#as Irene would write (original posts)

[einzel-the-demon]

2015: I'm trying to write a queer fantasy book and working hard at school. I compose music for my story. I am in love. (but of all 3 these things, I don't realise how much they mean to me) 2025: I'm trying to write a queer fantasy book and working hard at school. I compose music for my story. I am in love. (and of all 3 these things, I know exactly how much they mean to me)

Go on this journey with me?

[hopelesslyprosaic]

A Different Kind of Queen of Crime- five ways that Dorothy L Sayers changed the way we see Sherlock Holmes

For my first Holmesian post- a crossover with one of my more usual subjects on my other blog! For when one is talking about Sherlock Holmes, in particular Sherlock Holmes scholarship, there are nor many more pivotal names than Dorothy L Sayers. Sure, Christopher Morley may have had a greater impact on Sherlockian culture, and Richard Lancelyn Green on Holmesian scholarship, to name only a few- but Sayers's contributions to scholarship and "the game" were early and underratedly pivotal.

If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan who is unfamiliar with Sayers's influence, or a Sayers fan who had no idea she had any interest in Holmes, keep reading! (And if you're a Sherlock Holmes fan who wants to know what I think about Sayers, check out her tag on my main blog, @o-uncle-newt. Or, more to the point, just read her fantastic books.)

There's a great compilation of Sayers's writing and lecturing on the topic of Holmes called Sayers on Holmes (published by the Mythopoeic Press in 2001), though some of her essays are also available in her collection Unpopular Opinions, which is where I first encountered them. It's not THAT extensive, and it's from an era in which Sherlock Holmes scholarship, such as it was, was still very much nascent. While a lot may have happened since Sayers was writing and talking about Holmes, she got there early and she made an immediate impact- and here's how:

She helped create and define Sherlockian scholarship: Don't take this from me, take it from the legendary Richard Lancelyn Green! At a joint conference of the Sherlock Holmes Society and Dorothy L Sayers Society, he said that "Dorothy L. Sayers understood better than anyone before her the way of playing the game and her Sherlockian scholarship gave credibility and humor to this intellectual pursuit. Her standing as an authority on the art of detective fiction and as a major practitioner invigorated the scholarship, and her...Holmesian research is the benchmark by which other works are judged. It would be fair to say, as Watson said of Irene Adler, that for Sherlockians she is the woman and that …she 'eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.'" We'll go into a bit more detail on some specific examples below, but one important one is that, as Green notes, Sayers was not only a mystery writer but an acknowledged authority on mystery fiction, whose (magisterial) introduction to The Omnibus of Crime, a then-groundbreaking history of the genre of mystery fiction, included a highly regarded section on the influence of Holmes on mystery fiction. She was able to write not just literate detective stories but literate critiques of others' stories and the genre (as collected in the excellent volume Taking Detective Stories Seriously), and as such, the writing she did on Holmes was well received.

She cofounded the (original iteration of) the Sherlock Holmes Society of London: While the current iteration of the Society lists itself as having been founded in 1951, a previous iteration existed through the 1930s, founded as a response to the creation of the Baker Street Irregulars in New York and run by a similar concept- the meeting of Sherlock Holmes fans every so often for dinner at a restaurant. Sayers, who seems to have been much more clubbable than Mycroft Holmes, helped run the Detection Club on corresponding lines as well. (Fun fact, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was invited to be the first president of the Detection Club! However, he refused on grounds of poor health and, either right before or right after he died, the Detection Club met for the first time with GK Chesterton as president.) While the 1930s society didn't last, and Sayers didn't decide to join the newly reconstituted club in 1951, her presence from the beginning was key to the establishment of Holmesian scholarship.

She helped define The Game: Sayers didn't invent The Game, as the use of Higher Criticism in the study of Sherlock Holmes came to be called. (The Game now often refers to something a bit broader than that, but it's a pretty solid working definition to say that it is the study of Holmes stories as though they took place in, and can be reconciled with, our world.) Her friend Father Ronald Knox largely invented it almost by accident- as Sayers described it, he wrote that first essay "with the aim of showing that, by those methods [Higher Criticism], one could disintegrate a modern classic as speciously as a certain school of critics have endeavoured to disintegrate the Bible." This exercise backfired, as instead of finding this analysis of Holmes stories silly, people found it compelling and engaging- and this style of Sherlockian writing lives on to this day in multiple journals. Sayers, with her interest in religious scholarship as well as Holmes, was well equipped to both understand Knox's original motivations as well as to carry on in the spirit in which further Game players would take his work, as we'll see. She also wrote the line that would come to define the tone used in The Game- that it "must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord's; the slightest touch of extravagance or burlesque ruins the atmosphere." While comedic takes on The Game would never vanish, her establishment of tone has lingered, and pretty much any in-depth explanation of The Game will include her insightful comment.

Some of Sayers's ideas became definitional: Here's a question- what's John Watson's middle name? If you said "Hamish," guess what- you should be thanking Dorothy L Sayers. (When this middle name was used for Watson in the BBC Sherlock episode The Sign of Three, articles explaining its use generally didn't bother to credit her, instead saying that "some believe" or a variation on that.) She was the one who speculated that the reason why a) Watson's middle initial is H and b) Mary Morstan Watson calls Watson "James" instead of "John" in one story is because Watson's middle name is Hamish, a Scottish variant of James, with Mary's use of James being an intimate pet name based on this nickname. It's as credible as any other explanation for that question, but more than that it became by far the most popular middle name for Watson used in fan media. Others of Sayers's ideas include that Watson only ever married twice, with his comments about experience with women over four continents being just a lot of bluster and him really being a faithful romantic who married the first woman he really fell for (the aim of this essay being to demolish HW Bell's theory of a marriage to an unknown woman between Mary Morstan and the unnamed woman Watson married in 1903, mentioned by Holmes in The Blanched Soldier); that Holmes attended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (she denied that he could have attended Oxford, having gone there herself- fascinatingly, Holmesians who went to Cambridge usually assert that he attended Oxford! Conan Doyle of course attended neither school); and reconciling dates in canon (making the case that one cannot base a claim for Watson's mixing up on dates on poor handwriting as demonstrated in canonical documents, as it is clear from the similarity of different handwriting samples from different people/stories that they were written, presumably transcribed for publication purposes, by a copyist).

She wrote one of the only good Holmes pastiches: Okay, fine, I'm unusually anti-pastiche, and genuinely do like very few of them, but this is one that I love- and even more than that, it's even a Wimsey crossover! On January 8 1954, to commemorate the occasion of Holmes's 100th birthday (because, of course, he was born on January 6 1854- Sayers was more in favor of an 1853 birthdate but thought 1854 was acceptable), the BBC commissioned a bunch of pieces for the radio, including one by Sayers. You can read it here (with thanks to @copperbadge for posting it, it's shockingly hard to find online), and I think you'll agree it's adorable. The idea of Holmes and Wimsey living in the same world is wonderful, the way she makes it work is impeccable, and it's clearly done with so much love. Also you get baby Peter, which is just incredibly sweet!

I got into Dorothy L Sayers, in the long run, because I loved Sherlock Holmes from childhood and that later launched me into early and golden age mysteries- but it was discovering Sayers that brought me back full force into the world of Holmes. Just an awesome lady.

[dragonmarquise]

BRC Headcanon Full Names

I have another BRC ask to work on tonight, thus I figure I should post this now. So then, behold! A big ol’ list of full name headcanons!

Basically a continuation of this post I made a long while back. This covers pretty much all the major characters, at least the playable ones. Plus even specific crew members from the rival crews!

