#I mean technically since I mentioned them

[katerinaaqu]

Telemachus probably had a good relationship with Laertes and Anticlea, at least until Anticlea's death, but what about his mother's side of the family? Since they lived in Sparta, they probably rarely saw each other, but it's a shame we don't get to read about the family dynamics. Even when Telemachus sets sail and visits Sparta, there's no mention of him possibly visiting Icarius (or at least I have never seen anyone mention it), then again, his grandfather might be gone by that point too.

Ohhhhh that is a very interesting observation! Thanks for stating it and beware this will be long!

Although his relationship with the rest of the family is not specified, it is possible. Although arguably Anticlea was way too depressed by her son's absence to be emotionally available with anyone (arguably we do not even know how far back her death goes. When she speaks to Odysseus in the underworld it seems that she was alive at least till the point where the suitors decided to turn their place into their hotel. Maybe that was what broke her; seeing her family and the fortune her son built brick by brick being eaten away by these men, Penelope holding on to whatever she has and an underage grandson that couldn't take over might as well be what made her mind sway completely in combination to Laertes also partially losing his mind in sorrow)

Either way there isn't anything in Homer to assume that her relationship with the rest of the family was warm or cold in the first place so your guess is as good as anything else.

Now the mother's side of the family is ab intriguing question. Culturally the woman technically cuts ties with the family side she had when she moves to her husband's house but of course practically that doesn’t mean stop speaking to them altogether so we do assume that she did keep contact with her family one way or another (thus she knew that Iphitime was far away so she was probably updated on her little sister's fate) but she doesn't seem to keep THAT regular contact with them either. Most likely the whole issue with Helen running away with Paris and starting the domino of this war mess might as well have made relationships of other kingdoms cold with Sparta for a little while.

Oh Icarius is very much alive in the Odyssey. The suitors repeatedly say to Telemachus to "send his mother back to her father so they can arrange the dowry". Icarius is also mentioned to the final rhapsodies having an active part to the selection of his future groom. It seems that 5he suitors were already in contact with him for Icarius sent his response to his preference towards Eurymachus because he was the richest of all the suitors courting his daughter. So no it is not that Icarius was dead. Just like Laertes (which is even more interesting given how I have no doubt that Odysseus is older than Penelope) Icarius is very much alive. My guess is that he for starters was not in Sparta

Sparta is one city in the central of the general area of Lacedaemona which is the region Sparta is located in, in Peloponese. Icarius could be in charge of any one of the minor palaces in the area outside Sparta so Telemachus wouldn't really bump into him anytime soon if we went straight to Sparta from Pylos. We also do not know the exact sentiments of Icarius for the Ithacan family given how he never wanted Odysseus for his groom to begin with due to the fact that his kingdom was not as rich or influential as others. Thus according to some versions the whole Oath of Tyndareus was with double objective on Odysseus's side. On once he wouldn't be embarrassed to lay off the courting for Helen and second he wanted to get to Tyndareus's good side so that he would either arrange the wedding or persuade Icarius to allow him to compete against him for the hand of Penelope. Either way Icarius was not very warm on the idea of having Odysseus as his daughter's husband at first.

In Pausanias he does seem to wish to have him stay (or at least his daughter) when he tries to stop them (again either because he wants to stop the wedding and let his daughter go back to him or because he believes he can use Odysseus and his knowledge for his own kingdom). It could be that Icarius still kept a grudge against Odysseus and his side of the family including his grandson. Potentially wishing that his daughter had a more suitable, according to his standards, match. That is of course a pure hypothesis but yes Icarius seems to be mostly uninvolved with his daughter (much less with Ithaca) till the subject of remarriage comes up, potentially so that he will continue have influence in Ithaca.

And he DOES seem eager to cut the line of Odysseus off given how he doesn't seem to support the last wish of Odysseus to let Telemachus come of age, take over and THEN Penelope remarry. He seems eager to accept the proposal of the suitors in general and Eurymachus in particular to go on with the wedding arrangement apparently ignoring his grandson completely and not support the idea that his grandson were to take over Ithaca even if it seems like his best interest to do so (he still has influence in Ithaca through Telemachus and if, in theory Penelope were to remarry some other king he could expand his influence even further). He seems to be holding a grudge against Odysseus to the point of wanting to block his own grandson from the line of succession exactly because he carries the blood of Odysseus

Hehehe sorry that was long but some random thoughts here!

[frownyalfred]

In your abo how are surnames passed down? Would the omega take the alphas name(regardless of primary gender) and the kids get the alpha name? Do they often hyphenate in this world? If the babies do only get the name Kent does that mean this isnt really "The Wayne Pack" anymore? Or do they stick to Wayne for the social status?

Excellent question. Since in a room full of coral Bruce + Clark are kind of revitalizing old/archaic pack traditions, this comes into conflict with the modern a/b/o world described in the fic where it's more of a nuclear family unit. So when it's outside of a pack setting, usually it defaults to rules we would recognize IRL (alpha's name on everything, etc).

With that aside, however, I think since Clark was technically absorbed into Bruce's family pack, the pups get his surname. Bruce forcibly pack bonded Lex who was (briefly and dubiously) pack omega of Zod (and technically therefore Clark), making his pack the primary one in the equation. But he is an omega, so going by traditional a/b/o worldbuilding, usually the pups would get Clark's last name. But since Clark was absorbed into Bruce's pack first, I think you could make the argument that they get Bruce's last name no matter what, because Clark technically would have it by now too.

All that aside, I imagine it's called the Wayne pack no matter what because of Bruce's fame and his family's importance. Thomas and Martha definitely leaned more toward an old fashioned pack, hence why they asked for Alfred to be their pack beta (seen in a diamond sky). They are an old pack running through Thomas -- I imagine Martha was absorbed into that pack instead of Thomas joining the Kane line/packs. Or maybe by that point, they were the only ones still in a formal pack structure and their cousins etc were all in nuclear family units.

I like to think Kryptonian packs also passed along the carrying Omega's name since they were so omega-centered, as Lex mentions in ASOH several times. But that's me the author writing that in. So in theory, Clark might have a claim to pass along his name, but 1) it makes more sense for Bruce to do it anyway and 2) Kryptonian tradition, if that means anything to him, says he should probably just let Bruce have this one. And as we've seen, Clark is the kind of alpha who does not make stupid knotheaded claims like that. He's super chill, and I'm sure he'd be chill with them being Waynes. It's probably safer that way, in some respects.

Also, Lex and Alfred were both absorbed into the Wayne packs and kept their own last names. I don't think the names matter as much as the status does. In the more archaic pack days, I imagine you'd just introduce the pack name at the end of your own name like a title -- in situations where it mattered, that is.

[emblemxeno]

I appreciate your input. I still disagree, but I don't mean it in an argumentative way, more of a discussive way.

---Smash Stuff: It's the retrospective stuff that irks me. I have seen that Schafrilla's video you mention, and it's partially why I get ticked off about Corrin's reaction in Smash. But when removed from representation issues, I would expect people to try and be more forgiving because Corrin introduced something very interesting and unique compared to both the other FE characters and other Smash characters. Like, disjointed range, a smash attack that hurts on charge, a counter that hits both sides, a paralyzing projectile that has a melee hit, and a pin move which no other character has to his degree. All in one character.

Byleth, while by no means wholly derivative, just... doesn't seem to offer as much in my eyes. Slightly more disjoints, aerials which are similar to other characters, a committal neutral special, a side special which is a Smash attack by a different name, a down special which is a weapon based-Falcon Punch, and an up special which, while functioning very differently from Joker's, still looks similar. The Final Smash is probably the worst example of a cutscene Final Smash (and I like those!), the Classic route is a "Lol look how many FE characters there are" joke, and... he has some cool alt costumes, except for the ones that only change the hair.

I would think that because Corrin ultimately offers more in establishing an identifying playstile (as well as represents dragons in FE), being technical and neutral heavy compared to Marth's finesse and Ike's power, that'd be better received than Byleth's item grab bag that sort of doesn't fit into the lore and functionally isn't that spectacular. But often, that doesn't matter in the face of "3H sold best so Byleth stays and Corrin goes."

---Marketing: What you describe here, is something I dub "The Telephone Game: FE Fates Edition." Fates marketing emphasized a choice, or rather, the choice. The Hoshido and Nohr conflict. Primarily, it was always advertised as, the story will radically change depending on which kingdom to back. The idea that it was advertised as a game filled with choices and ended up not having any, is most likely a combination of fandom ire and misremembering. It's also a petty semantics issue on my end because of my current education being an English Major, but still it matters to me that only the decision regarding Nohr and Hoshido was sold, and no other choices were promised.

