

So be it .. 

the experts and the knowledge known humanities necessary living being were sought after for their assist, and after several attempts at the Command Z .. nothing appeared .. a 😢 dropped .. the tissued wipe went across the fungus leveraged facia , and like all other .. up and never giving up to be on the whited again ...

How does one express .. how does one explain .. how does one comprehend what has been gone through  ..

It must not gain attention .. it must not be given precedence .. it must not be in the excess of its nature .. it must not be descriptive in its bearings ..

Then how .. 

How does it , or why does it , why does it retain the retained .. 

BE .. be the BE it said in the Websters Dictionary .. to exist, have a being, have existence, breathe, be extant, be viable  ... be around, be available, be near nearby, be at hand  .. be positioned, be placed , be installed .. to remain and stay .. to linger and hang on .. to continue .. to endure , persist and take part .. to haunt and patronise .. 

to be SITUATED  ..

and I smile and in the isolation of my isolator ed convenience .. to give reference and reverence to and .. to retort riposte ..

I can and will .. but there shall be damage only to the self .. self immolation , as many do in the abject belief of their motive .. 

to exist have a being and have existence  - how ? when the existence be in the control of the other  .. to breathe be extant and viable .. but I am .. am I not despite - but how ? when the existence be in the control of the other .. to be available near nearby and at hand , positioned and placed to be installed in the queue of time .. hanging around, lingering .. to await the libraried book to be reversed at the counter so another can borrow .. borrow .. BORROW .. ? to persist and take part and to .. PATRONISE .. PATRONISE  !!!???? 

Gentlemen and Ladies of the jury .. or rather Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury ..  the other is the prevalent .. it is the choice of the Almighty .. He fated it .. HE .. and desire be damned .. 

The left overs , cater to the dumped dustbin of life .. the ‘starters’ precede the ‘main course’ .. even the sweetened ‘desert’ .. or the lemoned soufflé - cold , lumped in globules of tasted ice , and ended in the FINISH ..

the finish ..

the tape ..

the end of the race .. 

the chequered flag .. 

often in colour of the black and white ..

yes ..

the Black and the White .. 

Life be that , does it not - the BLACK and the WHITE ..

black is often taken as an aback .. white be the more receptive .. a concept that unnerved and converted the Cassius Clay to Mohammed Ali  .. 

My love and regrets for them that differ .. 

Amitabh Bachchan

[floofgryph]

Ello! Since you ask me to help you make some ideas for quite some time...If you don't mind, could you think of another Alter ego for Yonaka? I feel like there aren't enough alter egos for her lol

Hi! Here's what I can think of for a potential alter ego for Yonaka:

Her name is Miwako (born as Mitsuomi)

This alter ego was born a boy, but she strongly identifies herself as a girl and isn't ashamed of being transgender (she's quite proud of it!). She's more prone to being picked on by transphobes, but she has no qualms in berating them or brutally murdering them.

She's 23-years-old with a hoarse yet charming voice

She wears pastel-coloured lolita dresses with jewellery that give off heavy metal vibes (e.g. spiked chokers and leather cuffs).

She has sapphire-studded snake bites, which are her most favourite piercing.

Her waist-length hair is a pink blonde with streaks of copper and it has delicate curls

She decorates her hair with horror-themed hairpins

Her makeup consists of bold eyeliner and lipstick with a soft, natural foundation

She has prominent eye bags due to her insomnia, but her persistent tiredness doesn't stop her from being her playful, chill, and wise self.

She knows how to use her cunning intelligence to get what she truly desires, even if it means acting callous and distant.

She uses her humor and wit to defuse tense situations and make those around her feel at ease.

She's strategic and clever, often staying one step ahead of others.

Miwako exudes a carefree, laid-back vibe, never getting too worked up about anything.

She has a tough exterior, developed to protect herself from hurt and rejection.

While she cares deeply for those close to her, she maintains a sense of emotional distance to safeguard her heart.

She plays with her jewellery and hair when thinking or flirting

Miwako is an organ harvester

When doing her organ harvester duties, she wears a modernised plague doctor outfit. She dons this outfit because she doesn't want her usual clothing to get dirty and stained with blood.

Her job as an organ harvester is a secret, even from those close to her, to avoid judgement and legal repercussions.

Miwako has a fondness for rare, limited-edition vapes with each one having a unique flavour and enjoys collecting them as a hobby.

She has a collection of rare vinyl records of all rock genres

She likes to attend underground concerts whenever she has time

She's an expert at navigating the city's underground networks and hidden passageways.

She's a skilled baker (she'll never admit to this because she believes that her elaborate pastries and baked goods look like dogshit...)

She has a fascination with alchemy and the concept of transforming base metals into gold.

She has a secret talent of playing the harpsichord and keyboard

She finds solace in playing the harpsichord and keyboard, as it allows her to express emotions she can't verbalize.

Her music is a fusion of classical and heavy metal elements, reflecting her eclectic style.

She views Alice, the Witch of Performance, as a mother figure for reasons she doesn't quite understand.

She's a trusted confidante of Alice

She views Yonaka, Fuyuko, and Chiyoko as the family she never had (her parents were emotionally distant).

Miwako thinks Yonaka is a sweetheart who knows more than what she often lets on.

Miwako thinks Fuyuko is a fierce woman and anti-social bookworm with a pretty doll face.

Miwako thinks Chiyoko is a silly billy that likes to mess with people for funsies.

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Azula Week Day 3 - Non Bender Azula

Summary: Azula is her father’s second greatest disappointment. Now to go with a son who can’t bend well, he has a daughter who can’t bend at all. Everything changes when Azula’s new friends suggest that she can pretend to be a bender.

