#although to understand the some of his later lore you would need to get a bit of understanding of the worldbuilding but its not that hard

[hitsuyou-fukaketsu]

@clockworkspider

He has This particular voiceline where he sounds a lot like subaru hahssjk

[togeblurbs]

Do You Miss Us?

Five Hargreeves x F!Reader - angst with a happy ending (yeah… happy ish ending)

synopsis: when you find out Five and Lila kissed, you don’t know what to feel. All you know is that you need to get away. Because it was one thing for them to kiss, and another to realize that in the time spent apart, Five Hargreeves may not love you anymore.

content/warnings: hints of anxiety, curse words, cheating, s4 spoilers, mentions of disassociation, morally grey characters, not lore accurate, not really canon, doesn’t focus on the plot moreso reader & fives relationship, lmk if i forgot anything

“Y/n, please,”

you continue walking, wiping away the incessant tears that stream down your face. you feel nauseas, and your chest hurts in a way that it pains you to breathe.

he catches your wrist in his hand, and you turn around, angered. “What? What could you possibly say that would make this better, Five?”

he looks distraught, if not more than you and the thought has your hands shaking in fury. for what reason did he have to be so upset? you weren’t the one who disappeared for a few hours - which ended up being seven years - and then kissed another person.

“I fucked up, I didn’t… You don’t understand, I was losing my mind.” he slips his hand from your wrist to intertwine your fingers, but you shake his grip off in disgust. he looks at you so brokenly at the action, you almost feel bad.

but then you remember her, and you feel the bile rise to your throat once more. “I don’t understand?” you say slowly, taking a step forward.

you point at him, “I think you’re the one who doesn’t understand. I knew some shit was going on between you two, with your secrets and odd glances. But I trusted you, Five. You know why?”

he looks at you with wide eyes, seeming almost unsettled by your outburst. “Because I loved you.” you whisper.

you huff out a laugh, shaking your head as you wipe the remnants of your tears. “But that didn’t matter in the end. You were alone with her for seven years, so it makes sense. I wish you nothing but happiness, Five. Even if it’s away from me.”

you turn, moving to walk again, but he crashes into you from behind and wraps his arms around you. “Please,” his hands are trembling where they rest on your stomach, and although you want to soothe him, you don’t think you are in the place to at the moment.

you take a shaky deep breath, before carefully untangling his hands from your torso. he whimpers pitifully at the action, and you have to stop yourself from giving in and drawing him closer.

you used to bring him comfort, give him love and make him feel safe; but it seemed it was not enough; because in the end he chose someone else.

you turn back around, “I need some time alone right now, Five.” you tug at your bottom lip with your teeth, ripping the skin. you don’t want to look at his face, so you choose to stare at the chipped paint on the wall.

Five lifts his hand for a moment, before dropping it. “Will you come back?” his voice has never sounded so childlike; as though he can’t bear the thought of you leaving and never coming back.

you swallow harshly, “I’ll come back.”

he nods, his own arms wrapping around himself.

“I just don’t know if it will be for you.”

you take a chance and glance at his face, hating the way your heart hurts when his expression crumples.

back in the room, you were so sure he was in love with Lila, but now you’re starting to doubt yourself. because if he truly felt something for her, would he really be crying in front of you right now?

you don’t know. you also don’t feel like you have it in you to make any assumptions.

you turn around, your back facing Five. “I’ll see you later. Don’t follow me.”

and with that, you walk out of Five’s life, unknowingly carrying his heart with you.

-

Five lays in a bed - not his, for years it’s never been his - and recounts the last seven years.

he remembers missing you immensely in the beginning. for the first three years, you were all he could think about.

and then his friendship with Lila began to grow. the time he wished to spend with you, he was now spending with her. it was odd at first, because the two were not close friends of any sort. but when you’re trapped in a different time-line, or different universe, you become allies with those you normally wouldn’t.

somewhere along the way, they had provided one another with the comfort they lacked from their significant others.

it wasn’t supposed to end up that way. it wasn’t.

but now Five can’t get the way you looked at him out of his head; it was like he physically shot you in the chest, or told you he didn’t love you. like he betrayed you.

he grasps at his own chest, curling up into a ball beneath the covers. he feels like he’s going to die.

and maybe that would be for the best. he’s lived a long, torturous life. with a nut-job for a father, siblings that were always thinking about themselves and a lover who he’d ruined everything with, what was the point of life anymore?

its been a month since Five had seen you, and the ache in his chest has yet to go away. he couldn’t find it in himself to eat, often laying in bed as Luther force-fed food down his throat in fear that he would truly pass away.

it’s just another late night, and Five takes the time to stare at the broken glass window as the sun begins to set. the only sound in the room comes from the clock, the constant ticks helping him disassociate and think about you.

he distantly hears the door creak open, but is too exhausted to look at who it is. he doesn’t really care anyway, because he knows it’s not going to be you.

“Five?”

he blinks slowly. it almost sounded like you, but he figured he was hearing things at this point.

“Five,” he feels a hand smooth over his shoulder. gentle in a way he’d only ever experienced with you. his head turns, if only slightly, and he catches sight of your concerned face.

his eyes widen, he forces himself to sit up even if his arms have little to no strength left. “What are you… what are you doing here?” he croaks.

you sigh, sitting on the edge of the bed. it’s far too away from Five, he wants to pull you in the bed and bring you into his arms.

“Should I leave?” you glance at the door for a second, but Five immediately grabs onto your hands and shouts, “No! No, please. Please stay.”

you look shocked at his outburst, nodding softly.

the silence in the room is deafening, but Five is merely happy you’re there. Seven years and then some apart from you was not easy, and after his last conversation with you, he knows he’ll feel unsettled until he makes it right. if he can make it right.

“I did some thinking.” you start, cautious.

Five watches you with fear, scared to hear your next words.

“I’m not angry anymore. I understand you went through a lot being trapped again, and I can’t blame you for falling in love with Lila since she was there for you. I do wish you broke it off with me before kissing her, but what’s done is done.”

your voice comes out stable, like you’ve thought it all through and are content to leave things as they are. but Five is shaking his head the moment you say the word love and Lila in the same sentence, because that could not be more far from the truth.

“Wait, please stop it,” he begs, seeming desperate.

“I understand why you might think that way, but I do not love Lila.” he feels lighter with the words being spoken. he’s been aching to clarify this the moment you found out they kissed, but hasn’t had the chance.

your brows furrow, and you pick at the cotton sleeve of your hoodie. “Um, I see.” you look so confused, he can’t help but move closer to you.

you look at him, body rigid. you don’t seem comfortable around him anymore, and the thought has him clutching his chest in pain.

“Y/n, I love you.”

you recoil immediately, and it prompts Five to reach out instinctively.

the words tumble out of his mouth, like he’s scared you’re going to run before he can finish getting everything out. “I haven’t stopped loving you, Lila and I.. when we, you know, it was a moment of weakness after losing you and being trapped again. I wished every day that I could see you, but I was stuck.”

you move to stand, and a part of Five’s heart breaks for what he thinks will be the last time ever. because if you walk out of this room, he knows he won’t be able to love again. you are it for him, and if he doesn’t have you, then he’d rather stay alone for the rest of his life.

“I’m sorry, I truly am. I understand if you don’t want to be with me anymore, but I need you to know that I love you.”

at the end of his little speech he breathes out, listening to his heart thump loudly in his ears.

it’s odd, he thinks. love has always been so painful, so destructive. but with you it was simple. it was calm, steady and soft. he wonders; he hopes, that he’ll be able to experience it again. after all, a healthy type of love was rare for his kind.

he watches you walk closer, reaching a hand out and placing it on his cheek. he leans into it, closing his eyes as he missed your touch immensely. you use the other hand to push his hair back, planting a kiss on his forehead.

his eyes shoot open at the feeling, and he stares at you in wonder. he begins to feel hope bubble in his chest.

“You love me?” you ask quietly.

he nods, “Only you. Only ever you.”

you exhale, shoulders drooping as you move to sit beside him. you wrap an arm around his waist and one on his neck, pulling him down as you lay on the small bed. his head falls to your neck, and he sneaks a small kiss in, hoping you won’t push him away.

“I can’t promise that i’ll forgive you completely. At least not right now. And I’ll probably hate Lila forever, but I don’t think I can walk away from you knowing you love me.”

you run a hand through his hair, feeling him nod into the space between your head and your shoulder. “I know, I completely understand.”

you pat his head gently, staring up at the ceiling.

“I love you too, Five. I don’t think I ever won’t.”

he rubs his face into your neck, and you feel something wet touch it. you card your fingers through his hair once more, cooing.

“Thank you,” his voice comes out shaky, but he hopes you hear the sincerity.

you shift the two of you until you’re underneath the covers, cradling him in your arms with his head on your chest. “Don’t thank me yet. I will be making out with Diego as revenge.”

Five lifts his head, “What?!”

sorry if this is ooc:>

[rbr4c1ng]

Hii! I was wondering if you could maybe explain the bus bros fallout or p2p gate or pretty much all of the McLaughlin-Newgarden lore to me since I'm only getting in to IndyCar now and I want to be caught up before the 500. I understand this is a big ask but I've seen that youve posted about it and I just NEED to know. Any links to other pieces of lore would also be much apreciated. Completely understand if you don't want to write anything though so thank you so much I advance!! <3

YES ABSOLUTELY I WILL EXPLAIN! this is my special interest dw i could write an 18 page essay about their lore.

SO basically scott came into indycar from supercars in 2020-2021 ish and him a josef started getting along like super well, which is honestly a bit odd bc josef is known to not really let people get so close to him, so scotty is a bit of an outlier in that respect.

eventually! they make bus bros!!! wooooo everyone loves it etc etc they have fun making it…. until they don’t! leading up to their breakup there were QUITE a few clues that they knew it was gonna end in flames like scott talked about it on off track (see audio excerpt below) and on hot seats with hinch if i remember correctly?

there’s also a fair share of articles that mention it. they basically knew it was inevitable but i don’t think anyone thought it was gonna happen so quickly??

so then the winter break leading into the 2024 szn happened! this is about when i started getting really into bus bros and was honestly pretty present for some of this shit (i was at the daytona 24 and st pete so i’ve got some first hand evidence but we will get to that later)… anyways so the rumors start going around that bus bros is over around?? st pete time i think??? a little bit earlier. which is odd given that they seemed okay with each other at the daytona 24, even though i thought it was strange that they weren’t both on tower motorsports anymore cause josef switched to penske porsche but GENERALLY it seemed okay (although based on this pic idk their relationship seems a little charged atp but it’s all speculation really)

then after the rumors come out i think it was jenna fryer’s article that did it in? (idk it has a paywall on it for me right now and i don’t care enough to find it here but there’s definitely excerpts floating around) now i do recommend to take anything jenna fryer says with a grain of salt bc she is essentially a gossip columnist for all intents and purposes. but the article basically said that josef and scotty were done and scott wouldn’t answer any questions about it and was only saying that they’re fine or to ask josef about it (tea from todays 100 days to indy episode actually…). they promptly took down the bus bros merch site and have been relatively quiet since then. at st pete they talked on the podium and didn’t seem too bad but i’ve seen other clips where they won’t even sit next to each other or speak to each other so take that as you will. podiums are pretty much just publicity, cameras everywhere, you’d probably want to seem at least cordial with your teammate.

