#Let's Resonate

[foldingfittedsheets]

I feel like one of the major ways sex ed failed me was the utter lack of discussion about vaginal discharge. Around 13 I started just… leaking fluids. It was on a set schedule, every day after lunch there’d be an uncomfortable wetness down the front of my underwear.

It was awful. Every movement was wet and cold unpleasantness in my pants. I’d go stuff toilet paper into my underwear and it would pill up and stick to my damp skin. That went on for a year.

I finally discovered panty liners and started wearing them daily, but with the unconscious fear that the overall juiciness of my pussy was unnatural.

I’d read people saying that cotton underwear would dissipate moisture and stop it from being a problem but no amount of natural fibers could evaporate what my crotch was producing. Since that wasn’t enough for me I worried I was abnormal.

I didn’t like wearing panty liners every day. It felt sweaty and wasteful but the alternative was to be wet and miserable. I still worried about it. But when I finally asked a doctor they just asked if it was more than my usual discharge. I said, no, it’s always been this way. They shrugged and assured me that meant my body was behaving reliably. Also if your discharge discolors your underwear that’s also normal cause of chemistry reasons

That reassurance didn’t come until my 20’s.

Finally a few years ago I discovered cloth liners. They’re reusable and clip into the crotch of underwear. I was ecstatic to finally have a non disposable option. I love them. Although the mainstream ones have polyester wings and I’m very excited to try the new all cotton ones I just got off Etsy. I think they were originally intended as light period protection but were robust enough for me.

So if you’ve ever worried about how wet your pussy is: it’s normal. It’s self cleaning, it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. You should worry when the amount changes and if you’re like me check out cloth liners, they’re excellent.

[nightvale-thoughts]

thinking about how Johnny and Alex met at a shitty night job and decided a few years later to write an audio drama that literally changed the lives of thousands of people. how Harlan was literally unemployed when he decided to start making malevolent, and now he's singlehandedly revolutionizing the audio drama landscape. or Zach Valenti and Gabriel Urbina being long-time college friends who wanted to make something fun with no expectation that over 20 million people would listen to it....not being hyperbolic at all when I say that some of the best pieces of audio fiction have been made in basements by teams of less than 3 people. wtnv has always been a few friends who wanted to make something interesting after their day job. i am just thinking of artists persevering under the crushing weight of capitalism. .. and great art made out of pure love and curiosity for an emerging medium...

[vaguely-concerned]

purple hawke who, at malcolm's death, lost not only a father, a mentor, the single most stable and safe point in their world up until this moment. but also the only person in their life who would consistently, gleefully 'yes, and — ' them. the loss, in one fell swoop, of both a beloved parent and your sole willing — no, not only willing, enthusiastic — improv partner. truly, the most unkindest cut of all that the maker could have seen fit to deal. (there's always so much less laughter in the house, after malcolm's gone.)

and then after all the horrors of the blight and trying to make a new life in the shithole turned shithome of kirkwall....... they meet varric. and something that's been slumbering deep within their soul dries a tear of relief and joy and whispers 'oh we are so back'. and they are so right

[keferon]

*clasps your shoulders gently and looks you straight in the eye*

Keferon. Please read Ninth by Kyn on AO3. I think you would love it very much. It has a large chapter count, but don't be intimidated, it's very easy to get into. It is currently unfinished, but is being updated regularly.

You are the seventh person that recommended this fic to me so ahahahaha yeah

I’m doing great Help I hate some parts of it but I love the other parts I’m spinning in the blender

…..I made the moodboard….

[pearlsdiamondsandvodka]

the sandra lynn / fig conversation is driving me Insane. fig saying that sometimes she doesn’t wanna exist as herself at all…not wanting to ask her friends how they see her (because she’s afraid to hear their response) saying that to someone she is a monster and she Cannot stop thinking about it. sandra lynn starting the conversation saying she needs to step up but is also simultaneously taken aback about what fig expresses and doesn’t know how to responds to it and suggests getting ice cream. sandra lynn saying “convincing people they deserve good things is really tough” talking about herself but how it also reflects fig. insane!!

[alastors-antlers]

Being someone who sees a lot of talk about shipping Alastor (sexually, romantically) in fanworks, I just want to take some time to talk about both sides of the issue. It's long, I know - please, please bear with me until the end, and I hope you'll understand what I mean in a bit.

