#I didn't make a distinction between the two timelines because

[byemambo]

4Minutes EP. 6 - My Takeaways

Y'all...The way I was working OVERTIME trying to figure out how I wanted to explain my thoughts for this episode (this post is extremely long: take that as you will). So please welcome OG TymeGreat vs. NDE (near death experience) TymeGreat and their timelines (everything else under the cut!):

Great Version

Tyme Version

Key Events: Assessing the Timelines

I listed out key events that I felt matched up within each existing timeline (and I'm sure I missed more key events/details that aren't listed in my findings), no matter the person nor alternative reality they're in. For Great's timeline, the key events include:

Waking up to take his exam

Hitting Manee with his car

Receiving the call from Title

Korn being attacked

Great learns Tyme's identity as the attacker

Great confronting Tyme at the hospital the next day

Great confronting his parents for their crimes

Great renounces his ties to his family

While these events occurred regardless of the different decisions Great could make, what was striking to me was Great's distinct characteristics that existed in both timelines while also having characteristics individual to their respective timelines. For OG Great, he's extremely defiant and cynical, especially if he's able to get a rise out of his father for reasons prior to knowing about the business, I'm not exactly sure (except for him being the mistress's son before the first wife committed suicide).

Episode 6 vs. Episode 1

Given that we didn't get any scenes of him bonding with Korn throughout the episode unlike NDE Great, I can only imagine there's a bias towards Korn as the favorite son between the two where one listens and submits while the other vocal and disobeys. Along with being defiant and having the guts to gauge the wold with cockiness, he is also a coward that's easily persuaded and manipulated. This shows up most during scenes like the hit and run or when Title demanded Great to help get rid of Dome's body and in turn, become an accomplice to the crime.

Episode 6 vs. Episode 1

OG Great also operates on this mindset of being silver spooned his entire life more explicitly than NDE Great, and becomes hot headed when placed under immense pressure once he's unable to play mind games with his targets such as Tyme. Even though their hook up and Tyme leaking his sex tape caused a scandal with his dad's company, the amount of trauma Great has dealt with growing up (this kid never played a crane machine game so I can only imagine how lonely his upbringing was) resorts to him chasing after those dopamine hits and becoming shameless as a result.

One of the few times OG Great chose his own morals and acted upon them in the storyline was when he found out about his parents and their involvement with the scheme, but this decision only occurred when people he cared about died or got hurt, like Nan and Tyme. Because he had developed a short spanned codependency on Tyme (whether for more sex or because he found his serious demeanor amusing), once he had been left with nothing due to reasons beyond his control, he leaves his family behind after the confirmation of their crimes.

Unlike NDE Great, OG Great is self centered and only acts when pushed beyond his limits, but only if the consequences of that limit involves someone he genuinely cares about (this is the stark difference between Dome's demise versus Tyme's meltdown after Nan's death). Sure, people can argue that Great knows Tyme at a similar level of depth like he knew Dome (apart from being sexually involved with one another), but his interests peaks in Tyme once he finds out that he's seeking revenge against his father and finds that mere effort entertaining for him. In the OG timeline, Great's flaws directly causes his detriment in the end, getting shot by Dome's older brother Tonkla in vengeance.

Episode 6 vs. Episode 5

In Tyme's timeline, there aren't as many moving parts that we saw on screen as much as Great's (since their particular story is limited narrative through Great's perspective) but these events remain consistent in his story:

Tyme works a hospital shift

Den tells him about his NDE research

Tyme works the night shift with Great in his proximity

Tyme attacks Korn in search of Nan

Great confronts Tyme at the hospital the next day

What I found most interesting in OG Tyme's timeline was how linear and straightforward the events occurred in sequence, which would have been the case if Great never asked him about his occurring NDE symptoms like he did in the NDE timeline while being under Tyme's care. Tyme's prior knowledge to Den's research served as a seed planted in the back of his mind, which if Great hadn't asked him (if he chose to help Title get rid of Dome's body), Tyme would have went along with his plan and shelved Den's research with no intention in intervention. The difference in approach between OG Tyme and NDE Tyme was rooted in their initial encounters, both being Great bumping into Tyme and how it was handled.

If Great continued heading his way, Tyme's initial impression of Great would have been slightly annoyed (which we saw a preview of how he yelled at Great during the first cardiac arrest Great had when he bumped into Tyme and didn't help him). But if Great stopped to apologize and even help Tyme with the papers, there is a hint of consideration in that gesture, even if Great himself is a flawed person capable of doing bad things. For some, basic human decency isn't a mind blowing trait for people to fawn over, but this can be contrasted when Tyme asks P'Anne for his information and finally gets confirmation of Great's identity.

Episode 6 vs. Episode 1

Episode 6 vs. Episode 3

From the perspective of Tyme who's dedicated his personal life in bringing down the family responsible for the death of his parents, I'm sure having a painted image of what inhumane and vulgar things the family is capable of, Great's first impression as the younger son of the enemy is somehow normal? As if this man isn't capable of hurting a fly, let alone killing people like his father does (why did I think of fucking Lord Ozai and Prince Zuko when proofreading this loooooord someone send me to bed asap). Rather than treating Great as just a means to an end with no prior attachment and full intent in harming the family's reputation as OG Tyme would have, NDE Tyme's prior interactions with Great by him helping Tyme with his papers (the readiness to correct his faults while providing a solution to aid in the damage caused, big or small), Great bringing his hurt friend to the hospital without acknowledging his own injuries (a sign of selflessness and reliability) and asking Tyme about his symptoms related to his cardiac arrests and moments of NDE, there are layers being shed off of Tyme's preconceived notions about the family.

Episode 2

Episode 6

Not only are there layers, Tyme's curiosity peaks because why is the son of the family who killed his parents seemingly harmless and clumsy? Shouldn't someone of his background be more cautious and conceal himself more, especially when speaking to a stranger such as Tyme? Does he know what his parents do and the damage they have caused for countless families and victims? In comparison to OG Great who's callous and bold, NDE Great is soft and easily startled, therefore, needs a more calculative and somewhat honest approach to secure a connection to get closer to bringing the family down.

Episode 6 vs. Episode 3

Characterization: A vs. B

When writing my reflections, I found it interesting how TymeGreat's relationship develops within their respective timelines, especially how each encounter they had with one another fueled different emotions and residual feelings. In the OG timeline, their relationship is innately lustful with distance between them, their main objectives involve concealed vengeance, amusement in the series of events occurring between them and not being able to access the full story of the two worlds both individuals were a part of before their paths crossed.

Whereas in the NDE timeline, their relationship began with a curiosity that defied expectations and welcomed communication, such as asking intimate questions and offering valuable solutions to majority of their problems: Great asking Tyme about his cardiac symptoms, Tyme consulting Den about his research after Great's conversation, Great confiding in Tyme about his upbringing, Tyme revealing the cause of his parents' death, Great confronting his own family for their crimes and seeking accountability. All of these traits wouldn't have been present if that initial hit and run played out differently: they would have crossed paths regardless but their attitudes and motives would shape the state of their relationship.

Episode 6 vs. Episode 3

Episode 6 vs. Episode 5

However, there are innate traits that remained consistent in both characters. Great with his impulsivity and tackling his problems head strong, Tyme with his nonchalance and caring attitude towards the people he loves (such as his grandmother). What really caused the divergence of their whims were purely based in the circumstances they find themselves in during their initial encounters. When they met at the bar, Great's impulsivity charged the motion of their relationship, ending with his cowardice separating the two once Nan died at the hands of Samarn. Tyme's detached attitude that drove his girlfriend away from him and poses concern from Den as a fellow doctor in how he denies his patients of their own identity and autonomy, causes him to take advantage of Great's relations to the family, ending in his own death after denying the bribe by Great's father.

Episode 6

Episode 6

Episode 1

Despite it all, the most significant element that both Tyme and Great share is the leverage both have over one another through their emotional attachments, which may seem small in comparison to more flashy events within the storyline but for these two characters: it makes a world of a difference. When NDE Tyme reveals his identity during the ambush against Korn, which led Great to help Tyme find Nan and as a result, saving her life. This is critical as OG Great is inherently a coward with a dopamine deficiency and enjoys causing trouble for his father's reputation at his own demise.

Episode 4

When Tyme is willing to risk his life exposing Great's family to the press, Great reminds him of his grandmother, driving Tyme to accept the bribe from Great's dad and find safety at Aunt Ging's house together. Unlike OG Tyme, whose reserved and passive attitude enables his life to be filled with the absurd and mundane, that money is the driving force of life and the root of all evil that took his parents away from him, so what else is there to live for as long as he avenges his family?

Episode 5

Now for my questions for the last two episodes: if Great dies in the OG timeline and is actively dying in the NDE timeline, since Tyme's destined fate to die in the OG timeline has been altered once he's notified of Great's condition in the emergency room by Den, he has a chance of avoiding death that OG Tyme suffers from. It may be a stretch but look at the two hit men who targeted Tyme and Great.

Episode 1 vs. Episode 5

The hit man in episode 1 look significantly younger than the hit man in episode 5, but same facial hair? The shadow in the first image throws me off but it's freaky to speculate as it sent shivers down my spine whenever I got a better screenshot of them. If I put my two brain cells together: in the OG timeline, Tonkla targets and shoots Great but Tyme is also shot in episode 1, which makes me believe that their timelines are converging somehow as both of them enter their 4 minutes of limbo and their memories and experiences are warped.

In the NDE timeline, because Dome is saved and returns home to Tonkla, the only person reasonable in targeting Great would be Manee after she finds out which family is responsible for her son's involvement in illegal business (which her giving up her life savings and being given the 4th card during her ritual that calls for separation of loved ones). This separation in question is the separation of Tyme from Great as Great's fighting for his vitals to stabilize just as Tyme rushes to the OR?

Because NDE Tyme goes with his grandmother to Aunt Ging's instead of sending her on her own as OG Tyme does, both of them are technically off the radar from being targeted, or at least bought enough time to make a safe escape if Great's father goes back on his word outlined in the proposed bribe. Seeing as Tyme's wearing the same shirt in both timelines at this point, we're now waiting to see how this will play out, and I'm literally so excited to lose sleep all over again.

