#also TWO out of 6 of the free response were related to it. but the free response section was weird so i only had to do 4

[farenmaddox]

I think a lot of Cas's feelings of being lost are because of how recently he kind of "gave up" on heaven and his identity as an angel who could lead the other angels back to their original purpose. Angels are supposed to protect and cherish humanity, and it was much easier in earlier seasons for him to feel righteous in his defiance because he was right that protecting people meant preventing the apocalypse and standing up to angels who disrespected humanity.

But the things that he did between seasons 6-9 in service of that goal were... not great. He always had the best of intentions, but it absolutely decimated heaven. He is directly responsible for a LOT of death. So even though he may still feel that humanity is worth protecting and even though he still adheres to that goal (and sees Dean as the primary embodiment of that), he's lost his perspective on HOW to do that and what his role in that should be. Despite how close he has become to humans and despite taking a human family, he still has a fairly cosmic concept of what protecting humanity should look like. This is what led him to being Lucifer's vessel in season 11, and I think the fact that this plan ultimately failed and that Dean was the one to save them all simply by being his beautifully human and compassionate self was really difficult for Cas to deal with.

It's extremely visible in most of season 12 that Cas is struggling to see his place in the world. He can't find/defeat Lucifer and he also can't seem to fit in with the family and be a hunter. He sees himself failing at everything he set out to do, and the fact that most of the primary antagonists in season 12 are just humans doesn't help. He loves humans, but he still doesn't really get them. He feels useless against the Men of Letters and the government and witnesses to the crimes they investigate, and it is a primary part of Cas's personality that he really needs and wants to feel useful. (Relatable!) I don't think it's a coincidence that there are multiple times in seasons 11 and 12 where someone refers to Cas as the Winchester's dog or pet (and it's also not a coincidence that Rowena's spell that nearly killed him gets called the "attack dog" spell). He's lost a lot of his sense of agency and it's being reflected in the words used to describe him (notice how he never argues when people call him this).

And then... Jack. The idea that protecting humanity means protecting this child is less complicated than the quandries he's been mired in for years now, and more uniquely suited to Cas's skill set. They have the Lily Sunder episode, where he has to question his previous stance on nephilim, not to mention it was killing a nephilim that helped Metratron pull off his spell at the end of season 8, something Cas is surely still beating himself up about, and the fact that Ishim and Metratron both lied and manipulated Castiel into it provides a really strong link between the two incidents. Protecting a nephilim instead of killing one must seem like a chance at a type of redemption. His own status as something caught between human and angel allows a certain feeling of solidarity, and of course there's the simple fact that Cas is one of the few things in the world that is both willing to do this and actually has a chance of standing up against the kind of threats the child might be facing.

There are a lot of implications at the end of the series that Jack wasn't what Cas wanted him to be, that Chuck won, that they never actually got to break out of the narrative and be free or happy. But it still matters that from Cas's perspective, this was his choice and that protecting and guiding Jack was both personally fulfilling (became a father, rediscovered "who he is") and was good for the world (because Jack is good for the world). It wasn't about "serving" Jack in the way he served heaven, because that wasn't how he saw it for himself. He was always the one who was quick to tell Jack that it was okay when the situation had changed and maybe Jack couldn't fulfill his "destiny." That he still loved him no matter what, that he was willing to protect him, even from the rest of their family. He was Jack's father, not his servant.

Cas says this, in 15x02: "Even if we didn't know that all of the challenges that we face were born of Chuck's machinations, how would we describe it all? We'd call it "life". Because that's precisely what life is. It's an obstacle course, and maybe Chuck designed the obstacles, but we ran our own race. We made our own moves. And mostly, we did well with that." Maybe that is hopeless naivete on Cas's part, but it meant he died happy and fulfilled. That's better than what Dean got!

forgive me if this doesn’t make any sense but… if the “one day” that “something changed” is supposed to be jack being born, then idk if i like the implication that, before then, cas had just always felt lost and purposeless. are we talking since he left heaven, all the way back in s4? like idk but i’d always thought it was pretty clear that even when cas is unsure and making mistakes and misguided, even when he feels lost at times, starting in s4 when he began to help dean, cas had chosen his purpose to be protecting humanity and protecting his family. and he never really stopped trying to do that, that desire never really gets lost, even if he takes a wrong turn at times ie s6. so like that quote is confusing to me cause imo cas’s vision from jack should have just reaffirmed his desire to protect humanity, but the quote implies that he had found a new feeling of purpose with jack? what purpose, if not loving and protecting humanity? which imo was always there?!?

sorry for the word jumble, but your comments on that quote, a quote i’d not really paid much attention to in the past tbh lol, got me thinking 😅

this makes complete sense!!! and you definitely got my brain wheels turning so thank you! no yeah absolutely, it's weird, and the more i think about it the weirder it gets. here is the dialogue we're referencing, btw. i'll give the benefit of the doubt here and say: there are a lot of days cas could be referring to. it could be the day of lucifer rising, for example, or the day he was resurrected from purgatory, or the day he was resurrected from the empty. it could be any number of days. i cannot conclusively state that any one day is "the day."

but here's what led me to assume it was a jack-related day: that since jack has been back, cas has been hitting the "jack's destiny" talking points hard, and that he ends the speech with "i found a family, and i became a father. and in that, i rediscovered my faith. i rediscovered who i am."

on jack's destiny: here are the examples i can find from s15, all from 15x12. there aren't any additional discussions involving cas about jack's destiny in 15x11, 15x13, or 15x14.

so this is what immediately sprang to my mind when i heard cas talk about purpose. that in season 15, at this point, cas believes his purpose is to help jack fulfill his destiny. he is connecting his worth to jack's "success" in terms of jack doing what he's "supposed" to do. he has faith in jack. he has faith jack will be good for the world. without jack he is lost.

and this actually echoes 12x19 the future. this is from the production draft shared by @spnscripthunt-inactive. notice the themes of feeling no longer lost, of having faith, of feeling "normal" "for the firt time in a long, long time." it may be worth mentioning that both 12x19 and 15x12 (where the above quotes come from) were written by meredith glynn and robert berens.

all of this together reads to me as: cas is defining himself and his own success by jack's success. and that changed on the day jack showed cas a vision of the future, a vision of "paradise" (according to cas). cas needs to believe his faith and trust in jack are correctly placed, that he is doing the right thing. he needs to believe he has a purpose, and he has decided his purpose is helping jack fulfill his (jack's) purpose.

and to thing #2 that made me believe the speech was about the day cas decided he was tied to jack: the way he closes the speech. "i found a family, and i became a father. and in that, i rediscovered my faith. i rediscovered who i am." finding a family and becoming a father are two separate things. finding a family happened much earlier. becoming a father is necessarily tied to jack (i'm not inclined to count claire here - not because she doesn't matter, but because i don't believe cas OR claire view cas as her father). and the way it reads to me is that when cas says "in that," he's talking about "in becoming a father." because it came later. i read it as "finding a family helped, but what really made me rediscover my faith and who i am was becoming a father." and that aligns pretty closely with what is said in 12x19!

so to your point (oh wow that was a long tangent, sorry). literally everything you're saying is spot-on to me. i think we can trace the roots of cas feeling lost and seeking a purpose all the way back to s4 - definitely! i think it's a huge struggle for him because he wants to have a purpose, he wants to feel like what he does matters, but it is difficult for him because he feels like he doesn't know what's right. prior to season 4 his purpose had been clearly spelled out for him (he's an angel, he does god's will). and while he no longer accepts that purpose as his own, i think he craves something as simple and straightforward as that purpose. it's really difficult for him in those s5-s12 years when he's bouncing around, trying to figure out what he should be doing! but i think you're absolutely right that the underlying theme, the underlying purpose is always protecting humanity, protecting his family. i'd add an element of "doing what's right/stopping evil" too. but yeah, cas DOES care about humanity. he DOES care about the little guy. he DOES want to prevent human suffering and misery, and to help relieve it wherever he can. it matters to me that cas cares about humanity because that's one of the things that makes him so different from the other angels. i think over time his tactics change to achieve the goal of protecting humanity, but the goal itself does not change.

so does being jack's father = protecting humanity? kind of. if we believe that jack will successfully usher in paradise, then yes, cas helping jack fulfill his destiny would make things better for humanity and arguably protect them (or reduce the amount of protection they need). but i don't think this has the same level of attention/care towards humans that cas has previously shown. it's about making sure jack succeeds so he can fix everything. it's not about making things better right now.

and this is where i get into opinion territory: i, like you, don't like the implication that cas has always felt lost and purposeless! lost, yes. unsure of his purpose, yes. but i feel like the framing here is that cas has just been aimlessly drifting about for all these years, totally incapable of finding a purpose. i do not think jack and god are the same but i don't see much of a difference between "i am an angel, i serve god's will" and "i am a father, i serve jack's will." especially because there is a chance, however slight, that jack was manipulating cas. that the vision jack showed cas was not a guarantee.

it feels to me like jack hands cas a purpose the same way god handed cas a purpose. and i thought the beauty of cas choosing free will was that he got to choose his purpose himself. this feels like it was chosen for him and he went along with it because it was easier to have a purpose selected for you by a being of unfathomable power. and i sympathize with that immensely! and i also think there was profound beauty in cas discovering his purpose on his own, even when it was a struggle.

[crnbrrysprite67]

My take on an older Neteyam if some way he was revived. I posted this on Twitter a while ago, but thought I might as well post it here as well.

Alternate versions & the headcanons I had while drawing this are below the cut.

Neteyam HC for Drawing

Revived by Eywa/Kiri

The first tattoo he received, rather than the traditional face piece, was his chest/shoulder, symbolizing the phenomenon that was his miraculous rebirth. It extends up his neck and to the back of his head to surround his neural queue. It was closely followed by the face piece that symbolizes his acceptance as one of the Metkayina people after he completed his iknimaya trials. He also has two leg pieces, one on his right leg that extends from the top of his foot to his thigh, and one on his left leg that extends from his ankle to his knee. They symbolize things such as his warrior and hunter status and his forest origins.

After the final war with the sky people was over, he and Loak decided to stay living with the Metkayina, but Jake, Neytiri, Kiri, Tuk and Spider returned to the Omatikaya. There are frequent visits between them. 

Despite living in Awa’ Atlu with the Metkayina, he is still very connected to the forest and his Omatikaya culture. Due to this, a lot of his accessories have a mix of Omatikaya and Metkayina cultural touches.

He is a respected warrior in the Metkayina clan, but his clan duties mainly consist of leading the inland foraging/hunting groups and when needed, flying to other Na’vi clans for trade/communications. A relatively new duty as he is one of the few who can ride an Ikran.

He has a spirit brother, a Tulkun named Rokem.