Note: Azula Week Day 3 - Nonbender Azula. This fic is very much a not as fleshed out concept/demo for something much bigger lol. But right now it’s gonna be another one shot because I don’t really know where to go with this concept. I guess ya’ll can think of this one an idea that someone else can steal if you like the concept.

Father had been disappointed with Zuzu’s poor bending abilities. She has heard the way father talks to him, seen the way he looks at him. 

He wants nothing to do with his own son and all because Zuko sometimes makes missteps when running through his firebending forms. 

Azula vows that she will do better.

When she feels that first spark, she will become the best firebender that her nation has seen. 

Azula hadn’t realized that she should have already felt that spark. 

That, that spark should have been innate. 

She thinks that father had always known. 

That father had been in denial; one child is inept and the other is unwhole. 

His offspring shames him.

Every day she hears her father berating her brother, “useless, incompetent, fool!” Sometimes she hears other things; slaps, cracks, and shattered glass. 

And so once again Azula tries to produce even a tiny puff of sparks until her head hurts and her little body aches. Just one little plume of smoke to hold in her palms, to show father. That’s all she needs. Just a little something to show that she is complete. 

But the fire never comes. 

Not even a little flash of it. 

Tears cling to her lashes. 

By ten years Azula knows that she is an empty thing. A cold thing. A fire that has never burned. 

And she knows that father won’t keep her around.

He barely paid her any mind when firebending was a possibility. And now that Zuko has made some steady strides in his own abilities…

She tells herself that it is better this way. That it is better to have no attention at all than to get the kind that Zuko receives. That harsh, cruel attention. The scrutinizing eyes that never seem to glimmer with pride nor affection.

The truth is, Zuko will never be good enough.

At least Azula knows that there is no point in striving for father’s affections. 

Zuko is still enamored with this fantasy that hard work might earn him love.

It still doesn’t make her feel better. Zuko is useful. Zuko is strong. Azula is good with a blade and she has her intellect but father can’t be bothered to talk to her let alone allow her to demonstrate how deeply she has memorized Fire Nation history, how elaborate her battle tactics are. 

Mother engages her though. 

Mother strokes her hair and murmurs things like, “you’re a very smart girl, Azula.” Even still, the woman seems uncomfortable with how invested Azula gets in strategizing. “The battlefield is no place for a little girl.”

Nonetheless, a little girl who can’t bend.

And so her dreams are dashed. 

Dashed by a woman who truly does mean well.

Somehow the sweetness…the caringness of mother’s words make it hurt that much more. 

.oOo.

Things change with one cheerful “hello!” Her name is TyLee and she wears and abundance of pink. She can do things that dazzle and enchant Azula; cartwheels, handstands, mid-air flips. And none of them involve bending. 

Some of these tricks take on firebending forms, but most of them are of TyLee’s own creation. 

TyLee’s best friend is exactly the opposite. While TyLee is bubbly and flouncy, Mai is stoic and unexpressive. She has a dry sense of humor and doesn’t talk all that much. She is an expert with a blade, Azula has never seen her miss a mark. 

She can’t bend either. 

“What can you do?” TyLee asks one day. 

And Azula almost falls apart. 

What can she do?

TyLee is an acrobat.

Mai is a knife thrower.

What is Azula?

Her mind can twist and bend in strange ways to rival how TyLee moves and she likes to think that it is as sharp as Mai’s blades. But comparatively, what good will that do her? What good in a place like this? A clever mind can only get her so far in an academy that prides itself on battle prowess. 

She isn’t brawn, she is brains. 

She isn’t muscle, she is wit. 

“Nothing important, I guess.” Azula replies. 

“You’re not a bender either?” Mai comments. 

Azula shakes her head. “I’m pretty sure that that’s why father sent me here.”

“So you can learn to fight without bending?”

“To learn a new skill or to…” she trails off. To get her killed. The Royal Fire Academy For Girls is known for ‘accidents’. Azula is fairly certain that father has sent her here in hopes that she will have one and not return to him. That way he can be rid of her without having to muddy his reputation. He can get a new daughter, one that actually has fire.

Azula swallows. “I think that he just didn’t want me around any longer.”

“Because you can’t bend?” TyLee asks. 

“Because I can’t do anything but read scrolls and win a few games of pai sho.” In fact she hasn’t lost a single game. Not even to the most seasoned players. 

“So your skill is up here!” TyLee taps her head. 

“Something like that, I guess.” Azula pauses. “But it doesn’t really matter because…”

“This nation is full of burtes.” Mai fills in. “They just don’t get that sometimes you can’t just punch and fireball your way to victory.”

Azula perks up because finally! Finally someone gets it! “I have outsmarted so many of father’s men but because I can’t also kick fire at them, they don’t see it as a victory.”

And she dreads that this is how she will live her whole life. 

“Well have you tried pretending to be a firebender?” TyLee suggests. 

“That sounds…ridiculous.” Azula frowns. “Nobody would buy it.”

“People here are dumb.” Mai reminds her. “You’re smart. Just throw a little creativity on top of it and I’m sure that you can fool some people.”

“But my father?” Azula frowns.

“He doesn’t sound too bright either.” Mai shrugs. 

“Dumb or not, I think that he’d be a bit suspicious if his daughter suddenly started firebending…” Azula trails off as an idea comes to her. She exchanges a look with Mai. “Unless…”

“You begin your fake bending here?” Mai guesses.

Azula nods. “Exactly! Then it’s a skill that I’ve developed here. I can say that I discovered it during a desperate fight for my life!”

“How dramatic.” Mai sighs.

“It’s perfect!” TyLee grins. 

Now all she has to do is figure out how to pull it off. Perhaps in the same way that Mai conceals her knives, Azula can conceal powders and matches. It will take some careful planning but Azula will make herself into the greatest firebender that the Fire Nation has ever seen!