---Writing: I take that as a challenge, and I will tell you that the Chapter 15 cutscene isn't bullshit. It's because of the underlying implications that the story expected you to keep track of. Since chapter 2, we see first hand that Xander and other siblings fear Garon more than they respect and trust Corrin, so the expected idea should be "this magic ball presented by a former Hoshidan hostage won't serve as definitive proof as of now (only working with Leo on BR because he was already defeated), so the only way to make the other Nohrians face the truth is to put it right in their face a la the throne. Do I like it? No, I'd rather the ball not be the thing used to reveal it to Corrin. But at that point of the story, the character reaction and interaction is consistent (at least in the JP version of the script), and Corrin does his best to mitigate the damage that Nohr does, changing the kingdom's reputation.

Takumi forgiving Corrin is also a localization exaggeration, it was much more mild and apologetic on Corrin's end in the JP script. I go into more of that stuff here. And the thing with Corrin and the canyon has gotten less and less egregious to me, given that other FE lords in the past have gone into perilous environments before simply because their companions trust them. Yeah, they weren't bottomless canyons, but this is also the same game that has a castles in land above cloud level and below ground level, as well as pocket dimensions and portal to other worlds. It's meant to serve as a "we trust you enough to follow you into peril" thematic element, not to be dwelled on its realism. And it's precisely why I don't like Byleth in comparison, because "being a good teacher for a year = I betray my home and family and am complicit in conquering them" is, to me, much worse than "After displaying good will by sparing enemies, not being antagonistic or destructive, and wanting an end to a terrible conflict, I choose to help my friend/sibling/liege on their path."

---Non-Byleth Lords: Continuing on, it's that non-active presence that makes it more apparent how Byleth's flawed in the story. Yes, the House Leaders have active roles and dynamic dialogue, but the story always, always makes sure that the praise goes to Byleth in the end. It's Byleth who gets the other Eagles to join Edelgard's conquest, it's Byleth who gets the Lions to stick together despite Dimitri's situation, and it's Byleth who gets the other Deer to unite as one despite differences. Not even implicitly, it's lines in the story that say, yes, it's chatterbox that is the primary connecting thread here. That juxtaposes with what we see in game, which is a comparatively blank character. What we're being told is at odds with what we're seeing, which is the biggest mark against a game's story for me.

---Reverse classism: I'll be honest here, I don't think most people care. If they did, than none of the house leaders would be as popular as they are, nor would Hector, Ephraim, or Sigurd for that matter.

You can have status and still be a character worthy of sympathy because of your situation. It's why main protagonists like Marth, Leif, Celica, Elincia and Sanaki are beloved. Yes, Corrin has servants and siblings, but he is, for all intents and purposes, a hostage and prisoner. Not even in the "gilded cage" way, but the literal "you're not allowed to be outside ever" way. And that background informs his perspective: living a sheltered life gives him a perspective that's seen as naive and childish, until others realize that, actually, peace isn't an impossibility and that people are no different from each other underneath it all.

Honestly, the idea that "people think Byleth is cooler than Corrin" is another part of my resentment, because it proves how surface level the one-sidedness is. "Byleth has a cool background and a cool design and a cool dad and cool powers and ugh look at how cool he is!!!" That's what strikes people when they first think about him.

But any further? Byleth's paranoid, alcoholic and neglectful father took him away from a stable life safe in a monastery because he had tinfoil conspiracy theories about Rhea; he has a connection to the god of Fodlan which give him terribly written ludonarrative time powers; and he has a sword that isn't actually all that special in gameplay beyond being 1-2 range and repairing itself despite the lore saying otherwise.

---Presentation of powers: The difference here is that the stuff you mention about Byleth is meant to be intertwined into the story, while Corrin's backstory is meant to be supplementary backstory material. The origins of Byleth, the Creator Sword, Sothis, and the Relics is all relevant to the current issues in Fodlan and must be found out in order to drive home the point that 3H tries to make regarding status, bloodlines and secrets/mysteries.

Fates plot, on the other hand, is about stopping a meaningless and seemingly endless conflict between kingdoms that have no good reason to fight anymore. Revealing who Corrin's father is, ultimately wouldn't matter, because on two of the routes Corrin can't access the Omega Yato, and the last route explains before the second trip to Valla that dragons go mad. It wouldn't be relevant, thematically it'd be hard to fit anywhere, and it wouldn't matter to Corrin as a character, nor the world of Fates as a whole. Anankos spearheading the conflict is supposed to be a nonsensical reason, he's representative of the idea "we've been fighting for so long that we don't even remember why, and it turns out the original reason is something we can work together on solving instead."

Oh, and the Yato is wielded by Corrin because all the divine weapons are inhabited by divine spirits who choose their wielders before being passed down. This is mentioned in the localized text, but the JP one makes it more obvious.

---Silent vs Speaking: Idk man, I just think it's a case where some people just need to suck it up. Corrin talks and acts, which, yeah! Good! He should! He's a participant in the story, and a major one at that. He should act on things, give his thoughts, fuck up, succeed, etc. That's an engaging protagonist. Byleth is written in a way where they're trying to have their cake and eat it too. Silent and blank enough to project onto and have the story guide them, but still the most important person in the narrative despite needing to be directed and never acting by themselves until part 1 ends.

And to me, that skews cheap.

It's 5am where I am so I'm no doubt gonna regret posting meaningless whining about my favs compared to other characters when I wake up but rn who tf cares

I'm still incensed under the surface about how Byleth gets a better reception than Corrin, and how Corrin specifically is represented in a grand scheme of the FE franchise, mostly with Heroes.

"Corrin gets positions and authority when he doesn't deserve it!" then silence for Byleth when he gets a teaching position, and later either the archbishop spot or outright becomes king of an entire continent.

"Corrin's dragon powers aren't used in the plot enough!" Byleth's powers are only ever plot device fodder, are mechanically indistinct from other FE protag powers before and after him, and have terrible ludonarrative applications.

"Too many people worship Corrin!" About 70% of the cast's morality when defecting from their home (and sometimes partaking in harming it) is dictated by Byleth having enough tea parties with them, after being enrolled in a job he wasn't qualified for

"Corrin's character and personality is bad" Byleth doesn't even have one, he's just a dialogoue choice generator

"Corrin is the worst FE rep in Smash, had the worst trailer, and is representative of FE having imbalanced representation" FE has a clone/Echo fighter problem and consolidating Roy, Lucina and Chrom into Marth as alt skins a la Bowser Jr. would auto fix that controversy given the Smash community's "if I don't see it, it doesn't exist" approach to character slots; there is no universe where a trailer showcasing one of the worst villains in 3H-and the FE series as a whole-is better than even the cringiest lines in Corrin's trailer; there is more unique properties and applications just in Corrin's side special than there is in Byleth's entire kit, which was really a mish-mash of different Smash archetypes, inlcuding ones other FE characters covered. Not to mention the fucking PNG Sothis Final Smash with the embarassing lip flaps, jesus.

Every problem that Corrin is accused of having, Byleth does it worse. Every problem that Byleth gets jabbed with, eventually gets redirected back to Corrin for "starting it."

And it's seen as justified, because why? Well, 3H is a "better" game of course! After all, it's the best selling one! If it sold that much and was so well received that means it must have done everything exponentially better than Fates did! (ignore the fact that Fates was the best selling game in the series before 3H please). Why wouldn't Byleth simply be objectively, immutably better than Corrin in every metric going by this logic?

And, like always, CYL is gonna reaffirm this again for everyone. Cuz why wouldn't Byleth get so many votes last year despite him getting a great Christmas alt just the month before? He deserves it after the female version already won after all! And why wouldn't he win this year when he's guaranteed an Emblem alt in the future, and most likely to be on one of Valentine's, Children, or Wedding banners?

It made sense for the Robins to win one after the other cuz they're cool and awesome and not weak and annoying, so it makes sense for Byleth too!

Why would Corrin get this "it's his turn treatment" when he's not a good character and the female version only won because everyone knows she's just dumb fetish bait 🤪🤪🤪/s

It's just... so infuriatingly transparent. Even Male Alear isn't hit with this quite as hard tbh, because at worst he had half the votes Female Alear did, whereas M!Corrin at best had barely over a third of F!Corrin. And that only fuels my perspective on how M!Corrin, for all his alts, always feels like his presence is treated compulsory and obligated, and F!Corrin is always sold with "she's hot, who cares" in mind.

FE fans made it clear that Corrin's character was hated, so the solution became to sell the Fem one for horny whales, and have the Male one just slightly behind in numbers to keep up the illusion of fairness (while always making him inferior in gameplay).

All that just for Byleth, a non-character, to get every excuse and love from a fandom that hated Corrin for the same issues he has. Crazy.

[telesodalite]

I love the idea that, whenever a Cybertronian space-faring vessel lands or docks within a predominantly non-Cybertronian space station or port, that it's required that they either confirm or deny whether their vessel is sentient or not before being permitted to land.

1. For proper accommodation and clarification, along with the chance for communication between the vessel and crews working the station/port.

