#I'll compile all of them in their own separate post later

[rosemaidenvixen]

Announcing this year's Halloween special,

New England 1624

Life in the small settlement of Arcadia is harsh, especially so for the midwife's son and the girl with a Catholic background. The land is wild and strange and the rules of their town strict, but they find comfort and strength in each other, carving out a means of living by any way they can.

Then the man most well known in the colonies for his ability to root out witchcraft and devilry travels to Arcadia. And when a series of misfortunes strike, putting the very survival of the town at stake, he's quick to offer an explanation.

A witch.

Tensions run high and accusations are on everyone's lips. It isn't long until all the town is on the hunt for a witch, leaving the two outcasts to use every bit of their wits and wiles to try and keep themselves and their loved ones safe.

But the witch hunters are ruthless, determined to purge the evil from Arcadia by any means necessary. And in their fanatical quest to eradicate evil, these witch hunters may create the very thing they seek to destroy.

Coming to Ao3 and tumblr October 1st.

Witch Hunter

[noneorother]

The grand unified theory of Good Omens S2, Hangs on a double meaning - Answering why .5 + .5 = 25 lazerii *The end?*

Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4 l Part 5 l The end?

Welcome to the end of the Bonkers Meta Series featuring your favourite Art Director/Clue detective. This is it! I'm going to wrap up this series as well as I can with what I think really happened, the final 15 and why Crowley says the things he says. Meta, Spoilers, Beware! All that. “Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don't let you go around again until you get it right.” 

If you've read my Metatron post you'll know that I thought there were *at least* two time loops with tweaks to achieve different outcomes, seeing as we seemed to be presented with two versions of events a lot of the time, two similar lines of dialogue, double meanings for lines etc etc. If you want a really good recap of a lot of the Clues that have already been compiled already you can go through them here. Yesterday I added my own : The columns in front of the bookshop get stained by a demon, and the stain stays and goes. But why do we care?

Here's my final thesis using the context I'll put together below :

The Metatron is changing the past and the present on earth using the book of life. He's forced a time loop of the last few days at least 50 times over a period of (realtime) months to get the outcome he wants : the separation of Aziraphale and Crowley to allow him to complete the second coming. It only worked once. Let me explain.

1) Not time skips, but stitched loops

My theory about the columns goes like this : a demon touches the right column in the attack on the bookshop, and dirties it. The problem is, in every episode we get multiple versions of the column that are dirtier or cleaner. Why? Because a demon has been touching that column in *more or less* the same place and getting it dirty over time, but the effects on the bookshop only layer every loop and reset, instead of being erased. The layering aspect is super important and I'll get back to it. For now, if we take it that the column gets dirtier over many loops, we now know what we are seeing : a bunch of different time loops stitched together to create a sense of time moving forward in a way that we can understand the story, but that skip forward and backward through the loops. Cleaner column = earlier loop. Here's discussion about clock hands if you want evidence, some even saying the hour hand seems to be going backwards in the first episode or the last, or even that the minute and hour hands must be backwards to make sense. If we think of time skipping ever forward and actions getting deleted (as some have said), then clocks going backwards makes no sense. But if we think about it as a time loop where things and actions are ever being tweaked and changed, then OF COURSE the times won't make sense anymore. People don't show up at the same time if they don't do the same thing they did before. The biggest time discrepancies I've seen in a single scene are A) Crowley's phone and watch being an hour apart in S2E1 and B) Inside the bookshop between Gabriel's fly flashback in S2E6 and him and Beez holding hands, there's an hour difference on the clock. I think that by the time we get to very late loops, some things are happening up to an hour later in the day. A simple example we are shown up top is the Eccles cakes. They are there in the first part of S2E1, but then they are no longer there somewhere along the way. In the first loop we see an ordering action/receiving Eccles cakes action, which takes *longer* than just not doing that and going straight to the shop, so that loop will be slightly later. It gets infinitely more complicated the more loops you are looking at, and we have at least 50 of them. How do I know that?

2) A 25 lazerii miracle

If we know that effects on the bookshop are cumulative and don't reset (because columns), then let's try this idea on for size : Aziraphale and Crowley have been performing the same half miracles on the same spot for 50+* loops, and each times they are layering and getting stronger. .5 demon + .5 angel = .5 angelic miracle x 50*ish loops = 25 lazerii miracle goes off in heaven on the latest loop. Shax then confronts Crowley in his car about a mighty miracle, so we're in a loop here where we've layered quite a lot, but not the last loop because he still has the original glasses/ *but also* Crowley's sideburns are long. Compare it to the scene directly after, and how sunny and bright it is. We're in a later loop and and earlier loop simultaneously.

3) Crowley's been testing So I've been searching for a *reason* that Crowley wears a turtleneck in S2E2 and thren new glasses and changes sideburns, and he seems to be up to some pretty crafty spy stuff, seeing as 1) he seems thrilled by it, and 2) he won't shut up about it (How will our hero cope? Jane Austen, nasty piece of work, master spy) There's also this Clue :

Crowley has a secret, as we know everyone with their hands deliberately in their pocket does in the series. I think Crowley knows before Aziraphale that something is wrong, because he's getting little snippets of memory and feeling, and so he's going off to try and change things about himself, the Bentley and the shop to remind himself in the next loop and leave himself clues or change outcomes if he fails to escape. In the early loops it seems like a fun spy mission, but by the end he's pretty tired and jaded that he doesn't seem to be making any headway on his own.

It *also* explains him throwing books and canapés on the floor in the bookshop to see if it changes in other versions. The problem being that Gabriel keeps cleaning everything up and reorganizing the titles to Crowley can't tell if it's his system or not. (lolsob)

It makes this line seem like he can't fit the loop pieces together anymore, and is trying to make headway without any information, rather than a pre-fall reference.

And this line probably much later in the loops (New sunglasses, long sideburns) :

Okay so! To recap : Everyone gets reset every time, and they make different choices because of past and present edits. But, most heavenly and hellish things don't obey earth laws, and therefore things like miracles start layering, and memories start seeping through the loops. (Point 4 is optional but absolutely hilarious, so I'd like to think it's worth speculating about)

4. The flaw in The Metatron's plan

There's a huge flaw in The Metatron's plan however, and it's that Heaven and Hell don't work like earth does. He's spent so many loops trying to get the result he wants, that he doesn't know that something crazy is *also* happening in hell. Every loop, Shax is emptying out the legions of demons until they barely have enough low level lackeys to go up at all. Hell is understaffed because no new people come into hell in the loop from earth, and they're sending all the demons that aren't subject to the reset into battle. This isn't a negotiation, it's a montage.

So the attack on the bookshop isn't one attack, but waves, and the waves get less powerful each loop. Stitched loops would also explain why Shax now hands Crowley his mail again in the last attack after *just* handing it to him on the park bench, like, 4 days ago in an earlier loop.

I don't have evidence for this directly, but if The Metatron put Maggie together with Nina successfully only in the last few loops, then she's fighting in the bookshop only a few times, and doesn't invite the demons in any other times, which might be why the only evidence is the column, and not books being ruined. But, it might also explain why the demon Eric gets discorporated a bunch of times in a row, he's doing it later and later in each loop. (These are kind of contradictory thoughts, I know.)