Episode 1 vs. Episode 6

If you made it to the end, pat yourself on the back! And if you've been actively reading my previous posts regarding my takeaways, I really appreciate the love they've been getting! I'm more than happy to hyperfixate on this series and help out with really digging deep in the details that could help those who are having difficulty following along with the series. Idk, y'all got to yell at Bible on Twitter then because he thinks he's so funny tweeting this:

If y'all would like to read more, check out my tags and thank you again for sticking around, see y'all next Friday or whatever day my brain finishes finalizing its thoughts to share with y'all :)

[neverchecking]

More Sage Hc's

Because I miss him :(

And this is a wonderful half-collab with @angry-trashcan. I love you so very much and thank you for letting me yell ideas at you.

CW: Mentions of child abuse, child soldiers, Zelda slander, Sage

・❥・Welcome back. :)

・❥・So, we've established Sage as his own character at this point. I think it's safe to say he is not Wild. They are similar but two very distinct characters. That is something I'd like to clarify.

・❥・But we'll step into that later.

・❥・For now, let's talk about his entire timeline from start to finish.

・❥・So, Bailey and I talked about his parents and this is the conclusion we came to:

・❥・As everyone knows, Link in the AoC/BotW/TotK timeline was in the knights by a staggeringly young age. Either four or twelve or fourteen. I've seen them all, but I'm not sure if there's a canon age.

・❥・For Sage, we're going with four.

・❥・Now, let's start with his father. Sage's father was in the knights as a commanding officer, which is why he was okay with Link joining the knights. However, because of this a lot more expectations were placed on a very young Sage. And if he failed the punishments were much harsher and much less justified.

・❥・There were nights when Sage/Link was left on the ground outside because his father didn't deem him worth the effort and forbade people from helping him.

・❥・He'd walk past and spit on this terrified child because he didn't live up to expectations. "Your mother would've been so disappointed."

・❥・(shout out to Bailey for ripping out all of our hears with that line.

・❥・Because of this Sage finds much more comfort sleeping outside. Even a a century later, he prefers the comfort of a constant rather than a bedroom he was never allowed the privilege of knowing.

・❥・When he gets his house in Tarrey Town, he builds the stable extension first and slips outside with Epona.

・❥・We also agreed that his mother most likely died during the birth of his sister, which is probably why they had to move out of the Hateno house and closer to the castle, if not on the castle grounds.

・❥・If I had to make an assumption on his mother, she was probably a timid woman that never stood against his father.

・❥・This is really just my lil tidbit but because of that headcanon it's why I made Aaliyah such an abrasive character because I feel Sage would feel too much like his father with someone who reminded him of his mother. Or the little bits he remembers of her.

・❥・Anyway, his mother was probably a seen rather than heard woman,

・❥・Now, you're probably asking about his sister. We decided that she would've ended up as a maid/servant in the castle.

・❥・This is for two reasons:

・❥・One) It adds to hatred Sage has for the Royal Family. As a knight he would've had no choice but to watch this happen and would feel that burning guilt as a bystander, ignoring the fact that he has no choice in the matter. Maybe that's why he fought so hard pre-Calamity. Of course, he still fought because it was his duty, but I also like to imagine he was trying his best to protect his sister before it could ever hit her. Even if it was a fruitless endeavor.

・❥・Two) When Sage remembers this fact, it's probably before Tears of the Kingdom. The bridge between TotK and BotW probably is Link/Sage unravelling a lot of the trauma he tried to ignore regarding the royal family. So this is almost a catharsis to the entire feat. Moreso with Zelda/Natura's reaction.

・❥・She'd be flippant and almost ignorant to the entire ordeal.

・❥・Before anyone comes for my throat, let me explain Natura's character okay?

・❥・So, as far as I'm concerned, Natura hasn't learned anything. She's very much still the same character she was in AoC which is a spoiled individual with little regards to the woes others are facing. She had a tough time, yes I understand that and she was young, but she had no reason to act the way she did with Link. I don't care, argue with the wall.

・❥・She went digging around in the remains of what was left of her people post BotW trying to figure out how the guardians worked. She puts more emphasis on her studies and research rather than her people. Remember this is Natura. Not Zelda. This is my characterization in the same way that Sage is my characterization of Link.

・❥・Anyway, she didn't go looking for a way to solve the Gloom issue, she went looking for a way to capitalize on it. Like the pharmaceutical industry.

・❥・So you can imagine her reaction knowing that.

・❥・"We kept her off the streets like a worthless rat. You should be thanking me."

・❥・Yeah, it's not great.

・❥・So then TotK happens, yadda yada.

・❥・Sage loves animals. Let me get this straight. He's not heartless, he's angry and he's vengeful. Animals never wronged him. He finds comfort with animals as they can't lie to him. He can earn their trust and they'll remain loyal.

・❥・Because Sage is a dangerously loyal man. He still carries the loyalty of the hero's spirit, but it's amplified. Once you're his, you're his forever. Nothing can drag him away from you as he won't let it.

・❥・He's so loyal it turns from a positive attribute to a flaw. :)

・❥・He's possessive and protective and doesn't see an issue with it. Everything else has been torn from his hands but his fingers will be broken and bloody before he lets what's his go.

・❥・I bring up the animal thing just to say Sage gets a dog. You know that stable that closes down in the desert? And how all the stables have stable dogs? Well, this one follows Sage all over Hyrule. And if he goes in the depths thinking he's lost it, the second he's out the dog is sniffing his ass out.

・❥・Yes, he keeps the dog and feeds it the nicest cuts of meat, don't worry.

・❥・It's name is Droolius Caesar.

・❥・Timeline wise, let's talk about that.

・❥・So again, Bailey, and they're gorgeous fucking brain, brought up the idea of him being on a different timeline then Wild. I ran with it.

・❥・I don't see TotK falling on the timeline nicely no matter what we do. Not with the Zonai and not with the other game.

・❥・So what if it doesn't fall on the same timeline as BotW? The same events happen but now it's different.

・❥・Here's how it goes:

・❥・So when Time splits the timeline we get the normal one where, yay! he saves the day! and the other one where he doesn't. Call it the downfall timeline, the fallen timeline, the failure timeline, I don't care. For the sake of argument it's the Fallen Timeline here.

・❥・So there's an idea that the timelines merge somewhere between Wars timeline and Wild's. But let's say they don't. Because the Fallen timeline goes to Legend, then Hyrule. Then what if it doesn't fix itself and just continues. which is where it then leads to Sage's era.

・❥・Only this timeline is on hard mode at all times. Legend's adventures were difficult, Hyrule's era is absolutely brutal, so it makes sense that Sage's is just as hard.

・❥・We toyed with the idea that because this timeline is so hard, the heroes that reign from it are just that much more advanced. It's shown through Legend and then Hyrule, both of whom have wielded the full triforce at one point or another (I think). Somewhere between Hyrule's world however and Legend's, the goddess' didn't like this idea. They didn't like the idea of the hero having this sense of power, so they stripped it away entirely. They knew that somewhere the hero's spirit would be tainted and took away the power that could be used to dethrone them before it could manifest with Sage.

・❥・In turn, the hero's spirit carried on and grew stronger to overcome this. Sage still has the hero's spirit, but it's not like an actual spirit. No, it's more like the fallen hero carrying on and trying to amend for his sins.

・❥・Which Sage hates. He hates it so much, but it propels him before he can stop it. In the beginning of TotK? It's what propels him to jump in after Zelda. After however? The gloom is what finally kills that spirit. Rauru can save him, but fails to save the spirit.

・❥・And from there Sage evolves and arises into the rat we all know and love.

・❥・All of this to give my own lil headcanons on Epona.

・❥・So there's a theory that Malanya (Horse god) Is actually Malon and I like that. (Because she gave Link Epona OG and they sound similar) So in Sage's Era? Guess what?

・❥・Anyway, I imagine Malanya and Sage had a better connection because of this. Malanya goes out of their way to care for Sage and his horse because they feel they failed their Link.

・❥・So Sage gets an Epona in a way to apologize for their first failure.

・❥・Epona is a very good horse <3

・❥・So in the wise words of bailey to end this off,

The hero's spirit is dead. Long live whatever the fuck Sage is.

[catboybiologist]

Holy fuck this got long.

@glorhatransgal asked about my "queer timeline", and I'm making a separate post for reblog control. Feel free to engage in the replies or my DMs, though! I'm a pretty open book, except some stuff I would rather leave to DMs.

The tl;Dr is that I think I knew from the time I started puberty, but I had a weird commitment to suppression and misery. I've only managed to tackle that feeling in the past year or so, and I still need to socially transition.

Long long thing under the cut with mental health CWs!!!!!

I'm pretty sure the first awareness I had of queerness was when California proposition 8 was a thing, in the 2008 election. I was ~10 or 11 at the time, and asked my mom what the big deal with letting two men marry was. She explained a bit, explained that "you'll like girls when you get older but you shouldn't judge what other people do" and then emphasized that I shouldn't really ever worry about dating or relationships ever because I should focus on school.

That was a HUGE underlying theme, not just from my parents, but from the area I grew up in overall. Very high academic pressure just kinda.... Oozed out of everywhere, without any one specific parent or teacher particularly overemphasizing it (with notable exceptions). This came up a lot, and made me feel stupid or vain for engaging in any other aspects of my personality, including queerness.

I remember having some semblance of trans thoughts back in Middle School, without ever learning what trans people are explicitly. None of the adults in my life wanted to discuss the subject, mostly brushing it off as "it's something other people do and you shouldn't judge them". Very little explicit hate, to be fair, which is good. But a lot of changing the subject. So to me, it felt like basic vanity- eg, a shallow desire to be "pretty" that everyone had, of course, that I just needed to get rid of to focus on academics.

And of course, on top of that, I was more tech literate than the average kid. So my head was stuffed with the.... Unique.... Perspective on queerness, particularly trans people, provided by the unrestricted wilderness of the 2009-2016 internet. Since no adult in my life would really address it, it gave me a lot of really bad perspectives on the whole thing.