2. Because there has been... incidents... incidents that have led to the requirement of the above reasons.

[polux-aka-hyakunana]

The tragedy of having my hands full of work until at least next week and suddenly remembering how much I love and miss Lies of P while living my Geats fever because I need stalker!Riders injected on my veins to keep living

[quibbs126]

So I probably shouldn’t have been drawing these last night and this morning, considering I have schoolwork to do that’s due by tonight, and I won’t be back home until 6, but I have, so here we are

So I’m really not sure anyone remembers, considering the last time I drew them was around 2 years ago, but these guys are some of my old Evoland 2.5 (I guess) characters, specifically Juno and Jovi

They’ve been percolating around in my head for the past while, as well as these two new characters, and with my work sketches I decided to finally get around to redesigning them in full. Or at least, half up

I do feel like Juno and Jovi look the best, but that’s probably also because I’ve never drawn the other two before. I only had vague ideas for the other two. But I do like how the siblings turned out

Solus is definitely getting a redesign though

Anyways, how about I explain them to you? Since you don’t know who they are

So basically they’re supposed to be from a vague centuries later future of Evoland 2, but also not really considering time loop and all that. So the events of Evoland 2 sort of happened, but also no time travel or time loop

I’ve rewritten Juno and Jovi’s backstories multiple times, but it has now swung back around to making them Demon royalty. But I never like having Juno be the actual crown princess, so that’s what Solus is here for. Solus is the crown prince of the new Demon kingdom (it isn’t called Demonia anymore, though it is still the last name of the royal family), with his father as the king. Juno and Jovi are his cousins (Juno is the older one), with them also having royal blood as their mother was the younger sister of the current king, their uncle

The pair of them live with their uncle and cousin since their parents died when they were children. Juno is a young adult, around her 50s, Jovi a teenager in his 40s, while their cousin Solus is around his 80s or so

Oh and also by proxy of being the royal family, these guys are then Menos’ direct descendants via Reno

I have this vision of Solus wearing sunglasses, which you see here, but honestly I’m not sure if I should keep them. Maybe they’re a bit anachronistic

But the reason he wears sunglasses is that Solus is in fact blind, and he has been his entire life. He’s had to work around his blindness in some areas, like the fact that he can’t really read or write in the conventional sense, but he’s plenty capable. He also I think throws knives, which might not sound safe, but he can do it fine. He doesn’t really like people knowing he’s blind, so he doesn’t tell people, and he wears the sunglasses to avoid the problem of no direct eye contact

And then we have the last character, who I cannot for the life of me name. I just don’t really know what to call her. But she is a Troll, so for now I’m just going to call her Troll Lady

She is in fact the fiancé of Solus, and while there is political value in their marriage, they’re doing it because they want to, they are very much in love. She also runs a factory and is a good 9 feet tall or so (Solus is around 6)

To explain worldbuilding, first let’s start with the Demons. So in this world they did not die out after the Great War, managing to pull through just barely (they might have used the Magi Lab, I’m not sure). But for a time, all Demons lived in the Temple of Menos, which is also known as the Sacred Temple. Eventually their population grew large enough, as well as the Great Flood having already happened and the world settled, that the Demons came back down to the surface and started living in the remains of the old kingdom Demonia, though some chose to stay in the Temple instead. The Demons basically live in a giant tower below the Temple (considering they used to all live in the same building anyways), at the top of which they can access the Temple. Some have moved outwards into the rest of the world, or just more space in the old country, but most live in the Tower

To be honest I haven’t really decided what their culture is like, between the Past/Present Demons, the Temple of Menos Demons, and whatever might have occurred in those next centuries and how they would have evolved. But their outfits are supposed to be inspired by the Temple of Menos outfits, I know that

Moving on the the Trolls, basically my idea is that unlike the Wikings, Humans or Demons, they never really had any sort of cataclysmic event to decimate their population or set them back a lot (the Flood did have them seal up caves so they don’t die, but they were already living underground anyways), so they really flourished and evolved in the next centuries. Currently, they’re very skilled metal workers and inventors, being spearheads of what’s basically an Industrial Revolution in the world. They also don’t really kidnap people anymore, they’ve moved past those days

Though one random thing is that they still think Demons are really hot. My idea is that they’ve got particular beauty conventions, and so to them Demons are just gorgeous. It’s basically supposed to be how like in fantasy, elves (and/or vampires) are considered to be these ethereal beauties, and just naturally very attractive. That’s how the Trolls see Demons, they are their elves in that sense. I don’t know why I have that, but it is

Troll Lady wasn’t originally going to be a Troll, I think she was originally going to be from a separate group of Demons that splintered off from the main ones sometime after the Great War. But then I later thought that maybe she should be another race entirely, considering she’s supposed to be incredibly tall and everything (her two tenants were that she was 9-10 feet tall and that she wore a mask to cover her face), and I was going to make one up like Orks or something when I remembered “oh wait, the Trolls exist”. And not only that, but our encounter with them literally already had them kidnapping a Demon because they thought he was attractive, it’d be perfect to have be our new Demon prince’s fiancé. And so yeah, she’s a Troll

So now let’s talk design things, since I still want to say them. Mostly with Solus

I’m gonna be honest, at this rate I’ve forgotten that we don’t see any Demons with orange hair and that I gave Juno that hair color to be unique. But the artbook has some Demon concepts with orange hair, so I’ll take it. Same thing goes for Solus having his dark purple skin. The artbook told me these were possibilities, so I am going to run with them. We didn’t see enough Demons to know otherwise

But I also feel like Solus and Juno look too similar. Yeah, they’re cousins, but between the three of them, I feel like it’d be far more believable to assume Juno and Solus are the pair of siblings while Jovi is their cousin, when that isn’t the case (also Juno and Jovi are now bio related instead of Jovi being adopted)

Part of the issue, at least when it comes to the hair, is that Solus is supposed to have a sun motif, at least with his powers, his colors, his name and also the fact that he’s blind. So I wanted to give him orange hair, and I’m not sure any others would work (especially as I consider yellow hair to be specific to the “Super Saiyan” mode for Demons). But Juno already has orange hair, so they end up looking really similar

I suppose the best solution would be to just change Juno’s hair color, but her hair’s always been orange, it feels wrong to change that. But it gets rid of the problem, so I should. But what do I change it to then?

Also, I really don’t know their color schemes right now, at least outfit wise. I think Jovi’s looks fine, but I’m struggling with Juno’s and Solus’. I just kind of slapped stuff on

I guess what they need is more concept designs for me to flesh them out. But I don’t know how easy that’ll be

And then as for troll lady, her outfit colors are fine, but I didn’t really know what to do for her colors other than just the regular Troll colors from the cards. I mean, I guess it works, but I also feel like I should do more

I also feel like her anatomy needs work, but that’s fair enough. She’s supposed to have a different build from the Demons (and Humans) due to being a different species, but I haven’t quite fleshed out what that would entail. Or what she looks like under the mask

Maybe I should do some Troll practice later on

But I think that about covers everything, so I should stop now and go get ready for work. And I suppose in the meantime, take these

[blade-liger-4ever]

First and foremost, congratulations. You just picked a fight with a Muslim woman. Very progressive of you.

Second of all, she's my best friend. And I'm a hotblooded Catholic.

Now, about the utter and complete BS you just dropped.

Hell is indeed mentioned multiple times in the Bible, sometimes even under different synonyms, i.e. "Gehenna", "Tartarus", etc that were common in that day (especially since the Gentiles were either other Asiatics or, more commonly, Greeks and Romans, thus necessitating usage of words that would get the message across to them.) Furthermore, something Jesus often did was speak in parables to convey the message He was preaching. Do you recall the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" He would mention often in the parables, especially the ones where the servants who failed in their tasks/were ill-prepared for the feast, and thus were thrown outside as punishment and not allowed inside? Newsflash genius, that was a direct analogy to Hell. It's right there, clear as day, in the Bible. Hell was not a "concept" that was introduced in the 4th century A.D. (Anno Domini, "The Year of Our Lord", for your edification.) Additionally, Jesus literally says in the Bible that He "has come to fulfill the Law" - which, surprise, includes keeping the law against ALL gay intimacies/sex!

Also, Japan's definition of "demons" is radically different than ours. In Japan, they technically fall under the category of fae/monster, though no less dangerous. As for the polytheism of Digimon, guess what? Japan is a pagan society! Of course they're gonna have a pantheon!

But wait! There's more!

Generally, when Japan introduces a pantheon of deities, they have limits in their power, and thus are finite. God Is infinitely existing in and of Himself; no one and nothing came before Him, nor will anyone or anything come after Him. All of creation - even fictional "deities" that, logically speaking, would have had life breathed into them like He breathed life into Man, often appear in such stories as guardians of a sort for the fictional world the author has created - owes their existence to God.

As for "making life/man is god" - do you not recall Frankenstein? Stories like this are about the hubris of man and how pride causes our downfall. Turn on Fullmetal Alchemist sometime; you might actually learn something from it.