5. Aziraphale realizes too late. When I wrote part 4 of this series I was pretty awed by the fact that Aziraphale managed to figure out the Metatron was rewriting things after only hearing him say ONE LINE of dialogue. However after more thought, I think that he's been getting close to the truth a bunch of times by communicating with Crowley in previous loops. In each successive loop he tells Crowley later and later, and it's been getting them reset as punishment each time they figure it out together. By the end they barely communicate at all, because they can feel the danger. Watch his reaction here, in what we can assume is a *very late or last loop (because of the time on the clock)*

He stops himself from interrupting and telling Crowley something important he's just realized : that he's seen Gabriel and Beez get together before. "I know what this means..." 6. Saraqael is helping both sides without them knowing We see Saraquael helping Crowley immediately with the trial when she finds him in heaven. Why would she help Crowley without having ever met him before as a demon? The exchange of "Crowley I remember you, we worked on the Hosehead nebula together" and "I meet a lot of people, (*he doesn't say* I don't remember you)" is a code. They are both trying to communicate what they remember like spies on a bench in St.James park. Who recognizes who, who's trying to stop this madness. Maybe once Crowley gets to heaven this time he's seen multiple trials with multiple endings, and Saraquael has seen them too, I don't really know. BUT she's also communicating with Aziraphale at one point. Look at Saraqael in this scene again about the 25 lazerii miracle. She *remembers the book slap* and then the *looks* at Aziraphale in regards to Gabriel.

Yeah Gabriel, IT NEVER F*&?%ING WORKS IN ANY LOOP SO STOP DOING IT. - Saraquel, probably. Are Saraqael and Aziraphale testing later/earlier in the loops as well? Is this when the miracle was weaker? Who knows! 7. The Metatron job offer was many, many offers

It's really hard to tell with all the pieces of the puzzle moving around, but I think I can count 7 job refusal loops by Aziraphale in the last fifteen minutes. Here's a summary 1) Chinwag with Crowley in the room 2) We should go for a walk instead, here's a coffee 3) You don't have to answer immediately 4) Go tell you friend the good news (This is the important one), it's the last one where he tries to convince Crowley to come with him 5) I need to take care of my bookshop 6) The Metatron puts Muriel in charge of the bookshop, but Aziraphale wants to take something with him 7) Aziraphale straight up runs out to Crowley with "I think I-" 4, again) The Metatron takes him out of the bookshop. "Ready to start"?

Trying to screenshot all that would be insane, so just go rewatch it with all this in mind, and look at how the lighting changes inside of the bookshop and the jump cuts to different angles, and how his face resets every time. It's HEARTBREAKING. 8. The argument

I'm so blown away by the acting and writing (as well as the art direction) in this show, and it all comes to a head in the final argument. Many important lines have double meanings in series 2, because everyone is trying to speak in secret code to not get caught. Especially in the final loops.

In the last loops, we have an Aziraphale who is moving ever closer towards accepting the Metatron's offer, with the straw that broke the camel's back being he could restore Crowley as an angel**/save him; and Crowley who is moving ever farther away, by having to hide all of his Clue gathering, and confiding less and less to Aziraphale in each loop.

Check out the double meanings going on in this whole exchange if you consider that they are trying to save each other using secret codes neither one of them can hear. It's so shattering. Especially when you consider they've probably made it to this argument at least twice, and Crowley convinced him the first time. Why do I say that, you ask? 9. No Nightingales

Because I think Crowley remembers a loop where A Nightingale Sang was playing when they kissed, and Aziraphael didn't leave, but he knows they aren't in that version anymore. 10) I'm a demon, I lied. I'll probably post more abut the secondary characters because Shax, Furfur, Michael, Uriel and Nina etc all have roles to play, but for now, this is it.

----------------------------------------- Thanks so much for reading the gigantic post. If you disagree with my thoughts, or think this is terribly wrong, that's totally fine! I won't be offended. Without a real season 3, everything is just ether. Fingers crossed. I'd also like to thank The Ineffable Detective Agency, @embracing-the-ineffable, @cobragardens, @indigovigilance, @yowlthinks and more for inspiring me and feeding my brain with posts. *Loop numbers could actually be 25+ if you think that .5 demon mircales + .5 angelic miracles pour register as 1 whole miracle in heaven, I just didn't want to go into that in the main review. **The Metatron's meddling in the past seems to me trying very much to highlight to Aziraphale how *good* and righteous Crowley is, despite being a demon, in order to convince Aziraphale that joining him in heaven is a real possibility, and he should push for it.

[thequeenofthestorm]

How to Use D&D to Make Elden Bling

Part Two is out now! Read it here!

Introduction

So, I'm sure that my post title doesn't make too much sense, but let me explain myself. So, in D&D there are 12 different types of armor. Three of them are light, five of them are medium, and four of them are heavy. These armor types (plus one more for unarmored) can be used to categorize all Elden Ring clothing and armor, which is what I've used in the past to help me make better fashion. Now, this doesn't fully correlate with weight, although there is a pretty decent trend with heavier kinds of D&D armor being heavier in Elden Ring. Elden Ring has its own separations of armor categories, which I've decided to label as unarmored, robes, ultra light, very light, light, light medium, medium, heavy, very heavy, ultra heavy, and oversized. These are all fairly explanatory, and I mainly bring them up here for categorization purposes later on.

What Are the D&D Armor Types?

Alright, so now that we've talked about the categories, what are each of the D&D armor classes? What do they look like? What is used to distinguish it from other armor types? WHAT THE HELL IS SPLINT? Etc. etc. We'll go over them from lightest to heaviest below.

Padded

Padded is the lightest of the twelve armor types: just featuring layers of quilted cloth. This is primarily known as gambeson, and almost looks like a quilt version of one of those blanket hoodies when thick enough. It will keep you alive more than clothing, but not much more. Arrows will still tear through, as well as things like spears of just a sharp sword if the armor is thin enough.

Leather

The armor of rogues and other edgy folk everywhere: this is one of the more popular kinds of armor in D&D. It's just some simple boiled leather, typically fastened into a breastplate. According to roll20, aside from the breastplate the rest of the armor tends to be made of more flexible materials, which can be kind of true, but there's probably a little more than that: with maybe some greaves or forearm protection. Of course, most of your joints are likely going to have fairly breathable materials so that you can move, but you'd be able to get away with the same amount of leather that you would steel on, say, half plate (which I'll get into later)

Studded Leather

Ok so like apparently this armor never really existed, which I'm not super surprised about. Like, it's just leather with metal studs to help with sturdiness. Not gonna bother talking much about this one

Hide

Ok so we're now in the medium armors. I'll be honest, this feels like it should be under the light armors, but fur and animal hide is heavy so whatever. But yeah, it's armor made by thick animal furs and pelts. Think the kind of stuff that barbarians wear.

Chain Shirt

Made from interlocking rings, it's just chainmail in shirt form. None or only very little of the arm or leg protection, just the torso.

Scale Mail

You take a fish and make it into armor. I kid, but that's what it looks like. You take a bunch of metal scales and overlap them on each other. This set tends to mainly just be a coat with maybe greaves, according to roll20.

Breastplate

A breastplate, cuirass, or whatever you want to call it is very simple: a sheet of metal to cover your torso, with not much else. It's usually not JUST the torso covering (also known as the cuirass), and it may have some pauldrons and tassets, but not much else.

Half Plate

This is, in my opinion, the most confusing type of armor. According to roll20, it's interlocking plates that cover most of the wearers body, but with only simple greaves. That sounds simple on paper, but it always just sounded too much like plate, until I got this description from online. I unfortunately don't remember where this was, but half plate was described as a "best hits" compilation of full plate armor, which makes sense. Simple shin or thigh protection, a full breastplate with elbow and knee plates, and leather or possibly steel gauntlets.

Ring Mail

If you've ever played Skyrim: this is what the executioner in Helgen wears. It's a suit of cloth or leather that has rings put on top to help shake off sword or axe blows. It's inferior to chainmail armor (and hell probably half plate as well) but it's not bad. I feel like this should be the heaviest medium set instead of half plate, and that half plate should be the lightest heavy set, but I'm not from WotC and don't have some large following so my opinion doesn't matter much lol.

