#I hope this is at least semi coherent

[wildharesandboundteeth]

A subtle and low energy form of worship inspired by Chaos Magick and Sigils

So this one's a bit of basic Chaos magick I've been using for years to charge my sigils. It's slow but steady form of charging sigils that also adds a more 'personal touch' compared to charging with the moon and/or sun. Basically you just put the sigil on a body part with the intention of it being worship.

I am not the first one to do this but I figured that it might be good to share this knowledge to more people.

The basic formula is your God's symbol/ a correspondence of them on or against your body with the intention to dedicate each action of that body part to them.

A choker with a bird pendant dedicating every word you say to Hermes. (Good for presentations and for shit talking with the boys.)

Some examples:

(helpol specific because I'm more familiar with them at this moment)

A rose on your chest,/shirt/bra/binder with the intention of dedicating every heart beat to Aphrodite. (Low energy, more consistent and makes you feel hotter than usual. ;) )

Athena's name written on your finger to dedicate each word written to Her. (Good for homework though try not too write anything too stupid (very difficult for me).)

Ares's symbol painted on the bottom of your exercise shoe's inner sole with the intent to dedicate workout to Him. (Who knows? He might join you (and put you to shame).)

Ways to mark yourself:

I used to use this method with the elemental alchemical signs as well back when I worshipped/drew power from them more often. Holy book versus, sacred numbers, ect. can also work. Heck, maybe even write the entire Mahabharata on yourself.

Non-toxic marker / pen

Water / soil / ash / powder of ground herbs or flowers (non-toxic)

Temporary tattoo / Henna / actual tattoo

Sewing / embroidery / iron-on patches / fabric marker / washable fabric crayons

Honey / milk / yogurt / lotion (all good for the skin)

Face paint / graphic eyeliner / make up (especially foundation you're going to blend)

Just tracing the symbol with a finger

Suggestions

Tip: if you're going with more subtle correspondence (like a drawing of their animal) as opposed to just writing their name or symbol, it's good to do a ritual/ a small prayer to inform them. Just telling them can work too if you're too exhausted for those.

The same effect can be achieved with key chains, stuffed toys, taglocks, ect but I personally like this method as it's something I'm familiar with. It's also harder to forget to do bring something along if it's on your body (yes, I am calling myself out). It also feels more personal.

Disclaimer: Please only do this for gods/entities you know and have a relationship with. I would also advise against doing this to a god that has rejected/not answered your requests to work with them. And please don't mark yourself with a god that you straight up do not know anything about.

I sometimes put wellness sigils for my loved ones on my pulse point(s) or along my chakras with henna. It's slow but with time, it's really builds up.

More rambling

Nowadays, I always make sure to always have the sigils for Lord Hermes and Lord Ares on my foot so I can dedicate each step I take to them. I usually dedicate longer walks to *runs to them but I feel like having a physical 'anchor' helps me concentrate the energy and intent. It also helps if I just plain forget to dedicate a walk to them.

*Disclaimer: author of this post only runs for the bus or because they're late. In no way are they healthy nor disciplined.

In addition to all the worship stuff, it also feels comforting to having something of my loved ones near me/ on me. It reminds me that I am (somehow) loved and that there's something to fight for. Though I might just be getting sentimental in my young age.

So that's my suggestion for you lovely people. I hope to helps inspire someone or something. If anyone has any other suggestions, ideas or constructive feedback, please let me know.

[beearcheops]

this thought has been stuck in my head for a while soooo

y’all know the saying “earn one's stripes”?

“: to do something which shows that one deserves to be accepted and respected by the other people in a field or profession”

(Yes, I did ripped this from Merriam Webster)

Well, you know who has stripes (and been haunting me for the past few years)?

That’s right, the one, the only, Shuichi Saihara!

“but Rattle” you may ask “when did Shuichi earn his stripes?”

Well…

After this, he got his talent aka his stripes!

anyways, that all I have to say about this (maybe not all but the best guess I got from the incomprehensible mess of my brain)

[yourqueenb]

As a continuation of this ask that I responded to, all the things I mentioned are just parts of the overall issue I have with Blades…. which is that, in the grand scheme of things, I feel like MC is simply a plot device for the other characters rather than a fully developed character who has a fully developed and satisfying arc herself. It’s clear that Nia’s is the story the writers really wanted to tell considering how intertwined her characterization/development and the overall world building are. They basically even admitted as much.

So my question is why not just make her the MC if that’s really what you wanted on the not so down low? They still could’ve incorporated the skill mechanic. Why create a whole player character just to have us running to solve everyone else’s problems/support them while acting like everything that happens to us exists inside of a vacuum in the meantime? So far, all we’ve really been doing in this book is reporting where the group needs to go, telling them what to do, having heart to hearts with them when they need help moving to the next stage of their development, and then being spoonfed information through the lore tablets, which are apparently more for the players’ benefit than MC’s since they barely affect how we respond in game anyway. I’m fine with being the leader or the glue that holds everyone together, but to me it’s unsatisfying that that’s all we are as the main character.

We somehow become more competent due to the skill mechanic but no less clueless at the same time. We have all this terrible shit happen to us, but are only offered a few lines’ description of how that’s affected us. And then the rest of the attention goes to setting up the light vs. shadow conflict and our friends, who get to have personal and compelling conflicts of their own. I mean I feel like MC is more of an emotional support animal to them than an actual person with dreams, feelings, and a (minimal) background. Imo the only character who’s getting shafted almost as much as us is Imtura.