You wanna bring religion into this? Then actually study the Faith - and I mean the real one: the Catholic Faith.

Don't come at me parroting what your sex ed teachers screamed religion/Christianity was about, or anything those backwards Protestants rave to the skies claiming as the truth.

Remember, my Faith stretches back two thousand years to Jesus' birth and ministry onward, with the Jewish religion being my religious inheritance as well. Everyone else in the West can only trace their religious heritage to the fat alcoholic that was Martin Luthor from five centuries ago.

I'm done with you and after this. You're not worth my time.

Digimon fans, where you at?

Hey Digimon fans, where are you all at? I feel our fandom has died - especially with fanfic writers and readers and even people who want to discuss it anymore. Like I'm a fanfic writer who knows her writing is not terrible, it's good enough that when I wrote a Harry Potter fanfic, people are constantly reviewing and favouriting it. I've already got 5 reviews on a single chapter.

So Digimon fans, why have you let our fandom die? Our show is so well written for its time.

Where are you guys?

Whether you ship Taiora and Takari or Sorato and Daikari, it doesn't matter because at the end of the day, we both love Digimon. If you agree and wish to connect or if you just agree with this post, send through some likes so I know you lot are alive out there.

Only don't send me a like if you ship gay. Digimon is my childhood and I don't want that tainted like everything else is nowadays. I've seen every season but Ghost Game and the 2020 reboot (because 01 was better and didn't need a reboot) but I'm happy if you would like to ramble about it. I'm also not a huge fan of Tri.

[scarlettfevor]

Finally got ahold of the audiobook of Penance by Eliza Clark and I have mixed emotions about it. On one hand I love the premise and I feel like it's written well enough to where I feel like the author isn't going to clumsily stumble through her own story and fall on her face at the end like the majority of popular thrillers. But also this story suffers from having someone who hasn't been in school for a long time attempting to write teenagers. The funny thing is that whenever I see a horrible portrayal of teenagers, specifically of zoomers its never like, inaccurate portrayals of slang and trends that most teenagers cringe at, it's extremely unnatural dialogue that I don't understand how even a 30 or 40 year old can't see how awkward and cringe and flat out bad of a portrayal they're doing. You can claim that it's regional differences, even if we were all teenagers once I still don't know what it's like to be a popular mean British girl, but I'm fairly certain that actual popular mean British girls don't go around describing themselves as popular mean girls. The funny thing is that they've mentioned several times that these girls (ok it was actually like one girl but she introduced too many characters and I got confused so I can't even remember the name of the girl who said it) are trying to imitate the mean girls in popular American shows/movies. But I think that it's SO funny how instead of going for the obvious Regina George or maybe the more posh Blair Waldorf, they chose Sharpay Evans....I'm very familiar with the popular mean girl trope because I always love the girls who fall into this category and I can say with 100% certainty that none of these girls act like this either. I don't know what the author is going for but it's very painful to listen to.

[rosehippiefield]

Have been watching some "if I guess your fandom you're out" shorts on YouTube and I wanted to be out but alas. Yttd not mentioned. At least for now

[blondeaxolotl]

I just remembered that Clayton, Maurice, and Doll are the (so far) confirmed Mid-Fours (Basically the Phantom Five but Lizzie lol), does that mean we'll get to see them dance and sing and be smexy/cute!?

YEAH, just like in canon Lizzy makes them start a boy band (technically not a "boy" band since Doll is in it, but a band either way), but also Edward and Finny are also included in the band!! (since Edward is just swapped with Clayton, and Finny is swapped with Soma, meaning he's in the band instead of Soma)

[tophats-tea]

NEW DGNG LOG LETS FUCKING GO 🔥🔥🔥

I always get so excited over these. There’s so much put into them I never get sick of it. The design’s an utter banger as usual. Her outfit’s so well-coordinated it feels nice just looking at it. One of the first characters to have dyed hair, which looks amazing on her. I love the curls. The whole character concept of a waitress on skates’s something I haven’t actually had the chance to see much of before, so that’s nice. There’s so much things packed here and a lot of new things being tried out in terms of formatting and easter eggs too.

Okay, starting off, checking out the usual stuff, she’s around the average age compared to the character so far, a bit shorter than Asaro technically because of skates, but nothing too much to look at. Like Chika, her weight is unknown, and her chest size just…isn’t there? I won’t think too hard about that, but given we have two characters with unknown weights now, we could draw some conclusions based on how these are measured. Maybe something like them specifically not wanting to talk about it (similar to Julien’s dislikes being unknown), or then genuinely not knowing (similar to half of Rosie’s info being unknown). Neither of these possibilities hold too much importance, so I’ll just move on. She likes roller skating (obviously) and rosie, which is the fourth time another character was mentioned in the likes/dislikes section (first/second being the yoko sisters with each other, and the third being chika with nishimura in the dislike section; interestingly enough, the same doesn’t apply for nishimura/naruko, nor julipoppi). This puts an emphasis even further towards her relationship(?) with Rosie, which’ll be fun to dissect, especially during the episodes themselves. Her dislike of arrogance and authority might place her in an interesting position against hiriro, but well have to see how that develops if at all. The highlighted iority is genuinely fascinating to me but I have no fucking idea what it means T-T. Iority itself isn’t a word, nor a name. It’s definitely not a cipher, and nothing turns up for Google translate. I’m starting to wonder if naruko just genuinely ran out of ink and I’ve overthinking everything but who in their right mind writes the letter H in that stroke order ‘-‘.

I wonder if it’s canon that each of the logs are written with a different colour, since that’d mean Naruko might’ve used the pink pen for something else. If it isn’t though, then yea. That’s that.

Going to the quote, it’s all a bit wavy, but relatively easy enough to read, and it confirms that Naruko really does just write down things she hears other people say or directly asks them for something interesting to write down as their quote. Could explain why Rosie doesn’t have a quote, since she very clearly felt bad for her and likely didn’t get to ask/felt comfortable writing anything she heard down. The “the slower I go, the faster my thoughts catch up” could be hinting towards some kind of guilt from the past or even just general nervousness about the killing game, and it’s right before she ends the quote and says bye to naruko, so that’s something to consider. Her shadow shows what I assume is likely a highway/road, with splatters of blood at the top and bottom, even going out of the border. A bloody handprint is right behind her head too. Considering every shadow so far was based on certain character themes or at the very least their talents, I doubt it means nothing. It’s probably part of some kind of backstory, and given all the text about Anton (I only noticed the top 2 lines a second go. I almost assumed AntonAntonAntonAntonAnton was the only text), it likely involves him. Thinking about the handprint specifically, you could draw multiple different conclusion. If it’s literal, it likely means someone or another got injured enough to bleed an entire hand full of blood, likely through a car accident. My first thought somehow was Mikazuki, considering her connection to Anton, but looking closer, her hands themselves are almost definitely working fine, just heavily accessorized, unlike her cheeks. The next, and probably most likely connection, is Kellen. Her right hand’s a fairly big part of her mystery for now, and low and behold, the bloody handprint’s of a right hand. The chances of Anton being important because he was a good person drops every log. Rosie remembers him specifically, with no other information beyond that. Mikazuki’s hidden quotes beg him not to leave her. And Leiko’s directly says he was no best friend, possibly realised after somehow breaking Kellen’s hand and running away with Leiko fast enough for neither of them to remember her face. Maybe. That could explain Kellen’s burns too, almost all of which are on her right side. Then again, if we take the bloody handprint metaphorically…I don’t know, Mikazuki’s quote was “Don’t leave me”. Maybe Leiko committed vehicular manslaughter, killed Rosie’s lover/family member/doctor/idk, and erased her memory out of guilt, so that explains her quote and why she’s so attached to Rosie and why each of her lines talking about Anton is in past tense. Who knows.

That aside, moving onto her actual log description, the first bits mostly filler. Her need to go fast, and her spatial awareness, and her balance/mobility, could make for a victim or blackened with an interesting timeframe for a murder, or a possible witness other blackeneds would be keen to keep an eye out for. If she’s the mastermind (which she’s genuinely a decent candidate for as of now), it makes for an interesting chapter 5/6 case provided someone gets framed. It’s interesting enough to take note of. Apparently Naruko‘s also seen a picture of her before the game. I mentioned how it could be a photo she carries with her or one Leiko found in her room, but now that I think about it, considering she’s an ultimate, it’s not too unlikely that Naruko’d see her on a newspaper or a social media post or somewhere else. The tense even seems to suggest so too. Moving down to Rosie, I’m starting to wonder about the exact cause of her amnesia. Obviously it could be something like blunt force trauma or dementia(?), but I’ve been having a slight theory going on where she only lost her memory upon joining the game. That’s a simple enough possibility to justify, given how every Danganronpa game, and subsequent fangans, keep their casts deprived of a few years or so of memories, and with Kyomi/Hajime/Rantaro, can even target specific memories to erase. What happened with Rosie could be a simple mistake, but at the same time an intentional choice, either because she had a real talent too difficult to manage in the killing game (she’s technically the usual ultimate ??? after all, just hidden from the fact because of nishimura’s gifted ultimate amnesiac title), she knew something about the killing game that’d be troublesome, or if her real personality with all her memories and possible trauma intact would cause trouble. It could just simply be done out of sadism too, if she’s something like an Ultimate Hope that the mastermind wants to see struggle and break. Whatever the case, the fact that Leiko seems to have known her from before the killing game, and what happened with Rosie’s considered a loss, it’s not a stretch to think her condition’s caused specifically by the people running the killing game. That aside, Naruko’s suggestion of Leiko mistaking Rosie for someone else does put the Rosie/Anton twin paralleling Nishimura/Naruko theory on the table, though it doesn’t make sense since 1.Opposite genders (Anton has confirmed pronouns now) 2.I don’t particularly think Leiko would still be fond of Anton, and 3.Mikazuki’d probably recognize him, or even someone who looks exactly like him but a girl. Anyway, their dynamic’ll be fun to watch develop.