I'm not quite sure when bisexuality entered the picture, but I called myself "straight with exceptions" from the ages of 14 to 21 at least. My earliest clear memory of being attracted to a man was when I saw Aragorn in LotR for the first time (can you blame me?). If you want to make fun of my little nerd ass more, my first distinct attraction to a woman was probably Padme's midriff outfit in Attack of the Clones. Again, since my head was stuffed with weird ideas of queerness, gayness was often portrayed as a disgust or lack of attraction to women. I didn't have that, so I couldn't be queer, right? "Straight with an asterisk" it was.

Dysphoria kinda crackled in the background and grew as I went through puberty. The way I've described it is that my "resting state" was never happy pre-HRT. I could easily make myself happy and distract from it, but I didn't "come home" to a good feeling. Not an overwhelming feeling, not a suicidal one, but just being miserable in the background if there wasn't something to make me happy.

So when I hit a wall with my mental health in high school, it ended very poorly. I was in mostly advanced programs until then, but couldn't keep up due to things I *now* realize were ADHD symptoms. I had ongoing physical health problems that meant orthopedic surgeries, multiple extended times on crutches, limping around a lot, and ongoing pain and lack of physical ability that most people couldn't see, making me feel hopeless about my body and future. Add in a nice little dysphoria bundle in the background of all of that…and yeah. That's the self harm and suicidal period of my life. I was very weird in high school, oscillating between AP classes and almost failing out. I was also really just... Nasty to a lot of people around me, as a shield for how miserable I was. So uh, if you knew me in high school and stumble across this somehow... I am truly sorry. But I made it through, mostly through the patience and good graces of friends and teachers.

Anyways. I'm on a tangent.

Undergrad wasn't that memorable for my queerness- I lived at home while attending a local state college, and dated one cis girl for about a year there. Years later she told me that she realized she's bi, so that was kinda validating. I dove a lot into a academics, research, and volunteering to distract myself, and was academically successful.

I was asked out by a gay guy at one point in undergrad. He was someone who I had talked about my uncertain sexuality with and helped me work towards calling myself bi. When he asked me out, I got a bad vibe, and told him I actually thought I was straight. He was later arrested for rape. So uh... Bullet dodged? After his arrest, I started openly calling myself bisexual, but didn't really do anything with it- no dating and no community. It was a long time coming by that point, and the experience made me realize that I didn't have to be attracted to *all* men to say I'm attracted to men. After all, I wasn't attracted to all women either.

I graduated from undergrad in 2020 and stayed at the same uni for my MS. And this is where we enter "how much do I say" territory. My MS was instrumental in figuring out my transness, but was also a fucked up ongoing situation that involves several other people's dirty laundry that I don't necessarily want to air. I can talk a bit more about this in DMs if I know you and trust you, I guess. Sorry OP. So uuuhhh... Let's just say that I was extremely miserable and living mostly alone, so in the Fall of 2020, I ordered my first skirt to try and alleviate that background misery. I called myself a femboy as a last ditch effort to “just be a feminine man”. It was a key part of figuring myself out, though, and I loved the online community I made that way. About a year afterwards, I was having a shit time, and started the CatboyBiologist account on reddit to distract myself from it. I worked more and more from home, and would dress up as a "femboy" as I did.

I graduated from my MS in 2022 in a miserable state, probably worse than I was even as a teen. But it made me realize three things: one, some kind of mental illness made it really easy for my life to derail, two, my dysphoria made it such that *when* my life derailed, I had nothing to be happy about, and three, my weird standards growing up gave me the subconscious sense that I HAVE to be miserable, otherwise I'm not "accomplished" or whatever.

That's kind of the theme of my queer experience. I always knew it was there, but I excused it as "stupid" or just ignored it because I thought everyone was supposed to be miserable by default.

When I entered my PhD, I made a promise to myself to get rid of my weird connection to misery, and actually work on the first two. I joined a grad student queer group and started therapy almost immediately. At first the focus of therapy was essentially immediate trauma support. Slowly, however, I was able to tackle the underlying issues in therapy. I also brought my "femboy" fits to events organized by that queer org, and social events with the friends I made there. I fully engaged in my bisexuality and had a hot girl summer last year, dating men, women, and enbies for the first time since my undergrad GF.

Oh, and btw. Being a feminine man gets you laid. I'm sorry, it's just how it is. Take notes, alpha males, and put on the fucking dress.

With that support, I finally started HRT in August of last year, at the age of 25. I'm still a mix of boymode and girlmode- I girlmode around queer friends, and boymode most of the time otherwise. I've also told several people that I'm transitioning, but just to treat me as a man for now and wait for me to come out more publicly. My plan is to take a hiatus from my PhD this summer, and use that to travel and socially transition. So that's my upcoming landmark experience.

Up until this past month or so, I was the happiest I've ever been. Some out of the blue bad things happened this January. But I realized something- for the first time ever, bad shit happened in my life, and I didn't derail. I was sad. I cried. I was frustrated. I yelled. I had dynamic emotions and handled it. That's never happened before.

Obviously it's always an ongoing process, and it's linked to so many details of my life that it's really hard to say things about “just my queer experience” but uh yeah. Idk if anyone read all that and I'm taking multiple passes to trim out details that got too personal, but fuckit I'm already extremely doxxable at this point.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Glad the Imago stuff was of interest! Its fun to play with different Miraculous powers running wild. The Butterfly is best for it, but Trixx's illusions becoming real can be good too.

Speaking of the wily fox, an idea I had for like 1 AU that spread to many, especially those closer to the canon timeline but still distinct. Volpina, is a genuine Miraculous Holder,

Hear me out XD

So in anything with a revised Butterfly, there's room for another lost Miraculous or two if one wants.

& while I like 1 or more ending up with the Tsurugi's who claim to want to supersede Fu as Guardian & to respect the Kwami as deities, though how genuine Tomoe is can vary. They aren't the one that is becoming default, Lila is.

Long story short, Trixx was lost before the order even fell, possibly for the first time or one of many being a trickster. It was easy for them to slip the leash or find a new wielder. As a result they've been bouncing around for centuries in-between long naps; usually causing mischief and doing some good on the side.

In the modern day Trixx wakes up, so to speak, in a second hand store Lila is screwing for exotic looking items to sell her stories & masks for her collection.

She finds the greatest mask of all and Trixx finds a new wielder.

Being a concept first & person second, & a tricky one at that Trixx is not the most pearl clutching moralist, & Lila didn't get up to anything above mischief and petty crime. Thus any worries someone may have had, like say about her compulsive lying and identity issues were either not quite noticed or seen as long term problems.

Then Nooro starts being used to terrorize Paris & Trixx is loyal to family & Lila is not a horrible person, she likes Trixx, she thinks using the true names to command Kwami is vile & she sees how adored Ladybug & Chat Noir already are.

She wants that.

I like to picture them both eating fast food in a fancy hotel at the end of Origins, staring boggle eyed at the tv with food halfway to their opened mouths as the news reports on Stoneheart XD

Anyway, she eventually makes her way to Paris, has a good debut and actually joins the team for awhile. Fu is searching but finding them is not easy even with Lila's penchant to use Glamour and illusions for some petty fun on the side.

Things do trn bad though because:

Her desire to get more attention leads her to potentially staging some stuff to stop.

She prioritizes a personal matter (Saving Adrien) over the mission & they almost lose as Chat Noir is not there.

She neglects the plan in favor of trying to show off and makes things worse.

She gets careless with her identity so she can be a celebrity already.

She's 14, what can one expect XD

The result of this causes her to be found by Fu & her Miraculous taken back. He's not horrible about it, but he is stern and the reaction of Ladybug & Chat vary depending on context though at best/worst they grudgingly go along with it. If they know at all.

Cue Akumatized Volpina perhaps and her becoming one of Hawk Moth's prime targets for ongoing 'observation' like Chloe is. Where things go from there... Well who knows.

Honestly any kind of Lila being a hot mess of fun but like. In the realistic way of 'teenager with issues finds magic jewelry' is GREAT

[k-dokja]

synopsis: gojo saw how you coped after all of that and decided he didn't like it.

timeline: fourth year? it's after gojo's past arc.

characters feature: gojo satoru.

relationship: friends. they care about each other and there's a tiny hint of romance, but both of their traumatized asses won't cross the line.

notes: ooc as hell since i'm trying to narrow him down.

You wonder at which point old friends become strangers, because when Satoru called you earlier this morning, you'd forgotten there is more to life than your career. He wanted to meet. It'd been months since the two of you talked.

He thought you were avoiding him. You said nothing about the matter. Whether that was true or not, there was no denying the wall between the two of you after what happened with Suguru. You weren't about to address it because you hoped it'd fall into obscurity.

Satoru doesn't give you the chance to see that happening.

So there you are, sitting across from him in a coffee shop. Satoru is in his usual uniform but you are in your casual clothes. He has come over straight after his mission. It's almost funny to think about how he is the one busier than you but he's also extending the effort to reach out.

Neither of you talks in the first minute, but you feel the curious looks and hear the whispers from around you. The two of you together always attract the attention of those nearby, you'd blame it on appearance but Satoru always draws in the curiosity of others with his magnetism.

In a way, you resent him for that. There's no anonymity when you're around him.

And it helps little when every muscle of your body is tense but Satoru is completely at ease. He sits back, easygoing and casual, but you're fiddling with the fabric of your pants under the table. You don't know how he does this, not when he should be the one in far more pain than any of you.

"I called Shoko but she was caught up with work," he takes the first steps with a light shrug, "maybe we can stop by her office later to bother her."

"Mhm."

"Oh, have you checked out that new album by—"

Satoru talks and it's all inconsequential. Your noncommittal hums are all that you contributed to the conversation because your mind is everywhere and nowhere all at once. At some point, he leans towards on the table and props his chin on the palm of his hand.

You should've focused then because the shift in his tone when he says your name is a violent shove.

"...Hm?"

"You aren't listening to me at all~" He plops down on the table, the image of petulance when he gazes up at you, but the severity of his eyes is sincere. "If I wanted to talk to a wall, I'd have called up Nanami."

You feel it. The warmth of his hand on yours. On the surface, nothing contacts either of you, but underneath the table, Satoru's fingers thread with yours. It's a reassurance and a restraint. He's here for you, but he's not letting you run away from this conversation either.

It's uncharacteristic, yet why wouldn't he worry?