(pic 1 is mine, pic 2 is a pic of my tv from todays episode LMFAO)

so heres where most of the speculative stuff comes in. Josef dissolved his media company, unfollowed everyone, and cancelled bus bros leading into the 2024 season because he wanted to “get rid of distractions”, and really we could leave it at that, but i find it hard to believe that that’s the only thing that happened.

Josef is the dictionary definition of Penske Perfect, you won’t get any closer to it than him. he’s fucking OBSESSED with this idea of being perfect. perfect season, perfect body, perfect car, perfect team. obviously this isn’t feasible, but scotty seemed to have broken through that block in his little Penske Perfect brain and got him to LIGHTEN UP A BIT. and then the 2023 season happened. sure, josef won the indy 500 but it was one of his worst season finishes in a while and, to make matters worse, scott BEAT him. little scotty mac, supercars champion transplant from 2021 beat josef newgarden at his own fucking game after breaking down his walls and making him soft. i can see how that scared josef honestly. so he ended it. Scott doesn’t see things on a plane of winning/losing imo, everything is just experience for him. hell, he didn’t even know if he would end up in indycar and he sure as hell didn’t think he’d win races so soon AND beat his teammate. to josef, it’s JUST winning/losing. if he’s losing, he needs to be better. and he lost sight of that for the 2023 season. that’s why he had to come back and put an end to the shenanigans bc he knows scott makes him soft.

but that’s just my speculation!!!!! literally could just be nothing. maybe it is to josef, but i know for a FACT it isn’t to scott.

OH and with the p2pgate stuff! basically they had a component in their car that. was not supposed to be there! that prevented race control from turning off their push to pass like normal. (marshall pruitt has a rlly good article explaining it all here) and they were caught in long beach when race control forgot to turn on the push to pass during the sunday warm up and HMMMMM why do the penske cars still have it???? when has this happened before??? oh ok st pete! now they’re disqualified. josef used 9 seconds of p2p when it was not enabled and scotty only used 1.9 and will used none. so i’m led to believe that it was a josef-centered choice IF it was intentional to use the p2p when it was supposed to be inactive.

now josef really laid down the water works for that press conference at barber to the point that i was having a VERY hard time watching it. i felt bad for the guy. he seemed really fucking upset and i almost believe that it WASNT on purpose but. it’s just too good to be true right?

honestly i think this all could tie back to the downfall of bus bros in that scott maybe didn’t want to do the p2p thing but josef was willing to? and maybe that caused some sort of divide between them bc then again for josef it’s about Winning No Matter What, and yes scott wants to win but cheating isn’t the way for him. idk.

for more of their lore when they WERE friends, watch bus bros (duh), admit one, 100 days to indy, scott learns america: nashville, hot seats with hinch, and listen to scott’s episode on off track with hinch and rossi! also there are some very brief interactions between them on some older penske games videos before bus bros was even a thing but it’s not much. there are more but i can’t think of them rn…

sorry for rambling, if you have any more qs feel free to ask!!! i’m always available for brain picking :)

[girl-named-matty]

Hogwarts Legacy next generation - The Sallows

As I said in this post, I wanted to share some photos and lore of some of the next generation of hl kids in my lore! So, today we're doing the Sallows! <3.

Eleazar Sallow:

You've already seen him on my account before but this is Eleazar Sallow! He is the oldest child out of the five Sallow kids and he was named after Matty's late mentor at school, Eleazar Fig. Upon coming to school, he was sorted into Gryffindor (much to Matty's bragging rights upon her husband since she's a Gryffindor herself).

Growing up, he was definitely your stereotypical mature oldest brother. He helped out with his younger siblings, kept his younger brothers from getting into trouble (or at least tried) and looked out for his younger sisters when trouble came by.

He is an absolute hopeless romantic and has been in love with the same girl since he was five (whom he later on married). In school, he was close friends with Xander Prewett and Hector Weasley who were both sorted into Gryffindor as well. The three of them do a lot together and were practically inseparable in school. He played on Gryffindor's quidditch team and that was one of his hobbies he really enjoyed.

Later on in life, he follows in his mothers footsteps and becomes an Auror. Although, unlike her he didn't go into the Hit Wizard/Witch department, he went into Magical Law Enforcement Patrol (so basically what Officer Singer does, except for he actually does his job.)

He marries Noctua Gaunt II (more on her later) and has one son whom he names Gideon.

Caroline Sallow:

This is Caroline Sallow! She's the 2nd oldest in the family and the oldest daughter. When she went into school, she very unsurprisingly sorted into Ravenclaw.

From a young age, Matty and Sebastian noticed just how intelligent their daughter was. She taught herself to read and write, advanced in her understanding of magic, and even taught herself about muggle studies that she had heard of from her mother. So it wasn't surprising that she got into Ravenclaw.

She is definitely the braincells when it comes to the Sallow kids (more specifically her younger brother, Marcellus) and attempts to keep him from doing dumb crap like teenage boys often do.

She's somewhat a "no-nonsense" kind of woman, meaning she just likes things to get done the way they should be and nobody should be goofing off while doing it, as that might interrupt the process of it. She's very particular about specific things.

Her best friend is Noctua II, as they have been good friends since childhood. Although they are in different houses, they always made sure to find time to hang out together. Caroline is also well acquainted with Dean Clopton (bet you cant guess whose kid that is lol). But regardless of her acquaintance with the quidditch lover, she absolutely despises quidditch and is the only Sallow child to not play. She read a book about it once and said she knew all that she needed to know about it.

Later on in life, she becomes a Professor (although she doesn't teach at Hogwarts). She met her husband, Rome Smith, in her workplace. The two were later married and had two children, Hildegard and Lyall Smith.

Marcellus Sallow:

Ah yes, the Sebastian-esque child who also happens to be the middle child. Buckle up because this is a complicated one lol. Marcellus Sallow is the third oldest out of the Sallow children and he also happens to be the middle child. He is the most like his father out of all of them and half of the time that's a good thing and half of the time its a disaster.

He was a total daddy's boy growing up, following Sebastian around everywhere as long as he was allowed to. So, obviously Sebastian spent a lot of time around Marcel in particular. And like Sebastian when he was younger, Marcel tended to get into a bit of trouble throughout his childhood.

Eleazar and Caroline would constantly have to make sure he wasn't getting into trouble or doing something he wasn't supposed to. So yes, he is absolutely the problem child but he isn't all that bad.

He enjoys reading but prefers action fantasies over other genres. He's constantly outside and exploring the world around him and that usually is the way he gets into trouble if he doesn't stop himself before its too late. He actually slit his own eyebrow himself because he thought it'd make him look cool. He ended up getting in trouble for that later and it got infected because he didn't do it right (💀). But he has zero regrets about it.

In school, he is unsurprisingly sorted into Slytherin and he is good friends with Lorenzo Gaunt, despite the two of them having around a three year age gap. He plays Quidditch and loves winning has he is a very competitive person. Merlin forbid he loses against one of his siblings in a game of Quidditch. He gets all salty about it but eventually gets over it.

In his fifth year, he meets a girl named Marie, who had been ditched by her date at one of the school dances. Marcel himself didn't have a date, so when he saw her sitting alone (and thought she was cute) asked her to dance. He then harbored a massive crush on her and they ended up getting married almost immediately after school. Later, they had two sons Jonathan and Roman.

For his career path, Marcel dreamed of following in his fathers footsteps of being a Curse Breaker but unfortunately after getting mixed up with the wrong group of friends once Lorenzo graduated from Hogwarts, Marcel got into a bad mix of people and ended up becoming a smuggler secretly.

(i'd have to take a whole post to explain his further lore on just this subject alone, so we're gonna stop it there before it gets too sad LOL)

Adonis Sallow:

The boy sweetheart of the Sallow family, that's for sure. Adonis is the forth and youngest son in the Sallow family. He is the older twin of Anne Sallow II by about five minutes.

He is an absolute mommy's boy. As Matty got older and stopped working more frequently, she could spend more time at home as she desired. The twins were the last two children to be born so she got to spend more time with them as expected. Adonis was practically glued at the hip to his mother for the first couple of years of his life. He could be described as a sweet but anxious child.

Eventually, he grew out of his mass anxiety thanks to the help of his older brothers and learned how to cope with it. Although he still struggles with it, it's much better than it used to be. He enjoys being outside and enjoys small creatures of pretty much any kind. He used to find insects or other small creatures and bring them inside to show everybody, much to Caroline's dismay (she hates insects).

In school, he was sorted into the Hufflepuff house and has many friends there. But either way, his best friend is his twin sister. He is loved by the Professors and students there due to his loving nature, something his family was very proud of. He also played quidditch and got really good at it.

He met his future wife, Rose, at school when he was in his seventh year. Rose didn't talk much and as a result of this was often bullied for it. When Adonis was made aware of this, he made sure to reach out to her. He knew she didn't have any friends, so he offered to be hers. He told her she didn't have to talk if she was uncomfortable with it and that he'd keep up the conversations himself.

Eventually the two ended up falling in love and eventually Rose was comfortable enough for the two of them to begin talking with one another. It was something that he helped her with and that deepened their love for one another. After school, they ended up getting married and had four children: twins Peter and Dorran and then two daughters, Amaryllis and Cassiopeia.

As for his career, he saw how being an Auror affected his mother and older brother mentally and physically and wanted to help those from that department with their struggles. He ended up studying to become a therapist and opened his own practice to help Aurors who were struggling mentally. He was publicly praised for this since the Ministry offered no compensation to the Aurors who had been working for so long.

Anne Sallow II:

Anne Sallow II is the youngest child out of the Sallow children. She was obviously named after her aunt, Anne. Sebastian attempted to name his first daughter, Caroline, after his sister but Anne griped about it saying it made her feel old. Eventually, once Anne II was born, she allowed Sebastian to name his daughter after her. Although a contending name for her was Aria, after Sebastian and Anne's mother.