I think that’s about it for now. Until the next log comes out. This ended up like two times the length of the JuliPoppi fanfic I wrote the other day what the hell. I’ll reread this later and find a hundred different grammar mistakes probably.

Log #11: Leiko Terakado, Ultimate Waitress

[arolesbianism]

Sigh. Nikola why must you be one of the more interesting oni characters. I don't wanna think abt you with your stupid spiky blond hair and your unethical science that mostly just serves to make Jackie more shitty by proxy. But I do. Because you're kind of orbo blorbo. Fuck you Nikola I hope you explode again

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

Technically, You Started It

YA contemporary romance told entirely through texts, about two classmates who connect through a class project and quickly develop a digital friendship, not knowing that she’s mixed up him with his cousin of the same name

bi boy x demi girl

[fennthetalkingdog]

It's Gendering Time Baby (aka Fenn's weird thoughts about his gender in essay form)

Okay, so it's really late at night while I'm writing this (not the same time that I'll post probably) but my brain's going on a spiral tangent thing so I wanna go down it while I can. So I'm prolly gonna ramble, I apologize in advance.

So anyway, I feel like my relationship with my gender is... unique? I don't know, I see a lot of people talk about how they feel like a man or woman or nonbinary person, or how they feel like nothing or something neutral or "just themselves" but from what I've heard the latter usually call themselves agender or neutrois or something like that. If I had to pick one, I legitimately don't know what I'd say. I know your experience as a kid isn't the end-all-be-all for your identity, but I tend to look back at mine a lot to make sure I'm not adopting a label that doesn't represent me at all—but when I was a kid, I had no conceptualization of gender. It just wasn't something I noticed. Hell, I noticed differences in height more than I noticed differences in gender at the time. If you asked kid me, they'd probably just say, "Huh? What do you mean? How can you feel like a gender??" So that's not particularly helpful.

I didn't really start noticing gender until I learned that trans people existed (high school; had Christian parents and was overall pretty sheltered). And I only really learned about it in the context of "some people feel so strongly about gender that they wish to transition." So of course little me, who barely noticed gender at all, thought that they must be a demigirl because they were born a girl but didn't really feel anything. (I know now that's not what "demigirl" necessarily stands for lol but give lil me a break.) But their parents rejected them and of course, since they now had no other way to express this potential side of them, little me went exploring more. They found labels like "agender" and "neutrois" that seemed to fit their experience so much better, and so the demigirl label was dropped. But it still didn't feel like them, and they still don't feel like me.

You see, my gender is a pretty complicated thing that I like to ignore most of the time. But there was one time I tried to give a friend a metaphor to describe it, and that's the best thing I've got even now so here it is. I have a slightly interesting physical problem when whenever I strain my shoulders too much, the skin on my back becomes really sensitive and if I move in the slightest, it feels like my shoulder blades will break through my skin (consequence of carrying too heavy bookbags in grade school). But sometimes I can feel it starting to get bad because it feels like a hole is forming between my shoulder blades, like a cavern, where muscles that should be chill and calm feel almost like they're being sliced. (I promise this isn't a medical problem.) And my gender almost feels like that cave: a wide, open space lined with smooth, water-worn stone and closed to the open air, with a massive lake at the bottom and a single stalactite hanging from the ceiling. Water occasionally drips down from the stalactite and into the lake, and that's my gender, except the lake feels like nothing and my gender is diluted once it hits the surface of Me. I have a gender, maybe, but it's in parts per million instead of wholes.

So I'm basically agender, right? Or I'm some sublabel like libramasculine if my gender feels important to me still, but problem solved, right? Well, those labels technically fit from a technical perspective, but they still feel wrong. I may not have a gender, or at least a strong one, in the sense of having strong preferences about how I'm treated or seen, but at the same time I do? But it comes more in the form of likes and dislikes. I like being seen as a masculine (gender-wise) person over a feminine (gender-wise) person. I like being seen as a feminine as fuck (presentation-wise) dude instead of as a girl who doesn't care for themself. These feel like they come more from my personality than from a gender, so my gender is still technically nothing, but it still feels wrong to label myself as agender or something similar when I have such notable feelings about the matter.

So what do I do instead? Well, I play gender, like how a toddler "plays" as an animal or how a kid "plays" as a character from their favorite TV show. Everything I perform is still me—it's my desires, dislikes, and personality—but I get to be a boy thing instead of what people wanted me to be. If my birth gender is old and crusty and doesn't fit, then I get to choose something cooler, a new role I can play. The difference doesn't really matter on a day-to-day basis, does it? No one can tell if I knew since birth or if I'm faking it or if I'm somewhere in between, so what does it matter? What I know for sure is what I want to do with my body: I want to lop off my boobs and I maybe want to take testosterone. And I like being a boy in a dress. So, technically I don't really feel a gender? But I still don't identify with agender or any of the adjacent "lack at least some gender" labels because it feels weird trying to put a label on something that isn't there. I just call myself a transmasc nonbinary boy/man and move on with my life, because if I stop and think about it I'll confuse myself all over again.

[luvsavos]

Hey, it’s the Aiden anon again! I’m sorry bro, but I don’t have Discord, but I’m STILL SUPER interested on your thoughts on Aiden. PLEASE I’m begging you Mr. Martin, I need a MASSIVE text post from you about him. And honestly it’s for my friend too. Aiden is her babygirl. She has been in love/loved him since 4U and we both are always so excited to see him.

oh hello again!! it's no worries that you don't have discord, i definitely do Not at ALL mind going on a ramble about my boy, though i absolutely apologize in advance for the length of this post LMAO

for the most part until after the events of iceborne, my interpretation of him is fairly close to canon, though there is Some differences or original things here and there so disclaimer in advance since i'm maintagging this for canon divergence, this is my own little au that i am completely normal and not at all insane about; all of the stuff post-fatalis is based on rps with a friend so there's a Lot

if you/whoever's reading this just want my general Thoughts on aiden as a character and not my whole batshit insane au lore stuff, that'll be at the bottom of the post! (sorry)

when he was a kid, he was pretty carefree as you'd expect, he loved to help out around the village when he wasn't off playing with the other kids or his little sister (i don't think we ever got anything about his bio family in canon so this was entirely just me making things up LMAO). when the elder dragon activity caused the monster stampede that destroyed his village when he was only 7, he tried desperately to save people (specifically his sister) but, of course, failed, and i BELIEVE i'd headcanoned that he watched At Least One of his family members actively get gored/trampled by some monsters?

obviously the entire experience left him with a fear of monsterkind, and even into adulthood it still weighs heavily on him and likely occasionally causes nightmares and the likes. running blindly from the stampede with absolutely no sense of direction nor semblance of anything to help him survive in the wilderness, it's a miracle that he came across timben when he did, and naturally the people there took him in. though still weighed down by his trauma, aiden did his best to be as helpful around the village as possible, and he quickly became popular among the villagers for his willingness and readiness to help out wherever he could, and for his cheerful, outgoing personality. eventually, he decided he was tired of being frightened of monsters, so he took to studying them and making puns of their names as a way to cope and make himself less afraid of them. all this is pretty much just canon so far, from the legends of the guild movie (save for the parts about his old village, other than the stampede thing; i think that's the only real details we get about his home village?)