Some of these have specific meanings that I used for the particular character, others were just kind of more general vibes, like “Oh this sounds cool/cute/etc.” A few of these will have extra notes on why I picked particular given/family names, but otherwise just assume it was because I liked the sound of it! Went with mostly Dutch last names for most of these characters since, well, dialog in parts of the game imply New Amsterdam is still in the Netherlands, so that made it a bit easier when I couldn't think of anything else to try, y'know? :P

Also note, not everyone here has a middle name. Not everyone irl has one anyways! Also also, some of the Dutch last names may be in the format of “Van (something)” or “De (something”, so just wanted to point that out in case anyone might get confused and think Van/De is a middle name, lol

Starting with the main cast:

Tryce = Tristian Christoffel

Bel = Annabella Pieper

DJ Cyber = Cyrus Rafaël Nassau

Felix = Bernard Manfred Van Steen (I still maintain that Felix looks like his real name would be Bernard, lol)

Vinyl = Florence Zoë Hendriks (when she was a child, she would sometimes write it as “Hendrix” and try to convince people she was related to Jimi Hendrix; it worked more often than it probably should have)

Solace = Levi Smit

The five bonus BRC members:

Rave = Vanessa Yvonne Ziegler (A headcanon, note, her dad is a black German, and her mom is from the Dominican Republic! Since she has a bunch of lines in German, and at least two in Spanish (one in particular being specifically Dominican slang), so that’s how I’m handled this :P )

Mesh = Bassam Karimi (first name means “smiling” in Arabic, last name is derived from the given name Karim/Kareem, which in turn means something along the lines of "generous, noble" or “dignity”; my research into this yielded differing results, but this seems to be more or less the overall idea. Honestly think it both sounds nice and really suits him!)

Shine = Sol Bakker (“Sol” just means “sun” in Spanish and Portugese, basically the idea is she derived her street name from that!)

Rise = Josephine Katherina Thomas (She hates being called any sort of nickname for her first name. It’s either Rise or Josephine, that’s it)

Coil = Oscar Meijer (Fun fact, the English equivalent of Meijer is Meyer/Mayer. I genuinely did not intentionally make Coil’s real name to be a roundabout reference to the lunch meat, but now that I realize it, I’m definitely keeping it this way, loool)

Some others:

Rietveld = We know here full name is Irene Rietveld, but a bonus idea: the rest of BRC point out it’s a bit awkward for her to go by her real name as her street/writer name, so she eventually settles on Rivet as an alias! :D

Escher = Matthias Conrad Escher (Originally just Matthias, but then decided to make a reference to the actual M. C. Escher, “Yeah, my parents knew what they were doing.”; thanks to @slappels for the suggestion way back when!!)

My Devil Theory OCs! The season in parentheses is what in-game palette they correspond with.

Sai (spring) = Tomás Lucas Ortiz

Nunchaku (summer) = Roxanne Beverly Sullivan

Daishō (autumn) = Hiro Francisco Morikawa (first name using the character for “prosperous” (浩); last name using the characters for “forest” (森) and “river” (川). Not that he ever gets a chance to write them in Japanese characters anyways :P )

Bō (winter) = Gavril Jansen

Now for DOT EXE! A repeat from the full DOT EXE headcanons I made a while back, but still including it here for convenience.

Cueball = Ernesto Alberto Visser (Dutch father and Italian-American mother; “Her side of the family were like, the conservative Italian-American types. The kind that makes an annoyingly big deal about celebrating Columbus Day.”; his first and middle name come from two different great grandfathers on his mom’s side)

Eight Ball = Frederik Visser (older half-brother to Cueball, they share the same dad)

Cinco (five ball) = César Hugo Raúl Garcia-Flores (last name got hyphenated when he moved to New Amsterdam while getting his papers in order and stuff; not sure if I ever clarified it in the original post, but in most (probably all?) Spanish-speaking countries, people have two last names, one from their father and the other from their mother. When moving to a country that doesn’t allow for two last names, some people end up forced to pick one or the other. Cinco went with just hyphenating it to be able to effectively keep both.)

Neun (nine ball) = Sebastián Montero Sebastian Jäger

Twoson (two ball) = Beau Driessen

Fourside (four ball) = Robin Zaal

Jūrō (ten ball) = Maximilien Théodore Perrault

Quatorze (fourteen ball) = Marie-Madeleine Lucille Perrault

And heck, the rest of the New Amsterdam crews too while I’m at it. Same as with DT and DE, the season in parentheses is the corresponding in-game palette for the playable rival character.

The Franks:

Flesh Prince = Ruben Vos (last name meaning fox, and apparently was/is a nickname for a clever person… or a person with red hair, lol)

Bill (spring) = Caspar Westenberg

Charles (summer) = Thomas Vogels

Michael (autumn) = Abraham Joël Admiraal

Larry (winter) = Lennard Van Herten

(For their street names besides the Prince, they’re named after famous basketball players, specifically from this list; Charles, Michael, and Larry are probably obvious, with Bill there’s at least two different Bills on that list lol)

Eclipse: (Street names come from constellations, I tried to go with more (relatively?) obscure ones for the names)

Vela (spring) = Sara Al-Ghazzawi

Aquila (summer) = Melissa Agnes Fortuin

Lyra (autumn) = Hannah De Klerk

Cassiopeia (winter) = Xandra Gemma Daalmans (given name is actually Alexandra, but she goes mostly by Xandra for her business)

And finally the rest of FUTURISM: (see my recent short headcanon post about them!)

Nyx (spring) = Laura Kappel

Jazz (summer) = Vincent Linden

Veronica (autumn) = Paula Prinsen (Paula is the feminine form of Paul, which in turn has roots in the Latin word Paulus which can mean humble. This is an intentionally ironic name choice for this character, lmao. Also Prinsen means “son of the Prince”, so this one is more in line with her haughty attitude)

Quantum (winter) = Esther Katja Hoedemaker (She goes by Kat as a nickname)

This next one only applies to my fanfic AU of “What if we take the postgame at face value and Red somehow became a separate person from both Felix and Faux”, but anyways:

Red = Russell Miles Van Steen (Picked the first and middle names himself, note that Russell just means “red” lol. He took on Felix’s last name since they see each other as brothers after a certain point. And it’s not like Red could come up with a better last name anyways. His middle name when paired with Felix’s middle name is a Miles Edgeworth reference :P )

[daughter-of-sapph0]

I wanna hear about the OCs you tagged on the tarot post

if you're referring to this post, then yes, I'd love to talk about my OCs!

so both Avery and Iris are from a story I'm writing. it's, uh, a lot. definitely not a read for everyone. but I'll give you the sfw summary of their characters

so Irene Sorello works as a maid to the Fiore family, although they just call her Iris since they give all their workers flower nicknames. she has a huge love of witchy mysticism stuff, and was really big into the occult before she started working as a maid.

the Fiore's have a single daughter, named Rosaline. Iris was originally hired as Rosa's babysitter, since her father was never home. because of how much time Rosa spent with Iris, she eventually developed a bit of a crush on her babysitter

Iris was completely oblivious to any of these feelings. despite her love of fortune telling, she couldn't see Rosa's feelings growing stronger as she got older.

at age 18 Rosa tried to confess her feelings to Iris, but Iris turned her down saying that she was too much like family. the spoiled rich brat that Rosa is, she was devastating at not immediately being given something when she asked for it. she moved out of her parents' mansion, while Iris stayed behind. and as much as Rosa loves Iris, she hates her father even more and wants to run away from her family, going so far as to change her last name from Fiore to DiAngelo.

anyway, quick profile of Iris:

Rosa DiAngelo is a world class heartbreaker. people fawn over her for her looks and money. and she's had more one night stands than she can count. but she doesn't feel love. at least not the love she had for Iris.

that is until she meets a young girl at a night club. Avery Fitzgerald is the embodiment of luck. good luck for others, bad luck for herself. while her roommates are incredibly successful (Rachel is married and has a kid, and is graduating med school soon, Violet is in a band that just got a record deal), Avery can't keep a job, or a partner, to save her life. she's extremely clumsy, poor as dirt, and relying on her friends for support. the only interesting thing about her is that she's mediocre at best online video games.

but while celebrating her 21st birthday, she meets Rosa. originally Rosa just wants to take her home for one night, thinking "heh, cute. ginger hair, glasses, she kinda looks like Iris". Avery, however, has never received any sort of affection from anyone, and the moment Rosa calls her a "good little girl", she's already fallen for her. Rosa is a bit surprised when Avery asks for her number the next morning, but she's happy to continue to meet with her. while Rosa doesn't love her, she does find it cute how Avery would let Rosa do basically anything to her.

also here's Avery, looking absolutely adorable:

I won't spoil how it happens exactly, but eventually Avery ends up as Rosa's maid. she's a bit apprehensive at first, especially since Rosa is extremely demanding. I'm planning on writing it so that before Avery fully understands her role as Rosa's maid, she meets with Iris (during a very forced family reunion organized by Rosa's father), and Iris basically acts as Avery's mentor for a time. and of course Iris would give Avery a tarot reading, helping to give some insight into her future as Rosa's maid. whether that reading is leading Avery in the right direction or not is yet to be determined

[goat-guy-tm]

Welcome to ANOTHER "Goat tries to write something small about void's rewrite but it turns into something terrifyingly long for no reason" post.