Chain Mail

Remember that chain shirt of interlocking metal rings we talked about earlier? Yeah, now make it into a full set of armor. Think the crusaders and a lighter armored paladin (as the heavier ones tend to go for plate). Some historical vikings wore chainmail as well!

Splint

Splint is probably the second weirdest armor behind half plate, but it's not super weird to visualize. Take long steel strips and bolt them on top of leather armor. Some types of splint could be brigandine or lamellar armor. I also think of roman legionnaire armor as a lighter form of splint

Plate

Alright, the heaviest suit of armor, and is by far the easiest to visualize as it's so damn customizable. It's the knight in shining armor archetype, the tin man made into armor, etc. etc. Paladins wear it. Fighters wear it. Plate armor is wonderful. You can wear robes over it or even other light armor as long as it's not gonna make you boil in the weather! Also, roll20 states that the boots are normally leather, but it kind of depends tbh. I typically think of plated sabatons, but shorter leather boots work well too!

Which Elden Ring Armor is Which?

So now that we have a basic understanding of each type of armor, we can now sort the Elden Ring armors into each of these thirteen types of clothing (the twelve types + unarmored). This isn't going to be going over non-set armor, as I'll be honest there is enough armor to go through already. Next to each armor set, I will also show the Elden Ring weight class. This can help if you, say, want to put together a heavy set of leather armor, or if you want to take pieces of plate armor that may be lighter in order to cut down on weight (because the plate armor can get quite light in some cases). I'll stop rambling and just show each armor class now lol. I was going to add images, but I've run out of images I can put on here lol.

Unarmored

Clothing, Most Mage Robes, Lightly Armored Sets with No Fitting Category, ETC.

Alberich's - Robes

Aristocrat - Unarmored

Astrologer - Robes

Azur's Glintstone - Robes

Battlemage - Robes

Bloodsoaked - Unarmored

Blue Festive - Unarmored

Champion (Kind of - It just doesn't have enough armor to go anywhere) - Light

Commoner's - Unarmored

Consort's - Ultra Light

Duelist - Light

Errant Sorcerer - Robe

Festive - Unarmored

Fia's - Robes

Finger Maiden - Robes

House Marais - Very Light

Godskin Apostle - Ultra Light

Goldmask's - Robes

Guardian Garb - Unarmored

Guilty - Unarmored

High Page - Unarmored

Juvenile Scholar - Robes

Lazuli Sorcerer - Robes

Lusat's - Robes

Malenia's - Medium

Mushroom - Unarmored

Noble's - Very Light

Old Aristocrat - Set

Page - Unarmored

Perfumer - Ultra Light

Preceptor's - Robes

Prisoner - Unarmored

Prophet - Robes

Queen of the Full Moon - Robes

Raya Lucarian Sorcerer - Robes

Ronin's - Medium

Rotten Duelist - Light

Ruler's - Ultra Light

Sage - Robes

Sanguine Noble - Ultra Light

Snow Witch - Robes

Spellblade - Robes

Traveler's - Unarmored

Traveling Maiden - Robes

War Surgeon - Very Light

Ansbach's - Ultra Light

Ascetics - Light

Dancer's - Very Light

Dane's - Robes

High Priest - Robes

Hornsent - Unarmored

Thiollier's - Very Light

Padded

Gambeson and Particularly Thick Cloth

Depraved Perfumer - Ultra Light

Godrick Foot Soldier - Light

Haligtree Foot Soldier - Light

Highwayman - Light

Godskin Noble - Ultra Light

Leyndell Foot Soldier - Light

Mausoleum Foot Soldier - Light

Omenkiller - Very Light

Perfumer Traveler's - Ultra Light

Radahn Foot Soldier - Light

Raya Lucarian Foot Soldier - Light

Common Soldier - Light

Shadow Militiaman - Light

Leather

Armor Made Of... Leather...

Bandit - Very Light

Blue Cloth - Very Light

Confessor - Very Light

Leather - Very Light

Raptor's - Very Light

Highland Warrior - Light

Studded Leather

Leather Armor With Those Tiny LEGO Bricks

Vulgar Militia - Light

Yes, that is it. The Nox sets MAY fit here, but they look more like a brass-tinted metal than leather to me. You can get away with them, though

Hide

Armor Made of Thick Animal Furs and Pelts

Fur - Ultra Light

Shaman - Ultra Light

Iron Rivet (Look I just wanted a third set here, ok?) - Light

Chain Shirt

Shirt Made of Interlocking Rings

Albinauric - Light Medium (Not confirmed as I have the game closed while writing this and isn't considered a set in my full item checklist apparently)

Drake Knight - Very Heavy (Could also go under chainmail or half plate)

Godrick Soldier - Light Medium

Haligtree Soldier - Light Medium

Leyndell Soldier - Light Medium

Mausoleum Soldier - Light Medium

Nomadic Merchant's - Very Light

Radahn Soldier - Light Medium

Raya Lucarian Soldier - Light Medium

Messmer Soldier - Light Medium

Scale Mail

Armor of Metal "Fish Scales"

Black Knife - Medium

Exile - Medium

Iron - Medium

Kaiden - Medium

Night Maiden - Light

Nox Monk - Light

Nox Swordstress - Light

Messmer's - Medium

Breastplate

A Fitted Metal Chestplate, Without Much Extra Protection

Eccentric - Medium

Elden Lord - Medium

Marionette Soldier - Medium

Zamor - Medium

Divine Beast - Heavy

Divine Bird - Heavy

Freyja's - Medium

Gravebird - Very Light

Igon's - Light

Half Plate

The "Greatest Hits" of the Superior Plate Armor. High Torso Protection with Moderate Limb Protection

Blackflame Monk - Medium

Blaidd's - Very Heavy

Bloodhound Knight - Heavy

Carian Knight - Heavy

Fire Monk - Medium

General Radahn - Ultra Heavy

Raging Wolf - Very Heavy

Scaled - Ultra Heavy

Death Knight (Can work with chainmail as well) - Heavy

Horned Warrior - Heavy

Oathseeker Knight - Very Heavy

Young Lion's - Ultra Heavy

Ring Mail

There's no ring mail sets, so I'm just gonna move on without the quick one-two sentence subtitle

Chain Mail

A Suit of Interlocking Metal Rings

Blue Silver - Medium

Briar - Very Heavy

Chain - Light Medium

Splint

Metal Strips Riveted Onto a Leather Backing

Land of Reeds - Medium

White Reed - Medium

Gaius's - Ultra Heavy

Plate

Full-Body Coverings Made with Shaped, Interlocking Metal Plates

All-Knowing - Very Heavy

Banished Knight - Ultra Heavy

Beast Champion - Ultra Heavy

Bull-Goat - Oversized

Cleanrot - Heavy

Crucible Axe - Ultra Heavy

Crucible Tree - Ultra Heavy

Cuckoo Knight - Heavy

Fingerprint - Very Heavy

Fire Prelate - Oversized

Gelmir Knight - Heavy

Godrick Knight - Heavy

Haligtree knight - Heavy

Hoslow's - Very Heavy

Knight - Heavy

Leyndell Knight - Heavy

Lionel's - Oversized

Malformed Dragon - Ultra Heavy

Maliketh's (Can fit scaled as well) - Very Heavy

Mausoleum Knight - Heavy

Night's Cavalry - Ultra Heavy

Omen - Oversized

Redmane Knight - Heavy

Royal Knight - Very Heavy

Royal Remains - Very Heavy

Tree Sentinel - Ultra Heavy

Twinned Set - Very Heavy

Vagabond Knight - Heavy

Veteran's - Ultra Heavy

Black Knight - Heavy

Fire Knight - Heavy

Night - Medium

Rakshasa - Very Heavy

Rellana's - Very Heavy

Solitude - Ultra Heavy

Verdigris - Oversized

Conclusion

Aaaaaaand that should be it! I may've forgotten a set or two since I'm writing this at 0230, but I got the majority of them done. If this post gets enough eyes on it, I want to do a follow-up post or two with what I couldn't include in this post. I want to show fashion that pertains to each of the thirteen categories, explain ways to use items in different categories to make items in different categories (for example, using a robe over plate armor pieces to make plate armor with a much lighter weight), and show every one of my current characters while explaining what armor category I think they fall into. Hopefully this was entertaining enough to read, but to be fair if you're all the way down here you (may've) read it all, so thanks! :D