And all of this might make it sound like I hate Blades, but it’s quite the contrary actually. It’s still one of my favorite series and has a lot of fun moments and lovable characters. But I think at this point, its flaws have become too large for me to ignore. So that’s still affecting my enjoyment a bit and probably the reason why I’m so upset with how certain things are being handled. Of course I’m aware that Blades isn’t the only book that has some of these issues though. I think it’s just a little more disappointing because I expected more

[phwedding]

the fear a lot of people in the phandom seem to have that, if we as a community say or do enough things "wrong," things will "revert back to how they used to be" (aka dnp will close themselves off again or stop making content) is really odd to me. it essentially ignores all the personal growth they've both experienced in the last decade or so and instead imagines their current willingness to be more open as being hinged upon, and an effect of, the good behavior of their fans. i see no reason to assume that there's any such implicit system of bargaining for more openness in exchange for less invasiveness taking place between them and us -- they're just living their lives, and occasionally sharing parts of it with their audience, of their own volition. now, at a point when they're clearly very happy and comfortable irrespective of us, it doesn't make much sense to claim it's plausible that they might decide to go on hiatus again and end "dan and phil" for real this time and go back in the closet or whatever because some people said weird things about them online

[dirty-bear-rick-sanchez]

Hi, sorry to ask but have you written any fanfics where Jerry is autistic? I've read your autistic!morty fic and thought that was excellent. I'm trying to find Jerry-centric fanfics where he isn't mischaracterized/demonized. (Way too many people write Jerry as transphobic which -_-ll no he isn't)

Hi, no need to apologise! I haven't written any autistic Jerry fics and I'm not sure if I know of any (if anyone else does, please leave recs on this post!). I do 100% view him as autistic though. Thank you!

Yeah honestly Jerry being portrayed as transphobic is something that bothers me as a trans guy? I headcanon him as supportive but clueless/cringe at times (he a little confused but he got the spirit).

I do have a trans Morty WIP with a scene between Morty and Jerry, although Morty is still very early on in figuring out that he might be a guy, and Jerry kind of knows something is up but assumes Morty is a lesbian rather than a trans guy and so kind of fumbles but ultimately is trying to be supportive/nice. Morty does worry about Jerry not loving him anymore if he's trans, although this is Morty's POV rather than being objective/a thing that actually happens.

I'll leave the scene below the cut in case anyone's interested. Warnings for mention of periods (and them being referred to in a gendered way), fear of transphobia from parents, accidental misgendering (and misgendering/deadnaming of Morty in the text since this is only the very start of Morty's gender questioning).

“Morti? Rick said you’re sick. Are you OK?” Jerry opens the door. Morti quickly shoves her phone under her pillow. Thankfully, her dad is as oblivious as ever as he walks over and rests a hand against her forehead.

“You don’t feel warm. Is it, uh, you know,” Jerry points down towards his own abdomen, “woman troubles?” he asks in an exaggerated stage whisper. Morti wants to die all over again. She presses her face into her pillow.

“Hey, sweetheart, i-it’s OK.” Morti feels Jerry rest a tentative hand on her shoulder. “Do you need anything?”

Morti takes a few deep breaths to calm herself and then sits up.

“N-no, Dad, I’m OK.”

“OK, honey.” Jerry wraps his arms around her and Morti can’t help but wonder if he would still hug her like this if he knew what she’d spent the past couple of hours reading about. She hugs him back tightly, suddenly unable to stop thinking that she might have to make the most of the affection while it lasts.

When Jerry pulls back, his face clouds with concern and Morti realises she’s once again been crying. She’s getting really sick of that.

“Morti, honey, what’s wrong?”

Morti feels the question writhing around in her gut until it chokes its way out of her mouth. “Dad… you’d love me no matter what, right?”

“Of course, sweetie. No matter what, you’ll always be my daughter.”

The words are meant to be a comfort, but all Morti can think about is the possibility that she’s not his daughter.

“Morti? Are you gay? It’s OK if you’re gay, you know.” As always, Jerry is well-intentioned but clueless. Truthfully, Morti’s not really put much thought into her own sexual orientation, and it’s not her main concern right now. She shakes her head, and Jerry looks doubtful but leaves it. 

After a few minutes, Morti works up the courage to speak again. “Dad? Could-could you… tell me a story? Like when I was little?” she cringes as she says the words, knowing she’s far too old to be asking for something like that. To her relief, Jerry smiles.

“Sure thing, sweetie.” 

He launches into an improvised story, very similar to the ones she remembers him coming up with when she was younger. She has a memory of Summer complaining Jerry’s stories were boring, always demanding more action. However, once Summer had aged out of wanting a bedtime story and left Morti as the sole listener, Jerry had settled comfortably back into his original stories, which Morti found calming and reassuring. 

Her dad’s voice relaxes her and she rests her head against the pillow, feeling her eyelids begin to droop. Jerry’s hand rests on her hair and strokes it gently, just as he used to all those years ago. It’s enough to block out the negative thoughts for the time being, and Morti is so exhausted from the recent events that she soon drifts peacefully into sleep.