This is basically a fic talking about Kul'Zak (Modzilla) and Irene (Aphma)'s relationship, I am still gonna do the mini fic series going into MORE detail, but this thing....yeah

The divine are messy to say the least in my rewrite, but one of the messiest is Kul'Zak, which I will give small pre-needed context; in my rewrite world Kul'Zak does not (technically) have a decendent or reincarnation because Kul'Zak is still alive, he is actually Professor Modzilla from MMW/VP.

He was just a dimension hopping guy trying to have some fun only to hop into the Overworld (what I call the MCD dimension as it has no set canon name) during what is going to be one of the most turbulent times in their history for the next eon.

One day, some hunters from Scaleswind rush back into town, stating they had found an injured man in the woods, screaming and withering on the ground. They said he looked burnt, and badly. As if his body had been chared.

Being one of the sisters best versed in healing magicks, Irene had demanded they show her this man. It happened to be none other than Monty, but, at the time Irene was none the wiser to the man's name.

She had slammed healing spell after healing spell into the man, but none of them seemed to work, only seeming to for a small time alleviate the man's suffering.

At first, Monty had been, albeit weakly, fighting back the hunters and Irene, but for only a moment. Until he realized what the woman was trying to do. He couldn't stay fully still, but he tried to let her help him, the pain was just so much though.

He knew his face was badly burned, he couldn't open his left eye at all, it could be burned shut.

They had carried him back to the town, Irene scolding the men everytime Monty would groan or whine in pain.

He was placed in a room in the temple Irene was a sister to, mainly so Irene could try and look over him and help him heal.

Covering the burns didn't seem to help either. When wrapping a guaze over them, the bandaging stayed for a moment, before they burned and sizzled away into a purple mist of kinds.

Even though many of the other sisters told her they would be willing to take care of him every so often, as they did commonly take turns tending to the injured that resided in the temple, Irene had denined it, becoming somewhat fixated on figuring out who this man was and what was happening to him.

Monty had been in and out of consiousness for a few days, feverish and skittish anytime Irene tried to communicate to him.

Quite quickly it became obvious that there was a language barrier. Irene tried to make some kind of system, a series of taps for different things and needs Monty would have.

For a while, the sisters of the temple only refered to him as "The Stranger", which Irene didn't like. Everytime she had tried to ask the man his name, he would only look at her confused, which she put to his state of sickness and confusion.

So, Irene came up with a name for him. At least for the others to refer to him as, until she could get his real name out of him.

Now, she would not admit it to anyone else but Monty some time later, but naming him Kul'Zak was not entirely original from her mind. At the time, a romance novel had been getting quite popular, and one of the love intrests, Irene's personal favorite, was named Kul'Zak.

So when asked what his name was, Irene had rushed out that it was Kul'Zak. She was embarassed about it, and of course a few of the sisters she was closer with teased her over it, saying how convient his name was the same as her favorite fictional man.

After a few months, Kul'Zak had finally become more, aware. He had started to slowly piece some words together, out right asking Irene for water, in Ru'aunian, one day. Of course not fully asking, more so just saying "water" in a questioning tone. Irene had been admitingly very excited the first time he did, full on cheering.

She had been spending most her time with Kul'Zak, tending to the burn or more so researching it. Whether it be feeling how hot it was, as it seemed to generate it's own heat nearly 24/7, ot seeing what healing spells would affect it, if at all.

Thankfully, the burn was only on his face, and well a bit of his hand. It was more scattered on his hand, but he still seemed to express a discomfort with it, seething and pulling his hand away if she held it too hard or for too long.

After some time, they had sat down together and Irene tried to teach him Ru'aunian. He was picking it up quickly, but it was still a treck, especially because there was no way for Irene to figure out what his own language was.

When he was able to hold a conversation with her, she was estatic. She would take him outside the temple, walk around Scales Wind, and they would just, talk.

With this, she would learn his name was actually Monty, and when she asked if he'd loke her to tell others, he told her that it was fine. Kul'Zak fit their culture better, and with his status as a other-realmer, he'd rather not cause a rukus of any kind.

Their talks were about anything. Kul'Zak's life as a dimension explorer, Irene's life as a sister of their temple. Anything and everything.

She had asked him when he would be going back to his own dimension, and Kul'Zak only seethed, and said he couldn't go back, at least not for a while. The burns he was suffering from meant he shouldn't, not until he was finally healed. That coming here had put him in danger, and he was lucky he was still alive.

Void burns, is what he called them. One day, he had sat Irene down and went through the books he had held in his bag, that now Irene could finally understand with him translating to her.

Apparently, void burns were something anyone could suffer from, if they dimension hopped in an unsafe manner. And dimension exploring was still considered unsafe, but, he had wanted to do something big. To be one of the special members of his community to find a new dimension.

Irene had gotten him books upon books, journals, theological texts, mythology and folk lore, and even blank journals for him to write in. She loved watching him read, taking notes and writing what he called official dimensional writings.

Not many Irene believers knew of her life before her stint as a hero, hell 90% of books barley ever mentioned her life as a sisster of a now forfotten temple for a god no long known in Ru'aun. Because of this, people also never saw the relationship between Irene and Kul'Zak.

After some years, the two became much closer, Irene only really leaving Scales Wind after a time to accompany Kul'Zak on his adventure of exploring the realm.

The two had been deeply in love, yet according to the texts written of them years later, they were barley even more than just fellow Divine.

When she had decided to finally lay to rest, she entrusted half her relic to Kul'Zak, asking him to shatter it and spread it across the realms, to take her with him on those realm discovery adventures he had told her all about.

Modzilla was never truly a religous man. Ironic for a man that was basically a god. His adoration for Aphmau made him sick. She wasn't Irene, he felt like it would be overstepping to put himself in her life. Even though it's what Irene had asked of him.

He knew Irene, in her later years, had regretted acending to what they had become. He wanted Aphmau to be as normal as she could be.

When she put herself into his life though, even when he thought he had ran far enough away, he didn't know what to do. Especially when Tommy started to adore her, to see her as a mother.

Modzilla was, embarassed and ashamed of how much he had cried that night. He was admitingly cold to her at first. Only 'tolerating' her for Tommy's sake.

She became his lab partner, exploring dimensions for him when he was too sick or weak feeling to. Or tired. She paid attention to his health, so meticulously. It made him want to hurl. He kept telling himself she's not Irene, don't associate her with her.

After all nighters he would wake up with blankets over his shoulders, cups of hot coffee set out for him, even breakfast or lunch on a good day.

One morning, he woke up to a very special breakfast. A dish he had learned of his first few years in Ru'aun, that Irene had adored. Aphmau had told him she found it in one of those cook books, and that it was so well cared for so she assumed he liked it.

He wanted to cry over it, but he had just sighed and asked Aphmau to leave, that they weren't doing any tests today. A few hours later that day, Tommy had come to Aphmau's house and said his father had locked himself in his study and wouldn't be coming out, so he wanted to sleep at her's for the night.

On his bad days, Modzilla would lock himself in his study for, days, maybe even weeks depending how much of a spiral he would go down, where he would read and reread all the journals he had wrote decades ago.