Ok yeah I'm gonna go to sleep now. This has been Rachel; y'all have a night lol

[waeirfaahl]

On thin ice

In my previous posts I mentioned that every new ability, given to Aku in 5 season (and here) and in the game, simply breaks the character, the story and the universe where he exists, so the story makes no sense, 'cause all could be resolved by one sneeze. Maybe I'll make a separate compilation of them later. Now let's talk about the classic seasons. Well, in the classic seasons Aku had abilities, which walk on thin ice. I.e. they raise some questions, but don't ruin the canon, the character and the universe and the story, where he exists. I.e. unlike the crazy and imbalance abilities in 5 season and the game, these abilities (in the classic seasons) don't make the story illogical, broken and meaningless, but are pretty close to this. There're some of them.

This aspect itself is not some serious problem, but since Aku's main ability from his birth from the black lake is exactly taking form of various animals (well, he actually only mimics, but you got my point), he also can multiply himself into army, how it was demonstrated in "Birth of Evil" episodes. So, by this logic Aku can take form of swarm of wasps, flocks of starlings or even a tornado of small rubble and chop Jack into minced meat. But, I guess, these transformations spend more energy and exhaust more and faster than Aku's other exactly single forms, so that's why he doesn't use these too heavy ways of shape-shifting.

2. Banshee's cry. Yep, in the Swamp episode Aku uses this actually very useful ability only once, but this ability could save him many times, simply throwing Jack away from him onto something deadly sharp. Very weird that this ability was forgotten.

3. Telekinesis or whatever it is. Aku uses magic for moving the twig. Why he didn't use it on Jack himself or his sword? Maybe this telekinesis works only on objects, not living beings, while the sword is... the sword, but still, this ability can be useful to distract Jack or whatever.

4. Controlling the undeads (some kind of necromancy, I guess). Yes, they are very vulnerable corpses, almost dust, but as an army they can be useful for exhausting an enemy.

5. This... earth-bending, I guess. Okay, that was really cool moment, but again Aku used this awesome ability only once for some reason. After all, he could lift the ground/stone walls from both sides and crush Jack between them. Maybe his teacher was Toph Beifong herself, but Aku couldn't reach of the level of awesomeness in the earth-bending she had.

6. The ability to foresee through dreams. This moment from Warrior Woman episode actually caught me off guard. Like, maybe Aku did it unintentionally (i.e. he can't control it, it happens accidentally and instinctively), but still, he could learn to control and use it always (or maybe he mocked on Jack, so the words about foreseeing through dreams was a prank, not truth). If he can foresee important events, so... why he didn't foresee terrible 5 season and madness which happened in 5 season?

I think, after foreseeing 5 season in nightmares, Aku would open portal in time and came to kick Tartakovsky's ass for desire to make this real.

7. Teleportation. Like, he could teleport behind Jack, sudden appear and attack him, for example. But Aku apparently respects Jack (in own way).

I could add also the ability to create the form to the negative emotions (Jack's angry self in 7 episode of 1 season). But apparently Aku knew that Jack will overcome and defeat his anger and find inner piece, so there was no point to use it again. Looked more like a test or whatever.

[ac-liveblogs]

References in Penacony 2.1's Chapter Titles

I recognised a few of them as I was playing (I don't usually notice or pay attention to chapter titles, but it was hard to miss them this time around because of the character switching mechanic) and decided to compile the meanings of all the chapter titles in 2.1 and which events they specifically directly or probably reference.

This is not spoiler free.

I've probably missed something - I haven't experienced everything referenced in this patch firsthand, but a lot of the references did slide directly into my wheelhouse for once.

I'll do a separate post for Aventurine's allusions specifically; there's a lot going on with him and this post was getting long enough.

Trailblaze Mission: Cat Among Pigeons

'Cat Amongst the Pigeons' is a murder mystery written by Agatha Christie featuring famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot. The story heavily concerns the stolen gemstones at the root of the murders, which have been smuggled overseas.

The obvious connection is Aventurine's gambit with the Cornerstones and the steps he took to smuggle his own into the Dreamscape.

In the original novel, the gems were hidden in plain sight in a tennis racquet - Aventurine hid one of the Cornerstones in his care in a bag full of money to try and pull a similar trick.

Chapter 1: The Devil in Velvet

Time travel romance and murder mystery written by John Dickson Carr featuring, as expected, a deal with the devil. The protagonist later becomes known as 'The Devil in Velvet'.

Aventurine makes a deal with the devil (the IPC), becomes known by a different name and becomes a 'devil' himself - this is the chapter where the Trailblazer agrees to work with him to solve the murders on Penacony.

Chapter 2: Lost Generation

A term used to describe Americans that reached adulthood in the 1900-10s. Americans in this era lived through the end of the Industrial Revolution, WW1, the Great Depression and WW2 - allusions to this can be seen in the lore of Penacony and its founding. This generation also lived through the Roaring 20s (the Jazz Age), which contributes greatly to aspects of Penacony's aesthetic.

Also, the meteoric rise of Disney. Mickey Mouse was born in 1928 in the cartoon Steamboat Willie. Which you probably know thanks to the Public Domain Mickey Saga. Mikhail, the Father of Penacony, is... probably... a reference to Walt Disney, and Dreamville/Penacony itself is probably Space Disneyland (a world where your dreams come true!)* Also, like. Clockie and Mickey, right?

*I have not been to Disneyland, world or any Disney-associated theme park. But I'm... pretty sure that's. it.

Chapter 3: Double Indemnity

Classic film noir featuring a manipulative femme fatale and her lover, who conspire to kill her husband and collect insurance money. The plan falls apart and the two eventually turn on each other. In the novel the two die together, but in the movie adaptation the femme fatale only realises her feelings for her lover when she finds herself unable to shoot him - he kills her, instead.

This is the chapter where Aventurine and Ratio conspire to trick Sunday re; Aventurine's Cornerstone gambit. Though the two pretend to turn on each other, unlike in the movie Aventurine's scheme works out as planned.

Despite Aventurine being unsure of it earlier in the patch, Ratio confirms he does care about Aventurine's wellbeing via the note in the 'prescription' given to Aventurine later down the line.

Aventurine's personal questline, Danse Macabre, appears. There's enough going on with Aventurine's symbolism that I'll put it in a separate post.

Chapter 4: When The Sacred Ginmill Closes

Murder mystery written by Lawrence Block featuring an alcoholic detective (Matt Scudder) trying to connect the dots between a series of murders. This one seems to be a bit looser.

The Express Crew reunite with bartender and head of the Bloodhound Family, Gallagher, who will take them to a bar the next time we see them.

Welt and Acheron discuss life in Penacony, as well as Welt lore.

Black Swan talks to Mysterious Voice On the Phone and learns that Acheron 'wasn't meant to exist.'

Chapter 5: Heaven is a Place On Earth

The only connection that immediately comes to mind is the song 'Heaven is a Place on Earth' by Belinda Carlisle. I am actually unable to think of the phrase 'Heaven is a Place on Earth' without mentally putting an 'ooh' in front of it. Catchy song.