His Ikran is female, named A’hoet.

He mated a Na’vi woman from the nearby Tayrangi clan named Zeyka. He met her while on one of his hunts. As is somewhat typical of the Tayrangi people, she has an independent, free-spirited and a bit fiery personality. But she is also the first-born of her family which her and Neteyam connected to each other with as they could relate their similar responsibilities and expectations.

As of the time of the drawing, he has 3 children with her. (Each of the three shells on his chest guard were picked out by one of his children)

Daughter (6) - Neynawri (Nawri)

Daughter (5) - Seylitsi (Litsi)

Son (3) - Akanuey

He is considered one of the best hunters in the clan and while he is skilled with a spear, harpoon, and gun, he is unrivaled with a bow and arrow. (He and Neytiri often have friendly mother-son bow hunting competitions when he visits the Omatikaya.)

**Also, I’m completely fine with reposts or the use of my drawings/ideas in other works! Just if you do use them, credit would be appreciated! ☺️(and if you like, please @ me as I’d love to see/read them!)**

[cocogum]

Weird things I want Ankama to explain.

Why did Tot develop the adventures after season 2 into a manga? Was it because of budget related reasons? Because it couldn’t have been for its maturity. Tot follows the audience as it kept growing and at the time, the majority were still young. The only reason why the Great Wave, on the other hand, got turned into a manga was because it was apparently going to get graphic.

Why did Tot jump 6 years into the future instead of making more adventures when the gang still had no responsibilities or duties?

Why did tot not make up a new queen outfit for Amalia in the Great Wave instead of making her feel limited to her strict s4 budget? I thought the entire point of converting the story into a manga is to be finally be free from restrictive animation budgets.

Why was Arpagone added into the story??? Ruel specifically stated in two moments that he never got married. In season 1, he spoke to Kabrok and when the wife topic came up, insinuated that if he ever had a wife like Miranda, he'd stop his adventures. And in season 2, when Yugo asks Ruel if he has ever fallen in love, Ruel says that he did and had many lovers in the past but ALMOST married one of them. In season 3, we see that he officially married Arpagone, which completely contradicts what he has said in season 2.

Why are there good concept arts of the characters from seasons 3-4 from the yt videos Ankama uploads for us but these same concept arts are not included in their respective season artbooks??? I thought the whole point of an artbook was to show ALL character concepts and sheets.

Why did Nora have this entire redesign? Don't get me wrong, I think she looks cool as hell but it threw me off so much when I first watched the S4 trailer. I had to get used to it lol

It's funny how Wakfu's main role was to introduce the eliatrope class but then finally opted to introduce a sub branch of it being the 'eliotropes' instead. Like Tot please give us more info in Season 5, you literally did an entire reboot of the eliatropes' history FOR SOME REASON and it now feels like we're back where we started because of Season 4. We now have more questions than answers and it literally took us 16 years to get here and we BARELY SCRATCHED THE SURFACE.

Sooo are we just gonna forget about how Amalia dreamed of Sadida telling her to go out and help a hero? The hero being Yugo? She literally tells Eva in Season 1 that she had a dream of her GOD, but Eva doesn't believe her cuz she thinks she's making up things or whatever. But when Amalia says the same thing to Armand, again, NO ONE BATS AN EYE??? Tot you seriously need to give me an explanation for why Amalia was able to meet her god like this, AND why she seems to have a special connection with the Tree of Life SINCE IT SPECIFICALLY CHOSE HER TO POSSESS DURING NOX'S WAR. Also, why would Sadida willingly make Amalia meet Yugo?? I ain't complaining, I think it's such an interesting thing to know about, BUT EVEN AFTER FOUR SEASONS AND THREE SPECIAL EPISODES, we still don't know why she is so special! She was even able to find a solution for Pandiego's village CUZ HER FUCKING TEARS HAPPENED TO BE THE SOLUTION FOR THE MILK PROBLEM ‼️‼️‼️‼️

[eggtrolls]

haiku misinformation: a fact check

there's an post going around about haiku that has a lot of incorrect information about haiku, its terminology, history, etc. I will try to debunk some of the biggest inaccuracies here. everything in quotes is a direct statement from the original post. this is also really, really long.

"Haiku are made of 14 on, which are essentially the equivalent to Japanese syllabic structures, except the nature of how Japanese as a language is constructed versus English means that any given proper haiku could be translated in extremely and intensely different ways, each giving a subtle but distinctly different meaning."

Starting off strong - haiku are (usually) made of 17 on. It's the classic 5-7-5 pattern! 5+7+5=17! [possibly this is a mix-up with wakiku (脇(わき)句(く)) which is another type of Japanese poetry that does use 14 on but who knows.]

Definitions: an on is a phonetic unit, the equivalent to a mora (pl. morae) in English. this concept a) exists in English and b) like on, is related to syllables but distinctly different from them (i.e. ba is one mora but baa with a long vowel is two morae). On can be counted using the number of hiragana (phonetic syllabic characters) when the text is transliterated, so a word like Osaka that has the long O sound (made up of 4 kana) would be 4 morae or 4 on (o-o-sa-ka; おおさか). it's not really a syllabic structure at all, and more importantly has nothing to do with translation. idk where that last part comes from because that's really...not the point here. Yes, any given "proper" haiku could be translated in different ways with a subtle but distinctly different meaning but that's true of just...translation, period. check out Deborah Smith's translation of The Vegetarian by Han Kang for more on that.

Furthermore, haiku were/are not rigidly locked into the 5-7-5 on pattern. That's just not true, which is why I said usually above. Easy example: a 1676 haiku by Matsuo Basho that uses 18-on:

冨士の風や　扇にのせて 江戸土産; ふじのかぜや おうぎにのせて えどみやげ; the wind of Fuji /I've brought on my fan/a gift from Edo <- that first line is 6-on!

2. "The best way I can explain what I mean is that in English a good poem can be defined as a shallow river, whereas a good haiku is a deeply-dug well."

Not dignifying this with a response. Deeply incorrect and untrue. @bill-blake-fans-anonymous can handle this assertion.

3. "The presence of the kigu. There is a specific series of characters/words which are used to imply a season, and specifically a specific aspect of a season which the haiku revolves around. The creation of a haiku is often done as a meditative practice revolving around the kigu--you're essentially contemplating on this particular natural feature (nearly always the temporal aspect emphasizes either ephemerality or the opposite as well bc Buddhist ideas of enlightenment and beauty begin coming into play) and building an evocative and purposeful point that revolves around it like a hinge. It functions as both ground and anchor."

First (and largest) problem: the word. is. kigo. kigo. It's ki (季; season)-go (語; word) = 季語. Both the English and Japanese language Wikipedia, or a 3-second google search, will tell you this immediately. I have no idea where the term kigu comes from.

Second problem: plenty of haiku, both traditional and contemporary, do not use kigo. these are described as muki (無季; seasonless). Matsuo Basho, the haiku-writing poet non-Japanese people are most likely to know, wrote at least ten seasonless haiku that exist today. Masaoka Shiki, the Meiji-era haiku poet and reformist, wrote hundreds of kigo-free haiku and as an agnostic, tried to separate haiku from Buddhism and focus more on the shasei, the sketches from daily life. you can actually, today, buy what are called saijiki, which are lists of words and terms that refer to specific seasons (in the traditional Japanese calendar, so there are actually a lot of "micro" seasons as well). some saijiki include a whole section of "seasonles" words - here's an article about non-season kigo in a saijiki.

so the claim that English-language haiku are invalid or not "real" haiku because they lack a kigo doesn't hold up, unless you invalidate a whole bunch of Japanese haiku as well. the op also claimed they would categorize a lot of English "haiku" as senryū which is...an opinion. Yes, haiku tend to be focused around nature (more on that below) and senryū tend to be more comedic or about human foibles but...that's it! it's a tendency! it's not a hard and fast rule!

Third problem: the claim that a haiku is as meditative practice revolving around the kigu kigo...yeah, no. the earlier form of haiku, the hokku, were the introductory poems of the longer poetic form, the renga and the hokku gradually became a standalone poetic form known as haiku. the hokku had a lot of purposes and we have a historical record of them going back ~1000 years to Emperor Juntoku where they were declamatory poems tied to events (births, deaths, etc.) or social events (moon-viewing parties) - not really meditative. haiku, if a genre can focus on a single idea, focus on an experience and that can be real or imaginary, direct and personal or neither.

Here's another Basho poem for your consideration:

夏草や 兵どもが 夢の跡 (natsukusa ya tsuwamonodomo ga yume no ato; summer grasses--/traces of dreams/of ancient warriors)

both the dreams and the grasses are those of Basho (contemporary) and of the warriors (ancient); it's about travel, it's about connecting the present to the ancient past, it's not really so much about the summer.

(Fourth, minor problem that I'm not really going to get into: you'd have to take this 'Buddhist ideas of enlightenment and beauty' up with haiku scholar Haruo Shirane but he explicitly says in the Routledge Global Haiku Reader (2024) that "pioneers of English-language haiku [such as D.T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and the Beats] mistakenly emphasized Zen Buddhism in Japanese haiku".....so.)

4. "The presence of the kireji...it's a concept borderline absent from English because it's an intersection of linguistics and philosophy that doesn't really exist outside of the context of Japanese."

Let's begin with clarification. What is kireji (lit. a 'cutting word')? It's a class of terms in Japanese poetry that can do a few things, depending on the specific kireji and its place in the poem. In the middle of the poem, it can mark a thematic break, a cut in the stream of thought highlighting the parallel(s) between the preceding and following phrases. At the end of the poem, it provides a sense of ending and closure - it helps mark rhythmic division, to say the least, and it is seen as the 'pivot' word.

Two problems with claims above:

a. there are haiku that do not use kireji. For the hat trick, here's a Matsuo Basho haiku from 1689 AD that is kireji-free: 初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也 (hatsu shigure saru mo komino wo hoshige nari; the first cold shower/even the monkey seems to want/a little coat of straw) <- NB: I love this haiku so much

b. the idea of a kireji, as in a pivot word that provides an inflection point with rhythmic division and structure, exist not just in English poetry but in multiple different types of poetry across time and space! The caesura in Latin and Ancient Greek! The volta in sonnets! Whatever is happening in the third line of the Korean sijo!

final thoughts:

the op included language, which I won't quote here because it was messy and tied into other rbs, about Orientalism and appropriation in English-language haiku, which is definitely a real thing. but this blanket statement ignores that the relationship between haiku and "the West", much like Japan and "the West", was and is not a one-way street. Western writers were influenced by haiku and, in turn, those writers influenced Japanese writers who wrote haiku inspired by these influences - this process has been going on for well over a century. Furthermore, English and Japanese are not the only languages in which haiku are written! Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore was writing haiku in Bengali; other Indian poets were and are writing them in Gujrati and Malayalam, particularly by the poet Ashitha. the Pakistani poet Omer Tarin has written haiku about Hiroshima! The Spanish poet Lorca published haiku in, get this, Spanish, in 1921 and the Mexican poet José Juan Tablada published more in 1922! Italian translations of Yosano Akiko were published in 1919! any discussion of the idea that English/non-Japanese-language haiku aren't really haiku because they don't hold to the "rules" (which Japanese authors have been revising, adapting, critiquing, and/or straight up flouting for centuries) or because English/non-Japanese poetry is "a shallow river whereas a good haiku is a deeply-dug well" just shows a lack of knowledge around traditions and depths of...well, poetry itself.

my god this is so long.

in summary: this is a complex topic. If anyone would like some actual information about haiku, its history, common themes and forms, or a collection of good poets, the Routledge Global Haiku Reader (2024) and Haiku Before Haiku : From the Renga Masters to Basho (2011) are great references and really accessible in their language! hmu if you're interested and I can send you some pdfs.