During one of these spirals, he had left his study to go for a walk of sorts, and during that, Aphmau had snuck into his study and went through said journals strewn across the room.

She had been slack jawed at the whole journals full of passages of love, the descriptions of a woman named Irene. The name seemed to strike something in her in a way she couldn't explain.

Some of the pages had drawings of this woman instead of writing. She was, beautiful. Aphmau toom a moment, looking at this woman, till she realized she looked like her. Albeit a little different. Her hair was longer, she wore a hair covering that was longer than the more tied up one Aphmau wore, her clothing in most of the drawings was flowey and white.

Aphmau recalled pictures Modzilla had shared of Polly, she had a similar head covering and flowy clothing, but Polly was white and had blond hair. Irene, as she could see, had tanned skin and black hair. Plus, there were no photos of her, just drawings, some messily colored with dyes and patterned with stamped in flowers.

The journals were so well cared for. More so than the other books and texts Modzilla had in his library section. Aphmau started to feel, bad for looking at this without his permission.

When she intended to leave, she turned and was startled by Modzilla standing in the doorway, eyes locked on the journal she had in her hands. She didn't plan on taking it with her, she just hadn't put it down yet.

Modzilla looked, tired and sick, plus uncomfortable with the new information that Aphmau had been reading his journals.

The conversation was, like walking on eggshells. She asked about Irene, who the woman was, that if Modzilla was so infactuated by her, why was he married to Polly, a woman who seemed so close to this Irene figure.

Modzilla had shakily explained that him and Polly weren't married for love. They were very good friends, but it was common for his kind to not marry for love most the time. He told her about Irene. How happy they were together before their time as divine, explaining to her how Irene had asked to be reincarnated outside the realm she was born of, how Aphmau was one of those.

Then, he broke down. He sobbed and apologized to her, that he wanted her to go her whole life without knowing about it. That he thought that's what Irene would have wanted; to live a life of normalcy, save for the dimension exploring.

She knew now why Monty had become so choked up and emotional when she would try and take care of him when he was sick or tired. That she was unknowingly reminding him of the first times he ever met the woman he would come to love for the rest of his immortal life.

Aphmau wasn't all that young herself, she was already over 100 years old, but, most the time she chose not to disclose that to others. She herself had been overly puzzled by her lack of memories of a childhood, now knowing she never had one in the first place, but then even more confused by her not aging, and living so long already. She knew now why. Monty was obviously still older than her, and she would not be stopping the teasing of him for it.

She came to enjoy the dimension exploring just a little bit more. Sometimes she would find herself talking to no one, as if she was talking to 'Irene', even though she technically was Irene. Unbeknownst to her, she was one of the few Aphmau's to accept the idea so easily and fully. Knowing that she was living a life a her from before craved made her more happy for what Irene had done to give it to her.

Her and Monty's relationship had changed after what she learned. They seemed to flow better now, Monty having put down the wall he had built so long ago, at least a little bit.

When they had finally found Monty's home realm again, Aphmau had cheered for him, so excited he could finally go home. He was happy too, but bitter sweet about it. They hugged, and Aphmau gave him a kiss, which had stunned Monty in his place, face burning red and stuttering.

Aphmau promised to keep Tommy safe, and told Monty that he had to find a way to visit sometime.

Monty left Tommy in the care of Aphmau. He knew she would take care of him better than he ever could.

If fate wasn't so cruel, they could have a redo, but Monty knew that that was a pipe dream.

The void still called, it hungered, and Monty, Kul'Zak, Modzilla, whoever he was, he was going to do everything in his power to keep that thing at bay, to keep the realms safe, and if it meant being burned by it time and time again, he knew he had at least someone he would go to that would be his boulder to rest with. Just like she had all those eons ago.

[rosie-love98]

The More I've Looked Up On Irene Cara, The More She Reminds Me Of Michael Jackson:

I had already posted this on Reddit. But, I'll post it here too.

-Both Came From A Musical Family: Joseph had his own band, The Falcons, while Katherine wanted to be a country singer. Plus, on Katherine's side, Michael's related to Stevie Wonder. Then there's Irene's family; her father, Gaspar, was said to have brought merengue to the States thanks to being a saxophonist. Not only that but (according to Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/6491165-Gaspar-Escalera ) he was also part of a record; Dioris Valladares's "Pa Bailar Na Ma". As for Irene's mother, Louise, she wanted to go into show business but her own parnets (Irene's grandparents) forbade it. Irene also had a brother who performed opera.

-Both Joseph And Gaspar Worked In Steel.

-Both families were of a struggling background.

-If Irene Really Was Born In 1959 (Her Birthday's Been Up For Debate Over The Years), She Would've Been 6 Months Younger Than Michael.

-They Were Child Prodigies: As small children, both Michael and Irene had showed their musical talents. Irene was able to play the piano by ear (like Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes did in her own childhood), went to classes for dancing and music. Meanwhile, Michael would show off his singing voice and join the Jackson 5 at around 5-6.

-The Wizard Of OZ: While Michael played The Scarecrow in "The Wiz" film adaption, Irene had played the role of Dorothy on the stage. Speaking of Diana Ross...

-The Supreme: As Michael was known for his relationship with Diana Ross, Irene had starred in "Sparkle", where the main musical group was loosley based off of The Supremes. Irene would also spoof the said trio in her "Girlfriends" video.

-A Connection To "Fame": While Irene's known as "Coco" from the original film, Michael's sister, Janet, was a part of the TV adaption, playing the character of Cleo.

-They Had Many Friends/Coworkers/Peers In Common: Andy Gibb, Stevie Wonder, Dom DeLuise, Sammy Davis Jr., James Earl Jones, Louis Armstrong, Donna Summer, Luther Vandross, Mr. T, Debbie Allen, DJ Bobo, Molly Meldrum, Laura Branigan, Tatum O'Neal and many more!

-We Are The World/Cantare, Cantaras: When, in 1985, Michael was doing "We Are The World" with Diana, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper and other known singers for charity, the performers of Latin America wanted in too. So, gathering at the very same studio as "We Are The World", A&M, they performed the song, "Cantare, Cantaras" ("I Will Sing, You Will Sing"). Jose Feliciano, Julio Iglesias, Cheech Marin, Menudo, Ricardo Montalban, Pimpinela, and Yuri were among the singers for this. Along with Irene, of course. Just to be clear, both songs were in 1985.

-Both Fell Victim To The Media: With Irene fighting for her royalties that her record company had withheld from her, she was ultimately blacklisted. Lies had spread saying she was a drug-addicted (while Irene did do cocaine brought upon by her proucers to help with her energy, she did kick the habit) diva who was difficult to work with. Then there's Michael who had the worst slander done to him. With all of this along with their respective court cases, both had seemed more tired, world-weary and arguably reclusive. That said, they still didn't lose their love for music.

-Shared Interests: Charity work, Old Hollywood/Old Movies, drawing, swimming, and song-writing. They also had interests directing their own films and writing stories.

-Shared Personalities: Shy, reserved, kind, down-to-earth, spiritual, silly, independent, creative, hard-working/(arguably) workaholic, private, stubborn and (in TVTrope terms) "adorkable".

-They Were Included In The 1985 Documentary, "That's Dancing".

-Both Were Nominees In The 1984 Grammy's.

-Were At The Top Of The 1983 Billboard Charts (Link: https://djrobblog.com/archives/17370 ).

-They Could Both Pull Off The Moonwalk!: Ok, with Michael, we all should be fully aware of his famous move. But Irene can pull it off too (and in heels!) as seen in her "Solid Gold" performance of "Breakdancing":

And in her performance at the '84 American Music Awards (attended also by Michael):

-As Mentioned By DJ Rob Blog: Michael Jackson’s death, June 25th, 2009, was on the 26th anniversary of “Flashdance” beating out “Thriller” on the Billboard Charts. Coincidently, Irene Cara’s own death, November 25th, 2022 was a week after “Thriller 40” album was released to the public.

