#Those are two things that should not coincide in any other context

[ghostfacd]

YES I KNOW THAT HE’S MY EX! | TOM BLYTH

pairing. tom blyth x fem!actress!reader

summary. you knew tom was your ex, and that you should probably stay away, but that’s never stopped you before

part 1 | installment of this au (please read for more context!)

ynuser :)

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user1 im loving the aesthetic

user2 THE BIKINI TOP IS SO CUTE

user3 put them toes awayyyy

rachelzegler i pay attention to things that most people ignore (this isn’t your car.)

➥ user4 PLEASE?? not rachel using yn’s own lyrics on her

➥ user5 IS THIS TOM’S CAR??

user6 i may be delulu but those r tom blyth’s mfing hands.

user7 he has her hair tie on; i repeat, tom blyth literally has yn’s hair tie on

When Tom had messaged you saying he wanted to talk, no matter how much you knew it was a bad idea, you decided to agree to it anyway.

The breakup had ended pretty badly. Although it was an agreement between you and Tom, that didn’t mean that’s what the both of you truly wanted.

The reason the two of you broke up in the first place was that Tom was talking too much about your future, which wasn’t a bad thing — but it overwhelmed you. You weren’t ready to settle down, not yet, at least. You and Tom had only been dating for a few months, and although it was all sweet and loving, you knew that getting engaged this early was like asking for a disaster to strike.

He was upset. Clearly. He loved you, you loved him, so why was it such an inconvenience for you to agree to take the leap in your relationship? That caused a blown out argument between you two, and by the end of it, you had agreed breaking up was the right thing.

You had a acting and music career to focus on, and Tom had an acting career that was just at the beginning of its success. You felt that it wasn’t right to put a distraction into his life.

“Is this a bad idea?” You ask breathlessly as you pull away from the kiss. You can’t help but stare into Tom’s eyes, which held a language of their own.

“Maybe,” he says, wiping the corner of your mouth. “But who cares?”

Who cares. Right. Well surely, it was a bad idea to meet up with your ex, much less kiss him, and although alarms were baring in your head that you probably shouldn’t—you go in for a second kiss, this time, Tom doesn’t let you go, cradling you close to his body.

“I don’t care if you don’t want to take the next step in our relationship, I’m fine if you’re not ready yet. I just want you, okay?”

And how could any girl possibly reject Tom Blyth when he’s begging so prettily? Certainly not you.

tomblyth and ynuser both posted an instagram story !

ynsbiggestfan THE GIRLS AND I AFTER SEEING THE STORIES ON INSTA

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user8 IM ACTUALLY DYING BC NO WAY WAS THAT A COINCIDENCE

user9 they’re connected they cant be far away from each other

user10 she’s my Heather 💔💔

➥ user12 fr i wish tom was that inlove w me

user13 so this is why rachel said that wasn’t yn’s car

➥ user14 ITS ALL MAKING SENSE NOW

sean.kauf photo dumpy

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ynuser pic creds ?? 🤬

➥ sean.kauf 🤓🤓

user15 wait im confused, is she together with tom again or is she with sean..

user16 Ykw i cant even be mad, if i was as hot as yn, i’d have two bfs too!

➥ user17 REAL SHIIT

tomblyth fun fact: the 2nd pic is sean third wheeling after forcing me and yn to speak to each other

➥ user17 TOM CONFIRMED IT IM DEAD

user18 all the yn haters must feel stupid asf rn after accusing yn of being with sean

➥ user19 literally cause all 3 of them are literally close 😭😭 like why would sean date yn, he’s literally friends with tom

user20 if yn isn’t dating sean let me have him omg

ynuser yes i know that he’s my ex but can’t two people reconnect !!!!!

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user21 this took the cake.

user22 time to cry again bc tom blyth is off the market

user23 she got him wrapped around her finger FR

user24 THE THIRD PIC OF THEM 🥹🥹

user25 THE CAPTION OUUU GIRLY IS BRAVE

tomblyth i only see you as a friend (the biggest lie i’ve ever said)

➥ user26 I CHOKED

➥ user27 THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS ARE CRYING RN

[konxhk]

°~☆ Taemi x reader ✩~°

|| Just a little context and a bunch of headcanons for Taemi x reader, no warnings, have fun reading! ^^ ||

Taemi was a perfect candidate for a lover, right? Kind, funny, smart and she even looked pretty nice! What could ever go wrong?

...

...Well, a few things-

Not only those have all their own little flaws but there's also one main issue - Taemi had 0 experience with romance.

Crushes? Never had one. Partners? Nope. One night stands? Definitely not.

Due to that, she was horrible with romance and when starting to get feelings for you, Taemi had no idea it was going on.

It was nothing big! She just noticed how pretty your laughs were, how you looked so cute when you're focused on something, how you were so entertained when she made a show, how she thought of you when she planned the acts, how... wait-

..Ok, Taemi wasn't sure if it was by listening to others speaking about it or by her own overwhelming thoughts but she eventually figured out her feelings for you.

But she wasn't sure what to do with those, she had never been in this situation!

..So she just figured out ignoring it was the best solution, it was safe and easy, besides, she never loved someone so why would she need it to happen now?

So that's what Taemi did, treating you just like before!...Just ignore those lingering touches and those long stares she gave you, they don't mean anything :)

That didn't last much tho, she wasn't sure if she gave it away too easily or if it was just a coincidence, but eventually you confessed to her.

Her reaction?

Taemi's mind fucking exploded.

Not in a bad way! She was just stunned that you actually loved her back, not that she minded of course.

She frooze when you told her, trying to figure out what the hell to do, should she leave? Should she accept? Should she reject you just to be safe?

She didn't know but after a few seconds she decided to get over herself, so Taemi just smiled and thanked you a lot, admiting how she also loved you, and it all went from there!

She calls you all those lovey dovey nicknames, like dear, my love, etc.. her favorite one being sweetheart! You're also one of the few people she calls by the first name.

Taemi hasn't been in any dates so she prefers to do things together that you both enjoy! Like going to the cinema or to amusement parks.

If you don't really like places with a lot of people tho, she'll do other things where it's just the you two, like taking a walk or watching movies at home.

In fact, the latter one is Taemi's favorite, I mean, how could it not be? - She can watch fun movies in the comfort of her home with you, that's basically heaven!

She's also a big spoon most of the time.

Taemi's not really the type to get flustered, either it is verbally or physically she just smiles and thanks you, maybe a extra kiss if you're lucky! ^^

In case she does get flustered it's very subtle, you only notice her usual smile wavering a bit and her speech get a bit faster and more awkward.

On the other hand, Taemi can make you feel the same, either on purpose or on accident

On purpose because she loves how you respond, for example whenever she puts her top hat on you or hugs you from behind, your surprised reactions are just so entertaining and cute! ♡

And on accident cause, as said before, Taemi isn't much experienced with love, so in the start she thought 'Couples kiss eachother, right?', which led to her approaching you and asking bluntly "Sweetheart, may I kiss you?" out of nowhere.

She didn't understand why you seemed so quieter and shocked afterwards, why were you all wide eyed and stuttering? Were you mad at her? Did she do something wrong??

Has a horrible sleeping schedule, like, in concerning levels, might try to change it for you but pretty difficult. You'll be waking up at 3:30 AM to go get a cup of water only to find her going to bed.

"Hm..? Oh! Sweetheart, what are you doing here so late?"

"Taemi what the actual hell it's 3 AM-"

Taemi has also offered to do your makeup multiple times. Sure, she herself doesn't use a lot of it but if you want to then she won't mind helping you, not at all!

As for the other side of the coin..when you saw Taemi without any makeup, wig or anything really for the first time, she panicked a bit.

She was scared that you would hate her appearance and be disgusted by her hiding it, like a liar, but..no? You didn't..you actually seemed to still like her despite that, a bit shocked but still interested...to say she was glad is an understatement.

Doesn't give you gifts that often, but when she does in special occasions it's always related to your tastes, often very specific and useful, she's very observant after all!

She has invited you to her circus shows multiple times, making sure you have the best seat and that the show's the best it can be, her attention often on you in the crowd and her theatrical smile seeming just a bit more genuine.

Taemi also likes to tell you jokes and present tricks whenever you feel down, she doesn't want to see her lover sad after all, in her own words "If you only need a few jokes to keep going, then you shouldn't be unable to keep going at all!".

[goddess-of-eyes]

I feel like the Neo Swords don't get enough credit. Like sure they're not as drastically different as the Legendary Beasts are but I feel like there's so many subtle details about them that people haven't noticed yet.

Let's start off with Iron Crown's Scarlet dex entry.

>It resembles a mysterious object introduced in a paranormal magazine as a cutting-edge weapon shaped like a Cobalion.

Let's think about the context of that for a second. Of that wording. A weapon shaped like a Cobalion. Now, why would anybody build a robo-Cobalion in the first place? What purpose would it serve?

Well, let's take a look at Iron Crown's Base Stat Total and compare it to Cobalion's!

Iron Crown has a slightly higher base stat total than Cobalion does, but take a look at how different some of their stats are. Iron Crown is a VERY strong special attacker, with a special attack of 122. Then compare that to Cobalion's special defense. It's their weakest stat at 72.

Take their typings into consideration too. Iron Crown is Steel/Psychic, while Cobalion is Steel/Fighting. What are fighting type Pokemon weak to? Psychic types.

You could probably brush this off as a coincidence, but I fully believe that this was intentional. Let's compare Iron Leaves' Base Stats and Virizion's Base Stats as well real quick.

Once again, we've got a huge difference in stat distribution. Iron Leaves? Very strong physical attacker. Virizion's lowest stat? Physical defense. Iron Leaves' physical attack has almost twice as many points as Virizion's physical defense.

So coupled with the fact that not only do the Neo Swords have a higher base stat total than the Swords of Justice, but they all seem to exceed in places where the Swords of Justice falter, not just in stats, but also in type matchups.

