#about cobalt

[reimeichan]

Had a bit of a revelation today that even though the system is Chinese American, each of our relationship with that aspect of our identity is quite different.

Green, for example, is one of the alters most connected to our Chinese heritage and the one most in tune to the interplay of Chinese and American cultures in our lives. He’s the one most likely to talk about the racism we face in the US along with also being seen as a foreigner in China.

Cobalt, on the other hand, is just as in tune with his Chinese heritage but in a different way. He’s the one most likely to engage in cultural exchange and encourage the people in our lives to explore Chinese culture and heritage, from the food to the language to the music. Cobalt is less aware of our American heritage, though, and tends to speak in Chinese when he can.

I, Pink, am involved with what Chinese American culture specifically looks like. While I’m aware that Chinese American culture has influences both from Chinese culture and American culture, we do have a pretty unique culture separate from either of those. And sure, there’s overlap. But there’s also something about being Chinese American that you can’t find in either Chinese nor American culture themselves.

And our final example is Cyan, who will regularly forget that he’s of Asian descent and then he passes by a mirror and goes, oh, right. It’s not that he seems himself as white, but it’s more that the Chinese or Chinese American identity is so far down his own perception as self that he doesn’t even think that he’s “different” from the white-majority people around him. But even so, he recognizes that he’s Chinese American, or at least will call himself “Asian”.

I dunno, I just thought that was an interesting little thing for us to think about.

[essektheylyss]

I'm also still laughing that he really showed up, introduced himself as an Archivist of the Cobalt Soul, and then insinuated that they were going to go extrajudicially hunt down, capture, and "interrogate" a Cerberus Assembly Archmage. Sir, archivists do not do that kind of thing, least of all on their own, LEAST OF ALL with a bunch of random hooligans they were just sent to collect for an unrelated excursion. Quite honestly, that was the thing I kept going back to in evidence of, there is absolutely no way this is a legit archivist.

[alwaysbewoke]

[maxphilippa]

drew these guys for @andeisafag

[moeblob]

Look, I just think it's VERY funny and on brand that I thought of an entire premise of colorful characters for half the cast and immediately drew the only one void of color.

[tobyfoxmademeascaly]

@kicktwine's DRK Alisaie art has sent my brain into overdrive and inspired me to do my own take on the idea so have a few rough gposes

consider this a teaser for a future project :)

(credits under cut)

poses modified from: https://www.xivmodarchive.com/modid/48642 and https://www.xivmodarchive.com/modid/87810

Shader is the OMGEorzea preset

Made using Ktisis and Glamourer

[sammy8d257]

"She'll see I'm not so tough, Just because, I'm in love with an uptown girl"

-Uptown Girl, Billy Joel

I have complicated thoughts about Purple's parents

It boils down to, I think they did genuinely love each but they weren't ready to be parents

[dent-de-leon]

would read a whole dnd book that's just cataloguing different entries of weird relics scavenged from the ruins of Aeor, archives of the Cobalt Soul, little curiosities of Nana Morri's, etc.--

[tinyangrynerd]

SCREAMING AND SHOUTING AND CRYING AND-

[yashley]

liking critical role is consuming 1000+ hours of content and then waiting for the day they write a book about something so you can know everything about it

[dreemurr-skelememer]

I miss your Steven universe oc….

THANK YOU FOR BEING AN OG ANON.....I MISS HER TOO.

[reimeichan]

We're house sitting for our parents and it's genuinely weird how our usual cast of frequent fronters have shifted around because of this change. Usually we'd have Cyan, Crimson, Purple, and Green fronting a lot with Pink, Yellow, Azure, and Mint occasionally popping in, but this past week, Cyan/Crimson/Purple/Azure have been nowhere near front unless we go back to our partners' place and instead Orchid, Yellow, and an unnamed/not fully identified Cobalt part have been fronting more (+Green, bless him) while Pink, Mint, and Beige are in the co-con/backup group. It's definitely super weird, especially when our partners check in on us and we feel kind of emotionally distant from them while knowing they are our partners and we'd usually be super excited to get any messages from them.

Unfortunately we have another 3 weeks of this x.x Here's hoping we can reach our main hosts pretty quickly once this is all over.... I hate being the temporary host.

[essektheylyss]

I think Orym is a fascinating character in a way that is often underappreciated, because he is fundamentally a soldier, he was trained as a soldier, and that's... not a bad thing? It has no moral indication, and certainly doesn't imply that Orym is going dark. In fact, in the current circumstances, Orym acting as a soldier is very important and may actually get them through this in one piece.

I do feel that this aspect of his character is frequently approached in the fandom as an afterthought or even swept under the rug, or flat out viewed as a flaw to be overcome (especially given the overall landscape of military conflict in the real world), but being a trained soldier is not inherently indicative of specific morality or ideology. I think it's a judgment that also gets levied against paladins, because, much like any organized forces in fantasy are equated with modern militaries, fantasy worship is equated with Christianity (sometimes in the guise of 'organized religion' with all of its problematic connotations). It's incredibly black and white, and it doesn't fundamentally make sense in much of Exandria, but in this case especially.

You cannot fundamentally map the Tempest Blades onto any real life military, because the task of the Tempest, and Ashari culture as a whole, is protection against both extraplanar threats and also the malicious or misguided intentions of those on the Material Plane trying to fuck with the elemental planes. This is distinctly different even in universe from, for instance, Caleb, who was trained as an assassin in the name of nationalism, or Yasha, who was trained to be a leader in the name of tribalism.

And these two threats that the Ashari are tasked with resisting are both frequent, credible, and existential! Failing at this task is liable to have major sweeping repercussions for the rest of Exandria! It is highly probable that a soldier with Orym's training is expected to need to make incredibly difficult decisions in defense of the common good at more than one point in their life—decisions that would make every person who laughs at the premise of the trolley problem shit their pants.

And crucially, Orym wants his friends to get out of this. He has in fact already promised his entire life to ensure that they do, because he also fundamentally needs them to be able to do what they came for, without hesitation, because the singular mandate that he has devoted himself to is protecting the Material Realm from extraplanar threats, and regardless of the fact that the rest of them do not have the same training, that is also the task that the Hells have chosen.

If Nana Morri can get the Hells out in one piece, regardless of what choices they make, then their personal risk doesn't matter. I imagine that Orym isn't going to tell them that, because given the scope of the threat, there's not necessarily a guarantee that Morri can make that happen, so the rest of the Hells have to make the choice themselves to take the risk and trust that the others have their backs. And in the end, if Orym has to live with that no matter which way fate plays out, he will. He's already had plenty of practice.

They're at war, and that's how soldiers operate. Because when they're behind enemy lines, it's the only way missions get completed and they have a chance of making it back alive.

[granlance]

"Ten Pokémon, the ancient hero's loyal retinue— though these companions now are gone, their noble duty passes on to generations new.

"The people thank the ten descendants for their gen'rous toil by lining vessels built to last with water clear and choice repast before the arenas' soil."

[compacflt]

wip wednesday: the final wip wednesday :’)

bonus:

[peachdelta]

cobalt & olive doodles