[thesensteawitch]

🌟Message From Your Higher Self 🌟

Pick A Pile Reading

(Left to Right-- Pile 1, Pile 2, Pile 3)

Hey, Senstea Souls!

I hope you're all doing well. This reading sheds light upon the messages from your future self. As this is a collective reading take what resonates and leave what doesn't. Keep your current situation in mind while taking this reading. 🍁

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Feel free to message me in case of any booking related queries.

Pile 1

Cards- 2 of cups, 8 of cups, ace of pentacles, the hierophant, the world, ace of cups, 10 of wands

Hello, my dear pile 1. I hear, “Open your eyes and see the way our horizons meet.” Perhaps, currently, it seems difficult for you to keep believing that you will ever experience the good things. But somewhere deep down you know that good things happen and people go from rags to riches. Tables turn and the wheel of fortune takes a turn. But all of this is just an idea in your head. You may BELIEVE in these things but you don't have enough FAITH in yourself. Your stars are guiding you. They are the reason why you are even taking this reading. Your future self can see the roadmap for you so you need to trust that new beginnings are on the horizon. You need to open your eyes. You are very lucky pile 1. Your stars align so well. Every power in the universe is ready to start many new chapters in your life. It seems difficult for you to understand the spiritual world from the 3D perception. You guys seem too tired and burdened. Some of you may even have become pessimistic. You have been trying your best to make things right but one human can't make any kind of relationship better. Any relationship's survival depends on the people involved in the relationship. You alone can't make things right. You are not going to make it alone is what I hear because some things are meant to go two ways. I feel that the situation you have been in was one-sided. And you are not able to see what this situation is doing to you. For some of you, it seems regarding a relationship or your job. It's only you doing all the work. Your higher self is asking you to quit. Surrendering is the best thing we can do sometimes. Find the courage to break this pattern in your life. Your future self is here to tell you that new opportunities knocked on their door as soon as they let go of the one-sided responsibilities they were carrying. To let new things enter your life you need to make space for them. So throw out everything out of the window that does not serve you anymore. Your creativity is suffering with so much heaviness that is burdening your heart. Your future self wants you to focus on healing your wounds. Feel your emotions and share them with the person who truly listens to your concerns. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable. This situation is trying to teach a very important lesson. Be grateful for what you have, this way you will find your lost hope. I also see that some sort of fortune/success/good news is coming your way. Don't worry because even if you quit your efforts are not going to go to waste. You'll be rewarded but you need to let go of your attachment to the result of your actions. You are only putting pressure on yourself. And pile 1, I see that you know you need to detach but you are still not able to convince yourself. At least take this reading as a sign. The more grateful you are for the things you have the more things you attract to be grateful for.

Drop a message in my Tumblr inbox to book a reading with me!

Pile 2

Cards- 2 of pentacles, Justice, 3 of pentacles, page of wands, 9 of pentacles, 6 of swords, the sun, 8 of cups

Okay, so my dear pile 2 your future self wants you to know that they made it. They have been working on something for a very long time. They did not let challenges stop their growth. They are currently living their most vibrant life. And it only happened because they did not let their spark die. Remember that only fire can ignite a room filled with darkness. Currently, for you, I see that it's difficult for you to follow your fire and find your passion. For some of you, the purpose of your life seems blurred. Movement is round the corner for you pile 2. But without action, no manifestation can take place. So you are asked to not intellectualize things so much that they stop you from achieving your life's purpose. Walk away from old patterns. It's time that you do justice with your life. You (just like all of us) signed a soul contract to fulfill. But some of you seem a bit distracted currently. If you remain in this state for a long time then you are only going to distance yourself from achieving your purpose. Your future self is doing so well because they made the right decision. Because they chose to work with love. Your passion can free you and give you the strength to overcome the challenges that may come your way. So make a decision. Sometimes, it's now or never. This new journey may seem unknown and unfamiliar to you but it is going to bring you so much abundance and self-growth. Pile 2, it's your purpose calling you. Be patient with yourself but don't drown in the narratives you have framed in your mind. Just forget about the past because your life is bringing a refreshing start. Get your mind out of your way. Get your insecurities out of your way. It should be you and your goal. If some of you have been waiting for justice to be served then know that the scales are in your favor. You don't need to worry if you were wronged. Divine will take care of it. You need to take care of your career/purpose. Keep going. Life moves in cycles and a new cycle is beginning. Consider taking guidance from someone you know can help you with your life's purpose so that you can avoid potential challenges or at least know how to overcome them. You need to show more resilience in the face of adversity. Find your spark. I see that your overly emotional nature has diminished your spark. Turn around and see what you were and how something/someone took the light away from you.

Drop a message in my Tumblr inbox to book a reading with me!

Pile 3

Cards- 3 of pentacles, four of pentacles, ace of cups, three of cups, queen of swords, queen of wands, knight of cups, ten of cups

Okay so pile 3 your future self is asking you to have fun. Stop worrying too much about the future. You don't need to stay reserved and in hibernation mode. Meet people, talk to them. Give yourself a break. Your future self is so strong. They have strong boundaries but they aren't caged. Your future self wants you to know that you are going to find a new connection. For some of you, it's a romantic connection. It's going to be a dream come true. You both are going to be so in love. It's going to be an honest and healthy relationship. Currently, you have caged yourself and you are afraid to let go of the security and safety you have created for yourself. Your whole life will feel short to explore the wide world. Your future self wants you to make new friends and create ever-lasting bonds. You will meet all kinds of people. You have so much to share. You are just denying it. There's only so much you can keep in your heart. One day it overflows and you can't hide it. Don't be afraid of social interaction. I hear, “It's everything you wanted, it's everything you don't. One door swinging open, one door swinging close.” It may be difficult for you to interact after a long period of solitude. Go out and meet just one person, maybe an old friend. This new love is going to bring so much happiness in your life. Please let people in. You don't need to trust them blindly. Trust yourself that you can handle human interaction. You don't need to be alone. Spend some money on yourself, you deserve it. Start with solo dates if you must. You are about to meet some amazing people who are going to be catalysts of change in your personality. Your future self has finally let go of all the fears that are there in your head. They are free from the constant anxiety and bickering of the mind. Your cards are so positive, pile 3. Nothing is stopping you except for yourself. Believe me, you are going to say thank you to the universe for such amazing people your future self has met. You are going to wonder why you didn't meet them earlier. Don't expect the worst because you are the creator of your destiny. Your WILL still plays the most important role. So don't let your past govern your future. Don't let your mind deceive you. Just think of the best and you'll make it through. Many of you are soon going to meet the true love of your life. And if not love then the friendship of a lifetime. Face your fears pile 3. It's going to be amazing, believe me!

Drop a message in my Tumblr inbox to book a reading with me!

[fun-k-board]

Hey again friend.

How about a headcanon of being best friends and a student to smoke 😄😄 please

Tomas Vrbada / Smoke Friendship Headcanons

Note(s) : I'm still learning how to write about his character, so criticisms are appreciated.

If we're talking Lin Kuei, Tomas is probably the best option for a mentor because he's not as strict and, uh, scary as Bi-Han, and even less serious than Kuai Liang, although that's not hard because he's so responsible.

But, that doesn't mean he'll let you slack off.

Tomas has a schedule, which includes waking up extremely early, most likely 6 AM, getting dressed and having breakfast in the span of a few minutes, you're expected to be at training for at least 7 AM. Then you train until lunch, around 1 PM, which lasts until 2 PM and then you train until dinner, around 6PM.

He expects you, and everybody else who trains under him, to follow that schedule. He can accept a few excuses, injuries making it harder to get dressed, mental issues, maybe you were just really hungry and accidentally spent too long eating, whatever the case, he lets you off with a warning most of the time.

But if it becomes repeated behaviour you're going through more gruelling training for a week, only Bi-Han at that point can get you out of it, and everybody knows he won't.

He retains a friendly and casual relationship outside of your training, inviting you with his brothers to dinner, which is usually less than once a month. They're usually at Madame Bo's or another tea house, and he's usually the one paying.

You both talk while he trains you, mostly about other Lin Kuei members and their performance / behaviours. Smoke won't trash talk, but he will sometimes indulge in gossip. 'Did you hear about the new recruit who tried to fight Bi-Han?' 'They did what?!'

Even when you're fighting with more seriousness, he's still cracking a friendly joke here and there. Probably something about ice, fire, or smoke.

Speaking of, if you don't like puns about smoke, don't even talk to this guy. He somehow knows every pun in existence that even slightly relates to it, Bi-Han and Kuai Liang are so tired of them they both just leave whenever he starts with one.

He adores if you match his energy, you two bounce back with constant puns that you forget training and leave Bi-Han to scold you two.

Tomas already has a strained relationship with Bi-Han, the man doesn't view him as a brother, let alone squeal, even though that's all Smoke wants from him. He doesn't mean to burden you with his issues, but sometimes he might ask 'Do you think I'm deserving of being a Lin Kuei?'

He won't stop being friends with you if Bi-Han doesn't like you, but maybe he will if Kuai doesn't, he looks up to Scorpion and views him as a major influence in life. But, the likelihood of Kuai ever actually telling him he doesn't like you is low, so, you're all good.

Given how the Lin Kuei works, I think you'd also have to train under his brothers or others in the clan once and a while, but mainly under him. He probably has other students to train, and so he's not always free for casual talk or sparring because he has others to mentor.

I'd say, for a guess, he most likely gets at least a day off, if not, breakfast, lunch and dinner is probably a time where he's free to at least go to a restaurant for food with you.

Shirai Ryu Tomas is different. While before he had maybe one day off, now he's always free because of how there's almost no recruits, only Hanzo and a few other kids who didn't have a good situation before the clan formed.