I hope this helps someone, but as an aroace person who understands the frustration and hurt, this is often how it feels to me:

Alastor, being one of the limited cases of aspec rep that I've seen and one of even fewer which I actually enjoyed, means a lot to me.

That being said, his canon rep establishes that he's aroace but not much about how this factors into his life or relationships at all -- and when there's a gap in canon, I turn to fanfiction, which tends to spotlight characters' queerness even when the source material doesn't or can't. Don't we all want to see ourselves in the media we engage with?

When I pull up AO3, there are already a good number of fics about him. Great! Some of them are definitely incredible; but as I read on, it starts to seem like a lot of fics I see acknowledge that he's asexual or aromantic in some way but don't really factor that into the story. It reads like you could have written the story without keeping his queer identity in mind, and it would've come out the same.

Even when representation that does resonate with me exists, it starts to be exhausting to pick through the slash tags to see which ones are written in an aspec-coded way, so I wonder if it would be easier to not read anything with slash at all. On the other hand, when you filter ships out completely, only a tiny fraction of the fanworks are left.

People often respond that aspec people can have relationships, and I think we tend to know that. They can have sex, some can experience sexual attraction in select situations, they can romance others beyond romantic attraction -- any combination of things. But some aroace people don't want either, and sometimes we're struggling to see ourselves in how Alastor is typically portrayed.

Out of all of the fics, sex-repulsed, totally aromantic Alastor isn't seen much. And when Alastor's limited canon seems to be pretty supportive of a reading where he is those things...

Sometimes, you start to feel lost. If fics were evenly distributed along the aroace spectrum of experiences, wouldn't you expect more fics of him being the "totally uninterested" brand of aroace? But there aren't. People seem to have a preference toward seeing him in relationships. Even if they mean well, it can make you think: what does that say about how we view asexuality/aromanticism as a whole?

Is there something less interesting about Alastor, when romance is taken out of the picture? Do others find him less appealing as a character if they can't see him dating, or in love, or having sex or wanting it? Why do we need romance, when romance is already everywhere else, when it doesn't even feel like he was originally really interested? It brings to mind a struggle to be societally accepted, even today.

Even when it's not technically wrong to write Alastor as you see him, being told that we should all be able to ship him however we want can feel like this:

It brings to mind people who try to swing in with misinformed good intentions, telling us "oh, you're aromantic? but you can still have romantic relationships, right? so you can still be normal." when all we want is to be okay outside of the normal.

Or trying to find a partner who can be with us, out of everyone who tells us "I know you don't enjoy sex, and that's okay, but I can't have a romantic relationship with you without it." and being so tired of hoping for someone who gets it.

Or talking with peers, and hearing them all commiserate and fawn over their experiences with love, then telling them about someone you like non-romantically and getting "aww, it sounds like somebody's got a crush!" but not being believed when you tell them it's not like that at all.

Alastor is not a big deal, not really, not in the grand scheme of things. But in an allonormative world, it can feel like a sudden splash of cold water when we were expecting a warm fire to sit around. Even within this ecosystem, we squint to see ourselves reflected.

