#and their individual romantic relationships

[astrow1zar6]

Astro Observations~ 46

Mars conjunct venus individuals can easily swing from being the sexiest in the room to their most obnoxious.

Uranus square Venus natives are so confused romantically lol. I’ve seen their relationships be very on & off cuz one minute they are in love the next they feel nothing & are detached. Their feelings for you go from hot to cold. If you value stability in your relationships these are not the people for you lol.

A lot of people with Mars square Venus in their natal can be big cheaters. In my observation I notice it’s difficult for them to be loyal or only mess with one person.

Moon in Scorpio men are super prideful. They’ll lose you before they come off as vulnerable or “weak” to someone. They act like they don’t have feelings but will lose their shit if you actually leave😂 I also notice they are usually super monogamous. Even if they act like they don’t like you if they see you flirting with someone else all hell will break loose 😭 they do not play about that. Deep down they can need as much attention as a Leo moon they’re just more embarrassed to ask for attention.

Taurus mars men usually prefer a conventional type of partner. They can go for a more housewife type of woman.

Mars/Venus in Libras do not know what to do with themselves when they are single. They can be big serial daters.

Moon in Libras i notice tend to have flatter faces.

Heavy Venus in the chart can give the native big anime/doe eyes. Also they have the BEST smiles everrrr💕

Cancer moons tend to take longer to move out of their parent’s house than most I notice. They will live with their parents till they’re like 30 I swear😭.

Aries moons are super outgoing but I notice they enjoy being alone & doing things alone rather than with others. They are super independent.

Capricorn moons tend to have a harder time in their romantic relationships. It’s harder for them to show affection openly which can make their partners think they aren’t that into them.

Mars in Geminis are always on the go. If ADHD was a placement it would be mars in Gemini. They need constant mental stimulation or they can get very depressed & self destructive. They are more likely to have multiple jobs/hobbies. It’s super hard to link with these people cuz they stay busy. Be careful not to neglect important relationships because of your restlessness.

Jupiter trine ascendant gives the native a very healthy strong body.

Venus conjunct ascendant in the first house are obsessed with their appearance. Sometimes to their detriment. Gives an amazing body shape usually.

Gemini Venuses love getting their nails done. Anything that draws attention to their hands such as rings, finger tats, acrylics ect.

The most annoying underdeveloped moon sign imo is Leo. These people can be so childish when immature.

Mars in the 3rd house people usually get in trouble for speeding. Driving fast calms them down a lot.

Mars in the 8th house I read somewhere can give a very painful death ( not to scare any of you guys😭).

Uranus in the 12th house people hide their quirks to fit in usually. They have really original eccentric personalities deep down yet most are forced to act basic.

Sun in the 1st house people can become big narcissists when insecure.

Saturn in the 7th house people could’ve been used to others calling them a “buzz kill” or “too serious”. They also tend to find humor in bullying? Like mean people are hilarious to them. I think that’s a big Saturn thing in general they love “mean humor”.

Saturn in the 5th house people could’ve been judged heavily for expressing their personalities. Usually these people are super talented but it was usually shut down by others from a young age due to jealousy. This is why they can grow up being very robotic. They are also very awkward when it comes to crushes and love until much older. Could be the last one in their friend group to get married/lose their virginity.

Moon in the 7th house people tend to marry pretty early.

A lot of people on the autism spectrum have heavy Aquarius in their chart. ESPECIALLY moon in Aquarius.

Having a grand square in your natal chart can be SOOO exhausting! You are constantly being forced to evolve and grow. This gives an opposite effect from the grand trine. With the grand trine things flow to them naturally & talents come very naturally but they can be very lazy with it. However grand squares usually have to work extra hard to achieve success, nothing comes easy for them unfortunately. When you surrender to laziness with a grand square it can completely ruin your life & make you 10 steps behind everyone. It forces you to overcome any laziness.

Best sex I’ve ever experienced with mars signs have to be TAURUS, Capricorn, Virgo & Aries. I feel like people are gonna come for my throat cuz I didn’t add Scorpio mars but I honestly think their sex can be overrated. They are just big horn dogs.

Virgo placements especially the sun and Venus tend to stay virgins longer than most. They don’t need physical affection as much as most placements (especially Venus in Virgo). They’re more into the mental aspects of love.

Your biggest crush probably has a lot of 5th house overlays with you. Especially (sun,moon, venus & mars).

12th house synastry can either be your soulmate or the most traumatic experience you’ll ever have with a person.. no in between.

Leo suns with a Venus in Libra tends to have SO MANY CRUSHES.

Moon/Venus in Pisces have terrible boundaries.

It’s easy to get along with someone who has their sun in the same sign as your Venus (also trine). It’s very difficult to stay made at them for too long, you tend to view each other with rose colored glasses.

On the other hand, Mars square Venus synastry can make you annoyed with eachother easily (especially as the Venus person). Every time I had this with someone as the Venus person I genuinely found them so annoying & corny lol. Theirs this bizarre sexual tension however that can make things kinda awkward especially in a friendship. The mars person tries too hard and can be too aggressive in trying to get the Venus persons attention to a point where it’s a turn off. Timing in general is usually off (eg; one can like the other when the other isn’t interested then it can switch where the one who wasn’t interested becomes interested then the other loses interest😭).

Aries risings tend to have bigger foreheads (ex; Rihanna). They also tend to have a very good head for being bald or having pixie cuts. Their heads are usually really well shaped.

Taurus placements (especially moon & sun) can struggle hygiene wise when they are depressed. Like forgetting to shower or going days without brushing their teeth or hair.

Cancer suns can either be extremely corny humor wise or be the funniest people in the room. A lot of comedians & YouTubers have cancer suns.

Mars in pisces are usually amazing singers/dancers.

Aries sun men tend to be more interested in a person when they act like they don’t like them lol. This can also be true with Venus in Aries.

Cancers love when people open up to them emotionally/vent to them. It gives them pleasure to nurture others.

Neptune in the 1st house people tend to look like a different person every time you see them. One change to their appearance such as changing hair color, or different makeup/clothes and completely alter what they look like. The definition of shape shifters.

Moon in Geminis love experimenting with different looks/aesthetics. These people are also lowkey shape shifters as well. They can also be addicted to dying their hair lol. ESPECIALLY during mental breakdowns!

Saturn positively aspecting Venus in synastry are real Ride or Dies. It hard for you guys to leave eachother alone (especially Saturn). These people can heal past relationship trauma together🥺 i see this aspect in a lot of married couples. Saturn/venus aspects are really the glue to a relationship. Even if you have great chemistry/synastry with someone such as Sun/moon, mars/venus, Pluto/venus it will fizzle out fast if their isn’t enough Saturn influence.

[noihavenosanitythanksforasking]

thinking about how milevens tend to assume that bylers want mileven to break up just because we want byler to happen.

no love

wanting byler to be canon and wanting mileven to break up are two separate wants.

Mike and El have their own story outside of will. Even if Mike wasn't queer and Will wasnt around this story would still be their story. Will may be a character in their story but the story is still about mike and el. Mike and Els story line is the marriage of the two of their two individual character arcs.

El's story arc is based around the fact that she was abused as a child and was dehumanized to an extreme level that no child should ever experience. She does not have an identity of her own. She wasn't raised to even expect to have one in the first place. Her story is learning to be able to her own person. To just be herself and learning who that person is.

When she met mike she created an identity around him. and identity of being the super powered mage who saved the day. that was El. then she became mikes gf and suddenly she was now "mikes gf". It wasnt until she met max that someone actually tells her that she is allowed to be her own person. "theres more to life than stupid boys" "what feels right" before Max she was just existing trying to play a role of what she was supposed to be rather than figuring out who she was or who she wanted to be. What she wanted. El is not raised to have wants. El was raised to be a weapon, a lab rat, a tool that does what they are told.

When this story intersects with a story arc like Mike has you get the disaster that is Mileven.