This may be a reference to Penacony seeming to be a miraculous wonderland where everything is great and everyone has a wonderful time - contrary to Acheron's accounts of what she witnessed in her travels through the Dreamscape.

Aventurine runs around throwing money at NPCs and meets up with Sparkle. A reference is made to The Statue of the Happy Prince that I will explain in another post.

Chapter 6: Why Do The Heathen Rage?

One translation of Psalm 2.1, from the Book of Psalms. Broad interpretation; 'it is impossible to undermine or escape the will of God and all attempts to do so will fail'.

E.g. the biblical Ten Plagues of Egypt (water turns to blood, plague of frogs, locusts, pestilence etc.) were a both a show of force and the ongoing consequences of the then-Pharaoh refusing to obey a direct command from God.

The Express crew questions Gallagher about the murders on Penacony, and Gallagher discusses the contentious relationship between the Family and the Watchmaker (the Father of Penacony and creator of Clockie and co.)

Bonus: all of the drinks you can make in this chapter are also references to books. The 'base' you choose determines which author you get, and the ingredients selects one of three of their books. Two of those authors are referenced elsewhere in this patch - Poe and Lawrence Block.

The Watchmaker is, quote Gallagher, "the root cause of all the anomalies in the Dreamscape", who betrayed the family and is apparently the source of the impossible deaths in Penacony. Gallagher believes the Family screwed over Mikhail, and Something Unto Death is the direct consequence.

Chapter 7: The Tell-Tale Heart

Short gothic/psychological horror written by Edgar Allen Poe. A madman recounts a murder he claims to have committed - he killed a man with unnerving eyes and hid the body beneath the floorboards in his house. Despite almost getting away with the murder, the madman is driven to confess his crime because he is haunted by the sound of the dead man's still beating heart, coming from beneath his house.

The chapter Acheron becomes playable.

A lot of attention is given to both a) Aventurine's eyes and b) Aventurine being a 'madman';

Ergo; Acheron + Aventurine (the madman) kill Aventurine (the man with the disquieting eyes/murder victim) - Acheron kills Aventurine directly, but it was a result of Aventurine's scheme that she did so. When I said I knew how Aventurine's story was going to go by this point, I wasn't kidding.

The madman in the Tell-Tale Heart can still hear the victim's heart beating beneath his floorboards; like the victim in the book, Aventurine ends up in a state of being dead but not quite.

Acheron's personal questline debuts here as well - it's called 'Good and Evil', which is the name of a philosophical text written by Frederick Nietzche that I have not read and have no plans to do so. Sorry. Aventurine had the good grace of having a lot of visual and literary allusions I'm familiar with - Acheron does not.

Chapter 8: All The Sad Tales

Doesn't seem to relate to anything, but most of this chapter's literary references are elsewhere. This is the chapter where we get a huge chunk of Aventurine's tragic backstory as he walks to his death.

The poem The Wasteland, specifically the 5th part 'What the Thunder Said', is directly quoted repeatedly throughout this chapter. I'll talk more about that in the Aventurine post.

Chapter 9: A Walk Among the Tombstones

A murder mystery by Lawrence Block featuring alcoholic detective Matt Scudder.

This chapter addresses multiple 'deaths' (tombstones) in one way or another;

Aventurine dies and meets Acheron in a place that's not quite the land of the dead, but prepares to continue his journey onward. the IPC prepares their next move following his death.

The Trailblazer reunites with the supposedly dead Firefly.

The true culprit, Gallagher, a bartender and the head of the Bloodhound Family, murders Sunday. I suppose Gallagher might be, symbolically, representative of the two things Scudder consistently has to deal with (murder and alcohol) lmao.

[doubleddenden]

With what I assume is the last dlc for SV, I thought I'd make a post for me to come back to later compiling the teams I used and other significant pokemon I've caught or used to some capacity.

I'll make a small blurb for each, including more teams under the cut

Base Violet Team:

Nyastolfo the Meowscarada, the starter. Admittedly he's not my favorite of the paldean starters, that actually goes to Skeledirge. But I wanted Ceruledge, and I wanted a colorfully diverse looking team, so I went with the weed cat. He's probably a little silly but the most dedicated pokemon.

Benji the Pawmott, who despite his size is a little powerhouse and one of my favorite pikaclones.

MickDonnaGoof (shorthand for Mickey, Donald, and Goofy) the Wugtrio, who may not really be a legitimate separate pokemon in my eyes and is more of a glorified dugtrio regional variant. But I still like her.

Caliburn the Ceruledge, the sole reason I chose Violet to begin with and has consistently been one of my favorites. She's potentially one of my strongest pokemon ever and the first I ever had change Tera Types, and the only one to do so TWICE. Fire to Ghost to take on Iron Leaves on our own, and then from Ghost to Stellar to completely ascend her.

Clodina the Clodsire, who is probably the most universally loved gen 9 pokemon for good reason. So friend shaped. Also the clean up when she was on my team.

Ceterry the Cetitan, who has the cutest encounter story. I was going to use Baxcalibur, but while in Glaseado Mountain I saw a little Cetoddle come walking up to me by itself. Didn't attack me, just smiled and danced. I didn't need to fight it at all and just tossed a ball at it, and it joined me. Probably my fondest memory of a Pokémon willingly joining my team without a battle.

Teal Mask Team

Shogun the Hisuian Typhlosion, who was caught after I finished Legends Arceus and finally got a chance to shine in Kitakami. Originally I wanted to use my Silver Typhlosion or my Hisuian Samurott from LA, but both were too high a level, so I compromised on Shogun, who was just right.

Racer the Yanmega, my first Kitakami capture within moments of arriving. A real glass cannon but a fun one, and honestly I've always wanted a reason to use one.

Fesh Pince the Poliwrath. Technically my third Poliwrath, but my first one from Fire Red is long gone and my second one is from a fan game- that's who Fesh Pince is named for, also the YouTube poop series lol. He's reliable enough

MorMarnie the Morpeko, who is probably the weakest but cutest of the teams I've put together in SV. In fact I've noticed each team has at least 1 designated cutie, so I'm okay with that.

Hollabax the Baxcalibur- admittedly I caught him in Paldea, but never got around to using him until Kitakami, where I brought him in to fix up the aesthetics of my team. If Racer is a glass cannon, Hollabax is a glass hammer, who dishes out some decent damage but goes down very quickly. Still enjoy what he adds to the team.

Yoginator the Blood Moon Ursaluna- funnily enough, Scout the Furret was in his slot before he came along. This guy's quest was really fun and amazing, and he about wiped my team before Scout saved the day. I got a funny pic of him absolutely loathing being on my team that's somewhere on my blog and it sends me every time. He kinda sucked in kitakami but got better.

Indigo Disk Team

Dojikiri the Shiny Hisuian Samurott, who was the first pokemon I successfully bred specifically to be shiny that wasn't by accident. When I found out Blueberry Academy was in Unova, I wanted to use a Unovan starter- but the problem is that I've used EVERY starter, even ones I dislike, and at the time I thought it was going to be an early pick and really didn't want to re use any of them. So with the criteria met, I bred for my favorite starter, Hisuian Samurott, the best of all worlds tbh. In battle he kinda sucked at first, which is hilarious considering how powerful his dad is (Muramasa) and his namesake being the PERFECT Japanese sword that killed Shuten Douji- but eventually he came into his own as a master of sword moves and became super reliable.

Texas PRIME the Paldean Fire Tauros. Paldea got good fire types, I've always wanted to use a Tauros, so I transferred this from Scarlet. He's reliable enough and pulled through when I needed him, but he's kind of got a Worf effect going on.

Iron Giant the Golurk. Originally I had planned to use a Rhyperior, but they fucked up Home so it would not work until the day after Indigo Disk officially dropped, and I did not want to trade, so I made use of Iron Giant and got attached. Yes he knows Fly but it's not as cool as I had hoped.