Society isn't built for us. It can be exhausting to be reminded of that.

~~~

I hope to support people writing Alastor as any variation of aspec, or not even aspec at all. At the end of the day, I think that fanon is really whatever you want it to be, and everyone has their own reasons for writing what they find enjoyable. They should be allowed to do so, and I want to believe that people do what they do with good intentions.

They want to imagine scenarios with the templates of characters they love, and that's okay; even beyond sexuality/queer identities/etc., fan interpretations of characters can be incredibly, wildly different from who they really are in the story anyway, and that's what I try to remind myself. But still, I also can't help feeling disappointed about the aroace representation we could have seen.

(Is Alastor canonically sex-repulsed? Uhh, maybe. If I had to guess, that'd be my top guess, but this might be a hot take: I wouldn't really say there's enough to go off of considering that this view is supported by Angel propositioning him both times, and it's not like Alastor is a particularly big fan of Angel at those points anyway lol)

To my fellow aroaces struggling with Alastor's fandom rep: if you need a break from it all; if you need to block the tags that you hate; if you need to talk to someone about how you're feeling; that's okay. It makes sense that you'd want more representation in a way that helps you feel seen and validated and less alone. I can't speak for everyone, but I think I get it.

I don't have any solutions for how you're feeling, because sometimes I'm feeling the same way. I understand that you want others to get your position and you have the right to express your feelings, but even if you're correct, often being angry or frustrated won't help change others' minds, so let's try to save our energy and take care of ourselves.

Something that helps me to think about is that even now, asexuality is gaining more visibility. We're gaining support. Real change is happening in the world that's helping incredible amounts of aspec people feel freer to be themselves. And maybe one day, we won't be reaching to protect our scraps of representation.

Let's fight until that day together <3

[lidoshka]

I'm sorry @syndrossi I whish I could be normal but I can only let things I like consume me...

The other day I drew more art for the story "Resonant" and

yeah, it looks cute, but had no idea how big an y/o is until recently...

so I just speed googled some facts:

Can I trust google with this fact? probably not, but I need a sturdy frame of reference...

:P

Then I searched for average height of children in america this year (I suspect children in a medieval world will have less sources of nutrition and less height...but , meh, let's pretend)

Boy, that's big! they'd be almost at my shoulder!

(⊙ヮ⊙;)

...So I guess Daemon's current situation looks a lot more like this:

Someone needs to up their core strenght game...

Anyway! have a picture of Daemon embracing his sons again if he comes back when he comes back from war!

;P

[b0tster]

replayed silent hill short message this morning. i think i really like that game, cringe and all

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hi! Your Hollow Knight AU has really cheered me up so I wanted to do a little drawing for it! This got me to get my art tablet out after months of not feeling like it so thank you for the inspiration! I hope the colors look good on any monitor that's not mine sdfsdf

Bugs In the Jingshi wyd?

I am so genuinely awestruck at how well you translated this AU to the hollow knight style! Also obsessed with the height difference.

[fumifooms]

Hijoushoku to Gochisou / A Feast of Emergency Rations

Mayonaka no Waltz / Midnight Waltz

Nagabe

[daemon-is-perfectly-unhinged]

Daemon: Where are the twins?

Viserys: Oh, they went out.

Daemon: ...but they're grounded.

Viserys:

Viserys: Are they not allowed to go out when they're grounded?

[hulloitsdani]

What do u think Kiran is

How do u think the order sees kiran

*slowly sits up in my chair*

I think Kiran is a very normal person. This is someone you and I have met before. Be that from the other side of grocery store cashier, waiting in the same elevator, or walking by on a crosswalk. Kiran is a civilian from our world trying to roll with the punches of being warped somewhere completely alien. And you can see it in how they conduct themselves.

I always have a lot of fun writing Kiran’s dialogue because their casual modern speech almost feels like a dialect in comparison to the more formal fantasy tone everyone else speaks with. An “ain’t” will never exit Alfonse’s mouth, you know? And there’s a difference in “Do you have gold?” vs “You got gold?” To me, this gives Kiran an air of unfamiliarity to anyone they interact with. Let’s use Grima as an example, because it doesn’t sound like this grammatical change would make much of difference until Kiran has the audacity to hit Grima with a bro mid sentence. But that’s just how they talk. And as sweet and friendly as they are, there’s always moments like that to remind that no one has the cultural context to fully understand Kiran. Except for the audience, who can realize that Kiran let the customer service voice drop to talk to Grima like he’s an actual person.