Mikes story arc is actually very similar. Mike is a very codependent person. He wants to feel needed. he wants to feel useful. If he doesnt have a use to someone he thinks he must be a waste of space. Mike doesnt know who he is outside of other people. He has never explored what he wants for himself. He is for other people. As a codependent person myself i can relate to this a lot. It can be hard to know what YOU want for yourself, outside of people you care about. Mike puts his loved ones before himself so much to the fact that it tends to get him into trouble more often than not. The issue with being codependent is that you become almost blind to who YOU are and what YOU need. you suppress your emotions for other people and these emotions only tend to surface when you realize that holy shit. i cant do anything here. This is the situation mike is finding himself in during season 4 and continuing into season 5. there is nothing he can do anymore. it is clear that him putting el above his own feelings and giving her what she wants in his attempt to help is not working. In fact its HURTING his relationship with el. Now mike doesnt know what to do. so he's drifting. El was his trauma partner. when things get too hard and too confusing he retreats into "el mode" where his only thought is what El needs. This is not a healthy mindset AT ALL. no matter how much the media romanticizes that sort of thing. IT IS NOT HEALTHY. you cant live like that. but now El has communicated "i dont want that. stop lying and get your shit together".

so mike is stuck. and el is stuck.

because theirs is a coming of age story. however not all coming of age stories are romantic. Mike and El cannot communicate with each other. they are both selfishly selfless in the way they treat each other.

I am going to be who you want me to be because i think thats what you want and it makes me feel secure.

this is not something you want in a relationship. a relationship is based on trust and vulnerability. being able to be youre rawest and truest form of yourself for another person. and feeling seen and loved despite it.

this is not present AT ALL in mileven as a couple. they are both discovering who they are still and are not space to be doing that in a relationship where they feel the need to hide themselves from each other. you cant find yourself that way.

wow look how much nuance i pulled from mike and el without mentioning will once. wow its almost like will is not the reason their relationship is failing

[seafoamreadings]

week of january 26th, 2025

these are written predominantly for the *rising* signs but they are also intuitively "channeled" enough that they should work for any dominant energy you have! (try your sun if you don't know rising, or more advanced readers can try moon, anywhere you have a stellium, etc and see what works best for you!)

aries: your week is a little bit, i'll just say, wimpy? there are many good aspects coming up but none that particularly energize you, especially with mars in his current state. so do not expect yourself to be up for a lot, but do surround yourself with life's small and simple pleasures.

taurus: it would take me a long time to list out the individual aspects affecting you this week but let me at least say they are all empowering, and mostly not too difficult. if you're not feeling a bit electrified, by love or by the revolutionary spirit or by magic or something, you likely have your mind on things that aren't in alignment with your true desires or path.

gemini: focus this week on your highest ideals, be they spiritual, philosophical, or academic. whether you're the most devout nun in the cloister or the staunchest atheist out there, you have some ideals and if you don't, you need to be looking harder. bonus points if you set some intentions about these ideals to follow through with over the coming few weeks.

cancerians: the new moon this week makes you magical. like in the witchiest and most esoteric of ways. so, do with that what you will. you also benefit a lot from this week's piscean activity, especially if you have placements in the last few degrees of this sign.

leo: your relationships, the committed, serious ones, are in focus this week. your romantic partner, your business partner, your best friend, whoever you are really in a solid commitment with, to each other, these relationships get a lot of fresh air in a lot of good ways. unrelated but simultaneously you may find yourself more clairvoyant than usual so don't take those dreams and visions to be silly. they are not.

virgo: your partnerships get a big blessing this week especially if you are in a romantic relationship and especially if that relationship has been defined and committed to. but this does apply to all forms of partnership. it may be obviously miraculous or a smaller occurrence, and it is just the beginning.

libra: if you're not having fun - at least making some fun for yourself! - you aren't doing this week right. if you haven't been in a while, set serious intentions about it this week and follow through. you may also see an increase in your health and wellness, a very sacred ritual you can incorporate into your routine, or develop a gym or workplace crush. if so it's not a bad idea to entertain those newly open paths.

scorpio: expect (or cause!) changes to your partnerships, and to your home life. one thing that looks quite possible for you is a romantic choice. you have someone you've long been committed to on the one hand and someone new or very interesting on the other, or if it's not people it may be passion projects, for example. it's not an easy choice but whatever you choose at this time gets a little venusian blessing as long as you are following your heart and not just social rules.

sagittarius: you have two major quests this week according to the planets. first, take care of things at home or with your family of origin, or your ancestral line, whichever most calls to you at this time. second, be in your community helping the sick, the poor, the elderly, whomever is needing it.

capricorn: although there are many pleasant aspects this week there are not many that touch your sign directly. however your ruler saturn is in pisces and pisces is an epicenter for a lot of good, even miraculous things at the moment. plus mercury into aquarius this week is good for your money, resources, and assets - perhaps your time, most of all.

aquarius: it's a very busy week, for everyone, and you more than average. so you have things to say and it's not going to work for you to wait around for a better time to say it, get it out. set intentions that improve yourself and your lot. a change may be made for you, like it or not, in your home life, ie in your abode *and/or* involving your family of origin. but you have all the resources needed to handle any obstacle in your path even if it seems to require a miracle.

pisces: your inner world, and your psyche, may be more active now than the three-dimensional scenery around you. but you are like a magician, or even more than that. venus and neptune conjoin in your sign. the former is exalted and the latter in domicile. for a little while they even involve the moon. trust your intuition and your dreams but don't trust that people's motives are as pure as they may seem. you are the microcosm and the macrocosm here, so they may symbolize some troublesome part of you, but the best way to reap the (immense!) benefits of this period is to remember that they are part of you.

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[badgeredwrites]

ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ’s ɴᴏᴛᴇ: Holy shit. Look at me starting strong with a stalker Barty… And considering I am the self-proclaimed love of his life, I thought it was fitting. Anyways, this is a concept I’d definitely love to explore in the future. Let me know what you think! ᡣ𐭩

ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ: Exploration of Stalking & Obsessive Behaviors, Mentions of Borderline Personality Disorder, Emotional Manipulation, Brief Abusive Parental Relationships

ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 657

⋆｡°✩ Concept: Stalker!Barty

Alright, so, I finished reading Lights Out by Navessa Allen recently and since my mind automatically goes to everything Marauders related, I asked myself: Out of everyone in the Marauders Era, who would most be like Josh?

The only person who came to mind was, of course, none other than Barty Crouch Jr. There are several reasons for this… Let me explain.

Imagine:

Modern AU where technology becomes prevalent in everyday life, including in the wizarding community.

Barty Crouch Jr, the son of a well-known politician who favors his public image and reputation over everything else, having absolutely no online presence due to his father’s strict rules.

However, despite this, he’s drawn to muggle technology and since his father is not only emotionally absent but also neglectful, he’s essentially left to his own devices. Which gives him the perfect opportunity to explore his interest in tech (and develop an anonymous online persona—we’ll come back to this in a moment).

Canonically speaking, Barty is one of the most brilliant people in the Harry Potter series. He was sorted into Ravenclaw and received all twelve O.W.L.s. Not to mention, he was also able to live as Mad-Eye Moody under Polyjuice potion for months without being detected.

With this information in mind, it’s safe to say he would be quite skilled in the field of technology. It wouldn’t take long for him to hone his abilities.

Now, back to the anonymous online persona, I feel like it would be safe to assume that Barty would have quite the rebellious streak. He, truthfully, could not care less about his father’s reputation. However, in order to avoid the man’s wrath (because let’s be real, Bartemius Sr was most definitely an abusive piece of shit) and with the growing popularity of masked accounts online, he seizes his opportunity to participate in the trend.

This ultimately leads to him becoming one of the most popular accounts, but the attention he garnishes is nothing more than an ego boost to him. That is until someone eventually catches his eye.

Personally, I’ve always thought that it would be possible for Barty to have undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), which can lead to obsessive tendencies (extending towards platonic relationships, not just romantic).

This man would also be the type to have avoidant attachment issues due to the lack of care regarding his emotional needs as a child.

So, when his attention is caught by this individual online, his thoughts are literally consumed by them.

Through the usage of technology and his vast understanding of it, the stalking would start small. With a quick search about them online he would be able to start compiling information regarding their interests, the locations they frequent, their personal relationships, etc.

Of course, this behavior would quickly escalate.

Remember, Barty has an anonymous online persona. Nobody—not even his closest friends—knows of the identity behind his masked account, so this would give him a major advantage. He would have the ability to “coincidentally” appear in the places this individual visits most often.

Which, in turn, allows him to develop a personal relationship with his victim.

Unfortunately for Barty, due to his struggles with BPD, I do believe he would find it difficult to establish a relationship with them at first. After all, he’s quite standoffish person when it comes to new people.

However, equipped with the knowledge he gained through his online stalking, he would be able to use this to his advantage to slowly gain their trust.

In my opinion, it would only be when he establishes a bond with his victim that the monitoring begins.

Perhaps he gifts them something small, such as a key chain or hair clip that actually has a tracker inside of it… Or, once he finally is invited over and places inconspicuous cameras around their home, allowing him footage from every angle.

There are honestly so many things that could be done with Barty as a stalker (and I intend to explore them all).