Arches the Archaludon, probably the most powerful on the team and definitely the one I relied on most. Once I got him set up with Electro Shot, he was one shotting pretty much everything. He's a bit slow but tanky.

Gelo the Reuniclus- designated cutie of the team and I'll hear no arguments. Gelo was basically Arches and Dojikiri's Rain Dancer partner for the most part, but he got a few good wins along the way. I imagine hugging it is kinda sticky.

Beakers the Toucannon- admittedly I originally thought about it only to make the aesthetics come together for the team, but I am really surprised at how good it was. Beakers is no Corviknight or Talonflame, but his Skill Link basically made him invaluable with Bullet Seed and Rock Blast. Genuinely and pleasantly surprised with him, and I imagine we use him like a Tommy gun.

Honorable mentions

Scarlet "Ash" playthrough team, no nicknames, in which I went through as if I were writing another Season with Ash as the protagonist

Violet reserves:

GarganaclBOI the shiny Garganacl

Gaga the Espathra

Tyranitron the Shiny Iron Thorns (not pictured: a non shiny Iron Thorns I also used)

Iron Jugulis (no nickname)

Emi the Tinkaton (if you're reading this, yes I did name it after you because it's so you coded)

Miraidon, no nickname but he is the best doggo

Scout the Furret (Silver 3ds transfer)

Iceslash Alolan Sandslash (used for Drayton's trial)

Dipper the Hydrapple (formerly the Dipplin I used briefly in Kitakami)

Muramasa the Hisuian Samurott (my Legends Arceus starter and brief Kitakami body gaurd, father to Dojikiri)

Ogerpon, who isn't nicknamed but we love our adoptive daughter

Tyson the Annihilape (formerly a Primeape from Leaf Green from over 15 years ago)

And of course

the Egg Hatching Team

Ditto the Japanese babymommadaddy slut

Blaze the Talonflame (original XY transfer)

And Pyro the Magmortar (original black 2 transfer)

Trying to decide my favorite of the teams I've made. It might be a tie between Kitakami and Blueberry, but I still do love Ceruledge, Clodsire, and Pawmott a bunch.

Although I bitch a lot about performance and story choices I personally disagree with or wish they would have expanded upon, one thing I love is making teams and immortalizing them for me to look back on fondly. This was probably the largest cast I've assembled in any pokemon game with fresh teams for each playthrough and dlc, backup mons, and transfers for fun.

The decision to make a new team for the dlcs was definitely a great decision, as it allowed me the opportunity to use Pokémon I never thought I'd ever really use in official capacity, such as Yanmega or Toucannon.

[tendebill]

Okay, so I just watched an OC TikTok compilation of yours (Very good content btw) and realised that there was a lot of characters I didn't know. So I'm curious, how many Ocs do you actually have? How many are actually a part of the same story? Can you list them all without making a post the length of Do you love the color of the sky?

[oc]

uh um uh ummm

first of all, thank u for watching my oc memes XD second of all... I have A FAIR AMOUNT of ocs. I think I once counted like... 50? idk if it was all of them + i havent recounted in a while : )

BUT most of them are part of the same UNIVERSE, though come from the different dimensions, most are involved in some small way in the main plot/appear in the background like once or twice. A fair amount of them have their own side stories as well that happen before or during the main plot with Ellie and Seph! A lot of them I havent touched/rebooted/reworked in YEARS so not all of them are "relevant".

A few examples: from Evoterra there is Bitzy and her group, including Hinata and Hyo, they have a story of their own that starts around chapter 4 of the main plot and ends probably after the main plot? (haven't fully fleshed it out yet)

Hinata and Hyo are ALSO involved in Maffi's (David's older sister) backstory, that happens some time BEFORE the main plot. It explains how each of them got their powers. (For additional info: Hinata is originally from Deiterra, where Angelica Emperor is from, Hyo and Maffi both come from Elterra. Both Hyo and Hinata stay in Evoterra permanently)

Then in Quaterra there is Vincent, Julia and Thomas, who have their own story that revolves around their relationship and Vincent's family history (and lots of ghosts). Julia is originally from Evoterra and first appears in chapter 4, but then her story ends up with her in Quaterra. She also works WITH Huen (against her will) at some point and around that time she's absent from Thomas' and Vince's story.

Others are Caroline and Paul in Aliterra, whose story later merges with Alex's (Alex is a villain in another side story from Aliterra, before she joins Caroline and eventually Ellie and co.). There's Phoebe who's from Evo and we meet her along with Julia, they later separate and Phoebe ends up joining Huen... Yea there's a bunch.

Honestly I could probably do an-oc-post-a-day about a random oc and it would last for a good while XD

If I end up making a list of all ocs I can remember, I'll take a screenshot and post it here lol

as always thank you for the ask and for reading my insane ramblings <33

[batman66sexyrogues]

Round 2 is in the Queue!

All right, everyone! I've got all the entries for round two ready, they're in the queue, and they'll be live on Monday. We've got nine rounds this time, and I'll get them all linked in this post as soon as they're live.

New Contestants in Round 2:

Since it was specifically requested, Riddler (Gorshin) will be get the third open slot. So in round three, that's when we'll bring in Penguin, Joker, and Catwoman (Kitt). I am still featuring her even though she won the Catwoman competition, since I need her to make an even number in round 3, but also because she should still get to have her own trivia blurbs.

Apologies in advance for the lack of new trivia on some of the entries. I overestimated how much would be available and thus I used all of it in the first round.

Again, propaganda is allowed, so have fun, go wild! Just don't harass people.

Second Chance Bracket:

At this point, I am leaning towards compiling the second chance bracket following round three. I'm going to see how many total contestants we have for this before I decide for sure how many matches and rounds that will be. Probably those rounds won't have any trivia since there likely will be more than two characters per match-up and for many of them, there's a chance I won't have anything new for them. If I do have any that didn't get used, that character's trivia will be in a separate post.

All Round 2 Matches:

[awiola]

[A joke of a] normal update, spring XXIV

Tl;dr - no progress, regress only and not even the system kind.

A bit early this time but these two weeks or so won't really make much of a difference so yeah.

Checking stuff I wrote about before... I failed the 100 days of art challenge. But I did draw the Father daki, even if at the last moment. Still no comms open but it's barely july so. Maye. We'll see.

Current game stuff

Eeeh... Idk where to start so... Impostor Syndrome hasn't really seen much progress. I wasn't joking in that tl;dr. Reason being about the same as usual + the fact I was actually busy and properly afk irl. Shocking.

I mean, pretty sure I did basically no dev for around three months already if you don't count that one day I did some programming on Enmity but it's going extremely slowly cause it's basically all committing to a very bad decision. If someone ever tells you that having a window of space that's not even rectangular in your textbox is a good idea, don't believe them and kick them away while you're at it. I knew it was a mistake from the very beginning and I'm sticking to it. At least adding transitions, drawing all the missing art etc later would be pretty fast compared. I do have lotsa materials to compile and documents to make irl but I think I'll be done by the end of july or so so the game would most likely be finished before Spooktober. I think. Maybe.

Soon after the winter update, I was told two of the games I was working on were suspended indefinitely/cancelled and thanks to the whole team for your hard work. I talked about one of them here [with Doibats] and the other one I'm pretty sure I never mentioned. I wanted to join another team, then, but life was like 'NO >:C' so I had to leave soon after orz Good thing I wasn't anyone important.

I think for now I'll just focus on finishing my other games or correcting stuff from the "24 >:C" list since a lot of that is minor enough I could do it in a day or two and just couldn't've bothered before. If I work on anything, you'd probably just see it suddenly appear on my ich profile with more info during the next update.