[zukkaoru]

i am so curious what mirror pronouns dazai means. do you mind me asking

not at all!! basically mirror pronouns in general means "refer to me with the pronouns you use to refer to yourself". so for dazai that would look like kunikida referring to dazai with he/him pronouns, yosano using she/her, i typically write he/they ranpo so ranpo would switch between he and they when referring to dazai, and so on and so forth

i made a post about it a few months ago but basically i see dazai's feelings towards their own gender being very... vague and indefinite. they don't exactly feel cis, they don't exactly feel like they're nonbinary, they don't exactly feel like they're trans, they don't exactly feel like they're anything. using mirror pronouns i think is a way for them to sort of consolidate those feelings into something workable. they can just. borrow the genders of the people around them! and it's also interesting to me bc i feel like to some extent, that's how dazai feels about humanity in general. they don't feel particularly human, but they can be a reflection of humanity. they can take the humanity shown to them by those around them and reflect it back onto others and feel like they're passing as human. they're just borrowing humanity from the people around them. plus i think dazai would see mirror pronouns as a fun little game. which is significantly less serious analysis but still very true and kind of the initial reason i came up with this headcanon ngl

anyway to accomplish this in writing, i basically just have the narration refer to dazai with the same pronouns used for the pov character. there's a lot of aya pov in the fic i'm working on with mirror pronouns dazai, so the narration in the aya pov sections refers to dazai with she/her pronouns. but then if kunikida refers to dazai aloud, he uses he/him. in the one scene i've written so far from dazai's pov, i had the narration refer to them with the pronouns of the people they were interacting with to emphasize the reflective aspect of mirror pronouns (i.e. in the beginning of the scene, while talking to sigma, dazai is referred to with she/her. then, when chuuya comes in and sigma leaves, dazai is referred to with they/them.) one thing about me is i love to play around with when the narration refers to characters with certain pronouns, especially if it changes partway through, i am very particular about exactly when the switch occurs. so also writing mirror pronouns dazai is very fun for me in that aspect

[finelinegynandromorph]

never forget it for @topharryficfest

harry/louis | explicit | childhood friends to lovers | 8k | bi-gender louis | trans harry | t4t

Louis tries, he really does, to keep his eyes from the low dip of Harry’s tank top, but when he breaks and glances down for a moment, he bites the inside of his lip at the sight of beads of sweat pooling in the shadowed spot between Harry’s breasts.

Fuck, she’s hot.

or, harry and louis haven’t seen each other in 20 years. they go for a swim

read on ao3

[corishadowfang]

It's appreciate a dragon day, apparently, and I don't have time to do art or fics because. Time. And Energy. But for the past week or so I've had my Kingdom Hearts dragons AU on the mind...which wasn't supposed to be an AU AU, but just kind of a way to draw the characters since I'm not good at drawing people. But because I have no self-control, there's worldbuilding suddenly, and I really want to ramble about it, haha.

I really need to stress that this was originally just me thinking, "Hey, if I'm drawing them as dragons, wouldn't Scala have to look different, too? Since dragons would probably need different things than humans." And then it just. Spiraled.

I didn't know what to do with the Keyblades initially? I, uh. Wasn't sure if I wanted to go the "wielding Keyblades in the mouth," haha. Which kind of spiraled into, "What if the dragon thing just...replaces the Keyblades? Like, people become dragons, basically."

So the idea is kind of like...magic is still A Thing. Everyone can use it, with the right training, but the more you use magic, the more it changes you. (Yes, I've used this idea before, but shhh.) It very gradually changes your appearance, abilities, etc. Your magic gets stronger, but you become less and less human. Eventually, according to most people, you basically lose yourself to it and become a monster, so it's something of a controversial subject.

(The "become a monster" thing is only partially true. You can become a Heartless, but there are a lot of people who just become normal dragons, too. Unfortunately everyone just groups the two together.)

Anyone who used magic kind of like...filled a very weird niche in society where they weren't exactly accepted, but their abilities were still useful, so they were kind of both shunned and respected equally.

The Master of Masters and the Foretellers are the ones who really changed this; MoM went hardcore on the narrative that the "normal" transformation wasn't really monstrous at all, and painted the Foretellers very much as mythological heroes who could fight the actual monsters much more effectively than any normal person. Magic and dragons still made a lot of people wary, but it was tempered a bit, especially with kids.

SPEAKING OF--that's why a lot of kids ended up in Daybreak Town. Less pre-existing ideas on magic and dragons, so it's easier for them to see this as a good thing.

(And then MoM goes and ruins it with the whole "war" thing.)

Once you turn into a dragon, you can take human form again for short periods of time, but it's often uncomfortable, so Daybreak Town and Scala are both designed more with dragons in mind.

Daybreak Town was an abandoned human town that MoM and the Foretellers just repurposed, so while there are still buildings, they had to be modified a lot. The Clock Tower is an abandoned castle, haha.

Scala is basically a mountain range on the edge of the ocean! Or mountains on islands...? Uh. Something like that, haha. Lots of bare white rock and caves and stuff. I think the main island's a little more open, just because like...I like the idea of them wanting more "light" as a sort of symbolism thing.

Dragons are the only ones that can fly to other worlds without assistance! Their magic kind of protects them, basically, but they do actually have to fly. Lots of young dragons like to bring back trinkets from different worlds (which is generally how their hoards are formed, haha).

Uh, I only have loose ideas of how some characters would've actually gotten into this. Ven I think was basically born with an excessive amount of magic that he couldn't really control, so he turned really, really young, and there wasn't much he could do about it. Brain thought that the fear about magic was stupid and actively fostered his out of spite. Ephemer was super curious about the idea, and ended up digging deeper into things. Skuld and Lauriam I'm less certain on. (I could see Lauriam doing it as a way to help protect Strelitzia--maybe she was like Ven, and turned accidentally? And Skuld--honestly just could've done it because she was swept up in what MoM/the Foretellers said, haha.)

Aaaaand I'm looking at how much I've rambled and will spare your dashes, but uh. Yeah. Dragons!