and then, of course, when he was fifteen (this isn't his canon age, i don't entirely know how old he's supposed to be in lotg? i THINK 17-18 but cmon he gives me the vibes of Unmedicated Adhd Teenager. fun fact julius is only 4 years older than aiden so that makes him 19 in this so that doesn't make a ton of sense but its fine i can ignore that, bro's already stressed himself to the point of white hair LMAO i think i'd make him a bit older than that though, maybe in his mid-late twenties?) came the elder crossing, and with it came julius, to warn timben of an oncoming lunastra that was headed in their direction. honestly idk why i'm recapping this canon stuff but listen i love talking about aiden okay ahdnsbfjgn

since the villagers refused to budge, aiden accompanied julius to go see the elder dragon for himself so that he can tell the villagers so they'll evacuate, and of course imprinted onto julius like an orphaned (ha bad joke) duckling along the way

don't need to recap all of lotg since it all plays out the same way; he admired everyone that helped try to fight off the lunastra, but he particularly looked up to mae like an older sister (this would later lead him to naming a kinsect paisley in honour of her's), and he still in present-day keeps her journal. the entire experience was... rough on him. he didn't feel any sense of victory, just a sort of hollowness and guilt---he blamed himself for mae and ravi's deaths, considering it was his impulsive suggestion to fight the lunastra rather than run that got them killed. it also left him with a permanent terror of lunastra specifically (this will come into relevance somewhat a bit later), and it solidified his resolve to become a proper hunter, so that he could learn how to properly fight monsters and protect people like he wanted to, and ensure nothing like that would happen again.

now here's where we start to get a Liddol Bit of canon divergence; anyone who's talked to me about my au knows that i REALLY like the idea of the guild being not as clean and morally sound as they like to seem---i really like exploring the concept of corruption within it, and the shady practices they keep under wraps. after all, power tends to breed corruption, and even if it's run by wyverians and Is primarily dedicated to genuinely trying to preserve the balance, the guild IS an incredibly powerful and influential organization (if not the single most powerful/influential one in the mh universe), and that's likely going to inevitably attract people who don't exactly have the best intentions in mind.

so! the guild. guild knights. we know that the knights are sent out to deal with poachers and the likes via apprehending them and/or killing them. that already means that, more than likely, our sweet boy aiden has human blood on his hands. so why not delve into that? aiden tended to prefer to stick to just helping protect and maintain the safety of places rather than do the whole Killing People thing, as i don't doubt that the concept of taking another human/wyverian/etc life upsets him. HOWEVER. early on into his days as a knight, he was sent out with a group of unfamiliar knights to deal with a velocidrome that was "causing problems" in a small village. the problems? it had been injured, and an old woman that lived some distance away from the village had taken it back to her house and nursed it back to health, and it chose to simply Stay, and that made the villagers uneasy. honestly, it wasn't really causing any genuine issues---it was just existing and choosing to stay with the person that had saved its life. the orders were clear cut: deal with "the problem" by any means necessary. aiden was gentler than the others (who were far more shady and... much less well-intentioned than him), but the woman was resolute in that she wouldn't let them kill the drome. so, as a "rite of passage," so to speak, the other guild knights forced aiden to kill not only the velocidrome, but the old woman as well. Guild Trauma, Babey!

the experience left a lasting mark on him, and he never told julius or the other ace hunters what exactly happened, but they could all tell that Something had based on how quiet and somber he was for several days after the incident. that was the first human life he took, and while he's undoubtedly had to kill poachers and other people who genuinely Were in the wrong, knowing that he has innocent blood on his hands has remained with him even long after he left the guild to join with the research commission. i'm nice to my faves i swear (<- lying)

so! fast forward to the commission, since there's not much else of importance for his guild days (yet, once i play 4u/gu this might change). this is where things really start to get divergent as they involve my ocs so buckle up lads we're going on An Adventure™️

like i said, really things are Mostly the same until post-iceborne; rather than a proper hunter, my player character oc is a "rider" that was raised by an anjanath so rather than kill all the monsters (though he doesn't have much issue with doing so) in the story some were simply communicated with and/or relocated if necessary, ie the agitated pukei, vaal hazak ("without a vaal hazak the entire rotten vale ecosystem would collapse!" [kills vaal hazak anyways] thank you monster hunter very cool!)

aiden takes a liking to the field team leader (achilles, as my friend i rp with named him<3) and they grow closer throughout base world, enough so that aiden ends up his second-in-command in seliana (this appears to be canon? idk he can be seen giving out more direct orders during the defense of seliana quest while ftl gives out generalized ones and theyre Always Seen Together except for in One (1) cutscene, post-velkhana death (i'm normal about them i promise) and theyre both at the council table right next to each other.....), things are Nice, everything's Great

and then Fatalis Happens. canonly, as i recall, aiden Nearly Died because of fatalis. like. lea/serious handler talks about how if he'd died she doesn't know how she would've kept going, aiden talks about how thinking about julius and ftl gave him the strength and willpower to keep fighting (totally normal bro things to say just guys being dudes am i right) and Not Die, it's a whole Thing. so my interpretation of aiden has a TON of absolutely AWFUL burn scars across the right side of his body from that. they're obviously nowhere near as bad as they COULD be, since i'm assuming he had some fire res on his build (that feels weird to say when not talking about gameplay), but they're still Bad because. well. fatalis LMAO

fast forward an indeterminate amount of time (i don't think my friend and i ever decided on how far after fatalis our stuff is💀) and everything's Great. here's where the balls to the wall canon divergence starts btw! shang, my "rider" oc, has helped people learn that some monsters can be reasoned with, and the monsters he's befriended are allowed about the base and the reach as they please (even if some AHEM VUGEL (my bastard of an ebony odogaron) COUGH are an absolute hindrance on purpose). aiden and ftl have gotten together by this point. shang's taken in a lot of orphaned monsters, one of which is a little lunastra that he's named chang'e, that seems to sense aiden's unease and tries to capitalize on it, but shang (halfheartedly) tries to hold the young elder dragon back from doing so.

one particularly notable monster around base is a gold-crown sized namielle, "nami," who's pretty much adopted shang. she's warm, motherly, and after the initial unease of having An Entire Elder Dragon around wore off she quickly became a familiar and welcomed face. another is the mountain god, shara ishvalda themself, having chosen to try to aid the commission as a way to "apologize" for the damage and chaos their presence in the everstream caused. nami's presence attracts a tall, foreboding man, with white hair and a beard, scars across his face, a permanent resting glare, and piercing golden eyes---he speaks very little, and when he does it's in a low mutter, and he seems to be observing the people of seliana. his presence is dread-inducing and sparks much unease, but nami is ecstatic to see him, stating he is an old friend who she hasn't seen in ages. for some time, things continue normally---until an argument between shara and nami breaks out, and the imposing stranger reveals his true nature as a dire miralis-sized white fatalis; the destroyer moon, alaakiilah, he who wiped out the ancients in a single night, in order to get the pair to cease their bickering.

aiden ends up being absolutely fascinated by al---sure, he's scared shitless of fatalis, but all the same... a fatalis, there, IN seliana, the fatalis of legend, and he's... not attacking them. granted, it's because he knows nami is fond of the mortals there, and he begrudgingly promised her that he wouldn't do anything to them, but still. the moon god is begrudgingly tolerant of aiden, and eventually achilles as well, as the pair typically don't stray far from one another (unless they Do, but that's not relevant right now), and eventually, through sheer persistence in his fascination, aiden (and achilles) are allowed the one single highest honour one can have: the permission to touch alaakiilah's beard. much as he might disdain to admit it, al ends up being genuinely, albeit begrudgingly, fond of aiden, and aiden's all but dadopted him (he's collecting white haired father figures, isn't he?). this comes into more relevance later.

after some time, al comes across an abandoned fatalis egg (i have my own whole Thing on fatalis eggs and reproduction in general but that's its own post LOL), which he brought back to the supply cache (after achilles offered to let him nest there with the egg) to incubate, and after a day, it hatches, into a tiny, defenseless, harmless baby female fatalis, which namielle names yunhind---that translating to "new hope," in honour of how no fatalis in recorded history has ever been raised in proximity to mortals before, and the destroyer moon's decision to trust in the commission to not fuck things up. the little one immediately takes a liking to aiden, and though he's more than a little nervous at first at the prospect of babysitting the destroyer of humanity's adopted child, he quickly becomes more confident in it as she grows and he becomes more attached to her---it makes him think back to his younger sister, and his inability to protect her, and he's determined to make sure absolutely nothing happens to yunhind.

there's a whole Thing that happens with the guild, having learned of the abundance of monsters around seliana, threatening achilles to try and pressure him into killing and/or relocating them all to "protect the people," then taking matters into their own hands when he refuses---this entire debacle (affectionately dubbed The Guild Arc, Part One) leaves aiden shaken up as it confirms a lot of his fears and doubts that have been building under the surface for years on end now.

fatalis mature quickly, even when naturally hatched, and within a few months, yunhind is a fully grown and wholly unique fatalis, dubbed an "ashen fatalis" due to adapting to her surroundings and taking on the properties of ice element as well as fire (they're interchangeable, though her ability to use both at once is somewhat limited), and the unique ability to transfer energy to heal others, and her scales being an ashy grey colour. she spends most of her time in her human form, and she views aiden like an older brother. things settle back down around base, and everything is okay again.