.

.

.

Oh, right. If anyone was curious about that otome I did basically no work on and wasn't even a part of the team but hey, promo is promo, right, it's Chromatic Agape. They made some cool design decisions so wait a bit till the end of otojam [based on what I saw about their progress, it seems highly likely they'll finish on time] and bask in its full glory. By playing. Or check out the demo now.

Pariiish noootiiiceees

So, Insect [adjacent] jam is still happening this year, just later. I don't know when, I'll make a separate post. Tentacle jam, though? Probably not. I mean, arthropods can have tentacles [I think??? Idk], too, so you can add them anyway but yeah. I want to be able to join my own jam. And there's also the fact I totally failed with making mushroom game and it's just waiting there and staring at me menacingly cause it's hidden from the public eye... So wait for the jam annoucement post. This year.

---

All that html hates me, I tell you.

Over.

[cloudsoffire]

just some classic oversharing in the form of a bullet point list

fun facts about me

when i was like 11 or something my art got featured in a cringe compilation

i was in mormon boy scouts

both of my siblings are also trans

i was so bad at school that they sent me to another one that had crisis lines on the back of our ids

my first fanfiction was either wings of fire or warrior cats

i have on three separate occasions attempted to write a fic alongside another person which intersected.

none of these fics included a single canon character

none of them were completed, but the one i was most serious about had my partner abandon their side first. i wrote 23,510 words across the original and a rewrite, as well as detailed character bios with math as to each character and their abilities. because they were all ocs. every single one.

i have tried to get into game design but always gave up to quickly. i would draw map and ui plans on schoolwork though

i have livestreamed twice. once was undertale on youtube when i was like 14, and once was little witch nobeta on twitch. the latter contained in-depth criticism of capitalism to an audience of zero. probably for the best as my laptop is trash and the recording was choppy af

in seventh grade i wrote an undertale x hunger games fanfiction as a school assignment. look idk either. i think it was my first time writing for canon characters

i also wrote warrior cats fanfic (original characters, original clans, etc.) as a school assignment but i don't think it had to be fanfiction that time.

i have an unfinished 17k word original work set in a post-climate change society where serial killers are basically celebrities.

my biggest work is a 53,729 word original story

i actually have a lot of original stuff. a fair amount of it is horror or has horror elements.

a line i wrote for a fanfic a long time ago was so visceral and graphic that to this day my older sibling refuses to read my writing. it was just a character shooting another upwards through the chin but i'll admit the way i described it was a bit much. i haven't written anything on that level since.

oh right the "all ocs" thing wasn't true for one of the warriors fics. i briefly wrote scourge because i gave him fankids. and a mate.

okay let's just go over some of my original stories

androids

lawyers

chaos dimension

magical girls but gay and also they fight god and eventually blow up the world tree and its actually a lot more convoluted than i can put succinctly.

the grim reaper retires and chooses a dead kid to take his place. more of an episodic thing.

a girl who can't feel pain

a story you can tell was written out of frustration after reading the (garbage) be more chill book. it has a high school guy that immediately gets rejected at the beginning.

angel and demon try to kill each other (mt only romance thing)

submarine goes into an underwater labyrinth and a lot of people die

literally almost all the characters in these are queer. idk anyway back to me.

my first "relationship" ended in a couple days because i thought they deserved better. she was later found out to be faking being in a band and selling other people's music and it was a whole thing. for those two reasons combined i don't really count it.

i have 4 albums of music from sonic on my phone, with album art and everything, adding up to 265 tracks. they are all ripped from youtube.

i've been sent to grippy sock jail three times, but only made to stay once. during this time i read most of the ultimate hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy.

when i was a kid i had a deviantart where i posted some of my earliest art. i had a riolu oc and constantly drew riolu and lucario. this is because i got riolu as my character in pokémon mystery dungeon 2.

i used to be known as "best sass cheld." now i am simply an uninteresting 19 y/o adult.

i own a demon horn headband

i used to use "rose" as a stand-in last name on the internet. i stopped using it as the name had too much baggage attached.

the great gatsby sucked. that's not really a fun fact but it's been a year or so and i'm still thinking about how terrible that book is.

when i was 14-ish i had a health teacher that blasted heavy metal music before class

i took a full year-long break from social media when i was 17 and a couple months into 18

i would list some stuff from deviantart but it's not really stuff i wanna share

i would also list stuff from twitter but i can't remember the vast majority of it.

i can't think of anything else but that's already a lot more than i thought i'd be able to remember

well i can think of some stuff but they're either personal or identifiable so that's that

[shamansantics]

My wheel has an option 3 and 4: YATA - grow tf up and YATA - step tf up

Because sometimes, however much we may love our friends, they are indeed the one in the wrong and like... they don't need to communicate or breakup. They need to either grow tf up and stop expecting to be pandered to or step tf up and start pulling their weight.

The difference is small but significant.

Grow tf up means stop asking people to concede ground you don't need. Stop being greedy. Stop taking help for things you should be able to do yourself.

Step tf up means being generous. It means giving the other person things they need and want. It means contributing more of *the right thing* to the relationship.

There are 7 things that people - in any kind of close relationship - either take unnecessarily or fail to give are - in no particular order - time, space/privacy, money, sex/intimacy, and the 3 labours: physical labour (like washing dishes), intellectual labour (like remembering to buy more toilet paper) and emotional labour (like asking someone about their day, paying attention to the response and replying in a way that shows you actually care as opposed to half-heartedly).

Aaaand... hmm, I'm going on a tangent. I'll make a separate post for the interactions between the 7 lands of a relationship later. Point is, relationships aren't a wishy-washy convoluted thing. They're actually a series of pretty damn simple yes-no decisions compiled.

If two people consistently avoid taking unnecessarily and make sure to give as generously as they can, the only thing that is going to break the relationship is if their interests are actually incompatible. Like, one person really wants kids and the other not at all. Or one person really wants to travel 6 months a year but the other wants a farm.

Rounding back to the original topic... taking too much or not giving enough means you're acting like an asshole. If my friend is behaving like an asshole, I will tell them that they need to apologize, stop asking for an unreasonable thing OR give the other person the reasonable thing they were asking for and change their behaviour.

Communication is for when both people are behaving reasonably yet can't seem to figure out how to tetris their resources so everyone is satisfied and breaking up is when differences are reasonable yet irreconcilable (travel vs farm) OR one person consistently acts like an asshole and unwilling to change that.

One of the most surprising things I learned is that communicating can't actually fix everything. In fact, there's a lot of things communication doesn't fix at all because talking it out only works if you're on the same wavelength but not reaching the same conclusions - like two people in the same small trying to find the Starbucks to meet up.

When you're not on the same wavelength at all... when needs aren't being met and one or both parties aren't trying to bridge the gap, they're trying to be defensive and protect themselves from damage or - worse yet - attack the other... there is no communicating because it's not an interpersonal relationship anymore. It's an inTRApersonal war played out on the battlefield of an interpersonal connection.

Often, possibly even *mostly*... people in relationships don't need to communicate. They need to do inner work, slay their demons, create inner peace, stabilize themselves and just... experience inner change so that they stop acting out their own traumas and dramas onto other people.

Communication starts when you both want the same thing and have different views on how to make it happen or when you both want to use the same method but have different expectations of what the results will be. And that is an interpersonal dynamic.

But most of relationships are actually intrapersonal, I find. And that kind of negotiation is less about choosing to use method a or b or to seek out goal a or b... and more about looking at the 7 lands of a relationship (time, space, money, intimacy and labours 3), objectively assessing weather you take or give too much, too little or just right of each in general and to a given person... then figuring out WHY you do so and creating a need mindset so that you won't anymore.