She is the younger twin of Adonis and was the unexpected one. When Matty found out she was pregnant for the fourth time, she expected it to be one final child. Turns out it was twins, surprise!! I hope you enjoyed all the sleepless nights with not one but two babies!!

The twins were also born prematurely, which definitely didn't help with Matty's anxiety about the situation. But everything worked out and Anne II is dearly cherished by her parents. Although, since she and her brother were premature, they developed some health issues and often got sick as children. As they grew older, it got better but both of them can recall getting sick quite often.

Just like her twin brother, Anne was also sorted into Hufflepuff and is friends with many there. She is outrageously outgoing and is the more competitive twin. She loves Quidditch and made a very good chaser in her days of playing.

After her time in school, she went on to become a Professional Quidditch player and being half Irish, she played on Irelands team. Which Matty was very happy about. After a few years of Professional playing, Anne decided that the life of quidditch was no longer for her, as it became less enjoyable. She turned to studying nursing and became a nurse in a muggle hospital.

Under unfortunate, but slightly humorous circumstances, she met her husband, Clark Nelson, who was a muggle man. The two later ended up marrying and had two sons, David and Benjamin.

(Sebastian wasn't the absolute happiest that his daughter was marrying a muggle, simply due to the fact that she'd be around less since she had chosen to stay with her muggle lifestyle. However, once Matty reminded him that she was a muggleborn and spent fifteen years of her life living as one ((not to mention he had muggle in-laws)), he quickly got over it and has a good relationship with his son-in-law.)

Sorry this is long as crap. But this is actually very little of their lore, pretty much just the basics. Each one of these characters has a lot of lore behind their characters because I just couldn't help myself LOL.

Hope you enjoyed! The Gaunt's are next! 💚

[destinysbounty]

Ok how do u explain Lloyds hair color. Bc I'm pretty sure blonde hair isn't a dominant gene, and both of Lloyds parents have brown hair. Did he bleach it??? How??? Where would he get those resources he's like 8 in S1 and also homeless. Actually on that note what color do u think the FSM's hair was. Because ONE of the siblings has a different one than him. I've always thought the FSM's hair was blonde, bc when it greys out it's so pale, and also because angst in the way of Garmadon being different from his family from the start, but like. How would Garm have gotten the brown hair. Do they have a mom or did the FSM perform mitosis???? AND ALSO Garmadon's hair whites out and doesn't grey out despite him being a brunette (and later having black hair but that's bc of the Venom Influence) so. What's up with that. Also why does Wu's hair go white so early we know he was born with blonde hair. And why doesn't it apply to Lloyd too. What's happening. Where am I.

Right off the bat, lets dispel a common genetics misconception. Yes, its true that when a dominant and recessive gene get paired up, the dominant gene will be presented. You're also correct that blonde is recessive and brown is dominant. However! Like all things in biology, its a bit more complicated than that.

To simplify a surprisingly complicated science to the best of my ability, think of it like this. Although you will typically present based on whatever is the most dominant genes you inherited, you are still a carrier of sorts for the recessive genes. So Garmadon has brown hair, but his father and brother are both blonde, which means he has the potential to be a carrier for the blonde gene.

Then there's Misako, who is also a brunette. We don't know what her parents looked like, but lets say one of them was blonde. Even if she presents as brunette, she could still carry the recessive blonde gene.

When both parents are carriers for the same recessive gene, there's generally gonna be a 1 in 4 chance of their child presenting recessive rather than dominant. So, if we assume one of Misako's ancestors was blonde, then Lloyd being blonde is entirely likely.

This is a depressingly oversimplified summary of the situation, but I'm too lazy to get into the nitty grittys. Feel free to look up 'punnett squares' if you wanna learn more!

You do present a fascinating question, though: where did Garmadon get his brown hair?

Scientifically, the only explanation I can think of would be if Wu and Garm had a birth-mother of some kind. But i personally don't like that explanation because it just makes canon way more complicated than it needs to be. Tangentially, I'm also an "FSM Asexually Reproduced" truther all the way. I refuse to consider the possibility of the FSM having procreated with another person. That man either laid an egg or did some kinda mitosis shenanigan and you absolutely cannot convince me otherwise.

Luckily, we have the luxury of considering nonscientific alternatives.

To understand a more magic- and lore-based approach to the question of the hair colors present int his family, let's first take a look at the family tree:

FSM - blonde (as far as we can guess, at least). Half-dragon, half-oni. Also has godly powers of Creation and Destruction.

Garmadon - brunette. Has inherited the powers of Destruction.

Wu - blonde. Has inherited powers of Creation.

Lloyd - blonde. Has inherited a power very similar to the FSM, in that it's Creation-adjacent (listen, if you have a better way to describe Green fucking Energy, then by all means correct me).

Do you see where I'm going with this? Within the context of the FSM and his bloodline, it would not be entirely unreasonable to assume that blonde hair is in some way affiliated with the draconic half of their bloodline, whereas brown hair is more so affiliated with the oni half of their bloodline. So an individual's hair color may not necessarily be determined solely by standard genetics like a normal human would, but rather by which part of their bloodline they take after more strongly.

In this interpretation, Lloyd being blonde can be seen as a visual shorthand to represent how he has taken more so after his uncle/grandfather in terms of powerset and moral alignment.

Personally, I think both of these explanations are equally valid. That being said, it should be noted that a lot of this discussion operates on the assumption that Ninjagian genetics work in any way similar to ours. For all we know, blonde could be the in-universe dominant trait and brown could be recessive. The possibilities are endless.

I mean, c'mon. It's a fantasy story where the world was created by spinning around really fast. Lloyd canonically has shapeshifting powers, for crying out loud. I feel like him being blonde is completely within the realm of possibility, even without the scientific explanation. I feel like holding this series to any standard of scientific fidelity is just downright silly.

Anyway, thanks for the ask! Hope those answers were to your liking <3

[tossawary]

I've only seen 3 episodes of the new "Percy Jackson" show so far and my main complaint with the first two episodes was pacing. I thought the pacing in the third episode was much improved and overall very good, but a lot about the first two episodes felt rushed to me.

I think episodes 1 and 2 both could have been two episodes each to slowly introduce us to Percy, Grover, Sally, Mr. Brunner, Mrs. Dodds and the Minotaur, and then to the Camp, to Annabeth, Luke, Clarisse, the satyrs and the different cabins, etc.. I mean, I think what was there was pretty solid! I like the actors! I don't think it's badly written (I think making Luke show Percy around the camp was a good choice to make later things hit harder, since we will have more time with Annabeth on the quest itself later), but I would have liked more breathing room scenes, like when Percy burned the blue jellybeans, for things to settle in, and I blame the studio for not giving this show a longer season to work with.

As it stands now, the first two episodes felt more intended for existing fans, rather than for onboarding new fans. I feel like a frog being thrown into boiling water instead of the water coming up to a boil around me. If you're not familiar with this religion & lore already, if you don't know who the Twelve Olympians are, the introduction to the Camp doesn't give you much of a foothold, which is quite unfortunate when PJO was many people's introduction to this stuff.

The blue food is not really explained. The tension of the mystery with Mrs. Dodds kind of gets thrown out because it all happens so fast. There's no time to slowly build a feeling of normalcy and then wrongness. Percy's relationship with Chiron is undermined by how little time they get together. Percy finding out who his father is happens SO QUICKLY that we don't have a proper understanding of what's wrong about his claiming when it happens. The camp looks cool and I want to see more of it! How it functions is barely explained! We barely get to meet anyone! It feels like Percy is there for less than 48 hours before he's leaving on a quest again, so there's very little time to build up his attachment to it. I have less emotional investment in Percy's conflict with Clarisse because we barely get to understand what daily life at Camp Half-blood might be like (although I understand putting less focus on Clarisse now knowing that you'll be able to play catch-up during future storylines).

I think the show is making pretty good choices with the time that they have, I just wish they had MORE time. I don't think that they have to include every little detail and scene and character from the books. I like a lot of the changes they've made just fine. I just feel like the writing and acting is being undermined by the fact that there's very little time to set things up so that you can knock them down, and that it takes more time to show something visually than it does to read a sentence. Everything in episodes 1 and 2 is moving so quickly that some of the magical aspects feel... less magical to me because there's less time to develop contrast. And the show doesn't have as much time to potentially develop cool NEW things, to slide in more new funny character interactions, because it's all so smushed down. I want more time to see these actors shine together.

(Although, admittedly, it is VERY funny to feel like Percy is stuck in some sort of speedrun version of the story. Every day is a new rollercoaster of Percy not knowing what the fuck is going on and going with it because he's not given the time to ask questions. Sure! This might as well happen next! His life sucks already. That part feels very true to the books, although I think the feeling could still be preserved if the show was given more time.)

I'm tired of 8 episode seasons. I don't know if I think that PJO needs a full 20+ episodes to tell the story of the first book, probably not, but being constrained to only 8 instead of at least 10-16 feels disappointing.

[graysbullshit]

Summarizing the Brazillian's lore for the gringos that dont understand portuguese but are curious anyway:

Pac & Mike: Starting with the dynamic duo because they have the least amount of lore. Basically, they are best friends and like to do everything together! Like good best friends, they argue all. the. time. Both of them really llve their egg, however, after Mike accidently lead Richarlyson to his death he has been avoiding the egg. He is very scared of fucking up and would rather be an absent father with a living kid than a present father with a dead kid. Pac is more hopefull and likes interecting with the egg.

Also, they are more interested in the minecraft aspects of the server and not the lore aspects, so they don't really tend to go out of their way to interact with people. Besides, they stream earlier, so most people only log on when they are already getting ready to leave. They have created the bar "Buteco do Boi Gordo" which seems to be a huge success on the server and are in good terms with most people! They joined the Ordo Theoritas by accidently walking into Cellbit's hide out and are currently a bit scared of Cucurucho and of being watched.

Felps: He is a very laid back guy (minecraft-wise). He is a very close friends of Cellbit and constantly jokes about either of them going insane and talking to voices. He was also canonically driving the boat when they crashed.

He loves hanging out with Richarlyson and is one of the more present dads. He also hangs out with the other players a lot and likes talking with them, for exemple: he had a very long conversation with Foolish while Leo and Richas played! He seems to talk more to the english speakers because he understands english better than spanish, although he is very sociable in general.

He was invited to the Ordo Theoritas by Cellbit, since they were such close friends. But after talking to Cucurucho he started to suspect Cellbit was actually going insane. He hang out with Cucurucho more and ended up quite liking the little guy. Later, he told Cucurucho his "biggest secret" (that he would give his life away for Richarlyson) and in turn was shown the Heaven Room, in there he was stuck in a another room and disappeared.