[longagoitwastuesday]

So so indebted to u for posting those lovely illustrations from Cyrano <333 & even more so for yr tags!! I'm completely in love w yr analysis, please feel free to ramble as long as u wish! Browsing through yr Cyrano de Bergerac tag has given me glimpses of so many adaptations & translations I'd never heard of before! I'll be watching the Solès version next, which I have only discovered today through u ^_^ As for translations, have u read many/all of them? I've only encountered the Renauld & Burgess translations in the wild, & I was curious to hear yr translation thoughts that they might guide my decision on which one I buy first (not necessarily Renauld or Burgess ofc). Have a splendid day & sorry for the likespam! 💙

Sorry for the delay. Don't mind the likespam, I'm glad you enjoyed my tags about Cyrano, and that they could contribute a bit to a further appreciation of the play. I loved it a lot, I got obsessed with it for months. It's always nice to know other people deeply love too that which is loved haha I hope you enjoy the Solès version, it may well be my favourite one!

About translations, I'm touched you're asking me, but I don't really know whether mine is the best opinion to ask. I have read... four or five English translations iirc, the ones I could find online, and I do (and especially did, back when I was reading them) have a lot of opinions about them. However, nor English nor French are my first languages (they are third and fourth respectively, so not even close). I just read and compare translations because that's one of my favourite things to do.

The fact is that no translation is perfect, of course. I barely remember Renauld's, but I think it was quite literal; that's good for understanding the basics of the text, concepts and characters, but form is subject, and there's always something that escapes too literal translations. Thomas and Guillemard's if I recall correctly is similar to Hooker's in cadence. It had some beautiful fragments, some I preferred over Hooker's, but overall I think to recall I liked Hooker's more. If memory serves, Hooker's was the most traditionally poetic and beautiful in my opinion. Burgess' is a whole different thing, with its perks and drawbacks.

Something noticeable in the other translations is that they are too... "epic". They do well the poetic, sorrowful, grief stricken, crushed by regrets aspects of Cyrano and the play in general, but they fall quite short in the funny and even pathetic aspects, and that too is key in Cyrano, both character and play. Given the characteristics of both languages, following the cadence of the French too literally, with those long verses, makes an English version sound far too solemn at times when the French text isn't. Thus Burgess changes the very cadence of the text, adapting it more to the English language. This translation is the one that best sets the different moods in the play, and as I said before form is subject, and that too is key: after all, the poetic aspect of Cyrano is as much true as his angry facet and his goofy one. If Cyrano isn't funny he isn't Cyrano, just as he wouldn't be Cyrano without his devotion to Roxane or his insecurities; Cyrano is who he is precisely because he has all these facets, because one side covers the other, because one trait is born from another, because one facet is used as weapon to protect the others, like a game of mirrors and smoke. We see them at different points through the play, often converging. Burgess' enhances that. He plays with the language itself in form and musicality, with words and absences, with truths masking other truths, with things stated but untold, much like Cyrano does. And the stage directions, poetic and with literary value in their own right in a way that reminded me of Valle Inclán and Oscar Wilde, interact with the text at times in an almost metatextual dimension that enhances that bond Cyrano has with words, giving them a sort of liminal air and strengthening that constant in the play: that words both conceal and unveil Cyrano, that in words he hides and words give him away.

But not all is good, at all. Unlike Hooker, Burgess reads to me as not entirely understanding every facet of the characters, and as if he didn't even like the play all that much, as if he had a bit of a disdainful attitude towards it, and found it too mushy. Which I can understand, but then why do you translate it? In my opinion the Burgess' translation does well bending English to transmit the different moods the French text does, and does pretty well understanding the more solemn, cool, funny, angry, poetic aspects of Cyrano, but less so his devotion, vulnerability, insecurities and his pathetism. It doesn't seem to get Roxane at all, how similar she is to Cyrano, nor why she has so many admirers. It does a very poor job at understanding Christian and his value, and writes him off as stupid imo. While I enjoyed the language aspect of the Burgess translation, I remember being quite angry at certain points reading it because of what it did to the characters and some changes he introduces. I think he did something very questionable with Le Bret and Castel-Jaloux, and I remember being incensed because of Roxane at times (for instance, she doesn't go to Arras in his version, which is a key scene to show just how much fire Roxane has, and that establishes several parallels with Cyrano, in attitude and words, but even in act since she does a bit what Cyrano later does with the nuns in the last act), and being very angry at several choices about Christian too. While not explicitly stated, I think the McAvoy production and the musical both follow this translation, because they too introduce these changes, and they make Christian as a character, and to an extent the entire play, not make sense.

For instance, once such change is that Christian is afraid that Roxane will be cultured (McAvoy's version has that infamous "shit"/"fuck" that I detest), when in the original French it's literally the opposite. He is not afraid she will be cultured, he is afraid she won't, because he does love and appreciate and admires those aspects of her, as he appreciates and admires them in Cyrano. That's key! Just as Cyrano longs to have what Christian has, Christian wants the same! That words escape him doesn't mean he doesn't understand or appreciate them. The dynamics make no sense without this aspect, and Burgess (and the productions that directly or indirectly follow him) constantly erases this core trait of Christian.