until it's not, of course<3

achilles goes missing, which stresses aiden out, naturally--and then vodrem happens, because nothing good lasts forever. well, vodrem happens Again, but i hadn't started rping aiden by the first time, so uhhh. idk he was on a vacation in the old world i guess?? that was an entire Year before the second Vodrem Event

now, dear reader, you're probably wondering, "martin who the fuck is vodrem", which is a VERY good question! vodrem is my nonfandom/multiverse god of chaos oc, who's part of his own little original oc bubble, though they're all based on monhun monsters; vodrem in particular is based on nergigante and morodumunto, though he usually takes the form of a not-quite-right nergigante

he makes a habit of consuming entire universes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and psychologically tormenting people just for the hell of its. he's power hungry, immensely dangerous, and cunning.

in his wake, he leaves "instabilities"; where the very fabric of reality itself gets fucked up, and these can have a variety of effects on anything that enter the area, but the most common has been people getting turned into monsters. the five were INCREDIBLY meticulous about mending any left behind after the first vodrem event, and they made absolutely certain to mend them all.

but a new one appeared. one which aiden wandered into---the change wasn't instantaneous, it started with just feeling sick and feverish, with heat specifically concentrated in his chest, to the point that it would get unbearable and he'd have to lay in the snow just for some relief, and finding his temper to be increasingly short and explosive. then came the headaches and soreness of the throat, and tiny black scales forming across his skin. then the desire to find some small space outdoors, perhaps a cave or the likes, though he ended up seeking comfort (ironically) in the destroyer moon's presence. i'm sure you can see where this is going, yes?

of all the monsters in the world, it had to be a fatalis. because of course it would be. as you'd expect, this caused him an IMMENSE amount of distress on top of the distress he already had from achilles' absence. for some time, there were no other signs of vodrem, and yunhind and al (mostly yunhind) helped aiden learn How To Fatalis.

and then all hell broke lose, as it does with vodrem. he claimed to have killed achilles, and though aiden had been trying his absolute damndest to suppress the fatalis rage and instincts, he let them overtake him---he went after vodrem, intending to unleash an ocean of flame upon him... didn't SUCCEED, all he got was speared through the lung and his back torn into by vodrem, the wounds afflicted with what was dubbed as "tarblight"; a corrosive, highly painful substance that vodrem secrets that seems to only be able to be cured by vodrem himself or his much more well-intentioned brother, vodinok. for the rest of the fight, aiden was simply unconscious, so he doesn't have much relevance for the rest of it. as i recall, one of the five managed to transform him back into a human, and vodinok cured the tarblight while yunhind healed his wounds.

unfortunately for my poor darling aiden, the form of the fatalis is not one so easily controlled, and so despite the five's best efforts, that part of him never really left---strong negative emotions still cause spontaneous transformations, and he's typically very skittish and nervous in this form because of how hard it is to suppress the fatalis instincts. the transformations take a LOT of energy out of him too, and while he CAN force a transformation back, that takes even more energy, so he's usually just kinda Stuck like that for a few days, which he usually spends hunkered in the supply cache, because for as good as he's gotten at maintaining his usual demeanor, the innate rage and violent instincts are always just a breath away from the surface, bubbling and boiling, like a pot of water just seconds away from boiling over. Not at All a fun experience for him!

after this the Guild Arc Part 2 happens, with aiden traveling to the old world with al to retrieve achilles from the corrupt and shady part of the guild who'd come to seliana in the first place; that's a whole Thing in of itself as well, and aiden ends up having to take a few more lives, though the guilt and emotions of, well. Everything, really, don't set in until after its all said and done, considering this entire thing takes place only maybe a few days after the vodrem event, if i recall correctly, so aiden's still more than a little out of it, and the dissonance of everything that happened there only made him even More out of it.

aaaaand i Think that's It? i don't believe i've had him be involved in any major plot stuff since then (aside from the temporary vampire event that was for halloween), so he's finally gotten to have the break that he oh so DESPERATELY needs and deserves... for now! i would like to involve him with more things again in the future (i never did get to write out a storyline where he briefly looses himself to the fatalis instincts---even just using the elemental abilities tend to have that effect on him, so using too MUCH would be Bad---and has to be brought back down from them...), so who knows! maybe he'll end up Going Through It a little bit more, as a Treat<3 the amount of suffering i put my faves through is proportional to how much i like them☺

now then! for my thoughts on aiden as a character; i love him. he's a sweet, caring and well-intentioned person, and i see a lot of myself in him (namely with the Incredibly Obvious adhd). it makes me happy to see a character like him (again, adhd) not treated like the butt of a joke, and instead be shown to actually be incredibly competent and important to the commission. i really hope we see him again in another game in the future, even if it's just as a cameo (he and the field team leader WERE planning to take that vacation to the old world so aiden could introduce ftl to julius........) and nothing else. of all the wonderful characters mh has to offer, i think aiden is by far my favourite i am so incredibly normal about him (this is by far the longest ramble post i have ever made LMAO) and he is just. absolutely Wonderful. my darling beloved my son my everything etc etc. i hope that if he does come back in a future game, if he's Not Just a cameo, we get to do another hunt properly with him; fatalis was obviously the testing grounds for the npc followers in sunbreak, so i'd love to get to do a proper hunt with him now that that's A Thing, if they choose to keep it going forward (and i don't see why they wouldn't, given the positive reception it got). i think that the duality of him being so bubbly, positive and outgoing even despite everything he's been through is interesting, and i find the concept of exploring that trauma to be fascinating because, let's be real, poor guy has definitely been through some shit. NORMALLY if my faves don't have a backstory i come up with one for them but i didn't even Have To give him a traumatic backstory capcom did that for me LMFAO

anyways. thank u for the ask nonnie i am SO incredibly sorry for the length of this post the tism took the wheel, i know i went on a few tangents that weren't that related but ahdkdhfjd i just have A Lot of lore for my au and aiden's been involved in a fair bit of it

[pathologicalreid]

for the fear of falling apart | part one

after hearing her gunpoint confession, your sister pressures you into airing your grievances at Rossi's wedding

part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | epilogue

series masterlist

who? spencer reid x jareau!reader category: angst content warnings: takes place following/during 14x15 "truth or dare", fem!reader, established relationship, mentions roslyn, unresolved conflict, a lot of insecurity, cm violence, i think everyone has a fault in this word count: 2.47k a/n: so this idea popped into my head. i think the concept of spencer dating jj's younger sister is insane and i love it. i hope you like it as well. (i want to write a part two so bad i hate leaving things unresolved). also this is not jj hate that's my girl i loved her even before i loved spencer!!!!

“Please, can you just hear me out?” Your sister pleaded, keeping her voice low so you didn’t take any attention off of the bride and groom.

Bringing your glass to your lips, you shrugged, “I’m not sure this is the right place, Jennifer,” you murmured, looking across the room at your brother-in-law, “I think Will’s looking for you.”

She brushed off your dismissal, “I’ll go over once we figure this out. Let’s go out to the courtyard and talk.”

JJ reached out and gently gripped your elbow, trying to guide you through the French doors of the wedding venue, but you yanked your arm away, crossing your arms in front of your stomach. “It’s rude to leave now, this is a wedding, we’re guests here,” you scolded her, focusing your eyes forward. The ceremony was over, and everyone was mingling, but you refused to be the first to leave. Besides, going home would mean needing to face Spencer – another discussion you didn’t have the energy for.

You knew she hated leaving things unfinished. The both of you could feel the rift between you growing as if the earth was physically shifting beneath your feet. “It would just be for a second,” she urged.

Swallowing thickly, you shook your head, “It’s fifteen years of dirty laundry, Jayg. It’s going to take more than a second to air it out.” You frowned into your newly emptied glass before hauling yourself over to the bar, grateful that she didn’t follow, “Can you make me one of the pink glittery drinks?”

Penelope, the honorary bartender for the evening, nodded reassuringly, taking an already-made beverage from the counter and sliding it over to you, “You look like you could use it,” she observed.

You sighed in concurrence, “You have no idea,” you mumbled as you brought the glass to your lips. The drink itself was a bit of an abomination, so strong that it burnt your nostrils as it went down, “God, that’s strong.”

The technical analyst just laughed, making her way back to the dance floor to meet up with Luke and Matt. Your gaze flickered over other members of the team until you were met with familiar brown eyes.

There had been a ball of dread forming in your stomach ever since you returned from Los Angeles. From where you were standing now, the cut on your boyfriend’s hand that you had preoccupied yourself with seemed inconsequential. You watched him now, in real-time as he glanced between you and your sister, picking up on the tension as you avoided her.

Someone was bound to snap.

Walking away from the bar, you went out into the hallway, finding the nearest door and practically throwing yourself outside. Pulling your hair off the back of your neck with your free hand, you sat down on a moss-covered bench in the courtyard and waited for the cold night air to cool you off.

As expected, you heard the door behind you click. You couldn’t be bothered to look at who it was, if it was important to them, they’d come to you. Sure enough, you remained focused on your drink as Spencer took a seat on the bench next to you, “Aren’t you cold?”