It was both of your negligence to a friend that led you to this place. Satoru's only trying to prevent it from happening again the second time.

"Ha..." You can't help the laughter from bubbling out of your chest. The situation is too absurd for you to do otherwise. "Sorry, I..." You don't know what you'll say, you haven't thought about it.

You should apologize for avoiding him, it's a deliberate move.

You should apologize for worrying him, it should've been avoidable.

You should apologize for not being there for him, it's not only you who are in pain.

In the end, there is only one right answer to this. "...I'm here now," you say, forcing a smile, "I'm not going anywhere, you won't get rid of me that easily."

Satoru smiles and it's surprisingly pure. He talks again and it's all inconsequential, but this time you listen and make him smile again when you speak. Both of you feel the distinct absence of your mutual friend but neither of you comment on it because you'll have to get used to this new reality without him.

At least, Satoru's hand never leaves yours all the while.

[darklinaforever]

Sylki is not incest / autocest / selfcest :

So… I risk repeating myself, but I really hate hearing that Sylki is incest, or autocest. Quite simply because it's not true.

Incest : Sexual relations between close relatives (marriage is prohibited) ; incestuous love.

Sylvie and Loki are not close relatives, for the simple reason that they do not share the same blood / DNA. (Variant = genetically distinct) Beyond that, they didn't even grow up / live together, so also can't be bonded like Loki is with his adoptive family.

Autocest : The act of cloning oneself and having sexual relations with said clone.

First of all, Sylvie is not a clone of Loki. She was conceived naturally and born naturally. And even as a variant of Loki she is not him. Once again, she does not share the same blood / DNA as the latter. Beyond that, in terms of pure personality, no, she's not the same as him. They act differently and think differently. Episode 3 is probably the one that illustrates this best during season 1. The number of times Loki points out that he would not act the way Sylvie acts and she replies that, well, she is not not him. Which is completely normal, since the two have not had the same life experiences. What shapes who we are as a person is the trials of life, our experiences. And Loki and Sylvie definitely didn't have the same ones.

“My interpretation of it is that they're both Lokis, but they aren't the same person. I don't see them as being like brother and sister. They have completely different backgrounds… and I think that's really important to her character.” - Kate Herron.

So in summary, they don't share the same blood / DNA. They also don't have the same experiences, so as a result they have different personalities.

So… literally, this incest and autocest bullshit has no backing.

The whole series spends its time reminding us that Sylvie is not Loki. She says it herself several times. Moreover, to clearly reinforce this trait, “Sylvie” is literally a name that she chose for herself, precisely to differentiate herself from Lokis. It's hammered home throughout the series, Sylvie is her own person. This is also why Loki reminds Mobius that Sylvie, well, her name is Sylvie, when he tells him that he has fallen in love with himself, in 1x04. To remind the viewer that no, Sylvie is not Loki, she is again her own person. And it's problematic for me when so many people try so hard to reduce her to being a Loki. Even from those who love her. Simply because it's something Sylvie hates : Being called / cathegorized by Loki. (Probably because it removes the impression of being a person and brings it back to the fact that the TVA only sees her as a variant, and therefore that she should not exist, knowing that she just wants to have a life and live it)

“Also, Sylvie's not Loki. Sylvie is Sylvie.” - Tom Hiddleston.

The only thing Sylvie and Loki really share internally is being the deity of mischief. Which translates into a role / identity given to them within the universe / timeline they came from, with the same power base ; the witchcraft. Something that is learned and not transmitted by genetics in the MCU universe. So there is nothing biological about it that could relate to incest and even less to autocest.

“They sort of have the same role in terms of the universe and destiny, but they won't make the same decisions.” - Kate Herron.

Are Sylvie and Loki alike ? Yes. But no more than other fictional couples are capable of being. That they resemble each other in some way is not proof that they are the same person. Especially since as said previously, they do not have the same personalities / lived / dna / blood...

Once again, Reylo is the perfect example in terms of comparison to Sylki : - Different, but complicated pasts which return them to their feeling of loneliness. - Their problem of opening up to the world because of there traumas. - The feeling that no one else really understands them. - Similarity in combat techniques and synchronization of movements at various times, etc.

Then, something else that both annoys me and makes me laugh a lot… It's those who use Sylvie's line during episode 5 from season 1, namely “we're the same”, the only one of its kind you will notice in Sylvie's mouth, but ardently use by the antis to prove themselves right in their argument that Sylvie is absolutely the same person as Loki, so that the relationship is considered incest, or autocest. So… I don't know what these people's consumption of cinematic media is, but they must have missed a lot of romances… No, because it's a classic phrase / expression in this area, to express that two characters are alike ! Example :

Telling another person “we're the same” is not a contradiction to “I am not you”. And I can't believe this is something I have to explain / needs to be explained to some people.

“I think he realizes, and she realizes, that while they're the same, they're not the same.” - Tom Hiddleston.

I mean... No one is seriously going to say that the spidermans of the Marvel shared universe are the same person. Are they ? Because I've never seen anyone do it. Normal. Since that would just be completely stupid ! No ? Also, directly in the case of the MCU we were treated to Thor and Jane, both being thunder deities, which didn't bother anyone, according to my memories !

The fact that Sylvie is a variant of Loki with whom he falls in love is specifically there to bring about the rather clear metaphor / symbolism of Loki learning to finally love himself as a person (besides loving someone else entirely), even though he considers himself a monster. Because yes, Loki's narcissism is essentially just a cover to hide how monstrous he feels, something I feel like a lot of people forget.

Loki “falls in love with himself”, as Mobius describes it, is not proof of vanity / narcissism which would prevent any evolution of Loki as Mobius and some antis claim. On the contrary, Loki's love for Sylvie not only leads him to see himself differently, but also allows him a real positive evolution.

“to me, is ultimately about self-love, self-reflection and forgiving yourself, it just felt right that that would be Loki's first real love story.” - Michael Waldron.

“I don't think Loki's relationship with himself has been very healthy,” Tom Hiddleston explains. “Trying to accept those aspects of himself, which he's been on the run from, was a way of thinking about that in a really interesting way.”

Besides, in the end, to rephrase in a clearer sense, Loki falls in love with Sylvie as much because he sees himself in her (the metaphor of the dagger in 1x03) as he finds her amazing as a person (Loki discovering Sylvie's story at the start of episode 4 on Lamentis).

Something that is once again nothing surprising in a romance. Many couples fall in love because they find themselves in the person they love, in addition to for the differences they share. Even if Loki's metaphor for love with the dagger is not entirely correct, the aspect of seeing oneself in it is for some a truth.

“Love [...]. You can see yourself in it.” - Loki, 1x03.

“When Loki meets Sylvie, he's inspired solely by curiosity,” reveals Hiddleston. “He wants to talk to her and understand her and try to discern what was similar about their experiences, and what was different. He keeps asking her questions because he wants to see if his experience was also her experience. I think he realizes, and she realizes, that while they're the same, they're not the same.”

So, not only does the incest and autocest argument not work, but the similarities these two share (which seem to bother so many people) and the reason(s) they fall in love, well are in is more of a classic fictional couple coding question designed to represent either the complementarity aspect or the soulmate aspect.

Sylki is essentially two sides of the same coin, or mirrors of each other, like many fictional romantic relationships. (Reylo again for exemple !) Which consequently causes their influence on each other. Because yes, not only does Sylki falling in love influence Loki, but also Sylvie.

Loki obviously learns, as I have already said, to love himself, but also to love someone else unconditionally, to trust them fully. He also learns a new form of magic, and in the end, he even starts playing the hero. Sylvie learns for the first time in her life to trust someone, to open up, to form a team and above all finally develops her first good memories. People often say that Sylvie is incapable of sacrificing herself for anyone, but the truth is that she literally scrambled herself to have a chance of finding Loki, when she wasn't even sure that It would work and perhaps simply kill her, therefore indirectly committing suicide. Additionally, it is also emphasized how Sylki is stronger together than apart.

“They are a mirror to each other. They challenge each other, and out of the challenge, they grow together.” - Tom Hiddleston.

With everything I have just explained / demonstrated, I really have a hard time understanding how this ship can be so controversial / misunderstood…

I don't find the series very subtle on the message for Sylki and beyond that, the writers and actors themselves have already explained these same things in a more condensed way in several interviews.

I mean, I am aware that sometimes the words of directors, screenwriters and actors can be stupid and incoherent (the case of the HOTD series being the perfect example of that…), but here, don't mess around, the series (at least season 1) was very well constructed and visibly thought out.

Really, I don't understand. One of the reasons why people are so uncomfortable is surely and simply maybe the term variants (and again it's because I'm nice...), which for these people necessarily equates to being the same person in all the meanings of the term, which, as we have demonstrated throughout this post, is absolutely not the case… Which can be verified by the series itself, the interviews with the writers and actors which agree with what is shown on the screen, etc. Knowing that in addition I have seen tons of people on tumblr with absolutely remarkable analytical skills (and therefore also in terms of symbolism) yet surprisingly not understanding what the Sylki relationship is, defining it instead as a incest / autocest…

So I can only at this stage, for me at least, deduce that this kind of talk about Sylki is willful and stubborn ignorance from people who simply don't like the ship, trying to justify it from a more “reasonable” and or perhaps “intellectual” way, no idea… than a simple “I don't like it, because tastes cannot be controlled”. Which is OK, because everyone has the right to like what they like / want !

On the other hand, spreading or saying bullshit / false things about the ship in question, to persuade people not to / no longer like it, is something I can't stand.

Please note, everyone is free to say whatever they want, as long as they clarify once again that it is their personal opinion. I am talking about people who speak of their opinion about this ship (or any ship) as fact while making fun of others who like it, make them feel guilty / horrible, or trying to change people's tastes…

Is Sylki weird ? Yes, of course. We are talking about two variants with the same identity falling in love ! Obviously the viewer will find this strange, because it's a concept almost never seen before after all in tv, and complex. But it doesn't necessarily mean bad, toxic, perverse, immoral or unhealthy relationship as the antis argue (knowing that in addition it is in contradiction with the positive message about love for oneself that the relationship transmits), notably to try to take down the ship, especially since Sophia di Martino said she found Sylki “weird”. Which is infuriating, because they act as if the actress's opinion is dominant over those directly writing the story, and that her simple opinion will change the minds of Sylki's fans or should condemn the ship to any possible future ! But also it is mostly infuriating because, well, beyond that, as @where-theres-smoak-2 so well pointed out :

“when you actually look at the definition of the word weird it doesn't necessarily mean something bad. The definition from Cambridge dictionary is : very strange and unusual, unexpected, or not natural. The Merriam-Webster definition is : of strange or extraordinary character, of, relating to, or caused by witchcraft or the supernatural. Which lets be honest fits Sylki, they are unusual, strange, unexpected, extraordinary and you could argue with the whole variant thing its got that supernatural element to it as well. I mean them being weird is what makes them fun and entertaining to watch so honestly I'm not mad that she said they were weird.”