Another key moment of Christian Burgess butchers is the scene in Arras in which Christian discovers the truth. Burgess writes their discussion masterfully in form, it's both funny and poignant, but it falls short in concept: when Cyrano tells him the whole discussion about who does Roxane love and what will happen, what they'll do, is academic because they're both going to die, Christian states that dying is his role now. This destroys entirely the thing with Christian wanting Roxane to have the right to know, and the freedom to choose, or to refuse them both. As much as Cyrano proclaims his love for truth and not mincing words even in the face of authority, Cyrano is constantly drunk on lies and mirages, masks and metaphors. It's Christian who wants it all to end, the one who wants real things, the one who wants to risk his own happiness for the chance of his friend's, as well as for the woman he loves to stop living in a lie. That is a very interesting aspect of Christian, and another aspect in which he is written as both paralleling and contrasting Cyrano. It's interesting from a moral perspective and how that works with the characters, but it's also interesting from a conceptual point of view, both in text and metatextually: what they hold most dear, what they most want, what most fulfills them, what they most fear, their different approaches to life, but also metatextually another instance of that tears/blood motif and its ramifications constant through the whole text. Erasing that climatic decision and making him just simply suicidal erases those aspects of Christian and his place in the Christian/Cyrano/Roxane dynamic, all for plain superficial angst, that perhaps hits more in the moment, but holds less meaning.

Being more literal, and more solemn, Hooker's translation (or any of the others, but Hooker's seems to love the characters and understand them) doesn't make these conceptual mistakes. Now, would I not recommend reading Burgess' translation? I can't also say that. I had a lot of fun reading it, despite the occasional anger and indignation haha Would I recommend buying it? I recommend you give an eye to it first, if you're tempted and can initially only buy one.

You can read Burgess' translation entirely in archive.com. You can also find online the complete translations of Renauld, Hooker and Thomas and Guillemard. I also found a fifth one, iirc, but I can't recall it right now (I could give a look). You could read them before choosing, or read your favourite scenes and fragments in the different translations, and choose the one in which you like them better. That's often what I do.

Edit: I've checked to make sure and Roxane does appear in Arras in the translation. It's in the introduction in which it is stated that she doesn't appear in the production for which the translation was made. The conceptualisation of Roxane I criticise and that in my opinion is constant through the text does stay, though.

[readingbythestreetlights]

32, 45, 49 for the mattdrai asks?? :))

hi!! thanks for asking:))))

32. Have you ever written any Mattdrai fics yourself? If not, why not?

i haven't. honestly mattdrai scares me to write for some reason 😭😭. i'm perfectly happy letting them run around my brain freely without trying to pinpoint certain ideas to write about as of now. maybe i will one day, but usually i write out of a desire to see certain scenarios that have yet to already be written, and i think the mattdrai canon as is is sufficiently filling my needs. (mattdrai fic writers, you do the lord's work 🙏🙏)

45. What are your favorite Mattdrai blogs here on tumblr?

your sideblog, for one! (that is, @rattkachuk) (i've been loving the leon to florida agenda as of late). i'm also a big fan of @gaytkachuk @gaydraisaitl @irrelevanttous @msmargaretmurry and probably more that i'm forgetting

49. Would they live in the US/Canada or Germany if they moved in together?

us/canada i think because that's where their teammates/friends are (and they're both very much in love with their respective guys)! although i definitely can see retired matthew spending his summers in germany with leon a la nico rosberg living carefree in monaco in @litafordvsferrari 's vegas f1 fic. far far away from all his family and all his troubles.

[loonarmuunar]

Zora Salazar character analysis

Takin a bitta insperation from this https://www.tumblr.com/ramblings-from-the-ether/715682790638796800/bloodsoaked-closure-how-to-break-zora-the-fanfic post. I’m not gonna go in the same direction as they did, but I’m def using their analysis for help with this.

This started with me wondering, what could break Zora’s spirit? She’s such a fighter, so how could you take away that energy of her’s? Let’s begin.

Before Zora joined Bliss Ocean, in Extended Great at Cowboy, I got the impression she just had no real drive and wasn’t happy, nor did she really care about anything besides bounty hunting. It was the line “finally knows why she is fighting” that especially made me think this. Bliss Ocean gave her an actual goal, something to hope for and achieve. Bliss Ocean also gave her her friends as well. It isn’t just a job, it’s integral to who she is as a person. She needs Bliss Ocean. To Zora, her motivations are key to her identity.

If Zora had a redemption arc and left bliss ocean, or for whatever reason she’s just not apart of the organization anymore, I think it would take a big toll on her. Even if she became a good person, Bliss Ocean was still a huge part of her life. It made her happy. Without it, who is she? What left does she have? Does she just go back to nothing but bounty hunts, or look for something new to motivate her?

Zora is overwhelming powerful. She has the power to fight and kill almost anyone if she wanted. So what if she was faced with something she CAN’T fight? Be it sickness, the forces of nature, being trapped, etc. For something like this, she’d try waiting it out and bearing it until she got a chance to help herself. But what if it didn’t? Whatever unfightable force she’s facing won’t give in.

I feel that, Zora, left without anything to push her, and stuck with something she can’t fight off, would still try. At her core, Zora is a survivor. She kept going, even after she lost her parents and childhood, she still kept going. She’s going to fight and thrash and bite, even to her detriment, until she can’t fight anymore. Eventually, she would be faced with the fact she can’t win. She can’t fight it, she can’t run, she can’t survive. That would break her.

A dog can’t fight against the post forever. She’s Zora Salazar, the phantom drifter, highest bounty there is, and no matter what, she’s still just a person, and eventually, she’ll meet her limits.

I’d love for others to add their thoughts onto this <33

[nightmarecountry]

hc.