-Snow White: It's no secret that Snow White was one of MJ's favorite characters. He even had her an the 7 Dwarves visit him back in the 80's:

Fast forward to 1989 where Filmation had made their (technically second) sequel to "Snow White" in the form of "Happily Ever After". There, Snow White was voiced by Irene.

That's all I can gather so far. Though, I want to added some disclaimers--

*I was going to include their ALLEGED eating disorders but I've left it out due to not being entirely sure if either of them had suffered from those ailments.*

*I was also going to bring up DJ Bobo's song "Man In The Mirror" (which, judging by the lyrics, seemed to have been about Michael). But I'm unsure if Irene was among the vocals. I could've sworn I heard her singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEqMfk-xwks . *

@buckhead1111 @jamesmassino @forever70s @mabellonghetti @classicalallure @loveboatinsanity @eightiesgalaxy @yodaprod @ladyorlandodream @mydailyvintagephotos @s-k-e-t-c-h-y-artist @fallinlovewithevil @theladyofmylife

[iceheap]

plssssss more aarmau / aaron head canons i will eat em UP

Hmmm I have one I thought up a few months ago but it might be a bit meta.

So basically you know how Aaron doesn't have a personality at all in both nystreet and MCD? I think it's pretty obvious that the fact he has no defining characteristics or traits besides being a former lord and him hating Zane is obviously the fault of Jess and Jason, not Aaron's. But I do think this is interesting from a limitation perspective.

See, I don't like completely rebooting a story concept, I like to work with the limitations of the original source material to create depth, not something brand new. I've been doing the same for Zane as well, though we can talk about-face him another time. I like to use the peices that are already there in a story and add everything else around it. Sure, I will do canon divergences here and there, but if I can use something in the original canon and keep certain events as close as possible, I will.

So, Aaron's severe lack of personality. It's obviously because of bad writing. But what if it wasn't?

Shad is a very interesting character. Mostly because we don't get the exact details of WHY, exactly, he turned out so... Twisted.

Like as a creature itself, Shad is weird. He used to be a good person. I genuinely believe that Shad was never evil, just assigned a set of abilities he couldn't really handle. He kind of reminds me of Chat Noir because of the way he and Irene's magical dynamics are so similar to Marinette and Adrian's. Irene was the light, and Shad was the darkness.

Now, sure, we have the absolute shit-show that was MCD season 3 and Mystreet season 6, and the ensuing retcon that has Irene kind of be a terrible person? Which, I have a headcanon about that retconed version of the story that I might write and post on AO3 one day, but for the sake of my sanity I consider the original story of Shad's betrayal canon. The other male members were in love with Irene and stabbed Shad in the back.

Thinking about it, though, where was Irene in all of this?

What, exactly, made Shad into the Shadow Lord? Irene would have reasonex with him. If Shad had come out of the altercation alive, he could have been reasoned with. Yes, maybe Irene's communications skills were lacking due to centuries of immortality and maybe she caused a misunderstanding that led him to the dark side, but Shad was not a BAD person. Temperamental, traumatized, tired and emotionally disregulated, sure. But he was not a bad person.

That's if we're assuming Shad lived.

I think he didn't.

I think the other male divine warriors killed him.

Of course, Irene would not have been okay with this. And they probably would have had to do it behind her back. Maybe they chose a time they knew she would not be there. Maybe they told Shad Irene agreed with their plans for his death.

But Irene loved Shad. She maybe didn't know how to show it anymore, but she LOVED him. She would have never let him die.

Shad probably didn't know that though.

So he dies. And somehow, Irene finds them. The others try to explain, at first, but it's moot point because for the first time in multiple lifetimes, Irene emotes. She shows an emotion. She feels something.

She tries to heal Shad. She's a healer after all. It's what she does. She tries.

It doesn't work.

She tries again.

It doesn't work.

She tries and she tries and she tries and she tries and--

And Shad comes back.

But it's not right. There's something WRONG. Irene fucked up. Because Shad is dark, and Irene is light, and they're not supposed to MIX.

So Shad comes back as an angry, furious, broken shell, twisted and dark and evil and angry. And they fight him and they win, and Irene locks him away, and the Irene looks around at what her companions have TAKEN from her and she can't STAND it anymore and so she locks herself away and sleeps, because she doesn't feel ANYTHING and she wants to FEEL and--

Anyway, we know this story. So what does this have to do with Aaron?

What if Aaron isn't Shad? What if Aaron is a PEICE of Shad?

Because light and dark aren't supposed to mix, but when they do, they create something unstable. And like any chemical bond that does not want to exist, it explodes. And what did it explode?

Shad.

And what part of Shad did it explode?

His soul, of course.

The heart of darkness. The Shadow Lord. These are PEICES of Shad's soul. He was fractured.

And that's why Aaron has no personality besides things like revenge and being a lord and helping raise Lilith and loving Aphmau and nothing else. He was the peice of Shad that carried Shad's humanity, but NOTHING ELSE. He doesn't have the Shadow Lords Passion and anger and rage. He shows glimpses of it, but only enough any other human would show. That's why he's blank and distant and doesn't emote. His heart is gone, and with it, all the deeper complexities of emotion.

He has no hobbies or interests. He just fights and eats and sleeps and drinks water and functions from a creatures instinct, because he's human, but he has NOTHING ELSE.

He's also probably the only peice out toghether enough to reincarnated. But he's missing things and that's why he's so bleh.

Anyway, yeah, that's my hc for Aaron's lack of character development. And I think it's super interesting that Irene would have fractured Shad without realizing it. She was probably too desperate to bring him back to realize how much damage she was doing.

So yeah! Aaron is a peice of a whole and that's why he's WEIRD AF thank you for coming to my TedTalk WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[vyladromeave]

If MCD gets turned into a book I am almost certain the autism ghosts will possess me again and I’ll have to making a 5 hour long rant with a conspiracy style string chart on my wall

GOD mcd as a book genuinely makes me both so excited and terrified at the same time. I've had this ask sitting in my inbox for like a day now because idk entirely how to voice all the opinions i have about this. AT THE VERY LEAST: It's cool that Jess hasn't forgotten entirely about MCD, and while it sounds like the plans to continue myst are more clear/doable (its the same format she's always done, all it takes is for her to write a conclusion she feels satisfied with. which is definitely a large feat but it feels more in-reach than expanding on mcd right now), its cool that theres still an interest for MCD as well.

SORRY THIS POST IS ABOUT TO GET LONG TURNS OUT IM VERY MENTALLY ILL ABOUT THIS SERIES WHO COULDVE GUESSED. SORRY. HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO ESCAPE PLEASE TAKE IT NOW.

CONTINUING: MCD continuation sounds like it is not in reach right now, and not entirely a priority either. It's not even in pre-production yet, it sounds like she hasn't even decided on a format to release it as, which means relatively zero work has gone into making that yet. (Beyond the guideline that has already been written for it in the form of the existing MCD story that we know and are familiar with.) We don't even know if it would be a book!! JESS doesn't even know if it would be a book!! I don't know how I'd feel about it if it WAS a book! She's been vocal about wanting something akin to an anime or animated series before iirc (though i dont remember the source for this so correct me if im wrong), so it could be that thats still something she wants to pursue with and getting a whole animated show at a good quality is hard! I don't know!!! Nobody knows!!!! (And I don't know if she's ever even produced anything aside from Youtube Video Storytelling/RP series. Sure she has a very successful toy line, but that's not really a writing/storytelling medium. And I guess there's the music videos, but those are... um......... bad........ And we know she's no stranger to fanfic, thanks to the fucklist if nothing else, but i've literally never SEEN her writing go towards something that wasnt a Minecraft Youtube Video. On this note, if anyone is familiar with work Jess/the team has done for something that ISNT the medium of things she posts to her youtube channel, please send it my way I'd be very interested in checking it out.)