[jujurose222]

Don’t date until you’re ready that’s probably just the best bet…. Also if you truly love someone, you’ll let them be happy at their best. If you’re salty a man doesn’t let you in his life at his best, it’s because you aren’t at your best.

But anyway, I got something to say after reading that.

Stop trying to change people. Stop trying to be a SAVIOR. MANY OF US HAVE SAVIOR COMPLEXES FOR THE LOVE OF GOD REALIZE THIS.

You meet people exactly where they are at. When someone is at their lowest, THEY ARE MEANT TO BE ALONE. It’s like the hardest truth of life we all have to face, and once you can handle it, then you can share independence with someone.

WHEN YOU ARE LOW, YOU NEED TO BE ALONE. If not, you will unknowingly project everything you feel wrong with yourself on to the person you are supposed to love. They are not supposed to just bear the weight of your trauma. That’s not a lovers job.

If someone really loves you, they know that, and they are not going to sit by and enable you while you are at your lowest. Because that’s usually what’s going on. When one is at their lowest, the other isn’t at their highest, might not be their lowest, but def not their highest. This is just codependency, never is not codependency. I’ve genuinely never seen a relationship that wasn’t codependent in my life, it’s the standard.

A true independent relationship is very rare, but that’s for a reason.

You have to both be individuals. That’s all you gotta remember.

If you’re not, well then one is catering and the other is taking and taking, and vice versa. Ultimately the one who was feeling higher will get thrown into the lower, and the one who is actually at their lowest will feel higher. It’s all ass backwards.

When you have not reconciled your own differences before getting into a relationship, you are going to project all of them into said relationship. Everything between you and your partner will be contradictory, you will constantly find issues and constantly have to deal with issues.

Or you might be non confrontational, so one day it all blows up in your face. That’s what happened to my parents anyway.

Versus, if you reconcile your own differences, you have the ability to reconcile differences in every relationship you have, not solely romantic. You are able to truly accept someone, and you don’t have to beg them to change. Because you can handle them exactly as they are.

Sometimes accepting someone does require you to let them go, only because you don’t want to enable them. It would hurt them more if you sat back and enabled them. When you can reconcile your own differences you know that. And sometimes they don’t know that, and they blame you. But you are willing to take the blame, because you are so secure that you can handle it.

Also loving someone in specifics, yeah it doesn’t guarantee a spot. But that’s the thing with loving, it’s all a risk. I place higher bets on releasing and praying, versus staying and enabling. Either way I could lose, but instead of enabling I would rather keep working at my best. So I can show up as my highest for everyone.

So I can teach others how to reconcile their own differences. So they can have healthy relationships in every regard. With their friends, coworkers, bosses, etc.

I say you have to let go, sometimes you have genuine beneficial advice for these people, but unless they are willing to listen, you have to let go. They might come ask for help, they might not. My therapist told me I cannot help people unless they ask me.

Reconciling your differences allows you to let go of preconceived notions. Allows you to handle hearing things you don’t want to hear. Instead of freaking out, you can actually digest what is being said, even if it was harsh. You can actually use what was said as something beneficial to your growth.

Reconciling your differences takes you out of the victim mindset. It takes you out of relationships that enable this behavior as well.

THIS

[catenary-chad]

Exhaustively long headcanon post about train social dynamics.  This isn’t even everything and half the sections are some degree of “it depends on country/region/time period”. It doesn’t even go into the toy aspect much, that’s an entire separate dimension I actually really like to use as a metaphor for government/corporate decisions (and it’s funny to think of a realistic explanation for ridiculous toy train setups)

Typical disclaimer that these are largely based on modern irl train politics, economics, and dynamics and skew US-heavy because it’s what I know best (but also goes into some international variations). Some things expand on and complement canon, some things totally chuck it out the window.  If you’d like me to elaborate on something or go into something not discussed here I’m generally happy to.

GENERAL STUFF

-divisions are more akin to careers than permanent social castes.  Conversions are stupid common with trains, and you can turn almost anything into anything if you try hard enough, though the extremes gone to varies between countries and economic conditions.  It may be harder to transition away from some things than others but it’s rarely fully impossible and a lot of countries have heavy traditions of repurposing rail equipment until it’s really run into the ground.  A decent comparison is that turning a baggage car into a generator car is akin to an engineer changing disciplines (not trivial but not that hard), trying to repurpose a steam engine is more akin to retraining someone who’s been a coal miner for decades (not impossible but vastly harder)

-Broadly speaking, engines and non-powered rolling stock have a leader/follower dynamic (technically canon per Michal Fraley’s book), with Control like a cruel, fickle, almost omnipotent god (or government or megacorp).  Multi-units are more egalitarian and less hierarchical but usually still have someone taking the lead and guiding things.  It’s very common for MUs to be converted to non-powered coaches or run temporarily unpowered, and the opposite also isn’t unheard of.  Old engines being turned into unpowered control cabs is also very common (and many coaches are capable of it too).  It’s… as cursed as it sounds tbh.  There’s a lot of possession with trains but it’s generally done consensually and just kind of an accepted thing among them most of the time.  I think train psychic battles and playing around with MU issues is criminally underrated for how entertaining it can be (mechanics talk of “demon possession” caused by accidentally plugging engines into themselves and incompatibility between systems can be an issue irl)

-Locomotives are rarely in long term romantic relationships because they move around so much.  Also goes for most train cars too.  It’s more likely the smaller the line is, or the less engines and cars are shuffled around.  Closer relationships of any kind are more common with rolling stock that consistently works together, otherwise most are more casually friendly or affectionate with everyone.  Power cars permanently coupled to trainsets often have polycule situations.  Monogamy is rare outside of “married pair” multi units, polycules of 3+ are more common.

-There are many things that vary between equipment and affect their compatibility and “orientation” and none of them really align with human gender or sex.  It’s more stuff like coupling type, type of electrical source or even need for it, types of brakes, loading gauge, etc. To no surprise I’m happy to play fast and loose with basically every character being genderblind.

NON-POWERED ROLLING STOCK (AND PASSENGER VS FREIGHT DIVISIONS)

-There is a STRONG sense of comradery and disdain for leadership among most freight cars.  Strong parallels to union presence in rail with how they can’t do much as individuals, but CAN push things around as a huge group and use safety in numbers.   They don’t inherently hate engines, but tend to be hostile towards them if they can’t cooperate and work with each other.  There’s also similar sentiment among coaches.

-There isn’t a hard class divide between types of rolling stock, for most things you have wild variation even within the same country.  For every luxury passenger train there’s dozens of underfunded subways, obscure mine trains shuttling workers underground, or overcrowded local trains in south Asia.  Freight tends to have a higher floor and lower ceiling since it’s generally a more profitable business (but you also don’t really have freight equivalents of the Orient Express). I have a really hard time going along with the coaches=rich freight=working class thing because in my mind pink collar vs blue collar is more accurate to their actual status.  Both are important but one often needs to be externally subsidized due to being so devalued in capitalist systems (see teaching and childcare, care jobs in general), while the other tends to be relatively well-paid but struggle with issues like unreasonable working conditions and hours. The fortunes of freight rail also tend to closely follow heavy industry and blue collar jobs in general.  Passenger rail politics vs actual labor conditions are… a lot less closely connected, at least in the US, so I err on the side of basing them on the equipment vs worker side (they’d also end up mostly male if I did that and this show does not need that) 

-Passenger and freight interests tend to clash to various degrees in different places, but there isn’t an inherent hard divide between coaches and freight.  Mixed trains have existed, cars get repurposed a lot, and baggage cars get rebuilt into so many things they’re downright transient.  Fast freight (reefer cars, mail, etc) tend to be closer to coaches than say, massive mineral hoppers, which are probably the furthest removed because they just wouldn’t interact much.  But it’s very much a spectrum vs binary.  How deep the divide is between them varies a lot on country and region, somewhere like North America is so freight-oriented that there’s a massive cultural gap on Class I railroads and they virtually live on different planets vs the Northeast Corridor.  Shortlines tend to be a lot less divided since they have more mixed traffic with less conflict.