The Corinthian's occasional use of it/its pronouns for himself has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with like... seeing himself as a concept rather than a person. It's part of why you'll rarely see the first Corinthian think of himself that way while he's free of the Dreaming unless he's thinking of his past, his role, or feeling Particularly Monstrous And Inhuman TM. In verses where he ends up right back where he started post-Cereal Convention instead of being uncreated, he's much more likely to internally use it/its pronouns for himself.

Your character can use whatever pronouns they like for him - he/him and it/its are the only ones he personally uses for himself, and he probably wouldn't like she/her very much, but in the end it doesn't really matter all that much to him (which is why he doesn't bother correcting people if they use they/them for him, despite that not really being a pronoun he uses - the exception there is the second Corinthian, who might occasionally use it in the plural sense).

Generally speaking though, referring to him as 'it' is very likely to come off as dehumanizing/condescending to him - particularly to the first Corinthian.

[fleetsonourgecentral]

so it first Scourge only stays in the dimension because he has no way out, but what about the Omniviewer or the Ring of Eternity? do they for some reason not have the ability to take him to his dimension? or are we just shoving them out of the picture for the sake of the story until we can think of a good reason for their absence?

hi can you tell how much I've got the Fleet!Sonourge bug

So the Omniviewer and Ring of Eternity, although they do have dimension-related powers, don't quite have the powers to send Scourge back to his own dimension (Sonic was distraught upon discovering this, because the Omniviewer was his first solution. Locals say he stormed off yelling "THEN WHAT EXACTLY IS THE POINT OF YOU???" when the Omniviewer said he couldn't help). Their powers, while impressive to someone from the fleetway dimension who didn't even know dimension travel was possible, are actually pretty standard and minor in the grand, cosmic, multi-dimension scheme of things, as both of them can really only use their powers on the fleetway dimension and nearby "connected" dimensions

The Omniviewer's power is mostly limited to Mobius and the Special Zone, the latter of which is still inside the fleetway dimension. There's the bonus of time travel, but that still only really impacts the fleetway universe. I don't remember if we ever see him use his powers for anything outside Mobius and the Special Zone, but if he can, it's limited. The Ring of Eternity has a bit more power, as it can connect to other dimensions, but only... local dimensions, I guess is the way to put it? The Cosmic Highway is big, there are a lot of alternate dimensions to hold, and not all dimensions are within the same distance as each other

Think of it as like a bubble, I guess? The Ring of Eternity can reach dimensions that are within the bubble, and most if not all of those dimensions have a direct connection to the fleetway dimension. The universe that has King Sonic, for example, is directly connected to the fleetway universe, because, well, it's a parallel for it. It's a relatively close dimension, from a multi-dimensional perspective, which means it's within the reach of the Ring of Eternity's powers

Moebius, however, is not part of these connected dimensions. Different bubble, or neighbourhood, or whichever metaphor you wish to use. It's not a dimension that's close to the fleetway universe, so even if the Ring of Eternity or the Omniviewer were aware of that universe to begin with, they couldn't send Scourge there, because they just don't have that kind of power. Probably for the best, otherwise there could have been some... unforeseen complications when the Omniviewer trapped Super

The fleetway universe, and similarly, it's connecting universes, are pretty well-contained. Travel between connected dimensions isn't very common as it is, unless you count Sonic's trips to the Special Zone, so getting outside of that little bubble is incredibly difficult. Portals that open directly onto the Cosmic Highway just don't spawn often, and it's incredibly difficult to find an alternate way out. Perhaps it's a cosmic evolution; a dimension that specifically spawned and adapted to keep things and people (like Super) contained

Either way, it's effective at keeping people in. Between that, and Scourge's dimension being not only completely unconnected to the fleetway universe, but also thousands of miles away on the Cosmic Highway, neither the Omniviewer nor the Ring of Eternity can help, so please stop yelling at us Sonic it's not our fault there's nothing we can do

[amischiefofmuses]

i am leaving you my url as well as a box of seeds because ---- idk lovely drunk snack for a lovely drunk magpie ? i could have sworn i was going somewhere with this but i'm just too sleepy to make the joke count--

Let my drunk ass wax poetic

Yesss, all the seeds for me ehehe. Seriously though, I absolutely ADORE your blog and I was so excited to get to finally write with you. It's clear through every single post that you're passionate about your muse, which to me is the biggest draw to any blog honestly. Seeing your passion helps ignite my own passion for my own muses in kind, wanting to match that kind of energy that I see when you add little tidbits here and there, trains of thought that give me insight into the way you write Emmanuel, who he is as an entity and how he interacts with the world around him. Your writing is also just the perfect balance of descriptive and artistic without coming across as purple prose, the kind I feel like I can really bounce off well to develop character interactions. Outside of that we've not talked TONS but you seem like a complete sweetheart ooc, I'm terrible at breaking ice because I'm a nervous little wreck but your vibes seem wonderful.

[actualaster]

Alright, so, Thoughts on Lightfall.

Overall I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it's not without issues. On the whole I feel it did more right than wrong, and I can very much admit that several of the things I find to be flaws may very well just be down to personal taste in writing choices rather than objective problems.

So, in general, it's mostly positive with some discussion of areas that I think might have been better handled.

Naturally spoilers abound below.

Also discussions of new/revamped gameplay mechanics in addition to the storyline stuff.

Going to be a bit disjointed and achronological because my brain does not vibe with the concept of time in general.

So, first of all, NIMBUS. I love them. They're a great character. I want to see more of them in the future. Canon on-screen nonbinary rep in a character who is great, who has speaking lines AND is a major character in the expansion, AND doesn't just get killed off? YES. It seems like a previous Cloud Strider, Stargazer, may also have been they/them? There's definitely another they/them as an average citizen in the lorebook AND somebody who seems genderfluid.