(The reason for this specific lore is because he is currently traveling to Japan and didn't want to leave the Qsmp so soon without giving some reason for his character to disappear)

Forever: Arguably the brazillian with the biggest lore Lol. He is an extrovert and tries to talk to everyone, despite the language barriers, and is very good at making friends. He is DEFINITELY the best dad out of all of them. He is also DEFINITELY the best minecraft player from all of the brazillians and absolutely loves exploring the new aspects of the game Although he is more intrested in the game aspect of the sever, he is very invested in the eggs. He loves hanging out with Richas, and enjoy the company of all the eggs too (he even remembered that Tallulah needed to complete her missions and asked Richas to "talk to her" and "see if she can come online, even if she is speaking portugues, if you get what I mean")

In his past he had a best friend/romantic interest that coincidently also uses the Urahara skin, so when he saw Philza he was immediately interested in becoming his friend. Because of his values, he only became truly interested in Philza when he first saw his backpack and just how rich he was. He tried to flirt with Philza mutiple times and tried to convince him to love him mutiple times, not taking rejection very well. Although he has made many plans to conquer Philza's love, he hasn't followed through with any of it. The worst he has done is annoy Philza everytime he comes on the server Lol. (Not-canonically, he is very nice and was worried Philza would be genuinely upset with the storyline, even asking if he wanted him to stop)

Canonically, he was scared to death by a Grim Reapper that asked him to drink water, he suspected it might be BBH and is currently very uneasy around him for this same reason. He was invited to the Ordo by Cellbit, after being deemed trustworthy, he has said many times that he does not like "scary things" and does not consider himself good with this type of puzzles. Therefore, he reports everything he find directly to Cellbit and also seems to trust Cellbit blindly. He somehow managed to find the "Heaven room" in which Felps disappeared and realized the weakness of the reinforced blocks right away, guiding Cellbit and BBH over there.

He is also planing on terraforming an entire desert bioma into an ocean so he can recreate the very famous Copacabana Beach. It might seem HUMANLY IMPOSSIBLE but, considering all the absurd stuff he has done in his channel, I consider this quite tame actually.

Cellbit: He remembers Felps from his past, he also remembers Pac and Mike (who didn't remember him) from his attempt to escape prison (Non-canonically: they did a video together called Prision Break, if you guys wanna watch it). Not only is his character clinically insane, he is also an ex-convict and an alleged murderer. He loves solving charades and puzzles, loves mistery, ARGS and thrillers. Although, he doesnt really care about the minecraft aspect of the server.

He became very good friends with Maximus, bonding over the mysteries of the island. He is also very good friends with BBH, though I am not sure if they remember each other cannonically. He also befriended Roier and they have been flirting non stop ever since, Richas is totally trying to get them together lol (fun fact: his girlfriend also ships Q!roier and Q!cellbit lol). Although he originally seemed to deslike Bobby, later he explained it was all in good fun and he did not genuinely hated the egg. He is very suspicious of Quackity (for obvious reasons) and has decided to befriend him in order to keep him close and where he can be watched.

Cellbit really loves Richarlyson, but he loves solving mysteries more lol, so he is an absent father. He doesnt really expends a lot of time with the other eggs and doesn't really seem to have strong emotions towards them. He believes they were made by the federation to manipulate them and keep them in the island no matter what, so he is also suspicious of them.

He hates the Cucurucho so so so so much, its hilarious. After breaking the rules on purpose to see what would happen, he was teleported to an underground tunnel where the Cucurucho appeared behind him holding a chainsaw. He was terrifiend and ran in the oposite direction, falling in a whole fuelled with iron stakes. After that, he was taken to an "interogation room" where they expend the next minutes conversing through books. Later, he was released and developed a paranoia and a insane amout of hatred for the federation. Therefore, when he saw his best friend talking to the Cucurucho he was enraged, which lead him to follow them only to witness his best friend being taken away.

He is probably the person who logs on the most on the server, but most of the time he only logs on to say that canonically his character is also solving the QSMP puzzle in his computer. He was with Forever when they found the room where Felps was taken too and decided it was too risky to try and break in at that time.

I believe this is it! Maybe, if you guys want, i could summarize the CANNONICAL theories Cellbit has and the evidences he has found, but I wont do that for the ARG because that's too much information.

[skinzchoerim]

OnlyOneOf's dOpamine concert in Warsaw - my experience (+sentimental musings about the lore and its messages)

The first thing I need to get out of the way is that their crowd interaction game is 1000/10. They went on stage already knowing at least two greetings in Polish, and then Kyubin and Nine did a whole pantomime to explain their understanding of them. They presented "elo" as being very casual, best done with a bro chest bump, and they were correct about that. The funniest thing was when Nine showed "siema" (a greeting that's basically just as casual as "elo") as being very polite and official with a bow of the head. And hey, if he thinks that's the most official greeting in Polish, who are we to argue?

The translator wasn't very good so a lot of the context got lost, but they said that while sightseeing they met an elderly lady who was a lyOn. Then they met an elderly man from Busan who they hoped to turn into a lyOn, but he wasn't interested, and Nine said that's just how people from Busan are lol. Junji talked about how much he loved the view and that it made him feel really sentimental, which somehow turned into JunRie doing a couple dance with a spin. I really wish I had a video of it, I also can't find any taken by other people 😔

When the time for seOul drift came they asked about a Polish car brand, and of course everyone yelled "MALUCH!!!", so it was hilarious when they asked us to do a Warsaw drift in a maluch with them.

At some point the audience started chanting "zajebiście" which basically means "fucking awesome", and they were very keen to learn how to pronounce it. I really hope they remember it cause that would be iconic.

Now let's do a time leap and go back to what happened before the concert.

I watched the fanchat from afar and had the best view of Yoojung who looked really invested in everyone he talked to. I was surprised to see how wide and baby-like Rie's face is, it's really cute. Everyone says they look even better in real life, and personally I don't find that to be true. I think they're exactly as beautiful as they appear on screen. I'll explain it in more detail later.

Now for the fansign, which... my god. My worst fear when I saw how little time was reserved for it came true, because it really went by at the speed of light. I'm really glad I brought the prints to give them, because there was no way they would have noticed the shirt. For reference, here is what I gave them (Yoojung got two):

Junji was first, he smiled and said a cheerful "Hi!", I handed him the album and then quickly gave him the print before having to move on to Rie who was already making eye contact. I don't remember his exact reaction to the print, but he seemed positively surprised. Yoojung was the one who had the biggest reaction, his mouth did the '0' he often does and he either gasped or said "wow", it was all genuinely too fast for me to process and file away every detail. I don't remember Nine's reaction well because I was still reeling from Yoojung's (also I was distracted by his scar makeup, cause damn, it looked realistic). I think he said "thank you", although I'm not sure if he even looked down at the print. Mill also seemed positively surprised. Kyubin was last, and thanks to that I got to watch his reaction for the longest, although it was still barely a second. He looked at the print and then made eye contact with me while he was handing me the signed album. There was something about the look on his face that made me wish I had a moment longer to ask what was going through his head, but unfortunately all I could do was smile, give him an awkward nod goodbye and walk off. Did he recognize that he's seen the drawing before? Was he just surprised? Did he like it? I have no idea.

The hi-touch went by even faster since the staff told us to run. The pictures were taken with about 10-13 lyOns each. After the whole thing was done, I knew that for the next concert (fingers crossed 🤞) I'll have to buy the VVIP+ benefits. To be fair to myself, there was already a lot going on in the days leading up to the concert and preparing for the fanchat would've only added unimaginable levels of stress, but I think that the second time around, I'd be able to approach it with more ease. More on that later as well.

While waiting for the concert to start, some of their songs were playing in the background. The volume was fairly low and the amount of noise in the hall made it impossible to hear anything beyond the bassline and percussion, but that just made me wish that they'd release their entire discography with only those two elements cause let me tell you, it sounded SICK.

I started to really regret not getting the VVIP+ benefit once the concert began and the people in front of me covered the view with not just their heads, but also phones and lightsticks. I was only in the third/fourth row, but everyone in front of me was taller so I couldn't see everything that was going on, and seeing the videos others shared on Twitter it does seem like I missed a lot. Still, it was the perfect spot to get sprayed with water which happened more times than I could count (mostly Kyubin's deed, thanks bro I needed it).

The performances were absolutely top tier, but did anyone expect otherwise? I need them to release the dOpamine remix, I'd listen to it way more than the original. I couldn't see Yoojung during begin at all because he performed a little further back, so I'm really glad that once the medley was done they all sang the choruses of the solos again with the audience. Did I cry? No, but very fucking nearly, especially when we all sang begin together. Another moment that nearly brought me to tears was when Nine finished performing beyOnd and the music cut one line into the second verse. Obviously part of the reason why it sounded so heartbreaking was how unexpected the ending was and how much I wanted it to go on for longer, but it also sounded like someone suddenly took away his voice, so it fit the theme of Things I Can't Say LOve perfectly.

Speaking of having his voice taken away, I'm happy to report mine wasn't. The concert experiences I ruined for myself by freezing up and not joining everyone else in having fun outnumber the ones I approached with ease and made great memories during. I was especially worried since the previous concert I've been to, Odd Eye Circle's, unfortunately fell into the former category. The English version of Loonatic was my skinz before skinz existed, and when they performed it, anxiety got the better of me. I couldn't even open my mouth to attempt to sing along, and I still have regrets about it, because I know it would have been a liberating experience.

But none of that happened this time. I sang every song along with them (was I feeling smug that I knew almost all of the lyrics when the people around me only knew the English bits? yes, sue me). I put my whole fucking soul into my favorite songs, especially mirage, seOul drift and skinz. I can't even begin to describe how special it felt. Yelling the lyrics to skinz with lyOns all around me and OnlyOneOf a few meters away felt like a full circle moment. skinz was the beginning of so many things for me, and it's such a therapeutic song that's been helping me express myself unapologetically slowly, bit by bit over the past two and a half years. It doesn't matter that I don't have as many vivid memories of the concert as I wish I had, because I know that those two hours on June 12th 2024 have been euphoric and liberating, and I will carry that feeling with me every day, getting a little taste of it each time I listen to these songs again.

While after the fact I do wish the concert had gone on for longer, at the time it felt like the perfect length. The amount of songs in the encore was a genuinely nice gesture, because they were slowly getting people prepared for the end while constantly whipping out another performance, which is a really smart way to leave the audience in high spirits. I think they ended up performing four songs for the encore - OOO yOu, angel, lOve me and dOpamine (without choreo this time), and then the first verse and chorus of time leap right before they left the stage.