-Freight vs passenger engines are the same, divisions were generally stronger in the steam era when designs were more specifically designs for one or the other (or were deliberately mixed-traffic) but less so now.  Yes, there are dedicated high speed trains that would never be used for freight service, but when it comes to independent diesel or electric locomotives, a lot of them readily cross over.  Many ex-express engines end up working on fast freight trains, especially in Europe, and freight-oriented engines usually work fine for slower passenger service as long as you have some way to supply power to the cars (see Metra and their SD70s)

-Usually rolling stock drops down vs climbs the ladder as they get outclassed, how they feel about this varies a lot.  Tends to go express>freight or commuter>switching, backup, and maintenance, but in times of desperation sometimes they will rise back up (see the history of the GG1s).  Despite this, there is generally a strong respect for elders and experience, lasting for 30+ years and seeing all kinds of history firsthand is widely admired.  Though the line is usually drawn when they start getting TOO backwards and change/improvement-averse or genuinely can’t keep up with their duties.  That’s when it goes to “yeah buddy we’d both be better off if you moved to a shortline or tourist place that’s more your speed”

TRACTION TYPES

-Steam engines are best compared to the Amish.  They just aren’t relevant to larger society, but they get disproportionate media recognition and outsiders are kind of fascinated by them but really don’t want to join them when they learn how the bad old days really were.  As long as they don’t push wildly out of touch and regressive ideas like “let’s roll more coal screw global warming!” or cause trouble on major thoroughfares (ala buggies on highways lol) other trains just kind of don’t care what they do off in their own heritage sphere.  By FAR the most individualistic because they’re much harder to double-head and have been historically incentivized to do things alone, but there are exceptions (PRR K4s frequently worked in pairs and trios, at least a few steam engines have been fitted with basic MU controls).  Fireless engines are even rarer but seen more like mule drivers in the Grand Canyon- they have a dated job/approach but it really is the best fit for specific environments.  Amusement park steam engines (amusement park trains in general tbh) tend to live in total fantasy worlds… because they literally do.  Frustrating to talk to but also really funny because they think fairytales and Western movies are unironically real because it’s all they’ve known (unless they were a rebuilt historical engine).  

-Electric trains are sometimes stereotyped as invincible superheroes in non-electrified areas, but they’re more akin to whales.  Basically unbeatable in the right environment but also VERY vulnerable to external threats (mainly infrastructure neglect in their case).  College educated professionals are also a very good comparison- they’re often written off as elitist and theoretical (and electric-oriented railfans seem to skew more technically educated/nerdy), but they’re far more attainable and pedestrian in places where governments actually fund things and rhetoric against them smacks of anti-intellectualism.  How pedestrian vs alien they are wildly varies between countries and regions, in Switzerland non-electric trains are nearly unthinkable, in the US they’re treated as “liberal delusion”.  There tends to be a strong sense of solidarity among electric trains since they usually benefit/suffer from the same conditions regardless of if they’re subways, commuter trains, or long distance or work for rival companies.  How powerful vs vulnerable they are is also very regional, in places like the US and UK with longstanding infrastructure problems they are seen as troubled, delicate, and restricted.  In better maintained systems like mainland Europe or Japan it’s just kind of expected that things will work, like how you probably don’t worry about the power going off and losing your freezer food.  

-Attitudes towards diesel traction varies even MORE wildly but the best summary of them is “pragmatic, versatile, conservative”.  In sprawling places where companies/governments don’t like to pay for things up front, they’re accepted as the norm and hard to shake (North America, Australia).  In denser places (and/or where higher powers will shell out up front) they’re seen as filthy and backwards and at best a compromise or stopgap (UK and much of Europe).  There tends to be a sense of ruggedness, imperfection, and compromise to them because of their low infrastructure demands.

-battery electric engines are more aligned with diesel than direct electric ones.  They’re more likely to be used on rough and tumble industrial shortlines and have more pragmatic, conservative leanings with less infrastructure requirements.

-Dual mode engines (can run off a diesel engine or outside electricity) also tend to be more diesel-aligned due to their compromise factor, but less strongly so.  It really depends on where they work and if they mostly run as diesel or pure electric

-There isn’t really a consistant class divide between electric and diesel engines, it’s more accurate to say that there’s more economic disparity among electric traction, while most diesel traction trends toward “middle class” in the modern world.  Sure, most nicer trains in richer areas are electric, but there are a LOT of underfunded, crumbling metros and commuter systems too.  Maps of electrification % by country are wild because Switzerland and India are the same color and the US is on par with sub-Saharan Africa.  Meanwhile, there aren’t many truly high-end diesel-hauled trains still around, and there are some really run-down shortlines, but the majority trend towards the middle, not really pristine or top of the line, but usually not as bad off as some inner city transit.  And this isn’t even counting how terrible the fortunes of electrified lines in the US were in the mid-20th century or how common electric switchers are on European shortlines (I just don’t know enough about those besides that they exist tbh)

-Steam engines are rarely truly rich (outside of those working at big theme parks, as a part of big rail systems’ heritage programs, or as millionaires’ pet projects) but tend to have the most consistently secure and stable conditions in the modern world.  They have a niche but profitable market in the tourism sphere and their financial struggles are closer to those of museum funding than anything.  A mechanically functional smaller steam engine can basically always find work somewhere due to the very limited supply and relatively consistent demand.  Strong sense of either charity and community support… or vicious capitalism with them and it varies on the individual and their story.  Since the late 20th century the only places where they were really “poor and left behind” were in niche cases where labor was very cheap and fuel was cheap or free, stuff like coal mines in rural China or sugar cane plantations… but even that’s not really a thing anymore and it was never really present in western Europe or the US (lol you can smell my fundamental problems with canon’s framing)

-Narrow gauge lines, especially if geographically isolated, are kind of seen like gnomes by full-sized trains.  Out of sight stuff like mine trains, Mail Rail, or old underground freight lines.  They are enchanting and magical, pedestrian yet quaint.  Some of the de-electrified lines in the US also have their history written off as tall tales because yeah, those weird poles being there because electric engines the size of a Big Boy used to run there sounds like fantasy (but that’s just called the Virginian Railway).  Train legends are a wild mix of bizarrely true (Silverpilen) and just silly ghost stories and most can’t tell fact from crap until they meet the real thing face to face.  

[anontheghost]

So... What is the deal with Blitz's and Moxxie's upbringing?

Let's start by saying the obvious: Blitz’s and Moxxie’s families are almost exact mirrors to each other: They both have terrible, greedy fathers who just enjoy making their lives miserable and amazing dead mothers who we know nothing about except their cause of death and how much they are missed by their sons. 

The only significant distinctions are that Moxxie's story is splattered with glossy mafia paint and that his mother was drowned while he was still a very young child. On the other hand, Blitz's mother, Tilla, died when he was a teenager and was burned to death. The rest? Pretty much the same.

However, the similarities between their backstories are not really the problem; after all, in real life, we can find people who lived through similar traumas and that is a pretty interesting aspect to explore in fantastical stories as well. 

Many other shows have done it incredibly well (Bojack Horseman) but Helluva Boss failed in that department. 

The very interesting family dynamics were only bought at the surface level, not explored in any meaningful way except to give the characters “cheap trauma moments” that could potentially get ruined by either the insertion of out of place comedy or never mentioned again. 

How am I supposed to treat Crimson’s abuse of Moxxie as something serious when the minute before dildos popped out the walls for a joke? How did Blitz’s guilt over the fire and his mother’s death truly affect his relationships—romantic or otherwise? Was it all just a narrative plot to drag the Stolitz charade for as many episodes as possible? Heck, we do not even see Blitz and Mooixe interact more about their shared trauma! Or about how much they missed their mothers.

It is a little depressing because, despite knowing nothing about Moxxie and Blitz's mothers, we, the viewer, are expected to care about them and see their significance. Instead we are left with a million questions that will probably never have an answer. 

Were they really good parents or are their sons only remembering the good parts of their relationship because they are dead? 

How did they truly influence their kids? Did Moxxie’s love for musical theater come from his mother? Did Blitz’s fascination for horses be because of Tilla or was it someone else?

How was their relationship with their husbands and why did they stay even after the marriage went south? What brought them together in the first place? Because, in all honesty, both couples just don't seem compatible in any way, that one just can help but ask how did everything worked.

Sadly, we can only speculate. 

So, without further due, these are my speculations. Part of the great rewrite that I am doing of the series. Because sometimes terrible writing decisions just move my creative juices in the right direction. 

Tilla and Cash Buckzo.  “I do love you, as much as I am capable of loving anyone, which is never enough.”

What would have happened if Princess Carolyn and Bojack Horseman ignored all the red flags in their relationship and chose to get married anyway? That wouldn’t have been good, but that is exactly what happened to Tilla and Cash Buckzo—the result was a messy marriage where love could not overcome their different views on life and incompatible personalities.

So... why did they stay in a marriage that was not working? Simple, a divorce would mean financial ruin for both of them.

Let me explain. 