Iron Crown and Iron Leaves were built to kill and replace Virizion and Cobalion. By taking advantage of the strengths that the Swords of Justice lacked, they could bring them down from just how much stronger and more powerful they are, having the higher up in advantages in every single way.

But things get a bit different when we look at Iron Boulder and Terrakion.

In contrast to Iron Crown and Iron Leaves, Iron Boulder doesn't outclass Terrakion in any stats other than special defense and speed. Sure, it can move faster than Terrakion, but Terrakion isn't much of a special attacker anyway and it's still much bulkier and stronger than Iron Boulder.

Not only that, but it could still reasonably go toe to toe with Iron Boulder. Sure, fighting types are weak to psychic types, but Iron Boulder is still a rock type, and rock types are weak to fighting types. So, what gives? Why do Iron Crown and Iron Leaves take advantage of Cobalion and Virizion's weaknesses while Iron Boulder doesn't?

Let's refer to Scarlet's dex entry on Iron Boulder.

>It resembles a Pokémon described in a dubious magazine as a Terrakion that had been modified by an evil organization.

And therein lies the difference. It's not a robot made to take down Terrakion, it IS Terrakion.

When you compare them side by side it's clear they had to take a few liberties to get Iron Boulder to be as fast as it is. Terrakion is much bulkier while Iron Boulder has more of an armored shell thing going on with its body. Its structural integrity probably leaves much to be desired, but perhaps the idea is you wouldn't need to worry about it getting hit when it's too agile to get hit in the first place.

Iron Leaves and Iron Crown were built to kill Virizion and Cobalion, and then when those two were gone, they likely had to weaken Terrakion so they could bring it back to be modified, since Iron Leaves and Iron Crown all outclass Terrakion in terms of stats and typing, leaving Terrakion with no advantages at all.

Living beings tend to make mistakes, lapses in judgement. Often times, it might be critical, and in the heat of the moment, one might slip up, miss something, leading to justice not being served as it should be.

The Swords of Justice cut themselves off from humanity after the war ended, hid themselves away after realizing how much of a burden people were to Pokemon, and the harm they could bring. Even in the years past, they still refused to believe humans and Pokemon could co-exist, attacking anyone who drew near for the longest time. A stubborn mindset, a flawed one, the fault of the mind. A machine would have no sense of selfishness.

Why waste time with human error when a machine is less likely to make mistakes, if at all? Surely, a machine must have a better understanding of justice, of righteousness than a living being. Thousands of calculations per minute to determine the best possible outcome, the best course of action. A machine would be a far better protector than the Swords of Justice ever could be.

Right?

[mollowosh]

The Absolute You (Story)

(CanaryAnne_) Posted on 5/7/2023 

Hi all! I was wondering if I could have some other people look at this thing I stumbled upon, maybe figure it out. I truly, truly feel like I’m going crazy. So I went to Dresher University, and a while ago I was scrolling through their old social media posts out of boredom, and just a few years before my first semester there I found an obituary for a girl named Elodie Carter. I’ll go ahead and attach a part of that here.

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that, on 10/7/2015, Dresher University student Elodie Carter lost her life shortly after a car accident at the age of 20.  Elodie was a bright student and charismatic speaker according to all those fortunate enough to connect with her. The aspiring physicist’s contributions to Dresher’s PRISM society pushed forward the organization’s capacity and ambitions to great heights, and even at such a tragically short span her life will have a positive impact on many to come. Even in her last few hours at the hospital, she was thinking about the wellbeing of others, comforting friends and organizing where her belongings would be allocated. Elodie was a bright light on campus, and we will never forget her. In the wake of her tra...

Ok, so really sad, but pretty normal all things considered. But as I was looking at it I got this really weird, like, reverse-deja vu moment where I felt like I was forgetting something that I should know about, but couldn’t tell what. So I looked into it a little bit, and I found this news article that references someone of the same name, at Dresher, dying on the same day. But instead of a car crash report, it’s a totally different story about some kind of mugging, which I have absolutely no memory of. And I… can’t think of any explanation for this? Both of these documents are public, and I just can’t see this being a coincidence. I’ll attach a bit of the article below, but can you guys help me look into this?

Student shot and killed during mugging at Dresher University (Published 12/7/2015) This Wednesday, Dresher University junior Elodie Carter was fatally shot while walking home from a party. Campus police were called to the scene after two gunshots were heard outside the Erwin Residence Hall, where they found Carter’s deceased body with two deadly gunshot wounds and purse missing.  Security camera footage reveals that the incident occurred just as Carter entered a blind spot, however, a blue truck not known to belong to any Dresher student can be seen quickly exiting the area moments before authorities could arrive.  Peers who attended the party she was leaving testify that nothing seemed unusual about her behavior, only that one friend warned her to be careful while walking home alone. The local police department is continuing to search for any signs of a perpetrator, and is discouraging students from being out alone in any context.

(Str4ng3r) Replied on 5/7/2023 to (CanaryAnne_)

God fuckin damn casually dropping you got into Dresher. Jealousy aside, you’re right, this is really weird. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing off about either of these sources other than the fact that they contradict each other. I think it is technically possible that there were just two Elodie Carter’s at Dresher who died on the same day, but that just doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe this is just my conspiratorial side, but I feel like maybe this is some sort of cover-up and the media mixed up their stories.

(CanaryAnne_) Replied on 5/7/2023 to (Str4ng3r)

I guess that’s possible? It just seems so coincidental, like, besides the fact I can’t find anything they’d have to cover up (which I guess is kinda the point), wouldn’t anyone with the power to do that at least ensure that their super basic stories are… y’know, at least compatible?

Also my student loans are still KILLING me so don’t feel too jealous about not getting in.

(Str4ng3r) Replied on 5/7/2023 to (CanaryAnne_)

Alright this is officially fucked I found another account of her death, I looked through the account that posted her obituary and it still shows she is still following it (I guess they don’t delete accounts of ppl who’ve passed) and i chose a random person following her, scrolled down to around the time it happened, and there was nothing. But there was a post one year later commemorating her and-

AmberFoster (10/7/2016): It’s been a year since we lost Elodie. Walked to the park where we were on the night when she first said she was feeling strange, then she had a stroke, and just a day later she was gone. I don’t really know why I went back, it just made me feel awful. I guess on some level I feel like I owe it to her, I know a lot of people aren’t going to remember so I have to be there for her. Elly, if in some universe, in some way, you can read this, know that I’m only okay because of you.

This is crazy. And before anyone asks, no I’m not going to message them further that would be so weird.

(xpp0q) Replied on 6/7/2023 to (CanaryAnne_)

Alright, I started looking into it more, it doesn’t get any less impossible. I was looking at Dresher’s website and found one of their physics professors that’s been there a long time, figured if Elodie was a physics major then they would have crossed paths. I shot him an email asking if he ever taught her and if he knew of her passing, without mentioning the discrepancy we have here. He got back right away, this is the email and obv I censored both of our names.

Dear ████, Good evening to you too. Yes, I can confirm I taught Elodie in my Advanced Experimental Physics class around 2014. As it was a while back, I don’t remember a lot of the specifics, but I definitely recognize the name. I do have some emails coming from her that I won’t show you out of respect, but from what I can tell she was very involved with some of the deeper research happening on campus, and her suicide was very unexpected. Best of luck with whatever you’re looking for.  ████, PhD

I have no clue what to do with this. I asked him if he could show me proof or any email/document that it happened, and he said he had none but heard it by word of mouth.

I did some additional digging, and found the studies that the prof said she was working on. Well, sorta, I looked for them in the database and got results, but all of them were blacked out. I think they got intentionally expunged somehow. This sort of leans into the “government coverup” theory I guess, but still doesn’t really make sense. What research could she possibly have been doing that was secretive, yet known to a random professor, sensitive, yet released to the public at some point, made her dangerous enough to get killed, but not dangerous enough for her story to be written with any consistency, created all these messed up narratives, but not enough for anyone to notice until years later - it’s nonsense, I don’t know what to make of this. And that’s assuming it is a coverup at all, and we don’t know that. 

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 7/7/2023 to (CanaryAnne_)

Hey, what the hell is going on here? This isn’t funny.

(Str4ng3r) Replied on 7/7/2023 to (Elly_Carter94)

Fuck off troll

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 7/7/2023 to (Str4ng3r)

This account has been around for FIVE YEARS, dude. I read this forum. You can find posts of mine talking about Dresher and engineering advice really recently. What are you guys trying to do here?

(CanaryAnne_) Replied on 7/7/2023 to (Elly_Carter94)

You… Aren’t dead?

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 7/7/2023 to (Str4ng3r)

What do you think? I don’t know where all of these reports are coming from but they sure as hell aren’t about me. I had that professor, am still dating Amber, and have a job and everything now.

(CanaryAnne_) Replied on 7/7/2023 to (Elly_Carter94)

I’m really sorry you had to see us talk about you like this, but I mean… look at all of the different accounts we found, isn’t it reasonable that we thought that you were dead? None of us have found any evidence that these are fake, do you have any idea what this is?

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Str4ng3r)

I mean, no, I don’t know what they are. I’ve never seen these before. Sorry for my initial reaction, y'all aren’t doing anything wrong. You’re right, it is weird. I can tell you that my “involvement in research” was long enough ago that I can admit that I wasn’t actually super involved in it. My mom was the one actually in it, I just got a freebie internship that let me do accounting stuff for the researchers. I really wanted to be involved, but I just never got let in. There was only once I got any kind of action, there was someone missing that apparently was supposed to be there and I subbed in.

(xpp0q) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elly_Carter94)

What did you do when you got to work?

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (xpp0q)

I can’t remember most of it, but it was boring. I just had to stand in a specific place and press a button. I couldn’t even fully see the machine, but it was huge and underground. There actually was some kind of malfunction that day, a bunch of red lights and sirens told us that we had to leave like halfway through, and that was that.

By the way, I asked Amber to look through her posts for the one you guys found, and it is there but she doesn’t remember ever posting, nor would she have any reason to. I’m just as confused as all of you.