And that’s just about how they talk! This view is only emphasized by every other thing about them! They’re a lovable goof, which is normal chill person behavior in the audience’s eyes but feels REALLY ODD to the characters of FE’s medieval fantasy war setting. There is this air of unknown about them that the more socially perceptive will pick up on and will try to come to a conclusion about. Example, I imagine Soren would interpret a lot of this as a dangerous and deeply annoying lack of intelligence from someone he has the displeasure of sharing a tactics table with. Or looping back to the Grima example, he would totally think Kiran has greedy ulterior motives behind that pleasant facade. It takes a lot of work for those types to realize that the discrepancy present isn’t really any of those things. But I also wouldn’t be too surprised if Kiran doesn’t try to directly prove any of those assumptions wrong unless they have to.

Why? Well now it’s time for the implications! Oh how we love the implications.

Because the Summoner is a different story. No one has any fucking clue what that is.

I can tell you what Kiran has pieced together so far. Summoning people from across time and space is apparently not easy. It’s not some school of magical study that some mage could pull off with enough time and research. Trust, Eitri tried. It’s a lot of complex moving parts. For example, the contracts. The contracts Kiran automatically binds their summoned to don’t even compare to the ones Veronica used in book 1. They are far more intense and infinitely harder to break. The only way out of them is if Kiran wills it so. Not even death is an option, because Kiran can come in for the revive. If they had to guess, it’s an older, more completed version of the art. Something lost to time. But no matter the case, Kiran has the ability to take full control of whoever they manage to summon. From a lowly farmer to the divine. And their power only grows.

In a similar vein, if there was any character to canonically see the hud, I think it would be Kiran. It’s genuinely part of their power set. I have previously described Kiran as the party mage until Veronica shows up to be the actual mage, but it would be way more accurate to call them a mystic/seer. They see the map, everyone’s stats, and is doing a fast amount of math to give the combat forecast. Then, upon processing all this information their enemies couldn’t dream of having at their disposal, Kiran can telepathically communicate any change in plans to anyone under contract. Kiran is not inherently some great tactician the moment they touch ground in Askr; they simply can do things no one else can. They’re learning the actual tactics part on the fly. This makes them simultaneously the largest ace up the Order’s sleeve and potentially its biggest liability. If they fall, it could cause a whole system cascade. By that same token, some of the biggest threats the Order has faced are the ones who do their research and rightfully target Kiran.

Now. Thinking critically about all that. That’s downright terrifying. A ridiculous amount of power has been dropped callously into Kiran’s lap and they have to work extremely hard to be moral with it. It’s terrifyingly easy not to be. It would actively take less effort to ‘take the reins’ as it were. But in order to be able to sleep at night ever again, they go the extra mile to not invalidate the will of their summoned. To take over like that. To make a colony of worker bees out of people. Because oh dear god they just summoned a child and the fact that they could easily force them to fight and die for them, only to be revived and do it all over again, is HAUNTING. No. No the Order has an in house orphanage now. This kid is getting adopted and cared for god damnit or Kiran might just pop a blood vessel. And sure that child is going to be a child and there will never be a world where they get along with everyone else, but that’s just going to need be a problem they address when they get there and not an excuse to use Hubris; the power set. Now replace the word child with everyone they ever summoned and you have the wider philosophy they apply to the entire Order.

They’re hyper aware of the power imbalance. They hate it with every bone in their body. They work really hard to correct it in whatever way they can.

So Kiran might not jump on the opportunity to correct those who think lesser of them. It’s… oddly comforting to know someone is keeping a critical eye on them. Holding them accountable. Especially since so much of the order just thinks of them as this quirky yet well meaning host. And, really, what can they even do about that? They have gone over the contract with every hero they summon and despite that they still choose to stay. So, what, do they try to inspire more mistrust? The problem with that they would have to actually do acts that intentionally inspire mistrust. And even if that was successful they can’t just waste the extra man power because every other month there’s some new divine asshole who wants them all dead. And if they fail that means they have to start their life from square one and god they can’t do that again so—

Just breathe Kiran.

It’s fine. You’re fine. Just breathe.

You have work to do.

[project-sekai-facts]

What is the Tree of Feelings SEKAI?

The Tree of Feelings SEKAI (often called the Tree SEKAI within the fandom, and for the rest of this post) is a mysterious SEKAI that first appears in Miku's Where Feelings Come Together Colorful Festival story, although it reappears in the Sakura Across SEKAI, Interconnecting Our Feelings and Let Your Song Resonate Throughout SEKAI! events.