I think I'm glad that at the very least, it wont be produced in the same style as her modern rps (the style used for mcds3 + modern mystreet content + Rebirth too actually...) because I really don't enjoy that style... to me a big part of MCD honestly is the fact that things are for the most part kept in Aphmau's POV of things, something they ditch alot in modern rp content. But switching that format to something else might not lend to telling it the same way. Which is scary to me!! (honestly I personally think mcd would function really well as a first person visual novel or something along those lines. but if anything, that might require more writing than a book would, since there'd be choices and paths...) And obviously ppl HAVE attempted things similar to retelling mcd as a book before, there might be more MCD rewrites out there than MCD fanfics at this point tbh im not blind. But there's still the difficulty of being able to tell that story well in a medium it was not originally produced in/arguably meant for.

There's also the point of: I don't really Like a lot of the more recent choices Jess has made with MCD's story somewhat recently. The stuff with Irene in Mystreet just feels like a mess, I don't like the idea of the two having crossover. And while Rebirth for the most part was pretty good, there are still some things I have gripes with, mostly with how Aphmau is presented as a character and agency problems she's had since all the way back in mcd s2. There's a very real possibility that I just wont enjoy MCD as the way Jess wants to tell it now. And thats like fine, obviously, but it is also a little disheartening.

and then there's the point of: still knowing that i probably won't like how it ends, WE WILL LIKELY GET AN ACTUAL END. can you imagine that. MCD with an ending. a canon ending. I doubt it would be in the first installment of whatever MCD gets published as (if it gets published at all), seeing as even in Rebirth jess was planning on it having 2 seasons, but still. Even if I don't like the ending, the idea that there will BE ONE OUT THERE for me to bounce off of is incredible to me.

when it comes down to it: i honestly don't have much hopes of MCD ever being officially finished in any capacity. I hate to be a downer about it so soon after news that Should be Good. But the fact that she doesn't even know what MEDIUM she wants it to be in is not a good sign. If it Will ever be officially published in some form, it's likely it won't be for a very very long time. Not like mcd fans are strangers to waiting, but still. As a professional MCD Waiter, I would not be surprised if we are left waiting forever. It happened with original mcd, it happened with rebirth, i do not doubt it will continue happening for a very long time. I'm scared to get my hopes up for a finished story of any kind, because it's never approached Finished before. Its very hard for me to get excited over something I know will likely be abandoned, possibly before it's even been started.

but yeah if we get mcd book ill read it probably. ya know. whatever or something. <guy who is trying not to look like he cares about this a lot

[orangedodge]

RAVEN - "So we made a baby. Just her and me."

KURT - "But… but, you're both w--"

RAVEN - "Don't be pathetic."

[…]

KURT - "Ja… ja, I g-get that part, I'm sorry--I didn't mean to… I-it's just.. the science. The genetics. I don't--

RAVEN - "Pft. You think all I do is shift skin like a clever blue squid?"

[…]

KURT - "Raven… that's close to playing go--"

RAVEN - "Don't you dare. These creatures will pierce their ears, laser their retinas, and fit metronomes to their heart[.] But adjust a thread of RNA? Retool one molecule into another? Suddenly you're tampering with the divine. There's no magic in us, Spider-devil. There's only the machinery of monkeys."

--X-Men Blue: Origins #1 (Si Spurrier, 2023)

First off, Kurt sounds unimaginably stupid in the face of what is possibly the least shocking revelation of all time ("Kurt's parents were his real parents all along.") Raven spent centuries living as Irene's husband, and they were still together when he was born. And Raven can turn into a dolphin, so it's hardly surprising that her shape changing isn't just surface level. The only reason to ever doubt that Raven and Irene were his biological parents in the first place is that he was already told that wasn't true, by Raven. As for Raven, I presume she's meant to sound eloquently condescending, but she just comes off as stoned throughout this whole scene. No one talks like that.

More importantly, I'm sorry, but Si Spurrier just does not understand how Kurt's faith informs his character. He does not understand why the arguments that he has Kurt make are not arguments that Kurt would ever make. Kurt Wager is an educated man. He is a college graduate, he's been to seminary. He was a teacher and a resident at a STEM school. He is a citizen of the post-scarcity anarcho communist utopia island where dead people are cloned inside giant mangos and returned to life. He knows how babies are made. He would not argue against his own birth like a Christian fundamentalist trying to have an IVF clinic shut down.

I don't get how this keeps happening whenever he writes Kurt. They have Catholicism in England. They have Germans in England. But whenever it's time to invoke Kurt's religion, he writes him like, honestly, a really classist rendition of what people think small town Americans are like. Which is the wrong background entirely for this character.

[strangestcase]

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEPEOPLE FAQ

What is the League of Extraordinary Gentlepeople?

The League of Extraordinary Gentlepeople, or LXGP for short, is my current writing project: an AU of the 2003 movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is in turn a loose adaptation of the series of comics of the same name co-created by Alan Moore and Sir Kevin O'Neill.

The basic synopsis of both comics and movie is as follows: a somewhat dysfunctional superhero team composed of nineteenth century literary characters go on politically charged adventures. The comics and movie are very different, and... very much acquired tastes. Albeit I recommend watching the movie! It's extremely cheesy. Fun too!

Ok, but- what is LXGP really about?

Glad you asked!

In the late XIXth century, a mysterious type known as Agent M sets off to recruit various individuals which he calls Extraordinary People and forms the League, claiming it is the key to preventing a world-wide war! But as events unravel, the League comes to realize M is not who he claims to be...

The LXGP stories are out of order, focusing on both retellings of scenes from the 2003 movie and original stories set after the events of the movie canon. While it is mostly based off the movie, there are elements from the comics, some dramatic changes, and the character designs and personalities are taken from my literary crossover "world", Candyverse! So they will be, in some ways, very different from what you have seen in the LXG franchise.

Hold on- Candyverse?

Candyverse is the name of my literary crossover setting! Expect most of the cast to consist of public domain literary characters (and some not so public domain ones). Don't mind the silly name- the character designs are mildly inspired by sweets in the sense that they are colorful and spunky! But don't be fooled, Candyverse is a pretty dark world.

In Candyverse, Earth is actually a fantasy world, in which elves and fairies and all sorts of mythical creatures used to live... but as people stopped believeing in magic and replacing it with science, it started becoming a science fiction world instead, with amazing technology that is downright futuristic. During its nineteenth century, it is at its most unstable, with gothic literary characters and events "bridging" the supernatural with straight up mad science. And that is precisely the time I am centered in, so expect some gaslamp fantasy and steampunk tech!

Once we delve more into the lore, expect meta stuff, too!

Which not so public domain characters?

Wait and see!

How much time have you spent on this?

If I'm being honest? The concept of this AU came to me around 2020, in which I realized I had enough classic literature characters designed to cover the LXG roster with it- and I decided to jump to action. It has undergone a few changes since, but so far I'm satisfied with it. Also, don't be scared if a soft reboot comes along in a couple of years- I'm indecisive like that!

Why did you create it?

Do you want a honest answer? Just kidding.

I really like the LXG franchise, particularly the movie, though I'm aware it is an acquired taste. This project is meant to be a reply to all the missed opportunities in either comic and movie, and to common criticisms too. I make it with love and a little bit of anger (because SO MANY MISSED OPPORTUNITIES!), and I ride the inspiration unicorn as far as I can.

A shorter answer would be that the gothic lit fandom loves to spread misinformation about it and that drives me up the wall.

So... What's with the title?

The League's roster is only 2/6 men. It's only fair.

And the roster is...?

Mina Murray Harker (she/they), Captain Nemo (no pronouns), Irene Adler (she/they), Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde (he/they/it), Harlow Griffin (he/him), and Alice Byrd (she/fae). I will make -and post- official character bios as soon as I can!

Wait. Alice? From Wonderland?

Yep! She's in her mid-twenties here!

In which year is this set?

In the year of 18??, more or less.

Where is Jonathan? My good friend Jonathan?

He's at home! Technically he is a member of the League, but he is not in Mina's team, but in a second "backup" team that I still have to fully develop!

(This is mostly an excuse to not have to write him. I think he's a pretty boring person. Sorry!)

Where is Tom Sawyer?

He's also in the backup team!

Where is Dorian Gray?

Wait and see!

Where is Allan Quatermain?