The acoustics in Progresja aren't the best, but it was an amazing experience to hear them sing live. I feel like in a lot of recordings it's kind of hard to tell if they're singing live or if it's playback because the vocal and music layers sort of merge into one. I might share the videos that my mom took with her phone, because hers actually captured that live quality of their singing.

I know me writing this here won't change anything, but I have to put I out there - these kinds of stages weren't made for K-pop acts. I can't imagine anyone aside from the people in the first row or someone very tall was able to see the elements of choreography that took part on the floor or the subtitles on videos (which come on, they at least could have had the foresight to place them on the upper part of the screen, not the bottom). K-pop groups - or anyone who doesn't just stand there holding a mic but has a visual side to their performance - should perform in buildings that are constructed like theaters, with the floor gradually rising so everyone can see the stage comfortably. It seems that the Madrid venue was exactly like that, so if anyone reading this was there or at a different concert in a similar venue I'd love to hear about your experience!

Now something that might cheer up anyone who hasn't seen them perform live - this concert made me very grateful that cameras exist and allow us to watch their performances filmed professionally. It's obvious that they're amazing performers from a distance, but only when a camera gets up close and captures the way they express every song and choreography with their faces does it actually hit. I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, Yoojung is such an impressive and expressive performer, both in his body and face, and having close ups of his facial expressions is a gift from heaven.

As I laid down in bed and my emotions were cooling off, it dawned on me how many good things in my life I owe to them and how special it is to have this one artist I can point to and say "the time I spent with them changed me for the better". I think seeing them live isn't even the pinnacle of my experience as a fan, but everything I carry with me every day that I have thanks to them. That being said, I really want to see them again. Most of what I've written down here was right after the concert, but now I don't feel like I remember as much as I want to. Nonetheless, this was my favorite concert among the ones I've attended and the most special experience of my life so far. Next time I'm getting VVIP+ and getting closer to that stage so I can finally enjoy the view in peace. I'm not even taking the option that they won't return here into account. They will last forever and they will have an infinite number of world tours.

This is where this post stops being a concert review and becomes sentimental musings of an unhinged person, so strap in. I did my best to structure this section in a way that would clearly communicate my thoughts to someone who isn't the owner of my brain and therefore doesn't have the exact mind map of interpretations of the various elements of OnlyOneOf's lore. The things I say here might be something most of us have thought or felt at some point, so what I hope to achieve here is simply it put into words, because I don't think anyone else has done that in the context of OOO.

I have to start by defining what exactly I mean whenever I say “the lore” (please don't make a drinking game out of every time I say "lore" in this post, you will die). Just like with any other K-pop group who has a deeply thought out concept, “the lore” encapsulates everything related to their conceptual work - songs, music videos, lyrics, teasers, MV descriptions, symbolism, references etc. What makes my definition of OOO’s lore deviate from how I'd define other K-pop groups' lore is the elements that make OOO's lore itself different from any other. K-pop storylines are known to be complex, but the ones I’m familiar with can all be described in the form of a story with specific characters played by the members, various events, superpowers and plot twists. OOO’s lore is more focused on emotions - loneliness, desire, love, fear. Because of that, the facts of what happens in the work itself can take second place to the emotional value of it. Their story can't be analyzed like a book with a beginning, middle and end, because it's too ambiguous and multifaceted for that. We can instead discuss the themes and observe the emotional progression happening within the lore. I like to compare analyzing their lore to untangling the chord of your earphones, because when you start getting frustrated at yet another impossible knot, you can just give it a rest, put the earphones in and enjoy how their art makes you feel.

I think it was the youtuber LOU who first viewed something OOO had made through the lens of cubism in her video about dOra maar, but I'd take it a step further and say that OOO's art makes the most sense if you look at everything from a cubist perspective, i.e. there isn't a single perspective on anything, but multiple viewpoints that all work together to create what we could call "the lore". It becomes easier to take a look at the whole picture the lore paints if you keep that in mind.

We observe an internal journey across various songs that connect to each other in smaller or bigger ways. We can, but we don't have to view all of them as being one person's story. The lore contains a collection of themes that create an ambiguous, unnamed protagonist whom we see represented by the bOy wearing cOmme des garçOns or the characters in the be series. None of them are THE protagonist, but they all make up the protagonist, because they all offer different perspectives on the themes that drive OOO's art and have been building up the group's identity over the past five years.

All of what I've mentioned thus far is just creative fiction. There is another perspective on their art that has real life implications, because there are real people whose job it is to express the inner world of the protagonist through songs and performances. OOO's music videos acknowledge their status as idols in the same way other K-pop groups with a fictional narrative do - they break the fourth wall by showing snippets of choreo and lipsyncing in between storytelling. OOO could be written off as nothing more than actors in entirely fictional roles if it wasn't for how intertwined they are with the themes in their art, in no small part thanks to how active they are in the creative process, but even beyond that. Their job as idols is acknowledged within the narrative (skinz MV, beyOnd description, the name of undergrOund idOl). So, their life as idols with a fandom is yet another perspective through which we can view their themes.

Here is where our role as spectators becomes important, because this aspect of the lore couldn't exist without our input. The way we respond to it and the conversation we create around it is what gives it meaning.

One side of the lore is the human side - the intimate and natural imagery of the libidO MV, the cozy warmth of cOy, the fun of blOssOm's choreography. On the other side, there are parts of the lore that feel emotionless and cold - MVs like sage, time leap, asOiaf, dOpamine, or graphics for Off angel and dOra maar. This dichotomy is something that can be used to discuss a lot of themes, like emotional distance in romantic relationships or a feeling of being ostracized by society. For the benefit of this post, I'll focus only on parasocial relationships between artists and fans.

Being a fan is both an experience of intense connection and distance that goes way beyond just oceans and borders. The one-sided nature of a parasocial relationship can be difficult to navigate for some people, but it seems to be something a lot of us need. It's comforting to know that you can develop a strong emotional bond with someone you're completely detached from and don't have to do any of the work a real interpersonal relationship needs; you just get to enjoy yourself as you receive art and entertainment. But that comfortable distance distorts the way we perceive the artist's personhood. We know and understand that they're a fellow human being, but we can't help that we never have an opportunity to experience them as such. They’re not people to us in the sense that they have no physical presence in our lives, they're just a series of recorded images projected onto a screen, filtered and airbrushed. We can watch them act like regular people on and off the stage, but whether we want to or not, we perceive them as more glamorous than anyone we meet on a daily basis. How could we not when part of their job is to tower over us while looking like a perfectly crafted illustration every time they get on stage?

This is where another theme present in OnlyOneOf’s art comes in, which is putting someone on a pedestal. In their songs, it's discussed in the context of romantic, artist/muse or God/follower relationships, but the part of the lore I'm talking about here is something that exists in the way we as spectators perceive them and their work.

Idols are human - I'm aware I'm not making an interesting point by acknowledging that. The reason I've been inspired to write about this in the first place is that I realized how being in physical proximity to someone you have a parasocial relationship with can shift your perception of their humanity.

I didn't buy the VVIP+ benefit because I knew I would be way too nervous about those six minutes and I'd probably spend most of that time awkwardly pretending I can hear what they're saying through the noise all around. Never meet your heroes, because you might make an idiot out of yourself, or however the saying goes. I thought I was in the vast minority who felt this way due to my anxiety while other lyOns would be ecstatic to get to meet them face to face. However, while I was standing in the queue I overheard a lot of people talking about how nervous they were, which is funny, because why the hell would any of us be nervous? They're the ones who are about to have a crowd of strangers observing their every move and recording every little mistake, they should be feeling the most nervous of us all! This got me thinking about why anyone would be nervous to meet their favorite artist, and the conclusion I came to is that it's intimidation. We're not wrong to feel intimidated; I think it's perfectly normal and natural in this scenario. I'd say it’s also quite healthy, because you’re not able to get too familiar with someone who intimidates you, which ensures the emotional distance required within a parasocial relationship is kept. As with everything, it's about balance. The problem appears when the emotional distance between a regular audience member and an idol grows so large that it becomes dehumanizing. Unfortunately, seeing how Korean netizens and international fans alike latch onto tiny things to criticize about the things idols do and say, this is still a very relevant topic. A pedestal that's too high can result in an approach that's entitled, cold, and often cruel. An idol becomes an imitation of a person, someone untouchable and unshakeable. Any words thrown their way, especially online, feel insignificant in comparison to their towering presence. For the people with an especially cruel streak, finding out their actions have a psychological impact on a public figure probably makes them feel like they regained some power in this uneven relationship. To them, it's nearly impossible to perceive an idol as someone with a right to receive empathy, because in their mind, the idol is too far removed from the humanity they observe in people who exist around them.

What's important here is that the lore shows us the full spectrum of who OOO are - they're idols, singers, performers, actors; they're people with fears, desires, intimate stories and hidden sides; people who have dopamine running through their bodies, people who need connection with others and people who have things they can't say. These things can't be separated from the members, because they make sure to take this message beyond the art itself. They don't filter themselves nearly as much as most idols have to - they swear, make dirty jokes, write songs about sex, casually talk about kissing men and offhandedly mention having a romantic life without apologizing for it. They're underground idols, and they intentionally distance themselves from the unforgiving audience members who would have a heart attack if their faves acted one tenth as relaxed as OOO do on a daily basis.

What I'm trying to get at here is that OnlyOneOf's art is created with the intention to create more empathy - for queer people, for mistreated lovers, for discarded muses, for people reconciling their faith with their sexuality, for one's own self despite having a lot of internalized issues. Through doing that, they override the loneliness inherent to the stories their songs tell and create possibilities for connection. They give us art that makes us feel less lonely by being a reflection of our messiest, most intimate feelings and experiences, and in turn they ask us to recognize them as a reflection of us and to not isolate them from the full human experience just because of the job they chose and its restrictions. When Jaden Jeong said they're the future of boy groups, I think he hoped they could influence audiences to humanize the figure of the idol.

I watched them between the professionally executed performances as they riffed off of each other, laughed and zoned out while looking at the audience. There were no cuts to a different, more flattering angle, no hand in the editing room controlling what footage sees the light of day. They look more beautiful in real life not because anything about their features looks different, but because the reality of being in the same space with them and finally getting to experience them just as any other human being, even with some distance still present, is a very special experience that holds beauty of its own. At that moment, I couldn’t remember why I was nervous before, and I began to wish I had sat down with them and shared a short conversation about any random thing. It would have been imperfect, but there was no reason to be afraid of that. They're just six guys of flesh and blood who clearly love what they do and whose work has given me happiness and purpose over the past two and a half years, and I would have cherished those six minutes of interaction.