The SEKAI isn't actually a proper SEKAI, but actually a Fragment SEKAI: it appears in response to shared feelings and will disappear again once those have been resolved. Additionally, it can be accessed through a Fragment of Feelings, the same way you would enter a Fragment SEKAI. Although, some characters are shown to be forcibly teleported there by their phones, something which has never been shown with other Fragment SEKAI so far.

However, whose Fragment SEKAI is this? It first appears in Miku's Colorful Festival story, so it must be hers, right? Well, not exactly.

Miku's Where Feelings Come Together story starts off in Shibuya, with Ichika watching a PV for an upcoming Virtual Singer fan festival (the one she later attends in the Scramble Fan FESTA! event). She considers participating in the festival with Leo/need, and her train of thought runs to Miku in the School SEKAI. Meanwhile, Kohane and Minori are out shopping together, and watch the same PV. Minori comments on how cute Miku is and how she sparkles on stage, thinking of her own Miku. Kohane, on the other hand, says that she likes it when Miku looks really cool, also with her own Miku in mind. At the same time, Kanade is walking home after visiting her dad, and sees the same PV. She's reminded that she wanted to pick up a Virtual Singer CD, and how she never would've been interested in Miku had it not been for the Empty SEKAI.

Between the SEKAI, Miku's base form senses warm and gentle feelings gathering, and starts to realise that something is happening, but doesn't reveal what it is.

In the Wonderland SEKAI, Tsukasa is trying to find Miku, since she promised to help him with rehearsals. He thinks back to his first meeting with the Virtual Singers, and how helpful they ended up being to the point he frequently visits the SEKAI now. After deciding that he should show them his appreciation, a ball of light appears, taking him to a mysterious SEKAI, the Tree SEKAI.

As it turns out, Ichika, Minori, Kohane and Kanade were also teleported to the Tree SEKAI, although in their cases, it was because their phone flashed, similarly to how they (excluding Kanade) were first introduced to the SEKAI during the main story. While they all try to explain to each other how they got there, Miku reveals herself to the others (and confirms that Tsukasa was transported via a Fragment of Feelings).

Miku explains that the Tree SEKAI came to be because of the intertwined feelings of the five. She explains that it isn't quite ready to become a full-fledged SEKAI yet, outright confirming that it is a Fragment SEKAI. She adds that the SEKAI is filled with warmth that has a certain someone in mind, and asks what the five were thinking about before coming to the Tree SEKAI. They realise that they were all thinking about Miku, or their respective Mikus, and in response, Miku beckons them all over to the tree.

In the tree, all of them find items belonging to them. Kanade finds sheet music for her songs, Kohane finds flyers for STAY GOLD and RAD WEEKEND, Tsukasa finds the script for Pegasus Odyssey, the first show he wrote for Wonderlands x Showtime, and Minori finds a promotional photo for MORE MORE JUMP! that she had Kohane take after the group was formed. Ichika then finds the wish plaques that she and the other members of Leo/need wrote at New Years, as well as some of her sheet music and lyrics. Miku concludes that the tree must be a wishing tree of sorts, made from their feelings together, as well as their hopes and dreams.

Ichika then questions how the fact they were all thinking of Miku connects to this tree. Miku explains that they - the Mikus from each SEKAI, and not just this Miku - want the feelings of the people they watch over to keep growing and moving forward. So the Wishing Tree isn't just their tree, it's also Mikus' tree, nurtured by their hopes and dreams for everyone.

Everyone was able to find their true feelings thanks to a Miku, and as a result the tree was able to flourish. Miku thanks the five for placing their trust in "her", but the five agree that they should be the ones thanking her. The SEKAI begins to disappear once they have exchanged thanks, and Miku explains that since this is not a full SEKAI yet, it will return to being a Fragment. However, it won't be gone forever, and one day, when the sapling becomes a fully grown tree, they might be able to...

The five return to where they were before, with no memory of what happened.

We actually learn a lot about the SEKAI from just this card story despite it being its first appearance. We know that despite the fact that there are several SEKAI in existence, this one was born from the shared feelings specifically between the people connected to the School, Stage, Street, Wonderland, and Empty SEKAI, as well as the base form of Miku who exists between SEKAI. Even though the SEKAI is currently only in a Fragment state, it can grow into a full SEKAI from there. Interestingly, it was confirmed in Miku's Street SEKAI 2* that SEKAI grow over time, and this new information heavily suggests that all SEKAI actually can be accessed prior to fully forming via a Fragment of Feeling (for example, the five main SEKAI in the game may possibly have been accessible prior to their full formation, although as far as we know, this didn't happen).

The second time the Treet SEKAI appears is in the Virtual Singer-focused event, Sakura Across SEKAI, Interconnecting Our Feelings. This time, only the first Virtual Singers to appear in each of the five main SEKAI go to the Tree SEKAI though.