(Elo_Cart) Replied on 8/7/20██ to (Elly_Carter94)

Oh my god it worked, I actually have a connection. Ok, please listen to me. I’m not here to make jokes or anything like that. I might be able to explain but I don’t have any time. For you all it’s 2023 but right now it’s 2015. And it's two days until every other Elodie dies.

(Str4ng3r) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

What are you talking about? What the fuck do you mean it’s 2015?

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

Who are you??

(Elo_Cart) Replied on 8/7/20██ to (xpp0q)

I’m sorry, you’ll just have to trust me. I’m Elodie Carter. A different one. Your Elly didn’t get to be a larger part of the research program but I did. And I don’t have a lot of time, so I’m just going to have to be blunt: I’m not from your universe. The research we were doing was about investigating if parallel realities existed - or at least that’s what I was told. That was a lie, they were already certain of it. This whole time, they’ve actually been working making an “absolute timeline,” which would destroy all the others.

(CanaryAnne_) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

That’s… so we’re saying multiverse theory is correct?

(Elo_Cart) Replied on 8/7/20██ to (CanaryAnne_)

Doesn’t it make sense to what you’ve been seeing? A bunch of versions of the same person impossibly experiencing different things?

(xpp0q) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

Hold on, if all this is true, why is your universe wanting to destroy all of the others?

(Elo_Cart) Replied on 8/7/20██ to (xpp0q)

We don’t want to, we just discovered that we can, like you guys did. We realized that it's theoretically possible for a timeline to be made "absolute," as in turned into the one, true timeline which cancels out all the rest. And because we found out that it's possible, that meant anyone else could do it at any time. And the only way to prevent us from taking the blow is by being the first to do it.

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

What does this have to do with us? Like, specifically you and me?

(Elo_Cart) Replied on 8/7/20██ to (Elly_Carter94)

You guys were the first. Not to make your universe absolute, since obviously I’m here right now, but the first to make a person absolute. Something becoming absolute means that there only can exist one across all universes. Whatever accident happened in your lab on the 9th, it turned you into an absolute being, and as a result every other Elodie can't exist after that.

(xpp0q) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

So why and how are you here to tell us this right now?

(Elo_Cart) Replied on 8/7/20██ to (xpp0q)

I’ve gone under the radar using the other researchers’ equipment to try and warn all the others, I guess our timelines are slightly staggered meaning my now is your before. But more importantly, we need this business to stop. If we can coordinate everyone, maybe we can agree that NOBODY has to pursue an absolute timeline. If any of the universes does it, they’ll ensure their own survival, but cause the deaths of literal infinite others. Most universes are similar enough to have some form of the internet, so I’ve been trying to bridge them. And I think it’s working, since you guys are seeing posts from other timelines. Unfortunately, that’s also how I learned that I think it’s over for me soon.

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

Okay, that… Thank you. I mean really, thank you so much. I will try to continue what you have going here. I’m so, so sorry that it happened this way.

(CanaryAnne_) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

Yes, thank you. I don’t know how anyone is gonna believe us, but… We’ll try.

(Str4ng3r) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

Yeah, me too. It’s definitely crazy, but I think if your internet shit works even a little bit then we’ll start to amass more evidence.

(xpp0q) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

Same here. Is there anything else you want from us?

(Elo_Cart) Replied on 8/7/20██ to (xpp0q)

Just- Elodie, can you take care of Amber? I know it’s a different one and you’re doing it already, but I feel so awful having to leave her all alone. Just help her out. I don’t know what mine is going to do, but you can help yours. Will you do that?

(Elly_Carter94) Replied on 8/7/2023 to (Elo_Cart)

Of course. I promise I’ll take care of her, and I promise that yours will turn out alright. We can take it from here, your work is done. Go spend time with her. If you’re the same as me, then that’s probably all that’s on your mind right now.

(Elo_Cart) Replied on 9/7/20██ to (Elly_Carter94)

Ok. Thank you. Goodbye.

[marshmallowprotection]

I just learned than in Korea, Wisteria flowers symbolize a devotion that transcend death. Now I'm wondering if you picked that name on purpose for the miss.

Honestly I've been suspecting every name surrounding Lila to be carefully choosen for a while. Lila, like Wisteria, is a flower name (it's the french for Lilac) and we know Saeran's love for flowers. Both those flowers are depicted as purple most of the time and it's that blog that told me Saeran was first associated to purple.

And there's more.

Most name starting by the prefix "Lu-" bear the meaning of "Light" (From the Latin 'Lux'). Like Luciel (not exactly related, but Ciel means Sky in french. Doubt it's intended in the name, but because of the game context it's cute.) Or Lucy.

I don't think I'm tripping if I assume Lila's story was made to have a few parallels with Saeran's.

It would be a lot of crazy coincidence, so I have to think at least a few of those were purposeful. Right..? I also wonder if I missed anything. I guess I didn't tried to dig into Minji and Judas name, maybe I should.

Oh, thank you for noticing that! It's actually very important to Lila's character in her Assistant timeline with Unknown. She takes on the name Wisteria as her code name for two reasons. Because they're a reminder of a tree she used to love to lounge under as a child and for the symbolism behind the flower itself. The term, devotion, stands to be important here.

Her love for Unknown, the person who heard her anger and told her to revel in it instead of shoving it deeper into her chest, has her deep respect. Despite their shaky beginning, he understood her in a way that nobody else ever had. Her love for him is like nothing else. For the person who acknowledged her pain, she would do anything. In Bad Endings for Wisteria, she's willing to burn things to the ground for Unknown's dream.

She would even forsake her kind nature in the name of her devotion. Lila's last name is Lancelot. But, rather than a betrayal of a friend like Arthur, Lila can betray herself in the act of love at her worst. This can burn others, too. She and V have this in common, believe it or not. It's just not as apparent because it manifests in different ways.

Not even death could erase her devotion to him. It's stronger than life itself. This is a double-edged sword. In the Good Ending, she realizes that Unknown's revenge isn't actually good for him, and she works to help Saeyoung, Minji, and Judas escape after they arrive at Mint Eye to investigate the cult. She doesn't care for them, says so herself, but she knows between poison and a traitor, she'd rather put stock in the redhead than Rika.

Even if this is a betrayal to Unknown in a sense. She's willing to make choices like this because she loves him and wants what's best for him at the cost of losing him. She knows that he might push her away for putting stock in Saeyoung, but she also knows one simple fact. If the two of them stay in Mint Eye forever, they're going to die.

She loves him, dearly, and she can't imagine him suffering anymore once that suffering becomes clear to her. It takes a bit because the elixir makes her mind fuzzy, but when it does, she will not ignore it any longer. Unknown's actually to blame for her awareness in the end, as he started to dilute her elixir not long after the apartment incident, and doing so helped her realize the severity of their pain.

He never did want to have her cleansed, but he shrugged it off after it happened even though he was angry about it... until she had to dig glass out of his body and wept over his chest about how she hated to see him suffer. He realized he didn't want to see her suffer like that... and he was angry that the Savior lied to him about the apartment. He didn't know there was a bomb in there. Lila was his rock when he ran out of there, terrified out of his mind.

Because her devotion is to him. When Rika cleansed her to prove a point to Unknown (he was growing... softer... which isn't what he is meant to be in RIka's eyes), she told Lila that her goal should be the "protection of Unknown's paradise." Too bad for Rika, though. What's paradise for Unknown isn't the same as Rika's idea.

Lila's sister is named Lucy. It's not short for anything. I actually didn't pick her name because it sounded similar to Luciel, believe it or not. I just liked the name and wanted to use it. Hilariously, I had that picked out well before V's adopted daughter appeared, but now VAE Lila has to distinguish the Lucy she's talking about, haha.

She's a simple teaching assistant for V in the VAE timeline, because he offers art classes to children and adults. Lila is a painter, too. It's her dream so it's nice to have a job that helps her explore her art and help others do the same.

Although Lila having a torn relationship with her sister is a pointed choice because it gives her a chance to relate to Ray and Saeran in a personal capacity. She gets it. She gets their pain like the back of her hand. They find peace in each other from this pain. Haha, but I'm glad to hear you've put a lot of though into this!

Minji and Judas have their own lore put into them, but it's probably harder to locate information about them since I haven't written too many stories for them. But, I'd be happy to answer questions about them if you're curious!

[aphantomr]

Let’s Reread Commonweal, book 1, chapters 6-10 part 2

Because late-night me is bad at compliments, and I ended up having more thoughts. Next time I'll let it simmer a while before posting.

We almost didn’t get Blossom because it was taking so long for another Independent, any other Independent, to learn this specific ritual. Blossom did every single one of the hundred-fifty-odd bronze bulls pulling the experimental battery around, and all four tubes. Nobody else has managed to make one of those; they’re mostly cobalt instead of iron, and the engraved runes are silver and samarium instead of copper and gold and whatever’s in the black enamel.

Really need book 4 context to get how unique Blossom is, but once you have it this is a bit scary. Somehow I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Halt and Blossom are here now, and the Commonweal split. Haven’t looked at the timeline for contingency planning but the Paingyre has definitely been causing increasingly worse problems already, the Captain’s been here for two years.

The rules for Independents have a lot to do with “as directed” and “noncombatants”. The Line doesn’t like using Independents as anything but support, and preferably distant support, doing things like making artillery and sorting out the logistics. Front-line Independents spend their time figuring out what that thing the battalion just squashed was, and if there are likely to be more.

Hmmm. Thinking about how the Captain pretty much ignores this, and drawing some parallels to what the Captain explains to the kid at the end of this book, about being a weapon in your own hand and doing the job as well as you can, not as well as someone thinks you should. Accidentally joined a political cabal indeed.

Someone is being sneaky. It will sound very good indeed if there is an incursion and a territorial short company and an experimental half-battery sent off to test a new bronze bull enchantment stomps it. Things like that do wonders for the Line’s myth of invincibility.