So Neomuna just casually embraces being nonbinary and it's NOT just a Cloud Strider thing it's just a normal part of their culture. Love that~

Alright, now for everything else.

I really enjoyed the new aesthetics of Neomuna! Very pretty~ I especially love the sparkly, glittery stone (or whatever) ground and caves, that's just such a pretty thing and it's always a top tier design choice. Also really love how they made the Cloud Striders so dang tall! Makes sense with their augments and whatnot, but still, great choice~

Still haven't poked around all the Lost Sectors but I loved the arcade (and the Goblin just... scanning a game cabinet lol. Absolute favorite Vex right there, a shame I had to kill it)

Haven't messed around too much with the new weapons and such, so I can't speak to how I enjoy the new perks or anything yet thought I like the aesthetics of them again.

The re-worked mod system is pretty solid, IMO. It streamlines a lot of stuff. Could use more tweaks, I miss some of the older mods and such, but the team will absolutely be monitoring things and adding new mods and tweaking existing ones and such as we go. It's a massive overhaul so it'll take time for things to fully settle, and I'll probably tweak things around further in the future.

I do prefer the perk system for the seasonal artifact as well, by the way, less of a pain than trying to slot mods into your gear and sacrificing stuff. Still struggling with stunning Champions but that's mostly because I'm still getting used to the new setup and fiddling with weapons and such.

Loudout system is great, no more needing to change up mods or appearances when you swap classes lol.

I do wish they'd maybe increase the slots we have for weapons, or something. It's getting hard to juggle and energy slots between what i need to complete bounties, what I need to stun champions, and what I run for everything else, especially if I've got an exotic catalyst or two I'm trying to work on...

Also, while Strand is fun, it feels... Slower for abilities to recharge, somehow? Might just be because most of my other sub-classes have ways to recharge themselves in PvE faster and all. Especially the loading time on the grapple grenade. I very much get why it's like that but also since it doubles as a movement mechanic and not just a combat mechanic it's a little... Tedious. But there's not really a good way to adjust that, I think, because it's not like destiny has a dedicated "extra movement method" button or anything.

Anyway that might feel a little less clunky as I unlock aspects and try to put together a decent Strand build. Need to find a decent high-stat Exotic to pair it with, tbh, the one I'm running now is just kinda.. Meh, it's what I've got on hand lol. So that might very well be coloring my opinions on it, I can fully admit that's a strong possibility. (But, also, I fully expect Bungie to tweak Strand going forwards as more and more players get their hands on it and they can see on a large scale how it's working and where it's struggling).

ANYWAY enough about that! ON TO OTHER STUFF.

So, overall, I liked the story they told. I do wish we'd delved more into the what the Veil is, however. It's obvious by the time you're doing some of the post-campaign stuff that not even the people of Neomuna have a solid grasp on what it is, and I would have liked to see that explored more... I know they're probably going to drip feed us some of that info over the seasons but I feel like that's extremely relevant to THIS expansion and I feel that expansions should balance being self-contained and setting up the next part of the story (unless it's a standalone expansion in which case it should be entirely self-contained).

Lightfall... Felt like it leaned a little too heavily on the "setting up for the next part" side of things. It wasn't bad, but I feel like we could have explored a bit more in the expansion itself. Maybe not part of the main campaign, but as a post-campaign quest or something to learn a little more about the Veil, and such.

I don't want to describe it as "filler", because it's not, but it did... Hrm... How to explain it... Like, obviously it's the link between Witch Queen and The Final Shape, that's just kind of what the expansions are--continuing the story and linking the entries that came before with those that came after. But Lightfall... It felt a little more like it was meant to just be a bridge and less like it was taking itself seriously as a full story in it's own right.

It's not bad, exactly, but it felt a little... Off. Like it wasn't quite able to come into it's own as an expansion outside of it's role linking WQ and TFS. An excellent effort was made, and that is a fine line to walk so I don't want to give the devs too much grief over it! But it does feel like it managed to fall a bit short on that.

Some of it was the pacing. The pacing felt a little... Inconsistent? Like some areas, such as Rohan's death, felt kind of rushed--we barely had time to get to know or care about these characters before he's sacrificing himself for us! And others felt like they dragged a little--Strand mastery, mostly. That somehow manage to feel like it both took up too much time and too little time.

I think that part is more... It felt like it took forever to get to the serious training to master it, and once we hit that it came very rapidly. I think that maybe if it had been a focus for one more or one less mission it would have felt better paced.

But also part of that might be less to do with the actual Strand and more to do with the content of the missions themselves. I did notice several of them had extended "no respawn" segments which were... Grueling, if you weren't very well-prepared and that can absolutely be coloring my perception of the pacing. It's hard to pull them apart, really.

Battles in segments did seem to drag on a bit, and some of the new stuff you do in Neomuna (the "terminal override" activity) seem to drag on, becoming more of a test of endurance than anything else.

Now, some of this is undoubtedly because we're all still adjusting to the new mod system and we all started out at low light compared to the recommended stuff with the new expansion and all. As we all start to get up there in light level, get better gear, get a handle on the new system, etc. I suspect these will start going faster.

So I don't want to be too hard on that aspect because, y'know, we just came off a "we've got YEARS of experience mastering the system and we're at the top of our game" in terms of gameplay so there's gonna be a learning curve for many of us again and I don't want to ding the devs on that too badly if it really just feels tedious due to needing to get familiar with things and better gear and such.