You'd most likely help the younger ones, and maybe have an 'assistant' role when teaching, the training is fairly lighter because they're just kids, but any adults or teens will have the same training as you, with a tighter schedule that you have to help maintain.

He has more free time to just... Hang around basically, he's always inviting you to have food with Kuai or his friends, like Johnny, Syzoth and most other members of the Kast, he's a big fan of helping you out with tasks.

Tomas will enjoy cleaning, for example, he expects you to help him obviously, especially if it's your room or armour he's helping clean. But, he enjoys it because it's productive and he gets to spend time with you.

Smoke also loves when you do things like that for him! Especially cooking, he's not... The best at it, so he appreciates when you make food after a long day of training and doing small missions for Liu Kang.

He doesn't touch the kitchen. Don't make him go near it.

He might try and teach you Czech or Chinese, if you don't know either already, this totally isn't just so when you're in crowded areas you can talk to each other without people listening, what are you talking about?

Although, it took him years to learn Chinese, so he understands if you find it too difficult and don't want to learn, that won't stop him from muttering words under his breath when he's annoyed.

He's not the biggest fan of hugs, don't get me wrong, he absolutely will if you ask him or he needs it, but he doesn't think he's ever been hugged since he was a kid, so it's just a bit unfamiliar.

Smoke likes holding your hand though, not only will you not get lost in crowds, but you can have friendly contact without it being too much for either of you.

Never ask him for relationship advice, if you want a wingman, look the other way. His love life consists of nothing, a barren desert, and he prefers to keep it that way.

[sokuly419]

**Anything mentioned in this post related to season 2 is strictly my own speculation unless it was in the official trailers and teasers. I know there were some leaks. I’ve heard some but I won’t be repeating any of of the things I personally heard about.**

Since we’re 6 days away from Arcane’s return, I think everyone needs to be aware of some things. There are going to be a ton of Cait haters for whatever reason. Both Vi and Cait are going to be painted as the “bad guy”. It’s already happening. And it’s really not fair to either of them.

This is not meant to be an anti-Jinx post, but just something to think about.

Cait is, as far as we know, the only one of those three not directly responsible for someone’s death. She could have killed Sevika but didn’t. We know she’s an excellent shot. Cait spared her, even if she was moments from killing Vi. She shows compassion constantly, and to a fault at times.

Vi has both killed and severely hurt plenty of people. When she went to save Vander, fighting with Jayce (who also killed people), and knocking that big ass sign down on Silco’s shimmer goons just to name a few instances.

Jinx, as we should all know, has killed a lot of people. Two were her friends that were practically family, an accident. Then several Enforcers during Progress Day. More Enforcers at the bridge scene when Marcus is killed. Yeah, yeah, ACAB and all that. But that doesn’t mean she should be free of the murders. Neither should Vi. But what about Jinx’s mental state? That is a factor, yes. But not a complete excuse seeing as she shows little to no remorse, even seeming to enjoy it.

Again, not anti-Jinx post. I like her character but she’s not my favorite. She’s complex. She’s interesting. She’s chaotic. I love it. Unfortunately, I’ve been seeing A LOT of Jinx followers that are just brushing it off and painting her as some “hero” figure. Not all are like that, of course, but I’ve seen a lot personally and it’s just… frustrating that they’re almost ignoring what Jinx has done. Again, this is not every Jinx fan. I know some of y’all are cool about it.

Cait gets a lot of hate because 1) she comes from money and 2) cop. I’m sure there’s other reasons but those are the main two I see. But what’s not coming up in Jinx fan-circles is that Cait definitely changed once she saw what was actually happening in Zaun. She even called her own mother out about the government that doesn’t give a shit. Cait herself is traumatized directly related to Jinx. Again, Enforcers being killed in front of her AND Jinx kidnapping her from her fucking shower. She didn’t even have time to get dressed. I imagine Jinx made her get dressed at gunpoint but that’s my own theory. And now, if Cassandra is dead (likely based on trailers), Cait has every single right to want revenge. Jinx killer her colleagues, violated her privacy, and then (presumably) killed her mother. Cait has her own trauma break because of it and wants revenge.

Yes, Jinx is 100% traumatized and that plays a huge part in her character. But Cait and Vi are also traumatized as fuck. They all handle it in different ways.

I think in season 2 we’re going to see Cait likely killing people and showing us how good of a shot she really is. We already know Vi is going to have a moment where she breaks too, but turns to pit fighting and alcohol. Jinx… feels like a wildcard again. Especially once Noxus gets involved.

Not a single person in Arcane is completely “good” or “bad”. I can’t speak much on the other characters in depth like Cait, Vi, and Jinx since I’m not nearly as invested in them.

If you made it this far and are thinking of dropping spoilers to get me to hate Cait, I’ve heard more than I wanted to already. And I’m still going to defend her from the unbridled hate she’s probably going to get again. She’s grieving. She has trauma. She’s allowed to be pissed the fuck off and want revenge. She’s not the bad guy. No one is (except maybe Noxus???). And no one is the good guy.

So let’s all just get along and enjoy the damn show.

For the record, Cait isn’t my favorite either. She’s a close second. It’s gotta be Vi for me. Sorry, not sorry.

Edit: any spoilers from the leaks that are put in the comments will be deleted as soon as I see them. Immediately and without hesitation. Things may have been ruined for you, but don’t ruin it for others. I’ve seen and heard about some of the leaks. I don’t need to be told about what some individuals do.

Keep that shit to yourself. Not everyone wants the spoilers.

[c-u-c-koo-4-40k]

Hello Everyone.

I want to clarify now, Posts like these will be rare on this blog.

This blog is primarily a place to discuss, headcanon, and do general fandom shenanigans.

As Billy Joel might say, It's a place to forget about life for a while.

But given the current goings on in the world, I Will be changing my pinned post to this link.

If you're like me, you may not have much disposable income. So it's hard to donate when causes you care about pop up.

This website uses advertisers and literal button clicks to generate donations.

My platform here is small, and primarily for fandom fun times, and it will remain as such. As previously stated, This will be a rare post of this kind on this blog.

But I wanted to give others the opportunity to help in this small way. And use my platform to spread this resource.

This website has buttons to click to help with issues like poverty, women's rights, the refugees in palestine, refugees in general and the environment.

Thank you for your time and consideration. And I hope you continue to enjoy my mad 40k ramblings.

Edit: Slight modification, I've changed Only Post of this kind to Rare as I have reblogged some other things not related to fandom and yes they were related to modern or otherwise issues.

I still want to keep this place 90% dumb fun, but even dumb fun has to be sober some times.

Edit 2: I've decided I Will be reblogging the occasional help or aid or donation post. Probably one or two every few days. If you want to Only see the fandom stuff on my blog avoid/block the posts with the tags #not warhammer #not fandom and #not 40k

Thank you for love and support. And big hugs to my mutuals. They deserve all of it.

Edit 3: Navigation

To Find all my writings use/search with the #c u ckoo anon tag.

To find my art pieces use/search #c u c koo art tag

To find the Severe Miscalculation Storyline search the #oc: khopesh tag

If something is a reblog or answer it will be under #c u ckoo response

Edit 4: Donation Posts will now be tagged with #c u c koo donation posting

All these tags can be found on this post at the very end of all the others.

Edit 5: Featured campaign! I've decided that every week I will post a link to a different campaign below.

I will also try to link the reblogs of the campaign that include the verification if any exist.

Current Campaign.

This campaign's currency is Kroner. So the progress in US dollars is more like

817 / 55,000 USD

That's only 1% Funded Currently

If you want to help please go to the post and Share.

And if/when you donate keep the conversion in mind.

10 Kroner = 1 US Dollar (approx)

So if you want to donate 5 US dollars, you need to donate around 50 Kroner for example.

Edit 5! Also! Here's a link to a website that is filled with vetted fundraisers!

Edit 6! Ask box is Super full so it may take a while for me to reblog your campaign. I work from the oldest up.

I'm also trying to give the campaigns in my Dms attention every other day so please be aware.

Edit 7: I'm still reblogging campaigns, but now I'm going to work on them in smaller groups.

I'm going to reblog a Handful of DM campaigns, and a Handful of asks each day. Exact numbers might change day to day, but I'll try to keep them to the same amount.

I've got over 50 campaigns in my dms and over 500 asks to work through.

I want to do proper posts and updates when I boost them.

Thank you for understanding.

Edit 8: In regards to Donation Matching.

I Can Only Donate to a Few Campaigns every Month. And I Only donate at the End of months.

I have to make sure All my monthly expenses are taken care of.

The campaigns chosen are mostly random.

[the-letterbox-archives]

What's up friend!!!!

I would love some rambles about Tales From A Dying Heart if you're down for it???

Also, love your blog <3

file (1)1-21-0610: ask response

thank you honeybe <3, i'd love to give a ramble about tfadh!!

i'm not sure how much i can go on about without spoiling, since the books aren't out yet, but i think i can talk about what i've found of the characters!

i mentioned this in a previous ask, but since the heart itself is the narrator of the stories, and it hates human love as it believes it obstructs its creations from happiness. so in order to strip the protagonists of the impact their love leaves on their identities, the heart gives them false names related to other aspects of their lives (this in tandem with the memory deterioration makes it so the people, if they were ever recovered, have no semblance of their past lives and their capacity for love). i'll give a quick preamble about all the protagonists' false names.

book 1: lady (a tortured heart)

lady's name comes from the title of 'lady,' quite a high position in medieval europe, where this world is slightly based on (but there's not much content there because the story is about the heart and these guys, not their world). lady has faced many hardships, but something she was always able to hold onto was her title; something the heart remembered.

book 2: sweetheart & crow (a dedicated heart)

sweetheart and crow's names come from the heart doing word association with their personalities; 'sweetheart' being chosen because she is a... well, a sweetheart. simply put, she's a very kind person, beloved by all (the heart is not very creative). crow is named after the bird, because crows are considered smart (by bird standards), something that reflects crow's personality as well.

book 3: winter & pyre (a distant heart)

winter and pyre are unique protagonists (though i won't say why yet), and their names are inspired by the two opposite temperatures/seasons; winter being named after the winter season, coldness, and natural disasters that occur in the cold like blizzards and snowstorms, and pyre being named after summer, warm temps, and natural disasters like wildfires and droughts.

book 4: dancer (a free heart)

dancer is named after her occupation, kind of. when she was in better health, she loved to dance, and it was integral to her identity. as her condition worsened, she couldn't dance anymore, but the heart took pity on her and bestowed her a name to reference her best days.

book 5: rook (a cautious heart)

rook is a bit far fetched, i liked the name as-is and had to work backwards with the meaning. in chess, the rook moves in a straight line, and is also sometimes referred to as a tower, elements i associate with strength of character. this is completely paradoxical to rook as he is known in the story, but it holds some meaning in his past life, when he was more self-assured.