On the train home, I discovered a more sentimental feeling while listening to them, especially the songs they performed, but not exclusively. There was something more personal and artistic I heard in their voices that made each song feel like more than just a recording, but a special moment in time shared by people who created something they wanted to share with others. This feeling fades the more the time distance grows between the current me and the me that attended the concert. Two hours weren’t enough.

I don't know how to end this post other than to say how fascinating it is that including imagery of fan/idol culture and technology within the lore so it mixes with all these deeply intimate stories makes everything OOO do a living piece of art. Simply existing as idols and people fuels the reason for the existence of their concept in the way that it currently exists, and I just think it's incredible.

[strawberrystepmom]

!!!!! will you pretty please share more lore around your black clover sona? 🤲🏾

well now that you’ve given me license to yap be aware that i will….you have been warned.

but let me start with the basics about kendall the eldest daughter of house melro, nicknamed the blackbird.

- 11 siblings, two of which are full and the other nine are half. ten of these siblings are girls and the youngest is a boy. lord melro is a serial philanderer, it is what it is.

- mother was clover kingdom nobility, father is diamond kingdom nobility. their marriage was arranged and my mother’s family is wayyyyyy wealthier so it was an easy sell for my dad whose family was minor nobility in diamond. he hasn’t been back to diamond since and doesn’t really care what’s happening there lmao and my dad inherited her fortune and titles when she died when i was 16.

- was once heir to everything, thanks to the rules of my mother’s house that have always allowed an eldest daughter to become head because she was an eldest daughter and had all sisters, but once the youngest and only boy was born my father changed his mind. marrying me off became imperative at that point. he was born when i was 17 and a year out from debuting.

- i received a grimoire at 15 and waffled about my desire to join the magic knights for a bit too long and when my mom died, i decided to stay home and take care of my siblings. all of them. at the time there were 8 of us.

okay and onto the juicy stuff which i will put below a cut for everyone’s sake. this is the master of whispers stuff, etc etc.

- the wizard king attends a classroom session for a group of noble girls to oversee how the magic in the kingdom is developing. my magic is movement based and he found my spell translucent cloak very fascinating because it allows me to remain move completely unseen and undetected for 60 seconds. i can use this ability on up to four other people around me but there is a ten second penalty for each person added meaning if i have four people and myself, we have 10 seconds to move.

- he asks me if i would be interested in joining the magic knights and i told him due to my responsibilities at home, I believe it’s better for me to stay behind. he’s disappointed but understands and a couple years later, he asks me again bc there’s a lot of buzz about my debut which was a whole thing and i decline again bc my father wants me to be married immediately but im like visibly upset so Julius offers a strange alternative - to be his ears. im popular in noble circles, im trusted, people dont suspect a thing about me and he knows my magic is beneficial for subterfuge and diversion if i’d ever need it

- I agree but I’m extremely skeptical about how this will work out. this dude barely knows me, I barely know him and he’s putting a lot of trust in me. it ends up working out splendidly though because i have an ear for the good stuff, naturally, and people open up to me. i dont report anything to him except for things that could potentially be problematic in the future and he’s pleased with my performance

- i am proposed to by a nobleman not long after this begins and i turn it down. my dad is patient with this one and understands to some degree that I want to be at home to take care of the kids which he won’t complain about so he can go be a dick elsewhere. after that, three more come and I turn each of them down because I don’t want to have to choose between men I hardly want to be in the same room with and working for Julius and defending my country in my own way

- by the fourt failed proposal (im 22 when this happens) my dad doesn’t find it cute anymore bc now he has a real heir and he just wants to get me out of the house. he tells me the next one i have to go through with regardless and we fight about it but I ultimately agree but plan to basically scare away any suitors that come. I continue working for Julius as expected and he begins to trust me even further, appointing me his spymaster although it’s not a formal title.

so yeah! it only becomes more useful as time passes and of course this is a very secretive position and nobody knows about it. people have suspected but nobody can prove anything and until I met yami, I intended on keeping it to myself. I told him and he was maaaaaaaad at me and assumed I was spying on him at first but once he confirms everything with Julius he gets over himself

Julius legit tells him “she’s terrible at deception but wonderful at making friends. she’s a natural” and who is he to disagree

[variousqueerthings]

I think it's also interesting to see how things change depending on the time in which they're being engaged with. so I see things about rose today that point out that she's written to be 19 when she meets the doctor and that's a big age difference (which... I understand the point is it's a big age difference because billie piper was 23 and eccleston was 40, and then dtennant was like 34/35 when he started which isn't so big of a shift but anyway the optics I get what people are getting at, but also I think it does oversimplify a lot of what's actually going on in the written dynamic, anyway-)

and also that the rtd run's Themes start coming together properly around s3 (although they are present from day one), and in some ways at this point, because nu!who has been running for... fuckn. actually quite a few years, which is wild to me as someone who started watching as a kid, and I wonder if classic!who fans felt the same way about their show and anyway -- she shifts from being Literally The First Companion You'd Seen For 17 Years (not counting the movie and fan things and the sketch) Who Was Defining A New Era For A New Generation to... a companion

comparable to other companions, comparable to the rest of the show

we sift through the writing to see what worked and what didn't (in our opinion), and we know how the ten-and-rose storyline Really ends, and how the ten storyline ends (sort, of because now that doctor and donna are Back), and we know what happens afterwards, and we talk about tenrose with a 2020s eye, and rose is "just" one of the people that travels with the doctor, one of several, and notably the one who gets most of the sunshiney doctor that buries a lot of the (wonderfully portrayed) angst of the latter half of the rtd show, and doesn't have as much lore as everything after that, so the story is "just" more simple overall

and to me she's kind of incapable of being just that. doctor who was still a risk that first season, it wasn't a done deal that it would have legs at all, never mind that it would continue for as long as it has. rose was created to be the Face of what nu!who was, moreso than nine/eccleston, because even with the extra angst and the eccleston gravitas, we know the doctor, the doctor is established, it's not actually the doctor that needs to sell what the new show is going to become and what the Feel of that new show is going to be (I mean, partly ofc, but-)

rose was doing so much heavy lifting and she succeeded! she was the face of who before dtennant or any other doctor or companion of his era and subsequent eras. she was created to appeal to a demographic of girls who wanted someone relatable in science fiction, because rtd wanted this to be for the girls, and billie piper came into it off the back of being a popstar and it changed her entire trajectory (for the better I think/hope -- there's a lot of bad shit in billie piper's past and I'm always sending her a fond thought)

nine/ten-and-rose were It! not calling it romantic or platonic or any secret third thing (haunting the narrative), but simply It! that's why it has so much staying power as a ship (which, my opinion on shipping has been somewhat *eh shrug* in later years, but in early-days when that was how you engaged with dynamics that got to you, of course it was going to be massive). it's so hard to properly describe how "for the time in which it was made" that this dynamic was written for, and how successful it was. it was rose that breathed doctor who -- and the doctor's character -- to life, as much as herself

she sets the stage for everything that comes next, both within and without the show proper

and I'm always so pleased that rtd at the time was thinking about what was needed to create this character and he opened with a shot from a girl on the estate with messy hair, clumpy eyeliner, and a minimum wage job, and went "that's the girl who's going to go on the adventure of a lifetime, that's the girl we're seeing the story through and relating to, because that's what girls (and uh... those who were girls at the time - and their parents and the boys) should be seeing."

I know rose isn't the first working class companion including classic!who, but she set the tone for nu!who and her family and background are important to why she is who she is, and is explored

"I've got no A-levels, no job, no future-" said the girl about to see the universe

she was very much for teenagers, and so she reads differently when you're an adult watching it back (much like those "teenager saves the world," novels you loved as a kid), but that's why she's 19 at the beginning. that's why she's billie piper (who does a perfect job). she was there to bring a new generation into this story, and it was perfect. and then she grows up. and we grew up. and she had adventures and it was brilliant and she survived and she made a life for herself. that's her story

[wanderingblindly]

PLEASE give me rules of engagement director’s cut. i need it biblically

AAAAAH thank you!!!! I haven't gotten to talk about this fic before, I think, so let us commence the info dump <33333

The Origins

I've always been a fake dating trope fan, but I've never had an idea that made it feel like my story, you know? But I've always wanted to try!

While I was procrastinating on cleaning my apartment, I randomly thought of this dialogue, directly copied from my planning document:

“If we do this, we need to make some rules” “Max we live together, I’m sure it’ll be fine” “WE NEED RULES CHARLES”

My brain immediately latched on to it, and the fic was born like... two hours later hahah

My Favorite Bits

Ok so this is one of my favorite lines for the DUMBEST reason:

“Are women not…? Is it these women, or?” His voice sounded tight. They hadn’t discussed Max’s sexuality before. Actually, if Max thought about it, they never really discussed Charles’s, either. He was pretty sure Charles stayed the night at a few different women's’ flats during uni, but that was little more than speculation.  ... “That’s fine, of course. Anything is. Fine, I mean.” Charles stuttered, his cheeks still slightly pink.  “Doesn’t solve the problem though, does it?”

Was it vaguely inspired by BBC's Sherlock? Yes it was. Would anyone have noticed if I didn't confess to my sins? No.

More seriously, I also really enjoyed this little scene:

They always ate breakfast together.  Max always woke up first to get started on washing the fruit, and Charles always stumbled out of his bedroom in a state of total disarray about fifteen minutes later – hair sticking up, sweatshirt off one shoulder, pajama pants low across his hips, glasses nearly askew. They would eat breakfast together, Max happily talking about his to-dos and Charles diligently humming and nodding along as necessary. They’d get dressed, they’d walk out the door together. Max always locked it, Charles always lost his keys in the depths of his bag before he left the house.   It was easy and understandable. It was theirs. 

While the rest of the story, up until this point, has hinted at the routines baked into this domesticity, I loved how this scene used that to highlight why Max found the situation so alarming. They have a distinct rhythm -- an easy cadence that I tried to mimic in the very basic structure of the paragraph -- that's so noticeable when it's disturbed.

It also shows how much Max notices about Charles, even before he realizes why. To know someone well enough that even the slightest change in timing throws a red flag is just hmmmm I love it lol

And finally, one of my last favorite scenes:

“You’re still wearing your ring,” Max pointed out rather unhelpfully. Charles let out a bleak laugh, devoid of his usual eye-crinkling warmth.  “You picked it out for me,” He shrugged, leaving something unspoken in the air. Max didn’t do well with unspoken, with reading between the lines. He tried to breathe it into his lungs, find the meaning Charles left out. Speak it. 

The confession was just so full of "Max is trying his best and he doesn't entirely understand what he's done wrong but he'll do absolutely anything for him and Charles to just go back to the way it was before please please please". This line in particular highlights how much of this is Max desperately trying to understand what Charles really needs from him -- even though the answer ends up being nothing he expected.