Objective assessment of too much, too little and just right is easy because there are studies that show how often people in successful relationships do X vs how often people in disaster relationships or abusive relationships do X. For example, people in successful relationships will give attention to the other when asked almost 9/10 of the time as told by a study I read the other day and will link to if anyone cares to ask. People in disaster relationships will do so 1/3 of the time.

So like, figuring out your strengths and weaknesses is as easy as compiling some stats. Figuring out what causes your strengths and weaknesses and how to change that... is a topic for another time.

Anywho. :/ Yeah.

Sometimes your friend is the asshole and they need to either grow up or step up. That was my point.

My friend: can I ask you for relationship advice?

Me: *prepares a wheel of fortune where the only two options are "communicate" and "break up"* yeah sure go ahead

[vanogla]

got any vanogla headcanons? idc if its in au or not all i know is that I Need Vanogla Content Or I'll Die.

aw fuck don’t die i need every vanogla fan alive if i want to grow my empire 

ah jeez, this list is going to be a friggin’ mess so it’ll be under a cut-

general headcanons

here’s my base for hcs when i watch their videos. please remember that these are merely headcanons and may not be true!

*Evan’s only mean to David when Tyler is around; when they’re alone they laugh literally every other sentence and make harmless jokes and its all feel good banter 👍

*they’re both awkward in public and avoid PDA; if u ask them abt their (established) relationship they’ll be very tight-lipped abt it（・θ・）

*its not a headcanon that they’re both born in the same year :) you may have noticed that i draw Evan’s height in line with David’s caterpillar eyebrows so that’s my height diff hc :D

*imo Evan never uses pet names or terms of endearments with David, he’s not comfortable with it, and the furthest he’ll go is “babe”. David comes up with the shittiest, most obnoxious nicknames for Evan as much as possible to make up for it tho, and he’s not afraid to embarrass Evan in public with them xD however the only legit terms of endearment David uses are “dear” and “darling” cuz he’s an old man at heart

*this one is a rather unpopular one but i can never see Evan casually calling daithi “David” instead of “Nogla”. I know its like a relationship milestone to call him by his first name, but i cant see it happening unless its for a joke (e.g David Blaine from one of the vids) so imo daithi will forever be “Nogla” to Evan. (However if it’s AU im completely 100% all for it yes)

*Evan isn’t as smart as David thinks he is (tbh David puts him on a pedestal), and Evan doesn’t actually think David is stupid or dim (shown when he calls David “smurt” when he gives a good idea). i fuckin love it when they discuss solutions to the game together because they’re so quiet and serious in those moments :>

*surprisingly Evan overthinks more than David does; he’s actually a doubtful guy. David’s generally more impulsive than Evan, but he can form a black-or-white opinion depending on the facts he’s given. Evan on the other hand will stay in the grey area- he’ll find some way to balance out both sides (unless it’s morally wrong then hell no- he’s def picking a side)

*idk how to explain this one but i really love the way they say each other’s names. I noticed in some videos that David will keep calling “Evan” multiple times to get his attention and same goes for Evan repeating “Nogla” a buncha times to show or tell David something- and i just find it really cute and dorky.. if i could i would compile all of these moments together (Ｔ▽Ｔ)

*just sayin’: when they call each other ‘owl’ and ‘lobster’ it sounds flirty as fuck

*this is sappy but i definitely think that Evan is 100% himself when he’s with David. With David, he doesnt have to be the coolass-motherfucker-with-awesome-one-liners, and instead he openly giggles and asks for help/affection without having to filter himself to sound cool (i think this can be seen in some of their videos as well). although he isn’t as comfortable with David when other ppl are around, when they’re on their own Evan can always count on David to be encouraging, supportive and playing along with Evan’s jokes so that’s why Evan is so comfortable with David ( ´ ▽ ` )

*fuckin hell they’ll always come back together; whether as friends or lovers they could never permanently cut each other out of their lives because their lives are so entwined with each other- David having Evan in his thumbnails/in the title, Evan laughing at David’s shenanigans are the highlight of his videos- and no matter how harsh they seem with each other they’ll always bounce back in the end :’)

*i think that they have a closer relationship than casual viewers of the crew think, and so they are forever a memorable aspect of each others lives (ye, theyre my OTP and BrOTP ヽ( ´¬`)ノ) 

*despite all’a this, i dont think they need each other, of course they can be independent and go their separate ways. but i just know for a fact that sooner or later they’re gonna see something that reminds them of the other and the memories will remind them of good times ^_^

*err i have like, 1 solid nsfw one and that is neither of them like penetration so they rarely do it. Its not because i have anything against anal, its because i don’t see either of them as people who enjoy being penetrated. Generally I don’t see them as a pair who’d have sex often anyway (^_^;) -however when they do they’d be laughing so much thru it ◎▼◎ (ill be posting a list for this veryverysoon! [update: here it is])

additional headcanons

here’s some of my indulgent hcs ^_^ here’s where the good stuffs at, cuz the general hcs don’t necessarily apply to these ones:

*David pining is my favourite thing ever like he’ll write a lot of songs abt Evan and he’ll post them and say that it’s not for anyone in particular but its a fucking lie because he literally has only one person on his mind when he writes it and sings it but he’ll never tell anyone and he sure as hell won’t tell Evan

*Evan pining is also v good yes :’) He’s fuckin scared that David’ll know that he has a soft spot for the Irish prick so he hides it with jabs and insults. but sometimes his fondness slips thru and his laugh comes out a lot warmer than he’d intended and his eyes linger on David and for a split second it feels like he knows, he fucking knows and yeah it scares him so in the end both of them think their feelings are unrequited woohoo

*i have a love/hate relationship with whipped!Evan cuz it feels like i stripped him of his personality but its the only way i can get him to shower David with affection so Welp he’s staying for the fluff

*whipped!Evan snippets: Evan longingly gazing at David like David would disappear the moment he blinks + Evan being bold and chasing after David because ‘you’re a part of this mess, we’re in this together whether you like it or not’ will really fuck me up

*Evan isn’t as giggly in some of my AUs. i like playing around with his GTA or Gmod-roleplaying personality so he can get pretty closed-off depending on the au. most of the time when he’s in this character, David will be the lighthearted and cheeky one to balance it out c:

*i love to treat David well but i also love to wreck him so cynical!David or insecure!David are some of my fav angst hcs cuz both’ll make him very very frustrated lol

*following the last point, David’s usually the one to fall in love first, but he’s also the one to doubt their relationship- so he’s hesitant of commitment and he’ll say stupid shit just to see if Evan will stay with him despite his flaws. 

*lowkey hero/villain au: the way bad-guy-David taunts good-guy-Evan with “little owl” or “little bird” or “plucking/ruffling yer feathers” is like, h o l y shit yes. (And don’t tell me you cant imagine Evan yelling “YOU’RE GOING DOWN” xD)

*for one of my soulmate aus, they’re not soulmates. they’re just two people who fell in love and decided to stay together despite the fact that they’re not “meant to be” cuz they feel like their relationship is valid, even if it doesn’t match up to society’s expectations. another one is that they are soulmates, but despite knowing that they’re supposed to be the perfect complement to each other, their personalities are incompatible as fuck and honestly it’s a mess of misunderstandings hahaha.

*that nsfw hc mentioned previously does not apply to most of my AUs by the way- ngl there’s a lot of sexual tension in my AUs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Aye that pree much sums up my main headcanons (ﾉ*ﾟｰﾟ)ﾉ 

ive got a few more headcanons for cop au but that’ll come out another day on another post xD also i have a lot of hcs for other aus that ive never fully developed, perhaps ill post those someday as well lol

also sorry for the wait, i hope ye enjoyed despite this being late (::)

holy shit im so obsessed with these two i spent 4 hours typing+editing this fuck