book 6: vex (a vengeful heart)

vex's name comes from the word vex, moreso in relation to the term 'vexed,' which can't really encompass all the rage that defines her, but is a solid stab at it. to be fair, there's no single word to adequately describe vex's anger and suffering. the heart tried nonetheless.

book 7: chalice & hunter (a desperate heart)

i've already done a bit on chalice, so i'll just restate that: the heart recognises chalice as a prince, fond of wine and gold, describing chalice's ring's as "golden palms," focusing chalice's identity on his rich, royal status, using his expensive items as the cornerstone of his existence. as for hunter, he's named after his job, he's a bounty hunter and also hunts for food. this still places him below chalice socially, since he's just a hunter and chalice is a prince.

book 8: hornet & dove (a lingering heart)

hornet and dove are named after those animals. the violent, stinging hornet paired with the gentle, peaceful dove. a true match made in hell, and representative of their personalities outside their relationship.

book 9: maestro & muse (an artful heart)

maestro's name comes from the word 'maestro,' meaning an artistic master (usually in a classical music context, but this maestro is related to painting), and muse's name from the word 'muse,' simply a source of inspiration. these names serve to describe their relationship, but it is also effective apart; maestro is obsessed with artistry and being the best, and muse is often just a subject, not a creative herself.

book 10: opal (a defenseless heart)

for opal's name, i searched for pretty, valuable gemstones, and was drawn to the black opal. in the story, opal is often a commodity for others, so that ties in well to the gemstone name.

book 11: aegis & mouse (a protective heart)

aegis' name comes from the word 'aegis,' and describes how he protects his sister (and less often, himself) from harm, being the older sibling and the de-facto responsible one. mouse's name comes less from the stereotypical timid nature of mice (symbolically), but more how small and agile mice are, how they tend to slip through the cracks and go to places they're not supposed to be in, like mouse herself.

book 12: seeker (an honest heart)

seeker's name comes from her role in the heart; she's 'seeking' the truth, 'seeking' those who've been lost, 'seeking' a new life for everyone, without the heart's presence. the heart does not respect seeker enough to grant her a name that honours her past life.

[rottonbear]

Analysis of knight terrors: nightwing

***** note *****

i didnt read the whole series, and prefer each character is independent than the others, which means what, for example, superman said in his series does not related to batman's.

***** ***** *****

The main topic of knight terrors is the deepest terror of the character, such as batgirl is too reliant on computer, scarecrow is everything.

As a resident scare expert, scarecrow said, "I think it's your fears we should be scared of, nightwing."

so, what's nightwing's biggest fear?

Base on the scarecrow and oracle, insomnia turns people to their special variant and what they fear most.

Nightwing didnt finish his transforment in the story, but base on his hands and arms, it seems to be a creature like a bird.

a blue bird, horror version of course.

in western culture, blue bird means hope. and in other cultures, beside hope, bird also mean power, and freedom. if we take the first statement, nightwing means hope, power and freedom. if we take the second, he afraid to it.

why does nightwing fear to hope?

there is a communicate between nightwing with robin (damian) in nightwing vol. 4 #20

"when your dad came back, there was a moment I thought it would be better for you if you stayed with me."

"but then i thought i was too young. too untethered. i thought i might not be able to handle the responsibility."

he afraids of the responsibility which comes from when he was called to be the hope.

a blue bird borns to be hope, no need and cant forced to.

though dick did a really good job when bruce out, during bruce back, he is the son again. he is still the little bird enjoys soaring free most.

cause of his really great jobs with titans, in bludheaven, sometimes in gotham, and siblingship with other batfamily, people easy to forget he is also a son.

he is the eldest, he becomes a superhero just like bruce, but he is still a son.

when he is free, he is the hope of the family, when he takes responsibility, he is the batman.

he is the hope, but you cant tell him TO BE the hope. that's still too heavy to him.

this is never a shame to a kid just want to be a kid when their parents is there. it just proves how much love that the kid was given from his man, and also an evidence shows he is really see bruce as his father, a figure that can rely on, and learn from.

then, why scarecrow said they should be scared of nightwing's fear?

in the very beginning of the story, nightiwng lose his memory, and insomnia tried to bring it back to make him weak. however even nightwing remembers what happen, his first reaction was finding a way out to make sure what actually happen but to accept. he even can care what happen to batgirl. just like the TRUTH didnt bother him at all.

insomnia's power didnt work on him like the others.

cause of failure, insomnia tried harder, which make the situation also. and insomnia's failure also mean nightwing's fear is an unknown.

nothing horrible than an unknown (actually, he does fear, he just knows how to handle them so well)

During nightwing's transforment, Insomnia tried five things to stimulate him.

one, killing batman, cause of too shock, nightwing lost the memory

two, john and mary.

I dont think batgirl is one of them, they more like trap in the same dream or space, such as stephanie and cassandra.

three, tony zucco.

fourth, the circus.

fifth, the fire (happened before new52, nightwing #88)

this is how nightwing reply.

To his parents,

"I've had nightmares like this before."

"Never so vivid...so real."

They are too real, he cant control himself tried to feel them again, and in the next second, they turned dust.

after that, he said "you're in my mind."

he sad but didnt fooled

he knows clearly his parents were gone, and never came back. just like he said in many series,

"I wouldn't trade being your partner for anything." batman superman world's world's finest #6

"I miss my parents with my whole heart, Batman, I do. But I wouldn't trade this for the world." batman gotham knights

"you know exactly who I'm the son of." pre new52 nightwing #100

About three to five.

Insomnia said "Naturally. His (Zucco) face still haunts you, after all.", "Maybe we should turn up the heat in here. What do you say?"

Nightwing "You think I haven't lived this a thousand times?", "This is no longer my nightmare..."

here show clearly how nightwing deals with his fear.

face it, until it not a bother anymore.

it is also the reason why he is so special in the batfamily. when there is something bothers him, he talks (self talking is also a kind of talking) and asks for help (Bruce also mentions this in nightwing #100) but keep it aside, or let it drive him.

He didnt step in the darkness and be a part of it, he fight hard until the dawn comes.

about the batman's part, analyze with the speech of him and scarecrow,

"I wont forget what happened here, crane."

"I know you wont. becauce a part of you liked it."

"that time you got to kill daddy."

"Darkness is a part of us."

"the thin margin between dread and desire..."

"tonight you tasted it. and it let you wanting more."

after dick real awaked, he didnt deny anything.

"bad dreams are only dreams."

"but some of them stay with us."

"...I'll be thinking about this one for a long time."

so, why does nightwing want to kill batman?

I think it is the visualize of his anger about bruce. in his subconscious, he afraids one day he will lose control.

Father and son issue is a canon topic in whatever creation.

the first one is the hardest.

and adoptive ever makes this more complicated.

Dick is bruce's first son, first partner, tons of things that even the world's greatest detective can find the correct answers, further may be there is no correct answer actullty.

Bruce is dick's second father, there is also alfred, before being part of wayne family, dick already knew whats a good father should be, and there must be sometimes he compared john with bruce, even he never told bruce or alfred face to face.

in nightwing #89, bruce admitted to clark, "i ve made so many mistakes with dick and look how he turned out."

In Nightwing #100, nightwing showed his understanding to bruce.

"You were young, you were driven, and you were grieving. and you put all that aside to take in a kid who lost everything in an instant."

However, understanding doesnt mean forgiving. Dick didnt show his anger because he cares and knows bruce hv been do his best in the past.

just like he said to jon in world's finest sons part two, "I know how hard it is." and in his 2022 annual

alfred "but surely not without a break."

dick "it's for my own good, alfred."

jon "where'd you learn to be such a good teacher?"

nightwing "I learned it from batman."

one of the most touching thing between bruce and dick is the countless understanding and forgiving.

A heartwarming and realist relationship is not filled with love, but hate and love exist at the same time, and love is always the choice with no doubt.

A son defeats his father meaning a real and full grow up.

so do nightwing and batman.

they argued, they fought, they separated, but never apart.

just like what the end of the story showed us, after the dummy broke down. countless bats fly through the sky. bruce always be the guy who saves dick in the very darkness. even there is full of heartbroke and tear, no matter how hard it is, the bat always guides his little blue bird home, the bat cant light the road, but his little bird do. when they are being gather, their world is bright by hope, and none of them will lost anymore.

To the Dynamic Duo

from nightwing fear stage

comment

i pretty love this story. i think it takes batman and nightwing relationship to a different level, may be just my overthinking :D

[hogwarts-legacy-confessions]

What is Hogwarts Legacy Confessions?

@hogwarts-legacy-confessions exists for fans to share your "confessions" related to Hogwarts Legacy.

For example:

you might have a crush on a particularly unpopular character.

you secretly love certain dynamics in fanworks that your friends would not approve of.

you may loathe aspects of the game that other people enjoy.

perhaps you have other insights or opinions that you feel would not be well-received.

Whatever you'd like to get off your chest - to say to fandom at large about the game and the characters is welcome to be posted.

Frequent Topics: Shipping Discourse (frankly, we've had enough of it), Smash or Pass, Polls, Ship it or RIP it, Hogwarts Legacy MC (and of course the usual character tags!)

Other themes you're encouraged to explore: Would You Rather, Fuck/Marry/Avada, Favorite Minor NPC, Discomfort Characters, Too Much Information, True or False, Two Truths and a Lie, Bookmarked Fics, Fucked Up Ships, Unpopular Headcanons.

We're always open to suggestions!

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Pretty please

Try to post something positive on @hogwarts-legacy-hype if you post something negative here! Positive posts are also welcome here although they still need to fall under the realm of a "confession" - ie: something you would not say publicly.

This will help keep fandom morale up.

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It violates a rule above.

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The Unrestricted Section discord is a good place to discuss posts.

[izicodes]

Anonymous ask came through | My story

I accidently deleted their ask, so I'll answer it here

Someone messaged anonymously me saying I was privileged to get the apprenticeship and that I shouldn't be sharing tips on my blog about Junior Developer roles since I’m “experienced” (I've only worked for 1 year and 5 months which my apprenticeship lasted for one year).

The anonymous person mentioned they have been studying for 6 months and still haven't found a tech job or the job they wanted. They mentioned that I shouldn't be making posts and share tips because I'm at a privalge position coming from attending an apprenticeship and I don't relate to what they're struggling with - to that I'm sorry it's been hard for you, I wouldn't wish that for anyone studying entirely on their own. please keep trying, don't give up.

But what the anonymous person doesn't know is how hard things were for me and my family for many years to even get me to where I am today.