Plus, like. I know I'm not as big a fan of the battlegrounds style stuff because they take longer and I prefer quick, intense bursts of combat rather than extended firefights, so that's likely also my personal taste coloring how I feel there.

That said, not all the battle segments seemed to drag on--and several of those that were longer absolutely made sense and it really added to the emotional feelings of the mission with how they lasted longer.

Like, the run-up to fighting Calus?

When Caitatl shows up to fight alongside you with her troops through wave after wave of enemy? It felt like that fight took forever--but that worked great because it really fed the sense of "shit, fuck, NO, we have to hurry, we don't have time for this!" and that sense of "can we make it? No, we have to! We have to endure!" desperation that really, really fit the "the enemy is about to fucking win we HAVE to stop them!" that was being built up.

Actually, honestly, the more I think about it... The more I think that may have been the point all along with the combat segments that felt like took longer? To build that "we don't have time to be wasting here" sense of impatience to hurry and try to stop the Witness from getting the Veil.

But, also, again, they may have just taken longer and feel too long because I'm not totally used to the new system and still building myself up again--and I would imagine that the same could be true for others who also felt they were lengthy.

Calus' death, though, that was great. The battle was annoying because I was still trying to get a hang of swinging around with Strand and kept getting knocked off, but that was a skill issue not a game design issue lol.

I liked how in the end he became desperate, and his death just... Felt fitting. He met the end he was always destined for. Honestly a of the imagery around Calus was great, they did a great job of showing that while he gives service to the Witness he's still not actually satisfied and that his "gains" are just... Hollow. Empty. Just like him, really. All superficial opulence with no substantial filling.

His Chalice, a beautiful thing that was never filled, was a fantastic metaphor for Calus himself.

Speaking of interesting things, though.

The Cloud Striders vs the Guardians. One that chooses a life cut drastically short, not as a tragedy, but as a joyful sacrifice to protect and serve their people, a heavy mantle but one taken up willingly by those who are passionate about the cause. And one that has immortality thrust upon them without warning, without consent, and without any sort of purpose innate to the lifespan change.

They're a fun little twisted reflection of each other, and something I hope gets explored further even if only in the lore--that's a really, really neat concept that has a lot of fun potential for compare/contrast, you know?

AND, ON TOP OF THAT, the Guardian hesitates to cut their own existence short--the choice to shoot their Ghost, to save everything? (Or at least delay the Witness' plan)? And they hesitate, they can't quite do it in time (and once it's over there's no point). It's understandable, Ghost is your friend, somebody you care about and I think it makes perfect sense that we'd hesitate. I mean even outside of the narrative of "they can't have us kill Ghost because then we wouldn't be immortal anymore and that would really kind of screw with the whole 'players are immortal beings who come back over and over and over and just Get Better from grievous wounds on the fly'" thing. It just makes sense in general.

But there's also, there, that moment of hesitation in the face of sacrificing their immortality--when Rohan chose to cut his already truncated life short without hesitation to the same end.

It's not that I think we were wrong for our choice, or that his sacrifice was better or anything.

I just thing they're fascinating inversions of each other--parallel lines traveling in opposite direction.

And I think that was really well-done.

Also, speaking of well-done, the cutscene at the end of the new exotic quest for Deterministic Chaos, where the remains of Sagira's shell are enshrined in the Hall of Heroes right behind Rohan's monument/server. That was such a good touch, it was so perfect. It just feels right.

I just.

Yeah, the expansion had it's issues (what doesn't?) and things I would have changed up a bit but overall it was very enjoyable and did some amazing stuff with imagery, metaphor, and implied parallels for players to take note of. My biggest gripes are with gameplay, and those will very likely be lessened as the new mod system and subclass get tweaked and we all start getting more experience with them and such.

A fun time that deserves some criticism but really doesn't seem to deserve the more vitriolic hate I've seen.

So, on the whole, I'd give it a very solid 8/10.

[sheryl-lee]

In reply to your post about decreasing activity on here and ppl unfollowing. You know, i remember seing a post here saying "tumblr is not a social media, it's basically my room" and caught myself thinking that it's EXACTLY what this place is for me. Everyone has their own habbits as to how to organize their blogs, but for me adding comments/write my personal text posts is like half of the fun actually? i don't know if my blog would be the same without it, and it adds PERSONALITY to the blog, makes it a little bit messy and more real you know? I mean, we're not just content creating machines after all, we're humans

And i like your blog. best wishes! 🌸

i so agree with you!!! like idk if this makes sense but if the choice is between me changing who i am to suit others and maintaining followers & just being myself, but losing followers who don't like me for me - like of course i'm gonna pick the latter! it does sting a bit when i lose mutuals, but i'm also not going to blame myself for that. people have their own reasons for unfollowing (and often, tumblr bugs make it so people accidentally unfollow others, so i try to give the benefit of the doubt there) and i love just being able to express myself freely and engage with the people who do choose to stay. i think it's a great thing about tumblr - each blog has their own little bubble/corner to chill in.

over the years, i've grown all the more confident in myself as i've learned more about myself and matured, and ultimately i enjoy being unapologetically me both online and offline. i don't like fake/phony people, and i also don't think it suits me to conform to other's ideals of how i should be. there's something wonderful about getting to just be you in the space you've created, and for every unfollow i get, i still have some amazing humans who have stuck around (for years in some cases!!!) and continue to support me. and i'm glad that i can have that; that i can be real with them, and they can be real with me ❤️