But in itself, is the relationship incest ? No. Because not the same blood / DNA and in no way grew up together like Loki was do with Thor / his adoptive family. Autocest / the same literal person ? Neither. For what ? Because again not the same blood / DNA, and they have not the sames experiences, therefore different personalities which influence their behaviour. Being variants, for Sylki, simply mean (once again) being the deity of mischief, a role / identity given to them within the universe / timeline they came from. That's all. (Damn, some will also tell me while we're at it that the crocodile Loki is the same as our Loki ?! Be a little objective people…) There is nothing bad, toxic, perverse, disgusting, immoral or unhealthy about the Sylki relationship.

Fuck the antis !

[furinana]

Reviewing SMT's 30th Anniversary Event in Yokohama

In 2023 (the year of Nanashi's birthday!) I spent some months in Japan so I lucked out when they announced a Megaten concert right before my departure.

This is a compilation of thoughts from tweets and messages I sent to friends that I decided to turn into a public post for archival purposes.

Disclaimer: unless stated otherwise, none of the pictures I'm using here are mine. Most of them were taken from the event's official account.

May 6th. From Kyoto (the city I was staying) to Yokohama was approx. two hours by Shinkansen. Like how a close friend of mine says, "The thing about Japan is that you ride one train and you just become the biggest car hater immediately".

[I ended up taking an overnight bus for the back trip however, took around 7 hours. Cramped on your legs but your pockets hurt way less]

How is Yokohama at the moment? A bright sunny noon and like this user illustrated, windy as hell (my cap came off once and I had to run in the middle of the street to rescue it).

[KT Zepp Yokohama]

I arrived 4 hours before the concert's schedule so I fucked around Yokohama's cozy Chinatown for a bit, among other places I don't remember. I didn't take into account that you could arrive hours prior to the event to purchase the limited merch line and stare at concept art of mainline games in an exhibiton placed in the entrance. The merch would get sold out in a matter of minutes in the gap between the opening and when the concert would start! Don't underestimate scalpers, folks.

A beginner's mistake, this is how life teaches you to be smart.

[For every 5,000 yen you spent, you got the chance of receiving a colored bookmark of one of the protagonists. A lot of items involved abysmal luck to get. Fortunately I was able to grab what I set my eyes on in the later online raffle so things turned out fine on my end (although I'm currently having to deal with a lot of dupes much to my annoyance. But hey, I have official merch of Flynn and Nanashi now)]

Regarding the exhibition: Not a lot of stuff to comment on. They made a timeline of sorts for each mainline title (except the NES games because fuck 'em I guess) and pretty much most of it was available in official artbooks published previously. Nocturne for example, they displayed the writing process & how they sketched cutscenes and attacks prior to making them 3D etc, which was no-news if you browsed the Ayakashi Monthly book before.

[We weren't allowed to take pictures so I can only show the previews from the official account. We had to stay at a long line to look at each piece in a chronological way so it felt particularly... uncomfortable. I don't like the feeling that I might be slowing down other people so I end up rushing what was supposed to be a serene activity]

The actual exclusive never-seen-before art was regarding beta character & demons concepts from SMT4A:

[Top: Drawn from memory by me. Bottom: The "mermaid" is a reference to the Starbucks logo that interestingly, is also present in Nanashi's room (which could mean there was an intention of Nanashi's only reference of a mermaid being the logo of a cafe that wouldn't exist in-universe anymore. For those unaware, the mermaid in question is actually a siren!]

Here are the descriptions I typed on my phone right after I exited the exhibition (and would use as base for my own sketches a day later):

Chironnupu had two beta forms with the face as it is now where one walked on four legs and the other his legs faded out in a ghost-like manner. He also had a third and more distinct from his current design where he was dressed in Ainu attire on 2 legs and was smiling to the viewer (a Youkai Watch sort of vibe, very cute).

Nanashi had an unseen sketch where Doi drew him with a suspiciously big waist. Yeah, I know it's minor but I wanted to comment on how unhinged Doi is in drawing girly boys. Go off king

Cleopatra had a form where she had dark skin, dark green hair and emerald green eyes (...huh? I just realized I painted her hair with brown instead of green lmao I became fixated in making her look similar to Maria Torres from Trauma Team). Considering how some demons get color variations (such as Vishnu or Moh Shuvuu), some even getting darker skin in adaptations (take Rama in the Devil Survivor 2 anime), perhaps Cleopatra getting an alt that is closer to this beta depiction isn't an impossibility. I can dream

Vishnu-Flynn had a version where his face was the same as how Flynn normally is.

Mermaid had a form where she was supposed to resemble the Starbucks logo where her palette was red&other color (I don't remember if it was blue or green) and showed an alluring evil smile.

Now let's talk about the concert. The structure of how it went was basically alternating between the band playing remixes of soundtracks with gameplay videos on the screen and then pausing for the hosts to talk with the audience and share some free-talks with the musicians that worked on the titles.

Fans used this menorah they sold in the booth as a glow stick (the ones you see in idol events).

[Event announcers Mafia Kajita and Chiaki Matsuzawa in day 1 and 2]

At the end there was a little quiz with gameplay-specific questions, for example what a certain skill does. You had to answer with this little cardboard thing that had a Jack Frost in one side and Black Frost in the other.

Regarding the free-talks, a summary of what I was able to get (take those with a grain of salt):

Kozuka never played any Megaten before composing for the games (he thought they were too dangerous)

SJR composer played all of them

Tsukasa said the songs for the SNES games were a lot longer and better-sounding but unfortunately they had to chop off a lot

Meguro makes sound effects before making the music, finished SMT2 before starting composing but doesn't play games anymore

By the end, Kajita wishes Megaten games were released more often so events like this could happen frequently and Matsuzawa says she's a big Digital Devil Saga fan.

By the way, you could easily recognize the western fans from the audience from how louder and cheerier they were compared to the local ones. Japanese fans are the types that respect silence to a scary degree. For another example, I was able to watch The Boy and the Heron right in the opening week and nobody from the session I went to laughed or made any perceptible reaction to other viewers. The only one laughing in the entire room was my, notably, non-JPN roommate.

When the concert was nearing its end however, the hosts allowed everyone to be as loud as they wanted to thus letting the atmosphere at long last turn closer to the spirit of Megaten... chaotic.

[Going personally to the concert was a totally unique experience compared to seeing it from a screen with diluted audio. You truly had to be there to have your stomach twisting from the echoes coming from the band's instruments]

My personal favorite remixes:

SMT1's Ginza

SMT2's Disco Theme

SMT4's Boss Theme & Map theme

SMT4A's f6 Godslayer (when they showed Vishnu-Flynn on the big screen... 😳)

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki's Genderfluidity in the MCU: A Theory

So I'm going to preface this by saying that generally my answers to any questions that are not answered by canon have two sides: why I think the writers didn't answer the question (or how they may have thought they answered the question), and my theory relating to the canon answer. Within these two sides there might be multiple reasons (i.e., Side one may have been caused by script cuts or homophobia at some level of writing/editing, and both could easily be the case simultaneously, as maybe the writers included it and the studio demanded a script cut at a certain point, etc.).

So as to why Loki has not been explicitly shown to be genderfluid in the MCU until (technically) a split-second shot of a TVA file, is probably more because of erasure/fluidphobia or a disinterest in incorporating his comic gender into his mainstream movie character at some level in the production process. Why the half-hearted "representation" was included in the show without anything more explicit was likely A) a continued fluidphobia or disinterest at some level, B) a distinct lack of understanding of what genderfluidity actually is, and therefore probably only placed in the file as a bit of foreshadowing to Sylvie's gender reveal, or C) a laziness and disinterest in doing any research whatsoever in either genderfluidity or the source material (Agent of Asgard, etc.). Likely a combination of these.

But that's boring and disheartening. So I'm going to ignore the IRL reasons why Loki's genderfluid rep fell flat, and focus on why Loki hasn't been shown to be genderfluid in the MCU until technically the show but not even really then.

I've seen theories that he hasn't figured this out about himself yet, and while that may be true (I didn't discover I'm genderfluid until I was about 22 or 23), I don't usually subscribe to that theory.

My genderfluidity (and that of other people I've met) tends to change between genders by the day, though occasionally I go multiple days in a row as the same gender, or my gender changes within a single day. However, I'm also human, and (as far as I'm aware) have an average human lifespan of less than a hundred years, or only a few years past a hundred if I'm lucky. So daily changes between genders is pretty reasonable, but even other real-life genderfluid people sometimes stay the same gender for whole months or years or even decades.

Loki, on the other hand, is not human. I don't know what the average Jotun lifespan is, but I think he's currently about 1500 years old, and Asgardians live about 5000 years, I believe. So it makes sense that things might be less permanent for him than they are for other people, and things that may change more quickly for humans may change more slowly for him.

Therefore, I think Loki in the MCU (ignoring for the sake of this that any inclusion or omission in media is a decision made by writers, in other words, pretending for a hot second that Loki is real in the context of his story) is genderfluid, and that he's aware that he's genderfluid throughout and before the events of the MCU. The reason he only presents as Tom Hiddleston's likeness, and is referred to as he/him and Thor's brother, is that it is currently a man several decades for him. (If this does not make sense to you grammatically, compare to how I describe days when I am a woman as woman days; days when I am a man as man days; likewise, Loki is having a man decade and a half.) At the least, his current period of being a man has lasted 12 years, from Thor (2011) until now (though, actually, Loki season 2 Loki is technically 2012 Loki, so maybe he's only had a man year? Which would make the original timeline Loki's period at least 5 years as a man. God, I hate time travel). This is assuming he was not a man before 2011 (consecutively; I don't think this is the only period he has been a man in his life) and would not have continued as a man following his death (if he died) in Infinity War. But (aside from very short flashbacks) this is the only period of time we see him, so he could conceivably have had periods of other genders. (And we don't know for sure that the flashbacks came after he learned how to shapeshift; maybe he wasn't a boy in those scenes, but was either not yet out or unable to make his body match his identity and so we as the viewers made incorrect assumptions about his gender.)