I am privileged to be in the UK to be able attend school, privileged to get accepted into an apprenticeship after doing two exams for it but:

I come from a family who were classed as "very low income" by the government for many years and only recently we broke out of that.

I learnt HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python on my own before the apprenticeship gave lessons on it and by then I already knew the topics.

The apprenticeship didn’t teach me Git or GitHub or how to set up VS Code or Visual Studio - I taught myself online.

I learnt SQL and C# from YouTube because the teacher was so bad at explaining things.

I only passed the two required exams for the apprenticeship after failing 3 times - which I posted about it on my blog.

I taught myself the tech I use today, the apprenticeship did was secure me a job and having a Lead Web Developer to shadow, though he had his own projects he was busy on.

When I realised the apprenticeship wasn’t going to teach me everything I needed to learn for my tech career, I joined and completed a free online night coding bootcamp from the government and studied for 16 weeks whilst having the apprenticeship and work to attend to.

All I do on my blog, my little tiny corner of the internet, is share my progress, tips through tutorials, write posts about a topic I learnt recently and share information I get from attending those career masterclasses that free for people to join in the UK. I want to help people, not to flaunt my success. I’ve failed lots of times and posted about them on here - exams, work projects and even my own personal projects.

I may not be a self-taught with no experience and suddenly got a great tech job that the anonymous messenger wanted me to, but I’m still going to share my experience and tips that might help people out their own their own coding journey (that’s why I end some of my posts with “I hope this helps someone out there”). If you’re looking for someone that is self-taught and got a successful tech job from no previous experience, I don't think I am that person for you to follow, there would be no point following my blog because I got the role through an apprenticeship - the job was not secure though as I had to pass or they would have fired me.

So, I apologise to the anonymous person who messaged me who looked at my blog and was upset with me sharing tips on coding and it seemed like I came from that specific background they wanted me to be. However, I won’t stop sharing posts, beacuse someone out there might appreciate them and if no one does, that’s 100% a-okay! My blog is also a record of my coding journey and I’m not going to stop! :D

All I do is to make my Dad proud. Through things didn't go well for him over the years, I hope that when he sees me, he's proud and felt like after everything, I was worth it.

My family consisted of a single dad with two daughters since late 2000s UK. Mother left because she didn’t want the responsibility of looking after me and my sister. My father gave up everything to solely look after us - that meant not getting a job. We were in the benefits system for years after years, only in 2021 did we end it completely, so basically two years ago. I didn’t have much growing up and I mean the bare minimum. The only games I had were The Sims 3 base game and games on my Nokia brick.

The benefits money he got, he tried to get me and my sister to a private school just for us to see what it was like, but it only lasted a year before he realised the money was not enough. Dad made me and my sister really study hard to get into an all-girls independent school - a school where you have to take exams to get in. I took those exams and got into the school in 2013. When dad saw the confirmation letter, he cried. All his hard work was paying off. That inspired him to try university out, doing computer science.

It was when I finished secondary school I got my first iPhone in 2018 from Dad as a “well done for completing your GCSEs” gift. However, I didn’t do good enough to do the subjects I wanted to go and do medicine, so I had to switch my course from Biology, Chemistry and Maths to English Language, Combined Science and Economics. I’m grateful for economics, made me understand the government and the world a bit more (and understand what the hell news was talking about most of the time)!

I was failing. Miserably. I was pressured from my school to retake the year, so my dad advised me to quit and join a community college instead. In there they let me to my 3 subjects to do Medicine at university. However, I was failing again, had health issues which lead to me having to quit school early. I never completed my A-Levels. I was stuck for months doing nothing when I decided to get a call centre job. Liked it but last for only 3 months. I was inspired to learn programming again but properly so I can get a job. I realised how hard for self-taught beginner programmers to get a job, and I knew I would be in the mix but my dad was already struggling at home and I needed money fast to help him.

I started looking for apprenticeships even if it doesn’t pay similarliy to a full time job, it’s something to help dad. I was still of age to apply to the ones I kept seeing so I applied to a bunch. No answer. I kept learning Python and JavaScript and applied more. Then one came back saying they wanted an interview. They didn’t tell me the first interview was going to be an exam?! Last an hour and a half and then they talked to me afterwards. Got another interview with them - exam. And the last was talking to one of the partners of the company.

When I told my Dad I got the apprenticeship, he cried again. I knew he felt like I was failing left right and centre and he was a little bit losing hope on me, but for everything he’s done for me and my sister, I couldn’t let him down. And guess what my Dad did when I told him I completed my apprenticeship last month? Yep, he cried.

And I thank the gods and the universe everyday for the opportunity I was given to have done an apprenticeship because I can help my family more as I do have people here and around the world who depend on me and want me to suceed, so I will take every chance and opportunity I can get.

Dad said "If you're entitled to it, grab it. Any opportunty, grab it. You never know when it'll come back to greet you again"

[itstimetotheorize]

Sisi's struggles

Near the end of chapter 6 of the sounds of nightmares, as we hear the door to the Nowhere close, we think back to all the things which made Noone inevitably see the Ferryman as her savior and finally cross the door into Nowhere. But of all the things we know pushed Noone to find an escape, there was still one person who continued to raise questions...Sisi. Noone was permitted to enter the door...but why was Sisi granted passage?...what torments in her life pushed her to leave her life behind all those years ago?

At the start of the story, we only ever heard Otto mention Sisi, however, in chp. 5 and 6, we finally learn Sisi was not only Otto's sister, but his big sister...and yet her mystery still continues. The only known connection left to her and her past resides in her little brother, Otto. 

Otto has thus far only been willing to talk about or mention a few members from his life, such as his former professor and his outer circle of colleagues from the parapsychology field. However, when it comes to the subject of family, Otto mentions no one...only Sisi.

Otto only ever talks about SiSi, as if she was the only family he ever had...then again...perhaps she truly was his only family. In chp. 5, when Noone finally sees a picture of Sisi in Otto's office, she only ever notes the one picture of Sisi and nothing else, no photos of other relatives such as a mother and/or father...as if it truly was the only picture Otto owned. Noone said from the beginning Otto and Sisi didn't look much alike, but was this just a difference in age as Sisi remained a child in the picture while Otto grew up?...or was there always more truth to Noone's observation than what we had originally believed. Where am I going with this? well...if Otto truly had no other pictures of family and if Sisi and Otto truly didn't look much alike just as Noone said...then could this mean Otto and Sisi were not actually a biologically related family, but rather two orphaned children who saw each other as family?....maybe.

But if Otto was truly the only family Sisi had to love and cherish...then why would Sisi give into the Nowhere and leave her brother behind? We know it takes a special kind of tormented child to be permitted to enter the Nowhere, so how was Sisi tormented? We only ever learn of Sisi's past from Otto and how she too came into contact with the Ferryman and eventually disappeared from the Counties, leaving Otto alone just as he said... but what swayed her to find an escape from her life in the Counties? Was she also a victim of the water sickness? Was her life filled with adults who tormented her?...or did she simply live a life filled with struggle as she alone was left with the responsibility of raising her little brother.

If Sisi and Otto were truly orphans and if Sisi was truly such a big part of Otto's life to the point of growing desperate and mad in his years attempting to figure out what had happened to her, then perhaps one of the driving factors pushing her to accept the Ferryman's aid, was her responsibility to raise her little brother all alone in the world, all the while having no one to care for her and protect her from the cruelties of their world...but was this the only driving factor for her desperation to find and accept any means to leave everything behind and finally be free of all her banes?...or did Otto have his own part to play in the matter as well. Near the end of chp. 5, as Noone proclaims Sisi had likely felt a sense of relief leaving Otto and her life in the Counties, Otto is filled with rage over her words, but before he leaves the room, something odd happens...he pauses, his tone of voice shifts, as if he is thinking back to something in his past, making him feel not only saddened but filled with guilt as he says, "I was only a boy"...why did he say this?...unless....what if maybe...just maybe...he did have a part to play in pushing Sisi away, into the world of the Nowhere. Had Sisi truly faced a life filled with struggle and torment, then could the final nail on the coffin to push her to find an escape have been not from the world she lived in...but from the little brother she cared for and loved?... honestly who's to say. 

The only question now is, what became of Sisi? Was she still a child struggling to survive in the Nowhere until finally facing her end just as many before her? ...or did this nightmarish world change her, just as it had done to so many others before her who lost themselves to "its" world, becoming another resident just like the sewer man Noone encountered in chapter 5? I guess we will have to wait and see, for now, it's just a theory....a Little Nightmares theory.

[thornfield13713]

6, 7, 8, 29 and 30 for Ned

How would the player go about meeting them in Act 1? What is their introduction?

At the owlbear cave, after the owlbear herself is dead. I could see Ned being found mourning over the creature, but also returning the body to nature by allowing mushrooms to grow from it, helping it decompose more quickly and feed the soil, highlighting their powers as a Circle of Spores druid and their deep reverence for the natural world. Maybe even include them assuming that the party are the ones responsible, and it taking a quick perception/persuasion check to convince them the goblins are responsible. And if you can't, they use their abilities to puppeteer the owlbear's corpse to get revenge.

Describe their arc. How would a player help resolve it? What choices can be made? Can your Tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one?

Ned's arc is mostly related to the fear of Lolth, and their feelings that...actually, letting the tadpole do its work and thus destroying their soul entirely...might be preferable to letting Lolth get her hands on them. The player can either encourage their fear of Lolth and the idea that fighting or defying the gods is impossible, and the best one can hope for is escaping them, or encourage them not to give up on themselves, to try and find a way to free themself from Lolth's lingering influence on them that doesn't involve sacrificing their very self to do it. Alternatively, it might be possible to encourage two very different ways of dealing with the problem - seeking out a form of true immortality, which...historically, has not ended well and is particularly dubious for a druid (there are spells for druids that can extend their lifespan immensely, but that's not quite the same thing), or else embracing a power other than Lolth's, most likely Eilistraee, as a potential means of escape from Lolth's lingering claim upon their soul. Or they could just take the sacrifice and become a mind flayer in the endgame. They'd probably offer, same as Karlach, if for subtly different reasons.

The other part of it has to do with their ability to interact with the world. Ned at the start of the game is a hermit, who has been living in the depths of the Underdark avoiding all contact for...quite some time, certainly since the death of Derendil, whom they loved even if, as it turned out, 'Derendil' never even existed. Getting Ned to open up to the possibilities of connection with other people, to trust for the first time in their life, despite the hedgehoggish mixture of profound loneliness and terror of other people and their intentions that their upbringing in Menzoberranzan has left them with, is probably an ongoing thread throughout the game.

After Act 3, what does their life look like? What are they talking about at the reunion party?