In the Empty SEKAI, the N25 members are talking about cherry blossoms with Miku, Rin, MEIKO, and Luka. The group offers to show the cherry blossoms to the Virtual Singers, although it won't be the same as seeing them in person since they will only be able to see them in their hologram forms. Miku then decides to see if there are cherry blossoms in the SEKAI, since Mafuyu's feelings have made other things appear there before. While she doesn't find anything due to the SEKAI being, well, empty, she realises that she's happy that the SEKAI still feels more lively than it did before, and that she wants to continue supporting Mafuyu. As she thinks to herself, a Fragment of Feelings appears, and transports her to the Tree SEKAI.

Meanwhile, in the Stage SEKAI, MORE MORE JUMP! helps the Virtual Singers brainstorm for their next performance. Once a spring theme is chosen, Rin decides that she wants to include falling cherry blossom petals in their concert. Everyone looks across the various stages to try and find a cherry blossom tree, but they don't have any luck. In the end, they opt for using pink lighting, so Rin goes backstage to find some lights. Rin hopes the show will go well after everything everyone has done to accommodate her cherry blossom idea, and happens to find a Fragment of Feelings at that moment.

In the Street SEKAI, MEIKO and Rin have made a new cherry blossom-themed spring menu for Crase Cafe. Vivid BAD SQUAD arrive, and discuss having a picnic under some cherry blossoms in An's neighbourhood, although this makes KAITO and Luka a bit jealous, since there are no cherry blossoms in the SEKAI. Meanwhile, Len wants to find a way to thank MEIKO and Rin for their hard work, so he tries to find a cherry blossom tree for them. He isn't able to find one, but does find a Fragment of Feelings. MEIKO walks out into the street just after he finds it, and it takes them both to the Tree SEKAI.

School SEKAI Luka finds herself already in the Tree SEKAI, and remembers finding a Fragment of Feelings on the school roof. She recalls that Leo/need and the Virtual Singers had been trying to find a cherry blossom tree for a picnic. They had been trying extra hard because cherry blossoms reminded them of Luka as well, and were disappointed that they couldn't find any. Wanting to support Leo/need and their feelings, Luka went to look for a cherry blossom tree herself, and that's how she ended up in the Tree SEKAI.

Finally in the Wonderland SEKAI, WonderlandsxShowtime are trying to create an effect of a cherry blossom petal shower for their next show. They want to use real petals, but there aren't any cherry blossoms in the SEKAI, and they don't want to use the petals from the singing flowers. In the end, Emu suggests taking some petals from the cherry blossom tree in her garden. KAITO is thankful that they're always bringing fun and interesting things over to SEKAI, and thinks of a way to repay them, deciding to look for a real chery blossom in the SEKAI. Whilst looking around, he finds the plushies. They say they have a gift for him, and present him with a Fragment of Feelings, transporting him to the Tree SEKAI.

In the Tree SEKAI, there are cherry blossom petals falling through the sky. Miku goes over to the tree to see if that's where they're coming from, and spots something sparkling on the tree. Rin spots the same sparkly things, identifying them as Minori and the others' feelings, before spotting feelings belonging to other people too. Len and MEIKO also spot that there are other feelings here, with MEIKO making the assumption that they are from other SEKAI. She also has a feeling that where they are isn't an ordinary SEKAI. Luka feels that there are other people in the SEKAI, although she can't see anyone else there. KAITO has the same feeling, but is happy that the tree is proof that everyone's feelings are growing.

Suddenly, there is a very strong wind, and Empty SEKAI Miku briefly sees the original Miku. Empty SEKAI Miku wonders if the original Miku has been watching over everyone's feelings the whole time. The SEKAI then starts to disappear.

The original Miku briefly appears again, commenting on her surprise at everyone being there. She concludes that their individual desires to help brought them all together, and wishes them luck in future.

When Rin returns to the Stage SEKAI, she is greeted by Len and MEIKO. She tells them that she briefly saw other versions of them, and MEIKO realises they must've been from other SEKAI, and adds that nothing like that has ever happened before. In Street SEKAI, MEIKO mentions having been able to see peoples' feelings through Fragments before, but never anything like that, and she wonders if the tree SEKAI is a sort of nexus between SEKAI. In School SEKAI, Luka says the same thing, wondering if that was some sort of special fragment. In the Wonderland SEKAI, KAITO realises that they must have all been brought to the same place because of their connected feelings, and realises that they must all want to help people very much.

This event reveals that the Tree SEKAI is also controlled by the feelings of the Virtual Singers from the five main SEKAI. Despite not being the actual reason they were brought together, they managed to create cherry blossom petals in the SEKAI because they were all looking for cherry blossoms. We also learn that this SEKAI can be accessed by any shared feelings between the five SEKAI. While the five human characters accessed it because they wanted to give thanks to Miku and original Miku wanted to thank them in return, the Virtual Singers accessed it because they all wanted to help the owners/inhabitants of their SEKAI.