I parsed this as the usual propaganda you have for your own army at first, but given Commonweal sensibilities about the Peace and what it’s for, it comes off a bit different. Still, people want to believe they’re safe, and that's not a bad thing.

It’s hot; summer humid-hot that makes you very glad you’re up on a meadow with a bit of breeze off the hills, the snowy Northern Hills, rather than in some chunk of creekside land that might as well be swamp for humidity. The bronze bulls are too hot to touch with your bare hands, and just as completely desirous of having their faces scritched as the oxness in them ever was in life. Most of them are getting shiny patches between the eyes as the drovers resort to wire brushes; fingers don’t really get through.

Cute. Also thinking about the bronze dog with bendable ears. Just — everything’s made out of the little things.

Edit addition: bronze animals are content, but do they still feel pain / aversion to harm, is avoiding damage handled with flesh-life instincts, or is damage not a concern?

It’s Twitch’s turn to look flummoxed. “Not much point; it’s not natural dry, it’s made dry. Anybody goes down into it’s got maybe five minutes before they’re fatally mummified.”

I do love the sheer variety of deadly landscape the world has. Also, belatedly, about the sometimes-dragonblood creek — given what unicorns are in this world, I’m a little afraid to find out what they call dragons.

“What would it cost to take trees from the top of a pass in the Northern Hills?” The creepy, shifting geology of same seems to have a thing for really big trees. There’d be some serious worth to it if not for the logistical difficulties. The bewildered turns to horrified. “You couldn’t, you’d never get anybody back alive without years of road-making … ” and the honourable Gerefan subsides. Subsides, and then the confused look, the confused looks of the other other eight, all firm up together. Anybody at all from Reems, come by stealth over the Northern Hills, is an invasion.

I do love when the protagonist gets to win at conversation (subtype: successful explanation). It’s not a useful mindset but it is very satisfying.

Rust smiles like a caricature of avarice, into faces going half-slack with outright fear now, under their crowns of butterflies.

Glad someone’s having fun.

Somewhere in the focus, there’s a mutter with not dying dry in it. “Farewell”, says Rust, and ten of the men of Reems sag in the grip of the standard.

Incoherent thoughts about (un)common decency vs the ends justifying the means. The journey is also the point.

Blossom’s battery isn’t officially a unit; they don’t have a battery banner, and they don’t have even a theoretical artillery battalion standard of their own. So the crews are latching to the tubes, and those are latching to Blossom, and Blossom’s latching to the standard. That shouldn’t work, but I’m giving up on “shouldn’t” this summer. The individual artillery teams can latch directly to the standard if they want to, we tested that, they’re just happier treating their commander idolatrously.

Nothing unusual going on here, nope. Are these guys Creeks, or did they come with Blossom? Experimental battery implies guys who volunteered to do science, but there’s been no mention of social friction at all.

Grudging agreement, and a few hopeful thoughts about eel-trees. I have to smile.

First-read me didn’t know how bad weeds were and now every time I see one mentioned a ping goes off in my head.

If I didn’t get to die with the best company I could have had, I could have done worse than the company I look to get.

I do love how the Captain is so calm about it. No hesitation, no courage, just, this is the job I signed up for and it needs doing.

I’ve been trying to find songs and poems for characters, and this one matches The March North okay. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57431/for-all-we-have-and-are

[trashlie]

hello there! I recently read I Love Yoo for the first time and first off, wow what a series. as I've been diving into the fandom I found your blog (your analysis posts are absolutely amazing) and since you've been around the fandom a long time I was hoping you could help clarify a few things for me. obviously there's seven years of fandom and meta context I'm missing out on, but I keep seeing references to two planned time skips and seasons that I'm a little confused about. everything that's out now I think is still the first season? but I'm wondering what exactly the author has shared over the years of the planned timeline, time skips, etc. thank you in advance for any clarification you can provide! very excited to dive into more of your analysis in the future

Oh wow! I feel like getting to jump in and just binge ILY from this point is SO amazing - having this much of the story already out, so many episodes and being able to see how those threads connect and where they go! 🤩 The dream! (Also thank you!!!! I really appreciate that! Esp since I haven't made any ILY posts lately; they're in my head, I just haven't gotten around to finishing typing them out lol)

But to answer your question, quimchee has told us there will be two timeskips. The first is a short timeskip that will bring us to graduation, and the second is a much bigger timeskip of around 4 years or so. 👀 I have a little write up in the ILY Discord server about this that I should finally add to my blog today after work about how I think the timeskips coincide with Yujing's article - that is, I think she's likely working on two articles.

Now, this part is speculation and not from quimchee - she's only told us when the timeskips are and how long they'll jump us. But Nol's sentence is 120 days (less if he's good, as Yujing noted) and 120 days takes us to April. What else is in April? Shinae's birthday! Timing-wise, it depends on if quimchee is using a Korean calendar for school; after all, she did use the college entrance exams that Korean school systems utilize. In this case, graduation happens in February, but given that ILY doesn't strictly add to Korean or U.S. culture rules (quimchee refers to the setting as The United States of Asia lol) we might see this budged to adhere to a more U.S.-centric graduation era where Nol's release times up with Shinae's birthday (no way are we skipping over that!) and graduation. This is likely when Yujing will drop her first article about Nol, possibly exposing that he was framed for a crime he didn't take, made to take the fall, and most certainly exposing that he's the true legitimate heir of the Hirahara family by Mukoyoshi law. Yujing noted that Nol pleading guilty actually helps them/their case, and I think this is so because it isn't the first time he's taken the fall for someone else because he's the "other son"; it's heavily implied that the altercation that occurred between him and Kousuke was not Nol's fault/doing.

Now, the other timeskip will likely see our cast reuniting after Shinae finishes college. I think she will end up taking Yui's offer - whether because she's backed into a corner or because makes the choice we're yet to see - and I think we might actually see her come back as Kousuke's assistant to finish off her contract (or perhaps as part of the Yui trap). Nol will likely go to college abroad and Kousuke... well. I think we can see where he's headed 😭 This is also when I think Yujjng will REALLY go after Yui and Gun, what all those articles she was researching are leafing to.

Something quimchee mentioned on a patreon stream is that during the timeskip (and it wasn't specified which), she'd like to show the passage of time by showing the characters keeping in touch via letters, emails, texts, etc which I'm REALLY looking forward to!

In the past, we were told ILY would be divided into 2 seasons, and that season 2 would start after the big timeskip, but quimchee has said before that's not going to happen? However, sometimes a lot of us still refer to season 2 as "post-big-time-skip" for brevity lol. Maybe we'll still see it as s2 in the future but last I heard it won't be broken up into seasons.

I know this was more than what you asked but I always get so excited talking about the timeskips, I can't wait for them!!! I know the first one is SO close! I think quimchee was trying her best to get to it before her birth so she could do a little break before the first timeskip but alas. But we are SO close, I can almost taste it, AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

I'm so glad you found ILY and are enjoying it!!! It really is not what it first appears and the way it subverts those expectations will always be one of my favorite aspects of this series. Seeing nre readers find it at this time, when there's so much of the series to consume and feed on is so exciting! 🥺 Happy reading! Please let me know if you have more questions!

[chaifootsteps]

I am one of those people who did not want to call Miss Medrano a terrible person. Yes, we have a bunch of different material in our hands about her attitude towards others, how she constantly sees herself as a victim, what a narcissist she is, but I WANTED to believe that things were taken out of context, that in real life she might not actually an angel in the flesh, but at least a pleasant person to talk to (and still a terrible creator. For me personally, she has become an image of the WORST things I can see in modern animation). However, everything has a limit. And the situation with Salem and Viv's recent tweet has already pissed me off.

We need to listen to victims of violence, but if they talk about Viv or someone from her team, like that fucking pervert Raph, then everything they say is a lie, provocation and hate? And if you also support victims of violence or simply do not throw rotten tomatoes at them, then you are also a hater and a bastard who DARE to think badly of Medrano? And, of course, we should just close our eyes to the bunch of screenshots, rumors and stories that have been accumulating around Vivienne for YEARS. And I may say something stupid, but there cannot be so many scandals surrounding an innocent person. I can still believe that some stories are embellished or exaggerated, but once is an accident, two times is a coincidence, and the third time is a pattern.

And I have a question for Viv and her team. They, of course, won’t see this or will simply not care, but still: aren’t you ashamed of your behavior? You constantly make excuses, engage in outright self-admiration (Viv's recent like about the success of TADC, for example), outright lie, shit on others and allow your crazy fan base to harass, insult and threaten ANYONE who even slightly disagrees with you . Do you really like that the Hellaverse fanbase is despised and hated by everyone around you? And no, I'm not exaggerating. In many other fandoms, it is Vivienne's fandom that is considered crap and the most glaring example of what the audience is a mirror of their favorite artists.

And these people are followed by millions? Are they an example for someone? These pathetic narcissists who just happened to be popular? I really don't want to belittle other people's achievements (especially poor animators), but after all these behind-the-scenes stories, I no longer have any sympathy or respect for them.

That's one of the crazy, awful things about it, isn't it? So many people really did do everything in their power to give Vivzie the benefit of the doubt -- hell, I even did it for a long time -- and then there comes a moment when you realize no, she really is that bad. She's worse.

She's got her nutcase fanbase, but she also hijacks something fundamentally good in people, the part that wants to believe in underdog success stories (also a lie on Vivzie's part, she was always rich as hell) and defend those who are being kicked around. And that's so fucked up.

[a-beneficial-union]

I've been playing around with dress codes and uniforms, which would be more prominent in places with larger amounts of non Vulp-ens.

A quick note is that all designs are supposed to be unique in their general shape. -Ens (Ben AUs from the artificially branched timelines) are all incredibly near-sighted with visual processing issues. If any can be mistaken for another, it should be with purpose.

(These would , of course, be less common in the Seventh branch, particularly with ][Borrowed Time.)