He's dead.

...I'm sorry?

Do you have any biases?

*hiding Hyde behind me* Haha, noooo, not at all, what makes you think that, hahahaha.

Are the League heros?

Collectively, they're heroes. They do good. Well, attempt to do good. After breaking bonds with M, they set off as a rogue team of mercenaries. Individually? They range from heroic to villainous. And, honestly, for old-timey superheroes, they're ratther floppy. Their missions often go wrong or do the opposite of saving the day. Whoops!

Will there be queer stuff in this?

All League members are transgender. Does this answer your question?

...I meant like, romance...

Sheesh! Yes, yes there will be! Just be patient!

Will there be... steamy stuff?

I suck at writing NSFW so yeah, "steamy" is all you're gonna get lol.

Will you post art?

I suppose I will- when I make it.

How often will this update?

WHEN. I. HAVE. FINISHED. A. STORY. THEN. I WILL. POST. IT. THAT'S. WHEN. IT. UPDATES.

Can I make art?

Sure you can!

Can we collab?

SURE!

Can we kiss?

Ew. No.

[einzel-the-demon]

I... I might have planned a mini holiday with a good friend to drive to (what used to be) Jülich-Berg, the duchy where I've set the story about Einzel.

We already said we want to visit 1) a castle 2) do a hike in nature 3) visit a cloister. I think that's the main points down as far as research goes...

[charlie-oh-no]

Random facts about Cypher for the funsies...

-She was created back in 2019 but the first time I posted about her here was on 2020

-Originally her last name was going to be Cellman (a fake last name created by her on the spot), and she was going to be a virus in disguise pretending to be a white cell, in her first design she had sharp teeth and she was also older (15)

-She's a gemini, her birthday is in June (she doesn't know what day, though)

-In human height she would be 1,50 cm

-Her favorite color is purple, her favorite food are oranges, and her favorite season is summer

-Cypher's middle name is Irene (I've changed it a lot over the years lol)

-She knows a few words of spanish that she picked up when she was still living in the streets having contact with more microorganisms, she never uses them though.

-Her parents' names are Lillian Thymus and Armand Cyto. Her father is never mentioned in the fic, but he used to work in immunity, he's no longer alive though.

-She has not picked any hobby since she has no time for that, but she has always dreamed of playing any sport.

-As is mentioned a few times in the fic, her voice is really high-pitched and is usually very annoying to others.

-Cypher likes rock music (and other derivations of that), she secretly likes pop songs too.

-She struggles when it comes to express her emotions since she thinks she can deal with everything on her own. Being too dependent scared her because there was never someone she could rely on.

-When she's lonely, she wraps herself tightly with a blanket so it can feel like a hug.

-Sometimes she drops the most messed up lore about herself, then doesn't elaborate in that...

-Cypher struggles with writing and reading, she can do it but very slowly since both things were self-taught.

Guess that's some things for now! :]

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson: The Adventure of the Yellow Face

Published: Febuary 1893 Set: April 1888 (Baring Gould), I literally do not know but logically 1882-1888 You know the drill: Baring Gould takes basically everything where Holmes and Watson aren't living together and dumps it somewhere in the invented 1886-1888 marriage. I counter that yes, 1889 and 1890 are getting stupidly crowded and the low number of cases that Watson writes about being in his records for 1890 in January 1892 does not necessarily mean that he did not come back later and flesh out stories he had minimal notes on. But also there's no indication whatsoever in this story that Watson is married, and while Baring-Gould appears to think that this confirms a date of 1888 (post the invented first wife, immediately before Mary Morstan) to me it opens the decade up like a starfish opening up a clam. Other simple solutions for the ongoing overcrowding of '89 and '90 are to revise the Mary Morstan and Irene Adler time frame hypothesis: perhaps Watson fudged the date of his marriage by a year in his writing, to keep his new wife somewhat insulated from having a whole book written about her extended family's strange and exotic troubles, giving us another calendar year to play with, or to suppose that Watson downplayed his involvement in Holmes' cases during the Moriarty era of 89-90 in his first few published stories, while there was a chance some of the gang was still at large. Baring Gould's timeline is shaky here, and to fully refute it we actually have to talk at more or less this time about my least favorite of the four Sherlock Holmes novels, Valley of Fear. In Baring-Gould's timeline, we've skipped it, since this reread is doing short stories only, and because Baring-Gould seems to not only invent wives but stretch out the Moriarty problem for extra years.

Valley of Fear is, like A Study in Scarlet, a novel with a huge chunk of its time spent with secondary characters in an American setting. Unlike Study, it's not very good. It was published serially from 1914 to 1915, during a huge gap (1913 to 1917) in the publication of short stories. It very likely suffered in execution from anti-union sentiment that had been growing in the 1890's and 1900's, along with a rise in international tensions preceding the first world war. It's also just a dull case to have made a novel out of. In spoiler-ridden brief: A murder in a country manor leads Holmes to uncover - mostly by interviewing the alleged murder victim - an American secret society / gang / attempt at a union that turned into more of a mob. The detecting bits are good, from Holmes' speculations about Moriarty's suspiciously expensive painting collection, to the trap he laid to catch the alleged murder victim in hiding, but the rest is, frankly, a slog, and that "rest" is half the book, without even a bookend of Holmes finishing his analysis or giving further advice to chase it. Leaving aside the moral issues of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who were the original Bastard Cops, functioning more as a private army of strikebreakers and hired goons during the 1800's than you would expect given their more publicized role in prohibition era prosecution of organized crime, the tale of Birdy Edwards appears to be trying to lean Noir without any idea of what Noir is as a subgenre. It's also hard to follow, because characters are always trying to talk in code and drop Ominous Hints - a quick skim of the opening confirms that although some of my memories of the tedium were probably exacerbated by not having any historical context on my reread, it's still a story I would have put right back down if Birdy Edwards' introduction had occurred on the first page.

Getting back to the timeline: Although Baring Gould places Valley of Fear immediately after Blue Carbuncle (by a week and a half), and three months before Yellow Face, there's no particular indication of the year. It is not noted whether Watson is married, though one assumes it can't be too many years before Holmes and Moriarty's final confrontation. I suspect that Baring-Gould is onto something here - not that he's right about Watson having a first marriage, but that both Valley of Fear and Yellow Face easily could have occurred at any before Holmes and Watson met Mary in the summer of 1888.

This particular story doesn't even have the question of "how long was Holmes able to keep Moriarty from knowing that the most famous detective in london knows he exists?" because unlike Valley, it has no link to any crime syndicate, or indeed any crime. As an additional piece of supporting evidence, Holmes is escorting Watson on a walk in the park during this opening, something that correlates more neatly with Watson's condition after Study in Scarlet - being cooped up all winter due to chronic wound pain and desperate for the outside world, but less able to get it for himself - than with the established pattern of Watson being invited into the parlor next to the fire and being infodumped at about a case, which characterizes their meetings during Watson's marriage. With all that said I still can't pin the date down, save that Holmes has either started doing cocaine or failed to hide it from his slowly recovering roommate in the time since Study in Scarlet (presuming that Watsons description intends to imply that Holmes was, at the time of the story, a user of cocaine, and that Watson knew at that time, which isn't certain: he's writing what may be a full decade later and tends to get very general in his descriptions of Holmes' character throughout the years.) I would hazard a guess that this is somewhere between '82 and '86 - or between Holmes starting to bring Watson along on out of town cases, and the first year we have multiple cases in. Or, more accurately: when Watson is recovered enough to want to help, but not not recovered enough to start thinking about returning to his profession.

[mpc-unofficial]

Introductory post!

Current MPC guest: the pokemon at the MPC

Hello random blogger on Rotomblr! Welcome to the MPC’s unofficial account!

The MPC (Multiversal Pokemon Center) is a center located in Multispace (the space located in-between the universes in the multiverse) that specialises in rescuing pokemon (and sometimes other creatures!) that either get stuck in Multispace, or in universes that aren’t their own. We also perform research on the multiverse, to develop better ways to help our rescues.