The MEIKOs also bring up some interesting points. They say that this has never happened before, which tells us that in the multiple years of SEKAI existing, no group of people has ever had feelings this strong and intertwined. MEIKO's idea of the Tree SEKAI being a nexus, along with Luka wondering if it was a special sort of fragment, makes a lot more sense, and could suggest that the Tree SEKAI, is neither a Fragment SEKAI or a full SEKAI, but a mysterious third type.

Also both Luka and MEIKO mention having seen the feelings of the humans in their SEKAI through Fragments before, despite neither of them having appeared in a Colorful Festival story at this point, implying that there may be other Fragment SEKAI that the human characters never accessed.

The most recent appearance of the Tree SEKAI was in the second Virtual Singer-focused event, Let Your Song Resonate Throughout SEKAI! event. Although this time, things were a little different.

After everything that had happened in the past year, the Virtual Singers want to do something to support and encourage the owners of their respective SEKAI as they move forward in their journeys.

While all of them are discussing ideas and planning shows, the original Miku is watching over them from between SEKAI. She's then joined by the other original Virtual Singers, who were also curious about what's going on in the different SEKAI. Miku wishes she could do more to help the "them" in SEKAI who are trying hard to support the people in their SEKAI.

In the Stage SEKAI, Luka and the others are practising a special performance dedicated to MORE MORE JUMP!. Luka wants to keep trying harder because MMJ has always done the same and she wants to support them. At that moment, a Fragment of Feelings appears in front of her and teleports her away.

Meanwhile, in the Wonderland SEKAI, Miku and the others are rehearsing a play for WonderlandsxShowtime. Miku is so happy that the members of WxS were able to smile and chase their dreams together, that she's brought to tears. It's then that she hears a mysterious voice wish her luck. This voice was actually the original Miku, speaking to Wonderland Miku from between the SEKAI. She isn't sure how she was able to do it, but she wanted to support them all a lot and just said what she wanted to. The other Virtual Singers voice their agreement, and a Fragment of Feelings appears before them.

In the School SEKAI, Len is practising his singing so that he can perform for Leo/need. However, he can't quite get it to sound the same as when Miku sang with L/n at their concert. Miku explains that she wanted to support the girls and give them a push forwards, which Len keeps in mind. After Miku leaves, Len spots a Fragment of Feelings on a chair.

In the Empty SEKAI, Rin is singing Kanade's song to herself. Rin wants to be able to sing the same way as Miku can, the same way Miku was able to sing to Mafuyu and ease her loneliness. Nearby, Miku and Len approach MEIKO, trying to find Rin. MEIKO explains that Rin is focused on something else, and says that they should leave her alone. Once Miku and Len are gone, MEIKO joins in with Rin, although she doesn't think she can sing the same way Rin can. As they sing together, a Fragment of Feelings appears, and transports them to another SEKAI.

Back in the Wonderland SEKAI, Miku talks to KAITO about the voice she heard and the feeling of being watched. KAITO is able to relate to that, and says that it might be the other "them" cheering them on. This gets Miku excited, and she says that she wants to meet the other "them". And as luck may have it, a Fragment of Feelings appears.

This time we're somewhere slightly different though. It's never actually stated if this is the same as the Tree SEKAI or somewhere totally different, although it is a fairly similar landscape.

Wonderland Miku has a look at the fragments floating around, and spots the Wonderland SEKAI in one of them. Excited, she then has a look at the other fragments to see what SEKAI they contain.

The original Virtual Singers find themselves in the same mysterious place. KAITO reckons that the place is made of someone's feelings, and Rin concludes that it's a Fragment SEKAI, although they're not sure exactly what feelings it was made from, or whose SEKAI it is. The group then spots the floating fragments, and realises that this is a SEKAI that connects other SEKAI together. The group splits up to investigate some more, and end up running into "themselves".

The original Rin meets Empty SEKAI Rin, and asks if they can sing together because Empty Rin is such a beautiful singer. The original MEIKO joins Empty MEIKO at the same time, and thanks "herself" for always watching over N25.

Street SEKAI KAITO is here too, and runs into his original self. Street KAITO thinks "himself" is very cool, and admits he isn't really sure what he's doing here, but he's glad that they were able to meet. The original KAITO thanks Street KAITO for always working hard to help Vivid BAD SQUAD.

The Lens meet next. The original Len thinks School SEKAI Len's maturity and musical skills are really cool, and says that they both have to try their best in future. Then it's the Lukas turn. The original Luka thinks it's wonderful that Stage SEKAI Luka is able to bring hope to people as an idol, and says that she was able to give her hope too. Hearing these words, Stage Luka is motivated to try even harder.