The basic categories are

Guest: Sleeves and abdomen are different, solid colours. The shoulders and neck are the colour of the sleeves, and there are a mark on the trapezius on either side. This is for folks from beyond the ]*[Way* and -ens from ][Branch 10, at least so long as they do not join thr BU, whereupon they would be switched off into either ‘normal’ or modded.

• For 10ths, the phases are determined by awareness and reservation. Phase two is achieved when the person is informed what will happen to them if their timeline is allowed to play out, phase three is acceptance that a decision must be made, and four is that a course if action has been decided.

‘Normal’: Sporty and soccer-like, this is made to coincide with OG Ben's shirt.

• Phases are determined by two things: stage of Omni conversion (the watch grows inwards) and knowledgeability. Very basically, it's to know if they've been spoiled yet (as many don’t want to deal with triggering various crises). (This is a bit selfish.) spoiler 1 for Odd-Ens is ‘You're adopted, your cousin's you twin, and your grandmother is an alien in two senses of the word’. Spoiler two is about parental health, three is on relational misgivings, four is on inescapable condemnation.

Vollunteer: These are defined by the triangle in the front. Volunteers are almost exclusively from ][Networks, and sometimes from someone already [[known[[. Questions about transfer, stage, and phase are pretty irrelevant in these cases, instead what's important is freedom of movement while in a different dimension or territory. (This is the same, if subtler, with contractors).

• Shoulder band: Can move around given territories with minimal supervision. Elbow/arm band: can move throughout and across territories, they know the rules and won’t get themselves hurt. Wrist band: can move without constraint.

Patron: Has large, horizontal stripes on the body and shoulders but not the rest of the sleeves. Patron ‘phase’ is determined by familiarity with whatever they buying (or from whom). It is less strongly regulated but overstating familiarity us frowned upon and does one no favours,

Contractor (Worker): The only other one with prominent arm bands, contractors are generally left to their own devices and are usually has ties with the person who hired them. As workers tend to come in groups (be they cells or coalitions), their uniforms tend to have additions made to make it more clear who their possy is. While worker uniforms are more closely regulated, the attire is often forewent when not facing the public. The style is influenced by Midland Vulp stripes, though the dilution and cultural osmosis has landed them into a more general tiger, meerkat, and zebra zone, where the meaning differs entirely on context.

• Phase differentiation is more to signify to those outside the group who is in charge and who should not be pestered. Other aesthetic details, including hair length (short for grunts) and briar marks, are also useful here.

Moderator (Manager/Administrator): The design is a few steps away from ‘normal’, as mods tend to work with and around unspecialized, general -ens. (Specialization basically just means ‘those with jobs in the BU. Some branches and networks call them “purposes” or “utilities”). Those more familiar or specialized tend to avoid mods unless the mod cannot supersede them (such as if one is an apprentice to someone else, they have immunity status, or are from a different network). This is an incredibly easy job to abuse, the bulk of whom coming from ][Blight in First (seventh has pheromones instead, which they view as less creepy).

• Modding is just as it sounds, and the extent of its effectiveness is determined by who you can supersede, System standing, and the Omni phase of the superseded. By stage one, autonomous movement has been breached— but taking over someone's ability to move almost always freaks folks out and makes them stop coming around, so subtler ways are used instead. The argument for this practice is that -ens are literal walking weapons with a tendency for violence, so modding is good for preventing injuries. Talented mods use their role to effect noxious perceptions and the like. Modding emotion is difficult and risky, but if you can adjust how the people under you physically feel (by removing or mitigating perceptions of exhaustion, hunger, and pain, or by teasing up pleasant perceptions to try and nudge everyone into a good mood) then you can more quietly stronghold their behavior.

Modded: Exactly what it sounds like. In terms of design, this one stands out the most, being a mix of diagonal lines to aproximate the dial's hourglass. Most volunteers will skip out on a project if they are asked to wear these, as it is a massive red flag (though they'd use orange rather than red). Who is most often seen in these are folks who are too risky to leave without control (because they're a flight risk or threat) but too valuable to not use. This was most common in the intermediary time between the EA (Eon) and BU (union).

And Traveler: At last! Nomads were probably my favourite, possibly because they were the last one I'd done. Theirs is a derivative of contractors (because they move between decibels a lot for work/life and it is fun to trick the gullible into thinking they're supposed to be there). Unlike contractors, the arm bands are disrupted by a streak (they're not authorized to be there, they're there anyway). Nomads are common in seventh, fourth, sixth, and to a lesser extent ninth. They get by through knowing the System's rules and juuuuust barely following them (can’t travel across decibels alone, so they're always in pairs or small groups. Can’t go to populated areas without disrupting the standing, so they stick to deserted or wild places. They never challenge the resident for claim of a decibel and cannot be challenged so long as they follow the rules. Transformations are dome through physically downloaded slots to avoid leaving data trails, all that jazz.)

•During EA times, they'd be called vermin, rats, or unregistered hoppers. Presently they're called nomads, transients (a loaded per a similar Anodite word), grifters, and <Wanderers> (Vulp role). They are sometimes called foxes (when they double as contractors), mice (when they go it solo or in tiny groups), and opossums (when they actively do some bits of somatype Anodite practices).

Next up is colours, which will be its own post. Here's a highlight reel:

Some standard colours of uniforms, though they absolutely vary.

[amalgamezz]

About your aro post in your tags you said you don’t care for any loves (romantic, familial [<- I don’t feel that one too :D] etc.) does that go for friendships as well? Or are you more of a person who doesn’t care for connection at all? I hope I worded that right…

heya, thank you for this ask, and no worries, your wordings are fine! sorry, this will be a long one because my audhd demands that i should provide full contexts 😔

as i interacted and got to know more about aplatonic and loveless communities, i found a certain solidarity/kinship with them. ever since i was in elementary, friendship has never been something i actively seek myself. i still got along well with classmates. my relationships with coworkers are chill and good. i have mutuals and friendly acquaintances here and there to talk about our shared interests. i try to maintain a good relationship with my family because capitalism sucks ass, especially for single people. in a way, this, too, is how i practice relationship anarchy — to give each casual and non-casual relationship i have a function and learn to appreciate them instead of putting the burdens on one or two committed relationships. for me, friendship has become a label for happy coincidences born out of those relationships after long and frequent interactions, if both parties desire a name for it. i have some positive connections with friends who i trust with my life, and i would mourn intensively should i lose them, but tbh, im not sure if i would personally call it "love".

i was lovequeer before i am loveless. im actually still considering myself lovequeer in a way that i strongly believe that love doesnt have to be romantic and that no kind of love is superior to the other. my personal relationship with love is complicated, but mostly sour. as an aro, i am a fierce defender of non-romantic loves. it annoys me greatly when people casually throw amatonormative phrases such as "there is no platonic explanation for this" or "friends dont do that" around. it is usually a hopeless and lonely battle because people dont really care about "not all loves are romantic" until you reject the concept of love altogether. more often than not, it becomes a gotcha towards aros who express their frustration with obsession over love by society.

this frustration, too, drew me closer to the concept of lovelessness. lovelessness means different things to different people, but for me, its the rejection of love being a superior, necessary, or moral trait of a human being. i had a knee-jerk reaction at first when i learned the term, but the more i read about it and introspect, the more it resonates with me. i remember how my parents hit me when i was a kid. i remember my aunt chewed me out in front of my entire family for expressing my wish to stay single and childless. i remember being driven to tears as my dad sneakily threw out a gift from my friend that i hung on my car and replaced it with a rosary. when asked why, they said because they wanted what was best for me. because they wanted me to be happy. because they loved me. it all sounded contradictory, but i have been with them long enough to know that they were being genuine. i dont wanna think its not a real love because i dont find it useful and more often than not, it only makes me question myself if i have been a fair evaluator and get guilty when i think im not. instead, i just have to accept that good intentions dont always bring good outcomes. their love is real, but its like a sun that burns and hurts more intensively the closer i get to it. i started coming to terms with love being a neutral but strong emotional motive that drives humans to do something — just like pleasure, joy, anger, sadness, envy, etc. whether you do good, bad, or neither because of it solely depends on you. i can acknowledge that they love me, but that doesnt mean they should be able to use it as an excuse to hurt me. this applies to all kinds of love.

i have nothing against love or the people who cherish it, but as i start dissecting and understanding more about love, it becomes less and less significant in my life. i start to realise that i dont need to love someone to bring them happiness or do good for them. i dont need to love my friends to care for or emotionally support them when they need it. i dont need to love my mutuals or even strangers to consider donating for their groceries. i dont need to love the victims of war to condemn the hideous crimes committed against them by some certain govts. love doesnt make me human. i just simply am, and im happy with the loveless relationships/connections i currently have.

[niuttuc]

What do you think about the power level of recent sets as pertaining to eternal formats?

Ok, so, how do you define "recent sets"... And "eternal formats" too. I will try to give my thoughts according to my interpretation of that, but it's fuzzier than you'd think.

I will say anything recent is anything more recent than any set legal in standard, and eternal formats cover Legacy, Vintage, Commander and Modern. I'll also put in a read more because that ended up being a pretty long ramble.

First of all, I'll clear up a bunch of them at once: Standard set have been fine, and in fact pretty great. They've provided powerful pieces to older formats, of course, be it Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Sheoldred, Ledger Shredder, Channel lands,... And all and all, if you ask me? Those have been pretty natural additions to the formats. Cards at the upper end of the standard power-level finding synergies and homes in decks.

Of these, channel lands are maybe the biggest offender here, as easy one-of answers any deck in their color can play, but in those formats playing a non-fetchable one color land that isn't a basic is actually a cost, even if it's one that people end up paying for Otawara and Boseiju.

I also need to address the beans in the room: Up the Beanstalk has been making some pretty impressive waves in older formats. Mostly because of its interaction with those formats' access to many powerful cards that have a "mana value" of 5 or more but can be cast for zero or one mana. I'd argue that this is an issue with those free spells and not Up the Beanstalk, but also I feel like this is a very normal way for cards to break into Eternal formats: through unforeseen interactions within the huge pool of cards of those formats. That's typically how Legacy and Modern got their most iconic cards, and that's why the Vintage restricted list can look so weird to a casual observer, with Ancestral Recall hanging around next to Lodestone Golem and Monastery Mentor.