Random Fun Lore

As always, this fic is full of random things from my actual life (for no real reason other than I'm unoriginal and boring). Some examples are:

Max's MD's summer party in the countryside: YES I have to go to this every year, YES I do get splashed by my coworkers, and YES there is far too much alcohol lol (although I do not partake like Max did but hey)

Full Recovery Mode: the very specific mug and the very specific tea that Max puts together for Charles is absolutely based on my real life (liter sized Japanese mug my beloved)

[teecupangel]

Mandolorian Desmond AU?

When you think about it, there are really not that many changes that need to be made to make a Mandalorian Desmond AU because the Mandalorians have a lot of similarities with the Brotherhood.

Hell, they even have their own ‘Creed’.

So, for this setup, we’ll incorporate Desmond’s backstory to fit with Mandalorian culture.

In this scenario, Desmond is a Mandalorian instead of a Foundling. He would be the son of two Mandalorians with his father being the leader of their Clan, one of the most secretive Clans of Mandalorians and some even believe they were a myth.

To Desmond, he was simply living in a secret isolated compound known only as the Farm.

Just like all Mandalorians and Foundlings, he would start his training as a child but it would be harsh and brutal for him. He would grow up being unable to satisfy his father and his mother spends most of her time off-world as a bounty hunter.

Things become much harder for him when his mother returned with a Foundling named Lucy. She joined their training and it became clear that she had the skills to thrive in their training. The other children begin to whisper that, given enough time, she would be able to dethrone Desmond from the top spot of their ‘class’.

Isolated by the rank of his father and his own single-mindedness to please him, none of the children tried to console him nor say that it was bullshit since, by the time she could reach Desmond, Desmond would have gotten better as well.

Instead, the whispering and his father’s silence broke Desmond and he… just stopped trying.

He did the bare minimum and no amount of his father’s ‘pushing’ worked until…

Finally, Lucy did surpass him and they all ‘graduated’.

Desmond left the Farm and became a bounty hunter like his mother, taking odd jobs here and there. He pretty much cut off any relationship he had with the Farm but he does answer when they call. They rarely ever call though. The most contact he has with the Farm were his mother who showed him the basics and gave him some tips on bounty hunting before leaving him alone but, at that point, he saw her more as a teacher than an actual parent so he simply ignored the aching of his chest, and Lucy who liked to leave him messages about what she’s doing. He doesn’t understand why Lucy was sending him these messages and never bothered sending a message back although he does read them.

It’s fine. He knows Lucy didn’t think he would answer anyway.

Everybody in their Clan knows…

He was alone.

Whatever plot you’d like to have can be pushed by making Lucy send a message that catches Desmond’s attention. If you want Desmond to interact with Din Djarin, the setup could be that Lucy is in a spot of bother after allying herself with Din Djarin in a quest gone wrong.

Unorganized Notes:

Their Clan is part of a bigger Family and Desmond would find out from the other Mandalorians that their Family is one of the most secretive Families out there with one of the Clans having ties to the first ruler of the Mandalorians. Desmond calls bullshit on that 'connection' though.

Their Clan is also ostracized by a lot of other Clans because of how they trained their young. Their Family is also not that well-liked because they tend to… be less honorable than usual, having no qualms with dirtying their hands to get the job done. Desmond would later find out that, even by Mandalorian standards, he’s actually better than most of them due to his training. This only ends up making him feel even more isolated.

To further incorporate AC Lore, the Mandalorians are what the Brotherhood had evolved to but, because of how long it has been, it’s not the same Brotherhood anymore. Only hints of its origin remain in Mandalorian culture with even the Creed having evolved into something else. On the other hand, Desmond’s Family is the closest to the Brotherhood’s successor even if they have been heavily influenced by Mandalorian culture and tradition.

If you wish to include other non-modern Assassin’s Creed characters (like Altaïr, Ezio, and Ratonhnhaké:ton), they can all be part of the same Family as Desmond but as part of one of the other Clans.

For more twists and turns, this could be the setup where Desmond Miles let the world burn and the survivors used Isu tech to travel to another planet to start anew. This planet would later be called Mandalore and Desmond Miles is actually the first ruler of the Mandalorians, his real name having been lost in the passage of time. Our Mandalorian Desmond could be a reincarnation of Desmond Miles or we can totally HZD this and be an actual clone of Desmond Miles, taken from some kind of DNA sample (perhaps called Sample 17???), and his father’s disappointment in him is because he simply cannot match up to the legend of Desmond Miles.

[moookar]

could you tell me about ur ocs? i don't know like anything about them at all but they seem super cool! /nf

GWAAH thank you for the ask <33 i love any opportunity to infodump, this made my night

all the important stuff is here! that's the short version, it mostly focuses on characters which i recommend reading first i think. It's kind of out of date though </3

i figure i can go over some of the plot here :] but first some lore notes: generally 1820s-ish, takes place in a kingdom named Wralan, magic is a thing although im in the middle of redoing it

the first Important plot thing that happens is the duke and his eldest daughter's death. Caparal is left in line for succession, but he *really, really* doesn't want to do that--he suffers from really severe social anxiety & never expected this & is currently mourning & is genuinely not good at the skills needed for this & & &.

*Lionel*, on the other hand, has wanted literally nothing more than to make a difference his whole life, and is actually a competent, intelligent charismatic person--a strong leader.

(He's also 19 years old and has severe anxiety, paranoia, and isolation issues.) (He's a better duke, but it's not healthy.)

Caparal giving this role to his younger brother made him a mild laughingstock at best, embarrassing to be associated with at worst.

Caparal and Lionel were really only close when they were younger teenagers. (oooh i wrote a short story about them at this time, after i finish the 3rd draft i could DM it to anyone curious). They strongly drift apart after Lionel becomes duke, partially due to the massive amount of stress Lionel is under (his #1 coping mechanism is isolating himself) and partially due to the fact Caparal is extremely busy with his work in alchemy and is hoping Lionel will come to him if he needs help.

4 months later, after Lionel has established himself as duke and realized that he is frankly Fucked because of how irresponsible with money his father was, a very polite person representing a prolific bank in Wralan very nicely offers to help him :) out with this rough financial situation :) just giving him a little money to help him get on his feet :) (bold faced bribes. Lionel is near forced to accept, and so begins his fraught relationship with Tiguuak Prasad, evil bbg of the century)

8 months later, lionel comes to believe caparal is planning to usurp lionel's place; Lionel genuinely doesn't understand why Caparal wouldn't want to be duke, for one, and assumes it's some sort of 3 steps ahead move he doesn't understand, but more importantly he thinks he has evidence. i don't know for sure what this "evidence" is yet--it's contingent on me finishing the magic system--but it's something that Lionel, someone who was already expecting something bad, can make a hasty judgement about.

Caparal remains.. completely unaware of this. He completely misses every cue. sorry king

So like. when Caparal turned down being duke that kind of messed up his social standing right. so ahaha his fiance's (Andrea Munteanu) family doesn't want to form that connection with him anymore. but terminating that relationship would be a boldfaced insult so their marriage is just kind of ???? indefinitely postponed

MEANING. Lionel literally cannot just kick Caparal out. Caparal moving somewhere else without his fiance's family's consultation would also be seen as terminating that relationship which is a blow Lionel Really can't take right now so they're kind of just ? stuck in the same fortress??

Anyway Lionel's fear gets much much worse over more months and basically just boils over into you know what FUck this. He hates being in this limbo. He's just going to kill him first.

So while Caparal is out on a trip, out of Lionel's sight (and therefor a death he can't see), he hires an assassin.

VERY MUCH unfortunately for Lionel a person named De Witte would very much like to fuck over the bank that's bribing him (for reasons I will not go into because this post is getting way too long)

So they hire a merc company to make sure Caparal doesn't get assassinated :) and the mercenaries on the job (well, more like mercenary) are Delayne and Rye! our other two protagonists!

And around here is where book 1 begins!

<3333 thank you for the ask mwah mwah mwah. I love political intrigue if you couldn't tell. anyway i shall leave you with 1 song that i think describes the characters lyrically

Lionel: Ship in a Bottle. Caparal: Good as it Gets. Rye: Worst Case Scenario. Delayne: Numb Little Bug.

Rye and Delayne are the fan favorites (/j, they are my friends' favorites though) and I did them dirty here <////3. Sorry guys. I'll post more about them soon i prommy

you can find all art of them in the "#exiled ocs" tag! <33

[cryptid-geek]

mothman

sup so my last infodump post didn't get a lot of notes but im here for fun not for reach so lets fuckin go lads this is also one of my top 5 cryptids i love mothman also doing research for this i found out the mothman museum does mothman coffee and i need to purchase it now (heres the link for anyone else who feels the same abt mothman coffee) the majority of sources for this are wikia and wikipedia pages as the lore surrounding mothman is difficult to decipher and I am in the UK so i cannot access some american sites as I say here, therefore I would urge you to take that for what it is and understand i can't find everything.

Mothman is a creature of West Virginia folklore who is humanoid and is primarily spotted around the Point Pleasant area. Sightings of mothman are said to have started around November of 1966. From what I've seen the existence of the Point Pleasant Mothman (or any other mothman) hasn't been proven (unfortunately), and most photographic evidence is debated and primarily any other evidence is anecdotal.

The first documented record of mothman in a newspaper was in the Point Pleasant Register, dated at 16/11/66 (or 11/16/66 for American folks) titled: "Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something". The story then continued to spread when more national papers picked up the story which spread it across the states. The mothman is considered by skeptics to be sightings of out-of-migration sandhill cranes or herons.

Mothman was popularized by the book "Mothman Prophecies" in 1975 by John Keel (which was later adapted into a film in 2002) and there is an annual festival dedicated to Mothman every third weekend in September at Point Pleasant. There, there is also a mothman statue which has a camera streaming on it.

The original sighting was, the 15th of November 1966 and Linda Scarberry, Roger Scarberry, Steve Mallette and Mary Mallette were all driving towards a remote "hang-out spot" in Point Pleasant known as the "TNT Area" (which was the site of a former ww2 munitions plant). They then claim to have seen two large red eyes which reflected the light from the car headlights. It was noticed first by Steve, who pointed it out to the rest of them, which is when they realized the eyes belonged to a creature. The creature was later described by Linda Scarberry as a "slender, muscular man" and around 7 feet tall, with white wings, although she couldn't discern its face due to a 'hypnotic effect' from it's eyes. Panicking, the witnesses drove away rapidly and claim that the creature followed them, flying and making a screeching sound. They said that it pursued them until Point Pleasant city limits.