Finally, it's the Mikus turn to meet. The original praises Wonderland Miku for her exciting shows that are able to make everyone smile. She believes that as long as Wonderland Miku is by everyone's side, everything will be fine, and she tells her to keep doing her best for them. Wonderland Miku asks to know more about the original Miku, but as soon as she starts to respond, the SEKAI begins to disappear.

This instance of the Tree SEKAI appearing actually leaves us with more questions that answers, and obviously the big question is if this is even the Tree SEKAI.

As mentioned, the appearance is fairly similar. Both SEKAI have a large field, and the sky is identical between the Tree SEKAI illustrations and Rin's Another Version of Me untrained 4* above. Aside from the lack of a tree, which could easily be excused by this possibly being a different part of that Fragment SEKAI, the field is noticeably different. The SEKAI in this event has flowering, bright green fields, while in Sakura Across SEKAI and Miku's Colorful Festival story, the field is a different shade of green and lacks any flowers. The grass is also a bit patchy in those older stories. A last detail that suggests these might be different SEKAI is that Miku doesn't recognise it.

However, I do believe that these are the same SEKAI. Firstly, both SEKAI are a bridge between the five we see in the game. GIven that the Tree SEKAI already exists, it feels very unlikely that another SEKAI serving the exact same purpose would be born, let alone looking extremely similar. As for the differences in appearance? The SEKAI grew of course. As mentioned earlier in this post, Street SEKAI Miku explains very early on in the game that SEKAI grow and develop over time if the feelings that created them don't dwindle. The original Miku alludes to it in her Colorful Festival story as well. I think that that could easily explain why the fields look healthier and are flowering now - because they grew with the feelings of those from the five SEKAI.

And a bit more on the meta side, I want to mention the flowers specifically. Obviously, between the second and third year of the game, this SEKAI went from being an empty field aside from a single tree, to being filled with flowers in it's next appearance. While this is already explained by the theory that it's the same SEKAI growing with time and feelings, I would like to draw attention to the tagline for the third year of the game: Journey to Bloom. All the units made significant changes and developments in order to go further down their respective paths and get closer to their dreams. As a metaphor, they went from being small buds to blooming flowers. I think the same might apply to the Tree SEKAI as a visual metaphor.

So what is the Tree of Feelings SEKAI? Well, it's not entirely clear. Not even the Virtual Singers are entirely sure what it is, because something like it has never existed before. What we do know is that it's a sort of Fragment SEKAI that acts as a nexus between the School, Stage, Street, Wonderland, and Empty SEKAI. When the inhabitants and owners of those SEKAI have the same strong feelings at the same time, they will be transported to the Tree SEKAI and allowed to meet. Virtual Singers are able to retain their memories of being in this SEKAI, although humans cannot.

Currently, the SEKAI is still a Fragment, and can only be accessed for short periods of time. However, it is still growing, and it has been implied that it could one day become a full-fledged SEKAI.

As of posting, Miku never met the original five who unlocked the Tree SEKAI again, although this post will be revisted if any updated are made to the lore of this Fragment? Nexus? SEKAI.

[sciencewife]

Happy Resonance Cascade Day, Cave Johnson is laughing at Black Mesa from beyond the grave

[sleepyminty]

No wonder Marshall Lee and Fionna is so close like family, had Marceline and Fionna met they would definitely sister

[rosiesriiveters]

Keep thinking of Rosie allowing everyone else to experience the trauma of war around him in any way they need to. Whether it be after listening to his crew member choke through the Munster story, reaching a hand out to comfort him, making sure the replacements are all settled and feel comfortable with him - establishing that he's someone who can be trusted with any issues - and listening to Crosby tell him he's scared he's becoming a monster and reassuring him, and yet refuses to give himself the same grace.

Thinking about how he doesn't tell Crosby about what he saw after he was shot down, what he witnessed in that camp. He's never really the one telling any stories in the series. He listens and watches, lets others say whatever they need to, all the while keeping his cards close to his chest.

Thinking about Rosie smiling while watching his crew and the other airmen enjoying themselves at the flak house, and yet not allowing himself the same enjoyment. Thinking about how the doctor at the flak house got Rosie to look after himself only when he framed it that looking after himself is looking after his crew.

Thinking about Rosie re-upping, choking slightly on his words as he explains he can't bare the thought of sending some rookie in his place to only get himself and his crew killed.

He won't give himself the grace or patience he deserves, but by god he'll take care of everyone around him.