(Worldbuilding note: How marriage functions and how people in Hell generally view it is one aspect of the Hellaverse that truly baffles me. To avoid confusion, each ring in this revision will have its own set of marital norms and perspectives.)

(In the Greed Ring, marriage is nothing more than another business transaction and is treated as such. Two individuals may absolutely hate each other, but if the marriage will benefit them economically, then they will go through with it.)

The sole compelling argument for Cash and Tilla's marriage was that it was the wisest course of action to maintain and save their respective livelihoods. Imps are not permitted to own companies (as I stated in the Stolitz Non-Romance rewrite.) and in the Greed Ring, Mammon owns ALL of the entertainment industry (circuses included) and he will not hesitate to shut down a circus if it is not bringing the profit.

The small circuses Cash and Tilla were supervising were on the brink of bankrupsy, so what better solution than to marry each other and combine their assets? It will give them more time to survive.

In hindsight, their plan worked perfectly; Tilla and Cash were able to build up themselves financially, and using their combined business talents, they were able to expand their new big renovated circus and turn in a profit that would keep Mammon off their backs. 

They were great business partners, but as a couple, they lacked a lot. 

They did occasionally have tender moments, but they were squandered by arguments, lengthy silences, and extremely uncomfortable dinners. At one point, they even began sleeping in different beds, just to avoid fighting. Everybody who knew them could see that they were just not good for each other and could barely tolerate the other presence.

This begs the question: How did they manage to have Blitz and Barbie?

The decision to have a kid was straightforward and, like their marriage, based on business. They wanted a successor to take over their responsibilities when they died, as it was something now needed as the circus grew. So one night, they decided to get drunk and just get it over with.

But, to the surprise of themselves and everyone else, Tilla and Cash were their best selves throughout the pregnancy. 

During those four months that the pregnancy lasted, Cash and Tilla acted like a happy couple, anxiously waiting for the arrival of their beloved baby. They no longer fought; they were just too busy happily imagining a future where the three of them would be happy while preparing for their child.

Maybe everything would be okay; their relationship could only get better from now on, right? Once their beautiful little girl arrives, they will be a complete family of three with no intentions of adding more. 

Yikes.

In their defence, there are few medical facilities available to imps, and when they attended the controls, the physicians informed them that they would only be having one child, Barbie.

Their budget and plans were severely ruined by Blitz's unexpected arrival because they were only ready to provide full care for one baby, not two. If Mammon kept the majority of the profits, how would they be able to buy two of everything? 

They would endure a long period of hardship and didn’t they enter this marriage to prevent just that?!

Tilla, being the mother and the one who gave birth, accepted this change, promising to love both children equally; sadly, Cash didn’t.

It didn’t take too long before they started fighting again, even if it was in front of their kids. As you can imagine, growing up with parents who fought even for the most minimal of problems leaves a long-lasting impression on a child and how they will handle their own relationships in the future. 

To this day, Barbie still has problems telling her girlfriends when something is wrong or is upsetting her. On the other hand, Blitz gets overwhelmed when he notices things going south in a relationship and leaves it all together. 

Things didn’t really improve much as the twins grew up. 

Sure, the family had their relative moments of peace, but Cash only paid real love and attention to Barbie, being the child he really wanted while completely ignoring Blitz. Tilla, upset about this but knowing that Cash won’t change, tried to give more attention to her son, accidentally ignoring her daughter’s needs.

Yes, Tilla was not a “perfect, angelic mother," canon portrayed her as. If anything, she was a little bit overbearing when it came to Blitz, as she felt she needed to make up for his father’s abandonment. She genuinely believed that Barbie didn’t need her as much, and the girl liked to spend more time with her father anyway, who needed to train her to take over the circus.

At this point, their family was divided into two separate families that just happened to live in the same house: one consisted of a kind but overprotective mother and her son; the other, a strict but understanding father and his daughter/heir. The only point in which Tilla and Cash interacted was when they worked on the circus, or when they were fighting for the most minimal things. 

Their family dynamic was mostly like that... until Tilla died.

Blitz remembers only the good moments he spent with her, looking at her actions and life with rose-colored glasses of love. For him, Tilla was the perfect mother who basically could do no wrong. 

However, if you ask Barbie, she’ll say that while she is sad that her mother passed away, she is unable to truly feel devastated since she never knew the woman well enough. Barbie is even a bit resentful for the times Tilla chose to spend time with Blitz instead of her.

And with Cash... How would you think Bojack would react if PC died before him? 

Now… what about Moxxie’s family?

Crimson and Belia (Name I am giving Moxxie’s mom)

"You better grow up to be something great, to make up for all the damage you done."

One particular thing that I noticed about Crimson is how young he looks despite being Moxxie’s dad. If I knew nothing about Helluva Boss and someone showed me a picture of those two, I would 100% believe they are siblings, not father and son.

While we can attribute this to Vivzie's inability to draw older men, why not play with this?

Let's set up the stage.

When Moxxie entered the picture, Crimson and Belia were just seventeen years old and not even dating. However, I suppose that when you are a careless teenager, the consequences of forgetting the condom don't truly hit you until something goes wrong.

As one may expect, Crimson was not happy with the news and was even more angry when Belia told him that she wanted to keep the baby and sustained her ground no matter how many times Crimson told her to get rid of the pregnancy. Why not? They were both fucking teenagers, just fooling around and he had no intentions of becoming a father, at least not this young! What was truly stopping her?

Nobody truly knows why Belia chose to keep her son to this day. 

When alive, she would tell you without a doubt that she loved her child from the first moment and couldn't bear to let him go, even in the face of less than perfect circumstances. But Moxxie hasn't believed that version of the story in a very long time. 

Moxxie now thinks that the main reason why Belia had him was because she didn't want to endure the awful and harsh conditions of an Imp Health Center. Due to the horrible way the doctors treated the imp patients, lack of medicine and equipment, most imps avoided those places like the plage.

Unfortunately, sick imps had no other choice but to go to the centers for treatment. Because if an imp even dares to step a hoof on the more well equipped hospitals in Sloth or Lust, they would be immediately kicked out no matter the emergency.

For more serious issues, wealthy imps (like Crimson's family) would hire a private physician. However, Belia was aware that Crimson would never spend that kind of money on her. 

Or maybe Belia didn’t want to give Crimson the satisfaction of getting out of his responsibilities. 

When Crimson's own father learned about the, at that point, already advanced pregancy, he forced Crimson and Belia to get married. Given the Knowlastname family's significant power in Greed's imp neighborhoods, Crimson's status as an unmarried young father would be viewed as a shameful scandal.

Belia only consented to the marriage because she had nowhere else to go. When her parents found out that their seventeen-year-old daughter was expecting, they were so disappointed that they disinherited and prohibited her from ever returning home.

(Later, when I rewrite Exes and Oh's, I will go into more detail about what Crimson’s family does in the Greed Ring. They are still involved in “less than legal” practices and loan sharking, but is a little bit different than in canon since now I based the Greed Ring in the entertainment industry.)

Of course, as one may expect, things in that marriage went south real fast. 

Every time Crimson looked at Moxxie and Belia, he saw nothing but the two demons who took away his carefree teenhood together with the respect of his father, and with each passing year, he just became more and more cruel. At one point, he simply started physically abusing his wife, who always put herself as a buffer between Moxxie and Crimson.

If Belia dared to raise her voice against her husband, Crimson would merely tell her that the opportunity to leave him went away the minute she decided to bring “that brat” into hell without his permission. Now she was just reaping what she sowed.

Being physically and mentally abused by her husband (who, as a bonus, also turned everyone in the household against her) took a toll on Belia’s mental health. She still wanted to be the best mother she could be, but how can you raise a child in an environment where everybody sees them as the enemy? When your mind makes your body so heavy that getting out of bed becomes an impossible task?

More than once, Belia considered taking her son and moving back to Wrath. But then, to where? Her parents didn’t want to see her; she lost contact with her friends, and since she never finished school, she had no hireable qualities. How would she support herself and Mooxie if she decides to leave? Being a single imp mother in hell is not easy!

It was impossible! At this point, she just needed to endure. 

She will not let Crimson win; she will not let that man break her and Moxxie. While Crimson was definitely stronger than her, putting on a smile after a beating that sent Crimson into a frustrated frenzy was all she needed to feel she had won, even if her body stated otherwise.

There were also the times she and Moxxie went on hikes together, pretending that they were going on a grand adventure as far away from Crimson as possible. Being happy when Crimson didn’t want them to was the little act of rebellion she needed to stay sane.