Assuming their best ending, Ned is going to be talking about exploring the surface world as a wandering druid and part-time adventurer. They're more interested in seeing and preserving great sites of natural beauty than anything else, and learning more about the sort of druidry practiced on the surface, but they'll help people in need if it comes up, and if people are willing to accept the help of a deeply socially uncomfortable drow druid. Assuming neither were romanced, they're probably travelling with Astarion, and both seem happy with the arrangement, even if they both miss the sun and are hoping to find a solution to their newfound difficulties with daylight.

What fears keep them up at night?

That they will never be entirely free of the Spider Queen's power and influence - they were her cleric once, or training to be, after all, and even if Lolth wanted them dead or driderified, she hasn't renounced Ned so entirely that they don't feel her influence until such time as they pledge themself to a new goddess for the sake of protection, and then the concern shifts to whether that really counts as faith strong enough to give Eilistraee a claim on their soul after death.

That their mother is still alive, somewhere in the depths of the Underdark, transformed into a drider or some other monstrosity of Lolth's in their place, or else suffering one of the long, slow, torturous deaths that the drow are so good at.

That their relationship with Astarion, like their relationship with Derendil, will end with the rug being ripped out from under them, and it turning out that none of this was real after all, just some horrific trick or trap, that nobody is capable of truly loving them without some sort of mind-altering magic being involved, and that they bear the guilt and responsibility of that despite having had no input in that magic being cast and no influence over any such things.

What does your Tav want more than anything?

Oooh, I think Ned would spend a long time sitting and staring at the wall, contemplating that one. They've spent a long time living like an animal - often literally in wildshape - and that means living in the moment, not thinking beyond immediate needs and wants, so trying to figure out what they want most is going to be tricky. To know their mother's fate, might be their first thought, except that there are so many answers to that that might irreversibly break them. To be free of Lolth, is another, except that- that wasn't actually an immediate concern until they were dying, and were going to have to face the horrors of the Demonweb Pits a lot sooner than they thought.

I think, though, that they want more than anything is to be able to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are loved. They never knew their mother loved them until she sacrificed herself to save their life. They believed Derendil might love them for a little while, and then it turned out that 'Derendil' himself was just a quaggoth's hallucination, and that has pretty much wrecked their ability to trust in anyone or anything really loving her, whether that love is friendly, familial or romantic. They've been in the sort of situation they're with with the party before, starting to open up to new friends- and then the Derendil thing happened, and between that and all the other dysfunctions that led to that group falling apart, it...did not go well for Ned. So, that's it. Not just to be loved, but to be able to believe in people's love for them before it is too late.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Hello, Oldie Chinese Diaspora Anon™️ here. I have to say, I was really surprised with the response to my last post – thank you for all the responses! And thank you for the questions as well. As I’ve always said, I really appreciate the questions. I hope you will find the answers adequate, too.

Q: “I thought the social credit system was mostly about crime and financial metrics? why would the government care about what’s going on in the bjd hobby?”

A: R-vv has it right! The Government doesn’t really care about BJDs. It cares about people’s aggregate behaviour, both online and in person. However, since you need your real information (name/age/address/etc.) in order to apply for an online account (of any kind), it’s easy to link the two. After that, anything you post online can be linked to you, there is no anonymity. The government, therefore, tracks online activity like the pulse of the nation. One’s online behaviour can lead to significant real-life consequences. For a more exaggerated example, you may remember how the popular fanfiction repository, Archive of Our Own, was completely shut out of China several years back. Most folks chalk it up to China activating its infamous Great Firewall and start clamouring about free speech and all, but the reality is nothing of the sorts. The reason why AO3 was shut out of China was due to rabid fan behaviour leading to large luxury brands dropping their Chinese spokesperson and losing a large amount of money (for more information, here: https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005262/fan-fiction-site-blocked-in-china-after-celebs-stans-complain ). The reason why the government is interested in anything in specific is because of their social implication and financial impact. Simply put, China is a place that cannot stand social dissidence. It doesn’t matter why there was dissidence, dissidence simply cannot be tolerated.

Q: If that’s how their credit system works and it effects them that much and they hate recasts then why don’t they all just bully Luo into a lower social credit rating and stop his business from operating?

A: Well, you see… there’s a simple answer to this question that, and when broken down to its basic elements, can be rather silly. Without an interaction, you cannot contribute to someone’s social credit score – it can be something physical like an altercation, something systematic like the hiring or firing of a person, or it can be financial like a purchase. Since the Chinese doll circle detest Luo, they refuse to have anything to do with anything related to him. If there’s no interaction, there’s no way to contribute to the downfall of his social credit system. Besides, online bullying (like the AO3 example above) actually lowers the scores of all people who were involved, including the complaining stans (they are “rabble rousers” and a “mob”). It’s a lose-lose situation if anyone even attempts it in the first place.

Q: Social credit applies when you want to get a loan? / I know in US your personal finances and credit is separate from your company if you own an LLC. There must be some loophole he is using if it’s not affecting him.

A: Interestingly, Luo would have a pretty good social credit score – it has something to do with the marking scheme being based on what is “socially productive” for China. It’s only got tangential ties to morals. Luo’s factory has an annuals sales volume of $2.5 to 5 million USD, according to his own company profile (https://chinabjd.en.alibaba.com/company_profile.html ). This is on the background of a region where the yearly average income is $50,147RMB ($7035USD) per year (http://tjj.jiangxi.gov.cn/art/2022/6/2/art_38582_3982696.html ). He is considered one of the largest factories in the region, supporting not just the families of his workers but also both upstream and downstream manufacturers. Even if he needs a loan, it’d be more than easy to get one (Chinese people do not like leverage much when doing business, it’s considered highly risky behaviour – over-leveraging caused the housing market to crash in 2022.) One of the Tieba members from a previous link (this one: http://c.tieba.baidu.com/p/7792470874?pn=1 ) where a commentator mentioned that Luo’s factory is considered a “protected” business by the local government. Normal companies simply cannot compete.

Note 1: Online selling platforms such as Taobao and Xianyu are touted as being safer due to their customer service and protection policies. Therefore most doll owners strongly urge other (usually new) users to use a platform instead of sending money through transfer services such as Weixin or Zuan-zuan (think of them as F&F Paypal and Venmo). On these platforms, every transaction leaves a record. And if you have been blocked by another user, or you have a history of returns, complaints or bad ratings, these records will directly impact your social credit score. The system is set up for you to follow it and be voluntarily tracked because following the rules is considered “safer”.

Note 2: Just like what I said in the last post (https://the-bjd-community-confess.tumblr.com/post/707455091551109120/hello-oldie-chinese-diaspora-anon-here-where ), the Chinese boomers don’t share the same moral values as their children do (or their children’s children). The boomers in the government are more interested in keeping the nation docile and productive (read: keep earning foreign currency) than worrying about copyright. It’s a process that’s still happening today: https://lisamerriam.com/kfcs-success-in-china-breeds-imitators/ There has been changes to copyright law and better enforcement, but this should not be taken as a change of heart. There’s nothing like Chinese pragmatism – these changes are made to ensure that it can still attract outside investors without them running away in fear of imitators and other malicious competitors.

~Anonymous

[blackbloodteeth]

121 Soul ideas (Pt. 1)

For fun and because I love ramblin' around, I've decided to share all the newer prompts I had stored for the March of Madness event that I hadn't really brought up anywhere. Since they don't need to be left open for interpretation anymore, I've even added some more info to some of them. Honestly might return to some of the ideas myself some day, but if anyone gets inspired by anything feel free to do whatever haha

Since this list is pretty long, I've gone and split this up into two parts, which you can find the second half here.

———

Soul and Maka are rivaling hitmen constantly at each other's throats, however they are so evenly matched that neither can manage to outplay the other. One day, one of them finally figures out how to defeat the other, only to start to reflect on their long-going rivalry now that there's a means to put it to an end.

2. One day Soul wakes up to find that everyone in the world has vanished. In the original idea this is inspired by, it involved a short story of wandering around to find where everyone went, eventually leading to seeing people still inside the mirror and the character (in this case Soul) realizing he's trapped on the wrong side.

3. In his desire to protect Maka, Soul ends up turning into a monster and losing conscious awareness of himself in the process. Maka can only watch on in horror at the devastating power he now has.

4. A King Kong-inspired AU where Maka gets separated from her exploration team while on a previously undiscovered island, and ends up finding a giant ape (that being Soul) who is curious about her. Soul actually lives with his brother but had been lazing around by himself, and he is quite friendly and eager to show her some of his favourite views before she has him take her back to her team.

5. Every winter Soul leaves to live in the woods, as he turns into an inhuman creature for the entire season. His conscious mind most likely "sleeps" during this period.

6. Soul returns from his long-term Death Scythe training, and finds that during the time Maka had been simultaneously training her Grigori soul, she'd also picked up archery to expand upon having different ways to use Soul in fights. Mostly had been a one-shot idea where the two are eager to see each other again and compare their strengths since they were last together.

7. Due to his hunting instincts, Soul starts to lose control of himself whenever he smells blood. I had shark inspirations in mind for this one, however it's up to interpretation if he's a demon weapon.

8. Soul needs to consume at least a little bit of blood to use his inner power. Maka's blood has an unusual effect on him, however.

9. Due to demon weapons being more carnivorous (and probably more like actual demons), Soul needs blood as his main source of iron, which weapons need a lot more of. Human blood is more effective in maintaining good health and staving off hunger.

10. Soul and Maka investigate the ongoing case of livestock being taken and eaten. After splitting up, Soul however ends up not coming back once night falls, and Maka catches a glimpse of the thing responsible. Idea was initially werewolf related, however the details are left to interpretation.

11. Soul believes he has died and become a ghost, only for him to actually still be alive the entire time.

12. After Soul eats a witch's soul without knowing what it is, he discovers that he's actually a demon weapon when it results in his soul "overflowing" due to becoming bigger than his body, giving him superpower-like abilities including manifesting his scythe form outside of his body. Originally a doodle idea that I didn't get around to.

13. Soul wakes up in the middle of the night when a serial killer sneaks into his room after being attracted to his soul, which ends in Soul managing to kill the murderer in self-defense and waking up his family. This was a one-shot idea I had related to the previous idea, however it works as its own separate idea.

14. Soul finds he loves dissecting all kinds of things and seeing how they tick, but doesn't understand why.

15. Bloodborne-inspired AU where Soul is much like the Orphan of Kos, abandoned by the river after his mother passed away giving birth to him and sorrowfully looking up at the moon every night.

16. While investigating an abandoned lab with Stein, Kid, and Maka, Soul ends up getting forcefully taken by one of the machines after they accidentally start it up, and his body ends up getting near-perfectly duplicated. His soul, however, does not.

17. AU based on Exit 8. Soul finds himself trapped in an endlessly looping hallway and must find the differences to progress, only going forward when that iteration of the hall has no anomalies. Unbeknown to him, Kid is monitoring him as this is actually a test.