I also wonder if the moment we see from Sylvie's childhood, just before she's taken in, could have also been part of Loki's past. Either A) it is just after they both come out and begin socially transitioning (Sylvie as a transgirl, Loki as genderfluid and a girl at that moment), and Sylvie gets taken in for having a good heart but perceives the reason as being that she's a girl (see previous theory post), whereas Loki isn't playing Save Asgard and so there's no reason to arrest him in this moment (I think the game was less the main reason and more the last straw for Sylvie), or B) The entire memory, including the Save Asgard game but not the arrest, is shared by both Sylvie and Loki, and Sylvie was arrested for a different reason. The point is, Loki could have had a time as a child when he was a girl and learned to shapeshift so his appearance fit his inside feelings (or Frigga did it for him when he was really little to ease the dysphoria).

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

📂 + freedom force as a team

Absolute disaster. I would so love to see an Archer style comic about their missions. None of them are the "voice of reason" on the team, even though Mystique, Crimson Commando and occasionally Pyro all think that they are.

Pyro believes he is Mystique's second-in-command. He is not. He never is. It is either Destiny or Crimson Commando.

During Spiral's brief time with the team, the boys (meaning Avalanche, Blob and Pyro) all liked to drunkenly brag about how they could "take her." (In a fight....not the other way.) Fortunately for them, they are all too smart and/or cowardly to actually try. None of them hit on her, she is too creepy.

The old man trio of Crimson Commando, Stonewall and Super Sabre never fully meshed with the team, and although there was some bonding and camaraderie, there were definitely two distinct cliques of Old Man Trio and Brotherhood Guys Trio.

Blob loved how Pyro and Avalanche were united with him in being disdainful of "the new guys," because previously it had been Avalanche and Pyro generally united against him, and now they were a trio against these new outsiders.

Despite nastiness and snark, Pyro was generally the friendliest and most outgoing team member. I say this not just because he's my favorite, but because we actually see him palling around and forming friendships with different people - Avalanche, Mystique, Blob, Stonewall. He's the only Brotherhood guy who we see being friendly to Stonewall, and showing regret over his death.

Avalanche is not friendly, but he is usually not openly nasty either. He has moments of temper (like fights between him and Blob), but he generally just wants to do his job and be left alone. He gradually forms friendships and is very loyal to those he cares about, but it takes time.

The Old Man trio think of themselves as "good guys," but in many ways are just as vicious and nasty as the Brotherhood Guy Trio. They literally hunted criminals for sport, including Storm, who was picked up just for "looking" like a criminal. They are also often more competent than the Brotherhood guys on missions, as actual WWII veterans with combat experience.

Pyro is the one who wound up telling Crimson Commando and Super Sabre about Stonewall's death. Mystique was (understandably) distraught over Destiny and couldn't be bothered.

Mystique and Destiny slip away for date nights, which Mystique excuses as "special mission briefings" or occasionally "needing to get away from you morons for a few hours."

Speaking of Destiny, the Brotherhood guys are all actually considerate and protective of her, in their own ways.

Blob organizes movie nights for everyone. Sometimes they actually manage to choose and watch a movie without the evening turning violent.

Pyro and Avalanche have this unspoken thing where they will wind up sleeping together if neither of them has any luck picking up women at a bar. Pyro will find excuses to turn women down just to spend the night with Avalanche, and unbeknownst to him, Avalanche sometimes does as well. I honestly imagine them both being somewhat secretive and closeted because Freedom Force happened in the 80's in Marvel's original timeline, it wasn't a good time to be gay, especially working for the government. Of course, Mystique and Destiny know, Blob probably has figured it out, the Old Man Trio may or may not know. Pyro likes to flirt with women just for the attention and to puff up his ego, Avalanche is actually bi.

@shofarsogood also had the headcanon that Mystique set up Pyro and Avalanche with each other because neither of them was going to make the first move, and I love that idea.

Once, at Avalanche's suggestion, he and Pyro hired a sex worker for a threesome, then wound up ignoring her the entire time and just banging each other. The sex worker didn't mind, she just watched TV and got paid anyway.

When the group goes out to a bar, Mystique makes the Old Man Trio and Brotherhood Guy Trio responsible for the behavior of the other group. Left to their own devices, both groups will wind up egging each other on to do really stupid shit. If they have to babysit the other group, they will keep an eye on each other, and send someone over to act as the "fun police" (usually Commando or Avalanche) whenever one trio is heading into dangerous territory. Pay gets docked for property damage or bar fights.

[tolkienocweek]

This is also in regard to the Elboron question because thinking about it is bugging me too!

The definitions that make sense to me are:

A blank slate character is a character whose name and role are clearly defined, but about whom we have little to no information in terms of their personality or specific life events. For instance, a fic writer could write Elboron's personality however they imagine it and give him whatever plot arcs they're interested in, but they can't make him the child of someone other than Aragorn and Arwen, or have him be an elf, or place him somewhere else in the world or the timeline, or have him break the line of succession, etc. without breaking with the canon. There are, theoretically, ways to depict him that would make the depiction incompatible with the information Tolkien gave about Elboron, because Tolkien left a decent number of building blocks behind for a foundation.

A textual ghost is a character we only know exists because there's a person-shaped hole somewhere. Curufin's wife, for example? Presumably she existed because Celebrimbor exists, but we know absolutely nothing else. No name, not a whit of context around her, no canon to break with. Anyone depicting her has to do it out of whole cloth. There's technically no way to depict her that would make the depiction incompatible with the information Tolkien gave about her, because he didn't give any.

I feel like there's a distinction between those two categories in how much of the character is an original creation, and how much is drawing on what Tolkien himself put down. For the purposes of OC Week specifically, the idea of people "claiming" a character with the amount of information Tolkien gave Elboron as their personal OC would make me feel a bit iffy, personally.

In fact, Curufin's wife doesn't even have to be a woman, if you headcanon one of them as transgender.

I actually considered using blank slate characters as a prompt, but thought that was pushing the concept too far.

[masked-disciple]

Ok friend you have my curiosity where is this fic you speak of. I am SO ready to have my brain chemistry fundamentally changed

Start here. My recommendation is to read that, maybe read the rest of Turnabout NaNoWriMo, and if you want to know more after that, I can hand you some 200k of fic that is properly formatted with the interludes, because Ao3's formatting really doesn't work with the Sagiverse anthologies. (So what you see here is maybe like a quarter of what we've got. We have a lot, and also lots of art.)

Turnabout NaNoWriMo is the first of three-and-a-half anthologies I've written, and it's only after reading and enjoying all of them do I let people at my fiance's anthologies, which are excellent but a bit more private. (Turnabout Runaways, which was this year's NaNo challenge, is incomplete but at least 50k. I will be slowly working on it probably for a few months, and eventually it'll be done.)

These anthologies take place in a greater crossover AU we refer to as Sagiverse. It started in 2020 in Saint Seiya, and now hosts several different series, eight hundred some-odd characters, upwards of thirty different fantasy worlds (of which Earth is only one), and more plotlines than we can keep track of properly.

Here's the two-sentence pitch: seven hundred years ago, there was a giant war between various magical factions on Earth that ended in a mostly-forgotten pyrrhic victory and the gods choosing to seal magic away from the world. So magic began to slowly die out, and as of present day, magic is rarer and rarer, and mage society is dying out, but it's still holding on as best it can, until one day the gods finally allow magic to return.

Ace Attorney gets involved with this very very simply. Miles Edgeworth is a mage. To be specific, he's a necromage, one of the most powerful currently active on Earth. His father, Gregory Atticus Edgeworth, had never found proof of magic while he was alive. His mother... well, no one knows who his mother is, or anything about the man at all. After DL-6, Miles was taken in by MvK as a ward just as canon says, but the von Karmas themselves are magi of a kind. After DL-6, Atticus finds the proof of magic's existence that he's been looking for all along, and he is not going to leave his son and missing fiance alone in a world that so very much wants the both of them dead.

And so begins a thirty-five year trainwreck to put their wayward, way-finding family back together. They'll do it, no matter what it takes. It just turns out their family's a little bigger than they think it is.

The fic I linked pretty much opens with the identity of Miles' mother, which you learn pretty much as I did, because I didn't plan jack or shit, only let him tell me what was going on. You may raise an eyebrow at the canon ages, don't worry about that. We had to fix the timeline anyway (because the forensics tech was all twenty years out of date so we just changed the years to be twenty years earlier, setting DL-6 on December 28th 1981) so we just didn't pull him back as far. Atticus died at 39, his fiance was 33.

This is because when I first got into AA, I found the IS-7 picture of Gregory and Ray, and I sort of mistook 18-year-old Ray as Atticus' wife. My fiance pointed out the age gap, paused, and went "but they're cute so I'm sure we can make it work" and then we did. If you hesitate a bit on the ship but don't immediately hate the idea, I promise I can sell you on it. At the end of the day, everything comes back to Atticus and Ray's tragic romance. This I can promise you: it ends happily. We're just still writing everything in between.

Sagiverse!Ray is a pretty distinct character from canon!Ray, but they're close enough that if you like one you'll probably like the other. I gave him way more trauma and it's fun. :3c

If you're wondering what happens to other characters, I can answer that. Apollo is dead for a few months, Phoenix a little bit longer. Robot!Athena has Issues. Franziska changes her career from Interpol to Magica Underground mostly because it's a better use of her legal talents. Miles gets to be the chosen one and lead a war against one of his university friends who unfortunately (and semi-accidentally) stole Phoenix's corpse and ran away with it. (Phoenix is fine, don't worry about it.) Atticus gets to be a bounty hunter on the ghostroads with Mia and they do a lot of shooting MvK and causing problems. Ray, uh. Well, at least he only got shot in the head twice?