Now, that leaves us with Baldur's Gate (ie the Initiative set), Warhammer 40,000, Unfinity, Transformers, Jumpstart 2022, the Lord of the Rings set, and very recently Doctor Who. Plus the smattering of commander precons.

From this list, Transformers and Jumpstart had no effect on eternal formats. Doctor Who hasn't had a huge effect so far, but also it released two weeks ago and isn't on Magic Online, so we don't really have any significant amount of data for Legacy or Vintage about that.

This leaves us with Baldur's Gate first, which added Initiative to Legacy, and also Minsc & Boo. Oh, and Pauper suffered Initiative too. While it might have been a mistake, it wasn't really one of power level. Or rather, the power level was fine for the multiplayer formats it was intended for, but unbalanced in the context of 1v1 competitive magic. This was entirely foreseeable even without testing, Monarch did the same thing after all. The question then become: should they tone down commander designs in commander sets that might make them less interesting in commander out of prudence for older formats? I do not have a definitive answer to that. Ideally, they'd be able to balance the two off of their differences.

40K introduced a few cards into eternal formats, but none that I'd qualify as "broken", just some new powerful option, mostly synergy-based. Same with Unfinity, although Unfinity had other issues than power-level. Nothing was too strong, but making half the set eternal-legal including stickers and attractions, underpowering them to avoid competitive issues, and them still sneaking into competitive play, was pretty much the worst of all worlds. Comet and Embiggen and Pair O' Dice Lost are fine. ______ Goblin not so much, but again, not a power level issue. Kappa Cannoneer is a strong card, but I feel about it the same as I do about Up the Beanstalk: situationally strong and dependent on the environment and naturally added as part of a batch.

Which leaves us with the Lord of the Rings set, coincidentally the only one of these to enter Modern on top of legacy. To recap, the cards that mainly see play from this are the landcyclers (chiefly Lòrien Revealed), Orcish Bowmasters and the One Ring. And Forth Eorlingas! in Legacy only, as it is a commander precon card. There's a few others that might see occasional play, but those are the main ones you're likely to see.

The landcyclers I think add to the format's manabases, mostly for graveyard decks. Orcish Bowmasters is an answer, a strong answer, and I don't really like its design, it does a bit too much without even trying. It does one too many things, I feel. Either don't make the token, or only ping the opponent and make the token, or ping creatures but not players and planeswalkers. I'll put Forth Eorlingas in that bag too.

The One Ring is incredibly strong,... But I feel less annoyed by it. It is the One Ring, and it feels appropriate. It's also a 4 mana artifact with counterplay to it, and after spiking up in popularity, it's somewhat stabilized as a staple with both decks playing it and deck preferring other options. Regardless, I don't think its main strength should be being able to play multiple copies of it to dodge any consequences though. It barely cracks the top 50 most played noncreature nonland cards in legacy. So the main issue is in Modern, and again, it's a good problem to have, one that can be handled and isn't by a landslide.

So overall, the few pushed cards in LTR are the only ones I'd qualify as a "problem of power level in recent sets for Eternal formats". A huge part of the problem is that they were injected into Modern alongside Legacy, but also the cards were pushed a bit too far. Overall, not too bad a track record though, most of the additions have felt more or less organic. However, if I looked back six months more and we were discussing Modern Horizons 2, I'd have some more choice words about pushed staples, that was like LTR, but with half of its mythics and a third of its rares instead of a literal handful of cards. I sincerely hope Modern Horizons 3 isn't like that. And I hope future direct injections into modern aren't quite as pushed as LTR's targeted Competitive inserts were.

Oh, and I haven't addressed Commander, for two reasons. One, commander, as a format that isn't competitive, is much, much, much more resilient to any "metagame" or "power level issues" because it basically self-corrects. Two, is that there's less issues there because it's where most of these cards are aimed at. I will say, I don't think the One Ring is a positive addition to commander... But it's also a card too expensive for me to see anyone play it, so...

[snowbriar]

ROTTMNT 'Psyched Out' Ideas

So for this one lost episodes we have no context about anything that happens. Just the name. I've got several possible ideas, and one I like better than the rest. Here's my observations and thoughts.

-It is not a Mikey centric episode as the episode it bookends is T-Hex, a specifically Mikey episode.

-Wedding Smashers and Shred Dead Redemption are both Raph plus a brother focused and are positioned very near to this episode so he's probably not the focus.

-COULD be an April-centric episode, but probably isn't based on the fact that she seems to get like, an episode every five or so and this episode is in the middle of those five (Dog Dale Afternoon and Warren Stone 2.0)

That leaves Leo, Draxum, Splinter, and any combination of two or all of them (Many episodes don't have a specific focus character)

As for villains...

-Can't be Mezzmer Ron, Ghostbear, or Meat Sweats as they got taken by Big Mama for the NYC Battle Nexus several episodes ago.

-HIGHLY LIKELY to be the Sando Brothers (If they were going to show all of the villains being captured prior to Battle Nexus NYC episode then this would be the only one that could fit, as there is no other episode before that one where they could show up in the story naturally.

Now, as far as what we could glean from the title...

-'Psyched Out' could be, like, a pun on something psychic or magical. This would fit most as a Hypno-focused episode but he's already been grabbed.

-To psych yourself up is to get yourself in the right headspace, and to psych yourself out is to do the opposite of that.

-Can be used in the context of 'psyching yourself out' or in the context of 'psyching someone else out'.

Other things to note that may or may not be relevant to this episode:

-If the Sando brothers are the villain, the focus of the episode could be slightly on Leo as he is their partner in NYC Battle Nexus.

-In a q&a it was stated that there were 'multiple' scrapped episodes where Leo and Draxum would have been forced to work together.

-From the same q&a we know that Splinter has mystic knowledge he hasn't shared.

-planned April+specific turtles episodes (Like the Gumbus one)

One final thing to note is that episode 38 (this being episode 24) is a culmination episode where the turtles finally sort out all their differences with Draxum, so it is likely that some of the scrapped episodes that we know nothing about would've involved him spending time with the turtles in one way or another. He does show up in two episodes, in Rampaging Raph he assists Raph when he asks for help, and in goyles just wanna have fun he specifically asks for their help. So by episode 38 we should surely have a few OTHER episodes with him involved.

BUT if this relationship developing takes place after Battle Nexus NYC then it would eerily line up with the episodes that Karai was supposed to be in. Ten scrapped episodes for development between Karai and the turtles, following up ten episodes for an arc between the turtles and draxum? Quite a coincidence.

Just realized this is 3000 words 🫠

[flyingcookierambles]

dawntrail predictions?

so below the cut for spoilers and such that i discuss that i have seen without context and such and how i predict dawntrail will go based on those lol

i'm on the rite of succession msq btw, still very very beginning once you have the parade of sorts that introduces wuk lamat's brothers and also bakool ja ja

so....if i had two nickels for every time a south american based region and story got criticized as the worst content and story in the game, i'd have two nickels. which isn't much, but it's weird that it's happened twice.

lmao. ffxiv and genshin. tural and natlan. oooooh boy. the timing is possibly the funniest coincidence possible. i should make a meme edit later of the epic handshake lol.

so, i've seen some posts and such, completely out of context, regarding dawntrail and it's story being weird. and i've seen preach gaming's short video review of 7.1. so. it seems that it kinda gets a bit better in 7.1. and so, now dawntrail is stormblood 2.0.

lyse was naive and annoying in stormblood 4.0, according to public opinion, but the stormblood patches gave her characterization that made her a more mature and reliable leader.

now, since i'm suuuper slow in everything, i joined ffxiv in shadowbringers and i started dawntrail literally yesterday, i've had the reward of getting random spoilers and social media posts to help me uhh. lower my expectation i suppose.

i didn't mind lyse being annoying and naive because i *knew* ahead of time that that was kinda the point of her character and also that she will get better, i just gotta be patient.

lyse had this sheltered life, or as sheltered as a refugee could get, safe away in sharlayan, away from the oppressive garlean colonial rule of ala mhigo/gyr abania. she was likely raised with this nostalgic patriotism from the real ida and mostly interacted with other rebels in the resistance, not the average citizen who has had their spirit broken. this really showed in the early cutscenes, especially in ala gannha and when meeting the Skulls/Fordola. she can't fathom what the average citizen has been through and can't understand why the ala mhigan youths might join the garlean army for a better life. she is disappointed and admonishes the average citizen for not fighting, not really showing empathy for how their repeated years of trauma might not make them the most excited to join the rebels.

through out the msq, but mostly the patches, lyse really grows into an empathic leader who tries to understand things from other's point of view.

now for wuk lamat. so, i've heard some things about her voice acting. totally out of context, i've heard of the infamous "SPHEEEENNNNNNEEEE" while some song called smile plays in the background??? so, i know that people have clipped this scene/video, however, i've only read about it in comments. i've never watched any clips/videos of this scene. i want to experience the hammy camp voice and the song, which i've been told is good but the timing was just bad, completely fresh. like i've avoided listening to flow or close in the distance on spotify and youtube for an entire two years of endwalker, i will avoid watching this or listening to smile. i think it's only fair that i keep this one thing to myself lollllll!!!!

anyways, sena bryer has been in other things and, so far in the early msq, wuk lamat sounds pretty decent. i think she can act, if given good directions by the ADR/voice acting director. sadly, it seems that most voice acting in DT was just...weird? i've read that y'shtola's is not good, however some lines were re-recorded and fixed in 7.1. this is because her voice actress was recording from home and not a studio, as she was on maternity leave. cat woman mommy became a mommy frfr! lol

anyways, i'm not like an expert in voice acting or anything, and i also really don't like how many transphobic ffxiv fans took wuk lamat's voice line quality as ammo to use against the voice actress, a trans woman, instead of going after the voice acting director, the real culprit. i'll have to look at the staff credits of ShB and EW closer to see if the director changed between those two and DT. and that's all i'll say about wuk lamat's voice acting criticisms.