However, Belia’s breaking point came after Moxxie’s seventh birthday, just a few months after Crimson’s father died, when her “beloved” husband brought home another pregnant imp. 

Belia was no idiot; she knew that her husband had been cheating on her for years, but she never said anything because she didn’t care enough to do it. So, Crimson had a side piece? big deal, she stopped loving him a long time ago. 

However, it was too much to bear to watch Crimson, a guy she believed to be utterly cruel, be a loving and caring partner to this imp and be so thrilled about the birth of their cherished child.

I mean, when you witness the same man who repeatedly denigrated your son, cursed and beat you for being pregnant, joyfully decorating a nursery while choosing baby names and spoiling his new partner, whom he never raised his voice at, it can and will break something in you. 

Ultimately, what could be worse? Accepting that your partner will never change? Or realizing that you were never worth the positive change they could bring about?

What did she do wrong?

Moxxie still doesn’t know what happened to his mom; what is certain is that one day he woke up and she was not there. While part of him is sure that Crimson killed her so he could marry his new partner, there is a part of him, small but loud, that tells him that Belia abandoned him at the mercy of his father. 

Why would she not? Moxxie knows that he looks a lot like Crimson, so it was possible that at some point, his poor mother couldn’t look at him anymore without remembering her abuser. He is also familiar with the sad reality that, if Belia tried escaping with him, the possibilities of re-doing her life with a kid on her toe would have been very slim.

Not to mention impossible.

After his mother disappeared, Moxxie became a ghost in his own house. Apart from giving orders and degrading him, Crimson was more focused on his new family and new children to “waste energy” in a son he never wanted. While Moxxie’s step-parent was not physically violent, their constant degrading of Belia and their attempts to erase all trace of her existence really put Moxxie on edge.

Sadly, he couldn’t say anything because the first and only time Mooxie tried to go against their wishes, Crimson put a stop to that real fast. 

Moxxie had to see firsthand how Crimson was a true, loving father to his stepsiblings. He listened to them constantly, never yelled at them, and never struck them—things he never did with his first kid. He also made sure to teach them how their big brother was nothing but a failure and to stay clear of him since “wimpyness” could be contagious.

Moxxie wishes he could know them better.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o00

And this is all for today. I will give more information about Mooxie’s family (as well as his relationship with Chaz) when I rewrite Exes and Oh’s. Remember that these are mostly my first draft thoughts and can and probably will be changed for the final product. 

I hope you enjoy! I love when you comment!

[kindalikerackham]

wicked is about a throuple where the individual relationships in it have romantic chemistry, political chemistry, or comphet

[mr-laveau]

*takes a chump out of your redacted designs and runs away* YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE

(but seriously I noticed that there's a lot of design ideas and little details and just a lot going on when you draw something and I want to know what makes that decision, how do you know what to put on there is it just like a feeling thing or like you see something you like and then you put it on characters or something you're drawing)

Wanted to get to this after finishing up the series of designs for the shaw pack and stuff but thanks!

For my redacted designs I went into it thinking about the influences for the designs (halloween costumes, professions, past designs, kinks, romantic dynamics and vibes) and played around with colour pallettes to create similarities and contrasts to make them more cohesive as a group but unique as individuals and pairs as they're put together whilst also not straying from the nature of the setting and honouring my art style.

An example would be Milo and Sahdil. I wanted to mix together a bunch of old designs into one for something that achieved everything I wanted for them while empasizing their contrasts with each other because that's how their dynamic is framed in my head. Sadhil is more of an organized and detailed PI who is of course magical so I went with a mix of his older designs, scooped out the best parts and made something fun.

In opposition of their design, I made Milo who was more wild and impulsive and something about his older renditions was that he always seemed like a guy you'd see on the drums and I wanted to continue that while making him heavily contrast against Sadhil. His palette is more vibrant, he wears silver while Sadhil wears gold, he dyes his hair brighter than Sadil does and etc. Really the focus for paired designs is to make them match and compliment each other, holding both a sense of contrast and similarity.

When it came down to group designs, the focus was on a singular visual theme and since the shaw pack was a cohesive unit, I decided earlier that I'd play around with them being werewolves visually through torn edges, claws at the tips of their shoes, triangular shapes to symbolize claws and fangs as well as colours that all blended with each other. As you can see it translates with Milo, Asher and Deacon who all have similar colour pallettes and thus there could be an implication of what their relationship as characters would be like. Meanwhile David stands there in contrast to the rest of them, having a colour pallette that takes the group's natural colours to the extremes with shades and tints that borrow colours from the rest of group but also alienate him as a design to help look like he's a part of the group but also separate as a pack leader.

You'll also note that David is cleaner as a design with less wear and tear in his clothes in contrast to the rest of the group due to his own image of being a leader (he has to be the face and must be perfect but everyone else is allowed to be "messy").

Now in the line up, similarities and contrasts play a key part in producing an effective group of characters who are both visually distinct but are recognizable as a singular group. For the whole pack, I chose to lean into the same mindset that Encanto had with its visual designs (creating a contrast between two sides of the same group as seen by the different sides of the Madrigal family).

Design lineups often change based on the nature of the story so they don't all have to be cohesive based on what story is being told but for RA, I wanted the two sides to be clear on the visual storytelling of their roles as well as their characters. All the main wolves can be grouped together as a pack but their mates are wildly different with a few similarities but differing visual motifs given the nature of their roles in the story. Sam is associated with the Solaire vampires so his pallette remains almost monotonously red to show where he stands out but is grounded by the inclusion of reds between characters like Deacon and Barnaby. Additionally, while Sadhil also fits in visually with Barnaby and Alex by including a majority of whites in their design alongside the other two, they also differ given that they're the only magical mate between the two.

As such, a few things can be communicated based on the lineup visually, the mates do not wholely fit together, Sam stands out as the only vampire, David stands out as the pack leader, the mates and the wolves are different to each other based on their own dynamics and each of them have a colour pallette that supports me shpping them with my sona and one another (which is kinda the point of redoing their designs!

That's all my notes!

[itstobias149]

Random Marie lore dump

Prepare yourself man- this one is deep guys

Marie was married till she got to the US, then the guy left. He’s sucks

Marie’s history with her arranged marriage adds a layer of complexity to her character and explains her cautiousness about romantic relationships. She was in an arranged marriage with a man who initially appeared loving and devoted. However, after they immigrated to the United States, his true intentions became clear. He was primarily interested in gaining a green card and achieving his dream of having an American “trophy wife.” Once they settled in the U.S., he abandoned Marie, leaving her to fend for herself in an unfamiliar country.

This betrayal left Marie with trust issues and a deep sense of self-doubt. She often wonders if people genuinely care about her or if they have ulterior motives, which is why she hesitates to act on her feelings for anyone, even when the connection feels real. It also explains her reluctance to engage fully in relationships with people like Bald Bull, Soda Popinski, or even others, as she fears repeating the pain of being used and discarded.

Despite this painful experience, Marie has rebuilt her life, finding strength in her role as a cutman and creating meaningful friendships within the WVBA. Her resilience and independence are a testament to her character, even as she navigates the lingering scars of her past.

Marie, Bull, and Soda, is not canon

Marie, Bald Bull, and Soda Popinski aren’t canon as a romantic trio because Marie struggles with the idea of choosing between them. She deeply cares for both but feels that picking one over the other would be unfair and cause unnecessary hurt. Although Marie supports polyamorous relationships in principle, both Bull and Soda aren’t open to the concept due to their competitive and possessive natures. This creates an unresolvable tension between the three.

The WVBA, seeing the love triangle as a marketing opportunity, pressures them to form an official couple for publicity. This external influence adds strain to their already complicated dynamic. While Bull and Soda might initially tolerate the situation, the constant spotlight and underlying rivalry make it difficult for them to maintain their friendship, let alone pursue a relationship with Marie.

Ultimately, the pressure from the WVBA and the emotional strain cause the trio to drift apart. Marie remains close to both as friends, but the romantic potential fizzles out, leaving them to focus on their careers and individual growth.

Marie still holds onto hope that she can salvage her relationships with Bald Bull and Soda Popinski, as she genuinely cares for both of them and values their connections. She believes that, given enough time and communication, they could find a way to mend the tension between them and move forward, whether as friends or something more. However, the WVBA higher-ups are making this nearly impossible.

The organization, eager to capitalize on the drama and marketability of the love triangle, continues to push a narrative that forces the trio into uncomfortable situations. The constant public scrutiny, staged appearances, and media pressure create a toxic environment where honest communication becomes difficult. Instead of focusing on resolving their personal feelings, Bald Bull and Soda find themselves caught in a cycle of rivalry exacerbated by the WVBA’s interference.