[whistlingstarlight]

I got one: rate Zelda games you've played in order of preference?

Haha so here's the thing-

I've only actually beaten one Zelda game (two if you count the spinoff Age of Calamity)😅

I'm notorious for being terrible at actually playing the games despite loving the series, most often because puzzles are not my strong suit.

So this list is gonna be focusing on my overall liking of the game and it's content, regardless of how much I've actually progressed through it (otherwise it would be a pretty boring list)

1. Skyward Sword. I love the artstyle of this game and the locations are beautiful. Skyloft is one of my favourite hub worlds in a game, the characters are all very unique and distinct, and I love exploring a land before Hyrule.

2. Breath of the Wild. I've got so many hours in this game, there's so much to do! Whilst I personally think Zelda is stronger as a linear series than open-world, I had a ton of fun exploring this open Hyrule and the Champions (new and old) are some of my favourite characters from the series. I completely got the wrong end of the stick as to what the plot was going into it, so it was fun finding out the real plot.

3. Phantom Hourglass, for one reason: Linebeck. He's one of the most well-written and distinct characters in Zelda (and probably my overall favourite), I love his progression from selfish coward to a hero in his own right. And that final boss fight omfg-

4. A Link Between Worlds. Lorule is a super interesting concept to me, and whilst I didn't play ALttP I'm aware of how this game continues on from it. I love this version of Hyrule's overworld, and it's always neat seeing the more hostile Zora.

5. Minish Cap, mainly because I love the Minish as a race and Vaati as a villain. The tiny world is super fun to explore, and I love seeing how the different groups of Minish live.

6. Spirit Tracks. For a very simple reason: I'm a railfan. I'm absolutely terrible at this game but I love the introduction of trains, the completely new Hyrule, and a unique villain is always a plus! I love Zelda's more (physically) active role in the story, and I'm a big fan of Byrne as a character.

7. Majora's Mask. I did atrociously trying to get through this game too, but I absolutely love its premise. Termina is a very unique world and despite a lot of the character models being recycled, still feels completely independent from Hyrule. Skull Kid is one of my favourite Zelda characters, and the heavy emphasis on death and loss makes it a very unique game

8. The Wind Waker. I initially thought this game was kind of overrated ngl (and I still think it overshadows games that deserve more praise), but I had fun with it. The concept is very unique, and whilst I found the sailing a bit boring at times I loved exploring the islands.

9. Tears of the Kingdom. I... set myself up for disappointment with this one. That's not to say it's a bad game! I've had fun with it for sure, but there was a lot of wasted potential imo. Whilst I love the unique styles of each dungeon (and the respective bosses), they were infuriating to get through because it's the same shit every time. Use Sage ability to open five locks, rinse and fucking repeat. Same reason I didn't enjoy the Divine Beasts. The exploration in the open-world Zelda games is phenomenal, but it comes at the detriment of story and dungeons. (Not to mention it's sort of a soft reboot and I'm... not really a fan of those).

10. Ocarina of Time. This one is so low basically by default (and because I'm kinda tired of hearing about it so much). It's a good game, don't get me wrong. But it's weird the timeline split came from this one and not.. idk, the game with an actual canon game over (Minish Cap)?? I love the Kokiri as a concept and really wish they'd returned, and the group of sages introduced in this game are probably my favourite.

And I don't really know where to rank it as it's a spin-off, but I had a huge amount of fun with Age of Calamity. A significant improvement over the original Hyrule Warriors imo.

[unseelie-grimalkin]

Updating the Record

Another "Episode" of Triona in Skyrim

So last time Saarthal happened and uh, it KEPT happening to our short Breton-

Book research about Saarthal is something Triona's very comfy with, and she starts to make some leads, going to confer with Tolfdir. He notes his observations to her, and she pens them down alongside her own notes when Ancano bursts through the door to the Hall of Elements

He's pissed beyond belief that someone from the Psijic Order wants to talk to Triona, specifically! How dare! Tiny mage, are you PLOTTING

no sir, no plotting not a plotting bone here-

come with ME, and we shall make this monk ACCOUNT FOR HIMSELF THEN

quick scrambling to follow this angry pointy elf and not trip on his long cloak up the stairs, past the Arcaenum, up to the Arch Mage

Now, last time, I didn't really...decompress or explain many of Triona's feelings about the Psijic vision in Saarthal. That was on purpose because they hit you like a drive-by hit, just out of nowhere, and tell you you're the only one who can save the world because of circumstances outside your control.

And remember, that like. Triona ran away from Whiterun the minute a guard called her Dragonborn, a prophesized hero?

But the difference between now and then is that, like...she's overcome many unique challenges since then, even outside of this. I haven't recorded every brawl and fight, but Skyrim is toughening Triona up, making her find a backbone that is kind of really fascinating to me wrt Triona's characterization: in a lot of timelines, unless she's fussing over someone else or encouraged otherwise, Triona's usually very...meek. But there's something about an environment constantly out to get you. Still, you have people to get home to, people that do care about you in some capacity (the College members do care, in their own ways, about Triona: she let another apprentice experiment on her to help them with their independent study, she retrieved a family heirloom for another, she brews tea and sits with you and lets you talk about everything and anything. They care about that warmth returning, and they've made it known, in their own ways) that just...tempers you, takes you from raw vulnerability to something same-but-different, not quite stronger. But. Something has seeped in the cracks of your wounds, and that bond and healing is stronger than who you were specifically because you've healed. And that's done something interesting to someone whose personality is usually passive and submissive and a wallflower and turned her into someone with teeth, entirely just by the idea alone of "The world is full of dragons and undead and gods know what else that would all take a swing at me, and the only two ways I'm going to live are swinging back or running away. And...running away doesn't solve the problem in the long run."

So when the Psijic Order rep gives Triona a very grounded set of very vague instructions in another time distortion...she's ready not to run this time.

She finds the Augur and stands before it, playing into its knowledge and its speech and finding out two things:

(1) they need the Staff of Magnus

(2) Ancano came to the Augur about the Eye himself

From there, a lot of it is a blur: the investigation, Mirabelle giving Triona the lead for where the Sinod were looking for the Staff of Magnus, Triona getting to these Dwemer ruins and experiencing the sheer horror of running/skulking through the dark, knowing you are on a timer, facing horrors of not one but two different, extremely distinct varieties (dwemer constructs, powered by soul crystals older than most histories you've studied. falmer, fallen and outcast and hateful in their evolution from their fall. both are damn near inexplicable to you, but you have to fell them the same way you did your first draugr, the same way you did your first dragon: flames first, questions later).

And you finally, after finding bodies strewn about, bitten into, you find another living being who is guarded towards you but at least won't try to kill you on sight: the sole Sinod mage who locked himself away in the orrery of the ruin, slaving away over it, preparing it for a focusing crystal he didn't know his contemporaries would be able to bring back. But you just...stumbled on it. Showing it to him makes him lower his spell-ready hands and lead you inside.

He gloats and glowers at you as you do all the work to finish his damn project: getting the starlight to show you where powerful magical artifacts are. And...unfortunately, the very thing you're terrified of (the Eye) is what's pissing in the results, making it hard for the Sinod to see where the Staff is. And what makes him...aggressive towards you, an apprentice of the College who he views snubbed him and his (honestly, rightfully so, if Mirabelle spoke true: if the Sinods were more interested in politicking than magic, Triona has little sympathies for them. Politics don't exactly save you when you're stuck in the cold dark with things skittering about, after all). And, well...all that time in the dark, he outright attacks, just to try to keep the information you helped him unearth all to himself.

He wasn't Triona's first sapient life taken: there were Stormcloaks who would not be reasoned with in the middle of a supernatural disaster (Alduin attacking Helgen), and there were bandits who would've killed her first, but...he's the first one that feels like it matters? No, not matters (all of them mattered, in some shape or another), but the first to give her a haunted train of thought, as she exited and headed back with information in tow. Had he not attacked, she would've left him alone and maybe he'd healed from his experience, but he was greedy for reputation and glory, and that always makes for a bad mindset.

She comes back to Winterhold and it's all gone to shit: Ancano's messing with the Eye, the Arch Mage quickly dies in a magical explosion, Mirabelle is injured to the point she cannot walk, arcane wisps are attacking civilians in Winterhold below, and to top it all off: another dragon attack.

After everything was settled, the college just got accessorized with not only the first dragon skeleton (from last time):

But also now the second dragon skeleton from now:

Fuck's sake.

[maniculum]

Hear me out: this is a mostly plausible alternate history alphabet.

The places where this one is wrong are all the most RECENT changes to the English alphabet.* So clearly we’re looking at an alternate history with a point of divergence sometime around the late medieval / early modern period. It's got to be a post-printing-press era because the handful of letters that occurred in English but not Latin during the medieval period are all absent, and the development of the printing press was the final push that made English drop them.**

First, ⟨j⟩ wasn’t invented in this timeline. Note that ⟨j⟩ is a very recent letter; there’s no attestation of it being used to represent a distinct sound before the 16th century, and that idea didn’t make it into English until the 17th century. Before then, ⟨i⟩ was doing extra duty. ⟨j⟩ actually developed from a variant of ⟨i⟩ — if you’re familiar with the “long s”, it’s like if someone decided that we should split it off as its own letter, so e.g. ⟨s⟩ made the /s/ sound and ⟨ſ⟩ made the /ʃ/ sound.*** There was a conventional usage where sometimes you'd put a little hook on the ⟨i⟩ depending on its position in the word, just like the long s was position-dependent, and we turned the hooked ⟨i⟩ into ⟨j⟩.