so, her character. now, i thought that she was young, since i keep seeing naruto comparisons. i've seen a reddit comment that she is 30????? HUH?? well, i guess we can't confirm until the 4th addition to the encyclopedia eorzea or something lol. either way, i've read that she, despite saying that she loves her country, doesn't seem to know it very well. she is ignorant of the different cultures and such, which is why you have to go around and meet everyone.

hmmm. i guess i'll just see this when i see it in msq. so i am guessing that were they going with a naive and sheltered princess who needs to learn more about her country before she can rule it, but it came off as so ridiculously ignorant, that she became unbelievable, is that it? i can definitely see if that was their goal but the writing and stuff was just annoying after a while?

during the cutscene that just happened to me, the parade of the candidates, erenville makes a comment that bakool ja ja doesn't seem to really have any policies or goals except to win the contest. maybe they could've gone with something similar to wuk lamat? like, she was also so laser focused on stopping bakool ja ja to preserve her father's peaceful legacy but also has literally no policies or anything for when/if she wins the throne, but throughout the journey/msq, after meeting people outside the capital city, she learns to really appreciate and love her nation. like, if they just started with her love for her father at the beginning msq but ignorance of life outside the city, and then she really learned to love all turali cultures, i think it would be interesting.

right now, at the beginning, when she is saying that she loves tural and all, it seems like superficial. it's like when metro man in megamind says "and i love you random citizen!" but he doesn't really know who that random citizen's name or hopes and dreams are, you know?

she mentions going to another ethnic group's town for a festival that her father took her to, but it seems by her wording, that she's never returned there to see the everyday life outside of holidays. she's never like really gotten to know the people there.

would an approach like that have fixed wuk lamat? hmmmm.

anyways, that's my current impression of her. so far, lyse 2! i know she'll get better, and i am patient, but as an outsider to dawntrail right now, it seems that the hate around her is sooooooo crazy overblown. like it's all i see. its hilariously confusing.

idk, maybe, since i've actually read all 700 chapters of naruto and also all of homestuck, my tolerance for weird anime bullshit and patience is longer than the average ffxiv player? lolll.

well, i'll try to get through dawntrail quickly and return to this post for edits and/or a repost with part 2 of my impressions of how wuk lamat really was during 7.0.

anyways maybe natlan and tural will just be mid and all the hate is overblown, idk. i just want capitano to be playable. da wei, i'm coming for you and your incel gooner waifu bait decisions! i loved genshin, but this pivot is literally driving away many of the playerbase that is the average person and/or female, the only audience being incels who want anime waifus is just unsustainable for profits in the long run. BRUUUUH ugh

[phyltopia]

The Miracle of Mundanity

“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.” 

~Tennessee Williams

            Upon arriving at the seminar, I immediately felt out of place. This is not a rare occurrence for me- I feel out of place pretty much all the time, regardless of circumstance. I’m autistic, so I often don’t understand social cues, I struggle to make friends, I struggle with overstimulation and processing emotions, and I absolutely hate eye contact. I often describe it as feeling like everyone else is in color, while I exist in black and white.

 I was able to settle down once introductions turned from one large group discussion to several small groups, to one-on-one dialogues. I felt a calming energy from my partner which lessened my anxiety and allowed me to focus on just her. I don’t recall the context, but I mentioned a quote from Einstein, who said, “there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” It may seem mundane, but it’s a miracle that we don’t have to tell our lungs to expand and contract in order to breathe, it’s a miracle that we don’t have to tell our heart to beat… beat… beat. It’s a miracle that any one of us was in that room at that time, let alone all of us, and it’s a miracle that my partner sat next to me. I get an email blast every day with a bunch of readings and quotes, which I usually read first thing in the morning, but due to a different schedule I didn’t read them until I was done for the day. One of the quotes was the Einstein quote I had referenced in the morning. That could be considered a coincidence, or simply a miracle of the mundane. I wrote her a thank you note for our talk.

From there I was able to focus on the program and took a lot away from the overall seminar. I found things I can use in my own work, from the dissertations on the God Box, Friendship, and Identity to exercises in Lucid Dream Reframing and Embracing the Void. I decided at that point that I want to be up on that stage presenting my research, whatever it turns out to be. I have references in my notes to finding the “plane of bliss” by silencing the mind, either with meditation or substances, and the Eight C’s of Self. I learned more about the nuts and bolts of the school and the program, but I still ate alone, kept mostly to myself, and focused on who I am not rather than who I am. I felt like everyone spoke with an elocution of such earnestness and compassion that it almost felt like flirting (Editor’s note: this feeling may be the result of the author’s Narcissistic Confabulation Dysmophia[1], in that he believes everyone either is or should be always flirting with him), which is a language I’m certainly not fluent in. I am not a person who wolf-howls, or beats drums, or practices much in the way of ceremony or ritual. 

The coolest people I’ve ever met have the most colorful pasts, they’ve lived lives of risk, made bad choices, learned lessons, explored, and they’re not afraid of being real. Tattered tapestries woven of similar threads, they’re my kind of people. My favorite shade of crazy. ~Stephen L. Lizotte

It wasn’t until Sunday evening when I truly felt at home in the program and in myself. I found myself eating vegan butternut squash and mushroom enchiladas with a coach from Texas, a therapist from Australia, and an Ayahuasca guide from Lebanon. And at the time it felt completely normal- four peers and, dare I say, friends, enjoying a meal and each other’s company. But once back at my hotel, I found myself thinking, how did I get here? I saw the miracle for what it was. How many circumstances, good, bad or seemingly indifferent had to fall into place for me to find myself in that room at that time, with those people? How many circumstances had to occur for each other person to find themselves in the same place, eating with a socially awkward if extremely attractive man from Central California? And what kind of brilliant sanity did we experience just by being together? Taking all of that into consideration, I felt grateful that I had the opportunity to enjoy their company. I felt like I was in color along with them, and I didn’t feel the need to write more thank you notes. Because we are all unique in our weirdness, beautiful in our flaws, and perfect in our authentic selves. We are all a special kind of crazy, and we are all a miracle in our own right. 

The final day I felt at home, and I truly saw my peers for the first time, all of us in color. Before I started the program, people would ask me what Transpersonal Psychology is and I would say, “hell I don’t know. That’s why I’m studying it.” Now, I still can’t articulate it except to say that it feels like home. It feels like exactly what I’m supposed to be learning, exactly when I’m supposed to be learning, it, surrounded by exactly the people I’m supposed to be with. 

Driving back to my house, I found myself wishing that I had shed my protective layers earlier, but I realize that wouldn’t have ever happened, because that’s not who I am. I come to things at my own pace, and I accept that. Mono No Aware is a Japanese term which refers to the beauty of things passing. So instead of regretting what wasn’t, I choose to relish in what was, and am excited to return and I can’t wait see and experience my new friends again, because as David Byrne said, “home is where I want it to be” and I’ve found my home. 

[1] Narcissistic Confabulation Dysmorphia almost certainly does not exist, but every disorder must start somewhere.

[askshamass]

Ass falters, tracing the two black stripes along light grey feathers, looking back at her own set of wings and hoping her memory was wrong. But, no- those are Exorcist wings, without a doubt. Which means...

"I know rumors," she replies, looking at the tiny halo cast in black. "The first batch of us are Heavenborn- created to be Exorcists and nothing else. But, as Hell's population swelled with each year, we had to... supplement. New Exorcists would join us. The other cohorts, the other flights- there was always something a little... off about them." Ass reaches out, tracing along the stripes of the baby's wings. "It wasn't something we knew... just... something we suspected... but I never expected to see one this young..."

Shamira steps forward, sets a finger on the little one's halo, and closes her eyes. "Her passing was painless. She's yet to open her eyes. Wherever she is meant to be, perhaps we should deliver her quickly-"

"No." Ass growls. "I'm the only fallen angel in Heaven. There's no chance it's just a coincidence she ended up on our doorstep."

"As you are so fond of describing yourself- Ass, are you truly prepared to raise a baby murder angel?" Shamira inclines her head. "I have nothing to offer, save for a pair of hands and eyes. You can barely keep yourself out of trouble. We are not exactly the most desirable of guardians in this particular context."

"I'll figure something out." She runs a hand through her hair. "Look, I'm not... okay, I am going to ask for help, because I can't do it on my own. But I'm not abandoning her, sending her to the barracks so the only things she knows is how to kill Sinners and fight other Exorcists. I don't know how we're going to do it but... I think it'll be better for her to stay with us. Or at least with me-"

"With us." Shamira nods. "Someone needs to curb your impulses. I may not have any childhood to speak of, the same as you, but I can make baseline observations. For instance, she has no teeth as of yet, so she can't eat food the way we do." She holds up an informational pamphlet she'd found in Emily's study- a collaborative project from an ancient midwife and a neonatal nurse. "She also can't drink water. If breastmilk and formula is unavailable- as I suspect they will be, without going to Earth- then animal milk will suffice, with cow or goat being most common."

There is a soft knock at the door. On the front porch is a basket with a heap of blankets. Inside, a swaddled baby. There is not a soul in sight.

Ass lifts a brow, kneeling down to inspect the basket and its contents. "If this was Hell, I'd assume this was part of some scam. Being in Heaven, though, makes this infinitely worse."

"How so?" Shamira peers down, arms crossed over her chest as she remains in the doorway behind Ass. "Are babies especially dangerous?"

"No, there's just a precedent of unexplained babies being really fucking important." She looks around and, upon confirming that whoever left the kid didn't stick around, picks up the basket and stands up. "So, we've basically got two choices: we either punt the kid- basket and all- as far as we can or you and I are on babysitting duty until we can find someone else to take the kid."