If you have any questions about our center, feel free to type them in our ask box. We could get way more technical on the logistics of this, but would like to refrain on doing so in the introduction post.

Please note that this is by all means NOT an official MPC account. It is a personal account where we post about pretty much anything that happens in our lives.

There are a couple of users on this account. I’m Kalani! The one typing this introduction post. I’m the main account owner of this blog, and would mainly communicate here through the default text colour. I’m 17, go by any pronouns, and am currently a helper at the MPC with the task of doing random odd jobs around the center. I’m also a persona user! My persona is Janus.

I’ll type up a second, more detailed introductory post for you guys to read and link it here soon, because this post would get way too long if we all introduce ourselves in full.

Link to Kalani’s detailed intro: https://www.tumblr.com/mpc-unofficial/733874949226430464/hello-kalani-here-with-an-updated-introductory

Other users up here include:

Irene here! I’m 18, she/her, and I type in yellow text! I’m one of the MPC’s local scientists and Kalani’s friend. I’m a persona user as well! My persona is kachhapa.

I’ll also be taking a page out of Kalani’s book and linking a more detailed intro to this!

Link to Irene’s detailed intro: https://www.tumblr.com/mpc-unofficial/733875208093614080/hello-im-irene-i-go-by-sheher-and-im-a-friend

Hi hi! Asif here! The mysterious camera leaked my identity so I’ve decided that I might as well introduce myself. I use the dark blue/purple text to communicate here! My age is a secret though I will admit to being the youngest in the shadow team, and I go by he/him. My job at the MPC is to do stock take on the items here. I currently do not have a persona, but I’ve aura ability of some caliber!

Hello, my name is Minato. I go by he/him and use the blue/light blue text up here. My persona is Orpheus, and my Pokémon team consists of a very gentle pelipper named Borb.

Mysterious Camera: Hi there! Kalani here! I’m writing this part of the post for the camera because there’s no telling when they’re on or whether they would introduce themself. The mysterious camera appears to mainly use green text for his? her? their? posts. No one knows who the mysterious camera is, or their pronouns. They don’t say much, and really just occasionally post recorded videos/photos of us up here. It’s honestly kind of creepy, but we can’t do anything about it right now. We can’t even delete the videos, so they’re kind of just stuck up here.

Guests: guests up on Rotomblr would use the orange text. Check the tags to see who’s talking! Guests can respond to inbox asks/mail/magic anons like everyone else while they’re on the account.

And that’s all of us for now!

Ooc information below (and some potentially important stuff!):

There WILL be untagged spoilers for the Persona series in here. Please thread carefully.

This is an intro update! You can find the original intro post here: https://www.tumblr.com/mpc-unofficial/727602476322340864/introductory-post

Kalani, Irene and Asif are OCs! Minato is from Persona 3. As for the mysterious camera… well… I’ll let you guys guess that one.

I should also mention that this blog is solidly in the AU category. (Though I believe that is pretty obvious by now). Some persona rules here work differently from that of the main games. New moves and typings are also a thing on this blog. Please do not bash for “being inaccurate to canon”.

I’m open to interactions of all kinds! Including ideas for pokemon variants and other creatures/OCs for the MPC team to meet and more.

That being said not all interactions in the ask box will be answered. I can choose not to answer some of them if I do not know how to/ feel uncomfortable doing so. Sometimes, I may also forget to answer an ask. You can send as many asks as you want! But please try not to spam the ask box too much.

The following interactions are open for the blog!:

Pelipper mail!

Strange happenings/transformations (Magic anons) mainly because the MPC is so unstable anything could happen

Interaction posts (like a new pokemon/type swap/creature infiltrating the center)

Anything else you can think of that isn’t too crazy!

Some interactions may be drawn and posted! If you do not want your interactions to be drawn, send me a warning beforehand.

All art posted here is by me unless otherwise stated or obvious to be edits of some kind/ official art. That being said my art style has 0% consistency at times and could vary greatly between posts.

Ooc tags are no longer warned for the following tags:

Unreality, Pokeblogging, Rotumblr, In person, (any stakes tags) (any warning tags), (any arc tags), (any organisation tags), pelipper mail, ask game

Other ooc tags would be either behind a warning tag or noted with “//“ in front of them.

Posts tagged with “DMs” are not canon to being posted on the actual blog, but are canon as to whatever is happening behind the scenes.

There are also tags you can filter by to facilitate backreading! Do note that the earlier arcs may be missing posts, due to the lack of organization when this blog first started. The list will be updated over time.

Current arc tags (in chronological order):

​Not a cat wanders into the center

Kalani’s awakening

mpc first tour!

Ordell arc

Where’s Kalani?

Recovery and discovery

Galdur arc

Call from the sea

Mailbox week

Shaky foundation

Rebuild

When the shadow nation attacked

Lokit arc

Other hashtags:

persona: acquired

social link: acquired

Mysterious camera

Summary post

Borb the pelipper

Dream sequence

Irene and sandwiches

Crossroads exploration log

Photos with the mpc

Morgana visits

Asif is a naming disaster

Multispace exploration

Guest speaker: (guest)

Pokemon takeover!

[tiarasidestory]

ch36 thoughts, ch37 progress.

So now that 36 has been posted for a few days, I figured I’d share some thoughts on it. As I mentioned in another post, it was a long time coming. Finally all the RV characters together… in the same location. Sure they didn’t really see each others faces, but still. No spoilers but they will actually run into each other without masks and darkness in the an upcoming chapter and that was originally going to be the 1st time they all interacted as a whole. That changed not only as the 1st encounter but instead of a 3 way, (Yeri & Wendy, Irene & Seulgi, with Joy being the 3rd) I had to change it into more of a 2 way. With Joy being incorporated more into the world outside of ICC (which again wasn’t in my original version) her eventually working with Wendy seemed more natural. Because of this, other changes had to be made. And those changes are what I’m working out now and they are pretty significant changes but nothing I can’t remedy. I do have to rewrite some of chapter 37 as I was already a good portion into it as I realized I would have to make these changes. It’s not really a bad thing to be honest as I felt like the direction I was going in 37 was too similar to 36… and I was just writing fluff and filler. Yeah I had some dialogue that is worth keeping but I can easily add it to my new version. So, I hope you all had a great holiday I’ll get back on fixing up 37 and keep you posted.

[revans-rubber-duckie]

Apologies I was trying to be brief and addressing specific points and perhaps did not word things as well as I should or include enough information as a result. This is also mobile and I'm not especially keen on writing novels in replies.

The HRE beginning at Charlamagne is one point one could consider it forming. In this case, my point that it was created in reaction to the ERE is correct--as you've said, they saw the placement of Irene on the throne as illegimate as thus a total fall of the Empire of Rome.

This is a debatable beginning because Charlamagne did not claim an Empire--nor call himself Emperor-- to begin with (he declared himself king of Rome only--not an empire and certainly not an emperor. It was Leo III who went against this and used Charlamagne to declare a new emperor both to illegitmatize Irene but also to solidify Rome, which he was bishop of, as the centre for western Christianity once more) and it would be a long time before "Holy Roman Empire" would be used officially.

Of course, much like how we use Byzantine, it's made to help with distinctions for us as historians. In all cases, as I said, the HRE was made to create distinction from the empire in the east-- which most of Western Europe came to call the empire of the Greeks. The point you are making is the same as I was, unless I'm misunderstanding.

I also did not say the ERE was declining for 1500 years in a row. I said specifically in the 15th century (which is very stupid considering thats only like 53 years I'll give you that) it was an Empire in name only and was not a threat to anyone. Apologies if my original wording was misleading. In any case, after the Fourth Crusade the Empire never recovered and was in a state of steady decline even before the 15th century. On a side note I'm here for specifically Basil II and John II Komnenos eras.

I was not addressing the lasting effects of the ERE because this was not a point brought up previously. If I was going to go off about what the ERE did do I would need my own post and 7 days and 7 nights of delerious writing to crack the surface.

Cheers!

I’m going to Constantinople, that shit better not be Istanbul