Second, ⟨w⟩ developed differently. Now, ⟨w⟩ as its own letter is also recent, BUT there was already a substantial history of people using a literal double-u -- ⟨uu⟩ -- to represent that sound. However, the differentiation between ⟨u⟩ and ⟨v⟩ is also quite recent, following similar logic to the ⟨i⟩ and ⟨j⟩ thing from above, and developing around the same timeframe, which is why even though we call ⟨w⟩ a "double-u" in English, it looks more like a double-v (and in fact some languages call it that). At the time we named it, those were functionally the same thing; whether the name solidified as "double-u" or "double-v" was pretty much arbitrary. Anyway, you could interpret this alternate alphabet as having split ⟨w⟩ in two at the same time they split ⟨u⟩ and ⟨v⟩: perhaps the ⟨w⟩ with the blob in the middle could represent a "crossed" ⟨w⟩.**** If you want a speculative usage of the second ⟨w⟩ (which we could name "double-v"), I propose that one could represent /w/ and the other could represent /ʍ/.***** Of course, if I were designing an alphabet that split ⟨w⟩, I'd literally do a double-u and a double-v, so that the two characters were ⟨ɯ⟩ and ⟨w⟩.

The semicolon is a tough one, and the reason I described this as MOSTLY plausible. The only possible explanation I can advance is that its inclusion is inspired by the history of the ampersand, ⟨&⟩. For a time, ⟨&⟩ was included as a letter of the English alphabet, usually listed at the end. One could imagine the designer of this alternate alphabet as deciding that they also wanted to change things up by including a punctuation mark, and picking ⟨;⟩. But of course this is misguided, because in fact ⟨&⟩ isn't a punctuation mark; it's a ligature of ⟨et⟩, and I believe technically it qualifies as a logogram.

* I specify "English" because I am not up on the history of orthographical innovation in other languages that use the Latin alphabet. I’m sure there have been more recent changes in other languages’ implementation of the Latin alphabet, but these are the most recent changes that apply to English.

** When Europeans first started making movable type, it was designed to print Latin, so letters not in Latin weren’t available, meaning printed texts couldn’t have ⟨ð⟩, ⟨þ⟩, ⟨ƿ⟩, or ⟨ȝ⟩. Some Norse languages held onto ⟨ð⟩ and/or ⟨þ⟩ anyway and eventually people did make type for them, but English ditched them pretty quickly. To my knowledge no current writing system uses ⟨ƿ⟩ or ⟨ȝ⟩; ⟨ƿ⟩ didn't seem to fully catch on even in the medieval period, and I don't think ⟨ȝ⟩ was ever in use outside of the British Isles. English orthography was kind of already phasing out its extra letters even before printing arrived, so they never had a chance.

*** For people who don’t know IPA, /ʃ/ is the sound English currently represents with ⟨sh⟩. English apparently decided that “add an ⟨h⟩” was the basic solution to differentiating any two consonant sounds, as likewise it replaced ⟨ð⟩/⟨þ⟩ with ⟨th⟩ and ⟨ȝ⟩ with ⟨gh⟩.

**** Annoyingly, there's no Unicode symbol for "crossed W", but it's the style that they use in the Wikipedia logo if you want an example. The two ⟨V⟩s overlap in a kind of x shape instead of meeting at a point in the middle.

***** The phoneme /ʍ/ does occur in English, but it's a little hard for me to describe because it's fallen out of a lot of dialects, including my own. If you pronounce ⟨w⟩ and ⟨wh⟩ differently, your ⟨wh⟩ is probably /ʍ/.

One of the greatest Tweets and it hasn't even existed for 24 hours

[caneiwestminster]

How to Respond to a Trademark Office Action in Westminster, CA

When I first received a Trademark Office Action from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), my heart sank. I had invested so much time and energy into developing my brand, and now, it felt like everything was on the line. But as daunting as the situation seemed, I knew I had to navigate it carefully and intelligently. Here's how I tackled the process and how you can, too, if you're facing a similar challenge in Westminster, CA.

Understanding the Office Action

The first step I took was to fully understand what an Office Action actually meant. An Office Action is essentially a formal communication from the USPTO, indicating that there is an issue with your trademark application that needs to be addressed before your mark can be registered. The reasons can vary widely—from minor clerical errors to substantial legal objections like a likelihood of confusion with an existing trademark.

In my case, the Office Action cited two main issues: a "likelihood of confusion" with an existing trademark and the need for clarification on the description of my goods and services. The letter laid out a timeline of six months to respond, which seemed generous at first, but I quickly realized that this was not something I should procrastinate on.

Step 1: Consulting with a Trademark Attorney in Westminster, CA

Given the complexity of the issues raised, my first course of action was to consult with a local trademark attorney in Westminster, CA. While it's possible to respond to an Office Action on your own, I didn't want to take any chances. The stakes were too high.

I found a highly recommended trademark attorney who had extensive experience dealing with Office Actions. During our consultation, the attorney explained the implications of each issue raised in the Office Action and provided a clear roadmap for how we could respond effectively. The peace of mind I gained from this initial consultation was invaluable, and I knew I was in good hands.

Step 2: Research and Preparation

With my attorney’s guidance, I began gathering the necessary information to address the USPTO's concerns. For the likelihood of confusion issue, we conducted a thorough search to identify the similarities between my mark and the existing one cited in the Office Action. This step was crucial because it allowed us to assess the strength of the USPTO's argument and develop a strategy to argue against it.

Simultaneously, I worked on refining the description of my goods and services. The original description was too broad, which might have contributed to the likelihood of confusion claim. By narrowing the scope and making the description more specific, we aimed to differentiate my brand from the existing one.

Step 3: Drafting the Response

After gathering all the necessary information, my attorney and I began drafting the response to the Office Action. This was a critical stage because the way we framed our arguments could make or break the case.

For the likelihood of confusion issue, we prepared a detailed argument that highlighted the differences between my mark and the existing one. We focused on factors such as the distinctiveness of my mark, the differences in the goods and services offered, and the target audience. Our goal was to convince the USPTO that there was no reasonable likelihood of confusion between the two marks.

Regarding the description of goods and services, we provided a revised version that was more precise and aligned with the USPTO's guidelines. We also included an explanation of why the revised description should be acceptable, emphasizing that it would reduce any potential for confusion with other trademarks.

Step 4: Submitting the Response

Once the response was finalized, the next step was to submit it to the USPTO. My attorney handled this process, ensuring that everything was submitted correctly and within the specified deadline. I was relieved to have professional support during this stage because even a small mistake in the submission process could have led to delays or, worse, the refusal of my trademark application.

Step 5: Waiting for a Decision

After submitting the response, the waiting game began. The USPTO typically takes several months to review responses to Office Actions, so I had to be patient. During this time, I stayed in close contact with my attorney, who kept me updated on any developments.

While waiting, I took the opportunity to continue building my brand, confident that I had done everything possible to address the USPTO's concerns. It was a nerve-wracking period, but I knew that I had put forth a strong case.

Step 6: Receiving the Outcome

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I received a notification from the USPTO. To my immense relief, my response had been accepted, and my trademark application was allowed to proceed toward registration. The feeling of accomplishment and validation was overwhelming.

My attorney and I celebrated the victory, but we also discussed the lessons learned from the experience. I realized the importance of being proactive and thorough when dealing with trademark issues. The process had been a learning curve, but it ultimately strengthened my understanding of trademark law and solidified my brand's legal foundation.

Key Takeaways

Looking back, here are some key takeaways from my experience responding to a Trademark Office Action in Westminster, CA:

Act Promptly: Time is of the essence when responding to an Office Action. Start the process as soon as you receive the notification to ensure you have enough time to prepare a strong response.

Seek Professional Help: Consulting with a knowledgeable trademark attorney can make a significant difference in the outcome. Their expertise can help you navigate the complexities of trademark law and present a compelling case to the USPTO.

Be Thorough: Whether it's conducting research, refining your goods and services description, or drafting your response, thoroughness is crucial. Attention to detail can help you address the USPTO's concerns effectively.

Stay Informed: Trademark law is intricate, and staying informed about the process and potential issues is essential for any business owner. Educate yourself and seek advice when needed.

Remain Patient: The trademark registration process can be lengthy, especially when dealing with an Office Action. Patience and persistence are key to seeing the process through to a successful conclusion.

In conclusion, responding to a Trademark Office Action in Westminster, CA, was a challenging but ultimately rewarding experience. By taking the right steps and seeking professional guidance, I was able to protect my brand and move forward with confidence. If you find yourself in a similar situation, know that with the right approach, you can overcome the hurdles and secure your trademark.

Contact us: CANEI 13950 Milton Ave. Suite 300, Westminster, CA 92683, United States 714-783-2222 https://caneilaw.com/

[neverloseguy]

Throughout my years of playing Guild Wars 2, I have made quite a lot of looks for my characters. Some of these would later be brought back as their own separate characters. Emmalee was one of them (well, kinda; she was based on my first character's older look with some dyejob redone to make her distinct from her alternate counterpart).

But the thing is, I never really went in depth when it comes to explaining those alter-ego characters, since most of them are tied to multiverse shenanigans which hardly has anything to do with the rest of the characters unless they are the kinds to actively go out of their ways to cause chaos and stuff.

Nevertheless, there are a few who would still remain in a limbo between "fully-fleshed out characters" and "temporary alt that I thought for the luls", and as such, I think they deserve to be pushed towards the former just a little...

Au!Embel (right) has to be the most notable one, given she plays the part of not just being one of the heroes who stand up against Mr.G and the chaos he unleashes upon worlds, but also canonically (to NLGVerse) serves as the Pact Commander of the story, meaning she goes through pretty much the same stuff in the Guild Wars 2 story, and has allies like Braham, Rytlock and the rest of Dragon's Watch by her side.

Au!Nellen (right) also plays an important part, but less because she has an impact in the story, and more because she's the same Nellen that Emmalee (also known as Au!Emilie) fell in love with. The two were in a relationship that didn't last very long due to unwillingness to adapt to each other's need, with Emmalee blaming herself heavily for the breakup. This would result in her spending time in the Mists and eventually landing onto the world her original counterpart resides.

Similarly, Au!Knelson (right) also has a connection to Emmalee (albeit not as significant to her). Originally written to be "dead" in the timeline, I later retconned him based on my RP sessions in EU to be a mercenary trying to redeem himself, much like his original counterpart. This is the father of Emmalee herself, who unlike Emilie, never really reconciled with him, and partly due to her differing personality, would still not consider the idea of doing so if given the chance.

Knelson and Embel in other timeline might also be in a relationship, but due to Embel being the Commander, and Knelson being a shady middle-aged man who is known for his anger issues, I'm not really sure if I should make them like so, as they would be in the original timeline.