"You said there is a precedent. What does the precedent dictate about abandoning the child?"

"Uh, not good. It's kinda frowned upon."

"And keeping the child? Is that the safer option?"

"Let's just say that sheltering the kid is usually the preferred option."

"Preferred by who?"

Ass takes a deep breath and sighs. "Of course you don't know anything about the Bible."

"I know it's quite a hefty tome. I had one thrown at me once."

"... right." Ass looks into the basket again and groans. "C'mon. We gotta... I dunno. Babyproof the place. Figure out how we're gonna feed the lil guy. All that shit."

Both of Shamira's brows raise as she steps aside, permitting Ass entrance and following closely behind as her girlfriend went to the dining room table. "We're keeping it?"

"Yeah. Clear off the table so I can set the basket down."

"You arrived at that decision rather quickly." Despite her light objections, she clears off the table of the puzzle they'd been working on, resolving to finish it another day.

"Look, it's possible this is some sort of holy test Sera's pulling to fuck with one or both of us." Ass reaches up and massages her temple. "Shit, that does sound like something she'd do."

"Be that as it may, your favorite pastime is finding new ways to annoy her. If it's truly a test, why not seek a more... capable caretaker? Surely that would be the responsible thing to do."

She checks inside the basket again, noting how ridiculously small the baby is. "I'm gonna check Em's study. She's gotta have a book about babies somewhere in there- winners are always talking about babies or kids or some shit."

Shamira frowns. "Avoiding the question just makes your actions appear more suspicious."

"Look, even if this is Sera pulling some shit, the kid was abandoned. I'm not gonna rush to do the same thing, alright?" She snaps back, then groans. "Sorry, just- we'll just... keep an eye on the baby until Em gets home. She'll know what to do, where to go. At least with us, we know the kid is safe."

For a long moment, they watch each other. Then, Shamira nods. "I trust your judgment. I'll check the study; you stay with the child. Between the two of us, you're better at being gentle."

"The fuck I am," Ass replies, waving Shamira off while leaning against the table. "Just look for anything about child development or parenting or shit like that. Worse case scenario, we text her to come back home."

[demethinkstoomuch]

A Survey of House Leadership Titles

We know just enough about each house and its founders that I think there might be some threads to pull at in terms of what different house titles say about the house intends of its leadership, or some other interesting observation  -- in some cases, not a lot, but I’d say enough that there’s enough for me to play with and gnaw on like a naughty cat who should not be chewing embroidery thread.

The Second: No Known Title????

This is so interesting to me. Like, Judith is heir to the House of the Second, and this is a fact that, nevertheless, never at any point makes anything about the internal structure of the second even the slightest bit clear. What is she even heir to? I’m assuming it’s hereditary, because that seems to be the case across the board except for the Sixth. But what is she actually heir to? The training facility? The cohort command within the system??? Something else???

We don’t know, we just know their cohort ranks. Judith’s father was an admiral -- but I am sadly forced to conclude not Sarpedon, because Judith’s father projected a career for her that would force her to stay mostly within the system, and Sarpedon’s career has mostly kept him out of system. This constitutes the entirety of what we know about the Second... But, there’s information in this non-information. What this all says about the Second is that they try and present their cohort ranks as the important ones, the ones that Really Matter...But, then again, Judith, a mere captain, is the heir of the house, so...Are they what Really Matter, really? We don’t know the rules about which contexts things matter in, which I would call not encouraging. That said, I’m betting that Judith a) tries to avoid this contradiction sincerely and steadfastly by honoring the Cohort’s chain of command, and b) she isn’t the only one. If there’s an illusion that there is no mess or complication or strangeness here, it’s a precious illusion that no one intends to disturb until push comes to shove. What the Second cares about most, between their hierarchy and the cohort’s, is a question they do not want to answer.

The Third: King/Queen(?) of Ida, assumed

Man, that is such the most attention-whore title. The pageantry! The showmanship! Crown princes! Princesses! I bet there’s a literal crown, don’t you? (Also, while I’d assume from numerical order that the 5th came after the 3rd, I get the vibe from the general atmospheres of the houses the title order might have been different, that the 3rd picked King and Queen because it’s like Lord and Lady, but bigger and better. If it isn’t, then this is what would have happened if the chronology had played out differently.)

By the way, I do want to know why Babs is a Prince. Like, is that a family rank? A cavalier primary rank? A combined Cavalier-Family rank? A courtesy title? Answer the question, Naberius Tern!

The Fourth: Baron/ess of Tisis

I don’t have much to say about this one, except that my guess is that it’s kind of like the Third or Fifth titles, but, like, different (and a little bit Less Fancy.) I think that is not a coincidence even a little. Also, Baron sounds very cool.

The Fifth: Lady/Lord of Konniortus

Oh, man. I have takes on this one. For one, this is 100% an Augustine decision. For two, Oh, good heavens, he was so smug about it for centuries. It’s powerful, yet understated. Grand as all hell, but not showing off. Everyone would have wanted classical nobility titles, but the specificity of some makes them a bit weaker. I’m thinking of, like, the Lady of the Mercians, or Empress Matilda going by “Lady of the English” as an uncrowned queen for the way the term can sort of gently elide over questions of specific rank. It’s simple, classy, brief.  Augustine is judging half the titles on this list and laughing with a sad shake of his head, like it’s cute that you tried to go as hard as “Lady of Konniortus” and you absolutely failed. And those are the ones where he’s not actively rolling his eyes. But more on that in, oh, about 3 houses from now.

The Sixth: Master Warden

OK, but you know who deserves to be smug for her rad naming skills? Cassie. And I say Cassie, to be clear, because I know it’s her name. Or, the name someone who knew the things Cassie knew about the Sixth. Because, really, I think this refers, in an oblique way, to the Break Clause. Because that clause is, well, it’s the key. It’s the key to the literal and metaphorical lock binding the Sixth House to the empire and to the planet. The whole facility is a prisoner, in a way, overseen by its warden. The whole facility is a lock. And do you know what we call the internal jaws of a lock?

Nothing, actually, because there isn’t a part of a lock that one calls “the internal jaws,” I’ve looked up locksmithing terms when google could not avail me. But...I do know that, if Palamedes and the Sixth thinks of a part of the lock as the Internal Jaws, he’s talking about the little metal pieces inside the lock that the key’s teeth and cut are meant to fit into and around, so only the right key will fit. They are jaws in the sense that teeth fit into them.  When Palamedes makes this little riddle during the Fifth’s dinner party, he’s talking about The Wards. And that it can be unlocked, if a key that fits the ward(en)s is produced, is how the Sixth House is like a lock.

I love that for the Sixth. I got so excited about this realization that I went to some lengths to include this line of thinking in a sixth-house centric fic, because it was simply too good to leave out.They went for an elaborate, multilayered self-created reference that refers back to their secret secession plan, and they’ve stuck with that for 10,000 years without giving away the Bit. Good for them. Really, just delightful.

The Seventh: Duchess/Duke of Rhodes (Assumed)

So, this is more or less just like how I read the Fourth’s nomenclature, except they went with Fancy over Cool. It’s very nearly as important as King/Queen, but not quite, which suits them well enough.  Unless there’s a higher rank and Dulcie’s parents have that rank, which they might. It seems implied. They also keep up the theming, with Pro being a Knight of Rhodes. Point is, they, the Third, the Fifth, and the Fourth are all a part of a system of names, with the Fifth a tiny bit set apart, and the Third probably clawing for the top.

The Eighth: Master Templar of the White Glass

I love this title, and part of what I love is that I know Augustine hates it and rolls his eyes every time he hears it. Because I think it’s a Christabel idea. And I say that for a couple of reasons. The biggest being, it sounds very cool but it makes no sense. Like, flash your mind through literally every point at which Silas or the Eighth house are mentioned. How many of them refer to, in any way, anything pertaining to White Glass? Once, only once. Harrow refers to “White glass mysteries,” but that’s it. It’s a mystery. Outside of that, this title only exists, is only referred to, is only acknowledged at all, in the Gideon the Ninth Dramatis Personae. Sure, the Eighth get described with White, and Templars seems reasonable. They are even referred to as White Templars, because, sure, sensible. But White Glass? Is a throw-away concept here, one only Harrow seems to ever think about. It is a cool-sounding title that refers to nothing of any significance. Its only justification is that it’s rad. It’s just a little stupid, but joyfully so.

Which is not a Mercymorn thing. But I can totally see it as a Christabel decision, one she got very excited about. Like, this is the woman who made One Flesh, One End a thing for the next 10,000 years. Christabel seems to love this stuff, and I think if she got cheerfully enthusiastic about it, Mercymorn would go along with it, and that would enshrine it forever.

The Ninth: The Reverend Father/Mother

So, this is another very good one. Like, Anastasia and Cassiopeia are over here thinking of legitimately good and clever titles, ones which contain a duty, and a secret, and it’s the duty at the core of the house’s leadership, at that. Obviously, the idea of a Reverend Mother is one suitable for the Abbess of a nunnery, so that checks out to begin with, but there’s another layer to it, too. A reason why it’s Reverend Mother and not, say, Abbess, that catches my eye post-Nona, but really ought to have caught my eye before that. “Reverend Daughter,” as a position of heirship, is something important because it’s a Ninth invention. The existence of a Daughter or a Son, as opposed to just having Sisters or Brothers and Mothers or Fathers, creates a direct family line within the ruling family. It becomes a bloodline and an abbey in the same breath.

Harrow insists from the Pool Scene onward that it was critical, the whole future of their house, to have an unbroken bloodline of necromancers descended from Anastasia. And at the end of Nona, we see why: Because Anastasia made a pact with Alecto that is recognized as being attached to Anastasia’s descendants, known by blood. They are the unfulfilled vow, Harrow is right! A line of parents and children, reaching back to their original parent, who made a promise. Mothers and Daughters, all the way down. That’s what the House is really for.

A+ Naming, Anastasia. Fantastic. Beautiful.