In the following days, after local newspaper reports, people reported similar sightings, however these were believed by Mason County sheriff George Johnson that these sightings were due to an unusually large heron.

There have, however, been mentions of specific traits of the mothman such as when a flashlight was aimed at the mothman (by contractor Newell Partridge, according to him, the eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors". He also blamed buzzing noises, believed to be from his television, and the disappearance of his german shepherd dog on the creature.

Wildlife biologist Robert Smith, at the West Virginia University spoke to reporters and told them that the descriptions and sightings seem to fit the Sandhill Crane and the bird must have wandered out of its migration route and therefore it was unrecognized initially.

Following the Silver Bridge collapse of 1967, which brought about the untimely death of 46 people, the incident brought about the legend of Mothman being an omen, which connected the sightings and the collapse.

Mothman has become more of an urban legend, developing into part of the Point Pleasant tourism trade, including as mentioned the yearly Mothman festival, which I someday hope to go to. There are numerous different photos of mothman, which to my knowledge haven't been proven, however that's the extent of my knowledge on them as the websites are blocked in my country.

So yeah, that's the man, the moth and the legend.

[kukkakisu]

*sPLODES*

Hello! I’ve been digging around your oc lore and I’m curious, Is Nate gonna be ok? I can’t imagine very slowly being infected by something incurable is all too good for the system, mentally or physically. Does CC notice at all? Does anyone?

Also, I can’t imagine The Conductor is going to be too happy when CC brings his human guardian to the manor one day. I can only imagine that would be, at the very least, very awkward for everyone involved. Like a kid brings over their stepdad to meet their other dad who hates the other. (Although, that presumes any interaction would happen in the first place, which it might not given Nate's schedules, but I thought it was a funny thought, but also ignore me if this is cringe as I don’t know them well enough)

Any other notable oc interactions? I still wonder what early Naava lore is like. (I still think it’s so cool that it grows usnea, especially since usnea is a valuable medicinal herb great for being a natural bandaid, and idk that feels pretty in line with Naava’s whole deal.)

Carmine. Please let him be okay. Someone get this employee some cookies and a blanket.

Lastly, just a quick ty for the little comments/support on Vela’s post :) <3 I hope they can be friends with your ocs… or uh, (looks at Vultur trading lives for a cookie) some of them. They would love Naava, but I can’t imagine their getup is particularly approachable looking to brackens, least of all one that does not like humans to begin with.

Hii! Yippee! Thank you for the questions! Nathaniel keeps things hidden well very much on purpose. He doesn't want to bother others with the concern of his illness or for them to pity him because of it. Copycat has seen what is going on with his body but doesn't understand the gravity of the situation since Nate hasn't explained it to him. He's stubborn and resilient so regardless of what his fate will end up being, he won't give up without putting up a fight. He's determined to find a cure. Whether he will survive or not-- well. Ahahah! Next question! (I will be drawing or writing something relating to it later, so you will find out eventually!) Naava has met Nate but only watches him from a distance whenever he interacts with CC. They don't want to go close, and somewhat respect CC's decision to be friendly with the human. As long as the human is friendly too, it's fine. They will be watching closely regardless. Just in case. If something goes wrong, they won't hesitate to run in and end his life. Conductor has in fact also met Nate. It does not like him but lets him be because Naava wishes so. Might have tried to fight the poor guy once and got scolded by the Bracken afterward. So now whenever Nate visits the interior of the Moon he usually gets to go about his business in peace. Not that he's there any longer than he needs to be. 30 minutes at most. Conductor will still very much throw nasty glares at the medic whenever it ends up running into him, though. Copycat likes just about anyone and anything that he can interact with without blowing up. If it isn't actively hurting or threatening him? Friend! Someone he hasn't seen before? Friend! Funny looking plant? You guessed it, friend! Gets along with others easily, though human employees are understandably sometimes a bit off-put by him. What comes to other interactions, I will be putting them under a read more so this post doesn't become too long! There is a lot!

Carmine is still dealing with the traumatic loss of his crew, but he is learning to love and find joy again.

He is in a much better place now. At first he was very timid and unsure but warmed up to the others quickly. He's a scaredly cat, even more so than CC, but will grab his shovel and defend his friends if he has to. He also gets along great with Nate. He feels calm around him and is grateful that there is someone who can guide them through scary situations without faltering. It's still hard for them to be around CC, but he's taking his time and slowly getting used to the energetic Masked who keeps bringing him plastic fish. He thinks it's cute, even if the mask still startles him from time to time. Has seen Naava once. Got so startled he ran away screaming. Naava didn't chase him. None of the Brackens he runs into do. They can probably tell how scared he is and leave the poor man be. Or perhaps they can sense something else. The waters of Gordion do have a distinct scent of death, after all.

Nate and Vultur dislike each other. They have history and very opposing views on their research. CC doesn't know why they don't get along but can sense the tension between them and has learned that Vultur is one of those people he shouldn't get close to. Something about the way they stare at him through the helmet's visor is enough to send shivers down his spine.

Paradox is a name I haven't mentioned in a while, but her interactions with the others are very limited and not kind. The Jester sleeps and is usually dormant for long durations at a time. It wakes up during eclipses and that is a dangerous time for everyone on the Moon. While Paradox isn't that interested in eating Brackens or Nutcrackers, Masked have a similar scent and taste to that of human employees. So. You can probably see where this is going. Both Naava and Conductor are on high alert during this time, making sure to keep a very close eye on CC. It would be preferred that the little Masked wouldn't even be on the moon during that time, but it can't always be prevented. They've had few encounters with the hungry Jester. She's not one to listen during her hunt, so the best they can do is to hold her back or find something else to feed her. Once it's full, Paradox will sink back inside the box and sleep until the next eclipse arrives. She has a neutral opinion of others (everyone is mice to it) but is a lot more docile after it has eaten.

Also I am so happy you noticed the neat little usnea thing! It is intentional and Naava often uses it to aid their injured friends. The specific kind that grows on them is not only an antiseptic but also an anesthetic. Correctly applied, it can stop the bleeding of most wounds and quicken the recovery process. It can't do miracles though, so if someone is too far gone there is only so much Naava can do to help. Their past is still a bit of an unknown territory for most of the creatures, but they do know it came from the earth itself. Naava often talks about the importance of being kind to others, because in the end, the earth will swallow them all. And in the belly of the earth, nobody is anything and everyone is everything. None of them understand what they mean but in time… I'm sure they will find out :)

And aaa of course! Vela is so delightful! I'd love for them to meet some of my babies! While Naava is naturally cautious of humans and would definitely find the eyes on the helmet a bit threatening, they're a lot softer on people who are anxious, in distress, and/or considerate of others. So I think Vela would be safe! Nate and CC are usually the friendliest toward pretty much anyone and anything. Carmine is timid and it takes him time to get used to new people but I'm sure he'd love to have a new friend as well! And well, the questionable experiments and dissecting aside, Vultur does have a softer side to them. It's just very hard to get through their shell. They've lost a lot and openly caring about others is a type of vulnerability they try to avoid in fear of losing something they love again. They do like doing embroidery on the suits of their crew though so there is something in common with them!

And like, even if characters wouldn't technically get along it's always possible to think of silly interactions with them! It's a lot of fun! Always feel free to drop by my messages if you want to chat about them more!

[mortallyclearwonderland]

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal - Episode 2

I watched Unicorn: Warriors Eternal episode 2. I watched the first one on youtube and didn't know the second was out. But now I caught up on the series.

The great things from episode 1 still remain. So let's start with the ''negatives''. Let's go from the smallest ''problem'' to the biggest one. The reason why I used '' '' is because those things didn't bother me too much. But they might be for some people and it's worth addressing.

1. I know there are people who would love to see an entire episode dedicated to Edred/Dimitri and Alfie/Seng, because the first one was pretty much about Emma/Melinda. I personally don't mind because Emma/Melinda had to share her screen time with the lore and the setup for the story. Also, I hate when stories drag on for no reason if they don't have enough backstory for an entire episode add something else important! I think they implemented introductions to Alfie/Seng and Dimitri/Edred. Also, it's not like it's over. Their current and previous lives fighting for dominance seem to be a major part of the story. We just have to wait and see. Hope it's not a letdown.

2. The voice acting. I don't know if the voice actors for Emma and Alfie are young and inexperienced or if they try to put on an accent and they can't keep it and act emotionally at the same time but something's not right. When Emma is quiet and shy the voice actress fits perfectly but when she needs to shout, it's as if she doesn't want to wake her parents in the next room. And when Emma and Alfie have their Rush Hour 3-like comedy routine it's like they just reed lines and don't talk to each other. Dimitri/Edred has the best voice actor because he actually can emote and his voice is nice to listen to. This is great because it seems he's the one who's going to do a lot of talking with his personality and being the one who has to explain a lot of stuff because he for some reason can remember more than the others. (I will write about it later.) I've seen people upset that after his transformation he lost his Russian accent. I understand. In the limited time he was on screen Dimitri charmed a lot of people and out of all characters, he looks the least like his original self. He only kept his outfit. But I think it can be a great indicator of who is talking. If it's a Dimitri who's in control we will hear his accent. At least I hope so. It would've been a waste if they didn't use it. All in all, I don't mind and it should get better as the series goes on.

3. Timeline? The only date we have been provided is 1772. That's when the school for orphaned boys has been established. We have no idea how long it's been active and how long it's been abandoned. It can be the 21st century with steampunk coating for all we know. 

4. My biggest problem with this scene is how confusing it is. Emma is watching Winston play against the boys from the school for orphaned boys. I guess they let boys of all ages play because Alfie is referred to as just a kid even after who knows how much time has passed since then. In all the information about the show, the word teenagers keep coming up. I don't know about you, but for me, a teenager is a person from the age of 13 to 19. You know? The -teen part! Emma was about to get married so I assume she's 18 at least. I guess Dimitri is 18/19 because he must be old enough to travel on his own. Unless he had run away from home.

Just out of curiosity, I googled marriage in 18th-century England. These are the results!

Until 1823 the legal age in England for marriage was 21 years for men and women although after 1823 a male could marry as young as 14 without parental consent and a girl at 12 although most girls didn't marry until around the ages of 18 to 23.

And there you have it folks! The show takes place after 1823 and Emma is around 18/19 years old. But hey, it's just a theory. A TV show theory! And cut.

This episode was fun. I have to admit I feel kind of smug knowing I predicted the love triangle. Wait is a triangle if there are 5 people in it? Emma loves Winston, Melinda loves Edred, and Dimitri might have some attraction to Emma/Melinda but he could've just been nice. .) Shipers, your time has come!