This manipulation by the WVBA frustrates Marie, as it undermines her efforts to handle the situation with care. While she still hopes for reconciliation, the strain from external forces makes her question whether the relationships can ever recover. It also deepens her resentment toward the organization, as she realizes they see her personal life as just another way to boost profits, disregarding the emotional toll it takes on her and the others involved.

Marie House is a Revolving Door

Marie’s house is a revolving door of hope and opportunity, as she opens her home to kids in need, helping them get set up for a better life. She takes in children who are struggling, whether they’re from broken homes, difficult circumstances, or simply need guidance. Marie provides them with a safe and nurturing environment, offering not just shelter but life skills, encouragement, and unconditional support.

She isn’t just a caretaker—she’s a mentor, helping the kids navigate their challenges and build confidence. Whether it’s teaching them how to cook, manage finances, or believe in themselves, Marie ensures they have the tools they need to thrive. While her role can be bittersweet, as the kids eventually move on when things go well, she always hopes for the best for them.

Though it can be hard to say goodbye, Marie finds fulfillment in knowing she played a part in giving them a fresh start. Her home might be quieter for a moment, but she remains ready to help the next kid who needs her. This selflessness and hope for the future make her an anchor in the chaos of the WVBA and beyond, embodying compassion and resilience in the face of life’s challenges.

[psychemochanight]

Can I ask for all your thoughts and opinions on Dick and Kory's relationship?

Thank You 😊

I'll try, but I don't have my thoughts straight so I don't promise a very eloquent answer, lmao

I can't say I know enough about all the lines where they are together, so I'm not going to go around quoting moments from the comics, but I'm going to focus on what I think about their relationship, if that's okay-

Despite my obvious lack of knowledge, I think it's also obvious that as far as canon ships go, Dick and Kory are my favorites- so I'm gonna give some context first (?)

I met Dick and Kory in the Teen Titans 2003 animated series (I was 2 in 2003, don't expect me to read comics yet, lmao), so obviously it's the first ship I met in relation to them, and yet, that's not my favorite dynamic between them, so I kind of didn't care about their relationship.

It was a few years later that I met them in the comics, and honestly, that's when I started to grow fond of their dynamic.

Do you know this joke about the princess boy and the knight girl? Well, while Dick is someone with a strong character, I always loved how he seems more docile next to Kory, while Kory, unlike her innocent personality in TT03, in the comics she has a much more determined character, still maintaining her ignorance about the human world, but without making her look like a helpless girl, which makes them fall a little into this dynamic.

I don't know Kory very well individually, so I can't speak to her development in particular, but at least on Dick's side, I feel like Kory's presence at his side helps him in ways that no other character can.

I mentioned that Dick becomes docile around Kory, but I don't mean submissive, but relaxed. Dick is a person who is constantly tense and alert, something that he loses with his friends, it is still evident that he maintains a latent state of protection over them, like an older brother. This was not the case with Kory, even if he was still protective of her, Kory was responsible for this dynamic not happening, this is due to her own maturity and protection towards him, what always prevented this older brother/younger sister relationship from occurring. It's not that it never happens, but it's almost non-existent.

I think this is what makes their relationship so different from the one Dick has with his other friends, and also what makes their romantic relationship so different from Dick and Barbara's as well.

The role of protector constantly changes between Dick and Kory, it is not settled on just one of them, and this in part makes their relationship much stronger emotionally.

They both are characters who are characterized by their intense feelings, they express it differently, but they feel with the same intensity.

Something curious about them is that Dick, who is always quite extroverted, becomes more reserved when he is with Kory, who becomes the extrovert in the relationship. This detail is one of the ones I personally like most in their relationship, to be honest-

The fact that Dick, who to me is actually an ambivert, leaning more towards the introverted side in fact (the correct definition, not the one people confuse with being unsociable or shy, but rather the one who needs to recharge his energies in solitude, not in the constant company of people), he allows himself to be more reserved in his ways towards Kory, without that constant need to be the one to say everything out loud, because Kory understands him on a different level.

Of course, this also brings problems sometimes due to the cultural difference, but this is what always gave depth to the couple.

I feel like if the writers hadn't separated them in an attempt to give them more individual development, they would actually be one of the most powerful and well-developed couples, due to the nuances, the depth and different factors that make their personalities, so similar and yet so different, complement each other so well.

[chasing-clovers]

Wait no I've decided I'm not done with this.

There are truly so many layers to the Clothes Saga, but I think the headliner is that it is......SO intimate to repeatedly buy somebody you care about clothes that you think they'd like, or that you want to see them in, and deriving a sort of thrill or pride from seeing them accept your guidance. Because essentially, there's buying someone an article of clothing as a casual gift, and then there's making it a Thing. A very romantic trend with significant implications!!!!!

But all of this is in addition to matching and sharing clothes. Again, a TREND with heavy romantic undertones.

And I thought a great point that was made in the tags is that...whether you view Joemarr as romantic or not...them matching clothes, sharing clothes, using clothes as a love language, and BONDING OVER FASHION (!!!!!) is an inherent rejection of heteronormativity. Which is again. A fact Ja'Marr is at least dimly aware of, because he's clearly had to combat a deep-seated insecurity about this situation over the last few years.

And yeah I want to talk about bonding over fashion. I think it's so insanely intimate to take it upon yourself (or to be recruited. we don't really know what Joe's perspective is here.) to help somebody become a new and improved but also wonderfully authentic version of themselves??? Like Ja'Marr has seen every era of Joe up close and personal for the last 6 years and is...what? Watching him develop. Helping him change. While they grow TOGETHER as individuals. Via FASHION!!!!! Which, granted, is an industry that's starting to intersect with sports culture more and more, but still conflicts with traditional ideas of gender, masculinity, sexuality, and, ultimately, these interpersonal relationships.

All of this corroborating with your brilliant original post to say that...these events and concepts go much deeper than you might think, even IF a lot of it is speculation.

One more important note. Ja'Marr is an intensely fascinating little bug. I want to study him and then put him in my pocket for safe keeping.

You should post your thoughts on Ja’Marr and Kyle!! I’m so interested in their dynamic if that makes sense 😅

lmao anon i love you thank you because i was literally just typing a post up by itself. but now i get the benefit of looking like i'm not the ONLY person to care about this. (there's at least two of us!!)

ok so! too much rambling about things that i could no way actually know anything about irl BUT 

kyle and ja’marr being together in paris is VERY interesting to me. their whole relationship is really because like. okay. i have joked that kyle and ja’marr are there to pick out joe’s wardrobe for next year together lmao but like!!! the clothes saga is SUCH a thing with ja’marr. the man has a Complex about joe and fashion and his part in it. we know this. i hardly need to go over the clothes saga with y’all again. but i will because it’s fun for me. ja’marr claims in GQ that he buys clothes for joe all the time and drops them off at 'the house’ for him. which is insane enough if that’s true. then a few days after that article drops (and also joe’s appendix explodes) he says nah never mind i was lying! (“kinda”). and that’s insane too. but whatever, we let it go, there’s football to play. then that offseason tee decides to cause some chaos i guess and confirms that actually ja’marr HAS bought joe clothes ‘multiple times’ so that’s. something!!! (along with TB in that one pivot podcast with all three of them teasing ja’marr about it!!) and then SOMEHOW none of this gets brought up again until a few months ago when ja’marr is just like “yeah actually i’ve been buying him clothes since last year” which is still a year later than he first said he bought him clothes 🤔

ALL OF WHICH TO SAY that ja’marr is fucking weird about this. he may or may not buy joe clothes (i’m still leaning yes on this), and he may or may not want people to know about it. i think he realizes just how intimate of a thing that is, to repeatedly buy someone you care about clothes that you think he would like, that you’d like to see him in. and i think if we go back to my Vision of insecure at times ja’marr, it’s one way to explain his back and forth on this.

but then!! insert kyle, who i believe only became joe’s stylist within the last year. before that i don’t think joe ever really had anyone Official to help him out with specific outfits/styles/branding etc (i’m sure the joe girlies will correct me if i'm wrong on this). and now i can only imagine that ja’marr might be feeling a little…possessive of joe here (what else is new lol ‘that’s my qb not their qb’ type shit). like if we believe he’s been buying him clothes since at least 2021, that’s like…that’s ja’marr’s Thing at this point?? even if it only started happening in 2023, that’s still a long time of "oh hey i saw this and thought of you and will you wear it and when you wear it will i feel a little thrill knowing that you took my advice knowing that you value my opinion knowing that the clothes touching your skin are only doing so because i bought them for you in the first place etc etc." and now here’s joe paying someone else to do it?? and who the fuck is kyle why him why does HE get to do it he didn’t even win a national championship with him in college???? (ja’marr obviously would be more rational than that. of course joe should pay someone to help him out with style as he does events and builds his brand more. but as a fellow Emotional Person myself, the rational response is never the first or strongest one.) 