“Alcohol,” you mumbled, “Keeps me warm.”

Not exactly the answer he was going for, but he took it at face value. He was probably more comfortable in his suit than you were in your dress. “Are you feeling alright?”

You thought about lying to him. Telling him that you were just tired, it had been a long week of watching your sister and boyfriend being held hostage in a pawn shop and hunting Everett Lynch on top of your normal caseload, but the thought of holding up that lie just made you feel worse. Taking a large sip of your drink, you took a deep breath before speaking, “Garcia recovered the audio from the CCTV footage inside of the pawn shop. Emily asked me to review the tapes and let her know if I thought there was anything pertinent that should be added to the case files.”

He didn’t respond for a while, knowing exactly what you were getting at but not sure how to further the conversation, “And did you?”

You lifted your glass again, “There wasn’t anything in the tapes that was necessary for the case. I buried the audio files and transcripts and sealed the file.”

“Thank you,” he said, relief evident in his tone.

You, however, frowned at his response, “’Thank you’?” You repeated, an accusation in your voice, “I was scared shitless while the two of you were in there, and all the while my sister was confessing her love for you.”

Spencer was quiet again, rendered speechless by your words. Your description was accurate, if not blunt.

You sniffled, setting your glass down and wrapping your arms around yourself, “I have never felt more humiliated, and no one else can ever know why.” You traced the cobblestones on the ground with your eyes as thoughts continued racing through your head. “God, is this why she pushed us together?”

The door behind you clicked again and you stiffened, closing your eyes when you heard JJ coming out into the courtyard, “Ducky, we need to talk.”

“Don’t fucking call me that,” you snapped at her, standing up and glaring at her. Your childhood nickname rang through your ears. A term of endearment given to you by your oldest sister now grated on your heart, shredding through each chamber. “I do not need to do anything,” you told her, narrowing your gaze.

Tears pricked your eyes, Please, JJ, just give me time to think. I just need a minute. Not everything has to be solved right away.

You were too proud to say the words aloud, but you thought it. You wanted to beg her for time. You wanted to plead with your sister for just a little bit of time to think things through.

She held her hands up in surrender, “I needed to tell Pinkner something that would satisfy him. You know the profile; you know what would’ve happened if I didn’t.”

Yes, and the image of both of them being held at gunpoint would haunt you for years to come, but that still didn’t justify any of it, not to you. Finishing off your drink, you set the crystal glass on the cobblestone bench and faced your sister, “Jennifer,” you said sharply, “Truth or dare?”

Her blue eyes widened as she looked between you and Spencer, who was wisely keeping his mouth shut, “Truth,” she answered, her voice so quiet you could barely hear it.

“Did you mean it?” You asked, the first of your tears finally flooding over your lash line.

You gripped the fabric of your dress in your hands as you waited for her answer, “Yes,” she told you.

Covering your face with your hands, you sighed deeply into them, “Fuck,” you cried. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” you echoed. None of this made sense to you, JJ was married. JJ and Will were the kind of couple that you could look at and you would know that they belonged together, but now she was saying she had been in love with Spencer this whole time.

White hot tears stung the cold skin on your cheeks as you looked back up at your sister, waiting for her to say something else. “We went on an almost date years ago and nothing else ever came of it. Life just went on moving and we…” Her voice trailed off, either unable to finish her thought or unwilling to share.

“You’re married, JJ,” you said desperately, looking at her and wondering if she had told Will where she was going. “Does Will know? Did you tell him you’ve been stringing him along? Thirteen years in and two kids later?”

She faltered for a moment, and you knew you had hit your mark – it made you sick to your stomach. “No, I love him. I love my boys, you know that.”

You nodded numbly, “Yeah, I do, but I can’t keep going if you’re always going to be longing for what might’ve been.”

“You’re drunk and you don’t know what you’re talking about,” she accused, tapping her right foot anxiously.

JJ might’ve grown up in Roslyn’s shadow, but you grew up in hers. Captain of the varsity soccer team, full-ride athletic scholarship at Pitt, and grad school at Georgetown. All leading up to her joining the bureau at twenty-three. You followed her, believing anywhere was better than Pennsylvania, and this is what it had gotten you. It was exhausting, being the one pushing the boulder up the hill, your hands were scraped, and she couldn’t see it.

Deftly, you wiped at the tears beneath your eyes, “I know exactly what I’m saying. Please, can you try and just look at this from my point of view? My big sister, who I’ve looked up to for my whole life, confessed her feelings for my boyfriend. My boyfriend who she set me up with.” Realization dawned on you, turning to face Spencer, “You were in love with her, and… I’m…” your voice trailed off.

Matching your train of thought, Spencer shook his head, reaching a hand out for yours, but you pulled away from him, “No, honey, please. It’s not like that.”

“You couldn’t have her, and I’m just the next best thing,” you told him miserably. “She met Will and got pregnant and got married and you were so in love with her that you took the off-brand version just to have something.”

Spencer shushed you, watching as tears fell from your cheeks, “I’m with you because I love you, not because of anything else.”

Your chest ached, it felt like someone had thrust their hand in the cavity and was squeezing as tightly as they could. You wanted to believe him. You so, so badly wanted to believe him. “Tell me,” you prompted, “tell me I’m not your second choice.”

“You are not my second choice,” he told you, and you watched. You watched for his tells, any sign at all that he was lying.

You shook your head at him, “Why did you lie to me? About the football game,” you asked him, a semi-permanent frown staying on your face.

He furrowed his brows and stood up in front of you, rubbing your arms up and down to keep you warm, “I didn’t lie to you.”

“You didn’t tell me. Neither of you did. That’s lying by omission, and you both know it,” you said, stepping away from him hesitantly. You didn’t know what to trust; you didn’t know what was real.

Spencer looked back at your sister, but she looked frozen, “It wasn’t a date,” he said simply. “I… I intended for it to be a date, but JJ invited Penelope and that was the end of it. I took it as her not being interested and that’s the truth. Nothing else ever happened between the two of us.”

You watched your sister, her mouth opening and closing as she scrounged for the right thing to say. “I said what I had to in order to survive,” she defended.

Sucking on your back molars, you shrugged helplessly in response, “I know,” you admitted. “I know that you probably planned on taking your truth to the grave with you, but… it’s out, Jayg.”

“I can explain everything to you,” she offered, “Please let me explain, Ducky.”

The desperation in her voice chiseled at your resolve, but it wasn’t enough. “I don’t have it in me,” you admitted. “I’m fresh out of fight and I just wanna go home,” you told her, looking at Spencer who nodded, heading back inside to gather your things.

You sat back down on the bench, propping your chin up on your hand.

“I couldn’t think of anything else to say,” she tried again, her voice gruff from holding back tears.

Shaking your head, you closed your eyes and breathed in the cold winter air, “I don’t really care, JJ. You said it, I heard it, and now you have to deal with it.”

She cleared her throat, “I would deal with it now, but you’re being petulant.”

Looking up at her, you frowned, “I told you inside that I didn’t want to talk about this here. You came outside. You sought me out to talk. Now you’re mad that I’m not being nice about it?” Something new bubbled in your stomach, the pit that had been forming there quickly evolved into anger.

“I was trying to save lives,” she tried again, insisting she was right.

You could live with her being right on that front. She was saving lives, and she needed a truth potent enough to sway the UnSub, but in all of her explanations, she never once apologized about this curveball. “I live with Spencer. I… when I give gifts, they’re signed from the both of us,” you told her. “Sometimes when we can’t sleep at night, we come up with baby names, and you’re in love with him. I asked for time, and you couldn’t give it to me. So, this is what you get.”

With Spencer reappearing at the door, you made your way out of the courtyard, he draped your coat over your shoulders, and you wrapped the wool around yourself as you made your way out. “I told Rossi and Krystall that you were tired, but I think they might have taken it as you had too much to drink,” he explained, opening the passenger side door for the car for you to get in.

A small smile tugged at your throat, “I don’t really care.” Maybe if you had gotten that drunk, your chest wouldn’t hurt so much.

The rest of the ride home was silent, small flurries started floating from the sky, and you watched the way they danced in the streetlights. Once you were home, you got ready for bed, grabbing a pillow off of your bed, and turning to the door, “Where are you going?” Spencer asked, returning from brushing his teeth.

“I’m gonna sleep on the couch,” you told him softly, looking at the pillow that you were clutching in your arms.

He faltered for a moment, obviously taken aback by your decision, “Can we talk tomorrow?”

You frowned, letting your eyes lift to his, when it was dark, his eyes took on a certain kind of melancholia. It hurt to look at tonight. “Sure,” you offered weakly, turning around and heading for the couch.

“Are we gonna be okay?” He asked, fear creeping into his voice. Fear of losing you.

Glancing back at him as you lobbed the pillow on the couch, you gave him a gentle smile, “Yeah, Spence, we’ll figure it out. Just not tonight, okay?”