18. Soul has the ability to move objects telekinetically like you would in VR, however he mostly just uses it to be lazy. A potential idea I had for this world is that powers like these are usually restricted outside of their homes due to how easy to misuse they are, which contrasts with Soul using it in the most mundane way imaginable. Hey I mean couch snacks are couch snacks.

19. Soul loves the smell of the freezer, however this ends up getting him in trouble when opening it up for too long and too often causes ice to start spreading into the rest of the surrounding apartment.

20. Soul and Maka run a diner at the edge of the multiverse. Bonus points if they act like an old married couple.

21. Soul and Maka challenge each other to seeing who can beat a Sudoku puzzle first. After a few rounds, Soul’s puzzles start containing strange symbols and he finds out that he must complete the puzzle he started or he can’t leave.

22. After riding his motorcycle out to take a walk in the woods, Soul unknowingly encounters Siren Head until it's too late and he's then grabbed by it. The shock ends up turning him into a scythe (an ability he didn't know he had) and only saving him because the sudden transformation startles it, causing him to be dropped and letting him escape back on his bike. This was originally a one-shot idea that ended up changing a bit as I thought of it as an art piece as well.

23. I had a dream of adding a prompt where Soul turns into a werewolf and eats someone's livestock with the phrase "Sorry Maka, I was so hungry." Seems to be based on the earlier one where Soul and Maka investigate the missing livestock case.

24. As a prank, Soul pretends that he laid an egg when he woke up that morning. When he continues to incubate it for the joke, it hatches into something unexpected.

25. In a Wonderland, the “Mad Hare” is keeping “Alice” captive at a tea party, and must decide if he will let her go or take her soul to finally leave Wonderland for himself.

26. After finding out he’s a demon weapon, Soul travels through the Nevadan Desert on his own to find the elusive Death City, and sees some strange wildlife along the way.

27. Soul is a circus performer who works alongside a Clown (as in the kind like in Soul Eater but not with the same lore), and despite him feeling more at home here, he’s lately been struggling with feeling like he doesn’t fully belong when he sees the other troupe members start to have deeper affections for each other. And then Maka comes along.

28. One-shot idea where Soul is watching the cicadas call at sunset before Maka joins up with him, and it leads into the joke of Soul saying "Trees are screamin' again." These two are scholars in some sort of alternative time period, and Soul is taking a break out in the grass while Maka, as usual, is carrying far too many books/scrolls.

29. IT-inspired AU where child Soul is lured into the drainage by a reality-bending clown, however because Soul isn’t afraid of all the fun circus-y stuff (and because of his sharp teeth), the clown decides to just keep him instead.

30. After finding a cool rock stashed away in a tree in the woods, Maka takes it home and leaves it displayed in her living room. As it turns out, Soul's soul is inhabiting said rock and has now been awakened, making him haunt her apartment. Maka is oblivious to him being there, and because he can't really be detected or have much influence on the world, Soul ends up mostly moping on her furniture because he's lonely and depressed. Eventually though, she starts to see him after something causes her to "connect" with him and leads to them steadily interacting. At the height of the story, it is revealed that Soul was merely cursed to be trapped inside the rock after wishing he could be left alone, but now he wants to break free with the two having ended up befriending each other.

31. Partly a joke idea based on a video of a small group of people trapped inside a room with a pig-masked chainsaw murderer outside, and them escaping by just phonk walking out with the killer not knowing what to do. I'll leave this one up to your imagination.

32. Everyone’s always joked about how “it’s the humidity that’ll get you” until Soul gets pursued by the fog.

33. Soul is coerced into joining along in karaoke night because people (especially Maka) love the sound of his singing voice. He, however, does not and spends the night trying to figure out how to worm his way out of singing.

34. Based on the one hypothetical scenario where "if aliens invaded, would you fight them or try to hide," except it's actually occurring for real. I think this idea made me wonder if DWMA has any protocol for if aliens ended up being real and invading.

35. Post-canon idea where Soul and Maka end up going on a break of sorts to improve their connection and resonance when it gets worn thin, though things turn a little awkward when the "mind" and "body" portion involves close-contact social activities such as back massaging each other and soaking in the same hotsprings together.

36. Soul finds a plush rabbit that turns out to contain the soul of Maka who'd been sleeping before he took it home.

37. Soul and Maka, whom have never met, are being arranged to marry very soon. Soul dreads this because the wedding rings will bind them for the rest of their lives, however he comes to realize that Maka is far more dangerous than his family is.

38. A one-shot I call Who's Afraid of the Were-turkey. It's a Thanksgiving-themed idea where there's a local urban legend about a "man turkey" that will catch you around Thanksgiving if he finds you during the full moon, and will either eat you if you've eaten turkey or simply turn you into one if you anger him. While Soul's a little more wary of the possibility of this tale being true, Maka wants to debunk it after their idiot group of friends kept going on about it, and drags him along to disprove it once and for all. As it turns out, following the neighborhood turkeys was probably a bad idea when they all corner them and summon the Man Turkey. After reigning his judgement and the two are swarmed by the turkeys, they wake back up covered with scratches and bites, and the turkeys are nowhere to be found. They both look up when they remember the moon if full, and decide to hide under their jackets while returning home.

39. Another one-shot idea I've had for a long while where after Soul and Maka get stranded on a snowy mountain during a trip with no way to contact anyone for help, Soul reveals he is a were-animal and willingly changes to keep her warm for the night. Given there were two different iterations of this idea, I don't mind it being more open to interpret for the time being.

40. …Okay apparently I did have the other iteration on the list hah, can't say I wasn't tired by this point haha. After Soul and Maka get separated from their friend group in the mountains, they decide to seek refuge in a small cave for the night and Soul reveals he is a werewolf as he willingly transforms to make sure she’ll be warm during the snowstorm.

41. Another one-shot idea, where Soul's mother is on the run with her infant son while being hunted, as demon weapons are seen as actual demons in this world. To save him, she drops him off at the door of a church before running the other way to distract her pursuers, leaving him crying in the rain before Spirit (who is a part of the church to hide his own weapon nature) quickly takes him inside when he catches on to what's happening. At first he's nervous about there potentially actually being a demon baby as Soul has started growing in sharp teeth by this point, however he's soon taking a liking to him when Spirit's presence calms him, and he carries Soul further inside to help dry him off.

42. Another one-shot idea, where a young Soul is taken to the square with his brother to watch a young Maka be publicaly executed for being a witch. Despite the pleas of her father and Maka's tears, the fire is lit until suddenly it goes out, the crowd then parting as dozens of arms reach up from the ground, all running away as Soul walks up to Spirit quickly freeing his daughter. Now with her back in his arms, he thanks Soul for saving her while the strange hands return to his shadow, and offers him to come with them to live a new life. Soul turns to see Wes is already gone, and quietly nods, fleeing into the shadows with his new family.

43. After Soul gets convinced to skip school on his first day, things are all fun and games of being one of the cool kids until he gets turned into a donkey. Pinnochio-inspired AU.

44. Soul and Maka take on a special training assignment where they must face their innermost fears separately, and then together.

45. Soul is the Pied Piper, able to control any living creature with the sounds of his music playing. He doesn’t like to speak much as Black Blood is his sickness. May take place after the events of spiriting away the children of the town that refused to pay him for his service.

46. Had one prompt listed that was just me picking out any of my SoMa Week prompt ideas, such as "Catharsis" where a non-linear story interweaves the events of Soul playing piano for Maka after he smashed a mirror, and "Confession" where Soul finds Maka sleeping in a way that reminds him of the scene of Juliet being "dead," causing him to ramble out his feelings about Maka until it turns out she wasn't ever actually asleep.

47. Sekiro AU where Soul has the form of a wolf in the shape of a man, and Kid is Kuro. Was noted that it didn't have to be lore-heavy since it would've probably been loosely described for open interpretation if this had been chosen.

48. When a curse is spreading where people suddenly turn into animals, Soul ends up afflicted by it and turning into a wolf, a common but highly feared iteration. As fate would have it though, he finds himself waking up the next day as a human despite that being completely unheard of, with only the vague memory of a hand and the face of a girl having been in front of him.

49. The gang decide to set up a game of water balloon tag. This was originally an idea I had long ago where it was set up like the Hunger Games simulator, except just… water balloons haha

50. One morning Soul gets a frantic phone call from his best friend Maka, and quickly bicycles over to her house with a couple Poptarts still on hand. He's surprised to find that not only has she apparently woken up as a Kadabra, she's talking to him with just her thoughts, and he soon offers her a remaining Poptart of sympathy.

51. Soul and Maka go to investigate a wrecked house for an assignment, and once inside, their reflections begin to move and start messing with their heads.

52. Soul suddenly wakes up in the display case of a museum, not knowing how he got there.

53. Soul is a cyborg that utilizes DWMA's recent tech which operates on the power of one's soul, in turn making a literal phantom limb that is able to be used physically. When he gets infected, however, his false arm begins to act strangely.

54. Soul was once a spirit of the forest, now reduced to being only a nature park. He is wary of humans, but approachable to those wanting to help preserve and restore nature, although part of his skittishness stems from a dark look-alike that seems to be his direct counterpart and a spirit of pollution.

55. Wes is the dragon of the West Winds, Soul is the dragon of the East Winds. The two travel around on their respective halves, however sometimes they end up clashing and causing great storms.

56. Fern Gully-inspired AU, where Soul gets shrunk down and meets the fae of the forest.

57. Having been owned by a witch his whole life, Soul suddenly finds himself not knowing what to do when said witch is killed during the confrontation with a lone weapon in a suit of armor. The warrior, despite being heavily injured, refuses his help, and not being used to the concept of free will, Soul decides to follow her anyway until she passes out. Having carried her the rest of the way to have her injuries treated, he lingers around afterwards to help her recover back to health, and finds out more about who they both are.

58. After Soul jokes about wishing he had the memory of an elephant, he ends up getting turned into a small elephant.

59. A story like The Three Little Pigs where little piggy Soul lets a big bad wolf inside when he claims to be here to talk to his parents. After keeping him company like a proper guest, because Soul has been raised with good manners, his mother comes in, terrified, and the wolf simply leaves her with a warning to look after her son a little better as he was put in a good mood. It's then revealed that this is Soul retelling having unknowingly met Free when he was a kid to Maka.

60. A young Soul gets lost in a crowd and separated from his parents until a strange man finds him and offers to help reunite him. Soul isn't really aware of what's going on, but the strange man has them both avoid the dangers lurking around them (part of the cause of why Soul ended up separated), and soon enough gets him back to his family as promised. When Soul tries to point out the stranger that helped him, however, the man has already completely vanished.