so like! there’s that. that alone could make ja’marr not inclined to LOVE Kyle, ya know? and then if we want to get really Deep and dive into internalized homophobia of Male Athlete Culture. of my version (MY VERSION JUST MY VERSION THIS IS NOT ME SAYING ANYTHING IRL ABOUT HIM) of ja’marr and how he might cope with feelings and attractions that do not neatly fall in line with what is Expected of him and Has Been Expected of him since he was a kid. like fuck. do we remember how his dad said ja’marr used to like to read with his cousins (who were girls) but then his male friends came around and made fun of him for it, so he stopped reading altogether as a child?? thinking about that still makes my heart hurt! aughhh Gender!! and then even a few weeks ago on stream when ja’marr accidentally said that kyrie was sexy and IMMEDIATELY the chat and his friends jumped on him for it!! like yeah it was all lighthearted and all that but he got all embarrassed and even fucking apologized??? just the immediate policing of language/behavior followed by the immediate apology and moving on to no longer watching kyrie clips lol. crazy!!! Male Athlete Culture is SUCH a trip!! 

and kyle is gay! very much out and proud and not hiding or ashamed of any of it (fucking good for him tbh. i know he’s not Loved in this fandom but like that does genuinely take guts to be yourself like that in a culture like this. and make a career out of it! and he seems to be thriving!) and i just have to wonder like, how many queer people ja’marr really knows well?? the nfl has their corporate pride month bullshit where they celebrate the like 1 out gay assisant coach? 1 out gay FORMER player? if there are more queer people in the nfl, they are not very public about it. so again, how much daily interaction does a typical football player like ja’marr get with queer people?? i do imagine all the connections that are growing with the fashion world help of course! like kyle! who it’s clear he’s at least friendly with, if not the best of friends. and so like, i wonder about how that could stir complicated emotions in ja’marr if we go with my (AGAIN JUST MINE I’M NOT ACTUALLY SAYING ANYTHING IRL) version of him as a guy who has Feelings about male teammates sometimes and struggles with Dealing With That. 

and throw in the fact that ja’marr primarily knows him as this guy who’s always hanging around joe lol. taking over his role as joe’s personal stylist?? being free and open and ALLOWED to be attracted to all these guys, to joe himself!! (and if he thinks too hard about that he REALLY gets in his feelings). and it’s not jealousy really because he knows how important he himself is in joe’s life. kyle’s not replacing their history, he’s certainly not replacing his value to joe on the field, their close friendship, etc. but! he occupies a space in joe’s life that ja’marr can’t touch. he can publicly and proudly buy joe clothes. something that ja’marr WANTS but keeps shying away from. he can feel any feelings and any attraction he happens to have, he’s not hiding any part of who he is. if he thinks joe’s hot, if he thinks joe looks particularly attractive in an outfit he chose for him, he can! he will! he does! and i think that that just HAS to drive ja’marr a little fucking crazy.

so yeah. he likes the guy. they’re friendly. he’ll do a goofy lil dance when prompted by him for social media. but it’s Complicated. it’s Very Complicated. (to me.) 

[clownsuu]

The fact that you depict characters as both aroace and in relationships makes me actually so happy because everyone always thinks that shipping is off the table for those characters and forgets sex/romance stances exist, you filled me with so much joy ;w;

It’s a weird stereotype indeed smhh (harmful even) making it sound like individuals who are aro/ace are incapable of being/falling in love- or just being able to feel love in general

[arromantica-lucha]

the fact that my friend discovered she was demisexual and aromantic because she met me and i explained what those were is why its so important that aspec identities get talked about in the real world and not just online cause a lot of people just wont ever be in these spaces

[partyparade]

It warms my heart to see more follower oc x aym or follower oc x baal ships(or platonic interactions)

[red-doll-face]

I mean I’m 23 soooo 👀 i would like to imagine him as perhaps being into it but I do think if he fell in love because sometimes you can’t help it or whatever, he would feel soooo bad like he would think he’s a terrible person 😭😭😭 high honor Arthur think he’s such a bad person for liking someone so young 😔 I don’t know if he’d go for it either like I don’t think he’d be particularly romantic to anyone so young, I think you have to like come on to him a lot and even then he still might just be like sorry but you’re really young and I can’t do that but you’re great 🥲

I do think Mary Beth can recognize that Arthur is different from the other men in camp, that he’s more sensitive and might appreciate men who are like that but I don’t know if she was in love with him like that, maybe just admired him in a way, or wished more men were like him. But historically, I don’t think he would just not care. I think he definitely would care about age. I think in my age gap head canon post, I mentioned how he would feel bad and he would feel like he’s ruining your life because he feels like he’s not long for this world so how could he leave someone so young behind???

I don’t think every age gap relationship is terrible and toxic and manipulative. and I do think a younger woman would appreciate how much Arthur would treat her like an equal. There isn’t a single part of me that thinks Arthur would use his age or status as an older white man to hold power over a younger woman and if it came off like that it wasn’t his intention (lh Arthur…different story, would def hold his age over his partners head) but he already does that with men, where he uses his power as like the older more experienced brother to like low key bully them??

Whether Arthur would or would not is hard to say but I think it’s on an individual basis whether he likes someone or not. Age would definitely be an aspect of that process but idk, he might just be like nah, idk, this bitch too young 😭😭😭😭 nooo I need an age gap relationship with this man rn 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

But if a younger woman were to end up with him, it takes him a bit to get past the age thing and he’s really self conscious of his age. To say he would have no problem is a lie. To say it would take a ton of convincing from a younger woman and they’d have to grow a real relationship I feel is more accurate. As someone in a relationship with someone who is a bit older than me, to say it’s not possible for a good person to date someone younger than them and can only have bad intentions is just not true. I feel that there are bad people who specifically look for younger partners to take advantage of their inexperience and to be extremely immature and get away with it but Arthur does not look for younger partners to do this with.

Low honor Arthur I feel likes to indulge in his own little urges but even he would really care for his partner and he wouldn’t seek out a younger woman. Even he wouldn’t play with his partner like a toy or ignore any problems they have with his behavior. I do think he would care a whole lot less about age and care more about your individual maturity.

Damn so sorry for going off on this post… 🥲🥲 but yes queen, argue w that woman!!! He would care !!! am i a bit hopeful that he would wanna bend me over despite my age ??? Yes 😳 but idk, I would try really hard to seduce this man who knows if he would actually want me tho 🚬😔

I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts on this:

How young is too young for someone to be romantically involved with Arthur? What do you think his minimum age cut-off would be for a partner?

For context, if anyone is wondering how far behind tiktok is on rdr conversations, I’ve been debating with a woman who is adamant about the fact that Arthur had feelings for Abigail simply because he said he would marry her in his journal. But that’s not what surprised me.

How this conversation started you ask? They made and edit of Arthur and Mary-Beth with the caption saying they would have made such a cute couple. To which i commented “they’re cute because they act like siblings. But Arthur is way too old for her.” Ofc they pointed out that in 1899 she would not have been too young. And i answered by saying Arthur specifically, wouldn’t date someone that young.

We both agreed that Mary Beth is younger than Abigail, who is 22. But they think Arthur would have no problem dating someone as young as 20. Which blows my mind because Tilly is not much younger than Mary-Beth, and both Arthur and John see her as a little sister.

Aside from those x readers where there’s a huge age gap (which obviously those are just for fun and not canon)

I feel like there’s a huge mischaracterization going on here. Arthur is not the kind of man to date a girl who is 16 years younger than him. Obviously I dont know the guy personally but that just feels so…icky?

Like, that’s just not who he is? I don’t even know how to properly defend this argument bc tbh it feels gross to imply that he would do that.

Arthur Morgan is an intelligent, deeply empathetic man who feels the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he is far from blind to the struggles women face, particularly in the harsh realities of his time. Having witnessed firsthand the hardships and injustices endured by the women in camp and beyond, he carries a profound understanding of their experiences.

His loyalty and responsibility make him more than capable of protecting and providing for a young woman, but romantic involvement with someone significantly younger just doesn’t align with his character.

Arthur would never take advantage of an imbalance of power or maturity in a romantic context.